#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Skin Care: Don't Let a Little Cut Fool You
* Byline: Better to prevent an infection than to have to treat one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Even minor cuts can become infected if they are left untreated. Any break in the skin can let bacteria enter the body. An increasing number of bacterial skin infections are resistant to antibiotic medicines. These infections can spread throughout the body. But taking good care of any injury that breaks the skin can help prevent an infection. Medical experts say the first step in treating a wound is to use clean water. Lake or ocean water should not be used. To clean the area around the wound, experts suggest using a clean cloth and soap. They say there is no need to use products like hydrogen peroxide or iodine. It is important to remove all dirt and other material from the wound. After the wound is clean, use a small amount of antibiotic ointment or cream. Studies have shown that these medicated products can aid in healing. They also help to keep the surface of the wound from becoming dry. Finally, cover the cut with a clean bandage while it heals. Change the bandage daily and keep the wound clean. As the wound heals, inspect for signs of infection including increased pain, redness and fluid around the cut. A high body temperature is also a sign of infection. If a wound seems infected, let the victim rest. Physical activity can spread the infection. If there are signs of infection, seek help from a doctor or other skilled medical provider. For larger wounds, or in case bleeding does not stop quickly, use direct pressure. Place a clean piece of cloth on the area and hold it firmly in place until the bleeding stops or medical help arrives. Direct pressure should be kept on a wound for about twenty minutes. Do not remove the cloth if the blood drips through it. Instead, put another cloth on top and continue pressure. Use more pressure if the bleeding has not stopped after twenty minutes. Deep cuts usually require immediate attention from trained medical providers. Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years. A tetanus booster shot may be required if a wound is deep or dirty. To learn more about first aid, contact a hospital or local organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent society. There may be training programs offered in your area. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. For more health information, go to voaspecialenglish.com to download transcripts and MP3s of our reports. Wishing you a safe and healthy New Year, I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Plus a Few
* Byline: The first part of a three-part series about the world's most interesting, beautiful and unusual places. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we present the first of three programs about some of the most interesting, beautiful and unusual places on Earth. We begin with a list of what have been called the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: People have always felt the need to create lists. Lists are records of important ideas, places, events or people. About two thousand five hundred years ago a Greek historian named Herodotus is said to have made a list of what he thought were the greatest structures in the world. His list of places became known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Herodotus only wrote about places he knew. He did not know much about Asia. North and South America were completely unknown. Six of these ancient places no longer exist. We can only guess what they really looked like. But here is the list of those seven ancient Wonders of the World. VOICE TWO: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon We begin with one that existed in what is now Iraq. It was called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar the Second probably built the gardens about two thousand six hundred years ago. Ancient historians say they were a huge system of gardens with trees and flowers. Also on this list is the Colossus of Rhodes. It was a huge bronze metal statue of the Greek sun god Helios. The Colossus was about thirty-seven meters tall. It was built near the harbor on the Greek island of Rhodes about two thousand three hundred years ago. This ancient statue was destroyed in an earthquake. VOICE ONE: Next on our list is the statue of the Greek God Zeus in a temple at Olympia, Greece. It was the most famous statue in the ancient world. Records say it was about twelve meters tall and made of ivory and gold. An earthquake probably destroyed the temple. The statue was removed and later destroyed in a fire. The Pharos of Alexandria was an ancient lighthouse. A fire burning on the top of the lighthouse made it easier for ships to find the great harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. Records say the lighthouse was about one hundred thirty meters tall. It stood for one thousand five hundred years before it was destroyed by an earthquake. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is another ancient wonder of the world. It was built to honor a Greek goddess. It was one of the largest and most complex temples built in ancient times. The temple was built in what is now Turkey about two thousand five hundred years ago. Number six on our list was also built in what is now Turkey. It was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The huge marble burial place was built for King Mausolus of Caria. It was so famous that all large burial places, or tombs, became known as mausoleums. An earthquake destroyed the structure. VOICE TWO: The last of the seven ancient wonders are the oldest. Yet they are the only ones that The Pyramids of Egyptstill exist today. They are the three Pyramids of Egypt, near the Nile River at Giza. The pyramids were built about four thousand five hundred years ago as burial places for ancient kings. The largest is called the Great Pyramid. It is almost one hundred forty meters high. It covers an area of more than four hectares. The Greek historian Herodotus said more than one hundred thousand men worked for more than thirty years to build the Great Pyramid. The great pyramids of Egypt will probably continue to exist for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now we will tell about several other ancient wonders that still exist today. We cannot tell about all of the great structures built in ancient times. There are too many. However, if Herodotus had known about the Great Wall of China we feel sure he would have included it on his list of wonders of the world. The Great Wall of China The Great Wall was begun more than two thousand years ago. It was built to keep out invaders. It extends about six thousand seven hundred kilometers across northern China. Today, the Chinese government is working to repair parts of the wall and protect as much of it as possible. The Great Wall of China is one of the largest building projects ever attempted. It is also the only object built by people that can be seen from space. VOICE TWO: One of the oldest structures ever built by people also belongs on a list of ancient wonders. It is a circle of huge stones on the Salisbury Plain in southwestern England. It is called Stonehenge. Experts believe work began on Stonehenge about five thousand years ago. It was added to and changed several times until it became the structure we see today. We know very little about Stonehenge. We do not even know how these huge stones were moved to the area. Some experts believe the stones were cut from solid rock about three hundred eighty Stonehengekilometers away in Wales. One of the huge stones weighs as much as forty-five tons. Experts say Stonehenge may have been built as some kind of ceremonial or religious structure. Much has been written about Stonehenge, but experts say they still are not sure what it was used for. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another famous ancient structure is the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. It was built almost two thousand years ago. The ancient Roman sports center could hold fifty thousand people who gathered there to watch public events. Experts say it is one of the finest examples of Roman design and engineering. The city of Machu Picchu in Peru should be on most lists, too. Experts say it includes some of the best stone work ever built. The ancient Inca people built Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains, northwest of the city of Cuzco. Machu Picchu is about thirteen square kilometers. Historians say it might have been one of the last places of safety for the Incas who were fleeing invaders from Spain. VOICE TWO: India is famous for its temples and buildings. The most famous is the Taj Mahal, considered one of the most beautiful buildings every constructed. The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, ordered it built in Agra in sixteen thirty-one. He built it as a burial place in memory of his wife. The Taj Mahal has tiny colorful stones inlaid in white marble. The structure seems to change color during different times of the day and night. Experts say it is one of the most perfect buildings ever constructed. They say nothing could be added or taken away to improve the beautiful Taj Mahal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We will end our program today in Egypt. Any list of ancient places must include the two temples at Abu Simbel. They were built to honor an ancient king of Egypt, Ramses the Second, and his wife, Nefertari. Abu Simbel was built more than three thousand years ago. It is about two hundred eighty kilometers south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile River. It took an army of workmen and artists more than thirty years to cut the huge temple into the face of a rock mountain. In front of the main temple are four huge statues of Ramses the Second. Each statue is about twenty meters high. Nearby is another temple that honors his wife, Nefertari. It too is beautifully carved out of solid rock. VOICE TWO: The Nile River has always made life possible in the desert areas of Egypt. However the Nile also made life difficult when it flooded. The modern Egyptian government decided a dam could control the Nile to prevent both floods and lack of water. Work began on the Aswan Dam in nineteen sixty. However, when plans were made for the dam experts quickly discovered that the great temples at Abu Simbel would be forever lost. They would be under water in the new lake formed by the dam. Egypt appealed to the United Nations agency UNESCO for help. UNESCO appealed to the world. The governments of the world provided technical help and financial aid to save the great temples. In nineteen sixty-four work began to cut the temples away from the rock mountain. Each large piece was moved sixty meters up the mountain to a safe area. Then the huge temples were carefully rebuilt. The work was finished in nineteen sixty-eight. Today Abu Simbel is safe. It looks much the same as it has for the past three thousand years. It will continue to honor the ancient king and his queen for many years to come. And it will honor the modern world’s efforts to save a truly great work of art. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next week we tell about some of the natural wonders of our world. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US History: How Britain’s Defeat at Saratoga Marked a Turning Point
* Byline: After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the Revolutionary War on the American side. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen seventies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is December, seventeen seventy-six. British General William Howe has decided to stop fighting during the cold winter months. The general is in New York. He has already established control of a few areas near the city, including Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey. General George Washington and the Continental Army are on the other side of the Delaware River. The Americans are cold and hungry. They have few weapons. Washington knows that if Howe attacks, the British will be able to go all the way to Philadelphia. They will then control two of America's most important cities. He decides to attack. His plan is for three groups of troops to cross the Delaware River separately. All three will join together at Trenton. Then they will attack Princeton and New Brunswick. Washington wants to surprise the enemy early in the morning the day after the Christmas holiday, December twenty-sixth. VOICE TWO: On Christmas night, two thousand four hundred soldiers of the Continental Army get into small boats. They cross the partly-frozen Delaware River. The crossing takes longer than Washington thought it would. The troops are four hours late. They will not be able to surprise the enemy at sunrise. Yet, after marching to Trenton, Washington's troops do surprise the Hessian mercenaries who are in position there. The enemy soldiers run into buildings to get away. The Americans use cannons to blow up the buildings. Soon, the enemy surrenders. Washington's army has captured Trenton. A few days later, he marches his captured prisoners through the streets of the city of Philadelphia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Washington's victory at Trenton changed the way Americans felt about the war. Before the battle, the rebels had been defeated in New York. They were beginning to lose faith in their commander. Now that faith returned. Congress increased Washington's powers, making it possible for the fight for independence to continue. Another result of the victory at Trenton was that more men decided to join the army. It now had ten thousand soldiers. This new Continental Army, however, lost battles during the summer to General Howe's forces near the Chesapeake Bay. And in August, seventeen seventy-seven, General Howe captured Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: Following these losses, Washington led the army to the nearby area called Valley Forge. They would stay there for the winter. His army was suffering. Half the men had no shoes, clothes, or blankets. They were almost starving. They built houses out of logs, but the winter was very cold and they almost froze. Many suffered from diseases such as smallpox and typhus. Some died. General Washington and other officers were able to get food from the surrounding area to help most of the men survive the winter. By the spring of seventeen seventy-eight, they were ready to fight again. VOICE ONE: General Howe was still in Philadelphia. History experts say it is difficult to understand this British military leader. At times, he was a good commander and a brave man. At other times, he stayed in the safety of the cities, instead of leading his men to fight. General Howe was not involved in the next series of important battles of the American Revolution, however. The lead part now went to General John Burgoyne. His plan was to capture the Hudson River Valley in New York State and separate New England from the other colonies. This, the British believed, would make it easy to capture the other colonies. The plan did not succeed. American General Benedict Arnold defeated the British troops in New York. General Burgoyne had expected help from General Howe, but did not get it. Burgoyne was forced to surrender at the town of Saratoga. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: British general John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, New York, in October 1777, as painted by Percy MoranThe American victory at Saratoga was an extremely important one. It ended the British plan to separate New England from the other colonies. It also showed European nations that the new country might really be able to win its revolutionary war. This was something that France, especially, had wanted ever since being defeated by the British earlier in the French and Indian War. The French government had been supplying the Americans secretly through the work of America's minister to France, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was popular with the French people and with French government officials. ?He helped gain French sympathy for the American cause. VOICE ONE: After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the war on the American side. The government recognized American independence. The two nations signed military and political treaties. France and Britain were at war once again. The British immediately sent a message to America's Continental Congress. They offered to change everything so relations would be as they had been in seventeen sixty-three. The Americans rejected the offer. The war would be fought to the end. In seventeen seventy-nine, Spain entered the war against the British. And the next year, the British were also fighting the Dutch to stop their trade with America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The French now sent gunpowder, soldiers, officers, and ships to the Americans. However, neither side made much progress in the war for the next two years. A French blockade of the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War prevented British forces from reaching YorktownBy seventeen eighty, the British had moved their military forces to the American South. They quickly gained control of South Carolina and Georgia, but the Americans prevented them from taking control of North Carolina. After that, the British commander moved his troops to Yorktown, Virginia. The commander's name was Lord Charles Cornwallis. Both he and George Washington had about eight thousand troops when they met near Yorktown. Cornwallis was expecting more troops to arrive on British ships. What he did not know was that French ships were on their way to Yorktown, too. Their commander was Admiral Francois Comte de Grasse. De Grasse met some of the British ships that Cornwallis was expecting, and he defeated them. The French ships then moved into the Chesapeake Bay, near Yorktown. VOICE ONE: On this page in his diary, George Washington recorded the British surrender at YorktownThe Americans and the French began attacking with cannons. Then they fought the British soldiers hand-to-hand. Cornwallis knew he had no chance to win without more troops. He surrendered to George Washington on October seventeenth, seventeen eighty-one. The war was over. American and French forces had captured or killed one-half of the British troops in America. The surviving British troops left Yorktown playing a popular British song called, "The World Turned Upside Down." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: How were the Americans able to defeat the most powerful nation in the world?? Historians give several reasons: The Americans were fighting at home, while the British had to bring troops and supplies from across a wide ocean. British officers made mistakes, especially General William Howe. His slowness to take action at the start of the war made it possible for the Americans to survive during two difficult winters. Another reason was the help the Americans received from the French. Also, the British public had stopped supporting the long and costly war. Finally, history experts say America might not have won without the leadership of George Washington. He was honest, brave, and sure that the Americans could win. He never gave up hope that he would reach that goal. VOICE ONE: The peace treaty ending the American Revolution was signed in Paris in seventeen eighty-three. The independence of the United States was recognized. Western and northern borders were set. Thirteen colonies were free. Now, they had to become one nation. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. ____ This was program #14 in THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: On the Web, College Classes With No Charge (or Credit)
* Byline: Free course materials, including videos of lectures, are available online in many different subjects. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Knowledge is free on the Internet at a small but growing number of colleges and universities. About one hundred sixty schools around the world now offer course materials free online to the public. Recent additions in the United States include projects at Yale, Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley said it will offer videos of lectures on YouTube. Free videos from other schools are available at the Apple iTunes store. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology became an early leader with its OpenCourseWare project, first announced in two thousand one. Free lecture notes, exams and other resources are published at ocw.mit.edu. Many exams and homework assignments even include the answers. The Web site also has videos of lectures and demonstrations. Today, OpenCourseWare offers materials from one thousand eight hundred undergraduate and graduate courses. These range from physics and linear algebra to anthropology, political science -- even scuba diving. Visitors can learn the same things M.I.T. students learn. But as the site points out, OpenCourseWare is not an M.I.T. education. Visitors receive no credit toward a degree. Some materials from a course may not be available, and the site does not provide contact with teachers. Still, M.I.T. says the site has had forty million visits by thirty-one million visitors from almost every country. Sixty percent of the visitors are from outside the United States and Canada. There are links to materials translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Thai. OpenCourseWare averages one million visits each month, and the translations receive half a million more. Students and educators use the site, including students at M.I.T. But the largest number of visitors, about half, are self-learners. Some professors have become well known around the world as a result of appearing online. Walter Lewin, a physics professor at M.I.T., is especially popular. Fans enjoy his entertaining demonstrations. M.I.T. OpenCourseWare now includes materials for high school. The goal is to improve education in science, technology, math and engineering. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Let us know if you have taken any free online courses through an American college or university. Tell us what you liked or disliked about your experience. Write to special@voanews.com, and please include your name and where you are from. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Remembering Oscar Peterson, One of Jazz's Greatest Musicians
* Byline: Also: Listeners in Bosnia and Nigeria ask about state nicknames. And a report on efforts to restore Ellis Island, which was known as the ''Gateway to America.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We listen to some jazz music by Oscar Peterson … Answer a question about the nicknames of American states … And tell about a campaign to save Ellis Island. Ellis Island HOST: Ellis Island is in New York Harbor. It was once the main immigration center known as the "Gateway to America." Twelve million new immigrants passed through Ellis Island at the height of its activity between eighteen ninety-two and nineteen twenty-four. About forty percent of Americans have at least one family member who entered the country there. Faith Lapidus tells us about efforts to restore this important place. FAITH LAPIDUS: The immigration center at Ellis Island closed in nineteen fifty-four. All of the buildings stood empty. They started to fall apart because of the wet air of the harbor. Then in nineteen seventy-six the nearby Statue of Liberty was restored. This followed a money-raising effort linked to the two hundredth anniversary of the United States. Ellis Island's main building was also repaired and opened to visitors. It became America's immigration museum and memorial to honor all immigrants. For the past several years, a nonprofit organization has been trying to raise money so that the other Ellis Island buildings can be repaired and restored. Now, famous and not-so-famous Americans are appearing on a Web site and on television in special public service messages asking for help. They are telling the stories of their ancestors' experiences at Ellis Island. For example, when ships from Europe entered New York Harbor, inspectors would sail out to check the documents of the wealthier passengers. But poor passengers got quite a different welcome. They were taken to Ellis Island for intense examinations. As many as five thousand immigrants a day were required to walk up a flight of stairs to a group of waiting doctors. The doctors gave what became known as the "thirty-second medical"? -- a fast physical and mental examination. For immigrants who failed the test, this was a quick end to their hopes of a new life in America. Some of these people were sent to the Ellis Island hospital before they were sent back to Europe. The hospital is one of the damaged buildings that will be restored. For those immigrants who were able to begin new lives in America, Ellis Island represents stories of hope, survival and success. People who support the Save Ellis Island campaign say they hope all the buildings can be completely restored. They want to keep the buildings alive in order to keep the stories alive. Nicknames of American States HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from listeners in Bosnia and Nigeria. Danijel Djordjic and Tarzaar Ishoon ask about the nicknames of American states. First, a word or two about nicknames. A nickname is a word used in addition to the official name of a person or place. People with long names are sometimes called by a nickname that is shorter. For example, a woman named Elizabeth may be called Liz. Every American state has an official nickname. But people may know the state by other names as well. For example, Pennsylvania’s official nickname is the Keystone State. Its Web site says the keystone is the part of an arch structure that holds the other parts together. One story says Pennsylvania was the keystone of the American colonies because it was in the middle and held them together. Pennsylvania is also sometimes called the Quaker State. That name comes from the Quakers, the religious group who first settled the area. Pennsylvania is also sometimes called the Oil State, the Coal State or the Steel State because oil, coal and steel are three of its industries. The nearby state of Ohio is known as the Buckeye State. That is because many buckeye trees grow there. The Buckeye is also the official tree of Ohio. The state Web site says people in Ohio have called themselves Buckeyes since at least the election of eighteen forty. That was when Ohio native William Henry Harrison was elected president. His friends in Ohio carved campaign gifts from buckeye wood to show their support for him. So we have explained some nicknames of two American states. But what about the other forty-eight?? If you want to know about their nicknames, listen to the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES for the next four weeks. The first one airs on Sunday. Then, all your questions will be answered. Oscar Peterson (MUSIC: "Backyard Blues") HOST: One of the all-time great jazz musicians died last week at the age of eighty-two. Some say Oscar Peterson was the most famous jazz musician in the world. Katherine Cole has more. KATHERINE COLE: Oscar Peterson was born in Montreal, Canada, and learned jazz from musicians in that city. He later said his jazz education came from listening to the radio. Oscar Peterson played piano and wrote music. He recorded more than one hundred albums, won eight Grammy awards and performed all over the world. Some of his most famous recordings were with his group, the Oscar Peterson Trio. In nineteen ninety, the group played for three nights at the Blue Note nightclub in New York City. Two of the albums recorded at those shows won Grammy Awards. Here is the Oscar Peterson Trio from the album "Live at the Blue Note" playing "Let There Be Love." (MUSIC) Oscar Peterson loved Canada. In two thousand, the government asked him to write music for the nation's Millennium celebration. The result was "Trail of Dreams: A Canadian Suite." Here is one of the songs from that recording, "Open Spaces."? Peterson said he wrote it to give the listener the feeling of endless prairie land. (MUSIC) Oscar Peterson also wrote music resulting from racial discrimination he experienced. One of those songs became a battle cry for the civil rights movement. We leave you now with Oscar Peterson playing "Hymn To Freedom." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World Economic Growth Expected to Slow in '08
* Byline: Problems in the U.S. housing market and rising energy prices bring concerns. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. World economic growth remained strong in two thousand seven. The International Monetary Fund estimated growth at five and two-tenths percent. But predictions for two thousand eight call for slower growth in the world economy. In October the I.M.F. cut its estimate for global growth this year by almost half a percentage point, to four and eight-tenths percent. There are worries of an economic slowdown or possibly a recession in the United States. The most important issue for two thousand eight may be the American housing market. The market has been hit by a combination of falling home prices and the subprime mortgage crisis involving high-interest loans. Losses on investments tied to these risky home loans have affected not only American banks but banks around the world. Worries over the credit situation have caused banks to limit their lending, even to each other. Central banks have tried to ease credit fears by lowering interest rates or lending billions of dollars, or both. Another major issue for two thousand eight is what effect energy prices will have on economic growth. The price of a barrel of oil doubled in two thousand seven. And on the second day of two thousand eight, the price hit one hundred dollars for the first time. Rising oil prices in recent years have been good for oil producing countries, though, including those with sovereign wealth funds. These are state-owned investment funds also held by China, Singapore and some other countries. The growing activity of these government-controlled investment funds makes them something else to watch in two thousand eight. Lately they have been used in some cases to invest in Western companies hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis. Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, has what experts believe is the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund. Some estimates put the value at nine hundred billion dollars. But last month came news of plans by Saudi Arabia for what could be an even wealthier fund. The dollar continued its drop against most major currencies in two thousand seven. This has made American exports less costly. Still, the United States is expected to report a trade deficit with China of almost three hundred billion dollars last year. Some experts say the deficit will continue to be a problem so long as China does not let its currency rise more quickly against the dollar. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Kenya Election Violence Threatens Gains in East Africa's Top Economy
* Byline: More than 300 people have been killed and 250,000 displaced following a disputed presidential vote. The government has agreed to hold a new election if ordered by a court. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Updated This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The violence this week in Kenya has thrown the usually peaceful country into crisis. Its economic and democratic progress may be in danger. The crisis began Sunday after election officials declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner of a second term. On Friday Kenya's main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, called for a new election. Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga riot in the Mathare slum in NairobiIts candidate in the December twenty-seventh election, Raila Odinga, held the lead in early vote totals. He says the narrow victory for Mister Kibaki was the result of cheating. A spokesman for the president said the government will accept another election if a court orders a new vote. On Thursday, Kenya's attorney general, Amos Wako, called for independent confirmation of the election results. But he said only a court had the power to cancel Mister Kibaki's victory. Kenyans first elected him in two thousand two on a promise to fight corruption. More than three hundred people have been killed in Nairobi, the Rift Valley and Mombasa. The violence has involved fighting between police and protesters and between ethnic groups. There are fears of wider conflict between Luos, who support Mister Odinga, and Kikuyus, who support the president. Both sides have accused each other of acts of genocide. On Tuesday, a mob set fire to a church in Eldoret, in the Rift Valley. At least thirty Kikuyu children and adults burned to death. They had gone to the church seeking safety. The United Nations said the unrest has displaced two hundred fifty thousand people within Kenya. Several thousand people are believed to have fled to Uganda in recent days. Travelers prepare to fly home from Mombasa as unrest affects Kenya's tourism industryKenya became independent from Britain in nineteen sixty-three. It has the largest economy in East Africa, and in recent years has been the area's most politically secure country. Kenya has held multiparty elections since nineteen ninety-two. But Kikuyus have long ruled the country, both politically and financially. The Kikuyu tribe is the largest of more than forty ethnic groups in Kenya. Twenty-two percent of Kenya's estimated thirty-seven million people are Kikuyu. The United States at first had congratulated President Kibaki on his re-election. Later it withdrew the statement as European Unions observers and others questioned the fairness of the election. The United States announced it was sending its top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, to Kenya to appeal for political discussions. Mister Kibaki says he is open to talks with his opponents after the violence has ended. In some of Kenya's poorest areas, people have begun to say it is time for peace. Kenya has had riots and ethnic conflict in past years. But there are concerns that foreign investors might now lose trust in the country. The World Bank says it is concerned that the unrest threatens recent gains in economic growth and poverty reduction. A statement from the bank and other development agencies noted that Kenyan media have launched a "Save Our Beloved Country" campaign. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. --- Comment by Geoffrey, January 5: I have read your article on Kenya, and I would like to clarify that the problem in Kenya is not tribal but political. It is not about Kikuyus against Luos. It is all Kenyans feel alienated by the Kikuyu elite?who have dominated the country's institutions and are corrupt. Kenyans on the streets feel discriminated against the equal share of the national cake and they are determined to equal the playing field in a democratic manner. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Shel Silverstein, 1930-1999: Poet, Writer, Composer, Singer, Musician and Artist
* Byline: One of his best known books is ''Where the Sidewalk Ends.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Shel Silverstein. He was a poet, writer, composer, singer, musician and artist. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein wrote hundreds of poems and published many books. He is most famous as a writer of books for children. He won several awards for his children’s books. But he also wrote many stories and created many drawings for adults. Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in nineteen thirty. His birth name was Sheldon Allan Silverstein. Sometimes he called himself Uncle Shelby. He never planned to write children’s books. Still, he is most famous for writing them. Shel Silverstein once told a reporter that when he was growing up, he wanted to be a good baseball player. He also said he wanted to be popular with girls. But he could not play baseball, and girls did not like him. So he started to draw and write. Shel Silverstein said he developed his own way of writing. By the time girls were interested in him, he found that work was more important. VOICE TWO:?? Shel Silverstein served in the United States Army in the early nineteen fifties. He worked as an artist for the American military newspaper, Pacific Stars and Stripes. eHe He wrote his first book in nineteen fifty-five. “Take Ten” was about life in the army, and included drawings. After leaving the army, he worked for Playboy magazine for almost twenty years. He wrote stories and drew funny pictures for the publication. Shel Silverstein was also a musician. He released his first album in nineteen fifty-nine. It is called “Hairy Jazz.”? He began writing folk music in the nineteen sixties. Famous artists have recorded his songs. The Irish Rovers, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn have sung his songs. Ten years later, he released “A Boy Named Sue and His Other Country Songs.”? The most famous song from the album is called “A Boy Named Sue.”? It is about a boy whose father gave him a name usually given to girls. Johnny Cash made the song famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein is best known for his books for children. However, people of all ages like his poems and stories. He published his first children’s book in nineteen sixty-three. It is called “Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back.”? It is about a lion that eats hunters and lives like a human. The lion has to make some important decisions. One year later, Shel Silverstein published what may be his most popular book. It is called “The Giving Tree.”? This story is about a boy and a tree that loved him. The tree gives the boy everything until it can give no more. Both adults and children have enjoyed reading this book. This book is still very popular today. It has sold more than five million copies. Listen as Faith Lapidus reads from the beginning of “The Giving Tree.” FAITH LAPIDUS: There was once a great apple tree and a little boy. They would spend hours and hours together. The boy would play in the tree’s branches, sleep at her roots and eat of her apples. And the tree loved the boy. One day, the boy came to the tree. The tree was delighted and beckoned, ‘Come and play!’ But the boy was no longer a boy; he was now a young man, and he was interested in making a living, but he didn’t know how. ‘Here,’ the tree said, ‘take my apples and sell them.’? The young man did just that, and the tree was happy. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen seventies, Shel Silverstein produced music for several movies. His first movie soundtrack was for the film “Ned Kelly.”? It is based on a true story about a famous Australian criminal. Here is a song from the album. It is called “Ned Kelly.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein is also famous for his poetry. His first children’s poetry book was “Where the Sidewalk Ends.”? It was published in nineteen seventy-four. It contains more than one hundred poems, and many drawings. The poems and drawings are creative, funny and wise. In the book, readers meet a boy who turns into a television set. They meet a girl who eats a whale. Imaginary creatures like the Unicorn and the Bloath live there. So does a girl called Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a place where you can wash your shadow. You can plant a garden of diamonds. It is a place where shoes can fly. And a crocodile goes to the dentist because his tooth hurts. Silverstein reads one of the poems in his book, called “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too.” (SOUND) Shel Silverstein’s second children’s poetry book is called “A Light in the Attic.”? It also contains many funny poems and drawings. This book was so popular that it was on the New York Times newspaper’s list of best-selling books for more than three years. Listen as he reads his poem “Ations.” (SOUND)? VOICE TWO: In the nineteen eighties, Shel Silverstein began writing plays. He wrote about twenty of them. His first play is called “The Lady or the Tiger Show.”? It is a funny play about a game show. The game show player has to choose between two doors. Behind one door is a beautiful woman, and behind the other door is a tiger. VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein died of heart failure in nineteen ninety-nine. He was sixty-eight years old. Some of his works were released after his death. Shel Silverstein once said: “I would hope that people, no matter what age, would find something to identify with in my books.”? He hoped people would “experience a personal sense of discovery.” Shel Silverstein once said that he wanted to go everywhere, look at and listen to everything. He said people could go crazy with the wonderful things in life. And he communicated this in all of his writings, drawings and songs. We leave you now with a song by Shel Silverstein that was a huge hit around the world. The Irish Rovers sing “The “Unicorn.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Chi-Un Lee and produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2007-12-31-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Nicknames: America's 50 States (First of Four Parts)
* Byline: Alabama is known as the Heart of Dixie. Alaska is called the Last Frontier. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) A nickname is a shortened form of a person's name. A nickname can also be a descriptive name for a person, place or thing. America's fifty states have some of the most historically interesting nicknames. Alabama is known as the Heart of Dixie because it is in the very middle of a group of states in the Deep South. "Dixie" itself is a nickname for the American South. It started when Louisiana printed notes with the French word for "ten" on them. "Deece," or "D-I-X," led to "Dixie." Way up north, Alaska is called the Last Frontier for understandable reasons. Near the Arctic Circle, it was the final part of the nation to be explored and settled. Arizona is the Grand Canyon State because of the famous winding canyon carved by the Colorado River. The southern state of Arkansas is the Land of Opportunity. The state legislature chose this nickname. Arkansas is rich in natural resources and has become a favorite place for older people to retire. In a popular Spanish book, a fictional island called "California" was filled with gold. Sure enough, plenty of it was discovered in the real California, in eighteen forty-eight. This started a gold rush unlike any other in American history in the Golden State. You would think Colorado would be known as the Rocky Mountain State. But its nickname is the Centennial State. That is because it became a state in eighteen seventy-six, exactly one hundred years after the nation declared its independence. Connecticut is called?the Nutmeg State after a spice. Connecticut Yankees, as people in this northeast state are called, are known to be smart in business. So smart that it was said they could sell wooden, meaning false, nutmegs to strangers. Little Delaware is called the First State because it was the first state -- the first to approve the new United States Constitution. The Southern state of Florida likes to tell about its sunny days and fine beaches. So Florida is the Sunshine State. Florida's neighbor to the north grows some of the sweetest fruit in America. So Georgia is?the Peach State. Hawaii, far out in the Pacific Ocean, is the Aloha State. That is the friendly greeting that means both "hello" and "goodbye" in the native Hawaiian language. So, aloha for now. Next week we will tell you about the nicknames of more American states. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program was written by Ted Landphair. I'm Barbara Klein. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Engineering Low-Tech Solutions for Places in Need
* Byline: Volunteers from a group called Engineers Without Borders are working on 300 projects in 45 countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Sometimes it takes an engineer to help a village. In poor communities, that help may come from volunteers with a group called Engineers Without Borders. A civil engineering professor in the United States, Bernard Amadei, launched the group in two thousand. He did it with the help of his students and friends at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Professor Amadei took a group of students to Belize to help build a water project. Since then, Engineers Without Borders has grown into an international nonprofit organization. Its budget last year was four million dollars. The group currently has about three hundred projects in forty-five countries. Engineers Without Borders works on low-technology projects in mostly developing countries. In the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, for example, the group set up a sun-powered computer to communicate with a school in Kathmandu. In Guatemala, volunteers have built ten bridges for communities cut off from nearby populations by seasonal rains. The group has built windmills in Kenya to improve crop production. And in Rwanda, Engineers Without Borders is rebuilding areas destroyed during the nineteen ninety-four genocide. Cathy Leslie is the executive director of Engineers Without Borders. She tells us that many of the group’s eight thousand members are students who volunteer as part of their college or university studies. Working professionals and retired engineers also have formed local chapters throughout the United States. In the next five years, organizers hope more than ten percent of the members will be non-engineers. Cathy Leslie says community development involves not only engineering but many professions. She says it is equally important to help villages develop business plans and ways to finance and supervise projects. Engineers Without Borders goes where it is invited. Communities can propose a project or seek assistance through one of its partners, such as Rotary International. Once a proposal is approved, student or professional chapters will compete for ownership of the project. Local chapters are urged to work with a community for five to ten years. Individual chapters raise their own money for their projects. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Annie Leibovitz Has Been Photographing Famous People for 35 Years
* Byline: In her new book ''A Photographer's Life'' Leibovitz also includes photographs of her personal life. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: Annie Leibovitz with portrait of Susan Sontag in ''A Photgrapher's Life, 1990-2005'' at the Corcoran Gallery of ArtAnd I'm Faith Lapidus. This week we tell about one of the best-known photographers in America today. For more than thirty-five years, Annie Leibovitz has been taking pictures of famous people including politicians, actors and athletes. A current exhibit of the past fifteen years of her work is based on a book she recently published. The book and exhibit show photographs from her personal as well as professional life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, in nineteen forty-nine. Her family moved often because her father was an officer in the Air Force. For college, Annie studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in California. She discovered her interest in photography during a trip to Japan with her mother. So she took night classes in photography at college. Leibovitz began her career taking photographs for Rolling Stone magazine in nineteen seventy, shortly after the publication was first launched. Her first project there was to photograph John Lennon, a member of the British band the Beatles. Three years later, she became the chief photographer for the magazine. Leibovitz took pictures of musicians like Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Bob Marley. She also traveled with the Rolling Stones rock band in nineteen seventy-five to capture their life on the road while they performed concerts around the world. VOICE TWO: In nineteen eighty-one, Rolling Stone magazine asked her to photograph John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono. Leibovitz had imagined photographing the couple without clothes. But Yoko Ono opposed the idea. Leibovitz ended up taking a picture of Yoko Ono in dark clothes with John Lennon lying next to her without clothing. John Lennon was murdered several hours after this picture was taken. It was published on the cover of Rolling Stone. It has since become one of the most famous magazine covers in the world. In two thousand five, the American Society of Magazine Editors named it the best magazine cover published in the last forty years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Annie Leibovitz later worked for the magazines Vanity Fair and Vogue. She is known for her colorful photographs of people in wildly inventive or playful settings. For example, Leibovitz photographed the African American actress Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub filled with milk. In her portrait of the actor Brad Pitt, he is lying on an orange bed in a bright orange and yellow room. A photograph of former president Bill Clinton shows him happily sitting in the Oval Office of the White House during the first weeks of his presidency. VOICE TWO: One of Annie Leibovitz’s most famous and most disputed photographs is of the actress Demi Moore. She was photographed seven months pregnant, wearing nothing but jewelry. At first, Leibovitz did not plan for this picture to be published. But it was such a strikingly beautiful image, that it was put on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. Neither Leibovitz nor Vanity Fair expected the amount of attention the photograph received.The American Society of Magazine Editors listed this photograph of Demi Moore as the second best cover published in the last forty years. VOICE ONE: Annie Leibovitz has also worked on several large advertisement campaigns for companies including American Express, Gap, and Disney. For her Disney series, she photographed famous people dressed as characters from popular stories like “Cinderella” and “Alice in Wonderland.” In one photograph, the actress Scarlett Johansson is dressed as Cinderella. She wears diamond jewelry in her hair and a big blue dress. In the background, you can see her glass shoe and a magical looking palace building in the fog. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An exhibit of the photographs of Annie Leibovitz opened last October at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It is called "Annie Leibovitz: “A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005.”? The exhibit started in Brooklyn, New York, and will travel around the United States and Europe. The collection of more than two hundred photographs in the show is based on Annie Leibovitz’s book by the same name. She wrote the book after the death of two people she loved very much. Here Leibovitz talks about the book and what it is like to see her pictures again in this traveling exhibition. ANNIE LEIBOVITZ: “This show really came out of this book, 'A Photographer's Life.'? It came out of, really a moment in my life. I am very, very proud of this show, but it is a difficult thing to look back at because it came out of a moment when my father died, Susan Sontag died, my children were being born. And it seemed the most important thing at that moment.” VOICE ONE: Walking through the Corcoran exhibit, visitors can follow the path of Leibovitz’s career. But, mixed in with these professional photographs, there are many personal images of her parents, family members, children and friends. For example, a series of pictures shows Leibovitz’s mother, father, sisters and brothers enjoying a vacation at the beach. These small black and white images are a nice change from the many large color pictures of famous people. Leibovitz has said that she does not have two lives. She says the show is about one life, and the personal pictures and the professional work are all part of it. VOICE TWO: Annie Leibovitz has also worked as a photographic reporter for such events as Hillary Clinton's campaign for the United States Senate in two thousand. She photographed New York City after the terrorist attacks in September of two thousand one. In the early nineteen nineties, she also took many pictures during her visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the war there. One black and white picture from this series shows a bicycle lying on the road. At first it just seems like a photograph of an object. But when you look more closely, the picture tells a tragic story about the effects of war. ANNIE LEIBOVITZ: “I was on my way to photograph Miss Sarajevo and a mortar went off just in front of my car and killed this young boy on a bicycle right in front of me. My car took him to the hospital but he died on the way to the hospital. It turned out to be a very strong picture without having to see anything.” Leibovitz has said that she is not a reporter because a reporter does not take sides. She says she would not want to go through life like that. She says she has a more powerful voice as a photographer if she can express an opinion. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The exhibit includes many photographs of Leibovitz’s friend, the writer Susan Sontag. Several pictures show trips that the two women took together. Later photographs show Sontag while she was fighting cancer. These images are direct and brave. They tell the story of Sontag's life and death. They also tell about Annie Leibovitz’s love for this woman. Leibovitz says the photographs have taken on a new meaning since Susan Sontag’s death in two thousand four. In one image, Sontag is shown very small in front of a huge, ancient stone building of Petra in Jordan. At the time, Annie Leibovitz took the picture to show how small a human being was compared to the surroundings. But now, she says the picture represents Susan Sontag’s love of discovery through art, history and travel. She says that making the book “A Photographer’s Life” helped her mourn Sontag’s death. VOICE TWO: One room in the exhibit helps show the process Annie Leibovitz used to organize the book. Hundreds of small versions of photographs are on two large walls. Leibovitz had a similar set-up in her studio when she started working on the book. This permitted her to have an overall sense of the story the book would tell. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is not the first time that the photographs of Annie Leibovitz have been shown in Washington, D.C. The National Portrait Gallery held a show of her work in nineteen ninety-one. At the time, she was the first woman to have a one-person show in the museum. In nineteen ninety-nine the Corcoran had a show of her work called “Women.” Leibovitz has also received many honors. For example, the United States Library of Congress and the French government have given her top awards for her work. Last year, she became the first American photographer to make an official portrait of a member of the British ruling family. She photographed Queen Elizabeth the Second at her home at Buckingham Palace in London. These portraits are the most recent photographs in the exhibit at the Corcoran. Annie Leibovitz says the book “A Photographer’s Life” tells more about who she is than anything she has ever done. This openness is all the more interesting for a photographer who has made a career out of showing the lives of others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: When Flu Season Hits: Everything You Need to Know About Influenza
* Byline: We explain about the influenza virus, tell how and why it spreads, and report about ways to prevent flu infections. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, our subject is influenza, commonly called the flu. Winter officially arrived in northern areas of the world last month. Medical experts have another name for the start of winter -- the flu season. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Influenza is a common infection of the nose and throat, and sometimes the lungs. The cause is a virus that passes from one person to another. The virus spreads through the air when an infected person expels air suddenly. Influenza develops after the virus enters a person's nose or mouth. The flu causes muscle pain, sudden high body temperature, breathing problems and weakness. Generally, most people feel better after a week or two. But the flu can kill. It is especially dangerous to the very young, the very old and those with weakened defenses against disease. The World Health Organization says the influenza virus infects up to five million people around the world each year. Between two hundred fifty thousand and five hundred thousand people die every year from influenza. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Medical experts have recognized for some time that people become infected with influenza during the winter months. But they did not really know why until recently. American researchers say they now know why the influenza virus spreads in the winter and not in the summer. They say it is because the virus remains in the air longer when the air is cold and dry. Researchers in New York carried out twenty experiments with guinea pigs to investigate how the virus spreads. First, they confirmed that the guinea pigs could develop the flu and pass it on to others. The researchers then placed the animals in areas where the virus was present in the air. Then they changed the temperature and humidity levels of their environments. Humidity is the amount of wetness in the air. VOICE ONE: The researchers found the virus spread the most when the temperature was about five degrees Celsius and the humidity was twenty percent. Few of the guinea pigs developed influenza as the temperature increased. The virus stopped spreading completely at thirty degrees Celsius and eighty percent humidity. The researchers also found that the animals spread the virus among themselves nearly two days longer when the temperature was low. Results of the study were reported in PLoS Pathogens, a publication of the Public Library of Science. VOICE TWO: One of the researchers said the study shows that influenza virus is more likely to infect people during an outdoor walk on a cold day than in a warm room. He said cold air helps the virus survive in the air and low humidity helps it stay there longer. That is because particles of the virus ride on the extremely small drops of water floating in the air. When the air is very humid, water droplets fall to the ground more quickly. The researchers say, however, that people should not stay in warm places all the time in cold weather to avoid the flu. They say the best way to prevent the sickness is to get yearly injections of a vaccine that prevents influenza. VOICE ONE: Medical experts have identified three major kinds of influenza. They call them type A, B and C. Type C is the least serious. People may not even know they have it. But researchers study the other two kinds very closely. Viruses change to survive. This can make it difficult for the body to recognize and fight an infection. A person who has suffered one kind of flu cannot develop that same kind again. The body's defense system produces antibodies. These substances stay in the blood and destroy the virus if it appears again. But the body may not recognize a flu virus that has even a small change. Each year, researchers develop vaccines to prevent the spread of the flu virus. The World Health Organization holds meetings in which experts discuss what kinds of flu viruses to include in the next vaccine. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Historical records have described sicknesses believed to be influenza for more than two thousand years. The Roman historian Livy described such a disease attacking the Roman army. People in fifteenth century Italy thought sicknesses were caused by the influence of the stars. So they called it, "influenza." In seventeen eighty-one, influenza moved from Europe to North America to the West Indies and Latin America. The flu spread in Asia in eighteen twenty-nine, then again in eighteen thirty-six. It also traveled to Southeast Asia, Russia and the United States. VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty-nine, the flu began in Central Asia, spread north into Russia, east to China and west to Europe. Later, it affected people in North America and Africa. Experts say two hundred fifty thousand people died in Europe in that flu pandemic. Around the world, the number was at least one million. The deadliest spread of influenza ever reported involved a flu that first appeared in Spain. The Spanish flu killed between twenty million and fifty million people around the world in nineteen-eighteen and nineteen-nineteen. Even young, healthy people became sick and died in just a few days. VOICE TWO: Periods when diseases spread around the world are called pandemics. The World Health Organization says the next flu pandemic is likely to kill as many as six hundred fifty thousand people in industrial countries. But it says the greatest effect will likely be in developing countries. The W.H.O. notes that health resources in those countries are limited, and people there are weakened by poor health and diet. Researchers say the new kind of flu will appear unexpectedly. They will not have enough time to identify it and produce a vaccine. That is why they are developing faster ways to produce vaccines. Eighty years ago, the flu virus took months to spread around the world. Today, airplane travel means a virus can spread to far around the world in just days. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year, the World Health Organization said the world is closer to a pandemic of the influenza virus than at any time since nineteen sixty-eight. The flu virus would spread quickly to large numbers of people in many countries. The pandemic threat is the h-five n-one influenza virus, also known as the bird flu. Wild and farm birds often have a flu virus. Yet they usually are able to carry the virus without getting sick. In nineteen ninety-seven, six people in Hong Kong died of the h-five n-one virus. The Hong Kong government quickly ordered the killing of all farm birds there. That stopped the spread of h-five n-one to people in Hong Kong. Yet the virus had already spread to other parts of Asia. It was found in sixteen countries between two thousand three and two thousand six. VOICE TWO: The WHO says the bird flu virus had infected a total of three hundred thirty-eight people by December twelfth. Two hundred eight of them died. Yet fewer people were infected with bird flu or died of it last year than in two thousand six. These numbers show that the deadly bird flu virus is not spreading among people very easily. But that could change. Researchers are worried about the virus changing so that it could spread from person to person. People would become infected with a virus their bodies have never before experienced. They would have no protection. VOICE ONE: Researchers are attempting to develop a vaccine to protect against bird flu. Still, they know that any vaccine would not be ready until a pandemic had already begun. Some British researchers say people should be told to wear physical barriers against infectious diseases, like masks on the face or gloves to protect the hands. The researchers examined fifty-one published studies on the effect of simple ways to prevent throat and lung infections. They found that hand-washing, wearing masks and using gloves each stopped the spread of viruses. The researchers also found that such physical barriers were even more effective when used together. They said these simple, low-cost measures could prove to be an easy way to prevent the spread of deadly viruses. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-07-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Circular Thinking: Round Barns in America
* Byline: Rectangular is the tradition on U.S. farms, but round barns have a long history. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A round barn in IllinoisAmerican farmers traditionally keep their animals and equipment in barns that are rectangular, longer than they are wide. But as many as one thousand barns in the Midwest and other parts of the country are round. Round barns have a long history in America. George Washington, the nation's first president, had a round barn in the seventeen hundreds. The Shaker religious community at Hancock, Massachusetts, built one in the eighteen twenties. But the idea did not become popular until years later. Then, in the early nineteen hundreds, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign built three round barns that a lot of farmers copied. A farmer could save on wood or stone with a round building that needed less material than traditional barns. Experts also believed that farmers could save steps, and time, in feeding their animals in a round barn. And round barns stood a better chance against strong winds. Some round barns are not truly circular. They just look that way but really are many flat sides put together. Early versions were mainly designed with two levels. Cows were kept on the first level and the one above was used to store hay to feed them. Later designs brought a large area in the middle for the hay and places all around it for the cows. By the nineteen thirties, however, fewer American farmers were building round barns. Some people said it took more time and skill. Others disagreed. In any case, it was not a good time to argue -- it was the Great Depression, and times were difficult. Also, as electric power came to rural America, there was a school of thought that rectangular barns were easier to wire for electricity. Agricultural experts also reconsidered their ideas about a round barn saving time in feeding animals. Kathy and Bob Frydenlund can tell you all about round barns. The Frydenlunds have a library of architectural plans and drawings and have published books on the subject. Their most recent is called "How to Build and Love Your Round Barn." Money from their book sales helps them take care of their own barn -- a big, ninety-year-old structure made of concrete and wood. The Frydenlunds own the Round Barn Llama Farm in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Bob Frydenlund says having a round barn means keeping alive part of the history of American farming. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: These Places Are Natural Wonders of the World
* Byline: Visiting Angel Falls, Mount Fuji, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second of three programs about beautiful and unusual places in our world. Last week, we told about structures built hundreds or thousands of years ago. Today we tell about some of the great natural Wonders of the World. We do not have time to visit all these places, but here are a few from several different countries. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: We begin our program today high in the southeastern mountains of Venezuela. Water falls from a mountain called Auyan-tepui or Devil Mountain. The water falls from a height of nine hundred seventy-nine meters. It ends in an area called Devil’s Canyon. The water begins to fall in a tightly controlled stream. However it ends in a beautiful white cloud of water spray. This waterfall is the highest in the world. The local native people called it the Churun Meru. It is now called Angel Falls. An American pilot named Jimmy Angel saw the beautiful waterfall for the first time in the nineteen thirties. He was flying alone in a small airplane looking for gold when he saw water falling from a great height. Some time later several friends said the waterfall should be named after Jimmy Angel. VOICE TWO: A small airplane is still the best way to enjoy this beautiful sight. You can also visit the area under the falls after a three-and-a-half-hour boat ride and a one-hour walk through the jungle. And you can see Jimmy Angel’s little airplane if you visit Venezuela. It is considered a national treasure. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From a waterfall in Venezuela, we travel to another mountain. This one is in Japan. It is one of the most photographed mountains in the world. It is Mount Fuji on the island of Honshu. The Japanese call it Fujisan and they say it with love and honor. Mount Fuji is a sleeping volcano about three thousand seven hundred meters high. It is the tallest mountain in Japan. Since ancient times, the Japanese people have considered it a holy mountain. It has also been the favorite subject of thousands of artists. Its picture has even appeared on Japanese money. VOICE TWO: Mount Fuji is an almost perfectly shaped volcano. A crown of white snow covers the top of the mountain most of the year. Mount Fuji seems to rise sharply out of the ground into the shape most recognized as a volcano. A large area is missing from the side of the mountain. This is a result of its most recent explosion in seventeen-oh-seven. But the missing part of the mountain does nothing to decrease its beauty. Mount Fuji is much easier to enjoy than Angel Falls in Venezuela. On a clear day people can see it from both the major cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. The easiest way to see the famous mountain is on a train from Tokyo to Osaka. Or you could climb the mountain to get an even better look. Thousands of people climb Fujisan each summer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next, we travel to the desert of the southwestern United States. In fifteen forty, Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was searching this desert area for gold. The desert area is almost flat, like a table. His exploration team had been traveling north from Mexico for several weeks. Suddenly one morning he and his group came to an area that stopped their exploration. They could not continue. In front of them was a huge hole cut in the ground. Most of this canyon was more than one thousand two hundred meters deep. It was more than three hundred kilometers long. This huge deep canyon extended as far as the explorers could see. It was very beautiful. The sunlight made deep shadows and seemed to change the shape of things every minute. The colors also changed with the movement of the sun and clouds. Often, some areas of the deep canyon appeared bright red. Other times they were a deep brown or purple. The exploration team tried for three days to reach the river far down in the canyon. They failed. They could also see no way to move around the huge canyon. A lack of supplies forced Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to return to Mexico. VOICE TWO: That beautiful deep canyon is the Grand Canyon. It is a National Park that includes an area of almost five hundred thousand hectares. It is one of the most studied natural areas in the world. The high canyon walls are a record of the past written in rock. Explorers have found fossils of ancient creatures near the bottom of the Grand Canyon. People can see many kinds of animals in or near the great canyon. These include large deer. They do not fear the people who come to visit the Grand Canyon. The canyon, its animals, plants and rocks are protected in this special place. VOICE ONE: The Colorado River is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The river took several million years to cut the deep canyon into the face of the Earth. It is still doing this today. Visitors today do not have a problem reaching the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the great Colorado River. Many people take long exciting trips in rubber boats on the river. Millions of people from around the world visit the Grand Canyon National Park each year. Many stay for less than a day. However, people leave with the memory of this beautiful natural wonder that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Next we travel across the Pacific Ocean. Our next natural Wonder of the World is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It extends more than two thousand kilometers along Australia’s northeast coast. It is the largest group of coral reefs in the world. A reef is a limestone formation that is usually under water or just above it. The coral that forms the reef is made of the hardened remains of dead sea animals called polyps. Thousands of millions of living coral polyps and plants are attached to the reef. The coral is many different colors. The water near the reef is usually clear and visitors can see far down into the ocean. This natural formation supports many different kinds of fish, sea turtles, crabs, giant clams, birds and other wild life. Millions of visitors from around the world come every year to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef. Many people visit in boats that have glass bottoms so they can see the fish and the colorful coral. Others swim among the fish using underwater breathing equipment. Swimming along the reef is fun. But it can also be dangerous. The huge great white shark is one of the creatures that swims near the reef. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the Great Barrier Reef is about thirty million years old. However, in recent years, people have caused problems for the reef. Some took coral from the reef. And boats dumped garbage or human waste. Now the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an agency of the Australian government. Visitors are told it is against the law to collect any of the limestone or coral or to damage the reef in any way. Laws prevent oil companies from drilling for oil anywhere near the reef. The Australian government has also worked to make sure nothing is placed in the ocean that would harm the great reef. Scientists are working to make sure that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef remains healthy and a true Wonder of the World for years to come. VOICE TWO: We would have liked to have enough time to tell about other great wonders of the world -- Victoria Falls, for example. This huge waterfall in southern Africa is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Another great waterfall brings visitors to the border area between the United States and Canada. They come to see the famous Niagara Falls. We also wanted to tell about the huge volcano that exploded near the Island of Krakatoa in Indonesia. And the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest in Nepal, should be on any list of natural Wonders of the World. It is easy to visit most of these great natural wonders if you have a computer. If your computer can link with the Internet system you too can enjoy these beautiful sights. Have fun exploring. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Jill Moss. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week when we bring you the third part of our Wonders of the World series on EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Common Disease Many People Have Never Heard Of
* Byline: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease includes patients with emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking is the leading cause. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., affects more than two hundred million people around the world. The World Health Organization says at least five million people died from it in two thousand five. Ninety percent were in developing countries. In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the fourth leading cause of death. But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it. The Canadian Lung Association Web site explains that C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis. These are the two most common forms of it, and many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them. The result is progressive and incurable lung damage. The tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs become partly blocked. This makes it difficult to breathe and often produces a cough that will not go away. People with C.O.P.D. often have swelling that causes the airways to narrow. And they often produce more mucus than normal. This oily substance protects the airways, but too much of it blocks them. Smoking is the most common cause of C.O.P.D. Nonsmokers can get the disease from breathing other people's tobacco smoke. Air pollution can also cause the disease. Miners and others who work around some kinds of dust and chemicals are at higher risk. And children who repeatedly suffer lung infections have a greater chance of developing the disease as adults. Genetics may also play a part. Doctors can perform a quick breathing test with a machine called a spirometer that can help diagnose C.O.P.D. But experts say people are often not tested or treated correctly for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Patients may not consider a continuous cough serious enough to seek medical attention. Or doctors may misdiagnose it as asthma or another infection. Some of the early warning signs are a cough that will not go away and an increase in mucus production. Another sign is difficulty breathing after minor activity like walking up stairs. There are ways to slow the progress of the disease. Doctors say the most important thing is to stop smoking. There are medicines that can reduce inflammation and open air passages. Also, exercise is often advised. If the disease is severe, a doctor may order oxygen treatment or even operations to remove damaged lung tissue. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Creating an Online Community for Trainers of English Teachers
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: On the eve of Tuesday's presidential primary in New Hampshire, we were on the phone to a teacher at a nearby school in Massachusetts, to discuss something other than the election. RS: We were talking with Susan Schwartz about teaching teachers. She teaches English as a Second Language, but her work extends far beyond her own classroom. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, taught English in China and Indonesia, and went to India last summer for a Fulbright-Hays Seminar Abroad program. AA: Not only that, for ten years she published an annual, peer-reviewed online journal called Nexus: A Journal for Teachers in Development. But now, Susan Schwartz is developing Nexus into what she hopes will be a continually updated Web site that will offer information about issues related to the training of teachers of English to speakers of other languages. And she is looking for material. SUSAN SCHWARTZ: "The e-mail address is n-e-x-u-s-j-o-u-r-n-a-l, nexusjournal@earthlink.net, and feel free to e-mail me and send in articles about teacher training, things that you have done that are practice oriented or research based or theoretically oriented. I would love to have articles from people all over the world. And I would love to have ideas about what people would like to see the Web site become." RS: "Well, what are you looking for?" SUSAN SCHWARTZ: "Just basically to create a place where people who are interested in teacher training can offer ideas and suggestions, resources for other people who are interested in the same topics, the same issues." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about current trends in teacher training, for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. From all your correspondence with your friends around the world, what sense do you get of the top issues that they are interested in?" SUSAN SCHWARTZ: "Maybe the one that comes first to my mind is having to do with distance learning. Nowadays people have the opportunity to take courses, university courses or just standalone courses, either completely or partially online. And I've seen a lot of programs for teacher training and in ESL in general that do have some kind of distance learning or virtual learning component. "I think another trend is using the Internet or using the Web in general for teacher training purposes. I think a lot of courses use sites like Blackboard and Nicenet, online bulletin boards, to communicate with learners. "I think another trend is to use authentic materials to teach skills rather than textbooks that are specifically designed for teaching discrete skills. For example, I think it's much more common now to use novels to teach reading skills, and I think there's been more training of teachers for how to use authentic literature. Also maybe tied into that is a trend that has focused on the teaching of vocabulary and how to teach vocabulary effectively." AA: "You're talking about [emphasizing vocabulary] versus teaching emphasizing grammar over vocabulary." SUSAN SCHWARTZ: "Yes." RS: "What about teaching across the curriculum, not just learning the vocabulary words but learning them through their history class or in a geography lesson?" SUSAN SCHWARTZ: "Yes, I think for teaching English, definitely, teaching English through the content of another course, such as teaching English by teaching chemistry or as you say by teaching geography has definitely become a lot more common. Especially I think in the U.S. in public schools, where I work now, that's much more the case than to teach ESL in a separate, isolated instance." AA: Susan Schwartz, speaking to us from her classroom in Methuen (meh-THOO-en), Massachusetts. Again, her e-mail address is nexusjournal@earthlink.net. RS: The easiest way to find her Web site and the free archives of Nexus is to do a search for "Nexus: A Journal for Teachers in Development." We'll also put a link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And that's all for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: How the Constitution Came to Life
* Byline: One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding this document. In the coming weeks we will tell its story. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. The United States became a nation in seventeen seventy-six. Less than a century later, in the eighteen sixties, it was nearly torn apart. A civil war took place, the only one in the nation's history. States from the North and the South fought against each other. The conflict involved the right of the South to leave the Union and deal with issues -- especially the issue of slavery -- its own way. This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs describe how the Constitution survived this very troubled time in American history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Detail of a Civil War drawing by Alfred R. Waud published in Harper's Weekly in October 1863America's Civil War lasted four years. Six hundred thousand men were killed or wounded. In the end, the slaves were freed, and the Union was saved. Abraham Lincoln was president during the Civil War. He said the southern states did not have the right to leave the Union. Lincoln firmly believed that the Union of states was permanent under the Constitution. In fact, he noted, one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. His main goal was to save what the Constitution had created. VOICE ONE: One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government and guarantees the rights of all citizens. Its power is greater than any president, court or legislature. In the coming weeks, we will tell the story of the United States Constitution. We will describe the drama of its birth in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. And we will describe the national debate over its approval. Before we do, however, we want to tell how that document provides for change without changing the basic system of government. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: If you ask Americans about their Constitution, they probably will talk about the Bill of Rights. These are the first ten changes, or amendments, to the Constitution. They contain the rights of all people in the United States. They have the most direct effect on people's lives. Among other things, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press. It also establishes rules to guarantee that a person suspected of a crime is treated fairly. VOICE ONE: The Bill of Rights was not part of the document signed at the convention in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. The delegates believed that political freedoms were basic human rights. So, some said it was not necessary to express such rights in a Constitution. Most Americans, however, wanted their rights guaranteed in writing. That is why most states approved the new Constitution only on condition that a Bill of Rights would be added. This was done, and the amendments became law in seventeen ninety-one. VOICE TWO: One early amendment involved the method of choosing a president and vice president. In America's first presidential elections, the man who received the most votes became president. The man who received the second highest number of votes became vice president. It became necessary to change the Constitution, however, after separate political parties developed. Then ballots had to show the names of each candidate for president and vice president. VOICE ONE: The 15th Amendment gave male citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color or previous condition of slaveryThere were no other amendments for sixty years. The next one was born in the blood of civil war. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That document freed the slaves in the states that were rebelling against the Union. It was not until after Lincoln was murdered, however, that the states approved the Thirteenth Amendment to ban slavery everywhere in the country. The Fourteenth Amendment, approved in eighteen sixty-eight, said no state could limit the rights of any citizen. And the Fifteenth, approved two years later, said a person's right to vote could not be denied because of his race, color, or former condition of slavery. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the eighteen nineties, the federal government needed more money than it was receiving from taxes on imports. It wanted to establish a tax on earnings. It took twenty years to win approval for the Sixteenth Amendment. The amendment permits the government to collect income taxes. Another amendment proposed in the early nineteen hundreds was designed to change the method of electing United States Senators. For more than one hundred years, senators were elected by the legislatures of their states. The Seventeenth Amendment, approved in nineteen thirteen, gave the people the right to elect senators directly. VOICE ONE: In nineteen nineteen, the states approved an amendment to ban the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Alcohol was prohibited. It could not be produced or sold legally anywhere in the United States. The amendment, however, did not stop the flow of alcohol. Criminal organizations found many ways to produce and sell it illegally. Finally, after thirteen years, Americans decided that Prohibition had failed. It had caused more problems than it had solved. So, in nineteen thirty-three, the states approved another constitutional amendment to end the ban on alcohol. VOICE TWO: Other amendments in the twentieth century include one that gives women the right to vote. It became part of the Constitution in nineteen twenty. Another amendment limits a president to two four-year terms in office. And the Twenty-sixth Amendment gives the right to vote to all persons who are at least eighteen years old. The Twenty-seventh Amendment has one of the strangest stories of any amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment establishes a rule for increasing the pay of senators and representatives. It says there must be an election between the time Congress votes to increase its pay and the time the pay raise goes into effect. The amendment was first proposed in seventeen eighty-nine. Like all amendments, it needed to be approved by three-fourths of the states. This did not happen until nineteen ninety-two. So, one of the first amendments to be proposed was the last amendment to become law. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution have not changed the basic system of government in the United States. The government still has three separate and equal parts:? the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The three parts balance each other. No part is greater than another. The first American states had no strong central government when they fought their war of independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. They cooperated under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The agreement provided for a Congress. But the Congress had few powers. Each state governed itself. VOICE TWO: When the war ended, the states owed millions of dollars to their soldiers. They also owed money to European nations that had supported the Americans against Britain. The new United States had no national money to pay the debts. There was an American dollar. But not everyone used it. And it did not have the same value everywhere. The situation led to economic ruin for many people. They could not pay the money they owed. They lost their property. They were put in prison. Militant groups took action to help them. They interfered with tax collectors. They terrorized judges and burned court buildings. VOICE ONE: The situation was especially bad in the northeast part of the country. In Massachusetts, a group led by a former soldier tried to seize guns and ammunition from the state military force. Shays' Rebellion, as it was called, was stopped. But from north to south, Americans were increasingly worried and frightened. Would the violence continue?? Would the situation get worse? VOICE TWO: Many Americans distrusted the idea of a strong central government. After all, they had just fought a war to end British rule. Yet Americans of different ages, education, and social groups felt that something had to be done. If not, the new nation would fail before it had a chance to succeed. These were the opinions and feelings that led, in time, to the writing of the United States Constitution. That will be our story in the coming weeks of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Tony Riggs and Frank Oliver. Transcripts and MP3s of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English. _____ This was program #15 in THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US Colleges Move to Increase Financial Aid
* Byline: Action by Harvard turns up heat on other schools to use more of their endowment money to help their students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A recent decision by Harvard University to expand financial aid is putting pressure on other schools to do the same. Graduation ceremonies at Harvard in JuneThe full price for one year at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is more than forty-five thousand dollars. Many other private colleges cost just as much. But Harvard is much wealthier than any other American university, so it has more to give. Harvard already offers a free education to students from families that earn up to sixty thousand dollars a year. This has helped increase the numbers of lower income and minority students. Now, the aim is to help all but the wealthiest American families pay for a Harvard education. The new policies announced last month will assist families that earn as much as one hundred eighty thousand dollars. These families will be asked to pay no more than ten percent of their income for college. For example, a family earning one hundred twenty thousand dollars would pay about twelve thousand a year. Under existing student aid policies the amount is more than nineteen thousand. What Harvard has done is change the way it offers financial aid. Undergraduates will not be expected to take out loans. Increases in grant aid will replace loans. Also, Harvard officials will no longer consider the value of a family's home when deciding how much aid to give. Harvard says it expects to spend up to twenty-two million dollars more a year in financial aid. This will come from its endowment. A college endowment is money given by former students and others as gifts. Schools invest the money to earn more. Harvard’s endowment is valued at thirty-five billion dollars. Other universities with large endowments are also changing their financial aid policies. Examples include Yale, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania. Yale’s endowment is the second largest after Harvard, at twenty-two and a half billion dollars. This week, Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, announced it will use more of that money for financial aid as well as scientific research. Yale may also admit more students. But some colleges say they simply do not have enough money to compete with the new policies that are being announced. Critics of the rising costs of a college education say schools are making these changes in an attempt to avoid action by Congress. Some lawmakers have criticized universities for raising their prices even as their endowments grow larger and larger. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. We will talk more about endowments next week. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Singer Alice Smith Brings Pure Emotion and Honesty to Her Music
* Byline: The Margulies Collection, a museum of modern art in Miami. And a question from Brazil about actors Al Pacino and Andy Garcia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Alice Smith … Answer a question about two American actors … And?tell about an art museum in Miami, Florida. Margulies Collection HOST: The Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida, is a privately owned museum with an exciting collection of modern art. Martin Margulies has spent his life collecting art with the money he earned from investing in property. Twenty-seven years ago, he started an organization to help provide arts education free of charge to the public. As part of this goal, he placed his collection of sculpture, photographs, and paintings in a local museum. Mister Margulies says that art has been good to him and that it is important to share it with others. Shirley Griffith has more. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse opened eight years ago in the Wynwood area of Miami. This neighborhood is filled with industrial buildings and stores. You might be surprised to discover that the Warehouse building houses an art collection. Since it opened, the Margulies Collection has expanded to over four thousand square meters of exhibition space. The museum is open free of charge four days a week from September until April. The current show includes sixty-five sculptural objects from Mister Margulies’ collection. The show includes the work of both famous sculptors and up-and coming artists. In the main room of the museum, there are so many interesting sculptures that it is hard to know where to look first. One work by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is made of stretchy cloth that hangs from the ceiling and covers a large area of space. Several heavy tear-shaped forms drop from this ceiling cloth at different levels. If you look -- and smell -- carefully, you will realize that the wrapped forms contain several kilograms of spices such as cinnamon and turmeric. Mister Neto often creates works like this one that visitors can step into and explore using different senses. A sculpture by the American artist Barry McGee is made from a large truck lying on its side. Visitors can look in the truck to see television screens showing different colorful images. You might also see works by several video artists. For example, you can watch a video by the Indian artist Amar Kanwar that explores oppression and violence in India and Pakistan. The Margulies Collection provides its visitors and the community of Miami a free lesson in the endlessly rich subject of modern art. Al Pacino and Andy Garcia HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Juliana Lucia Ferreira asks about the American actors Al Pacino and Andy Garcia. Al Pacino is known all over the world as one of the best actors of all time. His full name is Alfredo James Pacino. He was born in New York City in nineteen forty and attended the Fiorello LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts. At first, he acted in plays on Broadway in New York. He won awards for his parts in the plays "The Indian Wants the Bronx" and "Does The Tiger Wear A Necktie?" Al Pacino became famous as a result of his work in the movies "The Godfather" in nineteen seventy-two, and "Serpico" the next year. He was nominated for Academy Awards for those films and for five others. He finally received an Oscar in nineteen ninety-two for the movie "Scent of a Woman."? He also won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for the television movie "Angels in America" in two thousand four. Pacino has appeared in almost forty movies. In two thousand six, the American Film Institute honored him with a Life Achievement Award. His next movie will be released later this year. In "Righteous Kill," he plays a New York City detective searching for a killer. Andy Garcia has also appeared in about forty movies. He was born in Havana, Cuba in nineteen fifty-six. Andres Arturo Garcia-Menendez came to the United States with his parents at the age of five. They settled in Miami, Florida. After high school, he decided to become an actor and moved to Hollywood, California. Garcia's first real acting job was in the television show "Hill Street Blues" in nineteen eighty-one. His first movie part was in "The Mean Season" in nineteen eighty-five. Later, his movies included "The Untouchables," "When A Man Loves A Woman" and "The Godfather, Part Three."? He was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his work in the "Godfather" film. Andy Garcia is deeply involved in Cuban music and the arts. In two thousand, he played the Cuban musician Arturo Sandoval in a television movie. He shared an Emmy Award for outstanding movie made for television. In two thousand six, he directed and played the leading part in the film "The Lost City" about love during the Cuban Revolution. ?His latest movie, "The Air I Breathe," will be released later this month. Alice Smith HOST: Alice Smith is a twenty-nine-year-old musician who grew up traveling between Washington, D.C. and her family’s farm in the southern state of Georgia. Her strong and emotional voice is able to sing a striking series of low and high notes. In her first album, “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me,” Alice Smith mixes the sounds of rock, jazz and soul music. Faith Lapidus plays some of her music. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was the love song “Dream” which was recently nominated for a Grammy award. After hearing this song, you might be surprised to learn that Alice Smith did not always plan to make a career out of singing. But she did like music. She says that when she was growing up, each of her mother’s eight brothers and sisters liked to listen to a different kind of music. So, she was able to experience many kinds of musical styles in addition to her own favorites. Alice Smith did not start singing professionally until she was in college in New York City. While she was studying history at Fordham University, she started to work as a back-up singer for a local band. The president of a record company heard her sing and later offered her a record deal. Here is the playful song “Woodstock.” It tells about wanting to take a break from the tensions of city living. (MUSIC) A small record company first released “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me” a year ago. The album quickly gained attention from critics and fans. The New York Times newspaper and Rolling Stone magazine listed Alice Smith as a top artist to know about. The company Epic Records re-released the album in October. Alice Smith says the album is about pure emotion and being honest in whatever situation you are in. We leave you with “Fake Is the New Real.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: McDonald's Targets Starbucks
* Byline: The fast-food company expects to add $1 billion in sales by offering specialty coffee drinks in all its U.S. restaurants. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. McDonald's, the fast-food company, is heating up competition with the Starbucks Coffee Company. McDonald's plans to put coffee bars in its fourteen thousand restaurants in the United States. Fewer than a thousand now offer specialty coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos. Just like Starbucks, each coffee bar would have its own barista, the person who makes and serves the drinks. Company documents reported by the Wall Street Journal said the plan would add one billion dollars a year in sales. McDonald's has enjoyed several years of strong growth. The company had almost twenty-two billion dollars in sales in two thousand six. Still, the move to compete against Starbucks carries some risk. Some experts say it could slow down service at McDonald's restaurants. And some people who are happy with McDonald's the way it is now may not like the changes. A McCafe in Mountain View, California, on opening day in 2003As early as two thousand one the company tested McCafes in the United States to sell specialty coffee at McDonald's restaurants. But the drinks were not available at the drive-through windows that provide two-thirds of its business. McDonald's thinks its new plan has a greater chance of success. Starbucks, on the other hand, has faced slower growth and increasing competition. Its stock has lost about half its value since last January. Starbucks has about ten thousand stores in the United States. Its high-priced coffee drinks have names like Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha and Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino. Lately Starbucks has added more foods, including breakfast foods, and put drive-through windows in some stores. This week, the company replaced its chief executive officer, bringing back former C.E.O. Howard Schultz. He remains chairman of the board. He joined Starbucks in nineteen eighty-two, when it had just four stores. He is credited with building the Seattle company into an international success story. But a year ago he warned that its fast growth had led to what he called the watering down of the Starbucks experience. Some neighborhoods have a Starbucks on every block or two. Now, Starbucks will speed up its international growth while slowing its expansion in the United States. Millions of people have a taste for Starbucks. But last year, McDonald's Premium coffee got some good press. Testers from Consumer Reports thought it tasted better than Starbucks, and it cost less. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Hampshire Primary Leaves Presidential Race Wide Open
* Byline: Obama and Huckabee won the first test in Iowa, then Clinton and McCain won the second. Other votes are coming up, but the big event will be Super Tuesday on February fifth. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The American presidential campaign took a surprising turn this week. Senator Hillary Clinton won the Democratic vote in the first primary state, New Hampshire, on Tuesday. That was after she finished third last week in the Iowa caucuses. And Senator John McCain won the Republican primary in New Hampshire after he finished fourth in Iowa. Political experts say the battle for the nomination in both parties is wide open. The big winners in Iowa were Senator Barack Obama for the Democrats and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee for the Republicans. Public opinion researchers predicted that Barack Obama would win New Hampshire by as much as twelve points. But Hillary Clinton won a narrow victory, at thirty-nine percent to Senator Obama’s thirty-six percent. Hillary Clinton had some of her strongest support among older women. The New York senator and former first lady hopes to become the country’s first female president. Senator Obama would be the first African-American president. The Illinois senator has enjoyed wide support among people under the age of thirty. The Clinton campaign was not sure how voters would react after people saw an emotional side of her that they are not used to seeing. It happened Monday at a question-and-answer event in New Hampshire. Tears came to her eyes as she talked about not wanting to see the country fall backwards. In the Republican race, John McCain found support among voters concerned about national security and terrorism. The Arizona senator also appears to have been helped by independent voters. He defeated former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Mike Huckabee came in third. Voters in New Hampshire said the most important issues were the economy and the war in Iraq. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson dropped out of the Democratic race this week. He finished fourth in New Hampshire. Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd left the Democratic race after receiving low numbers in Iowa. Primary season began last week with Iowa’s caucus meetings. Primaries and caucuses are the American process used to choose delegates to the national nominating conventions. The Democrats will meet in late August and the Republicans in early September. The conventions are where candidates are officially chosen to represent their party in the general election in November. Later this month, primaries will be held in other states including Nevada and South Carolina. But the big event will be Super Tuesday on February fifth. More states will be voting on Super Tuesday than in past years. More than twenty states including California, New York and Illinois will hold their primaries that day. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. For more news about the presidential campaign, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910: The Anti-Slavery Activist Wrote One of the Great Civil War Songs
* Byline: The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marching soldiers. No end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land. They came from the northern states fighting to keep the Union together. And they came from the southern states fighting? for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers marched on. The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation. VOICE TWO: Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have told of the soldiers’ fear and terror. Their great and heroic acts. How they suffered and died. And how they sang before and after battle. One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."? Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This is the story of the woman who wrote the song. (MUSIC: "Battle Hymn of the Republic") VOICE TWO: The place was Washington, D.C. The year was eighteen sixty-one. It was a wet winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia. A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on. VOICE ONE: The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer. She was born in New York City in eighteen nineteen. Her father was a wealthy banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five children. And she published several books of poetry. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery. They published an anti-slavery newspaper called the "Commonwealth." Missus Howe had met John Brown. Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist. She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves. Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery. In eighteen fifty-nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves. He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia. The town had a factory that made guns for the army. It also had a storage center for military equipment. The attack on Harper's Ferry failed. John Brown was put on trial for treason. He was found guilty and was executed. VOICE ONE: In the northern states, John Brown became a hero. His story was told through song. The song was most popular with soldiers. It became the unofficial marching song of the Union Army. Julia Ward Howe also liked to sing the song. She felt that the music was beautiful, but the words about John Brown were not. So she decided to write different words to the music. Those words came to her that night as she lay in her hotel room in Washington. She was awakened by her dreams of marching soldiers. VOICE TWO: "I found to my surprise that the words were forming themselves in my head. I lay still until the last line had completed itself in my thoughts. Then I quickly got out of bed. I thought I would forget the words if I did not write them immediately. I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Then I began to write the lines of a poem: 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.' I wrote until I was finished. Then I lay down again and fell asleep. I felt something important had happened to me." VOICE ONE: An American magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly," bought Missus Howe's poem. She was paid four dollars. The magazine published the poem in eighteen sixty-two. The poem became very popular. It had just the right words for the great marching music. The soldiers of the Union Army began to sing the words Julia Ward Howe had written. It soon became their official marching song -- "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." VOICE TWO: President Abraham LincolnJulia Ward Howe became famous. She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln. After dinner at the White House, the guests talked about the Civil War. They were sad. The Union army had suffered many defeats. Then someone began to sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic."? Missus Howe and President Lincoln joined in the singing. There were tears in the President's eyes. Here is the last part of the song, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the North won the Civil War in eighteen sixty-five, Julia Ward Howe became involved in other social reform movements. ?She became a leader in the movement to gain equal rights for American women, including the right to vote. She helped establish the New England Woman's Club in eighteen sixty-eight. This organization worked for equal rights for women in education and business. She served as president of the group for more than thirty years. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe also became involved in the movement for peace. In eighteen seventy, she issued an "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World."? This was a call for an international conference of women to support the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The next year she helped organize the American group of the Woman's International Peace Association. She became president of the group. Julia Ward Howe continued to write books and make speeches about the issues she felt were important. Through the years, thousands of people came to hear her recite her most famous poem. She died in nineteen ten. She was ninety-one years old. VOICE ONE: The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" still is one of America's great traditional songs. No one knows for sure who wrote the music. But the song lives on. And so does the name of the woman who made the music famous with her words: Julia Ward Howe. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Nicknames: America's 50 States (Second of Four Parts)
* Byline: Kentucky is the Bluegrass State and Louisiana is the Bayou State. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) As we told you last week, every American state has a nickname. Here are some more of them. Idaho is known as The Gem State. This is not because it has diamonds but because it believes it is the jewel of the western Rocky Mountains. Illinois is The Land of Lincoln. It is named for Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president who led the nation through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. The midwestern state of Indiana is called the Hoosier State, but nobody is quite sure why. One story is that the word was used to mean poor farmers or uneducated people. No wonder the state legislature instead calls Indiana The Crossroads of America. Iowa's nickname, the Hawkeye State, is in honor of Black Hawk, an Indian chief who spent most of his life in neighboring Illinois! Kansas also has a "hawkish" nickname: The Jayhawk State. Jayhawkers were free-state guerrilla fighters opposed to the pro-slavery fighters in the years before the Civil War. Kentucky is The Bluegrass State. Bluegrass is really bright green but looks bluish from a distance. Louisiana is The Bayou State. A bayou is a slow-moving stream. Hundreds of them flow through this southern state, and many are full of alligators! Maine, in the nation's northeast, is The Pine Tree State because it is covered in evergreen woods. And directly across the country, on the Pacific Coast, is the state of Washington. It also has lots of evergreen trees so, not surprisingly, it is The Evergreen State. The eastern state of Massachusetts is the Bay State. This body of water separates most of the state from famous Cape Cod. Six state nicknames are taken from native animals. Michigan is the Wolverine State.A wolverine is a small, fierce mammal. The badger is a similar and equally fierce creature and Wisconsin is The Badger State. Neighboring Minnesota, The Gopher State, is named for a much nicer animal that builds hills and tunnels. However, The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes is written on Minnesota's vehicle license plates. North Dakota gets its nickname, The Flickertail State not from some bird, but from a little squirrel. South Dakota takes its nickname, The Coyote State, from an animal that thinks flickertails are good to eat! And Oregon, The Beaver State, borrows its nickname from the large, flat-tailed rodent that uses trees to build dams. Next week, we will tell you about more state nicknames, including one that is about people's feet! (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program was written by Ted Landphair. I'm Barbara Klein. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Can a Strong Legislature Prevent Civil War?
* Byline: Researchers rate legislative powers in 158 countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Governments are always judged by how they use power. But they differ by how they divide power. Some have strong presidents or prime ministers. Others have military control. But political scientist Matthew Kroenig believes that in developing nations, the best solution may be a powerful legislature. Professor Kroenig is a researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He and Steven Fish at the University of California, Berkeley, have written "The Handbook of National Legislatures: A Global Survey." Cambridge University Press will release the book later this year. Professor Kroenig says the study is the first of its kind. It rates legislative strengths in one hundred fifty-eight countries. At least five experts provided information about each. They were given a list of thirty-two yes-or-no questions grouped into four areas. One of these categories measured a legislature’s influence over the president or prime minister. For example, can the legislature remove the leader from office? Other questions rated the legislature’s independence, any special powers it may hold and the resources available to do its work. There was a three-way tie for what Professor Kroenig calls the strongest legislature in the world: Germany, Italy and Mongolia. At the same time, two countries, Burma and Somalia, have none of the thirty-two legislative powers. The study found that Kenya's parliament has only about one-third of these powers. In the recent elections there, the opposition won ninety-five of the one hundred twenty-six seats in parliament. Kenyans caught up in the election-related conflict reach out for food aid in the Kibera slum in NairobiProfessor Kroenig says that because Kenya’s parliament is so weak, the opposition did not believe a majority would be enough to secure its interests. Yet it did not win the presidency. Deadly violence broke out as the opposition protested what it said was a stolen election. Professor Kroenig says strong legislatures can help prevent civil wars. The idea is that when many groups compete for power, no single individual or group can take control. Also, the public in general can create change through the legislative process. The study leads Matt Kroenig to think that countries with strong legislatures will have higher levels of economic growth. He also thinks they will be less likely to get involved in international wars. But more research is needed to confirm these theories. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. ___ Correction:?This report says the Kenyan parliament has 126 seats and that the opposition won 95 of them in recent elections. In fact, the leading opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, had won 95 out of 126 seats reported at the time. Final election results showed the ODM with 105 out of 222 seats in parliament (including 210 elected seats). 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Kids, Before the Age of TV There Was a Funny Thing Called Radio
* Byline: Laughs from yesteryear with performances by Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Fred Allen and Bob Hope. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we bring you some laughs from old-time American radio shows. Bud Abbott, left, and Lou CostelloLOU COSTELLO: "What I want to find out."BUD ABBOTT:? "I say Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third." VOICE ONE: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were two of America's funniest funnymen. Abbott and Costello appeared in theater, movies and television. But they owed much of their fame to radio, and a routine called "Who's On First?" VOICE TWO: Abbott plays a manager of a baseball team. Costello has trouble understanding that the players have funny nicknames, like Who. COSTELLO: "You gonna be the coach, too?"ABBOTT: "Yes."COSTELLO: "And you don't know the fellows' names?"ABBOTT: " Well, I should."COSTELLO: "Well, then, who's on first?"ABBOTT: "Yes."COSTELLO: "I mean the fellow's name."ABBOTT: "Who."COSTELLO: "The guy on first."ABBOTT: "Who."COSTELLO: "The first baseman."ABBOTT: "Who."COSTELLO: "The first baseman."ABBOTT: "Who."ABBOTT: "Who is on first!"COSTELLO: "I'm asking you who's on first."ABBOTT: "That's the man's name."COSTELLO: "That's who's name?"ABBOTT: "Yes."COSTELLO: "Well, go ahead and tell me." ABBOTT: “That’s it.”COSTELLO: “That’s who?”ABBOTT: “Yes.” VOICE ONE: Another of America's great comedians was Fred Allen. As early as nineteen thirty-six, he had a weekly radio audience of about twenty million people. So says the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. For almost twenty years, in the nineteen thirties and forties, Fred Allen had a radio show called "Allen's Alley." His career also included television and Broadway shows. Like many performers of his time, he started in vaudeville in the early nineteen hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented all kinds of entertainment. He began as a juggler, someone who can keep several objects in the air at the same time. But he was presented as the "World's Worst Juggler." VOICE TWO: After that he performed as a comedian. Vaudeville comedy acts usually contained a series of disconnected jokes. But during the Great Depression, Fred Allen had the idea of creating a series of complete stories and situations. Every week, on the radio, he would visit an imaginary place, "Allen's Alley," where he would talk with characters like Senator Claghorn. Senator Claghorn was a politician who talked a lot but never said anything. But some of Fred Allen's funniest programs were about his supposed longtime dispute with another radio star, Jack Benny. VOICE ONE: As a young man, Jack Benny played violin in a vaudeville theater in his home state of Illinois. When the United States entered World War One, he joined the Navy. He played his violin for other sailors. But the sailors liked his jokes better than his music. So Jack Benny decided to become a comedian. In the early nineteen thirties Jack Benny got his own radio show. It lasted for twenty-three years. VOICE TWO: Listeners loved it when Jack Benny and Fred Allen would say bad things about each other on their shows. But two comedians could still be friends -- or at least friendly enough to perform together. In nineteen fifty, on Jack Benny's radio program, they did a skit about an early visit to their talent agent. VOICE ONE: They are partners in a vaudeville act that they think is wonderful. They hope the agent will get them an appearance in a good theater. But first they have to get past his secretary. SECRETARY: "Now, uh, what is the name of your act again?"ALLEN: "Allen and Benny."SECRETARY: "I thought you said it was Benny and Allen."ALLEN: " Well, at two o'clock, our billing changes."SECRETARY: "Well, what kind of an act do you do?" BENNY: "Violin, clarinet and snappy patter."SECRETARY: "And where have you played?'BENNY: "Oh, all over."SECRETARY: " Well, where?"ALLEN: "Well, just -- just tell her the important dates, Jack."SECRETARY: "Yeah, go ahead."BENNY: "Well, we did a week in Sow Belly, Wyoming. A week in Loose Tooth, Arizona. Three days in Stagnant Water, New Mexico. And we also played the Palace here in New York."SECRETARY: "Sow Belly, Loose Tooth, Stagnant Water and the Palace! Well, at least you worked your way up."ALLEN: "No, we played the Palace first." VOICE TWO: Finally they see the agent, Mickey Rockford, and appeal to him for a break -- a chance to become stars. But he is not interested. Still, they get him to listen to their act. They remind him that he booked them once before. BENNY: "Mister Rockford, I’m Jack Benny. This is Fred Allen.”ALLEN: "That's right, Mister Rockford. Remember? You booked our act seven years ago."ROCKFORD: "Oh yes, what business are you in now?"ALLEN: "Well, we are still in show business."BENNY: "Yes, and we thought you could book us."ROCKFORD: "Please, fellows."ALLEN: "Our new act is sensational. At least give us a chance, Mister Rockford."BENNY: " Yes, all we need is one good break, you know."ROCKFORD: "I gave you a break when I put you in Loew's Flatbush."ALLEN: "Some break. They opened it with Fink's Mules, and Major Doughty's dogs came out, then Manny's Monkeys, then Powers' Dancing Elephants." ROCKFORD: "So what?"ALLEN: "By the time we came out, we looked like the last two passengers on Noah's Ark." BENNY: "Mister Rockford, how about listening to our, our new act?"ROCKFORD: "Oh, all right, if you insist."BENNY: "Ready? Ready with your clarinet, Fred?"ALLEN: "Ready."BENNY: "Okay. One, two. Atta boy, Fred. Oh, Mister Allen …"ALLEN: "What is it, Mister Benny?"BENNY: "Oh, Mister Allen, have you heard that they're making women's bathing suits out of spun glass?"ALLEN: "Women's bathing suits out of glass? Well, that is worth looking into."BENNY: "I'll take it, Mister Allen."ALLEN: "If you will. [Benny plays the violin.] Uhhhhh. You know, Mister Benny, I …"BENNY: " Yes, Mister Allen? Oh, pardon me."ALLEN: "I love music."BENNY: "So do I. Music once saved my uncle's life."ALLEN: "How did music save your uncle's life?"BENNY: "They played the Star Spangled Banner just as he was sitting in the electric chair. Take it, Mister Allen."ALLEN: "[Music] I'm interpolating." BENNY: "You don't have to finish it, you know."ALLEN: "Oh, Mister Benny." BENNY: "Yes, Mister Allen?"ALLEN: "I want you to meet my new girl. Her name is Well Enough."BENNY: "Why do you call your girl Well Enough?"ALLEN: "Because I want the boys to leave Well Enough alone. How about the finale, mister ..."BENNY: "In unison? [Music] Well, Mister Rockford, what did you think of us?"ALLEN: "Wait until he gets his head out of the drawer." VOICE ONE: At the same time Fred Allen and Jack Benny were making America laugh, so was Bob Hope. Hope entertained people all over the world for seventy years. In nineteen thirty-seven, Bob Hope began a series of radio programs called the "Woodbury Soap Show." The next year, he started a radio show for the company that made Pepsodent toothpaste. His Tuesday night radio show soon became popular. Bob Hope continued doing radio shows for almost twenty years. His success in radio led to a long-term relationship with Paramount Pictures, a major film company. The actors in his movies were also the characters on his radio shows. VOICE TWO: For fifty years, Bob Hope entertained members of America's armed forces. He took his radio show to military bases from the South Pacific to Greenland. One time, after World War Two ended, he brought his radio show to soldiers waiting at a base in California to return to civilian life. BOB HOPE: "And one Air Force colonel got out and bought a farm. Yeah, he'd been in action so long, every morning before the chickens started laying eggs he called them into the chicken coop and briefed them. "I knew these boys, I knew these boys, would be glad to see me here today. I said, 'Look fellows, here's the kind of clothes you'd be wearing when you get out,' and fifty guys re-enlisted. I saw some of these fellows shopping for clothes in Hollywood. They are so used to getting stuff from the supply sergeant that the clerk had to throw the suits on the floor before these guys would try them on. "One soldier had been fighting in the jungles for years. And I don't know if it had affected him or not, but when the clerk handed him a tweed suit to try on he spent three hours searching through the fuzz for snipers." VOICE ONE: Bob Hope came to the United States as a child from England with his family. As a young performer, he had a song and dance act with partners for a while. But then he began to perform by himself. He sang and danced well. He also kept people laughing with his jokes which he told very fast. In the nineteen thirties, in New York, he appeared in Broadway shows. Success on Broadway brought him a part in the movie "The Big Broadcast of 1938." VOICE TWO: In that film, he sang a song with Shirley Ross called "Thanks for the Memory." It became his theme song -- the song people think of when they think of Bob Hope. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:? And I'm Shirley Griffith. Archives of programs with transcripts and MP3s are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In the Job of Good Health, Vitamins Are Some of the Most Important Helpers
* Byline: A look at the 14 different kinds of vitamins, known as A, the B group, C, D, E and K. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. This week, we tell about vitamins. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many jobs must be done with two people. One person takes the lead. The other helps. It is this cooperation that brings success. So it is with the human body. Much of our good health depends on the cooperation between substances. When they work together, chemical reactions take place smoothly. Body systems are kept in balance. Some of the most important helpers in the job of good health are the substances we call vitamins. VOICE TWO: The word “vitamin” dates back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk in nineteen twelve. He was studying a substance in the hull that covers rice. This substance was believed to cure a disorder called beriberi. Funk believed the substance belonged to a group of chemicals known as amines. He added the Latin word "vita," meaning life. So he called the substance a “vitamine” -- an amine necessary for life. VOICE ONE: Funk was not able to separate the anti-berberi substance from the rice hulls; it was later shown to be thiamine. Other studies found that not all vitamines were amines after all. So the name was shortened to vitamin. But Funk was correct in recognizing their importance. Scientists have discovered fourteen kinds of vitamins. They are known as vitamins A, the B group, C, D, E and K. Scientists say vitamins help to carry out chemical changes within cells. If we do not get enough of the vitamins we need in our food, we are at risk of developing a number of diseases. VOICE TWO: This brings us back to Casimir Funk. His studies of rice were part of a long search for foods that could cure disease. One of the first people involved in that search was James Lind of Scotland. In the seventeen forties, Lind was a doctor for the British navy. He was investigating a problem that had existed in the navy for many years. The problem was the disease scurvy. So many sailors had scurvy that the navy’s fighting strength was very low. The sailors were weak from bleeding inside their bodies. Even the smallest wound would not heal. Doctor Lind thought the sailors were getting sick because they failed to eat some kinds of foods when they were at sea for many months. VOICE ONE: Doctor Lind separated twelve sailors who had scurvy into two groups. He gave each group different foods to eat. One group got oranges and lemons. The other did not. The men who ate the fruit began to improve within seven days. The other men got weaker. Doctor Lind was correct. Eating citrus fruits prevents scurvy. Other doctors looked for foods to cure the diseases rickets and pellagra. They did not yet understand that they were seeing the problem from the opposite direction. That is, it is better to eat vitamin-rich foods to prevent disease instead of eating them to cure a disease after it has developed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Which foods should be eaten to keep us healthy?? Let us look at some important vitamins for these answers. Vitamin A helps prevent skin and other tissues from becoming dry. It is also needed to make a light-sensitive substance in the eyes. People who do not get enough vitamin A cannot see well in darkness. They may develop a condition that dries the eyes. This can result in infections and lead to blindness. Vitamin A is found in fish liver oil. It also is in the yellow part of eggs. Sweet potatoes, carrots and other darkly colored fruits and vegetables contain substances that the body can change into vitamin A. VOICE ONE: Vitamin B-one is also called thiamine. Thiamine changes starchy foods into energy. It also helps the heart and nervous system work smoothly. Without it, we would be weak and would not grow. We also might develop beriberi. Thiamine is found not just in whole grains like brown rice, but also in other foods. These include beans and peas, nuts, and meat and fish. Another B-vitamin is niacin. It helps cells use food energy. It also prevents pellagra -- a disease that causes weakness, reddish skin and stomach problems. Niacin is found in meat, fish and green vegetables. Vitamin B-twelve is needed so folic acid can do its work. Together, they help produce red blood cells. Vitamin B-twelve is found naturally in foods such as eggs, meat, fish and milk products. Folic acid has been shown to prevent physical problems in babies when taken by their mothers during pregnancy. Vitamin B-twelve is found in green leafy vegetables and other foods, like legumes and citrus fruits. In some countries, it is added to products like bread. VOICE TWO: In two thousand three, Japanese researchers identified a new member of the B-vitamin group. It is a substance known as pyrroloquinoline quinone, or PQQ. The researchers found that PQQ is important in the reproductive and defense systems of mice. They said the substance is similarly important for people. PQQ is found in fermented soybeans and also in parsley, green tea, green peppers and kiwi fruit. VOICE ONE: Vitamin C is needed for strong bones and teeth, and for healthy blood passages. It also helps wounds heal quickly. The body stores little vitamin C. So we must get it every day in foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and uncooked cabbage. Vitamin D increases levels of the element calcium in the blood. Calcium is needed for nerve and muscle cells to work normally. It also is needed to build strong bones. Vitamin D prevents the children’s bone disease rickets. Ultraviolet light from the sun changes a substance in the skin into vitamin D. Fish liver oil also contains vitamin D. In some countries, milk producers add vitamin D to milk so children will get enough. Vitamin K is needed for healthy blood. It thickens the blood around a cut to stop bleeding. Bacteria in the intestines normally produce vitamin K. It can also be found in pork products, liver and in vegetables like cabbage, kale and spinach. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some people fear they do not get enough vitamins from the foods they eat. So they take products with large amounts of vitamins. They think these products, or vitamin supplements, will improve their health and protect against disease. In two thousand six, medical experts gathered near Washington, D.C., to discuss the latest research on vitamin supplements. The experts found little evidence that most supplements do anything to protect or improve health. But they noted that some do help to prevent disease. The experts said women who wish to become mothers should take folic acid to prevent problems in their babies. And, they said vitamin D supplements and calcium can protect the bones of older women. VOICE ONE: The medical experts agreed with doctors who say that people who know they lack a vitamin should take vitamin supplements. Some older adults, for example, may not have enough vitamin B-twelve. That is because, as people get older, the body loses its ability to take it from foods. The experts also noted that taking too much of some vitamins can be harmful. They said people should be sure to discuss what vitamins they take with their doctors. This is because some vitamins can cause harmful effects when mixed with medicines. VOICE TWO: Researchers in Denmark reported last year that people who take antioxidant vitamin supplements may be harming themselves. Antioxidants balance the effects of free radicals by preventing them from forming. Free radicals are cell-damaging molecules. They are produced in the body when too much oxygen is present. The researchers examined the results of sixty-eight studies. They found that those taking vitamin A, vitamin E or beta carotene supplements had an increased risk of dying an at early age. They also found that vitamin C supplements did little to harm or improve a person’s health. VOICE ONE: Vitamins are important to our health. Different vitamins are found in different foods -- grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, eggs and milk products. And even foods that contain the same vitamins may have them in different amounts. Experts say this is why it is important to eat a mixture of foods every day, to get enough of the vitamins our bodies need. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Lawan Davis. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Giving Grasslands a Rest
* Byline: An explanation of rotational grazing. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Grasslands need time to rest when cattle and other animals feed on them. Moving animals from one area of pasture to another can provide the time needed for new growth. This is called rotational grazing, and we have a question from listener Zhang Guohui in China about how it works. Experts say rotational grazing is good for the land and the animals, and it can save money. This form of grazing can reduce the need for pesticide chemicals by reducing the growth of weeds. And it can limit the need for chemical fertilizers by letting natural fertilizer, animal droppings, do the job. Rotational grazing can even help prevent wildfires by keeping grasslands in good condition. Letting animals feed continually and intensively in the same grazing areas can require costly replanting. Animals eat the most desirable growth first. When that keeps happening, the roots do not have enough time to recover. As a result, less desirable plants may replace them. Intensively used grasslands are also harmed as the soil is continually crushed under the weight of heavy animals. And the animals usually avoid their own waste, so that reduces the amount of good grazing space even more. Experts say that while rotational grazing can save money over time, it also requires planning. And that starts with a good map to mark fences, water supplies and grazing areas. Changing methods of grazing also requires time. Farmers may want to put up electric fences to enclose grazing areas, called paddocks. The paddocks will need water. Some farmers design a path for animals from different paddocks to drink from a common watering place. Farmers can start rotational grazing by removing animals from a pasture when the grass is eaten to less than five centimeters. The pasture is then kept empty until the grass grows to more than fifteen centimeters high. Experts say sheep and goats may require special preparations. They may need stronger fences than other animals. And while they eat the grass, they may need guard animals like llamas to protect them from animals that would like to eat them. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a question, we might be able to answer it on our program. Write to special@voanews.com and please include your name and country. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: These Modern Structures Are Wonders of the World
* Byline: We visit the Suez and Panama canals, the Chunnel and the Three Gorges Dam. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we finish our series of programs about the Wonders of the World. In earlier programs, we told about ancient structures and beautiful natural places. Today we tell about modern structures that are Wonders of the World. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: Any list of modern wonders should include some of the buildings in the great cities of the world. An example in New York City is the Empire State Building. For many years, it was the tallest building in the world. Today, the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are taller. These buildings are important to any list. However, the modern wonders we have selected have changed history. They are important because they made life safer or easier or were useful to a great number of people. We begin with two similar structures in two very different parts of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than three thousand years ago, an ancient king of Egypt ordered that a river be built to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. This kind of man-made river is called a canal. Ancient evidence shows the work was done and a canal was built. Experts believe it was possible for small boats of that time to travel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Some evidence shows the Nile River may have been used for part of the canal. However, the ancient people of Egypt did not keep this canal in use. As years passed, the sands of the great deserts of Egypt closed the small canal. As the centuries passed, many people thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the canal. The problem was the huge cost. But the cost could not be compared to the cost of a ship that had to sail from ports on the Atlantic Ocean to ports in Asia. Ships had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, the most southern part of the continent of Africa. VOICE ONE: A French engineer planned and directed the modern canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. His name was Ferdinand de Lesseps. Egyptian workers began building the canal in eighteen fifty-nine. It was opened and named the Suez Canal during a ceremony on November seventeenth, eighteen sixty-nine. The Suez Canal is about one hundred sixty-three kilometers long and about sixty meters wide. The Suez Canal has been closed several times because of war or political problems. Today, the Suez Canal is still important. Ships pay money to use the canal. That money is important to the economy of Egypt. The canal saves shipping companies a great deal of time and money because it is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. VOICE TWO: Our next Modern Wonder of the World is also a canal -- the Panama Canal. It connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Before it was built, ships often had to spend several weeks traveling around Cape Horn at the end of South America. Many ships were lost in great storms in that dangerous area. Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his men were the first Europeans to travel through the thick jungles in Panama from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. That was in fifteen thirteen. Panama quickly became a major shipping area for the Spanish. Their ships from the colonies in the Western Hemisphere and from Asia brought treasure to the Pacific Coast. The treasure was taken overland to the city of Portobelo on the Atlantic Side. The idea of building a way to connect the two great oceans began with the Spanish explorers. They saw the need for a canal to speed up delivery of their cargo. However, it was impossible to build. The machines needed to build something as big as a canal did not exist. VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-nine, a French Company tried to build a canal across Panama. It failed. The company did not have enough money to complete the project. Also, thousands of men working on the project died of the disease Yellow Fever. In nineteen hundred, an American army doctor, Walter Reed, and his research team discovered that mosquito insects carried the virus that caused Yellow Fever. They worked on methods to destroy the mosquito population. This development helped make possible an American effort to build the Panama Canal. Panama and the United States signed treaties in nineteen-oh-three and work began on the canal. More than eighty thousand men worked on the huge effort. They made a canal about eighty kilometers long from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On August fifteenth, nineteen fourteen, the ship S.S. Ancon became the first ship to sail through the new canal. Today, about thirteen thousand ships pass through the canal each year. That number represents about five percent of the world’s trade. Both the Suez and the Panama Canals are truly modern Wonders of the World. Both make it possible to safely move from one great ocean to another. And, both save huge amounts of time and money. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The two great canals we have discussed connect oceans. Our next great Wonder of the World connects land. This connecting device is called the Channel Tunnel, or “Chunnel.”? It connects the island that is Britain with France. It was one of the largest and most difficult construction projects ever attempted. It is a three-tunnel railroad from Calais, France to Folkestone, England. The tunnels are fifty kilometers long. They were built about forty-five meters below the earth under the English Channel. Two of the tunnels carry trains and one is used for repair work and emergencies. VOICE ONE: The idea of a tunnel connecting Britain with other nations of Europe was first proposed to the French Emperor Napoleon in the early eighteen hundreds. However it was never a serious idea. The technology to make such a tunnel did not exist. But people dreamed of such a tunnel. Crossing the English Channel by ship was often a terrible trip because of storms. Three serious attempts were made to build the tunnel. The first two failed. Political differences between France and Britain stopped the first attempt. Financial problems stopped the second. VOICE TWO: The third and successful attempt to build the Chunnel began in nineteen eighty-seven after France and Britain signed an agreement. It took seven years to finish the work. To complete the tunnels, construction workers had to move more than seventeen million tons of earth. The cost was more than thirteen thousand million dollars. The Chunnel opened in nineteen ninety-four. Today, the Chunnel is very busy. High-speed trains carry cars, trucks and passengers from Britain to France and back again. The trains are famous for their smooth, quiet ride. The money paid for the trip is slowly paying for the huge cost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our last modern Wonder of the World has not yet been completed. It is perhaps the largest construction project ever attempted. It is the Three Gorges Dam Project in China’s Hubei Province. Some experts say it is the largest attempted construction project since the ancient Chinese built the Great Wall of China. The Three Gorges Dam is being built to produce power and control China’s Yangtze River. The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world. It is famous for the terrible floods it has caused. Some reports say more than one million people have been killed in Yangtze floods in the past one hundred years. VOICE TWO: The Three Gorges Dam will not be finished until two thousand nine. Work began in nineteen ninety-three. About two hundred fifty thousand workers are involved in the project. Experts say the huge dam will cost about twenty-five thousand million dollars. When finished it will be about one hundred eighty-one meters high. The dam will create a huge lake about six hundred thirty-two square kilometers. Some critics say the dam will harm the environment and damage historical areas. More than one million people will have to be resettled before the dam is finished. The completed dam will produce large amounts of electric power. Chinese government officials say it will lead to increased economic development in cities near the dam. And China says the terrible floods caused by the Yangtze will be memories of the past. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Supports Home Care for Severe Pneumonia in Children
* Byline: Researchers say more youngsters could survive if guidelines calling for hospital treatment are rewritten. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The single largest killer of children under age five is pneumonia. This lung infection kills about two million children each year, mostly in developing countries. A boy with pneumonia at a camp for earthquake survivors in Pakistani Kashmir in December 2005In developed countries, most pneumonia cases are caused by viruses. But in the developing world, about sixty percent are caused by bacteria. These cases can be treated with antibiotic drugs. The World Health Organization currently says children with severe pneumonia should be admitted to a hospital and given injectable antibiotics. But many poor families do not have the money for a hospital or live too far away. Now, new research could lead to a change in that advice. A study in Pakistan found that children with severe pneumonia can recover fully at home taking antibiotics by mouth. The study is in the Lancet medical journal. The W.H.O. and the United States Agency for International Development paid for the study. It was done in five Pakistani cities by the School of Public Health at Boston University. The research involved more than two thousand children between three and five years old. Half received intravenous antibiotics during a forty-eight-hour hospital stay. The others were sent home to take antibiotics for five days. The treatment failed in eighty-seven children in the hospitalized group and seventy-seven in the home group. These children were then given another therapy. During the study, five children died, four of them in the hospital group. W.H.O. medical officer Shamim Qazi says the new findings will help children, families and hospitals. Children may get other infections in a hospital. Many hospitals are already overcrowded. And treatment at home would be less costly. The study confirmed the findings of three other studies in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. These showed that in hospitals, oral antibiotics were just as effective as injectable antibiotics in treating severe pneumonia in children. A few cases are so severe they will still need hospital care. But Doctor Qazi says the W.H.O will be updating its guidelines this year with the new evidence. Boston University professor Donald Thea led the research in Pakistan. Doctor Thea says a change could lead to new training for community health workers. If they learn how to treat severe pneumonia in young children locally, then more children are likely to survive. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: After the Revolution, the Nation Faces a Weak Political System
* Byline: We begin the story of the U.S. Constitution. It replaced the Articles of Confederation, which created a Congress but not much else. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson with Richard Rael. This week in our series, we begin the story of a document that defined a nation: the United States Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. But they had to win their independence in a long war that followed. During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The Union was a loose one. The Articles of Confederation did not organize a central government. They did not create courts or decide laws. They did not provide an executive to carry out the laws. All the Articles of Confederation did was to create a Congress. But it was a Congress with little power. It could only advise the separate thirteen states and ask them to do some things. It could not pass laws for the Union of states. The weakness of this system became clear soon after the war for independence ended. British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in seventeen eighty-one. A messenger brought the Congress news of the victory. The Congress had no money. It could not even pay the messenger. So money had to be collected from each member of the Congress. VOICE ONE: Even before the war ended, three men called for a change in the loose confederation of states. They urged formation of a strong central government. Those three men were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. George Washington commanded America's troops during the revolution. He opposed the Articles of Confederation because they provided little support for his army. His soldiers often had no clothes or shoes or food. They had no medicines or blankets or bullets. During the war, Washington wrote many angry letters about the military situation. In one letter, he said: "Our sick soldiers are naked. Our healthy soldiers are naked. Our soldiers who have been captured by the British are naked!" (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: General Washington's letters produced little action. The thirteen separate states refused to listen when he told them the war was a war of all the states. He learned they were more interested in themselves than in what his soldiers needed. After the war, there was much social, political, and economic disorder. General Washington saw once again that there was no hope for the United States under the Articles of Confederation. He wrote to a friend: "I do not believe we can exist as a nation unless there is a central government which will rule all the nation, just as a state government rules each state." VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton agreed. He was a young lawyer and an assistant to General Washington during the revolution. Even before the war ended, Hamilton called for a convention of the thirteen states to create a central government. He expressed his opinion in letters, speeches, and newspaper stories. Finally, there was James Madison. He saw the picture clearly. It was an unhappy picture. There were thirteen governments. And each tried to help itself at the cost of the others. Nine states had their own navy. Each had its own army. The states used these forces to protect themselves from each other. For example, the state of Virginia passed a law which said it could seize ships that did not pay taxes to the state. Virginia did not mean ships from England and Spain. It meant ships from Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. James Madison often said most of the new nation's political problems grew out of such commercial problems. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the seventeen eighties, many people in America and Europe believed the United States was on the road to anarchy. One sign was the money system. There was no national money. Many Americans thought of money as the pounds and shillings of the British system. There was an American dollar. But it did not have the same value everywhere. In New York, the dollar was worth eight shillings. In South Carolina, it was worth more than thirty-two shillings. This situation was bad enough. Yet there also were all kinds of other coins used as money: French crowns, Spanish doubloons, European ducats. VOICE ONE: In seventeen eighty-six, representatives from Maryland and Virginia met to discuss opening land for new settlements along the Potomac River. The Potomac formed the border between those two states. The representatives agreed that the issue of settling new land was too big for just two states to decide. "Why not invite Delaware and Pennsylvania to help?" someone asked. Someone else said all the states should be invited. Then they could discuss all the problems that were giving the new nation so much trouble. The idea was accepted. And a convention was set for Annapolis, Maryland. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The convention opened as planned. It was not much of a meeting. Representatives came from only five states. Four other states had chosen representatives, but they did not come. The remaining four states did not even choose representatives. The men who did meet at Annapolis, however, agreed it was a beginning. They agreed, too, that a larger convention should be called. They appointed the representative from New York, Alexander Hamilton, to put the agreement in writing. So Hamilton sent a message to the legislature of each state. He called for a convention in Philadelphia in May of the next year, seventeen eighty-seven. The purpose of the convention, he said, would be to write a constitution for the United States. VOICE ONE: Detail of a painting by Junius Brutus Stearns of George Washington in Virginia where he livedMany people believed the convention would not succeed without George Washington. But General Washington did not want to go. He suffered from rheumatism. His mother and sister were sick. He needed to take care of business at his farm, Mount Vernon. And he already said he was not interested in public office. How would it look if -- as expected -- he was elected president of the convention? George Washington was the most famous man in America. Suppose only a few states sent representatives to the convention? Suppose it failed? Would he look foolish? Two close friends -- James Madison and Edmund Randolph -- urged General Washington to go to Philadelphia. He trusted them. So he said he would go as one of the representatives of Virginia. From that moment, it was clear the convention would be an important event. If George Washington would be there, it had to be important. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first man to arrive in Philadelphia for the convention was James Madison. Madison was thirty-five years old. He was short and was losing his hair. He was not a good speaker. But he always knew what he wanted to say. He had read everything that had been published in English about governments, from the governments of ancient Greece to those of his own time. James Madison wrote this letter to George Washington on the night before the Philadelphia Convention. It describes measures that should be taken to rescue the nation from its difficulties.Madison believed the United States needed a strong central government. He believed the governments of the thirteen states should be second to the central government. Madison knew he should not push his ideas too quickly, however. Many representatives at the convention were afraid of a strong central government. They did not trust central governments with too much power. So Madison planned his work quietly. He came to the convention with hundreds of books and papers. He was prepared to answer any question about government that any other representative might ask him. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) Our program was narrated by Richard Rael and Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English, on radio or online. Internet users can download transcripts and MP3s of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. (MUSIC) This is program #16 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-16-voa4.cfm
* Headline: With College Endowments, How Much Is Too Much?
* Byline: Wealthy U.S. schools are being pushed to use more of their money to help students pay high tuition costs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. An endowment is money from donations and investments. Colleges use endowment money for student aid and campus improvements, and for financial security. But college costs in the United States have been rising faster than inflation. Graduates often face years of debt from student loans. Yet more than sixty colleges and universities, half of them public, have endowments worth at least one billion dollars. Critics say schools with a lot of money should be sharing more of their wealth to ease the struggle for families. As we reported last week, some now plan to do just that. These include Harvard and Yale. They will also give money to families that earn much more than those that now receive aid. Harvard has by far the largest endowment of any American university, thirty-five billion, followed by Yale at twenty-two and a half billion. Yet some educational activists worry what might happen as less-endowed colleges try to compete with these changes. They say the pressure to help upper middle-class families might mean less aid for poor students. Colleges and their endowments are excused from taxes. Other tax-exempt groups are required to spend at least five percent of their endowments each year. Some people, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, think it is reasonable to consider such a requirement for colleges. The senator praised Harvard and Yale for their plans and said he hopes others will follow. Senator Grassley is the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which deals with tax policy. Last September, at his urging, the committee questioned experts about this issue. One was Lynn Munson of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. She says universities pay out only about four percent of their endowments, yet their investments earn much more than that. A study found that endowments of more than one billion dollars earned an average return of fifteen percent in two thousand six. The average for all endowments was just under eleven percent. But some experts say most endowment money has to remain invested so schools are not hurt when markets fall. Also, universities point out that donors often restrict the uses for their donations. Still, Lynn Munson said forty-five percent of endowment money at private schools is unrestricted, and twenty percent at public colleges. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Meeting Some People Whose Names Went on to Become Household Items
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: epic eponyms. RS: An eponym, as dictionaries tell us, is a real or mythical person for whom something is or is believed to be named. For example, George Washington is the eponym of Washington, D.C. AA: But you won't find obvious examples like that in a new book called "The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordinary People." From his brother-in-law's recording studio in London, author Philip Dodd explained to us how he got the idea. PHILIP DODD: " I was watching a TV program a couple of summers ago here in the U.K. It's called 'University Challenge,' and there was a question along the lines of 'What tropical fish was named after a West Indian clergyman?' And nobody on the show knew -- and nor did I, come to that. And the answer came: it was the guppy. "I looked to my left and we had a tropical aquarium at home full of guppies. and my then three-year-old daughter and I loved the guppies, these kind of cute little frilly tailed fish. I just had one of those little eureka moments where you think, 'I never, ever knew that.' And I never knew they were named after a person. And it just got me thinking and I started checking out things, and discovering that the Frisbee was named after somebody, and the Jacuzzi, and I started checking out their stories." RS: "What kind of people did you find, or what new items in our lexicon did you find that were related to real people?" PHILIP DODD: "I mean, it was things like the saxophone is named after Adolphe Sax. He was a Belgian musical instrument maker in the nineteenth century. He invented a lot of instruments and he named pretty well all of them something-sax, and it just happens that the one that stuck around is the saxophone. "And then there'd be weird things like I just heard in passing the fact that the foxtrot dance was named after somebody called Harry Fox." AA: "You thought maybe it was named after the animal or something?" PHILIP DODD: "Could be -- you know, the funny thing, isn't it, when you use language every day, you don't stop and analyze every single word that comes out of your lips. And you gaily go around using these words like 'sandwich' and you don't sort of think, oh yeah, there was somebody called the Earl of Sandwich and that's where the name comes from." RS: "So, you really in this book are telling us stories, stories behind the words." PHILIP DODD: "Yes, stories about people, really, and how their name had been immortalized in the English language. Sometimes they didn't know about it. Joseph P. Frisbie, who the Frisbee is named after, he never knew that his name was going to be applied to this fantastic plastic flying disc." AA: "Why, then, did it end up being called a Frisbee?" PHILIP DODD: "He was a pie manufacturer in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a very successful pie manufacturer in the beginning of the last century. He made fruit pies, primarily, that were famous in the area, and they came in these metal pie tins. And the delivery guys and people who just had one of his apple pies found that when the pie tins were empty and you kind of flicked them, they had an inbuilt aerodynamic quality that meant they just glided. And locally this was known as Frisbie-ing. "Joseph P. Frisbie died in nineteen-forty. Cut to nineteen fifty-seven, when the Wham-O toy company of California, working with a couple of inventors, were just about to market this new plastic flying disc -- which at the time was called the Pluto Platter. And they did a market research trip up in New England and they heard this word being used. People would say, 'Oh, I remember, that's like the Frisbie.' And they thought that's a great name for the product. In fact, Joseph P. Frisbie's name ended i-e and they changed it to double-e, which kind of suits the product better. It reminds me of the word 'whee,' and that sense of flying." AA: "And tell us, where is Roy Jacuzzi?" PHILIP DODD: "Roy Jacuzzi is in California, but strangely he was in England last week; I had breakfast with him. His son now lives just outside London. And Roy is from a great Italian family who came over from just north of Venice, through Ellis Island, in the nineteen hundreds. And they were like a bunch of brothers and sisters -- seven brothers and six sisters or the other way around -- and they were inventive guys who were always looking for practical solutions." RS: And one of those solutions, it turned out, was the whirlpool bath. More about that story, and other eponyms, next week with Philip Dodd, author of "The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium." AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bob Dylan Is Everywhere and Nowhere in the Film 'I'm Not There'
* Byline: Also: A listener in Vietnam asks about civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from a new movie about musician Bob Dylan, and answer a listener's question about an American civil rights leader whose life and work we celebrate this time each year. Martin Luther King Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior and his family. Martin Luther King Jr.Each year, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King's life and work on the Monday closest to his birthday. That is January twenty-first this year. Schools and government offices are closed. Cities and towns hold special ceremonies to honor him. Martin Luther King Junior was born on January fifteenth, nineteen twenty-nine in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a minister of a Christian Baptist Church. At that time, laws in the American South separated black people and white people. African-Americans attended separate schools and lived in separate areas. They did not have the same civil rights as white people. Martin attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. He studied the ideas of India’s spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi. He also studied the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Both Gandhi and Thoreau urged people to disobey unjust laws without using violence. Martin Luther King wanted to spread these ideas about peaceful protest. He became a Baptist minister like his father. He married Coretta Scott in nineteen fifty-three. They had four children -- Yolanda, Martin Luther the third, Dexter and Bernice. The Kings were living in Montgomery, Alabama, in nineteen fifty-five. A black woman refused to leave a seat on a bus that was saved for white people. Rosa Parks was arrested. Reverend King organized a peaceful protest against the bus system. The United States Supreme Court later ruled it was illegal to separate the races on buses. Groups formed to protest racial separation. Martin Luther King became the leader of the struggle. He led many peaceful demonstrations across the country. Reverend King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four. He was shot and killed four years later while visiting Memphis, Tennessee. Coretta Scott King started the King Center in Atlanta in nineteen sixty-eight to continue his work. She died in two thousand six. You can learn more about the life and work of Martin Luther King Junior. Listen to the two-part Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA on January twentieth and twenty-seventh. "I'm Not There" HOST: "I'm Not There" is a new movie about musician Bob Dylan. Todd Haynes directed the movie. He uses six different actors and several different film styles to show the life, work and cultural importance of Bob Dylan. Pat Bodnar tells about the movie and plays some of its music. PAT BODNAR: Bob Dylan wrote all thirty-three songs on the album of music from "I'm Not There." All but one of the songs are performed by other musicians. Critics say Bob Dylan's songs are so rich and complex that they welcome new versions by other artists. Many of the songs are from Dylan's early career and are the most well-known. For example, this one, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" performed by Mason Jennings. (MUSIC) Cate BlanchettIn the movie "I'm Not There" six actors play versions of Bob Dylan at different times of his life. But none of them is called "Bob Dylan" in the movie. One of the actors is Cate Blanchett, an Australian woman. She portrays a rebellious musician during the nineteen sixties. She is the only character in the movie who looks and sounds like the real Bob Dylan. Marcus Carl Franklin plays an eleven-year-old African-American boy named "Woody Guthrie."? The real Woody Guthrie was a strong influence on Dylan when he began performing folk songs in the early nineteen sixties. Here Marcus Carl Franklin sings "When the Ship Comes In." (MUSIC) Another of Bob Dylan's famous early songs is "Highway Sixty-One Revisited." Karen O and the Million Dollar Bashers perform the song. (MUSIC) Critics say the best songs on "I'm Not There" are the ones where the artists seem to be having a great time being Bob Dylan. Here is an example, Cat Power singing "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again." (MUSIC) The movie "I'm Not There" shows changes in Bob Dylan's life and career. However, some of the versions of Dylan in the movie are not musicians. One character is a poet. One is a movie star. One is a religious preacher. And one is a citizen of a town in America's Old West long ago. The movie is sometimes confusing. But the music on the CD is always entertaining. This song is one of our favorites. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova sing "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere." (MUSIC) The real Bob Dylan performs the last song on the album. He recorded it with The Band in nineteen sixty-seven, but it had never before been released. We leave you with "I'm Not There." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: For High Definition TVs, Blu-ray Gets a Big Supporter
* Byline: Warner Brothers, Hollywood's top seller of DVDs, decides against a competing video technology. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Competition often means waiting for people to make a choice. That was the case with VCRs, video cassette recorders. During the nineteen eighties, people had two choices: VHS and Betamax. The VHS format won the competition. Betamax disappeared from all but professional use. More recently, the VHS, or video home system, format has been disappearing as people choose DVD players. High definition redefines the VHS-Betamax fightBut now the two newest kinds of DVD players are in competition. Blu-ray and HD DVD are both designed for use with high definition televisions. These produce bigger, sharper pictures. They work best when showing movies or TV programs made in true high definition. But high def takes up more memory, so a new kind of DVD, digital video or versatile disc, was needed. Blu-ray and HD DVD are similar in technology. Both use a blue laser to read the information on the disc. But HD DVDs cost less to produce. They can be made with existing equipment, while Blu-ray DVDs cannot. But a Blu-ray disc holds more memory: about fifty gigabytes compared to thirty gigabytes for an HD DVD. Two major Hollywood studios, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, have agreed to release movie only in HD DVD. The Toshiba company is the main supplier of the players. Sony, on the other hand, supports the Blu-ray format, as do the movie makers at Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and MGM. Then earlier this month, Hollywood's biggest seller of DVDs announced its choice in the fight between Blu-ray and HD DVD. Warner Brothers will support only Blu-ray starting in June. The company says having two kinds of high definition DVDs on the market has led to confusion with the buying public. So far, sales of the new high-definition disc players have been slow. An estimated one million players of both kinds have been sold. This week, Toshiba announced that it would cut the price of its HD DVD players by forty to fifty percent. Some of its players are now under two hundred dollars. But many people think Blu-ray has won the competition with HD DVD. Time will tell. For those who cannot make up their minds, there are some players that can play both. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. For more business news, and for transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Returns From Mideast, Turns Attention to a Weakening Economy
* Byline: The eight-day trip ended without a Saudi promise to help bring down high oil prices. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush returned this week from an eight-day trip to the Middle East. It was his most extensive travel there in his seven years as president, with one year left in office. President Bush and Saudi King Abdullah during an arrival ceremony at the international airport near RiyadhThe trip included stops in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It began with the first visit of his presidency to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Mister Bush urged greater progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace. Throughout the trip, he expressed concern about Iran's nuclear plans. He also called for more democratic reforms in the Middle East. After meeting with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, the president voiced concerns about the effects of high oil prices on the American economy. He called on OPEC to put more oil on the world market. But the Saudi oil minister said his country would increase production only if market conditions provide a reason. As the president visited Saudi Arabia, his administration officially informed Congress of a planned weapons sale to that country. The offer involves one hundred twenty million dollars worth of technology for nine hundred satellite-guided bombs. Some American lawmakers have questioned the sale but Congress appears unlikely to block it. The offer is part of a plan announced last year that could lead to twenty billion dollars in sales of weapons to Persian Gulf countries. The president did not visit Iraq, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit on Tuesday. She praised the Iraqi government for agreeing to permit members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to reclaim government jobs. This is one of several steps that the Bush administration has been urging the Iraqi government to take. The aim is to ease tensions between minority Sunnis and majority Shiite Muslims in Iraq. The top American military commander in Iraq recently reported a sixty percent drop in attacks in that country since June. General David Petraeus warned that economic improvement must follow, or the violence could get worse again. President Bush says the drop in violence should make it possible to withdraw twenty thousand troops by the middle of this year. But as some American troops return from Iraq, others are getting ready for Afghanistan. Mister Bush this week approved the deployment of more than three thousand Marines to Afghanistan. They will bring the number of American troops there to about thirty thousand. The added forces will join the NATO-led security operation in southern Afghanistan. They will also help train the Afghan army and police. Opposition to the war in Iraq influenced congressional elections in two thousand six. But in this presidential election year, studies show Americans growing more concerned about the economy than the war. On Friday, President Bush called on Congress to approve a one hundred forty-five billion dollar economic growth plan as soon as possible. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968: He Used Non-Violence and Civil Disobedience to Gain Equal Rights for Black Americans
* Byline: He led the protest movement in Montgomery, Alabama that marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: People in America - a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It all started on a bus. A black woman was returning home from work after a long hard day. She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt. But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama. And the year was nineteen fifty-five. In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus. So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat. But the woman refused, and she was arrested. Incidents like this had happened before. But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks. This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest. He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed. The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King. He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system. The protest became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement. VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He was born into a religious family. Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church. And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion. In nineteen twenty-nine, Atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States. Many black families came to the city in search of a better life. There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities. But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites. The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States. They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city. Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated. VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young. But as he grew older, he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally. One day Martin and his father went out to buy shoes. They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman. The businessman sold shoes to all people. But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store. He ordered Martin's father to obey the rule. Martin never forgot his father's angry answer: "If you do not sell shoes to black people at the front of the store, you will not sell shoes to us at all. " Such incidents, however, were rare during Martin's early life. Instead, he led the life of a normal boy. Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly. He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university. The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta. Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study. VOICE TWO: It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher. At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking. He soon was able to test his gifts. One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church. When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them. But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King. A church member once described him: "The boy seemed much older than his years. He understood life and its problems." VOICE ONE: Martin seemed wise to others because of his studies at the university. He carefully read the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and thinker. Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice. Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws. He taught his followers never to use violence. Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs. As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people. The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau -- non-violence and civil disobedience -- could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans. Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right. He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau. Years later he said: "My university studies gave me the basic truths I now believe. I discovered the idea of humanity's oneness and the dignity and value of all human character. " VOICE TWO: Martin continued his studies in religion for almost ten years. When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston. It was in Boston that Martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife. Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown. His brother once said that Martin "never had one girlfriend for more than a year". VOICE ONE: But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different. The first time he saw her Martin said: "You have everything I have ever wanted in a wife. " Coretta was surprised at his words. But she felt that Martin was serious and honest. A short time later, they were married. Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree in religion. The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery. Their first child was born. Martin's work at the church was going well. He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor. And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher. Coretta remembered their life as simple and without worries. Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a Montgomery city bus. And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system. Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed -- more important even than his own life. But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign. He was only twenty-six years old. He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers. VOICE ONE: Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement. But he was faced with a serious problem. He asked: "How can I make my people militant enough to win our goals, while keeping peace within the movement. " The answer came to him from the teachings of Gandhi and Thoreau. In his first speech as a leader, Martin said:? "We must seek to show we are right through peaceful, not violent means. Love must be the ideal guiding our actions. If we protest bravely, and yet with pride and Christian love, then future historians will say: "There lived a great people, a black people, who gave new hope to civilization. " With these words, a new movement was born. It was non-violent and peaceful. But victory was far from sure, and many difficult days of struggle lay ahead. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by William Rodgers. Listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Nicknames: America's 50 States (Third of Four Parts)
* Byline: The mid-Atlantic state of Maryland is called the Free State.? The western desert state of Nevada is called the Silver State.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about more interesting nicknames of American states. The mid-Atlantic state of Maryland is called the Free State. A Baltimore newspaper first called it that during the nineteen twenties when the manufacture and sale of alcohol were banned for a time. Maryland said it wanted to be free from this prohibition. Mississippi is The Magnolia State. It is named for a tree with big, beautiful white flowers that grows in that hot, southern state. ???? The midwestern state of Missouri is called The Show Me State. The people of that frontier state were once famous for not believing everything people told them. If you visit the western mountain and plains state of Montana you will know why it is known as Big Sky Country. Nebraska is the only state to have a nickname that honors sports teams!? The state university's athletic teams are nicknamed Cornhuskers in recognition of one of the area's chief crops. The state borrowed the Cornhusker nickname from the university. The western desert state of Nevada is called The Silver State. It was once home to many silver mines and towns that grew up around them. Today, most of them are empty “ghost towns.” New Hampshire, in the northeast area called New England, is The Granite State because of that colorful rock. New Jersey is between the big cities of New York, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It got its nickname, The Garden State, because New Jersey truck farms once provided vegetables to those big cities. New York, which always thinks big, was called The Empire State because of its natural wealth. The most famous Manhattan skyscraper got its name from the state. It is, of course, the Empire State Building. If you get a chance to see a red sunset over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, you will know why that southwestern state is called The Land of Enchantment. North and South Carolina were one colony until seventeen twenty-nine. South Carolina's nickname is the easier of the two: It is The Palmetto State because of a fan-leafed palm tree that grows there. North Carolina is the Tar Heel State. That is because many of the men who worked to gather substances from trees wore no shoes. They would make turpentine from tar and get the black, sticky tar on the heels of their feet. Next week, we will finish telling about the colorful nicknames of American states. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program was written by Ted Landphair. I'm Barbara Klein. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How to Build a Windbreak to Protect Soil
* Byline: Barriers of trees and other plants seem to work best when they let a little wind pass through. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the?VOA Special English Development Report. Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land against damage from farming and the forces of nature. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. There have been studies done on windbreaks. Studies in parts of West Africa, for example, found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks. This was compared to fields without such protection. Windbreaks can help protect a farmer's land. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants blocks the wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group EnterpriseWorks/VITA. Its address on the Web is enterpriseworks.org. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. Internet users can find transcripts and MP3s of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question, send it to special@voanews.com, and please include your name and country. We cannot answer questions personally but we might be able to answer your question on the air. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The American Library of Congress Has Chosen 25 More Films for Its National Film Registry Collection
* Byline: Join us as we learn about efforts to protect these and other recordings. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we tell about a list of American movies that recently received special recognition. For the past fifteen years, the Library of Congress has chosen twenty-five movies to be part of its collection called the National Film Registry. The aim of this project is to makes sure these movies are stored in a way that protects them. This way, future generations will be able to see these important examples of American popular culture. (SOUND) Dr. Otternschlag: “What do you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat, sleep, loaf around. Flirt a little, dance a little. A hundred doors leading to one hall. No one knows anything about the person next to them. When you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed. That’s the end.” VOICE ONE: That was a scene from the nineteen thirty-two movie “Grand Hotel” starring Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore. This famous movie tells about the interactions between a group of people staying at a costly hotel in Berlin, Germany. It is a story about love, murder and money. “Grand Hotel” is one of the movies that the Library of Congress picked this year for its registry. VOICE TWO: You might be wondering why movies need to be protected. It is because the film on which these movies are recorded becomes damaged over time. Older movies that were shown in theaters before nineteen fifty-one were recorded on nitrate-based film stock. This kind of film becomes sticky, then falls apart over time even in the best storage conditions. As the nitrate-based film falls apart, it also releases a gas that can lead to fires. VOICE ONE: The American Film Institute estimates that there are currently about thirty two million meters of nitrate film stored in the United States. The AFI says it would take about fifteen years to copy these movies onto safer acetate film stock. Modern acetate film stock will not catch on fire. And, experts say this kind of film can last for up to three hundred years if it is stored in good conditions. VOICE TWO: But even acetate stock has its problems. Some acetate film can develop what is known as the “vinegar syndrome.” As the film starts to fall apart, it releases a sharp smell like vinegar. Some experts believe that the vinegar syndrome can spread like an infection and damage "healthy" film in the same storage area. The fact that film is not a permanent storage device for movies helps show why efforts to protect movies are so important. The issue has also received attention from American lawmakers. VOICE ONE: Congress passed the National Film Preservation Act in nineteen eighty-eight. The law called for the creation of a group called the National Film Preservation Board. Since nineteen ninety-nine, this group, along with the public and the Library of Congress’ Motion Picture Division, nominates hundreds of movies every year for the National Film Registry. The Board and the Librarian of Congress make the final decisions on choosing twenty-five movies each year. VOICE TWO: They choose movies that they consider either culturally or historically important. They also choose movies that are artistically interesting. The movies must be at least ten years old. But, they do not have to have been released in movie theaters to be considered for the registry. The selection made last month brings the total number of movies in the collection to four hundred seventy-five. Once a movie is chosen for the registry, the Library of Congress works to make sure the film is safely stored. The Library has its own preservation program. It also works with other organizations as well as movie production studios to protect these movies. VOICE ONE: In July of last year, the Library of Congress opened the Packard Campus of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Packard Humanities Institute paid for the Center with money from its chairman, David Woodley Packard. The National Audio-Visual Conservation Center is in Culpeper, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. The building was made in nineteen sixty-nine by the United States Federal Reserve to be an emergency shelter for supplies. In nineteen ninety-nine, Mister Packard bought the property. He spent one hundred fifty million dollars to turn this large building into a film preservation center. Then he gave the Center to the United States. It represents the largest gift the legislative branch of the American government has ever received. VOICE TWO: The Center’s aim is to house and protect American recording and movie history. So far, the collection includes over six million sound and movie recordings. The Center has some of the most advanced technology in the world for storing these recordings. For example, there is a robot that can work twenty-four hours a day to turn videocassette recordings into digital form. VOICE ONE: With all old recordings turned into digital form, researchers at the Library of Congress will be able to see these valuable pieces of history. The Center also has over one hundred cold storage areas in which to keep its collection of nitrate films as safe as possible. And, the Center plans to offer educational programs to the public. These will include a series of free movie showings in the Center’s theater. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And now, "Let’s go to the movies" as we tell about some of the films chosen. This year’s National Film Registry includes movies from different periods about very different subjects. One movie, “The Strong Man,” was made as early as nineteen twenty-six. The most recent movie is “Dances With Wolves”, made in nineteen ninety. Some movies are about animals, like Walt Disney’s nineteen thirty-three cartoon, “Three Little Pigs.”? While the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” explores the existence of creatures from space arriving on Earth. Some movies are funny, while others, like “The Naked City” are very serious. (SOUND) “Well, let’s begin our story this way. It’s one o’clock in the morning on a hot summer night. And, this is the face of New York when it’s asleep. Or, as nearly asleep as any city ever is.” VOICE ONE: “The Naked City” is a crime movie made in nineteen forty-eight. It tells about a group of policemen investigating a murder in New York City. The movie was based on the real stories told by New York policemen and was filmed in that city. When the movie first was released, the very realistic method of film-making was new and interesting. VOICE TWO: The movie called “The Women” came out in nineteen thirty-nine. This sharply funny movie is based on a Broadway play written by Clare Booth Luce. Some of the most important actresses in Hollywood came together to make this movie. The main character, Mary, is played by Norma Shearer. Mary must face some serious questions when she discovers her husband is having a love affair with another woman, Crystal, played by Joan Crawford. Here is a scene where the two women meet accidentally: (SOUND) Crystal :? Listen,? I’m taking my marching orders from Stephen. He seems to be satisfied with this arrangement, so don’t force any issues unless you want to cause plenty of trouble. Mary: You’ve made it impossible for me to do anything else. Crystal: You’re very confident, aren’t you. Mary: Yes, because I know Stephen couldn’t love a girl like you. Crystal: Well, if he couldn’t, he is an awfully good actor. Look, what have you got to kick about? You’ve got everything that matters. You’ve got the name, the position, the money. Mary: My husband’s love happens to mean more to me than those things. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? One well-known movie on the list is “Back to the Future”, which came out in nineteen eighty-five. Michael J. Fox plays the role of Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back to the year nineteen fifty-five in a time machine. He meets his mother and father when they were still high school students. Marty must learn how to get back to his own time period. And, he has to make sure his parents meet and fall in love so that he can still exist in the future. VOICE TWO: Another favorite on the list is the nineteen fifty-five movie version of the Broadway musical play “Oklahoma!” It is a love story about a cowboy named Curly and the girl he loves, Laurey. We close with a famous song from this movie, “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin.'"? Listening to this song, you can feel happy that this and many other American movie treasures will be protected for future generations to enjoy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO:?? And I’m Steve Ember. ?Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American Doctors Admit Giving Placebos to Patients
* Byline: A study finds many doctors believe non-active substances like placebos can have helpful effects on some patients. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: Placebos look?the same as?real medicinesAnd I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we will tell about a study of medications that do not contain any real drugs. We will tell about a reported link between the September eleventh terrorist attacks and heart problems in some Americans. And, we explain how happiness may be good for your health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Can thinking that you are receiving medication improve your health?? A new study shows doctors in the United States ordered placebo treatments more commonly than patients were told. Placebos look like medicines, but contain no real drugs. They also have no proven effect on health. The study found that many of the doctors believed in what is called the mind-body connection. In other words, your body will react to the way you act, think and feel. Results of the study were published this month in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. VOICE TWO: Sometimes just the expectation of getting better can help in reducing pain or improving health. This widely known theory is called the placebo effect. It suggests a healing power in medicines that are not real. Commonly used placebos include vitamins or small amounts of medicine. Placebos are often used in medical research to compare the effects of real drugs on patients with those taking placebos. Often, the patients taking placebos show some improvement. But how often do patients not involved in medical studies receive placebos from their doctor? VOICE ONE: Researchers at the University of Chicago asked more than four hundred doctors if they have ever given a placebo to a patient. All those asked work in the Chicago, Illinois area. Almost half of the two hundred thirty-one doctors who answered said they had used placebos with patients at some time. Of those who had ordered placebos for patients, more than half had done so within the past year. The doctors gave several reasons for their use of placebos. Some said they used them to help calm a patient, or in answer to demands for medicine that the doctor felt was not needed. Others said they had ordered placebos for their patients after all other treatments had failed. Ninety-six percent of the doctors who answered said they believed that placebos could have helpful effects. But twelve percent said they believe the use of placebos should be banned in traditional medical care. Many feel giving a patient a placebo is like lying to them. VOICE TWO: It is a commonly accepted ethical belief that patients have a right to know and understand the medical treatment they are receiving. Among the doctors who used placebos, one in five said they lied to patients and told them a placebo was medication. More often, doctors used creative ways to explain the treatment being used. About one third of doctors who used placebos described them to patients as something that may help, but would not harm them. Four percent of the doctors said they inform their patients when they are receiving placebos. The American Medical Association says a doctor should only use a placebo if the patient is told, and agrees to it. Medical student Rachel Sherman helped to organize the study. She says a simple method is to ask all new patients for their permission to use placebos. Then they do not know which medications are placebos and which are not. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. With?Faith Lapidus?I'm?Bob Doughty?in Washington. (MUSIC) World Trade Center September 11, 2001A new study has linked heart problems in some Americans to how they felt after the terrorist attacks against the United States in two thousand one. Researchers say the study shows the physical effects of mental and emotional tension -- a condition known as stress. Americans who said they became worried and experienced stress after the attacks had higher rates of heart disease. Results of the study were published this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry. VOICE TWO: On September eleventh, two thousand one, Islamic terrorists hijacked four American passenger airplanes. The hijackers flew two of the planes into New York City's World Trade Center. A third hit the headquarters of the American Defense Department, near Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed in a field in the state of Pennsylvania. In all, about three thousand people from ninety countries were killed in the September eleventh attacks. VOICE ONE: The new study involved almost two thousand adult Americans from across the country. Most of them had answered questions about their health on the Internet before the attacks. They answered more questions online from nine to fourteen days after the attacks. They answered additional questions for the study every year until late two thousand four. Many of those questioned had seen television reports about the terrorist attacks. But they had no direct connection to what happened. The study found that about twenty-two percent of the people said they had a heart problem before September eleventh. Three years after the attacks, about thirty-one percent reported having heart problems. Researchers said those who suffered stress because of the attacks had a fifty-three percent increased risk of heart disease. VOICE TWO: The lead researcher was Alison Holman of the University of California at Irvine. She says people who reported high levels of stress were more than two times as likely to have high blood pressure one year after the attacks. Miz Holman said they also were more than three times as likely to have heart problems two years after the attacks. The results did not change, even when her team considered other things that can cause heart problems, like cigarette smoking and being overweight. Other researchers questioned the findings. Some noted that people are more likely to develop heart problems as they grow older. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A British study has confirmed that happiness can be good for your health. The study found that women who reported feeling happy were also in better health than men and other women. The happy women had lower levels of two proteins linked to health problems like heart disease and cancer. The results were published this month in the American Journal of Epidemiology. VOICE TWO: The study involved almost three thousand British adults. Research scientists from University College London collected saliva from the mouths of the men and women six times on a single day. The people recorded how they felt at the time the saliva was removed. They noted if they felt happy, excited or peaceful. On another day, the researchers tested the adult volunteers for proteins called C-reactive protein and interleukin six. Other studies have linked the two proteins to heart disease and cancer. VOICE ONE: The researchers tested all the fluids for levels of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is known as a "stress" hormone. It is produced when we are worried, tense or afraid. Cortisol provides energy during periods of physical, mental or emotional pressure. However, scientists have become concerned about the hormone's long-term effects on our health. Evidence shows that when cortisol is in the body for extended periods it weakens bones and damages nerve cells in the brain. It also can weaken the body's natural defenses against disease. High cortisol levels have also been linked to high blood pressure and weight gain in the stomach or abdomen. VOICE TWO: The British study found that men and women who reported feeling happy had lower than average cortisol levels. The study also found a link among women between happiness and low levels of the proteins. But the study failed to find such a link in men. The reason for the difference is not clear. Andrew Steptoe of University College London led the researchers. He said the study is the first to demonstrate the importance of C-reactive protein and interleukin six. He also said the findings add to evidence that happiness and other good feelings are connected with biological reactions that protect our health. ??? ??????? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake and George Grow. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Sees Wild Salmon at Risk From Fish Farms
* Byline: Experts are debating Canadian findings of a threat from parasites common in salmon farms. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A study from Canada says fish farms are a threat to some populations of wild salmon. It says the danger is from sea lice, which are small organisms that feed on fish. The researchers say these parasites commonly infect salmon raised in farms, but also attack young wild pink salmon that swim nearby. Their research suggests that if these outbreaks continue, then local populations of wild pink salmon will all but disappear. Experts are debating the study, published in Science magazine. The Canadian government and some American experts say no direct link has been found between sea lice and salmon deaths. Martin Krkosek of the University of Alberta in Edmonton led the study team. The researchers relate the growth of fish farming off British Columbia to losses in young wild salmon. The number of fish farms in the area has increased sharply. The researchers say lice commonly kill more than eighty percent of pink salmon in the areas they studied. The fish in these coastal areas swim past many fish farms before entering the open ocean. The researchers say they used information from the Canadian government from nineteen seventy to the present. They studied fourteen populations of young wild pink salmon that came in contact with salmon farms. They compared these populations with one hundred twenty-eight populations that did not have such contact. The scientists say the populations were dying out in the areas near salmon farms, but other populations stayed healthy. They note that earlier research on this issue had similar results. Sea lice travel from inland rivers to the ocean. The lice eat the muscle and skin of young fish. Adult fish do not seem affected. Older, bigger fish have thicker skins. An official of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, said facts do not support the new study. He said many conditions affect salmon. One is the salt content of the water. Another is the presence of predators that attack the fish. Still another is the amount of fishing that takes place in the area. Demand for fresh salmon is growing. Now, almost seventy-five percent of the salmon that Americans eat comes from fish farms. And Congress is considering legislation that could permit many more fish farms. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about agriculture, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sounds of the Solar System Are Music to the Ears (of Space Scientists)
* Byline: The European Space Agency's Venus Express spacecraft provides new information about Venus' severe atmospheric conditions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we hear some unusual sounds from space. Scientists created them by taking radio wave observations and turning them into sound waves that we can hear. But first we tell about the Venus Express spacecraft of the European Space Agency. The spacecraft has made the most detailed maps yet of the atmosphere of the second planet from the sun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Venus is a rocky world that is about the same size as Earth. But its climate is anything but Earth-like. It is a cloud-covered world where temperatures reach over four hundred degrees Celsius. The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that the pressure at the surface is about one hundred times that of Earth. The European Space Agency's Venus Express space vehicle is exploring the planet's atmosphere in more detail than ever before. The vehicle itself is small. Venus Express is less than two meters wide and less than two meters long. However, it carries seven scientific devices including ones that measure radio waves, magnetism and infrared radiation. The goal is to better understand the complex atmosphere of Venus. Space scientists say this is important for understanding more about the planet. Venus Express will help scientists find out why a planet so much like Earth in size and material could have such a different atmosphere. VOICE TWO: Some of the differences cannot be seen but are very important. For example, unlike Earth, Venus does not have a strong magnetic field. ?On Earth, the magnetic field protects the atmosphere from the powerful force of the solar wind, a flow of particles that moves out from the sun. Instead, a magnetic charge builds up around Venus. But this magnetic field does not protect Venus completely from the force of the solar wind. In fact, it causes the planet to slowly lose some of its atmosphere. Venus Express has also suggested to scientists why Venus is so dry. The planet loses mainly hydrogen and oxygen ions. An ion is an atom that has lost or gained an electron. That means Venus is slowly losing the elements that make up water by the action of the solar wind. Venus may have had more water and been more like Earth long ago. VOICE ONE: There are other important differences between Earth and Venus. The Earth has seasons but Venus does not. Also, one day on Venus is two hundred forty-three Earth days. Venus's atmosphere is massive and made up mostly of carbon dioxide. It also has clouds of sulfuric acid. The winds in the atmosphere of Venus are severe. They can move at one hundred meters a second. Yet even these powerful winds high above Venus probably do not extend all the way down to the surface. Powerful winds, especially at the south pole of Venus, cannot move the heavy atmosphere near the surface. VOICE TWO: David Grinspoon is a Venus Express scientist from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Colorado. He says Venus suffered a climate disaster. But we do not know how, why or when. However, Mister Grinspoon says we do know what happened. Venus lost much of its water. Today, Venus is a very dry planet, unlike Earth, which has a large amount of water in its polar areas. For example, if you took all the water in the atmosphere of Venus and placed it on the surface of the planet it would cover the planet with only three centimeters of water. Venus Express has added a lot to what scientists know about our sister planet. It has created a map of temperatures on Venus. It has also discovered that there are electrical storms on the planet. And it has suggested to scientists the process that robs Venus of some of its atmosphere. Venus Express has enough fuel to last until two thousand thirteen. In two thousand ten, it will be joined by a Japanese spacecraft, the Venus Climate Orbiter. Information from the new spacecraft will permit scientists to confirm the findings of Venus Express. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: There is nothing wrong with your listening device. These sounds were created from information gathered by Voyager One. The spacecraft passed Jupiter in nineteen seventy-nine. Its plasma wave instrument recorded the information used to create the sounds. The information, or data, was collected as the spacecraft came close to an area near Jupiter called the bow shock. That is where particles flowing away from the sun move past Jupiter at extremely high speeds. The sharp sounds you heard at the beginning are waves created by electrons coming from the bow shock and moving into the solar wind. These sounds die out except for a slight low sound from one of the science instruments on the spacecraft. There is also the sound of one of Voyager's engines. Then things become quiet. Suddenly the spacecraft enters the bow shock and is surrounded by the noise of this planetary "sonic boom."? VOICE TWO: Another spacecraft, Cassini, entered orbit around Saturn in two thousand four. Before that the spacecraft traveled through Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was struck by about one hundred thousand particles of dust in less than five minutes. Its large round antenna protected the spacecraft. The event was measured by Cassini's radio and plasma wave instrument. Here is what it sounds like: (SOUND) VOICE ONE: The next sound you will hear is the sound of Saturn turning. These were the first sounds of Saturn recorded by Cassini. Scientists wanted to know: How long is a day on Saturn? Cassini gathered information showing that Saturn's day is ten hours, forty-five minutes and forty-five seconds long. But that is about six minutes longer than information recorded by the spacecrafts Voyager One and Voyager two in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty-one. The difference remains a mystery. Scientists continue to study Saturn to find out how the planet's turning motion creates radio emissions. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Saturn is one of the few places in the solar system that is known to have lightning. The Cassini spacecraft captured radio emissions they believed came from a large electrical storm on Saturn. It took place on January twenty-third and twenty-fourth, two thousand six. The radio emissions were turned into this sound recording. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: This next recording was put together in a laboratory. It was taken from sounds collected by a recording device on the European Space Agency's Huygens probe. The probe came down to the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in January, two thousand five. Several sounds recorded at different times are combined. They give a realistic recording of what a traveler on the Huygens probe would have heard during the ride down through Titan's atmosphere. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: We leave you with some unusual and mysterious sounds captured by the Cassini spacecraft. They were made by Saturn's intense radio emissions. The radio waves recorded by the spacecraft's radio and plasma instrument were turned into a sound recording. These sounds are closely related to auroras near Saturn's north and south poles. Auroras are areas of charged particles that give off light near the poles of some planets. On Earth they are known as the northern and southern lights. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can find more space and technology news on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hunger Blamed for a Third of Deaths in Children Under 5
* Byline: New studies call for more money for nutritional services and improvements in health systems for mothers and children. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. New research says thirty-five percent of all child deaths worldwide are caused by undernutrition -- hunger. The Lancet, the British medical magazine, just published a series of five studies. The answer, they suggest, is greater investment in nutritional services and improvements to health systems. A 2-year-old severely undernourished boy in Maharashtra state, India, during a drought in 2001The research involved poor to middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Robert Black from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland was the lead author of the series. He says more than three and one-half million mothers and children under five die in poor countries each year because of undernutrition. He says more than two million children die from underdevelopment, either before or after birth, or from severe wasting. Millions of others who survive face a lifetime of disabilities or early death. And the effects are not just physical. Poor brain development from poor nutrition can limit economic success as children become adults. Then the cycle of poverty and undernutrition often repeats for their children. Doctor Black says undernourished children are also more likely to have conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease as adults. He says the studies show that nutrition programs need to place greater importance on the first two years of life. Undernourished children can suffer permanent damage by age two. The researchers say mothers should be urged to breastfeed and taught how to breastfeed correctly. Also, diets should include foods rich in vitamin A and the mineral zinc. The researchers say early interventions like these could reduce child deaths by twenty-five percent. Undernutrition is one form of malnutrition, but malnutrition can also mean eating too much. The Lancet series on maternal and child nutrition has faced some criticism. The international group Doctors Without Borders praised the series for calling for greater attention to the issue. But the medical aid group says the researchers underestimate the number of child deaths from malnutrition. And it criticized them for not strongly supporting new efforts to replace hospital care with community- and home-based care. This involves giving children nutritionally dense products called ready-to-use food. The researchers say there are findings that support this treatment but more studies are needed to compare it to hospital care. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: The Founding Fathers Meet in Philadelphia to Write a Constitution
* Byline: From the moment the convention began, James Madison kept careful records of everything everyone said. His notes were not published until 30 years later. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. Today, Tony Riggs and I continue the story of the United States Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to amend the Articles of Confederation which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document created America's system of government and recognized the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. VOICE TWO: James Madison of Virginia was the first delegate to arrive for the convention in Philadelphia. Madison asked the other delegates from Virginia also to arrive early. He wanted to enter the convention with a plan for a strong central government. He was sure no other state would do this. Two Virginia delegates -- George Wythe and John Blair -- came early, as requested. Together, the three men worked on Madison's plan. VOICE ONE: The convention was to start on May fourteenth. George Washington arrived the day before. He was welcomed outside Philadelphia by a military guard and the firing of cannons. Washington was the most famous man in America. He led the forces that won the war for independence from Britain. The first thing Washington did in Philadelphia was to visit Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was an important political leader in America. He also was chief of Pennsylvania's delegation to the convention. Franklin was then eighty-one years old. Age had weakened him. But his mind remained strong. Every important person who came to Philadelphia -- even the great General Washington – visited Benjamin Franklin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A 1777 map of Philadelphia; at the bottom is Independence HallOn the first day of the convention, the delegates from Virginia went to the State House where the meeting would be held. They gathered in the room where America's Declaration of Independence was signed in seventeen seventy-six. The only other delegates there were from Pennsylvania. One was Robert Morris. He raised much of the money to fight the American Revolution. Another was Gouverneur Morris. The two men were not related. Another Pennsylvania delegate was James Wilson. He signed the Declaration of Independence and was a member of America's early Continental Congress. Like James Madison, James Wilson wanted a strong central government for the United States. VOICE ONE: The men from Pennsylvania and Virginia spent that first day talking. They agreed to meet again the next morning. Nobody seemed worried that there were no delegates from the other eleven states. After all, it took two weeks to ride a horse to Philadelphia from New Hampshire in the northeast. And it took as many as three weeks to get to Philadelphia from Georgia in the south. For a while, it seemed the other delegates would never arrive. But then they started coming one or two at a time. The delegates agreed to start the convention as soon as seven states were represented. VOICE TWO: New York sent three men. That was a surprise. Many people believed New York would refuse to send anyone at all. The governor of New York did not support the idea of a strong central government. But one of the New York delegates did. He was Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton served as an assistant to General George Washington during the revolution. He firmly believed the United States needed a strong central government. In fact, some people said he wanted the country ruled by a king. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Day by day, more delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the convention. They included Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. John Lansing and Robert Yates of New York. Luther Martin and James McHenry of Maryland. Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. William Few and William Pierce of Georgia. David Brearly and Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire. Gunning Bedford and George Read of Delaware. Alexander Martin and William Blount of North Carolina. Fifty-five men in all from twelve states. Pennsylvania sent the most delegates -- eight. Rhode Island sent none. A few of the delegates were very old. But many were in their twenties or thirties. The average age of the delegates was just forty-three years. VOICE TWO: This respected group was missing two important persons – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. At the time, Adams was serving as America's representative to Britain. Jefferson was serving as the representative to France. Both men expected to continue their service to the new nation. So both were extremely interested in the convention in Philadelphia. They exchanged letters with friends to learn what was happening. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The convention did not have seven states represented until May twenty-fifth. On that day, it finally began its work. The delegates' first task was to name a clerk to write the reports of the meetings. They chose Major William Jackson. Major Jackson had asked George Washington to support him for the job. General Washington did so. But Major Jackson was not a good clerk. He wrote down few details of the convention. Luckily, however, James Madison did. From the moment the convention began, Madison kept careful records of everything everyone said. He never stopped writing. Other delegates took notes, including Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King. But their reports were short and not complete. Madison's notes from the constitutional convention. Here he describes the first day's events on May 25, 1787, when George Washington was elected chairman of the convention. If it were not for James Madison, we would know little of what happened at that historic meeting in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven. VOICE TWO: Later, Madison explained how he did it. "I sat in front of the president of the convention. All the other delegates were on my right and on my left. I could hear everything the president said. I could hear all the words of every delegate. I made notes only I could understand. Then, at night in my room, I wrote out completely all the speeches and acts. I attended the convention every day. I was there as long as the delegates were meeting and talking." In his reports, Madison called himself "Mister M." He wrote down everything that was said, even the unfriendly things said by others about "Mister M." James Madison's full records of the convention were not published until thirty years later. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first important decision by the delegates was choosing a president for the convention. Several urged the others to name George Washington. The delegates agreed. Washington was their choice. George Washington then officially opened the convention with a short speech. He thanked the delegates for naming him president. But he said the honor was too great. He asked the delegates to forgive him if he made mistakes. After all, he said, he had never been chairman of a meeting before. With those words, George Washington sat down. And for the next four months, he spoke only when necessary. VOICE TWO: The first day of the convention ended well. The delegates agreed to name a small committee to write rules for the meetings. They quickly appointed three men: George Wythe of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. So far, the business of the convention was easy. The work was done in a friendly way. It was not long, however, before a serious dispute developed. The dispute was between the large states and the small states. How would they share power in a government of United States? Should states with bigger populations have more power than states with smaller populations? The dispute would sharply divide the delegates for the next four months. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson with Tony Riggs. Transcripts and MP3 files of our series are online at voaspecialenglish.com. __ This is program #17 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Series on Learning Disabilities
* Byline: In the coming weeks, we will explore some disorders that interfere with learning, and talk about ways to deal with them. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we begin a series of reports about learning disabilities. Experts say the problem is not with intelligence or the willingness to work hard. The problem, they say, is that some people's brains process information differently. By definition, people with learning disabilities are average or above average in their intelligence. But their disorders may affect their ability to gain knowledge and, as a result, limit their success in school or jobs. Different people can have different kinds of learning disabilities. One person may have difficulty with language development. Another may have problems with reading or writing. Still another may have trouble working with numbers. People can have more than one disorder, but reading is the most common area of difficulty. Learning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect the brain's ability to store, process and communicate information. The National Center for Learning Disabilities estimates that fifteen million Americans, or five percent, are affected. The group says three million students in the United States receive some kind of special help in school because of learning disabilities. There are different names for different disorders. For example, a person who has difficulty reading may have dyslexia. Someone who has trouble with mathematics may have dyscalculia. Learning disabilities may help explain why some students do not perform as well in school as intelligence tests suggest they should. People with a learning disability may have trouble following directions. Or they may not know how to start a task. Children who have problems connecting letters with sounds or understanding what they read may be showing signs of learning disabilities. But since these are a group of disorders, there is no one single sign to look for. Experts say learning disabilities cannot be cured. But people can learn ways to deal with their disorders. Teachers and parents can provide support that will help students learn successfully. In the next few weeks, we will discuss different learning disabilities as well as other disorders that interfere with learning. We will provide advice from experts about ways to deal with them. And we will examine some of the political issues raised by special education programs. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports will be available online at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: An Earl and a Whirl: How Sandwiches and Jacuzzi Baths Got Their Names
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more from our interview with Philip Dodd, author of the new book "The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordinary People." RS: We left off last week at the story of how the Jacuzzi name became synonymous with whirlpool baths. PHILIP DODD: "Roy is from a great Italian family who came over from just north of Venice, through Ellis Island, in the nineteen hundreds. And they ended up in the fruit farms of California and got into making pumps to help the farmers. They even developed one of the very first passenger planes, amazingly. "Roy was a third-generation Jacuzzi and he came out of college in the mid-sixties in California, and his grandfather and great-uncles had developed this machine that really swirled water around your domestic bath to help ease the pains of arthritis or just a sore body. But effectively it was just like putting an outboard motor in a domestic bath. "Roy, who had done a degree in design and engineering, thinks, 'Hold on, we can do something a lot more fun with this.' And what he particularly came up with was, if you look at the side of Jacuzzis, they have those swivel nozzles. He designed that and he worked out the way to push water through so powerfully that it created this fantastic bubble effect. And he was inspired by his Italian heritage. He had those classic Roman baths in mind." RS: "You've got fifteen stories here. Is there a favorite among them?" PHILIP DODD: "I'm very fond of the Earl of Sandwich because when I started writing about the sandwich and knowing that it was named after this Earl of Sandwich, a British aristocrat, I had this idea that I'd be doing a story about foppish English aristocrats. "What I discovered was, the current earl, the eleventh earl, and his son have set up a business with, very appropriately, Robert Earl, who was one of the brains behind Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe. And they have a series of fast-food sandwich restaurants. The first one was opened in Walt Disney World in Orlando [Florida] and they're rolling it out through the States." AA: "And were there any words that you just 'knew' were named after someone but in fact were not?" PHILIP DODD: "I haven't come across any where I thought it was completely spurious apart from -- and this is one of the dangers of Google and the Internet, there was a Web site I came across which dealt with culinary words. And they had an entry for a country squire from England called Sir Oswald Binge, and it said he was famous for his week-long feasts and the excess, and that's where the word 'binge' came from. "I went and had a look for that and I just couldn't find any other references. And I went back to the Web site and my suspicions were kind of aroused when I came across an entry for a guy called 'Jorge-Luis Avocado.' And it said Jorge-Luis was an Argentinean explorer and botanist, and it had a quote from his mother saying she'd much preferred him to discover something a little tastier, like baked Alaska." RS: Philip Dodd is the author of "The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium: From Joseph P. Frisbie to Roy Jacuzzi, How Everyday Items Were Named for Extraordinary People." AA: We talked last week about Joseph Frisbie and his Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. College students made a game out of sailing the pie tins through the air. In the 1950's, the California toy company Wham-O renamed a plastic flying saucer the Frisbee. Wham-O employee Ed Headrick later improved the design, and the Frisbee became a big hit. RS: Well, after our segment aired, we learned of the death of Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr. It seems he gave two conflicting explanations for the name Frisbee. One was the pie tin game, called Frisbie-ing. But more recently he said it was named after a comic strip character named Mr. Frisbie. AA: We e-mailed Philip Dodd in London for comment, and this was his reply: "I think it was probably a little bit of mischief-making from Rich Knerr ... The Wham-O guys often did like to amuse and bemuse ... Plus I couldn't find any proof of a Mr. Frisbie comic strip, and after visiting Bridgeport Public Library's Frisbie archive, the Wham-O offices and Ed Headrick's widow, the weight of evidence definitely supported - in my view ... the Joseph P. Frisbie version." RS: Philip Dodd adds that he may mention this issue about the origin of the name in the next edition of his book. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. The first part of our interview is online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hip-Hop, Jazz Meet in the Music of Chrisette Michele
* Byline: Also: A question from China about gun control laws in the United States. And learn about the VOA Pronunciation Guide. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Chrisette Michele … Answer a listener's question about gun control in the United States … And report about a popular service of the Voice of America. VOA Pronunciation Guide Every day, someone somewhere in the world uses the Internet Web site of the Voice of America Pronunciation Guide. And now, any computer sound system can be used to hear its correct pronunciations. Mario Ritter tells us more. MARIO RITTER: The Pronunciation Guide began as a tool for VOA announcers to show them how to pronounce names in the news. The guide lists more than six thousand names, including political leaders, scientists and other people in the news. There are also names of places and organizations. The Web site shows the correct way to say the name and plays a recording. Let us say you need to know how to pronounce the name of Iran's President. On the Web site, you will see the name and hear: (SOUND) Jim Tedder is the VOA announcer who developed this online pronunciation tool. Yes, the same Jim Tedder who reads Special English news. Jim says he updates the list several times a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year. When a new name appears in the news, Jim works quickly to find the correct pronunciation so he can add the name to the list. He gets a lot of help from people who work in this building. VOA broadcasts in forty-six languages. So he could call someone in the Chinese branch to ask how to pronounce a Chinese name. Sometimes, no one at VOA can help him. So Jim calls the person directly, if possible. Or he calls an embassy here in Washington, or a delegation at the United Nations in New York City. The pronunciation guide is an important tool for VOA broadcasters. But it has also become extremely popular with other radio and television stations around the world. Students and teachers also use the guide. So do business people and anyone who wants to make sure they can pronounce a person's name correctly. So how can you find the VOA Pronunciation Guide?? One way is to go to the Special English Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Click on "Other Resources" at the bottom of the left side column. Then choose "Pronunciation Guide" from the list. Gun Control HOST: Our listener question today comes from China. Sean wants to know about gun control laws in the United States. Many Americans feel very strongly about the subject of gun control. Some people believe that a person has the right to own a gun. Others believe the government must control the sale and use of guns to reduce gun violence and protect public safety. The fact that gun laws are different in every state makes the issue even more complex. Some estimates say about thirty percent of the American population own guns. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is often at the center of gun control debates. It says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The National Rifle Association uses this amendment to support the argument that individuals have the right to own guns. However, people who support gun control laws say this amendment has been misunderstood. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is named for former White House press secretary Jim Brady. He was disabled by the same gunman who wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981.The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence works to improve laws controlling guns in an effort to protect public safety. It says eighty people die each day in this country because of guns. And it says the United States leads the world in the number of deaths each year due to gun violence. It often takes a tragedy to increase efforts to reform gun laws in the United States. For example, in the nineteen sixties President John F. Kennedy, his brother Senator Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior were killed by gunfire. The Gun Control Act of nineteen sixty-eight made it illegal for criminals to buy guns. But it was not until the Brady Act of nineteen ninety-three that a person’s criminal record had to be examined before the person could buy a gun. Last year, a troubled college student at Virginia Tech bought two guns and shot and killed thirty-two teachers and students. The twenty-three year old killer had a history of mental illness that should have prevented him from buying a gun. Earlier this month, President Bush signed a law to improve? background checks so that they include more criminal and mental health records. It is meant to prevent people with a history of dangerous mental illness from buying guns.The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case on guns and the meaning of the Second Amendment. It is expected to announce its decision in June. Chrisette Michele Singer-songwriter Chrisette Michele's voice has set her apart from other singers her age. Some music critics say the twenty-three year old sounds like the great jazz singer Billie Holiday. Chrisette combines that sound with her love for hip-hop music. Barbara Klein plays some of her music. BARBARA KLEIN: Chrisette Michele first became popular in two thousand six for the songs she wrote and performed with major hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z and Nas. Although Chrisette has always valued the religious music she sings in church, she also describes herself as a child of the hip-hop culture. The many musical influences can be heard on her album "I Am."? Here she sings “Like a Dream." (MUSIC) When Chrisette was in high school one of her teachers introduced her to jazz music. She immediately fell in love with the music of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. After college, Chrisette began performing in small clubs in New York City. Music industry experts noted how she combines the influences of soulful gospel and jazz singing with energetic hip-hop beats. Here she sings "Be OK." (MUSIC) We leave you with another song by Chrisette Michele from her album “I Am.”? Here she sings the love song “If I Have My Way.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Dana Demange who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Deal Reached in Washington to Aid Economy
* Byline: Bush praises proposal for $150 billion in tax rebates to middle-class Americans and tax breaks for business investment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last Friday, President Bush called for an economic growth package -- a plan to give a quick shot of energy to the slowing American economy. Now, the administration has an agreement with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives. President Bush called the one hundred fifty billion dollar deal, reached Thursday, the right set of policies and the right size. He urged Congress to pass it as soon as possible, saying the economy urgently needs action. He said the plan would lead to higher consumer spending and increased business investment this year. The measures must be approved by the House and the Senate and signed into law by the president. There are three parts to the plan: First, it would give money in the form of tax rebates to middle-class Americans in hopes they will spend it. Individuals could receive up to six hundred dollars. Married couples could get up to twice that. Families with children would get extra money. Money would also go to millions who do not earn enough to pay taxes. Secondly, the plan aims to create jobs through tax breaks for business investment. And thirdly, it seeks to strengthen the housing market. The plan would raise limits on the size of home loans that can be purchased by mortgage financers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This would lower interest rates on those loans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measures are "timely, targeted and temporary" -- the three goals for an economic stimulus package. She was not totally pleased with the compromise deal but says it will help the economy. If it does not, she added, there will be more to come. Speaker Pelosi said House leaders will bring the bill for a vote at the earliest date. The Senate, though, may try to expand the package. Many economists worry that the world's largest economy will enter or has already entered a recession. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve moved to help calm financial markets in the United States, and around the world. The Federal Open Market Committee cut the federal funds rate by seventy-five basis points -- a week before it planned to meet. The move brought the rate that banks charge each other to borrow money overnight to three and one-half percent. This was the first time the committee has cut rates between meetings since after the September eleventh terrorist attacks in two thousand one. And it may cut rates further when it meets next week. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Federal Reserve Cuts Rates to Calm Financial Markets
* Byline: The central bank moved after stock prices around the world dropped on worries about the United States economy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. News of the American central bank’s interest rate cut this week was the top story in financial markets around the world. In a surprise announcement Tuesday, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate to three and one-half percent. This is the rate that banks charge each other to borrow money overnight. The announcement came one day after foreign stock markets suffered heavy losses. Losses between three and seven percent were reported in Japan, China, India, South Korea and across Europe. Financial markets dropped as concern grew that an American recession could hurt the economies in countries that trade with the United States. Many markets suffered losses again Tuesday before the Fed lowered the interest rate. Several foreign markets regained some of their losses in the days following the American interest rate cut. Stock prices rose almost eleven percent in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The main index in Mumbai, India increased more than seven percent. European and Asian markets also closed higher on Friday. Tokyo's Nikkei Index gained more than four percent. Share prices were also higher in Shanghai, Manila, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Lower interest rates make it easier for businesses and people to borrow money for purchases and other activities that help the economy. Financial experts expect the Federal Reserve will cut the interest rate another quarter of a percentage point at its official meeting next week. That would bring the federal funds rate to three and one-quarter percent. As concerns of a possible recession in the United States grow, the Bush administration and congressional leaders agreed on an economic growth plan. In Davos, Switzerland, political, economic and government leaders are attending the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum. More than two thousand economic policy-makers are discussing the world's economic and social problems. Opinion has been mixed on the future of the financial situation in the United States and how it will affect the rest of the world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Forum the American economy has a strong structure and would remain an engine of growth. But others are not so sure. Joseph Stiglitz is an economics professor at Columbia University in New York City and a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. He said the current market trouble is far from over. Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, also spoke at the World Economic Forum. He said capitalism as an economic system may need some changes. Mister Gates proposed an idea he calls creative capitalism. He called on companies to think more about how their products can help society. Mister Gates said he believes capitalism should help the poor as well as the rich. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968: The Civil Rights Leader Organized the March on Washington, DC in 1963
* Byline: About two hundred fifty thousand people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil right's leader Martin Luther King, Junior. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion. He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus. Doctor King became the leader of a protest against the city bus system. It was the first time that black southerners had united against the laws of racial separation. VOICE TWO: At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work. They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation. But the buses remained empty. Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest. They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders. One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement. Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk. But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued. VOICE ONE: Doctor King's wife Coretta described how she and her husband felt during the protest. She said: "We never knew what was going to happen next. We felt like actors in a play whose ending we did not know. Yet we felt a part of history. And we believed we were instruments of the will of God". The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest. They thought it would end if he was in prison or dead. Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges. His arrests made national news and he was released. But the threats against his life continued. VOICE TWO: The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred eighty-two days. Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system. Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle. The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible. They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights. VOICE ONE: Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over. He had become well known all over the country and throughout the world. He often was asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence. Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings. Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation. The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it. The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Martin Luther King became its president. In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States. Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat. And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only. These protests became known as "freedom rides. " Many of the freedom rides turned violent. Black activists were beaten and arrested. Some were even killed. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city. They demanded more jobs for blacks. And they demanded to send their children to white schools. The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands. The situation became tense. Many protestors were beaten and arrested. Even Doctor King was arrested. But he was not in prison for long. The Birmingham demonstrations made international news. Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them. Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham. It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham. It did not mean that racial separation had ended. Some still remains today. But he felt that the battle was almost won. And he wanted to call on the nation for its support. So doctor king organized a March on Washington, D. C. The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three. About two hundred fifty thousand persons gathered there. They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans. There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies. But this was the biggest up to that time. VOICE ONE: It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches. The speech is known as the "I Have a Dream Speech. " It expressed his ideas for the future. Doctor king said: (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four. But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work. He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight. Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death. His life had been threatened wherever he went. And he often spoke to his wife about his fears. But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement. The night before he died he spoke to his supporters. He said: (SOUND) (MUSIC: "We Shall Overcome") (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. This Special English program was written by William Rodgers. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer. I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Nicknames: America's 50 States (Fourth of Four Parts)
* Byline: Ohio in the midwest is called The Buckeye States. Rhode Island's nickname is Little Rhody. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Today, we finish telling about the interesting nicknames that have been given to the fifty American states. The state of Ohio is in the midwest. It is named The Buckeye State after a tree that produces nuts similar to chestnuts. The Great Plains state of Oklahoma is called the Sooner State. That is because of a sale of land in eighteen eighty-nine. Some people arrived in the territory to claim their land earlier than they were supposed to. They cheated and got there "sooner." Pennsylvania's nickname is The Keystone State. Just as a keystone holds together a stone arch, Pennsylvania was seen as holding together the young American republic. Pennsylvania is also sometimes called The Quaker State. Its founder, William Penn, and most of his followers, were members of the Protestant Quaker religion. Rhode Island's nickname is Little Rhody because of its size. The state is smaller than the area around Los Angeles, California. Tennessee got its nickname -- The Volunteer State -- because of the bravery of its citizens. They volunteered to join Tennessean Andrew Jackson to defend the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, against the British army in the War of Eighteen Twelve. Texas is called The Lone Star State. It gets its nickname from the single star on its flag. This represents the short time Texas was an independent nation battling Mexico for self-rule. The Beehive State of Utah has no more beehives than any other state. The nickname is from the Mormon Church's symbol for hard work. The eastern state of Vermont is proud of its beautiful Green Mountains so it calls itself The Green Mountain State. The southern state of Virginia is called The Old Dominion. Long ago, King Charles the Second of England added the colony's coat of arms to his shield. It joined his other dominions of England, Ireland, and Scotland. West Virginia broke away from Virginia in the eighteen sixties. It is called simply The Mountain State for the ancient Appalachian mountains. And we have saved perhaps the most American nickname for last. The western state of Wyoming was once an area where cattle were transported east. And where there are cattle, there are men -- and now women -- to move them. So Wyoming is The Cowboy State. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program was written by Ted Landphair. I'm Barbara Klein. We hope you enjoyed these programs about states and their nicknames. You can find more WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Google.org Announces Major Plans to Help the Poor
* Byline: Google.org says it will use the power of information and technology to help people improve their lives. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Internet search engine company called Google has announced it will give more than twenty-five million dollars in money and investments to help the poor. The money will be spent over the next five to ten years in several areas, including poverty reduction and private business development. The company says the effort is to use the power of information and technology to help people improve their lives. Aleem Walji works for Google.org -- the part of the company that gives money to good causes. He spoke to us from San Francisco, California. He said the first project to receive money will help identify where infectious diseases are developing. In Southeast Asia and Africa, for example, Google.org will work with partners to strengthen early warning systems and take action against growing health threats. Google.org will also invest in ways to help small and medium size businesses grow. Mister Walji says microfinance is generally small, short-term loans that create few jobs. Instead, he says Google.org wants to develop ways to bring investors and business owners together to create jobs and improve economic growth. Google.org also will work with local partners to improve public services and reduce poverty. In India, for example, the Pratham non-profit group has developed a way to identify if students are learning in school. Mister Walji says Google.org hopes to expand it and similar tools to other public services. Google.org will also give money to help two climate change programs announced earlier this year. One of these programs studies ways to make renewable energy less costly than coal-based fuels. The other program is examining efforts to speed up common public use of electric cars. Mister Walji says Google.org can give money called grants much like other corporate foundations. It can also invest in ideas and technologies that may or may not be profitable over time. To date, Google.org has spent seventy-five million dollars. The creators of Google have promised to give Google.org about one percent of company profits and one percent of its total stock value every year. Aleem Walji says this amount may increase in the future. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can find other Development Reports at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Songs About Winter Are Lovely but Sad
* Byline: Many songs are about lost love, except for "Winter Wonderland." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we play some favorite songs about winter. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is winter in many parts of the world. For some areas, that means snow. Maybe even lots of snow. If you do not have to drive in it or remove it, snow can be very beautiful. When snow covers everything around you, the world looks like a "winter wonderland." That is the name of a very popular song about winter. Richard Smith and Felix Bernard wrote the song way back in nineteen thirty-four. There are hundreds of recordings of this happy song. Here is a lovely version by James Taylor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: But winter is not always such a beautiful and happy time. It is cold outside. The wind blows to make it even colder. You try hard to keep warm. The days are shorter and darker. The sun rarely shines. The leaves on the trees are brown or have fallen to the ground. The flowers are mostly gone. It is not surprising that some people are sad in winter. And some people dream about being somewhere else where it is warm and pretty -- like the state of California. The Mamas and the Papas recorded this famous song, "California Dreamin'," in nineteen sixty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen sixties, many other famous rock groups released songs about winter. Here is a poetic song by Simon and Garfunkel called "A Hazy Shade of Winter." They sing about life and hope and possibilities. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-eight, the group Blood, Sweat and Tears recorded this gentle, sad song about winter. They sing about a lost love and forgotten memories in "Sometimes in Winter." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen nineties, Tori Amos wrote and recorded this beautiful song called "Winter." She sings about when she was a child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded another sad and lovely song about winter in nineteen seventy-five. Sarah McLachlan recorded "Song for a Winter's Night" for an album in two thousand six. She sings about reading a love letter and wishing the writer were with her now. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Finally, on a happier note comes this song written and recorded by Fountains of Wayne in two thousand three. They sing about a snowstorm in a New England town. Nothing unusual there. But instead of being sad or tense about the snow, they write a song about it. We leave you with "Valley Winter Song." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:? And I’m Barbara Klein. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: First Step in Practicing Medicine: Getting Into Medical School
* Byline: A look at the process in the United States, which has more than 120 medical colleges. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we look at how people become medical doctors in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A medical student in the state of WyomingIt is not easy to become a doctor in the United States. The first step is getting into a medical college. More than one hundred twenty American schools offer study programs for people seeking to become a doctor. People can get advice about medical schools from many resources. One of these is the Princeton Review. The publication provides information about colleges, study programs and jobs. The Princeton Review says competition to enter medical schools is strong. It says about thirty-five thousand people compete for sixteen thousand openings in American medical schools each year. Many of those seeking to be admitted are women. VOICE TWO: Most people seeking admission contact more than one medical school. Some applicants contact many. An important part of the application usually is the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT. The Association of American Medical Colleges provides the test by computer. It is offered in the United States and in other countries around the world. The applicant is rated on reasoning, physical and biological sciences and an example of writing. Applicants for medical school need to do well on the MCAT. They also need a good record in their college studies. VOICE ONE: People who want to become doctors often study large amounts of biology, chemistry or other science. Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they attempt to enter medical school. A direct meeting, or interview, also is usually required for entrance to medical schools. This means talking with a school representative. The interviewer wants to know what the applicant is like. Does the person understand the demands of life as a medical student and doctor in training?? What are the person’s goals for a life in medicine?? VOICE TWO: A medical education can be very costly. One year at a private medical college can cost forty thousand dollars or more. The average at a public medical school is more than fifteen thousand dollars. Most students need loans to pay for medical school. Many finish their education heavily in debt. ????? Some Americans become doctors by joining the United States Army, Navy, Air Force or Public Health Service. They attend the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. These students attend without having to pay. They also receive training beyond the usual education in areas needed by military and public health doctors. In return, they spend seven years in government service. VOICE ONE: Doctors are among the highest paid people in the United States. Big-city doctors who work in specialties like eye care or surgical operations usually earn the most money. But some other doctors earn far less. That is especially true in poor communities. Doctors in areas far from cities may sometimes get part of their payment in fruits or vegetables. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? Medical students spend their first two years mainly in classroom study. They learn about the body and all its systems. They also begin studying how to recognize and treat disease. Medical students perform a dissection of a body at the University of MassachusettsBy the third year, students begin working with patients in hospitals. Experienced doctors who have treated many patients guide them as they work. As the students learn, they think about the kind of medical skills they will need to work as doctors. VOICE ONE: During the fourth year, students begin contacting hospital programs for the additional training they will need after medical school. Competition to work at a top hospital can be fierce. Doctors-in-training in hospitals are called interns or residents. They are usually called interns during their first year. After that, the name of the job is resident. The trainees treat patients guided by medical professors and other experts. VOICE TWO: All fifty states require at least one year of hospital work for doctors-in-training educated at medical schools in the United States. Graduates of study programs at most foreign medical schools may have to complete two or three years of residency, although there are exceptions. To be accepted for a residency, a person must meet the requirements of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. This process involves several tests before a person can receive a visa to stay in the United States for the training period. Those completing study programs at foreign medical schools may be required to return to their own country for at least two years after their training ends. But because of doctor shortages or other needs, some have been able to get visas without the required two-year stay in their home country. VOICE ONE: Doctors-in-training receive experience in different kinds of care. Interns, for example, may work with children for one month. Then the next month they may be in the operating room. How long a residency lasts depends on the chosen area of medicine. There are many medical specialties. Some people become cardiologists and care for the heart. Others become oncologists and treat cancer patients. Still others become pediatricians and take care of children. And some doctors go into medical research, either at a university or with a private company. VOICE TWO: But whatever they choose, they first need experience. Some doctors work a long time in hospitals before they are fully trained in a specialty. Neurosurgeons are a good example. They operate on the brain, neck and back. Some spend six years or more as residents before beginning private practice. A doctor in Chicago, Illinois, remembers that before his internship, he wanted to work in crisis medicine. But he lost that interest after he interned in a hospital emergency room. He saw many patients who needed help immediately, like accident victims and victims of gunshot wounds. The specialty he chose, surgery, lets him have more time to decide how to help his patients. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-nine, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies released a report on medical mistakes in American hospitals. The report said preventable mistakes resulted in at least forty-four thousand deaths each year. Five years later, the New England Journal of Medicine published two government-financed studies of serious mistakes made by interns. The studies found that the mistake rate in two intensive-care areas decreased when interns worked fewer hours. The interns made fewer mistakes when they had to order medicines and identify conditions. Teaching hospitals say they must pay more for work from other employees because resident hours are shortened. Some residents say they need extended time with patients to observe changes in their condition. And some experienced doctors say residents need to work as much as they can to become good doctors. VOICE TWO: But in two thousand three, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education reduced the hours that residents may work. The council supervises the training of residents. Some residents were spending one hundred or more hours a week at their hospitals. They were often on duty more than thirty-six hours at a time, with limited sleep. The changed rules limit residents to thirty hours of duty at a time. A hospital is not supposed to require more than eighty hours of duty in a week. In addition, interns and residents must have one day off in every seven. But some residents say all hospitals are not following the new rules. VOICE ONE: Paul Rockey is a medical education expert in Illinois. He has worked for years with residents. He says residencies today are more difficult than before. Patients do not stay as long in the hospital as they once did. So Doctor Rockey says there is a lot of pressure on young doctors to learn quickly. He says the difficulties of a medical education may be great. But, he adds that people also get great satisfaction seeing themselves gain the knowledge and skills to become good doctors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Debate Follows US Finding That Cloned Animals Are Safe
* Byline: Food safety activists say the decision was based on incomplete research into possible risks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States government has decided that food from cloned cattle, pigs and goats is safe to eat. The Food and Drug Administration also says it found no risks in meat and milk from offspring born to them. A clone is a genetic copy of an animal prized for its quality. A laboratory process develops a cell from the animal into an embryo. The embryo is put into a female animal which, if all goes well, gives birth to the clone. The F.D.A. looked at studies for several years before it announced its decision in a final report this month. The United States Department of Agriculture supported the findings. But it says time is needed to smooth the way for marketing meat and milk from clones. So, for now, the industry is being asked to continue a voluntary ban on such products. The idea of eating cloned animals rates low with the American public. Several major food companies say they have no immediate plans to get involved. The Food and Drug Administration will not require any product to be identified as coming from clones or their offspring. A producer would need approval to label a product "clone-free." The agency says that could be misleading because the food is no different from other food. But activists argue that the F.D.A. based its decision on incomplete research into possible risks. The Center for Food Safety criticized the use of studies supplied by cloning companies. Animal rights activists point out that cloning attempts often fail. They say cloning is cruel and can lead to suffering in clones born with abnormalities. Congress has been trying to get the F.D.A. to do more studies. But the agency noted that experts in New Zealand and the European Union have come to the same findings about the safety of food from clones. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan say they want to study the issue further before taking action. Products from cloning may not be widely available for several years. Currently the United States has about six hundred animal clones. Clones are costly, which is why most are used for breeding. The Agriculture Department says few clones will ever become food. Their traditionally bred offspring would enter the food supply instead. The first mammal cloned from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep, born in Scotland in nineteen ninety-six. But the F.D.A. says it could not decide about the safety of food from clones of sheep or other animals besides cattle, pigs and goats. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Disputes on Stolen Art Bring Up Complex Legal and Cultural Issues?
* Byline: Museums and governments are negotiating these complex issues around the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the British Museum in London, millions of people every year visit a famous collection of marble statues from the ancient Greek building called the Parthenon. These finely carved works and the building they came from are widely considered the most important examples of western art and building design. Why these Greek statues are in a British museum is an important part of our story today. We explore the complex issues of cultural property, ownership, and the returning -- or keeping -- of cultural treasures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people know these famous and disputed statues at the British Museum as the Elgin Marbles. They were named for Lord Thomas Elgin, who served as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Ottoman Empire at this time included what is current day Greece as well as Turkey. VOICE TWO: Lord Elgin decided he was in a good position to improve the national art collection of Britain. So he gathered a team of experts to help him make drawings and plaster copies of the buildings of ancient Greece within the city of Athens. In eighteen-oh-one, Lord Elgin received legal permission to also take away any pieces of stone with images or words carved on them. Later, another legal document permitted the stone pieces, or marbles, to be sent by boat to Britain. Lord Elgin eventually sold the marbles to the British government to be housed in the British Museum. His actions have been disputed ever since. The British Museum believes it has the right to protect these works for the world to enjoy. But the Greek government has a very different opinion. VOICE ONE: In the nineteen eighties, the Greek government began a modern campaign for the return of these statues, which Greeks call the Parthenon Marbles. During this time, the Greek cultural minister, Melina Mercouri, made the campaign an international issue by calling for their return during a United Nations meeting. The Greek government recently built a museum near the ruins of the Parthenon to house the ancient building’s sculptures. The strikingly modern Acropolis Museum is interesting for the art it contains as well as for the art that is clearly missing. The marbles are shown in the order that they were first placed in the Parthenon. There are the ancient statues that belong to Greece and there are plaster copies of the statues that are currently in Britain. Now that the works are placed together, it is clear that they are not just individual sculptures. Together, the extraordinary sculptures tell a story about an ancient culture. VOICE TWO: The current Greek minister of culture is Michalis Liapis. He says the new Acropolis Museum makes it possible for the sculptures now in Britain to have a large exhibit space where they can be protected. He says Britain no longer has any excuse to keep these works of art. A spokeswoman for the British Museum in London says the Acropolis Museum represents an important effort. But she points out that the goal of the British Museum is to present all world cultures to visitors so that they can compare civilizations. VOICE ONE: This cultural dispute is not just a concern for museums and governments. Michael Reppas helped create a group called The American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. Mister Reppas, a Greek American, says part of his history has been stolen and placed in a museum in Britain. He says the situation would be like cutting off a piece of the Statue of Liberty in New York City and placing it in a museum in another country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, unlike during Lord Elgin’s time, international laws protect a country’s cultural treasures. Museums and governments use these laws to help negotiate the return of such property. Museums also follow a set of rules to help make sure that they received the cultural treasures fairly and legally. Often, museums do not know that objects they received in the past were gotten illegally. VOICE ONE: Other times it is less clear whether or not a museum acted legally in buying art. For example, Marion True is an art expert who used to work for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. Since two thousand five, Miz True has been on trial in Italy. She is accused of illegal actions in obtaining ancient Italian cultural objects. She is on trial in Greece for similar charges. VOICE TWO: The Italian Cultural Ministry takes very seriously the stealing of cultural objects from Italy. A special group of Italian military police works to reclaim stolen art and archeological objects. Italy recently ended negotiations with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts over thirteen cultural treasures that are now being returned to Italy. Italy won its claim on the objects because documents showed that they were taken illegally from the country. Italy has also agreed to loan some of the objects to the museum, so both sides ended up with a fair resolution. Katie Getchell is deputy director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She says the museum did not want to have objects that it did not rightfully own. And she says that there is a legal, moral and responsible way for governments and museums to resolve such disputes. VOICE ONE: Italy is demonstrating its progress in this area with a new exhibit at the Quirinale, or presidential palace, in Rome. The exhibit shows sixty-eight cultural objects that Italy has reclaimed from American museums. These museums include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The name of the museum that formerly owned the object is on the signs explaining the history of each object. Italian officials say the exhibit shows how much the museum world is changing its position on cultural disputes. VOICE TWO: This change is also clear in another case between Peru and an American university in Machu Picchuthe state of Connecticut. Last year, Yale University agreed to return a large number of treasures taken from the ancient Peruvian city of Machu Picchu. In nineteen twelve, the Yale researcher and explorer Hiram Bingham rediscovered the hidden city. He brought many objects from Machu Picchu to the United States. Peru says that the objects were on loan and should have been returned long ago. After years of negotiations, Yale announced in September of last year that the two sides had reached an early agreement. VOICE ONE: Yale has officially agreed that Peru owns the cultural objects. The university will return most of them and will be able to keep others for an extended period of time. Under the expected agreement, Yale will advise Peru on the building of a museum for the objects. The President of Yale University, Richard Levin, said the two sides have created a new way of resolving competing interests in cultural property disputes. However, it is not clear when a final agreement will be reached. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Efforts to protect cultural property increased after World War Two. During the war, Nazi Germany stole large amounts of art from the countries they invaded. In reaction, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property was signed in nineteen fifty-four. The United Nations cultural organization has also recognized the issue. In nineteen seventy, UNESCO created a convention to prevent the illegal exportation of cultural property. Individual countries have their own laws about cultural property as well. VOICE ONE: One example of art stolen by the Nazis during World War Two has been successfully resolved. At the Neue Gallery in New York City, visitors can see a beautiful painting of a woman named Adele Bloch-Bauer made by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. Adele’s husband, Ferdinand, asked the artist to make the painting around nineteen-oh-seven. 'Adele Bloch-Bauer 1'In the late nineteen thirties, when Austria was under Nazi rule, Mister Bloch-Bauer was forced to flee his country because he was Jewish. His family’s collection of art was seized by Nazi leaders and later became state property. For years Austria refused to return the art to the Bloch-Bauer family. Then, in two thousand six, the family finally won its court case and ownership of the art. They later sold the work to the owner of Neue Gallery. This painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer is not only a beautiful example of Austrian art. It also represents a powerful story about one family’s successful battle over injustice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Archives of our programs with transcripts and MP3s are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. ___ Correction: This report said art expert Marion True is on trial in Greece. A Greek court?dismissed the case in November. Her American lawyer says a trial date on other, lesser charges?has yet to be set (and she remains on trial in Italy.) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A New Push for Breastfeeding in Developing Countries
* Byline: Researchers promote it to fight malnutrition in young children. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. We talked last week about a series of new studies of hunger in mothers and children in developing countries. The Lancet medical journal published the series. In it, researchers said poor nutrition in the first two years can permanently damage a child, physically and mentally. One of the interventions they placed great importance on was breastfeeding. Mothers?at an event in Manila in May 2006?to bring attention to breastfeeding in the PhilippinesThe World Health Organization says babies should receive only breast milk for the first six months. On its Web site, the W.H.O. says breast milk is the ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants. And it notes that as part of the reproductive process, breastfeeding also has important health considerations for mothers. Studies have shown that women who receive counseling about breastfeeding are more likely to feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months. The La Leche League is an international organization that promotes breastfeeding. Jack Newman is a Canadian doctor who serves as a health adviser to the group. He has written and spoken widely on what he says are several mistaken beliefs that stop women from breastfeeding. Many women think they will not produce enough milk to feed their baby. Doctor Newman says the large majority of women in fact produce more than enough milk to feed their babies. Some women worry that breastfeeding will hurt. Again, Doctor Newman says this is not true. He says breasts can hurt a little in the first few days of nursing. But he says any pain beyond that would most likely be the result of incorrect breastfeeding or an infection. Jack Newman says it is not uncommon for people to believe that baby formula is just as good as breast milk. But he says only a mother's body can produce the right levels of all the nutrition that a baby needs as these needs change. He also points out that unlike formula, breast milk contains infection-fighting antibodies -- and it's free. Medical experts agree that, in general, breast milk is the best possible food for a new baby. But one problem with breastfeeding is that many new mothers are not sure how to do it correctly. We will talk about that next week. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Pat Bodnar. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Dealing With Dyslexia
* Byline: The most common learning disability can affect people emotionally as well as physically. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we have the second in a series of reports about the group of disorders known as learning disabilities. Different ones affect reading, writing, listening, speaking or working with numbers. The most common learning disability is dyslexia. A person with dyslexia has difficulty with language skills, especially reading. The International Dyslexia Association says studies in different countries generally show that four to seven percent of people are dyslexic. Dyslexia most commonly affects reading, spelling and writing. Some people have problems with only one of these. Others have trouble with spoken language. They find it difficult to express themselves clearly or understand what other people say. Dyslexia can also affect a person emotionally. Dyslexic children often think they are unable to learn. They think they are stupid, or that is what they are told. Specialists say children who feel this way are in danger of failure and depression. What causes dyslexia is not clear. But studies have found differences in brain activity and development in dyslexic people compared to the general population. Early signs include a delay in learning to speak, and difficulty pronouncing words. While learning to read, children with dyslexia may not recognize letters or connect them with their sounds. They may also have difficulty learning or remembering numbers, colors, shapes or days of the week. Older children may have difficulty learning a foreign language. They may read slowly or have trouble remembering what they read. And they may fail to see or hear similarities and differences in letters and words. There is no cure, but people with dyslexia can still be successful learners. Experts say the most important thing is to find the condition at an early age. And they say only a trained professional can tell if a person is dyslexic. Specially trained educators can teach people with dyslexia different ways to learn. Computer-assisted learning might help, or using recorded books instead of printed ones. Schools can provide more time to finish tasks, and resources like help in taking notes. More information can be found through organizations like the International Dyslexia Association in Maryland. For a link, along with transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our series on learning disabilities continues next week. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Finding the Right Plan for a New Government
* Byline: The Virginia Plan formed the basis of discussion at the convention in Philadelphia. The plan called for a government with a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to make changes in the Articles of Confederation. Those articles provided for a loose union of the thirteen states. Instead of changes, however, the leaders wrote a new document. It established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Shep O’Neal. Today, Blake Lanum and I continue the story of the United States Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story does not flow easily. The reason is a rule made by the delegates. From the beginning, they agreed that the convention had the right to change its decisions. The convention did not just discuss a proposal, vote on it and move on to other issues. Any delegate could ask to re-discuss any proposal or any decision. And they often did. Every man who saw one of his ideas defeated brought it up again later. The same speeches that were made the first time were made again. So days, even weeks, passed between discussions of the same proposal. The story of the Philadelphia convention would be difficult to understand if we told about events day-by-day. So, we will put the calendar and the clock away, and tell how each major question was debated and settled. VOICE ONE: After the delegates agreed that the convention could change its decisions, they agreed on a rule of secrecy. Guards were placed at the doors of the State House. Newspaper reporters were not permitted inside. And delegates could not discuss convention business in public. The secrecy rule led people to get many strange ideas about the convention, especially in Europe. There, most people believed the convention was discussing how America could be ruled by a king. Europeans said a republican government worked in a small country, such as Switzerland, but not, they said, in a land as large as America. So some of them began talking about which European prince might be asked to become king of America. Some were sure it would be Prince Henry of Prussia. Others said it would be Prince Frederick Augustus, the second son of King George the Third of Britain. Without news reports from Philadelphia, even some Americans believed these stories. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: At the time of the convention, Thomas Jefferson was serving as America's representative to France. When he learned of the secrecy rule, he was angry. He believed strongly in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. More than forty years later, James Madison explained the decision behind the rule. Madison said that if the convention had been open to the public, no delegate would ever change his mind after speaking on an issue. To do so would mean he was wrong the first time he spoke. And no delegate would be willing to admit to the public that he had made a mistake. Madison said if the meetings had been open, the convention would have failed. VOICE ONE: Another rule helped the delegates speak freely. It was a method of debate called the committee of the whole. It may seem a foolish method. But it was useful then and still is today in legislatures. It is a way for people to discuss ideas, vote, and then change their minds. Their votes -- while in committee -- are not recorded permanently. To have the Philadelphia convention become a committee of the whole, the delegates needed to elect a chairman of the committee. They chose Nathaniel Gorham, a judge from Massachusetts. Each morning at ten o'clock, the convention met and declared it was sitting as a committee of the whole. George Washington then left the president's chair. Nathaniel Gorham took his place. Just before four o'clock in the afternoon, the committee of the whole declared it was sitting again as a convention. Judge Gorham stepped down, and General Washington took the chair. He declared that the convention would meet again the next morning. This process was repeated every day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On May twenty-ninth, the delegates heard the Virginia Plan. This was the plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia. The thirty-three-year-old governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, presented the plan. First, he spoke about America's existing plan of government, the Articles of Confederation. Governor Randolph praised the Articles and the men who wrote them. He called those men "wise" and "great." But, he said, the articles were written for thirteen states in a time of war. Something more was needed now for the new nation. Something permanent. VOICE ONE: George Washington's copy of the Virginia PlanGovernor Randolph spoke of conditions in all the states. He told the delegates what they already knew was true. Government was breaking down in many parts of the country. As he presented the Virginia Plan, Edmund Randolph noted that its fifteen parts were just ideas. The state of Virginia, he said, did not want to force them on the convention. Yet the ideas should be discussed. Change them as you wish, he told the convention. But talk about them fully. Other delegates presented their own plans for discussion. We will talk about some of them in later programs. But from the beginning, the Virginia Plan had the most influence. For more than three months, delegates would debate each part, vote on it, then debate it again. The Virginia Plan formed the basis of discussion at the convention in Philadelphia. In the end, it formed the basis of the United States Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The announced purpose of the convention was to change the Articles of Confederation to make them more effective. The Virginia Plan was not a plan of proposed changes. It was much more extreme. It was, in fact, a plan for a completely new central government. Debate on the Virginia Plan began May thirtieth. Immediately, Edmund Randolph proposed an amendment. The plan, he noted, spoke of a federal union of states. But such a federation would not work. Instead, he said, America's central government should be a national government. It should contain a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary. VOICE ONE: For a few moments, there was complete silence. Many of the delegates seemed frozen in their chairs. Did they hear correctly? Most of them did not question the idea of a government with three separate parts. Several states already had such a system. But to create a central government that was "national" and "supreme" -- what did these words mean exactly? What was the difference? The delegates debated the meaning of these words -- federal, national, supreme -- for many days. Both James Madison and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania tried to explain. Madison said a federal government acts on states. A national government acts directly on the people. Morris gave this explanation. A federal government is simply an agreement based on the good faith of those involved. A national government has a complete system of operation and its own powers. VOICE TWO: Pierce Butler of South Carolina wanted to know why a national government was necessary. Did the states need to be national? "But we are a nation!" John Dickinson of Delaware answered. "We are a nation although made of parts, or states." Gouverneur Morris continued. He spoke of the future when the delegates meeting in Philadelphia would be dead. Their children and grandchildren, he said, would stop thinking of themselves as citizens of Pennsylvania or New York or North Carolina. Instead, they would think of themselves as citizens of the United States. "This generation will die away," Morris said, "and be followed by a race of Americans." Morris declared that the states had to take second place to a national government with supreme power. "It is better to take a supreme government now," he said, "than a dictator twenty years from now. For come he must." In the end, the delegates approved the proposal for a national government. Next week, we will tell about the debate over a national executive, the part of the government that would enforce the laws. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION – an American history series in VOA Special English, on radio or online. I’m Shep O’Neal with Blake Lanum. Transcripts and MP3s of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. __ This is program #18 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A 'Rogue Trader' Costs French Bank $7 Billion
* Byline: It was the largest trading loss by an individual in banking history. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, France's second largest bank, Societe Generale, announced that a single, middle-level trader had caused the bank to lose over seven billion dollars. It was the largest trading loss by an individual in banking history. Jerome Kerviel reportedly made trades in European stock index derivatives. These complex investments are bets that stock indexes will rise or fall. Mister Kerviel's job was to place bets that indexes would both rise and fall. Doing this limits the risk of losing a lot. But it also limits gains. Mister Kerviel worked in a part of the bank that was supposed to take on little risk. The bank said Mister Kerviel took measures to avoid its risk controls. Reports say Mister Kerviel found a way to hide the fact that he bet only on stock prices rising. He also hid the huge amounts of his bets from bank supervisors. When stock prices dropped, his financial positions, worth an estimated seventy-three billion dollars, had to be closed at a huge loss. French government lawyers brought charges against the thirty-one-year-old trader on Monday. Mister Kerviel was charged with breach of trust and illegal computer activity. However, he was not charged with financial wrongdoing or false signing of documents. Mister Kerviel has denied that he tried to profit from his activities. His lawyer says he is being unfairly charged. The bank said it only discovered Mister Kerviel's activities on January twentieth. But a government lawyer said exchange officials had warned the bank about the trader's deals late last year. The lawyer said Mister Kerviel told him he had started his activities at the end of two thousand five. Many in the French government are pressuring the bank's chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton to resign. Mister Bouton has offered to resign twice but both times the bank's board did not accept his resignation. Some experts believe efforts by Societe Generale to close out Mister Kerviel's financial positions played a part in driving down European stock prices early last week. In the United States, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate for the second time in eight days. On Wednesday, the central bank cut the important interest rate by half a percentage point to three percent. The Fed said it is now more concerned about the slowing economy than about inflation. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-01/2008-01-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Independent Films Look for a Place in the Sun at Sundance Festival
* Byline: A question from China about the rock band Aerosmith. And we take you inside the stadium where this year's Super Bowl will be played. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We tell about the state-of-the-art sports center that will hold this year’s Super Bowl … Answer a listener's question about the band Aerosmith … And report on the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah … Sundance Film Festival HOST: The Sundance Film Festival takes place each January in and around Park City, Utah. It is America's top event for filmmakers working without the support of major film studios. Faith Lapidus has more about the film festival, which ended last weekend. FAITH LAPIDUS:??????????????????????????????????????????????? The Sundance Film Festival is a big event for independent filmmakers, film companies and people who love movies. Tens of thousands of people attend the film festival each year. They gather in the cold, snowy mountain town of Park City, along with famous movie stars and many reporters. More than one hundred twenty new films were chosen to be shown during the ten-day event. Many filmmakers show their movies for the first time, hoping that film companies will buy them. "Up the Yangtze" by Chinese director Yung Chang was one of the movies purchased at Sundance. It examines the effect of China's Three Gorges Dam on the place where the director's grandfather grew up. Thirty-two American films competed for prizes at Sundance. A five-member group of actors and directors chose the winners. Two films about people dealing with personal tragedy won the top prizes. The film "Frozen River" won the Grand Jury Prize for best American film drama. Courtney Hunt wrote and directed the film. It is about two poor women trying to bring Chinese immigrants illegally into the United States from Canada. "Trouble the Water" was named the best American documentary, or true story. A woman and her husband show how they survived Hurricane Katrina and the deadly floodwaters in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal directed the movie. People who attend Sundance can vote for their favorite films. The winners receive the Audience Awards. Sundance is also an important event for international filmmakers. Thirty-two films from twenty-five countries competed at the festival. The World Cinema Audience Award for drama went to "Captain Abu Raed," a film from Jordan directed by Amin Matalqa. A man whose real job is to clean the airport tells children magical stories about his make-believe life as a pilot. Another foreign film shown at Sundance was "Dinner With the President: A Nation's Journey," directed by Sabiha Sumar. Her film explores the chances for democracy in Pakistan. Aerosmith HOST: Our question this week comes from a Chinese listener. Zheyan Jin wants to know about the rock band Aerosmith. This group is one of the best selling hard rock bands of all time. The five musicians have been performing and making records for over thirty-five years. Their intense and energetic music helped define rock and roll. The members of Aerosmith are singer Steven Tyler, guitar players Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bass player Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer on drums. The group formed in nineteen seventy in Boston, Massachusetts. In the notes of their first album “Aerosmith”, the group described themselves as “third-generation rockers with a desire to create something new.” Here is their hit song “Dream On” from that album. (MUSIC) During the nineteen seventies, the band made many popular albums, including “Your Wings” and “Toys in the Attic.” But their success came at a price. Some members of the band became dependent on illegal drugs. Two members of the band left and were replaced by other musicians. The original members of Aerosmith came together again in the nineteen eighties. Here is the song “Janie’s Got a Gun” from the album “Pump.” (MUSIC) More recently, Aerosmith released “Honkin’ on Bobo” and “Devil’s Got a New Disguise.” They began recording a new album in November. Here is the song “Angel’s Eye”. Aerosmith recorded the song for the movie “Charlie’s Angels.” (MUSIC) 2008 Super Bowl HOST: The New England Patriots and the New York Giants face each other Sunday in the forty-second yearly American football championship called the Super Bowl. The Patriots are expected to win. If they do, they will set a new record. They will have won more games during the season than any other team in history. The Patriots will not be the first undefeated team, but they will have won the most games. The Super Bowl will be an exciting game. And the stadium where it will be played has the most modern technology in the world. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: A look from inside the stadium in Glendale, ArizonaThe University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is home to the Arizona Cardinals football team. It also holds a yearly college level championship game. But, this will be the first Super Bowl held there. Workers began building the stadium in two thousand three. It was completed about three years and four hundred fifty-five million dollars later. Unlike most stadiums, it has a roof that fully opens. It is made of two parts that slide in and out. This is important because Glendale is near the city of Phoenix, Arizona. This area is called the Valley of the Sun. It sometimes is a very hot place. The average high temperature in the summer is above thirty-seven degrees Celsius. So the roof of the stadium can be closed to permit air conditioning machines to be used. But the roof can be opened during the cooler months for sporting and other events, like big rock concerts and trade shows. The stadium has an unusual feature that no other stadium has. The natural grass playing field rolls in and out of the structure as needed. The grass grows on an object like a giant tray. Most of the time the grass is moved outside to get sunshine and rain. Workers roll it back inside for football games. Officials say this makes the center more usable for non-sporting events. Architect Peter Eisenman designed the huge stadium. Its shape represents the barrel cactus, a common plant in the area. The huge metal pieces that form its walls shine brightly in the desert sun. On Sunday, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will play at the Super Bowl half-time event. We leave you with that band performing “American Girl.” HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our writers were Shelley Gollust, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver who was also our producer. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Talks About War, Economy in Final State of the Union Speech
* Byline: The president, 11 months from leaving office, spent almost half his address talking about foreign policy, especially the Middle East. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. (SOUND) This week, George W. Bush gave his seventh and final State of the Union message to Congress and the American people. The president spoke at length about some of the issues that his presidency is likely to be remembered for. He talked about the war in Iraq, and his decision to send thirty thousand more troops there last year. PRESIDENT BUSH: "Some may deny the surge is working, but among the terrorists there is no doubt. Al-Qaida is on the run in Iraq, and this enemy will be defeated." President Bush spent almost half the nearly one-hour speech talking about foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. He talked about his hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. And he directed comments to the leaders of Iran. PRESIDENT BUSH: "Come clean about your nuclear intentions and past actions, stop your oppression at home, and cease your support for terror abroad. But above all, know this: America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf." The president also talked about the American economy and widespread concern about the nation's economic future. PRESIDENT BUSH: "In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth. But in the short run, we can all see that growth is slowing." He noted in his speech on Monday that "America has added jobs for a record fifty-two straight months." But that record has now ended. On Friday the Labor Department reported that the economy lost seventeen thousand jobs in January. Reacting to the report, Mister Bush said the economy is still basically strong but going through a rough time right now. He called on the Senate to quickly pass a growth plan approved earlier this week by the House. Senate Democrats, though, want to add other measures to the plan. In his final State of the Union address, President Bush offered few new proposals for his eleven months left in office. The Constitution limits presidents to two terms. And for the past year, the Republican president has faced a Congress led by Democrats. Both have low public approval ratings. One new proposal in his speech was to spend three hundred million dollars providing education money to families of poor children. He also urged lawmakers to renew his education law, known as No Child Left Behind. And he talked again about his desire for immigration reform and changes in the Social Security program. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius gave the Democratic response to the speech. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: "Tonight’s address begins the final year of this presidency, with new leaders on the horizon and uncertainty throughout our land. Conditions we face, at home and abroad, are results of choices made and challenges unmet." This coming Tuesday, almost half the states will hold elections to help choose the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees. On Monday the program THIS IS AMERICA will look at the campaign, the candidates and the process for choosing a president. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and MP3s of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lucille Ball, 1911-1989: She Was the Funniest Woman on Television
* Byline: She was said to have invented the "situation comedy" with "I Love Lucy." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the much-loved performer Lucille Ball. Her famous television series, “I Love Lucy,” was first broadcast in nineteen fifty-one. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: The “I Love Lucy” show was a huge success. It was the most popular television show of the nineteen fifties. The kind of television program Miz Ball helped develop is called a situation comedy. Some television experts give her credit for inventing this kind of series. Today, some of the most popular television programs in America are situation comedies. VOICE TWO: One reason for the great popularity of “I Love Lucy” may have been its real-life connection with Miz Ball’s family. On the show, she was Lucy, the wife of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban musician. Ricky was played by band leader Desi Arnaz, who was Lucille Ball’s husband in real life. The show combined issues common to the life of married people living in the city with musical performances and comic theater. Often, a show would include a part with Mister Arnaz acting seriously while Miz Ball added a funny element. In the following piece, Mister Arnaz tries to sing normally and Miz Ball adds the comedy: (MUSIC: "By the Waters of the Minnetonka") VOICE ONE: Also on the “I Love Lucy” show were Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Miz Vance played Ethel Mertz and Mister Frawley played Ethel’s husband, Fred Mertz. On the show, the Mertzes were friends of the Ricardos and owned the building in which they all lived. Fred Mertz loved baseball, which was America’s most popular sport at the time. “I Love Lucy” often showed Fred Mertz intensely watching baseball or some other sport like boxing while Ethel added her own funny comments. (SOUND:? “Seeing a baseball game is fun”) VOICE TWO: A well-known story about the “I Love Lucy Show” concerns the birth of the Arnaz’s son, Desi Junior. Officials of the broadcasting company wondered what to do when Miz Ball became pregnant in nineteen fifty-two. Miz Ball explains that her husband, Desi, came up with a solution: (SOUND: “Why don’t we have it on the show?”) VOICE ONE: Miz Ball’s pregnancy was made part of the show. In fact, critics say the show in which Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky that she is pregnant is one of the best. In it, Lucy goes to the entertainment place where Ricky’s band is playing to tell him that they are going to have a baby. Ricky suddenly understands that he is going to be a father after Lucy secretly requests the song, “We’re Having a Baby:” (MUSIC: “We’re Having a Baby”) VOICE ONE: Miz Ball gave birth to her second child on the same day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth. In fact, Desi Junior’s birth date was planned to happen on the same day as the broadcast. The show in which Lucy gave birth was one of the most popular television programs ever broadcast in America. In fact, the story is that Desi Junior’s birth replaced reports about Dwight Eisenhower’s first presidential ceremony on the front pages of America’s newspapers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The success of the “I Love Lucy” show did not come early in Lucille Ball’s life, or easily. Instead, it was the result of years of hard work. Miz Ball was born near Jamestown, New York, in nineteen eleven. She tried to get into show business at an early age. Early on, she went to the same acting school as the famous actress Bette Davis. However, she left when she was told that she did not have enough acting ability. In the early nineteen thirties, she moved to Hollywood. She appeared in a number of movies, but was not well known. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty, she met the leader of a musical group who had been born in Cuba. His full name was Desiderio Alberto Arnaz de Acha the Third. They worked together in a movie and married soon after they met. For the next ten years, she appeared in movies and on radio. He traveled a lot with his band. In nineteen fifty, the broadcasting company, CBS, decided to make a television program based on the radio show, “My Favorite Husband.”? Lucille Ball was the star of the radio show. She wanted Mister Arnaz to play the part of her husband on the television show. CBS rejected the idea. But she refused to give up. She and Desi traveled around the country performing in a show together to prove that they would do well on television. Their show was a success. CBS offered them both jobs. VOICE TWO: Miz Ball had another demand. She wanted her show to be a production of the best quality. Early television pictures were not of good quality. Miz Ball wanted her program to be filmed, which would improve the picture, and then broadcast later. ?Yet she wanted people to watch the program as it was being filmed so the sound of their reactions could be captured. Miz Ball also wanted to film the shows in Hollywood. CBS did not want the extra costs. So, Miz Ball and Mister Arnaz agreed to work for less pay. In exchange, CBS let them own the program. That agreement made them owners of what would become one of the most successful programs on television. VOICE ONE: During the fifties, Miz Ball won almost every honor there was for television actors including several Emmy Awards. Yet, even the most popular performers could not escape the political realities of the time. Conservative lawmakers accused Lucille Ball of being a communist. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a secret record of information about her, just as it did about many Hollywood actors at that time. VOICE TWO: Mister Arnaz supervised their company, Desilu Productions. The company produced sixteen different television programs and ran three production centers, called studios. In nineteen sixty, Lucille Ball and Mister Arnaz legally ended their marriage. Mister Arnaz sold his part of the company to his ex-wife. Miz Ball became the first woman to head a major production company. It was one of the biggest in Hollywood. Miz Ball also was the star of several other shows of her own. “The Lucy Show” was broadcast from nineteen sixty-two to nineteen sixty-eight. “Here’s Lucy” followed until nineteen seventy-four. Miz Ball later sold her production company to Paramount Studios. VOICE ONE: “I Love Lucy” showed Miz Ball at her best. Mister Arnaz added something that was unusual for American television at the time. Many of the songs on the show were in Spanish. One song, “Babalu,” is popularly connected with “I Love Lucy”. Its words are Spanish and its sound is Latin American. It is this mixture along with the excellent performances that made the show special: (MUSIC:?“Babalu”) VOICE TWO: Miz Ball died in nineteen eighty-nine after a heart operation. Yet, she still makes people laugh. Her programs are rebroadcast on television and there are hundreds of Internet sites about her. After all these years, everyone still loves Lucy. (MUSIC: “I Love Lucy”) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-06-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Hit: If a Student's Grades Hit Bottom, It Is Time to Hit the Books
* Byline: Colorful expressions that are a huge hit. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now,?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?- a VOA Special English program about American expressions. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some expressions containing the word hit. (MUSIC) Hit is a small word but it has a lot of power. Baseball players hit the ball. Missiles hit an airplane. A car hits a tree. Hit also joins with other words to create many colorful expressions. One is hit the road. It means to travel or to leave a place, as suggested in this song, "Hit the Road." (MUSIC) Another common expression is hit the spot. At first it meant hitting a spot at the center of a target with an arrow. Someone who did so was satisfied with his shooting. Now, hitting the spot usually means that a food or drink is especially satisfying. Many years ago, Pepsi Cola sold its drink with a song that began, "Pepsi Cola hits the spot, twelve full ounces, that's a lot…" Another expression involving hit is hit bottom. Something that has hit bottom can go no lower. If the price of shares of a stock hits bottom that might be the time to buy it. Its value can only go up. A student who tells you his grades have hit bottom is saying he has not done well in school. When a student's grades hit bottom it is time to hit the books. Hit the books is another way to saying it is time to study. A student might have to tell her friends she can not go with them to the movies because she has to hit the books. Not hitting the books could lead to an unpleasant situation for a student. The father or mother may hit the ceiling when they see the low grades. Someone who hits the ceiling, the top of the room, is violently angry. A wife may hit the ceiling because her husband forgot their wedding anniversary. To build something of wood, you usually need a hammer. That is what you use to hit nails into the pieces of wood to hold them together. When you hit the nail on the head, exactly on its top, it goes into the wood perfectly. And when someone says your words or actions hit the nail on the head, he means what you said or did was exactly right. If you are tired after hitting all those nails on the head, then it is time to hit the hay. That expression comes from the days when people slept on beds filled with dried grass or hay. Some people slept on hay in barns where they kept their farm animals. Hitting the hay simply means going to bed. That is a good idea. I think I will hit the hay now. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Frank Beardsley. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How to Do It: Making Paper by Hand
* Byline: Modern paper-making began in China about 2,000 years ago.? Transcript of radio broadcast.

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The earliest process of making paper was done almost five thousand years ago in Egypt and the Nile Valley. In those days, paper was made from strips of the papyrus plant. Modern paper-making began in China about two thousand years ago. This process produced paper from cloth, straw, wood or the bark of trees. The raw materials are struck over and over until they become loose. Then they are mixed with water. After the water has been removed, the flat, thin form remaining is permitted to dry. This becomes a sheet of paper. Large machines started to be used for making paper near the end of the sixteenth century. Today, paper-making is a big business. But it is still possible to make paper by hand, since the steps are the same as using big machines. You should choose paper with small amounts of printing. Old envelopes are good for this reason. Colored paper also can be used, as well as small amounts of newspaper. Small pieces of rags or cloth can be added. These should be cut into pieces about five centimeters by five centimeters. Everything is placed in a container, covered with water, and brought to a boil. It is mixed for about two hours with some common chemicals and then allowed to cool. Then it is left until most of the water dries up. The substance left, called pulp, can be stored until you are ready to make paper. When you are ready, the pulp is mixed with water again. Then the pulp is poured into a special box or mold. The mold is made of small squares of wire that hold the shape and thickness of the paper. To help dry the paper, the mold lets the water flow through the small wire squares. After several more drying steps, the paper is carefully lifted back from the mold. It is now strong enough to be touched. The paper is smoothed and pressed to remove trapped air. You can use a common electric iron used for pressing clothes. There are many other technologies for people making paper using small machines. You can order more information about making paper from EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The address of the group’s Web site is enterpriseworks.org. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: On Super Tuesday, Presidential Candidates Aim for a Huge Prize
* Byline: Twenty-four states will be awarding delegates toward the Democratic and Republican nominations. A look at the campaign, the candidates and the system. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week our subject is the presidential campaign, heading into the biggest day of the nominating season: Super Tuesday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This presidential election is creating unusual interest and excitement across America, especially with young people and Democrats. The Democrats hope to reclaim the White House after eight years of Republican presidency. Yet candidates from both parties are promising change. VOICE TWO: There are major issues facing Americans. The weakening economy. The Iraq war. Other concerns include the troubled housing market, high costs of health care and energy, and the debate over illegal immigration. But interest in the election is also being driven by the candidates themselves. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would become America's first female or first black president. Republican John McCain would become, at age seventy-two, the oldest president elected to a first term. Or if the Republicans nominate Mitt Romney and he wins, he would become the nation's first Mormon president. VOICE ONE: Americans will choose their next president in general elections on November fourth. The names on the ballot will be the result of a nominating process that began just after New Year's Day. Each state has its own process for choosing presidential candidates. But for candidates the goal is the same: to secure enough delegates to win their party's nomination. State nominating elections will be held through June. Most of these votes take place in the form of primary elections. Other take place at meetings known as caucuses, or at state conventions. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party will hold its national nominating convention in August in Denver, Colorado. The Republican National Convention will take place in September in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. To win nomination, candidates will need a simple majority of their party's delegates. The rules for awarding delegates, though, are anything but simple. Democrats and Republicans are the two major political parties in the United States. Small, so-called third parties like the Green Party also nominate candidates for president. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The nominating season began January third with the caucuses in Iowa. At caucuses, voters gather in local places like schools, libraries or even people's homes. Some caucuses use secret ballots like traditional elections. But others require voters to gather in different areas of a room to show their support for their favorite candidate. The main difference between a primary and a caucus is the process involved. A primary is more like a traditional election. The majority of states hold primary elections. VOICE TWO: More than forty states will be holding primaries this year. Some are open primaries. That means independent voters can take part. Others are closed primaries: only members of a party can vote. The ability to win a closed primary can be an important test of party support for a candidate. For example, the first two primaries that John McCain won, in New Hampshire and South Carolina, were open. The Arizona senator won them on the strength of independent voters. His victory last week in Florida was his first win with only Republicans voting. VOICE ONE: He defeated Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, thirty-six percent to thirty-one percent. Winning Florida put John McCain into the lead in Republican delegates. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Florida. But none of the Democratic candidates campaigned there. National party officials are refusing to seat Florida's delegates at the convention this summer. The dispute is over the decision to hold Florida's Democratic primary before February fifth -- Super Tuesday. VOICE TWO: This is the week for Super Tuesday. The name is used for the day when the largest number of states hold presidential nominating elections. Super Tuesday is so big this time, "Super Duper Tuesday," it seems closer to a national primary than ever before. VOICE ONE: Primaries did not become an important part of the nominating process until the nineteen sixties. Before then, only some states held them. Nominees were mainly decided at the conventions by party leaders. Many Americans disliked that system. Pressure to end the political deal making led to more primaries. But that led to a new criticism: that states with early primaries have too much influence on presidential races. Candidates give more attention to small states with early contests than big states with later ones. This time, many states moved their nominating elections earlier in the year. Super Tuesday will include big states like California and New York, which have hundreds of delegates. In all, twenty-four of the fifty states will hold primaries or caucuses, with one exception. Republicans in West Virginia will hold a convention. VOICE TWO: Alex Keyssar is a political historian and professor at Harvard University. He says having almost half the states vote on a single day puts greater importance on raising money for television advertising and travel. It also put more pressure on candidates to do well early in the primary season or drop out, as several already have. Last Wednesday, former North Carolina senator John Edwards left the race for the Democratic nomination. And former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani left the Republican race. Neither had won any states. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Democratic race has narrowed to two candidates: Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Former president Bill Clinton has campaigned for his wife. But his recent attacks on Barack Obama brought strong criticism within the party. Going into Super Tuesday, Hillary Clinton has more delegates than Barack Obama. But even winning all twenty-two states holding Democratic votes would not give either of them enough delegates to secure the nomination. About one thousand seven hundred Democratic delegates will be awarded. Two thousand twenty-five are needed for nomination. VOICE TWO: Going into the primary season, many experts predicted that clear front-runners would be known by the close of Super Tuesday. Now they are not so sure. Tom Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says delegates could end up split among candidates. But he thinks it is likely that the parties will want to gather their support around one candidate. At the national nominating conventions, delegates are generally expected to support the candidate who sent them. But some delegates have a right to vote for another candidate. In a tight race, the nominee could be decided by hundreds of delegates known as superdelegates. These are party leaders and elected officials. Superdelegates are free to choose any candidate, but they often vote for the candidate who wins their home state. VOICE ONE: The Democrats award delegates proportionally. For example, if candidates win forty percent of the popular vote in a state, they win forty percent of that state's delegates. The Republicans generally use the winner-takes-all system. The candidate with the highest percentage of votes in a state wins all of that state’s delegates. As a result, Super Tuesday is more likely to produce a commanding front-runner for the Republicans than for the Democrats. One thousand one hundred ninety-one delegates are needed to win the Republican nomination. More than one thousand will be awarded on Tuesday. VOICE TWO: Republican candidate Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses. That gave him a strong start. But now the former Arkansas governor is low on campaign money. Last week he finished fourth in Florida, behind John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, finished fifth. VOICE ONE: John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, says the biggest issue of the twenty-first century is "radical Islamic extremism." Mitt Romney presents himself as the true conservative. And he says his experience in business prepares him to deal with the economy. Hillary Clinton says she has the experience to deal with America's problems from her first day as president. Barack Obama, forty-six years old and a first-term senator, says experience is important. But, he said at a California debate last week, "it is important to be right on day one." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:? And I’m Faith Lapidus. For election news, and for transcripts and MP3s of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Finding About Bird Flu Helps Explain Limited Spread to People
* Byline: Also: New studies of broken hips. And scientists find the remains of an ancient ape in Kenya. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell how a deadly bird flu virus is able to infect people. We will also tell about two studies of broken hipbones. And, we report on the discovery of ancient ape remains in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Researchers in the United States have found an important reason why a virus known to kill birds has not infected many people. They found that the bird flu virus only infects people when it connects with one kind of cell receptor. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported their discovery in the publication Nature Biotechnology. Not all influenza viruses affect people. Some flu viruses only attack birds or pigs. In recent years, the h-five-h-one?bird flu virus has infected more than three hundred fifty people in fourteen countries. The World Health Organization says the disease killed more than two hundred of them. The victims seem to have become infected as a result of being with or near birds. Experts fear the h-five-h-one virus could change and develop the ability to pass from one person to another. VOICE TWO: Scientists know that a protein on the flu virus must join with sugar receptors in a human respiratory cell before the virus can infect a person. The virus uses the sugar receptor to enter the cell and infect it. The new study has shown that this explanation was too simple. For a person to get infected, the virus must connect with a special shape of receptor in human lung cells. The receptor has two different shapes. One is similar to a three-sided object. The other looks like an open umbrella or sunshade. VOICE ONE: The Massachusetts researchers found the bird flu virus must connect to the umbrella shaped receptor before it can spread from person to person. Currently, it has only a way to connect with the three-sided receptors. Scientists say this discovery should help them develop a more effective way to observe changes in the bird flu virus. They now know to look for viruses that can connect to the umbrella shaped receptors. The knowledge could also lead to a vaccine against the bird flu virus. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Millions of people break a hip at some time in their lives. In the United States alone, more than three hundred twenty thousand people suffer broken hips each year. A broken hip, also called a hip fracture, is very painful. The hip is a boney area in the upper leg. For some older adults, a hip fracture can mean loss of ability to walk. The injury can end their chances for a normal life. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published two studies about hip fractures. The studies may help doctors identify people’s risks of broken bones during their later years. VOICE ONE: Doctors usually order a bone mineral density test when an older adult breaks a hip by falling from a standing position. Such a break is called a low-trauma fracture. The doctors order the test because they suspect the bone-weakening disorder osteoporosis. The disorder thins the thickness, or density, of bones without causing pain. People usually do not know they have osteoporosis until a test confirms it. But doctors may not order a test if the patient has suffered a high-trauma fracture. This fracture results from a car crash injury. Or, a fall from a chair may cause it. VOICE TWO: One study included adults sixty-six years of age or older. Researchers collected nine years of information about eight thousand women. The researchers also studied five years of information about almost six thousand men. All those studied were tested for bone density. People who showed lower bone density suffered more high-trauma fractures. Dawn Mackey led the study. She works at the Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco, California. Some women in the study had a high-trauma hip fracture during the period they were observed. These women had about eight percent less bone density than women who did not suffer such breaks. Men with high-trauma fractures had about six percent less bone density than the other men. Miz Mackey’s team found that women with osteoporosis were two times as likely to get each kind of fracture than other women. Men who had osteoporosis were three times as likely as other men. VOICE ONE: The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a separate study of hip fractures. Jane Cauley of the University of Pittsburgh led a team that studied thousands of older women. Her team formed a step-by-step process. The process measured a woman’s threat for hip fractures over five years. The women studied reported eleven facts about themselves. The researchers then considered the women’s ages, general health, height and weight. They also noted the women’s ethnicity, physical activity, and broken bones after age fifty-four. They noted whether or not the women smoked or had been treated with steroid drugs. They examined for history of diabetes and broken hips in the women’s parents. The team then kept records of the conditions. They developed a measurement system for the possibility of hip fractures. The system may add to a doctor’s ability to know which of their patients might break a hip. The doctors then could advise protective measures. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have reported finding remains of an ancient ape in eastern Africa. The scientists believe the remains came from an animal that lived almost ten million years ago. They say it may be close to the last common ancestor of modern African apes and human beings. Yutaka Kunimatsu from Kyoto University led an international team of scientists. Japanese and Kenyan researchers discovered bones from the chin and mouth of the ancient ape in two thousand five. The jawbone fossils were found in northern Kenya. The team tested the fossils for almost two years. The findings were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. VOICE ONE: The jawbone fossils came from volcanic soil in Nakali, an area forty kilometers from the Rift Valley. In the past, other fossils were found there. Mister Kunimatsu’s team named the ape Nakalipthecus nakayamai – or just Nakali. The jawbone held three teeth. The researchers also found eleven other ape teeth. Mister Kunimatsu said the animal was about the size of a female gorilla or orangutan. He said the teeth showed the ape could have crushed hard food. The teeth are similar to those of another ancient ape that lived in what is now Greece. VOICE TWO: The researchers used several methods to find Nakali’s age. They compared the fossils with remains of ancient horse-like creatures called hipparions. The hipparions had already been found to be ten million to eleven million years old. Geologists on the team collected rocks from the Nakali area. The geologists used radiation to learn the ages of the rocks. The team then combined all the methods to estimate the ape’s age. Mister Kunimatsu reported that Nakali lived about nine point eight to nine point nine million years ago. VOICE ONE: The test results dispute a widely accepted theory. Some scientists believe the ape from Greece was the last common ancestor to both modern African apes and humans. They say the last common ancestor began life in Africa and then moved to Asia and Europe. Under this theory, the ancient ape returned to Africa where it developed into humans. The theory resulted because scientists working in Africa have found few ape fossils from seven million to thirteen million years ago. But now there are the jawbone and teeth from Nakali. VOICE TWO: Recently, other ape fossils from that period reportedly were found in eastern Africa. An aide to fossil researchers found an ape’s canine tooth about two years ago in Ethiopia. Last year, this research group found eight more teeth from the same kind of animal in the same place. Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo led the researchers. He says the creature may have been a direct ancestor of a gorilla. Or, he says it may have been an animal that developed teeth like a gorilla but died out over time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Groups Divided Over How to Provide US Food Aid
* Byline: President Bush wants to ease restrictions on buying local crops in developing countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A woman in Zambia with a bag of corn from the international aid group CAREThe United States provides more than half the world's food assistance. American programs totaled close to two billion dollars last year. But critics say the current system wastes money and delays the arrival of needed food. Under current law, United States government agencies have to buy American-produced food. And seventy-five percent of the aid must be carried on American ships. President Bush wants to change the system. His proposal would provide food assistance by purchasing crops directly from farmers in the developing world. Money in the form of cash grants would supply about twenty-five percent of food aid. President Bush, in his State of the Union speech last month, called on Congress to support the proposal. He said it would build up local agriculture and, in his words, "help break the cycle of famine." Last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office reported that sixty-five percent of the money for food aid was going to costs besides food. It said rising business and transportation costs had cut the average amount of food shipped over the last five years by fifty-two percent. Yet demand has grown. Critics among charity groups have called for changes in the system. CARE USA, a major aid group, said last year that it would not take part in the current system after two thousand nine. But the system also has supporters among agricultural, shipping and charity groups, and lawmakers in Congress. Supporters say the current system works well and that changing it could harm food aid programs. The continuing debate over the most effective ways to provide food aid is not the only agriculture-related issue in Washington. Congress has been working for months on a major farm bill. The House of Representatives and the Senate passed similar versions of legislation last year. President Bush says he may veto the final bill that reaches him. He says it would cost too much in its present form. He wants to end subsidy payments to farmers who earn a lot for their crops. The president has a new agriculture secretary to deal with these issues. Former North Dakota governor Ed Schafer was sworn into office in late January. He replaced Mike Johanns, who resigned to run for the United States Senate from Nebraska. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m?Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Looking Between the Covers for a Lesson in Textbook Intimacy
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: getting the most out of textbooks for English learners. Maria Spelleri, who teaches English for academic purposes, goes so far as to talk about getting "intimate" with a textbook. MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, you know, many international students, when they come to the United States, even though they may be very good English students, have learned English at a very high level, they're just not quite able to manage the textbooks that they face in college. And that's really because these books are very tough. They're intimidating. They're not user-friendly, they're very dense, unattractive, oversized, heavy. I think students look at these things and just imagine all the potential for forgetting that lies within the covers of those books." RS: "Do you want to be on intimate terms with your textbook?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, I think if you want to be successful in college, you do. And you need to build familiarity with a textbook, and that's going to help you reduce that psychological intimidation and see your textbook as just another learning tool, like your calculator or whatever." RS: "How do you go about doing that?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, you have to really explore your textbook, you have to make an effort, and you've got to do this in the first week of class because after that it's almost too late. Start at the beginning of the book. First, you should read the notes to the student, which is a section that I think almost everybody passes up as something irrelevant. But you can find great tips for study success, for how to use the book, other materials like Web sites and supplemental study guides that can help you with the course. "Proceed to the table of contents. Again, a lot of people skip the table of contents unless they're just looking for a certain page. But the table of contents, an overview of that, can tell you how the book is set up, and following the same pattern within each chapter. And the student has to get familiar with the terminology that the book uses: does it use units, chapters, sections, parts? Because this is what the professor is going to use in the course. "So many of the freshman-level textbooks are basically introducing the new vocabulary of a discipline. So the back of the book has a glossary. I mean, many students don't even realize that's back there. So get to the back of the book, page four hundred five, page five hundred, and notice the glossary. "And the appendices, also. This is where you're going to find your basic information that the textbook writer is assuming you already know -- for example, a table of elements for a chemistry book, or MLA [Modern Language Association] formatting for a literature book." RS: "Textbooks are written in a different language. Textbooks are not written as if we're speaking to one another. How do you advise students to get through that, so they'll understand the textbooks, the writing in the textbooks, which tends to be very complex?" MARIA SPELLERI: "That's a great question. The very first thing a student has to do is to decide that they are going to be interactive with their textbook. They are going to build this friendship by listening to the textbook and communicating back to the textbook. And this means reading interactively. One method of doing this is the SQ3R method which is Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. And it's a way of attacking your textbook, and attacking your reading, kind of a methodical way. "You start with a survey, which is looking through the assigned reading, the chapter or the unit, looking at the pictures, reading the captions, reading the headings, the subheadings. And that really primes your brain for what's coming, and once you're more receptive, it makes the comprehension go much easier for you as well." AA: "And what's the next step from there?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, to question. As you are surveying, you need to question. Let's say, for example, you're reading a psychology text and you see a heading in a chapter, or a subheading, that says 'situational and dispositional shyness.' You should automatically form a question in your head: what's the difference between those two? "And as you form these questions in your initial survey, and then you go back and move on to the next step, the reading, you're going to be looking unconsciously for the answers to those questions. It's this kind of brain priming that helps the reader stay engrossed in the material that otherwise is kind of flying at them and they're not really comprehending it." AA: Maria Spelleri teaches English for academic purposes at Manatee Community College in Venice, Florida. We'll have more from her next time. That's WORDMASTER for this week. For more advice about learning English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Between Hello and Goodbye, Learning the Rules of Telephone Etiquette
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Hanging on the Telephone"/Blondie AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some tips on telephone etiquette. RS: One person you don't want to leave hanging on the phone is Nancy Friedman. She's been traveling the country, and now abroad, on a mission. AA: That mission, in her words: "training corporations to do a better job when the public calls." Nancy Friedman calls herself the Telephone Doctor. Let's start with her prescription for answering the phone: NANCY FRIEDMAN: "So it would be 'good morning, XYZ company, this is Mary -- stop. Anything after our name, erases our name. 'How can I help you?' is not necessary in initial greetings. We're there to help, that's why we've picked up the telephone. I can guarantee you that most 'how can I help you's' are interrupted by somebody asking for somebody or needing some help." RS: Nancy Friedman says, don't underestimate the power of those first few seconds on the phone. NANCY FRIEDMAN: "That's where a sale is made, where somebody says 'Good morning, thanks for calling, Telephone Doctor's office, this is Nancy,' that's the point where the person thinks, 'Do I want to do business with this company or don't I.' And number two, the other nice part of this is when you give your name, eighty percent of the time you will get the caller's name. So if I were saying, 'Good afternoon, Telephone Doctor's office, this is Nancy,' you might say, 'Hi Nancy, this is Rosanne.'" RS: And there's a reason she phrases it "this is Nancy." NANCY FRIEDMAN: "Not 'Nancy speaking,' please remember -- not 'Nancy speaking.' We don't want that." AA: Why not? NANCY FRIEDMAN: "Well, we don't want 'Nancy speaking' because Nancy Speaking is married to Bob Speaking. They have two children, Judy Speaking (laughter) ... " RS: Exactly! NANCY FRIEDMAN: "Well, I make a joke on that, but the bottom line is they won't remember your name." AA: OK, let's say you're on the phone with someone and you're not sure who it is, is it polite to ask: "Who is this?" NANCY FRIEDMAN: "Well, it is not polite to ask 'who is this?' over the telephone any more than if you would walk up to somebody at a party and say 'who are you?' We would shake our hand, we would put our hand out as a sign of friendship and we would say, 'Hello, my name is Nancy. And you are? ' And they would say it. So on the telephone we want to remember to do pretty much the same thing. When somebody calls up and gives a name, it is very rude to say, 'I'm sorry, what was your name again?' You can say, 'I apologize, I know you gave your name and I missed it. My name is Nancy and you are?'" RS: But what if the caller never gave his or her name right up? AA: Extracting the caller's name can require going beyond the obivious questions -- questions that might sound rude. NANCY FRIEDMAN: "Who is this,' 'what company are you with,' 'what is this concerning' -- those are all very threatening and very frustrating questions to ask and to answer, so we simply believe if somebody hasn't identified themselves, and you ask for Mister Smith [the reply should be]: 'I'll be glad to ring his office -- let me tell him who's calling, please,' and not 'Can I ask who's calling?' Not 'Who is this?' [Instead, say] 'Let me tell him who's calling please.' But that has a second part to it and a very important second part. If you're turning around and telling Mr. Bigshot it's Mrs. Smith on the phone, Mr. Bigshot must answer the phone with Mrs. Smith's name or don't screen." RS: In other words, don't try to find out who's calling. AA: Nancy Friedman has some other rules of customer service. NANCY FRIEDMAN: "Smile before you pick up the phone, because the callers can hear it, [and] don't rush callers. We find that sometimes, especially when there's a language barrier, each side tries to rush the other caller. Ending a phone call should be done as pleasantly as the beginning. 'Hey, great to talk with you,' 'good meeting you by phone' -- whatever closing signature you'd like. You do it on a letter: 'best wishes,' 'stay well,' all those things. Do it on the telephone, too." AA: Nancy Friedman, dispensing advice as the Telephone Doctor, at telephonedoctor.com. RS: If you have a problem the Wordmasters could cure, write to word@voanews.com, or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "The Telephone Hour"/Original Broadway cast of "Bye-Bye Birdie" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Hiking the Appalachian Trail Through the Mountains of 14 States
* Byline: The trail one of the most popular walking paths in the United States. It is more than 3,400 kilometers long. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most popular walking paths in the United States, the Appalachian Trail. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths through the country. This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States. Some of these paths, or trails, are short. Some are only a few kilometers. Others are many hundreds of kilometers. One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System. The trails system was established by Congress and the President in nineteen sixty-eight. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Trail is more than three thousand four hundred kilometers long. It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia. The trail goes through fourteen states. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains. They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama. VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth. They first began forming about one thousand million years ago. During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind. Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them. Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail. And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail. Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments. Some parts are not protected by the government directly. Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property. VOICE TWO: Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains. They can look down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers. Farmland in the valleys is rich and productive. And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys. For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye. Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in nineteen twenty-one. Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected. In nineteen twenty-five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D.C. and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference. Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia. It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery. Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed. This happened on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty-seven. VOICE TWO: Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people. But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening. Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly. Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world. However, it is not the longest hiking trail. Two others in the western United States are longer. They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous. VOICE ONE: People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail. The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world. Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago. This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States. The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day. Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail. For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking. They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days. These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents. VOICE ONE: In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps. The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference. Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. The Appalachian Mountain Club has about ninety thousand members. It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail. Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food. Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one. These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead. It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends. Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families. Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family. She found it very different from what her family does every day at home. She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp. There are no radios or televisions. So families spend time talking with each other. After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience. VOICE ONE: The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people. The first part is difficult. But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying. This may be enough for most people. But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail. These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end. They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring. Generally, they hike the more than three thousand four hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months. VOICE TWO: One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson. Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book “A Walk in the Woods.”? However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned. At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail. After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip. Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it. He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness. He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts. At the end of “A Walk in the Woods,” Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. ___ Correction: This report said Mount Mitchell is in Georgia; it is in North Carolina. Hiker Raymond Myers wrote: "Also you say that the Appalachian Trail starts in Maine. That certainly slights Georgia, where over 90 per cent of through hikers start each year!? The trail has a terminus in Maine. It does not 'start' there. Same for Georgia." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-05-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Drug Shown to Cut HIV Risk in Breastfed Babies
* Byline: In a new study, babies given nevirapine for six weeks had about half the infection rate as those with a single dose at birth. Second of two reports on breastfeeding. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. We talked last week about the value of breastfeeding for a baby’s development. But getting the milk into the baby can seem difficult, at least at first. So here is some advice. Breastfeeding should begin right after a baby is born. There may be experts at a hospital or other health center who can show a new mother several different positions for breastfeeding. A mother can get a painful back or neck if she leans over to feed her baby. Better to bring the baby to the breast instead. The baby's mouth should be open as wide as possible so that all of the nipple and area around it fit inside. A baby should be fed often at the beginning, usually about every two hours. The Mayo Clinic in the United States also notes it is best to feed before a baby gets too hungry. Experts say that when a mother breastfeeds often, it helps increase her milk production. Women can learn more about breastfeeding from books or support groups or the Internet. But some mothers face difficult decisions. In developing countries, breastfeeding remains a leading way for babies to become infected with the AIDS virus. Yet formula mixed with dirty water can make a baby sick. Earlier this week, at a conference in Boston, AIDS experts reported good news. They said a study of about two thousand babies showed that the drug nevirapine can cut the risk of HIV infection through breastfeeding. Nevirapine is widely used in developing countries to prevent infected mothers from passing the virus to their babies during childbirth. The babies are currently given nevirapine just once, at birth. But this is what the study found: Babies given nevirapine daily for six weeks had about half the rate of HIV infections as those given only a single dose. By six months of age, they still had almost one-third less risk of infection or death. Scientists reported that six weeks of nevirapine appeared to be as safe as the single dose given under current guidelines. Teams from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland led the study with investigators from Ethiopia, India and Uganda. In two thousand six the United Nations changed its policies on breastfeeding by HIV-infected mothers. The new advice supports breastfeeding for six months if mothers do not have money for basic foods or baby formula. The idea is that the benefits of breastfeeding are greater than the risks. Experts say newborns who are not breastfed have five to seven times the risk of dying from pneumonia or diarrhea compared to breastfed babies. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Early Leaders Debate Presidential Powers
* Byline: Delegates at the Philadelphia convention voted 60 times on how to choose a chief executive. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. Today, Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael continue the story of the United States Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edmund Randolph's speech introducing the Virginia Plan at the conventionLast week, we told how the convention heard details of the Virginia Plan. That was a fifteen-part plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia. The plan described a national government with a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary. The convention debated the meaning of the words "national" and "supreme." Some delegates feared that such a central government would take away power from the states. But in the end, they approved the proposal. On June first, they began debate on the issue of a national executive. VOICE ONE: The Virginia Plan offered several points for discussion. It said the national executive should be chosen by the national legislature. The executive's job would be to carry out the laws made by the legislature. He would serve a number of years. He would be paid a small amount of money. These points served as a basis for debate. Over a period of several weeks, the delegates worked out details of the executive's position and powers. VOICE TWO: It seemed every delegate at the Philadelphia convention had something to say about the issue of a national executive. They had been thinking about it for some time. Almost every delegate was afraid to give the position extended powers. Almost no one wanted America's chief executive to become as powerful as a king. Still, many of the delegates had faith in the idea of a one-man executive. Others demanded an executive of three men. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued for the one-man executive. He said the position required energy and the ability to make decisions quickly. He said these would best be found in one man. Edmund Randolph of Virginia disagreed strongly. He said he considered a one-man executive as "the fetus of monarchy." John Dickinson of Delaware said he did not denounce the idea of monarchy, of having a government headed by a king. He said it was one of the best governments in the world. However, in America, he said, a king was "out of the question." The debate over the size of the national executive lasted a long time. Finally, the delegates voted. Seven state delegations voted for a one-man executive. Three voted against the idea. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the debate on size, other questions arose about the national executive. One question was the executive's term. Should he serve just once or could he be re-elected? Alexander Hamilton argued for a long term of office. He said if a president served only a year or two, America soon would have many former presidents. These men, he said, would fight for power. And that would be bad for the peace of the nation. Benjamin Franklin argued for re-election. The people, he said, were the rulers of a republic. And presidents were the servants of the people. If the people wanted to elect the same president again and again, they had the right to do this. VOICE TWO: Delegates debated two main proposals on the question. One was for a three-year term with re-election permitted. The other was for one seven-year term. The vote on the question was close. Five state delegations approved a term of seven years. Four voted no. The question came up again during the convention and was debated again. In the final document, the president's term was set at four years with re-election permitted. Next came the question of how to choose the national executive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It was a most difficult problem. The delegates debated, voted, re-debated, and re-voted a number of proposals. James Wilson proposed that the executive be elected by special representatives of the people, called electors. The electors would be chosen from districts set up for this purpose. Several delegates disagreed. They said the people did not know enough to choose good electors. They said the plan would be too difficult to carry out and would cost too much money. One delegate proposed that the national executive be elected by the state governors. He said the governors of large states would have more votes than the governors of small states. Nobody liked this proposal, especially delegates from the small states. It was defeated. VOICE TWO: Another proposal was to have the national executive elected directly by the people. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was shocked by this idea. "The people do not understand these things," he said. "A few dishonest men can easily fool the people. The worst way to choose a president would be to have him elected by the people." So the delegates voted to have the national legislature appoint the national executive. Then they voted against this method. Instead, they said, let state legislatures name electors who would choose the executive. But the delegates changed their mind on this vote, too. They re-debated the idea of direct popular elections. The convention voted on the issue sixty times. In the end, it agreed that the national executive should be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. VOICE ONE: Now, someone said, we have decided how to choose the executive. But what are we to do if the executive does bad things after being appointed? We should have some way of dismissing him. Yes, the delegates agreed. It should be possible to impeach the executive, to try him, and if guilty, remove him from office. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania spoke in support of impeachment. A national executive, he said, may be influenced by a greater power to betray his trust. The delegates approved a proposal for removing a chief executive found guilty of bribery, treason, or other high crimes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The last major question about the national executive was the question of veto power over the national legislature. Not one delegate was willing to give the executive complete power to reject new laws. And yet they felt the executive should have some voice in the law-making process. If this were not done, they said, the position of executive would have little meaning. And the national legislature would have the power of a dictator. James Madison offered a solution: The executive should have the power to veto a law, Madison said. But his veto could be over-turned if most members of the legislature voted to pass the law again. VOICE ONE: The final convention document listed more details about the national executive, or president. For example, it said the president had to be born in the United States or a citizen at the time the Constitution was accepted. He must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years. He must be at least thirty-five years old. The executive would be paid. But his pay could not be increased or reduced during his term in office. He would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. And, from time to time, he would have to report to the national legislature on the state of the Union. VOICE TWO: The final document also gave the words by which a president would be sworn-in. Every four years -- for more than two hundred years now -- each president has repeated this oath of office: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael. Join us again next week as we continue the story of the Constitution on THE MAKING OF A NATION in VOA Special English. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our American history series, go to voaspecialenglish.com.___ This is program #19 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Dysgraphia: More Than Just Bad Handwriting
* Byline: Part three in our series about learning disabilities. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. People who have unusual difficulty with reading, writing, listening or working with numbers might have a learning disability. We talked last week about a reading disorder, dyslexia. Today we discuss a writing disorder, dysgraphia. Writing is not an easy skill. Not only does it require the ability to organize and express ideas in the mind. It also requires the ability to get the muscles in the hands and fingers to form those ideas, letter by letter, on paper. Experts say teachers and parents should suspect dysgraphia if a child's handwriting is unusually difficult to read. Letters might be sized or spaced incorrectly. Capital letters might be in the wrong places.The child's hand, body or paper might be in a strange position. These can all be signs of dysgraphia. Spelling problems can also be related to the disorder. Many people have poor handwriting, but dysgraphia is more serious. Dsygraphia is a neurological disorder that generally appears when children are first learning to write. Writing by hand can be physically painful for people who have it. There are different kinds of dysgraphia. And it can appear with other learning disabilities, especially involving language. Experts are not sure what causes it. But they say early treatment can help prevent or reduce many problems. For example, special exercises can increase strength in the hands and improve muscle memory. This is training muscles to remember the shapes of letters and numbers. Children can try a writing aid like a thick pencil to see if that helps. Schools can also provide simple interventions like more time to complete writing activities or assistance from a note taker. Teachers could have students with dysgraphia take tests by speaking the answers into a recorder, or type their work instead of writing it. Children with dysgraphia might be able to avoid the problems of handwriting by using a computer. Yet experts say they could still gain from special instruction to help them organize their thoughts and put them into writing. Such skills become more important as children get older and schoolwork becomes more difficult. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our continuing series on learning disabilities, along with links to more information, can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Predicting This Year's Grammy Winners, and Remembering Some of the Very First
* Byline: Also: A question from Iran about the world's tallest building. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play music from artists nominated for the two thousand eight Grammy Awards ... And from some of very first Grammy Award winners, honored fifty years ago … And, we answer a listener’s question about the world’s tallest building. Tallest Building HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Iran. Ali Barati wants to know about the tallest building in the world. The answer to this question is less clear than you might think. Disputes over the answer to this question have to do with whether tall tower structures can be included as buildings. Is a communications tower a building? Do the metal antenna devices on top of some buildings count as additional height? What about structures that are partly under water? Or, communication towers that are supported by metal wires? No matter the answer, a building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will be the tallest above-ground structure in the world when it is completed next year. The Burj Dubai is expected to measure six hundred ninety-three meters tall, not counting a spire at the very top. The current height of the Burj Dubai is about six hundred meters. Its more than one hundred sixty levels will contain homes, offices, shops, and a hotel. To make sure this building in Dubai will really be the tallest in the world, we checked with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. This organization is based in Chicago, Illinois. It includes building designers, engineers and planning experts. The group’s aim is to provide useful information on planning and building tall buildings around the world. The council says a building’s height is measured from the sidewalk level of the main entry to the structural top of the building. But the council says it looks at other ways to measure height as well. These include from the sidewalk to the highest floor of a building, to the top of the building’s roof covering, or to the top of the antenna or spire on the top of the building. Designers of the Burj Dubai have made sure that it is the tallest in all four ways of measuring. Before the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing building in the world was the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. That tower measures five hundred fifty-three meters. And, the tallest structure in the world is currently a television transmission antenna in the American state of North Dakota. It extends six hundred twenty-eight meters into the sky. But it will not be the tallest structure for long. Fiftieth Grammy Awards (MUSIC) HOST: Photographers take pictures of country singer Taylor Swift with a large copy of a Grammy Award That was the Champs performing their hit song “Tequila.”? In nineteen fifty-nine the band was honored for that song at the first ever Grammy Awards ceremony. This Sunday night, music makers will gather for the fiftieth yearly Grammy Awards. Barbara Klein plays music from some of this year’s nominees as well those honored at the first Grammys. BARBARA KLEIN: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presents Grammy Awards for the best recordings of the year. The ceremony will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The event will be broadcast live on television as it has been since nineteen seventy-one. Some of the nominees will perform at the show, like the Foo Fighters. They are nominated for five awards including Record of the Year for this song, “The Pretender.” (MUSIC) Rolling Stone magazine made a list of which nominees it thought would win Grammys and which nominees it thought should win. The magazine predicts that Christina Aguilera will win Best Female Vocal Performance for the song “Candyman.”? But it says the singer Feist deserves the award for her performance of “1234.” (MUSIC) Ella Fitzgerald won that top prize at the first Grammy Awards. It was for her album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book.”? Here is “Puttin’ On the Ritz,” from that album. (MUSIC) This year Amy Winehouse was nominated for six top Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Her album “Back to Black" was nominated for Album of the Year. It includes this song, “Wake Up Alone.” (MUSIC) At the first Grammy show, Perry Como won Best Male Vocal Performance for “Catch a Falling Star.” (MUSIC) This year, Seal is among the nominees in that category for the song “Amazing.” (MUSIC) There are five nominees for the two thousand eight Grammy for Album of the Year. They are a mixed group, including country, rock and roll and hip-hop. However, the jazz album from Herbie Hancock captured our interest. “River: The Joni Letters” is a collection of songs made famous by Joni Mitchell. Here Herbie Hancock performs “River.”? (MUSIC) We leave you with the nineteen fifty-nine Grammy Album of the Year winner, Henry Mancini and “The Music From Peter Gunn.”? We think this theme from the television series remains one of the coolest tunes ever. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our writers were Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bush's $3 Trillion Budget
* Byline: The president's last spending proposal includes increases for defense and homeland security, while seeking savings in health programs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. President Bush holds a laptop computer showing the electronic version of his 2009 budgetThis week, President Bush sent Congress the final budget of his presidency. The spending plan for two thousand nine would give the federal government its first budget over three trillion dollars. Deficit spending would come close to the record of four hundred thirteen billion dollars in two thousand four. But the administration predicts a balanced budget by two thousand twelve. The budget proposal for next year includes increases for the departments of defense and homeland security. It calls for spending seventy billion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the full cost for the year is expected to be higher. The president has been providing money for the wars through emergency spending measures. The administration proposes cuts in the growth of Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is government health insurance for older people; Medicaid pays for medical care for the poor. The move is unpopular in Congress. But White House Budget Director Jim Nussle says the budget reduces growth in these programs to a level the nation can afford. The president's budget includes a short-term economic growth plan. It also includes an extension of tax cuts, along with assistance for homeowners and more spending for scientific research. Democrats say the budget spends too little on important services -- and too much when it comes to increasing the national debt. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad says total debts were about six trillion dollars at the end of the president's first year. At the end of eight years in office, he says, that number is expected to rise above ten trillion. Conservatives in President Bush's Republican Party also criticize the growth in government spending. He entered office with a budget surplus in January of two thousand one. But his budget director notes that the United States later suffered terrorist attacks and natural disasters that required spending more. The new budget year begins October first. Generally, a lot of changes are made in the last budget of a president who is leaving office. This is true especially when Congress is governed by the opposition party. For the first time, Congress received the president's budget request in electronic form. Lawmakers and members of the public can buy traditional printed copies of the huge document if they wish. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter.For transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Money Talks: Everything Else Walks
* Byline: Some business terms that will cost you. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) People often say that money talks. They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done. But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power. Ask anyone in a business. They will tell you that it is a jungle out there. The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people. Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals. And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival of their business. People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there. They must not be led into making bogus investments. Bogus means something that is not real. Nobody is sure how the word got started. But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds. A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, said the word came from a criminal whose name was Borghese. The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank. After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town. So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus. People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off. A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly. A writer for the magazine "American Speech" said he first saw the expression used in nineteen seventy-one. It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university. The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated. Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly. To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks. This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something. For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price. You get down to brass tacks when you say, "it sounds good, but how much does it cost." Word expert Charles Funk thinks the expression comes from sailors on ships. They clean the bottom of a boat. When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together. So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there. And, some good luck will help, too. (MUSIC) This?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. This?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: McCain Secures the Republican Lead; Clinton, Obama Still in Close Race
* Byline: With Mitt Romney out, John McCain urges party unity as Democrats remain without a clear front-runner. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. After Super Tuesday, Republicans have their likely nominee for president in the November election, John McCain. But for Democrats, there was nothing super about the biggest day of voting in the nation's presidential nominating history. Almost half the states voted on delegates for the conventions this summer where the parties will nominate their candidates. California and other states that normally held their votes later in the year moved them up to have more influence. Yet the Democrats are no closer to a clear front-runner than they were before Tuesday. Senator McCain of Arizona is now the clear Republican front-runner. He won nine states. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won seven. And former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee won the remaining five states where Republicans voted Tuesday, all in the South. But on Thursday Mitt Romney left the race. He said taking his fight to the convention would delay the launch of a national campaign, and make it easier for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to win. For Democrats, the fight continues between Senator Clinton of New York and Senator Obama of Illinois. He won more states, but she won delegate-heavy states like New York and, the biggest of all, California. They ended up with close delegate counts as a result of the complex process that the Democrats use for dividing delegates. The primary season will continue through June. Voters in eight states make their choices in the next week. John McCain has well over half the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. Some Republicans think he is not conservative enough; he is asking his party to unite behind him. A new Time magazine poll suggests that John McCain would lose to Barack Obama, forty-eight to forty-one percent. But if the election were between John McCain and Hillary Clinton, the study shows that each would get forty-six percent. As the Democratic race intensifies, so does the race for money. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each raised about one hundred million dollars last year. But his campaign reported raising thirty-two million dollars in January, compared to thirteen million for her campaign. Unlike many Obama supporters, many Clinton supporters have already given the limit permitted by law. Hillary Clinton said this week that she loaned five million dollars of her own money to her campaign last month. On Super Tuesday, voters who said they cared most about the economy were more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton or John McCain. Democrats who said the Iraq war was the most important issue were more likely to choose Barack Obama. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney captured the majority of voters who said immigration was the most important issue. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Cole Porter, 1891-1964: His Songs From the Nineteen Twenties, Thirties and Forties Remain as Fresh as When He Wrote Them
* Byline: Cole Porter’s songs are still being sung and played today. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and music of American songwriter Cole Porter. (MUSIC: "Begin the Beguine") VOICE ONE: That was "Begin the Beguine" played by Artie Shaw's orchestra in nineteen thirty-eight. It is one of almost one thousand songs Cole Porter wrote. In his seventy-three years, more than five hundred of those songs were published. Porter wrote most of his songs in the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties. Yet they remain as fresh as when he wrote them. Cole Porter’s songs are still being sung and played today. They are performed at musical theaters, jazz clubs, even rock-and-roll concerts. A movie about his life, called “De-Lovely,” was released in two thousand four. Kevin Kline stars in the movie as Cole Porter. Ashley Judd plays his wife, Linda Porter. Popular young performers of today sing his songs in the movie. We will play some songs from that movie later in this program. VOICE TWO: Cole Porter was born June ninth, eighteen ninety-one, in the middle western state of Indiana. His family was wealthy and educated. His mother, Kate, guided him to music at an early age. He wrote his first song at the age of ten. As a young man, he was sent east to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In his extra time, he continued to write songs. Two were for the university: the "Yale Bulldog" song and "Bingo Eli Yale." They are still sung there today. After finishing his studies at Yale, Cole Porter went to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to study law. That plan lasted only a year. At a party one night, he played some of his songs for the students and professors. The head of the law school spoke to him. "Why are you studying law?” he asked. "You are no good at it. Why don't you go to Harvard's Music School and then write for the musical theater?"? Later, Porter said: "That idea had never entered my head before. " VOICE ONE: At the time, musical theater was extremely popular in America. This is because there were few music records. And radio programs were still being developed. So, songwriters had to work in the musical theater to be successful. Cole Porter wrote his first musical show in nineteen sixteen. He was still a student at Harvard. The show was called "See America First." It was produced in the Broadway theater area of New York City. The show was a complete failure. Porter wanted to leave town until people forgot it. So, he went to Europe. He stayed there for most of the next thirteen years. VOICE TWO: During this time, Cole Porter became famous for his parties. His guests were wealthy, pleasure-loving people from all over Europe. They liked him because he was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. And they loved his songs, which he played at his parties. Here Cole Porter sings his song, “You’re the Top.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In France, Cole Porter met the woman who became his wife. She was a beautiful and rich American named Linda Lee Thomas. They were married in nineteen nineteen. The Porters gave parties that lasted for days. They had so much money they could do anything they wanted. And they did. Their life together was a search for excitement, adventure and pleasure. Still, Cole Porter remained a serious, hard-working songwriter. He wrote both the words and the music for his songs. The words and music always fit together perfectly. His songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They were playful -- full of little jokes and hidden meanings. One of his earliest big hits is called "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." It was written in nineteen twenty-eight for a show called "Paris.”?? Alanis Morrissette sings the song in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” (MUSIC: "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)") VOICE TWO: Some of Porter's friends thought he might not be a success. One friend, Elsa Maxwell, told him: "You are too good. The humor and poetry of your words are far beyond the people. One day, however," she added, "you will bring the public up to your own level. Then the world will be yours." VOICE ONE: Most of Cole Porter's songs are about love and desire. When they were written, they stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. The words were often unexpected, sometimes even shocking. They spoke both directly and indirectly about sex, about drug use. Some songs he sang only for his friends. Critics consider "Love for Sale" to be one of Porter's finest songs. He wrote it in nineteen thirty for a Broadway musical called "The New Yorkers." For years, the song was banned on American radio. Here is a new version by Vivian Green. (MUSIC: "Love for Sale") VOICE TWO: Many of Porter's songs were written in a minor musical key. This gives them a feeling of sadness and longing. Yet they also can have a feeling of great excitement. American songwriter Alan J. Lerner said only Cole Porter could really "write" passion. One example is "Night and Day."? It is considered perhaps the finest song Cole Porter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that is almost a form of insanity. Porter got the idea for the song while traveling in Morocco. He heard drums and a man singing a prayer. The song has a sound that beats endlessly, over and over. It is like a lover who thinks of nothing but his love, over and over, night and day. The song "Night and Day" was introduced in a nineteen thirty-two Broadway musical comedy called "The Gay Divorcee." The great dancer and singer Fred Astaire played the leading male character and sang the song. "Night and Day" became famous around the world. And Cole Porter was becoming one of the greatest songwriters America had ever produced. Today there are many recordings of the song by different singers and musicians. Here is “Night and Day” from the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.”? John Barrowman and Kevin Kline sing it. (MUSIC: “Night and Day”) VOICE ONE: On our program next week, we will tell more about Cole Porter’s life, and bring you more of his music. (MUSIC: "Begin the Beguine") This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Measuring Star Power as a Force for Activism
* Byline: Celebrities may face mixed reactions to their efforts. Just ask George Clooney. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Some actors and rock stars use their star power for social activism. But how much power do they really have? Daniel Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts. He says measuring the effects of celebrity activism can be difficult. He thinks perhaps the most successful example is Princess Diana's campaign against landmines in the nineteen nineties. Yet in the end, he says, it was her death in a car crash that brought more attention to her work and to the issue. Professor Drezner says celebrity activism can have influence. Star power can bring public attention, donations and pressure for action on important issues. It can also educate fans through stories in the entertainment media. But at the same time there are risks. Most people will grow tired of an issue, the professor says. And they might also grow tired of a celebrity who keeps talking about it, especially if they think governments are already taking action. Also, when star power is directed at one crisis, others could be forgotten. Some people or governments could feel that celebrities are misusing their fame and wealth to influence policy. They might think an entertainer should stick to entertaining. Daniel Drezner says professional policy experts might feel deeper hostility. Facing competition, they begin to question their own influence. George Clooney, the Academy Award-winning actor, is no stranger to celebrity activism. For more than four years he has campaigned to end the conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan. Now, he is a newly appointed United Nations messenger of peace. He just returned from a two-week trip to Darfur, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo with a U.N. peacekeeping official. They also went to India, a big provider of U.N. peacekeepers. Yet when George Clooney visited U.N. headquarters in New York, not everyone was excited to see him. Fans clearly were. But he was prevented from reporting on his trip at a meeting of countries that provide peacekeeping troops. Diplomats told news agencies it was because of objections from several countries, including Russia. But a U.N. spokeswoman said it was because of rules -- procedural reasons. She added that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations hoped to have him talk to the countries in the future. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Cormac McCarthy and Thomas McGuane Write Stories Set in the American West
* Byline: We learn about their books and talk with Thomas McGuane. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we tell about two skillful writers who tell stories about people living in the American West. Cormac McCarthy has been writing intense stories about love, life and death for over forty years. Many of Thomas McGuane’s intelligent and often funny novels take place in the western state of Montana. Join us as we tell about both writers and their books. We will also have a chance to talk with Mister McGuane. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cormac McCarthy is considered one of the most important American writers alive today. Critics often compare his writing to the works of the American writers William Faulkner and Herman Melville. Mister McCarthy writes dark and intense stories that are often set in the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico. Some stories takes place in Mexico, or in his home state of Tennessee. Mister McCarthy’s language is very simple and direct. But each carefully chosen word is powerful and sometimes even heartbreaking in its effect on the reader. Mister McCarthy is also known for being a very private person who does not talk to the media very often. He has said that a writer should spend his or her time writing books rather than talking about them. VOICE TWO: Charles McCarthy, Junior was born in nineteen thirty-three in the state of Rhode Island. His Irish aunts gave him his nickname, Cormac, which is “Charles” in Gaelic. Cormac studied at the University of Tennessee before joining the United States Air Force. While he was stationed in the state of Alaska he discovered literature and began reading seriously. Later, he began working on his first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” in Chicago, Illinois while working part-time in a car repair shop. The book was published in nineteen sixty-five. VOICE ONE: Cormac McCarthy traveled through Europe with grant money from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rockefeller Foundation. In nineteen sixty-seven he returned to the United States. The next year, he published “Outer Dark,” followed by “Child of God” five years later. One of Cormac McCarthy’s most popular novels, “All the Pretty Horses,” was published in nineteen ninety-two. It is a story about John Grady Cole, a young cowboy who travels with his friends from Texas to Mexico. The story is set in the late nineteen forties. Yet Mister McCarthy’s descriptions of the landscapes of Texas and Mexico give the story a timeless quality. It is an unforgettable story about loyalty, bravery and love. This novel received a National Book Award as well as a National Book Critics Circle Award. It was later made into a movie. “All the Pretty Horses” was the first story in a three-part series called “The Border Trilogy.” The two other books in the series are “The Crossing” and “Cities of the Plain.”? Another Cormac McCarthy book, “No Country For Old Men,” was published in two thousand five. It was made into a popular movie last year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his most recent novel, “The Road.” It is about a father and a son who struggle to survive in a destroyed America. They travel under grey skies and burnt landscapes in an attempt to find safety. The story describes a horrible world as it might be after a nuclear war. But the most emotional part of the story is the father’s fierce and deep love for his son. Mister McCarthy says the idea for the book came to him several years ago when his son was four years old. Mister McCarthy and his son were in the town of El Paso, Texas staying at a hotel. Late at night while his son was sleeping, the writer looked out his window and imagined what the town might look like in a hundred years. He thought about his son and imagined the town with fires in the distance and everything destroyed. He wrote down these thoughts. Then, several years later he realized there was a novel to be written from this idea. VOICE ONE: When Cormac McCarthy is not writing, he likes to spend time at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. This organization gathers researchers and scientists from around the world to work on important issues such as economics, technology and the environment. Cormac McCarthy says he has always been interested in the way things work. And, he says talking with researchers at the Institute helps him to think. (MUSIC) (SOUND) “Before they reached the edge of the stream the sun was upon them. There was no bank as such, just the end of the wild roses and an uplifted ridge of thorn trees where magpies squawked at the intrusion. But they could hear the stream, which emanated not far away from a series of blue spring holes at a water temperature that stayed constant, winter and summer. Frank loved to arrive at a stream he knew as well as this one. You could strike it at any point and know where you were, like opening a favorite book at a random page.” VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? That was Thomas McGuane reading from his book “Nothing But Blue Skies” published in nineteen ninety-two. The story tells about Frank Copenhaver, a man whose life starts to fall apart after his wife leaves him. In the passage you just heard, Frank is out fishing with his daughter in the beautiful countryside of Montana where they live. In the book, Frank has many unusual adventures and gets into some trouble as he works on understanding what he wants from life. VOICE ONE: Thomas McGuane lives in Montana. Many of his characters and stories take place in this state, which is known for its expansive skies and beautiful environment. Mister McGuane says he likes to explore the conflicts between his main characters and the world in which they live. Critics praise his books for their rich language, technical skill and often very funny situations. VOICE TWO: Thomas McGuane was born in nineteen thirty-nine. He attended Michigan State University then later continued his studies at Yale University in Connecticut. He has written nine novels including “Panama”, “Ninety-Two in the Shade” and “The Cadence of Grass.” He has also written two non-fiction books on subjects that are important to him. These include “The Longest Silence” which is a collection of essays on fishing. In “Some Horses” he explores the relationship between people and horses. Mister McGuane has also written screenplays for several movies. We asked Thomas McGuane what influenced him to become a writer: (SOUND) “I wish I knew. I think maybe it was that my parents were readers. My father read a lot of adventurous, natural history books. And I think I associated writing with a sort of an adventurous life. That went away eventually. But I know for a boy that was a great attraction. And I come from an Irish family. My parents and my grandparents are all Irish and my great grandparents are all Irish immigrants. And that’s sort of a linguistic tradition, especially comical linguistic tradition, but it’s a very verbal household culture. And all of those things kind of turned me toward writing.”VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? Mister McGuane’s latest book is a collection of ten short stories called “Gallatin Canyon.” The stories are all about the good, and sometimes bad, behavior of people going about their daily lives. Mister McGuane skillfully describes interesting details about human behavior and the natural world. For example, in the short story “Ice”, a young boy observes the behavior of a popular classmate in order to learn about bravery. Later, he decides to go ice-skating on a large lake. When night falls he gets very lost. But, he faces his fears and finds a way to get home. And, on the way back to safety, he makes a surprising discovery. VOICE TWO: In the short story “Cowboy” Mister McGuane captures the local language and expressions of a man who works with cows and horses. As the cowboy spends years working for a ranching family, you understand his love of nature and hard work. And, you understand the difficult situation of being a cowboy who spends his life working on land he can never own. VOICE ONE: Thomas McGuane recently spoke at a literature event held by the Pen Faulkner organization in Washington, D.C. He praised the group for inviting writers to speak from all areas of the United States. Then he read two short stories. He also talked about what it was like to make movies. He talked about working with the actors Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson for a movie he wrote called “Missouri Breaks.” He said that when he worked on movies in the nineteen seventies, the industry was very different from what it is today. Thomas McGuane is currently working on a new novel about a doctor who works in a hospital emergency room. And, it might not surprise you that the story takes place in Montana.(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Autoimmune Diseases: When the Body's Defenses Become Attackers
* Byline: Some of the disorders attack just one area of the body, like the skin, eyes or muscles. Others affect an organ system or even the whole body. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS?in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: ?And I’m Barbara Klein. This week, we talk about a sickness called lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases affect the immune system – the body’s natural defenses for fighting disease. ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The immune system normally protects the body against foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria. Autoimmune diseases result from a failure of the body’s own defenses against disease. The immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign materials and its own cells. So the body starts attacking its own organs and tissues. VOICE TWO: There are three kinds of lupus. Discoid lupus affects only the skin and can be identified by red marks on the face or neck. These marks on the skin can also be a sign of another form of lupus called systemic lupus. Systemic lupus can affect almost any organ or organ system in the body. When people talk about lupus, they usually mean the systemic form of the disease. Some kinds of medicines can cause what is called drug-induced lupus. This form of lupus usually goes away when the patient stops using the medicines. VOICE ONE: High body temperature and pain in the elbows or knees are common signs of lupus. Other signs are red marks on the skin, feelings of extreme tiredness and lack of iron in the body. At different times, the effects of lupus can be either mild or serious. The signs of the disease can come and go. This makes identifying the disease difficult. There is no single laboratory test to tell if someone has lupus. Many people with lupus also suffer from depression. Lupus can also lead to other health problems. Women with lupus are at greater risk of developing heart disease. And between thirty and fifty percent of lupus patients will develop lupus-related kidney disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lupus affects an estimated one million five hundred thousand people in the United States. Experts are not sure what causes lupus. However, the disease has been known to attack members of the same family. Recently, scientists identified genes they believe are linked to lupus. They hope studying these genes more closely could help in development of new treatments for the disease, and possibly a cure. Recent studies also support a theory that a combination of genes is linked to the development of lupus. VOICE ONE: Other suspected causes include antibiotic drugs, mental or physical tension, infections and hormones. In fact, hormones might explain why lupus affects women far more often then men. The Lupus Foundation of America says more than ninety percent of the people with lupus are women. Scientists do not know why women are more at risk than men. They think it might involve female hormones, like estrogen. Another idea is that it could involve the foreign cells left in a woman’s body after a pregnancy. VOICE TWO: There is currently no cure for lupus. Yet doctors have developed ways of treating the disease. Treatments are based on the condition and needs of each patient. No two individuals have the exact same problems. A treatment could include a combination of stress-reduction methods and drugs such as painkillers and steroids. Anti-malaria drugs also have been effective. Recent research also suggests that supervised exercise training can improve the quality of life for lupus patients. It has been about forty years since the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug especially for treating lupus. Several companies are working to make drugs that can help lupus patients. Groups like the Lupus Foundation of America are working to increase public understanding of the disease. Lupus can be life threatening if left untreated. Yet, many patients can lead a normal and healthy life if they follow their doctor’s advice. Patients must take their medicines and keep looking for side effects or new signs of the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lupus is not the only autoimmune disease. Doctors and scientists have identified at least eighty other diseases in which the body attacks its own organs and cells. Some of the diseases attack just one area of the body, like the skin, eyes or muscles. Others affect an organ system or even the whole body. Some of the diseases are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes. Others are more difficult to identify and not as well known. VOICE TWO: For example, celiac disease is difficult to identify because the signs of the disease are so common. Patients may have low iron levels and experience stomach pain. The uncontrolled release of bodily wastes is also a problem. Doctors might treat those problems and not know they are caused by celiac disease. Some people develop celiac disease after eating gluten, a protein found in all wheat products. It is not always clear that eating something as harmless as wheat can be bad for a person’s health. For some patients, it can be years before the problem is correctly identified. VOICE ONE: The United States National Institutes of Health says autoimmune diseases affect an estimated five to eight percent of the country’s population. Other groups disagree. For example, the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association says autoimmune diseases affect about fifty million Americans. That represents about one-sixth of the population. The physical, emotional and financial cost of autoimmune diseases is huge. Most of those affected are women. While people of all ages are affected, women who are old enough to have children are especially at risk. Some autoimmune diseases like lupus and scleroderma are more common in African Americans. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes are more common among whites. Doctors do not yet know why this is true. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: New drugs are being tested to help treat autoimmune diseases. Some drugs can be a problem because they suppress the immune system. This means the body is less able to defend itself against infections. As a result, the side effects of the drugs can be as dangerous as the disease itself. Newer drugs attempt to suppress only one small part of the immune system, not all of it. For example, drugs like Enbrel and Remicade block tumor necrosis factor. This is a protein that causes inflammation, a physical reaction to infection, injury or other causes. These drugs have been useful in treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease. However, the drugs are very costly. They have also been found to increase the risk of cancer. VOICE ONE: Scientists continue searching for other methods of treatment. For example, some scientists hope to use stem cells to replace tissues damaged by disease. Stem cells have the ability to grow other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. Medical experts also are working together to improve the way autoimmune diseases are identified and treated. Less than ten years ago, the Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center was formed in the state of Maryland. The aim of the center is to bring together experts to improve the study of autoimmune diseases. Private groups like the center show how important it is for scientists to share information about such diseases. Because each disease often affects different organs, many experts might be needed to treat the disorder. Experts need to know about the most recent research and technology. By sharing information about their patients, doctors also can learn from other cases. VOICE TWO: Government agencies are also working to increase knowledge about autoimmune diseases. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health created an autoimmune disease research plan in two thousand two. The plan urges agencies from different areas to work together. Both private and government organizations are working to increase public understanding of such diseases. This can help individuals better understand what to do should they develop a health problem. At the same time, researchers continue working to help patients have a better quality of life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program written and produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: As Biofuels Show Promise, Farmers Show Human Nature
* Byline: New research suggests that comparing carbon releases between plant-based fuels and fossil fuels is not so simple. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. ??? Farmers in the United States sometimes plant switchgrass as a border crop. But could this tall grass lower the nation's dependence on foreign oil? South Dakota State University professor Arvid Boe with switchgrass plantsThe Department of Energy plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to help produce fuels from materials that are not part of the food supply. Growing corn, or maize, for fuel has raised concerns about the supply and cost of corn available for food and animal feed. Fuel made from switchgrass or forestry waste like sawdust is known as cellulosic ethanol. Department officials say it contains more energy and produces fewer greenhouse gases than ethanol made from corn. Switchgrass is also easier to grow. Last month, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study of switchgrass grown on low-quality land. Government scientist Ken Vogel was the lead author. The study says the switchgrass produced five times more energy than was needed to grow it. Also, it says switchgrass, over its lifetime from crop to fuel, produces much less carbon compared to gasoline. Fossil fuels like oil take carbon from the ground and release it as waste gas when the fuel is burned. Biofuels like corn and cellulosic ethanol also produce greenhouse gases, through growing crops and making the fuel. The difference is that biofuels remove carbon from the atmosphere through the growth of the feedstock, the material for the fuel. Science magazine just published two studies of biofuels and the heat-trapping gases that scientists link to climate change. One of the reports notes that most studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases. But it says the earlier studies failed to count the carbon released into the atmosphere as farmers worldwide react to higher prices. They are clearing forests and grasslands to make way for new cropland to replace the grain used for biofuels. Doing so can release much of the carbon stored in the plants and soil, and sacrifice future storage. The study found that corn-based ethanol could increase greenhouse gases for years from land use change. And it found that biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on American corn land, could also increase emissions, though by less. The study team, led by Timothy Searchinger at Princeton University, says the result shows the value of using waste products for fuel. The other report says carbon savings depend on how biofuels are produced. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From San Diego to San Francisco, Visiting the Beautiful Missions Along the Coast of California
* Byline: Spanish settlers built the Catholic churches in the 1700s. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the first attempts to settle what is now the western state of California. These attempts began with Spanish settlers who built twenty-one Catholic churches called missions. Our report is about those churches -- the missions of California. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Mission San Juan CapistranoOur story begins in seventeen sixty-eight in Madrid, Spain. The king of Spain, Charles the Third, had recently received reports that worried him. The reports said Russian explorers were in the northern part of the territory called California. Spain had claimed most of that area more than two hundred years earlier. But Spain had no settlements in California. King Charles knew if the Russians began to settle the area, Spain might lose control of California forever. VOICE TWO: King Charles decided the best way to keep the Spanish claim to California was to build settlements there. California had good harbors for Spanish ships, good weather and good farmland. King Charles decided to order the creation of a series of small farming communities along the Pacific Ocean coast of California. The settlements would provide trade and grow into larger cities. Spanish citizens might want to settle there. Then the Spanish claim to California would be safe. VOICE ONE: But there was no one on the coast of California to begin the work. King Charles and his advisors decided that the farming settlements would begin with churches called missions. Missions were places where Roman Catholic religious leaders converted people to the Christian religion. They taught the religion to people who wanted to become members of the church. King Charles decided Roman Catholic priests would build the missions and settlements with the help of Native American Indians. The priests would teach the native people the Christian religion, the Spanish language and how to farm. A religious group within the Catholic Church called the Franciscans would build the settlements. The Franciscans chose a young priest named Junipero Serra to begin the work. VOICE TWO: Many history experts say the Spanish government and the Catholic Church could not have chosen a better person for the task than Junipero Serra. Junipero Serra was born in seventeen thirteen on the island of Mallorca, Spain. After he became a Franciscan priest, he taught at a university in Mallorca. Father Serra had always wanted to be a missionary. In seventeen forty-nine he sailed to Mexico to begin his life as a missionary. He spent several years studying the languages and customs of native people in Mexico. In seventeen sixty-eight he was given the job of building the first of the California missions near the present day city of San Diego. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Mission San Diego de Alcala began on July sixteenth, seventeen sixty-nine. But before the mission was completed, Father Serra decided to move it. He did not like the way Spanish soldiers mistreated the Native Americans. He wanted to keep them separate. He moved the mission to an area that is still called Mission Valley. The design of Mission San Diego de Alcala was similar to each of the missions that were built later. There was a large church building. A long wall formed a large square to the side and behind the church. Large rooms inside and along the wall served as bedrooms, cooking areas, workshops, and classrooms. Usually, the center of the large square was left open. A garden with flowers was planted there. VOICE TWO: Junipero Serra’s plan for the missions along the California coast was simple. Each would be about the same distance from each other. Members of the Franciscan religious group did not ride horses or travel in wagons. They walked. The missions were built about one day’s long walk from each other. This made it easier to travel, trade goods and share information. The missions begin with San Diego de Alcala in the south. They end with San Francisco Solano about one thousand fifty kilometers to the north. In time, the road from mission San Diego de Alcala to mission San Francisco Solano was given a name. The Spanish name is still used today. It is “El Camino Real.” It means the “The Royal Highway”? or “The King’s Highway.”?? Most of that old road is now part of the California highway system. Millions of people use the road every day as they drive from San Diego to San Francisco. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people have criticized the mission system of settlement because it changed the way of life for the Native Americans in California. Critics say many Native Americans were forced to work at the missions. They say many were forced to become members of the Christian religion. And many were treated badly by Spanish soldiers and died because of mistreatment or disease. However, other experts say that Junipero Serra demanded that the priests and soldiers treat the Native Americans with respect. Many of the Native Americans accepted the Christian religion, learned to farm and helped the missions become valuable settlements. Many other Native Americans did not. Some did not want to change the way they lived so they moved away from the missions. Many Native Americans believed they would be forced into a new way of life. In seventeen seventy-six, a group of Indians attacked the San Diego mission and burned it. Eight months later, the mission was rebuilt where it still stands today. VOICE TWO: King Charles’s plan was a success. Settlements grew from the missions along the California coast. Some of those along El Camino Real became major cities -- San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, and San Francisco, to name only a few. ???? Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio CarmeloJunipero Serra was responsible for building nine of the missions. One of these was?Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo in the present city of Carmel. It became his headquarters and the headquarters for all of the California missions. In seventeen eighty-four, Junipero Serra died of tuberculosis at mission San Carlos. He was buried in the floor of the Mission San Carlos Church. ????? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The missions of California faced difficult times during the eighteen hundreds. In eighteen twenty-two, California became part of Mexico, which had just won its independence from Spain. But the Mexican government could not pay the cost of keeping the missions. In eighteen thirty-four, the Mexican government sold much of the mission land and some of the buildings. Several missions remained part of the communities they helped to build. But many became little more than ruins. Some of the land and the missions were returned to the Catholic Church. In the eighteen forties, Mexico had trouble controlling the American settlers in California. In eighteen forty-six, the settlers declared California a republic. Less than two years later, the United States gained control of California during the Mexican War. During this period, the Catholic Church tried to keep control of the missions. They were only partly successful. However, in eighteen sixty-three President Abraham Lincoln signed a law that said all twenty-one missions in California would be returned to the Catholic Church. They have remained so ever since. VOICE TWO: Today, the people of California consider the missions a treasure. Eighteen of the twenty-one are still active Catholic churches. All of the missions are museums that teach the early history of California. Many visitors come to the missions to see the beautiful buildings. Several of the missions have become famous. One example is the Mission San Juan Capistrano. It was planned and built by Junipero Serra. Each year, on the same day, at almost the same hour, thousands of birds called swallows return to the mission. They return from their winter homes thousands of kilometers to the south. The swallows arrive on March nineteenth. They build nests and raise their young in the old mission. They leave on October twenty-third. ?One story says the birds have been late only once because of a storm at sea. Everyone agrees that Junipero Serra would have loved the beautiful swallows of Capistrano. (MUSIC: "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano")? VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Success Story for Malaria Control
* Byline: A W.H.O. study in four African countries shows how medicine and treated bed nets can mean a big drop in child deaths. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Every year, malaria sickens about five hundred million people. More than one million of them die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. A Nigerian mother with an insecticide-treated bed netFor several years in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund and other groups have been paying for bed nets treated with long-lasting insect poison. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. The groups have also invested in antimalaria drugs for A.C.T., artemisinin-based combination therapy. Recently, a team from the World Health Organization visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. These countries were the first to distribute the bed nets and medicine. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria requested a study to see if the interventions were helping. The researchers found that the answer is yes. They looked at records of children under five. They found that malaria deaths fell by sixty-six percent in Rwanda between two thousand five and two thousand seven. Deaths fell by fifty-one percent in Ethiopia, thirty-four percent in Ghana and thirty-three percent in Zambia. The team reported that limited supplies of bed nets could help explain the more limited effects in Zambia and Ghana. But the findings in Ghana were more difficult to explain, because deaths from causes other than malaria fell more sharply. The report says this was in keeping with general improvements in health services. The full report can be found at who.int, on the page for the global malaria program. In another new study, researchers reported that vitamin A and zinc treatments might also help protect young children from malaria. Scientists in Burkina Faso found that malaria reinfection rates fell by thirty-four percent in a group of children treated with vitamin A and zinc. The findings appear in Nutrition Journal, an open access publication that can be read free of charge at nutritionj.com. Now, we turn from a disease that kills a million people a year to a behavior that kills more than five times that many: smoking. A new report from the World Health Organization estimates that tobacco killed one hundred million people in the twentieth century. And it says the number this century could reach one billion. We will talk more about this major report next week, and new efforts to control tobacco. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-20-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Annotation and Other Tips for Getting the Most Out of Textbooks
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we talk more with English teacher Maria Spelleri about how to get the most out of college textbooks for English language learners. RS: "Should the student be looking up every word as it appears?" MARIA SPELLERI: "No, the most important words to pay attention to are the new terminology for the field. So many of those freshman books focus on those words, and every publisher has some kind of code to make those words pop out at the student. They're bolded or italicized. These are the words that are going to be on the test. These are the words you need to throw back to the professor to show the professor that you know what's going on in the class and that you've done the reading. So this is where you should put your primary focus." RS: "Should a student be taking notes?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Oh, absolutely. If I see an empty textbook, then I'm seeing a student who hasn't interacted well with a text. And students should fully annotate their textbooks. I know that they're expensive and many people want to preserve them in a pristine condition to sell back. But to get full use of them you need to be annotating in the margins: finding the main ideas, making vocabulary notes, even little illustrations or charts, questions for your own study purposes." AA: "That would be good even for native English speakers, I would think." MARIA SPELLERI: "Oh, absolutely. I mean, anyone who needs to read big business reports or wade through financial information should always be reading that with a pencil in hand. There's something about the seeing it and the doing it, the movement of the hand at the same time, that really helps people to comprehend and remember things better." AA: "So, I'm curious, why are textbooks turning out like this? Are publishers not doing the best job they can?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, you know, I think there's only so much they can do with the amount of material that professors require the textbooks to have. But, in fact, I think textbooks have really, really improved from fifteen, twenty years ago. They have many more aids to the student embedded within them: advice on how to use the book better, references to Web sites, study guides embedded within the textbooks, study questions. I think they've come a long way." RS: "How would you go about analyzing a specific chapter?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, this is a really important thing to do, because all chapters are laid out in the same way. So by picking any chapter you want -- preferably not the first chapter, but picking something out of the middle of the book and taking a good look at the kinds of fonts that are used, the colors that are used for the headings, the subheadings, for the sidebar information. "This gives you a very good visual cue as to the prioritization of the points within the chapter. And this is going to help you study as well. You'll know what points come out of other points. And as you flip through chapters, you'll see how the chapter is divided according to what kind of fonts or size or color or whatever is used for each section. So it's a great thing to fully analyze a single chapter and learn how it's put together." RS: "Would you advise students to get together in groups outside of class to try to manage their textbooks better?" MARIA SPELLERI: "Well, you know, a lot of people recommend this, but I think it really depends on the learning style of the student. There are students who function better in groups; they need to say their thoughts out loud and explain things to other people and have people talk back to them about the ideas. And for those people, absolutely, group work is the way to go, group discussion, group study. But then there are other people who just fare better working on their own in like a quiet environment. So I think it really depends on the learning style." AA: We asked English teacher Maria Spelleri about the value of outlining a chapter. She brought up something we talked about last week -- the SQ3R method. MARIA SPELLERI: "It is Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. And in the recite portion, this is kind of like an oral recitation of what you can remember. But this is also a good time to write things down on another piece of paper and try to prepare an outline of the chapter. And go back and look at your annotations and work through those and put those into an outline format. This is still a very good method. "Review just means once you've gone through and read something, don't pat yourself on the back and call it a day. You do need to revisit this information several times before you're going to be tested on it, even if you do understand it well when you read it. Because obviously it's not going to hang around in your head forever if you don't use it." AA: Maria Spelleri teaches English for academic purposes at Manatee Community College in Venice, Florida. Part one of our interview can be found at voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: In 1787, Debating the Need for Federal Courts
* Byline: Early leaders, meeting in Philadelphia, settled the issue of a national executive. Then they turned their attention to a new issue. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER:??Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. Over a period of four months, they worked on a document that would establish a system of government and guarantee the rights of citizens. Today, Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael continue the story of the Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national executive. Delegates spent several weeks debating details of the position and powers. The delegates decided the executive would be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. They decided he could veto laws. And they decided he could be removed from office if found guilty of serious crimes. The delegates did not call the executive 'president'. That name for America's leader would be used later. However, we will use it now to make our story easier to understand. VOICE ONE: Another major issue debated by the convention was a national judiciary: a federal system of courts and judges. The delegates knew a lot about the issue. Thirty-four of them were lawyers. Eight were judges in their home states. One question hung heavy in the air. The states had their own system of courts and judges. Did the national government need them, too? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Several delegates said no. Roger Sherman of Connecticut said existing state courts were enough. In addition, he said, a system of national courts would be too costly. John Rutledge of South Carolina opposed a national system of lower courts. But he argued for a national Supreme Court. The convention voted for both. There would be one Supreme Court and a system of lower courts. These national courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States. The system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws. VOICE ONE: James Wilson, a Pennsylvania delegate to the convention in PhiladelphiaThe next question concerned the appointment of national judges. Some delegates believed judges should be appointed by the national legislature. Others believed they should be appointed by the president. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued in support of having one person name judges. He said experience showed that large bodies could not make appointments fairly or openly. John Rutledge disagreed strongly. By no means, he said, should the president appoint judges. He said that method looked too much like monarchy. Benjamin Franklin then told a funny little story. In Scotland, Franklin said, he understood that judges were appointed by lawyers. They always chose the very best lawyer to be a judge. Then they divided his business among themselves. VOICE TWO: The delegates voted on the issue. They agreed only to create a Supreme Court. Details of the system were left to the national legislature and the president. The legislature could decide how many judges would sit on the Supreme Court. The president would appoint the judges. The legislature could establish lower courts from time to time. The president would appoint those judges, too. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Throughout the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the Philadelphia convention based its debates on a plan of government offered by delegates from Virginia. But the Virginia Plan was not the only one offered. Another plan came from New Jersey. William Paterson, a New Jersey delegateNew Jersey delegate William Paterson presented the plan about a month after the convention began. The other delegates saw immediately that it was directly opposed to the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan talked of a national government. Under it, a national legislature, executive and judiciary would have supreme power over the states. The New Jersey Plan talked about a federal government. Under it, each state would keep its own independent powers over the union of states. VOICE TWO: The New Jersey Plan proposed some changes in the existing Articles of Confederation. It did not propose a completely new system of government. Under the New Jersey Plan, the federal government would have a legislature with just one house. Each state would have one vote in the legislature. Big states and little states would be equal. The federal government would have an executive of more than one person. It would not have a system of lower federal courts. And its powers would come from the states...not the people. VOICE ONE: Supporters of the New Jersey Plan then talked about the true purpose of the Philadelphia convention. They said the states had sent delegates to discuss changes in the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, they said, did not have the right to throw the Articles away. If the Union under the Articles is radically wrong, one said, let us return to our states. Let our states give us more powers to negotiate. Let us not take these powers upon ourselves. VOICE TWO: Then James Wilson of Pennsylvania spoke. He explained his own idea about the purpose of the convention. Its instructions, he said, were to reach final agreement on nothing. But it could propose and discuss anything. Wilson also questioned the delegates' right to speak for the people. Is it not true, he said, that the opinions of one's friends are commonly mistaken for the opinions of the general population? He noted that some delegates firmly believed the people would never accept a national government. They would never give up their state's rights. Wilson was not so sure. "Why should a national government be unpopular?" he asked. "Has it less honor? Will each citizen enjoy under it less liberty or protection? Will a citizen of one state be respected less by becoming a citizen of the United States?" VOICE ONE: Edmund Randolph of Virginia spoke next. He said the convention had no choice but to establish a national government. It would be an act of treason not to do what was necessary to save the republic. And, he said, only a new, national government would work. "The present moment is the last moment for establishing a national government," Randolph said. "After this experiment, the people will lose all hope." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Alexander Hamilton, a New York delegateDebate on the New Jersey Plan took place on Saturday, June sixteenth. The following Monday, they heard yet another plan of government. It was offered by the delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had said little at the convention. On this day, he spoke for five hours. Hamilton said he did not offer his ideas as an official proposal. But he said they could be considered amendments to the Virginia Plan. Then he read the details. VOICE ONE: I would like to see in America, Hamilton said, one executive. He would be chosen by electors. He could veto any law, and his veto could not be over-turned. He would serve for life. Next, he said, the national legislature would have two houses. The upper house would be called the senate. The lower house would be called the assembly. Like the chief executive, senators would be chosen by electors for life. Members of the assembly would be elected directly by the people for a term of three years. Then Hamilton spoke about the states. Under his plan, the states would lose many of their existing rights and powers. State governors would be appointed by the national government. And states no longer could have their own military forces. Hamilton was sure America's existing form of government would not work when the country got bigger. He believed America should follow the British form of government. He called it the best in the world. VOICE TWO: No one stopped Hamilton during his long speech to argue or ask questions. Historians say this is surprising. Hamilton's ideas were extreme. His public support for the British government was unpopular. His statements were unacceptable to everyone at the convention. But the weather had been hot. The speech had been long. The delegates agreed to end their business for another day. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our American history series, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Our story of the Constitution continues next week on THE MAKING OF A NATION in VOA Special English. __ This is program #20 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How a Movement Disorder Can Affect a Child's Life
* Byline: Part four of our series on learning disabilities explores dyspraxia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series on learning disabilities with a look this week at a condition called dyspraxia. Dyspraxia is a movement disorder. The World Health Organization says about six percent of children show some sign of it. The majority are male. The National Center for Learning Disabilities says people with dyspraxia have trouble planning and completing fine motor tasks. The brain has trouble sending messages to the body to do what the person wants. Something as simple as waving goodbye may be difficult. There are different levels of severity, and the effects can change over time.Babies may not try to crawl or roll over. They may have difficulty moving just their eyes instead of their heads. As they get older, children may have trouble walking or holding a cup, riding a bicycle or throwing a ball. Trouble with letter formation or slow writing can interfere with school work. People with dyspraxia may even have trouble speaking. So imagine the difficulty in learning a sport. Adults can have problems driving a car, cleaning the house, or washing and dressing themselves. Social skills are another issue. People with dyspraxia can have trouble making friends. Like other learning disabilities, it cannot be cured. Children might be laughed at by other children. Teachers might think they are slow. The problem is not with intelligence but with motor skill development. Yet experts say the result of these reactions can be depression and other emotional problems. This is one reason why early intervention is important. Children might feel a lot better about themselves if they understand why it takes longer for them to learn to do things. Experts say it is important for parents to provide help and support to dyspraxic children from an early age. Helping them learn easy physical activities that develop coordination can build their trust in themselves. And simple activities can progress toward more complex tasks. Working with occupational, speech and physical therapists can lead to further improvements. A person with dyspraxia might also have other learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dysgraphia, which affect reading and writing. You can learn about these disorders at voaspecialenglish.com. We have transcripts and MP3s of our series on learning disabilities. Next week the subject is dyscalculia, a disorder involving mathematical abilities. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Devendra Banhart Makes Imaginative Folk Music With a 1960s Sound
* Byline: Also: A question from China about how Americans find jobs. And a Web site that tries to get people to think big. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play music by Devendra Banhart … Answer a question about finding a job ... And report on a new Web site that gets you to “think big.” (MUSIC) BigThink.com HOST: Where can you go to listen to a cook, a senator or a scientist talk about important subjects? BigThink.com is a new Web site created to provide discussions between world experts and Internet users. Subjects discussed on BigThink include the environment, music and questions about happiness and personal identity. The Web site has been called a YouTube for thinkers. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Victoria Brown and Peter Hopkins created BigThink.com. They see the Web site as a social project that permits Internet users around the world to share a discussion space with experts. Miz Brown says that people need an international stage on which to exchange, discuss, and debate the important ideas of our time. If you visit the BigThink Web site, you will find a series of subjects listed on the left side of the page. There are “meta” subjects that deal with general ideas like faith, love, life, death and justice. And there are “physical” subjects like art, culture, technology, history and politics. When you click on a subject, you find a video of a person talking about his or her ideas. For example, you can listen to United States Senator Ted Kennedy talking about education and civil rights. SENATOR TED KENNEDY: “We want to try and free ourselves from the forms of discrimination and bigotry which exist in our nation.” Or you could listen to the musician Moby talk about his work and ideas for young artists. MOBY: “My advice to other musicians first and foremost would be to make music that they love.” Among other "big thinkers" are the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and French cook Jacques Pepin. Under their videos, you can read the comments and questions written by other visitors to the Web site. More than one hundred experts express their ideas on the Web site. BigThink also has an important list of financial supporters. These include Peter Thiel who helped create the PayPal company; Larry Summers, a former United States secretary of the treasury, and David Frankel, a businessman from South Africa. BigThink’s creators started the Web site by first getting famous people to agree to be videotaped. They began by interviewing several well-known professors from Harvard University, which they had attended. Then they used the names of these professors to gain the trust of others and get them to take part in the project. The Web site says BigThink belongs to everyone. Its motto is: “We are what you think." So, go online and start thinking big. Finding a Job HOST: This week’s listener question comes from China. Eric wants to know how Americans find jobs. Experts say that January is the top month for getting a new job. Many Americans make a promise that they will find a new or better job in the new year. And many businesses decide to fill empty positions this time of year. There are many ways to find a job. It can be as easy as walking into a neighborhood store to look at its announcement board. Local stores often have areas where people can put small signs telling what kind of service they need or can provide. Such services include caring for children or cleaning houses. Or, job searchers can look in the newspaper. Local newspapers have employment announcements placed by companies seeking workers. Another popular tool for finding jobs is the Internet. For example, people in four hundred and fifty cities around the world can use the Craigslist Web site to buy objects, meet people or find a job. Craigslist says that it receives two million new job listings each month. Graduating students and alumni gather at a job fair in New YorkAnother useful way to find a job is through a college or university. For example, students at the University of Texas in Austin can go to the Career Exploration Center to get help in finding a job. People who graduate from universities can also use alumni groups and resources. This means that new graduates can get advice about jobs from older graduates. Each American state also has an employment services office that can help people train and look for jobs. Of course, looking for a job requires knowing what kind of work you want to do. For example, there is a book called “What Color is Your Parachute?” by Richard Bolles. This book has been helping people choose a career since it was first published in nineteen seventy. Some experts also help people find jobs. Susan W. Miller owns a company called California Career Services in Los Angeles. She says her company helps people find jobs by first helping them understand their strengths, goals and interests. Then she provides them with methods and resources to help them find the right job. Devendra Banhart HOST: Devendra Banhart is a musician who creates imaginative folk songs that take you back to the sounds of the nineteen sixties. The twenty-six-year-old singer and songwriter recently released his fifth album, called “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon.” Critics say this album is his strongest yet. Mario Ritter has more. (MUSIC) MARIO RITTER: That was the song “Sea Horse”. It is a good example of Devendra Banhart’s emotional voice and dreamy songs. It is not often clear what his songs are about, but they are always interesting. Rolling Stone magazine listed this record as one of the top albums of two thousand seven. Devendra was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in Venezuela. He started playing music at the age of twelve. He began his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute in California, but dropped out of the program and moved to Paris, France. During this time Banhart made recordings of his music by borrowing recording devices from his friends. After returning to the United States, Devendra Banhart was discovered by the owner of Young God Records. Here is the sensual beat of “Rosa”, which he sings in Portuguese. (MUSIC) Devendra Banhart is also a skilled artist. He currently has a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Thirteen of his drawings are shown along with the works of the famous artist Paul Klee. The show explores the relationship between art that you look at and art that you listen to. We leave you with Devendra Banhart's? “Lover.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Dana Demange wrote and produced the show. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Microsoft's Play for Yahoo | Hollywood Writers Back to Work
* Byline: A proposed new contract would pay TV and film writers for the first time for material that appears on the Internet. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The competition between Microsoft and Google took a new turn on February first. Microsoft made a public offer to buy the Internet company Yahoo. Microsoft says the combined companies would be in a better position to compete against Google in the online services market. This week, Yahoo rejected the offer. Its board of directors said the price undervalued the company. The offer was worth almost forty-five billion dollars in cash and stock, or thirty-one dollars per Yahoo share. Yahoo is said to want forty dollars a share. Microsoft says it offered a full and fair price. It says moving forward quickly with the deal would be in the best interest of shareholders. Yet since February first, the value of Microsoft's offer has fallen to twenty-nine dollars a share because of a drop in its stock. ?Microsoft thinks it could better compete against Google with Yahoo's expert knowledge. Microsoft could attempt a hostile takeover. But that is not the way it normally does business, and there is risk of angering Yahoo's employees. In the last two weeks, Yahoo has discussed possible combinations with other companies, including the News Corporation, AOL and Google. But Yahoo may not be able to avoid a buyout by Microsoft. The latest reports are that some big Yahoo shareholders would support a deal if Microsoft raised its offer. The purchase would be the largest ever by the world's leading software maker. Yet Microsoft has made little progress in its Internet search abilities and in the growing business of online advertising. Google, the leading Internet search company, is the strongest competitor for those advertising dollars. Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington. Yahoo and Google are in California's Silicon Valley. Internet technology was also at the heart of the television and movie writers strike, which ended this week. Writers voted in Los Angeles and New York to return to work after one hundred days on strike. A proposed new contract would pay them for the first time for creative material that appears online and in other new media. Members of the Writers Guild of America are expected to approve the three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Now the producers need to negotiate a new agreement with the Screen Actors Guild or risk another strike. The current contract with the actors union ends June thirtieth. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Kosovo Moves Toward Independence, While a Crisis Shakes Timor
* Byline: Ethnic Albanians prepare to cut the world's newest country out of Serbia. In East Timor, troops search for suspected rebels after attacks on that young nation's leaders. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Kosovo is expected to declare its independence from Serbia in the coming days, possibly on Sunday. Serbia's newly re-elected President Boris Tadic says he will never give up his fight for Kosovo, but will also fight for Serbia to join the European Union. He said Friday that Serbia would reduce diplomatic relations, but not cut ties, with countries that recognize an independent Kosovo. Kosovo's leader, Hashim Thaci, is calling on displaced Serbs living outside Kosovo to return. Serbia and its chief ally, Russia, say Kosovo's independence will lead to separatist efforts by other dissatisfied territories across the world. Serbia has offered self-rule for Kosovo, which it considers an important part of its history and territory. Yet Serbia has not controlled the southern province since nineteen ninety-nine. That was when NATO bombed the former Yugoslavia until Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw troops from Kosovo. About two million people live there. Ninety percent are ethnic Albanian. The area is currently administered by the United Nations and policed by sixteen thousand NATO-led peacekeepers. The United States and most European countries support independence. Once Kosovo acts, the European Union plans to take over many of the administrative duties now held by the United Nations. Serbia and Russia say that plan is illegal. In March of two thousand four there was violence mainly against ethnic Serbs in Kosovo. That led, almost two years later, to the opening of international negotiations on Kosovo. Finally, in December, the United Nations Security Council declared itself in hopeless disagreement. As Kosovo prepares to become the world's newest country, the six-year-old nation of East Timor struggles with a crisis. Foreign troops are searching for suspected rebels after attacks against its leaders. On Monday, president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was shot twice and seriously wounded. Gunmen later shot at Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao but he escaped unhurt. Wanted rebel leader Alfredo Reinado died in a gunfight with guards during the attack at the president's home in Dili, the capital. He escaped from prison after being found guilty of inciting clashes between government forces and former rebels in two thousand six. East Timor, or Timor-Leste, is a former province of Indonesia, and one of the world's poorest countries. On Wednesday the government of the young democracy extended a state of emergency for ten days. Australia has more than one thousand soldiers and police there, including extra forces sent after the shootings. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd briefly visited Dili Friday. He later visited President Ramos-Horta at a hospital in Darwin, Australia. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cole Porter, 1891-1964: He Wrote Songs for Broadway Musicals and Movies That Are Still Popular Today
* Byline: Porter wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second part of our program about American songwriter Cole Porter. Porter wrote his songs from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen fifties. They continue to be popular today. (MUSIC: "Anything Goes") VOICE ONE: That was a recording of “Anything Goes”, one of Cole Porter’s most famous songs. Caroline O’Connor sings it in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.”? Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd star in this movie about Porter’s life, released in two thousand four. The title of the movie is from one of Porter’s popular songs, “It’s De-Lovely.”? In the song, Porter plays with words that start with the letter “d.”? Robbie Williams sings the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As we said in our program last week, Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen sixteen before he became famous. He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties. Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs. He worked hard on his songs. Both the words and music had to be perfect. VOICE ONE: Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen thirties. His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City. He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America’s great economic depression. His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times. Some critics still consider one of Porter’s early musical plays, “Anything Goes,” to be his best. “Anything Goes” opened on Broadway in nineteen thirty-four. It starred one of Porter’s favorite singers, Ethel Merman. She sang a song that became famous immediately. It is called “I Get a Kick Out of You.”? That expression means I enjoy being with you. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For years, Porter was Broadway’s “King Cole.”? His musical plays were very successful. Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies. They were very popular, too. Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world. They were happily married most of the time. But Cole Porter was homosexual. He had sex with men. Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not exactly secret. Yet they could never be admitted publicly. VOICE ONE: All his life, Cole Porter wrote songs about love, desire and passion. He included the names of foreign countries, famous people and comments on current events. And he filled his songs with little jokes and hidden meanings. Porter’s words stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. They spoke directly and indirectly about sex. They admitted that love is not always pure. It is often selfish. And it rarely lasts forever. Porter was not even sure what love really is. He wonders about it in this song, “What Is This Thing Called Love?”? It is sung by Lemar. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Cole Porter also wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling. Critics consider “Every Time We Say Goodbye” to be one of his finest songs. Natalie Cole sings the song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-seven, Cole Porter was injured while riding a horse. The horse slid on a muddy hill and fell on top of him. His legs were crushed. Cole Porter spent the rest of his life, twenty-seven years, disabled and in severe pain. Yet he continued writing wonderful songs, musical plays and movies. In nineteen forty-eight, he wrote what some consider his greatest work. It was a musical play called “Kiss Me, Kate.”? It was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew.”? But it takes place in modern times, among a group of actors. The play was produced again on Broadway in nineteen ninety-nine. One of the most famous songs in the musical is called “Too Darn Hot.”? It is a funny song about how hard it is to be interested in love in really hot weather. Stanley Wayne Mathis sings it in “Kiss Me, Kate.” (MUSIC: "Too Darn Hot") VOICE TWO: Cole Porter had another hit show in nineteen fifty-three, called “Cancan.”? It was his final play. That same year, Porter’s wife, Linda, died. Porter was very sad, and increasingly disabled by his old injury. He died at the age of seventy-three in nineteen sixty-four. In nineteen ninety-one, America celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of Cole Porter’s birth. Special concerts celebrated his music. New recordings were issued. Jazz singers and symphony orchestras recorded his songs. So did several rock-and-roll artists. They made a recording and special music video to honor him. All the money earned from the recording and video was given to research on AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that was first discovered among homosexual men. VOICE ONE: Today, Cole Porter’s songs are still valued for their beauty, humor and intelligence. And for their unexpected jokes and word play. They shine like jewels, one critic wrote. They are shot through with love that sometimes feels like pain. There seems little doubt that Cole Porter’s songs will continue to be sung. They will make us laugh. They will make us cry. And they will touch the deepest truths of our emotions. (MUSIC: "Night and Day") VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Chickenfeed: It Doesn't Add Up to Much
* Byline: Working for very little money....it's chickenfeed Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm?Susan Clark?with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Almost every language in the world has a saying that a person can never be too rich. Americans, like people in other countries, always want more money. One way they express this is by protesting that their jobs do not pay enough. A common expression is, "I am working for chickenfeed." It means working for very little money. The expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of small change. Small change means metal coins of not much value, like nickels which are worth five cents. An early use of the word chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in nineteen thirty. It told about a rich man and his son. Word expert Mitford Mathews says it read, "I'll bet neither the kid nor his father ever saw a nickel or a dime. They would not have been interested in such chickenfeed." Chickenfeed also has another interesting meaning known to history experts and World War Two spies and soldiers. Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working in London during the war also worked for the British. The British government had to make the Germans believe their spies were working. So, British officials gave them mostly false information.It was called chickenfeed. The same person who protests that he is working for chickenfeed may also say, "I am working for peanuts." She means she is working for a small amount of money. It is a very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary. That meaning is small nuts that grow on a plant. No one knows for sure how a word for something to eat also came to mean something very small. But, a peanut is a very small food. The expression is an old one. Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as eighteen fifty-four, an American publication used the words peanut agitators. That meant political troublemakers who did not have a lot of support. Another reason for the saying about working for peanuts may be linked to elephants. Think of how elephants are paid for their work in the circus. They receive food, not money. One of the foods they like best is peanuts. When you add the word gallery to the word peanut you have the name of an area in an American theater. A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the main floor. The peanut gallery got its name because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes place. So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets. People pay a small amount of money for them. (MUSIC) This Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. This Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Honoring 'Citizen Diplomats'
* Byline: A private group, the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, recognizes six Americans for their work for cultural understanding. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States Center for Citizen Diplomacy is a nonprofit group started in Iowa in two thousand six. It says every American has the right, and even the responsibility, to help shape foreign relations "one handshake at a time." Last week, in Washington, the center honored six Americans with its first National Awards for Citizen Diplomacy. A two-day conference also took place to urge more Americans to become citizen diplomats. Nineteen-year-old Anjali Bhatia of New Jersey was the youngest winner. At sixteen, she started a group called Discover Worlds to build relations between the United States and Rwanda. The aim is to help orphans from the nineteen ninety-four genocide and young people affected by H.I.V. to stay in school. Discover Worlds has fifty-seven locally run student groups across the United States. And there are hopes for partnerships in India soon. Anjali Bhatia says that by the end of this year, Discover Worlds hopes to be supporting about two hundred fifty Rwandan orphans. Its members also write letters to the children. Another award winner, Tarik Daoud, is a business leader in Michigan who has led international delegations. He was recognized for his work for cross-cultural understanding through groups like the International Visitors Council of Detroit. Khris Nedam is an elementary school teacher in Michigan who has also taught in France, Turkey and Afghanistan. She started a group with her sixth grade students called Kids4AfghanKids which works to rebuild schools in Afghanistan. Greg Mortenson of Montana is co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, and co-author of the book "Three Cups of Tea." The center says he has raised money to build sixty-four schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jillian Poole of Virginia started the Fund for Arts and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe in nineteen ninety-one. Her work has helped arts and cultural groups deal with a free-market economy after years of depending on government support. And Donna Tabor volunteers in Granada, Nicaragua, for Building New Hope, a community development group based in Pennsylvania. It supports a small cooperative of coffee farmers in northern Nicaragua. It also operates two schools and a lending library. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A House Big and White, and About to Get New Occupants in January
* Byline: The history of the White House. It dates back to George Washington's time and every president has lived there -- except George Washington. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. In the United States, the third Monday in February is a federal holiday. Federal law calls it Washington's Birthday, honoring the nation's first president. But Americans now commonly know it as Presidents Day. And for this Presidents Day, or Washington's Birthday, we tell you about the presidents' home, the White House. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Washington supervised the building of the White House. Yet he and his wife, Martha, never had the chance to live there. It was completed after he left office in seventeen ninety-seven. Since then, America has had forty-two other presidents. All of them have lived at sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, in Washington, D.C. George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, have lived there since two thousand one. This November, Americans will elect a new president. The new first family will meet with White House employees after the election to plan for the move. Then the family will move in on January twentieth, two thousand nine -- Inauguration Day. VOICE TWO: The White House has an East Wing and a West Wing. The Oval Office, the large round room where the president works, is in the West Wing. The first family lives in the East Wing. The official home of the vice president is on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington. The White House has more than one hundred thirty rooms. It also has collections of more than forty thousand objects. Presidential families often find things in storage that they like when they move in. For example, Jimmy Carter's children found a chair that Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, had bought. First ladies have all added to the White House in some way. Jacqueline Kennedy, for example, created a colorful garden that is named in her honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Washington entered office in seventeen eighty-nine. He had great hopes for the house he started. In seventeen ninety, he signed an act of Congress to create an area for the federal government in the District of Columbia, along the Potomac River. President Washington and the French city planner Pierre L'Enfant chose the land for the new presidential home. VOICE TWO: A competition took place to find a designer. An architect named James Hoban entered a design similar to where the Irish Parliament meets, Leinster House in Dublin. Hoban was from Ireland. He won five hundred dollars and a piece of land for his winning design. Grayish white sandstone was chosen for the walls. Work started in seventeen ninety-two, while George Washington lived in Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: America's second president was John Adams. He and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live in the new home. They moved in on November first, eighteen hundred. The house was not yet finished. John and Abigail Adams lived in six rooms and used others to entertain guests. But they lived there for only four months. ? John Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson tried to finish work on the home. So did the next president, James Madison. But in eighteen fourteen, British forces invaded Washington. They burned the White House. President Madison's wife, Dolly, tried to save valuable objects from the fire as she fled. She rescued a painting of George Washington. This famous portrait by Gilbert Stuart hangs in the White House to this day. VOICE TWO: After the fire, James Hoban helped rebuild the house he had designed. During this time, it was painted white. Over the years, the White House has been enlarged and almost totally rebuilt. One of the most recent projects was completed in July of two thousand seven. Workers made about eight million dollars in improvements to the press briefing room. The work included a better look for television, new electrical system, better air conditioning and more comfortable seats. Some of the old ones were broken. News organizations paid for part of the cost of the work. Reporters moved to temporary offices across the street from the White House while the press room was closed for almost a year. The room is named in honor of former White House press secretary James Brady. He and President Ronald Reagan were shot and wounded by a man with mental problems outside a Washington hotel in nineteen eighty-one. VOICE ONE: The press briefing room is built over Franklin Roosevelt's old swimming pool. Polio disabled his legs, but President Roosevelt still swam. The pool was built in nineteen thirty-three. Roosevelt was president from nineteen thirty-three to nineteen forty-five. The thirty-second president led the nation through the end of the great economic depression and most of World War Two. He was elected four times, more than any other president. He died in office. Today, the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution limits a person to being elected president twice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-one, Congress decided that furniture of historic and artistic value would always be White House property. In effect, Congress made the White House a museum. As visitors enter the White House, they see pictures of past presidents on the walls. In another hall on the same floor are paintings of first ladies. A room off this hallway contains a collection of fine dishes. Each presidency has added to this collection. VOICE ONE: Wide marble steps lead to the next floor. It is called the State Floor. Presidents use rooms here for official duties and to entertain guests. The largest room on the State Floor is the East Room. News conferences and music performances take place here. But this room has had other uses over the years. Abigail Adams hung her family’s clothes to dry from the wash. Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the thirty-fifth president, John F. Kennedy, rode her tricycle in the East Room. VOICE TWO: Other rooms on the State Floor are named for their colors: the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room. The president meets with diplomats and other guests in these rooms. They are also used for special events. The twenty-second president, Grover Cleveland, married Frances Folsom in the Blue Room in eighteen eighty-six. The Green Room held the body of President Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie, who died in eighteen sixty-two. And the nineteenth president, Rutherford Hayes, took his oath of office in the Red Room in eighteen seventy-seven following a disputed election. Nearby is the State Dining Room, where big events take place, like official dinners for visiting leaders. The Treaty Room on the second floor is used for meetings. Important documents have been signed there. At different times, this was the cabinet room or the president's office. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next floor of the White House contains bedrooms for guests. One of these is the Lincoln Bedroom, named for the sixteenth president. But Abraham Lincoln never slept there. Lincoln used the room as an office while he led the country through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. President Lincoln was murdered days after the war ended with the surrender of Robert E. Lee, the Southern general. John Wilkes Booth, a stage actor and supporter of the South, shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, not far from the White House. Over the years, presidents and other people have reported seeing Lincoln's ghost or feeling his presence in the White House. VOICE TWO: Long gone are the days when people could simply walk into the White House. In fact, the White House was closed to visitors temporarily after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand-one. Information about public tours can be found at whitehouse.gov. Tours are available for groups of ten or more people. Requests for these self-guided tours must be made through a member of Congress. A limited number of tours are available. People can also see inside the White House through virtual tours at whitehouse.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Transcripts and MP3s of our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ?? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Messenger Visits One of the Least Known Places in the Solar System: Mercury
* Byline: Concerns about skin lightening products. And researchers study a possible link between finger size and osteoarthritis. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell about a visit to the planet Mercury. We will tell about the dangers of products for making skin lighter. And, we report on how finger lengths could influence your health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Image of Mercury taken during Messenger's approach last monthLast month, the American space agency returned to a planet it had not visited since nineteen seventy-five. A space vehicle called Messenger reached the planet Mercury on January fourteenth. Messenger passed only two hundred kilometers above the surface of Mercury. It was the first trip to the planet closest to the sun since the Mariner Ten spacecraft visited Mercury more than thirty years ago. Mercury is named for the Roman god who served as a messenger to the gods. The name fits Mercury well because it orbits the sun faster than any planet, in only about eighty-eight days. Yet Mercury is also one of the least explored planets. VOICE TWO: Mercury is a world of extremes. During the day, temperatures on the surface can reach four hundred fifty degrees Celsius. The sun on Mercury is eleven times brighter than it is on Earth. At night, temperatures can drop to one hundred eighty degrees below zero. To survive these extremes, the Messenger spacecraft has been designed with a heat shield to protect its instruments from high temperatures. The spacecraft also has heaters for use when temperatures drop. Messenger is designed to keep its science instruments and its computer brain at nearly room temperature. VOICE ONE: Messenger is taking a complex trip through the solar system. The spacecraft was launched in March two thousand four. It passed the Earth once and Venus two times, most recently in June of last year. Its recent visit to Mercury is one of three visits it will make to the planet this year and next. Then Messenger will enter orbit around Mercury in March of two thousand eleven. Its scientific work is expected to last more than seven years. VOICE TWO: The space agency says it hopes to answer several questions about Mercury with Messenger. One question deals with the central part of the planet. Mercury's center is rich in iron. This metal center represents sixty percent of the planet's mass. That is two times as great as on Earth. Messenger is expected to provide information that will help scientists find why the planet is so dense. Messenger will also help scientists learn more about Mercury's geologic history. Currently, scientists have only seen about forty-five percent of the planet. That is how much of the planet was seen by Mariner Ten. Making a map of the whole planet will increase knowledge of what forces shaped this rocky world. VOICE ONE: The biggest mystery surrounding Mercury is found at its north and south poles. Radar images have shown bright areas in holes at the poles. Scientists think that the bright areas might be ice forever hidden from the heat of the sun. Messenger stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging. The spacecraft has seven instruments to measure the chemical qualities of Mercury and its magnetic field. Scientists are especially interested to learn more about the magnetic field. Among the solid planets, only Earth and Mercury have strong magnetic fields. Venus and Mars do not. Messenger will return to Mercury in October. Scientists will have until then to examine information provided by the first pass of the planet. Then Messenger will gather more information about this little known world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas. In such places, light skin often is more socially accepted than dark skin. It also is considered a mark of beauty, intelligence and success. More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face greater health risks. They believe that having whiter skin will improve their lives. Many people think they will have a better chance of getting a job or marrying into a better family. Or they want to look like what their society considers beautiful. VOICE ONE: Some beauty care products and soaps contain chemicals that make skin lighter. This process is also called bleaching. However, some of the chemicals are extremely dangerous. One of the most dangerous is hydroquinone. Hydroquinone has been banned in several countries. The chemical has been linked to some kinds of cancer and kidney damage. It also causes low birth weight in babies when mothers use it during pregnancy. VOICE TWO: At first, bleaching products make the skin color lighter. But after long-term use they can cause problems. They could even make some skin darker. The chemicals in the products block and break down the natural process that gives skin color. The skin loses its natural barrier to protect against sunlight. Then the skin can become thick and discolored. Usually the person will use more of the product in an effort to correct the problem but this makes it worse. VOICE ONE: Fatimata Ly treats skin conditions in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Doctor Ly says skin bleaching has become a problem throughout Senegal. She says the chemicals are now more dangerous because they are stronger. And, she says, some cases have resulted in infections, permanent skin damage and blackened fingernails. Some people suffer emotional problems because of the changes. They feel regret and sadness. They say instead of taking such health risks they should have learned to love and accept their skin color. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A British study has shown a possible link between the length of a person's fingers and the joint disorder osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common kind of arthritis. It affects more than twenty million people in the United States. The disorder is caused by a break down of cartilage, the rubbery tissue that protects bones and joints. Before age forty-five years, osteoarthritis is more common among men than women. After age fifty-five, it is more common among women. Recently, researchers at the University of Nottingham studied finger lengths for clues about genetic qualities or physical conditions. The researchers compared the difference in lengths of the second and fourth fingers. The fourth finger is also known as the ring finger. The second finger is often called the index finger. VOICE ONE: The study included more than two thousand men and women. Each person had osteoarthritis of the hip or knees. Doctors had urged all the patients to consider a possible joint replacement. The patients were then compared to more than one thousand people with no history or signs of osteoarthritis. The study found that people whose index finger was shorter than their ring finger are two times as likely to suffer from osteoarthritis. The strongest evidence was among women who had osteoarthritis of the knee and whose ring fingers were longer than their index fingers. The findings were reported in the publication Arthritis and Rheumatism. VOICE TWO: Research on finger lengths is not new. Earlier studies have suggested their relation to several qualities, including musical and athletic ability. But the difference between the index finger and ring finger length is most widely known for differences between men and women. Men usually have shorter index fingers than ring fingers. In women, the two fingers are often the same length. Scientists have found this index-ring finger ratio is also linked to hormone levels in unborn babies. It is believed that the longer the ring finger is to the index finger, the higher the level of the hormone testosterone in unborn babies. VOICE ONE: The leader of the new study, Michael Doherty, says osteoarthritis is more common among men. He and his research group believe that increased physical activity and sports could be a partly to blame for the problem. The theory fits with the findings that the finger length ratio believed to be more common in men and athletes would be related to higher risk for osteoarthritis. The findings do not confirm that people with these finger length differences will suffer from osteoarthritis. But it does provide clues about the human body. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis and Mario Ritter. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-19-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Using Sex Appeal to Fight a Pest
* Byline: A case study of how scientists in the Pacific Northwest controlled an outbreak of moths in poplar trees. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Back in the year two thousand, big producers of poplar trees in the American Pacific Northwest needed help. Their hybrid poplars, nearly ten years old, were under threat. Young insects were getting into the heartwood, weakening a tree and making it likely to break and fall. Small, newly planted trees were being killed. Two professors from Washington State University discovered that the threat was not from traditional poplar pests but from a new one. Doug Walsh and John Brown found ninety-five western poplar clearwing moths in traps in a four-week period in two thousand one. Then, during a four-week period in two thousand two, they found more than eighteen thousand moths in traps placed in the same locations. Unlike most moths, this one is active during the day. As a defense, it can make itself look like a yellow jacket. It was a threat to fourteen thousand hectares of poplar planted in eastern Washington state and Oregon. The producers used twenty thousand kilograms of a pesticide, Lorsban, in two thousand two to try to control the outbreak. But that and other poisons failed to stop the moths. So the professors asked for help from an expert at the University of California, Riverside. Years earlier, Jocelyn Millar had copied the sex pheromone of the clearwing moth. Pheromones produce chemical signals that animals and insects use to identify friends and enemies. Pheromones also attract the opposite sex. The Washington State team had used Jocelyn Millar's version of the pheromone in the traps. The researchers began treating poplars with the synthetic pheromone in two thousand three. The idea was to confuse male moths. They would sense the presence of females and not be able to find them, and that would interfere with reproduction. After the success of tests, and improvements to the treatment, it won full approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. That was in two thousand six. Professor Brown says the synthetic pheromone is safe so workers can re-enter a forest after a few hours. And only small amounts are needed -- as little as one gram per two and a half hectares. Professor Walsh says the treatment reduces clearwing moth populations quickly. Today, the population is under control, but preventive treatments continue. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-19-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Understanding Happiness
* Byline: Experts in different areas of study are looking at the meaning and cause of happiness. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. For thousands of years, people have been debating the meaning of happiness and how to find it. One big happy family -- or are they really?From the ancient Greeks and Romans to current day writers and professors, the debate about happiness continues. What makes someone happy? In what parts of the world are people the happiest? Why even study happiness? Today, we explore these questions and learn about several new books on happiness studies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that a person’s highest happiness comes from the use of his or her intelligence. Religious books such as the Koran and Bible discuss faith as a form of happiness. The British scientist Charles Darwin believed that all species were formed in a way so as to enjoy happiness. And, the United States Declaration of Independence guarantees “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as a basic human right. People throughout history may have had different ideas about happiness. But today, many people are still searching for its meaning. VOICE TWO: But how do you study something like happiness? You could start with the World Database of Happiness at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This set of information includes how to define and measure happiness. It also includes happiness averages in countries around the world and compares that information through time. Some findings are not surprising. For example, the database suggests that married people are happier than single people. People who like to be with other people are happier than unsocial people. And people who have sex a lot are happier than people who do not. But other findings are less expected: People with children are equally happy as couples without children. And wealthier people are only a little happier than poorer people. The database suggests that people who live in strongly democratic and wealthy countries are happier than those who do not. This database also shows that studying happiness no longer involves just theories and ideas. Economists, psychiatrists, doctors and social scientists are finding ways of understanding happiness by examining real sets of information. VOICE ONE: Positive psychology is the new term for a method of scientific study that tries to examine the things that make life worth living instead of life’s problems. Traditional psychology generally studies negative situations like mental suffering and sickness. But positive psychology aims to study the strengths that allow people and communities to do well. Martin Seligman is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He says positive psychology has three main concerns: positive emotions, positive individual qualities and positive organizations and communities. VOICE TWO: There is also an increasing amount of medical research on the physical qualities of happiness. Doctors can now look at happiness at work in a person’s brain using a method called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. For example, an MRI can show how one area of a person’s brain activates when he or she is shown happy pictures. A different area of the brain becomes active when the person sees pictures of terrible subjects. Doctors are studying brain activity to better understand the physical activity behind human emotions. This research may lead to better understanding of depression and other mental problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Happiness is an extremely popular subject for books. If you search for "happiness" on the Web site of the online bookseller, Amazon.com, you will find more than two hundred thousand results. Experts from several areas of study recently published books on the subject. The historian Darrin McMahon examines the development of happiness in “Happiness: A History.” Mister McMahon looks at two thousand years of politics and culture in western countries. He says it is only in recent history that people think of happiness as a natural human right. Darrin McMahon explains how the ancient Greeks thought happiness was linked to luck. He says it was not until the Enlightenment period in eighteenth century Europe that people began to think they had the power to find happiness themselves. He notes that in demanding happiness, people may think something is wrong with them or others if they are not happy. Mister McMahon sees the pressure to be happy as actually creating unhappiness. Darrin McMahon says his book will not make readers happier. But he says that by comparing your situation with people throughout history, you can have a better understanding of the idea of happiness. VOICE TWO: The journalist Eric Weiner recently wrote a book called “The Geography of Bliss."? Mister Weiner traveled to countries such as Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar and Thailand to investigate happiness in different parts of the world. He met with experts and talked with local people to try to understand what makes people in different societies happy. For example, Eric Weiner learned that in Bhutan, the government measures “Gross Domestic Happiness” as a way to tell whether its citizens are happy. Mister Weiner also traveled to Moldova, a country he says is one of the least happy countries in the world. And he traveled to Iceland because studies show that it is one of the happiest nations in the world. Mister Weiner at first could not understand why a country with so little sunlight in the winter and so many alcohol drinkers could be so happy. But, he decided that happiness in Iceland is linked to its close community, striking natural beauty and high levels of creativity. Denmark, another cold country, also has been listed as one of the happiest countries. Mister Weiner says the United States is the twenty-third happiest country in the world. VOICE ONE: Dan Gilbert teaches psychology at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He recently published “Stumbling on Happiness.” Mister Gilbert looks at the way the human mind is different from other animals because we can think about the future and use our imaginations. He also explains how our minds can trick us in a way that creates difficulties in making happy choices for the future. For example, a person might think that buying a new car would make him or her happy even though the last car the person bought did not. So, events that we believe will bring us happiness bring us less than we think. And, events we fear will make us unhappy make us less unhappy than we believe. The book provides valuable information on the surprising ways in which our minds work. Here is a recording of Mister Gilbert talking about this “impact bias.” It was taken from the Big Think Web site. DAN GILBERT: "Most of the time when people are wrong about how they’ll feel about the future, they’re wrong in the direction of thinking that things will matter to them more than they really do. We are remarkable at our ability to adjust and adapt to almost any situation; but we seem not to know this about ourselves. And so we mistakenly predict that good things will make us happy . . . really happy for a really long time . Bad things, why they’ll just slay us. It turns out neither of these things is by and large true." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Why is studying happiness important? There are many answers to this question. One has to do with understanding happiness in order to create better public policies. Richard Layard is a British economist and lawmaker who studies this subject. His research is influenced by the eighteenth century thinker Jeremy Bentham. Mister Bentham believed that the goal of public policy was to create the “greatest happiness for the greatest number.” Richard Layard has looked at the relation between happiness and a country’s wealth. He questions why people in western countries are no happier than they were fifty years ago although they now earn more money. Mister Layard believes that part of the problem is that economics and public policy tend to measure a country’s success by the amount of money it makes. He notes that happiness depends on more than the purchasing power of a person or a nation. VOICE ONE: Mister Layard says that public policy should also help people improve the things that lead to happiness such as job security and health. To help improve public health policies in Britain, Mister Layard has pressed the British government to spend more money on mental health treatment centers. He argues that by helping people recover from mental illness, the government can make a big step in the effort to increase happiness. VOICE TWO: Many people have also written songs about happiness. We leave you with this song by the Pointer Sisters about the happiness of being in love. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can read and listen to our programs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-19-voa7.cfm
* Headline: WHO Sees Tobacco Risk to a Billion Lives This Century
* Byline: The World Health Organization calls on governments to follow six policies to reduce smoking rates.

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of tobacco-related deaths. The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R. The M is for monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas. O stands for offering services to help people stop smoking. W is for warning people about the dangers of tobacco. E is for enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and other forms of marketing. And R is for raising taxes on tobacco. The W.H.O. says in a major new report that raising taxes is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco use. A study found that governments now collect an average of five hundred times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on control efforts. The W.H.O. says tobacco now causes more than five million deaths a year. It predicts this number will rise to more than eight million by the year two thousand thirty. By the end of the century, it says, tobacco could kill one billion people -- ten times as many as in the twentieth century. The large majority of these deaths will take place in developing countries. More than twenty-five percent of all smokers in the world are Chinese. India, Indonesia, Russia and the United States, in that order, follow China in tobacco use. The W.H.O. found that only five percent of all people live in countries with protections like national legislation on smoke-free areas or bans on tobacco advertising. Forty percent of countries still permit smoking in hospitals and schools. An international treaty on tobacco control came into force in two thousand five. Tobacco companies face increasingly restrictive marketplaces in many wealthier countries. The industry is now aiming at the developing world, especially young women. The report says large numbers of people do not yet know the dangers of smoking. W.H.O. Director General Margaret Chan points out that tobacco hurts economies in two ways. One is through reduced productivity among workers who get lung cancer or other tobacco-related diseases. The other way is through high health care costs for treating those diseases. The W.H.O. study was announced in New York City. New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has worked hard to restrict smoking in America's largest city. And his charitable group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped pay for the study. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report written by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Trying to Get a Grip on Gestures? Here Is a Handy Book
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: the language of non-verbal communication. Two writers, Melissa Wagner and Nancy Armstrong, have put together a book of one hundred eight gestures and their various, and sometimes multiple, meanings around the world. RS: "Field Guide to Gestures" is the name of the book, and Melissa Wagner starts with one that Americans would immediately recognize as the sign for "OK." MELISSA WAGNER: "Index finger and the thumb come together to make a ring, and then the three other fingers on the hand kind of splay out. And you might put that up and say 'OK' with a big smile, and you're really giving approval." AA: "We're doing it here in the studio." MELISSA WAGNER: "I'm doing it too! In certain areas of the world, the OK symbol that we just discussed might actually mean something else. In Belgium or in France it might mean that you're worthless. Or it might mean zero. Or in Japan it might mean that you want your change in coins if you show the OK symbol, or what Americans know as the OK symbol, at the cash register. RS: "Field Guide to Gestures" is the name of the book, and Melissa Wagner starts with one that Americans would immediately recognize as the sign for "OK." MELISSA WAGNER: "Index finger and the thumb come together to make a ring, and then the three other fingers on the hand kind of splay out. And you might put that up and say 'OK' with a big smile, and you're really giving approval." AA: "We're doing it here in the studio." MELISSA WAGNER: "I'm doing it too! In certain areas of the world, the OK symbol that we just discussed might actually mean something else. In Belgium or in France it might mean that you're worthless. Or it might mean zero. Or in Japan it might mean that you want your change in coins if you show the OK symbol, or what Americans know as the OK symbol, at the cash register. "So around the world these things that Americans take for granted, and I suppose that we all take for granted, as being something that everyone understands, actually are just as difficult to learn as language." AA: "That's right, you don't want to be perceived as a 'loser.'" WAGNER: "That's right! AA: "That's a fun little gesture -- why don't you describe the gesture to indicate that someone is a loser." MELISSA WAGNER: "OK, either hand, both thumb and index finger out, and the other three fingers curled under. You're making kind of an L with your thumb and index finger. Raise that up to your head and put it on your forehead." RS: "Now what does it mean to be a loser?" MELISSA WAGNER: "It means that you maybe have said something that is maybe dumb. It's more of a chiding gesture, where you're showing kind of joking disapproval." RS: "Tell us some more of the gestures in the book. What were the most obvious gestures that you recorded in your book?" AA: "And how did you collect your observations?" MELISSA WAGNER: "Sure. Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so we actually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made it very accessible for anyone to be able to understand. And some of the other gestures that we covered that we were very interested in finding out the origins and meanings of, were things like what's known as 'the finger' here in the United States -- which is an insulting gesture that's often used by motorists. "And by 'the finger,’ I mean the middle finger on either hand is extended and the other fingers in the hand are kind of curled down. Here in the United States that's also referred to as 'flipping someone the bird.'" RS: "Well where did it come from?" MELISSA WAGNER: "It actually has been around for thousands of years. It's referred to in classic, ancient Roman texts. In Latin it's known as 'digitus impudicus' -- indecent digit [laughter] which makes it sound quite noble." AA: "Yes, I'll have to remember that! [laughter]" MELISSA WAGNER: "Right! There are certainly things that we don't really think of as being gestures that are also in the book. Like the handshake, for instance, which is a very typical greeting. And, you know, the most acceptable greeting here in the United States is a nice, firm handshake. We found out that that actually was brought over into this country from England. It kind of came about around the sixteenth century as a way to show the binding of a contract." RS: "After doing all this work, do you have a favorite gesture?" MELISSA WAGNER: "I really enjoyed learning about the horns gesture -- this one's kind of hard to explain." RS: "Where you take two fingers and, like, make horns on your head?" MELISSA WAGNER: "No -- your index and pinky fingers are held straight -- " RS: "Oh, OK." MELISSA WAGNER: " -- and then your thumb comes down and holds the two middle fingers down." AA: "And that's the 'hook 'em horns,' isn't it? That's the Texas ... " RS: "That's right! It's the 'hook 'em horns,' so the Texas Longhorns -- " AA: "Which is a ... " RS: "Football team." MELISSA WAGNER: "A football team, college -- " AA: "A college football team." MELISSA WAGNER: " -- here in the United States. Also it was adopted by hard rockers." AA: "That's right!" MELISSA WAGNER: "Rock-and-rollers would make this gesture at concerts or just kind of to show an affinity with each other. But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually mean your wife is cheating on you." RS: And, yes, there are more explicit gestures included in "Field Guide to Gestures," co-authored by Melissa Wagner. It's from Quirk Books complete with pictures and detailed instructions. AA If this were television, it'd be tempting to close with the "call me" sign -- thumb up, pinkie out, other fingers down, as if you're holding a telephone up to your ear. But Melissa says it's been used to the point of becoming a little obnoxious. RS: So we'll just point you to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, and tell you our e-mail address, word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. "So around the world these things that Americans take for granted, and I suppose that we all take for granted, as being something that everyone understands, actually are just as difficult to learn as language." AA: "That's right, you don't want to be perceived as a 'loser.'" WAGNER: "That's right! AA: "That's a fun little gesture -- why don't you describe the gesture to indicate that someone is a loser." MELISSA WAGNER: "OK, either hand, both thumb and index finger out, and the other three fingers curled under. You're making kind of an L with your thumb and index finger. Raise that up to your head and put it on your forehead." RS: "Now what does it mean to be a loser?" MELISSA WAGNER: "It means that you maybe have said something that is maybe dumb. It's more of a chiding gesture, where you're showing kind of joking disapproval." RS: "Tell us some more of the gestures in the book. What were the most obvious gestures that you recorded in your book?" AA: "And how did you collect your observations?" MELISSA WAGNER: "Sure. Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so we actually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made it very accessible for anyone to be able to understand. And some of the other gestures that we covered that we were very interested in finding out the origins and meanings of, were things like what's known as 'the finger' here in the United States -- which is an insulting gesture that's often used by motorists. "And by 'the finger,’ I mean the middle finger on either hand is extended and the other fingers in the hand are kind of curled down. Here in the United States that's also referred to as 'flipping someone the bird.'" RS: "Well where did it come from?" MELISSA WAGNER: "It actually has been around for thousands of years. It's referred to in classic, ancient Roman texts. In Latin it's known as 'digitus impudicus' -- indecent digit [laughter] which makes it sound quite noble." AA: "Yes, I'll have to remember that! [laughter]" MELISSA WAGNER: "Right! There are certainly things that we don't really think of as being gestures that are also in the book. Like the handshake, for instance, which is a very typical greeting. And, you know, the most acceptable greeting here in the United States is a nice, firm handshake. We found out that that actually was brought over into this country from England. It kind of came about around the sixteenth century as a way to show the binding of a contract." RS: "After doing all this work, do you have a favorite gesture?" MELISSA WAGNER: "I really enjoyed learning about the horns gesture -- this one's kind of hard to explain." RS: "Where you take two fingers and, like, make horns on your head?" MELISSA WAGNER: "No -- your index and pinky fingers are held straight -- " RS: "Oh, OK." MELISSA WAGNER: " -- and then your thumb comes down and holds the two middle fingers down." AA: "And that's the 'hook 'em horns,' isn't it? That's the Texas ... " RS: "That's right! It's the 'hook 'em horns,' so the Texas Longhorns -- " AA: "Which is a ... " RS: "Football team." MELISSA WAGNER: "A football team, college -- " AA: "A college football team." MELISSA WAGNER: " -- here in the United States. Also it was adopted by hard rockers." AA: "That's right!" MELISSA WAGNER: "Rock-and-rollers would make this gesture at concerts or just kind of to show an affinity with each other. But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually mean your wife is cheating on you." RS: And, yes, there are more explicit gestures included in "Field Guide to Gestures," co-authored by Melissa Wagner. It's from Quirk Books complete with pictures and detailed instructions. AA If this were television, it'd be tempting to close with the "call me" sign -- thumb up, pinkie out, other fingers down, as if you're holding a telephone up to your ear. But Melissa says it's been used to the point of becoming a little obnoxious. RS: So we'll just point you to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, and tell you our e-mail address, word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-20-voa5.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Struggle to Balance Power Between Big States and Small States
* Byline: Years after the Philadelphia convention, James Madison said the question of equal representation most threatened the writing of the Constitution. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. Detail from ''Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention,'' by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to make changes in the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak union of the thirteen states. But instead of changes, the convention produced a new document. This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Richard Rael continue the story of the United States Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national judiciary. Delegates approved a Supreme Court. And they agreed that the national legislature should establish a system of lower national courts. The national executive -- or president -- would appoint the judges. These courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrongdoing by foreign citizens in the United States. The existing system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws. We also told how the convention heard different proposals for a national government. Virginia and New Jersey offered their plans. Alexander Hamilton of New York presented a third proposal. It would give the national government almost unlimited powers. Hamilton's ideas were not popular. After Hamiliton's five-hour speech, one delegate said, "Hamilton is praised by everybody. He is supported by no one." Delegates voted to reject the New Jersey Plan. They did not even vote on Hamilton's plan. From that time, all their discussions were about the plan presented by Virginia. VOICE ONE: Detail from 'The United States Senate in Session'; the artist is unidentifiedThe delegates began to discuss creation of a national legislature. This would be the most hotly debated issue of the convention. It forced out into the open the question of equal representation. Would small states and large states have an equal voice in the central government? One delegate described the situation this way. "Let us see the truth," he said. "This is a fight for power, not for liberty. Small states may lose power to big states in a national legislature. But men living in small states will have just as much freedom as men living in big states." The issue brought the deepest emotions to the surface. One day, Gunning Bedford of Delaware looked straight at the delegates from the largest states. "Gentlemen!" he shouted. "I do not trust you. If you try to crush the small states, you will destroy the confederation. And if you do, the small states will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and give them justice." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The debate on legislative representation -- big states against small states -- lasted for weeks that summer in Philadelphia. Delegates voted on proposals, then discussed other proposals, then voted again. By the beginning of July, they were no closer to agreement than they had been in May. As one delegate said: "It seems we are at the point where we cannot move one way or another." So the delegates did what large groups often do when they cannot reach agreement. They voted to create a committee. The purpose of the committee was to develop a compromise on representation in the national legislature. The so-called "Grand Committee" would work by itself for the next several days. The rest of the delegates would rest and enjoy themselves during the July Fourth holiday. VOICE ONE: July Fourth -- Independence Day. It was a national holiday in the United States. It marked the eleventh anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence from British rule. It was a day for parades, fireworks, and patriotic speeches. The celebration was especially important in Philadelphia. It was the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Now it was the city where a new nation was being created. Convention president George Washington led a group of delegates to a ceremony at a Philadelphia church. They heard a speech written especially for them. "Your country looks to you with both worry and hope," the speaker said. "Your country depends on your decisions. Your country believes that men such as you -- who led us in our war for independence -- will know how to plan a government that will be good for all Americans. "Surely," the speaker continued, "we have among us men who understand the science of government and who can find the answers to all our problems. Surely we have the ability to design a government that will protect the liberties we have won." VOICE TWO: The delegates needed to hear such words. Just a few days before, Benjamin Franklin had expressed his thoughts about the convention. He was not hopeful. Franklin said: "We seem to feel our own lack of political wisdom, since we have been running around in search of it. We went back to ancient history for examples of government. We examined different forms of republics which no longer exist. We also examined modern states all around Europe. But none of these constitutions, we found, work in our situation." Franklin urged the convention to ask for God's help. He said each meeting should begin with a prayer. Hugh Williamson of North Carolina quickly ended any discussion of Franklin's idea. His words were simple. The convention, he said, had no money to pay a minister to lead the delegates in prayer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The convention returned to its work on July fifth. Delegates heard the report of the Grand Committee about representation in the national legislature. The report had two proposals. The Grand Committee said both must be accepted or both rejected. The report described a national legislature with two houses. The first proposal said representation in one house would be based on population. Each state would have one representative for every forty thousand people in that state. The second proposal said representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of votes as the other states. VOICE TWO: The convention already had voted for a national legislature of two houses. It had not agreed, however, on the number of representatives each state would have in each house. Nor had it agreed on how those representatives would be elected. The proposals made by the Grand Committee on July fifth were the same as those made by Roger Sherman of Connecticut a month earlier. In the future, they would be known as the "Great Compromise.” Delegates debated the compromise for many days. They knew if they did not reach agreement, the convention would fail. Those were dark days in Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: Later, Luther Martin of Maryland noted that the newspapers reported how much the delegates agreed. But that was not the truth. "We were on the edge of breaking up," Martin said. "We were held together only by the strength of a hair." Delegates Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York had left the convention in protest. But George Mason of Virginia declared he would bury his bones in Philadelphia before he would leave without an agreement. Even George Washington was depressed. He wrote to Alexander Hamilton, who had returned to New York temporarily. "I am sorry you went away," Washington said. "Our discussions are now, if possible, worse than ever. There is little agreement on which a good government can be formed. I have lost almost all hope of seeing a successful end to the convention. And so I regret that I agreed to take part." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the delegates argued long and hard about how much power to give a central government. But that question was not the most serious issue facing the convention. Many years later, James Madison explained. He said the most serious issue was deciding how the states would be represented and would vote in a national government. That question, he said, was the one which most threatened the writing of the Constitution. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English. ___ This is program #21 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-20-voa6.cfm
* Headline: When Trouble With Math Equals a Learning Disability
* Byline: Our series on learning disabilities continues with a report on dyscalculia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. So far in our series on learning disabilities we have talked about problems with reading, writing and movement. Today we talk about a problem that affects the brain's ability to process and understand the meaning of numbers. The name for this is dyscalculia. Children with dyscalculia have trouble reading numbers and picturing them in their mind. For example, they might mistake a three for an eight because the numbers look similar. They also have trouble counting objects and organizing them by size. Memory is another issue. Children with dyscalculia may not remember the correct order of operations to follow in solving math problems. Difficulties like these can lead to a lifelong fear of mathematics. Of course, just because people have trouble with math does not necessarily mean they have dyscalculia. But experts say parents and teachers may begin to suspect a problem if a child is good at speaking, reading and writing but slow to develop math skills. Does a child remember printed words but not numbers? Does the child have trouble making sense of time or understanding the order of events, like yesterday, today and tomorrow? People with dyscalculia might also have a poor sense of direction. They might have difficulty keeping score during games, and limited ability to plan moves during games like chess. Children suspected of being dyscalculic should be examined by a professional trained to recognize this condition. Experts say the disorder never goes away. But Sheldon Horowitz at the National Center for Learning Disabilities says carefully designed practice can improve math skills. For example, a teacher might use a number line to help a child understand the difference between larger and smaller numbers. The child could be asked to point to different numbers and to describe their relationship to other numbers on the line. Or objects could be grouped to represent numbers. Something else that can help children understand number relationships is to have a math problem described in the form of a story. Experts say students with dyscalculia need extra time to complete their work. Sheldon Horowitz also advises letting them work with a calculator in school. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and MP3s from our series on learning disabilities are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: There Will Be Stars on Sunday at the Academy Awards in Hollywood
* Byline: A look at the movies, actors and music nominated for this year's Oscars. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we tell about the movies, actors and music nominated for Academy Awards. The eightieth Academy Awards ceremony takes place Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the show on television. It is the most exciting event of the year for people who make movies and for people who love to watch them. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Getting ready for the 80th Academy Awards On Sunday, actors, directors, writers, producers and others will gather in Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry. They will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. This statue is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award is extremely valuable for the people who receive it. People who win an Oscar become much more famous. They often get offers to work in the best movies. They can also earn much more money. Five movies are competing for Best Picture of the year. Two tragic and violent movies were nominated for eight Academy Awards. "No Country for Old Men" is about a man who finds two million dollars after several people are killed in an illegal drug deal. A killer chases him across Texas to get the money back. The movie is based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. "There Will Be Blood" is about a man who becomes successful exploring for oil in the early nineteen hundreds. He is opposed by a young religious worker in a small town in California. The movie is based on the book "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair. Two other movies earned seven nominations each, including Best Picture. "Atonement" is about what happens after a young girl accuses her sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. It takes place in England during World War Two. "Atonement" is based on the book by British writer Ian McEwan. "Michael Clayton" is about a lawyer dealing with personal and professional crises. His law firm is trying to settle a case against an agricultural chemical company. The fifth Best Picture nominee is "Juno." It is about a smart and funny teenager who becomes pregnant and finds a husband and wife to adopt her baby. WIFE: “Your parents are probably wondering where you are.” JUNO: “Mmm, nah. I mean I’m already pregnant so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?” (MUSIC) Ten actors and actresses were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances in leading roles. Faith Lapidus tells us about them. FAITH LAPIDUS: Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for Best Actor for playing the oilman in "There Will Be Blood."? George Clooney for playing the lawyer in "Michael Clayton."? Johnny Depp is the lead character in the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."? Tommy Lee Jones plays a man searching for the truth about his son who returns from the war in Iraq in the movie "In the Valley of Elah." And Viggo Mortensen plays a Russian criminal in London in "Eastern Promises." These five women were nominated for Best Actress:? Twenty-year-old Ellen Page for playing the pregnant teenager named "Juno."? Julie Christie for her role as a woman with Alzheimer's disease in "Away From Her." Laura Linney for her role as a woman dealing with her aging and sick father in “The Savages.” Marion Cotillard portrays the great French singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose."? And Cate Blanchett for her role as the British queen in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."? Blanchett was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for playing a very different real person, Bob Dylan, in "I'm Not There." (MUSIC) HOST: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the Academy. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards from their own professions. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote to choose the final winners. More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented Sunday night. The people who wrote the best screenplays and did the best film and sound editing will receive awards. So will the people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects. The composers who wrote the best song and music from a movie will also be honored. Mario Ritter plays some of the music nominated for an Oscar. (MUSIC) MARIO RITTER: Marketa Irglova and Glen HansardThat was “Falling Slowly,” a Best Song nominee from the movie “Once.”? Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova wrote the song, perform it and star in the movie. “Once” is a musical about an Irish man and a Czech woman who meet and make music on the streets of Dublin. The movie “Enchanted” makes gentle fun of fairy tales about princesses and true love. Amy Adams plays a cartoon princess, Giselle, who becomes a real princess in New York City. Her loving, joyful spirit incites the same feelings in the people she meets. Three songs from "Enchanted" were nominated for Best Song. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz wrote the songs. Here Giselle sings “That’s How You Know.” (MUSIC) The final nominated song is from the movie “August Rush.”? Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas wrote “Raise It Up.”? (MUSIC) The Best Musical Score Oscar is for the instrumental music made for a film. James Newton Howard is nominated for the film “Michael Clayton.”? It is his seventh Academy Award nomination. (MUSIC) Dario Marianelli wrote the nominated score for the movie?? “Atonement.”? Here is one mysterious sounding melody. (MUSIC) The music from the children’s animated film "Ratatouille," by Michael Giacchino, was also nominated for Best Musical Score. And composer Marco Beltrami was honored for his music for the western “3:10 to Yuma.”? We leave you now with music from the final nominated score from “The Kite Runner” by composer Alberto Iglesias. The movie is about the relationship of two children in Afghanistan. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. The show was written by Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer.Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Price of Pleasure
* Byline: A study finds that a $90 wine is not as tasty when it costs only $10. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Usually we think about material qualities when we think about the pleasure we will get from a product. When something costs a lot, we might think about all the fine work that went into it. But can price alone influence the pleasure we experience? Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Graduate School of Business say yes. Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty and Antonio Rangel at Caltech and Baba Shiv at Stanford did a study. They had twenty people taste different wines. Wine was chosen because it comes in many different qualities and prices, and because a lot of people enjoy tasting it. The people were told they were tasting five different Cabernet Sauvignons. The wines were identified only by price: five, ten, thirty-five, forty-five and ninety dollars. But in truth there were only three different wines, and two of them were presented twice, at a high price and a low price. For example, the wine that in fact cost ninety dollars a bottle was presented half the time as a ten dollar wine. There were two important results from the study. First, the individuals, on average, reported greater pleasure from drinking wine that they were told was higher in price. Brain images taken while the people tasted the wine supported this finding. Activity, represented by blood-oxygen levels, increased in an area of the brain thought to process "experienced pleasantness." Experiments have shown that the medial orbitofrontal cortex processes the experience of enjoyment from smells, taste and music. The new findings will add to the limited knowledge of how marketing affects brain activity. The second result has meaning for economists and marketers. The experiment appears to confirm that raising the price can increase how much a product is enjoyed. In other words, when it comes to expectations, it seems you really do get what you pay for. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Finally, we want to update our recent story on the fight over next-generation DVD technology for high definition televisions. This week, the Toshiba company in Japan announced the end of its HD DVD business, crushed by Sony's Blu-ray format. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Castro Retires as President, but Not Much May Change in Cuba
* Byline: A look back at almost 50 years of Fidel Castro’s Cuba and its stormy relationship with the U.S. Transcript of radio braodcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. One of the world's longest serving leaders announced this week that he is leaving office after just short of fifty eventful years. Fidel Castro of Cuba is eighty-one years old and in poor health. He named his brother Raul as acting president in two thousand six. In a letter published Tuesday, Fidel Castro said he was not saying goodbye to the Cuban people. His only wish, he said, is to "fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas." On Sunday the Cuban National Assembly is expected to name seventy-six-year-old Raul Castro as president. The two brothers appear to share very similar ideas about governing the communist-ruled island. Fidel Castro will apparently remain a member of Parliament and is widely expected to still have strong influence. He came to power as a socialist revolutionary in nineteen fifty-nine. He overthrew the pro-American Fulgencio Batista, who himself had seized power. Fidel Castro soon won the support of the Soviet Union at the height of its cold war tensions with the United States. In nineteen sixty-one, a force of Cuban exiles trained by the American Central Intelligence Agency launched an invasion of the island. The Cuban government learned of the plan. Within days its troops defeated what became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. The failure was a public relations disaster for the United States and its president, John F. Kennedy. In February of nineteen sixty-two Kennedy used power approved by Congress to ban all trade with Cuba. The embargo of goods except food and medicine is still in effect. In October of nineteen sixty-two, the United States found that the Soviets had missiles in Cuba. Cuba is one hundred forty-five kilometers from the Florida coast. President Kennedy warned of the risk of a nuclear strike on the United States. He ordered a naval blockade which soon forced the Soviets to remove the missiles. But the Soviets remained Cuba’s top ally and trade partner for thirty years. The Cuban economy suffered after the Soviet Union collapsed in nineteen ninety-one. But in recent years the economy has improved. Venezuela, led by socialist President Hugo Chavez, has become an important ally. Supporters of Fidel Castro praised a leader who provided free health care and education in Cuba. But others condemned a dictator with a repressive government that spread communist revolution in Latin America and Africa. Cuba has one legal political party, the Communist Party. The media rights group Reporters Without Borders rates Cuba as the fifth worst nation for press freedoms. Human rights groups say Cuba's eleven million citizens are denied privacy, free speech and fair legal process. The Bush administration says it has no plans to end economic restrictions against Cuba without changes like free elections. President Bush says he hopes the end of Fidel Castro’s rule can be the beginning of peaceful reform. And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Annie Oakley, 1860-1926: One of the Most Famous Sharpshooters in American History
* Byline: A Broadway musical,

 VOICE ONE:? I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English program. Today we report about Annie Oakley, a woman who became famous for her ability to shoot a gun and hit very small objects. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are hundreds of stories about Annie Oakley. Many of the stories involve her adventures in the American Wild West. Others tell about her travels with Native American tribes. However, most of the stories are not true. She did not grow up in the Wild West, nor did she fight in any battles. Annie Oakley was a performer in a traveling Wild West show. She used her skill at shooting a gun to become one of the most famous sharp shooters in American history. VOICE TWO: Annie Oakley was born in eighteen sixty in Darke County, Ohio. Her real name was Phoebe Ann Mosey. When she was six years old, her father died of pneumonia. Her family was very poor. She did not attend school. When she was nine years old, Annie went to live with another family on a farm. Then she became a servant for still another family. She later said that this new family abused her. When Annie returned to live with her own family, she decided to help them earn money. She taught herself how to shoot her grandfather's gun and began hunting animals for food. She could shoot the animals without ruining the important parts of the meat. She sold the animals to the people in her town. When she was fifteen years old, she had made enough money to pay for her family’s farm. VOICE ONE: Soon her ability to shoot a gun became well known in her town. When she was sixteen years old, she was invited to a shooting contest with a famous marksman named Frank Butler. Frank Butler claimed that he could shoot better than anyone else. Annie surprised everyone when she won the competition. She shot all twenty-five targets, while Frank Butler was only able to shoot twenty-four of them. Perhaps their shooting abilities attracted them to one another, because Annie and Frank married in eighteen seventy-six. VOICE TWO: In eighteen eighty-two, Annie took the name Oakley. She and Frank Butler started putting on shows together, demonstrating their abilities to shoot a gun. Frank Butler was the star of the show and Annie Oakley was his assistant. However, sometimes she did her own shooting. Two years later, Annie Oakley met the famous Native American chief, Sitting Bull, at a performance. The chief liked her skill in shooting and also her personality. They became friends. He gave her the name “Little Sure Shot” because of her shooting ability and because she was only one and one-half meters tall. (MUSIC: "Colonel Buffalo Bill") VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty-five, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler joined another traveling show. It was called “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.”? William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, ran the show. For sixteen years, Annie Oakley was the star of the show while Frank Butler was her assistant. Posters for the show called her a “Champion Markswoman.”? The Wild West show became very famous all over the United States. All of the performers demonstrated their skills. Many of the performers had fought in real gun battles while settling the western part of the United States. They wanted to bring the excitement and mystery of the Wild West to a show that people would like to watch. VOICE TWO: Annie Oakley did tricks that showed off how good she was at aiming and shooting a gun. She could shoot a small metal coin thrown in the air from twenty-seven meters away. She could shoot the thin edge of a playing card and then shoot it six more times as it fell to the ground. She could shoot the ashes off of a cigarette her husband Frank Butler held in his mouth. In eighteen eighty-seven, Buffalo Bill took the whole Wild West show to Europe. They traveled to many countries and gave many performances. They performed in England for Queen Victoria. Annie Oakley received a lot of attention. The newspapers wrote stories about her and she took part in many shooting contests. VOICE ONE: The Wild West show returned to Europe two years later. By this time, Annie Oakley had become even more famous. The Wild West show performed in Paris, France, for six months. Then the performers traveled to Germany, Italy and Spain. In Germany, the Crown Prince asked Oakley to shoot the ashes off of a cigarette that he held in his mouth, as she famously had done with her husband. She asked the Prince to hold the cigarette in his hand instead and did the trick easily. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When the Wild West show returned to the United States, Buffalo Bill decided to change it to include scenes from the life and culture of the Wild West. These scenes included train robberies, gunfights and conflicts with Native American Indians. In nineteen-oh-one, Annie Oakley was in a train crash that badly injured her back. She had five operations. Annie and Frank wanted to stop traveling so much and have their own home. So they left the Wild West show. They built a home in Cambridge, Maryland. They liked this area because it had a nice community and there were many places they could go hunting. Annie Oakley and Frank Butler took part in community activities. Oakley gave shooting lessons and demonstrations at the local county fair. VOICE ONE: Annie Oakley wrote a book about her life that was published in nineteen fourteen. It was called “Powders I Have Used.” She also wrote many stories about hunting and fishing. Some of these articles tried to get other women to begin hunting. She also tried to get women to learn how to shoot a gun so that they could defend themselves. During World War One, Annie Oakley offered to help the military. She proposed to train a group of women volunteers who would become soldiers in the war. However, the United States did not accept this offer. She also offered to give the American troops shooting lessons. She traveled across the country and visited many training camps. She gave shooting demonstrations and raised money for medicine and supplies. VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-five, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler moved back to Ohio to be near her family. They continued to give performances. But Annie Oakley was sick. She died on November third, nineteen twenty-six. Her husband Frank Butler died eighteen days later. Annie Oakley has been remembered in many ways. People have written movies, songs, plays, books and television shows about her. One of the most famous examples is the Broadway musical play called “Annie Get Your Gun.”? Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen forty-six. In one of the famous songs from the musical, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler sing "Anything You Can Do." The singers are Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell. (MUSIC: "Anything You Can Do") VOICE ONE: The musical is still being performed today to remember a woman with an unusual skill. She showed that women could be just as good, if not better, than men. We leave you with "There's No Business Like Show Business" from "Annie Get Your Gun." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Erin Braswell and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can learn more about famous Americans on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Blizzard: Don't Let This Expression Snow You
* Byline: A violent and heavy blizzard is not the only thing that can snow you under. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA?Special English program?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Some popular American expressions come from areas of the United States where people experience problems of living in cold winter weather. Winters in the northern United States are always cold and snowy. Sometimes, heavy snow is brought by violent storms with high winds and extremely low temperatures. Americans call these storms, blizzards. Blizzards are usually described as blinding, because no one can see through the blowing snow. Until about one hundred twenty years ago, the word blizzard had nothing to do with snow. It had several other meanings. One was a sharp blow, like hitting a ball with a stick. Another meaning was a gun shot. ?A third was any sort of statement or event that was the most extreme of its kind. An especially violent and heavy snowstorm struck the state of Iowa in eighteen seventy. The newspaper editor in one small town called the terrible storm a blizzard, because it was the worst winter storm in a long time. This use of the word spread across the country in the next few years. Soon, any especially bad winter storm was called a blizzard. Although no one likes a blizzard, many people love snow. It changes the appearance of everything around us. When snow is falling, the world seems somehow soft, peaceful and quiet. Snow, especially in large amounts, covers everything. But too much snow is a real problem. Heavy, deep snow is difficult to move. Clearing snow from roads and sidewalks is hard work. Someone who is snowed under has a lot of snow to clear. That expression, snowed under, also has another meaning. Anyone who has too much work to do is snowed under. You might explain to a friend that you cannot see her tonight, because you are snowed under with work. It also is possible to snow someone under with words. The idea is to change someone's mind by making a great many pleasant, but false, statements or claims. That is a snow job. A boy may use a snow job, for example, to try to get a girl to go out with him. The pretty words of his snow job are like the snow flakes that cover the real world around us. However, snow jobs, unlike blizzards, are easily seen through. We hope you have enjoyed our attempts to explain some popular American winter expressions. And that wish is no snow job. (MUSIC) This?VOA?Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn?Christiano. The narrator was Maurice Joyce. I'm Warren Scheer. This?VOA?Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn?Christiano. The narrator was Maurice Joyce. I'm Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Business Plan for Social Change
* Byline: TechnoServe is a 40-year-old group that has helped create or improve more than 2,000 businesses in the developing world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Starting a business is never easy. But an organization like TechnoServe can make it easier. A businessman in the American state of Connecticut, Ed Bullard, launched this nonprofit group forty years ago. The name comes from the idea of technology in the service of mankind. TechnoServe looks for business solutions to rural poverty. Or, as it says on its Web site, "social change has a business plan." The group has helped create or improve more than two thousand businesses in about thirty countries. Luba Vangelova works for TechnoServe in Washington, D.C. She tells us the group has an estimated budget this year of about forty-five million dollars. She says much of that will support business training and development programs in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. In parts of Central America, for example, TechnoServe is helping coffee producers become competitive in new and growing markets. In rural India the group is assisting farmers with crop production. And in Mozambique, TechnoServe is helping develop the travel and tourism industry. One way it identifies promising entrepreneurs is through a business plan competition called Believe Begin Become. This is an intensive program that provides technical training and expert advice. Winners receive money to bring their business plans to reality. TechnoServe has held nine national competitions in Central America since two thousand two. Five competitions have been held in Africa, including one in Tanzania last year. SPEAKER: "B.B.B. has been a breakthrough for me. Finally I am going to own my own business. And I am going to employ people." A TechnoServe channel on YouTube describes Believe Begin Become and some of the winning business plans. Luba Vangelova says TechnoServe also supports entrepreneurship programs for teenagers and young adults. Charity Navigator, an independent group that rates American charities, has given TechnoServe its highest rating. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. A link to TechnoServe can be found at voaspecialenglish.com, along with transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Snow Business in US: Skiing Into the World of Winter Wonderlands
* Byline: Skiing, snowboarding and mountain resorts add up to billions of dollars. Why an industry that can make its own snow is still concerned about climate change. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we look at the business of skiing and snowboarding in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Snow sports are a big business. Ski areas help support local economies. One hundred sixty-five thousand people work in the mountain resort industry. It earns five billion dollars a year. The president of the National Ski Areas Association provided these numbers to a Senate committee last May. Michael Berry wanted lawmakers in Congress to know that his members are concerned about an issue: global warming. Snow sports, after all, are not just a business, but a business that depends on the weather. VOICE TWO: The ski season in the United States generally extends from late November until the middle of April. But this season, areas in the West have experienced record amounts of snowfall. Some ski resorts are planning to stay open longer. Last season, thirty-seven of the fifty states had operating ski areas. Nationally, close to five hundred ski areas were open for business. The five states with the most ski areas were New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania. The industry recorded more than fifty-five million visits. That was close to the average for the past ten seasons, but down six percent from the season before. The National Ski Areas Association says the main reason was the weather. VOICE ONE: The ski season was shortened in most of the United States because of warm temperatures and below-average snowfall. This was true everywhere except the Rocky Mountains, in the West. Resorts there reported a record twenty million visits last season. The Rocky Mountains extend through several states including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. The largest ski resort in the United States is Vail, Colorado. The town of Vail and the nearby Vail Mountain make up the resort. The mountain is more than three thousand five hundred meters high. A ski trip does not have to cost thousands of dollars. Many people go for a day or two and rent skis instead of buying them. But people with enough money to stay at a nice resort might also have enough for some special things. Like riding to the top of the mountain in a helicopter instead of on a ski lift. And ski areas do not have to be outdoors or open only in winter. The first indoor ski dome in the United States is expected to open late this year in New Jersey. VOICE TWO: The United States has three hundred million people. The National Sporting Goods Association says more than six million of them participate in downhill skiing. Two million are cross-country skiers. And more than five million snowboard. Snowboarding gained popularity in the nineteen sixties and seventies. By the early eighties, less than ten percent of ski areas in the United States permitted snowboarding. Many skiers considered it a danger. But today only a few places still ban snowboarding. VOICE ONE: Snowboarders are generally younger than skiers. Alex Lebonitte is twenty-four years old and a personal trainer in Virginia. He finds that snowboarding is not that much more fun than skiing. He feels the speed more on a snowboard than on two skis, and he likes that. But what he especially likes is that snowboarding is more comfortable than skiing, he says. The boots are softer, not as much equipment is needed -- and, he says, everything stays attached when you fall. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When a mountain has a lot of snow, there may be danger of an avalanche. Snow slides are powerful, and they can be deadly, burying anything in their path. To reduce the risk of an avalanche, ski areas might use artillery and other explosives to produce controlled slides. Ski areas need a lot of snow. But what happens when there is not enough? In that case, they make their own. Snow making machines are the reason many ski resorts can stay open more than a few months a year. These machines also make it possible to create better ski conditions than nature may provide. VOICE ONE: Ski operators point out that their snow is really no different from the snow that falls from the sky. Snow crystals are ice particles that usually form around a piece of dust in the atmosphere. All snow crystals have six sides, but they form different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals produce snowflakes when they stick together. Making snow requires water, cold temperatures and some dust particles. A machine called a snow gun mixes cooled water and compressed air. A pipe carries water into the gun from a lake or pond. A second pipe pushes in high-pressure air from a compressor. The compressed air causes the water to divide into many tiny particles. It also blows the drops into the air and helps cool them at the same time. The drops freeze before they hit the ground, producing snow. Some ski areas place the snow guns on towers high above the ground, giving the particles more time to freeze. VOICE TWO: But there is more to making snow than just the equipment. Weather conditions must be correct. These conditions involve air temperature and humidity, the amount of water in the air. The drier the air, the easier it is to make snow. Today many ski areas use computers to measure the conditions and start the snow making when the conditions are best. And ski areas want snow making machines to produce different kinds of snow, just like nature. Dry snow contains only a small amount of water. This light, powdery snow is excellent for skiing. Ski resorts want the top layer of snow on a mountain to be dry. Under the dry snow, they want wet snow, to build up the levels for skiers. VOICE ONE: Environmental groups are concerned about the use of large amounts of energy and water to make snow at ski areas. Many ski operators in the United States are trying to improve the situation with machines that need less energy and water. The Killington ski resort in the northeastern state of Vermont recently invested more than five million dollars to improve its snowmaking system. Other resorts have reduced the amount of compressed air their machines use; producing it takes energy. Some resorts are using snow guns that can make snow without the need for any compressed air. VOICE TWO: Another ski area in the Northeast, the Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Massachusetts, has built a wind turbine to produce energy. The turbine began operating in August of two thousand seven. Jiminy Peak says it is the only mountain resort in North America to produce its own power using wind energy. Katie Fogel is the director of public relations. She says the wind turbine is producing fifty percent of the resort's energy needs, and thirty-five to forty percent of the energy needed to produce snow. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Snow making equipment is not the only technology found at ski areas. Skiers can use global positioning satellites to avoid getting lost. And, if there is wireless service, they can use their mobile phones to warn others of dangerous conditions, or to call for help. Another modern safety device is the avalanche beacon. Avalanche beacons are devices that send out a signal to help in locating people buried under snow. There are also personal locator beacons which transmit an emergency signal to satellites. Ski areas usually have programs to teach safety. Many have also increased their number of employees to supervise visitors. The National Ski Areas Association says accidents generally involve young men traveling at high speed. An average of thirty-seven people a year have been killed skiing or snowboarding during the past ten years. The association reports that last season there were twenty-two deaths, most of them skiers. Forty other people were seriously injured; forty percent of them were snowboarders. VOICE TWO: Amy Kemp is communications manager for Vail Resorts in Colorado. She says one of the most important technological improvements in skiing in the past ten years is the ski itself. She says the changes in design and shape have made skiing easier, safer and more fun. For example, skis that turn up at both ends, instead of just the front, make it easier to do tricks. And skiers do not have to work as hard as they used to, she says. Now they can change direction without any more effort than moving an ankle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson, and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Have a Headache? You Are Not Alone
* Byline: Information about headaches, from the mildly unpleasant to the extremely painful. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we tell about headaches, the head pain that strikes almost everyone at some time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Have you had a headache recently?? If your answer is yes, you are like many millions of people worldwide who experience pain in the head. The pain can be temporary, mild and cured by a simple painkiller like aspirin. Or, it can be severe. The National Headache Foundation says more than forty five million people in the United States suffer chronic headaches. Such headaches cause severe pain that goes away but returns later. Some headaches may prove difficult and require time to treat. But many experts today are working toward cures or major help for chronic headaches. VOICE TWO: The US Headache Consortium is a group with seven member organizations. They are attempting to improve treatment of one kind of headache -- the migraine. Some people experience this kind of pain as often as two weeks every month. The National Headache Foundation says about seventy percent of migraine sufferers are women. Some people describe the pain as similar to a repeated beat. Others compare it to someone driving a sharp object into the head. Migraine headaches cause Americans to miss more than one hundred fifty million workdays each year. A migraine can be mild. But it also can be so severe that a person cannot live a normal life. VOICE ONE: One migraine sufferer lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Video producer Curtis Croley had head pain as a child. He does not know what kind of headaches they were. But when he suffered severe headaches as an adult, doctors identified the problem as migraine. Today, Mister Croley says months can pass without a headache. But then he will have three migraines within a month. If he takes the medicine his doctor ordered early in his headache, it controls the pain. If not, the pain in his head becomes extremely bad. Sometimes he has had to be treated with a combination of drugs in a hospital. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraine headaches. Others use medicine to control pain already developed. Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans. Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine. And most people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects. Doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches. Interestingly, caffeine also can cause some migraines. VOICE ONE: Medical experts have long recognized the work of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic says several foods are suspected of causing migraines. Cheese and alcoholic drinks are among them. Food additives like nitrates and monosodium glutamate also are suspected causes. The Mayo Clinic tells patients to avoid strong smells that have seemingly started migraines in the past. Some people react badly to products like perfume, even if they have a pleasant smell. The Clinic's experts say aerobic exercise can help migraine sufferers. Aerobic exercise increases a person's heart rate. It can include walking, swimming or riding a bicycle. But a sudden start to hard exercise can cause headaches. The experts advise that people should plan to exercise, eat and sleep at the same times each day. VOICE TWO: The Mayo Clinic has advice about estrogen for women who suffer from migraines. The female body makes estrogen. Drugs like birth control pills contain a version of this chemical. Such medicines may produce headaches or cause them to worsen, the Clinic says. The same is true for estrogen replacement drugs for women. Doctors sometimes order estrogen replacement for women who no longer able to have children. VOICE ONE: The Clinic also says hypnotherapy might help suppress headaches. It says the method could reduce the number and severity of a patient’s headaches. In hypnotherapy, willing people are placed in a condition that lets them receive suggestions. They look like they are sleeping. The suggestions they receive may be able to direct their whole mental energy against pain. The Mayo Clinic says the hypnotizer can never control the person under hypnosis. It also says the hypnotized person will remember what happened during the treatment. (MUSIC) ??????? VOICE TWO: More people suffer tension headaches than migraines. But most tension headaches are not as powerful. Events that start tension headaches may include emotional pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression. Other tension headaches can start from something as simple as tiredness. Common changes in atmospheric conditions also can be responsible. The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as tightness in the skin around your eyes. Or, you may feel pressure around your head. Episodic tension headaches strike from time to time. Chronic tension headaches happen more often. A tension headache can last from a half hour to a whole week. VOICE ONE: The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day. Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the head. Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches. For years, researchers blamed muscle tension from tightening in the face, neck and the skin on top of the head. They believed emotional tension caused these movements. But that belief has been disputed. A test called an electromyogram shows that muscle tension does not increase in people with a tension headache. The test records electrical currents caused by muscle activity. Such research has caused the International Headache Society to re-name the tension headache. The group now calls it a tension-type headache. VOICE TWO: Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin. The changes may start sending pain messages to the brain. These changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain. Medicines for tension headache can be as simple as aspirin or other painkillers. But if your pain is too severe, you will need a doctor's advice. VOICE ONE: A web site called Family Doctor dot org provides information from the American Academy of Family Physicians. The group suggests steps to ease or end a tension headache. For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can help. So can standing under hot water while you are getting washed. The group also advises exercising often. Another idea is taking a holiday from work. But you had better ask your employer first. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the pain is terrible. The Cleveland Clinic Headache Center in Ohio says the cluster headache can be many times more intense than a migraine. Cluster headaches usually strike young people. Smokers and persons who drink alcohol often get these headaches. Men are about six times more likely than women to have them. The Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men. Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of season. Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning. The pain is almost always felt on one side of the face. It can last for up to ninety minutes. Then it stops. But it often starts again later the same day. Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients have pain over a number of days to a whole year. Pain-free periods separate these periods. VOICE ONE: The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway. When the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches. The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red. Studies have shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may come from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help. Many other drugs also could be used. For example, doctors say breathing oxygen also can help. Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our headaches. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Wheat Production Rises in Face of World Demand
* Byline: The F.A.O. points to a big increase in winter plantings in northern countries. But low supplies may keep prices from coming down quickly. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Wheat supplies around the world are at their lowest level in thirty years. Wheat supplies in the United States are at their lowest in sixty years. But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome has some good news. It says a big increase in winter wheat plantings in northern countries is likely to result in much higher production this year. The F.A.O. points out, though, that these predictions are based on normal weather conditions. Wheat production last year is now estimated at just over six hundred million tons. That was up one percent from two thousand six -- not as much as had been hoped. Almost all of the increase was among large producers in Asia. Prices are up sharply for wheat but also for most other cereal crops. The F.A.O. says big production increases may be required for more than one season for prices to fall much below their recent highs. The United States Department of Agriculture has come out with its own agricultural predictions, to the year two thousand seventeen. Wheat plantings in the United States are expected to rise sharply this year in reaction to high prices. But wheat hectarage is expected to fall back for the longer term as a result of competition from other crops. The United States is the leading exporter of wheat. The government says that by summer, American farmers will export one-fifth more than earlier predicted. But demand is also up at home. More wheat is needed for animal feed to replace corn being grown to make fuel. World wheat supplies are also down because in some countries, including the United States, bad weather has reduced production. Something else that can reduce wheat production is the wheat curl mite. In nineteen ninety-five, it caused about thirty-five million dollars in damage in the American Midwest. It causes an infection called wheat streak mosaic virus. Government experts say pesticides are not especially effective against the wheat curl mite. But this year, the Agricultural Research Service at the Department of Agriculture is making a new winter wheat available to resist the virus. Robert Graybosch developed it with scientists from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Kansas State University. The new wheat is called Mace. The scientists say in tests, two to three times more Mace was harvested from virus-infected fields than other kinds of wheat. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Doc Holliday: One of the Most Famous, and Dangerous, Gunfighters of the Old West
* Byline: You can visit his burial place in Colorado. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Many stories have been told about the old American West. Some are true. Many more are just interesting stories. Today we will try to tell the true story of one of the most famous and dangerous American gun fighters. His name was John Henry Holliday. He was better known as “Doc”. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The little city of Glenwood Springs is deep in the Rocky Mountains in the western state of Colorado. The mountains here rise sharply out of the ground and surround Glenwood Springs. A small burial area in Glenwood Springs is called the Pioneer Cemetery. You have to walk up a steep hill on an old dirt road to reach it. The walk takes about twenty minutes. Visitors can stop at several places along this walk to look at the city far blow. In the cemetery, large stones mark most of the burial places. Some of the stones look new. Many are more than one hundred years old. VOICE TWO: A dirt path leads to the back of the cemetery and one, lone, burial place. This one is the reason most people come to the Pioneer Cemetery. The stone over the burial place is colored red, and larger than most of the others. A small black metal fence surrounds the grave. The name on the stone says “Doc Holliday… He died in bed.”? This man’s real name was John Henry Holliday. He was called “Doc” because he was a doctor of dental surgery, a dentist. But he was best known as a gunfighter and gambler, a person who plays games of chance for money. Many people who knew him considered him the most dangerous man in the Old West. VOICE ONE: It is extremely difficult to separate truth from the false stories that were spread about some of the more famous people in the Old West. Many of these famous stories are very interesting and exciting. But they are not true. Many of these made-up stories tell about the man who was Doc Holliday. History experts say he was a very dangerous man because he was already dying when he came to the West. He knew he had the lung disease tuberculosis that causes a slow death. Many experts said he was not afraid of a gunfight. He thought a quick death from a bullet might be better than waiting to die a very slow, painful death from the disease. VOICE TWO: Another interesting fact about Doc Holliday is that many history experts now believe he may have spread several of the stories that were told about him. He may have done this because it caused people to fear him. If they feared him, they would not cause him trouble. It was not difficult to find trouble in many towns in the American West. And disputes about who had won a game of chance were always a possibility for a professional gambler like Doc Holliday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Henry Holliday was born in the southern state of Georgia in eighteen fifty-one. He was born into a family that included several medical doctors and dentists. Like most young men of the American South at that time, John Henry Holliday learned to ride a horse well. He learned to shoot several kinds of weapons. He also was well educated. He learned math and science. He learned to read, write and speak Greek, Latin and French. A young black women who worked for his family taught him to play card games. John Holliday became a very good card player. He could easily remember which cards had been played in a game. This was very difficult to do. It helped him much later in life when he became a professional gambler. In eighteen seventy, John became a student at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. He graduated in eighteen seventy-two. VOICE TWO: John Holliday was a tall man. He was thin and always dressed well. He was a quiet, friendly man who always smiled. People liked him. Doctor Holliday began working as a dentist in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. He soon began to show the signs of tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his mother. His doctor said he would live longer if he went to a warm, very dry place -- perhaps the American West. In eighteen seventy-three, John Holliday said goodbye to his family and left Georgia on a train. He began his new life in the western city of Dallas, Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Holliday tried to work as a dentist for about four years. He was not very successful. Many people did not want to be treated by a dentist they knew had tuberculosis. He spent a great deal of time drinking alcohol in a saloon. It was here that be became known as “Doc” Holliday. Holliday traveled in Texas and Colorado for the next several years. He became a professional gambler. In eighteen seventy-seven, he was living in the small town of Fort Griffin, Texas. Here he met a man who was to become one of his best friends. That man was a former law officer, gunfighter and gambler. His name was Wyatt Earp. Soon after meeting Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday killed a man during a card game. The man had reached for a gun. Doc Holliday was much quicker using a long knife. He had to leave Fort Griffin and Texas very quickly. The friendship continued between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In Dodge City, Kansas, Holliday saved Earp’s life late one night. A man drew his gun behind Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday yelled a warning, drew his gun and shot the man. VOICE TWO: Wyatt Earp had several brothers. They were a close family. Many experts believe that the Earp brothers were a replacement for the family Doc Holliday had left in Georgia. Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil remained close friends with Doc Holliday for the rest of their lives. Doc Holliday had become well known in the West. He became even more famous after he followed the Earp brothers to the town of Tombstone, Arizona. In Tombstone he took part in the most famous shooting incident in western history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That shooting incident in Tombstone is known as “The Gunfight at the OK Corral.”? It took place on October twenty-sixth, eighteen eighty-one. It involved Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday. ?Virgil Earp was an officer of the law. He was on his way to arrest several men. Wyatt and Morgan went with him to help. Doc Holliday joined them as they walked down the street. The men they were going to arrest were also brothers -- Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury. VOICE TWO: As the two groups came together, Virgil Earp demanded that the Clantons and McLaurys raise their hands and surrender. They refused. No one knows who fired the first shot. All the men began shooting at once. When it was over, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury were dead. Ike Clanton had run away. Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded, but they survived. Neither Doc Holliday nor Wyatt Earp was hurt. Political enemies of the Earp Brothers wanted a trial. The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday were arrested and tried. The jury found them innocent. It said they were trying to disarm a group of men who wanted a fight. A few months later, an unknown gunman killed Morgan Earp. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday began to hunt the killers. They killed several men known to have been involved in the murder of Morgan Earp. VOICE ONE: No one really knows how many gunfights Doc Holliday took part in. No one knows just how many people died as a result. Some books say he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty men. But most experts say the number is closer to eight. History books will tell you Doc Holliday was arrested several times. Most of the time he was arrested for playing illegal games of chance. He was also arrested after several shootings. Often the charges were dismissed because he was only defending himself. The few times he faced a criminal trial he was found to be innocent. In the last years of Doc Holliday’s life, the West had changed a great deal. The people there no longer wanted gunfighters or gamblers. Doc Holliday may have won in games of chance and in several gunfights. However, he could not use his guns against tuberculosis. He died in his bed, in the little city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November eighth, eighteen eighty-seven. He was thirty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Midlife Crisis and U
* Byline: A study says most people live a U-shaped life -- happiest when they are young and old, but middle age is emotionally low. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age, also known as midlife crisis, is a universal experience. Two economists did the study: Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations. They found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life. That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Levels of happiness are highest when people are young and when they are old. In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels drop. Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others. But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor and to those with and without children. Generally speaking, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five. But then, as they continue into old age, their happiness starts to climb back up. What the research does not show is why all this happens. Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams. Or perhaps people who are happier live longer, and this is responsible for a growing percentage of happy older people. Or, he says, maybe people have seen others their age die and they value more their own remaining years. The report is to be published in the journal Social Science and Medicine. Last December, government researchers reported a big increase in suicides among middle-aged people in the United States. They looked at injury-related death rates by age group from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four. They found that suicide increased almost twenty percent among people ages forty-five to fifty-four. No one is sure why. By comparison, rates generally fell for those sixty-five and older. And for people twenty to twenty-nine the suicide rate was nearly unchanged. The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the findings are subject to some limitations. For example, accidental drug poisonings might sometimes be mistaken for suicides. Over all, suicides in the United States increased four percent from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four. That year thirty-two thousand four hundred people took their own lives. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: A 'Great Compromise' on State Representation
* Byline: ''Why,'' asked Benjamin Franklin, ''do the small states think they will be swallowed if the big states have more representatives in the national legislature?'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. The history of the United States Constitution is a long and interesting story that we have been telling now for several weeks. Today w e continue with the convention in seventeen eighty-seven where it was written. Here are Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: Detail from ''Washington as Statesman at the Constitutional Convention,'' by Junius Brutus Stearns, 1856Last week, we told about the most serious question facing the convention in Philadelphia. It was the question of state representation in the national government. Would small states and large states have an equal voice? The convention could not agree on a plan. So it created a special committee to develop a compromise. The convention suspended its meetings for the July Fourth Independence Day holiday. But the special committee continued its work. When the convention re-opened, the delegates heard the committee's report. This was its proposal: The national legislature would have two houses. Representation in one house would be decided by population. Each state would have one representative for every forty thousand people in that state. Representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of representatives as the other states. It was called "The Great Compromise." Delegates knew that the success or failure of the convention depended on this agreement. VOICE ONE: The debate between large states and small states lasted for weeks. The small states truly believed they would lose power to the large states in a national government. Several times, they threatened to leave the convention in protest. William Paterson of New Jersey, a small state, spoke. "Some of the assembled gentlemen have made it known that if the small states do not agree to a plan, the large states will form a union among themselves. Well, let them unite if they please! They cannot force others to unite." VOICE TWO: Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, old and in poor health, sat writing quietly during the debate. Now he asked that his words be heard. Franklin asked James Wilson, also of Pennsylvania, to read his statement. "Why," he asked, "do the small states think they will be swallowed if the big states have more representatives in the national legislature? There is no reason for this fear. The big states will gain nothing if they swallow up the small states. They know this. And so, I believe, they will not try." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For a long time, the delegates could not agree on representation in the legislature. So they debated other parts of the proposal. One involved the names of the two houses of the legislature. The delegates used several names. Most, however, spoke of them simply as the First Branch and the Second Branch. We will speak of them by the names used today: the House of Representatives and the Senate. VOICE TWO: Next came the questions: Who could be elected to the House and Senate? Who would elect them? Delegates did not take long to decide the first question. Members of the House, they agreed, must be at least twenty-five years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for seven years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen. Members of the Senate must be at least thirty years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for nine years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen. VOICE ONE: How long would lawmakers serve? Roger Sherman of Connecticut thought representatives to the House should be elected every year. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts agreed. He thought a longer term would lead to a dictatorship. James Madison of Virginia protested. "It will take almost one year," he said, "just for lawmakers to travel to and from the seat of government!" Madison proposed a three-year term. But the delegates finally agreed on two years. There were many ideas about the term for senators. A few delegates thought they should be elected for life. In the end, the convention agreed on a Senate term of six years. VOICE TWO: Next came a debate about the lawmakers' pay. How much should they get? Or should they be paid at all? Some delegates thought the states should pay their representatives to the national legislature. Others said the national legislature should decide its own pay and take it from the national treasury. That idea, James Madison argued, was shameful. He thought the amount should be set by the Constitution. Again, Madison lost the argument. The Constitution says that lawmakers will be paid for their services and that the money will come from the national treasury. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The question of who should elect the lawmakers raised an interesting issue. It concerned democracy. In seventeen eighty-seven, the word "democracy" meant something very different from what it means today. To many of the men meeting in Philadelphia, it meant mob rule. To give power to the people was an invitation to anarchy. "The people," Roger Sherman declared, "should have as little to do as possible with the government." Elbridge Gerry said, "The evils we have seen around us flow from too much democracy." From such statements, one can see why the delegates sharply debated any proposal calling for the people to elect the national lawmakers. VOICE TWO: Sherman, Gerry, and others wanted the state legislatures to choose national lawmakers. George Mason of Virginia argued for popular elections. "The people will be represented," Mason said, "so they should choose their representatives." James Wilson agreed. "I wish to see the power of the government flow immediately from the lawful source of that power. . .the people." James Madison stated firmly that the people must elect at least one branch of the national legislature. That, he said, was a basic condition for free government. The majority of the convention agreed with Mason, Wilson, and Madison. The delegates agreed that members of the House of Representatives should be elected directly by the people. VOICE ONE: The convention now considered the method of choosing senators. Four ideas were proposed. Senators could be elected by the House, by the president, by the state legislatures, or by the people. Arguments for and against were similar to those for choosing representatives for the House. In the end, a majority of the delegates agreed that the state legislatures would choose the senators. And that is what the Constitution says. It remained that way for more than one hundred years. In nineteen thirteen, the states approved the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment permits the people to vote directly to elect the senators. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The convention voting record. This page shows the final vote on the draft Constitution, September 15, 1787 Finally, the time came for the convention to face the issue of representation in the House and Senate. The large states wanted representation based on population. The small states wanted equal representation. The delegates had voted on the issue several times since the convention began. But both sides stood firm. Yet they knew they could not continue to vote forever, day after day. On July fifth, the Grand Committee presented a two-part compromise based on Roger Sherman's ideas. The compromise provided something for large states and something for small states. It called for representation based on population in the House and equal representation in the Senate. The committee said both parts of the compromise must be accepted or both rejected. On July sixteenth, the convention voted on the issue for the last time. It accepted the Great Compromise. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. We have more to come in the story of the Constitution. Then, in the weeks ahead, we introduce you to some of America’s early presidents. And we tell the story of the Civil War. If American history interests you, then join us here each week for THE MAKING OF A NATION in VOA Special English. More than two hundred programs are in our series. This was number twenty-two. THE MAKING OF A NATION has its own history. The series was first heard on radio in nineteen sixty-nine. New programs have continually been added, but many that were recorded long ago are still replayed. And now, thanks to the Internet, we can offer transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com. ___ This is program #22 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: What to Do About ADHD in Children?
* Byline: A study raises questions about the long-term effectiveness of current treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series on learning disabilities with a problem that is not considered a learning disability by itself, but it can af fect learning. Our subject is attention deficit disorder, A.D.D., and the related form A.D.H.D., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These affect an estimated five to ten percent of children worldwide. Children who forget easily and never seem to finish tasks or pay attention might be found to have A.D.D. If, in addition, they seem overly active and unable to control their behavior, a doctor might say it is A.D.H.D. Experts say the cause involves a chemical imbalance in the brain. It can affect not only school, but also personal relationships and the ability to keep a job later in life. Many of those affected also have learning disabilities or suffer from depression. Medicines can produce calmer, clearer thinking for periods of time. But the drugs can also have side effects like weight loss and sleep problems. And there is debate about the morality of medicating children. Susan Smalley is a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She just led a study of A.D.H.D. in northern Finland. The study found that rates and signs of A.D.H.D. are about the same in children there as in the United States. The Finnish children are rarely treated with medicine, while medication is widely used in the United States. Yet the study found that the two populations have few differences with A.D.H.D. among older children and teenagers. Professor Smalley says medication is very effective in the short term. But she says the study raises important questions about the long-term effectiveness of current treatments. The study also found that only about half the Finnish children diagnosed with A.D.H.D. had deficits in short-term memory and self-control. These cognitive deficits are generally considered part of the definition of A.D.H.D. The study also found more evidence that A.D.H.D. symptoms change with age. Hyperactivity and lack of self-control decrease. But about two-thirds of children continue to show high levels of inattention as teenagers. The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published the study. Even if drugs are used, experts say children with A.D.H.D. also need other help. For example, they need to learn organizational skills, and they need supportive adults. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach and available at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Rare Disease Can't Stop Will Downing From Making His Romantic Music
* Byline: Also: A question from Ghana about the meaning of the American dream. And a report on Leap Day. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play music by Will Downing … Answer a question about the meaning of?the American dream … And explain Leap Day, February twenty-ninth. (MUSIC) Leap Day HOST: Today, February twenty-ninth, is Leap Day. This date only appears on the calendar once every four years. But why? Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Everyone knows the Earth takes three hundred sixty-five days to travel around the sun. Well, that is not exactly correct. The Earth really takes three hundred sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun. The problem for people developing calendars was what to do with the extra five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds. People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays. The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution. They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years. The ancient Romans had a different solution. In the year forty-six, the Roman ruler Julius Caesar made a new calendar. The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years. But there was a problem. The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle of the seasons. In fifteen eighty-two, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better record of the days. Pope Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe. He decided that years that could be divided by four would add a day. However, years that ended in two zeros that could not be evenly divided by four hundred would not be leap years. For example, the years seventeen hundred, eighteen hundred and nineteen hundred were not leap years. But the years sixteen hundred and two thousand were leap years. So leap years are years with three hundred sixty-six days, instead of the usual three hundred sixty-five. This extra day is added to the calendar on February twenty-ninth, sometimes known as Leap Day. People born on Leap Day may be called "leaplings."? They usually celebrate their birthdays on February twenty-eighth or March first. (MUSIC) The American Dream HOST: This week’s listener question comes from Ghana. Kwaku Kwakye wants to know the meaning of the expression "the American dream." Each individual may define the American dream differently. But the general idea is that Many would say Rosen Sharma from India is enjoying the American dream. He leads?an information technology company in Palo Alto, California.a person in the United States has the freedom to carry out his or her goals. It usually means a person has the chance to work hard, earn money and create a secure life. For many people, this means being able to get a good education, have a good job and own a house. The expression is often linked to immigrants who have come to this country seeking more freedom or a better life than they could have in their own countries. The definition appeared in nineteen thirty-one in a history book by James Truslow Adams, “The Epic of America.”? He wrote that the American dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”? Some people would say that the United States Declaration of Independence first defined the American dream. Thomas Jefferson wrote this document in seventeen seventy-six. It expressed why the American colonies decided to fight British colonial rule in order to become an independent nation. The Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal." And that they have the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In the nineteen sixties, the African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior had his own dream for America. He said that America’s declaration that "all men are created equal" is a great expression of the idea of democracy. But he noted that this dream was not a reality. He said that it was the moral duty of Americans to work so that racial minorities and people of different social levels could be treated equally. An organization called the Center for a New American Dream deals with another kind of dream. Its goal is to help Americans live in ways that protect the environment, improve the quality of life and support social justice. Do you have any ideas about the American dream? You can send them to special@voanews.com. Will Downing (MUSIC) HOST: Music critics and fans of Will Downing know him as a skillful singer and songwriter. He is recognized as one of the leading singers of romantic, rhythm and blues music. He has had many loyal fans since his first album in nineteen eighty-eight. He recently released another successful album while dealing with a serious, life-changing sickness. Katherine Cole has more. (MUSIC) KATHERINE COLE: That was “Will’s Groove” from Will Downing's latest record called "After Tonight."? It is his thirteenth album in twenty years. It includes songs that combine rhythm and blues and his easy, jazz style of singing. After recording a few songs for “After Tonight,” Will Downing became sick with a rare, incurable disease called polymyositis. The condition causes severe muscle weakness that makes it difficult to move. Yet, Downing worked very hard to complete his new record. Instead of a studio, he sometimes recorded songs from a hospital bed or a wheelchair in his home. Although he is facing difficult times, Will Downing says, he remains thankful. He wrote the song “God Is So Amazing” to express his feelings. (MUSIC) The other songs on “After Tonight” are the kind of emotional love songs that make Will Downing so popular, especially among women. The words in his songs and his smooth, rich voice tell a story of how wonderful love should be. Here he sings "Satisfy You." (MUSIC) We leave you with another love song by Will Downing from his album "After Tonight."? Here he sings “No One Can Love You More." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer.Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How to Reduce an Accent? First, Understand Just What an Accent Is
* Byline: 

 AA:?I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we answer a listener in the Philippines named Arnel Camba. ARNEL CAMBA: "I am an online English teacher and I just want to know what are the different techniques or different strategies on how to improve the accent and intonation? And one more thing is: as a teacher, is it OK if I'm going to correct the students' errors right away? If not, what do you think is the proper way to correct the students' errors?" Arnel works in Manila and his native language is Tagalog. His students are in South Korea; he talks to them over the Internet but says they complain about his accent. "I'm trying my best to imitate how Americans speak English," he says, "but I think I'm hopeless."? Actually, there's good reason to be hopeful, according to our friend the English teacher, Lida Baker in Los Angeles. LIDA BAKER: "I happen to have a very good friend who's a native speaker of Tagalog and my mother-in-law is in a retirement home where almost all of the assistants happen to be from the Philippines, and I don't have any difficultly understanding these women even when they make mistakes, because as native speakers we have a completely filled-in map of the structure and the sound system of the language. So when someone makes a nonstandard error, we just fill in the gap. "But when you have someone who's learning English as a second language, they don't have that map in their head. So my hunch is that the difficulty here isn't just the way the teacher speaks English, but it's the interaction between his nonstandard dialect and the students' inability to fill in those gaps due to the fact that they are not yet fluent speakers of English." RS: "Right." AA: "So basically you have a situation where you have these Korean students learning from a Filipino -- learning English from a Filipino. And so they have their accent and he has his accent, and they're not happy with his accent, and he's trying to speak English the way Americans do. Do you have any sort of basic advice about someone in a situation like this, what they can do to maybe speak a little more like an American speaker, a native speaker?" LIDA BAKER: "If this teacher were a student of mine, the first thing that I would do would be to diagnose his accent. And there are all kinds of tools available where the student records a script or a text and this text contains all the sounds and all the features of English. And one thing that is really critically important is to remember that an accent or a dialect isn't just made up of sounds, of phonemes. "There are other features of the way we speak that are called supersegmentals, and that includes word stress and intonation -- you know, when the voice goes up and down -- and the way that we connect words in a connected stream. And, in fact, what research shows is that it is nonstandard pronunciation of stress and intonation and linking -- those connections between words -- that contribute much more to the lack of intelligibility in a person's accent than individual sounds. "And so if I were going to diagnose his accent I wouldn't only be listening for errors or nonstandard pronunciations of sounds. I would be listening very, very carefully especially to stress and intonation and linking. I think one of the chief differences between the main Filipino language, which is Tagalog, and English, when I hear Tagalog speakers speaking English, is that they tend to place the stress on the wrong syllable of a word or they stress the wrong word in the sentence or in the question. And that can really lead to very large gaps in communication. "So the first thing I would do would be to diagnose this person's accent, find out what the nonstandard features were. And then I would work out a training program where I would prioritize the person's accent features, working first and foremost on the things that are an impediment to communication." AA:?We'll hear more from English teacher Lida Baker on this subject, and on the question about correcting students, next week on WORDMASTER. In the meantime, if you're learning or teaching English, you can find lots of advice at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Hollywood Looks Overseas for Talent and Profit
* Byline: Over half of ticket sales for American movies now come from other countries. But the industry sees billions lost to piracy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This year, something happened at the Academy Awards that had not happened since nineteen sixty-four. All the winners for best acting were from outside the United States. From left, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard and Javier BardemDaniel Day-Lewis and Tilda Swinton are British. He won best actor for "There Will Be Blood"; she won best supporting actress for "Michael Clayton." French actress Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for best actress for "La Vie en Rose." And Spain's Javier Bardem won best supporting actor in "No Country for Old Men." Hollywood is increasingly looking outside America's borders for stars and profit. Jonathan Taplin is a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He says that today, about fifty-four percent of the ticket sales for Hollywood studios now come from outside the United States. For the last three months of two thousand seven, foreign sales totaled about eight hundred eighty million dollars. But there is fierce competition for each movie dollar. Hollywood has lost market share in some places as other countries develop their own film industries. For example, in the mid-eighties, American films had eighty percent of the market in South Korea. Today that share is about forty percent. Hollywood also faces competition from illegally copied movies, a major issue to the Motion Picture Association of America. The trade group estimated more than eighteen billion dollars in worldwide losses from piracy in two thousand five. Hollywood reporter Alan Silverman says piracy has influenced how American movies are released. In the past, Hollywood studios waited months after the American release of a film to release it in foreign markets. Now, many aim to release films at the same time around the world. Foreign markets may also influence how people get their movies. Different nations have different levels of technology. Efforts to settle on the next-generation DVD got a lot of attention recently. Sony's Blu-ray technology for high-definition televisions won the competition with Toshiba's HD DVD format. Yet DVD sales have dropped in recent years. This may be a sign that people are increasingly getting their movies off the Internet. The Internet is another front in Hollywood's war on piracy. But more than that, it presents complex business questions for an industry now built mostly on DVD and ticket sales. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-02/2008-02-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American Orchestra Performs in North Korea
* Byline: More than 100 musicians traveled to Pyongyang for historic first performance by an American symphony orchestra. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The New York Philharmonic orchestra performed in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, this week. It was the first performance by an American symphony orchestra in the communist state. More than one hundred performers made the trip to Pyongyang, led by the Philharmonic's musical director, Lorin Maazel. The historic event was broadcast live on television and radio in North Korea. It can also be seen on the Internet. More than one thousand North Koreans attended the concert Tuesday night. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not attend. However, other top North Korean officials did. The New York City orchestra performed the North Korean national song and America's national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."?? The musicians played famous music, including Antonin Dvorak’s "New World Symphony" and George Gershwin’s "An American in Paris." The performance ended with a version of "Arirang," a Korean folk song that is considered an unofficial national anthem in both North and South Korea. (MUSIC) North Korea’s government usually bans music that is not approved by officials. As a result, jazz, rock and most Western classical music are not permitted. The North Korean government has always described the United States as a hostile aggressor. But the American orchestra’s visit was widely described as a form of musical diplomacy. Some Americans hoped the friendly cultural exchange will help improve relations between the United States and North Korea. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry praised the event as a chance to improve understanding and trust between North Korea and the United States. South Korean experts say much has changed in North Korea since leaders from the North and South met in two thousand. They say expanded contacts have increased the flow of information about the rest of the world into North Korea. Many experts say the country is not as disconnected as it once was. They say events like the Philharmonic performance make important gains in opening North Korea even further. However, the White House spokeswoman said the performance neither hurt nor helped American diplomatic efforts. She said relations between the two countries will only improve when North Korea provides information about its nuclear programs. It was supposed to provide such information about two months ago to the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. Those countries have promised aid and improved diplomatic relations if North Korea ends all of its nuclear programs. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. (MUSIC: "An American in Paris") 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Shirley Chisholm, 1924-2005: The First Black Woman Elected to the U.S. Congress
* Byline: She was an activist who worked to improve the lives of others. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Shirley Chisholm. She was an educator, activist and politician. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for president Shirley Chisholm is best known as the first black woman elected to United States Congress and the first black woman to run for president of the United States. However, her life was filled with much more than being the first black woman to do important things. She believed in being a person to fight for change. All her life, she worked to improve the lives of others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shirley Anita Saint Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen twenty-four. She was the oldest of four daughters. Her father was a factory worker from Guyana. He loved to read. Her mother was from the British West Indies island of Barbados. She made clothes and cleaned other people’s houses. Shirley’s parents had very little money. They wanted their daughters to get a good education and to have a better life. When Shirley was three years old her parents sent her and her sisters to live with their grandmother in Barbados. Shirley received a good education from the British school system. She enjoyed the years she lived with her grandmother. Her family in Barbados was a strong, organized group that believed in education. Shirley always remembered the words her grandmother spoke. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “When I was reared in the British West Indies my grandmother used to always tell me, you may not be loved by certain forces in a society and you have to understand why. But always speak the truth.” VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-four Shirley moved back to Brooklyn. She was ten years old. She continued to do very well in school. She later graduated from Brooklyn College with honors. In nineteen forty-nine, she married Conrad Chisholm who worked as a private investigator. Together they took part in local politics. Their marriage ended almost thirty years later. As a young woman, Shirley decided to become a teacher. She believed she could improve society by helping children. She worked for seven years at a child care center in the Harlem area of New York City. She attended Columbia University at night and received an advanced degree in early childhood education in nineteen fifty-two. She became known as an expert in children and early education. From nineteen fifty-nine to nineteen sixty-four Shirley Chisholm was an education official in the day care division of the city’s office of child welfare. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In ninety sixty-four Shirley Chisholm’s political career began. She was elected to the New York State Assembly. She served for four years. In nineteen sixty-eight she announced she would run for the United States Congress. She was elected from the newly created Twelfth District of New York City. She became the first black woman elected to Congress. She represented a poor area of Brooklyn called Bedford-Stuyvesant. In Congress, Miz Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. She protested this assignment. She felt it was not important to the poor people of the city that she represented. She was moved to the Veterans Affairs Committee. She later served on the Education and Labor Committee, the position she wanted. In nineteen seventy-seven she joined the important House Rules Committee. VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm was very different from other members of Congress. She looked different. Her hair was a big cloud of curls. She wore very large eyeglasses. And she had dark skin. She also spoke differently. She had developed a minor Caribbean accent while living with her grandmother in Barbados. Her voice was strong. She spoke with power. She said her greatest tool was her mouth. She was not afraid to say the things others would not say before Congress and the public. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “But, my friends, I might be strong for some persons in this audience, but I believe in telling it like it is.”? VOICE TWO: Shirley Chisholm spoke strongly for the poor and for women. She worked for civil rights for African Americans. She opposed the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-nine she helped form the Congressional Black Caucus. She also was a member of the National Organization for Women. Miz Chisholm was an activist for people of color, including Native Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants. She often spoke about cultural and social issues. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “Increasing immigration to the United States suggests that we do face ( -- and we better own up to – we do face) new social and cultural problems as these new Americans are integrated into our society. And because most of the new immigrants are people of color, cultural adjustments must be made by all groups in America if we are to learn to live together as one nation.” VOICE ONE: Miz Chisholm wrote a book about her life in nineteen seventy called “Unbought and Unbossed.”? She refused to be defined by party politics or racial comparisons. Sometimes this worked against her. In nineteen seventy-two Shirley Chisholm announced that she would run for president of the United States. Many people thought it was a strange thing to do. Miz Chisholm said during her life in politics she faced more discrimination as a woman than as a black person. Shirley Chisholm became the first woman and the first black person to carry out a presidential campaign within one of the major parties. When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president this is what she said: “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.” Miz Chisholm did not win the Democratic primaries or the nomination. She said she did not run for president because she expected to win. She ran to make a point. In nineteen seventy-three Shirley Chisholm wrote another book, “The Good Fight.”? In that book she told of her reasons for running for president even though she did not expect to win. She said: “The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to the highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shirley Chisholm left Congress in nineteen eighty-two after fourteen years. She said many voters did not understand her. She said her influence as a truthful, tough politician was decreasing in conservative times. Also, she wanted to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick. Miz Chisholm went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Years after leaving Congress, she continued to be invited to speak before many groups and organizations. A reporter once asked Miz Chisholm how she wanted to be remembered. She said she did not want to be remembered as the nation’s first black congresswoman. She wanted to be remembered as a brave person, a person who created change. VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm died January first, two thousand five. She suffered a series of strokes. She was eighty years old. Shirley Chisholm loved her country. She wanted to serve all America, not just African Americans and women. Her work for the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the state of New York and the nation continues through the changes she helped make in American society. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “America is a wonderful land. It’s no question about it. That is why every group from across the waters tries to come to America. I am hopeful. Oh God am I hopeful that before I die that I will see that America will move toward a period of real enlightenment (not rhetorical enlightenment, real enlightenment), and that when we are finally faced with the choice of exclusion or inclusion we will choose inclusion because that’s what America is suppose to be all about.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hot: He Was a Hotheaded Hot Shot!
* Byline: Here is your hot line to heated English expressions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program,?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Every language has its own special words and expressions. And a story can be told about each of them. Hot is a simple, easily-understood word. So are most of the expressions made with the word hot. But not always, as we shall see. The words hot potato, for example, give you no?idea at all to the meaning of the expression, hot potato. The potato is a popular vegetable in the United States. Many people like baked potatoes, cooked in an oven or fire. ?Imagine trying to carry a hot, baked potato in your hand. It would be difficult, even painful, to do so. Now we are getting close to the meaning of hot potato. Some publicly-disputed issues are highly emotional. The issues must be?treated carefully, or?they?will be difficult and painful?if an elected official has to deal with them. As difficult and painful as holding a hot potato. One such hot potato is taxes. Calling?for higher taxes can mean defeat for a politician. And yet, if taxes are not raised, some very popular government programs could be cut. And that also can make a politician very unpopular. So the questions must be dealt with carefully...the same way you would handle any other hot potato. Another expression is not so hot. If you ask someone how she feels, she may answer: "not so hot."? ?What she means is she does not feel well. Not so hot also is a way of saying that you do not really like something. You may tell a friend that the new play you saw last night is not so hot. That means you did not consider it a success. A hot shot is a person -- often a young person -- who thinks he can do anything. At least he wants to try. He is very?sure he can succeed. But often he fails. The expression was born in the military forces. A hot shot was a soldier who fired without aiming carefully. Hot is a word that is often used to talk about anger. A person who becomes angry easily is called a hothead. An angry person's neck often becomes red. We say he is hot under the collar. You could say that your friend is no hothead. But he got hot under the collar when someone took his radio. In nineteen sixty-three, hot line appeared as a new expression. The hot line was a direct communications link between the leaders of the?Soviet Union and the United States. The hot line had an important purpose: to prevent accidental war between the two competitors during the period known as the Cold War. The American president and the Soviet leader were able?to?communicate directly and immediately on the hot line. This helped?prevent?any conflict during an international crisis. (MUSIC) You have been listening to the VOA?Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Our program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. I'm Warren Scheer. You have been listening to the VOA?Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Our program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. I'm Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Questioning a Popular Approach to Lasting Development
* Byline: Economists at M.I.T.’s Jameel Poverty Action Lab have found no evidence that paying for a product in the developing world changes how people use it.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. If you give something to someone for free, will that person value it and use it? Development experts have debated this question for decades. Some say the act of paying causes people to value something and use it more. Others argue that selling necessary health treatments may deny them to the people who need them the most. Consider, for example, chemically treated bed nets. These bed nets kill mosquitoes and protect people against malaria while they are sleeping. New York University economist William Easterly says this is one example of development gone wrong. In a recent book, Professor Easterly suggests bed nets given freely in Africa are often used for the wrong purpose. Yet, the World Health Organization recommends bed nets be given out freely and used by whole communities. The success of a large free bed net campaign in Kenya led the W.H.O. to announce this recommendation last August. This debate will likely influence social programs in the developing world. Many non-governmental organizations support the creation of self-sustaining programs in poor countries. Goods and services are sold for a price to help these programs survive. Rachel Glennerster runs the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The research lab does development and poverty studies. Its goal is to improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in the United States and other countries. Miz Glennerster tells us that several studies by the research group's economists have proven that small price changes have a big influence on the number of people who use a product. A price change will reduce the total amount of use of the product as well, she says. The economists have also found no evidence that the very act of paying for something changes how people use it. Finally, some development experts argue that pricing is useful when targeting a product among special populations. When it comes to bed nets, Miz Glennerster says research shows no evidence of this. People are just as likely to use a bed net if they paid for it or not. ??????? ?????????????? And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Nation of Immigrants, Divided Over the Subject of Immigration
* Byline: Debate centers on millions of illegal immigrants in the country.? The U.S. Congress has failed to agree on a reform plan, so states are passing their own laws. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm?Steve Ember.Our subject this week is immigration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many immigrant families entered the United States through Ellis Island in New York HarborJust about every family in the United States has at least one member, now or in the past, who came from another country. Even American Indians may have immigrant ancestors through marriage. The United States is one of the few industrial countries with a growing population. The main reason is immigration. Today America has just over three hundred million people. A new report says if current growth rates continue, the nation will have four hundred thirty-eight million in two thousand fifty. VOICE TWO: The Pew Research Center says more than eighty percent of the increase will be the result of immigrants and their American-born children or grandchildren. Non-Hispanic whites are expected to be a minority, forty-seven percent of the population, in two thousand fifty. Hispanics are currently the nation's largest ethnic minority. By the middle of the century, their number is expected to double to twenty-nine percent of the population. VOICE ONE: The Census Bureau estimates the foreign-born population of the United States at twelve percent as of two thousand four. Just over half the people were born in Latin America, twenty-five percent in Asia and fourteen percent in Europe. The remaining eight percent were from Africa and other areas. Last year, six hundred fifty thousand immigrants became American citizens. Yet even a nation of immigrants can find itself divided by the issue of immigration, especially when the economy is not doing well. But the concerns expressed in public debate are usually not so much about immigration itself but about illegal immigration. An estimated eleven million or more people are in the United States without permission. Most of them came across the borders with Mexico or Canada illegally. Others came to the United States on a temporary visa and never went home. VOICE TWO: Supporters of stronger immigration laws say illegal immigrants use health care and public education systems without paying their fair share. They say undocumented workers push down wages in some jobs, like in the building industry. But others argue that illegal immigrants put money into local economies and often have taxes taken out of their wages. Yet because their employment is against the law, it often involves identity theft to create false documents. That crime hurts innocent people whose identities were stolen. VOICE ONE: But a new report suggests that fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified. The Public Policy Institute of California released a study done in that state. In California, people born outside the United States represent about thirty-five percent of the adult population. But researchers found that immigrants represent only about seventeen percent of the state prison population. Still, supporters of stronger laws point out that some communities face greater problems than others with crime by illegal immigrants. VOICE TWO: Debates about illegal immigration often go round and round like this: VOICE ONE: Employers have trouble finding Americans to take low-paying jobs so they need immigrants. VOICE TWO: Maybe, but employers will never raise wages as long as they can find people willing to work for less. VOICE ONE: Maybe, but if wages go up, so will prices, and that will create other problems. VOICE TWO: Such arguments are nothing new. What is new is that immigrants are moving beyond big states like California, Texas or New York. They are settling all across the country, in big cities as well as small towns. These new residents are bringing cultural changes to many areas. Some of these changes are welcome, others are not. Tensions may develop, often in reaction to an issue like day laborers. These are groups of men who stand on the street, often outside home improvement centers, hoping for a day's work. Many of these workers are illegal immigrants. VOICE ONE: Language can also be a divisive issue when immigrants are seen as slow to learn English. Yet English classes are often in such demand they have waiting lists. In the year two thousand, eighteen percent of people in the United States over age five spoke a language other than English at home. By two thousand six the Census Bureau says the number was twenty percent. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people say the immigration system is broken. But few can agree on how to fix it. Some say illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for some time should have a chance to become legal residents. For one thing, they say it would be impossible to arrest eleven million people and send them all home. Others are against a path to legal residency if they see it as amnesty, pardoning millions of people who entered the country illegally. For one thing, they say it would be unfair to those who follow the process to come here legally. The last time there was an amnesty for illegal immigrants was in nineteen eighty-six. VOICE ONE: Usually, the only punishment for being in the country illegally is expulsion, unless a person was arrested on other charges. Technically it is not even considered a criminal offense. Congress' efforts to rewrite immigration laws last year included hotly debated proposals to criminalize illegal immigration. In the end Congress failed to pass an immigration reform plan. VOICE TWO: In the presidential campaign, the major candidates appear to share fairly similar positions on illegal immigration. Democratic senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both supported an immigration bill that failed in the Senate last year. The reform legislation would have provided a path to legal residency and citizenship for some illegal immigrants. The bill was supported by President Bush. And it was co-sponsored by Senator John McCain, the expected Republican presidential nominee. VOICE ONE: American immigration history presents a pattern of history repeating itself. Hard times or conflict in other countries lead people to seek a better life in America. When groups of Americans begin to feel threatened, the federal government moves to restrict immigration. These days, the government does not seek to restrict immigration so much as manage it. That was how a spokesman for the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services described it But with Congress unable to agree on immigration reform, states are not sure what to do. VOICE TWO: Enforcing immigration law is the responsibility of the federal government. But state and local officials say the government is not doing enough, so they are taking action on their own. For example, a new law took effect January first in the southwestern state of Arizona. It bans businesses from hiring people known to be in the country illegally, and cancels their operating licenses if they do. Business groups in Arizona appealed the new measure. They said only the federal government can enforce immigration laws. In early February, a federal judge rejected their argument. The judge said the Arizona law did not conflict with federal powers because states are responsible for licensing businesses. But courts in other states have ruled differently in similar cases. Last year, a federal judge ruled against a local law in the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The law would have denied permits to businesses that hire illegal immigrants. In Missouri, however, a judge upheld such a measure. VOICE ONE: The National Conference of State Legislatures says immigration is being debated in all fifty state capitols. Last year, forty-six states passed two hundred forty laws related to immigrants. That was almost three times as many laws as in two thousand six. The new laws deal with subjects like driver's licenses, employment and public benefits. The legislation affects legal as well as illegal immigrants. States are acting in policy areas including education, health care, human trafficking and law enforcement. With the economy slowing, state and local governments are likely to feel more pressure to provide services to legal residents only. VOICE TWO: So how does someone legally move to the United States? This is a common question from listeners. We will answer it next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fight to End Polio a Story of Unexpected Problems, but Also Progress
* Byline: Over the years, polio experts have had to learn to deal with surprises. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. On our program this week, we will examine efforts to defeat the disease polio. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An Afghan girl receives polio vaccine in Kandahar province last monthPakistan is working to protect more than thirty million children from polio. Health workers are giving vaccine against the disease to children younger than five years. Health officials in Pakistan plan to complete the current vaccination campaign next month. But the government says efforts against polio are always in progress. The efforts are part of an international campaign to stop the disease. The struggle against polio has suffered unexpected problems. But it has also made major progress. VOICE TWO: The future also looks hopeful. A top polio expert at the World Health Organization has praised success with a vaccine against the fastest spreading kind of polio. Doctor David Heymann believes that this most threatening polio could be defeated this year. He also says vaccines are being developed to prevent a slower spreading version of the disease. Prevention is especially important because antibiotic drugs cannot help after someone is infected. Antibiotics can kill only bacteria, not viruses. The virus called wild poliovirus passes freely from person to person. Wild poliovirus spreads through fluids in the mouth, waste material and water systems. Another kind of polio is rare. Vaccine-derived, or vaccine-linked, polio strikes when harmful genetic changes affect the vaccine. VOICE ONE: Polio is mainly a children’s disease. But adults also get it. Many people are infected without knowing it. They may just have a higher than normal body temperature and pain in the throat. But when polio attacks the central nervous system, patients can be paralyzed. They may not be able to stand or walk. When the disease affects breathing, some patients die. Polio paralyzed an estimated three hundred fifty thousand patients in nineteen eighty-eight. That same year, a coalition of health workers started the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. By last year, the number of new paralytic polio cases dropped to about seven hundred sixty-five. VOICE TWO: The Initiative coalition includes national governments and UNICEF -- the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another partner is the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Still another is the volunteer service organization Rotary International. Other groups also take part. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists say three polioviruses cause wild polio. Type one is the most dangerous. Type one can infect many people in a short time. It has caused about eighty-five percent of all polio cases. Type two wild polio disappeared worldwide in nineteen ninety-nine. Cases caused by type three poliovirus do not spread as fast as polio caused by type one. Today, polio continues to strike people in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In two thousand three, Nigeria stopped providing vaccine against polio for almost a year. VOICE TWO: False reports about the vaccine caused the stoppage. The reports said the vaccine gave people the disease AIDS. Other reports said it made people unable to have children. Nigeria reported many cases of polio after the vaccinations ended. The disease also spread to other nations. By last August, however, the polio news in the nation seemed hopeful. Nigeria had reported a major reduction in polio cases after January. But then came an unwelcome report. Sixty-nine children in the northern part of the country had developed paralytic polio. VOICE ONE: Some of the infected children had received Sabin oral polio vaccine. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative provided the vaccine to young children. It is given by mouth several times during a child's earliest years. The Sabin oral polio vaccine contains a live but weakened version of poliovirus. The weakened virus protects well against type one poliovirus. But in Nigeria, some of the vaccine had made a rare and harmful genetic change. The children started getting sick with polio in two thousand six, or even earlier. But these cases were not announced until late September, two thousand seven. Critics say the news should have been reported quickly. They say the delayed announcement helped to support the polio vaccine suspicions that had stopped vaccinations several years before. VOICE TWO: Rotary International made a public statement about the new polio cases in October of two thousand seven. The group said the vaccine did not, in itself, cause the children to get the disease. Doctor Heymann of the W.H.O. said the children with vaccine-linked polio were more likely than others to get infected. He said not enough vaccine had been provided in their area. The doctor noted that sixty of the children had not received any vaccine. Or, he said, they had not received enough vaccine to protect them. Critics have questioned the continued use of the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the international campaign against polio. They say its link to infection with the disease makes the vaccine unacceptable. But Rotary International notes the vaccination's success over the years. It says the oral polio vaccine has reduced polio cases by ninety nine percent since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative began. ?? VOICE ONE: Eight years ago, American health officials stopped saying people should be given the Sabin oral polio vaccine. They said the reason was to end the possibility of paralytic polio linked to the vaccine. Olen Kew is an expert in viruses for the Centers for Disease Control. He led a team that studied vaccine-linked polio in two thousand five. He says the W.H.O. is creating a program to develop a vaccine for use after polio is defeated. The new vaccine would not contain a live poliovirus. It could not cause polio. VOICE TWO: Jonas Salk developed the first major polio vaccine in the nineteen fifties. Albert Sabin then developed the Sabin oral polio vaccine in the nineteen sixties. Doctor Salk’s polio vaccine was injected. An improved version of this vaccine is now the one used in the United States. The improved Salk vaccine contains inactive viruses. It cannot cause polio. But experts say the oral polio vaccine works faster against the spread of type one polio. And the Sabin vaccine is less costly. Health care workers who direct its use need little training. W.H.O. officials say only the oral poliovirus vaccine can quickly build very high body defenses against the disease. They say only this kind of vaccine can stop polio in developing countries with warm climates. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative says it will continue to use the oral polio vaccine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over the years, polio experts have had to learn to deal with the unexpected. New cases resulting from type one poliovirus decreased in India last year. But the disease caused by type three poliovirus increased in two Indian states. Almost three hundred people in Uttar Pradesh got polio. Many others became infected in Bihar. Devendra Khander leads the W.H.O. polio project in Bihar. Doctor Khander says many people there live close together in unhealthful conditions. He says the same is true for Uttar Pradesh. The doctor says not enough children have received polio vaccine. He also says flooding in Bihar made the situation worse. VOICE TWO: A mark on the hand showed that a girl was vaccinated in Bangalore, India, last yearThe Indian capital, New Delhi, was free of type three poliovirus cases for about five years. But last year, the disease was identified in two children. Doctor Heymann of the W.H.O says a prevention called monovalent oral polio vaccine has been shown effective in treating type three poliovirus. The news about polio, then, is hopeful. But the Initiative to Eradicate Polio always needs money to launch vaccination campaigns. VOICE ONE: Help may come from a two hundred million dollar award by an agency of Rotary International. Late last year, the Rotary Foundation announced a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has offered a one hundred million dollar matching grant to the Rotary Foundation. Over three years, Rotary will raise money to equal each of those dollars. The money can be used to provide more children a healthy future, a future without polio. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Home of Closed Landfill Now Aims for Smell of Fine Wine
* Byline: Business leaders on Staten Island, in New York City, plan for an educational vineyard. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For years, most of the household waste collected in America's largest city went to a landfill on Staten Island. Staten Island is one of the five boroughs that form the city of New York. The others are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The landfill closed in two thousand one. Now, local leaders hope Staten Island will become known for something else: fine wines. Officials expect to break ground before summer for the Tuscan Garden Vineyard Project. Wine grapes will be planted on most of one hectare in the Staten Island Botanical Garden. Borough President James Molinaro has set aside one and one-half million dollars for the vineyard. Officials say the project will be educational and nonprofit. It will demonstrate the process of growing grapes and making wine. Two Staten Island ferries sail past the Statue of LibertyIt could bring visitors who now ride the Staten Island ferry from Manhattan just to see the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Organizers say the climate is similar to other winemaking areas of New York State, like the Finger Lakes area and Long Island. For years, people have suggested that Staten Island should have a vineyard. Several years ago, four business leaders decided to do something about it. They formed the Founders’ Group. One of them, Henry Salmon, recalls growing grapes on a friend’s farm while growing up on Staten Island. Last November, to get ideas, the group went to Italy. They visited a winemaking town in Tuscany. Crespina, with about four thousand people, became a sister city to Staten Island. And Tuscan winemaker Piergiorgio Castellani became a technical adviser to the project. Advice has also come from others, including experts at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and the University of Pisa in Italy. The grapes chosen for the Staten Island climate and soil include cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sangiovese. Plans call for two thousand vines on land that Henry Salmon says was once used for a retirement home for sailors. The vineyard will be organic. No chemical pesticides will be used. Compost made from leaves and other organic material collected from city parks will serve as fertilizer. If all goes well, the Tuscan Garden Vineyard Project on Staten Island should have its first wines ready in a few years. The wine will not be sold. Plans call for using it at tastings and special events. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Chocolate Has a History as Rich as Its Taste
* Byline: Join us as we explore the history and industry of chocolate. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Cacao fruit with seeds insideToday we travel around the world exploring the history of chocolate. Its story begins with a plant whose scientific name, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.” For centuries, people have been enjoying the rich flavor of chocolate, a product made from this plant. Join us as we tell about the history of chocolate and how it is produced. We will also meet Jane Morris, a chocolate maker in Washington, DC. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most people today think of chocolate as something sweet to eat or drink that can be easily found in stores around the world. It might surprise you that chocolate was once highly treasured. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently released a study. It suggested that people in Central and South America first gathered the cacao plant much earlier and for a different use than experts once thought. The researchers examined the chemistry of substances found in ancient clay containers that were over three thousand years old. They discovered that the substance came from an alcoholic drink made from the fruit of the cacao plant. The researchers believe it was the interest in cacao as an alcoholic drink that led to the use of its bitter seeds to make what is now known as chocolate. VOICE TWO: Historians believe the Maya people of Central America first learned to farm cacao plants around two thousand years ago. The Maya took the cacao trees from the rainforests and grew them in their gardens. They cooked the cacao seeds, then crushed them into a soft paste. They mixed the paste with water and flavorful spices to make an unsweetened chocolate drink. The Maya poured the chocolate drink back and forth between two containers so that the liquid had a layer of bubbles, or foam. Cacao and chocolate were an important part of Maya culture. There are often images of cacao plants on Maya buildings and art objects. Ruling families drank chocolate at special ceremonies. And, even poorer members of society could enjoy the drink once in a while. Historians believe that cacao seeds were also used in marriage ceremonies as a sign of the union between a husband and wife. VOICE ONE: The Aztec culture in current day Mexico also prized chocolate. But, the cacao plant could not grow in the area where the Aztecs lived. So, they traded to get cacao. They even used cacao seeds as a form of money to pay taxes or give as holy offerings to the gods. Only the very wealthy people in Aztec societies could afford to drink chocolate because cacao was so valuable. The Aztec ruler Montezuma was believed to drink fifty cups of chocolate every day. Some experts believe the word for chocolate came from the Aztec word “xocolatl” which in the Nahuatl language means “bitter water.” Others believe the word “chocolate” was created by combining Mayan and Nahuatl words. VOICE TWO: The explorer Christopher Columbus brought cacao seeds to Spain after his trip to Central America in fifteen oh two. But it was the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes who understood that chocolate could be a valuable investment. In fifteen nineteen, Cortes arrived in current day Mexico. He believed the chocolate drink would become popular with Spaniards. After the Spanish soldiers defeated the Aztec empire, they were able to seize the supplies of cacao and send them home. Spain later began planting cacao in its colonies in the Americas in order to supply the large demand for chocolate. The wealthy people of Spain first enjoyed a sweetened version of the chocolate drink. Later, the popularity of the drink spread throughout Europe. The English, Dutch and French began to plant cacao trees in their own colonies. Chocolate remained a drink that only wealthy people could afford to drink until the eighteenth century. During the period known as the Industrial Revolution, new technologies helped make chocolate less costly to produce. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Farmers grow cacao trees in many countries in Africa, Central and South America. The trees grow in the shady areas of rainforests near the Earth’s equator. But these trees can be difficult to grow. They require an exact amount of water, warmth, soil and protection. After about five years, cacao trees start producing large fruits called pods, which grow near the trunk of the tree. The seeds inside this pod are harvested to make chocolate. There are several kinds of cacao trees. Most of the world’s chocolate is made from the forastero tree. But farmers can also grow criollo or trinitario cacao plants. Cacao trees grown on farms are much more easily threatened by disease and insects than wild trees are. Growing cacao is very hard work for farmers. They sell their harvest on a futures market. This means that economic conditions beyond their control can affect the amount of money they will earn. Today, chocolate industry officials, activists, and scientists are working with farmers. They are trying to make sure that cacao can be grown in a way that is fair to the farmers and safe for the environment. VOICE TWO: To become chocolate, cacao seeds go through a long production process in a factory. Workers must sort, clean and cook the seeds. Then they break off the covering of the seeds so that only the inside fruit, or nibs, remain. Workers crush the nibs into a soft substance called chocolate liquor. This gets separated into cocoa solids and a fat called cocoa butter. Chocolate makers have their own special recipes in which they combine chocolate liquor with exact amounts of sugar, milk and cocoa fat. They finely crush this “crumb” mixture so it is smooth. The mixture then goes through two more processes before it is shaped into a mold form. VOICE ONE: Chocolate making is a big business. The market value of the yearly cacao crop around the world is more than five billion dollars. Chocolate is especially popular in Europe and the United States. For example, in two thousand five, the United States bought one point four billion dollars worth of cocoa products. Each year, Americans eat an average of more than five kilograms of chocolate per person. Specialty shops that sell costly chocolates are also very popular. Many offer chocolate lovers the chance to taste chocolates grown in different areas of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jane Morris is a chocolate maker in Washington D.C. She owns the company J Chocolatier. Here is her opinion on why people like chocolate so much: JANE MORRIS: "Well, scientists tell us that we all love chocolate because there’s a chemical response that takes place in our brains. But I like to think that people love chocolate because everybody has an experience that they can relate to eating chocolate, and usually it’s a good one. It’s a memory from childhood or its eating something that you know you weren’t supposed to, but you did it anyway and really enjoyed it. And chocolate marries well with almost any ingredient from any corner of the globe. It really is a perfect food." VOICE ONE: Jane Morris can give you an entire lesson on different kinds of chocolate. She can give you a taste of a blended chocolate that contains cacao from around the world. Or, she can let you try a "single origin" chocolate grown in only one area of the world. For example, one fine chocolate made with cacao grown in Madagascar has a very interesting sour taste. While another chocolate grown in Venezuela has a very different taste. JANE MORRIS: “Some people tell me when they taste this chocolate from El Rey that they can taste what they imagine the rainforest would smell like.” Miz Morris uses these chocolates to make her own unusual creations. JANE MORRIS: “Sometimes I look for inspiration in professional books. That’s always? a good starting place. Then I also think about what I eat and what flavors work well together.” Her most popular chocolate is called Montezuma. JANE MORRIS: “People love this. It’s a chocolate with chipotle spice and Vietnamese cinnamon.” You may think it is just a normal chocolate until you begin to taste the deep and rich heat of these special spices. VOICE TWO: For another chocolate creation, she uses Earl Grey Tea to give it a flavor of the bergamot fruit. And, these chocolates are as nice to look at as they are to eat. Jane Morris mainly sells her chocolates in local wine, candy and gift stores. She says she does not use any preservative chemicals in her products, so they only last about two or three weeks. But, she says she believes this is the way chocolate should be eaten. We asked her if there was anything she wanted to tell Special English listeners. It might not surprise you she suggested that everyone should eat chocolate! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Dark Side of Skin Lightening
* Byline: More people are using skin-lightening products, even if it means risking their health. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In many societies, there is often greater acceptance of light skin than dark skin. Light skin may be seen as a mark of beauty, intelligence and success. These beliefs can lead to social pressures even within the same racial or ethnic group, if some members are darker skinned than others. The result is that skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas of the world. More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face health risks. They believe that having whiter skin will improve their lives. Many people think they will have a better chance of getting a job or marrying into a better family. Or they want to look like what their society generally considers beautiful. Some beauty care products and soaps contain chemicals that make skin lighter. This process is also called bleaching. But some of the chemicals are extremely dangerous. One of the most dangerous is hydroquinone. Hydroquinone has been banned in several countries. This chemical has been linked to kidney damage and some kinds of cancer. It also causes low birth weight in babies when mothers use it during pregnancy. At first, bleaching products make the skin color lighter. But after long-term use they can cause problems. They could even make some skin darker. The chemicals in the products block and break down the natural process that gives color to skin. The skin loses its natural barrier to protect against sunlight. Then the skin can become thick and discolored. Usually the person will use more of the product in an effort to correct the problem, but this only makes it worse. Fatimata Ly treats skin conditions in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Doctor Ly says skin bleaching has become a problem throughout Senegal. She says the chemicals are now more dangerous because they are stronger. Some cases have resulted in blackened fingernails, infections and permanent skin damage. And these are not the only risks. Experts say some people who change their skin color suffer emotional damage. They feel regret and sadness. They feel that instead of risking their health, they should have learned to love and accept their skin color as it was. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Lawan Davis. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Debating Slaves' Part in Representation of States
* Byline: The constitutional convention agreed that states with bigger populations would have more members of Congress. But would slaves be counted in that population? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: This map of Philadelpia, drawn in 1777, shows streams, roads and the names of landowners. Independence Hall, home of the federal convention of 1787, is shown at the bottom.Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of the nation's early leaders opened a convention in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak union of the thirteen states. Instead, they wrote a new document. This week in our series, we continue the story of the United States Constitution. Here are Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention finally agreed on how states would be represented in the national government. There would be two houses in the national legislature. In one house -- the House of Representatives -- the number of representatives from each state would depend on the state's population. In the other house -- the Senate -- all states would have an equal number of representatives. The agreement on representation was known as the "Great Compromise." Not all the delegates in Philadelphia were pleased with it. But it saved the convention from failure. VOICE ONE: The debate on representation in the House raised an important issue. No one wanted to talk about it. But all the delegates knew they must discuss it. The issue was slavery. If representation was based on population, who would you count? Would you count just free people? Or would you count Negro slaves, too? There were thousands of slaves in the United States in seventeen eighty-seven. Most lived in southern states. But many could be found in the north, too. And northern ship owners made a lot of money by importing slaves from Africa. VOICE TWO: The Articles of Confederation said nothing about slavery. Each state could decide to permit it or not. Massachusetts, for example, had made slavery illegal. Nine other states had stopped importing new slaves. Only three states -- Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- continued to import slaves. The issue was never easy to discuss. Some of the most important men in America owned slaves. They included George Washington and James Madison. No one wanted to insult these men. Yet the convention had to make some decisions about slavery. Slavery affected laws on trade and taxes, as well as the question of representation in Congress. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the debate, some delegates argued that slaves were property. They could not be counted for purposes of representation. Others argued that slaves were people and should be counted with everyone else. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania made an angry speech. "Slavery," he declared, "is an evil institution. It has caused great sadness and poverty in all the states where it is permitted." Charles Pinckney of South Carolina defended the existence of slavery in the United States. "In all ages," he said, "one half of mankind have been slaves." George Mason of Virginia, a slave owner, wanted to free all slaves. He said Virginia attempted to do this when it was a British colony. But he said the British government blocked Virginia's attempts. Mason blamed the problem on British businessmen who made money from slavery. VOICE TWO: In states where slaves were considered as persons before the law, they sued for, and sometimes won, their freedom in the courts. Elizabeth Freeman was freed in Massachusetts in 1781. Other delegates rose to denounce or defend slavery. But the convention had no power to rule on whether slavery was right or wrong. Everyone knew the convention would fail if it tried to write a Constitution that banned slavery. The southern states would never accept such a document. They would refuse to join the United States. Rufus King of Massachusetts said the convention should consider slavery only as a political matter. And that is what happened. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Wilson of Pennsylvania, for example, proposed a method of counting each state's population for purposes of representation. All white persons and other free citizens would be counted as one each. Every five slaves would be counted only as three persons. This was called the 'three-fifths' rule. The delegates accepted it. The word 'slave' was never used in the Constitution. It simply used the words 'all other persons.' The 'three-fifths rule' remained law until the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in eighteen sixty-eight. Alexander Hamilton said the three-fifths compromise was necessary. "Without it," he said, "no union could possibly have been formed." VOICE TWO: Map of West Africa during the 18th century slave tradeSlavery also became an issue when the convention began discussing the powers of the national legislature. Once again, the question was asked: Are slaves people? Or are they property? The answer would affect import taxes and the growth of new states. The convention accepted several compromises on these questions, too. It agreed that the national treasury could collect a tax of ten dollars for every imported slave. It also agreed that slaves could be imported until the year eighteen-oh-eight. Then no new slaves could be brought into the country. Until then, each state had the power to make its own decisions about slavery. After eighteen-oh-eight, the national government would make all decisions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As debate on a new Constitution continued through the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, several delegates asked an important question. Who would approve, or ratify, it? The state legislatures? The people? Or, as Gouverneur Morris proposed, one big national convention? As always, Elbridge Gerry opposed giving this power to the people. "The people," he said, "have the wildest ideas of government in the world." VOICE TWO: James Madison disagreed. He believed the people must ratify their new plan of government. Madison said, "I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a treaty and a constitution." Edmund Randolph of Virginia proposed that state conventions should consider the document prepared by the Philadelphia convention. They could offer amendments, he said. And then another general convention would decide on a final document. VOICE ONE: Gouverneur Morris agreed, but for another reason. He said, "I have long wished for another convention that would have the firmness to provide a strong central government…which we are afraid to do." James Madison hated the idea. Calling another general convention would mean the Philadelphia convention had failed. It would mean the end of all his hard work and hopes. When the debate was over, the delegates agreed that the people should ratify the new Constitution through conventions held in each state. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Finally, the delegates had to decide how many 'yes' votes by states would be needed to ratify the Constitution. Any changes to the Articles of Confederation needed ratification by all thirteen states. The Philadelphia convention was called only to change those Articles. So all thirteen would have to approve. This, as several delegates noted, would be impossible. After all, Rhode Island never sent a representative to Philadelphia. It was sure to reject the Constitution. Also, as everyone knew, the Philadelphia convention went far past the point of changing the Articles of Confederation. The delegates wrote a completely new plan of government. They could agree to accept ratification by fewer than thirteen states. VOICE ONE: Delegates who supported a strong central government acted quickly. They raised the question of numbers. How many states were needed to ratify? By the end of the day, the convention had not decided. But many of the delegates must have met that night. Early the next day, the convention voted. And the number it agreed on was nine. The great convention in Philadelphia was nearing the end of its work. It needed only to write out its agreements in final form and sign the document. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Christine Johnson and narrated by Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Join us next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION as we finish the story of the United States Constitution. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our series are at voaspecialenglish.com.__ This is program #23 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Children, Self-Control and 'Executive Function'
* Byline: Experts say there are ways to improve problems with organizational skills. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Executive function. What do you suppose that is? Mental health professionals, educators and others use this term when talking about ways that people exercise self-control. Executive function involves the skills we need to organize our lives. Experts at the National Center for Learning Disabilities say we use executive function to study situations, plan, act and change our minds. They say problems with executive function are strongly linked to attention deficits and learning disabilities. All of these problems can have some of the same signs -- for example, trouble with working memory. What is working memory? This term is commonly used now in place of short-term memory. It describes the brain's ability to store recent information temporarily, but also to use and make sense of it. Researchers say good executive function is important for success in school. Students with poor executive function need help to organize research. They have serious trouble deciding which of two or three tasks to do first. They have difficulty changing tasks or working on one project for a long period of time. A person might have trouble waiting and cooperating, and might say or do things even if it offends others. Laura Berk in the psychology department at Illinois State University is an expert on the subject. She says executive function skills can be improved. For example, Professor Berk says games of Simon Says can help young children learn to exercise self-control by NOT doing something. Children are given directions but told to follow them only when the leader begins a direction by saying "Simon says ... " She also suggests a game called Freeze. Children dance to music until the music stops. Then they have to place their bodies in a position shown in a picture. She says giving children a chance to use their imaginations for make-believe play can also help them develop executive function skills. Teenagers and adults can write lists and establish ways to make sure they do important tasks. Technology can help. For example, online banking services can be set up to pay bills automatically. And alarm clocks on cell phones can remind someone when it is time to go to work or be in class. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. This was part seven in our series on learning disabilities. The series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Exploring Hip Hop Art at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington
* Byline: Also: A question from Bangladesh about why Americans think the number 13 is bad luck. And five more artists enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC. I’m Doug Johnson.On our show today, we: Play music by the newest members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ... Explain the mysterious fear of the number thirteen … And visit a new art show celebrating hip hop culture. (MUSIC) Hip Hop Art The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. recently opened an exciting new show called “Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture.” The exhibit celebrates the importance of American hip hop culture by showing the work of six artists and a poet. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: When you walk into the exhibit area of “Recognize!” you see the strikingly bright colors of large letters painted on the walls. Two local artists, Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp, made these graffiti artworks. The exhibit states that graffiti art is one of the four elements of hip hop. The others are break dancing, rap music, and DJing, when a person plays different beats of recorded music. You can also see the brightly colored paintings of the artist Kehinde Wiley. He paints famous rap musicians like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. But he paints them in a way that is like traditional paintings created hundreds of years ago. David Scheinbaum uses black and white photography to capture hip hop performers. Since two thousand, he has taken pictures of more than one hundred artists. Looking at his photographs, you can feel the energy of these performers and the surrounding crowds of listeners. Jefferson Pinder makes video art that explores hip hop culture, the identity of African-Americans and his own personal experiences. For example, in the video “Mule," Pinder wears business clothes as he walks down city streets. He must struggle because he is dragging a heavy object that is attached to him with metal chains. Earlier, we said the show included the work of a poet. You might be wondering how you would show poetry in a museum. The words of one poem by Nikki Giovanni are written on a large white wall. While you look at the words, you can hear a recording of Giovanni reading the poem. Across the room is a work by Shinique Smith. Her sculpture, “No Thief to Blame,” looks like a graffiti painting that has come out of and off the wall. It is an exciting explosion of paper, paint and found objects. These many forms of art honor the energetic and inventive world of hip hop culture. 13 HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Foqrul Islam wants to know about the history of the number thirteen and why Americans consider this number to be bad luck. It is not only Americans who consider this number to be unlucky. People around the world have what are called superstitions about the number thirteen. Superstitions are popular beliefs that are not based on reason or science. A person believes something brings good or bad luck. The fear of the number thirteen is called triskaidekaphobia. This fear is so strong around the world that many tall buildings do not have a thirteenth level. And, many airports do not have a gate numbered thirteen. Some experts say fears about this number come from ancient religious stories. One Norse myth is about twelve gods who were having a party in their heaven, Valhalla. Loki, the god of evil and disorder, arrived at the dinner party uninvited. He became the thirteenth person at the table. Loki then helped cause the death of Balder, the god of joy. In the Christian book, the Bible, Judas is the thirteenth guest at the dinner called the Last Supper. Judas is the man who betrays Jesus, leading to his death. Many people around the world also consider Fridays that fall on the thirteenth day of a month to be especially bad luck. Thomas Fernsler is an associate policy scientist at the University of Delaware in Newark. He is also known as “Doctor 13” because of his interest in this famous number. He says numerology shows that thirteen suffers because of its position next to the “complete” number twelve. He notes there are many sets of twelve, such as twelve months in the year and twelve signs of the zodiac. Mister Fernsler says thirteen is one more than twelve which makes it what he calls a “restless” number. Thomas Fernsler can tell you many interesting facts about the number thirteen. He can tell you that if February has a Friday the thirteenth in a non-leap year, March and November will also have Friday the thirteenths. Mister Fernsler can also tell you many examples of good and bad events that have taken place throughout history on Friday the thirteenth. But do not worry. The only Friday the thirteenth this year will take place in June. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (MUSIC) HOST: That was the great nineteen sixties surf rock band, the Ventures, with their song, “Hawaii Five-O.”? On Monday, that group and four other music acts will be welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony in New York City. Barbara Klein plays music from this year’s honorees. BARBARA KLEIN: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland, Ohio. Artists can be considered for the Hall of Fame twenty-five years after the release of their first recording. The president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation calls this year’s inductees “trailblazers.”? One of them, Madonna, got her start in the early nineteen eighties and became one of the most successful entertainers ever. Here she sings “Vogue.” (MUSIC) In the nineteen sixties, the Dave Clark Five was part of the so-called British invasion of America, along with the Beatles and other groups. Here the band performs “Do You Love Me.” (MUSIC) Canadian Leonard Cohen is a folk rock music hero. Many musicians perform his songs which have an unusual beauty. Here he sings “Hallelujah.” (MUSIC) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also honors John Mellencamp this year. We leave you with this American artist performing a song that seems just right for this report. Here is “R.O.C.K. in the USA.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Caty Weaver and Dana Demange, who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Economy: Home Foreclosures, Late Payments Rise
* Byline: New report on troubled housing market adds to worries in a week when oil sets all-time records. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. More bad news for the American housing market: The Mortgage Bankers Association says housing repossessions are at their highest rates ever, led by California and Florida. And loan payments at least thirty days late are at their highest since nineteen eighty-five. Problems in the housing market represent the greatest risks to the economy. Central bank chief Ben Bernanke says helping the economy is now more important than fighting inflation. He told the Senate Banking Committee last week that conditions are more difficult now than they were in two thousand one. That was the last year in which the American economy was in a recession. Most economists define a recession as at least six months of economic shrinkage. The economy was still growing at last report, but very little: just six-tenths of one percent from October to December. That was down from almost five percent for the July-to-September period. President Bush says the economy is in a slowdown and that he does not expect a recession. But investor Warren Buffett, just listed by Forbes magazine as the world's richest man, gave his opinion Monday. "By any common sense definition we are in a recession," he said on CNBC television. Economic weakness has pulled down the value of the dollar. One euro is now worth about a dollar and a half, a record high. A weak dollar reduces the price of American exports. But it means higher prices for oil, which is traded in dollars. This week, oil broke the all-time record of one hundred three dollars and seventy-six cents a barrel. That price, adjusted for inflation, was set in nineteen eighty. The United States is the biggest buyer of oil. On Wednesday, OPEC refused the second American request this year to produce more oil. It said there is already plenty. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said high prices were the result of "mismanagement" in the United States economy. Falling prices in the housing market are feeding a credit crisis. Home prices fell ten percent nationally in two thousand seven. And experts say prices could fall another ten to fifteen percent this year. The Bush administration has been urging lenders to negotiate new terms for loans held by people in danger of losing their homes. Many people now owe more than their homes are worth. Some are simply walking away from their homes, even though that damages their credit records. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: McCain Can Launch National Campaign; Democrats Still Stuck
* Byline: John McCain secures the Republican nomination. New life in Clinton campaign intensifies issue of re-votes in Florida and Michigan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Clarification attached This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, Arizona Senator John McCain claimed the Republican nomination for president. His wins in four state primaries Tuesday gave him enough delegates to begin his national campaign for the November election. But against which Democrat? New York Senator Hillary Clinton won three out of the four primaries, including the big states of Ohio and Texas. She also won Rhode Island. Illinois Senator Barack Obama won Vermont. Hillary Clinton's victories marked a major comeback. She lost twelve straight caucuses and primaries to Barack Obama. In her victory speech in Ohio, she spoke of the importance of that state. She noted that no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the presidency without winning Ohio. She received the majority of white and Latino votes in Ohio and Texas. But Barack Obama remained more popular among blacks and voters under the age of thirty. Senator Obama still holds a small lead in the delegate count. The next big primary is in Pennsylvania on April twenty-second. Ten states along with Guam and Puerto Rico have yet to vote. But it remains unlikely that either Democrat will win enough delegates to secure the nomination before the party's convention in late August. The tight race has brought new attention to Florida and Michigan. Those states want their votes to count at the national convention. But they held their primaries too early, in violation of party rules which those states had agreed to. As punishment, the party took away the two hundred ten delegates from Florida and one hundred fifty-six from Michigan. Hillary Clinton won the primaries in both states, though Barack Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan. The governors of Michigan and Florida have presented a joint request to the party to seat their delegates at the convention. They say the national party is silencing the voices of more than five million people. Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean says Florida and Michigan should repeat their primaries. But he says the national party will not pay the estimated several million dollars in costs. As Michigan and Florida try to find a solution, the candidates look toward votes in Wyoming on Saturday and Mississippi on Tuesday. The two Democrats are also trying to win the support of almost eight hundred superdelegates. These are party leaders and elected officials who can vote for any candidate at the convention. They represent about twenty percent of all the delegates who will vote at the convention. On the Republican side, President Bush announced his support for John McCain at the White House on Wednesday. The two men had competed for the Republican nomination in two thousand, and Mister Bush won. The seventy-one-year-old Senator McCain now has to name a choice for vice president. He says he has just begun that process. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. ___ Clarification: This story said cost estimates for primary?re-votes in Florida and Michigan?are?"several" million dollars. Estimates differ, and depend on the method used, but some?put the cost as high as $30 million. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961: He created a New Kind of Writing. He Was Able to Paint in Words What He Saw and Felt.?
* Byline: His first novel, "The Sun Also Rises," made Hemingway famous at the age of 25. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Frank Oliver with People in America, a Special English program about people who were important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the life of writer Ernest Hemingway. (Theme) VOICE ONE: "A writer is always alone, always an outsider," Ernest Hemingway said. Others said that of the many people he created in his books, Hemingway was his own best creation. Ernest Hemingway was born in eighteen ninety-nine. He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, near the middle western City of Chicago. He was the second child in a family of six. His father was a doctor. His mother liked to paint and play the piano. Each summer the family traveled to their holiday home in northern Michigan. Ernest's father taught him how to catch fish, hunt, set up a camp and cook over a fire. At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper. He tried to write like a famous sports writer of that time, Ring Lardner. He developed his writing skills this way. VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventeen, Hemingway decided not to go to a university. The United States had just entered World War One and he wanted to join the army. But the army rejected him because his eyesight was not good enough. Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri. He reported news from the hospital, police headquarters, and the railroad station. One reporter remembered: "Hemingway liked to be where the action was. " The Kansas City Star demanded that its reporters write short sentences. It wanted reporters to see the unusual details in an incident. Hemingway quickly learned to do both. He worked for the newspaper only nine months before he joined the Red Cross to help on the battlefields of Europe. His job was to drive a Red Cross truck carrying wounded away from battle. VOICE ONE: The Red Cross sent him to Italy. Soon he saw his first wounded when an arms factory in Milan exploded. Later, he was sent to the battle front. He went as close to the fighting as possible to see how he would act in the face of danger. Before long, he was seriously wounded. The war ended soon after he healed. Hemingway returned to the United States. Less than a year had passed since he went to Europe. But in that short time he had changed forever. He needed to write about what he had seen. VOICE TWO: Ernest Hemingway left home for Chicago to prove to himself, and to his family, that he could earn a living from his writing. But, he ran out of money and began to write for a newspaper again. The Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star, liked his reports about life in Chicago and paid him well. VOICE ONE: In Chicago, Hemingway met the writer Sherwood Anderson. Anderson was one of the first writers in America to write about the lives of common people. Hemingway saw that Anderson's stories showed life as it really was, the way Hemingway was trying to do. Anderson gave Hemingway advice about his writing. He told Hemingway to move to Paris, where living was less costly. He said Paris was full of young artists and writers from all over the world. In return for Anderson's kindness Hemingway wrote a book called "The Torrents of Spring." It makes fun of Anderson and the way he wrote. There was something in Hemingway that could not say "thank you" to anyone. He had to believe he did everything for himself, even when he knew others helped him. VOICE TWO: Hemingway decided to move to Paris. But before he did he married a woman he had recently met. Her name was Hadley Richardson. Paris was cold and gray when Hemingway and his new wife arrived in nineteen twenty-one. They lived in one of the poorer parts of the city. Their rooms were small and had no running water. But the Toronto Star employed him as its European reporter, so there was enough money for the two of them to live. And the job gave Hemingway time to write his stories. VOICE ONE: Hemingway enjoyed exploring Paris, making new friends, learning French customs and sports. Some new friends were artists and writers who had come to Paris in the nineteen twenties. Among them were poet Ezra Pound, and writers Gertrude Stein, John dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. They quickly saw that Hemingway was a good writer. They helped him publish his stories in the United States. He was thankful for their support at the time, but later denied that he had received help. As a reporter, Hemingway traveled all over Europe. He wrote about politics. He wrote about peace conferences and border disputes. And he wrote about sports, skiing and fishing. Later he would write about bull fighting in Spain. The Toronto Star was pleased with his work, and wanted more of his reports. But Hemingway was busy with his own writing. He said: "Sometimes, I would start a new story and could not get it going. Then I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think. I would say to myself: 'All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.' So finally, I would write a true sentence and go on from there. It was a wonderful feeling when I had worked well. " VOICE TWO: Hemingway's first book of stories was called "In Our Time." It included a story called "Big Two-Hearted River," about the effect of war on a young man. It tells about the young man taking a long fishing trip in Michigan. Hemingway had learned from his father when he was a boy about living in the wild. The story is about two kinds of rivers. One is calm and clear. It is where the young man fishes. The other is dark. It is a swamp, a threatening place. The story shows the young man trying to forget his past. He is also trying to forget the war. Yet he never really speaks about it. The reader learns about the young man, not because Hemingway tells us what the young man thinks, but because he shows the young man learning about himself. "Big Two-Hearted River" is considered one of the best modern American stories. It is often published in collections of best writing. VOICE ONE: After the book was published in nineteen twenty-five, Hadley and Hemingway returned to the United States for the birth of their son. They quickly returned to Paris. Hemingway was working on a long story. He wanted to publish a novel so he would be recognized as a serious writer. And he wanted the money a novel would earn. The novel was called "The Sun Also Rises." It is about young Americans in Europe after World War One. The war had destroyed their dreams. And it had given them nothing to replace those dreams. The writer Gertrude Stein later called these people members of "The Lost Generation. " VOICE TWO: The book was an immediate success. At the age of twenty-five Ernest Hemingway was famous. Many people, however, could not recognize Hemingway's art because they did not like what he wrote about. Hemingway's sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas City Star newspaper. He wrote about what he knew and felt. He used few descriptive words. His statements were clear and easily understood. He had learned from earlier writers, like Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson. But Hemingway brought something new to his writing. He was able to paint in words what he saw and felt. In later books, sometimes he missed. Sometimes he even looked foolish. But when he was right he was almost perfect. VOICE ONE: With the success of his novel, Hemingway became even more popular in Paris. Many people came to see him. One was an American woman, Pauline Pfeiffer. She became Hadley's friend. Then Pauline fell in love with Hemingway. Hemingway and Pauline saw each other secretly. One time, they went away together on a short trip. Years later, Hemingway wrote about returning home after that trip: "When I saw Hadley again, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling and the sun was on her lovely face. " But the marriage was over. Ernest Hemingway and Hadley separated. She kept their son. He agreed to give her money he earned from his books. In later years, he looked back at his marriage to Hadley as the happiest time of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Frank Oliver. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for the final part of the story of Ernest Hemingway in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Nuts and Bolts: The Mechanics of Any Organization
* Byline: Mechanical English with a tight fit. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA?Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC)? Every machine is held together by its nuts and bolts.Without them, the machine would fall apart. That is also true of an organization. Its nuts and bolts are its basic, necessary elements. They are the parts that make the organization work. In government, industry, diplomacy -- in most anything -- those who understand the nuts and bolts are the most important. Success depends more on them than on almost anyone else. In government, the president or prime minister may plan and shape programs and policies. But, it takes much more work to get them approved and to make them successful. There is a mass of detailed work to be done. The nuts and bolts.This is often put into the hands of specialists. The top leaders are always well-known, but not those who work with the nuts and bolts. This is equally true in the day-to-day operation of Congress. The majority leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, together with the chairmen of committees, keep the business of Congress moving. Behind every Senator and Congressman, however, are assistants.These people do all the detailed work to prepare congressmen to vote wisely on each issue. In diplomacy, the chief ministers are unquestionably important in negotiations. But there are lesser officials who do the basic work and preparations on the different issues to be negotiated. In a military operation, strategy decisions are important. But much more time is spent on the nuts and bolts -- generally called logistics -- of how to transport and supply an army. ?It has been said that Napoleon was successful because he knew the field position of every one of his guns. He gave careful attention to the nuts and bolts of his operations. The extreme importance of nuts and bolts was expressed by the Elizabethan poet, George Herbert. He wrote: For want of a nail, the shoe is lost For want of a shoe, the horse is lost For want of a horse, the rider is lost. Benjamin franklin carried these lines even further. He wrote: For want of a rider, the battle was lost For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. (MUSIC) This VOA Special Englsih program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Christiano. The narrator was Maurice Joyce. I'm Warren Scheer. This VOA Special Englsih program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Christiano. The narrator was Maurice Joyce. I'm Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Simple Technology to Get to the Nut of a Problem
* Byline: The Full Belly Project fights hunger in rural villages with labor-saving machines, including the Universal Nut Sheller. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Peanuts, or groundnuts, are an important crop in many developing countries. But getting them out of their shell is tiring without a machine. In two thousand one, a Canadian inventor, Jock Brandis, designed a hand-powered peanut sheller for a village in Mali. In one hour it can shell about fifty-six kilograms of peanuts. By the end of this year, twenty countries will be using the Universal Nut Sheller and other technologies from the Full Belly Project. This nonprofit group was established in North Carolina in two thousand three. The aim is to fight hunger and help rural economies with labor-saving agricultural devices that can be reproduced locally. Former Peace Corps volunteer Jeff Rose heads the Full Belly Project. He says a village in Malawi used a single sheller to process thirty tons of peanuts over two months. Selling them raised sixteen thousand dollars. The United States Agency for International Development also provided money, and the village was able to build a water well. That single machine, says Jeff Rose, cost the village just twenty-eight dollars to make. As described at fullbellyproject.org, the Universal Nut Sheller is basically a cement cone within a cone. The top and bottom are open. The user turns a handle and the peanuts fall between the surfaces and are rolled and squeezed. The peanuts and broken shells drop through the bottom and are separated by hand. The machine can also shell coffee, jatropha, shea nuts and neem nuts. There are two main ways that the group provides its technologies. One is where individuals or groups based in the United States donate seven hundred dollars. In return, they take a kit and build the sheller in a developing country. The kit contains fiberglass molds and enough metal pieces to build three machines. With the molds an unlimited number of machines can be built with locally purchased metal parts. The sheller generally costs about fifty to seventy-five dollars to make. The second way the group distributes its machines is through partnerships with nongovernmental organizations. The Full Belly Project also has a pedal-powered sheller. Now, volunteers are designing a pedal-powered grain crusher. Goals for the future include all the simple technologies needed to make ready-to-use therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the Full Belly Project, go to voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: With All the Talk About Illegal Immigration, a Look at the Legal Kind
* Byline: Second of two programs on immigration issues in the US examines the rules for seeking permanent residency. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we have the second of two programs on the issue of immigration in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An estimated eleven million or more people are living in the United States illegally. What to do about them is at the heart of the debate over immigration reform. Yet questions about legal immigrants also remain unanswered. For example, should the United States open its doors to more skilled workers? Many employers would like that. Or should Congress lower the current limits, to get employers to hire more American citizens? Or would that only lead them to move more jobs to other countries. What about a temporary worker program, as President Bush proposed? Or what about welcoming more skilled workers but fewer less educated immigrants? Or would that be seen as unfair in the land of the American dream? VOICE TWO: Congress tried to pass an immigration reform bill last year. But the Senate was unable to reach agreement. So, in place of legislative action, the administration announced new measures to increase border security and immigration enforcement. The steps include more workplace raids to catch illegal immigrants and higher civil fines for their employers. Immigrant rights activists say stronger enforcement makes even legal immigrants fearful of being treated with suspicion. But activists against illegal immigration say providing for millions of people has a huge cost for public services. An activist in California says that state could be using the money to work on bridges and other public structures at risk from earthquakes. VOICE ONE: Two men watch from the Mexican side of the border as they wait to cross illegally into the United States. In the background, a man and woman return to San Diego, California, after a walk on the beach to Tijuana, Mexico.In two thousand six, Congress passed the Secure Fence Act to build hundreds of kilometers of additional fencing along the southern border. The reasoning goes that secure borders with Mexico and Canada will help keep out illegal immigrants as well as drugs and terrorists. But securing thousands of kilometers of borderline is easier said than done. A high-tech "virtual fence" using sensors, cameras and radar systems has met with technical problems in a test project in Arizona. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We talked a lot last week about illegal immigration. But how can someone legally move to the United States? Listeners often ask this question. There are five ways to become a permanent resident. But the process can be difficult and involve much waiting. VOICE ONE: An immigration rights activist in Los Angeles with a sign that looks like a United States green cardA permanent resident is a foreign-born person who has most of the same rights as an American citizen. Permanent residents can work but they cannot vote or hold political office. They can also face expulsion in addition to any other punishment if they are found guilty of a serious crime. Proof of permanent residency is a small identification card commonly known as a green card. The current color is light red. But the card was green once and the name stuck. Green cards come from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency in the Department of Homeland Security. VOICE TWO: Christopher Bentley is an agency spokesman. He says most people immigrate to the United States these days through family sponsorship. This means that a family member already in the United States takes responsibility for the immigrant. Sponsors must be United States citizens or permanent residents. In addition, they must be at least eighteen years old and a blood relation of the person seeking residency. VOICE ONE: Chris Bentley says immediate relatives can immigrate without waiting. Immediate relatives include parents and unmarried children under the age of twenty-one. Other relatives can also come to the United States but they must wait for their visas. This can take, in some cases, as long as twelve to fifteen years. People who marry American citizens are also immediate relatives. But they receive a conditional green card at first. It can be made permanent after two years if investigators are satisfied that the marriage was not just for immigration purposes. VOICE TWO: Sponsors must meet financial requirements and accept responsibility for the immigrants they are sponsoring. This financial responsibility continues until the immigrant becomes a citizen, or works in the United States for about ten years or moves away. The Department of Homeland Security says one million two hundred thousand people received permanent residency in two thousand six. More than sixty percent of them became permanent residents as a result of a family relationship. VOICE ONE: Another way to gain permanent residency is to have a job offer, also called an employment-based preference. About one hundred sixty thousand people became permanent residents this way in two thousand six. Often the employers are technology companies. But Chris Bentley gives an example of a sheep ranch in Texas. The employer found a really good shepherd. It was easier to sponsor him for residency than to continually bring him to the United States to help on the ranch. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A third way to immigrate to the United States is to be declared a refugee. This immigration status is for people who fear physical harm if they remain in their home country. They have to go to an American Embassy and provide proof of their situation, or be referred by the United Nations refugee agency. Foreign citizens who are in the United States as students or visitors can ask to stay if returning home would endanger their lives. People who are given asylum are called asylees. Two hundred sixteen thousand refugees and asylees became permanent residents in two thousand six. VOICE ONE: A fourth way to immigrate is to invest money in the United States. A person must invest at least five hundred thousand dollars in a poor area of the country and create at least ten jobs. Seven hundred fifty investors became permanent residents in two thousand six. VOICE TWO: The fifth and final way to immigrate to the United States is through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the visa lottery. People enter the lottery and hope their name will be chosen by a computer. The winners, their spouses and unmarried children under the age of twenty-one get a chance for permanent residency. The United States offers about fifty-five thousand diversity visas every year. In two thousand six, more than forty-four thousand winners became permanent residents. VOICE ONE: Congress established the program under a nineteen ninety immigration law. But the process is not as simple as it might sound. The program is open only to people born in countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. These countries must have sent fewer than fifty thousand immigrants in the past five years. So the countries in the program change each year. VOICE TWO: The State Department received more than six million applications in two thousand six, about one million higher than the year before. The people who applied in two thousand six were entering the two thousand eight visa program. Most of the applicants were from Africa and Asia. Nineteen percent were from Europe and two percent from South America and the Caribbean. The largest numbers of applications came from Bangladesh, Nigeria and Ukraine. VOICE ONE: All of the information needed to take part in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is online at travel.state.gov. There are warnings about attempts to cheat people in connection with the visa lottery. In some cases there have been Web sites falsely claiming to be official United States government sites. ?Some companies claiming to be from the government have asked for money to complete lottery entries. There is no charge to download and complete the electronic entry form. VOICE TWO: No paper entries are accepted. All applications must be made at travel.state.gov. The application period is from early October through early December of each year. That is the only time people can enter. (MUSIC)?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. To learn more about the immigration issue, and for transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Key to a Better Accent in English? Students Say It's in the Music
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more advice from English teacher Lida Baker. Lida was with us last week to answer a question from an online English teacher in Manila. It had to do with accent reduction. But it got us to wonder what students who have no understanding of the English sound system can do on their own to improve their pronunciation. LIDA BAKER: "There are a couple of things you can do, and how successful you are depends to some extent on how good your ear is. But one thing that is really, really helpful is singing. It's very interesting, I noticed in recent years that the younger students in my classes who've grown up listening to American pop music and rap music and watching a lot of MTV, they come into class -- now, they still have the same problems with grammar and vocabulary that students have always had. But these students are coming in with a really good accent in English. And they tell me that it's as a result of the fact that they've grown up listening to American music. So, yeah, spend time listening to American music." RS: "Or watching TV or listening to a radio broadcast." LIDA BAKER: "I mean, I think watching and listening are helpful, but because they're not active, you're not moving your mouth. You know, it's passive." RS: "Well, what if you would, for example, record a passage and then listen to it, understand where the intonation is and where the accents are and how the words are produced and then -- " LIDA BAKER: "Well, sure." RS: "Try to reproduce it yourself, sounding, mimicking, repeating." LIDA BAKER: "Absolutely, you can do that. Take any segment of English and record it and then use your stop and start button on your recording device to listen and repeat. But there, just a caveat: sometimes it's very hard to know what you're listening to. If you don't know that there is such a thing as stress and intonation and linking, you might not necessarily hear those features. So I do strongly recommend that people get a pronunciation book. "Get a book written for students of English as a second language which explains, in language that you understand, how the sound system of English operates. And just one piece of advice when selecting a book -- actually, two pieces of advice. Make sure it comes with tapes or CDs. And make sure it doesn't deal only with sounds; make sure that it also targets stress, intonation, linking, clustering and the features of language aside from sounds. "Sometimes pronunciation books come in series, so you'll have level one, level two, level three, and the level one book very often deals only with phonemes. And I think that's a mistake. Books may do that just because, with beginning students, it IS easier to fix problems with phonemes than it is to deal with stress and intonation and all that. "But it really is a mistake to think that my accent is caused by the fact that I'm not able to pronounce the 'th' sound or, if I'm learning French, I can't pronounce the French 'r' and that's why I have an accent. There's so much more to it than that." AA: "Our listener in Manila also has another question. He wants to know if it's OK to correct students right after they commit an error. What do you think about that?" LIDA BAKER: "If it's an error with a grammatical feature or a vocabulary item that the class has already studied, so the student knows the rule, go ahead and correct it on the spot, because at that point what you're trying to do is to retrain the student to use the right word or to use the right grammar, and if they already know the rules, then that can be very helpful. "But if it's an error that the student has never made before, it's going to take some time to explain the mistake, and if the student is in the middle of communicating something that's really important to her, then you probably don't want to interrupt them and make that correction on the spot. You probably want to let them finish saying what they're trying to communicate, and then afterwards make that correction. That would be how I would deal with that." AA: English teacher and author Lida Baker in Los Angeles. If you missed our segment with her last week, you can find it at voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Device Gives New Meaning to the Idea of Power Walking
* Byline: Also: A common disease many people have never heard of. And scientists say people with blue eyes are genetically related. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO. And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we will tell about a device that makes electrical power from something as simple as walking. We will tell about a common disease many people have never heard of. And, we report on a study linking all blue-eyed people in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Electrical devices could soon use power made by human energy. Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking. A report on the device was published recently in Science magazine. Max Donelan is an assistant professor of kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Colombia. He and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device. Mister Donelan says the goal of the study was to store energy from walking in a way that can get electricity without having to increase effort. VOICE TWO: The device connects to a person's knee. As the person walks, the device captures energy each time the person slows down. To do this, the device assists with the slowing down movement of the leg. The movements of the person walking push parts of a small machine that produces electricity. Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute. Mister Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes. VOICE ONE: There are several possible uses for the device. Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers or wireless telephones. The device could also be used to operate life-saving health devices like heart pacemakers. It could even be used to assist in the movement of robotic arms and legs. ?????? The experimental version of the device currently weighs about one and a half kilograms. It is too costly for most people to buy. But the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version. ? Mister Donelan says an improved version should be ready in one year. The researchers also hope that soldiers could use the device. The machine could supply power to electronic devices with a battery that would re-gain power as the soldier walked. ? VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? The developers also hope the device will one-day help developing countries. Nearly twenty-five percent of people around the world live without electric power. A similar product was invented in two thousand five by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania. He created a bag carried on a person’s back that also produces power from walking. The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag. But the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. With Bob Doughty, I'm?Barbara Klein?in Washington. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or C.O.P.D., affects more than two hundred million people around the world. The World Health Organization says at least five million people died from it in two thousand five. Ninety percent were in developing countries. In the United States, C.O.P.D. is the fourth leading cause of death. But even with these numbers, many people have never heard of it. VOICE TWO: The Canadian Lung Association says C.O.P.D. is the new name for emphysema and chronic bronchitis. These are the two most common forms of it. Many people with C.O.P.D. have both of them. The result is progressive and incurable lung damage. The tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs become partly blocked. This makes it difficult to breathe and often produces a cough that will not go away. People with C.O.P.D. often have swelling that causes the airways to narrow. And they often produce more mucus than normal. This oily substance protects the airways, but too much of it blocks them. VOICE ONE: Smoking is the most common cause of C.O.P.D. Nonsmokers can get the disease from breathing other people's tobacco smoke. Air pollution can also cause the disease. Miners and others who work around some kinds of dust and chemicals are at higher risk. Children who repeatedly suffer lung infections have a greater chance of developing the disease as adults. Genetics may also be involved. Doctors can perform a quick breathing test with a machine called a spirometer that can help diagnose C.O.P.D. But experts say people are often not tested or treated correctly for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. VOICE TWO: Patients may not consider a continuous cough serious enough to seek medical attention. Or doctors may mistakenly identify it as asthma or another infection. Some of the early warning signs are a cough that will not go away and an increase in mucus production. Another sign is difficulty breathing after minor activity like walking up stairs. There are ways to slow the progress of the disease. Doctors say the most important thing is to stop smoking. There are medicines that can reduce inflammation and open air passages. Also, exercise is often advised. If the disease is severe, a doctor may order oxygen treatment or even operations to remove damaged lung tissue. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Researchers in Denmark say all human beings had brown eyes until a change in genetic orders produced the first blue eyes. The researchers also say people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. They found that blue-eyed people are genetically linked to the first person ever to have blue eyes. That person is said to have lived six thousand to ten thousand years ago. The University of Copenhagen research team reported its findings in Human Genetics magazine. VOICE TWO: Team members examined genes of blue-eyed individuals from countries like Denmark, India, Jordan and Turkey. They found that most people with blue eyes had changed genetic orders near a gene called OCA Two. More than ninety nine percent of those studied had the same difference in their genetic material. Team member Hans Eiberg said they all have the same change at exactly the same place. The researchers say the result of the changed orders is a lack of brown in the iris of the eye. They say the orders stop production of melanin in the eye. Melanin is a substance that gives color to eyes, skin and hair. VOICE ONE: The researchers say the first person with the changed genetic orders did not have blue eyes. That is because eye color results from genes passed from both the mother and the father. Blue eyes do not appear unless both parents pass the same gene for it to a child. So a child with one gene for brown eyes and one for blue will have brown eyes. The first blue-eyed person was the product of two people with brown eyes. But they both had one brown-eyed gene and the changed gene for blue eyes. Those blue-eyed genes came together in the first person to have blue eyes. VOICE TWO: The Danish researchers say that person probably lived in an area northwest of the Black Sea. They say this would explain why blue eyes are mainly found in people from northern Europe and southern Russia. The researchers say they do not yet know why the blue-eyed gene was able to survive and spread. They estimate that the changed gene is now found in about three hundred million people. And, they say that about eight percent of all the people today have blue eyes. ??????? We leave you now with a song that Crystal Gayle made famous thirty years ago: "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And, I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-10-voa4.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: The Signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia
* Byline: Many of the delegates at the convention in 1787 did not like all parts of the new document. Several even refused to sign it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of delegates met in Philadelphia to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. They ended up writing a new document instead -- the United States Constitution. For the past several weeks we have been telling the story of the Constitution. Here are Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal. VOICE TWO: George Washington watches the Constitution being signedLast week, we told how the convention discussed the difficult issue of slavery. Slavery affected the decision on how to count the population for purposes of representation in Congress. It also affected the powers proposed for the Congress. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue. One compromise was the 'three-fifths' rule. The population would be counted every ten years to decide how many representatives each state would have. The delegates agreed that every five Negro slaves would be counted as three persons. Another compromise permitted states to import slaves until the year eighteen-oh-eight. After that, no new slaves could be brought into the country. Many of the delegates in Philadelphia did not like these compromises. But they knew the compromises kept the southern states from leaving the convention. Without them, as one delegate said, no union could be formed. VOICE ONE: After all the debates, bitter arguments, and compromises, the delegates were nearing the end of their work. Four months had passed since the convention began. The weather had been hot. Emotions had been hot, too. But that was expected…for the men in Philadelphia were deciding the future of their country. Early in September, the convention appointed five men to a Committee of Style. It was their job to write the document containing all the convention's decisions. William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut was chairman of the committee. The other members were Alexander Hamilton of New York, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Rufus King of Massachusetts, and James Madison of Virginia. Of these five men, Gouverneur Morris was known for the beauty of his language. So Judge Johnson asked him to write the Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The convention approved twenty-three parts, or articles, for the Constitution. Gouverneur Morris re-wrote them in a more simple form, so there were just seven. Article One describes the powers of the Congress. It explains how to count the population for purposes of representation. And it says who can become senators or representatives, and how long they can serve. Article Two describes the powers of the president. It explains who can be president. And it tells how he is to be elected. Article Three describes the powers of the federal judiciary. The first three articles provide a system of 'checks and balances'. The purpose is to prevent any of the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- from becoming too powerful. VOICE ONE: Article Four explains the rights and duties of the states under the new central government. Article Five provides a system for amending the Constitution. Article Six declares the Constitution to be the highest law of the land. And Article Seven simply says the Constitution will be established when nine states approve it. In addition to the seven articles, the Constitution contains an opening statement, or preamble. The convention prepared its own preamble. It began, "We the undersigned delegates of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts" and so on. And it listed all thirteen states by name. VOICE TWO: The Committee of Style did not think it was a good idea to list each state. After all, Rhode Island never sent a delegate to Philadelphia. And no one knew for sure if every state would approve the Constitution. So, Gouverneur Morris wrote down instead, "We the People of the United States of America ... " Those simple words solved the committee's problem. Who suspected they would cause angry debate during the fight to approve the Constitution?? For they made clear that the power of the central government came not from the nation's states, but directly from its citizens. VOICE ONE: The rest of the preamble says why the Constitution was written:?In order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, guarantee peace at home, provide for the common defense, work for the well-being of all, and hold on to the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our children. The next step was to sign the document. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On September seventeenth, the delegates gathered for the last time. One might think all their business finally was done. But Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts rose to speak. "If it is not too late," he said, "I would like to make a change. We have agreed that one congressman will represent every forty thousand persons. I think that number should be thirty thousand. Gorham's proposal could have caused a bitter argument. Then, suddenly, George Washington stood up. The delegates were surprised, because he had said little all summer. "Now," Washington said, "I must speak out in support of the proposed change. It will guarantee a greater voice in the government for the people of the nation."? General Washington's influence was strong. Every delegate agreed to accept the change. VOICE ONE: Finally, it was time to sign the Constitution. It also was the last chance to speak against it. Many delegates did not like all parts of the Constitution. They stated their objections. Yet, they declared, for the good of the nation, they would sign. Several, however, refused to put their name on the Constitution. Edmund Randolph of Virginia said he could not sign the document because he believed it would not be approved. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts did believe the Constitution would be approved. And that, he said, would lead to civil war. So he would not sign. George Mason of Virginia also refused to sign, but he did not say why. He wrote his thoughts, instead. His chief reason for not signing:? the Constitution did not directly guarantee the rights of citizens. The country would hear this argument again later. Many people agreed with Mason. The results were the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments became known as the Bill of Rights. VOICE TWO: Randolph, Gerry, and Mason were the only delegates in Philadelphia who did not sign the Constitution. Four other delegates who opposed went home before the signing. They were Luther Martin and John Mercer of Maryland. And Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York. Nine men who supported the Constitution also went home early and did not sign. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. Caleb Strong of Massachusetts. William Houstoun and William Pierce of Georgia. Alexander Martin and William Davie of North Carolina. William Houston of New Jersey. George Wythe and James McClurg of Virginia. VOICE ONE: Few of the delegates in Philadelphia could be sure that enough states would approve the Constitution to make it the law of the land. And few could know then that Americans of the future would honor them as fathers of the nation. But, as several said later, they wrote the best Constitution they could. Without it, the young nation would break apart. The United States of America would disappear before it had a chance to succeed. VOICE TWO: As the last delegates moved to the table to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin looked at a painting behind the president's chair. He spoke softly to the men around him. Franklin noted that it is difficult to paint a morning sun that appears different from an evening sun. "During the past four months of this convention," he said, "I have often looked at that painting. And I was never able to know if the picture showed a morning sun or an evening sun. But now, at last, I know. I am happy to say it is a morning sun,?the beginning of a new day." (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English. ___ This is program #24 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-10-voa6.cfm
* Headline: The Story of the Largest Beef Recall in US History
* Byline: A California company recalled almost 65 million kilograms of beef after evidence of animal abuse was reported. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Containers of recalled beef being thrown away in Los AngelesOn February seventeenth, the Westland/Hallmark Meat Company of Chino, California, recalled almost sixty-five million kilograms of beef. The government declared the products unfit for human food. Officials at the Department of Agriculture said the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection. The beef recall was the largest in American history. But the government rated the health risk as low. No cases of sickness have been reported. The beef was produced over the last two years. Almost all of it went to federal programs to provide lunches for schoolchildren. Some also went to federal programs for Indian reservations and emergency food aid. About half of the beef had already been used when the recall took place. The recall followed the public release of video secretly recorded by the Humane Society of the United States. The video showed workers at the Chino slaughterhouse mistreating "downers" -- the name for sick or injured cows unable to stand. The workers kicked them and shot water at their faces. They also used electric shocks and forklift trucks to force the animals to their feet. The Agriculture Department bans downer cattle from entering the food supply. The ban is part of measures to protect against the human version of mad cow disease. Westland/Hallmark is closed until investigations are completed, and its deals to supply federal programs are suspended. Local officials have brought animal cruelty charges against two employees. And lawmakers in Congress have ordered the head of the company to appear at a hearing this week, saying he refused an earlier invitation. At the end of February, the Humane Society brought a lawsuit against the Agriculture Department over a change in its inspection rules. The group says the change made last year could make it easier for sick and injured cows to enter the food supply. Officials defend the inspection process, but have also announced new measures, including inspections outside approved hours of operation. When food recalls are announced, they often include the names of some of the stores that were supplied with the products. But under a new state law, California has published an online list of the names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of places affected by the beef recall. These include markets, restaurants, hotels and school systems. ??????? And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Music Would Not be the Same Without the Guitar
* Byline: It may be the most popular musical instrument around the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a very popular musical instrument. Listen and see if you can guess what it is. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you guessed it was a guitar, you are correct. Probably no other musical instrument is as popular around the world as the guitar. Musicians use the guitar for almost every kind of music. Country and western music would not be the same without a guitar. The traditional Spanish folk music called flamenco could not exist without a guitar. The sound of American blues music would not be the same without the sad cry of the guitar. And rock and roll music would almost be impossible without this instrument. VOICE TWO: Music experts do not agree about where the guitar first was played. Most agree it is ancient. Some experts say an instrument very much like a guitar was played in Egypt more than one thousand years ago. Some other experts say that the ancestor of the modern guitar was brought to Spain from Persia sometime in the twelfth century. The guitar continued to develop in Spain. In the seventeen hundreds it became similar to the instrument we know today. Many famous musicians played the instrument. The famous Italian violinist Niccolo Paganinni played and wrote music for the guitar in the early eighteen hundreds. Franz Schubert used the guitar to write some of his famous works. In modern times Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia helped make the instrument extremely popular. One kind of music for the guitar developed in the southern area of Spain called Adalusia. It will always be strongly linked with the Spanish guitar. It is called flamenco. Carlos Montoya was a Spanish Gypsy. Listen as he plays a flamenco song called “Jerez.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen thirties, Les Paul began experimenting with ways to make an electric guitar. He invented the solid body electric guitar in nineteen forty-six. The Gibson Guitar Company began producing its famous Les Paul Guitar in nineteen fifty-two. It became a powerful influence in popular music. The instrument has the same shape and the same six strings as the traditional guitar, but it sounds very different. Les Paul produced a series of extremely popular recordings that introduced the public to his music. They included Paul playing as many as six musical parts at the same time. Listen to this Les Paul recording. It was the fifth most popular song in the United States in nineteen fifty-two. It is called “Meet Mister Callaghan.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The guitar has always been important to blues music. The electric guitar Les Paul helped develop made modern blues music possible. There have been many great blues guitarists. Yet, music experts say all blues guitar players are measured against one man and his famous guitar. That man is B.B. King. ?Every blues fan knows that years ago B.B. King named his guitar Lucille. Here B.B. King plays Lucille on his famous recording of “The Thrill Is Gone”. (MUSIC) Lucille, B.B. King’s large, beautiful black guitar, is important to American music. Visitors can see King’s very first guitar at the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The museum is the only permanent exhibit organized by the Smithsonian Institution outside Washington, D.C., and New York City. VOICE ONE: Another famous guitar in American music also has a name. It belongs to country music star Willie Nelson. His guitar is as famous in country music as Lucille is in blues music. Its name is Trigger. Trigger is really a very ugly guitar. It looks like an old, broken instrument someone threw away. Several famous people have written their names on it. A huge hole was torn in the front of it a long time ago. It looks severely damaged. But the huge hole, the names and other marks seem to add to its sound. Listen while Willie Nelson plays? “Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many rock and roll performers are very good with a guitar. One of the best is Chuck Berry. Berry’s method of playing the guitar very fast was extremely popular when rock music began. He still is an important influence on rock and roll music. Listen as Chuck Berry plays and sings one of his hit songs. He recorded it in nineteen fifty-seven. The song is about a guitar player named? “Johnny B. Goode.”? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are almost as many different kinds of guitar music as there are musicians. We cannot play them all in one program. So we leave you with one guitar player who often mixes several kinds of music. His name is Jose Feliciano. Here he plays a song that is based on traditional Spanish guitar music. He mixes this with a little jazz and a little blues and adds a Latin sound. Here is “Bamboleo.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. ___ Correction: This story misspelled Andalusia in Spain. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Report Points to Limits of Some Antidepressants
* Byline: Researchers say unpublished studies show Prozac and three similar drugs have significant results only in the most severely depressed.

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A study has raised new questions about the effectiveness of several popular drugs for depression. These antidepressants are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. A bottle of ProzacS.S.R.I.s are designed to help keep serotonin, a brain chemical, at a continuous level.The new study suggests that they provide little help to the large majority of the millions who take them. Scientists from Britain, Canada and the United States did the study. It was a meta-analysis, a study of studies. The team used an American law, the Freedom of Information Act, to get unpublished reports on thirty-five clinical trials of four drugs. Drug companies gave these and published studies to the Food and Drug Administration for approval of the medicines. In the clinical trials, people with depression were treated with either an antidepressant or a placebo, a pill that contains no medicine. They did not know which they got. The new report says those who received medicine did improve. But comparable numbers of those who received placebos also improved. The report says the drugs had meaningful results only in the most severely depressed patients. The two best-known drugs in the study were fluoxetine, better known as Prozac, and paroxetine, sold in the United States under the name Paxil. The other drugs were venlafaxine and nefazodone. The Public Library of Science published the findings last month in the journal PLoS Medicine. Benedetto Vitiello is a psychiatrist at the United States National Institute of Mental Health. Doctor Vitiello, who was not involved in the study, says the findings came as no great surprise. He says psychiatrists have known for years that S.S.R.I.s work best in the sickest patients. But he says it is important for people who need help not to delay seeking help as a result of the new report. Critics of the report say S.S.R.I.s can take more time to begin working than the studies permitted. They also note that doctors sometimes try several antidepressants on a patient before choosing one for treatment. Future antidepressants might have targets other than serotonin. Scientists funded by the National Institute of Mental Health have found that an enzyme called GSK3B might play a big part in depression. They found that mice with low serotonin levels and signs of depression improved when the enzyme was blocked. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Is the Story of Your Life? Please Summarize in Six Words
* Byline: 

 Welcome to WORDMASTER. I'm Adam Phillips, sitting in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. See if you can identify what these three sentences have in common:?Found true love. Married someone else. Young, skinny: ridiculed. Old, skinny: envied. And one I can relate to: It gets lonely, behind a microphone. The answer is: they are all self-contained memoirs, and they each contain just six words. They are among the more than fifteen thousand six-word memoirs submitted to Smith Magazine, an online journal devoted to storytelling. In late 2006, journal editors invited readers to send in their own six-word creations. Now, 832 of those little gems have been collected into a book called "Not Quite What I Was Planning." Our guests today, Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith, both of Smith Magazine, co-edited the volume, which is the first of several planned. First, tell me Rachel, what is your working definition of a memoir?? RACHEL FERSHLEISER: "A memoir is any story that encapsulates your life, what you remember, what's important to you. And that's why this six-word form is so wonderful, because it helps you distill what's really important. Some people choose to encompass everything. So if you look at the title of the book, Not Quite What I Was Planning?-- which was a six-word memoir -- that can pretty much apply to a whole life and almost anyone's life." On the other hand, you can have something like John Bettencourt's six-memoir: One tooth. One cavity. Life's cruel. And that takes one tiny aspect of a person's life and expands it to say more than that one tiny detail might say. LARRY SMITH: "He's saying you know, I got a bad deal, life is cruel. In the same moment, I'm laughing. I'm smirking at it. And that's the thing about the six-word memoir form: you really can look at a specific moment that may have affected your whole life. For example: Paul Bellows?-- like most of our contributors, an unknown person that came through our site. His six-word memoir: Never should have have bought that ring. That tells a whole story about a moment in his life and about a life regret." RACHEL FERSHLEISER: "When we put the challenge out there -- and we didn't really know what we'd get back -- we thought people would be funny; they would be clever; they would be pithy. But I don't think we really understood how deep they'd be able to go. And these memoirs are so diverse and so honest. So many of them are about regret, about sadness, about loneliness, about mistakes that you've made. And people put it right out there. They put their names on it. They were so happy to share it. "And I burst into tears looking through the contest entries. Ronald Zalewsky says: Was father, boys died, still sad. That was a level of power I wasn't intending to get." AP: "I know your own six-word memoirs are in the book. After meeting you, Rachel, I'd say that your own contribution -- 'Bespectacled, besneakered, read and ran around' -- describes you pretty well. What's your memoir, Larry?" LARRY SMITH: "My own six-word memoir is quite simple: Big hair, big heart, big hurry. It's kind of playful, kind of fun, [and] no great masterful prose. But people respond to it and, most importantly, it's true to who I am." Hair is a common theme in the six-word memoir book. One of my favorites is by A.J. Jacobs: Born bald. Grew hair. Bald again. RACHEL FERSHLEISER: "It's a beautiful little life cycle. One of my favorite six word memoirs is by Karen Franklin: Trains. Planes. Thumb. Then children come. Now thumb, of course, the word just really means a digit on your hand. But if you think about that image of hitchhiking, of sticking your thumb out in the middle of the road and getting picked up and going who knows where, it's such an image of youth and freedom. And when you settle down and have babies, you are not traveling by thumb anymore. So I love that, with the one word thumb, she has actually communicated a whole lifestyle." Writing their memoirs has been a real beginning for many of the contributors, many of them were really wary about writing. LARRY SMITH: "A blank page is very scary when you are writing your memoir or your autobiography. A blank page that is filled with six words is not scary. You can write six words."?? RACHEL FERSHLEISER: "This is a great way to get going with using words. If you are afraid to write, if your English isn't so good, it's a way to start, it's a way to learn, and it's a way to have fun." I've been talking today with Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser of Smith Magazine. They are co-editors of Not Quite What I Was Planning, a collection of six-word memoirs readers submitted to them online, at smithmag.net. By the way, Larry and Rachel are offering Wordmaster listeners five slots in their next volume. If you'd like your six-word memoir to be considered, send it to us at word@voanews.com. You never know until you try. Hey, that's also six words! For WORDMASTER, I'm Adam Phillips. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Way to Help Students Before They Fail
* Byline: More schools are using a process called response to intervention to see if a child might have a learning disability. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Now, we continue our series on learning disabilities. We look this week at a process used to identify problems and help children avoid failure in school. This process is called response to intervention, or R.T.I. Lynn Fuchs is a special education professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She studies R.T.I. and says more and more schools in the United States are using it. Learning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect different skills. Federal law requires public schools to help disabled students through special education services and individualized programs. The first step is finding which children need help. Professor Fuchs explains that the traditional way is to test students who are failing. But research shows that failure can lead to depression, and that can make improvement in school very difficult. So some schools are using response to intervention as a way to identify problems much earlier. The growing interest also results from concerns that some children placed in special education programs do not truly have a learning disability. They may just need extra help with skills like reading or math. Response to intervention supplies that extra help. R.T.I. provides specially designed instruction for children who have scored low on general tests. Professor Fuchs says the process usually involves about eight to ten weeks of small group tutoring. The intensive work uses research-based methods of instruction. The students are tested, sometimes as often as every week, to measure progress. Those who improve after the instructional intervention go back to their normal classroom activities. Those who do not might be declared learning disabled. But Professor Fuchs says most school systems require additional testing to confirm the presence of a disability. Some teachers and administrators believe response to intervention can reduce the number of students put into special services. Professor Fuchs tells us this has not been proven. But studies have shown that R.T.I. can solve learning problems for some students, especially young children. And, at the same time, it can identify others who need much more help. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our series on learning disabilities continues next week. The reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com with transcripts, MP3 files and links to additional information. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Small-Town Georgia Influences Singer Lizz Wright's Latest Effort
* Byline: Also: A listener asks what the Democratic Party candidates plan to do if elected president. And a home used by President Abraham Lincoln is opened to the public. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. On our show this week we play music from jazz singer Lizz Wright … Answer a listener question about the American presidential candidates … And, visit former President Abraham Lincoln’s cottage, now a museum near Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) Lincoln’s Cottage HOST: A newly restored house has opened in Washington, D.C. The house looks like it did during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln in the early eighteen sixties. In fact, Mister Lincoln and his family lived in the house while he was president. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: President Lincoln's CottageThe house is known as President Lincoln’s Cottage. He and his family lived there during the summers to escape the heat and noise of the White House during the Civil War. The cottage is on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home. More than one thousand retired American military veterans live there today. Washington banker George Riggs built the cottage in eighteen forty-two. He sold the house and land to the government about ten years later. The government built a large home for military veterans on the land. They also expanded the house nearby. James Buchanan was the first president to use this house. But the Lincolns used it the most. They moved there each June or July, and did not return to the White House until early November. Back then, the cottage was outside the city of Washington, about one and one-half kilometers north of the White House. President Lincoln returned to the cottage every night from the White House. Today, the cottage and the retirement home are inside the city limits, in an area where many people live. The house has been open to visitors for only about one month. It does not have a lot of furniture, yet it tells many stories about President Lincoln and his family. One story that many people do not know is that President Lincoln was the object of an assassination attempt near the cottage in eighteen sixty-four. Coming back from the White House, he was riding a horse alone at night when a bullet went through his tall hat. He did not take the incident seriously. But it led the War Department to increase security for the president. Later, John Wilkes Booth watched the president ride from the cottage to the White House. He had planned to kidnap Mister Lincoln and exchange him for captured Confederate soldiers. But there were too many guards protecting the president. So Booth changed his plans. He shot and killed the president at Ford’s Theatre in Washington in eighteen sixty-five. You can hear more stories about President Lincoln’s Cottage on the Special English program THIS IS AMERICA?on Monday, March seventeenth. Presidential Candidates’ Platforms HOST: Our listener question this week is about the American presidential election. Armand Ngouala asks what the Democratic Party candidates plan to do if elected president, especially on the issue of Iraq. Right now the race for the Democratic Party nomination is close. On Tuesday, Illinois Senator Barack Obama won the Democratic nominating election in Mississippi. A week earlier, New York Senator Hillary Clinton won in nominating elections in three states -- Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas. But she lost to Mister Obama in Vermont. And he remains the overall leader in the competition. The two candidates hold similar positions, especially on social issues. For example, both support a woman’s right to seek an abortion. Both also support stem cell research. And both candidates believe homosexuals should have rights to form legal unions similar to marriage. Senators Clinton and Obama also have plans that they say will provide health care to all Americans. Both also have plans to end the war in Iraq. Barack Obama says as president he would immediately begin troop withdrawals from Iraq. He says he would get all American combat forces out of Iraq within sixteen months. The senator says he would leave some troops in the country to protect the American embassy and diplomats. But, he says he would not permit the building of any permanent American bases in Iraq. Hillary Clinton says she would meet with America’s top military and civilian security officials shortly after taking office. She says she would order them to make a plan to begin withdrawing troops within the first sixty days of her presidency. Senator Clinton says she would also increase aid to Iraq and make sure it reaches the people who need it. And she says she supports the appointment of a high level United Nations representative to help negotiate peace among Iraqi groups. Last week, Senator John McCain of Arizona gained enough delegates to become the Republican Party nominee for president. Senator McCain does not support ending the war in Iraq. He believes more American troops need to be deployed to crush rebel forces, end fighting among different Muslim groups and disarm militias. He says the United States must also help to strengthen the Iraqi armed forces and police. Senator McCain says political progress in Iraq depends on its security. Lizz Wright HOST: Lizz Wright is a singer with a rich and smoky voice. The twenty-eight year old performer’s third album is “The Orchard.”? She says her childhood in a small town in rural Georgia influenced the album. Critics say it is her best yet. Barbara Klein plays some of Wright’s music. BARBARA KLEIN: Before she began writing songs for a new album, Lizz Wright returned to her family’s home in Georgia. She took photographs of the countryside and places that were important to her. Then she showed the photographs to people at her record company, Verve. She explained that this was the world she wanted to tell about in her album. Here is the song “Coming Home.” (MUSIC) Lizz Wright first began singing and playing music as a young child at the religious center where her father worked. You can hear the influence of this gospel music in many of her songs. As an adult, Wright studied music at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Later, critics praised her singing in a traveling musical show honoring the blues singer Billie Holiday. On her earlier albums, Wright borrowed the songs and stories of other performers. She says that “The Orchard” mainly tells her own story. Here is “My Heart.” (MUSIC) Lizz Wright also sings songs by other musicians on this album. For example, she performs a version of “Strange” by the country and western singer Patsy Cline. We leave you with a song that was first made famous by Tina Turner. Lizz Wright says she wanted to sing like Tina Turner’s fiercely powerful voice in her own version of the song “I Idolize You.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Boeing Protests Air Force Contract on Tankers
* Byline: A deal awarded to a U.S. competitor, teamed with the parent of Europe's Airbus, angers some lawmakers in Congress. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Must a country buy from its own defense suppliers? This is one of the questions in Washington in a dispute over a deal worth at least thirty-five billion dollars. The contract will supply the Air Force with one hundred seventy-nine tankers. Boeing union workers in Everett, WashingtonThe Air Force says it has a serious need for new planes to refuel aircraft in mid-flight. Boeing has a long history of supplying tankers to the Air Force. But on February twenty-ninth, the Air Force awarded the contract to another American company, Northrop Grumman, teamed with EADS. EADS is the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, the parent of Airbus. This week, Boeing protested the decision. The Government Accountability Office will study the appeal and expects to have a report by June nineteenth. Boeing says it found problems in the process used to reach the decision. The Air Force has called the process fair and open. But the decision not to give the contract to the Chicago-based company has angered lawmakers in Congress from states with Boeing factories. These include Washington state and Kansas. Boeing offered a version of its Seven Sixty-seven airplane for the new tankers. Northrop Grumman and EADS based their tanker on the Airbus A-Three-Thirty. That plane is larger and would be able to carry more fuel. There is debate about the possible effect on American jobs because production would be split between Europe and the United States. There is also dispute about what the deal could mean for national security. In any case, Boeing says the Air Force changed requirements in the middle of the competition. Boeing and Airbus each had record numbers of orders last year for commercial airplanes. Demand is strong in Europe and Asia. But this week, EADS reported a loss of six hundred eighty-five million dollars last year, after a profit in two thousand six. Airbus has had delays with its huge, new A-Three-Eighty passenger plane. A weak dollar also played a part in the loss. Boeing has had its own problems with its new Seven Eighty-seven Dreamliner. To build it, the company is using a new system of suppliers around the world. Boeing says the Dreamliner could enter service early next year. Many buyers are waiting, but the new plane has not even had its first flight. The latest progress report is expected by the end of the month. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. For more news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Private Failings': The Rise, and Sudden Fall, of Eliot Spitzer
* Byline: New York's governor built his political life on fighting corruption. He resigns after being identified as a client of a prostitution business. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, America’s attention was directed away from a tight presidential race and troubled economy. The nation watched the fall from power of a politician widely considered a hero. The news of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s use of prostitutes shocked many because of his image as an aggressive crime fighter. He resigned Wednesday, two days after reports linked him to a high-priced sex service. Last week, the government charged four people with operating Emperors Club V.I.P. Court papers say it operated in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington, as well as London and Paris. Federal law enforcement officials say the governor was known as "Client Nine" and was recorded on telephone wiretaps. They say he paid to have a twenty-two-year-old woman travel from New York to meet him at a Washington hotel last month. A century-old law, the Mann Act, makes it a federal crime to bring people across state lines for immoral purposes. But if Eliot Spitzer faces any charges, legal experts say they would more likely involve how the services were paid for, not the services themselves. Federal officials say they began investigating him after two banks last year reported suspicious activity in the way he was moving large amounts of money around. That investigation, they say, led them to the Emperors Club, where reports say he may have spent tens of thousands of dollars. Federal prosecutors are said to be investigating whether he used campaign money in connection with his meetings. The New York Times says he has told aides in recent days that he used prostitutes only in the last eight months, and never spent campaign or public money. The forty-eight-year-old governor made two brief statements to the press, with his wife at his side. The father of three teenage daughters did not discuss what he called his "private failings." But he apologized and announced the end of his political life. For eight years Eliot Spitzer was New York attorney general, the state's top law enforcement official. He was known nationally as "the Sheriff of Wall Street." He fought corruption in the financial industry. He also brought two major cases against prostitution operators. The Democrat became governor in January of last year, elected with sixty-nine percent of the vote. Early in his term, he signed a law that increased the punishment for paying for sex. It rose from a possible three months in jail to up to a year. David Paterson This Monday, Lieutenant Governor David Paterson will be sworn-in to replace Eliot Spitzer. Mister Paterson will become the state’s first black governor. He is also legally blind. The only other blind governor known in American history, Bob Riley, served for eleven days in Arkansas in nineteen seventy-five. The state of New York faces a deficit, and a new budget must be completed by the end of the month. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961: One of the Most Famous Writers of the 20th Century
* Byline: His novels include "A Farewell to Arms," "Death in the Afternoon," and "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with People in America, a program about people who are important in the history of the United States. Today we present the second part of the story of Ernest Hemingway's life and writings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At twenty-five, Hemingway was living in Paris. He was a famous writer. But the end of his first marriage made him want to leave the place where he had first become famous. Years later he said: "The city was never to be the same again. When I returned to it, I found it had changed as I had changed. Paris was never the same as when I was poor and very happy. " VOICE TWO: Hemingway and his new wife returned to the United States in nineteen twenty-eight. They settled in Key West, an island with a fishing port near the southern coast of Florida. Before leaving Paris, Hemingway sent a collection of his stories to New York to be published. The book of stories, called "Men Without Women," was published soon after Hemingway arrived in Key West. One of the stories was called "The Killers." In it, Hemingway used a discussion between two men to create a feeling of tension and coming violence. This was a new method of telling a story STORYTELLER: Nick opened the door and went into the room. Ole Andreson was lying on the bed with all his clothes on. He had been a heavyweight prizefighter and he was too long for the bed. He lay with his head on two pillows. He did not look at Nick. "What was it?" he asked. "I was up at Henry's," Nick said, "and two fellows came in and tied me up and the cook, and they said they were going to kill you. " It sounded silly when he said it. Ole Andreson said nothing. "They put us out in the kitchen," Nick went on. "They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper. " Ole Andreson looked at the wall and did not say anything. "George thought I ought to come and tell you about it. " "There isn't anything I can do about it," Ole Andreson said. VOICE ONE: Any new book by Hemingway was an important event for readers. But stories like "The Killers" shocked many people. Some thought there was too much violence in his stories. Others said he only wrote about gunmen, soldiers, fighters and drinkers. This kind of criticism made Hemingway angry. He felt that writers should not be judged by those who could not write a story. VOICE TWO: Hemingway was happy in Key West. In the morning he wrote, in the afternoon he fished, and at night he went to a public house and drank. One old fisherman said: "Hemingway was a man who talked slowly and very carefully. He asked a lot of questions. And he always wanted to get his information exactly right. " Hemingway and his wife Pauline had a child in Key West. Soon afterward he heard that his father had killed himself. Hemingway was shocked. He said: "My father taught me so much. He was the only one I really cared about. " When Hemingway returned to work there was a sadness about his writing that was not there before. His new book told about an American soldier who served with the Italian army during World War One. He meets an English nurse and they fall in love. They flee from the army, but she dies during childbirth. Some of the events are taken from Hemingway's service in Italy. The book is called "A Farewell to Arms." Part of the book talks about the defeat of the Italian army at a place called Caporetto. STORYTELLER: "At noon we were stuck in a muddy road about as nearly as we could figure, ten kilometres from Udine. The rain had stopped during the forenoon and three times we had heard planes coming, seen them pass overhead, watched them go far to the left and heard them bombing on the main highroad. . . . "Later we were on a road that led to a river. There was a long line of abandoned trucks and carts on a road leading up to a bridge. No one was in sight. The river was high and the bridge had been blown up in the center; the stone arch was fallen into the river and the brown water was going over it. We went up the bank looking for a place to cross. . . . We did not see any troops; only abandoned trucks and stores. Along the river bank was nothing and no one but the wet brush and muddy ground. " VOICE ONE: "A Farewell to Arms" was very successful. It earned Hemingway a great deal of money. And it permitted him to travel. One place he visited was Spain, a country that he loved. He said: "I want to paint with words all the sights and sounds and smells of Spain. And if I can write any of it down truly, then it will represent all of Spain." A book called "Death in the Afternoon" was the result. It describes the Spanish tradition of bull fighting. Hemingway believed that bull fighting was an art, just as much as writing was an art. And he believed it was a true test of a man's bravery, something that always concerned him. VOICE TWO: Hemingway also traveled to Africa. He had been asked to write a series of reports about African hunting. He said: "Hunting in Africa is the kind of hunting I like. No riding in cars, just simple walking and feeling the grass under my feet. " The trip to Africa resulted in a book called "The Green Hills of Africa" and a number of stories. One story is among Hemingway's best. He said a writer saves some stories to write when he knows enough to write them well. The story is called "The Snows of Kilimanjaro." It tells of Hemingway's fears about himself. It is about a writer who betrays his art for money and is unable to remain true to himself. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-six, the Civil War in Spain gave him a chance to return to Spain and test his bravery again. He agreed to write about the war for an American news organization. It was a dangerous job. One day, Hemingway and two other reporters were driving a car near a battlefield. The car carried two white flags. But rebel gunners thought the car was carrying enemy officers. Hemingway was almost killed. He said: "Shells are all the same. If they do not hit you, there is no story. If they do hit you, then you do not have to write it. " The trip to Spain resulted in two works, a play called "The Fifth Column" and the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The novel tells the story of an American who has chosen to fight against the fascists. He realizes that there are lies and injustice on his side, as well as the other. But he sees no hope except the victory of his side. During the fighting, he escapes his fear of death and of being alone. He finds that "he can live as full a life in seventy hours as in seventy years. " The book was a great success. Hemingway enjoyed being famous. His second marriage was ending. He divorced Pauline and married reporter Martha Gellhorn. He had met Martha while they were working in Spain. They decided to live in Cuba, near the city of Havana. Their house looked out over the Caribbean Sea. But this marriage did not last long. Hemingway was changing. He began to feel that whatever he said was right. Martha went on long trips to be away from him. He drank heavily to forget his loneliness. VOICE TWO: When America entered World War Two, Hemingway went to Britain as a reporter. Later he took part in the invasion of Europe and the freeing of Paris. During the war Hemingway met another reporter, Mary Walsh. In nineteen forty-five, when his marriage to Martha was legally over, he married Mary. After the war, Hemingway began work on his last important book, "The Old Man and the Sea." It is the story of a Cuban fisherman who refuses to be defeated by nature. Hemingway said: "I was trying to show the experience of the fisherman so exactly and directly that it became part of the reader's experience. " In nineteen fifty-four, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature. But he was too sick to take part in the ceremony. VOICE ONE: Ernest Hemingway was sixty years old, but he said he felt like he was eighty-six. And, even worse, he felt that he no longer was able to write. He seemed to be living the story about the writer who had sold his writing skill in order to make money. In nineteen sixty-one Ernest Hemingway killed himself. Among the papers he left was one that described what he liked best: "To stay in places and to leave. . . to trust, to distrust. . . to no longer believe and believe again. . . to watch the changes in the seasons. . . to be out in boats. . . to watch the snow come, to watch it go. . . to hear the rain. . . and to know where I can find what I want. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cold: She Felt the Cold Hard Reality of Life
* Byline: English expressions that will leave you out in the cold. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Cold weather has a great effect on how our minds and our bodies work. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions that use the word cold. For centuries, the body's blood has been linked closely with the emotions. People who show no human emotions or feelings, for example, are said to be cold-blooded. Cold-blooded people act in cruel ways. They may do brutal things to others, and not by accident. For example, a newspaper says the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer. The killer murdered someone, not in self-defense, or because he was reacting to anger or fear. He seemed to kill for no reason, and with no emotion, as if taking someone's life meant nothing. Cold can affect other parts of the body. The feet, for example. Heavy socks can warm your feet, if your feet are really cold. But there is an expression -- to get cold feet -- that has nothing to do with cold or your feet. The expression means being afraid to do something you had decided to do. For example, you agree to be president of an organization. But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned. All the work of the organization will be your responsibility. You are likely to get cold feet about being president when you understand the situation. Cold can also affect your shoulder. You give someone the cold shoulder when you refuse to speak to them. You treat them in a distant, cold way. The expression probably comes from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face-to-face. You may give a cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise he made to you. Or, to someone who has lied about you to others. A cold fish is not a fish. It is a person. But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and shows no love or warmth. A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone. Someone who is a cold fish could be cold-hearted. A cold-hearted person is someone who has no sympathy. Several popular songs in recent years were about cold-hearted men or cold-hearted women who, without feeling, broke the hearts of their lovers. Out in the cold is an expression often heard. It means not getting something that everybody else got. A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise, that he was left out in the cold. And it is not a pleasant place to be. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by?Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by?Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Building a Better Cook Stove for the World’s Poor
* Byline: Envirofit International plans to begin selling a clean-burning stove in southern India in May. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Breathing smoke from cooking stoves or open fires is a common cause of lung infections in developing countries. Indoor air pollution is blamed for an estimated four thousand deaths every day, mostly women and children. A nonprofit group based in the American state of Colorado is working to save lives. Researchers at Envirofit International have developed a clean-burning cook stove that uses less fuel and reduces smoke. They say it cuts the smoke and dangerous gases by up to eighty percent compared to open fires or simple traditional stoves. The cook stove was designed to produce the greatest amount of heat in the shortest amount of time and with the least amount of fuel. It can burn wood, animal waste or crop waste. The Shell Foundation has formed a partnership with Envirofit to market the cook stoves. The British charity, established by the Shell Group in the year two thousand, has invested ten million dollars in a pilot project for India. Martha Kohlhagen at Envirofit tells us that as many as ten million stoves will be sent to southern India by the end of this year. She says the stoves are being manufactured in China and will begin arriving in May. The stoves are designed to have a lifetime of up to three years at a cost of about fifteen dollars. After India, the plan is to market them to China and Brazil, and to other countries around the world. Envirofit expects twenty-five million dollars from the Shell Foundation and other donors over the next five years to support its efforts. Nongovernmental organizations and local stores, in some cases, will sell the stoves in villages. The price in different countries will be based on demand and local economic conditions. Martha Kohlhagen says Envirofit will also work with local micro lending organizations to help support the sale of the stoves. Envirofit says it will use any future profits from the stoves for further research and development. The group wants to develop combination technology, to be able use energy from the cook stove to provide things like heat or light. Two students at Colorado State University, Tim Bauer and Nathan Lorenz, started Envirofit International in two thousand three. The group has ties to the university. Envirofit developed from research work in the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: President Lincoln's Cottage: A Visit to a 19th Century Camp David
* Byline: A country home important in Abraham Lincoln's presidency, and his Emancipation Proclamation, has been restored and opened to the public. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: Lincoln's CottageAnd I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we take you to President Lincoln's Cottage in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins on the evening of Wednesday, September seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two. The Civil War between the Union North and Confederate South is in its second year. The first major battle on Northern territory has just been fought that day a hundred kilometers from Washington. Union troops defeated a rebel invasion in the Battle of Antietam in the state of Maryland. In all, more than twenty thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. September seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two, becomes the single bloodiest day in American military history. President Abraham Lincoln is fighting to keep the Southern states of the Confederacy from leaving the Union. But from his office in the White House, he must also attend to his other duties as president of the United States. VOICE TWO: Photo from around 1860In summertime, which can get very hot in Washington, President Lincoln used a country house. It was about five kilometers from the White House. Each morning and evening, Lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback, unguarded. Buildings would give way to farmland as he rode north out of the city. In about thirty minutes, he would arrive at the grounds of the Soldiers' Home. Just inside the gate was a large house used by the president and his family. This house was on much higher ground than the White House, so the wind kept it cooler. It was also quiet -- a place to think. VOICE ONE: A meeting, with President Lincoln third from leftOn this day we imagine Lincoln climbing the stairs to his study on the second floor. He places his tall black hat on his desk and opens a large window. He feels cooler already. He lights two lamps and sits down at the desk. An important document that he has been writing, and rewriting, waits for him. He began working on it soon after he became president in eighteen sixty-one. Lincoln has been thinking long and hard to develop his ideas and capture them in words. What he is writing sounds like it was written by a lawyer. He was, after all, a lawyer in Illinois before he became president. But this is different. It involves the war, the ownership of human beings and the future of the divided nation. He knows that some people will support it, some will reject it and some will say it changes nothing. It will free the slaves, but only in areas where Lincoln has no power. VOICE TWO: Slavery was legal in the Confederate States of America -- the South. But it was also legal in several neighboring states that remained loyal to the Union. Many Americans wanted Lincoln to free all the slaves. Lincoln opposed slavery. But he needed the continued loyalty of those border states, like Maryland and Kentucky, or risk losing the Civil War. VOICE ONE: The sixteenth president looks again at what he has written. Lincoln feels that what he is doing will give the war effort new meaning. He feels that in time it will lead to the end of slavery in the United States. On this day, September seventeenth, he has finished his second draft of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Soon he will share it with his cabinet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary version five days later, on September twenty-second, eighteen sixty-two. It declared that slaves would be free anywhere that was still in rebellion on January first, eighteen sixty-three. The final version of the Emancipation Proclamation came on January first, declaring: " ... all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ... " The document would become one of the most important in American history. The Emancipation Proclamation is in the National Archives in Washington, and it can be seen online at archives.gov. VOICE ONE: Lincoln was right that it would not be very popular. But he was also right that it would be the first step toward ending slavery in the United States. The proclamation also welcomed freed slaves to serve in the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war, more than two hundred thousand blacks had joined the armed services. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Civil War lasted from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five. Troops were stationed at the Soldiers' Home to protect President Lincoln during the war. At first he did not welcome them. He did not think he needed their protection. But he began to enjoy talking to them. In fact, much of what historians know about the president's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers. One soldier told of guarding the president's house on a day when Lincoln was sitting on the porch with his young son Tad. They were playing a game of checkers. The president asked the solder to put down his rifle and join them. The young soldier was confused. He was supposed to guard the president, not play a game. But the president was also commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy. The soldier decided he could not refuse the request. He spent the afternoon playing checkers with the president. VOICE ONE: Not far from the house was a military hospital. The president would sometimes watch the wagons arriving with soldiers wounded in the war. He would sometimes talk with the soldiers. The man with the long, sad face wanted to hear news about the battles they had been fighting. He said it helped him understand their experiences. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today the house at the Soldiers' Home is known as President Lincoln's Cottage. But Lincoln was not the first president to use it. That was James Buchanan, the president just before him. Later, presidents Rutherford Hayes and Chester Arthur also used it. A Washington banker named George Washington Riggs built the house in eighteen forty-two. In eighteen fifty-one, he sold the house and the land around it to the federal government. The government later expanded the house and used the land to build the Soldiers' Home for veterans. Today it is called the Armed Forces Retirement Home. More than one thousand retired service members live there. VOICE ONE: The location of President Lincoln's Cottage has not changed since Lincoln's day. But the city of Washington has. The house is now within the city limits. Historians have compared it to the modern presidential retreat in the mountains of Maryland. They call it a kind of nineteenth century Camp David. The thirty-four room house opened to the public in February of two thousand eight after fifteen million dollars in work. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has restored the building so it looks as it did when Lincoln and his family lived there. For example, workers removed more than twenty layers of paint from one room. The paint hid the wooden walls of what was Lincoln's library. Visitors can see lines left by bookshelves on the walls. VOICE TWO: Guides tell visitors that Lincoln lived at the house for one-fourth of his time as president. He and his family would go to the house in June or early July and stay until early November. They did this in eighteen sixty-two, sixty-three and sixty-four. Records show that one year, White House workers moved nineteen wagonloads of belongings to the house. These included toys, clothing and furniture. VOICE ONE: One night in eighteen sixty-four, President Lincoln survived an assassination attempt. He was alone, returning on horseback from Washington. Someone shot at him. It happened near the house. His tall hat flew off and soldiers found it on the ground with a bullet hole through it. He was not injured. After that, the War Department increased his protection. But it was not enough to save his life. Records show that he visited his country house for the last time on April thirteenth, eighteen sixty-five. The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Internet users can learn more about President Lincoln's Cottage at lincolncottage.org. For a link, and for transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-17-voa4.cfm
* Headline: An International Appeal to Cut Smoking Rates Through Six Policies
* Byline: Also: An effort to find evidence of climate change in plants. And researchers develop a kind of rubber that can repair itself. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we will tell about an international appeal to reduce smoking rates. We will also tell about an American effort to find signs of climate change in spring flowers. And, we will report on a product that can repair itself after breaking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of deaths linked to tobacco use. The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R. The letter M means monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas. O is for offering services to help people stop smoking. The letter W means warning people about the dangers of tobacco. E is for enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and other forms of marketing. And R is for raising taxes on tobacco. VOICE TWO: A World Health Organization report says raising taxes is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco use. A study found that governments now collect an average of five hundred times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on control efforts. The report says tobacco now causes more than five million deaths a year. It predicts this number will rise to more than eight million by the year two thousand thirty. By the end of the century, it says, tobacco could kill one billion people -- ten times as many as in the twentieth century. The large majority of these deaths will take place in developing countries. More than twenty-five percent of all smokers in the world are Chinese. India, Indonesia, Russia and the United States, in that order, follow China in tobacco use. VOICE ONE: The W.H.O. found that only five percent of all people live in countries with protections like national legislation on smoke-free areas or bans on tobacco marketing. Forty percent of countries still permit smoking in hospitals and schools. An international treaty on tobacco control came into force in two thousand five. Tobacco companies face increasingly restrictive marketplaces in many wealthier countries. The industry is now aiming at the developing world, especially young women. The report says large numbers of people do not yet know the dangers of smoking. VOICE TWO: W.H.O. Director General Margaret Chan notes that tobacco hurts economies in two ways. One is through reduced productivity among workers who get lung cancer or other diseases linked to tobacco use. The other way is through high health care costs for treating those diseases. The W.H.O. report was released in New York City. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has worked hard to restrict smoking in America's largest city. His aid group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped pay for the study. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. With Barbara Klein, I'm Bob Doughty in Washington. (MUSIC) Volunteers across the United States have begun searching for clues about rising temperatures on Earth. A nationwide study is seeking volunteers to look for changes in flowers and flowering plants. They are being asked to keep records of their observations in a database on the Internet. Study organizers say the information will give scientists a better understanding of climate change. VOICE TWO: The study, called Project Budburst, is to continue all year. This will permit the observation of all plants in different parts of the country. Plant lovers, students and other people in every state are welcome to take part. The goal of the study is to help people of all ages understand the changing link between climate, seasons and plants. It also gives them a way to share their findings with others through the Internet. The University Corporation of Atmospheric Research is supervising Project Budburst. The group says thousands of people in twenty-six states recorded their observations during the project’s first launch last year. Scientists received information about hundreds of different kinds of plants. Volunteers provided details about the appearance of their plant’s first bursts of growth for the season. VOICE ONE: This is how Project BudBurst works. Each volunteer agrees to watch one or more plants, usually a flower, plant or tree. Volunteers can get help from the project’s Web site. It suggests more than sixty trees and flowers with information about each of them. Volunteers can also add their own choices. Next, they begin examining their plants at least one week before the usual time when the new flower, or bud, bursts and leaves begin to form. This is known as budburst. Volunteers continue to observe their plant or flower for events following budburst. They look for the first leaf, first flower and later, the spreading of seeds. When volunteers record their findings on the Web site, they can see maps of other results across the United States. VOICE TWO: Sandra Henderson is project coordinator for Project BudBurst. She says climate change may be affecting our communities in ways that we do not notice. Many different kinds of plants and animals are affected by climate change. Rising temperatures cause some plants to extend their growing periods. Many insects reproduce and develop because of increasing sunlight instead of temperature. This can cause a difference between the behavior of insects like bees and flowers that open much earlier than the insects expect. This problem has already been reported across many parts of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Broken rubber bands and flat tires requiring replacement could soon be a thing of the past. French researchers have developed a new kind of rubber that can repair itself when broken. The new rubber is made from widely available materials including vegetable oil and a common industrial chemical. All the materials are considered safe to the environment and can be easily reused. The best part is the new rubber can be repaired and used again and again without losing its strength or ability to stretch. When cut, the rubber can be made new again, simply by pressing the two broken ends back together. The product can be repaired at room temperature, around twenty degrees Celsius. Other self-healing materials require higher temperatures for repair. VOICE TWO: Traditionally, rubber substances are made from huge molecules connected by strong chemical links, or bonds. The new rubber is made of smaller molecules. The molecules are linked together using hydrogen bonds. When connected in this way, the molecules act like one long molecule, forming what is called supramolecular networks. When the rubber is cut or breaks, the molecules attempt to connect with whatever molecule is near them. When pressed together, the molecules are able to repair themselves at the molecular level, making the repaired rubber like new. However, time is an important element in the process. If the broken ends are not brought together quickly, a repair is not possible. This is because molecules will form bonds with molecules on their own side. The inventors say the surfaces of the rubber can be repaired within a week of being separated. VOICE ONE: The rubber is the creation of scientists at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Education Institution in Paris. The organization is part of France's National Center for Scientific Research. The new material is described in greater detail in the research publication Nature. The possibilities for the new rubber seem endless. It could lead to clothing that fixes its own tears and children's toys that can be repaired. It also could lead to inflatable products that do not leak, at least not for long. A chemical company, Arkema, is already working on using the new rubber in its products. Products made with the rubber could be available within one or two years. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was also our producer. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-17-voa5.cfm
* Headline: The Seeds of Weed Control
* Byline: Advice for suppressing the growth of unwelcome plants. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. When is a plant a weed? When its undesirable qualities outweigh its good points, say experts at Penn State University. A farmer in Washington state burns weeds to prepare for the new growing seasonWeeds can take control of productive land. Crops generally produce several hundred seeds per plant. But each weed plant can produce tens or even hundreds of thousands of seeds. And some buried seeds can survive up to forty years, or even longer. Eradicating weeds means you have to remove all the seeds and roots so the plants will not grow back. But birds or the wind can reintroduce them to the land. A more common way to deal with weeds is to control them enough so that the land can be used for planting. Experts advise using two or more control methods. Chemical weed killers or natural treatments like corn gluten can suppress weed growth. Dense planting of a crop can also act as a natural control. Bill Curran is a professor of weed science at Penn State, in University Park, Pennsylvania. He says dense planting is one of the most common methods for suppressing weeds. He says a dense, competitive crop that quickly shades the soil will help suppress many weeds. The seeds need light to grow, so blocking the sun will reduce weed growth. Other controls include turning over the soil, pulling the weeds by hand or covering them with mulch made from wood, garden waste or other material. Mulch is widely used, but even mulch has its limits. Natural resource specialists in the Queensland government in Australia note that weeds can be transported in mulch. This is also true of soil, grain, hay and animals. Yet animals like sheep or goats can provide a biological control by eating weeds. Insects and other organisms can also act as biological controls. Preventing the spread of weeds is an important part of weed management. Farm vehicles should be kept out of areas with weeds. If that is not possible, then clean off the equipment and your shoes when leaving. People in Queensland are advised to take weeds and garden waste to a waste center or burn them, bury them deeply or make them into mulch. Professor Curran says composting weeds is another way to make use of them. The process of making organically rich compost produces heat. This will kill many, though not all, weed seeds. The same is true of seeds that pass through farm animals that graze on weeds. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For more information about weed control, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cities Around the World Are 'Going Green'
* Byline: Here are some ways that local governments are taking steps to protect the environment.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we explore ways in which local governments around the world are working to protect the environment. Roof garden on the Chicago City HallThese “green cities” are working to reduce energy use and pollution in new and creative ways. Such efforts by city governments not only help reverse the effects of climate change. They also help governments save large amounts of money on energy costs. And, cities that are leaders in this green movement set a good example to their citizens about the importance of environmental issues. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement aimed at reducing the release of harmful gases that are believed to cause climate change. The United States is not part of the agreement. But since two thousand five, over eight hundred American mayors across the country have agreed to sign their own version of the protocol. It is called the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Local leaders have agreed to follow the suggestions of the Kyoto Protocol in their communities. These mayors have come together to show how acting locally can help solve world problems and protect the environment. "Going green" generally includes saving energy and water, using natural and renewable materials and re-using materials. Here are some interesting ways in which several American communities are "going green." VOICE TWO: Eight years ago, officials in Chicago, Illinois, decided to replace the black tar roof on the city government building with a planted garden. The aim was to reduce energy costs, improve air quality and control the amount of rainwater entering the city’s waste system. Green roofs also help reduce a problem called urban heat islands. During hot weather, the building's tar roof could reach temperatures of up to seventy-six degrees Celsius. With the garden, the temperature of the roof area was reduced by at least thirty degrees Celsius. Workers planted over one hundred fifty kinds of plants that could survive severe weather. Now, the area is cooler, the building requires less energy to keep cool, and the roof looks nice. Chicago also offers money to help people pay for building their own green roof systems. VOICE ONE: The city of Boston, Massachusetts has started developing a plan for a program to make compost fertilizer out of dead leaves, plants and food waste. The gases released from the plant waste would provide the electrical power needed to operate the compost center. After being processed in this environmentally safe center, the compost material could be sold locally. This plan would reduce pollution made by the current waste center and could produce enough electricity to power up to one thousand five hundred homes. New York City is experimenting with using waves in the East River to create energy. And, in Oakland California, you can ride on one of several public hydrogen-powered buses. These buses release zero pollution into the air. However, they cost five times more than common buses. VOICE TWO: Cost is also a major issue in creating "green" buildings and systems. These building materials usually cost more money than normal building materials. But, homeowners are increasingly willing to pay more money to have lower energy costs in the future. And, builders are increasingly offering green building methods as they become more and more important to buyers. Investors are also betting on this interest. The National Venture Capital Association says people invested more than two billion dollars in clean technologies last year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Popular Science magazine recently published a list of the fifty “greenest” cities in the United States. Researchers combined information from United States population records as well as the Green Guide made by the National Geographic Society. The list rates cities by looking at their renewable energy sources, transportation programs, recycling efforts and “Green Living” grade. The magazine defined Green Living as the number of buildings approved by the United States Green Building Council. This nonprofit organization has a rating system for making environmentally safe buildings. It is called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. According to this list, the greenest city in the United States is Portland, Oregon. San Francisco, California came in second on the list, while Boston, Massachusetts was third. Fourth and fifth were Oakland, California and Eugene, Oregon. VOICE TWO: Popular Science researchers used LEED’s rating system to define how green a building is. But there are other rating systems as well. For example, the National Association of Homebuilders has its own set of rules. And, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy joined to create the Energy Star program. Energy Star gives ratings to devices for the home based on how they use energy. And the program helps homeowners learn how to make changes to their houses in a way that uses energy effectively. Energy Star estimates that in two thousand six it helped Americans avoid the release of harmful gases equal to what twenty-five million cars would produce. And, it says Americans saved fourteen billion dollars on energy costs. VOICE ONE: One small town is not yet on any list of the greenest cities. But it may soon be as green as its name. In May of last year, a tornado windstorm destroyed most of the town of Greensburg, Kansas. The city decided to rebuild in a better way, using green methods. Greensburg officials have agreed that all public building projects will follow LEED top-level requirements. The actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the Discovery Channel television station are working together to make a show about Greensburg. The program will show how the people in Greensburg are working to rebuild their town into a green community. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Cities around the world are also taking action to protect the environment. For example, the mayor of London, England has made environmental planning an important part of his work. The city has created a Climate Change Action Plan to help cut pollution levels. London has also started a Green Grid program in the eastern part of the city. Its aim is to create and protect planted areas in which people can enjoy the outdoors. In the Netherlands, a Dutch company has built a system that uses cold lake water to cool people’s homes in one area of Amsterdam. This use of a renewable natural resource helps reduce pollution and energy costs. VOICE ONE: About five years ago, officials in Thane, India decided to reduce its dependency on power from coal. This city, near Mumbai, often experiences lack of power because of the large numbers of people using electricity. Officials decided to save energy by putting water heaters powered by the sun on top of the city's main hospital. The hospital saved thousands of dollars in energy costs each year. Officials then began building solar powered water heaters around the city. Thane later started requiring solar water heaters for all new buildings. And, the city offers a reduced property tax rate for people who place these water heaters in their homes. VOICE TWO: China has announced plans to create an eco-city called Dongtan. The company designing the city says it will produce its energy from the wind, sun and reused waste. The aim is for the city to be an example to the rest of China. China is also working to make the Olympic games this year in Beijing as green as possible. For example, the Olympic Village where athletes and officials live during the games uses solar power technologies and other renewable energy sources. VOICE ONE: The United Arab Emirates and the environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature have taken green building a step further with the Masdar City project. Its aim is to be the greenest city in the world. The city will meet environmental rules set by the WWF One Living Planet and the company BioRegional. The city is expected to produce no waste, no carbon pollution and contain no cars. The city will create renewable energy from the wind, sun and other technologies. And, buildings will be made using only recycled materials. Masdar City is expected to be finished by two thousand sixteen. The United Arab Emirates has given the company Masdar Initiative fifteen billion dollars to develop future energy sources. The country aims to become a world leader in renewable energy technologies. Experts say developments like this may lead to a greener future for all cities in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Political Lingo, and a Candidate With Name Recognition
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: slang and idioms in American politics. RS: Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles told us a story about one candidate who had no problem with name recognition: DAVID BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a young girl named Cinderella who woke up one morning and thought, 'This village is boring. I have an idea,' she thought. 'I know how I can make changes in this village. I'll run for office. And since the incumbent is a lame duck' -- which is, of course, an elected official who has no reason to do the current job well because he or she isn't planning on being re-elected." AA: "Or is about to leave office in a few months." DAVID BURKE: "Exactly. 'And since the incumbent is a lame duck, I'll be a shoe-in,' she thought. And a shoe-in is a person who has a sure chance of being chosen. Well, suddenly a voice from behind her said, 'Not so fast, sweetie.' 'Who are you?' Cinderella asked. 'I'm your fairy godmother, but as of today I'm throwing my hat in the ring.' And that, of course, means to compete also. "'Ha,' said Cinderella. 'I'll win by a landslide,' which means 'I will win easily and quickly.' And Cinderella added, 'Who's going to vote for a right-winger wearing pink high-heel shoes?' Well, a right-ringer is a politically conservative person in one's ideas and philosophies. That's right wing. And, of course, left-wing means you're extremely liberal. And the fairy godmother says, 'Oh, really? I think it's time we go barnstorming and we'll see who sweeps this election.' Well, barnstorming, it simply means to make political speeches, because a long time ago politicians would go to little communities where there were barns and they would make their political speeches in front of barns." RS: "From barn to barn." AA: "Right, sort of a rapid succession of going from barn to barn." DAVID BURKE: "Exactly. So off they went to begin stumping. Now stumping is the same thing as barnstorming. Stumping simply means when you stand on a tree stump to make your speeches. In a lot of communities that didn't have a lot of money to create a big area for a politician to stand to make speeches, the politician would simply get on top of a stump and make a speech. So they began stumping all over the village. They both pressed the flesh. To press the flesh means ... " RS: "To shake hands." DAVID BURKE: "We also say to glad hand. And they did nothing but grandstand for a week. To grandstand means to try a little too hard to impress an audience through speeches. But things got ugly when they debated together. Yes, the mudslinging began. Mudslinging means to insult and criticize each other. Sling is simply -- " RS: "To throw." DAVID BURKE: "Another word for 'to throw.' And the fairy godmother said, 'And who's going to vote for a pumpkin?' And, with that, the fairy godmother waived her magic wand and Cinderella was instantly transformed into a rather large orange gourd. Well, it was obvious at this point who was going to have the election all wrapped up. This is another political idiom, for to win for sure. But something strange happened at the polls. And the polls, that's the place where voters vote." AA: "P-O-L-L-S." DAVID BURKE: "Right, exactly, the polls, P-O-L-L-S, not P-O-L-E-S. So, according to the returns -- the votes -- everyone voted for the pumpkin -- I mean, Cinderella. Fortunately, however, in the crowd was Cinderella's political adviser, who is her staff spin-doctor. And, of course, a spin doctor means what?" AA: "Someone who improves a politician's image." DAVID BURKE: "Exactly. And, by the way, the spin-doctor just happened to be the village's prince. So the prince did what princes do, and what do princes do?" RS: "They kiss the princess." DAVID BURKE: "Exactly." RS: And, so, Cinderella's image is saved. No longer a pumpkin, she and her adviser the Prince fall in love and live happily -- if not ever after, then at least until the next Election Day. The end. AA: Another original tale for Wordmaster from Slangman David Burke, the author of many books on slang and idioms. You can check out his materials on his Web site -- slangman.com. RS: You can find all of our Slangman segments on our Web site, along with our other programs, at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "What Did You Do on Election Day?"/The Foremen 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Vaccine a Big Success Against Meningitis in Uganda
* Byline: Rates in young children drop to zero in areas of the country included in a study. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Meningitis is an infection of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Both bacteria and viruses can cause it. Viral meningitis is the more common form, but bacterial meningitis is more dangerous. Each year, almost four hundred thousand children under the age of five die from meningitis caused by a bacterium known as Hib. Millions more suffer hearing loss, brain damage or other disabilities as a result of the disease. Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type b, requires intensive treatment with antibiotics. But most of the children are poor and live in developing countries. Hib vaccines for babies have been available since nineteen ninety-one. But for most of that time, their use was limited to industrial countries, mostly because of cost. Children in UgandaUganda began widespread child vaccinations against Hib in two thousand two. Now, a study has found that in areas where cases were counted, the disease rate fell by eighty-five percent in the first four years. Then it fell to zero in two thousand six. Scientists from the government, the World Health Organization, a French agency and others have been studying the campaign. They estimate that the program now prevents thirty thousand severe infections and five thousand deaths in children under five each year. Their report is to be published next month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. The GAVI Alliance paid for the vaccines. GAVI was formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. This alliance of private and public interests was created in two thousand to widen the availability of immunizations. With GAVI support, Uganda provided sixteen and a half million doses of Hib vaccine nationwide from two thousand two to two thousand six. Other studies have found similar results with Hib vaccines in countries including Bangladesh, Kenya and Gambia. But the executive secretary of the alliance, Julian Lob-Levyt, says this is the first time the group has seen rates drop to zero. Uganda chose to use an injection that contains vaccines against five diseases: Hib as well as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and hepatitis B. In November, the GAVI board approved additional financing to pay for Hib vaccine in a total of forty-four countries. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, and for transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: The Constitution Goes to the States for Approval
* Byline: The long struggle to give the United States a strong central government was over. It took four months to write the Constitution. It took ten more months to ratify it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. In recent weeks, we told the story of how the United States Constitution was written. In seventeen eighty-seven, a group of delegates gathered for a convention in Philadelphia. Their plan was to rewrite the Articles of Confederation. Those articles created a weak union of the thirteen states. Instead of rewriting the articles, however, they spent that summer writing a completely new plan of government. On September seventeenth, after four months of often bitter debate, the delegates finally signed the new document. Now, they had to get at least nine of the thirteen states to approve it. Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of ratifying the Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Delegates to the Philadelphia convention had met in secret. They wanted to be able to debate proposals, and change their minds, without worrying about public reaction. Now, they were free to speak openly. Each had a copy of the new Constitution. Newspapers also got copies. They printed every word. Public reaction was great indeed. Arguments 'for' and 'against' were the same as those voiced by delegates to the convention: The Constitution would save the United States!? The Constitution would create a dictator! VOICE ONE: The leaders who supported the new Constitution understood quickly that to win ratification, they must speak out. So, just a few weeks after the document was signed, they began writing statements supporting the proposed Constitution. Their statements appeared first in newspapers in New York. They were called the Federalist Papers. They were printed under the name of 'Publius'. But they were really written by three men: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Years later, historians said the Federalist Papers were the greatest explanation of the Constitution ever written. But in seventeen eighty-seven, they had little effect on public opinion. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The debate over the Constitution divided Americans into two groups. Those who supported it were known as Federalists. Those who opposed it were known as anti-Federalists. The anti-Federalists were not anti-American. They were important leaders who loved their country. They were governors, heroes of the Revolutionary War, and even a future president. Yet they distrusted the idea of a strong central government. Give too much power to the president, the Congress and the courts, they said, and citizens would no longer be free. They would lose the liberties gained in the war for independence from Britain. VOICE ONE: One anti-Federalist was Patrick Henry of Virginia. James Madison called him the most dangerous enemy of the Constitution. Patrick Henry and other anti-Federalists tried to create distrust and fear about the new plan of government. Farmers against city people. North against South. Small states against big states. An anti-Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia carried this commentary:? "Citizens!? You are lucky to live in Pennsylvania, where we have the best government in the world. Do not let this government be destroyed by the new Constitution. Do not let a few men -- men with great names -- seize control of your lives." One Federalist noted that it was easier to frighten the people than to teach them. VOICE TWO: There were both Federalists and anti-Federalists in the Continental Congress. The Congress had few powers. But it was the only central government the thirteen states had at that time. It met in New York City. The convention in Philadelphia had sent the Continental Congress a copy of the new Constitution. Within eight days, the Congress agreed that each state should organize a convention to discuss ratification. One by one, the states held their conventions. VOICE ONE: Delaware was the first state to ratify, early in December, seventeen eighty-seven. All the delegates voted to approve it. Pennsylvania was the next to ratify, also in December. New Jersey ratified the Constitution in December, followed by Georgia and Connecticut in January. That made five states. The Federalists needed just four more to win ratification. Massachusetts voted in early February. Delegates to the state convention wanted the Constitution amended to include guarantees to protect citizens' rights. They agreed to ratify if these guarantees were added later. VOICE TWO: Maryland ratified the Constitution at the end of April. There, a number of delegates included a letter of protest with their vote. They said if the proposed plan of government were not amended, the liberty and happiness of the people would be threatened. South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify, at the end of May. Just one more state and the new Constitution would become the law of the land. All eyes turned to Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Virginia was the biggest of the thirteen states. At that time, its western border stretched all the way to the Mississippi River. One-fifth of all the people in America lived in Virginia. The men who attended the ratifying convention were among the most famous names in the nation:? James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, Edmund Randolph and John Marshall. Thomas Jefferson was still in Paris, serving as America's representative to France. But others kept him informed of everything that happened at home. Jefferson wrote back that he liked most of the Constitution. But, he said, I do not like the fact that it does not contain a declaration of the rights of citizens. The most famous Virginian, George Washington, stayed at his farm, Mount Vernon. All during the month of June, however, riders brought him messages from the convention and carried messages back. VOICE TWO: For three weeks, the Virginia delegates argued about the Constitution. By the end of June, they were ready to vote. Patrick Henry, the outspoken anti-Federalist, asked to make a last statement. "If this convention approves the Constitution," Henry said, "I will feel that I fought for good reasons…and lost the fight. If this happens, I will wait and hope. I will hope that the spirit of the American Revolution is not lost. I will hope that this new plan of government is changed to protect the safety, the liberty, and the happiness of the American people." Then the convention voted. Virginia approved the Constitution. However, like Massachusetts, it added that the document must include a declaration of rights for the nation's people. VOICE ONE: Federalists in Virginia were proud. They thought their state was the ninth to ratify, the one that made the Constitution the law of the land. But they soon learned that New Hampshire had ratified a few days earlier. Virginia was number ten. That left three states:? North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York. In a way, New York was the most important of all. If New York refused to join the union under the Constitution, it would be almost impossible for a central government to rule the nation. The twelve other states would be divided in two, geographically separated by New York state. VOICE TWO: The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton. They used their right to filibuster -- to make many long speeches -- to delay the vote. They wanted to wait to hear what Virginia would do. Early in July, they got the news. But New York's anti-Federalists kept up the fight for three more weeks. It was not until the end of July that New York finally ratified the Constitution. The vote was extremely close:? thirty to twenty-seven. Like Massachusetts and Virginia, New York demanded a declaration of rights. VOICE ONE: The long struggle to give the United States a strong central government was over. It took four months to write a new Constitution. It took ten months to ratify it. The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine. The last two states -- North Carolina and Rhode Island -- did not ratify it until many months after that date. Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania, who had signed the Declaration of Independence, wrote down eight words when he heard that the Constitution had been ratified. "It is done," he said, "we have become a nation." (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Christine Johnson. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English. ___ This is program #25 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Three Schools for the Learning Disabled
* Byline: In the final part of our learning disabilities series, we look at programs designed to prepare students for regular classes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we complete our series on learning disabilities. In the United States, federal law requires public schools to provide special education services to children with any disability. Specialists commonly provide these services while the children attend the same schools, and often the same classes, as other students. But today we look at three private schools that serve only students with learning disabilities. The Hillside School in Pennsylvania accepts up to one hundred twenty-eight children. The students are ages five to thirteen. They have disorders with language, writing or working with numbers. They may also have attention deficit disorders. Each class has no more than eight students. Hillside administrators say the main goal is to prepare students to learn effectively in a regular school. Teachers and specialists develop individual learning plans for the students, which is something a public school may also do. Development director Kathy Greene says most students remain at Hillside for about three years before leaving for a regular classroom setting. The Shelton School in Dallas, Texas"Serving intelligent students with learning differences" is the slogan of the Shelton School in Texas. Its Web site says the school has about eight hundred fifty students in all twelve grades, and one teacher for every six students. The Shelton School also says its goal is to prepare students to return to regular classes, although some do finish high school there. The Web site says Shelton graduated forty-four students in two thousand six. And it says they received acceptances from a total of seventy-seven colleges and universities. Landmark College in Vermont is a college for students with learning difficulties. It offers a two-year program that prepares students to continue their studies at a four-year school. Each student has an adviser and an individual learning program. Landmark has international students this year from South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. All three schools offer financial aid. Hillside costs about seventeen thousand dollars a year. Shelton costs between ten and twenty-one thousand, depending on the grade level. Shelton and Hillside students live at home. Landmark College costs about fifty thousand dollars a year, which includes housing. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our nine-week series on learning disabilities is online with transcripts and MP3s at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Jumping, Climbing and Running: Nothing Stands in the Way of Parkour
* Byline: Also: The Environmental Film Festival in Washington. And music by the British band the Chemical Brothers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from the Chemical Brothers … A question from Indonesia about the artful exercise of parkour … And a look at Washington's Environmental Film Festival. (MUSIC) Environmental Film Festival HOST: For sixteen years, the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C., has been showing movies that raise awareness about environmental issues. This year, the twelve-day festival is showing one hundred fifteen movies from thirty countries. Faith Lapidus has our story. FAITH LAPIDUS: Flo Stone created the Environmental Film Festival in Washington in nineteen ninety-three. She believed it was important for people to be able to see high-quality films about the environment and discuss them together. She felt the subject of the environment, examined with the artistry of filmmakers, could be an influential source of learning. People can see these films in embassies, movie theaters and museums around the nation's capital. Some movies star wild animals. This year, in "Edge of Eden: Living With Grizzlies," Canadian filmmakers Jeff and Sue Turner explore the work of bear expert Charlie Russell. For over ten years Mister Russell worked to raise rescued baby bears in a protected area of eastern Russia. "Edge of Eden" shows him playing with the bears, feeding them and even protecting them from larger wild bears. The movie makes a powerful statement about the need to protect these animals before they disappear from the wild. In "Animals in Love" French director Laurent Charbonnier looks at the movements, songs and dances that eighty kinds of animals use in order to find a mate. Some movies explore economic issues. One Kenyan movie examines the lives of people struggling to survive in the Kibera part of Nairobi. About a million people live in poverty in this area. Another movie, "All in This Tea," looks at the way modern life has changed the traditions of the tea trade in China. The movie "The Price of Sugar" examines the difficult life of Haitian immigrants working for sugar companies in the Dominican Republic. And several movies at the festival are old favorites. These include the nineteen thirty-seven film "The River," a history of the Mississippi River by American director Pare Lorentz. The Environmental Film Festival ends on Saturday, which is also World Water Day. All day around Washington, people can see movies about this most important of natural resources. (MUSIC) Parkour HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Widi Nugroho wants to know about the activity called parkour. The aim in parkour is to jump, climb or run over and around any wall, staircase, or fence blocking your path. Usually, this is done in a city environment. If you have seen the beginning of the James Bond movie "Casino Royale," then you have seen an excellent example of parkour. The name comes from the French word parcours, which means route or path. A man who performs parkour is called a traceur. A woman is a traceuse. A young Frenchman, David Belle, developed parkour in the nineteen nineties. His father’s stories of being a fireman as well as an acrobat influenced him. His childhood friend, Sebastien Foucan, is the actor shown in the “Casino Royale” movie. Foucan is considered to have developed free-running, which is a more artistic and expressive version of parkour. David Belle traveled to India and says one way he trained was by watching monkeys jump from tree to tree. But for Belle and others, parkour is as much a mental exercise as a physical one. The aim is to become so skillful, it is almost unnecessary to think about the different actions in running through a path full of barriers. Parkour is not exactly a sport. It was not developed for competition. It is more about learning to control mind and body in difficult situations. There are many basic movements in parkour. One example is where traceurs swing through the narrow space between two bars while keeping their body level with the ground. This is called the underbar. Other movements are the tic-tac and the kong vault jump. Skillful traceurs seem to go against the laws of gravity. The popularity has spread largely because of parkour videos and communities on the Internet. To see David Belle at work, you can search for his name on YouTube -- his last name is spelled B-E-L-L-E. Parkour is P-A-R-K-O-U-R. And if you search on the Web, you might even find parkour groups performing their skills near you. (MUSIC) The Chemical Brothers HOST: The Chemical Brothers are a Grammy-winning British band. Their electronic music combines different influences such as hip-hop, rock and techno. Their songs are layers of sounds and sometimes voices, often sampling from other groups. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was "Song to the Siren," one of the early tracks by the Chemical Brothers that helped introduce their music to the dance club scene in London. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons started performing together in nineteen ninety-two. They started as the Dust Brothers, but later changed the name. Their first full-length album "Exit Planet Dust" came out in nineteen ninety-five. Here is "Life is Sweet". (MUSIC) The second album by the Chemical Brothers was "Dig Your Own Hole." It included "Block Rockin’ Beats" which became a number one hit in Britain. In the United States, it also earned the two musicians a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental. (MUSIC) Over the years, the Chemical Brothers have continued making albums while also performing in concerts and dance halls. Their most recent album is called "We Are the Night." Last month, it won a Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album. And from that album, we leave you with the Chemical Brothers and "Do It Again." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written and produced by Dana Demange. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. And please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Fall of Bear Stearns
* Byline: J.P. Morgan Chase to buy the troubled investment bank with help of a 30 billion dollar loan from the Federal Reserve. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, the crisis in credit markets claimed Bear Stearns. The eighty-five year old investment bank in New York agreed on Sunday to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase. The price: just two dollars a share, as part of a rescue plan organized by the government. Bear stock had traded at seventy dollars last week, and one hundred seventy last year. The fall of Bear Stearns developed quickly. Banks were no longer willing to lend money to the company. The problems largely involved short-term loans, called repo borrowings, that are secured by assets like securities. The problem was that lenders no longer knew the value of the assets that secured Bear's debt. Bear Stearns invested heavily in securities based on risky home loans. Unable to get new loans, the bank suffered a liquidity crisis. By last Thursday, investors started withdrawing their money. This put more pressure on the bank to sell assets that no one wanted to buy. The next day, Bear informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would fail if nothing was done. Officials from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve wanted a deal to save Bear Stearns before markets opened this week in Asia. They worried that if Bear failed, it could lead to even more problems. The central bank agreed to lend J.P. Morgan up to thirty billion dollars to finance the purchase of Bear's less-liquid assets. The loan will be secured with those assets, and the Fed will take responsibility for them. To increase liquidity in the market, the Fed also agreed to lend money to securities dealers, including investment banks. The central bank has not done this since the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. Last week the Fed offered banks up to two hundred billion dollars in loans. And twice this week it cut its discount rate for direct loans to banks. The Fed also lowered the target rate for overnight loans between banks for the sixth time in six months. It cut the federal funds rate by seventy-five basis points, to two and a quarter percent. Shareholders in Bear Stearns will vote on the takeover by J.P. Morgan. Some are expected to oppose the low-cost deal. Bear employees own about one-third of the stock in their company. There was some good news this week for financial stocks. Three major investment banks reported earnings that were better than expected for the three months ending February twenty-ninth. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: After Five Years of War, Attention Turns to What New President Would Do
* Byline: Obama and Clinton both promise withdrawal, but differ on timing. McCain supports the Iraq policies of President Bush, who says "this is a fight America can and must win." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the war in Iraq entered its sixth year. For millions of Americans, the economy is a more pressing concern now. But the war is still an important political issue as Americans prepare to elect a new president. Rebuilding Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has proven more difficult than expected. Free elections took place and a new government was formed, but an insurgency grew. Last year President Bush ordered a temporary increase of thirty thousand troops. The surge has reduced levels of violence. But experts say long-term security will require political unity among the different groups in Iraq. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the war. Several million have been displaced from their homes. The fifth anniversary came as the United States had lost almost four thousand troops in the war. More than sixty thousand have been wounded. Protesters demonstrated in Washington, D.C., and other cities, but the protests were not as energetic as in the past. President Bush marked the anniversary with a speech Wednesday at the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters. PRESIDENT BUSH: "Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me. Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision – and this a fight America can and must win." Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he would have all fighting forces out of Iraq within sixteen months in office. Hillary Clinton says she would begin withdrawing troops within sixty days of becoming president. But she has stopped short of setting a time for completion. The Democratic candidates say the war is taking away money from national needs like health care and education. Congress will have approved about six hundred billion dollars for the war by the time the new budget year begins in October. Experts disagree about the total long-term costs of the war. Senator Obama noted that the Iraq war has lasted longer than the American Civil War and both world wars. American involvement in World War Two lasted from nineteen forty-one to nineteen forty-five. American losses, though, have been far smaller in Iraq compared to other major conflicts. Republican presidential candidate John McCain supports the current war policy. He has said he would keep troops in Iraq even for one hundred years if necessary. Senator McCain visited Iraq last weekend with a congressional delegation. A Reuters/Zogby poll this week suggested that both Democratic candidates would lose to John McCain in the November election. Last month the same poll showed John McCain losing to Barack Obama. Next month, Congress will get another report on the war from American ambassador Ryan Crocker and commanding General David Petraeus. President Bush has to decide after that whether to order additional troop reductions after July. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mary Kay Ash, 1918-2001: She Started a Skin Care Company That Has Sales of More Than $2 Billion a Year
* Byline: Independent representatives sell products in peoples' homes in more than 30 countries.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. This week, we tell about one of the most successful American businesswomen. Mary Kay started a company in nineteen sixty-three with a five thousand dollar investment. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in nineteen eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children. Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited peoples’ homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework. One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors praised her work. But they never increased her earnings. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had. Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister Heath’s skin care products and started her own company. She paid five hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products. VOICE ONE: The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in nineteen sixty-three. Mary Kay’s twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products. The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones. Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Two years later, in nineteen sixty-five, the company was selling almost one million dollars worth of products. Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older. Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is one of the largest direct sellers of skin care products in the world. It develops and tests skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in nineteen sixty-three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than two billion dollars a year. It has more than one million sales representatives in more than thirty countries around the world. You can find Mary Kay products and sales representatives in Argentina, India, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, and China, to name a few. VOICE ONE: Every year since nineteen sixty-five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two hundred people and served it on paper plates. As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three-day conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform. The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles. In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By nineteen ninety-four, seven thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales. She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win. So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year. Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in nineteen eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women. In two thousand one, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women. Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America’s twenty-five most influential women in nineteen eighty-five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-six. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, “Mary Kay,” told the story of her life. More than one million copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on People Management.”? Her third book was released in nineteen ninety-five. It is called “Mary Kay--You Can Have It All.”? The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer. Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in nineteen ninety-six. She died in November, two thousand one. Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families. VOICE ONE: One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money. She paid less than one hundred dollars for her supplies. After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years. Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: HIV and Life for Rural Women in South Africa
* Byline: Amnesty International says those already infected face abuses, while others face a higher risk of becoming infected. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. South Africa has the highest number of H.I.V. cases of any country in the world. An estimated five and a half million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Fifty-five percent of them are women. Last May, the cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki approved a five-year plan to guide efforts against AIDS in South Africa. For the plan to succeed, officials agreed that the nation had to deal with poverty, violence and discrimination facing women. Now, a report from Amnesty International looks at the struggles of poor rural women living with H.I.V. in South Africa. The human rights group says the women face oppression and human rights abuses. And it says other women who feel socially and economically weak are at a higher risk of becoming infected with H.I.V. Amnesty researcher Mary Rayner says rural women have little control in their relationships with men. Amnesty gathered statements from thirty-seven women in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal provinces. They said that sometimes, when they tried to ask their sexual partners to use protection, they might experience verbal aggression or violence. The report says many rural women with H.I.V. do not have enough money to travel to health centers for treatment. They might not even have enough money for food. Unemployment is a major problem. Amnesty International released its report in London last week. Also in London, Scottish singer Annie Lennox promoted her new charity single called "Sing." The aim is to raise money for the Treatment Action Campaign, an H.I.V./AIDS organization in South Africa. (MUSIC) And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about H.I.V. and AIDS, and for transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Pat Bodner. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Chickenfeed: It Doesn't Add Up to Much
* Byline: Working for very little money...it's chickenfeed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm?Susan Clark?with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Almost every language in the world has a saying that a person can never be too rich. Americans, like people in other countries, always want more money. One way they express this is by protesting that their jobs do not pay enough. A common expression is, "I am working for chickenfeed."? It means working for very little money. The expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of small change. Small change means metal coins of not much value, like nickels which are worth five cents. An early use of the word chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in nineteen thirty. It told about a rich man and his son. Word expert Mitford Mathews says it read, "I'll bet neither the kid nor his father ever saw a nickel or a dime. They would not have been interested in such chickenfeed." Chickenfeed also has another interesting meaning known to history experts and World War Two spies and soldiers. Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working in London during the war also worked for the British. The British government had to make the Germans believe their spies were working. So, British officials gave them mostly false information.It was called chickenfeed. The same person who protests that he is working for chickenfeed may also say, "I am working for peanuts." She means she is working for a small amount of money. It is a very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary. That meaning is small nuts that grow on a plant. No one knows for sure how a word for something to eat also came to mean something very small. But, a peanut is a very small food. The expression is an old one. Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as eighteen fifty-four, an American publication used the words peanut agitators. That meant political troublemakers who did not have a lot of support. Another reason for the saying about working for peanuts may be linked to elephants. Think of how elephants are paid for their work in the circus. They receive food, not money. One of the foods they like best is peanuts. When you add the word gallery to the word peanut you have the name of an area in an American theater. A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the main floor. The peanut gallery got its name because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes place. So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets. People pay a small amount of money for them. (MUSIC) This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Parsley: Not Just Another Pretty Green
* Byline: Advice for growing parsley. And don't think there are only two kinds. (Heard of Hamburg parsley?) Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Parsley is an ancient green and a respected addition to many foods. But other times, its job is just to make a mealtime plate look pretty. Poor parsley, valued for its looks, then thrown away. Yet parsley is a good source of vitamins and other nutrients. The taste is a little strong for some people, but others chew on parsley to freshen their breath. Curly parsley is the kind that often ends up being used just for appearance. Many gardeners grow curly parsley as a border for flowerbeds. Flat-leaf parsley is easier to work with for cooking. This kind is often called Italian or French parsley. Do you know about a third kind of parsley? Hamburg parsley has flat leaves that can be used for the same purposes as other parsley. But Hamburg parsley has a large root which is used as a vegetable -- for example, to add flavor to soups. Hamburg parsley is popular, not surprisingly, in Germany, home to the city of Hamburg. Parsley is used in foods such as tabouli, a traditional Lebanese salad, and is often served with lamb, fish and beef dishes. Parsley is an herb if you use just the greens. If the root is used, then parsley is considered a vegetable. Some gardeners suggest that to get the best tasting parsley, you should plant new seeds every year. You can get parsley to grow faster by pouring warm water over the seeds. Leave the seeds in the water overnight. Then you can grow them in containers indoors or plant them outside. Charlie Nardozzi is a writer for the National Gardening Association in the United States. He says parsley grows best when temperatures are under twenty-one degrees Celsius. In colder climates, parsley can go into the ground two to three weeks before the last freeze is likely to happen. Charlie Nardozzi says parsley likes to grow in sunny places or in partial sun. The seeds need rich, moist soil. Plant the seeds about fifteen to twenty-five centimeters apart. Water regularly during the first month. After that, parsley does not need very much water. Ron Waldrop is a county extension director for the University of Illinois. He says you can harvest parsley by cutting most of the plant, or leave more of the plant in the ground for a second crop. To dry parsley, tie the plant stems together and hang them upside down in a warm, dark, airy place. The leaves should be dry in a week or two. After that, store them in a tightly closed container. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Searching for Answers About What Harms Coral Reefs, and What May Protect Them
* Byline: A look at recent studies of coral reefs. Some scientists say rising temperatures have damaged almost half around the world. Yet many reefs stay colorful and healthy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: A blue parrotfish swims by a coral on one of the reefs near Midway AtollAnd I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell about recent studies of coral reefs. Corals are groups of small organisms called polyps. They are found in warm seawaters. Millions of corals grow together to form coral reefs. The reefs support many kinds of sea life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A group from the United States was looking forward to diving in coastal waters near the Netherlands Antilles. The Americans wanted to take underwater pictures of a colorful coral reef during their visit to the islands. But they did not get their wish. The coral reef they wanted to see had died. Some scientists say rising temperatures have damaged almost half the world’s coral reefs. They say the heating of Earth’s atmosphere has helped kill many reefs. But climate change is not responsible for all damage to the reefs. Many stay colorful and healthy. VOICE TWO: Scientists are searching for answers about what harms coral reefs and what may protect them. American scientist Joan Kleypas and her team recently studied an area called the Western Pacific Warm Pool. It is northeast of Australia. Their study suggests that natural processes in seawater may protect some coral reefs from harm.But other scientists have reported less hopeful news about coral reefs. A team from Australia and Indonesia recently observed many destroyed reefs in Indonesian waters. A member of the team is warning that coral reefs might die off within fifty years if changes are not made. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Joan Kleypas is an oceans expert with America's National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her study of coral reefs included scientists from the Australian National Institute of Marine Science. Miz Kleypas says some reefs seem protected from harm. But others suffer serious damage. Many activities can threaten coral reefs. They include coastal development and too much fishing. Pollution is another problem. But Miz Kleypas says the worst threat is climate change. VOICE TWO: The joint American and Australian team studied warm, open seas. The scientists examined records for many years, beginning more than fifty years ago. They learned that warm water coral reefs may be less threatened than reefs in cooler water. They say natural processes may protect some reefs. But the processes are not understood. A report on their study appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. VOICE ONE: The team used records kept by ships, satellites and markers in the water to measure sea-surface temperatures. The records showed only a small temperature increase. The sea-surface temperatures in the Western Pacific Warm Pool are some of the world’s highest. The average temperature is about twenty-nine degrees Celsius. But the temperatures has increased little since nineteen eighty. The Western Pacific Warm Pool has warmed only half as much as cooler ocean areas. Computer studies of the area also confirm slowly rising temperatures. By comparison, sea-surface temperatures worldwide have risen faster. They have risen about three-tenths to four-tenths of a degree over the past twenty or thirty years. Some have increased even more. VOICE TWO: Miz Klepas says something in the Western Pacific Warm Pool may prevent the water from getting too hot. Her study seems to help confirm a scientific theory. It states that natural activity prevents sea-surface temperatures from rising above thirty-one degrees in open waters. Damage to the Warm Pool coral reefs has not increased much in recent years. Most reefs appear not to have bleached. In that process, reefs lose their color and may die. The study found bleaching in the Western Pacific Warm Pool only four times over twenty-five years. Bleaching happens when corals expel the algae that feed them. The algae provide the bright colors of healthy coral reefs. The reefs die if the water does not cool and the algae fail to return. VOICE ONE: The Warm Pool scientists have considered several processes that might influence water temperatures. For example, more water changes into a gas and rises when surface water temperatures rise. Such evaporation can add wind and clouds. Evaporation can also remove heat. Winds and clouds can make water cooler. Warming in some places can change water currents that bring in colder waters. But Miz Klepas says these are only untested theories. She says the theory that water can somehow limit its own temperature needs more investigation. And she is urging other scientists to work to save coral reefs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Part of the Western Pacific Warm Pool extends into an area called the Coral Triangle. The area covers almost six million square kilometers. The Coral Triangle contains up to six hundred or more coral reefs. That is more than half the world’s reefs. The Triangle also has larger mangrove forests than other areas. About three thousand fish swim in its waters. Coral reefs protect coastal communities from severe storms. They also are important to some economies. Reports say the Coral Triangle directly supports the lives of more than one hundred twenty million people. Many people visit the area to see its reefs. They buy colorful jewelry and other objects made from coral. Coral also is used in making medicines and in building materials. VOICE ONE:Recently, Australian and Indonesian scientists reported finding many dead coral reefs at Halmahera, Indonesia. They noted the dead coral and many crown of thorns starfish on a trip in December. But the scientists say the reefs can recover. Andrew Baird of Australia’s James Cook University was a member of the team. He says the crown of thorns starfish killed the corals. The starfish are small animals that look like sharp sticks. They kill reefs by spreading their stomachs over the corals. Then they destroy the coral tissues with enzymes. VOICE TWO: Crown of thorns starfish are among several threats to the Coral Triangle. The Australian scientist says he did not yet see effects of climate change on the coral reefs. Water currents have helped the area resist coral bleaching. But he is calling for less human activity on many of the reefs. Mister Baird works with the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies of the Australia Research Council, or A.R.C. It and the Wildlife Conservation Society organized the study. VOICE ONE: Mister Baird says agricultural fertilizers and wastes from coastal development pollute the water. And, crown of thorns starfish spread in polluted water. He urged that the water be cleared of pollution. The scientist is proposing a ban on use of explosives in fishing. He has also called for an end to overfishing -- the near-removal of all fish from an area. He says few healthy reefs will be left in thirty to fifty years if conditions do not improve. VOICE TWO: The Australian and Indonesian team noted that crown of thorns starfish have spread in another major reef area. That happened three times since the nineteen sixties in the Great Barrier Reef, near Australia. Each time, the coral reef recovered. Mister Baird says fish were responsible for the recovery. He believes the Coral Triangle will also recover if fish are present. He says fish are necessary for the health of coral reefs. Wildlife expert Stuart Campbell said the fish are in good condition. Mister Campbell leads the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Marine Program in Indonesia. VOICE ONE: Late last year, six nations in the Coral Triangle agreed to an action plan to help the area and its people. The plan resulted from the Climate Change Conference on the Indonesian island of Bali. The program is called the Coral Triangle Initiative in the East Asian/Pacific area. The goal is to develop fisheries, protect the environment, and build food security. But some scientists have expressed concern about the Coral Triangle Initiative. They say it does not propose enough scientific research. Mister Campbell says more studies are needed to find ways to fight loss of some of the world’s most beautiful and useful places. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tenement Museum Recreates Old Immigrant Life in New York City
* Byline: A visit to the apartments of the Gumpertz family, the Baldizzis, the Rogarshevskys, the Levines and the Confinos. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE:? I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller museums in New York City. It lets visitors experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was built in eighteen sixty-three. It was one of the first tenements in New York City. The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” ?A tenement building holds many rooms where different families lived. The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the eighteen hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived. Later, many immigrant families improved their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them apartment buildings instead. VOICE TWO: History experts say more than half the people in New York City lived in tenements in eighteen sixty-three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one hundred square meters of living space, often divided into three rooms. The building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of spaces where families lived. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. The apartment had no running water, no bathroom, toilet or shower. There were six places where people left their body wastes in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of disease. Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the eighteen nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in nineteen-oh-five, and electric power in nineteen twenty-four. Then they refused to make any more improvements. They closed the building in nineteen thirty-five. In nineteen ninety-eight, the federal government declared the building a protected National Historic Place. VOICE ONE: Museum officials researched the history of the building and its twenty apartments. They found more than one thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, money and pieces of cloth. They also learned the histories of many of the seven thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they spoke with and recorded memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children. Museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during different time periods in the building’s history. These apartments are what people see when they visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. First we climb several flights of worn stairs. It is a very hot day and we feel the heat in the dark, narrow hallway. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we enter the apartment of the Gumpertz family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the eighteen seventies. Nathalie GumpertzOn October seventh, eighteen seventy-four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left his wife Nathalie and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making clothing in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school. The Gumpertz apartment has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her workspace. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing. VOICE ONE: The next apartment we visit belonged to the Baldizzi family. They came from Italy and were Catholic. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria and their two children moved to Orchard Street in nineteen twenty-eight. They became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. Every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the start of the Jewish holy day and no work was permitted. Josephine Baldizzi remembered those long ago days. Here is a recording of her. She tells how she felt each week after when she saw Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning for her to come and turn on the lights: JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI: "It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we visit the apartment that belonged to the Rogarshevsky family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street between nineteen-oh-seven and nineteen ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. We can see some of the things used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in nineteen eighteen. On the table we see the kinds of foods that family and friends would have eaten after Abraham’s funeral. They include hard-boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death. Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem as Nathalie Gumpertz. What could she do to support her family and continue to live in the apartment?? She got the building owner to let her clean apartments and do other work in exchange for rent. VOICE ONE: Now we enter the apartment of the Levine family. They were Jews from Poland. Jennie and Harris Levine moved into the building in the early eighteen nineties. They lived there for more than ten years. During that time, Jennie gave birth to four children. Her husband and his workers produced clothing in the front room. We see Jennie in the bedroom awaiting the birth of her third child. We also see the clothing shop as it looked after the workers had gone home at the end of the day. We hear stories about the many immigrants who have worked in the clothing industry in New York City. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Still another apartment is an example of living history. We can visit it on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino family in nineteen sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino came to New York from Turkey. They were Sephardic Jews, people whose ancestors had been born in Spain, North Africa or Middle Eastern countries. An actress who plays thirteen-year-old Victoria Confino welcomes us. She tells about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song: VICTORIA CONFINO: “Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish...we call it Judeo Espagnol...and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew...a lot of languages mixed up all together.” VOICE ONE: Officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use history to explore modern social issues. For example, what kinds of problems do recent immigrants face while trying to build new lives in America? The Lower East Side Tenement Museum cooperates with other international historic places around the world. These places are part of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. They include the District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum in Russia, and Project To Remember in Argentina. Others are the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Workhouse in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Step One to a Personal Statement for College: Make Sure It's Personal
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: writing a personal statement for college. RS: Rachel Toor is the author of "Admissions Confidential: An Insider's Account of the Elite College Selection Process." She worked for three years in undergraduate admissions at Duke University in North Carolina. Since then, one thing she's been doing is counseling college applicants on their essays. RACHEL TOOR: "And I did some work with international students, mostly students from England, who were applying to American colleges and universities. And they tend to write these very formal, treatise-like documents: 'This is who I am and these are the things I've studied and this is what I expect to study at university.' "And that may be fine for the U.K. system, but at least at American colleges and universities, it's a much more subjective process. The admissions staffs know all those things already. They know what courses they're taking, they know what their academic interests are. "So, really, the rhetorical task of a document like that is to shed some insight into who the person is and how they think and what they're going to be like in the classroom, what they're going to be like in the dining hall, what kind of a friend they're going to be, how they're going to teach other students about the world." RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that? What kind of advice would you give to a foreign student who's applying to college in the United States, so that their personal essay doesn't sound typical?" RACHEL TOOR: "Well, one of the first things to understand is that it has to be personal. Good writing is vivid and specific in its details. What I often encourage students to write about is their families, because everybody has a family and everybody's family is weird in one way or another. "And I tend to encourage students not to write about the things like -- this is a standard American essay: 'I went to a foreign country and discovered that poor people can be happy.' This is the standard kind of mission-trip essay, where they go into another culture and, bingo, they have this epiphany that there are people who are different from them but in some ways they're similar and they share similar insights and values." AA: "You saw this when you were at Duke?" RACHEL TOOR: "I probably read about twelve hundred essays just like that. And the thing is, it's an important experience for students to have. I'm just saying, when they write about it, they tend to be less insightful. "You know, I had one of my favorite essays was by a student who started out saying: 'My car and I are a lot alike. I drive a nineteen eighty-seven Buick Century. It's brown and red; the red is rust. It goes from zero to sixty -- well, you know, it actually never hits sixty. When it rains, it smells like a wet dog, but I love my car, and here are the reasons why.' And by understanding what he was saying about his car, it gave me a sense of who he was as a person. "And I think for foreign students, it feels often self-indulgent, it feels boastful, it feels immodest. But really, they don't have to be personal and spilling lots of gory details about things we don't really what to know about, but they have to be specific to the person." RS: "One of the things that I think that foreign students might be timid about is actually revealing, not the gory details, as you say, but just revealing things about themselves, going personal." RACHEL TOOR: "Yeah, and it's exactly antithetical to what they're taught in English classes. And even in the United States, you know, the first thing that you do when you start teaching in college is you unteach the five-paragraph essay: there's an introduction, there are three supporting paragraphs and then there's a conclusion. "And one of the things that we try to do when they get to college is to say: 'You know what? It's more complicated than that.' Sometimes you can do it in three paragraphs, and sometimes you need five pages if it's a more complex idea. So I think that the way they're taught to write in expository writing classes doesn't serve them well when they're asked to do different kinds of writing. "You know, I worked with a student from China, and she was a very, very smart girl and a very, very good student, but she tended to overreach, and so she would use words that seemed more complex and more complicated and harder and bigger, but that didn't feel like the way she expressed herself. So what I try to encourage students to do is -- and I think it's harder when it's not your first language -- but to be more conversational and less formal in this kind of writing, because, again, that allows voice and personality to come through." RS: Rachel Toor is now an assistant professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University. More on this topic next week. AA: And that's WORDMASTER for now. For more help with American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: New Drug Shows Promise Against Worm Disease
* Byline: Experts worry that the parasite that causes schistosomiasis could become resistant to an existing treatment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Schistosoma mansoni, one of three major kinds of worms that cause schistosomiasisScientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis. More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease. Most live in developing nations in tropical climates. About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects. A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can target an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma. This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis. The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice. They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development – from larva to adult. The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major species of Schistosoma worms that infect humans. The National Institutes of Health supported the research. Scientists from Illinois State University and the Chemical Genomics Center at N.I.H. reported their findings in the journal Nature Medicine. Biology professor David Williams led the research. He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive. Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism. The worm has a protective enzyme. But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct. Since the nineteen eighties, doctors in more than seventy tropical nations have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis. Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel. Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever. The microscopic worms infect snails, which in turn lay infected eggs. Humans become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live. The worms dig through skin to enter the body. They move into blood vessels that supply the intestinal and urinary systems. Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected. More studies are needed on the experimental new drug. The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds. They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jill Moss. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: The Heart and Spirit of the Constitution
* Byline: When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates questioned the need for a national one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER:? Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. George WashingtonLast week in our series, we described how the Constitution became law once nine of America's first thirteen states ratified it. The Continental Congress set a date for the new plan of government to take effect. The first Wednesday in March, seventeen eighty-nine. Now, here are Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal to continue our story. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In seventeen eighty-nine, the population of the United States was about four million. The thirteen states had been loosely united for a short time, only about ten years. Before that, they were separate colonies of Britain. Because the colonies were separate, their people developed different ways of life. Their economies and traditions were different. As a result, Americans were fiercely independent. An emergency -- the crisis of the revolution -- brought them together. Together, they celebrated the Fourth of July, the day America declared its independence from Britain. Together, they fought British troops to make that declaration a political reality. Together, they joined under the Latin phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' -- one out of many. Yet when the war ended, the soldiers returned to their home states. They still thought of themselves as New Yorkers, or Virginians, or Marylanders. They did not consider themselves a national people. VOICE ONE: Americans of seventeen eighty-nine were sharply divided on the need for a national government. Many were afraid the new government would not survive. They feared the anarchy that would result if it failed. Others hoped it would fail. They wanted strong state governments, not a strong central government. For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success. The country had great natural resources. And its people were honest and hard-working. Also, in seventeen eighty-nine, the American economy was improving after the destruction of the Revolutionary War. Agriculture, trade, and shipbuilding were coming back to life. Roads, bridges, and canals were being built to improve travel and communication. The country's economy had many problems, however. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the Revolutionary Army. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action. VOICE TWO: But before the new government could act, the old government had work to do. It had to decide where the capital city of the new nation would be. It also had to hold elections for president and Congress. First, the question of a capital. At the time the states ratified the new Constitution, the Continental Congress was meeting in New York City. And that is where it decided to place the new government. Later, the capital would be moved to Philadelphia for a while. Finally, it would be established at Washington, D.C. Next, the Continental Congress had to decide when the states would choose a president. It agreed on March fourth, seventeen eighty-nine. That was when the new Constitution would go into effect. VOICE ONE: The eleven states that ratified the Constitution chose electors to vote for a president. The result was not a surprise. They chose the hero of the Revolutionary War: George Washington. No one opposed the choice. Although not required by the Constitution, George Washington presented the first presidential inaugural address on April 30, 1789Washington learned of his election while at his home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. He left for New York and was inaugurated there on April thirtieth. Members of the new Congress also were elected on March fourth. Now, for the first time, Americans had something many of them had talked about for years -- a working national government. There was much work to be done. The machinery of government was new, untested. Quick decisions were needed to keep the new nation alive and healthy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the first things the Congress did was to re-open debate on the Constitution itself. Several states had set a condition for approving the document. They said a Bill of Rights must be added to the Constitution, listing the rights of all citizens. When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates to the convention said a national bill was unnecessary. Others argued that the Constitution would be the highest law of the land, higher than state laws. So a national bill of rights was needed to guarantee the rights of the citizens of the new nation. Time proved this to be a wise decision. The Bill of Rights gave the Constitution a special strength. Many Americans consider the Bill of Rights to be the heart and spirit of the Constitution. VOICE ONE: Twelve amendments were proposed; the 10 that were ratified became the Bill of Rights in 1791What is this Bill of Rights that is so important to the citizens of the United States? It is contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The First Amendment is the basic statement of American freedoms. It protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America. It says Congress will make no law establishing an official religion. Nor will Congress interfere in the peoples' right to worship as they choose. The First Amendment also says Congress will not make laws restricting the peoples' right to gather peacefully and to make demands on the government. The Second Amendment guarantees the peoples' right to keep weapons as part of an organized militia. The Third Amendment says people may not be forced to let soldiers stay in their homes during peacetime. VOICE TWO: The Fourth through the Eighth Amendments all protect the peoples' rights in the criminal justice system. The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. If police want to search a suspect's house or papers, they must get special permission from a judge. The document from the judge must say exactly what police are looking for. And it must describe the place to be searched. VOICE ONE: The Fifth Amendment says no one can be put on trial for a serious crime unless a grand jury has first examined the evidence and agreed that a trial is needed. No one can be put on trial more than once on the same criminal charge. And no one can be forced to give evidence against himself in court. The Fifth Amendment also says no one can lose their freedom, property, or life except by the rules of law. And the government cannot take people's property for public use without paying them a fair price. VOICE TWO: The Sixth Amendment says all persons accused of crimes have the right to a fair and speedy public trial by a jury. This guarantees that people cannot be kept in prison for a long time unless a jury has found them guilty of a crime. The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the right of accused persons to be defended by a lawyer. It says they must be informed of the nature and cause of the charges against them. And it says they have the right to face and question their accusers. The Seventh Amendment guarantees a person's right to have a jury decide his legal dispute with another person. The Eighth Amendment bars all cruel and unusual punishments. The Ninth Amendment provides protection for other rights not stated directly in the Constitution. And the Tenth Amendment says any powers which the Constitution does not give to the national government belong to the states or to the people themselves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A majority of the states approved the Bill of Rights by the end of seventeen ninety-one. As we have seen, these amendments limited the powers of the national government. As a result, many anti-Federalists ended their opposition. They accepted the new government. Many agreed to help with the job of building the new nation. President Washington wanted the best men -- Federalist or anti-Federalist -- to be in his administration. The new nation needed strong leadership. George Washington provided it. General Washington's work as the first president will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Carolyn Weaver. The narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English. __ This is program #26 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In Some Schools, Learning Is Not Enough of Its Own Reward
* Byline: A look at the debate in the U.S. over programs that pay students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Some American schools pay teachers more if their students improve on tests. Now, there is a growing movement to pay the students -- in some cases, even just for coming to class. Students at one school in New Mexico can earn up to three hundred dollars a year for good attendance. A program in New York City pays up to five hundred dollars for good attendance and high test scores. In Baltimore, Maryland, high scores on state graduation tests can be worth more than one hundred dollars. And a New Jersey school system plans to pay students fifty dollars a week to attend after-school tutoring programs. Schools that pay students can be found in more than one-fourth of the fifty states. Other schools pay students with food or other rewards. Robert Schaefer is public education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an activist group. He says paying may improve performance in the short term, but students develop false expectations for the future. He sees a lack of long-term planning in these programs because of pressure on schools to raise test scores. Public schools need to show improvement under the education reform law signed by President Bush six years ago. Low-performing schools may lose their federal money; teachers and administrators may lose their jobs. Often these schools are in poor neighborhoods where getting students to go to school can be a continual problem. Critics say paying students sends a message that money is the only valuable reward. But some students say it makes school more exciting. And some teachers have reported getting more requests for extra help. In two thousand four, the city schools in Coshocton, Ohio, launched a program. They wanted to see if paying elementary school students as much as one hundred dollars would help in passing state exams. Now, Eric Bettinger of Case Western Reserve University has reported mixed results. Math scores increased, but only while students were able to get paid. And there was no evidence of higher scores in reading, social studies and science. Officials will decide later this year whether to continue the program. Yet adults get paid for their work. And if teachers can be rewarded for their students' work, then why not the students themselves? This is what some people say. What do you think? Write to special@voanews.com, and please include your name and country. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sales Down for New US Homes, but Up for Existing Ones
* Byline: Falling prices lead to unexpected piece of good news for the housing market. Also, J.P. Morgan raises its offer for Bear Stearns. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes in the United States increased almost three percent in February. It was the first increase since last July. A home for sale in Denver, ColoradoBut fueling that increase was a drop in prices. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of twenty major markets showed that home prices fell almost two and a half percent in January. Prices were down almost eleven percent from a year before. And still another report this week showed that sales of new single-family houses fell in February. Sales were down almost two percent from January, to a thirteen-year low. The Commerce Department estimated there was a ten-month supply of newly built houses waiting to be sold. Experts say prices in many markets will have to fall further before more people are willing or able to buy. Prices went up and up in recent years, before the housing bubble burst. Many buyers now struggling to make payments took out loans that were too big. They thought prices would keep rising and they could sell their home for a nice profit. Rising values meant that people could also take out home equity loans and lines of credit. They used their home as a cash machine by borrowing against its value. Now, as those values fall, some people owe more than their home is worth. Many buyers, often with risky credit histories, took out adjustable-rate mortgages, which started out low but later reset to higher rates. About two percent of all home loans are in foreclosure. Of course, that means ninety-eight percent of homes are not being reclaimed by lenders. Still, this is the highest rate since the Mortgage Bankers Association began keeping records in nineteen seventy-nine. The weak housing market is largely responsible for an economic crisis that is leading to new government steps in the financial system. Last week, the Federal Reserve pushed through a deal for J.P. Morgan Chase to buy Bear Stearns for two dollars a share. Bear, the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, was near collapse after big losses on its mortgage-backed securities. To help make the deal, the Fed agreed to take responsibility for up to thirty billion dollars in those securities. But J.P. Morgan faced a rebellion by Bear shareholders, so this week it increased its offer to ten dollars a share. It also agreed to take responsibility for one billion dollars of Bear's hard-to-sell securities. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Young Tibetans, Tired of Calls for Nonviolence, Want More Action
* Byline: The recent unrest in Lhasa has turned up the heat on China as it prepares for the Beijing Olympics in August. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. March tenth was the anniversary of a failed nineteen fifty-nine uprising led by the Dalai Lama against Chinese rule in Tibet. It was also the start of the recent unrest in Lhasa, the capital. Cleaning up damage in Lhasa following violent protestsOn March fourteenth, largely peaceful protests turned into in the worst violence in Tibet in almost twenty years. Rioters burned buildings and attacked ethnic Han Chinese and Chinese Muslims, known as Hui. The unrest spread to other Tibetan areas of western China. Tibetan exile groups say the situation turned violent after Chinese police used force against the demonstrators. They say at least one hundred forty people have been killed. Chinese officials put the number at about twenty. The Chinese government blames the violence on supporters of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. He denies the accusations. The Dalai Lama is seeking more political independence for Tibet. But the large Tibetan exile community based in India is increasingly restless with his calls for nonviolence. Many exiles are unhappy that in two thousand one, he changed the aim of his campaign from independence for Tibet to autonomy under Chinese rule. Younger activists call for a "Free Tibet." China has controlled Tibet since nineteen fifty-one. On Thursday, about thirty Tibetan monks protested in front of a group of foreign reporters on a government-led visit in Lhasa. It happened in the Jokhang Temple. A Tibetan Buddhist monk, center, cries as foreign journalists visit the Jokhang TempleMany of the monks were crying as they told the reporters that they were not involved in the recent violence. They said there is no religious freedom in Tibet. And they said the Chinese government's version of events is not true. On Friday, official Chinese media reported that a government official in Tibet? said the monks were trying to mislead world opinion. He said the monks would not be punished. But he also said Jokhang's one hundred seventeen monks could not leave the temple. Some are under investigation in the recent violence in Lhasa. Chinese officials have said the unrest was especially aimed at the Beijing Olympics in August. The situation in Tibet has drawn international criticism and talk of boycotts at the opening ceremonies. President Bush has expressed concern about the situation in Tibet, but is planning to attend the Olympics. On Friday, President Bush and Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, urged restraint in Tibet. They met at the White House. Mister Rudd said there are clearly human rights abuses in Tibet. He urged the Chinese government to hold talks with the Dalai Lama or his representatives. Mister Bush noted his telephone call Wednesday to China's President Hu Jintao. Mister Bush said he told him that it was in his country's interest to "sit down again" with representatives of the Dalai Lama. The months ahead could be very important. Many young Tibetans feel that the Beijing Olympics may offer their last chance to bring more attention to their cause. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lou Gehrig, 1903-1941: The Great Baseball Player Considered Himself 'The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth'
* Byline: He played in 2,130 games without missing one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. A North American Major League baseball record was established in nineteen thirty-nine. The man who set it played in two thousand one hundred thirty games without missing one. In nineteen ninety-five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lou Gehrig was born on June nineteenth, nineteen-oh-three. He was a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany. They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money. Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends. Then one of Lou's high school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games. VOICE TWO: Years later, Lou said: "When I saw so many people and heard all the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game. So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player. VOICE ONE: A representative of a major league team, the New York Giants, came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a major league player. It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school. He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and without a job. VOICE TWO: The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team. But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college. Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit. VOICE ONE: Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments for their home. The New York Yankees major league baseball organization came to the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three thousand five hundred dollars to finish the nineteen twenty-three baseball season. That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems. VOICE TWO: The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games. VOICE ONE: The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended. Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of nineteen twenty-five. He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed. Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly. VOICE TWO: Babe RuthGehrig continued to improve as a player. By Nineteen twenty-seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series. Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an operation. He felt he should be with her. Missus Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother recovered. More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in nineteen twenty-nine. His back, legs and hands were injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate. Another Yankee player said: "Every time he played, it hurt him." VOICE ONE: Gehrig felt good in nineteen thirty. He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water. Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of nineteen thirty-two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig: "I did not think a player could be that good." VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell. Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly. As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it. An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury. VOICE ONE: Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May thirty-first, Nineteen thirty-eight. That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before. Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three hundred. He scored one hundred fifteen runs. He batted in almost as many runs. But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy catches and throws. Yet his manager commented: "Everybody is asking what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club doing as poorly as he is doing." VOICE TWO: Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several times the next winter while ice skating with Eleanor. He had trouble holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened. In May, nineteen thirty-nine, he finally told his manager he could not play. Lou Gehrig had played in two thousand one hundred thirty games without missing any that his team played. Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June nineteenth. That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. VOICE ONE: Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act frightened or sad. On July fourth, nineteen thirty-nine, more than sixty thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky. His words echoed throughout the stadium. LOU GEHRIG: "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." VOICE TWO: Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He died on June second, nineteen forty-one. He was thirty-seven years old. America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Want to Be a Foreign Exchange Student? First Do Some Homework
* Byline: ''You should not leave your country thinking 'Oh, wow, cool, a year of holiday,' because it's also hard. But at the same time it's so cool,'' says an Italian teen studying in the U.S. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we talk about foreign exchange students in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than twenty-nine thousand foreign exchange students attended American high schools last year. The State Department says the teenagers came from one hundred nine countries. Foreign exchange students get the chance to learn more about a culture and its people. They make new friends and experience new places. But they can also experience problems being far from home, among people they do not know and may not understand. The way many describe it, the experience is exciting and frightening at the same time. VOICE TWO: In the past, exchange students usually had limited contact with their host families before meeting them. But times have changed. Today, exchange students may know a lot about their host family before they ever leave home. E-mails go back and forth; pictures of families, homes and pets are shared. E-mail and cell phones also make it easier for the students to keep in contact with their own families back home. VOICE ONE: Some exchange students attending high schools in VirginiaExchange groups are supposed to provide a contact person, or liaison, to help students in case they have any problems. This is what happened with a boy from Argentina we'll call Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos liked sports; his American host family did not. He liked to go out with friends; his host parents did not approve. And they did not think he was doing well enough in school: he was getting average grades. The host parents discussed these issues with his liaison. And the solution? A new family was found for Juan Carlos. The new family included two boys who played soccer on local teams. Juan Carlos joined those teams and was much happier with his new family. Not only that, his grades improved. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Exchange students have to speak English well enough to attend an American high school. But some students find it takes weeks or months for them to understand everything they read or hear. One girl from Switzerland told her exchange group that some students at her American high school made fun of her accent. An exchange volunteer asked how many languages she spoke. The girl said her native language was Swiss-German and she also spoke Italian, French, English and Spanish. The volunteer had this advice: Tell those students that you have an accent in four of the five languages you speak. And then ask them how many languages they speak. The majority of Americans speak only English. VOICE ONE: Seventeen-year-old Nadia Gerstgrasser is from Italy. Nadia says being a foreign exchange student is not always easy. NADIA GERSTGRASSER: "Like the language, you think it's going to be hard, but you don't know how it is in real life when people don't understand you and how hard it can be even to order a hamburger. When a waiter asked me the first time how I wanted it done, I said 'cooked' and he was like 'yeah, I know, but how,' and I said 'on my plate,' and everybody started laughing. Stuff like that. It can embarrass you, but that's just the way you learn English. Now I laugh about it, but back then I was really embarrassed." VOICE TWO: Nadia is living with a family in Alexandria, Virginia, through the end of June. She is attending a Fairfax County high school with more than one thousand seven hundred students. Nineteen percent of them are limited English speakers. She says that surprised her -- finding so many different ethnic groups. NADIA GERSTGRASSER: " You know, I was expecting all Americans ... like, I knew there was black people, white people, but I didn't know there was a lot of Hispanics, Asian kids at my school. And, yeah, it was surprising but positive." VOICE ONE: American high schools come in small, medium, large and extra large. They can have three, four, even five thousand students. It is easy to feel lost at first in a huge building and moving from class to class. Changing classrooms might also be a new experience for exchange students. Some students come from countries where the teachers move from room to room, not the students. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than one hundred organizations are involved in the State Department's Exchange Visitor Program for secondary school students. These groups are responsible for choosing, placing and supervising exchange students. In many cases, families pay an organization to place their child with an American family and supervise their time in the United States. In the case of Rotary International, local Rotary clubs pay some of the expenses of exchange students. The clubs place students with three different families during the school year. VOICE ONE: As of last year there were twelve schools and school districts involved in the State Department program. Schools often want foreign exchange students as a way to increase the diversity of their student population. These programs may be true exchanges. A student from the school goes to a foreign country for a school year while a foreign student comes to the United States. VOICE TWO: Secondary-school exchange students normally come to the United States with J-One visas provided by the State Department. Some, however, come with an F-One study visa from the Department of Homeland Security. But an F-One visa does not provide the same protections as a J-One visa. These protections include making sure all adults in host families have been checked for criminal records. Another protection is making sure exchange students have placements waiting for them in American schools. VOICE ONE: The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students is a nonprofit organization in California. It works to strengthen protections for exchange students in the United States and around the world. Sally Smith is a family law attorney who works with the committee. She says exchange students should know how to report any cases of sexual abuse or other crimes. In the United States, the number to call for police or other emergency services is nine-one-one. Sally Smith advises parents of teens who are considering an exchange program to discuss the possible dangers with the sponsoring group. Exchange students should never leave home without knowing who their host family will be, and that the family has been investigated. Sally Smith notes that the rules in the United States do not say how a criminal background check must be carried out. The Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students wants the government to require criminal checks based on fingerprint records. A State Department representative tells us that officials are now studying the possibility of strengthening the requirements for background checks. But she says the details are not known at this time. VOICE TWO: The State Department has programs to bring exchange students to the United States from different areas of the world. One program, for example, is for German teenagers. Another is for students from countries of the former Soviet Union. Other programs offer exchanges for students in Serbia and Montenegro and countries with large Muslim populations. VOICE ONE: Gauri Noolkar from India is in Virginia as part of the State Department's Youth Exchange and Study, or YES, program. We'll let her explain it: GAURI NOOLKAR: "The students in the YES program, their expenses are basically covered by the State Department of this country, and it is for fostering friendship between America and Middle East and Asian counties. It is based on merit and talent, and they cover all our expenses and in return we are expected to teach people over here about our cultures and then go back and teach our people about American culture." Seventeen-year-old Gauri is also attending a public high school in Fairfax County. And like Nadia from Italy, Gauri says she, too, was surprised by the ethnic diversity she has seen in the United States. GAURI NOOLKAR: "Another surprising thing was even though it is a very individualistic society, there is a notion that Americans just live for themselves. But I realize that over here they are very helpful and nobody turns you down. If you ask for help, you do get it." VOICE TWO: To become an exchange student at an American high school, students must have completed no more than eleven years of school, and done well. They must be between the ages of fifteen and eighteen and a half. They must also speak English well. And they must agree to accept the rules of the exchange program and their host families. Host families are supposed to receive training in hosting an exchange student. Host families do not get paid, but they get a fifty dollar tax deduction for each month the student lives in their home. VOICE ONE: Nadia Gerstgrasser has this advice for students considering a foreign exchange: NADIA GERSTGRASSER: "You should not leave your country thinking 'Oh, wow, cool, a year of holiday, I'm not going to do anything, it's going to be fun, everything is just going to be exciting,' because it's also hard. But at the same time it's so cool. You're gonna start liking it. It's worth it. You should try." Going to a foreign country to live with complete strangers is not for everyone. But many who have done it say the experience taught them a lot about the world and about themselves. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: AIDS: The Future of a Vaccine, and New Warnings for Asia
* Byline: A study says the number of Asians with H.I.V. could double to 10 million by 2020 unless prevention efforts expand. And scientists meet in the U.S. to discuss the latest setbacks in developing an AIDS vaccine. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new study says Asia must do more to prevent AIDS, or the number of people infected with H.I.V. could double by two thousand twenty. Today about five million people in Asia are living with the virus that causes AIDS. An estimated three hundred thousand people died of H.I.V.-related diseases in Asia last year. At current rates, that number could rise to almost five hundred thousand. The United Nations program on H.I.V./AIDS requested the study, led by Indian economist Chakravarthi Rangarajan. The report says three main groups are driving the spread of AIDS in Asia. One group is sex workers and the men who use them. Another is injection drug users who share needles. And the third group?are men who have unprotected sex with other men. Researchers estimate that as many as ten million women in Asia sell sex. At least seventy-five million men buy on a regular basis. In many Asian countries, these men, and their female partners, represent the largest group of people living with H.I.V. The study found that AIDS is the most likely cause of death and lost work days for people in Asia between the ages of fifteen and forty-four. The report says prevention programs can be effective if governments invest at least thirty cents a year per person. For more than twenty years, scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine to prevent H.I.V. infection. The latest failures came last September. Researchers halted two studies of an experimental AIDS vaccine from the drug company Merck. Early results showed that the vaccine not only failed to protect, it appeared to put some people at higher risk of infection. Last Tuesday, several hundred researchers and activists met in Bethesda, Maryland, for a Summit on H.I.V. Vaccine Research and Development. They debated what to do now. Many of the scientists agreed that experimental vaccines should continue to be tested on humans. But many said there should be less dependence on human trials. Anthony Fauci is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which called the meeting. He and others said there should be more tests on animals, to add to discoveries from human studies. There also were calls for a return to more basic science, first identifying and answering major scientific questions. But Doctor Fauci said the search for an AIDS vaccine will not stop. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-04-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hands: She is Making Money Hand-Over-Fist
* Byline: English expressions that come from the hands. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) The hand has been a symbol through the ages and in many cultures. There are hundreds of expressions and combinations of words using hand in the English language.Let us examine some of the expressions that use hand. We will get a hand in this way. To get a hand in is to begin a job, to begin to know something about it. When we learn the job completely, it will be easy for us. ?We will be able to do it hands down. If we do the job well, we may end up with the upper hand. And that means to be in control, or to have gained complete understanding of a situation. On the other hand, if the situation gets out of hand, then it is out of control. ?We must act quickly to regain the upper hand over these expressions. But, wait. We still do not have the upper hand in this business. We must consider another way of expressing praise, to hand it to someone. For example: I must hand it to you for understanding what we have discussed this far. You can also lend a hand to someone, but without really giving up your hand. You lend a hand when you help someone. You offer them a helping hand. If someone is kind enough to lend us a hand, then we surely do not want to bite the hand that feeds us. We do not want to repay his kindness by treating him badly. Now, with that out of the way, we have a free hand to continue examining other hand expressions. To have a free hand in a situation is good. It means you are free to act without getting permission from someone else. If we continue moving along, we will make progress hand over fist, or very rapidly. This expression began in the early seventeen hundreds. It reportedly comes from a sailing expression hand over hand, the way of quickly raising or lowering a sail. Maybe you can find a friend who wants to take a hand in our project. ?It would have to be someone who is interested in these expressions. Your friend may want to work hand in glove with us. That is good, because that means he wants to work as closely with us as a glove covers the hand. Of course there is a danger that he may look at our project and decide to take it in hand. That means he wants to take it over. If that happens, we may throw up our hands because the situation seems hopeless. In fact, we may decide that it is time for us to end this project, to wash our hands of hand expressions. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES,?was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. ?Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES,?was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. ?Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Seek a Better Understanding of How Babies Learn
* Byline: A look at recent findings about babies and intelligence. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we discuss scientific findings about how intelligence develops in babies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is a federal government agency. Its goal is to identify which experiences can influence healthy development in human beings. Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other human beings. VOICE TWO: The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing in their mothers. One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story. On the day the baby was born, the researchers attempted to find if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while in his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby. The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again. VOICE ONE: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children. The study involved more than one thousand two hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period. VOICE TWO: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of depression. The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear. These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another study suggests that low-birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems. American researchers studied nearly five hundred boys and girls. They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-seven. At birth, each child weighed less than two thousand grams. The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen years at the time of the study. They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes. Their test results were compared with those of other children their age. The study found that the young people with low birth weight often had more problems with motor skills than others. A motor skill is a skill that requires a living thing to use its skeletal muscles effectively. Motor problems were more common among males, those with injured nerve tissue in the brain, and those who had been connected to oxygen supplies for days as a baby. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first three years of a child's life is the most intensive period of language and speech development. This is the time when the brain is developing. Language and communication skills are believed to develop best in an environment that is rich with sounds and sights. Also, the child should repeatedly hear the speech and language of other people. America's National Institutes of Health says evidence suggests there are important periods of speech and language development in children. This means the brain is best able to learn a language during this period. Officials say the ability to learn a language will be more difficult if these periods pass without early contact with a language. VOICE ONE: The first signs of communication happen during the first few days of life when a baby learns that crying will bring food and attention. Research shows that most children recognize the general sounds of their native language by six months of age. At that time, a baby also usually begins to make sounds. These sounds become a kind of nonsense speech over time. By the end of the first year, most children are able to say a few simple words. But they may not understand the meaning of their words. By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words. By two years, most children are able to form simple statements, or sentences. By ages three, four and five, the number of words a child can understand quickly increases. It is at this age that children begin to understand the rules of language. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A long-term American study shows the effect of early education on future learning abilities. The study followed more than one thousand? three hundred children from birth through the ages of ten or eleven years. It found that children who received higher quality care before starting school had better language skills by those ages than children who had lower quality care. The study is known as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. It is said to be the largest, longest lasting and most complete study of child care in the United States. VOICE ONE: The children included in the study were born around nineteen ninety-one in ten areas of the country. Researchers examined the quality and amount of child care the children received until they were fifty-four months old. Child care included any care provided by people other than the child’s mother that lasted at least ten hours a week. This included any care given by fathers or other family members. The researchers then examined each child’s performance in school and social development. They also measured other influences, such as the quality of classroom education and parenting. VOICE TWO: Recently, the researchers examined whether the developmental qualities that had been observed in young children were still present a few years later. They found that the older children who had received higher quality child care continued to show better ability in measures of language skills. The children’s understanding was observed using a method which shows their ability to name objects shown in a series of pictures. The study confirmed a link between high quality child care and better test results continued as the children grew older. It also found that the children’s ability was not dependent on the amount of time they had spent in child care. VOICE ONE: Interestingly, children who had been in child care before entering school were also more likely to have shown aggression or disobedience in their early school years. However, the researchers said the children's behavior was considered normal. James Griffith was the science officer for the study. He says the findings add to the growing research that shows the quality and kind of child care a person experiences early in life can have lasting effects. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-03/2008-03-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Story of Finding Longitude: It Was All a Question of Timing
* Byline: For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude. Finally, they found it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how people learned an important piece of information necessary for safely sailing on the oceans. It is called longitude. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Navigators could find a ship's latitude, but not longitude, by observing the starsOn a foggy October night in seventeen-oh-seven, four English navy ships hit rocks in the Atlantic Ocean and sank. Two thousand men drowned. The ships had been sailing in the thick fog for twelve days. There was no sure way to know where they were. The commander of the ships had been worried that they could hit rocks if they were not careful. He asked his navigators for their opinion on their location in the ocean. The navigators did not really know. They told the commander they thought they were west of a small island near the coast of northwestern France. They were wrong. Instead, they sailed onto rocks near a small group of islands southwest of England's Atlantic coast. The navigators' lack of knowledge led to the loss of four ships and two thousand lives. VOICE TWO: When people began sailing out of sight of land, sailors did not know how to tell where they were on the open sea. Land travelers can look at a mountain, or a river, or an object that shows them where they are in relation to where they came from. On the ocean, however, there is no sign to tell a sailor where he is. The most important device for knowing directions on the ocean is a compass. A compass is a device containing a metal object that points toward the magnetic north pole. This shows navigators the direction of north, and therefore also south, east, and west. But sailors need more information to sail safely on the open sea. VOICE ONE: Most maps of the world show lines that are not on the Earth's surface. One line is the equator. It is an imaginary line around the widest part of the Earth. There are similar lines both north and south of the equator. These circles become smaller and smaller toward the north pole and the south pole. These lines, or circles, are parallel - meaning that they are equally distant from each other at any point around the world. These lines show what is called latitude. A navigator can know the latitude of his ship by observing the location of stars, where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, and what time of year it is. With this information he knows where his ship is in relation to the north or south pole and the equator. VOICE TWO: Still, there is one more important piece of information necessary for safely sailing the oceans. For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude. The lines of longitude go the other way from latitude lines. They stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole, and back again in great circles of the same size. All of the lines of longitude meet at the top and bottom of the world. In her book, “Longitude,” writer Dava Sobel tells the story about longitude and how the problem of knowing it was solved. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For centuries, the great scientists of the world struggled to develop a way to learn longitude. To learn longitude at any place requires knowledge about?time. A navigator needs to know what time it is on his ship and also the time at another place of known longitude - at the very same moment. The Earth takes twenty-four hours to complete one full turn or revolution of three-hundred-sixty degrees. One hour marks one twenty-fourth of a turn, or fifteen degrees. So each hour's time difference between the ship and the starting point marks a ship's progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. Those fifteen degrees of longitude mark a distance traveled. At the equator, where the Earth is widest, fifteen degrees stretches about one thousand six hundred kilometers. North or south of that line, however, the distance value of each degree decreases. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time all around the world. But in measuring distance, one degree shrinks from about one hundred nine kilometers at the equator to nothing at the north and south poles. VOICE TWO: For many centuries, navigators hoped they could find longitude by observing the movement of stars at night. During the day, the sun provided information about the time on a ship, and its direction. However, it did not provide necessary information about the time somewhere else. In the sixteenth century, one astronomer suggested that navigators could observe the moon as it passed in front of different known stars to tell longitude. But, there was not enough information about the stars to use this method effectively. Astronomers could not tell exactly where the moon would be from one night or day to the next. Yet it seemed to those seeking to solve the longitude problem that the only solution was in the moon and stars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the seventeenth century, English astronomers began a major effort to map the stars and their relationship to the moon as it passed across the sky. Royal astronomer John Flamsteed worked at this task for forty years. The next royal astronomer, Edmund Halley, spent another forty years gathering information about the moon's orbit. After many years of gathering the necessary information, it became possible to learn longitude by observing the stars and the moon. In seventeen sixty-six, Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne published the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris. It contained all the necessary information about the moon and stars that sailors would need to help them learn their longitude. This new method was not simple. A navigator had to use complex observing instruments to note the position of the moon and stars. Then he had to seek the correct information in the Nautical Almanac about the moon and stars at that time of night or day. The final step in the process was to take the mathematical information from the book, link it to the current information and solve the resulting problem. This took an average of four hours to do. VOICE TWO: While scientists were studying the stars and moon to solve the longitude problem, a man named John Harrison was working on another project. He was trying to build a clock that would help sailors learn longitude. His task also was difficult and complex. Mister Harrison had to develop a clock that was not affected by the movement of a ship on the ocean or changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure. He began developing his clock in seventeen thirty. It took five years to complete. The complex device weighed thirty-four kilograms. Several years later, Mister Harrison built a second clock. It was smaller, but weighed more than the first. Mister Harrison was not satisfied and began working on yet another device. Twenty years later, he completed a device that was smaller than the first two, and weighed less. But still Mister Harrison was not satisfied. Two years later, in seventeen fifty-seven, he produced a small clock that he could hold in his hand. The clock could tell the correct time in two places, meeting the requirements for learning longitude on the sea. VOICE ONE: For many years after Mister Harrison's work was completed, the idea of using a clock to learn longitude was rejected. However, that opinion changed when manufacturers learned how to make better and less costly versions of Mister Harrison's clocks. The clocks became known as chronometers. By eighteen? fifteen, five thousand chronometers were in use on ships sailing the world's oceans. The complex documents and mathematical work were no longer necessary. Almost any sailor could tell what his longitude was by simply looking at a clock. The world had changed. VOICE TWO: John Harrison's clocks can be seen today at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The first three are still operating, showing the correct time. To look at them is to see the simple solution to a problem that worried people for many centuries. Today, the solution to the problem is so common that it is difficult to understand that there was a problem at all. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Alaby. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: WHO Targets Climate Change for World Health Day 2008
* Byline: The World Health Organization warns of public health dangers especially for poor countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Next Monday is World Health Day, observed by the World Health Organization. The objective chosen for this year is to get people involved in the campaign to protect against the health effects of climate change. The World Health Organization is a United Nations agency. The W.H.O. says there is already evidence of health problems related to climate change. It says more people are dying from extreme heat, and that diseases spread by insects are also on the rise. And it says climate change has increased the risk of natural disasters, especially severe dry weather, wildfires, major storms and floods. Disasters like these can kill directly or indirectly. People can die or get sick from food shortages or conditions like the spread of disease. Several years ago, the W.H.O. blamed climate change for two percent of diarrhea cases worldwide in the year two thousand. Last month, researchers in Canada predicted that temperature increases there will spread insects like ticks and mosquitoes farther north. These insects can carry disease. The scientists also predict that climate change will lead in Canada to an increase in outbreaks of diseases that can be carried in water and food. They note that flooding, heavy rains and warmer temperatures are linked to the spread of bacteria, viruses and other organisms. This is true even in the presence of water treatment systems, they say. The report by scientists at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. World Health Day marks the establishment of the World Health Organization on April seventh, nineteen forty-eight. One goal this year is to call for local and international partnerships that will seek to improve health through efforts to stabilize climate change. The W.H.O. says it aims to put public health at the center of U.N. efforts on climate change. A major message of this World Health Day is that the health of poor people will be hurt the most. The W.H.O. says different areas of the world will experience different problems from climate change. But it says countries with high levels of poverty and underdevelopment will be the least prepared to deal with them. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New Study Adds to Evidence That Too Many Americans Do Not Finish High School
* Byline: A look at one group’s effort to increase the number of American high school graduates. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. A new report says only about half of all students in the main school systems of America's largest cities finish high school. The report notes higher rates of graduation -- more than seventy percent -- in areas surrounding the cities. The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center prepared the report. Researchers studied high school graduation rates from the two thousand three, two thousand four school year. They also identified the nation's fifty largest cities. The largest, New York City, had a population of more than eight million. The smallest city was Wichita, Kansas. It had about three hundred sixty thousand people. Researchers used a system of measurement called the cumulative promotion index to find graduation rates. School officials in many of the cities studied say the resulting numbers were too low. That is because different areas use different methods to find graduation rates. Critics say many methods do not give a true picture of the number of students who leave high school before finishing. Other studies have put the national graduation rate at about seventy percent. But experts agree that too many students are not completing high school. They estimate the number at more than one million each year. The report was prepared for America’s Promise Alliance. The private group aims to help children receive services they need to succeed. General Colin Powell was chairman of America's Promise Alliance when it was formed in nineteen ninety-seven. He attended the press conference Tuesday where the report was released. He said studies have shown that the United States must do more to educate the leaders and work force of the future. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings also spoke. She said the government will propose that states use the same methods when reporting graduation rates. Alliance officials also announced the start of a nationwide campaign to improve graduation rates. It is to include a series of meetings to be held in every state over the next two years. ?The meetings will bring together elected leaders, business owners, students, parents and education officials. They will develop plans to increase the number of Americans who finish high school. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Treasury Proposes a Plan to Change the Way the Financial System is Supervised
* Byline: The plan would close some agencies, combine others and create new ones to supervise the financial industry. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, the Bush administration proposed major changes to the way the financial system is supervised. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the plan Monday. He said the changes should not and will not be put in place until the current financial crisis is over. The plan is divided into short-term, intermediate-term and long-term goals. Among the short-term goals is an expansion of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets. The proposal would bring banking supervisors into the group and expand its responsibility to the entire financial industry. Other short-term goals include creating a group to set rules for the home loan industry. Many people blame irresponsible lending to people with risky credit histories for the current subprime mortgage crisis. Intermediate goals include combining or closing some financial supervising agencies that perform similar duties. The proposal would close the Office of Thrift Supervision, which oversees non-bank savings organizations. It would also combine the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The C.F.T.C. currently supervises the market for financial contracts known as futures while the S.E.C. regulates securities markets. Another aim would be to take the first steps toward the federal government supervising the insurance industry. This industry has been supervised mainly by the states for about one hundred thirty-five years. In the long term, the plan calls for strengthening the Central Bank to guard against all threats to the financial system. But, the proposal would also create new agencies. It calls for a Prudential Financial Regulator, which would combine all federal bank regulators into a single agency. Also, a Conduct of Business Regulator would be responsible for investor protection. This agency would perform many duties currently done by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Small banks and some state officials strongly oppose the plan. Small banks see the plan as a way to make big financial companies more competitive. Other groups have criticized the plan because it does not provide help for the current mortgage crisis. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s Death
* Byline: The Civil rights leader died working toward the dream of racial equality.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Forty years ago, African-American civil rights leader, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior, was shot and killed. He died on April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, in Memphis, Tennessee. On Friday, in that city, presidential candidates, civil rights leaders, labor activists and thousands of citizens came together. They honored Doctor King for leading the struggle for racial equality and economic justice. During the nineteen fifties and sixties, Doctor King had led a campaign of nonviolent protests. His work was aimed at ending racial separation and discrimination against African-Americans. His efforts led to passage of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four. That year, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Forty years ago, Doctor King was in Memphis to organize a strike for workers' rights. The sanitation workers in the city were protesting their low wages and poor working conditions. Doctor King was thirty-nine years old at the time, and had become the nation’s chief civil rights leader. His murder incited riots in more than one hundred American cities. The race riots lasted for days. Many African-American neighborhoods burned. The government ordered about fifty thousand soldiers to help control the violence. An estimated twenty-one thousand people were arrested. Almost fifty people were killed. And millions of dollars in property was damaged or destroyed. His murder also brought about a divisive and difficult period for race relations in the United States. In the years since his death, Doctor King has often been called one of the most honored Americans in history. But for many, his work for racial equality remains unfinished. In the past forty years, African-Americans have become successful in education, business, entertainment and politics. The rise of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama is a powerful sign of racial progress. If elected in November, Mister Obama would become America’s first black president. Yet experts say the black population as a whole has not reached equality with white people socially and economically. Black Americans experience greater rates of poverty and crime than whites. Civil rights leaders say that forty years after his death, many African-Americans still seek Doctor King’s dream of equality and opportunity. Martin Luther King Junior is best remembered for his nineteen sixty-three “I Have a Dream” speech. It brought together millions of people in the United States and around the world to work for racial justice. (SOUND) And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Langston Hughes, 1902-1967: The Poet Voice of African-Americans
* Byline: He also wrote novels, plays, short stories and essays. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Langston Hughes, who has been called the poet voice of African-Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet. But he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children’s books, and the words to operas. He also translated into English the works of foreign poets. Hughes was one of the first black writers who could support himself by his writings. He is praised for his ability to say what was important to millions of black people. Hughes produced a huge amount of work during his lifetime. He also has influenced the work of many other writers. He wrote for almost fifty years. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes was famous for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. His work is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages. Hughes’s poetry had serious messages. He often wrote about racial issues, describing his people in a realistic way. Although his story was not often pleasant, he told it with understanding and with hope. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were separated. He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. She told him stories about their family and their fight to end slavery. Her storytelling filled him with pride in himself and his race. He first began to write poetry when he was living with her. When he was fourteen, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with his mother and her new husband. He attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Langston was named Class Poet one year. He published his first short stories while he was still in high school. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes struggled with a feeling of loneliness caused by his parent’s divorce. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with the lack of time his parents spent with him. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. He wanted to reproduce the powerful effect other writers had made upon him. Among the early influences on his writing were poets Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After graduating from high school in nineteen twenty, Langston moved to Mexico City to live with his father for one year. His father had moved there to escape racism in America. His father did not offer much warmth to his son. Yet, Langston turned the pain caused by his family problems into one of his most famous poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”? In this poem, he speaks of the strength and pride of black people in ancient African civilizations and in America. (SOUND: “The Negro Speaks?of Rivers”) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes learned a lot about race, and about social and economic conditions while he was in Mexico. His ability to speak Spanish and his brown skin often made it easy for him to appear to be a native. Many of his works, including a play for children, deal with his days in Mexico. During the time he stayed with his father in Mexico, Langston wrote many poems because he was always unhappy. He once said that he usually created his best work when he was really not happy. Langston had a troubled relationship with his father from which he never recovered fully. His father did not think he could earn a living as a writer. His mother, however, recognized his need to be a poet. VOICE TWO: Langston’s father agreed to pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City, if he studied engineering. Langston arrived in New York when he was nineteen years old. At the end of that first year at Columbia, he left school, broke with his father, and began traveling. Traveling was a lifelong love that would take him throughout the world before he died. In nineteen twenty-two, Hughes took a job on a ship and sailed to Africa. He would later sail to France, Russia, Spain and Italy. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. His experiences while traveling greatly influenced his work. He sent a few of his writings back home. They were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. Financial problems ended Hughes’s travels. He tried to find work on a ship so he could return to the United States. But in Italy, he had problems finding work on a ship because he was black. In the poem, “I, Too”, he noted that the American color line even reached all the way over there. (SOUND: “I, Too”) VOICE ONE: In nineteen twenty-four, Langston Hughes returned to the United States to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. The poet Vachel Lindsay ate in a hotel where Hughes was working. Hughes put some poems he had written next to Lindsay’s dinner plate. Lindsay gave a poetry reading later that night. He read some of Hughes’s poetry, too. Newspapers across the country wrote about Lindsay’s poetry reading. Hughes became known as a new black poet. A year later, Hughes returned to New York. Through the years he lived in many places, but always came back to New York’s Harlem area. Harlem was the center of black life in New York City. Hughes’s creativity was influenced by his life in Harlem. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes returned to New York during a period called the Harlem Renaissance. It took place during the nineteen twenties and thirties. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic creativity among black people. For the first time, black artistic expression was being widely recognized. Hughes became friends with other great black writers of the time, such as Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston. They hoped that great art could change the racist ideas in America about African Americans. Hughes was considered one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. He was the first poet to use the rhythms of black music. He often wrote about the everyday experiences of black working people. And he helped bring the movement of jazz and the sound of black speech into poetry. VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes experimented with his writing. Other Harlem Renaissance writers wrote traditional poems like those of English classic poets, such as William Shakespeare. Hughes broke free with his writing and helped change literature forever. Hughes became firmly established as a successful writer in nineteen twenty-six with the publication of a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.”? Hughes wrote the poems in a place in Harlem where blues music was played. He loved to write while sitting in clubs listening to blues and jazz. The title poem, “The Weary Blues,” was written to be played with musical instruments. The poem perfectly expressed the desire of Langston Hughes to combine black music and speech in his poetry. VOICE THREE: ?“I got the Weary Blues and I can’t be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues and can’t be satisfied. I ain’t happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died.” ?“And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed – while the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.” VOICE TWO: Poems in “The Weary Blues” are warm and full of color. They have a sense of freedom, like that of jazz music. Langston Hughes was excited about the new form of poetry he had discovered for himself. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Caty Weaver. The poetry was read by Langston Hughes and Shep O’Neal. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA when we finish the story of the life of Langston Hughes. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Goldman Sachs Invests in Women Through Education
* Byline: The global investment bank will give one hundred million dollars over the next five years to its new 10,000 Women program.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Goldman Sachs Group, the international investment banking company, has launched a new program to provide ten thousand poor women with business education. The program, called 10,000 Women, will support partnerships between American and European universities and business schools in mostly developing countries. Partners will work together to establish or expand education programs lasting from five weeks to six months. Several partnerships may also offer full college degrees in business. The 10,000 Women program hopes to expand into the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and throughout Africa. Sixteen schools have agreed to take part in the program so far. They include Columbia, Harvard and Stanford Universities in the United States. Other schools are in India, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. The Pan-African University in Lagos, Nigeria is also a partner. Peter Bamkoleh heads that university's Enterprise Development Services. He says about fifty women will receive training at the school every year. The women will take classes several times a week, then use what they have learned. Dina Powell is the managing director of Goldman Sachs. She says that 10,000 Women is not a “one size fits all” program. Each university decides what to teach to fulfill local needs. At the American University of Afghanistan, for example, women will study the general ideas of business management. But at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, the partner school will offer beginning and higher-level business classes to the first five hundred women. Such classes may include financial record-keeping, market research and advertising. Women also could learn how to write a business plan, do business over the Internet or gain investors. Goldman Sachs plans to give one hundred million dollars to the 10,000 Women program over the next five years. It will also urge its employees to donate their time and knowledge in the classroom. The program is based on a Goldman Sachs research report called "Women Hold Up Half the Sky." The research shows the powerful effects that working women have on their nations' economies and societies. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Philadelphia: A City at the Heart of American History
* Byline: A visit to Independence Hall and other places in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The city's past includes serving as the national capital from 1785 to 1790. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we visit the historic center of Philadelphia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Philadelphia is a big city on the Delaware River in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. It has about a million and a half people and is often called Philly. The city was designed by William Penn. The Englishman and Quaker founded Pennsylvania in the sixteen eighties. He chose the name Philadelphia which he interpreted to mean "city of brotherly love" in Greek. Independence Hall is where colonial leaders declared independence, and later debated the creation of a governmentVOICE TWO: Philadelphia holds an important place in American history. It served as the nation's capital from seventeen eighty-five to seventeen ninety. And earlier, it was the capital of the American colonies during most of the Revolutionary War against Britain. Philadelphia became the central meeting place for the "Founding Fathers" who created the United States government. The buildings where they worked can be seen today in an area called the Old City, or Independence National Historical Park. The main building is Independence Hall. That was where colonial leaders declared independence and later debated the creation of a government. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: A guide takes us into the room in Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The signing took place on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. During the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the room had another important use. Delegates held a federal convention there and wrote the Constitution. VOICE TWO: In the seventeen hundreds, Independence Hall was the Pennsylvania statehouse. Philadelphia was the capital of Pennsylvania at the time; today the capital is Harrisburg. A bell was ordered for the building. But the bell cracked soon after it arrived from England. So in seventeen fifty-three, the bell was melted down for its metal and a new bell was made. The new bell was rung many times for public announcements, including the signing of the Declaration of Independence. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen thirties, a group that was trying to ban slavery in the United States began calling it the Liberty Bell. On it are these words taken from the Bible: "Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." But in eighteen forty-six a crack appeared in the replacement bell. No one knows why it cracked. The Liberty Bell has not been rung since, but it remains an important national symbol. VOICE TWO: The National Park Service says more than two million people visited Independence National Historical Park last year. Across the street from the park is the National Liberty Museum. This museum has a collection of more than ninety paintings and sculptures. They represent the idea that liberty is a freedom that is easily violated. The museum also celebrates more than three hundred fifty world heroes. One example is Jonas Salk, the American doctor who developed a polio vaccine. Another is Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who helped the poor and sick. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Time for a meal. A few blocks from the Liberty Bell is the City Tavern. The restaurant serves food based on recipes as old as the nation itself. For example, there is beer brewed from a recipe developed by Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and his sweet potato biscuits. In fact, the City Tavern is three years older than the United States. It was completed in seventeen seventy-three. Historians say it was considered the best restaurant in British North America. When the nation was a year old, the first Independence Day celebration was held there on July fourth, seventeen seventy-seven. And ten years later, after approving the Constitution, what did the delegates do? Tavern records show they went to the City Tavern for a meal. VOICE TWO: Speaking of food, another good place to eat in Philadelphia is the Reading Terminal Market. It opened in eighteen ninety-two with spaces for almost eight hundred sellers. Today, the huge building is filled with stores selling local farm products as well as seafood, clothing, jewelry and crafts from many countries. One hundred thousand people a week visit the Reading Terminal Market. Visitors can find all kinds of foods -- including, of course, Philly cheesesteak. The city is known for these sandwiches made of thinly sliced meat covered with cheese. A cheesesteak is offered with onions and other toppings and served on a long roll. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now it is time to get back to the Visitor Center at Independence Park for a tour of Philadelphia on a Duck. This is a kind of vehicle that can drive on land or ride on water. Other cities also have these kinds of tours. The seventy-minute ride includes about twenty minutes on the Delaware River, which separates Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As we travel through Philadelphia, the riders blow on duck noisemakers, like this. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: As we pass through Independence Park, our driver points out Carpenters’ Hall. That was where colonial delegates first gathered in seventeen seventy-four to discuss their problems with British rule. We also pass by the houses of important people during colonial times. One of these buildings was where Betsy Ross lived when tradition tells us she sewed the first United States flag. Outside the historical area, the Duck passes by Elfreth's Alley. This is one of the oldest streets in Philadelphia. It dates back to the beginning of the seventeen hundreds. We also drive down South Street, a well-known area of shops and restaurants. The Orlons, a group from Philadelphia, had a hit in nineteen sixty-three with a song called "South Street." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Finally, the Duck takes us back to the Visitor Center. We just have time to see the National Constitution Center. This privately operated museum opened in Philadelphia on July fourth, two thousand three. It was created to increase public recognition of the Constitution, its history and its importance today. The museum is near Independence Hall, where the document was written. Visitors are presented with the idea that the most important part of American constitutional democracy is the individual citizen. Children and adults can learn about the United States through interactive technology programs. For example, visitors can serve on a jury or decide cases as if they were on the Supreme Court. VOICE TWO: Signers' Hall at the National Constitution CenterThe National Constitution Center also has a big room called Signers' Hall. It looks like the room at Independence Hall where thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution on September seventeenth, seventeen eighty-seven. Included among the delegates were George Washington, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. There are life-size statues of forty-two delegates -- the ones who signed the Constitution and three others who did not. American visitors have fun finding the delegates from their home states and having their pictures taken with them. VOICE ONE: Nearby is a rare first public printing of the Constitution. The Pennsylvania Packet Constitution was published in a newspaper two days after the Constitution was signed in Independence Hall. A copy of the Constitution itself is on display at the National Archives in Washington. VOICE TWO: The National Constitution Center is not just about political events in the past. On April sixteenth, Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton plan to be there for a debate. Six days later is the Pennsylvania primary election. VOICE ONE: The city of Philadelphia has much to see, both historic and modern, but that's all we have time for today. For anyone planning a visit, one place to get information on the Internet is gophila.com, spelled g-o-p-h-i-l-a, the official visitor site for Greater Philadelphia. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Colors: I'm Feeling Very Blue Today
* Byline: Many American expressions are based on colors. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are based on colors. Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz. Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health. Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song – Mood Indigo – about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: “You ain’t been blue till you’ve had that Mood Indigo.”? Someone who is blue is very sad. The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green. Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money. The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations. In some cases, colors describe a situation. A brown out is an expression for a reduction in electric power. Brown outs happen when there is too much demand for electricity. The electric system is unable to offer all the power needed in an area. Black outs were common during World War Two. Officials would order all lights in a city turned off to make it difficult for enemy planes to find a target in the dark of night. (MUSIC) I’m Warren Scheer. Listen again next week for another Words and Their Stories program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Cassini Studies Mysterious Geysers on a Saturn Moon
* Byline: An experimental drug shows promise against a worm disease. And the Grand Canyon could be much older than scientists have thought. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we will tell about icy material shooting up from a moon of the planet Saturn. We will also tell about an experimental drug for the disease schistosomiasis. And, we tell about a new study of the Grand Canyon -- one of America's greatest natural wonders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Enceladus, photographed by the Cassini spacecraftSaturn is best known for the rings of icy material that surround the planet. But Saturn's moons interest scientists because some may hold liquid water and other materials necessary for life. Recently, the American space agency NASA ordered the Cassini spacecraft to visit one of Saturn's most interesting moons. NASA jointly operates Cassini with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The moon is Enceladus. It is not Saturn's largest moon. It is only five hundred kilometers across. But the forces that affect the surface of Enceladus are very active. VOICE TWO: Periodically, huge amounts of material shoot up from the surface. NASA officials have called these events geysers, like the hot water that is forced out from under the ground on Earth. Cassini first captured pictures of such an event three years ago. The pictures have proved so scientifically important that NASA made changes to its plans for Cassini just to study the geysers. On March twelfth, the space agency directed Cassini to pass only about fifty kilometers from the surface of Enceladus. Cassini got so close that it passed through material shooting out of the moon. The spacecraft was traveling at a speed of fifteen kilometers a second. VOICE ONE: What Cassini found has only increased scientists' interest in the moon. New maps of temperatures on Enceladus show that an area on the southern part of the moon is ninety-three degrees below zero Celsius. Temperatures on Enceladus are normally about one hundred thirty degrees below zero. John Spencer is a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. ?He says the new temperature information makes it more likely that there is liquid water not far below the surface. Liquid water is believed to be one of the things needed for life. Organic material is another. Cassini also found that the geysers are releasing organic material. VOICE TWO: Hunter Waite is an investigator for the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The spectrometer is a device that helps identify the chemistry of substances. Mister Waite says the chemicals gathered from the geysers of Enceladus are much like those found on comets in our solar system. Cassini found water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and also organic material shooting from the geyser. It is not known what causes the geysers on Enceladus. Cassini's deputy project scientist, Linda Spilker, says scientists know that heat causes the geysers to shoot from the surface of Enceladus. But, she says, it is not known what causes the heat. VOICE ONE: Gravity from Saturn and the moon Dione are known to affect Enceladus. But it is not clear if this gravitational force is enough to cause the moon's energetic geysers. The geysers are powerful. The material is leaving the surface at four hundred meters a second. And there is a link between the geysers and the objects for which Saturn is most famous. Material from Enceladus helps form the E-ring, the most distant of Saturn's many beautiful rings. The most recent visit is only the beginning of close study of Enceladus. Scientists will have another chance to observe Enceladus when Cassini passes very near the moon again in August. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists think they are a step closer to a new drug to treat schistosomiasis. More than two hundred million people suffer from this parasitic worm disease. Most live in developing nations. About ten percent of victims become seriously disabled from internal bleeding, iron loss, organ damage or other effects. A team in the United States found that chemical compounds known as oxadiazoles can attack an enzyme needed for the survival of Schistosoma. This is the group of flatworms that cause schistosomiasis. VOICE ONE: The scientists tested oxadiazoles on laboratory mice. They found that one compound killed the parasite at every level of development. The study also showed that the compound was active against all three major kinds of Schistosoma worms that infect human beings. ??? America's National Institutes of Health supported the research. Nature Medicine magazine reported on the study by scientists from Illinois State University and the Chemical Genomics Center at N.I.H. David Williams led the research. He says the Schistosoma parasite needs oxygen to survive. Oxygen use produces oxygen-free radicals that can destroy an organism. The worm has a protective enzyme. But Professor Williams says the experimental drug disables this enzyme, causing the worm to self-destruct. VOICE TWO: Each year, two hundred eighty thousand people die of schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or snail fever. The microscopic worms infect snails, which produce infected eggs. People become infected when they enter fresh water where the snails live. The worms dig through skin to enter the body. They move into blood passages that supply the intestinal and urinary systems. Then, if worm eggs in human waste enter fresh water, more snails and people become infected. VOICE ONE: Since the nineteen eighties, doctors have used one main drug to treat schistosomiasis. Public health experts worry that the worms will become resistant to this drug, praziquantel. More studies are needed on the experimental drug. The scientists say the results in mice were better than all the targets set by the World Health Organization for new schistosomiasis compounds. They hope the drug will be ready for testing in humans in four to five years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists in the United States say the Grand Canyon is nearly three times as old as earlier estimates. They say they found evidence that the Grand Canyon began forming seventeen million years ago. That is eleven million years earlier than other studies have shown. Geologists at the University of New Mexico carried out the new study. Their findings were published last month in Science magazine. Other scientists say the findings fit with earlier theories about how the Grand Canyon may have been formed. But some experts on Earth's development disagree. They say the study fails to support earlier findings. VOICE ONE: The Grand Canyon is a popular stop for visitors to the southwestern United States. It stretches up to twenty-nine kilometers wide and nearly two kilometers deep. Yet its age has long been an issue of scientific debate. Scientists have often used geologic events to describe the history of the Grand Canyon. Such events have included rock flows and sedimentary rock, or rock formed from other rocks. Generally, this method is only able to confirm ages of rock formations up to one million years ago. VOICE TWO: Instead, the American geologists used a uranium-lead dating method that finds ages of minerals back tens to hundreds of millions of years. They dated minerals from caves at different depths of the canyon’s walls. Minerals from openings on hillsides are less likely to suffer damage from water or other causes of erosion. The uranium-lead dating system helped the geologists estimate water levels over time as river water cut through the rock to form the Grand Canyon. Their findings suggest that the rate of erosion was much slower in the western canyon than in the eastern part. VOICE ONE: Today the Colorado River runs along the four hundred forty-six kilometer long canyon. Based on their findings, the geologists believe a separate river began the formation of the Grand Canyon. They say the canyon started instead from the west by a river about seventeen million years ago. Another river began forming a canyon from the east. Over time, the rivers connected to each other. The geologists estimate the two canyons joined together about six million years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Jill Moss and Mario Ritter. Brianna Blake was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Danger of Desertification
* Byline: Trees are an important way to protect farmland. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Desertification is a process. It changes productive land into useless land. One example of desertification is when a desert spreads into nearby cropland. In time, the cropland becomes an extension of the desert. But that is not the only way farmers lose fertile soil. Long dry periods, warmer temperatures and the removal of trees can all lead to the loss of good cropland. Floods can remove fertile topsoil and begin a process resulting in the loss of planting areas. Another danger to good land is poor farming methods. Farmers should avoid continually planting crops in the same places, or letting animals feed year after year on the same lands. Countries from Guatemala to Greece to Vietnam are working against the loss of cropland. Africa especially faces the risk of desertification. Nigeria, for example, says it loses three hundred fifty thousand hectares of usable land each year. Hills of sand now cover places where people once lived. When cropland turns to desert, people move to other places for better land and better jobs. This migration can cause political and social tensions. A nonprofit organization in Nigeria is working to bring public attention to the problem. The group is called Fighting Against Desert Encroachment, or FADE. ???? Newton Jibunoh is a retired soil engineer who started this group in the year two thousand. He says desert encroachment could cause widespread hunger. Newton Jibunoh is currently leading a delegation to thirteen African countries to discuss the dangers of losing farmlands. In northern Nigeria, the group organized a competition between schools in seven areas. The goal was to see who could plant the most trees. Trees are often cut down for fuel wood. But lines of trees around cropland can catch blowing sand. In addition, tree roots can hold soil in place. Even within a desert, trees can be planted as borders around grassy areas. For many years, China has been building a wall of trees in the northern part of the country. The goal is to stop the Gobi Desert from extending toward Beijing. The Great Green Wall will extend about five thousand kilometers. Completion is expected in two thousand fifty. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For more stories about agriculture, go to voaspecialenglish.com for transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-08-voa4.cfm
* Headline: An English Professor Who Found a Calling in Web Accessibility
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: we're going to repeat a segment from two thousand two. It was an interview with an English professor who, after going blind, devoted his time to making the Internet more accessible. As it turned out, three years later, John Slatin was diagnosed with leukemia, blood cancer. He died last month at the age of fifty-five. Now, in tribute, here again is that segment. ___ AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble has the week off. This week on Wordmaster -- making the Web more welcoming to the disabled. John Slatin is director of the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin. He travels near and far, promoting ways to make the Internet more accessible to persons with disabilities. His fellow frequent flier is Dillon. Dillon, a golden Labrador retriever, is a guide dog for the blind. John Slatin was an adult when he lost most of his sight. Professor Slatin says the key to making a Web page more accessible is what he calls "principled redundancy." John Slatin and DillonJOHN SLATIN: "Rather than just providing the information in one form, say a paragraph or a complex image, you're providing both things. So there's both an image that illustrates a process or an idea or whatever, and a prose description of that same idea, a prose explanation -- so that, for example, a blind person who can't see the image can read the prose description. "Whereas somebody who for whatever reason can't read the prose -- perhaps they have dyslexia or a brain injury that makes it difficult for them to process information in text form, or perhaps they're not familiar or very comfortable with the native language in which the explanation is written -- the image can help them. And you might go even further and add a sound explanation, perhaps somebody saying the same thing or explaining the same idea, and yet a slightly different form." AA: Since the late 1980s, John Slatin has concentrated his teaching and research on information technology. That was a switch from his earlier passion: twentieth-century American poetry. Ironically, John Slatin says the elements that go into making a Web page accessible go against his conventional training as an English teacher. JOHN SLATIN: "We would have talked about that as redundancy and meant something negative about that, whereas now in Web design we're looking for principled ways of allowing the use of multimedia, different media and different formats, to help different people with different needs get to the same idea." AA: "In general, how accessible is the World Wide Web to the disabled?" JOHN SLATIN: "The short answer is, not very. The longer answer is that it depends partly on what kind of disability you have. For people with visual impairments, in particular, it's still a very, very difficult environment to operate in, because it's a very visual medium and a lot of the people who design for it are primarily visual thinkers, and that's what they're focused on. "And so a lot of the work to provide alternatives in text form that the assistive technology that people who are blind use, such as screen readers or talking Web browsers, doesn't have material to work with as often as it should. Or the material isn't of the quality that it needs to be yet." AA: "How difficult is it for a programmer to add some elements that make it more accessible?" JOHN SLATIN: "In many respects making a Web site more accessible to people with disabilities is quite simple. There are easy techniques for associating text material with images, so that, again, screen-reading software or talking Web browsers -- or what are called refreshable Braille displays that some people who are blind, and some people who are both blind and deaf, use -- read the text instead of coming up against a blank wall in the form of an image that they can't process. As the techniques become more familiar, I'm confident that more and more sites will be more accessible." AA: That was from a two thousand interview with University of Texas professor John Slatin. He died on March twenty-fourth after a nearly three-year struggle with leukemia. He was fifty-five years old. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives of our segments are at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-08-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Study Links Midlife Belly Fat to Higher Risk of Dementia
* Byline: New findings suggest that people who are large around the middle in their 40s are more likely to suffer brain disorders in their 70s. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Research suggests that the belly is the worst place to have fat Being overweight can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attacks. But now there may be another reason to lose the fat, especially around the middle of the body. A recent study suggested that people in their forties with belly fat have an increased risk of dementia later in life. Dementia is the name for a group of brain disorders that affect memory, behavior, learning and language. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause. Dementia rarely appears before the age of sixty. The new study added to growing evidence that people with large stomachs can face greater health risks than others who are overweight. The study involved more than six thousand northern California members of Kaiser Permanente, a health care organization. Researchers looked at the patients' medical records from between nineteen sixty-four and nineteen seventy-three. The people were in their early to mid-forties at the time. They were all part of a long-term health study that included measurements of belly fat. The researchers compared the records with those from when the patients were in their seventies. By that time, almost one out of six of them had dementia. The researchers found that dementia was more common in those with wider bellies. Those with the highest belly measurements had almost three times the risk of dementia compared to those with the lowest. Belly size appeared to make a difference even in patients with normal body weight. Belly size is linked to a kind of fat that grows around organs and produces harmful substances. Experts believe that belly fat is more dangerous than other kinds of fat cells that grow just under the skin. The researchers say this is the first study to demonstrate a link between midlife belly fat and the risk of dementia. Still, it is possible that this apparent connection could be the result of a complex set of health-related behaviors. The findings appeared in the journal Neurology. Rachel Whitmer from the Kaiser Permanente research division led the study. She says the findings do not explain why belly fat may be linked to dementia. But she says the study should send a warning. Other research has shown that brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease might begin as early as young adulthood. And another study showed that belly fat in old people was tied to increased loss of brain cells. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Searching for Better Ways to Teach Math in US
* Byline: In 2006, President Bush named a group to advise on improving U.S. mathematics education. Now, the experts say existing research offers few answers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A committee has released its final report on ways to improve math education for American students. President Bush created the National Mathematics Advisory Panel two years ago. The panel examined thousands of reports, along with survey results from more than seven hundred algebra teachers. Yet the report, released last month, is short on detailed advice. It says existing research does not show just what knowledge or skills are needed for effective math teaching. The solution? More research. The report does say basic math skills must be taught completely in the early years of school. Children should be able to add and subtract in the third grade. By the end of fifth grade, they should be able to multiply and divide. Teachers should avoid revisiting skills year after year. And, the experts say, it is wrong to think children are "too young" or "not ready" to learn certain content at certain ages. The report says a major goal for kindergarten through eighth grade should be understanding fractions. These skills are needed for algebra. Yet, the report says, at the present time they seem to be severely underdeveloped in American students. Schools are urged to prepare more students to take algebra by the eighth grade. Many people think math success depends largely on natural talent or ability; the experts say it depends on effort. Studies have shown that children improve in math when they believe that their efforts to learn make them "smarter." The report also calls for strengthening the math preparation of elementary and middle school teachers. And it urges publishers to shorten math textbooks, which are often up to a thousand pages long. The panel said math books are much smaller in many nations where students do better in math than American children. Publishers say American textbooks have to meet the goals of different states for what should be taught in each grade. The report also calls for more research on the effects of using calculators. Many algebra teachers expressed concern about their use in the lower grades. And the report says gifted students who can move through the material much faster than others should be permitted to do so. The math panel says the educational system needs major changes. If not, it warns that the United States will lose the mathematical leadership it possessed during most of the twentieth century. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Loan Crisis Throws New Light on Investment Banks
* Byline: They tried to spread the risk from risky mortgage-backed securities, until the market collapsed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. A house for sale in Cleveland, OhioInvestment banks have long played a part in the financial system. But the recent crisis over securities based on risky home loans has brought them new attention. Investment banks handle stocks, bonds and other securities. They underwrite new offerings. That means they take the risk of buying the securities and reselling them to the public. They also provide business advice and market research, and deal in existing securities. Investment bankers have structured some newer securities in highly complex ways. Their value could be tied to lists of stocks or prices of goods or, as the world now knows, groups of risky home loans. These mortgage-backed securities were sold to investors worldwide as a way to spread the risk. But as more and more loans went bad, the market collapsed. Before the nineteen thirties, the United States had no separation between traditional banking and investment banking activities. Bank holding companies could own other financial companies that would underwrite new stocks. They would also provide stockbroker services for the public. People often bought shares with money borrowed from the banks. Then, in nineteen twenty-nine, the stock market crashed. Between nineteen thirty and nineteen thirty-three almost ten thousand banks failed. Congress passed a banking act in nineteen thirty-three known as the Glass-Steagall Act. It banned commercial banks from buying and selling securities; their job was to pay interest on savings and lend to borrowers. This ban remained until nineteen ninety-nine. That year the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act permitted commercial banks to deal in securities and sell insurance. They can again own investment companies that underwrite securities. Many banks now regret that they got involved with high-risk mortgage securities. The collapse last month of the nation's fifth largest investment bank, Bear Stearns, showed the risks. The International Monetary Fund says total losses related to American subprime mortgages could reach almost one trillion dollars. On March seventeenth, the Federal Reserve started offering loans to investment banks, as it does for other banks. The program will continue for at least six months. The central bank used a power described in section thirteen of the Federal Reserve Act. But this power has not been used since the law was updated in nineteen thirty-two. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Gives General 'All the Time He Needs' to Decide on Iraq Troop Reductions
* Byline: The president agrees with General David Petraeus to suspend further cuts after July for at least 45 days. But soldiers' deployments will return from 15 months to 12 months. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush announced this week that he is not ready to order more troop withdrawals from Iraq. Fifteen months ago, he ordered a temporary increase of thirty thousand troops. The last of those troops return home in July. After that, any withdrawals will be suspended for at least forty-five days while the American commander studies conditions in Iraq. General David Petraeus will decide if further reductions are possible. The president has told General Petraeus that he will have "all the time he needs." But Mister Bush ordered a reduction in future deployment lengths from fifteen months to twelve months. The change will affect Army soldiers going to Iraq and Afghanistan after August first. Deployments were twelve months, but were lengthened a year ago as part of the so-called surge in Iraq. After the extra troops leave, the United States will have about one hundred forty thousand troops in Iraq. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he no longer believes troops levels will drop to one hundred thousand by the time Mister Bush leaves office. President Bush meets with General David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker on ThursdayThe president based his plans on the latest progress reports by General Petraeus and the American ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker. They appeared before lawmakers in Congress this week. The war began in March of two thousand three. Mister Bush said Iraq is the point where "two of the greatest threats to America" come together: al-Qaida and Iran. He said the war is difficult but not endless. And he said he expects that as conditions continue to improve, they will permit him to continue a policy known as return on success. Democratic leaders are demanding answers about when American troops can return home. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the president of lengthening the war. She says he wants to leave the difficult decisions to the next president who replaces him in January. All three leading candidates for the November election returned to Washington to attend this week's hearings on the war. The two Democratic senators fighting for their party's nomination renewed their calls for a withdrawal. Hillary Clinton said it is time to begin an orderly process. Barack Obama called for setting a time period for a withdrawal, to increase pressure on the Iraqis to make political compromises. Senator Obama often notes that he was an early critic of the invasion, while Senator Clinton voted for a war resolution in two thousand two. That was three years before Barack Obama became a senator. Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate, warned against a withdrawal before enough security is established in Iraq. He said it could lead to a civil war with effects across the Middle East. And he said an American failure would most likely require the United States to return to Iraq for a wider and far costlier war. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Langston Hughes, 1902-1967: The African-American Poet was a Leader of the Harlem Renaissance
* Byline: Later in his career, he wrote about people whose lives were affected by racism, violence and poverty. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we finish telling about the life of Langston Hughes, known as the poet voice of African Americans. He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in nineteen-oh-two. His parents separated when he was little. Langston grew up with his grandmother who told him stories about their family’s fight against racial injustice. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with loneliness and a feeling of rejection from his parents. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. As a young man, Langston traveled to Europe and Africa working on ships. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. A few of the writings he sent home were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. VOICE TWO: By nineteen twenty-five, Langston Hughes had returned to the United States and was living in Harlem in New York City. This was during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived there. Hughes discovered a new way of writing poetry, using the rhythms of jazz and blues to support his words. His first collection of poetry, called the “Weary Blues,” was published in nineteen twenty-six. Hughes wrote poetry about the common experiences of black people. People said they could see themselves in the words of his poetry. VOICE ONE: Hughes had worked many different jobs, but wished to make a living as a writer. Wealthy white supporters of the Harlem Renaissance helped Hughes until he could support himself. Critic Carl Van Vechten had helped to get the “The Weary Blues” published. Van Vechten was one of the first to recognize the new styles of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and their importance in African American literature. Another supporter of the arts, Amy Spingarn, gave Hughes money to complete his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Missus Charlotte Mason began supporting Hughes in nineteen twenty-seven. In nineteen thirty, he published a novel, “Not Without Laughter,” that made him very famous. His relationship with Missus Mason ended about the time the book appeared. After that, Hughes sank into a period of intense personal unhappiness. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen thirties, Langston Hughes traveled to Cuba and Haiti. He later traveled across the southern United States, doing poetry readings and trying to sell his books. Hughes was likeable and gained many readers during his visit to the South. He also began to write many different short stories that were published in magazines. In these, he was able to discuss ideas related to black pride, racism and other issues of black life. In nineteen thirty-two, Hughes traveled to the Soviet Union. He became an active supporter of communism. He believed communism was fairer to minorities. During this time, his writing also became more militant. Several of his poems expressed support for social and political protests. Later, his writings began to examine the unfairness of life in America. He wrote about people whose lives were affected by racism and sexual conflicts, violence in the southern United States, Harlem street life, poverty, racism, hunger and hopelessness. VOICE ONE: Hughes wrote one of his most important works in nineteen twenty-six, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”? It spoke of black writers and poets who want to be considered as poets, not black poets. Hughes thought this meant they wanted to write like white poets. He argued there was a need for race pride and artistic independence: VOICE THREE: “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too…If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how. And we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.” VOICE TWO: As his success as a writer grew, Langston Hughes began to explore other ways to spread his message. He wrote children’s stories and several plays. By nineteen forty, he had opened black theater groups in Harlem, Chicago and Los Angeles. While writing for a black newspaper, Hughes created someone called “Jesse B. Semple.” The name “Jesse B. Semple” represented Hughes’s writing style: Just Be Simple. Semple was a common man of the people who “tells it like it is.”? His experiences help other people understand the world in a clearer light. Hughes spoke through his character: (SOUND) Here is more of “Jesse B. Semple” read by Langston Hughes. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was known to be very supportive of young writers and poets. Some said his willingness to help young writers was a result of his unhappy childhood. Wherever he went, from the Caribbean to Africa to Russia, he connected with writers and gave them support. He also translated some of their writings into English and included them in collections he produced. Not everyone praised Hughes’ work. Some critics said his writings were too simple and lacked depth. Some blacks condemned his informal writing style and honest descriptions of black life. They also criticized his use of blues and jazz in his poetry and his expressions of sympathy for working people. However, his supporters praised his straightforward writing style. They said he demonstrated that writing does not have to be complex to be great. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-one, Hughes wrote one of his most successful collections of jazz poetry called, “Montage of a Dream Deferred.”? The poems are expressions of everyday life in Harlem. They take the reader through one complete day and night in Harlem. In some of the poems, Hughes uses a new kind of jazz played in Harlem at the time, called “Be-Bop.”? The poems deal with the problem of being black in America. In “Harlem,” the most famous poem in the collection, he asks: (SOUND: “Montage?of?a Dream Deferred”) VOICE ONE: There were difficult times for Langston Hughes. Conservatives in the United States were suspicious of his ties to extremist movements, his activism, and his support of the Soviet Union for its treatment of minorities. In nineteen-fifty-three, he was forced to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee on subversive activities to explain his interest in communism. Under pressure during the nineteen fifties, Hughes softened the voice of his poems and rejected his militant past. He was criticized later by some black activists for not being militant enough. Hughes continued to write and publish throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties. And he won several important awards during that time. He also taught at Atlanta University and the University of Chicago. VOICE TWO: Hughes died of cancer in nineteen sixty-seven in Harlem, New York. His home on One Hundred Twenty-Seventh Street has been made a national landmark. Experts say Langston Hughes helped to change the sound of American literature. They say he wrote poems the world will always know. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Five Women Honored in Washington for Global Leadership
* Byline: Vital Voices, a nonprofit, presented awards to women from Argentina, Burma, France, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Five women were honored last week in Washington for their efforts to increase the economic and political progress of women. Vital Voices, an international nonprofit organization, presented its Global Leadership Awards to the winners from Argentina, Burma, France, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. Laura Alonso heads a group in Argentina called Poder Ciudadano, or Citizen Power. Its members work to make the government more open. They investigate corruption, observe elections and watch for government influence over the media. They also educate citizens about their rights. Burmese activist Charm Tong received Vital Voices' human rights award, presented by first lady Laura Bush. Charm Tong co-founded the Shan Women’s Action Network. In a report six years ago, the group detailed how the Burmese military uses rape as a weapon against women and girls. Charm Tong also helped establish a school for ethnic Shan young people whose families live in exile in Thailand. Author and journalist Mariane Pearl of France was recognized for writing about women who work for change in their countries. She also wrote a book about the death of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. He was kidnapped and killed in Pakistan in two thousand two. Actress and activist Angelina Jolie presented the award; she played Mariane Pearl in the film version of the book. Another winner, Kakenya Ntaiya of Kenya, travels widely as the first youth adviser to the United Nations Population Fund. She speaks about girls' education as a way to end child marriage and the painful custom in some cultures of cutting the sex organs of girls. She agreed to follow this tradition if her father would let her finish high school instead of getting married. Then she persuaded leaders in her rural village to help send her to college in the United States. Kakenya Ntaiya expects to receive a doctorate in education next year. She plans to return to Kenya to establish a school for girls. The final winner was Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi in the United Arab Emirates. In two thousand four she became the first woman appointed as a finance minister in the Middle East. Now she heads a newly formed ministry of foreign trade. She is also a businesswoman and works with information technology. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New York Yankees Leaving Famed Ballpark, but Won't Be Moving Far
* Byline: Yankee Stadium, which opened April 18, 1923, is being replaced with a new one across the street. The Mets, the city's other Major League Baseball team, are also getting a new stadium. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm?Steve Ember. ?Another baseball season is here. This will be the final season for one of the best-known ballparks in America. This week on our program, we tell you the story of the House That Ruth Built. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Babe Ruth hit home runs farther and more often than any player before himThe House That Ruth Built is the popular name for Yankee Stadium, the home of the New York Yankees. Ruth was Babe Ruth. His playing made the Yankees so popular, they built the stadium. Yankee Stadium is in the Bronx area of New York City. Babe Ruth hit the first home run in the stadium on the day it opened: April eighteenth, nineteen twenty-three. That day, the Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox, four to one. Babe Ruth had played for Boston. But the Red Sox traded him to the Yankees after the nineteen nineteen season. It was a decision the Red Sox would soon regret. In nineteen twenty Babe Ruth hit more than fifty home runs. VOICE TWO: Over the years, the Babe set many baseball records. Tradition says he also changed history for the Yankees and the Red Sox. The Yankees had not played in a World Series until he joined the team. Since then, they have won a record twenty-six championships. The Red Sox had been one of the most successful teams in baseball before Babe Ruth left. After that, Boston played in four World Series and lost them all. Fans in Boston and New York called it "The Curse of the Bambino." Bambino is Italian for baby. It was also another nickname for Babe Ruth, who was born George Herman Ruth. VOICE ONE: Finally, in two thousand four, the supposed curse ended after more than eighty years. The Red Sox defeated the Yankees for the American League championship. Then Boston won the World Series that year against the Saint Louis Cardinals. And the Red Sox are currently the defending major league champions. They defeated the Colorado Rockies four games to none in last year's World Series. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This is the eighty-sixth season the Yankees have played in Yankee Stadium. It was standing-room only as more than fifty-five thousand people watched them defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in the season opener on April first. The game was supposed to be played the day before, but got rained out. Former Yankee hitter Reggie Jackson threw out the first pitch. He was known as "Mister October" because that was when he played his best, during championship seasons. Reggie Jackson was a Yankee hero in the nineteen seventy-seven World Series. He hit three home runs in Yankee Stadium during the sixth game of that series. VOICE ONE: Eighty-two year old Yogi Berra was also at Yankee Stadium for opening day. He was the Yankees' catcher from nineteen forty-six to nineteen sixty-three. He played in fourteen World Series. He later became a manager and coach for several teams and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Today many people know him for his "Yogi-isms" -- statements like "It ain't over till it's over" and "You can observe a lot by watching." But as a player he may be remembered best for catching a perfect game in Yankee Stadium during the nineteen fifty-six World Series. He jumped into the arms of pitcher Don Larsen to celebrate the no-hitter. VOICE TWO: An area of the outfield at Yankee Stadium is known as Monument Park. There are stone monuments and plaques honoring players and team officials. The players include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. They also include Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and Roger Maris. He hit sixty-one home runs in nineteen sixty-one. That broke Babe Ruth's record of sixty home runs in one season. VOICE ONE: The first monument in Monument Park dates from nineteen thirty-two. It honors Miller Huggins, manager of the team for eleven seasons. His Yankees won three World Series. Another manager honored in Monument Park is Casey Stengel. He led the Yankees to seven championships. A special monument honors the New Yorkers killed in the terrorist attacks on their city on September eleventh, two thousand one. VOICE TWO: Yankees radio announcer Mel Allen is also honored in Monument Park. He was the voice of the Yankees for twenty-five years. He was known for his way of calling a home run: MEL ALLEN: "Swung on and hit, that ball is going, going, gone!" VOICE ONE: Baseball's All-Star Game will take place this year at Yankee Stadium in July. Over the years, the ballpark has also been used for other sports as well as religious and political gatherings, concerts and more. This coming Sunday, Pope Benedict will become the third leader of the world's Roman Catholics to celebrate Mass at Yankee Stadium. The others were Pope John Paul the Second in nineteen seventy-nine and Pope Paul the Sixth in nineteen sixty-five. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-eight, one of the most famous boxing matches of all time was held at Yankee Stadium. Joe Louis knocked out Max Schmeling in the first round to win the world heavyweight championship. The New York Giants of the National Football League played at Yankee Stadium from nineteen fifty-six to nineteen seventy-three. They settled into their own stadium in nineteen seventy-six. They are still called the New York Giants even though they play in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-six, lights were added to Yankee Stadium so games could be played at night. In nineteen seventy-three, after its fiftieth anniversary, the stadium was rebuilt. The project took two years. During that time the Yankees played at Shea Stadium, the home of the Mets, New York's other Major League Baseball team. Some fans liked the nineteen twenty-three Yankee Stadium better. But the rebuilt ballpark was designed to give fans a better view of the field. The changes reduced the number of seats. The original stadium had sixty-five thousand wooden seats. It was rebuilt with fifty-four thousand wider seats made of plastic. VOICE TWO: The new Yankee Stadium is going up across the street from the existing one. It will be almost two-thirds larger, with more space for food, stores, even an art gallery. Yet it will hold fewer people. The new Yankee Stadium will seat about fifty-three thousand people. Fans are being promised improved sight lines for watching games. The big video screen will be six times larger, and the sound system will also be improved. The billion-dollar ballpark is to open next year at this time. Yankee officials say it will continue to honor team history but will provide what they call a modern fan experience. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The New York Yankees play in the American League; the New York Mets play in the National League. From time to time they play each other. The cross-town rivals met in the World Series in two thousand. The Yankees won the major league championship. That was the last time the Yankees have won a World Series. They returned to the series twice more, but lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Florida Marlins. This year, the Yankees have a new manager, Joe Girardi, a former Yankee player. And they are getting ready to say goodbye to the House That Ruth Built. But the Yankees are not the only players in New York who will be moving. VOICE TWO: The Mets will also play on a new field next year. This is their final season in Shea Stadium which will also be torn down. It was built in the nineteen sixties and was designed for baseball and football. The new home of the Yankees will still be called Yankee Stadium. But the new home of the Mets will be called Citi Field. Citibank will pay twenty million dollars a year for naming rights. The new ballpark is being built next to the existing one in the Queens part of the city. New stadiums these days offer expanded services for people with more money to spend. This will be true for the new ballparks in New York. But the teams say games will not be priced out of reach of average fans. VOICE ONE: When the Yankees lose a game, they play the version of the song "New York, New York" sung by Liza Minnelli over the loudspeakers. And when they win? They play the version sung by Frank Sinatra. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fighting a Food Crisis That Threatens to Spread Hunger and Unrest
* Byline: High grain prices are hitting the poor the hardest, and leading to protests and riots in the developing world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A burning barricade in Port-au-Prince, HaitiFood inflation has led to growing protests in developing countries. In Haiti, the government fell Saturday after riots in which several people died. Some rice-producing countries have cut exports to protect their own supplies. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said last week that rice prices have risen around seventy-five percent in just two months, to near historical levels. Wheat prices have risen one hundred twenty percent in the past year. Senegal has had repeated protests over food pricesFarmers are planting more wheat and rice. But population growth is raising demand. So is the use of food crops to produce biofuels. At the same time, record oil prices have meant higher costs for petroleum-based fertilizers and for energy and transportation. Food also costs more because more people are eating meat and dairy products in growing economies like India and China. More grain is going to feed cattle. Weather has also pushed up prices. For example, Australia, a major wheat exporter, faces a drought. High food prices hit the poor the hardest. Agricultural economist Christopher Barrett at Cornell University says many poor farmers use more of their crops than they sell. He says more investment is needed in agricultural research. What is needed, says another expert, Gerald Nelson at the University of Illinois, is another Green Revolution to increase productivity. World Bank President Robert Zoellick holds up bread as he speaks to reportersThis past weekend, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank held their spring meetings in Washington. The bank president said hunger, malnutrition and food policy were a central issue. The United Nations World Food Program has appealed for five hundred million dollars by May first. Bob Zoellick said donor countries had promised almost half of the money, but that was not enough. He said a doubling of food prices over the last three years could push one hundred million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty. And that could hurt future generations. I.M.F. chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the real problem is a food deficit which will probably last for years. He says it can be argued that there are good reasons, connected to climate change, to try to push countries to substitute some kind of biofuel for oil. But he says nations have to balance the production of biofuel from food crops with biofuel from nonfood resources. Some of the finance ministers in Washington said using food for fuel is a crime against humanity. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rising Temperatures Blamed for Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse
* Byline: Also: Scientists find evidence of an ancient flying reptile. And a study uncovers the secrets of DEET. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we will tell about a large piece of ice breaking away from Antarctica. We also tell about a study of human emotions and discovery of an ancient flying reptile. We also have new information about a product widely used to prevent insect bites. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: These satellite images show the Wilkins Ice Shelf as it began to break up. The large image is from March 6; the images at right, from top to bottom, are from February 28, February 29 and March 8.Satellite images show that a large piece of Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf has collapsed. Scientists are blaming rising temperatures for the break-up of the four hundred square-kilometer piece of ice. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is an area of huge, thick ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula. It is about one thousand miles south of South America. The satellite images came from America's National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. The images show the ice began moving away from the ice shelf on February twenty-eighth. After seeing the pictures, scientists flew over the area. They saw huge pieces of broken ice floating in all directions. VOICE TWO: A large part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf is now being supported by a thin piece of ice. Some scientists say the ice shelf could completely break up within a few years. However, it is expected to survive until next year because summer is now ending in Antarctica. The Arctic Peninsula has experienced warming conditions over the past half century. Several ice shelves have collapsed during the past thirty years. Six of them have collapsed completely. VOICE ONE: Ice shelves float on seawater, but are connected to land. They are made of fresh water that once fell as snow. Scientists believe the recent activity in the Wilkins Ice Shelf will not have an immediate effect. Since ice shelves are already floating, their break-up does not affect sea levels. But glaciers are different. They sit on land. Ice shelves are able to prevent some glaciers from sliding into the ocean. These glaciers can begin moving at a faster rate after ice shelves break apart. If large amounts of ice slide into the sea at a high rate of speed, new mass is added to the ocean. This, scientists say, can raise the world’s sea levels. Rising sea levels can lead to coastal flooding. Some scientists have urged that more be done to limit the effects of human-caused climate change. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age is a common experience. Two economists carried out the study. They are Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations. Their study is being reported this month in the publication Social Science and Medicine. The economists found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life. That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Happiness levels are highest when people are young and when they are old. In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels decrease. VOICE ONE: Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others. But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, and to those with and without children. Generally, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five. But then, as they become older, their happiness starts to climb back up. What the research does not show is why all this happens. Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams. Or perhaps people who are happier live longer, and this is responsible for a growing percentage of happy older people. Or, he says, maybe people have seen others their age die and they value more their own remaining years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Researchers have found remains of a small, flying reptile that existed about one hundred twenty million years ago. The researchers say it was about the size of a modern bird -- the sparrow. The reptile was not fully developed when it died. But neither was it a newborn or just hatched from an egg. Scientists had not known about the ancient creature before its fossils were discovered in northeastern China. Researchers from Brazil and China published their discovery in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. VOICE ONE: The researchers named the reptile Nemicolopterus crypticus. The name describes a hidden flying creature that lived in forests. The researchers say its bone structure is almost complete. From wing to wing, the reptile measured only two hundred fifty millimeters. The wings were covered with skin instead of feathers. Because the skeleton was almost complete, the researchers described it as one of the smallest lizards with wings ever found. The reptile looked like a flying mouse. But it shared a common ancestor with dinosaurs. The researchers say some foot bones make Nemicolopterus crypticus different from other reptiles. They believe the shape of the bones shows it lived mainly in treetops. They say the creature had no teeth. But it could eat insects. VOICE TWO: Researcher Alexander Kellner works at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University. He says the animal probably lived in what is now eastern China. The remains were found in a rocky inland area. The surroundings are rich in fossils of its kind. Others were found nearby. Nemicolopterus crypticus belonged to the scientific group called Pterosaurs. The group's biggest member was called Quetzalcoatlus. From wing to wing, it measured eleven meters. That wingspan made it one of the biggest of animals that could fly. The Quetzalcoatlus were also the first animals with backbones to fly. ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Finally, we have new findings about an old method for keeping away insects. Scientists have uncovered the molecular workings of DEET, the most widely used product for preventing insect bites. The scientists say their findings could lead to improved products that are safe enough for children to use. Fifty years ago, the United States Army and Department of Agriculture developed DEET to protect soldiers from disease-carrying insects. Since then, it has been used to guard against blood-sucking insects, like mosquitoes carrying malaria. DEET has been shown to work on almost all insects, including ticks, which spread Lyme disease. VOICE TWO: Until recently, no one had explained exactly how the product keeps insects away from skin. Some people thought that because DEET’s strong smell is not pleasing to human beings, it also smelled bad to insects. But the new study shows that DEET temporarily interferes with an insect’s ability to smell. Leslie Vosshall is a professor of neurogenetics at Rockefeller University in New York. She was the lead investigator of the study. Her team carried out experiments with mosquitoes and fruit flies. She says they discovered proteins in the antennae of both insects that identify several smells. The antennae help the insects identify smells, including those of human breath and sweat. As a result, the insects are able to identify human beings as food. VOICE ONE: Professor Vosshall says DEET works by stopping some of the smell proteins, or receptors, in the antennae. When insects come in contact with DEET, they are no longer able to guide themselves to their target. She says the insects do not bite people wearing DEET because they cannot smell them. Other studies have suggested that DEET affects the smelling abilities of insects. But the new study is the first to identify DEET’s molecular targets. DEET is widely used and found in more than one hundred products. It is not considered dangerous when placed on clothing and unprotected arms and legs. But DEET is not advised for young children, especially those under two months old. Concerns about possible health risks have led scientists to work on improvements. Professor Vosshall says the new information about DEET could help in the development of other, safer products. She says such products could even be used on babies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was also our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Five Building Designers Who Are Redefining Modern Architecture
* Byline: Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind make imaginative and striking buildings. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five important building designers widely considered some of the top architects at work today. They are Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, and Daniel Libeskind. They have all created important examples of modern architecture in very different ways. You can see their energizing and imaginative contributions to modern design in buildings around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The writings and buildings of American architect Robert Venturi have helped redefine The Vanna Venturi house in Philadelphiathe path of modern architecture since the nineteen sixties. The Vanna Venturi house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was one of his first important projects. Venturi designed the house for his mother in nineteen sixty-two. He has said that the house is complex and full of contradictions. For example, the house is small, but it has large details that make it seem big. And, the house is modern while also containing details from traditional architecture. VOICE TWO: In his buildings and writings, Robert Venturi calls for a kind of modern architecture that shows the influences of history while also including popular culture. He rejected the kind of modern design that was pure and simple in favor of a modern look that was a mixture of styles and influences. His writings helped begin what is often called the post-modern movement. VOICE ONE: Examples of his buildings include the addition to the National Gallery in London, England. Venturi designed this large building on Trafalgar Square as a more modern version of the museum’s nineteenth century main building. His other museum projects include the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, California and the Seattle Museum of Art in Washington. Venturi also designed buildings at many American colleges, including Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Frank Gehry grew up in Canada. In his free time as a child, he would make small versions of buildings out of pieces of wood. In nineteen forty-seven, his family moved to the United States, where Gehry began his university studies in architecture. Frank Gehry believes that architecture is art. He has said that in some ways he has been more influenced by artists and sculptors than by architects. This may be why his buildings often look like energetic sculptures made from bold geometric forms. VOICE ONE: Famous examples of his designs include the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, finished in nineteen-eighty nine. His “Dancing House” is in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. This playful building, finished in nineteen ninety-six, looks like two dancers. Gehry’s most famous building is the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao in Spain which was completed in nineteen ninety-seven. Most of the curving building is covered in titanium. It looks like a dancing metal wave sitting on the edge of a river. The curved surfaces of this building and others by Gehry are so complex to build that they require computer programs. VOICE TWO: More recently, Frank Gehry designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. This huge metal covered building was designed to look like the sails of a boat. Frank Gehry’s buildings are so popular that some people say they create a “Gehry effect.” This term is used for a building that attracts visitors because of the famous architect who designed it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We have described some famous buildings around the world that are architectural wonders. You might not think that a parking area near a tram station would be a project of one of the most famous names in modern architecture. But the car park and terminus in Strasbourg, France are a good example of the skill and creativity of Zaha Hadid. This parking area for seven hundred cars is a play of energetic lines. Nearby, the futuristic tram station is made up of sharp angles and geometric shapes. VOICE TWO: Zaha Hadid has designed other striking buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio. For this boldly boxy design, she created an entry walkway area that slowly curves and becomes a wall inside the building. Hadid is known for designing and completing structures that seem almost impossible on paper. She says that architecture is clearly about shelter, but it must also bring pleasure. VOICE ONE: Born in Iraq, Zaha Hadid completed her architectural studies in Britain, where she now lives. In two thousand four, Hadid became the first woman to win the important Pritzker Prize for architecture. Thomas Pritzker presented the award. He said that her work organizes land, space, structure, and person so that each is inseparable from the other, and each calls to the other. Current projects of Hadid and her architects include the Glasgow Transport Museum in Scotland and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tadao Ando is a Japanese architect who has mainly worked in and around his city of Osaka. Ando never studied for a degree in architecture. Instead, he taught himself about modern architecture by visiting buildings and reading books. Tadao Ando’s first projects were houses. In nineteen ninety-three he won Japan’s Culture Design Prize for the Rokko housing project. These simple but striking concrete houses are built along the side of a hill overlooking Osaka Bay. VOICE ONE: Ando is known for using unfinished reinforced concrete as a building material. And he is known for making buildings with simple designs that are closely connected to the natural environment. Tadao Ando says that when you create a building, you cannot simply put something new in a place. He says you have to understand what you see around you, what is on the land. He says you must use that knowledge along with modern thinking to plan a building design. VOICE TWO: Ando also built the Church of Light. This religious building in Osaka is very simple in its design, but very beautiful. The main room is made of concrete. There is nothing on the walls except an opening in the concrete. The opening creates two bars of light in the form of a cross. In two thousand two, his Modern Art Museum opened in Fort Worth, Texas. The building is so striking that you have to remind yourself to also look at the art. The concrete and glass museum is built next to a body of water, so it almost seems to float. The glass walls let natural light into the space while also allowing visitors to look out across the water to see the city. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A part of the Jewish Museum, BerlinDaniel Libeskind was born in Poland, but grew up in the United States. He began his career as a teacher of building design. Libeskind’s first project was the new building of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, which opened to the public in two thousand one. It is a zinc-covered building made up of bold bending lines and sharp angles. Many areas of the building were designed to represent different parts of Jewish history and culture. Libeskind has said that architecture is about communicating. He says that he built this museum to tell a complex story in many different ways. VOICE TWO: His extension to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada opened in June of last year. The sharp angles of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal building make it look like a large glass and aluminum gem. The five interlocking spaces of this building required very complex engineering skills to create. Daniel Libeskind also has many projects in the United States. The tall extensions of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado are covered in silver-colored titanium metal. Libeskind says the building was influenced by the light and environment of the nearby Rocky Mountains. Libeskind and his team of architects are currently working on an apartment building in Covington, Kentucky and a shopping center in Las Vegas, Nevada. His Creative Media Centre at the City University of Hong Kong in China is expected to be finished in two thousand ten. VOICE ONE: We did not have time to talk about all the other imaginative architects at work today. But the designs of Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, and Daniel Libeskind are a good start for learning about the exciting world of modern building design. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Chinese Say Son With Bird Flu Likely Infected Father
* Byline: An update on recent developments involving the H5N1 virus. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers in China have reported on a rare human-to-human case of bird flu. They say it is likely that a twenty-four year old man in the eastern province of Jiangsu infected his father last December. They believe it happened while the father cared for the son in a hospital. The son died. The father lived. Government researchers say genetic tests showed almost identical forms of the H5N1 virus in the two men. Ninety-one other people came in close contact with them but did not get infected. The report appeared last week in the Lancet medical journal. On April third, the World Health Organization said a family in Pakistan showed a high probability of human-to-human infection in a case last year. In that case, an animal doctor was infected with the avian flu virus when he helped destroy diseased birds in Peshawar. His three brothers became infected later although they had no contact with diseased birds. Gregory Hartl is a project leader in the W.H.O.’s Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response office in Geneva. He says experts can never confirm one hundred percent that human-to-human infection with the virus has taken place. But he says there seems to have been at least six cases, including the ones in Pakistan and China in two thousand seven. Scientists worry that the virus might change over time into a form that passes easily among humans. In other developments, Egypt reported its third death from H5N1 in the last two weeks. Health officials said a thirty year old woman got sick on April second. She was taken to a hospital seven days later. She was the twenty-second person to die from the virus in Egypt. Health officials destroy birds on a farm in Muan, South Korea, to fight the spread of bird flu South Korea this month reported new outbreaks in birds. And the United States health secretary urged Indonesia to cooperate more with the World Health Organization to share virus samples. Mike Leavitt spoke Monday in Jakarta. He noted that many life-saving vaccines have resulted from international cooperation. Indonesia has had the most deaths of any country from H5N1, more than one hundred people. But it wants the right to approve any drug company's use of virus samples from Indonesia. Indonesia also wants guarantees that poor countries would be able to get low-cost vaccines developed from their samples. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Music of Jack Johnson: Deeply Personal, and Powered by the Sun
* Byline: Also: The winner of this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, Jean Nouvel of France. And the deeply personal music of Jack Johnson. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I’m Doug Johnson. Today we play music from Jack Johnson … Answer a listener question about the Amish people … And report on the winner of a major prize for architecture. (MUSIC) Pritzker Architecture Prize HOST: The Pritzker Architecture Prize is widely considered one of the most important honors a building designer can receive. It is given by the Hyatt Foundation of Los Angeles, California. Every year a jury of building experts chooses the winner. This year, the prize went to the French architect Jean Nouvel. Barbara Klein tells us about this inventive architect. BARBARA KLEIN: As you walk along the Seine River in Paris, France, you might see a striking building covered with colorful boxes and walls with growing plants. The Quai Branly Museum houses a large collection of art from different areas of Africa and Asia. The French architect Jean Nouvel designed this building. The Pritzker jury said Nouvel’s work is a brave exploration of new ideas that has stretched the limits of architectural design. Jean Nouvel at his office in ParisJean Nouvel has designed two other museums in Paris, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Arab World Institute. Windows on one side of the Arab World Institute are covered in metal sheets that have been cut with complex designs. The metal surfaces open and close depending on the strength of the sunshine outside. The design is both traditional and modern, beautiful and useful. Nouvel has said that context is the most important part of his buildings. He does not design a building just to look good. Instead, he studies the culture, place, and requirements of the building so that it fits in well with its environment and is useful. More recently, Jean Nouvel designed the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This building has an industrial style that is very modern and inventive. One part of the building extends over the Mississippi River. Jean Nouvel is currently working on several new projects. These include a “Tour de Verre” building with many levels in New York City. Another new project is the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum in the United Arab Emirates. He will also be building a tall apartment building in the Century City area of Los Angeles, California. Jean Nouvel is expected to accept his Pritzker Prize in June at a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Amish HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Bayo Ogunsola wants to know about the Amish people and where they came from. Two Amish plowing a fieldThe most current government population studies show there are about two hundred thousand Amish people in the United States. Amish immigrants began arriving from Germany and Switzerland in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. They were expelled from their home countries or chose to leave because of religious oppression. Most settled in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Today, Ohio has the largest Amish population. Amish people live in nineteen other American states and in Ontario, Canada. Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country. About sixteen to eighteen thousand Old Order Amish live there. Dutch is a name for people from the Netherlands, yet many of the Amish came from Germany. Old stories say they were called “Dutch” because English colonists could not say the correct word, “Deutsch.”? But language experts now say that people in England often used the term Dutch to mean German. The Amish continue to speak a version of German. However, children learn English in their schools. Many Amish communities live as their ancestors did long ago. They do not use cars, electricity, telephones, televisions or other common devices. They use horses for agriculture and transportation. They heat their houses by burning wood. They get their water from wells. The Amish Christian religion is based on the idea of total surrender to God. They are pacifists – opposed to violence and war. They do not want to be part of American society, which they call “English.”? Most Amish people are easy to recognize. The women wear long, dark-colored dresses. They cover their hair with white cloth hats. The men wear black clothing and dark hats. They grow long beards. Most Amish couples have many children. Communities usually have their own small schools and children complete their studies in eighth grade. Most Amish families work together in their fields to grow crops. They also raise farm animals. The Amish make their own furniture and clothing. Amish women are famous around the world for making beautiful bed covers called quilts. The Amish community works together to build houses or barns for their people. They also gather for religious services. The Amish permit few differences among their own people. They continue to live separate from the world around them. Jack Johnson HOST: Jack Johnson is a singer and songwriter known for his smooth voice and calming songs. His most recent album is “Sleep Through the Static.”? It is filled with personal songs about love, family and life. And this new album is also environmentally friendly. Shirley Griffith has more. (MUSIC) SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Jack Johnson wrote that song, "Angel," for his wife, Kim. When they met in college, Johnson was not a professional musician. In fact, he used to be a professional surfer who rode ocean waves on a surfboard. Johnson has said that he started writing music and playing the guitar after a surfing accident. He later wrote several songs for a movie he made about surfing. Today, the Johnsons divide their time between homes in California and Hawaii. Here is the song “Go On.” Jack Johnson expresses what it is like to watch his two young sons grow up. (MUSIC) Jack Johnson may be a famous musician, but he does not like to lead a very public life. He likes to spend time with his family doing sports outdoors. Johnson is also very involved in environmental activism. Five years ago, he and his wife started the Kokua Hawaii Foundation to provide environmental education to schoolchildren. Jack Johnson’s new album represents another environmental effort. The entire album was made using energy power from the sun in his environmentally friendly recording studio. This spring Jack Johnson will travel around Australia, New Zealand and Japan to perform his music. We leave you with the song “They Do, They Don’t.” (MUSIC HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also the producer. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Pope Says World Must Intervene If Nations Do Not Protect Human Rights
* Byline: Benedict speaks to United Nations during first official visit to U.S.; earlier, in Washington, he met with victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Pope Benedict this week made his first visit to the United States since being elected leader of the Roman Catholic Church three years ago. Pope Benedict in New York before the United Nations General AssemblyPresident Bush met the pope on his arrival Tuesday from Rome. After events in Washington, including his eighty-first birthday, Benedict flew to New York City on Friday for three days there. He said in a speech to the United Nations that all nations have a duty to protect people from human rights violations and humanitarian crises. If states are unable to guarantee such protection, he said, then the international community must intervene. He said supporting human rights remains the most effective way to eliminate inequalities between countries and social groups, and to increase security. Catholics are the largest single religious group in the United States. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated that almost one-fourth of adults belong to the church. A large number of American Catholics, however, have left the church or dissented from its teachings. Yet, in the last thirty years, the share of Catholics in America has remained almost unchanged. This is mainly because of Catholic immigrants, mostly from Latin America. Throughout the week, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth expressed regret about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy. He said the abuse has caused great suffering for the church in America and for him personally. He said the situation has sometimes been handled very badly. The American church says almost fourteen thousand claims of abuse have been brought against Catholic clergy since nineteen fifty. So far, the church has paid more than two billion dollars to victims, largely in the last six years. On Thursday the pope met with several victims and apologized to them. Reaction to the meeting was mixed. Some activists said it was just for show; others said it was an important step. Now, we answer a question. Sholeh from Indonesia wants to know how religions compare in size in the United States. That recent study said almost eight out of ten adults are Christian. Catholics are the largest Christian group. More than half of Christians are Protestant, but the Protestant tradition has many different denominations. The study said less than two percent of adults in the United States are Jewish and six-tenths of one percent are Muslim. Among other religions, Buddhists and Hindus also each represent less than one percent. The researchers found that sixteen percent of American adults do not identify with any religion. And they said a surprisingly high number of Americans change religions. The study found that more than one-fourth of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion. That jumps to forty-four percent if it includes movement from one Protestant denomination to another. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Charlton Heston, 1923-2008: An Actor Famous for Playing Heroic Roles
* Byline: He was also involved in social and political issues. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about actor Charlton Heston. He is best known for playing powerful and heroic leaders in movies such as “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur.” Heston had a strong face and body that could express great physical and emotional force. Heston made about one hundred movies during his sixty-year career. He was also known for his social and political activism. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Charlton Heston was born John Carter in nineteen twenty-three in Evanston, Illinois. He spent his early childhood in Saint Helen, Michigan. His parents ended their marriage when he was a boy. Later, he decided to change his name. He took the last name of his mother’s second husband, Heston. And, for his first name he used his mother’s former last name, Charlton. Charlton Heston discovered his interest in acting while performing in plays at his high school. He later spent two years studying theater at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. But he left college to join the Army Air Forces during World War Two. In nineteen forty-four he married a college classmate, Lydia Clarke. VOICE TWO: The young couple moved to New York City after the war. They tried to find acting jobs. Heston found small roles in the theater as well as in television shows. His performance in a television version of the book “Jane Eyre” caught the attention of the Hollywood producer Hal B. Wallis. Wallis gave Heston a role in the movie “Dark City," which came out in nineteen fifty. The actor soon found other roles in movies including “The Greatest Show on Earth” directed by Cecil B. DeMille. DeMille later asked Heston to play the role of Moses in his movie “The Ten Commandments” which came out in nineteen fifty-six. Heston played the Egyptian prince who learns his true identity and leads the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land. This role made Heston famous and defined his career as a hero and leader. "The Ten Commandments" was long, very costly and had many special effects. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-eight Heston starred in “Touch of Evil.”? He played a Mexican drug investigator. Orson Welles also had an acting role in this film. Heston persuaded Universal Studios to hire Welles to direct the movie. "Touch of Evil" has since become a great example of the kind of crime movie known as "film noir." The nineteen fifty-nine movie “Ben-Hur” made Charlton Heston an even bigger star. He played a Jewish man named Judah Ben-Hur who is imprisoned unjustly and rebels against the rule of Rome in ancient Judea. The movie is most famous for a long scene in which Ben-Hur competes in an exciting chariot race against a Roman commander he considers his enemy. Recreating such a large event on film required a great amount of money and technical skill. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Many actors would have used a professional stunt man to carry out such a dangerous activity as a chariot race. But Charlton Heston did much of the work himself. He trained for weeks to learn how to skillfully lead a team of speeding horses. After Ben-Hur wins the chariot race, he speaks with Esther, the woman he loves. She wants him to forget about his hatred towards the Roman government in power. (SOUND) ESTHER: Oh Judah, rest, sleep. For a few hours of the night, let your mind be at peace. JUDAH: Peace? Love and peace! Do you think I don’t long for them as much as you do? Where did you see them? ESTHER: If you had heard this man from Nazareth… Esther tells Judah about having listened to the teachings of the prophet Jesus. JUDAH: Children of God? In that dead valley where we left them? I tell you every man in Judea is unclean and will stay unclean until we’ve scoured off our bodies the crust and filth of being at the mercy of tyranny. No other life is possible except to wash this land clean. ESTHER: In blood? JUDAH: Yes, in blood! VOICE ONE: At the time, "Ben-Hur" was one of the most costly and complex movies ever made. It cost MGM Studios fifteen million dollars to produce. The popularity of the movie alone helped improve the financial situation of the studio. "Ben-Hur" won eleven Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Charlton Heston. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen fifties and sixties, many actors used "Method acting" to produce a believable performance. Actors like Marlon Brando would explore their personal emotions and experiences to create a realistic character. Charlton Heston chose instead to use objects in real life to build a character. For example, he would think about the way his character looked and what clothes the character would wear. Heston studied intensely to understand his characters. For example, in the movie “The Agony and the Ecstasy” Heston played the role of the sixteenth century Italian artist Michelangelo. Heston learned how to paint and sculpt so that he could realistically imitate the artist’s actions. He also studied the hundreds of letters written by Michelangelo to more fully understand the artist’s personality. VOICE ONE: Heston starred in many adventure movies during the nineteen sixties. His face and body represented strength, manliness and heroism in many different roles. He played cowboys, soldiers, athletes. His movies included “El Cid”, “Khartoum”, and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.”? In the science fiction film “Planet of the Apes” he played an astronaut who is enslaved by a society of intelligent and powerful non-human rulers. (SOUND) GEORGE TAYLOR: Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape! VOICE TWO: In the nineteen seventies, Heston appeared in popular disaster movies like "Earthquake," "Skyjacked" and "Airport 1975."? Charlton Heston once said that over his career he played three presidents, three holy men and two artistic geniuses. He joked that if that did not make a person feel self-important then nothing would. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Throughout his life, Charlton Heston was active in social and political causes. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, he worked to defend civil rights. In nineteen sixty-three he helped gather artists to participate in the March on Washington, D.C. to demand racial equality. It was at this historic event that the civil rights leader, Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Mister Heston was a very public supporter of Doctor King. VOICE TWO: Charlton Heston was also very active in the movie industry. He was president of the Screen Actors Guild for six years starting in nineteen sixty-five. He also worked to help establish the American Film Institute. In nineteen seventy-seven he was honored for his service in the industry. He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He later received other awards for his lifetime of work. In nineteen ninety-seven he was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor. And, in two thousand three, President Bush gave Charlton Heston a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. VOICE ONE: Later in his life, Heston became more socially and politically conservative. He supported Republican Party politicians. And he became known for actively opposing laws to control the private ownership of guns. In nineteen ninety-eight Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association. This organization works to oppose gun control laws. It considers the right to own a gun an important civil right guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Charlton Heston became famous for a speech he gave for the N.R.A. in two thousand. He held up a large rifle used in the seventeen hundreds. He said the only way the government could take away his gun was from his "cold, dead hands." Heston wrote about his opinions in books including “In the Arena” and “To Be a Man: Letters to My Grandson.” VOICE TWO: In two thousand, Charlton Heston issued a statement announcing that he had a nerve disorder whose signs were like Alzheimer's disease. He died in two thousand eight at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was eighty-four years old. The memory of Charlton Heston will live on in the powerful heroes he brought to life in his movies. His style of acting and the movies he made represent a special period in the history of Hollywood. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Seven Win Goldman Environmental Prize
* Byline: This year's winners are from Ecuador, Mozambique, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Russia and Belgium. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. This Tuesday is Earth Day. On April twenty-second, nineteen seventy, millions of Americans took part in activities to bring attention to the environment. Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin had called for a huge protest against pollution and other threats. An environmental movement was born, and Earth Day is now observed around the world. Last week, the seven winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize were announced in San Francisco, California. Winners are chosen from each part of the world. The winners of the Goldman Prize for South and Central America are Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza in Ecuador. The two men are leading a major legal case against the Chevron oil company. It involves petroleum pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon between nineteen sixty-four and nineteen ninety. The case was brought against Texaco; Chevron bought that company in two thousand one. The winner of this year's Goldman Prize for Africa is Feliciano dos Santos in Mozambique. He and his band, Massukos, use traditional music to educate villagers about the importance of clean water. He also works to bring better sanitation to poor villages. The prize winner for islands and island nations is Rosa Hilda Ramos of Puerto Rico. She is leading a movement to protect the Las Cucharillas Marsh from factory pollution. The wetland area is one of the last open spaces near San Juan’s community of Catano. The Goldman prize winner for North America is Jesus Leon Santos. He is leading a land renewal and economic development program in Oaxaca, Mexico. He has worked with local farmers to dig waterways and plant about one million trees. Poor land-use methods have done much damage to the soil. The prize winner from Asia is Marina Rikhvanova. She is working to protect Lake Baikal in Siberia from damage by Russia's growing oil and nuclear industries. And the winner from Europe is Ignace Schops. He helped raise ninety million dollars to establish the first and only national park in Belgium. The Goldman Prize is the world's largest prize for environmental activism. The winners each receive one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Rhonda and Richard Goldman established the award. The prize has gone to one hundred twenty-six people over the past eighteen years. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: So What's the Story? News Museum Hopes Crowds Care to Find Out
* Byline: The Newseum just moved its collection across the Potomac River from Arlington, Virginia, to a bigger space in Washington. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: The words of the First Amendment appear on the front of the Newseum in Washington, D.C.And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we take a look at Washington's newly opened museum of news, the Newseum. (SOUND) "There's a big story breaking at the circus but nobody seems to know what's going on. [Animal sounds.] O.K., rookie, it's your job to get the story and scoop the competition. We know what happened, when and where. You need to find out who did it, how and why. Ask questions, get the facts and file the story with this P.D.A. as soon as you can. Now get going." VOICE ONE: So begins one of the many interactive games at the Newseum in Washington. This game, "Be a Reporter," is played on a small screen in the Interactive Newsroom and Ethics Center. This area of the Newseum also includes an activity called "Be a TV Reporter." For an extra eight dollars, visitors can read the news in front of a camera. Afterward, they receive a picture of themselves and instructions about how to download a video of their performance. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Newseum opened on Pennsylvania Avenue, next to the Canadian Embassy, on April eleventh. It was formerly located across the Potomac River from Washington. The Newseum opened in Arlington, Virginia, in nineteen ninety-seven. But it closed in two thousand two after a decision to move to a bigger space. The newly built museum has fourteen galleries, fifteen theaters and sixteen zillion video screens. VOICE ONE: One of the galleries is the Berlin Wall Gallery. It tells the story of the four meter high concrete wall built in nineteen sixty-one. Communist East Germany built the wall to separate itself from democratic West Germany. The wall was torn down, and the two Germanies reunited, in nineteen eighty-nine. The gallery contains eight pieces of the Berlin Wall. It also includes a watch tower that stood not far from the "Checkpoint Charlie" crossing between east and west Berlin. Three large screens in the gallery show three different movies about the history of news reporting on the Berlin Wall. VOICE TWO: Another gallery tells the story of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September eleventh, two thousand one. The nine-eleven gallery explores how the media covered the story of the attacks that killed almost three thousand people. SOUND: "The building is falling right now. People are running through the streets. Smoke is everywhere. People are filling all of Broadway." VOICE ONE: The Twin Towers, New York's tallest buildings, collapsed after being struck by hijacked passenger planes. In the center of the gallery is a burned and twisted part of the broadcast antenna that stood on the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Also in the gallery is a damaged piece of the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters, which was also struck by a plane. And there is a piece of the fourth plane used in the attacks. Investigators found that the hijackers of United Flight Ninety-three crashed the plane in a Pennsylvania field after passengers revolted. VOICE TWO: The gallery also has items from news photographer William Biggart. He was covering the attacks in New York City when the second tower collapsed and he was killed. On the wall of the gallery are front pages from one hundred twenty-seven newspapers reporting the attacks. The newspapers are from across the United States and thirty-four other nations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Newseum has a newspaper gallery that changes daily. Copies of front pages are received electronically from more than five hundred newspapers around the world. Eighty are printed for display. The others can be seen on touch screens. A nearby gallery displays thousands of historic publications. The oldest is a clay brick from more than three thousand years ago. The brick has cuneiform writing on it. The symbols tell about the building of a chapel in a temple of a Sumerian king. VOICE TWO: Also in the Early News Gallery are reports on the Battle of Agincourt and the Salem witch trials. The battle took place in France in fourteen fifteen; the handwritten news report appeared the following year. The Salem witch trials took place in Massachusetts in sixteen ninety-two. The gallery describes the many ways news traveled before and after the arrival of the printing press in the fifteenth century. Included in the collection is a nineteenth century West African harp. It was played by musicians who sang about current events and spread gossip. VOICE ONE: Among the displays about the history of news is one called "Can the Press Be Trusted?" It has examples of stories that were invented by reporters or told only one side of an issue. The display also deals with the use of unidentified sources, and the risk of mistakes when reporters try to be first with a story. VOICE TWO: Another gallery at the Newseum presents photographs that have won Pulitzer Prizes. The display also includes recorded comments from some of the prize-winning photographers. And the Newseum has a gallery to honor journalists who were killed doing their jobs. Glass panels in the Memorial Gallery list more than one thousand eight hundred names. VOICE ONE: An independent group, the Freedom Forum, operates the Newseum. The group spent one hundred million dollars to buy the land and four hundred fifty million dollars to build the new museum. The Freedom Forum teaches people about the importance of free speech and a free press. On the outside of the Newseum are the words of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. READER: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." VOICE TWO: Inside the Newseum, a huge screen presents political and religious leaders, entertainers and reporters talking about those freedoms. Here is civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior: MARTIN LUTHER KING: "But somewhere I read… of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read… of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read… of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Reporters received a media tour of the Newseum before opening day. One reporter called newspapers a dying industry and asked the chief executive officer, Charles Overby, why the Newseum gives them so much attention. The C.E.O. said the Newseum is about news and the changing delivery systems for reporting it. The Newseum has a large gallery dealing with news in the digital age, including blogging and social networking sites. But the Internet, TV and Radio Gallery also presents broadcasts from the past. VOICE TWO: One area of the gallery explores "instant news reporting," sometimes called citizen journalism. The display includes comments from Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal Albarghouti. With his cell phone camera, he recorded nearby sounds of gunfire as a student killed thirty-two people last April sixteenth. JAMAL ALBARGHOUTI: "I had no idea what the reaction would be when I downloaded this to CNN. I was just hoping no one would get very angry seeing it, and thank God that was the case and many people came to me and telling me thanks a lot. I didn't think I was in a great danger. If I was in such a situation once again, probably I'll do the same thing." VOICE ONE: Concerns about instant news are also discussed at the Newseum. Here are comments from a newspaper editor at the Roanoke Times in Virginia: EDITOR: "We are trained professional journalists and we are going to be very cautious about what we put online because once it's in the paper you can't take it back. Ya know bloggers, maybe sometimes they don't realize that, that little thought that just pops into their head, and they post it, and millions of people can see it online, and it can damage somebody's reputation. It can say somebody, ya know, he's the guy, he's the shooter, ah, you can't take that back." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The newly opened Newseum in Washington, D.C., charges as much as twenty dollars for admission. Children six and younger are free. The nearby Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art are free to all visitors. But Newseum officials note that those museums are publicly supported. Almost eleven thousand people toured the Newseum on opening day when admission was free. The Newseum calls itself the world's most interactive museum. But some people wondered how a pricey museum will succeed, especially in difficult economic times, in a city with so many free attractions. VOICE ONE: The president of the Newseum, Peter Pritchard, says the hunger for news and information has never been greater around the world. Chief executive Charles Overby says the Freedom Forum believes the Newseum is where it belongs, among monuments to freedom. During the media tour, he was asked how this museum of news will compete with the Smithsonian museums. "We're not out to harm the Smithsonian," he said. "We just want a bit of people's time." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Stock Market: The Business of Investing
* Byline: Finance-related terms like bull market, bear market, belly up and windfall. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Phil Murray with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today we tell about some American expressions that are commonly used in business. (MUSIC) Bells sound. Lighted messages appear. Men and women work at computers. They talk on the telephone. At times they shout and run around. This noisy place is a stock exchange. Here expert salespeople called brokers buy and sell shares of companies. The shares are known as stocks. People who own stock in a company, own part of that company. People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them. If a company earns money, its stock increases in value. If the company does not earn money,?the stock decreases in value. Brokers and investors carefully watch for any changes on the Big Board. That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange. The first written use of the word with that meaning was in a newspaper in Illinois in eighteen thirty-seven. It said: "The sales on the board were one thousand seven hundred dollars in American gold." Investors and brokers watch the Big Board to see if the stock market is a bull market or a bear market. In a bear market, prices go down. In a bull market, prices go up. Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price. But the investor does not own the stock yet. He or she waits to buy it when the price drops. The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear. An English dictionary of the sixteen hundreds said, "To sell a bear is to sell what one has not." Word experts dispute the beginnings of the word bull in the stock market. But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England. Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing. In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up. A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they are stomach, or belly, up. Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected. This would sharply increase the value of the stock. Investors are hoping for a windfall. The word windfall comes from England of centuries ago. There, poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich land owners. But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel. So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly. (MUSIC) This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Phil Murray. This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Phil Murray. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Shark Diving and Feeding Raises Concerns, for Sharks and Divers
* Byline: Supporters say it helps the public understand how important sharks are to the environment. Opponents say shark diving that involves feeding can make the animals aggressive. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. ?This week, we tell about sharks. They are among the world's most feared animals. But studies show that sharks are in far more danger from people than people are from sharks. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An Austrian man was diving in the Bahamas Islands two months ago when he was bitten by a shark. Markus Groh was taking part in a sport known as shark diving. He died in a hospital a day after the attack. Many people fear sharks. But others put on underwater diving equipment and swim in search of the big fish. They want to observe the shark in its own environment. ????? ??????? VOICE TWO:? You may have seen shark diving on television. If so, you know that some divers observe the animals from the safety of a steel cage or container. Or they wear special equipment made of metal. But some divers have no extra protection when they watch sharks. A few swim in waters containing food. People drop it in the water to bring fish close to them. Reports say Markus Groh was in the water with food when he was bitten. His death is the first deadly attack during shark feeding recorded by the International Shark Attack File. But the group has reported many injuries in the sport. VOICE ONE: Many shark divers say it is exciting to swim near the animals. They are likely to dismiss any danger. Those who like shark diving say it increases people’s interest in sharks. Such persons say it helps the public understand how important the animals are to the environment. They say it makes people want to protect sharks at a time when some kinds of shark are dying out. Some ocean experts criticize shark diving that involves feeding the animals. They say the fish can become aggressive after having contact with the people feeding them. They say feeding sharks is bad for both animals and human beings. The American state of Florida seemingly agrees. Florida banned the feeding of all sea life, including sharks, in two thousand one. VOICE TWO:?????? Several companies offer diving trips near the Bahamas Islands. That is where Markus Groh died. Jim Abernethy’s Scuba Adventures organized the diving trip taken by the Austrian man. The company has provided passenger boat trips for divers in the Bahamas for several years. Last year, the Bahamas Diving Association criticized such trips. The group wrote to Mister Abernethy’s company and others like it. The Association asked that they stop taking people to shark dives without protective cages. It also proposed an end to cageless dives in open waters with possibly dangerous sharks. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Markus Groh’s death brought criticism of this kind of shark diving. But a group called Shark Savers has praised Jim Abernethy and his company. The group says Mister Abernethy is an ambassador of protection of sharks in the Bahamas. Shark Savers says he brings public attention to sharks’ importance in the environment. It says Mister Abernethy’s work helps warn people of the danger that some sharks could disappear from Earth. Shark Savers operates a Web site called Sharksavers.org. It has asked people to add their names in support of cageless shark diving in the Bahamas. The Web site also contains a list of supporters of shark diving in general. VOICE TWO: But an activist organization opposes the feeding of sharks. The Marine Safety Group led the movement for the Florida ban on feeding sharks and other water creatures. The head of the group, Bob Dimond, says sharks normally do not want to be with people. ?But their excellent sense of smell leads them to food. The smell also causes more sharks than normal to enter the same waters. Mister Dimond says the presence of many sharks increases risk to humans. He adds that shark feeders do not face the most danger from the animals. Instead, people who come near a shark later face the greater threat. By then, he says the fish has linked people with food. VOICE ONE: George Burgess heads the International Shark Attack File and the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. He also opposes the feeding of sharks. He supports watching them doing normal activities in their natural surroundings. Professor Burgess notes that hundreds of millions of people use the world’s oceans. He says this has caused shark attacks to increase during the past century. Still, the Shark Attack File reported only one deadly shark attack last year. The victim was skin-diving off Tonga. Professor Burgess says the total number of shark attack deaths through two thousand seven was the lowest in twenty years. He says people have more to fear from some snakes, insects and lightning than from sharks. Taken together, shark attacks are far from the most dangerous threats to humans. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? The International Shark Attack File describes shark attacks as either provoked or unprovoked. An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten. The person is in the shark's environment. Also, the person must not have interfered with the shark. Professor Burgess says the death of Markus Groh will surely be recorded as provoked. Surprisingly, the International Shark Attack File has records of attacks back to the sixteenth century. How does the group know about attacks hundreds of years ago?? With some difficulty, says the professor. His volunteer team of researchers investigates reports. They study old newspapers, books and historic documents. He also says the media provide stories about shark bites. And people who have observed attacks communicate with his team. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Many people think of sharks as a deadly enemy. But these fish help the environment. They perform activities that help people. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting means that the many other fish in ocean waters do not become too great. This protects other creatures and plants in the oceans. Sharks also may someday be valuable for treatment of human diseases. During a recent year, business and sport fishing killed an estimated one million or more sharks. Most sharks reproduce only every two years and give birth to fewer than ten young. For this reason, over-fishing of sharks is a danger to the future of the animal. Julia Baum of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography worries that some sharks may disappear from Earth. She has noted major decreases in sharks in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. VOICE TWO: Miz Baum and scientist Ransom Meyers carried out studies for Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Their work showed special danger to large coastal sharks. Populations of tiger, scalloped hammerhead, bull and dusky sharks all had dropped by ninety five percent over five years. The two researchers placed most blame on intensive fishing. This overfishing included catching sharks by mistake. Some scientists say about half of the thousands of sharks caught each year were not the target of the fishing. But no one really knows whether these sharks would survive if they returned to the water. VOICE ONE: People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and shark skin. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jawbones of a shark. Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A. Sharkskin can be used like the skin of other animals. Some people enjoy a soup made from shark meat. The popularity of the soup has grown greatly over the years. Today, fishing companies can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark fins. Some restaurants serve shark fin soup for one hundred dollars a bowl. Finning, as it is called, means cutting the fins off a live shark. Some areas ban finning. But illegal shark-fishing is big business. Fishermen often cut off the shark’s fins and throw the animal back into the water. The shark is left to bleed to death to save space on the boat. In two thousand four, sixty-three nations approved laws to protect sharks. Some rules are effective near land. But, as George Burgess notes, laws are difficult to enforce on the international waters of the high seas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:???????????????????????????????????????????? This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: ?And I’m Barbara Klein. Internet users can read our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: When Tuberculosis Hits Animals
* Byline: Experts say the most effective form of control is to destroy cattle herds that have been exposed to bovine tuberculosis. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Bovine tuberculosis is a progressive wasting disease. It affects mainly cattle but also sheep, goats, pigs and other animals. People who get bovine TB have to take strong antibiotics for up to nine months to cure them. Humans can get sick from infected cows by drinking milk that has not been heated to kill germs. Another risk is eating meat that has not been cooked to seventy-four degrees Celsius. If an infected animal is processed, cutting through lung or lymph tissue can spread the M. bovis bacteria to other parts of the meat. Bovine TB is a major problem in parts of Africa. Farmers in Canada and Britain have also lost many cattle in recent years. In Britain, debate continues about whether badgers pass TB to other animals. Infected cows might lose weight and develop a cough, which spreads the bacteria through the air. Or they can appear healthy. Then, when they give birth, their calves can get infected by drinking their milk. In the early twentieth century, bovine TB probably killed more animals in the United States than all other diseases combined. To control it, the government launched a highly successful testing program. Historians say animal doctors ordered the destruction of about four million cattle between nineteen seventeen and nineteen forty. But currently, the state of Michigan in the Midwest is fighting an outbreak of tuberculosis in cattle. Experts identified wild deer as the source of infection. More recently the neighboring state of Minnesota has also had to deal with TB in cattle and deer. Cows and wild deer can infect each other -- for example, if they share cattle feed left in fields during winter. Possible solutions might include building fences or leaving smaller amounts of hay. Michigan's agriculture director announced this month that the state will receive more than three million dollars in emergency federal aid. Michigan will use the money to increase prevention and testing activities, and to pay farmers who have to destroy infected cattle. Since nineteen ninety-four, the state has spent close to one hundred million dollars on control efforts. Michigan officials say no TB has been found in cattle outside the containment area. Experts say the most effective form of control is to destroy cattle herds that have been exposed to bovine tuberculosis. This prevents any chance that infected cows might be moved to another farm. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-22-voa4.cfm
* Headline: World Food Crisis Could Push Millions of People Into Poverty
* Byline: International officials met this month to take action to try to ease the problem. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about growing food problems around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Food prices are rising in many countries. Economic policy makers warn that the effect of rising food prices could push millions of people into poverty. Aid organizations are concerned that they will not be able to feed the poorest people. The rising cost of food caused riots in a number of countries in recent weeks. International officials met this month to take steps in an effort to ease the problem. VOICE TWO: Last Friday, the United Nations World Food Program urgently appealed for two hundred fifty-six million dollars in donations. The World Food Program says it needs that amount in addition to the five hundred million dollars it requested last month. Josette Sheeran, head of the?World Food Program, speaks to reporters as she arrives for talks with British Prime Minister Gordon BrownThe head of the U.N. agency, Josette Sheeran, said the cost of food the program buys has risen more than fifty percent in less than one year. She says this is forcing the agency to either raise more money or help fewer people. She says higher food prices are threatening the security of countries around the world. Another aid agency says rising food prices are hurting efforts to fight poverty. The Asian Development Bank has asked governments to avoid trade restrictions that might increase the crisis. VOICE ONE: International aid officials met in Italy last week to discuss ways of dealing with food problems around the world. The meetings involved representatives of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, CARE and Oxfam. The aid agencies say about eight hundred fifty million people have been suffering from hunger. And that was before the latest price increases began causing food shortages and unrest. At least ten million people die from the effects of poor diet each year and that number is increasing. VOICE TWO: The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank met earlier this month in Washington, D.C. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said hunger, malnutrition and food policy are important issues. He urged food donor nations to provide immediate aid to help poor countries deal with the crisis. Rice farmers harvest their crops in Malang, East Java, IndonesiaMister Zoellick said a doubling of food prices over the last three years could push one hundred million people in poor countries deeper into poverty. And that could hurt future generations. He also said the price of rice has increased about seventy-five percent in just two months, to near historic levels. Wheat prices have risen one hundred twenty percent in the past year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are several reasons for this food crisis. Farmers are planting more wheat and rice. But some rice-producing countries have cut exports to protect their own supplies. And population growth is raising demand. Higher fuel prices are also partly to blame for rising food prices. The International Food Policy Research Council says rising prices for fuel affect the cost of production. Record oil prices have meant higher costs for oil-based fertilizers, and for energy and transportation. VOICE TWO: Increased oil prices and concerns about climate change have led some farmers to raise crops for use in biofuels, such as ethanol. These fuels are made at least partly from biological material, such as corn. Biofuels burn cleaner than oil or gasoline. As the price of oil rises, farmers are finding it more profitable to raise corn for ethanol, instead of for food. The World Bank says concerns about oil prices, energy security and climate change have led governments to urge people to make and use biofuels. That means greater demand for unprocessed materials, including wheat, soy, palm oil and corn. Bank officials say this results in costlier food. VOICE ONE: Some critics of biofuels say that using food-based fuel for transportation leads to a competition for food between people and cars. Kimberly Elliott of the Center for Global Development says governments should stop placing so much importance on biofuels like ethanol. The American state of Iowa is among the nation's leaders in growing corn and ethanol production. Michael Ott is the head of a trade group for biofuel producers. He says ethanol production is not really a choice between food and fuel. He says people cannot eat the corn used to make fuel. People eat only about five percent of the corn crop. The rest is fed to animals or used in other products. Kimberly Elliott says the long-term answer is to put more effort on developing new kinds of biofuels. These include ethanol that comes from switchgrass or from the outer area of the corn plant instead of the corn itself. VOICE TWO: Food also costs more because more people are eating meat and milk products in economies like China and India. More grain is being used to feed farm animals. Weather has also pushed up prices. For example, Australia, a major wheat exporter, has received little rain recently. Crop diseases in other parts of the world have also added to the problem. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: High food prices have the most serious effect on the poorest people. For example, World Bank President Robert Zoellick says two kilograms of rice now cost about half of the daily wages of a poor family in Bangladesh. Christopher Barrett is an agricultural economist at Cornell University in New York State. He says many poor farmers use more of their crops than they sell. He says more investment is needed in agricultural research. Another expert, Gerald Nelson, says what is needed is another "Green Revolution" to increase productivity. VOICE TWO: Last week, President Bush released two hundred million dollars in emergency food aid. It will be sent to countries in Africa and other areas. The Bush administration said the President has urged his administration to develop a long-term plan that helps poor and hungry people around the world. In Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said his nation would double its emergency food aid to meet the food crisis. Mister Sarkozy said French aid would increase to about one hundred million dollars this year. He also urged aid agencies, financial organizations, private industry and governments to work together to solve the crisis. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The food crisis has caused rioting in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. In Haiti, days of protests against rising food prices turned violent earlier this month. Several people were killed. The Haitian parliament ousted the country's prime minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis. Haiti's president, Rene Preval, approved a series of emergency aid measures. He announced plans to work with local suppliers and international aid groups to cut the price of rice by fifteen percent. The World Bank also said it would provide ten million dollars to help Haiti. People in Haiti's capital say higher fuel prices and the changing value of the American dollar are to blame for the rising costs of imported foods and other goods. Many Haitians earn less than two dollars a day. They have suffered the most from the rising cost of rice and other products. VOICE TWO: The United Nations World Food Program warned last week that North Korea is also facing a food crisis. The main reasons are food price increases and the lasting effects of severe flooding last year. U.N. officials said prices for foods like corn and grain have at least doubled since last year. They say urgent action is needed to prevent a serious tragedy in North Korea. VOICE ONE: But there was some good news from another country. Bangladesh says its current rice harvest is very successful. Rice is the main crop in Bangladesh. The majority of the population works in agriculture. The government has ordered the country's five hundred thousand-member army to eat potatoes instead of rice and wheat. This is meant to guarantee that civilians have enough rice to eat. A World Food Program official in Bangladesh says the general population will also need to eat more potatoes, which is not a traditional food. Bangladesh suffered two serious floods and a powerful storm in the past year. The natural disasters ruined several million tons of food grains. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: US Campaign Offers Lesson for an English Teacher Who Left Iran
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: another in a series of chats from the recent TESOL, or Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, convention in New York. AZADEH LEONARD: "My name is Azadeh Leonard and I teach English at the College of Staten Island. I'm an ESL [English as a Second Language] teacher, and I'm originally from Iran. I came here about a year and a half ago, and since I have a master's degree in TESOL, I started teaching here, too." AA: "So tell me a little bit about your students." AZADEH LEONARD: "Well, my students, they are college students, so I would say they are between the ages of eighteen and maybe forty-five, or something like that." AA: "Where do your students come from?" AZADEH LEONARD: "Oh, they come from all over. They come from Egypt, China, Korea, Colombia -- where else? Lebanon. Just anywhere, anywhere you can think of." AA: "Do you have any advice for students back in Iran who are learning English? Any things that, now that you've been in the States here for a year and a half, any special advice for the students back home?" AZADEH LEONARD: "I would say watch a lot of movies, use a lot of movies, and also listen to music, English music, 'cause that's how I learned English. I learned it through -- I mean, movies and TV helped me a lot. Also, satellite, because Iranians in Iran do have satellites. Although it's illegal, they still do have it. I would just say listen, listen a lot, and then practice pronouncing the words. That's very, very important. I always tell my students to watch movies. That's how you learn English best." AA: "Is there anything else you'd like to say about being an English teacher, or being an Iranian English teacher, or living in New York?" AZADEH LEONARD: "Well, I can only say that everyday is not just for my students, also for me -- although I'm an English teacher and I've learned English, I still am learning. I'm still learning new terms, I'm trying to understand them. There are many things that even I still have problems [with]. I mean things that deal with the tax system or with the government. Like how you vote. There were many terms that I learned -- like 'caucuses.' I had no idea what caucus meant. I hadn't even heard it." AA: "It's basically a big term for a [political] meeting where people get together and ... " AZADEH LEONARD: "Yeah, I mean the voting system here is so different from my country, and it was interesting to learn about the delegates, super delegates, caucuses, all that, you know?" AA: "Well, I'm curious then, are your students following the presidential campaign? I mean, do you discuss this in class?" AZADEH LEONARD: "Yes, we do. We do discuss it and I try to make them realize that it's very important for them to care about these things because they're part of this country now. As a person who lives in a certain country, no matter where you live, you have to care about what's going on. Especially because they're immigrants, it's important for them to know, for example, who becomes the next president and what's going to happen to them, you know?" AA: "Well, are there debates in class about, you know, Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama versus John McCain? I mean, do you have to kind of tell them to cool it, or do they get into debates about this?" AZADEH LEONARD: "Yeah, sometimes. Once, we discussed about different candidates, and some of them had some ideas. Some of them were obviously Democrats and maybe a few were Republicans. So, yeah, I did have to like tell them 'OK, you know, whatever your idea is, I'm sure it's great, but you know, just let's stop this ... ' " AA: "Go on with the class." AZADEH LEONARD: "Let's go on with the class, exactly." AA: Azadeh Leonard teaches English as a Second Language at the College of Staten Island, part of the City University of New York. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. If you're learning American English, be sure to visit our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-22-voa5.cfm
* Headline: New Malaria Drug Launched in Latin America, Southeast Asia
* Byline: A new fixed-dose drug could simplify treatment for millions of people. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A Brazilian drug company and a nonprofit group have developed a new, simplified malaria treatment. Patients have to take only one tablet a day for three days for some ages, or two tablets a day for three days for other ages. The medicine combines two existing malaria drugs, artesunate and mefloquine. This combination has been widely used in recent years in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The Brazilian government will make the new treatment available throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia over this year and next. The fixed-dose drug will be offered to public agencies at a target price of two and a?half dollars for the full adult treatment. Bernard Pecoul is head of the nonprofit group, called the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. He says the new formulation is safe and fast-acting, and effective for children and adults. The World Health Organization says artemisinin-based combination treatments are the best way to treat common malaria. Research shows that the simpler the treatment, the more likely people are to complete it. People increase the risk of drug resistance when they do not complete a full treatment. Researchers tested the new medicine in a one-year study of seventeen thousand patients in the state of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon. Health care resources in the area were also expanded, including early identification of malaria. Health officials say the result was a thirty-six percent drop in cases. Malaria is caused by a parasite which is passed to humans though mosquito bites. As many as five hundred million infections happen every year. Around sixty percent of the cases, and more than eighty percent of the deaths, happen in Africa south of the Sahara. Africa suffers more than a million deaths, mostly children. Doctor Pecoul says his organization is supporting a study in Tanzania to see if the new drug could be used successfully in Africa. Currently in Africa, there are two first-line treatments with artesunate and other drugs. He says artesunate and mefloquine could have a use in places like eastern Africa where there are high levels of resistance to several drugs. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative began in two thousand three. It was established by the Pasteur Institute and Doctors Without Borders along with four publicly supported research organizations. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Two-Party Political System Takes Hold in US
* Byline: The Federalist Party supported policies that helped bankers and wealthy businessmen. The Republicans supported policies that helped farmers and small businessmen. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. George Washington became America's first president in seventeen eighty-nine. He had commanded the forces of the American colonies in their successful rebellion against Britain. Washington was elected without opposition. But American politics were about to change. This week in our series, Frank Oliver and Ray Freeman describe the beginnings of the two-party political system in the United States.(MUSIC)VOICE TWO: George WashingtonGeorge Washington did not belong to a political party. There were no political parties in America at that time. This does not mean all Americans held the same political beliefs. They did not. But there were no established organizations that offered candidates for elections.Two such organizations began to take shape during President Washington's first administration. One was called the Federalists. Its leader was Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The other was called the Republicans. Its leader was Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Each group represented the political beliefs of its leader.VOICE ONE:Hamilton and the Federalists wanted a strong national government with a powerful president and courts. They supported policies that helped bankers and wealthy businessmen. They urged close economic and diplomatic ties with Britain. They did not like democracy, which they described as mob rule. The Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton was not the same as an earlier group also called Federalists.The word was used to describe those who supported the new American Constitution. Those who opposed the Constitution were known as anti-Federalists.Some early Federalists, like Hamilton, later became members of the Federalist Party. They were extremely powerful. They controlled the Congress during the presidency of George Washington. And they almost controlled Washington himself, through his dependence on Alexander Hamilton.VOICE TWO:Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans supported the Constitution as a plan of government. But they did not think the Constitution gave the national government unlimited powers.They supported policies that helped the nation's farmers and small businessmen. They urged closer ties with the French people, who were rebelling against their king. And they demanded more rights, more democracy, for the people of the United States.VOICE ONE: The men who led these two groups were very different.Alexander Hamilton of the aristocratic Federalists was not born to an established, upper-class American family. He was born in the West Indies to a man and woman who were not married. However, Hamilton was educated in America. And he gained a place in society by marrying the daughter of a wealthy landowner in New York state.Money and position were important to Hamilton. He believed men of money and position should govern the nation.Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic Republicans could have been what Alexander Hamilton wanted to be. Through his mother, he was distantly related to British noblemen. And he liked fine food, wine, books, and music.But Jefferson had great respect for simple farmers and for the men who opened America's western lands to settlement. He believed they, too, had a right to govern the nation.VOICE TWO:Both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were loyal Americans. Yet they held completely opposing opinions on how America's government should operate. Their personal disagreements turned into a public dispute when they served in President Washington's cabinet. The two men did not argue directly in public, however. They fought their war of words in two newspapers.Both knew the power of the press. Jefferson, especially, felt the need for newspapers in a democracy. He believed they provided the only way for a large population to know the truth. He once said: "If I had to choose between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I would choose newspapers without a government."VOICE ONE:Hamilton already had experience in using newspapers for political purposes.During the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as an assistant to George Washington, the commander-in-chief. One of his jobs was to get money and supplies for the army.Hamilton asked the thirteen state governments. He also asked the Congress, which had little political power at that time. He got almost no help from either.Hamilton felt the new system of government under the Articles of Confederation was weak and disorganized. He did not think the states should have so much power. What America needed, he said, was a strong central government. Without it, the Confederation would break apart.VOICE TWO:Hamilton expressed his opinions in several newspaper articles. He did not put his own name on the articles. He signed them "The Continentalist."He soon became one of the strongest voices calling for a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation. This was the convention that finally met in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty-seven and wrote the American Constitution.Hamilton was one of the delegates. Afterwards, he helped write a series of newspaper articles to win support for the Constitution. These were the Federalist Papers, written together with James Madison and John Jay.VOICE ONE: Philip Freneau's National Gazette was the first official Republican newspaper. During its two-year existence, it was the leading critic of Federalist policies. When Hamilton became treasury secretary under President Washington, he continued to use the press. Only now, he was trying to win support for his own policies.Hamilton spoke through a newspaper called the Gazette of the United States. Its editor was John Fenno.Jefferson won the support of several newspapers. But these were not part of his political movement. It was important, he felt, to have one newspaper speak for him. James Madison found it for him. It would be edited by Madison's old friend Philip Freneau. It would be called the National Gazette.VOICE TWO:Most of the people who supported Hamilton lived in the cities of the northeast. They were the nation's bankers and big businessmen. They were lawyers, doctors, and clergymen.Jefferson respected Hamilton's political power. But he saw that Hamilton did not have a national organization of common people. The cotton gin made cotton a profitable crop in the U.S. The machine shown, invented by Eli Whitney, received a patent in 1794.In the seventeen nineties, ninety percent of Americans were farmers, laborers, and small businessmen. They were bitter over government policies that always seemed to help bankers, big landowners, and wealthy businessmen. They had no political party to speak for them. These were the people Thomas Jefferson wanted to reach. VOICE ONE:Jefferson's task was big. Many of these Americans knew little of what was happening outside their local area. Many were not permitted to vote, because they did not own property.Jefferson looked at the situation in each state. Almost everywhere he found local political groups fighting against state laws that helped the rich. Here was what Jefferson needed. If these local groups could be brought together into a national party, the Federalists would finally have some organized opposition.Jefferson's party included rich men and poor men. They joined together to fight what they saw as a misuse of power by Federalists in the national government. We will continue our story next week.(MUSIC)ANNOUNCER:Our program was written by Christine Johnson and read by Frank Oliver and Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English. Transcripts, podcasts and MP3s of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com.__ This is program #30 of THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Physical Education Aims for Active Lives, Fewer Painful Memories
* Byline: Even as schools cut activity time, goal moves away from competition and toward personal performance. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Common sense would tell us that physically active children may be more likely to become active and healthy adults. A high school gym classIn the United States, elementary and middle schools are advised to give students two and a half hours of physical activity a week. That is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Heart Association recommend. They say high schools should provide about four hours of physical activity each week. Yet many schools across the country have reduced their physical education programs. Criticism of the cuts has led in some places to efforts to give students more time for exercise, not less. The future health of Americans may depend on it. Just this week, a study reported that life expectancy has fallen or is no longer increasing in some parts of the United States. The situation is worst among poor people in the southern states, and especially women. Public health researchers say it is largely the result of increases in obesity, smoking and high blood pressure. They also blame differences in health services around the country. In two thousand six, a study found that only four percent of elementary schools provided daily physical education all year for all grades. This was true of eight percent of middle schools and two percent of high schools. The study also found that twenty-two percent of all schools did not require students to take any P.E. Charlene Burgeson?is the executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. She says one problem for P.E. teachers is that schools are under pressure to put more time into academic subjects. Also, parents may agree that children need exercise in school. Yet many parents today still have bad memories of being chosen last for teams because teachers favored the good athletes in class. But experts say P.E. classes have changed. They say the goal has moved away from competition and toward personal performance, as a way to build a lifetime of activity. These days, teachers often lead activities like weight training and yoga. Some parents like the idea of avoiding competitive sports in P.E. class. Yet others surely dislike that idea. In the end, schools may find themselves in a no-win situation. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can learn more about the American education system, and get transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports, at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: This Dengue Fever Is a California Band Influenced by Cambodian Rock
* Byline: Also: A question about which university in the United States in the oldest. And the Kings of American literature. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I’m Doug Johnson. Today we play music from Dengue Fever … Answer a listener question about the oldest university in America … And report on four Kings of fiction writing. (MUSIC) The Kings of Fiction HOST: Stephen King is one of the most popular living writers in the world. He has written more than forty books and two hundred short stories. His books have sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world. Most of his stories are about frightening and mysterious events. Stephen King is not the only writer in his family. His wife and two sons have also published books. Barbara Klein tells us about the writers of the King family. BARBARA KLEIN: Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, met in college in the state of Maine. Both were already writers. They did not have much money or much time for writing because they soon had three children. But, both worked hard to find time to write. Tabitha King helped start Stephen's career. She rescued his early version of the book “Carrie” from the waste basket where he had thrown it in a moment of hopelessness. Stephen King published “Carrie” in nineteen seventy-four. It became a best seller. The money from this book as well as his short stories meant that the Kings could spend their time writing. Over the years Stephen King has written many famous horror stories. These include “The Shining,” “Cujo” “It” and “Misery.” All of these popular books have been made into movies. His imaginative and unforgettable stories have made him one of the most famous writers in the world. Tabitha King has published nine books. Her latest book is called “Candles Burning.” Her friend, writer Michael McDowell, started writing the book. When he died, she was asked to complete the book. The Kings’ son Joe publishes his books under the name "Joe Hill." This way, he established a career that was separate and independent from his father. He waited eight years to tell his book agent that his father was Stephen King. Joe’s book, “Heart-Shaped Box,” has received great critical praise. And, Stephen and Tabitha’s son Owen King also writes books. His published short story collection is called “We’re All in This Together.” Tabitha, Stephen and Owen King recently came to Washington, D.C., for a reading event at the PEN/Faulkner organization. The three writers gave entertaining and often funny readings of their work. They also met with local students to speak about the importance of reading and writing. Stephen King said reading is like exercise. The more you read, he said, the easier and more pleasurable it becomes. Oldest U.S. University? HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Ali Awod. He wants to know which university in the United States is the oldest. That question is not as easy to answer as it sounds. There are disputes among a few schools over the claim to being the oldest. The problem?? Not everyone agrees on what a university is. That being said, we are going to go with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's Web site avoids the “oldest university” debate this way. It says Harvard is the “oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.” Harvard is three hundred seventy-two years old. It opened as Harvard College in sixteen thirty-six when the American colonies were under British rule. It had nine students at the time. Harvard was named after its first financial supporter, John Harvard. He was a Christian clergyman from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He left his library and half of everything else he owned to the school when he died in sixteen thirty-eight. Harvard admitted only men for most of its history. It opened an allied college for women called the Harvard Annex in eighteen seventy-nine. This was later established as Radcliffe College. Women were permitted to attend Harvard classes beginning in the nineteen forties. But it was nineteen sixty-three before women were officially enrolled in Harvard University and permitted to earn Harvard degrees. Today, Harvard has about eighteen thousand students in undergraduate and graduate programs. It is considered one of the best universities in the country, the richest, and the most difficult to gain admission. Drew Gilpin Faust is the twenty-eighth president of Harvard. She is the first female president in the university's history. Harvard has had many famous graduates. Several American presidents are among them, including the current president, George Bush. He graduated from Harvard's business school. A current American presidential candidate is also a former Harvard student. Senator Barack Obama graduated from its law school. Harvard has also had its share of famous drop-outs. ?Bill Gates began at Harvard in nineteen seventy-three and left two years later without graduating. We think he did pretty well in life, even without the Harvard degree, but the school gave him an honorary degree last year. Dengue Fever (the Band) HOST: Dengue Fever is a six-member rock band based in California. They are influenced by Cambodian rock music from the nineteen sixties. Two brothers, Zac and Ethan Holtzman, formed the group seven years ago. Dengue Fever’s latest album, “Venus on Earth,” has songs in English as well as in Khmer. Critics are praising this record for its inventive and energetic sound. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: About eleven years ago, Ethan Holtzman visited Cambodia. He discovered that he liked Cambodian popular music from the nineteen sixties. So, he brought back recordings of this music when he returned home to the United States. Later, Ethan Holtzman and his brother decided to form a band to play their own version of Cambodian rock music. But first they had to find a singer who would be true to the Cambodian music tradition. They asked the well-known Cambodian performer Chhom Nimol to join their group. She was performing in an area of Long Beach, California that has a large Cambodian population. Here is the song “Sober Driver” from Dengue Fever's album “Venus on Earth.” (MUSIC) Chhom Nimol comes from a family of well-known Cambodian singers. She and the American members of her band returned to Cambodia in two thousand five to perform there. Chhom Nimol has said that it was important to her to bring Cambodian rock music back to her country. Many of the stars of Cambodian popular music were killed or disappeared during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in the nineteen seventies. Dengue Fever has helped revive this tradition in an inventive way. Here is the song “Monsoon of Perfume.” (MUSIC) Dengue Fever will be playing their music in Europe in May and June. Crowds there might hear them sing “Tiger Phone Card.” It tells about two people in love who live far apart. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also the producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. And please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2008-04/2008-04-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: NAFTA, Free Trade and the Presidential Campaign
* Byline: Obama and Clinton have both called for renegotiating the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. But the Bush administration says it is working, and wants Congress to approve deals with other countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The debate over free trade has intensified in this election year in the United States. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if they could not renegotiate it as president. The North American Free Trade Agreement, they say, has cost high-wage jobs in the United States. Hillary Clinton after her 10-point victory over Barack Obama in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primaryTheir message is clear to people in states like Pennsylvania that have lost thousands of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has criticized such talk about NAFTA. Senator McCain says the biggest problem is not free trade, but the inability to change with the new world economy. Congress passed the agreement with Canada and Mexico in nineteen ninety-three. President Bill Clinton signed it into law, though this is the first year NAFTA is fully in effect. United States trade officials say trade among the NAFTA nations more than tripled from nineteen ninety-three to last year. They say jobs, manufacturing and wages in the United States increased faster in the last fourteen years than in the fourteen years before NAFTA. Senators Clinton and Obama say Canada and Mexico should agree to add protections for the environment and organized labor. Separate agreements deal with these issues now, but critics say the provisions are weak. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, with President Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. They?held a joint news conference at the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans. President Bush met this week with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in New Orleans. All three said now is not the time to renegotiate NAFTA. The Bush administration wants Congress to approve new trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. The free trade agreement with South Korea would be the biggest since NAFTA. South Korea would cut import taxes on American goods like beef and cars, but duties on rice would stay in place. Last week South Korea announced plans to fully reopen its beef market to American products. It banned imports at the end of two thousand three over a case of mad cow disease in Washington state. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. labor group in the United States opposes the free trade agreement with Colombia. It says Colombia has a poor record on labor rights. Seventeen labor organizers have been killed in Colombia this year. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives voted to delay action on the agreement. Speaker Nancy Pelosi says economic issues at home are more pressing. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. ___ Correction: Unofficial results from Pennsylvania election officials show?Hillary Clinton with 54.6 percent of the vote and Barack Obama with 45.4 percent -- a difference of 9.2 percent, not a "10-point victory" as stated in a photo caption in?this story. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2006-12-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The New Year Begins With Some Resolutions
* Byline: Two popular ones are to lose weight or stop smoking. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 (MUSIC) Now, a VOA Special English holiday program. (MUSIC) January first. The beginning of a new year. As far back in history as we can tell, people have celebrated the start of a new year. The people of ancient Egypt began their new year in summer. That is when the Nile River flooded its banks, bringing water and fertility to the land. Today, most people celebrate New Year’s Day on January first. People observe the New Year’s holiday in many different ways. The ancient Babylonians celebrated by forcing their king to give up his crown and royal clothing. They made him get down on his knees and admit all the mistakes he had made during the past year. The idea of admitting mistakes and finishing the business of the old year is found in many cultures at New Year’s. So is the idea of making New Year’s resolutions. A resolution is a promise to change or do something different in the coming year. Making New Year’s resolutions is a common American tradition. Today, popular resolutions might include the promise to lose weight, stop smoking, or be more productive at work. Some of our Special English writers and announcers offered New Year’s resolutions of their own. One person decided to get a new cat to replace a beloved one that recently died. Another promised to stop telling stories about other people. And another staff member promised to spend more time with his family. Other people use New Year’s resolutions to make major changes in their lives. One such resolution might be to “stop and smell the flowers.”? This means to take time to enjoy simple pleasures instead of always being too busy and in a hurry. Another resolution might be “don’t sweat the small stuff.”? This means not to worry or get angry about unimportant things. Another resolution might be to be happy now and to forget about bad things that happened in the past. Or, to be thankful for the most important things in life, like family and friends. Our resolution is to wish all of our listeners a happy, healthy and productive New Year!? I'm Mario Ritter for VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2006-12-31-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Musical Exploration of Time
* Byline: We present some popular songs about time. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? This is Shirley Griffith with a Special English program for the New Year. We present fifteen minutes of music about . . . time. (SOUND) ANNOUNCER: We celebrate the New Year with a few examples of music about time. You just heard a song called "Syncopated Clock." American music writer Leroy Anderson wrote it in the nineteen forties. In nineteen fifty-four, the group Bill Haley and His Comets provided musical proof that any time on the clock is a good time to dance. (MUSIC) In nineteen sixty-five, a group named the Byrds recorded a song that seemed modern. But the words are old. They are from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible. (MUSIC) Countless songs have been written about time. Many songs are also about two other forces that seem just as unstoppable -- love and desire. This song by Jim Croce captures these emotions. (MUSIC) Jim Croce did not have much time to live. The singer died in an airplane crash in nineteen seventy-three. He was thirty years old. Another song about love and time is sung by one of the most famous groups of our time, the Rolling Stones. In this song, time is an ally. (MUSIC) Americans sing a traditional Scottish song at New Year's celebrations. It is "Auld Lang Syne."? Eighteen century Poet Robert Burns wrote the words. It is about keeping alive the memory of old friends. A bandleader named Guy Lombardo helped make "Auld Lang Syne" a modern tradition. The song has become a well- known signal of the beginning of another year. (MUSIC) This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Science 2006: The Year in Medicine, Space and the Environment
* Byline: Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Mario Ritter. Concerns about climate change grew in 2006 as scientists reported?that ice was melting?at the North and South PoleVOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we talk about last year. VOICE ONE: We tell about some important science stories of two thousand six -- discoveries in medicine, space and the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some of the biggest science stories last year were in health and medicine. And two of them came late in two thousand six. First is a major finding about the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In December, AIDS researchers announced findings about adult male circumcision. Two studies in Africa found that circumcised men had about half the risk of getting HIV from sex with women as uncircumcised men had. The studies took place in Kenya and Uganda. HIV rates are generally lower in areas of the world where the removal of the foreskin from the penis is common in babies or young boys. The findings of the African studies were so clear that the United States National Institutes of Health decided to end both studies early. All the men involved now are being offered circumcision. The researchers said male circumcision could also lead to fewer infections in women where HIV is spread through heterosexual sex. Health experts say they hope circumcision will become one of the basic tools to fight HIV and AIDS. But they expect some cultural and economic barriers. Some people have also expressed another concern about circumcision. They say it might make men think they do not need to do anything else to prevent HIV infection. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another major health story last month concerned breast cancer. The news came from cancer researchers at the University of Texas in Houston. They had found a sharp decrease in newly found breast cancer rates between two thousand two and two thousand three. It was the first such drop in seventy years. And it followed a huge decrease in the number of older women treated with female?hormones to ease conditions caused by a natural decrease in such hormones. For years doctors treated these conditions of menopause with the hormones estrogen and progesterone. But in two thousand two a large study showed hormone replacement therapy seemed to increase the risk of breast cancer. The use of hormone replacement therapy then dropped by fifty percent. The researchers at the University of Texas say overall rates of new breast cancers dropped seven percent the next year. And they said breast cancer that is linked to estrogen decreased by at least twelve percent. However, health experts say the findings do not prove that hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer. VOICE TWO: There was also news about a new vaccine to prevent another cancer in women -- cervical cancer. United Nations health officials called for the wide use of the vaccine against the human papilloma virus, or H.P.V. H.P.V. causes seventy percent of all cervical cancers. It is a leading cause of cancer deaths in women in developing countries. The vaccine could prevent more than two-thirds of deaths from cervical cancer around the world. Officials say the vaccine is safe and effective for females between the ages of nine and twenty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all the science news last year was medical. In August, more than two thousand members of the International Astronomical Union met in the Czech capital, Prague. They agreed to a new definition of planet. They also agreed that Pluto did not meet the terms of the new definition. So, now the solar system has eight planets instead of nine. But do not cry for the former ninth planet. The astronomical union says we should not think we have lost a planet but that we have gained a new kind of space object: the dwarf planet, Pluto. VOICE TWO: Astronomers and physicists were also interested in some information provided by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. It provided some light on the mysterious force known as dark energy. The Hubble examined stars that exploded billions of years ago. The findings: dark energy has been present for most of the history of the universe. Dark energy is a mysterious force that causes the universe to expand at an increasing rate. Scientists do not know much about dark energy. But they say it makes up about seventy percent of the energy in the universe. It appears to balance the force of gravity. Most physicists consider dark energy to be the force that Albert Einstein called the cosmological constant. It prevents gravity from pulling all matter together in a cosmic crush. This latest study shows dark energy was present in the universe as long as nine billion years ago. Over the next four billion years the power of dark energy grew. The expansion rate of the universe began speeding up about five billion years ago. That is when scientists believe that dark energy's force overtook gravity. Adam Reiss of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland led this research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hubble also got some good news of its own last year. NASA announced it would fly a shuttle crew to the space telescope to make repairs and add new equipment. The telescope orbits six hundred kilometers above the Earth. The shuttle crew is expected to make the trip in May of next year. They hope to fix Hubble so it can continue operating until two thousand thirteen. In other news from last year, the American space agency, NASA, returned to space. Three successful launches of the space shuttle visited the International Space Station. NASA's two Mars vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, continued their exploration of the red planet. They found signs of recently flowing water on the planet. An orbiting spacecraft gave the world extraordinary images of the planet Saturn and its rings. NASA also announced important plans for the future. It will update the design of the space shuttles. And it is planning an international permanent base on the moon by the year twenty twenty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Global warming remained a hot subject of earth science last year. Scientists declared that the ice at both the North and South Poles was melting. A long-term study showed that Greenland lost one hundred billion metric tons of ice between two thousand three and two thousand five. Antarctica at the South Pole contains almost seventy percent of the world’s fresh water. The continent is almost all ice. In some areas that ice is close to two thousand meters thick. Scientists said the Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as one hundred fifty-two cubic kilometers of ice every year. One study suggests that melting ice from both poles could cause sea levels in the world to rise by several meters by the end of this century. As a result, low-lying areas of land could be under water. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some international ecology scientists and economists gave a serious warning about the future for fish. They reported that seafood supplies from the world's oceans could be almost gone within fifty years because of overfishing. The researchers reported their findings in Science magazine in November. They said there had already been a collapse in wild populations of almost one-third of currently fished seafoods. The study says that means the catch has fallen by ninety percent from the highest levels. The scientists said that species have recently been disappearing from oceans at increasing speed. The scientists said it is not too late to repair the damage done to the oceans from overfishing, climate change and other forces. They said governments and industries must work together to establish shared fishing, pollution and species protection controls. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm ???????????Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Mario Ritter. For more science news, MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ever Wonder Where Seedless Fruits Come From?
* Byline: An explanation of grafting. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. These days, if we hear about two different plants being combined, the first thing we think of is modern biotechnology. But the low-technology process of grafting remains an extremely important form of genetic engineering in agriculture. Many kinds of plants are grown not from seeds but from pieces cut from existing plants. Farmers cut branches or buds, young growths, from one plant and place them on a related kind of plant. The branch or bud that is grafted is called a scion [pronounced SY-uhn]. The plant that accepts the graft is called the root stock. Over time, the parts from the two plants grow together. The grafted plant begins to produce the leaves and fruit of the scion, not the root stock. A graft can be cut in several ways. A cleft graft, for example, requires a scion with several buds on it. The bottom of the scion is cut in the shape of the letter V. A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion. The scion is then securely placed into the cut on the root stock. Material called a growth medium is put on the joint to keep it wet and help the growth. Grafting can join scions with desirable qualities to root stock that is strong and resists disease and insects. Smaller trees can be grafted with older scions. The United States Environmental Protection Agency says producing stronger plants by grafting can reduce the need to use pesticides. Agriculture could not exist as we know it without grafting. Many fruits and nuts have been improved through this method. Some common fruit trees such as sweet cherries and McIntosh apples have to be grafted. Bing cherries, for example, are one of the most popular kinds of cherries. But a Bing cherry tree is not grown from seed. Branches that produce Bing cherries must be grafted onto root stock. All sweet cherries on the market are grown this way. And then there are seedless fruits like navel oranges and seedless watermelons. Have you ever wondered how farmers grow them?? Through grafting. The grapefruit tree is another plant that depends on grafting to reproduce. Grapes, apples, pears and also flowers can be improved through grafting. In an age of high-technology agriculture, grafting still holds an important place. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about agriculture, and download MP3 files and transcripts of our reports, at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Jewelry Making Through the Ages: Ancient Artistry Meets a Modern Eye
* Byline: ''My original plan was to be a furniture designer, but I like things I can hold in my hand,'' says Susan Sanders, a Virginia jewelry designer who has shown her work in several countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia, you can see the work of jewelry designer Susan Sanders. Her many gold and silver designs have a clean and modern look. One of her silver rings has a bold geometric design with small smooth stones inlayed into the metal. How did she make this ring? Today we answer this question as we explore the history and methods of jewelry design. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People from almost all cultures throughout history have been making and wearing jewelry. Jewelry is valued for its visual quality, the richness of its materials and the expert way it is made. Since ancient times people have worn jewelry like rings, bracelets and necklaces to decorate their fingers, wrists and necks. Ancient peoples who lived near the ocean used the shells of sea creatures to make jewelry. Other ancient peoples used materials like small colored rocks and animal bones and teeth. Jewelry often was made from whatever material was considered rare and costly. It expressed the wealth and social importance of its wearer. Later cultures learned how to find and work with gold. One of gold’s important qualities is that it is a very soft metal. It can be easily formed or even flattened into extremely thin sheets of metal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some of the oldest and finest known jewelry comes from the burial site of the Sumerian ruler Queen Pu-abi. This Mesopotamian culture existed more than four thousand five hundred years ago. In this area that is now Iraq, archeologists discovered fine examples of gold jewelry. Many of the jewelry designs combined the brightness of gold with the intense blue stone called lapus lazuli. This jewelry shows some of the earliest examples of metalworking methods such as filigree and granulation. Granulation is a technique in which tiny gold balls are placed in a decorative pattern and joined onto a gold surface. Filigree is made by arranging fine gold or silver wires into patterns or images. Filigree work can either be joined onto a metal surface, or left as openwork. Many cultures have left extraordinary examples of this technique. Examples include the jewelry of ancient Greeks and the eighteenth century Qing period in China. VOICE ONE: Several other metal working methods were developed in ancient times and still define jewelry design today. They include cloisonn? work and casting. Cloisonn? involves forming metal borders to make different contained areas on the surface of the piece of jewelry. These spaces are then filled with different pieces of finely carved precious stones or with small bits of glass that are melted together. The ancient Egyptians were experts of the cloisonn? method. For example, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City you can see a beautiful cloisonn? necklace made more than four thousand years ago. More than three hundred small stones make up a detailed image of Egyptian symbols such as birds and snake creatures. The symbols tell about the sun god giving long life to the Egyptian ruler of that time, King Senwosret the Second. For thousands of years, Egyptian jewelry represented a great tradition of artistic skill. Many of the pieces were not only beautiful, but also believed to be magical. Amulet jewelry was believed to protect people or give them special powers. For example, scarabs in the form of the beetle insect were believed to be the symbol of new life. Jewelers in ancient Egypt made many examples of finely carved scarab rings and necklaces that still exist today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One very old technique of metal casting is called the lost-wax method. With this method, an artist carves the shape of jewelry he or she wants to make out of wax material. This shape is placed into a piece of clay, which is heated at high temperatures. The clay takes the form of the ring, but the wax inside melts away because of the heat. This is why the method is called lost-wax. The original carved wax model is lost, but its form remains in the clay. Hot liquid metal such as gold is placed inside this clay form. As the metal cools and hardens, it takes the form left by the wax. The rulers of Asante in modern day Ghana wore gold jewelry made with the lost-wax method. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Asante jewelers made beautiful, fine, detailed gold objects. The ruling family and other leaders wore objects as symbols of their importance, wealth and power. Granulation, filigree, cloisonn? and casting are only a few of the metalworking methods used by jewelers both in the past and today. VOICE ONE: Of course, not all jewelry is made by metalworking. Many cultures throughout history used other valuable materials as well. For example, in China, carved jade stone was part of an ancient jewelry tradition. This green stone was beautiful and also thought to have magical powers. In southern Nigeria during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, only the ruling family of Benin had the right to wear jewelry carved of white ivory material. These are only a few examples of the creativity humans have demonstrated with the art of making jewelry. What kinds of jewelry traditions exist where you live? VOICE TWO: The methods we have described are still being used by artists today. Modern technology and newer methods have only added to the countless ways that stones, metals and other materials can be formed. Today, jewelry designers combine old and new methods with styles from around the world. Many also use unexpected materials, such as plastics, cotton and wood. The creative possibilities of modern jewelry making are limitless. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Torpedo Factory Art Center is in the old area of Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Here, on the second floor is a workroom and store called Susan Sanders Design. Let us go back to the modern geometric jewelry we told about earlier. “I'm Susan Sanders. I'm a jewelry designer at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. I started making jewelry when I was in college but my desire to make things started much earlier than that. My father was a graphics designer and brought me home professional supplies. My original plan was to be a furniture designer, but I like things I can hold in my hand.” VOICE TWO: Susan Sanders says this ring is not the easiest of her rings to wear. It is more like a finger sculpture. She carved the main sterling silver form of the ring from a piece of hard wax material. With the lost-wax method we told about earlier, she carved the wax model to make the silver form. Then, she used a milling machine to create a perfect circle opening for a finger. She also used this milling tool to carve out the areas where she placed small pieces of onyx and jasper stone. Once the stones were in place, she ground the surface to a smooth finish. VOICE ONE: Like most of her work, this ring is very modern and geometric. Susan Sanders says she is not exactly sure where her ideas come from. Some ideas come from subjects she loves such as modern architecture. But the hardest part is choosing an idea for a piece of jewelry since she does not have the time or resources to make every design she imagines. Susan Sanders sells most of her work in her store in Alexandria. If you visit the store, you can see her hard at work on new jewelry. Galleries in California also carry her designs. She has even shown her work in countries such as Italy and South Korea. Listen as Susan Sanders tells about an exciting show she helped put together in Russia: “I have had quite a number of shows in different countries. The most exciting of which was a show that we had in Moscow in Russia that was called Two Capitals which was jewelry designers from the Washington, D.C., area and artists also from the Moscow area. We put together a show and went over there with it. We had a fabulous time. "We were entertained by three of the country's best opera singers and one of their top pianists, which was absolutely incredible. We had an opportunity to meet some of the other Russian jewelers and visit their studios, so we feel like we have friends over there even though we had to speak through an interpreter.” VOICE TWO: Susan Sanders says to be a good jewelry maker you have to enjoy working long and hard on very small details. She says it is not work that goes quickly. Sanders feels lucky to have grown up with the choices she had. Because her father was an artist, he supported her creative goals early on. Many women did not have the same choices. Susan Sanders says she is thankful to be an artist doing work that she loves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also see pictures of Susan Sanders' jewelry. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-02-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Researchers Say Vitamin D Might Protect Against Multiple Sclerosis
* Byline: A study by the Harvard School of Public Health links high levels of vitamin D with lowered risk of MS. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In recent years, research has suggested more health value from vitamin D than had once been thought. Vitamin D is found in eggs and other foods and is also added to milkVitamin D is produced naturally in the blood. Sunlight is a major source. It is also found in some foods. These include eggs, liver and some fish. Vitamin D is also found in pills. Vitamin D helps to increase levels of calcium in the blood. It helps build strong bones and teeth. It also helps in muscle development. It also appears to do more than just protect against rickets. That serious bone disease was the reason vitamin D was added to milk. Rickets is now rare in the western world. But it is still a common childhood disease in developing countries. Rickets can cause bone pain and weakness, teeth problems and muscle loss. Now researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston say vitamin D might protect against multiple sclerosis, also called MS. MS is a progressive disease of the central nervous system that affects about two million people around the world. There is no cure. MS causes problems with speech and movement. The level of severity can differ from person to person. But is usually seriously disabling. The study in Boston involved blood samples from more than seven million members of the American military. It found that people with higher levels of vitamin D had lower rates of MS. It found that the chance of developing MS was sixty-two percent lower among those with the highest level of vitamin D than those with the lowest level. Alberto Ascherio led the study. He says vitamin D may become a future treatment for MS. But, he says first scientists must carry out a large, controlled study in which some people get vitamin D and others do not. This is not the first study to show a possible relationship between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis. But it has provided the clearest evidence of a direct link. The National Institutes of Health says some studies also suggest vitamin D may protect against some kinds of cancer, especially colon cancer. But it says more human studies are needed to learn if a lack of vitamin D increases the risk of cancer…or if treatment with large amounts of vitamin D could protect against the disease. And that's the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can get transcripts of our health reports, and download audio, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: For Foreign Students in US, Financial Aid Is Limited
* Byline: Most international undergraduates get little or no money, but American schools are more likely to pay for graduate study. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Financial aid is the subject this week in our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. Students who want to study in the United States may find that their chances for financial aid are limited. They often have to pay for their education with their own savings or their family's money. ? A recent report from the Institute of International Education in New York looked at the two thousand five-two thousand six school year: Colleges and universities in the United States had more than half a million foreign students. Sixty-three percent of them paid for school mostly by themselves or with family help. Twenty-six percent were supported by the school they attended. There are other sources of financial aid for international students. These include a student's home government or university, or the United States government. Private sponsors, international organizations and employers may also provide support. Yet during the last school year, not many students were able to depend on any of these other sources. Current employers provided the most help. Still, they represented the main support for just four percent of international students. Those at the graduate level, however, are more likely than undergraduates to receive financial aid in the United States. More than eighty percent of foreign undergraduates depended mostly on personal and family money to pay for school last year. The same was true of less than half of graduate students. Most of the others received financial aid from their college or university in the United States. A list of American schools that offer financial aid to foreign students can be found at a useful Web site. The address is edupass.org -- e-d-u-p-a-s-s dot o-r-g. This site also provides information about scholarship programs. But it warns foreign students not to pay if there is any charge for scholarship application forms. You could be cheated out of your money. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with more information from the Institute of International Education. If you have missed any of our series, you can find the reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a general question that we might be able to answer on our program, send it to special@voanews.com. Be sure to include your name and country. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US History: Nation Still at War, Truman Is Suddenly President
* Byline: The unexpected death of Franklin Roosevelt in April 1945 left it to Harry Truman to face a terrible decision: whether or not to use atomic weapons against Japan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The House of Representatives of the Congress closed for business early on the rainy afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen forty-five. The House Democratic leader, Sam Rayburn, stepped down from his chair and invited a friend to come by his office for a drink. "Be there around five o'clock," Rayburn said. "Harry Truman is coming over." The Second World War was not yet over. But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt was in the state of Georgia. He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The president's wife, Eleanor, was at the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations organization. Vice President Harry Truman was at the Senate. But he was not interested in the debate. He spent most of his time writing a letter to his mother and sister back in the state of Missouri. When the debate finished, he went to the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink. It was an afternoon Truman would never forget. VOICE TWO: Rayburn and his other friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived. Suddenly the telephone rang. It was the White House. A voice asked whether Vice President Truman had arrived yet. "No," Rayburn replied. "Tell him to call the White House," the voice said, "as soon as he gets there." Truman entered a minute later. He immediately called the White House. As he talked, his face became white. He put down the phone and raced out the door to find his car. VOICE ONE: Truman arrived at the White House within minutes. An assistant took him up to the private living area for the president. Missus Roosevelt was waiting for him there. "Harry," she said to Truman, "the president is dead." Truman was shocked. He asked Missus Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her. But her reply made clear to him that his own life had suddenly changed. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Missus Roosevelt asked the new president. "You are the one in trouble now." VOICE TWO: Within hours, the world knew the news. Franklin Roosevelt was dead. Americans were shocked and afraid. Roosevelt had led them since early nineteen thirty-three. He was the only president many young Americans had ever known. Who would lead them now. The answer was Harry Truman, the vice president. Truman had been a surprise choice for vice president. Delegates at the Democratic presidential convention of nineteen forty-four chose him to be with Roosevelt only after considering several other candidates. Roosevelt and Truman easily defeated their Republican Party opponents. And, when Roosevelt died, Truman became president. VOICE ONE: Truman lacked the fame, the rich family, and the strong speaking voice of Franklin Roosevelt. He was a much simpler man. He grew up in the central state of Missouri. Truman only studied through high school and some night-time law school classes. He worked for many years as a farmer and a small businessman, but without much success. Truman had long been interested in politics. When he was almost forty years old, he finally won several low-level jobs in his home state. By nineteen thirty-four, he was popular enough in the state to be nominated and elected to the United States Senate. And he won re-election six years later. VOICE TWO: Most Americans, however, knew little about Truman when he became president. They knew he had close ties to the Democratic Party political machine in his home state. But they also had heard that he was a very honest man. They could see that Truman had strongly supported President Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. But they could not be sure what kind of president Truman would become. VOICE ONE: History gave Truman little time to learn about his new job. In one of his first weeks as president, Truman signed a paper on his desk without reading it completely. Only later did he learn that his signing the paper had stopped the shipment of American goods to Britain under the "lend-lease" program. Truman's mistake caused problems for people in both the United States and Britain. But it also taught the new president how much power he now had, and how carefully he must use it. VOICE TWO: The most important power he now possessed was the power of atomic weapons. And, soon after he became president, he faced the decision to use that terrible power or not. Truman understood the tragic importance of using atomic bombs to end World War Two. Yet he firmly believed that using such bombs was the only way to force Japan to surrender. So in August, nineteen forty-five, he gave the orders to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war in Europe had ended several months earlier. Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to plan the peace. The three leaders agreed that their nations and France would occupy Germany jointly. They also agreed to end the Nazi party in Germany, to hold trials for Nazi war criminals, and to break up some German businesses. Foreign ministers of the Allied nations later negotiated peace treaties with Germany's wartime allies and other countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Romania. The east European nations all agreed to protect the political and economic freedom of their citizens. However, western political experts were becoming more fearful each day that the Soviet Union would block any effort for real democracy in eastern Europe. VOICE ONE: Truman did not trust the soviets. And as he made plans for Asia, he promised himself that he would not allow Moscow any part in controlling Japan. For this reason, the Allied occupation of Japan was mainly American. General Douglas MacArthurThe American leader in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, acted quickly to hold a series of trials for Japanese war crimes. He also launched a series of reforms to move Japan toward becoming a modern Western democracy. Women were given the right to vote. Land was divided among farmers. Shinto was ended as the national religion. And the educational system was reorganized. Japan began to recover very soon, becoming stronger than ever before as an economic power. VOICE TWO: While Truman and other world leaders dealt with the problems of making peace, they also were trying to establish a new system for keeping the peace. The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the other Allies had formed the United Nations as a wartime organization. But soon after Truman took office, they met in San Francisco to discuss ways to make the United Nations a permanent organization for peace. At the same time, many of the world's economic experts were meeting to organize a new economic system for the world. They created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help nations rebuild their economies. VOICE ONE: At the center of all the action was Harry Truman. It was not long before he showed Americans and the world that he had the ability to be a good president. He was honest, strong, and willing to make decisions. "I was sworn-in one night and the next morning I had to get right to the job at hand," Truman remembered years later. "I was afraid. But, of course, I didn't let anybody know that. And I knew that I would not be called on to do anything that I was not able to do. That's something I learned from reading history. "People in the past have had much bigger problems. Somehow, the best of them just went ahead and did what they had to do. And they usually did all right. "The job I had in the White House was not so very different from other jobs," Truman said. "I didn't let it worry me. Worrying never does you any good. So I have never worried about things much. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: First Trans-Atlantic Stock Market Aims for Early '07 Launch
* Byline: The planned NYSE-Euronext merger is a good example of how financial markets have grown increasingly international and competitive. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The NYSE Group and Euronext hope to create the world's largest financial exchange group by the end of March. Their shareholders voted last month to approve a plan to combine the two exchange operators. The proposed fourteen billion dollar deal will create the first trans-Atlantic stock exchange. American and European government officials must still approve the merger plan. The new group, to be called NYSE Euronext, will have a combined market value of about twenty-seven billion dollars. The deal has been developing since June. The New York Stock Exchange is the world's biggest stock market. Euronext is Europe's leading international exchange. It operates the stock markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris. Germany's Deutsche Borse withdrew its own offer for Euronext in November. Financial markets have grown increasingly international and competitive. The planned merger of Euronext and the NYSE Group is a good example of this new climate. Euronext is itself the product of mergers. The Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris exchanges joined in two thousand to create Euronext. It was first traded publicly in two thousand one, and has since added other exchanges in Lisbon and London. In the past, stock markets were organized unlike the companies they listed. Now many financial markets operate as publicly traded businesses. That means they must answer to their own shareholders. The New York Stock Exchange was a nonprofit organization that was largely self-supervising. Then, last March, the NYSE Group was formed as a publicly traded company. That happened when the Big Board combined with the electronic trading exchange Archipelago Holdings. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange became the first publicly traded exchange in the United States at the end of two thousand two. Some markets have sought to buy or link with other exchanges. These deals have created bigger markets, often selling highly complex financial products. Bigger markets offer more liquidity -- investors have a greater chance of selling quickly if needed. NYSE Euronext will trade not only stocks but options, futures, bonds and more. Total value of the listed companies?? About twenty-six trillion dollars. The stock prices of the NYSE Group and Euronext both doubled last year. This has other big exchanges considering deals of their own. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Looking Back at Shining Examples of Movies, Books and Music in '06
* Byline: Including the movie ''Little Miss Sunshine,'' the novel ''The Emperor's Children'' and the Dixie Chicks album ''Taking the Long Way.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we tell about some of the best books, movies and songs of the past year. Notable Books of 2006 Literary critics list the best books at the end of every year. Steve Ember tells us about three critically praised books published in two thousand six. STEVE EMBER: "The Emperor's Children" by Claire Messud is about three thirty-year-old people who live in New York City. They have been friends since college. They are well educated and intelligent but are not successful. Julian Clarke and Danielle Minkoff have jobs that are not satisfying. Marina Thwaite has been writing a book she cannot seem to finish. The young people respect Marina's father who is a famous intellectual, journalist and social activist. He gives advice about life and work but privately violates these ideas. At the end of the book, all of the characters are affected by the terrorist attack on New York City on September eleventh, two thousand one. Another widely praised book from last year is "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. It describes the end of the world as we know it. A father and his young son try to survive in a land destroyed by a nuclear disaster. They are two of the last survivors on Earth. They must continue walking along the road so they do not become victims of attacks by other survivors. They must also search for food and safe places to rest. One critic said this frightening book takes readers to places they do not want to go. It forces them to ask questions they do not want to ask. Others praise the descriptions of the relationship between the boy and the father, and the sights and sounds of their horrible world. A third best book from two thousand six is "What Is The What" by Dave Eggers. It is a fictional story about a real person, Valentino Achak Deng. He was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war. The book tells his story from the age of seven when soldiers destroy his village and he is separated from his family. He joins the other "Lost Boys" who walk through refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya on their way to what they hope will be new lives. Valentino finally reaches the United States as a young man. But he finds life there in some ways more difficult than it was in Africa. Best Movies of 2006 HOST: At the end of each year, critics list what they consider to be the best movies released that year. Many critics praised two historical films directed by Clint Eastwood. Both were released near the end of the year. They tell about the World War Two battle between American and Japanese forces for the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. The movies describe both sides of the battle that killed almost seven thousand American troops and more than twenty thousand Japanese. Critics especially praised the movie that tells the Japanese story. It is called "Letters From Iwo Jima."? The Japanese soldiers sent to Iwo Jima to defend the island against the American attack did not expect to survive. The movie tells about those who took part in the battle and their commander. Critics say the movie paints a detailed picture of the island, the lives of the Japanese defending it and the horrors of war. The other movie is "Flags of Our Fathers."? It is about three American servicemen who helped raise the American flag on Iwo Jima. They were sent back to the United States to help the government gain money for the war effort. The movie explores the American public's reaction to them and their own feelings about leaving others to fight the war. MOVIE SOUND: "As far as being the heroes of Iwo Jima, that's just not the case. We really didn't do much at all. We put up the flag. The pole we attached it to was heavy so it took a number of us. We had our picture taken doing it. The real heroes are dead on that island and we appreciate it if you bought bonds in honor of them. Thank you." Another critically praised movie last year told the story of an important event in recent American history. "United 93" is about the terrorist attacks on September eleventh, two thousand one. It shows the events that might have happened on the hijacked airplane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The passengers tried to gain control of the plane from the terrorists. MOVIE SOUND: "We have to do something." "They're not gonna land this plane. They are not gonna take us back to the airport." "Is there any other option we have?" "If we're gonna die, we're gonna die." Critics called the movie a real memorial to the forty passengers and crew-members who refused to let terrorists reach their intended target in Washington, D.C. Many critics also praised a movie called "Little Miss Sunshine."? It is about what Americans call a dysfunctional family. That is, a family with problems. The movie follows six members of the Hoover family on a road trip together from New Mexico to California. They make the trip so that the daughter, seven-year-old Olive, can compete in a beauty contest. The movie is very funny, sad and truthful at the same time. MOVIE SOUND: ''Little Miss Sunshine'': Alan Arkin, Paul Dano, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Abigail Breslin and Toni Collette"I don't want to be a loser." "You're not a loser. Where'd you get the idea you're a loser?" "Cuz. Daddy hates losers." "Whoa, whoa whoa. Back up a minute. You know what a loser is?? A real loser is somebody that's so afraid of not winning they don't even try. Now, you're tryin', right?" "Yeah." "So, you're not a loser." During their trip, the Hoover family learns to trust and support each other. Best Music of 2006 HOST: Music critics also make lists of what they consider the best recordings of the year. Katherine Cole plays some of the best songs of two thousand six. KATHERINE COLE: Many critics agreed that one of the best albums of last year was by the Dixie Chicks. "Taking the Long Way" is the group's answer to those who criticized them after lead singer Natalie Maines made a negative public statement about President Bush. She did so in two thousand three, right before the invasion of Iraq. The group said the comment and the reaction to it changed their lives and their music. One of the songs on their album expresses the importance of standing up for what you believe. It is "Not Ready To Make Nice." (MUSIC) Another critics' choice for best album of two thousand six was "Stadium Arcadium" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In fact, Billboard Magazine reports that one of the songs on the album was the number one modern rock song of the year. Here it is --?"Dani California." (MUSIC) "Modern Times" by Bob Dylan was also chosen as one of the best albums of two thousand six. Critics at Billboard Magazine voted this album the best of the year. We leave you now with Bob Dylan singing? "Thunder on the Mountain." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Past and Future Come Together During a Busy Week in Washington
* Byline: Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to lead the House as the Democrats took control of the new Congress. Earlier, funeral services took place for Gerald Ford, 38th president. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. American history was made, and remembered, this week in Washington. On Thursday, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives. The new Congress opened with Democrats in the majority in both houses for the first time in twelve years. New members in the House include the first Muslim member of Congress. Keith Ellison of Minnesota placed his left hand on a Koran during a ceremonial swearing-in. He used a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. But before the one hundred tenth Congress opened, Americans looked back at an earlier chapter in their history. Funeral services and a national day of mourning took place this week for Gerald Ford. America's thirty-eighth president died on December twenty-sixth at his home in California. Mister Ford, a Republican, was ninety-three years old. He was remembered as a likeable man who brought calm and healing to a nation torn by the political dirty tricks known as Watergate. But for many, that time in the early nineteen seventies also represents the end of a period of high public trust in government. Gerald Ford became the only American ever to serve as president and vice president without election to either office. That was after he served in Congress for more than twenty years. President Richard Nixon asked him to replace vice president Spiro Agnew. Agnew had resigned over accusations of financial corruption. But less than a year later, in August of nineteen seventy-four, Nixon resigned because of Watergate. Had he not, Congress might have removed him from office. The Watergate scandal is the name given to illegal activities by President Nixon's nineteen seventy-two re-election committee. The name comes from a group of buildings in Washington, the Watergate complex. A failed break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices there led to the discovery of the illegal activities. The discovery came from an investigation by two young reporters at the Washington Post -- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. President Nixon ordered his aides to hide evidence of the wrongdoing. A White House recording proved it. Soon after the tapes became public, he resigned. Then, a month after Gerald Ford became president, he pardoned Richard Nixon for all offenses he may have committed. Mister Ford often said the pardon was a necessary step to unite the country. To this day, there is debate about whether he acted correctly. It meant Richard Nixon never had to face trial. About forty people were charged with Watergate-related crimes. Gerald Ford's decision may have cost him the nineteen seventy-six election. He lost to Jimmy Carter in a close race. Mister Ford's presidency lasted just twenty-nine months. The former president was buried Wednesday at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Stock Market:? The Business of Investing
* Byline: Investing in stocks is big business...and big money. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Phil Murray with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today we tell about some American expressions that are commonly used in business. (MUSIC) Bells sound. Lighted messages appear. Men and women work at computers. They talk on the telephone. At times they shout and run around. This noisy place is a stock exchange. Here expert salespeople called brokers buy and sell shares of companies. The shares are known as stocks. People who own stock in a company, own part of that company. People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them. If a company earns money, its stock increases in value. If the company does not earn money,?the stock decreases in value. Brokers and investors carefully watch for any changes on the Big Board. That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange. The first written use of the word with that meaning was in a newspaper in Illinois in eighteen thirty-seven. It said: "The sales on the board were one thousand seven hundred dollars in American gold." Investors and brokers watch the Big Board to see if the stock market is a bull market or a bear market. In a bear market, prices go down. In a bull market, prices go up. Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price. But the investor does not own the stock yet. He or she waits to buy it when the price drops. The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear. An English dictionary of the sixteen hundreds said, "To sell a bear is to sell what one has not." Word experts dispute the beginnings of the word bull in the stock market. But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals -- bulls and bears -- in sports that were popular years ago in England. Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing. In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up. A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they are stomach, or belly, up. Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected. This would sharply increase the value of the stock. Investors are hoping for a windfall. The word windfall comes from England of centuries ago. There, poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich land owners. But, if the wind blew down a tree, a poor person could take the wood for fuel. So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly. (MUSIC) This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Phil Murray. This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Phil Murray. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Jane Jacobs, 1916-2006: Her Activism Helped Shape the Look and Feel of Cities
* Byline: Her most influential book was ''The Death and Life of Great American Cities.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Jane Jacobs. She was an activist for improving cities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jane Jacobs was an activist, writer, moral thinker and economist. She believed cities should be densely populated and full of different kinds of people and activities. She believed in the value of natural growth and big open spaces. She opposed the kind of city planning that involves big development and urban renewal projects that tear down old communities. She was also a critic of public planning officials who were unwilling to compromise. Jacobs helped lead fights to save neighborhoods and local communities within cities. She helped stop major highways from being built, first in New York City and later in Toronto, Canada. Developers and city planners often criticized her ideas. Yet, many urban planning experts agree that her work helped shape modern thinking about cities. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jane Butzner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in nineteen sixteen. Her father was a doctor. Her mother was a former teacher and nurse. After graduating from high school, Jane took an unpaid position at the Scranton Tribune newspaper. A year later she left Scranton for New York City. During her first several years in the city she held many kinds of jobs. One job was to write about workers in the city. She said these experiences gave her a better idea about what working in the city was like. As a young woman, Jacobs had many interests, including economics, law, science and politics. Her higher education was brief, however. She studied for just two years at Columbia University in New York. Jacobs did not complete her college education, but she did become an excellent writer and editor. While working as a writer for the Office of War Information she met a building designer named Robert Jacobs. In nineteen forty-four, they married. They later had three children. Her husband's work led to her interest in the monthly magazine, Architectural Forum. Jacobs became a top editor for the publication. VOICE ONE: Experts have described Jacobs as a writer who wrote well, but not often. She is best known for her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”? The book was published in nineteen sixty-one. It is still widely read today by both city planning professionals and the general public. Experts say “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” is the most influential book written about city planning in the twentieth century. In the book, Jacobs criticized the urban renewal projects of the nineteen fifties. She believed these policies destroyed existing inner-city communities and their economies. She also thought that modern planning policies separated communities and created unnatural city areas. Jacobs described the nature of cities – their streets and parks, the different cultures represented by citizens and the safety of a well-planned city. Safety was an important issue in big cities that had high rates of crime. Jacobs wrote that peace on the streets of cities is not kept mainly by the police even though police are necessary. It is kept by a system of controls among the people themselves. She believed the problem of insecurity cannot be solved by spreading people out more thinly. Jacobs argued that a well-used city street is safer than an empty street. Safety, she argued, is guaranteed by people who watch the streets every day because they use the streets every day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” became a guide for neighborhood organizers and the people who Jacobs called “foot people.”? These are citizens who perform their everyday jobs on foot. They walk to stores and to work. They walk to eating places, theaters, parks, gardens and sports stadiums. They are not who Jacobs called “car people” – those who drive their cars everywhere. Jane Jacobs also believed that buildings of different sizes, kinds and condition should exist together. She pointed to several communities as models of excellence. These include Georgetown in Washington, D.C.; the North End in Boston, Massachusetts; Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, California. She also supported mixed-use buildings as a way to increase social interaction. Such buildings have stores and offices on the ground floor. People live on the upper floors. Mixed-use buildings are a lot more common in American cities than in the suburban areas around them. VOICE ONE: Jane Jacobs also noted New York City’s Greenwich Village as an example of an exciting city community. This is one of the communities that was saved, in part at least, because of her writings and activism. In nineteen sixty-two, Jacobs headed a committee to stop the development of a highway through Lower Manhattan in New York City. The expressway would have cut right through Greenwich Village and the popular SoHo area. Influential New York City developer Robert Moses proposed the plan. But huge public protests in nineteen sixty-four led the city government to reject it. Jacobs’ book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” helped influence public opinion against the expressway. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-nine, Jacobs moved to the Canadian city of Toronto where she lived for the rest of her life. Part of her reason for leaving the United States was because she opposed the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. At that time, she had two sons almost old enough to be called for duty. Jacobs continued to be a community activist in Toronto. She was involved in a campaign to stop the Spadina Expressway through Toronto. This highway would have permitted people living in suburban areas outside Toronto to travel into and out of the city easily. Jacobs organized citizens against the Spadina Expressway and the politicians who supported it. One of her most important issues was this question: “Are we building cities for people or for cars?” Today, experts say Toronto is one of only a few major cities in North America to have successfully kept a large number of neighborhoods in its downtown area. Many experts believe this is because of the anti-Spadina movement led by Jane Jacobs. VOICE ONE: Jane Jacobs spent her life studying cities. She wrote seven books on urban planning, the economy of cities, and issues of commerce and politics. Her last book, published in two thousand four, was “Dark Age Ahead.”? In it, Jacobs described several major values that she believed were threatened in the United States and Canada. These included community and family, higher education, science and technology and a government responsive to citizens' needs. In “Dark Age Ahead,” Jacobs argued that Western society could be threatened if changes were not made immediately. She said that people were losing important values that helped families succeed. In “Dark Age Ahead,” Jacobs also criticized how political decision-making is influenced by economics. Governments, she said, have become more interested in wealthy interest groups than the needs of the citizens. Jacobs also warned against a culture that prevents people from preventing the destruction of resources upon which all citizens depend. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jane Jacobs had her critics. ?Many of them argued that her ideas failed to represent the reality of city politics, which land developers and politicians often control. Others argued that Jacobs had little sympathy for people who want a lifestyle different from the one she proposed. Still, many urban planning experts say her ideas shaped modern thinking about cities. She has had a major influenced on those who design buildings and towns that aim to increase social interaction among citizens. Jane Jacobs died in two thousand six in Toronto at the age of eighty-nine. Her family released a statement on her death. It said: "What's important is not that she died but that she lived, and that her life's work has greatly influenced the way we think. Please remember her by reading her books and implementing her ideas." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read scripts and download audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Investing in Businesses That Invest in the Poor
* Byline: The Acumen Fund is a New York-based nonprofit group that acts like a venture capital organization, but invests in projects to reduce poverty. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In Pakistan, a company called Saiban creates housing communities for the poor. About thirty percent of the country's population is estimated to live in unplanned settlements without legal right to the land. Saiban buys land, then sells pieces of it to families to build houses. Roads, water and electricity are provided. In India, a small company makes and sells low-cost drip irrigation systems to poor farmers. IDE-India spent seven years researching and developing the equipment. More than seventy-five thousand have been sold. Both Saiban and IDE-India operate thanks to the Acumen Fund. This nonprofit organization in New York helps people in developing countries build businesses to help the poor. The Acumen Fund provides loans, equity investments and grants to entrepreneurs and existing businesses. It operates like a venture capital organization. Acumen works with local companies to create business plans for their goods and services. Then it guides them through the marketing and production process. Expert knowledge and technical assistance are provided. The Acumen Fund supports development in three areas: water, health and housing. In Tanzania, it helped a company get the knowledge and equipment needed to produce chemically treated bed nets. These protect against mosquitoes that spread malaria. Today, A to Z Textile Mills is the third largest company in Tanzania. It has five thousand employees and produces about seven million bed nets a year. Jacqueline Novogratz, a social entrepreneur, launched the Acumen Fund in two thousand one. The Rockefeller Foundation, Cisco Systems Foundation and three individuals donated money to start it. Acumen has built a network of investors and experts. The fund now supervises about twenty million dollars in investments in six countries: Egypt, India, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa and Tanzania. Spokeswoman Mariko Tada says Acumen is considering several new projects. Within months, it hopes to invest more than one million dollars in a Kenyan company that helps farmers grow Artemisia. The plant is used as a compound in the malaria drug artemisinin. And Acumen may invest in a private ambulance service in Mumbai, India. That's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can find a link to the Acumen Fund Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: What Happens When Songwriters Fall in Love With Cities
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Lots of people have a favorite city. Maybe it is the city where they were born, or the place of their happiest memories. Or maybe it is just a place they would like to call home. Today, we present some songs about favorite American cities. Your travel guides are Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lower Manhattan, in New York CityNew York. New York. More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city. More than eight million people live in New York. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Almost three million people live in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Near Chicago is the small industrial city of Gary, Indiana. This city was made famous by a song in a musical play called "The Music Man." The play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen fifty-seven. In the musical, a young boy sings about his hometown. Here, Eddie Hodges sings "Gary, Indiana." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Right in the middle of America is the city of Kansas City. It is the largest city in the state of Missouri. In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote about going to Kansas City. Why?? Because they said it was filled with many wonderful women. James Brown sings the song "Kansas City." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miami BeachAmericans love cities near the ocean. One of the most popular is Miami, Florida. Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm. This song about Miami was written in nineteen thirty-five. The Hot Mustard Jazz Band sings "Moon Over Miami." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. There you can play games of chance all night long. The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too. In nineteen sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas."? Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group ZZ Top. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."? Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen sixty-two. It sold more than three million records. (MUSIC) Los AngelesVOICE TWO: Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second largest city. More than three million people live there. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song "I Love L.A." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They call Los Angeles "a great big freeway."? They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is "Do You Know The Way To San Jose." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sharks and People: Guess Which Is More a Danger to the Other
* Byline: Sharks are among the oldest animals on Earth. It may be hard to get people to think of them as anything but a deadly enemy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we tell about sharks. They are among the oldest animals on Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, Kyle Gruen was swimming near the Hawaiian island of Maui when he felt something bite him. Mister Gruen was wearing special eyeglasses for use in water. He could see his attacker. It was a purple and gray shark. The twenty-nine-year old Canadian was wounded on his left upper leg and hand. But he turned and pushed away the shark with his other foot. He watched the blood flow from his body as he swam away. Others hurried to help Mister Gruen. Soon the Canadian man was in a hospital operating room, having his injuries repaired. VOICE TWO: Before leaving the hospital, Mister Gruen had a visit from Nicolette Raleigh. A shark had bitten Miz Raleigh earlier near Maui. The shark struck the fifteen-year-old girl as she stood in water only about a half-meter deep. She suffered a serious wound in her right leg. Like Mister Gruen, she needed an operation. But she has recovered. Shortly after his operation, Kyle Gruen left the hospital to take part in the marriage ceremony of a friend. VOICE ONE: Miz Raleigh and Mister Gruen survived shark bites. But a young member of America's Peace Corps did not. Tessa Marie Horan was swimming near Tonga when a shark attacked and killed her. It was one of four such tragic incidents worldwide last year. That is about the same as in two thousand five. Chinese visitors watch a diver interact with a shark at Ocean World in Chengdu, Sichuan Taken together, shark attacks are far from the most dangerous incidents that can harm human beings. George Burgess directs the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida. As the name suggests, his group keeps records of shark attacks. Mister Burgess says people have more to fear from some snakes, insects and lightning than from sharks. VOICE TWO: It is hard to get people to think of sharks as anything but a deadly enemy. But these fish perform a valuable service for earth's waters and for human beings. Yet business and sport fishing are threatening their existence. Some sharks are at risk of disappearing from Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One reason for the shark's bad image is that people still watch a movie called "Jaws."? The nineteen seventy-four film takes place in an American coastal town. The people there sought protection from a great white shark that killed swimmers in the ocean. The number of shark attacks reported has risen during the past century. But the worldwide attack totals in two thousand five were similar to those of recent years. Shark expert George Burgess says more bites have been reported in this century because more people are in ocean waters. VOICE TWO: Surprisingly, the International Shark Attack File has records of attacks back to the sixteenth century. It says five hundred ninety-nine unprovoked attacks took place between fifteen eighty and March fifteenth of last year. Of that number, one hundred thirty three were deadly. An unprovoked attack means the person is alive when bitten and in the shark's living space or habitat. Also, the person must not have interfered with the shark. How does the I.S.A.F. know about attacks hundreds of years ago?? With some difficulty, says Mister Burgess. His team of scientific researchers works hard to confirm them. They investigate stories in old newspapers, which sometimes noted reports of seagoing ships and swimmers. The researchers investigate stories of attacks in books and historic documents. VOICE ONE: Mister Burgess says the I.S.A.F. has a worldwide team of scientists who offer their time to report attacks. He says the media also provide stories about shark bites. And people who have observed attacks communicate with his team. Mister Burgess says modern technology has made it easier to get the news of shark bites. Every report is investigated for confirmation and placed in computer record systems. In two thousand five, fifty-eight unprovoked shark attacks took place around the world. That was seven less than the year before. The majority of the attacks took place in American waters. Four were deadly. During the same year, business and sport fishing killed an estimated one million or more sharks. VOICE TWO: Warm weather may influence both fish and shark activity. Many fish swim near coastal areas because of their warm waters. Experts say sharks may follow the fish into the same areas, where people also swim. Mister Burgess says most shark activity during the current season is taking place in the Southern hemisphere. Waters near Australia and South Africa are popular with these fish. Mister Burgess says most sharks do not purposely bite humans. They are thought to mistake a person for a sea animal, like a seal or sea lion. That is why people should not swim in the ocean when the sun goes down or comes up. Those are the times when sharks are looking for food. Experts also say that bright colors and shiny jewelry may cause sharks to attack. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are hundreds of kinds of sharks. Most are about two meters long. The dogfish shark, however, is less than twenty centimeters in length. The biggest whale shark can grow to twenty meters in length. Sharks do not have bones. The skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage. Human noses and ears are also made of cartilage. A shark has an extremely good sense of smell. It can find small amounts of substances in water, such as blood, body liquids and chemicals produced by animals. Sharks also sense electrical and magnetic energy linked to nerves and muscles of living animals. VOICE TWO: These powerful senses help sharks find their food. Sharks eat fish, other sharks, and plants that live in the ocean. Some sharks will eat just about anything. Many unusual things have been found in the stomachs of tiger sharks. They include shoes, dogs, a cow’s foot and metal protective clothing. Sharks grow slowly. About forty percent of all sharks lay eggs. The others give birth to live young. Some sharks carry their young inside their bodies as humans do. A cord connects the mother to the fetus. Some sharks are not able to reproduce until they are twenty years old. Most reproduce only every two years. And they give birth to fewer than ten young sharks. For this reason, over-fishing of sharks is of special danger to the future of the animal. VOICE ONE: Medical researchers want to learn more about the shark’s body defense system against disease. Researchers know that sharks recover quickly from injuries. They study the shark in hopes of finding a way to fight human disease. Sharks are important for the world’s oceans. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting activities mean that the numbers of other fish in ocean waters do not become too great. This protects the plants and other forms of life that exist in the oceans. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and their skin. Experts say the international market for some kinds of sharks has increased because many parts of a shark are valuable. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jaws of a shark. Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A. The skin of a shark can be used like leather. In Asia, people enjoy a kind of soup made from shark fins. Experts say a fisherman can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark fins. Finning, as it is called, means cutting the fins off a live shark. Many times, the fish is then thrown back into the water. The goal is to save space on the boats. Animal activists denounce this as cruel. VOICE ONE: Each year, thousands of sharks die in traps set for other fish. Some scientists say that about the half the sharks caught were not the target of the fishing. But no one really knows that if returned to the water, these sharks go on living. If too many sharks in one area are killed, that group of sharks may never return to normal population levels. In two thousand four, sixty-three nations approved laws to protect sharks. But, as George Burgess says, some laws are effective near land. Laws can be difficult to enforce on the high seas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: US Agency Says Cloned Animals Safe to Eat
* Byline: The United States this year could become the first nation to approve sales of meat and milk from genetic copies of animals. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States government wants to know what the public thinks about its findings on the safety of cloned animals. The Food and Drug Administration says meat and milk from clones of adult cattle, pigs and goats are safe to eat. An F.D.A. official called them "as safe to eat as the food we eat every day."? And when those clones reproduce sexually, the agency says, their offspring are safe to eat as well. But research on cloned sheep is limited. So the F.D.A. proposes that sheep clones not be used for human food. The United States this year could become the first country to approve the sale of foods from cloned animals. First, however, the public will have ninety days to comment on three proposed documents. On December twenty-eighth the F.D.A. released a long report, called a draft risk assessment, along with two policy documents. The agency says it must receive comments by April second. The F.D.A. seemed ready to act several years ago, but an advisory committee called for more research. For now, the government will continue to ask producers to honor a request that they not sell foods from cloned animals. Clones are still rare. They cost a lot and are difficult to produce. Some people think farmers might find it difficult to export products from cloned animals. Critics question the safety. Animal rights activists also have objections. The F.D.A. says most food from cloning is expected to come not from clones themselves, but from their sexually reproduced offspring. It says clones are expected to be used mostly as breeding animals to spread desirable qualities. Public opinion studies show that most Americans do not like the idea of food from cloned animals. But this research also shows that the public knows little about cloning. Cloning differs from genetic engineering. A cell taken from a so-called donor animal is grown into an embryo in the laboratory. Next, the embryo is placed into the uterus of a female animal. If the process is successful, the pregnancy reaches full term and a genetic copy of the donor animal is born. The F.D.A. sees no scientific reason to require special labels on products that involved cloning. But companies could identify products as "clone-free," if statements do not suggest that one product might be safer than another. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: For People Over 55, the World Is a Classroom Through Elderhostel
* Byline: Thousands of educational programs are offered in the United States, Canada and more than 90 other countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we begin a series about ways older Americans are keeping mentally active. We tell about Elderhostel, an organization that considers the world its classroom. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American Census Bureau estimates that more than seventy-five million of the three hundred million Americans are baby boomers. Baby boomers were born between nineteen forty-six and nineteen sixty-four. That was when the birth rate in the United States rose sharply, or boomed, after the end of World War Two. Every day in two thousand six, almost eight thousand baby boomers turned sixty years old. They are at the age when they are beginning to think about retiring from their jobs. They are wondering what they want to do with this new period in their lives. VOICE TWO: Policy makers are concerned about the problems government must try to solve because of the rising percentage of older Americans. Each year fewer people will be working and paying into the Social Security System to support an increasing number of retired people. Medical costs are rising sharply. More housing is needed for older people who cannot care for themselves. Most people who have already retired, or are about to, have other concerns about growing older. They do not want to sit at home and slowly die. They know to stay healthy they need to keep active – not just physically but mentally. Private groups and non-profit organizations are meeting this need. They offer many kinds of programs for aging Americans to keep their minds active. Experts say these programs will expand and change as baby boomers join them. VOICE ONE: The Art Institute of Chicago offers an Elderhostel programDifferent kinds of continuing education programs exist now in all areas of the United States. For example, colleges let older Americans take classes at a reduced cost. Museums, cultural organizations and non-profit groups offer many educational experiences, especially for retired people. Older Americans can learn new skills or improve old ones through schools that offer classes in art, photography, writing, handcrafts or languages. And hundreds of thousands of people over the age of fifty-five take part every year in educational and travel programs offered by Elderhostel. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It was nineteen seventy-five. Marty Knowlton, a former teacher, had recently returned to the United States. He had spent four years walking through Europe. He had enjoyed all the things he saw and did. He had enjoyed sleeping in the low-cost hotels for young people, called youth hostels. And he had noted that many older Europeans seemed more active than older Americans. Mister Knowlton thought there should be ways older Americans could remain active and continue to learn after retiring from their jobs. He shared stories of his travels with David Bianco, an official at the University of New Hampshire. Mister Bianco suggested the university create an "elder hostel."? The name became the idea for a program for older people providing exciting learning experiences in simple but comfortable places to stay. VOICE ONE: In the summer of nineteen seventy-five, five colleges in New Hampshire offered the first Elderhostel programs to two hundred twenty people. The idea was an immediate success. Five years later, twenty thousand people took part in Elderhostels in all fifty states and most of Canada. Many different subjects were taught in the Elderhostels -- from history to nature to music to art. People stayed in rooms at colleges, motels or cabins. The cost of an Elderhostel included all meals, a place to stay and teachers or guides. The model remained the same as Elderhostel grew. It now is the largest non-profit education travel organization for adults over fifty-five. VOICE TWO: Elderhostel now offers more than eight thousand programs a year in the United States, Canada and more than ninety other countries. More than one hundred sixty thousand people take part every year. Their average age is seventy-two. One man who is one hundred three has taken part in more than one hundred Elderhostels and is still going strong. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People go on Elderhostels for different reasons. Nancy Gallagher of Silver Spring, Maryland, has gone on thirty-nine Elderhostels. The first one she and a friend tried was a cross-country skiing trip in Vermont. They liked the activities and the people a lot so next they went to a music program at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. And they just kept going. One year, Nancy Gallagher and her friend flew to New Mexico and went to three different Elderhostels while they were there. Another time they flew to Europe for one Elderhostel in Florence, Italy and a second one in Paris, France. Recently she went to an Elderhostel that followed the path taken in eighteen-oh-four by the North American explorers, Lewis and Clark. VOICE TWO: Carol Honsa of Washington, D.C. recently went on a two-week Elderhostel to explore national and state parks in California. It was her third Elderhostel. She says about thirty interesting and lively people were part of the group. Most of their time was spent outdoors learning while experiencing the beauty of the parks. Miz Honsa says the people she has met in Elderhostel are serious about learning. So, she says, it is important that the leaders are knowledgeable and that local experts such as geologists and naturalists also talk to the group. VOICE ONE: An Elderhostel changed the lives of John and Brenda Bell. They lived for many years between two big cities on the East Coast. Mister Bell was interested in astronomy. They both liked to watch birds. Yet it was difficult to see the stars or find many birds where they lived. Missus Bell says they went to Elderhostels about birding and astronomy in different areas of the United States. They visited places they would not have gone to on their own. And they met people who shared their interests in learning and having a good time doing it. Then Mister and Missus Bell went to an Elderhostel program in the small town of Fort Davis, Texas. He found it perfect for observing the stars. The area was so far from big cities that the sky was very dark at night. She liked the warm climate and wide-open space. So they returned to the East Coast, sold their home, and moved to Fort Davis. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elderhostel develops its programs in cooperation with more than five hundred independent educational and cultural organizations. They include colleges, museums, scientific research centers, performing arts centers, and national and state parks. Traditional Elderhostels were held in one place and two or three subjects were taught. One example was an Elderhostel held years ago at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. People made pit- fired pottery, heard from Native American storytellers and learned about Spanish history in the Southwest. In recent years, most non-travel programs center on one subject. Elderhostel has developed many other kinds of learning experiences. Intergenerational programs are for grandparents and their grandchildren. Adventures Afloat programs are held on ships. Active Outdoor programs combine learning with sports such as horseback riding and bicycling. Individual Skills programs offer older adults a chance to learn new skills such as painting, cooking or pottery-making. VOICE ONE: Adam Hurtubise is director of public relations for Elderhostel. He says Elderhostel began a new program in two? thousand four because of requests from baby boomers. It is called Road Scholar. Some of these programs are trips to unusual places such as Bhutan or Antarctica. Others are five- to seven-day programs in one place. Mister Hurtubise says many baby boomers do not plan to completely retire. They want to work part-time. So they want shorter programs that are more intense. They want a high level of activity and learning in a shorter period of time. He says they also want more free time to learn on their own and fewer people in a program. Mister Hurtubise says Elderhostel is always developing new programs. It is creating different kinds of learning experiences to meet the demands of the growing number of older Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read scripts and download audio of our programs at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Childhood Health: Life in a 'Germ Factory'
* Byline: Experts say caregivers should be trained in ways to clean, sanitize and disinfect. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A mother in Tamil Nadu, India, recently had a question for our new series on children and parenting. This woman in Tuticorin has a son who is almost three years old. He attends a pre-kindergarten school. She wonders why he often suffers from a blocked or leaky nose and a cough. Along with these, he gets a temperature of thirty-eight and three-tenths degrees Celsius. Of course, the only advice we can give our listeners is to ask a medical professional about any conditions. But this is a good chance to talk about young children in group settings. There is a reason why schools and child care centers are known as germ factories. Children can come in contact with all sorts of bacteria, viruses and other organisms as they share toys, toilets and towels. Some will make them sick, others are harmless. Good hand washing is an important way to reduce the spread of infections. Caregivers should also be trained in ways to clean, sanitize and disinfect. The Web site for the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care explains the differences. This government-financed center is part of the University of Colorado in Denver. It says parents should look around child care centers. ?Make sure toys, furniture and other equipment are clean and in good condition. Not only that, ask how often things get cleaned -- there should be an established program. The experts in Colorado say parents should not take sick children to day care if they might infect others. They also advise child care operators to keep a sick child away from healthy children whenever possible. Some places are not equipped to deal with a sick child. Many day care centers and schools require children to be without fever for at least twenty-four hours before they can come back. Being in a "germ factory" is not necessarily all bad. Some experts believe that children exposed early to common germs develop a greater resistance to them when they reach school age. Next week, we are going to continue talking about childhood health. If you have a general question, send it to special@voanews.com. And please be sure to tell us who you are and where you are writing from. And that's the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports -- and a link to the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care -- are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wanna, Gonna, Hafta: Getting Relaxed With Reduced Forms in Speech
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: reduced forms in spoken American English. RS: We're talking about forms like whaddaya -- meaning "what do you," as in "whaddaya say?" "Whaddaya Say?" is also the title of a popular teaching book on reduced forms by Nina Weinstein. AA: She did extensive research on the subject as a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and as a teaching fellow at Harvard. NINA WEINSTEIN: "There were a lot of assumptions. People felt that maybe it was a sort of uneducated kind of speech or maybe it was caused by informality or things like this. So my master's thesis is actually on what causes reduced forms. "And what I found was speed of speech was statistically significant as a cause for reduced forms, not informality. Though in informal speech we tend to speak more quickly, and so we think it's the informality, but actually it's the speed of speech." RS: "What do you find? Do you find certain patterns of reductions? Is there a way in which you can almost predict, if you are a speaker of English as a foreign language, that you can almost predict when or how it's going to happen?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Yes, yes -- in fact, you can learn the reduced forms before. There are fifty to seventy common reduced forms that everyone should know from a listening point of view. Sometimes, I think, teachers feel that students will just pick this up. And they do pick up some, but they don't pick up all of them." AA: "Can you give us a few of the most common reduced forms?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "The three most common reduced forms are wanna, which is the spoken form of 'want to'; gonna, which is the spoken form of 'going to' plus a verb; and hafta, which is the spoken form of 'have to.' And one of these forms will occur about every two minutes." AA: "On average in a conversation?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Yes, in unscripted spoken English." AA: "That's amazing. And we're talking about common, everyday speech. And yet I could see maybe some students who are learning English who want to maybe apply for a job or meet with an employer or someone, a professor, and maybe they're afraid that they're going to sound uneducated or that they're too informal. What do you say about that?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Informality -- informality actually is a very, very large part of American English. And as I tell my students, the majority of English is informal, though we do have situations that call for formality. I don't think that students should worry about their own use of the reduced forms because non-native speakers generally don't reach the speed of speech to have reductions. And so their speech will not reduce naturally. "I don't advise students unnaturally adapting these forms because, as I said, they're a natural flow of spoken English. But what I do suggest that they do is, if they want to sound more natural, regardless of whether it's an interview situation or just in everyday speech, they could adopt the three most common reduced forms in their speech because these are almost like vocabulary items. They're that common. "As far as the job interview goes, as I said, I don't think students should adopt the fifty to seventy common reduced forms in their own speech. But they need to understand the interviewer, who will be using reduced forms." RS: "Now beyond these top three, is there a top ten?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I wouldn't say there's a top ten. If I were to just give you some really common ones, one of the more common question forms would be 'what do you/what are you' changing to whaddaya. You can put that together with want to -- 'what do you want to' would be naturally pronounced as whaddaya wanna: 'Whaddaya wanna do?' 'Whaddaya wanna have?' Of course, we talked about gonna, which is 'going to' plus verb. "We've got gotta, which is 'have got to': 'I've got to do this.' 'I've got to go there.' I think those are common, but I think the ones that are represented in 'Whaddya Say?' are really the most common. And I can't cut it off at ten, because actually in my research I found three hundred and five reduced forms." A: Nina Weinstein, the author of "Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech," speaking with us from VOA's Los Angeles bureau. RS: And we gotta go. That's Wordmaster for this week. To learn more about American English, visit our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: After World War Two, US Reacts to 'Iron Curtain' Across Europe
* Byline: The United States offered economic aid so western European countries could become strong enough to oppose Soviet aggression. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Throughout history, power passes from one nation to another. Persia, for example, was the world's most powerful nation at the time of Alexander the Great. Rome became a great power under Julius Caesar. And France was so under Napoleon. Through the middle of the twentieth century, Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. Britain, however, suffered terribly during World War Two. And, after the war, power passed to the United States. VOICE TWO: One can almost name the day when this happened. It was February twenty-first, nineteen forty-seven. Officials at the British Embassy in Washington called the American State Department. They had two messages from their government. The first was about Greece. The situation there was critical. Greece had been occupied by Germany during the war. Now it was split by a bitter civil war. On one side of the fighting was the royal family supported by Britain. On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist during nineteen forty-four and nineteen forty-five. A few years later, Britain could no longer help. It needed all its strength to rebuild from the world war. So, on that February day in nineteen forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for Greece. VOICE ONE: Britain's second message that day was about Turkey. Turkey was stronger than Greece. But it, too, might become communist unless it received outside help. Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across Eastern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat. Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world. The United States was ready to accept its new position. VOICE TWO: For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse. The two countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War. But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people. The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and Eastern Europe. It wanted to extend its own influence, instead. So, after the war, it forced the establishment of communist governments in a number of countries. In Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia, it sent troops to make sure its political demands were met. Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, spoke about the situation in a speech at a college in the American state of Missouri. Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power. He described it as an "iron curtain" falling across the middle of Europe. The iron curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a democratic west. VOICE ONE: The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China. China was a divided nation at the end of World War Two. The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek controlled the southwest part of the country. Communist forces under Mao Zedong?controlled the north. Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be able to unite China. VOICE TWO: Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists. But Mao and his forces used the people's growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support. Slowly, they began to win battles and capture arms. Early in nineteen forty-nine, communist forces took control of Beijing and Tientsin. Then they captured Shanghai and Canton. By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of Taiwan. VOICE ONE: The fall of the Nationalist government in China caused a bitter political debate in America. Some critics of the Truman administration charged that the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists. The Truman administration rejected the charges. It said Chiang caused his own defeat by failing to reform and win the support of the Chinese people. Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the defeat this way: "Nothing that the United States did, or could have done, within the limits of its powers, could have changed the result. It was the product of forces within China. It was the product of forces which the United States tried to influence, but could not." VOICE TWO: The United States was more successful in its policies toward Europe. The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey caused President Truman to speak to the Congress. He said, "I believe it must be our policy to support free people who are fighting attempted overthrow by armed minorities or outside pressures." Truman called on the Congress to give him four hundred million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey. After a brief but intense national debate, the Congress agreed. Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek economy and reorganize the Greek army. Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to Greek rebels. The civil war in Greece ended. VOICE ONE: American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the Truman Doctrine. The goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world. Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism. But he also believed it was equally important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves. VOICE TWO: Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two. There were severe shortages of food and fuel. Crops were destroyed. Many Europeans were beginning to look to the communists -- to anybody -- to save them. This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe. Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the idea. It soon became known as the Marshall Plan. VOICE ONE: President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan. People were starving, he said. There had been food riots in France and Italy. People were cold. There was not enough fuel. And people were sick. Tuberculosis was breaking out. "Something had to be done," Truman said later. "The British had no money. They were pulling out of Greece and Turkey. They could not help. The United States had to do it, had to do it all." VOICE TWO: Marshall Plan aid was offered to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused help. Sixteen other countries, however, welcomed the aid. From nineteen forty-eight to nineteen fifty-two, the economic cooperation administration of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries. It spent thirteen thousand million dollars. The plan worked. Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent. Overall industrial production increased by thirty-five percent. Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more. There were political results, too. Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy. Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few people could argue that the plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Rich Kleinfeldt and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by David Jarmul. Join us again next week at this same time for another program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: US Had Fewer Students Last Year From India, Japan
* Byline: Which schools had the most foreign students, where they came from and what they studied. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than five hundred sixty thousand foreign students attended an American college or university during the last school year. It was the seventh straight year with more than half a million international students in the United States. Last year's group was about the same size as the year before -- which was good news for schools. Why?? Because the number of students coming to the United States had been falling for two years. Today, in our Foreign Student Series, we present numbers from the latest "Open Doors" report. The information is from the Institute of International Education, based in New York. India again sent the most students in the school year that began in autumn of two thousand five. India passed China in two thousand one as the leading sender of foreign students to the United States. American schools last year had more than seventy-six thousand Indian students. That was a five percent drop from the year before -- the first reduction since nineteen ninety-six. China had more than sixty-two thousand students in American schools, roughly the same as the year before. South Korea was third with an increase of ten percent. And Japan was fourth -- but with an eight percent drop. The report says there were also sharp decreases in students from Turkey, Colombia, Pakistan and Malaysia. But there were notable increases in students from Nepal and Vietnam. For the fifth year, the school with the most foreign students was the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It had almost seven thousand. Columbia University in New York was second. Others with large numbers included Purdue, New York University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. What were the most popular areas of study?? Eighteen percent studied business and management. Sixteen percent studied engineering. Nine percent were in the physical and life sciences. Eight percent studied social sciences, and another eight percent studied mathematics and computer science. There were fewer international students in computer science and engineering last year. But there were more in areas including art, health and intensive English language. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For the full "Open Doors" report, you can find a link to the IIE Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. Our Foreign Student Series is also there. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Day to Dream: Remembering Martin Luther King and His Work
* Byline: Also: A question from China about the different meanings of ''sale,'' and music from the movie ''Dreamgirls.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about sales … Play some music from a new movie … And report about a famous American whose life is celebrated about this time every year. Remembering Martin Luther King Jr. Monday, January fifteenth, is Martin Luther King Junior Day in the United States. It celebrates the life and work of the great American civil rights leader. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Martin Luther King Junior was born on January fifteenth, nineteen twenty-nine, in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a minister of a Christian Baptist Church. At that time, laws in the American south kept black people separate from white people. The laws forced African-Americans to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of cities. They did not have the same civil rights as white people. Martin Luther King Junior attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. There he studied the ideas of India's spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. He also studied American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Both Gandhi and Thoreau wrote about ways to fight injustice. They urged people to disobey unjust laws, but not to use violence. Martin Luther King Junior wanted to spread these ideas about peaceful protest. He became a Baptist minister like his father. He and his wife Coretta moved to Montgomery, Alabama. One day in nineteen fifty-five, a black woman got on a city bus in Montgomery. Rosa Parks sat in a seat saved for white people. She refused to move and was arrested. Reverend King organized a peaceful protest against the city bus system. The protest succeeded. The United States Supreme Court later ruled that racial separation on the bus system was illegal. Martin Luther King Junior became well known. Groups formed to protest racial separation. He became the leader of the struggle. Reverend King led many peaceful demonstrations. These included the nineteen sixty-three March on Washington, D.C. He gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to two hundred thousand people. Reverend King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-sixty four. He was shot and killed four years later while visiting Memphis, Tennessee. Each year, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Junior's life and work on the Monday closest to his birthday. Schools and government offices are closed. Cities and towns hold special ceremonies to honor him. Sales, Sales and More Sales HOST: Our listener question this week comes from China. George wants to know about an event called a "sale" in the United States. When a store sells goods or services at a cost lower than usual, it is called a sale. Sales last for a limited time. Then the cost is returned to its usual amount. There are many kinds of sales. For example, a "back-to-school sale" is held near the beginning of the school year. Parents can save money on clothes and school supplies for their children. A "midnight madness" event starts very late at night. An "early bird special" sale starts very early in the morning, usually before the sun rises. This kind of sale is popular the day after Thanksgiving in November. A favorite sale among many people is the "buy one, get one free" sale. You buy one thing and get a second one without cost. When people see the word “free” in an advertisement they know they are getting a good deal. Another kind of sale is a "going out of business" sale. This is when a storeowner tries to sell all the goods in the store before closing the business permanently. Let us say the store sells floor coverings. The owner lowers the prices and puts up a sign that says: "Going out of business sale. All items MUST be sold by tomorrow."? People who buy the floor coverings think they are getting a special deal because everything must be sold in a short period of time. Then, days later they see the store did?not close permanently. And they see the same sign that claims the store is going out of business. Some business owners really do not end the business. They just want to earn more money. People also hold their own sales. They hold garage sales and yard sales outside their home. They sell things they no longer want. Groups such as religious centers or schools hold bake sales. They sell, cakes, cookies and other baked goods to raise money. In America, you can always find a good sale, no matter the day or time of year. There is the Independence Day sale, Veteran's Day sale, clearance sale, sidewalk sale, red tag sale, white sale, blue light special, liquidation sale, half-off sale, warehouse sale, tent sale … ''Dreamgirls'' A new movie musical called "Dreamgirls" was released late last month. Barbara Klein tells us about it and plays music from the movie. BARBARA KLEIN: The movie "Dreamgirls" is a version of a hit Broadway musical play that opened in nineteen eighty-one. It tells the story of a group of three black female singers, called the Dreams, who became famous in the nineteen sixties. The story is based on the real group called the Supremes. The movie stars the famous singer Beyonce Knowles as Deena. It also stars Jennifer Hudson as Effie. Hudson was a finalist on the television hit show "American Idol" a few years ago but did not win that singing contest. Critics have praised Hudson's acting and singing in the movie. "Dreamgirls" takes place in Detroit, Michigan, in the early nineteen sixties. Deena, Effie and the third member of their group, Lorrell, perform in a local singing contest. They do not win the competition. But a car salesman named Curtis Taylor thinks they can become famous. Taylor becomes their manager and producer. He also starts a relationship with Effie who loves him. The group gets its first big chance as backup singers for James "Thunder" Early, a soul singer played by Eddie Murphy. Here, he sings "Fake Your Way to the Top." (MUSIC) Curtis Taylor wants to make the Dreams popular with white people as well as African-Americans. He replaces Effie with the more beautiful Deena as the lead singer. Effie is later forced out of the group. But she does not go quietly. Here Jennifer Hudson performs the most famous song in the movie, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." (MUSIC) The Dreams become famous. Deena becomes the most famous of all. She decides to break away from Taylor's influence over her. At the end of the movie, Beyonce Knowles, as Deena, sings about her new freedom in this song, called "Listen." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was theproducer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Backdated Stock Options: How Deal for Apple Chief Turned Sour
* Byline: An explanation of a payment practice that has brought attention to the company formerly known as Apple Computer and many others. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Apple Computer had a big week. Steve Jobs, the chief executive officer, announced the company would now just be called Apple. And, at its MacWorld conference, he also presented the iPhone. It combines a wireless phone, music and video player, and Internet communications device in one handheld product. The next day, Cisco Systems brought a civil case. That company owns trademark rights to the name iPhone. Apple was negotiating for permission to use it. Apple called the legal action "silly."? It said there were already several companies using that name. Recently, Apple has had to deal with another issue: backdated stock options. A stock option is an agreement to trade a stock by a set date. Companies use options as a form of pay, often for their top people. Imagine you work for the XYZ Company. You are given an option to buy one hundred shares of its stock at the current price, ten dollars a share; the option is good for one year. A year later, XYZ stock has risen to twenty dollars. You use the option to buy the shares at ten dollars. Now you can sell them for twenty -- for a profit of one thousand dollars. But what if the company backdated the option?? Remember, XYZ stock was ten dollars when the option was created. But a month earlier, it was six dollars. Using that point as the starting date means more profit. Instead of buying at ten dollars, you can buy at six and sell at twenty. In August of two thousand one, the Apple board of directors approved more than seven million shares in stock options for Steve Jobs. The options were created that December, but with an October date. That added twenty million dollars to their value, because the stock price was three dollars less. Steve Jobs never exercised the options; he received five million shares instead. But Apple had to restate its earnings to correct its options accounting. Last month the company restated its financial results for four years. Apple reduced its results by eighty-four million dollars. In general, backdating options is not illegal but companies can get in trouble if they violate financial reporting rules. Options are taxed differently from normal pay. They can reduce taxes for companies and individuals. Since two thousand two, backdating has been more difficult under the Sarbanes-Oxley law. Last fall, a Securities and Exchange Commission official said more than one hundred companies were under investigation. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Faces Opposition, Low Public Support for Troop Plan for Iraq
* Byline: President says an increase of more than 20,000 troops is needed in efforts to secure Baghdad; Democrats and some Republicans disagree. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush told the American people this week that he plans to send more troops to Iraq. He called the situation there unacceptable and added: "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me."? The president spoke Wednesday night from the White House. Mister Bush said past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two main reasons. First, there were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure areas that had been cleared. Secondly, he said, there were too many restrictions on American forces. Under the new plan, more than twenty thousand American troops will join the roughly one hundred thirty thousand already in the war. Most will go to Baghdad to help Iraqi forces. Others will go to the most violent area outside the capital, Anbar province in the west. The president called Anbar the home base for al-Qaida in Iraq. His "New Way Forward" plan also calls for more than one billion dollars in additional economic aid for Iraq. Mister Bush has been under pressure to bring American troops home. He says an increase is needed first, to prevent the collapse of the democratically elected Iraqi government. But the newspaper USA Today, for example, found that just twelve percent of the American people support sending more troops. President Bush said the Iraqi government will deploy Iraqi Army and National Police across Baghdad to support local police. He said he has made it clear to Iraqi leaders that America's presence in Iraq is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, he said, it will lose the support of the American people. He expressed the belief that victory is still possible, in the sense of a democratic Iraq that would serve as an example for the Arab world. He said succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territory. He said the United States will target what he called the "flow of support" from Iran and Syria for attacks on American forces. President Bush said American military commanders believe his plan can work. But Senator Dick Durbin, in the Democratic answer to the speech, said the president is ignoring the advice of most of his top generals. The war was a major cause of the Republican loss of Congress in the November elections. The new Democratic leaders in Congress condemned the troop increase even before Mister Bush presented it. They are planning advisory votes in both houses to urge the president not to send more troops. But many Democrats say that is not enough. Some Republicans are also against the plan. Separately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced a plan to increase the Army and Marine Corps by ninety-two thousand troops. The increase, over five years, requires congressional approval. He also announced that some part-time forces will be called to duty for a second time before the usual five-year waiting period. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983: Building Designer, Inventor, Poet
* Byline: He was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentieth century.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about an unusual man who had many abilities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Building designer. Engineer. Inventor. Thinker. Poet. Not five people. Just one: Richard Buckminster Fuller. "Bucky" Fuller, as he was known, was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentieth century. His aim in life was to make the human race a success in the universe. Bucky Fuller spent most of his life searching for new ideas. He also searched for unusual connections between existing ideas. He described himself in these words: "A complete, future-thinking design-science explorer." Fuller believed deeply in technology. Through technology, he said, people can do anything they need to do. VOICE TWO: R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen eighty-three at the age of eighty-seven. During his long life, he discussed his idea about technology and human survival. He called his idea "dymaxion." It came from three words. Dynamic, meaning a force. Maximum, meaning the most. And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge. Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more with less. Everything he did was guided by this idea. He designed a dymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world. But he probably is known best for another invention -- the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is a round building made of many straight-sided pieces. Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words. This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideas and designs. His designs were way ahead of his time. They still are. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in eighteen ninety-five. Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyes did not point straight ahead. So, his world was filled with masses of color without clear shapes. When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct the problem. Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people's faces. He could see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees. He never lost his joy at the beauty he discovered in the world. As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything. He was a very independent thinker at an early age. His refusal to accept other people’s ideas and rules continued as he grew older. One result was that he never completed his university studies. He was expelled two times from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought his time was better spent having fun than studying. Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning. He proved this when he joined the American Navy during World War One. VOICE TWO: In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications and electronics engineering. He loved this world of modern technology. Soon after he joined the Navy, he designed new rescue equipment. It helped save the lives of some pilots during training. Fuller's good Navy record won him a short-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was there he first developed two ideas that were important for the rest of his life. While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed much less than buildings, yet were able to do much more. He decided better designs could also help humans do more, using fewer materials. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett. Their daughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later. Bucky was a very emotional man, as well as an intellectual one. He loved his little daughter. She was the wonder of his world. Then Alexandra became very sick. The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet. She died at the age of four. Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything he could to save her. His sorrow overcame him. He began to drink too much alcohol. Yet he continued to work hard. Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight building material. He was not a successful businessman, however. And the company began to fail. He was dismissed by the owners. It was nineteen twenty-seven. His wife had just given birth to another baby girl. They were living in Chicago, Illinois. He had no job and no money. He felt he was a complete failure. VOICE TWO: Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along lake Michigan. He stood silently on the shore. He considered killing himself. Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not have the right to kill himself. He said he had felt something inside him that day. He called it the Greater Intelligence or God. It told him he belonged to the universe. So Bucky Fuller decided to live. And he would live the way he thought best. He promised to spend his remaining years in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier. This began his great creative period. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fuller's first design was the dymaxion house. It was not built at the place it would stand. It was built in a factory, then moved. It did not cost much to build. And it did not look like a traditional house in America. Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center. Its walls were made of glass. It contained everything needed for people to live. Power came from the sun. Water was cleaned and re-used. Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car. It looked a little like the body of an airplane. It had three wheels instead of four. It could go as fast as one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. It carried up to twelve passengers. Several companies were interested in building and selling Fuller's house and car. But his designs were so different, so extreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects. So the dymaxion house -- which could have provided low-cost housing for everyone -- was never built. And the dymaxion car -- which could have provided safe, pollution-free transportation using little gasoline -- was never produced. VOICE TWO: Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less. He had an idea for another building design. It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material. He began looking for the perfect shape. Fuller found it in nature. It appeared in the shapes of organic compounds and metals. The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid. To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other. The connecting piece has eight sides. Together, these two shapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure. The structure can be covered with any kind of material. And it can stand without any supports inside. Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome. It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed. VOICE ONE: After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built, industry began to understand the value of the design. Today, there are about one hundred thousand different large and small geodesic domes in use around the world. However, no one yet has acted on one of Fuller's ideas for the geodesic dome. There are no limits to the size of a geodesic dome. So Fuller proposed using them over cities or over areas that had severe weather. A geodesic dome that size would make it possible to have complete control over the environment inside it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most of Bucky Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money. A lot of what he did earn he spent travelling around the world. He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet. He called the planet "Spaceship Earth." Humans, he said, are astronauts on Spaceship Earth. They are travelling one hundred thousand kilometers an hour around the sun. He said the Earth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only if people living on it know how to operate it correctly. People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship. They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them. Buckminster Fuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use of natural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Move Away From Rural Life Puts Pressure on Cities, Environment
* Byline: Experts say poverty is a serious problem in cities but governments must also consider the causes of urbanization. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Fifty years ago, most people lived in rural areas. But the world has changed. By some point next year, more than half of all people will live in cities, for the first time in history. So says the most recent estimate from the United Nations. City life is not always a bad thing, but many experts worry about this process of urbanization. A new report from the Worldwatch Institute says it is having a huge effect on human health and the quality of the environment. The environmental research group in Washington released its two thousand seven "State of the World" report last week. Of the three billion people who live in cities now, the report says, about one billion live in unplanned settlements. These are areas of poverty, slums, that generally lack basic services like clean water, or even permanent housing. The report says more than sixty million people are added to cities and surrounding areas each year, mostly in slums in developing countries. Molly O'Meara Sheehan led the Worldwatch report. She says the international community has been too slow to recognize the growth of urban poverty. Policymakers, she says, need to increase investments in education, health care and other areas. The report talks about some successful efforts by local governments and community groups. For example, it says Freetown, Sierra Leone, has established farming within the city limits to meet much of its growing food demands. In Colombia, engineers have created a bus system in Bogota that the report says has helped reduce air pollution and improve quality of life. Olav Kjorven heads the Environment and Energy Group at the United Nations Development Program. He agrees that the link between urban poverty and the environment is serious. But he says governments also need to consider why people are moving out of rural areas. Climate change, drought, floods -- there are many reasons forcing people to leave, he says. Olav Kjorven says the two issues of poverty reduction and the environment have existed side by side, but rarely have they connected -- until now. He says governments are starting to understand that environmental collapse is not a natural cost of economic development. Instead, he says, it is hurting the possibility for growth. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about development issues at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Life With a Disability in America: Educating the Young
* Byline: Special education is the subject of the first part of a series that will also examine employment, laws and technologies for disabled people. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we begin a series of reports about living with a disability in America. VOICE ONE: Our series will explore a number of subjects. These include laws that are meant to give people with disabilities the same chances that able-bodied people have to succeed. We will talk about employment and about technologies designed to assist people living with disabilities. VOICE TWO: But first we look at special education programs for children with disabilities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Years ago, children with mental or physical disabilities were usually kept at home or in a hospital. Mental hospitals especially were often dirty, horrible places. Early reforms demanded better care for the people who had to live in them. By the second half of the twentieth century, however, these laws were not enough. There was a movement to demand not just better care but human rights for people with disabilities. All they wanted, people said, was fair treatment and an equal chance to succeed. VOICE TWO: These efforts continue. On December thirteenth, the United Nations General Assembly approved a treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is the first treaty designed to protect the rights of the world's estimated six hundred fifty million disabled. It includes rights to education, health care, work and other protections. For example, it says people with disabilities have the right to free expression. It says they have a right to privacy and justice, to live independently and to take part in sports and daily social life. The treaty calls on nations to pass laws and other measures to improve disability rights. It also urges them to end any legislation or customs that discriminate against persons with disabilities. The treaty will be open for signing beginning March thirtieth. It will come into force after twenty countries have approved it. VOICE ONE: For a long time, many schools in the United States refused to admit children who were blind, deaf or mentally delayed. In nineteen seventy, only twenty percent of American children with disabilities attended public school. It was nineteen seventy-five before the nation had a law to require a free and appropriate public education for all children with disabilities. The words "free and appropriate public education" have become very important in American education. Appropriate means that the education is designed to meet the needs of an individual student. VOICE TWO: The law is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or I.D.E.A. New versions are approved by Congress every few years. The newest version of the law requires schools to increase the number of students with disabilities who receive a diploma. This shows that a student has successfully completed high school. Schools must also increase the number of students with disabilities who take and pass the same examinations all other students take. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????????????? Today more than six million children in the United States receive special education services from public schools. These services are available from birth to age twenty-one. Schools also provide testing services to help parents decide if their children need special education. Susan is a young woman who lives in the state of Maryland. She was not talking very much by the time she was two years old. Tests showed that her hearing was fine, but her ability to speak was delayed. So she attended a special private school when she was three and four years old. Her family did not have to pay for it. At the school, Susan learned to communicate with her hands, using sign language the way deaf people do. But remember, she could hear just fine. Little by little, she learned to use her voice and not her hands to communicate. VOICE TWO:?????? When Susan was five years old, she started going to the same public school as her brother and the other children in her community. ?Susan spent part of each day with a teacher who was trained to work with children with delayed speech. And she spent another part of the day with children who were developing normally. Educators call this "inclusion" -- having disabled and non-disabled children study and play together. Many educators and parents believe inclusion is important. At Susan's school, music teacher Teri Burdette directed a group of hearing children and deaf children. All the children sang with their voices and with their hands. (MUSIC) TERI BURDETTE: "When I am hearing this body of sound that is quite normal hearing sound, and then I'll recognize this high floating voice either above all the rest or below all the rest, and I recognize that voice to be some of our deaf voices and that gives me goose bumps." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Susan, the young woman in Maryland, had more tests as she got older. These tests found that some of her mental abilities were also delayed. She could not think very clearly. Sometimes she was taught only with students who had delays like hers. Other times, she was with groups of children of different ability levels. In these groups, the teachers sometimes asked Susan to do work that was different from what other students had to do. For example, while some children wrote a paper about a book they had read, Susan would complete an art project. This way she could show that she, too, understood some parts of the book. Susan received special education services from the time she was two years old until she was nineteen. Now she goes to a small college in her community. All of the students in her classes share something in common -- they all have disabilities like hers. They are learning simple mathematics. They are also learning better reading skills, and how to find a job. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Schoolchildren who need special services have what is called an individual education plan, or I.E.P. It describes what the child needs to learn during the school year. For example, with children who have severe disabilities, the goal could be to help them learn to feed themselves or hold a pencil. For other children, the plan could require that the student receive extra help in reading or math. Creating an individual education plan for each child who needs one takes time and effort. Parents and educators do not always agree about the services that a child needs. ?Parents can go to school officials to try to settle a disagreement. They also have a right to go to court. Some special education cases have gone all the way to the United States Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: It costs a lot for schools to provide special education services. The teachers usually work with a much smaller number of students than teachers normally do. Schools must also provide services like transportation for students in wheelchairs. American public schools currently spend an average of almost eight thousand dollars a year to educate one student. But the cost for a special education student can be thousands of dollars more -- especially if it includes placement in a private school. VOICE TWO: Over the years, the federal government has promised to pay forty percent of the costs of special education. But the National Education Association, a teachers union, says that by two thousand four, the government was paying less than twenty percent. As a result, state governments and local schools must find billions of dollars to pay for the services that the federal government requires. This can create disagreements in communities. Schools may find they have to cut regular education services so they can have enough money to pay for special education. VOICE ONE: But these programs have enabled many more young people with disabilities to attend college, find jobs and live life more independently. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jobs will be the subject next month in the second part of our series on living with a disability in America. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Chickenfeed: It Doesn't Add Up to Much
* Byline: Working for very little money...it's chickenfeed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm?Susan Clark?with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Almost every language in the world has a saying that a person can never be too rich. Americans, like people in other countries, always want more money. One way they express this is by protesting that their jobs do not pay enough. A common expression is, "I am working for chickenfeed." It means working for very little money. The expression probably began because seeds fed to chickens made people think of small change. Small change means metal coins of not much value, like nickels which are worth five cents. An early use of the word chickenfeed appeared in an American publication in nineteen thirty. It told about a rich man and his son. Word expert Mitford Mathews says it read, "I'll bet neither the kid nor his father ever saw a nickel or a dime. They would not have been interested in such chickenfeed." Chickenfeed also has another interesting meaning known to history experts and World War Two spies and soldiers. Spy expert Henry S. A. Becket writes that some German spies working in London during the war also worked for the British. The British government had to make the Germans believe their spies were working. So, British officials gave them mostly false information.It was called chickenfeed. The same person who protests that he is working for chickenfeed may also say, "I am working for peanuts." She means she is working for a small amount of money. It is a very different meaning from the main one in the dictionary. That meaning is small nuts that grow on a plant. No one knows for sure how a word for something to eat also came to mean something very small. But, a peanut is a very small food. The expression is an old one. Word expert Mitford Mathews says that as early as eighteen fifty-four, an American publication used the words peanut agitators. That meant political troublemakers who did not have a lot of support. Another reason for the saying about working for peanuts may be linked to elephants. Think of how elephants are paid for their work in the circus. They receive food, not money. One of the foods they like best is peanuts. When you add the word gallery to the word peanut you have the name of an area in an American theater. A gallery is a high seating area or balcony above the main floor. The peanut gallery got its name because it is the part of the theater most distant from where the show takes place. So, peanut gallery tickets usually cost less than other tickets. People pay a small amount of money for them. (MUSIC) This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fishing for Answers About 'Organic' Fish
* Byline: The US Agriculture Department considers whether to let fish be sold with a label that catches the attention of health-minded shoppers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In the United States, the term "organic" has a legal meaning set by the Department of Agriculture. The department has an official label to mark products that have met the requirements of its National Organic Program. Should wild salmon be labeled organic? A question for US officials.Organic products usually cost more, but their sales are growing. As a result, so is competition to label more products organic because many people believe they are healthier. Now Agriculture Department officials are trying to decide whether fish can be called organic. There are rules for organic produce, organic dairy products, organic meat and chicken -- but nothing about fish. Many operators of fish farms believe they could sell more fish if they could label them organic. The industry that sells wild-caught fish is already under pressure from farm-raised seafood. That pressure could increase if the Agriculture Department approves proposed requirements for labeling fish organic. Earning the organic label requires controlled conditions. The question is whether fish that swim wild and free -- like Alaskan salmon -- could meet the proposed requirements. Yet fish farms might not all be able to meet them either. Some operations are criticized for their treatment of fish and the risk of pollution to waterways. Fish farmers and the wild-caught industry also argue about the possible presence of harmful chemicals in each other's products. In two thousand, an advisory committee considered requests by fish farmers to call their products organic. The experts said farm-raised fish should be labeled organic only if they were fed almost completely organic plant food. Farmed fish often have little or no fish in their diet. But those proposed guidelines were not used. In two thousand five, the Agriculture Department formed another group to examine possible requirements. This time, the committee suggested several kinds of food that farmed fish could eat and still be called organic. A decision about whether fish can be sold with the organic label may still take two years or more. For now, the American fishing industry has to deal with growing competition from imported seafood. Some foreign companies already call their fish "organic" because, they say, it meets the requirements of their own countries. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can read and listen to our reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Alzheimer's: The Mysteries of the Most Common Form of Dementia
* Byline: Scientists are working on ways to find it early, although the cause is still unknown 100 years after the condition was first described. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about Alzheimer’s disease. One century after its discovery, the cause of the disease is still unknown. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In November of nineteen ninety-four, Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to the American people. The former president shared the news that he had Alzheimer’s disease. Mister Reagan began what he called his journey into the sunset of his life. That ten year journey ended on June fifth, two thousand four, at the age of ninety-three. Ronald ReaganIn his letter, America's fortieth President wrote about the fears and difficulties presented by Alzheimer’s disease. He said that he and his wife Nancy hoped their public announcement would lead to greater understanding of the condition among individuals and families affected by it. VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan was probably the most famous person to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. In the United States, about four million five hundred thousand people have the disease. Many millions more are expected to have it in years to come. Doctors describe Alzheimer's as a slowly increasing brain disorder. It affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure. Victims slowly lose their abilities to deal with everyday life. At first they forget simple things, like where they put something or a person’s name. As time passes, they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husband, wife or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally, they remember nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the other parts of the body. Victims of Alzheimer’s do die from the disease, but it many take many years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common kind of a disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead, dementia is a group of signs of some conditions and diseases. Karen Denbo feeds her mother, Betty O'Brien, who has Alzheimer'sSome kinds of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they are caused by drugs, alcohol, infection sight or hearing problems, heart or lung problems or head injury. Other kinds of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones or vitamins in the body. However, brain cells of Alzheimer’s victims die and are not replaced. Victims can become angry and violent as the ability to remember and think decreases. Often they shout and move about with no purpose or goal. Media reports often tell about older people found walking in places far from their homes, not knowing where they are or where they came from. Generally, these people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Alzheimer’s disease generally develops differently in each person. Yet some early signs of the disease are common. Often, the victims may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and the struggle to hide them. Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss. The victim cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult. The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work. VOICE ONE: Another sign of Alzheimer’s disease is difficulty solving simple problems, such as what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to nearby places. Another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer’s seem to change. Quiet people may become noisier and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others. VOICE TWO: Alzheimer’s disease normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. But a few rare cases have been discovered in people younger than fifty. The average age of those found to have the disease is about eighty years old. Alzheimer’s is found in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By ninety, half of all people are found to have some signs of the disease. VOICE ONE: Alzheimer’s disease affects people of all races equally. Yet women are more likely to develop the disease than men. This is partly because women generally live longer than men. There is no simple test to show if someone has Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors who suspect Alzheimer’s must test the patient for many other disabilities first. Alzheimer’s is considered the cause if the tests fail to show the presence of other disabilities. The only way to tell for sure if a person has Alzheimer’s is to examine the victim’s brain after death. VOICE TWO: Recently, scientists reported progress in efforts to identify persons who will develop Alzheimer’s disease. For example, one study examined brain and spinal cord fluid from sixty-eight people. It found twenty-three proteins that showed evidence of the disease. Study organizers said the protein test was correct in about ninety percent of patients involved in the study. The results were confirmed with brain examinations after the patients died. Another study found evidence of Alzheimer's by using a chemical known as F-D-D-N-P. This study used a process called positron emission tomography to make brain images of eighty-three adults. American scientists said the test was ninety-eight percent correct in showing differences between Alzheimer's and normal memory problems. Scientists say all these results must be repeated with larger groups of patients. But they said that being able to find the presence of the disease in such ways would make early treatment possible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In his book “The Notebook,” Nicholas Sparks calls Alzheimer’s disease, “a thief of hearts and souls and memories.”? British writer Iris Murdoch died of the disease. She said it was a dark and terrible place. It has been more than a century since a German doctor, Alois Alzheimer, told about a dementia patient whose brain was studied after death. Her brain had sticky structures and nerve cells that appeared to be mixed together. Later studies showed these tangled nerves are made of a protein called tau. The tau protein changes so that it sticks together in groups. The sticky structures were shown to be amyloid plaques. VOICE TWO: Scientists are still not sure what causes Alzheimer’s disease. The leading theory blames amyloid plaques. Reports say about one hundred different drugs are being tested to treat or slow the progress of the disease. Some American scientists have found a way to reduce amyloid plaque development. Researchers in New York say they reduced the amount of amyloid protein in the brains of mice by fifty percent. They say they did this by stopping interaction between amyloid and a protein known as apo E. Apo E moves cholesterol and other fats around the brain. VOICE ONE: Not all scientists are sure that amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer’s disease. Some say the plaques could be an effect of the disease, not the cause. Reports say some people who die of Alzheimer's do not have any plaques in their brains. Others who have the sticky structures showed no signs of Alzheimer's. Many scientists now say doctors are considering other possibilities. These include studies of enzymes that act on proteins to produce the plaques, and using antibodies against amyloid. Yet amyloid and enzymes are important for health and scientists do not want to destroy them completely. VOICE TWO: Other scientists are working with a gene called apoE4. Scientists in nineteen ninety-three discovered that its presence increases the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. They now say that apoE4 is present in fifty to seventy percent of the patients with the disease. Some scientists are attempting to change the protein that apoE4 makes. Others are working to block an enzyme that divides the apoE4 protein into different pieces that kill nerve cells. Many more studies are being done to find the cause and treatment for Alzheimer's…a disease that continues to affect millions of people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Older Adults, Many Chances to Make Learning a Lifelong Activity
* Byline: More than 40,000 people are members of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute programs across the US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Mario Ritter with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. We continue our series about ways older Americans are keeping mentally active. Today, we tell about lifelong learning programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Older Americans who are either retired or reaching retirement age are concerned about keeping active when they leave their jobs. They know that staying physically and mentally active is necessary for good health. It is easy for an individual to get exercise by walking, swimming or bicycling. But keeping mentally active is easier in a group. So, many programs have been created for aging Americans where they can continue to learn and experience new things. VOICE TWO: There are many education programs in communities across the United States. More than three hundred fifty of these learning programs belong to the Elderhostel Institute Network. It is part of Elderhostel, an organization that provides travel and learning experiences for hundreds of thousands of older Americans every year. VOICE ONE: Programs in the Elderhostel Institute Network are connected with the colleges and universities in the communities. Yet they are independent. Members elect leaders and help make decisions about what will be taught and by whom. There are no tests to take or papers to write. Anyone over the age of fifty can pay to belong. People do not have to travel to take the courses. The Elderhostel Institute Network provides an Internet Web site where groups from all over the United States can exchange experiences. It helps organize conferences and offers advice for people wanting to start new programs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some community-based education programs for people over fifty-five are called Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. Many of these programs also belong to the Elderhostel Institute Network. The difference is that the Bernard Osher Foundation gives money to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes to help support them. Bernard Osher was born in the state of Maine. He was a very successful businessman. He started a foundation thirty years ago to give money to help educational and cultural organizations in Maine and in California. VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-seven, the University of Southern Maine invited older adults who lived in the area to a meeting to talk about an exciting new chance to learn. The program would offer study groups and discussions on many different subjects, but there would be no tests or grades. It would be open to people who were at least fifty years old. Organizers expected one hundred fifty people to attend. Five hundred showed up. The program, known as Senior College, quickly became successful. In two thousand one, the Osher Foundation provided financial support that let the program expand its offerings to almost one thousand adults. The University of Southern Maine’s Senior College became the first Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. A national movement had begun. VOICE TWO: Mary Bitterman is president of the Bernard Osher Foundation. She says Bernard Osher always placed a high value on education. He had been giving financial assistance to people who wanted to continue their education but lacked money. Miz Bitterman says Mister Osher became interested in supporting educational programs for older people when he visited his hometown in Maine in two thousand. He found differences among his friends. Some were inactive and depressed. Others were lively and happy. They were attending Senior College at the University of Southern Maine. Miz Bitterman says Mister Osher was surprised that people could gain so much by learning new things every day. VOICE ONE: Osher members at the University of Alaska FairbanksMister Osher decided his Foundation should support the development of more learning communities of older adults. He wanted to create Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes in as many states as possible and to be in different kinds of communities. Mary Bitterman says the Osher Foundation gives one hundred thousand dollars a year for up to four years to the programs that are accepted as members. An Osher Lifelong Learning Institute may request a grant of one million dollars for its long term needs when it has about five hundred members and is offering college level courses. So far, seventeen of them have received the grants. VOICE TWO: Mary Bitterman thinks that the lifelong learning movement is just beginning. Americans today are living longer. Yet she says the important issue is not how long we live but how many exciting, productive years we have ahead of us. Miz Bitterman says that taking part in Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes gives people energy. It confirms the importance of continued personal development. She says it lets older people feel that every day there is the possibility of learning something new that will open doors to a new life. VOICE ONE: Kali Lightfoot is executive director of the National Resource Center for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes. The center is at the University of Southern Maine. Miz Lightfoot says there are now almost one hundred Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes in about forty states. More than forty thousand people are members of them. The resource center helps member groups exchange information about their problems, solutions and experiences. They do so through an Internet Web site, national conferences and a research journal. VOICE TWO: Miz Lightfoot says she has discovered that lifelong learners are looking to the future and not living in the past. One example, she says, is a ninety-three year old member who talks about how excited she is to be learning about Afghanistan. This woman forgets about the difficulty she has climbing the stairs to the classroom. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirty adults fill the hallway in a university building in Washington, D.C. talking and drinking coffee. They are having loud, lively discussions about current international and national events. They are on a short break from their class, "News in Context," a very popular offering of the Osher Lifetime Learning Institute at American University. The class is part of the continuing education program at American University. It began in nineteen eighty-two as the Institute for Learning in Retirement. It is a new member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. VOICE TWO: Sidney Steinitz is chairman of its Board of Directors. He says the name has changed, but nothing else has. Fifty courses are offered in the autumn and fifty different courses in the spring. Each course meets for two hours once a week for eight to ten weeks. Mister Steinitz says members decide what will be taught. They find the study group leaders or teachers. Study group leaders are experts in the subjects. Some have taught in colleges or high schools. Others have knowledge of the subject from their work. Still others have become experts by learning on their own. Teachers are not paid. They teach because they are interested in sharing their knowledge and learning from other members. Some of the teachers are members of the group. Mister Steinitz was a lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission before he retired. Now he teaches courses on "Great Books," a subject he loves. VOICE ONE: Anne Wallace is executive director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University. She says the subjects of most courses are similar to what is taught at colleges. They include history, politics, philosophy, archeology, science and literature. Courses taught by retired scientists about the universe, genetic research and the history of science are always popular. Other popular courses include "Understanding the Information Age" taught by a retired telecommunications engineer. "Great European Trials" is taught by a long-time lawyer. A doctor leads a study group on "Human Nature."? A woman who worked at the United States Treasury teaches a course on "Ballet: Star Performers and Performances."? VOICE TWO: The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University has about five hundred thirty members. They pay four hundred dollars for a year’s membership. Members are able to take up to three courses in the fall and three more in the spring. Anne Wallace says almost all of the members say they belong because they enjoy the intellectual activity. They also enjoy the new friends they make, and the community spirit they experience. Miz Wallace says the members are what make the Lifelong Learning Institute so special. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Mario Ritter. You can read scripts of our programs and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: For Truman, One Problem After Another in His First Months in Office
* Byline: At first the president seemed weak, but he proved a strong leader especially in foreign policy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The surrender of Japan in August nineteen forty-five ended the Second World War. Americans looked to their new president, Harry Truman of the state of Missouri, to lead them into a new period of peace. No one expected President Truman to be as strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt had been. And at first, they were right. Truman had one problem after another during his first months in the White House. VOICE TWO: Truman's first big problem was the economy. In the days after the war ended, almost two million Americans lost their jobs as arms factories closed. Americans everywhere worried about what would happen next. Only a few years before, the nation had suffered through the worst economic crisis in American history. No one wanted to return to the closed banks, hungry children, and other sad memories of the Great Depression. In some ways, the economy did better than experts hoped. The gross national product dropped only a small amount. Many Americans still had money they had saved during the war. And Congress passed a law to help people to keep their jobs. The situation could have been much worse than it was. VOICE ONE: However, the economy also could have been better -- much better. Suddenly, almost overnight, the price of everything began to rise. Clothes that cost five or six dollars yesterday now cost ten to fifteen dollars. Used automobile tires sold for the surprisingly high price of twenty dollars. President Truman tried to stop the increases through a special price control agency that had been created during the war. However, people by the thousands refused to follow the government price control rules. Instead, they set their own prices for goods. VOICE TWO: Store owners would tell government officials that they were still obeying the price rules. But often they charged whatever they wanted for goods. A meat salesman, for example, might say there was no good meat that day. But for three dollars extra, he would suddenly find a thick piece of meat to sell. A car salesman would sell his cars at the controlled price. But he might insist that the buyers also buy his dog for five hundred dollars. And his dog would return home that night. VOICE ONE: It was not just store owners who were charging more and refusing to obey government price rules. It was also the woman who rented a house to a young family…the farmer selling food…and finally, most importantly, it was organized labor. President Truman had always been a friend of labor unions. But during the first months of his administration, he became involved in a fierce struggle with coal miners and railroad workers. VOICE TWO: The first sign of trouble came in September nineteen forty-five. A group of workers closed down automobile factories at the Ford Company. Then, workers at the General Motors auto company went on strike. Soon there were strikes everywhere. Workers went on strike in the oil industry, the clothing industry, the wood-cutting industry and the electrical industry. The strikes made Truman angry. He believed the striking workers were threatening the economy and security of the United States. He got even angrier when representatives of striking steel and railroad workers came to the White House and refused to accept a compromise wage offer. "You are crazy," Truman told the union leader, "if you think I am going to sit here and let you stop this whole country." VOICE ONE: Truman ordered government forces to take over the railroads and the coal mines. And within a short time, the striking coal miners returned to work. However, the president had less success with the railroad workers. He became so angry with them that he asked Congress to give him the power to draft all striking rail workers into the armed forces. The rail strike finally ended. But millions of Americans lost faith in Truman's ability to lead the country, to bring people together, and end disputes peacefully. VOICE TWO: By late nineteen forty-six, most Americans believed that the man in the White House did not know what he was doing. Truman seemed weak and unable to control events. Union members disliked him because of his violent opposition to the coal and rail strikes. Farmers opposed Truman because of the administration's effort to keep meat prices low. Conservatives did not trust the reforms that Truman promised in his speeches. And liberal Democrats watched with worry as many old advisers of Franklin Roosevelt left the government because they could not work well with Truman. VOICE ONE: In November, nineteen forty-six, the people voted in congressional and state elections. The results showed they were not satisfied with Truman and the Democratic Party. Republicans won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in eighteen years. And Republicans were elected governor in twenty-five states. The election was a serious defeat for the Democrats. But it was a disaster for Truman. Some members of his party even called on him to resign. Few people gave Truman much chance of winning a second term in the White House. However, Harry Truman began to change in the months that followed. He started speaking with more strength and firmness. He showed more understanding of the powers of the presidency. And in matters of foreign policy, he began to act more like a president. This was especially true in Truman's reaction to Soviet aggression in Germany. VOICE TWO: Truman wanted to rebuild Germany, as well as the other countries of Western Europe. His administration worked closely with west European leaders to rescue their broken economies through the Marshall Plan. But the Soviets did not want to see Germany rebuild, at least not so quickly. So at first, they flooded Germany with extra German currency in an effort to destroy the value of the German mark. They walked out of economic conferences. And finally, in early nineteen forty-eight, they blocked all the roads to Berlin to try to cut off the city from the western powers. VOICE ONE: The Soviet actions were a direct threat to the west. Truman had three difficult choices. If he did nothing, the world would think the United States was weak and unable to stop Soviet aggression. If he fought the blockade with armed force, he might start a third world war. But there was another choice. That was to fly supplies to the city. The American military commander in Germany proposed the idea of dropping thousands of kilograms of food, fuel, and other goods to the people of Berlin by parachute. Not just once, but every day, as long as the Russians continued their blockade. VOICE TWO: It would be a difficult job. West Berlin was home to two-and-a-half-million people. No one had ever tried to supply so large a city by air. Large C forty-seven transport airplanes would have to take off every three-and-a-half-minutes all through the day and night, every day, to supply the people of Berlin with enough food. The people of Berlin gave needed support from the ground. More than twenty thousand Berliners worked day and night to build an extra landing field for the American airplanes. It was not long before it became clear that the American air rescue would succeed. West Berlin would remain free of Soviet control. The Russians soon understood this fact, too. In May of nineteen forty-nine, almost one year after they had started their blockade, they ended it. VOICE ONE: The crisis in Berlin changed the way many Americans saw their president. Harry Truman no longer seemed so weak or unsure of himself. Instead, he was acting as a leader who could take an active part in world affairs. Truman's popularity increased. However, most Americans did not expect him to win the presidential election in nineteen forty-eight. Almost everyone believed that the Republican candidate would capture the office. The election campaign that year turned out to be one of the most exciting and surprising in the entire history of the nation. That nineteen forty-eight election will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-16-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Progress Reported in AIDS Campaign for Children
* Byline: UNICEF sees ''breakthroughs'' in several African countries in efforts to prevent mother-to-child infection and to care for children with HIV. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Our subject this week is children and AIDS. The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has just released a report on a campaign launched in October of two thousand five. UNICEF, the U.N. AIDS program and other groups wanted to bring greater attention to the needs of children affected by AIDS. The report on the "Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS" campaign says there are signs of progress. One of the biggest problems is the spread of HIV from mothers to children. Mother-to-child transmission was the main cause of the estimated half-million new infections last year in children under the age of fifteen. UNICEF reports that several countries in eastern and southern Africa have made what it calls breakthroughs. It says they greatly increased the number of mothers who receive antiretroviral drugs. These medicines can prevent mother-to-child transmission. For example, the report says Namibia increased coverage from six percent of mothers to twenty-nine percent. That was between two thousand four and two thousand five. And in South Africa, it says, the number rose during that same period from twenty-two percent of mothers to thirty percent. However, the report says there are still far too many pregnant women infected with HIV who do not get antiretroviral treatment. Only nine percent of them in poor countries were getting the medicines in two thousand five. UNICEF also reports gains in providing treatment to children who already have HIV or AIDS. The agency says testing programs and health worker skills have improved. Lower drug prices and simpler treatments have also helped in the care of children with HIV/AIDS. Several countries increased HIV treatment for children by combining it with programs at treatment centers for adults. The report says the countries include Botswana, India, Rwanda, South Africa and Thailand. Still there is much more room for progress. UNICEF says just one in ten infected children worldwide gets antiretroviral treatment. And only four percent of children born to HIV-infected mothers receive drugs to prevent infections that can be deadly. The UNICEF report also discusses efforts to help the millions of children who have lost parents to AIDS. It says more and more are getting educations, thanks in part to the cancellation of school charges in several countries. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'House' or 'Home'? 'Friendlier' or 'More Friendly'? The Web Offers Answers
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: using the Internet to help make sense of words that are closely related. RS: Like "house" and "home," for example. Both describe a living situation. But "house" refers to the building, while "home" is more an emotional concept. AA: There is an old saying that goes: "Home is where the heart is." There is another that says: "A woman's place is in the home." We don't hear that one much anymore. Nowadays what we hear is: "A woman's place is in the House" - that is the U.S. House of Representatives, with its first female speaker, Nancy Pelosi. RS: With us from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker, who says that some online resources can help clear up confusion over words. One of her favorites is the Web site OneLook.com, which offers definitions and translations from multiple dictionaries. LIDA BAKER: "And it's very nice to have this list of dictionaries, because different dictionaries give different types of information. I think a lot of times people think that a dictionary, you know, it just -- a dictionary is where you go when you want to know how to say the word 'home' in a different language. That's a bilingual dictionary. But if you go to an English-English dictionary, it can give you a huge amount of information about the proper way to use a word. "So what students need to look for when they're using online dictionaries, or any dictionaries, is the usage notes: How do we use these words? In what context? Is there an emotional sense that the word conveys? And that's what we mean by the word 'connotation': does it have a positive or a negative meaning? AA: Lida Baker says another good online source is the Web site WordReference.com. AUDIO: CUT 2 LIDA BAKER: "And this is actually a site where people can send intheir questions about English words or grammar and receive a reply from other people who are on this list. And I typed in -- I went to Google and I typed in house versus home and it took me to this site called WordReference and the very first thing that I saw on that page was a letter from someone who wrote, 'Hello, what are the differences between these two words: home/house. Do they always mean the same? When should I use them?' And what followed this introductory question was a whole series of replies from other people who are using this list." RS: "What are some exercises that can be done in an ESL ]English as a Second Language] classroom to practice some of these search techniques that you've been discussing?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, let me give you an example of something that just happened yesterday. I was visiting somebody else's class. The class was doing a lesson on the comparative form of adjectives: long/longer, happy/happier and so on. And the adjective friendly came up, and the textbook said that the comparative form of friendly was friendlier. But somebody in the class said, 'Well, I've heard people say more friendly.' And the teacher stopped and thought about this for a moment and she said, 'You know what? They're both right.' "So, it was a very informal class and it was OK for me to participate, so I said, 'Would you like me to do a Google search and see which one is used more frequently?' And I did -- and, by the way, I found two million seven hundred ten hits for friendlier, but only one million eighty thousand hits for 'more friendly.' So, clearly, friendlier is the more common way to form the comparative. My point is that if you have a computer in your classroom, when students ask questions like this, you can get the answer on the spot. So you can send the student to the computer and have them do it themselves." AA: Lida Baker is an English teacher in Los Angeles. Her newest book, co-authored with Judy Tanka, is called "Real Talk: Authentic English in Context." RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can get more English teaching ideas at our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Coming to America as a Fulbrighter
* Byline: The Fulbright Program was established 1946 as a way to improve international understanding. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We come to the twentieth week of our series on higher education in the United States. Today we answer two e-mails from Thailand. A refugee from Burma and another listener in Thailand both want to know more about the Fulbright Program. The Fulbright Program gives Americans a chance to study, teach or do research in other countries. And it gives people in other countries a chance to do the same in America. Hala al-Sarraf, an Iraqi Fulbright scholar, appears before lawmakers in Congress in July of last yearFulbright grants are given to graduate students, scholars and professionals. There is also a Fulbright exchange program just for teachers and administrators. Each year about six thousand people receive Fulbright grants. The United States government pays most of the costs. Foreign governments and schools help by sharing costs and providing other support. The Fulbright Program operates in about one hundred fifty countries. Around two hundred seventy thousand Fulbrighters have taken part over the years. Legislation by Senator William Fulbright established the program in nineteen forty-six. He saw educational exchange as a way to help people understand other ideas and ways of life. Senator Fulbright also believed the program could educate future world leaders. In nineteen sixty-eight, the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program began. This Fulbright program brings foreign teachers to the United States to work with high school or college students. Two other Fulbright programs that offer ways to come to the United States are the foreign student and visiting scholar programs. The Foreign Student Program brings graduate students to study and do research at a college or university. The Visiting Scholar Program brings foreign experts to speak and do research for up to a year. The list of countries in the Fulbright Program changes each year. And the requirements may differ from country to country. You can learn more about the program from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. We have a link to the program's Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. Or do a search on the Internet for "Fulbright Program."? You can also contact the local Fulbright Commission or American Embassy in your country for more information. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Baseball Writers Honor the Iron Man, Mr. Padre for a Job Well Done
* Byline: Also: A question from Nigeria about the Sears Tower, and music for ''tweens'' helps drive album sales. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. This week on our show: Getting ready for the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. A?question from Nigeria about the Sears Tower in Chicago ... And a report on how "tweens" are helping to drive sales in the pop music industry. Baseball Hall of Fame HOST: Last week, the Baseball Writers' Association of America elected Cal Ripken Junior and Tony Gwynn to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Their careers were unusual in Major League baseball today. Barbara Klein explains why. BARBARA KLEIN: Cal Ripken Jr., left, and Tony Gwynn after their election to the Hall of FameTony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Junior played all their years in the major leagues with just one team. Cal Ripken played for the Baltimore Orioles from nineteen eighty-one to two thousand one. He played shortstop for most of his career and later moved to third base. He played in nineteen All-Star Games and was named the most valuable player in two of them. Also, he was the American League's most valuable player in nineteen eighty-three when Baltimore won the World Series. But baseball history may best remember him for playing two thousand six hundred thirty-two consecutive games. The city of Baltimore celebrated in nineteen ninety-five when he broke the record set by Lou Gehrig for not missing any games. That record had stood for fifty-six years. Cal Ripken Junior became known as the "Iron Man" of baseball. Tony Gwynn has a nickname too: "Mister Padre."? He played for the San Diego Padres from nineteen eighty-two until two thousand one. His hitting earned him the twentieth highest batting average in the major leagues. He won eight National League batting championships. But he also won five Golden Glove awards for his fielding. Tony Gwynn played in fifteen All-Star Games and two World Series. Both new Hall of Famers are still active in the sport. Cal Ripken owns minor league teams and supervises a baseball league for young people. And Tony Gwynn is the baseball coach at San Diego State University. They were the only candidates on the two thousand seven Hall of Fame ballot to receive the required seventy-five percent of the votes. Five hundred forty-five members of the American Baseball Writers' Association voted. All but eight of them voted for Cal Ripken. He received five hundred thirty-seven votes. Tony Gwynn received five hundred thirty-two. They will be honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, at ceremonies on July twenty-ninth. Sears Tower HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Abdul Qadir Usman of Gombe, Nigeria. He wants to know more about the Sears Tower. The Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois, is the tallest office building in the United States. It was built between nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy-four. For more than twenty years, it was the tallest building in the world. The tower rises more than four hundred forty meters -- five hundred ten if you add the two broadcasting towers on top. Either way, it stands as a tall, dark presence over the area of Chicago known as the Loop. The facing material is black aluminum. The windows are bronze colored glass. The building has one hundred ten floors. Architect Bruce Graham of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the tower for Sears, Roebuck and Company. The company later moved its main offices to the greater Chicago area. Sears, Roebuck was once the nation's leading operator of department stores and a mail-order business. Its competitor Kmart bought the company in two thousand five. Most of the Sears Tower is office space. But people also live in apartments and there are stores and restaurants. The building has an observation area called the Skydeck. On cloudy days, people on the street cannot even see all the way to the top of the Sears Tower. But on clear days, visitors to the Skydeck can see three other states -- Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Explanations of the sights appear in English, Spanish, Polish, French, Japanese and German. And there are windows placed low, at eye level for children. People also can see local sights like the Millennium Park and the shining white Wrigley Building along the Chicago River. They can watch the ships on Lake Michigan. And, in the summer, they can follow the little dots that really are people swimming, or sailing in boats with colorful sails. Tween Music HOST: Some of the biggest buyers in today's music world are not very big at all. They are children between the ages of eight and twelve -- between early childhood and the teen years. Marketers call them "tweens." Faith Lapidus has our story. FAITH LAPIDUS: Lately, record companies have been finding it harder to sell albums to adults. At the same time, online music stores and free sharing services on the Web have brought changes to the industry. To increase their sales, record companies have been looking more and more at the tween market. "Hannah Montana" is the name of a popular Disney television series. The show is about a high school student who has a secret life as a pop star named Hannah Montana. The young actress is Miley Cyrus. Her father is country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, who also appears on the show. Since its release the "Hannah Montana" soundtrack CD has outsold the albums of many established performers. In its first two months it sold more than a million and a half copies with songs like this one, called "If We Were a Movie." (MUSIC) Also popular with tweens is the story of a musical group called "The Cheetah Girls."? What began as a series of books has grown into two movies. The actresses in the movies play colorfully dressed performers who sing and dance. They are now performing their music live all over the country. Here they are with "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)." (MUSIC) It might not surprise you that the top-selling album in the United States last year was for young people. The market research company Nielsen SoundScan says the top seller was the soundtrack to the Disney television movie "High School Musical."? This is the story of two students who decide to try out for singing parts in a high school play. By following their dream, they set an example for others. The album has sold millions of copies all over the world -- there is even a version in Hindi. From "High School Musical," we leave you with a song called "We're All in This Together." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. MP3 files and transcripts of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Big and Bigger: Mergers and Acquisitions Stay Strong Into '07
* Byline: Last year brought record levels of activity worldwide, but the biggest deal was the combining of AT&T and BellSouth. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Companies combined or bought other businesses at record levels last year. Almost four trillion dollars in deals worldwide represented an increase of nearly forty percent from the year before. So far in January, merger and acquisition activity has remained strong. Delta Air Lines, currently in Federal Bankruptcy Court protection, is a target of US AirwaysIn the airline industry, US Airways this month raised its recent offer to buy Delta to ten billion dollars. If that goes through, there could be other airline deals coming. General Electric has recently added some new manufacturers to its mix of businesses. But in the biggest deal of last year, AT&T merged with the telecommunications company BellSouth. That deal in the United States was valued at seventy-three billion dollars, not including debt. The satellite radio industry has had increasing talk of a merger between XM and Sirius, the two major companies. But the head of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington said this week that one company could not own both operating licenses. With all the deals last year, investment banks did well. Goldman Sachs advised on more than four hundred mergers -- valued at over one trillion dollars. Citicorp and Morgan Stanley were not far behind. A merger is when two or more companies combine their operations. Generally the combined company is able to negotiate lower prices with suppliers because of its bigger size and market. Jobs are sometimes also cut in mergers to save money. The idea is to increase the value of the combined company for shareholders. But that does not always happen. Some experts suggest that only one merger in three creates big gains for shareholders. At the same time, mergers can reduce competition, resulting in higher prices. The simplest way for companies to combine is through an acquisition. One company buys another. A hostile takeover is when the target company did not invite or approve an offer to its shareholders. Last year, the world's biggest steelmaker, Mittal of India, succeeded in buying all the shares of its top competitor, Arcelor of Luxembourg. Companies may take a large part or a small part in guiding the policies of the businesses they acquire. Investor Warren Buffett is known for buying controlling shares of stock in companies but leaving their management teams in place. He says he is not interested in companies without established management. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Says Wiretap Program Will Now Require Court Approval | More Trouble for Somalia?
* Byline: Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week -- new developments in two stories we reported on last year. In August, a federal judge tried to stop what the Bush administration calls the Terrorist Surveillance Program. A presidential order let the National Security Agency read e-mails and listen to calls to or from al-Qaida suspects in the United States without a court order. The judge in Detroit said the program violated rights of free speech and privacy. She ruled it unconstitutional and in violation of a federal intelligence law. In October, an appeals court said the government could continue the program while it appealed the ruling. But this week the administration said it has ended the use of surveillance without court approval. It says the program now operates under rules prepared by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Democrats, newly in control of Congress, praised the move but said it should have happened sooner. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said there are still questions about exactly how the program will work. The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week. He says officials do not want to release too many details, for security reasons. President Bush secretly approved the surveillance program after the September eleventh, two thousand one, attacks on the United States. After the attacks, Congress gave him the power to use all necessary force against those responsible. The New York Times reported the existence of the program at the end of two thousand five. Last June, we reported on the situation in Somalia. The Islamic Courts movement had just captured Mogadishu, the capital. Last month, Ethiopian troops entered Somalia. They helped its temporary government to force Islamist fighters from Mogadishu and other parts of the country. But this week there was a political move that American and European officials say could hurt efforts to unite Somalis. The Somali parliament voted its pro-Islamist speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, out of his job. Last year, Mister Aden tried to negotiate peace with the Islamic movement. President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi rejected his efforts. At that time, the movement controlled Mogadishu. Ethiopian troops are expected to leave the country soon. There are worries of renewed anarchy and civil war. Eight thousand troops are needed for a proposed African peacekeeping force. Uganda was the first to offer any. On Friday, an official of Uganda's ruling party told VOA that the party supports deploying one thousand five hundred soldiers. Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in nineteen ninety-one. Last week, the United States launched an air strike in an area of southern Somalia believed to be a hiding place for members of al-Qaida. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: James Brown, 1933-2006: The Godfather of Soul Influenced Many Kinds of Music During His 50-Year Career
* Byline: Brown was also called "the hardest working man in show business." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about James Brown, the musician called "The Godfather of Soul." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was James Brown singing his famous hit song from nineteen sixty-five, "I Got You (I Feel Good.)"??? With this song, Brown went from a rhythm and blues singer to a pop music star. It helped him gain a huge number of white fans as well as black ones. He became a famous and wealthy singer, songwriter and performer. But this huge success was very different from the poverty of his early life. VOICE TWO: James Brown was born in nineteen thirty-three in a one-room house near Barnwell, South Carolina. His father, Joe Brown, had a job removing fluids from pine trees in the surrounding woods. He sold the sap for making turpentine. The boy's mother left the family when he was seven years old. James and his father moved to Augusta, Georgia. Young James had musical abilities. He learned to play the guitar, piano and drums. He did this while picking crops in the fields and shining people's shoes to earn money to survive. VOICE ONE: James loved the African-American church music called gospel. He loved it when the church's religious leader would sing this music and? drop to his knees with emotional shouts and screams. Brown later used this kind of emotional singing in his own performances. He also liked the sound of the jazz and rhythm and blues performer Louis Jordan. Jordan had recorded a song called "Caldonia" and other popular songs in the late nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. VOICE TWO: By the time he was thirteen, James Brown had formed his own music group. He later joined a group called the Flames. The band played at drinking places, restaurants, colleges and other places in the South. These young performers copied the sounds of successful rhythm and blues groups. They also included in their shows a song co-written by James Brown. It was called "Please, Please, Please." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This was the song that launched James Brown's career. He was able to stop doing low-paying jobs. He said the success of the song gave him the chance to have some of the things he could not have dreamed of. "Please, Please, Please" was recorded in nineteen fifty-six. It sold more than one million copies. It made James Brown famous in the United States. And it became part of his electrifying stage performances. Brown would be on stage with an eighteen-piece band and a group of dancers. ?His emotional singing included unusual sounds and screams. He danced around the stage performing movements that had not been seen before. He created his own musical and performing style. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: That was another James Brown hit song, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" from nineteen sixty-five. Brown said that song was one of the most important things he ever did in the way of changing music rhythms. With that song, Brown created the music he called "funk."? This later came to be called "soul" music. And James Brown became known as "The Godfather of Soul." He followed this hit a few months later with "I Got You (I Feel Good)", an even bigger hit. VOICE ONE: James Brown also became known as "the hardest working man in show business." During the nineteen sixties, he performed his exciting show almost non-stop in city after city in the United States and in other countries. At the same time, Brown worked for civil rights for African-Americans. He supported black business ownership as the most important way to what he called "real black power."? He urged black people to be proud of themselves. And he urged young people to continue their education and not drop out of school. His message was positive instead of angry. He recorded this song in nineteen sixty-eight, "Say it Loud ( I'm Black and I'm Proud.)" (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, James Brown had problems in business, with taxes and in his personal life. During the nineteen seventies, his popularity decreased as disco music became popular. But he made a comeback in the early nineteen eighties, with "Living in America," his first hit in years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-six, James Brown was one of the first performers invited into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He became one of the most successful recording artists in history. With the exception of Elvis Presley, no pop artist had more hit records. He had ninety-four songs in the Top One Hundred songs. And he had more Top Twenty single records than any other recording artist up to that time. But, in nineteen eighty-eight, he committed some crimes. He spent two and one-half years in prison. He was pardoned of his crimes in two thousand three. VOICE TWO: James Brown received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in nineteen ninety-two. He later talked about what he had tried to do to help young people. He said he tried to teach through his music. He thought it was very important to make young people proud of themselves and willing to work for what they wanted. He said life is sometimes really hard, but you can make it a lot better if you try to prepare for it. VOICE ONE: James Brown saw himself as an example of "the American dream."? That means that a person can rise from poverty to wealth and success if he or she works hard. Brown influenced the music of his time and many performers who came after him. He showed his personality and energy in his famous shout: "If you are an American or you're just a human being and got any blood going through your veins -- AHHOOWW!? I feel good!" VOICE TWO: James Brown performed until the very end of his life and continued to help his community. Three days before his death, he joined volunteers at his yearly event to give toys to needy children in Augusta, Georgia. He had planned to perform on New Year's Eve at B.B. King's Blues Club in New York City. James Brown, "The Godfather of Soul," died December twenty-fifth, two thousand six in Atlanta, Georgia. He was seventy-three. During his fifty-year career, he made many music fans feel good. (MUSIC: "I Got You (I Feel Good)") VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read scripts and download audio at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'FabLabs' Help Communities Design Their Own Solutions
* Byline: A project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sets up fabrication laboratories to help developing countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Imagine a world without manufacturers. Or at least not as we now think of them. Instead, we as individuals control the technology to design and make most anything we want. That world exists now in the mind of Neil Gershenfeld. Professor Gershenfeld is a computer scientist and physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He directs the Center for Bits and Atoms at M.I.T. The center is exploring the relationship between computer science and physical science. The work is receiving financial support from the National Science Foundation. Neil Gershenfeld wants to help developing countries create technological tools to solve their own problems. He says this is one way to bring the results of the digital revolution to the developing world. An antenna project at a FabLab in Ghana And many of those solutions might come out of personal fabrication laboratories -- or "FabLabs."? So far the center has set up about fifteen of these laboratories around the world. Each FabLab comes equipped with about twenty thousand dollars' worth of electronics, design tools and computers. The labs are all similar but they are put to use in very different ways. In Costa Rica, for example, students used a FabLab to develop new educational technologies. They also developed environmental sensing systems for farmers. In Pabal, India, villagers used a FabLab to improve the design process for diesel engines that are used for many purposes in the community. That was one of their first projects. A FabLab in Takoradi, Ghana, is developing machines powered by the sun for cooking and other uses. Developing countries are not the only ones with FabLabs. In Norway, farmers used one to design what they call "sheep radios."? They wanted a radio frequency identification system to be able to follow a sheep from birth to market. People have also used FabLabs to test new designs for business ideas. Sherry Lassiter works at the Center for Bits and Atoms at M.I.T. She says three laboratories recently opened in South Africa. The hope is that in the future, FabLabs will become economically self-supporting. They might even be able to design new versions of themselves to keep up with demand. In fact, Professor Gershenfeld imagines a time when personal fabrication laboratories are truly personal -- a FabLab in every home. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the Center for Bits and Atoms at M.I.T., go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hillary Clinton Enters Race for Prize As-Yet Unclaimed by a Woman
* Byline: Now that the US has a female House speaker, could the presidency be next in 2008? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. Senator Hillary Clinton announced Saturday on her Web site that she is forming a presidential exploratory committee. Details below.VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Women in American politics is our report this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nancy Pelosi won her first election to Congress twenty years ago this June. She led the California State Democratic Party in the early eighties. After that she served at the national level as finance chair of the campaign committee for Democrats in the Senate. She also kept busy with her five children. Nancy Pelosi came from a political family. She was good at raising money but had never been a candidate for public office herself. VOICE TWO: Then in nineteen eighty-seven, the death of a Democratic representative in San Francisco led to a special election. Nancy Pelosi narrowly won her party's nomination to enter the race. Since then, voters in the heavily Democratic district have re-elected her to Congress ten times. Now she holds the powerful job of speaker of the House of Representatives. Under the Constitution, the speaker becomes president of the United States if ever the president and vice president are unable to serve. VOICE ONE: Displeasure with the Iraq war was a driving force in the victory for the Democrats in the elections last November. The Republican Party lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in twelve years. Nancy Pelosi was the minority leader in the House. As expected, she became the new speaker when the One Hundred Tenth Congress opened on January fourth. NANCY PELOSI: "By electing me speaker, you have brought us closer to the ideal of equality that is America's heritage and America's hope." Nancy Pelosi is the first woman ever elected to lead the House. At her swearing-in, she thanked the new minority leader, Republican John Boehner, for pointing that out. NANCY PELOSI: "This is an historic moment and I thank the leader for acknowledging it. Thank you, Mister Boehner. It's an historic moment for the Congress. It's an historic moment for the women of America." VOICE TWO: The new Congress has a record number of women, including ten newly elected to the House. Twenty years ago, when Nancy Pelosi was first elected, men filled all but twenty-two seats in the House. Now seventy-one of the four hundred thirty-five members, or sixteen percent, are women. Most are Democrats. VOICE ONE:? Historically many of the women who have served in the Senate were never elected. They were appointed to complete the term of a husband or other male relative who resigned or died. Seeds of Peace campers from the Middle East with Maine Senator Olympia Snowe on Capitol HillFifteen years ago, only two of the one hundred senators were women. Now the number is a record sixteen. One of the five Republicans, Olympia Snowe of Maine, has served in both houses of Congress and both houses of her state legislature. VOICE TWO: Two women are new to the Senate this year. Both are Democrats. Amy Klobuchar enforced the law as chief prosecutor in the largest county in Minnesota. Claire McCaskill served as state auditor before she became the first woman ever elected a senator from Missouri. At the state level, women are governors of nine of the fifty states. VOICE ONE: Across the country, the victory for Democratic candidates in November brought back memories. It was similar to the elections of nineteen ninety-four -- only then, it was the other way around. That was the year of what became known as the Republican revolution. In Congress, all of the representatives and a third of the senators are elected every two years. Now all the attention is on two thousand eight, when Americans will also elect a new president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? America won its independence in seventeen seventy-six. But it was not until nineteen twenty that American women won a constitutional right to vote. Women have made gains in society, but people talk about a "glass ceiling."? This is the idea that women may face unwritten limits on their rise to power in jobs or other areas. Nancy Pelosi says her election as speaker of the House means that women have finally broken, in her words, the "marble ceiling."? VOICE ONE: The sixty-six-year-old speaker quickly set to work on the legislative goals of House Democrats for the first one hundred hours of the new Congress. The issues were as different as increasing the federal minimum wage and reducing interest rates on student loans. But there were disputes among Democrats over some of her early decisions. For example, some members of her party disagreed with her choice for chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. She chose Silvestre Reyes of Texas over Jane Harman of California -- the longest-serving Democrat on the committee. VOICE TWO: Nancy Pelosi was born Nancy D'Alesandro. She was one of five children in a family in the Little Italy area of Baltimore, Maryland. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro Junior, was the mayor of Baltimore. Before that he represented the city for five terms in the House of Representatives. Later, his son Thomas the Third also became mayor of Baltimore. Daughter Nancy graduated in nineteen sixty-two from Trinity College -- now Trinity Washington University -- in the nation's capital. The following year she married Paul Pelosi, a wealthy businessman from San Francisco. VOICE ONE: In Congress, Nancy Pelosi served on the House Appropriations Committee, which deals with federal spending. In two thousand two she was elected minority leader. Many women are proud of her success. But women are fifty-one percent of the population and their numbers in Congress fall far short of that. VOICE TWO: Last year, even extra money from the Democratic Party failed to help many female candidates win seats in Congress. One woman who appeared likely to win a seat in the House was Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She was a helicopter pilot in the Iraq war. She lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down. Before the election, Tammy Duckworth was ahead in public opinion. But when the ballots were counted, Republican Peter Roskam had narrowly defeated her. VOICE TWO: Some people say it is harder for women than men to win elections. They say voters may worry that women will be soft on issues like illegal immigration. Or voters, male as well as female, are suspicious of women in power. Others argue that while some voters might discriminate against women, most base their choices on a candidate's positions. Political observers can argue all day about why Congress does not have more women. VOICE ONE: And the fact is, they can all be right. America is a big country. What influences voters in one area may have no effect in another. In some cases, what might count most is the ability of a candidate to raise enough money for an effective media campaign. Even a candidate for local office may have to raise money for a campaign. VOICE TWO: Some groups make special efforts to help female candidates. But in political fund-raising there are no guarantees. For example, Elizabeth Dole sought the Republican nomination for president in two thousand. She dropped out, saying she could not raise enough money for a campaign. She is now a senator from North Carolina. 'I'm In,' Clinton Declares VOICE ONE: Raising money might not be such a problem for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Senator Clinton has long been considered the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination next year. Finally, on Saturday, she announced that she is forming a presidential exploratory committee, the first step toward becoming a candidate. HILLARY CLINTON: "You know, after six years of George Bush, it is time to renew the promise of America. Our basic bargain -- that no matter who you are or where you live, if you work hard and play by the rules you can build a good life for yourself and your family." The wife of former president Bill Clinton was elected a senator from New York in two thousand, and re-elected last November. No major American party has ever nominated a woman for president. And only one woman, Democrat Geraldine Ferraro, was a candidate for vice president. That was in nineteen eighty-four. Most Americans say they would vote for a female president. But lately there has been a lot of excitement about another Democrat. Illinois Senator Barack Obama announced last Tuesday that he has formed a presidential exploratory committee. A number of other Democrats and Republicans have also announced exploratory committees. Federal election rules permit individuals to "test the waters."? They can raise money and see if they have enough public support before officially declaring themselves candidates. VOICE TWO: Condoleezza Rice has often been spoken of as a possible Republican presidential candidate. But the secretary of state says she does not want to be president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Money Talks:? Everything Else Walks
* Byline: Making your money talk for you. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) People often say that money talks. They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done. But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power. Ask anyone in a business. They will tell you that it is a jungle out there. The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people. Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals. And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival of their business. People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there. They must not be led into making bogus investments. Bogus means something that is not real. Nobody is sure how the word got started. But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds. A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, said the word came from a criminal whose name was Borghese. The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank. After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town. So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus. People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off. A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly. A writer for the magazine "American Speech" said he first saw the expression used in nineteen seventy-one. It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university. The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated. Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly. To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks. This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something. For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price. You get down to brass tacks when you say, "it sounds good, but how much does it cost." Word expert Charles Funk thinks the expression comes from sailors on ships. They clean the bottom of a boat. When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together. So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there. And, some good luck will help, too. (MUSIC) This Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. This Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Farmers Face Big Winter Losses, With Two Months Still Left to Go
* Byline: A freeze hits California's citrus industry hard, while animal losses from recent snow and ice storms are still being counted in the Plains states. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. ?A lot of American farmers have had a rough early winter. In California, frozen oranges In California, citrus growers are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from a freeze earlier this month. Oranges and lemons in California's main growing areas were not the only victims. The arctic cold front known as the Siberian Express also damaged other fruit and vegetable crops. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated losses at one billion dollars. ?He declared an emergency in ten counties to provide state assistance to those affected. The freeze could mean months without work for thousands of farm laborers, packing house workers and truck drivers. It will also mean higher food prices across the country. Much of the damage happened in the San Joaquin Valley, but it was spread around the state. Citrus growers in California store their fruit on the tree. Less than a third of this year's crop had been harvested when the freeze hit. Avocados, strawberries and blueberries were also hit hard. The strawberries were nearly ready for harvest, and only about five percent of the avocados had been picked. Some avocado growers said this was their worst winter in sixteen years. Spinach, lettuce and other greens were also affected. California is the nation's top agricultural state, and top grower of fresh citrus. Florida's big orange crop is used mostly for juice. Right now, other states are struggling with the effects of snow and ice storms in recent weeks. In some places, there was six meters of snow on the ground. Animal losses are still being counted in the Great Plains. The affected states include Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Some states have been approved for emergency federal aid. Some ranchers still do not know where all their cattle have gone, or how many are dead. The Colorado Cattlemen's Association estimates that the final count in that state alone could be eight thousand to fifteen thousand. That would mean a loss of more than ten million dollars just in cattle. In some states, National Guard helicopters not only rescued people but also dropped hay to cattle trapped without food in the snow. Shortages of hay have pushed up prices, adding to economic losses. And even cattle that have been saved may not be out of danger. Many cows were pregnant, and many could lose their calves. Other cattle weakened by the conditions may not survive the winter. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Snow
* Byline: The chemistry of a resource that provides much of the water we use. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Digging out from a blizzardWinter weather has returned to northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas. Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain. VOICE TWO: Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero. VOICE ONE: The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two and one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two and one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two and one-half centimeters of rain. VOICE ONE: Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced. Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther. VOICE TWO: Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance. Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four thousand nine hundred meters above sea level. VOICE TWO: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred snowstorms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington. VOICE ONE: People in many other areas have little or no snowfall. In nineteen thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice. Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. Several years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States. It struck the Southeast in January, ninety ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast. The storm was blamed for more than one hundred deaths. It forced nine states to declare emergency measures. Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest. In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one meter high. Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles. Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two. A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast. In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down. Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations. VOICE ONE: People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack. It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies. VOICE TWO: Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat. People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Older People Go Back to College to Learn New Things, Get Fresh Start
* Byline: Part three in a series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. We continue the series about how older Americans are keeping their minds active. Today we tell about some of the adult education programs offered by colleges and universities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Martin Feldman was a chemistry professor for forty years. He retired from Howard University in Washington, D.C. about five years ago. Mister Feldman says when he retired he thought he would like to do something he had not done before. Yet, he says, he was not really interested in spending a lot of time as a student in a classroom, writing papers and taking tests. One day Mister Feldman found a list of classes offered at Montgomery College near his home in Silver Spring, Maryland. The college lets people sixty years and older who live in Montgomery County take classes. They do not have to pay the normal tuition cost, just the cost of supplies. Mister Feldman decided to try a sculpture class. It teaches students how to make art out of clay, wood, metal and plastic. And it meets only one day a week. VOICE TWO: Martin Feldman says he quickly decided he really liked sculpture. So he has continued with the class, experimenting with combining different materials and shapes. About half of the members of the sculpture class are older adults who live in the area. They take the class for no college credit. The other students are college age. They are taking the class for credit to get a degree and are paying tuition to take it. VOICE ONE: Martin Feldman is also taking a class at a private school of art and design as a regular student. His artwork had to be judged good enough for him to be accepted in the class. And he has to pay the full cost. Mister Feldman is happy he was able to try something completely new when he retired. He has decided to spend a month at an art school in San Miguel Allende, Mexico. He will try something else new while he is there? – learning to make sculpture by welding metal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most big universities have continuing education programs that offer traditional classes for older adults who want to continue learning. Some provide training programs that give people who complete them a certificate to prove they have gained new skills. The cost for university classes can be high, even for continuing education students. Many smaller colleges offer traditional classes at lower cost and provide other programs for older adults in their area who have different educational needs. Prince George’s Community College in Maryland is one of them. Camille Crawford is head of a program called Seasoned Adults Growing Educationally, or SAGE, at Prince George’s Community College. It is part of the Workforce Development and Continuing Education division of the college. The program is thirty years old. VOICE ONE: Miz Crawford says SAGE offers more than four hundred classes every four months. The classes are held in about sixty places all around Prince George’s County. About five thousand older adults are taking classes at any one time. They do not have to travel to the college. They can take classes near where they live. People can take SAGE classes in community centers, retirement communities and religious centers. The cost is very low. For fifty dollars, people over sixty who live in Prince George’s County can take as many classes as they want in a four-month period. VOICE TWO: SAGE offers classes in art, computers, finance, heath, history, languages and music. Professors who teach at Prince George’s Community College also teach the SAGE classes. One professor told Miz Crawford that when he started teaching a SAGE class he realized again why he became a teacher. He said the older adults were a joy to teach. They were in the class because they wanted to learn, not because they had to be there to get a college degree. Miz Crawford says some of the SAGE students never finished high school so they would not have been admitted to most colleges. SAGE classes are open to everyone. Adults who never thought they would have a chance to take college level classes are able to do so in the SAGE program. VOICE ONE: Camille Crawford says many of the college’s continuing education classes are related to work. Some of the older adults in the area need to keep working to earn money, even if they have retired from their jobs. So the Workforce and Continuing Education division of Prince George’s Community College has programs to help provide new job skills for older adults. Some of these people moved to the area from another country and do not have the skills needed for jobs in the United States. Prince George’s County Department of Family Services identifies the people who should be given training for a job. The college provides free training and placement in an internship program with a non-profit organization or a government agency. The adult students are paid a minimum wage while they are in training. The federal government helps support the program. VOICE TWO: Camille Crawford says that one of the first questions asked of anyone seeking a job today is: “What computer skills do you have?”? So the Workforce and Continuing Education division of Prince George’s Community College combines job preparation skills with computer training. Those who successfully finish the program receive certificates to prove they are trained to work in an office. Miz Crawford says the training and continuing education programs have provided older adults with new skills. Many who are now working part time feel they are doing something meaningful in their retirement years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The University Continuing Education Association is the oldest organization in the United States of continuing education programs in colleges and universities. It began in nineteen fifteen. The organization now has about four hundred fifty members. These college and universities are in most of the American states and in about thirty countries from Australia to Kuwait. VOICE TWO: Timothy Sloate is director of research for the University Continuing Education Association. He says studies have shown that many baby boomers plan to keep working at least part time after they retire. Baby boomers are the large group of Americans born between nineteen forty-six and nineteen sixty-four. The oldest members of the group are just turning sixty and thinking of retiring from their jobs. Mister Sloate says many baby boomers are planning to learn new things in retirement. Others, he says, are looking for job training. They want to learn new skills to use when they are retired. Timothy Sloate says the members of the University Continuing Education Association are expanding their learning in retirement programs. One way is through the growth of classes that are offered online. These online classes let adults far from the college or university take a class through their computers in their homes. VOICE ONE: The University Continuing Education Association organizes about fifteen conferences a year for its members in different areas of the country. It provides a monthly newsletter. It does research that helps members develop new programs. And it offers professional development for continuing education administrators. In November, two thousand six, the University Continuing Education Association held a unity conference with the China Continuing Education Association at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Thirty officials from major American universities and thirty from Chinese universities shared common problems and solutions. One educator from China and one from the United States discussed the continuing education situation in their countries at each meeting during the two days of the conference. They talked about a single subject such as new developments in online teaching for adults or changes in the market for continuing education. Organizers are planning to hold an American and Chinese continuing education conference each year. The next one will be held later this year at Tsinghua University in Beijing. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read other programs in this continuing education series on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: How Learning a Second Language Inhibits the First, at Least Temporarily
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: why forgetfulness might actually help in learning a second language. RS: Ben Levy is a graduate student in the Psychology Department at the University of Oregon, studying an area called inhibitory control and long-term memory. BEN LEVY: "When people are actually exposed to a situation where they have to be immersed in a foreign language, after that immersion process, when they return back and try to speak their first language, they actually report difficulty speaking their native language. And while linguists had known about this for a while, this first-language attrition, there wasn't really any good explanation about why it occurred." AA: "Take us through the process, how does this work with the brain?" BEN LEVY: "What we did was we brought in undergraduates from the University of Oregon who are native English speakers, who are in the process of acquiring a second language, which is Spanish in this study. And what we did is we just showed them pictures of objects. So these would be very simple objects that they should know in both languages, things like a broom or a snake or a spoon. "And whenever the object was presented in green, we asked the subject to simply come up with the English word for that object as quickly as they could. However, whenever the object was presented in red, we asked them to come up with the Spanish label as fast as they could. "Now, what we were really interested in here is what happens to the corresponding English word for the object after you've repeatedly named it in Spanish. So if you see a picture of a snake on the screen twelve times, and every time it's presented in red and you have to say culebra as fast as you can -- which is the Spanish word for snake -- what happens to that English word snake?" RS: To find out, Ben Levy says, the students had to take a final test in the form of a rhyming exercise. BEN LEVY: "We gave them a word that would rhyme with one of the words they saw earlier, and we asked them to come up with the word they saw earlier that rhymed with it. So we might present them with 'brake' and say 'what did you see earlier that rhymed with that?' And if the subject can correctly remember the word, they're going to say snake out loud. "And what we find is that -- the more often you name something in English, of course, the easier it is to come up with these English words on this final test, right? That's obvious. But the more surprising part is, the more often you actually named the thing in Spanish, the harder it is for you to generate the corresponding English word, suggesting that that word has actually been inhibited. That verbal label is harder to come up with after having practiced the corresponding word in the second language." RS: "Now, did that surprise you?" BEN LEVY: "Well, that's what we were expecting, coming from our background. But I think that most people would be surprised by a finding like that. You know, at first, it may sound like it is a scary and bad thing [that] you might be losing your native language by acquiring a second one. But, in fact, I would argue that this is actually an adaptive good thing. "You can think about it this way: As a second language speaker, particularly when you're in one of these difficult immersion situations, what's going on in your mind is sort of like a race. So you have this native language word and you have this second language word which is much weaker. And as your mind is trying to think of the name for this object out there in the world, or some concept you're trying to express, you have a race between those two verbal labels. And what's going to happen in that race?" AA: "The stronger is going to win?" BEN LEVY: "The stronger is going to win, right? Now if you're in an immersion situation where you really need to express yourself, you don't want that stronger one to win anymore. You want the weaker one to win. So what we're saying is that what the speaker does in that situation is actually inhibits that native language word, so it won't always win the race. So that that second language word can actually have a hope of being retrieved." RS: "Well, there's new hope, is what you're saying here, is there's new hope for those learning a second language." BEN LEVY: "Uh-uh. Of course, the concern is that then we might actually have this permanent loss of our first language. But I think as long as somebody goes back and practices the first language after learning the second language, most of these any kind of losses in the first language will be recovered. "So there's actually research on this that six months later, after college students who go travel abroad, come back and begin speaking their language again, any losses that they had from that time spent abroad are fully recovered within six months. So as long as you go back and speak that first language again once you go back, there's no problem at all. You can easily recover from these?" RS: "Well, that's good." AA: "Now, do you speak any other languages?" BEN LEVY: "Uh, not well. Personally I took Spanish for many years, then actually a few years ago I married a woman who speaks German among her family. And so I decided that I wanted to learn a little bit more German myself, so I could sort of be in on what they were talking about. And so I started taking German classes here at the university. "And what I actually found was, when I was learning German, I didn't have so much problem with English, because I was of course going back to speaking that outside of the classes. But I did find that I actually started to lose some of my Spanish. And it's much more difficult for me to go back and think about things in Spanish now after having learned German." RS: Researcher Ben Levy at the University of Oregon. His study, with Professor Michael Anderson, appears in the January issue of Psychological Science. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can learn more about learning English at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-23-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Vaccination Campaign Cuts Measles Deaths; New Goal Set
* Byline: Organizers of the Measles Initiative say more than two million lives have been saved, mostly in Africa. Next target is India. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Measles is one of the most infectious viruses known. It spreads through the air when people infected with the disease cough or sneeze. Children in wealthier countries are usually vaccinated to protect against measles. An international campaign called the Measles Initiative was launched in two thousand one to vaccinate children in developing countries. The aim was a fifty percent reduction in deaths related to measles by two thousand five. Last week, organizers of the Measles Initiative announced that the final numbers showed a sixty percent drop in deaths. In nineteen ninety-nine, the year used for comparison, there were eight hundred seventy-three thousand deaths. Six years later that number had dropped to three hundred forty-five thousand. The organizers say more than two million lives have been saved, mostly in Africa. Health officials report a seventy-five percent drop in deaths in Africa connected to measles. Measles itself is usually not a direct cause of death. Deaths are commonly the result of infections like pneumonia or severe diarrhea. Those who survive can suffer brain damage, blindness or other disabilities. The first sign of infection is usually a high body temperature for as long as a week. Patients may develop a runny nose, cough, red and watery eyes and white spots inside the mouth. After several days, a skin rash develops, first usually on the face and upper neck. A case of measles can be just a mild and unpleasant part of childhood. But severe cases are more likely in children with poor diets or weakened defenses from conditions like HIV/AIDS. Children under the age of five and adults over the age of twenty are more likely to suffer severe cases. People who recover from measles can never get it again. The Measles Initiative includes the American Red Cross, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. The campaign has cost almost four hundred million dollars. Officials say about five hundred million more will be needed to meet a new goal by two thousand ten. The goal now is to reduce measles deaths worldwide to less than ten percent of the rate in the year two thousand. The campaign will now center its efforts in Asian countries, especially India. Each year, about one hundred thousand Indian children die as a result of measles. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Dewey Defeats Truman in 1948. Oops, Make It Truman Defeats Dewey
* Byline: Political experts were sure the president would lose to Thomas Dewey, but Harry Truman campaigned fiercely to prove everyone wrong. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Presidential elections are exciting events in American politics. Few elections for the White House have been as exciting as the one in nineteen forty-eight. And few have had such surprising results. VOICE TWO: Four candidates were nominated for president in the nineteen forty-eight election. One was the man already in the White House, the candidate of the Democratic Party, President Harry Truman. Truman had been the party's successful vice presidential candidate in nineteen forty-four. When President Franklin Roosevelt died a year later, Truman became president. Truman did not do well during his first few months in office. He made several serious mistakes. He had trouble with the economy and organized labor. His party lost control of the Senate and the House of Representatives in the congressional elections of nineteen forty-six. Most Americans had little faith in Truman's ability as a leader. They expected that he would lose the presidential election in nineteen forty-eight if he chose to be a candidate. VOICE ONE: President Truman chose to run for another term in the White House. And he planned to win. In the months following the democratic defeat in the congressional election, he took several strong steps to show his leadership. Truman called on the Congress to pass a number of laws to help black people. He took firm actions in his foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. And he began to speak out with much more strength to the American people. VOICE TWO: Truman succeeded in winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. "I will win this election," Truman told the Democratic convention that nominated him. "And I will make the Republicans like it!" The Republicans nominated New York state Governor Thomas Dewey. Dewey was a wise and courageous man. He also was very serious. Truman campaigned by telling the voters that Dewey did not understand the needs of the average American. He called Dewey a candidate of rich people. One day, Dewey got angry at a railroad engineer because his campaign train was late for a speech. Truman charged that this proved that Dewey did not understand the problems of railroad engineers and other working Americans. He tried to make the election a choice between hard-working Democrats and rich Republicans. VOICE ONE: Two other men also were candidates for the presidency. Both were from newly created parties. One was Strom Thurmond of the state of South Carolina. He was the candidate of the States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrat Party. Most of his supporters were white Americans from the southeastern part of the country. They opposed giving full rights to black people. The other candidate was Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party. His supporters believed that Truman had turned away from the progressive ideas of Franklin Roosevelt. VOICE TWO: Both Thurmond and Wallace had broken away from the Democratic Party. Most political experts believed those two candidates would take votes away from President Truman. They believed Republican candidate Dewey surely would win the election. This seemed especially true because President Truman did not have strong public support. Harry Truman, however, was a fighter. He did not believe the election was lost. He took his campaign to the American people. VOICE ONE: "I had always campaigned," said Mister Truman, "by going around talking to people and meeting them. Running for president was no different. "I just got on a train," Truman said, "and started across the country to tell people what was going on. I wanted to talk to them face to face. When you are standing there in front of them and talking to them, the people can tell whether you are telling them the facts or not." VOICE TWO: Truman campaigned with great energy. He made hundreds of speeches as his train moved across the country. He spoke to farmers in Iowa. He visited a children's home in Texas. And he discussed issues with small groups of people who came to visit his train when it stopped in rural areas of Montana and Idaho. Dewey and the Republicans laughed at Truman's campaign. They said it showed that Truman needed votes so badly that he had to spend his time looking for them in small villages. Truman said the criticism proved that Republicans did not care for the average American. VOICE ONE: Dewey also campaigned across the country by train. But he showed little of the fire and emotion in his speeches that made Truman's campaign so exciting. A reporter wrote: "Governor Dewey is acting like a man who has already been elected and is only passing time, waiting to take office. " Dewey had good reasons to feel so sure of being elected. Almost every political expert in the country said Truman had no chance to win. The Wall Street Journal newspaper, for example, printed a story about what Dewey would do in the White House after the election. And the New York Times said that Dewey would win the election by a large vote. VOICE TWO: Truman refused to accept these views. Instead, he spoke with more and more emotion against Dewey. Most Americans still believed that Truman would lose. But they liked his courage in fighting until the end. At the end of one speech, a citizen shouted, "Give them hell, Harry! We will win!" And soon, Truman supporters across the country were shouting, "Give 'em hell, Harry!" Truman campaigned until Election Day. He made a special appeal to working people, Jews, blacks, Catholics, and other traditional supporters of the Democratic Party. In his final radio speech, he promised to work for peace and a government that would help all people. Then he went to his home in the state of Missouri to wait with the rest of the country for the election results. VOICE ONE: Republicans across the country greeted Election Day happily. They were sure that this was the day that the people would choose to send a Republican back to the White House after sixteen years. Some of the early voting results from the northeastern states showed Truman winning. But few Republicans worried. They were sure Dewey would be the winner when all the votes were counted. The editor of the Chicago Tribune newspaper also was sure Dewey would be the next president. He published a newspaper with a giant story that said "Dewey Defeats Truman." VOICE TWO: The Chicago Tribune was wrong. Everyone was wrong. Everyone, that is, except Harry Truman and the Americans who gave him their votes. Truman went to bed on election night before all the votes were counted. He told his assistant that he would win. Truman woke early the next morning to learn that he was right. Not only did he defeat Dewey, but he won by a good number of votes. And he helped many Democratic congressional candidates win as well. The Democrats captured both houses of Congress. Harry Truman would go on to serve four more years in the White House. He would make many difficult decisions as America moved into the second half of the twentieth century. VOICE ONE: Many of the decisions were necessary because of America's new responsibilities as leader of the Western world. Mister Truman would send American troops to South Korea to help the United Nations defend South Korea against aggression from North Korea. He would join other Western leaders in establishing a new alliance, NATO, to provide for the joint defense of Europe and North America. Mister Truman and later presidents would make decisions to send economic and military aid, in huge amounts, to countries all around the world. VOICE TWO: These worldwide responsibilities produced many changes in the United States, especially in the policies and actions of the United States government. But the system of the government did not change. It remained the same as that created by the Constitution in seventeen eighty-seven. Only a few details were changed to better protect and represent the people of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Higher Education in the US: Life as a Teaching Assistant
* Byline: Many states are trying to make sure that foreign TAs can speak English well enough to communicate with students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Graduate students often work as teaching assistants while they study in the United States. Teaching assistants may get money or get to take classes for free, or both. A T.A. usually works about twenty hours each week. In some cases, the professors they assist have big undergraduate classes with hundreds of students. The professor gives one or two lectures a week, and teaching assistants lead smaller discussions at other times. They also give tests, grade work, provide laboratory assistance and meet with students who need help. And they have their own educations to think about. Labor unions have been working to organize teaching assistants who feel overworked and underpaid. Some schools have had strikes. Another issue is the language barrier. Many states have proposed to require that teaching assistants be able to speak English well enough for students to understand them. Universities have increased their efforts to deal with this problem. Our example school this week is the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. The Institute of International Education says more foreign students go to USC than any other American university. The American Language Institute at USC provides training to help international teaching assistants improve their English. The university requires most non-native English speakers to pass a test before they can become a T.A. Those who went to college in an English-speaking country do not have to take the test. The same is true for those who scored at least twenty-seven on the speaking part of the TOEFL Internet-based test. The exam at USC is a fifteen-minute spoken test that involves two examiners. Students talk about their education and interest in the school. Then they present some issue or idea from their area of study, and answer questions about it from the examiners. Those who do not score high enough on the test have to take classes to improve their English. Until their English is better, some departments give them jobs that do not require them to communicate with students. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Listen next week for the next part in our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. MP3 files and transcripts of the series are at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question or comment, write to special@voanews.com, and be sure to include your name and country. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cesar Millan: Famous Dog Trainer, but Not All Experts Follow His Lead
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about American lawmakers … Play some music from the North Mississippi Allstars … .And report about a world famous expert on dogs. The?Dog Whisperer HOST: Americans own about seventy-three million dogs. Many people have problems training their animals. Some are turning to dog expert Cesar Millan. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Cesar Millan's television show is called "Dog Whisperer." It is broadcast in several countries, including the United States, Japan and Thailand. Millan has also written a book about his life and ideas about dog training. It is called "Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems." The TV show and book try to improve the relationships between people and their dogs. Millan also works with difficult dogs at his Dog Psychology Center in Los Angeles, California. Cesar Millan says dogs are happy and calm when they know and trust their leader. He says dog owners must be the leader or the dog will become confused and act in anti-social ways. The animal might become uncontrollable. It may bark all the time or even bite someone. Cesar Millan says the best way to train a dog is to prevent this behavior in the first place. He says the owner must be a good leader and provide a lot of exercise to keep the dog happy. Pet owners call on him when they have a problem. These situations appear on his television show, "Dog Whisperer." Recently, he visited a home where the dog barked loudly when people used some cooking equipment. The dog was afraid of the noise, and its loud barking was interfering with the lives of its owners. Cesar Millan placed the dog in a small space. Then he operated the equipment very close to the animal until the dog stopped barking. The owners said the dog stopped being afraid of the noise after that. However, not all dog experts agree with all of Millan's methods. They say it is true that dogs need good leadership and a lot of exercise. But they say it can be cruel and dangerous to force a dog to face its fears as in the example we described. They say the animal might attack. Some dog experts are concerned about people trying the methods they see on television without getting good advice about their own dog. Cesar Millan has said that his methods are not the only ways to train dogs successfully. He also has said that people should seek professional help when trying to change their pet's behavior. And his television show repeatedly tells people not to try the methods without professional help. Terms in Congress HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sabuj asks about the difference between the words "senator" and "congressman." The Capitol buildingThe United States Congress has two parts: the House of Representatives and the Senate. House lawmakers are called representatives. Those in the Senate are called senators. All of them can be called legislators. They can also be called members of Congress. But not all can be called congressmen. Why?? Because some of them are women. Currently, seventy-one of the four hundred thirty-five members of the House of Representatives are women. In the Senate, sixteen of the one hundred senators are women. You might hear the media use the title of congressman or congresswoman for members of the House of Representatives. Rarely is a senator addressed this way, although it would not be wrong. When Congress meets, there are special rules about how members behave. One of the rules deals with what to call a member. In the House of Representatives, members speak of another member as the "gentleman" or "gentlewoman" from the state they represent. They are not permitted to call members by name. Members also may speak of another member as "my colleague", or "my distinguished colleague."? This is also true in the Senate. Members of the House of Representatives must not speak until the speaker of the House calls on them to do so. In the Senate, the presiding officer gives permission for members to speak. Members of both houses of Congress are also barred from using offensive language in meetings. All these rules deal with what is called congressional decorum. And, like all rules, sometimes they are violated. Punishment differs based on the violation. However, sometimes the worst punishment is unofficial. For example, offensive language on the floor of the House or Senate can seriously harm an elected official's public image. The North Mississippi Allstars HOST: The North Mississippi Allstars play music that combines the sounds of southern blues with rock and roll. Their songs are an energetic mixture of old and new styles. Critics have praised the six albums this group has made over the years. They say the North Mississippi Allstars represent a new kind of musicians. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: The North Mississippi Allstars are three musicians. Chris Chew and the brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson are all from the southern state of Mississippi. This is an area with a rich and old tradition of music. But these men do not just recreate music of the past. They have reinvented the sound of the blues into something fresh and different. Listen to “Deep Blue Sea” from their latest album, “Electric Blue Watermelon." (MUSIC) The Dickinson brothers grew up in a world filled with musical influences. Their father is a well-known record producer named Jim Dickinson. In fact, he helped the North Mississippi Allstars make this latest record. He says there is a special musical spirit in the Mississippi hill country. Here is a song the band sings with the country singer Lucinda Williams. It is called “Hurry Up Sunrise”. (MUSIC) The North Mississippi Allstars are performing around the United States. People around the country can hear their lively songs and experience a new version of the blues. We leave you now with the title song from an earlier album, "Fifty-One Phantom”. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver,? who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Moving Beyond Talk on Climate Change
* Byline: How companies are feeling the heat to cut greenhouse gases. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. One of the top issues this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was climate change. But the business and political leaders gathered for the yearly event in the Swiss Alps were not the only ones talking about the subject. President Bush, in his State of the Union message Tuesday, proposed rules to increase production of renewable fuels, like ethanol from corn. He also said new technologies are needed to deal with what he called "the serious challenge" of climate change. California recently passed rules to require industries to release less carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for trapping heat. Some companies believe it is just a question of time before the federal government could do the same. So they are positioning themselves to have a voice in the policy-making. On Monday, leaders of ten big companies proposed federal rules to limit the release of greenhouse gases. The companies are members of the United States Climate Action Partnership. One possibility for the country is a trading system like the European Union has. Companies would have permits to release a set amount of greenhouse gases. Businesses that stay within their limits could trade their surplus to bigger polluters. Since nineteen ninety-five, the United States has had a trading system for sulfur emissions that cause acid rain. But some companies think other ideas, like new taxes on polluters, are a better way to cut greenhouse gases. Any new rules would hit some industries harder than others. For example, forty percent of the carbon dioxide from American industry comes from power producers, especially those that burn coal. The United States is the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, followed by China. On February second, in Paris, a scientific group established by the United Nations plans to release a major report on climate change. The report, six years after the last one, is expected to take the strongest position yet about the influence of human activity. The group is said to be at least ninety percent sure that human activity is the main cause of global warming in the last half-century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change puts most of the blame on the burning of fossil fuels. And the report is expected to say that scientists around the world believe temperatures will continue to rise. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. ?Transcripts and MP3 files are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'America Must Not Fail in Iraq' Is Bush's Warning
* Byline: In his State of the Union speech, the president urges Congress and the American people to give his plan a chance to work. Democrats call for diplomatic efforts to end the war. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush gave his two thousand seven State of the Union speech to Congress and the American people Tuesday night. On the nation's most pressing issue, he said "America must not fail in Iraq."? He defended his plan to send more than twenty thousand additional troops there. He warned that if American forces leave Iraq before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would fall to extremists. He said nothing is more important to America right now than to succeed in Iraq and the Middle East. On other foreign policy issues, Mister Bush said the United States will continue to speak out for freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma. And continue to call on the world to save the people of Darfur, Sudan. Mister Bush has two years left in office. This was the Republican president's first speech to a Democratic-controlled Congress. On policy issues at home, he announced proposals to help more Americans get health insurance. And he called for a twenty percent cut in the nation's gasoline use within ten years, to reduce dependence on foreign oil. To reach this goal, he said there must be improved fuel economy in cars and higher requirements for renewable and alternative fuels. He said new energy technologies being developed will also help deal with, in his words, "the serious challenge of global climate change." On other issues, he renewed his call for immigration reform including a temporary worker program. And he said he will propose a budget that would end the federal deficit within five years. The president faces low public approval ratings and high disapproval of his plan for more troops in Iraq. Democrats and some Republicans in Congress oppose the idea. The Democratic Party chose newly elected Senator Jim Webb of Virginia to give its official reaction to the State of the Union speech. His son is a Marine serving in Iraq. Senator Webb called for a "new direction," including an immediate move toward strong diplomacy to end the war. On Friday, the Senate confirmed Army General David Petraeus as the new commander of American troops in Iraq. There were no dissenting votes. But that was two days after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution to oppose a troop increase as not in the national interest. The measure is without legal force. The vote was twelve to nine; the full Senate is expected to debate the resolution next week. A similar one is planned in the House of Representatives. At the White House, President Bush said Friday that he chose a plan that he thinks is most likely to succeed. "I'm the decision-maker," he said. He told reporters that most of the people in Congress recognize that failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States. Some are condemning a plan before it has even had a chance to work, he said. In that case, Mister Bush says they have a responsibility to put up their own plan. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Madam C.J. Walker, 1867-1919: She Developed Hair-Care Products for Black Women
* Byline: Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Madam C. J. Walker. She was a businesswoman, the first female African American to become very rich. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen hundreds, life for most African-Americans was very difficult. Mobs of white people attacked and killed black people. It was legal to separate groups of people by race. Women, both black and white, did not have the same rights as men. Black women worked very long hours for little wages. They worked mostly as servants or farm workers. Or they washed clothes. Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years. She then started her own business of developing and selling hair-care products for black women. Madam Walker, however, did more than build a successful business. Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty. Her business also gave work to many black women. And, she helped other people, especially black artists and civil rights supporters. She said: "My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself. I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker was very poor for most of her life. She was born Sarah Breedlove in the southern state of Louisiana in eighteen sixty-seven. Her parents were former slaves. The family lived and worked on a cotton farm along the Mississippi River. Cotton was a crop that grew well in the rich, dark soil near the river. Most children of slaves did not go to school. They had to work. By the time Sarah was five years old, she was picking cotton in the fields with her family. She also helped her mother and sister earn money by washing clothes for white people. There was no water or machine to wash clothes in their home. The water from the Mississippi River was too dirty. So, they used rainwater. Sarah helped her mother and sister carry water to fill big wooden containers. They heated the water over the fire. Then they rubbed the clothes on flat pieces of wood, squeezed out the water and hung each piece to dry. It was hard work. The wet clothes were heavy, and the soap had lye in it. Lye is a strong substance that cleaned the clothes well. But it hurt people's skin. VOICE ONE: When Sarah was seven years old, her parents died of the disease yellow fever. She and her sister moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams. They had a daughter after they were married for three years. They named their daughter Lelia. Two years later, Moses McWilliams died in an accident. Sarah was alone with her baby. She decided to move to Saint Louis, Missouri. She had heard that washerwomen earned more money there. Sarah washed clothes all day. At night, she went to school to get the education she had missed as a child. She also made sure that her daughter Lelia went to school. Sarah saved enough money to send Lelia to college. Sarah began to think about how she was going to continue to earn money in the future. What was she going to do when she grew old and her back grew weak? She also worried about her hair. It was dry and broken. Her hair was falling out in some places on her head. Sarah tried different products to improve her hair but nothing worked. Then she got an idea. If she could create a hair product that worked for her, she could start her own business. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: At the age of thirty-seven, Sarah invented a mixture that helped her hair and made curly hair straight. Some people believe that Sarah studied the hair product she used and added her own "secret" substance. But Sarah said she invented the mixture with God's help. By solving her hair problem, she had found a way to improve her life. Sarah decided to move west to Denver, Colorado. She did not want to compete with companies in Saint Louis that made hair-care products. For the first time in her life, Sarah left the area along the Mississippi River where she was born. Sarah found a job in Denver as a cook. She cooked and washed clothes during the day. At night she worked on her hair products. She tested them on herself and on her friends. The products helped their hair. Sarah began selling her products from house to house. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-six, she married Charles Joseph Walker. He was a newspaperman who had become her friend and adviser. From then on, Sarah used the name Madam C. J. Walker. Madam Walker organized women to sell her hair treatment. She established Walker schools of beauty culture throughout the country to train the saleswomen. The saleswomen became known as "Walker Agents. " They became popular in black communities throughout the United States. Madam Walker worked hard at her business. She traveled to many American cities to help sell her products. She also traveled to the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Panama, and Cuba. Her products had become popular there, too. VOICE TWO: Madam Walker's business grew quickly. It soon was employing three thousand people. Black women who could not attend her schools could learn the Walker hair care method through a course by mail. Hundreds, and later thousands, of black women learned her hair-care methods. Madam Walker's products helped these women earn money to educate their children, build homes and start businesses. Madam Walker was very proud of what she had done. She said that she had made it possible "for many colored women to abandon the washtub for more pleasant and profitable occupations. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-eight, Madam Walker moved her business east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was closer to cities on the Atlantic coast with large black populations, cities such as New York, Washington, D. C. and Baltimore. Two years later, she established a laboratory and a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, her products were developed and made. Some people criticized Madam Walker's products. They accused her of straightening black women's hair to make it look like white women's hair. Some black clergymen said that if black people were supposed to have straight hair, God would have given it to them. But Madam Walker said her purpose was to help women have healthy hair. She also said cleanliness was important. She established rules for cleanliness for her employees. Her rules later led to state laws covering jobs involving beauty treatment. VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker became very rich and famous. She enjoyed her new life. She also shared her money. She became one of the few black people at the time wealthy enough to give huge amounts of money to help people and organizations. She gave money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to churches and to cultural centers. Madam Walker also supported many black artists and writers. And, she worked hard to end violations against the rights of black people. In nineteen seventeen, she was part of a group that went to Washington, D. C. to meet with President Woodrow Wilson. The group urged him and Congress to make mob violence a federal crime. In nineteen eighteen, Madam Walker finally settled in a town near New York City where she built a large, beautiful house. She continued her work, but her health began to weaken. Her doctors advised her to slow down. But she would not listen. She died the next year. She was fifty-one years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Madam C. J. Walker never forgot where she came from. Nor did she stop dreaming of how life could be. At a meeting of the National Negro Business League, Madam Walker explained that she was a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. "I was promoted from there to the washtub," she said. "Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground. " She not only improved her own life, but that of other women in similar situations. Madam C. J. Walker explained it this way: "If I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Good Advice From the World Bank -- With Some Exceptions
* Byline: An independent study, requested by a bank official, found that the bank sometimes ignored research that did not support its policies, especially on globalization. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank lends money to developing countries but also considers itself a "knowledge bank."? Its advice can influence government policies as well as its own future policies. The question is, how valuable is that advice?? Not even the bank's chief economist, Senior Vice President Francois Bourguignon, could answer that. So he asked a group of economists, led by Angus Deaton at Princeton University, to do an independent study. They examined all research activities carried out by the World Bank between nineteen ninety-eight and two thousand five. Last September, they reported finding many valuable studies. But they also found that advice from the bank was not always balanced. They said the bank sometimes gave greater weight to information that supported its positions and ignored other findings. Professor Deaton tells us this was especially true with research on the relationship between globalization and poverty reduction. He says the bank has a right to defend its own policies. But he says untested research cannot be used as evidence that policies work. Over the years, the World Bank has been a research leader in measuring poverty and inequality. Still, the economists found some studies poorly organized or based on old research methods. They also found the bank's Web site difficult to use. Angus Deaton says the bank needs a research-based ability to learn from its projects and policies. Without that, he says, it cannot remain the world's leading development agency. The report says the World Bank should create an independent research group, protected against any political influences. The bank now spends two and one-half percent of its administrative budget on research. Professor Deaton says this is too low, given all the research the bank has to do. He says the need for high-quality advice will only grow as the world becomes richer, and the need for lending shrinks. Chief economist Francois Bourguignon says research at the bank is a complex process that requires compromises. Yet even with their criticisms, he noted that the economists rated sixty-one percent of the studies they read as being of higher quality. An additional twenty-eight percent were rated average. He says the advice in the report will be extremely valuable to the bank. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For links to the report and the chief economist's response, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Heroes: When the Worst of Events Bring Out the Best in People?
* Byline: Stories of bravery, including New York's ''Subway Superhero,'' Wesley Autrey, who risked his life to save a man from being crushed by a train. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Mario Ritter. Every society has its heroes. This week on our program, we present several stories of heroism in action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We start in New York City earlier this month -- January fourth, to be exact. Two friends, Julio Gonzalez and Pedro Nevarez, were standing on the street talking. Suddenly, people in a nearby apartment building screamed for help. A three-year-old boy was hanging from the steps of the fire escape outside the building. Timothy Addo was twelve meters above the ground, and scared. The men saw that he was going to fall. The two mechanics ran across the street and positioned themselves to catch him. VOICE TWO: They got there just in time. Timothy lost his hold and dropped. His feet hit Mister Nevarez and pushed him over onto the sidewalk. But the little boy landed in the arms of Mister Gonzalez, who also fell. Timothy was shaken by the experience, but he was safe. Experts in human behavior tell us that some situations bring out the best in people. But something made this event all the more newsworthy. Just two days earlier, New York City had another accidental hero. ? VOICE ONE: Wesley Autrey is a ten-year member of the Construction and General Building Laborers union. Construction workers have to think fast: one wrong move and they might fall off a building. But his act of heroism took place underground. The fifty-year-old former Navy sailor was waiting for a subway train in Harlem. He was with his two young daughters, ages four and six. Mister Autrey and two women waiting for the train saw that a young man nearby appeared to be having a seizure. They tried to help him, but the man fell onto the tracks. VOICE TWO: Wesley Autrey saw the light of an oncoming train. Still, he threw himself down, onto the man, in the space between the rails. It was too late for the train to stop. Several of the cars rolled over them, close enough to Mister Autrey's head to leave a grease mark on his hat. His two daughters watched in terror as all this happened. But their father and the man he had just saved were safe. And lucky. ?A little more than a half-meter separated the ground from the underside of the train. In some systems, the trains ride closer to the rail bed. VOICE ONE: Wesley Autrey received the city's highest honor, the Bronze Medallion. Said Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "His courageous rescue of a complete stranger is a reminder of how we are surrounded by everyday heroes in New York City." Businessman Donald Trump presented Mister Autrey with ten thousand dollars. And there have been other rewards and honors. But Wesley Autrey says he is not a hero. In his words: "What I did is something that any and every New Yorker should do." VOICE TWO:?????? Last Tuesday, the "Subway Superhero" and his two daughters were in Washington. They were among the guests of first lady Laura Bush as the president gave his State of the Union speech to Congress. Less than two weeks after Wesley Autrey's act of bravery, Daniel Fitzpatrick saved a woman in the New York subway. The woman may have been trying to kill herself. Daniel Fitzpatrick is an emergency medical technician with the New York Fire Department. But the thirty-eight-year-old rescuer was off duty when he saw the woman walk down a subway catwalk. The catwalk passes close to the trains. ? Mister Fitzpatrick followed the woman even though a train was coming. He pressed her against a wall. The woman was large and struggling. He kept hold of her. But there was another problem: his head was in the path of the oncoming train. VOICE ONE:?????? Luckily, another man who had been talking to Mister Fitzpatrick ran after him and held his head back, out of the way of the train. The woman was taken to a hospital. Daniel Fitzpatrick used to be a finance officer in business. He says he decided to change careers when he saw rescuers at work after hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in two thousand one. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This month was the twenty-fifth anniversary of a plane crash during a snowstorm in Washington, D.C. On January thirteenth, nineteen eighty-two, a passenger plane hit a bridge over the Potomac River. The plane had just taken off for Florida. With it wings weighed down with ice, the plane failed to climb quickly enough. It crashed into Fourteenth Street Bridge and then dropped into the Potomac. Parts of the river were covered in ice. Seventy-nine passengers and crew were on the flight. Only five of them survived. Four people on the bridge were also killed. VOICE ONE: One of the passengers on the plane came to be called the "unknown hero."? He could have been saved, but he repeatedly handed a helicopter rescue line to others. Then, when the helicopter came back for him, he was gone in the icy waters. The unknown hero was later identified as Arland Williams Junior, a bank examiner. He was the only victim of the Air Florida crash whose death was blamed on drowning. The bridge was renamed in his honor. And President Ronald Reagan presented the Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal to the family of Arland Williams. VOICE TWO:?????? Someone else who received a Gold Lifesaving Medal was Roger Olian, a sheet-metal worker in Washington. Roger Olian jumped into the river with the end of a lifeline that people on shore had made out of clothes and other materials. Unable to see through the snowstorm, he followed the screams of the survivors. He reached people hanging onto the broken tail of the plane. The storm and heavy traffic slowed the arrival of emergency services. VOICE ONE: Don Usher was a helicopter pilot with the United States Park Police. He flew close to the water and ice, through the blinding snow, to look for survivors. With him was Gene Windsor, a Park Police officer with special medical training. It was almost impossible to see. But they rescued two people who could hold onto the helicopter lifeline long enough to be pulled to shore. Mister Windsor also jumped into the water to save one woman too weak to hold the line. The National Transportation Safety Board recognized the actions of the only crew member who survived the crash. Flight attendant Kelly Duncan gave the only flotation device she could find to someone else. VOICE TWO:?????? From the side of the river, a federal worker named Lenny Skutnik saw another woman in the water. He jumped into the river, swam to her and got her to shore. The rescue was filmed and shown on the news. Two weeks later, President Reagan introduced Lenny Skutnik during his State of the Union speech to Congress. Mister Skutnik received a Gold Lifesaving Medal from the Coast Guard. But to this day, as he told the Washington Post, he says he was not a hero, just someone who helped another human being. (MUSIC)?? VOICE ONE: On January eleventh, at the White House, President Bush presented the Medal of Honor to the parents of Marine Corporal Jason Dunham. The Medal of Honor is the military's highest award for bravery. Corporal Dunham died in April of two thousand four during a fight with an attacker in western Iraq, near the Syrian border. As they struggled, Corporal Dunham saw a hand grenade that was about to explode. He jumped on it to save other Marines. He used his helmet and his body to try to contain the explosion. He died of his wounds a week later. But the president said Corporal Dunham saved the lives of two of his men. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Mister Bush also noted that Corporal Dunham had signed on for two extra months in Iraq to stay with the Marines under his command. Corporal Jason Dunham of Scio, New York, was twenty-two years old. He was the second person to receive a Medal of Honor in the Iraq war. The first was Army Sergeant Paul Smith, killed in two thousand three. He was organizing a defense to protect other soldiers from an attack near Baghdad International Airport. VOICE ONE: In two thousand five, Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester became the first woman soldier since World War Two to receive the Silver Star. She earned it as a military police officer in Iraq with the Kentucky National Guard. Sergeant Hester helped lead a defense against a large group of attackers. That same battle led to a Bronze Star for another woman in the Kentucky National Guard. Specialist Ashley Pullen risked her life to help severely wounded soldiers under fire. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Mario Ritter. VOICE ONE: And I'm?Barbara Klein. Be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: In the Red:? Better to Be in the Black
* Byline: Some business terms you can profit from. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, Words and Their Stories, a VOA Special English program about American expressions. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some financial words and expressions used in business and the stock market. (MUSIC) Our first expression is in the red. It is another way of saying that a business is losing money. In the past, numbers in the financial records of a company were written in red ink to show a loss. A business magazine recently published a report about a television company. The report said the company was still in the red, but was able to cut its loss from the year before. A profit by a business is written in black numbers. So a company that is in the black is making money. An international news service reported that a private health insurer in Australia announced it was back in the black with its first profit in three years. Another financial expression is run on the bank. That is what happens when many people try to withdraw all their money from a bank. A run on the bank usually happens when people believe there is danger a bank may fail or close. Newspaper reports about a banking crisis in Russia used that expression. They said the government acted because of fears that the crisis would cause a run on the banks. When a run on the banks was starting, there was not much they could do, said a banking expert. Day trading is a new expression about a system that lets investors trade directly on an electronic market system. The system is known as NASDAQ, short for The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. It was the first completely computerized stock market. It sells stocks of companies not listed on any stock exchange. Many high technology companies are listed on it. Day trading companies provide a desk and a computer system to an investor who wants to trade. Individuals must provide fifty thousand dollars or more to the trading company to pay for the stocks they buy. Thousands of other investors do day trading from computers in their homes. A day trader watches stock prices carefully. When he sees a stock rise in price, he uses the computer to buy shares of the stock. If the stock continues to rise in price in the next few minutes, the day trader sells the shares quickly to make a small profit. Then he looks for another stock to buy. If a stock goes down instead of up, he sells it and accepts the loss. The idea is to make a small profit many times during the day. Day traders may buy and sell stocks hundreds of times each day. Many day traders lose all their money in a week or so. Only about thirty percent succeed in earning enough from their efforts to continue day trading. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Frank Beardsley. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: New Studies Offer Better Understanding of Babies and Intelligence
* Byline: Researchers say babies begin learning immediately -- and can learn even before they are born. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we discuss recent findings about how intelligence develops in babies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The National Institute of Child Health and Development is a federal government agency. Its goal is to identify which experiences can influence healthy development in human beings. Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. ?They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other humans. VOICE TWO: The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers. One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story. On the day the baby was born, the researchers tested to find out if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while inside his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby. The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again. VOICE ONE: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children. The study involved more than one thousand two-hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period. VOICE TWO: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of depression. The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear. These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another study suggests that low-birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems. The study results were published last October in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. American researchers studied nearly five hundred boys and girls. They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-seven. At birth, each child weighed less than two thousand grams. The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen years at the time of the study. They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes. Their test results were compared with those of other children their age. The study found that the young people with low birth weight often had more problems with motor skills than others. A motor skill is a skill that requires a living thing to use its skeletal muscles effectively. Motor problems were more common among males, those with injured nerve tissue in the brain, and those who had been connected to oxygen supplies for days as a baby. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The most intensive period of language and speech development is during the first three years of a child's life. This is the time when the brain is developing. Language and communication skills are believed to develop best in an environment that is rich with sounds and sights. Also, the child should repeatedly hear the speech and language of other people. America's National Institutes of Health says evidence suggests there are important periods of speech and language development in children. This means the brain is best able to learn a language during this period. Officials say the ability to learn a language will be more difficult if these periods pass without early contact with a language. VOICE ONE: The first signs of communication happen during the first few days of life when a baby learns that crying will bring food and attention. Research shows that most children recognize the general sounds of their native language by six months of age. At that time, a baby also usually begins to make sounds. These sounds become a kind of nonsense speech over time. By the end of the first year, most children are able to say a few simple words. But they may not understand the meaning of their words. By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words. By two years, most children are able to form simple statements, or sentences. By ages three, four and five, the number of words a child can understand quickly increases. It is at this age that children begin to understand the rules of language. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina. Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children. The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school. VOICE ONE: Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests. The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics. VOICE TWO: A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born. The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development. The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-29-voa4.cfm
* Headline: A Crop of Publications for Farmers
* Byline: A lot of information is available for free on the Internet. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Looking for some reading material about farming?? One place to look is the science magazine of the United States Department of Agriculture. The descriptions of work by the department's Agricultural Research Service can be complex. But the monthly magazine, called Agricultural Research, is generally easy to understand without having to be a scientist. Subjects in January included how researchers in the state of Mississippi have identified tens of thousands of genes in catfish. The American industry in farm-raised catfish is worth billions of dollars. That includes processors, feed producers and other related industries. Learning the secrets of the catfish genome could lead to increased quality and production. Paid subscriptions to Agricultural Research are available for printed copies. But an electronic version of the magazine is free of charge on the Internet. The easiest way to find the address is to do a search for the words "Agricultural Research magazine." Many universities in the United States have agricultural extension services that provide information and advice. The Extension Service at Oregon State University, for example, has a new publication for small farms. This is available online for free at smallfarms.oregonstate.edu. The Fruit Growers News is a monthly publication from the Great American Publishing Company of Sparta, Michigan. Growers get industry news along with advice and information from experts. Some of the articles can be read for free at fruitgrowersnews.com. The Vegetable Growers News, a related publication at vegetablegrowersnews.com, also offers some of its material free on the Web. And so does a business magazine from Great American Publishing called Spudman, Voice of the Potato Industry. It deals with new products and methods and tells about research. The Web site is spudman.com. For almost one hundred twenty-five years, Grit was a newspaper produced in Pennsylvania. Now Grit is a colorful magazine out of Kansas. It deals with many subjects, from how to care for baby goats to how to choose the right tractor to drive around the farm. These are just two of the stories in the current Grit. Some articles can be read free of charge at grit.com. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Links to all of these publications can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Learning at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
* Byline: About eighty thousand people who live in the Washington area belong to the Smithsonian Resident Associates Program. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we present another in our series about continuing education programs for older Americans. We tell about the Smithsonian Associates. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Every day, thousands of people walk along the grassy area in the center of Washington D.C. called the National Mall. They are on their way to visit the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. Visitors of all ages want to see and learn from the millions of objects that are part of the Smithsonian’s collection. Some adults enter a small building next to the Smithsonian’s red brick castle on the Mall. Many are carrying notebooks and pens. Others are carrying bags of art supplies. Most of them are older and have retired from their jobs. They are going to underground classrooms in the S. Dillon Ripley Center to continue their education. They are learning about such subjects as history, science and international issues. Or they are developing new skills in areas such as photography, drawing or making jewelry. VOICE TWO: S. Dillon Ripley was head of the Smithsonian Institution from nineteen sixty-four to nineteen eighty-four. He wanted to expand the Smithsonian through programs that bring the museums to life so people could learn and have fun doing it. His purpose, he said, was to “change the image of the place as a dusty attic populated solely by researchers counting beetles.”? During his twenty years in office, Secretary Ripley added seven research facilities and eight museums including the National Air and Space Museum. He started the Smithsonian Magazine that is read by people around the world. In nineteen sixty-five, he began a public education program, the Smithsonian Associates. He believed the Smithsonian should be educating the public at the same time it supported independent scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Since it began, the Smithsonian Associates has provided thousands of educational and cultural programs. Each year the organization offers almost one thousand activities to people who live in the Washington area. The activities include classes, talks, performances, films and trips. The Smithsonian Associates education program was an experimental idea when Mister Ripley began it. Today it is a proven success. It is the nation’s largest museum-based continuing education program. VOICE TWO: About eighty thousand individuals who live in the Washington area belong to the Smithsonian Resident Associates Program. They pay every year to be members. Every month they receive a magazine describing programs offered during the coming months. Members pay for the classes or lectures. The cost for classes is much less than it would be to take them at a university. Many of the Smithsonian events offer speakers or performers who do not appear anywhere else in the Washington area. About half of the resident Smithsonian Associates members are age fifty-eight or older. Christine Cimino is a public affairs officer for the organization. She says many of its programs are aimed at older members who have more time to attend the events. Members of the Associates are highly educated. Ninety-five percent of them have graduated from college. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum complex in the world. ?Its collections cover almost every possible subject. So do the educational programs of the Smithsonian Associates. The major areas of interest are art and architecture, food, history, literature, science and religion. Christine Cimino says that programs about art have been the most popular. History is second, followed by science programs. Many people are interested in studio arts where they learn how to make art, not just look at it. Painting, drawing, quilting and photography classes have been offered for years. Classes in digital photography have been added recently and are filled with members of all ages. Some adults decide after they retire that they want to improve their photographs. So they take one of the many photography classes the Smithsonian Associates offers. People taking the classes can use a large darkroom for developing and printing photographs and a computer laboratory for digital media. VOICE TWO: Many subjects have been included in the Smithsonian Associates program for years – such as Greek history, the Bible and new discoveries in archeology. Other subjects are newer and are linked to changes in popular culture. For example, Miz Cimino says more self-help talks and classes are being offered now. She says older members are interested in learning about what they should do to keep their memories sharp. Adults who are about to retire want to know about ways to improve their financial situation. Those who have already retired want to find out about interesting places for travel. People of all ages are interested in programs about cooking and new restaurants in the area. And classes about ways to deal with the tension of daily life are popular with everyone. The people who teach the classes are experts in their subjects. Many have written books. They come from all over the United States and from other countries. After they speak, members of the Associates can ask them questions and buy their books. Miz Cimino says classes used to meet for a few hours each week for six weeks. But now, many classes are held in one day, during a weekend, or four nights in one week. The reason, she says, is that people are too busy –- even adults who have retired. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In one month’s time, the Smithsonian Associates offers a huge selection of education programs. It is possible to find a class, a lecture or a performance to attend almost every day of the month. For example, a two-day seminar about Genghis Kahn’s Mongolia was offered on the first weekend of one month. ?The next Saturday, there were three all-day seminars -- the Origins of the Bible, Russian Art, and the Neuroscience of Human Relationships. Other weekend seminars later that same month included How to Make the Most of Your Memory; America’s Constitution; and Space, Time and the Multiverse. ?VOICE TWO: Single lectures during that month covered many other subjects:? The Voyage of the Mayflower in Sixteen Twenty. The American Air Campaign Against Nazi Germany. Tasting Portuguese Wine. Mysteries of the Middle Ages. Deepak Chopra on Life After Death. A reading of Homer’s poem, the "Odyssey," at the Embassy of Greece. A series of once a week classes meeting that month provided Smithsonian Associates members with a chance for more in-depth learning. There were classes about The Golden Age of Cities, American Popular Music, and The Art of Thinking. One class was The Power of Ritual in Religion. Each week a different expert discussed the important ceremonies and principles of the five major religions:? Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Buddhist. Studio Arts classes included Architectural Photography, Beginning Drawing and Sumi-E and Shodo: Traditional Japanese Ink Painting and Calligraphy. There were also several trips that month. Members could visit nearby Civil War battlefields. Fly to Niagara Falls for a day. Or explore glass factories in West Virginia for four days. At night, they could hear Music of the Jazz Masters, R. Carlos Nakai’s Magic Flute or classical music by the Twentieth Century Consort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Several groups of adults are leaving the Smithsonian Associates classrooms in the Ripley Center. They are busy commenting on what they learned that day. The discussions continue as the older students walk across the Mall to return to their homes. A man carrying brushes and an almost finished oil painting says he is having fun learning to paint. He wanted to try it for years but never had the time when he was younger. A woman carrying a notebook says she was worried she would miss the excitement of work when she retired. But she says continuing to learn through Smithsonian Associates programs makes life interesting and keeps her feeling young. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can find more about continuing education programs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Pluto Is Reborn as a Verb, While Surge Becomes a 'Hot-Button Word'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: our guest is Wayne Glowka, an English professor at Georgia College and State University. RS: He also chairs the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, which publishes the quarterly journal American Speech. Members of the society voted earlier this monoth for their seventeenth annual Word of the Year. WAYNE GLOWKA: "The word of the year was 'pluto,' the verb, as in 'I've been plutoed.' There's quite a bit of surprise in people's eyes when you tell them that Pluto is now a verb." RS: "Now how did Pluto become a verb? Tell us the story here." WAYNE GLOWKA: "Well, last year, the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto did not have the qualifications it needed to be a planet like the other planets, and demoted it to something else. And so some clever person somewhere looked upon this situation and said, 'Well, Pluto's been plutoed, and if I'm demoted or rejected or scorned, then I'm plutoed, too.'" RS: "Now it went against the phrase 'climate canary.' Tell us about that one." WAYNE GLOWKA: "Well, a climate canary is an organism or a species whose poor health or declining numbers hint at a larger environmental catastrophe on the horizon. The species cited was the polar bear. The polar bears hunt seals by walking around on Arctic floating ice -- in the Arctic Ocean, and as this ice breaks up, the polar bears find it very difficult to get out on the ocean in order to get the seals they need to eat." AA: "And climate canary, in the end, was, I see, voted Most Useful. Now, under the Word of the Year nominees was the term 'surge,' which is of course very much in the news now, in terms of the president's move to increase the troops in Iraq. I'm surprised that in the runoff you had fifty-seven votes for pluto, forty-three for climate canary, but only four for surge. Were you surprised by that result?" WAYNE GLOWKA: "No. I mean, a lot of this has to do with the political leanings of the people who are there and their worldview, and a good number of these people live in urban areas and are very concerned about climate change. I mean, this is my own personal observation, that people who live in cities worry about that kind of thing more than people who live in the middle of a big forest, the way I do. "Surge, however, had a little bit of support in the beginning. But the problem with surge is, it showed up so late in the year, it didn't sound all that new to some people -- because, you know, we do talk about a 'surge in statistics,' 'surge in applications' and things like that. And someone argued that the word is more likely to be more important in two thousand seven than in two thousand six." AA: "Most of the time, when we see it in the newspaper, it's in quotation marks. Can you explain why that is?" WAYNE GLOWKA: "The general feeling is, if you're against the surge, the general feeling is that the word is somehow marked, that it's a euphemism for something else ugly like 'escalation,' which is a Vietnam term which actually was an attempt at euphemism too, to make the increase in troops sound better. "So, to a lot of people, it still sounds like jargon from the Pentagon or it sounds like sort of political manipulation. But if you're on the other side of the political spectrum, then it sounds like a perfectly normal way of talking. But I had a very interesting day with two sets of re -- two reporters, one who didn't understand what the fuss was about, and the other who was very concerned about the surge and asked me question after question, almost like a prosecutor, trying to get me to say things about surge that he wanted me to say. "So the word is very loaded at the moment. I've been noticing in the last week or two that the Democrats in Congress have been using escalation and I noticed that Bush avoided using surge when even he talked about it on that special night." AA: "You're talking [about] his speech explaining his plan." WAYNE GLOWKA: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's kind of a hot-button word and I imagine that editors feel uncomfortable with it, and so would put it in quotation marks." RS: Professor Wayne Glowka at Georgia College and State University, and the head of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. To find out more about American English, check out our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: In the Mind of an Amnesiac, It Seems the Future May Suffer, Too
* Byline: A British study finds that victims of memory loss from a brain injury are trapped in the present. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Amnesia is a loss of memory. But scientists in Britain have found that it can mean a loss of imagination as well. They asked amnesia patients in a study to imagine new experiences and then describe them. The researchers say the patients could not describe what they saw in their minds to the same extent as people without memory loss. Eleanor Maguire at the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London was a leader of the study. She says it shows amnesiacs as people trapped in the present. They cannot look back at their past nor ahead to what the future might look like. The five amnesiacs in the study all had serious damage to the hippocampus. This part of the brain is believed to process experiences into memories. But scientists disagree about the extent to which it also stores memories. All five amnesiacs were men. They were compared with a control group of ten men who had no injury to their hippocampus. The researchers asked all of the men in the study to imagine themselves in different situations. For example, they were asked to picture themselves on a sandy beach along a tropical coast -- or in a museum with lots to see. The men in the control group gave descriptions rich in detail. One man described the heat of the sun on the beach, an old fishing boat on the water and big brown rocks. He described how to his left the beach curved around and became a point with wooden buildings on it. And his description continued. But the amnesiacs were far more basic in what they saw. One said he could not see anything except the blue of the sky. He could hear seagulls and feel the sand. But when asked if he was seeing this in his mind's eye, he answered: "No, the only thing I can see is blue." The scientists rated answers based on spatial references -- where objects were described in relation to each other. They also rated answers for any descriptions of people or animals, for sensory descriptions and for emotions or actions. The control group rated higher in all areas. The amnesiacs rated lower especially in terms of spatial references and emotions. The findings could show that the hippocampus has more to do with imagination and memories than scientists may have ever imagined. The findings appear in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in the United States. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History: Truman Faced Communist Fears, Real or Imagined
* Byline: Harry Truman knew sending ground forces into Korea could start World War Three; at home, Senator Joseph McCarthy had Americans worried with accusations of communists in the US government. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Harry Truman, then vice president, right, with President Franklin Roosevelt in November?1944. Five months later, Roosevelt died.Before the election of nineteen forty-eight, Harry Truman sometimes was called an accidental president. That meant the citizens had not elected him to lead the nation. He became America's thirty-third president because he was vice president when Franklin Roosevelt died. Today, we tell about President Truman and events during his second term in office. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-eight, Harry Truman had been America's leader for more than three years. The people now voted for his return to office. They chose him over Republican Party candidate, Thomas Dewey, governor of New York. The voters also elected a Congress with a majority from Mister Truman's Democratic Party. The president might have expected such a Congress to support his policies. It did not, however, always support him. Time after time, Democrats from the southern part of the United States joined with conservative Republicans in voting. Together, these lawmakers defeated some of Truman's most important proposals. This included a bill for health care insurance for every American. VOICE ONE: Fear of communism was a major issue during Truman's second term. After World War Two, Americans watched as communists took control of one east European nation after another. They watched as China became communist. They watched as the leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. At this tense time, there were charges that communists held important jobs in the government of the United States. Many citizens accepted the charges. The fear of communism, real or imagined, threatened the American legal tradition that a person is innocent until proven guilty. VOICE TWO: A Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, led the search for communists in America. In speeches and congressional hearings, he accused hundreds of people of being communists or communist supporters. His targets included the Department of State, the Army and the entertainment industry in Hollywood. Senator McCarthy often had little evidence to support his accusations. Many of his charges would not have been accepted in a court of law. But the rules governing congressional hearings were different. So he was able to make his accusations freely. Some people denounced as communists lost their jobs. Some had to use false names to get work. A few went to jail briefly for refusing to cooperate with him. Joseph McCarthy continued his anti-communist investigations for several years. By the early nineteen fifties, more people began to question his methods. Critics said he had violated democratic traditions. In nineteen fifty-four, the Senate voted to condemn his actions. Soon after, he became sick with cancer, and his political life ended. He died in nineteen fifty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In addition to the problems caused by the fear of communism at home, President Truman had to deal with the threat of communism in other countries. He agreed to send American aid to Greece and Turkey. He also supported continuing the Marshall Plan. This plan had helped rebuild the economies of Western Europe after World War Two. Historians agree that it prevented Western Europe from becoming communist. VOICE TWO: The defense of Western Europe against communism led president Truman to support the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in nineteen forty-nine. In the beginning, NATO included the United States, Britain, Canada, France and eight other nations. More nations joined later. The NATO treaty stated that a military attack on any member would be considered an attack on all of them. Truman named General Dwight Eisenhower to be supreme commander of the new organization. General Eisenhower had been supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe in World War Two. VOICE ONE: President Truman believed that other problems in the world could be settled by cooperative international efforts. In his swearing-in speech in nineteen forty-nine, he urged the United States to lend money to other countries to aid their development. He also wanted to share American science and technology. Months later, Congress approved twenty-five thousand million dollars for the first part of this program. In nineteen fifty-one, President Truman asked Congress to establish a new foreign aid program. The aid was for some countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and South Asia, and Latin America. These countries were threatened by communist forces. President Truman believed the United States would be stronger if its allies were stronger. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Harry Truman supported and used military power throughout his presidency. On June twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty, forces from North Korea invaded South Korea. Two days later, the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution on the conflict. It urged UN members to help South Korea resist the invasion. President Truman approved sending American planes and ships. Then he approved sending American ground forces. The president knew his decision could start World War Three if the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of North Korea. Yet he felt the United States had to act. Later, he said it was the most difficult decision he made as president. VOICE ONE: General Douglas MacArthur was named commander of all United Nations forces in South Korea. By the autumn of nineteen fifty, the UN forces had pushed the North Koreans back across the border. People talked hopefully of ending the war by the Christmas holiday on December twenty-fifth. In late November, however, troops from China joined the North Koreans. Thousands of Chinese soldiers helped push the UN troops south. General MacArthur wanted to attack Chinese bases in Manchuria. President Truman said no. The fighting must not spread outside Korea. Again he feared that such a decision might start another world war. VOICE TWO: General MacArthur believed he could end the war quickly if he could do what he wanted. So he publicly denounced the American policy. In April nineteen fifty-one, the president dismissed him. Some citizens approved. They believed a military leader must obey his commander in chief. Others, however, supported General MacArthur. Millions greeted him when he returned to the United States. VOICE ONE: Most of the fighting in the Korean war took place along the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel. This line formed the border between the North and South. Many victories were only temporary. One side would capture a hill. Then the other side would recapture it. Ceasefire talks began in July nineteen fifty-one. But the negotiations failed to make progress. By the time the conflict ended two years later, millions of soldiers on both sides had been killed or wounded. VOICE TWO: Nineteen fifty-two would be a presidential election year in the United States. Harry Truman was losing popularity because of the Korean War. At the same time, the military hero of World War Two, General Dwight Eisenhower, was thinking about running for president. The need to make difficult choices had made Harry Truman's presidency among the most decisive in American history. In March, he made another important decision. He announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election. Truman said: "I have served my country. I do not think it my duty to spend another four years in the White House." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-01/2007-01-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A College Handbook Just for International Students
* Byline: The College Board's International Student Handbook provides information about American schools and is available online. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series this week with a report on the International Student Handbook. This publication can be a useful guide if you are interested in attending a college or university in the United States. The College Board organization publishes a new one every year. In it, students may find much of the information they need to know about higher education in America. The International Student Handbook explains the higher education system and how to apply to schools. It explains the different costs and the kinds of financial aid available to foreign students. The handbook also gives information about admissions tests. The material is organized for undergraduate and graduate students. Information is provided about almost three thousand two-year and four-year schools. A printed copy of the International Student Handbook costs about thirty dollars if you purchase it through the College Board Web site. You might find it for less at a site like Amazon. Or, for twelve dollars at the College Board site, you can read an electronic version and print out a copy. The online handbook also includes links to more information. The Web site is collegeboard.com. We began our Foreign Student Series in September. So far, we have explored the American higher education system and government rules for coming to the United States. We have also talked about admission tests, the costs of an education and the different kinds of financial aid available. Some of our reports have been based on questions from our listeners. We welcome questions, and are happy to see all the interest in our series. But please understand that we can only answer general questions. We cannot tell you how to get into the school of your choice or what you should study to be prepared. All we can do is suggest that students who are interested in a school should carefully read its Web site or printed materials. Then send an e-mail or letter to the admissions office with any questions you have. There may also be a special office for international students. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Send your questions to special@voanews.com. And remember to include your name and country. Our series continues next week, and all of the earlier reports can be found with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lemonade Stands Carry on Girl's Effort to Raise Money to Fight Cancer
* Byline: Also: a listener in Russia asks which states are the most popular to live in, and music from an album recorded to aid the women of Darfur, Sudan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about popular American states… Play some music recorded to help women in Darfur, Sudan… And report about a little girl's efforts to find a cure for cancer. Alex's Lemonade Stand HOST: Six years ago, four-year-old Alexandra Scott started selling a lemon drink in front of her house near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She wanted to earn money to give to childhood cancer research. Alexandra suffered from a kind of cancer called neuroblastoma. She died in two thousand four. But the effort she started is still raising money for cancer research. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Alexandra Scott Alexandra Scott held a lemonade sale outside her house every year until her death. She also influenced others to give money to fight cancers that affect children. The program that young Alexandra started is called Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Its Web site says that more than four thousand lemonade stands have been held throughout the United States to raise money for cancer research. Children, families, retired people, and college students organize these events. Alex wanted to raise one million dollars to help find a cure for children’s cancers. When she died in two thousand four, she knew that her goal was near. Her charity had raised more than nine hundred thousand dollars. Earlier this month, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation announced that it had given more than ten million dollars to help children with cancer. The foundation supports cancer research in thirty hospitals throughout the United States. It provides money to develop improved cancer treatments for children. Money goes to experienced researchers working on cancer cures as well as new researchers with promising ideas. Much of the money collected by Alex’s lemonade stands is in small amounts and comes from children. Alex’s mother and father lead the Foundation today. They told reporters one reason for its success is because children feel good when they can help other children. And they say that no amount is too small to help the more than twelve thousand children in the United States who are found to have cancer every year. Popular American States HOST: Our listener question this week comes from of Moscow, Russia. Kirill Lelin wants to know which American states are the most popular to live in. In general, the states that have warm weather are the fastest growing in population. Many people who retire from their jobs want to live in an area that has nice weather. The United States Census Bureau takes an official count of the nation's population every ten years. But it also takes estimates of population growth within states each year. The Census Bureau released its most recent estimates in December of last year. The estimates show that the western state of California still has the largest population. It has more than thirty-six million people. The western state of Texas has more than twenty-three million people. About nineteen million people live in the eastern state of New York. And about eighteen million people live in the southern state of Florida. The Census Bureau's recent estimates show that the western part of the country has been growing the fastest. The South was next. Texas gained more people than any other state between July of two thousand five and July of two thousand six. Texas gained almost five hundred eighty thousand people. Florida had the second highest increase. And California had the third. Both Florida and California gained more than three hundred thousand people. Two states in the Southwest also gained in population. Arizona was the country's fastest-growing state, followed by Nevada. The populations of the two states grew by about three and one-half percent. Some of the nation's population movement was caused by Hurricane Katrina. That storm in August, two thousand five, hit the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It caused many deaths and major destruction. Louisiana lost more than two hundred thousand people during the one-year period. That number represents a loss of almost five percent of the state's total population before the hurricane. Music To Help Women in Sudan (MUSIC) HOST: In recent years there have been many aid efforts to help the people of the Darfur area of Sudan. Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts offers its help through a new album. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: During the nineteen eighties, humanitarian worker Linda Mason operated an aid program in Sudan. Last year, she returned to Sudan with a group called Mercy Corps to investigate war crimes in Darfur. They spoke to women who were victims of war. And they gave the Sudanese women music written by students at the Berklee College of Music. Miz Mason's husband, Roger Brown, is president of the college. Berklee College of Music wanted to do more to help. The college held a songwriting competition. The winners of the competition recorded songs for an album called “We Are All Connected:? Berklee College of Music Reaches Out to the Women of Darfur.” It is a collection of jazz, country, gospel and spoken word. Money from the sale of the CD will help women and children in Darfur. Here Abria Smith performs her song “Love Myself Instead.” (MUSIC) During Linda Mason’s trip to Sudan, she recorded Darfurian women singing their traditional songs. Michael Conrad heard their emotional singing and used some of it in his song. The words in “Side by Side” mean “Sing with me, stand with me, so that we can create world peace.” (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from “We Are All Connected:? Berklee College of Music Reaches Out to the Women of Darfur.”? Here is “Women of Darfur,” written by Dave Weigert. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Computers: A New Windows, and a New Way to Make Processors
* Byline: Microsoft releases Vista, its first new operating system since 2001. Intel and IBM each announce, on the same day, the biggest change in transistor design in 40 years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Events for the launch of Vista included dancers on the wall of a New York buildingThis week, with dancers and other events, Microsoft launched the general release of its new operating system for personal computers. Windows Vista became available in more than seventy countries. This is the first new version since Windows XP in two thousand one. But the long-delayed release did not create nearly as much excitement as there was twelve years ago for Windows 95. Vista is designed to make it easier to search for files on a computer. The appearance has also been improved. And Microsoft says the new system offers better security. Just how much better remains to be proven. Most PCs use Windows. But people who may want to buy the new version for an existing computer first have to make sure that the machine can support it. This is true especially if a computer is older than a year or two. Apple plans to release its new operating system, called Leopard, this spring. But many industry experts say the future of software may be in providing services over the Internet, the way Google does now. That means a move away from loading lots of programs onto individual computers. Vista is not the only news in computer technology right now. Engineers have discovered how to use new materials to make the brains of a computer. On January twenty-seventh, Intel announced the biggest change in forty years in the way processors are made. The company says the transistors in its next generation of processors will be made using hafnium, a kind of metal, instead of silicon. Intel says it will also use a secret combination of metals. Transistors control the flow of electrical current. The new transistors will be the smallest yet, just forty-five nanometers, or forty-five billionths of a meter. Two thousand of them could fit across a human hair. Hundreds of millions will go onto the new processors. Intel says the new technology will increase performance and use less power. It says it expects to begin production in the second half of this year. Intel's new design uses what is known as "high-k metal gate" technology. But IBM made a similar announcement on the same day as Intel. IBM said it has developed such technology for use in chip circuits as small as forty-five nanometers. The company worked with Intel's biggest competitor, AMD, along with Sony and Toshiba. IBM says products with the new technology will go on sale in two thousand eight. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Super Bowl Coaches Make History Before First Pass Is Thrown
* Byline: Indianapolis' Dungy, Chicago's Smith become first black coaches to lead teams to the big game. Big not just for the players, but also for sports gamblers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This Sunday is the biggest sporting event of the year for Americans: the Super Bowl. More than ninety million people in the United States watched the National Football League championship game on television last year. That was several million more than voted in the November elections. There are thirty-two teams in the league. They battle each other through a sixteen-game season, and then playoffs. This year the Chicago Bears face the Indianapolis Colts for the championship. The Colts are favored to win. But something is already different about this year's game. In the N.F.L., about seventy percent of the players are black. Yet that was true of just seven of the thirty-two head coaches this season. In the forty-one year history of the Super Bowl, no African-American coach has ever led a team to the big game. This year, all that has changed. Bears head coach Lovie Smith and Colts head coach Tony Dungy are both black. They are close friends known for their calmness on the field and respectful treatment of their players. Both men also share a strong Christian faith, which they often talk about with reporters. Lovie Smith has said he looks forward to the day when it is no longer news that a Super Bowl team is coached by an African-American. This year the Super Bowl is in Miami, Florida. But the state that profits most will likely be Nevada. Nevada is the only state where widespread betting on sports is legal. And more bets are placed on the Super Bowl than any other single sports event. The State Gaming Control Board estimates that more than one hundred million dollars could be bet in Nevada casinos on this year's game. That would top last year's record-setting ninety-four and a half million. Most Internet gambling is illegal in the United States. And the government has succeeded in making it more difficult for Americans to use foreign gambling sites. But experts believe that five to six billion dollars is bet illegally on the game in the United States. That includes small bets with friends or at work, but it also includes bets placed with a local bookmaker. Hundreds of different kinds of bets are made on the Super Bowl, way beyond simply trying to guess which team will win. CBS television will broadcast the game this year. People watch the Super Bowl -- or at least parts of it -- not just to see the players, but also the famous performers at halftime. Even the specially produced commercials throughout the game are popular. Advertisers can pay two and a half million dollars or more for thirty seconds of airtime. Some people think it is not enough that Super Bowl Sunday has become a national celebration. There is an online petition campaign by a group of men in North Carolina to make it a national holiday, followed on Monday by a "day of observation." IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1963: He Fought for Civil Rights for Black People
* Byline: He and other black leaders called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about W.E.B. Du Bois. He was an African-American writer, teacher and protest leader. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois fought for civil rights for black people in the United States. During the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, he was the person most responsible for the changes in conditions for black people in American society. He also was responsible for changes in the way they thought about themselves. William Du Bois was the son of free blacks who lived in a northern state. His mother was Mary Burghardt. His father was Alfred Du Bois. His parents had never been slaves. Nor were their parents. William was born into this free and independent African-American family in eighteen sixty-eight in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: William's mother felt that ability and hard work would lead to success. She urged him to seek an excellent education. In the early part of the century, it was not easy for most black people to get a good education. But William had a good experience in school. His intelligence earned him the respect of other students. He moved quickly through school. It was in those years in school that William Du Bois learned what he later called the secret of his success. His secret, he said, was to go to bed every night at ten o'clock. VOICE ONE: After high school, William decided to attend Fisk University, a college for black students in Nashville, Tennessee. He thought that going to school in a southern state would help him learn more about the life of most black Americans. Most black people lived in the South in those days. He soon felt the effects of racial prejudice. He found that poor, uneducated white people judged themselves better than he was because they were white and he was black. From that time on, William Du Bois opposed all kinds of racial prejudice. He never missed a chance to express his opinions about race relations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Du Bois went to excellent colleges, Harvard University in Massachusetts and the University of Berlin in Germany. He received his doctorate degree in history from Harvard in eighteen ninety-five. His book, "The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study," was published four years later. It was the first study of a black community in the United States. He became a professor of economics and history at Atlanta University in eighteen ninety-seven. He remained there until nineteen ten. William Du Bois had believed that education and knowledge could help solve the race problem. But racial prejudice in the United States was causing violence. Mobs of whites killed blacks. Laws provided for separation of the races. Race riots were common. The situation in the country made Mister Du Bois believe that social change could happen only through protest. VOICE ONE: Mister Du Bois's belief in the need for protest clashed with the ideas of the most influential black leader of the time, Booker T. Washington. Mister Washington urged black people to accept unfair treatment for a time. He said they would improve their condition through hard work and economic gain. He believed that in this way blacks would win the respect of whites. Mister Du Bois attacked this way of thinking in his famous book, "The Souls of Black Folk."? The book was a collection of separate pieces he had written. It was published in nineteen-oh-three. In the very beginning of "The Souls of Black Folk" he expressed the reason he felt the book was important: VOICE THREE: "Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line. " VOICE TWO: Later in the book, Mister Du Bois explained the struggle blacks, or Negroes as they then were called, faced in America: VOICE THREE: "One ever feels his twoness -- an American, a Negro: two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideas in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. ... He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face." VOICE ONE: W.E.B. Du Bois charged that Booker Washington's plan would not free blacks from oppression, but would continue it. The dispute between the two leaders divided blacks into two groups – the "conservative" supporters of Mister Washington and his "extremist" opponents. In nineteen-oh-five, Mister Du Bois established the Niagara Movement to oppose Mister Washington. He and other black leaders called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. The organization did not last long. Disputes among its members and a campaign against it by Booker T. Washington kept it from growing. Yet the Niagara Movement led to the creation in nineteen-oh-nine of an organization that would last: the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Du Bois became director of research for the organization. He also became editor of the N.A.A.C.P. magazine, "The Crisis." VOICE TWO: W.E.B. Du Bois felt that it was good for blacks to be linked through culture and spirit to the home of their ancestors. Throughout his life he was active in the Pan-African movement. Pan-Africanism was the belief that all people who came from Africa had common interests and should work together in their struggle for freedom. Mister Du Bois believed black Americans should support independence for African nations that were European colonies. He believed that once African nations were free of European control they could be markets for products and services made by black Americans. He believed that blacks should develop a separate "group economy."? A separate market system, he said, could be a weapon for fighting economic injustice against blacks and for improving their poor living conditions. Mister Du Bois also called for the development of black literature and art. He urged the readers of the N.A.A.C.P. magazine, "The Crisis," to see beauty in black. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-four, W. E. B. Du Bois resigned from his position at "The Crisis” magazine. It was during the severe economic depression in the United States. He charged that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supported the interests of successful blacks. He said the organization was not concerned with the problems of poorer blacks. Mister Du Bois returned to Atlanta University, where he had taught before. He remained there as a professor for the next ten years. During this period, he wrote about his involvement in both the African and the African-American struggles for freedom. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-four, Mister Du Bois returned to the N.A.A.C.P. in a research position. Four years later he left after another disagreement with the organization. He became more and more concerned about politics. He wrote: VOICE THREE: "As...a citizen of the world as well as of the United States of America, I claim the right to know and think and tell the truth as I see it. I believe in Socialism as well as Democracy. I believe in Communism wherever and whenever men are wise and good enough to achieve it; but I do not believe that all nations will achieve it in the same way or at the same time. I despise men and nations which judge human beings by their color, religious beliefs or income. ... I hate War." VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty, W. E. B. Du Bois became an official of the Peace Information Center. The organization made public the work other nations were doing to support peace in the world. The United States government accused the group of supporting the Soviet Union and charged its officials with acting as foreign agents. A federal judge found Mister Du Bois not guilty. But most Americans continued to consider him a criminal. He was treated as if he did not exist. In nineteen sixty-one, at the age of ninety-two, Mister Du Bois joined the Communist party of the United States. Then he and his second wife moved to Ghana in West Africa. He gave up his American citizenship a year later. He died in Ghana on August twenty-seventh, nineteen sixty-three. His death was announced the next day to a huge crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands of blacks and whites had gathered for the March on Washington to seek improved civil rights in the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois had helped make that march possible. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Chakarian and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week to another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Feel The Pinch: The Pains of Economic Trouble
* Byline: Talking about financial problems. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm?Susan Clark?with the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) In the nineteen thirties, a song, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," was very popular in the United States. It was the time of the big Depression. The song had meaning for many people who had?lost their jobs. A dime is a piece of money whose value is one-tenth of a dollar. Today, a dime does not buy much. But it was different in the nineteen thirties. A dime sometimes meant the difference between eating and starving. The American economy today is much better. Yet, many workers are concerned about losing their jobs as companies re-organize. Americans have special ways of talking about economic troubles. People in businesses may say they feel the pinch. Or they may say they are up against it. Or, if things are really bad, they may say they have to throw in the towel. A pinch is painful pressure. To feel the pinch is to suffer painful pressure involving money. The expression, feel the pinch, has been used since the sixteenth century. The famous English writer William Shakespeare wrote something very close to this in his great play "King Lear." King Lear says he would accept necessity's sharp pinch. He means he would have to do without many of the things he always had. Much later, the Times of London newspaper used the expression about bad economic times during the eighteen sixties. It said, "so much money having been spent ... All classes felt the pinch." Worse than feeling the pinch is being up against it. The saying means to be in a lot of trouble. Word expert James Rogers says the word "it" in the saying can mean any and all difficulties. He says the saying became popular in the United States and Canada in the late nineteenth century. Writer George Ade used it in a book called "Artie." He wrote, "I saw I was up against it." Sometimes a business that is up against it will have to throw in the towel. This means to accept defeat or surrender. Throwing in the towel may mean that a company will have to declare bankruptcy. The company will have to take legal steps to let people know it has no money to pay its debts. Word expert Charles Funk says an eighteen seventy-four publication called the Slang Dictionary explains throwing in the towel. It says the words probably come from the sport of boxing, or prizefighting. The book says the saying began because a competitor's face was cleaned with a cloth towel or other material. When a boxer's towel was thrown, it meant he was admitting defeat. Most businesses do not throw in the towel. They just re-organize so they can compete better. (MUSIC) This WORDS AND THEIR STORIES was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-04-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Living With a Disability in America -- and Trying to Earn a Living
* Byline: There are job training and placement programs, and employers are required to make reasonable accommodations. Still, unemployment is common among the disabled. Second in a series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Last month we began a series of reports on living with a disability in America. We started with education. Today, in Part Two, we look at employment. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: To go to work, you need a way to get there. Around the nation's capital, many people take subway trains to their jobs. Federal law says public transportation systems in the United States must be accessible. What does that mean? It means that trains, buses and planes must be designed for use by people with physical disabilities. In Washington's Metrorail system, for example, lights go on and off as a signal to those who cannot hear a train arriving. Raised bumps on the ground serve as a warning to those who cannot see they are close to the edge of the platform. And there are elevators in the station, so people in wheelchairs have a way to get from one level to another. But in transit systems, like anyplace else, life is not always easy. Things like broken elevators, or no elevator at all, only create more barriers for the disabled. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Accessible public transportation is just one of the requirements of a nineteen ninety law called the Americans with Disabilities Act. This major law, known as the A.D.A., also affects the design of public buildings. And it affects employment. Under the law, employers have to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. The United States has three hundred million people. Estimates differ about the number of them living with disabilities. One commonly repeated estimate is that forty-nine million people are disabled. VOICE ONE: A physical or mental disability can be measured in terms of how much it affects a person's quality of life. Yet even people with severe disabilities can lead successful lives in many different kinds of jobs. In the November elections, New York and Maryland both had legally blind candidates for lieutenant governor, their second highest office. David Paterson, a state senator in New York until now, was successful in his campaign. Kristen Cox was not. She became Maryland’s first secretary of disabilities when that cabinet-level position was created in two thousand four. Marco Midon is an engineer with NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He has been blind since birth, but has always loved sounds. He now uses his understanding of radios in his work at the space agency. Max Cleland was severely wounded as a soldier in the war in Vietnam. He lost both legs and his right arm. He later served as head of the government agency responsible for services to military veterans. In recent years he served a term as a United States senator from Georgia. VOICE TWO: Many people with disabilities have jobs. But as many as sixty percent do not. Many of them have to receive public assistance or depend on their families to support them. Marian Vessels directs an office in Rockville, Maryland, that provides information to employers and to people with disabilities. She works hard to help these people get the assistance they need to find and keep a job. She points out that the Americans With Disabilities Act has its limits. MARIAN VESSELS: "What it's designed to do is level the playing field, it's designed to guarantee basic civil rights for people so that it allows you to compete with everyone else for the job." VOICE ONE: Marian Vessels says that some employers still do not understand that people with disabilities can often do many different tasks. She talks to employers about changes or other measures that could make it possible for a person with a disability to do a job. She explains to employers that many accommodations do not cost a lot, but they give a person a chance to work. Marian Vessels herself requires an accommodation. She needs enough room in her office to move around easily in her wheelchair. In another job, she taught health classes to firefighters. Her employer let her teach the class at the back of a fire truck. The back of the truck was a perfect table for her while she sat in her wheelchair. Her employer did not have to buy anything or change anything. He just had to understand that she needed to use a different space to teach her classes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People with disabilities can go to court if they think an employer is denying them fair treatment. A group of deaf employees at United Parcel Service wanted the right to take a truck driving test that the company would not let them take. A federal appeals court ruled in October that U.P.S. was violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. The court said the company could not refuse to let a group of people take the test just because they are deaf. The ruling said U.P.S. must consider each candidate’s personal ability to drive a truck. U.P.S., however, says there could be safety problems with drivers who are deaf. The company is continuing to appeal the case. VOICE ONE: But to people with disabilities, even courts may seem unfair sometimes. Several university professors recently did a study. They said it was the first study to compare protections under the A.D.A. law for people with either mental or physical disabilities. The researchers found that thirty-seven percent of people with mental disabilities won their court cases. The same was true of forty-nine percent of people with physical disabilities. The researchers said people with mental disabilities believed they were treated less fairly by the courts than people with physical conditions. VOICE TWO: But most people do not want to have to go to court at all -- they just want a job. There are many organizations in the United States that try to help people with disabilities find and keep jobs. A program called Emerging Leaders provides summer jobs to college students with disabilities. These students receive training to become leaders in many kinds of work. The United States Chamber of Commerce has a program for employers to help people with mental disabilities. Employers are told that many of them are very hard workers who want to do a good job. Since nineteen seventy-nine, Purdue University in the state of Indiana has had a program called Breaking New Ground. The goal is to help people who have been disabled by injuries to return to work in agricultural production. Even people with severe disabilities, it says, can return to work with training, assistive technology and family support. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are also special programs to help young people with disabilities to find jobs as scientists, engineers and mathematicians. A chemist named John Gavin became deaf as an adult. He worked for several drug manufacturers. Later, Mister Gavin looked for ways to help people with disabilities get more chances to work in science. Too often, he said, there is a mistaken belief that people with disabilities are not intelligent even if their disability affects them only physically. In the nineteen seventies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science had a special program just for women and minorities. The purpose was to encourage more of them to become scientists and engineers. Mister Gavin urged the association to include people with disabilities. The association now has such a program for young people, called Entry Point. The association also keeps a list of public speakers who are available to discuss their experiences as scientists and engineers with disabilities. VOICE TWO: The federal government has programs to help Americans with disabilities find jobs. In October, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission announced a plan to urge the government to hire more people with severe disabilities. People with disabilities will also be able to borrow money from the government to buy equipment that will help them work from home. This type of equipment is often called assistive technology. VOICE ONE: Sometimes a person with a disability may be successful with the aid of technology. But Marian Vessels, the employment specialist in Maryland, says there is no substitute for hard work. MARIAN VESSELS: "And, there were times I'd go home and think, 'I can’t do this. I can't possibly do this.' And then I'd think no, I have to do this. How can I do it?" VOICE TWO: And believing you can do a job is not enough either, she says. You also have to make an employer believe it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver. Next month, in Part Three of our series on living with a disability in America, the subject will be assistive technology. Our first report, on education, can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Entrepreneurs Who Measure Their Return in 'Social Value'
* Byline: Social entrepreneurs organize and support programs that aim to improve communities. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The traditional definition of an entrepreneur is a person who organizes and accepts the risks of a new business. Entrepreneurs may have a new product or service to offer. Or they may have ideas for new ways to do business. But an entrepreneurial spirit does not have to be limited to the business world. Lately we hear more and more about social entrepreneurs. What they do is similar; they might even act like business entrepreneurs. They might invest money in projects or get others to support them. But social entrepreneurs say they are not guided by a desire for profits. Their most important goal, they say, is to create social value. They organize and support programs that aim to improve conditions in communities. Social entrepreneurs say they look for solutions to needs without leaving them to government or industry to solve. And they say they try to spread the solution. In other words, to change the system, they try to get whole societies to change. There are many historical examples of people who might be called social entrepreneurs. Susan B. Anthony, for example, fought for women's rights in the United States. Vinoba Bhave created the Land Gift Movement to help India's poor and landless. Britain's Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing, established a school for nurses and fought for better hospital conditions. And Mary Montessori of Italy improved teaching methods for early childhood education. These are some of the examples given by Ashoka, a nonprofit group in the United States. Over the past twenty years, there has been extraordinary growth in social entrepreneurship. Some students coming out of the best business schools now seriously consider it as a career. And one organization that has helped fuel this growth is Ashoka. Bill Drayton started the group in nineteen eighty. Ashoka says it works on three levels. It supports individual social entrepreneurs, both financially and professionally. It also helps them connect with others around the world, so they can spread their ideas and build long-term support. And, thirdly, Ashoka says it helps build the financial systems needed to support the growth of social entrepreneurship. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can find a link to the Ashoka Web site at voaspecialenglish.com, along with transcripts and audio files of our reports. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Blood Test Can Show Patient's Risk of Heart Attack or Stroke
* Byline: Also: progress in fighting measles. The cell phone camera turns 10. And a new report rates the environmental and investment policies of North American colleges and universities. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And, I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about a new test for patients with heart disease. We also tell about progress in fighting an infectious disease. And we tell about the environmental friendliness of North American colleges and universities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American researchers say they have developed a simple test that can tell if a person with heart disease is likely to suffer a heart attack. The researchers say the test measures levels of a protein in the blood. They say people with high levels of the protein are at high risk of heart attack, heart failure or stroke. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California in San Francisco led the team of researchers. They studied almost one thousand patients with heart disease for almost four years. During that time, more than two hundred fifty of the patients suffered a heart attack, heart failure or stroke. Some of them died. VOICE TWO: The researchers tested the heart disease patients for a protein called NT-proBNP. Patients with the highest levels were nearly eight times more likely than those with the lowest levels to have a heart attack, heart failure or stroke. The researchers considered other ways to identify someone with an increased risk of heart disease. They found that patients with high levels of the protein were still more likely to have a health problem involving the heart. VOICE ONE: The researchers say the presence of high levels of the protein in the blood shows that the heart muscle is under pressure in some way. The study involved mostly men, so the researchers could not say for sure that the results are true for women. They also say the patients with the highest levels of NT-proBNP were older and had other problems, like diabetes or high blood pressure. Such patients were more likely to be already taking medicine for their heart. Other researchers say more studies are needed to confirm if knowing the protein levels of a heart patient should affect that person's treatment. They also would like to know if more aggressive treatment would be able to reduce the patient's chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Measles is one of the most infectious viruses known. It spreads through the air when people infected with the disease expel the virus through the nose or mouth. Children in wealthier countries are usually given a vaccine to protect against measles. A campaign called the Measles Initiative was launched in two thousand one to vaccinate children in developing countries. The aim was a fifty percent reduction in deaths linked to measles by two thousand five. VOICE ONE: Last month, organizers of the Measles Initiative announced that the final numbers showed a sixty percent drop in deaths. There were eight hundred seventy-three thousand deaths in nineteen ninety-nine, the year used for comparison. Six years later that number had dropped to three hundred forty-five thousand. The organizers say more than two million lives have been saved, mostly in Africa. Health officials report a seventy-five percent drop in deaths in Africa linked to measles. VOICE TWO: Measles itself is usually not a direct cause of death. Deaths are commonly the result of infections like pneumonia or severe diarrhea. Those who survive can suffer brain damage, blindness or other disabilities. The first sign of infection is usually a high body temperature for as long as a week. Patients may develop a runny nose, cough, red and watery eyes and white spots inside the mouth. After several days, areas of skin may change color, first usually on the face and upper neck. A case of measles can be just a mild and unpleasant part of childhood. But severe cases are more likely in children with poor diets or weakened defenses from diseases like AIDS. Children under the age of five and adults over the age of twenty are more likely to suffer severe cases. People who recover from measles can never get it again. VOICE ONE: The Measles Initiative includes the American Red Cross, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. The campaign has cost almost four hundred million dollars. Officials say about five hundred million more will be needed to meet a new goal by two thousand ten. The goal now is to reduce measles deaths worldwide to less than ten percent of the rate in the year two thousand. The campaign will now center its efforts in Asian countries, especially India. Each year, about one hundred thousand Indian children die as a result of measles. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This year is the tenth anniversary of the invention of the cell phone camera. Some people say the device began a kind of revolution in everyday life. It all started at a hospital in the United States. Philippe Kahn was there with his wife. She was preparing to give birth to their daughter Sophie. Mister Kahn wanted to take pictures of the baby and share them with family and friends around the world. He thought about placing electronic versions of the pictures on an Internet Web site. Mister Kahn said he spent two days working on the project. When Sophie was born, he had connected a camera to his cellular telephone. The unusual device could also put the pictures on the Internet. VOICE ONE: At the time of his invention, Philippe Kahn was already a successful businessman. He started Borland International shortly after moving to the United States from France. Borland International became the third largest computer software company in the world. Mister Kahn had also started other businesses. So he formed a company to produce and sell camera phones. The first ones were sold in Japan in nineteen ninety-nine. Today, camera phones are almost everywhere. The newspaper USA Today says four hundred sixty million of the devices were sold last year alone. Sales are expected to increase to more than one billion by two thousand ten. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new study has rated the environmental friendliness of top colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. A research group called the Sustainable Endowments Institute was responsible for the study. The group is part of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a non-profit organization that helps aid agencies. Last month, the group released a report called the College Sustainability Report Card. It used the definition of the word sustainability provided by Business Week magazine. That definition is "meeting humanity's needs without harming future generations." The report attempts to measure the steps taken by higher education toward this goal. VOICE ONE: The report rates one hundred public and private colleges and universities in North America on their environmental and investment policies. The colleges and universities included in the study are those with the largest amounts of money invested for future growth. The report says these one hundred schools hold more than two hundred fifty billion dollars in investments. The study used information provided by ninety of the one hundred schools. Researchers looked for evidence of sustainable development in twenty-six different areas. They included improving energy use and officially working toward sustainability as a goal. Other areas were serving locally grown food and having buildings that cause little harm to the environment. VOICE TWO: The researchers also studied the investment policies of the one hundred colleges and universities. They considered who helps decide what kinds of companies the schools invest in and how school officials control information about those investments. The researchers compared the answers, and rated the colleges and universities across seven groups. Each school then received a final rating. Just four schools received the report's top rating. The four are Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Stanford University and Williams College. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Learn more about science, and download transcripts and MP3 files of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com. The Web site also has an Internet link to the full report by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. Listen again next week at this time for more news about science in SPECIAL ENGLISH on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Natural Way to Control a Costly Parasite in Chickens
* Byline: Researchers use mushroom protein to fight coccidiosis. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The chicken industry loses billions of dollars worldwide because of a disease called coccidiosis. Coccidiosis is caused by parasites. The single-cell organisms infect and destroy cells in the intestines. Infected chickens lose weight from the disease. Less body weight means economic losses for producers. The disease spreads from bird to bird through infectious droppings. Sometimes infected chickens die from the disease. The infection causes diarrhea, and infected animals may not want to eat. Other kinds of animals, including cows, also get coccidiosis. But research by Hyun Lillehoj and her team could offer a new way to reduce losses from the disease. Hyun Lillehoj is an immunologist in the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. She works in the Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. She led a team of scientists from research centers in South Korea. She says many producers traditionally use drug treatments and live parasite vaccines against coccidiosis. But the coccidia parasite is increasingly resistant to drug treatment. Also, some of the drugs used to treat the disease are antibiotics. Many people are concerned about antibiotics in animals because of the increasing problem of drug resistance in humans. The new method uses proteins from mushrooms. The proteins are called lectins. The lectins cause an animal's own defense system to release chemicals that fight the parasites. Mushroom lectin is injected into chicken embryos. The lectin is also added to drinking water for chickens. The team used a lectin from a mushroom found mainly in the stumps of black locust trees. The researchers injected the lectin into eighteen-day-old embryos. When the chickens came out of their eggs, the scientists infected them with parasites to test the treatment. The team reported in Poultry Science magazine last year that the treatment protected the chickens against weight loss. It also reduced the number of live parasites in their waste. Hyun Lillehoj and her team are seeking patent protection for the natural control method they developed. She tells us that she and her team are also looking for companies to work with to further develop it. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Interests Help Older Adults Keep Mentally Active
* Byline: Programs in many countries let people explore new places and learn new skills. Fifth and final part of a series on continuing education for older adults. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: Art Workshops in Guatemala offers students a chance to learn about art while experiencing Guatemalan culture And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today in our series about continuing education for older adults we tell about organizations that provide different kinds of learning experiences throughout the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Liza Fourre was a professional photographer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She traveled to many countries taking pictures. She fell in love with the people and culture of Guatemala and began living there part of the year. Eleven years ago she started a program called Art Workshops in Guatemala. She says she is happy she is able to give others a chance for a life-changing experience of living and learning in another culture. Miz Fourre believes that when you experience a culture different from your own you expand your world artistically and in other ways. She says the goal of Art Workshops in Guatemala is to open peoples’ eyes to another way of living. VOICE TWO: The program offers workshops in weaving, photography, art and culture. Some of the teachers are local. For example, a native woman teaches backstrap weaving, a Mayan Indian tradition. Others are expert writers, artists or photographers who want to help people gain new skills while learning about Guatemala. Most of the art workshops are held in Antigua, a small, beautiful city. The Spanish built the city in the highlands of Guatemala in the fifteen hundreds. Colonial style buildings are painted in soft colors of green, blue and pink. The workshops usually are eight days long. The cost includes a room in a small central hotel and a big breakfast every day. The cost also includes transportation to other places in Guatemala including Lake Atitlan, which is surrounded by volcanoes. VOICE ONE: Liza Fourre organizes fifteen to twenty workshops each year. There are no more than ten people in each workshop. They get a chance to meet and interact with people who live in Guatemala. Many people who take the workshops are older than sixty. Some are in their eighties and nineties. Miz Fourre says the older adults who take workshop classes are very independent. They do not like to travel with a large group. They want to experience a different culture, not just travel through a country. They are retired and have time to learn a new skill, or improve an old one. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A woman in her early sixties was thinking about retiring from her job as a writer. She found out about Art Workshops in Guatemala. She had a new camera and wanted to learn more about photography. So she signed up for a workshop where she would spend days taking pictures of the light and color of Guatemala. There were only a few people in the class. The members of the group worked separately in the early morning hours. They photographed the colorful buildings and the activities in the market and central plaza area. They met for breakfast with members of a larger workshop group. These people were learning about different kinds of weaving done by the native people of Guatemala. VOICE ONE: During the middle of the day, the photographers met to discuss methods and look at the pictures they had taken the day before. Later they took more pictures of the buildings in Antigua or the villages around Lake Atitlan. They also photographed the native people in their colorful traditional clothes. Suggestions and advice from the teacher and other students helped the beginning photographer improve her work. The effects of the workshop have lasted. Now that she is retired, she is spending time producing photographs instead of words to express the way she sees the world. And she has returned to Guatemala to learn more about the people and their culture. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people who retire from their jobs immediately start to make plans to travel. They now have the time and energy to explore new places. Yet many older adults are looking for more than just visiting famous places in a country. They want to experience another culture and learn another language. So they sign up for a language immersion school to learn a language where it is spoken. AmeriSpan is an organization that offers language learning in many different countries. It began in nineteen ninety-three offering a few Spanish classes through established language schools in Latin America. It now offers language classes through independent schools in about thirty-five countries, from Arabic in Morocco to Chinese in Shanghai. You can learn by yourself with a teacher or as part of a group. Most classes are four hours a day. Students usually stay for one to four weeks or longer. VOICE ONE: Beth Klemick is vice-president of AmeriSpan. Miz Klemick says older learners are important because they have the time and resources to spend on learning a language. Some of them are considering retiring in another country and want to try living there for a short time. AmeriSpan calls itself a bridge between cultures. It offers a chance for the language learner to stay with a family. During a homestay, students have to continually speak the language they are learning as they eat and spend time with the family. This means people learn the language much faster than if they were only hearing and speaking it in a classroom. It also means that they often become life-long friends with the family members. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Earthwatch Institute students work with scientists on research projects throughout the world Earthwatch offers people the chance to work with leading scientists in many different areas of the world on environmental projects. It is one of the largest non-profit supporters of research in the world. Its goal is to let people around the world help with research projects so they will support and help educate others about actions needed to protect the environment. Earthwatch began in nineteen seventy-one. Since then it has supported almost one thousand five hundred projects in about one hundred twenty countries. More than eighty thousand people from hundreds of countries have paid for their own travel and shared in the costs of the research projects. Volunteers pay from a few hundred dollars to more than four thousand dollars to take part in projects that last from two days to twenty-one days. VOICE ONE: Philip Johannsen is editor of Earthwatch Institute. He says about twenty percent of Earthwatch volunteers are at least sixty years old. Mister Johannsen says the older volunteers are interested in all kinds of projects. For example, they take part in teams digging in archeology projects or observing and recording the activities of endangered animals. The research teams include people of all ages from sixteen to more than eighty years old. Mister Johannsen says Earthwatch is expecting the number of volunteers to increase as the baby boomers born after World War Two retire. He says there are no limits on the number of people that are needed. Earthwatch Institute is always beginning new research projects as environmental issues develop around the world. VOICE TWO: In two thousand six, Earthwatch supported more than one hundred fifty research projects in about fifty countries. Volunteers paid more than four million dollars to support the projects. Earthwatch volunteers can choose from many different kinds of research throughout the world. Many projects are in Africa. In Kenya, for example, volunteers map where water holes are and test the quality of the water supply used by people and animals. Or they talk to the native Samburu people to find out about their use of plants for medicine and then help identify and record the plants. Or they gather information about the movement and food supply of the black rhinoceros whose numbers have dropped from twenty thousand to five hundred in thirty years. In Thailand, volunteers dive underwater to help record the condition of the coral reefs in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea. An archeology project in Thailand involves helping dig up the buried ruins of an ancient settlement. VOICE ONE: Earthwatch says about thirty percent of the volunteers return to work on another project. Some have taken part in more than fifty projects. Older adults say that taking part in an active research project is an exciting way to continue learning while doing something that makes a difference in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. You can read scripts and download audio of our programs at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: For Some Patients, Brain Damage Cures Cigarette Addiction
* Byline: Researchers find stroke victims who easily quit smoking after suffering injury to a part of the brain. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Chemical dependency can result from many things: alcohol, caffeine, illegal drugs like cocaine, legal drugs like pain killers. But one of the most difficult dependencies to break is also one of the most common: smoking. The body becomes addicted to the nicotine in tobacco. Now, researchers may have found an important link in the brain to smoking addiction. Scientists at the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa studied thirty-two former smokers. All of the men and women had brain injuries as a result of strokes. Half of them reported that they were able to give up cigarettes quickly and easily after they suffered the brain damage. Magnetic resonance imaging showed that twelve of those sixteen patients had suffered damage to a part of the brain called the insula. The insula is found near the ear. Experts believe it somehow brings together emotional experience and sensory information with some activities like breathing. Experiments have suggested that the insula has a lot to do with the experience of pain and some basic emotions like fear, anger and happiness. The patients in the study had all smoked at least five cigarettes a day for two years. One of the sixteen who reported that they quit smoking immediately and without effort had smoked as many as forty a day. Antoine Bechara was one of the leaders of the study. He and co-author Hanna Damasio work at the Brain and Creativity Institute, a new center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The other authors of the study were Nasir Naqvi and David Rudrauf of the University of Iowa. Antoine Bechara says the insula is not the only area of the brain involved in cigarette addiction. He says many parts of the brain are connected with substance dependency. But he says damage to the insula does seem to destroy a necessary link in the smoking addiction. The patients did not lose all dependencies -- they still had a normal desire for food, for example. This may suggest that the insula is more responsible for dependencies that come from a learned pleasure, like smoking. And the researchers say their discovery may point to a weak spot in smoking addiction. They say it could lead to better ways to help people stop smoking -- but much more research is needed. The findings appeared in Science magazine. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can find transcripts of our reports and audio files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Centuries Later, the Bard of Avon Still Makes His Mark on American English
* Byline: 

 RS: I'm Rosanne Skirble with Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster: Shakespeare in American English. This is the seventy-fifth anniversary year of the Folger Shakespeare Library, home to the largest collection of Shakespeare materials in the world. That collection is housed here in Washington, where Georgianna Ziegler heads the reference department. Ms. Ziegler says she has been poking around the Folger archives lately to document the influence of Shakespeare on American life, dating back to the founding of the nation. GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "And it really did become a part of American language, through the schools, through people having a copy of Shakespeare in their homes. If they had any book, they would usually have the Bible, and then Shakespeare." AA: "And so why don't you -- you've brought a book with you there ... " GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "Yes, well there's a wonderful book by Michael Macrone called 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' in which he lists a lot of these popular terms that we find all the time -- for example, something happened 'in one fell swoop,' everything happening at once. And, of course, we don't think about 'Macbeth' when we say that, but that's where it's from. And there are actually a lot of these terms -- I was just looking through this and discovering that there are lot of things that we use that come from 'Macbeth,' for some strange reason. "For example, if you say it's the 'be all and the end all.' The idea of the 'be all and the end all' seems that it's the goal, it's a kind of a goal that you reach for. Or 'knock, knock! Who's there?' comes from the drunken porter scene in 'Macbeth' where the guy who is supposed to answer the door is drunk, and somebody's knocking and he goes into this long, sort of inebriated speech. He says 'knock, knock, knock! Who's there?'" AA: "Are you serious? So when children now do knock, knock -- " GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "Knock, knock jokes." AA: "Knock, knock jokes came from Shakespeare." GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "Well, knock, knock, who's there? [laughter] I think a lot of times Shakespeare is using phrases and things that were popular at his own time -- for example, 'to thine own self be true.' That comes from 'Hamlet,' from Polonius giving Laertes a lot of advice before he goes off to the Continent. "He's sending his son off to Europe and he knows this is a dangerous place, so he gives him a whole slew of advice before he goes, and one of the last things he says is to thine own self be true. Of course, 'to be or not to be,' 'there's the rub,' that comes from Hamlet." AA: "Which if you could explain simply what that means, when people say 'ah, there's the rub.'" GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "There's the catch. There's the essence, might be close to it, as Michael Macrone suggests. The rub apparently in Shakespeare's time came -- it's a sports term. It came from an obstacle in the game of bowls, which diverts the ball from its true course." RS: "What do you think has given these phrases that originated in Shakespeare such staying power?" GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "Well, I think they're sort of catchy -- 'there's the rub,' or 'to be or not to be' or 'to sleep, perchance to dream.' Or 'friends, Romans, countrymen' -- they're things that stay in people's minds because they are sort of, they are a little bit catchy. And the other ones are really proverbial, like 'to thine own self be true.' "In fact, Polonius' entire speech is made up of common proverbs. And a lot of those proverbs have come down not only in English but in other foreign languages, too. They just have other ways of expressing the same ideas. You know, 'neither a lender nor a borrower be,' that kind of thing." AA: "Now when Shakespeare was writing -- this was late fifteen hundreds, early sixteen hundreds -- GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "Uh-hm." AA: "How close to contemporary English was that?" GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: "Very close. Shakespeare's language is very conversational for the time. Today it may seem a bit elite to us or musty, but in fact it was pretty much commonplace English in Shakespeare's time." RS: "Does it surprise you that there are so many words in American English that come from Shakespeare -- or so many words and phrases?" GEORGIANNA ZIEGLER: No, not really, I think because American English is so -- it goes back so much to the British English of the time. People in early America turned to England for their literature. It was only in the nineteenth century when you had people like Hawthorne and Melville and Thoreau and Emerson who began to think that they ought?to build their own American tradition of literature. "But even those men were extremely well-read -- and?someone like Margaret Fuller, who was one of the?early feminists, even in her writing [she] was really drawing on Shakespeare --?because they knew Shakespeare so well. RS: Georgianna Ziegler is head of reference at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The library this year is celebrating its 75th anniversary as the largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials in the world -- and a popular link between the Bard of Avon and the American people. And we hope that you stay linked with us at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: War Hero Is Elected President in 1952
* Byline: Dwight Eisenhower was the commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America's presidential election campaign of nineteen fifty-two probably opened on the day President Harry Truman said "no." He said he would not be a candidate for re-election. In later years, Harry Truman would be called one of America's better presidents. Near the end of nineteen fifty-one, however, he had lost the support of many Americans. The continuing war in Korea, and economic problems at home, had robbed him of much of his popularity. His Democratic Party needed a new candidate for president. VOICE TWO: In the spring of nineteen fifty-two, Mister Truman named the man he wanted the party to nominate. His choice was Adlai Stevenson, governor of Illinois. Adlai StevensonMister Stevenson, however, said he was not interested in any job except the one he had. It appeared that he meant what he said. Someone asked what he would do if the Democratic Party chose him as its presidential candidate. Mister Stevenson answered, "I guess I would have to shoot myself." So, President Truman and other party leaders discussed different candidates. Each one, however, seemed to have some political weakness. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party also was discussing possible candidates. It was much easier for the Republicans to choose. Earlier, General Dwight Eisenhower had said he would campaign. General Dwight Eisenhower"Ike" Eisenhower was the hugely popular commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two. Many members of both parties wanted him as their candidate. General Eisenhower agreed to campaign as a Republican. His closest competitor for the Republican nomination was Robert Taft, a senator from Ohio. He was the son of a former president, William Howard Taft. VOICE TWO: Senator Taft sometimes was called "Mister Republican." He had strong party support for his conservative policies. However, he did not receive enough votes at the party's national convention to defeat Eisenhower for the nomination. In his acceptance speech, Eisenhower told the convention delegates that they had called him to lead a great campaign. He described it as a campaign for freedom in America and for freedom in the world. Eisenhower chose Senator Richard Nixon of California as his vice presidential candidate. By that time, Mister Nixon was known throughout the United States for his strong opposition to communism. Earlier, as a member of the House of Representatives, he had led the investigation of a former State Department official, Alger Hiss. Hiss was accused of helping provide secret information to the Soviet Union. Hiss denied the accusation. He was never officially charged with spying. But he was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury and was sentenced to prison. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party held its national convention ten days after the Republicans. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson welcomed the delegates. The words of his speech made it seem that he did not want to be a candidate for president. This made the delegates want him even more. They voted two times. No one received enough votes to win the nomination. On the third vote, Governor Stevenson did. And he accepted. In his acceptance speech, he urged Democrats to campaign with honor. VOICE TWO: After the conventions, a political expert wrote about the differences between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower. The expert said Stevenson was a man of thought, and Eisenhower was a man of action. The Republican Party quickly employed an advertising company to help its candidates. Advertising companies mostly designed campaigns to sell products. In the presidential election of nineteen fifty-two, the company designed a campaign to "sell" Mister Eisenhower and Mister Nixon to the American public. VOICE ONE: Eisenhower did not always agree with the company's advice. One time, he became very angry. He said, "All they talk about is my honesty. Nobody ever says I have a brain in my head!" There was no question that the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, had a brain. He was known as an intellectual or "egghead". When he launched his campaign, he dismissed some traditional political advisers and replaced them with eggheads. VOICE TWO: Communism was the biggest issue in the campaign. Governor Stevenson said America needed to guard against it. Yet he repeatedly criticized the actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. For years, the senator had been denouncing government officials and others as communists. Eisenhower did not criticize McCarthy, even when the senator accused Eisenhower's good friend, General George Marshall, of being a traitor. VOICE ONE: The Republican campaign went smoothly until someone discovered that Richard Nixon had received money for extra campaign costs. Some newspapers said Nixon should withdraw. That led to his famous "Checkers" speech. Nixon made the speech on national television. In it, he defended his decision to keep a special gift from a political supporter. That gift was a dog, named Checkers. He said he kept the dog because his two little girls loved it. The speech was a success. Thousands of voters told the Republican Party that Nixon should remain as the vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: A few weeks before the election, Eisenhower made a powerful speech. He talked about ending the war in Korea. DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "Now, where will a new administration begin. It will begin with its president taking a firm, simple resolution. That resolution will be to forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean War, until that job is honorably done. That job requires a personal trip to Korea. Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace. I shall go to Korea. " VOICE ONE: Adlai Stevenson ended his campaign with a powerful speech, too. In it, he told of his vision of America. VOICE THREE: I see an America where no man fears to think as he pleases, or say what he thinks. I see an America where no man is another's master -- where no man's mind is dark with fear. I see an America at peace with the world. I see an America as the horizon of human hopes. VOICE TWO: The people voted in November. Eisenhower won almost thirty-four million votes. That was more votes than a presidential candidate had ever received. Stevenson won about twenty-seven million votes. VOICE ONE: Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as America's thirty-fourth president in January, nineteen fifty-three. He was sixty-two years old. Many problems awaited him. Republicans had only a small majority in Congress. Many Republican lawmakers were very conservative. They probably would not vote for the new president's programs. The cost of living in America was rising. Senator Joseph McCarthy was still hunting communists. And the war in Korea was not yet over. President Eisenhower did not seem troubled by these problems. After all, he had been called on many times to help his country. VOICE TWO: Eisenhower came from a large family in Abilene, Kansas. His family did not have much money. He received a free university education when he went to the United States military academy at West Point, New York. He remained in military service for many years. By the time the United States entered World War Two in nineteen forty-one, he had become a top officer. In nineteen forty-four, he led the allied invasion of Europe. In nineteen-fifty, president Harry Truman named him supreme commander of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. VOICE ONE: When Dwight Eisenhower ran for president, people shouted, "I like Ike!" Voters liked him because he always seemed calm, even in difficult situations. As the country's president, he would face a number of difficult situations. One of the first was the continuing war in Korea. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. Stan Busby read the words of Adlai Stevenson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Studying in the US: Four Kinds of Financial Aid
* Byline: Assistantships, scholarships, fellowships and grants are explained in Part 23 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we return to a subject we have discussed before: financial aid. This time we are going to talk about financial aid in the form of assistantships, grants, scholarships and fellowships. An assistantship at a university is a job that is paid with money or free classes. These positions usually go to graduate students to assist a professor for about twenty hours a week. The assistants may teach, grade papers and tests, or do research in a laboratory. A grant is a gift of money. Unlike a loan, a grant does not have to be repaid. Grants can come from public or private organizations. Schools often receive donations for this purpose. Some grants are for general purposes of paying for school, while others are offered in a subject area. Scholarships and fellowships do not have to be repaid either. A scholarship is financial aid to undergraduates; a fellowship is for graduate students. Scholarships and fellowships are generally for students with special abilities or interests. Some are based on financial need. Others may go to students who live in a certain area or meet other conditions. Our example this week is the University of Missouri-Columbia, or Mizzou. That school has a number of financial aid programs for international students. One of them is the Global Heritage Scholarship. It pays up to about seven thousand five hundred dollars a year. But this scholarship goes only to foreign students whose mother or father graduated from Mizzou. Another aid program is called the Global Tiger Scholarship. This one is supported by the Mizzou Alumni Association. International students can receive one thousand dollars. In return they agree to provide service to the association during the school year. Still another program for international students at Mizzou is called the Curators Grant-in-Aid Program. This is for undergraduate or graduate students who get good grades and take part in university activities. The program is especially for those who have unexpected or unusual financial needs that can affect their progress at school. Colleges and universities may provide all the details of their financial aid programs online. You can find a link to the Web site of the University of Missouri-Columbia at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find the earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series and download transcripts and audio files. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Congress Gets Bush's '08 Budget Plan
* Byline: President's $3 trillion spending proposal includes, for the first time, detailed estimates of war costs. It also aims for a balanced budget in 2012. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, President Bush sent Congress his spending plan for two thousand eight. His budget proposes almost three trillion dollars in government spending, a four percent increase over this year. The new budget year begins October first. President Bush holds a copy of his 2008 budget plan at the end of a cabinet meetingMister Bush says his plan will finance the war on terrorism and still lead to a balanced budget in two thousand twelve without raising taxes. His budget includes, for the first time, detailed cost estimates for the war in Iraq. Until now, war costs have been considered largely as emergency spending measures, when needed. Mister Bush is asking Congress for one hundred forty-five billion dollars for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for two thousand eight. He also wants an additional one hundred billion dollars for this year. Since the invasion in two thousand three, the war in Iraq has cost more than three hundred forty billion dollars. The president says his proposed budget is realistic even with the costs of the war. He says the budget can be brought into balance if the economy continues to grow and Congress shows financial restraint. His chief economic advisor, Ed Lazear, says the strong economy will make it possible to limit cuts in government programs. He says it will also make it possible to pay for the war and reduce the current budget deficit. This is the first time the president has proposed a budget to a Congress with a Democratic majority. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton noted the size of the defense requests -- six hundred twenty-five billion dollars. He said Congress must look at the details carefully, to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Approving a budget is a long and complex legislative process. Government offices could close if the president has not signed a new budget by October first. But Congress can pass temporary spending measures known as continuing resolutions until a budget is in place. In recent years, budgets have had a big increase in special interest projects added by individual lawmakers. These additions, called earmarks, are often criticized as wasteful. Democrats have promised to restrict earmark spending. The president wants Congress to cut earmarks in half by the end of this year. Mister Bush is also asking for line-item veto power -- the power to veto individual spending items passed by Congress. Under the separation of powers, the president can only veto complete spending bills. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Guantanamo Bay: How the US Came to Have a Naval Base in Cuba
* Byline: Also: the story of Perky the lucky duck in Florida. And music by this year's Grammy Award nominees. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about an American naval base ... Play some music nominated for a Grammy Award ... And report about a world-famous duck. Perky the Lucky Duck People around the world love stories about animals. One story came to a sad end last week with the news of the death of the race horse Barbaro. The horse fought for his life for eight months after breaking his leg during a race in Baltimore, Maryland in May. But another happier story has appeared on news shows around the world recently. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: This story is about a brown female Canadian duck that weighs only four hundred fifty grams. The duck had flown to the southern state of Florida for the winter. A hunter shot it on January fifteenth and took it to his home in the city of Tallahassee. He put it in the refrigerator. Two days later the man’s wife opened the refrigerator door. The duck lifted its head and looked at her. It was alive! The family took the duck to a doctor who treats animals. The doctor gave the duck to the Goose Creek Animal Sanctuary. Animal sanctuaries provide homes for animals and teach people about their care. The doctor said it was easy to understand why people thought the duck was dead. He said ducks generally do not move a lot, especially after being shot. And he said its low body temperature helped it survive in the refrigerator. That was enough to make the duck famous around the world. The Tallahassee newspaper published the story that was re-printed in many different countries. But that was not the end of the story. Workers at the wildlife sanctuary named the duck Perky. And they arranged for the doctor to perform an operation to repair the duck's damaged wing. During the operation, Perky stopped breathing — not just once but two times. The doctor tried to save Perky by giving her oxygen through a face mask. But he finally said the duck had died. A few seconds later, however, Perky began to move. Reports say the people in the operating room were so happy that they cried. Workers at the wildlife sanctuary say Perky will not have any more operations. It seems she had a bad reaction to the drugs that were used. Perky is expected to live at the sanctuary. And a local company has begun to sell t-shirts showing a picture of the lucky duck. Money from the sale of the shirts will help pay for Perky’s care. Guantanamo HOST: Our VOA Listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dang Cam Y asks about the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Guantanamo Bay naval base covers one hundred sixteen square kilometers in southeastern Cuba. It is controlled by the United States. ?The naval base at Guantanamo is the oldest American base outside the United States mainland. It is also the only American base in a country that does not have open political relations with the United States. United States Marines took control of Guantanamo Bay during the Spanish-American War in eighteen ninety-eight. In nineteen oh-three, an independent Cuba agreed to permit the United States to use the base in exchange for a yearly payment of two thousand dollars in gold. A treaty confirmed the agreement in nineteen thirty-four. Agreement by both governments is needed to end the treaty. Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in nineteen fifty-nine and demanded the return of the base. The United States refused. Since nineteen sixty, the Cuban government has refused to accept the annual payment of five thousand dollars from the United States. In the nineteen sixties, tensions increased at Guantanamo following the American-supported Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Cuban missile crisis. These incidents led American forces to increase security at the base. In nineteen sixty-four, President Castro cut off its water supply. The United States sent drinking water to the base until it built its own equipment to remove salt from the water in the bay. During the nineteen nineties, thousands of refugees fleeing Cuba and Haiti were temporarily housed at the base. Since two thousand two, the United States has held hundreds of prisoners suspected of having ties to the Taleban or al-Qaeda. They were captured in Afghanistan and other countries during the war against terror. Human rights groups have criticized the United States for its treatment of these prisoners and for the length of time they have been held without being tried. In December, the United States Congress approved legislation that established military groups to try the prisoners. Last month, the Defense Department announced new rules to carry out the law. Reports say the military will finally charge between sixty and eighty of the almost four hundred men held at Guantanamo. The trials are expected to begin in the spring. Grammy Nominations The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will present the forty-ninth yearly Grammy Awards on Sunday, February eleventh. The awards ceremony will be broadcast on television from Los Angeles, California. Bob Doughty tells us about the Grammies and plays three nominated songs. BOB DOUGHTY: The Grammy Awards recognize excellent musical recordings and the people who create them. The award is a small statue that is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word Grammy is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Recording Academy choose the best music each year. Awards are given for all kinds of music — popular, jazz, classical, country, rap and many others. One of the major Grammy Awards is Record of the Year. Five records are nominated. One of these is from Mary J. Blige -- "Be Without You.” (MUSIC) Another nominee for Record of the Year is “Put Your Records On” by Corrine Bailey Rae. (MUSIC) Other nominees for Record of the Year are Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” and the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready To Make Nice.” ?We leave you now with the fifth song nominated for “Record of the Year.” It is “You’re Beautiful” by James Blunt. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. And do join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Calls for Action Follow UN Report That Human Activity Is 'Very Likely' to Blame for Global Warming
* Byline: Chirac urges environmental and political revolution; US Congress considers steps; China says developed countries caused the problem and must take the lead. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Last week, a United Nations report said humans are "very likely" the cause of most of the temperature increases in the last fifty years. It said global warming is undeniable, and that the world can expect to feel the effects for centuries to come. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the report in Paris at a conference of climate experts. Representatives of more than one hundred governments agreed on the findings. This is the most detailed scientific report to date on global warming and the influence of fossil-fuel burning and other human activity. The scientists say there is greater than a ninety percent chance that greenhouse gases are the main cause of rising temperatures and sea levels. The report also links global warming to other changes including increased dryness in some areas and violent storm patterns. The U.N. panel released its last climate change report six years ago. The scientists say the new report is based on numerous studies done since then, and stronger agreement on global warming. The new report makes no policy proposals. But the aim is to press governments and industries to cut the release of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for trapping heat. Some of the scientists wanted to include policy suggestions in the report. Ideas included increased use of renewable energy resources and development of so-called geo-engineering technologies. But most of the scientists at the Paris conference said they believe the immediate goal must be to reduce carbon emissions. French President Jacques Chirac called for an environmental and political revolution to save the planet. The White House this week published an open letter on President Bush's position on climate change. The purpose was to show that he has been concerned about the problem since his first year in office. For example, it says that the administration has spent more than nine billion dollars on climate change research. In the new Democratic-controlled Congress, lawmakers have been holding hearings and proposing bills to deal with global warming. China is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States. Experts believe China could become the largest producer as soon as two thousand ten. But China reacted to the report by saying developed countries are responsible for global warming, and must lead in cutting emissions. China says it lacks the resources to cut its own emissions. Some people criticized the report, saying the public is being misled about the dangers of climate change. One of those critics, for example, was Bryan Leyland, an energy consultant with the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. He said sun-related effects could fully explain the recent changes. He said people should be more concerned about saving energy and fighting poverty. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake.Transcripts and audio files are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rachel Carson, 1907-1964: Her Books Helped Launch the Environmental Protection Movement in the US
* Byline: Her book ''Silent Spring'' influenced the government to ban DDT. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 PEOPLE IN AMERICA --?a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about scientist Rachel Carson. Her work started the environmental protection movement in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson was born on May twenty-seventh, nineteen-oh-seven in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel’s father, Robert Carson, was a salesman who invested in local land. He purchased twenty-six hectares of land to make a home for his family. The area was surrounded by fields, trees and streams. The Carson family enjoyed living in the beautiful, country environment. Rachel’s mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. She loved books. She also loved nature. Rachel was the youngest of three children. Her sister and brother were already in school when she was born. So Missus Carson was able to spend a lot of time with Rachel. She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel a deep love for books. Missus Carson became the most important influence on Rachel’s life. VOICE TWO: Rachel was a quiet child. She liked to read and to write poems and stories. She was very intelligent. At a very early age she decided she wanted to be a writer someday. Her first published story appeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old. Rachel went to the Pennsylvania College for Women. She studied English because she wanted to become a professional writer. Yet, she felt she did not have the imagination to write creative stories. She changed her area of study from English to science after she took a biology course that she liked. Her professors advised her not to study science. They said there was no future for a woman in science. VOICE ONE: In nineteen twenty-nine, Rachel graduated from college with high honors. She won a financial award to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In nineteen thirty-two, she earned a master’s degree in zoology, the scientific study of animals. She taught zoology at the University of Maryland for a few years. During the summers, she studied the ocean and its life forms at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. That is when she became interested in the mysteries of the sea. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rachel’s life changed greatly in the middle nineteen thirties. Her father died suddenly in nineteen thirty-five. He left very little financial support for Rachel’s mother. ?It was during the economic decline in the United States called the Great Depression. Rachel now had to support her mother and herself. She needed more money than her teaching job could provide. She began part-time work for a federal government agency, the Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, D.C. One year later, Rachel’s sister died. Her sister was the mother of two young girls. Rachel and her mother cared for the girls. Rachel now had to support her mother, two nieces and herself. Again, she needed a job with better pay. VOICE ONE: A full time job for a biologist opened at the United States Bureau of Fisheries. Rachel Carson was the only woman to try for the position. She had the highest score of all the people competing for the job. Miz Carson got the position in August, nineteen thirty-six. She was chosen to work in the office of the chief of the biology division. Her first job was to write a series of programs called “Romance Under the Waters.”? The series was broadcast on radio for a year. She continued to write and edit publications for the Bureau of Fisheries for many years. The bureau was happy to have a scientist who was also an excellent writer. Rachel Carson provided information to the public in interesting and understandable ways. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty, the United States Bureau of Fisheries and the Biological Survey joined to become the Fish and Wildlife Service. Miz Carson continued as one of the few women employed there as a scientist. The other women worked as office assistants. While she was working for the government, Miz Carson wrote at night and on weekends. In nineteen thirty-seven she wrote a report about sea life. It was called Undersea. It appeared in the magazine, Atlantic Monthly. An editor at a publishing house encouraged her to write a book about the sea for the general public. So she did. Her first book, "Under the Sea Wind," was published in nineteen forty-one. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-eight, Miz Carson began working on another book, "The Sea Around Us."? It became her first best-selling book. Rachel Carson always researched carefully when she wrote. She gathered information from more than one thousand places to write "The Sea Around Us."? She also wrote letters to experts all over the world. "The Sea Around Us" was published in nineteen fifty-one. It was number one on the best-seller list for more than a year. It won the National Book Award. "The Sea Around Us" made Rachel Carson famous. The money the book earned eased her financial responsibilities for the first time in years. In nineteen fifty-two, Miz Carson was able to leave her job at the Fish and Wildlife Service and spend her time writing. Miz Carson moved to a home on the coast of Maine. There she studied the ecology of the sea. Her next book, "The Edge of the Sea," was published in nineteen fifty-five. It told of the connection of all living creatures in areas where land and ocean meet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rachel Carson’s most famous book, "Silent Spring" was published in nineteen sixty-two. The idea for the book developed from a suggestion from a friend. Rachel’s friend owned a protected area for birds. An airplane had flown over the area where the birds were kept and spread a powerful chemical called DDT. It was part of a project to control mosquitoes. Many songbirds and harmless insects were killed by the DDT. Miz Carson and other scientists were very concerned about the harmful effects of DDT and other insect-killing chemicals called pesticides. After World War Two, these poisonous chemicals were widely used to control insects. Pesticides were sprayed almost everywhere including agricultural fields and communities. DDT and other pesticides had become popular with the public and the government because they were so effective. Manufacturing these chemicals had become a huge industry. VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson tried to get many magazines interested in publishing a report about the subject. However, none would agree to publish anything about such a disputed subject. They said no one wanted to hear that industrial companies could cause great ecological damage. Miz Carson believed the public needed to know about this important issue. She decided to write a book about it. She collected facts from experts from all over the world. She gathered studies that showed the harmful effects of DDT, including declining bird populations and increased human cancers. In her book "Silent Spring," Miz Carson questioned the right of industrial companies to pollute without considering the effects on the environment. Miz Carson argued that this kind of pollution would result in ever-decreasing populations of birds and other wildlife. She said this would lead to the loss of the wonderful sounds of nature. The chemical poisoning of the environment, she said, would cause a silent spring. VOICE TWO: The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen and other critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. They misunderstood the message of the book. Miz Carson did not suggest that all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of these substances be given to biologists who could make informed decisions about the risks involved. Support for the book increased. By the end of nineteen sixty-two, there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing to control pesticides. Finally, in November, nineteen sixty-nine, the United States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in two years. Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced the government’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer in nineteen sixty-four. She was fifty-six years old. VOICE ONE: Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in when she was a child. Education programs are offered there that teach children and adults about her environmental values. Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express the wonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influence continues through the activities of the environmental protection movement she started. (MUSIC) This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Young, Strong-Willed, a Revolutionary. Meet George Washington
* Byline: Washington's home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, and his image get a new look in an effort to increase their appeal, especially to young people. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:?????? And I'm Steve Ember. George Washington won the Revolutionary War and was the first president of the United States. But can the man known as the father of his country still command attention?? VOICE ONE: This week on our program, we take you to a place where a lot of money has just been invested to make sure the answer is yes. That place is George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: George Washington lived in a number of homes as a boy and young man. But he spent most of his life at Mount Vernon, twenty-four kilometers to the south of the city of Washington. He helped choose where to build the new capital city and the White House. Yet George Washington is the only president who never lived in the White House -- it was completed after he left office. When he was president, New York City and, after that, Philadelphia served as the nation's capital. VOICE ONE: George Washington was born two hundred seventy-five years ago. His birthday is celebrated every year at his home and burial place at Mount Vernon. The public is invited onto the grounds free of charge next Monday for ceremonies including military performances. The honor is fitting for a man who loved music and was the commander of the Continental Army. Washington's birthday became a federal holiday in eighteen eighty-five, long after his death. Today the holiday is observed on the third Monday in February and is commonly called Presidents Day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Entering Mount Vernon is like stepping back into the eighteenth century. It still looks much like when George Washington lived there with his wife, Martha. Sheep still chew grass near the Potomac River. The animals are the same kind that grazed on the property when the Washingtons lived there. Farming also continues at Mount Vernon. But Mount Vernon has recently gained many up-to-date things to see and do. About one hundred ten million dollars in changes have been made over the past several years. The new look was in reaction to concerns among the operators and supporters of Mount Vernon. They wondered especially if a visit there met the needs of today's young people. So the group that operates Mount Vernon used private donations to add two buildings and many new exhibits and films. The new buildings are the Ford Orientation Center and the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center. They were built mostly below ground. They opened last October. VOICE ONE: Many Americans have an image of George Washington as a very serious older man. Artworks generally present him that way. But the additions to Mount Vernon present a younger and livelier George Washington. A million visitors a year come through Mount Vernon, often with school groups. Wayne Howland has worked as a volunteer providing information to the public at Mount Vernon for many years. He says it will be interesting to see if the new additions make George Washington more meaningful to visiting students. VOICE TWO: Visitors to the orientation Center are welcomed by a statue of George and Martha Washington, holding hands with two grandchildren. The entrance area is light and airy in the winter sunshine. Colorful glass windows present important times in Washington's life. Films are shown in two theaters. In one movie, television personality Pat Sajak talks about what to see and do at Mount Vernon. He also introduces a film called "We Fight to Be Free." VOICE ONE: It presents George Washington as a young and strong-willed revolutionary. He commands the army of the American colonies. He unites men, some of them half-starved and shoeless, to fight for freedom from British rule. We also see him meeting his future wife, Martha Custis. Her first husband had died, leaving her with two children. VOICE TWO: After the film, we walk over cobblestone paths to the main house at Mount Vernon. Guides describe what daily life was like in the long, white home on a hill overlooking the Potomac River. As we look out from the back of the house, the Potomac shines blue in the winter sun. No boats are out on the icy river. The home seems to rest on the hill in perfect stillness. VOICE ONE: The main house is three floors high. George Washington was responsible for much of the design. His office contains many of his books. This is where Washington planned the activities of the farms on his land. George Washington owned African slaves, as did many other people. But even at that time, there was great debate about slavery. Washington ordered that his slaves be freed after he and his wife died. In his will, he left instructions for the care and education of some of his former slaves, and support and training for the children. At the time of his death, Washington had more than three hundred slaves. They provided much of the labor at Mount Vernon. Most were field workers, sixty percent of them women. The workday lasted from sunup to sundown, six days a week. Mount Vernon has a gallery that deals with the slavery issue and a monument that honors the slaves. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: George and Martha Washington often invited friends for meals in the dining room at Mount Vernon. The Washingtons also provided sleeping rooms and food for travelers. Very few hotels existed then. So George and Martha Washington offered a place to stay for more than six hundred visitors a year. VOICE ONE: After visiting the main house, we stop at the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center. Here we meet a life-size George Washington made of wax. He is riding his horse, Blueskin. A movie in the Reynolds Center tells us about his major battles. Our seats shake as cannons fire and smoke rises. White particles fall from above. "Snow!" calls out a child in the audience. VOICE TWO: The museum shows about five hundred objects from the Mount Vernon estate, the Revolutionary War and Washington's presidency. Through exhibits and films, we learn about George Washington as a soldier and statesman, but also as a young boy, a land surveyor and a woodsman. Visitors crowd around a glass container. It holds Washington's false teeth. They were made of hippopotamus ivory and human teeth. When he became president, he had only one of his own teeth left in his mouth. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Another popular exhibit is called "hands-on history." Bitsy Unkle works at Mount Vernon. She explains the children's clothing and toys in this room. She points to dolls made of cloth, and describes how children learning to read shaped the dolls into letters. (SOUND) BITSY UNKLE: "This is how children took these -- it's like a little rag doll. They have to form the alphabet, and that's how children learned their letters in the eighteenth century." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: After his victory in the Revolutionary War, some people wanted George Washington to be president for life. Or even king. But Washington said Americans had fought for freedom from such rulers. He was elected president two times and served from seventeen eighty-nine to seventeen ninety-seven. He was offered a third term, but he refused. He wanted to return to the life he had led at Mount Vernon before the war. VOICE ONE: Yet George Washington did not get to enjoy a long retirement at Mount Vernon. He died there in seventeen ninety-nine. Modern doctors believe he died of a severe infection. He was sixty-seven years old. He and his wife are buried at Mount Vernon. After Martha Washington died, Mount Vernon was given to other family members. By the eighteen fifties, the person who owned it did not have enough money to keep it in good condition. He offered to sell Mount Vernon to Virginia or to the federal government. Both said no. So the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association collected money. The group bought the property and has operated George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens to this day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:?????? And I'm Barbara Klein. You can find our program, along with a link to the Mount Vernon Web site, at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Filter for Arsenic-Polluted Water in Bangladesh Pays Off for Chemist
* Byline: Abul Hussam, a professor in Virginia, wins $1 million Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability for his Sono treatment system. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Every day, millions of people around the world drink water from wells that are polluted with high levels of arsenic. Arsenic is an element that can be released into groundwater by soil and rocks. Over a long period of time, water from poisoned wells may lead to deadly cancers. Chemist Abul Hussam has developed a home treatment system for drinking water in his native Bangladesh. Almost all arsenic is removed as water passes through two containers. They hold river sand, pieces of iron and wood charcoal. Sono filter system is manufactured in his hometown of Kushtia, where he also did much of his research. He tells us that his first task was to develop instruments to measure the exact amounts of arsenic in the water. Early tests on two wells at the home where he lived as a child found arsenic levels three to four times higher than normal. As a chemist, he felt that if he could not solve what he calls the "home problem," then his education would not be very useful. His ten-year effort to find the right mix of active materials for the Sono filter system has just earned him a one million dollar prize. Abul Hussam is the top winner of the two thousand seven Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability. The prize is administered by the National Academy of Engineering in the United States. Abul Hussam is a chemistry professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He says he will give five percent of the money to the university. And he plans to use twenty-five percent of the award to develop smaller filters. Currently the system weighs almost sixty kilograms. But Professor Hussam says he will use the remaining money to increase production of the filters in Kushtia. One hundred workers currently produce about two hundred filters a week. About thirty thousand homes in Bangladesh are using the system. It costs families thirty-five dollars. But Professor Hussam says the filters are extremely cost effective compared to the price of bottled water. He says each system is guaranteed to clean about one million liters of drinking water over five years. In theory, though, he says they should last around thirty-five years. He is now seeking international patent rights for the active materials in the system -- and he hopes to increase their power. Abul Hussam says he also hopes that someday the Sono arsenic removal system will be available around the world. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. --- Correction: Abul Hussam is seeking patent protection for the combination of active materials in the system, not the materials themselves. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-12-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Doughboy: Military Expressions
* Byline: Terms for members of the US armed forces. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is Phil Murray with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. We tell about some common expressions in American English. (MUSIC) A leatherneck or a grunt do not sound like nice names to call someone. Yet men and women who serve in the United States armed forces are proud of those names. And if you think they sound strange, consider doughboy and GI Joe. After the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties, a writer in a publication called Beadle’s Monthly used the word doughboy to describe Civil War soldiers. But word expert Charles Funk says that early writer could not explain where the name started. About twenty years later, someone did explain. She was the wife of the famous American general George Custer. Elizabeth Custer wrote that a doughboy was a sweet food served to Navy men on ships. She also said the name was given to the large buttons on the clothes of soldiers. Elizabeth Custer believed the name changed over time to mean the soldiers themselves. Now, we probably most often think of doughboys as the soldiers who fought for the Allies in World War One. By World War Two, soldiers were called other names. The one most often heard was GI, or GI Joe. Most people say the letters GI were a short way to say general issue or government issue. The name came to mean several things. It could mean the soldier himself. It could mean things given to soldiers when they joined the military such as weapons, equipment or clothes. And, for some reason, it could mean to organize, or clean. Soldiers often say, “We GI’d the place.” And when an area looks good, soldiers may say the area is “GI.” Strangely, though, GI can also mean poor work, a job badly?done. Some students of military words have another explanation of GI. They say that instead of government issue or general issue, GI came from the words galvanized iron. The American soldier was said to be like galvanized iron, a material produced for special strength. The Dictionary of Soldier Talk says GI was used for the words galvanized iron in a publication about the vehicles of the early twentieth century. Today, a doughboy or GI may be called a grunt. Nobody is sure of the exact beginning of the word.But, the best idea probably is that the name comes from the sound that troops make when ordered to march long distances carrying heavy equipment. A member of the United States Marines also has a strange name --?leatherneck. It is thought to have started in the eighteen hundreds. Some say the name comes from the thick collars of leather early Marines wore around their necks to protect them from cuts during battles. Others say the sun burned the Marines’ necks until their skin looked like leather. (MUSIC) This Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jeri Watson. I’m Phil Murray. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Raising Goats for Their Hair
* Byline: Into the world of cashmere and mohair. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Goats are raised not just for their milk and meat, and their ability to control weeds and help renew grasslands. They can also be valuable for their hair. Cashmere comes from cashmere goats and angora fiber comes from Angora -- rabbits. Mohair comes from Angora goats. Angora goats in MaineMohair is used in sweaters, scarves, coats and other clothing, along with floor rugs and carpets and things like doll hair. An adult Angora can produce as much as seven kilograms of hair each year. As the goats grow older, however, their hair becomes thicker and less valuable. Hair from white or solid-colored goats is the most popular, but the appeal of mixed-color mohair has grown in recent years. The United States is one of the main producers of mohair, and exports most of its production. Angora goats are also popular show animals. They are considered friendly and require little special care. The animals need milk from their mothers for three or four months. They reach full maturity when they are a little more than two years old. But even then they are smaller than most sheep and milk goats. Cashmere goats are usually larger than Angoras. The Breezy Meadow Cashmere Farm in Bellingham, Washington, says cashmere goats are big enough to be kept with sheep and cattle. The outer hair of the animal is called guard hair. Behind it is the valuable material on a cashmere goat. Cashmere is valued for its softness and warmth without much weight. Some farmers comb their cashmere goats to remove the hair. But if the animals do get a haircut, it often takes place at the time when they naturally lose their winter coat -- between December and March. Angora goats generally get their hair cut two times a year, in the spring and fall. The job can be done with simple cutting tools or by hiring a professional shearer. Angoras may need special protection from the cold for about a month after shearing. The value of an animal's coat depends on the age, size and condition. But whatever kind of goat you choose, be sure to have a good fence. Goats love to explore. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question about agriculture, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer mail personally, but we might be able to answer your question in a future report. So please be sure to include your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: From Asia to Europe to Africa, Trying to Stop the Spread of Bird Flu
* Byline: First in a series of special reports about avian influenza and what people can do to protect themselves and their families. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: A chicken trader holds up a bird to be sold at a market in Lagos, NigeriaAnd I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we begin a series of reports about the disease bird flu. The series will examine how quickly the disease has spread. It will also tell what is being done to stop the spread and how people can protect themselves and their families from bird flu. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The disease bird flu has killed people in at least ten countries since two thousand three. The United Nations World Health Organization confirmed one hundred sixty-five human deaths by the end of January. Earlier this month, health officials in Britain reported that more than two thousand turkeys had died of bird flu. The officials immediately ordered people to keep at least three kilometers away from the turkey farm. Workers destroyed more than one hundred thousand healthy birds as a safety measure. There is no evidence that any people became sick with the disease. VOICE TWO: The new head of the World Health Organization says it will be years until farm birds are safe from bird flu. W.H.O. Director-General Margaret Chan says that, until then, the world must work very hard to keep the disease from infecting many people. Wild and farm birds often get a flu virus. Yet they usually are able to carry the virus without getting sick. In nineteen ninety-seven, six people in Hong Kong died of a different kind of bird flu virus. It is called the h-five-n-one virus. The Hong Kong government quickly ordered the killing of all farm birds there. That stopped the spread of h-five-n-one to people in Hong Kong. Yet the virus had already spread to other parts of Asia. It was found in sixteen countries between two thousand three and two thousand six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The h-five-n-one virus first appeared in Africa last year. This raised many concerns about the spread of the disease. Scientists do not know exactly how bird flu came to Africa. At first, they thought wild birds were to blame. Now, officials with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization believe the main cause is trade in farm birds. The bird flu virus is found in the waste and liquids of infected birds. The virus spreads when healthy birds or people touch sick birds or any infected part of sick birds. Right now, the virus is not spreading from person to person. But the virus could change and start spreading among people. Health officials believe that is even more possible now that bird flu has spread to Africa. That is why international organizations are working so hard to stop its spread. VOICE TWO: Nigeria is the first African country where bird flu was reported. Scientists have learned that the virus came into the country on chickens imported from China. Now bird flu has been found in farm birds in seven other African countries. They are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Djibouti, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Niger and Sudan. By the end of January, twelve people had died of the disease in Africa. Health officials believe bird flu could be an even bigger problem in Africa than it has been in Asia. In Africa, many people are already suffering from serious diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. There is not enough money to fight these diseases. There is even less money to fight a disease like bird flu, which has yet to kill many people. People are more likely to get a disease like bird flu if they are sick or weak from hunger. Both of these conditions are problems in many African countries. VOICE ONE: Stopping the spread of bird flu is most successful when action is taken quickly. But the signs of bird flu are like many other diseases. So there could be many cases of bird flu, in birds or in people, before health care workers learn about it and are able to take action. Africa does not have enough laboratories that can confirm an H-five-N-one bird flu infection. There are also not enough hospitals to take care of patients who have bird flu. And, there are not enough animal health care systems to control the disease among farm birds. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bird flu causes both health and financial problems. In Asia and Africa, most of the cases have been found on small farms or among families who keep chickens. These birds often come into people's homes and share spaces where children play. The chickens often mix freely with wild birds. The best way to stop the spread of bird flu is to kill all the chickens in an area where bird flu has been discovered. More than four hundred fifty thousand chickens have been killed in Nigeria since bird flu was first found one year ago. VOICE ONE: In many countries, small farms provide food and even money for the education of children. The city of Jos, Nigeria, supports two thousand farmers who sell eggs all over the country. A man named Pius Ilonah lost seven thousand chickens when bird flu infection was discovered in a farm near his. "We do not have any savings or earn money now," says Mister Ilonah. Two of his children are in high school. Two others are university students. But Mister Ilonah says there is no more money to keep them in school. Nigeria is attempting to organize a program to replace chickens as soon as the disease has stopped spreading. VOICE TWO: The story is similar in Niger. Nana Aicha raises chickens to sell in Nigeria. She buys grain with the money she earns to feed her children. One day, traders from Nigeria brought bird flu virus to the border on their clothes or vehicles. People and chickens returned to Niger after the day of trading. They already had been infected with the disease. Miz Aicha says she lost everything because the chickens and ducks died or government workers killed them. "Today," she says, "I will feed my five children and myself with millet, rice, some milk, salt and peppers." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Indonesia has the most human deaths from the h-five-n-one virus. Eighty-one people had been infected with bird flu by the end of January. More than sixty of them died. That is more than in any other country. A twenty-six year old woman from West Java was the most recent victim. Indonesian officials said she had been involved in killing sick chickens. Countries in Africa are using many ways to inform people about bird flu and stop its spread. Nigeria continues to give children medicine to protect against the disease polio. When health care workers visit homes, they are also talking about bird flu. Benin plans to spend more than five million dollars to pay chicken farmers if their chickens are killed because of bird flu. Angola, Congo, Kenya and other countries have banned the import of live birds and eggs from areas infected with bird flu. In Ivory Coast, the government has a program to clean vehicles and airplanes that travel through infected areas. Mali has programs to study the large numbers of wild birds that fly along the Niger and Senegal Rivers. In Togo, groups are investigating deaths of farm birds that cannot be easily explained. VOICE TWO: By the end of January, eleven people had died of bird flu in Egypt. Infected birds have been found in twenty-three of the country's twenty-six governates. A fifteen-year old girl and two members of her family died in December two thousand six. They all lived in the same house where birds were being raised. All three people who died had been cleaning and killing infected ducks. Most of the people who died in Egypt were raising birds in their homes, not on large farms. Almost thirty-percent of the population there raises birds near their homes. Farm birds bring in thirteen-percent of their earnings. Up to thirty million farm birds all over Egypt have been killed. That represents a loss of one billion dollars to the chicken industry. The Egyptian government is training health care workers and others to help stop the spread of bird flu. The government operates centers for people to call with questions about bird flu. More than one hundred thirty thousand calls were received in the first week after the disease was first reported in Egypt. VOICE ONE: Local governments and international organizations are working hard to answer questions about bird flu and stop its spread. We will hear more about these efforts next month in the second part of this series. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Karen Leggett. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Press Freedom: Is It Alive and Well in the World?
* Byline: Last year was the deadliest year for reporters in more than ten years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about freedom of the press around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In a perfect democracy, the news media serve as an independent observer of government and society. Without the media, citizens would remain uninformed about public officials and their behavior. However, in many countries, corrupt individuals and groups repress, jail or even kill journalists who report information about the misuse of political power. In nineteen forty-eight, the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One part of it says everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to hold opinions without interference. Also included is the freedom to seek, receive and share information and ideas through any media, including across national borders. VOICE TWO: Reporters Without Borders studies press freedom around the world and releases a report every December. The group said last year was the most dangerous year for reporters in more than ten years. Two thousand six had the highest number of deaths of reporters in one year since nineteen ninety-four. Reporters Without Borders said eighty-one journalists were killed for reasons related to their jobs. At least thirty-two media assistants were killed while performing their jobs or expressing their opinion. Fifty-six journalists were kidnapped during the year. ? VOICE ONE: Iraq was the world's most dangerous country for the media for the fourth straight year. Sixty-four journalists and media assistants were killed there last year. The second most dangerous country for the media was Mexico. Nine journalists were killed there last year while reporting stories about the drug trade and social violence. The Philippines was third on the list with six journalists killed. Reporters Without Borders also noted attacks on journalists in Russia, Turkmenistan, Lebanon and Bangladesh. It said thirty Internet Web writers were arrested and held for several weeks in countries including China, Syria and Iran. VOICE TWO: Vincent Brossel works for Reporters Without Borders. He told VOA that one very important story did not get enough attention -- the shooting death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Politkovskaya worked for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She was well known for her reporting on Chechnya. She was also an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his policies in the rebellious Russian territory. A report by Politkovskaya on torture in Chechnya was to be published just two days before her murder in Moscow in October. Mister Brossel accused Mister Putin of not doing enough to punish Politkovskaya’s killers. Mister Brossel also noted that twenty-one other journalists have been killed since President Putin has been in power in Russia. And he said those responsible have not been put in jail. VOICE ONE: Journalists around the world face many risks while trying to do their jobs. Independent reporter Madi Ceesay says Gambia is one of the worst nations in Africa for the press. Mister Ceesay was arrested and jailed in two thousand and two thousand six in his native Gambia. He said his arrest sent a message of fear to other Gambian reporters. He told VOA that Gambian officials consider independent journalists linked to political enemies instead of voices for the oppressed. ?Mister Ceesay was in the United States recently to receive a Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Christopher Simpson is a journalism professor at American University in Washington, D.C. He told VOA that the United States is generally safe for journalists. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution includes the statement that Congress shall make no laws that reduce or limit freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Experts say that in a democracy like the United States, the press has two jobs. One job is to inform the public. The other is to observe and investigate government activities. This relationship between the government and the press can be difficult or even hostile at times. Issues of national security often cause increased tensions between the media and government. VOICE ONE: Modern technology has changed the way journalists cover the news. Information now spreads quickly because of the Internet computer system and satellite television. As a result, public opinion has changed about what news is and how reporters do their jobs. Jim Van Nostrand is an editor for McClatchy Interactive. It is part of the McClatchy Company, one of the top newspaper businesses in the United States. Mister Van Nostrand says the old newspaper model provided only one-way communication. The newspaper printed a story and the people read it. Now, people can play a part in the reporting process. The power of the Internet is changing the way newspapers deliver their product and their relationship with readers. With the Internet, people can get news immediately. They can send comments and questions. They can help a news organization shape the way it reports the news. VOICE TWO: But modern technology has also created problems for the news industry. In recent years, the number of newspapers sold in the United States has been dropping by as much as two percent every year. More and more people are getting information from the Internet. Print news organizations, especially newspapers, are seeing their profits drop and their readership disappear. Most people either love or hate how technology is changing the news industry. Yet experts agree these changes have helped strengthen freedom, democracy and human rights. This is because societies now have more information to consider. VOICE ONE: Jeffrey Dvorkin is with the Committee of Concerned Journalists. He told VOA that governments sometimes change policies because of news on the Internet. For example, in two thousand five, a video on the Internet showed police abusing an ethnic Chinese woman detained in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The incident had an international effect. Malaysia’s home minister launched an investigation after China expressed concern. VOICE TWO: Some experts say the spread of information over the Internet and by satellite television has also helped strengthen human rights movements. Professor Simpson told VOA that non-governmental groups are collecting and broadcasting information about people’s lives to show extreme poverty and police abuse. Some experts believe this is why the Internet is restricted in places like China, and repressive governments ban satellite television. Still, new satellite television stations in several countries show that the world is ready for more news and information. Professor Simpson says the expansion of information helps increase democracy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Satellite television and other modern technology to send information cost a lot of money. This is one reason why media ownership has changed in the United States. More and more news organizations are coming under the control of a small group of huge mass media companies. Fifty years ago, many American newspapers and broadcast stations were owned by local companies. This is no longer the case, said Jeffrey Dvorkin of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. Now, five large corporations own most of the news media in the United States. And, he said the corporations are under continuous pressure to guarantee large profits to their shareholders. VOICE TWO: The news industry, like any other, must aim to make profits. But, Mister Dvorkin questioned whether this push for greater profitability in the news industry has affected the quality of journalism. Technology has provided more choices of where to get news. But, Mister Dvorkin noted there are also fewer independent organizations doing independent reporting than ever before. He also said the news media are special because they have an important responsibility in a democracy. He said journalism should inform people about issues that concern them as citizens of their community, their country and the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can find our reports on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Warns of Heart Disease Danger From Dirty Air
* Byline: Some experts say findings from 65,000 American women show that current pollution limits may not be strong enough. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study shows that air pollution may be more of a risk for heart disease than scientists have thought. The research involved more than sixty-five thousand women in the United States. Kristin Miller, a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Seattle, was the lead author of the study. She says the study showed that disease risk was related not just to which city a woman lived in, but also where in the city. The study found that estimates of the effects of air pollution were often larger within cities than between cities. Yet averages between cities have served as the main measure of the long-term effects of pollutants. The new findings lead some experts to suggest that current pollution limits may not be strong enough. The New England Journal of Medicine published the study. The scientists examined rates of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events in women with long-term exposure to air pollution. The cardiovascular system is the heart and all of the passages that carry blood throughout the body. The study involved women over the age of fifty who had no sign of cardiovascular disease at the start of the research. The study followed the women for as long as nine years to see how many developed cardiovascular problems. The researchers used information from a government project, the Women's Health Initiative. The researchers also examined levels of fine particles in the air in thirty-six areas across the country. That information came from the Environmental Protection Agency. The extremely small particles come from industrial smoke and traffic along with things like wood-burning fireplaces in houses. In the study, every ten-microgram increase in pollution was linked to a twenty-four percent increase in the risk of a cardiovascular event. But it was related to a seventy-six percent increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. But just how do particles in the air damage the cardiovascular system? Douglas Dockery and Peter Stone at Harvard University in Massachusetts offer some theories in a related report. They say the particles may cause the lungs to swell and release chemicals from the pollutants into the blood. The chemicals then could damage the heart. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: I Luv U, Do U Luv Me? Relating in the Techno Age; the Mystery of XOX
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and on this Valentine's Day Wordmaster: we have the author of a new book, "The Joy of Text." RS: Writer Kristina Grish based her book on interviews with dozens of young men and women about what it is like to relate electronically. For instance, "dear" is fine for a letter, but for an e-mail she says, it may be too formal. KRISTINA GRISH: "You know, if you're just starting a relationship with someone or just starting a correspondence with someone, it's certainly fine to say 'hi' or 'hello,' but then I would say within your second e-mail you don't really need a formal introduction or a formal salutation. You can cut right to the fact that you are having an official conversation." RS: "Tell us about some of the things that you learned from these interviews." KRISTINA GRISH: "One of the more interesting things I found out is that a lot of people perceive this sense of hierarchy, this 'intimacy hierarchy,' which basically means if, say, someone sends you a text message, it's only polite to match their medium in response. "So they might start out by using e-mail and then progress to using text message and then progress to leaving a voice mail, but perhaps not actually talking on the phone. And the ultimate, ultimate 'ding-ding-ding-ding-you-finally-made-it,' is actually to have this vocal correspondence, whereas even five years ago we would just pick up the phone and call, and hopefully it would happen before three dates." AA: "And all these people you talked to, did you get a sense of whether all the modern means of communicating other than what you call a vocal correspondence -- I guess we used to call that a conversation or talking -- " RS: "A telephone call." AA: "A telephone call, right -- was it a help or a hindrance? What sense were you getting?" KRISTINA GRISH: "Well, that was actually the reason that I wrote the book was because when I was doing my initial research, I realized that so many people were so overwhelmed with this technology, and they had so much of it at their fingertips, but they weren't quite sure how to navigate it. "But they, more importantly, weren't sure if it was helping their relationship or hurting it. A lot of girls would spend days and days and days text messaging with a guy before he would even ask her out, and is that a good thing or a bad thing? "I think what it comes down to is, if you're really anxious to be asked out on a date, then it can be seen as a hindrance. If you're really excited to get to know someone slowly and gradually, and you want them to get to know you maybe from the inside out, then it can actually be a beneficial medium." RS: "Going back to the use of language, you talked about salutations, what about signoffs?" KRISTINA GRISH: "That was actually really funny. I actually had a really great subject who said he uses it as his 'canary in the coal mine.' But he had said that he reads the way that a woman signs off as a huge indicator of how that woman feels about him. "So if she signs off 'see ya' or 'bye-bye' or something really cute or casual, then he thinks 'OK, we're on casual footing.' If she just says 'talk later,' then he's like 'oh gosh, this isn't great -- she means later. How much later is later?' "But one thing I kept hearing over and over again was the XOX and, you know, those little tic-tac-toe marks that women use all the time to sign off with each other. Technically I guess it means kiss, kiss, hug, kiss. But men get so confused by it because they know that it means some form of intimacy and it's some derivation of the word 'love,' but every single man I spoke to said, 'God, what do the XXOs mean? Does that mean she wants to go out? Does that mean she wants to make out?'" AA: "And what will you be doing on Valentine's Day?" KRISTINA GRISH: "You know what? I don't know. I'm newly engaged, so I hope we have something really great planned that, to be honest, has nothing to do with technology." AA: "Was this a relationship born of 'techno-relating?'" KRISTINA GRISH: "No, in fact, he's a writer as well, and he hates communicating via technology. He won't return a text message. The most he will do is e-mail. There was a lot of e-mail flirtation when we first met." RS: Which can be fun. But we wondered how do you avoid e-mail ping-pong, in personal or business e-mail -- in other words, how do you know when to hit the reply button and when to resist the urge? KRISTINA GRISH: "I would handle it how you would handle it in person. I think if you were to end a business correspondence by walking out of the room and saying 'thanks, I'll talk to you tomorrow,' then do it the same way over e-mail. "But if you're very aloof and you're used to just walking out of a room without saying goodbye, then you can take that route, too. But I think the whole goal is to just make sure you're matching your personality with the way that you act when you're online." AA: Kristina Grish is a contributing editor to Marie Claire magazine and is just out with her newest book, "The Joy of Text: Mating, Dating and Techno-Relating." RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. Or to revisit this or any other Wordmaster segment check out our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Helping Foreign Students in the US Feel at Home
* Byline: A college's international student office is a good place to start getting to know the country. Part 24 of our Foreign Student Series.Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A college is more than just classrooms and laboratories. It represents a working community with a population that can be greater than that of many towns. And college communities have to deal with many of the same issues and problems as the general society around them. Indiana University in BloomingtonAll this can be a little scary, especially if a student is new not only to a college but also to the country. This week in our Foreign Student Series, the subject is college support services for students who come to the United States. The school we have chosen for our example this week is Indiana University in Bloomington. About ten percent of its almost forty thousand students are from other countries. The Office of International Services at Indiana University provides assistance to foreign students and scholars. For example, the office organizes a special week-long conference for new foreign students before the start of each semester. The conference is called the New International Student Orientation. It provides information about classes, social clubs and health services. New foreign students also take placement examinations and a required English language test. Also, the office of international student services organizes programs to help foreign students feel more at home in the United States. For example, the office works with a group called Bloomington Worldwide Friendship. This group helps international students at the university meet and get to know people who live in Bloomington. The university also has advisers who explain the rules of student life and try to help international students feel at ease. Most American colleges and universities have a similar office for students from other countries. These offices can help guide students through the steps to come to the United States. Later, they can provide support so the students become involved in school life and make American friends. The job is not always easy when students want to spend their free time with friends from their own country or group. But an international student office is one of the best places to start getting to know a new country and its people. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is available on the Internet -- with MP3 files and transcripts -- at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: History: Conflict in Korea Spills Over Into Eisenhower's Presidency
* Byline: The United States and 20 other United Nations members were providing troops, equipment and medical aid to South Korea. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today we tell about the Korean War. VOICE ONE: The biggest problem facing Dwight Eisenhower when he became president of the United States was the continuing conflict in Korea. Eisenhower was elected in November nineteen fifty-two. At the time, the United States had been helping South Korea fight North Korea for more than two years. About twenty other members of the United Nations were helping South Korea, too. They provided troops, equipment, and medical aid. VOICE TWO: During the last days of the American presidential election campaign, Eisenhower announced that he would go to Korea. He thought such a trip would help end the war. Eisenhower kept his promise. He went to Korea after he won the election, but before he was sworn-in as president. Yet there was no permanent peace in Korea until July of the next year, nineteen fifty-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The war started when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Both sides believed they should control all of the country. The dream of a united Korea was a powerful one. From nineteen-ten until World War Two, Japan ruled Korea. In an agreement at the end of the war, Soviet troops occupied the North. They accepted the surrender of Japanese troops and set up a military government. American troops did the same in the South. The border dividing north and south was the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel. VOICE TWO: A few years later, the United Nations General Assembly ordered free elections for all of Korea. With U.N. help, the South established the Republic of Korea. Syngman Rhee was elected the first president. On the other side of the thirty-eighth parallel, however, the Soviets refused to permit U.N. election officials to enter the North. They established a communist government there, called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Il-sung was named premier. VOICE ONE: Five years after the end of World War Two, the United States had withdrawn almost all its troops from South Korea. It was not clear if America would defend the South from attack. South Korea had an army. But it was smaller and less powerful than the North Korean army. North Korea decided the time was right to invade. On June twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty, North Korean soldiers crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. The U.N. Security Council demanded that they go back. Two days later, it approved military support for South Korea. The Soviet delegate had boycotted the meeting that day. If he had been present, the resolution would have been defeated. VOICE TWO: The U.N. demand did not stop the North Korean troops. They continued to push south. In a week, they were on the edge of the capital, Seoul. America's president at that time, Harry Truman, ordered air and sea support for South Korea. A few days later, he announced that American ground forces would be sent, too. Truman wanted an American to command U.N. troops in Korea. The U.N. approved his choice: General Douglas MacArthur. VOICE ONE: Week after week, more U.N. forces arrived. Yet by August, they had been pushed back to the Pusan perimeter. This was a battle line around an area near the port city of Pusan in the southeast corner of Korea. North Korean forces tried to break through the Pusan perimeter. They began a major attack August sixth. They lost many men, however. By the end of the month, they withdrew. VOICE TWO: The next month, general MacArthur directed a surprise landing of troops in South Korea. They arrived at the port of Inchon on the northwest coast. The landing was extremely dangerous. The daily change in the level of the sea was as much as nine meters. The boats had to get close to shore and land at high tide. If they waited too long, the water level would drop, and they would be trapped in the mud with little protection. The soldiers on the boats would be easy targets. VOICE ONE: American troops storming the beach at Inchon on September 15, 1950The landing at Inchon was successful. The additional troops quickly divided the North Korean forces, which had been stretched from north to south. At the same time, UN air and sea power destroyed the northern army's lines of communication. On October first, South Korean troops moved into North Korea. They captured the capital, Pyongyang. Then they moved toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. China warned against moving closer to the border. General MacArthur ordered the troops to continue their attacks. He repeatedly said he did not believe that China would enter the war in force. VOICE TWO: He was wrong. Several hundred thousand Chinese soldiers crossed into North Korea in October and November. Still, General MacArthur thought the war would be over by the Christmas holiday, December twenty-fifth. This was not to happen. The U.N. troops were forced to withdraw from Pyongyang. And, by the day before Christmas, there had been a huge withdrawal by sea from the coastal city of Hungnam. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the first days of nineteen fifty-one, the North Koreans recaptured Seoul. The U.N. troops withdrew about forty kilometers south of the city. They reorganized and, two months later, took control of Seoul again. Then the war changed. The two sides began fighting along a line north of the thirty-eighth parallel. They exchanged control of the same territory over and over again. Men were dying, but no one was winning. The cost in lives was huge. VOICE TWO: General MacArthur had wanted to cross into China and drop bombs on Manchuria. He also had wanted to use Nationalist Chinese troops against the communists. President Truman feared that these actions might start another world war. He would not take this chance. When MacArthur disagreed with his policies in public, Truman dismissed him. VOICE ONE: In June, nineteen fifty-one, the Soviet delegate to the United Nations proposed a ceasefire for Korea. Peace talks began, first at Kaesong, then at Panmunjom. By November, hope was strong for a settlement. But negotiators could not agree about several issues, including the return of prisoners. The U.N. demanded that prisoners of war be permitted to choose if they wanted to go home. The different issues could not be resolved after more than a year. Finally, in October nineteen fifty-two, the peace talks were suspended. VOICE TWO: Fighting continued during the negotiations. As it did, President Truman lost support. This was one reason why he decided not to run for re-election. The new president, Dwight Eisenhower, took office in January nineteen fifty-three. Eisenhower had campaigned to end the war. He was willing to use severe measures to do this. Years later, he wrote that he secretly threatened to expand the war and use nuclear weapons if the Soviets did not help restart the peace talks. VOICE ONE: Such measures were not necessary. In a few months, North Korea accepted an earlier U.N. offer to trade prisoners who were sick or wounded. The two sides finally signed a peace treaty on July twenty-seventh, nineteen fifty-three. The treaty provided for the exchange of about ninety thousand prisoners of war. It also permitted prisoners to choose if they wanted to go home. VOICE TWO: The war in Korea damaged almost all of the country. As many as two million people may have died, including many civilians. After the war, the United States provided hundreds of thousands of soldiers to help the South guard against attack from the north. Half a century has passed since the truce. Yet Korea is still divided. And many of the same issues still threaten the Korean people, and the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Presses Japan on Farm Imports and India on World Trade Talks
* Byline: Japan is warned that American companies could take their business elsewhere; India is urged to do more to help restart WTO negotiations Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The United States has put new pressure on Japan to import more farm goods from American companies. The American ambassador to Japan said if Japan does not open its markets, then "we will just put our resources in other places." Thomas Schieffer Ambassador Thomas Schieffer gave that warning in a speech Wednesday to business leaders in Tokyo. He also urged the Japanese to permit more foreign investment. Among the most developed countries, Japan still has the lowest level of foreign direct investment in relation to the size of its economy. Food prices in Japan are among the highest in the world as a result of efforts to protect Japanese farmers. Japan imports more than half of its food. But it places high customs and other restrictions on many products, especially rice, fruit and beef. Ambassador Schieffer said he recognizes the emotions involved in the debate over widening the market for agricultural imports. He noted that many Japanese still remember when Japan did not produce a lot of food after World War Two. But he also noted that the average age of a Japanese farmer is seventy. He said Japan will someday have no choice but to accept more imports. The American ambassador said the dispute over agricultural trade is blocking greater economic cooperation with Japan. But international farm trade was also the main issue that led to the suspension of World Trade Organization talks last year. This week, American Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez was in New Delhi to urge Indian officials to do more to help restart those talks. The United States is India's largest trading partner. But India's governing coalition depends on support from two communist parties that oppose trade liberalization. Also, developing nations want the United States, the European Union and countries such as Japan to make more cuts in farm protections. They say these give farmers in rich nations an unfair position. The commerce secretary said the United States is willing to compromise. But in return, he said, developing nations must do the same on trade in manufactured goods and services. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the United States had another record trade deficit last year, for the fifth straight year. The deficit in goods and services was more than seven hundred sixty billion dollars. Exports rose faster than imports, but high oil prices added to the deficit. And almost one-third of it was a record trade imbalance with China. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: On '24,' TV Hero Jack Bauer Fights Terrorists, One Hour at a Time
* Byline: Also: a dispute heats up over who invented the hamburger. And music from ''Not Too Late,'' Norah Jones' first album to include songs that make political statements. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about an American television show … Play some music from a new album by Norah Jones … And report about an extremely popular American food. Hamburger Dispute Americans love to eat hamburgers -- chopped or ground beef served on bread. Many restaurants in the United States say hamburgers are their most popular food. But no one really seems to know who made the first one. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: History expert Linda Stradley published a hamburger history on the Web site What’s Cooking America. She says sailors who visited the German port city of Hamburg in the eighteen hundreds learned to enjoy ground meat known as Hamburg steak. And German settlers in the United States served ground beef and called it hamburg steak after the German city. But she says the invention of the modern American hamburger is in dispute. She says one problem is the definition. Is it a hamburger when the meat is placed between two pieces of bread? Or must it be in a kind of bread called a bun? Either way, she tells about a number of people who claim to have served the first hamburger in America. Here are some of them. The people of Seymour, Wisconsin, say fifteen-year-old Charlie Nagreen sold the first hamburgers in eighteen eighty-five at a local fair. The town holds a yearly hamburger festival to honor him. People in Akron, Ohio, agree that the hamburger was invented in eighteen eighty-five. But they say the inventors were Frank and Charles Menches. They say the brothers put the meat between two pieces of bread at a traveling fair. Other claims include the family of Louis Lassen. They are still making hamburgers in New Haven, Connecticut. And people in Athens, Texas, say Fletch Davis, who owned a restaurant, sold the first hamburger. ?? The modern hamburger became popular after it was served at the Saint Louis World’s Fair in nineteen-oh-four. But the Bilby family in the state of Oklahoma says their grandfather Oscar served the first hamburger thirteen years before that. They claim he was the first to put the meat in a bun. Because of this claim, the governor of Oklahoma declared the city of Tulsa to be the birthplace of the hamburger. But the Library of Congress has honored Louis Lassen as the inventor of the hamburger. As recently as last month, language expert Barry Popik wrote about the issue. He says that states should drop claims to be the home of the hamburger because no one really knows who served the first one. "24" HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Osaka, Japan. Fumio Nishimoto says the television show "24” is popular in Japan and wants to know more about it. "24" is also still very popular in the United States. The show is now in its sixth year on the Fox Television network. Some critics think more Americans will watch the show this season than ever before. "24" stars Kiefer Sutherland (pictured) as Jack Bauer, an anti-terrorism agent of the United States government. Jack Bauer has fought nuclear threats, suicide bombers and kidnappers who have seized people he loves. His work has resulted in the death of his wife and the end of his relationship with his daughter. It also places him in danger and in severe pain. "24" is what is called a concept show. It uses one interesting artistic device. Each episode covers one hour in Jack Bauer’s life. And the episodes are all connected. So a full season of “24” completes one twenty-four hour day. Early on, some critics thought the twenty-four hour idea would get tiresome. But, the show continues to be popular among critics and viewers. "24" deals with current issues and often disputed ones as well. For example, the use of torture as a method for gaining information is a major subject on the show. Other subjects are religious freedom and constitutional rights in the United States. And almost every episode includes some kind of disloyalty or violating a trust. Imagine Television, Real Time Productions and Fox Television jointly produce "24." The show has received many honors, including an Emmy award last year for Outstanding Drama Series. Keifer Sutherland also received a two thousand six Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series. He had been nominated every year since the show began. Here is a tense moment from "24": ANNOUNCER: "The following takes place between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m." MILO PRESSMAN: "[Phone rings.] Pressman." JACK BAUER: "They've dumped the car. They must have switched vehicles." MILO PRESSMAN: "From the underpass they could've merged directly onto any one of six local roads or highways. There's just no way of tracking them without knowing exactly which vehicle they're in." JACK BAUER: "Damn it, Milo. They could be anywhere. Just find them and get back to me." Norah Jones' New Album Jazz and pop singer Norah Jones is the top-selling female artist of the twenty-first century. She has sold more than thirty million records around the world. Now the twenty-seven-year-old singer has released her third album, called "Not Too Late." Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: Norah Jones has a voice and singing style that is all her own. It is warm and emotional. Her first two albums were extremely popular. "Come Away With Me" was released in two thousand two. It sold ten million copies in the United States alone. Her second album, "Feels Like Home," was released two years later. Both albums include beautiful songs about love and relationships. Jones or members of her band wrote a few of the songs. Norah Jones' third album, "Not Too Late," is different from her first two. She wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the album. The songs are sadder and more serious. This one is called "Thinking About You." It is about ending a relationship. (MUSIC) "Not Too Late" is also different from Jones' first two albums because it includes songs that make political statements. This song expresses her unhappiness with the results of the presidential election of two thousand four. It is called "My Dear Country." (MUSIC) Norah Jones plays piano and guitar on her latest album. She recorded the songs for the album in a studio in her home in New York City. We leave you now with a song from "Not Too Late" that sounds like the music of New Orleans. It is called "Sinkin' Soon." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. And do join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Harvard Gets a Female President; Progress Slows at Other Colleges
* Byline: Drew Gilpin Faust is an expert on the history of the American South; also, an education group releases a study of presidents in US higher education. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On July first, America's oldest university will get its twenty-eighth president but, most notably, its first female president. Historian Drew Gilpin Faust was named this week to lead Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard is three hundred seventy-one years old. Professor Faust has written several books on her specialty, the history of the American South and the Civil War. She is fifty-nine and attended Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania. She arrived at Harvard six years ago as the founding dean of its Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She will replace Lawrence Summers who resigned last June after five years as president. His aggressive leadership style was unpopular with professors. He was widely denounced for comments he made in a speech in two thousand five. He was discussing possible reasons for the small number of women in top jobs in science and mathematics. He suggested that one area that should be considered was the possibility of biological differences between men and women. He later apologized for his comments. He also asked Professor Faust to help lead committees that were set up to increase the number of female science professors at Harvard. She will be the first president of Harvard since sixteen seventy-two who did not earn a degree there. Professor Faust was born Catherine Drew Gilpin. She says her mother told her "this is a man's world" and that the sooner she learned it, the better. She grew up in a wealthy white family in Virginia. But she rebelled against the way blacks were being treated in the South. As a nine-year-old girl she even wrote to President Dwight Eisenhower urging him to end racial discrimination. With Professor Faust, women now head four of the eight highly competitive private universities in the Northeast known as the Ivy League. More women and members of ethnic or racial minority groups hold top positions in American colleges and universities than in the past. In nineteen eight-six, ninety percent of presidents were male and ninety-two percent were white. But a new report this week says growth in the percentage of women and minority presidents has been slow, especially in the last ten years. The American Council on Education says eighty-six percent of presidents last year were white; seventy-seven percent were male. The group says women were most likely to head two-year colleges. But the study also found that on average, presidents have been getting older and staying in their jobs longer. Researchers say the findings suggest that many will soon retire. They say that might, or might not, mean more women and minorities taking their place. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. To learn more about American higher education, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-12-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Dutch: English Expressions Unrelated to Dutch People
* Byline: Common expressions that have nothing to do with the Dutch people. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today, we tell about American expressions using the word “Dutch.” (MUSIC) Many of the Dutch expressions heard in American English were first used in England in the seventeenth century. That was a time of fierce naval competition between England and The Netherlands. At that time, the British used Dutch as a word for something bad, or false or mistaken. A Dutch agreement was one made between men who had drunk too much alcohol. Dutch courage was the false courage produced by the effects of drinking alcohol. And, Dutch leave was what a soldier took when he left his base without permission. Some of these old expressions are still used today, with a little different meaning. Dutch treat is one example. Long ago, a Dutch treat was a dinner at which the invited guests were expected to pay for their own share of the food and drink. Now, Dutch treat means that when friends go out to have fun, each person pays his own share. Another common expression heard a few years ago was in Dutch. If someone said to you, you were in Dutch they were telling you that you were in trouble. An important person – a parent or teacher, perhaps – was angry with you. Some of the Dutch expressions heard in American English have nothing to do with the Dutch people at all. In the seventeen hundreds, Germans who moved to the United States often were called Dutch. This happened because of mistakes in understanding and saying the word Deutsch, the German word for German. Families of these German people still live in the eastern United States, many in the state of Pennsylvania. They are known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. During the American Civil War, supporters of the Northern side in the central state of Missouri were called Dutch because many of them were German settlers. In California during the gold rush, the term Dutch was used to describe Germans, Swedes and Norwegians, as well as people from The Netherlands. President Theodore Roosevelt once noted that anything foreign and non-English was called Dutch. One expression still in use – to talk to someone like a Dutch uncle did come from the Dutch. The Dutch were known for the firm way they raised their children. So if someone speaks to you like a Dutch uncle he is speaking in a very severe way. And you should listen to him carefully! (MUSIC) You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.This is Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Jerome Kern, 1885-1945: The Father of American Musical Theater
* Byline: Singers still perform Kern's songs today. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about and play music by songwriter Jerome Kern. He was the man who helped invent the modern musical play. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jerome Kern is often called the father of American musical theater. Kern is remembered for the hundreds of songs he wrote for musical plays and movies. Music historians say that Kern gave artistic importance to American popular music for the first time. And, they say, he led the development of the first truly American theater music. VOICE TWO: Jerome Kern was born into a middle-class family in New York City in eighteen eighty-five. Jerome’s mother, Fanny, loved the piano. She began to teach Jerome how to play when he was very young. He became a fair piano player but not so good that anyone expected him to become a great musician. Jerome was a quiet boy and not a top student. When he completed high school, his father said he would have to work in the family’s store. Mister Kern said his son could never make money writing music. But he later came to believe that Jerome might do better in music than in business after all. So he let the boy go to Europe to study music, as almost all serious young musicians did at the time. VOICE ONE: Jerome Kern began his career as a songwriter in theaters in London and New York City. Success came quickly. By the early nineteen twenties, Kern was a successful young composer for Broadway musical comedies. In one three-year period alone, he wrote music for nineteen shows. Other people wrote the words for Kern's songs. Kern wrote only the music. And he worked with each song until he was satisfied that the music was perfect. He almost never changed his music to fit the words. One of Kern's best-loved songs is "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," sung by Dinah Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Although Kern's songs are easy to remember after hearing a few times, they are not simple. His melodies -- the musical line of the song -- are always inventive, even demanding. An example of his inventiveness is the song "All the Things You Are." Several composers say they consider it the greatest song ever written. Singers continue to like Kern songs because they can be sung in many different ways. The melody remains the same. But different singers can change the feeling of the song completely. Here are two versions of "All the Things You Are" sung in very different ways by Ella Fitzgerald and Willie Nelson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jerome Kern once said he was trying to bring modern art to music. One critic wrote this about his music: Kern's songs are like black and white drawings. They need no color, no decoration. A Kern song is always in balance, perfect in form and pleasing in design. Here is an example, "Why Do I Love You?" played by Andre Previn and friends. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All but one of Kern's songs were written for musical plays. American musical plays at that time were still usually copied from European ones. Often the stories seemed foolish and the people in them did not seem real. Songs and dances often had no connection to the story. Kern wanted to try something completely new. He thought a musical play should be a real work of art, not just a collection of songs and dances. He thought songs should help move the action of the play along, by showing a person’s feelings. Kern wanted to do a truly American musical, with real American characters and real situations. VOICE ONE: In nineteen twenty-seven, he found the story he wanted. It was the book “Show Boat” by American writer Edna Ferber. "Show Boat" takes place in the eighteen eighties on a passenger steam boat that travels along the Mississippi River. The boat is called a show boat because singers and dancers entertain the passengers. The captain of the show boat has a daughter who is a singer on the boat. She falls in love with a man who earns his money by gambling with cards. VOICE TWO: The story dealt with some unusually serious issues for a musical. It showed the hard lives of African-Americans in the South. And it showed marriage between people of different races, which was against the law at that time. Although serious in places, “Show Boat” was not a tragedy. The public and critics loved it. "Show Boat" became the greatest work of American musical theater. Music critics said Kern's effect on musical theater was revolutionary. It was Kern's music that made the show a great success. Perhaps his most famous song was written for "Show Boat."? It is called "Ol' Man River. " It is about what life was like for black people who worked along the Mississippi River. Edna Ferber later remembered her excitement when Kern first played the melody for her. She said her hair stood up, and tears came to her eyes. Listen as Paul Robeson sings the song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edna Ferber said it was great music -- music that would live forever. Kern died in nineteen forty-five at the age of sixty. But “Show Boat” has been performed thousands of times all over the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read scripts and download audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Tree-Growing Campaign Makes for a Greener Niger
* Byline: How one nation's campaign has saved three million hectares from becoming desert in the Sahel. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Sahel is the area of Africa that lies between the Sahara desert to the north and more fertile land to the south. The dry plains of the Sahel are mostly treeless. Yet in Niger, one of the nations along the Sahel, millions of trees are now growing. Researchers have been studying the progress of a re-greening campaign in Niger. Chris Reij is a scientist from the Netherlands. In a message at frameweb.org last February, he described how, in some places, "densities are so high that you almost look at a wall of trees." A United Nations news service reported in October that Niger's government said the campaign had already reclaimed three million hectares. Teams of workers have used simple methods such as planting trees and protecting natural vegetation to save land from being lost to desert. Ten to twenty times more trees were reported in parts of southern Niger in two thousand five than there were thirty years earlier. Some reclaimed land can now be farmed again. The land became infertile during the nineteen seventies and early eighties. But about twenty years ago, local farmers recognized that their once-productive soil was being carried away by severe winds. Trees were traditionally cut down for firewood or cleared for agriculture. Instead of clearing trees, farmers began to let them grow among their crops. At the same time, rainfall levels began to rise after a long dry period. Today, the rate of desert expansion in Niger is dropping and the amount of harvested crops is up. All this was described earlier this month in the New York Times. ?? Niger is one of the world's poorest countries and its population is growing quickly. Being able to grow more food is important. The trees hold soil in place. They also help keep the ground from getting too dry. And they offer the possibility of extra money from selling branches, leaves and fruit. Most of the trees are a kind of acacia that people in Niger call the gao tree. The trees are being grown mostly in densely populated areas. As the Times noted, this goes against the traditional thinking that population growth means a loss of trees and destruction of land. The success of the effort also suggests that earlier damage to the Sahel may not have been permanent. And some say it could put Niger in a better position to deal with whatever effects climate change might bring. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m _________. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Academy Awards: The Night When the Stars Come Out in Hollywood
* Byline: Next Sunday is the big night for people who make movies and for people who watch them. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the seventy-ninth Academy Awards ceremony, which takes place Sunday in Los Angeles, California. It is the most exciting event of the year for people who make movies and for people who love to watch them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-fifth, actors, directors, producers and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry. They will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. This statue is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award is extremely valuable for the people who receive it. People who win an Oscar can become much more famous. They can get offers to work in the best movies. They can also earn much more money. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The musical "Dreamgirls" received eight Academy Award nominations, the most of any movie released last year. "Dreamgirls" is a film version of a Broadway musical play. It tells about a group of three female singers who became famous during the nineteen sixties. The film's nominations include three for best song and two for acting. VOICE ONE: However, many people were surprised that "Dreamgirls" was not nominated for best motion picture. Five others were. They are "Babel," "The Queen," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "Little Miss Sunshine." The directors of the first four of these movies also received Academy Award nominations. "Babel" received seven nominations. It tells three powerful stories that take place in Morocco, Mexico, the United States and Japan. The actors speak five languages. "Babel" shows the terrible results of people not being able to communicate with each other. It was directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. "The Queen," directed by Stephen Frears, received six nominations. It combines fact with fiction to tell the story about how the British royal family reacted to the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, in nineteen ninety-seven. VOICE TWO: Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in scene from The Departed"The Departed" was also nominated for best picture. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it tells a violent story about men divided by power and loyalty. Some of the characters are criminals and others are members of the police force. "Letters From Iwo Jima" tells about the Japanese soldiers, and their commander, who tried to defend the island from the invasion by United States forces during World War Two. Clint Eastwood directed the Japanese actors, who speak in their native language in the film. Eastwood also directed a movie in English about the American forces fighting on that same island. "Little Miss Sunshine" is the fifth nominated movie and is the only funny one. It tells about six members of a family with many problems. They travel from Arizona to California so that the seven-year-old daughter can compete in a beauty contest. The members of the family learn to support and trust each other along the way. A movie about the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States, called "United Ninety-three," was not nominated for best picture. But its director, Paul Greengrass, did receive a nomination. VOICE ONE: Five actors were nominated for best performance in a leading role. Forest Whitaker was nominated for playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Leonardo DiCaprio played a man searching for a rare gem in Africa in "Blood Diamond." Ryan Gosling was a teacher with a drug problem in "Half Nelson." In the movie "Venus," Peter O'Toole played a very old actor interested in a very young woman. And Will Smith was a homeless father who gets a job in the financial industry in "The Pursuit of Happyness," a movie based on a true story. VOICE TWO: Five actresses were nominated for best performance in a leading role. For Meryl Streep, it was her fourteenth nomination. She is the most-nominated actor ever and is a two-time Oscar winner. She played a demanding magazine editor in "The Devil Wears Prada." British actress Helen Mirren was nominated for her role as Queen Elizabeth in "The Queen." Two other British actresses were also nominated. Judi Dench played a teacher in "Notes on a Scandal." Kate Winslet was a woman who has a sexual relationship with a neighbor in "Little Children." And Spanish actress Penelope Cruz was nominated for the Spanish-language movie "Volver." She played a woman dealing with some unusual family crises. VOICE ONE: A total of twenty actors and actresses were nominated for leading and supporting roles. Among them are five black actors and actresses, two Hispanic actresses and one Japanese actress. Experts say this is the most ethnically diverse group ever nominated for Academy Awards. In addition, critics highly praised three directors from Mexico. Their movies received a total of sixteen nominations. They are Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who was nominated for directing "Babel," Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron. Del Toro directed the Spanish-language film "Pan's Labyrinth," which received six nominations. It deals with the political situation in Spain after that country's civil war. And it shows a young girl's fearful adventures with magical creatures. Cuaron directed "Children of Men," a frightening vision of the future where women are unable to have babies. All three movies deal with serious subjects in creative ways. The directors are very good friends and often work on each other's movies. One critic called the three directors "the future of movies." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Five movies were nominated for best documentary feature, a movie about real people or events. They are about serious issues that have gotten a lot of media attention. Former vice president Al Gore's film about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," was one of the movies nominated. Two of the others are about the war in Iraq: "My Country, My Country" and "Iraq in Fragments." Another nominated documentary is "Jesus Camp," a close-up look at a summer camp for Christian children. And the last nominated documentary is "Deliver Us From Evil." It is about a former priest found guilty of sexually abusing children. VOICE ONE: More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented Sunday night. The people who wrote the best screenplays and did the best film and sound editing will receive awards. So will the people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects. The composers who wrote the best song and music from a movie will also be honored. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the Academy. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards from their own professions. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote to choose the final winners. VOICE TWO: The Academy Awards are presented in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the ceremony. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive. The women wear beautiful dresses and costly jewelry provided by famous designers. Camera lights flash. The actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the nominees and the winners. Then the winners go up onto the stage. They thank all the people who helped them win their golden Oscar. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch them on television Sunday night. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can read our scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Eye to Eye With an Elephant, and Watching for Hungry Crocs, on Safari in Africa
* Byline: ''Safari'' comes from the Swahili and Arabic words for a trip or journey; come along and experience the sights and sounds of the wild. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we go on safari to experience the sights and sounds of Africa’s rich wildlife. The word “safari” comes from the Swahili and Arabic words for a trip or journey. Tourists from all over the world go to Africa to enjoy the excitement and wonder of safari explorations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Imagine climbing into an open sided four-wheel drive vehicle early in the morning. (SOUND) Your expert guide drives you through the entrance to Chobe National Park in Botswana. All around, you can see the huge pink sky at sunrise. The trees and thick grass move slightly in the wind. Then, suddenly you hear the movement of leaves nearby. A few meters away a huge elephant walks out of the green bushes. He is so close you can see his white ivory tusks and the deep lines in his gray skin. He seems to look right at you, then moves on to continue his search for more food. Welcome to Africa and the excitement of safari. VOICE TWO: There are many national parks and game reserves in Africa where you can go on safari. For example, many tourists visit Kruger National Park in the northeastern area of South Africa. This park was established in nineteen twenty-six in an effort to protect the wildlife of South Africa. It has a surface area of almost twenty thousand square kilometers. Many kinds of plants and animals live in Kruger, including the famous “Big Five.” The Big Five are five large animals: the elephant, lion, leopard, rhinoceros and buffalo. Big game hunters created the term Big Five. For hunters, these five animals were some of the most difficult and dangerous to catch. Many tourists think mainly about seeing the Big Five while on safari. But there are many other interesting, and much smaller, animals as well. VOICE ONE: Kruger National Park represents a good example of the many kinds of safaris that are available to visitors. For example, in parks including Kruger, you can rent a car and drive around some areas on your own. There are also wilderness trails for safaris where you walk on a path to see the animals. A guide or ranger comes with you to keep you safe and tell about the animals. There are also mobile safaris where you sleep in a tent. The campsite moves with you as you travel through the park. Private hotel companies operate some areas of parks such as Kruger. These hotels can be very costly. But many people think it is worth the cost to enjoy fine food and service. After all, it is not every day you can look out of your bedroom window and see a monkey or elephant standing outside. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are several general rules to follow when traveling on safari. For example, most people wear light-colored clothing such as light brown or tan. This is because lighter colors take in less of the strong heat of the sun than dark colors do. Darker color clothes are also more likely to attract mosquitoes. It is also important to wear a hat and sunscreen lotion to protect your skin from being burned by the very hot African sun. Binoculars are also very helpful for seeing animals that are far away. VOICE ONE: When you are out in nature it is important to speak softly so as not to frighten the animals away. Also, never try to feed or go near one of the animals. And, if you are in a boat, keep your arms and legs out of the water. You might want to touch the water to cool off. But you never know if a hungry crocodile or other creature is nearby. By following these guidelines you can enjoy a safari that is both safe and exciting. VOICE TWO: Tanzania is another country with many parks and game reserves. People who like chimpanzees can visit Gombe Stream National Park on the western border of the country. This is an area of thick forests, ancient trees, and beautiful lakes. Animal expert Jane Goodall made the chimpanzee populations in this area famous. She spent many years studying the behavior of these endangered animals. A guide can take you deep into the forest. As you sit waiting, you might hear the screams and calls of the chimps coming closer. Chimpanzees share about ninety eight percent of their genes with humans. Their actions and noises can seem very human. Being able to watch these animals playing, eating and communicating with each other in the wild is a special experience to treasure. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Chobe National Park in Botswana is another popular place for safari travel. This park is home to one of the largest elephant populations in the world. Mist Setaung is a professional safari guide who often takes visitors through Chobe. Listen as he tells about himself and how he got this exciting job. MIST SETAUNG: “My name is Mist Setaung and I was born and raised in Botswana, a place called Maun which is a gateway to the Okavango delta. To become a guide you actually go through a course. There’s? a six-month course of the Department of Wildlife, which is run by the government. Then, after this course you take an exam. My father offered me a job as a trainee guide and I went into the bush. Slowly and surely I started learning and eventually it got into my blood, and I just got devoted to it.” VOICE TWO: With a guide like Mist you are guaranteed to see new animals and learn a great deal. One excellent way to see the wildlife of Chobe is by boat. Mist can take you on a boat ride up and down the river so you can see the animals as they come to drink or play in the water. Hippopotamuses like to stand in the grass and eat most of the day. Or, they enter the water to stay cool. In fact, a hippo can stay under water for up to six minutes. They are very good at hiding in the water. If you look carefully, you can see their two eyes looking out of the water at you. You know they are near when you hear the strange deep noise they make with their nose. (SOUND) These animals look too big and fat to be dangerous. But they can be very aggressive and protective of their territory. VOICE ONE: A paradise whydahIf you do not see any big animals near the river, Mist can tell you about birds instead. He can point out the male paradise whydah with its unusually long black tail feathers. Or, he might show you one of many guinea fowl, which he jokingly says are also called “Chobe chickens.”? He can even make noises that sound just like the birdcalls. VOICE TWO: There are also many smaller animals to watch for. Antelopes of all kinds live in the park. There are gnus or wildebeests with their flat wide faces. Fine-boned impalas walk around as gracefully as dancers. Solid warthogs explore the bush on their short little legs. These strange-looking wild pigs are dark with long yellow tusks coming out of their mouth. They are not very pretty animals. Mist says "they have a face only a mother could love." Mist can also tell you about conservation efforts to protect wild animals. Some animals such as the black rhinoceros have almost been destroyed because poachers illegally hunt and kill them. Many parks across Africa have had trouble with poachers. In Chobe there is an army camp with workers who make sure that poachers stay away. VOICE ONE: It might surprise you that there are too many of some other animals. For example, in parts of Chobe the large elephant population has actually harmed the environment. When elephants eat huge quantities of leaves and grasses, other animals have trouble finding enough food to eat. And, elephants are not gentle eaters. They can tear out trees and bushes as they feed. In the dry season these dead plants can increase the danger of fires. VOICE TWO: If you are lucky, you can enjoy sunset while floating down the Chobe River. Yellow and orange colors fill the sky at this hour and are reflected in the water. The sun slowly starts to slip behind the trees. But before it is dark, you see a large movement of gray bodies. Three families of elephants have come to the water's edge. More than thirty elephants are quietly drinking and eating. There are huge old elephants with large tusks. There are the mothers who lead each family group. Then, there are the babies who play and run around the thick legs of the adult elephants. The elephants look up and watch as your boat turns away and you head back to camp at the end of another day on safari in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Smoothing Out English With Help From Sentence Pronunciation Rules
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: some pronunciation rules to help make your speech sound more natural. RS: Back with us from Los Angeles is Nina Weinstein, author of the English teaching book "Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech." Last month she talked about reduced forms like wanna, gonna and hafta, the spoken versions of "want to," "going to" and "have to." AA: In the same way, "what do you" changes to "whaddaya" when a speaker is talking at a natural speed. Nina Weinstein says once you learn how speed affects words, the next step is to learn how it affects the pronunciation of sentences. NINA WEINSTEIN: "There are languages that have choppy rhythms. For instance, German has a choppy rhythm, Vietnamese has a choppy rhythm. But English doesn't; English wants to be a smooth language. So the best way to smooth out a language, or the smoothest organization, is consonant vowel, which explains the first rule: If there is a final consonant sound followed by a vowel sound, the consonant sound will move over. This is automatic; people don't think about it. "And we have a couple of examples that we could play if you want to, to show how the reduced forms and these pronunciation rules work together." WOMAN'S VOICE: "[with reduced forms only] I don't wanna spend a lot a money. I don't wanna spend a lot a money." NINA WEINSTEIN: "The written sentence is, 'I don't want to.' We learn that the reduced form for 'want to' is wanna, so that's how we get 'I don't wanna.' And then 'spend a lot of money' -- we learn that 'of' becomes 'a' if it's said at a natural speed. So we're left with 'I don't wanna spend a lot a money.' So now we apply the sentence rules. "We want to know how the sentence will be pronounced. So we look at 'spend a' and we know that 'spend' is said with a final consonant sound followed by a vowel sound, 'a,' so instead of 'spend a,' we will get 'spenda': 'I don't wanna spenda.' AA: "What's your other example there?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, the other example in that sentence is 'a lot a.' So 'a lot a,' we have the 'o' sound before the 't' and the 'a' sound after, so we have a 't' surrounded by vowels. 'T' changes to 'd,' 'd' is a final consonant. "Usually a final consonant sound just moves over to the next vowel sound, but we have a special case if it's a 't': we want to make sure to look for vowel sounds or listen for vowel sounds on either side. So we have 'spenda loda.' With 'lot,' 't' becomes 'd' and then it moves over to the 'a.' So it's happened two times in this sentence: 'I don't wanna spenda loda money.'" WOMAN'S VOICE: "[with reduced forms and sentence rules applied] I don't wanna spenda loda money." RS: That voice is from the practice materials with Nina Weinstein's book "Whaddaya Say?" The next rule she teaches is that when two of the same sound are next to each other, one is going to drop out. WOMAN'S VOICE: "[with reduced forms only] Git em as soon as possible. Git em as soon as possible." RS: Said slowly that is "Get them as soon as possible." WOMAN'S VOICE: "Git em as soon as possible." NINA WEINSTEIN: "So 'as' ends with a 'z' or close to an 's' sound. 'Soon' begins with an 's' sound, so two of the same sound, one drops out. And, again, it's that smoothing of the rhythm of the language. If we stop to pronounce each sound, we're going to break the language into a piece. So instead of 'as soon,' it becomes 'asoon.' "Now we apply the sentence rules and we look at 'git em.' We have a 't' sound. We said whenever there's a 't,' we want to know if there are vowel sounds on either side, which in this case there are. So 't' becomes 'd' and then moves over to the 'em,' so instead of 'git em,' it becomes 'gidem." WOMAN'S VOICE: "Gidem asoon as possible. Gidem asoon as possible."? (If we move the other final consonant sounds followed by vowel sounds, and apply reduced forms and sentence rules, it?would sound like this:?"Gide ma soo nas possible," Nina Weinstein says.) RS: "How do you go about teaching this? What would you suggest?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "First of all, I would suggest starting with the first rule: final consonant sound followed by a vowel sound. So when people were in class and they were listening to tapes of natural speakers, I would write a sentence on the board, for instance. And then analyze it, and ask them before they even thought about it or heard it or whatever, if there's a final consonant sound in that sentence followed by a vowel sound, and how they think it might be said. And then play the sentence and see if it is said that way. If a native speaker says the sentence without stopping, the final consonant sound followed by a vowel sound is almost impossible not to do." AA: English teacher Nina Weinstein is the author of "Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech," published by Longman. You can find transcripts and audio files of all of our segments -- including this one and our recent discussion of reduced forms -- at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Study Children Who Feel No Pain
* Byline: Recent findings from research into pain, including a British study that shows that women may feel pain more than men. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we tell about some recent studies of pain, and new possibilities for controlling it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Have you ever wished you could not feel pain? There are people in the world with this ability. They do not know when they are hurting. If you have ever broken a leg or given birth, this might sound good to you. But a person unable to feel physical pain can be in danger and not know it. Last year, Nature magazine published a report about six children who have never suffered pain. C. Geoffrey Woods of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in England and his team wrote the report. VOICE TWO: The six children come from three families from northern Pakistan. The research team found the children after hearing about a boy who apparently felt no pain. The boy stood on burning coals and stabbed his arms with knives to earn money. He died in a fall before the researchers could meet him. But the team was able to find members of the boy's extended family. They also seemed unable to feel pain. These children were six to fourteen years of age. They sometimes burned themselves with hot liquids or steam. They sat on hot heating devices. They cut their lips with their teeth, but felt no pain. Two of the children bit off one-third of their tongue. ?Yet they could feel pressure and tell differences between hot and cold. VOICE ONE: Doctor Woods and his research team studied DNA -- deoxyribonucleic acid -- from the children. They also examined DNA from the children's parents. The team found that all had a gene with a mistake, or fault. Except for the genetic fault, the children had normal intelligence and health. The researchers found that each child received a faulty version of the gene from a parent. The gene is called SCN9A. It gives orders to a protein that serves as a passageway for the chemical sodium. All nerve cells have such passages. This is how pain signals from a wound or injury are communicated to the spinal cord and brain. VOICE TWO: Two years ago, investigators at Yale University in the United States discovered something important about SCN9A. They linked it to a rare condition in which patients suffer painful burning in their feet or hands. The problems of these patients were nearly opposite to those of the children who felt no pain. In patients with the burning hands and feet, SCN9A was too active. The findings of the British and American groups may mean better medical help for pain. Doctor Woods' team says this could happen if medicine can be developed to control the faulty gene. That would be welcome news to people whose pain resists current medicines. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another report says many Americans believe they are suffering more pain now than in earlier years. The National Center for Health Statistics released the report last November. The center is an agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty five percent of American adults said they had a full day of pain in the month before they were questioned. Ten percent were more deeply affected. Their pain continued for a year or more. ? Amy Bernstein was lead research writer for the study. Miz Bernstein said pain is rarely considered as a separate condition. Yet she said costs linked to pain overload the health care system. ? VOICE TWO: The study found that lower back pain was a big problem. More than twenty five percent of adults who were asked said they had lower back pain in the past three months. Painful knees caused the most trouble of the body's joints. But some victims of knee pain are doing something about it. They are having operations to replace the painful joint. Their replacement knees are man-made, or artificial. Starting in nineteen ninety-two, rates of hospital stays for knee replacement rose almost ninety percent among older Americans. The patients were sixty-five years of age or older. VOICE ONE: Americans also reported head pain. Fifteen percent of adults said they suffered a migraine or other severe headache in the past three months. This pain affected young people three times as much as older adults. ? Reports of severe joint pain increased with age. Women said they had painful joints more often than men. The study showed that painful conditions caused increased use of narcotic drugs. Narcotics can be strong painkillers. The study compared two periods. One period lasted six years and ended in nineteen ninety-four. The other began in nineteen ninety-nine and ended four years ago. Between those periods, the percentage of adults who said they used a narcotic for pain in the past month rose from three to four percent. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Doctors usually order opiates for patients with severe pain. Opiates include morphine, codeine and methadone. Most of these drugs come from the poppy flower. Doctors have used one opiate, opium, to treat pain for more than two thousand years. A newer drug, oxycodone, is called an opioid. An opioid is similar to an opiate. Doctors use it to control moderate to severe pain over a long period. For example, a woman from Rockville, Maryland, has a painful back. Her doctor says he cannot operate on it without putting her in danger of losing the use of her legs. The woman was in severe pain much of the time until the doctor ordered a form of oxycodone. She still has pain at some times of day. But she is able to work at home and take part in at least some of the activities she loves. VOICE ONE: Many doctors order, or prescribe, narcotic drugs for patients with continuing severe pain like that of the Maryland woman. Narcotic drugs may help to decrease pain, but can make many people sleepy. They also can be addictive. The user may need increasing amounts to get the same effect. Some doctors have prescribed more narcotic drugs than are medically necessary. Doctors face possible arrest and jail sentences if they knowingly order narcotics for other than medical reasons. VOICE TWO: Non-medical use of oxycodone and similar drugs has killed many Americans. Some people break them up and mix them with other drugs. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an increase in the number of accidental deaths from prescription drugs. C.D.C. officials say the number increased more than sixty percent between nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand four. That made accidental drug-poisoning the second largest cause of accidental death in the United States. Only traffic accidents rated higher. VOICE ONE: The C.D.C. got its information from official death reports. The reports do not always clearly state which drugs are involved. But researchers say they believe painkillers ordered by doctors caused the increase. Clearly, strong painkillers can be dangerous, but many patients need them. To meet this need, some doctors and hospitals today provide special services for such patients. For example, doctors who teach at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine in Ohio offer advice and treatment for several kinds of pain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As you hear this program, research into pain continues around the world. Recently, an English study suggested that women feel pain more than men. Psychologist Ed Keogh says the study found that women also feel pain in more body areas than men. It also found that women suffer pain more often and for longer periods than men. In the study, several people at the University of Bath held one arm in warm water. Then they put the arm in icy cold water. Both men and women were told to think about the physical nature of the pain. They were not to think about their emotional reactions to it. Using this psychological trick, men said they felt less pain than women. VOICE ONE: Mister Keogh says many explanations of these differences depend on genetic and hormonal influences. But he says psychological and social reasons also are important. One medical worker who has cared for hundreds of people says it is never fair to say someone is making too much of their pain. She adds that no one can ever know what other people are feeling. VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-20-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Insect Threatens Ash Trees in US
* Byline: Invasion of the emerald ash borer raises fears that the popular tree could be lost, so experts are collecting seeds for preservation. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A beetle invasion in the United States has killed at least twenty million ash trees. The invasion of the emerald ash borer was first discovered near Detroit, Michigan, in two thousand two. Experts believe the small green insects arrived in the nineteen nineties in shipments of goods from China. The emerald ash borer has destroyed trees in the Midwest and as far east in the United States as Maryland. The insects have also spread as far north as Ontario, Canada. Ash trees are popular. They grow well in heavy clay soils, and they can survive ice storms well. They produce many leaves, so they provide shade protection from the sun. And in the fall the leaves turn a beautiful gold and purple. Ash trees can resist many diseases. But they cannot resist the emerald ash borer. It lays eggs on the bark. Then the young larvae drill into and feed on the inner bark. This harms the ability of the tree to transport water and nutrients. The insect is attacking tree farms and can also spread when logs and firewood are transported. The United States Department of Agriculture is working to save the ash tree. So are agriculture departments and university extensions in a number of states. In some places, farmers are using "detection trees." These have an area where bark has been cut away. The area circles the tree and is called a girdle. The girdling process weakens the trees. It makes them easier targets for borers, and shows if the insects are nearby. Efforts to stop the spread of the emerald ash borer include cutting down affected trees. A tree farmer in Maryland, for example, recently faced the loss of hundreds of trees. There are worries that the ash tree might disappear unless the invasion is controlled. To prepare for such a possibility, a government laboratory is collecting seeds from ash trees. David Burgdorf works in East Lansing, Michigan, for the Natural Resources Conservation Service; the service is part of the United States Department of Agriculture. He is asking people to send in ash seeds. The laboratory examines and x-rays the seeds to make sure there are no living borer embryos. The best seeds are then sent for storage in a seed bank in Fort Collins, Colorado. There, they are dried and frozen at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation. Should the seeds ever be needed, the hope is that scientists might someday develop an ash tree that could resist the little green attackers. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Test May Show Heart Patients' Risk | Napping to a Healthier Heart??
* Byline: Researchers think a protein level can tell if a person with heart disease is likely to suffer a heart attack. Also, a study says afternoon sleep may cut the risk of dying from a heart attack. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say they have developed a simple test that can tell if a person with heart disease is likely to suffer a heart attack. The test measures levels of a protein in the blood. The researchers say people with high levels of this protein are at high risk of heart attack, heart failure or stroke. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California in San Francisco led the team. For about four years, they studied almost one thousand patients with heart disease. The researchers tested the heart disease patients for a protein called NT-proBNP. Patients with the highest levels were nearly eight times more likely than those with the lowest levels to have a heart attack, heart failure or stroke. The researchers say the presence of high levels of the protein in the blood shows that the heart muscle is under pressure in some way. The study involved mostly men, so the researchers could not say for sure that the results are also true for women. They say the patients with the highest levels of NT-proBNP were older and had other problems like diabetes or high blood pressure. Other researchers say more studies are needed to confirm if knowing the protein levels of a heart patient should affect that person's treatment. They also would like to know if more aggressive treatment could reduce the patient's chance of a heart attack or stroke. The study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Could a little sleep during the middle of the day reduce the risk of a heart attack? An unrelated study earlier this month in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that the answer may be yes. In countries like the United States, afternoon naps are mostly for children. But they are common for adults in Mediterranean countries. And these countries generally have lower rates of heart disease. So scientists in the United States and Greece wondered if naps could play a part. Twenty-three thousand healthy adults took part in the study by Harvard University and the University of Athens. Those who took thirty-minute naps three times a week had a thirty-seven percent lower risk of death from heart problems than people who did not take naps. The researchers say napping may improve heart health by reducing stress. They say the research suggests that naps are especially good for working men. But they say not enough female subjects died during the study to judge the benefits for women. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US History: 1950s Popular Culture Helped Take Minds Off Nuclear Fears
* Byline: It was also a time of growth in suburban living, rock and roll, and a rebellion in literature and art. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Phil Murray. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell what life was like in American during the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Imagine that you are visiting the United States. What would you expect to see? In the nineteen fifties, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength. It was a nation whose population was growing as never before. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be peaceful for awhile. By nineteen fifty, however, political tensions were high again. The United States and the Soviet Union, allies in war, had become enemies. The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another. And Soviet leader Josef Stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. The Soviet Union had strengthened its armed forces after the war. The United States had taken many steps to disarm. Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb. America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-nine, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them? The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb. The race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction. Would these weapons ever be used? The American publication, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, always showed a picture of a clock. By nineteen forty-nine, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight. That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction. The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced. They were even more afraid of what science could produce. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty, North Korea invaded South Korea. The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb. That was the hydrogen bomb. The Soviets were developing such a weapon, too. Many Americans were afraid. Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes. They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack. VOICE ONE: Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid. In nineteen fifty-two, the military hero of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president. The economy improved. Americans looked to the future with hope. Dwight EisenhowerOne sign of hope was the baby boom. This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war. The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty. The bigger families needed houses. In ninetee fifty alone, one million four hundred thousand houses were built in America. Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better. They also liked having more space for their children to play. VOICE TWO: Many Americans remember the nineteen fifties as the fad years. A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the nineteen fifties was the Hula Hoop. The Hula Hoop was a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle. To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion. This kept it spinning around your body. The motion was like one used by Polynesian people in their native dance, the hula. Other fads in the nineteen fifties involved clothes or hair. Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog. Actress Mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the Broadway play, "South Pacific." VOICE ONE: In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous. Not everyone thought she was a great actress. But she had shining golden hair. And she had what was considered a perfect body. Marilyn Monroe's success did not make her happy. She killed herself in the nineteen sixties, when she was thirty-six years old. Another famous actor of those days was James Dean. To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young. In fact, one of his films was called, "Rebel Without a Cause." James Dean died in a car accident in nineteen fifty-five. He was twenty-four. VOICE TWO: The nineteen fifties saw a rebellion in American literature. As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life. These were the writers and poets of the Beat generation, including Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. They said life was empty in nineteen-fifties America. They described the people as dead in brain and spirit. Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art. Pollock did not paint things the way they looked. Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased. He was asked again and again: "What do your paintings mean?" He answered: "Do not worry about what they mean. They are just there ... like flowers." VOICE ONE: In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley. He was the king of rock-and-roll. (MUSIC) Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time. He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual. Parents and religious leaders criticized him. Young people screamed for more. They could not get enough rock-and-roll. They played it on records. They heard it on the radio. And they listened to it on the television program "American Bandstand." (MUSIC) This program became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen forties, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the nineteen fifties, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day. Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan. VOICE ONE: People from other countries watching American television in the nineteen fifties might have thought that all Americans were white Christians. At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions. Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television. Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people. A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the nineteen fifties. Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools. By the nineteen sixties, the civil rights movement would shake the nation. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the nineteen fifties. He faced the problems of communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions. He had a calm way of speaking. And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way. Some citizens felt he was like a father to the nation. With Mister Eisenhower in the White House, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-21-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Once You Get Into a US College, Where Should You Live?
* Byline: Advice about what to consider, and what questions to ask, in Part 25 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. We have talked all about the college admissions process. Now we move on to college life once you get accepted to a school. The first thing you need is a place to live. That is our subject this week. Housing policies differ from school to school. Students might be able to choose whatever housing they can find. Or they might have to live in a dormitory, at least for the first year. Dorms come in all sizes. A building may house a small number of students or many hundreds. Some have suites. Each suite has several bedrooms, a common living area and a bathroom. Six or more students may live in one suite. Other dorms have many rooms along a common hallway, usually with two students in each room. Many students say dormitories provide the best chance to get to know other students. Also, dorms generally cost less than apartments or other housing not owned by the school. Most colleges and universities offer single-sex dorms, but usually males and females live in the same building. They might live on the same floors and share the same common bathrooms. But, in most cases, they may live in the same room only if they are married. At many schools, male students can join fraternities and females can join sororities. These are mainly social organizations but members may also be able to live at their fraternity or sorority house. Edward Spencer is the associate vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He says it is important to understand the rules of the building in which you will live. He advises students to ask questions before they decide about their housing. For example: If a student requires a special diet, will the school provide for it? How much privacy can a student expect? Will the school provide a single room if a student requests one? And what about any other special needs that a student might have? Virginia Tech, for example, had a ban against candles in dorms. But it changed that policy to let students light candles for religious purposes. The university also has several dorms open all year so foreign students have a place to stay during vacation times. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Making Art Out of Common Materials: The Boxes of Joseph Cornell
* Byline: A question from Vietnam about the Florida Everglades. And listen to some of the music nominated for this year's Academy Awards. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the Everglades … Play some music nominated for an Academy Award … And report about an artist who builds boxes. Joseph Cornell Have you ever heard of art in a box? Joseph Cornell was an important artist best known for his beautifully constructed boxes. A large collection of his interesting artwork was shown recently at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: "Untitled (Cockatoo with Watch Faces)," circa 1949, from the Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection. Photo copyright, Cornell Memorial Foundation/VAGAYou could say that Joseph Cornell became an artist because of his love of collecting. Cornell used to spend his free time exploring the street life of New York City in the nineteen twenties. He soon started collecting old books, prints, postcards and even three-dimensional objects that he found in stores that sold used books. Cornell also attended many museum shows, gallery openings and dance performances. He was influenced by a group of artists called the Surrealists who combined images in unusual and often strange ways. Joseph Cornell started making his own works by cutting out different pictures and putting them together in creative and magical combinations. Soon, he started making boxes inside of which were carefully arranged pictures and objects. He worked on his art at night after finishing his day job. Later, when his boxes and images started selling and receiving public recognition, he worked on his art full time. Joseph Cornell died in nineteen seventy-two.The Smithsonian exhibit showed almost two hundred works made during his forty-year career. One work is called “Soap Bubble Set.” A box with a glass window shows a map of the moon, several pictures of sea creatures, two glass cups and two white pipes for smoking. In another box, Cornell combines an image of a cockatoo bird with a music box and watch faces. Joseph Cornell once said his art was based on everyday experiences. He said that with his art he showed “the beauty of the commonplace.” Visitors who came to this special exhibit found magic in regular objects - and even saw beauty in a box. The Everglades HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc wants to know about the Everglades National Park in the southern state of Florida. The Everglades National Park is the third largest national park in the mainland United States. President Harry S. Truman officially established the national park in nineteen forty-seven. He placed almost two hundred thousand hectares of land in the area under federal control. The parkland has since been expanded several times. The United States now protects more than six hundred thousand hectares of the Everglades. This is only about twenty percent of the Everglades ecosystem. The Everglades was the first national park established to protect only biological resources. The wetlands are famous around the world for their diversity of wildlife. The United Nations has called the area "a world biological treasure." The Everglades is really a slow-moving, extremely shallow river that flows south to the ocean. It is filled with sharp, thin sawgrass. This is why the Everglades is sometimes called the River of Grass. The area was also once called?the "liquid heart" of Florida. Forests of palm, cypress, mangrove and pine are also a part of the Everglades. It is home to beautiful plants and sweet-smelling flowers. These include several kinds of the highly prized and rare flower, the orchid. Many kinds of animals live in the Everglades. Many colorful birds and butterflies live there. So do snakes, frogs, foxes and even big cats, called Florida panthers. But the alligators and crocodiles are probably the animals most identified with the Everglades. No other place in the world is home to both. However,? the Everglades is one of the most endangered national parks in the United States. Human activities and development around the edges of the park threaten the area's health and future. Many of the animals are in danger of disappearing. More than one million people visit the Everglades National Park each year. The park will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary next December. Oscar Nominated Songs The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present its seventy-ninth yearly Academy Awards on Sunday. These awards are known as the Oscars. They honor writers, directors, actors and others who helped create the best motion pictures last year. They also honor songs written for those movies. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: One of the five nominated songs was written by Randy Newman for the animated movie "Cars." It is called "Our Town," and is performed by James Taylor. (MUSIC) 'Dreamgirls,' from left, Sharon Leal, Beyonce Knowles and Anika Noni RoseA second nominated song was written by Melissa Etheridge. It is called "I Need To Wake Up." It is from the documentary about global warming called "An Inconvenient Truth."? The final three nominated songs all were written by Henry Krieger for the musical movie “Dreamgirls.” The movie is about a group of female singers who become famous during the nineteen sixties. One of the songs is called “Listen.”? Beyonce sings it in "Dreamgirls." This song is called "Patience." Eddie Murphy sings it in the movie. (MUSIC) We leave you now with the third song nominated from the movie "Dreamgirls." Jennifer Hudson sings "Love You I Do." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. --- Correction: An earlier version of this page provided incomplete title information for the Joseph Cornell work pictured. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Maker of Cervical Cancer Vaccine Stops Pushing to Require It for Girls
* Byline: Merck says criticism of its lobbying campaign was interfering with its efforts to gain widespread use of Gardasil. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, the drug company Merck announced that it would end a lobbying campaign for Gardasil, its new vaccine for girls and women. The vaccine is designed to protect against four kinds of human papillomavirus, or HPV. These cause about seventy percent of cervical cancers and ninety percent of genital warts. The development of the vaccine has been widely praised. But Merck faced growing criticism for its push for states to require schoolgirls to be vaccinated with Gardasil. The company says the criticism was interfering with its goal of widespread use of the vaccine. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil last June for females age nine to twenty-six. At least twenty of the fifty state legislatures have begun to consider some form of Gardasil requirement. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry has ordered that beginning in two thousand eight, girls eleven and twelve years old must be vaccinated with Gardasil. But parents could choose not to, if they object for religious or other reasons. Critics said politicians were moving too fast. And they accused Mister Perry of being too close to Merck. The company had given money to his re-election campaign. And his former chief of staff is now a Merck lobbyist in Texas. Critics said the lobbying campaign for required use of Gardasil created a conflict of interest for Merck. Gardasil is a lot more costly than other childhood vaccinations. The vaccine is given as three injections over a six-month period; the complete series cost more than three hundred fifty dollars. There were also objections on legal and moral grounds. Some parents argued that since HPV is passed during sex, required use of Gardasil might lead to greater sexual activity among young people. Others say required use would violate privacy rights. Other critics called for more study of Gardasil, especially in younger girls. They note that during studies of the vaccine, ninety-five percent of the subjects were females sixteen and older. Cervical cancer rates have been dropping in the United States. On average three thousand seven hundred women die from it each year. But cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women in poor countries. In December, Merck said it would work toward providing Gardasil to those countries at a lower price. Merck competitor GlaxoSmithKline is expected to request federal approval of its own cervical cancer vaccine in April. And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Britain to Withdraw 1,600 Troops in Iraq, and More May Follow
* Byline: Tony Blair says cuts are possible because of the increased readiness of Iraqi forces to take control. The White House calls the move a ''sign of success.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced this week that one thousand six hundred British troops will leave Iraq in the coming months. Britain has more than seven thousand troops in Iraq. The forces to be withdrawn are in the Basra area in the south. Most of those remaining will be located at Basra air base. Their tasks will include training and supporting Iraqi forces and securing the border with Iran. Mister Blair said the withdrawal was possible because of the increased readiness of Iraqi forces to take control. He said he hopes to reduce British troops levels to below five thousand later this year. He says British forces will stay in Iraq into two thousand eight as long as they are wanted and have a job to do. Tony Blair has said he will leave office by September after ten years as prime minister. The Labor Party leader has lost popularity and has decided not to seek a fourth term. Britain has been the biggest ally of the United States in Iraq. Britain deployed forty thousand troops for the invasion in two thousand three. That number fell to about nine thousand two years ago. A spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House had this reaction to the announcement: "President Bush sees this as a sign of success and what is possible for us once we help the Iraqis deal with the sectarian violence in Baghdad." The British announcement came as the Bush administration is increasing American troop strength in the Baghdad area. The president recently announced an increase of more than twenty thousand troops in Iraq, raising the number above one hundred fifty thousand. Baghdad remains the center of violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Mister Blair said the situation in the capital cannot be compared to Basra, a Shiite city where attacks are aimed largely at coalition forces. In addition to the British, about four hundred sixty Danish soldiers under British command in southern Iraq will be withdrawn by August. And Lithuania says it is considering withdrawing its fifty-three troops in southern Iraq. Britain will remain the second largest foreign military presence in Iraq. South Korea is third. South Korea has deployed more than two thousand troops in the Kurdish-controlled north. But it plans to withdraw half of them soon. Others with hundreds of troops in Iraq include Georgia, Poland, Romania, Australia and El Salvador. Countries that have already withdrawn include Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Japan and New Zealand. Vice President Dick Cheney said this week in Japan that terrorists would see it as weakness if American troops left Iraq too soon. Sixty-three percent of Americans in a recent opinion study said they support a withdrawal by two thousand nine. On Friday, British media reported that Britain is about to announce an additional one thousand troops for Afghanistan. Taleban forces are expected to launch a spring offensive. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Ida Tarbell, 1857-1944: She Used Her Reporting Skills Against One of the Most Powerful Companies in the World
* Byline: Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about reporter Ida Minerva Tarbell. Ida Tarbell was one of the most successful magazine writers in the United States during the last century. ?She wrote important stories at a time when women had few social or political rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ida Tarbell used her reporting skills against one of the most powerful companies in the world. That company was Standard Oil. Ida Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies. She investigated these illegal business dealings and wrote about them for a magazine called McClure's. The reports she wrote led to legal cases that continued all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ida Tarbell was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in November, eighteen fifty-seven. Her family did not have much money. Her father worked hard but had not been very successful. When Ida was three years old, oil was discovered in the nearby town of Titusville. Her father entered the oil business. He struggled as a small businessman to compete with the large oil companies. Ida's mother had been a school teacher. ?She made sure that Ida attended school. She also helped the young girl learn her school work. Ida wanted to study science at college. Most people at that time thought it was not important for young women to learn anything more than to read and write. ?Most people thought educating women was a waste of money. Ida's parents, however, believed education was important -- even for women. They sent her to Allegheny College in nearby Meadville, Pennsylvania. She was nineteen. VOICE ONE: Those who knew Ida Tarbell in college say she would wake up at four o'clock in the morning to study. She was never happy with her school work until she thought it was perfect. In eighteen eighty, Ida finished college. In August of that year, she got a teaching job in Poland, Ohio. It paid five hundred dollars a year. VOICE TWO: Miss Tarbell learned that she was expected to teach subjects about which she knew nothing. She was able to do so by reading the school books before the students did. She was a successful teacher, but the work, she decided, was too difficult for the amount she was paid. So she returned home after one year. A small newspaper in the town of Meadville soon offered her a job. Many years later, Ida Tarbell said she had never considered being a writer. She took the job with the newspaper only because she needed the money. At first, she worked only a few hours each week. Later, however, she was working sixteen hours a day. She discovered that she loved to see things she had written printed in the paper. She worked very hard at becoming a good writer. VOICE ONE: Miss Tarbell enjoyed working for the newspaper. She discovered, though, that she was interested in stories that were too long for the paper to print. She also wanted to study in France. To earn money while in Paris, she decided she would write for American magazines. Ida Tarbell found it difficult to live in Paris without much money. She also found it difficult to sell her work to magazines. The magazines were in the United States. She was in Paris. Some of her stories were never used because it took too long for them to reach the magazine. Yet she continued to write. Several magazines soon learned that she was a serious writer. VOICE TWO: A man named Samuel McClure visited Miss Tarbell in Paris. He owned a magazine named McClure's. Mister McClure had read several of her stories. He wanted her to return to the United States and work for his magazine. She immediately understood that this was a very good offer. But she said no. She proposed that she write for McClure's from Paris. Ida Tarbell wrote many stories for McClure's. She did this for some time before returning to the United States. Her writing was very popular. She helped make McClure's one of the most successful magazines of its day. One of her first jobs for the magazine was a series of stories about the life of the French Emperor Napoleon. The series was printed in McClure's Magazine in eighteen ninety-four. It was an immediate success. The series was later printed as a book. It was very popular for a number of years. VOICE ONE: Her next project was a series about the life of American President Abraham Lincoln. She began her research by talking with people who had known him. She used nothing they told her, however, unless she could prove it was true to the best of her ability. McClure's Magazine wanted a short series about President Lincoln. But Ida Tarbell's series lasted for one year in the magazine. Like her series about Napoleon, the President Lincoln stories were immediately popular. They helped sell more magazines. She continued her research about President Lincoln. Through the years, she would write eight books about President Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Miss Tarbell's reports about the Standard Oil Company are considered more important than any of her other writings. Her nineteen-part series was called The History of the Standard Oil Company. McClure's Magazine published it beginning in nineteen-oh-two. Her reports showed that Standard Oil used illegal methods to make other companies lose business. One method was to sell oil in one area of the country for much less than the oil was worth. This caused smaller companies in that area to fail. They could not sell their oil for that low a price and still make a profit. After a company failed, Standard Oil would then increase the price of its oil. This kind of unfair competition was illegal. VOICE ONE: Miss Tarbell had trouble discovering information about the Standard Oil Company. She tried to talk to businessmen who worked in the oil business. At first, few would agree to talk. They were afraid of the Standard Oil Company and its owner, John D. Rockefeller. He was one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Miss Tarbell kept seeking information. She was told by one man that Rockefeller would try to destroy McClure's Magazine. But she did not listen to the threats. She soon found evidence that Standard Oil had been using unfair and illegal methods to destroy other oil companies. Soon many people were helping her find the evidence she needed. VOICE TWO: Ida Tarbell's investigations into Standard Oil were partly responsible for later legal action by the federal government against the company. The case began in nineteen-oh-six. In nineteen eleven, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Standard Oil because of its illegal dealings. The decision was a major one. It forced the huge company to separate into thirty-six different companies. John D. Rockefeller never had to appear in court himself. Yet the public felt he was responsible for his company's illegal actions. The investigative work of Ida Tarbell helped form that public opinion. That investigative work continues to be what she is known for, even though some of her later writings defended American business. She died in nineteen forty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A picture has survived from the long ago days when Ida Tarbell took on the giant Standard Oil Company. It shows John D. Rockefeller walking to his car. It was taken after his company had lost an important court battle. He is wearing a tall black hat and a long coat. He looks angry. Several people are watching the famous man from behind the car. One is a very tall women. Mister Rockefeller does not see her. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the face of Ida Tarbell. She is smiling. If you know the story, her smile clearly says: "I won." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program, on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Baloney: It's Just Not True
* Byline: Expressions used to describe false, wrong or foolish things. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Baloney is a kind of sausage that many Americans eat often. The word also has another meaning in English. It is used to describe something – usually something someone says – that is false or wrong or foolish. Baloney sausage comes from the name of the Italian city, Bologna. The city is famous for its sausage, a mixture of smoked, spiced meat from cows and pigs. But, boloney sausage does not taste the same as beef or pork alone. Some language experts think this different taste is responsible for the birth of the expression baloney. Baloney is an idea or statement that is nothing like the truth…in the same way that baloney sausage tastes nothing like the meat that is used to make it. Baloney is a word often used by politicians to describe the ideas of their opponents. The expression has been used for years. Fifty years ago, a former governor of New York state, Alfred Smith, criticized some claims by President Franklin Roosevelt about the successes of the Roosevelt administration. Smith said, “No matter how thin you slice it, it is still baloney.”A similar word has almost the same meaning as baloney. It even sounds almost the same. The word is blarney. It began in Ireland about sixteen hundred. The lord of Blarney castle, near Cork, agreed to surrender the castle to British troops. But he kept making excuses for postponing the surrender. And, he made them sound like very good excuses, “this is just more of the same blarney.” The Irish castle now is famous for its Blarney stone. Kissing the stone is thought to give a person special powers of speech. One who has kissed the Blarney stone, so the story goes, can speak words of praise so smoothly and sweetly that you believe them, even when you know they are false. A former Roman Catholic bishop of New York City, Fulton Sheen, once explained, “Baloney is praise so thick it cannot be true. And blarney is praise so thin we like it.” Another expression is pulling the wool over someone’s eyes. It means to make someone believe something that is not true. The expression goes back to the days when men wore false hair, or wigs, similar to those worn by judges today in British courts. The word wool is a popular joking word for hair. If you pulled a man’s wig over his eyes, he could not see what was happening. Today, when you pull the wool over someone’s eyes, he cannot see the truth. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I’m Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In Charleston, Southern Friendliness Meets American History
* Byline: A beautiful city with a most interesting story. The Civil War began at its waterfront. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Houses along South Battery Street in CharlestonWelcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. This week, come along to one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the United States - Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War began at its waterfront. Charleston is on a piece of land in the southeastern United States that points like a finger to the Atlantic Ocean. Rivers flow by either side of the city. They are the Ashley and the Cooper rivers. The people of Charleston will smile and tell you the Ashley and the Cooper rivers join to form the Atlantic Ocean. They know this is not true, but they like to tell the story anyway. It shows how proud the people of Charleston are of their city. (MUSIC) Charleston has a very rich history. It is the only city in the United States that can claim to have defended itself from American Indians, fierce pirates, Spanish ships, French soldiers, and British forces. It was first in many things. Charleston had the first continual train service in the United States. It built the first museum and the first public flower garden in America. And the first battle of the American Civil War took place on a very small but important island in its port. Charleston has some of the most beautiful and unusual homes in America. One critic has called Charleston the most friendly city in the United States. Charleston is all of these things and much more. VOICE TWO: Plan your visit to Charleston for early spring, late autumn or the winter months. The citizens of Charleston will tell you their lovely city is not fun in the summer. It is extremely hot. The summer heat is important to the history of Charleston. Early settlers owned huge farms called plantations. In the seventeen hundreds, these farms produced a plant called indigo which is used to make cloth the color blue. Many plantation owners forced slaves to do the work needed to grow indigo in the extreme heat. Slavery became important to the economy of Charleston. The plantations, indigo and slavery are part of the history of the city. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At least three Indian tribes were living in the area that became Charleston when Spanish explorers arrived in fifteen twenty-one.The Spanish explorers, and later, French explorers tried to establish settlements near that area but none lasted. English settlers first came to the area in sixteen seventy. They established a town. They called it Charles Town in honor of the English King, Charles the Second. The people of the city changed its name to Charleston in seventeen eighty-three. VOICE TWO: Many people came to live in Charleston because it produced indigo and had a good port. The people who settled the area were hard working and independent. They considered themselves citizens of England. Still, they did not like some of the laws declared by the English government. The colonists successfully defended their city many times in the early seventeen hundreds. They defended it against both French and Spanish forces, and against raids by Yamasee Indians and by pirates. In seventeen nineteen, the citizens of Charleston rebelled against the group of English men who controlled their colony. They wanted more self-government. Britain's King George agreed. This change gave the people of Charleston a feeling of independence. VOICE ONE: Charleston is still proud of its part in the war for independence. The city provided several political and military leaders during the American Revolution. British forces attacked it two times, but were defeated by the people of Charleston. The third time, the British captured the city and held it for more than a year. Charleston continued to grow after the American colonists had won their independence from England. The new federal government knew that the city was important. Workers began building a strong base to guard Charleston in eighteen twenty-eight. This base was on a small island in Charleston Harbor. It was named Fort Sumter. It was designed to guard the city from any future enemy. VOICE TWO: There were no thoughts of war or future enemies while Fort Sumter was being built. The plantations near Charleston had began to plant new crops like rice and cotton. With the help of slave labor, cotton became extremely important to the economy of Charleston and much of the South. Many people in the northern United States began to think that slavery was very wrong, however. Slave owners in the South wanted things to remain as they had always been. They believed the federal government had no right to tell them what they could or could not do. VOICE ONE: A national crisis began when Abraham Lincoln was elected president in eighteen sixty. The people of South Carolina believed he would try to end slavery by force. They voted to leave the United States. They were quickly followed by other southern states. These southern states soon created the government of the Confederate States of America. Federal troops controlled Fort Sumter when South Carolina voted to leave the Union. The people of Charleston demanded the federal troops leave. The Union commander refused. On the morning of April twelfth, eighteen sixty-one, a cannon was fired at Fort Sumter. It was the first shot of America's long Civil War. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Charleston suffered a lot of damage during the Civil War. Several major battles were fought there. Late in the war another battle for control of Fort Sumter continued for almost two years. Much of Charleston had been destroyed by the time the war ended. Rebuilding the city was a long and slow process. The people of Charleston tried to save the historic buildings from the seventeen hundreds. They wanted to keep those buildings they felt were an important part of their city. The huge plantations near Charleston were also in need of rebuilding. Many owners failed in their efforts because they could no longer use slave labor. Their farms became much smaller. VOICE ONE: The historic buildings of Charleston were affected by weather as well as wars. Through the years, ocean storms have severely damaged the city. A major storm struck Charleston in September nineteen-eighty-nine. It killed eighteen people and caused more than three-thousand-million dollars in damage. The huge storm had winds of more than two hundred seventeen kilometers an hour. It caused high waves that severely flooded city streets. VOICE TWO: Headquarters of the Preservation Society of CharlestonThe federal, state and city governments and individual citizens have spent millions of dollars to rebuild and repair historic areas. So in some places, Charleston looks a lot like it has for several hundred years. In the center of the city are stores in small one-hundred year old buildings. The same family has owned one of the stores for almost one hundred fifty years. Fine eating places throughout the city serve southern food. The people of Charleston will tell you they have some of the best eating places in the United States. Many visitors agree. VOICE ONE: Beautiful, old buildings are a major reason thousands of people visit Charleston each year. One of the famous buildings is the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. It was built in the early seventeen hundreds. It was a jail that held the famous English pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew before they were hanged. Several of the old plantation farms near Charleston also are open to visitors. One is called Boone Hall Plantation. It is still a working farm. Boone Hall Plantation looks much like it did before the American Civil War. It has been used as the setting for a number of movies and television programs about the American South and the Civil War. VOICE TWO: From almost anywhere along the waterfront in Charleston, you can see a large American flag flying over the small island that still holds Fort Sumter. Most visitors go to the historic fort during their time in Charleston. Several companies provide boat rides to the fort. Much of the fort was destroyed during the Civil War. But what remains of Fort Sumter is protected by the National Park Service. Park workers meet each boat and explain about the battles that took place. VOICE ONE: Charleston has many interesting places to visit. However the people who live in the city really make it special. They are extremely friendly in a way that is part of the culture of the American south. The people of Charleston continue to keep their city beautiful using modern technology to protect their historic past. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Lawan Davis. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. With Shirley Griffith, I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA SpecialEnglish. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How to Help Foods Keep Their Cool
* Byline: How to build an evaporative cooler. Also, how to prepare fruits and vegetables for cold storage. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Before refrigerators, homes usually had ice boxes. But another way to keep food cool without the need for electricity is to use an evaporative cooler. This is easy to make and does not even use ice. A common design is a tall box with food placed on several shelves inside. The shelves are pieces of metal with many small holes through them. The sides of the box are covered with pieces of thick cloth. Containers of water are placed at the top and bottom of the cooler. The ends of each piece of cloth lie in the water so the cloth stays wet. Put the cooler in the open air but not in the sun. Air will pass through the wet cloth. The inside of the box will stay several degrees cooler than the outside air temperature. And this may be cool enough to keep foods fresh at least for a short time. Cold storage in a freezer, however, can keep foods in good condition for months after the growing season. Yet foods can be damaged if they are kept too cold. The British development group Practical Action says the best way to prepare foods for storage is at harvest time while still in the field. Use a sharp knife to avoid damage. Place the harvested items on a clean surface or directly into storage containers. Do not put them on the ground. Use clean water to remove dirt, and keep the water clean. Usually it is better not to remove outer leaves from fruits and vegetables before storage. Without the leaves, food can become dry. Fruits and vegetables must be cool from field heat before they are put into storage. If they are placed in cool water, however, it can spread fungus throughout the food. A better idea is to harvest foods either early or late in the day, then leave them to cool naturally. Some fruits and vegetables must be stored at zero to four degrees Celsius. Any colder, and they might be damaged. Others need four to eight degrees. And still others must be stored above eight degrees. Wet the fruits and vegetables so they do not become too dry. The best time to do this is before storage. Cover the items in plastic once they reach the right "critical temperature" for storage. Most fruits and vegetables need the relative humidity in storage to be kept between eighty-five and ninety-five percent. Finally, leave space between the food containers and the walls of the storage area so air can flow. Keep the space clean. And try not to open the doors too often. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wind Farming Spreads in US
* Byline: Some farmers earn money by providing land to turbine owners, or by becoming energy producers themselves. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For centuries,? farmers have used windmills to pump water, crush grain and perform other tasks. Today, farmers can earn money with high-powered wind turbines that produce electricity. Wind power has become big business, especially in Europe. Wind turbines in CaliforniaIn the United States, less than one percent of electricity is produced from wind energy. But production increased one hundred sixty percent between two thousand and two thousand five. So says Keith Collins, the chief economist at the Department of Agriculture, in a statement he prepared for a Senate committee last month. An even greater increase is expected between two thousand five and two thousand ten. Farmers and ranchers are providing land to turbine owners or, in some cases, owning the equipment themselves. Mister Collins says one reason for the increase is high prices for natural gas. Another is a federal tax credit for wind production. The credit is almost two cents per kilowatt hour for the first ten years of production for a project. The production tax credit for renewable forms of energy was supposed to end this December. But Congress has extended it through two thousand eight. Other reasons for the expansion include improved turbine technology and lower production costs. They also include policies that make it easier for wind power producers to sell their electricity. And they include the growth of markets for "green power" -- energy that does not create pollution. California is the leading state for wind power. But Mister Collins says production is also growing in Minnesota and other Midwestern states, all the way down to Texas. And he says many states in the West and Midwest have the wind resources to produce much more wind power. Wind power offers farmers a way to earn money for use of their land or, if they want, to operate their own turbines. Wind is free, of course. Not only that, the land under the turbines can usually be farmed. And farmers may be able to earn extra money by charging visitors to see their wind farm. But wind farms are not perfect. Keep in mind that there has to be enough wind to earn a profit. Also, the turbines can kill birds. And people sometimes object to the development of wind farms. They consider them ugly and noisy. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. --- Correction: Based on a January statement from?the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief economist,?this report says California is the leading state for wind power. However, the American Wind Energy Association says Texas for the first time?pulled ahead of the historic leader California?during 2006. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Polar Research to Look for Answers About Climate Change
* Byline: Scientists prepare for explorations during the International Polar Year. Also, the Virgin Earth Challenge. How hypothermia kills. And the risk of heart disease from air pollution. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, an American study shows a link between air pollution and heart disease. We will tell you about it. We also will tell about preparations for the International Polar Year. And, we tell about a competition to fight climate change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new study shows that air pollution may be more of a risk for heart disease than scientists have thought. The research involved more than sixty-five thousand women in the United States. Kristin Miller was the lead writer of the study. She says the study showed that disease risk was linked not just to which city a woman lived in, but also where in a city. The study found that estimates of the effects of air pollution were often larger within cities than between cities. Yet averages between cities have served as the main measure of the long-term effects of pollutants. The findings lead some experts to suggest that current pollution limits may not be strong enough. VOICE TWO: The research team examined rates of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular events in women with long-term exposure to air pollution. The cardiovascular system is the heart and all of the passages that carry blood throughout the body. The study involved women who had no sign of cardiovascular disease at the start of the research. All of the women were more than fifty years of age. The study followed them for as long as nine years to see how many developed cardiovascular problems. The researchers used information from a government project, the Women's Health Initiative. VOICE ONE: The researchers also examined levels of fine particles in the air in thirty-six areas across the country. That information came from the Environmental Protection Agency. The small particles come from industrial smoke and traffic. They also come from things like wood-burning fireplaces in homes. In the study, every ten-microgram increase in pollution was linked to a twenty-four percent increase in the risk of a cardiovascular event. But it was linked to a seventy-six percent increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Winter has brought severe weather to parts of the United States. The weather has already resulted in several deaths. One of the major concerns during cold weather is hypothermia. Hypothermia is a condition that happens when the body’s inner temperature drops below thirty-five degrees Celsius. The lowered body temperature leads to loss of mental and physical abilities. Hypothermia can also lead to death. The condition kills hundreds of Americans each year. Late last year, a thirty-five year-old father of two died of hypothermia in the state of Oregon. James Kim died while attempting to find help for his family after their car became stuck in a mountain snowstorm. Weeks later, three Oregon mountain climbers were caught in a severe snowstorm. Only one man’s body was recovered. The other men are believed dead. VOICE ONE: There are two kinds of hypothermia. The first kind is called primary hypothermia. It happens when cold air, water or wind causes harm to a healthy, but unprotected individual during an extended period. The second kind of hypothermia is called secondary hypothermia. This happens when existing conditions interfere with the body’s natural ability to stay warm. Two such conditions are drug use and lack of food. Health problems that have been linked to hypothermia include infection, diabetes, spinal cord injury or stroke. The first signs of hypothermia are usually cold, light-colored skin and shaking. Other signs include unclear thinking, tiredness, slowed speaking, and slowed reactions. VOICE TWO: Babies and older adults are at risk of hypothermia because their bodies can lose heat and drop in temperature quicker. Others at risk are people who take part in outdoor activities like hiking, fishing and climbing. If clothing becomes wet, hypothermia can result even in mild temperatures. Anyone who appears to be suffering from hypothermia should receive medical help immediately. Hypothermia victims must be slowly warmed. It is important to move the person out of the cold and remove any wet clothing. Medical experts advise covering the person with dry, warm clothing. Sharing body heat by lying next to the person can help if warm clothing is not found. Experts say hot objects should not be used on a hypothermia victim. Keep the victim awake and avoid moving them. If possible, give the victim something warm to drink. Do not give the person drinks containing alcohol or caffeine. Such drinks can increase heat loss. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America's National Academies has announced plans for more than two hundred scientific explorations in the Arctic and Antarctic. The explorations are to be part of the International Polar Year, which begins in March. The National Academies represents the National Academy of Sciences and three other organizations. They give advice on scientific issues to the American public and federal government. The National Academies says the polar research is expected to answer important questions about climate change and the environment. They say scientists from more than sixty nations will cooperate on many research activities. VOICE TWO: The scientists will examine many physical, biological and social research issues. They include studying changes in the permanently frozen ground and observing sea life near the North and South Poles. Many public education and information programs are also being planned. The coming International Polar Year will be the fourth in history. Other polar years took place in eighteen eighty-two, nineteen thirty-two and nineteen fifty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: British businessman Richard Branson and former American vice president Al Gore recently announced a competition. They are seeking a way to remove at least one billion tons of carbon dioxide each year from Earth's atmosphere. Mister Branson is offering twenty-five million dollars to the developer of such a technology. Last year, he offered to invest three billion dollars to fight climate change. The money would come from profits from his companies, including Virgin Atlantic Airlines. The new competition is called the Virgin Earth Challenge. The winner of the contest must develop a plan to remove industrial gases from the atmosphere without causing harm. The first five million dollars would be paid to the winner immediately. The rest of the money would be paid only after the prize-winning technology had worked successfully for ten years. VOICE TWO: Mister Branson and Mister Gore announced the contest in London earlier this month. They said that some scientists are working on technologies to capture carbon dioxide at power stations and other industrial centers. But no one has developed a way to remove industrial gases already released into the atmosphere. Many scientists say those gases are causing an increase in temperatures around the world. They say continued warming will have serious results in the future. Mister Branson said the warming caused by industrial gases is threatening the existence of human beings. He said he believes that people are able to find answers to problems that they have created. VOICE ONE: The former vice president said people are facing an emergency. Last year, Mister Gore made a documentary film about climate change. The film has helped him become one of the world's leading experts on climate change issues. Mister Gore and Mister Branson noted a report released last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The group included hundreds of scientists from more than one hundred countries. The report said that human activity is warming the Earth at a dangerous rate. It said Earth's temperatures could increase by as much as six degrees centigrade by the end of this century. This could result in sea levels around the world rising by five meters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake, Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Hoover Dam: Controlling the Colorado River and Sending Power to Millions
* Byline: The dam was the largest and most difficult structure of its kind when work started in 1931. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Hoover Dam. It was the largest and most difficult structure of its kind ever built when work started in nineteen thirty-one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our report today about Hoover Dam must begin with the Colorado River. This river made the dam necessary. The Colorado River begins high in the Rocky Mountains. It begins slowly, during the dark months of winter. Heavy snow falls on the Rocky Mountains. The snow is so deep in some areas that it will stay on the ground well into the hot days of summer. But the snow does melt. Ice cold water travels down the mountains and forms several rivers -- the Gila River, the Green River, the Little Colorado, the San Juan, the Virgin and the Gunnison Rivers. These rivers link together and form the beginnings of the Colorado River. The Colorado River flows through, or provides water for, the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Then it crosses the border into Mexico. VOICE TWO: The Colorado River has always been extremely powerful. The river created the huge Grand Canyon. The violent water cut hundreds of meters deep into the desert floor of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is proof of the power of this great river. The Grand Canyon was cut into the desert floor beginning thousands of years ago. But the power of this river has been demonstrated in more modern times. Between nineteen-oh-five and nineteen-oh-seven, the Colorado River caused great amounts of flooding in parts of Arizona and California. Huge amounts of water ran into a low area in the dry, waterless desert that had once been an ancient lake. In two years of flooding, the Colorado River filled the ancient lake. That lake is called the Salton Sea. Today, it is about fifty-six kilometers long by twenty-five kilometers wide. It is even larger in years of heavy rain. VOICE ONE: The flooding that created the Salton Sea also flooded homes, towns and farming areas. Many people were forced to flee their homes. Government leaders knew they had to do something to prevent such floods in the future. ?In nineteen eighteen, a man named Arthur Davis proposed building a dam to control the Colorado River. Mister Davis was a government engineer. He said the dam should be built in an area called Boulder Canyon on the border between the states of Arizona and Nevada. VOICE TWO: Building the dam would not be a simple matter. The people of seven states and the people of Mexico needed and used the water of the Colorado River. Much of that area is desert land. Water is extremely important. Without water from the Colorado River, farming is not possible. Without water, life in the desert is not possible. On November twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-two, officials signed a document in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That document is called the Colorado River Compact. The document tells how the seven states would share the water of the Colorado River. It was agreed this could be more easily done with the aid of a dam. Later an agreement was signed with Mexico to supply it with water from the Colorado River. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The area chosen for the dam was called Black Canyon. The walls of Black Canyon rise almost two hundred forty-three meters above the river. An ancient volcano formed the rock in Black Canyon. Engineers decided the rock would provide a good strong support for the proposed dam. However, the area also presented problems. The nearest railroad was sixty kilometers away. There was no electric power. And, in the summer, the temperature in the desert in Black Canyon could reach as high as forty-eight degrees Celsius. A great deal of work was done before operations started on the dam. Workers built a town called Boulder City to house employees working on the dam. They built a large road from Boulder City to the area of the dam. They built a railroad from a main line in Las Vegas, Nevada to Boulder City. They built another railroad from Boulder City to the dam area. And they built a three hundred fifty kilometer power line from San Bernadino, California. This provided electric power to the area where the dam was being built. VOICE TWO: The work on the dam began in April of nineteen thirty-one. Workers called “high scalers” were some of the first to begin building the dam. They were suspended from ropes as they used heavy air-powered hammers to break any loose rock away from the face of the canyon walls. When they could not use hammers, they used dynamite. One high scaler became very famous. His name was Arnold Parks. He caught another worker who had fallen off the top of the canyon. Mister Parks held the worker to the wall of the canyon until others came to help. Today, visitors can see a statue of the men who worked as high scalers to build Hoover Dam. The high scalers worked on the sides of the canyon. Other workers dug huge tunnels deep in the floor of the canyon. This was done to permit the Colorado River to flow away from the construction area. This had to be done so the floor of the dam could be built. On June sixth, nineteen thirty-three, workers poured the first load of a building material called concrete. Men in two special factories worked day and night to make the concrete building material for the dam. Huge equipment moved millions of tons of rock and sand. In the summer months, the terrible desert heat slowed the work but did not stop it. Men who worked at night on the dam suffered less, but the heat was still as high as thirty degrees Celsius. VOICE ONE: Slowly the great dam began to rise from the floor of the canyon. From the canyon floor it reaches two hundred twenty-one meters high. Workers poured the last of the concrete on May twenty-ninth, nineteen thirty-five. They had used almost four million cubic meters of concrete in the dam. Workers also used more than twenty million kilograms of steel to strengthen the concrete in the dam. VOICE TWO: The work was dangerous for the more than five thousand men who worked on the structure. The extreme temperatures, falling objects and heavy equipment caused accidents. The workers were provided with medical care and two emergency vehicles to take them to a new hospital in Boulder City. However, ninety-six men lost their lives during the building of the great dam. The companies building the dam had been given seven years to complete the work. They did it in only five. The dam was finished on March first, nineteen thirty-six. Other work now began. This work would make the dam into one of the largest producers of electric power ever built. The dam was built to control the powerful Colorado River. But it was also meant to use the river to produce large amounts of electric power. Today, seventeen huge machines use the river’s power to produce electric power. The states of Arizona and Nevada share the power. So do many cities in California, including Los Angeles, Burbank, and Pasadena. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When the Hoover Dam was finished in nineteen thirty-six, it was the largest dam in the world. It was also the tallest. And it was the largest power producer that used water power to make electricity. Today this is no longer true. Taller dams, larger dams and a few that produce more power have been created. But Hoover Dam is still a huge and interesting place. Visitors to Hoover Dam drive on a small road that passes Lake Mead. They enter a special visitors' center to learn about the dam and the men who built it. They ride high-speed elevators that go deep inside the dam. They see the huge machines that produce electric power. Many visitors say they thought the name of the huge structure was Boulder Dam. They are told that Hoover Dam is often called Boulder Dam. However, it is named after former President Herbert Hoover. Before he was president, Mister Hoover worked for many years to make the construction of the dam possible. It was officially named to honor him in nineteen forty-seven. Visitors leave the great dam with an understanding of how difficult the project was. They learn that it still safely controls the great Colorado River. And it also provides water and electric power to millions of people in the American southwest. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-27-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Circumcision May Lower Men's HIV Risk by More Than First Reported
* Byline: New results show that circumcised men could lower their risk of infection by as much as 60 percent. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In December, we told you about two important studies of circumcision and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Scientists had reported that circumcised men in Africa reduced their risk of HIV infection from sex with women by about half. Now, researchers are saying the reduction in risk may be greater than that. The studies took place in Kenya and Uganda. The National Institutes of Health in the United States halted the work early. Officials said the results were so clear, it would have been wrong not to offer circumcision to all the men in the study groups. Last week, the British medical magazine The Lancet published the final results of the two studies. The report also included findings from another study that took place earlier in South Africa. The researchers say the new results showed that circumcision could lower a man's HIV risk by as much as sixty percent. Circumcision is the removal of the foreskin from the penis. Researchers have noted that HIV rates are generally lower in areas of the world where circumcision is common in babies or young boys. This fact alone does not prove anything. The studies were an attempt to confirm a direct link between circumcision and a reduced risk of HIV. But how might circumcision reduce the risk? The experts at the National Institutes of Health say no one knows for sure, but there are several theories. First, defensive cells on the surface of the foreskin may be less able to resist an attack by HIV than other cells. Also, the foreskin may serve as a barrier that prevents expulsion of HIV. And the environment of the foreskin may provide good conditions for the virus to spread. Health experts involved in the studies say they hope circumcision will become one of the basic ways to fight AIDS. But they say it may be difficult to get men to have it done, especially if circumcision conflicts with their cultural beliefs. Other issues are cost and the availability of high-quality medical care. Since HIV can be passed through blood, unclean medical conditions might spread the virus. Health experts also warn that while circumcision may reduce the risk of HIV, it does not offer complete protection. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com and our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. Please be sure to include your name and country. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: History Series: A Freeze Hits US-Soviet Relations After World War Two
* Byline: The Cold War was a major force in world politics during much of the 20th century. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the period known as the Cold War. VOICE ONE: The Cold War began after World War Two. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, they fought each other indirectly. They supported conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to make each other look foolish. VOICE TWO: Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the Cold War continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. Historians disagree about how long the Cold War lasted. Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in nineteen eighty-nine. VOICE ONE: The Cold War world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West. This group included countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This group included countries with communist political systems. The Non-Aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East. VOICE TWO: Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey. Another policy was the Marshall Plan. This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in Western Europe. VOICE ONE: A major event in the Cold War was the Berlin Airlift. In June nineteen forty-eight, the Soviets blocked all ways into the western part of Berlin, Germany. President Truman quickly ordered military planes to fly coal, food, and medicine to the city. The planes kept coming, sometimes landing every few minutes, for more than a year. The United States received help from Britain and France. Together, they provided almost two and one-half million tons of supplies on about two hundred-eighty thousand flights. VOICE TWO: The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in nineteen forty-nine. NATO was a joint military group. Its purpose was to defend against Soviet forces in Europe. The first members of NATO were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. The Soviet Union and its east European allies formed their own joint military group -- the Warsaw Pact -- six years later. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-three, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died. His death gave the new American president, Dwight Eisenhower, a chance to deal with new Soviet leaders. In July, nineteen fifty-five, Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva, Switzerland. The leaders of Britain and France also attended. Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Soviets agree to let their military bases be inspected by air by the other side. The Soviets later rejected the proposal. Yet the meeting in Geneva was not considered a failure. After all, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations had shaken hands. VOICE TWO: Cold War tensions increased, then eased, then increased again over the years. The changes came as both sides actively tried to influence political and economic developments around the world. For example, the Soviet Union provided military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments in Asia. The United States then helped eight Asian nations fight communism by establishing the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. In the middle nineteen fifties, the United States began sending military advisers to help south Vietnam defend itself against communist North Vietnam. That aid would later expand into a long and bloody period of American involvement in Vietnam. VOICE ONE: The Cold War also affected the Middle East. In the nineteen fifties, both East and West offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The West cancelled its offer, however, after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government of Czechoslovakia. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal. A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt. France and Britain joined the invasion. VOICE TWO: For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue. Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The Suez crisis was a political victory for the Soviets. When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the Arab world. VOICE ONE: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, left, with President Dwight EisenhowerIn nineteen fifty-nine, Cold War tensions eased a little. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, visited Dwight Eisenhower at his holiday home near Washington. The meeting was very friendly. But the next year, relations got worse again. An American military plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Eisenhower admitted that such planes had been spying on the Soviets for four years. In a speech at the United Nations, Khrushchev got so angry that he took off his shoe and beat it on a table. VOICE TWO: John Kennedy followed Eisenhower as president in nineteen sixty-one. During his early days in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. They wanted to oust the communist government of Fidel Castro. The exiles had been trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency. The United States failed to send military planes to protect them during the invasion. As a result, almost all were killed or taken prisoner. In Europe, tens of thousands of East Germans had fled to the West. East Germany's communist government decided to stop them. It built a wall separating the eastern and western parts of the city of Berlin. Guards shot at anyone who tried to flee by climbing over. VOICE ONE: During Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence reports discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union denied they were there. American photographs proved they were. The Cuban missile crisis easily could have resulted in a nuclear war. But it ended after a week. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States agreed not to interfere in Cuba. VOICE TWO: Some progress was made in easing Cold War tensions when Kennedy was president. In nineteen sixty-three, the two sides reached a major arms control agreement. They agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space. They also established a direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin. Relations between East and West also improved when Richard Nixon was president. He and Leonid Brezhnev met several times. They reached several arms control agreements. One reduced the number of missiles used to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons. It also banned the testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years. VOICE ONE: A major change in the Cold War took place in nineteen eighty-five. That is when Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev held four meetings with President Ronald Reagan. He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. And he signed an agreement with the United States to destroy all middle-distance and short-distance nuclear missiles. VOICE TWO: By nineteen eighty-nine, there was widespread unrest in eastern Europe. Gorbachev did not intervene as these countries cut their ties with the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall, the major symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in November. In less than a year, East and West Germany became one nation again. A few months after that, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. The Cold War was over. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-02/2007-02-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Getting in Tune With Spoken English Means Thinking in Thought Groups
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles talks about improving English pronunciation by understanding the idea of thought groups. RS: Thought groups are something we don't even think about as native speakers of English. It's a way to break long sentences into shorter pieces, separated by slight pauses, to help listeners organize the meaning. AA: But English learners need help to develop this skill when they study pronunciation. Lida says over the last twenty years, many teachers of English have come to focus not just on vowels and consonants, but also on stress and intonation. LIDA BAKER: "So we're talking about the way that the voice moves up and down and where we pause and things of that sort. This is a much more authentic way of learning about spoken language." RS: Take a sentence like: "I took the milk from the table and I put it in the refrigerator." BAKER: "This is not right: [robotic monotone] 'I took the milk from the refrigerator and I put it on the table.' Nobody talks like that." AA: "You sound like a robot." LIDA BAKER: "That's right. But that's not how we speak English. What we do is, the voice moves up and down, and there's also an alternation between syllables that are stressed and pronounced clearly, and syllables that are unstressed and therefore are reduced and spoken very quickly. So 'I took the milk' becomes 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, OK? "So within each thought group you will also find that there are these variations in pitch, with the voice moving up and down, and then syllables that are pronounced more clearly, syllables that are reduced and pronounced unclearly. So you get this effect of 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, 'from the table,' puh-puh-PAH-PAH, 'and I put it,' da-da-DAH-DAH, 'in the refrigerator,' puh-puh-PAH-puh-puh-puh." AA: "You've got a hit there!" LIDA BAKER: "Funny you should say that, because one of the easiest ways to learn about thought groups is to listen to popular music. And it happens that my daughter is absolutely crazy about the Beatles and she plays the guitar, so yesterday she was singing 'Can't Buy Me Love.'" MUSIC: "Can't Buy Me Love" Can’t buy me love, love,Can't buy me love I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright I’ll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright 'cause I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love ... LIDA BAKER: "First of all 'can't buy me love,' that's a thought group right there. 'I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend,' -- so, 'I'll buy you,' 'a diamond ring, 'my friend.' That's three thought groups right there." RS: "What about for those who speak English as a foreign language, are there some rules, or do they have to learn by doing." LIDA BAKER:?"Well, I can't give you any rules, but I can give you some guidelines. Generally speaking, the pauses occur, they sort of correspond to grammatical units such as phrases and clauses and things like the complete subject of a sentence. So if you have a sentence like 'a big black cat sat on a tall white fence.' So the subject there is 'a big black cat,' and that's a thought group. 'A big black cat sat on a tall white fence,' 'on a tall white fence is also a thought group, and that's a prepositional phrase. "Now pop music isn't the only way to learn this. A great way to learn this, I'm going to put in a plug here for the Voice of America -- is to go the Special English broadcasts and look at the transcripts and then listen to the announcers. Because on Special English the language is slowed down, it's a wonderful way for learners to pick up on the way sentences are broken down into thought groups. "Another way is to use a video cassette recorder and tape any television program and do something called tracking. You tape a segment of a show and then you play it back and what you try to do is to imitate what they're saying, just one beat behind them. And incidentally it doesn't have to be done with television. It can be done with radio as well." RS: "Anywhere there's sound going on in English." LIDA BAKER:?"That's right!" AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes and edits textbooks for English learners. And, by the way, those Special English programs she mentioned are all available online at voaspecialenglish.com. RS: You can also find a link from our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Studying in the US: Rules About Alcohol
* Byline: Policies on college drinking are the subject of Part 26 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The legal age for drinking alcohol in the United States is twenty-one. Underage drinking is a crime but also a common part of college social life. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we look at alcohol policies at American colleges and universities. Never too young: A drunk-driving accident is acted out at a high school north of Los Angeles as part of alcohol education effortsThese policies differ from school to school, as do enforcement efforts. But many schools have been moving to strengthen their rules. The United States has more than seventeen million students in higher education. Each year, one thousand seven hundred of them age eighteen to twenty-four die from alcohol-related road crashes and other injuries. Six hundred thousand more are injured while under the influence of alcohol. And almost seven hundred thousand are attacked by another student who has been drinking. These numbers, from a two thousand five report, are on a government Web site: collegedrinkingprevention.gov. One behavior that college officials are trying to prevent is binge drinking, having four or five drinks or more in a short period of time. Some researchers have found that students who think binge drinking is normal often overestimate how much other students really drink. A person can die of alcohol poisoning. At the University of Oklahoma, new policies went into effect after a nineteen-year-old student died in two thousand four. He had been drinking heavily at a fraternity party. Now alcohol is banned from all fraternity and sorority houses and university housing. Student organizations can serve alcohol at events but only on Friday and Saturday nights. And they must provide for transportation to and from off-campus parties. Other new requirements include an alcohol education program that first-year students take online. The policies govern behavior on campus and off. With a first violation, students pay seventy-five dollars and their parents are told. They must also take an alcohol education class. For a second "strike," they have to pay one hundred fifty dollars. A third strike means a suspension for at least one semester. Since January of two thousand five, six hundred thirty-three students have had a first strike. Thirty have had a second strike -- and one has been suspended. An official at Oklahoma tells us the aim is not just to punish but to change behavior and the culture at the university. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and audio files of our Foreign Student Series are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Everything Is Big in Texas.' Building a Case for an Expression
* Byline: Also: Starbucks Coffee grows and grows, with stores in 30 countries, but has it lost its warmth? And music from Yo-Yo Ma's new album ''Appassionato.'' Transcript of radio broadcast

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the state of Texas … Play some music by world famous musician Yo-Yo Ma … And report about the successful coffee stores called Starbucks. Starbucks Starbucks coffee shops can be found all over America and in more than thirty countries around the world. Many people think they are great places to enjoy a hot cup of coffee or tea. But others criticize the company. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: If you are in any major city in America, the chances are high that you are not far from a Starbucks. In fact, you might be very close to several of these coffee stores. The company started in the West Coast city of Seattle, Washington, in nineteen seventy-one. Starbucks was named after a character in the famous American novel "Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville. Today, there are more than twelve thousand Starbucks around the world. Sales last year were almost eight billion dollars. The company believes in opening many stores in busy areas of cities. For example, there are about thirty Starbucks stores in downtown Seattle. Recently, three Starbucks opened in the area near VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Starbucks sells more than just plain coffee. It started a whole coffee culture with its own special language and coffee workers called baristas. It sells many kinds of hot and cold coffee drinks, like White Chocolate Mocha and Frappuccino. It also sells music albums, coffee makers, food, and even books. But most of all, it sells the idea of being a warm and friendly place for people to sit, read or talk. Starbucks is a great success story. Buyers are willing to pay as much as five dollars for a coffee drink. People we talked to said they go to Starbucks because they can depend on it to have exactly what they want and to be nearby. However, some people do not like the company’s aggressive expansion. Owners of independent coffee stores cannot compete with Starbucks. One small coffee seller is taking the company to court. She says the way the company does business is illegal because it stops property owners from leasing stores to other coffee companies. She sees Starbucks as controlling the market and forcing out competition. Nicolas O’Connell works for La Colombe, a coffee roasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He says Starbucks has helped to educate people about coffee from many countries. But he criticizes the company for using machines more than people to make the coffee. Mister O’Connell points out that the coffee culture is all about a handmade product and interaction between people. Bigger in Texas? Our listener question this week comes from a university student in South Korea. Beom-seok Yim wants to know about the expression "everything is big in Texas." We do not know where that saying came from. But it fits the southwestern state well. Texas is the biggest state by area in the continental United States. It is almost seven hundred thousand square kilometers. Only Alaska is bigger. Texas is also the second biggest state in population, after California. More than twenty-three million people live in the state. Texas got even bigger in two thousand five after Hurricane Katrina hit several southeastern states. It received and sheltered almost two hundred thousand people from the affected states, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Texas is the home of the big oil companies. It is also a leader in other industries, including biomedical research and information technology. The city of Houston is especially famous for its big aerospace industry and the NASA space center there. And, Texas has grown big with powerful and profitable companies. Last year, Texas had the largest number of Fortune Five Hundred companies headquartered in the state -- fifty-six. Texas is also home to big cattle ranches. Cattle is a major state industry. Texas also leads the states in international trade exports. With all this, the Texas economy is very big. The value of its total goods and services has grown to almost one trillion dollars a year. Visitors find that even normally small things are often big in Texas. Like hats, for example. Texans describe their big cowboy hats as "ten gallon." And, Texan women are said to like "big hair." These hairstyles are often layered high on the head and very full around the face. Texans are often thought of as Americans with big personalities, big voices and big opinions. And, most Texans are proud of those descriptions. As you probably know, the current American President, George Bush, is a Texan. He was not born in the state but moved there with his parents when he was two years old. He was governor of the state for six years and still owns a home in Crawford where he spends many of his vacations. Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma is one of the finest and most popular cello players in the world. He was born in nineteen fifty-five to Chinese parents in Paris, France. His family later moved to New York City. He has been playing the cello since he was four years old. Now Yo-Yo Ma has a new album called "Appassionato." Shirley Griffith tells us about it. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The word "appassionato" is an Italian word used in music. It means "with passion" or powerful emotion. Critics say this latest CD is the story of Yo-Yo Ma's musical life. The fifteen pieces were recorded between nineteen seventy-eight and two thousand six. They include four that have never been released before. The music on "Appassionato" is by many different composers, from Felix Mendelssohn to George Gershwin. Yo-Yo Ma says he chose the music for "Appassionato" to represent different kinds of love. Nine different musicians play the piano on the CD. Ma says "Appassionato" also represents his love for performing music with friends. Here is Yo-Yo Ma playing "Going to School," composed by his friend John Williams. It is from the recent movie "Memoirs of a Geisha." Ma says this music is about innocent love. (MUSIC) Ennio Morricone is another modern composer best known for his music for films. Two of his pieces are included in the album. Yo-Yo Ma says "Gabriel's Oboe" is one of the most romantic pieces of music. He says it has layers and layers of emotion. (MUSIC) We leave you now with one of the songs recorded especially for Yo-Yo Ma's new CD "Appassionato." It is "Song Without Words" by Felix Mendelssohn. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Big in Texas: Energy Company Agrees to a Record Buyout
* Byline: Directors of Dallas-based TXU agree to a proposal led by KKR and Texas Pacific Group for a deal valued at $45 billion. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Big business deals do not often come with a promise to cut greenhouse gases. But that was part of a deal this week for TXU, the biggest electric company in Texas. Its board of directors agreed to a buyout offer led by two private equity groups, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific. They are offering to buy all shares in TXU and take the company private. That means it would stop trading on a public stock exchange. A leverage buyout depends heavily on borrowed money, often for the purpose of selling the company later. This leveraged buyout would be the biggest yet -- an estimated value of around forty-five billion dollars, including debt. KKR and Texas Pacific Group would take responsibility for more than twelve billion dollars owed by TXU. They would add twenty-four billion dollars in new debt through borrowing to finance the sale. The proposal calls for them to each pay two billion dollars in cash. Investment banks would provide an additional three billion. And banks would also provide a one billion dollar unsecured loan known as an "equity bridge." One of the unusual things about this proposal is that utilities are not a traditional target of leveraged buyouts. Utilities provide public services like power and water. TXU just reported two and one-half billion dollars in profits last year, up fifty percent from the year before. But utilities often have a lot of debt because of high operating costs. At the same time, states may limit rates if prices rise too high. Most unusual about the deal, however, are the promises made by KKR and Texas Pacific. These buyout specialist groups say they will cut electricity prices ten percent and offer "price protection" through September of two thousand eight. Also, to reduce carbon emissions linked to climate change, they promise to build fewer power stations that burn coal than TXU had planned. And they promise to explore greater use of alternative and renewable fuels. Two activist groups, Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council, supported the deal. Critics, however, say TXU may be worth more than what is being offered. Shareholders cannot vote on the proposal before April sixteenth. For now, the company may consider any competing offers. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, the top story in financial markets was the sudden flight from risk. A full report -- tomorrow on the program IN THE NEWS. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Investors Count Their Losses Following a Rough Week
* Byline: Tuesday's big selloff was blamed largely on concerns about China's markets and the US economy. Greenspan's comments may have also played a part. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Financial markets around the world took investors on a shaky ride this week. On Tuesday, concerns about the health of Chinese markets and the United States economy helped send investors on a flight from risk. A selloff that began on the Shanghai stock market quickly spread to Europe and the United States. Markets in Africa and Latin America also suffered losses. China's main stock market in Shanghai fell nine percent Tuesday. It was the worst drop in Chinese stocks in ten years. Investors hurried to sell their stocks as concern spread that the government might raise interest rates. There were also unconfirmed reports of a possible new tax on capital gains. Chinese officials denied those reports. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of thirty major stocks dropped four hundred sixteen points, more than three percent. That was a loss about six billion dollars of shareholder value on the New York Stock Exchange. It was the biggest one-day drop since the first day of trading after the terrorist attacks in September of two thousand one. But at one point Tuesday, after a month of moving up, the Dow was down as much as five hundred forty-six points. The intense trading even overloaded the systems that continually compute the Dow Jones average. Traders had the wrong information for seventy minutes. But the Dow Jones company says it does not believe that the delay worsened the drop in the market. Investors may have also been influenced by comments from Alan Greenspan. On Monday, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve said a recession was possible in the United States by the end of the year. Later, though, he said a recession is possible but not probable. The current Federal Reserve chairman told Congress that the markets in the United States seemed to be working well. Ben Bernanke said the central bank still expects "moderate growth" in the economy this year. His comments Wednesday seemed to help calm the markets. A better-than-expected manufacturing report on Thursday also helped stock prices, after an early drop on Wall Street. Another economic report had been blamed as one of the causes of Tuesday's big selloff. On Tuesday the Commerce Department reported the biggest drop in three months in orders for durable goods in January. These are higher-priced goods designed to last three years or more, like cars and computers. There was also concern in the markets this week about companies that deal in "subprime" home loans. These loans for people with weak credit histories have been popular in recent years. But many people are now having trouble paying them back. All together, it was one of the worst weeks in several years for financial markets that have recently hit new highs. Investors hoped that their shaky ride was nothing more than a normal price correction. And that's IN THE NEWS, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Billy Wilder, 1906-2002: He Made Movies People Will Never Forget
* Byline: Wilder made serious movies dealing with social issues as well as funny movies. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Billy Wilder. He was the director of some of the greatest American movies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many experts say that Billy Wilder changed the history of American movies. He is often called the best movie maker Hollywood has ever had. He was known for making movies that offered sharp social comment and adult sexual situations. Wilder was one of the first directors to do this. Between the middle nineteen thirties and the nineteen eighties, Billy Wilder made almost fifty movies. During that time he received more than twenty nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He won six of the Oscar awards. His movies have been seen by people around the world. Wilder made famous movies like “Sunset Boulevard”, “Some Like It Hot”, and “Double Indemnity.”? He also directed “The Lost Weekend”, “The Apartment”, and “The Seven Year Itch.” VOICE TWO: Samuel Wilder was born in nineteen-oh-six in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birthplace is now part of Poland. His mother had enjoyed spending several years in the United States when she was young. So she called him Billy because she thought it sounded American. Billy Wilder started law school in Vienna, Austria. Then he decided not to become a lawyer. Instead, he began reporting for a Vienna newspaper. By the nineteen twenties, he was writing movies in Germany. However, the Nazis had risen to power in the nation. Wilder was Jewish, and he recognized that he had no future in Nazi Germany. In nineteen thirty-three, he went to Paris. There he directed a movie for the first time. It was called “The Bad Seed.”? Then he received word that producers in the United States had accepted one of his scripts. Billy Wilder left Europe for America. VOICE ONE: Billy Wilder had only eleven dollars when he arrived to settle in the United States in nineteen thirty-four. He decided to live in the center of American movie making, Hollywood, California. At the time, many people who had left Germany were working there. They helped Wilder get jobs. After a while he formed a writing team with Charles Brackett. The two writers created many films together. Wilder and Brackett wrote several successful movies. One was the nineteen thirty-nine movie, “Ninotchka”, starring Greta Garbo. Ernst Lubitsch directed the film. Wilder always praised this man as a friend and teacher whose humor and expert direction greatly influenced his work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In his love stories, Billy Wilder did not follow the Hollywood tradition of sweet boy-meets-girl situations. He had an unusual way of showing relations between men and women. For example, one of his most successful films was “Hold Back the Dawn.”? The French actor Charles Boyer plays a refugee in this nineteen forty-one film. He marries an American woman so he can enter the United States. In nineteen forty-four, Billy Wilder made a film called “Double Indemnity.”? Some critics said this movie established him as one of the greatest Hollywood directors. It told a vicious story about a married woman and her boyfriend. They plot the death of her husband. Charles Brackett thought the story was not moral. So the famous American mystery writer Raymond Chandler was asked to help write the script. VOICE ONE: As a director, Billy Wilder often violated Hollywood customs about social issues. For example, someone who drinks too much alcohol had rarely been a movie subject. Then Wilder directed “The Lost Weekend” in nineteen forty-five. Charles Brackett returned to work on the movie with him. They developed the script from a book by Charles Jackson. Ray Milland plays the part of an alcoholic writer in the movie. It shows that alcohol rules his life, yet he does not admit it. He hides alcohol in his home and says he is not drinking. VOICE TWO: Reports at the time said manufacturers of alcoholic drinks tried to suppress the movie. They did not succeed. The public and critics praised “The Lost Weekend” for its painful honesty. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Ray Milland the best actor award. Billy Wilder won two Academy Awards. One honored his part in writing the script. The other honored his direction. “The Lost Weekend” also won the first Grand Prix – first prize -- of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. Wilder had become an American citizen in nineteen thirty-nine. After the war, Wilder was asked by the United States Army to go to Germany to help re-organize the movie industry and radio media. The Nazi government had used both for its propaganda. While in Germany, Wilder learned that the Nazis had murdered his sister, his mother and his mother’s husband. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty, Wilder made? “Sunset Boulevard.”? This movie told of an aging actress in silent movies. She plans to return to movies. Gloria Swanson played this star. More than fifty years later, movie-lovers can still repeat some of her lines. In one of the famous lines in “Sunset Boulevard,” Miz Swanson remembers telling the famous director Cecil B. DeMille that she is prepared for him to start filming: (GLORIA SWANSON:? “I’m ready for my close-up, Mister DeMille.” ) VOICE TWO: “Sunset Boulevard” won three Academy awards. One honored the writing team of Wilder, Brackett and D. M. Marshman Junior. The movie marked the last time Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote together. Wilder also was highly praised for “Stalag Seventeen”, which he both produced and directed. The movie mixes humor and wartime realism. William Holden plays a dishonest American war prisoner in a World War Two German camp for Allied servicemen. Holden won the nineteen fifty-three Academy Award for his part. Wilder was nominated for best director. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-four, Billy Wilder became an independent producer. He left Paramount Pictures, the motion picture company he had worked with for many years. He left after company officials cut many anti-Nazi comments from a version of “Stalag Seventeen.”? That version was to be shown in Germany. The next year, Wilder’s first movie as an independent filmmaker was a huge success. It was “The Seven Year Itch.”? He developed the movie from a play by George Axelrod. In this movie, a married man wants to cheat on his wife with a beautiful golden-haired young woman. Marilyn Monroe played the young woman. The part launched her as a major Hollywood success. Some critics said Marilyn Monroe gave her best performances under Billy Wilder’s direction. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-nine, Wilder made a funny movie that was very popular. I. A. L. Diamond joined Wilder in writing “Some Like It Hot.”? It tells about two jazz musicians being chased by criminals. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play the musicians. They decide to wear women’s clothes and join a band in which all the musicians were women. Marilyn Monroe plays one of the band members. She wants to make Lemmon and Curtis believe she is a musician. (MARILYN MONROE: “I’m Sugar Kane. My mother was a piano teacher and my father was a conductor”) VOICE ONE: Billy Wilder continued to make interesting movies through the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies. As usual, he filled his movies with social comment and sexual situations. Over the years, however, other writers and directors also did this. By the nineteen eighties Wilder no longer was considered the most unusual, creative moviemaker in Hollywood. VOICE TWO: In recent years, however, Billy Wilder received many more awards and honors. Critics praised his gifts to movie making. In nineteen eighty-seven, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. It is the highest award a producer can receive. Wilder died in March, two thousand two. He was ninety-five. A current Hollywood producer said: “Billy Wilder made movies that people will never forget.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-29-voa4.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part One
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER:?Now, the Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Today, we begin a new series from a book by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. The book is called “A Princess of Mars.”? It is the first book in a series that Mister Burroughs wrote about a man who travels to Mars during the last years of the eighteen hundreds.There, the man meets strange beings and sees strange sights.At first he is a captive, then a warrior, and after many battles, a prince of a royal family. Shep O’Neal begins the story of “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? I am a very old man. How old I do not know. It is possible I am a hundred, maybe more. I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men do. So far as I can remember, I have always been a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty years ago. Yet, I feel that I cannot go on living forever. Someday I will die the real death from which there is no escape. I do not know why I should fear death. I who have died two times and am still alive. I have never told this story.I know the human mind will not believe what it cannot understand. I cannot explain what happened to me. I can only tell of the ten years my dead body lay undiscovered in an Arizona cave. (SOUND) My name is John Carter. I am from the state of Virginia. At the close of the Civil War I found myself without a home, without money and without work. I decided the best plan was to search for gold in the great deserts of the American Southwest. I spent almost a year searching for gold with another former soldier, Captain James Powell, also of Virginia. We were extremely lucky. In the winter of eighteen sixty-five we found rocks that held gold. Powell was trained as a mining engineer. He said we had uncovered over a million dollars worth of gold in only three months. But the work was slow with only two men and not much equipment. So we decided Powell should go to the nearest settlement to seek equipment and men to help us with the work. On March third, eighteen sixty-six, Powell said good-bye. He rode his horse down the mountain toward the valley. I followed his progress for several hours. The morning Powell left was like all mornings in the deserts of the great Southwest -- clear and beautiful. Not much later I looked across the valley. I was surprised to see three riders in the same place where I had last seen my friend. After watching for some time, I decided the three riders must be hostile Indians. Powell, I knew, was well armed and an experienced soldier. But I knew he would need my aid. I found my weapons, placed a saddle on my horse and started as fast as possible down the trail taken by Powell. I followed as quickly as I could until dark. About nine o’clock the moon became very bright. I had no difficulty following Powell’s trail. I soon found the trail left by the three riders following Powell. I knew they were Indians. I was sure they wanted to capture Powell. (SOUND) Suddenly I heard shots far ahead of me. I hurried ahead as fast as I could. Soon I came to a small camp. Several hundred Apache Indians were in the center of the camp. I could see Powell on the ground. I did not even think about what to do, I just acted. I pulled out my guns and began shooting. (SOUND) The Apaches were surprised and fled. I forced my horse into the camp and toward Powell. I reached down and pulled him up on the horse by his belt. I urged the horse to greater speed. The Apaches by now realized that I was alone and quickly began to follow. We were soon in very rough country. The trail I chose began to rise sharply. It went up and up. I followed the trail for several hundred meters more until I came to the mouth of a large cave. It was almost morning now. I got off my horse and laid Powell on the ground. I tried to give him water. But it was no use. Powell was dead. I laid his body down and continued to the cave. I began to explore the cave. I was looking for a safe place to defend myself, or perhaps for a way out. But I became very sleepy. It was a pleasant feeling. My body became extremely heavy. I had trouble moving. Soon I had to lay down against the side of the cave. For some reason I could not move my arms or legs. I lay facing the opening of the cave. I could see part of the trail that had led me here. And now I could see the Apaches. They had found me. But I could do nothing. Within a minute one of them came into the cave. He looked at me, but he came no closer. His eyes grew wide. His mouth opened. He had a look of terror on his face. He looked behind me for moment and then fled. Suddenly I heard a low noise behind me. (SOUND) So could the rest of the Apaches. They all turned and fled. The sound became louder. But still I could not move. I could not turn my head to see what was behind me. All day I lay like this. I tried again to rise, and again, but still I could not move. Then I heard a sharp sound. It was like a steel wire breaking. I quickly stood up. My back was against the cave wall. I looked down. There before me lay my body. (MUSIC) For a few moments, I stood looking at my body. I could not bring myself to touch it. I was very frightened. The sounds of the cave and the sight of my body forced me away. I slowly backed to the opening of the cave. I turned to look at the Arizona night. I could see a thousand stars. As I stood there I turned my eyes to a large red star. I could not stop looking at it. It was Mars…the red planet…the red god of war. It seemed to pull me near. Then, for a moment, I closed my eyes. There was an instant of extreme cold and total darkness. Suddenly I was in deep, dreamless, peaceful sleep. (MUSIC) I opened my eyes upon a very strange land. I immediately knew then I was on Mars. Not once did I question this fact. My mind told me I was on Mars as your mind tells you that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact, nor did I. I found myself lying on a bed of yellow colored grass that covered the land for kilometers. The time was near the middle of the day and the sun was shining full upon me. It was warm. I decided to do a little exploring. Springing to my feet, I received my first Martian surprise. The effort to stand carried me into the Martian air to the height of about one meter. I landed softly upon the ground, however, without incident. I found that I must learn to walk all over again. My muscles were used to the gravity of Earth. Mars has less gravity. My attempts to walk resulted in jumps and hops, which took me into the air. I once landed on my face. I soon learned that it took much less effort for me to move on Mars than it did on Earth. Near me was a small, low wall. Carefully, I made my way to the wall and looked over. It was filled with eggs, some already broken open. Small, green creatures were in them. They looked at me with huge red eyes. As I watched the fierce-looking creatures, I failed to hear twenty full-grown Martians coming from behind me. They had come without warning. As I turned, I saw them. One was coming at me with a huge spear, with its sharp tip pointed at my heart! (SOUND AND MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This is Bob Doughty. You have been listening to American Stories and our version of “A Princess of Mars.”? The voice of John Carter was Shep O’Neal. Our program was written for radio, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for the next part of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story, “A Princess of Mars,”? on the Special English program, American Stories, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-02-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Heard It on the Grapevine: What? Who Told You That?
* Byline: When information spreads by word of mouth. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Some of the most exciting information comes by way of the grapevine. That is so because reports received through the grapevine are supposed to be secret. The information is all hush hush. It is whispered into your ear with the understanding that you will not pass it on to others. You feel honored and excited. You are one of the special few to get this information. You cannot wait. You must quickly find other ears to pour the information into. And so, the information - secret as it is – begins to spread. Nobody knows how far. The expression by the grapevine is more than one hundred years old. The American inventor, Samuel F. Morse, is largely responsible for the birth of the expression. Among others, he experimented with the idea of telegraphy – sending messages over a wire by electricity.When Morse finally completed his telegraphic instrument, he went before Congress to show that it worked.He sent a message over a wire from Washington to Baltimore. The message was: “What hath God wrought?” This was on May twenty-fourth, eighteen forty-four. Quickly, companies began to build telegraph lines from one place to another. Men everywhere seemed to be putting up poles with strings of wire for carrying telegraphic messages. The workmanship was poor. And the wires were not put up straight. Some of the results looked strange. People said they looked like a grapevine. A large number of the telegraph lines were going in all directions, as crooked as the vines that grapes grow on. So was born the expression, by the grapevine. Some writers believe that the phrase would soon have disappeared were it not for the American Civil War. Soon after the war began in eighteen sixty-one, military commanders started to send battlefield reports by telegraph. People began hearing the phrase by the grapevine to describe false as well as true reports from the battlefield. It was like a game. Was it true? Who says so? Now, as in those far-off Cold War days, getting information by the grapevine remains something of a game. A friend brings you a bit of strange news. “No,” you say, “it just can’t be true! Who told you?” Comes the answer, “I got it by the grapevine.” You really cannot know how much – if any – of the information that comes to you by the grapevine is true or false.Still, in the words of an old American saying, the person who keeps pulling the grapevine shakes down at least a few grapes. (MUSIC) You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. I’m Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bringing Nanotechnology to Health Care for the Poor
* Byline: Speakers at a program in Washington discuss using the technology to improve health care in developing countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Nanotechnology uses matter at the level of molecules and atoms. Researchers are finding different uses for particles with a length of one nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter. These include things like beauty products and dirt-resistant clothing. But one area where many experts believe nanotechnology holds great promise is medicine. Last week, speakers at a program in Washington discussed using nanotechnology to improve health care in developing countries. The program took place at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Peter Singer at the University of Toronto says a nanotechnology called quantum dots could be used to confirm cases of malaria. He says it could offer a better way than the traditional process of looking at a person's blood under a microscope. In poor countries, this process is often not followed. As a result, sick people may get treated for malaria even if they do not have it. Such misuse of medicines can lead to drug resistance. Quantum dots are particles that give off light when activated. Researchers are studying ways to program them to identify diseases by lighting up in the presence of a targeted molecule. Experts say nanotechnology shows promise not just for diagnosing diseases, but also for treating them. Piotr Grodzinski of the National Institutes of Health talked about how nanotechnology could make drugs more effective. He talked about cancer drugs already developed with nanotechnology. He says if a drug can target a cancer locally in the body, then much less of it might be needed, and that means lower side effects. Andrew Maynard is chief scientist for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He noted that Brazil, India, China and South Africa are currently doing nanotechnology research that could help poor countries. But he also noted that there is some risk in using nano-materials. He says nanometer-sized particles behave differently in the body and the environment compared to larger particles. Experts say more investment in research is needed to better understand these risks. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How Technology Can Help Disabled People Live More Normal Lives
* Byline: Third in a series of four reports on living with a disability in the US; earlier programs dealt with education and employment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we have the third part of our series on living with a disability in America. In January we looked at education. Last month we talked about jobs. Today we discuss assistive technology. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A computer user with a machine that does not need a mouse to use the WebTechnology offers many different ways to help people with disabilities lead more normal lives. Devices that help them perform an activity are called assistive technology. Assistive technology can help people reach their personal and professional goals. The invention of the telephone might not have been very exciting to a deaf person. But it led to a way to send text messages over a phone line with the use of a teletypewriter, or TTY. VOICE TWO: Today, with special care, Web site designers can make their sites highly accessible to disabled users. There are both simple devices and very complex ones to help people with disabilities. VOICE ONE: Even something as low-tech as a small piece of soft plastic can be an assistive technology. Attached to a pencil, it might help a child hold the pencil better if the child has trouble writing. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? Blind people can have documents read out loud electronically on their computer. And for people who cannot use their arms to type, speech recognition programs may be the answer. These let people give commands to their computer or have their words turned into print. What about a person who is not able to speak? There are now special devices to help them, too. An American company called Blink Twice produces a device that looks like a handheld computer game. The device is called Tango. VOICE ONE: Tango was invented by Richard Ellenson, the father of an eight-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. This condition affects a person's ability to move and speak. With Tango, his son Thomas can touch pictures that express his feelings or the words he wants to say. A voice then speaks the words that Thomas has chosen. The company's Web site has examples of what Tango sounds like: TANGO: "How was your day? OK. Where did you go today? Oh. Did you do anything fun? Let me think of another question. Did you see anybody I know? Ah-ha! Last question. Did you miss me? I missed you!" VOICE TWO: Other voices, ideas and words can be added to meet the interests and needs of the individual user. For example, when Thomas watches sports, he can play cheers for his team that were recorded in his father's voice. Richard Ellenson says he wants Tango to help people with disabilities build relationships, not just sentences. Right now, Tango costs about seven thousand dollars. But this is a new device, and the price of new technology often comes down after a few years. VOICE ONE: There are many devices to help people with disabilities use computers. There are ways for people to operate a computer by moving their heads or even just their eyes. There are also keyboards that can be used with only one hand. One of these small keyboards is called a FrogPad. One young girl used the FrogPad at school. Her mother said the small keyboard helped her daughter work normally at school, and her friends thought the FrogPad was great. VOICE TWO: Students with disabilities want to be like their friends; they want to be able to do things as normally as possible. So for young people, technology must not only help them do their work. The devices must also be cool. Ben is a fifteen-year-old boy in Maine. He was born with a condition called spina bifida. He cannot move his arms or legs. He uses a small device called a TongueTouch Keypad, made by a California company, newAbilities Systems. The keypad is placed in the mouth. Ben learned to use his tongue to touch different keys. They operate his telephone, his computer, his electric wheelchair, his bed and his music player. Ben is able to get in and out of his house without help. And he can even turn his music up loud if he wants to. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sometimes, all it takes to improve on existing technology is a little imagination. Like adding a voice to clocks and watches so they announce the time. Or printing children's books in Braille with both raised marks and traditional text. That way the parent of a child who is blind can read the same book out loud while the child reads with his or her fingers. Using a motorized wheelchair requires the ability to operate the controls. But what about people who are not able to use their hands? One solution is to attach a tube to the chair. The person operates the wheelchair by sucking air through the tube or blowing into it. This is called "sip and puff" technology, and it can also be used to operate other devices. VOICE TWO: Things that are designed to help the disabled may also make life easier for people who are not disabled. The opposite is also true. Think of the millions of people who send and receive messages over cell phones and other wireless devices. This ability to communicate quickly by text messaging or e-mail is very useful. But imagine just how useful it can be to a person who is deaf. (MUSIC)?? ??????? VOICE ONE: Many times, the technology that helps people with disabilities is invented by people who have disabilities themselves. TecAccess is a company that helps government offices and companies provide technology for people with disabilities. TecAccess has fifty-two employees. Forty-six of them have one or more disabilities. The company is in Virginia, but its employees work all over the world. VOICE TWO: A man named Don Dalton started a company in Illinois called Assistive Technologies. Mister Dalton became a quadriplegic in a swimming accident almost forty years ago. His company offers computer technology to help people with disabilities become more independent. His newest product, in fact, is called Independence One. Once the system is put into a house, the user wears a wireless headset to control it. By voice, the user is able to control many devices and systems around the house. Don Dalton uses the Independence One controller when he rides in the elevator in his office building. The system answers him in a woman's voice. DON DALTON: "Wake up." INDEPENDENCE ONE: "Hello. I'm here."DON DALTON: "Elevator down."INDEPENDENCE ONE: "Elevator going down." VOICE ONE: A video on his company's Web site also shows how Mister Dalton uses his voice to operate devices in his house. He can turn on the television, close a window in a different room, or work on his computer, all by using his voice. He also uses the controller to make telephone calls over the Internet. DON DALTON: "Start computer phone."INDEPENDENCE ONE: "Starting computer phone. Please say login."DON DALTON: "Login."INDEPENDENCE ONE: "Logging in."DON DALTON: "865-7004. Dial phone."INDEPENDENCE ONE: "Thank you. Dialing."INDEPENDENCE ONE: "I'm calling the cell phone on my wheelchair and it's ringing. [sound]" (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the United States, the federal government is expected to be a leader in supporting the use of assistive technology. For example, federal agencies are required by law to purchase or develop technology that can be used by all employees. The government is providing money to research new assistive technologies. Loans are also available to help disabled federal employees and others to buy equipment. For example, a disabled person who owns a computer may be able to work from home instead of having to travel to an office. Research centers are working to improve technology for people with disabilities. They are working in the areas of education, employment, computers, communication and community living. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Assistive technology can do a lot to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. That is, if the technology is available to them. Sometimes it can be very costly. People with a disability, especially a severe disability, have lower earnings and higher poverty rates than the general population. But government programs and private organizations may be able to help them get the assistance they need. VOICE TWO: Next month we have the fourth and final report in our series on living with a disability in America. Find out how recreation programs are helping people with disabilities have fun like they might never have thought possible. VOICE ONE: And if you missed any of the earlier reports, you can find transcripts and audio files at voaspecialenglish.com. Our program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember with Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Study Shows That Many Genes Could Be Involved in Autism
* Byline: Also: A study finds that aspirin may help protect healthy adults against asthma. Scientists discover more than 100 lakes under Antarctica. And for the first time, a woman wins the ''Nobel prize of computing.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we will tell you what an American satellite discovered under Antarctica. We will also tell about the first woman to win a major award for computer scientists. And, we report on a study that found yet another possible use for the drug aspirin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American space agency scientists say they have discovered large lakes hidden under the ice in Antarctica. The lakes are said to quickly fill with water and empty into surrounding seas. Research scientists say they found more than one hundred lakes under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Until now, scientists did not know many of these lakes existed. Knowing that they exist will help scientists better understand the effects of climate change on the ice sheet. The ice above the lakes moves at a speed of about eight tenths of a meter each day. Fast-moving ice streams are one way to estimate climate change. Information from the ice streams can be used to estimate how ice will survive rising sea temperatures. VOICE TWO: The researchers say they do not know exactly how the underground lakes affect the melting of ice away from the Antarctic ice sheet. Yet the melting of the ice sheet is one of the greatest fears of climate change scientists. American space agency researchers say Antarctica alone holds about ninety percent of the world’s ice. They say the continent also holds seventy percent of the Earth’s fresh water. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a report about climate change. The group warned that melting ice could cause world sea levels to rise up to fifty-eight centimeters by the end of the century. VOICE ONE: The discoveries were announced last month at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Francisco, California. Satellite images discovered the lakes under about seven hundred meters of ice. The satellite information was gathered from two thousand three to two thousand six. In the past, scientists had to cut deep holes into Antarctic ice to learn about what was happening underneath. The process only permitted them to study small areas at a time. VOICE TWO: The ice streams on top of the lakes move quickly. Scientists say they move about one and one-half meters each day and often drop ice into the sea. Currently, about twelve ice streams are moving the edges of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into nearby waters. Experts say the ice sheet last melted about one hundred twenty five thousand years ago. At the time, Earth's surface temperatures were similar to current temperatures. The American space agency estimates that the moving of ice into the ocean at the time sent sea levels about eighteen feet higher. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An American study shows that use of the drug aspirin may prevent healthy adults from developing the disease asthma. Asthma is caused by a condition in the lungs. During an asthma attack, breathing passages become smaller, blocking the flow of air. The disease usually develops during childhood. Some children recover as they get older. Tobias Kurth led the new study. He works for Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His team studied information about twenty-two thousand male doctors. The doctors had taken part in a health study during the nineteen eighties. That study was about heart disease, but its records also had information about asthma. VOICE TWO: None of the doctors had asthma when the study began. Half of them took an aspirin every other day. The other half took a harmless substance called a placebo. After about five years, one hundred forty-five men in the placebo group had developed asthma. But only one hundred thirteen men in the aspirin group had the disease. This represented a twenty-two percent decrease in the risk of developing asthma for those taking aspirin. The research team reported the results last month in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The researchers say it is too early to suggest that people take aspirin to prevent asthma. They also say aspirin is not a treatment for asthma. The drug can cause asthma attacks in some people who have the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another study offers information about the possible genetic causes of autism. Scientists already believed that autism is passed from parents to their children. But the study shows there could be many genes responsible for the brain disorder. This is different from other disorders that are caused by a single gene. Results of the study were reported last month in the publication Nature Genetics. The Autism Genome Project organized the study. The project involves research scientists in nineteen countries. The researchers compared genetic material from almost twelve hundred families. Each family had two or more children with autism. VOICE TWO: The researchers used what they called gene chip technology to look for small genetic differences that could be linked to the disorder. They identified a gene called neurexin-one as one possible cause of autism. This gene seems to be linked to communication among brain cells. The study also showed that an area of chromosome eleven might influence the development of autism. Signs of the disorder appear in early childhood, usually by the age of two or three years. Autism affects four times as many boys as girls. Another study released last month suggests that as many as one in every one hundred and fifty children in the United States has an autism disorder. VOICE ONE: Autistic children have problems in the development of social and communication skills. They may also have limited interests and repeat the same actions again and again. One problem with earlier autism research has been that studies are often based on information from a small number of people. In this study, more than one hundred and twenty researchers spent five years working to expand the number of persons studied. Because they shared their information, the researchers had a greater amount of information to work with. Scientists hope that learning more about the genetic roots of autism will help them to better identify and understand the disorder. They also hope to learn more about developing drugs to treat autism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Frances Allen is?the first woman to win?the Turing AwardFinally, a computer scientist from the United States has won the two thousand six A.M. Turing Award. The Association for Computing Machinery named Frances Allen as the winner. The A.C.M. is an international organization for computer scientists and educators. The A.M. Turing Award has been called the Nobel prize of computing. It is given every year to scientists and engineers who created the systems and theories that have aided the information technology industry. The Turing Award winner receives one hundred thousand dollars. Earlier winners include Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn for helping to design the Internet. The award is named for the British mathematics expert Alan M. Turing. He is considered one of the fathers of computer science. His work helped Allied nations learn how the German military passed secret commands and orders during World War Two. VOICE ONE: This is the first time that the Turing Award has been given to a woman. The Association for Computing Machinery says it is honoring Frances Allen for improving the performance of computer programs in solving problems. It says her work also helped to speed up the use of high performance computing. Miz Allen is retired from her job with the T.J. Watson Research Center at IBM Corporation. She joined the company in nineteen fifty-seven to teach the computer language FORTRAN to IBM engineers. She was trained as a mathematics teacher but became interested in the power of computers. Miz Allen has won several awards and honorary college degrees. She told the USA Today newspaper that she wants to use the Turing Award to influence more young women to study computer science. She will receive her award in June at ceremonies in San Diego, California. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Doug Johnson. Be listening again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The More Quotations Change, It Seems, the More They Remain the Same
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: our guest is Fred Shapiro, the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations. RS: Six years in the works, this newly published book contains about thirteen thousand entries from all time periods and regions -- but with special emphasis on twentieth century and American quotations. AA: Fred Shapiro says he applied "state-of-the-art research techniques" to try to avoid a common problem: misquotations. FRED SHAPIRO: "One example of a popular misquotation is in the 'Star Wars' movies, maybe the key line in the whole trilogy is when Darth Vader says 'I am your father.' But people remember that as 'Luke, I am your father.' "Another example is, William Tecumseh Sherman [a Union general in the Civil War] is quoted as saying 'war is hell.' In fact, the closest he ever came to that is he said, 'There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.' He also said, 'I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.' And that's always remembered as: 'If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.' It's a more eloquent way of speaking it. So misquotations are actually improvements usually in the language, the tone or the pacing of a quotation." AA: "And so now let's talk about modern quotable Americans. If I said who's the most quotable American that immediately comes to mind, who would you think of? FRED SHAPIRO: "My favorite, I think, of contemporary quotable people is Yogi Berra. He's so quotable that lots of things he never said get attributed to him, and he's become a kind of beloved icon of quotability. There's also the great comedians of the twentieth century: Woody Allen, Groucho Marx, W. C. Fields, Mae West. These are some of my favorite modern quotable people." RS: "You mentioned the great baseball player Yogi Berra, could you give us some of his notable quotables?" FRED SHAPIRO: "Sure. 'If you come to a fork in the road, take it.' 'It's deja vu all over again.' 'You can observe a lot by watching.' He has explanations for just about all of them. Like, for example, one of his quotes was 'It gets late early out there.' It sounds absurd, but he has explained that what he meant is that it's difficult to play left field in Yankee Stadium in late fall when the shadows creep up on you and you had a tough time seeing the ball off the bat." RS: "What do you think these quotes say about who we are as Americans? How do we get closer to who we are as Americans by understanding a quote by, say, Yogi Berra?" FRED SHAPIRO: "Well, first of all, these kinds of popular quotes from non-literary figures like Yogi Berra, they're expressed in an idiomatic language. So I think it helps people to get the rhythm of the English language and some of the slang they may use. But it also, on a very deep level, I think the quotations of a country express the preoccupations of that country, the patterns of thought. I think American quotes are different, for example, from British quotes because they're more informal; they're more satirical in their humor, rather than, maybe, British humor may be more sedate." RS: "Do you see that quotes evolve over time or the way our nation changes through the quotes? -- " AA: "I mean, people talk about the 'sound bite age' now. Are quotes getting shorter and more sort of 'on message,' as the political 'spin' people call it?" FRED SHAPIRO: "I can give two contradictory answers. One is that, the one thing you're struck by if you really study quotations is 'there's nothing new under the sun' or 'the more things change, the more they remain the same.' That the same kinds of political and religious questions, philosophical questions that preoccupied people thousands of years ago still preoccupy them today. But I do think you hit upon something that in the political realm there is this strong tendency to go toward short slogans. So I think that's something that has changed over time." RS: Fred Shapiro is associate director of the Yale Law Library in New Haven, Connecticut, and editor of the new Yale Book of Quotations. By the way, he cites the Book of Ecclesiastes as saying "there is no new thing under the sun," but notes that it's often quoted as "there's nothing new under the sun." AA: And the nineteenth century French writer Alphonse Karr gets credit for "The more things change, the more they remain the same." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address never changes. It's still word@voanews.com. RS: And our segments are all archived at voanews.com/wordmaster. With I'm Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Malaria Drug Coming to Africa Is Low Cost, Easy to Take
* Byline: ASAQ is the first product from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. Children will only need one pill, and adults two pills, a day for three days. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A boy waits to be tested for malaria in Mozambique in 2000Malaria infects as many as five hundred million people worldwide each year and kills more than one million of them. The ones who die are mostly children in southern Africa -- another one every thirty seconds, says the World Health Organization. Malaria drugs have been available for many years. Until now, however, they have been costly for the poor and not very easy to give to children. But last week a big drug company and an international campaign announced a new antimalarial that is low cost and easy to take. The drug maker Sanofi-Aventis of France is working in partnership with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. The new product is called A-S-A-Q. It combines what experts say are two of the best drugs for malaria: artesunate and amodiaquine. Officials say ASAQ will soon be available throughout Africa south of the Sahara. Combinations of drugs are used to treat diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. This is because it is easier for organisms to develop resistance to a single drug. Current malaria treatments require adults to take as many as eight pills a day. And they often have to divide pills to administer a smaller amount to children. ASAQ combines the medicines into one daily pill for children and two pills for adults. The medicine is taken for three days. Doctors say the simpler the treatment, the more likely people are to take their medicine. Sanofi-Aventis has promised to sell ASAQ on a "no profit-no loss" basis to the poorest patients. The full treatment cost for older children and adults will be less than a dollar. The cost for a child under the age of five will be less than half a dollar. Sanofi-Aventis has also made an unusual decision not to seek patent protections for ASAQ. That means other companies are free to make their own versions to sell at even lower prices. Five organizations including the French group Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders, established the initiative four years ago. The aim is to work with major drug companies to create low-cost drugs for diseases that are common in poor countries. ASAQ is the first product to be launched. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are online with transcripts at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: International Women's Day Observes the Struggle for Equality, Justice, Peace and Development
* Byline: For many women, it is a day to celebrate progress. For others, it is a reminder of how far they still must go to gain equality with men. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. International Women's Day is March eighth. It is a day to observe women's struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. VOA reporters in several countries recently examined the situation of women. They found that for many, International Women's Day is a time to celebrate progress. For others, it is a reminder of how far they still must go to gain equality with men. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: VOA reporter Margaret Besheer examined the lives of women in Muslim countries. She reports that positive changes affecting women are coming slowly. Mishkat al-Moumin works at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. Miz al-Moumin says economic and social power are important to women's progress in the Islamic world. She says it is difficult for women to survive without men if there is no social or economic program to support them. VOICE TWO: Education is another area where Muslim women are behind women of other cultures. United Nations reports showed that in two thousand five, more than seventy-five million women in the Middle East and North Africa could not read or write. This is a large part of the Muslim world. Mishkat al-Moumin says uneducated girls grow up to be unprepared mothers. They are unable to deal with modern problems affecting their children. VOICE ONE: Margaret Basheer reports that women are making progress at different speeds across the Muslim world. For example, in Saudi Arabia, modern change is coming more slowly. Women still are denied the right to vote or drive a car. However, in other countries, women are beginning to gain a voice in politics. In Iraq, for example, women are playing an active role in government. In Kuwait, women voted and ran as candidates in parliamentary and local elections for the first time last June. In Bahrain, the king appointed the first female judge last year. She joins other female judges in Jordan, Lebanon, Iran and several other Muslim nations. And a small number of Muslim women, including Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, have been leaders of their countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: VOA's Steve Herman reports that on average, there are only about nine hundred thirty girls for every one thousand boys in India. Many parents like boys better because they carry on the family name. Girls may cause financial problems when they marry. Their families must traditionally pay huge amounts of money to their daughter's future husband. Modern medical technology makes it possible for parents to know the sex of their child before it is born. Doctors use the method of ultrasound to see moving pictures of the unborn baby to make sure it is healthy. But Sabu George, an Indian activist, says ultrasound is becoming "a weapon of mass destruction." Instead of using modern technology to save lives, millions of girls are being killed before birth. VOICE ONE: Using ultrasound tests to find out the sex of the fetus is illegal in India. But Corrine Woods of the United Nations Children's Fund says that has not stopped it from being done. Miz Woods says India's wealthier women have most of the abortions of baby girls. Researchers say one out of every twenty-five female fetuses in India is aborted. This is about one-half million each year. Parents who cannot pay for ultrasound tests sometimes kill girl babies right after they are born. Baby girls who are not killed often die young because they are given less food and medical care than their brothers. They also receive less education. VOICE TWO: Corrine Woods of UNICEF says her organization and others are trying to educate people to get them to change their beliefs about girls. India's government is proposing to set up homes called orphanages to raise unwanted girls. But some experts express little hope. They say the idea has been tried before and the girls suffered in many of the orphanages. Sabu George predicts that even with political and legal measures, changes in beliefs will be slow. Social scientists warn about the effects of the situation. They say it is not good for a society to have too many young men and not enough women for them to marry. This can result in more crime and violence. VOICE ONE: Similar warnings are being heard about the growing population imbalance in China. Male children have traditionally been expected to take care of their aged parents. Poor farmers, especially, want sons because of a limited social security system. But the National Population and Family Planning Commission recently called the gender imbalance a "hidden threat" to social order. Still, its director said China needs to continue to limit family size to keep the world's largest population from growing out of control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Seven years ago, the United Nations set its Millennium Development Goals. Education for all children by the year twenty fifteen was one of the goals. VOA's Rosanne Skirble reports that some gains have been made toward reaching that goal. However, much more needs to be done, especially in Africa. Faty Seye?is a twenty-four-year-old woman from Dakar, Senegal. She did not finish high school. But she learned car repair skills free of charge in a program run by a local organization, the Young Women's Shelter. The group works with homeless girls, girls who have dropped out of school and single mothers. It offers classroom studies and hands-on experience. Faty Seye was trained to be an automobile mechanic. She was not concerned that women rarely do this kind of work. She says that as long as you love your job, you will do it well. VOICE ONE: In southern Africa, girls are more than half of the thirty-eight million children who are not in school. Girls are usually kept at home to work and to care for younger brothers and sisters or sick parents. Carolyn Bartholomew heads the Basic Education Coalition, based in Washington, D.C. It is a coalition of international development groups. She says keeping girls in school is good for a number of reasons. She says the results include healthier children and stronger families. In addition, educated mothers are more likely to educate their own children so the positive results extend into the future. VOICE TWO: In East Africa, girls growing up among the Maasai tribes of Kenya face cultural traditions that stand in the way of an education. Traditional values force many girls to accept arranged marriages when they are very young. Many girls are also forced to have their sex organs cut. Opponents of this tradition call it female genital mutilation. However, some girls, such as fourteen-year-old Evelyne Meitiaki, are able to attend the AIC Primary School near a small town south of Nairobi. Her two older sisters brought her to this school when she was five years old. The school's rescue center has seventy-five girls. They live at the school and take classes through high school. A nongovernmental organization in Kenya supports the school. VOICE ONE: Evelyne says she wants to become a lawyer. She says she wants to fight against female genital mutilation and arranged marriages of young girls. However, the Maasai see these "rescued girls" as rebels and a threat to their traditional way of life. A teacher at the school, Catherine Korrompoi?says Maasai culture must change in order to survive. She says these girls will change the whole community. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Latin America, more women are taking important jobs in government. There are female defense ministers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay. Chile also has a female president. VOA reporter Mike Bowman talked to Lorena Escudero, the defense minister of Ecuador. President Rafael Correa appointed her in January, after the former defense minister was killed in a helicopter crash. Miz Escudero says her appointment is one sign of positive change for women in Latin America. She says all women should fight and not give up. There are unlimited chances for success in the world, she says, and women should be part of it. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: American History: The Space Race Heightens Cold War Tensions
* Byline: In 1957, the launch of Sputnik, the world's first satellite, became an important propaganda victory for the Soviets. Transcript of radio broadcast

 VOICE ONE: This is Phil Murray. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the race to explore outer space. VOICE ONE: On a cold October day in nineteen fifty-seven, the Soviet Union launched a small satellite into orbit around the Earth. Radio Moscow made the announcement. RUSSIAN:?"The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created. This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR." The world's first satellite was called Sputnik One. Sputnik was an important propaganda victory for the Soviets in its Cold War with the United States. Many people believed the nation that controlled the skies could win any war. And the Soviet Union had reached outer space first. VOICE TWO: The technology that launched Sputnik probably began in the late nineteenth century. A Russian teacher of that time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, decided that a rocket engine could provide power for a space vehicle. In the early nineteen hundreds, another teacher -- American Robert Goddard -- tested the idea. He experimented with small rockets to see how high and how far they could travel. In nineteen twenty-three, a Romanian student in Germany, Hermann Oberth, showed how a spaceship might be built and launched to other planets. VOICE ONE: Rocket technology improved during World War Two. It was used to produce bombs. Thousands of people in Britain and Belgium died as a result of V-two rocket attacks. The V-two rockets were launched from Germany. After the war, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union -- allies in wartime -- would become enemies in peacetime. So, both countries employed German scientists to help them win the race to space. VOICE TWO: Laika in Sputnik TwoThe Soviets took the first step by creating Sputnik. This satellite was about the size of a basketball. It got its power from a rocket. It orbited Earth for three months. Within weeks, the Soviets launched another satellite into Earth orbit, Sputnik Two. It was much bigger and heavier than Sputnik one. It also carried a passenger: a dog named Laika. Laika orbited Earth for seven days. VOICE ONE: The United States joined the space race about three months later. It launched a satellite from Cape Canaveral, in the southeastern state of Florida. This satellite was called Explorer One. It weighed about fourteen kilograms. Explorer One went into a higher orbit than either Sputnik. And its instruments made an important discovery. They found an area of radiation about nine hundred-sixty kilometers above Earth. VOICE TWO: The next major space victory belonged to the Soviets. They sent the first man into space. In April, nineteen sixty-one, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched in the vehicle known as Vostok. He remained in space for less than two hours. He landed safely by parachute near a village in Russia. Less than a month later, the United States sent its first astronaut into space. He was Alan Shepard. Shepard remained in space only about fifteen minutes. He did not go into Earth orbit. That flight came in February, nineteen sixty-two, with John Glenn. VOICE ONE: By nineteen sixty-five, the United States and the Soviet Union were experimenting to see if humans could survive outside a spacecraft. In March, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to do so. A special rope connected him to the spacecraft. It provided him with oxygen to breathe. And it permitted him to float freely at the other end. After about ten minutes, Leonov had to return to the spacecraft. He said he regretted the decision. He was having such a good time! A little more than two months later, an American would walk outside his spacecraft. Astronaut Edward White had a kind of rocket gun. This gave him some control of his movements in space. Like Leonov, White was sorry when he had to return to his spacecraft. VOICE TWO: Later that year, nineteen sixty-five, the United States tried to have one spacecraft get very close to another spacecraft while in orbit. This was the first step in getting spacecraft to link, or dock, together. Docking would be necessary to land men on the moon. The plan called for a Gemini spacecraft carrying two astronauts to get close to an unmanned satellite. The attempt failed. The target satellite exploded as it separated from its main rocket. America's space agency decided to move forward. It would launch the next in its Gemini series. Then someone had an idea: why not launch both Geminis. The second one could chase the first one, instead of a satellite. Again, things did not go as planned. VOICE ONE: It took two tries to launch the second Gemini. By that time, the first one had been in orbit about eleven days. Time was running out. The astronauts on the second Gemini moved their spacecraft into higher orbits. They got closer and closer to the Gemini ahead of them. They needed to get within six hundred meters to be considered successful. After all the problems on the ground, the events in space went smoothly. The two spacecraft got within one-third of a meter of each other. The astronauts had made the operation seem easy. VOICE TWO: In January, nineteen fifty-nine, the Soviets launched a series of unmanned Luna rockets. The third of these flights took pictures of the far side of the moon. This was the side no one on Earth had ever seen. The United States planned to explore the moon with its unmanned Ranger spacecraft. There were a number of failures before Ranger Seven took pictures of the moon. These pictures were made from a distance. The world did not get pictures from the surface of the moon until the Soviet Luna nine landed there in February, nineteen sixty-six. VOICE ONE: For the next few years, both the United States and Soviet Union continued their exploration of the moon. Yet the question remained: which one would be the first to put a man there. In December, nineteen sixty-eight, the United States launched Apollo eight with three astronauts. The flight proved that a spacecraft could orbit the moon and return to Earth safely. VOICE TWO: The Apollo nine spacecraft had two vehicles. One was the command module. It could orbit the moon, but could not land on it. The other was the lunar module. On a flight to the moon, it would separate from the command module and land on the moon's surface. Apollo ten astronauts unlinked the lunar module and flew it close to the moon's surface. VOICE ONE: Buzz AldrinAfter those flights, everything was ready. On July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine, three American astronauts lifted off in Apollo eleven. On the twentieth, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the lunar module, called the Eagle. Michael Collins remained in the command module, the Columbia. The two vehicles separated. It was a dangerous time. The Eagle could crash. Or it could fall over after it landed. That meant the astronauts would die on the moon. VOICE TWO: Millions of people watched on television or listened on the radio. They waited for Armstrong's message: "The Eagle has landed." Then they waited again. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations needed to leave the lunar module. Finally, the door opened. Neil Armstrong climbed down first. He put one foot on the moon. Then, the other foot. And then came his words, from so far away: NEIL ARMSTRONG: "That's one small step for (a)?man; one giant leap for mankind." VOICE ONE: Armstrong walked around. Soon, Aldrin joined him. The two men placed an American flag on the surface of the moon. They also collected moon rocks and soil. When it was time to leave, they returned to the Eagle and guided it safely away. They reunited with the Columbia and headed for home. The United States had won the race to the moon. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-07-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Coming to Terms With Academic Titles at US Colleges
* Byline: A guide to teaching positions, in Week 27 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Not all college teachers are professors. In fact, not even all professors are full professors. Many are assistant or associate or adjunct professors. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we sort out academic titles at American colleges and universities. Professors usually need a doctorate degree. But sometimes a school may offer positions to people who have not yet received their doctorate. Such a person would be called an instructor until the degree has been completed. After that, the instructor could become an assistant professor. Assistant professors do not have tenure. A person with tenure cannot be easily dismissed. Such appointments are permanent. Teachers and researchers who are hired with the understanding that they will seek tenure are said to be "on the tenure track." Assistant professor is the first job on this path. Assistant professors generally have five to seven years to gain tenure. During this time, other faculty members study the person's work. If tenure is denied, then the assistant professor usually has a year to find another job. Candidates for tenure may feel great pressure to get research published. "Publish or perish" is the traditional saying. An assistant professor who receives tenure becomes an associate professor. An associate professor may later be appointed a full professor. Assistant, associate and full professors perform many duties. They teach classes. They advise students. And they carry out research. They also serve on committees and take part in other activities. Other faculty members are not expected to do all these jobs. They are not on a tenure track. Instead, they might be in adjunct or visiting positions. A visiting professor has a job at one school but works at another for a period of time. An adjunct professor is also a limited or part-time position, to do research or teach classes. Adjunct professors have a doctorate. Another position is that of lecturer. Lecturers teach classes, but they may or may not have a doctorate. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the twenty-seventh week of our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States -- with more to come. Our series is archived with audio files and transcripts at voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. If you write to us, please be sure to include your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A River Runs Through It. No, Wait, Make That 250,000 Rivers
* Byline: Also: An early start this year to daylight saving time. And the New York group My Brightest Diamond shines with a mix of experimental rock and classical music. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about rivers … Play some music by My Brightest Diamond … And report about a new time change in the United States. Daylight Savings Time HOST: This Sunday, March eleventh, most Americans will set their clocks ahead one hour. They will begin daylight saving time earlier this year. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Each spring, most people in the United States move their clocks ahead one hour because of what is called daylight saving time. The only states that do not are Hawaii and most of Arizona. Daylight saving time provides another hour of daylight in the evening. Its chief purpose is to save energy by reducing the use of electricity for lighting. Many countries first used daylight saving time during war time. Britain and the United States used it during World War One. The United States also used it during World War Two. After the war, many American states established some kind of daylight saving time. But this became confusing. So, in nineteen sixty-six, Congress established daylight saving time for the nation. It began the last Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday in October. In the nineteen seventies, that period was extended as a result of a fuel shortage in the United States. In nineteen eighty-six, new legislation changed the start of daylight saving time to the first Sunday in April. It still ended on the last Sunday in October. Americans continued to set their clocks one hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in the fall. They remembered to do this with the expression: "Spring ahead and fall back." Two years ago, Congress passed a law to lengthen daylight saving time by four weeks to save even more energy. That is why the time change will now begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. Some businesses tried to stop the legislation. That is because computer systems used by banks, airlines and other businesses must be changed to recognize the new start date for daylight saving time. Any device that has an internal clock could be a problem and must be changed. Most internal clocks in computing devices are set for the old daylight time change. Many companies have been working to reset electronic mail devices, personal computers and information-center computers. Most of Europe starts daylight saving time on March twenty-fifth. But most of Asia, Africa and South America do not observe daylight saving time at all. American Rivers HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Shamim Ahmed Sonju asks about famous American rivers. An environmental group called American Rivers works to protect and restore natural rivers in the United States. Hoh River in the state of Washington American Rivers reports that there are more than two hundred fifty thousand rivers in the United States. Combined, they flow for more than five and one-half million kilometers. The largest and most famous river in the United States is the Mississippi. It starts near the northern border of the United States and flows through the center of the country for more than three thousand seven hundred kilometers. About two hundred fifty smaller rivers flow into the Mississippi. The mouth of the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico. At that point, more than sixteen million liters of water flow every second. However, the Missouri River is the longest river in the United States. It flows for about four thousand kilometers. It begins in the Rocky Mountains of North America. It flows along the borders of seven states before it empties into the Mississippi River near the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Three rivers that join together in the north central state of Montana form the Missouri River. The water is clear there. But, as it moves east and south, the Missouri River turns brown as it collects huge amounts of dirt from the land. That is why many people call the Missouri River “The Big Muddy.” Some people say the Columbia River in the northwest is the most beautiful river in America. It flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United States through the state of Washington. The Columbia River is the largest river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Another famous river is the Rio Grande. It is the longest river in the state of Texas. It forms the border between Texas and Mexico. Finally, American Rivers says that the oldest river in the United States is the New River. It begins in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and flows north through parts of Virginia and West Virginia. The New River also may be the second oldest in the world. It is funny how something so old can be called new. My Brightest Diamond HOST: My Brightest Diamond is a music group based in New York City. Shara Worden is the voice and songwriter behind the band. Her unusual music combines the spirit of experimental rock with classical music. The richly descriptive songs on their album, “Bring Me the Workhorse,” are filled with color and feeling. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was the song “Dragonfly.” It tells about a trapped insect that asks Shara Worden to fly away with her. Many songs on this album have very creative and sometimes unexpected subjects. Shara Worden of My Brightest DiamondIt might not surprise you that Shara Worden first trained as a classical opera singer. She has a very clear and controlled voice. Her parents were both musicians and always supported her study of music. Worden studied opera music in college before moving to New York City. Shara Worden mixes music from the past and present. She still studies classical music. But she says she likes making popular music that is beautiful and pleasing to the senses. Here is the sad, slow, love song “Gone Away.” It shows another side to Shara Worden’s emotional and powerful voice. (MUSIC) My Brightest Diamond recently traveled around Europe and America playing with Sufjan Stevens, a musician we told about in November. But Shara Worden has also been working on other projects. She has written an album called “A Thousand Sharks Teeth” which will come out next year. She says it has less rock and more of a dreamy, unearthly sound. We leave you with the energetic beat of “Golden Star.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. And join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Meeting the Demand for Ethanol
* Byline: What will fuel demand do to the food supply as animal farmers and refiners compete for corn? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. A US fuel pump for 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasolineWhat happens when a food crop becomes a fuel crop? This is a question many people are trying to answer as demand for ethanol increases. The issue is important not just to farmers and the energy industry. President Bush began a Latin American trip in Brazil Thursday for talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on subjects including biofuels. One goal is to increase production of ethanol from sugar cane in Central American and Caribbean nations. Together, the United States and Brazil produce more than seventy percent of the world's ethanol. In the United States, ethanol is produced mostly from corn, or maize, and is also imported -- with a tariff that critics call protectionist. Brazilian ethanol production is mainly from sugar cane. In Brazil, about forty percent of all motor fuel is ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol. Many Brazilians drive flex-fuel vehicles. These can use either gasoline or ethanol. They are so successful, General Motors has stopped making cars for the Brazilian market that only use gasoline. In the United States, vehicles that run on pure ethanol are rare. But most cars can run on a mixture of gasoline and ten percent ethanol. Some states require an ethanol-gas mixture to cut pollution. Yet the use of an important food crop for fuel has led to concerns. Ethanol now makes up about twelve percent of all corn use in the United States. At current growth rates, that could nearly double by two thousand fifteen. The American Midwest is known as the corn belt -- that is where most of the nation's corn is grown. Some people worry that strong demand may push up food prices and reduce supplies of corn for food aid or farm animals. Fuel researchers are exploring additional ways to make ethanol. One possibility is to use the remains of corn plants left in the field after harvest. This material is known as stover. But stover protects against soil loss to wind and water. Researchers are also developing "cellulosic biomass" -- things like grass and tree bark, which are normally considered waste. The Department of Energy says the United States could produce more than one billion tons of biomass a year. But the technologies to make ethanol from biomass do not exist yet. The government says developing these new technologies could take five to ten years. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. Archives of transcripts and audio files are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Congress Investigates Treatment of Wounded Troops
* Byline: Lawmakers go to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to hear about poor living conditions. President Bush creates a commission to study military health care. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Army Specialist Jeremy Duncan and Annette McLeod, wife of a wounded soldier, appear at a hearing at Walter Reed Both houses of Congress held hearings this week on conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Investigations began after the Washington Post reported last month on poor living conditions for soldiers recovering from war wounds. Some said they had to wait months for follow-up treatment or separation from the Army. The newspaper described, for example, a building where recovering soldiers had to live with mice, mold and insects. Military officials apologized at a hearing held Monday at Walter Reed by members of the House of Representatives. Lawmakers also heard from soldiers and family members about long delays with paperwork. An Army document shows that officials at Walter Reed and the Army Medical Command were warned last year about a risk of system overload. More than twenty thousand service members have been wounded in Iraq alone. Another issue involves brain injuries in troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recent news reports have told of some having to wait months for treatment. Congress has demanded that the Department of Veterans Affairs improve the situation. An explosion that shakes the brain can cause traumatic brain injury. Doctors may not be able to see any injuries. But signs of it can include headaches, feeling tense, sleep disorders, memory problems and depression. The department says all patients who recently served in Iraq or Afghanistan will now be tested for traumatic brain injury. The new testing will start in the spring at all one hundred fifty-five V.A. medical centers. And all V.A. health care providers will be trained about this kind of injury. In announcing the plan, V.A. Secretary Jim Nicholson noted that the department "is a nationally recognized leader in health care." But this is not the first time the veterans hospital system has been criticized for poor service. The system began in the nineteen thirties. Over the years, it has gone through periods with more patients than it could handle. World War Two, for example, created waiting lists for beds in veterans hospitals. Walter Reed is a leading military hospital. But a two thousand five law to reorganize military bases calls for it to close four years from now. Army officials say they are moving quickly to deal with the problems there. The hospital's commander for the past six months was replaced and the secretary of the Army was forced to resign. But problems are being described not just at Walter Reed. President Bush says he is concerned that soldiers and their families are not getting the treatment they should. This week he established a commission to examine health care both at the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Former Senator Bob Dole, a Republican, and former health secretary Donna Shalala, a Democrat, have agreed to head the commission. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part Two
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER:? Now, the VOA Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Last week we brought you the first of four programs called? “A Princess of Mars.”?? Our story is from a series of books by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. They are science fiction stories, a mix of imagination and science. Last week, we met John Carter who begins the story. He enters a cave deep in the desert in the state of? Arizona. There something happens. He does not know how, but he has been transported to the Red Planet, Mars. He quickly learns that gravity on Mars is much less than on Earth. The lack of gravity makes him very strong. He can even jump very high without trying. He finds a low wall that surrounds a group of eggs. The eggs are opening. Out come small, fierce-looking green creatures. When we left John Carter, a green adult creature carrying a long sharp spear was coming toward him. And now, the second program in our series,? “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? The creature with the spear was huge. There were many other similar creatures. They had ridden behind me on the backs of large animals. Each of them carried a collection of strange-looking weapons. The one with the large spear got down from the back of his animal and began walking toward me. He was almost five meters tall and a dark green color. Huge teeth stuck out of his face, and his expression showed much hate and violence. I immediately knew I was facing a terrible warrior. He began moving quickly toward me with the spear. I was completely unarmed. I could not fight. My only chance was to escape. I used all my strength to jump away from him. I was able to jump almost thirty meters. The green Martian stopped and watched my effort. I would learn later that the look on his face showed complete surprise. The creatures gathered and talked among themselves. While they talked, I thought about running away. However, I noticed several of them carried devices that looked very much like rifles. I could not run. Soon, all but one of the creatures moved away. The one who had threatened me stayed. He slowly took off a metal band from his arm and held it out to me. He spoke in a strange language. (SOUND) JOHN CARTER:? Slowly, he laid down his weapons. I thought this would have been a sign of peace anywhere on Earth…why not on Mars, too?? I walked toward him and in a normal voice announced my name and said I had come in peace. I knew he did not understand, but like me, he took it to mean that I meant no harm. Slowly, we came together. He gave me the large metal band that had been around his arm. He turned and made signs with his hands that I should follow him. Soon we arrived at the large animal he had been riding. He again made a sign with his hands that I should ride on the same animal behind him. The group turned and began riding across the land. We moved quickly toward mountains in the distance. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? The large animals we rode moved quickly across the land. I could tell from the surrounding mountains that we were on the bottom of a long dead sea. In time we came to a huge city. At first I thought the city was empty. The buildings all were empty and in poor repair. But soon I saw hundreds of the green warriors. I also saw green women and children. I soon learned about many cities like this. The cities were built hundreds of years ago by a people that no longer existed. The green Martians used the cities. They moved from one empty city to another, never stopping for more than a day or two. We got down from our animals and walked into a large building. We entered a room that was filled with fierce green warriors. (SOUND) It was not difficult to tell that these were the leaders of the green Martians. One of them took hold of my arm. He shook me and lifted me off the ground. He laughed when he did so. I was to learn that green Martians only laugh at the pain or suffering of others. This huge warrior threw me to the ground and then took hold of my arm again to pick me up. I did the only thing I could do. I hit him with my closed fist as hard as I could. (SOUND) The green warrior fell to the floor and did not move. The others in the room grew silent. I had knocked down one of their warriors with only my hand. I moved away from him and prepared to defend myself as best I could. But they did not move. The green Martian that had captured me walked toward me. He said in a clear voice: TARS TARKAS:? "TARS TARKAS -- TARS TARKAS.” JOHN CARTER:? As he spoke, he pointed to his own chest. He was telling me his name!? I pointed to my chest and said my name, “John Carter.”? He turned and said the word, “Sola.”? Immediately, a green Martian woman came close. He spoke to her. She led me to another building and into a large room. The room was filled with equipment carried by the green Martians. She prepared something for me to eat. I was very hungry. I pointed to her and said the word “Sola.”? She pointed at me and said my name. It was a beginning. Sola was my guard. She also became my teacher. In time she would become a close and valued friend. As I ate my meal, my lessons in the language of the green Martians continued. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? Two days later, Tars Tarkas came to my room. He carried the weapons and the metal armbands the green warriors wear. He put them on the ground near my feet. Sola told him I now understood some of their language. He turned to me and spoke slowly. TARS TARKAS:? The warrior you hit is dead. His weapons and the metal of his rank are yours, John Carter. He was a leader of one small group among our people. Because you have killed him, you now are a leader. You are still a captive and not free to leave. However you will be treated with the respect you have earned. You are now a warrior among our people. JOHN CARTER:? Tars Tarkas turned and spoke softly. From beyond the door a strange creature entered the room. It was bigger than a large dog and very ugly. It had rows of long teeth and ten very short legs. Tars Tarkas spoke to the creature and pointed at me. He left. The creature looked at me, watching closely. Then Sola spoke about the creature. SOLA:? His name is Woola. The men of our tribe use them in hunting and war. He has been told to guard and protect you. He has also been told to prevent your escape. There is no faster creature in our world. And in a fight they can kill very quickly. Do not try to escape, John Carter. Woola will tear you to small pieces. JOHN CARTER:? I continued to watch the creature named Woola. I had already seen how the green Martians treated other animals. They were very cruel. I thought, perhaps this beast can be taught to be my friend…much like a dog on Earth. I walked close to the creature and began speaking in much the same way I would speak to a dog or other animal on Earth. I sat down next to him while I talked softly. At first he seemed confused. I believe the creature Woola had never heard a kind word. For the next several days I gained the trust and friendship of Woola. In a few short days Woola was my friend and fierce protector. He would remain my loyal friend as long as I was on Mars. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? Several days later, Sola came to me with a look of great concern. SOLA:? John Carter…come with me. A great battle is about to take place. An enemy is coming near this city. We must prepare to fight and we must be ready to flee. JOHN CARTER:? Sola, what enemy is this?? SOLA:? A race of red men who travel our world in flying machines. A great number of their machines have come over the far mountain. Take your weapons with you and hurry. JOHN CARTER:? I collected my sword and a spear. I hurried out of the building and joined a group of warriors moving toward the end of the city. Far in the distance I could see the air ships. They were firing large guns at the green warriors. I heard huge explosions. The green warriors were firing back with their deadly rifles. The air was filled with the sound of violent battle. (SOUND) Suddenly a huge air ship exploded. It came down, crashing near me. Red Martians were falling from the side of the huge ship. And then it exploded! (SOUND AND MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories. This has been the second part of the story “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burrows. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. And Barbara Klein was Sola. Join us again next week at this time as we continue “A Princess of Mars” in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Ayn Rand, 1905-1982: Americans Still Debate Her Books and Ideas
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and writings of Ayn Rand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Although she died more than twenty-five years ago, many Americans still argue about Ayn Rand. More than twenty million copies of her books have been sold around the world. Many people say her books are poorly written. But people still buy hundreds of thousands of copies of them each year. People also continue to talk about her ideas and her interesting life. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-oh-five, Alisa Rosenbaum was born in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. As a young child, Alisa loved books. She began to write her own stories when she was only seven years old. When the Russian Revolution began in nineteen seventeen, the Rosenbaum family fled to the Russian state of Crimea. This experience was important in Alisa’s life. It started her hatred of collectivism. Collectivism is the system of ownership and control of the means of production by the people collectively, usually under the supervision of a government. After the revolution, Alisa returned to Saint Petersburg, now called Petrograd, to attend college. She took classes in politics, history, law, and writing. In nineteen twenty-six, she traveled to the United States to visit family members. ? VOICE ONE: Soon after she arrived in the United States, Alisa decided she would never leave. She also decided to change her name to "Ayn Rand."? She said "Rand" was taken from the Russian alphabet spelling of "Rosenbaum." She said she chose "Ayn" after the name of a writer from Finland. Newly named, Rand moved to Hollywood, California to work in the movie business. She met and married actor Frank O’Connor in nineteen twenty-nine. Throughout the nineteen thirties, O'Connor acted and Rand wrote. She published two books during these years, but did not earn much critical or popular recognition. VOICE TWO: Then, in nineteen forty-three, Rand’s famous book "The Fountainhead" was published. It took her seven years to write the novel. Twelve publishers rejected the book. However, a man named Archibald Ogden loved the story and convinced the Bobbs-Merrill company to publish it. "The Fountainhead" became a huge success around the world. It has sold more than six million copies. It continues to sell about one hundred thousand copies each year. "The Fountainhead" tells the story of a young building designer named Howard Roark. Roark wants to build interesting, modern-looking buildings. However, most people only want to see traditional designs. Roark loves designing and building more than anything in the world. But he refuses to compromise and make buildings he hates. Several people work against Roark and his goals. But in the end, Roark succeeds. "The Fountainhead" is an unusual novel for many reasons. It is more than seven hundred pages long, far longer than most books people read for entertainment. It also includes discussions of philosophy, which are not usually found in popular books. In addition, the book criticizes collectivism and religion in a way that many people have found insulting. Most critics did not like "The Fountainhead." But readers loved it. In nineteen forty-nine it was made into a popular movie. Rand wrote the screenplay. Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal starred in the movie. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the movie was released, Ayn Rand and Frank O’Connor moved to New York City. They started having weekly meetings for friends in their apartment. Soon, the gatherings became more serious. The members discussed philosophical ideas and began writing about them. The group decided to call itself “the Collective.” The name was meant to be a joke, because all of the members hated collectivism. Alan Greenspan, who would later become chairman of the Federal Reserve, was part of this group. The Collective worked together to form the details of Rand’s philosophy, which they called Objectivism. Objectivism is about the importance of the individual and reasonable thought. Rand believed that people must choose their values and actions through reason. She believed that the individual has a right to exist for his or her own self. The Collective also helped Rand edit her book "Atlas Shrugged," which was published in nineteen fifty-seven. VOICE TWO: "Atlas Shrugged" is set in the near future. The American economy and society are starting to collapse under the influence of big government. The United States is a nation of failing businesses, closed factories and angry citizens. A small group of thinkers, artists, scientists and industrial leaders disappears from society. They flee to a hidden valley in Colorado. Here they establish a new community based on capitalism without government control. The heroine of the book is Dagny Taggart who owns a large railroad company. She struggles to keep her business alive and save the country while society is collapsing around her. "Atlas Shrugged" is more than one thousand pages, one of the longest novels ever written. Ayn Rand said that "Atlas Shrugged" fully defined her philosophy of Objectivism. She wrote at the end of the book:? "My philosophy... is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." VOICE ONE: Rand thought "Atlas Shrugged" was the most important book ever written. The critics did not agree. Most gave the book bad reviews. In the National Review, a conservative political magazine, Whittaker Chambers wrote a long, angry article about "Atlas Shrugged." He said it was a stupid book with dangerous ideas. As with "The Fountainhead," the public disagreed with the critics. "Atlas Shrugged" went on to sell millions of copies around the world. Ayn Rand and her ideas quickly became well known, especially among students and other young people. Later, she wrote books about economics, politics, love and other subjects. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One young person became interested in Ayn Rand’s ideas long before "Atlas Shrugged" was published. His name was Nathaniel Branden. After reading "The Fountainhead," he wrote a letter to Rand. He wrote that he wanted to discuss the relationship between psychology and Rand’s ideas. Branden and his wife Barbara soon became friends with Rand and joined the Collective. Rand and Branden began to have a sexual relationship even though they were married to other people. They called themselves the experts on all of the ideas of Objectivism. They wrote many papers and made speeches all over the United States. However, some people criticized the Objectivists and their followers. They said people honored Rand and Branden as if they were religious leaders without ever questioning their beliefs. Rand rejected this criticism. She wrote that "a blind follower is ...what my philosophy condemns and what I reject. Objectivism is not a mystic cult." Things changed in nineteen sixty-eight when Rand discovered Branden having a sexual relationship with a younger student. Rand became very angry and forced Branden to leave the Objectivists and never speak to her again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the end of her relationship with Branden, Ayn Rand’s life slowed down. She lived quietly in New York City until she died in nineteen eighty-two. At her funeral, one of her followers left a gift. It was a two-meter tall flower arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign. This gift was meant to represent Rand’s ideas about capitalism as the most moral economic system. Ayn Rand's books continue to be extremely popular. "Atlas Shrugged" has been named in several opinion studies as one of the best and most influential books of the twentieth century. Reports from Hollywood, California say that several actors, writers and producers are working on a movie version of "Atlas Shrugged." However, many people are still opposed to Ayn Rand’s books and ideas. More than one hundred years after her birth, Ayn Rand’s books, thoughts, and actions continue to be important to many people. She is still one of the most loved, and hated, American thinkers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Sarah Randle and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can find the text of our programs and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Mobile Phones as a Public Health Tool in Developing Nations
* Byline: Technology from an American company, Voxiva, assists government services in Rwanda and elsewhere. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Wireless phones are connecting the developing world at a rate of about one million new phones each day. And with them come important new uses for the technology. Some of the ideas are being developed by a company in Washington, D.C. Paul Meyer is one of three people who started Voxiva, V-O-X-I-V-A, in two thousand one. They began with a simple question, he says. How can technology help countries deal with health problems or other issues? Some leading social investors including the Acumen Fund helped launch Voxiva. The World Bank, the United States government and others helped the company expand. Voxiva has been working with the government of Rwanda for about three years. The company created an information technology system for health workers to collect and share information about HIV/AIDS. All health centers in Rwanda that provide care for HIV/AIDS report into the system every week. They can use different forms of technology, including the Internet, to connect to the system. But Paul Meyer says most of the centers use mobile phones. They report numbers of new patients and the treatments provided. They also report on the supplies of drugs available at each center. The system cuts dependence on paper-driven communication. It gives health officials the ability to make decisions based on real-time information. In other words, the information is from right now, not weeks or months ago. With the system, health centers around the country can also receive information without any delay. Paul Meyer says the Rwandan government spent about one million dollars to have the TRACnet system developed and put into place. TRACnet has since been expanded to other parts of Rwanda’s health care system. Rural health centers in the Amazon Basin of Peru have been using a Voxiva system for more than five years. They use it to report cases of cholera, measles and other diseases. Indonesia is using Voxiva technology to follow cases of bird flu. Disease surveillance systems have also been deployed in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, India. Paul Meyer says the technology is basic enough to have many uses. In some Peruvian cities, for example, citizens use Voxiva technology to report crimes and to interact with local government services. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. A link to Voxiva's Web site can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Setting Out for a Day on the Lake, or Maybe a Trip Around the World
* Byline: A look at sailing and motor boating in the US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Our subject this week is sailing. (MUSIC: "Sail On, Sailor"/Beach Boys) VOICE ONE: The United States has two ocean coasts and countless lakes, rivers and other waterways -- enough to satisfy not just the average sailor. But last October, a forty-seven-year-old man named Ken Barnes left California in a thirteen-meter sailboat. He wanted to become the first person to sail alone, nonstop, around the world from west to east. He was at the bottom of South America when things went wrong. A storm destroyed both masts holding up the sails. Waves flooded the boat. Most of his supplies were destroyed. But thanks to modern technology, not all hope was lost. Ken Barnes called his girlfriend in California by satellite phone and told her what happened. The next day, he called her again and told her he had very little to eat. VOICE TWO: Later, another friend spoke with him and learned that Ken Barnes had a severe cut on his leg. It was bleeding, and he was a long way from medical help. Lucky for him, a search plane from the Chilean Navy located his boat, the Privateer. It was floating aimlessly at sea, eight hundred kilometers from shore. Word reached a fishing boat, which then traveled four hundred seventy-five kilometers to his rescue. Ken Barnes was safe. His boat was a different story. It sank. (MUSIC: "Southern Cross"/Crosby Stills & Nash) VOICE ONE: Most people who enjoy sailing or power boating are not looking to break any records. They just look forward to a nice day out on the water. Crew, the sport of team rowing, is popular in American high schools and colleges. There are also crew teams for adults. Like people, boats come in many sizes, from one-person kayaks that fit easily on top of a car to big yachts for sailors with lots of money. In racing, a huge version of the catamaran has become popular in recent years. A catamaran is a traditional design with two hulls that are side by side. The mega catamaran or maxi cat gained wide attention in a round-the-world event called simply The Race. It began in Barcelona, Spain, on New Year's Eve of two thousand. Catamarans and other boats took part. American Steve Fossett was in a maxi cat named PlayStation, later renamed Cheyenne. His boat had to withdraw because of equipment problems. But Steve Fossett went on to break speed records for sailing, though some of his records have since been broken by others. His boat was christened in nineteen ninety-eight at a ceremony in New Zealand. Steve Fossett was busy, however. He was trying to circle the world in a balloon at the time. (MUSIC: "Sailing On"/Toots & the Maytals) VOICE TWO: The most important sailing race in the world is the America's Cup. Yet the last time an American team reached the finals was in nineteen ninety-five, when the United States lost to New Zealand. You might think the America's Cup is named for a country or continent. Instead, the event is named for a famous boat, a schooner called America. With it, the New York Yacht Club defeated Britain's Royal Yacht Squadron in a race around the Isle of Wight in eighteen fifty-one. The New York Yacht Club won the Hundred Guinea Cup, which was renamed the America's Cup. The club had possession of it for one hundred thirty-two years, until an Australian team won it in nineteen eighty-three. The America's Cup is a regatta, or series of races. The two thousand seven America's Cup final will be held in Valencia, Spain, between June twenty-third and July seventh. The Alinghi team of Switzerland will defend the cup against Team New Zealand. (MUSIC: "Come Sail Away"/Styx) VOICE ONE: Some people are not satisfied with sailing away just for an afternoon of fishing or sunbathing on their nearest lake. For boaters in San Diego, California, for example, sailing down the Pacific coast to Mexico can make for an easy weekend getaway. When members of boating clubs get together at parties, you might hear people talk about going out to sea. That might mean spending months traveling the world. And these are not all millionaires with big yachts and no jobs to worry about. These might be couples who have spent years working hard, saving their money and learning the skills of sailing. The American Sailing Association says that over the years, it has taught more than six hundred sixty thousand people to sail. The association provides lessons in many places in the United States. A group called the American Sail Training Association helps young people learn to sail tall ships like those of long ago. Another organization, US Sailing, trains sailing teachers and, among other things, helps prepare sailors for Olympic competition. (MUSIC: "Sail Away"/Randy Newman) VOICE TWO: Sailing appeals to all ages. Five girls who live near the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland belong to a Mariner Troop of the Girl Scouts of America. The members are ages eleven to seventeen. They meet once a month. The girls build their own boats. Their training includes all kinds of water-related skills. In addition to sailing, they swim and row, and go rafting through fast currents. The Mariner Scouts study ocean science, sea biology, archeology and more. They learn all about a world that has captured the imagination for as long as people have set sail. (MUSIC: "A Sailboat in the Moonlight"/Billie Holiday with Lester Young) VOICE ONE:?????? Any sailor will tell you there is something romantic about a sailboat -- even one that displaces more than a hundred tons of water. The Manitou is a tall sailing ship on Lake Michigan. Its homeport is Traverse City, Michigan. The main captain of the Manitou is Dave McGinnis. He owns the Traverse Tall Ship Company. He says Americans have shown new interest in historic ships in recent years. The Manitou is similar in design to schooners that carried goods on the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean in the eighteen hundreds. But the Manitou was built in nineteen eighty-three for passenger service. VOICE TWO: Early in the sailing season, the Manitou carries schoolchildren on trips so they can learn about the lake environment. The children help place nets and pull them up to catch fish for study. The fish are returned to the water. Late in the season, adult passengers can enjoy an escape on the Manitou. Passengers can help raise the sails, wash dishes, or just read a book. The ship carries no television sets or telephones or computers to check e-mail. The captain has no fixed plan for exactly what passengers will see on their trip. Sometimes the weekend sailors visit one of the state's oldest general stores, established in eighteen thirty-nine. The storekeeper serves up ice cream and local history. Or the passengers might visit a lighthouse. Captain McGinnis says wind and weather help decide where to stop. (MUSIC: "Sailing"/Christopher Cross) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Our programs are all available with transcripts and audio files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Face: Time to Face the Music
* Byline: Expressions as plain as the nose on your face. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES – a VOA Special English program about American expressions. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt with expressions that include the word face. (MUSIC) The first is face the music. It means to accept the results of what you have done. Here is an example from a Reuters news report: Britain’s highest court had ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was legally arrested. Opponents of General Pinochet welcomed the news. One of them said, “We have waited for years for this man to face the music.” No one is sure how the expression began. One story is that it came from a military ceremony held when a soldier was forced out of an army. The buttons were cut from the soldier’s clothing. He was put on a horse, facing the back of the horse and led away. As he left, he faced the music of a military band and the soldiers he had served with. Another story says the expression began in the theater. New actors, shaking with fright, were told that the only cure was to go out and face the music. The music was played by the orchestra seated in front of the stage. A similar expression is face up to. It means to accept something that is difficult or painful. For example, a man must face up to the fact that he lied about a business deal and will lose his job. Or, a child must learn to face up to her responsibilities and complete her schoolwork. Meeting someone face-to-face can be exciting, especially if the other person is famous.It is an expression one might use after visiting the White House and meeting the president face-to-face. Or a teacher might ask for a face-to-face meeting with the parents of a student in trouble.It means to talk to someone in person, not by telephone. Another expression is as plain as the nose on your face.It means that something is as clear as it can possibly be. Shakespeare used the words almost five hundred years ago for a joke in his play Two Gentlemen of Verona. Valentine secretly loves Lady Sylvia. His servant jokes that Valentine’s love for her is as hard to see as the nose on a man’s face. Of course, a man’s nose cannot be hidden. A more recent use of the expression appeared in a report in Newsday magazine. It was about a dispute between the United States and Europe over agriculture. The United States had criticized Europeans for protecting their soybean farmers. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in return criticized the United States for its huge budget deficits. The report said the OECD seemed to be saying, “For God’s sake, it is plain as the nose on your face that you must raise taxes.” (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Frank Beardsley. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Compulsive Hoarding: When Collecting Things Becomes a Disorder
* Byline: Hoarders are afraid to throw things away. They may save old newspapers, clothing, even old food; some people hoard animals. The problem is also a public safety concern. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we tell about compulsive hoarding syndrome. It is both a mental sickness and a public safety issue. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people in the United States are looking forward to the return of spring. During this season, millions of Americans do what is known as spring cleaning. They open windows in their homes to let in fresh air. They use cleaning products that make their homes smell nice. And they organize their belongings. Some Americans have a strong desire to clean up their homes. This can also be called removing clutter. Clutter can be described as a disorganized collection of things. To remove clutter means to throw away the things you do not want. Then, organize the things you have decided to keep. VOICE TWO: In recent years, it has become easy to find information on how to attack clutter. There are books and even television programs on the subject. Specialty stores sell containers and boxes for storing things around the house. Some Americans pay people to come to their home to remove clutter. Such people provide advice on what to keep and what to throw away. They also help with organizing things. However, the services of a professional organizer can be costly. Such services can cost up to two hundred dollars an hour. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people have serious problems with clutter. They have a mental disorder called compulsive hoarding syndrome. Hoarding is the gathering of objects and not being able to throw them away. Most people would say the objects are useless or worthless. However, hoarders believe the objects could be useful some day. They may even develop an emotional connection to such things. Hoarders are afraid to throw away things. Yet they continue to bring more and more things into their homes. They may save objects such as newspapers, clothing, and even old food. VOICE TWO: Hoarders live with so much clutter it may endanger their physical health. Dirt, insects, and bacteria that form over a period of time can cause sickness. Safety experts say the homes of hoarders often are unsafe. A room filled with newspapers, for example, can cause floor supports to break down. In many cases, a room is filled from top to bottom with useless things. There is only a small space to walk from one end of the room to the other. VOICE ONE: One of the most famous hoarding cases involved two brothers in New York City. Homer and Langley Collyer were found dead in their home in nineteen forty-seven. Langley Collyer was buried under what appeared to be a mountain of old newspapers. The weight of the newspapers crushed him. Langley was Homer's caretaker. Medical experts believed Langley had been dead for several days before his brother Homer died of starvation. Police found the home was filled with thousands of unused books, pieces of wood, and skins from large fruits and vegetables. The two brothers also saved pipes and very large automobile parts. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Compulsive hoarding can have a severe effect on a family. Family members who share a home with the hoarder cannot understand why their loved one keeps so many useless and sometimes dangerous things. It prevents the family from enjoying their home. Experts say the hoarder should make a greater effort to keep the home clean and organized. However, it is not that simple. Randy Frost is a psychologist at Smith College in Massachusetts. He also has studied hoarding. Mister Frost says it is more than a mental disorder. He says hoarding is a public health problem. VOICE ONE: Collecting waste, food or materials that can cause fires creates serious health risks. In the United States, hoarding violates laws that were created to protect public safety and property. Some cities have formed groups to deal with the problems caused by hoarding. Each group usually has representatives from one or more government agencies. Agency officials say they often hear about hoarders from citizens who live near someone affected with the disorder. The citizens no longer want to see broken household equipment or old clothing lying on property near their homes. VOICE TWO: Persons suffering from compulsive hoarding syndrome do not only collect objects. Some collect cats, dogs or other animals. Most animal hoarders believe they are rescuing the animals with the purpose of caring for them. However, hoarders do not realize when they have too many animals. They are really doing more harm than good. They may not be able to provide medical care for the animals. Some animals may not be washed or fed. Officials have been shocked at the condition of the homes of animal hoarders. Floors were covered with animal wastes. Infectious diseases were a problem. Some animals were found starving, while others had died. An animal hoarder usually collects other things, such as clothing or magazines. Experts suspect that many hoarders have had uncaring parents or disorderly lives as children. The animals serve as a way for hoarders to get the love they always wanted. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Compulsive hoarding syndrome affects an estimated one million people in the United States. Compulsive hoarding is most commonly connected to obsessive-compulsive disorder, or O.C.D. This disorder causes people to have ideas that interfere with their daily activities. Such persons act on these ideas, even when they know the resulting actions are senseless. For example, fear of being dirty may cause persons with O.C.D. to wash their hands again and again. They may inspect things repeatedly, like making sure all electrical devices are turned off. VOICE TWO: ? Sanjaya Saxena is director of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Program at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. He says hoarders have high levels of uneasiness, depression and a need to be perfect. In a recent paper, Professor Saxena reported discovery of an effective treatment for patients who suffer from compulsive hoarding. The study included seventy-nine patients with O.C.D. Thirty-two of them had compulsive hoarding syndrome. The study found that the drug paroxetine was effective in treating those suffering from compulsive hoarding. Researchers say the study suggests that more controlled studies of medicines to treat the disorder could offer more improvements. VOICE ONE: Professor Saxena also led an earlier study of the disorder. In that study, he and his team used images from a process called positron emission tomography to measure brain activity. They compared images of the brains of hoarders to those from other persons with O.C.D. The hoarders had lower activity in an area of the brain called the anterior cingulated gyrus. This area helps to control decision-making and the ability to solve problems. The study suggested that different medicines could improve the success of treatment. VOICE TWO: Recently, another study identified a possible genetic marker for compulsive hoarding. The American Journal of Psychiatry published results of the study. The lead researcher was Jack Samuels of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. He and his team studied more than two hundred families with O.C.D. The researchers found evidence suggesting that an area of genes on chromosome fourteen was linked with compulsive hoarding. They said the linkage became stronger when two or more family members affected with compulsive hoarding were tested. VOICE ONE: Treatment of compulsive hoarding is very difficult. It may involve medicines and working with a mental health expert. The expert helps hoarders to understand their actions of saving worthless things. Patients are taught to develop a plan for organizing. They learn how to decide what to throw away. They learn to resist the urge to bring home more things. Experts suggest taking a picture of the area to be organized before and after the work is completed. They say this will provide the patient with a feeling of progress. They also say the treatment program, changes in the way of thinking, and improved decision-making skills will help the patient for a long time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Lawan Davis. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: How This Little Piggy Goes to Market
* Byline: A guide to production systems for raising pigs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For Chinese, this is the Year of the Pig. So this is probably as good a time as any to talk about the different kinds of production systems for raising pigs. Technician Adam Lewis, left, and support scientist Jeff Dailey connect video equipment to record sow and piglet behavior in a traditional indoor farrowing environmentOne kind of operation is called a farrow-to-wean farm. The animals are born, or farrowed, in a farrowing barn. Pigs usually give birth two times a year. Each time they have about eight to twelve piglets. The piglets drink milk from the mother sow for three to four weeks, or until they weigh between four and a half and seven kilograms. After they are weaned from their mothers, they are sold. At another kind of operation, producers raise pigs for about six weeks. When the animals weigh eighteen to twenty-seven kilograms, they are sold to a finish farm. A third kind of farm is the farrow-to-finish operation. Pigs are born there and stay there. The hogs are brought to market when they reach between ninety and one hundred fourteen kilograms. These three basic production systems used in the United States are described at pork4kids.com, an industry Web site. Young hogs raised for meat are called feeders. They feed on corn, wheat, soybeans and other grains. Pigs need protection from heat, cold, rain and snow. Did you know that pigs can get sunburned? They also need enough space to move around easily. Some farmers and activists for animals say pigs do better outdoors in a pasture or yard than in crowded pens. Ann Hutton and her prize pig LaurenPeople who raise pigs say the animals are "escape artists," so a good strong fence is important. The smell from their waste can also be a problem. Some farmers spread the waste on cropland and plow it under immediately to help control the smell. But producers have to be careful with untreated waste. It can pollute groundwater and cause other environmental and health problems. To meet demand in the United States, producers keep about sixty million hogs at any one time. Most of these are in operations with more than five thousand pigs. The world's largest producer of pork is China, followed by Mexico. The United States is third. Pigs provide about twenty-five percent of the American meat supply. About five percent of that is imported. But the United States is also a leading exporter of pork and pork products. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: History: Election of 1960 Brings Close Race Between Kennedy, Nixon
* Byline: After the first televised presidential debate, many people who had not considered voting for John Kennedy began to change their minds. To them, he looked like a president. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in nineteen fifty-two. By nineteen sixty, he had served two terms. The twenty-second amendment to the Constitution said he could not be re-elected. Eisenhower was hugely popular when he first came to office. And his first term was considered successful. He created a new government agency for education and health care. He led a congressional effort to improve the tax system. And, under his leadership, a peace treaty ending the Korean War was signed. Eisenhower also met with Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev. This began a tradition of meetings between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union. Experts believe these meetings probably helped prevent a nuclear war between the two countries. VOICE TWO: At the end of Eisenhower's first term, he was still very popular. He had suffered a heart attack. But he felt strong enough to campaign again. His Democratic Party opponent was Adlai Stevenson. They had been the candidates in the presidential election four years earlier. This time, Eisenhower won almost ten million votes more than Stevenson. That was an even bigger victory than in nineteen fifty-two. VOICE ONE: Eisenhower's second term, however, presented problems. The Soviet Union launched the space age by putting the world's first satellite into earth orbit. Fidel Castro established a communist government in Cuba. Many white Americans were fighting the Supreme Court's decision to end racial separation in schools. And the American economy suffered a recession. Eisenhower's popularity dropped during his second term. This would make it more difficult for the Republican Party's next candidate for president. VOICE TWO: The delegates who attended the Republican nominating convention in the summer of nineteen sixty feared that the party would lose the election in November. They had to find the strongest candidate possible. Many believed that Richard Nixon was the strongest. Nixon had been a senator and a member of the House of Representatives. He had been Eisenhower's vice president for eight years. When Eisenhower suffered several serious illnesses, Nixon had a chance to show his abilities to lead the nation. He showed great strength while facing an angry crowd during a trip to South America. He also gained support when he defended the United States in an unofficial debate with Khrushchev during a trip to the Soviet Union. VOICE ONE: Nixon's closest opponent for the Republican nomination was Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller was governor of New York. He came from one of the richest families in America. At the convention, Richard Nixon easily won the support of the Republican Party. The delegates elected him on the first vote. He accepted the nomination. And he called for new efforts for peace and freedom around the world. VOICE TWO: The race for the Democratic nomination was much more difficult. He Democratic Party thought it would have no problem winning the presidential election. Many candidates entered the competition for the nomination. One was Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Another was Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts. Humphrey had been elected to the Senate three times. He was a strong activist for civil rights, peace, and social improvements. Kennedy was a Navy hero in World War Two. He was handsome and only forty-three years old. He also was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. And no catholic had ever been elected president of the United States. VOICE ONE: Kennedy and Humphrey began to enter local primary elections in different states. The purpose of the primaries is to test voter support for candidates. Kennedy won an important primary in the state of Wisconsin. However, the Protestant Christian areas of the state did not support him. The question then became: Could he win in West Virginia? Most of the voters in that state were Protestants. VOICE TWO: On the last night of the primary campaign in West Virginia, Kennedy spoke about his religion. He said the president of the United States promises to defend the Constitution. And that, he said, includes the separation of the government from any religion or church. Kennedy won a large victory in West Virginia. He then went on to win many votes in other primary elections. He received the nomination on the first vote of the Democratic Party convention. In his acceptance speech, he said he would ask Americans to help their country. He said he would ask them to sacrifice for their country. VOICE ONE: After the party conventions, the two candidates -- Kennedy and Nixon -- began to campaign around the nation. Nixon charged that Kennedy was too young to be president. He said Kennedy did not know enough about governing. Kennedy attacked the Republican record of the past eight years. He said president Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon had not done enough to bring progress to the nation. Protestant groups expressed concerns about Kennedy's religion. They wondered if he would be influenced by the Pope. They asked if the leader of the Roman Catholic Church would try to make policy for the United States. Kennedy answered by repeating his strong support for the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state. VOICE TWO: The first televised presidential debate took place September 26, 1960Public opinion studies showed the election campaign to be very, very close. Then, the candidates agreed to hold four debates. The debates would be broadcast on television. In the first debate, they showed they did not differ too widely on major issues. Kennedy, however, appeared calm and sure. Nixon, who did not feel well, appeared thin and tired. Many people who had not considered voting for Kennedy now began to change their minds. To them, he looked like a president. VOICE ONE: In the fourth debate, they expressed widely different opinions about whether the United States was making progress. Kennedy believed there had been little progress under Eisenhower and Nixon. He said: KENNEDY: "Franklin Roosevelt said in nineteen thirty-six that that generation of Americans had a rendezvous with destiny. I believe in nineteen sixty and sixty-one and two and three, we have a rendezvous with destiny. And I believe it incumbent upon us to be defenders of the United States and the defenders of freedom. And to do that, we must give this country leadership. And we must get America moving again." VOICE TWO: Nixon disagreed sharply. He believed the United States had not been standing still. Yet he believed it could not rest, either. He said: NIXON: "It is essential with the conflict that we have around the world that we not just hold our own, that we not keep just freedom for ourselves. It is essential that we extend freedom, extend it to all the world. And this means more than what we've been doing. It means keeping America even stronger militarily than she is. It means seeing that our economy moves forward even faster than it has. It means making more progress in civil rights than we have, so that we can be a splendid example for all the world to see." VOICE ONE: Another issue of the nineteen sixty presidential debates was the Chinese attack on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in the Formosa [Taiwan] Strait. Another was how to deal with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Most people seemed to feel that Kennedy won the first debate. Experts thought Nixon probably won the second one. And both men did about the same in the last two. VOICE TWO: After the debates, the presidential candidates campaigned around the country again. Nixon proposed a trip to Eastern Europe and a meeting with Khrushchev, if he were elected. Kennedy proposed what he called a Peace Corps. The Peace Corps would be a program to send Americans to developing countries to provide technical aid and other help. VOICE ONE: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy giving his inaugural speechOn Election Day in November, the voters chose John Kennedy. His victory, however, was a close one. Almost sixty-nine million people voted. He won by fewer than one hundred twenty thousand votes. The United States now had its thirty-fifth president. He was the youngest and the first Roman Catholic. The beginning of John Kennedy's administration will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bungee Jumping: Stretching the Limits of Fear, Just for Fun
* Byline: Some people call it crazy, but enough find it exciting to make it a popular sport around the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Imagine standing at the edge of a tall bridge. Hundreds of meters below you, river water rushes by. You take a deep breath and jump off the bridge, head first into thin air. As a reaction to such excitement and fear, the hormone adrenaline floods through your body. There is nothing but a long rubber rope attached to your ankles, holding on to your very life. Some people call it crazy. Others say it is exciting. Whatever you may think, bungee jumping has become a popular extreme sport all over the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bungee jumping is not a new activity. Men on Pentecost Island in the South Pacific have been doing land jumping for hundreds of years. The men tie long vines from plants around their ankles. They spend days building tall towers out of vines and logs. Then they jump off these structures. It takes a great deal of skill to jump correctly and safely. Land diving for them is an important cultural activity. According to their beliefs, the first land diver was a woman. She decided to run away from her abusive husband. So, she climbed up a tall tree and tied some vines around her feet. Her husband chased after her up the tree. He reached out to grab her, but the woman jumped and the man followed. The vines saved her life, but her husband died. VOICE TWO: Land diving has become a way in which these island men show their bravery in front of the women. People of the village sing loud songs to show their support for the brave divers. This tradition is also a way for the men to voice their troubles in public. For example, a man can discuss his marriage problems before he jumps. The villagers – including his wife - must stand and listen. VOICE ONE: This ancient custom caught the interest of some students at Oxford University in England. In the late nineteen seventies, they formed a group called the Dangerous Sports Club. They liked to invent risky and sometimes crazy activities. They were some of the first people to test several of what are now called extreme sports. They are said to have invented modern bungee jumping. In the spring of nineteen seventy-nine, members of the group jumped off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. They were attached to the bridge by a bungee cord, a long elastic rope that stretches. They were dressed in black and white clothing and held bottles of Champagne wine. The press quickly reported on their wild activities. The group soon received even more attention when they organized a bungee jump off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A man named A.J. Hackett of New Zealand later heard about this group. He decided to make the sport into a business. Mister Hackett worked with his friend Henry van Asch who was an expert at skiing. They started developing bungee ropes and materials. Scientists at Auckland University helped them. The two men knew that people would find bungee jumping exciting and fun. And they knew people would pay money for the experience. To show the world about bungee jumping they held a major jump in nineteen eighty-seven off of the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. They later got permission to open the first bungee jumping operation on the Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown, New Zealand. Many people paid seventy-five dollars to jump off the bridge with a bungee cord attached to their ankles. Mister Hackett worked hard to make sure the public knew how safe his materials were. He developed a method to guarantee safety called the “Bungee Code of Practice.” VOICE ONE: Bungee jumping might seem frightening. But it is a very safe activity if you go to a well-established bungee jump company. People who work for bungee operators usually have a great deal of training and experience. They use very strong and carefully made rubber ropes. They choose a rope based on the jumper’s body weight. This is so they can manage how much the rope stretches when the person falls. The rope attaches through a harness device tied around the jumper’s ankles. Often, operators use a body harness as well. This is so that you have twice the protection in case one harness breaks. Good bungee operators make sure all equipment is in excellent condition. They should also do several checks to make sure all ropes, harnesses and ties are correctly attached. VOICE TWO: It is important to remember that this sport is not safe for everyone. People who have high blood pressure or a heart condition should not try jumping. People with back or knee injuries or who suffer from epilepsy should also avoid this sport. And remember, if you do not feel like experiencing it yourself, you can always watch other people jump. VOICE ONE: Now you have jumped, bounced up and down several times on the rubber rope, and are hanging by your ankles in the middle of the air. You may be wondering what you are supposed to do now. Do not worry. The operators have different choices for getting you back to land right side up again. Often times, a bungee guide on a rope will attach to your rope and help you back up to the structure you jumped from. One extreme sports company gives a warning on its Web site. It warns that bungee jumping might lead to big smiles and deep feelings of happiness and excitement. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Since its beginnings in New Zealand, commercial bungee jumping has spread to countries everywhere. One of the highest bungee jumps in the world from a structure is near Locarno, Switzerland over the Verzasca Dam. The drop measures two hundred and twenty meters. In fact, you can see the character James Bond jump off this very bridge in the nineteen ninety-five movie “GoldenEye.” Or, there is the two hundred and sixteen meter jump from the Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa. This is the highest single arch bridge in the world. VOICE ONE: Of course, not every place has a body of water with a bridge from which you can jump. Some amusement parks offer bungee jumping from crane machinery. In the Andes Mountains of Peru, you can visit Action Valley outside the city of Cusco. Visitors can jump from a metal box that hangs from cables high up in the air. Most of these companies can sell you video recordings or photographs of your jump. This way you can prove to your family back home that you were brave enough to bungee. VOICE TWO: Now, extreme sports companies are finding ways to make bungee jumping even more frightening. Some offer bungee jumps at night, or jumps where you fall off a structure backwards. There are also bungee jumps from flying helicopters and hot air balloons. You can also try bungee jumping for two. Some companies can harness two people together so you and a friend can experience twice the excitement. A.J. Hackett’s company even offers a sky jump off the tallest building in Macau. Just how far would you go to experience the fast rush of bungee fear? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hosiah Mudzingwa helps run a bungee operation on the Victoria Falls bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia in Africa. He has been jumping from this one hundred and eleven meter drop for many years. From the steel bridge you can see the giant waters of Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfalls in the world. Mister Mudzingwa explains that every human being wants to feel the rush of adrenaline. He says when you bungee jump, you leave all stress and bad thinking behind. He says you come back up with a new mind. VOICE TWO: But what does a person who is new to bungee jumping think about this sport?? Tim Rooney recently traveled to Victoria Falls. He only had twenty-four hours to spend in Zimbabwe. But he made sure he found time to jump off this famous bridge towards the powerful Zambezi River. Here is what he had to say about the experience. (SOUND) TIM ROONEY: “Hi, I’m Tim Rooney from Washington DC. Jumping off the bridge was one of the most spectacular, poetic moments of my life. "The idea hadn’t really occurred to me until we got to the falls and we saw the view. I decided what better way to get to know this view than to jump into it. "I think that the jump had more of a scary impact on my girlfriend who had to watch the whole thing. To an observer, a bungee jump looks like a terribly violent process. But the actual experience of it is one of floating. You jump and you don’t have any sensation of being tugged or falling or anything. You just are floating up and down. It is one of the most calm, wonderful things I have ever done. I recommend everybody do it.” VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Laying the Roots for Healthy Teeth in Young Children
* Byline: Experts say good dental care starts at birth by paying attention to a baby's gums. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. It might seem hard to imagine that a bad tooth could be deadly. But doctors in the Washington area say a twelve-year-old boy died last month from a tooth infection that spread to his brain. They say it might have been prevented had the boy received the dental care he needed. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say good dental care starts at birth. They say breast milk is the best food for the healthy development of teeth. Breast milk can help slow bacterial growth and acid production in the mouth. But dentists say you should clean your baby's gums and early teeth after each feeding. Use a cloth with a little warm water. Do the same if you bottle feed your baby. Experts say if you decide to put your baby to sleep with a bottle, give your baby only water. When baby teeth begin to appear, you can clean them with a wet toothbrush. Dentists say it is important to find soft toothbrushes made especially for babies. And use them very gently. The use of fluoride to protect teeth is common in many parts of the world. This natural element is often added to drinking water supplies. The fluoride mixes with enamel, the hard surface on teeth, to help prevent holes, or cavities, from forming. But the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry points out that young children often swallow toothpaste when they brush. The group notes that swallowing fluoridated toothpaste can cause problems. So young children should be carefully supervised when they brush their teeth. And only a small amount of fluoridated toothpaste, the size of a green pea, should be used. Parents often wonder about what effect thumb sucking or sucking on a pacifier might have on their baby's teeth. Dental experts generally agree that this is fine early in life. The American Academy of Family Physicians says most kids stop sucking their thumbs by the age of four. If it continues, the group advises parents to talk to their child's dentist or doctor. It could interfere with the correct development of permanent teeth. Dentists strongly advise a first dental visit at least by the time a child is one year old. They say babies should be examined when their first teeth appear. Healthy teeth are meant to last a lifetime. Daily cleaning is important to preventing infections and other problems. We will talk more in the future about dental care for children and adults. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: He Shoots, He Scores; She Shoots, She Scores. 'Slam Dunk' Terms Resound
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a sports question. RS: A listener from Ivory Coast, Marius Meledje, would like to learn more about the language of basketball. This is a good week to answer that question. It's the start of what Americans call "March Madness" -- top college basketball teams compete for the national championship. AA: Like any sport, basketball has its own lingo. Some phrases have entered popular speech. One of them is the term "slam dunk." In basketball, a slam-dunk is when a player jumps up really high and essentially shoves the ball right down through the hoop, instead of throwing it from the court and hoping it goes in. In popular use, a slam-dunk is a sure thing or an expectation of something that is seen as guaranteed. RS: Another term is "full-court press." We found this definition on an NBA, National Basketball Association, Web page: "When the defensive team defends the offensive team in the backcourt. Full-court presses often have the defensive team double-teaming the ball in an attempt to force a turnover." AA: Just picture an aggressive effort by one group of people to succeed against another, and you can see why "full-court press" also makes a good metaphor. It can be used, for instance, to describe an intensive legislative-lobbying effort or an aggressive strategy in business or law. RS: Another term that's crossed over from basketball, especially pickup basketball, is "my bad." "My bad" is what a player might say after making a mistake like a bad pass to a teammate, or throwing the ball "out of bounds" -- another sports term from basketball as well as other sports. "Out of bounds" refers to any behavior that violates accepted rules. Pickup basketball is the name for a casual -- or maybe not-so-casual -- game played by whoever wants to "shoot some hoops." AA: As for March Madness, it starts out with more than five dozen teams. If you hear the term "brackets," that refers to the schematic diagram of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I tournament. The games are listed in a series of brackets for each round. The term "Final Four" refers to the four teams that emerge as regional champions. They will play in the national semifinals in Atlanta on March thirty-first. The two winners will then play for the national championship on April second. RS: Fans of women's college hoops have their own set of brackets to follow. The first round of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship is set for this Saturday and Sunday. The women's Final Four will play in Cleveland on April first, followed by the national championship game two days later. So with all these games to be played in the coming days, you can see why people call it March Madness. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. We leave you with a song by Chris Rock and the late great singer Barry White, called "Basketball Jones." (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Military Education, Though Not Necessarily for a Military Life
* Byline: Part 28 of our Foreign Student Series looks at two military colleges in the American South. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Our Foreign Student Series continues this week with two examples of military colleges in the United States. One is the Virginia Military Institute. V.M.I. is a public, four-year military college in Lexington, Virginia. It accepts women as well as men. Its one thousand three hundred students are called cadets. Older cadets teach new arrivals about the honor system at V.M.I. Cadets risk expulsion if they lie, cheat or steal -- or accept lying, cheating or stealing by any other cadet. V.M.I. officials say an important part of a college education is learning self-control. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart MacInnis is associate director of communications and marketing at the Virginia Military Institute. He says V.M.I. this year has twenty-three cadets from countries including Britain, Egypt, Poland, Russia and Thailand. Most of them are studying engineering. The cost for one year at V.M.I. for someone from outside Virginia is about thirty thousand dollars. Graduates are not required to go into the military, but Colonel MacInnis says about fifty percent do. And twenty percent make it a career. Another public military college in the South is The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina. It also accepts both men and women for its four-year program. The Citadel says it offers a traditional military education to its more than two thousand students. Thirty-eight percent of its graduates choose to enter the military. This year, The Citadel has forty-nine students from twenty-four countries outside the United States. They are mainly studying business and engineering. The Citadel costs about twenty-seven thousand dollars for the first year. After that, it drops to about twenty-four thousand. You can find links to the V.M.I. and Citadel Web sites at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio files of our Foreign Student Series. Next week, learn about the United States Military Academy at West Point. We began our series on studying in the United States in September. So far we have dealt with the application process, college admissions tests, English language testing, financial aid and other subjects. In the weeks to come we will talk more about individual schools and programs. If you have a suggestion for our series, write to special@voanews.com. And please include your name and country. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: St. Patrick's Day in US | Question From Brazil: Difference Between Advertising and Propaganda? | Music by Thievery Corporation
* Byline: Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about advertising … Play some music from Thievery Corporation … And report about Saint Patrick's Day. Saint Patrick's Day Celebrating St. Patrick's Day the American waySaturday, March seventeenth is Saint Patrick’s Day. In Ireland, it is a religious holiday that honors the man who brought Christianity to that country in the fifth century. In the United States, people celebrate with parades and parties. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Saint Patrick’s Day has changed over the years. It is no longer a day to celebrate only Saint Patrick, but a day to celebrate all things Irish. In nineteen ninety-five, the United States Congress declared the month of March as Irish-American Heritage Month. The American president releases a statement about it every year. The statement praises Americans whose families came to the United States from Ireland. And it calls on all Americans to celebrate the month by learning about the influence of Irish-Americans. The Census Bureau reports that more than thirty-four million Americans say their ancestors came from Ireland. That is twelve percent of the country’s population. It is the nation's second most frequently reported ancestry. German ancestry is the highest. The state with the highest percentage of Irish-Americans is Massachusetts. Twenty-four percent of the people living there say their ancestors came from Ireland. History experts say people from Ireland first celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day in the city of Boston about two hundred fifty years ago. But the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City on March seventeenth, seventeen sixty-two. It included Irish soldiers who were serving in the British army. Parades spread across the country as more and more Irish people came to America. But New York City’s parade is still the biggest one. The city of Chicago, Illinois also holds a large Saint Patrick’s Day parade. And it celebrates Saint Patrick’s Day by coloring its river green. Green is the traditional Irish color. You see lots of it on Saint Patrick’s Day. People wear green clothes. Some even color their hair or faces green. And some drinking places serve green beer. Many people eat the traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage. And many attend Saint Patrick’s Day parties. A majority of Americans have no real connection to Ireland. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day. Advertising and Propaganda This week, our listener question comes from Curitiba, Brazil. Joalo Ademir dos Santos wants to know about propaganda, advertising and publicity. In some ways these words have similar meanings, but they are each a little different. Propaganda is a message designed and spread to influence public opinion. It is most commonly used by governments and in politics. Before the twentieth century, pictures and written media were the main forms of propaganda. Today, propaganda can be found in radio, television, movies, and the Internet. Many governments throughout history have used propaganda to gain the support of their public. Propaganda does not always include neutral information because it supports the opinion of one group or government. During wartime, propaganda created by a government and directed at its own civilians and military can improve feelings about the country. Propaganda aimed at the enemy is considered a form of psychological warfare. Many governments use propaganda as a policy tool. However, experts debate its effectiveness. Advertising is a paid message usually used to influence people to buy goods or services. It can also be used to spread the ideas of an organization or business. You can see and hear advertisements on radio, television, newspapers, the Internet and even signs on the street. Businesses invest large amounts of money in advertising campaigns in order to make their products well known. Advertising has become a major part of life. Experts say most people see and hear hundreds of different advertising messages each day. Publicity is usually information or an announcement about a person, group, event or product. It is sent to the media with the hope of being published or broadcast. An organization's public relations department usually creates publicity. Information about ceremonies, press conferences or protests are common kinds of publicity. Experts say publicity is most successful when it has news value. Thievery Corporation HOST: Thievery Corporation may sound like the name of a company, but it is the name of a musical group. Thievery Corporation started as an important part of the musical nightlife of Washington, D.C. Now, the group has become well known all over the world. You can hear their music in video games, television shows, and movies. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Eric Hilton and Rob Garza (pictured)?are the creators of Thievery Corporation. For ten years they have been making records that combine repetitive electronic beats with ethnic music and jazz sounds. They started performing together at a popular drinking place in Washington, D.C., called the Eighteenth Street Lounge. People loved their sound so much that the men started to make records. Here is the song “Shaolin Satellite” from one of their early albums. (MUSIC) The sounds of the city influenced Hilton and Garza. They heard many kinds of ethnic music performed in the areas of the city called Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan. They met musicians from all over the world and included this music in their songs. Here is Sista Pat singing “Wires and Watchtowers.” It is from Thievery Corporation's latest album called “The Cosmic Game.” (MUSIC) Recently Thievery Corporation performed four nights in a row in Washington. All shows sold out very quickly. Their energetic and colorful concerts included many singers and musicians such as guitar, sitar and bass players. There was even a belly dancer. The shows were a celebration of the group's ten years together. We leave you with their international hit “Lebanese Blonde,” from an earlier album called "Mirror Conspiracy." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. ?Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Worry Over Subprime Home Loans
* Byline: Buyers who were given loans even though they have weak credit are missing their payments. Now investors and lawmakers are taking notice. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Financial markets had a rough week again as investors grew more concerned about the United States housing market. Much of the concern is about home loans to people with poor credit or little history of borrowing money. Most homebuyers are considered "prime," or a high-quality credit risk. Yet lenders have taken the risk of subprime loans because those buyers pay higher interest rates. The number and complexity of nontraditional home loans grew along with the housing market. Now, that market has cooled. At the same time, many buyers, and not just in the subprime market, are seeing their monthly payments go up. Nontraditional loans often start with low payments for the first year or two. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported this week on the condition of eighty percent of home loans nationally. It says five percent of all mortgage payments were at least thirty days late in the final three months of last year. But more than thirteen percent of all subprime loans had late payments -- the highest level in four years. By the end of last year, fourteen percent of all home loans were subprime. Total mortgage debt in the United States was ten trillion dollars. Some experts worry that the problems could affect the wider economy. Congress may act to control risky lending. And Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd says federal aid may be needed to protect buyers. If a buyer misses too many payments, a lender may try to reclaim the house through a forced sale. Nationally, foreclosure rates increased in the fourth quarter, but especially among subprime loans. A number of lenders have already failed or left the business. Yet some may be able to escape losses by passing their risk to others. Many lenders sell their mortgages to investment banks. The banks resell the loans, creating trillions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities. These are bought and sold on financial markets. But some of these investments can be very risky if homeowners cannot repay their loans. Subprime loans are only part of the story, however. House prices have been slower to rise, and in some places have dropped. Housing expert James Diffley of Global Insights says prices for existing homes in California could drop sixteen percent this year. He says other states including Arizona, Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts could have large declines as well. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Presidential Candidates Crowd Field for Long Race to November '08
* Byline: Campaign for the White House is seen as the most wide open in many years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The next presidential election in the United States is in November of two thousand eight. But a crowd of candidates and possible candidates is forming early for what is seen as one of the most wide open races in many years. The last election without a sitting president or vice president as a candidate was either in nineteen fifty-two or nineteen twenty-eight. Political experts disagree. In any case, President Bush is constitutionally barred from a third term. And Vice President Dick Cheney says he will not be a candidate for president. Every president and vice president has been white and male. The current group of candidates includes a woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton; an African-American, Barack Obama; a Latino, Bill Richardson; and a Mormon, Mitt Romney. The diversity may not mean much to people who are waiting to hear more about candidates' positions. But others may feel conflicting loyalties. A black teenager in Washington, D.C., is excited that she will be old enough to vote in her first presidential election. She says that as a woman, she hopes Hillary Clinton will win. But as an African-American, she hopes Barack Obama will win. "I'm in, and I'm in to win," says Hillary Clinton. The New York senator and former first lady is the most popular Democrat. But Senator Obama of Illinois has gained on her with a following that some call "Obamamania." Another popular Democrat is John Edwards, the two thousand four vice presidential nominee. Also in the race are Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, Representative Dennis Kucinich and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. In the race for the Republican nomination, some early studies show former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani in the lead. He gained national attention after the September eleventh, two thousand one, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Other Republicans include Arizona Senator John McCain and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. They also include former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is popular among Republicans. But he says he will wait until September to decide whether he will run. Chuck Hagel announced that he too will make a decision later this year. The Nebraska senator is known for his criticism of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war. Sam Brownback is the only declared Republican candidate who has spoken out against the recent troop increase. The presidential nominating process involves state primary elections and party meetings known as caucuses. A lot of states are moving to vote earlier than they have, in an effort to increase their influence. California is the most populous state. Yet Californians were feeling disrespected by candidates because of their June primary. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has just signed legislation to move it to February fifth, a day when many other states may also vote. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Thomas Edison, 1847-1931: America's Great Inventor
* Byline: Edison is remembered most for the electric light, phonograph and his work with motion pictures. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around the world. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison’s major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the eighteen hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the twentieth century. His inventions made possible the progress of technology. It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light. These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions. VOICE TWO: Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented. At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator. He later worked in many different places. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election. VOICE ONE: In the summer months of eighteen sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device. The company paid him forty thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time. This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions. Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a “big trick” about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and it would be invented. VOICE TWO: Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy. He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in nineteen seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions. The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions. Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music. Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound. VOICE TWO: The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again -- the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important. Before the electric light was invented, light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light. Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful.He and his employees began work on the electric light. VOICE ONE: An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament. Time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked. At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not have electricity. There was no need for it. Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry. VOICE TWO: Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film. When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen? hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything -- a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison’s motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called “The Great Train Robbery.”? It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. ?“The Great Train Robbery” started the huge motion picture industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains. Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of researchers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States. Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen thirty-one. In the months before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one thousand ninety-three. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part Three
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Last week we broadcast the second of our programs called “A Princess of Mars.”? The story is from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Last week we told how John Carter was captured by a group of warriors on the planet Mars. Later, he became one of them by defeating a huge warrior in a fight. He is still a captive, but he is treated with honor because he is a skilled fighter. We left John Carter at the beginning of a fierce battle between the green warriors and their main enemy. The enemy came close to the green Martians in huge air ships. The green Martians attacked. John Carter continues to tell about what happens to him in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s story, “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? Another of the large air ships exploded high in the air.Members of the crew fell to the ground. The huge ship lost control and began turning again and again. Soon it was close to the ground. The warriors climbed aboard the ship and began fighting the members of the crew who were still alive. Soon the fighting stopped. The warriors began taking everything from the ship. At last, they brought a captive from deep within the ship. Two of the warriors had their captive by each arm. I wanted to see what new and strange form of life this creature would be. As they came near, I saw that it was a woman. She looked like a woman from Earth. She was young. Her skin was a light red, almost a copper color. I saw at once that she was extremely beautiful. She had a fine face with large dark eyes and long, black hair. As her guards led her away, she saw me for a moment. She seemed very surprised. Her face looked hopeful. But when I made no attempt to speak to her, her face grew sad and she looked very small and frightened. As I watched her disappear into a building, I realized that Sola was near me. SOLA:?John Carter, that woman will be saved for the great games that are held by our people. The games are long and cruel and end in death for those captured in battle. Her death will be slow and painful. She will die for the enjoyment of all. JOHN CARTER: Sola’s face seemed sad when she said this. I could tell by the way she spoke that she did not like the games and did not want to see the young woman die. She was very different from the rest of her people. Sola, do you not like the games? SOLA:?No, John Carter. My mother died in the games. That is a secret you must not tell anyone. The wall where Tars Tarkas found you held eggs that produce our young. All the children belong to the tribe. A mother never knows which child is hers when they come out of the egg. My mother hid the egg that carried me. It was not placed within the walled area. She kept her secret until after I was born. But others discovered her secret and she was condemned to die in the games. She hid me among other children before she was captured. If this secret were learned, I too would die in the games. Before she left me, my mother told me the name of my father. I alone keep that secret. It would mean death for him as well as me. My people are violent and cruel. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? The next day I entered the great room where the green Martians held meetings. The red woman prisoner was there too. Soon, the leader of the green Martians came into the room. His name was Lorquas Ptomel. He began speaking to the prisoner. LORQUAS PTOMEL:? Who are you and what is your name? DEJAH THORIS: I am the Princess Dejah Thoris, daughter of Mors Kajak, the ruler of Helium. Our air ship was on a scientific flight. We were to study the air and atmosphere. Without our work the air on our planet would grow thin and we would all die. Why would you attack us?? JOHN CARTER:?As she talked, a warrior ran to her and hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground. He placed a foot on her small body and began laughing. (LAUGHTER) I reached for the small sword I carried and rushed to attack the huge warrior. (FIGHTING SOUNDS) JOHN CARTER: He was a strong opponent. But again, because of the low gravity on Mars, my strength was far greater than his. In a few short minutes, the green warrior was dead. I helped the young woman to her feet. DEJAH THORIS: Who are you?? Why did you risk your life to help me?? You look almost the same as my people, but you wear the weapons of a green warrior. Who… or what.. are you?? JOHN CARTER: My name is John Carter. I am from the planet Earth. How I got here is a long story. I attacked that warrior because, where I come from, men do not attack women. I will offer you my protection as long as I can. However, I must tell you that I, too, am a captive. SOLA: Come, John Carter, and bring the red woman with you. Let us leave this room quickly before some warrior attempts to stops us. JOHN CARTER: The three of us quickly returned to the building where I had spent the last several days. Sola then left to prepare food. Woola sat in the corner and looked at the both of us. The young woman was afraid of poor, ugly Woola. I told her not to fear him. You must tell no one, but Woola is not only my guard. He is my friend. I have treated him with kindness that he has never known. As each day passes, he trusts me more. I now think he would follow any command I give. Sola has told me that all captives are held until they can die in the great games held by the green Martians. Our only chance to survive is to escape. But we must have Sola’s help for our plan to succeed. DEJAH THORIS: Yes. If we stay with the green warriors, we will both die. If we are to escape, we will need several of the animals to ride. It would be our only chance. JOHN CARTER: I have several of the animals. They were given to me when I became a warrior. Sola came back later with food for the two of us. Dejah Thoris and I asked for her help. The three of us talked long into the night. At last Sola gave us her answer. SOLA: Your best chance for escape will be in the next two days. We will leave this city tomorrow and begin a long trip to the home of our tribe. I will help you escape. But I must come with you. I will be killed if you escape. DEJAH THORIS: Sola, of course you must come with us!? You are not cruel or violent as many of your people are. Help us and I can promise you a much better life. You will be treated with respect as an honored guest. JOHN CARTER: The next morning we rode away from the city on our animals. More than a thousand animals were carrying the huge tribe of green Martians. Also in the group were one American, one Princess of the Royal House of Helium, our guard, Sola, and poor ugly Woola. Late that night we left the camp. One animal carried me. Another Sola and Princess Dejah Thoris. Woola followed close behind. We rode quickly through the Martian night. I looked into the sky and saw Earth across the great distance of space. Since I had met the Princess Dejah Thoris, I had not thought once of Earth or home. I knew then that I would never willingly leave her. The next morning, I could see that we were being followed by several hundred of the green warriors. Our animals were very tired. I knew we must stop. I told Sola and the Princess to take the stronger of the two animals and ride away. I will hold back the green warriors as long as I can. Woola!? Go with them and guard them with your life. DEJAH THORIS: We can’t leave you alone. It would be certain death if you are captured again. ?You must come with us! JOHN CARTER: Sola took the princess by the arm and lifted her on top of the animal she had chosen. Quickly she began riding away. For a moment, Woola looked at me, then turned and ran after them. I took out my rifle from its case. I began firing to slow the green warriors. (SHOTS)? I was able to slow them for more than an hour. But then I had no more ammunition. Soon I was surrounded. A green warrior got off his animal and came toward me. He pulled out his long, thin sword. I reached for mine. As we neared each other I saw it was Tars Tarkas. He stopped and spoke to me very slowly. TARS TARKAS: You will die here… today… John Carter. It is I who must kill you. ?Know that I will take no pleasure in your death. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:?You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories. This has been the third program in our series “A Princess of Mars,” by Edgar Rice Burrows. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter.Steve Ember?was Tars Tarkas. Barbara Klein was Sola. And??Gwen Outen?was the Princess Dejah Thoris. Join us again next week as we continue “A Princess of Mars,” in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Honors for Women From China, Guatemala, India and Sudan
* Byline: Vital Voices, a nonprofit group, recognizes seven at a ceremony in Washington for working for women’s rights in their countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Seven women were honored last week in Washington for their efforts to expand democracy and women’s rights in their countries. The seven from China, Guatemala, India and Sudan received awards from Vital Voices, a nonprofit group. Doctor Gao YaojieAmong them was Chinese AIDS activist Gao Yaojie, an eighty-year-old retired doctor. During the late nineteen nineties, Doctor Gao discovered a public health crisis in Henan province. Thousands of local farmers were being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. They were selling their blood at collection centers that were using dirty needles and recycled blood. Doctor Gao was almost not able to travel to the United States to receive the Vital Voices award. Local officials in Henan placed her under house arrest. But they let her travel after her situation received international attention. Vital Voices also honored three other Chinese women. Guo Jianmei has led efforts to provide Chinese women with legal aid. Wang Xingjuan has created a telephone hotline for women seeking advice about their rights and ways to improve their economic situations. And Xie Lihua started Rural Women Knowing All magazine. She is also secretary general of the Cultural Development Center for Rural Women. Vital Voices also recognized?Margaret Alva from India. She has been a government minister and parliament member. She helped start a so-called "silent revolution" in an effort to guarantee that women’s voices are heard in Indian politics. Award winner Maria Pacheco is from Guatemala. She has worked to help local women start small businesses and connect with world markets. Awut Deng Acuil, left, and Margaret AlvaThe seventh women is Awut Deng Acuil, a leader in conflict resolution in southern Sudan. She tells us that working for peace requires self-sacrifice. Becoming a victim does not give you hope, she says; what does is turning that experience into change for good. Among those attending the ceremony was Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Vital Voices board member. Until now, Vital Voices has only honored women. But this year it gave an award to Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh. He won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for starting the Grameen Bank, a leader in micro-lending, giving small loans as a way to fight poverty. The bank directs most of its services to women. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Farm Life in the 21st Century: 'You Can Eat an Old Cow, but You Can't Eat an Old Computer'
* Byline: Meet the Fitzpatricks, a family in rural Michigan with an award-winning barn and a strong connection to local history. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:And I'm Faith Lapidus. Every family has a story. Today we travel to a farm in the Midwest, the center of American agriculture, to meet the Fitzpatrick family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thick snow falls on the quiet Michigan countryside as we make our way to visit Leo Fitzpatrick and his family. The Fitzpatricks are among the minority of Americans who live a rural life. Instead of a big city, they live near small towns. And, unlike many families today, they all still live near each other. As we drive along a country road, we can see many buggies in a line near a farmhouse. These belong to Leo's Amish neighbors. The people are attending religious services in a home. The Amish live as people did many years ago. The horses that pull the buggies are nowhere to be seen -- probably warming up inside a barn. VOICE TWO:?????? It seems hard to believe that any crop could survive this icy weather. The land is asleep. But not completely. Winter wheat grows in a field that belongs to the Fitzpatrick family. Leo Fitzpatrick, the head of the family, farmed for most of his long life. Now he is leaving the work to his sons. The oldest son planted the wheat. The Fitzpatrick family is well known in this corner of rural America. Some of them live on the family's one hundred fifteen hectares of land. Almost all have helped farm at some time or another, but most also hold other jobs. Some work in manufacturing. Another is an excavator; he has a digging and earth-moving business. Others work in a dentist's office, a post office and a courthouse. VOICE ONE: Leo Fitzpatrick's grandfather claimed land here more than one hundred years ago. In two thousand five, Leo was honored as the owner of the Michigan Centennial Farm of the Year. The honor goes to land that has been farmed by the same family for at least a century. That might not sound like very long compared to other countries. But keep in mind that the United States is not yet two-and-a-half centuries old. VOICE TWO: Leo Fitzpatrick will be eighty years old in October. He looks powerful and muscular. And he soon proves it, as he leads a visitor around his farm through the deepening snow in the fierce cold and wind. A big red barn stands out even in the gathering darkness. Other, smaller red buildings house bright green farm machinery. Leo explains that his grandfather, Dennis Fitzpatrick, built the barn more than ninety years ago. The family made repairs over the years. By the nineteen nineties, though, it became clear that the wooden structure would need a lot of work or it would have to be torn down. Leo decided that he would restore the barn. He did much of the work himself, over a period of nine years. He also worked in a factory some of that time. He used wood from trees in the area to strengthen and support the roof and the walls. To reach the roof he stood on bales of hay. VOICE ONE: Today the barn is a big star. In the last few years it has been named Michigan Barn of the Year and honored with the Barn Alive! Farm Heritage Award. The award is given by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Successful Farming magazine. In winter the Fitzpatricks use the barn to keep straw that they sell. The straw is made from the remainders of their wheat and oats. Nine thousand bales of straw reach almost to the roof of the barn. Near the roof is a round window. When the Fitzpatrick children were young, they climbed up to this window to look out at the surrounding land. The barn is big enough to hold several hundred people. In warmer weather, the family uses it for social events like dances and special celebrations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another building on the Fitzpatrick property is a workshop. It contains what seems like every tool ever manufactured. The tools line the walls. The workshop feels warm and welcoming. A corn burner heats the building. Kernels of corn make a very hot fire, Leo says. Now we are on the move again, following Leo and his footsteps through the snow. His house is not far. It just feels that way in the wind. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Inside the house, family members are seated around a table. On this snowy day, the extended family has gathered for a meal. Everyone brought food -- lots of food. Corn pudding is being heated up in the oven. It smells wonderful. Judy Weber, left, plays Scrabble with her husband, Paul, and sister-in-law Mary FitzpatrickSome people have been playing a lively game of Scrabble, a word game. There is much laughter and talking. One of the Fitzpatrick daughters holds a one-point lead over her brother's wife. Others in the family have been talking about family happenings and local news. The youngest family members are playing computer games on a huge television. VOICE TWO: Leo Fitzpatrick's wife, Mary, died in nineteen ninety-six. But he never has to worry about being alone. (SOUND) "My name is Linda. I'm the second child to Leo." "I am Leo Fitzpatrick's third daughter, third in line. And my name is Judy Weber.""I am Leo's friend, Judy Grant.""Leo Fitzpatrick. I'm the daddy of the seven children assembled here.""I'm Leah Fitzpatrick, and I'm Vernon Fitzpatrick's wife.""I'm Vernon Fitzpatrick, and I'm Leah Fitzpatrick's husband.""I'm Dan Fitzpatrick, I'm the oldest son of three.""I'm Terry Fitzpatrick, I'm the second son of three.""I'm Debbie Fitzpatrick. I'm the oldest daughter.""I'm Rhonda Reppert, I'm number six in the family, youngest daughter.""I'm Sarah Fitzpatrick. I'm Leo's granddaughter." VOICE ONE:?? Where is Mark, the youngest of Leo's three sons? Mark is somewhere else in the house. Some of the family moved out the area for a while, but in time they returned. Leo's daughter Rhonda married a man named John Reppert. For years they lived near the biggest city in Michigan, Detroit. VOICE TWO: Rhonda Reppert says it was good to come back. The Repperts now live in a big house that was built for them. The house is made from logs of cedar wood. John Reppert likes to hunt and fish. But if he wants to see wildlife, all he has to do is look out his window. Rhonda says deer often come right up to the house. VOICE ONE: Rhonda's brother Dan never left the area. After high school he spent more than twenty years as a welder and part-time farmer. Then he got his wish. He became a full-time farmer. He plants corn, wheat and oats on more than three hundred twenty hectares of land, including some family land. His father says Dan has greatly improved the farm's production with up-to-date agricultural methods and equipment. Dan planted soybeans once, not too long ago. The crop did well. But it was a loss. It was destroyed by hungry deer. The Fitzpatricks used to raise turkeys, but not anymore, not since wild turkeys invaded their farm. VOICE TWO: Debbie, the oldest of the Fitzpatrick children, lives with her father and her sister Linda. Debbie works at a post office. Linda works at a machinery company in the nearby town of Beaverton, Michigan. The two sisters have never moved from their childhood home. But they remember how the family would take a two-week vacation every year when the children were growing up. Linda and Debbie now continue that tradition. They often go to Canada with other family members and have traveled as far as New Zealand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: These days only about two percent of Americans farm for a living. Part-time farming and community farming are gaining popularity. But traditional family farms have largely been replaced by big, highly productive factory farms. Fifty years ago, fourteen hours of labor on one hectare of land produced about one hundred bushels of corn, or maize. Now it can be done with less than half a hectare. These numbers come from the United States Department of Agriculture. But Leo Fitzpatrick points out that farmers still work very hard. It is not unusual for a farmer to work day and night at planting and harvest times. LEO FITZPATRICK: "With all the gadgets and things that's great for industry and everything, we're still people who live off the land. We're part of the land. You can eat an old cow, but you can't eat an old computer." VOICE TWO: Leo and his friend Judy Grant belong to several historical societies. Together they research family history, and Leo has written a book about his ancestors. His grandparents on his mother's side were named Abraham Lincoln Brubaker and Emma Cecilia Shondell. They arrived in Michigan with almost enough children to start a school. The family came from the neighboring state of Ohio. Fourteen of their sixteen children were born there. VOICE ONE: Leo Fitzpatrick makes it clear that he wants to help save the memories of America's rural past. He wants people to know the story of the land and its people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. You can see pictures of the Fitzpatricks and their farm at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. From time to time we plan to introduce you to other American families, so keep listening. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Buff: Are You a Buff About Something?
* Byline: Do you have a strong, special interest? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today we tell about the word buff. (MUSIC)The word buff has several meanings. Buff is a light yellow color.Buff is also a soft cloth used to rub a surface until it looks bright and shiny. Yet, these meanings are old, and their history is not known. The meaning of buff that we do know about is one the describes a person. A buff is someone who has a strong, special interest in something. For example, someone who loves jazz music is a jazz buff. Someone who is deeply interested in the American Civil War is a Civil War buff. This meaning of the word is known to be American. Its use started almost two hundred years ago in New York City. At that time, New York was a growing city. There were no huge tall buildings of steel and stone. Buildings then were made of wood and brick. Many were old and fires often broke out in them. The city did not have well-organized fire departments. So, when a fire alarm bell rang, men near the sound of the fire bell dropped what they were doing and rushed out to fight the fire. Later, fire companies were organized with men who were trained to fight fires. They were not paid to do this. They earned their money at other jobs, but dropped what they were doing when the fire bell rang. In cold weather, many of these young volunteer firefighters wore coats made of the skin of buffalo to keep them warm and dry. Often, when the fire bell rang, other men in the city rushed to help put out the fire. They also wore coats of buffalo skin. In time, any man who rushed to fight a fire became known as a fire buff because of the buffalo coat he wore. Time, however, has a way of bringing changes. Cities organized fire departments. Firemen became professionals. They are paid to do their job. Yet, even today, we still have fire buffs who seem to appear at every fire in?an area. ?Sometimes they prevent firemen from doing their jobs. A leading New York newspaper published a story with the headine, “Fire Buffs Barred From Blaze." The story was about an order from New York’s fire commissioner. He was angry. He told reporters that his firefighters were having trouble getting near the fire, because fire buffs who wanted to help were really?getting in the way. So, he said, he did not want anyone but firefighters to go to a fire. Fire buffs are still around, but the word has taken on a wider meaning. It includes all who have a deep interest in something or some activity. And, so we can thank the American buffalo that once wondered the open plains for this meaning of the word buff.(MUSIC) You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. I’m Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fall Guy: He Took the Blame for Someone Else
* Byline: Is the Fall Guy Really the Guilty One? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.(MUSIC)Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about popular words and expressions used in the United States. Some expressions have made a jump from sports events?to everyday life.One such expression is fall guy. A fall guy is the person who someone decides will be the loser or victim. The first fall guys were men who wrestled for money. At the end of the nineteenth century, wrestling was a very popular sport in the United States. Wrestling competitions were held not only in big cities, but also at country fairs and traveling shows. As the sport became more popular, it became less and less of a sport. Many of the matches were fixed. The wrestlers knew -- before the match -- which one of them would be the winner. The goal in wrestling is to hold your opponent's shoulders down against the floor. This is called a fall. Sometimes, one of the wrestlers would be paid before the match to take the fall. He would agreed to be the loser...the fall guy. Today, a fall guy is anyone who is?tricked into taking the blame for the crime or wrongdoing of someone else.There are fall guys in many situations -- people who publicly take the blame when something goes wrong. A fall guy takes the rap for something wrong or illegal. He accepts responsibility and punishment for what someone else did. The fall guy may have been involved in the situation, but was not the person who should be blamed. The word rap has meant blame for several hundred years. The expression to take the rap first was used about one hundred years ago. Another similar expression is bum rap. A person receives a bum rap if he is found guilty of a crime...but is really innocent. Sometimes, a fall guy may not realize he is the fall guy until he is the victim of?a bum rap. In that case, he may feel that he has been?framed. To frame someone is to create false evidence to make an innocent person seem guilty. Some word experts say the expression to frame someone comes from the way wood must be fitted closely around a painting or photograph to frame it. In the same way, evidence must be designed perfectly if it is to frame an innocent person to make him or her?seem guilty.(MUSIC)This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. This is Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Fight Against Bird Flu Brings Together an Army of Workers, Vaccine Makers, Even a Star
* Byline: International organizations are working hard to understand, prevent and treat bird flu. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: March 2006: An Afghan Agricultural Ministry worker holds two chickens caught in a house in the Kabul areaThis is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we continue a series of reports about the disease bird flu. This report will tell about work on medicines to protect people against the disease. We will also tell about efforts to stop bird flu from spreading. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts at the World Health Organization believe the world is closer to a pandemic of the influenza virus than at any time since nineteen sixty-eight. A pandemic happens when a new flu virus spreads quickly to people in many different parts of the world. A pandemic can cause many people to become sick or die. The worst pandemic of the twentieth century killed forty million to fifty million people during World War One. W.H.O. officials use a six-level warning system to tell the world about the threat of a pandemic. Right now, we are at level three for the deadly h-five-n-one bird flu virus. This means that the virus rarely spreads from person to person. VOICE TWO: One of the most important activities for the W.H.O. is to lead development of medicines to protect people from bird flu. A Global Vaccine Action Plan written last year says the world must act now if it is to be prepared for a possible flu pandemic. The plan says up to ten billion dollars will be needed to research and produce enough bird flu vaccines for all the people in the world. In the United States, government health advisers urged federal officials last month to approve the first such medicine. Doctors said the bird flu vaccine is safe, but would not protect most people against the disease. They said production of the medicine would be a good start until more effective vaccines can be developed. VOICE ONE: W.H.O. officials say at least sixteen manufacturers are working to develop vaccines against the deadly h-five-n-one?virus. More than forty tests of possible vaccines have been completed or are continuing. However, it takes a long time to test, approve and manufacture a vaccine. Then the medicine must be given to people around the world. Poor countries want to make sure they are able to get or manufacture some of the bird flu vaccine. There is also testing of medicines to treat persons infected with the virus. Some tests have shown that a medicine called Tamiflu can increase the survival rates of those infected. VOICE TWO: The W.H.O. has one hundred twelve centers watching for reports of influenza. When a new virus appears, it should be reported immediately so that it can be stopped before spreading to other countries. Some countries have not been willing to report or provide new viruses quickly to the W.H.O. Indonesia announced last month that it would only share its bird flu virus with organizations or persons who agree not to use the virus for profit. Indonesia later agreed to share the virus, but only after establishment of rules to guarantee a lost-cost vaccine to developing countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? By March first, one hundred sixty-seven people had died of bird flu in twelve countries in Asia and Africa. Many of those who became sick or died had touched infected or dead farm birds. Bird flu killed more people last year than the combined total for two thousand four and two thousand five. International agencies and non-governmental organizations are leading many efforts to stop the spread of bird flu. They are working to prevent a pandemic and help developing countries become better prepared to fight the disease. Right now, the W.H.O. says most countries are not prepared for a pandemic. VOICE TWO: The United States is working with the W.H.O. and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization to fight bird flu in other countries. America's Agency for International Development has sent two hundred thousand boxes of personal protective equipment to seventy-one countries.The agency has also prepared boxes of equipment to test for bird flu and clean the areas where it has been found. Doctors who treat animals in high-risk countries are being trained at a laboratory in the American state of Iowa. They are learning how to test animals to confirm the presence of the?h-five-n-one?virus. Last year, American doctors helped the Food and Agriculture Organization open a new Crisis Management Center in Rome, Italy. The center helps to organize efforts against bird flu and other major emergencies involving animal health or food. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leaders of some international organizations say poor countries need more money and technical support from wealthy countries. Some experts say bird flu is out of control in parts of Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria. They say these countries need stronger health care systems for people and animals. Personal communication and groups working together have been important in spreading information about bird flu. When the virus was discovered in Nigeria, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worked with local groups to tell people about the disease. Nigerians had to be prepared to eat fewer eggs and less meat if many farm birds were to be killed. Farmers in Nigeria were given information about how to prevent the spread of bird flu. Thousands of people were trained to go from house to house to talk about the disease. The group Doctors Without Borders, the World Health Organization and Nigeria's Ministry of Health assisted with these efforts. VOICE TWO: Many organizations have created messages to educate people about bird flu. The United Nations Children’s Agency produced a television announcement with the movie star Jackie Chan. He made paper birds with children while he was telling them about bird flu. JACKIE?CHAN: "Some birds can pass on a horrible new disease called bird flu. If we are in contact with sick birds we can get very ill. That’s why you should not touch or play with any birds right now, especially if they look sick. Got it?"? CHILDREN: "Yes!" VOICE TWO: The Jackie Chan announcement has been shown on television stations in Nigeria, Burma, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam. It has been broadcast in many different languages. The United Nations Children’s Agency, the World Bank and other organizations are also producing bird flu announcements for Nigerian radio stations in several local languages. VOICE ONE: In Africa, the Academy for Educational Development has created a colorful picture book for children. The book is called "Zandi’s Song."? Zandi is a fifteen-year old girl who raises chickens with her mother. She learns about bird flu from news reports and from her teacher at school. Zandi solves many problems during the story. She helps other children tell everyone in her village how to stop the spread of bird flu. She also persuades an important member of her family to let her to continue going to school. The book and other teaching materials are available on the Internet. A chicken trader holds up a bird to be sold at a market in Lagos, NigeriaIn some countries, radio announcements have a different message. In Uganda, the announcements told people not to be afraid of farm birds. They also urged Ugandans to continue eating chicken since there was no bird flu at that time in the country. Many farmers there depend on chickens for their earnings. The birds are also an important part of the local diet. VOICE TWO: When bird flu appears for the first time on a farm, the best way to stop the virus is to kill all the birds in the area as quickly as possible. The World Bank says farmers will report sick animals faster if they know they will be paid quickly for their losses. The World Bank wrote a report on the best ways to help farmers whose birds have been infected. The report says countries at risk of bird flu should have a simple plan that states exactly who will be paid, how much they will receive and who will make the payments. The report also states that farmers should be paid within twenty-four hours of killing their birds. VOICE ONE: International organizations are working to educate people about bird flu and leading research into its causes. They are also working on prevention and treatment of bird flu, and raising money to help poor countries fight the disease. Yet the first line of defense in each community is each person who raises or works with farm birds. Next month, we will tell about the steps individuals can take to help stop the spread of bird flu. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Karen Leggett. ?Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-19-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Americans Warned of Higher Food Prices as Corn Goes to Ethanol
* Byline: Meat producers are facing sharply higher feed costs. But farmers are expected to plant more corn. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States Department of Agriculture says high demand for ethanol fuel made from corn will mean higher meat prices. In its monthly crop report on March ninth, the department said feed costs are rising for cows, pigs and poultry birds. Corn, or maize, is their main feed. Corn has been selling at more than three dollars a bushel. Last year, the average was two dollars. The government says ethanol is using twenty percent of the American corn crop from last year. With this year's harvests, the amount is expected to reach twenty-five percent. The National Chicken Council has objected to Congress about the situation. The council is a trade organization that represents the industry. It says the feed cost of the chicken industry alone has risen by forty percent. In January, Tyson Foods, the world's biggest meat processor, reported its first profitable three-month period in a year. But the head of the Arkansas company warned that sharply higher corn prices have become a "major issue" for the food industry. Richard Bond says people will have to pay more for food because companies will be forced to pass along rising costs. But Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner says demand for corn will probably get farmers to plant more corn. A University of Missouri Extension official says ethanol could bring the biggest change in American agriculture since farmers began planting soybeans. Some economists have suggested that land from the Conservation Reserve Program should be used for additional corn production. But the Agriculture Department says only a limited area of land will be released for use over the next four years. The program supports the planting of things like native grasses or trees to reduce the loss of soil from croplands. The department has appointed a committee to study the needs of biofuel producers. These are fuels like ethanol that are made from renewable resources. On March ninth, the United States and Brazil signed a cooperation agreement on biofuels technology. The signing took place in Sao Paulo during the first stop on a trip by President Bush to Latin America. Seventy percent of the world's ethanol supply comes from the United States and Brazil. But while most American ethanol is made from corn, most Brazilian ethanol is from sugar cane. And that's VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How to Make a Fashion Statement in a World of 'Voguespeak,' Muffin Tops
* Byline: 

 AP: I'm Adam Phillips for Wordmaster, sitting in for Roseanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. Today, we take a look at some of the specialized words found in the world of fashion. (MUSIC: "I'm Too Sexy for My Shirt"/Right Said Fred) AP: New York City enjoys pride of place as one of the world's top fashion centers. That's where you'll find Valerie Steele, who directs the Museum of the Fashion institute of Technology, or FIT ["F-I-T"], where many of tomorrow's fashion designers, marketing executives and others train for careers in the six-hundred-eighty-billion-dollar-a-year fashion industry. Valerie SteeleVALERIE STEELE:?"The fashion world is the industry for me. It's definitely its own world. It has its own discourse. You could call it voguespeak, I guess. Vogue being, of course, the number one fashion magazine internationally. AP: Indeed, Vogue is the premier go-to place for both industry professionals and the public to see a designer's line, a word that FIT assistant curator Fred Dennis says means about the same thing as a designer's collection: FRED DENNIS: "A collection is what a designer will produce [in] any given season. It can be anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred pieces depending on the designer. Pieces are looks. A look is a total head-to-toe ensemble. So you can start with a hat perhaps, a top, shoes."? AP: "Ensemble" is one of dozens of French words used every day in the world of haute couture, a phrase that translates literally as high culture but which also connotes the glamorous, expensive side of fashion -- or, as they say, la mode. Again, Valerie Steele. VALERIE STEELE:?"So you talk about decolletage [day-coe-la-TAHGE] for example, which is the noun referring to a neckline of say a dress, usually a low neckline, as in a plunging decolletage." Students at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology design evening wearAP: The fashion world sometimes pokes fun at itself with terms like fashionista, meaning an almost obsessively knowledgeable expert on what's?hot -- meaning in,?or in fashion - and what's not. FIT's Tamsen Schwartzman contrasts fashionista with fashion victim. TAMSEN?SCHWARTZSMAN:?"One who falls prey to the latest trends and fads. They'll go out and buy something that lasts as a fad for only a couple of months. Fashion victims can also be the people who are cutting edge -- bringing some trend into the market." AP: "So I presume that the fashion industry likes these kind of 'victims.'" TAMSEN?SCHWARTZSMAN: "Of course! They shop. They promote things that other people then catch on to, and buy." AP: Indeed, the business of fashion is all about desire, and so many fashion words convey judgments about what is attractive -- and what isn't. Many terms of fashion praise, such as dope, sharp and phat (it's spelled P-H-A-T) are borrowed from popular music and the hip-hop scene. And, according to Emily Berry at Parsons The New School for Design, another New York fashion school, just what will be considered phat in two seasons can be seen right now on what insiders call the catwalk. EMILY BERRY:?"Which is a colloquial word for 'runway.' It's usually a stage from where models will walk down to display the fashions of the line and they walk in a very straight line much like a cat would, one foot in front of the other. And the term catwalk was also made popular by the song: 'I'm too sexy, on the catwalk, on the catwalk, yeah.'" (STUDENTS SINGING) AP: All the young women in Emily's class know that song, just as all agree with classmate Stella Kim, who says that some clothes, such as the mom pant, can never be sexy. STELLA KIM: "And it refers any pant that seems excessively high on the waist and in the back, which tends to accentuate the gluteus maximus [buttocks] and also the front, also known as the mom pooch [the stomach area]." AP: "So it's not necessarily a complimentary term." STELLA KIM: "Not necessarily, no." AP: Nor, adds Emily Berry, is the term muffin top. EMILY BERRY: "It's when you have a lot of women who are wearing pants or skirts that are too tight for them, so all of the fat that would normally reside in their pants has bubbled over the top. The love handles just sort of explode above the hip line." AP: Many fashion phrases can be either positive or negative, depending on the context. Fashion Institute of Technology curator Molly Sorkin cites the phrase over the top as another example. MOLLY SORKIN:?"'Over the top' is used to mean that something is just kind of beyond and too much. And it can refer to excess in good ways and bad ways. So you can have some amazing couture dress that is over the top, or somebody can be over the top because it's a little crazy." AP: It all depends on the zeitgeist, adds Sorkin. MOLLY SORKIN: "It's kind of what is in the air and what is now, and what is happening. That's kind of tricky because once something is now, it's also kind of over." AP: For many, the fleeting nature of fashion trends may be part of their charm. Today, pink handbags, for example, might be chic -- the word means fashionable -- but tomorrow, they'll be so yesterday. However, one thing does remain constant: as long as people wear clothes and want to be admired for them, there will be fashion, and people will talk. For Wordmaster, I'm Adam Phillips reporting from New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Self-Taught Artists Around the World Create Powerful and Unusual Art
* Byline: Outsider artists create visual examples of personal observations, invented worlds, and even severe mental conditions.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we travel to several countries exploring the world of Outsider Art. This powerful form of creative expression usually involves art made outside the limits and rules of official culture. Often, outsider artists have not been formally trained. They use their skills to create visual examples of personal observations, invented worlds, and even severe mental conditions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Outsider Art movement has many names and forms. Experts debate about the differences between terms such as Na?ve Art, Visionary Art, Folk Art, Intuitive Art and Outsider Art. It would be impossible to explain the entire debate, so we will just tell a few stories about some great artists. The art itself will explain what is special about these similar movements. VOICE TWO: Mental health experts helped bring public attention to one form of outsider art. For example, in nineteen twenty-one, a Swiss doctor, Walter Morgenthaler published a book about the art of his patient, Adolf Wolfli. Mister Wolfli was one of the early outsider artists who received popular recognition. During his thirty-five years in a mental hospital in Switzerland, Mister Wolfli created twenty-five thousand pages of drawings and stories. Adolf Wolfli was a poor farm worker who was placed in a mental hospital in eighteen ninety-five. He soon started making color drawings that he organized into books. For example, around nineteen twelve he finished a nine-book series called “From the Cradle to the Grave.”? In this work Mister Wolfli turned his sad childhood into a magical travel story. He included detailed drawings of maps, creatures, rulers, and even talking plants to help capture this imaginary world. In other books, he recreated and renamed the world and universe. He described this world using songs, poetry, and drawings. VOICE ONE: In the nineteen forties the French artist Jean Dubuffet discovered Mister Wolfli’s works and other artists like him. He called this kind of artwork “Art Brut” which is French for “raw art”. He described Art Brut as being created from pure and real creative forces. He saw outsider artwork as being free from the worries of competition and social acceptance that define the official art world. He argued that the official culture of museums, galleries and artists had lost its power. Art Brut, he said, was still true and powerful art. Jean Dubuffet soon started collecting this kind of art made by mental patients, prisoners and even children. In nineteen seventy-one he donated his personal collection of Art Brut to the city of Lausanne, Switzerland. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One way to learn more about this movement is to explore its artists. The American Folk Art Museum in New York City has several rich and inventive drawings by the self-taught artist Martin Ramirez. Mister Ramirez was born in the Mexican state of Jalisco in eighteen ninety-five. He left his wife and family in the nineteen twenties to find work in the American state of California. But the United States was going through the economic problems of the Great Depression. As a result, Martin Ramirez was soon homeless and unable to find work. Police picked him up in Northern California in nineteen thirty-one. He was placed in a mental hospital and told he had a severe mental illness. He spent the next thirty-two years in mental hospitals. VOICE ONE: But there is a happier side to his tragic story. Mister Ramirez might not have been able to express himself in English, but he could do so with his art. In the late nineteen thirties, he started to collect small pieces of paper including food paper packaging, paper cups and book pages. On the large paper surfaces he pieced together, he drew pictures using colors he made from crushed pencils and crayons. Over the years, Mister Ramirez drew hundreds of detailed pictures. The horse and rider is one subject he repeatedly drew. He also drew trains and tunnels. His strong repeating lines show depth and motion. Some of his trains come out of mountains, while others go over bridges. In the early nineteen fifties, a professor of psychology and art named Tarmo Pasto visited Martin Ramirez. Professor Pasto recognized the artistic value of Mister Ramirez's drawings. He gave him art supplies and even organized exhibitions of his work. Most importantly, he made sure Ramirez's art survived and was not thrown away by hospital workers. The extraordinarily skillful and powerful drawings of Martin Ramirez are now a cultural treasure. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many outsider artists have very successful careers during their lifetime. The artist known as Mister Imagination was born Gregory Warmack in nineteen forty-eight in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a poor family. As a young man he made jewelry out of thrown away objects and sold it in local restaurants. One night he was robbed and shot twice in the stomach. At the hospital he fell into a coma and was unable to communicate. He had a dreamlike vision of a bright light. He later said it represented artists from the past entering his body and mind to guide him. He decided that art would be his life goal and soon changed his name to Mister Imagination. He makes artistic statues from bottle caps and other found objects. They have been shown in galleries and museums across the United States. These include the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. This museum has more than four thousand pieces by what it calls "visionary" artists. About fifty works are shown at any one time in its permanent collection. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ku Shu-Lan also enjoyed public recognition of her creations. She was born in nineteen nineteen in the Shaanxi area of China. Like many women in the area, Ku Shu-Lan was very skillful at the art of paper cutting. She often had visions of a magical goddess covered in flowers coming to her in a garden. She said the woman was herself, the paper-cutting goddess. Ku Shu-Lan lived with her husband in a cave carved from earth. There was not much color in her life, so she made her own. She covered the walls of her home with her richly colored cutouts of this goddess. Some of her images have thousands of finely cut shapes. They are so detailed it is hard to believe the images are not painted. In nineteen ninety-six, Ku Shu-Lan fell and hurt herself. She was in a coma and was not able to communicate for several weeks. Her family started to plan for her burial. But, she later woke up. The first thing she asked for was a pair of scissors so she could start another paper creation. VOICE TWO: Other outsider artists use their skills to create entire environments. For example, in Hauterives, France, you can see the Ideal Palace made by a mailman named Ferdinand Cheval. One day in eighteen seventy-nine while delivering mail Mister Cheval found a rock with a strange shape. He decided it was a sign that he needed to make his dream of being a building designer a reality. He spent the next thirty-four years of his life collecting stones and building a wildly imaginative palace building. Mister Cheval mixed periods and styles of Chinese, North African, and Northern European architecture. Today, people can visit this building to experience this mailman's hard work and creativity. VOICE ONE: Helen Martins created a whole other kind of magical environment in the town of Nieu-Bethesda, South Africa. In nineteen forty-five, Miz Martins found that the world looked gray and colorless. She decided she needed to brighten her life. So, at the age of forty-seven she started to glue crushed colored glass in special designs on every surface in her house. Then, she started making statues out of cement material and glass. She read poetry, religious books, and art history to find ideas for her creations. Helen Martins hired two workers to help her create her Owl House and the surrounding Camel Yard. VOICE TWO: By the time of her death in nineteen seventy-six, the yard had more than three hundred statues of animals and imaginary creatures. All of them face east toward the Muslim holy city of Mecca. Visitors can enjoy the brightness and color of the universe she created. Like Helen Martins, outsider artists add new life, imagination and skill to the world of creative expression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Officials Say Some Sleep Drugs May Do More Than Make You Sleep
* Byline: Food and Drug Administration Orders Drug Makers to Include New Warnings on Some Sleep Medicines  Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has ordered companies to place strong new warnings on thirteen drugs that treat sleep disorders. It also ordered the makers of the sleeping pills to provide information for patients explaining how to safely use the drugs. Last Wednesday, the FDA announced that some of these drugs can have unexpected and dangerous effects. These include the risk of life-threatening allergic reactions. They also include rare incidents of strange behavior. These include people cooking food, eating and even driving while asleep. The patients later had no memory of doing these activities while asleep. Congressman Patrick Kennedy had a car accident in 2006 that he blamed on prescription medicines.Last year, a member of the United States Congress said he had a sleep-driving incident. Patrick Kennedy, a representative from Rhode Island, crashed his car into a security barrier near the building where lawmakers meet. The accident happened in the middle of the night and no one was hurt. Mister Kennedy said he had earlier taken a sleep medicine. He said he was also being treated with a stomach sickness drug that can cause sleepiness. The Food and Drug Administration did not say in its announcement how many cases of sleep-driving it has documented. However, the New York Times reported last year about people who said they had strange sleep events after taking the drug Ambien. Some reported sleep-driving and sleep-walking. Others said they found evidence after waking in the morning that they had cooked food or eaten in their sleep. But they had no memory of carrying out the activities. A Food and Drug Administration official says that these serious side effects of sleep disorder drugs appear to be rare. But, he also said there are probably more cases than are reported. He said the agency believes the risk of such behaviors could be reduced if people take the drugs as directed and do not drink alcohol while taking the drugs. ?The Food and Drug Administration has advised drug companies to carry out studies to investigate the problem. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports and audio links can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. You can send a health question to special@voanews.com. Please remember to include your name and country. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: History: Kennedy Begins His Presidency With Strong Public Support
* Byline: Today, his inaugural speech is considered to be among the best in American history. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) John Fitzgerald KennedyOur program today is about the beginning of the administration of President John Kennedy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: January twentieth, nineteen sixty-one. John Kennedy was to be sworn-in that day as president of the United States. It had snowed heavily the night before. Few cars were in the streets of Washington. Yet, somehow, people got to the ceremony at the Capitol building. VOICE TWO: The outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower, was seventy years old. John Kennedy was just forty-three. He was the first American president born in the twentieth century. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy served in the military in World War Two. Eisenhower served at the top. He was commander of allied forces in Europe. Kennedy was one of many young navy officers in the pacific battle area. Eisenhower was a hero of the war and was an extremely popular man. Kennedy was extremely popular, too, especially among young people. He was a fresh face in American politics. To millions of Americans, he represented a chance for a new beginning. VOICE ONE: Not everyone liked John Kennedy, however. Many people thought he was too young to be president. Many opposed him because he belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of Christians in America were Protestant. There had never been a Roman Catholic president of the United States. John Kennedy would be the first. VOICE TWO: Dwight EisenhowerDwight Eisenhower served two terms during the nineteen-fifties. That was the limit for American presidents. His vice president, Richard Nixon, ran against Kennedy in the election of nineteen-sixty. Many Americans supported Nixon. They believed he was a stronger opponent of communism than Kennedy. Some also feared that Kennedy might give more consideration to the needs of black Americans than to white Americans. The election of nineteen-sixty was one of the closest in American history. Kennedy defeated Nixon by fewer than one hundred-twenty thousand popular votes. Now, he would be sworn-in as the nation's thirty-fifth president. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the speakers at the ceremony was Robert Frost. He was perhaps America's most popular poet at the time. Robert Frost planned to read from a long work he wrote especially for the ceremony. But he was unable to read much of it. The bright winter sun shone blindingly on the snow. The cold winter wind blew the paper in his old hands. VOICE TWO: John Kennedy stood to help him. Still, the poet could not continue. Those in the crowd felt concerned for the eighty-six-year-old man. Suddenly, he stopped trying to say his special poem. Instead, he began to say the words of another one, one he knew from memory. It was called "The Gift Outright." Here is part of that poem by Robert Frost, read by Stan Busby: VOICE THREE: The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years before we were her people ... Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living ... Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. VOICE ONE: Giving his inaugural speechSoon it was time for the new president to speak. People watching on television could see his icy breath as he stood. He was not wearing a warm coat. His head was uncovered. Kennedy's speech would, one day, be judged to be among the best in American history. The time of his inauguration was a time of tension and fear about nuclear weapons. The United States had nuclear weapons. Its main political enemy, the Soviet Union, had them, too. If hostilities broke out, would such terrible weapons be used? VOICE TWO: Kennedy spoke about the issue. He warned of the danger of what he called "the deadly atom." He said the United States and communist nations should make serious proposals for the inspection and control of nuclear weapons. He urged both sides to explore the good in science, instead of its terrors. KENNEDY: "Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce ... Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved." VOICE ONE: Kennedy also spoke about a torch -- a light of leadership being passed from older Americans to younger Americans. He urged the young to take the torch and accept responsibility for the future. He also urged other countries to work with the United States to create a better world. John and Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at an inaugural ball on January 20, 1961JOHN KENNEDY: "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Kennedy's first one hundred days as president were busy ones. He was in office less than two weeks when the Soviet Union freed two American airmen. The Soviets had shot down their spy plane over the Bering Sea. About sixty million people watched as Kennedy announced the airmen's release. It was the first presidential news conference broadcast live on television in the United States. Kennedy welcomed the release as a step toward better relations with the Soviet Union. The next month, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made another move toward better relations. He sent Kennedy a message. The message said that disarmament would be a great joy for all people on earth. VOICE ONE: A few weeks later, President Kennedy announced the creation of the Peace Corps. He had talked about this program during the election campaign. The Peace Corps would send thousands of Americans to developing countries to provide technical help. Another program, the alliance for progress, was announced soon after the peace corps was created. The purpose of the alliance for progress was to provide economic aid to Latin American nations for ten years. VOICE TWO: The space program was another thing Kennedy had talked about during the election campaign. He believed the United States should continue to explore outer space. The Soviet Union had gotten there first. It launched the world's first satellite in nineteen fifty-seven. Then, in April, nineteen sixty-one, the Soviet Union sent the first manned spacecraft into orbit around the earth. VOICE ONE: The worst failure of Kennedy's administration came that same month. On April seventeenth, more than one thousand Cuban exiles landed on a beach in western Cuba. They had received training and equipment from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. They were to lead a revolution to overthrow the communist government of Cuba. The place where they landed was called Bahia de Cochinos -- the Bay of Pigs. The plan failed. Most of the exiles were killed or captured by the Cuban army. VOICE TWO: It had not been President Kennedy's idea to start a revolution against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Officials in the last administration had planned it. However, most of Kennedy's advisers supported the idea. And he approved it. In public, the president said he was responsible for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In private, he said, "All my life I have known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid." VOICE ONE: John Kennedy's popularity was badly damaged by what happened in Cuba. His next months in office would be a struggle to regain the support of the people. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Getting an Education at the US Military Academy at West Point
* Byline: Graduates of West Point become army officers, but not always in the United States Army. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, in our series for students who want to study in the United States, we tell about the United States Military Academy at West Point. West Point is a four-year school in New York State that educates future Army officers. The students are called cadets. They do not have to pay for their educations. But they must agree to serve on active duty in the Army for at least five years after they graduate. A young man or woman must be nominated to the academy, usually by a federal or state lawmaker. Nominees also must satisfy the entrance requirements. These include being in excellent physical condition and getting good grades in high school. About four thousand American cadets are at West Point this year. In addition, fifty-nine cadets from foreign countries are attending. These international students are nominated by their home governments. They also must satisfy the physical and educational requirements. And they must do well on the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Home governments may have to pay up to sixty thousand dollars a year for each student they send to West Point. Among the countries with cadets at the academy this year are Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia. Each year, the United States Defense Department invites countries to nominate students to West Point and to the Navy and Air Force academies. This year, one hundred fifty-nine countries were asked to nominate students for the next school year. Not all countries take part in the program. We spoke to Major Robert Romans, chief of the international affairs division at West Point, and Major Michael McBride, head of the international cadet program. They say up to sixty foreign cadets at any one time can attend the academy. And they say that interested students must seek information about the program at their local American Embassy. The embassy's Defense Cooperation Office will know how the student can be nominated. The West Point Web site provides some information about the international cadet program and its requirements. The address is admissions.u-s-m-a.e-d-u. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. Scripts are available on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'A Diamond Is Forever': How Four Words Changed an Industry
* Byline: Also: A report on The World Almanac and Book of Facts, and music by Sonya Kitchell. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about an advertising expression… Play some music from Sonya Kitchell… And report about the World Almanac. The World Almanac and Book of Facts ?HOST: Listeners to American Mosaic send us letters and e-mails asking many kinds of questions about the United States. One place we sometimes look for answers is a book called The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Barbara Klein explains. BARBARA KLEIN: A new World Almanac is published every year and provides up-to-date information about many places and things. For example, you can find the names of actors who won Academy Awards in past years. The names of athletes who won major sports awards. Information about American cities and states. ? The book also provides information about the nations of the world. It tells about world history, geography, business, science and technology and languages. It presents the most important and most unusual news stories of the past year. And it gives interesting facts, such as the nation with the most refugees (Pakistan). The nation with the most vacation days each year (Italy). And the most popular dog in the United States (Labrador Retriever). The New York World newspaper published the first World Almanac in eighteen sixty-eight. That is why it is called The World Almanac. The World Almanac Web site says the publication has played a part in American history. For example, in nineteen twenty-three, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president after the sudden death of President Warren Harding. Mister Coolidge's father, a judge, read the oath of office from a copy of The World Almanac. The Web site also says that several recent American presidents have used the book. It says there are photographs of presidents John Kennedy and Bill Clinton that show a copy of The World Almanac on or near their desks. The Web site also claims that The World Almanac is the best-selling American reference book of all time. It says that more than eighty million copies have been sold. The World Almanac now also publishes a computer version as well as a separate Almanac for children. The Kids Almanac provides information children might need for school reports. It also has games, puzzles and other activities children enjoy. Speaking of Diamonds HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Zimbabwe. Shadreck Chikwavaire asks about the meaning of the saying “diamonds are forever.” Many people around the world know that expression. It is the name of a popular book and movie about the fictional spy, James Bond. The theme song to the movie also became popular. Shirley Bassey sang it. (MUSIC) Diamonds are minerals that first formed billions of years ago deep under the ground. They result when pressure and heat act on the substance carbon. A diamond is the hardest substance found in nature. But the mineral can be cut into different shapes and used to make costly jewelry such as diamond rings. In the United States, it is traditional for a man to give the woman he plans to marry a diamond engagement ring. People also wear jewelry made of diamonds on their ears, necks and wrists. People are willing to pay high prices for diamond jewelry. One company controls most of the diamond market -- the De Beers Consolidated Mines Company of South Africa. Reports say the company used to keep diamonds mined in many countries and released a limited number for sale each year. Officials say the company does not do business that way anymore. The De Beers Company first created the saying "A Diamond Is Forever." In the late nineteen forties, De Beers hired an advertising agency to help increase its sale of diamonds. The agency N.W. Ayer developed an extremely successful campaign linking diamonds and romantic love. The campaign invented the slogan “A Diamond Is Forever,” meaning that a diamond is a never-ending sign of love. It also meant that a diamond would always keep its value. The company continues to use the slogan in its advertising more than fifty years later. And reports say it has been used to advertise diamonds in at least twenty-nine languages. The advertising business also recognized the huge success of the saying. In two thousand, Advertising Age magazine named "A Diamond Is Forever" the best advertising slogan of the twentieth century. Sonya Kitchell HOST: Sonya Kitchell writes and sings songs that are influenced by jazz and blues. She has a rich and low voice that can skillfully express many emotions and styles. The surprising part is that she is only seventeen years old. Faith Lapidus tells us more about this young artist who is making timeless music. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was “Let Me Go,” a song Sonya Kitchell wrote with her parents in mind. In the song she asks them to let her grow up and become more independent. When Sonya was a child, her parents surrounded her with their artistic and musical interests. She started studying jazz singing at the age of ten. Soon, she started writing and performing her music live with a group. Sonya says she tries to take in as much of the world around her as she can. Songwriting has become a way to process her experiences. Sonya Kitchell’s first album, “Words Came Back to Me,” came out last year. Here is, “Train,” from that album. It is a song about wanting life to go by both faster and more slowly. (MUSIC) Sonya Kitchell is quickly becoming very popular. She has traveled and performed with well-known singers. Sometimes Sonya tries to write when she is on the road. But she says writing comes easiest when she is at her home in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. There, she takes walks in nature to clear her mind and think. Sonya Kitchell says she has many goals for herself and her music. She wants to help make intelligent music more popular. She says popular music should go back to its roots and be enjoyed not only for its sound, but also for its message. We leave you with the gentle sounds of “I’d Love You.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Socially Responsible Investing Grows
* Byline: $2 trillion is invested using what are considered socially responsible methods. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. More and more people are considering the social and environmental results of their investments. Socially responsible investing has become a fast-growing part of the investment industry. Over two trillion dollars are invested using socially responsible methods. This is about nine percent of all money invested under professional management. One way to invest is through mutual funds. A mutual fund gathers money from many investors to buy different securities. ?Mutual fund supervisors can use socially responsible methods to choose which investments they will buy. The funds' supervisors may buy only stocks of companies that meet the requirements set out by the fund. This process is called screening. For example, a fund could invest only in companies that take measures to protect the environment. The most commonly screened stocks are related to companies that make cigarettes. The Social Investment Forum in its two thousand five report said separate accounts use socially responsible screening the most. These are accounts that are privately managed for individuals or organizations. Shareholder advocacy is another form of socially responsible investing. One example is the movement to stop investing in companies that did business in South Africa during the period of racial separation in that country. Shareholders sometimes sell stocks of companies that do not share their social values. Community investing is the most direct form of social investing. This means providing credit or investing in businesses in a local community. Today, about half of American families own stock in some form. And more people are considering the effect their investments have. This has caused some companies to consider social issues as well as business plans. A recent public opinion study by Harris Interactive and the Wall Street Journal asked people what they thought were the best and worst American companies. The people named the software maker Microsoft as the best company. One of the main reasons is the company's chairman, Bill Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given billions of dollars to organizations around the world to support health care and education. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fighting in Mogadishu Leads to Appeal for Countries to Keep Their Promise to Help Somalia
* Byline: A support plane for the African peacekeeping force in Somalia crashes near Mogadishu; officials say it was shot down. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. A plane carrying eleven people aiding the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia crashed Friday near the capital, Mogadishu. Officials say it was shot down by a missile shortly after takeoff from the airport. Smoke from heavy fighting in MogadishuThe apparent attack followed two days of intense fighting in Mogadishu between resistance fighters and Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies. The fighting eased on Friday after one group of fighters said it had reached a ceasefire with Ethiopian forces. Earlier this week, the commander of the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia urged several African countries to speed up their promised deployment of troops to help secure Mogadishu. On Wednesday, resistance fighters pulled the bodies of two pro-government soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu and burned them. At least twenty-five people have been killed in the fighting. Hundreds of people have been injured. Hundreds of others have fled their homes to escape the violence. The spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping force says the violence in Mogadishu is becoming more deadly and better organized. However, he also said the violence should not stop other nations from honoring their promise to send troops. The African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia currently includes fewer than two thousand Ugandan soldiers. Resistance fighters have attacked the Ugandan troops daily since their arrival in Mogadishu earlier this month. Burundi has offered to send one thousand seven hundred troops. However, the nation says it does not have enough equipment for the force. Nigeria, Malawi and Ghana have also said they would send troops, but they have not yet provided a plan for deployment. Even if all four countries sent peacekeepers, the force would still be far from reaching its goal of deploying eight thousand African troops in Somalia. The troops are needed to protect the country's temporary government. They are also needed to train Somali security forces and bring back order to the area. Civil war in Somalia began in nineteen ninety-one. Since then, militias loyal to different groups have controlled parts of the country. There has been no central government to provide law and order or even basic services to the population. Somalia's temporary government was formed in Kenya more than two years ago after an internationally led peace process. Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia in December to help the temporary government push an opposition Islamist movement from power. The Somali government has since struggled to control resistance violence in the capital. The Somali government recently announced that it will hold a conference next month to bring warring groups together for peace talks. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. You can download transcripts and audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-29-voa5.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part Four
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the fourth and last part of our program, “A Princess of Mars.”? The story is from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Last week, we told how John Carter observed a fierce battle between the green Martians and a race of red, human-like creatures. He also saw the beautiful Princess Dejah Thoris being captured after the battle. A short time later, John Carter, the Princess and their friend, the green Martian woman Sola, attempt to escape rather than face death. The Princess and Sola must flee while John Carter tries to slow the green warriors who are chasing them. John Carter continues to tell what happens in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story, “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER: The huge green warrior Tars Tarkas came slowly toward me with his thin sword. I backed away. I did not want to fight him. I did not wish his death. He had been as kind to me as a green Martian can be. As I stood watching him, a rifle fired in the distance, then another and another. Tars Tarkas and his warriors were under attack from another tribe of green warriors. (SOUND EFFECTS) Within seconds, a terrible battle raged. As I watched, three of the attackers fell on Tars Tarkas. He killed one and was fighting with the other two when he slipped and fell. I ran to his aid, swinging my sword. He was on his feet. Shoulder-to-shoulder, we fought against the attackers. They finally withdrew after an hour of fierce fighting. TARS TARKAS: John Carter, I think I understand the meaning of the word “friend.”? You saved my life when I was about to take yours. From this day, you are no longer a captive among our people, but a leader and great warrior among us. JOHN CARTER: There was a smile on his face. Once again, he took off a metal band from his arm and gave it to me. TARS TARKAS: I have a question for you John Carter. I understand why you took the red woman with you. But why did Sola leave her people and go with you? JOHN CARTER: She did not want to see me or the Princess harmed. She does not like the great games held by your people where captives are led to die. She knows if she is caught, she too will die in the games. She told me she hates the games because her mother died there. TARS TARKAS: What?? How could she know her mother?? JOHN CARTER: She told me her mother was killed in the games because she had hidden the egg that produced her. Her mother hid Sola among other children before she was captured. Sola said she was a kind woman, not like others of your tribe. Tars Tarkas grew angry as I was speaking. But I could see past his anger. I could see pain in his eyes. I immediately knew Sola’s great secret. ?I have a question for you, Tars Tarkas. Did you know Sola’s mother? TARS TARKAS: Yes… and if I could have, I would have prevented her death. I know this story to be true. I have always known the woman who died in those games had a child. I never knew the child. I do now. Sola is also my child. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER: For three days, we followed the trail left by the Princess Dejah Thoris, Sola and poor ugly Woola. At last, we could see them in the distance. Their animal could no longer be ridden. They were talking. When we came near, Woola turned to fight us. I slowly walked to him with my hand out. Sola was standing nearby. She was armed and prepared to fight. The princess was lying next to her feet. Sola, what is wrong with the princess? SOLA:? She has been crying much these past few days, John Carter. We believed you died so we could escape. The thought of your death was very heavy on this woman…my friend Dejah Thoris. Come and tell her you are among the living. Perhaps that will stop her crying. JOHN CARTER: I walked to where the Princess Dejah Thoris was lying on the ground. She looked at me with eyes that were red from crying. Princess, you are no longer in danger. Tars Tarkas has come with me as a friend. He and his warriors will help to see you safely home. And..Sola!? I would have you greet your father -- Tars Tarkas -- a great leader among your people. Your secret no longer means death to anyone. He already knows you are his daughter. The two of you have nothing to fear. Sola turned and looked at Tars Tarkas. She held out her hand. He took it. It was a new beginning for them. DEJAH THORIS: I know our world has never before seen anyone like you, John Carter. Can it be that all Earthmen are like you?? I was alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened. Yet you would freely give your life to save me. You come to me now with a tribe of green warriors who offer their friendship. You are no longer a captive but wear the metal of great rank among their people. No man has ever done this. JOHN CARTER: Princess, I have done many strange things in my life, many things much smarter men would not have done. And now, before my courage fails, I would ask you, to be mine in marriage. She smiled at me for a moment and then her dark eyes flashed in the evening light. DEJAH THORIS: You have no need of your courage, John Carter, because you already knew the answer before you asked the question. JOHN CARTER: And so Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, a daughter of the Red Planet Mars, promised herself in marriage to John Carter, a gentleman of Virginia. (MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS) JOHN CARTER: Several days later, we reached the city of Helium. At first, the red men of Helium thought we were an attacking army. But they soon saw their Princess. We were greeted with great joy. Tars Tarkas and his green warriors caused the greatest excitement. This huge group of green warriors entered the city as friends and allies. I soon met Tardos Mors, the grandfather of Dejah Thoris. He tried several times to thank me for saving the life of the Princess. But tears filled his eyes and he could not speak. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER: For nine years, I served in the government and fought in the armies of Helium as a Prince of the royal family. It was a happy time. The Princess Dejah Thoris and I were expecting a child. Then, one day, a soldier returned from a long flight. When he landed he hurried to the great meeting room. Tardos Mors met with the soldier and reported that every creature on the planet had but three days to live. He said the great machines that produced the atmosphere on the planet had stopped producing oxygen. He said no one knew why this had happened, but there was nothing that could be done. The air grew thin within a day. Many people could do nothing but sleep. I watched as my Princess was slowly dying. I had to try something. I could still move with great difficulty. I went to our airport and chose a fast aircraft. I flew as fast as I could to the building that produced the atmosphere of the planet. Workers were trying to enter. I tried to help. With a great effort I opened a hole. I grew very weak. I asked one of the workers if he could start the engines. He said he would try. I fell asleep on the ground. (MUSIC) It was dark when I opened my eyes again. My clothing felt stiff and strange. I sat up. I could see light from an opening. I walked outside. The land looked strange to me. I looked up to the sky and saw the Red Planet Mars. I was once again on Earth in the desert of Arizona. I cried out with deep emotion. Did the worker reach the machines to renew the atmosphere?? Did the air reach the people of that planet in time to save them?? Was my Princess Dejah Thoris alive or did she lie cold in death?? For ten years now, I have watched the night sky, looking for an answer. I believe she and our child are waiting there for me. Something tells me that I shall soon know. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. Barbara Klein was Sola. And Gwen Outen was Princess Dejah Thoris. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Listen again next week for another American Story in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Billie Holiday, 1915-1959: The Lady Sang the Blues
* Byline: She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. This week, we tell about Billie Holiday. She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America. (MUSIC: "God Bless the Child") VOICE ONE: That was Billie Holiday singing one of her famous songs. She and Arthur Herzog wrote it. Billie Holiday's life was a mixture of success and tragedy. Her singing expressed her experiences and her feelings. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in nineteen fifteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. They were young when their daughter was born. Their marriage failed because Clarence Holiday was not at home much. He traveled as a musician with some of the earliest jazz bands. Sadie Fagan cleaned people's houses. But she could not support her family on the money she earned. So she moved to New York City where the pay was higher. She left her daughter in Baltimore with members of her family. VOICE ONE: The young girl Eleanora Fagan changed her name to Billie, because she liked a movie star, Billie Dove. Billie Holiday loved to sing. She sang and listened to music whenever she could. One place near her home had a machine that played records. The building was a brothel where women who were prostitutes had sex with men for money. Billie cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the nineteen twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence on her. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday once said: "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is all I know." Here is Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the Nineteen thirties, "More Than You Know." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Billie Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a prison for children. In nineteen twenty-seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was arrested and spent four months in prison. VOICE TWO: Two years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work. Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and listen to music. For the next seventeen years, Holiday was one of the most popular nightclub singers in New York. She always wore a long white evening dress. And she wore large white flowers in her black hair. She called herself "Lady Day." VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen thirties, a music producer, John Hammond, heard Billie Holiday sing in a nightclub. He called her the best jazz singer he had ever heard. He brought famous people to hear her sing. Hammond produced Holiday's first records. He got the best jazz musicians to play. They included Benny Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Ben Webster on saxophone. They recorded many famous songs with Billie Holiday. "I Wished on the Moon" is one of them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the late nineteen thirties, Billy Holiday sang with Artie Shaw's band as it traveled around the United States. She was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band. But racial separation laws in America made travel difficult for her. During this time, a new nightclub opened in the area of New York called Greenwich Village. It was the first club that had both black and white performers. And it welcomed both black and white people to hear the performers. The nightclub was called Cafe Society. It was here that Billy Holiday first sang a song called "Strange Fruit."? A school teacher named Lewis Allan had written it for her. The song was about injustice and oppression of black people in the southern part of the United States. It told about how mobs of white men had killed black men by hanging them from trees. Many people objected to the song. It was unlike any other popular song. But it was a huge hit. Here is Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen forties, Holiday started using the illegal drug heroin. Soon her body needed more and more of the drug. It began to affect her health. In nineteen forty-seven, Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing illegal drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. When she was released, New York City officials refused to give her a document that permitted her to work in any place that served alcoholic drinks. This meant Holiday no longer could sing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. She could sing only in theaters and concert halls. Ten days after her release from jail, she performed at New York's famous Carnegie Hall. People filled the place to hear her sing. This is one of the songs she sang at that concert. It is called "I Cover the Waterfront." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-six, Billie Holiday wrote a book about her life. The book was called “Lady Sings the Blues.”? A friend at the New York Post newspaper, William Dufty, helped her write the book. A few months later, she was arrested again for possessing illegal drugs. But instead of going to prison, she was permitted to seek treatment to end her dependence on drugs. The treatment was successful. That same year, she performed her second concert at Carnegie Hall. Here is one of the songs Holiday sang that night. It is called "Lady Sings the Blues."? She and Herbie Nichols wrote it. (MUSIC: "Lady Sings the Blues") VOICE ONE: Billy Holiday's health was ruined by using illegal drugs and by drinking too much alcohol. Her last performance was in nineteen fifty-nine. She had to be led off the stage after singing two songs. She died that year. She was only forty-four. But Lady Day lives on through her recordings that continue to influence the best jazz singers. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: World Tuberculosis Day Observed
* Byline: The World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a public health emergency fourteen years ago. Since then, a new report shows the percentage of the world’s population infected with the disease has leveled off. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. World Tuberculosis Day was March twenty-fourth. It was also the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of the bacterium that causes the lung disease. Tuberculosis is one of the world’s leading infectious diseases. The World Health Organization says about two billion people around the world are infected with the bacterium that causes the disease. About one-point-six million people died from the lung disease in two thousand five. TB infection can remain inactive in a person’s lungs for years, or even a lifetime. The disease, however, becomes active in about ten percent of all cases. TB causes a high body temperature and coughing. ?Infected people spread the disease by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. Most TB cases are in South and East Asia, Africa and West Pacific nations. The World Health Organization says about sixty percent of all cases are discovered and a majority of them are cured. The health agency has a five-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course, or DOTS. Directly observed means that local health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day. Full treatment usually lasts from six to nine months. Some people, however, stop the DOTS program as soon as they feel better. That only makes the infection more difficult to treat. TB continues and grows into drug-resistant forms when patients fail to finish taking their medicine.The World Health Organization declared TB a public health emergency in nineteen ninety-three. Since then, a new report shows worldwide tuberculosis rates are steady or falling. The report says the percentage of the world’s population with the disease reached a high level in two thousand four, and remained steady in two thousand five. If this continues for the next three to four years, WHO officials believe their Millennium Development Goal could be reached. The goal is to discover at least seventy percent of infectious cases and successfully treat eighty-five percent of those cases by two thousand fifteen. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read and download audio of Special English programs at our web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Visit to the Florida Keys: Beautiful Islands in Southern Florida
* Byline: In the Keys, you can dance to reggae or Cuban rhythms, visit some favorite places of writer Ernest Hemingway, or just lie in the sun. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA IN VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH. I'm Steve Ember. Today, Mary Tillotson and I welcome you to a group of islands that extends into the Atlantic Ocean from the southern state of Florida. These islands are called the Florida Keys. In Key West, a sign on a monument says "America Begins Here." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first European to see the Florida Keys was Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in the year fifteen-thirteen. He was searching for special water that would keep people young forever. But he did not find that special water, or any other water that people could drink. Later, other Spanish explorers mapped the area as an aid to help their treasure ships return to Spain. Many of the Keys still have Spanish names, like Islamorada, Bahia Honda and Key Vaca. The word “Keys” comes from the Spanish word “cayos” meaning “little island.”? And many of the Florida Keys are little. Hundreds of the islands are only pieces of sand that extend a few feet out of the water. Many are only visited by sea birds. Yet some of the Keys are big enough to support large numbers of people. One of the most popular is Key West. It is the farthest south of the Keys that can be reached by car. VOICE ONE: A road extends southwest into the Florida Keys. It is called Highway One. It starts into the Keys from the state of Florida at a bridge that crosses the water to the island of Key Largo. The road is narrow and the traffic is often slow as it travels through each of the small towns of the Keys. Highway One is about one hundred-fifty-seven kilometers from Key Largo to its end in Key West. It extends across many bridges between the islands. The longest of these bridges is eleven kilometers long. It is called Seven Mile Bridge and was completed in nineteen-eleven. At the time, it was considered one of the wonders of the world. No bridge crossed as much open water. It was a strong bridge, too. Seven Mile Bridge survived many storms, including one huge ocean storm that damaged the Keys in nineteen-thirty-five. The first Seven Mile Bridge was replaced in nineteen-eighty-two, but you can still see the old bridge, close to the new one. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, the Florida Keys are a popular holiday area. Many of the islands have beautiful white sand beaches. Swimming and boating are major sports. Visitors can pay to go on a boat for a fishing trip. They can catch many different kinds of fish including huge fish called sailfish or marlin. People come from all over the world to fish in the Florida Keys. In fact, the people who live on Islamorada Key claim their island is the “Sports Fishing Capital of the World.”? However, the people of other Keys say the fishing is just as good off their islands. Visitors can ride on other kinds of boats in the Florida Keys. Some are special party boats. These go out for the day or during the night. There are food and drinks on these boats. They might also have bands or recorded music for dancing. ?????????????? VOICE ONE: The music heard in the Florida Keys is unusual. You can hear Cuban music. You can hear music of the Caribbean islands, old calypso music from deep in the Caribbean and reggae from Jamaica. You can also hear a lot of music by American songwriter and singer Jimmy Buffet. His music is a mix of American country and western, rock and the sounds of the Caribbean islands. People who really like his music call themselves “Parrot Heads.” It is now time to take a little trip. Let us pretend we are traveling across the last bridge on Highway One to the island of Key West. Our car radio is playing one of Jimmy Buffet’s most famous songs, “Margaritaville.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As we cross the bridge to Key West, we can see many boats. Some are fishing boats you can use for the day. Others belong to people who have sailed their boats here from many different places. In the city, the houses are almost all painted white. A few are pink or light blue. Many houses are very old and very small. Key West is a very old city. Many of the buildings are more than one-hundred years old. Many palm trees grow here. Colorful flowers grow in front of many of the little houses. You can stay in a room in one of these houses for the night. You can smell the ocean on the soft warm wind that blows across the island. We drive past several streets and then come to Whitehead Street. We turn left. Very soon we come to the end of the street. There is a monument here. The sign says this is the southernmost part of the United States. The sign says “American Begins Here.”? Beyond the sign is the ocean. VOICE ONE: After taking a few photographs of the sign, we turn the car around and follow Whitehead Street to number nine-oh-seven. This house belonged to the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. For a few dollars, you can see the inside of the house. Hemingway had many cats when he lived here. He is gone, but the cats remain. Many are asleep on the beds or chairs. They are used to seeing people walking through the old house. VOICE TWO: After we leave the Hemingway house, we travel a little way to Green Street. ?There is a private museum here we want to visit. It is the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum. The museum is named after treasure hunter Mel Fisher. He discovered an old sunken Spanish treasure ship near Key West more than twenty years ago. That ship was the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Visitors can see some of the ship’s treasure at the museum. You can hold a huge, solid bar of gold worth many thousands of dollars. You can put your hands through a hole in a clear, plastic box and hold the huge piece of gold. But the box is built so you can not turn the bar toward the hole. You can not take the gold with you! However, the museum store will sell you real Spanish coins that were found on the famous ship. They are very costly. Or you can buy a copy of a coin for much less money. VOICE ONE: From Mel Fisher’s Museum, we walk the short distance to Mallory Square, the center of Key West’s historic area. The square is famous for the Key West sunset celebration that is held each night if the weather is good. It is really more famous for the unusual people and animals you can see here. For example, you can see people sing or play music. You can see cats perform tricks. You can watch trained birds. You can buy a hat. Or just watch the beautiful sunset. VOICE TWO: From Mallory Square we walk to Duval Street. This is where we find many good eating and drinking places. You can buy very good Cuban food. Cuba is only about one-hundred-forty kilometers from Key West. The Cuban influence can be strongly felt in the city. Or maybe you want to eat seafood instead. There are many good seafood restaurants. Singer Jimmy Buffet owns an eating place here, too. It is the Margaritaville Caf? where you can get a good American cheeseburger. You can also find drinking places that have bands. Some bands play rock music. Some play music of the Caribbean. Still others play country and western music. There seems to be a kind of music for everyone. There are many other businesses along Duval Street. Many stores sell clothing. Some stores sell the works of local Key West artists. Duval Street is a lively area. There seems to be a party here until very late into the night. VOICE ONE: There is much more to do and see in Key West. You can take a high-speed boat trip for about an hour to the Dry Tortugas National Park. A huge military fort was built there before the American Civil War. You can rent an aircraft and take photographs of the beautiful Keys from the air. You can learn to breathe under water using special equipment. And, when your holiday is finished, you can drive slowly up Highway One, through the many other Florida Keys, stopping to enjoy each one on the way home. (MUSIC) This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk and Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember with Mary Tillotson. Please join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Millions of New Genes Are Found in Ocean Water
* Byline: Also: Chimps are seen using weapons to hunt other animals. And a study shows that job cuts affect the mental health of both the employees being dismissed and those who continue working. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, scientists report finding millions of genes and thousands of protein families in seawater. We will also tell about chimpanzees using tools to hunt other animals. And, we will tell about a combination medicine to fight the disease malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A group of scientists recently announced the discovery of new genes and proteins in the world's oceans. American Craig Venter is leading the study. He and other scientists have been using a boat called Sorcerer Two to collect the genetic information. The findings are the first published results of a two-year project. They were reported in the Public Library of Science Biology, a web site that publishes research papers. The crew of Sorcerer Two began collecting seawater in the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda in two thousand three. Since then, the boat has sailed more than nine thousand six hundred kilometers. The new study is based on testing of ocean water from eastern Canada to the islands of Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. To capture the genes, crewmembers collected two hundred liters of ocean water every three hundred twenty kilometers. They put the water through equipment that separates viruses and other kinds of cells by their size. VOICE TWO: A supercomputer designed by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Technology found genetic evidence of microbes in the water. Microbes are life forms that cannot be seen by the human eye. They make up most of the living things on Earth. Scientists say microbes also are responsible for helping to create Earth's atmosphere. They say that understanding these small organisms will guarantee the survival of the planet and human life. The computer study found millions of new genes and thousands of new proteins in the ocean microbes. The report discusses only the viruses and the smallest cells. The tests showed the genes of more than six million new proteins. That increases by two times the number of proteins already known. Craig Venter says these findings show that human beings have not yet even begun to understand our planet and its environment. He says we do not know ninety-nine percent of what is living in the world. And he says this work is just the start of many new discoveries, including the development of new antibiotics and ways to fight climate change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Research scientists say they have seen chimpanzees making and using weapons to hunt other animals. The researchers say they saw more than twenty cases of chimpanzees in Senegal hunting with sharp tools. Their observations were made between March of two thousand five and last July. A report on the chimpanzee study was published in Current Biology magazine. Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University led the researchers. She says it is not uncommon for chimpanzees to use simple tools. Chimps often use such tools to open nuts or to find small insects within trees. However, until now, no one has ever reported seeing the animals using tools for hunting. VOICE TWO: Miz Pruetz says the chimps made the tools from tree branches. She says they removed leaves from the sticks and sharpened the ends with their teeth. Then the chimps used their tools in a stabbing motion like a person would. The researchers say they saw chimps stabbing the sharp tools into open holes in tree trunks. In one case, they saw a West African chimp kill a tree creature called a bush baby. Chimpanzees eat fruit more often than meat. But they also eat insects, monkeys and other small mammals for protein. VOICE ONE: During their time in Africa, the researchers saw at least ten chimps making sharp tools for hunting. They witnessed the activity mostly among young female chimps, ages ten to thirteen years old. Adult male chimps are considered hunters. But only one adult male was observed in the tool-assisted hunting. Miz Pruetz notes that the adult males are stronger and larger than the females. As a result, she says, they are able to kill smaller animals easily without the use of weapon-like tools. She says the young females must compete with the stronger males for food. Chimpanzees are genetically the closest living relatives to human beings. Because of these ties, the researchers suggest the study may also provide clues into early humans and their use of tools for hunting. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Malaria infects as many as five hundred million people worldwide each year and kills more than one million of them. The ones who die are mostly children in southern Africa. Malaria drugs have been available for many years. Until now, however, they have been costly for the poor and not very easy to give to children. This month, a big drug company and an international campaign announced a new anti-malarial that is low cost and easy to take. The drug maker Sanofi-Aventis of France is working in partnership with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. VOICE ONE: The new product is called ASAQ [said as A-S-A-Q]. It combines what experts say are two of the best drugs for malaria: artesunate and amodiaquine. Officials say ASAQ will soon be available throughout Africa south of the Sahara. Combinations of drugs are used to treat diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. This is because it is easier for organisms to develop resistance to a single drug. Current malaria treatments require adults to take as many as eight pills a day. And they often have to divide pills to give a smaller amount to children. VOICE TWO: ASAQ combines the medicines into one daily pill for children and two pills for adults. The medicine is taken for three days. Doctors say the simpler the treatment, the more likely people are to take their medicine. Sanofi-Aventis has promised to sell ASAQ on a "no profit-no loss" basis to the poorest patients. The full treatment cost for older children and adults will be less than a dollar. The cost for a child under the age of five will be less than half a dollar. VOICE ONE: Sanofi-Aventis has also decided against seeking patent protections for ASAQ. That means other companies are free to make their own versions to sell at even lower prices. Five groups including Doctors Without Borders established the international campaign four years ago. The aim is to work with major drug companies to create low-cost drugs for diseases that are common in poor countries. ASAQ is the first product to be launched. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Workers who lose their jobs often feel tense and worried. As a result, they may develop mental health problems. A recent report says those who remain at work after job cuts may be at risk of suffering similar problems. The report was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Mika Kivimaki works for University College in London. He and Finnish researchers examined the effect of job cuts on those dismissed and workers who kept their jobs. They studied information on the use of drugs to treat depression and other mental sicknesses. VOICE ONE: The study involved almost twenty-seven thousand city government employees in Finland. More than seventeen thousand employees worked in offices where the size of the work force never changed. Almost four thousand three hundred other employees lost their jobs. And, about four thousand eight hundred others worked in offices affected by job cuts. Yet they continued to work. VOICE TWO: The study found that men who had lost their jobs were most at risk of mental health problems. They were sixty-four percent more likely to be given a prescription drug for such a problem. Prescription medicines can only be bought with a doctor's order. Men who kept working in offices affected by job cuts were fifty percent more likely to take a prescription medicine. The study found that women were twelve percent more likely to use such a medicine after reductions in the work force. Professor Kivimaki says the report shows that mental health in the work place is a serious issue. He said policy-makers, office supervisors and health experts should recognize that job losses can seriously affect the mental health of all workers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And, I'm Bob Doughty. ?Listen again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Trying to Understand Food Labels
* Byline: Experts attempt to decide what "natural" means. Transcript of radio broadcast:

  This the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. It can be hard to decide which foods to buy in an American grocery store these days. The information on many products makes different claims. These labels suggest that the food is safe, pure or kind to animals. The label "organic" guarantees that the United States Department of Agriculture recognizes the product was grown under special conditions. The department says foods that meet requirements of its National Organic Program can use an official label. It shows the words "USDA Organic" inside a circle. For example, U.S.D.A. organic food does not contain genes that have been scientifically changed. The food is grown without chemical treatments against insects or disease. It is grown without chemical fertilizers. The U.S.D.A. organic label on meat and dairy products guarantees that they are from animals that live much of the time outdoors. The animals have been fed only organic food. The animals have not received antibiotic drugs. And they have not had hormone substances to make them grow bigger. Organic meat and dairy products usually cost more than other products. But many people buy them because they believe they are more healthful. ? The U.S.D.A. is trying to decide if fish can be labeled "organic." A decision is not expected for many months. However, the Marine Stewardship Council says its label promises that fish are not endangered and were caught without harming the local ecosystem. There are also labels on coffee. Some coffee growers plant their crops on land with no natural plants to provide shade from the sun. Other coffee is grown under trees that provide shade for the coffee and homes for birds. This coffee is labeled "Bird Friendly." ?The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Council of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., guarantees coffee with the "Bird Friendly" label. Other food labels include "natural," "cage-free" and "free-range." Experts say it may be harder for the food buyer to decide what these mean. ?For example, chickens may not have been raised in a cage. Still, they may have been in overcrowded conditions inside a building. The Department of Agriculture will be holding meetings with food producers and the public to try to develop requirements for labels. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Grand Canyon: Stepping Out Over a True Wonder of the World
* Byline: There are many ways to experience the canyon -- including a new Skywalk built by a tribe of American Indians. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE?ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we take you to one of the most popular and beautiful places in the United States. It is the Grand Canyon in the southwestern state of Arizona. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The canyons of America's Southwest are deep, ancient openings in the earth. They look as if they formed as the earth split apart. But the canyons did not split. They were cut by rivers. The rivers carried dirt and pieces of stone that slowly ate away at the surrounding rock. For millions of years, the rivers turned and pushed. They cut deeper and deeper into the earth. They left a pathway of great rocky openings in the earth that extend for hundreds of kilometers. VOICE TWO: The Grand Canyon in Arizona is one of the largest and most beautiful of all canyons. It extends four hundred fifty kilometers. The surrounding area does not make you suspect the existence of such a great opening in the earth. You come upon the canyon suddenly, when you reach its edge. Then you are looking at a land like nothing else in the world. VOICE ONE: Walls of rock fall away sharply at your feet. In some places, the canyon walls are more than a kilometer deep. Far below is the dark, turning line of the Colorado River. On the other side, sunshine lights up the naked rock walls in red, orange, and gold. The bright colors are the result of minerals in the rocks. Their appearance changes endlessly -- with the light, the time of year, and the weather. At sunset, when the sun has moved across the sky, the canyon walls give up their fiery reds and golds. They take on quieter colors of blue, purple, and green. VOICE TWO: Hundreds of rocky points rise from the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Some are very tall. Yet all are below the level of an observer on the edge, looking over. Looking at the Grand Canyon is like looking back in time. Forty million years ago, the Colorado River began cutting through the area. At the same time, the surrounding land was pushed up by forces deep within the Earth. Rain, snow, ice, wind, and plant roots rubbed away at the top of the new canyon. Below, the flowing river continued to uncover more and more levels of ancient rock. Some of Earth's oldest rocks are seen here. There are many levels of granite, schist, limestone, and sandstone. VOICE ONE: The Grand Canyon has several weather environments. The top is often much different from the bottom. On some winter days, for example, you may find cold winds and snow at the top. But at the bottom, you may find warm winds and flowers. Several kinds of plants and animals are found in the canyon and nowhere else on Earth. Because the canyon's environments are so different, these species did not spread beyond the canyon, or even far within it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Native American Indians occupied the Grand Canyon three thousand years ago. Evidence of their existence has been found in more than two thousand five hundred places so far. Bones, hair, feathers, even the remains of plants have been found in deep, dry caves high in the rock walls. The Hopi, the Paiute, the Navajo and other Native American tribes have all been in the area for at least seven centuries. However, much of what we know today about the Grand Canyon was recorded by John Wesley Powell. In eighteen sixty-nine, he became the first white American to explore much of the canyon. VOICE ONE: John Wesley Powell and his group traveled in four boats. They knew very little about getting over the rapid, rocky waters of the Colorado River. In many areas of fast-flowing water, a boat could be turned over by a wave as high as a house. Soon after starting, Powell's group lost some of its food and equipment. Then three members of the group left. As they walked up and out of the canyon, they were killed by Indians. The rest of the group was lucky to survive. Starving and tired, they reached the end of the canyon. They had traveled on the Colorado River for more than three months. John Wesley Powell's reports and maps from the trip made him famous. They also greatly increased interest in the Grand Canyon. But visitors did not begin to go to there in large numbers until nineteen-oh-one. That was when a railroad reached the area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, the Grand Canyon is known as one of the seven wonders of the natural world. About five million people visit the canyon each year. Most visitors walk along paths part way down into the canyon. It takes several hours to walk to the bottom. It takes two times as long to get back up. Some visitors ride mules to the bottom and back. The mules are strong animals that look like horses. They are known for their ability to walk slowly and safely on the paths. America's National Park Service is responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon from the effects of so many visitors. All waste material must be carried out of the canyon. All rocks, historical objects, plants, and wildlife must be left untouched. As the National Park Service tells visitors: "Take only photographs. Leave only footprints. " VOICE ONE: There are several other ways to visit the Grand Canyon. Hundreds of thousands of people see the canyon by air each year. They pay a helicopter or airplane pilot to fly them above and around the canyon. About twenty thousand people a year see the Grand Canyon from the Colorado River itself. They ride boats over the rapid, rocky water. These trips last from one week to three weeks. VOICE TWO: The Skywalk is on the Hualapai Indian Reservation Starting March twenty-eighth, two thousand seven, visitors can see the Grand Canyon in still another way. A huge glass walkway, called the Skywalk, extends twenty-one meters from the edge of the Grand Canyon. The Skywalk is suspended more than one thousand two hundred meters above the bottom of the canyon. It is shaped like a giant horseshoe. Visitors pay twenty-five dollars each to walk beyond the canyon walls, surrounded by the canyon, while standing at the edge of the glass bridge. The Hualapai Indian Tribe built the Skywalk at a cost of more than forty million dollars. The tribe owns almost four hundred thousand hectares of land in the canyon. The Hualapai built the Skywalk to gain money by getting more people to visit its reservation. The tribe says the area, called Grand Canyon West, will include a large visitors' center, restaurants, and possibly hotels in the future. Among the first guests on the Skywalk were former astronauts Buzz Aldrin and John Bennett Herrington, a Native AmericanSome people say the Skywalk is an engineering wonder. However, other people have criticized the Skywalk and future development. They say it harms a national treasure and reduces the enjoyment of nature in the Grand Canyon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many writers have tried to describe the wonder of the Grand Canyon. They use words like mysterious, overpowering, strange. Yet writers recognize that it is impossible to put human meaning in such a place. The Grand Canyon exists in its own space and time. Some visitors say they feel so small when measured against the canyon's great size. One writer who has spent a lot of time in the Grand Canyon finds it a peaceful place. He says the almost overpowering silence and deepness of the Grand Canyon shakes people -- at least briefly -- out of their self-importance. He says it makes us remember our place in the natural world. VOICE TWO: We close our program with music from a record called "Canyon Lullaby" written by Paul Winter. Mister Winter said it was his first attempt to translate the spirit of the canyon into sound. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember . VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can find scripts and download audio at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Chest Compressions May Be Most Important Part of CPR
* Byline: A Japanese study questions the usefulness of rescue breathing. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can save the life of someone whose heart has stopped. The condition is called cardiac arrest. The heart stops pumping blood. The person stops breathing. Without lifesaving measures, the brain starts to die within four to six minutes. CPR combines breathing into the victim's mouth and repeated presses on the chest. CPR keeps blood and oxygen flowing to the heart and brain. However, a new Japanese study questions the usefulness of mouth-to-mouth breathing. The study was published in the British medical magazine, The Lancet. Doctors in Tokyo led the research. It examined more than four thousand people who had suffered cardiac arrest. In all the cases, witnesses saw the event happen. More than one thousand of the victims received some kind of medical assistance from witnesses. Seven hundred and twelve received CPR. Four hundred and thirty-nine received chest presses only. No mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths were given to them. The researchers say any kind of CPR improved chances of the patient's survival. But, they said those people treated with only chest presses suffered less brain damage. Twenty-two percent survived with good brain ability. Only ten percent of the victims treated with traditional CPR survived with good brain ability. The American Heart Association changed its guidelines for CPR chest presses in two thousand five. It said people should increase the number of chest presses from fifteen to thirty for every two breaths given. Gordon Ewy is a heart doctor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He wrote a report that appeared with the study. Doctor Ewy thinks the CPR guidelines should be changed again. He said the heart association should remove rescue breaths from the guidelines. He argues that more witnesses to cardiac arrests would provide treatment if rescue breaths are not a part of CPR. He says this would save lives. Studies show that many people do not want to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing on a stranger for fear of getting a disease. Cardiac arrest kills more than three hundred thousand people in the United States every year. The American Heart Association says about ninety-five percent of victims die before they get to a medical center. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Studying Agriculture in the US
* Byline: Week 30 of our Foreign Student Series looks at agricultural programs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A listener from China named Walker would like information about agricultural programs in the United States. This is our subject today in week number thirty of our Foreign Student Series. About one hundred colleges and universities began as public agricultural colleges and continue to teach agriculture. These are called land grant schools. They began with support from the federal government. Federal aid supported the building of most major state universities. The idea of the land grant college goes back to a law in the nineteenth century called the Morrill Act. A congressman named Justin Smith Morrill wrote legislation to create at least one in each state. The name "land grant" came from the kind of aid provided by the government. The government wanted Americans to learn better ways to farm. So it gave thousands of hectares of land to each Northern state. The idea was that the states would sell the land and use the money to establish colleges. These colleges would teach agriculture, engineering and military science. Congress passed the law in eighteen sixty-two. This was during the Civil War. Southern states had rebelled against the North and withdrawn from the Union. Another law created a center at each land grant college to develop new scientific ideas and to help farmers solve problems. Michigan State University began in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of MichiganThe Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was established in eighteen fifty-five. That was seven years before the Morrill Act. It later became the first college to officially agree to receive support under that law. The college grew into what is now Michigan State University in East Lansing. Today, the university has more than forty thousand students. These include more than three thousand five hundred students from one hundred thirty other countries. Last year the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State had three hundred thirty-six foreign students. More than two hundred of them were graduate students in the areas of agricultural economics, packaging, and crop and soil sciences. Undergraduates majoring in agriculture can also study other related areas. These include agricultural education and food industry management. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. We will have a link to the Michigan State Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. We also have other helpful links along with transcripts and audio files from our Foreign Student Series. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-28-voa4.cfm
* Headline: History: The Presidency of John Kennedy Begins With Great Energy, but Ends in Tragedy
* Byline: He stood strong against the Soviet Union during the Cuban missile crisis, and proposed a law to guarantee equal treatment of blacks. Then came the gunshots in Dallas in November 22, 1963. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we continue the story of President John Kennedy. VOICE ONE: John Fitzgerald KennedyJohn Kennedy began his administration in nineteen sixty-one with great energy to do good things. After just three months in office, however, he had to take responsibility for a big failure. On April seventeenth, Cuban exiles, trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency, invaded Cuba. Their goal was to overthrow Cuba's communist leader, Fidel Castro. Most of the exiles were killed or captured. The last administration had planned the invasion. But Kennedy had approved it. After the incident, some Americans wondered if he had enough experience to lead the nation. Some asked themselves if the forty-three-year-old Kennedy was too young to be president, after all. VOICE TWO: Kennedy soon regained some public approval when he visited French leader General Charles de Gaulle. The French were very interested in the new American president. They were even more interested in his beautiful wife. The president said with a laugh that he was the man who had come to Paris with Jacqueline Kennedy. VOICE ONE: In Vienna, Kennedy met with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Their relations would always be difficult. Khrushchev did not want to compromise on any issue. He threatened to have the East Germans block all movement into and out of the western part of the city of Berlin. Not long after, the East Germans, with Soviet support, built a wall to separate the eastern and western parts of the city. President Kennedy quickly announced a large increase in the number of American military forces in Germany. He said the United States would not permit freedom to end in Berlin. VOICE TWO: About a year later, in October, nineteen sixty-two, President Kennedy said the United States had discovered that the Soviets were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba. He took several actions to protest the deployment. One was to send American ships to the area. They were to prevent Soviet ships from taking missile parts and related supplies to the Cuban government. In a speech broadcast on television, Kennedy spoke about the seriousness of the situation. JOHN KENNEDY: "It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States." VOICE ONE: No fighting broke out between the United States and the Soviet Union because of the Cuban missile crisis. The Soviet ships carrying missile parts to Cuba turned back. And President Kennedy promised that the United States would not invade Cuba if the Soviet Union removed its missiles and stopped building new ones there. The two sides did, however, continue their cold war of words and influence. In Asia, the Soviet Union continued to provide military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments. The Kennedy administration fought communism in Vietnam by increasing the number of American military advisers there. VOICE TWO: Robert and John Kennedy at the White HouseThe United States and the Soviet Union did make some progress on arms control, however. In nineteen sixty-three, the two countries reached a major agreement to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space. The treaty did not ban nuclear tests under the ground. On national issues, President Kennedy supported efforts to guarantee a better life for African-Americans. One man who pushed for changes was his younger brother, Robert. Robert Kennedy was attorney general and head of the Justice Department at that time. VOICE ONE: The Justice Department took legal action against Southern states that violated the voting rights acts of nineteen fifty-seven and nineteen sixty. The administration also supported a voter registration campaign among African-Americans. The campaign helped them to record their names with election officials so they could vote. As attorney general, Robert Kennedy repeatedly called on National Guard troops to protect black citizens from crowds of angry white citizens. Incidents took place when blacks tried to register to vote and when they tried to attend white schools. VOICE TWO: President Kennedy said the situation was causing a moral crisis in America. He decided it was time to propose a new civil rights law. The measure would guarantee equal treatment for blacks in public places and in jobs. It would speed the work of ending racial separation in schools. Kennedy wanted the new legislation badly. But Congress delayed action. It did not pass a broad civil rights bill until nineteen sixty-four, after his presidency. VOICE ONE: In November, nineteen sixty-three, Kennedy left Washington for the state of Texas. He hoped to help settle a local dispute in his Democratic Party. The dispute might have affected chances for his re-election in nineteen sixty-four. He arrived in the city of Dallas in the late morning of November twenty-second. Dallas was known to be a center of opposition to Kennedy. Yet many people waited to see him. VOICE TWO: A parade of cars traveled through the streets of Dallas. Kennedy and his wife were in the back seat of one. Their car had no top, so everyone could see them easily. Another car filled with Secret Service security agents was next to the president's. The motorcade in DallasSuddenly, there were gunshots. Then, many Americans heard this emergency report from television newsman Walter Cronkite: WALTER CRONKITE: "Here is a bulletin from CBS news. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting." VOICE ONE: The cars raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital. But doctors there could do little. Thirty minutes later reporters, including Walter Cronkite, broadcast this announcement: WALTER CRONKITE: "From Dallas, Texas -- the flash apparently official -- President Kennedy died at one p.m., Central Standard Time. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As the nation mourned, police searched for the person who had killed John Kennedy. They arrested a man named Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald worked in a building near the place where Kennedy had been shot. People had seen him leave the building after the shooting. He had a gun. VOICE ONE: Lee Harvey OswaldLee Harvey Oswald was a man with a strange past. He was a former United States Marine. He was also a communist. He had lived for a while in the Soviet Union and had tried to become a Soviet citizen. He worked for a committee that supported the communist government in Cuba. Police questioned Oswald about the death of president Kennedy. He said he did not do it. After two days, officials decided to move him to a different jail. VOICE TWO: As they did, television cameras recorded the death of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was being led by two police officials. Suddenly, a man stepped in front of them. There was a shot, and Oswald fell to the floor. Jack Ruby shoots OswaldThe gunman was Jack Ruby. He owned an eating and drinking place in Dallas. He said he killed Oswald to prevent the Kennedy family from having to live through a trial. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Kennedy's body had been returned to Washington. After a state funeral, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River. A gas flame burns at his burial place, day and night. An official committee was formed to investigate his death. It was headed by the chief justice of the United States, earl Warren, and was known as the Warren commission. In its report, the Warren commission said that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. It said there was no plot to kill the president. VOICE TWO: Many Americans did not accept the report. They believed there was a plot. Some blamed Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Some blamed extremists in America's Central Intelligence Agency. Others blamed organized crime. The truth of what happened to John Kennedy may be what was stated in the Warren Commission report: that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Or, perhaps, the complete truth may never be known. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-28-voa6.cfm
* Headline: English Teaching in the Arab World: Insights From Iraq and Libya
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: conversations with two English teachers who are in the United States for the first time. I met them last week in the northwestern city of Seattle at the annual convention of the group known as TESOL, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. One of the first people I met was from Iraq. [His name is being?withheld for his protection.] IRAQI: "I'm a professor of English, teaching students to be teachers of English in the secondary schools of Iraq. It is the first time I participate in the TESOL convention, two thousand seven. Actually it is [an] amazing experience because here we see not a convention but a village." AA: "Now I'm curious, when people you meet, when they see you're from Iraq, other English teachers here, what's their reaction?" IRAQI: "Actually they are amazed, how to come from Iraq in such difficult circumstances to participate in the conference. They do not think that I'm coming from Iraq. They always ask, 'From Iran?' I say, 'No, from Iraq.'" AA: "Well, tell me a little bit about English teaching programs in Iraq. At what grade do students start learning English?" IRAQI: "Students start learning English at the fifth stage primary, at the age of eleven, up to the age of eighteen, the end of the secondary schooling. And then they study different programs of English according to their faculties. For instance, students of medicine study most of their courses in English. Other colleges teach for one year also, but the students of English also study four years of English." AA: "Is English a required course in schools?" IRAQI: "It is required. And now, especially after the fall of the regime, many people try to learn English because now Iraq is an open country. Many people try to travel, try to pursue their study, try to communicate in English, try to find a job also while learning English." MILOOD AL-OMRANI: "My name is Milood Al-Omrani. I'm from Libya. I'm on a Fulbright scholarship here in the United States. I'm teaching Arabic language at Hawaii Pacific University. I'm also promoting Libyan culture, Muslim culture in general, sharing it with American students and American public in general." AA: "How many students do you have, and what's their background?" MILOOD AL-OMRANI: "I have three groups of five, six and three students. That was last semester, I'm sorry. This semester is three, five and two. And they come from different parts of the U.S. New York, Michigan, Boston. And most of them -- all of them are Americans, actually. I had some European and Asian students last semester. Japan and Sweden." AA: "And what do they hope to do with their Arabic language training?" MILOOD AL-OMRANI: "Well, many of them are interested in learning Arabic because they're doing political science, diplomacy, military programs. Some of them just want to go and explore the culture in the Middle East. They want to go and see what it's like there." AA: "So now let's talk about English teaching in Libya. At what age do they start teaching English in Libya?" MILOOD AL-OMRANI: "Now they started to teach English to children in third grade." AA: "And what about influence of learning English through American television shows or movies -- has that been a big influence?" MILOOD AL-OMRANI: "Well, this is interesting because most of the programs that we have in Libya are British English programs that are officially taught. However, Libyans show great interest in learning American English because most of the stuff in the programs you see on TV are -- or is, actually, in American English. "The English they learn in class sounds different than the one they see on TV. So they always have these examples: 'Well, I heard this on TV and in class you're telling me this, so which one is correct?' And we keep on telling them, 'Well, English is spoken in many different varieties, so you have to realize that this is correct and this is correct. It's just that it's spoken this way here and spoken this way there.' But they definitely have a great interest in learning American English." AA: "What about slang? What place does that have in English in Libya?" MILOOD AL-OMRANI: "Well, teenagers who are learning English are interested in slang because most of them listen to music like rap music and hip-hop and, yeah, they like using it." AA: That was Milood Al-Omrani, a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant from Libya. And that's Wordmaster for this week -- in the weeks to come you'll hear from other teachers I met last week at the TESOL convention in Seattle. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our segments are all archived at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: College Basketball's March Madness | Question From Nigeria About MP3 Files | Folk-Influenced Music by Elvis Perkins
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about MP3 players… Present some music from Elvis Perkins… And report about something called "March Madness." March Madness HOST: "March Madness" describes the excitement about men's college basketball games every year at this time. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough tries to block Georgetown's Roy Hibbert. But Georgetown defeated North Carolina in overtime to go on to the Final Four.For the past two weeks, men's basketball teams from large colleges and universities have been playing in a championship competition. Millions of people have been watching the games on television and on Internet web sites. They are also betting on which teams will win and advance in the tournament. The New York Times newspaper reports that the basketball tournament is one of the busiest times of the year in Las Vegas, Nevada. That is because college basketball fans from all over the country meet each other and bet on the games. The series of games is known as "March Madness" because of the public's excitement about the games. And sometimes a team that is not expected to win defeats a team with a better record. The Division One National Collegiate Athletic Association Championship Tournament has been played every year since nineteen thirty-nine. Sixty-three basketball games take place each March. The competition begins with sixty-five teams. The winner of each game continues on to play the winner of another game. The number of teams in the competition is slowly reduced to the "Sweet Sixteen" then the "Elite Eight" and finally the two teams who will play for the championship. Four teams have won all their games so far. They will compete in the semi-final games on Saturday in Atlanta, Georgia. These teams are called the "Final Four."? The University of Florida basketball team will play the University of California at Los Angeles. And the Ohio State University team will play Georgetown University. The winners will face each other in the Division One NCAA championship game on Monday, April second. Last year, the teams from Florida and UCLA played each other in the final game of the basketball tournament. Florida won, so it is now the defending champion. Will it win again?? We will let you know next week. MP3s HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Aminu Tijjani Ali wants to learn more about MP3s. An MP3 is a kind of file used for sending music or other material over the Internet. These files are compressed, or reduced in size, compared to songs on a compact disc, or CD. MP3 files are played on a computer using media programs like iTunes or Windows Media Player. MP3s can also be played on iPods and other small players as well as some wireless telephones that can store music. Many players can hold thousands of songs yet are small enough to carry in your pocket. Changing, or converting, a song from a music CD to an MP3 file is called "ripping."? Software for ripping is available by itself and in programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player. The MP3 was developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and other laboratories in the nineteen eighties. By the late nineteen nineties, music fans were beginning to change their music collections from CDs to MP3s. They were also able to download MP3 music files from the Internet much faster because of the MP3’s smaller file size. File-sharing services quickly began appearing on the Internet. They made it possible for people to exchange copyrighted music at no cost. However, the record industry started to get concerned because people were trading free music on the Internet instead of buying it in music stores. A few years ago, the original Napster Web site was one of the most popular music-sharing services. But then the music industry won court cases that decided that this kind of file-sharing was illegal and violated copyright laws. ?MP3 files are still shared on the Internet today. People also buy them from online music stores. The new Napster Web site is one of these services that charges money for MP3s on the Internet. On the Special English Web site, voaspecialenglish.com, we provide MP3 files of our programs at no cost. Elvis Perkins HOST: Elvis PerkinsElvis Perkins has just released his first album, "Ash Wednesday." Perkins performs folk music-influenced songs about dreams, memories, and sadness. Critics are praising his imaginative songs and soft but expressive voice. Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was "While You Were Sleeping." Its rich imagery gives a good example of the poetic quality of Elvis Perkins' music. The song describes the many thoughts of a person who cannot sleep at night. Like many songs on this record, it also expresses sadness. You could say it is an album that deals with mourning. Perkins' mother, the photographer Berry Berenson, died in one of the planes that terrorists used to attack the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. Nine years earlier, Elvis' father, the famous actor Anthony Perkins, had died. In songs like "Ash Wednesday" Elvis Perkins mourns for his parents. (MUSIC) Elvis Perkins has been playing music since he was a child. In high school he had his own music band. During his twenties, he wrote and recorded songs, some of which are on this album. Perkins did not want his album to have a digital high-tech sound. He made many of the recordings on analog tape, both at a sound studio and also at an old house in Los Angeles, California. This method helps give a warm and personal sound to the album. Elvis Perkins will be performing around the United States and Canada this spring to promote "Ash Wednesday." He gives an energetic performance, singing and playing the guitar and harmonica. We leave you with the dreamy sound of "Sleep Sandwich." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-29-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Credit Cards Are Easy to Get, But Harder to Pay Off
* Byline: Interest rates are not the only measure of a card's cost; high fees become an issue in US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Buy now, pay later. Credit cards give people that choice. Those billions of small pieces of plastic in use all over the world make it easy to buy things. But people who use credit cards irresponsibly can soon find themselves heavily in debt. Cardholders may not think about it, but they borrow money from a bank or other lender each time they charge something. They avoid interest charges if they pay their bill in full each month. But if they only make the minimum payment, the lowest required, it may take years to pay off a debt. Interest is continually charged on the unpaid balance. A credit card may have a number of costs. First, there is the interest charge on purchases, known as the annual percentage rate, or A.P.R. In the United States right now, the average is between thirteen and fourteen percent. Some cards are a lot higher. Many also charge yearly fees of twenty-five dollars or more just to keep them. Cardholders may have to pay cash advance fees if they withdraw money from a credit card. There are also fees if they go over their credit limit, or if a payment is late. Lenders may also raise interest rates as punishment. In the United States, credit card fees have become a political issue. Congress has threatened to take action against what critics call abusive behavior by lenders. Yet getting a credit card has become a lot easier for most people. Maybe too easy: People receive offers in the mail of pre-approved cards that they never asked for. Many cards offer low rates at first, especially if people agree to move their balance from another card. About half of all Americans have at least two credit cards. And the credit rating agency Experian says fourteen percent of the population has more than ten. Jeanne Hogarth at the Federal Reserve, the central bank, says the average family has four credit cards. But families that carry a balance, meaning they do not pay off their statements each month, have an average of five. In nineteen eighty-eight Americans had three hundred thirty billion dollars in credit card debt. Last year it was eight hundred forty billion. In the latest government study, the average credit card debt for all households was more than three thousand dollars. But for those that carried a balance, the average was five thousand three hundred. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Arab Leaders Urge Israel to Accept 2002 Plan for Peace and a Palestinian State
* Byline: Summit in Riyadh ends with a push to renew Middle East peace efforts launched five years ago. Earlier, a statement by the Saudi king about Iraq caught American officials by surprise. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah speaks at the opening of the Arab summit in RiyadhArab leaders met this week in Riyadh. The Arab League Summit in the Saudi capital ended with calls for Israel to accept an Arab peace plan from two thousand two. That plan offers Israel normal relations with the Arab world if it withdraws from land captured during the nineteen sixty-seven Arab-Israeli war. The plan also calls for Israel to reach a settlement with the Palestinians on the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Israel rejected the peace plan in two thousand two. But more recently, Israeli officials have said the plan could be a starting point for negotiations. As the Arab League meetings closed, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it would be willing to hold talks with some Arab nations. However, Israel objects to a demand that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to their homes in what is now Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian people were truly extending the hand of peace toward Israel. The Palestinians have a new unity government. Israel says it will not deal with that government unless it agrees to reject violence, recognize Israel and respect existing peace agreements. But earlier in the week, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to begin meeting every two weeks. That agreement came as American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice completed a three-day trip to the Middle East. She said the talks should lead to discussions on a political settlement. But top Israeli officials say that for now, any talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders will involve humanitarian issues. The two-day summit in Riyadh opened with a speech by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He said Arab League states are more divided now than they have ever been. He also described Iraq as being under an illegal foreign occupation. That comment caught the State Department in Washington by surprise. A spokesman said the United States was operating in Iraq under United Nations resolutions and with the invitation of the Iraqi government. The United States looks to Saudi Arabia as an important ally in the Middle East. American officials said they would seek to better understand what exactly King Abdullah meant by his statement. State Department officials, however, welcomed the Arab League's decision to renew its two thousand two Middle East peace plan. On Thursday, in their final declaration, the Arab leaders warned of the dangers of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. But they also said that all countries have the right to peaceful nuclear energy programs. Gulf Arab nations generally share American and European concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. Iran is led by Shiite Muslims; the Gulf Arab nations bordering Iran are mostly led by Sunnis. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-03/2007-03-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886: The 'Belle of Amherst' Became One of America's Greatest Poets
* Byline: Little is known about her life. But her poetry remains popular today. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: People in America – a program in Special English about famous Americans of the past. Now, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Because I could not stop for Death — He kindly stopped for me – The carriage held but just ourselves And immortality. VOICE TWO: The words are by American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in eighteen eighty-six. During her life, she published only about ten poems. Four years after her death, a few more poems were published. But her complete work did not appear until nineteen fifty-five. VOICE ONE: I'm Nobody!? Who are you? Are you -- Nobody – Too? VOICE TWO: Emily Dickinson has become part of our language without really being part of our history. Some see her as the last poet of an early American tradition. Others see her as the first modern American poet. Each reader seems to find a different Emily Dickinson. She remains as mysterious as she was when she was alive. VOICE ONE: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -- VOICE TWO: The truth about Emily Dickinson has been difficult to discover. Few people of her time knew who she was or what she was doing. The main facts about her life are these. She was born December tenth, eighteen thirty, in the small Massachusetts town of Amherst. She lived and died in the same house where she was born. Emily received a good education. She studied philosophy, the Latin language, and the science of plants and rocks. Emily's parents were important people in Amherst. Many famous visitors came to their house, and Emily met them. Her father was a well-known lawyer who was elected to Congress for one term. Mister Dickinson believed that women should be educated. But he also believed that women should not use their education to work outside the home. He felt their one and only task was to care for their husband and children. Emily once said: “He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they upset the mind. " Emily wrote more than one thousand seven hundred poems. There are three books of her letters. And there are many books about her life. Some of her best work was written in the four years between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen sixty-two. VOICE ONE: I live with Him -- I see his face -- I go no more away For Visitor -- or Sundown-- Death's single privacy ? Dreams -- are well -- but Waking's better, If One wake at Morn -- If One wake at Midnight – better -- Dreaming -- of the Dawn -- This is my letter to the World That never wrote to me-- The simple News that Nature told-- With tender Majesty VOICE TWO: In those years, Emily seems to have found her "voice" as a poet. She settled into forms she used for the rest of her life. The forms are similar to those of religious music used during her lifetime. But her choice of words was unusual. She wrote that her dictionary was her best friend. Other influences were the English poet, William Shakespeare; the Christian holy book, the Bible; and the forces of nature. VOICE ONE: I dreaded that first robin so, But he is mastered now, And I'm accustomed to him grown-- He hurts a little though ? I dared not meet the daffodils, For fear their yellow gown Would pierce me with a fashion So foreign to my own. I could not bear the bees should come, I wished they'd stay away In those dim countries where they go: What word had they for me? VOICE TWO: Throughout her life, Emily asked men for advice. And then she did not follow what they told her. As a child, there was her father. Later there was her father's law partner, and a churchman she met in the city of Philadelphia. Another man who helped her was the writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson had written a magazine story giving advice to young, unpublished writers. Emily wrote to him when she was in her early thirties. She included a few poems. Higginson wrote back and later visited Emily in Amherst. In the next few years, Emily sent him many more poems. But he did not have them published, and admitted that he did not understand Emily's poetry. VOICE ONE: 'Tis not that dying hurts us so -- 'Tis living hurts us more; But dying is a different way, A kind behind the door -- VOICE TWO: Some historians wish that Emily's poems had reached the best American writers of her day: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. These men could have overlooked her strange way of living to see only her ability. Historians also say it is possible that Emily chose to write to someone like Higginson so she would not be understood. VOICE ONE: To hear an oriole sing May be a common thing Or only a divine It is not the bird Who sings the same unheard, As unto crowd. VOICE TWO: So little is known about Emily's life that many writers have created a life for her. They talk about the things that interest them as if they interested Emily, too. But one writer says part of the joy in studying Emily is what we cannot know. Emily herself said: "I never try to lift the words which I cannot hold. " VOICE ONE: I cannot live with you, It would be life, And life is over there Behind the shelf So we must keep apart, You there, I here, With just the door ajar That oceans are, And prayer, And that pale sustenance, Despair! VOICE TWO: Emily Dickinson sewed the pages of her poems together with thread and put them away. She also seems to have sewed her life together and put it away, too. Step by step, she withdrew from the world. As she grew older, she saw fewer visitors, and rarely left her house. The time of Emily's withdrawal was also the time of the American Civil War. The events that changed America's history, however, did not touch her. She died in eighteen eighty-six, at the age of fifty-five, completely unknown to the world. No one wrote about Emily Dickinson's poems while she was alive. Yet, more than one hundred years since her death, she has come to be seen as one of America's greatest poets. VOICE ONE: The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will contain With ease -- and you beside. VOICE TWO: After Emily died, her sister Lavinia found Emily's poems locked away. Lavinia wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and demanded that the poems be published. Higginson agreed. And a few of Emily's poems about nature were published. Slowly, more and more of her poems were published. Readers soon learned that she was much more than a nature poet. In her life, Emily was an opponent of organized religion. Yet she often wrote about religion. She rarely left home. Yet she often wrote about faraway places. She lived quietly. Yet she wrote that life passes quickly and should be lived to the fullest. Will we ever know more about the life of Emily Dickinson?? As she told a friend once: "In a life that stopped guessing, you and I should not feel at home. " We have the poems. And for most readers, they are enough. VOICE ONE: Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit – Life (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. This program was written by Richard Thorman. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Listen again next week at this same time on VOA for another story of People in America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Colors:? I'm Feeling Very Blue Today
* Byline: Many everyday American expressions are based on colors.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are based on colors. Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz. Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health. Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song – Mood Indigo – about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: “You ain’t been blue till you’ve had that Mood Indigo.”? Someone who is blue is very sad. The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green. Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money. The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations. In some cases, colors describe a situation. A brown out is an expression for a reduction in electric power. Brown outs happen when there is too much demand for electricity. The electric system is unable to offer all the power needed in an area. Black outs were common during World War Two. Officials would order all lights in a city turned off to make it difficult for enemy planes to find a target in the dark of night. (MUSIC) I’m Warren Scheer. Listen again next week for another Words and Their Stories program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Phones for Health' Campaign Targets AIDS in Africa
* Byline: An information-sharing system for health workers in Rwanda will be expanded to Nigeria and other countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Recently we talked about Voxiva, a provider of information technology systems for health workers in poor countries. This Washington-based company has been working for three years with the government of Rwanda. Voxiva created a system that uses mobile phones and other devices for health workers to report and share information on HIV/AIDS. That same technology will now be used in a wider effort to fight the deadly virus in other African countries. A campaign launched by a partnership of public and private organizations aims to use cell phones to improve HIV/AIDS care. The ten-million-dollar campaign is called "Phones for Health." Health workers will use mobile phones loaded with special software to enter information into a central computer system. The workers will also be able to use the Motorola handsets to receive treatment guidelines, order medicines and get training materials. Phones for Health was announced in February at the GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. GSM is the global system for mobile communications, a cellular technology used for voice and data services. In addition to Voxiva, other partners include the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by President Bush, and the GSM Association. This is a trade group that represents more than seven hundred mobile phone operators in two hundred eighteen countries. MTN, the leading operator in Africa, is another partner in the effort, as are Motorola and the Accenture company. The chairman of Voxiva, Paul Meyer, says the program will start in Rwanda and Nigeria. It will then spread to eight other countries over the next several years. The campaign is currently working to identify which African countries will be included, he says. The campaign will work closely with health ministries, international health groups and others. In the future, the Phones for Health program could be expanded further in Africa and to parts of Asia. Paul Meyer says the technology offers a way for countries to bring together separate information systems for diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. As a result, he says, limited health resources could be used more effectively. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Sports Programs Where a Disability Is No Barrier to Having Fun
* Byline: Last in a four-part series on life for people with disabilities in the US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we have the last of our four-part series on living with a disability in America. Last month we talked about assistive technology. Before that, it was education and employment. Today, in Part Four, our subject is sports and recreation for people with disabilities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In August of two thousand eight, athletes from the United States and around the world will compete in the Beijing Olympics. But did you know that in September of next year, disabled athletes will compete in the Paralympic Games in Beijing? The Olympics and the Paralympics are separate movements. But they have always been held in the same year. And since nineteen eighty-eight, they have also been held in the same city. The International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee signed an agreement in two thousand one to secure this connection. The next winter games will take place in Vancouver, Canada, in two thousand ten. VOICE TWO: The Paralympic Games grew out of a sports competition held in nineteen forty-eight in England. A doctor named Ludwig Guttmann organized it for men who suffered spinal cord injuries in World War Two. Four years later, it became an international event as competitors from the Netherlands took part. Then, in nineteen sixty, the first Paralympics were held in Rome. Four hundred athletes from twenty-three countries competed. By two thousand four, the Paralympic Games in Athens had almost four thousand athletes from one hundred thirty-six countries. Athletes may have physical or mental limitations; they may be blind or in wheelchairs. Yet sometimes they perform better than athletes without disabilities. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-eight, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of former President John F. Kennedy, started the Special Olympics. These games are just for children and adults with mental limitations. The Special Olympics Web site says programs currently serve more than two million people in one hundred sixty countries. This past November, in Mumbai, India, teams competed in the First Special Olympics International Cricket Cup. In addition to India, there were men's teams from Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. There were also women's cricket teams from India and Pakistan. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are many organizations in the United States that help people with disabilities play sports. A game of wheelchair basketball in FloridaWheelchair tennis is a popular sport. So is basketball. In fact, there are more than one hundred professional teams playing wheelchair basketball. Special wheelchairs for athletes are lightweight and designed for quick moves. For people who want to go really fast in their chairs, there is a Power Wheelchair Racing Association. VOICE ONE: In the state of Utah there is a place called the National Ability Center. It teaches all kinds of sports to people with all kinds of physical and mental disabilities. It even gives friends and family members a chance to try a sport as if they were disabled. A reporter from the Washington Post wanted to know what it would be like for a blind person to use a climbing wall. So, protected by a safety line, the newspaper reporter closed his eyes and started to feel for places to put his hands and feet. Trainers on the ground urged him on: "Take your time. You can do it." Finally he reached the top. VOICE TWO: At the National Ability Center people can learn to ride horses and mountain bikes. They can try winter mountain sports, and learn scuba diving and other water activities. The center also prepares athletes for the Paralympics. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: These days, the first place many people go when they want to travel is the Internet. On the Web they can get information about hotels, transportation and services like tour companies. The Internet can also help travelers find special services for the disabled. For example, there are groups that help young people with disabilities travel to different countries. Susan Sygall leads an organization called Mobility International USA. She has traveled to more than twenty-five countries to talk about the rights of people with disabilities. She herself uses a wheelchair. People with disabilities are all members of a global family, she says. She says working together across borders is the most powerful way of making changes. VOICE TWO: Another American organization is called Wilderness Inquiry. This group leads camping trips to places in Kenya, Norway, Australia and the American state of Alaska. The man who started Wilderness Inquiry, Greg Lais [pronounced lays] likes people with and without disabilities to travel together. One family came on a trip with two sons. One boy was in a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. Greg Lais says the other children on the camping trip accepted the boy and included him in games. "People are accepted for who they are," he says. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another outdoor sport that may be available to people with disabilities is hunting. Several national wildlife refuges in the United States organize special hunts. One of them is a refuge in South Carolina where Bobby Harrell goes deer hunting every year with other people with disabilities. Bobby Harrell became disabled in nineteen ninety-three. He enjoys, in his words, "seeing people get back into doing things that they used to do but didn't think they could." In some places there are trails that can be used by hunters in wheelchairs. Some disabled hunters use specially designed guns that are fired by blowing air through a tube. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today there are more and more choices of entertainment for people with disabilities. Theaters may offer wireless earphones to make the sound louder for people with limited hearing. Some provide a visual interpreter to describe a performance or a play for a person who is blind or has limited sight. And some movie theaters offer a new device called MoPix, for Motion Picture Access. For a person unable to hear the movie, it shows the words the actors are saying. For a person unable to see the movie, it provides a spoken description of what is happening. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For disabled people interested in yoga, there are special stretching exercises. Matthew Sanford knows about these. He has been in a wheelchair ever since a car accident when he lost the ability to move his legs. He was thirteen years old at the time. That was almost thirty years ago. Matthew Sanford says he has had two lives: one before he was thirteen and the other after. He had to learn to live with a new reality. For many years, he was told to build up the strength in his arms and forget about his legs. But he says yoga enabled him to reconnect with the thirteen-year-old boy who loved his body. He says the exercises and special breathing of yoga let him connect his body and mind again. Now Matthew Sanford teaches yoga at his studio in the state of Minnesota. He also travels to talk to people about living with a disability. He says feeling connected to our body is a powerful part of living -- whether we have a disability or not. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The earlier reports in our series on living with a disability in America can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Our four-part series was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:??? And I'm Faith Lapidus. Be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Feeling Happy in Your Skin? Good, But Still Keep an Eye on It
* Byline: A look at some of the things that can go wrong with the largest organ of the body. Also, how doctors treat different skin disorders. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today, we will tell about some disorders of the skin, and ways to treat them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Skin. It is the largest organ of the body. Skin is the body's first barrier to infection. It keeps out many harmful bacteria and other things. It also keeps all the things we need in our bodies. The skin helps control body temperature. Glands on the skin release fluid to cool the body when it gets too hot. When a person gets too cold, blood passages in the skin become narrow. This helps to trap heat inside the body. VOICE TWO: Like other organs of the body, the skin can have problems. Almost any teenager can tell you the most common disorder: acne. Acne is connected to hormones and how they affect the oil glands of the skin. The skin gets its oil, called sebum, from the sebaceous glands. Each gland connects to a passage of extremely small hairs.The sebum travels through these passages. The oil reaches the surface of the skin through little holes, called pores. Sometimes, the sebum, hair and cells of the pores block these openings. This is how acne starts. Bacteria can grow in a blocked pore. The bacteria produce chemicals and enzymes. White blood cells -- infection fighters -- travel to the area.All this leads to a growth on the skin, a pimple. This becomes red, hot and often painful. VOICE ONE: Some people think eating chocolate or oily foods causes acne. Others blame dirty skin or nervous tension. Yet researchers tell us none of these cause acne. So what does??Doctors are not sure. But they have some ideas. For one thing, they know that hormones called androgens are involved. Androgens cause the sebaceous glands to grow and make more oil. Young people will not be happy about this next fact.Androgens increase when boys and girls enter their teenage years. VOICE TWO: There are several treatments for acne. Mild cases are generally treated with medicines for use directly on the skin. These often contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. People with more serious acne may be given antibiotic drugs to take by mouth.Or they might use a combination of other treatments. One drug used to treat the most severe forms of acne is called isotretinoin.It is sold under different names, including Accutane. Isotretinoin has been shown to cure acne in ninety percent of people who use it. The drug is normally taken for about five months. However, it can cause serious problems in some cases. If used during pregnancy, for example, isotretinoin can harm the developing fetus. That is why health experts strongly advise pregnant women and those who may become pregnant against using the drug. VOICE ONE: Skin experts say there are simple ways to help prevent acne.One is to touch your face as little as possible, so as not to add oils or put pressure on the skin. Another good idea is to avoid the urge to burst pimples. This can leave permanent marks on the skin. Doctors also say to avoid strong cleaning products, and to be gentle as you wash and dry your skin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A 13-year-old boy shows the scar from the removal of a cancerous growth on his armSome skin problems are far more serious than acne. There are several kinds of skin cancer, for example. Skin cancer is often the result of time spent in the sun. Light and heat from the sun can change chemicals in the skin.The sun produces ultraviolet radiation that causes the skin to burn and, over time, develop cancer. The most serious skin cancer is melanoma. It begins in the cells that produce skin color. Melanomas can develop anywhere. They are usually found on the back and the shoulders. Most melanomas are black or brown.They can look like other kinds of growths. But they are the deadliest form of skin cancer.So it is important to watch for signs that can help identify melanoma.Treating it early can make the difference between life and death. People should see a doctor immediately if they find a growth of a strange shape, with uneven sides or edges. A growth of different colors or one larger than six millimeters also should be examined. VOICE ONE: The usual treatment for melanoma is an operation to remove the growth. After the surgery, patients often take drugs to kill any cancer cells that remain. Doctors may also order radiation treatment. Radiation kills cancer cells and reduces the size of cancerous growths. There also are experimental treatments for melanoma. Researchers are working on ways to genetically change white blood cells. The goal is to help the body increase its own efforts to destroy the cancer. Researchers are also testing a possible melanoma vaccine. It would not prevent the disease like traditional vaccines.Instead, it would help the body fight the cancer in a way similar to the genetic treatment. However, the best thing is to reduce the chances that you might ever get melanoma. Doctors tell people to limit the amount of time they spend in sunlight. They also suggest wearing hats and other protective clothing.And, they urge people to use products that help protect the skin from the sun. VOICE TWO: Yet there are times when doctors use ultraviolet light to treat some skin problems -- like psoriasis, for example.Psoriasis creates raised areas of skin that are dry and cause an itchy feeling. They are found most often on the elbows, knees and head. But psoriasis can spread to cover larger areas. It usually begins before twenty or after fifty years of age.Recent studies have shown that the disorder causes the body’s defense system to produce too many skin cells. There is no cure, but some treatments can improve the condition. One involves the use of ultraviolet light in the doctor's office to reduce swelling and slow skin cell production.This is sometimes used in combination with a drug called psoralen. Psoriasis seems to pass down from parent to child. Researchers have identified genes linked to psoriasis. VOICE ONE: Another skin disorder is atopic dermatitis, commonly called eczema. It creates areas of skin that itch and become rough.Eczema is most common in babies. At least half of those cases clear up within a few years. But in adults this painful condition generally never goes away completely. Persons with eczema often also suffer from allergic conditions like asthma and seasonal hay fever.Like psoriasis, there is no cure for eczema.But there are treatments with steroid drugs and also some newly developed kinds without steroids. Environmental conditions can also influence development of eczema.That is why doctors often advise patients not to use cleaners that contain soap, which can make skin dry.Even water can cause dry skin, which can make eczema worse. So can temperature changes and stress. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some skin disorders do not cause any physical pain. But they can cause emotional pain by how they affect the appearance of the skin. Vitiligo for example, is the destruction of the pigment cells.This disease causes areas of the skin to lose all color.Even the hairs turn white. For some people, the white areas of vitiligo appear only in one or two places.Others find pigment loss on just one side of their bodies.Most people, however, develop many such areas all over their skin. Around the world, up to sixty-five million people have vitiligo. It affects all races and both sexes. Doctors do not know the cause. However, as with some other skin disorders, they suspect that the body’s immune system is involved. VOICE ONE: To treat vitiligo, some patients receive psoralen and ultraviolet light. A number of steroid drugs can also help, especially when started early in the disease. Doctors may also wish to operate to treat severe cases of vitiligo.However, American health experts say all operations should be considered only after the patient has received other medical treatment. One such operation involves the removal of a very small piece of healthy skin from the patient. The skin is placed in a substance that helps it grow more pigment cells.These new cells are then placed in the areas where the patient needs pigment. Vitiligo can cause extreme changes in a person’s appearance.That is why there are mental health experts and support groups to help people who have this disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And, I'm Bob Doughty.Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Much to Be Said for Mulch
* Byline: Why mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Mulch is important to farmers. Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made out of organic material, like crop waste. Farmers may keep the remains of maize or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. This is called conservation tillage. Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Mulch not only protects the soil against wind and water damage. It also helps keep the soil from getting dry, and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing. Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil. The United States Department of Agriculture says it is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut-up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds. The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. Mulched areas usually warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down slowly in autumn. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil. Mulch used to help moderate the effects of winter weather can be added late in autumn. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals will probably find another place to live. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by George Grow. Your can download transcripts and audio files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Welcome to Death Valley, a Land of Extremes That Has Earned Its Name
* Byline: It can be dangerously cold in the winter and dangerously hot in the summer. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit one of America’s great national parks. It is a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as this place is, its name provides evidence of very real danger. Come with us as we visit Death Valley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. There are mountains that reach more than three thousand meters into the sky. There is a place called Badwater that is the lowest area of land in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it would be eighty-six meters below the level of the ocean. Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley. The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty-seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy-four degrees Celsius. The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past. It will continue to kill those who do not honor this extreme climate. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful. VOICE TWO: Death Valley is a good example of the violence of nature. It contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black. Other areas of rock look as if some huge creature violently broke and twisted the Earth to create unusual, sometimes frightening shapes. In other parts of Death Valley there are lines in the rock that show clearly that this area was deep under an ocean for many thousands of years. Much of the Valley is flat and extremely dry. In fact, scientists believe it is the driest place in the United States. In some areas the ground is nothing but salt. Nothing grows in this salted ground. VOICE ONE: However, it would be wrong to think that nothing lives in Death Valley. The Valley is fully of life. Wild flowers grow very quickly after a little rain. Some desert plants can send their roots down more than eighteen meters to reach water deep in the ground. Many kinds of birds live in Death Valley. So do mammals and reptiles. You might see the small dog-like animal called the coyote or wild sheep called bighorns. Other animals include the desert jackrabbit, the desert tortoise or turtle and a large reptile called a chuckwalla. Many kinds of snakes live in the Valley, including one called the sidewinder rattlesnake. It is an extremely poisonous snake with long sharp teeth called fangs. Death Valley is a huge place. It extends more than two hundred twenty-five kilometers across the southern part of the state of California, and across the border with the state of Nevada. Death Valley is part of the Great Mojave Desert. VOICE TWO: The area was named by a woman in eighteen forty-nine. That was the year after gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people from other parts of the country traveled to the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. Many people were not careful.They made bad choices or wrong decisions.One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat. The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains to the west of the Valley. Slowly, they began to suffer from a lack of food. To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, “Good-bye, death valley.” The name has never been changed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty’s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat. The main building is very large. It was built in nineteen twenty-nine in one of the few areas of the Valley that has water. The castle is named for Walter Scott, called Scotty by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believed him. But it was not really the truth. Scotty was not a very honest man. Some years earlier, he had asked several people to invest in a gold mine he had in Death Valley. One of the men he asked to invest was a businessman from Chicago, Illinois named Albert Johnson. Mister Johnson invested in Scotty’s mine. In nineteen-oh-five, he traveled to Death Valley to see the mine. Scotty put Mister Johnson on a horse and took him far into the mountains. Many people believe that while they were on this trip, Scotty told Mister Johnson the truth: There was no mine. There was no gold. VOICE TWO: Albert Johnson suffered from extremely poor health. He had been in a severe accident a few years before. Doctors did not believe he would live much longer. However, something happened on his trip with Scotty. When Albert Johnson returned from the mountains, he felt better than he had in several years. Perhaps he felt better because of the clean mountain air. Perhaps it was the good food Scotty cooked. Or it may have been the funny stories Scotty told that improved Mister Johnson’s health. Whatever it was, Albert Johnson fell in love with Death Valley. He and Scotty became lifelong friends. Soon after, Albert Johnson began building a home on the western edge of Death Valley. He did not live there all the time. But Scotty did. And, he told everyone the huge house was his -- bought and paid for with the money from his gold mine. Scotty told everyone that Albert Johnson, his friend from Chicago, came to visit sometimes. Mister Johnson never told anyone it was just a story made up by Death Valley Scotty. VOICE ONE: Albert Johnson lived another thirty years -- many more years than the doctors thought he would. Some years before he died, in nineteen forty-eight, Albert Johnson signed documents that said Walter Scott could live in the house until he died. Scotty died in nineteen fifty-four. He is buried on a small hill near the house. In nineteen seventy, the National Park Service bought Scotty’s Castle. It has since become one of the most popular areas to visit in Death Valley National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than one million people visit Death Valley each year. Many people come for just a day. Buses bring visitors from the famous city of Las Vegas, Nevada. They ride around the park in their bus, visit several places and are back in their Las Vegas hotel by night. However, many other visitors stay in the park. The most popular area to stay in is Furnace Creek. Furnace Creek is the largest area of human activity within Death Valley National Park. There is a hotel. There are also camping areas where people put up temporary cloth homes, called tents. Visitors who arrive in huge motor homes can also find a place to park their vehicles. ?VOICE ONE: The famous Furnace Creek Inn is a beautiful hotel that was built of stone more than seventy-five years ago. The inn is built on a low hill. The main public room in the hotel has large windows that look far out over Death Valley. Hotel guests gather near these large windows in the evening to watch the sun make long shadows on the floor of the Valley and on the far mountains. This beautiful image seems to change each minute. The sun slowly turns the Valley a gold color that deepens to a soft brown, then changes to a dark red. As night comes, the mountains turn a dark purple color, then black. Usually, visitors are very quiet when this event takes place. A few try to photograph it. But the Valley is too huge to capture in a photograph. Most visitors watch this natural beauty and leave with only the memory of sunset at beautiful Death Valley National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Metastasis: How Cancers Can Spread Their Reach
* Byline: Doctors say most metastatic cancers are incurable, but treatments can extend patients' lives. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The word "metastasize" means to change form, state or position. It is not a word cancer patients want to hear. Cancer can spread in a body two ways. As a tumor grows it may invade neighboring tissue or organs. Or, cancer can metastasize. This is when cancer cells break away from a first tumor and travel through blood vessels or the lymphatic system. The cells then grow in another part of the body. Not all cancers spread to other parts of the body after they are treated. However, last month, two well-known Americans announced that their cancers had metastasized. John and Elizabeth Edwards on March 22 as they announced that her cancer had returnedElizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic Party presidential candidate, John Edwards, said her breast cancer had spread to her bones. The next week the White House announced that Press Secretary Tony Snow's colon cancer had moved to his liver. The White House noted that the cancer was not in his liver but attached to it. Missus Edwards’ breast cancer was discovered in two thousand four. She was treated for several months with chemotherapy drugs to shrink the tumor. Then doctors removed it. The lumpectomy operation was followed with radiation treatments to kill any remaining cancer cells. Doctors removed Mister Snow's cancerous colon in two thousand five. He had chemotherapy for six months. Most metastatic cancers are incurable.But most also are treatable. Chemotherapy drugs, radiation and other treatments can extend a patient’s life. Life expectancies differ depending on the kind of cancer, the affected organ and other issues. Some research shows that only about twenty-five percent of newly discovered metastatic breast cancer patients live for five years. The average life expectancy for metastatic colon cancer patients is about two years. Doctors say chances are worse for patients whose cancer is not found until after it has already metastasized. But doctors say they can only guess how long any person may live with metastatic disease. In February, American and Canadian researchers announced a finding that may help in the fight against metastasis.They said the same enzyme that controls the ability of cancer cells to metastasize also controls the process that keeps them stuck tightly together. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can read scripts and download audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Choose Your Degree at an American College or University
* Byline: International students may attend an American university to earn a degree, including a BS, BA or MBA. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today, we answer a question from Martin in Mexico City. He asks about the kinds of degrees that students can earn at an American college or university. American higher education offers degrees in many areas of study. A community college student earns an associate degree after two years of general study. The student may then continue at a college or university for another two years to earn a bachelor’s degree. An undergraduate student at a four-year school earns a bachelor's degree. Students majoring in an area of science receive the bachelor of science, also known by the letters B.S. Arts or humanities students get the bachelor of arts degree, or B.A. Students who continue in school may earn a master’s degree after two or three more years of study. Many Americans earn master’s degrees at night or on the weekends while they are working. One example of this is the M.B.A., a master's degree in business administration. Students learn to deal with all kinds of business situations. They develop skills needed by many companies. M.B.A. programs teach about economics, finance and marketing. They also teach about the structure of organizations and other subjects. Business is a popular subject for students who come to the United States. To be admitted to an M.B.A. program, a foreign student must have a bachelor’s degree and a good score on the TOEFL. Most students also take the Graduate Management Admission Test. Most of the one thousand eight hundred M.B.A. programs around the world use these test scores. The Graduate Management Admission Council says that foreign students should find out what different schools could do to help them find a job after they receive their degree. Representatives from many companies visit colleges to hire students. You should ask how many companies are willing to hire international students. The council says even the best schools may have fewer job placements for international graduates than for others. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with a report about the highest degree a student can earn at an American university -- the doctorate. Our scripts are available on the Internet -- with MP3 files and transcripts -- at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm?Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: History Series: Johnson Takes Over Presidency After Kennedy's Murder
* Byline: Lyndon Johnson had a lot of political experience.? He had been President Kennedy's vice president, and had served for many years in the Senate and House of Representatives. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Phil Murray. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we begin the story of President Lyndon Johnson. VOICE ONE: Lyndon Baines Johnson became America's thirty-sixth president very suddenly. It happened on November twenty second, nineteen sixty three. On that day, President John Kennedy was murdered. Kennedy and Johnson -- his vice president -- were visiting Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was shot to death as his open car drove through the streets of the city. Within a few hours, Johnson was sworn in as president on a plane that would take him back to Washington. The new president said, "I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help, and God's." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Before being elected vice president, Lyndon Johnson had served for many years in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. He liked making decisions. And he loved politics. He grew up in small towns in Texas. After completing high school, he traveled and worked for a while. He said he was afraid of more studying. But after a few years, he entered southwest Texas State Teachers College. There he was a student leader and political activist. VOICE ONE: Johnson went to Washington as secretary to a congressman in nineteen thirty-one. Four years later, President Franklin Roosevelt named him to a leadership position in a national social program for young people. Two years after that, he decided to campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. When World War Two began, Johnson was the first member of Congress to join the armed forces. He served in the House for twelve years. After the war, he campaigned for the Senate, where he also served for twelve years. As a senator, he became an expert in the operation of government. VOICE TWO: Lyndon Johnson would need all of this knowledge as president. On the day he was sworn in, American faced serious problems. Communist forces in Vietnam were fighting troops supported by the United States. There was a continuing possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. At home, there was racial conflict. Many Americans did not have jobs. And there was a threat of a major railroad strike. VOICE ONE: President Johnson began his White House days by working hard for legislation President Kennedy had proposed. Although he had voted against civil rights legislation when he served in the Senate, he now urged Congress to pass a civil rights bill. Congress did. The nineteen sixty-four Civil Rights Act was a law to help guarantee equal chances for jobs for all Americans. It also helped guarantee equal treatment for minorities in stores, eating places, and other businesses. VOICE TWO: When Johnson signed the bill, he said: JOHNSON: "We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings -- not because of their own failures -- but because of the color of their skin." The president said that such a situation could not continue in America. To treat people unfairly because of their race, he said, violated the Constitution, the idea of democracy, and the law he was about to sign. VOICE ONE: Lyndon Johnson succeeded in getting Congress to pass more civil rights legislation in nineteen sixty-five and nineteen sixty-eight. The nineteen sixty-five bill said states could not prevent citizens from voting just because they did not do well on reading or other tests. The purpose of the law was to make sure all black Americans could vote. The civil rights law of nineteen sixty-eight dealt with housing. For many years, black Americans could not get the home they wanted in the place they wanted. Many times, property companies forced them to pay a lot for poor housing. The purpose of the bill was to guarantee free choice and fair treatment in the housing market. VOICE TWO: Political experts said president Johnson succeeded with Congress in a way that President Kennedy could never have equaled. Because Johnson was from the South, he could talk easily with Southern members of Congress. He was able to get them to agree that African Americans were treated unfairly. In addition, his own years in Congress had taught him how to get people to do what he wanted. VOICE ONE: President Johnson gave a name to his dream of a better America. He called it the "Great Society. " He spoke about it in a speech at the University of Michigan: JOHNSON: "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The great society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. " The Great Society was both an idea and a goal. To reach that goal, Johnson created several government programs. One was the "war on poverty. " The war on poverty was a series of bills to help poor people. It was designed to create new jobs and build the economy. VOICE TWO: Congress did not approve a large amount of money for the war on poverty. But it did strongly support the president's early proposals. Support dropped, however, when Congress said the nation could not pay for both social programs at home and a war overseas. Vietnam was not the only place where Johnson used American troops to fight communism. He would send about twenty thousand soldiers to the Dominican Republic, too. He feared that a rebellion there would lead to a communist takeover of the country. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of John Kennedy's term. In nineteen sixty-four, he campaigned for election to a full term of his own. His Democratic Party gave him the strongest support possible. It accepted his choice of Hubert Humphrey to be the party's candidate for vice president. Humphrey was a liberal senator from the state of Minnesota. VOICE TWO: Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans had a difficult time choosing their candidates for the election. Delegates to the party's national convention finally chose Barry Goldwater to be their candidate for president. Goldwater was a strongly conservative senator from the state of Arizona. The delegates chose William Miller, a congressman from New York State, to be their candidate for vice president. VOICE ONE: The nation voted in November, nineteen sixty-four. Lyndon Johnson won more than sixty percent of the popular votes. Strangely, however, he was not pleased. He had wanted the largest victory in American history. He had wanted proof that Americans were voting for him, and not for the shadow of John Kennedy. VOICE TWO: In his inaugural speech, Johnson talked of changes. He said his Great Society was never finished. It was always growing and improving. To Johnson, this meant passing a health care plan for older Americans. It meant appointing blacks to important national positions. He succeeded in these goals -- and more -- during the next four years. Congress passed the Medicare bill to provide health care for older people. And Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to be the first black justice to the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: As Johnson went back to work in the White House, however, a huge problem awaited him. Americans were fighting to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. More and more were being killed. The war in Vietnam would become extremely unpopular among American citizens. It would destroy Johnson's chances of being remembered as a great president. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Richard Rael. VOICE ONE: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Small Horse and a Big Goal: Raising $1 Million for Groups That Aid Children
* Byline: Also: learn about the water sport of wakeboarding. And a listener in China asks about singer and actress Hilary Duff. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We answer a question about singer and actress Hilary Duff … Tell about a young woman who does an exciting water sport ... And report about the world's smallest living horse. Thumbelina HOST: An extremely rare animal named Thumbelina is traveling around the United States this year. The goal of the trip is to try to raise one million dollars for organizations that aid children. Last summer, Guinness World Records named Thumbelina the world's smallest living horse. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Thumbelina next to an average size horseThumbelina is forty-four and one-half centimeters tall. She weighs less than twenty-six kilograms. Because she is such an unusual creature, Thumbelina could easily be the center of attention in a circus or zoo. Instead, her owners are taking her to visit forty-eight states. She is appearing at children's hospitals, stores, schools, horse shows, camps and fairs. Thumbelina already has raised more than ten thousand dollars for children's aid groups. She is popular with both children and adults. Thumbelina is a kind of small horse called a miniature horse. But she has an abnormal gene that made about her half the size of a normal miniature horse. Thumbelina is named for a woman in a story by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. The woman was the size of a person's thumb, the short, thick finger on a person's hand. Kay and Paul Goessling own Thumbelina. They keep the little horse at their Goose Creek Farms in Saint Louis, Missouri. They raise miniature horses to sell and show at competitions. Their son, Michael Goessling, cares for Thumbelina. The little horse is five years old. At birth, she weighed less than four kilograms. The family thought she might not survive. Today, she sometimes wears leg supports to keep her legs straight. Michael Goessling says they expect Thumbelina to live about seventeen years. When Thumbelina is home, Michael Goessling says she does not spend much time with the other horses. Instead, she plays with the family's dogs. She also sleeps in a doghouse. Two times a day, Thumbelina eats a cup of grain and a handful of hay. Her owners say Thumbelina will not have any babies. They want to protect the health of their famous little horse. They say there will never be another Thumbelina. Wakeboarding HOST: Dallas Friday was only thirteen years old when her mother took her to an expert teacher to learn to ride a wakeboard. Today, seven years later, Miz Friday has won many awards for this action-filled water sport. Shirley Griffith tells us more. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Wakeboarding is similar to surfing and water skiing. Surfers stand on a board and try to ride it over the ocean waves. But wakeboarders hold onto a rope as they ride a board behind a specially equipped boat. The motion and speed of the boat create a "wake" in the water. The rider jumps, turns and twists over the wake. Dallas Friday learned those skills on land, doing gymnastics at school. So she thought she might be good at wakeboarding. But at first, the expert did not want to teach her. He thought she was just a beginner. But then he watched Dallas perform in the water. The expert told her family that she could make a million dollars. During the years since then, Dallas Friday has earned top honors in competitions. Last year, for example, she won the Wakeboard World Cup in China. She has bought several houses with her winnings. She has also paid a price in injuries. She returned to the water recently after breaking her leg in seven places. Like Dallas Friday, some young adult wakeboarders compete for money. But children also wakeboard, and so do people older than sixty. Most take part in the sport just for fun. Wakeboarding developed over a number of years, as people skilled at water sports experimented with their equipment. It took a big step forward in the nineteen eighties. At that time, two well-known sportsmen designed straps to hold a rider's feet onto the board. About fifteen years ago, a sports company in the state of Florida started launching competitions for professional wakeboarders. Television sports channels showed some of the action. Today, an estimated three million people ride wakeboards in the United States. They study which boats and boards work best. They read magazines like "Alliance Wakeboard."? But mostly, like Dallas Friday, they love to fly over the water on their wakeboards. Hilary Duff HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Guo Xiaoyi wants to know about singer and actress Hilary Duff. (MUSIC) Hilary Duff is only nineteen years old. Yet she has had her own television show, appeared in movies and recorded albums. She also designs her own clothing line and has a perfume named after her. Hilary Duff started appearing in local productions in her hometown of Houston, Texas. She moved to California with her mother and sister and appeared in several television commercials. Her first major movie part was in "Casper Meets Wendy" in nineteen ninety-eight. Then she got the lead in a television show about a teenager named Lizzie McGuire. She appeared in the show from two thousand one until two thousand four. By that time, she had already recorded two albums of music. In two thousand three, she appeared in three hit movies -- "Agent Cody Banks", "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and "Cheaper By the Dozen."? Here is a hit song from her album Metamorphosis -- “So Yesterday”. (MUSIC) Hilary Duff also works with an animal rights group and is involved with several aid organizations. She has given two hundred fifty thousand dollars to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina on the American Gulf coast. And she is still not even twenty years old! We leave you now with another hit song from Hilary Duff. This one is from her new album "Dignity" that was just released this week. It is called “With Love.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. Last week, we told you about the college men's basketball championship series called "March Madness." The final game was played Monday. The team from the University of Florida defeated the team from The Ohio State University to become the college basketball champion for the second year. Last January, the Florida football team defeated Ohio State to win the college football championship. That makes the University of Florida the first school to win championships in both football and basketball in the same school year. Our program today was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Economic Conditions: Trying to Read the Future
* Byline: The Conference Board publishes leading economic indicators for the United States and several other countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Economics and weather have a lot in common. Knowing what conditions will be like weeks or months in the future is not easy. One thing that helps economists predict the future is the index of leading economic indicators. An index is a way to measure changes in a group of numbers over time. In financial markets, for example, an index of stocks will rise or fall with changes in the wider market. The changes measured by an index can be represented with a single percentage. The index may start at a base period of time with a value of one hundred. Now say that a month later the value is recorded as one hundred one. That means it gained one percent. If the index lost one percent, however, the value would be ninety-nine. The leading economic indicators are really ten indexes. Four deal with manufacturing activity. One deals with unemployment claims. Another measures people’s expectations of the economy. Still others involve financial information like the money supply and interest rates. The index of leading indicators is just one of the tools used to measure the business cycle. Business cycles are the normal changes that happen in economic growth over time. A measure called the coincident index provides information about current conditions. Employment rates are an important part of it. There is also a lagging index. It helps confirm economic changes that currently appear to be taking place. Interest rates are an important lagging indicator. The Conference Board publishes economic indicators for the United States. The Conference Board is a non-profit organization based in New York. It brings together business leaders to learn new ideas from one another. It has member companies around the world. The Conference Board also does economic research. Its work helps show business and government leaders what conditions might be ahead. But this group did not always produce the index of leading economic indicators. It took over the job in nineteen ninety-five from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the Commerce Department. The Conference Board also publishes economic indicators for Australia, France, Germany and Japan. Others are Britain, Mexico, South Korea and Spain. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Presidential Candidates Raise Record Amounts of Money for Campaigns
* Byline: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lead all candidates in fund-raising. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The next presidential election in the United States is in November, two thousand eight. Yet several presidential candidates have raised large amounts of money already. Experts say the competition among the candidates to raise money has become the first important test of the campaign. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced this week that his campaign has raised twenty-five million dollars over the past three months. More than one hundred thousand people have given money to the senator from Illinois for his campaign. Thousands of people made donations of twenty-five or fifty dollars. Almost seven million dollars was raised on the Internet. Senator Obama has raised only slightly less money than Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. She has received twenty-six million dollars in campaign donations. The former first lady's donations came from fifty thousand people.Senator Clinton has so far raised more money than any other presidential candidate. Public opinion studies show Senator Clinton has more support than the other Democratic candidates. However, experts say the amount of money Senator Obama has raised shows that he is a major candidate. Mister Obama is second among the Democratic candidates in public opinion studies. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards is in third place. Mister Edwards' campaign reported raising fourteen million dollars so far. This is the second time Mister Edwards has run for the Democratic nomination for president. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have been the subjects of many news reports recently.This is because they announced that that they will continue campaigning even though Elizabeth Edwards' cancer has returned. Among Republican Party candidates, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has raised twenty-three million dollars. Thirty-three thousand people have donated to Mister Romney's campaign. This is more money than any other Republican candidate. ? This was a surprise to many people because Mister Romney is in third place among Republican candidates in most public opinion studies. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain are in first and second place. Mister Giuliani has raised fifteen million dollars so far this year. Mister McCain has raised twelve and one-half million dollars. Never in American history has so much money been raised this early in a presidential election. Many states are holding their nominating party meetings and primary elections earlier in two thousand eight.This will force candidates to spend more money earlier on advertising and campaign workers. Experts also note that the Democratic presidential candidates have raised much more money than the Republicans.Historically, the Republican candidates have raised the most money. And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: John Kenneth Galbraith, 1908-2006: He Strongly Influenced Economic Thought in the US
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Economics is a field based on mathematics. Yet it cannot provide answers to every problem. Some people question whether economics is a science at all. For many years, possibly the loudest critic was himself an economist, John Kenneth Galbraith. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist, liberal thinker, author, professor, presidential advisor and ambassador. He. stood over two meters tall. He was excellent at arguing positions and making complex ideas understandable. These two qualities made Mister Galbraith a powerful personality able to influence people at the highest levels of government. He was also a productive writer and an effective critic of many popular ideas of his time. For some, he was an easy person to dislike. He was very sure of himself and his arguments. Yet, he clearly influenced the economic ideas of many people, including politicians and presidents. VOICE TWO: John Kenneth Galbraith was born on a farm near Iona Station, Canada in nineteen-oh-eight. It was a long way from the East Coast of the United States and the political power centers he would come to influence. He learned about politics from his father, William Archibald Galbraith, who was a farmer. He also served in many local government positions and was a community leader. John once said that his mother, Sarah Catherine Kendall Galbraith, wanted him to be a farmer also. But she died when he was fourteen. VOICE ONE: Young John first studied agriculture at Ontario Agricultural College. But he soon found economics more interesting. His studies led him to the University of California at Berkeley. He got a doctorate degree in agricultural economics in nineteen thirty-four. In his early years, Mister Galbraith was greatly influenced by the economist Thorstein Veblen and his book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class." Mister Veblen argued that people gathered wealth for the purpose of "conspicuous consumption."? He meant that people earned money to spend on valuable things to gain respect in society. Mister Galbraith said he was also deeply affected by the economic disaster that was expanding around him and across the country: The Great Depression. (MUSIC: Woody Guthrie) The Great Depression severely affected the American economy and society. At the height of the Depression, at least one in five Americans did not have a job. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mister Galbraith became an instructor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In nineteen thirty-seven, he became an American citizen. He married Catherine Atwater, the daughter of a New York lawyer. They later had four sons. That year, Mister Galbraith also went to England to study under the most influential economist of the twentieth century. John Maynard Keynes was teaching at Cambridge University at the time. He had published the "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" the year before. Mister Keynes argued that deep economic crises required strong measures by the government. He said large public works projects and government price controls were needed to increase employment during economic downturns. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-nine, John Kenneth Galbraith began working for the government. He joined the National Defense Advisory Committee in Washington. He later was in charge of controlling prices for the Office of Price Administration. Mister Galbraith held the powerful position of top price controller in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In nineteen forty-three, however, he was forced to resign from the job. Later, he would say that he had been ousted by the politics of price control. The same year, Mister Galbraith started writing for Fortune magazine, which was owned by noted conservative Henry Luce. Mister Galbraith developed into a highly skilled writer. Even his strongest critic praised his writing ability, even if they did not agree with what he wrote. VOICE TWO: Near the end of World War Two, Mister Galbraith took part in the Strategic Bombing survey. The study was meant to measure the effectiveness of the American bombing campaign against Germany. He angered many people by saying that the bombing had done little to halt the German war effort. He found the Germans had simply moved industrial operations to new places after the bombing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE : In nineteen fifty-eight, Mister Galbraith published his most famous book,"The Affluent Society."? He argued that while private individuals in America were becoming wealthier, public institutions were growing poor. He criticized the American culture that he said was rich in goods but poor in social services. Mister Galbraith also used the term "conventional wisdom" in the book. This term describes an idea that everyone accepts as true, but is not closely considered or examined. "The Affluent Society" created a lot of discussion at the time. Critics said the book forced the nation to reexamine its values. It is still considered an excellent example of reasoning and writing. VOICE TWO: Mister Galbraith was also involved in politics, which was unusual for an economist. He wrote speeches for Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson during two campaigns in the nineteen fifties. Mister Galbraith later became a trusted adviser to President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy appointed him ambassador to India in nineteen sixty-one. Thirty years later, Mister Galbraith received India's second-highest civilian honor for his work to strengthen ties between India and the United States. VOICE ONE The years working for the Kennedy Administration were happy times. But on November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon Johnson took office after the tragedy. Mister Galbraith had good relations with the new president and became an adviser. But that lasted only until the war in Vietnam became the biggest issue in the United States. Mister Galbraith opposed the involvement of the United States in the war. He spoke about that time. SOUND: "I liked Lyndon Johnson very much. And I respected him as a man who combined intelligence with a will to action--a wonderful combination. And so breaking with him in the mid to late sixties on the issue of Vietnam was something I regretted very much." Public opposition to the war in Vietnam caused President Johnson not to seek another term in office. The issue of the war caused Mister Galbraith to become active in politics again. He supported the anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy. He even nominated Mister McCarthy at the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen sixty-eight. Mister Galbraith would later say: "I was more strongly moved by the need for opposition to Vietnam than any other major issue of my lifetime." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the years after the Vietnam War, Ken Galbraith put his energy into writing. He debated conservative thinkers such as his friend William F. Buckley, Junior. And he continued to advise Democratic Presidents. In nineteen ninety-six, his book "The Good Society" was published. It was an update of his book "The Affluent Society."? He wrote that his earlier concerns had worsened. The United States had become even more a place for the wealthy, or a "democracy of the fortunate."? In all, he wrote more than thirty books during his career. In two thousand, President Bill Clinton recognized Mister Galbraith's service by awarding him the Medal of Freedom. VOICE ONE: John Kenneth Galbraith died in two thousand six at the age of ninety-seven. William F. Buckley said his friend was more interested in the social and ethical questions related to economics. Mister Galbraith's books lack the mathematical and statistical research found in most works on economics. Yet they remain excellent examples of thinking about social responsibility and ethics. One of his most famous criticisms of his profession was this: "Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. You can download this program and others from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Judging African Leaders by Good Governance
* Byline: The first winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership will be announced in October. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim believes there is nothing more important for Africa than good leadership. Mister Ibrahim has created the world’s richest prize, worth five million dollars over ten years.The winner also will receive two hundred thousand dollars every year for life. An additional two hundred thousand dollars a year will be made available for good causes supported by the winner. The Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership will be awarded for the first time in October. Former heads of state and government from African countries south of the Sahara desert will be considered.Candidates must have left office in the past three years and have shown good political leadership. Mo Ibrahim, left, and Kofi AnnanFormer United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan will lead the committee that will choose the winner.The committee will examine research from a special rating system. The Ibrahim Index for African Governance will measure national progress in several areas. They include economic and social development, peace and security, human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The index was developed at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Kofi Annan says good governance is the single most important way to end poverty and support development. He says the idea behind the Mo Ibrahim prize is to produce better leadership and governance in Africa. In a similar way, the Nobel Prize has supported scientists to excel in medicine, physics, chemistry and other areas. Mister Ibrahim says the prize is not meant to reform dishonest leaders, nor will it end corruption in Africa.And, he says the prize may not be given every year. If no excellent candidate is identified, Mister Ibrahim says the money will be used for other important causes.These include leadership programs or financial assistance for African students. Mo Ibrahim says he can think of no better way to spend his money than to invest in Africa's future. The Sudanese billionaire started a mobile phone business, Celtel International, nine years ago. It is now one of Africa’s most successful companies. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read scripts and download audio of Special English programs at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: From Bob Marley to Franklin Roosevelt, History in Sound
* Byline: Some of the 25 newly added recordings to be preserved as part of the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week -- some recorded sounds for all time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., recently added twenty-five sound recordings to its National Recording Registry. Congress established this registry list under a law called the National Recording Preservation Act of Two Thousand. Recordings are added yearly. They have to be at least ten years old. And they have to be culturally, historically or artistically important. Members of the public make suggestions online. The library also gathers nominations from experts in music, recorded sound and historic preservation. VOICE TWO: The twenty-five new additions chosen by the Librarian of Congress, James Billington, were made between nineteen-oh-four and nineteen eighty-eight. Some are in the library itself. Others are in collections throughout the country. The library is identifying the best existing versions of the recordings. These will be expertly restored, if needed, to protect them for the future. VOICE ONE: Many of the latest additions to the registry come from popular music. One of them is "Blue Suede Shoes," recorded by Carl Perkins in nineteen fifty-five, a year before the version by Elvis Presley. Another addition is the nineteen sixty-five hit "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. Also, Paul Simon's nineteen eighty-six album "Graceland," recorded with the South African singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. (MUSIC)?But the list also includes classical pieces like "Il mio tesoro," from "Don Giovanni," sung by tenor John McCormack in nineteen sixteen. And there are spoken word recordings, like one from nineteen sixty by comedian Bob Newhart. Social protest is also represented. For example, the album "The Wailers Burnin'" with the reggae singer Bob Marley is from nineteen seventy-three. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: That was "Get Up, Stand Up," from the last album that Bob Marley released under the name "The Wailers." But let us begin our musical trip back in the nineteen twenties -- the Jazz Age. Jelly Roll Morton was one of the pioneers of jazz. He helped spread its popularity in New Orleans, Chicago and throughout the country. In this nineteen twenty-six recording, Jelly Roll Morton leads his Red Hot Peppers in "Black Bottom Stomp." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Recording Registry honors memorable words as well as music. The latest additions to the list include "The Osage Bank Robbery" from the radio program "The Lone Ranger." The show was heard December seventeenth, nineteen thirty-seven, making it the earliest known recording from that popular series. VOICE TWO: Two brothers rob a bank. The criminals try to hide in an old mine. But they should have know that the Lone Ranger would catch them. Listen now as the hero rides off on Silver, his trusty horse. (SOUND) ?"'High-ho Silver! Away!' A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'High-ho Silver!' The Lone Ranger!" VOICE ONE:?????? Another new addition to the registry is a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt to Congress. Roosevelt was asking Congress for permission to declare war. He made the speech the day after the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (SOUND) FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "Yesterday, December seventh, nineteen forty-one, a date which will live in infamy, the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the empire of Japan." VOICE TWO: World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. The years after the war became a time of economic growth in the United States. Many people moved out of big cities and into newly developed suburban communities. Birth rates increased. It became known as the Baby Boom. The nineteen fifties are remembered as a time when lots of Americans were happy with their lives. But not everyone was. Allen Ginsberg was a poet but also a social activist. Problems like poverty and inequality angered him. In a nineteen fifty-nine recording, he reads from the opening lines of his most famous poem, "Howl." ALLEN GINSBERG: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked " (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Social activism is also the message of several songs among the newest additions to the National Recording Registry. Fighting racial injustice is the theme of "We Shall Overcome." Yet Pete Seeger wrote the song as a labor protest. In the first version, he used the line "I shall overcome." But later he changed the word "I" to "we." The song became a theme for the civil rights movement. Here is Pete Seeger performing "We Shall Overcome" during his concert at Carnegie Hall in New York in June of nineteen sixty-three. People in the audience are singing along. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some people think the greatest singer of the twentieth century was Sarah Vaughan. Her nineteen seventy-three album "Live in Japan" is now added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. We leave you with Sarah Vaughan singing "Over the Rainbow." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Library of Congress now has two hundred twenty-five recordings listed in its National Recording Registry. And the library is currently accepting nominations for the two thousand seven registry. The library says it must receive suggestions by July first to be considered for the list. For a link to the Library of Congress Web site, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. VOICE TWO: Our show was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith with Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: On a Short Leash: He Had Firm Control Over His Workers
* Byline: A term for the closely supervised. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm?Susan Clark?with the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Susan Cleveland is the young president of a candy company in the city of Chicago. Her father began the company in the nineteen sixties. He died three years ago. Now, the company belongs to Susan. Many of her father's employees were concerned when Susan took control. Susan's father had worked many years for other candy companies before starting this one. He had known a great deal about business. Susan, however, did not have any jobs before becoming head of the company. She just finished college. The employees became even more concerned during Susan's first months on the job. Mr. Cleveland had been a strong leader. But Susan permitted many employees to make their own decisions. One employee said: "Old Mister Cleveland always told us what to do. He kept people on a short leash. But the company did well." What does a short leash mean? A leash is a kind of rope. We use a leash to walk our pet dogs. The leash keeps the dog from running away or getting into trouble. Keeping a person on a short leash means keeping him or her under close control. The person cannot make many decisions for himself or herself. Word expert James Rogers found a similiar saying used more than four hundred years ago. In fifteen sixty, writer Thomas Becon said in a religious book: "For God hath them in leash. Yea, they are his slaves." Miz Cleveland does not keep her workers on a short leash. Instead, she urges them to create better ways to do business. For example, her secretary proposed an idea. She said the company should give a prize to the best student in the high school near its factory. The winner could use the prize money to study at a university. Miz Cleveland approved of the idea. After the prize was announced, people who lived in the area of the factory began to buy more of the company's candy. Local newspapers wrote about the competition. Business improved. Miz Cleveland made her secretary the company's first director of public relations. The former secretary was very pleased. She said: "My old job had become Mickey Mouse. Now I have a much more creative one." Mickey Mouse, of course, is Walt Disney's famous animal drawn for movies, television and comic picture books. But what does a mouse have to do with a job? In modern speech, anything that is Mickey Mouse is unimportant. Many word experts say the new meaning came from the United States Navy. The Navy had a special school for new sailors who did not co-operate. It was called M-I-C, short for Military Indoctrination Center. Sailors began to say that rules which did not seem important were MIC. Over time, MIC became Mickey Mouse -- something that lacks meaning. (MUSIC) This WORDS AND THEIR STORIES was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. --- Editor's Note: The story of Susan Cleveland and her company is fictional. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-09-voa5.cfm
* Headline: On Its Way to Pluto, Spacecraft Gets a Close Look at Jupiter
* Byline: Researchers question the usefulness of CT scans in preventing lung cancer deaths. And differences in life expectancy between black and white Americans narrow. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we will tell about new suggestions for treating heart attack victims. We also tell about a test for lung cancer. But first, we report on new pictures from a far-away planet. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jupiter's Little Red Spot, seen from 3.5 million kilometersThe New Horizons spacecraft has made some of the most detailed pictures ever taken of the planet Jupiter. Yet the American spacecraft is only passing by the planet. New Horizons is attempting to become the first space vehicle to visit Pluto. New Horizon's pictures of Jupiter and three of its moons are filled with surprises. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. The planet has a deep, thick atmosphere of clouds made of hydrogen, helium, methane and ammonia. New Horizons used its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager camera to take pictures of a storm called the Little Red Spot. The pictures will help scientists learn how the storm developed. VOICE TWO: New Horizons also made pictures of Jupiter's moon Io. The pictures were taken just as the volcano Tvashtar sent a cloud of dust two hundred ninety kilometers above its surface. At the time, the spacecraft was only two million five hundred thousand kilometers away from the moon. Scientists say the pictures look like a similar volcanic eruption on Io in nineteen seventy-nine. At that time, the Voyager Two spacecraft captured a picture of the volcano Pele erupting. But New Horizon's pictures of Tvashtar are more detailed. Another target for the camera was the largest of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede. Pictures show an icy world with ancient dark areas and bright newer areas where space objects struck the surface. New Horizons also took pictures of Europa, another moon of Jupiter. Europa is believed to have an ocean one hundred kilometers below its frozen surface. VOICE ONE: The American space agency launched New Horizons in January of last year. Although smaller than a car, it is the fastest spacecraft ever launched. It has traveled at speeds of over fifty-seven thousand kilometers an hour. New Horizons is expected to reach Pluto in two thousand fifteen. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lung cancer kills more Americans than any other kind of cancer. Smoking is a leading cause of the disease. Signs of lung cancer include chest pain, breathing problems and the sudden expulsion of air from the lungs. The signs may not appear until the disease is fully developed. Doctors have different ways to find lung cancer. One test is an x-ray imaging process called computed tomography, or CT. A CT test, or scan, can be helpful in finding very small growths on the lung. Last year, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report about CT scans and lung cancer. The report said early discovery of lung cancer with the test followed by an operation could save lives. It estimated that patients whose cancers were found early and then removed had a ten-year survival rate of ninety-two percent. VOICE ONE: Now, another report is disputing the findings. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the report. Peter Bach is a lung specialist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He says early CT testing is not only unproven, but can cause great harm to patients. He says some patients died from unnecessary operations. Others suffered heart attacks, infections and even a collapsed lung. Doctor Bach says CT scans are successful at finding small growths in the lungs. But he says such growths do not always spread quickly or cause serious harm. For that reason, he says, it only seemed in the earlier study that lung cancer deaths were prevented. VOICE TWO: Doctor Bach and his team examined information about more than three thousand two hundred people. All of the patients either smoked or were former smokers. They were tested for lung cancer. Doctor Bach says CT scans missed the fast-growing, deadly cancers. He says the tests showed only very small, slow-growing cancers. The CT scans led to a rise in the number of lung cancer operations. Thirty-eight of the patients died of lung cancer over a five-year period. Doctor Bach says that same number of patients would have died without early CT scans. Medical experts say the debate on preventing lung cancer deaths through such tests will continue until a larger study is completed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can save the life of someone whose heart has stopped. The condition is called cardiac arrest. The heart stops pumping blood. The person stops breathing. Without lifesaving measures, the brain starts to die within four to six minutes. CPR combines breathing into the victim's mouth and repeated presses on the chest. CPR keeps blood and oxygen flowing to the heart and brain. However, a Japanese study questions the usefulness of mouth-to-mouth breathing. The study was published in the British medical magazine, The Lancet. Doctors in Tokyo examined more than four thousand people who had suffered cardiac arrest. In all the cases, witnesses saw the event happen. VOICE TWO: More than one thousand of the victims received some kind of medical assistance from witnesses. Seven hundred and twelve received CPR. Four hundred and thirty-nine received chest presses only. No mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths were given to them. The researchers say any kind of CPR improved chances of the patient's survival. But, they said those persons treated with only chest presses suffered less brain damage. Twenty-two percent survived with good brain ability. Only ten percent of the victims treated with traditional CPR survived with good brain ability. VOICE ONE: The American Heart Association changed its guidance for CPR chest presses in two thousand five. The group said people should increase the number of chest presses from fifteen to thirty for every two breaths given. Gordon Ewy is a heart doctor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. He wrote a report that was published with the study. Doctor Ewy thinks the CPR guidelines should be changed again. He said the Heart Association should remove rescue breaths from the guidelines. He argues that more witnesses to cardiac arrests would provide treatment if rescue breaths are not a part of CPR. He says this would save lives. Studies show that many people do not want to perform mouth-to-mouth breathing on a stranger for fear of getting a disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Life expectancy is the average number of years people are expected to live. In the United States, that average has been increasing since the late eighteen hundreds. But, life expectancy for black Americans has always been lower than that for white Americans. In the nineteen-eighties, the difference in life expectancy rates for blacks and whites increased and later decreased. Until now, these changes had not been explained. Sam Harper of Canada's McGill University and other researchers decided to investigate. They examined deaths among blacks and whites in the United States between nineteen eighty-three and two thousand three. This meant investigating forty-six million deaths. The results were published in the Journal of American Medicine. VOICE ONE: Professor Harper says the study shows that American blacks are living longer. He says their life expectancy is nearly that of whites. In nineteen ninety-three, for example, white men lived an average of eight and one-half years longer than black men. In two thousand three, the difference had narrowed to six and one-half years. The researchers say the biggest improvement in life expectancy was noted among black males between fifteen and forty nine years of age. VOICE TWO: Professor Harper says the changes appear linked to successes in reducing violence linked to the drug crack cocaine. He says increases in the sizes of police forces and economic improvements all appear to have helped young black males live longer. But, the researcher says additional improvements are needed. He says the disease AIDS and heart disease in African-Americans are also keeping their life expectancy rates less than whites. He says there is also a need to reduce the higher death rates among newborn African-Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Lawan Davis, Mario Ritter and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-09-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Disappearance of Honey Bees a Mystery
* Byline: Congress hears experts on crisis that could affect billions of dollars in agricultural products and raise food prices. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. What has happened to America's honeybees? Last fall, beekeepers from states with warm climates began to report a sudden loss of honey bees. Losses were reported in twenty-four states and into Canada. Today, some beekeepers say thirty percent to ninety percent of their honey bees are gone. Food prices could go up as a result. And some beekeeping businesses have failed. Many kinds of plants, trees and grasses need bees to pollinate them. Bees gather nectar from flowers during this process. The liquid gives them food and material to make honey. As the bees land on flowers, their bodies pick up and drop off fine particles of pollen. Most flowering plants need pollination to reproduce. Honey bees can die during the winter. But few dead bees have been found. Instead, the bees seem to have disappeared. Experts call the condition "colony collapse disorder." Agriculture Department official Caird Rexroad said the collapse threatens about fifteen billion dollars worth of the country's farm economy. Mister Rexroad commented at a hearing of a House of Representatives agriculture subcommittee. Mister Rexroad said the cause of the sudden loss of bees is not clear. The number of honey bees already had fallen before the colony collapse disorder began. Experts say the varroa mite is at least partly responsible for the earlier decrease in honeybees. The mite is a tiny creature that feeds on honeybees. It may play a part in colony collapse disorder by carrying bee viruses. Or the problem may be caused by other diseases and weather conditions. A group of scientists is examining bees from more than one hundred colonies across the country. The researchers also are studying the pollen, honey, and wax that the bees produce. They are working with the Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service. Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University is part of the scientific group. Miz Cox-Foster says the nation needs honeybees that can defend themselves better against disease and insects. The recent mapping of most of the honeybee's genes offers hope of a stronger honeybee some day. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Exploring the Richly Detailed History and Art of Woodworking
* Byline: Learn about the different methods of working with wood. And meet Phil Brown, a wood turner in Bethesda, Maryland. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At a store called Sansar Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland, you might see work by the wood turner Phil Brown. His many wooden bowls and containers have a smooth and modern look. One tall bowl with a wide opening is made from black cherry wood. It is so perfectly formed it is hard to believe it is handmade. How did Phil Brown make this bowl? We will answer this question as we explore the many artistic traditions of wood. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People from almost all cultures throughout history have been making objects from wood. Some of the first wooden objects included weapons and tools. Early cultures also learned to make boats, buildings and furniture for the home from this material. However, it is not always easy to say which wooden objects existed during a historical period because they often did not last as long as objects made from clay or metal. VOICE TWO: Experts say most current woodworking tools were developed by the beginning of the Bronze Age, about five thousand years ago. These? tools include the saw, ax, chisel and drill which are used to cut and shape wood in different ways. The lathe may have been developed as early as two thousand seven hundred years ago. This tool holds and rotates the wood. As the wood turns, the wood worker uses a sharp tool to slowly and evenly cut pieces from the wood. VOICE ONE: There are many methods of woodworking and each culture has its own traditions. Artistic wood creations include architectural decoration on buildings, furniture for the home or even carved animals. For example, in Thailand, richly detailed carvings from teak and other hard woods are an important part of ancient palaces and religious buildings. Woodcarvers were a very important group of artists. A person needed many years of training with experts to be a wood carver. Wood carvings often include plant forms such as the lotus flower as well as figures taken from Hindu and Buddhist religious stories. VOICE TWO: The carvings are very detailed and must be carefully planned. Usually, a carver draws out the patterns and forms on paper. Then the artist cuts holes along the outlines of the design. This paper is placed on the piece of wood then covered with chalk dust. The white chalk dust goes through the holes in the paper and marks the wood so the carver has a visual guide to begin cutting. Finished woodcarvings are often painted, sometimes with gold to reflect the surrounding light. These expertly made golden carvings give an airy lightness to Thai buildings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some wood working traditions developed more recently. For example, wood artists in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico have been carving mask face coverings and toys for hundreds of years. But Manuel Jimenez became one of the most famous carvers in Oaxaca by creating a newer tradition. In the nineteen fifties, he saw a growing demand for traditional Mexican art that visitors wanted to buy. He decided to experiment with new kinds of wood and forms. He started carving expressive animals such as frogs, coyotes and rabbits out of copal wood. Soon, his whole family started helping produce these lively, wooden creatures. The Jimenez men carved the creations while the women painted them with bright colors and patterns. Other wood carvers in the area also started making their own kinds of animals. Now, Oaxaca is famous for this special kind of wood art. VOICE TWO: Colorful paints are not the only way to finish a wood object. In countries like Japan and China there is a rich tradition of painting wooden bowls, boxes and other objects with lacquer. The first kinds of lacquer were made from resin material taken from special trees. Lacquer paint creates a very hard and smooth surface over the wood and protects it from water. Japanese and Chinese lacquer work is often red or black. Sometimes it can be decorated with pieces of silver or gold metal to create an image. VOICE ONE: And, sometimes wood can even decorate wood. Inlay is a way of decorating wood with a pattern or image made out of small pieces of wood. The many small pieces of wood can have different colors or patterns. Some inlay experts in seventeenth century France and Spain added valuable materials like shiny mother-of-pearl or tortoise shell to the detailed wood inlay. VOICE TWO: In the United States, the Shaker tradition of furniture making is known for its simplicity of form. The Shakers were a religious community that came to the United States in the eighteenth century from England. They practiced an intense form of spiritual observance and believed strongly in the value of hard work and keeping busy. The Shakers developed their own style of furniture. They designed it very carefully with the idea that making something well was an act of prayer. They made furniture that was as simple and useful as possible because they believed extra details and designs were unnecessary and wrong. But their furniture in its total simplicity became famous for its beauty. Chairs to sit on are probably the most well known Shaker furniture. The very fine and thin wood pieces give these chairs a clean and graceful look. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Phil Brown is an American artist who creates art with wood in a different way. He lives on a quiet street in Bethesda, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. In his workshop, he turns large pieces of wood into fine containers. Let us meet this expert wood turner whose bowls we talked about earlier and learn how he started his career. PHIL BROWN: "I'm Phil Brown. I'm a wood turner. I make bowls out of solid wood. The wood comes from our local trees and I have a shop at my home where I do the work. I've been a wood worker ever since I was a kid. And in the early seventies I wanted to get back to doing some wood work and we saw lots of interesting work in Maine on some trips there and I had a chance to get some apple wood from a friend …what are you going to do with apple wood but maybe turn a bowl out of it. So I bought a used lathe and a book about turning and gradually taught myself to turn a bowl." VOICE TWO: In the living room of his home Phil Brown has a special area where he shows his finished art. There are bowls of all shapes and sizes. Some are deep and large with reddish brown colored wood. Others are small with yellowish wood that has dark lines and shapes. Mister Brown can explain exactly where and when he found each tree that he used to make a bowl. And he can show you what all the lines and rings in the wood represent. They are like maps of the tree's life. Some lines are caused by fungus organisms while others show the area where a branch of the tree trunk used to be. But to really understand Mister Brown's wood turning art, you have to visit his workshop downstairs. VOICE ONE: The workshop is filled with many tools and machine parts. On one wall there are shelves filled with roughly cut wooden bowls that are drying out. Allowing the wood to dry helps guarantee that it will not change shape later on. Before "turning the bowl thin" Mister Brown puts a layer of epoxy paint material over the roughly cut bowl. This hardens areas of the wood that might be softer or contain fungus. Then, Mister Brown places the bowl on his lathe. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: The lathe turns the wood quickly. Using a long metal tool called a gouge, Mister Brown slowly cuts away at the wooden form. With great skill he slowly keeps cutting away until the bowl has the right thinness and form. Then, Mister Brown uses rough sandpaper to smooth the gouge marks in the wood. As the wood becomes smoother, he uses finer and finer kinds of sandpaper. He sometimes fills any holes or cracks with a mixture of epoxy glue, sanding dust, and brown paint. Finished bowls are so smooth and perfect they do not even feel like wood. VOICE ONE: Phil Brown shows his beautiful bowls at several fine craft stores and in art shows. He even has a bowl at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Sometimes he sells works directly from his workshop. His turned wood bowls cost hundreds of dollars. Many people have collections of his bowls in their homes. Mister Brown says he is influenced by the work of sculptors like Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi. He says he likes to make bowls that have smooth surfaces and that bring out the natural color of wood. His finely made art is a celebration of the life of a tree and the endless possibilities of wood. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I’m ?????Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Looking for Weight-Loss Answers
* Byline: Many people struggle with losing weight, and keeping it off. But experts say the most successful plans include a well-balanced diet and exercise. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A listener has written from China for advice about how to lose weight. Michael in Shanghai says he is twenty-six years old and has battled obesity for most of his life. Doctors say obesity, also known as severe overweight, is a complex condition. A doctor may advise medical interventions in addition to changes in behavior. But experts say the most successful weight-loss plans include a well-balanced diet and exercise. People who want to avoid weight gain have to balance the number of calories they eat with the number of calories they use. To lose weight, you can reduce the number of calories you take in, or increase the number you use, or both. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say to lose weight, a person should do an hour of moderate to intensive physical activity most days of the week. This could include fast walking, sports or strength training. You should also follow a nutritious eating plan and take in fewer calories than your body uses each day. A recent study looked at four of the most popular dieting plans in the United States. Researchers at Stanford University in California studied more than three hundred overweight women, mostly in their thirties and forties. Each woman went on one of the four plans: Atkins, The Zone, Ornish or LEARN. The women attended diet classes and received written information about the food plans. At the end of a year, the women on the Atkins diet had lost the most, more than four and one-half kilograms on average. They also did better on tests including cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Christopher Gardner led the study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. He says the Atkins diet may be more successful because of its simple message to lower intake of sugars. Also, he says the advice to increase protein in the diet leads to more satisfying meals. He says there was not enough money to also study men, but that men would probably have similar results. But last week, another report suggested that only a small minority of people have long-term success with dieting. The report in the journal American Psychologist was based on thirty-one studies. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, medical school found that most dieters regained their lost weight within five years. And often they gained back even more. But those who kept the weight off generally were the ones who exercised. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Katherine Cole. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: When Conflicts Follow Young Immigrants to School in a New Land
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: politics in the classroom. What an English teacher in the American South has learned from her international students. RS: Yvette Drew was born in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has taught English as a second language in the metropolitan Atlanta area for about fifteen years. Teaching young newcomers from around the world has taught her some things about the similarities and differences in human behavior. AA: But something else Yvette Drew has learned from her high school students is to pay more attention to politics. YVETTE DREW: "Prior to working with them, I was sort of apolitical. But then, as I worked with them, I noticed that they paid close attention to politics in their country and in the United States. And I came to understand that they were really responsive to political things, particularly to the leaders in countries, because they believed their situation came about because of some poor decision -- they believe -- on a leader's part. So they have very strong opinions about politics. They pay attention to history. They believe their success or their failures will depend on the leaders in the place where they're at." RS: Yet even a new country and a new school may offer no escape from failures they had hoped to leave behind. Yvette Drew describes two examples at her school -- with two different outcomes. YVETTE DREW: "When Yugoslavia was breaking up, we had students that were Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and we were having a great deal of difficulty getting the students to get along in this new place. It became so difficult to control the fights among Serbs and Bosnians that we actually had to send one group to the neighboring high school. "In contrast to that, during the time when Ethiopia and Eritrea were having their fight, we had Ethiopians and Eritrean students that were fighting at first. And then, at some point, they decided that [they] could not mirror what is going on. So they approached certain teachers to facilitate mediation among them. They all raised money to send to help people that were hurt or displaced. It was very memorable to us as the teachers that were facilitating this group." AA: Another story that Yvette Drew likes to tell goes back to the early nineteen nineties, when she received some Kurdish students from northern Iraq. YVETTE DREW: "And one of the girls actually was very ill. We later found out she had neurological problems, and later found out about the gas that was sprayed on certain segments of the population. But at that time I never did understand why one of my little boys said to me: 'Teacher, if America would take care of my family, I'd go back and kill Saddam.' "Well, fast forward about three years ago, I was in a store in one of the very ethnic[ally diverse] communities in metro Atlanta and a young man walked in, dressed in a military uniform, looking very handsome. And I'm buying something. He came over to me and I stood looking at him, and he gave me a hug and started talking. And it turned out he was that kid from ten years before. "He was now in the military, he was a translator, he had been on several tours in Iraq. And I thought, 'Oh my gosh.' Originally he was this kid with a lot of angst and really anxious, and now ten, twelve years later, he's a grown man, trained, educated and is now an officer in the military." RS: Yvette Drew says she and her fellow teachers try to encourage students to keep as much of their culture as they can. YVETTE DREW: "Every Friday in my classroom, part of our classroom routine is to get online and go to your country's Web site and read the news for the week and then share it with the class. Also we have international clubs that give students opportunities to share their culture with the larger student body and the faculty. We celebrate with them, and we remind them constantly that part of being a responsible American citizen is that you be yourself, but you also respect others." AA: Yvette Drew teaches in the DeKalb County School System in Decatur, Georgia. She spoke with us at the recent Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention in Seattle. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can hear from other English teachers at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Doctoral Degrees: Aiming for the Top
* Byline: Many doctorates in US go to international students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we continue our discussion of the academic degrees offered by American colleges and universities. Last week, we talked about the associate, bachelor's and master's degrees. The highest degree that a student can earn is a doctorate. Some doctorates are professional degrees, as opposed to a degree based on research. Medical students, for example, receive an M.D., from the Latin "medicinae doctor." Future lawyers receive a J.D., for "juris" or "jurum" doctor, meaning a doctor of law or laws. A PhD graduate from the University of OklahomaSomeone with a PhD is a "doctor of philosophy." Many people earn a PhD, yet not many are philosophers. The name has survived since the Middle Ages when many areas of study were called philosophy. Students can receive a PhD in engineering, social work, education, music, history and a lot of other areas. Requirements can differ from one university to another, and from one area of study to another. But the National Science Foundation says American doctoral education is organized around a research experience. A PhD usually requires at least three years of full-time study after a bachelor's degree. Some people first get a master's degree, other do not. PhD candidates must also pass special examinations and carry out original research. Students present their findings by writing a dissertation, a long paper that they have to defend before a group of experts. Every year, the federal government collects information on research doctorates awarded in the United States. More than forty-three thousand students received a research doctorate in two thousand five, the most recent year reported. Close to one-third of those doctorates went to foreign students in the United States on a temporary visa. The largest numbers came from China, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Canada. Most of them studied engineering, physical science or life science. The University of Illinois awarded the largest number of doctorates to foreign students. The other universities in the top five were Purdue, Ohio State, Texas A&M and Pennsylvania State. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. If you missed any of our reports, you can find them at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a question about studying in the United States, send it to special@voanews.com. Please be sure to include your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: History: Johnson Wins a Full Term in 1964, Defends Vietnam Policies
* Byline: The president's advisers had told him that the Communists were losing the war. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we continue the story of America's thirty-sixth president, Lyndon Johnson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After John Kennedy was murdered, Vice President Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of Kennedy's term. He then was elected to his own full term. It began in January, nineteen sixty-five. Much of his time and energy would be taken up by the war in Vietnam. By early nineteen sixty-four, America had about seventeen thousand troops in Vietnam. The troops were there to advise and train the South Vietnamese military. VOICE TWO: Vietnam had gained its independence from France in nineteen fifty-four. The country was divided into North and South. The North had a Communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. The South had an anti-Communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. In nineteen fifty-seven, Communist rebels -- Vietcong -- began a campaign of terrorism in South Vietnam. They were supported by the government of North Vietnam and later by North Vietnamese troops. Their goal was to overthrow the anti-Communist government in the South. President Johnson believed that the United States had to support South Vietnam. Many other Americans agreed. They believed that without American help, South Vietnam would become Communist. Then, all of Southeast Asia would become Communist, too. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As Johnson's term began, his military advisers told him the Communists were losing the war. They told him that North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong forces would soon stop fighting. On February sixth, however, the Vietcong attacked American camps at Pleiku and Qui Phon. The Johnson administration immediately ordered air attacks against military targets in the North. VOICE TWO: Some observers in the United States questioned the administration's policy. For example, a leading newspaper writer, James Reston, said President Johnson was carrying out an undeclared and unexplained war in Vietnam. Johnson defended his policies. He said withdrawal would not bring an end to the conflict. He said the battle would continue in one country, and then another. VOICE ONE: In March, nineteen sixty-five, the first American ground troops arrived in South Vietnam. Congress supported the president's actions at that time. However, the number of Americans who opposed the war began to grow. These people said the war was a civil war. They said the United States had no right, or reason, to intervene. VOICE TWO: For six days in May, the United States halted air attacks on North Vietnam. The administration hoped this would help get the North Vietnamese government to begin negotiations. The North refused. And the United States began to build up its forces in the South. By July, one hundred twenty-five thousand Americans were fighting in Vietnam. VOICE ONE: Some Americans became angry. Anti-war demonstrations took place in the cities of San Francisco and Chicago. More and more students began to protest. They wanted the war to end quickly. October 21, 1967: Marchers in Washington protest the Vietnam WarWriter James Reston commented that the anti-war demonstrations were not helping to bring peace to Vietnam. He said they were postponing it. He believed the demonstrations would make Ho Chi Minh think America did not support its troops. And that, he said, would make president Ho continue the war. VOICE TWO: In December, nineteen sixty-five, the United States again halted air attacks against North Vietnam. Again, it invited the North Vietnamese government to negotiate an end to the fighting. And again, the North refused. Ho Chi Minh's conditions for peace were firm. He demanded an end to the bombing and a complete American withdrawal. Withdrawal would mean defeat for the South. It would mean that all of Vietnam would become Communist. President Johnson would not accept these terms. So he offered his own proposals. The most important was an immediate ceasefire. Neither side would compromise, however. And the fighting went on. VOICE ONE: October 26, 1966: President Johnson honors American troops at Cam Ranh Bay, VietnamIn nineteen sixty-six, President Johnson renewed the bombing attacks in North Vietnam. He also increased the number of American troops in South Vietnam. He condemned those who opposed his policies. He said: "The American people will stand united until every soldier is brought home safely. They will stand united until the people of South Vietnam can choose their own government." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Local and state elections were held in the United States that year. The war in Vietnam had an effect on those elections. The opposition Republican Party generally supported the president's war efforts. Yet it criticized him and other Democrats for economic problems linked to the war. The war cost two thousand million dollars every month. The price of many goods in the United States began to rise. The value of the dollar began to drop. The result was inflation. Then economic activity slowed, and the result was recession. VOICE ONE: To answer the criticism, administration officials said progress was being made in Vietnam. But some Americans began to suspect that the government was not telling the truth about the war. Several news writers, for example, said the number of enemy soldiers killed was much lower than the government reported. Opposition to the war and to the administration's war policies led to bigger and bigger anti-war demonstrations. Studies were done to measure Americans' opinion on the issue. In a study in July, nineteen sixty-seven, a little more than half the people questioned said they did not approve of the president's policies. Yet most Americans believed he would run again for president the next year. VOICE TWO: Johnson strongly defended the use of American soldiers in Vietnam. In a speech to a group of lawmakers he said: "Since World War Two, this nation has met and has mastered many challenges -- challenges in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba. We met them because brave men were willing to risk their lives for their nation's security. And braver men have never lived than those who carry our colors in Vietnam this very hour." VOICE ONE: Then came Tet -- the Vietnamese lunar new year -- in January nineteen-sixty-eight. The Communists launched a major military campaign. They attacked thirty-one of the forty-four provinces of South Vietnam. They even struck at the American embassy in the capital, Saigon. Fifty thousand Communist soldiers were killed during the Tet offensive. Fourteen thousand South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. And two thousand American soldiers were killed. Thousands of Vietnamese civilians were killed, too. VOICE TWO: Many Americans were surprised, even shocked, that the Communists could launch such a major attack against South Vietnam. For several years, they had been told that Communist forces were small and were losing badly. As a result, popular support for the administration fell even more. Democrats who opposed President Johnson seized this chance. Several ran against him in the primary elections held before the party's presidential nominating convention. These included Senator Robert Kennedy of New York and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. Kennedy and McCarthy did well in the early primary elections. Johnson did poorly. VOICE ONE: March 31, 1968: Johnson announces a bombing halt in Vietnam and his plan not to seek re-electionAt the end of March, nineteen sixty-eight, the president spoke to the American people on television. He told of his proposal to end American bombing of North Vietnam. He told of the appointment of a special ambassador to start peace negotiations. And he told of his decision about his own future: LYNDON JOHNSON: "I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office -- the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: YouTube Awards Honor a World Where Anyone Can Make a Movie
* Byline: Also: a question from Burma about the historic Battle of the Alamo. And the music of Robin Thicke. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about The Alamo … Listen to some music from Robin Thicke … And report about the YouTube Video Awards. YouTube Video Awards HOST: The popular Web site YouTube recently presented its first online video awards to recognize the creative efforts of its large community. YouTube viewers around the world voted for their favorites in seven different video categories. Faith Lapidus tells us about three of the winners. FAITH LAPIDUS: Thanks to YouTube, any creative person with a special camera and a computer can create a video and share it online. Millions of people around the world watch these videos on their computers. So the creators of popular videos can become famous very quickly. Some videos have been watched millions of times. YouTube viewers recently chose the best videos of last year. The Most Creative Award went to the rock band OK Go for the video of its song "Here It Goes Again." (MUSIC) In this video, the four band members jump and dance on and around eight exercise machines called treadmills. The entire video was filmed in one recording. The video is very funny. It shows the band's creativity, skillful balance and careful movements. "Here It Goes Again" has been watched about fifteen million times. The Most Inspirational Award went to Juan Mann from Australia for his "Free Hugs" video. In this video, Juan stands in busy public places holding a sign that says he is giving free hugs. At first, strangers look at him with distrust and walk by. But soon, people stop to put their arms around him and give him a hug. Policemen try to stop his hug campaign. But many people help him to continue his free hugs activism. The video is a nice example of different kinds of human interaction. It has been watched about thirteen million times. The Most Adorable Award went to Dony Permedi for an animated cartoon about a bird. It is called "Kiwi!" (MUSIC) A kiwi bird cannot fly. But in the video, the bird works hard to make his dream of flying through the clouds come true, even though he makes a big sacrifice. So far, this video has been watched more than seven million times. To see these videos and the other winners, visit www.youtube.com/ytawards. You can decide which video you think is the best and take part in a very popular part of Internet culture. The Alamo HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Burma. Ko Maw Gyi asks about the Alamo and the famous battle that took place there. The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, is one of the most famous places in the United States. More than two million people visit it every year. The Alamo includes gardens and buildings that provide information about Texas history. But most people go there to see the place where a battle was fought more than one hundred seventy years ago. The battle at the Alamo in eighteen thirty-six was perhaps the most celebrated event in Texas history. The area that is now the state of Texas was then part of Mexico. The people of Texas wanted to change this. On March second, eighteen thirty-five, a group of Texan leaders declared independence and announced the birth of the Republic of Texas. They named Sam Houston to command the troops. Texan fighters defeated Mexican troops in San Antonio in December of eighteen thirty-five. They then occupied the Alamo building. It was part of a religious center at the time. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna led the Mexican army to end the Texas rebellion and punish its leaders. The army arrived in San Antonio in February of eighteen thirty-six. About two hundred Texans inside the Alamo survived for thirteen days against the much larger Mexican army. These Alamo defenders included the famous Western heroes Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett. But they were defeated and Santa Anna’s army entered the Alamo on March sixth. History experts now say one hundred eighty-nine people defending the Alamo were killed, including Bowie and Crockett. Different stories tell about how they died, and history experts still cannot agree about which are true. The battle of the Alamo began a series of events important in United States history. Sam Houston and his Texan troops defeated Santa Anna’s forces in April of eighteen thirty-six and gained independence. for Texas. Later, the Republic of Texas became part of the United States. People continue to "Remember the Alamo" as a heroic struggle against a more powerful opponent. And as a place where men sacrificed their lives for freedom. Robin Thicke HOST: Robin Thicke has written songs for popular singers including Christina Aguilera, Usher and Mary J. Blige. Now he is enjoying new success as a singer. Katharine Cole tells us more. KATHERINE COLE: Robin Thicke grew up in a home of entertainers. His mother, Gloria Loring, is a singer and actress. His father, Alan Thicke, is a songwriter but is probably best known for his work as a television actor. Robin Thicke’s first album, “Beautiful World,” was released in two thousand two. His latest album is called “The Evolution of Robin Thicke”. He says he wanted to write songs that were completely honest and sing them with the emotion he was feeling when he wrote them. Here he sings his hit love song, “Lost Without U.” (MUSIC) Like other recording artists, Robin Thicke's songs have become increasing popular through ringtones. Ringtones are songs downloaded from a Web site to a wireless telephone. When the telephone rings, you hear the song instead of the usual sound a telephone makes. Thicke's song “Wanna Love U Girl” is among the most favorite ringtones. (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from the album “The Evolution of Robin Thicke.”? This is “Can U Believe.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. ?Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Finding a Buyer for Chrysler
* Byline: Investor Kirk Kerkorian makes a $4.5 billion offer for the US automaker, part of Germany's DaimlerChrysler, but faces competition. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Who will succeed in buying Chrysler, the troubled carmaker in the United States? The competition is just getting started. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of DaimlerChrysler, confirmed last week that his company was in talks with possible buyers for its Chrysler Group. Chrysler has been part of the German company for less than ten years. Investor Kirk Kerkorian has offered four and one-half billion dollars for Chrysler through his investment company, Tracinda. He says he would seek a "true partnership" with Chrysler workers and labor union members. He tried to buy Chrysler in nineteen ninety-five. Now Mister Kerkorian has even offered one hundred million dollars for the right to negotiate the sale with DaimlerChrysler. But published reports suggest that DaimlerChrysler officials have not shown much interest in his offer. Three other groups have also made offers. Chrysler was one of America's Big Three independent automobile makers, along with General Motors and Ford. But Chrysler joined with Daimler-Benz in nineteen ninety-eight. Since the merger, Chrysler has struggled. The company has lost market share in the United States to Japanese carmakers like Toyota. Last year, the Chrysler Group lost one and one-half billion dollars. The company is cutting jobs in North America. Besides Kirk Kerkorian, two private equity groups have offered to buy Chrysler. Cerberus Capital Management has made an offer. So has a partnership of the Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Partners. The value of these offers has not been made public. Private equity groups are specialists in what is known as taking a publicly traded company private. They buy all the stock in the company. Then they make changes to the business in an effort to add value. Finally they sell the company back to public shareholders for a profit. Magna International, a Canadian maker of car parts, has also made an offer to buy Chrysler. Magna reportedly has offered more than four and a half billion dollars. Labor unions are likely to play an important part in negotiations to sell Chrysler. Workers have said they will oppose any sale if it means more job cuts, or cuts in pay or retirement benefits like health care. Not only that, the company is said to have at least fifteen billion dollars too little in its retirement plan. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and audio archives of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Robinson's Number Is 'Unretired' for a Day to Honor Baseball Hero
* Byline: This Sunday, at least one player from every major league team will wear the number 42 to remember Jackie Robinson. He broke the game's color barrier 60 years ago. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Sunday will mark an important anniversary in American society. Sixty years ago, Jackie Robinson became the first black man to play in Major League Baseball. His uniform number, forty-two, was retired as an honor on the fiftieth anniversary. Since then, the only players who could wear that number were those already wearing it. But a special honor is planned this Sunday for the sixtieth anniversary of the day Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. At least one player from every major league team will wear the number forty-two. That includes every member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Jackie Robinson was called up by the Dodgers on April fifteenth, nineteen forty-seven. At that time the team played in Brooklyn, New York. Blacks and whites had played together for short periods in the late eighteen hundreds in different baseball organizations. But no black players had been admitted to the Major League Baseball that exists today. Jackie Robinson faced abuse and loneliness. There were death threats. Pitchers threw at his head. He worked hard not to let the discrimination interfere with his game. He was named Rookie of the Year. He went on to play in six World Series in his ten seasons with the Dodgers. Later he became the first African-American in the baseball Hall of Fame. Jackie Robinson wanted to see African-Americans not just playing baseball but also managing teams. Over the years, the numbers of black managers increased. But the share of black players has decreased. Jackie Robinson died in nineteen seventy-two. At that time about twenty percent of players were black. But the Institute for Diversity and Ethics at the University of Central Florida says the number last year was only about eight percent. Still, its research shows that the percentage of minorities overall has increased. Last year almost thirty percent of players were Latino. About two percent were Asian. In all, more than forty percent of professional baseball players were nonwhite. Almost one-third of all players last season were from other countries. Many players come from the Dominican Republic. The all-time high for minorities in the major leagues was forty-two percent ten years ago. The idea to honor Jackie Robinson by wearing his number began with Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Junior. He received permission from the Robinson family and major league commissioner Bud Selig to wear it for the day. Major League Baseball has since invited players from all thirty teams to wear Jackie Robinson’s number on April fifteenth. But some feel they are not worthy of it. Others say too many people wearing the number takes away from the meaning. New York Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera says every player should wear it. He is the only active player who still has the right to wear the number forty-two to every game. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: John Coltrane, 1926-1967: Saxophone Great
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) He was one of the greatest saxophone players of all time. He wrote jazz music. He recorded new versions of popular songs. And, he helped make modern jazz popular. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about musician John Coltrane. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Coltrane was born in the state of North Carolina in nineteen twenty-six. He was raised in the small farm town of High Point. Both of his grandfathers were clergymen. As a young boy, he spent a great deal of time listening to the music of the black Southern church. Coltrane's father sewed clothes. He played several musical instruments for his own enjoyment. The young Coltrane grew up in a musical environment. He discovered jazz by listening to the recordings of such jazz greats as Count Basie and Lester Young. VOICE TWO: When John was thirteen, he asked his mother to buy him a saxophone. People realized almost immediately that the young man could play the instrument very well. John learned by listening to recordings of the great jazz saxophone players, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker. John and his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in nineteen forty-three. He studied music for a short time at the Granoff Studios and at the Ornstein School of Music. VOICE ONE: John Coltrane served for a year in a Navy band in Hawaii. When he returned, he began playing saxophone in several small bands. In nineteen forty-eight, Coltrane joined trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie's band. Seven years later, Coltrane joined the jazz group of another trumpet player, Miles Davis. The group included piano player Red Garland, double bass player Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. VOICE TWO: Coltrane began experimenting with new ways to write and perform jazz music. He explored many new ways of playing the saxophone. Some people did not like this new sound. They did not understand it. Others said it was an expression of modern soul. They said it represented an important change. Jazz performers, composers and other musicians welcomed this change. During the nineteen fifties, Coltrane used drugs and alcohol. He became dependent on drugs. Band leaders dismissed him because of his drug use. In nineteen fifty-seven, Coltrane stopped using drugs. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-nine, John Coltrane recorded the first album of his own music. The album is called "Giant Steps."? Here is the title song from that album. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Coltrane also recorded another famous song with a larger jazz band. The band included Milt Jackson on vibes, Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Connie Kay on drums. Here is their recording of "Stairway to the Stars." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty, Coltrane left Miles Davis and organized his own jazz group. He was joined by McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. This group became famous around the world. John Coltrane's most famous music was recorded during this period. One song is called "My Favorite Things."? Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein had written the song for the Broadway musical "The Sound of Music."? Jazz critics say Coltrane's version is one of the best jazz recordings ever made. The record became very popular. It led many more people to become interested in jazz. (MUSIC: "My Favorite Things") VOICE TWO: Critics say Coltrane's versions of other popular songs influenced all jazz music writing. One of these was a song called "Summertime."? It was written by Du Bose Heyward and George Gershwin for the opera "Porgy and Bess." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-four, Coltrane married pianist Alice McCloud who later became a member of his band. He stopped using alcohol, and became religious. He wrote a song to celebrate his religious experience. The song is more than thirty minutes long. It is called "A Love Supreme."? Here is part of the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen sixty-five, Coltrane was one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world. He was famous in Europe and Japan, as well as in the United States. He was always trying to produce a sound that no one had produced before. Some of the sounds he made were beautiful. Others were like loud screams. Miles Davis said that Coltrane was the loudest, fastest saxophone player that ever lived. Many people could not understand his music. But they listened anyway. Coltrane never made his music simpler to become more popular. Coltrane continued to perform and record even as he suffered from liver cancer. He died in nineteen sixty-seven at the age of forty in Long Island, New York. VOICE ONE: Experts say John Coltrane continues to influence modern jazz. Some critics say one of Coltrane's most important influences on jazz was his use of musical ideas from other cultures, including India, Africa and Latin America. Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker Magazine wrote about Coltrane the year after his death: "People said they heard the dark night ... in Coltrane's wildest music. But what they really heard was a heroic ... voice at the mercy of its own power." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In Kenya, an HIV/AIDS Program Includes Healthy Food
* Byline: A partnership of Indiana University in the US and Moi University in Kenya provides drugs but also operates farms. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. AMPATH is the Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS. This is a partnership between the medical schools at Indiana University in the United States and Moi University in Kenya. The project began eighteen years ago. Today it treats more than forty thousand HIV-infected adults and children at nineteen centers in western Kenya. Fran Quigley is the Indiana-based director of operations and development for AMPATH. He tells us that almost two thousand new patients are added to the program every month. And, he says, as long as AMPATH continues to receive enough antiretroviral drugs, the program will continue to grow. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by the Bush administration, provides the drugs. Also, private individuals and organizations donate money to the program. Mister Quigley says AMPATH needs between twelve million and thirteen million dollars each year to operate. Antiretrovirals are used to suppress HIV infections. New patients in the program are tested for the levels of virus in their blood. About half require immediate treatment. Patients whose own immune systems are still able to fight the virus can receive other services. The way that the program deals with HIV/AIDS is holistic. In other words, it tries to deal with the complete needs of its patients. Most notably, many patients and their children get food assistance through the program. Mister Quigley says AMPATH doctors have learned that antiretroviral care cannot succeed if a patient is too weak from hunger. AMPATH operates several farms. Patients can receive weekly or monthly food assistance. The United Nations World Food Program adds to these food supplies. AMPATH also provides micro-loans and skills training to help patients become more economically secure. In addition, the program helps Kenyan children who have lost parents to AIDS. Often this assistance includes support for extended families that have taken in orphaned children. Fran Quigley says the example of the Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS can be copied throughout the developing world. For now though, he says the goal is to provide more and better services at its centers in Kenya. Last December, a group of professors in the state of Indiana nominated AMPATH for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Whatever the result, Fran Quigley says that simply being nominated is a huge honor. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Put on Your Travel Shoes: Down the West Coast and to Points East
* Byline: Some facts about Washington State, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty with Gwen Outen. Get ready for a ride. And hold on to your camera. Today we take you on a lightning-fast trip to seven states in fifteen minutes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We start in Washington. Not the capital city, but the state of Washington on the other side of the country. It is in the Pacific Northwest, on the border with Canada. It is the only state named after a president. George Washington was the first president of the United States. Washington State entered the union in eighteen-eighty-nine. It is a major shipping port for Asia. Fishing is another big industry. So is technology. Washington State is home to the biggest maker of computer programs, Microsoft. Boeing still makes airplanes here. But its headquarters are now in Chicago. Mountains divide Washington State. The east is heavily agricultural, but the west gets most of the rain. VOICE TWO: Washington is called the Evergreen State. It has lots of trees that keep their leaves all year. Those trees are important to the forest products industry. They are also important to the many people who hike through forests and climb mountains. The highest one here is Mount Rainier, in western Washington. It stands almost four-thousand-four-hundred meters above sea level. Not too far away is Seattle. It is the largest city in Washington. But the state capital is Olympia. VOICE ONE: Washington is one of three states along the West Coast. As we leave Washington, we travel south into Oregon. It became a state in eighteen-fifty-nine. Forests cover a lot of the state. In fact, Oregon leads the United States in wood production. Visitors enjoy places like Crater Lake National Park. A volcano formed this deep lake in the mountains. The bright blue water has appealed to photographers from all over the world. Cities in Oregon include Portland, Eugene and the capital, Salem. VOICE TWO: From Oregon, we continue south into California. People from Spain settled the land in the seventeen-hundreds. Mexico later controlled it, until some of the land became the American state. The capital is Sacramento. Americans captured the California territory during the Mexican-American War in the eighteen-forties. The discovery of gold helped California join the United States in eighteen-fifty. Many gold miners came through San Francisco. And that is where we stop. Visitors like to ride the old cable cars up and down the hills of the city. They also like to see the Golden Gate Bridge. And, when they get hungry, many go for seafood along Fisherman’s Wharf. To the south of San Francisco is the area with a large of number of computer technology companies -- better known as Silicon Valley. VOICE ONE: And a lot farther south is Los Angeles. Many communities form the city and county of Los Angeles. One of them is Hollywood, the center of the film and television industry. California has one of the largest economies in the world. It also has the largest population in the country, more than thirty-five million people. One-third of them are of Hispanic ancestry. But people come here from all over the world. These include a growing number from Africa. Population researchers say the Los Angeles-Long Beach area has the third largest number of African-born people in the United States. About forty-three thousand live there. About twelve-thousand live farther south, in San Diego. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now, from Southern California, we travel east into Arizona. Arizona is known the Grand Canyon State. Over time, the Colorado River cut through stone and rock to form the Grand Canyon. It is more than one and one-half kilometers deep. Millions of people come to see it. Arizona is a desert state. People once thought the land was worthless. But today many people come to Arizona for its hot, dry climate and its natural beauty. Phoenix is the largest city, and a shipping center for agriculture. It is also the state capital. Many people who come to Arizona visit Native American reservations. Indians who live on these tribal lands must obey United States laws, but they also make their own laws. VOICE ONE: To the east of Arizona is New Mexico. Both states are on the border with the country of Mexico. New Mexico has a rich Spanish history. It also has a lot of land – almost three-hundred-fifteen thousand square kilometers. But fewer than two million people live here. Lots more come to hunt, fish, or snow ski. They also come to enjoy arts and cultural activities. Santa Fe claims the largest collection of folk art in the world. Santa Fe is the state capital. But the largest city is Albuquerque. New Mexico has mines for coal, copper, potash and uranium. And it has around as many cows as it has people. Cattle growers help keep some traditions of the Old West alive. But New Mexico is also a center of scientific research. There are national laboratories. In fact, the first atomic bomb was exploded in the desert here. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: To the east of New Mexico is a state with a tradition of thinking big: Texas. Texas has more land than any other state except Alaska. There are still cowboys with big hats. That is true. But visitors can also find a rich cultural life in cities like San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. The city of Austin is the state capital. Texas once belonged to Mexico. Mexican influence remains strong. More than thirty percent of Texans are Hispanic. But many other groups also live here. Among the more recent arrivals are people from Africa. About forty-seven thousand live in Houston and Dallas. VOICE ONE: The AlamoOne of the places that many people like to visit in Texas is a stone building in San Antonio called the Alamo. The American hero Davy Crockett was among those who died in a long battle there. They were fighting for independence from Mexico. "Remember the Alamo!" became a battle cry after that. The Americans lost the battle of the Alamo, but they won the Mexican-American war. Texas became a state in eighteen-forty-five. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? From Texas we travel north into Oklahoma, deeper into the central part of the United States. Oklahoma is our last stop today. It too has lots of land but not a lot of people. It became a state in nineteen-oh-seven. Oklahoma is a big producer of fuel and food for the country. Flat areas and low hills make good places to grow wheat and raise cows. Years ago, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote a musical play called "Oklahoma!" (MUSIC) Oklahoma is part of what people call the American heartland. People think of the heartland as a peaceful place. So what happened in April of nineteen-ninety-five seemed especially shocking. A bomb wrecked the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, the state capital. A former soldier angry at the government was executed for the attack. One-hundred-sixty-eight people were killed. A national memorial now stands in place of the building to honor the victims. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ??????? So, we have told you a few things about seven of the fifty states. Visitors leave with memories of wide open spaces, and cities without enough space. Forest-covered mountains, and flat, dry land without any trees as far as the eye can see. Farmers working in their fields, and fields with workers drilling for oil and natural gas. White-topped waves on the Pacific Ocean, and a golden sun setting over the Grand Canyon. If you do ever visit, don't forget to bring a camera. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty with Gwen Outen. Our programs are online with transcripts and audio archives at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Chip on Your Shoulder:? What Are You Going to Do About It?
* Byline: What it means when people are said to have a chip on their shoulder. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Every week at this time we tell the story of words and expressions used in American English. Some of them are old. Some are new. Together, they form the living speech of the American people. Some popular expressions are a mystery. No one is sure how they developed. One of these is the expression, carry a chip on your shoulder. A person with a chip on his shoulder is a problem for anybody who must deal with him. He seems to be expecting trouble. Sometimes he seems to be saying, “I’m not happy about anything, but what are you going to do about it?” A chip is a small piece of something, like a chip of wood. How did this chip get on a person’s shoulder?? Well, experts say the expression appears to have been first used in the United States more than one hundred years ago. One writer believes that the expression might have come from an old saying. The saying warns against striking too high, or a chip might fall into your eye. That could be good advice. If you strike high up on a tree with an axe, the chip of wood that is cut off will fall into your eye. The saying becomes a warning about the dangers of attacking people who are in more important positions than you are. Later, in the United States, some people would put a real chip on their shoulder as a test. They wanted to start a fight. They would wait for someone to be brave enough to try to hit it off. The word chip appears in a number of special American expressions. Another is chip off the old block. This means that a child is exactly like a parent. This expression goes back at least to the early sixteen hundreds. The British writer of plays, George Colman, wrote these lines in seventeen sixty-two. “You’ll find him his father’s own son, I believe. A chip off the old block, I promise you!” The word chip can also be used in a threatening way to someone who is suspected of wrongdoing. An investigator may say, “We’re going to let the chips fall where they may.” This means the investigation is going to be complete and honest. It is also a warning that no one will be protected from being found guilty. Chips are often used in card games. They represent money. A poker player may, at any time, decide to leave the game. He will turn in his chips in exchange for money or cash. This lead to another meaning. A person who finished or died was said to have cashed in his chips. Which is a way of saying it is time for me to finish this program. (MUSIC) You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. I’m Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lonely Farmers Look for Love Online
* Byline: FarmersOnly.com and Singles in Agriculture try to help farmers in the US make new friends. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Web site FarmersOnly.com calls itself an online dating and friendship finder. The idea started in the mind of a man in Ohio. Jerry Miller wondered how farmers could meet new people who understand the life of a farmer. Jerry Miller is not a farmer. He works in advertising and public relations. But he represents a lot of farmers. As he tells it, the idea for the site was planted when a farmer told him one day that she was recently divorced and would like to date. But she already knew everyone who might be a possible dating partner. And the men she met through dating services did not understand the difference between city life and rural farm life. Someone would invite her to meet for coffee at nine o'clock at night, when she had to start her day at five the next morning. So, in two thousand five, Jerry Miller launched his Web site. Yet the name is a little misleading. "You don't have to be a farmer to be on FarmersOnly.com, but you do have to have the good old-fashioned traditional values of America's Heartland." That is what it says. You also have to live in the United States or Canada to be a member of the site. Some services are free, but a full membership costs fifty dollars for a year. As of last week the site listed more than fifty-eight thousand members. Many of them are among the two million farmers in the United States. Others are students or workers involved in some way with agriculture. Still others are people who have said goodbye to farm life but would like to return. Jerry Miller tells us about thirty marriages in the last year have resulted from his Web site. Some farmers have also found love through a group based in Illinois. Singles in Agriculture was formed as a nonprofit organization in nineteen eighty-six. It organizes gatherings that usually end with a dance, but is not a dating service. The purpose is to support educational and social activities that offer people a chance for friendship, travel and activities like camping. Its Web site, singlesinag dot o-r-g, says there are more than one thousand members across the nation and as far away as France. Someone who says she might try singlesinag.org is a middle-aged woman in the Midwest named Linda. She raises goats and milk cows in Michigan. Her husband died several years ago. She wishes that she had more time for a social life, but says she is not looking to remarry. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: World Health Experts Report Progress in Fight Against Tuberculosis
* Byline: One-third of the world's population is infected with TB bacteria. But most people with the disease can be cured. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. On our program this week, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. Tuberculosis can be deadly if not treated the right way. It is a serous health problem around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tuberculosis is one of the leading infectious diseases. The World Health Organization says two billion people are infected with the TB bacteria. That is about one-third of the world’s total population. One in ten people infected with the TB bacteria will become sick with tuberculosis at some time during their life. Almost nine million people become sick with the disease each year. About one million six hundred thousand people will die of the disease this year. The World Health Organization says TB is a disease of poverty. It affects mostly young adults in their most productive years. The large majority of deaths from the disease are in developing countries. More than half of all deaths happen in Asia. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization declared TB a public health emergency in nineteen ninety-three. A new WHO report shows tuberculosis rates around the world are falling or unchanged. The report says rates were unchanged in two thousand five after reaching record high levels one year earlier. If this continues for the next three or four years, WHO officials believe their Millennium Development Goal could be reached. The goal is to discover at least seventy percent of TB cases and successfully treat eighty-five percent of those cases by the year two thousand fifteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Patients with TB in Hyderabad, IndiaTuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Most people infected with the bacteria never develop active TB. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. TB can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious health problems. The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated TB bacteria in their throat or lungs. The bacteria are spread into the air when people with the disease talk or expel air suddenly. VOICE TWO: People who breathe infected air from a TB victim can become infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, most people with active tuberculosis do not expel very many TB bacteria. So, the spread of the disease usually does not happen unless a person spends a large amount of time with a TB patient. Those most at risk are family members, friends and people who live or work closely with a patient. If a person becomes infected with the TB bacteria, it does not mean he or she has the disease. Having the infection means that the bacteria are in the body, but they may be neutral, or inactive. VOICE ONE: When TB bacteria are inactive, they cannot damage the body. And they cannot spread to other people. People with the inactive bacteria are infected, but they are not sick. They probably do not know that they are infected. For most of them, the bacteria will always be inactive. They will never suffer signs of tuberculosis. If the natural immune system against disease is weak, however, a person can get tuberculosis soon after the TB bacteria enter the body. Also, inactive TB bacteria may become active if the immune system becomes weak. When this happens, the bacteria begin reproducing and damaging the lungs or other organs and causing serious sickness. The inactive TB bacteria can become active under several conditions. When a person becomes old, the immune system may become too weak to protect against the bacteria. The virus that causes AIDS can cause TB bacteria to become active. Also, doctors warn that people who drink too much alcohol or use drugs have a higher risk of becoming sick from the tuberculosis bacteria. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tuberculosis can attack any part of the body. However, the lungs are the most common targets of the bacteria. People with the disease show several signs. They may expel air from the lungs suddenly with an explosive noise. This kind of cough continues for a long period of time. People with a more severe case of tuberculosis also may cough up blood. People with the disease often have high body temperatures. They suffer what are called night sweats, during which their bodies release large amounts of water through the skin. TB victims also are tired all the time. They are not interested in eating. So their bodies lose weight. One thing that is especially dangerous about TB is that people with moderate signs of the disease may not know they have it. They may spread the disease to others without even knowing it. So, it is very important for people to get tested for tuberculosis. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are several ways to test for TB. The first is the TB skin test. It also is known as the Mantoux skin test. The test can identify most people infected with tuberculosis six to eight weeks after the bacteria entered their bodies. A substance called purified protein derivative is injected under the skin of the arm. The place of the injection is examined two to three days later. If a raised red area forms, the person may have been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, this does not always mean the disease is active. VOICE TWO: If the skin test shows that TB bacteria have entered the body, doctors can use other methods to discover if the person has active TB. However, this sometimes can be difficult because tuberculosis may appear similar to other diseases. Doctors must consider other physical signs. Also, they must decide if a person’s history shows that he or she has been in situations where tuberculosis was present. Doctors also use an X-ray examination to show if there is evidence of TB infection, such as damage to the lungs. Another way to test for the presence of active tuberculosis is to examine the fluids from a person’s mouth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is very important for doctors to identify which kind of TB bacteria are present so they can decide which drugs to use to treat the disease. Most TB cases can be successfully treated with medicines. However, the death rate for untreated patients is reported to be about fifty percent. Successful treatment of TB requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course, or DOTS. Directly observed means that local health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day. Full treatment usually lasts from six to nine months to destroy all signs of the bacteria. It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the TB bacteria becoming resistant to drugs and growing stronger, more dangerous and more difficult to treat. VOICE TWO: Experts say TB is a preventable disease. The goal of health organizations is to quickly identify infected persons – especially those who have the highest risk of developing the disease. There are several drugs that can prevent tuberculosis in these people. Experts say tuberculosis can be cured if it is discovered early and if patients take their medicine correctly. And, like other diseases, education and understanding are extremely important in preventing and treating TB. Next week, we will tell you about efforts to fight TB in several countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Shelley Gollust. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, DC, two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send electronic messages to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Eleanor Creesy Helped Guide One of the Fastest Sailing Ships Ever
* Byline: In 1851 the Flying Cloud set a record for sailing from New York City to San Francisco. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Eleanor Creesy. She helped to guide one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The name Eleanor Creesy is almost unknown today. But in the middle eighteen hundreds she was a famous woman. Those were the days of wooden sailing ships. It was a time before ships had engines. Cloth sails were used to catch the wind to move a ship through the water. A ship that sailed from New York to San Francisco had to travel around the bottom of South America. Such a trip could take two hundred days to complete. Not all ships completed the trip. The high winds and angry seas in this area of the world created deadly storms. Ships often sank. No one could survive the freezing waters in this dangerous area if the ship went down. VOICE TWO: One hundred fifty years ago, women did not receive much education. Most women were expected to learn to read and write. But they almost never held positions of great responsibility. Eleanor Creesy was different. She was the navigator for a ship. A navigator is responsible for guiding a ship safely from one port to another. Eleanor’s father taught her to navigate. She wanted to learn this difficult skill because she liked the mathematics involved. A navigator also had to know how to use a complex instrument called a sextant. It was used to gather information about the sun, moon, and some stars to find a ship’s position at sea. Eleanor married a captain of a ship, Josiah Perkins Creesy, in eighteen forty-one. It was not unusual for a ship captain to take his wife with him on long trips. A captain’s wife often acted as a nurse, which Eleanor did. But she did a lot more. Josiah Creesy quickly learned that his wife was an extremely good navigator. Eleanor was the navigator on each ship that Josiah commanded during all their years at sea. They were husband and wife, but they also enjoyed working together. VOICE ONE: Eleanor and Josiah Creesy are forever linked to one of the most famous ships in American history. That ship is the Flying Cloud. It was designed and built at the shipyard of Donald McKay in the eastern city of Boston. Grinell, Minturn and Company bought it. Captain Creesy worked for Grinell, Minturn. Company officials chose him to be the captain of the new ship. The Flying Cloud was a new kind of ship. The front was very narrow and sharp. This helped it cut through the water. The ship itself was narrow and long. This also added to its speed. A New York newspaper wrote a story about the ship when it was new. The paper said it was extremely beautiful. The world soon learned it was one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. The large number of sails the Flying Cloud could carry increased the speed of the ship. It usually carried at least twenty-one large sails. The crew often added many more to increase the speed. VOICE TWO: It was the second day of June, eighteen fifty-one. Goods and passengers had been loaded on the Flying Cloud. The ship quietly sailed out of New York City on its way to San Francisco. Very quickly it became evident the ship was special. Part of Eleanor Creesy’s work was to find out how far the ship had traveled each day. This involved doing complex mathematics and usually took Eleanor several hours. The first time she completed her work, she could not believe the results. She did the mathematics again, carefully looking for mistakes. There were none. The ship had traveled almost four hundred eighty kilometers in twenty-four hours. This was an extremely fast speed. Few ships had ever sailed this fast. VOICE ONE: The captain of a ship keeps a written record of each day’s events when a ship is at sea. This record is called a ship’s log. On May fifteenth, just seventeen days after leaving New York, Captain Creesy wrote this in the Flying Cloud’s log:? “We have passed the Equator in two days less time than ever before. We have traveled five thousand nine hundred and nine kilometers in seventeen days!” As the Flying Cloud sailed south, each day was extremely exciting. As it neared the South Atlantic, however, storms began to cause great concern. For Eleanor Creesy to learn the correct position of the ship each day, she had to be able to see the sun, the moon or stars. This was impossible when the ship entered an area of storms. It was then that her greatest skill as a navigator became extremely important. VOICE TWO: When bad weather prevented navigators from seeing the sun, moon or stars, they had to use a method called “dead reckoning” to find the ship’s position. Dead reckoning is not exact. A navigator would take the last known position of the ship, then add the ship’s speed. The navigator also had to add any movement of the ship to the side caused by waves or the wind. But this information was only a guess. Even a good navigator could be wrong by many kilometers. If a ship was sailing in the middle of the ocean, a navigator could make mistakes using dead reckoning and no harm would be done. However, when a ship was near land, dead reckoning became extremely dangerous. The ship might be much closer to land than the navigator knew. In a storm, the ship could be driven on to land and severely damaged or sunk. Using dead reckoning near the southern most area of South America called for an expert. The Flying Cloud was near land at the end of the South American continent. Eleanor Creesy used all her skill to find a safe path for the huge ship. VOICE ONE: Captain Creesy was responsible for the safety of the Flying Cloud, the passengers and crew. He would be blamed for any serious accident. Most captains did their own navigating. Perhaps no other captain sailing at that time would think to have a woman do this extremely important work. However, Josiah Creesy never questioned his wife’s sailing directions. He would often stand on the deck of his ship, in the cold rain and fierce winds. He would shout below to Missus Creesy and ask for a new sailing direction. She would quickly do the work required for a new dead reckoning direction and pass the information to her husband. Captain Creesy would give the orders to turn the big ship. VOICE TWO: The storm began to grow. The crew put out the fires used for heat and cooking. Fire was a great danger at sea. No fires were ever permitted on a ship during a storm. Not even lamps were lit. Everyone ate cold food. The temperatures were now near freezing. Hour after hour Eleanor Creesy worked to find the ship’s dead reckoning position. When the storm ended, the crew of the Flying Cloud could see the very southern coast of South America -- a place called Tierra del Fuego. They could see the snow-covered mountains and huge amounts of blue ice. It was an area of deadly beauty. And, it was only eight kilometers away. Eleanor Creesy had guided the ship perfectly. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Flying Cloud sailed north toward San Francisco traveling at speeds no one thought possible. On July thirty-first, the ship traveled six hundred and one kilometers in only twenty-four hours. No ship had ever sailed that far in one day. The Flying Cloud had set a world record. That record belonged to the ship, the crew, the captain and the navigator. On August thirty-first, the Flying Cloud sailed into San Francisco Bay. The Flying Cloud had set a record for sailing from New York to San Francisco. It made the trip in eighty-nine days, and twenty-one hours. Newspapers across the country spread the news. Josiah and Eleanor Creesy were famous. Newspapers wrote stories about them and their beautiful ship. People wanted to meet them. But soon the two were back at sea. Two years later Captain Creesy and his wife again took the Flying Cloud from New York to San Francisco. This time they made the trip in eighty-nine days, eight hours. This record would stand unbroken for more than one hundred years. VOICE TWO: Josiah and Eleanor Creesy went on to sail in other ships. They continued to work as a team until they left the sea in eighteen sixty-four. They retired to their home in Massachusetts. Captain Josiah Creesy died in June of eighteen seventy-one. His wife lived until the beginning of the new century. She died at the age of eighty-five, in August of nineteen hundred. Eleanor Creesy is remembered by anyone who loves the history of the sea. She is honored for her great skill as navigator of the Flying Cloud, one of the fastest sailing ships the world has ever seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. You can read scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Teaching English in Central Asia: The View From Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: English teaching in Central Asia. The view from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Ibrahim Rustamov is a teacher at Relief International School Number One in Isfara, Tajikistan. And Shukry Marash-Ogly is a linguistics professor at Osh State University in Kyrgyzstan. The professor says English is taught at many schools and universities in his country. SHUKRY MARASH-OGLY: "The major problem is lack of resources and new books. But they are coming in and we are starting to use new technologies as well." AA: "At what age do students in Kyrgyzstan start learning English, and is it a required course?" SHUKRY MARASH-OGLY: "It is a required course, but in fact children start from grade one, which is basic and just one hour per week, which is a very small amount of hours. But at a university level, they have from six to sixteen hours per week." AA: "How widely used is English in everyday life in Kyrgyzstan?" SHUKRY MARASH-OGLY: "It is being used at the moment quite a bit, but still Russian is the most important and widely used means of communication. And Kyrgyz, which is the native language of the country, is there. And English can be considered as the third language in the country, and it is overcoming instead of Russian." AA: "And Ibrahim, what about in Tajikistan -- how much is English being used in everyday life?" IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "English is one of the prestigious languages and every student wants to learn, to take tutorship, or to go and to attend courses to learn English, because, due to globalization, they want to -- they can't imagine their future without knowing English." AA: "At what age do students start learning -- and, again, is it required there too as it is in Kyrgyzstan?" IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "Now parents try to -- they want their children to study children starting from the second or third grade and until the eleventh grade. So at the age of eight students are starting learning English language." AA: "And is it a required subject?" IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "Yes, it's a required subject. At the second grade they are required to take English lessons, because we have two hours of English lessons per week." AA: "And so your students are how old?" IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "My students are studying from fifteen till seventeen." AA: "And I'm curious, how are they with learning slang?" IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "Many students have pen pals in the United States and they get things through the new technology. They write e-mails, they have friends in the United States. They try to pick up the new words that are used in the daily life in the United States and try to get to know -- sometimes students come and ask me some word that I don't know as a teacher." AA: "Can you give me an example or two?" IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "So just two years ago, when I just started working as a teacher after my graduation, they said 'I gonna do this. I gonna do that.' And I didn't know what is gonna. So later I found out that is 'going to' do something." AA: "And you say there's another word also." IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "Yeah, it's 'wannabe.' I found out that it is those people who want to be something but they can't!" AA: "Right, they're call wannabes." IBRAHIM RUSTAMOV: "Wannabes." AA: "Have you heard that term?" SHUKRY MARASH-OGLY: "Yes, I did, but we don't use them much. But students do. And one of my students even wrote a diploma paper on American slang." AA: Shukry Marash-Ogly is a linguistics professor at Osh State University in Kyrgyzstan, and Ibrahim Rustamov is a secondary school teacher in Isfara, Tajikistan. I talked to them at the recent Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Convention in Seattle. And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can hear from other English teachers at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Vaccines: How They Work (and How Caterpillars Could Help)
* Byline: Most influenza vaccine is made in chickens eggs. But scientists are testing a design made from caterpillar cells.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Most vaccines are designed with the same goal in mind. That is, to help the body's own defense system prevent a disease by producing antibodies against it. Antibodies are disease-fighting proteins. The immune system produces them in reaction to viruses, bacteria and other invaders. The vaccine tricks the body into thinking it has already successfully defeated the disease. To activate the immune system, vaccines commonly introduce the disease-causing virus or bacteria into the body. But they use weakened or killed versions. Weakened viruses are used, for example, in vaccines against chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella. To prevent polio, the Sabin vaccine uses a weakened form of the virus; the Salk vaccine uses a killed version. Experts say vaccines that use killed or inactivated virus can be safely given even to people with damaged immune systems. Researchers may spend years working on a vaccine. They have still not succeeded against, for example, H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, or against malaria, but they are trying. And not all vaccines offer long-term protection. The tetanus vaccine is a good example. It offers protection for only about ten years. Then a person must be immunized again. Some vaccines are made with animal material. For example, influenza vaccine is grown in chicken eggs. This can be a problem for people who are allergic to eggs. Also, the process is complex. But things could change in the future. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that flu vaccine could come from insect cells. Researchers in the United States tested a flu vaccine made from caterpillar cells. The study involved four hundred sixty people. There were two versions of the vaccine, one stronger than the other. The people were not told whether they were getting the vaccine or a substitute, a placebo. Here is what the scientists reported: Seven people in the placebo group caught the flu. So did two people who received the lower strength vaccine. But no one in the stronger vaccine group got the flu. Protein Sciences, a vaccine maker, paid for the study. The company plans to begin testing the experimental flu vaccine on a larger group in order to seek government approval. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and audio files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Civil Rights Movement: In the '60s, a Struggle for Equality in US
* Byline: Heroes of that effort included Martin Luther King Jr., James Meredith and Rosa Parks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: August 28, 1963: March on WashingtonThe day is August twenty-eighth, nineteen sixty-three. More than two hundred fifty-thousand people are gathered in Washington. Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans. The nation's most famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, is speaking. MARTIN LUTHER KING: "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation. " VOICE TWO: Early in its history, black Africans were brought to America as slaves. They were bought and sold, like animals. By the time of America's Civil War in the eighteen sixties, many had been freed by their owners. Many, however, still worked as slaves on the big farms of the South. By the end of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional. But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality. VOICE ONE: Most people of color could not get good jobs. They could not get good housing. They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans. For about one hundred years, blacks made slow gains. Widespread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War Two. During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces. When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too. An organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-one, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka, Kansas. The man, Oliver Brown, and twelve others had brought legal action against the city. They wanted to end racial separation in their children's schools. At that time, two of every five public schools in America had all white students or all black students. The law said all public schools must be equal, but they were not. Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children. The situation was worst in Southern states. VOICE ONE: The case against the city of Topeka -- Brown versus the Board of Education -- was finally settled by the nation's highest court. In nineteen fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children. The next year, it said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. VOICE TWO: In September nineteen fifty-seven, a black girl tried to enter an all-white school in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. An angry crowd screamed at her. State guards blocked her way. The guards had been sent by the state governor, Orville Faubus. After three weeks, a federal court ordered Governor Faubus to remove the guards. The girl, Elizabeth Eckford, and seven other black students were able to enter the school. After one day, however, riots forced the black students to leave. VOICE ONE: President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock. They helped black students get into the white school safely. However, angry white citizens closed all the city's public schools. The schools stayed closed for two years. In nineteen sixty-two, a black student named James Meredith tried to attend the University of Mississippi. School officials refused. John Kennedy, the president at that time, sent federal law officers to help him. James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. VOICE TWO: Rosa Parks is fingerprinted after her arrest in Montgomery, AlabamaIn addition to fighting for equal treatment in education, black Americans fought for equal treatment in housing and transportation. In many cities of the South, blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses. In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman named Rosa Parks got on a bus in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. She sat in the back. The bus became crowded. There were no more seats for white people. So, the bus driver ordered Missus Parks to stand and give her seat to a white person. She refused. Her feet were tired after a long day at work. Rosa Parks was arrested. VOICE ONE: The Reverend Martin Luther King organized the black citizens of Montgomery. They were the major users of the bus system. They agreed to stop using the buses. The boycott lasted a little more than a year. It seriously affected the earnings of the bus company. In the end, racial separation on the buses in Montgomery was declared illegal. Rosa Parks's tired feet had helped win black Americans another victory in their struggle for equal rights. And, the victory had been won without violence. VOICE TWO: The Reverend King was following the teachings of Indian spiritual leader, Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi urged his followers to reach their political goals without violence. One of the major tools of nonviolence in the civil rights struggle in America was the "sit-in". In a sit-in, protesters entered a store or public eating place. They quietly asked to be served. Sometimes, they were arrested. Sometimes, they remained until the business closed. But they were not served. Some went hours without food or water. VOICE ONE: Another kind of protest was the "freedom ride." This involved buses that traveled through states from the North to the South. On freedom rides, blacks and whites sat together to make it difficult for officials to enforce racial separation laws on the buses. Many freedom rides -- and much violence -- took place in the summer of nineteen sixty-four. Sometimes, the freedom riders were arrested. Sometimes, angry crowds of whites beat the freedom riders. VOICE TWO: Perhaps the most dangerous part of the civil rights movement was the campaign to win voting rights for black Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution said a citizen could not be denied the right to vote because of race or color. Several Southern states, however, passed laws to try to deny voting rights to blacks for other reasons. VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King and his supporters demonstrated to demand new legislation to guarantee the right to vote. They held protests in the state of Alabama. In the city of Birmingham, the chief law officer ordered his men to fight the protesters with high-pressure water hoses and fierce dogs. People throughout the country watched the demonstration on television. The sight of children being beaten by policemen and bitten by dogs awakened many citizens to the civil rights struggle. Federal negotiators reached a compromise. The compromise was, in fact, a victory for the protesters. They promised to stop their demonstrations. In exchange, they would be permitted to vote. VOICE TWO: President Johnson signed a major civil rights bill in nineteen sixty-four. Yet violence continued in some places. Three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. One was murdered in Alabama. Martin Luther King kept working toward the goal of equal rights. He died working. On April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, he was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. He had gone there to support a strike by waste collection workers. A white man, James Earl Ray, was tried and found guilty of the crime. VOICE ONE: A wave of unrest followed the murder of Martin Luther King. Blacks in more than one hundred cities in America rioted. In some cities, areas affected by the riots were not rebuilt for many years. The movement for civil rights for black Americans continued. But it became increasingly violent. The struggle produced angry, bitter memories. Yet it also produced some of the greatest words spoken in American history. MARTIN LUTHER KING: "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!'" (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Formula for Becoming a Pharmacist
* Byline: A look at pharmacy education in the US, and the requirements for foreign-trained pharmacists. Part 33 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Two listeners, Youngmin Kim in South Korea and Nestor Gastelo in Peru, would like us to talk about pharmacy education in the United States. This will be the subject today in our Foreign Student Series. "Pharmacists are health professionals who assist individuals in making the best use of medications." That description comes from the Code of Ethics of the American Pharmacists Association. The job may include filling doctors' orders and helping people choose medicines that can be sold without a prescription. A pharmacist might also answer questions from patients and work with medical devices and other technologies. ? Community pharmacists work in drug stores. Pharmacists are also employed by hospitals and drug companies. Pharmacists in the United States must meet the professional requirements of the state where they want to work. Many universities have a college of pharmacy. Since two thousand four, these offer only a doctor of pharmacy degree. The program takes four years. Students generally enter pharmacy school after two years of general courses. Pharmacy students must be skilled in mathematics and the sciences. They must also take the Pharmacy College Admission Test. After they earn their degree, they must complete a residency training program in a hospital or other setting. One year is required, but a second year can be added in a specialty area like cancer care or infectious diseases. After their residency, pharmacists must pass the licensing examination given by their state. Foreign students who plan to train in the United States and return home should make sure their degree will be recognized there. In the same way, foreign-trained pharmacists who want to work in the United States must be sure that their degree will be recognized here. Even so, they will have to complete a residency in the United States. For more information, check with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, at ashp.org. Foreign-trained pharmacists must also pass a certification process. More information about that is available from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, on the Web at nabp.net. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. We will have links to these two sites at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also get the full details from VOA News about the killings Monday at Virginia Tech. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Awards Recognize Young People Trying to Make the World a Better Place
* Byline: Also: A museum in Baltimore, Maryland, tells the story of the first railway and shipyard owned by African-Americans. And a question from Zimbabwe about the Billboard Hot 100 music chart. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the Billboard Hot One Hundred … Tell about an award that honors young people for social action… And report about a historical museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Douglass-Myers Museum HOST: The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum tells the history of the first railway and shipyard owned by African-Americans. Museum visitors do not only see the exhibits. They also learn by taking part in activities. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum (pictured) is in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay. It is named after two of the city’s greatest leaders who lived during the eighteen hundreds. Frederick Douglass was a former slave. He went on to become one of the most important African-American leaders in American history. Isaac Myers had a very different life. His experiences tell the story of African-Americans who were not slaves. Mister Myers was a leading businessman in Baltimore. In eighteen sixty-eight, he and fourteen other African-American businessmen founded the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. The history of the dock and shipyard is the center of the Frederick Douglas-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum. The Living Classrooms Foundation led the development of the project. Dianne Swann-Wright is the director. She says the museum is different from many others because it urges visitors to touch and take part in activities throughout the exhibit. Frederick Douglass worked for Isaac Myers at the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. Mister Douglass was a ship repairman. The museum recreates the work area and tools Mister Douglass used to repair the ships. ?He filled in spaces between the wooden parts of the ship with a material called oakum. It stopped water from leaking into the large boats. Visitors can use tools to strike a substance similar to oakum as if they too were repairing the ships. Visitors also can build a large model ship. Objects throughout the museum are like those found in the old shipyard almost one hundred fifty years ago. Rare objects are protected in glass containers. One is a small boat built in the early eighteen hundreds. African American slaves used it to escape. It was also used for transportation and fishing. Dianne Swann-Wright says visitors to the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum experience a part of history that once had been lost. She says she hopes they will say: “Wow. I did not know that story at all.” BRICK Awards HOST: The BRICK Awards are given each year to young people who make our world a better place. These youth service awards were presented last week to twelve young people for their community action projects. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: For the first time, the BRICK Awards were presented on an American television show. The CW Network presented the award show last Thursday. Twelve people under the age of twenty-five from the United States and Canada won awards of ten thousand dollars to continue their work. They were honored for their projects in four areas: public health, community building, education and environment, and global impact. Young people voted online for the top four winners. These people received Golden BRICK Awards, worth a total of twenty-five thousand dollars. Jennifer StapleOne of these winners is Jennifer Staple of Newton, Connecticut. She created an organization called Unite for Sight. It provides eye care and education programs to more than four hundred thousand people around the world. The organization has provided more than six thousand sight-restoring operations. And it has provided thousands of people with treatment for infections, glaucoma and other eye disorders. Kimmie Weeks is another Golden BRICK Award winner. He survived the civil war in Liberia and later sought political protection in the United States. Now he lives in Newark, Delaware. He started Youth Action International, a group that helps children affected by war. It operates humanitarian programs in several African nations. Ashley Rhodes-Courter lived in fourteen different temporary homes before being adopted at the age of twelve. Now she lives in Crystal River, Florida. She works to improve the lives of children with no parents. Divine Bradley is the fourth Golden BRICK Award Winner. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, he wanted to create a safe place where children could go after school. The result was Team Revolution, a community organization led by young people. It has provided after-school programs to more than five hundred young people. The BRICK Awards are given by a nonprofit organization in New York City called Do Something. It seeks to activate young people to find an issue that is meaningful to them and do something to bring about social change. Billboard Hot 100 HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Simon Gondo in Zimbabwe. He wants to know what the Billboard Hot One Hundred music chart is all about. Every week, Billboard Magazine publishes a list of the one hundred most popular singles in the United States. Billboard has a number of different charts for the music industry. Some list individual songs, others are for albums. Most of the charts are based either on sales or on airplay by radio stations. But a few, including the Hot One Hundred, are based on a mix of sales numbers and airplay. Billboard uses information collected by the Nielsen Company from radio broadcasts and music sellers. These include online stores like iTunes. The song "Poor Little Fool" recorded by Ricky Nelson was the first number one single on the Billboard Hot One Hundred. That was back in August of nineteen fifty-eight. (MUSIC) The song that stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot One Hundred for the longest time was "Iris" from the Goo Goo Dolls. It was number one for eighteen weeks in nineteen ninety-eight. (MUSIC) Billboard Magazine releases a new Hot One Hundred chart every Thursday. Each chart is dated for the Saturday of the following week. We leave you with the song that tops the Hot One Hundred for the week ending April twenty-first. It jumped forty-one places from last week to number one. Here is "Give It to Me" by Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Natella Konstantinova and Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US Brings Two Trade Cases Against China
* Byline: American officials say the Chinese are not protecting intellectual property. China expresses ''great regret'' at the actions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, the United States asked the World Trade Organization to help settle two trade disputes with China. Pirated materials from China, including movies and booksOne of these involves the issue of intellectual property. Books, magazines, movies, computer software -- intellectual property is all around us. Any property that can be legally protected against copying without permission can be considered intellectual property. Copyright protects things like written materials and images and music. Forms of intellectual property like ideas, plans and designs can be protected by patents. American officials say China is not doing enough to punish those who illegally copy American movies, music and software. United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab said "piracy and counterfeiting levels remain unacceptably high." She says this costs American companies and workers billions of dollars. The motion picture industry estimates that movie piracy in China cost more than two and one-half billion dollars in lost sales in two thousand five alone. The second dispute deals with barriers to trade in American books, music and movies in China. The United States says China limits imports of these products by requiring that they pass through state-owned or state-approved companies. The Chinese government expressed what it called "great regret" at the American decision to go to the World Trade Organization. It says the action could harm trade relations between the two countries. The first step now is a sixty-day period of negotiations to try to reach a settlement. The United States has growing trade deficits with China. Last year the deficit reached a record two hundred thirty-three billion dollars. But China says its monthly trade surplus with the world fell in March by more than seventy percent, to less than seven billion dollars. Experts, though, say the big drop may have been the result of one-time events. Many American businesses say China fails to enforce laws against illegal copying of intellectual property. But not all businesses are expected to support the United States action at the World Trade Organization. Groups representing the drug and software industries, for example, have entered into their own negotiations with Chinese officials. These groups are concerned that the cases now before the W.T.O. could interfere with their efforts. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Issues After Killings at Virginia Tech Go Beyond Debate Over Gun Laws
* Byline: Friday was an official day of mourning in Virginia for the 32 victims. It was also the eighth anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Friday was a statewide day of mourning in Virginia for the people shot to Mourners at a memorial in Blacksburg, Virginiadeath Monday at Virginia Tech. But other Americans also honored the thirty-two students and teachers. Some of the victims at the university in Blacksburg were from other countries. The attack by a student, Cho Seung-hui, who also killed himself, was the deadliest shooting in modern American history. The tragedy brought back memories of other school shootings, including what had been the worst. In fact, Friday was the eighth anniversary of the attack at Columbine High School in Colorado. Two young men killed twelve other students and one teacher, and themselves. Often, when a shooting captures national attention, debate about gun control follows. This week some of the calls to restart that debate came from political leaders in other countries. Australian Prime Minister John Howard spoke of the gun culture in the United States. He noted that his own country took action to limit the availability of guns after a man killed thirty-five people in Tasmania eleven years ago. British Home Office minister Tony McNulty studied at Virginia Tech. If the tragedy starts a serious debate on gun laws, he says, then some good may come from it. The White House said Friday that President Bush has ordered federal officials to study issues raised by the shooting. These include how to deal with people whose mental health problems can make them a danger. On Monday, a spokeswoman said the president believes that people have a right to arms, but all laws must be followed. The Second Amendment to the Constitution says: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Gun laws are not the only issue. Others involve privacy laws and disability rights that protect people with mental disorders. Killer?was 23 years oldCho Seung-hui was born in South Korea but lived most of his life in the United States. He was known at Virginia Tech as a troubled person. He studied English and some of his writings were so violent they scared other students and his professors. But schools may worry about legal action if they expel a student who has not made direct threats. Virginia Tech officials say they did what they could within the law. The shooter was armed with two handguns that he recently bought after passing a criminal history check. There are federal laws but each state also has its own laws on buying and selling guns. Virginia is among the states with fewer restrictions than others. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says an estimated thirty-nine percent of American homes have a gun. The campaign points to national injury reports from two thousand four, the most recent year available. There were almost thirty thousand gun-related deaths. About forty percent were murders. Most of the others were suicides or accidents. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Barbara Jordan, 1936-1996: A Powerful Voice for Justice and Social Change
* Byline: Jordan was the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress to represent Texas. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a woman who worked to make a difference in people’s lives, Barbara Jordan. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Barbara Jordan was a lawyer, educator and member of Congress. She was well known for her powerful, thoughtful speeches. During her long political career, Barbara Jordan worked for social change. She sought to use her political influence to make a difference for all Americans. Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Congress to represent Texas. In nineteen seventy-four, she gained national recognition as a member of the congressional committee investigating President Richard Nixon. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Barbara Charline Jordan was born in the southern city of Houston, Texas in nineteen thirty-six. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her father was a Baptist minister. He taught her a love of family, faith, music and language. As a child, Barbara’s parents pushed her to succeed. Barbara Jordan said her parents would criticize her for not speaking correct English. They urged her to become a music teacher, because they said that was the only good job for a black woman at that time. Her sisters did become music teachers. Barbara Jordan, however, explained later that she wanted to be something unusual. At first she thought about being a pharmacist, a scientist who is an expert in medicines. But, she noted, she never heard of an important pharmacist. VOICE ONE: In high school, Barbara heard a black woman lawyer speak. Miz Jordan decided to become a lawyer. She attended the all-black college, Texas Southern University in Houston. She led a championship debating team and became known for her speaking skills. She finished at the top of her class. Then she went onto Boston University law school in Boston, Massachusetts. After she finished law school, Miz Jordan returned to Texas. She began to work as a lawyer. She also discovered she was interested in politics. Her interest began when she helped in a presidential campaign. She worked to help get Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy elected in nineteen sixty. VOICE TWO: Soon, Miz Jordan decided to become a politician herself. She first campaigned for public office in nineteen-sixty-two. She wanted to become a member of the Texas House of Representatives. She lost that election, and another election two years later. In nineteen sixty-six, she decided to seek a seat in the Texas Senate. She won. Barbara Jordan became the first black person to serve in the Texas Senate since eighteen eighty-three. During her years as a Texas lawmaker, Miz Jordan proposed and helped pass legislation dealing with social change. She helped reform public assistance programs and protect workers' wages. She also opposed legislation that would have made it harder for blacks and Latin Americans to vote. VOICE ONE: After eight years in the Texas Senate, Miz Jordan campaigned for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. She won easily. She was the first woman and first black to be elected to Congress to represent Texas. In Congress, Miz Jordan spoke for the poor, for women, for African-Americans and Latin Americans. She believed strongly, however, in being loyal to her state and her political party. She considered the interests of the people of Texas before those of any other group. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy-four, Congresswoman Jordan was a member of the House Judiciary committee. The committee was investigating evidence of wrongdoing by then President Richard Nixon. The Congressional hearings into the situation known as Watergate were broadcast on national television. During the Watergate hearings, Miz Jordan declared her strong belief in the United States Constitution. She denounced President Nixon for violating it. She is remembered still for her commanding presentation at the hearing and deep knowledge of constitutional issues. The Watergate hearings that led to President Nixon’s resignation made Barbara Jordan known around the nation. VOICE ONE: Following the Watergate hearings, Barbara Jordan went on to other firsts. In nineteen seventy-six, she was asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention which nominated Jimmy Carter. Miz Jordan was the first black woman to give an opening speech at the Democratic Convention. She said members of the Democratic Party believe that the people are the basis of all governmental power. Democrats believe, she continued, that the power of the people is to be extended, not restricted. In her speech, Miz Jordan also urged Americans to work for the common good: BARBARA JORDAN? "Many fear the future. Many are distrustful of their leaders and believe that their voices are never heard. Many seek only to satisfy their private wants, to satisfy their private interests. But this is the great danger America faces -- that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups, each seeking to satisfy private wants. If that happens, who then will speak for America?? Who then will speak for the common good?" VOICE? TWO: The fact she was black and a woman did not seem to slow Barbara Jordan's rise. Her future seemed limitless. Then, in nineteen seventy-seven, Miz Jordan suddenly announced she was retiring from Congress and returning to Texas. She later said she felt she was not making enough difference. BARBARA JORDAN "If I felt that I could have been increasingly effective in that job, I suppose I would have continued to do it. But politics is (takes) a long, long time to make any significant, long-lasting difference." VOICE ONE: After returning to Texas, Barbara Jordan began teaching about political values at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. Her two classes were so popular, students had to be chosen from a long list. At the time that Miz Jordan left Congress, there were widespread reports that failing health was the cause for her decision. Later, it was announced that she had the disease called multiple sclerosis that affects the muscles. She had to move about in a wheelchair. But, she said, the disease did not lessen her thinking or the quality of her mind. Nor did it affect her ability to speak. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the years after she retired from Congress, Miz Jordan made two more appearances at Democratic National Conventions. She announced her support for the vice-presidential nomination of Lloyd Bentsen at the nineteen eighty-eight convention in Atlanta. She spoke from a wheelchair. Her powerful voice was heard once again at the nineteen ninety-two Democratic convention, which nominated Bill Clinton for president. In her speech, she called for national unity: BARBARA JORDAN "We are one, we Americans, we're one, and we reject any intruder who seeks to divide us on the basis of race and color. We honor cultural identity--we always have, we always will. But, separatism is not allowed (applause)--separatism is not the American way. We must not allow ideas like political correctness to divide us and cause us to reverse hard-won achievements in human rights and civil rights." VOICE ONE: Barbara Jordan considered herself a teacher first, above all else. By her example, she taught all Americans about the importance of one's beliefs and the power of truth. She developed pneumonia caused by the blood cancer, leukemia, and died January eighteenth, nineteen ninety-six. She was fifty-nine. VOICE? TWO: Barbara Jordan was buried wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest non-military honor given to Americans. President Clinton presented it to her in nineteen ninety-four. At the funeral ceremony, former Texas Governor Ann Richards said: "There was simply something about her that made you proud to be part of the country that produced her." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Newest Warnings on Climate Change Present It as a Security Threat
* Byline: A study warns of risk to US. Also, the UN Security Council discusses climate change for the first time, though with dissent from some developing nations. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. American officials have been warned that climate change presents a serious threat to national security. The warning came from a group of former?military leaders from all of the United States armed services. They released a study, published by a research organization. The nonprofit CNA Corporation brought together eleven retired admirals and generals. Among them was retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, who commanded American forces in the Middle East. March 5, 2007: US soldier with NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)?in Afghanistan's Farah provinceThey say effects of climate change should be considered in national security and defense planning. They also say the United States should take a stronger part in helping to limit climate changes at levels that will avoid conflicts. The study describes climate change as a "threat multiplier." Changes in the weather could lead, for example, to fights over water or other resources in areas already at risk of conflict. A worsening of conditions can lead to failed states, it says, and that can create fertile grounds for extremism and terrorism. The report warns of a danger of added tensions even in politically secure areas of the world. Sherri Goodman headed the project. She says two senators have already proposed legislation to further some of the ideas in the study. The two are Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Dick Durban of Illinois. The report came out last Monday, one day before the United Nations Security Council met to discuss the issue of energy, security and the climate. This was the first time the council has debated climate-related security threats. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett led the debate. Britain holds the council presidency this month. More than fifty U.N. delegations attended the day-long meeting in New York. Some delegates questioned if the council was going outside its main responsibility to prevent wars and protect world peace. Many of these delegates were from developing countries. They said climate change is an economic and social development issue for the General Assembly to consider. China’s representative noted the importance of existing international agreements to deal with climate change. But delegates from mostly small island nations welcomed the debate. The representative from Papua New Guinea spoke for the Pacific Islands Forum. He said the effects of climate change for small island populations are similar to any refugee crisis in larger nations in conflict. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: White Sands National Monument: A Wonder of Nature, in New Mexico
* Byline: Explore an extreme desert environment in the American Southwest. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA IN VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. One of the world’s great natural wonders is in the state of New Mexico, in the American Southwest. Nature has created huge moving hills of pure white sand. These sand dunes cover more than seventy-thousand hectares of desert. Now, Steve Ember and Mary Tillotson are your guides as we explore White Sands National Monument. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is one of the largest sand dune fields in the United States. The bright white sand dunes are always changing, always moving, like waves on the ocean. Driven by strong winds, the sand moves and covers everything in its path. It is like a huge sea of sand. VOICE TWO: The sand dunes have created an extreme environment. Plants and animals struggle to survive. A few kinds of plants grow quickly to survive burial by the moving sand dunes. Several kinds of small animals have become white in color in order to hide in the sand. White Sands National Monument protects a large part of this dune field. It also protects the plants and animals that live there. More than five-hundred-thousand people visit White Sands National Monument each year. They climb on the dunes and observe the moving sea of sand. VOICE ONE: You may wonder how all this sand arrived in the area. To understand that, you would have to travel back in time two-hundred-fifty-million years. An inland ocean once covered the area. The minerals calcium and sulfur were at the bottom of the ocean. Over time, the water slowly disappeared. The calcium and sulfur remained. The minerals formed gypsum rock. Then, seventy-million years ago, the Earth’s surface, or crust, pushed upward. The rocks formed two groups of mountains. Later, the crust pulled apart. The area between the mountains broke and fell down. It formed a half-circle shape of a bowl. This bowl of rock is known as the Tularosa Basin. VOICE TWO: About twenty-four-thousand years ago, it rained a great deal in the area. The rain filled the Tularosa Basin and formed Lake Otero. The rain and snow that washed down the mountains into Lake Otero carried gypsum with it. Later, Lake Otero almost completely dried up. Gypsum remained. A strong wind moved into the area. It blew across the land for thousands of years. Pieces of gypsum broke off. The wind wore them away to a size small enough to pick up and carry for short distances. Wherever the wind dropped sand, dunes formed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The sand dunes at White Sands National Monument are unusual because they are made of gypsum. Gypsum sand is different from common sand. Most sand is made of quartz, a hard silicon crystal. Gypsum sand is made of softer calcium sulfate. It dissolves easily in water. So it is rarely found in the form of sand dunes. Most gypsum would be carried away by rivers to the sea. But the Tularosa Basin is enclosed. No rivers flow out of it. So water with dissolved gypsum has nowhere to go. Gypsum sand is being made all the time. The dunes continue to form and move under the influence of water and wind. Water continues to wash down from the mountains carrying dissolved gypsum into the Tularosa Basin. Wind continues to blow across the Basin carrying the gypsum. The gypsum sand grains crash into each other. The crash creates tiny lines or scratches on the surface of the sand. These scratches change the way light shines off the surface. This makes the sand appear white. The sand dunes look like great masses of bright white snow. But they are not cold and wet. It only rains about eighteen centimeters each year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are four kinds of sand dunes at White Sands National Monument. Some of the dunes are small and fast-moving. They are called dome dunes because they are shaped like a half-circle. Few if any plants grow on them. These dunes move the fastest, up to twelve meters a year. Other dunes are called transverse dunes. They form in long lines across the dune field. They can grow to be one-hundred-twenty meters thick and eighteen meters high. Another kind of dunes are barchan dunes. They form in areas with strong winds but a limited supply of sand. These dunes have sand in three parts, like a body in the center and two arms on the sides. The sand in the two arms moves faster than the sand in the center. Parabolic dunes are the opposite of barchan dunes. They form when plants hold sand in the outer parts of the dune but the center of the dune continues to move. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may wonder how anything can live in this extreme environment of a white sand desert. There is not much rain. The heat in summer is intense. The sand lacks nutrients. Yet almost four-hundred kinds of animals live in White Sands National Monument. Many of them are birds or insects. There are also twenty-six kinds of reptiles, including rattlesnakes and lizards. And there are more than forty kinds of mammals. They include rabbits, foxes and coyotes. Scientists know that plants and animals often change to be able to live in extreme environments. For example, they change color to protect themselves from enemies. Many of the animals that live in the sand dunes have become white. So it is difficult to see the animals in the sand. There is another reason why you may not be able to see the animals. Many of them remain underground during the day when it is very hot. They come out at night when it is cooler. You may be able to see their footprints. VOICE TWO: Plants do grow in the White Sands dune field. But even plants that grow in most deserts have trouble surviving. A major reason is that the dunes bury any plants in their way as they move across the desert. Yet, a few plants have developed techniques to avoid being buried by moving sand. For example, some plants grow taller and their roots grow deeper into the sand. The soaptree yucca plant can make its stem grow longer to keep its leaves above the sand. The plant grows up to thirty centimeters a year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is about twenty-four kilometers southeast of the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the visitor center at the entrance of the park, you can find out about special activities and guided walks. From the visitor center, you can drive about thirteen kilometers into the center of the dunes. It is like driving on a lonely white planet. Along the way there is information that tells about the natural history of the white sands. You can also explore the dunes on foot. There are four marked trails. Signs along the trail tell about the plants growing in the sand. You can see some unusual and beautiful plants and flowers growing in the sand dunes. But you may not remove or destroy any plants or animals at White Sands. You can even camp there overnight. But you must be careful. It is easy to get lost in the waves of moving sand especially during sandstorms. There is no water to drink. The temperature can rise to thirty-eight degrees Celsius in summer. There is no shelter from the sun’s rays. VOICE TWO: There is another reason to be careful at White Sands National Monument. The White Sands Missile Range completely surrounds the park. It covers one-million hectares. The missile range was first used as a military weapons testing area after World War Two. It was used to test rockets that were captured from the German armed forces. The missile range continues to be an important testing area for experimental weapons and space technology. These tests take place about two times a week. For safety reasons, both the park and the road from it south to Las Cruces, New Mexico may be closed for an hour or two while tests are taking place. VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is part of America’s National Parks System. The park system includes more than three-hundred-seventy protected areas. White Sands National Monument is just one of the more unusual examples of America’s natural and cultural treasures. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and read by Steve Ember and Mary Tillotson. I'm Faith Lapidus. Internet users can find our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Ace in the Hole: Put on Your Poker Face
* Byline: Terms that come from card games. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) It is surprising how many expressions that Americans use every day came from the card game of poker. For example, you hear the expression, ace in the hole, used by many people who would never think of going near a poker table. An ace in the hole is an argument, plan or thing kept hidden until needed. It is used especially when it can turn failure into success. In poker and most card games, the ace is the highest and most valuable card. It is often a winning card. In one kind of poker game, the first card to each player is given face down. A player does not show this card to the other players. The other cards are dealt face up. The players bet money each time they receive another card. No one knows until the end of the game whose hidden card is the winner. Often, the ace in the hole wins the game. Smart card players, especially those who play for large amounts of money, closely watch the person who deals the cards. They are watching to make sure he is dealing honestly. They want to be sure that he is not dealing off the bottom of the stack of cards. A dealer who is doing that has stacked the deck. He has fixed the cards so that he will get higher cards. He will win and you will lose. The expression, dealing off the bottom, now means cheating in business, as well as in cards. And when someone tells you that the cards are stacked against you, he is saying you do not have a chance to succeed. In a poker game you do not want to let your opponents know if your cards are good or bad. So having a poker face is important. A poker face never shows any emotion, never expresses either good or bad feelings. No one can learn – by looking at your face – if your cards are good or bad. People now use poker face in everyday speech to describe someone who shows no emotion. Someone who has a poker face usually is good at bluffing. Bluffing is trying to trick a person into believing something about you that is not true. In poker, you bluff when you bet heavily on a poor hand. The idea is make the other players believe you have strong cards and are sure to win. If they believe you have strong cards and are sure to win. If they believe you, they are likely to drop out of the game. This means you win the money they have bet. You can do a better job of bluffing if you hold your cards close to your vest. You hold your cards close to you so no one can see what you have. In everyday speech, holding your cards close to your vest means not letting other know what you are doing or thinking. You are keeping you plans secret. We are not bluffing when we say we hope you have enjoyed today’s program. (MUSIC) This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Officials Hunt for an Explanation of Pet Food Scare
* Byline: One theory is that ingredients contained a chemical to create appearance of higher protein levels. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. ? Melamine is an industrial chemical. So how and why did it get into pet food that caused kidney failure in cats and dogs? And what might be the risk to the human food supply? These are questions that food safety investigators in the United States are trying to answer. Tests found melamine in wheat gluten imported from China and used in pet foods. The United States Food and Drug Administration says Chinese officials said the wheat gluten was not meant for pet food. They said it was meant for industrial use. But an F.D.A. official noted that melamine can make products appear to contain more protein than they truly do. So one theory is that it may have been added to the wheat gluten on purpose. In addition, the agency says melamine has been found in some pet food products in rice protein concentrate from China. Those products have been withdrawn from market. And, in another development, the Royal Canin operation in South Africa has recalled products made in its factory in Johannesburg. The company acted on reports of animals dying after eating food made with corn gluten that contained melamine. Royal Canin USA has announced it will no longer use Chinese suppliers for any of its vegetable proteins. In the United States, pet foods marketed under more than one hundred different names have been withdrawn, since March. Melamine has also been identified in the urine of pigs at a California farm. State health officials say the melamine is believed to have come from rice protein concentrate in pet food added to animal feed. Operations at the farm have been halted while further testing is done. But officials said the evidence so far suggested no serious health risk to anyone who ate meat from the pigs. The F.D.A. says it is looking for any threat to the human food supply. The agency says it is now testing samples from all shipments of rice protein concentrate from China. The agency says it is also testing all shipments of wheat gluten from China. The pet food scare as well as recent cases of people getting sick from bad food led a subcommittee in the House of Representatives to call a hearing Tuesday. The lawmakers have questions about the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to protect the safety and security of the nation's food supply. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are available at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tuberculosis Can Be Cured, But It Must Be Treated the Right Way
* Byline: If TB is not handled correctly, it can become resistant to drugs -- a serious problem in many countries. Second of two reports. Transcript of radio broadcast

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. On our program this week, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. It is one of the world's leading infectious diseases. We also tell about efforts to fight tuberculosis in several countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. That is about two billion people. One in ten people infected with the TB bacteria will become sick with tuberculosis at some time during their life. The WHO says almost nine million people became sick with the disease in two thousand five. About one million six hundred thousand people died of the disease that year. However, the WHO also says almost sixty percent of TB cases around the world are discovered. A large majority of them are cured. VOICE TWO: Most people infected with the bacteria never develop active TB. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. TB can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious sickness. The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated TB bacteria in their throat or lungs. The bacteria are spread into the air when infected people talk or expel air suddenly. Most TB cases can be cured with medicines. Successful treatment of TB requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course, or DOTS. Directly observed means that patients must go to local health centers every day or several times a week to take their medicines. Health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day. Full treatment usually lasts from six to nine months to destroy all signs of the bacteria. VOICE ONE: It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the TB bacteria becoming stronger, resistant to drugs, and more difficult to treat. This kind of TB is called multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or MDR-TB. The World Health Organization says MDR-TB is one hundred times more costly to treat than the other form of the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says most deaths from tuberculosis are in developing countries. More than half of all deaths from TB are in Asia. And half of all new cases are in six Asian countries. They are Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines. More than twenty-five percent of the world's multi-drug resistant tuberculosis cases are in Asia. Patients with MDR-TB must take more powerful and costly drugs for more than two years. Some patients experience side effects from the drugs. VOICE ONE: Experts say the fight against TB and drug resistance has been successful in Hong Kong. In the past fifty years, Hong Kong has reduced cases of TB by almost ninety-eight percent. In the nineteen fifties, the British colonial government built TB hospitals and began giving vaccines to children. The government also replaced poor, unclean housing with modern public housing. Today, the Chinese government gives anti-TB drugs free of cost in public health centers. Health workers visit patients who fail to go to health centers to get their medicines. So Hong Kong has very low levels of drug-resistant TB. VOICE TWO: ?The World Health Organization is improving its efforts against TB in China. Almost one million four hundred thousand people there develop active TB each year. Almost twenty-five percent of the world's multi-drug resistant cases are in China. The WHO says the situation is now improving. It says half of China's provinces have put the DOTS treatment method into effect. This has resulted in about a fifty percent reduction in deaths from TB. The WHO has also set a goal for nations in the Western Pacific area. They are being urged to cut by half infection rates and deaths from TB within three years. Doctors say this goal may not be possible because the disease AIDS is a serious problem in the Western Pacific. Other problems are poverty and lack of money for public health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Africa, more than three million people are living with TB. Five hundred thousand people there die each year from the disease. The number of TB victims is rising quickly in Africa. This is mainly because of the virus that causes AIDS. The virus weakens the body's ability to fight disease. Drug-resistant TB is a serious problem in South Africa. Sizwe Hospital in the city of Johannesburg treats only people with MDR-TB. Three thousand new cases of MDR-TB were identified in Johannesburg alone last year. People with this kind of TB have only a fifty percent chance of being cured. Patients must take one painful injection of medicine and as many as twenty-four pills each day. Treatment can take up to two years. The drugs have serious side effects. VOICE TWO: Few people survive a new kind of TB, called Extreme Drug-Resistant TB. This disease is resistant to just about every drug known to science. The National Health Laboratory in Johannesburg tests for drug-resistant TB. Its workers test five hundred samples from patients from all over southern Africa every day. The testing often last several weeks because each bacterium must be tested in several ways. Almost one-fourth of the bacteria tested are found to be drug-resistant. These have to be tested again to show which drugs they resist. During this time, the patient may be infecting other people. So it is important to find ways to test for the disease more quickly. The laboratory is now carrying out experiments with tests that identify drug-resistant bacteria within two days. This helps health workers quickly identify an infected person and begin treatment. VOICE ONE: Patients being treated for MDR-TB are separated from their families, sometimes for years. This causes economic and social problems for patients and family members. The head doctor at Sizwe Hospital says most patients accept treatment and separation. Health workers believe patients with drug-resistant TB should be separated to protect their communities. But human rights activists say this would be a violation of their rights. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tuberculosis is a health emergency in Russia. In February, the Russian parliament approved almost three billion dollars to fight infectious diseases such as TB. Russian studies show that eighty-three of every one hundred thousand people in Russia are infected with TB. Thirty thousand people die of the disease every year. However, the number of people infected is not fully known because officials say not all cases are reported. The WHO official for TB control in Central Asia says education about tuberculosis is lacking. The population does not know much about the disease or how it is treated. VOICE ONE: The United Nations says the highest rates of reported infection in Russia are among men between thirty-five and sixty-four years of age. Many of these men are unemployed and drink too much alcohol. Many are former prisoners who are also homeless. So treating these men is difficult. Health experts say tuberculosis spreads easily in prisons. The infection rate in prisons is about twenty times higher than the general population. Drug-resistant TB is also a problem there. VOICE TWO: World Health Organization officials say fighting TB in Russia is not just a medical problem but also one of economics and organization. They say government money is now available for health care workers to visit treatment centers to study the care and progress of the disease. There is also more money to train workers and provide equipment for laboratories. Health officials say there is now hope in the fight against TB. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Shelley Gollust. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Tuskegee Airmen: First African-Americans Trained As Fighter Pilots
* Byline: The excellent work of the Tuskegee Airmen during the Second World War led to changes in the American military policy of racial separation. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It was July second, nineteen forty-three. It was foggy near the ground. But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew upward, over the Mediterranean Sea. The water was calm and very blue. The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes flying to Italy. The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their weapons were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. The bombers began to unload their cargo at the target area. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions on the ground. VOICE TWO: A group of enemy fighter planes immediately appeared. The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them. In the battle that followed, Lieutenant Charles Hall shot down a German plane. It was the first time a pilot from the Ninety-Ninth defeated an enemy aircraft. He was the first African-American fighter pilot in the United States armed forces to shoot down an enemy plane. Charles Hall and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama to fight for their country during World War Two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty, African-Americans made up about one and one-half percent of the United States army and navy. But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes. They had begun campaigning for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One. In nineteen seventeen, African-Americans who requested acceptance into military pilot training were told that black air groups were not being formed at the time. Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many white people that black people could not fight. In nineteen thirty-one, Walter White and Robert Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for black students, the Tuskegee Institute. The War Department refused. It said the Air Corps chose men with technical experience. The department also said that blacks were not interested in flying. And it said that so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many of them had to be refused acceptance. VOICE TWO: The War Department’s refusal led many to feel that blacks would only be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps through legislation by Congress. Black leaders used the United States’ preparation for entry into World War Two to pressure Congress. They criticized the unfair treatment of African-Americans in the armed services. In nineteen thirty-nine, Congress approved a bill guaranteeing blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots. It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established in Tuskegee, Alabama. VOICE ONE: Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military. Yet they continued to work against the military policy of racial separation. The War Department answered these critics by making plans to form several new black fighting groups. It also promoted a black colonel, Benjamin O. Davis, Senior, to Brigadier General. And the War Department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, as civilian aide on African-American affairs. Judge Hastie was the head of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flight training school in Tuskegee. He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separated from them. The Air Corps said there was no space in other programs. And it said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training. So Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition, although he was not satisfied with the plan. Fred Patterson was the president of the Tuskegee Institute. He also objected to separate training of black pilots. He said it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. But he finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He recognized that blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks would now become military pilots. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. The first group of African-Americans completed the training as fighter pilots in March, nineteen forty-two. General Davis’s son, Benjamin O. Davis, Junior, was among the first graduates. Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces. After the war, the Army Air Forces would become the United States Air Force. Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October, nineteen forty-two. Its commander was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Junior. VOICE ONE: The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, nineteen forty-three. The pilots gained fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of that year, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time air power alone completely destroyed all enemy resistance. The Tuskegee Airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included? the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in the first months of nineteen forty-four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Later, in July, they shot down thirty-six enemy planes. Their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war. VOICE TWO: In September, nineteen forty-three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three Hundred Thirty-Second Fighter Group. The Ninety-Ninth Squadron became a part of that group. Four hundred fifty black pilots were in the group. They flew more than fifteen thousand five hundred flights in Europe. The Tuskegee Airmen guarded bomber airplanes. They destroyed more than one hundred enemy airplanes in the air, including German fighter planes. And two of the Tuskegee Airmen each shot down four enemy planes. VOICE ONE: Nine hundred ninety-six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee Airmen represented both honor and inequality. Members of the group received almost one thousand military awards during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the military’s racial policy. History experts say the Tuskegee airmen proved that black men could fly military airplanes in highly successful combat operations. And the group’s success helped end the separate racial policy of the American military. In nineteen forty-eight, President Harry Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen. The next year, the Air Force announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airmen became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States. In March, two thousand seven, the United States Congress honored the Tuskegee Airmen at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The group received the country's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. President Bush with Tuskegee airmen Roscoe Brown, center, and Alexander Jefferson during the Congressional Gold Medal ceremonyPresident Bush spoke to the surviving airmen and their families. He praised their bravery to fight in the face of the unequal treatment they suffered at home. Retired Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell also spoke to the group. He thanked them for leading the way to equal racial treatment in the United States. He said the Tuskegee Airmen showed America that there was nothing a black person could not do. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Think 'Uh Huh' and 'Unh Unh' Sound Alike? Then You'll Be Saying 'Oops!'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we talk with English teacher Nina Weinstein about some expressions in spoken American English that you might not find in a dictionary. RS: But if you are a good listener, you'll hear them. They give people time to think while helping connect one thought to the next. NINA WEINSTEIN: "One of the useful links, I think, is the expression 'let's see,' which means 'let me think.' Often my students will use a kind of word like that from their own language. And so they'll be speaking Japanese or Spanish or whatever with their linking word and THEN they'll continue the rest of the sentence in English. And so I give them 'let's see' as a way to bridge their thoughts and also give them time to think." AA: "'Let's see' also has a meaning in itself, though, too, doesn't it? Where, for example, you're not sure which way you've decided on something so you'll say 'OK, let's see' -- let's see what happens. 'Let's see.'" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I think you're right. I think it could indicate that you're not sure of the answer. It has a lot of meanings. And a lot of these have dual meanings, like the simple expression 'uh huh.' Uh huh can mean that we're listening to what the person is saying, so this is a way of keeping them talking. It can also mean yes, or it can be pronounced 'um hmm.'" RS: "What about no?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "'Unh unh.' And my students often have a problem distinguishing between uh huh and unh unh." AA: "Give us an example of how to use them correctly." NINA WEINSTEIN: "'Do you want to go to the movie?' 'Uh huh.' Do you think that the movie will start after nine?' 'Unh unh.'" RS: "You say your students have trouble distinguishing between the two?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Right." RS: "Now, do you reinforce them with facial expressions or shaking your head, or nodding your head [yes] or shaking your head no?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I talk about the beat. If you listen to 'uh huh,' the accent is on the second syllable. If you listen to 'unh unh,' it's equal. So 'unh unh' is more staccato. And I tap my hand on the desk to kind of reinforce this. And then I usually asked them if they sing karaoke or something like that, so they get the idea of the beat. But I don't sing for them!" AA: "Unh unh." RS: "So you give them a couple of examples and they're tapping out on their desk whether it's yes or no?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly." RS: "I want to go back to unh unh, uh huh and a third one, 'uh oh.'" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Uh oh." RS: "They sound very similar. We have three here and if you could go over them again for us, I think that would be very useful because they sound so similar, but they're used in such different contexts." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, I think if we look at the rest of the sentence or listen to the rest of the sentence, that gives us a big clue. If someone asks a question and the answer is uh huh, then it has to be either yes or no, so that pretty much narrows it. If there's a situation -- for instance, if a person spills some coffee or something like that, and the person says 'uh oh,' I think there's a kind of feeling that the situation gives us that something bad has happened, and uh oh means 'oh no,' there's a problem, something bad has happened, there's trouble or something like that. So often the situation will give us the idea." AA: "It's a synonym for 'oops,' right?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "It can be oops. We also say 'whoops.'" AA: "What about a word like 'hey'?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Hey is actually a conversational strategy and it's used to draw attention to what you're talking about: 'Hey, did you see the movie on Channel 3 last week?' So I can delete the hey and still have a good sentence, but hey adds a kind of attention focus to the sentence." RS: "What would you suggest to do to teach these things? Is it just to listen a lot?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I think that often what I read in the literature is a kind of lumping together of all of these strategies. But just in what we've spoken about today, you can see that they're very complicated, or they can have multi-purposes, each one. So I think that we need to give students systematic practice in hearing them and in distinguishing when the differences can be confusing, such as uh huh/unh unh." AA: Nina Weinstein is an English teacher in Southern California and author of the book "Whaddaya Say? Guided Practice in Relaxed Speech." She's put together a list of conversational strategies including the ones we talked about today, which we'll post on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Uh Huh Oh Yeh"/Paul Weller --- Conversational StrategiesBy Nina Weinstein Vocabulary or techniques used in spoken English, but not in written: Uh huh shows the speaker you’re listening; can mean “yes”; can be pronounced “um hmm” (mouth closed) Unh unh means “no”; can be pronounced “mm mm” (mouth closed) Uh, um?give the speaker time to think. (Don’t use these too much.) Hmm?means “I’m thinking” or “That’s interesting.” Can be pronounced “Mmm.” (“Mmm” can also mean “I like it" – food, an idea, etc.) Uh oh?means “Oh no, there’s trouble.” You know?establishes understanding between the speaker and listener ("The restaurant is on the street; you know, the one just before you get to the mall.")?It also gives the speaker time to think. Huh? is informal for “what?” Can be pronounced “hmm?” Hey?is a casual way to draw attention to what you’re saying. Often begins a sentence. In other words can begin a sentence.Can be used to check that the listener understood the speaker (very useful for second language learners) Oops or whoops?is used when someone makes a mistake or drops something. Let’s see means “let me think” or “I’m thinking.” Often begins a sentence. Tsk tsk tsk expresses disapproval Aha means “I’ve discovered something.” Usually said with a lot of emphasis. Other conversational strategies include: Irregular pacing. Natural English isn’t spoken at one speed; native?speakers can speed up or slow down within a speech, sentence, or even a phrase. Repetition of words. Words and phrases are often repeated spontaneously. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Breast Cancer in US Stayed Down in '04 for Second Year
* Byline: Authors of a new study see the most likely reason as a drop in users of hormone replacement therapy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Last year, researchers reported that breast cancer rates in the United States dropped in two thousand three. That was after about twenty years of rising. Many experts linked the drop to a sharp reduction in the use of hormone replacement therapy for older women. The researchers found that breast cancer rates dropped by almost seven percent between two thousand two and two thousand three. Now, they have just reported that the decreased rates were also present in two thousand four. Breast cancer rates were at their lowest level since about nineteen eighty-seven, they say. But they also say that in two thousand four there was little additional decrease. The study found that the drop was mostly in women age fifty to sixty-nine. And it was mostly in the kind of breast cancer fed by estrogen. Estrogen is one of the hormones given to women in hormone replacement therapy, or HRT. The use of HRT began to drop soon after a major study appeared in two thousand two. The Women's Health Initiative study found that the therapy did not protect against heart disease, as had been thought. Instead, it found that hormone replacement increased the risk for some kinds of cancer, as well as heart attacks and other problems. The use of hormone replacement therapy dropped almost forty percent soon after that report appeared. The latest findings about breast cancer rates appeared last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers used information gathered by the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health. Peter Radvin and Donald Berry of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center led the research. Doctor Radvin notes that the kind of study they did cannot prove that hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer. And both researchers say they are not suggesting that all women stop the therapy. Doctor Radvin says he will continue to advise his patients to use the lowest strength of hormones for the shortest time possible. Critics of the study include Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a maker of hormone replacements. One question, it says, is why breast cancer rates leveled off in two thousand four even though use of the therapy continued to drop. The company says the reduction in breast cancer rates could have been the result of something unrelated to the drugs. And that’s the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: The '60s Become a Time of Social Revolution and Unrest
* Byline: After Kennedy's murder, a time of innocence and hope began to look like a time of anger and violence. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen sixties. VOICE ONE: The nineteen sixties began with the election of the first president born in the twentieth century -- John Kennedy. For many Americans, the young president was the symbol of a spirit of hope for the nation. When Kennedy was murdered in nineteen sixty-three, many felt that their hopes died, too. This was especially true of young people, and members and supporters of minority groups. VOICE TWO: A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. More Americans protested to demand an end to the unfair treatment of black citizens. More protested to demand an end to the war in Vietnam. And more protested to demand full equality for women. By the middle of the nineteen sixties, it had become almost impossible for President Lyndon Johnson to leave the White House without facing protesters against the war in Vietnam. In March of nineteen sixty-eight, he announced that he would not run for another term. VOICE ONE: In addition to President John Kennedy, two other influential leaders were murdered during the nineteen sixties. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior was shot in Memphis, Tennessee in nineteen sixty-eight. Several weeks later, Robert Kennedy--John Kennedy's brother--was shot in Los Angeles, California. He was campaigning to win his party's nomination for president. Their deaths resulted in riots in cities across the country. VOICE TWO: The unrest and violence affected many young Americans. The effect seemed especially bad because of the time in which they had grown up. By the middle nineteen fifties, most of their parents had jobs that paid well. They expressed satisfaction with their lives. They taught their children what were called "middle class" values. These included a belief in God, hard work, and service to their country. VOICE ONE: Later, many young Americans began to question these beliefs. They felt that their parents' values were not enough to help them deal with the social and racial difficulties of the nineteen sixties. They rebelled by letting their hair grow long and by wearing strange clothes. Their dissatisfaction was strongly expressed in music. Rock-and-roll music had become very popular in America in the nineteen fifties. Some people, however, did not approve of it. They thought it was too sexual. These people disliked the rock-and-roll of the nineteen sixties even more. They found the words especially unpleasant. VOICE TWO: Bob DylanThe musicians themselves thought the words were extremely important. As singer and song writer Bob Dylan said, "There would be no music without the words," Bob Dylan produced many songs of social protest. He wrote anti-war songs before the war in Vietnam became a violent issue. One was called Blowin' in the Wind. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In addition to songs of social protest, rock-and-roll music continued to be popular in America during the nineteen sixties. The most popular group, however, was not American. It was British -- the Beatles -- four rock-and-roll musicians from Liverpool. (MUSIC) That was the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand. It went on sale in the United States at the end of nineteen sixty-three. Within five weeks, it was the biggest-selling record in America. VOICE TWO: Other songs, including some by the Beatles, sounded more revolutionary. They spoke about drugs and sex, although not always openly. "Do your own thing" became a common expression. It meant to do whatever you wanted, without feeling guilty. Five hundred thousand young Americans "did their own thing" at the Woodstock music festival in nineteen sixty-nine. They gathered at a farm in New York State. They listened to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez, and to groups such as The Who and Jefferson Airplane. Woodstock became a symbol of the young peoples' rebellion against traditional values. The young people themselves were called "hippies." Hippies believed there should be more love and personal freedom in America. VOICE ONE: Allen GinsbergIn nineteen sixty-seven, poet Allen Ginsberg helped lead a gathering of hippies in San Francisco. No one knows exactly how many people considered themselves hippies. But twenty thousand attended the gathering. Another leader of the event was Timothy Leary. He was a former university professor and researcher. Leary urged the crowd in San Francisco to "tune in and drop out". This meant they should use drugs and leave school or their job. One drug that was used in the nineteen sixties was lysergic acid diethylamide, or L-S-D. L-S-D causes the brain to see strange, colorful images. It also can cause brain damage. Some people say the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about L-S-D. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As many Americans were listening to songs about drugs and sex, many others were watching television programs with traditional family values. These included The Andy Griffith Show and The Beverly Hillbillies. At the movies, some films captured the rebellious spirit of the times. These included Doctor Strangelove and The Graduate. Others offered escape through spy adventures, like the James Bond films. VOICE ONE: Many Americans refused to tune in and drop out in the nineteen sixties. They took no part in the social revolution. Instead, they continued leading normal lives of work, family, and home. Others, the activists of American society, were busy fighting for peace, and racial and social justice. Women's groups, for example, were seeking equality with men. They wanted the same chances as men to get a good education and a good job. They also demanded equal pay for equal work. VOICE TWO: A widely popular book on women in modern America was called The Feminine Mystique. It was written by Betty Friedan and published in nineteen sixty-three. The idea known as the feminine mystique was the traditional idea that women have only one part to play in society. They are to have children and stay at home to raise them. In her book, Mizz Friedan urged women to establish professional lives of their own. VOICE ONE: That same year, a committee was appointed to investigate the condition of women. It was led by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a former first lady. The committee's findings helped lead to new rules and laws. The nineteen sixty-four civil rights act guaranteed equal treatment for all groups. This included women. After the law went into effect, however, many activists said it was not being enforced. The National Organization for Women -- NOW -- was started in an effort to correct the problem. VOICE TWO: The movement for women's equality was known as the women's liberation movement. Activists were called "women's libbers." They called each other "sisters." Early activists were usually rich, liberal, white women. Later activists included women of all ages, women of color, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. They acted together to win recognition for the work done by all women in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Virginia Tech: 'As Strong a Place as It Has Always Been'
* Byline: University officials say they have seen no sign that foreign students are rejecting admission offers because of the killings. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A moment of silence was observed Monday for each of the 32 shooting victims at Virginia TechClasses began again at Virginia Tech on Monday, one week after the shootings by a student. Seung-Hui Cho, an English major in his final year of college, killed thirty-two people. He also took his own life. University officials were criticized for not acting more quickly to warn of the danger of a gunman. School administrators across the country are re-examining their security policies and communications systems. But they say privacy laws restrict how they can deal with mentally troubled people, even if there are warning signs of possible violence. Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, is a public university that has gained greater recognition in recent years. Its engineering and computer science programs, for example, are known internationally. Seven percent of the students at Virginia Tech are international students. The Cranwell International Center at the university says there are about two thousand foreign students this year. They come from more than one hundred countries. But most are graduate students from India, China and South Korea. Jacqueline Nottingham is the Graduate School director of admissions and academic progress. She says more than four thousand foreign students applied to the Graduate School for the term beginning in August. More than three thousand of those applications were for the College of Engineering. She says she has not seen any evidence that foreign students are rejecting admission offers because of the tragedy. She says Virginia Tech is, in her words, "as strong a place as it has always been." Graduate applications are accepted until May fifteenth. As of Wednesday, Jacqueline Nottingham said six hundred sixty-nine international students had been offered admission. Just over forty percent of them have already accepted the offers. Norrine Bailey Spencer is the associate provost and director of undergraduate admissions. She says she has received e-mails and notes from some students who say they want to be part of Virginia Tech now more than ever. More than three hundred international students have been offered undergraduate admission this coming fall. In the United States, undergraduates traditionally have until May first to accept or reject an offer from a college. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. This and other reports in our Foreign Student Series can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Not Enough Room for a Tiger in Your Home? A Toyger May Be Answer
* Byline: Also: A question from Pakistan about cowboys. And Cajun music by the Pine Leaf Boys. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about cowboys ... Play music by the Pine Leaf Boys ... And tell about a new kind of cat. Toyger Cats Have you ever seen a tiger and wished you could have one as a pet? Well, the largest member of the cat family now comes in a smaller version. American cat breeders have worked for years to develop the toyger. This new kind of house cat looks just like a toy tiger. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: A professional breeder named Judy Sugden developed the toyger cat by selecting and mating other cats. Toygers are large-boned cats with orange-gold colored fur and black markings. A perfect toyger also has small rounded ears and a white stomach. A toyger is usually a very playful and intelligent pet that behaves more like a dog than a cat. Miz Sugden’s mother is a cat breeder as well. Jean Mill studied genetics in college and put her skills to work in creating the Bengal cat. This cat looks just like a small leopard. Judy Sugden decided that she would create a tiger look-alike to go with her mother’s leopard breed cat. To do this, she mated a Bengal cat with a tabby cat that had special marks on its fur. Over many years she worked to mate cats that had the size and appearance that she was looking for. In two thousand, the International Cat Association accepted the toyger as a new breed of cat. Over time, toyger breeders may try to change the current appearance of the cat. They may work to bring out qualities such as its round ears and a straighter nose. But owning this small cat can come at a high price. Baby cats that have the right qualities to be prize-winning toygers can cost thousands of dollars. Kittens that are sold just to be pets can still cost from five hundred to one thousand dollars. Also, purebred cats often have genetic health problems. And some animal doctors question the morality of creating new cat species. Many homeless cats are put to death in animal shelters because of overpopulation. Still, it is hard not to like these energetic and beautiful toyger cats. Judy Sugden says that in breeding toygers she is helping to save the spirit of wild tigers. These larger cats may be disappearing from the wild. But it is still possible to have a smaller version to play with at home. Cowboys HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Pakistan. Tayyab Ajmal asks about the American cowboy. History experts say the traditional American cowboy became important after the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. People who owned cattle ranches hired these men to control large groups of cattle over large areas of land. For twenty years, thousands of cowboys drove millions of longhorn cattle from Texas to the new railroads in Kansas and Colorado. Experts say that men came from all over the United States to work as cowboys in the West. Cowboys were excellent horse riders. They trained wild horses. They used rope to catch and tie runaway animals. The work that cowboys did was difficult and dangerous. The pay was low. And their lives were lonely. Cowboys were brave and independent. They wore special clothing for the needs of the job. The cowboy became the symbol of the American West. After about nineteen hundred, the need for cowboys decreased. Many books, movies and television shows continued to tell stories about cowboy heroes. ?The rodeo was invented to prevent the cowboy lifestyle from disappearing. Rodeos today include most of the same skills used by cowboys one hundred years ago. These include riding wild horses and bulls. Pulling steers to the ground by their horns. And using ropes to catch and tie the legs of a cow. Cowgirls also take part in rodeo competitions. One event for women is called barrel racing. The cowgirl must ride her horse around each of three large containers, then ride back to the starting area. The winners of these rodeo events receive money as prizes. Rodeos are big business, earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Some take place in large indoor centers. Many of the rodeo performers are professional rodeo cowboys. They may enter as many as one hundred or more rodeos a year to earn a living. They travel from one rodeo to another to take part in a dangerous sport. A cowboy can earn thousands of dollars for an eight-second ride on a wild horse. Or he might break his neck. The Pine Leaf Boys The Pine Leaf Boys are five musicians who are bringing new energy and life to the old traditions of Cajun and Creole music. These young men live in the southern state of Louisiana. Their skillful performances and deep love of music shine in their two albums. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Cajun music is the sound invented by French people who settled in southern Louisiana in the eighteenth century. Many of these traditional songs are in a version of French spoken in Louisiana. The Pine Leaf Boys all grew up listening to this music. Here is the fast beat of the "Pine Leaf Boy Two-Step." It is sure to make you want to start dancing. (MUSIC) Wilson Savoy is one of the band's members. He sings and plays the fiddle and accordion. Wilson grew up in a family with a rich musical history. His father, Marc Savoy, is well known across America for his finely made button accordion music instruments. His mother, Ann Savoy, sings and plays the guitar. She recently released the album "Adieu False Heart" which we told about in a story last September. Wilson says that one reason Cajun music has survived is because it is dance music. He says Cajuns need to go out dancing and have a good time. Here is "La Belle Josette" sung by Cedric Watson. (MUSIC) The Pine Leaf Boys perform often in Louisiana and all around the United States. Wilson Savoy says that if they were not performing on stage they would be at home playing for themselves and their friends. This summer they will perform in England and France. Their performances are filled with great energy. It is not unusual for them to trade instruments in the middle of a concert. We leave you with "Ma Petite Femme" from their newest album "Blues de Musicien." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Teaching the Student Loan Industry a Lesson
* Byline: Conflicts of interest between lenders and colleges are investigated in US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Imagine this: An official in a position of trust helps you choose a company for a service important to your future. You expect that the advice will be in your best interest. What you do not know is that the person's office has a financial relationship with that company. The official may have received gifts like trips or stock options, or money for professional advice. Would you wonder, then, just whose interest was being served? This is what some American states are investigating in connection with the student loan industry. They are examining possible conflicts of interest when schools direct students to lists of so-called preferred lenders. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says colleges and universities often fail to tell about their ties to banks and other finance companies. His office has already settled cases including with two big lenders. Sallie Mae, the nation's biggest education lender, agreed to pay two million dollars. And Education Finance Partners agreed to pay two and one-half million. Neither of them admitted any wrongdoing. The money will go to educate students about loans. In some cases, when students call a school for loan advice, they talk to a lending company employee. But they are not always told that. Andrew Cuomo wants financial aid offices and lenders to follow a set of rules, a College Loan Code of Conduct. These would end financial ties between lenders and schools, including gifts and trips. At the same time, lawmakers are seeking changes in the student loan system. Mister Cuomo was at a hearing Wednesday in the House of Representatives. He criticized the Department of Education for not doing enough to control the student loan industry. A day earlier, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a committee to study federal student loan programs. And last week, her department temporarily restricted the use of a national system of financial records on millions of students. She said officials were concerned about an increase in usage of that government database by lenders and other companies. In another development, Sallie Mae, officially the SLM Corporation, has agreed to a buyout offer. Two banks and two private equity companies are offering shareholders twenty-five billion dollars. The deal is unusual. Loan companies generally do not produce enough profit to finance a sale based largely on borrowed money. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Yeltsin: Russia's First Freely Elected Leader, but a Mixed Record
* Byline: Experts say history will remember Boris Yeltsin as a democratic leader in some ways but not in others. They also say his Russia was more open than it is now. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, Russia buried its former president with full honors in Moscow. Boris Yeltsin died Monday at age seventy-six. He served from nineteen ninety-one to nineteen ninety-nine. He will always be remembered as Russia's first democratically elected leader. But his record is seen as a mix of good and bad for the country. A farewell ceremony in Christ the Savior Cathedral in MoscowBoris Yeltsin rose within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. But in nineteen eighty-seven he rebelled against the Soviet system. He called for more reform. Within a month, he was dismissed as party chief in Moscow. He became a leader of Russia's political opposition. In nineteen eighty-nine, he was elected to the Soviet parliament. Two years later he was elected president of the Russian republic -- at that time, the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. Mikhail Gorbachev was president of the Soviet Union. That same year, nineteen ninety-one, a group of plotters from the military, Communist Party and KGB secret police tried to seize power. Leaders of the attempted overthrow detained Mister Gorbachev. But Mister Yeltsin climbed onto an army tank in Moscow to urge people to resist. The coup attempt failed. Four months later, in December, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned and the Soviet Union collapsed. Yet in the years that followed Boris Yeltsin's heroic moment, his popularity fell. In October of nineteen ninety-three, he ordered the army to shell the parliament building to end an occupation by his opponents. The next year, he ordered troops into Chechnya to crush a separatist rebellion. The war that followed resulted in more than seventy-five thousand deaths, mostly civilians. Yet Mister Yeltsin's presidency also led to open elections in Russia. It led to private property rights and the right to free speech. He pushed for economic reforms. But critics said those policies went too far, leaving millions of Russians in poverty. They said the restructuring gave too much economic power to a small number of very wealthy business people, known as oligarchs. Boris Yeltsin had a history of heart problems and heavy drinking. He suffered a heart attack between the first and second rounds of balloting in the nineteen ninety-six presidential election. His condition, though, was kept hidden. In nineteen ninety-nine, six months before the end of his second term, Mister Yeltsin resigned. To take his place, he chose his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, a former KGB spy. Mister Putin was then elected president in two thousand and re-elected four years later. This week he remembered Mister Yeltsin as a man thanks to whom "a new democratic Russia was born." Political scientists say history will remember Boris Yeltsin as a leader who was democratic in some ways but not in others. They say Russia under Mister Yeltsin was a far more open place than it was during Soviet times -- and more open than it is now. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: A Building Designer Ahead of His Time
* Byline: He was the greatest American architect of the 20th century. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about the life and work of the greatest American building designer of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for more than seventy years. He did most of his work from nineteen hundred through the nineteen fifties. He designed houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and office buildings. Critics say Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most creative architects. One critic said his ideas were fifty years ahead of the time in which he lived. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Frank Lloyd Wright was born in eighteen? sixty‑seven in the middle western state of Wisconsin. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In eighteen eighty‑seven, he went to the city of Chicago. He got a job in the office of the famous architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Several years later, Wright established his own building design business. He began by designing homes for people living in and near Chicago. These homes were called "prairie houses." VOICE ONE: Prairie houses were long and low. They seemed to grow out of the ground. They were built of wood and other natural materials. The indoors expanded to the outdoors by extending the floor. This created what seemed like a room without walls or a roof. In nineteen-oh-two, Wright designed one prairie house, called the Willits House, in the town of Highland Park. The house was shaped like a cross. It was built around a huge fireplace. The rooms were designed so they seemed to flow into each other. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Chicago can see another of Wright's prairie houses. It is called the Robie House. It looks like a series of long, low rooms on different levels. The rooms seem to float over the ground. Wright designed everything in the house, including the furniture and floor coverings. Wright's prairie houses had a great influence on home design in America. Even today, one hundred years later, his prairie houses appear very modern. VOICE ONE: In the nineteen thirties, Wright developed what he called "Usonian" houses. Usonia was his name for a perfect, democratic United States of America. Usonian houses were planned to be low cost. Wright designed them for the American middle class. These are the majority of Americans who are neither very rich nor very poor. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that all middle class families in America should be able to own a house that was designed well. He believed that the United States could not be a true democracy if people did not own their own house on their own piece of land. VOICE TWO: Usonian houses were built on a flat base of concrete. The base was level with the ground. Wright believed that was better and less costly than the common method of digging a hole in the ground for the base. Low‑cost houses based on the Usonian idea became very popular in America in the nineteen fifties. Visitors can see one of Wright's Usonian homes near Washington, D. C. It is the Pope-Leighy House in Alexandria, Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright believed in spreading his ideas to young building designers. In nineteen thirty‑two, he established a school called the Taliesin Fellowship. Architectural students paid to live and work with him. During the summer, they worked at his home near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright called this house "Taliesin." That is a Welsh name meaning "shining brow." It was built of stone and wood into the top of a hill. During the winter, they worked at Taliesin West. This was Wright’s home and architecture office near Phoenix, Arizona. Wright and his students started building it in nineteen thirty-seven in the Sonoran Desert. VOICE TWO: Taliesin West is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of organic architecture taking root in the desert. He believed that architecture should have life and spirit. He said a building should appear to grow naturally and easily from its base into its surroundings. Selecting the best place to put a building became a most important first step in the design process. Frank Lloyd Wright had discovered the beauty of the desert in nineteen twenty-seven when he was asked to help with the design of the Arizona Biltmore hotel. He continued to return to the desert with his students to escape the harsh winters in Wisconsin. Ten years later he found a perfect place for his winter home and school. He bought about three hundred hectares of desert land at the foot of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale, Arizona. Wright said: “ I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear sun-filled air, by the stark geometry of the mountains.”? He wanted everyone who visited Taliesin West to feel this same sense of place. VOICE ONE: His architecture students helped him gather rocks and sand from the desert floor to use as building materials. They began a series of buildings that became home, office and school. Wright kept working on and changing what he called a building made of many buildings for twenty years. Today, Taliesin West has many low stone buildings linked together by walkways and courtyards. It is still very much alive with activity. About seventy people live, work and study there. Guides take visitors through what is one of America’s most important cultural treasures. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty‑seven, Wright designed a house near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a fine example of his idea of organic architecture. The house is called "Fallingwater." It sits on huge rocks next to a small river. It extends over a waterfall. From one part of the house, a person can step down a stairway over the water. "Fallingwater" is so unusual and so beautiful that it came to represent modern American architecture. One critic calls it the greatest house of the twentieth century. Like Taliesin West, "Fallingwater" is open to the public. VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright also is famous for designing imaginative public buildings. In nineteen‑oh‑four, he designed an office building for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo, New York. The offices were organized around a tall open space. At the top was a glass roof to let sunlight into the center. In the late nineteen thirties, Wright designed an office building for the Johnson Wax Company in Racine, Wisconsin. It also had one great room without traditional walls or windows. The outside of the building was made of smooth, curved brick and glass. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty‑three, Frank Lloyd Wright designed one of his most famous projects: the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York City. The building was completed in nineteen sixty, the year following his death. The Guggenheim is unusual because it is a circle. Inside the museum, a walkway rises in a circle from the lowest floor almost to the top. Visitors move along this walkway to see the artwork on the walls. The Guggenheim museum was very different from Wright's other designs. It even violated one of his own rules of design: the Guggenheim's shape is completely different from any of the buildings around it. VOICE ONE: When Wright was a very old man, he designed the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, near San Francisco. The Civic Center project was one of his most imaginative designs. It is a series of long buildings between two hills. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture is life itself taking form. “Therefore,” he said, “it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today, or ever will be lived.” Frank Lloyd Wright died in nineteen fifty-nine, in Phoenix, Arizona. He was ninety‑one years old. His buildings remain a record of the best of American Twentieth Century culture. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Clearing a PATH to Better Health in Developing Countries
* Byline: The Seattle-based Program for Appropriate Technology in Health is 30 years old and has programs in 65 countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, or PATH. PATH is a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, Washington. It was created to deal with technology needs for world health, especially reproductive health. Since then, it has expanded into other areas including vaccine research and prevention of AIDS and malaria. It has programs in sixty-five countries. PATH works with local partners to design and test new technologies. It also works with companies to manufacture and sell them. One of its products is called the BIRTHweigh scale. This is used to identify babies who have a dangerously low birthweight, less than two and one-half kilograms. The scale was designed for health workers with low reading skills. At first it used colors to show different weight levels. But tests in Indonesia found that it also had to be readable in low-light situations, like at night in a house without electric power. The handheld scale was redesigned so a person could feel a button sink into the handle if a baby is a healthy weight. Now the scale is being designed to provide a guide to the right amount of nevirapine to give a baby. Nevirapine is a drug that can prevent the spread of H.I.V. from an infected mother to her child. H.I.V. is the virus that causes AIDS. Teresa Guillien at PATH says the group will spend about one hundred sixty million dollars on its programs this year. PATH gets money from the United States government and other countries and international agencies. Donations also come from companies, individuals and foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Last Wednesday, on Africa Malaria Day, PATH marked the first year of an expanded campaign to prevent malaria in Zambia. The aim is to provide protective bed nets to about eighty percent of the population. PATH has also developed a nutritionally enriched grain called Ultra Rice. Ultra Rice is being used in Colombia, Brazil and India. Among other projects, PATH is trying to make sure the new cervical cancer vaccine is available in developing countries. And, in the future, Teresa Guillien says PATH hopes to work more on strengthening health systems in those countries. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn about other groups working in the developing world, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Queen to Return to Jamestown to Mark 'America's 400th Anniversary'
* Byline: Queen Elizabeth's visit this week is part of an 18-month effort in Virginia to show how England's first permanent settlement in the New World changed the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I’m Barbara Klein. ? VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Next month is the four hundredth anniversary of Britain's first permanent settlement in America. Today, we tell the story of Jamestown. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In sixteen-oh-seven, three ships loaded with explorers and supplies crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. On May fourteenth the men landed at a small island at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay. In all, there were one hundred four men and boys. They immediately began work on a settlement on the shores of the James River. They named it Jamestown. King James the First in England had agreed to let the explorers from the Virginia Company establish a settlement in North America. They were told to find gold and a way to sail to the Orient. The four hundredth anniversary of Jamestown is being honored with eighteen months of cultural and educational programs around Virginia. They began in May of last year and are meant to show how a struggle for survival changed the world. Many parts of the Jamestown story are being retold to mark what the organizers call "America's 400th Anniversary." VOICE TWO: The Jamestown Settlement that people visit today is a re-creation of the colony and a nearby Powhatan Indian village. The state of Virginia built the Jamestown Settlement in nineteen fifty-seven to celebrate the three hundred fiftieth anniversary. Visitors can stop at the Jamestown Settlement, or drive down the road to a place called Historic Jamestowne on Jamestown Island. The National Park Service and a Virginia historical group jointly operate the island. Historic Jamestowne is where the English built their colony. But fifty years ago there was not much to see. VOICE ONE: Site of settlers' fortSeveral months after arriving in America, the colonists built a three-sided fort along the edge of the island. For years, researchers believed that the structure had worn away into the James River. But in nineteen ninety-four, archeologists began a project called Jamestown Rediscovery. They discovered part of the fort. Since then, they have located the positions of all three sides, along with several deep wells. Artifacts in the new ArchaeariumMore than one million objects dating back to the first colonists have come out of the ground. These include tobacco seeds and plant remains. Many of the artifacts can be seen in a new museum called the Archaearium on the grounds of Historic Jamestowne. VOICE TWO: Past where the fort was built is the old colonial church on Jamestown Island. The first representative legislature in America met at the Jamestown Church in sixteen nineteen. During this meeting, a plan of self-government was established for all future colonies in America. Jamestown ChurchThe colonists built the church out of wood in sixteen seventeen. Then, in sixteen thirty-nine, they replaced it with a church made of stone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Britain's Queen Elizabeth the Second came to Jamestown for the three hundred fiftieth anniversary in nineteen fifty-seven. It was her first visit to the United States as queen. A memorial cross was raised on the eastern coast of Jamestown Island. It marked the difficult first few years of life at Jamestown. The colonists did not have enough food. They suffered from diseases. They also fought with the Native Americans who lived in the area. VOICE TWO: Now, fifty years later, Queen Elizabeth will return to the former colony to observe the four hundredth anniversary of Jamestown. Kevin Crossett works for a Virginia agency that is helping organize Jamestown events with local, state and national groups. He says officials have taken special care to include all the cultures involved in the earliest years of the settlement. Past anniversaries at Jamestown have mainly centered on the European experience. But with this anniversary, Kevin Crossett says, each culture gets to tell its own story in its own words. American Indian groups are involved in the anniversary events. But, as Kevin Crossett notes, they do not consider the observance a celebration. After all, the Native Americans lost land and people when the English arrived. The idea of a "celebration" might not appeal much to black Americans either. The first black people to arrive in Jamestown were slaves from Africa. VOICE ONE: The Jamestown observance began last May when a copy of the ship Godspeed sailed up the East Coast. This is a modern version of one of the three ships that carried the first settlers to Jamestown Island. The other two, which have also been re-created, were the Susan Constant and the Discovery. Last week, a historical re-creation called "Journey Up the James" began at Virginia Beach. When the three ships first arrived in America, they landed at Virginia Beach before heading farther up the James River. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, plan to be in Virginia on May third and fourth. This will be the queen's first visit to the United States in sixteen years. But the main event of the Jamestown observance, a three-day anniversary weekend, begins Friday, May eleventh. Organizers have invited President Bush to speak. The honorary chairwoman for the events is former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The weekend will include music and cultural performances. Artists will demonstrate glass-making from the seventeenth century. Earlier events for the Jamestown anniversary have included Indian and African-American cultural programs. There was also an educational program called "Jamestown Live." This was a one-hour Internet broadcast in November involving history experts and others. Organizers say more than one million students around the world took part in the program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first settlers at Jamestown imagined that it would become a great city. In fact, after less than a century, it burned to the ground in a rebellion led by a colonist named Nathaniel Bacon. The colony never recovered and the capital of Virginia at that time moved to Williamsburg. Still, England had established a permanent presence in North America. VOICE TWO: As part of the Jamestown observance, a special program will take place in September in Williamsburg. The gathering will examine the role of democracy in world politics. Leaders and students from around the world have been invited to discuss the future of democracy in the developing world. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. For a link to the Jamestown anniversary Web site, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-09-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Bigwig: Such an Important Person
* Byline: Terms for people who are powerful, at least in their own mind. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Some expressions describe people who are important, or at least who think they are. One such expression is, bigwig. In the seventeenth century, important men in Europe began to wear false hair, called wigs. As years passed, wigs began to get bigger. The size of a man's wig depended on how important he was. The more important he was -- or thought he was -- the bigger the wig he wore. Some wigs were so large they covered a man's shoulders or back. Today, the expression bigwig is used to make fun of a person who feels important. People never tell someone he is a bigwig. They only use the expression behind his back. Big wheel is another way to describe an important person. A big wheel may be head of a company, a political leader, a famous doctor. They are big wheels because they are powerful. What they do affects many persons. Big wheels give the orders. Other people carry them out. As in many machines, a big wheel makes the little wheels turn. Big wheel became a popular expression after World War Two. It probably comes from an expression used for many years by people who fix the mechanical parts of cars and trucks. They said a person "rolled a big wheel" if he was important and had influence. The top of something is the highest part. So it is not surprising that top is part of another expression that describes an important person. The expression is, top banana. A top banana is the leading person in a comedy show. The best comedian is called the top banana. The next is second banana. And so on. Why a banana? A comedy act in earlier days often included a part where one of the comedians would hit the others over the head with a soft object shaped like a banana fruit. Top banana still is used mainly in show business. But the expression also can be used to describe the top person in any area. A kingpin is another word for an important person. The expression comes from the game of bowling. The kingpin is the number one pin. If hit correctly with the bowling ball, the kingpin will make all the other nine pins fall. And that is the object of the game. So, the most important person in a project or business is the kingpin. If the kingpin is removed, the business or project will likely fail. Kingpin is often used to describe an important criminal, or the leader of a criminal gang. A newspaper may report, for example, that police have arrested the suspected kingpin of a car-stealing operation. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I'm. Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Stopping Bird Flu by Spreading Knowledge About Protective Steps
* Byline: Third in a series of reports on deadling with the threat from avian influenza. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we present the third in a series of reports about the disease bird flu. In this report, we will tell how people can protect themselves and their families from the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says the world is closer to a pandemic of the influenza virus than at any time since nineteen sixty-eight. In a pandemic, the flu virus would spread quickly to large numbers of people in many countries. Right now, a deadly bird flu virus is not spreading among people very easily. But that could change. The W.H.O. and other health organizations believe people can help stop the spread of bird flu if they have more information about the disease. VOICE TWO: By the end of March, one hundred seventy people had died of bird flu in twelve countries. Vietnam had a very high number of deaths at first. But the country has had no human cases of bird flu since late two thousand five. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says animal health officials in Vietnam have been able to prevent the virus in farm birds from spreading to people. Part of the reason is better communication at all levels about the causes and prevention of bird flu. VOICE ONE: Most bird flu cases in human beings have resulted from people touching infected farm birds, such as chickens, ducks or turkeys. Last year, for example, bird flu killed three members of a family in Egypt. They lived in the same house. All three persons had helped to kill and clean infected ducks. The Egyptian government has offered important advice for people who work with live birds. The government says protection from bird flu comes partly from knowing how to recognize the disease and strong prevention efforts. It says protection also results from stopping the spread of the virus, and informing health officials when you suspect bird flu. VOICE TWO: In many countries, chicken and other farm birds are an important part of the diet. Farm bird sales are important to the economies in these countries. So some governments have organized campaigns to tell people to continue eating well-cooked chicken. Some health officials and governments have had problems when they attempt to give advice about bird flu. When bird flu is reported in a country, the government usually announces how people can prevent the disease in their own families. Other announcements say it is safe to eat chicken and eggs as long as they are completely cooked. Yet people often do not follow the rules about preventing bird flu. For example, they may stop eating chicken and eggs. A writer in The Scientist magazine noted recently that people’s feelings sometimes are stronger than the facts. VOICE ONE: In Africa, many families keep chickens and other birds near their homes. Many people buy live chickens from markets. So everyone could be at risk. Here is the best information about ways to protect yourself and your family from bird flu. First, children and women who are pregnant should stay away from farm birds. Children like to play with birds and other animals, but they are not careful about what they touch. Children should not play with birds or gather their eggs. Do not swim in or use water that may have been used by birds. Heat any of this water to a very high temperature before drinking it or using it for cooking. Wear protective clothing on your body and hands when working with farm birds. Remember to clean your shoes or feet before going in the house. Keep birds away from areas where people eat or sleep. In fact, it is best not to bring farm birds into the house at all. VOICE TWO: It is also important to follow rules of good health and cleanliness when preparing and eating meat or eggs from farm birds. Keep the meat of birds that have not been cooked away from other foods. After cutting uncooked meat, use soap and water to wash hands, knives and cutting surfaces. If possible, use a strong cleaning agent like bleach. Be sure that meat and eggs from farm birds are completely cooked before eating them. The yellow and white parts of the egg must be cooked until they are solid. Freezing or keeping meat cold will not kill the bird flu virus. Only complete cooking will kill the virus. VOICE ONE: You can also protect farm birds from bird flu. When buying chickens, keep them away from the birds you already have for at least two weeks. Cover the water your birds drink so that it is not used by wild birds. Clean the areas where farm birds stay. As soon as a bird looks sick, remove it from the area. If you take birds to the market and bring some of them home, temporarily keep them away from your other birds. Owners of farms also can take preventative steps. They should not borrow equipment from other farms. If vehicles enter your farm, wash the wheels so they cannot bring in dirt that might contain the bird flu virus. When you return from a market, wash the boxes or containers that were used to carry farm birds. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You need to know the signs of bird flu in a chicken or duck. Birds will appear tired and refuse to eat. The skin around a bird’s head may become blue. The head and legs may become larger. ?Birds infected with bird flu may produce more waste than usual. They usually make very few eggs and may die suddenly. The shells of their eggs may be very soft. Prevent the spread of bird flu by putting dead farm birds into closed containers or bags. Do not throw dead birds into lakes, rivers or other waterways. Do not eat or sell any part of a bird that has died from disease. Bury dead farm birds or their body parts far away from homes and farms. It is important to report dead birds to animal health officials as soon as possible. If there is bird flu in your area, do not visit other farms or let visitors come to your farm. VOICE ONE: There are also rules for hunters and people who work with birds for sport. Wash your hands completely when touching birds used for sport or wild birds. Do not touch any of the bird’s blood or body fluids. Cover your nose and mouth when cleaning areas where birds have been fighting. If you hunt birds, do not use dogs. Dogs can become infected with the bird flu virus when they carry infected birds. Do not hunt wild birds in areas where there have been cases of bird flu. When you are cleaning birds you have killed, cover your nose, mouth and hands. Be sure to wash your hands and all your tools after you are finished. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What happens if you follow all these rules and someone in your family gets sick?? How will you know if it is bird flu?? People who could be infected with the bird flu virus will have difficulty breathing. They may have a very high body temperature, an eye infection and pain in their throat or muscles. If someone you know has these problems, care for the person without touching him anymore than you need to. Do not sleep in the same room with a person who may have bird flu. Take the person to a doctor as soon as possible. VOICE ONE: There are medicines that can help make the bird flu sickness less severe. Scientists are working to make a medicine to protect against bird flu. There are some such vaccines for farm birds. Last month, American health officials approved a vaccine that offers some people protection against bird flu. But scientists are working to develop a more effective vaccine. VOICE TWO: Finally, it is important to find good ways to share information about bird flu. For example, a group of parents in Indonesia started their own campaign to educate other parents. A leader of the group said too many families do not have televisions to see announcements from the government. So the group organized a four-hour program in a local school. One parent said she wanted to share the information she learned so that there would be no more bird flu deaths in Indonesia. Another leader said the group wants to educate workers who collect waste and people who sell goods on city streets. She said these people could talk to other people and help spread information about the disease. As one school official has noted, more people will die if public knowledge about bird flu is lacking. VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Karen Leggett. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-04/2007-04-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Seed Collection Effort Aims to Safeguard 21 Food Crops
* Byline: Many of the crops included in a new $37.5 million project are important to feeding the poor in developing countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A boy carries cassava in the Democratic Republic of CongoA new project will try to protect twenty-one of the world's most important food crops by securing their seeds. Organizers say the project will "rescue" seed collections in developing countries where many gene banks are in poor condition. This is a joint project of two organizations, the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the United Nations Foundation. Cary Fowler, the director of the trust based in Rome, says it will be the largest such effort ever made. The aim is to collect seeds or reproductive material from one hundred sixty-five thousand varieties of the crops. Organizers say the effort will secure more than ninety-five percent of the endangered crop diversity represented in gene banks in developing countries. They say the fight against hunger cannot be won without securing crops that are in danger of being lost. Many of the crops are known as "orphan crops." Orphan crops do not get much attention from modern plant breeders but are especially important in poor countries. These include cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, taro and coconut. Some orphan crops cannot be grown from seeds. Instead, cuttings, roots and cell cultures will be gathered from gene banks. And the project will finance research into lower-cost ways to protect these crops. The project will also finance an information system for plant breeders to search gene banks worldwide. They will be able to look for plants with the right qualities to resist new diseases and the effects of climate change. Still another goal is to improve communications between farmers and plant breeders. The organizers say they look forward to a time when breeders in Africa can find the same crop genetic information as those in Europe and North America. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to provide thirty million dollars for the project. Norway will provide seven and one-half million dollars. The Global Crop Diversity Trust says at least four hundred fifty thousand seed samples will go into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The trust and the government of Norway are building this in the side of a mountain on an island near the North Pole. Seeds from around the world will be stored there in case the planet suffers a terrible disaster. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is expected to open in March of two thousand eight. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Discoveries Throw New Light on Stonehenge, but Mysteries Remain
* Byline: Researchers find the remains of an ancient community at nearby Durrington Walls. The discovery shows Stonehenge did not stand alone. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about new discoveries near Stonehenge, the famous ancient circle of stones in southern England. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For thousands of years, the circle of ancient stones called Stonehenge has been one of the most mysterious places on Earth. Scientists say Stonehenge has stood in England for at least four thousand years. Millions of people from all over the world have visited the ancient monument. Stonehenge is the best known of a number of such ancient places in Britain. It stands on the flat, windy Salisbury Plain, near the city of Salisbury, England. Early Britons built Stonehenge from bluestone and a very hard sandstone called sarsen. Experts believe the builders of Stonehenge knew about design, engineering and sound. These ancient people did not have highly developed tools. But they built a huge monument of heavy stones. VOICE TWO: Some of the monument's standing stones have lintel stones on top.The lintels lie flat on the standing stones. Most of the stones of Stonehenge stand in incomplete formations of circles. They differ in height, weight and surface texture. One of the largest stones weighed about forty thousand kilograms. Some stones are more than seven meters high. Other broken stones lie on the ground. Work on Stonehenge may have started as early as five thousand years ago. Scientists believe it was completed over three periods lasting more than one thousand years. Archeologists have studied Stonehenge for many years. For centuries, people have questioned the meaning of the stones. VOICE ONE: A woman celebrates the winter solstice at Stonehenge last December 22Now, archeologists have discovered remains of an ancient village that may have been home to the workers who built Stonehenge. People from the village also may have used the huge monument for religious ceremonies. The discovery of the village helps confirm an important theory about Stonehenge. The huge monument did not stand alone. Stonehenge may have been part of a larger religious complex.The theory also proposes that people held events in the village and at Stonehenge to celebrate the change of seasons and honor the dead. The scientific process of radiocarbon dating found that the village is about four thousand six hundred years old. The archeologists believe the inner circle of Stonehenge was also built at about that time. The timing led them to believe that the people of the village could have built Stonehenge. VOICE TWO: The scientists found the remains of the village about three kilometers from Stonehenge.Archeologists from the Stonehenge Riverside Project made the discovery in and around an area called Durrington Walls. Scientists believe Durrington Walls was an ancient community with hundreds of people.It included a larger version of Stonehenge made of wood and earth. Mike Parker Pearson was the main archeologist for the Stonehenge Riverside Project. Mister Parker Pearson said placing the plan of Stonehenge over that of the wooden structure at Durrington Walls proves the great similarity of design. VOICE ONE: The team of researchers discovered the remains of several houses. Mister Parker Pearson says his team found remains of stone tools and bones of humans and animals in the houses.The researchers also found jewelry and broken clay containers.The large amount of animal bones and pottery suggested that the people might have been taking part in a celebration.The floors had marks that showed where fires had been built. Julian Thomas of Manchester University discovered the remains of two houses that were separated from the others.They lacked all the objects and remains found in the other houses. Mister Thomas said religious leaders might have lived in the two houses. Or the houses might have been religious centers. Study of the area is far from finished. As many as twenty-five or thirty houses may be found in and near Durrington Walls over time. The Stonehenge Riverside Project will last several more years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Researchers believe that no people ever lived at Stonehenge.So the village might have provided places to stay for the people attending celebrations at Stonehenge. Many scientists believe the early people gathered in the area to mark the change of seasons -- the winter and summer solstices. The winter solstice takes place when the sun reaches its most southern point.It is the shortest day of the year. The summer solstice happens when the sun reaches its most northern point.It is the longest day of the year. VOICE ONE: The researchers also found a stone road near Durrington Walls.The road is about thirty meters wide. It goes to the Avon River. A similar road goes from Stonehenge to the same river.Mister Parker Pearson said Stonehenge and the Durrington Walls area had many similarities. For example, Stonehenge was in line with the sunset during the winter solstice.The wooden structure at Durrington Walls was in line with the sunrise that same day. The road from Stonehenge to the Avon River was aligned with the sunrise during the summer solstice. The road from Durrington to the Avon was in line with that day's sunset. VOICE TWO: Mister Parker Pearson said he believes the discoveries show that Durrington and Stonehenge may have represented the living and the dead.The temporary wooden circle at Durrington represented life. The permanent stone monument at Stonehenge represented death. Mister Parker Pearson said he believes that the ancient people had celebrations at Durrington. Then they went down the road and placed human remains or dead bodies in the Avon River. The river carried the remains downstream to Stonehenge. The people traveled by boat to Stonehenge. There they burned and buried the remains of the dead. Scientists have found evidence of funeral fires near the Avon River not far from Stonehenge. Earlier discoveries produced burned remains at Stonehenge.And the Stonehenge Riverside Project uncovered burned remains of about two hundred fifty people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Joshua Pollard of Bristol University and his team discovered a sandstone formation that marked an ancient burial area. They found a sarsen stone almost three meters long. It was lying in a field next to the Avon River, about three kilometers east of Stonehenge. The scientists say it had been standing upright, like the stones that form the main structure of Stonehenge. They also found partly burned remains of two people buried next to the stone.And they found stone tools, clay containers and a rare rock crystal.Mister Pollard said the crystal possibly came from as far away as the Alps mountains. VOICE TWO: Today, the work of the Stonehenge Riverside Project is increasing knowledge about ancient life in Britain. The research team says there is evidence from old maps and ancient sources for other similar monuments near Stonehenge and connected to it. Another theory says that people from other areas in Europe traveled to Stonehenge for the observances held there. Some day, researchers may be able to tell the whole story of the ancient village and the stone and wood monuments.But until that day, Stonehenge and its ancient partners are keeping many secrets. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson.It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember.You can read scripts and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In Moldova, as Demand for English Grows, Teachers Try Best They Can
* Byline: 

 AA:?I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: another in our recent conversations with English teachers from around the world. These are teachers I met in Seattle at the annual convention of the TESOL association. TESOL stands for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Every year I ask some of the teachers I meet what it's like to teach English in their country. This week, the spotlight is on a former Soviet republic of four million people in Eastern Europe. VIKTORIYA GALIY: "My name is Viktoriya Galiy and I am the director of the International Language Training Center in Moldova. And Moldova, it's a very small country between Ukraine and Romania. And our school has been operating since nineteen ninety-four. And we teach English -- predominantly in English, but also German, Romanian, Italian. "And we also are going to expand and add a few more languages, like Spanish and French. And we teach English to adults, to the sixteen and older, but also we have teenagers and younger learners, like four-and-a-half through six years old. "What it is like teaching in Moldova? Well, it is not easy, because I would say that we don't have native English speakers, teachers. That's one thing. And then another thing is it's -- the difficulty is to train our local teachers, because again we would like to be more exposed to international programs, but again we don't have those. "But I would say that the interest [in] English is growing, and rapidly. Maybe it's because of the European Union that is out there, close to Moldova, getting closer to Moldova. But I would say mostly it's because young people, they would like to study English and go study abroad, or use English in their work in those companies that are international companies. "Again, the interest is growing because in Moldova, the special thing about Moldova is that French was the language that people would study in schools and universities. And whenever it is something that comes up in English, so people had difficulty. And, again, now the interest is growing, and so now like French is not that popular, of course, and English is like [the] number one language." AA: "And how much influence are you seeing of slang, of American slang, from movies, from television, or maybe from e-mails, among the young people in their writing?" VIKTORIYA GALIY: "It's huge. Absolutely huge. And especially with like small kids. Sometimes they come and they say something that the teachers do not understand and then parents say, oh, you know, we watch these cartoons, and that's why the kid picks up language from cartoons or movies rapidly. And you know we even have these workshops, like Saturday workshops for free for our students, and slang, American slang, was one of our topics, just because there is interest among students and this is something that we needed to explore." AA: "Well, as an English teacher, how do you feel about that, when students use it? Do you teach them the proper context or when it's OK to use slang and when it's not?" VIKTORIYA GALIY: "Of course, we have to teach slang, but within the appropriate content, right? The thing is that we are far away from that contact, as teachers. That's why -- this is one of the problems that we face. We would like to know more, to hear more about slang, and using slang in everyday speech. It's just the thing that we don't have is the opportunity every day." AA:?Viktoriya Galiy is executive director of the International Language Training Center in Chisinau, Moldova. So far in the past few weeks, we've brought you English teachers from Iraq, Libya, the United States, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and now Moldova. These segments can all be found at our Web site. Go to voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Discovery Could Ease Blood Shortages in Hospitals
* Byline: Researchers test an easier way to make 'universal' blood out of other types. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists may have found a way to reduce shortages of type O blood. Type O is the kind of blood that hospitals most often need. What the researchers are testing is an easier way to make type O blood out of other kinds of blood. Health worker collects freshly donated bloodThere are four main blood types. Most people are born with one of these four: type A, type B, type AB or type O. Type O is known as the universal blood type. It can be safely given to anyone. So it is commonly used when a person is injured or sick and has to have a blood transfusion. Type O is the most common blood group. But the supplies of it available in hospitals and blood banks are usually limited. This is because of high demand. Type O blood is used in emergencies when there is no time to identify the patient's blood type. Giving A, B or AB to someone with a different blood type, including O, can cause a bad reaction by the person's defense system. Their immune system can reject the blood. This immune reaction can be deadly. For example, people may die if they receive transplanted organs from someone with the wrong blood type. The difference between blood types is related to whether or not red blood cells contain certain kinds of sugar molecules. These molecules are found on the surface of the cells. They are known as antigens. These antigens are found with type A, B and AB blood but not with type O. More than twenty-five years ago, scientists found that the antigens could be removed to create universal-type cells. They could be removed with chemicals called enzymes. But large amounts of enzymes were required to make the change. Now, a report published in Nature Biotechnology describes two formerly unknown bacterial enzymes. The scientists say these enzymes remove the antigens more easily. To find these enzymes, the researchers examined more than two thousand five hundred kinds of bacteria and fungi. Doctor Henrik Clausen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark led the study. He worked with researchers from France, Sweden and the United States. The next step, they say, is to complete safety tests. The team is working with the American company ZymeQuest to test the new method. If it meets safety requirements and is not too costly, it could become a widely used life-saving tool to increase the supply of universal blood. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Choosing a Student Exchange Program to Come to the US
* Byline: Part 35 of our Foreign Student Series looks at programs for high school and college students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series this week with two questions that we received. Anatolii Artamonov, a university student in Ukraine, would like to know about student exchange programs in the United States. Anatolii would especially like to know about the one called Work and Travel USA. And fifteen-year-old Betty Xu in China wants to know about a program called ASSE. ASSE is the American Scandinavian Student Exchange. This program was established in Sweden in nineteen seventy-six to organize exchanges with the United States. It expanded to include students in Norway, Denmark and Finland. Today ASSE organizes international exchanges for high school students in thirty-one countries. The students live with a family and attend school for a year. Other programs also offer high school students a chance to come to the United States. These include AFS, Youth for Understanding and the Program of Academic Exchange, or PAX. For college students, there are programs like the International Student Exchange Program, or ISEP. This is a group of almost three hundred colleges in thirty-nine countries. ISEP is an independent organization that was supported by the United States government until nineteen ninety-six. ISEP is a true exchange program. That means two students from different countries trade places for a semester or a year. Work and Travel USA is also for college students. But this program is not for those who want to study in the United States. It provides international students with the chance to work for up to four months while exploring American life. The State Department says they generally work in hotels, restaurants and amusement parks but may also work for other employers. An organization called CIEE administers this program. It says students must understand that the money they earn from their work may not be enough to pay all of their costs. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States is available online, with helpful links to Web sites, at voaspecialenglish.com. Our series offers all kinds of information and advice for international students who want to attend an American college or university. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com, and please be sure to include your full name and where you are from. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 1968 in America: a Year of Social Unrest and a Presidential Election
* Byline: President Lyndon Johnson had decided not to seek another term, so the Democrats nominated Hubert Humphrey. The Republican candidate was Richard Nixon. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Stan Busby. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nineteen sixty-eight was a presidential election year in the United States. It was also one of the saddest and most difficult years in modern American history. The nation was divided by disputes about civil rights and the war in Vietnam. VOICE TWO: March 31, 1968: Lyndon Johnson announces a bombing halt in Vietnam and his decision not to seek re-electionPresident Lyndon Johnson had helped win major civil rights legislation. Yet he had also greatly expanded American involvement in the war in Vietnam. By early nineteen sixty-eight, it was almost impossible for him to leave the White House without facing anti-war protesters. Johnson wanted to run for another four-year term. But his popularity kept dropping as the war continued. He understood that he no longer had the support of a majority of the people. In March, he announced that he would not be a candidate. VOICE ONE: One reason Johnson decided not to run was a senator from Minnesota, Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy competed against Johnson in several primary elections. The primaries are held months before a political party holds its presidential nominating convention. Delegates to the convention often are required to vote for the candidate their party members chose in the primary. Thousands of college students helped the McCarthy campaign before the primary election in New Hampshire. They told voters all over the state that their candidate would try to end the war. McCarthy received almost forty-two percent of the votes in New Hampshire. Johnson received less than fifty percent. For a president in office, the vote was an insult. VOICE TWO: Robert Kennedy, left, with his brother, President John F. KennedyAfter McCarthy's success, Senator Robert Kennedy of New York decided to enter the campaign, too. He was a brother of president John Kennedy, who had been murdered in nineteen sixty-three. Robert Kennedy had served as Attorney General, the nation's highest legal officer, in his brother's administration. Many people were pleased when Robert Kennedy announced his decision. They liked his message. He said: "I run to seek new policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities. I seek to lessen the differences between black and white, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the world." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, the nation's top civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. Robert Kennedy spoke about king's death to a crowd of black citizens. ROBERT KENNEDY: "What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom. And compassion toward one another. And a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black." VOICE TWO: No words, however, could calm the anger of America's black community. Martin Luther King had led the civil rights movement with peaceful methods. Yet his death led to violence in almost one hundred-thirty cities in America. Soldiers were called to crush the riots. Hundreds of people were killed or injured. After the riots, another man decided to campaign for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. The new candidate was Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Traditional Democrats supported him.(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The primary elections continued. Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy tried to show how different they were. Many voters, however, saw little difference between their positions on major issues. Both men opposed the war in Vietnam. Both sought social reforms. Both sought improvement in civil rights in America. Kennedy defeated McCarthy in primaries in Indiana and Nebraska. McCarthy defeated Kennedy in Oregon. The next big primary was in California. Kennedy said that if he did not win this important contest, he would withdraw. He won. VOICE TWO: Perhaps Robert Kennedy might have won his party's nomination for president. Perhaps he might have defeated the Republican Party candidate in the national election. The nation would never know. Kennedy made his California victory speech at a hotel in Los Angeles. As he was leaving the hotel, he was shot. He died a few hours later. The man who shot him was Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. He was a Palestinian refugee. He said he blamed Robert Kennedy for the problems of the Palestinians. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The nation's two major political parties held their nominating conventions in the summer of nineteen sixty-eight. The Republicans met first. It was soon clear that Richard Nixon would control the convention. Nixon had run for president in nineteen-sixty. He lost to John Kennedy. Eight years later, he won several primary elections. He was a strong candidate to win the Republican nomination again. The other candidates were Ronald Reagan, governor of California, and Nelson Rockefeller, governor of New York. On the first ballot, Nixon got more than two times as many votes as Rockefeller. Reagan was far behind. Most of the delegates then gave their support to Nixon, and he accepted the nomination. The delegates chose the governor of Maryland, Spiro Agnew, to be their vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: The convention of the Democratic Party was very different from the convention of the Republicans. The Democrats were the party in power. Protests against the war in Vietnam were aimed at them. Thousands of anti-war protesters gathered in the city of Chicago during the political convention. The city's mayor, Richard Daley, had ordered the police to deal severely with all protesters. Many of the young people were beaten. Much later, the federal government ordered an investigation. The report said that the riots in Chicago were a result of the actions of the police themselves. VOICE ONE: Inside the convention building, the delegates voted for their presidential candidate. They did not choose the man who had done so well in the early primary elections, Eugene McCarthy. Instead, they chose the more traditional candidate, Hubert Humphrey. For their vice presidential candidate, they chose Edmund Muskie, a senator from Maine. VOICE TWO: The two men running for president, Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, supported American involvement in Vietnam. Yet during the campaign, both spoke about finding ways to end the conflict. Both also spoke about finding ways to end social unrest in the United States. Many voters saw little difference between the two candidates. About six weeks before election day, public opinion studies showed that the contest was even. VOICE ONE: Nixon's major problem was his past. He had made enemies during his early political life. These people now tried to renew public fears about his record as a man who made fierce, unjust attacks on others. Vice President Humphrey's major problem was that he was vice president. He had to defend the administration's policies, even the unpopular ones. If he said anything that was different, another member of the administration intervened. VOICE TWO: Once, for example, Humphrey said the United States would stop dropping bombs on north Vietnam. But President Johnson did not act for a month. He gave the order to stop only four days before the election. Later, Humphrey said the delay harmed his campaign so badly that he could not recover from the damage. VOICE ONE: On Election Day, Richard Nixon won -- but not by much. He received a little more than forty-three percent of the votes. Hubert Humphrey received just a half a percent less. Nixon was about to become president. It was the position he had wanted for a long time. It was to be a presidency that would change American government for years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mix Caribbean, West African, Pop and Hip-Hop, What Do You Get? Akon
* Byline: Also: a question from Vietnam about the life stories of Helen Keller and Sally Ride. And we check out the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about two famous American women … Play music by Akon … And tell about a craft show in Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Craft Show HOST: Where can you go to see and buy the work of one hundred twenty of America's best craft artists? In Washington, D.C. you can visit the yearly Smithsonian Craft Show. For twenty-five years, some of the finest craft artists have gathered to show their expertly made objects at this special event. These objects include beautiful jewelry, wood, paper, glass, ceramics and more. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Smithsonian Craft Show is held every year for four days in late April. Going to the craft show is an exciting activity. As you visit the many craft artists' show areas, you feel like you are taking part in a celebration of artistic skill and invention. But not just any artist can take part in this event. More than one thousand people from all over the United States requested to be in the show. But only one hundred and twenty were chosen. They were carefully picked by a jury of craft experts. The Craft Show is organized every year by the Smithsonian Women's Committee. The event helps raise money to support education and research programs for the nineteen museums that are part of the Smithsonian Institution. This year, for example, visitors could see the graceful ceramic works of Jennifer McCurdy. Her finely formed white clay containers have a fluid sense of motion. Or, visitors could play with the detailed and imaginative toy machines made by Bill Durovchic. Holly Anne Mitchell showed her wonderfully creative jewelry made out of folded pieces of newspaper. Joh Ricci received the Best of Show award for her colorful art objects made by tying thin pieces of cloth cord into detailed forms. And, if you wanted to wear a piece of art, you could buy a hat by Joan Hammerschmidt. Her wildly colorful and inventively shaped hats would make everyone look at you with a smile. Helen Keller and Sally Ride HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The students of Nguyen Thanh Duc at the Marie Curie High School want to know about two famous American women: Helen Keller and Sally Ride. Helen Keller was born in eighteen eighty in a small town in Alabama. She developed an infection when she was nineteen months old. She lost the ability to see and hear. When Helen was seven years old, her parents hired a special teacher for their daughter. Anne Sullivan taught Helen the names of things. She formed letters with her fingers in Helen’s hand to spell out words. She taught Helen sign language, and how to use her voice. Later, Helen Keller learned to read Latin, Greek, French and German. She completed her studies at Radcliffe College with honors in nineteen-oh-four. Helen Keller worked for many years for the American Foundation for the Blind.She met with presidents and traveled to many countries. She wrote books and articles. And she showed other disabled people that they, too, could succeed. Helen Keller died in nineteen sixty-eight. Her life story has been told in books, plays and movies. Sally Ride grew up near Los Angeles, California. She studied science in college. In nineteen seventy-eight, she was one of the first six women to be trained as an astronaut. She also earned a doctoral degree in astrophysics at Stanford University in California. Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. She was the flight engineer on the Challenger space shuttle in nineteen eighty-three. She was thirty-one years old, the youngest American astronaut ever to go into orbit. One year later, she was a crew member on another space shuttle flight. And in nineteen eighty-six, she was a member of the presidential committee that investigated the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle earlier that year. Sally Ride left NASA to teach at Stanford University. Since nineteen eighty-nine, she has been a professor at the University of California at San Diego. She has also written science books for children and directed education projects designed to interest young people in science. Akon HOST: A man in demandSenegalese-American singer Akon has a musical sound that is different from current popular artists. He has had several hit songs. Barbara Klein tells us about him. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was Akon singing his hit song "I Wanna Love You" from his latest album, "Konvicted."??? Akon's real name is Aliaune Thiam. He is the son of Senegalese jazz drummer Mor Thiam. Akon grew up listening to jazz and other kinds of music, but he especially liked hip-hop. When he was a teenager, Akon was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail for stealing cars. During his time in jail, Akon wrote songs. Those songs became part of his first album, "Trouble," released in two thousand four. Akon sings about his arrest and jail experiences in this song, "Locked Up." (MUSIC) Music critics say Akon is popular because his music offers something new. His creative sound combines Caribbean and West African singing with popular music and hip-hop beats. Akon has performed and recorded songs with many kinds of artists. They include rapper Snoop Dogg, singer Gwen Stefani and the South African singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. We leave you with another hit song from Akon’s latest album, "Konvicted." This is "Don’t Matter." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please?include your full name and mailing address.Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How Much Is Too Much? The Debate Over Executive Pay
* Byline: Critics say company leaders are getting big raises even when they do not add value for their shareholders. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. For Robert Nardelli, two thousand seven might seem like a bad year. After all, he resigned in January as chief of the world's largest operator of home-improvement stores. Sales and profits grew during his six years at Home Depot. But the stock price of the company, based in Atlanta, fell eight percent. Many shareholders thought Bob Nardelli was paid too much and did not respect his investors enough. So he was forced out. But he had something to look forward to that would ease his fall. Company directors agreed to give him two hundred ten million dollars worth of payments and benefits. An agreement like this is known as a golden parachute. These are traditional when top executives lose their jobs because of a change of ownership or control of a company. This was not the case at Home Depot, and the money only added to shareholder anger. Golden parachutes are just one issue in a larger debate in America. Executive pay is growing out of control, critics say, at a time when many Americans are feeling greater economic pressures. Last year, the average pay for a chief executive officer on the Standard & Poor's Five Hundred list of companies increased by over nine percent. Critics say there is no relationship between pay and performance. They say company leaders get raises even if they fail to create value for shareholders. Lawmakers are taking note. On April twentieth, the House of Representatives passed a bill to give shareholders in publicly traded companies the right to vote on executive pay. The proposal by majority Democrats now goes to the Senate. But its future is unclear. The Bush administration opposes the bill. It says Congress should not set the approval process for executive pay. The bill would require yearly votes but these would be non-binding. In other words, companies would not have to follow shareholder wishes. Still, supporters argue that a "say on pay" vote would send a clear signal about what the owners of the company, the investors, think. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires public companies to include executive pay information in a document called a proxy statement. A proxy statement is supposed to help shareholders make informed votes on company proposals. But critics note that the way executive income is reported is often too difficult to understand. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: White House, Congress Try to Negotiate a New Iraq Spending Bill
* Byline: Talks follow Bush's veto of a measure that would have required a troop withdrawal to begin by October. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. White House officials have begun talks with Congress on a war spending bill in place of the one President Bush vetoed on Tuesday. President Bush speaking at the White House after he vetoed a $124 billion spending billHe rejected it because the Democratic-controlled Congress tried to set a date for American troops to leave Iraq. The bill would have required a withdrawal to begin by October. The spending measure totaled one hundred twenty-four billion dollars. One hundred billion of that would have gone to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The veto was only the second of Mister Bush's presidency. The first was last year, to stop Congress from ending his restrictions on federal money for stem cell research. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to try to save the war spending bill that the president vetoed. But, as in the case of his first veto, there was not enough support for an override. The president met with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders after the House failed to override his veto. He said he was hopeful that an agreement could be reached. And he called for it to be done quickly. Republican leaders said they hope for a new bill by the end of the month. The president says it is time to move away from the political battles of recent days. He said three of his top advisers would be working with members of both parties to write an acceptable war funding bill. Talks took place Thursday on Capitol Hill. The two sides agreed to meet again early next week and to keep details of their talks private. But Democratic leaders said they have not agreed to keep any language about troop withdrawals out of a replacement bill. The administration said Mister Bush would not accept any bill that includes a time limit or suggested date for a withdrawal from Iraq. Congress could also try to set goals for the Iraqi government. Earlier this week, President Bush asked Americans to give his recent troop increase in Iraq more time. The war began in March of two thousand three. A new public opinion study showed that more than seventy percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the war. Two-thirds of those questioned for CBS News and the New York Times said they support setting a time limit for the withdrawal of troops. President Bush says he wants American troops out of Iraq, but only when its own government is better able to control security. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert Byrd proposed Thursday that Congress cancel its resolution that approved the use of force in Iraq. They say the president should have to seek approval from Congress this October to continue the war. A presidential spokeswoman accused the Senate of trying, in her words, "another way to put a surrender date on the calendar." IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Gene Kelly, 1912-1996: His Movies Made Dance Popular in America
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about actor and dancer Gene Kelly. Experts say he did more than anyone else to make dance popular in America. (MUSIC: "Gotta Dance") VOICE ONE: Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in nineteen twelve. His mother wanted all five of her children to play music and to dance. Gene was more interested in becoming an athlete. Yet he continued his dance lessons even as he became successful in sports. He said later that he never started out to be a dancer. He wanted to play professional baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. But, he said, he discovered girls liked his dancing. VOICE TWO: Gene Kelly graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in nineteen thirty-three. He started teaching at a dancing school. He also directed local plays and performed with his brother Fred. He went to New York City in nineteen thirty-eight. He was twenty-seven years old. After dancing in a few Broadway shows, he got the lead part in the musical play "Pal Joey" in nineteen forty. Critics in New York praised Gene Kelly for his ability to sing and dance, and at the same time, create a believable character on stage. Soon, he was offered work in Hollywood. He went to California in nineteen forty-one. VOICE ONE: Gene Kelly's real success in movies began in nineteen forty-four. He and director Stanley Donen created a special dance for the movie "Cover Girl." In it, Gene Kelly appears to be dancing with himself. Cameras took pictures of him doing two dances separately. Then the two pictures were placed on a single piece of film. In the movie, two Gene Kellys seem to chase each other up and down steps, threaten each other, and leap over each other's heads. Gene Kelly said later that he had made a huge discovery in that movie. He said dancing in a movie does not look the way it does on the stage. So he tried to do things differently for the movies. He tried to invent dance movements that were especially created for cameras. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-five, Gene Kelly first used a method of filming seen often today. He shared the movie screen with a drawing. In the movie "Anchors Aweigh", he appeared to dance with a cartoon mouse. It cost one hundred thousand dollars to film the eight- minute dance. Gene Kelly danced first. Then cartoon artists filmed the drawings of the mouse's movements. The two films were combined into one. In the movie, Gene and the mouse are happily dancing and singing together. VOICE ONE: Gene Kelly was part of another movie-making first in nineteen forty-nine. It happened in "On the Town." It was the first movie musical to be filmed in a real city. "On the Town" is about three sailors in New York. The movie shows sailors getting off their ship. Then they sing and dance through the city streets. Musicals were normally filmed on sets built in Hollywood to look like other places. Gene said movie company officials at the time thought filming in the real city was crazy, but it worked. It changed movie musicals forever. Gene Kelly called "On the Town" his favorite movie. It opens with the song "New York, New York": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some critics say Gene Kelly's greatest success was the nineteen fifty-one movie, "An American in Paris. " It won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Gene won a special Oscar for his singing, dancing, acting and creating dances. The movie ended with a seventeen-minute ballet dance. It showed the effect of the city of Paris on the hero. In the ballet, Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron danced to George Gershwin's "An American in Paris": (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people think the best Gene Kelly movie of all is "Singin' in the Rain." Experts say "Singin' in the Rain" was the last of the great movie musicals. It was released in nineteen fifty-two. In one part, Gene Kelly sings the title song while he dances. It is considered one of the best movie scenes in history. In it, he shows how happy he is at the idea of being in love. He performs the song and dance while heavy rain falls on a lonely city street. (MUSIC: "Singin in the Rain") VOICE TWO: Gene Kelly appeared in forty-five movies. He danced and sang. He acted in movies that were not musicals. He produced movies and directed them, too. He also directed musical plays on New York City's Broadway. He appeared on television, winning an Emmy Award for the show "Jack and the Beanstalk. " Gene Kelly was in the three "That's Entertainment" movies. In those movies, he worked with another great dancer, Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire was a movie star when Gene Kelly was just starting to dance. Kelly said he was too big for the kind of dancing Astaire did so well. He said his kind of athletic dancing was better done in pants and a shirt than in the more formal clothes Astaire wore. VOICE ONE: Gene Kelly died on February second, nineteen ninety-six following a series of strokes. He was eighty-three years old. He had been honored many times for his work. He was given awards by the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and the American Film Institute. The government of France gave him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. President Clinton gave him the American National Medal of Arts. People said he had created a new kind of American dance by mixing modern, tap and ballet in an athletic way. Gene Kelly always said he was not that important. He said he really was just a song and dance man. (MUSIC: "Gotta Dance") VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Medical Terms: A Clean Bill of Health From the Doctor
* Byline: Everyday expressions we use to describe someone's health. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Many professions have their own words and expressions. This is true for the medical profession. Doctors use many technical terms that most people do not understand. But there are also expressions we use every day to tell about a person’s health. Let me explain. Last month, I was not feeling well. I was under the weather. I thought I had caught a cold. I had a runny nose, itchy eyes, a sore throat and a cough. I felt tired and run down. I was in poor condition because I had not been getting enough rest. My body hurt all over. I also had severe head pains -- a real splitting headache. And I was running a fever. My body temperature was higher than normal. At one point, I blacked out. That’s right, I was out cold. I lost consciousness and my friend had to bring me around. He used cold water on my face to restore my consciousness. I grew concerned that I might take a turn for the worse. I did not want to become sicker because then surely I would be at death’s door. ? My friend took me to the doctor. I told the doctor I thought I had come down with a cold. When the doctor saw me, she immediately wanted to run some tests. She said that medical tests would help her discover why I was sick. The doctor also asked when I had my last physical. I do not get yearly check-ups. But I probably should get a medical exam by a doctor every year. Then the nurse drew my blood. She used a needle to take a small amount of blood from my arm. She sent it to a laboratory for tests. The nurse also took my temperature. She used a thermometer to measure my body temperature. The doctor told me I had influenza, or the flu. But she told me I would recover soon. She said I was over the worst of the disease. She told me to rest at home and to stay away from other people because the flu can spread. It is contagious. Thankfully, I did not have to go under the knife. I did not need an operation. Instead, I did just what the doctor ordered. I went home and did exactly what was needed to become healthy again. Soon, I was on the mend. I was pulling through and recovering from my sickness. Now, I am back on my feet. I am physically healthy again. Even better, the doctor has given me a clean bill of health. She says that I am one-hundred percent cured. I am back to normal and I feel great. In fact, I feel on top of the world. My friends say I now look like the picture of health. (MUSIC)????????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-07-10-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Medical Terms: A Clean Bill of Health From the Doctor
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Many professions have their own words and expressions. This is true for the medical profession. Doctors use many technical terms that most people do not understand. But there are also expressions we use every day to tell about a person’s health. Let me explain. Last month, I was not feeling well. I was under the weather. I thought I had caught a cold. I had a runny nose, itchy eyes, a sore throat and a cough. I felt tired and run down. I was in poor condition because I had not been getting enough rest. My body hurt all over. I also had severe head pains -- a real splitting headache. And I was running a fever. My body temperature was higher than normal. At one point, I blacked out. That’s right, I was out cold. I lost consciousness and my friend had to bring me around. He used cold water on my face to restore my consciousness. I grew concerned that I might take a turn for the worse. I did not want to become sicker because then surely I would be at death’s door. ? My friend took me to the doctor. I told the doctor I thought I had come down with a cold. When the doctor saw me, she immediately wanted to run some tests. She said that medical tests would help her discover why I was sick. The doctor also asked when I had my last physical. I do not get yearly check-ups. But I probably should get a medical exam by a doctor every year. Then the nurse drew my blood. She used a needle to take a small amount of blood from my arm. She sent it to a laboratory for tests. The nurse also took my temperature. She used a thermometer to measure my body temperature. The doctor told me I had influenza, or the flu. But she told me I would recover soon. She said I was over the worst of the disease. She told me to rest at home and to stay away from other people because the flu can spread. It is contagious. Thankfully, I did not have to go under the knife. I did not need an operation. Instead, I did just what the doctor ordered. I went home and did exactly what was needed to become healthy again. Soon, I was on the mend. I was pulling through and recovering from my sickness. Now, I am back on my feet. I am physically healthy again. Even better, the doctor has given me a clean bill of health. She says that I am one-hundred percent cured. I am back to normal and I feel great. In fact, I feel on top of the world. My friends say I now look like the picture of health. (MUSIC)????????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: As Chinese Investment in Africa Grows, So Do Risks
* Byline: Deadly attack on oil field in Ethiopia shows the dangers that China may face as it expands its involvement in the continent. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. On April twenty-fourth, rebels in eastern Ethiopia attacked a Chinese-owned oil exploration field in the Ogaden area. They killed sixty-five Ethiopian workers and nine Chinese. Seven other Chinese were kidnapped but released. The Ogaden National Liberation Front took responsibility. The group said China did not appear to recognize the struggles of the Somali people of Ogaden. The rebels have been fighting the Ethiopian government for more than twenty years. They urged China to cease all cooperation with the government in the area of oil exploration. Some experts believe China may become more of a target in Africa as it expands its involvement there. Today, Chinese companies operate in most African nations. China has also been investing in local projects like roads, schools and hospitals. Ray Cheung writes for Business China, a newsletter published by the Economist Intelligence Unit. He says China has invested in Africa since the nineteen fifties, but mostly within the past five years. By two thousand five, Chinese trade with Africa totaled about forty billion dollars. Ray Cheung says the government has been urging state-owned companies to operate internationally to help support China's expanding economy. But, he adds, many of the leaders of those companies are not trained in good corporate governance. He says the next generation of business leaders is more international and will have more of the skills needed for places like Africa. Africans have generally welcomed China's investments. China, in return, gets oil and other natural resources that it needs, like copper and iron. But some say the growing Chinese involvement in Africa could lead to a form of economic colonization. China has an official policy of noninterference in other countries. But as Adam Wolfe noted in World Politics Watch, China will have to decide how much it can follow that policy in the face of risks like the attack in Ethiopia. China, for example, has recently urged the government of Sudan to do more to end the violence in Darfur. China has faced international pressure to use its influence in Sudan to help solve the crisis. China National Petroleum is the main buyer of Sudanese oil. In February, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, during an eight-nation trip to Africa. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m ______. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Playing in the Sun and Sea at Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket
* Byline: Why visitors come back summer after summer to these two islands off the coast of Massachusetts. <em Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we tell you about two islands in Massachusetts, in the New England area of the northeastern United States. Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are popular places to visit, especially in the warmer months. Both are known for their sailing and sunsets and fun things to do. Martha's Vineyard is also known for its tall cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The island is about thirteen kilometers off the coast and is less than two hundred sixty square kilometers. Homes designed like those of earlier times line the streets of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven. These are the major towns on Martha's Vineyard. For most of the year, the population of Martha's Vineyard is about fifteen thousand. During the summer, more than one hundred thousand people crowd the island. And we do mean crowd. Look around and you might see some Hollywood stars and other faces of the rich and famous. Some people arrive by boat, including a ship that carries passengers and cars. Others come by plane. Many visitors return year after year. Now, we continue our story with Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt as your travel guides. ??? ? VOICE TWO: The towns and the quieter country areas of Martha's Vineyard all offer places to stay. Small hotels and homes for visitors on the island may not cost much. Other hotels cost hundreds of dollars per night. Some people save money by preparing their own food. Others eat in the many restaurants on the island. Hungry visitors like the seafood at several famous eating places like the Black Dog Tavern in Vineyard Haven. And they can stop into small stores that sell sweets like ice cream and fudge candy. During warm weather the Vineyard is a good place for many different activities. People can play golf or catch fish. They can ride in sailboats or motor boats. They can water ski and swim. They can take quiet walks along sandy beaches and among the thick green trees. They can take pictures of birds found around small areas of fresh water or on the old stone walls surrounding many farms. VOICE ONE: Many families with children spend their summer holidays in Martha's Vineyard. One of the popular places for families is the Flying Horses Carousel in Oak Bluffs. It is the oldest continually operated merry-go-round ride in the United States. The colorful wood horses that turn in a circle were created in eighteen seventy-six. One of the best places for children and adults to swim is the Joseph A. Sylvia state beach. The water there is warmer and calmer than at some of the other Vineyard beaches. Familes also enjoy the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary where they can observe much of the island wildlife. People can walk through more than nine kilometers of fields, trees and wetlands to learn about the plants and animals on the island. Almost twenty percent of the land on Martha's Vineyard is protected from development. There are other wildlife areas to explore. A flat-topped boat called the On-Time Ferry takes people and cars to a nearby small island, Chappaquiddick. Chappaquiddick has a white sand beach at the Cape Poge Wildlife Preserve. Many small birds make their homes in the grass on the edge of the sand. VOICE TWO: Back on Martha's Vineyard, visitors often take long walks at the foot of the colorful high edges of rock that line the water at Gay Head Cliffs. The white, yellow, red and brown colors of the cliffs deepen as the sun disappears. People also sit on the beach and on rocks in the fishing village of Menemsha to watch the sunsets. As the sun goes down in the sky it paints yellow, red, and other colors on the clouds. Some people offer a kind of ceremony as they watch the sun disappear into the seas. Fishing boats rise and fall with the waves. Bells sound to help guide the boats to land as darkness covers the water. VOICE ONE: Many people who live all year on the island make their money from the sea. Some of the fishermen and farmers on the island today are related to the Europeans who settled the land centuries ago. Historians say British mapmaker Bartholomew Gosnold first made a map of the island for the rulers of England in sixteen-oh-two. Gosnold is said to have named the island to honor his baby daughter, Martha. The Vineyard part of the name came from the many wild grape vines Gosnold found on the island. Later, King Charles of England gave the island to businessman Thomas Mayhew of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The son of Thomas Mayhew established the first European settlement on the island in sixteen forty-two at Edgartown. The Wampanoag Indians taught the settlers to kill whales. Men in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven earned their money by killing whales until the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, after the Civil War, visitors began to provide most of the islanders' money. In eighteen thirty-five, the Methodist Church held a group camp meeting in what was to become the town of Oak Bluffs. Some of the campers stayed on and built small homes. By the middle of the nineteenth century, ships from the American mainland began bringing visitors to the island. Big hotels were built in the town near the edge of the water. Martha's Vineyard was on its way to becoming the visitors' center that it is today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many summer visitors also travel to Nantucket, another island in the Atlantic near Massachusetts. They like this island for its beaches, its open land and its trees. Nantucket is smaller than Martha's Vineyard. It is about fifty kilometers from the Massachusetts coast. Its distance from the mainland causes some Nantucket citizens to say they are true islanders. The only town on Nantucket Island also is called Nantucket. Artists often paint its waterfront and the small stores along it. But many visitors say the most interesting part of the town is the area of homes. The island is known for its small gray houses with roses growing on them. Signs on some of the houses say they were built as long ago as the seventeenth century. The public may enter fourteen historic homes now open as museums. Another museum, the Museum of Nantucket History, helps newly arrived mainlanders learn about the land and history of the island. VOICE ONE: Humans are not the only visitors to Nantucket. More than three-hundred-fifty kinds of birds visit the island each summer. So people who like to watch birds return year after year. Nature in general appeals to Nantucket visitors. Many plants and flowers grow wild in open areas of the island. Farmers also grow several kinds of berry fruits. Cranberries are a leading crop. Some people visit Nantucket in the autumn to watch the harvests of the red berries. People who visit Nantucket enjoy water sports, walking and bicycle riding. They also catch fish for pleasure. Some Nantucket citizens earn money by fishing. Earning their living from the sea comes naturally to people who live on the island. At one time, hunting for whales was the main job of people on Nantucket, just as it was on Martha's Vineyard. VOICE TWO: England gave Nantucket to Thomas Macy in sixteen fifty-nine. Macy made an agreement with the Wampanoag Indians who lived there. Then he sold most of the land to shareholders. Settlers farmed the land. But farming on Nantucket did not succeed very well because the ground was so full of sand. In sixteen ninety an expert from the mainland taught sailors to catch small whales from boats very close to the land. Years later, strong winds forced a whaling boat further into the ocean. Sailors on that boat caught a sperm whale. That whale provided highly sought oil. Soon the Nantucket sailors were catching many sperm whales. That accidental event made Nantucket a whaling center. However, whales in the seas near Nantucket died out over time. Nineteenth century sailors from the island had to travel for years to catch whales. Luckily, visitors had begun to provide earnings for Nantucket by the eighteen seventies. But it was not until the nineteen sixties that providing for visitors became the major industry on Nantucket. VOICE ONE: Visitors today to both Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard enjoy almost everything about the islands -- except other visitors. The crowds during the warm season can mean heavy traffic and long lines for services. Yet, most visitors to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket really enjoy their holidays there. They often say they feel they are escaping from the problems of daily life. And they leave with peaceful memories of watching the red sun disappear into the dark ocean waters around the islands. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Ours program was written by Jerilyn Watson and read by Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt. I'm Barbara Klein. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Research Shows How Fishing for Sharks Also Affects Other Sea Animals
* Byline: Also: a new kind of big cat is found on Borneo island. British researchers call for drug policy reform based on new findings. And American officials order stronger warnings for sleep drugs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. On our program this week, we will tell how fishing for sharks may affect other sea animals. We will also tell about a newly identified large cat and warnings for drugs to treat sleep disorders. And, we will report on a proposed system for measuring harmful substances. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Several recent studies have linked human activities to reduced numbers of sharks in the world's oceans. Scientists now say a sharp decrease in the number of large sharks in the Atlantic Ocean has helped some kinds of fish. They say such fish are now threatening other sea animals. Canadian and American scientists studied the effects of people fishing for sharks in the Northwest Atlantic over the past thirty-five years. Results of their studies were published in Science magazine. The scientists say one effect of shark fishing has been an estimated ninety-nine percent decrease in some shark populations. They say the loss of larger sharks has caused a population explosion among fish like skates and rays. Such fish and smaller sharks have increased in number along the east coast of the United States. Sharks usually eat skates and rays. The scientists say these fish feed on shellfish, which are disappearing from the ocean. They say other sea animals are also being threatened by the area's changing environment. VOICE TWO: Demand for shark fins has been rising in Asia. Shark fins are used for medical purposes and also for food. The popularity of shark-fin soup in China has made the demand for these animals greater. For one of the studies, scientists from Canada examined information from private fishing companies and other research projects. They noted a sharp decrease in eleven kinds of great sharks since the nineteen-eighties. One of the scientists was Julia Baum of Dalhousie University. She says the World Conservation Union earlier this year listed great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharks as being in danger of disappearing. The group also reported the dusky and sandbar sharks as being threatened. ?Other scientists agree that the shark population decrease may be linked to the increase of smaller fish. But they say the decrease in sharks is not the only cause. They debate how much the decrease has affected other fish species. Other theories for these changes include pollution and loss of native waters for some animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Environmental activists recently announced the discovery of a new kind of clouded leopard. The wildlife group W.W.F. says the new species is found on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Until now, the clouded leopards there were believed to be the same as those living on the Asian mainland. Yet tests of genetic material show the animals are, in fact, very different. The two species of clouded leopard also have physical differences. Scientists found they have different markings, and different colors over their skin. VOICE TWO: The Bornean clouded leopard is the largest animal hunter on Borneo. On Sumatra, only the Sumatran tiger is larger. The new species of clouded leopard has the longest canine teeth for its size of any cat. It hunts lizards, monkeys, and small deer. Researchers believe the clouded leopard of Borneo may have separated from the mainland population more than one million years ago. Genetic tests have shown about forty differences between the two species. Researchers estimate that between five thousand and eleven thousand clouded leopards live in the rain forest called the Heart of Borneo. VOICE ONE: Stuart Chapman is the W.W.F. international coordinator for the Heart of Borneo program. The program is aimed at protecting plant and animal life in on the island. Mister Chapman says biologists have seen the clouded leopard of Borneo for more than a century and not known it was different. He says identification of the new species shows the importance of protecting the Heart of Borneo. The biggest threat to these large cats is the destruction of the areas where they live. The discovery of the clouded leopard comes weeks after the W.W.F. reported that scientists had identified at least fifty-two new plant and animals species on Borneo. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? A British study has found that alcohol and tobacco products are more dangerous than some illegal substances. The study identified alcoholic drinks and tobacco as more harmful than illegal drugs like marijuana or ecstasy. David Nutt of Bristol University in Britain and other researchers produced the study. They proposed a system for listing harmful substances. The system is based on evidence of the harm created for the user and for other people. Results of the study were published in The Lancet magazine. The researchers proposed three ways to measure the possible harm that a substance causes. The first measure is the physical harm to the user. The second is the ability of the drug to create a sense of dependence in the user. The third is the effect of a drug's use on the community. VOICE ONE: The researchers asked two groups of experts to create lists of the most dangerous drugs. The experts included psychiatrists who study drug dependence, and legal or police officials with scientific knowledge. The experts were asked to consider twenty drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin. Study organizers then combined the two lists to create general ratings of each substance. The experts generally agreed with each other. However, they did not agree with Britain's current rating system for dangerous substances. The experts agreed that the most dangerous of the twenty substances was heroin. Cocaine was the second most dangerous. Drinking alcohol was the fifth-most harmful on the combined lists. Smoking tobacco was ninth on the combined lists. Marijuana was eleventh. And, ecstasy was near the bottom of the list. Professor Nutt says he hopes that the study will create a debate within Britain and other areas about how these drugs should be controlled. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Food and Drug Administration has ordered companies to place strong warnings on thirteen drugs that treat sleep disorders. It also ordered the makers of the sleeping drugs to provide information for patients explaining how to safely use the pills. The F.D.A. announced in March that some of the drugs can have unexpected and dangerous effects. These include the risk of life-threatening allergic reactions. They also include rare incidents of strange behavior. These include people cooking food, eating and even driving while asleep. The patients later had no memory of doing these activities while asleep. VOICE ONE: Last year, a member of the United States Congress said he had a sleep-driving incident. Patrick Kennedy, a representative from Rhode Island, crashed his car into a security barrier near the building where lawmakers meet. The accident happened in the middle of the night and no one was hurt. Mister Kennedy said he had earlier taken a sleep medicine. He asaid he was also being treated with a stomach sickness drug that can cause sleepiness. A Food and Drug Administration official said the serious side effects of sleep disorder drugs appear to be rare. But, he also said there are probably more cases than are reported. He said the agency believes the risk of such behaviors could be reduced if people take the drugs as directed and do not drink alcohol while taking the drugs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Caty Weaver and Brianna Blake, who also was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Looking Behind the 'Fairtrade' Label
* Byline: The movement began in Europe in the 1980s as a way to guarantee fair prices for small coffee producers in poor countries. With praise, though, has come criticism. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Coffee drinkers are not the only ones willing to pay more for products marked with the words "Fairtrade" or "Fair Trade Certified." Fair-trade teas, bananas, nuts and other products are also available. Some people see it as an act of social responsibility to buy these products. Fair-trade Sumatran coffeeThe movement began in Europe in the nineteen eighties. Activists wanted a way to guarantee fair prices for small coffee producers in poor countries. A group called the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, or FLO, was established in nineteen ninety-seven. Its responsibilities include setting prices as well as rules for working conditions and wages. Under fair trade rules, importers must give growers technical help and let growers borrow money from them. Until nineteen eighty-nine, an international agreement helped keep coffee prices level by governing the world supply. But then a free market agreement ended that. The supply of coffee grew higher than demand. Prices were low. Now, coffee prices are rising on the world market. The European Parliament recognized the work of the Fairtrade movement with a resolution last year. But there were also calls to establish policies to protect the movement itself from abuses. These include growers failing to pay the required wages to their workers. Some economists criticize Fairtrade plans in general. They say the guaranteed prices are often higher than market prices. As a result, growers produce more, and too much supply can hurt growers who are not included in the plans. Coffee is the second most traded product on world markets after oil. And some of the finest coffees come from Ethiopia. Now, Ethiopia wants to control the use of its specialty coffee names under trademark laws. The idea is to charge coffee sellers for the right to use those names. The world's best known coffee seller, however, resisted the idea. But last week, after two days of talks, Ethiopia's Intellectual Property Office and the Starbucks Coffee Company released a joint statement. They said they look forward to signing an agreement this month. Details are not yet final. But they say the agreement will recognize the importance of Ethiopia's specialty coffee names. After all, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz noted that Ethiopia is recognized as the historic birthplace of coffee. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Have an Active Interest in Volcanoes? Then Look Around Hawaii
* Byline: Learning about volcanoes (active and inactive) at two national parks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:? And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we visit two of the most unusual national parks in the United States. They are Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park, both in Hawaii. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Let me ask you a question: What is the tallest mountain on Earth?? Most school children will say the answer is Mount Everest near the border between Nepal and Tibet. There is something that is three hundred four meters taller than Mount Everest. However, it is mainly underwater. It begins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and rises more than seventeen kilometers from the ocean floor. Its name is Mauna Loa. In the Hawaiian language, Mauna Loa means “Long Mountain.”? Mauna Loa is more than half of the island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also the largest and most active volcano on Earth. It has produced liquid rock called lava more than thirty times since records were first kept in eighteen forty-three. Today, Mauna Loa is quiet. It is not producing lava. However volcano experts say it is only a matter of time before this happens once again. VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa is not the only volcano on the island of Hawaii. There are four others. Three of them are no longer active. One of them still is active. It is named Kilauea. It has produced lava more than fifty times in the last one hundred years. At this moment, red hot lava is pouring out of Kilauea. It has been doing this since nineteen eighty-three. Sometimes the lava moves slowly. At other times it pours out very fast as huge amounts of pressure force it from the volcano. During these times, it moves almost as quickly as water moving down the side of a mountain. Sometimes Kilauea produces large amounts of lava that seem like rivers of fire. VOICE ONE: When the lava from Kilauea reaches the ocean, its fierce heat produces great amounts of steam that rise into the air. The lava is so hot it continues to burn underwater for some time. The lava from Kilauea continues to add land to the island as the volcanoes of Hawaii have always done. It is these volcanoes that formed the islands of Hawaii. Most of the time the lava of Kilauea seems to move peacefully toward the ocean. Yet it is not as peaceful as it seems from a distance. In recent years the lava destroyed one small town on the island. The liquid rock slowly covered the town. It blocked roads and destroyed them. Nothing can stop the lava of Kilauea. Experts say the volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea are a serious threat to property on many parts of the island. Experts say the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii are proof that the changing environment of Earth is, and will always remain, beyond human control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa and Kilauea together form Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. But another national park has a huge volcano. It is on the island of Maui. It is the Haleakala National Park. Haleakala in the Hawaiian language means “House of the Sun.” Haleakala is another huge volcano. Together with a smaller, much older volcano it helped form the island of Maui. It is no longer considered to be active. In about seventeen ninety, two areas in the side of the huge volcano opened and lava came out. The lava moved down the mountain and into the sea. That was the last recorded activity at Haleakala. The volcano that contains Haleakala National Park rises three thousand fifty meters above the sea. We would like to take you for a visit to Haleakala. For a few minutes, sit back while we drive the road up to the top of the volcano. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our trip begins near the ocean today. We drive through the city of Kahului. We see businesses and homes, the buildings you find in any American city. There are more flowers than in many American cities. The Hawaiian Islands are famous for their flowers. Soon the road begins to go up. The road moves back and forth and around corners as it moves up the face of the mountain. At times our driver must slow the vehicle and turn very sharply. Soon, there are no more homes or stores. From the city of Kahului to the top of Haleakala is about fifty-five kilometers. We will be three thousand fifty meters higher at the top of the mountain. Very soon, we no longer see trees. We have traveled too high for them to survive. Soon there are only a few plants. Then there is nothing but black lava rock. At one place, we begin to enter the clouds that hang close to the mountain. Our driver turns on the headlights of the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we are above the clouds in the bright sunshine. The road is good, so the trip takes only about an hour. VOICE TWO: The National Park Headquarters is about two kilometers from the top. Park officials at the information center tell you about the history of the volcano. They say that it is very safe -- today. They also tell you that it could very well become active again. The experts just do not know. We soon leave the Park Headquarters and travel up again, this time to the top. There is an area here to leave our vehicle. We walk the last few meters to the top. As we reach the top, almost everyone says similar things. How strange!? Did the violence of a volcano form this? This is so beautiful! VOICE ONE: We are on the top looking down inside what was the most active part of the volcano. The shape is almost like a circle except the sides have been stretched -- almost the shape of an egg but longer. There are only a few plants here and no trees. However the volcano has left thousands of different shapes of lava stone. Hundreds of years of rain and bright sun have cut long paths in the stone. Time has turned the oldest lava to a soft sand. There are huge mountains. There are also smaller hills that seem to be made of ash or sand. The place is a riot of color. One big mountain seems to be a deep, dark red. Another area seems almost yellow. Another is green, and still another is a beautiful brown color. One area is colored gray that seems to move into a deep black. It looks as if someone has spilled many colors of paint over the huge area. The volcano produced these colors because the lava is very rich in many kinds of minerals. VOICE TWO: The area we are seeing stretches for a long distance. This morning, high on the mountain in the bright sun, we can see almost forty kilometers of the park. And this is only part of it. There are eleven thousand five hundred ninety-six hectares of land in the park. Some of the park is closed to visitors. Scientists do research in those areas. Experts are trying to learn how to grow and protect some of the very unusual plants that live in Haleakala. One of these plants is called the Silver Sword. It grows only in Hawaii. It has long, thin, silver leaves. It is very beautiful and unusual. The Hawaiian nene goose also lives here. It is a large bird. Visitors are asked not to come too near the nene. Experts are helping both the Silver Sword plants and the nene geese to reproduce so they will not disappear from the Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors each year enjoy Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii. Ships stop at the two islands and buses take the groups of visitors to see these huge volcanoes. Many people also fly over the volcanoes in airplanes or helicopters. This is a safe and popular method of watching Kilauea’s lava moving slowly toward the ocean. Other people see it from ships.Visitors also may walk into the rain forest created by the volcano thousands of years ago. Here they can see Waimoku Falls where water drops one hundred twenty meters down the face of a mountain. Both parks offer visitors a sight of nature that most people never have the chance to enjoy. Visitors can see how an active volcano adds mass to the island. And they can see inside a volcano that has been silent for hundreds of years. The United States Park Service is responsible for both Haleakala and the Hawaii National Volcanoes Park. It works hard to keep both these areas as nature created them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our recording engineer today was Bob Phillips. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: When Netspeak Enters Formal Writing, Teachers Are Anything but LOL
* Byline: 

 AA:?I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: an example of how English teachers at one high school are trying to get students to keep the language of the Internet where it belongs. Jodi Schenck teaches at Rothberg Comprehensive High School in the Israeli city of Ramat HaSharon. JODI SCHENCK: "What we call netspeak in our English team is basically the habit that kids have of writing on formal exams and essays exactly as they write on the Internet -- the number four instead of the world f-o-r, the letter U instead of y-o-u. Phrases that they use, idioms like LOL, laugh out loud, and this kind of thing. And it's been very hard for us to train them not to do that. "And of course they lose massive amounts of points on their matriculation exams and final exams when they write like this. And for them they don't understand why it's not acceptable, since they use it every day to write internationally." AA: "Well, how do you try to break them of the habit?" JODI SCHENCK: "Well, obviously, first of all, to make them aware of it. I mean, I give them a whole list of phrases from the Internet and I say, 'All of these things? No, you can't use them. They're not common usage. They are slang.' "And I give them examples. The same way that they wouldn't use hip-hop speak when they're having an interview for IBM, or the same way they wouldn't go in sandals and a torn pair of jeans to an interview, they can't use this kind of English in their writing. That it's formal writing and they have to write formally. They have to have a different set of informational values." AA: "So what advice do you have for other English teachers who are hearing this and maybe facing the same problem, what advice do you have for them?" JODI SCHENCK: "This is a Sisyphean task, it's an uphill task, it is. I try to do it lightheartedly with them, I try to give them funny examples of why it doesn't work and why people don't understand. But I am stringent about it. After they've been warned and after we've discussed it, if I receive an essay with something like this on it, I will remove five points or ten points each time, until they get the idea that they simply can't do it. And it sounds very Draconian, but there's no choice for it." AA: "Well, couldn't someone argue that, let's say they're writing an essay or a story, a made-up story, and they're using it to represent how kids speak today? Are there appropriate uses for netspeak in their writing?" JODI SCHENCK: "When the kids write e-mails, and we allow them to write internationally to pen pals and stuff, I don't edit them. In that sense they're allowed to use it. If they're using it in character, like they're writing a fictional story, then like any character dialect it's in quotation mark and it's obvious that it's character dialect and not their own writing. That's fine. But in terms of writing a formal essay or some sort of answer to a question that's formal English, no." AA: "Is it that they think it's acceptable? I mean, why are they doing it? Is it just to bother you?" JODI SCHENCK: "No, no. I think it's because, I mean especially where I teach, in Israel, most of the kids learn English from the popular media. They learn it from the TV, from movies, from MTV and from the Internet -- in great part from the Internet because these are kids who from, practically from birth are on the Internet, chat rooms, e-mails. And this is what they've learned from the people they write to internationally, back and forth, and they think it's absolutely normal. They don't see it as something unusual. "Most of my kids unfortunately don't read a lot, which is a worldwide problem. Paper is out and computer is in. And, as a result, they don't have the cultural background of reading the way I did when I was a kid, where I read full novels and stuff for fun. They don't do that. For fun, they go onto the Internet, and on the Internet this is acceptable." AA:?Jodi Schenck is an English teacher at Rothberg Comprehensive High School in Ramat HaSharon, Israel. She was recently in the United States at the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention in Seattle, where I spoke with her. And that's it for Wordmaster this week. If you'd like to hear other interviews from the TESOL convention, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "My Internet Girl"/Aaron Carter 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Something a Bone Will Never Say: Give Me a Break
* Byline: An explanation of different kinds of fractures and treatments. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The medical term for a broken bone is a fracture. But there are different kinds of fractures. A single fracture is when a bone is broken in just one place. You may have heard the term hairline fracture. This is a single fracture that is very small, like the width of a hair. A complete fracture is when the bone comes apart. When a bone is broken in more than two places or gets crushed, the name for it is a comminuted fracture. Still another kind is a bowing fracture. This happens with a bone that bends but does not break. It happens mostly in children. Ever heard of a greenstick fracture? This is when a bone is bent and breaks along only one side, like a young stick of wood. Another kind of break is an open or compound fracture. This is when the bone breaks the skin. This is very serious. Along with the bone damage there is a risk of infection in the open wound. A lot of things happen as the body reacts to an injury like a broken bone. You might suddenly feel lightheaded. You might also feel sick to your stomach. People who are seriously injured can go into shock. They might feel cold, dizzy and unable to think clearly. Shock requires immediate medical attention. But while broken bones can be painful, they are generally not life-threatening. Treatment depends on the kind of fracture. A doctor takes X-rays to see the break and sets a broken bone to make sure it is in the correct position. Severe breaks may require an operation to hold the bone together with metal plates and screws. Next, a person usually gets a cast put around the area of the break. The hard bandage holds the bone in place while it heals. Casts are usually worn for one to two months. In some cases, instead of a cast, a splint made of plastic or metal will be secured over the area to restrict movement. Doctors say broken bones should be treated quickly because they can restrict blood flow or cause nerve damage. Also, the break will start to repair itself, so you want to make sure the bone is lined up correctly. Bones need calcium and vitamin D to grow and reach their full strength. Keeping your bones strong with exercise may also help prevent fractures. Wearing safety protection like elbow pads and leg guards during activities is a good idea. If you think these might be restrictive, try a cast. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report written by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: Nixon Promises to 'Bring the American People Together' After '68 Win
* Byline: Richard Nixon lost the 1960 election to John Kennedy, but he was known for his ability to fight, to lose, and to keep trying. Those skills would soon be tested. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we begin the story of America's thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon was sworn-in as president in January nineteen sixty-nine. It was a difficult time in the United States. American forces, allied with the army of South Vietnam, were continuing to fight against the communist forces of North Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers and civilians were dying. Yet the Americans and South Vietnamese were making little progress. Critics of the war said they were making no progress at all. VOICE TWO: At home, there were demonstrations against the war. There were demonstrations against racial injustice. Friends and families were in dispute as they took opposing positions on these issues. Fighting the war also meant there was less government money to spend on social problems. Former President Lyndon Johnson had proposed new legislation to help poor people and minorities. In some cases, Congress approved less money than he had requested. In other cases, lawmakers did not approve any money at all. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon seemed well prepared to deal with the difficulties of being president. He was known for his ability to fight, to lose, and to keep trying. Nixon was born in California. His family was poor. When he was about ten years old, he harvested vegetables to help earn money for his family. He earned the money he needed to go to college. Then he decided to study law. He was among the top students in his class. During World War Two, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific battle area. When he came home, he campaigned for and won a seat in the Congress. VOICE TWO: As a member of the House of Representatives, Nixon became known throughout the nation for his part in the Alger Hiss case. Alger Hiss was a former official in the State Department. He had been accused of helping provide secret information to the Soviet Union. He denied the accusation. Nixon demanded a congressional investigation of the case. Other members of the House thought it should be dropped. Nixon succeeded and led the investigation. Later, Hiss was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury. He was sentenced to prison. VOICE ONE: Some Americans disliked Richard Nixon for the way he treated people during the investigation. They felt that some of his attacks were unjust. Fear of communism was very strong at that time. They thought he was using the situation to improve his political future. The future did, in fact, bring him success. In nineteen fifty, he ran for the Senate. He competed against Helen Gahagan Douglas. He accused her of not recognizing the threat of Communism in America. Nixon won the election. In nineteen fifty-two, the Republican Party chose him as its candidate for vice president. Dwight Eisenhower was the candidate for president. Eisenhower and Nixon won a huge victory over the candidates of the Democratic Party. They won again in nineteen fifty-six. VOICE TWO: During his eight years as vice president, Nixon visited sixty countries. He faced violent protesters during a visit to South America in nineteen fifty-eight. He was praised for acting bravely under dangerous conditions. A year later, he visited the Soviet Union. He and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had a famous debate about world peace. Nixon became very angry. At one point, he said to Khrushchev: "You do not know everything." VOICE ONE: The first televised presidential debate In nineteen sixty, Nixon accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president. He had many years of political experience and had gained recognition as vice president. Many people thought he would win the national election easily. But he lost to the young John Kennedy. It was the closest presidential election in American history since eighteen eighty-four. After losing to Kennedy, Nixon moved back to California. He worked as a lawyer. In nineteen sixty-two, he ran for governor, and lost. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It seemed that Nixon's political life was over. He moved again, this time to New York City. He worked as a lawyer. But he made it clear that he would like to return to public life some day. Many Republicans began to see Richard Nixon as the statesman they wanted in the White House. By then, President Johnson had decided not to run for re-election. His Democratic Party was divided. The Republicans believed they had a good chance to win the election of nineteen sixty-eight. VOICE ONE: Nixon campaigned hard against the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey was vice president under President Johnson. Throughout the campaign, he had to defend the policies of the Johnson administration. The policies on Vietnam had become very unpopular. Some Americans felt the war should be expanded. Many others demanded an immediate withdrawal. VOICE TWO: Both Humphrey and Nixon promised to work for peace in Vietnam. On election day, voters chose Nixon. He won by a small number of popular votes. But he won many more electoral votes than Humphrey. On the day after his victory, he spoke to a gathering of supporters. RICHARD NIXON: "I saw many signs in this campaign. Some of them were not friendly. Some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most was -- a teenager held up the sign 'bring us together.' And that will be the great objective of this administration, at the outset, to bring the American people together." VOICE ONE: Once in office, President Nixon proposed legislation to deal with problems at home. He called his proposals the "New Federalism." One proposal was for revenue sharing. Under this plan, the federal government would share tax money with state and local governments. For three years, Congress blocked its passage. In nineteen seventy-two, the revenue sharing plan was finally approved. Lawmakers also approved legislation for some of President Nixon's other ideas. One changed the way American men were called into military service. VOICE TWO: The new law said young men would now be called to serve by chance, with a lottery. This was a big change. Many people had criticized the earlier system. They said it had taken too many poor men and too many men from minority groups. These were the men who were fighting, and dying, in Vietnam. Congress also approved a change to the Constitution. The amendment would permit younger people to vote. It decreased the voting age from twenty-one years to eighteen years. Supporters of the amendment said that if citizens were old enough to fight and die in the nation's wars, they were old enough to vote in the nation's elections, too. The amendment became law when three-fourths of the states approved it in nineteen seventy-one. VOICE ONE: One of President Nixon's most important proposals was to build a system to defend against enemy missiles. He said the system was needed to protect American missile bases. The issue caused much debate. Critics said it would add to the arms race with the Soviet Union. Congress approved the plan in August nineteen sixty-nine. VOICE TWO: Nixon's first appointments to the nation's highest court also caused much debate. He named two conservative judges from the southern United States to serve on the Supreme Court. Congress rejected the nomination of the first one, Clement Haynsworth. Lawmakers said his court decisions had been unfair to black Americans. Congress also rejected the nomination of the second one, G. Harold Carswell. Lawmakers said he was not prepared for the job. VOICE ONE: President Nixon faced these disappointments, and others. Yet he still had moments of great celebration during his first term. One came on July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine. On that day, he and millions of people around the world watched as two American astronauts became the first humans to land on the moon. We will continue the story of Richard Nixon next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson. This is Stan Busby. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Blind Foreign Students, Some Aid Available in US
* Byline: Part 36 of our Foreign Student Series: a listener in Nigeria asks if visually impaired foreign students can get a full scholarship as an undergraduate. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A listener in Nigeria has a question about financial aid for blind and visually impaired college students in America. S.A. Ogunlowo in Ile-Ife wants to know if visually impaired foreign students can get a full scholarship as an undergraduate. Financial aid programs in the United States, especially at the undergraduate level, do often require American citizenship. At the same time, scholarships often pay only part of the cost of an education. The National Federation of the Blind advises students to contact any school they wish to attend to ask about financial aid. The federation is the country's largest group for the blind. Each year it awards scholarships that do not have any citizenship requirements. Students must be legally blind. And foreign students cannot apply until a college in the United States has already accepted them. The application deadline was March thirty-first for thirty scholarships offered for this fall. Most are three thousand dollars. The highest is twelve thousand dollars. The United States has an estimated one million blind adults. The federation says there are no special colleges or universities for the blind. But schools do offer special services and technology to help students with disabilities. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. More information about the scholarships from the National Federation of the Blind can be found at its Web site: n-f-b dot o-r-g (nfb.org). This was week number thirty-six in our series for students interested in coming to the United States for higher education. If you missed any of our reports, you can find our Foreign Student Series online at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a question, send it to special@voanews.com. Please include your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cortney Tidwell's Music: Moonlit Laughter, in the Shadow of Emotions
* Byline: Also: a question from Saudi Arabia about presidential candidates' pages on MySpace. And the US Postal Service releases only its second triangular stamp, to honor the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. This week on our show: We answer a question about the Web sites of American presidential candidates ... We also have music by Cortney Tidwell ... And we tell you about a new American stamp that honors an event from four centuries ago. Jamestown Stamp HOST: This weekend, after years of planning, Virginia observes the four hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown. Jamestown was Britain's first permanent colony in the New World. Queen Elizabeth was there last week. And now, three days of historic re-creations and other events are planned through Sunday. The events includes the release of an unusual postage stamp. Barbara Klein has our story. BARBARA KLEIN: The Settlement of Jamestown stamp is in the shape of a triangle. The design represents the three-sided fort that the settlers built four hundred years ago. David Failor is the executive director of stamp services for the United States Postal Service. He says a citizens advisory committee helped decide what the stamp would look like. The fifteen-member committee is made up of volunteers. They meet about four times a year to consider suggestions from the public for new stamps. The first step was to approve a Jamestown commemorative stamp. Then the Postal Service began to search for the best way to represent the subject. A nineteen forty-nine painting by artist Griffith Baily Coale was chosen. It shows the three ships that carried the first settlers to Jamestown. David Failor says this is only the second time the Postal Service has issued a triangular stamp. The first time was in nineteen ninety-seven in honor of the International Stamp Show in San Francisco. Every post office in the country will sell the Jamestown stamp for several months. The stamp is the first to be sold at the new first-class mail rate in the United States -- forty-one cents. About seventy million Jamestown stamps were printed. David Failor says there will be no more. Only the future will tell if they are popular enough to become valuable collector's items. The Jamestown commemorative stamp is not for raising money to help pay for the anniversary events. He says the purpose is to raise public awareness about the history of Jamestown. Candidates' Pages?on?MySpace HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Van Hoosh wants to know more about the MySpace pages of the American presidential candidates. MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, is the leading social networking site on the Internet. Users have lists of "friends," and those friends have lists of friends. Now, candidates are competing for MySpace friends in the same way they compete for money -- as a measure of popularity. The Web site TechPresident is following the online activities of the two thousand eight presidential election campaign. It says that among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton had more than sixty-three thousand MySpace friends as of Wednesday. That was four thousand more than Barack Obama. John Edwards had thirty-four thousand. Among the Republicans, John McCain had thirty thousand MySpace friends. Mitt Romney had seventeen thousand. And Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, had thirteen thousand. But the candidates are not the only ones who create pages for their campaigns. Supporters and local political groups have also created MySpace pages for their favorite candidates. As our listener in Saudi Arabia points out, it can be difficult to know which pages belong to the candidates themselves. For example, a supporter of Barack Obama created a MySpace page under the senator's name. More than one hundred thousand friends joined the list. MySpace later decided that the Obama campaign team had the right to take control of the page. The supporter got a new address, but he was permitted to take his list of friends with him. MySpace recently created a special page just for the presidential election. The address is impact.myspace.com. It has links to all of the official pages for the candidates. It also includes links to voter registration groups and other sites. MySpace has announced that it will hold its own presidential nominating election early next year. Voting in this online primary will be open to any MySpace member. Candidates recognize the power that social networking sites have to reach large numbers of people. These include teenagers who grew up with the Internet and will turn eighteen next year -- old enough to vote for the first time. Cortney Tidwell HOST: Cortney Tidwell grew up with a grandfather and mother who sang country music in Nashville, Tennessee. So it is not surprising that she, too, turned to a career in music. Her songs have a dreamy quality with unexpected electronic sounds and, yes, now and then the sound of a country guitar. Katherine Cole tells us more. KATHERINE COLE: Cortney Tidwell controls her voice carefully, but her music is hard to define. Sometimes the sounds that come out of her mouth are unusual and surprising. In her songs you might also hear things like sudden changes in the beat or words that sound far away. The musical result is poetic and striking. One critic says it is like listening to the sound of moonlight. This song, from her first full-length album, released earlier this year, is called "Pictures on the Sidewalk." (MUSIC) Cortney Tidwell says she is influenced by children’s laughter, the night sky and the ups and downs of people’s emotions. Yet the mournful sound that we hear in "Pictures on the Sidewalk" can also be found in many of her other songs. She has described how her mother suffered from severe depression and would express her sadness through music. As a result, Cortney Tidwell says that as a child she came to connect music with being unhappy. But she says that in time, she recognized that writing music helped her survive some very difficult times. Here is a song simply called "La La." (MUSIC) Cortney Tidwell lives in Nashville with her husband, who helped produce her album. We leave you with the title song from "Don't Let the Stars Keep Us Tangled Up." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson, hoping you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. For transcripts and MP3 files of all of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please be sure to include your full name and mailing address. You can also write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Harvard Economist Susan Athey Wins a Top Award
* Byline: First woman to receive the Clark Medal is honored for work across several areas of study, including government auctions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Susan Athey, an economics professor at Harvard University, has won the John Bates Clark Medal. The American Economics Association awards the Clark Medal to the most promising economists. And it may be even harder to win than a Nobel Prize in economics. The Clark Medal is given every two years. And the winner has to be under the age of forty. Susan Athey is thirty-six years old and the first woman to win the Clark Medal in its sixty year history. No woman has yet won the Nobel economics prize which has been awarded since nineteen sixty-nine. Professor Athey came to Harvard in Massachusetts last year. Before that she was at Stanford University in California for five years. And before that she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for six years. Past winners received the Clark Medal for a single area of research. But Susan Athey was honored for her work across several areas of economics. Her work has dealt with both applied theory and empirical studies. In other words, it has dealt both with the complex methods that help economists do their jobs and with economic problems in the real world. One of the real-world situations that she has studied is government auctions. Auctions can be used to sell something like the right to cut down trees on public forest lands. Or they can be used to buy something that a government agency needs, like computers. In both cases, bidders compete against one another to win the auction. For five years, Susan Athey worked with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests in Canada to design a system for timber auctions. That system has helped the Canadians collect over one billion dollars. It has also helped ease a trade dispute. The United States accused Canada of providing unfair support to its timber industry. Professor Athey has also studied how bidders in an auction can suppress competition. One pays the others to offer losing bids. This, of course, defeats the purpose of an auction. Susan Athey showed that requiring businesses to make secret bids could increase competition. The John Bates Clark Medal has been given every two years since nineteen forty-seven, except for nineteen fifty-three. That year no prize was awarded. Among thirty winners of the medal, eleven have won the Nobel prize in economics. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sarkozy's Economic Plan for France May Depend on June Elections
* Byline: Chirac will leave office on Wednesday. Blair announces he will resign June 27. And Turkey looks for a solution to its presidential crisis. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Nicolas Sarkozy will take office Wednesday as president of France. He supports labor reforms, tax cuts and strong controls over crime and illegal immigration. As interior minister he was known for strongly worded conservative positions on law and order. Nicolas Sarkozy and Tony Blair met Friday in ParisNow he proposes to liberalize the French economy to better compete in world markets. Some say his proposed economic reforms could lead to labor unrest. The plan includes a right to work more than thirty-five hours a week. Before anything, he will need the support of parliament. Legislative elections are in June. People talk about "Sarkozy the American" because he supports the United States. But the new president says he is going to make the French people proud again of their nation. Two-term President Jacques Chirac is retiring after twelve years in office. The president-elect was the candidate of the ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement. In Sunday's election, Nicolas Sarkozy easily defeated Socialist candidate Segolene Royal with fifty-three percent of the vote. But his election led to three nights of violence during protests in Paris and other cities. Hundreds of people were arrested. Mister Sarkozy's election raises concerns for supporters of Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union. He is against it. Instead he proposes a "Mediterranean Union" as a bridge between Europe and Africa. The idea is to include Turkey and other Muslim nations, as well as European Union members along the Mediterranean, including France. Still, officials from Turkey and the European Union say they will push ahead with membership talks. The European Union has also urged patience as Turkey seeks a new president. Parliament voted Thursday for a proposed constitutional amendment to let the Turkish people elect a new president directly. The ruling AK party proposed it. This comes after the party failed to get parliament to elect Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. Opposition parties boycotted the vote. They say he is an Islamist threat to the separation of religion and government in Turkey -- a charge he denies. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer was to leave office next week. Now he is expected to stay until a new parliament is elected in July. The ruling party wants to hold a presidential election at the same time. In other news, Tony Blair announced this week when he will resign after ten years as Britain's prime minister. The date is June twenty-seventh. His Labor Party is expected to elect Gordon Brown, currently the treasury chief. Tony Blair's popularity suffered because of his support for the Iraq war. But he will also be remembered for British economic gains and, among other things, for his work on the Northern Ireland peace agreement. This week, a government was inaugurated in which Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders will share power in the British province. The hope is for a lasting end to thirty years of conflict. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jill Moss. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Pocahontas, 1595-1617: An Important Player in Early Jamestown
* Byline: She represented the hope of close relations between white people and Native Americans. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: She lived four hundred years ago in what became the American state of Virginia. She was the first Native American to marry a white person. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Today, we tell about Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian tribe. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Pocahontas was born in fifteen ninety-five. She was one of twenty children of Chief Powhatan. Powhatan ruled a group of more than twenty Indian tribes in territory that is now the eastern state of Virginia. In sixteen-oh-seven, the Virginia company in England sent colonists to settle the land that later became the United States of America. The leader of the English settlers was John Ratcliffe. He claimed the land for King James of England. He named the new colony Jamestown, Virginia. The English colonists did not know that the area already was settled by Indians. VOICE TWO: The Powhatan Indians lived in the area where the English colonists landed. They were part of a large group of American tribes who spoke the Algonquian language. The Powhatans had lived in the area for almost one thousand years. They built villages. They grew beans, corn, squash and melons. They created a strong political system, led by powerful chiefs like Powhatan. His power and wealth were evident. Women of the tribes controlled the houses and the fields. They made clothing of animal skins and containers of clay. Men hunted and fished for food. Both men and women wore earrings and other objects made of shells, pearls and copper. The young Pocahontas often visited Jamestown during the colony's first months. She was about twelve years old. The colonists knew her well. She became an important link between the colonists and her father, Powhatan. VOICE ONE: The Indians' culture was very different from that of the English settlers. The two groups did not understand each other. The misunderstandings led to hostile incidents between the colonists and the Indians. John Smith was an explorer, soldier and a leader of the Jamestown colony. He was captured in sixteen-oh-seven by followers of Powhatan. Captain Smith wrote about this incident in a book that was published in sixteen twenty-four. He wrote that Pocahontas saved him from being executed by Powhatan. This story has been repeated for hundreds of years. This is what most people know about Pocahontas. VOICE TWO: Most historians, however, do not believe that Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith. Some believe that Captain Smith invented the story after reading about a similar event that took place in Florida. That event involved a captured Spanish explorer, an Indian chief and the chief's daughter. Some historians do not believe that John Smith's life was in danger. They say that what Captain Smith thought was to be his execution was really an Indian ceremony. The ceremony was meant to show that Powhatan accepted Smith as part of his tribe. Historians say the Indian chief wanted to make the English colonists his allies. VOICE ONE: After Captain Smith's capture, the Indians and the colonists agreed to a truce. Pocahontas visited Jamestown more often. She may not have really saved John Smith's life. But most experts agree that Pocahontas helped the colonists. She brought them corn when they were starving. She once was said to have warned the colonists about a surprise attack by the Indians. John Smith had been wounded during his capture. He returned to England. Hostilities once again broke out between the Indians and the English settlers. In sixteen eleven, Thomas Dale became acting governor of the colony. He started a new aggressive policy toward the Indians. Two years later, an English soldier, Samuel Argall, kidnapped Pocahontas. She was about eighteen years old. The colonists kidnapped her because they wanted to prevent more attacks by the Indians. They also wanted to force chief Powhatan to negotiate a peace agreement. VOICE TWO: Pocahontas lived as a hostage in the Jamestown settlement for more than a year. A colonist, John Rolfe, taught her English. He also taught her the Christian religion. Pocahontas was the first Native American to become Christian. She changed her name to Rebecca. In sixteen fourteen, she married John Rolfe in the church in Jamestown. She was the first Indian woman to marry a white man. Her husband believed that their marriage would be good for the colony. John Rolfe said he married Pocahontas "for the honor of our country, for the glory of God. " VOICE ONE: Governor Dale immediately opened negotiations with Powhatan. The result was a period of peace that lasted for about eight years. Pocahontas' husband was a tobacco grower. She taught him the Indian way of planting tobacco. This method improved the tobacco crop. Tobacco later became America's first successful crop. VOICE TWO: In sixteen fifteen, Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a son. They named him Thomas. The next year Pocahontas and her family sailed to England for a visit. In London, she was treated like a famous person. She was officially presented to king James the First. She also met John Smith again. The Virginia Company said her visit proved that it was possible to have good relations between the English colonists and the Indians. The company urged more people to move from England to the Virginia colony. Pocahontas had her picture painted while visiting England. She is wearing the clothes she wore when she met the King. They are the kind of clothes that were popular in England in the sixteen hundreds. This picture is the only one that really is of her. VOICE ONE: Pocahontas and her family stayed in England for seven months. They prepared to return to Jamestown. But Pocahontas became sick with smallpox. She died from the disease. She was buried in Gravesend, England. She was twenty-two years old. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was raised in England. When he was twenty, he returned to Virginia. He lived as a settler in his mother's native land. He married and had a daughter. Through Thomas Rolfe, a number of famous Virginians have family ties to Pocahontas. These families are proud to claim their ties to Pocahontas. They call her "Virginia's First Lady. " VOICE TWO: Pocahontas left no writings of her own. The only reports about her from the time were written by John Smith. His reports may not all have been true. Yet the story of her rescue of Captain Smith became a popular folk story. Americans know that Pocahontas played a part in the early history of Virginia. They remember her bravery and friendship. Americans also remember her for what she represented as a Native American: the hope of close relations between the white people and the Indians. VOICE ONE: Pocahontas is honored in the United States Capitol building in Washington, D. C. There are three art works of her in the large, round, main hall of the capitol. There are more representations of her than any other American except for the nation's first president, George Washington. The three art works show the popular stories about Pocahontas. One is a painting of Pocahontas taking part in a religious ceremony in which she became a Christian. Two others show her saving the life of Captain John Smith. VOICE TWO: Many different American groups have used the name and some version of a picture of Pocahontas. Whale hunters in the nineteenth century named ships after Pocahontas in honor of her bravery. They also put small statues of her on their ships. Both the confederate forces in the South and the Union forces in the North used her name or picture during the American Civil War. A picture of Pocahontas was on the flag of a division of Confederate forces called the Guard of the Daughters of Powhatan. Union forces named a warship after the Indian woman. Many American writers have written about Pocahontas. The Walt Disney company produced a popular children's movie about her. VOICE ONE: Today, visitors to the Jamestown settlement in Virginia can see what life was like there in the sixteen hundreds. They can see copies of the ships that brought the English settlers. And they can see statues of three of the people important in early America: John Smith, Chief Powhatan, and his daughter -- Pocahontas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-13-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Numbers: I, for One, Use These Expressions Often
* Byline: A number of terms based on the number one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Today I will tell about expressions using numbers. Let us start with the number one. Numbers can be tricky. On the one hand, they are simply numbers. On the other hand, they have meanings. I for one use these expressions a lot. Many people consider themselves number one, the most important person. They are always looking out for number one and taking care of number one. It is as if they are the one and only person on Earth. Some people however, are not so self-centered. My brother is such a person. It is true – no joke. I am not trying to pull a fast one on you. First, you have to understand that my brother is one in a million. He is such a nice person. All his friends like him. They consider him one of the boys. Recently, my brother had a bad day at the office. It was just one of those days. Nothing went right. So he stopped at a local bar -- a drinking place -- after leaving work. My brother planned to have a glass of beer with his friends -- a quick one –? before he went home. But a quick one turned into one or two, and soon those became one too many. As my brother was leaving, he ordered a last drink -- one for the road. His friends became concerned. One by one, they asked him if he was able to drive home safely. Now my brother is a wise and calm person. He is at one with himself. He recognizes when he has had too much alcohol to drink. So he accepted an offer for a ride home from a female friend. At one time in the past, my brother had been in love with this woman. She is a great person -- kind, thoughtful and intelligent -- all good qualities rolled up into one. But sadly their relationship did not work. He always used to say "One of these days, I am going to marry this girl." But that never happened. For one thing, she did not love him as much as he loved her. It was just one of those things. The situation was regrettable and my brother had to accept it. But even now, he considers her the one that got away. However, they are still friends. And because my brother had been kind to her, she felt that one good turn deserves another. He was good to her and she wanted to help him in return. So she drove him home. If my brother had driven home from the bar that night, his number would have been up. Something bad would have happened. Thankfully he made it home safely. And, he and the woman are back to square one. They are back to where they started – being friends. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-07-10-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Numbers: I, for One, Use These Expressions Often
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Today I will tell about expressions using numbers. Let us start with the number one. Numbers can be tricky. On the one hand, they are simply numbers. On the other hand, they have meanings. I for one use these expressions a lot. Many people consider themselves number one, the most important person. They are always looking out for number one and taking care of number one. It is as if they are the one and only person on Earth. Some people however, are not so self-centered. My brother is such a person. It is true – no joke. I am not trying to pull a fast one on you. First, you have to understand that my brother is one in a million. He is such a nice person. All his friends like him. They consider him one of the boys. Recently, my brother had a bad day at the office. It was just one of those days. Nothing went right. So he stopped at a local bar -- a drinking place -- after leaving work. My brother planned to have a glass of beer with his friends -- a quick one –? before he went home. But a quick one turned into one or two, and soon those became one too many. As my brother was leaving, he ordered a last drink -- one for the road. His friends became concerned. One by one, they asked him if he was able to drive home safely. Now my brother is a wise and calm person. He is at one with himself. He recognizes when he has had too much alcohol to drink. So he accepted an offer for a ride home from a female friend. At one time in the past, my brother had been in love with this woman. She is a great person -- kind, thoughtful and intelligent -- all good qualities rolled up into one. But sadly their relationship did not work. He always used to say "One of these days, I am going to marry this girl." But that never happened. For one thing, she did not love him as much as he loved her. It was just one of those things. The situation was regrettable and my brother had to accept it. But even now, he considers her the one that got away. However, they are still friends. And because my brother had been kind to her, she felt that one good turn deserves another. He was good to her and she wanted to help him in return. So she drove him home. If my brother had driven home from the bar that night, his number would have been up. Something bad would have happened. Thankfully he made it home safely. And, he and the woman are back to square one. They are back to where they started – being friends. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mothers as Seen Through the Eyes, and the Years, of TV and Film
* Byline: Some examples of how, as women in general have become more independent, so have the moms created by Hollywood. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, our subject is mothers and how their image has changed over the years in film and television. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States and a number of other countries, the second Sunday in May is celebrated as Mother's Day. Early in the nineteen hundreds, a woman named Anna Jarvis began a campaign to honor mothers in America. She talked to friends and friends of friends. She wrote to congressmen, local leaders, teachers and newspaper publishers. Finally, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution in May of nineteen fourteen that officially established Mother's Day. VOICE TWO: Anna Jarvis thought mothers should be honored with expressions of love and respect.Professor Robert Thompson at Syracuse University in New York state is an expert on American popular culture. Fifty or sixty years ago, he says, the popular media image of mothers was the so-called perfect mother. This was a woman who gave all her time to her husband, home and children. Many women in society felt pressure to try to be this kind of mother. VOICE ONE: Like many observers, Professor Thompson uses the example of the imaginary June Cleaver, the mother on "Leave It to Beaver." That was a TV series from nineteen fifty-seven to nineteen sixty-three. The Cleavers were a happy family. June Cleaver always had time and patience for her two sons, Wally and "Beaver." His real name was Theodore. And if there was ever a problem she could not handle, her husband put things right. The same was true on another nineteen fifties television show. The name said it all: "Father Knows Best." VOICE TWO: A different image, though, could be found in films like the nineteen forty-eight motion picture "I Remember Mama." It was set in San Francisco, California, in nineteen ten. It was about a family that came from Norway. The Hansons were poor and they struggled to make their way in their new land. Mama Hanson, played by actress Irene Dunne, had little education. But she knew a lot about dealing with people. She guides her family. VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? Mama hates "going to the bank" -- she means borrowing money. But she also recognizes the importance of staying in school. We listen as Mama and her family are sitting around the table, counting money. (SOUND) MAMA: "Yah, is all for this week. Is good. We do not have to go to the bank."SON: "Mama, mama, I'll be graduating from Valley School next month. Could I -- could I go into high, do you think?" MAMA: "You want to go to high school?"SON: "Well, I'd like to, very much, if you think I could."MAMA: "Is good." VOICE TWO: "I Remember Mama" earned Irene Dunne an Academy Award nomination for best actress of nineteen forty-eight. Two years later, in the lighthearted film "Cheaper by the Dozen," Myrna Loy played Lillian Gilbreth, a mother of twelve. The father is an efficiency expert, an expert in doing things better and faster. Lillian Gilbreth obeys her husband, or at least appears to. But she also has a mind of her own. At one point, the husband, played by Clifton Webb, plays a joke on their son Bill. The father honks the horn just as the boy crosses in front of their car. Bill jumps. His father laughs and says the boy jumped six and nine-tenths inches. VOICE ONE: A little later, Bill plays the same joke on his father. This time his father does not laugh. The mother has to save Bill from getting punished and, in the process, she teaches her husband a lesson. (SOUND) FATHER: "Who did that?" BILL: "Uh, that was a good joke on you, Dad."FATHER: "Listen, young man. There's a time and a place for? jokes and a time and place for spankings. And the sooner you learn -- get out. Get out!" MOTHER: "Mercy Maude, Frank, I'll bet you jumped six and nine-tenths inches that time."FATHER: "You're right, son. That was a good joke on me. By jingo, I'll bet I did jump six and nine-tenths inches. Oh these kids, these kids."(HORN SOUNDS AGAIN)MOTHER: "Excuse me, dear, I did it. It was accidental." VOICE TWO: The Gilbreths were a real family. "Cheaper by the Dozen" was the name of a book written by two of the twelve children. Their mother, Lillian, was a psychologist and herself an expert in the area of industrial management. In fact, Lillian Moller Gilbreth is known as the mother of modern management. A woman who graduated from a women's college in nineteen fifty-three remembers hearing her as a graduation speaker. She remembers Lillian Gilbreth urging the young women to have full lives, with professions if they wanted them. When Lillian Gilbreth received her doctorate in psychology, she already had four young children who attended the ceremony. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over the years, as mothers and American women in general became more independent, more and more of them entered the job market. They did so by choice or because of financial need or both. Pop culture expert Robert Thompson says the changes could be seen in film and television as well. For example, working women used to be shown mostly as nurses or teachers, because those were the jobs that many held in real life. But these days, whatever new jobs are written into movies or TV shows, some images of mothers are timeless. One is the image of the overprotective mother who gets too involved in her child's life, even after the child grows up. Diane Keaton plays just such a mother, a single mom named Daphne, in the two thousand seven film "Because I Said So." Mandy Moore plays her daughter. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Daphne is supposed to be seen as one of those moms who mean well even if they make their kids crazy. Now consider Norma Bates, the mother in the nineteen sixty movie "Psycho," one of the scariest films from director Alfred Hitchcock. In one scene we hear shouting because her son Norman, played by Anthony Perkins, wants to bring a guest to dinner. (SOUND) MOTHER: "No! I tell you no! I won't have you bringing strange young girls in for supper. By candlelight, I suppose, in the cheap erotic fashion of young men with cheap erotic minds."NORMAN BATES: "Mother, please."MOTHER: "And then what? After supper, music ... ?" VOICE ONE: Yet, in all fairness, the surprise ending to "Psycho" might leave you wondering if mother Bates was really evil after all. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The nineteen seventy-nine motion picture "Kramer vs. Kramer" got a lot of attention. It dealt with issues of parenting and relationships in modern society. Meryl Streep played a woman named Joanna Kramer who leaves her husband because he has no time for her or their young son. Dustin Hoffman played the husband, Ted Kramer. After his wife leaves, he has to balance his busy work life with raising the boy himself. Later his wife goes to court to demand custody of their son. She wins the battle of Kramer versus Kramer in court. But in the end, she decides that her son will be better off with his dad. The movie won five Academy Awards, including best picture. Oscars also went to Dustin Hoffman for best actor and Meryl Streep for best actress in a supporting role. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For years, almost all leading movie and television stars, male or female, were white. Activists say members of racial and ethnic minority groups are still not well represented enough. But the social gains that minorities made in the nineteen sixties and seventies led the way to shows like "The Jeffersons." This was a comedy on CBS television from nineteen seventy-five to nineteen eighty-five. It about a newly wealthy black family that moved into a New York City high-rise with mostly white neighbors. VOICE TWO: One of the most popular TV shows ever was "The Cosby Show," on NBC from nineteen eighty-four to nineteen ninety-two. It starred Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his wife, Clair. He was a doctor and she was a lawyer. The Huxtables were presented as a strong, loving, successful African-American family. Still, pop culture expert Robert Thompson notes that Clair Huxtable was often shown more as a wife and mother than as a successful lawyer. VOICE ONE: "Mississippi Masala" was a nineteen ninety-one film about an ethnic Indian family exiled from Uganda when Idi Amin comes to power. The family lives in Mississippi, in the American South. Daughter Meena is in love with a black American named Demetrius, played by Denzel Washington. Their parents strongly disapprove. The family decides to return to Uganda, but Meena does not want to go. She calls her parents to tell them she is running away with Demetrius. Her mother, played by Sharmila Tagore, recognizes that they have to let their daughter lead her own life. (SOUND) MOTHER: "Meena?"MEENA: "Ma, I'm not coming back. I'm sorry, but I can't go to Uganda. What would I do there?"FATHER: "Are you alone?" MEENA: "No, I'm with Demetrius. Pa, are you there? Ma, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Why did he put the phone down?"MOTHER: "I'll talk to your father. ... She has a mind of her own. She can't grow here anymore. " (MUSIC)?? VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Transcripts and audio archives of our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.We leave you with a song from a classic film from nineteen sixty-seven. It was about a relationship between a recent college graduate and what popular culture today would call a "hot mom" -- a sexy older woman. The young man feels regret, which only grows as he falls in love with her daughter. The actress who played the mother was Anne Bancroft, the lover was Dustin Hoffman and the movie was "The Graduate."? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: GlobalGiving: Connecting Personal Donors to Local Projects
* Byline: This non-profit organization has raised about five million dollars in the last seven years.? The money has paid for or helped finance about seven hundred projects around the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A little money can go a long way, especially in the developing world. This is one of the main beliefs of the non-profit group GlobalGiving. Two former top officials at the World Bank launched GlobalGiving seven years ago. Mari Kuraishi and Dennis Whittle wanted to connect personal donors to projects in mostly poor countries using the Internet. So far, the group has raised over five million dollars, mostly through its Web site, globalgiving.com. The money has paid for or helped finance about seven hundred projects around the world. Joan Ochi is a spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based organization. She says donors can search the GlobalGiving Web site to find projects that interest them. Right now, for example, donors can give to a program called “Reach the Unreached…Delivering Care in Africa.”? This project provides nurses in Zimbabwe with motorcycles and safety equipment. Miz Ochi says the nurses can now provide better care and health services to more people, especially in rural areas. GlobalGiving and about forty other non-governmental organizations help identify social leaders or small local groups. After the projects are approved, Miz Ochi says a description is added to the GlobalGiving Web site. Donors can give any amount of money to a project using different methods of payment. These include credit card, the PayPal system or a stock transfer. All donations are fully tax-deductible. GlobalGiving also works with large companies and private foundations that support socially responsible giving. Miz Ochi says about ninety percent of all donations to GlobalGiving go directly to the project selected by the donor. The organization uses ten percent for operating expenses. GlobalGiving urges its project leaders to provide progress reports every few months about how donor money is spent. Joan Ochi says GlobalGiving hopes to double its donations every year. However, this is difficult because so many organizations are collecting money for important causes. Still, she says GlobalGiving is a way for small solutions to have a big influence in the developing world. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read and download audio of Special English programs at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mosquitoes as a Way to Fight Malaria Instead of Spreading It
* Byline: Also: A report says fewer boys have been born in the US and Japan each year since 1970. And vitamins can help pregnant women increase low birth weights. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we will tell about a possible way to control the disease malaria. Researchers have reported a decrease in the rate of male births in the United States and Japan for the past thirty years. We will tell about their findings. We also will tell about a study on the effects of vitamins in pregnant women. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Researchers in the United States are exploring a possible way to control malaria. They are developing insects resistant to the disease. More than three million people become infected with malaria each year. The disease kills at least one million people every year. Malaria is found in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Malaria parasites enter a person’s blood through the bite of a very small insect -- the mosquito. The malaria parasites travel to the liver. The organisms grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause a person’s body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells. VOICE TWO: People die from malaria because they are not treated or treatment is delayed. Different drugs can prevent the parasites from developing in the body. But experts still say the best way to prevent the disease is not to be bitten by a mosquito. That could change in the future. Research scientists at The Johns Hopkins University have created mosquitoes that cannot spread the malaria parasite. Computer studies show that such insects are needed to replace mosquitoes in the wild if malaria control is to succeed. The researchers reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Earlier studies showed that disease resistant mosquitoes might not be as healthy as wild ones. Those with resistance would die early and not be able to replace the others. VOICE ONE: The Johns Hopkins researchers put equal numbers of malaria resistant mosquitoes in a box with other mosquitoes. All the insects fed on mice that had been infected with the malaria parasite. The researchers took eggs made by the insects and kept them until they became adult mosquitoes. These new mosquitoes were then permitted to feed on infected mice. The researchers did this again and again. After nine generations, seventy percent of the mosquitoes were malaria resistant. The researchers say they changed the genetic structure of the mosquitoes to produce a protein called S.M. One. The S.M. One gene blocks the development of the malaria parasite inside the insect. The genetically engineered mosquitoes mated with mosquitoes lacking this gene. So their young had a single copy of the gene -- not two. This is thought to be the reason the genetically engineered mosquitoes did not die early as the others. Other researchers say the Johns Hopkins work confirms earlier studies concerning disease resistant insects. But they say more work needs to be done, especially with human malaria parasites. The researchers say creation of the new insects alone will probably not be able to control the disease. They say malaria resistant mosquitoes could be used in combination with drugs and insect poisons to stop malaria in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new report says the number of boys born in the United States and Japan has decreased every year since nineteen seventy. The report says the reason for the decrease is unclear. But it says environmental and other influences might be involved. American and Japanese researchers studied thirty years of birth records from the two nations. The researchers say they found fewer boys were born in comparison to girls. They say the decrease in births was equal to one hundred thirty-five thousand white males in the United States. In Japan, the decrease was equal to one hundred twenty-seven thousand fewer males. VOICE ONE: The study found a decrease of seventeen males for every ten thousand births in the United States since nineteen seventy. And it found an even greater decline in Japan -- thirty-seven males for every ten thousand births. It also found a continued rise in deaths of male fetuses. The fetuses died before they were fully developed. The researchers examined birth records of African-Americans as a separate group from white Americans. They found that the number of male births among African-Americans increased a little. But the rate of male births to female births for African-Americans was lower than that of whites. The study found that all races experienced a decrease in the number of fetal deaths, probably because of improved medical care. VOICE TWO: Devra Lee Davis of the University of Pittsburgh Center Institute led the study. She says scientists do not know the reason for the decline in male births, but suspect environmental poisons. Earlier reports show that researchers suspected a similar decrease in male births in other industrial nations. Scientists already know that men who work with some chemicals and metals have fewer baby boys. Scientists also know that some things influence both a woman’s ability to have a child and the health of her children. These include her physical health, the foods she eats and the chemicals in the air around her. VOICE ONE: Professor Davis says other things can affect the health of a male fetus. They include the weight and age of the parents, and their use of alcohol drinks and drugs. The report says one in every four to five married adults today report difficulty having children. It says evidence shows that chemicals in the air can affect the health of male reproductive fluid. This increases the chances of men producing a physically disabled child. Professor Davis says more research is needed to examine these questions in greater detail among small groups. Experts say such research could lead to environmental changes that will protect young people and their children in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization estimates twenty million babies are born too small each year. It says a baby weighing less than two thousand five hundred grams at birth has a less than desirable weight for good health. Ninety-five percent of such children are born in developing countries. One recent study shows that pregnant women in developing countries have healthier babies if the women are given vitamins. Researchers from the United States and Tanzania found that vitamins could help reduce low birth weight. Their findings were reported last month in The New England Journal of Medicine. Wafaie Fawzi of the Harvard University School of Public Health led the study. Professor Fawzi says low birth weight can cause serious health problems in babies. He says low birth weight has been linked to poor growth and mental development, and even early death. VOICE ONE: There are fourteen kinds of vitamins. People who do not get enough of these chemicals in their food, or want more, often take multivitamins. In the study, multivitamin pills were given to four thousand two hundred pregnant Tanzanian women. The pills contained all the B vitamins, as well as vitamins C and E. They also included iron and folate in levels several times higher than advised for women in industrial nations. Four thousand other women received a harmless substance. None of the women had the virus that causes the disease AIDS. VOICE TWO: The researchers found a twenty percent decrease in health risks for babies when mothers took the vitamins every day. There were no major differences between the two groups in the rate of early births or deaths of babies. The researchers say the vitamins helped improve the growth of fetuses probably by improving the mother's natural defenses against disease and hemoglobin levels. Hemoglobin is the coloring in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Professor Fawzi says multivitamin pills should be considered for all pregnant women in developing countries. He says the pills improve health and are not costly. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Lawan Davis. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fighting Fire Ants With a Virus of Their Own
* Byline: US scientists have hopes for a biological way to control an invasion that causes billions of dollars in farm losses each year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers in parts of the United States have struggled for years with an invasion of red imported fire ants from Brazil. These insects do major damage, unlike native kinds of fire ants. Each year they cause an estimated six billion dollars worth of damage in the United States. More than one billion dollars of that is just in Texas. The ants are thought to have arrived in the southern state of Alabama in the nineteen twenties or thirties. Since then they have spread northward and all the way to the West Coast. They ruin crops, damage soil and get into animal feed. They also damage electrical equipment and machinery. Not only that, they injure animals and workers. So farmers have to deal with medical costs and lost labor. Fire ants get their name because when they sting, they inject poison into the skin that causes a feeling of intense burning. Some people suffer life-threatening reactions. Colonies of red imported fire ants can be found in cities as well as farming areas. They can go deep underground to survive periods of little or no rain. They have no native predators, no creatures that like to feed on them. But one solution could come from the ants themselves, in the form of a virus that some of them carry. This virus may someday help control the population. Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture began to work with the virus about five years ago. The researchers observed one hundred sixty-eight nests of imported fire ants in Florida. They found the virus in almost one-fourth of them. The researchers found that the virus affected every part of fire-ant development, including the eggs. The affected colonies died in about three months. Now, government researchers want to work with a private company to produce large amounts of the virus. It could then be used as a biological control. Other natural ways to fight the fire ants are also possible. One is the South American phorid fly. It lays its eggs on fire ants. When the eggs break open, the young flies eat the brains of the ants. But researchers do not know how well the flies would do in North America. As much as the ants are hated, they do have a few friends among growers of cotton and sugarcane. The ants feed on insects that attack those crops. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Saving the World, or at Least Understanding What Ecologists Mean
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, our guest is Professor Rob Jackson, director of the Global Change Center at Duke University. He's with us to explain some of the language of ecology and climate change. RS: And we start with the term "greenhouse gases." These are emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere but, Jackson says, not by definition a bad thing. ROB JACKSON: "Without greenhouse gases, life wouldn't exist; the Earth would be a frozen ball of ice. When they trap extra heat, though, they warm the Earth more than has historically been usual and drive up the Earth's temperature." RS: "Well, we have three terms that we would like to know more about. One is carbon-neutral. What does it mean to be carbon-neutral?" ROB JACKSON: "Well, when something is carbon-neutral, it means that the activity has no net greenhouse gas emissions. So, for instance, you might offset the fuel that you use by using renewable energy or even by planting trees to offset your emissions. In practice, there are different levels of being carbon-neutral. When you hop in your car, do you count just the gasoline that you use? Or do you include the fossil fuels that went into making the car or building the roads you drive on? Most people just think about the fuel used." RS: "And what about your carbon footprint?" ROB JACKSON: "The term carbon footprint, it's come to mean just the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that come from a given activity, such as driving your car, again. To understand where it comes from, though, you have to know a little environmental history. "Back in the early nineteen nineties an ecologist named Bill Reese coined the term 'ecological footprint,' the amount of land needed to support resource use and waste for a given population. So that's where the footprint half of carbon footprint comes from. In common use, through, it's lost the link to land area and just refers to net carbon emissions." AA: So we have carbon-neutral, carbon footprint and a third term -- carbon sequestration. ROB JACKSON: "Well, carbon sequestration is the opposite of a carbon emission. So a sequestration activity is something that takes carbon dioxide back out the atmosphere and puts it into wood for trees, for example, or stores it below ground in an aquifer or in sediments in the ocean. So you're taking or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere." RS: "On Capitol Hill they're talking about 'cap-and-trade' and 'carbon trading.' What are these terms, what do they mean?" ROB JACKSON: "A carbon trade or a cap-and-trade works like this: a government or some regulatory body limits the total amount of a pollutant that enters the atmosphere. So this is what people call the cap. "The government then issues credits, emissions credits, to the polluters who can sell or trade those credits. That's the term cap-and-trade. And the system works because it rewards companies that reduce pollution by letting them sell their credits for profit." RS: "And this is something that's popular now in Europe, that's actually in effect in Europe, correct?" ROB JACKSON: "It's popular in Europe, though, really because it worked here first, not for carbon dioxide but for sulfur. Back in the early nineteen nineties, through the Clean Air Act, we implemented a cap-and-trade system for sulfur emissions in the U.S. and it worked very effectively and very efficiently and very quickly to reduce sulfur emissions." AA: "Acid rain." ROB JACKSON: "That's correct. So the idea is to take that model and apply it to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Now it's more complicated with greenhouse gases but the principal is the same. And it really -- it rewards efficiency, it rewards companies financially for reducing their pollution." RS: "But it's become quite controversial." AA: "Right. That's right, there have been news reports recently that it's not quite as clear-cut as it might seem." ROB JACKSON: "Well, it's controversial for many reasons. It's controversial in how the emissions credits are given out, so who gets how many credits, how much a company pays for them. It's also controversial because you have to be careful that the carbon dioxide or the greenhouse gas that you're saving through your system isn't being re-emitted somewhere else. "So, in other words, if one country sets up a cap-and-trade system to reduce its emissions, but all it does is shunt some activity to another country, and that carbon dioxide ends up in the atmosphere, you really haven't saved anything on a net global basis. It really points out the need for an international system." AA: "And are there terms that you use to describe a situation like that?" ROB JACKSON: "A cap-and-trade situation?" AA: "Or shunting off of -- passing the buck or something, or passing the carbon. I don't know what you would call it." ROB JACKSON: "Yeah, there is a technical term for it. It's called 'leakage,' and it sounds like your bathtub's leaking or something. But the idea is that use of some activity slides off to some other location or to some other time that's outside the bounds of your system, and therefore you're sort of losing track of it, you're not accounting for it, and that's why the term leaking is used." RS: We'll talk more about eco-language next week with Rob Jackson, a professor of biology and environmental sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can learn more about English at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Fewer US Women Getting Mammograms
* Byline: Drop in testing could help explain why breast cancer rates have fallen in recent years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Research is often a slow, maddening search for answers where each new finding only seems to raise more questions. This is the case with a story we told you about last month. It offers a good example of how difficult it can be to define a relationship between two events, or even prove a connection. In this case, one event was a sudden drop in the use of hormone replacement therapy. The other, which followed, was a sharp drop in the breast cancer rate in the United States. Many older women stopped taking hormones after a government warning in two thousand two about possible risks. Last December a team of scientists reported that breast cancer rates fell in two thousand three. Then, last month, they reported that the breast cancer rate was still down in two thousand four. They suggested that the major cause was most likely the drop in hormone use. For evidence the researchers presented two main findings. One was that the reduction in the breast cancer rate was greatest among cancers fed by estrogen. Estrogen is commonly used in hormone replacement therapy. The other finding was that the reduction happened mainly among older women -- the main users of the therapy. The scientists suggested that going off hormone therapy reduced the risk of cancer growth. They said other explanations for the drop in the breast cancer rate were possible, but less likely to have played a big part. Now, a new study looks at one of those other possible influences: a decrease in mammogram testing for breast cancers. The study by the American Cancer Society just appeared in the journal Breast Cancer. First, the study shows that breast cancer rates began to fall in nineteen ninety-nine. That was three years before the government warning about hormone therapy. Secondly, the study shows that after the warning, fewer women had mammograms, which are usually done with X-rays. A mammogram is required before starting hormone therapy. Whatever the reason for the decrease, fewer tests would mean fewer chances to find cancers. Still, many experts believe that the drop in estrogen-fed cancers in older women had something to do with the drop in hormone use. A final note: government researchers reported Monday that mammogram testing fell four percent between two thousand and two thousand five. The lead researcher called it "very troubling." And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. --- Correction: Based on?information supplied by the American Cancer Society, this story says a study found US?mammography rates fell 4 percent from 2000 to 2005. The drop, among women age 40 and older,?was almost four percentage points, from 70.1 percent to 66.4 percent. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-15-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Charles Lindbergh Flew to Paris, and Into History, 80 Years Ago
* Byline: On May 21, 1927, he flew the Spirit of Saint Louis across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris and became the first pilot to make the flight without stopping. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy. Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February fourth, nineteen-oh-two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D.C. while Mister Lindbergh served in the Congress. Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle. VOICE TWO: He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five hundred dollars to buy his own plane. Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing." He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier. VOICE ONE: From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class. After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago. Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy." VOICE TWO: In nineteen nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five thousand dollars. A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane. A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it the Spirit of Saint Louis. VOICE ONE: In May, nineteen twenty-seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes. At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two. "If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either." VOICE TWO: May twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of the Spirit of Saint Louis. "It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go." The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, the Spirit of Saint Louis flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris. VOICE ONE: Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left. During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel. Lindbergh after his famous flightOn the evening of May twenty-first, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris. Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and the Spirit of Saint Louis were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people. From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors. VOICE TWO: Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations. He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in nineteen twenty-nine. Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed. On a stormy night in nineteen thirty-two, kidnappers took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in nineteen thirty-nine. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace. President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany. Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero. VOICE TWO: Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war. Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights. Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest. While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh died in nineteen seventy-four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed. Today, the Spirit of Saint Louis -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Vietnam War: Nixon Tries Secret Talks, but Also Invades Cambodia
* Byline: The president had much greater success dealing with China than he did with the war in Southeast Asia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we continue the story of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is nineteen sixty-nine in America. Richard Nixon is in the first year of his first term in office. His biggest foreign policy problem is the continuing war in Vietnam. During the election campaign, he had promised to do something to end the war. Some Americans believe the United States should withdraw from Vietnam immediately. Bring the soldiers back home, they say. Others believe the United States should take whatever measures are necessary to win. Expand the ground war, they say, or use nuclear weapons. VOICE TWO The decision is not easy. Withdrawing allied troops would leave South Vietnam alone to fight against communist North Vietnam. And that was the reason the United States became involved in the conflict. It wanted to prevent the Communists from taking over the South. Expanding the military effort would mean more deaths. Already, by nineteen sixty-nine, more Americans had died in Vietnam than in the Korean War. VOICE ONE For Richard Nixon, the war is a terrible test. If he is not able to deal with it, his presidency could end like Lyndon Johnson's ended. Johnson decided not to run for re-election after he lost public and political support for his war policies. Henry KissingerHow did the new president deal with the problem? Like Johnson, he made decisions based on information from his advisers. His most important adviser was Henry Kissinger. Kissinger was an expert on foreign relations. He later served as Nixon's secretary of state. Together, they tried many ways to settle the conflict in Vietnam. It took several years to end American involvement there. VOICE TWO: The American efforts were both diplomatic and military. The Nixon administration started new, secret peace talks in Paris. The official peace talks were taking place in Paris at the same time. The administration withdrew some troops from Vietnam. Yet it sent other troops into Cambodia secretly. And it began dropping bombs on Laos. It also started dropping bombs on North Vietnam again. Former president Johnson had stopped the bomb attacks a few years earlier. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE Efforts to end American involvement did not begin suddenly. For his first eight months in office, President Nixon made no major policy changes. Then, in October nineteen sixty-nine, he ordered the withdrawal of sixty thousand troops. He said he acted to speed the peace talks. He also ordered American commanders to give the South Vietnamese most of the responsibility for fighting. VOICE TWO: Americans were happy that fewer troops would be involved. But many were unhappy that the withdrawal was not complete. Huge anti-war demonstrations took place in the United States in the autumn of nineteen sixty-nine. On November fifteenth, several hundred thousand people protested in Washington, D.C. President Nixon tried to explain his policy to anti-war protesters. A slow withdrawal of troops is not the easy way, he told them, but it is the right way. He also continued his efforts for a military victory. VOICE ONE: In the spring of nineteen seventy, American and South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia. They attacked Communist supply centers there. Early the following year, the Nixon administration decided to provide air and artillery support for a South Vietnamese invasion of Laos. The goal was to stop supplies from reaching North Vietnam through that country. The military action in Laos lasted forty-four days. South Vietnamese forces destroyed many enemy weapons. However, they also suffered many deaths and injuries. And many American planes were shot down. After six weeks, the South Vietnamese were forced to withdraw. VOICE TWO: Many members of the United States Congress were angry. They said the invasion of Laos was another in a long series of failures. The Nixon administration had said that the United States was winning the war. Opposition lawmakers said the administration was lying. Criticism by the American public grew louder, too. President Nixon answered by saying again that the United States must not permit North Vietnam to take over South Vietnam. Former president Johnson had said the same thing. For a long time, many Americans accepted it. As the war continued, however, public opinion changed. In nineteen sixty-five, sixty-one percent of those questioned approved the war. By nineteen seventy-one, sixty-one percent did not approve. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The official peace talks in Paris offered little hope of settlement. Over a period of several years, each side made proposals. Then each side rejected the proposals. One American observer said: "As long as either side thinks it can win a military victory, there is no hope for official peace talks." President Nixon wanted to ease public tension and anger over the war. So he announced that Henry Kissinger had held twelve secret meetings with North Vietnamese officials. But the secret meetings made no more progress than the official talks. VOICE TWO: In late March nineteen seventy-two, North Vietnam launched a major offensive. In May, Nixon ordered increased bomb attacks against roads and railways in the North. By the end of August, the communist offensive had been stopped. Yet many lives had been lost. The pressure to withdraw American forces grew stronger. For the next five months, the Nixon administration continued a policy of official talks, secret meetings, and increased military action. Finally, the president announced that an agreement had been reached at the peace talks in Paris. There would be a ceasefire. And negotiators from the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong would sign the official agreement. VOICE ONE: Under the terms of the agreement, all American and allied forces would withdraw from South Vietnam. The North and South would be free to settle their conflict without interference from other countries. President Nixon made the official announcement from the White House. RICHARD NIXON: "At twelve-thirty Paris time today, January twenty-three, nineteen seventy-three, the agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam was initialed by Doctor Henry Kissinger on behalf of the United States and special adviser Le Duc Tho on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The agreement will be formally signed by the parties participating in the Paris conference on Vietnam on January twenty seven, nineteen-seventy-three, at the international conference center in Paris. ... "The United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam express the hope that this agreement will insure stable peace in Vietnam and contribute to the preservation of lasting peace in Indochina and Southeast Asia." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another foreign policy problem during the Nixon administration was China. The president had much greater success dealing with this problem than with Vietnam. Communists took power in China in nineteen forty-nine. However, the United States did not recognize the Communist government. Instead, it recognized the Nationalist government in Taiwan. In the early nineteen seventies, the Nixon administration began trying to improve relations. It eased restrictions on travel to China. And it supported a visit to China by the United States table tennis team. Then, President Nixon made a surprise announcement. He, too, would visit China. VOICE ONE: The historic event took place in February, nineteen seventy-two. Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou En-lai greeted the American president. Nixon and Zhou held talks that opened new possibilities for trade. The next year, Nixon sent a representative to open a diplomatic office in Beijing. After more than twenty years, the two countries were communicating again. They established official relations in nineteen seventy-nine. VOICE TWO: Many Americans expressed pleasure that tensions between the two countries had decreased. Many were proud to see their president standing on the Great Wall of China. And at Great WallHistory experts would later agree that it was the greatest moment in the presidency of Richard Nixon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series: US Colleges for the Deaf
* Byline: A look at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York. Part 36 of our series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We are going to talk again this week about higher education for disabled students who want to study in the United States. As we noted last time, the National Federation of the Blind says there are no special colleges or universities for blind students. But there are for deaf students. One of them is Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. Gallaudet says it is the world's only liberal arts university where everything is designed for deaf or hard-of-hearing students. On May 9, Robert Davila became the ninth president of Gallaudet UniversityAbout two thousand students attend Gallaudet. The cost for international students is about thirty-three thousand dollars a year. Financial aid is available in the form of scholarships, but only after the first year of studies. Most scholarship aid goes to students in financial need who do well in their first year. One scholarship for international students is for deaf students from developing countries. Another is just for students from China. The university also offers an English Language Institute. But Gallaudet says this program does not guarantee acceptance to the university. In the past year, students at Gallaudet protested over the administration's choice of a new president for the university. The protests resulted in the choice of a different president who is more popular with the students, Robert Davila. He is a former chief executive officer of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. This technical college is in Rochester, New York. It is one of eight colleges in the Rochester Institute of Technology. More than one thousand students attend the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. About one hundred of them are international students. They come from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. The cost is about twenty-eight thousand dollars a year for an international undergraduate student. Foreign graduate students pay about twenty thousand dollars. Both undergraduate and graduate students can receive limited financial aid. They can also take part in the student employment program. This program makes it possible for students to work at the school. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can find links to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Gallaudet University at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find all of the earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series. If you have a question, write to special@voanews.com, and please tell us your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In Virginia, Six Indian Tribes Still Wait for Federal Recognition
* Byline: Also: a question from Turkey about global warming. And music by Paul Simon, the winner of a newly established music award by the Library of Congress. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about global warming … Play music from Paul Simon … And tell about American Indian tribes in the state of Virginia as the United States remembers the first European settlement at Jamestown. Virginia Indian Tribes HOST: Last weekend, in Jamestown, Virginia, officials observed the four hundredth anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in North America. President Bush took part. He called Jamestown the beginning of a movement from the old world to the new. He also said the expansion of Jamestown had a terrible effect on the Native American tribes who lived in the area. They lost their lands and their way of life. And their struggle continues today. Barbara Klein explains. BARBARA KLEIN: The United States government recognizes five hundred sixty-two American Indian tribes. Most received this recognition from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They proved through birth and death records that their groups have existed as different communities since the time the first Europeans arrived. Federal recognition means an Indian tribe can govern itself. Recognition also makes it possible for the tribes to receive federal help.Some educational financial aid is only available to the children of federally recognized tribes. Six tribes in Virginia are still not recognized. They signed a treaty in the sixteen hundreds with the king of England, but that was before the United States existed. A picture of Virginia Indians from 1874A Virginia law destroyed their written records in the twentieth century. The law recognized only two races -- white or colored. State officials changed "Indian" in all the tribes' birth, death and marriage records to "colored." So the federal government has no record of the tribes' existence for many years. Tribal leaders appealed to Congress. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives approved a bill to recognize the tribes in Virginia. Indian leaders expressed hope that the Senate would do so before the four hundredth anniversary of Jamestown. But this did not happen. Some lawmakers are concerned that federal recognition would lead to the tribes opening gambling businesses. However, the tribes had already agreed not to do this. The legislation includes the statement that no gambling businesses would result from recognizing the tribes. Some lawmakers are still not sure. One senator reportedly said he does not understand how Congress can let the tribes govern themselves but stop them from earning money through gambling. Others say they must study the legislation more carefully. So the Virginia Indian tribes continue to hope for recognition before the end of this year. Global Warming HOST: Our question this week comes from Turkey. Nadir Telli wants to know about the science of global warming. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface air and oceans. Climate change is any major change in measures of climate, such as temperature, rainfall and wind. Scientists have debated about global warming for years. Many have different opinions about the extent to which greenhouse gases are responsible for it. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. They are produced by factories, power stations and vehicles. They trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations has studied the problem for many years. It released the first of several reports in February. The group said that it was more than ninety percent sure that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases from human activities have been the main cause of global warming. The report said global warming will cause extremely hot weather and heavy rainfall events more often. It said more rain will fall in some northern areas while dry areas could experience more severe lack of rainfall. Climate scientists say the average surface temperature of the Earth has increased by about six-tenths of one degree Celsius during the past one hundred years. The Environmental Protection Agency reports the warmest global average temperatures on record have all been reached within the past fifteen years. Two thousand five was the hottest year ever recorded. Research shows the level of carbon dioxide gas in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased by more than thirty percent in the last two hundred fifty years. Carbon dioxide is produced by burning oil and coal. An increase in global temperatures has led to other problems. Scientists have observed a rise in sea levels and a melting of ice in the Earth’s Polar areas. Scientists also believe that global warming is affecting endangered plants and animals, sea life and the seasonal activities of organisms. The head of the U.N. Environment Program said global warming will also affect water supplies, agriculture, biological diversity, economies and politics around the world. Paul Simon Wins Award The United States Library of Congress has created a new award to honor a music writer or performer. It is called the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. It is named after the famous composers and musicians George and Ira Gershwin. Library of Congress officials say the Gershwin award recognizes the influence of popular music on cultures around the world. Katharine Cole has more. KATHERINE COLE: The first winner of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song is American singer and songwriter Paul Simon. The Librarian of Congress, James Billington, said Simon is the perfect person to receive the first award. This is because his beautiful music communicates with people across many cultures. One example is Paul Simon's album “Graceland” released in nineteen eighty-six. It includes music sung by a group from South Africa called Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Simon and the group perform “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.” (MUSIC) Paul Simon has received many awards for his work, including twelve Grammy awards. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and a Kennedy Center Honoree. He is also a two-time member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was honored first as part of the group Simon and Garfunkel, and later for his own music. Simon and Garfunkel's first big hit song was "The Sounds of Silence" released in nineteen sixty-six. (MUSIC) Paul Simon says he is very honored to be the first winner of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He will receive the award at a special concert of his music in Washington, D.C. on May twenty-third. Performers will include Art Garfunkel and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. We leave you now with a song from Paul Simon’s latest album, "Surprise." It is called "That's Me." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Job Market Strong for College Graduates | Cerberus Buying Chrysler
* Byline: US employers are most interested in students with business, engineering and computer-related training. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Employers in the United States expect to hire almost twenty percent more college graduates this year than last year. So says the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The group says employers are most interested in students with business, engineering and computer-related training. There is also great demand for business graduates with a master's of business administration or other advanced degree. Employers say they plan to increase hiring of M.B.A. graduates by eighteen percent. Increases in starting pay are also a sign of the demand for business and technical majors. The average pay offer to newly hired marketing graduates is reported up by more than ten percent over last year. The increase is almost eight percent for graduates in business administration. The job market for college graduates has grown stronger and stronger since demand reached a low point in two thousand two. The unemployment rate for all workers is four and a half percent. But people with a bachelor's degree have a jobless rate under two percent. Just over half of employers said they expect to offer jobs to more college graduates this year than last. But the signs of job growth do not look so good for liberal arts graduates. Not only that, starting pay for graduates with a liberal arts degree is up just one percent. Before we go -- we told you last month that the carmaker Chrysler was for sale. This week DaimlerChrysler of Germany announced a deal for its struggling American division. Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity company in New York, will buy an eighty percent share. The deal is valued at almost seven and one-half billion dollars. Daimler will have to pay about six hundred fifty million dollars to complete the deal. And it will continue to hold twenty percent of Chrysler. But it will no longer be responsible for Chrysler's retirement and health care plans. Their cost is estimated at around eighteen billion dollars. Labor unions are being told there are no plans for major job cuts beyond the thirteen thousand that Chrysler announced in February. Chrysler lost one and one-half billion dollars last year. Recently, though, because of accounting changes, the loss was restated as six hundred eighty million dollars. The new owners say they are looking for a long-term plan to make Chrysler profitable again. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Falwell Helped Give the Religious Right Its Voice in American Politics
* Byline: Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died at age 73, organized Christian conservatives into a movement in the 1980s, the Moral Majority. He had many fans but also many critics. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Conservative Christians, known in America as the religious right, lost one of their best-known leaders this week. Jerry Falwell died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his Virginia office. He was seventy-three years old and had a history of heart problems. Reverend Falwell wanted to organize socially conservative Christians to become politically active. So, in nineteen seventy-nine, he helped launch the Moral Majority and became its public face. Some believe this heavily Republican group helped to elect Ronald Reagan president in the nineteen eighty election. Republicans also won control of the Senate for the first time in many years. Reverend Falwell described the movement as pro-life, pro-traditional family, pro-Israel and pro-national defense. There was a joke, that the Moral Majority was neither. But, at its height, the group said it had six and a half million members. They opposed abortion, sex-same marriage and any other threats they saw to family values. Jerry Falwell began as a Southern Baptist minister at a small church in Lynchburg, Virginia, in nineteen fifty-six. Later he became known to millions through a television program, "The Old-Time Gospel Hour." And that small church he started grew into one of the largest in the country today. Jerry Falwell had many supporters but also many critics, including other Christian clergy. He was widely denounced for comments he made after the September eleventh, two thousand one, attacks on the United States. He blamed pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, and others who, he said, were trying to make America non-religious. "You helped this happen," he said. He was speaking as a guest on the show of another well-known evangelist, Pat Robertson, who agreed with him. Both men later apologized. Yet some people say their comments about the terrorist attacks may have done more since then to hurt the religious right than to help it. Some will also remember Jerry Falwell for what he said about Tinky Winky, from the BBC children's program "Teletubbies." In nineteen ninety-nine he accused the character of being homosexual and morally damaging to children. Jerry Falwell closed the Moral Majority in nineteen eighty-nine. But he launched a new group to continue the "evangelical revolution" in politics, the Moral Majority Coalition. That was in November of two thousand four, right after religious conservatives helped re-elect President Bush. In his later years, Jerry Falwell spent much of his time at Liberty University in Lynchburg. He served as president. He opened the college in nineteen seventy-one. In recent years, he also worked to bring attention to what he said was a misrepresented threat of global warming. Jerry Falwell did not have as much influence anymore. But he will be remembered for his part in giving a voice to conservative Christians in modern American politics. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Johnny Appleseed, 1774-1845: Many Stories and Poems Were Written About This American Hero
* Byline: He planted large numbers of apple trees in what was the American wilderness two hundred years ago.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about a man known as Johnny Appleseed. Many people considered him a hero. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Johnny Appleseed was the name given to John Chapman. He planted large numbers of apple trees in what was the American wilderness two hundred years ago. Chapman grew trees and supplied apple seeds to settlers in the middle western Great Lakes area. Two centuries later, some of those trees still produce fruit. As a result of stories and poems about Chapman’s actions, Johnny Appleseed became an American hero. However, some of the stories told about Johnny Appleseed over the years may not have been really true. VOICE TWO: John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in seventeen seventy-four. His father, Nathaniel Chapman, served in America’s war for independence. He fought British troops in the battle of Concord in seventeen seventy-five. John was the second of three children. Little is known about his childhood. His mother Elizabeth became sick with tuberculosis and died a short time after the birth of her third child. In seventeen eighty, Nathaniel Chapman married Lucy Cooley of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. John and his older sister moved to Longmeadow with their father and his new wife. This new marriage produced ten more children. VOICE ONE: When John Chapman was old enough to leave home, he asked his half-brother, Nathaniel, to come with him. They slowly traveled south and west from Massachusetts to the state of Pennsylvania. At that time, much of western Pennsylvania was undeveloped. Government records show that John lived in the Allegheny Mountains in seventeen ninety-seven. He is said to have cleared land and planted apple seeds near a waterway. In a short time, the seeds grew to become trees that produced fruit. VOICE TWO: Pennsylvania was the first stop in what would become a life-long effort to plant apple trees. The reason for John Chapman’s life’s work is unknown. Some people said he loved to watch the flowers on apple trees grow and change into tasty fruit. Apples were an important food for the early settlers of North America. Apples offered something different in daily meals. They were easy to grow and store for use throughout the year. They could be eaten raw, cooked or dried for eating during the winter. And they could be made into other products, like apple butter and apple juice. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After a few years, Chapman left the hills of western Pennsylvania and traveled west into the Ohio Valley. He transported sixteen bushels of apple seeds down the Ohio River in eighteen-oh-one. He planted apple seeds in several areas near a place called Licking Creek. Some of the seeds were planted on land owned by a farmer named Isaac Stedden. Chapman was careful about where he planted apple seeds. He did not leave them just anywhere. First, he would find rich, fertile land in an open area. Then, he cleared the land, carefully removing unwanted plants. Then, he planted his seeds in a straight line and built a fence around them. The fence helped to keep the young trees safe from animals. As the trees grew, he returned to repair the fence and care for the land. VOICE TWO: Chapman planted with thoughts about future markets for his crops. His trees often grew in land near settlements. He often sold his apple seeds to settlers. Sometimes, he gave away trees to needy settlers. When low on seeds, he returned east to Pennsylvania to get more. He got the seeds from apple presses -- machines used to make apples into a drink called apple cider. Before long, Chapman’s trees were growing in fields across Ohio. People began calling him Johnny Appleseed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Johnny Appleseed was a small man with lots of energy. He had long dark hair. His eyes were black and bright. He never married. He lived very simply. For years, he traveled alone in the wilderness, without a gun or knife. He slept in the open air and did not wear shoes on his feet. Some people gave him clothing as payment for his apple trees. But sometimes he wore a large cloth bag or sack as clothing. The sack had holes for his head and arms. On his head, he wore a metal container for a hat. He also used this pot for cooking his food. People said he lived this way because he wanted to. He had enough money for shelter and clothes if he had wanted to buy these things. VOICE TWO: Johnny Appleseed looked like someone who was poor and had no home. Yet he was a successful businessman. He used his money to improve his apple business and help other people. He was famous for his gentleness and bravery. Both settlers and native Americans liked him. Everywhere he traveled, he was welcomed. Reports from that period suggest that some native Americans believed he was “touched by God.” Others called him a great medicine man. During his travels, some families asked Johnny to join them for a meal. He would never sit down until he was sure that their children had enough to eat. His diet was as simple as his clothing. He believed that it was wrong to kill and eat any creature for food. He believed that the soil produced everything necessary for humans. He also criticized people who wasted food. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are a number of other stories about Johnny Appleseed. Once a rattlesnake attempted to bite him while he slept. Johnny struck the creature, killing it. This was an action he said he always regretted. Another time, he was trapped in the wilderness during a severe snowstorm. He found shelter in an old tree that had fallen to the ground. In the tree, he discovered a mother bear and her cubs. He did not interfere with the animals, and left before they knew he was there. As the years passed, Johnny Appleseed decided to leave Ohio. He moved west into wilderness areas in what is now the state of Indiana. The woods were filled with bears, wolves and other wild animals. Yet he never hurt these creatures. VOICE TWO: Johnny Appleseed has sometimes been called the American Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis established a Roman Catholic group that cares for the poor and the sick. Saint Francis also is remembered for his love of animals and for honoring nature. John Chapman was a very religious man. He liked to read from the Christian holy book, the Bible. He was strongly influenced by the Swedish scientist and Christian thinker, Emanuel Swedenborg. Chapman belonged to the Church of New Jerusalem, a religious group based on Swedenborg’s teachings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In about eighteen thirty, John Chapman got some land in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, he planted apple seedlings that grew and produced crops. He sold, traded and planted in other areas. Some reports said he also traveled to the nearby states of Kentucky and Illinois. His travels lasted more than forty years. It is estimated that, during his lifetime, he planted enough trees to cover an area of about two hundred sixty thousand square kilometers. Over time, some adults said they remembered receiving presents from Johnny Appleseed when they were children. VOICE TWO: In eighteen forty-five, John Chapman became sick and developed pneumonia during a visit to Fort Wayne. He died in the home of a friend, William Worth. Chapman was seventy years old. He was buried near Fort Wayne. The marker over his burial place reads, “He lived for others.” When word of Chapman’s death reached Washington, DC, Senator Sam Houston of Texas made a speech honoring him. Houston praised Chapman’s work as a labor of love. He said people in the future would remember his life and work. Strangely, stories about Johnny Appleseed continued to spread to other areas, long after John Chapman died. Some people claimed they had seen Johnny Appleseed as far south as Texas. Others were sure that he planted trees as far west as California. Even today, some people still claim they are Johnny Appleseed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More Numbers: Two Heads Are Better Than One
* Byline: A number of English expressions using numbers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Last week, I told about the number one. Today, I will tell about expressions using other numbers. Some problems are difficult to solve. But there are a lot of number expressions that can help. For example, if we put two and two together, we might come up with the right answer. We know that two heads are better than one. It is always better to work with another person to solve a problem. Sometimes there are no two ways about it. Some problems have only one solution. You cannot be of two minds over this. But with any luck, we could solve the problem in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. We could have our answers quickly and easily. Sometimes we can kill two birds with one stone. That is, we can complete two goals with only one effort or action. But we must remember that two wrongs don’t make a right. If someone does something bad to you, you should not do the same to him. If you are going out with your girlfriend, or boyfriend, you do not want another friend to go along on your date. You can just say to your friend: two’s company, three’s a crowd. When I was a young child in school, I had to learn the three R’s. These important skills are reading, writing and arithmetic. These three words do not all start with the letter “R.”? But they have the sound of “R.”? My teachers used to give three cheers when I did well in math. They gave praise and approval for a job well done. Some of my friends were confused and did not understand their schoolwork. They were at sixes and sevens. In fact, they did not care if they finished high school. They saw little difference between the two choices. Six of one, half a dozen the other – that was their position. But they were really happy when they completed their studies and graduated from high school. They were in seventh heaven. They were on cloud nine. Nine times out of ten, students who do well in school find good jobs. Some work in an office doing the same things every day at nine-to-five jobs. You do not have to dress to the nines, or wear your best clothes, for this kind of work. Last year, one of my friends applied for a better job at her office. I did not think she would get it. I thought she had a hundred to one shot at the job. Other people at her office thought her chances were a million to one. One reason was that she had been caught catching forty winks at the office. She slept at her desk for short periods during the day. But her supervisor appointed her to the new job at the eleventh hour -- at the very last minute. I guess her lucky number came up. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-07-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: More Numbers: Two Heads Are Better Than One
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Last week, I told about the number one. Today, I will tell about expressions using other numbers. Some problems are difficult to solve. But there are a lot of number expressions that can help. For example, if we put two and two together, we might come up with the right answer. We know that two heads are better than one. It is always better to work with another person to solve a problem. Sometimes there are no two ways about it. Some problems have only one solution. You cannot be of two minds over this. But with any luck, we could solve the problem in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. We could have our answers quickly and easily. Sometimes we can kill two birds with one stone. That is, we can complete two goals with only one effort or action. But we must remember that two wrongs don’t make a right. If someone does something bad to you, you should not do the same to him. If you are going out with your girlfriend, or boyfriend, you do not want another friend to go along on your date. You can just say to your friend: two’s company, three’s a crowd. When I was a young child in school, I had to learn the three R’s. These important skills are reading, writing and arithmetic. These three words do not all start with the letter “R.”? But they have the sound of “R.”? My teachers used to give three cheers when I did well in math. They gave praise and approval for a job well done. Some of my friends were confused and did not understand their schoolwork. They were at sixes and sevens. In fact, they did not care if they finished high school. They saw little difference between the two choices. Six of one, half a dozen the other – that was their position. But they were really happy when they completed their studies and graduated from high school. They were in seventh heaven. They were on cloud nine. Nine times out of ten, students who do well in school find good jobs. Some work in an office doing the same things every day at nine-to-five jobs. You do not have to dress to the nines, or wear your best clothes, for this kind of work. Last year, one of my friends applied for a better job at her office. I did not think she would get it. I thought she had a hundred to one shot at the job. Other people at her office thought her chances were a million to one. One reason was that she had been caught catching forty winks at the office. She slept at her desk for short periods during the day. But her supervisor appointed her to the new job at the eleventh hour -- at the very last minute. I guess her lucky number came up. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bringing Color to Life With Natural Dyes
* Byline: Advice about dyeing wool with onionskins. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Dye can bring a little color to life. Most clothing is colored with dyes. Modern, manufactured dyes can be costly. Natural dyes from plant and animal products have been used since ancient times. So this week, we describe a natural way to dye wool. The advice comes from information written by Jenny Dean of the Intermediate Technology Development Group in Britain. This anti-poverty group is now called Practical Action. There are several methods to put dye onto material. The vat method, for example, can be used to dye wool with onionskins. For this example, use one hundred grams of natural wool. The wool must be clean. Leave it overnight in water and liquid soap. Then wash it with clean water that is a little warm. Gently squeeze out the extra water. A solution called a mordant is used in the dying process. A mordant helps fix the dye to the material. Traditionally, mordants were found in nature. Wood ash is one example. But chemical mordants such as alum are popular today. Alum is sold in many stores. It is often mixed with cream of tartar, a fine powder commonly used in cooking. Mix eight grams of alum with seven grams of cream of tartar in a small amount of hot water. Add the solution to a metal pan of cool water. Next, add the wool and place the mixture over heat. Slowly bring the liquid to eighty-two degrees Celsius. Heat the mixture for forty-five minutes. After it cools, remove the wool and wash it. To prepare the dye solution, cover thirty grams of onionskins with water. Use only the dry, brown outer skins. Boil the liquid until the onionskins lose their color, about forty-five minutes,. Remove the skins after the dye cools. Now it is time to dye the wool. Place the wool into the dye and heat the mixture. Bring it to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to eighty-two degrees. Now heat the dye for about forty-five minutes or until the wool is the desired color. Keep in mind that wet wool looks darker than it is. Once the dye cools, remove the wool and wash it. Now the wool is orange or yellow. Or at least it should be. Internet users can get the full details at practicalaction, one word, dot o-r-g. Again, the address is practicalaction dot org. And enter the word "dye," d-y-e, in the search box. We will post a link to the site at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Washington Has Six of Top 10 of 'America's Favorite Architecture'
* Byline: To mark its 150th year, the American Institute of Architects asked people to choose their favorite buildings or other structures. New York City also came out on top. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. What do you get when the people who design buildings ask members of the public to choose their favorites? You get the subject of our program for this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American Institute of Architects is a professional group with close to eighty thousand members. It was formed in eighteen fifty-seven. To celebrate its one hundred fiftieth year, the AIA decided to create a list of what it calls America's Favorite Architecture. Almost two thousand people were asked to choose from a list of about two hundred fifty structures. From their answers came a list of what the AIA calls the best of America's architectural heritage. And here now are the top ten favorites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Number ten is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located in the same city as five others in the top ten: Washington, D.C. Maya Lin was a twenty-one year old architecture student at Yale University when she won a competition to design the memorial. Two walls of black stone, smooth and shiny, are set into the earth in the shape of the letter V. Carved into the stone are the names of more than fifty-eight thousand men and women. Their names are listed by the year they were killed or went missing in action. The memorial, know simply as "the Wall," starts out low, gets taller and taller, and then shrinks again. It represents an image of the war in terms of the number of service members killed each year. The memorial opened in nineteen eighty-two. Some people argued that the design was too simple. But the Wall has proven to be a powerful memorial, bringing more than one and a half million visitors each year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Number nine of the list of America's Favorite Architecture is the Chrysler Building in New York City. It was designed by architect William Van Alen in the late nineteen twenties and went up in nineteen thirty. The top of the Chrysler Building is easy to recognize among the tall buildings of New York. Steel arches of shiny silver hold triangular windows that light up at night. Many other decorative elements represent designs that were found on Chrysler automobiles of the same time period. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, comes in at number eight. Biltmore EstateGeorge Washington Vanderbilt, a very wealthy man, built a house on the estate. But this was not just any home; it was the nation's largest. And the two-hundred-fifty-room Biltmore House was meant to be just a summer home. It was built between eighty eighty-eight and eighteen ninety-five. The style is French Renaissance. The architect was Richard Morris Hunt. The Vanderbilt family still owns the Biltmore Estate but the house is no longer used as a private home. Now visitors can pay to look around. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lincoln MemorialWe go back to Washington for number seven on the list of America's Favorite Architecture: the Lincoln Memorial. It has four sides which are open except for large columns that support the roof. In the center is a huge statue of the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. He is sitting down and he faces the long reflecting pool just outside the memorial. His eyes seem to look farther, toward the Washington Monument beyond the pool. Congress approved the building of the Lincoln Memorial in nineteen eleven. The memorial opened in nineteen twenty-two. Ancient Greek architecture influenced the design by Henry Bacon. He used limestone and marble. He won a Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects in nineteen twenty-three for the Lincoln Memorial. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: United States CapitolNumber six on the list of favorites is at the other end of the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial: the United States Capitol. William Thorton won a competition to design the Capitol, the building where Congress meets. He proposed a central domed building with two square buildings on either side. Thorton was not even an architect. He was a doctor living in the West Indies at the time. Work on the Capitol began in seventeen ninety-three. President George Washington laid the cornerstone. Building -- and rebuilding -- continued for more than a century under many different architects. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Number five on the list of America's Favorite Architecture is the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay in California. The bright orange bridge links the city of San Francisco with Marin County. Husband-and-wife architects Irving and Gertrude Morrow designed the Golden Gate Bridge. The chief engineer was Joseph Strauss. Work began in nineteen thirty-three and the bridge opened four years later. The main span of nearly one thousand three hundred meters made it the world's longest suspension bridge. It held that record for almost thirty years. Today the Golden Gate Bridge is still considered one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Back now to Washington for number four on the list of favorites. The American Institute of Architects says people chose the Jefferson Memorial. The memorial to the nation's third president is a round, open structure supported by columns. Steps go all the way around the base. In the center is a statue of a standing Thomas Jefferson. The architect John Russell Pope designed the memorial in the neoclassical style. It was completed in nineteen forty-three, after the death of the famous architect and after years of dispute about his design. Thomas Jefferson himself was an architect. His designs included his home at Monticello and parts of the University of Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: National CathedralThird on the list of America's Favorite Architecture is the National Cathedral in Washington. This house of worship is open to all religions. It was completed in nineteen ninety -- eighty-three years after the first stone was laid. George Bodley and Henry Vaughn designed the building. The cathedral, one of the largest in the world, is made of limestone. In the center is a bell tower ninety-one meters high. The building is in the style of many of the great cathedrals built in Europe about eight hundred years ago. There are one hundred ten gargoyles on the National Cathedral. The small sculptures can look scary, but they have a job to do. They help keep rainwater away from the building. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: White HouseTwo more to go. Number two on the list of America's Favorite Architecture is the building where the president lives and works -- the White House. An architect named James Hoban won a competition called by George Washington to design a presidential home. Hoban was an immigrant from Ireland. He was influenced by the design of Leinster House, the parliament building in Dublin. Work on the White House began in seventeen ninety-two. Its whitish gray sandstone walls were finished with a mixture of surface materials including rice, lime and lead. George Washington never lived in the White House. America's second president was the first to live there. John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved into the White House in eighteen hundred. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Finally, we come to number one on the list of America’s Favorite Architecture. It is one of the tallest, most photographed and most recognized buildings in the world. Any ideas? The Empire State Building in New York City. It opened in nineteen thirty-one and was designed by the architectural firm of Shreve Lamb and Harmon. There are one hundred three floors. The name comes from the fact that the state of New York is called the Empire State. But the building does more than just help define a city, and a state. It stands as a powerful symbol of one of the most public of all art forms -- architecture. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can find a link to the America's Favorite Architecture Web site at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also download transcripts and audio archives of our programs. And be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Using a Story to Teach Children How They Can Help Prevent Bird Flu
* Byline: A shortened version of the book ''Zandi's Song,'' about a young girl in Africa who helps protect her village from the deadly threat. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. Today we present the last part of our series on the disease bird flu. It is a story for young people called "Zandi's Song."? It was shortened and taken from a book written by Nuzhat Shahzadi. The book was developed by the Academy for Educational Development. The goal of the book and related materials is to increase understanding of bird flu among children in developing countries. It is also meant to involve children in spreading messages about effective prevention of bird flu in their communities. Now, here is Barbara Klein with our story. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: Zandi is fifteen years old. She lives in a village in Africa with her mother and eleven-year-old brother, Nicholas. Her father died two years ago. Since then, her uncle has been their guardian. He pays the costs for Nicholas to go to school. Zandi's family has a small piece of land where her mother grows corn and vegetables. Nicholas and Zandi help her as much as they can. Their Mama also works part time in a store. Zandi and Nicholas attend a nearby school. Mama has to pay the costs for Zandi’s education. It is not easy. Mama has some chickens. She sells the eggs and sometimes chickens. Zandi helps her take care of the birds. Once in a while the family has egg and rice for dinner. But most of the eggs have to be sold for Zandi’s school costs. Zandi often hears a radio playing music before she goes to school. One day, she hears a news report on the radio. The announcer tells about a new disease that is killing birds in some parts of the world, including Africa. “I hope this disease does not come to our village,” Zandi says to herself. Her family needs the chickens. At school, Zandi is still thinking about the news report. The teacher, Missus Muchunu, observes her lack of interest in class work. At the class ends, Zandi tells her teacher about the morning news. “Zandi, I read about this disease in the newspaper two days ago," Missus Muchunu says. "It is called bird flu.”? “Teacher, can this disease kill all our chickens, too?" Zandi asks. "If they die, how are we going to pay for my education?? I would have to leave school. What can we do?”? Zandi is very worried. “Do not worry, Zandi," her teacher says. "Now go home and we will talk about this tomorrow in class. Let me try to find out more about this disease." The next day in class, Missus Muchunu keeps her promise. “Children, today I am going to discuss something very serious," she says. "A new disease is killing birds in some parts of the world. It is called ‘bird flu.’” “How does it spread?" one child asks. “The virus that causes the disease is first spread by wild birds like ducks, geese and swans that live in and around water," the teacher explains. "The virus is carried in the birds’ digestive organs. It is passed on through the droppings of infected birds. Sometimes these birds do not become sick, although they are infected." Missus Muchunu continues: "Healthy birds can become sick by drinking water from sources where infected wild birds have been cleaning themselves. They can also become sick from soil or feed that has been infected by wild bird droppings. Bird flu also spreads through direct contact -- on clothing, hands, or shoes -- with objects that have been infected with bird droppings." “Do we have bird flu in Africa?” Zandi asks. “The bird flu is arriving in Africa now," her teacher answers. "Wild birds are coming from Asia where the disease has killed millions of birds. These migratory birds may pass the virus to our farm birds. Farm birds should not be permitted to mix with wild birds. If we are not careful now, all our chickens may die." The students want to know if bird flu can infect people. “In Asia, a small number of people did get infected by coming in contact with sick birds," the teacher says. "Some became sick and died." “What can we do to stay safe from this disease?” Zandi's friend Jackson wants to know. Missus Muchunu shows her students a sign that explains how people can protect themselves from the disease: An Indonesian boy walks next to duck cage at a market in JakartaDo not touch a sick or dead bird. If you find sick or dead birds, tell the local agriculture officer or animal health worker about it. Always wash your hands by rubbing with soap and water after coming in contact with birds or places birds have been. Avoid markets where farm birds are sold if you hear of bird flu cases nearby. Cook chicken meat and eggs completely. Avoid all surfaces that may have been infected until they have been cleaned and harmful bacteria destroyed. The sign also has information about what people can do to protect their birds from bird flu: Do not let birds living on your property have any contact with wild birds. Keep any new birds separate from your birds for at least two weeks. Vaccinate your birds against the disease if your local officials tell you to do this. Ask the local agriculture officer if a vaccine is available. "Share this information with others," Missus Muchunu urges. "We must do everything to be safe from this virus. As we all know, farm birds are the main source of protein in many families. Protein keeps us healthy and strong. We must not let our chickens die.” (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: After school, Zandi, Nicholas and their friends meet to talk about bird flu. “How can we make our families understand that we all need to act before the disease attacks our village?” Jackson asks. “Why don't we talk to our families and neighbors?" Zandi suggests. "Each one of us can talk to three families every week. Let us invite the others from our class to join us. We can also ask our teachers to talk about it during the next parent-teacher meeting at the end of the month. Unless everyone knows about the disease, we will not be able to stop it from spreading."? The children now feel happier as they agree to these plans. Zandi thinks hard as she walks back home. She must find a way to keep her family's chickens safe from bird flu. "Why don't we make a new place for our chickens that is surrounded with a fence made of sticks from trees?" she suggests to her brother. "We can use long grass to cover the area. It is best to keep the chickens separated from other birds. Will you help me do this?” Nicholas says he will. The next morning Zandi has another thought. She is sure that her Uncle knows the head of the village very well. The headman’s wife also respects Uncle's wife. What if she begins by giving bird flu information to them?? Uncle can pass it on to the headman. People come to the headman for advice, and he can urge them to be prepared for the disease. Zandi is very pleased with herself. She goes to see her Uncle. “Uncle, our teacher told us to share some very important information with our families," Zandi says. "It is about a disease that can kill all our farm birds. Everyone should know about it. I know how much the headman trusts you. Maybe you would like to discuss this with the headman?” Zandi explains. "We need to carefully wash our hands with soap and water if we come in contact with a sick or dead bird. We need to cook the chicken meat and eggs completely. We should not eat sick or dead farm birds. Children should not be permitted to play with sick or dead birds. We should report any sick or dead birds to the animal health worker or agriculture officer. It is not easy to identify bird flu from other diseases harmful to birds.”? Zandi finishes speaking as Uncle listens closely. “Well, my niece, I think you have become quite intelligent by studying in school," Uncle says. "I will share this with the headman and others. And I have decided that you should continue with your studies. I want you to keep up the good family name." As she walks back home, Zandi smiles to herself. Now she is the happiest girl in the whole village. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This program was broadcast under the terms of a license agreement with the Academy for Educational Development. AED produced and copyrighted the story. It cannot be further reproduced without agreement from AED at www.aed.org/avianflu. Your storyteller was Barbara Klein. The story was adapted by Shelley Gollust and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Demand for Ethanol Made From Corn Is Fueling Criticism
* Byline: US farmers are expected this season to plant the most maize since 1944. Critics say other plant-based fuels should be getting more attention. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This season, American farmers expect to plant their biggest corn crop since World War Two. Growing demand for ethanol fuel is the driving force, along with strong export sales. Based on March estimates, the Agriculture Department expects farmers to plant thirty-six million hectares of maize. The area is fifteen percent more than last year and the largest since nineteen forty-four. Farmers could harvest thirteen billion bushels. More than three billion of that is expected to become ethanol. Bad weather, though, delayed some planting. That could mean fewer bushels -- and even more competition between ethanol producers and other users of corn, like the food industry. Corn prices are not as high as they were a few weeks ago. But in the past year they have gone from two dollars a bushel to almost four dollars. Growers of corn, like some other crops, also receive government subsidies. In January, President Bush called for a big increase in the use of other fuels in place of imported oil. But some critics argue that making ethanol out of corn takes more energy than it provides. Not only that, it provides less energy than gasoline and is only adding to already high fuel costs, they say. Critics argue that other kinds of plant-based fuels are more efficient -- for example, Brazilian ethanol made from sugar cane. But imported ethanol is taxed, while the United States ethanol industry receives tax credits. Some agricultural specialists say increased corn production could be bad for the land. Farmers usually plant corn one year and soybeans the next. But area planted to soybeans is expected to decrease eleven percent this year. Also, because corn gets more fertilizer than some other crops, critics say there is more risk of water pollution around farms. Farmers in almost all states are planting more corn but Iowa is still the leader. The United States produces forty percent of the world's corn and more than half of all exported corn. Two economists recently said in Foreign Affairs magazine that the ethanol situation "is sending shock waves through the food system." Some critics say at current rates, ethanol production could use as much as half of the American corn supply before long. But a growing fight over that supply could turn attention more to the development of other plant-based fuels. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: All the World Still a Stage for Shakespeare's Timeless Imagination
* Byline: First of two programs about the British playwright and poet, who is considered by many to be the greatest writer in the history of the English language. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most influential and skillful writers in the world. For more than four hundred years, people all over the world have been reading, watching and listening to the plays and poetry of the British writer William Shakespeare. (SOUND) JULIET: "Ay me!"ROMEO:?"She speaks: "O, speak again, bright angel!"JULIET:??"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"Deny thy father and refuse thy name;"Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,"And I'll no longer be a Capulet." VOICE ONE: Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film version of 'Romeo and Juliet'You just heard part of a famous scene from a movie version of “Romeo and Juliet."? This tragic play remains one of the greatest, and perhaps most famous, love stories ever told. It tells about two young people who meet and fall deeply in love. But their families, the Capulets and the Montagues, are enemies and will not allow them to be together. Romeo and Juliet are surrounded by violent fighting and generational conflict. The young lovers secretly marry, but their story has a tragic ending. "Romeo and Juliet" shows how William Shakespeare’s plays shine with extraordinarily rich and imaginative language. He invented thousands of words to color his works. They have become part of the English language. Shakespeare's universal stories show all the human emotions and conflicts. His works are as fresh today as they were four hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Shakespeare was born in fifteen sixty-four in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. He married Anne Hathaway at the age of eighteen. The couple had three children, two daughters and a son who died very young. Shakespeare moved to London in the late fifteen eighties to be at the center of the city's busy theater life. Most people think of Shakespeare as a writer. But he was also a theater producer, a part owner of an acting company and an actor. For most of his career, he was a producer and main writer for an acting company called the King's Men. VOICE ONE: In fifteen ninety-nine Shakespeare's company was successful enough to build its own theater called The Globe. Public theaters during this time were usually three floor levels high and were built around a stage area where the actors performed. The Globe could hold as many as three thousand people. People from all levels of society would attend performances. The poorer people could buy tickets for a small amount of money to stand near the stage. Wealthier people could buy more costly tickets to sit in other areas. Often it was not very important if wealthy people could see the stage well. It was more important that they be in a seat where everyone could see them. VOICE TWO: It was difficult to light large indoor spaces during this time. The Globe was an outdoor theater with no roof on top so that sunlight could stream in. Because of the open-air stage, actors had to shout very loudly and make big motions to be heard and seen by all. This acting style is quite different from play-acting today. It might also surprise you that all actors during this period were men. Young boys in women's clothing played the roles of female characters. This is because it was against the law in England for women to act onstage. Shakespeare’s theater group also performed in other places such as the smaller indoor Blackfriars Theater. Or, they would travel around the countryside to perform. Sometimes they were asked to perform at the palace of the English ruler Queen Elizabeth or, later, King James the First. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shakespeare is best known for the thirty-nine plays that he wrote, although only thirty-eight exist today. His plays are usually divided into three groups: comedies, histories and tragedies. The comedies are playful and funny. They usually deal with marriage and the funny activities of people in love. These comedies often tell many stories at the same time, like plays within plays. VOICE TWO: "Much Ado About Nothing" is a good example of a Shakespearian comedy. It tells the story of two couples. Benedick and Beatrice each claim they will never marry. They enjoy attacking each other with funny insults. Their friends work out a plan to make the two secretly fall in love. Claudio and Hero are the other couple. They fall in love at once and plan to marry. But Claudio wrongly accuses Hero of being with another man and refuses to marry her. Hero's family decides to make Claudio believe that she is dead until her innocence can be proved. Claudio soon realizes his mistake and mourns for Hero. By the end of the play, love wins over everyone and there is a marriage ceremony for the four lovers. VOICE ONE: Shakespeare's histories are intense explorations of actual English rulers. This was a newer kind of play that developed during Shakespeare's time. Other writers may have written historical plays, but no one could match Shakespeare’s skill. Plays about rulers like Henry the Fourth and Richard the Third explore Britain’s history during a time when the country was going through tense political struggles. VOICE TWO: Laurence Olivier in the 1948 film ''Hamlet''Many Shakespearian tragedies are about conflicting family loyalties or a character seeking to punish others for the wrongful death of a loved one. “Hamlet” tells the story of the son of the king of Denmark. When Hamlet's father unexpectedly dies, his uncle Claudius becomes ruler and marries Hamlet’s mother. One night a ghostly spirit visits Hamlet and tells him that Claudius killed his father. Hamlet decides to pretend that he is crazy to learn if this is true. This intense play captures the conflicted inner life of Hamlet. This young man must struggle between his moral beliefs and his desire to seek punishment for his father’s death. Here is a famous speech from a movie version of "Hamlet." The actor Laurence Olivier shines in this difficult role. (SOUND) To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? VOICE ONE: Shakespeare also wrote one of greatest collections of poems in English literature. He wrote several long poems, but is best known for his one hundred and fifty-four short poems, or sonnets. The English sonnet has a very exact structure. It must have fourteen lines, with three groups of four lines that set up the subject or problem of the poem. The sonnet is resolved in the last two lines of the poem. If that requirement seems demanding, Shakespeare’s sonnets are also written in iambic pentameter. This is a kind of structure in which each line has ten syllables or beats with a stress on every second beat. VOICE TWO: Even with these restrictive rules, the sonnets seem effortless. They have the most creative language and imaginative comparisons of any other poems. Most of the sonnets are love poems. Some of them are attacks while others are celebrations. The sonnets express everything from pain and death to desire, wisdom, and happiness. Here is one of Shakespeare's most famous poems. Sonnet Eighteen tells about the lasting nature of poetry. The speaker describes how the person he loves will remain forever young and beautiful in the lines of this poem. (SOUND) Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometimes declines,By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed;But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE Next week, we will explore the many ways that Shakespeare’s work has influenced world culture over time. This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ear Care: Do-It-Yourself Wax Removal
* Byline: Advice from experts about what to do -- and not to do -- when your ear is blocked with wax. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Some people's ears produce wax like busy little bees. This can be a problem even though earwax appears to serve an important purpose. Experts say it protects and cleans the ear. It traps dirt and other matter and keep insects out. Doctors think it might also help protect against infections. And the waxy oil keeps ears from getting too dry. So earwax is good. It even has a medical name: cerumen. And there are two kinds. Most people of European or African ancestry have the "wet" kind: thick and sticky. East Asians commonly have "dry" earwax. But you can have too much of a good thing. The glands in the ear canal that produce the wax make too much in some people. Earwax is normally expelled; it falls out of the ear or gets washed away. But extra wax can harden and form a blockage that interferes with sound waves and reduces hearing. People can also cause a blockage when they try to clean out their ears -- but only push the wax deeper inside. Earwax removal is sometimes necessary. But you have to use a safe method or you could do a lot of damage. Experts at N.I.H., the National Institutes of Health, suggest some ways to treat excessive earwax yourself. They say the wax can be softened with mineral oil, glycerin or ear drops. They say hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide may also help. Another way to remove wax is known as irrigation. With the head upright, take hold of the outer part of the ear. Gently pull upward to straighten the ear canal. Use a syringe device to gently direct water against the wall of the ear canal. Then turn the head to the side to let the water out. The experts at N.I.H. say you may have to repeat this process a few times. Use water that is body temperature. If the water is cooler or warmer, it could make you feel dizzy. Never try irrigation if the eardrum is broken. It could lead to infection and other problems. After the earwax is gone, gently dry the ear. But if irrigation fails, the best thing to do is to go to a health care provider for professional assistance. You should never put a cotton swab or other object into the ear canal. But you can use a swab or cloth to clean the outer part of the ear. The experts agree with the old saying that you should never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: What Does Ecology Mean to You? No, Really, How Do You Define It?
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our interview with Rob Jackson, director of the Global Change Center at Duke University with some terms you're likely to hear in the climate change debate. RS: We start with an explanation of the term "ecosystem capital." ROB JACKSON: "Ecosystem capital, or maybe put differently - ecosystem services - are the value of what we get from natural systems. For instance, a city such as New York City can spend a lot of money to build a sewage treatment or water treatment plant. Alternatively the city might buy a thousand or five hundred thousand acres, whatever the value is, of land and use natural capital, natural services, to cleanse that water for us. "That is, in fact, what New York City did some years ago, saving hundreds of millions of dollars. So you allow nature to do the work for you, and then you find a way to put an economic value on that work. And that's where the term ecosystem capital comes from." RS: "Another phrase that was thrown at me was -- we need to be looking at our ecosystem services, as you say, and not as much at 'charismatic mega fauna.' [laughter]" ROB JACKSON: "Yes. Charismatic mega fauna are the large, sexy mammals that people like to watch. So that might be an elk, a bear, a wildebeest in Africa, an elephant -- " AA: "Polar bears." ROB JACKSON: "Polar bears is another great example. So we tend to focus on these large animals and we often tend to manage and set up preserves for these large animals. And those animals are charismatic -- they're pretty, they're nice to look at, but they're often not the animals that provide the ecosystem services that we value most." RS: "And the point I understood was that we should be looking at our undervalued ecosystems -- or we should value our ecosystems more in comparison." ROB JACKSON: "That's right. One of the problems with our current economics is that we don't do a good job of putting a value on the services that we get from nature. So it's easy to assign a value to what a power plant uses or produces, or to what a sewage treatment plant cleanses our water. It's not easy to put an economic value on what nature does for us. "Plants cleanse our air. The soil cleanses our water. But that cleansing, that purification and all the many resources that we get from nature often fall outside our accounting system. And so we're just simply not very good at taking into account what nature gives us." AA: "Now one of the services that nature provides us, obviously, is food, and that brings us to another term that we're hearing a lot lately, which is 'food miles.' Why don't you define it." ROB JACKSON: "Well, sure. This is one for me that's pretty new, but food miles are the number of miles that food travels before ending up on your plate, and that the higher the food miles the greater the environmental cost associated with the food -- how much energy was used to transport that food to actually put it in front of you and me." RS: "Now, I think the importance of these terms is to raise awareness." ROB JACKSON: "I agree with that. But they also, I mean they are -- I know that they do sound jargony and some of them are jargony. But there are, for some of these at least, fairly specific meanings. And, in fact, in the scientific community, some of these terms have much narrower meanings than come to be the meaning in just common usage." RS: "Can you give us an example?" ROB JACKSON: "Well, let's start with maybe the most basic example, just the word 'ecology.' I think when you walk up to someone on the street and ask them what ecology means, people will bring up recycling and sort of saving the environment, saving the planet. "As a science, the field of ecology studies how plants and animals and organisms interact with the environment around them. It has a much narrower sense and really doesn't say anything about recycling or about environment stewardship. But it has come to be viewed as saving the planet because many ecologists, myself included, really care about the environment and valuing the environment." AA: "And 'sustainability,' which will be our final term, if you could maybe explain that." ROB JACKSON: "Sure. Sustainability is another one of these words that has kind of a life of its own, a lot of different meanings. But the idea is that we need to think about long-term consequences of how we live and how we manufacture things. So are we building something in a way that will allow people in fifty years or a hundred years or a decade to build the same product in the same way? Or are we using a resource in an unsustainable manner, are we polluting a body of water or are we polluting air in a way that will cost people down the road?" RS: Rob Jackson is a professor of biology and environmental sciences at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. You can hear the first part of our discussion on the Wordmaster website at voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. CPF/AA/fil 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Breaking Into News: Journalism Education in US
* Byline: A student in Vietnam asks about American J-schools in Part 38 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A student at Vietnam National University has a question for our Foreign Student Series. Phuong Lan wants to earn a master's degree in the United States and would like to know about journalism programs. One hundred nine programs are recognized by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Some of the best-known include the ones at the University of Southern California, the University of Missouri and the University of North Carolina. They also include the journalism schools at Columbia University in New York City and Northwestern University in Illinois. Northwestern, for example, has the Medill School of Journalism. Medill says it provides its graduate students with the chance to study and work in the real world. Local newspapers and television stations carry their reports on government, crime and civic issues in the Chicago area. Other subjects include magazine publishing and Web design. And the Medill News Service offers experience reporting in Washington. Graduate students at Medill can expect to pay more than fifty-eight thousand dollars this coming school year. That includes a place to live, meals, books and costs like health insurance. Medill also has an undergraduate program. Medill scholarships or financial aid are not available to international students. Foreign students are advised to seek aid from their home country or groups like the Inter-American Press Association Scholarship Fund. Scholarship winners from Latin America and the Caribbean spend a year at a journalism school in the United States or Canada. Journalism schools offer professional degrees, and some offer doctorates. Students may be able to earn a joint degree with another program like law or public policy. It is true that the value of a journalism degree has been a traditional subject of debate among people in the media. But journalism schools offer training in skills like reporting, writing and production. They also teach about legal issues like plagiarism and libel law and freedom of speech. In addition they may offer classes in other areas, including public relations. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online with audio files, transcripts and useful links at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us questions, write to special@voanews.com and please include your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Watergate: How a Name, and a Failed Break-In, Became a Symbol of Political Corruption
* Byline: In August 1974, Richard Nixon became the first US president to resign. In doing so he avoided a trial in Congress on charges that he misused government agencies in an effort to hide wrongdoing. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we complete the story of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon's first term as president ended with hope for complete American withdrawal from the fighting in Vietnam. Yet Americans still were very angry about the war and its effects on life at home. Paying for it was difficult. Inflation was high. Unemployment was high, too. Some political observers thought the president would not be elected to a second term. Nixon, however, was sure the American people would support him. He did not campaign in the local primary elections before the Republican convention. Instead, in the winter and spring of nineteen seventy-two, he visited China, Canada, Iran, Poland, and the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: On June seventeenth, nineteen seventy-two, something happened in Washington, D.C. It was a small incident. But it would have a huge effect on the United States. Five men broke into a center of the National Committee of the Democratic Party. The building was called the Watergate. That name would become a symbol of political crime in the nation's highest office. VOICE ONE: At the time, the incident did not seem important. Police caught the criminals. Later, however, more was learned. The men had carried papers that linked them to top officials in the administration. The question was: Did President Nixon know what was going on? He told reporters he was not involved. In time, though, the Watergate case would lead to a congressional investigation of the president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For a while, the political conventions of the summer of nineteen seventy-two pushed the story of the Watergate break-in out of the major news of the day. The Democratic Party met and chose George McGovern as its candidate for president. McGovern was a senator from the state of South Dakota. The choice of the Republican Party was no surprise. Delegates re-nominated Richard Nixon. McGovern attacked Nixon for his policies about Vietnam. McGovern's anger made many voters see him as an extremist. Nixon won the election of nineteen seventy-two by a huge popular vote. He would not be able to complete his second term, however. This was because Watergate would not go away. VOICE ONE: Early in nineteen seventy-three, reporters found the evidence that linked the Watergate break-in to officials in the White House. The evidence also showed that the officials tried to use government agencies to hide the connection. Pressure grew for a complete investigation. In April, President Nixon ordered the Justice Department to do this. A special prosecutor was named to lead the government's investigation. VOICE TWO: A special Senate committee began its own investigation in May. A former White House lawyer provided the major evidence. By July, it was learned that President Nixon had secretly made tape recordings of some of his discussions and telephone calls. The Senate committee asked him for some of the tapes. Nixon refused. He said the president of the United States has a Constitutional right to keep such records private. VOICE ONE: A federal judge ordered the president to surrender the tapes. Lawyers for the president took the case to the nation's highest court. The Supreme Court supported the decision of the lower court. After that, pressure increased for Nixon to cooperate. In October, he offered to provide written versions of the most important parts of the tape recordings. The special prosecutor rejected the offer. So, Nixon ordered the head of the Justice Department to dismiss him. The Attorney General refused to do this, and resigned. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Nixon had another political problem, in addition to Watergate. In late nineteen seventy-three, his vice president, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign. A court had found Agnew guilty of violating tax laws. President Nixon asked Gerald Ford to become the new vice president. Ford was a long-time member of Congress from the state of Michigan. VOICE ONE: By that time, some members of Congress were talking about removing President Nixon from office. This is possible under American law if Congress finds that a president has done something criminal. Was Richard Nixon covering up important evidence in the case? Was he, in fact, guilty of wrongdoing? VOICE TWO: In April nineteen seventy-four, Nixon surrendered some of his White House tape recordings. However, three important discussions on the tapes were missing. The Nixon administration explained. The tape machine had failed to record two of the discussions, it said. The third discussion had been destroyed accidentally. Many Americans did not believe these explanations. Two months later, the Supreme Court ruled that a president can not hold back evidence in a criminal case. It said there is no presidential right of privacy in such a case. VOICE ONE: A committee of the House of Representatives also reached an historic decision in July nineteen seventy-four. It proposed that the full House put the president on trial. If Richard Nixon were found guilty of crimes involved in the Watergate case, he would be removed from office. Finally, Nixon surrendered the last of the documents. They appeared to provide proof that the president had ordered evidence in the Watergate case to be covered up. VOICE TWO: The rights of citizens, as stated in the Constitution, are the basis of American democracy. Every president promises to protect and defend these Constitutional rights. During the congressional investigation of Watergate, lawmakers said that President Nixon had violated these rights. They said he planned to delay and block the investigation of the Watergate break-in and other unlawful activities. They said he repeatedly misused government agencies in an effort to hide wrongdoing and to punish his critics. And they said he refused repeated orders to surrender papers and other materials as part of the investigation. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon's long struggle to remain in office was over. He spoke to the nation on August eighth. Richard Nixon waves goodbye from his helicopter as he leaves the White House after resigning on August 9, 1974RICHARD NIXON: "Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow." VOICE TWO: Never before had a president of the United States resigned. And never before did the United States have a president who had not been elected. Gerald Ford had been appointed to the office of vice president. Now, he would replace Richard Nixon. On August ninth, nineteen seventy-four, he was sworn-in as the nation's thirty-eighth president. VOICE ONE: Gerald FordSoon after becoming president, Gerald Ford made a surprise announcement. He pardoned Richard Nixon. Many Americans criticized Ford for doing this. But he believed he had good reasons. Ford wanted to move ahead and deal with the other problems that faced the nation. He did not want Watergate to go on and on. The case did go on, however. Several top officials in the Nixon administration were tried, found guilty, and sent to prison. VOICE TWO: The effects of the case went on, too. Watergate influenced government policy and public opinion for years. For example, laws were passed to prevent an administration from using its power to punish opposition political groups. Intelligence agencies were forced to provide Congress with more information about their activities. And rules were approved to restrict the activities of public officials. The American public, and especially the press, felt the effects of Watergate. Many citizens and reporters felt less able to believe their government. As one writer said, "Never again will we trust our public officials in quite the same way." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mason Bates Creates a 'Liquid Interface' Between Electronica and Classical Music
* Byline: Also: music by classical and popular singer Josh Groban. And a listener in Taiwan asks about the Jim Crow laws that once enforced racial separation in the US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about racial separation laws of the past … Play music from Josh Groban … And report about musical composer Mason Bates. Mason Bates The worlds of techno music and classical symphonies are usually very separate. But the musical composer Mason Bates is changing this. This thirty-year-old musician from Virginia artfully combines classical music with the sound of electronic beats. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: Mason BatesThat was part of a work called "Liquid Interface." Mason Bates performed it for the first time in February with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. He was influenced to write the musical piece while living in Berlin, Germany. He watched the lake near where he lived transform from an ice formation to a warm swimming place. In “Liquid Interface” you can listen to the many forms water takes and the effects of climate change. You can hear the breaking of large ice glaciers, as well as melting drops of water. Bates also makes a musical reference to New Orleans, Louisiana to show the more destructive side of water. This work needs a very large orchestra. Musicians played more than forty traditional instruments at the Washington, D.C. performance. They were guided by the orchestra's musical director, Leonard Slatkin. Mason Bates stood on the side with his own instrument, the portable computer. He fluidly worked the electronic sounds and beats into the structured classical music. But Mason Bates does not only write symphonies. At night, you can find him playing trip-hop and French house techno music in the clubs of San Francisco, California. He is also finishing his doctorate degree at the nearby University of California, Berkeley. Mason Bates’ skill at combining these two very different musical worlds has been recognized. He has won important awards for his music pieces such as the Prix de Rome. Mason Bates believes that when you listen to music it lives in your imagination and your blood at the same time. He wants his music to be intelligent as well as interesting. To listen to more music by Mason Bates, go to voaspecialenglish.com for a link to his Web site. Jim Crow Laws HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Taiwan. Howlong Wu asks about “Jim Crow laws." These laws enforced racial separation between black people and white people in the American South. The term was taken from a character called Jim Crow in musical shows in the eighteen thirties. In these minstrel shows, white people darkened their faces and performed as if they were black people. These shows were insulting to black people. Starting in the eighteen eighties, Jim Crow became the name for the laws enacted by Southern cities and states to oppress black people and keep them separate from white people. For example, Jim Crow laws made it illegal for the two races to attend the same schools, eat at the same restaurants or use the same public transportation. The United States Supreme Court supported Jim Crow laws in some of its decisions. An important one was Plessy versus Ferguson in eighteen ninety-six. The Court ruled that railroads could require white and black passengers to ride in different cars. It said this was legal because the treatment in the two cars was "separate but equal."? In another case in eighteen ninety-nine, the Court ruled that no one’s rights were violated by the two races attending separate schools. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People led the long effort to overturn Jim Crow laws through legal action. Finally, in nineteen fifty-four, a Supreme Court ruling overturned the Plessy versus Ferguson decision. The decision was called Brown versus the Board of Education. The Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for blacks and whites were unconstitutional. This ruling required towns and cities across the country to permit blacks and whites to attend the same schools. The Jim Crow system was finally ended in the nineteen sixties through the efforts of the civil rights movement. These efforts resulted in a series of federal laws including the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act. Josh Groban Josh Groban is a young singer who performs classical and popular songs. His record albums have sold millions of copies. Katherine Cole plays some music from Groban's latest album called "Awake."???????? KATHERINE COLE: Josh Groban is twenty-six years old. He is from Los Angeles, California. As a teenager, he sang at the inauguration of former California governor Gray Davis in nineteen ninety-nine. That was when he was discovered by a record company official. He released his first studio album two years later. Josh Groban's third studio album is called "Awake." Like his other albums, he sings in English, Italian and Spanish. Groban says the music on his latest album sounds like it is coming from his heart and soul as well as his voice. This song, "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)," was also released as a single. (MUSIC) Josh Groban plays several instruments, including piano, drums, electric guitar, marimbas, flugelhorn and dulcimer. Groban also helped write some of the songs on his latest album, like this one, called "Machine." The famous jazz musician Herbie Hancock plays piano. (MUSIC) Josh Groban has appeared on many American television shows. Now he is in the middle of a seven-month performance tour to seventy cities in the United States, Canada and Europe. Groban performs two songs on his latest album with the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Groban first heard this song during a visit to South Africa in two thousand four. We leave you now with the song "Weeping."? (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US and China Hold High-Level Trade Discussions
* Byline: The talks in Washington end with an agreement to increase air links, but no word of progress on the deficit issue. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Top officials from the United States and China held two days of trade talks this week in Washington. Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renquing, Vice Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at the US-China Strategic Economic DialogueThey agreed to increase the number of direct flights between the United States and China. And Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi said the talks cleared the way for other progress. But no progress was reported on the issue of the trade deficit. It was the second in a series of talks, the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue. The next meeting is later this year in Beijing. Vice Premier Wu says talks are better than threats of what she calls "irresponsible" protectionist measures against China. Some American lawmakers say China is taking too long to raise the value of the yuan. They say China unfairly keeps its currency weak. They say this fuels the deficit by pushing down the cost of its exports and raising the price of American-made imports. China eased controls on the yuan this week, but not enough to satisfy many critics. China promises more but says a large increase would hurt its fast-growing economy. Some experts say the yuan would rise fifty percent if permitted to trade freely. Others think it would be much less. China's huge trade surplus has left it with the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, more than one trillion dollars. Most of that is held in United States government debt. But China took steps this week to change the way it invests its reserves, in order to seek higher returns. China will invest three billion dollars in the Blackstone Group, a private-equity company based in New York. The deal will take place as Blackstone sells stock to the public for the first time. But China said it did not want any voting rights in the company. President Bush met Thursday with Vice Premier Wu. He later said the two countries have a complex relationship but the two hundred thirty-three billion dollar trade deficit must be dealt with. One of the ways, he said, is to get the Chinese people to spend more, to change from savers to consumers. For example, the United States has been trying to get China to open up its beef market. The negotiators talked about food safety. The United States is importing more and more food products from China. Yet there is growing concern that they are not always very safe. Still another issue: The United States is pushing China to do more about illegal copying of movies, music, software and books. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Wins on Iraq Bill, but Democrats Promise to Renew Fight
* Byline: Congress approves a war spending bill without any withdrawal date. Also, lawmakers debate an immigration bill, and continue hearings into Justice Department dismissals. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week in Washington, Congress approved a war spending bill that President Bush said he would sign. There was debate on an immigration bill. And hearings continued into why the Justice Department dismissed eight federal prosecutors last year. The Iraq spending bill was approved Thursday after majority Democrats dropped their demand to set a date for a troop withdrawal. But the bill does threaten to cut economic aid if the Iraqi government fails to make progress on political and security reforms. Democrats say they will renew their fight for a withdrawal plan in the next war-financing bill. The one just approved contains one hundred twenty billion dollars in spending. Ninety-five billion of that will pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September. Billions will go to unrelated projects at home. Also included in the bill is the first increase in almost ten years in the federal minimum wage. Many of the lowest-paid workers are immigrants. And on Monday the Senate opened debate on an immigration bill. Supporters of immigration reform, including President Bush, say the bill is needed to help fix a broken system. An estimated twelve million immigrants are in the United States illegally. Proposals include stronger border security, a temporary worker program and a path for undocumented workers to become legal. One proposal would create two-year renewable visas for foreign temporary workers. On Wednesday the Senate voted to cut the proposed number of temporary workers in half, to two hundred thousand a year. Some groups say the bill would separate families of immigrant workers. Labor unions worry that the bill would create a new class of poorly paid migrants with few legal protections. Employers are divided over proposed changes that could also affect highly skilled foreign workers. And some critics say the bill would reward people who entered the country illegally. The Senate is expected to end debate on the immigration bill in the middle of June. At that time senators could take a rare no-confidence vote in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over the Justice Department dismissals. On Wednesday a committee in the House questioned a former Gonzales aide who worked with the White House. Monica Goodling said she "crossed the line" by bringing political considerations into some hiring decisions at the department. But she said she had only a limited part in the replacement of United States attorneys. Democrats said her statements raised new questions about dismissals that they suggest were made for political reasons. But a Republican lawmaker said there were no surprises and no evidence of corruption. Democrats and some Republicans want Alberto Gonzales to resign. President Bush says he supports him and hopes Congress will move quickly to finish hearings that he calls "political theater." And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-27-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Dog Talk: Life in a Dog-Eat-Dog World
* Byline: On WORDS AND THEIR STORIES: Dog-related expressions.

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.(MUSIC) Most dogs in the United States seem to have an easy life. They sleep a lot and get fed often. People take their dogs for a walk two times a day and also let them play outside. Dogs get medical care when they are sick or injured. What a great life!? Right?? Well, we say people with a similar, carefree existence enjoy a dog’s life. They have no troubles or responsibilities. They can come and go as they please, sleep all day, and never have to work. But not everyone has it so easy. In fact, some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog. Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things. Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as meaner than a junkyard dog.Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person appears to be mean and threatening but is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite. A junkyard is not a fun place for a dog. Many dogs in the United States sleep in safe little houses near their owners’ home. These doghouses provide shelter. Yet they can be cold and lonely in the winter. Husbands and wives use this doghouse term when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for coming home late or forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is in the doghouse. She may not treat him nicely until he apologizes. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie. Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ella Fitzgerald, 1917-1996: She Was America's First Lady of Song
* Byline: Critics said she raised the American popular song to the level of art. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. She was known as America's first lady of song. (MUSIC: "How High The Moon") VOICE ONE: The year was nineteen thirty-three. The place was New York City. Ella Fitzgerald was sixteen years old. She had entered a competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She was going to dance. But she had just watched two dancers perform. They were better dancers than she. So, instead of dancing, she sang a song called "Judy. " People watching the competition urged her to sing another song. She did. She won first prize - twenty-five dollars. That competition at the Apollo Theater changed Ella Fitzgerald's life forever. Band leader Chick Webb was watching the competition. He hired Ella to sing with his band. He taught her about singing in public. He even showed her what kind of clothes to wear. In three years, she had her first hit record, "A-Tisket-a-Tasket": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald was born in the southern city of Newport News, Virginia in nineteen seventeen. Her father left soon after her birth. Her mother took Ella and moved to New York City. Ella's mother died when Ella was fifteen years old. The next year, Ella started singing with Chick Webb's band. She stayed with Chick Webb until he died in nineteen thirty-nine. Ella kept his band together after he died until World War Two started. Then most of the band members joined the armed forces. While she was with the band, Ella recorded almost one hundred fifty songs. VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was greatly influenced by the experimental music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was called be-bop. She used be-bop rhythms in her singing. In nineteen forty-five, she recorded the song "Flying Home," using the be-bop method known as "scat". In scat, the singer's voice sounds like another instrument in the orchestra. Critics say it was the most influential jazz record of the time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-nine, jazz musician Norman Granz invited her to join his band. It was with his band in Berlin, Germany in nineteen sixty that Ella sang a famous song in a very different way. A man asked her if she knew the song "Mack the Knife. " Ella said she had heard it a few times but the band did not have the music for it. She said she would try to sing it anyway. This recording shows how she continued to sing "Mack the Knife" when she did not remember the words. The people listening loved it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Norman Granz later became her manager. He started a new recording company just for her. It was his idea for Ella to record the now famous series of record albums called the “Songbooks." On each record, she sang works of a different songwriter. She recorded songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Critics say the best songbook is Ella singing the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. Ira Gershwin reportedly said: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. Here, she sings the Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television. She became popular internationally. She performed in concerts around the world sometimes forty weeks a year. She also recorded for different record companies. In the nineteen sixties, she began to sing more modern songs such as those written by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. But she was not very successful with that kind of popular music. She returned to jazz in Nineteen seventy-three, again with Norman Granz. She also began performing with symphony orchestras. VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was married two times. Both marriages ended in divorce. She raised three children who were not her own. Ella lived quietly in Beverly Hills, California. Throughout her life she was a very private person. She wanted to be known only for her music. Her friends included members of the Duke Ellington band, Count Basie's band, and singers like Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee. Ella Fitzgerald began to have health problems during the nineteen seventies. She had the disease diabetes which caused problems with her eyes. She had a heart operation in nineteen eighty-six. In nineteen ninety-three, the effects of diabetes led to operations to remove both her legs. She died June fifteenth, nineteen ninety-six. VOICE TWO: People around the world loved Ella Fitzgerald's joyful singing. Critics said she had raised the American popular song to the level of art. She won many awards. She received the National Medal of the Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime work. The University of Maryland named a performing arts center for her. Ella Fitzgerald's wonderful voice lives on in her two hundred fifty albums. She won thirteen Grammy awards given each year for the best recordings. Her last Grammy was for the nineteen ninety record: "All That Jazz": (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-27-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Remembering Troops Who Died, and Worrying About Those About to Be Sent Into Harm's Way
* Byline: In North Carolina, a wife and mother of soldiers thinks about her family, and Iraq: "I just got one man home safe and, now, here goes the other one." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Memorial Day two thousand seven is our subject this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Personal sacrifice and service to a nation might seem like the last things Memorial Day is about. For lucky workers, the holiday means the freedom of a three-day weekend, the traditional start of the summer travel season. For many businesses, the Memorial Day weekend means a time to lower prices to get more people to come in. Yet, across America, Memorial Day still holds meaning as a day to remember the men and women who have died in military service. This is the fifth Memorial Day since the start of the Iraq war. More than three thousand four hundred American troops have died in Iraq since March of two thousand three. About four hundred have died in Afghanistan since military operations began there in October of two thousand one. VOICE TWO: Cities and towns across the United States hold Memorial Day events. And while the holiday has a serious meaning, the observances often include family entertainment in addition to events like military parades. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, the Glory Days celebration includes a bicycle race, an apple-pie eating competition and music. Fayetteville has a strong connection with the military. The city is neighbors with the Army base at Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base. VOICE ONE:?????? Ann Zetterstrom is a retired Army captain. Her plans for Memorial Day include attending a ceremony at Freedom Memorial Park in Fayetteville. She says she has been very much looking forward to this holiday with her family. Her husband, Erik, is a lieutenant colonel in the Army. This will be the first Memorial Day that he spends with their two-year-old daughter, Britta. He returned home in February after twenty-two months in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ann Zetterstrom says it is a great relief to have her husband home safely. She thinks it is easier to be the one deployed, even in harm's way, than to be the one waiting and worrying, she says. But she knew what she was signing up for when she married another soldier. Being the mother of a soldier, however, is a different story. Her son, Brian, is a lieutenant in the Army. He is currently stationed in Germany. But he is preparing for deployment to Iraq in the fall. His mom supported his interest in military service. But, she says, "I just got one man home safe and, now, here goes the other one." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On May twentieth, a ceremony called a "Time of Remembrance" took place on the grounds of the Washington Monument. The event brought together more than three thousand family members and friends of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The children of those service members received a Gold Medal of Remembrance. The event also recognized families of those killed in military service throughout American history. This was the second year that the ceremony has been held. It was established by the White House Commission on Remembrance. VOICE ONE: In the year two thousand Congress passed a law to establish a National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day. The law asks Americans wherever they are to stop for one minute at three o'clock in the afternoon in an act of national unity. Yet Congress created some disunity when it moved Memorial Day to the last Monday in May to create a three-day weekend. That happened under a nineteen seventy-one law, the National Holiday Act. Some people support a campaign to return Memorial Day to its traditional day of observance -- May thirtieth. Memorial Day began as a way to remember soldiers killed in the Civil War. On May thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The war to prevent the Confederate states of the South from leaving the Union was fought from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five. VOICE TWO: Arlington National Cemetery is a military burial ground but also a final resting place for people of national and historical importance. Each year more than four million people visit the cemetery. It is located in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington. Next to the cemetery is the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters. Part of the tradition of an American military funeral is the playing of a bugle call known as taps. Taps is also played at Arlington and other burial grounds during ceremonies on Memorial Day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? The Washington capital area has a number of military memorials. At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, people look for the names of family members or friends. The memorial lists the names of more than fifty-eight thousand Americans who were killed or declared missing-in-action. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, known as the Wall, opened in nineteen eighty-two. Two black, shiny stone walls, each about seventy-six meters long, are set into the earth. They meet to form a wide V. Many visitors leave flowers or personal remembrances. To copy a name, they rub a pencil on paper over the letters cut into the stone. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They are looking toward the names. Another statue honors the service of women in the war. The Vietnam War ended in nineteen seventy-five. Many soldiers coming home faced the anger of Americans who opposed the war. So a Vietnam veteran named Jan Scruggs organized an effort to remember those who never returned. The result is the Wall. VOICE TWO: Near the Vietnam memorial is the Korean War Veterans Memorial. It opened in nineteen ninety-five. The Korean War lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty-three. The memorial honors those who died and those who survived. "Freedom Is Not Free" is the message cut into the wall above a Pool of Remembrance. There are listings of the numbers of American and United Nations forces killed, wounded, captured or missing, more than two million in all. On one side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial is a stone walkway. It lists the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to Korea under United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. Sandblasted into the wall are images from photographs of more than two thousand five hundred support troops. There are statues of nineteen soldiers who look like they are moving across a battlefield. The statues are gray and lifelike, although a little bigger than life size. Artist Frank Gaylord made them out of stainless steel. They capture the eye and the imagination. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The newest of the major memorials in Washington is the National World War Two Memorial. It opened in two thousand four between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall. The memorial is a large, open area built of bronze and granite. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool. Water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. Around the pool are fifty-six stone pillars. They represent each of the American states and territories at the time of the war, plus the District of Columbia. On two tall arches are the names of where the fighting took place. One says Atlantic; the other says Pacific. The United States entered the war after Japan bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh, ninety forty-one. Sixteen million men and women served in the American military between nineteen forty-one and nineteen forty-five. More than four hundred thousand of them never came home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Mario Ritter. Internet users can find archives of transcripts and audio files of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-27-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Are the World's Institutional Lenders Ready to Reform?
* Byline: Both the African and Asian Development Banks discussed reforms at their yearly meetings this month. But, one expert believes the two lenders must reform differently because they serve completely separate parts of the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Delegates at the African Development Bank meeting in Shanghai, ChinaThe African Development Bank held its yearly meeting in Shanghai, China, earlier this month. The bank’s chief economist announced the economic growth rate in Africa is expected to reach six percent this year. This is the highest in twenty years. Foreign demand for natural resources, especially oil, has helped create the growth. Dennis de Tray is vice president of the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. He says that six percent economic growth in Africa is good. But he says long-term development on the continent will be a problem for generations. Mister de Tray led a working group last year that provided independent advice to the bank’s shareholders and its president, Donald Kaberuka. The Rwandan economist took over leadership of the African bank in two thousand five. Ten years earlier, the economic security of the African Development Bank had been in question. It was almost out of money. Mister de Tray says needed reforms at the African bank are different from reforms announced at a meeting of the Asian Development Bank. That bank met earlier this month in Kyoto, Japan. Mister de Tray believes the Asian Development Bank is facing an identity crisis. The countries receiving the most money are becoming established nations with rich resources. As a result, loans from the Asian Development Bank are unnecessary. Yet, Mister de Tray says there is a small group of countries in Asia still developing, including Laos and Cambodia. These countries will continue to need assistance from the Asian Development Bank. He says the African Development Bank is in the middle of a continent that will need development aid for years to come. Some countries have gained success. But many others are still trying to create continued development that does not harm the environment. The African Development Bank is doing a better job serving its member countries, Mister De Tray says. But, he believes the bank still has a long way to go to reach a level of success. Mister De Tray thinks that reforms needed within all of the world’s international banks are related. And, over the next year, he predicts a debate about how the system works. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read and download audio of Special English programs at our web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Urges Chinese to Accept New Rules for Food Safety
* Byline: American and Chinese officials deal with food safety issue at trade talks.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.The United States has urged China to accept new safety rules for its food and drug exports. American officials said the rules would include a new list of Chinese exporters. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt made the statements. They spoke the day after high-level trade talks between the two nations. Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in WashingtonThe Americans met last week in Washington with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi. The United States Food and Drug Administration said inspectors rejected more than one hundred shipments of food imports from China during April alone. The inspectors rejected them for being unclean or containing harmful substances. China has a lot to lose if people fear its food and drugs. The nation earns an estimated thirty billion dollars yearly in food and drug exports. Companies in the United States would also suffer. For example, American companies depend on China for large amounts of apple juice. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Last week, United States health inspectors began examining toothpaste from China. The government acted after tubes of the teeth-cleaning substance were sent to Panama and the Dominican Republic. The toothpaste was found to contain diethylene glycol, a deadly chemical. But no deaths linked to the toothpaste have been reported. In recent months, wheat flour produced in China for use in pet food sickened or killed many dogs and cats in the United States and Canada. Critics of Chinese imports suspect that Chinese companies placed the industrial chemical melamine in the wheat flour to increase the amount of protein. Worries increased when chicken, fish and pork in the United States were also found to contain melamine. The animals got the melamine in their feed. The chemical is used to make plastics and fertilizers. It is not meant for human food. There also have been incidents of bad effects from foods made and used inside China. For example, a number of babies died because of falsely marked baby milk. Earlier this month, China announced new measures to make food companies improve conditions. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jeri Watson. You can read scripts and download audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Report Says Arctic Sea Ice Is Melting More Quickly Than Thought
* Byline: Also: experts say an extremely rare big cat is close to disappearing from the wild. And a guide to the different ways that bones break. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. On our program this week, we will tell about a new study of the Arctic Ocean. Amur leopardWe will also tell about a big cat that animal experts say is close to disappearing from the wild. And, we will talk about broken bones and how to treat them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new report says sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting more quickly than expected. American scientists say the ice is melting even faster than computer programs had estimated. The scientists work for the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. Results of their study were reported on Geophysical Research Letters, a website of the American Geophysical Union. Scientists know that climate change has a major effect on the Arctic Ocean partly because sea ice is disappearing. They also know that areas of open seawater are expanding. Such areas are known to take in sunlight and increase temperatures. Scientists say this has helped to cause the loss of the Arctic's ice cover. VOICE TWO: For the study, the American scientists compared eighteen computer programs with observations made by satellites and other instruments. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used the computer programs to prepare its two thousand seven estimates of climate change. The computer programs gave estimates of the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean in the month of September. September is when the Arctic has the least ice, after the warm, summer months. The computer estimates suggested an ice loss of two and a half percent for every ten-year period between nineteen fifty-three and two thousand six. Newer studies of the Arctic have used information gathered by aircraft, satellites and ships. This information showed a loss of September ice cover of almost eight percent for every ten-year period between nineteen fifty-three and last year. This means the ice is disappearing about thirty years faster than the computer programs estimated. VOICE ONE: The scientists say the programs might not have recognized the full effect of increased carbon dioxide and other gasses in Earth's atmosphere. They say their study suggests the gasses may have more of an effect than had been thought. The study also measured the amount of ice lost in the Arctic in March. That is when the most Arctic sea ice is present. It showed the loss of ice in March is much less than the loss in September. Yet the computer estimates were wrong about how much. The new report says the March loss was almost two percent for every ten-year period between nineteen fifty-three and two thousand six. That is three times more than the loss suggested by the computer programs. Study organizers say their findings confirm that the Arctic's ice cover is melting…and that this is happening faster than had been thought. They also say the study shows that summer sea ice in the Arctic may disappear much earlier than scientists had expected. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Animal experts say one of the world's most beautiful and rare kinds of big cat is close to disappearing from the wild. A study earlier this year found that only about thirty Amur leopards still live free. The cats are also called Far Eastern leopards. Recently, their numbers decreased by one. An unidentified person shot a female Amur, then beat her to death. The animal's body was discovered last month in the Barsovy National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Russia. An official of the World Wildlife Fund, Darron Collins, said this was the third such killing in the area in the past five years. Mister Collins said the death of even one adult female is a huge loss for the endangered cat. He noted that the killing reduces the possibility for cubs, or young. VOICE ONE: It is not clear how many Amur leopards still live free. One population count was performed in February and March. Wildlife expert Dmitry Pikunov supervised this study. It found evidence of seven to nine males. The study identified three to seven females without cubs. Four leopards were identified as females with cubs. In all, five or six cubs were recorded. Six to eight animals could not be identified. Researchers counted the Amur leopards by following the marks of their feet in the snow. The study involved thirty-five workers from three organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund. The Wildlife Conservation Society and the Pacific Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science also took part. Counts performed seven years ago and three years ago showed higher leopard totals. Officials say about one hundred of the animals are needed for survival. VOICE TWO: Most of the land where the Amur leopard once lived was in China. New roads and climate change there threatened the animals. So did hunters who kill big cats for their body parts. The surviving cats live in southwest Primorye. That area is near the border between Russia, China and North Korea. The director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Russia program organized an earlier count of Amurs. Dale Miquelle says the leopards should be counted in more modern ways. This would include use of radio, camera traps, and genetic testing. Mister Pikunov says adult Amurs need about five hundred square kilometers with good forests to survive. He said they also need a large and continuing supply of animals like deer for food. He believes the answer to saving the Amur leopard is for governments to provide protected spaces for wildlife. About three hundred Amur leopards live in zoos around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Have you ever suffered a broken bone?? The medical term for a broken bone is a fracture. But there are different kinds of fractures. A single fracture is when a bone is broken in just one place. You may have heard the term hairline fracture. This is a single fracture that is very small, like the width of a hair. A complete fracture is when the bone comes apart. When a bone is broken in more than two places or gets crushed, the name for it is a comminuted fracture. Still another kind is a bowing fracture. This happens with a bone that bends but does not break. It happens mostly in children. Have you ever heard of a greenstick fracture? This is when a bone is bent and breaks along only one side, like a young stick of wood. Another kind of break is an open or compound fracture. This is when the bone breaks the skin. This is very serious. There is both bone damage and a risk of infection in the open wound. VOICE TWO: A lot of things happen as the body reacts to an injury like a broken bone. You might suddenly feel lightheaded. You might also feel sick to your stomach. People who are seriously injured can go into shock. They might feel cold and unable to think clearly. Shock requires immediate medical attention. But while broken bones can be painful, they are generally not life-threatening. Treatment depends on the kind of fracture. A doctor takes X-rays to see the break and sets a broken bone to make sure it is in the correct position. Severe breaks may require an operation to hold the bone together with metal plates and screws. VOICE ONE: Next, a person usually gets a cast put around the area of the break. Casts are usually worn for one to two months. The hard bandage holds the bone in place while it heals. In some cases, instead of a cast, a splint made of plastic or metal will be placed over the area to restrict movement. Doctors say broken bones should be treated quickly because they can restrict blood flow or cause nerve damage. Also, the break will start to repair itself, so you want to make sure the bone is lined up correctly. Bones need calcium and vitamin D to grow and reach their full strength. Keeping your bones strong with exercise may also help prevent fractures. Wearing safety protection like elbow pads and leg guards during activities is a good idea. If you think these might be restrictive, try a cast. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: What Keeps Works of Shakespeare So Alive and Well After 400 Years?
* Byline: How events and cultural influences shaped his writing, and how his art, in turn, has influenced language and popular culture. Second of two programs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we complete our story about the influential English writer William Shakespeare. He wrote plays and poems during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. They remain very popular today. VOICE TWO: Last week, we talked about Shakespeare's history, his plays and his poems. Today, we talk about the events and cultural influences that affected Shakespeare and his art. We also discuss the countless ways his works have influenced language and popular culture. (SOUND) GWYNETH PALTROW: "Master Shakespeare. Good sir,? I heard you are a poet. But a poet of no words?" VOICE ONE: That was part of a dancing scene from the popular nineteen ninety-eight movie "Shakespeare in Love." The film suggests one way in which Shakespeare might have been influenced to write "Romeo and Juliet:" because of his relationship with a brave and lovely woman. The movie is only very loosely based on real events, but it is a wonderful story. VOICE TWO: Many of Shakespeare's works were influenced by earlier writings. During this time, students would probably have learned several ancient Roman and Greek plays.It was not unusual for writers to produce more current versions of these works. For example, in his play "The Comedy of Errors" Shakespeare borrows certain structural details from the ancient Roman playwright Plautus. VOICE ONE: For his tragic play "Macbeth," Shakespeare most likely used a work on Scottish history by Raphael Holinshed for information. It is also no accident that this play about a Scottish king was written a few years after James the First became King of England in sixteen-oh-three. This new ruler was from Scotland and London was alive with Scottish culture. Shakespeare may have borrowed from other writers, but the intensity of his imagination and language made the plays his own. VOICE TWO: Shakespeare was also influenced by the world around him. He describes the sights and sounds of London in his plays. His works include observations about current political struggles, the fear of diseases, and the popular language of the city's tradesmen and other professionals. Shakespeare's knowledge of the English countryside is also clear. His works include descriptions of deep forests, local flowers, and the ancient popular traditions of rural people. VOICE ONE: Shakespeare became a well-known writer during a golden age of theater. His years of hard work paid off. Over the years, he invested income from his acting company by purchasing land and other property. He retired to the countryside a wealthy man. William Shakespeare died in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon in sixteen-sixteen at the age of fifty-two. While many plays by other writers of his time have been forgotten, Shakespeare and his art live on. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It would be impossible to list all of the ways in which Shakespeare's works have influenced world culture. But we can give a few important examples. The first example would have to include his great effect on the English language. During his time, the English language was changing. Many new words from other languages were being added. VOICE ONE: Shakespeare used his sharp mind and poetic inventiveness to create hundreds of new words and rework old ones. For example, he created the verb "to torture" and the noun forms of "critic," "mountaineer" and "eyeball." Many common expressions in English come from his plays. These include "pomp and circumstance" from "Othello"; "full circle" from "King Lear", and "one fell swoop" from "Macbeth." VOICE TWO: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is the home of the largest collection of Shakespearean materials in the world. The Library also has many other fine examples of books and art from this early modern period. In March of two thousand seven the Folger organized an exhibit called "Shakespeare in American Life" to celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary. VOICE ONE: The many objects on display show some expected as well as some surprising ways in which Shakespeare has influenced past and present culture. You can learn about the many Shakespeare societies that have formed over the years in the United States. You can see which famous American politicians liked to quote his works. Or, you can read about the many movie versions of his plays. One vegetable company even named itself after the Shakespearian character Falstaff to sell its brussels sprouts. VOICE TWO: The list of cultural creations influenced by Shakespeare is almost endless. From paintings to television to music and dance, Shakespeare is well represented. For example, the nineteenth century "Otello" by Giuseppe Verdi is an opera version of the tragic play "Othello." It is about a ruler who believes wrongly that his wife has been with another man. One famous song from this opera includes the wife, Desdemona, mournfully singing "Ave Maria." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over a century later, the American songwriter Cole Porter transformed the Shakespeare comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" into the musical play "Kiss Me Kate." The musical was later made into a movie. Songs like "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" are popular favorites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-seven the famous jazz musician Duke Ellington released "Such Sweet Thunder." In the song "The Telecasters" Duke Ellington musically recreates the three witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Ellington uses three trombone instruments. His use of silent breaks adds a special tension to the song. (SOUND: "The Telecasters") VOICE ONE: Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondhei m worked together on a modern version of "Romeo and Juliet." Their popular musical play took place on the West Side of New York City. The opposing groups are a gang of young people and a group of new immigrants. The award-winning movie version came out in nineteen sixty-one. Here the main character Maria sings about the happiness of being in love in "I Feel Pretty." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is not just new versions of the plays that live on in popular culture. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into every major language in the world. All across the United States, the plays are performed in schools, theaters and festivals. There are over one hundred Shakespeare festivals and many permanent theaters that perform his works. In Washington, D.C. alone two theaters perform the plays of Shakespeare and other writers of his time. We leave you with words of praise by Ben Jonson, a playwright who lived during Shakespeare's time. Mister Jonson knew long ago that the works of Shakespeare would hold their magic through the ages. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: "Triumph, my Britain, thou hast one to show"To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe."He was not of an age, but for all time!" VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Our reader was Shep O'Neal. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Multivitamins Urged for All Pregnant Women in Developing Countries
* Byline: Scientists report a drop in low birth-weight babies in pregnant women in Tanzania who took vitamins every day. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A recent study in Tanzania found that when pregnant women took vitamins every day, fewer babies were born too small. Babies that weigh less than two and one-half kilograms at birth have a greater risk of dying. Those that survive are more likely to experience problems with their development. And experts say that as adults they have a higher risk of diseases including heart disease and diabetes. The World Health Organization estimates that every year twenty million babies are born with low birth weight. Nine out of ten of them are born in developing countries. The new study took place in Dar es Salaam. Four thousand two hundred pregnant women received multivitamins. The pills contained all of the vitamins in the B group along with vitamins C and E. They also contained several times more iron and folate than the levels advised for women in developed nations. Pregnant women especially in poor countries may find it difficult to get enough vitamins and minerals from the foods in their diet. The scientists compared the findings with results from a group of four thousand women who did not receive the vitamins. A report by the scientists, from the United States and Tanzania, appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Wafaie Fawzi of the Harvard University School of Public Health led the study. None of the women in the study had H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The scientists reported earlier that daily multivitamins were a low-cost way to reduce fetal deaths in pregnant women infected with H.I.V. The earlier work in Tanzania also found improvement in the mothers in their number of blood cells known as lymphocytes. Lymphocytes increase the body's immunity against infection. The new study in pregnant women who were not infected with the AIDS virus found that multivitamins reduced the risk of low birth weight. Just under eight percent of the babies born to women who took the multivitamins weighed less than two thousand five hundred grams. The rate was almost nine and one-half percent in the group of women who received a placebo, an inactive pill, instead of the vitamins. But the vitamins did not do much to reduce the rates of babies being born too early or dying while still a fetus. Still, the researchers say multivitamins should be considered for all pregnant women in developing countries. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: Ford Leads Nation Through Difficult Days of Watergate
* Byline: One month after Gerald Ford became president, he pardoned Richard Nixon of any crimes for which he might have been responsible. Ford was the only vice president and president not elected to either office. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Gerald Ford is sworn-in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. At center is Ford's wife, Betty.Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-eighth president of the United States, Gerald Ford. VOICE ONE: Gerald Ford was sworn-in as president on August ninth, nineteen seventy-four. The day before, President Richard Nixon had announced that he would resign. If he had not resigned, he probably would have been removed from office. A Congressional investigation had found evidence that Nixon violated the Constitutional rights of the American people during the Watergate case. The new president spoke about Watergate, and what it meant to America, on the day he was sworn-in. FORD: "Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. ... As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate -- more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars -- let us restore the 'Golden Rule' to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate." VOICE TWO: Gerald Ford became the only president in American history to serve as vice president and president without being elected. Richard Nixon nominated him for vice president in October, nineteen seventy-three. That was when Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned. When Nixon himself resigned, Ford became president. Ford was a long-time Congressman from the state of Michigan. He was well-liked. He had been a good student and a good athlete. He studied economics and political science at the University of Michigan. The he studied law at Yale University. During World War Two, he served as a Navy officer in the Pacific battle area. VOICE ONE: After the war, Ford entered politics. He was a member of the Republican Party. He was first elected to Congress in nineteen forty-eight. He won re-election twelve times. Other Republican members of the House of Representatives elected him minority leader during the presidential administration of Democrat Lyndon Johnson. Ford was still minority leader when Republican Richard Nixon was elected president in nineteen sixty-eight. In his leadership position, he helped win approval of a number of Nixon's proposals. He became known for his strong loyalty to the president. It was no surprise, then, that Nixon named Ford vice president. VOICE TWO: Gerald Ford became president suddenly. Almost as suddenly, he had to decide what to do about former President Nixon. After Nixon left office, he could have been charged with crimes for his part in the Watergate case. Instead, one month after Nixon resigned, President Ford settled the question. He pardoned Nixon of any crimes for which he might have been responsible. The pardon made many Americans angry. Some believed Nixon should have been put on trial. They thought he might have answered more questions about Watergate if he had not been pardoned. The new president did what he thought was right. He said he pardoned Nixon to end divisions in the country. For a while, however, his action seemed to increase the divisions. VOICE ONE: Anger about the pardon was still strong when President Ford took another highly disputed action. He pardoned the men who illegally escaped military service in the Vietnam War. Most were not sent to prison. Instead, they were permitted to perform work for their communities. Many of the men did not accept the president's offer, however. They remained in hiding in the United States. Or they remained in other countries where they had fled. President Ford received much better public support when he asked Congress to control and limit the activities of the nation's intelligence agencies. He hoped this would prevent future administrations from interfering with the Constitutional rights of citizens. VOICE TWO: Other problems also caused trouble for President Ford. As vice president, he had described inflation as America's 'public enemy number one'. He proposed several measures to fight it. As president, he was forced to cancel some of these measures because there was an economic recession. During the recession, inflation decreased. But fewer Americans had jobs. Unemployment in nineteen seventy-five was at its highest rate since the great economic depression of the nineteen thirties. VOICE ONE: In foreign policy, Ford usually took the advice of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger served as President Nixon's assistant for national security and as secretary of state. He kept those jobs under President Ford. Kissinger won much praise for his service to Richard Nixon. Yet he received much criticism, too. He was accused of interfering with civil liberties in the name of national security. And he was accused of supporting the overthrow of the leftist government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Still, President Ford was pleased that Kissinger would remain in the administration. Even Kissinger's worst critics admitted that he was excellent negotiator. VOICE TWO: At the time Ford became president, America's situation in the world was generally hopeful. Former President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had signed two agreements to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. Also, relations with China were less tense than before. However, American policy in parts of Southeast Asia had failed completely. VOICE ONE: American involvement in the Vietnam war officially ended the year before Ford became president. But fighting continued between South Vietnam and communist forces from North Vietnam. The peace agreement signed by the United States and North Vietnam in nineteen seventy-three left South Vietnam to defend itself. By nineteen seventy-five, it became clear that South Vietnamese forces were in danger of defeat. President Ford tried to prevent a total communist take-over of the south. He asked Congress to approve seven hundred-million dollars in military aid for South Vietnam. The American people, however, were tired of paying for the war. Their representatives in Congress said no. VOICE TWO: What happened in Vietnam was like a bad dream. Communist forces moved into Saigon, capital of the south. Ford ordered the rescue of American citizens and of Vietnamese who had supported American efforts. Few who saw people trying to escape Saigon will ever forget the day. It was April thirtieth, nineteen seventy-five. Terrified Vietnamese were screaming for help at the American embassy. Everyone was pushing, trying to escape. Some who reached the embassy's roof passed their children forward. At least, they hoped, they could get the children to safety on American military helicopters. Others held on to the helicopters from the outside as the overloaded aircraft tried to take off. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Ford administration also faced trouble in the Middle East. Israel and an alliance of Arab nations had fought two wars in about ten years. After the war of nineteen seventy-three, Henry Kissinger led negotiations to settle some issues. Israel agreed to give up some of the territory it had seized during the fighting. In return, the United States made a promise. It would not recognize or deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization as long as the P-L-O failed to meet certain conditions. In September, nineteen seventy-five, Israel and Egypt signed a ceasefire agreement. They also agreed to permit American civilians to act as observers along the ceasefire lines. Henry Kissinger received widespread praise for his peacemaking efforts. Yet the situation in the Middle East remained tense. VOICE TWO: The Ford administration could not fix all the problems of the world. Still, as the presidential election campaign of nineteen-seventy-six began, things seemed better. The United States was not fighting any wars. Unemployment was high. But inflation had improved a little. Most important, Gerald Ford had led the country through the difficult days after Watergate. The election will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. --- Editor's Note: Gerald Ford died December 26, 2006,?at his home in?Rancho Mirage, California,?at the age of 93. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How Foreign Citizens Become Doctors in the US
* Byline: We answer a question from a doctor in Vietnam in Part 39 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series this week with a question from a doctor at a hospital in Vietnam. Tran Kinh Thanh in Ho Chi Minh City asks how a foreign doctor can become an American doctor. One way is to complete a medical residency in the United States. A residency is a period of hospital training for medical school graduates. To be accepted, foreign-trained doctors need approval from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. The process involves passing several tests. After that, foreign doctors can receive a visa to stay in the United States, at least for the training period. Practicing medicine in the United States also involves other steps. But the first thing that foreign-trained doctors have to do is make sure they attended a recognized medical school. It has to be listed in the FAIMER International Medical Education Directory. FAIMER is the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research. If their school is not listed, then foreign-trained doctors cannot be approved for a residency. One solution is to go back to medical school -- an American medical school. One hundred twenty-five schools in the United States belong to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The group says more than one thousand one hundred foreign citizens applied for the current school year. One-fourth of them were admitted last fall. Almost all medical schools in the United States require applicants to report scores from the Medical College Admission Test. Future doctors in the United States traditionally complete four years of medical school after undergraduate school. Then, as residents, they treat patients under the supervision of experienced doctors. A residency is generally between three and seven years. The first year is called an internship. The Association of American Medical Colleges publishes a book called Medical School Admissions Requirements. The newest one is for two thousand eight-two thousand nine. The guide has details about every school as well as information for foreign students. The book costs twenty-five dollars and can be ordered through the association's Web site. For a link to that site, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find all of the earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Grasping Roots as a Way to Understand Words and Build Vocabulary
* Byline: 

 AA:?I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Nina Weinstein talks about building vocabulary by understanding root words. NINA WEINSTEIN: "Basically half of all the words in the English language come from other languages. But the majority of those words come from the same source: Latin and Greek. And so if we learn certain Latin and Greek root words, we have kind of a window into the English language so that we're not always using dictionaries to help us understand words." RS: "So we've got a big key into our language here. Can we talk about some of these?" NINA WEINSTEIN: Let's imagine that we learn a couple of root words. One simple one is tri, t-r-i, which means three. The next one is let, l-e-t, which comes at the end of a word, and that means small. So if we just start with this and we imagine people talking, the first person says, 'Has she had her baby yet?' The second person says, 'Yes, she had triplets.'" RS: "Three little ones." AA: "Three babies." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly. This is a very simple example for us to learn the pieces, but we want to apply it to other things. So let's imagine a book and a booklet. What would be the difference?" AA: "A small book." NINA WEINSTEIN: "A small book, exactly. A movie star and a movie starlet?" RS: "How can you be a small movie star?" AA: "Haven't you ever heard that term, starlet?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Starlet -- less important. When we think of a celebrity, we say that person's very big." AA: "A starlet would be a small star." NINA WEINSTEIN: "It would be a small star. So that person hadn't achieved that much fame yet or importance in their field." RS: "And what are some other hints that you haven't -- tri is one, it means three; let means small." NINA WEINSTEIN: "OK, we can learn sext, s-e-x-t, which means six, and we can apply it to the example I gave in the beginning. We talked about triplets. So triplets are three babies. How many babies are sextuplets?" RS: "Oh my gosh." AA: "That would be six." NINA WEINSTEIN: "It would be six." RS: "That's a lot of babies." NINA WEINSTEIN: "That's a lot of babies. And we can apply that to another field now. Let's say we're talking about music and we're talking about musical notes. How many notes are sextuplets?" RS and AA: "Six." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Right, but we have the l-e-t on the end, so what does the l-e-t do to the word?" RS: "Little notes." AA: "Oh. So like ... " RS: "So six little notes." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Six little notes as opposed to ... four regular-sized notes. Another common example is cide, c-i-d-e, which means kill; herb, which means plant, h-e-r-b; and carn, c-a-r-n, which means meat. So we learned herb and cide, so what does an herbicide do?" AA: "Kills plants." NINA WEINSTEIN: "What does an insecticide do?" AA: "Kills insects." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Right. And I didn't teach you insect. So we can apply this piece that we just learned to common words as well, as we break these words apart. We can talk about a carnivore. What does a carnivore eat?" RS: "Meat." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Meat. What does an herbivore eat?" RS: "Plants." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Plants. What does an omnivore eat?" RS: "Both." AA: "It eats everything." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly. What does v-o-r-e mean, vore?" AA: "Like voracious? It has something to do with eating." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly. So v-o-r-e means eat. And so now you mentioned the word voracious. We can apply what you just said to the word voracious. So we've got v-o-r. It doesn't have to be spelled exactly the same way as we present the root. But if we see enough of the piece to recognize it, then that is the piece that we're going to assume it is. And we try it. If it doesn't work, then we try something else. "So one of the other tools that I give my students is to ask a simple question when they don't understand a word. They should just ask themselves if the word gives them a positive or a negative feeling. And sometimes this is enough to understand the sentence." RS: "They can figure it out [from] context." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly. And for test-takers this is really, really important. I just took a test in a totally different field where I had absolutely no background and I didn't have a lot of time to study for it, so I just used my root words to kind of help me out with the test questions and I passed it -- really more based on my knowledge of root words and vocabulary words than my knowledge of this field." AA: "Can we ask what the field was?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Yes. I just got my amateur radio license." AA: "Hey, good for you." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Thank you." AA: "So now you can talk to people around the world on your radio." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, as soon as I buy a radio, yes. I think I might need that, I don't know. [Laughter]" RS:?English teacher and author Nina Weinstein. One of her books is called "Vocabulary Tools," available through Amazon.com. And you can find our previous segments with Nina at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. AA:?And that's it for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Gentle Barn: A Place Where Animals, and People, Can Find Healing
* Byline: Also: a listener in Ghana asks about the Marshall Plan that aided Europe after World War Two. And music from Mary Chapin Carpenter's new album, ''The Calling.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the Marshall Plan … Play music from Mary Chapin Carpenter … And report about a place that helps animals heal. Gentle Barn Gentle Barn is a place where abused animals can find a home. Ellie Laks started Gentle Barn in nineteen ninety-nine. Faith Lapidus has more about this special place. FAITH LAPIDUS: Like many people, Ellie Laks loves animals. She has turned that love into an effort to save abused animals and help young people at the same time. Ellie Laks started the Gentle Barn in 1999Gentle Barn is a ranch on more than two hectares of land in Santa Clarita, California. It is a place where abused animals can find shelter and care. Miz Laks has rescued sixty farm animals including horses, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and turkeys. Some had been raised for food. Others were in petting zoos where they did not receive the care they needed. All have been saved from some form of abuse. Ellie, her husband, Jay Weiner, and others provide treatment and care for the animals at Gentle Barn. Twenty to thirty people offer to work with the animals without pay. The animals usually grow to accept and love people. And they build close relationships with their keepers. Visitors can touch and hold animals they would normally never have a chance to see. As many as three hundred visitors come to Gentle Barn each week. Most are young people ages four to eighteen. Some are from inner city schools. Some are children with special needs. Some of the children were abused or come from families with problems. Ellie Laks says the animals provide examples for the young people that abuse can be overcome. She says young people see a different side of themselves when they are near animals. They feel they can develop a connection with an animal whose story is similar to their own. Since it opened, Gentle Barn has had more than one hundred thousand visitors. Ellie Laks and Jay Weiner dream of some day opening Gentle Barns all over the world. You can visit Gentle Barn and read the stories of many of the animals online at www.gentlebarn.org. The Marshall Plan HOST: Our VOA Listener question this week comes from Ghana. David Dakura asks us to explain the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was part of an American policy to help Europe recover after the Second World War in the nineteen forties. The war had destroyed the economies of many countries in Europe. The United States and its allies were concerned that communist governments would take control of many of these countries unless they took action. First, Congress agreed to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Greece and Turkey. Then, President Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of European countries. Secretary of State George Marshall visited Europe in nineteen forty-seven. He was shocked by what he saw. Europe was ruined. People were cold and starving because of a lack of fuel and food. And they were starting to suffer from diseases like tuberculosis. Secretary Marshall announced his plan to the graduating class at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He promised that the United States would do "whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world." Marshall Plan aid was offered to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused the help. But sixteen other countries welcomed the aid. The Economic Cooperation Administration of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries from nineteen forty-eight until nineteen fifty-two. It spent thirteen billion dollars. The aid included food, fuel, raw materials, goods, loans, machines and advisers. The Marshall Plan was a great success. It started huge economic growth in Europe. Agricultural production increased by ten percent. Industrial production increased by thirty-five percent. And stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy. Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few people could argue that the Marshall Plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history. George Marshall was recognized for his work in nineteen fifty-three when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Mary Chapin Carpenter For twenty years, Mary Chapin Carpenter has been making records that combine the sounds of rock, folk, and country music. Her tenth album, “The Calling,” is filled with warm and personal songs. A few even have a strong political message. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was the song “Houston.”? Carpenter sings about the tragic story of Hurricane Katrina victims left homeless after the storm hit in two thousand five. The person in the song remembers a home and way of life that no longer exist. Mary Chapin Carpenter grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and now lives on a farm in Virginia with her husband. She often writes songs that deal with important questions about love, beliefs, responsibility and growing older. The words to her songs are rich with images, details, and observations. She writes about personal feelings without seeming too emotional. Here is the title song of the album, “The Calling.” Carpenter sings about the ways people look for and come to understand their purpose in life. (MUSIC) We close with “On With the Song.” Mary Chapin Carpenter honors the three female musicians of the country music band, the Dixie Chicks. The Dixie Chicks were rejected and even threatened by many listeners for criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush. In this song, Carpenter expresses her support for the brave musicians. She calls them “three little stars” in a big sky who fight for what they believe in and give others hope. (MUSIC:"On With the Song") HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Dana Demange?was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-05/2007-05-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Brief History of the World Trade Organization
* Byline: A listener in Vietnam, the newest member, asks about the WTO. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction Attached This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. A question from Vietnam. Listener Nguyen Minh Tan wants to know more about the World Trade Organization and its history. Pascal Lamy is WTO director-generalThe World Trade Organization came into existence in nineteen ninety-five. It operates a system of trade rules. It serves as a place for nations to settle disputes and negotiate agreements to reduce trade barriers. The newest of its one hundred fifty members, Vietnam, joined in January. But the roots of the W.T.O. date back to World War Two and the years that followed. In nineteen forty-four, a meeting took place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire: the International Monetary Conference. There, negotiators agreed to create the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But they could not agree on an organization to deal with international trade. Three years later, in nineteen forty-seven, twenty-three nations approved the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. It was meant to be temporary. Trade negotiations under GATT were carried out in a series of talks called rounds. The first round lowered import taxes on one-fifth of world trade. Later rounds produced additional cuts, and negotiators added more issues. The sixth round began in nineteen sixty-three. It was called the Kennedy Round after the murder of President John F. Kennedy. The results included an agreement against trade dumping. This is when one country sells a product in another country at an unfairly low price. The eighth round of talks began in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in nineteen eighty-six. The Uruguay Round lasted almost twice as long as planned. In all, one hundred twenty-three nations took part in seven-and-a-half years of work. They set time limits for future negotiations. They also agreed to create a permanent system to settle trade disputes. In April of nineteen ninety-four, most of those one hundred twenty-three nations signed an agreement. It replaced GATT with the World Trade Organization. The W.T.O. launched a new round on development issues in Doha, Qatar, in November of two thousand one. These talks were supposed to end by January of two thousand five. But negotiators could not agree on issues involving agricultural protections. The current round has been suspended since last July. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Next week, more about the W.T.O. I'm Bob Doughty. --- Correction: As noted in part two of this report, negotiations in the Doha round of world trade talks restarted early this year after being suspended in July 2006. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Seeks to Increase Pressure on Sudan to End Darfur Violence
* Byline: Is it genocide? The disagreement over whether the four-year-old conflict meets the definition of a crime that rose out of the ashes of World War Two. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. What exactly is genocide? The word was invented by Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer who fled Poland at the start of World War Two and came to the United States. He lost almost every member of his family to the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany. Sudanese women in a refugee camp in Chad in July 2004 protesting the violence in Darfur In a nineteen forty-four book, Raphael Lemkin wrote that by "genocide" he meant the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group. But not necessarily the immediate destruction. It can also describe a plan of actions taken against groups with the aim, in the end, to destroy the groups themselves. His efforts led in nineteen forty-eight to a United Nations treaty against the crime of genocide. It took effect in nineteen fifty-one. It defines genocide as actions taken with the goal to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. The acts listed include killing or causing serious physical or mental harm. Creating conditions that are designed to cause the destruction of a group is also considered genocide. This includes taking measures to prevent births or forcibly removing the children of one group to another group. So far, the Web site preventgenocide.org says one hundred thirty-seven countries have accepted the treaty. All countries that approve it are required to prevent and punish acts of genocide. As the example of Darfur shows, there can be international disagreement about what represents genocide. Four years ago, ethnic Africans rebelled in Darfur, in western Sudan. They said their needs were not getting attention from the government in Khartoum. Since then, more than two million people have fled their homes to escape government forces and allied Arab militias. The United Nations estimates that at least two hundred thousand people have been killed, a charge that Sudan disputes. In two thousand four, the United States Congress declared the violence to be genocide. But the United Nations does not use that term for the conflict. This week, President Bush ordered more restrictions on Sudan. The new sanctions will bar dealings by Americans with about thirty companies tied to the government. He also called for stronger international pressure on Sudan to end the violence. Sudan condemned the new sanctions. And China urged restraint. It said there has been recent progress thanks to the joint efforts of all parties. Sudan has agreed to a proposal for a large United Nations presence in Darfur. But critics say the government has been delaying the peacekeeping plan. Critics accuse China of protecting Sudan from U.N. sanctions. China buys oil from Sudan. It also has other investments there and sells weapons to the government. China has deplored calls by some activists to boycott the Olympics next summer as a protest over Darfur. Some activists call the Beijing Games the "Genocide Games." And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mary Lyon, 1797-1849: A Leader in Women's Education in the Nineteenth Century
* Byline: She opened the first independent school for the higher education of women. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. Every week at this time, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith tell about Mary Lyon. She was a leader in women's education in the nineteenth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the nineteenth century, women's education was not considered important in the United States. Supporters of advanced education for women faced many problems. States did require each town to provide a school for children, but teachers often were poorly prepared. Most young women were not able to continue on with their education in private schools. If they did, they often were not taught much except the French language, how to sew clothing, and music. Mary Lyon felt that women's education was extremely important. Through her lifelong work for education she became one of the most famous women in nineteenth century America. She believed that women were teachers both in the home and in the classroom. And, she believed that efforts to better educate young women also served God. If women were better educated, she felt, they could teach in local schools throughout the United States and in foreign countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mary Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts, in seventeen ninety-seven. Her father died when she was five years old. For Mary, hard work was a way of life. But she later remembered with great pleasure her childhood years in the home where she was born. This is how she described what she could see from that house on a hill: "The far-off mountains in all their grandeur, and the deep valleys, and widely extended plains, and more than all, that little village below, containing only a very few white houses, but more than those young eyes had ever seen." VOICE ONE: At the age of four, Mary began walking to the nearest school several kilometers away. Later, she began spending three months at a time with friends and relatives so she could attend other area schools. She helped clean and cook to pay for her stay. When Mary was thirteen, her mother remarried and moved to another town. Mary was left to care for her older brother who worked on the family farm. He paid her a dollar a week. She saved it to pay for her education. Mary's love of learning was so strong that she worked and saved her small amount of pay so she could go to school for another few months. Mary began her first teaching job at a one-room local school teaching children for the summer. She was seventeen years old. She was paid seventy-five cents a week. She also was given meals and a place to live. Mary Lyon was not a very successful teacher at first. She did not have much control over her students. She always was ready to laugh with them. Yet she soon won their parents' respect with her skills. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Mary Lyon was twenty years old, she began a long period of study and teaching. A new private school opened in the village of Ashfield, Massachusetts. It was called Sanderson Academy. Mary really wanted to attend. She sold book coverings she had made. And she used everything she had saved from her pay as a teacher. This was enough for her to begin attending Sanderson Academy. At Sanderson, Mary began to study more difficult subjects. These included science, history and Latin. A friend who went to school with Mary wrote of her "gaining knowledge by handfuls."? It is said that Mary memorized a complete book about the Latin language in three days. Mary later wrote it was at Sanderson that she received the base of her education. VOICE ONE: After a year at Sanderson Academy, Mary decided that her handwriting was not good enough to be read clearly. She was a twenty-one-year-old woman. But she went to the local public school and sat among the children so she could learn better writing skills. In eighteen twenty-one, Mary Lyon went to another private school where she was taught by Reverend Joseph Emerson. Mary said he talked to women "as if they had brains."? She praised his equal treatment of men and women when it came to educating them. VOICE TWO: Three years later, Mary Lyon opened a school for young women in the village of Buckland. She called it the Buckland Female Seminary. Classes were held in a room on the third floor of a house. Mary's students praised her teaching. She proposed new ways of teaching, including holding discussion groups where students exchange ideas. Mary said it was while teaching at Buckland that she first thought of founding a private school open to daughters of farmers and skilled workers. She wanted education, not profits, to be the most important thing about the school. At that time, schools of higher learning usually were supported by people interested in profits from their investment. VOICE ONE: In eighteen twenty-eight, Mary became sick with typhoid fever. When her health improved, she decided to leave Buckland, the school she had started. She joined a close friend, Zilpah Grant, who had begun another private school, Ipswich Female Seminary. At Ipswich, Mary taught and was responsible for one hundred thirty students. It was one of the best schools at the time. But it lacked financial support. Mary said the lack of support was because of "good men's fear of greatness in women."? Zilpah Grant and Mary Lyon urged that Ipswich be provided buildings so that the school might become permanent. However, their appeal failed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mary resigned from Ipswich. She helped to organize another private school for women, Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. It opened in eighteen thirty-five. She also began to raise money for her dream of a permanent, non-profit school for the higher education of women. This school would own its own property. It would be guided by an independent group of directors. Its finances would be the responsibility of the directors, not of investors seeking profit. The school would not depend on any one person to continue. And, the students would share in cleaning and cooking to keep costs down. VOICE ONE: Mary Lyon got a committee of advisers to help her in planning and building the school. She collected the first thousand dollars for the school from women in and around the town of Ipswich. At one point, she even lent the committee some of her own money. She did not earn any money until she became head of the new school. Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women in eighteen thirty-seven. It was in the town of South Hadley, Massachusetts. She had raised more than twelve thousand dollars. It was enough to build a five-story building. Four teachers and the first class of eighty young women lived and studied in the building when the school opened. By the next year, the number of students had increased to one hundred sixteen. Mary knew the importance of what had been established -- the first independent school for the higher education of women. VOICE TWO: The school continued to grow. More students began to attend. The size of the building was increased. And, all of the students were required to study for four years instead of three. Mary Lyon was head of the school for almost twelve years. She died in eighteen forty-nine. She was fifty-two years old. She left behind a school of higher education for women. It had no debt. And it had support for the future provided by thousands of dollars in gifts. In eighteen ninety-three, under a state law, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary became a college. Mount Holyoke College was the first college to offer women the same kind of education as was offered to men. VOICE ONE: People who have studied Mary Lyon say she was not fighting a battle of equality between men and women. Yet she knew she wanted more for women. Her efforts led to the spread of higher education for women in the United States. Historians say she was the strongest influence on the education of American young people during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her influence lasted as the many students from Mary Lyon's schools went out to teach others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this same time for another People in American program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-04-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Back, Shoulders and Chest: A Pat on the Back for a Job Well Done
* Byline: English idioms that are head and shoulders above the rest. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) There are many American expressions that use parts of the body. These include the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and even the heart. Today we will tell you some expressions that use other body parts – the back, shoulders and chest. When I am facing a lot of pressure at work, my back and neck will start to hurt. Sometimes, this tension is the result of too much work. I have too many things to do because my supervisor is on my back all the time. In other words, my employer is always telling me to do things. Sometimes, I want to tell my employer to get off my back!?? I want her to stop criticizing me and making too many demands on my time. I can not say this, however. I would never turn my back on her and refuse to help when there is a need. If I did refuse to help, my supervisor might say bad things about me behind my back. She might criticize me when I am not present. This would surely be a stab in the back. It is never kind to unfairly harm or say bad things about other people. Sometimes, when I am very productive in my job, my employer gives me a pat on the back. She praises my work. She might even say “I will scratch your back if you will scratch mine.”?? This means she will do something for me, if I do something helpful for her in exchange. Such an offer usually comes straight from the shoulder. My supervisor has a very direct, open and honest way of speaking. I know that my employer carries a lot on her shoulders. She is responsible for many things at the office. And because she is so important, she sometimes gets to rub shoulders with the top officials. She gets to spend time with some very important people. I believe the top official values my supervisor. He never gives her the cold shoulder. He is never unfriendly to her. He always treats her like she is an important part of the organization. I also value my supervisor. In fact, I think she is very effective in her job. Of course, I could yell my opinion at the top of my lungs, or as loudly as I possibly could. It might even feel good to get my emotions off my chest. It is always helpful to tell people how you feel so that your emotions do not trouble you. But it is not necessary for me to praise my supervisor. Most of my co-workers feel the exact same way about her. So, I think I will just save my breath. I will keep silent because talking or repeating myself will not do any good. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Newsmaker: Robert Zoellick, Nominee to Lead World Bank
* Byline: There are many calls for reform in the bank's operations and lending policies. But rebuilding relations and respect after the resignation of Paul Wolfowitz could be the new president's first job. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Robert Zoellick is President Bush's choice to head the World Bank. He is fifty-three years old and currently a vice chairman at Goldman Sachs, the New York investment bank. He has held a number of government positions over the years. From two thousand one to two thousand five he served as the United States trade representative. He helped launch the Doha Round of world trade talks which were suspended last July. He also worked on free trade agreements with Singapore, Chile, Australia and Morocco. In two thousand five, President Bush asked Mister Zoellick to become deputy secretary of state. There, he helped negotiate a peace agreement between the government of Sudan and rebels in Darfur. That agreement later collapsed. He resigned in June of last year to join Goldman Sachs. But last week, President Bush nominated Bob Zoellick to a five-year term as the eleventh president of the World Bank. The board of governors at the bank is expected to confirm the choice to replace Paul Wolfowitz. Mister Wolfowitz resigned last month; his last day is June thirtieth. An investigation found that he violated bank rules in two thousand five when he negotiated a pay increase for his girlfriend, a bank employee. He denied any wrongdoing and said bank officials shared responsibility for the dispute. He joined the bank as president in two thousand five after serving as deputy secretary of defense. European nations led efforts to remove Paul Wolfowitz, accusing him of corruption over the pay issue. But they generally did not support a change in the appointment process. Traditionally, the United States has appointed the World Bank chief while Europe has chosen leaders for the International Monetary Fund. The two lenders were created in the nineteen forties. Some countries, however, have criticized the sixty-year-old tradition. They say it makes the development lenders into tools of rich nations. Brazil, South Africa and Australia urged the United States to appoint a new bank president using an open process not limited by nationality. The World Bank is owned by its one hundred eighty-four member nations. Many development experts and others are calling for reforms in its operations and its lending policies for poor countries. But rebuilding relations and respect could be Robert Zoellick's first job. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Philip Roth: Writing Award-Winning Books for Almost 50 Years
* Byline: His bold stories explore how individuals face the tensions of family, politics, sex and race. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week we tell about Philip Roth. It would be hard to pick an American writer with more published works, critical praise and honors than Philip Roth. He has written more than twenty books and has received almost that many major literary awards. Both in the United States and internationally, Roth is respected as one of the most important writers of modern times. His intelligent stories have become an important part of literary culture. They explore how individuals face the tensions of family, politics, sex and race. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Philip Roth was born in nineteen thirty-three in Newark, New Jersey. He later went to Bucknell University in Pennsylvania to earn his college degree. At the University of Chicago in Illinois, he earned a master's degree and also taught English. His interest in serious fiction began during college when he read the works of several important American writers. He says the books by writers like Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway were his teachers. VOICE TWO: Roth’s first book, "Goodbye, Columbus," was published in nineteen fifty-nine. It was a collection of six short stories. One of the stories, "Defender of the Faith," was also published that year in The New Yorker magazine. It is about a young Jewish soldier training at an American army base at the end of World War Two. He lies to his Jewish army officer in order to get special treatment. The story caused a great dispute. Jewish religious leaders criticized it. They were angry that Roth wrote about a Jewish teenager who is aggressive and imperfect. These people thought Roth violated his religion and invited discrimination against Jewish people. But literary critics praised this new book. "Goodbye Columbus" received the National Book Award in nineteen sixty. VOICE ONE: Philip Roth wrote two more books before publishing "Portnoy's Complaint" in nineteen sixty-nine. This darkly funny book became a bestseller and made its writer very famous. It tells about a middle-class Jewish family in New York City through the eyes of Alexander Portnoy. Alexander wants to be a good Jewish son, but he also feels trapped by the requirements of family life. To make himself feel better, he carries out unusual sexual acts. “Portnoy’s Complaint” received praise as well as intense criticism. It made some people angry. Jewish religious leaders said this book invited discrimination against Jewish people. One literary critic also denounced Roth himself. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Philip Roth did not welcome this new level of attention. He soon moved from New York City to the countryside. He wrote more books. Several of them are about the character Nathan Zuckerman who is a writer. These include "My Life as a Man" and "The Anatomy Lesson." He also wrote several books whose main character is a man named Philip Roth. These include "Deception" and "Operation Shylock." Roth explores the differences between imagined stories and real life. Many details about these characters are similar to the real Philip Roth's own life. Critics and readers often like to ask Roth what is true and what is fiction. But Philip Roth's work is much more than a description of himself. He has said that his books are not about whether or not he has lived the experiences described. They are literary objects that require him to see his subjects as clearly as possible, then use his skills of invention. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety eight Philip Roth won the Pulitzer Prize for his book “American Pastoral.”? Time magazine has listed this book as one of the best one hundred novels in the English language. The story is about a man named Seymour Levov who has what seems to be the perfect American life. He has a nice home, a good job and a loving family. But his life starts to collapse after his daughter Merry performs an act of terrorism to protest the Vietnam War in the nineteen sixties. Roth expertly describes one family’s difficult situation during a tense time in American history. VOICE TWO: In two thousand four Philip Roth published another important book, “The Plot Against America."? This book is told from the point of view of a young Jewish boy living with his family in Newark, New Jersey during the nineteen forties. Mister Roth re-imagines the events that led to World War Two. He writes a different history in which Charles Lindbergh wins the nineteen forty presidential election instead of Franklin Roosevelt. Lindbergh had become a real-life hero after flying across the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen twenty-seven. In the book, Charles Lindbergh is a great supporter of the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. This imagined president decides to keep the United States out of World War Two. He also establishes a plan to move Jewish families into the middle of the country to break up the close culture of Jewish communities. These events did not take place. But Roth’s descriptions are so realistic that you have to remind yourself his story is an imagined version of American history. And you realize how easy it could have been for the United States to carry out destructive policies under a strong leader with bad ideas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Philip Roth's latest book is called "Everyman." It tells about the life and death of an older man from New Jersey. You never learn the name of this main character. The book starts at a funeral and ends on a hospital operating table. The powerful story explores memories from the man's childhood. It gives details about his three marriages and his children. The language of the book is clear and direct. The man often questions death and the thought of no longer existing. He faces the fear of leaving behind life and the people he loves. VOICE TWO: Near the end of the book, the main character visits the Jewish cemetery where his parents are buried. He meets an older man who is digging a grave for a funeral. The worker explains how he digs a grave. He says that digging is peaceful work that gives him time to think. The main character learns that this man had dug the graves of his parents. And he realizes that the man will soon dig his grave also. "Everyman" might seem like a sad and depressing book. But Roth's skill as a storyteller and his way with language make it pleasurable to read. Roth faces the subject of death honestly and bravely. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Philip Roth recently won the PEN/Faulkner award for "Everyman." It is the largest literary prize judged by writers in the United States. Roth is the only writer to have received this literary prize three times. Last month, Roth attended the PEN/Faulkner ceremony in Washington, D.C. to accept the award. He and the other writers nominated for the award read from their books. ??? ??????? Philip Roth spoke to a group of reporters after the event. He talked about the books he has recently read and enjoyed. This spring he started rereading the books of the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. He said this writer’s books “First Love” and “Spring Torrents” are wonderful. And they are also short books like “Everyman.” Roth also talked about how he works. Listen as he describes the demands and rewards of being a writer: (SOUND) It’s a job. It definitely has not become easier nor has it become harder. It’s work, it’s hard work. And I do it regularly, every day, usually six days, sometimes seven. I work long days, I work eight, nine, ten hours. And it’s just as taxing as it always was, just as frustrating, just at difficult as it always was. And at a certain stage in the writing of the book it ceases to be taxing and difficult and you get into a rhythm, and you get it. And then, there is no pleasure like it. Then it’s bliss. VOICE TWO: Philip Roth also said he believes that the number of people reading books is decreasing. He says people have a limited amount of free time. They have many television and computer screens to look at instead of reading books. He says that the age of the book is coming to an end and there is nothing to be done about it. But other people who love books hope Roth’s prediction is wrong. They believe the best way to make sure it does not come true is for people to pick up a book and start reading more. And, if you want to read a good story that will make you think, you can read a book by Philip Roth. His next book, "Exit Ghost", comes out in October. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of Philip Roth at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A UN Report Suggests Steps to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
* Byline: Experts tells governments how to protect the Earth and how much it will cost. Also, Israeli archeologists find what they believe to be the burial place of the ancient King Herod. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we will tell about the new United Nations report on climate change. We will also tell about an ancient burial place and a possible method to reduce blood shortages in hospitals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leaders of eight industrial nations meet this week in the German town of Heiligendamm. The leaders are to discuss many issues, including the warming of the Earth. One subject is expected to be a new United Nations report. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the report last month at a conference in Thailand. The report says the world has the technology necessary to reduce gases that trap heat from the Sun. But it warns that action by governments and individuals must begin immediately. Groups of experts from around the world produced the report. The groups examined scientific information needed to understand climate change. They did not carry out scientific research. VOICE TWO: Earlier studies have linked Earth's rising temperatures to production of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. Some scientists have already said what they believe will happen if carbon dioxide emissions continue to grow. They say long-term effects will include rising sea levels, damaging storms and severe lack of rain in different areas. The scientists say this could result in extreme heat, more floods, and shortages of clean water to drink. They say it could also lead to reduced food production and more world hunger. The new report expands on two earlier U.N. reports. The earlier reports said climate change is likely the result of human activity. They also said it threatens life on Earth. VOICE ONE: The new report says severe climate change can be stopped. It calls for immediate action to reduce the release of carbon dioxide. The report says governments around the world already have the ability to slow or stop this pollution. It says policy makers should support increased use of natural gas and less dependence on coal for fuel. The report supports increased use of wind power and other kinds of renewable energy. The report suggests other ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. They include developing vehicles that use less fuel and speeding the use of energy efficient lighting. The report says governments must provide support for such changes. This will help industries develop new technologies and improve present methods of energy use. VOICE TWO: The report says actions being taken today are not enough to stop the expected damage. It says carbon dioxide emissions must start to fall within the next fifteen years. Without additional action, the amount of heat-trapping gasses released by the year twenty thirty would grow by up to ninety percent. The report sets a goal of limiting the average temperature change worldwide to two degrees Celsius by twenty fifty. That would require a gas emissions cut of more than fifty percent of emissions levels in the year two thousand. The report says this will not be costly. It says this can be done at a cost of less than three percent of the world's gross domestic product by twenty thirty. Gross domestic product is the value of all goods and services produced by any one country. Last week, President Bush announced his own plan to fight climate change. He wants fifteen major polluting countries to set a goal by the end of next year to reduce gases tied to climate change. ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People gather around the base of what Israeli archaeologists believe is King Herod's tombIn the West Bank, a thirty-year long search may have finally come to an end. Israeli archeologists recently found what they believe to be the burial place of King Herod. The Roman Empire appointed Herod as the ruler of Judea over two thousand years ago. The Christian Bible's book of Matthew says King Herod ordered the killing of all boys two years old or younger in the Bethlehem area. Historical experts do not know if this story is true. But they do know that Herod killed many of his political opponents by the end of his rule. VOICE TWO: Archeologist Ehud Netzer works at Hebrew University in Israel. He led the team of researchers who discovered the burial place at Herodium. Herodium is a large area with many buildings and other structures. It is built on a small man-made mountain about eleven kilometers south of Jerusalem. King Herod built Herodium and its many richly designed buildings as an example of his power and wealth. He also chose the exact place where he wanted to be buried. But it has taken a great deal of searching for the team of researchers to find the area. They had been searching for years at the bottom of the small mountain of Herodium. In August, they moved their dig higher up the side of the mountain. VOICE ONE: Knowledge of King Herod’s burial comes from the first century historian Josephus Flavius. He described how Herod’s body was carried to Herodium and gave details about his funeral. Flavius wrote about Herod’s rich burial coverings that included solid gold objects, jewels, and purple colored cloth. But the historian did not say where the body was buried. The archeologists recovered many broken pieces of a sarcophagus -- a container used to hold a buried body. The container was made out of limestone and measures about two and a half meters long. Other broken pieces near the sarcophagus include stone cuttings made to look like flowers. The costliness of the objects led the researchers to believe that this must be King Herod’s burial place. VOICE TWO: Other experts say there is still no evidence confirming the burial place belongs to Herod. Stephen Pfann is a historian at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem. He says Ehud Netzer and his team have made a valuable discovery. But he says there is no way to be sure the place was King Herod's until someone finds his name among the burial objects. The discovery has increased old political tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Both sides claim this area between Bethlehem and the Judean desert. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists may have found a way to reduce shortages of type O blood. Type O is the kind of blood that hospitals most often need. What the researchers are testing is an easier way to make type O blood out of other kinds of blood. There are four main kinds of blood. Most people are born with one of these four: type A, type B, type AB or type O. Type O can be safely given to anyone. So it is commonly used when a person is injured or sick and has to have blood. Type O is the most common blood group. But the supplies of it available in hospitals and blood banks are usually limited. This is because of high demand. Type O blood is used in emergencies when there is no time to identify the patient's blood type. VOICE TWO: Giving A, B or AB to someone with a different blood type, including O, can cause a bad reaction by the person's defense system. Their immune system can reject the blood. This immune reaction can be deadly. The difference between blood types is linked to whether or not red blood cells contain certain kinds of sugar molecules. These molecules are found on the surface of the cells. They are known as antigens. These antigens are found with type A, B and AB blood but not with type O. VOICE ONE: More than twenty-five years ago, scientists found that the antigens could be removed to create what they called universal-type cells. They could be removed with chemicals called enzymes. But large amounts of enzymes were required to make the change. Recently, a report published in Nature Biotechnology described two formerly unknown bacterial enzymes. The report said these enzymes remove the antigens more easily. To find these enzymes, researchers examined more than two thousand five hundred kinds of bacteria and fungi. VOICE TWO: Doctor Henrik Clausen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark led the study. He worked with researchers from France, Sweden and the United States. The next step, they say, is to complete safety tests. The team is working with the American company ZymeQuest to test the new method. If it meets safety requirements and is not too costly, it could become a widely used life-saving tool to increase the supply of universal blood. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week at this same time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Improving Soil, and Saving Money, in Eastern Uganda
* Byline: Five low-input ways that a study found can increase sorghum production. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Sorghum farmers in eastern Uganda, working with scientists, have tested some lower-cost ways to improve their soil. Little rain and poor soil fertility are problems in that area, as in other parts of southern Africa. Experts from the Kawanda Research Institute in Uganda and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the United States did the research. They say much of the soil lacks enough phosphorus and nitrogen. But for many small farmers, the cost of treating the soil is more than they earn from their crops. So the researchers suggest five methods that could decrease costs and increase production of sorghum. Sorghum is an important food grain in southern Africa. The methods involve soil fertility management as well as reduced tillage. Tilling is breaking up and turning the soil to prepare the ground for planting. They say one way to renew the soil is to use a plant called mucuna. Mucuna is a herbaceous vegetable. Its seeds can be planted during the short rainy season. Then the land is free to be planted with sorghum during the best growing season. Mucuna takes nitrogen from the air and places it in the soil, enriching it. Professor Charles Wortmann, one of the Nebraska researchers, notes that the plants also reseed themselves. Another method that the scientists suggest is to plant sorghum during one growing season, followed by cowpea the next. Two other low-input ways to improve the soil involve using manure or nitrogen and phosphorus as fertilizer. And the fifth way that the study found may improve sorghum production is to reduce crop tillage. The researchers say the best methods for farmers depend on their individual needs and their resources. For example, using animal waste may be best for farms that have the animals to supply it. But on farms that cannot get fertilizer, the best solution may be the method of rotating sorghum with cowpea. The researchers tested one hundred forty-two farms across three areas of eastern Uganda. The study took place from two thousand three to two thousand five. The findings have just appeared in Agronomy Journal. Professor Wortmann and other scientists are continuing their research. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can learn more about agriculture at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also download transcripts and audio files of our reports. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: National Wildlife Refuge System: Protecting America's Furred and Feathered Friends
* Byline: The Fish and Wildlife Service announces success in increasing the numbers of American's national bird, the bald eagle. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the National Wildlife Refuge System that protects wildlife in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-three, the twenty-sixth president of the United States heard about a small island in the state of Florida that had many birds. President Theodore Roosevelt was told that hunters were killing most of the pelicans on the island. He soon decided the nation should protect these beautiful water birds. President Roosevelt declared the island the first federal protection area for birds. This refuge was named the Pelican Island Reservation. It was established on a very small piece of land in the Indian River Lagoon, near the Atlantic Ocean. The island became the first protected area in what later would become the huge National Wildlife Refuge System. VOICE TWO: Today the Wildlife Refuge System is the world’s largest land network for managed and protected wildlife. The refuge system is part of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Among other duties, the system enforces the Endangered Species Act. This law protects wildlife threatened with disappearing from Earth. Wildlife refuges also help the environment. They help protect wetlands that control flooding and pollution. VOICE ONE: The refuge system has more than five hundred forty centers. They cover more than thirty-eight million hectares of land and water. Most are open to the public. More than thirty-nine million people visit them every year. Visitors can fish and hunt at more than half of these wildlife centers. Activists say the refuge system is one of the nation’s greatest successes in protecting nature. National wildlife refuges exist in all fifty states and twelve American territories and possessions. Almost all the refuges contain water. Many of these refuges include national parks. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt served as president from nineteen-oh-one to nineteen-oh-nine. During that time he created fifty-one bird refuges in seventeen states and three territories. He also created five national parks and one hundred fifty national forests. Historians say it is especially interesting that President Roosevelt did this. The energetic former soldier was known for hunting large animals. History remembers him as one of America’s most important activists for wildlife. VOICE ONE: Before President Roosevelt declared Pelican Island a wildlife refuge, both Florida and the federal government had tried to protect America’s wildlife. Congress had enacted two laws aimed at wildlife protection. In eighteen sixty-nine, the lawmakers created a protected area in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska. The goal was to give seals a safe place to have their babies. In eighteen ninety-four, Congress made it illegal to harm wildlife inside the huge Yellowstone National Park in the western part of the country. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-oh-one, a Florida law prevented shooting birds on Pelican Island for their feathers. But people disobeyed this law until President Roosevelt intervened. Some other animals were already threatened with disappearance when President Roosevelt took the first step toward a national conservation agency. For example, many bison had lived in the western part of the country. But by the nineteenth century, hunters had killed hundreds of thousands of these big animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? Over the years the birds on Pelican Island have survived many threats. Human activities on the water produced waves that reduced the island’s shorelines. The island decreased to half its size. In nineteen sixty-eight, the refuge was expanded to protect nearby islands and wetlands. In two thousand, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies and businesses provided money to restore the refuge. Mangrove trees and plants natural to the area replaced plant life that did not belong there. A lake was added. Experts restored tidal wetlands and a forest. VOICE TWO: To protect the island, visitors now watch the birds from the Centennial Trail on nearby land. A tower also was added so people can look at Pelican Island from above. Not long ago, a visitor was watching the island late in the day. Many huge birds were spreading their wings and floating against the darkening sky. The visitor said she will never forget that sight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced its great success protecting America's most famous bird. It announced results showing the largest population of breeding bald eagles in the United States since the nineteen forties. In nineteen sixty-three, there were only four hundred seventeen nesting pairs of bald eagles in the lower forty-eight states. This was an all-time low. Today, there are an estimated nine thousand seven hundred eighty-nine breeding pairs. This is an all-time high. Nesting or breeding pairs are a male and female that are able to reproduce. You can find wild bald eagles in every state in the lower forty-eight states and in the District of Columbia. The state of Minnesota has the largest number of pairs of eagles, followed by Florida and Wisconsin. The three states all have more than one thousand pairs. VOICE TWO: The bald eagle is a large brown bird with a white head and tail. It is the national bird of the United States. The bald eagle is on the Great Seal of the United States, the presidential flag and the back of the dollar bill. The bald eagle has been protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish and Wildlife Service says the bird needed protection because it was threatened by the widespread use of DDT, a chemical that kills insects. VOICE ONE: Starting in the nineteen forties, DDT was used to control mosquitoes and insects harmful to agriculture. When it rained, DDT washed off the soil and into waterways. There, plants and animals took in the chemical. Fish ate the plants and animals. And eagles ate the fish. DDT built up in the fatty tissues of female eagles. This prevented the formation of calcium needed to make strong eggshells. The female eagles produced eggs. But the eggshells were thin and broke when the birds sat on them to keep them warm. VOICE TWO: Rachel Carson was a biologist and writer for the Fish and Wildlife Service until nineteen fifty-two. She recognized the dangers of insect-killing chemical products, including DDT. But she also knew that the agriculture industry needed such pesticides for crop production. In nineteen sixty-two, Carson produced a book, "Silent Spring," after years of research in the United States and Europe. It examined the effects of DDT and other pesticides on the health of people and animals. The book became a best-seller. And it caused fierce debate. In nineteen seventy-two, the United States banned the use of DDT. VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" launched the environmental protection movement in the United States. But she did not live to see it. She died in nineteen sixty-four. May twenty-seventh was the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Rachel Carson. Many activities are being carried out across the United States to celebrate her life and work as an educator, scientist and writer. The Fish and Wildlife Service is also celebrating the recovery of the bald eagle. The service is taking steps to remove the national bird from the federal list of threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Shelley Gollust. Mario Ritter was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. ?You can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Unapproved Uses of Drug-Treated Heart Stents Questioned
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A coronary stent is a small tube that is used to treat heart patients. The tube is made of A stent is a tube of wire meshwire mesh. Doctors place it inside an artery that has narrowed. They expand the stent to hold the walls of the artery open so blood can flow normally to the heart. If an artery is blocked, people can suffer chest pain and heart attacks. In most cases, a stent is left permanently in place to keep the artery open after a treatment called angioplasty. Increasingly doctors use what is called a drug-eluting stent. This kind has medicine on it that is released slowly over time. The drug is designed to prevent the creation of scar tissue in the artery. Scar tissue can cause the artery to narrow again. Millions of people now have drug-eluting stents. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first one in two thousand three. The devices are approved for use in patients with simple blockages and no history of a heart attack. But once the F.D.A. approves a drug or other treatment, doctors do not have to follow only the approved uses. They may try other uses, including untested uses, if they think it could help their patients. This is called "off-label" use. But recently some studies have questioned the safety of off-label use of drug-treated stents. In early May, the Journal of the American Medical Association published two studies. These were based on the records of several thousand patients. A stent maker, Cordis, helped pay for one of the studies. The study found that at one year, the patients with the least risk were those who met the conditions for approved or "on-label" use. ?For example, restenosis, which is when the artery narrows again, was reported in four percent of those patients. Patients with more serious artery problems had rates of seven to eight percent. Still, the researchers say the number of patients affected was small. Compared to the first study, the second study found a higher risk of problems with off-label use of drug-eluting stents. Millenium Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough helped pay for the second study. These companies make drugs that can be used in place of the stents. Now, additional research is examining how outcomes could be affected by the methods that doctors use when they put a stent into a patient. We will discuss this part of the issue next week. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Katherine Cole. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series: Studying Religion in the US
* Byline: We look at one of the largest seminaries in North America in Part 40 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A Chinese woman studying business law in Japan has a question about studying a different kind of law. Wang Yuxian says she is a Christian and would like to know about theological seminary programs for foreign students in the United States. A theological seminary is a graduate school of religion and a professional school for training religious leaders. Foreign students who want to study at a seminary in the United States apply just as they would to any other graduate school. They have to meet the academic and English language requirements and prove they would be able to pay for their studies. Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, is one of the largest in North America. Today it has more than four thousand students from about seventy countries. Fuller is one of two hundred fifty-three schools accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. An accredited school is one that has passed inspection by a rating group like the association. All of the schools are Christian. But other schools train leaders in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and other faith traditions. The Fuller Theological Seminary opened in nineteen forty-seven. It has three schools: Theology, Intercultural Studies and Psychology. It also has a center for lifelong learning. Students at Fuller can earn a doctor of ministry degree or more than twenty other graduate degrees. Examples include a master's degree in marital and family therapy and a master's in global leadership. There are also degree programs taught in Korean and Spanish. And Fuller admits some students through its English as a second language program. Some degree programs cost more than others. One year at Fuller can cost anywhere from twelve thousand to twenty-four thousand dollars. International students can apply for scholarships and grants. But Fuller says that normally they will not be permitted to work during the time of their studies. The same is true for family members. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. We began our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States in September. We are almost at the end of the series. But all of the reports, including this one, can be found along with links to helpful sites at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History: Jimmy Carter Wins the 1976 Presidential Election
* Byline: The Democrat had been governor of the southern state of Georgia and, before that, a nuclear engineer and a peanut farmer. He defeated Gerald Ford, who took office after Richard Nixon resigned. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the presidential election of nineteen seventy-six. VOICE ONE: Gerald Ford is sworn-in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. At center is Ford's wife, Betty.When Vice President Gerald Ford became president in nineteen seventy-four, he took office during a crisis. For the first time in American history, a president -- Richard Nixon -- had resigned. He resigned as a result of the case known as Watergate. It involved the cover-up of illegal activities. Officials in Richard Nixon's administration had lied about Watergate. They also had misled the public about the war in Vietnam. VOICE TWO: After Vietnam and Watergate, many Americans no longer believed their public officials. At this difficult time, Gerald Ford dealt with the public calmly. In one speech, for example, he said, "The state of the Union is not good." One political observer said President Ford brought respect back to the government. Yet just a little more than two years after Ford became president, American voters rejected him. In the presidential election of nineteen seventy-six, they chose the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter, instead. Why? VOICE ONE: One reason was that Ford had pardoned Nixon. He announced a presidential pardon for any crimes for which Nixon might have been responsible. This made many people angry. Another reason was that Ford refused to give federal money to New York and other cities with special needs. Many voters felt this showed that he was not concerned about poor people and their problems. Others believe that unemployment and inflation defeated Gerald Ford. He was not able to deal effectively with these problems during his short presidency. For these reasons, there was competition for the Republican Party nomination in nineteen seventy-six. Ford's chief opponent was Ronald Reagan, governor of California. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party thought that voter anger about Watergate would help the Democratic candidate become president. Eleven Democrats campaigned for the nomination. Two well-known politicians did not campaign. But they said they would serve if no other candidate won the party's support. They were former Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Edward Kennedy. VOICE ONE: One of the lesser-known candidates was the former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Political experts gave him little chance of winning the nomination, because most Democrats did not know him. Whenever his supporters talked about him, others always seemed to say, "Jimmy, who?" Carter used this problem to help win more recognition. Whenever he met voters, he would say, "Hello! I am Jimmy Carter, and I am running for president." VOICE TWO: People liked Jimmy Carter. Before becoming governor of Georgia, he had been a nuclear engineer and a peanut farmer. Again and again, he told people that he was not part of the established political power system in Washington. He also had strong religious beliefs. This appealed to a lot of Americans. Many voters supported Carter in the local Democratic primary elections before the party's nominating convention. His victory in the Florida primary was especially important. He defeated another southern politician, Governor George Wallace of Alabama. VOICE ONE: Carter represented what was called the "New South" in the United States. He made it clear that he opposed ideas of the "Old South". These included racial separation and mistreatment of black Americans. George Wallace spoke of creating a better life for both blacks and whites. Yet he had strongly defended racial separation for most of his political life. Many people remembered pictures of Governor Wallace at the University of Alabama in nineteen sixty-three. The pictures showed him blocking the door to prevent two young blacks from attending the school. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Republican primaries had mixed results for President Ford. In New Hampshire, he won only fifty-one percent of the vote. Ronald Reagan won forty-nine percent. It was a poor showing for a president in office. But in Massachusetts he got two votes for every one vote that Reagan got. Reporters said Ford and Reagan debated about issues that were not very important or interesting. The campaign did show, however, that Reagan was more conservative than Ford. For example, Reagan talked strongly about United States control of the Panama Canal. "We built it," he said. "We paid for it. And we are going to keep it." In his campaign speeches, Ford denounced extremism. It was clear he was speaking about Reagan. VOICE ONE: Ford and Reagan won almost the same amount of support in the Republican primaries. Yet many convention delegates remained undecided. This was a dangerous situation for the Republican Party. Party leaders did not want a fight over undecided votes at the nominating convention. Such disunity could damage the chances of the party's candidate against the Democratic candidate in the general election. VOICE TWO: The situation was similar in the Democratic Party. As support for Jimmy Carter increased, Democrats who did not like him began to say, "Anybody but Carter." But Carter was not to be stopped. He kept repeating that he did not have ties to groups that tried to influence government policies. He would be different, he said. And that sounded like what the people wanted. VOICE ONE: Carter won the Democratic primaries in Georgia, Alabama, and Indiana. The other candidates fell hopelessly behind. At the party convention, he was nominated on the first vote. In his acceptance speech, he repeated the line he had made famous: "I am Jimmy Carter. And I am running for president." Carter said there was a fear that America's best years were over. He said the nation's best was still to come. The Democratic convention chose Walter Mondale, a senator from Minnesota, to be the party's vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: A month before the Republican Party convention, Ronald Reagan made a costly political mistake. He said that -- if he won the nomination -- he would want Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania to be the vice presidential candidate. Conservatives were angry, because Schweiker was a liberal Republican. Some political observers say this is why Reagan lost the nomination to President Ford. Ford won by one hundred-seventeen votes. Many of the delegates then wanted Reagan to be the party's vice presidential candidate. But Reagan was not interested. Instead, the nomination went to Senator Robert Dole of Kansas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The general campaign started in September nineteen seventy-six. In one speech, President Ford said, "The question in this campaign is not who has the better vision of America. The question is who will act to make the vision a reality." Political experts said that what happened during the next two months was uninteresting. One newspaper said the campaign left the voters feeling sleepy. Ford and Carter agreed to debate each other on television. Nobody had done that since Nineteen-Sixty, when Richard Nixon and John Kennedy held several television debates. VOICE TWO: Many people thought Ford did a little better than Carter in the first debate. In the second debate, however, President Ford made a mistake. He said the Soviet Union did not control eastern Europe -- and never would in a Ford administration. For some voters, the statement added to their belief that President Ford was not very intelligent. The third debate did not have a clear winner. Public opinion studies showed that many voters were still undecided. VOICE ONE: The race for the presidency was very close. Jimmy Carter won with fifty-one percent of the popular vote. President Ford won forty-eight percent. Two years before, most Americans had not known Jimmy Carter's name. Now, many of those same people had elected him the thirty-ninth president of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Richard Rael. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: At This Year's National Spelling Bee, 'Serrefine' Spells Champion
* Byline: Also: A Burmese listener asks about the actor and comedian Jim Carrey. And the music of Miranda Lambert, recently honored by the Academy of Country Music with its award for new female vocalist. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question from a listener about Jim Carrey… Play music from Miranda Lambert… And report about a national spelling contest. National Spelling Bee HOST: Every year, the best young English language spellers from around the world gather in Washington, D.C. for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. They spell complex words that most English speakers have never even heard of. Last week, more than two hundred eighty children gathered to compete in this event. It was the largest group of spellers in the eighty-year history of the bee. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Evan O'Dorney and his mother, Jennifer, celebrate his victoryThe national spelling bee takes place over two intense days of competition in a large hotel meeting room. The spellers sit together in front of several judges. Each speller stands when it is his or her turn. When the judge calls out the word, spellers can ask for help. They can ask for the definition of the word or for it to be used in a sentence. They can also ask which language the word came from. This can often help them decide how it is spelled. Students who spell the word correctly remain in the competition. But if the speller makes a mistake, a bell rings and the child must leave the group. The spellers are very supportive of one another. They show their happiness when a speller gets a word right. The Canadians especially added to the spirit of the event by waving flags and cheering even louder for all Canadian spellers. Many people thought that Samir Patel would be the winner this year. This thirteen-year-old boy from Texas has competed in the spelling bee five times. This is the last year he can compete. But his spelling bee career ended with the word "clevis." Samir later said that he should have taken more time to think about the word but instead made a stupid mistake. Two boys, a Canadian and an American, made it to the last part of the competition. Both Evan O'Dorney and Nate Gartke were able to spell difficult words like "videlicet" and "Zoilus."? But Evan won the competition with the word “serrefine," a kind of tool used in medical operations. After the event, the thirteen-year-old from California talked to reporters. He said he does not really like spelling. He likes math and music more. Spelling, Evan said, is just memorization. His advice to spellers is to study the dictionary. And, he said he always eats a tuna fish sandwich the night before competing. Jim Carrey HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Burma. Tharr Naing wants to know more about the actor and funny man Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey’s skill for comedy came early. As a boy, he was given time at the end of each school day to perform for his class. Carrey says he also sent a letter requesting a part on a popular American television comedy show when he was just ten years old. Jim Carrey was born in nineteen sixty-two in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. He was a good student until his teen years when his family experienced financial problems and had to move to Toronto, Canada. Jim worked in a factory every day after school and his grades suffered as a result. Carrey moved to Los Angeles, California in nineteen seventy-nine. He worked with the famous comedian Rodney Dangerfield. And he began to make appearances on the Late Night with David Letterman television show. His first major movie was “Earth Girls Are Easy,” in nineteen eighty-eight. He played the part of a funny creature from another planet. He was involved in the development of a new television comedy show, “In Living Color.”? It gave Carrey his first chance to show the whole country his unusual characters. Carrey’s first huge movie success was starring in the film “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” in nineteen ninety-four. Critics hated the movie. But Jim Carrey’s very physical comedy was a hit with moviegoers. The movie earned more than seventy million dollars in the United States alone. A follow-up movie came out the next year. "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls" earned more than one hundred million dollars. Jim made two other very successful films in nineteen ninety-four: “Dumb and Dumber” and “The Mask.”? In nineteen ninety-five he was offered twenty million dollars to star in? “The Cable Guy.”? It was the highest amount of money ever offered to a comedy actor. The movie came out the following year and did not do great business. But Jim Carrey’s power in Hollywood remained. In the years since, Carrey has shown that he can do more than comedy. He has starred in several critically praised dramatic movies. These include “The Truman Show” and “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”? Jim Carrey won Golden Globe Awards as Best Actor for both films. Miranda Lambert HOST: The Academy of Country Music presented its yearly awards last month in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner of the New Female Vocalist award was singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert. Katherine Cole tells us about her. KATHERINE COLE: Miranda Lambert has been singing professionally since she was in high school in the state of Texas. In two thousand three, she finished third in the Nashville Star television talent show. Her performance there led to a recording contract. Her first major album was released in two thousand four, when she was twenty-one years old. She wrote or helped write ten of the eleven songs on the album, called “Kerosene.”? The first single was “Me and Charlie Talking.” (MUSIC) Miranda Lambert says her latest album is better than “Kerosene.” She says “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” shows the effects of two years of personal and professional growth. She sang the first hit from the new album on the Country Music Association awards show. It is “Famous in a Small Town.” (MUSIC) Miranda Lambert says her songs talk about real things -- things that have happened to her, family members and friends. Critics say the songs on her new album mix the pain and power of heartbreak. We leave you now with the title song from Miranda Lambert’s new album, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange,? Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: World Trade Talks: Moving, but Slowly
* Byline: Agriculture remains one of the most important trade issues. Developing nations want the big industrial powers to cut aid to farmers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Today we have the second half of a report on the history of the World Trade Organization. The W.T.O. was created in nineteen ninety-five after the eighth round of world trade talks. The rounds began in nineteen forty-seven, each one on different areas of trade. The W.T.O. tried to launch a ninth round in Seattle in nineteen ninety-nine. But trade ministers argued and free trade opponents rioted. The W.T.O. launched the ninth round in Doha, Qatar, in November of two thousand one. The new round was named the Doha Development Agenda. This was meant to show developing countries that the goals included reducing poverty. Two other ministerial conferences took place: in Cancun, Mexico, in two thousand three and Hong Kong in two thousand five. There was little progress toward agreement on major issues. Pascal LamyW.T.O. Director General Pascal Lamy of France suspended the negotiations last July. But talks restarted in January. Mister Lamy said he planned to send a strong message this week to leaders of the Group of Eight and other nations at meetings in Germany. He said their active support is needed for a successful and balanced outcome. Last month he said the negotiations were moving but not very fast. Twenty-one issues are listed under the Doha Development Agenda. At the heart, though, is agriculture. Developing nations want industrial countries to end farm supports that critics say drive down prices on world markets. The United States has pushed for as much as an eighty-five percent reduction and an expanded list of banned subsidies. European countries have resisted deep cuts. Last week, the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said France would veto any agreement that did not meet its requirements. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson warns that if the talks fail now, they would not reopen before two thousand ten. The European Union, the United States, India and Brazil are preparing for talks later this month. These four major W.T.O. members are working for a deal on the Doha round by the end of the year. The World Trade Organization currently has one hundred fifty members. The largest economy not a member is Russia. After years of trying, Russia hopes to be in the W.T.O. as early as January. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Part one of our report is at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Six Days in 1967 Changed the Middle East Until This Day
* Byline: A 40th anniversary look at the war in which Israel captured the Palestinian territories and more as it fought for its survival. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Forty years ago this week, Israel, fearing a threat of destruction, defeated three Arab armies in six days of war. Egypt had gathered a huge force in the Sinai Desert across the border from southern Israel. Israeli planes carried out surprise raids on June fifth and destroyed most of the Egyptian air force at its bases. Israel also moved ground forces to fight the Egyptians. Jordan launched attacks on Israel that same day. Jordanian artillery and planes attacked Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem and other areas. The Israeli military responded the next day, June sixth. Heavy fighting pushed Jordanian forces out of Jerusalem. The Israelis captured East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. The city of Jerusalem had been divided since Israel's war of independence in nineteen forty-eight. By the time the Six Day War ended with a cease-fire, Israel had almost three times as much territory as before. It won control of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights in fighting with Syria. In addition to Egypt, the Israeli air force destroyed aircraft in Syria, Jordan and another Egyptian ally, Iraq. In the weeks earlier, Egypt had taken steps that included dismissing United Nations peacekeepers from the Sinai border area. Egypt also blocked Israeli ship traffic to and from the Red Sea through the Straits of Tiran. And Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel-Nasser, said the goal of war with Israel would its complete destruction. Arabs often call the Nineteen Sixty-Seven War "an-Nakash," the Setback. Israel returned the Sinai as part of its nineteen seventy-nine peace treaty with Egypt. Peace with Jordan came later. Israel and Syria have recently expressed willingness to renew peace talks that ended seven years ago. But Israel is reported waiting to see how much Syria is willing to compromise in return for the Golan Heights. At issue is Syrian ties with Iran and anti-Israeli groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel has left Gaza but still controls movement into and out of the territory. And it still occupies the West Bank. The West Bank and Gaza are home to almost four million Palestinians. Unemployment and poverty are high. The United Nations World Food Program says it feeds about six hundred sixty-five thousand people in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel says its actions are needed to defend against terrorist attacks. Israel held events last month, in keeping with the Jewish calendar, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of its reunification of Jerusalem. In the West Bank, people this week marked the anniversary of occupation. But much of the attention went to the current violence in Gaza between armed groups loyal to the Palestinian parties of Fatah and Hamas. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned of being on the edge of civil war. He said the fighting is a danger equal to or greater than Israeli occupation. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sam Cooke, 1931-1964: The singer was one of the biggest stars in the music industry during the 1950s and 60s
* Byline: His smooth voice and musical style were popular with both blacks and whites. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about black singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. (MUSIC: "You Send Me") VOICE ONE: It has been years since that song was a hit. Yet it is still popular today. The song is called "You Send Me. " It was written and sung by a young singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. During the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, Sam Cooke was one of the biggest stars in the music industry. His smooth voice and musical style were popular with both blacks and whites. Although Sam Cooke died years ago, his influence still is present in today's music. VOICE TWO: Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in nineteen thirty-one. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a minister in a Baptist church. Sam started singing religious music when he was only fifteen years old. When he was nineteen, he became the lead singer of a famous gospel singing group called the Soul Stirrers. In nineteen fifty, he began writing and recording for the Soul Stirrers. During his six years with the group, Cooke brought his own kind of expression to gospel music. He became gospel music's biggest star. His good looks and singing abilities made him very popular among women, both young and old. Here is Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers singing "Touch the Hem of His Garment". (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Although Sam Cooke was a star with the Soul Stirrers, he wanted to sing other kinds of music. So, he decided to sing popular music instead. Cooke's decision to "cross over" to pop music shocked many blacks. That was because making such a change was not as easy then as it is today. Racial tensions were high between blacks and whites in the nineteen fifties. And gospel music was popular among black people. It was considered an important part of black culture. The company that recorded the Soul Stirrers' records urged him not to start singing pop music. They thought it would offend the group's fans. VOICE TWO: Cooke, however, wanted to sing to all groups of people. He wanted to express his racial identity without offending whites. At that time, most records by black artists were not played on radio stations that had white listeners. So, he left the gospel music world where he was extremely popular with blacks. But the move was not a mistake. He soon became a big star singing pop music. Sam Cooke's first pop record was released by a small company, Keen, in nineteen fifty-seven. It was "You Send Me. " It was a huge success. It sold one million seven hundred thousand copies in the first year alone. It is one of his most memorable recordings. Here is the first version he recorded of that song. It was made to show Cooke's ability to sing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sam Cooke had a voice that was unlike any the public had ever heard. His voice was soft, yet intense. He made singing seem effortless. Cooke was also a wise businessman. In nineteen fifty-nine, he became the first black artist to establish his own record company, SAR Records. He wrote most of his own material. And, he owned the rights to his songs through his music publishing company, Kags Music. Very few blacks at that time were able to control their musical profession in such a way. And, without such business control, they lost money. Here is another hit by Sam Cooke, when he was with the Keen record company, called "Wonderful World. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty, Sam Cooke signed an agreement with a major record company, RCA. Such a move is common today. But, a move from an independent black-owned record company to a major record company was something few black artists were able to do then. Cooke had a number of big hits at RCA. In this song, Sam Cooke uses a "call and answer" form of musical expression that started in the black church. The song is called "Bring it on Home to Me. " (MUSIC) In nineteen sixty-two, Sam Cooke recorded a song for RCA about a popular new dance step, the Twist. The song is called "Twistin' the Night Away. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In December nineteen sixty-four, Sam Cooke's life was suddenly cut short. He was shot and killed at a hotel during a visit to Los Angeles. He was thirty-three years old. His death shocked his fans. Thousands of people gathered at his funeral. Two of Cooke's last songs were released after he died. One of the songs is called "A Change is Gonna Come. " It is a powerful song that combines gospel and pop music. The song is like many of Sam Cooke's that made him so popular as a singer and songwriter. It is about never losing hope. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another people in American program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Bird Words: Someone Who Eats Like a Bird Eats Very Little
* Byline: People who eat like birds eat very little. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today we explain some expressions about birds. For example, if something is for the birds, it is worthless or not very interesting. Someone who eats like a bird eats very little. And a birds-eye view is a general look at an area from above. Did you know that if you tell a young person about the birds and the bees you are explaining about sex and birth??? Have you ever observed that birds of a feather flock together?? In other words, people who are similar become friends or do things together. Here is some good advice: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means you should not risk losing something you have by trying to get more of something you do not have. Sometimes I can do two things by performing only one action. This is called killing two birds with one stone. But I would never really kill any birds. I love all kinds of animals. This is a real feather in my cap. It is something to be proud of. Most of the people I work with are early birds. They believe that the early bird catches the worm. They think that a person who gets up early in the morning for work has the best chance of success. Everyone in my office works hard, but some people have had their wings clipped. Their jobs have been limited. This is because the office is organized by pecking order. People with more years and experience are given more responsibility. Some bird expressions are about crows, chickens and ducks. For example, when I am driving, I always travel as the crow flies. I go the most direct way. Anyone who eats crow has to admit a mistake or defeat. Now let’s talk about my sister. She is not very young. She is no spring chicken. She will work any job for chicken feed -- a small amount of money. She is easily frightened. For example, she is too chicken-livered to walk down a dark street alone at night. Often she will chicken out – she will not go out alone at night. My sister was an ugly duckling. She looked strange when she was a child, but she grew up to be a beautiful woman. Sometimes she thinks too much about having something in the future before she really has it. She counts her chickens before they are hatched. Sometimes her chickens come home to roost. That means her actions or words cause trouble for her. However, my sister does not worry about what people say about her. Criticism falls off her like water off a duck’s back. Politicians are sometimes considered lame ducks after losing an election. They have little time left in office and not much power. Congress holds a lame duck session after an election. Important laws are not passed during this period. (MUSIC)????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Reaching for the Ball: NBA Finds More Players and Fans Overseas
* Byline: How the National Basketball Association -- now in its finals for the 2007 championship -- is going increasingly international. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. We turn our attention this week to the NBA, the National Basketball Association, and its growing international reach. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili in game one of the 2007 NBA FinalsThe regular season ended in April. Weeks of playoffs followed. The San Antonio Spurs won the western conference championship for the third time in five years. The Cleveland Cavaliers won the eastern conference championship for the first time. Now, the Cavs and the Spurs are playing in the finals for the NBA championship. It could be decided as early as this Thursday in game four of their best-of-seven series. Last year's NBA champions, the Miami Heat, lost early in the playoffs this year. VOICE TWO: Americans are not the only ones watching, or playing. Today about one NBA player in five was born outside the United States. The season opened with eighty-three international players, a record. They include stars like Yao Ming from China on the Houston Rockets and German-born Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. He just became the first European-born player to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award. And Argentine-born Manu Ginobili helped the Spurs to this year's finals with their victory in the West over the Utah Jazz. VOICE ONE:????????????????????????????????????????? Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls in a 2007 playoff game against the Detroit PistonsNBA players from Africa include Sudanese-born Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls and Dikembe Mutombo. Mutombo, most recently with the Houston Rockets, was born in Kinshasa and is known for his charity work in Africa. He was considering retirement but has said he will play again next year. He will be forty-one years old on June twenty-fifth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-nine, two leagues came together to form the NBA: the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League. In nineteen ninety-six the NBA created the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association. And in two thousand one the NBA created a development league to help train future players. The NBA currently has thirty teams. It is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States. The others are the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball. VOICE ONE: Nineteen fifty is remembered as the year that the NBA became integrated with black players. Today the large majority of players are African-American. But a Japanese-American broke the barrier in major professional basketball three years earlier. Wataru Misaka was born in the state of Utah. He was a guard standing one meter seventy centimeters. He helped lead his college team to two national championship competitions. The New York Knicks, or Knickerbockers, chose him in the nineteen forty-seven Basketball Association of America draft. He played in three games and scored seven points before he was cut from the team. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-two, the United States Olympic men's basketball team was called the "Dream Team." For the first time there were players from the NBA. Among them were Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The Americans brought home the gold medal that year from Barcelona. It was during the nineteen nineties that a growing number of top NBA players began to come from outside the United States. In two thousand two, Yao Ming was the first choice in the NBA draft. He was picked by the Houston Rockets. Yao became the first international player without college experience in the United States to be chosen first overall. He also became the third Chinese national ever to play in the NBA. The first was Wang Zhi-zhi. He joined the Dallas Mavericks in two thousand one. The second was Mengke Bateer. He made his first NBA appearance with the Denver Nuggets early in two thousand two. VOICE ONE: Yao Ming is currently the NBA's tallest player, at two meters twenty-six centimeters. He was already a famous player in China before he arrived in the United States. He no longer speaks through an English interpreter. During his first season with the NBA, he spoke with the help of his friend Colin Pine. In two thousand three, during the NBA off-season, Yao helped raise money and educate people in China about SARS. That was when the lung disease known as SARS broke out in southern China and spread around the world. And Yao said last year that he would stop eating shark fin soup, a popular Chinese meal, because of concern for shark populations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another popular international player in the NBA is Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls. He is two meters three centimeters tall. He was born in southern Sudan as a member of the Dinka tribe. It produces some of the world's tallest people. In nineteen eighty-eight, when he was a young boy, his family fled to Egypt because of the civil war in southern Sudan. His father had been a Sudanese government minister. In Egypt, they met former NBA player Manute Bol. Bol, also a Dinka, became an important influence in his life. VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-three Deng's family received political asylum in Britain. But he went to high school in the United States, in New Jersey. By his senior year he was one of the best high school basketball players in America. He attended Duke University for one year before he entered the NBA in the two thousand four draft. Luol Deng is known as a hard worker. And this May he won the NBA Sportsmanship Award for the season, as voted by other players. This award honors ethical behavior, fair play and other ideals of sportsmanship on the court. He is also active in charities including Nothing But Nets, a campaign to fight malaria in Africa with insecticide-treated bed nets. Luol Deng received British citizenship last year. He wants to play for the British national team in the two thousand twelve London Olympics. He grew up in London and his family lives there. He was recently named British captain for the qualifying series for the European championship. VOICE TWO: Dirk Nowitzki is the first Dallas Maverick to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. He is also the first winner who did not attend high school or college in the United States. He was born in Wurzburg, in the former West Germany. He, too, learned the game with the help of an older mentor. Former German national team player Holger Geschwindner first saw him play when Nowitzki was sixteen. He thought the teenager had the talent to be a professional. For one thing, Nowitzki is ambidextrous. He has equal ability with either hand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NBA games are broadcast around the world in more than forty languages. In China, games are being shown on more than fifty television stations, up from thirty-two last year. One way to show support for a favorite player is, of course, to wear the team jersey with that player's number. The NBA reported in March that Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers had the top-selling NBA jersey in China this season. Last year his jersey was the fourth most popular. He also has the top selling jersey in the United States. Allen Iverson of Denver and Tracy McGrady of Houston were second and third this season in China. Next came Dwyane Wade of Miami and Cleveland's LeBron James. Yao Ming was third in jersey sales at stores in China last season. This year he was sixth. VOICE TWO: The NBA may be the world's most famous basketball league. But the two thousand four Summer Olympics in Athens provided an example of how the game is improving internationally. Argentina defeated the United States men's basketball team in the semifinals, then claimed the gold medal over Italy. It was the first medal ever for Argentina in Olympic basketball. It was also the first loss for the American team since nineteen eighty-eight in Seoul. In fact, between nineteen thirty-six and two thousand, there was only one other time when the United States did not win. That was at the nineteen seventy-two Munich Games. Both times the Soviet Union took home the gold. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Brianna Blake and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can learn more about American life at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Two Faces of Asia' Test Future of Development Bank
* Byline: ADB officials debate how to deal with the economic success of many countries yet continued high levels of poverty in others. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Asian Development Bank was created in nineteen sixty-six, two years after the African Development Bank. Today both of them are talking about needed reforms to better serve their member countries. Last month we looked at the issues in Africa where there is still widespread need for development aid. The situation is different for the Asia-Pacific area. The Asian Development Bank was created to raise money from rich industrial nations for loans to support economic growth.Now there are surpluses in Asia, and less and less need for those loans. Rajat Nag is managing director general of the bank; we called him in Manila. He says the bank is debating how to deal with the two faces of Asia. Economic growth in many countries has been great -- ten percent a year in China, for example. The bank's members have about two trillion dollars in savings that could be invested. Yet more than six hundred million people in Asia are still without clean water. And Rajat Nag says by the year twenty-twenty, almost two billion Asians will still be living on less than two dollars a day. The bank will continue to be supportive for those countries, he says. Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda answers a reporter's question in KyotoMany of the reforms that the bank is considering come from a report released in late March by an independent committee. Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda asked for a study looking ahead to two thousand twenty. Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, chaired the committee. He discussed the report during the bank's board of governors meeting last month in Kyoto, Japan. He urged the bank to change with Asia's economic rise but to continue its poverty reduction efforts in poor countries. Rajat Nag predicts that reforms will help connect local borrowers with local lenders. Like other international lenders, the Asian Development Bank may also become more of a knowledge bank for technical aid. Mister Nag says the bank will be a partner and not a competitor of other development banks. The proposed reforms will be examined over the next eight to ten months. Rajat Nag says a final plan might be presented and approved at next year's Asian Development Bank meeting in Madrid, Spain. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. Our report two weeks ago on the African Development Bank can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Confirm Case of Shark That Reproduced Without Mating
* Byline: Also: researchers celebrate the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus, the man who named the natural world. And a question from China about losing weight. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. On our program this week, we will tell about an animal that can reproduce without mating. We also will tell about a Swedish man who developed a naming system for all living things. And, we answer a listener's question about weight loss. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: File photo of a hammerhead shark,?the kind involved in the first known case?of asexual reproduction in sharks.The birth of a shark in the United States has been confirmed as the first case of a female shark reproducing without a male shark. Scientists from Florida, Nebraska and Northern Ireland studied genetic material taken from a baby hammerhead shark. The baby shark was born six years ago at a zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. At the time, its mother had been living without male sharks for three years. Another fish was said to have killed the baby shark shortly after it was born. Recently, tests showed the baby had no genetic material from a male shark. The findings were reported in the publication Biology Letters. VOICE TWO: At the time of the birth, researchers believed that the mother had possibly used reproductive fluid received from a male shark years earlier. Female sharks are able to store such fluid from male sharks. However, no shark has been known to do this for several years. Instead, the scientists found the mother’s own genetic material combined when her egg was produced. This form of reproduction involving only one animal is called parthenogenesis. It is also known as asexual reproduction. VOICE ONE: Asexual reproduction has been known to happen in some animals, including snakes and lizards. But it has never been confirmed in mammals. The shark's birth was the first time asexual reproduction had been observed in a shark. It has yet to be observed in animals that live in the wild. Scientists say the discovery may also explain growing numbers of sharks born in captivity without males present. However, genetic material from these sharks must also be tested to confirm asexual reproduction. VOICE TWO: Scientists now wonder if animals living in the wild also reproduce in this way. Many shark populations are decreasing because people are killing too many of the animals. The asexual form of reproduction could help population numbers. Yet scientists say it could also be harmful for the species itself. Biologists say that sharks born asexually with only their mother’s genetic material will have less chance of surviving than other sharks. Genetic material from a male and female helps living creatures to better deal with disease and other threats. If sharks in the wild are reproducing asexually, their young will be genetically weaker than those produced sexually. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month, scientists around the world celebrated the birthday of an important man in the history of science. His name was Carl Linnaeus. He was born three hundred years ago in Sweden. Carl Linnaeus is remembered for developing a system of scientific names for all the living things on Earth. Experts say his system continues to influence the way people think about the natural world. VOICE TWO: Linnaeus was a medical doctor. He also was very interested in plants. In seventeen thirty-five, he produced a book that listed all the known plants in the world by their sexual parts. The book was called "Systema Naturae," or "System of Nature." ? Linnaeus later published two more books. They proposed a system of dividing and ordering plants by groups. These publications listed and ordered all the known plants and animals in the world. That was more than seven thousand kinds of plants and more than four thousand kinds of animals. Linnaeus continued to make changes in his system and publish books describing them. The tenth version of "Systema Naturae" was published more than twenty years after the first one. The naming system he described in that book is the one that has been used ever since by scientists. VOICE ONE: The system that Linnaeus used to organize all living things started with the largest group, called a kingdom. He divided all living things into one of three kingdoms: plant, animal, or mineral. Members of each kingdom were then placed into increasingly smaller groups. Linnaeus' system was the first to place human beings in the same group as animals that walk on two legs. The main part of the system that survives today combines two groups that have biological meaning. It is the two-word description of an organism based on its physical appearance: the genus name and the descriptor. A good example is the expression Linnaeus used to describe human beings and that we continue to use -- homo sapiens. VOICE TWO: Scientists have been making changes to his naming system for more than two hundred years. Today, some experts want to re-organize the system. They say this is needed because of the scientific progress that has been made since Linnaeus' time. For example, biology experts want changes because knowledge of genetic material has created much new information. Some people are calling for a system that would group organisms with a common history. But others feel there is no real agreement as to how to place new discoveries in groups. They say Linneus' system has been used for so long that it would be very difficult to change. Scientists say the main reason the system survives is because it is simple. They say its use makes it possible for persons who speak different languages to understand each other, and agree on what they are talking about. The system also makes it easy for scientists today to identify all the ten million known species of plants and animals. That is many more living things than were known during Carl Linnaeus' lifetime. ??????? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:??????? ?????????????? ??????? Finally, a listener has written from China for advice about how to lose weight. Michael in Shanghai says he is twenty-six years old and has been severely overweight for most of his life. Doctors say this condition, also known as obesity, is complex. A doctor may advise medical interventions in addition to changes in behavior. But experts say the most successful weight-loss plans include a well-balanced diet and exercise. VOICE TWO: People who want to avoid weight gain have to balance the number of calories they eat with the number of calories they use. To lose weight, you can reduce the number of calories you take in, or increase the number you use, or both. Experts at America's National Institutes of Health say a person wishing to lose weight should have an hour of moderate to intensive physical activity most days of the week. This could include fast walking, sports or strength training. You should also follow a nutritious eating plan and take in fewer calories than your body uses each day. VOICE ONE: A recent study looked at four of the most popular dieting plans in the United States. Researchers at Stanford University in California studied more than three hundred overweight women. Most of the women were in their thirties and forties. Each woman went on one of the four plans: Atkins, The Zone, Ornish or LEARN. The women attended diet classes and received written information about the food plans. At the end of a year, the women on the Atkins diet had lost the most -- more than four and one-half kilograms on average. They also did better on tests including cholesterol levels and blood pressure. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. VOICE TWO: Christopher Gardner led the study. He says the Atkins diet may be more successful because of its simple message to lower intake of sugars. Also, he says the advice to increase protein in the diet leads to more satisfying meals. He says there was not enough money to also study men, but that men would probably have similar results. VOICE ONE: Another report suggests that only a small minority of people have long-term success with dieting. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, medical school found that most dieters regained their lost weight within five years. And often they gained back even more. But those who kept the weight off generally were the ones who exercised. The report was based on thirty-one studies. It was published in the journal American Psychologist. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Raising Rabbits Offers a Big Return From a Small Investment
* Byline: The animals are clean and quiet, do not need a lot of room and are low cost to feed Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Rabbits are easy to raise. The long-eared animals are clean and quiet. They do not need a lot of room. And you do not have to spend a lot of money to feed them. With rabbits, you get a big return from a small investment. One male and two females will produce in a year as many as fifty more rabbits. That is enough to provide a good supply of meat for a family. Rabbit meat is high in protein and low in fat. You do not have to be a farmer to raise rabbits. You can raise them in the city. There are about sixty different kinds of rabbits. The ones that produce the most meat from the least amount of feed weigh four and one-half kilograms. Rabbit houses are easy to make with wood and wire fencing material. They do not have to be very big. But each rabbit must have its own little room in the house. This is very important. Each room should be about seventy-five centimeters wide, sixty centimeters high and one meter deep. Fencing is used for the sides and floor of the rabbit house. The holes in the wire fencing should be about one centimeter square. Wastes from the animals will drop through the holes. This keeps the rabbit house clean and dry. Rabbits need a lot of fresh air and sunlight. Cover the sides of the rabbit house only to protect it from rain. Rabbits eat mostly grass and leaves. Feeding containers hung on the outside of the house let the rabbits eat whenever they want. They simply pull the grass and leaves through the holes in the wire. Each room should have fresh water. The water containers should be heavy so the rabbits cannot turn them over. Or you can tie the containers to the wire. One month after mating, female rabbits give birth to about eight babies. In two months, a baby rabbit should weigh about two kilograms. This is big enough to make a meal for a small family. Rabbits are also valuable for their fur. It takes time, skill and money to prepare the fur and skin for use. If you have only a few rabbits, it probably would be best to let a professional tanner prepare the fur for you. Skill is also needed to remove the fur from the rabbit. But rabbits do not have to be dead to be valuable. Many people enjoy keeping rabbits as friendly pets. And rabbit manure makes an excellent fertilizer. It can be mixed directly into the soil to improve the growth of vegetables, trees and flowering plants. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. --- Editor's Note: Although our programs are intended for foreign audiences, we received the following comments from the United States. From Pamela Alley, director, Rabbit Industry Council: I am sorry to see that the comments you received in regard to the article "Raising Rabbits Offers a Big Return From a Small Investment" are so negative and, in fact, incorrect in their information. As a long time professional rabbit breeder in the US, I can assure your readers that rabbit is indeed a good and healthy source of food which is easy to raise on limited resources. The flavor and texture is excellent, although getting used to it after store-bought chicken can be difficult for some. Care in preparation is key. Fed on a commercially prepared pellet, it takes just about two to three dollars at most per kilogram to raise a young rabbit to 2 kg for slaughter. Fed a mixed diet of available roughage, it will be substantially less expensive, but the growth rates will also be less, with 8 week old fryers weighing in at only 1.5 kg or so. Rabbits are extremely adaptable in their dietary needs and when proper information is given the owners, they can thrive in almost any circumstances. Ghana, for instance, has been very successful in promoting rabbit as a vital source of food. Rabbits penned singly in appropriate cages do very well and do not "eat little or nothing," as my own herd and thousands of others can show. They are healthy and do not have the problems shown by many pet rabbits such as gut stasis and tooth spurs. From Jason Laube, CEO, Lagomorph Inc. and raised by a Northern Iowa corn farmer: Rabbits are a very poor food source for several reasons. Their taste is considered bland to awful for most who choose to eat it. Plus the very muscular structure of a rabbit most who choose to eat it cannot stand the meat's texture. The article states feed costs are low, while in fact feed volume is extremely high for their size and expensive, quality feed is required due to the complex nature of a rabbits digestive system. Rabbits who are not fed properly die very easily and are not resilient without extensive medical attention. Also, although a very unhealthy diet for rabbits, most farmers use corn feed because it 'fattens them up' but with the price of corn skyrocketing due to the ethanol boom, corn is no longer a viable option for a cost effective food source. Possibly most important of all of these factors is that rabbits are the 3rd most popular companion animal. Eating rabbit is tantamount to eating dog or cat meat ... and in most parts of the country it is considered a taboo not just frowned upon but viewed in utter disgust. Finally, rabbits, since they groom each other, share food, water, and go to the bathroom together disease spreads rapidly and can easily wipe out an entire farm in a matter of days. Rabbits who are penned up alone to prevent disease end up eating less or nothing which further reduces profit on top of the added costs of building and maintaining separate pens. From Olga Mill, Spokane, Washington: Your article about raising rabbits is outrageous. you are asking people to rase rabbits for fur, and it is not acceptable. I am disgusted. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Good to the Last Drop: Coffee Culture Is Alive and Well in the US
* Byline: Join us as we explore the history and culture of coffee. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At La Colombe coffee shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, you can enjoy a tasty cup of coffee as you read the newspaper or meet with friends. The shop is very busy and lively. (SOUND) The people who work there can quickly make excellent espresso or drip coffee drinks. La Colombe is a good example of how important coffee culture has become in the United States. Join us as we explore the culture, history and business of one of the world's favorite drinks. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States, the number of specialty coffee shops has increased greatly over the years. In nineteen ninety-five there were an estimated five thousand shops and sellers specializing in coffee. By two thousand six, there were almost twenty-four thousand. It is hard to walk down a street in an American city without coming across a coffee shop. And, chances are, that coffee shop might be a Starbucks. VOICE TWO: The Starbucks company started in the West Coast city of Seattle, Washington, in nineteen seventy-one. Today, there are more than twelve thousand Starbucks around the world. Starbucks has helped make coffee culture a popular part of people's daily lives. The stores sell all kinds of coffee. They sell special hot and cold coffee drinks like Frappucinos and White Chocolate Mocha. They also sell food, music and books. Starbucks has helped educate people about the world of coffee. VOICE ONE: But there is much more to making and enjoying coffee than Starbucks. In fact, many people criticize the aggressive expansion of Starbucks and its impersonal coffee shops. The company has made business difficult for smaller, independent coffee shops. But these coffee shops have a strong and loyal following. There is a certain pride in the coffee industry among the smaller, more personal coffee sellers. VOICE TWO: The Specialty Coffee Association of America holds a yearly competition for the people who prepare coffee drinks, known as baristas. The best baristas from different areas of the country gather to make three coffee drinks. A group of coffee experts judges them. The baristas take their job very seriously. They have fifteen minutes to make three kinds of coffee drinks: an espresso, a cappuccino, and a specialty drink of their own invention. (SOUND) HOST: "A big round of applause for Melanie's espressos!" The best baristas in the country then compete for the national award. There is even a World Barista Championship. This year it will be held in Tokyo, Japan. VOICE ONE: Doug Wolfe recently competed in the Mid-Atlantic area barista competition. But to really see him work his coffee magic, you must visit him where he works, at La Colombe. DOUG WOLFE: "My name is Doug Wolfe, and I am from Philadelphia. I am with La Colombe Torrefaction. I'm going to be making an espresso and cappuccino for you guys." To make an espresso, Doug packs freshly ground coffee into a filter that attaches to a shiny La San Marco espresso machine from Italy. The machine forces heated water at high pressure through the coffee. The resulting espresso has a strong, smooth and flavorful taste. He makes a cappuccino by adding perfectly heated milk to an espresso. This may sound easy. But making a perfect espresso requires several things:? the right amount of fresh coffee and expert control of water temperature, pressure and timing. La Colombe roasts its own special coffee mixtures at a factory nearby. This way it can control the high quality and freshness of its product. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You might enjoy a cup of coffee at your local coffee shop. But coffee is part of an international industry. Research shows that as many as one-third of the people in the world drink coffee. Some people drink coffee for its rich smell and taste. Others like the awakening effect of caffeine, a chemical in coffee. But not everyone may know the story of coffee and how it is produced. VOICE ONE: One popular story about the discovery of coffee long ago is about Kaldi, a keeper of goats?? Kaldi was taking care of his goats in the highlands of Ethiopia where coffee trees have grown for centuries. He noticed that his goats became very excited and active after eating small fruits from a tree. Kaldi reported this discovery to a group of religious workers. When they made a drink out of the fruit, the religious workers realized they could stay awake for long hours of prayer. This knowledge about coffee soon spread all over the world. VOICE TWO: Coffee trees are native to eastern Africa and areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Coffee was first grown and traded in the fifteenth century. Most coffee came from what is now Yemen. Soon, coffee was in high demand all over the Middle East. By the seventeenth century coffee had been introduced to Europe. European traders started bringing coffee plants to other parts of the world. The Dutch brought coffee to the islands of Indonesia. And by the twentieth century, most of the world's production came from Central and South America. Today, Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most people know what a coffee bean looks like, but what about the plant? Coffee trees can grow up to nine meters high, but they are cut short for production. These trees have shiny dark green leaves that grow on opposite sides of each other on a stem. The plant produces a fruit that is called a coffee cherry. When the coffee cherries are ripe and ready to pick, they are bright, red and firm. Inside the fruits are the green coffee beans. After these beans are roasted at high temperatures they are ready to be made into a drink. VOICE TWO: The two most important kinds of coffee plants are the arabica and the canephora, which is commonly known as robusta. Arabica coffee makes up about seventy percent of the world's production. These trees produce a fine and mild coffee with a rich smell. Robusta has a more caffeine than arabica. It is usually mixed with other coffee beans or used for instant coffee. Most of the world's robusta is grown in Central and Western Africa. It can also be found in parts of Southeast Asia and Brazil. Robusta is less costly to grow because it is more resistant to diseases than the arabica plant. Also, robusta plants can survive in a warmer climate. VOICE ONE: There may only be two main kinds of coffee plants. But geography and climate differences have a big effect on the many different ways coffee can taste. For example, coffee grown in Ethiopia is known for its lively, sharp taste and its flowery smell. Coffee from the island of Sumatra has a full body with an earthy and intense taste. Coffee roasters combine beans from different areas to make coffees with different tastes and qualities. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Coffee is the second most heavily traded product in the world after oil. A coffee bean goes from a series of producers, exporters, importers, roasters and sellers. This long chain of production has major social and political effects. For example, some coffee producers and drinkers are concerned about the Fair Trade movement. The aim of this movement is to make sure that coffee farmers around the world get a fair price for their harvest. Poor farmers are organized into groups called cooperatives. They are guaranteed money under this system. Even if the market price for coffee drops, these farmers can earn enough money to live. Critics of the movement say coffee farmers still do not receive a fair amount of money for their work. And some economists argue that Fair Trade creates too large a supply of coffee. VOICE ONE: There are also environmental concerns within the coffee industry. Industrial coffee production can have a bad effect on nature. The chemicals used on large coffee farms can hurt soil and water sources. These large farms also cut down many trees to make room for coffee plants. This threatens native plants and birds. Environmental organizations have worked to create rules for producing coffee in environmentally friendly ways. Many coffee drinkers buy this coffee to support their efforts. VOICE TWO: So, the next time you enjoy your morning coffee, you can think about its rich history and wide popularity. And you can imagine the long distances it traveled to end up in your cup. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of Special English listeners on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. --- Photo credits:?Coffee berries, by Marcelo Correa/Wikipedia Commons. All others, Dana Demange. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Inside the Mind of a Stand-Up Comic Vying for Title of 'Funniest Fed'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster, finding the right words to make people laugh. Meet Shahryar Rizvi. He's a computer specialist, also working part time on a master's of business administration. So what's he doing in a competition organized by a local comic to find the funniest federal employee in the Washington, D.C., area? It turns out he was judged the third funniest person on campus when he made his debut as a stand-up comedian in college five years ago. SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "Once I was up there, after the first joke, it was just magic. I didn't want to get off." AA: "Why don't you explain a little bit this idea of stand-up comedy in the American context." SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "I think it is probably the hardest art form there is, because you're up there with nothing, no props, nobody else to work off of. It's just you alone and whatever you have had?planned to say. And your goal is to be as funny as consistently as possible. "I mean, it's one thing to go up there and say a speech or something like that. But to go up there and try to be funny and get as many laughs as you can within a five-minute set, a ten-minute set, twenty-minute set, an hour set. One of my main goals is I try to make sure everything I say takes about a second to get. Like I twist it and I try to write it in such a way that it takes a second to get because I feel like that second it takes to get makes it funnier." AA: "Well, not to put you on the spot here, but maybe you could give us an example or two." SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "You know, doing it like this is just not going to come out funny." AA: "No, I understand!" SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "But, you know, [at] washingtonpost.com, they have short, one-minute videos up there." VIDEO: "I work for the Census Bureau pretty much for the reason everybody else works for the Census Bureau: we're trying to get off unemployment. But it was still a tough decision, though.I mean I was desperate for a job. Like I was actually so desperate for a job, that when I applied with the defense company Lockheed Martin, I actually changed my name on my resume to Lockheed Martin. And my entire cover letter was about it not being a coincidence that my name was Lockheed Martin, that I had in fact been sent by God to work for their company." AA: "So now you're a semifinalist in the 2007 Funniest Fed Competition." SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "It's the first one, actually. They say '2007' like it's been around for a while, but it's the first one." AA: "That's what it says on their Web site! But, right, it's the first ever. But let me just ask you here on kind of a serious note, I mean these are serious times right now. We've got a war, we've got political tensions in the government. Would maybe some people think this is a little flippant for government employees to be competing to be the Funniest Fed in Washington?" SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "In my personal opinion, I can't think of any time where there wasn't like tension or a war or anything going on in the history of mankind. So I don't think that's a good enough reason to not be able to do what you're good at, not to do a hobby. I don't think there's anything wrong with us getting out there and making jokes and doing our thing, no matter how good times are, no matter how bad times are." AA: "What's it like being a Muslim stand-up comedian right now in America, especially after 9/11?" SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "I don't think there's any -- there's nothing extraordinary about it at all. There are a lot of Muslim comedians kind of coming out of the woodwork these days. Ever since 9/11 it's been a big deal to kind of focus on them just because it's fascinating. But for the most part, the crowds listen to me, and fellow comedians -- I've never noticed any sort of tension or anything like that. So I don't think there's -- " AA: "Well, what sort of topics do you tend to focus on in your routines?" SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "I focus on more everyday things. I don't do too much Muslim stuff. I do a little bit here and there. There's a lot of more Muslim comics who do a lot more, and that works more for them. I actually try not to do it too much because I don't want to kind of use it as a crutch too much. I feel like a lot of comedians might do that if they're a different race or something like that, they might kind of push on it a little more. "But I do a little bit on it, and whenever I do it, I try to make sure it's extremely creative, extremely funny, something no other Muslim comic would come up with. But I myself try to stay away from that. I try to stick to normal, everyday stuff. I feel like the crowd enjoys that more." AA: "Well, and let me ask you, last question here, who do you find funny?" SHAHRYAR RIZVI: "Comedian-wise, I generally find Jerry Seinfeld funny. I think he's probably my favorite comedian. I find my father to be funny, too. Not a comedian, but I think he's a genuinely funny guy." AA: Shahryar Rizvi at the United States Census Bureau is one of ten semifinalists in the privately sponsored Funniest Fed Competition. The final rounds are this week and next before an audience and a panel of judges. The winner will get two hundred fifty dollars. And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can learn all kinds of things about American English at our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Stent Failure: How Much of the Problem Is Caused by Doctors?
* Byline: Second of two reports examining recent questions about the safety of drug-eluting coronary stents. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Today we have the second half of a report about some concerns with the use of drug- treated coronary stents. These are small metal tubes designed to be placed inside arteries in heart patients. The stent is usually left in permanently after doctors clean out a narrowed artery with angioplasty treatment. Doctors expand the stent to hold the passage open so blood can flow normally to the heart. Medicine on the stent is released slowly over time to stop the development of scar tissue. Scar tissue can cause the artery to become narrow again. These devices have been approved in the United States for the past four years for patients with simple blockages and no history of heart attack. But some doctors use drug-eluting stents, as they are called, for patients with more serious heart problems. This is known as "off-label use" and is permitted. But two recent studies questioned the safety of off-label use of drug-treated stents. Both found that some patients with more serious conditions were more likely to suffer a renarrowing of the artery. This is called restenosis. So far, researchers have mostly investigated the stents themselves and how they are made. But now attention is turning also to the way they are being used. The question is how much of the problem of stent failure may be the result of stents not being put in right. Or maybe they are not being expanded enough to fit firmly in the artery. One recent study found that stents were incorrectly placed in almost seventy percent of the patients in that study. Now a heart research organization hopes to solve the mystery. The Cardiovascular Research Foundation is a big supporter of the use of drug-treated stents. The foundation is going to carry out a large study. Spokeswoman Irma Damhuis says it will involve eleven thousand patients at ten centers in the United States and two in Germany. A heart doctor with the foundation will be one of the lead investigators. Researchers will examine how doctors implant and expand stents and how the methods they use might affect outcomes. The study will deal especially with serious artery blockages that have been found a year or more after a stent was put in place. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. The first part of our report can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Katherine Cole. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: Fuel Prices, Iran Hostage Crisis Weigh on Carter
* Byline: Jimmy Carter brought Israel and Egypt together to end 30 years of conflict. But he lost support at home, in part because of his administration's failure to free Americans seized after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-ninth president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. VOICE ONE: It is January twentieth, nineteen seventy-seven. Inauguration Day. America's newly elected president, Jimmy Carter, is on his way to the White House after his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol building. But the new president is not riding in a car. He is walking. His wife, Rosalynn, and his daughter, Amy, walk with him. Crowds along Pennsylvania Avenue cheer. Bands play. On this cold day in Washington, Americans look to the future. Watergate -- the crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon -- is several years in the past. The Vietnam War is history, too. VOICE TWO: Republican Gerald Ford served the remaining years of Nixon's term. Many people believe he brought respect and order back to the government. Yet he lost the office to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the election of Nineteen-Seventy-Six. The nation still has problems. Unemployment is high. So is inflation. But the future of the nation looks bright. Jimmy Carter feels sure about his future, too. On the day before his inauguration, he said: CARTER: "I do feel that the people of this nation and, I think, the entire world wish me well and want to see me succeed as president. And that gives me a sense of reassurance and confidence. I think I'm ready now to be president." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the election campaign, Carter often said he would be different from other presidents. He was not a member of the Washington political establishment. So he would do things in his own independent way. Carter was from Georgia -- the "Deep South" of the United States. There had not been a president born in the South in more than one-hundred years. Carter studied nuclear engineering and attended the United States Naval Academy. He planned to stay in the Navy. Then his father died. And he decided to return to Georgia to operate the family peanut farm. VOICE TWO: Carter began his political life on the committee that supervised schools in his hometown. He also served in other local offices. In nineteen sixty-six, he failed to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia. For the next four years, he traveled around the state gathering support. He won the next election. As governor, Carter earned praise for reorganizing the state government. He also reformed state programs dealing with prisons and mental health care. In nineteen seventy-two, he offered himself as a candidate for vice president with presidential candidate George McGovern. But the Democratic Party chose someone else. VOICE ONE: Carter did not wait long to begin his next political move. He would try to win the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen seventy-six. Jimmy Carter was not well-known outside the state of Georgia. Political experts gave him little chance. Even his mother was surprised to learn that he wanted to be president. "President of what?" she asked. VOICE TWO: The farmer and former governor had a plan, however. He would try to win his party's primary elections in the South. He believed this would give him enough support at the party convention to win the nomination. Other Democratic candidates tried to stop him, but his plan worked. By the time of the convention, he had enough support to win the nomination on the first ballot. The Carters at Camp DavidIn the general election, Carter defeated President Ford by about two percent of the popular vote. He lost in the West and Middle West, but won the South and Northeast. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Carter believed strongly in human rights. He hoped he could use his new position to support human rights throughout the world. On this and other issues, he was not afraid of being criticized when he believed he was right. For example, he believed it was right for the United States to end its control of the Panama Canal. He won Congressional support for treaties to give control to Panama by the year two thousand. He believed it was right to give diplomatic recognition to Communist China. And he believed it was right to continue negotiations with the Soviet Union about limiting nuclear weapons, even though he denounced human rights violations there. In?nineteen seventy-nine, Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT Two treaty. However, Carter decided not to send the treaty to the Senate for approval after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan later that year. VOICE TWO: Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin at their first meeting at the Camp David summitOne of the finest moments of his presidency took place at Camp David. That is the holiday home of American presidents. There, in March nineteen seventy-nine, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. They signed a peace treaty ending thirty years of war between their countries. Both men said the treaty would not have been possible without President Carter's help. VOICE ONE: President Carter was not as successful in dealing with the economy. High unemployment and inflation continued. The federal deficit increased, although he had promised to end it. And there was a shortage of gasoline. The shortage resulted when oil-producing countries limited production and exports. Carter urged American companies to develop new sources of energy, in addition to oil. He said the United States must do this, because it could not always depend on getting enough oil from other countries. VOICE TWO: During the gasoline shortage, Americans had to wait in long lines to buy fuel. They did not like it and were angry. Many were even more angry about a different situation. Like the gasoline shortage, it was a result of actions in another place. In November nineteen seventy-nine, Muslim extremists in Iran seized the American Embassy in Tehran. They took many hostages, including more than sixty Americans. The extremists said they were punishing the United States for being friendly with ousted Iranian leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi. VOICE ONE: The extremists refused to negotiate. They refused to release the hostages. In early April nineteen eighty, President Carter broke relations with Iran. He then ordered American military forces to try to rescue the hostages in Tehran. The operation failed. A sandstorm caused two of the aircraft to crash into each other. They went down in the desert hundreds of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: The failed rescue attempt had a major effect on the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Many Americans felt it showed that he could not do the job. Their respect for him continued to decrease as the hostages continued to be held. Other things were beginning to go wrong, too. The president's younger brother admitted receiving a large amount of money from Libya. He took the money in exchange for supporting Libyan interests with American lawmakers. His mistake was that he did not list his name as a representative of a foreign government. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nineteen eighty was a presidential election year in the United States. President Carter was expected to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. He almost ruined his chances, however, because of the situation in Iran. Carter hoped that concern for the hostages would unite the country behind him. Instead, support turned to blame. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts believed he could defeat Carter for the nomination. Kennedy won several important Democratic primary elections. It was not enough. The party re-nominated Carter. Kennedy offered Carter his support, but not very strongly. This left the party divided. VOICE TWO: The Republicans got ready to win back the White House. They hoped to do it with a strong appeal to American voters. The appeal came from a man who would become one of America's most popular presidents -- Ronald Reagan. That will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'America's Oldest University': Why Penn Can Make Claim
* Byline: The University of Pennsylvania was recognized a year before Harvard. Yet Harvard came first. We explain in Part 41 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series this week with questions from three listeners. Thu Ya Naing from Burma wants to know how many colleges and universities are in the United States. Alexander Romashchenko in Russia wonders which university in the United States is the oldest. And Mohamad Firouzi in Iran would like to know more about Harvard University. The National Center for Education Statistics says more than four thousand two hundred colleges and universities award degrees. These include two-year schools as well as four-year schools. Harvard Hall The oldest institution of higher learning in the country is Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was established in sixteen thirty-six as Harvard College. Massachusetts was an English colony at the time. The school was named for a Puritan religious leader. John Harvard gave the college all his books and half his property when he died. At first, Harvard had one teacher and nine students. Today it has almost twenty thousand students. Nearly four thousand of them this past year were from outside the United States. There are fourteen schools at Harvard. They include Harvard College and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard College is the undergraduate division of the university and Radcliffe is a former college for women. So Harvard came first. Later, in seventeen eighty, the Massachusetts Constitution went into effect and officially recognized Harvard as a university. Some Harvard materials call it America's oldest university. But the University of Pennsylvania calls itself America's oldest university. Penn officials note that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania recognized their school as a university in seventeen seventy-nine. That was one year before Harvard. Yet the history gets a little complex. Penn considers its anniversary date to be seventeen forty. That was when the Charity School of Philadelphia was established, though it never opened. Benjamin Franklin later presented his ideas for a learning institution that included the Charity School. It opened in seventeen fifty-one and became the university. Today, more than twenty-three thousand students attend the University of Pennsylvania. Four thousand of them come from other countries. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our series about studying in the United States is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: No More 'Star Wars' Movies, but Makers Try to Keep Force With Them
* Byline: Also: a question from Iran about the failed Whiskey Rebellion in early American history.? And songs from the musical ''Spring Awakening,'' which just won eight Tony Awards. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question from a listener about a failed rebellion in American history … Play music from an award winning Broadway play ... And report about the anniversary of the movie "Star Wars." Star Wars (MUSIC) On May twenty-fifth, nineteen seventy-seven, a science fiction movie called "Star Wars" opened in thirty-two theaters in the United States. It was about the struggle between good and evil in a strange and different universe. By the end of that year "Star Wars" became the most successful film in American history. Five more "Star Wars" films would be released. They would become one of the most successful movie series of all time. Faith Lapidus tells us about some of the continuing "Star Wars" anniversary celebrations. FAITH LAPIDUS: Many events took place on the anniversary of the release of the first "Star Wars" movie. Movie fans met at a special convention in Los Angeles, California. The United States Post Office released stamps showing fifteen different pictures from the movies. American television shows presented new information about the making of the "Star Wars" series. And newspapers wrote about the continuing popularity of "Star Wars" and its creator, George Lucas. Millions of people all over the world love "Star Wars" and its characters -- Princess Leia, Han Solo, Yoda, Luke Skywalker -- even the evil Darth Vader. The Lucasfilm company is now making it possible for those fans to create new films about them. Fans with computers can go to the mash-ups area of the "Star Wars" Web site and change scenes from the movies. The Web site provides a simple editing program to do this. Then the editors can place their movies on Web sites like MySpace. Lucasfilm officials say about two hundred fifty scenes are provided on the Web site. Each is no longer than sixty seconds, and similar ones are grouped together. For example, one group of scenes includes the character Jar Jar Binks. Fans can change him any way they want. But they will have to follow to some rules. And a team of experts will be watching the results to make sure they are not offensive in any way. Lucasfilm officials say this is one way to keep the popularity of "Star Wars" alive since no more movies will be made. The studio has plans to continue such efforts in the future. In the next few years, it will produce a new video game and two television series based on the "Star Wars" stories and characters. The Whiskey Rebellion HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from a student in Iran who asks about the Whiskey Rebellion in early American history. The Whiskey Rebellion was a major test of the power of the new United States government after the war of independence ended in seventeen eighty-three. The new government agreed to pay the war debts of the individual states. In seventeen ninety-one, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed a way the federal government could raise money to pay this debt. He proposed placing a tax on all alcoholic drinks sold in the country. Congress approved the tax and President George Washington signed it into law. Some farmers in several states immediately opposed this tax. They earned money by selling whiskey they made from the corn and rye they grew. By seventeen ninety-four, farmers in western Pennsylvania began openly protesting the tax. They threatened and sometimes attacked government workers sent to the area to collect the money. The civil protests became an armed rebellion. Local officials ordered the arrest of the leaders of the rebellion, but this just added to the violence. President Washington considered this Whiskey Rebellion a threat to the power of the federal government. So he took a bold step. He personally led an army of more than twelve thousand troops into western Pennsylvania to stop the rebellion. The farmers quickly retreated. Captured prisoners were later released and pardoned. The government ended the tax in eighteen–oh-two. History experts say the Whiskey Rebellion was a small but important event in American history. It was the first time the federal government used military force to show its power over the nation's citizens. Its resolution demonstrated the full power of the federal government to American citizens and to the states. Experts also say the Whiskey Rebellion was an early warning of a question that would continue to test the new nation. Which should be stronger-- the rights of individual states or the power of the federal government?? That question would not be answered until the end of the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. Spring Awakening HOST: Broadway's top award ceremony was held Sunday in New York City. The show "Spring Awakening" won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical. Shirley Griffith has more on the show and its music. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Cast members perform a scene from ''Spring Awakening'' at the Tony Awards"Spring Awakening," is based on a play written in eighteen ninety-one by German playwright Frank Wedekind. The play was banned from production for many years because people at the time considered it immoral. The play deals with German teenagers who have no knowledge or understanding of sex. They start to experience feelings they do not understand. But the adults in the play are not willing to share information with them. The teenagers also question what they learn in school. They want to learn things for themselves. They express their feelings through rock and roll music. This song is called "All That's Known." (MUSIC) Actor John Gallagher, Junior, won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. He plays Moritz in "Spring Awakening."? Here he sings "Don't Do Sadness." (MUSIC) Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik shared the Tony Award for Best Original Score (Music or Lyrics) Written for the Theater. Mister Sheik accepted the award and thanked the producers of "Spring Awakening" for their support. And he said:? "Musical theater rocks." We leave you with the final song of "Spring Awakening" called "The Song of Purple Summer." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Climate Change and the Group of 8 ... and China
* Byline: G8 leaders agreed in Germany to "consider seriously" making sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But China says no to targets, at least for now. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Leaders at the Group of Eight meeting last week in Heiligendamm, Germany, discussed issues including climate change and aid to Africa. The eight nations represent almost two-thirds of the world economy. They are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. German Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to get them all to accept a goal to limit temperature increases this century to two degrees Celsius. But earlier, President Bush announced a policy change. He said the United States will support an effort to negotiate a new agreement on climate policy before two thousand nine. He proposed a conference of the major producers of greenhouse gases. The current agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, ends in two thousand twelve. The United States rejected it for economic reasons. The treaty requires industrial countries, but not developing ones, to reduce greenhouse gases linked to climate change. China, for example, is the second largest producer of heat-trapping gases. Experts say it could top the United States within two years. Last week, China released its first plan to deal with climate change. China aims to reduce energy use. But the plan does not include targets for reducing greenhouse gases. China says industrial nations were mostly responsible for the current problem as they burned unlimited amounts of oil, gas and coal. It says asking developing countries to lower their emissions too early will hurt their development. The eight leaders agreed to "consider seriously" the decisions by the European Union, Canada and Japan to cut global emissions in half by two thousand fifty. Chancellor Merkel, the current G-Eight president, said she was "very, very satisfied" with the agreement. But she noted it was a compromise. The G-Eight leaders also promised sixty billion dollars in "the coming years" to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa. The amount includes thirty billion dollars, over five years, that President Bush has asked Congress for. But some activists criticized the G-Eight offer as short on details and short of promises made two years ago to improve African health systems. Also at this year's meeting, the G-Eight established a process for high-level economic talks with Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. The aim is to produce results within two years. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: WHO Says Environmental Improvements Could Save Millions of Lives
* Byline: The World Health Organization publishes its first country-by-country look at health risks linked to the environment, including personal behavior. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the World Health Organization released its first country-by-country look at environmental health risks. These include pollution, dangers in the workplace and ultraviolet radiation from the sun. They also include risks like noise, unsafe agricultural methods, climate change and people's behavior. The report says making environmental conditions healthier could prevent thirteen million deaths each year. Research on close to two hundred countries found that the worst affected include Angola, Burkina Faso, Mali and Afghanistan. The study found that two major environmental risks cause more than ten percent of the deaths in twenty-three countries. These risks are unsafe water and indoor air pollution from burning wood, coal or animal waste for fuel. Poor countries suffer the most from environmental health risks. They lose about twenty times more healthy years of life per person per year than wealthy countries, the W.H.O. says. But it says even countries with better environmental conditions could still reduce disease rates by almost one-sixth. In some poor countries, environmental improvements could cut disease rates by more than a third. The main victims of environmentally related diseases are children under age five. For example, the report says they represent three-fourths of the deaths from diarrhea and lung infections. W.H.O. official Susanne Weber-Mosdorf says the study is a first step toward helping national decision-makers to set goals for preventive action. But the findings show there is a lot individuals could do to reduce death rates. Among suggestions given are using cleaner fuels like gas or electricity as well as using better cooking devices. Improving air flow and keeping children away from smoke could also prevent many lung infections. And lives could be saved with household water treatment and safe storage. The Country Profiles of Environmental Burden of Disease can be found online at who.int. Or click on the direct click at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Before we go, we want to update you on our report two weeks ago, when we talked about the definition of genocide. We discussed the violence in Darfur, in western Sudan, and the efforts to deploy a large peacekeeping force. This week Sudan accepted the joint proposals of the African Union and the United Nations for a so-called hybrid operation. The African Union announced the news at a meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. A.U. officials said the force would be made up of around eighteen thousand troops and an additional three thousand seven hundred police officers. But in Washington, a State Department spokesman said it was not yet clear if Sudan will accept non-African troops. If Sudan does not, it would mean rejection of the plan, he said, since African nations will likely not be able to provide the full number of troops. Seven thousand African Union peacekeepers are already in Darfur. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Edith Wharton, 1862-1937: Wrote Novels of the Young and Innocent in a Dishonest World
* Byline: Many critics believe “The Age of Innocence” is her best novel. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about writer Edith Wharton. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A critic once described American writer Edith Wharton as a "self-made man." She liked the comment and repeated it. Others said she was a product of New York City. But the New York she wrote about was different from the New York of those who came after her. Edith Wharton was born in New York City in eighteen sixty-two. New York then was several different cities. One New York was made up of people who worked for a living. The other was much smaller. It was made up of families who were so rich they did not need to work. Edith was born into the wealthy New York. But there was a "right" wealthy New York and a "wrong" wealthy New York. Among the rich there were those who had been given money by parents or grandparents. Then there were those who earned their own money, the newly rich. Edith's family was from the "right" New Yorkers, people who had "old" money. It was a group that did not want its way of living changed. It also was a group without many ideas of its own. It was from this group that Edith Wharton created herself. VOICE TWO: Like many girls her age, Edith wrote stories. In one of her childhood stories, a woman apologizes for not having a completely clean house when another woman makes an unexpected visit. Edith's mother read the story. Her only comment was that one's house was always clean and ready for visitors. Edith's house always was. Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe. She was educated by special teachers and not at schools. If Edith's family feared anything, it was sharp social, cultural, and economic change. Yet these were the things Edith would see in her lifetime. The end of the Civil War in eighteen sixty-five marked the beginning of great changes in the United States. The country that had been mostly agricultural was becoming?industrial. Businessmen and workers increasingly were gaining political and economic power. Edith Wharton saw these changes sooner than most people. And she rejected them. To her, the old America was a victim of the new. She did not like the new values of money replacing the old values of family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty-five, she married Edward Wharton. He was her social equal. They lived together for twenty-eight years. But it was a marriage without much love. In nineteen thirteen, she sought to end the marriage. That she waited so long to do so, one critic said, was a sign of her ties to the idea of family and to tradition. Some critics think that Edith Wharton began to write because she found the people of her social group so uninteresting. Others say she began when her husband became sick and she needed something to do. The fact is that Wharton thought of herself as a writer from the time she was a child. Writing gave her a sense of freedom from the restrictions of her social class. VOICE TWO: Writing was just one of a series of things she did. And she did all of them well. She was interested in designing and caring for gardens. She designed her own house. She had an international social life and left a large collection of letters. In her lifetime she published about fifty books on a number of subjects. Many critics believe Edith Wharton should have written the story of her social group. To do this, however, she would have had to remove herself from the group to see it clearly. She could not do this, even intellectually. Her education and her traditions made it impossible. The subject of Edith Wharton's writing became the story of the young and innocent in a dishonest world. She did not make a connection between her work and her own life. What she had was the ability to speak plainly about emotions that, until then, had been hidden. She also was among the first American women writers to gain a sense of the world as an evil place. "Life is the saddest thing," she wrote, "next to death." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To show that she could do more than just write stories, she wrote a book with Ogden Codman, “The Decoration of Houses.”? It was very successful. About the same time, her poems and stories also began to be published in Scribner's? Magazine. In eighteen ninety-nine her collection of stories, “The Greater Inclination,” appeared. It was an immediate success. When she was in London, she visited a bookstore. The store owner, who did not know who she was, handed her the book. He said to her, "This is what everyone in London is talking about now. VOICE TWO: Three years later her first novel, “The Valley of Decision,” was published. Three years after that she published her first great popular success, the novel “The House of Mirth.” “The House of Mirth” is the story of a young woman who lacks the money to continue her high social position. As in so many stories by Edith Wharton, the main character does not control what happens to her. She is a victim who is defeated by forces she does not fight to overcome. This idea is central to much of Edith Wharton's best writing. The old families of New York are in conflict with the newly rich families. The major people in the stories are trapped in a hopeless struggle with social forces more powerful than they. And they struggle against people whose beliefs and actions are not as moral as theirs. VOICE ONE: This is the situation in one of Wharton's most popular books, “Ethan Frome,” published in nineteen eleven. Unlike her other novels, it is set on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the story of a man and woman whose lives are controlled, and finally destroyed, by custom. They are the victims of society. They die honorably instead of fighting back. If they were to reject custom, however, they would not be the people they are. And they would not mean as much to each other. In nineteen thirteen, Wharton's marriage ended. It was the same year that she published another novel that was highly praised, “The Custom of the Country.”? In it she discusses the effects of new wealth in the late nineteenth century on a beautiful young woman. VOICE TWO: Most critics agree that most of Edith Wharton's writing after nineteen thirteen is not as good as before that time. It was as if she needed the difficulties of her marriage to write well. Much of her best work seems to have been written under the pressure of great personal crisis. After her marriage ended, her work was not as sharp as her earlier writing. In nineteen twenty, however, she produced “The Age of Innocence.”? Many critics think this is her best novel. In it she deals with the lack of honesty that lies behind the apparent innocence of the New York social world. A man and woman see their lives ruined because they have duties they cannot escape. Edith Wharton received America's top writing award, the Pulitzer Prize, for “The Age of Innocence.”?? In nineteen ninety-three, the movie of “The Age of Innocence” created new interest in her work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the later years of her life, Wharton gave more and more of her time to an important group of diplomats, artists, and thinkers. Among her friends was the American writer Henry James. She liked James as a man and as a writer. She often used her car and driver to take him on short trips. At one time, Henry James was hoping that his publisher would print a collection of his many novels and stories. Wharton knew of this wish. And she knew that the publisher thought he would lose money if he published such a collection. She wrote to the publisher. She agreed to secretly pay the publisher to print the collection of her friend's writings. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty, the American National Institute of Arts and Letters gave Wharton a gold medal. She was the first woman to be so honored. Four years later she wrote the story of her life, “A Backward Glance.”? Edith Wharton died in nineteen thirty-seven at one of the two homes she owned in France. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another?People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Words About Clothing: Let's See if I Can Name a Few Off the Cuff
* Byline: Clothing idioms that dress up the English language. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes?? Let’s see if I can name a few off the cuff, or without any preparation. People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are restless or nervous have ants in their pants. They might also fly by the seat of their pants. They use their natural sense to do something instead of their learned knowledge. Sometimes, people may get caught with their pants down. They are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say she wears the pants in the family. Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can burn a hole in your pocket. Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you have less money than usual, you may have to tighten your belt. You may have to live on less money and spend your money carefully. But once you have succeeded in budgeting your money, you will have that skill under your belt. I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really take my hat off to them. Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it at the drop of a hat – immediately, without waiting. And sadly, you cannot pull money out of a hat. ?You cannot get money by inventing or imagining it. Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are too big for their boots think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people. I really do. You can bet your boots on that. Yet, truly important people are hard to replace. Rarely can you fill their shoes or replace them with someone equally effective. My father is an important person. He runs a big company. He wears a suit and tie and a shirt with sleeves that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too firm and severe. They think he is a real stuffed shirt. But I know that my father wears his heart on his sleeve. He shows his feelings openly. And, he knows how to keep his shirt on. He stays calm and never gets angry or too excited. Also, my father has never lost his shirt in a business deal. He is too smart to lose all or most of his money. This is because my father rolls up his sleeves and prepares to work hard. He often has a special plan or answer to a problem that he can use if he needs it. He is like a person who does magic tricks. We say he has a card up his sleeve. (MUSIC)???????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US Lists More Nations as Worst for Modern-Day Slavery
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. ??????? The United States has accused several of its Arab allies of being among the worst offenders of human trafficking. The State Department last week released its "Trafficking in Persons Report" for two thousand seven. The report rates efforts by one hundred sixty-four countries and territories to end modern-day slavery. State Department senior adviser Mark Lagon presents the 2007 report on human traffickingIt lists Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar among sixteen countries with the worst records, up from twelve last year. It also names Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Malaysia. And listed again this year are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Burma, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela. Zimbabwe, Belize and Laos were listed among the worst offenders in last year's report but are now in the second tier group. Countries in the second tier do not fully meet the requirements but are working to improve. Countries are divided into three groups, or tiers, based on how well they meet the requirements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The United States Congress passed this law in two thousand. Countries in tier three face possible cuts in American assistance. But officials say the goal of the report is not to punish. The reports are based on information from American diplomats, nongovernmental organizations and other groups. The United States estimates that about eight hundred thousand people are forced across international borders each year. It says up to seventeen thousand are believed to enter this country. The great majority of victims are female and as many as half are children and teenagers. Thirty-two nations are on a "watch list" in this year's report. The list is supposed to be a warning. Armenia, China and South Africa are on it for the third year in a row. India, Mexico and Russia are listed for the fourth year. In fact, State Department official Mark Lagon said: "The world's largest democracy has the world's largest problem of human trafficking." He said India has hundreds of thousands of sex trafficking victims and millions of bonded laborers. These include forced child laborers. The report came out last Tuesday, which was World Day Against Child Labor. Estimates are that more than two hundred million children worldwide are forced to work, mostly on farms. The United Nations is calling for an end to the worst forms of child labor by two thousand sixteen. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Is Your Favorite Song About Summer?
* Byline: Hundreds of songs have been written about having fun in the summertime. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Summer begins this week in the northern part of the world. To celebrate, we play some of our favorite songs about summer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you ask most Americans, they would say their favorite season of the year is summer. The weather is warm. They do not have to wear heavy clothes to keep warm. Young people do not have to go to school. They can do many activities outside, like playing sports and swimming at the beach or the pool. They like the sunshine during the day and the warm summer nights. People have written and recorded hundreds of songs about summer. These are some of our favorites. VOICE TWO: One of the most famous songs about summer is from George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess." He wrote the music in nineteen thirty-five. The opera takes place in the southern United States. It opens with these words: "Summertime and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high." Leontyne Price sings the song. (MUSIC) ?Here is Billy Stewart's version of the same song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The nineteen fifties and sixties produced many songs about teenagers enjoying their summer vacation from school. The songs are about having fun, swimming in the ocean, driving in cars. This one is "Summertime, Summertime" by the Jamies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is summer almost all year long in California. And it was summer all the time for the Beach Boys. They sang about their favorite activities, like riding the ocean waves on surfboards. Here is one Beach Boy song, "All Summer Long." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: However, for some teenagers, summer vacation was not all fun and games. Some of them had to work to earn money. Eddie Cochran sang about this in "Summertime Blues." Many other bands and artists later recorded this song, including the British rock band, the Who. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Lovin' Spoonful was a band that did not love summers in the city because of the heat. They sang: "Hot town, summer in the city. Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty." And: "All around, people looking half-dead, walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head." They liked the nighttime better when they could dance and have more fun. "Summer in the City" was released in the summer of nineteen sixty-six and was one of the Lovin' Spoonful's greatest hits. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Even though it was hot, Sly and the Family Stone still found ways to have fun in the summertime. This song is about the happiness that the season promises, including going to a "county fair in the country sun." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen nineties, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince produced this hip-hop song called "Summertime." It is about being with friends and having a good time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We leave you with a song from the movie version of the musical "Grease." It is about two teenagers who meet during their summer vacation and fall in love. Back at school in the autumn, they tell their friends all about it. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sing "Summer Nights." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can see pictures of Special English listeners on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Singer Aims to Grow Interest in Local Farming
* Byline: Money from Adrienne Young's new CD ''Room to Grow'' will help support community gardens. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. (MUSIC) Country singer and songwriter Adrienne Young brings together music and agricultural activism. (MUSIC) She even included seeds in the album cover of her first CD. Adrienne Young wants people to know that she supports the movement in America to increase local farming. She offers information about agricultural issues on her Web site. And now part of the money from her third and newest release, "Room to Grow," will be donated to help support community gardens. Adrienne Young's family has lived in Florida for seven generations. Her ancestors helped develop the agriculture industry there. The state of Florida is the nation's second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, after California. Adrienne Young has said that her interest in nature was shaped by the fact that she did not grow up on a farm. She grew up in a house her grandfather built on what had been farmland two generations ago. But the land was developed and was now partly a large highway. Adrienne Young has teamed up with two organizations that support local farming and gardening efforts. One is the American Community Gardening Association. The other is FoodRoutes, a group she has represented for several years. FoodRoutes says buying locally grown food is not only about taste and freshness. The group says buying locally also helps to strengthen local economies and protect the environment. Experts say food in the United States travels an average of more than three thousand kilometers from farm to store. We leave you with Adrienne Young and the title song from her new CD, "Room to Grow." (MUSIC) And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Dana Demange. You can learn more about American agriculture at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Katherine Cole. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How a Revolution in Thought Shook Scientists' Understanding of Earth
* Byline: Modern research showed how Earth's surface is cracked like a giant eggshell. The pieces are called tectonic plates and as they move, they can cause earthquakes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:? And I'm Bob Doughty. Scientists who study the Earth tell us that the continents and?ocean floors are always moving. Sometimes, this movement is violent and might result in great destruction. VOICE ONE: Today we examine the process that causes earthquakes. ? (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE:? ? The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green land masses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would. Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as had been thought. Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth’s outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again. VOICE TWO: Only since the nineteen sixties have scientists begun to understand that the Earth is a great, living structure. Some experts say this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents -- a process called plate tectonics. Damage in Islamabad, Pakistan, after the October 2005 earthquake centered in KashmirEarthquakes are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the surface of the Earth changes and how?those changes cause earthquakes. VOICE ONE:? ? Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a giant eggshell. They call the pieces tectonic plates. As many as twenty of?them cover the Earth. The plates float about slowly, sometimes?crashing into each other, and sometimes moving away from each?other. When the plates move, the continents move with them. Sometimes?the continents are above two plates. The continents split as the plates?move. VOICE TWO: Tectonic plates can cause earthquakes as they move. Modern?instruments show that about ninety percent of all earthquakes?take place along a few lines in several places around the Earth. These lines follow underwater mountains where hot liquid rock?flows up from deep inside the planet. Sometimes, the melted rock?comes out with a great burst of pressure. This forces apart?pieces of the Earth's surface in a violent earthquake. Other earthquakes take place at the edges of continents. Pressure increases as two plates move against each?other. When this happens, one plate moves past the other,?suddenly causing the Earth’s surface to split. VOICE ONE: San Francisco lies in rubble following the 1906 earthquakeOne example of this is found in California, on the West Coast of the United States. One part of?California is on what is known as the Pacific plate. The other part of?the state is on what is known as the North American plate. Scientists say the Pacific plate is moving toward the northwest,?while the North American plate is moving more to the southeast. Where?these two huge plates come together is called a fault line. The?name of this line between the plates in California is the San Andreas Fault. It is along or near this line that most of?California’s earthquakes take place, as the two tectonic plates?move in different directions. The city of Los Angeles in Southern California is about fifty kilometers from the San Andreas Fault. Many smaller fault lines can be found throughout?the area around Los Angeles. A major?earthquake in nineteen ninety-four was centered along one of?these smaller fault lines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? ? The story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener in the early part of the twentieth century. He first proposed that the continents had moved and were still moving. He said the idea came to him when he observed that the coasts of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.He proposed that the two continents might have been one, then split apart. Later, Alfred Wegener said the continents had once been part of a huge area of land he called Pangaea. He said the huge continent had split more than two hundred million years ago. He said the pieces were still floating apart. VOICE ONE: Wegener investigated the idea that continents move. He pointed out a line of mountains that appears from east to west in South Africa. Then he pointed out another line of mountains that looks almost exactly the same in Argentina, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He found fossil remains of the same kind of an early plant in areas of Africa, South America, India, Australia and even Antarctica. Alfred Wegener said the mountains and fossils were evidence that all the land on Earth was united at some time in the distant past. VOICE TWO: Wegener also noted differences between the continents and the ocean floor. He said the oceans were more than just low places that had filled with water. Even if the water was removed, he said, a person would still see differences between the continents and the ocean floor. Also, the continents and the ocean floor are not made of the same kind of rock. The continents are made of a granite-like rock, a mixture of silicon and aluminum. The ocean floor is basalt rock, a mixture of silicon and magnesium. Mister Wegener said the lighter continental rock floated up through the heavier basalt rock of the ocean floor. VOICE ONE: Support for Alfred Wegener’s ideas did not come until the early nineteen-fifties. American scientists Harry Hess and?Robert Dietz said the continents moved as new sea floor was?created under the Atlantic Ocean. They said a thin valley in the Atlantic Ocean was a place where the ocean floor splits. They said hot melted material flows up from deep inside the Earth through the split. As the hot material reaches the ocean floor, it spreads out, cools and hardens. It becomes new ocean floor. The two scientists proposed that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is moving away from each side of the split. The movement is very slow -- a few centimeters a year. In time, they said, the moving ocean floor is blocked when it comes up against the edge of a continent. Then it is forced down under the continent, deep into the Earth, where it is melted again. Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said this spreading does not make the Earth bigger. As new ocean floor is created, an equal amount is destroyed. VOICE TWO: The two scientists also said Alfred Wegener was correct. The continents move as new material from the center of the Earth rises, hardens and pushes older pieces of the Earth away from each other. The continents are moving all the time, although we cannot feel it. They called their theory "sea?floor spreading."? The theory explains that as the sea floor?spreads, the tectonic plates are pushed and pulled in different?directions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mount St. Helens in Washington state exploding May 18, 1980The idea of plate tectonics explains volcanoes as well as earthquakes. Many of the world's volcanoes are found at the?edges of plates, where geologic activity is intense. The large number of volcanoes?around the Pacific plate has earned the name "Ring of Fire."? Volcanoes also are found in the middle of plates, where there is?a well of melted rock. Scientists call these wells "hot spots."? A hot spot does not move. However, as the plate moves over it,?a line of volcanoes is formed. The Hawaiian Islands were created?in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as the plate moved slowly over?a hot spot. This process is continuing, as the plate continues?to move. VOICE TWO: Volcanoes and earthquakes are among the most frightening events that nature can produce. The major earthquake in South Asia in October of two thousand five, for example, killed more than seventy thousand people. More than three million people were made homeless because of the earthquake. At times like these, we remember that the ground is not as solid and unchanging as people might like to think. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE:? ? SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:? ? And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the?Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Record Number of Climbers Reach Top of World's Highest Mountain
* Byline: They include an 18-year-old girl and a 71-year-old man. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about efforts to climb Mount Everest. Last month, an eighteen-year-old American became one of the youngest people to climb the tallest mountain on Earth. And, a seventy-one-year old Japanese man became the oldest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mount Everest is at the border of Nepal and Tibet. It was named for Sir George Everest, who recorded the mountain’s position in eighteen forty-one. Since nineteen fifty-three, more than ten thousand people have attempted to climb to the top of the world's highest mountain. The summit of Mount Everest is eight thousand eight hundred forty-eight meters high. Climbers have reached the summit more than three thousand times. However, more than two hundred people died while attempting to get there. They all battled low temperatures. Wind speeds of up to one hundred sixty kilometers an hour. Dangerous mountain paths. And they all risked developing a serious health disorder caused by lack of oxygen. All for the chance to reach the top of the world. VOICE TWO: The first and most famous of the climbers to disappear on Mount Everest was George Mallory. The British schoolteacher was a member of the first three trips by foreigners to the mountain. In nineteen twenty-one, Mallory was part of the team sent by the British Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Club. The team was to create the first map of the area and find a possible path to the top of the great mountain. Mallory also was a member of the first Everest climbing attempt in nineteen twenty-two. But the attempt was canceled after a storm caused a giant mass of snow to slide down the mountain, killing seven ethnic Sherpa guides. VOICE ONE: Mallory was invited back to Everest as lead climber of another expedition team in nineteen twenty-four. On June fourth, Mallory and team member Andrew Irvine left their base camp for the team's final attempt to reach the summit. The climbing team had great hopes of success for the two men. A few days earlier, expedition leader Edward Norton had reached a record height of eight thousand five hundred seventy-three meters before he turned back. VOICE TWO: Mallory and Irvine were using bottles of oxygen. Mallory believed that was the only way they would have the energy and speed to climb the last three hundred meters to the top and return safely. Team member Noel Odell saw Mallory and Irvine climbing high on the mountain the following day. Odell said they had just climbed one of the most difficult rocks on the northeast path. He said they were moving toward the top when clouds hid them. He never saw them again. The disappearance of Mallory and Irvine on Mount Everest remains among the greatest exploration mysteries of the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the next twenty-nine years, teams from Britain made seven more attempts to climb Everest. Until the early nineteen fifties, British teams were the only foreigners given permission to climb Mount Everest. On May twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-three, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to reach the summit of Everest. The two were part of a British team lead by Jon Hunt. They had made a difficult climb from the southeast, through recently opened Nepalese territory. Edmund Hillary was a beekeeper from New Zealand. It was his second trip to Everest. He had been on the first exploratory trip to the mountain that had mapped the way up from the southern side. Tenzing Norgay was a native Sherpa from Nepal. He was the first Sherpa to become interested in mountain climbing. His climb with Hillary was his seventh attempt to reach the top. VOICE TWO: Hillary said his first reaction on reaching the summit was a happy feeling that he had “no more steps to cut."? The two men placed the flags of Britain, Nepal, India and the United Nations. Hillary took a picture of Norgay. They looked out over the north side into Tibet for any signs that Mallory or Irvine had been there before them. Then they began the long and difficult trip back down. The success of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay led to many new attempts on the mountain. Today, Everest has been climbed from all of its sides and from most of its possible paths. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria made another historic Everest climb in nineteen seventy-eight. The two men were the first to reach the summit without using bottled oxygen. Messner said when he reached the top he felt like a single giant lung. At the time, scientists believed that a person at the top of the mountain would only have enough oxygen to sleep. Scientists believed that Messner and Habeler would die without oxygen. Scientists now know that two conditions make climbing at heights over eight thousand meters extremely difficult. The first is the lack of oxygen in the extremely thin air. The second is the low barometric air pressure. VOICE TWO: Today, scientists say a person dropped on the top of the mountain would live no more than ten minutes. Climbers can survive above eight thousand meters because they spend months climbing on the mountain to get used to the conditions. Several things have made climbing Everest easier now than it was for the first climbers. These include modern equipment and clothing. They also include information gained from earlier climbs and scientific studies. Nineteen ninety-three was the fortieth anniversary of the first successful climb of Mount Everest. One hundred twenty-nine people climbed to the summit that year. That was a record number. Hundreds of people have reached the summit each year during the past few years. Some expert climbers have begun leading guided trips up the mountain. Some people have paid as much as sixty-five thousand dollars for the chance to climb Everest. However, many of these people have little climbing experience. This can lead to serious problems. VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-six, Everest had its greatest tragedy. Fifteen people died attempting to reach the top. This was the deadliest single year in Everest history. A record ten people died on the mountain in one day. Two of the world's best climbers were among those killed. Several books by climbers have described the incident and the dangerous conditions. The best known is “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer. The book sold many copies around the world and increased the interest in climbing Mount Everest. VOICE TWO: Last year, another tragedy on Mount Everest was in the news. Several climbers told news reporters that they had passed a British climber in trouble without stopping to rescue him. David Sharp had been climbing alone, without a guide or teammates. He was lying on a rock four hundred fifty meters below the summit. Reports say as many as forty climbers passed Sharp as he lay dying. The climbers who left him there said that rescue efforts would have been useless. He later froze to death. ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This year has been reportedly the most successful ever for Mount Everest climbers. More than five hundred people have reached the top of the world's highest mountain. Last month, eighteen-year old Samantha Larson of Long Beach, California became one of the youngest people to reach the top. She made the climb with a group that included her father. Larson is believed to be the youngest person in the world to have climbed all of the "seven summits," the highest mountains on each of the continents. VOICE TWO: Also last month, a retired teacher from Japan became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest. Katsusuke Yanagisawa is seventy-one years old. He said climbing the mountain was more difficult than he expected. He said he was not attempting to set a record. Instead, he said he was just trying his hardest not to die. Nepali guide Apa has reached the summit of Everest a record 17 timesAnother record was set last month. Nepali mountain guide Apa reached the summit for the seventeenth time. That broke his old world record. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. Mario Ritter was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can see pictures of Special English listeners on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Experts List Warning Signs of Ovarian Cancer
* Byline: Major US cancer groups have agreed on common symptoms of a deadly disease that often goes unrecognized until it is too late. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Ovarian cancer is known as a "silent killer" because it is usually discovered too late to save a woman's life. But three cancer groups in the United States have now agreed on a list of possible early signs of the disease. The 2007 Revlon Run/Walk for Women was held in May in New York to raise money to fight breast and ovarian cancerThe statement is the first of its kind to recognize what ovarian cancer survivors have long believed: that there are common symptoms. Researchers have found that these symptoms are more likely to happen in women with ovarian cancer than women in general. One symptom is bloating, or expansion of the abdomen area. Pain in the abdomen or the pelvis can be another symptom. Also, researchers say women with early-stage ovarian cancer may urinate more often or with greater urgency. And the statement says another common symptom is difficulty eating or feeling full quickly. Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks are advised to see a gynecologist or other doctor. The cancer can affect one or both ovaries, the organs that produce eggs. Doctors say the main ways to find the disease early are recognizing the symptoms and getting a combination pelvic and rectal examination. Ovarian cancer kills more than one hundred thousand women around the world each year. In the United States, ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Cancer experts predict that at least fifteen thousand women will die of it this year. And more than twenty-two thousand new cases will be found. The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation led the effort for the agreement on common symptoms. The American Cancer Society and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists also were involved. And a number of other cancer groups have expressed support for the statement. Doctor Barbara Goff at the University of Washington in Seattle was a lead investigator of several studies that gave support to the new list. She says most of the time a woman with these symptoms will not have ovarian cancer. But the disease can spread quickly to nearby organs. A few months can mean life or death. Doctor Goff notes that the disease is ninety percent curable when found in its earliest form. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For a link to the full statement, and for more news about health and science, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: Election of 1980 Launches the 'Reagan Revolution'
* Byline: The troubles of Jimmy Carter’s presidency led many Americans to support Ronald Reagan for president. He promised to make the United States strong again.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Ronald ReaganToday, we tell about the campaign for president in nineteen eighty and the election of President Ronald Reagan. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? The president of the United States in nineteen eighty was Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. The months before Election Day were difficult for him. Many Americans blamed Carter for high inflation, high unemployment, and the low value of the United States dollar. Many blamed him for not gaining the release of American hostages in Iran. About a year earlier, Muslim extremists had taken the Americans prisoner after seizing the United States embassy in Tehran. President Carter asked all Americans to support his administration during the crisis. As months went by, however, he made no progress in bringing the hostages home. The Iranians rejected negotiations for their release. Sometimes, they did not communicate with the Carter administration at all. The president appeared powerless. VOICE TWO: Carter's political weakness led another Democrat to compete for the party's presidential nomination. It was Edward Kennedy, brother of former President John Kennedy. He was a powerful senator from Massachusetts. Carter was re-nominated. So was his vice president, Walter Mondale. Kennedy did not support them very strongly. So the Democratic Party was divided for the general election. The Republican Party, however, was united behind a strong candidate. That was Ronald Reagan, a former actor and former governor of California. Reagan's vice presidential candidate was George Bush. Bush had served in Congress and as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. He had represented the United States in China and at the United Nations. VOICE ONE: The troubles of the Carter administration caused many Americans to feel that their country was no longer strong. Ronald Reagan promised to make it strong again. Several weeks before the election, Carter and Reagan debated each other on television. Some observers said Carter seemed angry and defensive. They said Reagan seemed calm and thoughtful. On Election Day, voters gave Reagan a huge victory. He won by more than eight million popular votes. Republicans called it the "Reagan Revolution." VOICE TWO: On Inauguration Day, the new president spoke about the goals of his administration. A major goal was to reduce the size of the federal government. Reagan and other conservatives believed that the nation's economy was suffering because of high taxes and unnecessary laws. In this crisis, he said, government was not the solution to the problem, government was the problem. He urged Americans to join him in what he called a "new beginning." ?And he expressed hope that the people would work with him. REAGAN: "The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months. But they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now -- as we have had in the past -- to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom." VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was born in nineteen eleven, in the little town of Tampico, Illinois. He was a good student and a good athlete. During the summer, he worked as a lifeguard at a local swimming area. One summer, he saved the lives of twenty-seven people. He studied economics and sociology at Eureka College, a small school in Illinois. At the college, he saw a theater production. When it was over, he said, "More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor's words." VOICE TWO: Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to be an actor. Instead, he tried to get a job as a sports announcer on radio. To show his abilities, he made a recording of an American football game in which he announced all the plays. There really was no game, however. He had invented all the action. A radio station in the small city of Davenport, Iowa, was pleased with his creativity. He got the job. VOICE ONE: Later, he worked at a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa. And then he moved to the big city of Chicago, Illinois. There he announced the action of baseball games. When the team went to California to play, Reagan went, too. This gave him a chance to take a screen test to become a movie actor. The Warner Brothers Motion Pictures company liked the friendly, handsome young man and offered him a job. VOICE TWO: Before long, Ronald Reagan was a Hollywood star. He appeared in many movies. These included "The Knute Rockne Story," "Bedtime for Bonzo," and "King's Row." They were not the very best motion pictures made in Hollywood, but they were popular. During one movie, he met actress Nancy Davis. They married after he was divorced from his first wife. Reagan became deeply interested in politics during his years in Hollywood. He was a liberal, but became increasingly conservative. He served six times as president of a union of movie actors. He was noted for his opposition to anyone in the movie industry who supported communism. VOICE ONE: By the early nineteen fifties, Reagan had stopped appearing in movies. Instead, he appeared on television. He made advertisements and also presented a series of dramatic shows. By nineteen sixty, he was making speeches for conservative Republican candidates. In nineteen sixty-six, he became a candidate himself. He ran for governor of California. The Democrats did not think he was a serious candidate. They told jokes about some of his movies. They made a mistake. When the voting was over, Reagan had won by almost one million votes. As governor, Reagan was praised for reducing the state's huge debt. However, he was criticized for raising taxes. He also was criticized for his severe policies for controlling unrest at the state's colleges. Yet, he won re-election in nineteen seventy. VOICE TWO: Reagan campaigned for the Republican nomination for president in nineteen seventy-six. He almost defeated President Gerald Ford for the nomination. One of the party's older senators spoke with Reagan after the convention. He said, "Son, you will be president some day. This just was not your year." Four years later, with President Jimmy Carter in trouble, Reagan's day had arrived. VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was sworn-in as America's fortieth president on January twentieth, nineteen eighty-one. For many Americans, the day turned out even happier than expected. Iran finally announced that it would free the hostages in Tehran. One of President Reagan's earliest proposals made many Americans happy, too. He began to work to get Congress to reduce taxes. He also began a weekly series of radio broadcasts. In these programs, he commented on developments in American life and political policy. The broadcasts were similar to those made by President Franklin Roosevelt during the nineteen-thirties. Some people started to call Reagan "The Great Communicator." VOICE TWO: Outside the Washington Hilton Hotel after the assassination attempt on President Reagan Two months after Reagan took office, something unexpected and terrible happened. The president was leaving a meeting at a hotel in Washington. A gunman began to fire. A man guarding the president fell to the ground. So did the president's press assistant. Both were seriously wounded. Other guards quickly helped Reagan into his car. At first, observers did not think the president had been hit. But he had. There was a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart. Doctors removed the bullet. Reagan fought courageously to get well...and he did. We will continue the story of President Ronald Reagan next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series: A Look at Washington University
* Byline: We answer a question from a student in China in Part 42 of our series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A student at Xinjiang Normal University in China has a question for our Foreign Student Series. Akbar Mamat wants to go overseas after graduation and would like some information about Washington University. Brookings Hall on campusWashington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, is a medium-sized school in the Midwest. It has almost eleven thousand students. Twelve percent this last school year were international students, mostly graduate students. The university has schools for law, medicine and social work. It also has a business school, a school of design and visual arts and a school of engineering and applied science. But more than seventy percent of courses are taught through the Arts and Sciences program. The new school year that begins this fall will cost fifty-two thousand dollars for undergraduates. That includes twelve months of living expenses estimated at seventeen thousand dollars. Graduate tuition differs by program. Tuition for the Master of Social Work program, for example, will cost twenty-seven thousand dollars in the coming year. The Master of Business Administration program will cost about thirty-eight thousand dollars. The university offers financial assistance to international students, including first-year students, but says its resources are limited. Scholarships are available. The university also offers a monthly payment plan to spread out the cost of tuition. And it offers loan programs. International students in the United States generally cannot receive federal student loans. But they may be able to take out private loans, as many American students do. The student loan industry is in the news right now. Investigations are looking at questionable dealings between colleges and lenders. Washington University in Saint Louis was named Eliot Seminary when it opened in eighteen fifty-three. Later the name was changed to honor the first American president, George Washington. But other schools share the name Washington, including the University of Washington and George Washington University. So in nineteen seventy-six Washington University added the words "in Saint Louis" to its name. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Titanic' Was a Movie Record Breaker. But How True to History Is It?
* Byline: Also: Community gardens in the United States. And music by three British singers popular on this side of the Atlantic: Lily Allen, Corinne Bailey Rae and Amy Winehouse. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. This week on our show: We answer a question about the movie "Titanic" ... We also have music by three British singers who are popular in the United States ... And we look at the growing interest in community gardens. Community Gardens HOST: There are thousands of community gardens in the United States. Some are planted in parks. Others are on top of buildings -- anyplace where space is available. As we hear from Barbara Klein, people share these gardens to grow food, flowers and friendships. BARBARA KLEIN: Community gardens appeal to people who not only love to make things grow, but also enjoy learning from other gardeners. Shared gardens also give people the outdoor space they might not have where they live, especially if they live in cities. The National Park Service operates a community garden in Washington, D.C., near busy museums and government buildings. Across the street is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. On a warm recent Saturday, Keith Goodman is working in his space in the garden. He rode his bicycle from the nearby apartment building where he lives. He says most of his vegetables are doing fine. Not far away from his cucumbers and carrots are three shades of red roses being grown by someone else. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, community gardens produce more than one and one-half million dollars worth of food each year. The gardens are planted on city land that was once empty and going to waste. People in Philadelphia are growing four hundred sixty-five vegetable gardens and one thousand flower gardens this summer. In Chicago, Illinois, residents and neighbors are continuing a tradition of growing gardens at the Vista Homes apartment building. That tradition goes back at least sixty-five years. The land they use for their flowers and vegetables was once planted with Victory Gardens. Almost twenty million Americans planted Victory Gardens in the nineteen forties during World War Two. These gardens helped feed their families, friends and neighbors. That way, more food could go to the troops fighting in Europe and the Pacific. During the war, Victory Gardens provided as much as forty percent of the American food supply. Titanic, The Movie HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Burma. Tharr Naing wants to know about the historical truth in the movie “Titanic”. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in 'Titanic'The nineteen ninety-seven movie “Titanic” is a record breaker in several ways. Ten years ago, it was the most costly movie ever made. "Titanic" has earned more money than any other movie in history. And, it received eleven Academy Awards. The film tells the tragic story of the huge British passenger ship that sank in nineteen twelve. The Titanic was built to be a fine example of modern technology. It was the largest ship ever made. It was considered unsinkable. It was sailing on its very first trip from England to New York with many rich and famous people on board. The Titanic hit a huge piece of ice near Newfoundland, Canada. The ship sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. More than one thousand five hundred of its two thousand two hundred passengers died. Many movies, books, and plays have been produced about the disaster. The movie "Titanic" is loosely based on historical facts. The director James Cameron worked hard with the movie crew to recreate historically correct clothing and rooms. Experts helped recreate the ship and the action of its sinking in as truthful a way as possible. The images of the shipwrecked Titanic at the bottom of the ocean are real. And several of the people in the movie were real people, such as the boat’s captain and Molly Brown, who survived the disaster. She later became known as the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown. It is also true that the watchman did not see the large iceberg in time to save the ship. And it is true that there were not enough lifeboats on the ship to save all of passengers. What most people like best about the movie is its love story. But the two lovers, Rose and Jack, were not real people. There was also no diamond called the Heart of the Ocean. However, another small love story in "Titanic" is based on fact. The movie shows an older man and woman who chose to die together instead of being separated. Isador and Ida Straus were offered a place on a lifeboat. Isador would not get in the boat as long as there were women on the Titanic who could be saved. So, Ida refused to leave her husband. Witnesses remember hearing her say to her husband, “Where you go, I go."? The two were last seen sitting side by side on a chair on the ship holding hands. Three Hits By Brits HOST: Today we tell about three young women from Britain whose music has become very popular in the United States. Lily Allen, Corinne Bailey Rae, and Amy Winehouse make music that is filled with great energy, imagination and skill. Katharine Cole has more. KATHARINE COLE: Twenty-one-year- old Lily Allen sings smart, popular music that captures the lifestyle and feelings of young people. Allen combines a sweet sound with a sharp, street-wise spirit. Her album “Alright, Still” is influenced by the many kinds of music she likes. Fans love her rebellious actions, wild clothing, and often surprising songs. Listen to the reggae beat of “Smile." In this song, Lily Allen tells about being happy about ending a relationship with an unfaithful lover. (MUSIC) Corinne Bailey Rae first started singing in her Christian religious center in Leeds, Britain. In college she worked in a jazz club where she was sometimes permitted to sing. Now she is twenty-eight years old. Her first album has sold millions of copies. She says she did not want to make the words to her songs sound literary. She wanted her songs to sound as if she were talking with someone. Listen to Corinne Bailey Rae's warm voice singing the hit song “Like A Star.” (MUSIC) Amy Winehouse has a deep, rich voice that is not what you would expect from a singer who is only twenty-three. She is known for acting wildly, drinking Champagne wine and saying whatever is on her mind. Her second album “Back to Black” is influenced by popular music from the nineteen fifties and sixties. Amy Winehouse says she likes how the songs from that time were simple and direct. Her expressive voice and songs tell about the good and bad experiences of love. We leave you with “Wake Up Alone.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to tell us your full name and where you are from. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Our program was written by Dana Demange and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. Transcripts and audio archives of our shows are available at voaspecialenglish.com. I hope you can join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What's Up in the Bond Market?
* Byline: Why borrowers and stock markets worry when bond yields rise as they have recently. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Bonds have been in the news a lot in the last few weeks. Yields on the ten-year United States Treasury note jumped to their highest level in five years, before easing. Bonds are debt owed by a government or a company. The holder of a bond is paid interest until the date when the bond matures. Then the amount of the bond, its face value, is paid back. Investors can buy a new bond and keep it until it matures. Or they can buy and sell existing bonds. The return on a bond is called the yield. Yields and prices of existing bonds can change as investors trade them. Yields fall when investors seek the security of bonds and are willing to pay higher prices. Yields increase as prices fall. This month, yields on the ten-year Treasury note rose above five percent for the first time in close to a year. Higher yields raise the cost for individuals and businesses to borrow money at interest rates that are tied to the ten-year note. Rising yields can also hurt stock prices. When yields rise, investors often sell stocks in order to buy bonds. If investors can get high yields holding low-risk bonds, or simply keeping money in the bank, they will do it. Yet holding bonds can also have risks as values for new and existing bonds change in the market. Bond prices can also drop on signs of inflation. But inflation does not seem to be a threat with the current softness in the American housing market. New housing starts fell more than two percent in May. Most experts believe the United States central bank will keep interest rates unchanged when policy makers meet next week. But many investors are concerned about pressure for higher interest rates in Europe and Asia. Another influence on the bond market is the willingness of foreign countries to buy United States government debt. In Asia there have been signs that some countries that hold a lot of low-yield debt want greater returns on their investments. China, for example, recently announced it will invest three billion dollars in the Blackstone Group, the private-equity company in New York. For much of the last year, bond yields have been inverted. Short-term debt returned higher rates than long-term debt. In the past, an inverted yield curve was thought to signal a possible recession. Now things are back to what is considered "normal" with long-term debt paying higher yields. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Two-State Solution for the Mideast Finds Itself With Three Pieces
* Byline: The Hamas-Fatah leadership split in the Palestinian territories raises new questions for the future of an independent Palestine. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. A Hamas militant holds up a Hamas flag on a watch tower of the Preventive Security headquarters in Gaza City.Hamas captured the compound from Fatah forces. For a week now, Palestinians have had to deal with a new political reality. Their territories are now split between control by Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. About one and one-half million people live in Gaza; more than two million live in the West Bank. Hamas forces took control of Gaza last week in the worst conflict ever between Palestinians. In just a few days the Islamic militants of Hamas defeated the security forces of Fatah. Fatah is the party of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas is supported by Iran and Syria. It was created with an aim of destroying Israel and has killed hundreds of Israelis. So where does all this leave efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks? The goal is to create an independent Palestine from the territories next to Israel. President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Monday in Egypt to discuss the situation. They last met in April. Mister Olmert says he hopes that serious negotiations about a Palestinian state will be able to start soon. President Abbas has moved quickly to dismiss a Hamas-led unity government and establish an emergency government. The new cabinet, sworn in Sunday, is made up of independents and close allies of Fatah. The prime minister is Salam Fayyad, an international economist. Mister Abbas has received support for his new government from the Arab League as well as the European Union and the United States. President Bush called the Palestinian president "a reasonable voice amongst the extremists" in that area of the world. The United States and the European Union announced this week that they will restart financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. The aid was suspended for more than a year because the Hamas-led government refused to recognize Israel's right to exist. Western governments are also offering more money for United Nations humanitarian efforts in Gaza. But some people fear a humanitarian crisis. There are also concerns that a complete boycott of Hamas could turn Gaza into a base for international terrorism. Israel, the United States and the European Union have declared Hamas a terrorist organization. Yet dissatisfaction with Fatah leaders and what was seen as abuse of power and corruption helped bring Hamas to power. Hamas began its rise to popularity in the late nineteen eighties, during the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. Hamas established social services for Palestinians. Following the Oslo peace agreements in the early nineties, it launched a campaign of suicide bombings against Israel. Two years ago Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza. Then, early last year, Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections. The victory led to fighting between Hamas and Fatah. And that led to the unity government which took office three months ago. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: William Randolph Hearst, 1863-1951: He Created What Was Once the Nation's Largest Newspaper Group
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about American publisher William Randolph Hearst. Mister Hearst created what was once the nation's largest newspaper organization. He bought newspapers in many areas of the United States. He spent millions of dollars to gain readers in sometimes shocking ways. He forever changed the American newspaper business. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco in eighteen sixty-three. He was the only child of George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. His father became rich by developing mines. His mother was a philanthropist who gave her time and money to help others. William Randolph Hearst had everything he wanted as a child. But, he was a rebel. In eighteen eighty-five, he was expelled from Harvard, one of the best universities in America, for playing a joke on a professor. George Hearst wanted his son to take control of developing the mines or the land he owned. But William had other desires. He became interested in newspapers while at Harvard. He started working as a reporter for the New York World newspaper owned by Joseph Pulitzer. VOICE TWO: George Hearst owned the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. But he was more interested in politics than in newspaper publishing. In eighteen eighty-seven, George Hearst became a United States senator. He gave control of the newspaper to his son William who was twenty-three. William Randolph Hearst wanted to create a newspaper that people would talk about. He worked long hours and put high energy into his newspaper. He employed some of the best reporters and writers he could find. And, he paid them the highest wages. Mister Hearst improved the appearance of his newspaper and bought modern equipment. He also improved relations with advertisers. Advertisers pay to have their products shown in newspapers to increase sales. Newspapers profit from the money paid by advertisers. News stories in the San Francisco Examiner were written with force, energy and excitement. Some stories were written to shock readers and affect them emotionally. However, the stories were simple and easy to read. Mister Hearst believed in doing whatever it took to get readers. His newspaper policy was:? make the news complete; print all the news; shorten it if necessary, but get it in. That became the policy in newsrooms across America. VOICE ONE: By eighteen ninety-one, the San Francisco Examiner had three times more readers and advertisers than when Mister Hearst took control of the newspaper. In less than five years, William Randolph Hearst made the new San Francisco Examiner a huge success. Mister Hearst repeated his success in New York City. He borrowed five million dollars from his mother to purchase a second newspaper, the New York Journal. In his first two months, he increased the number of copies sold from thirty thousand to one hundred thousand. Joseph Pulitzer was a very successful publisher in New York. Mister Hearst shared Mister Pulitzer's excitement and energy about the newspaper business. During the eighteen nineties, Mister Hearst and Mister Pulitzer began a fierce newspaper war. Mister Hearst hired many reporters from Mister Pulitzer's New York World newspaper. He paid them more than two times as much as they had been earning. He also reduced the price of his newspaper below Mister Pulitzer's. VOICE TWO: Mister Hearst won readers by making the news more exciting and entertaining. He created a kind of newspaper reporting known today as "yellow journalism."? News events were made to seem greater than they really were. His methods went beyond what would be accepted today in major newspapers. Critics said his newspapers were only for entertainment. Yet many other newspapers tried to copy his methods. Mister Hearst attacked big businesses and dishonest politicians in his newspapers. There were also reports about sex, murder and other crimes. His newspapers became a voice for working people and the poor. His influence grew across the nation through his newspapers and the magazines he bought or began. VOICE ONE: Many experts say Mister Hearst's reporting methods and his battle with Mister Pulitzer for readers led to the Spanish-American War. In eighteen ninety-eight, the United States fought Spain to help the people of Cuba gain independence from Spain. Mister Hearst's newspapers had accused Spain of sinking the American battleship Maine and killing two hundred fifty sailors. This increased public support for the war. However, it still is not known how the ship sank. The war greatly increased readers for the Hearst publications. Mister Hearst's battle with competitors widened after the war. Some newspapers blamed him when President William McKinley was murdered in nineteen-oh-one. The assassination happened after one of the Hearst newspapers seemed to suggest killing Mister McKinley. ?(MUSIC) ?VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen hundreds, William Randolph Hearst became deeply involved in politics. He represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from nineteen-oh-three to nineteen-oh-seven. In nineteen-oh-four, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. He also failed in his campaigns to become governor of New York or mayor of New York City. Mister Hearst had hoped to change the way things were being done in New York City. He hoped to defeat dishonest New York City politicians who controlled the city at the time. Mister Hearst also campaigned against big business. He supported labor unions and government ownership of public utilities, railroads, and other big companies. And, he sought political reform and the return of economic competition in the country. VOICE ONE: Mister Hearst's opponents accused him of being disloyal to his country because of his support for Germany during the first years of World War One. He was opposed to American involvement in the war. Mister Hearst was sharply criticized for his political ideas. Many people refused to deal with him. Some hated him. His newspapers were banned in many communities. Mister Hearst strongly supported Democrat Franklin Roosevelt for president in nineteen thirty-two. Then he became increasingly conservative and turned against President Roosevelt. He opposed American involvement in World War Two. He also led a fierce campaign against communism during the nineteen thirties. Through the years, Mister Hearst continued to buy newspapers and magazines across the country and around the world. He also controlled a number of radio and television stations and a movie company. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Randolph Hearst and his wife Millicent were married in nineteen-oh-three. They had five sons. She remained married to him until her death. However, Mister Hearst spent almost thirty years of his life with Hollywood actress Marion Davies in San Simeon, California. They met in nineteen seventeen and later lived together at San Simeon. He started a movie company to produce movies for her. Their relationship shocked the nation. Mister Hearst spent thirty years and thirty million dollars to build a huge home at San Simeon. It has one hundred sixty-five rooms. Mister Hearst and Marion Davies entertained many famous people there. He continually bought costly art objects to fill it. By nineteen thirty-seven, Mister Hearst's heavy spending threatened to ruin his publishing organization. He was forced to sell much of his property and many art objects. The economic recovery after World War Two saved what was left of his media organization. VOICE ONE: When William Randolph Hearst died in nineteen fifty-one, he still owned what was then the largest newspaper company in America. Today, the Hearst Corporation includes more than one hundred thirty separate businesses. They include newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and business media companies. ?The communications business William Randolph Hearst began continues to influence and inform people around the world. ?(MUSIC) ?ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-07-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More Words About Clothing: I Am Not Talking Through My Hat
* Byline: English expressions that are all dressed up with no place to go. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Last week, I explained some English expressions about clothes. Everything I told you was true. I did not talk through my hat or say something without knowing the facts. Everyone knows there are many English expressions about clothes. There is no need to keep it a secret, or to keep it under your hat. In fact, if I keep talking, soon enough you will start to think I am an old hat about this -- a real expert.Do not be fooled, though. My friends sometimes call me a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is someone who acts like a good person, but is really a bad person. I’m not really a bad person. But I do love clothes.It is always fun to get dressed up.I look great in my best clothes.When I put them on, I feel decked out.You might say when I wear my best clothes, I am dressed to the nines or dressed to the teeth.In fact, my husband says I look dressed to kill. Of course, I would never kill anyone.But, there is something special about putting on clothes that are pleasing to the eye. My best clothes are not modern or fashionable.Maybe someday they will come into fashion.But I really do not care. They certainly look better on me than my birthday suit.Did you know that everyone has a birthday suit?? You wear it when are wearing no clothes at all. Babies are born wearing their birthday suits. I am very careful with my clothes. I handle them with kid gloves. I try not to get them dirty or torn. Most of my clothes fit like a glove. ?They fit perfectly. But when I eat too much, I feel like my clothes might burst at the seams. My clothes feel too restrictive and tight. Some of the clothes I like best are hand-me-downs.My older sister gave them to me when she no longer wanted them.Hand-me-downs are great because clothes often cost too much money. I live on a shoestring. I have a very small budget and little money to spend on clothes.However, my sister has a lot of money to spend on clothes.Maybe someday the shoe will be on the other foot.The opposite will be true. I will have a lot of money to buy clothes and my sister will get hand-me-downs from me. I admit I dream of being rich. I dream that someday I will be able to live like a rich person.I will know what it is like to walk in another person’s shoes. Some of my friends got rich by riding someone else’s coat tails.They are successful today as a result of someone else being successful.But, I believe you should never criticize others for something you would do yourself.What is said about someone else can also be said about you.Remember, if the shoe fits, wear it. (MUSIC)? ??????? Jill Moss wrote this VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Banks Look to Expand Microfinance Services
* Byline: A nonprofit group, Women's World Banking, is working with lenders to go beyond just offering loans to start businesses. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Officials from some of the world’s leading banks were in the Netherlands last week for a conference on microfinance lending. The Dutch government and the nonprofit organization Women's World Banking organized the two-day meeting. Mary Ellen Iskenderian is president of New York-based Women's World Banking. She told us from The Hague that people generally think of microfinance only as credit -- a small loan to start a business. But she says her group has found more and more demand for other kinds of services. The organization is working with banks to offer products like, for example, life insurance policies. She says the question is not if commercial banks can offer microfinance services in a profitable way. The question is how. The bankers discussed things like the use of mobile phone technology in banking, and the ability of banks to offer services in rural areas. Could people do their banking at the point of sale in a village store, for example? The meeting brought together representatives of the Global Network for Banking Innovation. Women's World Banking formed this network six years ago. It says the aim is to guarantee responsible lending to poor borrowers. The network is an alliance of twenty-four major banks and microfinance lenders in fifteen countries. Members include Citigroup in the United States, ING and Triodos Bank of the Netherlands, Equity Bank of Kenya and Banco Azteca of Mexico. Women's World Banking offers support, advice and training to more than fifty microfinance organizations. The group says it has helped twenty-three million people in forty-three countries receive financial services over the last thirty years. Most but not all of the borrowers are women. As more commercial banks enter microfinance, Mary Ellen Iskenderian says women must continue to be served, to reduce poverty. She says research has shown that for every dollar a female borrower earns from her business, ninety-eight cents is reinvested. Women use their earnings to educate their children and to improve their homes and communities, she says. A similar male borrower, she says, will reinvest only sixty cents. The idea for Women's World Banking came out of the first United Nations Conference on Women, held in Mexico City in nineteen seventy-five. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about women's issues at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Valerie Wilson Has a Story to Tell and a Book to Sell, if CIA Will Let Her
* Byline: How the CIA leak case led to a prison sentence for a former top official in the Bush administration. Also, a visit to the Sisterhood of Spies area at the International Spy Museum. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Our subject this week is women in the spy business. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Valerie Wilson before a US congressional committeeHer husband calls her "Jane Bond." Valerie Plame Wilson may not exactly be as famous as the imaginary British secret agent James Bond. But public attention in what became known as the C.I.A. leak case brought an end to her career in the Central Intelligence Agency. Valerie Wilson has sold her life story for a Hollywood movie project. And she has written a book about her twenty years in the C.I.A. "Fair Game" is supposed to be published in October. But the C.I.A. has moved to block its release. The agency objects to her listing her dates of service. Officially, they remain classified information even though her employment dates were made public last year by mistake. VOICE TWO: At the end of May, Valerie Wilson and her publisher brought a civil action over the issue of the dates. The lawsuit accuses the C.I.A. of violating her constitutional right of free speech. It says the C.I.A. demands that large parts of her work be removed or rewritten to hide her government service before two thousand two. Valerie Wilson says the issue is politics. The C.I.A. says the issue is national security. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have seen the former operative on television, in newspapers and across the pages of magazines. Some people criticize Valerie Wilson and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, calling them attention-seekers. But it was unwanted attention that "outed" her as a C.I.A. officer. Newspaper columnist Robert Novak wrote about her in July of two thousand three. It happened a week after her husband criticized the Bush administration over the Iraq war. VOICE TWO: Joseph Wilson had written in the New York Times about a trip he made to Niger in two thousand two. The C.I.A. sent the retired diplomat to investigate a British intelligence report that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Africa. The material can be used to make nuclear weapons. Joseph Wilson said he did not find any evidence. He suggested that some intelligence was misused to overstate the threat from Iraq's nuclear weapons program and justify an invasion. VOICE ONE: After his article appeared, officials within the administration told reporters that Valerie Wilson worked for the C.I.A. The C.I.A. says her employment at that time was classified information. President Bush ordered an investigation into the leak. No one was ever charged with the crime of identifying an undercover operative. But the investigation led to charges against the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Lewis Libby, also known as Scooter Libby, resigned when he was charged in October of two thousand five. He said in court that he was not guilty. But in March of this year, after five weeks of trial, a federal jury found him guilty of lying to investigators in an effort to subvert justice. The jury found that he lied about what he had discussed with three reporters concerning Valerie Wilson's employment at the C.I.A. VOICE TWO: On June fifth, Judge Reggie Walton sentenced him to thirty months in prison and a fine of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The judge later ruled that Lewis Libby cannot remain free while his lawyers appeal the case. He may go to prison in several weeks. His lawyers say he did not purposely make false statements. They say he could not remember details because he had national security concerns on his mind. Also, his lawyers say they believe that the judge wrongly excluded some of the evidence they wanted to present in his defense. Supporters of Scooter Libby are urging President Bush to pardon him. Others deplore the idea. VOICE ONE: After her identity became known, Valerie Wilson moved to another job at the C.I.A. But she told a congressional hearing that being outed had ended her effectiveness as an operative. She and her husband have moved away from Washington. They now live in the Southwest. But they still have a civil case against Vice President Cheney and, among others, presidential political adviser Karl Rove. The lawsuit accuses them of violating her privacy rights in an effort to punish Joseph Wilson for his criticisms. A judge is considering arguments to dismiss the case. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Exactly what Valerie Wilson did in her years at the Central Intelligence Agency is not known. But someplace we can learn more about women in espionage is the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. In fact, one of the most interesting objects there is a small silver tube like millions of women carry. Instead of lip color, it contained a bullet. This lipstick gun was a tool of the KGB, the intelligence and security agency in the former Soviet Union. VOICE ONE: At the spy museum we learn how two women in the C.I.A., Sandy Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille, helped catch Aldrich Ames. He was a traitor within the agency. Aldrich Ames worked for the C.I.A. for many years. In nineteen eighty-five, he began to sell American secrets to the Soviets. He cost the United States most of its intelligence gathering operations against the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: Sandy Grimes describes how the C.I.A. knew it had a traitor and put together a list of one hundred ninety-eight agents. Each person could have been the mole. But she suspected Ames. He had begun to act differently. He seemed more sure of himself. And his expensive new clothing raised a question: Where was he getting the money? VOICE ONE: Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation spent months on the case. They arrested Aldrich Ames in nineteen ninety-four. He was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the Sisterhood of Spies area at the museum, we learn about women in history who spied. One woman belonged to a team under the command of General George Washington during the American Revolution. She is still known only as Number Three Hundred Fifty-Five. The British caught her in seventeen eighty and she died as a prisoner. Some historians think she came from a family loyal to Britain and probably gathered intelligence at social events. VOICE ONE: Belle Boyd is known as the "Cleopatra of the Secession" during the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. She was a teenager in the South when she started spying for the Confederate states that wanted to leave the Union. She used her beauty to gain secrets from northern soldiers. As we learn at the spy museum, a Union soldier tried to raise a flag over her family home. Her mother moved to stop him. The soldier pushed her mother and Belle Boyd shot him. A court found her not guilty. After that, she took messages across battle lines to Confederate commanders. VOICE TWO: The Union also had its women spies. Sarah Emma Edmonds was an expert at disguise. With different identities, she was able to pass easily through enemy lines to gather information. For example, she dressed like a Union soldier and used the name Frank Thompson. She even fought in battles. But before she could get paid for her war service, she first had to prove that she was Frank Thompson. VOICE ONE: Probably the best-known woman spy ever is Mata Hari. Yet the International Spy Museum in Washington says Mata Hari was almost a complete failure as a gatherer of information. She was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in the Netherlands in eighteen seventy-six. She became famous representing herself as an Indian dancer in Paris. Later, when she needed money, European military officers and government officials supported her in return for sex. Mata Hari decided to spy for Germany during World War One. But she also agreed to spy for its enemy France. The French trapped the double agent and she was executed. VOICE TWO: Josephine Baker was a famous African-American dancer who moved to Paris because of racial prejudice at home. After World War Two began, she started working for the French Resistance. She carried orders and maps into German-occupied countries. The orders were written in disappearing ink on the pages of her music. Josephine Baker was never caught. She lived to tell of her life as a secret agent. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Safety Concerns Put Pressure on US Food and Drug Officials, Congress
* Byline: The Senate recently approved a bill that would expand the power of the Food and Drug Administration to enforce drug safety. The House of Representatives is also considering a drug safety bill. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we tell about America's Food and Drug Administration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the federal government. The agency enforces the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and several other public health laws. The F.D.A. is responsible for the safety of most food products and medicines. It guarantees that medical devices and biological products are safe and effective. It also guarantees the safety of beauty products and the country’s blood supply. The F.D.A. supervises feed and drugs given to animals in the United States. It also is responsible for labeling -- the information included with products. All labels describing substances in a product must be truthful. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. has about nine thousand employees. They supervise the manufacture, import, transport, storage and sale of about one million million dollars worth of products each year. This amount represents one-fourth of all money spent by Americans each year. The agency makes rules for almost ninety thousand businesses in the United States. F.D.A. investigators inspect more than sixteen thousand manufacturing centers and farms each year. The investigators make sure that products are made correctly and labeled truthfully. Often, they will collect products for label inspections or testing by F.D.A. scientists. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration has several choices if a company is found violating any of the laws the agency enforces. F.D.A. officials can urge the company to correct the problem. Or, they can legally remove, or recall, a bad product from the marketplace. In addition, F.D.A. investigators will seize products if they appear to fail requirements for public use. About thirty thousand shipments of imported goods are seized at American ports every year. VOICE TWO: The federal government has not always been responsible for the quality of food and medicines in the United States. In the nineteenth century, individual states were generally responsible for the safety of locally-made food and drugs. Then, Americans began pressuring the federal government to protect resources and set safety rules. The Bureau of Chemistry was made responsible for the food and drug supply. The chief chemist at the Bureau was Harvey Wiley. For more than twenty years, he called for a federal law to protect the public from unsafe foods. VOICE ONE: Finally, in nineteen-oh-six, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act into law. The measure became known as the Wiley Act. It banned the transport and sale of unclean or falsely labeled foods, drinks and drugs. In nineteen twenty-seven, the Bureau of Chemistry was made into two separate agencies. One was the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. Later, its name was changed to the Food and Drug Administration. Today, the F.D.A. is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. (MUSIC)VOICE TWO: Since the Wiley Act, Congress has passed other laws to help the Food and Drug Administration carry out its work. Yet, it has become harder for the F.D.A. to control medicines within the past few years. One reason is off-label prescriptions. This is when doctors prescribe, or direct, patients to take medicines for unapproved uses. For example, some patients have been given antibiotic drugs to treat viruses, or anti-depression medicines for pain. It is not uncommon for a drug to effectively treat more than one health disorder. Yet, the F.D.A. usually approves drugs to treat only one disorder. VOICE ONE: A recent study investigated the use of off-label drugs in the United States. The Archives for Internal Medicine reported on the investigation. Researchers studied information about the drugs most prescribed by American doctors in two thousand one. They found that twenty-one percent of those prescriptions were meant to treat medical conditions for which the drugs lacked F.D.A. approval. About three of every four of the prescriptions were for medical conditions for which there were little evidence of the drug’s safety or effectiveness. VOICE TWO: Off-label prescriptions are legal. Yet, they carry unknown risks. Several thousand Americans are believed to become very sick every year after taking drugs for unapproved uses. Some officials blame drug manufacturers for the rise in off-label prescribing. Sales people representing drug makers give free supplies of their products to doctors. The doctors then give them to patients without knowing all the effects the drugs will have. VOICE ONE: The F.D.A. does not directly test drugs before approving them for public use. Instead, it depends on drug manufacturers to prove the safety of their medicines. The manufacturers often negotiate with medical schools or private groups to carry out tests. Drug companies reportedly pay millions of dollars to researchers for their results. The companies argue that they own the information because they paid for the tests. Yet, drug makers often are accused of only reporting findings that make their medicines look good. That means the public may never know about tests that find a drug useless or even dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? The drug industry gives the Food and Drug Administration millions of dollars every year to speed the approval of medicines. Congress reached this agreement in the nineteen-nineties. Yet, critics say this situation makes it difficult for the F.D.A. to effectively supervise drug companies. The F.D.A. has also faced trouble with some drugs it approved. In two thousand four, drug maker Merck announced a worldwide withdrawal of its pain medicine Vioxx. Merck acted after a study showed that Vioxx increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. VOICE ONE: Recently, more questions have been raised about the drug approval process. Researchers in the American state of Ohio reported last month that a drug commonly used to treat diabetes might increase the risk of heart attacks. About seven million people worldwide use the drug, Avandia. Its manufacturer is GlaxoSmithKline. The report led to a congressional investigation into why the F.D.A. had delayed warnings about Avandia. Officials with the agency had suggested stronger safety warnings for the drug last year. But only recently did the head of the F.D.A. call for stronger warnings for Avandia and a similar diabetes drug, Actos. He also said the agency is examining conflicting studies of Avandia to fully establish its effects on patients. VOICE TWO: The Vioxx and Avandia incidents have intensified congressional concerns about the effectiveness of the F.D.A. Last month, the Senate approved a bill that would expand the power of the agency to enforce drug safety. The bill would give the F.D.A. power to control advertisements and restrict the use of medicines found to increase health risks. The bill would also give the agency power to order changes in labeling. Drug companies currently can delay changes on their labels for months. VOICE ONE: The Senate bill would expand the F.D.A.’s ability to require manufacturers to study the safety of medicines after they have been approved. It also would force them to publicly list drug tests and their results. This kind of government-operated list would make it difficult for companies to hide evidence of safety problems. Parts of the Senate bill are supported in the House of Representatives. Political observers say a drug safety bill is likely to become law later this year. VOICE TWO: Some people believe the F.D.A. needs to improve its rules for food safety. Millions of Americans become sick each year after eating unclean food or products containing harmful substances. Public health concerns increased earlier this year when food products from China sickened and killed some animals in the United States. The products contained an industrial chemical, melamine. Several members of Congress have proposed creation of a single agency responsible for food safety. VOICE ONE: These are just some of the issues facing the Food and Drug Administration. The agency is expected to deal with these and other concerns in the months to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-25-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Growing Rice and a Cholera Vaccine at the Same Time
* Byline: Researchers experiment with a plant-based way to protect against the intestinal infection and possibly other diseases. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Someday, rice plants might not only provide food but also a way to prevent cholera and other diseases. Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestines. Today it is found mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Current vaccines to protect against cholera must be kept in cold storage. The need for refrigeration limits use in poor countries. But research in Japan may lead to rice plants that contain a cholera vaccine that does not need to be kept cold. So far, the research has been carried out only on mice. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States published the study earlier this month. Hiroshi Kiyono of the University of Tokyo and his team experimented with genetic material from the bacterium responsible for cholera. They placed it into the Kitaake rice plant. Mice ate the genetically changed rice seeds as a powder. The report says the vaccine was not destroyed by stomach acid; instead, the animals developed antibodies against the cholera toxin. The scientists say the vaccine remained active even after being stored at room temperature for more than a year and a half. People would take the vaccine as a drug that contains the powder. Cholera is usually spread through water or food, in places where conditions are dirty and drinking water supplies are unsafe. Cholera infections are often mild. But some people develop severe cases. The World Health Organization says half of them will die if they are not treated. The researchers say the experimental cholera vaccine produced reactions in the immune system and in areas of mucosal tissue. Mucosal surfaces include the mouth, nose and reproductive organs. Cholera as well as viruses like those that cause influenza and AIDS infect these areas. The scientists have great hopes for rice-based vaccines as a way to protect large populations against mucosal infections. There would be no need for injection, since the vaccine would be taken by mouth. Yet scientists have tried for some time to make plant-based vaccines. Researchers in the United States have developed one for Newcastle disease in chickens, but so far there are no products for humans. At the same time, scientists have to deal with concerns about genetically engineered plants accidentally mixing with food crops. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Mercury 13' Women Followed a Dream but Could Never Live It
* Byline: The story of a group of female pilots who passed tests to train as astronauts in the 1960s, until NASA decided to keep them grounded. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a program in the nineteen sixties to train women as astronauts. Today they are known as the Mercury Thirteen. They never reached their goal of spaceflight. But they led the way for other American women to travel into space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? In nineteen fifty-nine the United States was involved in a space race with the former Soviet Union. The Soviets had surprised the world by launching the first satellite. Sputnik One was launched into orbit on October fourth, nineteen fifty-seven. Suddenly, the United States appeared to be behind in an important area of technology. As a result, President Dwight Eisenhower formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in nineteen fifty-eight. By April seventh, nineteen fifty-nine NASA introduced the first American astronauts. They were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Shirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. They were known as the Mercury Seven. VOICE TWO: In the fall of that year, William Randolph Lovelace was attending a meeting of the Air Force Association in Miami, Florida. Doctor Lovelace was deeply involved in the effort to put Americans into space. He served on NASA's Special Committee on Life Sciences. Astronaut candidates had been put through tests at his medical center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Doctor Lovelace and Air Force Brigadier General Donald Flickinger wondered if women could be trained as astronauts. General Flickinger had designed the space flight tests for the astronaut candidates. He also knew that the Russians had plans to launch a woman into space. The two men met with Jerrie Cobb, a twenty-eight year-old pilot. ?They thought Miz Cobb would make a good female astronaut candidate. They invited her to Doctor Lovelace's medical research center in Albuquerque for tests. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jerrie Cobb went to Doctor Lovelace's medical center in February of nineteen sixty. She spent one week receiving the same series of tests that the Mercury Seven astronauts faced. The tests included a general physical examination and X-rays. Some tests involved electric shock. Other tests pushed the body to its physical limits. Yet another test required freezing the inner ear with ice water to test for the condition of vertigo. The doctors also measured brain waves. They performed a total of seventy-five tests on Jerrie Cobb. VOICE TWO: Jerrie Cobb had one unusual test on a machine called the Multi-Axis Space Test Inertia Facility, or MASTIF. The MASTIF was in NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. This special machine could move a person in three different directions almost at the same time. It was designed to test a pilot's ability to control a spacecraft under severe conditions. Jerrie Cobb passed the test. VOICE ONE: During her tests, Jerrie Cobb knew that if she failed the first level of astronaut training no other women would be tested. By August, the results of the tests were complete. Doctor Lovelace was fully satisfied that Jerrie Cobb had scored similarly to the Mercury Seven astronauts. He even noted that Miz Cobb required less oxygen than the average male astronaut. Jerrie Cobb's success meant that more female candidates were needed for more tests. VOICE TWO: Jerrie Cobb helped Doctor Lovelace and General Flickinger chose female astronaut candidates. She searched among members of the international woman's aviation group, the Ninety-Nines, based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Cobb with a Mercury capsuleMiz Cobb worked hard to develop a list of good candidates by August, nineteen sixty-one. Twenty-five other women pilots were chosen and tested at Doctor Lovelace's research center. Candidates had to have flown an airplane for more than one thousand hours. Generally, they were required to be in their early thirties. And they had to be in good physical health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all the women invited to Albuquerque passed Doctor Lovelace's tests. After the first level of testing only thirteen remained, including Jerrie Cobb. The youngest among them was twenty-one-year-old Wally Funk who was also a competitive skier. Forty-year-old Jane Hart was the oldest. She was married to Senator Philip Hart of Michigan. She also flew helicopters. Other members of the group were Myrtle Cagle, twin sisters Jan and Marion Dietrich, Jean Hixson and Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen. Also included were Irene Leverton, Bernice Steadman, Sara Gorelick Ratley, Jerri Sloan Truhill and Rhea Hurrle Woltman. These women would be known as the Mercury Thirteen. They had passed the first level of tests that the Mercury Seven astronauts faced. They now wanted to progress to the next level. VOICE TWO: Not all the Mercury Thirteen women took the next level of testing. For the Mercury Seven male astronauts, psychological and space flight testing took place at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. However, NASA would not permit testing to be done on the women at that base. Only Jerrie Cobb, Wally Funk and Rhea Woltman would receive special psychiatric testing for space fitness in Oklahoma City. At the same time, Doctor Lovelace began plans for flight training the candidates. The United States Naval School of Aviation Medicine agreed to test Jerrie Cobb for ten days in Pensacola, Florida. Jerrie Cobb passed a series of tests meant for Navy pilots and astronauts. She would be the only one of the Mercury Thirteen to successfully complete all the tests that Mercury Seven astronauts took. She would also be the only one who had the chance to do so. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Lovelace had made plans to test the other women in the group at Pensacola. After a delay, September eighteenth was chosen as the day for flight-testing to begin. But it never took place. The women received telegram messages saying the tests had been cancelled four days before they were to begin. The Navy wanted NASA to approve the training. NASA resisted the idea. Jerrie Cobb and Jane Hart immediately tried to get the testing restarted. Their efforts led to a committee hearing in Congress. But the women found little support. Astronaut John Glenn spoke to the committee. He said: "The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order."? Glenn later said that he would not oppose a female astronaut program. But he saw no requirement for one. VOICE TWO: After two days of hearings, members of Congress had heard enough. They would do nothing to change NASA's decision not to train women for spaceflight. But the answer about women in space came less than one year after those congressional hearings. On June sixteenth, nineteen sixty-three, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. She orbited the Earth forty-eight times and spent almost three days in space. VOICE ONE: The Mercury Thirteen women were never officially part of the NASA space program. But their willingness to undergo testing to be astronauts and their performance in those tests showed that women could go into space. It was not until nineteen eighty-three that Sally Ride became the first American woman in space. Sixteen years later, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission. She invited the surviving members of the Mercury Thirteen to attend the launch. Seven women were able to attend. Mercury 13 members, from left, Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Ratley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice SteadmanOn May twelfth, two thousand seven, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh also honored these women. The university gave honorary Doctor of Science degrees to the eight surviving members of the Mercury thirteen. The university said it was honoring the spirit and efforts of this special group of women. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How a Handshake Can Say a Lot About You in Business Communication
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER, English teacher Nina Weinstein joins me from Los Angeles to discuss business communication in America, including body language -- like the importance of a firm handshake. Business people from Japan, for example, are used to bowing, not shaking hands the way Americans do. NINA WEINSTEIN: "The firmness of the handshake transmits information. It says that 'I am strong, I am confident and I'm happy to meet you.' Some people want to shake for a long time and really the average handshake is three shakes. So -- " AA: "Just kind of like one, two, three; reach forward, shake hands three times and ... " NINA WEINSTEIN: "Exactly. One of the other things we talk about is the issue of men and women in business. Some of my students, actually a lot of my students have learned that you don't shake hands with a woman unless she offers her hand first. And this is a very, very old fashioned rule. What I tell my students is that you shake hands with everyone the same way. And it doesn't matter if she's a woman or a man, doesn't matter." AA: "And what do you say when you're shaking hands?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "We extend our hands and as we're shaking we say 'nice to meet you.' And there's a kind of rhythm to that that we take for granted, but that is not natural to the students. So I give them a one-two-three: my name first, extending my hand is number two and number three [is saying] 'nice to meet you' as we're shaking hands. And then they can give more information about their background." AA: "So now moving into the business English part of this here, so you need to make a smooth transition -- right? -- from shaking hands, introducing yourselves. What comes next?" NINA WEINSTEIN: " Next could be small talk or it could be what we call making people comfortable. So if you're meeting someone in your own office or in your own environment, you might offer them coffee or tea. You might say 'Please have a seat.' You might begin with a little bit of small talk. "So those things come right after the introduction. And with regard to small talk, that's another lesson, another kind of long lesson. We don't want to get to the business right away. As soon as someone comes into a room, we don't say 'I've called you here because, blah blah blah.' We need to relax." AA: "And small talk can be pretty difficult to actually, if you're not comfortable with it -- even native speakers aren't always comfortable with small talk. Do you have any advice or tips that you give people?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I give them some topics that are good in any situation. For instance, if it's Monday, we can always say 'Did you have a nice weekend?' If it's Thursday or Friday we can always say 'What are your plans for the weekend?' So we can talk about weekend or vacation plans with just about anybody. We can always talk about the weather. The topics that are not good would be anything emotional." AA: "So now we've talked about how to begin a conversation with handshake and greeting and so forth, what about ending a conversation? What do you tell your students?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "If they have just met the person, then at the end of the conversation they should say 'It was really nice meeting you.' And then if the other person has said that first, then their response would be 'It was really nice meeting you, too.' If it wasn't an introduction, if they just spoke, then 'It was very nice talking to you.' Or the verb will be whatever describes what they were doing: 'It was very nice meeting with you,' 'It was very nice having dinner with you.'" AA: "And shake hands again." NINA WEINSTEIN: "And shake hands again. The handshake is used a lot. We also discuss different variations of the handshake. Sometimes when you're shaking hands, the person will put their other hand on top of your hand, and this is a kind of affection and it shows friendship and so forth. So we have to be aware that that's what that is. "And also, people hug here a lot more than they may in other cultures. My students can be very uncomfortable with that because it's just not something that they're used to. So they may go to a business party and hug someone that they've never actually hugged before -- not that they initiated it, the other person did. And so I always tell them to just make it brief if they feel uncomfortable -- you shouldn't do anything that you're uncomfortable with -- and kind of create as much distance as they can without making the person feel that they're carrying bacteria or a virus or something." AA "Just kind of give a little hug back." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Yeah, and then that's it." AA: Nina Weinstein has taught business English for about thirty years and has written books on this subject and others. You can find her previous WORDMASTER segments and also learn more about the art of small talk at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's all for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. AA/rms 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Staying Healthy by Washing Your Hands
* Byline: Experts have found that greater use of soap and water could save a million lives a year by reducing the spread of infections. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Hand washing is a powerful way to prevent the spread of disease. The World Bank, the United Nations and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine did a study to urge hand washing around the world. They found that one million lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands with soap often. They said that programs to increase hand washing with soap could be among the most effective ways to reduce infectious disease. Doctors say many diseases can be prevented from spreading by hand washing. These include pinworms, influenza, the common cold, hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea. Hand washing destroys germs from other people, animals or objects a person has touched. When people get bacteria on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Then these people can infect other people. The experts say the easiest way to catch a cold is to touch your nose or eyes after someone nearby has sneezed or coughed. Another way to become sick is to eat food prepared by someone whose hands were not clean. The experts say that hand washing is especially important before and after preparing food, before eating and after using the toilet. People should wash their hands after handling animals or animal waste, and after cleaning a baby. The experts say it is also a good idea to wash your hands after handling money and after sneezing or coughing. And it is important to wash your hands often when someone in your home is sick. The experts say the most effective way to wash your hands is to rub them together while using soap and warm water. They say you do not have to use special antibacterial soap. Be sure to rub all areas of the hands for about ten to fifteen seconds. The rubbing action helps remove germs. Then rinse the hands with water and dry them. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers are rubbed into the hands and do not require soap and water. Experts say these products must contain at least sixty percent alcohol to be effective in killing most bacteria and viruses. Experts also say that people who use public bathrooms and dry their hands with a paper towel should use the towel to turn off the water. Then, before throwing it away, use the same paper to open the bathroom door. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For more news and information about health, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: President Reagan's Main Goal was to Shrink Government. But Budget Deficits Created a Huge National Debt.
* Byline: President Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term in nineteen-eighty-four.? He won fifty-nine percent of the popular vote.? em>Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Warren Scheer with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we continue the story of America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: Soon after Ronald Reagan's presidency began, there was an attempt on his life. A gunman shot him in March, nineteen eighty-one. Doctors removed the bullet. He rested, regained his strength, and returned to the White House in twelve days. The new president's main goal was to reduce the size of the federal government. He and other conservative Republicans wanted less government interference in the daily lives of Americans. VOICE TWO: President Reagan won Congressional approval for his plan to reduce taxes on earnings. Many Americans welcomed the plan. Others were concerned about its affect on the national debt. They saw taxes go down while defense spending went up. To save money, the Reagan administration decided to cut spending for some social programs. This pleased conservatives. Liberals, however, said it limited poor peoples' chances for good housing, health care, and education. VOICE ONE: President Reagan also had to make decisions about using military force in other countries. In nineteen eighty-three, he sent Marines to Lebanon. They joined other peacekeeping troops to help stop fighting among several opposing groups. On October twenty-third, a Muslim extremist exploded a bomb in the building where the Marines were living. Two-hundred forty-one Americans died. VOICE TWO: Two days later, Marines led an invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Communist forces were rebelling against the government there. Cuban soldiers were guarding the streets. President Reagan said he feared for the safety of American students at Grenada's medical school. He sent the Marines to get them out safely. The Marines quickly defeated the communist forces. Many Americans were pleased. Others were angry. They said Grenada was invaded only to make people forget about what happened in Lebanon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next year, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, was another presidential election year. It looked like no one could stop President Reagan. His warm way with people had made him hugely popular. He gained support with the military victory in Grenada. And, by the time the campaign started, inflation was under control. The Republican Party re-nominated Ronald Reagan for president and George Bush for vice president. VOICE TWO: There were several candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination. One was the first African American to run for president, Jesse Jackson. He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. The candidate who finally won the nomination was Walter Mondale. He had been a senator and had served as vice president under President Jimmy Carter. The vice presidential candidate was Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro. It was the first time a major political party in the United States had nominated a woman for national office. VOICE ONE: One of the big issues in the campaign was taxes. Most candidates try not to talk about them. Democrat Mondale did. He said taxes would have to be raised to pay for new government programs. This was a serious political mistake. President Reagan gained even more support as a result. The two candidates agreed to debate on television. During one debate, President Reagan looked old and tired. He did not seem sure of his answers. Yet his popularity was not damaged. On Election Day, he won fifty-nine percent of the popular vote. On Inauguration Day, the weather was not so kind. It was bitterly cold in Washington. All inaugural activities, including the swearing-in ceremony, were held inside. VOICE TWO: President Reagan's first term began with an attempt on his life. Six months after his second term began, he faced another threat. Doctors discovered and removed a large growth from his colon. The growth was cancerous. The president was seventy-four years old. Yet, once again, he quickly regained his strength and returned to work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For years, the United States had accused Libyan leader Muammar Kaddafi of supporting international terrorist groups. It said he provided them with weapons and a safe place for their headquarters. In January, Nineteen-Eighty-Six, the United States announced economic restrictions against Libya. Then it began military training exercises near the Libyan coast. Libya said the Americans were violating its territory and fired missiles at them. The Americans fired back, sinking two ships. VOICE TWO: On April Fifth, a bomb destroyed a public dance club in West Berlin. Two people died, including an American soldier. The United States said Libya was responsible. President Reagan ordered bomb attacks against the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Muammar Kaddafi escaped unharmed. But one of his children was killed. Some Americans said the raid was cruel. Others praised it. President Reagan said the United States did what it had to do. VOICE ONE: The president also wanted to intervene in Nicaragua. About fifteen thousand rebel troops, called Contras, were fighting the communist government there. Reagan asked for military aid for the Contras. Congress rejected the request. It banned all aid to the Contras. At that same time, Muslim terrorists in Lebanon seized several Americans. The Reagan administration looked for ways to gain the hostages' release. It decided to sell missiles and missile parts to Iran in exchange for Iran's help. After the sale, Iran told the terrorists in Lebanon to release a few American hostages. VOICE TWO: Not long after, serious charges became public. Reports said that money from the sale of arms to Iran was used to aid the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Several members of the Reagan administration resigned. It appeared that some had violated the law. President Reagan said he regretted what had happened. But he said he had not known about it. Investigations and court trials of those involved continued into the Nineteen-Nineties. Several people were found guilty of illegal activities and of lying to Congress. No one went to jail. VOICE ONE: Most Americans did not blame President Reagan for the actions of others in his administration. They still supported him and his policies. They especially supported his efforts to deal with the Soviet Union. At the beginning of his first term, President Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire". To protect the United States against the Soviets, he increased military spending to the highest level in American history. Then, in Nineteen-Eighty-Five, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: The two leaders met in Switzerland, in Iceland, in Washington, and in Moscow. Each agreed to destroy hundreds of nuclear missiles. President Reagan also urged Mister Gorbachev to become more democratic. He spoke about the wall that communists had built to divide the city of Berlin, Germany. RONALD REAGAN: "No American who sees first-hand can ever again take for granted his or her freedom or the precious gift that is America. That gift of freedom is actually the birthright of all humanity. And that is why, as I stood there, I urged the Soviet leader, Mister Gorbachev, to send a new signal of openness to the world by tearing down that wall." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was president as the American economy grew rapidly. He was president as a new sense of openness was beginning in the Soviet Union. Yet, at the end of his presidency, many Americans were concerned by what he left behind. Increased military spending, together with tax cuts, had made the national debt huge. The United States owed thousands of millions of dollars. The debt would be a political issue for presidents to come. On our next program, we will discuss some social and cultural issues of the Reagan years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Warren Scheer. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: School Ends, and So Too Does Our Foreign Student Series
* Byline: A look at graduation time in America. All 43 reports in our series on US higher education can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Summer means the end of another school year in America. May and June are graduation season. A group of Brown University undergraduates before Brown's graduation ceremony in Providence, Rhode Island.Centuries of tradition explain the special caps and gowns that students and professors wear at commencement ceremonies. Top members of the class and invited guests offer speeches and advice. Finally the time comes for what everyone has been waiting for: one by one, the names of the students are called. They go to the front and shake hands with school officials. They might receive their official diploma that day or maybe a few weeks later. Graduations are always emotional events. But in May, at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, a graduate named Nola Ochs received special attention. Her major area of study was history. Nothing unusual about that. But Nola Ochs is ninety-five years old. That made her the world's oldest graduate for the keepers of the Guinness World Records. Until now they have recognized a ninety-year-old journalism graduate from the University of Oklahoma in two thousand four. Nola Ochs' granddaughter graduated with her. One of the commencement speakers told the students to take a lesson from Nola Ochs and never stop trying. That is good advice on which to end our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. We began in September with the process of applying to an American college or university. We talked about admissions tests, financial aid, online education, student exchange programs, programs for disabled students and a lot more. All forty-three reports can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. Many were based on questions from listeners. We invite you to continue writing us with your questions about the American education system. Our Foreign Student Series may be over for now, but we will still try to answer questions on future reports. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. Population experts at the Census Bureau say American colleges and universities will have an estimated eighteen million students this fall. Twenty years ago, there were thirteen million. Today there are not only more college-age Americans, but more going to college, including older people and women. At last report from two years ago, fifty-six percent of undergraduates were women. And women were fifty-nine percent of graduate students. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World Trade Talks Break Down as the Group of 4 Fail to Reach Agreement
* Byline: The United States, European Union, Brazil and India could not reach an agreement on farm subsidies.? Now, World Trade Organization talks move to Geneva. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Talks meant to end disagreement over international trade failed to produce results in Potsdam, Germany last week. The European Union and the United States sought to find common ground with Brazil and India on several trade issues. The group has become known as the G-Four in World Trade Organization negotiations. But neither side could agree and talks ended last Friday, two days earlier than expected. Brazil and India have been seeking big cuts in aid provided to farmers in industrial countries. The two nations have played the part of spokesmen for many of the least developed nations in the one- hundred-fifty-member W.T.O. During the talks, the United States offered to limit farm aid, or subsidies, to seventeen billion dollars a year. That is down from twenty-two billion dollars offered in October of two thousand five. But Brazil wants the United States to promise a bigger reduction in farm aid to below fifteen billion dollars. Currently, American farmers receive a total of about eleven billion dollars a year in subsidies. Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath blamed the United States' position on farm aid for the failure of the talks. But India wants to protect twenty percent of its farm product import taxes from all or most cuts. United States Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said that would leave almost all of India's import taxes in place. An official at the talks said the EU offered to cut import taxes on its most protected farm products by seventy percent. That is ten percentage points higher than its proposal from October, two thousand five. Products considered especially important would only receive subsidy cuts of twenty-three percent. The Doha round of W.T.O. negotiations started in November of two thousand one. A main goal was for rich countries to reduce their farm subsidies on important crops like cotton, sugar and corn. In return, developing countries would reduce or end barriers to trade in goods and services from industrial countries. Now, negotiations of the Doha Round will have to continue in Geneva, Switzerland. United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab said nations want to reach agreement on the Doha development plan. But she admitted that negotiations only among the G-Four nations may not be enough. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Exploring the Meeting Point Between Natural and Mechanical Forms: The Art of Graham Caldwell
* Byline: Also: A listener in Hungary asks about Hell's Kitchen in New York City.? And hear music from popular singer Chris Daughtry. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question from a listener about a place called Hell's Kitchen… Play music by Chris Daughtry and his new rock group… And report about a new American artist. Graham Caldwell HOST: Graham Caldwell is a young artist who makes magical and unusual sculptures out of glass and metal. This artist does not want to make glass art that just looks nice. He wants to push the limits of this material. He likes to explore the meeting point of natural and mechanical forms. Critics are praising his imaginative and bold sculptures. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Graham Caldwell makes many of his glass sculptures in his workshop near Washington, D.C. There, you can watch him put red-hot liquid glass on a metal stick ca lled a blowpipe. He expertly forms the glass in different ways by blowing air through the blowpipe opening. He can stretch the glass into long shapes or let it hang down so that gravity does the work. But Caldwell’s art is not usually just one single piece of sculpture. Each work is made up of many similar parts. Graham Caldwell recently had a show at an art gallery in Washington. One work was made up of pointy glass pieces that looked like the shape of elephant tusks. They were attached to the wall by round metal bases. Caldwell arranged these sharp, curved pieces in a circle so that all the points were Untitled by Graham Caldwellgoing in the same direction. It looked like the open mouth of an angry sea creature. Another work was made up of many slightly different silvery glass forms that looked like tear drops coming out of the wall. Each glass drop reflected the silvery shape next to it. When you stood near the rounded forms, you could see yourself and the whole room reflected in the glass. Graham Caldwell said the piece is about the "intelligibility of reflections."? This striking artwork keeps you looking, wondering, and exploring. Hell's Kitchen HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Hungary. Monika Fogl asks about a neighborhood in New York City called Hell's Kitchen. Hell's Kitchen is on the island of Manhattan. It is between Thirty-Fourth and Fifty-Ninth Streets west of Eighth Avenue all the way to the Hudson River. Dutch immigrants settled in the area in the late sixteen hundreds. Back then, it had green fields and small rivers. The Dutch called the area Vale of Flowers. How did the area get the name Hell's Kitchen? There are several possible answers. Some people say it was the traditional name of a building in the area. The building was in bad condition and the people who lived there were very poor. By the eighteen hundreds the area had become a dangerous place to live. Many poor Irish immigrants lived there. Fights and other crimes were common. People lived in dirty, crowded buildings that the owners did not take care of. The area had many factories, including slaughterhouses, where animals were killed and sold at food markets. In the eighteen sixties there were riots in Hell's Kitchen to protest the government's order forcing people to serve in the military during the Civil War. White people attacked black people, whom they blamed for the war. Many people were killed during the riots. Some people think the area was named Hell's Kitchen around that time. It could have come from Americans who knew of a poor and dangerous neighborhood in London, England called Hell's Kitchen. There is also the story of a police officer named Fred who worked the area in the eighteen seventies. Fred and his partner were watching a fight among people in the neighborhood. The partner said, "The place is hell itself."? Fred answered, "Hell's a mild climate. This is Hell's kitchen." In the nineteen thirties, the Great Depression made the poverty in Hell's Kitchen even worse. Many factories in the area dismissed employees. Port companies and slaughterhouses closed. Many people were forced to live on the streets because they could not pay for housing. Many others left the area. But new immigrant groups continued to arrive in New York, seeking a better life. Many Puerto Rican immigrants settled in Hell's Kitchen. The nineteen fifty-nine Broadway musical "West Side Story" was set in the area. It told about two young lovers torn by ethnic conflict between their Puerto Rican and white groups. The area has experienced a renewal over the years. It has many art galleries and restaurants. And it is close to Broadway Theaters. Hell's Kitchen has in fact been home to many young actors. There are also several broadcasting operations for television and radio in the area. There have been efforts to change the neighborhood's name to Clinton, after a former New York governor. But efforts to keep the name Hell's Kitchen are equal in strength. Chris Daughtry HOST: The television show, “American Idol,” has been the most popular program on American television for the past few years. Young singers perform on the show each week. Three judges comment on their performances. Then the viewers at home vote for their favorite. The singer with the fewest votes leaves the show. The winner gets the title, “American Idol.”? But what happens to the singers discovered on the show after the competition ends?? Faith Lapidus tells us about one “American Idol” loser who has become a big winner. FAITH LAPIDUS: Chris Daughtry competed on "American Idol" a year ago. But he was voted off the show. He is now the lead singer of the rock group called Daughtry. That is also the name of the band’s first album, released last November. It has sold more than two and one-half million copies. Here is the first single from the album DAUGHTRY. It is called, “It’s Not Over.” (MUSIC) Chris Daughtry is twenty-seven years old. He was born and raised in North Carolina. He wrote or helped write ten of the twelve songs on the album. Here he sings, “What I Want.” (MUSIC) Critics say Chris Daughtry has become the best-selling musician in the United States. This is not bad for a singer who was a loser on “American Idol."? We leave you now with another song from DAUGHTRY. It is called, “Home.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Recent Study Suggests Most Young Americans Plan to Vote for a Democrat in Next Year's Presidential Election
* Byline: Most young Americans consider themselves socially liberal. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. What do young Americans think about the presidential candidates and social issues? A new public opinion study shows that the majority of young people support Democrats over Republicans. The young people also have liberal positions on several social issues. The results of the study were published earlier this week by the New York Times newspaper. The opinion study was a joint effort by the New York Times, CBS News, and MTV, the music television network. The study was based on telephone calls to six hundred fifty-nine young people earlier this month. They were between the ages of seventeen and twenty-nine. Fifty-four percent of the young Americans questioned said they plan to vote for a Democratic Party candidate for president in two thousand eight. They appeared to like two candidates the most --? Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The study also found that many more young Americans are paying attention to the two thousand eight presidential race than the last one in two thousand four. They share with the general public a negative opinion of President Bush. Only twenty-eight percent of this group approve of the job he is doing as president. Almost half of the young Americans questioned feel their generation will be worse off than their parents’ generation. But more than seventy-five percent of them believe the votes of their generation would make a difference in the next presidential election. The study found that young adults share the same opinions as the general population on some issues. But they have different opinions on several issues. For example, young Americans are more likely than the general public to support a government-controlled health care system for all Americans. The young people are also more likely to support a liberal policy on immigration. Forty-four percent of the young Americans said they believe couples of the same sex should be permitted to legally marry. Only twenty-eight percent of the general population approve of the legalization of same-sex marriage. Young Americans are also more likely than the general public to support legalizing the possession of small amounts of the drug marijuana. When asked about the war in Iraq, young adults appeared to be more hopeful than the population as a whole. Fifty-one percent of the young adults said the United States is likely to succeed in Iraq. This is compared with forty-five percent of the general population. Young Americans share the same opinions as the general public on the issue of abortion to end a pregnancy. Seventy-five percent said abortion should be available, either as it is or with greater restrictions. And the majority of young adults agrees with the general population that global warming is a serious problem that should be a top issue for government leaders. And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Our reports can be found on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-06/2007-06-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fred Astaire, 1899-1987: His Acting, Singing and Dancing Changed the American Motion Picture Musical?
* Byline: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made nine movies together that people still enjoy today. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a VOA Special English program about famous Americans of the past. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of dancer and movie star, Fred Astaire. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year is nineteen thirty-two. The United States is suffering the greatest economic depression in its history. Jobs are hard to find. One young man is attempting to get a job dancing in the movies. Earlier, he and his sister had made a short film showing how they danced and sang. A motion picture company official watches the film. He writes this about the young man:? "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Even with this poor report, the young man still gets a job in the movies. And -- in time -- his acting, singing and dancing changed the American motion picture musical. His name was Fred Astaire. (MUSIC: "I Want to Be a Dancing Man") VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire was born in the Middle Western city of Omaha, Nebraska, in eighteen ninety-nine. He was the second child of an Austrian beer maker, Frederick Austerlitz, and his wife, Ann Gelius Austerlitz. Fred and his sister, Adele, learned to dance when they were very young. Their mother took them to New York to study dance. They performed in their first professional show when Fred was ten years old and Adele was twelve. Later, as teenagers, the two danced in many shows throughout the United States. Their first big success was on Broadway in nineteen seventeen. One critic wrote that Fred danced as if he had no bones. VOICE ONE: The Astaires -- as they were known -- quickly became Broadway stars. During the nineteen twenties, they sang and danced in eleven different shows. They also performed in England. In nineteen thirty-two, Adele Astaire married a British man, and stopped performing. Critics had always considered her a better dancer than her brother. But Fred did not give up. He would go on alone, in the movies. Many years later in the film, "The Bandwagon," he played a man in a similar situation. (MUSIC: "By Myself, Alone") VOICE TWO: One of Fred's first films was called "Flying Down To Rio."? It was in this movie that he first danced with a young woman named Ginger Rogers. Fred and Ginger were not the stars of the picture. But when they danced this dance, The Carioca, everyone knew that something important was happening in the world of movie dancing. (MUSIC: "The Carioca") VOICE ONE: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made nine movies together. Their dancing was considered -- and still is considered -- the best ballroom dancing in the world. Dance critic Arlene Croce wrote:? "Astaire and Rogers became the most popular team the movies have ever known. Their dancing was a vehicle of serious emotion between a man and a woman. It never happened in the movies again." Many great American songwriters wanted to write songs for Fred and Ginger. Among them were Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George and Ira Gershwin. They liked the way Fred sang a song. He did it simply, with respect for the words. One of these songs was Cole Porter's "Night and Day."? Fred sang it to Ginger in the movie "The Gay Divorcee." (MUSIC:?"Night and Day") VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire made forty other films. In addition to Ginger Rogers, he danced with many other talented women. Rita Hayworth. Eleanor Powell. Judy Garland. Cyd Charisse. Leslie Caron. Fred also danced alone in some very unusual places. He danced up walls and on the ceiling in the film "Royal Wedding."? He danced on rooftops in "The Belle of New York."? He danced on roller skates in "Shall We Dance?"? And he danced with firecrackers exploding at his feet in "Holiday Inn." VOICE ONE: Fred Astaire made all this look easy. But it was not. Critics have said his technical skill was the greatest in the histor y of the movie musical. He said:? "Dancing is a sweat job. You cannot just sit down and do it. You have to get up on your feet. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable. I always try to get to know my dance so well that I do not have to think, 'what comes next?'? Everything should fall into line. And then I know I have got control of the floor." VOICE TWO: Before each movie was filmed, Fred Astaire and his partner worked for as many as six weeks to plan each step and movement. He also planned how the cameras would photograph them, so that as much dancing as possible could be filmed at one time. Earlier, movie directors had photographed dancers showing one part of their body at a time as they danced. Fred would not permit this. He wanted moviegoers to see his whole body at all times. And he would not permit any camera tricks to make his dancing appear smoother or faster than it was. In nineteen forty-nine, Fred Astaire won a special award for his film work from America's Motion Picture Academy. He also won awards from the television industry for a number of his television programs. VOICE ONE: Fred stopped dancing in nineteen seventy. He was more than seventy years old at the time. He said a dancer could not continue dancing forever. He said he did not want to disappoint anyone, even himself. He danced again in public only once after that. It was with another great male dancer, Gene Kelly, in the movie "That's Entertainment, Part Two". Fred did not always appear as a dancing man. He had a dramatic part in the movie "On The Beach" in nineteen fifty-nine. And he starred in a non-dancing television series called "It Takes a Thief". VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire and his first wife, Phyllis, raised three children. Phyllis died in nineteen fifty-four. Twenty-five years later, Fred married race horse rider Robyn Smith. Fred Astaire died on June twenty-second, nineteen eighty-seven. He was eighty-eight years old. He was called the greatest dancer in the world. His dancing was called perfect. And moviegoers everywhere will remember him as a great performer whose work will live forever in his films. (MUSIC: "I Want to Be a Dancing Man") ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to People In America -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe were the narrators. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Ooh! Ah! Sis-Boom-Bah! Some Music to Go With the Fireworks on the Fourth of July
* Byline: A special program for Independence Day in the United States. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Fourth of July fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge in New YorkWelcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. America's Declaration of Independence from Britain was signed on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember bring you an Independence Day program of songs that celebrate America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with family gatherings, parades, speeches and fireworks. They also celebrate with patriotic music. The official song of the United States is "The Star-Spangled Banner." Francis Scott Key wrote the words in eighteen-fourteen. At that time, America and Britain were at war. Francis Scott Key watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the smoke and fire, he could see a huge American flag flying over the army base. VOICE TWO: The next morning, after the battle, he looked to see which flag flew over Fort McHenry. It would tell which side had won. Key saw that the American flag still flew. He wrote a poem re-creating the event. Soon after, music was added to his words. The United States Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national song in nineteen-thirty-one. Americans sing it at the beginning of many public meetings and sports events. Here is America’s national song, performed by Faith Hill. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people say "The Star-Spangled Banner" is difficult to sing. Others do not like the words. Some people have suggested that the United States change its national song. They say many other songs that celebrate America would be better. VOICE TWO: One of these is called "America." It is also known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Samuel Smith wrote it in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. The music is the same as the British national song, "God Save the Queen."? The Southwestern Christian College Chorus sings “America.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people think "America the Beautiful" is one of the best songs that celebrates America. Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words in eighteen-ninety-three. Samuel Ward wrote the music. Many singers and groups have recorded "America the Beautiful." Ray Charles sings his version. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people think "God Bless America" is the best song that celebrates America. Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen-seventeen. It became popular twenty years later when Kate Smith sang it on a national radio broadcast. Listen now to the young voices of the American Boychoir as they perform “God Bless America.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other people would like America's national song to be "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie wrote the words in nineteen-forty. It became one of the most popular folk songs in America. Pete Seeger and the Weavers sing "This Land is Your Land." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Years ago, Lee Greenwood recorded a song called “God Bless the U.S.A.” This song has gained new meaning and popularity since the terrorist attacks on the United States, September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Listen as Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Researchers Work on Malaria-Resistant Mosquitoes
* Byline: A team reports progress on a way to control the disease through genetic engineering of the insects that spread it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists say they have made more progress in developing malaria-resistant mosquitoes. The idea is to release genetically engineered insects like these into mosquito populations as a way to control the disease. Each year more than three million people become infected with malaria. At least one million die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa. Malaria is also a problem in Asia and South America. The parasites that cause malaria enter people's blood when they are bitten by the mosquitoes that carry the organisms. The parasites travel to the liver where they divide and grow. After a week or two, they invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They can destroy major organs. People die from malaria because they are not treated or treatment is delayed. Drugs can prevent the parasites from developing in the body. But experts still say the best way to prevent malaria is not to be bitten by a mosquito. Their advice could change in the future with the help of mosquitoes genetically engineered to block development of the parasite. In other words, they would not be able to spread the disease. Computer studies show that if malaria control is to succeed, insects like these are needed to replace mosquitoes in the wild. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the United States reported on their work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They put equal numbers of malaria-resistant mosquitoes in a box with other mosquitoes. The insects mated, and all of them fed on mice infected with the malaria parasite. The researchers took eggs produced by the mosquitoes and kept them until they became adult mosquitoes. These insects were then permitted to feed on infected mice. The researchers did this again and again. After nine generations, seventy percent of the mosquitoes were malaria-resistant. Earlier studies showed that disease-resistant mosquitoes would die early and not be able to replace wild ones. But in the new research, the scientists say they developed stronger mosquitoes. In any case, malaria-resistant mosquitoes might still need to be used in combination with drugs and insect poisons to control the disease. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about malaria, use the search box at voaspecialenglish.com and then click on Archive. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fireworks: What Is All the Noise About?
* Byline: Fireworks can by noisy, even if there is no explosion. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt. (MUSIC) Today we tell about the word fireworks. The expression fireworks gets its meaning from the fireworks that people shoot into the sky when they are celebrating a great event. Rockets explode to fill the dark, night sky with bright reds and blues, with yellows and greens and whites. The expression also means a great show of noisy anger, or something exciting. For example, a defense lawyer in a court trial may become very emotional in arguing with the government lawyer about evidence affecting the accused. The judge finally stops the loud argument and calls the two lawyers forward. He tells them, “I want no more of these fireworks in my courtroom.” Another kind of fireworks can be any event or activity that is especially exciting. One such event is falling in love. If anything can produce fireworks, it is a sweetheart’s kiss or the touch of a lover’s hand. Often movie or television cartoons show fireworks to represent the excitement of a kiss. People use the expression fireworks throughout the year. But if you live in the United States and want to see real fireworks, the best time of the?year is about now.The Fourth of July is Independence Day in the United States. Americans traditionally celebrate their nation’s freedom with giant public parties and fireworks at night. In Washington, for example, large crowds gather near the Washington Monument to listen to music and watch a huge fireworks show. In other cities and smaller towns, local people listen to band concerts and watch fireworks explode in a dark sky. Many other countries around the world also enjoy the tradition of exploding fireworks on special days. In Australia, the city of Sydney begins each new year with a fireworks show at midnight. China is the birthplace of fireworks. Large fireworks shows were held often during earlier times in China. Now, people use small fireworks to help celebrate weddings and birthdays. France also has a great fireworks tradition. A large fireworks show always takes place on Bastille Day, which celebrates the beginning of the French Revolution. The French city of Cannes holds an international fireworks competition each year in July and August. In India, people have been using fireworks for more than five hundred years. A great Indian fireworks show takes place during the religious celebration of Diwali, every autumn. Fireworks shows are popular around the world. But, if I do not end this program right now, there will be fireworks from my producer. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by David Jarmul. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Heat May Be Nature's Deadliest Killer
* Byline: Experts say people can do many things to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat.? Acting quickly will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about health problems linked to extreme heat. We also tell about what to do to prevent and treat these problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people feel hot, it can cause serious medical problems -- even death. Floods, storms and other natural events kill thousands of people every year. So does extreme heat. Experts say heat may be nature’s deadliest killer. Recently, extreme heat was blamed for killing more than one hundred people in India. Daytime temperatures rose to more than forty-five degrees Celsius in some areas. On June eleventh, the temperature in one desert town hit fifty-one degrees. VOICE TWO: Experts say the total heat of a hot day or several days can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become dangerous when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes great stress on the human body. Doctors say people can do many things to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink lots of cool water. Wear light colored clothing made of natural materials. Make sure the clothing is loose, permitting freedom of movement. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common health problem linked to hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it is also the least severe. The causes of heat stress include wearing heavy clothing, physical work or exercise, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. If several of these conditions are present at the same time, a person’s body temperature may rise above safe limits. The person loses large amounts of body water and salt in perspiration. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. It is how the body releases water to cool the skin. Most people suffer only muscle pain as a result of heat stress. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say those suffering muscle pain should stop all activity and rest in a cool place. They should also drink cool liquids. Do not return to physical activity for a few hours because more serious conditions could develop. VOICE TWO: Doctors say some people face an increased danger from heat stress. Such persons have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat increases problems for small children, older adults and those who have the disease diabetes. It is also dangerous for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood flow, nervousness or depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Untreated heat stress can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. A person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. Dehydration limits a person's ability to work and think. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion may also produce a feeling of sickness, a fast heartbeat, breathing problems and pain in the head, chest or stomach. Doctors say people suffering from such problems should rest quietly in a cool place and drink plenty of water. They also say it may help to wash with cool water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over a period of days. Doctors call this dehydration exhaustion. Each day, the body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know this problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. Experts say that even a two percent drop in the body's water supply can cause signs of dehydration, including problems with memory and even simple mathematics. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink plenty of water and rest in a cool place. Even better, doctors say, drink about two liters of water a day so problems with dehydration will not have a chance to develop. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. Heat stroke is the most serious disorder linked to hot weather. It results when the body is not able to control its temperature. The body’s temperature increases and perspiration fails. Generally, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. The skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may become unconscious, not knowing what is happening. Doctors say the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook when its temperature is higher than forty-two degrees Celsius. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is needed for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say such treatment is necessary or the person could die before help arrives. VOICE TWO: The purpose of immediate treatment is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body temperature from increasing. Begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Raise the person’s feet up about thirty centimeters. Take off the victim’s clothing. Put cool water on the body. Place pieces of ice in areas where blood passageways are close to the skin. These include the back of the neck and under the arms. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. It is also important to know what to do if the signs appear…in yourself or in someone else. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is between fifty-five and seventy-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water is also needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water a day to replace all the water lost in liquid wastes and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. Experts say it is especially important to drink before, during and after exercise. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cool liquids is best. Cool drinks do more than just replace lost body water. They also help cool us faster than warm liquids do. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. Yet experts advise against drinking sweet liquids in hot weather. The sugar they contain slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through liquid wastes. VOICE ONE: Doctors say actions other than drinking water can protect against the heath dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, light-weight and light colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head covering when in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. If possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. Also, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may one day even save your life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. ?Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Improvements in Food Industry Earn Major Award for American Agricultural Scientist
* Byline: Purdue University researcher wins 2007 World Food Prize.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. An American expert in food science technology has won a major international award. Philip E. Nelson has been named winner of the Two Thousand Seven World Food Prize. World Food Prize Foundation President Kenneth Quinn announced the award last month. The ceremony took place at the State Department in Washington, D.C. The prize will be officially awarded at the Iowa State Capitol in October. It will provide Mister Nelson with two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Mister Nelson has worked at Purdue University in Indiana for forty-seven years. The agricultural scientist is being honored for technologies now commonly used by the food industry. Philip Nelson improved and developed methods for cleaning and storing fruits and vegetables. His technologies permit storage for longer periods. And the food can be transported without cooling. His research also has led to getting food quickly to disaster survivors, like those of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in two thousand four. As a young man, Mister Nelson was once honored for growing the best tomatoes at a state fair. He worked at his family's farm and tomato-canning factory in Morristown, Indiana. Working in the factory showed him the need for lengthening the time that food could safely last without spoiling. That was the beginning of his discoveries. Mister Nelson's research has led to the use of big carbon steel tanks to safely keep food. He began by experimenting with tanks of about three hundred eighty liters. Some tanks now can hold more than thirty million liters. They keep food safe at the temperature of the surrounding environment. The tanks are treated with a substance called epoxy resin. Valve and filter mechanical devices are sterilized. This process prevents bacteria or other harmful microorganisms from reproducing. The sterilized food is shipped for final preparation and processing. Many developing countries use Mister Nelson's methods. For example, a juice manufacturer in Brazil is able to ship large amounts of orange juice to Europe and the United States. Mister Nelson also developed another system for food processing. The method also kills bacteria in containers, keeping the food inside safe. Companies in many parts of the world use this "bag-in-box" method. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. ?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Amelia Earhart, 1897-1937: First Woman to Fly Alone Across the Atlantic
* Byline: One of America's first female pilots was lost at sea 70 years ago while attempting to fly around the world, five years after her historic flight. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about Amelia Earhart. She was one of America’s first female pilots. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart was born in eighteen ninety-seven in the middle western state of Kansas. She was not a child of her times. Most American girls at the beginning of the twentieth century were taught to sit quietly and speak softly. They were not permitted to play ball or climb trees. Those activities were considered fun for boys. They were considered wrong for girls. Amelia and her younger sister Muriel were lucky. Their parents believed all children needed physical activity to grow healthy and strong. So Amelia and Muriel were very active girls. They rode horses. They played baseball and basketball. They went fishing with their father. Other parents would not let their daughters play with Amelia and Muriel. VOICE TWO: The Earharts lived in a number of places in America’s Middle West when the girls were growing up. The family was living in Chicago, Illinois when Amelia completed high school in nineteen sixteen. Amelia then prepared to enter a university. During a holiday, she visited her sister in Toronto, Canada. World War One had begun by then. And Amelia was shocked by the number of wounded soldiers sent home from the fighting in France. She decided she would be more useful as a nurse than as a student. So she joined the Red Cross. VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart first became interested in flying while living in Toronto. She talked with many pilots who were treated at the soldiers’ hospital. She also spent time watching planes at a nearby military airfield. Flying seemed exciting. But the machinery – the plane itself – was exciting, too. After World War One ended, Amelia spent a year recovering from the disease pneumonia. She read poetry and went on long walks. She learned to play the banjo. And she went to school to learn about engines. When she was healthy again, she entered Columbia University in New York City. She studied medicine. After a year she went to California to visit her parents. During that trip, she took her first ride in an airplane. And when the plane landed, Amelia? Earhart had a new goal in life. She would learn to fly. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the world’s first female pilots, Neta Snook, taught Amelia to fly. It did not take long for Amelia to make her first flight by herself. She received her official pilot’s license in nineteen twenty. Then she wanted a plane of her own. She earned most of the money to buy it by working for a telephone company. Her first plane had two sets of wings, a bi-plane. On June seventeenth, nineteen twenty-eight, the plane left the eastern province of Newfoundland, Canada. The pilot and engine expert were men. The passenger was Amelia Earhart. The plane landed in Wales twenty hours and forty minutes later. For the first time, a woman had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air. VOICE ONE: Amelia did not feel very important, because she had not flown the plane. Yet the public did not care. People on both sides of the Atlantic were excited by the tall brave girl with short hair and gray eyes. They organized parties and parades in her honor. Suddenly, she was famous. Amelia Earhart had become the first lady of the air. She wrote a book about the flight. She made speeches about flying. And she continued to fly by herself across the United States and back. VOICE TWO: Flying was a new and exciting activity in the early nineteen twenties. Pilots tested and demonstrated their skills in air shows. Amelia soon began taking part in these shows. She crashed one time in a field of cabbage plants. The accident did not stop her from flying. But she said it did decrease her desire to eat cabbages. Flying was fun, but costly. Amelia could not continue. She sold her bi-plane, bought a car and left California. She moved across the country to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. She taught English to immigrants and then became a social worker. VOICE ONE: In the last years of the nineteen twenties, hundreds of record flights were made. A few were made by women. But no woman had flown across the Atlantic Ocean. A wealthy American woman, Amy Guest, bought a plane to do this. However, her family opposed the idea. So she looked for another woman to take her place. Friends proposed Amelia Earhart. VOICE TWO: American publisher George Putnam had helped organize the Atlantic Ocean flight that made Amelia famous. Afterwards, he continued to support her flying activities. In nineteen thirty-one, George and Amelia were married. He helped provide financial support for her record flights. On May twentieth, nineteen thirty-two, Amelia took off from Newfoundland. She headed east in a small red and gold plane. Amelia had problems with ice on the wings, fog from the ocean and instruments that failed. At one point, her plane dropped suddenly nine hundred meters. She regained control. And after fifteen hours she landed in Ireland. She had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the next few years, Amelia Earhart set more records and received more honors. She was the first to fly from Hawaii to California, alone. She was the first to fly from Mexico City to New York City, without stopping. Amelia hoped her flights would prove that flying was safe for everyone. She hoped women would have jobs at every level of the industry when flying became a common form of transportation. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-five, the president of Purdue University in Indiana asked Amelia to do some work there. He wanted her to be an adviser on aircraft design and navigation. He also wanted her to be a special adviser to female students. Purdue University provided Amelia with a new all-metal, two-engine plane. It had so many instruments she called it the “Flying Laboratory.”? It was the best airplane in the world at that time. Amelia decided to use this plane to fly around the world. She wanted to go around the equator. It was a distance of forty-three thousand kilometers. No one had attempted to fly that way before. VOICE ONE: Amelia’s trip was planned carefully. The goal was not to set a speed record. The goal was to gather information. Crew members would study the effects of height and temperature on themselves and the plane. They would gather small amounts of air from the upper atmosphere. And they would examine the condition of airfields throughout the world. Amelia knew the trip would be dangerous. A few days before she left, she gave a small American flag to her friend Jacqueline Cochran, another female pilot. Amelia had carried the flag on all her major flights. Jacqueline did not want to take it until Amelia returned from her flight around the world. “No,” Amelia told her, “you had better take it now.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Amelia and three male crew members were to make the flight. However, a minor accident and weather conditions forced a change in plans. So on June first, nineteen thirty-seven, a silver Lockheed Electra plane left Miami, Florida. It carried pilot Amelia Earhart and just one male crew member, navigator Fred Noonan. Amelia Earhart getting out of her airplane in South AmericaAmelia and Fred headed south toward the equator. They stopped in Puerto Rico, Surinam and Brazil. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where they stopped in Senegal, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Then they continued on to India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. VOICE ONE: When they reached New Guinea, they were about to begin the most difficult part of the trip. They would fly four thousand kilometers to tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Three hours after leaving New Guinea, Amelia sent back a radio message. She said she was on a direct path to Howland Island. Later, Amelia’s radio signals were received by a United States Coast Guard ship near the island. The messages began to warn of trouble. ?Fuel was getting low. They could not find Howland Island. They could not see any land at all. VOICE TWO: The radio signals got weaker and weaker. A message on the morning of July second was incomplete. Then there was silence. American Navy ships and planes searched the area for fifteen days. They found nothing. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were officially declared “lost at sea.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the?Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Long and Short of Cornering the Market in Global Finance Lingo
* Byline: 

 I'm Adam Phillips for WORDMASTER, sitting in for Roseanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. Today we look at the jargon of international finance. With giant American corporations leading the drive toward the globalization of business, English has become the de facto international language of finance. SALIH NEFTCI: "Financial market terminology is only in English. If you don't speak English, you basically cannot do it." That's financial economics professor Salih Neftci, who is designing a groundbreaking new program in Global Finance for the New School in New York City. Like English itself, Neftci is all over the globe, with teaching and other responsibilities in China, the United States and Europe. SALIH NEFTCI: "Even if you speak French, Spanish, German or Mandarin - which are great languages! - finance is only English. It's actually very mundane English. It's not going to make you look like a very big intellectual. But it has its purpose and it works. The purpose is to make money the best way. The notion of hedging, for example." Hedging, Neftci explains, is what banks and other businesses do to offset the risk that the price of their asset will rise or fall contrary to their wishes. Nefcti notes that financiers often take seemingly contrary positions to protect their assets. SALIH NEFTCI: "A position is a bet. I bet that the oil price will go up. So I bought oil. Now I look at the conditions. It doesn't look that good. It's best to get out before your losses accumulate. Then you unwind the position. That's what means: unwind the position. Make the position reverse, and get out of your commitment." It all depends on whether investors are facing a bull market or a bear market. A bull market is a sustained period in which investment prices rise higher than their historical average. A bear market means investment prices are lower. Of course one can diversify one's strategy -- that is, spread out one's risks. A bearish spread is one that bets that the price of a security will decline, and a bullish spread is a bet that the price will rise. A butterfly spread mixes both bull and bear. Whichever strategy is adopted, Salih Nefcti says financial people don't usually engage in punting. SALIH NEFTCI: "You think [for example that] oil prices are going up [and] you buy oil. That's punting. You just take pure speculation. Usually they don't do that. They buy something; they sell something. For example, they're buying Indian stocks [and] they are selling Chinese stocks. They can either do it with cash, or they can do it just by positioning themselves, which is long-short. So I am long India, I am short China.'" Long and short are specialized forms of buying and selling. SALIH NEFTCI: "Suppose you think something is going up, some asset like stocks. There are two ways to do it. You put your hand in your pocket, and get the money. You give your money. You get the asset. Going long is not that. "Going long is, I go to a broker and say 'I will buy it in one month.' I sign the contract; I don't even put the?deposit [down], but I committed myself. If during this one month the value goes up, I don't even have to buy it. I just sort of agree on getting the difference in the price. 'Long' and 'short,' these are very quick words, but that is why it is useful. Because it is very practical." The future will always be an abstraction until it becomes the present. At the end of the day, world agricultural markets still deal with down-to-earth physical things that we depend on or enjoy. Finding that balance between future possibilities and present realities can help a financier to corner the market?in some so-called soft commodities like sugar, salt, cotton or coffee. SALIH NEFTCI: "Cornering the market means I went on the market, I got promises from people to deliver to me something, say coffee, at the same time I bought all the physical coffee. Notice I am buying the promise, but I am also buying the coffee. So when it the time comes to deliver, they're not going to be able to find it. And then coffee prices will go up and I am the one who is holding coffee, so I benefit. It's illegal in America. If the feds?nail you [charge you] with that, well, it's going to be pretty bad." Indeed, like international finance itself, the specialized English terms used by the men and women who trade in the international marketplace are complex. However, Nefcti says that finance people like to keep it all very simple: SALIH NEFTCI: "Unfortunately, financial markets have one dimension. They are not interested in losers. They are only interested in winners!" Those are terms almost anyone can understand. For WORDMASTER, I'm Adam Phillips reporting from New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: New Rules for International Health Emergencies Take Effect
* Byline: WHO explains new rules that could help contain, or avoid, worldwide health disasters. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Avoiding infection during the SARS scare in 2003Last month, new International Health Regulations went into effect. The new rules aim to contain the threats from diseases that may spread quickly from one country to another, such as influenza. Most countries in the world have agreed to treat the new rules as international law. The first version of the International Health Regulations was passed in nineteen sixty-nine. It was designed to contain threats from serious infectious diseases that spread from one country to another. Those rules dealt with only four diseases : cholera, plague, yellow fever and smallpox. Back then the International Health Regulations mainly involved the reporting of outbreaks of disease. They also established some controls to stop infected people from crossing borders and spreading disease. The World Health Assembly passed the new International Health Regulations in two thousand five. The World Health Organization says the new version aims to battle infectious diseases at the source instead of waiting for them to reach borders. The new health rules deal with any disease or health event that could lead to a possible international emergency. The rules are designed to avoid interference with trade and traffic around the world as much as possible. The W.H.O. says communication will be greatly improved under the new rules. There will be special points of contacts within nations that will be responsible for reporting information to W.H.O. points of contact. All World Health Organization member countries must honor these rules. W.H.O. officials say member countries are very likely to honor the rules because they all share an interest in avoiding major health crises. The officials also note that a country that does not obey the rules risks damage to its image inside its borders and internationally. The International Health Regulations have a method for settling disputes between countries. Conflicts may result from different understandings of the rules or how they are to be carried out. World health officials say the new health rules will help countries in several ways. The W.H.O. will provide guidance, technical support and help in getting financial assistance for public health emergencies. ?And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can find other news about health at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 1970s and '80s Were a Period of Change in American Society
* Byline: Americans became tired of social struggle. They had been working together for common interests. Now, many wanted to spend more time on their own personal interests. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell the story about some social and cultural issues of the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties. VOICE ONE: An economics professor from the United States was teaching in Britain in the early Nineteen-Eighties. One of his students asked this question: "What is most important to Americans these days?" He said: "Earning money." Clearly, his answer was far too simple. Still, many observers would agree that great numbers of Americans in the Nineteen-Eighties were concerned with money. These people wanted the good life that they believed money could buy. VOICE TWO: In some ways, the Nineteen-Eighties were the opposite of the Nineteen-Sixties. The Nineteen-Sixties were years of protest and reform. Young Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War. African Americans demonstrated for civil rights. Women demonstrated for equal treatment. For many, society's hero was the person who helped others. For many in the Nineteen-Eighties, society's hero was the person who helped himself. Success seemed to be measured only by how much money a person made. VOICE ONE: The period of change came during the Nineteen-Seventies. For a while, these years remained tied to the social experiments and struggles of the Nineteen-Sixties. Then they showed signs of what American would be like in the Nineteen-Eighties. There were a number of reasons for the change. One reason was that the United States ended its military involvement in Vietnam. Another was that the civil rights movement and women's movements reached many of their goals. A third reason was the economy. During the Nineteen-Seventies, the United States suffered an economic recession. Interest rates and inflation were high. There was a shortage of imported oil. VOICE TWO: As the Nineteen-Seventies moved toward the Nineteen-Eighties, Americans became tired of social struggle. They became tired of losing money. They had been working together for common interests. Now, many wanted to spend more time on their own personal interests. This change appeared in many parts of American society. It affected popular culture, education, and politics. VOICE ONE: For example, one of the most popular television programs of that time was about serious social issues. It was called "All in the Family". It was about a factory worker who hates black people and opposes equal rights for women. His family slowly helps him to accept and value different kinds of people. Other television programs, however, were beginning to present an escape from serious issues. These included "Happy Days" and "Three's Company." Music showed the change, too. In the Nineteen-Sixties, folk music was very popular. Many folk songs were about social problems. In the Nineteen-Seventies, groups played hard rock and punk music, instead. VOICE TWO: Self-help books were another sign that Americans were becoming more concerned about their own lives. These books described ways to make people happier with themselves. One of the most popular was called I'm Okay, You're Okay. It was published in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. It led the way for many similar books throughout the Nineteen-Seventies. VOICE ONE: The Nineteen-Seventies also saw a change in education. In the Nineteen-Sixties, many young people expressed little interest in continuing their education after four years of study in college. They were busy working for social reforms. Many believed that more education only created unequal classes of people. By the middle Nineteen-Seventies, however, more young people decided it was acceptable to make a lot of money. Higher education was a way to get the skills to do this. Law schools and medical schools soon had long lists of students waiting to get in. VOICE TWO: Politically, the United States went through several changes during the Nineteen-Seventies. There were liberal Democratic administrations for most of the Nineteen-Sixties. Then a conservative Republican, Richard Nixon, was elected. During his second term, President Nixon was forced to resign because of the Watergate case. Vice President Gerald Ford became president after Nixon's resignation. About two years later, he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter. The election showed that Americans were angry with the Republican Party because of the Watergate case. But they soon became unhappy with President Carter, too. They blamed him for failing to improve the economy. He lost his campaign for re-election to conservative Republican Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: The Nineteen-Eighties were called the Reagan years, because he was president for Ronald Reaganeight of them. During his first term, the recession ended. Inflation was controlled. He reduced taxes. Americans felt hopeful that they could make money again. Observers created several expressions to describe some groups of people at that time. One expression was "the 'me' generation". This described Americans who were only concerned about themselves. Another expression was "yuppie". It meant "young urban professional". Both these groups seemed as if they lived just to make and spend money, money, and more money. Entertainment in the Nineteen-Eighties showed the interest society placed on financial success. The characters in a number of television programs, for example, lived in costly homes, wore costly clothes, and drove costly automobiles. They were not at all like average Americans. They lived lives that required huge amounts of money. Two of these television programs became extremely popular in the United States and in other countries. They were called "Dallas" and "Dynasty". VOICE TWO: At the movie theater, a very popular film was called "Wall Street". It was about a young, wealthy, dishonest -- powerful -- man who traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Power was a popular program idea in action films, too. The most successful action films were about a man called "Rambo". Rambo was impossibly heroic. Naturally, he always won. The films showed good winning over evil. But Rambo rejected established rules and was extremely violent. Another form of entertainment became popular in the Nineteen-Eighties. It was the television talk show. People appeared on these shows mostly to talk about themselves: their politics, their families, their sexual relations. They talked in public about things that were once considered private. Much of the popular music of the time also showed this new openness. Heavy metal rock groups sang about sex and drugs. And then there was the new form of music called "rap". In this form, words are spoken, not sung, over a heavy beat. Many Americans found all these kinds of music to be too shocking, too violent, too lawless, and too damaging to the human spirit. VOICE ONE: People may have talked and sung openly about sex and drugs in the Nineteen-Eighties. But as the years went by, many became increasingly careful about their own activities. This was because sex and drugs became deadly. A new disease appeared at that time. It was called AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The disease spread in several ways. One was through sexual relations. Another was through sharing the needles used to take illegal drugs. VOICE TWO: A big change in American life during the Nineteen-Eighties came as a result of the computer. Computers were invented forty years earlier. They were large machines and were used only at universities, big companies, and in the military. By the Nineteen-Eighties, computers had become much smaller. Anyone could learn how to use them, even children. Millions of Americans soon had a 'personal' computer in their home. They could use it to read newspaper stories, buy things, do schoolwork, and play games. Such technological improvement -- and a bright economy -- filled Americans of the early and middle Nineteen-Eighties with hope. Many felt there were almost no limits on the good life they could lead. VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Historic Antioch College Faces an Unsure Future
* Byline: A shortage of students and money leads to a disputed plan to close the Ohio school next July and reopen in 2012. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is a private liberal-arts school with a history of social activism. It was the first American college to name a woman as a full professor and one of the first to admit students of all races. Antioch also became one of the first to offer work study programs, so students could gain experience in jobs. And it was among the first to stop using grades to record progress. A Protestant group known as the Christian Church started Antioch College in eighteen fifty-two. Even in those days it was different from most other American colleges because it admitted women as well as men. During the nineteen sixties, Antioch students were active in the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War. At that time, the college had more than two thousand students. But times changed. In nineteen seventy-eight Antioch University was created. Antioch College became the undergraduate residential program. But it has struggled with a shortage of students and money. School officials say students are rejecting the college because it lacks modern dormitories, wireless Internet or new athletic buildings. The number of students has dropped to only four hundred this past year. Now, the university Board of Trustees has voted to suspend operations at Antioch College next July. School officials say the goal is reopen the college in two thousand twelve. They say they want to raise enough money to design what they call a twenty-first century campus. Today Antioch University has five other campuses around the country designed to serve working adults. The closure will not affect the other campuses. Some people say Antioch's expansion is one reason the college is in financial trouble. But university officials say the other campuses have been helping to support Antioch College. They say the college has been operating at a loss for several years. Antioch College has been closed and reopened three times already in its history, for financial and other reasons. Teachers and former students have talked about the possibility of legal action to try to stop the new plan. The Antioch College Alumni Association has been collecting money to try to keep the school from closing again -- or at least make sure it reopens. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about American education, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Live Earth Concerts Aim to Raise the Heat on Issue of Climate Change
* Byline: Also: a listener in Taiwan asks if urban legends are true.? And this summer's crop of sequel movies. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question from a listener about stories called urban legends… Play music by groups taking part in worldwide Live Earth concerts to fight global warming… And report about some movie sequels being released this summer. Summer Sequels HOST: A sequel is a movie that continues a story begun in an earlier movie or tells another story using the same characters. This summer, there are a lot of them. Barbara Klein explains. BARBARA KLEIN: Movie studio officials say they expect sequels this summer to earn a huge amount of money. They say three such movies released in May earned more than one hundred million dollars each in ticket sales in just one month. The three movies are "Shrek Three,"? "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End" and "Spider-Man Three." "Spider-Man Three" continues the story of the superhero who fights evil in New York City. The movie earned more than one hundred fifty million dollars in its first three days of release. Reports say movie officials expect it to earn about nine hundred million dollars around the world. "Shrek the Third" continues the story of the green cartoon creature and his wife, Princess Fiona. It has earned more than three hundred million dollars in the United States since it opened in May. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End" is the third story about pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. He was captured by the evil Davy Jones in the earlier movie. In the latest one, his friends rescue him from death on the high seas. The latest "Pirates" movie earned one hundred fifty million dollars in the United States on its opening weekend. And it earned more than two hundred forty million dollars outside the United States during that same period. But movie officials are disappointed that the third movies in these series are not doing as well in the United States as the second movies did. They say one reason for this may be that the three movies opened very close to each other. Still, they expect all three movies to do extremely well around the world. Several other movie sequels were released recently. They include “Ocean’s Thirteen,” "The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," and "Live Free or Die Hard."? Still to come this summer: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Urban Legends HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Taiwan. Sandra wants to know if urban legends are true. An urban legend is a story that many people believe to be true. Some of these stories may have had some truth to them at one time. But they usually change over time and many are not true anymore. In the past, people read such stories in magazines and newspapers. Today, the Internet spreads them around the world much faster. Many urban legends warn about something. One very old one is about a woman who tied up her long hair and never washed it. Spiders were said to have made a nest in her hair and killed her by eating her head. Other examples include warnings about eating two different foods or medicines at the same time, like taking an aspirin with Coca Cola. One urban legend is about ships and planes that mysteriously disappear in an area of the Atlantic Ocean called the Bermuda Triangle. Another is about people in New York City who got rid of their small pet alligators by flushing them down the toilet. These alligators lived in New York's underground waste water system and grew to be huge. Other urban legends involve famous movie stars. ? Some urban legends are false, yet are extremely difficult to stop. For example, one story said a major American company gave some of its money to the Church of Satan that worships the devil. Many people who believed this story stopped buying the company’s products even though the story was false. Some Internet sites investigate the truth of urban legends. One is called Snopes dot com. It lists the twenty-five most popular urban legends. Many are spread through the Internet. The top one is about plastic bottles you can buy that contain water. An urban legend says that these bottles release cancer-causing substances when they are re-used. Snopes says this urban legend is false. Live Earth HOST: On Saturday, musicians around the world will perform a series of concerts to raise attention to global warming. The twenty-four hours of music will take place in New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai and Johannesburg; also Hamburg, Germany, and Sydney, Australia. On Thursday a Brazilian judge ruled that the concert in Rio de Janeiro could go on as planned. She accepted security guarantees from organizers, but the decision may not have been final. The Live Earth shows will be broadcast on television, radio and the Internet in more than one hundred countries. Faith Lapidus tells us more about the events. FAITH LAPIDUS: They are being called "the concerts for a climate in crisis."? Producer Kevin Wall, working with former Vice President Al Gore, came up with the idea for Live Earth. Wall has produced concerts for many famous performers including Bob Dylan. He founded SOS, Save Our Selves, to develop events to influence people to fight climate crisis. Wall was also the man behind Live Eight, a series of concerts last year to fight poverty. Live Earth is taking place on the seventh day of the seventh month of two thousand seven. It represents all seven continents. More than one hundred famous musicians will perform. They include the Police, Madonna and Bon Jovi. Lenny Kravitz will be the lead act at the concert in Rio de Janeiro. His hits include "American Woman" and "Let Love Rule." Here Kravitz sings "Are You Gonna' Go My Way." (MUSIC) The Black Eyed Peas will be among the performers at the show in London. Here lead singer Fergie performs a song from her solo album, "The Dutchess."? "Big Girls Don't Cry" is one of the top songs on Billboard Magazine's Hot One Hundred List. (MUSIC) If you are near Hamburg, Germany you can see Shakira perform at the Live Earth show there. We leave you with Shakira singing "Illegal." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver wrote the program. Mario Ritter was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Subprime Home Loans Become Risky Investments
* Byline: The world of mortgage-backed securities. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. As the American housing market has cooled, worries about investments based on risky home loans have heated up. Last month, two hedge funds operated by the investment bank Bear Stearns nearly collapsed under debt. They had borrowed billions of dollars from lenders and invested in securities tied to subprime mortgages. Bear Stearns agreed to provide over one and one-half billion dollars to rescue one of the funds. Investors in the other could lose everything. The trouble at Bear Stearns is an example of the risks involved with mortgage-backed securities. These investments have helped drive home ownership rates in the United States to nearly seventy percent. But as interest rates have risen, some homeowners now find it hard to pay their mortgages, and keep their homes. Americans usually need a mortgage loan to buy a house. Subprime borrowers are people without strong credit histories. Lenders can charge them more because there is a greater chance they will not be able to pay back the loan. Subprime lenders often depend on credit to make the loans. Once processed, the loan is usually sold to an investment bank. Loans with similar levels of risk are grouped together and then sold to investors worldwide as mortgage-backed securities. The higher the risk, the higher the return. The Government National Mortgage Association, known as Ginnie Mae, and two other organizations known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac produce most mortgage-backed securities. But investment banks have increased their share, led by Lehman Brothers. Last year, it processed more than fifty billion dollars in securities backed by subprime mortgages. Being able to sell their loans offers mortgage lenders a way to raise money to make new loans. But being able to spread their risk can also be seen as an invitation to make bad loans. Last week, federal agencies released the final version of a statement on subprime lending. It provides guidance to lenders to make sure borrowers are able to pay back mortgages with adjustable interest rates. The aim is to avoid payment shock as the rates increase, often after a low starting rate. The agencies also warn against lending activities that harm the interests of homeowners. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US High Court Takes a More Conservative Turn With Bush Appointees
* Byline: A look at the results of the Supreme Court term that just ended, and the president's decision to keep Lewis Libby out of prison. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Legal experts had a lot to discuss this week. President Bush intervened to keep a former top administration official out of prison. And last week the Supreme Court ended its first full term with two Bush appointees. A demonstrator holds a sign outside the Supreme Court building?in DecemberMost experts agree that the appointments have created a more conservative high court. Just how much may remain to be seen. But some already think the changes may be remembered as the president's biggest success for the conservative movement. John Roberts arrived on the court as chief justice after William Rehnquist died in two thousand five. Justice Samuel Alito joined the court at the beginning of last year. He replaced Sandra Day O’Connor who retired. In the most recent term, which began in October, the four most conservative justices won twice as many cases as they lost. One-third of all cases were decided by votes of five-to-four. Commentators noted it was the highest share in ten years, though not all split liberal and conservative. The deciding vote was often Justice Anthony Kennedy. He was in the majority in every five-four decision. Over the years he has voted with conservatives as well as liberals on the court. In this term, Justice Kennedy sided with the liberals in their most important case. The court ruled that the government has the power to restrict the release of greenhouse gases. But he took the side of the conservatives in their most important decisions. These included upholding a federal ban on a late-term abortion method. Another decision limited the free speech rights of public school students. And last week the court limited the ability of school systems to consider race in efforts to balance student populations. On the last day of the term, the Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals by detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The court had denied an earlier request in April. The detainees seek the right to appeal their detainment in federal court. The administration says they are enemy combatants and should not be given such rights. The Supreme Court will hear the arguments after its next term begins in October. This week Americans debated another legal issue after President Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. He was the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and a presidential assistant. A jury found he lied in the investigation into who leaked the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency officer married to an Iraq war critic. The president said a thirty-month term was severe. He said he has not decided about using his constitutional right to also give a pardon. Monday's action came hours after a court refused to delay the prison sentence while Lewis Libby appealed his conviction. He has already paid a fine of two hundred fifty thousand dollars as part of his sentence. The judge also ordered probation. Now the judge asks how someone could serve two years of supervised release without first going to prison. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Clare Booth Luce, 1903-1987: News Reporter, Magazine Editor, Member of Congress and Ambassador
* Byline: She was often on the list of the ten most important and admired women in the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a woman who became famous for her activities in government, the media and the arts. She was a member of Congress and an ambassador. She was a news reporter and magazine editor. And she wrote plays. Her name was Clare Boothe Luce. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce was one of the most influential women in modern American history. Yet she came from simple roots. She was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-three. Clare’s father was a musician and businessman. Her mother had been a dancer. While Clare was a girl, her parents ended their marriage. She and her brother stayed with their mother. Their mother did not have a lot of money. Yet she was able to send Clare to very good schools. Her mother then married a doctor from Connecticut. Clare’s stepfather, Albert Austin, later served in the United States House of Representatives. VOICE TWO: As a young woman, Clare Boothe was known for her intelligence and good looks. She met her first husband through a family friend. George Tuttle Brokaw was a wealthy man. He also was more than twenty years older than Clare. They were married in nineteen twenty-three and had one child – a daughter. However, her husband had a problem with alcoholic drinks. Their marriage ended after only six years. Clare developed a serious interest in writing. In nineteen thirty, a friend, the magazine publisher Conde Nast, offered her a job. She wrote comments for pictures published in Vogue, a magazine for women about clothes and fashion. A short time later, she accepted a job at another magazine, Vanity Fair. She wrote reports about social events and famous people in New York. Later these reports were published in a book. VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe became a top editor at Vanity Fair. She worked there until nineteen thirty-four. By then, she was also writing plays. One play was called “Abide With Me.”? It was about a man who mistreats his wife. “Abide With Me” opened in a theater on Broadway in New York City in nineteen thirty-five. Critics hated it. Two days after the show opened, Clare Boothe married Henry Robinson Luce. He was a famous and important magazine publisher. He published Time and Fortune magazines. She had first met Henry Luce at a party in New York. At the time, he was married and had two children. He and Clare were married a short time after a court order canceled his first marriage. They would stay together for more than thirty years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Clare Boothe Luce returned to writing plays. Her second play, “The Women,” made fun of rich women. It opened on Broadway in nineteen thirty-six. The show was very popular. It was later made into a movie. Another play, “Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” also was a success. So was her next play, “Margin For Error.” All three plays were noted for their use of sharp language and making fun of human failings. Clare Boothe Luce was known for expressing her opinions. Her most famous saying was: “No good deed goes unpunished.”? She often spoke about the problems of women trying to succeed in a world mainly controlled by men. She said: “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’? They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.'”? She made these comments in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. CLARE BOOTHE LUCE: "We women are supposed to be a minority. I’ve never understood that myself because we outnumber the men in actual numbers, and we live five years longer. So I’ve never felt like a minority because, as you know, minorities are never supposed to say anything unkind about one another." VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty, Clare Boothe Luce traveled to Europe as a reporter for Life magazine, which was published by her husband. She visited a number of countries and later wrote reports about how people were dealing with World War Two. She wrote a book about this called “Europe in Spring.” In the book, she noted that people were living in “a world where men have decided to die together because they are unable to find a way to live together."? She also reported from Africa, China, India and Burma for Life magazine. In nineteen forty-two, her stepfather, Albert Austin, died. Missus Luce agreed to be the Republican Party candidate for his seat in the House of Representatives from Connecticut. She was elected and entered Congress in January, nineteen forty-three. Missus Luce was a political conservative. She spoke against the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She criticized the Roosevelt administration’s foreign policy. She said it failed to supervise the war effort. VOICE TWO: A tragic event affected Clare Boothe Luce in nineteen forty-four. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Ann was killed in an automobile accident. Missus Luce experienced severe emotional problems. She sought help from a number of people, including a Roman Catholic clergyman, the Reverend Fulton J. Sheen. At the time, he was becoming known for his radio broadcasts. Missus Luce demanded to know why God had taken her daughter. Reverend Sheen said the young woman had died so that her mother could learn about the meaning of life. Missus Luce recovered and returned to Congress. She remained popular among the voters of Connecticut and was re-elected to a second term in office. However, she did not seek re-election in nineteen forty-six. Missus Luce said she wanted to spend more time with her husband. She also became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Missus Luce returned to writing. She also edited a book about people considered holy by the Roman Catholic Church. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce criticized the spread of communism after World War Two. In nineteen fifty-two, she supported the Republican Party’s candidate for president, former General Dwight Eisenhower. He won the election and appointed Missus Luce as ambassador to Italy. She became one of the first American women to serve in a major diplomatic position. Missus Luce served as the ambassador until nineteen fifty-six. She left Rome after becoming sick with arsenic poisoning caused by paint particles in her bedroom. VOICE TWO: Three years later, President Eisenhower nominated Missus Luce as ambassador to Brazil. Most members of the United States Senate supported her nomination. However, some senators were opposed. Among them was Wayne Morse, a Democrat from Oregon. The Senate approved Missus Luce as the new ambassador. After the debate, she said that Senator Morse’s actions were the result of him being “kicked in the head by a horse.”? Many Democrats criticized her comment. A few days later she resigned as ambassador. VOICE ONE: Missus Luce remained active in politics. In nineteen sixty-four, she supported Senator Barry Goldwater as the Republican Party’s candidate for president. She also announced plans to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Senate from New York. However, Republican leaders disapproved and she withdrew from the race. Clare Boothe Luce retired from public life. She and her husband moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Henry Luce died there in nineteen sixty-seven. He was sixty-eight years old. Missus Luce moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. She lived there until the early nineteen eighties. During that period, she served as an advisor to three presidents. She was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Then Missus Luce moved to Washington, D.C. In nineteen eighty-three, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen. Clare Boothe Luce had a long battle with cancer. She died at her home in nineteen eighty-seven. She was eighty-four years old. She was buried near the remains of her husband in the state of South Carolina. Experts said Clare Boothe Luce had enough important jobs in government, the media and the arts to satisfy several women. She was often on the list of the ten most important and admired women in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Seeing Pressures but Also Possibilities in Urban Growth
* Byline: Next year, more than half of the world population is expected to be living in cities; a new UN report urges governments to prepare. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. ??????? Soon, more of us will be living in cities than in rural areas. Population experts at the United Nations had thought that would happen by this year. Lately their estimate is that in two thousand eight, for the first time in history, more than half of the world population will be in urban areas. The United Nations Population Fund just released its yearly "State of World Population" report. Researchers say three-and-a-third billion people will be living in urban areas next year. By two thousand thirty, the estimate is almost five billion. The fastest growth will be in Asia and Africa. Poor people will make up most of the urban growth. And natural increase will be the main cause of that growth, not migration from rural areas. The report says mega-cities of more than ten million people have not grown to the sizes once expected. Most growth is expected instead in smaller towns and cities. The experts urge governments to improve social services and city planning policies. For example, the report calls for better land use so poor people do not have to live in slums. Today, an estimated one billion live in these often polluted and dangerous environments. Ninety percent of the people are in developing countries. The report says the possible good of urbanization far outweighs the bad. The task is to learn how to make the best use of the possibilities. For example, cities can have a lot of poverty, yet they also represent the best hope for poor people to escape poverty, it says. "Cities create environmental problems, but they can also create solutions." The United Nations report says climate change will affect poor countries, cities and individuals more severely. Yet many fast-growing cities are more concerned with economic growth than with protecting themselves against climate change. On a separate issue, China last week denied a newspaper story about a World Bank report on the cost of pollution in that country. The Financial Times reported that Chinese officials persuaded the bank to remove information they thought could cause social unrest. The information reportedly said air and water pollution caused about seven hundred fifty thousand early deaths in China each year. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said there was no issue involving a request from China. She said the report has not been completed yet. The World Bank said the final version will be released as a series of papers. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Crayola Crayons Have Been Helping Children Color for Generations
* Byline: For over 100 years, the Crayola company has made colorful tools for children to express their artistic skills. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, we tell about the history of one of the most popular and colorful toy products in America. Generations of American children have grown up coloring and drawing with crayons made by the Crayola company. These small sticks of color are also popular around the world. (MUSIC) (SOUND) Andrew: Hi, my name is Andrew Bracken and I am six years old. I like to draw neighborhoods and cities. Right now I am drawing an ice cream store. My favorite crayon colors are: pink is my first, purple is my second and blue is my last. VOICE ONE: That was Andrew Bracken from Arlington, Virginia. He is one of many children in America who likes to draw with Crayola crayons. Many people use these fun drawing tools, but not everyone knows their history and how they are made. The story of Crayola began in eighteen sixty-four. Joseph Binney started a company in the state of New York called Peekskill Chemical Works. The factory made products such as paints, dyes, and charcoal. Joseph Binney later asked his son Edwin Binney and another family member, C. Harold Smith, to work with him. VOICE TWO: In eighteen eighty-five Joseph Binney retired. Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith decided to become business partners and changed the name of the company to Binney & Smith. The company made products like red oxide, a chemical used to give color to the red paint used for painting barn buildings on farms. Peekskill chemists also had an important role in how modern cars look. The first car tires were a white color because of the zinc oxide in the rubber. Peekskill experts learned that adding carbon black to tires not only made them darker but also made them much stronger. VOICE ONE: In nineteen hundred the company started making slate school pencils in their factory in Easton, Pennsylvania. Binney & Smith started listening carefully to teachers who wanted better materials to use in their classrooms. The company soon made the first dustless chalk sticks for writing on school blackboards. A few years later the company decided to produce safe and low cost wax crayons, which are coloring sticks that can be made out of wax, chalk or charcoal. In fact, “crayon” comes from the French word for pencil. VOICE TWO: Crayons were not a new art material, but good quality ones were costly to buy. It was Edwin Binney’s wife Alice who invented the product name Crayola. The first part of the name comes from “craie” the French word for the material chalk. The second part comes from “ola” in the word "oleaginous" which means having to do with, or containing, oil. Today, you can buy boxes of Crayola crayons with more than one hundred colors. But the first box of Crayolas only had eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown and black. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you want to understand how these famous colorful sticks are made, you can visit the Crayola Factory visitor’s center in Easton, Pennsylvania. The real factory where Crayola crayons are produced is no longer open to the public. But at the visitors center you can see older versions of the machines that make crayons. Listen as one of the factory’s guides tells about the company. (SOUND) CHARLIE DOHERTY: Hi, I’m Charlie Doherty. I work here at the Crayola Factory making crayons...well, showing people how we make crayons and markers. Crayola was founded, the crayon part of the company, in nineteen-oh-three. In two thousand three we had our one-hundredth anniversary. We were the first to package eight different colors back in nineteen-oh-three. We had an eight pack. You know how many colors we make now? Guess! How many? One hundred and a half. Yeah, they come in a tower. VOICE TWO: Charlie Doherty can also show you how the many machines work that produce crayons. He starts by pouring hot paraffin wax that has been colored with pigment onto a special table. The hot liquid pours into one thousand two hundred thin container molds that are the shape of a crayon. Then, Mister Doherty runs a scraper over the table to make sure the wax is evenly placed. As the wax cools, it keeps the shape of the crayon forms. Cold water helps cool the crayons more quickly. Next, he carefully takes the cooled crayons out of the forms. The ones that break or do not have perfect tips get melted again into the wax. VOICE ONE: Charlie Doherty then shows the labeling machine that wraps small squares of paper around the crayon using sticky glue made from cornstarch. The paper helps strengthen the crayon so it does not break easily when used. The labels also give the name of the color. Before these machines existed, local farmers put the colored labels on the crayons by hand. It was a good way for these families to make money during the winter. If you visit this factory, you can try to roll and glue the paper on a newly made crayon. It is not as easy as it looks! Charlie Doherty says the farmers used to be able to put the paper labels on ten to twelve crayons a minute. Next, there is a machine that puts crayons into small boxes made out of cardboard paper. (SOUND) The machine sorts the crayons so that every box has one of every color. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A whole history could be written about Crayola’s names for its many colors. Over the years Crayola has renamed three of its colors to be more "politically correct" and not risk insulting some groups of people. These include “Prussian blue” which became "midnight blue," and “Indian red” which became "chestnut." In nineteen sixty-two the company changed the color “flesh” to “peach.” The Crayola Web site says this was partly a result of the civil rights movement in the United States during the nineteen-sixties. VOICE ONE: It might surprise you to learn how seriously some people take their crayons. In nineteen ninety Crayola decided to retire eight colors including "raw umber," "maize" and "lemon yellow." The company did not expect that many adults who grew up with those colors would be very upset. Some people even protested in front of the Crayola headquarters. People organized themselves into protest groups like “RUMP.” This stands for the "Raw Umber and Maize Preservation Society.” Another protest group was called “The Society to Save Lemon Yellow.” Crayola did not return the eight old colors permanently. But they did create special edition metal boxes of crayons that included the newly retired colors. They sold hundreds of thousands of those tins. VOICE TWO: You might be wondering who names all these colors. Crayola has three main ways for finding new names. Sometimes the company uses a book from the United States Commerce Department called “Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names.” This book is used by experts in industries like biology, botany, and home designing. Crayola also gets names from colors used by artists. VOICE ONE: Sometimes Crayola asks its workers for color ideas. Their suggestions include "pig pink" and "blue bell."? Crayola has even asked its buyers for color name ideas. In nineteen ninety-three Crayola held a competition for new names. Adrienne Watral was six years old at the time. She named an orange crayon after her favorite food, "macaroni and cheese."? Eighty-nine-year-old Mildred Sampson picked the name “purple mountain majesty.” This phrase comes from a famous song about America, but it is also the perfect name for a color. Crayola recently started writing the names of each color in Spanish as well as French. So, now when you pick up the blue color “cornflower” you can improve your language skills. Cornflower is “azul aciano” in Spanish and “bluet” in French. VOICE TWO: Crayola is not the only company that makes crayons. For example, the Swiss company Caran d’Ache makes many kinds of high quality art products. These include colorful drawing sticks like oil pastels and wax pastels. This company’s products are mostly for professional artists and designers. The company Dixon Ticonderoga makes Prang crayons out of wax and also out of soybean oil. Some people buy soy crayons because the colors are very bright and are good for the environment. These other companies might make similar products. But Crayola crayons have their own special place in the popular imagination of generations of Americans. We leave you with the words of Daisy Bracken. She can tell you exactly which Crayola colors are special to her. (SOUND) Daisy: My name is Daisy and I am four years old. Sometimes I color with crayons. I like indigo, green and purple and pink and red and I like yellow…and green…and brown…. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can see pictures of crayons being made at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: All About Eyes: Once He Caught My Eye, It Was Love Everlasting
* Byline: A look at terms related to eyes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Today’s program is all about eyes. When it comes to relationships, people’s eyes can be a window into their hearts. This means that their eyes can tell a lot about how they feel. We will tell a story about a man and woman who are teachers at the same school. The woman is interested in the man. She uses many methods to catch his eye, or get him to notice her. Once he sets eyes on her, or sees her, she might try to get him interested in her by acting playful. In other words, she might try to make eyes at him or give him the eye. Let us suppose that this man gets hit between the eyes. In other words, the woman has a strong affect on him. He wants to spend time with her to get to know her better. He asks her out on a date. She is so happy that she may walk around for days with stars in her eyes. She is extremely happy because this man is the apple of her eye, a very special person. She might tell him that he is the only person she wants, or “I only have eyes for you.” On their date, the couple might eat a meal together at a restaurant.If the man is really hungry, his eyes might be bigger than his stomach.He might order more food than he can eat.When his food arrives at the table, his eyes might pop out.He might be very surprised by the amount of food provided.He might not even believe his own eyes. If fact, all eyes would be watching him if he ate all the food. This might even cause raised eyebrows.People might look at the man with disapproval. During their dinner, the couple might discuss many things.They might discover that they see eye to eye, or agree on many issues.They share the same beliefs and opinions.For example, they might agree that every crime or injury should be punished.That is, they firmly believe in the idea of an eye for an eye.They might also agree that it is wrong to pull the wool over a person’s eyes. This means to try to trick a person by making him believe something that is false.But the man and woman do not believe in the evil eye, that a person can harm you by looking at you. The next day, at? their school, the woman asks the man to keep an eye on, or watch the young students in her class while she is out of the classroom. This might be hard to do when the teacher is writing on a board at the front of the classroom. To do so, a teacher would need to have eyes in the back of his head.In other words, he would know what the children are doing even when he is not watching them. (MUSIC)????????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-09-voa4.cfm
* Headline: What You Can Do to Prevent Health Problems While Traveling
* Byline: Advice on some ways to protect yourself from conditions such as airplane ear, deep vein thrombosis and hypoxia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Summer is a busy period for holiday travel. Many people will travel great distances in airplanes, cars or other vehicles. Today, we will offer suggestions about how to avoid health problems on a long trip. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health officials in many countries say recent news reports have raised questions about the safety of passenger airplanes. The reports described an American man with a rare kind of tuberculosis. He flew two times across the Atlantic Ocean before agreeing to go to a hospital for treatment. At first, public health officials attempted to warn people who were passengers on the long flights with the infected man. But officials said most of the passengers had a low risk of developing the disease. They suggested that the passengers could be tested if they wished to make sure. Since then, health officials have found all the people who sat near the man. Officials said those persons needed to be tested for tuberculosis immediately, and then again in eight to ten weeks. It takes that long for the disease to develop. The officials also wanted the passengers to know they cannot infect anyone else with TB. VOICE TWO: Many people are concerned about the way sicknesses are spread in airplanes. It is known that diseases like tuberculosis can be spread from person to person through the air. Bacteria that carry TB move into the air when an infected person talks or expels air suddenly from the lungs. People nearby take the particles into their lungs when they breathe. But experts say healthy people are not in great danger unless they are in a closed space with an infected person for a long time. Experts said one reason for the low risk of infection is that the man showed no signs of TB. Another reason is that the planes he flew in were equipped with HEPA filters. The Federal Aviation Administration says seventy-five percent of all large passenger planes now use such devices to remove dangerous particles from the air. VOICE ONE: The letters H-E-P-A represent the words High Efficiency Particulate Air. HEPA filters capture at least ninety nine point nine seven percent of all particles in the air that are zero point three microns in size or larger. America's Atomic Energy Commission developed HEPA filters sixty years ago to protect workers who were developing the atomic bomb. The first HEPA filters removed radioactive particles from the air. Today, the filters are used to clean the air in planes, hospitals, factories, and even private homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says HEPA filters are effective in clearing the air of many particles that cause disease. Makers of the devices say they kill bacteria and viruses because they help to remove the wetness that germs need to survive. But HEPA filters cannot remove disease-causing particles smaller than zero point three microns. These will continue to move around in the air and can infect people. VOICE TWO: Medical experts say the most common way to get an infection is by touching an infected surface, then touching the eyes, nose or mouth. They say the best way people can protect themselves is by washing their hands after touching an object where germs could be present. Experts say the news about the man with drug-resistant tuberculosis has increased concerns about travelers who are sick. They say diseases that spread more easily than tuberculosis could cause health and security crises. In the past, public health workers were able to delay travel by persons suspected of having diseases such as influenza. ?They continue to ask everyone to act responsibly and not fly while they are sick. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say people should know about other health problems that can strike when traveling by air. One of these is a condition called hypoxia. It results from a lack of oxygen to the brain. Experts say the body begins losing oxygen minutes after an airplane leaves the ground. The air pressure in a plane during flight is lower than at sea level. This makes it more difficult for the body to effectively use the same amount of oxygen as it would on the ground. Fewer oxygen molecules cross the tissues in the lungs and reach the bloodstream. The result is a five to twenty percent drop in the amount of oxygen in the blood. This reduces the amount of oxygen that reaches the organs of the body. VOICE TWO: One effect of this lack of oxygen to the brain is a headache. When this happens, the heart attempts to fix the situation by beating harder and faster. This can make the traveler feel tired. These signs of hypoxia are not dangerous in a healthy person. But a drop in oxygen level can cause a health emergency in people with heart or lung problems. They might lose consciousness or even suffer a heart attack. Experts say that smoking cigarettes and drinking alcoholic liquids also reduce the body’s ability to use oxygen. So they suggest that people not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes either before or during a flight. They also say persons with heart or lung problems should seek advice from their doctor before flying. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another health danger for travelers is a condition called deep vein thrombosis. A thrombosis is a blood clot -- a condition in which some blood thickens and blocks the flow to the heart. Blood clots can kill if they move to the heart and lungs and stop needed oxygen from reaching those important organs. This is known as a pulmonary embolism. The World Health Organization says travelers who sit still for four or more hours face a greater risk of developing blood clots. But it says only one in six thousand people develop deep vein thrombosis. Doctors say some people have more risk than others. These include people who have had clots in the past, pregnant woman and those who take birth control pills. People who weigh too much and those with heart disease or cancer also may have a greater risk. Others include people being treated with estrogen and those who recently had an operation. VOICE TWO: Experts say the chance of a clot also increases if a person does not drink enough water. They say travelers who sit for hours need to drink plenty of water -- not liquids that contain alcohol or caffeine. Passengers should also increase blood flow to the legs. Ways to do this include wearing support stockings on your feet. Passengers should also walk around every hour or so during the trip or at least move their feet and legs. Also, no one should sit for a long time with the knees pressed back against a seat. Doctors say anyone with pain, swelling or red skin on a leg during or after a long trip may have a blood clot. Anyone with such signs should see a doctor as soon as possible. The condition many times can be treated with drugs that thin the blood and stop the clot from moving through the body. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another health problem people may suffer during a flight is ear pain, also known as airplane ear. This is the result of difference in air pressure between parts of the middle of the ear and the outer ear. The air pressure in both these areas is kept generally the same by the Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube connects the middle ear to the nose. The tube opens when a person swallows or takes a deep breath. These actions equalize the air pressure by permitting air to flow into or out of the middle ear. Pressure differences result when the Eustachian tube is blocked. Then the eardrum cannot perform normally. The person may not be able to hear normally…and may also suffer pain. VOICE TWO: People with colds or allergic reactions are at greater risk of airplane ear because their Eustachian tubes may be blocked. And children may suffer airplane air more easily than adults because their Eustachian tubes are small and easily blocked. Generally, airplane ear is most painful during take off and landing. But it generally goes away a few hours after the flight. If not, a doctor can provide treatment. Ways to prevent airplane ear include canceling plans to fly if you have a cold or an allergy. Passengers can use decongestant medicines before the flight, a nasal spray or special earplugs that can help equalize the pressure during landing and takeoffs. Swallowing and taking deep breaths during the flight may also help some people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us next week at this time for more news about science on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-09-voa5.cfm
* Headline: California Growers Face Unwelcome Import: Light Brown Apple Moth
* Byline: The insect, which can attack many different crops, has never been found before on the US mainland Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. An agricultural official inspects a trap for evidence of the light brown apple moth in Merced County, CaliforniaCalifornia is trying to control an invasion of the light brown apple moth. The insect is native to Australia and is now found widely in New Zealand, Britain, Ireland and New Caledonia. Hawaii had them in the late eighteen hundreds, but this is the first discovery on the mainland United States. Officials say it could cause more than one hundred thirty million dollars in crop damage and control costs if the moth spreads to agricultural production areas. California is the nation's leading agricultural state. The industry is valued at thirty-two billion dollars. The light brown apple moth can attack more than two hundred fifty kinds of plants and trees. It causes damage by feeding on leaves, new growth and fruit, including grapes -- bad news for California's wine industry. More than thirty thousand traps have been deployed as part of the effort to fight the invasion. As of last week the traps had caught almost five thousand light brown apple moths. The insects have been found in several counties but mostly in Santa Cruz and Monterey along the Central Coast. The others have mostly been found in the San Francisco Bay Area, to the north. The first discovery came in February. A private citizen captured two suspicious moths in a blacklight trap on his property near Berkeley. A laboratory confirmed their identity in March. Then, in May, the United States Department of Agriculture ordered action to prevent the spread of the insect. It restricted the movement of products including nursery plants, cut flowers and greenery from several counties in California and all of Hawaii. Shipments must be inspected and declared insect-free before they can be transported to other states. The California Department of Food and Agriculture says growers have the choice to destroy affected plants or treat them with a chemical, chlorpyrifos. Another substance, Bt, is a natural organism used as a biological control. In June, weekly ground treatments with Bt began on more than two hundred properties in two counties, Contra Costa and Napa. Napa is famous for its wine grapes. Control plans are being developed for the wider area, based in part on the advice of experts from Australia and New Zealand. Mexico has suspended imports of some products from the affected areas. It also is requiring more inspection of products from outside the affected counties. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sprinkling a Few Prepositions Into Speech to Sound More Natural
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: more about business communication. We talked a couple of weeks ago about the value of a firm handshake and how it's okay to just say your name and "nice to meet you" when you're introducing yourself. Today, English teacher Nina Weinstein is back to talk about some ways to sound less formal in casual conversation. NINA WEINSTEIN: "Generally speaking, whenever we have the chance to use a two-word verb, that is kind of an instant way to sound more informal and more natural." AA: "Why don't you give a couple of examples." NINA WEINSTEIN: "'Please stand'; 'please stand up.' 'I'm going to call my friend'; 'I'm going to call up my friend.' 'I'd like to set up a meeting' rather than 'I'd like to arrange a meeting.'" AA: "So 'set up' instead of 'arrange,' 'stand up' instead of just 'stand.' Adding those prepositions kind of [softens] them a little bit." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Right, it makes it more informal." AA: "Do you have a couple more examples?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "'Get together': 'Let's get together for a meeting this weekend' rather than 'Let's, um ... " AA: "Let's meet this weekend." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Meet, exactly, exactly. And we said, 'let's set up a meeting.' 'I'm tied up next week.'" AA: "As opposed to -- " NINA WEINSTEIN: "Busy." AA: "Yes." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Busy. We have many, many ways to say 'I'm busy': 'I have a lot on my plate,' 'I have a million things to do,' 'I have a ton of paperwork.' So all of these very colorful idioms sound more like a native speaker, more informal and more natural." AA: "Although actually, just going back to the word 'busy' for a second, I mean that doesn't sound too bad if you say 'I'm busy next week.' You could say 'I'm tied up,' but ... " NINA WEINSTEIN: "You can say 'I'm busy' but if that's the only way you can say it, it gets kind of stale and it makes your vocabulary sound as if it's pretty limited. So I always tell my students to rotate among a couple of idioms for these common situations like 'I'm busy.' We can say 'I'm swamped,' 'I have a ton of things to do,' 'I'm buried in paperwork.' So there are a lot of really interesting ways to say that, and because it's such a common situation, we want to know at least a couple of those." AA: "Without, I suppose, sounding too out there in terms of tossing around these expressions." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, these are very common ones and these are ones that other people will use as well. For instance, 'I'm tied up' -- that's much different than 'I'm busy.' There's a connotation that I cannot change whatever it is I'm doing. So if you call a company and you ask for Mister Jones and they say 'I'm sorry, he's tied up in a meeting,' the connotation of that is that you cannot interrupt him. So you wouldn't say, 'Well, could you please tell him I'm on the line?' You wouldn't say that because 'tied up' tells you that you cannot interrupt him, so it's the appropriate one to use. We don't want to just say 'I'm busy' because then it doesn't give the whole story." AA: So we've talked about handshakes and sounding more natural. But as English teacher Nina Weinstein points out, there's something else traditionally important when talking to Americans -- that is, making eye contact. CUT 2: WEINSTEIN/ARDITTI :25 NINA WEINSTEIN: "In some cultures it's not considered polite to look in the person's eyes when they're talking to you. But in our culture, if you don't make eye contact and look at their eyes when they're talking, the speaker might feel that you're bored or you're not listening. And so this is really important. Or, in business, they might not feel like you're telling the truth." AA: "If you're looking away." NINA WEINSTEIN: "If you're looking away. Exactly." AA: Nina Weinstein comes to us from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. She has an English-teaching business and writes books that you can find online through Amazon and other sites. You can find her previous Wordmaster segments, including her advice about shaking hands, at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's all for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Shake Hands With Your Uncle Max"/Allan Sherman 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: New Seven Wonders of the World Are Announced After Voting Campaign
* Byline: And the winners are: Chichen Itza, Christ the Redeemer, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Petra, the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Two thousand five hundred years ago, the Greek historian Herodotus is believed to have made a list of what he thought were the most extraordinary structures in the world. His list became known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. People all over the world recently voted to create a new list. Join us as we explore the New Seven Wonders of the World. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There was nothing wrong with the list of ancient wonders that Herodotus made. The list included places such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in what is now Iraq. This was a huge system of gardens with trees and flowers. The Colossus of Rhodes is also on the list. It was a thirty-seven meter tall metal statue of the Greek sun god Helios. The statue was built on the Greek island of Rhodes. VOICE TWO: But this wondrous list only included structures near the Mediterranean Sea. This was the only area of the world known to the ancient Greeks. Only one of the seven places still exists today. The Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt were built about four thousand five hundred years ago as a burial place for an ancient ruler. For thousands of years, they were the tallest structures in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Swiss explorer Bernard Weber decided the list of seven wonders needed updating. But he says he did not want one person to decide on the new list. He wanted everyone to vote for the world's cultural treasures. He knew that with the modern technologies of the Internet and cell phones everyone in the world could vote. In two thousand one Mister Weber started an organization called the New Seven Wonders Foundation. He later invited people around the world to vote on places they thought belonged on the new list. A group of building experts later reduced the list to twenty-one places. These experts included Japanese architect Tadao Ando and Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid. VOICE TWO: From two thousand six until last Friday, people around the world voted on their favorite places by using the Internet and cell phones. The group says it received about one hundred million votes. But the group admits it did not check for repeat voting. The results were announced on July seventh in a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal. Here is the new list of world wonders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: is a temple city built by the Mayans over one thousand years ago in what is now Mexico. Its name means “at the mouth of the well of the Itza people.” The many large stone structures at Chichen Itza were built during different periods with different styles. One holy building is a triangular shaped step pyramid called the Temple of Kukulcan. This huge structure has a staircase on each of the four sides that leads to the religious altar at the top. There are many other temples and even a large court area where the Mayans played ball games. VOICE TWO: is a large religious statue on a hill overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Catholic religious leaders in the city started planning the project in the nineteen twenties. This thirty-eight meter statue of Jesus was completed in nineteen thirty-one. It is made of concrete and soapstone materials. Christ the Redeemer was designed by the Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and the French sculptor Paul Landowski. VOICE ONE: is one of the largest building projects ever carried out. This wall extends for over seven thousand kilometers and was built to defend against foreign invaders. The oldest parts of the wall were built over two thousand six hundred years ago. More recent parts were built about five hundred years ago. The ruler Qin Shi Huang Ti created the first unified China about two thousand two hundred years ago. This ruler connected the many different parts of the wall into one huge system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The ancient ruins of Machu Picchu sit high in the Andes Mountains of what is now Peru, eighty kilometers northeast of Cuzco. Experts believe the many stone buildings were built around the middle of the fifteenth century by the Incan ruler Pachacutec Yupanqui. The buildings include homes, burial places, religious centers, storage areas, and watch towers. In one area is the famous Intihuatana, or the “Hitching Post of the Sun.” This ancient stone sun clock shows astronomical events such as the spring and fall equinox when night and day are equal length. Experts do not know the exact role of the ancient city of Machu Picchu. It might have been built for ceremonial reasons or as a home for the Incan ruler. VOICE ONE: Petra was another ancient city built about two thousand years ago in what is now Jordan. It was the capital of ancient Nabataea and was famous for its trade industry and water engineering systems. The area is also famous for the beautiful buildings carved into huge walls of solid red sandstone rock. "Petra” means rock in Greek. The monuments, burial places and religious buildings at Petra combine ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian styles of building. One of the most well known buildings is called al-Khazneh which is Arabic for “the treasury.” The building was really a burial place for a ruling family. But long ago some people falsely believed treasures were stored inside. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The ColosseumThe Colosseum in Rome, Italy was built about two thousand years ago by the Flavian rulers. This huge circular stone and concrete building could hold about fifty thousand people. For hundreds of years, people gathered there to watch games. They included fights between professional gladiator soldiers and naval battles between ships. Each of the first three levels of the Colosseum has eighty large rounded arch openings. The Colosseum was badly damaged over the centuries by a fire and a series of earthquakes. Starting in the thirteenth century, fallen stones from the Colosseum were taken to be used for other building projects. But the building has since been carefully repaired. The circular form of this building has influenced many modern sports buildings. VOICE ONE: The Taj Mahal in Agra, India was built by the Mogul ruler Shah Jahan in the The Taj Mahalseventeenth century. The building is famous for its beautiful white marble surface inlaid with small pieces of colorful stones. It is also a symbol of Shah Jahan’s love for his wife. He built this monument as a burial place for her. She is said to have asked him to build a monument in her memory. More than twenty thousand workers built the Taj Mahal. It beautifully combines the styles of Indian, Persian and Islamic building. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Fourteen other buildings did not make the list of the new seven wonders of the world. These include Angkor Wat in Cambodia; the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France and the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. They also include the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia; the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Statue of Liberty in New York City. This new list of wonders has its critics. The Egyptian antiquities expert Zahi Hawass says the list has no value because masses of people do not write history. The Egyptian government expressed its anger when the New Seven Wonders voting began. Egypt believed its pyramids should not need to be voted on since they have always been listed as a world wonder. The New Seven Wonders group gave the pyramids an honorary position on the list. So there are actually now eight wonders of the world. VOICE ONE: The United Nation’s cultural program UNESCO released a statement on the subject this week. UNESCO made it very clear that it had no link with the New Seven Wonders group. The statement says Bernard Weber wanted to work with UNESCO, but the group refused. UNESCO has said its goal is to protect places of cultural value and simply making a new list does not help their aim. UNESCO added that the new list of wonders shows the opinions of some people who have Internet and not the opinion of the entire world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can see pictures of these world wonders at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-10-voa6.cfm
* Headline: The ABCs of Allergies
* Byline: A brief explanation of allergic reactions and the treatments available. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An allergy is an unusually strong reaction to a substance. Many things can cause allergies. The most common cause is pollen. Trees usually produce pollen in the spring, grasses in the summer and weeds in the fall as part of their reproductive process. Other causes include organisms such as dust mites and molds. Chemicals, plants and dead skin particles from dogs and cats can also cause allergic reactions. So can insect stings and some foods. The most common kind of allergic reaction is itchy, watery eyes and a blocked or watery nose. Allergies can also cause red, itchy skin. Some reactions can be life-threatening -- for example, when breathing passages become blocked. Avoiding whatever causes an allergy may not always be easy. Antihistamine drugs may offer an effective treatment. Another treatment used in some cases is called immunotherapy. A patient is injected with small amounts of the allergy-causing substance. The idea is that larger and larger amounts are given over time until the patient develops a resistance to the allergen. In the United States, experts estimate that up to four percent of adults and up to eight percent of young children have food allergies. Every year these allergies cause about thirty thousand cases of anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that requires immediate treatment. It can result in trouble breathing and in some cases death. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says one hundred to two hundred people die. It says most of the reactions are caused by peanuts and tree nuts such as walnuts. People can also be allergic to medicines. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says about five to ten percent of bad reactions to commonly used medicines are allergic. In other words, a person's immune system overreacts and produces an allergic reaction. The most common reactions include skin rashes, itching, breathing problems and swelling in areas such as the face. But the academy estimates that allergic reactions to drugs cause one hundred six thousand deaths each year in the United States alone. It says antibiotics such as penicillin are among the drugs more likely than others to produce allergic reactions. So are anticonvulsants and hormones such as insulin. Other kinds include some anesthesia medicines, vaccines and biotechnology-produced proteins. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Mario Ritter and Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: George Herbert Walker Bush Is Elected President in 1988
* Byline: For a time after the party conventions, it appeared that a majority of Americans would vote for Michael Dukakis. But then he began to lose popularity. Bush succeeded in making him look weak on crime and defense. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell the story about the presidential election of nineteen eighty-eight. VOICE ONE: America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan, was one of the most popular. During his eight years in office, many Americans did well financially. Many felt more secure about the future of the nation and the world. The threat of nuclear war did not seem so strong or frightening. American law does not permit presidents to serve more than two terms. So, in nineteen eighty-eight, the country prepared to elect a new one. VOICE TWO: There were three main candidates for the Republican Party nomination. They were George Bush, Robert Dole, and Pat Robertson. Bush had just served eight years as vice-president. Dole was the top Republican in the Senate. Robertson was a very conservative Christian who had a nation-wide television program. George Bush gained from Ronald Reagan's popularity. Reagan's successes were seen as Bush's successes, too. Neither Robert Dole nor Pat Robertson won enough votes in local primary elections to threaten Bush. He was nominated on the first vote at the party convention. The delegates accepted his choice for vice president, Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. VOICE ONE: Eight candidates competed for the Democratic Party's nomination. One was Michael Dukakis. He was governor of Massachusetts. Another was Jesse Jackson. He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. He had competed for the nomination four years earlier. In nineteen eighty-eight, Jesse Jackson received about twenty-five percent of the votes in local primary elections. But he did not win his party's nomination. Delegates at the convention chose Governor Dukakis, instead. For vice president, they chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For a time after the party conventions, public opinion studies showed that a majority of Americans would vote for Dukakis. Then, however, Dukakis began to lose popularity. Political observers said he campaigned too long in his home area before starting the national campaign. Dukakis also suffered from criticism from George Bush. Bush attacked his record as governor. He said Dukakis had not been severe enough with criminals. He said Dukakis would weaken America’s military power and he accused Dukakis of not protecting the environment. VOICE ONE: Governor Dukakis made charges of his own. He accused Bush of not telling the truth about his part in what was called the Iran-Contra case. He said Bush knew that the government had sold weapons to Iran in exchange for Iran's support in winning the release of American hostages in Lebanon. And he said Bush knew that the money received for the weapons was being used illegally to aid Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He also criticized Bush for being part of an administration that reduced social services to poor people and old people. VOICE TWO: Television played a large part in the campaign of nineteen eighty-eight. Each candidate made a number of short television films. Some of these political advertisements were strong, bitter attacks on the other candidate. Sometimes it seemed the candidates spent as much time on negative campaign advertisements as they did on advertisements that made themselves look good. In the end, Bush's campaign was more effective. He succeeded in making Dukakis look weak on crime and military issues. He succeeded in making himself look stronger and more decisive. On Election Day in November, Bush defeated Dukakis by almost seven million popular votes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Bush was sworn-in on January twentieth, nineteen eighty-nine. In his inaugural speech he said: BUSH: "No president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference, if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made -- not of gold and silk, but of better hearts and finer souls -- if he can do these things, then he must ... We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do." VOICE TWO: George Bush had led a life that prepared him for public service and leadership. His father had served as a United States senator. When America entered World War Two, George decided to join the Navy. He became a pilot of bomber planes. He was just eighteen years old -- at that time the youngest pilot the Navy ever had. He fought against the Japanese in the Pacific battle area. He completed many dangerous bombing raids. He was shot down once and was rescued by an American submarine. VOICE ONE: George came home from the war as a hero. He became a university student and got married. He and his wife, Barbara, then moved to Texas where he worked in the oil business. He ran for the United States Senate in nineteen sixty-four, and lost. Two years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives. He ran for the Senate again in nineteen seventy, and lost again. But by that time, he had gained recognition. Over the next eight years, he was appointed to a series of government positions. He was ambassador to the United Nations. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was America's representative in China before the two countries had diplomatic relations. And he was head of the Central Intelligence Agency. VOICE TWO: In nineteen eighty, Bush competed against Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for president. He lost. But the party chose him to be its vice presidential candidate. Bush gained more power in the position than many earlier vice presidents. After two terms, he felt ready to lead the nation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new president took seven foreign trips during his first year in office. Observers said his visit to Europe in the spring was especially successful. President Bush met with the leaders of the other countries in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He proposed a major agreement on reducing troops and non-nuclear weapons in Europe. The Soviet Union called this proposal a serious and important step in the right direction. VOICE TWO: In June, the government of China crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing. President Bush ordered some restrictions against China to protest the situation. Many critics, however, felt that this action was not strong enough. Unlike in China, communist governments in central and eastern Europe were not able to prevent the coming of democracy. Since nineteen eighty-seven, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had permitted members of the Warsaw Alliance to experiment with political and economic reforms. Reforms were not enough, however. One after the other, these countries rejected communism. Communist governments were removed from office in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. VOICE ONE: In the middle of the summer, President Bush visited Hungary and Poland. Both nations were trying to reform their economies. Both were suffering from severe problems as they changed from a centrally controlled economy to an economy controlled by free market forces. President Bush promised America's advice and financial help. For almost fifty years, the United States had led the struggle against communism around the world. Now, many of its former enemies needed help. VOICE TWO: In the autumn of nineteen eighty-nine, there was a dramatic expression of the changes taking place in the world. On November ninth, East Germany opened the wall that had divided it from the West since nineteen sixty-one. Within days, citizens and soldiers began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended almost fifty years of fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. All over the world, people renewed their hopes and dreams of living in peace. And former enemies looked to the United States to lead the way. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Students Do Not Always Like Being Told What to Wear (Duh!)
* Byline: A look at clothing policies in American schools. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A listener in Fukuoka, Japan, Shinji Abe, would like to know about school uniform policies in the United States. American schoolchildren often wear uniforms if they attend religious or other private schools. Most public schools do not require uniforms. But over the last ten years or so, more of them have moved in that direction, including high schools. Students may have to wear a specially purchased uniform. Or they may just have to dress alike -- for example, white shirts and dark colored pants or skirts. Even schools that do not require uniforms generally have a dress code or other rules about what they consider acceptable. Policies commonly ban clothing that shows offensive images or words, or simply too much skin. Items like hats may be restricted because, for example, different colors may be connected with violent gangs. Some parents like the idea of uniforms. Some say it means they do not have to spend as much on clothing for their kids. Others, though, argue that uniforms represent an unnecessary cost. There are also debates about whether uniforms or other dress policies violate civil rights. Students and parents have taken legal action against school dress requirements. Just last week, a judge blocked a middle school in Napa, California, from enforcing a dress code unless families have a way out of it. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California brought the case for the families of several students who were punished. Most attention centered on a girl who wore socks with the Tigger character from Winnie the Pooh. The school said its clothing policy, including no pictures of any kind, was needed to control a growing problem with gangs. The families argued that the policy violated free speech rights as guaranteed by the United States and California constitutions. The United States Supreme Court says student expression is protected as long as it does not harm the work and discipline of a school. Americans value individual freedom. But some educators believe dressing alike helps improve student learning. They believe that uniforms help create a sense of unity and reduce the risk of fights. They also say uniforms make it easier for security reasons to tell if someone belongs at the school or not. But just how effective are school uniform policies? Studies have found mixed results. That will be our subject next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Pull of the 'Big Draw' Brings Drawing and Architecture Alive
* Byline: A listener in Colombia asks about the Great Lakes.? And the music of singer and songwriter Conor Oberst and his band Bright Eyes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Faith Lapidus. On our show this week: We answer a question from a listener about the Great Lakes… Play music by Bright Eyes… And report about an event called "The Big Draw." The Big Draw HOST: For more than thirty years, David Macaulay has been creating books about the way buildings are made. His clear and simple architectural drawings have explained the complex mechanics of buildings to generations of readers. Mister Macaulay recently visited the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., for an event called “The Big Draw.” Steve Ember has more. STEVE EMBER: “The Big Draw” started in Britain as a campaign to get people of all ages across the country to draw. “The Big Draw” had its first event in the United States last month at the National Building Museum. There were many events for children and families. Children could have their faces painted or have a drawing lesson from art educators. But the main event was David Macaulay. He drew architectural forms on a long piece of paper that was laid out on the floor. Children and adults could add their own drawings to it. This community drawing will hang in the museum for everyone to see. David Macaulay also gave a drawing demonstration. He sat in the large hall of the museum and slowly drew the room around him. A video projected his large piece of paper on a screen so that everyone in the room could watch. Mister Macaulay said that he is a teacher above all else. He said he likes to write and draw about things he finds interesting and does not know a lot about. His books have taught many people about drawing and architecture. David Macaulay’s first book, “Cathedral,” came out in nineteen seventy-three. He describes in simple language how people in the thirteenth century built a Christian religious building. He explains everything from the tools they used to the way they made the tall windows. In his book “Unbuilding” he explains how the Empire State Building in New York City could be taken apart and rebuilt. In two thousand three Mister Macaulay published “Mosque.”? It tells how an Islamic religious building was made in sixteenth century Turkey. The book explores the architectural details of a mosque as well as its important social role. David Macaulay’s next book will be about the human body and how it works. The Great Lakes HOST: Our VOA Listener question this week comes from Colombia. Jack Ramirez asks about the Great Lakes. The Great LakesThe five bodies of water known as the Great Lakes are on or near the border between the United States and Canada. Lake Superior holds the most water. Lake Erie holds the least. Lake Michigan is the only one located totally within the United States. The other two are Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. The five Great Lakes are the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth. Together, they contain about twenty percent of the fresh water in the world. There are about thirty-five thousand islands in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes control much of the weather on the land that surrounds them. In the winter, moisture picked up by winds produces large amounts of snow, especially in the states of Michigan, Ohio and New York. The lakes also cool the air in the summer, then slowly move the heat over the area in the fall. This makes the area good for producing grapes for wine. The lakes supply drinking water to millions of people living in both the United States and Canada. In the past, industry used the Great Lakes to move products such as iron, coal, stone, grain and salt. But the amount of shipping on the lakes has decreased. Newer, larger ships are too wide for the lakes. But small boats take visitors to many of the islands for vacations. The United States and Canada work together to improve conditions in the Great Lakes area. Officials are now working to change a treaty about ways to slow or stop the effects of climate change. They say that less ice formation over the lakes in recent years has caused lower water levels. The areas around the lakes report environmental conditions at a conference every two years. The last one took place in November of last year. The conference report said some conditions are improving while others are worsening. For example, it reported progress in reducing air pollution, but said some poisons in the air are still a concern. It also said some native plants are decreasing while more than three hundred kinds of non-native fish continue to invade the lakes. Bright Eyes HOST: Bright Eyes is a band whose main singer and songwriter is twenty-seven-year-old Conor Oberst. This musician from the state of Nebraska has been making records since he was seventeen years old. The songs on his latest album “Cassadaga” deal with religion, war and love as well as personal stories. Mario Ritter has more. MARIO RITTER: The album was named for Cassadaga, a community in the state of Florida. For more than one hundred years, people have lived in this place to worship together. Conor Oberst uses his music to explore his own beliefs. Here is the song “I Must Belong Somewhere." Conor Oberst sings about how every person and thing seems to have a place in the world. (MUSIC) Conor Oberst may be young, but he has already made more than six records. In two thousand five alone Bright Eyes came out with two records. By two thousand six the singer was tired and cancelled his performance tour to have time to rest and think. “Cassadaga” is the product of this time off. Critics say that the music of Bright Eyes seems to be growing up. Some have even compared Oberst’s musical skills to the famous American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan. Here is the song “Classic Cars.” It tells about a man who falls in love with an older woman. (MUSIC) We leave you with another love song. “Make a Plan to Love Me” tells about a man who wants the busy woman he loves to make more time for him. He notes that life is short and they should be together now. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Faith Lapidus. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Value of Teaching About Money
* Byline: Young people increasingly need skills in budgeting, saving and investing money. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Personal finance is an increasingly complex world. There are more ways to invest money, more ways to save it -- and more ways to lose it. Yet many people are more strangers to this world than they might like to admit. In the United States, there are growing calls to do more to help young people learn skills in financial literacy. Some efforts begin in high school. But more and more information is available on the Internet, not only for young people but also for adults. The goal is to teach about budgeting, saving, investing and using money. The United States Financial Literacy and Education Commission was established in two thousand three. This government group supervises financial education efforts through nineteen federal agencies. Information on financial literacy and education can be found at its Web site. The address is MyMoney.gov. It includes links to agencies that deal with banking, buying a home, investing and other areas. The National Council on Economic Education has found that seventeen states now require high school students to take a class in economics. This number has grown from thirteen in nineteen ninety-eight. As of three years ago, half of all states required students to take a class in personal finance. Yet that number has fallen, from twenty-five to twenty-two. The National Council on Economic Education sells textbooks for grades four through twelve. It also offers free materials for teachers. The information is available at ncee.net. Teachers say parents also need to play a larger part in educating their children about money. A recent study found that seventy percent of college students said they received financial advice mainly from their parents. Investment companies also offer information. Charles Schwab, for example, has a Web site to help parents teach their kids about money and investing. The address is SchwabMoneyWise.com. One of the first tastes of financial independence that many young people get is through summer jobs. Junior Achievement is an organization that teaches young people about finance and business. It says almost three-fourths of young people questioned said they planned to have a summer job. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about economics, and download transcripts and audio archives of our reports, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Firm on War Policy Until September Report on Progress by Iraqis
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On Thursday, the Bush administration reported mixed results in Iraq since the recent addition of thirty thousand American troops. The report is based on eighteen goals known as benchmarks. Congress established them two months ago to measure the progress of the Iraqi government in political, security and economic areas. The report says the Iraqis are making satisfactory progress in eight areas and unsatisfactory progress in eight others. Ratings in two areas are mixed. One of the areas rated satisfactory was forming a committee to examine the Iraqi constitution. Another was providing about ten thousand Iraqi troops to help bring security to Baghdad. But the report says there has been little progress on important political issues such as sharing oil resources and political compromise. President Bush is urging Americans to give his war policy more time. He told a White House news conference: "I believe we can succeed in Iraq." He said he believes that security progress is being made that will enable the political process to succeed, as well. He ordered the surge deployment in January. He noted that the final troops arrived a little less than a month ago. Mister Bush says he will wait for a full report in September to see if his policy needs to be changed. The top American general in Iraq and the ambassador to Baghdad will return to Washington to give that report. But Thursday's progress report immediately incited more debate over the war. The Democrats who control the House of Representatives acted quickly. Thursday night, the House approved a measure that calls for the withdrawal of most American combat forces by April of next year. Four Republicans supported the bill and ten Democrats opposed it. President Bush says he will veto any attempt by Congress to direct the war. In May he vetoed a spending bill passed by the House and Senate that linked continued money for the war to a withdrawal plan. He later signed a compromise bill. The money came with a condition to demonstrate by July fifteenth, and again in September, that the Iraqis are making progress on the benchmarks. Iraqi officials are calling on American lawmakers to avoid withdrawing troops too soon. A government spokesman told VOA that would be, in his words, a great gift to the terrorists. But he said Iraqi security forces should be built up enough in two thousand eight that "good numbers" of American troops could be withdrawn. A new public opinion study found that more than seventy percent of Americans support removing almost all American troops from Iraq by April. Mister Bush's approval rating reached a new low, twenty-nine percent, in that USA Today/Gallup Poll. His rating held at thirty-three percent in the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll. But public approval of Congress fell to twenty-four percent. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bob Hope, 1903-2003: He Entertained People for More Than 70 Years
* Byline: The comedian performed in movies, on television and for American troops around the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Dick Rael with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Bob Hope. He was one of the world’s most famous comedians. His life in show business lasted for more than seventy years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bob Hope was born in Eltham, England in nineteen-oh-three. His parents named him Leslie Townes Hope. Many years later, he began calling himself Bob. Leslie was the fifth of seven sons. He and his family moved to the United States in nineteen-oh-seven. They settled in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Leslie’s mother taught him how to sing. As a child, he had a good singing voice. Later in life, Bob Hope often said he never wanted to be anything but a funnyman. Leslie attended Cleveland public schools. He sold newspapers and worked for a meat market and a shoe store. After high school, he learned how to dance. He also showed an interest in the sport of boxing. VOICE TWO: When Bob Hope was eighteen years old, he asked his girlfriend to become his dance partner. They began appearing at local vaudeville theaters. Vaudeville was the most popular form of entertainment in the United States in the early nineteen hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, dancers, comedians telling jokes and other acts. Bob Hope’s dance act with his girlfriend did not last long. A short time later, he heard that a Cleveland theater needed performers for a show with the famous actor Fatty Arbuckle. Hope developed a dance act with another friend, and they were chosen for the show. The team performed briefly as part of Arbuckle’s traveling vaudeville show. VOICE ONE: Later, Hope formed a song and dance team with George Byrne. They performed at theaters across the United States. The two men were offered work in a show on Broadway in New York City. But they did not stay very long. They left New York to change their act and start over again. They performed at a small theater in Pennsylvania. On opening night, Hope was asked to tell the crowd about future shows at the theater. The people liked the way he sounded. So did the supervisor of the theater. Hope then expanded his announcement to five minutes. Bob Hope started to perform by himself. He became skilled at standing in front of crowds and telling jokes, often very quickly. He collected jokes and told them during his performances. Hope did not wear special clothing or use tricks when performing. But he made funny expressions with his face to make people laugh. VOICE TWO: Bob Hope returned to Broadway in the nineteen thirties. Theater critics and the public liked his performance in the musical “Roberta.”? The show changed his life in more than one way. One day, another performer took Hope to meet a young singer who was also working in New York. Her name was Dolores Reade. She and Hope married in nineteen thirty-four. They would stay together as husband and wife for the next sixty-nine years. After the musical “Roberta,” Bob Hope performed in a number of other Broadway shows. They included “Ziegfield Follies” and “Red, Hot and Blue.”? Hope’s acting success led to his first major film, “The Big Broadcast of Nineteen-Thirty-Eight.”? In the film, he and Shirley Ross sang a song called “Thanks for the Memory.”? Many people think of Bob Hope when they hear this song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-seven, Bob Hope agreed to do a series of radio programs called the “Woodbury Soap Show.”? The next year, he agreed to do a radio show for another company that made Pepsodent toothpaste. His Tuesday night radio show soon became popular. Hope continued doing radio shows for almost twenty years. His success in radio led to a long-term relationship with a major film company, Paramount Pictures. The actors who worked in Hope’s films also made appearances on his radio shows. In all, Hope was the lead actor in more than fifty films. He also had small parts in fifteen others. Bob Hope never won an Academy Award for his acting. However, the American film industry did honor him five times. His series of films with actress Dorothy Lamour and singer Bing Crosby became world famous. Hope and Crosby were close friends. Here they sing a song from the movie “The Road to Morocco.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bob Hope began performing on television in nineteen fifty. He made a special program for NBC television. His show included a famous personality, a singer and a beautiful, young woman. Hope used this successful combination again and again. He decided to avoid all the work involved with a weekly television show. However, he continued making television specials every year until nineteen ninety-five. VOICE ONE: For more than fifty years, Bob Hope traveled around the world, giving shows for members of America’s armed forces. It started in nineteen forty-one when he and several other performers went to an air base in California. Later that year, the United States entered World War Two after Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Hope attempted to join the armed forces. He was told he could better serve his country as a performer, building support for the war effort. So he took a team of performers to bases around the country to perform his radio show. VOICE TWO: Hope and his team performed for millions of soldiers during World War Two. He performed almost all of his shows at bases across the United States, Europe and the South Pacific. Listen now to part of a show broadcast to soldiers after the war had ended. (SOUND:“The Bob Hope Radio Show” ) Hope began what was to become a Christmas tradition in nineteen forty-eight. That is when he and his wife went to Germany to perform for troops involved in the Berlin Airlift. Later, he performed for American soldiers serving in South Korea, Vietnam and Lebanon. In nineteen ninety, Hope and his wife performed for troops in Saudi Arabia. At the time, he was eighty-seven years old. VOICE ONE: Bob Hope was a friend to many American Presidents. He played golf with Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George Bush. Several presidents also honored the famous comedian. President John Kennedy gave Hope the Congressional Gold Medal. President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Medal of Freedom. United States Congress honored Hope four times. In nineteen ninety-seven, Congress made him an honorary veteran of the armed forces. He was the first individual so honored in American history. The following year, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth made Hope an honorary knight. She recognized his work in films and his service to allied forces during World War Two. VOICE TWO: People in many countries celebrated Bob Hope’s birthday on May twenty-ninth, two thousand three. He was one hundred years old. The celebrations included the naming of a famous area in Hollywood, California as Bob Hope Square. Sadly, Hope was too weak to attend. Two months later, he became sick and developed pneumonia. Bob Hope died at his California home on July twenty-seventh, two thousand three. (MUSIC: “Thanks for the Memory”) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Dick Rael. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Progress Mixed Halfway to Development Goals for 2015
* Byline: The UN says aid shortages could threaten efforts to fight extreme poverty. Still, an official says some of the poorest nations are making the greatest gains. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In September of two thousand, world leaders set eight goals for bringing millions of people out of poverty. These became known as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Among them: cut in half the number of people living on less than one dollar a day and halt the spread of AIDS and malaria. The goals also include improving survival rates for pregnant women and young children, and educating all children. Working for equality between women and men and dealing with environmental needs like safe water are also included. The target date for reaching the goals is two thousand fifteen. We are now halfway to that date and a United Nations progress report says results have been mixed. For example, it says the share of people in extreme poverty has fallen from nearly one-third to less than one-fifth. That was between nineteen ninety and two thousand four. If this progress continues, the U.N. estimates that the poverty reduction goal will be met for the world as a whole and many areas. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also noted progress in schooling and efforts to save children from diseases like measles, tuberculosis and malaria. However, some goals may be more of a struggle to reach -- for example, stopping the continued spread of H.I.V./AIDS. U.N. official Salil Shetty heads the Millennium Campaign; it works with local groups to remind governments of their promises. He says progress toward the eight goals should be judged nation-by-nation. He says some of the poorest nations are making the greatest gains. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is not expected to reach any of the goals. But Salil Shetty says several countries are on the path toward reaching some of them. These include Tanzania, Mozambique and Rwanda. The U.N. progress report warns that aid shortages could threaten the efforts even of well-governed countries to meet the goals. It says only five donor countries have met a longtime U.N. target for development aid. They are Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The target is seven-tenths of one percent of gross national income. The Wall Street Journal, though, noted that when private aid is added to official assistance, the United States is giving just under one percent. A commentary based on a recent Hudson Institute report said that is more than other countries including France, Germany and Japan. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A High School Reunion in Chicago Brings a Meeting of the Minds
* Byline: Members of the Class of 1957 at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School get together and remember the good times. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, come along to a high school reunion in Illinois. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A warm sun shines on Scammon Garden on the South Side of Chicago. Under the shelter of a tent, a crowd is gathered for a jazz brunch. The men and women enjoy the food, the music and the memories as they talk about old school days. Some of them have not seen each other in fifty years. The event is part of a reunion of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School. People call it U-High or Lab. This lab was created for experiments with education. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? The University of Chicago recently invited alumni to a special weekend where several U-High classes held reunions. These included the class of nineteen fifty-seven. About forty of the one hundred or so graduates attended the reunion. Some came with their husbands and wives. The former classmates are now in their upper sixties. Some are retired. Others are still working. There are lawyers, professors, writers, social workers, scientists, economists and business people. But on this bright afternoon, their thoughts return to a time when so much of their lives was still ahead. Ginger Spiegel Lane says there is feeling in the air of being teenagers again. The feeling is so strong, she can almost touch it. Yet something is different. She notices that her former classmates now talk much more openly than they would have as young people. VOICE ONE: Some in the class of fifty-seven grew up together. They knew each other as children when they attended other University of Chicago laboratory schools. Some also went on to attend the university. There are four laboratory schools. These are independent college preparatory schools operated by the University of Chicago. John Dewey established the first laboratory schools at Chicago in eighteen ninety-six. He was a leading educational theorist. He imagined a place where future teachers could work with young students and test progressive ways of teaching. Dewey knew that educators traditionally placed the most importance on memorizing and repeating information. In his laboratory schools, Dewey thought that the child should be the most important thing. VOICE TWO: In terms of being socially progressive, the Chicago laboratory schools have brought together students from different racial and ethnic groups. In nineteen forty-three a political activist launched a successful campaign to get the laboratory schools to admit black students. Her name was Marian Alschuler Despres. Several years earlier she had received a doctorate from the University of Chicago. Marian Alschuler Despres died in January of this year at the age of ninety-seven. She was married to Leon Despres, a well-known politician in Chicago who served for many years on the City Council. The University of Chicago Magazine, in reporting on her death, noted her efforts to get African-American students into the laboratory schools. Today their population of minority and international students is about forty percent -- still not enough to satisfy some critics, though. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some members of the U-High class of nineteen fifty-seven still live in the Chicago area. Others have moved away but came for the fiftieth anniversary reunion, including Robert Despres, the son of Marian and Leon. A number of members from the class of fifty-seven attended a special event honoring a member of the class of nineteen eighty-two. Arne Duncan is chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools, the third largest school system in the United States. Many graduates of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School are in public service. A nineteen seventy-nine graduate, Leslie Hairston, is on the Chicago City Council. A member of the class of nineteen thirty-seven is on the United States Supreme Court. John Paul Stevens is often called the most liberal justice on the court. VOICE TWO: One area where members of the class of nineteen fifty-seven have done well is education. Paul Schultz is a nationally known economist at Yale University and the son of a Nobel Prize winner. Another graduate, Sydney Spiesel, is an expert in children's medicine, also at Yale. Doctor Spiesel also writes for the Internet magazine Slate. VOICE ONE: Bert Cohler from the class of fifty-seven is still in the U-High neighborhood. He s a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago. Mary Deems Howland teaches English literature at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. And Allan Metcalf at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, is an English language expert. His latest book is "Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush." He is now working on a book about the word OK. Another member of the class of fifty-seven, Tappan Wilder, has become a strong voice for the literature of Thornton Wilder. Thornton was his father's brother. He was a playwright, novelist and short-story writer who won three Pulitzer Prizes. He wrote the classic play "Our Town." Tappan Wilder is responsible for the republication of some of his uncle's work. VOICE TWO: A visitor at the reunion commented that the U-High class of nineteen fifty-seven had enough mental energy to light a city. Many high school reunions are centered on a dance. But the members of the class of fifty-seven made a different choice. They met for a discussion in one of their former classroom buildings. They talked about good memories of high school. But one man urged them not to glamorize the past too much. He said time often makes days long ago seem happier than they really were. VOICE ONE: So the former students also talked about how they sometimes formed social groups that excluded others. Yet one of those who took part in the discussion, Elizabeth Hughes Schneewind, says they still found something good to say. They agreed that at least these cliques did not form along religious, racial or ethnic lines, the way they sometimes do in schools. Ginger Spiegel Lane says the former students also remembered the many aptitude tests they were given. Graduate students in education administered them. The tests were designed to see what the students might do with their lives. She says that for a number of people the results proved correct. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? Gathering classmates from fifty years ago is a big job. But class members Mary Morony of Chicago and John Keohane [koh-HANE] of Austin, Texas, worked hard. Mister Keohane is a mathematics teacher but one of the people he found called him an excellent detective. VOICE ONE: Mary Deems Howland, for example, had moved several times. She had also changed her name when she got married. But John Keohane remembered reading the name of her sister's husband in a University of Chicago publication. He followed that clue and found the brother-in-law, and that led him to his former classmate. She could not attend the reunion. But she renewed several school friendships because of it. She and classmate Mary Morony held their own reunion -- on the telephone. They talked for an hour. VOICE TWO: Allan Metcalf says he came to know classmates he had not really known when they were in school fifty years ago. And he says e-mails and calls are continuing after the reunion. A former classmate from the University of Chicago Laboratory High School told one woman she looked young for her age. The woman smiled and explained why: the reunion, she said, had taken away fifty years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. To learn more about American life, and to download transcripts and audio archives of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Nose: The Answer Is as Clear as the Nose on Your Face
* Byline: Some people are said to be hard-nosed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) A person’s nose is important for breathing and smelling. The nose is also used in many popular expressions. ? Some people are able to lead other people by the nose. For example, if a wife leads her husband by the nose, she makes him do whatever she wants him to do. Some people are said to be hard-nosed.They will not change their opinions or positions on anything. If someone is hard-nosed, chances are he will never pay through the nose, or pay too much money, for an object or service. It is always helpful when people keep their nose out of other people’s business. They do not interfere. The opposite of this is someone who noses around all the time.This kind of person is interested in other people’s private matters. He is considered nosey. Someone who keeps his nose to the grindstone works very hard. This can help a worker keep his nose clean or stay out of trouble. One unusual expression is that is no skin off my nose. This means that a situation does not affect or concern me. We also say that sometimes a person cuts off his nose to spite his face.That is, he makes a situation worse for himself by doing something foolish because he is angry. More problems can develop if a person looks down his nose at someone or something. The person acts like something is unimportant or worthless. This person might also turn up his nose at something that he considers not good enough. This person thinks he is better than everyone else. He has his nose in the air. In school, some students thumb their nose at their teacher. They refuse to obey orders or do any work.Maybe these students do not know the correct answers.My mother always told me, if you study hard, the answers should be right under your nose or easily seen. I think we have explained the nose expressions. What about ears?? Well, I hope you are all ears or very interested in hearing more expressions. We might even put a bug in your ear or give you an idea about something. We also advise you to keep your ear to the ground.This means to be interested in what is happening around you and what people are thinking. If you are a good person, you will lend an ear to your friends. You will listen to them when they have a problem they need to talk about. Our last expression is to play it by ear. This has two meanings. One is to play a song on a musical instrument by remembering the tune and not by reading the music. Play it by ear also means to decide what to do at the last minute instead of making detailed plans. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Dreamliner,' Not Even Flown Yet, Is Boeing's Most Popular New Plane
* Byline: Experts agree on warning signs for ovarian cancer. And remembering an American TV performer who made science fun for children. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. On our program this week, we will tell about a new airplane from the American company Boeing. We will also tell about warning signs for ovarian cancer. And, we tell about a television performer who invented science shows for children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Boeing Company presented its newest jet airplane earlier this month to a crowd of employees and invited visitors. About fifteen thousand people attended the presentation on July eighth at Boeing's factory in Everett, Washington. The company is calling its new plane the Seven Eighty-Seven Dreamliner. The plane is Boeing's first new jet since nineteen ninety-five. The Seven Eighty-Seven is designed to travel great distances. It can carry between two hundred ten and three hundred thirty people. VOICE TWO: Boeing says the plane will be made mostly of carbon-fiber composite material instead of aluminum. A plane made of carbon-fiber weighs less than a metal plane. As a result, it requires less fuel to do the same job. Boeing says the Seven Eighty-Seven will use twenty percent less fuel per passenger than similarly sized planes. It also says the plane will make less noise taking off and landing. And it will produce less carbon dioxide than traditional jets. Studies have linked rising temperatures on Earth to human production of gases like carbon dioxide. VOICE ONE: The new jet plane has yet to leave the ground. Boeing says the first Dreamliner will be completed in the factory in Everett. The Seven Eighty-Seven still needs flight test and other equipment to be added. The first flight is expected in late August or September. Boeing officials say they expect the plane to start carrying passengers in May, two thousand eight. The company says the Dreamliner is Boeing's most successful new plane. By July eighth, Boeing had already received six hundred seventy-seven orders from forty-seven buyers. The orders are worth more than one hundred ten billion dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ovarian cancer is known as a silent killer because it is usually discovered too late to save a woman's life. But three cancer groups in the United States have now agreed on a list of possible early signs of the disease. The statement is the first of its kind to recognize what ovarian cancer survivors have long believed: that there are common signs. Researchers have found that these symptoms are more likely to happen in women with ovarian cancer than women in general. VOICE ONE: One symptom is expansion of the lower chest or abdomen. Pain in the abdomen or the pelvis can be another symptom. Researchers also say women with an early form of ovarian cancer may release waste fluids more often or with greater urgency. And they say another common symptom is difficulty eating or feeling full quickly. Women who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks are advised to see a doctor. The cancer can affect one or both ovaries, the organs that produce eggs. Doctors say the main ways to find the disease early are recognizing the symptoms and getting a combination pelvic and rectal examination. VOICE TWO: Ovarian cancer kills more than one hundred thousand women around the world each year. In the United States, cancer experts estimate that at least fifteen thousand women will die of it this year. And more than twenty-two thousand new cases will be found. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in women. The Gynecologic Cancer Foundation led the effort for the statement on common symptoms. The American Cancer Society and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists also were involved. Other cancer groups have expressed support for the statement. VOICE ONE: Doctor Barbara Goff at the University of Washington in Seattle was a lead investigator of several studies that gave support to the new list. She says most of the time a woman with these symptoms will not have ovarian cancer. But the disease can spread quickly to nearby organs. A few months can mean life or death. Doctor Goff notes that the disease is ninety percent curable when found in its earliest form. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Telemedicine uses technology to provide medical information and services. It involves satellite technology, wireless telephones, and computers. Telemedicine could be as simple as two doctors using a telephone to discuss a case. Another example might be health care providers studying x-rays of patients who might be thousands of kilometers away. Many telemedicine programs operate through hospitals, home care agencies or university medical centers. VOICE ONE: Recently, Temple University in the American city of Philadelphia began a four-year study. Temple is using an Internet-based system is to study the prevention and treatment of obesity in high-risk populations. Researchers are working with religious centers to test whether telemedicine can help overweight African Americans in the Philadelphia area. Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education gave one computer to each church. Those taking part in the study attend weekly meetings at a church with a trained organizer. Each group has eight to twelve members. They are learning how to use the Internet, including electronic mail and what are called chat rooms. They share ideas on how to prepare healthy foods and they plan their next meetings. Through technology, the members continue to support their families, friends and each other in their health care. VOICE TWO: Telemedicine has been useful in places where there are not enough doctors. Health care experts in Africa say the continent faces the problem of too much disease with too few doctors. Maurice Mars works on telehealth issues at the University of Kwazalu-Natal in South Africa. Doctor Mars says southern Africa has fewer than ten doctors for every one hundred thousand people. Telemedicine is still new to Africa. It has only a few successful programs that can treat people in distant areas. The technology remains costly. Doctor Mars says that kind of spending in not possible for developing countries. He says many countries cannot pay for even Internet services. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the television performer Don Herbert. To many Americans, he was better known as Mister Wizard. Don Herbert died of cancer on June twelfth. He was eighty-nine years old. But his television shows and their influence live on. Don Herbert started appearing on the children’s show “Watch Mr. Wizard” in March, nineteen fifty-one. He appeared as a scientist who liked to perform scientific experiments in his home. VOICE TWO: The show always involved a boy or girl as his assistant. Mister Wizard always had a small experiment prepared or a scientific question to investigate. For example, in one show, he taught a girl about sound and what gives musical instruments their different noise levels. In another show, he showed a boy how to make a small volcano. His weekly program was broadcast for fifteen years. Don Herbert later taught science to a new generation of Americans on a show called “Mr. Wizard’s World.”? This show started in nineteen eighty. It was broadcast three times a week for seven years. You could watch Mr. Wizard and a child perform experiments like turning a clear liquid black or making foods explode using a simple chemical reaction. VOICE ONE: Don Herbert’s television shows taught young people that science could be educational, but also fun and exciting. His experiments were simple and direct. He used everyday objects from around the home. They were also interesting enough for parents to watch. Congressman Vernon Ehlers helped to create the resolution to honor the man known as Mister Wizard. He said Don Herbert invented the business of young people watching fun science shows on television. The Congressman said Mister Herbert was a good guy who did a good job. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange, George Grow and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. ?Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Many US Farmers Struggle With Hot, Dry Weather
* Byline: Heat and drought threaten some of the nation's best farmland.  Transcript of radio broadcast:</em

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Heat and drought are threatening some of America's most productive farmland. The Department of Agriculture says an early summer heat wave across the West has increased demand for water to save dry crops. But in many areas, water supplies are limited. Water is also needed to fight wildfires in western states like California, Nevada and Washington. Temperatures have reached about thirty-eight degrees Celsius recently in parts of Colorado, Montana and Wyoming. The Agriculture Department says temperatures averaged several degrees above normal. Some people in the West say they cannot remember a time with less rain in half a century. But drought conditions have been most severe in the South. The northern part of Alabama is described as the driest in about one hundred years. With grasslands damaged, many farmers in Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee have no hay to feed their cows. So they have sold up to half of their cattle early. In southern Alabama and northern Tennessee, farmers also suffered through a dry period last year. Some were hoping for a big corn crop this year to sell for ethanol fuel. But the government says most of their crop is in poor or very poor condition. Experts say soybeans and cotton look better -- but not very much. Federal officials have declared all counties in Alabama a drought disaster area. That means farmers can get low-cost emergency loans. But they are asking Congress for an additional seventeen million dollars in aid. Ten million would go to drilling for water and regrowing pasture lands. The other money would go to cattle producers to help them recover their losses from selling early. But drought is not the only weather problem right now for American agriculture. Recently, too much rain fell for some crops in the southeastern Plains. Heavy rain and flooding in the lowlands damaged wheat planted in the winter. To the east, rains of twenty-five centimeters or more in areas struck the western Gulf of Mexico. The rains washed out fields and flooded lowlands. But farmers welcomed heavy rainfall in early July from the Mississippi River Delta to the southern Atlantic coastal area. Farmers have also received some welcome rains along the Corn Belt. This area includes the Ohio Valley and parts of the Upper Midwest. Summer crops in the Midwest have been mainly free of the drought suffered in other areas this summer. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Colorado National Monument Shows the Wild Artistry of Nature
* Byline: It has a strange and exciting beauty, like a great painting drawn onto living rock. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Come with us today as we visit a national park in the western state of Colorado. We also tell about one man who made sure the beautiful natural area would be protected for all time. He did this by working to make it part of the National Park System. Today we visit the Colorado National Monument. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Colorado National Monument is not as famous as some other national parks. It Part of the landscape at Colorado National Monumentdoes not get as many visitors as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite or the Yellowstone National Parks. However the Colorado Monument has a strange and exciting beauty all its own. It is similar to a great painting drawn by nature onto living rock. Minerals in the area helped nature create a painting that is black, light brown, dark brown and many different colors of red. Often the colors seem to change as clouds block the sun. At other times the sun makes the many different colors seem to burn brightly. VOICE TWO: The Colorado National Monument is an area of great extremes. The ground rises very sharply from the surrounding flat desert area. The mountains here are part of the western Rocky Mountains. It is an area of huge rock formations created during more than one thousand million years. Volcanoes, great rivers, wind, rain, ice and the birth and death of huge mountains formed this beautiful area. It is not possible to see this extremely beautiful area and not feel the power of nature. Giant mountains seem to have been cut sharply with a huge knife. Their sides are smooth and clean. Other areas of the same mountain seem to have been torn apart in some violent struggle. These areas are filled with huge piles of broken rock. Walls of rock are twisted and have huge holes pushed into their sides. There are tall finger-like rocks that reach far into the sky. Many of the tall rocks look like they could fall over at anytimeOther parts of the same area seem to have long, straight lines cut into the rock. It is possible to count these lines. Each line represents a time long ago when these mountains were at the bottom of an ancient ocean. Each line was formed by dirt, mud and sand that gathered at the bottom of the ancient ocean. Then, as time passed, the bottom of this ancient ocean floor was pushed high into the air by huge pressures deep in the Earth. VOICE ONE: Scientists have found seashells high in these mountains and the fossil remains of ancient ocean creatures. Near the Colorado National Park researchers have found the huge fossil remains of ancient reptiles called dinosaurs. One fossil skeleton found early last century was the largest fossil dinosaur ever found at that time. It was huge and surprised scientists around the world. Scientists are still busy looking for remains of these creatures that died millions of years ago. However, not all of the animals found in or near the park are fossils. Because the area is desert, it is easy to believe that nothing is living here. But if you are very quiet and stay very still you can see much life in the park. Mountain lions live here. It is very difficult to see them. However, visitors sometimes see the foot marks these big cats leave in the soft sand. VOICE TWO: If you look closely, you can see small rabbits searching for food or water early in the morning. On hot days you might see deer resting in the shade of the juniper trees. The deer are protected from hunters. Often they show little fear of people. Visitors must be careful not to surprise a small reptile called the midget faded rattlesnake. The bite of this snake can be very painful and make a victim very sick. At first, the Colorado National Monument seems to be nothing more than huge and very colorful rocks shaped by nature. But if you spend a few hours walking slowly on its many paths, you soon learn that it is very much alive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The forces of nature created the Colorado National Monument. But a man named John Otto was responsible for making sure this beautiful area became part of the United States National Park System. John Otto recognized the great natural beauty of this place and wanted it to be protected. John Otto was an unusual man. He lived alone much of the time in what later became John Otto, first superintendent of Colorado National Monumentthe park. He did not build a house. He moved from place to place and lived in a temporary cloth home. In a letter written in nineteen-oh-seven, Mister Otto told a friend the area made him feel like it was the heart of the world. He told his friend he was going to stay and build paths and work to inform people about this beautiful work of nature. Some people thought he was insane. But John Otto began his campaign to protect the area by writing letters. He acted as a guide for people who read his letters and came to see the great natural beauty for themselves. He asked everyone who visited for their support in his campaign to have the federal government protect the area. VOICE TWO: In nineteen eleven, President William Taft signed the documents making the area a national monument. It would forever be part of the National Park System and protected by the government. President Taft also appointed Mister Otto as the new park’s first top official. John Otto was only paid one dollar a year for this work. He was not expected to really work at the park, just deal with administrative duties, which were few. However, John Otto did work in the park. By nineteen twenty-one he had finished building one of the first major paths. This made it much easier for people to visit the area. He built it using simple tools and without much help. It is called the Trail of the Serpent. He was also very careful to build the trail without damaging any of the area’s natural beauty. It was one of the first roads into the park that could be used by an automobile. VOICE ONE: High up in the Colorado National Monument is a steel sign that honors John Otto. It has been placed into the wall of a rock formation that John Otto loved. The marker says: “In recognition of John Otto, trail builder, promoter, and first custodian of Colorado National Monument, established May twenty-fourth, nineteen eleven.”? John Otto would have liked that. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Colorado National Monument is almost eight thousand three hundred hectares. It is near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado, not far from the state border with Utah. The area is known for its mountains and the beauty of the desert. It is also here that the last of the Rocky Mountains begin to drop away to flat land. Although the Colorado National Monument is smaller than most national parks, about five hundred thousand visitors come each year. Most visitors drive on the Interstate Highway System. Interstate Highway Seventy is only a few kilometers from the park. When a visitor leaves the road, the path becomes much smaller and begins to rise into the mountains. Signs urge safety. Other signs urge the driver of the vehicle to slow down. VOICE ONE: The small road begins to turn left, then sharply to the right, then left again. At the same time it moves up and up many meters at a time with each turn. At first, mountains surround the road on both sides of the car. Then, without warming, the little road moves into the clear and visitors can see hundreds of meters down into the valley. For a little more than six kilometers the road twists and turns high into the park. ? At the top of the little road visitors reach the National Park Visitors Center. The modern building provides information about the park. It has a small store where visitors can buy gifts. The Visitors Center also includes a small museum with fossils, photographs and the story of John Otto. VOICE TWO: When visitors have collected the information or gifts they want, most continue through the building to an observation area in back of the building. Slowly they walk to the very edge of the mountain. In this great open space, the finger-like rocks seem to reach for the sky. Far below is the great natural beauty that took more than one thousand million years for nature to create. And, it is here they can begin to understand why John Otto loved this place so much and why he worked so hard to protect it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Egypt Moves to Halt Female Genital Cutting
* Byline: A girl's death leads to a stronger ban, public protest and a statement from the country's grand mufti that the tradition is against Islam. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Egypt has fully banned the tradition that some call female circumcision and others call female genital mutilation. The government acted after a girl in southern Egypt died. Her mother took her to a doctor to perform the operation. Twelve-year-old Badour Shaker reportedly was given too much anesthesia to kill the pain. Her death in June created public anger against the traditional practice. Part or all of the clitoris and other tissue around the vagina are cut away. The practice is often seen for cultural reasons as a way to repress sexual desire and protect a girl's honor. Some parents also think it is connected with cleanliness. But the cutting is often done by someone without medical training, clean tools or even anesthesia. Infections are common. Victims can also go into shock from pain and bleeding. Experts say long-term problems can include painful growths and thick scar tissue. These can interfere with reproductive ability and childbirth. The World Health Organization says the practice is dangerous physically as well as emotionally. Still, the United Nations says that in Africa, more than three million girls each year have it done to them. In Egypt and Sudan the cutting is performed on both Muslim and Christian girls. It is also common in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The death of Badour Shaker led the Egyptian Health Ministry to strengthen a nineteen ninety-six ban on female genital cutting. The operation was still permitted in some cases. This was true since Egypt first banned the practice in nineteen fifty-nine. After the recent death, Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa condemned what he called a harmful tradition forbidden by Islam. The grand mufti is the country's top official for giving Islamic legal opinions. Other countries are also taking action. Norway said it would bar families from leaving the country if the suspected purpose was to have the cutting done. And in London, police have just offered money for information leading to anyone carrying out female genital mutilation in the British capital. Police officials say it is a human rights violation and extreme child abuse that can involve girls as young as four. The police launched the campaign during summer because the extended holiday period is believed to be when families most often have it done. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Evidence for School Uniform Policies in US Seen as Weak
* Byline: Supporters believe dressing the same creates a better learning environment and safer schools. But studies find mixed results. Second of two reports. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In nineteen ninety-nine, twelve percent of public elementary schools in the United States required students to wear uniforms. Just three years later, estimates were almost double that. Some middle and high schools have also joined the movement. Yet studies find mixed results from requiring uniforms. And some schools have turned away from such policies. Supporters believe dressing the same creates a better learning environment and safer schools. The school district in Long Beach, California, was the first in the country to require uniforms in all elementary and middle schools. That was in nineteen ninety-four. The example helped build national interest in uniforms as a way to deal with school violence and improve learning. Findings in Long Beach suggested that the policy resulted in fewer behavior problems and better attendance. But researcher Viktoria Stamison has looked at those findings. She says they were based only on opinions about the effects of uniforms. She says other steps taken at the same time to improve schools in Long Beach and statewide could have influenced the findings. The district increased punishments for misbehavior. And California passed a law to reduce class sizes. Her report is among several in a book published last year called "Uniforms in Public Schools: A Decade of Research and Debate." In Florida, for example, researcher Sharon Pate found that uniforms seemed to improve behavior and reduce violence. In Texas, Eloise Hughes found fewer discipline problems among students required to wear uniforms, but no effect on attendance. Sociologist David Brunsma has studied school uniform policies since nineteen ninety-eight. He collected the reports in the book. In his own study, he found that reading and mathematics performance dropped after a school in rural Pennsylvania required uniforms. Political and community pressures may persuade schools to go to uniforms to improve learning. But David Brunsma and others believe there is not enough evidence of a direct relationship. In fact, he says requiring uniforms may even increase discipline problems. But researchers also say studies of uniform policies are often scientifically limited. They say more work is needed to get better information. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For more on this debate, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US History: George H.W. Bush's Presidency Saw End of Cold War
* Byline: The 41st president had high public ratings for his foreign policy, including the ouster of Iraqi forces that invaded Kuwait. But economic problems and other issues at home began to damage his popularity. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue telling about the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush. He was elected the forty-first president of the United States in nineteen eighty-eight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union ended under the administration of President George Bush. This very tense period had lasted more than forty years. The invention of weapons that could kill millions of people at one time increased worldwide fears during this period. The world was changing greatly however, during the late nineteen eighties. The Soviet Union was dying. VOICE TWO: On November ninth, nineteen eighty-nine, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall for the first time since it had been built. This wall had divided Communist East Germany from the West since nineteen sixty-one. Citizens and soldiers soon began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended much of the fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. Tensions continued to ease as Communist rule in most of the former Soviet countries ended by the early nineteen nineties. Fifteen republics had belonged to the Soviet Union. By the end of nineteen ninety-one, most had declared their independence. President Bush recognized all the former Soviet republics. They became a very loosely formed coalition called the Commonwealth of Independent States. Countries that had considered the United States the enemy, now looked to it to lead the way to peace. VOICE ONE: As the Soviet Union was dying, President Bush repeatedly negotiated with Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. In the spring of nineteen ninety, for example, their meeting in the United States resulted in an important agreement. It called for each side to destroy most of its chemical weapons. The two men also agreed to improve trade and economic relations. The American and Soviet presidents met in July, nineteen ninety-one, in Moscow. There, the two leaders signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, called START ONE. This treaty called for both the Soviet Union and the United States to reduce their supply of long-range nuclear bombs and missiles. Each promised to decrease its supply by about one-third over seven years. START ONE became the first agreement between the two powers that ordered cuts in supplies of existing nuclear weapons. VOICE TWO: In September nineteen ninety-one, President Bush said the United States would remove most of its short-range nuclear weapons from service. He also said the United States would destroy many of these weapons. The next month, the Soviet nations announced the same actions. On December twenty-fifth, Mikhail Gorbachev officially resigned as Soviet president. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ended. As president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin became the most important leader of the former Soviet Republics. President Bush and President Yeltsin signed another arms treaty in January, nineteen ninety-three. This START TWO agreement provided for reducing long-range nuclear weapons to half the number planned for START ONE. Cuts were to be made over seven years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Bush ordered American forces into battle two times during his administration. These conflicts were not linked to disputes with Communist governments. In December nineteen eighty-nine, he sent troops to Panama. The goal was to oust the dictator, General Manuel Antonio Noriega. Noriega had refused to honor election results that showed another candidate had been elected president of Panama. The United States also wanted Noriega on illegal drug charges. In addition, President Bush said he sent troops in to protect thirty five-thousand Americans living in the Central American nation. American soldiers easily defeated Noriega’s forces. He was taken to the United States for trial. The United States then supported the presidency of Guillermo Endara, who had officially won the presidential election in Panama. VOICE TWO: In August nineteen ninety, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States and other nations were receiving much of their oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The United Nations declared a resolution clearly threatening war on Iraq unless it withdrew from Kuwait by January fifteenth, nineteen ninety-one. But Iraq failed to obey. President Bush succeeded in forming a coalition with thirty-eight other countries against Iraq. The coalition wanted to free Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Iraq. President Bush sent hundreds of thousands of American troops into the effort. VOICE ONE: The Persian Gulf War began in Iraq on January seventeenth, nineteen ninety-one. At first, the coalition bombed Iraqi targets in Iraq and Kuwait. The bombing destroyed or damaged many important centers. On February twenty-sixth, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to leave Kuwait. The order came too late. The Iraqis were surrounded. Major ground attacks on Iraq and Kuwait defeated Saddam Hussein’s forces in a little more than four days. Only about three hundred-seventy coalition troops died in the Persian Gulf War. Some military experts say as many as one hundred-thousand Iraqi fighters may have been killed in the fighting. Others say far fewer Iraqi soldiers died. However, thousands of civilians were thought to have died in Iraq and Kuwait. Kuwait suffered severe damage. But it was free. VOICE TWO: After the war Saddam Hussein still controlled his country. Years later, some Americans continued to criticize the Bush Administration for not trying to oust the Iraqi leader. They believed President Bush should have urged that coalition forces try to capture the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. After the war ended, Kurdish people in northern Iraq fought to oust the Iraqi leader. So did Shi-ite Muslims in southern Iraq. These groups suffered crushing defeat. VOICE ONE: The defeated Kurds fled to Iran, Turkey, and the northern Iraqi mountains. Thousands of Kurds died or suffered from war injuries, disease, and starvation. In April, President Bush ordered American troops to work with other coalition nations to give humanitarian aid to the refugees. The troops established refugee camps for the Kurds. As time passed, Iraqi soldiers and aircraft continued to attack Kurds in the north and Shi-ite Muslims in the south. Coalition forces led by the United States established safety areas in northern and southern Iraq. Years later, these “no fly” areas still restricted Iraqi military air activity. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Bush also ordered American military troops to join other troops in Somalia. By late nineteen ninety-two, lack of rain and continuing civil war had caused widespread suffering there. Opposing armed ethnic groups were keeping Somalis from receiving food and other aid supplies. American soldiers helped in the effort to get aid to the starving people. VOICE ONE: The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, was signed in late nineteen ninety-two. It called for the United States and Mexico to remove taxes and other trade barriers. Mexico and Canada agreed to take similar action. NAFTA became effective in nineteen ninety-four, after George Bush had left office. Some people feared that NAFTA would hurt millions of workers. Others praised President Bush for supporting the agreement. VOICE TWO: By the third year of his four-year term, President Bush’s international activities had made him an extremely popular president. It seemed he would be easily re-elected in nineteen ninety two. Historians often say, however, that political situations can change quickly. That is what happened to America’s forty-first president. Economic problems and other issues inside the United States began to seriously damage the great popularity of George Herbert Walker Bush. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of The Making of A Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Kids Love Shoes on Wheels, but Adults Turn Against 'Heelys'
* Byline: A new environmental magazine called Verdant.? And a listener from Iran wants the details about singer George Michael and his 1984 hit ''Careless Whisper.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to music from George Michael … Learn about some popular shoes for children … And report about a new environmental magazine. Verdant HOST: Finding new ways to improve the world’s environment and fight climate change is becoming an important industry. “Going Green” has become a way to make money. Verdant Magazine is a new publication that wants to be part of the “Going Green” market. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Verdant Magazine says it gives “Smarter Choices for Better Living.” It calls itself a high- end magazine that provides information about environmentally friendly living. The magazine says it is fun while also being informative. It tells its readers about many things including travel, design, art and reports about products. The first issue came out in May. Some articles are fun to look at, such as the pictures of environmentally safe objects for the home. These include computer devices covered in carved wood. Cloth colored with environmentally safe chemicals. And even art made from recycled materials. One article tells about how to have a garden of plants that does not require a lot of water. The article shows that by using rocks and special plants people can have outdoor areas that do not waste water. Some stories are serious, such as the article about the future of hydrogen cars. Other articles are more fun, such as one about different uses for chocolate. The next issue of Verdant will come out at the end of August. So far, people have given mixed opinions of the first issue on Web sites such as treehugger.com. Some people think Verdant is aimed only at rich people who can buy the objects in the articles. Some think the magazine itself is a waste since it is printed on paper. But others think the magazine offers environmental information in a form that is easy to use. If you want to decide for yourself, visit the magazine’s Web site at verdantmag.com. Heelys HOST: One of the most popular activities among children in the United States this summer involves a costly pair of shoes. But adults are warning about the possible dangers of the shoes with wheels known as Heelys. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Heelys are shoes that can roll. They are sports shoes with a wheel in the heel. The wheels can be easily removed from the shoes. So a person wearing them can either walk or ride!? Heelys are sold in at least fifty countries around the world. They cost between fifty and one hundred dollars. They were first sold in the United States in two thousand. Heelys Incorporated is one of the fastest growing businesses in the United States. Reports say the company has produced more than ten million pairs of shoes. And it had almost two hundred million dollars in sales last year. Roger Adams invented Heelys because he wanted to be able to roller skate without changing his shoes. He invented a shoe that could roll if the wearer moved the weight of his body toward the back. Doctors, however, say wearing Heelys can be dangerous. One doctor told a newspaper in the state of Iowa that the shoes would be safer if the wheels were in the front of the shoe instead of the back. He said a person’s natural balance is to the front of the foot, not the back. One medical study last month in the journal Pediatrics warned of the possible dangers of wearing Heelys. It said doctors at a hospital in Dublin, Ireland reported treating sixty-seven children for injuries over a ten-week period last summer. Doctors in Singapore reported that thirty-seven children were treated for injuries during seven months in two thousand four. Most of the injuries reported involved broken hands, arms and ankles and cracked heads. The children were not wearing any kind of protective equipment when they fell. The Heelys company recently released the result of a study it had requested. The study found that rolling on Heelys is safer than roller skating, skateboarding or riding scooters. Still, the company and many doctors suggest that children wear protective equipment on their heads, arms and legs. But children say they do not like to do this. Many say they expect to fall while learning to use Heelys and they just get up and try again. George Michael HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Iran. Saeed Majidi wants to know about George Michael and his famous song “Careless Whisper.” George Michael is one of the world's most successful male recording artists. He has sold more than eighty million records around the world. George Michael was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in London in nineteen sixty-three. His father was from the Greek side of the island of Cyprus and changed his name to Jack Panos when he moved to England. George Michael and his high school friend Andrew Ridgeley formed the music band Wham! in nineteen eighty-one. They released two albums, “Fantastic” and “Make it Big.”? The song “Careless Whisper” came out in nineteen eighty-four. George Michael wrote it when he was only seventeen years old. “Careless Whisper” became one of the most popular songs of the nineteen eighties. (MUSIC) In nineteen eighty-six the members of Wham! broke up. But George Michael continued to write and sing hit songs. The next year he released the album “Faith.”? It earned him many awards. They include a Grammy Award for Best Album and two American Music Awards for Favorite Male Vocalist. Here George Michael sings the title song, "Faith." (MUSIC) George Michael has always been politically and socially active. He has given earnings from songs and concerts to organizations that deal with AIDS and children’s health. This summer, he has been performing more than thirty concerts all over Europe. The Twenty-Five Live Tour is celebrating his first twenty-five years in music. The tour will end next month. HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Junior Achievement Teaches Business Skills to Young People
* Byline: Volunteers help students around the world understand real-life economics. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Junior Achievement is an international movement to educate young people about business and economics. The purpose is to help them prepare to succeed in a world economy. Vesna Jeremic, left, leader of Podunavlje County, Serbia, purchases ''stocks'' from students in?Junior AchievementThe organization is the largest of its kind. JA Worldwide says it reaches about seven and one-half million students each year in nearly one hundred countries. Programs begin in elementary school and continue through middle and high school. The education is based on the ideas of market-based economics and entrepreneurship. Junior Achievement began in nineteen nineteen in Springfield, Massachusetts. Two business leaders, Horace Moses and Theodore Vail, joined with Senator Murray Crane of Massachusetts to start it. For more than fifty years, Junior Achievement programs met after school. They began as a group of business clubs. The organization started with a small number of children ages ten to twelve. But in nineteen seventy-five, Junior Achievement began to offer classes during school hours. Many more young people joined the organization once it began to teach business skills as part of the school day. Volunteers from the community teach about businesses, how they are organized, and how products are made and sold. They also teach about the American and world economies, the money system, industry and trade. The Junior Achievement Company Program teaches young people how entrepreneurship works. They learn about business by operating their own companies. The students develop a product and sell shares in their company. They use the money to buy the materials they need to make their product, which then they sell. Finally, they return the profits to the people who bought shares in the company. Junior Achievement says more than two hundred fifty thousand volunteers support its programs around the world. In the United States alone, there are more than twenty-one thousand places that hold Junior Achievement events. Junior Achievement Incorporated and Junior Achievement International combined their operations in two thousand four. They formed Junior Achievement Worldwide. Its headquarters are in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Shelley Gollust and Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com where you can also find a link to the JA Web site, ja.org. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Intelligence Report Says al-Qaida Remains Top Threat to US Security
* Byline: On another issue, Bush appoints a cabinet group to look for ways to make sure food and other imported goods are safe. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. A new report says al-Qaida is still, and will remain, the major threat to the United States. The report is known as a National Intelligence Estimate. Officials this week released only what are called the key judgments of the sixteen American intelligence agencies. The organization led by Osama bin Laden is said to have re-established itself as a center of worldwide Islamic terrorism. The report says al-Qaida operates from the safety of Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. An estimate last year said al-Qaida was becoming less organized. But Ted Gistaro, a national intelligence officer, says that appears to have changed. He says al-Qaida has become more organized again and seeks to extend its reach, especially with the group called al-Qaida in Iraq. The report says al-Qaida is expected to intensify efforts to put operatives in the United States. But it also says increased worldwide efforts to fight terrorism have restricted the group's ability to attack the United States homeland again. It says terrorist groups now see the country as a harder target to strike than on September eleventh, two thousand one. President Bush, commenting on the report, said al-Qaida is strong today, but not nearly as strong as before the September eleventh attacks. He says the reason why is because of efforts, in his words, "to defeat them where we find them." Peter Zeihan is with Stratfor, a private intelligence company in Texas. He agrees that al-Qaida leaders want to launch another major attack in the United States. But he believes they lack the ability. Another finding is that Hezbollah in Lebanon may be more likely to consider attacking the United States over the next three years. The report says this is possible if it sees the United States as a direct threat to the group or Iran. In Congress, lawmakers from both parties used the intelligence estimate to support their arguments over Iraq war policy. Republicans said the report shows the continued need to fight al-Qaida in Iraq. Democrats said it shows the war has created new terrorists while permitting al-Qaida to re-organize in Pakistan. On Wednesday, Republican senators blocked an attempt to withdraw troops from Iraq by April. This followed an all-night debate called by Democratic leaders to persuade more Republicans to support it. Lawmakers are expected to return to the Iraq debate in September. Congress wants the American ambassador and top commander in Iraq to report then on the progress of the recent troop increase. For Americans, not all safety concerns involve terrorism. There is growing debate about the safety of imported goods. Attention has centered on China after recalls of a number of products made there. On Wednesday, President Bush directed a group of cabinet members to look for ways to make sure food and other imports are safe. They have sixty days, possibly longer, to identify steps that can be taken without adding new costs. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821-1910: Against Strong Opposition, She Became the First Western Woman in Modern Times to Become a Doctor?
* Byline: She also started a hospital for women and children and built a medical school to train women doctors. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about the first western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England in eighteen twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal. Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave women to have the same chance for education as men. He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. These subjects were normally taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered: "They shall do what they please". VOICE TWO: In eighteen thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided to move the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old. The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mister Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio River. Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family, Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs. In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching. Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying. She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people. The dying friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died. Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school. Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard, Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her, except Geneva Medical College in the state of New York. She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned the reason: her acceptance was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students decide. The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors from Geneva Medical School in eighteen forty-nine. She was the only woman in the western world to have completed medical school training. Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon. She wanted to work in a hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she was a doctor. A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At the hospital, Doctor Blackwell accidentally got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon. Instead, she went to London to study at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But no patients came. So doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school. With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re-built house. The work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York. They treated only three hundred people in their hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented. News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke to groups in London about disease prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty-eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for women opened in Boston and Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease. Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering from ever happening. In eighteen seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay healthy. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding wives who wanted to be considered as equals. Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's rights. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen ten. She was eighty-nine years old. She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal was very important. Toward the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One wrote that doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mandela Forms 'Elders' to Work on World Problems
* Byline: The former South African president brings together a group that includes Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. ??????? Former South African president Nelson Mandela celebrated his eighty-ninth birthday last week by launching "the Elders." This is a group of men and women with almost one thousand years of collective experience to deal with world issues. Among them are former president Jimmy Carter and former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan. Former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be the chairman. Other members include Indian social activist Ela Bhatt, former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former Irish president Mary Robinson. Bangladeshi economist and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus and former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing are also Elders. Nelson Mandela presented the group at a news conference in Johannesburg with his wife, Graca Machel, a children's rights activist. One chair was empty. It represented the final Elder: Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader under house arrest in Burma. The idea for the group came from British businessman Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel. They proposed the idea to Mister Mandela and his wife several years ago. Mister Branson, along with the U.N. Foundation and private donors, has helped finance the group. The Elders say their work will not be in conflict with the United Nations or other international groups. Instead, they say they hope to work alongside such organizations. Mister Mandela says the Elders will use their skills and collective wisdom to look for solutions to problems such as AIDS, climate change and longtime conflicts. The idea is that they can talk to anyone they please or get involved in any issue they wish because they do not represent governments. The group plans to hold videoconferences and also to meet in person two times a year. Some people may wonder how much a group of mostly retired leaders can influence world issues. Nelson Mandela himself has said he plans to take retirement seriously. He left office in nineteen ninety-nine and announced his retirement from public life in two thousand four. His involvement on the council is expected to be largely ceremonial. But he says he believes in the Elders because each member is fiercely independent. They are free, he says, to put the needs of the world's people first. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For more development news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New Movie Musical 'Hairspray' Takes You Back to the 1960s
* Byline: New movie stars John Travolta as a woman. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Today we play music from the new movie about teenagers in the nineteen sixties called “Hairspray.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: “Hairspray” opened in the United States last weekend. It is the movie version of a popular musical play in New York City. That musical has been playing on Broadway since two thousand two. It won several Tony Awards, including best musical, the following year. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote the music for the play and movie. But "Hairspray" really began life in nineteen eighty-eight as a funny movie written and directed by John Waters. It is about rock and roll music and relations between black and white teenagers. It takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, during the civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties. “Hairspray” is a funny story about teenagers and their music. The main character is a teenage girl named Tracy Turnblad. Tracy is a big girl. She is overweight. She also has “big hair.” She wears her hair in a high hairstyle that was popular back then. She keeps it in place using hairspray. Tracy loves music. And she loves to dance. After school, she and her friends watch other teenagers dance on a popular local television show, the "Corny Collins Show." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tracy’s dream comes true. She is chosen to be one of the dancers on the show. She likes one of the male dancers, Link Larkin. Zac Efron, as Link, sings a love song to Tracy called “It Takes Two.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tracy becomes very popular after appearing on the television show. The owner of a clothing store for large women wants to make Tracy a model for his clothing. Tracy wants her mother, Edna Turnblad, to help her become famous. Edna is also a very large woman. She works at home washing other people’s clothes. She does not like to leave her house. Tracy tells her mother she must take part in all of the excitement of life. Nikki Blonsky, as Tracy, sings “Welcome to the Sixties.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother, looks unusual. That is because she is played by the famous actor John Travolta, dressed like a large woman. Listen as Edna sings about her love for her husband, Wilbur. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: All the dancers on the "Corny Collins Show" are white. However, once a month, the show permits black teenagers to dance on the show. Motormouth Maybelle, who owns a record store, organizes and leads that show. Tracy believes that black teenagers and white teenagers should be able to dance together on the show all the time. She and Maybelle organize a civil rights demonstration. But it turns into a riot and the protesters are arrested. Later they are released from jail. Maybelle tells about her own struggle for equal rights. Queen Latifah sings “I Know Where I’ve Been.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The television show organizes a contest called “Miss Teenage Hairspray.” The people at the event vote for the teenage girl they like best. The event is broadcast on television across the country. The broadcast is paid for by a company that makes hairspray. All of the girls in the contest use the product to keep their large hairstyles in place. James Marsden as Corny Collins sings about hairspray. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The “Miss Teenage Hairspray” contest includes a dance competition. All of the teenagers, both black and white, join Tracy in the contest. They dance together on nationwide television for the first time. And they all sing “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver. To learn more about American life, and to download transcripts and audio archives of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mouth Expressions: The Experience Left a Bad Taste in My Mouth
* Byline: English expressions using the word mouth. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.(MUSIC) People use their mouths for many things. They eat, talk, shout and sing. They smile and they kiss. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word mouth. But some of them are not so nice. For example, if you say bad things about a person, the person might protest and say “Do not bad mouth me.” Sometimes, people say something to a friend or family member that they later regret because hurts that person’s feelings. Or they tell the person something they were not supposed to tell. The speaker might say: “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.”? If this should happen, the speaker might feel down in the mouth. In other words, he might feel sad for saying the wrong thing. Another situation is when someone falsely claims another person said something. The other person might protest: “I did not say that. Do not put words in my mouth.” Information is often spread through word of mouth. This is general communication between people, like friends talking to each other. “How did you hear about that new movie?” someone might ask. “Oh, by word of mouth.”?? A more official way of getting information is through a company or government mouthpiece. This is an official spokesperson. Government-run media could also be called a mouthpiece. Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend was going to say. When this happens, the friend might say: “You took the words right out of my mouth!”? Sometimes a person has a bad or unpleasant experience with another person. He might say that experience “left a bad taste in my mouth.”? Or the person might have had a very frightening experience, like being chased by an angry dog. He might say: “I had my heart in my mouth.” Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. There is an expression for this, too. You might say such a person, “was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” This rich person is the opposite of a person who lives from hand to mouth. This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food. Parents might sometimes withhold sweet food from a child as a form of punishment for saying bad things.For example, if a child says things she should not say to her parents, she might be described as a mouthy child. The parents might even tell the child to stop mouthing off. But enough of all this talk. I have been running my mouth long enough. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 'Hypercorrection Is Not Simply Being Fussy or a Nitpicker or a Pedant'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- getting hyper about correctness. RS: English once had a system where nouns took different forms depending on whether they were the subject or the object of a sentence. We've lost most of that. AA: But this system survives in pronouns -- words like "I" and "me" and "she" and "her." And, as English Professor Jack Lynch at Rutgers University explains, these can be confusing, and lead to common errors known as hypercorrections. JACK LYNCH: "Hypercorrection is not simply being fussy or a nitpicker or a pedant. The 'hyper' part, from Greek, means 'too much.' It means working so hard to avoid one potential problem that you end up falling into another one." RS: "Can you give us an example?" JACK LYNCH: "Sure. We're taught as children, and beginning language learners are told, you don't say 'me and you went to the movies.' It should be 'you and I.' And a lot of people, therefore, internalize the rule that 'you and I' is somehow more proper, and they end up using it in places where they shouldn't -- such as 'he gave it to you and I' when it should be 'he gave it to you and me.'" RS: "But we're not hearing that in common, spoken American English." AA: "What you're hearing is someone would say, let's say, 'He took Rosanne and I to the movies -- '" JACK LYNCH: "Exactly." AA: " -- where it should be 'he took Rosanne and me to the movies.' How did this happen? Why are people doing this?" JACK LYNCH: "It tends to come from areas where people are aware that there's something a little tricky in the language. Now it doesn't often happen if the preposition -- words like 'to' and 'for' and 'with' -- comes before one of these tricky pronouns. You would never say 'he gave it to she and I.' 'To she' just sounds wrong to us immediately. But 'to you' is right because 'you' has the same form whether it's the subject or the object." RS: "So that's a piece of cake there." JACK LYNCH: "There are other areas where we make these mistakes; the word 'whom,' for instance." RS: "And 'who.'" JACK LYNCH: "Yes, 'who' and 'whom.' Many people know there's this word 'whom' out there and they have a sense it's associated with 'proper' usage. But they end up using it wrong, such as 'whom should I say is calling?' It should, in fact, be 'who should I say is calling?' because 'who is calling' -- it functions as a subject." RS: "So this is a subject/object thing again." JACK LYNCH: "Yes. You wouldn't say 'him is calling.' You would say 'he is calling.'" RS: "So what's an easy way to remember this?" JACK LYNCH: "Well, whenever you're considering using 'who' or 'whom,' try converting it into 'he' and 'him.' If your ear tells you that you want a 'he' there, you probably want 'who.' If your ear tells you [that] you want a 'him' there, you probably want 'whom.' And the 'm' at the end is a good way to keep them straight." RS: "Now what about speakers of English as a foreign language, that's another group entirely." JACK LYNCH: "Sure, and they'll make many of these same kinds of errors, especially with these forms where the language has been changing over a long time, and even native speakers can get confused in them. If you're not really confident in the rules, stick with what you do understand, rather than trying out the things that you don't quite get. Honest errors always sound better than hypercorrections, which run the risk of sounding pompous." RS: "We talked about pronouns. We've talked about who/whom. Are there any other features that ... AA: "There's one more. How about 'feeling badly.'" JACK LYNCH: "Yes, 'feeling badly' is a common problem. Again, we're taught growing up, or we're taught as we're first learning language, that we have to use adverbs with verbs. We don't say 'he did it good,' we say 'he did it well.' We don't say 'he ran quick.' We say 'he ran quickly.' But there is a whole class of verbs, verbs of being, which can include verbs related to sense, that do properly take the adjective. So 'I'm feeling badly' is in fact a hypercorrection." RS: "So 'I'm feeling badly' is you're not really feeling some thing well." JACK LYNCH: "Exactly. 'Feeling badly,' what that would mean is something like I'm not doing it correctly, or I'm not touching something very sensitively, something like that. But if you mean feel in the sense of feeling good or bad in yourself, then it should be 'I feel bad' or 'I feel good.'" AA: Jack Lynch is an English professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He says that as language continually changes, today's hypercorrection will probably become another generation's correct usage. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Send e-mail to word@voanews.com. And we've got all our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Science and Beauty Combine at the US Botanic Garden in Washington
* Byline: Summer demonstrations show the many differences among America's plant life. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m?????????????????? Bob Doughty. This week, we tell what is showing and growing at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? The United States Botanic Garden is America's plant museum. Congress established the Botanic Garden as a center for the science of growing things. But the Garden is also a center of beauty. The Botanic Garden has twenty-five thousand plants in its collection. Visitors can see many of them in the Garden's public Conservatory. It is a large stone and glass structure near the United States Capitol building. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? Everywhere you look in the Conservatory, something appeals to your eyes. A visitor can move seemingly from one part of Earth to another in just a few seconds. A short walk takes you from desert to thick forest. The Conservatory offers examples of plants that provide the makings of medicine. It also has plants of special interest to children. Rare and endangered plants occupy a place all their own. Many visitors show an interest in the plants of North America and economic plants. Economic plants get their name because they are used in products like food, drinks and wood. VOICE ONE: The tradition leading to the present Botanic Garden began almost two hundred years ago. In eighteen sixteen, a cultural group in Washington proposed creating a special garden. This area was to have plants from the United States and other nations. In eighteen forty-two, the explorer Charles Wilkes donated two hundred fifty four living plants. The plants were carefully kept. After a short time, they found a home in a new greenhouse. The greenhouse was moved to its present home in nineteen thirty-three. That was a year after the opening of nearby Bartholdi Park. This open-air space is also part of the Botanic Garden. (MUSIC)? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? VOICE TWO: On a hot summer morning, many people make their way through the Conservatory building. They say the cool air inside feels good. But wetness levels and temperatures are carefully controlled for the health of the plants. Some of the visitors spend time in the Botanic Garden's seasonal demonstrations, or exhibits. Among the crowd in the open air exhibits are high school students. They study plants on the terrace -- the space around the Conservatory. Several women wearing hats also walk around the terrace. Then they move west of the building to look at the new National Garden. They watch workers set new plantings in the ground. VOICE ONE: The National Garden first officially welcomed the public last October. Private donors and groups added this open-air growing space to the United States Botanic Garden. The Office of the Architect of the Capitol operates the National Garden and all parts of the Botanic Garden, often called the U.S.B.G. The U.S.B.G. and the American Public Gardens Association organized the temporary exhibits. The exhibits are part of an event called "Celebrating America's Public Gardens."? The celebration will last until early October. Twenty botanic gardens from all over the country are represented. An exhibit called "Green Today, Growing Tomorrows" shows the importance of respect for the future of the environment. A second exhibit is named "A Sense of Place."? It shows the great differences among plant life in America. Experts in the study of horticulture and plant science say an important part of an area's identity comes from what that area grows. VOICE TWO:?????? The exhibit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii shows plant life of warm climates. The National Tropical Botanical Garden operates four gardens in Hawaii and one in Florida. Dried fronds, or leaves, of palms form the top of a Hawaiian shelter in the Washington exhibit. To most Americans, the Hawaiian plants and trees look unusual. For example, there is ulu, or breadfruit, and the aluha plant from the bellflower family. A nearby banana tree looks more common. The National Tropical Botanical Garden says saving tropical plants is one of its main purposes. Experts say thirty-three percent of all plant life in the United States could disappear from Earth. An even higher percentage of tropical plant life is threatened. VOICE ONE: Another popular exhibit comes from the Heritage Farm. The farm is part of the Rio Grande Botanic Garden in New Mexico. An old red wagon with large wheels contains evidence of nature's products in the American West. The vehicle contains apples, onions, strawberries and mission grapes. It has honey and a honeycomb, the wax cells where bees store the honey. Many kinds of trees, grasses and plants need bees to grow. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?? A young man is watering flowers in the National Garden. He takes a long look at roses from the Reiman Gardens at Iowa State University. These flowers are special. They are stronger and require less care than other roses. The university says this is because they were developed to survive the cold winters of Iowa. Scientist Griffith Buck produced them. Mister Buck worked at the university's College of Agriculture from nineteen forty-eight until nineteen eighty-five. He developed ninety kinds of roses. VOICE ONE: Several people are taking pictures of the exhibit of the Cleveland Botanical Garden in Ohio. A huge reproduction of a salsa can is marked "Ripe from Downtown Salsa."? Real tomatoes and vegetables grow on top of the can. The salsa mixture contains tomatoes and other healthful foods. Members of the Cleveland Botanical Garden's Green Corps manufacture the salsa. These young food manufacturers are fourteen to nineteen years old. They also attend a special high school while making the salsa. VOICE TWO: The National Garden has another eye-catching object in the form of glass artwork. Dale Chihuly's artwork is called "Summer Boat, two thousand six."? Orange, red, green and yellow objects of blown glass fill the boat. It floats on a small area of water toward the west end of the garden. Some visitors say the glass objects look suspiciously like flowers and vegetables. The North Carolina Arboretum also provided colorful artwork. The arboretum sent a steel sculpture measuring more than four meters long. Grace Cathey's sculpture is a yellow dahlia on a green stem. The dahlia is a popular flower in the American South. But the sculpture provides more than an appealing artwork. It honors the color that dahlias provide for North Carolina's crafts industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States Botanic Garden also provides year-round education in plant life. For example, the U.S.B.G. is currently showing the photography of biologist Amy Lamb. Her pictures hang near the entrance to the Conservatory. Most of the plants seen in the pictures are grown around her home in Bethesda, Maryland. As a scientist, Miz Lamb says she looks at flowers for more than just their beauty. She studies them to learn the reasons for their forms and colors. Miz Lamb takes cuttings from her plants at several periods of their development. Then she places the cuttings against something black. The results show the smallest hairs and lines. VOICE TWO: The Botanic Garden also provides information about insects. A researcher will offer a program on the subject in August. Dayna Lane will explain whether gardeners should step on insects -- or learn to love them. Also in August, the U.S.B.G. will hold four classes in cooperation with an agency of the Department of Agriculture. Scientists with the Department's Agricultural Research Service will explain Research Service projects. Even people visiting the Botanic Garden for only one day can get horticultural education. Information in the National Garden describes grasses and plants native to the middle-Atlantic Ocean area. It also explains uses for the plants and suggests the best soil for them. VOICE ONE: Today, the United States Botanic Garden continues many of the traditions it started long ago. America's plant museum continues to prove that science and beauty go together. ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-23-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Congress Honors Norman Borlaug, Father of 'Green Revolution'
* Byline: The agricultural scientist, whose work helped fight starvation in South Asia in the 1960s, receives the Congressional Gold Medal. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. American agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug has received the Congressional Gold Medal. The award is the highest civilian honor given by Congress. Norman Borlaug is often called "the man who saved a billion lives" and "the father of the Green Revolution." His work helped fight starvation in India and Pakistan in the nineteen sixties. He won the nineteen seventy Nobel Peace Prize. President Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid presented him with his latest honor last week. The scientist is ninety-three years old. He still works as an adviser at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico. In accepting the medal, he urged Congress and the administration to increase development assistance for agriculture. He said the world needs better and more technology to deal with hunger. In his words: "Hunger and poverty and misery are very fertile soils into which to plant all kinds of 'isms,' including terrorism." In the nineteen forties, Norman Borlaug and a team developed highly productive and disease-resistant wheat for farmers in Mexico. About twenty years later, millions of people in India and Pakistan were in danger from grain shortages. The improved wheat from Mexico also grew well in South Asia, combined with changes in growing methods. Norman Borlaug persuaded farmers to use more fertilizers and pesticide chemicals and to water their crops with irrigation systems. The results were big production gains that many believe saved as many as a billion lives. President Bush noted that hunger still affects much of the developing world. He said the most fitting honor for Norman Borlaug is to lead a second Green Revolution that feeds the world. Yet his support for new agricultural technologies has been criticized at times over the years. Some researchers worry about the effects of industrial methods of modern farming. Some have argued that Earth's resources are limited and not able to feed everyone. Population researcher Paul Ehrlich, for example, wrote a nineteen sixty-eight book called "The Population Bomb." He predicted that population growth would cause widespread harm to the planet. But now, some people are saying there should be greater attention and respect for Norman Borlaug. A major theme of his work is that people can deal with difficulties and that technology can improve their lives. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Space Station Remains a Work in Progress, One Great Big Piece at a Time
* Byline: Also: NASA has big plans for the red planet.? And the Hubble Space Telescope will get an upgrade.Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week we tell about the most recent flight of the space shuttle Atlantis. We also tell about a new spacecraft that will explore the polar areas of Mars. And we tell about an upgrade to the Hubble Space Telescope. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The space shuttle Atlantis returned safely to earth on June twenty-second after fourteen days in space. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Rainy weather at Kennedy Space Center in Florida prevented the shuttle from landing there. Rain could have damaged the heat protections system on the spacecraft. This was the first shuttle launch of the year for the United States space agency. The shuttle traveled more than nine million kilometers. VOICE TWO: The main goal was to continue construction of the International Space Station. This flight of the shuttle brought a new piece of equipment to the space station. The piece, called a truss, weighs seventeen and one-half tons. It includes large solar energy collectors more than seventy-three meters long called solar arrays. The solar arrays change the light of the sun into electricity providing power to the space station. Each solar array contains many thousands of photovoltaic cells. The extra power will be needed in the future when other missions add new pieces to the space station. The truss also contains a Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. This device keeps the solar arrays pointed toward the sun at all times. This permits the arrays to continuously gather electricity for the space station. VOICE ONE: During the mission, American astronaut Sunita Williams set a major spaceflight record. She has spent more time in space than any other woman. She worked on the international space station for more than six months. Miz Williams also set a record for spacewalking by a female astronaut. She has spent more than twenty-nine hours working outside the space station. Miz Williams was launched into space on the shuttle Discovery on December ninth, two thousand six. In addition to her other records, Sunita Williams became the first person to run a marathon in space. She ran in place on an exercise machine called a treadmill on April sixteenth. That was the same day as the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts. In fact, she was officially entered in the race. Miz Williams finished the forty-two kilometer race in four hours and twenty-four minutes. Last month, astronaut Clayton Anderson replaced Miz Williams on the space station. He joined Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov. VOICE TWO: The shuttle flight had several major problems. In fact, one crisis temporarily threatened the one hundred billion dollar space station. Part of the station's computer system failed when astronauts connected the new truss to the space station. Three navigation computers in the Russian section failed and could not be restarted. These computers control the position of the station in its orbit around the Earth. Control of the space station was then passed to the space shuttle. The shuttle had enough fuel to hold the space station's position for several days. Another computer problem affected the environmental system of the space station. That system provides oxygen for the station and removes the carbon dioxide gas from the air. The Russian cosmonauts were able to repair the computers, but only after several tense days. VOICE ONE: The Atlantis flight was supposed to last eleven days, but the problems extended it to fourteen days. One main problem took place during the launch. Part of the shuttle's heat protection system came loose. NASA said the damage was not so severe that it threatened the shuttle. However, it required an extra spacewalk by a shuttle astronaut to repair. Astronauts used the fifteen-meter-long robotic arm of the shuttle to inspect the heat shield after the shuttle left the space station. Still, the astronauts and NASA were satisfied with the mission. Commander Rick Sturckow said the astronauts were able to solve all the problems and complete the mission. NASA had expected to launch Atlantis in March. But a hail storm damaged the fuel tank. This mission was the twenty-eighth for Atlantis. It was the one hundred eighteenth flight in the space shuttle program. The next space shuttle flight is planned for August ninth. The shuttle Endeavor will add another truss to the International Space Station. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: NASA continues to explore the red planet, Mars. A new spacecraft, the Phoenix Mars Lander, will investigate the planet's north polar area next year. The spacecraft will land in a place that is believed to have huge amounts of frozen water and, possibly, conditions for life. Scientists have found that Martian polar areas hold a surprising amount of water. In March, the European Space Agency announced findings from its Mars Express spacecraft. It said measurements showed that there was enough water trapped in the southern polar area of Mars to cover the entire planet to a depth of eleven meters. A special device on Mars Express took the measurements. The instrument is called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding, or MARSIS. NASA and the Italian space agency jointly built MARSIS. The device uses radar to "see" through levels of ice to the ground surface beneath. MARSIS found that icy material at the southern polar area was three point seven kilometers deep in some places. VOICE ONE: Now NASA will explore the north polar area with the Phoenix Mars Lander. It is expected to be launched in August and to reach Mars in May or June of next year. It will dig into icy layers of material using its robotic arm. One important instrument on the lander is the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer. It will help scientists study water and substances in the Martian soil including the elements hydrogen and carbon. These are considered the building blocks of life. The instrument will heat materials found on the surface to examine their chemical composition. Another device will test soil by adding water to it and examining the results. The Phoenix Mars Lander will also have a special set of cameras that will be able to see in different wavelengths of light. NASA scientists hope that the lander will give them a better understanding of the history of water on Mars. They consider this important if they are to find out if life could or did exist there. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The telescope is the most important tool in astronomy. Scientists have been learning more and more about space ever since Galileo first used the telescope to observe the stars in the seventeenth century. In nineteen ninety, NASA sent the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit around the Earth. Over the years it has been the most important telescope in modern astronomy. Using Hubble, scientists have been able to learn the age of the universe, take pictures of far-away young galaxies and study the mysteries of the universe. Now, NASA is planning a new mission to update the telescope next year. This project, called Servicing Mission Four, will add important instruments. VOICE ONE: Scientists designed Hubble to be visited by NASA astronauts who could fix and update the telescope. Over the years, NASA has sent several teams to carry out these updates. Each of these missions has made Hubble even more powerful. Servicing Mission Four will fix old parts and add new, advanced instruments that can make new observations. Hubble's gyroscopes are some of the old parts that will be fixed. The gyroscopes help control the telescope. Also, new batteries will be added to keep the telescope operating. Thermal blankets will also be added, which will help keep the instruments warm. The instruments that will be added are called the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, and the Wide Field Camera Three. The COS will be able to observe and measure the structure of the universe, and how the universe has changed over time. The Wide Field Camera Three will let Hubble see deeper into the universe. It will also permit the telescope to observe more kinds of light that come from different places in the universe. These improvements are expected to keep the Hubble telescope working until at least two thousand thirteen. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Erin Braswell and Mario Ritter who was also the producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Showing Students That Good Writing Matters, and Not Just in English Class
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a teaching method that emphasizes writing not only in English classes but also in other disciplines. RS: It's called writing across the curriculum, and it's an old idea, but one that has taken on new importance in American education. So says Nancy Tuten, an English professor at Columbia College in South Carolina and director of the program there. NANCY TUTEN: "We realized that not only could we use writing as a tool for learning -- that is, writing is thinking and writing exercises in every discipline could be very valuable tools for learning. But we also realized that we as a faculty, not just the English faculty, but the entire faculty, have a responsibility to teach students how to be competent writers in every discipline, so that when they go out into the workplace, the engineer knows how to do the kinds of writing that engineers have to do, and with the voice of that discipline." AA: "So does that mean, then, that the engineering professor or the chemistry professor has to also be a good writing teacher?" NANCY TUTEN: "Well, sometimes you have colleges asking the English department to teach courses for other disciplines, but it really works most effectively when the engineering professor him or herself says to the students: 'This is valuable, and I use it every day in my career, and let me share with you what I know about writing as an engineer.' "The English teacher can't do that. We can teach the organization, development, voice. We can talk about the conventions of that discipline. But we can't speak with the authority of one who does it day in and day out and to whom the students look for their guidance as professionals. If it's all pushed off to the English department all the time -- and this is true at the college level, the secondary level, all the way down. If it's pushed off the English language arts teacher, the students believe that it matters only in those classes." RS: "How does it work at Columbia College, where you head this program?" NANCY TUTEN: "Well, I'm very fortunate. We had a businessman endow our program about ten years ago, but at that time, we already had active writing across the curriculum. In fact, one of the strongest writing across the curriculum departments on our campus is the math department, because they understand that having students write a paragraph about how they solve an equatio, it not only helps the student understand where her holes are in her understanding, but it helps the faculty member see where the student is getting off track." AA: "But what about a situation where, especially in the sciences, many of the teachers, many of the professors in this country are not necessarily native English speakers?" NANCY TUTEN: "Right." AA: "How does it work for them to teach English or to teach writing to their students?" NANCY TUTEN: "Well, I think the comfort level differs from one faculty member to another. Some are very comfortable teaching writing and are more likely to be the one to assign the formal five-page, ten-page, whatever length-page papers that are expected to be polished and well-organized and have a clear thesis and good examples and use documentation properly and so forth. Others in the department may be less comfortable, and that's where the writing-across-the-curriculum director comes in and can help that person develop his or her own skills, if that's the professor's desire." RS: "Now, how is Columbia College doing this, and how are they doing it well?" NANCY TUTEN: "I think what makes Columbia College's program special is that we are endowed [have a steady source of revenue], so we aren't subject to the rise and fall of college budgets. We have money dedicated to the program, so we can offer one-on-one instruction to our faculty who wish to have it. It's not really instruction as much as it is collaboration. And we also, by the way, do this on the oral communication side, as well, not just writing, but with speaking." AA:Professor Tuten says providing models of good writing for the student is helpful. NANCY TUTEN: "We look at the whole picture: how is this writing assignment evolving and how can we strengthen it to ensure success on the students' part, and to lessen the burden on the faculty member's part? Because let's face it, one reason many faculty members won't assign writing is the time-consuming factor. It's very time consuming to grade writing, so we look at ways to try to design rubrics that will ease that burden. We try to talk about designing grading and assessment rubrics that ask for the same kinds of qualities of writing that we're asking for in the English department, so students can say: 'Hey, I learned how to do that. I know how to do that. You mean you want me to do the same thing over here in my history class? Oh!'" RS:Nancy Tuten is director of the Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Program at Columbia College in Columbia, South Carolina. It's a small, private liberal arts college for women, with a co-educational graduate school and evening college. AA:And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can learn a lot more about English at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS:And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: When Eye Problems Involve Diseases of the Retina
* Byline: A question from Vietnam about retinal degeneration. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The retina is the sensory tissue in the back part of the eye. It gathers light and captures images from the lens, much like film in a camera. The retina processes these images into signals that travel through the optic nerve to the brain. Diseases of the retina can cause vision loss over time. A thirty-year-old listener in Vietnam says he cannot see well and doctors have told him he has retinal degeneration. This is the loss or destruction of the sensory tissue of the retina. Trinh Phuong Bac says he first developed problems in his right eye when he was a child. He would like to know more about this disease. Doctor Emily Chew is a deputy division director at the National Eye Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. She says it is true what doctors have told our listener: there is no cure for retinal degeneration. She says most cases are considered genetic. Scientists have been trying to develop gene treatments for it, and in recent years there have been some reports of possible progress. But Doctor Chew says these studies of experimental gene therapies have so far only involved animals. Recently, the National Eye Institute reported the findings of a study of diet and a disease called retinopathy. It says the omega-three fatty acids EPA and DHA, both found in fish, protected mice against the development and progression of retinopathy. The study showed that decreasing omega-six fatty acids in the diet also helped. The study was published this month in Nature Medicine. The findings could be useful to research into retinopathy in humans, including a common cause of vision loss in diabetics. A separate form can lead to permanent blindness in babies born too early. Doctor Chew, however, says this study may have no connection to treating retinal degeneration. She also says there is disagreement about whether taking high levels of vitamin A could reduce the severity of the disease. She says there was a study which suggested that vitamin A helped some people with retinitis pigmentosa. But she notes that other investigators have disputed these findings. Retinitis pigmentosa, or R.P, is a form of retinal degeneration. R.P. is the name for a group of diseases that can be found as early as when a person is a teenager. People with R.P. have genes that give incorrect orders to cells that receive light. As a result, the retina can begin to self-destruct. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History Series: A 'Man From Hope' Is Elected to the White House in 1992
* Byline: Democrat Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas, defeated Republican George H.W. Bush's attempt to win a second term. Even as the new president took office, critics were accusing him of wrongdoing. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we begin telling about Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president. He led the United States for eight years. He acted on many important issues that affected the United States and other countries. President Clinton also had to defend himself against accusations of dishonesty and sexual wrongdoing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-one, many Americans felt happier and more secure than they had in years. Worries about nuclear war had eased. The United States had led a coalition of allies to victory in the Persian Gulf War. In a little more than four days, the coalition freed Kuwait from invaders from Iraq and deeply damaged the Iraqi military. Republican President George Bush had won huge popularity after successfully leading the war effort. Most political experts believed President Bush would easily be re-elected in nineteen ninety-two. VOICE TWO: President Bush’s popularity fell, however, as many people lost their jobs. Unemployment climbed to its highest rate since nineteen eighty-four. Economic growth slowed to recession levels. The federal government was deeply in debt after years of borrowing to pay for its programs. The opposition Democratic Party correctly believed it had a good chance to elect a president in nineteen ninety-two. It placed its hopes for winning the White House on Arkansas Governor William Jefferson Clinton. VOICE ONE: The future president was born William Jefferson Blythe on August nineteenth, nineteen forty-six, in Hope, Arkansas. His parents were William Jefferson Blythe and Virginia Blythe. Bill’s father was a traveling salesman. His father had died in a car accident three months before Bill was born. At age two, Bill was sent to live with his grandparents while his mother studied to become a nurse. Bill’s mother married Roger Clinton when Bill was four years old. The family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in nineteen fifty-three. Bill officially changed his name to William Jefferson Clinton at age fifteen. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton’s new father, Roger Clinton, drank too much alcohol. Bill’s life at home was unpleasant at times. However, he did well in school and liked it very much. He also developed a strong early interest in politics. He competed for many offices while in high school. In nineteen sixty-three, Bill Clinton met President John F. Kennedy. Bill was visiting Washington, D.C. as a delegate for a citizenship training program. President Kennedy provided the young Bill Clinton with a strong example of leadership. Bill continued his education at Georgetown University in Washington. He graduated in nineteen sixty-eight. Excellence in his studies won him a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in Oxford, England. He spent two years there before entering Yale University Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At Yale, Bill fell in love with another Yale law student. Hillary Rodham of Park Ridge, Illinois shared his deep interest in politics and public service. They were married in October of nineteen seventy-five. Their daughter Chelsea was born in nineteen-eighty. Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas after completing law school. He soon entered politics as a Democrat, narrowly losing an election for Congress. Later, Arkansas citizens elected him attorney general -- the top law official for the state. In nineteen seventy-eight, he became the Democratic Party candidate for governor. He easily defeated his Republican opponent. He was the youngest man ever elected governor of Arkansas. VOICE TWO: While Bill Clinton was governor, the federal government operated a holding center for Cuban refugees in Arkansas. Rioting among these Cubans hurt his chances for re-election. Governor Clinton’s opponent said he should have done more to get the government to hold the Cubans someplace else. Mister Clinton also supported unpopular new taxes. Bill Clinton was defeated in his effort to be re-elected governor of Arkansas in nineteen eighty. He deeply regretted this loss. He promised himself he would again be governor. Bill Clinton gained his goal in the election two years later. He continued to serve as governor of Arkansas until nineteen ninety-two. VOICE ONE: Education in Arkansas improved under the leadership of Governor Clinton. Many more students graduated from Arkansas high schools. The number of students entering college also rose. The state began requiring examinations for teachers. It also increased their pay. Mister Clinton started health centers in public schools. And he expanded Head Start programs to help prepare poor children to begin school. While governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton also served in national organizations for governors and Democratic Party leaders. He became well known as a moderate Democrat. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-one, William Jefferson Clinton announced he would compete for the Democratic nomination for president. Former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas and former California Governor Edmund Brown, Junior were his main opponents for the nomination. However, Paul Tsongas later suspended his campaign for lack of money. Mister Clinton won a big lead over Mister Brown in state nominating elections. Democrats met for their national nominating convention in New York City in July, nineteen ninety-two. They named Bill Clinton as their candidate for president. He chose Senator Al Gore of Tennessee to be his vice president in the election. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party nominated President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term. Texas businessman Ross Perot competed as an independent. His vice presidential candidate was a former top Navy officer, James Stockdale. President Bush talked about his foreign policy successes during the campaign. He said he would cut taxes. He said Bill Clinton would raise taxes. Many Americans, however, remembered that President Bush had raised taxes after promising not to do this. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton criticized President Bush mostly about important domestic issues in the United States. He said the president had failed to deal with the slow economy and high unemployment. President Bush answered that the Democrats controlled Congress. He said the Democrats defeated most of his domestic proposals. Ross Perot criticized both Republican President Bush and Democratic candidate Clinton. Mister Perot said neither man considered the importance of the huge federal debt. VOICE ONE: Bill Clinton and Al Gore won the nineteen ninety-two presidential election. They received about forty five-million votes. President Bush and Mister Quayle had about thirty-nine million votes. About eighteen million people voted for Mister Perot and Mister Stockdale. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton became America’s forty-second president on January twentieth, nineteen ninety-three. At age forty-six, he was the third youngest person ever elected president. At his swearing-in ceremony, the new president said there was no longer division between foreign and domestic issues. Listen to these words from President Bill Clinton’s swearing-in-speech: BILL CLINTON: "The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world’s arms race -- they affect us all. Today, as an old order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism’s collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.” VOICE ONE: Even as President Clinton took office, critics were accusing him of wrongdoing. There were questions about sexual relationships outside his marriage. Other accusations involved an investment he and Missus Clinton had made years before. In nineteen seventy-eight they had bought land in Arkansas to sell for holiday homes. President Clinton denied any dishonorable actions. But the criticism and suspicion of America’s forty-second president continued. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Specialty Summer Camps Offer Kids More Choices of Fun
* Byline: The growing popularity of technology camps and other substitutes for a traditional experience in the woods. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. (MUSIC) Millions of children in the United States go to summer camp. Some go to play outdoors at traditional camps in the woods, in the mountains or on a lake. But families now have many choices of specialty camps. These can be in the middle of nature or a big city. Specialty camps offer young people the chance to learn about different subjects. Anything from space exploration to business to medicine. In technology camps, one subject that children can learn about is video game design. They learn how to use computer programs to create games of their own. One program that teaches video game design is called Cybercamps, located at the University of Maryland. Children can learn how to design their own virtual worlds to set their video game in. Then, they program their own rules and objects into the game. Cybercamps also offers courses in robot building and Web design. A recent story in the Washington Post described how one child made a robot that could sing a song. Another made a robot that could follow a black line drawn on a piece of cardboard. Also, children can learn how to make Web sites. One child made a site for Pokemon, one of his favorite cartoon shows. Kids-N-Technology is a day camp offered in several American cities. Boys and girls age eight to eighteen get the chance to build their own desktop or laptop computer or game machine. They take it home after the camp is over. In the past twenty years, the number of day camps in the United States has grown by almost ninety percent. Still, more than half of all camps are overnight camps. But the American Camp Association says, over all, the most popular length of time for kids to attend a summer camp is one week or less. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Erin Braswell, with music from the best of Allan Sherman. To learn about American education, and for transcripts and archives of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sandra Bullock: Film Star, Producer, Wife
* Byline: Also: Hershey's celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the chocolate kiss.? And listen to the orchestral music of Pink Martini. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to music from Pink Martini … Answer a question about actress Sandra Bullock … And report about a sweet anniversary. Hershey's Anniversary HOST: People around the world know and enjoy the chocolate candy from the Hershey Company. Company officials say they export Hershey's products to more than ninety countries. ?The Hershey Company celebrated an anniversary earlier this month in its hometown of Hershey, Pennsylvania. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: The street lights in Hershey, Pennsylvania are shaped like the candies the company is most famous for -- Hershey’s Kisses. July seventh was the one hundredth anniversary of the Hershey's Kiss. The company held a birthday party in its honor. Part of the celebration was the world’s largest Hershey's Kiss. The huge piece of chocolate weighed almost fourteen thousand kilograms. It was more than three and one-half meters tall. A representative from the Guinness Book of World Records officially named it the world’s largest piece of chocolate. Hershey officials say the huge chocolate Kiss took one hundred fifty-two people nine days to produce. And they say the chocolate in it is equal to that of more than three million normal Hershey's Kisses. The company began producing the chocolate with the unusual shape in nineteen-oh-seven. Officials today do not really know why the new candy was named a Kiss. One possible story is that the name came from the sound or motion of the chocolate during the manufacturing process. Workers used to wrap each candy in a small piece of silver foil paper by hand until nineteen twenty-one. Then a machine was developed to do that. Today, the company produces more than eighty million Hershey’s Kisses every day. And modern wrapping machines finish the job. They can wrap more than one thousand Kisses every minute. Some Hershey’s Kisses have remained the same over the years. But there are also many new versions. There are Kisses with an almond nut inside. Dark chocolate Kisses. And Kisses filled with caramel or peanut butter. There are also similarly shaped brown and white candies called Hugs. Hershey’s Kisses are produced in Pennsylvania, California and Virginia. Recent news reports say the company will soon close one of its factories in California. The reports say the Kisses will be produced at a new Hershey factory in Mexico. They also say the candy company has closed at least three other factories this year. Sandra Bullock HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Brazil. Anderlon Rocha de Oliveira wants to know more about actress Sandra Bullock. Sandra Bullock is one of the most popular movie stars in America. She is especially famous for her work in funny love stories. But she has also proven herself a fine dramatic actress in movies like "Crash," and "Infamous." Sandra Bullock was born in Arlington, Virginia in nineteen sixty-four. Her mother was a German-born opera singer. She died of cancer in two thousand. Bullock's father was a voice teacher and Defense Department employee. He now leads her production company, Fortis Films. Sandra Bullock began performing as a young girl, often in music shows with her mother. She was involved in theater in high school. Then she studied acting at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Bullock lived in New York City for a short time after college. She moved to Los Angeles, California after winning her first big job, a part in a movie made for television. Sandra Bullock has performed in more than forty films. She has played a police officer, an alcoholic, a witch, a single mother, a rich lonely wife and many other characters. Her most recent movie, "Premonition," was released earlier this year. Next up is a romantic comedy called "All About Steve." Bullock will play a woman who decides a reporter she sees on television is her true love. She starts to follow him all around the country hoping to persuade him that he loves her too. Sandra Bullock does not have to do this kind of thing in real life. Two years ago she married Jesse James, the star of a television show called "Monster Garage."? Sandra Bullock is also known for helping others in need. She witnessed the terrorist attack on New York City in two thousand one. She was staying at a hotel several blocks away when the twin towers were destroyed. She gave one million dollars to the Red Cross to help those affected. Bullock gave the organization another one million dollars to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami in two thousand four. And she continues to give time and money to help the city of New Orleans. That city is still recovering from the severe damage that Hurricane Katrina caused in two thousand five. Pink Martini HOST: Pink Martini may sound like a kind of drink. But it is really a small orchestra of twelve musicians. A classically trained pianist, Thomas Lauderdale, created the group. He says the members of Pink Martini are like musical archeologists. They like to bring together sounds from different periods and parts of the world. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC: "Tempo Perdido") BARBARA KLEIN: That was Pink Martini’s main singer China Forbes performing “Tempo Perdido” in Portuguese. It is from the group’s latest album, “Hey Eugene!” The song was first performed in nineteen thirty-four by the famous Brazilian actress and singer Carmen Miranda. The beat of the song captures the sounds of another time period. China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale met in college. Several years later, Lauderdale asked her to join his new band. Pink Martini skillfully recreates older songs from around the world in a modern and fresh way. Sometimes they find long forgotten favorites. Other times, China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale write their own music and give it a special sound from the past. They have sung in many languages including French, Spanish, Japanese and Italian. At times they even sing in English. Here is China Forbes singing a song she wrote called “Everywhere." (MUSIC) Thomas Lauderdale says Pink Martini is very much an American band. But the band members spend a lot of time in other countries. He says his band tries to show that Americans are serious about being involved with the rest of the world. We leave you with “Bukra Wba’do.” This is Pink Martini’s first song in Arabic. The song title means “tomorrow and the day after.” A professor of Arabic helped China Forbes and the group of twenty-five singers learn the correct pronunciation. The resulting song shows off Pink Martini’s musical as well as language skills. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Trying to Renew Trust in 'Made in China' Label
* Byline: Chinese officials move to strengthen food safety laws, but also accuse some foreign media of overstating the problems with exports. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. China has recently been faced with serious issues of product safety. Some In May, the Costa Rican Health Ministry ordered the removal of this Chinese toothpaste and other kinds made in China.cases have brought attention internationally to the increased use of imported ingredients to make food and medicine. In Panama, medicine made with a poisonous chemical killed or sickened more than one hundred people. A Chinese company had identified the additive as glycerin, a safe sweetener and thickener. But it was really diethylene glycol, a low-cost substitute commonly used in automobile antifreeze. Some countries have banned Chinese-made toothpaste containing diethylene glycol. China has now told companies to discontinue this use, even though it says the toothpaste is safe. Another industrial chemical, melamine, was found in wheat flour used to make pet food in North America. Thousands of dogs and cats died or became sick. The United States has restricted some imports of Chinese seafood because they contained banned substances. And questions have been raised about other products, including children's toys covered in lead paint. The European Union is China's biggest trading partner. Meglena Kuneva, its commissioner for consumer protection, was in Beijing this week. Chinese officials promised her they would provide the European Union with detailed reports on enforcement efforts against unsafe goods. China agreed in January of last year to do this every three months. She said China has not done so. Li Changjiang is director of the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. She said China will work to guarantee the quality of its products. China recently closed three companies linked to the Panama deaths and the pet food scare. And it executed the former head of its food and drug administration. He was found guilty of corruption for approving unsafe drugs. This week, China said a conference of the State Council approved a proposed special measure on the supervision of food safety. The Xinhua news agency said it calls for stronger controls over producers, greater responsibilities for government and more serious punishment for illegal activities. But Chinese officials have accused some foreign media of overstating problems with goods made in China. They say food imports from the United States also fail inspection sometimes. Next week, American and Chinese food safety officials plan to hold five days of meetings in Beijing to discuss cooperation. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In '08 Campaign, a Debate Brings Everyday Citizens Into the Process
* Byline: CNN and YouTube invited the public to record questions for the Democratic presidential candidates. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Democratic candidates Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Senator Joseph BidenPresidential hopefuls in the United States still travel the country, meeting people and shaking hands. But now they also have to reach out for money and support online, and not just through official campaign Web sites. They also use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace and video sharing sites like YouTube. This week, the eight Democratic candidates gathered for a debate that was the first of its kind. Anyone with Internet access could record a question on video and send it in through YouTube. The debate aired live on CNN, the Cable News Network. Many of the questions involved foreign policy, especially the Iraq war. The mother of a soldier was concerned that her son is about to return to Iraq. QUESTION: "How many more soldiers must die while these political games continue in our government?" Senator Barack Obama pointed out that he has always opposed the war. BARACK OBAMA: "The time for us to ask how we were going to get out of Iraq was before we went in, and that is something that too many of us failed to do." Senator Obama also said that if elected president, he would be willing to meet with leaders from Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. But Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, had a different position. HILLARY CLINTON: "Because I think it is not that you promise a meeting at that high a level before you know what the intentions are. I do not want to be used for propaganda purposes." Other questions dealt with racial and social issues, like same-sex marriage. QUESTION: "Hi, my name is Mary. And my name is Jen. And we're from Brooklyn, New York. If you were elected president of the United States, would you allow us to be married … to each other?" Most of the candidates who had a chance to deal with this issue said they would support civil unions, a step short of marriage. This new form of debate was praised because it forced candidates away from the usual questions they expect. Aid workers recorded a video with children at a refugee camp near Darfur. In another one, a melting animated snowman asked about global warming. And a man from Michigan wanted to know if "our babies are safe." He meant guns, and he had a large rifle. He asked the candidates about their positions on gun control. Still, some critics said the public should have been able to choose the questions, instead of CNN. More than two and a half million people watched the debate on television. Viewing by younger people ages eighteen to thirty-four was said to be the highest ever for a debate in cable news history. Still, it was the second most-watched debate of the campaign season so far. A CNN-YouTube debate for the Republican candidates is planned for September seventeenth. The election is in November of next year. If you have a question about the process of electing the president, we might be able to answer it on the air. Write to special@voanews.com. Please include your name and where you are from. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004: One of America's Most Popular Presidents
* Byline: Before he became the 40th president, Reagan was an actor and governor of California. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. Today Gwen Outen and Steve Ronald ReaganEmber tell about America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. Experts say Ronald Reagan re-defined the American presidency during his two terms in the nineteen eighties. He became president when he was sixty-nine years old. It was a far different place from that of his birth on February sixth, nineteen eleven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. His mother Nelle, father Jack, and brother Neil lived above a bank in the town. Ronald Reagan’s family began calling the baby “Dutch.” The nickname remained for the rest of his life. Jack Reagan worked at a general store. The family was poor. Yet, in a book about his life, Ronald Reagan wrote that he never felt poor. He was good at sports, especially football. During the summers, he was a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. He reportedly rescued many people from drowning. Ronald Reagan said there was a feeling of security throughout his childhood. But it was not perfect. His father was dependent on alcohol. VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan studied at Eureka College in Illinois. After seeing a play at college, he said: “More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor’s words.” But Ronald Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to become an actor. So, after college he found a job as a sports broadcaster for a radio station in Iowa. Later he moved to a bigger radio station in Chicago, Illinois. He announced the action of baseball games. This work took him on a trip to California. He took a screen test to become an actor. Warner Brothers Studios offered him a job. Ronald Reagan moved to Hollywood and became a movie star. He appeared in many movies. “Knute Rockne – All American,” is probably his most famous. It is where he got the nickname “The Gipper.” Mister Reagan played George Gipp, one of the greatest college football players ever. In the movie, he speaks of the school’s football team as he is dying. RONALD REAGAN: “...Ask them to go in there with all they got, win just one for the Gipper.” VOICE ONE: Those words, “win one for the Gipper,” later became a political battle cry for Ronald Reagan. In nineteen forty, he married actress Jane Wyman. They had two children, Maureen and Michael. But the marriage ended in nineteen forty-nine. Ronald Reagan became president of the main labor group for movie actors in nineteen forty-eight. He served six terms. He met actress Nancy Davis through the union. They married in nineteen fifty-two. They later had two children, Patti and Ron. At this time, Ronald Reagan was a member of the Democratic Party who described himself as a liberal. But, he became increasingly conservative as his worries about communism grew. He opposed anyone in the movie industry who supported communism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen fifties, Ronald Reagan began to appear on television. He presented dramatic shows produced by the General Electric Company. He became a spokesman for the company. Mister Reagan learned a lot about public speaking. He began to campaign for Republican Party political candidates a few years later. Reagan developed the ability to reach people through his speeches. He later became known as “The Great Communicator.” Nancy Reagan supported her husband’s political interests. Political experts say she was always his most important adviser. In nineteen sixty-six, Ronald Reagan announced his own candidacy for governor of California. Democrats in the state did not think he was a serious candidate. However, Mister Reagan was elected governor by almost one million votes. Ronald Reagan received mixed public opinion as governor of the nation’s most populated state. He was praised for lowering California’s debt, yet criticized for raising taxes. Voters re-elected him as governor in nineteen seventy. VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was unsuccessful in his first two attempts to win the Republican nomination for president. Then, in nineteen eighty, he became the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. His opponent was President Jimmy Carter. The two men debated on national television. Ronald Reagan spoke directly and simply to the American people and asked them some questions: RONALD REAGAN: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago?? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago?” VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan won the United States presidential election by a huge majority. He and his vice-president, George Herbert Walker Bush, were sworn into office in January, nineteen eighty-one. Many people called the change in political power “The Reagan Revolution.” President Reagan immediately began to work to honor a major campaign promise. He called on Congress to lower taxes. But only two months later, tragedy struck. A mentally sick man shot the president and three other people outside a hotel in Washington. President Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady, were severely wounded. Mister Reagan had a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart. But he showed his sense of humor at the hospital. As the president was taken into the operating room he said he hoped all the doctors were Republicans. Ronald Reagan recovered from the shooting and returned to work within two weeks. VOICE ONE: The President now began work on his main goal to reduce the size of the federal government. He had campaigned on the idea that the government was too costly and interfered too much in the lives of Americans. Mister Reagan and Congress reduced taxes and cut spending for social programs. The administration argued that these actions would create economic growth. Extremely high inflation rates did begin to fall. But the United States’ debt rose sharply. This was partly from big increases in military spending. The Reagan economic policy became known as “Reaganomics.”? It had, and still has, supporters and opponents. Some people argued that the cuts in social programs greatly hurt poor people. Others said the policy improved the economy. President Reagan sought re-election in nineteen eighty-four. His Democratic opponent was former Vice-President Walter Mondale. Again Mister Reagan won the election by a large amount. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Reagan dealt with many serious foreign issues while in office. He sent American Marines to Lebanon to stop the fighting among several opposing groups. But more than two hundred Marines were killed in an extremist bomb attack.The so-called “Reagan Doctrine” was the Administration’s most famous foreign policy. That policy was to support anti-communist forces anywhere in the world. Under the policy, American forces invaded the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. The policy also led to secret United States support for rebels in Nicaragua. President Reagan met with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev several times in an effort to reduce nuclear weapons. He gave a famous speech at the Berlin Wall that divided Soviet-controlled East Germany from West Germany on June twelfth, nineteen eighty-seven. RONALD REAGAN: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!? Mister Gorbachev, open this gate!? Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” VOICE ONE: Some historians say Ronald Reagan helped cause the fall of the Soviet Union. They say his military spending forced the Soviets to spend more, too. They say this led to the communist nation’s economic failure. President Reagan enjoyed very high public approval ratings throughout his presidency. Many Americans considered him a friendly leader, a “man of the people,” filled with hope for America. VOICE TWO: Ronald and Nancy Reagan returned to California after his second term ended in nineteen eighty-nine. In nineteen ninety-four, Mister Reagan wrote an open letter to the American people. He informed them that he had the brain disease Alzheimer’s. The former president expressed his love for the country and thanked Americans for letting him serve. And, he wrote: “I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.” Ronald Reagan died at his home in California on June fifth, two thousand four. He was ninety-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. Mario Ritter was the producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Working With Clay: A How-to Guide
* Byline: Clay is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Clay is found almost everywhere in the world. It is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years. The rocks change in both chemical and physical ways. Chemically, elements like potassium and aluminum are added and taken away. Physically, the rocks break down into smaller and smaller pieces. After a long time, some of the rock changes to clay. Clay is important because it is used around the world to make containers of all kinds. Potters add water to soften the clay. This makes it easier to form into shapes by hand or by machine. Then it is fired in an extremely hot stove. The result is a container with a hard surface that will last for many years. In many countries, clay was formed from volcanoes. This kind of clay usually contains many minerals. So the fires to make containers from volcanic clay must be hotter than those used for non-volcanic clay. The fires may be as hot as one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius. It is also important to dry the clay containers slowly. This means that the highest temperature should not be reached too fast. You can add materials to clay to gain desired results. For example, you can add sand to prevent tiny breaks or lines from forming in the finished product. But you should not use sand from the coasts of oceans. Instead, you should use sand from rivers or from other areas of land that are not near the sea. You can usually find good clay in low areas of islands or land, especially if volcanoes helped form the land. Clay often exists in fields covered with some water. The clay will be found about one meter below the ground. River banks often also have clay about one meter or less under the surface. You can recognize clay because it is very shiny when it is wet. You can also perform a test. Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread. Then press it in your hand until it is about the size of an egg. It is probably clay if it holds together instead of falling apart when you stop pressing. You can learn more about working with clay from publications that can be ordered online from EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The address is enterpriseworks.org. Click on the "Publications" link under "News & Resources." And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Gary Garriott. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Critics Praise Three American Playwrights
* Byline: Sarah Ruhl, Neil LaBute, and Suzan-Lori Parks are writing plays with great creativity and energy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week we tell about three American writers whose fresh and imaginative plays are receiving great critical praise. Sarah Ruhl, Neil LaBute and Suzan-Lori Parks have very different histories and styles. But all three are adding great energy and creativity to the American theater. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. Sarah Ruhl's new play “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” has been a big success this summer. The play is both funny and serious. It deals with death, family, and, well, cell phones. It tells the story of a lonely young woman named Jean. The play starts at a restaurant where Jean is eating and reading quietly. The cell phone of the man at the next?table starts to ring. (SOUND) Then it rings again. (SOUND) The cell phone keeps ringing and starts to interfere with her reading. Finally, Jean stands up to ask the man to answer his phone. But she discovers that he has died. Jean (talking on his phone): “I think that there is a dead man sitting next to me. (Pause) I don’t know how he died. I’m at a caf?.”?? VOICE TWO: Jean keeps the dead man's cell phone and gets involved in his life. She answers the phone when his friends, family and business contacts call him. She meets some very unusual people. VOICE ONE: Sarah Ruhl studied to be a playwright at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Her teacher was the well-known American playwright Paula Vogel. At first, Miz Ruhl studied poetry, but Paula Vogel influenced her to study theater. Sarah Ruhl knew theater well. She grew up going to play rehearsals in Chicago, Illinois with her mother who was an actress. VOICE TWO: Sarah Ruhl is only thirty-three years old, but she has already had extraordinary success. Her play “The Clean House” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in two thousand five. The next year she won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship for her work. This organization gives five hundred thousand dollars to people in the arts and sciences who show great skill and creativity in their work. VOICE ONE: “The Clean House” is also very funny as well as serious. It tells about a controlling doctor named Lane who employs a Brazilian woman to clean her house. But Matilde does not like to clean. She says if the floor is dirty then one should look up at the ceiling because it is always clean. Lane has a sister named Virginia who is lonely. Her favorite activity is cleaning. Virginia thinks it is an honor to clean your own house. She loves dust. She says dust always makes progress. Then when she removes the dust she knows?she?has made progress. VOICE TWO: Virginia secretly goes to Lane’s house and cleans all day while Matilde does her own favorite activity, creating jokes. The order of Lane’s life further falls apart when her husband, also a doctor, falls in love with a patient. In the end, this play is about loving and learning to help and forgive others. VOICE ONE: Sarah Ruhl has another new play being performed in New York City called "Eurydice". The play re-imagines an ancient Greek story with modern characters and visual effects. Eurydice dies on her wedding day. She must travel through the underworld and struggle to retain the memories of her lost love, Orpheus. Critics have?praised the play. They say it provides a fresh look at a timeless love story. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Neil LaBute studied theater at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He writes plays as well as movies that test the fine line between good and bad actions. His stories can be painfully honest in their examination of human relationships. Mister LaBute has said that a good relationship between people equals a bad story. He thinks that the common building material for a play is conflict. And he says his job is to look for ways to ruin a perfectly good day for people. VOICE ONE: A good example of a LaBute play is “The Shape of Things.” It was first performed in London in two thousand one. It tells about two university students, Adam and Evelyn. Adam is a museum guard who meets Evelyn while she is trying to ruin a piece of art to express her radical ideas. They soon fall in love. But Adam’s friends Phil and Jenny notice that something is not right about Adam and Evelyn. Evelyn slowly starts to change Adam’s physical and mental qualities. By the end of the play he is a completely new person. Then Evelyn reveals the?terrible secret about her plan for Adam. After London, the play was performed in New York City. Neil LaBute later directed and produced a movie version of “The Shape of Things.”? Here is Evelyn talking with Jenny about her studies: Evelyn: So everything is good? Jenny: Yeah, you know, OK. You? Evelyn: Pretty great actually. Just studying…working on my art. Jenny: Right., You‘ve got that big thing that you are doing. Evelyn: Thesis project, for my degree. Jenny: And it’s going well? Evelyn: Yeah. Jenny: What was it again? Evelyn: I never said. Jenny: Oh, well that’s why. Evelyn: Right. It’s this sculpture thingie. Jenny: Nice. I think what you have done with Adam it’s really great. Evelyn: What I have done? Jenny: Just, you know, he’s changed. Evelyn: That’s right HE’s changed. Jenny: Of course, I didn’t mean that you… ?Evelyn: I know, I am just saying, you know, he did the work. Jenny: Right. VOICE TWO: Another LaBute play is called “Fat Pig.”? It tells about the relationship between Helen and Tom. Tom loves Helen but his friends criticize her because she is very overweight. His concern about other people’s opinions of Helen’s appearance finally ruins his relationship with her. The play is fiercely honest and at times upsetting. Neil LaBute’s plays are among the most emotionally demanding and morally shocking in current theater. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Suzan-Lori Parks started writing while studying at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She first studied chemistry, then later changed to English and German literature. She said she started to hear voices in her head that led her to write down what they were saying. Suzan-Lori Parks read one of her stories in a class taught by the famous fiction?writer James Baldwin. He asked her if she had ever considered writing for the theater. VOICE TWO: The plays of Suzan-Lori Parks usually deal with black culture, American history and family relations. Her nineteen ninety-nine play, “In the Blood,” is a modern version of the nineteenth century novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The play tells about a homeless woman named Hester as she cares for her five children. It gives an intense and honest vision of motherhood, poverty and suffering. Miz Parks does not limit herself to writing plays. In two thousand three she wrote the book “Getting Mother’s Body.” She has also written screenplays for movies, including “Girl 6” directed by Spike Lee. VOICE ONE: In two thousand one, Miz Parks won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. The next year she won the Pulitzer Prize for her play “Topdog/Underdog.”? She became the first black woman to receive the award. ??? “Topdog/Underdog” tells the story of two African-American brothers, Lincoln and Booth. Lincoln works at a game center as a target for a shooting game. To be the target, he dresses up like President Abraham Lincoln. His brother Booth plays card games to win money. Their parents left the brothers when they were young children and they have depended on each other to survive. The play is a striking exploration of the many emotions and tense competition between the two men. VOICE TWO: Miz Parks recently put into action one of her largest projects yet. In two thousand two, she decided to write one play a day for a year. The published collection of these plays is called “365 Days/365 Plays.” Here are the first few lines of “2- For-1” performed by the American Theater Company of Chicago. (SOUND) Writer: “Is the rule that I have to keep writing until I think of a play?” Editor: “There are no rules.” Writer: “What if my mind is blank?” VOICE ONE: From November thirteenth of last year until? November twelfth of this year, these plays are being performed every day all over America. More than seven hundred colleges, performance organizations and theater groups are performing the works. One goal of the project is to bring together a worldwide theater community. For more on this special event, visit www.365days365plays.com. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:?????? And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for This is America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Let's Do Business: I Made a Sweetheart Deal Last Month
* Byline: Using words to make a profit in business. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. There are many special terms in the world of business. ??????? The following story is about a sweetheart deal which I made last week. I made the deal with a friend, and we both made a profit. I had started a small company several years ago. I worked hard to make it successful. It was a sign-making business. It was a small compay, not a blue chip company. It was not known nationally for the quality of its signs. It did not make millions of dollars in profits. And it was private. It was not a public company with shares traded on the stock market. Still, I worked hard building up my business. I did not work only a few hours each day -- no banker’s hours for me. Instead I spent many hours each day, seven days a week, trying to grow the company. ?I never cut corners or tried to save on expenses. I made many cold calls. I called on possible buyers from a list of people I had never seen. Such calls were often hard sells. I had to be very firm. Sometimes I sold my signs at a loss. I did not make money on my product. When this happened, there were cut backs. I had to use fewer supplies and reduce the number of workers. But after several years, the company broke even. Profits were equal to expenses. And soon after, I began to gain ground. My signs were selling very quickly. They were selling like hotcakes. I was happy. The company was moving forward and making real progress. It was in the black, not in the red. The company was making money, not losing it. My friend knew about my business. He is a leader in the sign-making industry – a real big gun, if you know what I mean. He offered to buy my company. My friend wanted to take it public. He wanted to sell shares in the company to the general public. My friend believed it was best to strike while the iron is hot. He wanted to take action at the best time possible and not wait. He offered me a ball park estimate of the amount he would pay to buy my company. But I knew his uneducated guess was low. My company was worth much more. He asked his bean-counter to crunch the numbers. That is, he asked his accountant to take a close look at the finances of my company and decide how much it was worth. Then my friend increased his offer. My friend’s official offer was finally given to me in black and white. It was written on paper and more than I ever dreamed. I was finally able to get a break. I made a huge profit on my company, and my friend also got a bang for the buck. He got a successful business for the money he spent. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Parkinson's Disease: Exploring the Mystery of a Movement Disorder
* Byline: Scientists report new research and treatment for a brain disease that mostly strikes older people Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about the latest research and treatments for Parkinson’s disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Muhammad AliMuhammad Ali is known around the world as one of the great sports stars of the twentieth century. He needed great energy and power to become the world boxing champion. As he grew older, however, he began to change. The energy and power began to disappear. His face lost its expressiveness. His legs lost their speed. Muhammad Ali is sixty-five years old now and long retired from boxing. Yet it was not age that changed him so much. It was Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: Parkinson’s is a disease of the central nervous system. It is a progressive disorder. It gets worse over time. The disease affects a small area of cells in the middle of the brain. This area is called the substantia nigra. The cells slowly lose their ability to produce a chemical called dopamine. The decrease in the amount of dopamine can result in one or more of the general signs of Parkinson’s disease. These include shaking in the hands, arms and legs. They also include difficulty in moving or general slowness of movement. Another symptom is difficulty keeping balanced while walking or standing. Other signs in some people include decreased movement of the face. Also, there can be emotional changes, like feeling depressed or worried. The symptoms of Parkinson's differ from person to person. They also differ in their intensity. Some people develop minor effects. Others become severely disabled as the effects get worse. VOICE ONE: The disease is named after James Parkinson. He was a British doctor who first described this condition in eighteen seventeen. Doctor Parkinson did not know what caused it. During the nineteen sixties, medical researchers discovered changes in the brains of people with the disease. These discoveries led to medicines to treat the effects of the disease. There is no cure for Parkinson's and no way to prevent it. And doctors still are not sure about the cause. Parkinson’s is found in all parts of the world. The World Health Organization estimates up to six million people have the disease. Most are older adults. The disease affects men a little more often than women. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most patients have what is called idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Idiopathic means the cause is unknown. People who develop the disease often want to link it to some cause they can identify. This might be a medical operation or extreme emotional stress. Yet many doctors reject this idea of a direct link to Parkinson’s. They point to other people who have similar experiences and do not develop the disease. Still, doctors say it is possible that such events might cause symptoms of Parkinson's to appear earlier than they would have. Some studies have found a link between Parkinson's and chemical products for killing insects. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic reported last year that men who often used such products increased their risk of developing the disease. But women who used pesticides had no increased risk. VOICE ONE: In May, another study showed the link between pesticide use and Parkinson's. This study also found that serious head injuries also increased a person's risk. Finlay Dick of Aberdeen University in Scotland led the study. His team collected information about more than nine hundred people with Parkinson's or similar conditions. The team compared this group to almost two thousand people without the disorder. The people lived in Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Romania and Malta. All the people were asked about their use of pesticides, chemical fluids, and metals like iron. The team also collected information on family history of Parkinson's and head injuries. Farm workers and others who said they often used pesticides had a forty-one percent greater risk of Parkinson's than other people. The disease was also two and one-half times more common among people who had been knocked unconscious more than once in their lives. These people temporarily lost consciousness after suffering a blow to the head. This finding is especially important for athletes like boxers who are often knocked unconscious. As we told you, former boxer Muhammad Ali is probably the world's most famous Parkinson's patient. VOICE TWO: Another area of study is family genetics. There are some cases of many members of a family having the disease. Three years ago, scientists linked changes in a gene called PARK-eight to cases of Parkinson’s in some families. Other research involves genes that might increase the risk of the disease in some ethnic groups. Two years ago, researchers completed what they called the first large map to show genetic links with Parkinson's disease. The map identifies changes in twelve genes that may increase the risk in some people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Improved treatments to ease the symptoms of Parkinson's disease make it possible for many patients to live almost normal lives. People who have lost their ability to do many things are sometimes able to regain some of these abilities with treatment. The most commonly used drug is levodopa. When it reaches the brain, levodopa is changed into dopamine, the chemical that is lacking in people with the disease. Levodopa helps deal with the symptoms of Parkinson's. But it does not prevent more changes in the brain that are caused by the disease. It can also produce unwanted effects in some people. These side effects include feeling sick to the stomach. To prevent this from happening, other substances can be combined with levodopa. VOICE TWO: Other drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease act like dopamine. They produce reactions in the nerve cells in the brain. For example, the United States Food and Drug Administration recently approved a skin patch to treat early symptoms of Parkinson's. The product, called Neupro, is a cloth-like material placed on the skin. Neupro contains rotigotine, a drug that helps to activate dopamine receptors in the body. Last month, American researchers reported that a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure also slowed the development of Parkinson's. In animal tests, the drug, isradipine, protected dopamine nerve cells from substances that would normally kill them. The drug still must be tested in people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctors sometimes perform operations to treat Parkinson’s. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved an operation called deep brain stimulation. Doctors place small electrical devices into the brain. These are connected to a small piece of equipment called a pulse generator. Deep brain stimulation can reduce the need for levodopa and other drugs. It also helps to reduce symptoms such as shaking, slowness of movement and problems with walking. VOICE TWO: Scientists are also experimenting with genes to treat Parkinson's. Last month, The British medical journal, The Lancet, reported about an experimental gene therapy. It seemed to improve symptoms of the disease without causing side effects in an early study of twelve patients. The treatment involved putting billions of copies of a gene into the brain to ease overactive nerve cells. The nerve cells become overactive because they lack the normal supply of an important chemical called GABA. The extra copies of the gene made the brain produce the needed chemical. The study was designed to test the safety of the method instead of its effectiveness. The scientists were pleased with the results but said they had a lot more testing to do. ?????? VOICE ONE: Around the world, groups provide education and support services for Parkinson's patients and their families. Last year, the World Parkinson Congress took place in Washington, D.C. More than two thousand people met to discuss the latest progress and treatments. The next such meeting is planned for two thousand ten. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can read and listen to our programs at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-30-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Goats Employed in Fight Against Kudzu in US South
* Byline: The plant, once valued for its good looks, has invaded more than two million hectares of land. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Once upon a time, people in the southern United States enjoyed kudzu for its beauty. Kudzu is a climbing woody vine native to Asia. It produces big green leaves and sweet-smelling purple flowers. The Japanese brought it to the United States in eighteen seventy-six. It grew well in the warm, wet climate of the southeastern states. People planted kudzu around their homes to hide things like fences. In the nineteen thirties, during the Great Depression, the government put people to work planting kudzu for soil protection. Between nineteen thirty-five and the nineteen fifties, the government even paid farmers to plant it. The kudzu also provided cattle feed. But kudzu kills other growth as it spreads. Finally, in the fifties, the Agriculture Department no longer suggested it as a cover crop. Then, in nineteen seventy, officials declared it a weed. Today it is known as "the plant that ate the South." Kudzu now covers an estimated three million hectares of land. Over time, much of whatever was nearby died. People are always looking for better ways to stop the invasive plant. Since last year, the public works department in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has been using goats. This song by Randy Mitchell tells the story of the kudzu-eating goats: (MUSIC) It was the end of August in Tennessee's Chattanooga townThe weather had been hot and humid, summer was a hangin’ ‘roundThe vines had been growing long and steady all season longI knew it was time for me to write another kudzu songThat stuff is growing everywhere even choking out a railroad bridgeBut now there's kudzu eating goats out on Missionary RidgeThe tunnels got to where it was a danger to try to drive throughThey tried poison and herbicides and chopped it up where it grewBut nothing seems to work very long and the city was at wits endThey discovered that goats like kudzu and would eat all up and thenThe 3.4 acres would be clear and free of kudzu up to the tunnel's ledgeCause now there's kudzu eating goats out on Missionary Ridge Yet even kudzu has fans. Artisans form the twisting vines into baskets. Others use kudzu in food, clothing and herbal medicines. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In America, Struggling for the 'Correct' Terminology to Discuss Disabilities
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster: talking about disabilities. RS: Mark Aronoff is a linguist at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. He says over the last twenty years, it's become difficult to find a more taboo subject in American society than disability. As evidence, he cites the discomfort that many people have in finding neutral words to talk about disability without offending anyone AA: In fact, in an essay last week in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor Aronoff says that when it comes to terminology, "disability is now at the point that race was fifty years ago," when he was a child. MARK ARONOFF: "So what's happened is that words that fifty years ago were perfectly acceptable words have become unacceptable words, like 'crippled.' We had 'hospitals for crippled children.' And that was perfectly normal discourse. You could say 'so-and-so was crippled by polio.'" RS: "What about the word 'disabled'? Is that a word that doesn't work?" MARK ARONOFF: "I don't know. And what struck me, I guess, was I had that little anecdote in the story about 'accessible' ... " RS: "Right, why don't you tell us about that." MARK ARONOFF: "It happened to be in California but it could be anywhere else. I'm approaching a men's room and there's a sign next to it that says 'nearest accessible restrooms on the third floor.' And as I'm walking in, I said to myself, well, accessible to whom? I mean, this is restroom is accessible. And then I realized that what they meant was disabled-accessible. But they didn't want to even use the word." AA: "So euphemistically they call it 'accessible.'" MARK ARONOFF: "Right, but what's happened is that -- the greatest euphemism is simply not saying the word at all." RS: "You say here the disability taboo is part of a larger societal trend to taboo all perceived human defects." MARK ARONOFF: "Right, and we all have defects, right? It seems to me that on the one hand we are trying to be a much more inclusive society -- even here on campus, for example, we have students with severe, severe physical disabilities that in earlier times would have prevented them from getting a college education. On the other hand, we're bombarded with these images of physical perfection -- you know, David Beckham and Posh." RS: "I think it's interesting here, you talk about the 'family of euphemisms,' you talk about 'people living with X.' Talk about that construction." MARK ARONOFF: "Right, it's like a little formula, so that it's 'people living with AIDS,' 'people living with mental retardation,' 'people living with cancer,' whatever you want them to be living with. I call it a 'family of euphemisms' in the sense that it's kind of an open-ended formula that allows you to euphemize about any of these conditions." AA: "Well, now, I suppose activists would point out the long history of discrimination against people with disabilities or certain diseases and that they might ask: What right does someone who is not disabled have writing something like this, or challenging what might be seen as an attempt to be more sensitive in describing people who are in that condition?" MARK ARONOFF: "I wasn't trying to pass judgment on people's use of these euphemisms, whether they were good or bad. All that I was trying to point out is that they are euphemisms. I do research on sign language, and deaf people want to be called deaf. They don't want to be called 'hearing-impaired.' And that was a long struggle for them, because for them, by not calling them deaf, you're trying to euphemize them away." RS: "What you're noticing, do you feel that we have gone so far to the political correctness that we're afraid to even broach a subject? Or do you feel that because the communities that are empowered, that want to be known as who they are, are coming back a little bit to a more central position in which we're able to talk?" MARK ARONOFF: "No, I think that in public discourse, I mean outside maybe these small communities of activists, this particular topic of disability is becoming more and more difficult to talk about." AA: Mark Aronoff is a linguistics professor and associate provost at Stony Brook University, part of the State University of New York. The Chronicle of Higher Education published his article in the July twenty-seventh issue of the Chronicle Review. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Archives are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Activity for the Brave of Heart (and Heights)? Try Sport Parachuting
* Byline: Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down -- or travel forward, while falling, at speeds of 40 kilometers an hour. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Members of the US Army Golden Knights parachute team at a performance in North CarolinaHave you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe?? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does. The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety. By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think: "Do I really want to do this?"? You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too. VOICE ONE: The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready. Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky. The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned. You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind. While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts: VOICE TWO: "Jump-run!" VOICE ONE: This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot: VOICE TWO: "Cut the engine!" VOICE ONE: The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says: VOICE TWO: "Sit in the door!" VOICE ONE: Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command: VOICE TWO: "Climb out!" VOICE ONE: You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel. Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller feels heavy against your chest. Then your teacher shouts: VOICE TWO: "Go!" VOICE ONE: You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below. The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving, but not falling. Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff straps of the parachute harness gently pull on your shoulders and legs. You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left. VOICE TWO: You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small. For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place. Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet. You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as fourteen ninety-five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute. About two hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device. The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In seventeen ninety-seven, he parachuted from a balloon six hundred meters above the city of Paris. VOICE ONE: There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives. Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in nineteen twenty-eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool. In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving. Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three thousand meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely. People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up. Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight -- like that of birds. VOICE ONE: Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors. One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works much like a jet airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer it. Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-07/2007-07-31-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Discovery of 'Itch Gene' May Lead to New Treatments
* Byline: Experiments on mice lead to an accidental find in the central nervous system. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Itchy skin is a common problem. Severe itching can interfere with sleep or lead to painful damage from scratching. Now, scientists may have a way to develop new treatments for severe itching. They report finding a gene that sends the itch signal up the spinal cord to the brain. This is the first gene identified for the itch sensation in the central nervous system. A team led by Zhou-Feng Chen at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri, made the discovery in mice. The study appeared last week in the journal Nature. The gene is called GRPR, for gastrin-releasing peptide receptor. This gene has been studied for years, but scientists did not know it was linked to itching. The Washington University researchers say they discovered the connection by accident while searching for genes linked to pain. During their experiments, they gave itch-causing substances to some laboratory mice. They found that mice without the GRPR gene scratched much less than normal mice with the gene. However, the animals reacted to pain in the same way as normal mice. The scientists say the reaction showed that pain and itch are controlled by separate sets of genes in the spinal cord. Because the mice without the itch gene did scratch a little, scientists believe there must be other itch genes in the body. Still, the discovery is seen as good news for people who have severe dry skin or other conditions that cause itching. These include skin disorders like eczema and problems such as kidney failure or liver disease. The researchers, though, have not confirmed whether the GRPR gene is involved in these diseases. Cancer treatments and strong painkillers like morphine can also cause itchiness. Yet effective treatments for severe itching are limited. This is partly because scientists have traditionally thought that an itch was a less intense form of pain. Because of this, Professor Chen says itch research has lived in the shadow of pain research. He notes that many genes have been identified along the pain pathway. Now the discovery of a so-called itch gene could lead to new treatments for people who suffer from severe itching. The researchers suggest that new drugs could be developed to suppress itching without affecting a person's ability to sense pain. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report was written by Brianna Blake. For more health news, along with transcripts and archives of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Bill Clinton Begins His First Term in 1993
* Byline: During his first four years, President Clinton faced acts of terrorism against the US and crises in Somalia and Bosnia. For his cabinet, he chose more women and minorities than any president before him. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue telling about Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bill Clinton began his first term as president of the United States in January of nineteen ninety-three. During his terms in office, he appointed more women and minority members to serve in government than any earlier president. Mister Clinton became the first Democratic president in twenty-five years to name associate justices to the United States Supreme Court. He chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to serve on America’s highest court. Miz Ginsburg was only the second woman named to the court. VOICE TWO: Members of President Clinton’s own Democratic Party controlled Congress for the first two years of his presidency. Still, Congress failed to consider a major administration proposal. The plan was meant to reform the health care system to provide health care for all Americans. Bill Clinton had promised during his presidential campaign to help more Americans receive health care. A committee led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, proposed the new administration plan. But Congress did not act on the proposal. Lawmakers decided it was too costly and too difficult to administer. VOICE ONE: Congress did pass some Clinton legislation during his first term. For example, legislators enacted his proposal to fight crime. This measure included a crime prevention program and increased law enforcement. It also provided money for building more prisons. Lawmakers also passed Mister Clinton’s budgets for nineteen ninety-three and nineteen ninety-four. The budgets reduced federal spending. VOICE TWO: President Clinton’s relations with Congress became more difficult after the nineteen ninety-four midterm elections. Voters throughout the country elected the first majority Republican Congress in forty years. Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Republican-led Congress passed measures to reform social welfare in America. Mister Clinton also wanted to reform America’s aid system. But he stopped Congress from cutting what he believed was too much money for some programs. These included help for education, poor people and old people needing medical care. The economy had slowed to recession level during the administration of President George Bush. Under Mister Clinton the economy grew slowly at first. Then it recovered more quickly. Business earnings grew. New jobs were created. The economic crisis was ended. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mister Clinton had to deal with terrorism against the United States very early in his presidency. On February twenty-sixth, nineteen ninety-three, Islamic terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. They placed explosives in a car parked under the building. The huge explosion killed six people. More than one thousand others were injured. Repair of the damaged building cost millions of dollars. The government later captured and tried the bombers. VOICE TWO: Terrorism again struck the United States in nineteen ninety-five. On April nineteenth, a dissident American former soldier placed explosives that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. One hundred sixty-eight people died in the bombing. It was the most serious incident of terrorism on home territory in United States history. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was captured soon after the explosion. Another former soldier also was seized later in connection with the bombing. Many Americans praised Mister Clinton for the way he led the nation after this tragedy. VOICE ONE: President Bill Clinton also had to deal with a number of foreign relations crises. For example, President Bush had sent American troops to Somalia in nineteen ninety-two. The troops were taking food to thousands of starving Somalis. The people were suffering because of lack of rain and a civil war. Fighting among ethnic groups was preventing the people from receiving food and other aid supplies. Then the United Nations took control of the aid efforts. President Clinton made American soldiers part of the U-N force. In nineteen ninety-three, eighteen American soldiers were killed in Mogadishu. They died in a battle with supporters of a local group leader. Mister Clinton ordered American troops to leave Somalia after Congress demanded their withdrawal. VOICE TWO: American foreign policy was more successful in other areas. For example, President Clinton helped return the first democratically elected leader of Haiti to office. In nineteen ninety-one, military officers in Haiti had ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The new rulers established a military dictatorship. Thousands of Haitian refugees tried to flee to the United States by boat. In nineteen ninety-four, President Clinton threatened to use military force against the dictators if they did not let President Aristide return to power. The dictators surrendered power. Mister Aristide again became president of Haiti. VOICE ONE: Some of Mister Clinton’s most important foreign policy decisions involved the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, formerly a republic of Yugoslavia. A civil war began in Bosnia-Herzegovina in nineteen ninety-two. Bosnian Serb rebels were trying to oust the mainly Muslim government. The United Nations sent peacekeepers to Bosnia. Mister Clinton ordered the United States Air Force to aid Bosnian Muslims under attack and try to stop Serb aggression. In late nineteen ninety-five, Mister Clinton helped organize a meeting of the warring sides in the Bosnian civil war. They signed a peace plan that included a cease-fire. The plan called for NATO troops to help guard the cease-fire. The president sent American troops to aid in this effort. VOICE TWO: Mister Clinton gained one of the major foreign policy goals of his first administration in November of nineteen ninety-three. Congress approved NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement called for ending most import taxes among the United States, Canada and Mexico. This was to be done over the next fifteen years. The agreement also called for ending restrictions on the flow of goods, services and investment among the three countries. President Clinton had another trade policy success the following year. Congress expanded GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The expansion permitted cuts in import taxes on thousands of products. They included electronics, wood products and metals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: While Mister Clinton led the nation, he also had to defend his past. In the late nineteen-seventies, Mister and Missus Clinton had invested in the Whitewater Development Corporation in Arkansas. By the time Bill Clinton became president, others involved with this company were in legal trouble. Critics said President Clinton also had acted illegally. One accuser was a former judge in Little Rock, Arkansas. He owned a savings and loan company that received federal money. This man said Bill Clinton had secretly pressured him to make illegal loans to help the Whitewater company. President Clinton denied the accusation. VOICE TWO: Some people suspected that Hillary Rodham Clinton was responsible for wrongdoing years earlier when she working as a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas. In January, nineteen ninety-four, Mister Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a lawyer to lead an independent investigation of the Clintons’ activities. She named Robert Fiske, a Republican. But critics charged that Mister Fiske was too friendly to the Clinton Administration. In August, three federal judges replaced him with lawyer Kenneth Starr, also a Republican. VOICE ONE: Some Americans expressed anger at the president about the Whitewater case. Others dismissed the accusations as political attacks. Opinion studies in spring and summer of nineteen ninety-six showed that many Americans would vote to re-elect their president in November. They said they wanted Bill Clinton to serve as president for four more years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of The Making of a Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: China, Russia Win Top Results in Physics Olympiad in Iran
* Byline: High school students from 73 countries, including the US, competed in Isfahan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than three hundred secondary school students competed in the thirty-eighth International Physics Olympiad last month in Iran. They came from seventy-three countries, including the United States. Students from China had the top results: four gold medals and one silver. Russia was second with three gold, one silver and one honorable mention. Next came the United States and South Korea. Each team brought home two gold medals and three silver medals. And the teams from Iran and Japan had two gold, two silver and one bronze medal each. The ten-day Olympiad took place in the ancient city of Isfahan. There were written examinations and laboratory experiments as well as discussion meetings. And there was news of the death in Isfahan of the president of the International Physics Olympiad. Waldemar Gorzkowski was sixty-seven years old. The Iranian Students News Agency said he died of a heart attack. He led the Olympiad for many years. The physics competition is one of the International Science Olympiads held around the world. The American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Institute of Physics choose members of the United States team. Physics teachers across the country nominate students and committees choose about two hundred of them. The students take additional tests to choose the twenty-four members of the team. In May the members attend the United States Physics Team Training Camp at the University of Maryland. They go through nine days of intensive studying, testing and problem solving. At the end of the camp, five members of the team are chosen to travel to the Olympiad. The five this year were Kenan Diab of Ohio, Rui Hu of Delaware, Jenny Kwan from California, Jason LaRue of Florida and Haofei Wei from Oklahoma. All five won medals. The first International Physics Olympiad took place in Warsaw, Poland, in nineteen sixty-seven. Until the early nineteen eighties it was held only in the former communist countries of eastern Europe. The United States organized a team for the first time in nineteen eighty-six. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn about the American education system, go to voaspecialenglish.com where you can find transcripts and archives of our reports. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Are We Alone? Why Scientists Think We Should Widen the Search for 'Weird Life'
* Byline: A question from Brazil about UFOs. Also: the march of the Crocs. And music by Canadian singer Feist. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from a Canadian singer known as Feist … A question from Brazil about UFOs ... And watch out -- millions of Crocs are out walking the streets. Crocs HOST: Recently we stepped into the debate over the safety of Heelys and other roller shoes -- shoes with wheels that deploy when a kid wants to roll. Now, following in the footsteps of that story, we look at another shoe that people seem to either love or hate. Faith Lapidus has the story of crocs. FAITH LAPIDUS: Crocs are made of a lightweight material that softens and forms to the foot. A company in Colorado started selling them in two thousand two. It says Crocs keep feet cool, are easy to clean and resist bacteria and odor. Traditional Crocs are kind of funny looking. They are big and in some cases brightly colored. The first ones were meant for boaters who needed shoes that would not slip on wet surfaces or mark boat decks. Now there are many different ones. Some have the traditional back strap. Some do not. And some do not look like the original Crocs at all. There are flip-flops and women’s dress flats. Some people report that Crocs helped their foot or back pain. Some doctors say the shoes are good because they are wide and do not rub the feet. Others, though, say Crocs do not provide enough support to wear for hours. Among the biggest fans are people who stand a lot in their jobs, like people who work in hospitals. Yet hospitals in some countries have been moving to ban Crocs. One concern is the risk of infection if blood from a sick patient falls on someone's foot through Crocs with holes in the top. The company does make shoes without holes. But there are also questions about whether Crocs may attract static electricity which can interfere with medical equipment. The company has said it knows of no reason Crocs would act any different from sneakers and other footwear worn by medical professionals. For people who wear shoes made of soft material, another issue is escalator safety. When they ride escalators, they have to be careful not to push the soft foam into the metal teeth. Yet some people might be happy to see Crocs get eaten. They think the traditional styles are ugly. There is even a Web site where they can share their feelings, ihatecrocs.com. It includes a store where people can buy shirts and bags with the symbol of a pair of Crocs being cut by scissors. Even so, the Crocs company says sales have been rising sharply, reaching more than three hundred fifty million dollars last year. The company reported strong gains in its latest earnings report last week, including strong foreign markets, especially in Europe. UFOs HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Humberto Bortoletto would like to know about UFOs, unidentified flying objects. He wonders if astronomers think it is possible to have a visitor to Earth like the little creature in the movie "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial." Well, if any of you out there are astronomers, write to us at mosaic@voanews.com and tell us what you think. In fact, it just so happens that a new report advises scientists to keep an open mind about what alien life forms might look like. The report is from the National Research Council, part of the National Academies in Washington. It says the search for alien life has been limited by a belief that it would use the same biochemical structure as life on Earth. The report says the search for other life in the universe should include efforts to discover what scientists sometimes call "weird life." In other words, different from life as we know it. The Area 51 exhibit at the Alien Zone in Roswell, New MexicoThis summer marks the sixtieth anniversary of the first major American UFO sightings in modern times. In nineteen forty-seven, people reported seeing a group of flying disks over the Cascade Mountains in the northwestern state of Washington. Similar reports came from the southwestern state of New Mexico. On July eighth, nineteen forty-seven, the Army announced possession of a flying disk recovered on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. The military said it was a top-secret research balloon. But some people believed that an alien spaceship had crashed. They believed that pieces of wreckage and the bodies of the crew were taken to a base and kept secret. The so-called Roswell incident has become a part of popular culture. The Fund for UFO Research is a nonprofit organization in Alexandria, Virginia. It says the lack of proof that any kind of life exists outside Earth is one reason not to believe that UFOs are alien spacecraft. Another is the extreme distance to the nearest star. The group notes that most objects reported as UFOs turn out to be planets, satellites, airplanes or other known objects. But the head of the Fund for UFO Research, Don Berliner, says there is also evidence to believe that UFOs may be non-Earthly. For example, he notes that descriptions from expert witnesses, military pilots and scientists are often the same. They describe objects of simple geometric shapes and extraordinary performance values, including silent high-speed flight. Feist HOST: Leslie Feist is a Canadian singer who is becoming very popular in the United States. For her performing name, she simply goes by Feist. And as we hear from Shirley Griffith, her sweet voice and her songwriting skills shine in her latest album, "The Reminder." Shirley Griffith: Early in her music career, Feist sang in a screaming voice with a punk rock band in Calgary, Canada. Her music now is much different. Her latest songs are gentle with playful beats and musical arrangements. She recorded her third album, "The Reminder," with a group of musicians in a rented house outside of Paris. This way, she and her band could live in a nice environment without having to go to a recording studio every day. This song is called "I Feel It All." (MUSIC) Feist has said that she named her album "The Reminder" because she wanted it to bring together the past and the present. She says the album is filled with all kinds of memories, the kinds you want to forget and the kinds you want to remember forever. Here she is with "Limit to Your Love." (MUSIC) This summer Feist will be performing around the United States and also in Britain and Japan. You can listen to more of her music at her Web site, listentofeist.com. We leave you with a song first made famous by the blues singer Nina Simone in the nineteen sixties. Here is Feist with her version of "Sea Lion Woman." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Dana Demange, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Transcripts and archives of our show can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Murdoch's News Corp to Buy Dow Jones
* Byline: Sale will bring new owner to the Wall Street Journal in the increasingly competitive world of financial news. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Rupert MurdochThis is the VOA Special English Economics Report. One of the top stories in business news this week was -- business news. Dow Jones agreed to be bought by News Corporation. This means the publisher of the Wall Street Journal will be owned by the media company controlled by Rupert Murdoch. The two companies announced Wednesday that they have signed a merger agreement. The deal is valued at just over five and a half billion dollars. For the past century, the controlling shareholder in Dow Jones and Company has been the Bancroft family. The announcement said family members with about thirty-seven percent of Dow Jones' voting stock have agreed to support the deal. That would represent a majority of the sixty-four percent share owned by the family. The deal ends four months of negotiations that deeply divided the Bancrofts. Reports say family members agreed to the deal after a promise of at least thirty million dollars to pay their lawyers and financial advisors. Rupert Murdoch's offer to buy Dow Jones became public in May. His offer of sixty dollars a share was sixty-seven percent above the market price at the time of the offer. The deal is seen as a major prize for the Australian-born Murdoch, who became an American citizen in nineteen eighty-five. He has built a media business currently valued at seventy billion dollars. His company owns more than one hundred newspapers in Australia, Britain and the United States. It also owns Fox television, including Fox News Channel, "American Idol" and "The Simpsons." A new Fox Business Channel is set for launch in October. Other holdings include the Twentieth Century Fox movie company and the social-networking site MySpace. Shareholders in News Corporation and Dow Jones are expected to vote on the deal later this year. Government approval is also needed. Financial news is an increasingly competitive industry. Rupert Murdoch is expected to invest heavily in Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal. Media observers are debating what effects his ownership might have on one of the world's most respected newspapers. Some say News Corporation might try to limit reporting on its own activities. Others note Rupert Murdoch's conservative politics and wonder what influence that might have. A five-member committee has been named to protect the newsgathering independence of the Journal and other Dow Jones publications. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Good Sports, Bad Sports
* Byline: Sports professionals are being praised, condemned and investigated. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. For the last several weeks, professional athletes have been on the first page of newspapers as much as in the sports pages. Some news stories are? about extraordinary careers. Others are about athletes behaving badly. Professional baseball players Cal Ripken and Tony Gywnn are among the heroes. ? They were admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame Sunday at a ceremony in Cooperstown, New York. About seventy-five thousand fans gathered there to celebrate. Both men spoke about the importance of the public image of athletes. Gwynn said professional baseball was about more than just playing. He said players need to do the right thing for all the fans who love the sport. Ripken said players are behavior models whether they like it or not. He said the only question is whether they will be good ones or bad ones. The speeches followed weeks of legal charges, accusations and investigations involving sports professionals. In baseball, Barry Bonds is two homeruns away from breaking the record set by Hank Aaron in nineteen seventy-six. Bonds' success has renewed accusations that he used banned performance-improving drugs. However, Bonds has never failed a drug test nor has he been charged with any crime. Similar accusations of banned drug use also took place at the Tour de France bicycle race last month. Several riders tested positive for a performance-improving drug. And, in the final week of the race, the leading cyclist Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was expelled on suspicion of taking banned drugs. The International Cycling Union said there were more cases of doping in the Tour de France this year because there was more testing. An American professional football player is also in the news. Last week, Michael Vick told a court in Richmond, Virginia, he was not guilty of charges connected to an illegal dog-fighting business. The charges include extreme cruelty to animals. Federal investigators say they found fight dogs and other evidence on Michael Vick's property in Virginia earlier this year. A defendant who pled guilty in the case has agreed to speak against Vick in court in return for a lesser sentence. Several sporting goods companies that had paid Vick for the use of his name have ended their business relationship with him. And an animal rights group, the Humane Society, is urging the National Football League to suspend Vick from play. Finally, some bad news in professional basketball. United States federal officials are investigating former National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy. The referee enforces the rules and keeps order in the game. He can stop play if he calls a violation by a player and turn the ball over to the opposing team. Donaghy is being investigated for betting money on basketball games, including some in which he was a referee.He resigned last month. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lady Bird Johnson 1912-2007: The Former First Lady Was an Environmental Activist Who Made America More Beautiful
* Byline: She showed great strength during a very tense period in American history. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Lady Bird Johnson. She is best known for being the wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson who led the nation during the nineteen sixties. But Missus Johnson was also an influential environmental activist, tireless campaigner and successful businesswoman. She showed great strength and heroism during a tense period in American history. Her work to make America beautiful can still be seen today in flowering fields, roads, and parks across the country. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor in nineteen twelve. The Taylor family lived in the small town of Karnack, Texas. Claudia’s father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor, owned two stores as well as thousands of hectares for cotton production. Her mother, Minnie Taylor, died when Claudia was only five years old. A woman who worked for the Taylor family gave Claudia her nickname. Alice Tittle said the small child was “as purty as a lady bird.” VOICE TWO: Claudia had two older brothers who went away to school. She spent many hours by herself exploring the natural beauty of the fields and forests near her home. She said she grew up listening to the wind in the pine trees of the East Texas woods. She said her heart found its home in the beauty, mystery, order and disorder of the flowering earth. Claudia attended public schools and worked hard at her studies. But she was very shy and did not like attention. When she graduated from high school, she had the third highest grades in the class. She reportedly made sure she finished third to avoid giving the graduation speech required by the top two students in the class. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-four Lady Bird graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with degrees in history and journalism. She planned to teach or work as a theater critic. But then she met an energetic congressional assistant named Lyndon Baines Johnson. The young politician from Texas asked her to marry him on their first date. After weeks of pressure from Mister Johnson, Lady Bird accepted his marriage proposal. Here is Missus Johnson talking about her first meeting with her future husband: LADY BIRD JOHNSON: “We had a breakfast date, but we wound up by spending the whole day together, riding and talking. Well, he really let me know before the day was over that he wanted to marry me. And I thought this impossible. But on the other hand, there was one thing I knew I just couldn’t bear to have happen and that was to say goodbye, goodbye period.” VOICE TWO: Lyndon Johnson was busy planning his political career. Within three years, he ran for a seat in the United States Congress and won. Lady Bird Johnson had given him ten thousand dollars to get his campaign started. When Japanese planes attacked American ships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in nineteen forty-one, Mister Johnson joined the navy to fight in World War Two. Missus Johnson stayed in Washington, D.C. and supervised his congressional office during the eight months he was away. Her excellent organizational skills and smart political sense made her perfect for the job. VOICE ONE: After Mister Johnson returned, Lady Bird Johnson soon found a new project. She used about seventeen thousand dollars of family money to buy a small radio station in Austin, Texas. The radio station was in debt and had a small broadcast range. Missus Johnson used her husband’s connections with the Federal Communications Commission to increase the radio station’s power and range. Soon, the station started making money and the company expanded into television as well. Missus Johnson was president of the family company, LBJ Company. She traveled from Washington to Austin every week to take care of business. During this time the Johnson family started to grow. Lady Bird had a daughter, Lynda Bird, in nineteen forty-four. A second daughter, Luci Baines, was born three years later. Lyndon Johnson’s power in politics also continued to grow. In nineteen forty-eight he was elected to the United States Senate. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty, John F. Kennedy ran for president of the United States with Lyndon Johnson as vice president. Missus Kennedy was unable to travel and campaign for the candidates because of her pregnancy. Missus Johnson bravely accepted the job. She visited eleven states to help express the goals of the candidates. They won the election. Missus Johnson was also at her husband’s side when he visited Texas with President and Missus Kennedy on November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three. After the tragic shooting of President Kennedy in Dallas, security officials led the Johnsons to the presidential plane to fly back to Washington. During the flight, Missus Johnson and Missus Kennedy watched as Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States. VOICE ONE: In the weeks after this national tragedy Lyndon Johnson worked hard to show Americans that he could be a strong president. With his strong support, he got Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four. This law banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin” in public places and federal programs. But the law was not popular with many white voters in the southern part of the country. Once again, Lady Bird Johnson came to the rescue. As part of Lyndon Johnson’s nineteen sixty-four campaign for president she became a spokesman for the law. Lady Bird Johnson visited important southern states although Democratic governors feared for her safety. ?She traveled through poor areas talking to angry crowds who were against her husband’s civil rights policies. Lady Bird Johnson knew how to give a powerful and expressive speech. She won over the loud crowds with her gentle manner and calming southern accent. She told them that it was time to end the South’s racist past and move into the modern world. The media later wrote that she stood as a fearless moral representative of her husband. And, her work paid off. Lyndon Johnson won the election. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The historian Lewis Gould has said Missus Johnson and her press secretary Liz Carpenter were the first to establish the job of the modern first lady. Missus Johnson realized that the wife of the president needed to have her own team of workers. She made sure she had a director of employees as well as a social director. Lady Bird Johnson’s business experience and sense of organization helped create a very effective system for future first ladies and their causes. VOICE ONE: As first lady, Missus Johnson became an energetic activist for educational and environmental issues. She helped support Head Start, a public program aimed at giving educational and health services to young children from poor families. She started the Society for a More Beautiful National Capitol. Its aim was to improve the beauty of Washington by planting trees and flowers in public areas and parks. Missus Johnson understood that these improvements were also linked to important issues such as pollution, public transportation, mental health, and crime rates. VOICE TWO: But she is most well known for helping to create The Beautification Act of nineteen sixty-five. It aimed to protect America’s natural beauty by limiting advertising signs and cleaning up waste areas on the country’s roads and highways. The law also supported the planting of local flowers and trees. Here is Missus Johnson talking about her environmental efforts: LADY BIRD JOHNSON: “Clean water, clean up the rivers, wilderness areas, more national parks, all of that was a part of our aim and thrust and what we tried to do. I’ve had a life long love affair with nature, a particular accent on wildflowers, native plants for the whole broad face of America. I hope everybody could enjoy their little piece of America as much as I have enjoyed mine.” VOICE ONE: Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson had a difficult four-year term. The president faced strong opposition about the United States involvement in the war in Vietnam. In nineteen sixty-eight, President Johnson surprised the nation by announcing that he would not seek reelection as president. The Johnsons left politics and returned home to Texas. Mister Johnson died of a heart attack in nineteen seventy-three. VOICE TWO: Lady Bird Johnson continued her tireless work to improve the country’s natural environment. She created the National Wildflower Research Center in nineteen eighty-two. The center helps to educate people about the environmental importance and value of native plants. Missus Johnson died in two thousand seven at the age of ninety-four. Her memory lives in the many fields of wildflowers that color the roads of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can download scripts and audio of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: All About Names: He Was a True Jack of All Trades
* Byline: Some names have special meanings in popular American expressions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.(MUSIC) A person’s name is very important. Some names also have special meanings in popular American expressions. To better understand what I mean, sit back and listen. You might even want to get a cup of Joe, I mean, a cup of coffee. One day, an average Joe was walking down the street. An average Joe is a common person – either male or female. This average Joe was lost. He did not know Jack about where he was going. By this, I mean he did not know anything about where to find things in the city. So average Joe asked John Q. Public for directions to the nearest bank. John Q. Public is also a common person – male or female. “Jeez Louise,” said John Q. Public. This is an expression of surprise. “Jeez Louise, don’t you know that all banks are closed today?? It is Saturday.” “For Pete’s sake,” said average Joe. This is also an expression used to show a feeling like surprise or disappointment. “For Pete’s sake. I do not believe you,” said average Joe. He was being a doubting Thomas, someone who does not believe anything he is told. At that moment, Joe Blow was walking down the street with a woman. Joe Blow is also an expression for a common man. Now this Joe Blow was NOT walking next to a plain Jane. A plain Jane is a woman who is neither ugly nor pretty. She is simply plain. No, the woman with Joe Blow was a real Sheila – a beautiful woman. Average Joe asked the woman if all banks were closed on Saturday. “No way, Jose,” she answered. This is a way of saying “no.”? “No way, Jose. Many banks are open on Saturdays.” Average Joe did not know either of these two people from Adam. That is, he did not know them at all. But he followed their directions to the nearest bank. When he arrived, he walked to the desk of the chief bank employee. Now this man was a true Jack of all trades. He knew how to do everything. “I am here to withdraw some money so I can pay my taxes to Uncle Sam,” said average Joe. Uncle Sam represents the United States government. The banker produced some papers and told average Joe to sign his John Hancock at the bottom. A John Hancock is a person’s signed name – a signature. Historically, John Hancock was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Hancock had a beautiful signature and signed his name larger than all the others. As average Joe left the bank he began to sing. But sadly, average Joe was not a good singer. He was a Johnny One Note. He could only sing one note. (MUSIC)? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Should HIV-Infected Mothers Breastfeed?
* Byline: The World Health Organization recommends HIV-infected mothers substitute breastfeeding with replacement feedings if several conditions can be met.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says that breastfeeding is the best way to provide babies with the nutrients and protection against infection they need to be healthy. However, a woman with HIV can spread the virus that causes AIDS to her child during pregnancy, delivery or through breastfeeding. The WHO estimates up to twenty percent of babies born to HIV-infected mothers become infected through breastfeeding. However, stopping breastfeeding puts children at risk of other problems. These include poor nutrition and increased risk of other life-threatening infections. These risks were shown in Botswana last year. Water supplies made dirty by flooding led to high rates of diarrhea and poor nutrition among babies fed liquid baby food called formula. More than five hundred children died. The number of deaths from diarrhea increased twenty times from earlier years. Investigators from the United States Centers for Disease Control discovered the link between formula feeding and infant deaths from diarrhea. They also found that babies who were not breastfed were fifty times more likely to have diarrhea. Peggy Henderson is a child health and development expert with the World Health Organization. She spoke to us from Geneva, Switzerland. Miz Henderson says the choice of feeding depends on the individual situation of each woman with HIV. The WHO recommends replacement feeding instead of breastfeeding if several conditions can be met. The replacement feeding must be acceptable, financially and physically possible, continued over a period of time and safe for both the mother and baby. If these conditions cannot be met, the WHO recommends that HIV-infected mothers give their babies only breast milk for the first months of life. Miz Henderson says there are several promising studies on use of anti-retroviral medicines by HIV-infected mothers and their children. But she says the safety of the process is not clear. She says she hopes the WHO will examine ongoing research of the medicines in two thousand nine. New public health recommendations could be announced then. But for now, Miz Henderson says the WHO does not recommend that HIV-infected mothers use anti-retroviral drugs only to reduce transmission of the virus through breastfeeding. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m?Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Mountain and Cowboy Culture Meet in Jackson Hole
* Byline: We take you to the popular valley in Wyoming where people go to experience the outdoors and the spirit of the old American West. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we travel to the mountains of Wyoming for a trip to Jackson Hole. VOICE ONE: This beautiful valley was named after the nineteenth-century explorer and hunter David Jackson. After he spent a winter in the area, his friends started to call it “Jackson’s Hole.”? VOICE TWO: The valley looks like a hole in the middle of the mountains that surround it. Over time, the name stuck. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jackson Hole is about forty-eight kilometers long. The valley includes the town of Jackson. About eight thousand people live there. The valley also includes the Grand Teton National Park and much of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Jackson Hole is a popular holiday place. In the summer, people go there to ride horses, climb mountains, catch fish and take trips on the rivers and lakes. Many visitors take a trip across the valley on the Snake River. The Snake Indians once lived near this river. It turns from side to side, like a snake on the move. Some visitors bird-watch from sailboats. One of the birds they can see is America’s national symbol, the bald eagle. Other people go white-water rafting. Rubber rafts carry them along the fastest parts of the river. The water moves so fast, it becomes white with foam. VOICE TWO: In the winter, people come to Jackson Hole to ski. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort provides some of the best downhill skiing and snowboarding in the world. And there are other kinds of skiing. Some people skate ski; they speed across level snow. Others enjoy the slower speed of cross-country skiing. Some people go dog sledding in Jackson Hole. They get on a sled and are pulled by a team of dogs through the snow. This is one of the many ways to enjoy the extraordinary mountain views. Some wealthy people have homes near the ski resort. Other people stay in the many hotels nearby. Some of these hotels are new and very costly. In fact, the average sale price of a single-family home in Jackson Hole is more than one million dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Visitors to Jackson Hole have many shopping, dining and entertainment choices. People can imagine they are in a town in the Old West. At the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, instead of chairs, they can sit on saddles as if riding a horse. On some nights there are dance lessons. People can learn the two-step, a kind of Western dance. Or they can eat dinner and listen to live music at the Mangy Moose Saloon. There, a large dead moose hangs from the ceiling. At the Silver Dollar Bar, a long table is covered with more than two thousand shiny silver dollars. If you look carefully, you see that the coins are all from the year nineteen twenty-one. Visitors can also enjoy an evening at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. In the summer, actors perform musicals and other plays. This brightly painted old theater is one of the oldest wood buildings in town. It has been a popular entertainment place since the nineteen fifties. VOICE TWO:?????? Some of the stores in Jackson Hole sell unusual things, like furniture made of deer antlers. Antlers are the hard and bony points that grow on the heads of male deer. These stores sell chairs, lights and other objects made from antlers. They look more like pointy sculptures than furniture. Many stores in Jackson Hole sell winter sports equipment and clothing. Some sell cowboy clothing. C.J. James owns the Jackson Hole Hat Company. Her Web site describes the cowboy as a "symbol of American independence and strength."? She will sell you a cowboy hat made to fit the exact size of your head. There are many shapes, colors and materials to choose from. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some of the ways of the Old West cowboy are kept alive in Jackson Hole. In the summer, visitors can go to a rodeo to see competitions based on traditional cowboy skills. Some people say it is the truest of American sports. The rodeo usually begins with a parade of cowboys and their horses. Then comes the competition. In one event, riders try to stay on a wild animal for eight seconds. They ride wild horses and large bulls. The animals try to throw the cowboys to the ground. The cowboys try not to fall off. VOICE TWO: In another event, the cowboy throws a rope around the neck of a young cow. Then he tries to tie the rope around three of its legs. The cowboy who does this in the shortest amount of time wins. Visitors to Jackson Hole can experience different parts of cowboy life. They can ride horses. They can eat meals cooked outdoors over a fire. In the summer, they can watch actors dressed as cowboys perform “The Shootout.”? This short Western play has been performed since the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Arts and culture are important in Jackson Hole. Each summer, musicians from around the country perform classical music at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Musical guests also visit local schools while they are in town. Each autumn, Jackson holds the Fall Arts Festival. This event celebrates many examples of visual and performing arts. It also provides many examples of fine local foods. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Jackson Hole can explore the National Museum of Wildlife. When this museum opened, it was located in the center of town. But soon the museum space was not large enough to hold the art collection. In nineteen ninety-four the museum reopened in a new building made of stone. It looks like a fortress built centuries ago. The museum contains over two thousand artworks showing nature and animals. There are many paintings, photographs and sculptures of antelope, deer, birds, horses and other animals. The museum says its art celebrates the powerful connection between animals and humans. VOICE ONE: This art shows the natural beauty of the land and its creatures. To see this beauty in real life, all you have to do is walk outside the museum. The building sits on a hillside overlooking the National Elk Refuge. The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world. It had an estimated seven thousand elk this season. The refuge has ten thousand hectares of land. It was started in nineteen twelve to help protect the local elk population. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Six kilometers north of Jackson, Wyoming, is the Grand Teton National Park. Congress created this park in nineteen twenty-nine. In the nineteen forties the wealthy John D. Rockefeller bought a great amount of land nearby. Then he gave it to the federal government. Both Rockefeller and the government added to the park later. Today, the government controls about ninety-seven percent of all the land in the Jackson Hole area. VOICE ONE: The park is named for the Grand Teton Mountains. These mountains rise directly from the floor of the valley. They are part of the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Tetons are about four thousand meters high and sixty-five kilometers long. Many artists have captured images of these beautiful mountains. The Native Americans who lived in the area many years ago called the mountains Teewinot, meaning “many pinnacles.”? Fur trappers from Canada had their own idea of what the three largest mountains looked like. These French-speaking hunters named them “les Trois Tetons” -- "the Three Breasts." VOICE TWO: The Grand Teton Mountains were formed about ten million years ago. This makes them some of the youngest mountains in North America. The Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, for example, are about two hundred million years old. Many of the lakes around the Grand Tetons were formed millions of years ago by slow-moving sheets of ice. Some small glaciers are still active in the mountains. VOICE ONE: People come to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from around the world to enjoy the best of cowboy and mountain culture. If you ever go, just don’t forget your cowboy hat. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Dana Demange and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Sigmund Freud Changed What People Thought About the Mind
* Byline: Freud influenced the science of mental health. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: Sigmund FreudAnd I'm Bob Doughty. The work and theories of Sigmund Freud continue to influence many areas of modern culture. VOICE ONE: Today, we explore Freud's influence on the treatment of mental disorders through psychotherapy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sigmund Freud was born May sixth, eighteen fifty-six, in Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Early in his adulthood, Freud studied medicine. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was developing some exciting new ideas about the human mind. But his first scientific publications dealt with sea animals, including the sexuality of eels. VOICE ONE: Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and reason. He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis. He wanted to see if putting patients into a sleep-like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only temporary. Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. His method involved sitting with his patients and listening to them talk. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All ideas, thoughts and anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no holding back because of fear or guilt. VOICE TWO: Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the unconscious self. He said his part of the mind contains wishes, desires and experiences too frightening to recognize. He thought that if these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the patient would again feel the pain. But this time, the person would experience the memories as an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally understand them. Using this method, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly weakened. They would lose their power over the person's physical health. Soon the patient would get better. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sigmund Freud proposed that the mind was divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. Under this theory, the superego acts as a restraint. It is governed by the values we learn from our parents and society. The job of the superego is to help keep the id under control. The id is completely unconscious. It provides the energy for feelings that demand the immediate satisfaction of needs and desires. The ego provides the immediate reaction to the events of reality. The ego is the first line of defense between the self and the outside world. It tries to balance the two extremes of the id and the superego. VOICE TWO: Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual connections. These ideas included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their mothers and daughters toward their fathers. If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Others came to accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health. Professor James Gray at American University in Washington, D.C. says three of Freud's major ideas are still part of modern thinking about the mind. One is the idea of the unconscious mind. Another is that we do not necessarily know what drives us to do the things we do. And the third is that we are formed more than we think in the first five years, but not necessarily the way Freud thought. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Freud was trained as a neurologist. He treated disorders of the nervous system. But physical sickness can hide deeper problems. His studies on the causes and treatment of mental disorders helped form many ideas in psychiatry. Psychiatry is the area of medicine that treats mental and emotional conditions. Freud would come to be called the father of psychoanalysis. VOICE TWO: Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy. It includes discussion and investigation of hidden fears and conflicts. Sigmund Freud used free association. He would try to get his patients to free their minds and say whatever they were thinking. He also had them talk about their dreams to try to explore their unconscious fears and desires. His version of psychoanalysis remained the one most widely used until at least the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Psychoanalysis is rarely used in the United States anymore. One reason is that it takes a long time; the average length of treatment is about five years. Patients usually have to pay for the treatment themselves. Health insurance plans rarely pay for this form of therapy. Psychoanalysis has its supporters as well as its critics. Success rates are difficult to measure. Psychoanalysts say this is because each individual case is different. VOICE TWO: More recently, a number of shortened versions of psychological therapy have been developed. Some examples are behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavior is actions; cognition is knowing and judging. Some patients in therapy want to learn to find satisfaction in what they do. Others want to unlearn behaviors that only add to their problems. In these therapies, patients might talk with a therapist about the past. Or patients might be advised to think less about the past and more about the present? and the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other kinds of therapy involve movement, dance, art, music or play. These are used to help patients who have trouble talking about their emotions. In many cases, therapy today costs less than it used to. But the length of treatment depends on the problem. Some therapies, for example, call for twenty or thirty visits with a therapist. How long people continue their therapy can also depend on the cost. People find that health insurance plans are often more willing to pay for short-term therapies than for longer-term treatments. VOICE TWO: Mental health experts say therapy can often help patients suffering from depression, severe stress or other conditions. For some patients, they say, a combination of talk therapy and medication works best. There are many different drugs for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional disorders. Critics, however, say doctors are sometimes too quick to give medicine instead of more time for talk therapy. Again, cost pressures are often blamed. Mental health problems can affect work, school, marriage, and life in general. Yet they often go untreated. In many cases, people do not want others to know they have a problem. VOICE ONE: Mental disorders are common in all countries. The World Health Organization says hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are affected by mental, behavioral, neurological or substance use disorders. The W.H.O. says these disorders have major economic and social costs. Yet governments face difficult choices about health care spending. The W.H.O. says most poor countries spend less than one percent of their health budgets on mental health. There are treatments for most conditions. Still, the W.H.O. says there are two major barriers. One is lack of recognition of the seriousness of the problem. The other is lack of understanding of the services that exist. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, left Vienna soon after troops from Nazi Germany entered Austria in nineteen thirty-eight. The Nazis had a plan to kill all the Jews of Europe, but they permitted Freud to go to England. His four sisters remained in Vienna and were all killed in Nazi concentration camps. Freud was eighty-three years old when he died of cancer in London on September twenty-third, nineteen thirty-nine. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children, became a noted psychoanalyst herself. Before Sigmund Freud, no modern scientist had looked so deeply into the human mind. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. You can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Working Magic in the Garden With Beans
* Byline: Advice from the University of Illinois Extension. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Beans are a popular choice for home gardens. The University of Illinois Extension service says bush bean plants need the least amount of work. They stand without support. Green bush beans used to be called string beans because of fiber material along the pods containing the seeds. Now green beans are called snap beans because plant breeding reduced the fibers. Unlike bush bean plants, pole beans need supports to climb. But they need less space than bush beans because they twist around poles or sticks. Because the plants are tall, a person can stand while harvesting the beans. The University of Illinois Extension says beans should not be planted until all danger of a freeze has passed in the spring. Cold weather could damage them. Planting beans every two to four weeks until early August will provide a continuous harvest. Small weeds and grasses around beans plants need to be controlled, but be careful not to harm the plants. The root systems are not very strong or deep. Seeds should be planted at a depth of two and one-half centimeters. Make sure the soil is not too wet or the seeds could develop poorly. Bush beans should be planted five to ten centimeters apart. And there should be at least forty-five to sixty centimeters between the rows. Pole beans should be planted ten to fifteen centimeters apart in rows that are about seventy-six to ninety centimeters apart. Or you could plant them in hills with four to six seeds per hill. The hills should be seventy-six centimeters apart and with seventy-six centimeters between rows. The University of Illinois specialists say to harvest beans when the pods are firm and have reached their full length. Do not wait until the seeds inside are fully developed. Bean plants produce more beans if pods are continually removed before the seeds are mature. But wait until the plants are completely dry before picking beans. Picking beans from wet plants can spread bean bacterial blight, a disease that damages the plants. The specialists at the University of Illinois Extension say beans should be moved to different areas of the garden each year. This is because diseases that affect beans can stay in the soil and infect the next bean crop. Not only are beans a healthy food, they are also good for the soil. Other plants take nitrogen out of the soil, but beans and other legumes replace it. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about agriculture, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Galapagos Islands Are Added to UNESCO's Endangered List
* Byline: The islands are threatened by too many visitors and invasive species. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in? VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the unusual creatures that live there. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The nineteen islands that make up the Galapagos lie along the equator one thousand kilometers west of Ecuador. The islands are named for the giant tortoises that live there. Galapagos has been called "a living museum and showcase of evolution."? The animals on the islands influenced British nature scientist Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution by natural selection. In nineteen seventy-eight, the islands were the first place named to the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Recently, however, UNESCO added the islands to its World Heritage in Danger list. The main reason is the increase in the number of visitors to the islands. The World Heritage Committee said increased tourism, immigration and invasive species threaten the animals of the Galapagos. Many of these animals are found nowhere else in the world. The committee noted that the number of days spent by passengers on ships in the area has increased by one hundred fifty percent in the last fifteen years. The number of visitors each year has doubled in five years and grows almost twelve percent every year. More than one hundred forty-five thousand people visited the islands last year. The islands' increased tourism has brought thousands of workers from Ecuador to seek jobs. Some workers have brought non-native animals like dogs, cats, pigs and goats. These animals compete for food with the islands' native animals. Some also attack the native animals. Ecuadorian President Rafael Corea declared the islands at risk in April. He has promised more restrictions on tourism and population. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mystery always has been part of the Galapagos. In fifteen thirty-five, a ship carrying the Roman Catholic Bishop of Panama came upon the Galapagos accidentally. Tomas de Berlanga named the Galapagos group the Enchanted Isles. He was surprised to see land turtles that weighed more than two hundred kilograms and were more than one meter long. He said they were so large each could carry a man on its back. Bishop Berlanga also noted the unusual soil of the islands. He suggested that one island was so rocky it seemed like stones had rained from the sky. VOICE ONE: Ecuador took official possession of the islands in eighteen thirty-two. The British nature scientist Charles Darwin is mainly responsible for the fame of the Galapagos Islands. He visited the islands in eighteen thirty-five. He collected plants and animals from several islands. After many years of research, he wrote the book “The Origin of Species” in eighteen fifty-nine. He developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through the process of natural selection. The book changed the way people think about how living things developed and became different over time. Darwin said the Galapagos brought people near “to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on earth”. One hundred years later, in nineteen fifty-nine, the Ecuadorian government declared almost all of the islands a national park. The Charles Darwin Foundation was formed the same year to study and protect the plants and animals on the islands. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than one hundred twenty-five landmasses make up the Galapagos. But only nineteen are large enough to be considered islands. Scientists have been wondering for years about the position of the Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used to think that the islands were connected to the South American mainland and floated out to sea slowly. Today, most scientists think the islands were always where they are now. But they think the islands once were a single landmass under water. Volcanic activity broke the large island into pieces that came to the surface of the sea over time. VOICE ONE: But scientists wonder how animals arrived on Galapagos if the islands were always so far from the mainland. Scientists think most Galapagos plants and animals floated to the islands. When rivers flood in South America, small pieces of land flow into the ocean. These rafts can hold trees and bushes. The rafts also can hold small mammals and reptiles. The adult Galapagos tortoise clearly is too big for a trip hundreds of kilometers across the ocean. But, turtle eggs or baby turtles would be small enough to float to the islands. VOICE TWO: The Galapagos Islands are home to many unusual birds, reptiles and small mammals. Some of the animals live nowhere else on Earth. The tortoise is the most famous Galapagos reptile. But the marine iguana is also unusual. It is the only iguana in the world that goes into the ocean. The marine iguana eats seaweed. It can dive at least fifteen meters below the ocean surface. And it can stay down there for more than thirty minutes. Several strange birds also live on the Galapagos. One of them is the only penguin that lives on the equator. Another is the frigate bird. It has loose skin on its throat that it can blow up into a huge red balloon-like structure. It does this to attract females that make observation flights over large groups of males. VOICE ONE: The Galapagos also are noted for a bird that likes water better than land or air. The cormorant is able to fly in all the other places it lives around the world. But the Galapagos cormorant has extremely short wings. They cannot support flight. But they work well for swimming. The islands also have a large collection of small birds called Darwin’s finches. Charles Darwin studied the finches carefully when he visited the Galapagos in eighteen thirty-five. He separated the birds by the shapes of their beaks. He discovered that finches that lived in different places and ate different foods had different shaped beaks. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: But the most famous animals on the Galapagos Islands are the thousands of giant tortoises. And the most famous of these is the one that scientists call Lonesome George because he is the last of his kind. He has been called the rarest creature on Earth. At one time, the islands were home to about fifteen different kinds of land turtles. The largest island, Isabela, has five different kinds of tortoises. But, Lonesome George is not one of them. He comes from a smaller island called Pinta. Scientists found George in nineteen seventy-one. Humans and non-native animals had caused much damage to the environment on his island. Some animals and plants had disappeared. Lonesome George was the only tortoise found on Pinta. VOICE ONE: Scientists took the tortoise to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. They wanted to help him find a female tortoise for mating to produce baby tortoises. The scientists had been successful in similar efforts for thousands of other tortoises. The researchers placed George in the same living area as females from the nearby island of Isabela. Scientists thought George would be more closely related to the females from Isabela than to other Galapagos tortoises. However, George has not been able to mate successfully with the female tortoises. No eggs have been produced. VOICE TWO: Scientists have been studying the genetic material of tortoises on the islands and around the world. They have not found one with DNA like George’s. However, earlier this year, scientists from Yale University in the United States made an important discovery. They identified a male tortoise on Isabela Island that is an offspring of a female from Isabela and a male from Pinta. That means this tortoise has half his genes in common with Lonesome George. Scientists believe there might be a female carrying Pinta genes that could be a mate for George. However, another scientist has noted that even if such a female is found, George has shown little interest in mating with female tortoises. George is between seventy and eighty years old. But some tortoises live longer than one hundred fifty years. If Lonesome George fails to become a father, the Pinta Island tortoises will disappear when he dies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Researchers Develop New Test to Predict Alzheimer's Disease
* Byline: Trouble with the sense of smell can be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people around the world. American researchers say the disease will affect more than one hundred million people worldwide by the year twenty fifty. That would be four times the current number. Researchers and doctors have been studying Alzheimer's patients for a century. Yet the cause and cure for the mental sickness are still unknown. However, some researchers have made important steps towards understanding it. Several early signs of the disease involve memory and thought processes. At first, patients have trouble remembering little things. Later, they have trouble remembering more important things, such as the names of their children. There are also some physical tests that might show who is at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The tests look for proteins in brain and spinal cord fluid. The proteins appear to be found only in people with the disease. The protein tests correctly identify the presence of the disease in about ninety percent of patients. Now, a much simpler physical test to predict Alzheimer’s risk has been developed. Researchers found that trouble with the sense of smell can be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s. Using this information, they developed a test in which people were asked to identify twelve familiar smells. These smells included cinnamon, black pepper, chocolate, paint thinner, and smoke. The study continued for five years. During this period, the same people were asked to take several tests measuring their memory and thought abilities. Fifty percent of those who could not identify at least four of the smells in the first test had trouble with their memory and thinking in the next five years. Another study has shown a possible way to reduce a person’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease in old age. Researchers in Chicago, Illinois found that people who use their brains more often are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Those who read a newspaper, or play chess or word games are about three times less likely to develop the condition. Researchers say they still do not know what causes Alzheimer’s disease. But they say these findings might help prevent the disease in the future. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Erin Braswell. You can download scripts and audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Few US Schools Now Named for People, Especially Presidents
* Byline: Study warns of loss for civic education in trend toward choosing names of things like animals or trees. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Public schools in New York, America's biggest city, commonly have numbers for names. But this is unusual. In the United States, the process of naming a school often involves parents and the community as well as elected school leaders. Researchers say school names can show civic values and also shape them. For example, naming a school after a historic person becomes a way to teach students about that person's importance in history. A new study examines the naming of American public schools. The study is from the Manhattan Institute, an organization that does public policy research. The study shows that fewer and fewer schools are being named after people. Instead, more schools are being named after the local area or natural features like hills, trees or animals. The researchers say these changes raise questions about the civic duty of public education. They looked at seven states with twenty percent of all public school students in the country. They found similar results in every state: new schools are less likely to be named after people. This is true especially with presidents. For example, in Arizona, public schools in the past twenty years were almost fifty times more likely to be named after such things as landforms or plants. In Florida, out of almost three thousand public schools, the report says five honor George Washington, the nation's first president. Eleven honor the manatee, an endangered sea animal found in that state. In fact, the study says that today, a majority of all public school districts nationwide do not have a single school named after a president. School officials say they try to choose names that will not offend anyone. For example, a few years ago, the city of New Orleans banned the naming of any school after a person who owned slaves. Other school systems have rules against naming new schools after any person, living or dead. The researchers say naming a school after a person can lead to important debates about democratic values. They call for more research to identify the causes and effects of the changes in school names. The causes may include changes in American culture as well as in the political control of school systems. One area worth exploring, they say, is the link between trends in school names and weak results for public schools on measures of civic education. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Joan Kornblith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Bill Clinton Wins Re-election in 1996
* Byline: Bill Clinton starts his second term as the first Democratic president to be re-elected since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the second administration of Bill Clinton, America's forty-second president. He was elected in nineteen ninety-two and re-elected four years later. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first term in office for President Bill Clinton was coming to an end in the summer of nineteen ninety-six. His record was like that of many other American presidents in the past. He had gained some successes with Congress and in foreign policy. He also had suffered some failures. This president, however, had a personal concern that other presidents had not had. Investigations were continuing into possible wrongdoing by Mister and Missus Clinton. The main accusations were connected to their financial activities in Arkansas during the nineteen eighties. VOICE TWO: Americans, however, seemed far more interested in the nation’s economy. It had improved during Mister Clinton’s first term in office. Americans were getting jobs. They were spending money. Investing in the stock market traditionally had been an activity mainly for rich people. Now many other people were buying stocks, too. Opinion studies showed that Bill Clinton was a popular president. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party met in Chicago, Illinois for its nominating convention in August of nineteen ninety-six. Mister Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated as the party’s candidates without opposition. The Republican Party held its nominating convention in San Diego, California that summer. It chose former Senator Robert Dole of Kansas to compete for president. Senator Dole had resigned from the Senate to compete for the nomination. Former Congressman and Cabinet official Jack Kemp of New York received the nomination for vice president. VOICE TWO: Senator Dole was a hero during World War Two. Later he served four terms in the House of Representatives from Kansas. He was elected to the Senate in nineteen sixty-eight and re-elected four more times. Businessman Ross Perot had competed in the presidential election four years earlier as an independent. He again declared himself a candidate of the Reform Party. During the campaign, President Clinton pointed to his successes during his first term. They included an improved economy, increased wages for low-paid workers and gun control measures. Mister Dole criticized President Clinton for spending too much federal money. President Clinton answered that he had stopped Congress from cutting too much money from programs like Medicare. That is the government program that helps pay the medical expenses of older people. VOICE ONE: President Clinton and Vice President Gore won the election. They received almost forty-seven-and-one-half-million votes. Senator Dole and Mister Kemp received about thirty-nine million votes. Ross Perot received about eight million votes. President Clinton was the first Democratic president to be re-elected to a second term since Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton began his second term as president of the United States on January twentieth, nineteen ninety-seven. On that day, President Clinton gave the last inaugural speech of an American president in the twentieth century. He said, “We must keep our old democracy forever young.” Mister Clinton also spoke of racial separation in the nation. He said it had been a continued terrible problem in American history. He urged that America become one unified nation. CLINTON: “The divide of race has been America’s constant curse. And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different.” VOICE ONE: Mister Clinton continued to appoint women and minority members to important jobs. In nineteen ninety-six he nominated the first woman ever to serve as secretary of state. Madeleine Albright had served as the United States permanent representative to the United Nations during Mister Clinton’s first administration. Later, Mister Clinton named Bill Richardson as the permanent representative to the United Nations. Mister Richardson is Hispanic. Norman Mineta became the first Asian-American appointed to the Cabinet. The president named Mister Mineta secretary of commerce. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party had kept control of both houses of Congress as a result of the ninety ninety-six elections. This Republican Congress and the Democratic president had different ideas about the budget. In nineteen ninety-seven they reached a compromise. They agreed to a plan to end the deficit by two thousand-two. But the nation did not have to wait until then. The economy in nineteen ninety-eight was so strong that the government had seventy thousand-million dollars more than its budget. This was the first federal budget surplus since nineteen sixty-nine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Foreign relations took much of President’s Clinton time during his second term. He visited China in nineteen ninety-eight. He urged Chinese leaders to permit more democracy in their country. In August of that year, bombs placed by terrorists destroyed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Hundreds of people were killed. American intelligence experts blamed the attacks on Osama bin Laden, a Saudi businessman and suspected terrorist. President Clinton ordered missile strikes against camps in Afghanistan suspected of being under Mister bin Laden’s command. American missiles also destroyed a factory in Sudan. The factory had been suspected of producing nerve gas for terrorists. However, the factory owner said his company produced medicines. The United States later freed property and money of the factory owner that it had seized. VOICE TWO: Later in nineteen ninety-eight, President Clinton ordered American forces to launch missile strikes against military and industrial centers in Iraq. United Nations officials feared the centers contained or could produce nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The U-N had ordered Iraq to cooperate with inspectors searching for weapons. But Iraq refused to cooperate. The next year, Mister Clinton deployed American aircraft and missiles as part of a NATO military campaign against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. NATO was trying to stop attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw their troops. NATO stopped the bombing and sent an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo. The United States sent seven thousand troops to the force. VOICE ONE: In October of nineteen ninety-eight, Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed a document of understanding at the White House. The Wye Memorandum developed from nine days of negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in eastern Maryland. It called for Israeli forces to withdraw from some West Bank areas. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and special diplomat Dennis Ross traveled often to the Middle East. They tried to help Israel and the Palestinians continue their peace efforts. In two thousand-one, Mister Clinton tried to get Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sign a peace agreement. Mister Clinton met with the two men for many hours in the Washington area. Reports said they came close to a settlement. But the negotiations ended without an agreement. Violence increased soon afterward. Palestinians declared a new uprising against Israel. VOICE TWO: One of President Clinton’s major actions during his second term was helping establish permanent normal trade relations with China. Congress passed a bill enacting this in two thousand. The president said the measure would help democracy grow in China. He also said it would help create jobs in the United States. Mister Clinton supported expansion of NATO as well as more free trade. He also worked for a worldwide campaign against the trade of illegal drugs. Historians say President Bill Clinton will be remembered for reaching out to the international community. But he will also be remembered for being charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. We will tell about that next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-14-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Program Moves Online to Train Teachers in Global English
* Byline: 

 Welcome to Wordmaster. I'm Adam Phillips sitting in this week for Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. Today, we look at an innovative master's degree program at the New School in New York. It was specifically designed to teach teachers how to teach English in a rapidly globalizing world. Linda Dunne, dean of the New School, helped to pioneer the program, which will be offered entirely online beginning this September. LINDA DUNNE: "It's unique because in addition to teaching the skills of teaching English, it engages in the political, economic and cultural theory of what it means to learn English. We also have courses that engage in how globalization relates to learning English and speaking it." Dunne says that, until recently, most people wanted to learn English in order to work in America or Great Britain or to talk with people from places where English is the main tongue. LINDA DUNNE: "In other words, they moved to the United States, and they wanted to be able to speak English here. Or they were working in the tourist industry, and they wanted to be able to speak to American or English tourists." At one time, most of the world's English speakers grew up speaking the language. But today, says Dunne, three out of four English speakers are native speakers of other languages. Dunn says that many of them now use English to communicate effectively with other non-native English speakers. They use it as a sort of linguistic common ground. LINDA DUNNE: "So that somebody who is speaking Swedish who does business with someone who speaks Japanese may use English as the common language between them. That changes very much the dynamics of what kind of English they are using, how they are learning it, the purpose for which they are learning it. They are learning it not in order to engage in an English-speaking world. They are using it in order to communicate in their worlds and do business and write papers and all the things people do now in the globalized world. So the balance has changed." And that has changed the way English is taught and the way teachers are taught to teach English. Lesley Painter-Farrell, the associate director of the New School's English Language Department, says that when she started teaching English to speakers of other languages nearly two decades ago, the emphasis was always on technical fluency and accuracy. LESLEY PAINTER-FARRELL: "Accuracy was the main thing. Grammar was very high on the agenda. In fact, we had grammar-based syllabi. That's all we really had. Now we are turning more to functional syllabi. Meaning we are focusing much more on the ability to communicate. We just focus on how students actually do something, how they introduce themselves, how they negotiate themselves with somebody, how they express themselves clearly -- let's say with regret -- not really the past simple of the present perfect. That's still important. But certainly there is a shift in our kind of methodology now." Linda Dunne points out that this new methodology has required English teachers to change their attitudes as well as their methods. LINDA DUNNE: "I think in part it means an English teacher isn't assuming they are teaching English to someone because English is somehow inherently the privileged or the best culture, the best language, [or] that people want to become American. The English teacher is respectful of the culture the person we are teaching is from." Lesley Painter-Farrell agrees. LESLEY PAINTER-FARRELL: "Ultimately, what we have to have are flexible English language teachers. That is the key to successful networking within this informational society." Traditionalists in many nations are wary that their native cultures will be eclipsed by the prevalence of English in international media such as film. But Ms. Painter-Farrell points out that native cultures often recast Western offerings in their own image. She says that's what happened in India, where she once lived. LESLEY PAINTER-FARRELL: "And people would go to see these English- speaking movies even if they couldn't understand English and couldn't read the subtitles quickly enough. And then Bollywood became huge. You've got people seeing something, and they like it. But then they interpret it to how they think it can work in their context." The Internet, e-mail and the popularity of hip-hop music have also contributed to the worldwide spread of English. The New School's online master's degree program will also include concentrations in curriculum development, writing and publishing in the English language teaching field and instruction in how to set up English language education centers around the world. For Wordmaster, I'm Adam Phillips reporting from New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Barry Bonds Breaks Home Run Record Under a Cloud of Suspicion
* Byline: Also: Music by Andrew Bird and a Day To Celebrate Left Handed People!Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to music from singer Andrew Bird… Answer a question about International Left-Handers' Day… And in sports, a home run record for Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds Home Run Record HOST: Major League Baseball has a new king of home runs. This week Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke the record set by Hank Aaron. Faith Lapidus has our story. FAITH LAPIDUS: First of all, here is a simple description, for anyone not sure how the game of baseball is played. A pitcher throws a ball toward a catcher. In front of the catcher is a batter. The batter tries to hit the small, speeding ball with a narrow bat and then run to first base. If the batter hits the ball, and a player from the opposing team catches it or throws it to first base before the batter gets there, the batter is out. Sometimes the ball flies high over the walls of the field then no one can catch it…except maybe a lucky fan in the crowd. Now the batter can safely get to first base, and second, and third and back to home plate. The batter has scored a run, but not just a run, a home run -- one of the most thrilling plays in the game. This helps explain all the attention over Barry Bonds breaking the career record set by Hank Aaron. In nineteen seventy-four, Hank Aaron hit his seven hundred fifteenth home run to break the record held for many years by Babe Ruth. Hank Aaron went on to hit seven hundred fifty-five home runs before he retired in nineteen seventy-six. Now Barry Bonds has done better than that. Some baseball fans are excited for him. But others have been yelling "cheater" or "steroids" when he goes to bat. Many people suspect him of taking drugs to improve his performance. They think he lied four years ago during a federal investigation into illegal steroid sales by a San Francisco laboratory. News reports said he told a grand jury that he did take a substance to improve his health but thought it was flaxseed oil. Barry Bonds denies ever having knowingly used steroids. His former personal trainer is in prison for refusing to answer questions about the case. The investigation continues. And, so does the suspicion. Major League Baseball banned steroids in two thousand two. The question now is what would happen to Barry Bonds' record if he is ever proven to have taken steroids? Pete Rose was banned from baseball in nineteen eighty-nine for gambling on games. But his record as all-time hits leader still stands Left-Handers' Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Iran. Mohammed Sadegh Poladtan asks about an international holiday called Left-Handers Day. International Left-Handers Day is Monday, August thirteenth. The International Left-Handers Day Web site says the Left-Handers Club started the holiday in nineteen ninety-two. It wanted left-handers around the world to celebrate. And it wanted to bring attention to the everyday problems of people who use their left hands. One of these problems is difficulty using equipment and tools, like scissors. In general, most tools and equipment are made for people who are right-handed. The Left-Handers Club tries to educate designers and manufacturers to consider the safety of left-handed people when producing their products. Another problem is that many societies have considered it bad to be left-handed. Some teachers and parents have tried to force children who used their left hand to use their right one instead. Scientists do not really know why some people are left-handed. They have believed the reason is genetic. Researchers in Britain recently identified a gene that helps confirm this. Scientists at the University of Oxford reported their discovery in the publication Molecular Psychiatry. They say the gene increases the chance of being left- handed. It appears to play an important part in deciding which part of the brain controls different activities. In right-handed people, the left side of the brain usually controls speech and language. The right side controls feelings. However, the opposite is often true in left-handed people. Scientists believe the gene is responsible for this. The gene showed a link with left-handedness in nine to twelve percent of the population. About ten percent of people around the world are left-handed. Here is an interesting fact from the Left-Handers Club Web site: five out of the last six American presidents have been left-handed. They are Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The Left-Handers Club wants everyone to know that left-handed people may be a little different from those who use their right hand. But they want left-handers to celebrate these differences on International Left-Handers Day August thirteenth. Andrew Bird HOST:? Andrew Bird is a skillful singer and songwriter who also plays the guitar, violin and glockenspiel instruments. This singer from the state of Illinois is even known for his extraordinary whistling abilities. He has explored just about every kind of musical tradition with his nine albums. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: The music of Andrew Bird is hard to define. He combines many kinds of musical styles into richly poetic songs. Bird started studying classical music as a small child. He also studied violin performance in college. His first records were heavily influenced by early jazz and swing music. Here is the song “Simple X” from his latest album “Armchair Apocrypha.” (MUSIC) Andrew Bird gives an excellent live performance. The sounds are so rich, it is hard to believe there are not several musicians on stage. To do this, Bird records himself playing musical instruments one at a time. He plays these recordings over and over and layers them together to make a complex arrangement. Every performance is a little bit different with this method. Here is the energetic song “Darkmatter.”? Listen for Andrew Bird’s expert whistling noises. (MUSIC) We leave you with the song “Scythian Empires.” Andrew Bird says he was influenced by maps of the ancient world showing how people and civilizations change and move. The song tells about the beginnings and endings of ruling groups throughout history. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Will Credit Risk Weigh Down Debt Markets?
* Byline: Concern over the quality of debt investments worries investors.? Could liquidity in debt markets be drying up? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Liquidity is the ease with which an investment can be sold and turned into money. For example, when a stock is traded easily, the market for it is said to be liquid. Liquidity can also suggest the ease with which money can be raised in debt markets. ? And this is where concerns are being raised. Offering credit always carries some risk that the loan will not be repaid. Now experts are saying that investors are as concerned about debt risk as they have been since two thousand one. One way to measure investors' concern is by their willingness to buy new debt investments. Recently, banks, led by J. P. Morgan, postponed the sale of twelve billion dollars in bonds for the carmaker Chrysler. The bond offering was part of a deal by private equity company Cerburus Capital Management to buy Chrysler from German carmaker Daimler. Reports say the deal is not in danger. But it could mean an increase in borrowing costs. American markets are not the only ones in which banks are having trouble selling bonds. American private equity company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts hoped to raise over ten billion dollars in bonds. This was part of a deal to buy Alliance Boots, a European company that sells medicines. But a group of banks had to postpone the sale because of a lack of buyers. Conditions for big deals by private equity companies appear to be cooling. Private equity companies depend on liquid debt markets to lend them money. And investors are less willing to put money into debt securities. Part of this is the flight from risk involving investments based on subprime home loans. These loans carry lower than average credit quality but also pay higher interest rates. Credit rating agencies are now recognizing that investments based on subprime home loans are riskier than investors have thought. Too many high-risk loans were blamed for the failure of the nation's second largest subprime lender. New Century sought bankruptcy protection from its creditors in April. Investor flight from risk means that debt market liquidity could dry up as interest rates rise. But it is too early to tell. The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve did not change the federal funds rate when it met on Tuesday. The important interest rate remains at five and one fourth percent. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Countdown to 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
* Byline: China Faces Criticism Over Human Rights, Press Freedom and Pollution. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On Wednesday, China celebrated the one-year mark until the start of the two thousand eight Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. The celebration included sporting events and ceremonies across China. The Chinese government has spent tens of billions of dollars on transportation and buildings to prepare for the Olympic Games. But not everyone is celebrating. China is being criticized for failing to honor promises to improve human rights and press freedom before the games. The international media rights group Reporters Without Borders is among those criticizing China. The group says China told Olympic officials six years ago that it would improve its human rights record. But the group says about one hundred reporters and dissidents who use the Internet remain in prison. The group says thousands of other dissidents are jailed and executed in public every year. Reporters Without Borders held a protest Monday near the Olympic headquarters in Beijing. Chinese police detained about twelve foreign reporters covering the event. They were later released. Chinese Olympic officials have answered the criticism saying the games should not be politicized. This year a new media law went into effect in China. The law gives foreign media freedom to report throughout China until the end of the Olympics, without government interference. Officials with the Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympics say China welcomes critical voices in the media. But China’s actions do not support that claim. Officials keep tight control on the national media. They block foreign Web sites and broadcasts critical of the government. VOA’s Web sites and broadcasts are often blocked in China. Some American lawmakers and activist groups have proposed legislation calling for a boycott of the Olympics unless China improves its human rights situation. China is facing criticism in other areas as well. Some Olympic sports teams have expressed concern about the effect China’s air pollution will have on their athletes’ health. The president of the International Olympic Committee admitted that air pollution in Beijing could force delays of some outdoor events. Jacques Rogge said Wednesday that postponements were a possibility for some sports that continue for several hours, such as cycling. Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world. But Chinese officials have said the country is doing everything it can to make sure the ten thousand athletes will be able to compete in clean air. And there is still another issue. An activist group called Olympic Dream for Darfur is urging China to use its economic and political ties with Sudan to do more to end the violence in Darfur. China is Sudan’s largest foreign investor. It has blocked strong United Nations action against the government of Sudan. And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Elvis Presley, 1935-1977: He Was the King of Rock and Roll
* Byline: 30 years after his death, his records and films are still enjoyed by people around the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in VOA Special English. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember tell about one of America’s most popular singers, Elvis Presley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song, “Hound Dog,” was one of Elvis Presley’s most popular records. It sold five million copies in nineteen fifty-six. Music industry experts say more than one thousand million of Elvis’s recordings have sold throughout the world. He was a success in many different kinds of music -- popular, country, religious, and rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley won many awards from nations all over the world, yet he did not record in any language other than English. He never performed outside the United States, except for three shows in Canada. Yet, his recordings and films have been, and are still, enjoyed by people all over the world. VOICE TWO: Elvis Aaron Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi on January eighth, nineteen thirty-five. His family was extremely poor. During his childhood, he sang in church with his parents. He also listened to music that influenced his later singing, including country, rhythm and blues, and religious music. Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was thirteen. After high school, he had several jobs, including driving a truck. In nineteen fifty-three, he made his first recording of this song, “My Happiness”: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley recorded the song at the Memphis Recording Service. The story is that he paid four dollars to make a recording for his mother. A woman who worked at the public recording studio had another job with a local independent record company called Sun Records. She made a second recording of Elvis’s songs because she thought the owner of Sun Records should hear him sing. VOICE TWO: The owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, had been looking for a white performer who could sing black rhythm and blues. He suggested Elvis work with a guitar player and a bass player. Several months later Mister Phillips agreed to have the group make a record. It was released on July nineteenth, nineteen fifty-four. One of the songs was “That’s All Right”: (MUSIC) The record sold well in Memphis, and was played a lot on local radio stations. To let others hear Elvis, Sam Phillips organized a series of performances at country fairs in the area. One of the people who heard Elvis perform at these shows was Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis signed an agreement that Colonel Parker would organize his appearances. One of Elvis’ first new recordings became a huge hit, and led to his many appearances on television. It was “Heartbreak Hotel”: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the middle of the nineteen fifties, Elvis Presley was known around the world as the young man who moved his hips in a sexual way as he sang rock and roll music. Many adults said he and his music were bad influences on young people. Young women loved him. Huge crowds attended his performances. He made his first movie in nineteen fifty-six. It was? “Love Me Tender.” The title song was a big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood for a number of years in the nineteen fifties. He acted in thirty-one movies. In nineteen fifty-eight, just as he finished making the movie “King Creole,” Elvis received notice that he had to serve in the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany where he lived in a large house and dated a lot of beautiful women. One young girl he met in Germany was Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Army officer. She was fourteen years old. Later, after Elvis had finished his army service, she came to live with him in Memphis. They married in nineteen sixty-seven, when she was twenty-one years old. He was thirty-two. They became parents nine months later of a baby girl, Lisa Marie. VOICE ONE: Colonel Parker made sure that songs Elvis had recorded earlier were released during the years he was in the army. So Elvis was just as popular after his military service as he was before it. Elvis Presley won three of the music industry’s highest award, the Grammy. He received the first one in nineteen sixty-seven. It was for “How Great Thou Art,” an album of religious music. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis returned to performing live shows in nineteen sixty-nine, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He then traveled around the country performing before huge crowds. He began to take drugs to help him sleep. He gained a lot of weight so he took drugs to help control his weight. And he took extremely strong drugs to reduce pain. Elvis also suffered from the emotional sickness, depression. It became worse after his marriage ended. Elvis never permitted Priscilla to stay with him in Las Vegas or travel with him around the country. He also did not want Priscilla to see other people when he was away from home. And he spent time with other women. Priscilla finally left him in nineteen seventy-two for another man. VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley released many recordings of his performances during the nineteen seventies. He also enjoyed great success on television. His nineteen seventy-three television show from Hawaii was seen in forty countries by more than one thousand million people. His last record album was called “Moody Blue.”? He recorded it in nineteen seventy-six. One of its hit songs was called “Way Down”: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley died on August sixteenth, nineteen seventy-seven. First reports said he had a heart attack, but later tests showed many drugs in his body. Experts agree that these drugs probably caused his death. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis every year. Fans continue to buy his music, making him the most popular recording artist ever. Elvis Presley remains the undisputed King of Rock and Roll. (MUSIC: "Good Rockin' Tonight") ANNOUNCER: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember were the narrators. The producer was Paul Thompson. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: UN Reports on Extreme Weather and Climate Events
* Byline: The World Meteorological Organization says January and April were the warmest months on record worldwide.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. This summer, heavy rains and flooding have caused more than five hundred deaths in South Asia. More than ten million people have been forced from their homes. Huge amounts of cropland, animals and property have been destroyed. Officials and aid groups say a public health crisis threatens about thirty million people throughout India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The World Meteorological Organization says the rain in South Asia is just one of many extreme weather events this year. The United Nations agency announced last week that January and April were the warmest months on record worldwide. The discovery appears to support environmental changes confirmed by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February. The group said that it was more than ninety percent sure that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from human activities have been the main cause of global warming. The World Meteorological Organization also noted extreme weather in other areas. It said heavy rains in China in June affected more than thirteen million people. In February, Mozambique had the worst flooding in six years. It said record-breaking heat was reported in southeastern Europe and central Russia earlier this year. A full report on weather in two thousand seven will be released at the end of the year. ????? ?????????????? The UN weather agency says it is working with its partners to establish an early warning system for climate extremes. It is also creating a long-term observation system to study the effects of climate change. One such effect could be a lack of food and the risk of hunger in developing countries. The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week that climate change might hurt food production in warm southern areas of the world. Jacques Diouf spoke in India. He said that crops will likely decrease in seasonally dry countries as average world temperatures rise. However, he said small temperature increases could increase crops in most industrialized nations. Mister Diouf called for an intense scientific effort to develop crops that will grow in future weather conditions. He said one example is genetically changed crops that will grow in extreme temperatures, dry conditions or poor soil. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m?Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Hot Dogs and Apple Pie: Just Some of America's Favorite Foods
* Byline: From sweets to meats, Americans love their favorite foods. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about some of the foods that Americans like best – America’s favorites. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may have heard that Americans like hot dogs and hamburgers best of all foods. Well, farmers and owners of public eating places might happily agree. So might the nation’s Meat Institute and the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council. But people whose favorites are pizza and apple pie would give the meat-lovers a spirited argument! Naming the favorite foods of Americans depends a lot on whom you ask. But one thing is sure. The ancestors of most Americans came from other countries. The United States owes many favorite dishes, or the ideas for these foods, to the rest of the world. For example, that traditional American favorite, the hot dog or wiener, had its modern beginning in Germany. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates that Americans eat about seven thousand million of these sausages during a summer. VOICE TWO: A hot dog is usually made from pork, the meat of a pig. Or it is made from beef, the meat of a cow. Another version is made from turkey. A vegetarian version of a hot dog has no meat at all. It often contains tofu, made from soy plants. The hot dog is shaped like a tube. Many people say it looks like a Dachshund dog. It is served between two shaped pieces of bread called a bun. Americans often say they especially like hot dogs cooked over a hot fire in the open air. People at sports events buy plenty of hot dogs. VOICE ONE: For many people, it is not just the meat that tastes so good. These people enjoy colorful and tasty additions. For example, they include a yellow or yellow-brown thickened liquid called mustard. They may also put red catsup and pieces of a white or red, strong-smelling vegetable called onion on their hot dogs. Hot dog eaters often add pickle, a salty green vegetable. Some people place barbecue sauce on top of all this. Or they use a spice called horseradish. It gives the hot dog a pleasant bite. A hot dog is also known as a frankfurter or frank. That is because the city of Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany is often said to be the birthplace of this sausage. But the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says there are other ideas about where the hot dog began. VOICE TWO: One version of hot dog history says a butcher, or meat cutter, from the German city of Coburg was responsible. It says he invented the hot dog in the late sixteen hundreds. Vienna, Austria, also claims that it created the food. The council says butchers from several countries probably brought common European sausages to America. A street salesman sold hot dogs to people in New York City in the eighteen sixties. And, in eighteen seventy one, a hot dog stand opened at the Coney Island amusement park in New York City. VOICE ONE: Americans also eat lots of hamburgers. This ground meat comes from beef. It can be cooked in many ways. Like hot dogs, hamburgers are a favorite picnic food. Many public eating places in the United States say hamburgers are their most popular foods. People often eat them in places that serve quickly prepared, moderately priced food. ????? Like hot dog experts, hamburger historians disagree about how their subject got started. The Egyptians and Romans apparently ate ancient versions of hamburgers. In more modern days, people in Hamburg, Germany, made something like a hamburger from pork and beef. VOICE TWO: The small town of Seymour, Wisconsin, is among several American towns that claim to have created the first modern hamburger in the United States. In Seymour, a man named Charlie Nagreen tried to sell meatballs at a local fair in eighteen eighty-five. But as people walked around, it was hard for them to handle the round pieces of meat. So Nagreen flattened the ball of meat. Then he placed this meat patty between two pieces of bread. In two thousand one, people in Seymour cooked a hamburger that weighed more than three thousand kilograms. This creation reportedly fed thirteen thousand people. ?VOICE ONE: ????? ?????????????? Like hot dogs, Americans like their hamburgers with additions. Things like mustard, catsup, horseradish, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and perhaps a pickle. A hamburger with cheese melted on it is called a cheeseburger. Cooks make a “Sloppy Joe” by combining hamburger meat with tomato sauce. Many people eat the Sloppy Joe mixture on a bun. Without a bun, they may get more of the loose meat on them than inside them. For many people, eating both hot dogs and hamburgers does not seem right without potatoes. They eat French fries and potato chips with these meats. French fries are strips, or pieces, of potato cooked in oil. Potato chips are extremely thin, cooled pieces of potato. They usually are also cooked in oil. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans also buy or make large amounts of pizza. A basic pizza contains tomato sauce or cheese, or both, on a bread-like material. Food writer Linda Stradley tells about the history of pizza on her computer Web site, “What’s Cooking America.”? Miz Stradley says it could have been the Phoenicians, Greeks or Romans who invented pizza. Or, it could have been anyone who mixed flour with water and cooked it on a hot stone. ? VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Italians probably brought pizza to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. In nineteen-oh-five, Gennaro Lombardi reportedly opened the first pizza store in New York City. In the nineteen thirties, he added tables to his pizza place. Lombardi also began serving spaghetti. Spaghetti is a traditional Italian favorite that also has become an American favorite. It is made from flour and water and sometimes eggs. This dough is pulled into lengths and boiled. VOICE TWO:All kinds of foods can be added to both pizza and spaghetti to add to their taste. For example, people like these foods with different meats on top. Or they like toppings of small fish called anchovies, or vegetables called mushrooms. Some people like all the additions at once. Another favorite food, macaroni, is similar to spaghetti. Many Americans remember that their mothers made macaroni cooked with cheese on cold winter days. People sometimes call this dish “comfort food,” because it makes them feel better. VOICE ONE: Others praise hot soups prepared in their childhood homes. Some people say chicken soup -- chicken pieces in liquid -- can cure anything. Still others say New England clam chowder helps them think. This soup contains the shellfish clams floating in a milky liquid. Another version of clam chowder has tomato sauce. It looks red. To end a meal, or between meals, Americans often eat chocolate in some form. They eat millions and millions of kilograms of chocolate a year. Chocolate is produced from cocoa beans. It is used in sweet foods like candy, pies, puddings and cakes. Many people say chocolate makes them feel happier. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ?????? ?????????????? ??????? People have praised chocolate for its taste for many years. Some studies have shown that it can help chase away mild feelings of sadness. But chocolate often has a large amount of fat. However, some experts now say a moderate amount of chocolate can be healthful. For example, the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center in Ohio notes that chocolate contains substances called antioxidants. Antioxidants are thought to help the body fight damage caused by natural processes and harmful substances in the environment. The Heart Center suggests choosing dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. And it warns that people should restrict themselves to a moderate amount. VOICE ONE: Like people in many parts of the world, Americans love pie. These sweet dishes have fruit, nuts or some other filling in a crust. Some people say pies are the best comfort food ever. That can be debated. Pie can be the most inviting food ever. A red strawberry pie or a green or yellow Key lime pie can defeat the strongest resolution of people trying to lose weight. But apple pie may be a top American favorite. Over time, this dish has come to be strongly linked to the United States. When someone or something seems especially American, people say it is “as American as apple pie.”?? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Heart to Heart: Let's Get to the Heart of the Matter
* Byline: Take heart, the English language has many heartfelt expressions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Each week, this program explains the many meanings of English expressions. Today’s expressions include a very important word – “heart.”? We will try to get to the heart of the matter to better understand the most important thing about words and their stories. So take heart. Have no fear about learning new expressions. Besides, popular English words can be fun. There is no need for a heavy heart. Such feelings of sadness would only break my heart, or make me feel unhappy and hopeless. Now, let us suppose you and I were speaking freely about something private. We would be having a heart to heart discussion. I might speak from the bottom of my heart, or say things honestly and truthfully. I might even open up my heart to you and tell a secret. I would speak with all my heart, or with great feeling. When a person shares her feelings freely and openly like this, you might say she wears her heart on her sleeve, or on her clothing. Her emotions are not protected. If we had an honest discussion, both of us would know that the other person’s heart is in the right place. For example, I would know that you are a kind-hearted and well-meaning person. And, if you are a very good person, I would even say that you have a heart of gold. However, you might have a change of heart based on what I tell you. Our discussion might cause you to change the way you feel about something. But, let us suppose you get angry over what I tell you. Or worse, you feel no sympathy or understanding for me or my situation. If this happens, I might think that you have a heart of stone. And, if you say something to make me frightened or worried, my heart might stand still or skip a beat. Yet, even though you may be angry, I would know that at heart, you are a kind person. In reality, you do care. And any argument between us would not cause me to lose heart or feel a sense of loss. My heart goes out to anyone who loses a friend over an argument. It really is a sad situation, and I feel sympathy for the people involved. I promise that what I have told you today is true – cross my heart. I really wanted to play some music at the end of this feature. In fact, I had my heart set on it. So here it is, a song called “Don’t Go Breaking my Heart” by Elton John. (MUSIC)??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Receive National Medals of Science and Technology
* Byline: Winners were recognized last month at ceremonies at the White House. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, we tell about the highest honors for science and technology in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On July twenty-seventh, President Bush honored recent winners of the National Medals of Science and Technology at special ceremonies at the White House. The National Science Foundation administers the science awards. It accepts nominations for the award each year from universities and other organizations. Each nominee must be a United States citizen or a permanent resident seeking citizenship. A committee of twelve scientists and engineers is named by the president to examine the nominees’ work. They study how each one has affected scientific knowledge. They also look at how other scientists have honored each nominee in the past, and how the work of each has influenced the education of future scientists through publications and teaching. Two groups of winners were announced this year. Scientists in the first group were named in May and received the two thousand five National Medal of Science. Those in the second group were named in July and received the National Medal of Science for two thousand six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Bush with Jan AchenbachJan Achenbach of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois was honored for his engineering research in the area of solid mechanics. He developed ways to find weak areas in structures, which has greatly affected the airplane industry. Another Northwestern professor also received the National Medal of Science. Tobin Marks' research involves the study and design of new substances. He designed a material that made possible an improved way to produce a plastic substance. Two professors at Stanford University in Stanford, California were also among the winners. Gordon Bower was a professor of psychology who retired in two thousand five. He worked in experimental studies of human memory, language, feelings and actions. Bradley Efron invented a statistical tool known as the bootstrap method for estimating. VOICE ONE: Torsten Wiesel shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in MedicineAnother honoree was the former president of Rockefeller University in New York City. Torsten Wiesel shared the nineteen eighty-one Nobel Prize in Medicine for studies on how visual information moves from the retina of the eye to the brain. Also honored with the National Medal of Science was Lonnie Thompson, a professor of earth science at the Ohio State University in Columbus. His studies of climate conditions have provided evidence that the last one hundred years was the warmest period of time in recorded history. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C., also received a National Medal of Science. He is the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. He studies ways to prevent and treat diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis, influenza and malaria. The final National Medal Of Science winner for two thousand five was Ralph Alpher of the Dudley Observatory in Schenectady, New York. His work in the nineteen forties led to the development of the Big Bang Theory, now accepted as explaining the beginnings of the universe. Until two thousand four, he was professor of physics at Union College, in Utica, New York. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rita Colwell improved understanding of cholera microbesThe winners of the two thousand six National Medal of Science include two women. Rita Colwell is a professor at the University of Maryland in College Park. She received the award for creating a better understanding of microbes that cause the disease cholera. Nina Federoff works at the Pennsylvania State University in State College. Her work with plants includes efforts to copy several kinds of plant genes. Another Medal of Science winner is Marvin Caruthers, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was honored for his work with the genetic material DNA and the human genome project. Peter Dervan of the California Institute of Technology in San Marino was honored for research in organic chemistry and biology, and for influencing education and industry. Lubert Stryer is a former professor at Stanford University in California. He was honored for work with biological molecules. Hyman Bass of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor was recognized for establishing a new kind of mathematics. Two professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge also received the National Medal of Science. Robert Langer was honored for helping develop new medical technologies. Daniel Kleppner is a former professor at MIT. He was honored for his research into the links between atoms and light. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Medal of Technology is awarded to Americans considered to be the leading developers of new technology ideas and products. It was established by Congress in nineteen eighty. The medal is given every year to researchers, teams of researchers and or companies for excellent technology work. The National Medal of Technology is administered by the United States Department of Commerce. A special committee studies all nominations for the award. The secretary of commerce appoints the committee members for three-year terms. Members of the committee are generally experts in the areas of science, technology, business and law. Again, this year two groups of winners were honored at the same ceremony in Washington on July twenty-seventh. The first group of winners was announced in June. They received the medal for two thousand five. The second group was named in July and received the two thousand six awards. VOICE TWO: The two thousand five technology winners included two individuals, one team and three companies. The first went to Alfred Cho of Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He was honored for helping invent a technology that is used to produce cellular telephones, compact disc players and high-speed communication devices. Dean Sicking is a professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He was recognized for his design and development of safety technologies that stop the energy involved in high-speed vehicle crashes. The committee said his work has prevented many deaths and injuries on roads every year. A scientific team at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Madison, New Jersey received a technology award for developing the first vaccine to prevent deadly streptococcus pneumonia in children. The committee said the work has been described as the most important advance in medicine for children in the past ten years. The first company award went to the Genzyme Corporation in Cambridge, Massachusetts for improving the health of people with rare diseases. The Semiconductor Research Corporation in Durham, North Carolina was honored for building a research force to support the growth of the semiconductor industry. And the Xerox Corporation in Stamford, Connecticut was recognized for fifty years of work that has created the modern printing industry. VOICE ONE: The Technology Medals for two thousand six went to five individuals. Leslie Geddes is a former professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He was honored for his research into the electricity involved in medical devices. Charles Vest is a former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was recognized for working toward joint scientific efforts among universities, the government and industry. James West is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He received the technology award for helping invent the electret microphone in nineteen sixty-two. That technology is now used in several kinds of communication devices. Paul Kaminski is the chairman of the Technovation Company in Fairfax Station, Virginia. He was honored for developing new kinds of pictures from space and his work in national security. And Herwig Kogelnik works at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He received a technology medal for his leadership in the development of lasers and lightwave communications systems. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Foot-and-Mouth Disease in England May Be Under Control
* Byline: The disease cost British farmers and the tourism industry billions of dollars in 2001. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A warning sign on a path in England near a farm where foot-and-mouth disease was foundFarmers in England have been worried about foot-and-mouth disease among their cows. The viral sickness is one of the world’s most destructive diseases of livestock. Foot-and-mouth disease does not usually kill animals. But it sickens them and severely reduces production of meat and milk, resulting in economic disaster. The current cases of the disease first struck cattle in southern England. At the end of July, a farmer in Surrey noted that two of his cows were sick. He reported the news to government health officials. They passed it on to the World Organization for Animal Health. Agricultural scientists confirmed the first cases of the disease in two animals. The first group of one hundred twenty cows was killed August third. At that time, the government banned export of all livestock, fresh meat and milk products. The ban is expected to remain in place until August twenty-fifth. About one hundred cattle were killed from a second infected herd on a farm about three kilometers from the first. A third group of cows was killed last week. Almost six hundred cows have been destroyed so far to prevent the spread of the disease. Tests of cows on two other farms in Surrey showed no presence of the highly infectious virus. So experts say the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could be over by the end of the week if no new cases are found. However, they urged farmers to continue to check their cattle for signs of the disease. British health investigators believe there is a strong possibility the outbreak started in a research center close to the farms. The center has two laboratories that use the virus for research and to make vaccines. One of the laboratories rejected the claim. It said there is no evidence the virus was transported out of the laboratory by people. In two thousand one, foot-and-mouth disease cost the British agricultural and tourism industries billions of dollars. More than six million animals were killed. The crisis delayed a general election for a month, canceled many sports events and closed the countryside to visitors. The disease affects animals such as cows, pigs, goats and sheep. It spreads easily through direct contact among animals. It is also spread by people on clothing and shoes. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm ????Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New Books Cast Cinderella, Other Fairy Tale Stars as Language Teachers
* Byline: 

 Guest host?Mike O'Sullivan?talks with an author (familiar to our?longtime listeners) whose newest books use?fairy tales to teach foreign languages to American children. David Burke is known as Slangman, and in his earlier books, he translated the language of American teenagers for an older generation, and deciphered American idioms for English language learners overseas. His latest effort targets American children who know little of foreign languages. He has written a series of books based on the observation that fairy tales are widely known across cultures. DAVID BURKE: "So I got this idea: What if I took a fairy tale, 'Cinderella'? We start it in the native language of the reader, so let's say in English for the American market. So we start in English, and as the reader moves forward, the story starts to morph into another language." ENGLISH-MANDARIN INSTRUCTION: "Once upon a time, there lived a poor girl - nuhaizi - named Cinderella who was very pretty - pioaliang. The nuhaizi, who was very piaoliang, lived in a small house - fangzi." Burke has compiled books of fairy tales with accompanying CDs in Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, German, Hebrew, Japanese and Spanish. ENGLISH-SPANISH INSTRUCTION: "Once upon a time, there lived a poor girl - muchacha - named Cinderella who was very pretty - bonita." A separate Spanish-language version helps teach English to Latin American youngsters. Young readers learn about 20 words at each level, then move to the next level as they read a different fairy tale. DAVID BURKE: "For example, I've taken the story of 'Goldilocks,' and I bring back all the words the kids have learned in 'Cinderella,' and I add 20 more. And level three is 'Beauty and the Beast.' I bring back all the words from level one, level two, and add 20 more words. So by the end of the entire series, which will be level nine, that will be 100 percent in the target language." Burke says he has a series of comic books planned for teenagers. DAVID BURKE: "That will have all the words they've learned in the series, plus more words we'll keep introducing. We'll also talk about events that pertain to teenagers. So it will be in their context, but in the language that they've been learning." He says as parents and children read the books, both will benefit. DAVID BURKE: "Under their radar, the kids are going to be learning foreign languages, and their parents too." Burke says students often think of language learning as dull, but it doesn't have to be. DAVID BURKE: "What I always hear from students is, ugh, I've got to go take French class, I've got to take Spanish class. And that really is painful." Working with an illustrator, he designed his books with colorful cartoon-like illustrations that capture the young reader's imagination. DAVID BURKE: "In 'Goldilocks,' of course, Goldilocks gets tired and she yawns. And in the book when she yawns, her mouth is as big as big can possibly be. So what we see, she's tired. She's cansada (in Spanish), fatiguee (in French), she's stanca, Italian." He says foreign language learning can become a daily habit. DAVID BURKE: "When it's bedtime, time for storytelling, the parents can pop on the CD, open the book, and actually learn the foreign language with the child." He says many Europeans are known for their facility with languages, and people in other parts of the world often speak at least two. Americans have a different reputation. DAVID BURKE: "There's a joke in the linguistic world that's painful, and funny. It's, 'What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. And what do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. And what do you call a person who speaks one language? American." Not all Americans are monolingual, of course. The country's many immigrants bring languages and cultures from all parts of the world. But Burke says too many Americans are fluent only in English, and he is working to change that. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Archives are online at www.voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Mike O'Sullivan in Los Angeles. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-14-voa5.cfm
* Headline: It's a Zoo Up There in Space. Make That a Galaxy Zoo
* Byline: Also: NASA's Dawn spacecraft will visit the asteroids Ceres and Vesta. And watch for the Perseid meteor shower. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we tell about a project to identify images of one million galaxies that have been captured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We also tell about the Perseid Meteor Shower. We begin with NASA's new spacecraft that will visit two of the biggest asteroids. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For many years, the United States space agency has studied the major planets in detail. For example, NASA is observing Mars from orbit and also on its surface with the Mars Rovers. Jupiter has also been visited several times by Pioneer, Voyager and Galileo spacecraft. The Deep Impact mission even visited a comet. But there are objects in our solar system that remain mysterious. These are the asteroids and dwarf planets. Now NASA has designed a mission that will visit two of the important members of this group of objects. A new spacecraft called Dawn will visit Ceres and Vesta, two large bodies in what is known as the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt took shape early in the formation of the solar system, about four and one-half billion years ago. Astronomers believe that the force of gravity from Jupiter prevented the rocky material between it and Mars from forming a planet. The result is that there are thousands of rocky bodies circling the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. VOICE TWO: Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt. It is over nine hundred kilometers across. It was the first object of its kind ever discovered. In August of last year, however, astronomers changed the way they define Ceres. It is now a dwarf planet. Ceres shares this classification with two other objects: Pluto and Eris. But Ceres is a rocky world much closer to the sun. Astronomers are interested in Ceres because it may hold water. Measurements of light reflected from the dwarf planet suggest this. Astronomers believe that the outer covering of Ceres may contain up to twenty-five percent water ice. This could mean that there is more water on Ceres than there is fresh water on Earth. VOICE ONE: Vesta was the fourth object of its kind discovered. Astronomers believe it is covered with rock that melted and then became solid again. There is also a giant hole, or crater, four hundred sixty kilometers across on the asteroid's south pole. Astronomers believe a massive crash took place between Vesta and another object. The force was so great that Vesta lost one percent of its total mass. What happened to all this material?? It spread throughout parts of the solar system. Five percent of all meteorites we find on Earth might be from this one event on Vesta. Meteorites are small pieces of space rock that fall to Earth. VOICE TWO: Now Dawn will explore these bodies in greater detail than ever before. Dawn is a new kind of spacecraft. It improves on technology used in NASA's Deep Space One mission. That spacecraft visited the comet Temple One and an asteroid. However, Dawn's mission will be much longer. Dawn's engines use what is called an ion propulsion system. Ion engines use electrical current and fuel made of the element xenon to power the spacecraft through space. Electricity comes from two large solar arrays over eight meters long. The wide flat surfaces of the solar arrays gather sunlight and turn it into electricity. VOICE ONE: Dawn's eyes are two cameras that are exactly alike. They can measure light in seven different colors. There are two other instruments on Dawn. One is a Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector. This device measures a form of light, gamma rays, and neutrons, which are particles in the centers of atoms. The detector measures the light and particles, showing scientists what kind of substances make up the surface of the objects. This device will also show if there is water ice on Ceres. NASA had planned to launch Dawn in July. But now the spacecraft is set to launch in September. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Researchers spend millions of dollars on equipment and tools they need to observe the universe. They are able to see and study objects that are millions of light-years away. However, people can observe some very interesting things with their own eyes. Any person who wants to know about the night sky can go outside, look up, and see some extraordinary sights. A Perseid meteorThis month, people everywhere have the chance to see the Perseid meteor shower. The meteors seem to come out of the group of stars called Perseus. The Perseids come every year, near the middle of August. The meteor shower comes from dust left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet takes about one hundred thirty years to go around the sun, and leaves dust in its path. When the Earth passes through this trail of material, the dust hits the Earth’s atmosphere. This dust is moving very fast, about sixty kilometers a second. Because the meteors are moving so fast, they make bright streaks as they burn up in the atmosphere. VOICE ONE: The best way to see these meteors is to get away from cities with bright lights. People in big cities will be able to see the brightest meteors. But many, many more will be visible in the darkness of the countryside. The view this year will be especially good, because there will be very little moonlight. There will be different kinds of meteors during different parts of the meteor shower. For example, there will be a few meteors called “earthgrazers” near the beginning of the shower. These appear early in the evening when the constellation of Perseus first rises into the sky. Earthgrazers are meteors that show up on the horizon and then trail overhead. A NASA official described them as “long, slow and colorful.” There will be more and more meteors overhead as the night goes on. This year, the most meteors were visible extremely early on August thirteenth. At that time, scientists say as many as one meteor per minute crossed the sky. However, the Perseids can be seen for about one week after this time as well. This is a great time to get outside and see astronomy in action. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Professional astronomers have collected pictures of one million galaxies in our universe. These pictures came from a project called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Now, the astronomers want to sort the galaxies they have found by shape. However, there are too many galaxies for professional astronomers to look at and sort on their own. This would take a very long time. So they have asked the public for help. Astronomers want people around the world to help look at the pictures of the galaxies on a Web site and classify them into different kinds. All you need is a computer with connection to the Internet. This project is called Galaxy Zoo. Astronomers want people instead of computers to help because some of the pictures are very hard to recognize. They say that people are much better at identifying these patterns and shapes. Some of the images of galaxies are unclear and the human eye is the best tool to help decide what shape a galaxy really is. Scientists say that knowing how many of each kind of galaxy there are will help them understand more about our universe. The information will help answer questions about how galaxies are made and how they change over time. It will also help answer questions about how the universe works and moves. VOICE ONE: Project Galaxy Zoo was first announced on July eleventh. In the first sixty hours after the announcement, the Web site had been visited almost seven million times. So far, more than eighty-five thousand people are exploring the universe on the Internet. People have sent more than twelve million galaxy classifications. However, astronomers say that they need even more people to help. Scientists want between ten and twenty different people to sort each of the one million galaxies. This will take a long time, even with so many people working on it. However, more and more people are signing up to look at these galaxies every day. When the results help scientists answer important questions about the universe thousands of people will be able to say, "I helped."? If you would like to join in, you can visit the Web site at www.galaxyzoo.org. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Erin Braswell and Mario Ritter who was also the producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-14-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Epilepsy: Mysterious and Sometimes Misunderstood
* Byline: People are considered to have the condition if they suffer two unexplained seizures. America's top judge recently had his second one in 14 years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Epilepsy is a disorder where bursts of electrical activity in the brain result in seizures. A seizure can involve part or all of the brain. It can be minor and a few seconds long or severe and last for several minutes. Victims can shake uncontrollably and have brief periods where they do not wake up. Many people misunderstand epilepsy. They may see it as a mental disability or even fear it as a sign of evil. The World Health Organization says more than fifty million people have epilepsy. At least half of all cases develop in children and teenagers. The Epilepsy Foundation in the United States says ten percent of adults will have a seizure sometime during their life. In most cases the cause is unknown. On July thirtieth, the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, had a seizure and fell near his summer home in Maine. A Supreme Court spokeswoman said neurological tests found no cause for concern. She said the fifty-two-year-old chief justice fully recovered from what doctors called a benign idiopathic seizure. Benign and idiopathic mean there was no evidence of harm and no identifiable cause, like a growth or stroke. But Mister Roberts had a similar event fourteen years ago. Experts say a person who has two or more unexplained seizures is considered to have epilepsy. The Epilepsy Foundation says more than three million Americans, or one percent, are treated for the condition. Anti-seizure medicines are the most common treatment. But side effects can include sleepiness and difficulty thinking clearly. Some doctors advise a special diet called a ketogenic diet to help control seizures. Experts warn, though, that this high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet requires close medical supervision and is not for everyone. Doctors may also try to control epilepsy through brain operations. To help a person during a seizure, stay calm and try to time how long it lasts. Clear the area of any objects that could injure the person and loosen anything around the neck that could restrict breathing. Turn the person gently onto one side to keep airways open. Put something flat and soft under the person's head. But do not try to put anything in the person's mouth. You may have heard it said that people can swallow their tongue during a seizure. Not true, says the Epilepsy Foundation. In fact, it says trying to hold the tongue down could damage the teeth or jaw. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Teacher in Space Answers Questions From Students
* Byline: Barbara Morgan and other astronauts take part in video link from International Space Station. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. SOUND: "Good morning, Discovery Center -- good afternoon. We're happy to be here with you. This is Al Drew, Clay Anderson, Dave Williams and I'm Barb Morgan. And we are ready for your first question. Welcome aboard the International Space Station." That was teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan, speaking from more than three hundred twenty kilometers above the Earth. CHILDREN: "Hello from Idaho!" And those were the students she was greeting in the northwestern state of Idaho. They gathered at the Discovery Center in Boise on Tuesday to ask the astronauts questions by video link. The astronauts already knew what the questions would be. One student asked what stars look like from space. Basically the answer was that the space shuttle and the space station are kept brightly lit, so it is difficult to see a lot of stars. BARBARA MORGAN: "In fact, one way to think about that when we're on the International Space Station and all the lights are on when we look outside, it's very much like trying to look at the stars when you're in Boise. You can see some, but then if you go up high in the mountains, up to McCall, and you have all the lights out, that's what it will be like once we undock from [the] station and we can turn all our shuttle lights out, and also for the station folks they can turn all their lights out." Barbara Morgan taught elementary school in McCall, Idaho, before she trained for space. She and six other astronauts arrived Friday on the shuttle Endeavour to bring supplies and new equipment to the international station. Barbara Morgan is fifty-five years old. She taught for many years?before she became an astronaut. QUESTION: "Hi, I'm Sarah Blum. How does being a teacher relate with being an astronaut on this mission?" BARBARA MORGAN:? "Well,?astronauts and teachers actually do the same things. We explore, we?discover and we share. And the great thing about being a teacher is you get to do that with students. And the great thing about being an astronaut is you get to do it in space. And those are absolutely wonderful jobs." Barbara Morgan first prepared for a shuttle flight more than twenty years ago. She trained in case NASA needed a substitute for Christa McAuliffe, its choice to become the first teacher in space. Then, in nineteen eighty-six, Christa McAuliffe died with the Challenger crew when the shuttle exploded shortly after launch. After the disaster, NASA officials barred other civilians from shuttle flights. But in nineteen ninety-eight, they created a new position for teachers to become fully trained astronauts. Barbara Morgan is NASA's first "educator astronaut" launched into orbit. One of her first tasks was to operate Endeavour's robotic arm to inspect the shuttle for any launch-related damage. Cameras showed a small area hit by a piece of protective foam that fell off the fuel tank. NASA officials say the damage is not a safety threat but they are deciding what to do about it. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For a link to NASA educational resources, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: How Bill Clinton Became the Second President Ever to Be Impeached
* Byline: He survived an effort to remove him from office for lying about his relationship with a young White House aide. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue telling about America's forty-second president, Bill Clinton He became only the second American president to be charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For years, critics of Bill Clinton had accused him of financial wrongdoing before he became president. Some critics also accused his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons denied any dishonest actions. However, unconfirmed reports repeatedly said that they were involved in illegal business activities in Arkansas during the nineteen eighties. In January of nineteen ninety-four, the president asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent lawyer to lead an investigation. Miz Reno named a Republican lawyer. However, some people said this man was too friendly to the Clinton administration. He was replaced by Kenneth Starr, also a Republican. VOICE TWO: Congress also investigated the president during his two terms in office. For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee began an investigation in nineteen ninety-five. The majority of Judiciary Committee members reported that the evidence did not show Mister Clinton responsible for a crime. But the majority belonged to his political party, the Democrats. Suspicion of the president continued. The main cause of the suspicion developed from a financial investment made years earlier. Bill and Hillary Clinton had bought land in Arkansas in nineteen seventy eight. The Clintons formed the Whitewater Development Corporation with Susan and James McDougal. The goal was to sell holiday homes on a river. However, the company did poorly. VOICE ONE: James McDougal also owned a loan company. Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, did legal work for this company. The company failed during the nineteen-eighties. James McDougal and Susan McDougal were found guilty of wrongdoing in connection with the loan company. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s business connection to the McDougals in the Whitewater Company helped make the Clintons targets of suspicion. VOICE TWO: A former judge also became linked to legal questions about the Whitewater Corporation. David Hale owned a savings and loan company that received public money. In nineteen ninety-six, Mister Hale said Bill Clinton had pressured him to loan money to Susan McDougal about eleven years earlier. The Whitewater Development Corporation received some of that money. Mister Clinton was governor of Arkansas at the time. So such an action would have been illegal. Bill Clinton denied the accusation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Investigators asked Missus Clinton several times for records of her legal work for James McDougal during the nineteen eighties. Officials wanted to know how much time she had spent on legal advice for his loan company. She said she could not find the records. Then, in January of nineteen ninety-six, the records appeared in the White House. Missus Clinton could not explain their presence. Bill and Hillary Clinton continued to deny wrongdoing. Some Americans did not believe them. Others, however, said Kenneth Starr was wasting millions of dollars on his investigation. They said Mister Starr was acting against the president for political reasons. Media reports said Mister Starr had offered shorter prison sentences to David Hale and others involved with Whitewater if they cooperated with his investigation. Defenders of the president said this meant these people had good reason to lie. Investigators said such offers are common. Other media reports said David Hale had received large amounts of money from a conservative organization that had strongly criticized Mister Clinton. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The president was threatened with removal from office after a sexual relationship with a young woman became public. It started when a former Arkansas state employee named Paula Corbin Jones took legal action against President Clinton in nineteen ninety-four. She charged that he had asked her for sex while he was governor of Arkansas. A federal judge dismissed her case for lack of evidence. But Missus Jones appealed the case. White House intern Monica LewinskyHer lawyers wanted to prove that Mister Clinton had had sex with several female workers. They suspected these included a young woman, Monica Lewinsky, who had worked as a White House assistant. They believed Miz Lewinsky had sexual relations with President Clinton between nineteen ninety-five and nineteen-ninety-seven. VOICE ONE : Kenneth Starr was still investigating the Whitewater case early in nineteen ninety-eight. He received permission to include Miz Lewinsky in his investigation. A former friend of Miz Lewinsky had given Mister Starr tape recordings of her telephone calls with the young woman. On the recordings, Monica Lewinsky talked about her relationship with the president. Earlier, Miz Lewinsky and Mister Clinton had separately answered questions from lawyers representing Paula Jones. Both Mister Clinton and Mizz Lewinsky denied having a sexual relationship. In January of nineteen ninety-eight, Mister Clinton also denied publicly that he had a sexual relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. VOICE TWO: Six months later, Mister Clinton agreed to answer questions before a federal investigating jury. He told the grand jury about his relationship with Miz Lewinsky. This meant he had lied during earlier official questioning. That night, the president admitted on national television that he had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was wrong. He told the nation his actions were a personal failure. But he denied trying to get her to lie about the relationship. Kenneth Starr sent his final report to the House of Representatives. The report suggested that Mister Clinton may have committed impeachable crimes in trying to hide his relationship with the young woman. VOICE ONE: In December, the House of Representatives impeached President William Jefferson Clinton. This meant the Senate would hold a trial and decide if he was guilty. If found guilty, Mister Clinton would be removed from office, as required by the Constitution. Only one other president had ever been impeached. In eighteen sixty-eight, the House of Representatives had brought charges against President Andrew Johnson. The Senate had failed by one vote to remove him from office. VOICE TWO: Hillary Rodham Clinton as her husband thanks House Democrats who opposed his impeachmentThe House of Representatives approved two charges against President Clinton to send to the Senate. One charge accused him of lying during the official investigation of his relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. The other accused him of trying to hide evidence. Mister Clinton still had two years left to serve as president. Opinion studies showed the American public wanted him to finish his term. Two-thirds of the people asked said they opposed removing him from office. VOICE ONE: The Senate decided Mister Clinton’s future in February of nineteen ninety-nine. The one hundred senators held a trial to consider the charges and decide if Mister Clinton should be removed from office. The trial required sixty-seven votes for a judgment of guilt on each charge. The Senators voted Mister Clinton not guilty on one charge. They evenly divided their votes on the other charge. Bill Clinton remained president of the United States. But the forty-second president had hoped to be remembered for his leadership and the progress made during his administration. Instead, many people said he will be remembered for the charges against him. In October, nineteen ninety-nine, Kenneth Starr resigned as the independent investigator. An assistant, Robert Ray, completed a final report on the Whitewater investigation. He issued his report in September, two thousand. No charges were brought against the Clintons. The report said there was not enough evidence to prove any wrongdoing by President or Missus Clinton. Political experts disagree about what place in history William Jefferson Clinton will occupy. But the experts agree that Mister Clinton’s influence on the United States will be debated for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Pierces: Two Sisters Who Put Their Imaginations Into Their Music
* Byline: A question from Turkey about solutions to America’s traffic problems. And a look at the popularity of Ferris wheels. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Barbara Klein. On our show this week: We listen to music from the Pierces … Answer a question about America's traffic problems … And report about an old time amusement park ride that's become new again. Ferris Wheels HOST: An amusement park ride invented more than one hundred years ago is becoming popular again. Cities all over the world are building new kinds of Ferris wheels. Steve Ember tells us more about the invention that has become much more than just a popular American amusement park ride. STEVE EMBER: The Ferris wheel at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California.Ferris wheels are large circles that extend high into the air. People sit or stand in small boxes attached to the structure and are lifted into the air and back down to Earth. The first real Ferris wheel was built in eighteen ninety-three for the world's fair called the Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France had been built for the Centennial Exposition in eighteen eighty-nine. Officials in Chicago wanted an exciting new structure that would interest large numbers of people as well. American bridge builder and engineer George Washington Gale Ferris had the answer. He proposed a seventy-six meter high "observation wheel" for the fair. Some people said it could not be done. They said it was too big and too dangerous to lift people so high that they could be threatened by blowing wind. Mister Ferris agreed to build the wheel with his own and other private money. His proposal was approved. His wheel operated for the first time at the fair in Chicago. It could carry more than one thousand four hundred riders. Each rider paid fifty cents to ride around the full circle two times for ten minutes. Reports said more than one million people rode that first Ferris wheel in the nineteen weeks it operated at the fair. People started calling it after the name of its inventor. Today, Ferris wheels can be found in just about every amusement park in the United States and in other countries. They are usually very safe. But accidents do happen. Just this week, a passenger box turned over on a Ferris wheel in South Korea. Five people were killed in the twenty-meter fall. Next year, China is to open two new Ferris wheels. The Tianjin Eye will stand on a bridge where cars will pass around it. And the Great Beijing Wheel will be more than two hundred meters high. The wheels are to start turning in time for the two thousand eight Summer Olympic Games. Traffic HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Turkey. Nadir Telli wants to know about possible solutions to America’s traffic problems. Many big cities in the United States have serious traffic problems. Too many cars travel on the freeways to and from the city. This heavy traffic causes delays and lots of pollution from cars that are using their engines but not moving anywhere. Many cars going nowhere is called a "traffic jam." While many cities in the United States have traffic problems, some of the worst are in Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles is a big city with a large downtown area. One of the reasons there is so much traffic is that almost everyone uses a car to get around instead of using public transportation. Many people live far from the city and drive many kilometers to work and back every day. Experts say one possible solution to the traffic problem in Los Angeles would be to make people want to use the public transportation system of buses instead of their own cars. People say the buses should be made easier, faster, less costly and more dependable than driving a car. One suggestion is to reduce the cost of riding the bus. People who usually drive their cars could save a lot of money on gas and parking costs. Also, Los Angeles could make the buses easier for people to use. The buses could travel to more places in the city. And there could be more special lanes on the freeways that only buses could drive in. These changes would make taking the bus faster and easier than driving a car. The city of Los Angeles controls all of the public transportation. Some experts suggest permitting private bus companies to compete for riders. The private companies would find ways to make the buses more popular. Other experts have said that the best way to ease traffic problems is to charge people money to drive on the freeways. These charges, or tolls, would be for the most crowded roads. The tolls would be in effect during the times of day when most people drive to work and home again. These times in the morning and late afternoon are called "rush hour." People would try to avoid driving on these roads, which would decrease the amount of traffic. Also, the money collected from these tolls could be used to improve the roads and public transportation system. The Pierces HOST: The Pierces are a musical band of two sisters, Allison and Catherine Pierce. These two musicians were born and raised in the southern state of Alabama, but now live in New York City. Critics are praising the imaginative songs on their latest album, "Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge." Mario Ritter has more. (MUSIC) MARIO RITTER: That was the playfully serious song “Secret.” It is a good example of how the Pierces mix a folk music sound with creative and funny storytelling. Allison and Catherine Pierce's parents taught them at an early age to love music and the arts. The girls grew up listening to folk rock musicians like Joni Mitchell and Simon and Garfunkel. Their parents taught them to explore their creative sides by playing music, painting and cooking. But the girls did not start their careers in music. They both worked as professional ballet dancers before deciding to work on their music full time. Here is the song “Boring.” The sisters jokingly sing about the things they think are uninteresting. They make fun of rich people who are not thankful for what they have. (MUSIC) This is the Pierces' third album. But they say it is the only record they are really happy with. Catherine and Allison have said that in the past they felt like they did not have a free voice. They were asked to make music that would make money instead of making music they loved. On this record, they made music their way. We close with the energetic song “Sticks and Stones.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Barbara Klein. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Erin Braswell, Dana Demange, and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Economics Not Such a Dismal Science for US High School Students
* Byline: A newly released study finds that 79 percent of 12th-graders have at least a basic understanding. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. How much do American high school students know about economics? A new report shows that seventy-nine percent of twelfth-graders have at least a basic level of understanding. The results come from testing eleven thousand five hundred students last year in public and private schools. In fact, students did better in economics than in history or science. Only forty-seven percent of those tested reached the basic level in history. And fifty-four percent performed at or above the basic level in science. This is the first time the federal government has measured economic understanding among high school students. The study was done as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, called the Nation's Report Card. Only one-third of the fifty states require it, but most students these days study some economics in high school. In nineteen eighty-two, forty-nine percent of high school graduates had taken an economics class. By two thousand five it was sixty-six percent. The study rated understanding at three levels: basic, proficient and advanced. Forty-two percent of students reached the proficient level. Three percent tested at the highest achievement level. Students received a score with a point value between zero and three hundred. The report says male students scored an average of four points higher than female students. And students from schools in large cities did not do as well as those from other places. Students answered questions in three major areas: market economy and national and international economy. Seventy-two percent could describe the risks and possible rewards of leaving a job for more education. Fifty-two percent knew what happens to money deposited in banks. But only eleven percent understood how changes in the unemployment rate affect pay, spending and production. The next economics testing will take place in two thousand twelve. So what does happen to most of the money deposited in checking accounts at a commercial bank? A) It is used to pay the bank's expenses. B) It is loaned to other bank customers. C) It is kept in the bank's vault until depositors withdraw the funds. Or, D) It is paid to owners of the bank as return on their investment. The correct answer: B) It is loaned to other bank customers. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. For a link to the full report, including other sample questions, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: As Karl Rove Resigns, Democrats Wonder Where He Might Resurface
* Byline: President's closest adviser says he wants to spend more time with his family. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The news that Karl Rove will leave his job at the end of the month has the political world debating why and what effect it will have. President Bush and his closest political adviser announced the resignation on Monday (pictured). The president called his deputy chief of staff a "dear friend" and thanked him for his service to the country. The two men have known each other since the nineteen seventies. George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas in nineteen ninety-four and later re-elected by a bigger majority. Karl Rove led both campaigns. He was influential in bringing widespread change in Texas politics. The state went from traditionally Democratic to governed by Republicans. Karl Rove and George Bush went national with the presidential election of two thousand. Mister Bush campaigned as a "compassionate conservative" on issues like education, crime and family values. He won after the Supreme Court stopped a recount of disputed votes in Florida. The election was one of the closest in American history. After that, Karl Rove worked state by state and issue by issue to expand the president's base of support. He worked with groups that traditionally vote Democratic such as Hispanics, women, and Catholics. He especially sought to build the conservative Christian base. President Bush went on to re-election victory in two thousand four. In his acceptance speech he thanked Karl Rove and gave him a new nickname, "the Architect." Some call him "Bush's Brain." From raising money to shaping political debate in America, and attacking opponents, Karl Rove made his mark. His hopes included a Republican majority in Congress that would last a generation. Yet he leaves a weakened administration with less than a year and a half in office. Last November, Democrats retook both houses of Congress. Now, the continuing Iraq war raises their hopes to win the White House next year. The war has brought down the president's approval ratings. But, as Karl Rove pointed out Monday, ratings for the Democratic-controlled Congress are even lower. And, he said, they got there a lot quicker. Mister Rove says he is leaving to spend more time with his family. He also says he will write a book as the president has urged him to do. Many Democratic leaders are happy to see Karl Rove go. But others worry that he could hurt their party more from outside the White House than inside. Democrats in Congress could still call him to give evidence in their investigation into the dismissal of several federal prosecutors. Accusations of political misuse of federal agencies could also follow him. Karl Rove says he expects the Democrats to keep coming after him. He compared it to Herman Melville's novel about the endless hunt by a sea captain for the great white whale that bit off his leg. Karl Rove says he is Moby-Dick and a few members of Congress are trying to act like Captain Ahab. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Edward Teller, 1908-2003: 'Father of the Hydrogen Bomb'
* Byline: He was one of the best-known American scientists of the 20th century. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Edward Teller. He was one of the best-known American scientists of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb.”? However, he reportedly did not like that name. Teller helped develop the first nuclear weapons. Later, he was an activist for a strong national defense. He was an important influence on America’s defense and energy policies. Experts say Teller’s strong support for defense resulted from experiences that helped shape his opinion of world events. One was the rise of the Nazi party while he lived in Germany during the nineteen thirties. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary in nineteen-oh-eight. His father was a lawyer and his mother had strong musical abilities. His parents and teachers recognized at an early age that Edward was excellent in mathematics. Yet his father was unhappy when Edward said he wanted to be a mathematician. He told his son that mathematicians had trouble earning money. So Edward agreed to study chemistry. He went to Leipzig, Germany for his university education. While in Germany, Edward was in a streetcar accident. One of his feet was cut off. He had to wear a man-made, replacement foot for the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: One of Teller’s professors in Leipzig was Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg helped invent the theory called quantum mechanics. This theory involves the study of matter and radiation at an atomic level. It was one of the most important theories in twentieth century science. In nineteen thirty-two, Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize for physics for developing the theory. Later he worked in Germany’s nuclear research program. Edward Teller received a doctorate in physics from the University of Leipzig in nineteen thirty. He was a professor at the University of Gottingen for three years. In nineteen thirty-three, Adolf Hitler became Germany’s Chancellor. Hitler and his Nazi Party organized a campaign against Jews and other minorities. This forced Teller and a number of other Jewish scientists to flee Germany. Teller and his wife, Mici, came to the United States in nineteen thirty-five. They became American citizens six years later. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the late nineteen thirties, scientists in several countries were learning how to split the nuclei of atoms. They discovered that this nuclear fission releases huge amounts of energy and could be used to create a powerful new weapon. Some scientists in the United States feared that Germany was developing an atomic bomb and would be the first to use it as a weapon. One of those who believed this was a friend of Teller’s, Leo Szilard. Like Teller, Szilard was a scientist who had left Hungary and come to live in the United States. Szilard believed that the United States should have its own program to develop atomic weapons. He wanted to get American officials interested in such a program. He decided to seek help from the world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-nine, Szilard prepared a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt for Einstein to sign. The letter urged the need for an atomic weapons program. Szilard decided to visit Einstein at his summer home near New York City. But Szilard could not drive a car, so he asked his friend Teller to drive them to Einstein’s home. Einstein signed the letter. ?It led to a secret American program to develop an atomic bomb. This program was called the Manhattan Project. To carry out the program, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory was secretly established in the southwestern state of New Mexico in nineteen forty-two. This was during World War Two. The United States wanted to build an atomic bomb before Germany or Japan did. Teller joined the project along with America’s other top scientists. He and his wife brought their one-hundred-year-old piano to the New Mexico desert. Teller often stayed up late, playing music written by Mozart and other famous composers. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller hoped to design a hydrogen fusion bomb, a device he called the “super.”?? The idea for the hydrogen bomb came from another scientist, Enrico Fermi. Fermi suggested that the fusion of hydrogen atoms might create an even more powerful force than splitting them. Teller quickly accepted the idea. However, the director of the Manhattan Project disagreed. J. Robert Oppenheimer wanted his team of scientists to develop an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb. The Manhattan project succeeded in developing the world’s first atomic bomb. Its energy came from splitting the nuclei of uranium atoms. VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was among the scientists who gathered to see the world’s first atomic test explosion. They watched as a huge cloud rose from the New Mexico desert on July sixteenth, ninety forty-five. By that time, the war in Europe was over. The Germans had never come close to creating an atomic bomb. But the war with Japan continued. In an effort to end the war, United States planes dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August sixth. Japan surrendered within days to end World War Two. VOICE TWO: After the war, Edward Teller taught at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Many scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb returned to civilian jobs. Some had problems with moral issues. Years later, Teller wondered if the United States could have shown Japanese leaders the power of the atom without destroying the two cities. Teller said he regretted that he and other scientists did not seek to demonstrate American power in some other way to influence Japan to end the war. Teller said: “If we could have ended the war by showing the power of science without killing a single person, all of us would be happier, more reasonable and much more safe.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States tested the first hydrogen bomb in 1952In nineteen forty-nine, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. Suddenly, the United States faced its own threat of nuclear attack. Edward Teller believed the country needed a hydrogen bomb for defense. President Harry Truman agreed. Teller returned to Los Alamos and worked to develop the hydrogen bomb. Scientists tested the bomb in the Pacific Ocean in nineteen fifty-two. VOICE TWO: As the United States and the Soviet Union built more nuclear bombs, Edward Teller called for a second national nuclear weapons laboratory. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory opened near San Francisco, California in nineteen fifty-two. Teller worked as an advisor there. He served as director from nineteen fifty-eight to nineteen sixty. Then he became a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the nineteen sixties, opponents of the Vietnam War criticized Teller for his work in developing nuclear weapons. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edward Teller spent the rest of his life on matters of war and peace. He believed that the security of the United States depended on strong national defense. In nineteen eighty, Teller said he believed nuclear war with the Soviet Union was possible. He said: “ I cannot just go back to physics because I believe that to prevent another war happens to be … more important.” In the nineteen eighties, Teller argued for a missile-defense system for the United States. Teller strongly supported President Ronald Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative. It called for space satellites armed with lasers to destroy possible nuclear missiles directed at the United States. This program became known as “Star Wars.”? Critics said it would cost too much money to develop and would not work. It was never built. However, President Bush has renewed the idea of establishing a missile-defense system to protect the United States. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller received many honors during his life. In two thousand three, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. That same year, Teller suffered a stroke. He died at his home on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He was ninety-five years old. Until his last days, Edward Teller continued to support the idea of a system to defend the country against a danger he helped create. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Building a Windbreak to Protect Crops
* Byline: Barriers of trees and other plants seem to work best when they let a little wind pass through. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land from damage by farming and the forces of nature. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. There have been studies done on windbreaks in parts of West Africa, for example. These found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks compared to fields without such protection. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions will lift soil into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is part of EnterpriseWorks/VITA, on the Web at enterpriseworks.org. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish dot com. And if you have a question, write to VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven U.S.A. Or send e-mail to special@voanews.com and make sure to include your name and where you are from. We might be able to answer your question on the air, but we cannot answer questions personally. And that's the VOA Special Development Report, written by Gary Garriott. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Chicago: Some Big Places to See in the 'City of the Big Shoulders'
* Byline: Come along to a huge park, a cultural center known as “the People’s Palace,” and more, in the nation’s third largest city. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week: some places to see in Chicago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Early last century, the poet Carl Sandburg described Chicago, Illinois, as the “City of the Big Shoulders.”? That still seems right. Chicago does a lot of things in a big way. For example, the city is a big transportation center in the Midwest for trains, trucks, ships and planes. Manufacturing is one of the biggest industries in Chicago. And Chicago has one of America’s busiest ports. The city stretches for about forty kilometers along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. The Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in nineteen fifty-nine. It connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Chicago is big on music. Visitors can find all kinds, from classical to hip-hop. Some of the best places for jazz and blues are along Rush Street. There are lots of things to see and hear in Chicago. At the Art Institute of Chicago, people can see fine Asian art and much more. At the Museum of Science and Industry, visitors crowd a working coal mine and a World War Two submarine. At the Adler Planetarium, people see stars and learn about space. And at the Shedd Aquarium, they see colorful fish and learn about life under the sea. ?VOICE ONE: Not surprisingly Chicago has a lot of big buildings. The two tallest are the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building. Many people take architectural tours around Chicago. There are many interesting landmarks and building designs to see. The Wrigley Building, near the Chicago River, opened in the early nineteen twenties. This office building is hard to miss. It is bright white. Downtown Chicago, the business center, is known as the Loop. There are many offices and stores. The Loop includes the financial district around LaSalle Street. The financial district is home to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Stock Exchange and many banks. (MUSIC) VOICE? TWO:? Another big thing to see, and feel, is the weather. After all, another name for Chicago is the "Windy City."? People turn their shoulders to the strong winds off Lake Michigan. In winter, Chicago gets a lot of snow; in summer, the weather is hot and sticky. Almost three million people live in Chicago. Chicago is America's third largest city, after New York and Los Angeles. More than nine million people live in surrounding communities. Over the years many immigrants have settled in Chicago. Many of its people have ethnic roots in Poland, Germany, Ireland and Italy. More recent immigrants have come from all over the world. Today just under half the population of the city of Chicago is non-Hispanic white. The city has large black and Hispanic populations. Four percent of the people are Asian. VOICE ONE: When people in Chicago want to be outdoors, one place to go is Millennium Park. In this City of Big Shoulders, almost everything about Millennium Park is big. It covers ten hectares. It took almost nine years to finish. Millennium Park is on Michigan Avenue near Lake Michigan. It officially opened in two thousand four. It cost four hundred seventy-five million dollars. Millennium Park has gardens and places for music, dance and ice skating. It also has one of the largest outdoor sculptures in the world. Anish Kapoor of Britain created this work of public art. It weighs one hundred ten tons. A huge rounded form of shiny steel captures a looking-glass image of the Chicago skyline and the clouds above. The sculpture is called “Cloud Gate.”? VOICE TWO: The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa designed the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. The fountain is surely one of the most unusual in the world. The artist set a pool of water between two tall glass towers. Video images appear on the towers. The images are a series of pictures of nature and people’s faces. The water appears to pour from their mouths. The faces represent the many different people of Chicago.VOICE ONE: Millennium Park has music in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The architect Frank Gehry designed this modern-looking structure. It can seat four thousand people under its open-top steel ribbons. There is also an area called the Great Lawn to listen to the music. The sound system makes the music seem like it is coming from inside a concert hall. The pavilion is a home for the Grant Park Music Festival. Listen as the Grant Park Symphony plays “Julius Caesar: Symphonic Epilogue After Shakespeare," Opus Twenty-eight, composed by Robert Kurka. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In warm weather, people eat outdoors in the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink in Millennium Park. In winter, skaters come out to enjoy the ice. Visitors can also walk and ride bicycles in several areas of the plaza. An indoor space has room for three hundred bicycles. There are also places where people who ride their bikes to work can clean up and change clothes. Another part of Millennium Park is the Lurie Garden. This one-hectare area is bordered by what is called the "Shoulder Hedge."? Trees almost five meters tall form a living wall around the garden."Shoulder" in this case is meant to honor the poet Carl Sandburg. One hundred thirty-eight kinds of plants grow in the Lurie Garden. VOICE ONE: Many people enjoy the activities at Millennium Park. But critics wonder why the city needed a park so big and costly. They say the city should have spent the money instead on its more than six hundred public schools. They say it could have helped the poor. Twenty-one percent of people in the city of Chicago were living below the poverty level in two thousand four. The official poverty rate nationally that year was about thirteen percent. VOICE TWO: Other people say Millennium Park has improved the appearance of the area where it was built. The mayor and many other city leaders believed a big park would bring more people, more homes and more businesses to the area. Mayor Richard M. Daley is the son of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. The father is still remembered for his control over the local Democratic Party organization. The city has not elected a Republican mayor since nineteen fifteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? Another big development, the Chicago Cultural Center, stands across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park. It contains the city's official Visitor Information Center. It is also a showplace for the arts. The building that now houses the cultural center was completed in eighteen ninety-seven. It held the first permanent collection of the Chicago Public Library. It served as library headquarters until nineteen ninety-one. There are white walls made of marble from Carrara, Italy. And there are two Tiffany domes. The bigger dome is one of the largest Tiffany designs in the world. It rises almost twelve meters above the floor. People say the restored Chicago Cultural Center looks like a home for kings and queens. Some call it “the People’s Palace.” VOICE TWO: Visitors can listen to all kinds of music at the Chicago Cultural Center. For example, Monday through Friday, there are free LunchBreak Concerts. Listen now to Middle Eastern music performed by Safwan Matni, a popular LunchBreak Concert guest artist. (MUSIC) Dancers from Hubbard Street Two in Chicago have also performed at the Cultural Center. Hubbard Street Two is a six-member dance group. It trains promising dancers between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five. They perform works by young choreographers. VOICE ONE: Carl Sandburg would probably not have been surprised by big projects like the Chicago Cultural Center and Millennium Park. The poet wrote: “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive … ” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you with Frank Sinatra singing about "My Kind of Town." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hobson's Choice: When There Is Really No Choice at All
* Byline: Making choices is necessary, but not always easy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Making choices is necessary, but not always easy. Many of our expressions tell about this difficulty. One of these expressions is Hobson’s choice. It often is used to describe a difficult choice. But that is not what it really means. Its real meaning is to have no choice at all. The Hobson in the expression was Thomas Hobson. Mister Hobson owned a stable of horses in Cambridge, England. Mister Hobson often rented horses to the students at Cambridge University. But, he did not really trust them to take good care of the horses. So, he had a rule that prevented the students from riding his best horses. They could take the horse that was nearest the stable door. Or, they could not take any horse at all. Thus, a Hobson’s choice was really no choice. Another expression for having no real choice is between a rock and a hard place. It is often used to describe a difficult situation with few choices, none of them good. For example, your boss may ask you to work late. But you have plans to go to a movie with your girlfriend. If you refuse to work, your boss gets angry. But if you do not go to the movies with your girlfriend, she gets angry. So what do you do? You are caught between a rock and a hard place. Another expression, between the devil and the deep blue sea, also gives you a choice between two equally dangerous things. Its meaning seems clear. You can choose the devil and his burning fires of hell. Or, you can choose to drown in the sea. Some word experts say the expression comes from the days of wooden ships. The devil is a word for a seam between two pieces of wood along the water-line of a ship. If the seam or crack between the two pieces of wood begins to leak, then a sailor must fix it. The sailor ordered to make the repairs was in a dangerous situation. He was hanging over the side of the ship, working between the devil and the deep blue sea. There is still another expression that describes a situation with only bad choices, being on the horns of a dilemma. The dictionary says a dilemma is a situation in which you must make a decision about two equally balanced choices. When your dilemma has horns, a choice becomes impossible. When you are on the horns of a dilemma, no matter which horn you choose, something bad will happen. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stores, was written by Marilyn Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I’m Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Six Diseases of the Liver, Six Different Viruses, One Name: Hepatitis
* Byline: Millions of people get hepatitis. Some become very sick. Others never even know they are infected. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, we will tell about six diseases of the liver. The six diseases come from six different viruses. Doctors have one name for all of them: hepatitis. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The liver is in the upper right part of the stomach area. This dark red organ is big -- it weighs more than one kilogram. And it has a big job. The liver helps clean the blood and fight infection. It also helps break down food and store energy until the body needs it. Hepatitis destroys liver cells. Some kinds of hepatitis are much more serious than others. Scientists have identified the six kinds of hepatitis with the letters A, B, C, D, E and G. Which kind a person has can only be known from tests for antibodies in the blood. Antibodies are special proteins that the body's natural defense system produces in answer to a threat. Identify the antibody and you identify the threat. VOICE TWO: Hepatitis A is usually spread through human waste in water or food. It is in the same group of viruses as those that cause the disease polio. The hepatitis A virus causes high body temperature, weakness and pain. It causes problems with the stomach and intestines, making it difficult to eat or break down food. Also, the skin of a person with hepatitis may become yellow. This is a sign that the liver is not operating normally. To help prevent the spread of hepatitis A, people should wash their hands after they use the restroom or change a baby's diaper. People should also wash their hands before they eat or prepare food. VOICE ONE: Hand washing can prevent the spread of hepatitis AHepatitis A can spread quickly to hundreds or thousands of people. But the virus is deadly in less than one percent of cases. Many people infected with the virus never even get sick. But those who do generally recover within two months. The World Health Organization says hepatitis A is often found in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. People who have had hepatitis A cannot get it again. There is a vaccine to prevent hepatitis A. America's Centers for Disease Control says the vaccine is the best way to protect against the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says hepatitis B is one of the major diseases of mankind. W.H.O. officials say two billion people are infected with the hepatitis B virus. More than three hundred fifty million of those infected have lifelong infections. The highest rates are in developing countries. This virus is in the same group as the herpes and smallpox viruses. Hepatitis B vaccines have been given since the early nineteen eighties. The W-H-O says the vaccine is ninety five percent effective in preventing the development of infection in both children and adults. VOICE ONE: Hepatitis B spreads when blood from an infected person enters the body of another person. An infected mother can infect her baby. The virus can also spread through sex, and if people share injection devices. Blood products from an infected person can spread hepatitis B. People also can get infected if they share personal-care products that might have blood on them. Examples include toothbrushes and hair-cutting equipment like razors. VOICE TWO: Worldwide, most hepatitis B infections are found in children. Young children are the ones most likely to develop a lifelong, or chronic, infection. The risk of such an infection is small for children older than four years. About ninety percent of babies infected with hepatitis B during the first year develop chronic infections. Such persons are at high risk of death from liver disease or liver cancer. The hepatitis B vaccine is considered to be the first medicine that can protect people against liver cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hepatitis C is even more dangerous. Like hepatitis B, it spreads when blood from an infected person enters someone who is not infected. The hepatitis C virus belongs to the same group of viruses as yellow fever and West Nile virus. Most people infected with hepatitis C develop chronic infections, often without any signs. They are at high risk for liver disease and liver cancer. The World Health Organization says about one hundred eighty million people are infected with hepatitis C. The W.H.O. reports that as many as four million more become infected each year. And it says that one hundred thirty million of those with the disease may develop diseases of the liver, including liver cancer. The W.H.O. says the highest rates of infection are in Africa, Latin America and Asia. VOICE TWO: Scientists have been working to develop a vaccine against hepatitis C. The virus was first observed in nineteen seventy-four. But it was not officially recognized as a new kind of hepatitis until nineteen eighty-nine. The Centers for Disease Control says about four million Americans have been infected with hepatitis C. It says that those especially at risk include persons who inject themselves with drugs and those who received blood or blood products before nineteen ninety. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hepatitis D is also spread through blood, but only infects people who already have hepatitis B. The virus greatly increases the chance of severe liver damage. Experts say hepatitis D infects about fifteen million people around the world. Doctors say the best way to prevent hepatitis D is to get vaccine that protects against Hepatitis B. Doctors can treat some cases of hepatitis B, C and D. The drugs used are very costly, however. But they are less costly than another treatment possibility: getting a new liver. VOICE TWO: The fifth virus is hepatitis E. Experts say it spreads the same way as hepatitis A -- through infectious waste. Cases often result from polluted supplies of drinking water. Medical science recognized hepatitis E as a separate disease in nineteen eighty. Hepatitis E is also found in animal waste. Studies have shown that the virus can infect many kinds of animals, including cows, monkeys and pigs. VOICE ONE: The W.H.O. says many hepatitis E cases have been reported in Central and Southeast Asia, North and West Africa and Mexico. No vaccines or medicines are effective against hepatitis E. Most people recover, usually in several weeks or months. But the disease can cause liver damage. And, in some cases, hepatitis E can be deadly. The virus is especially dangerous to pregnant women. Twenty percent of women with hepatitis E die in the last three months of pregnancy. VOICE TWO: Scientists discovered yet another kind of hepatitis in the nineteen nineties. It has been named hepatitis G. The hepatitis G virus is totally different from any of the other hepatitis viruses. Donald Poretz is an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. He says the hepatitis G virus is spread through blood and blood products. But he says the virus has not yet been found to cause any real disease. VOICE ONE: There are no cures for any kind of hepatitis. The only way to protect against infection is to receive vaccines against hepatitis A and B, and avoid contact with the other viruses. And that may be very difficult. Remember that some kinds of hepatitis spread through sex or sharing needles. Blood products should be carefully tested for hepatitis. People in high-risk groups and those who have had hepatitis should not give blood. They also should not agree to provide their organs to others after they die. Donated organs can also spread hepatitis. VOICE TWO: Health experts say people can take other steps people to protect themselves. These include always washing your hands with soap and water after using the restroom. Also, wash your hands after changing a baby's diaper and before preparing or eating food. Experts also say travelers should not drink water of unknown quality when visiting foreign or unknown areas. Visitors to such areas also should avoid eating uncooked fruits and vegetables. And, again, do not forget to wash your hands! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can download transcripts and audio of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-20-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Fight Over Farm Subsidies
* Byline: Negotiators will meet next month in Geneva to discuss compromise proposals for agricultural and industrial goods. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Two words are enough to start a debate: farm subsidies. Farmers who are subsidized by their governments usually receive direct payments or loans. Domestic subsidies provide support within a farmer's own country. Export subsidies help them sell their products in other countries, often at a lower price. Developing nations criticize export subsidies in the United States and other wealthy countries. They say the result is that their own farmers are often unable to compete on the world market. The dispute over subsidies is one of the major barriers to a new agreement for the World Trade Organization. Negotiators will meet again next month in Geneva to discuss compromise proposals for agricultural and industrial goods. One version written last month calls for the United States to lower its subsidies. In return, big developing countries like China, India and Brazil would make larger reductions in taxes on industries. But in Washington, the House of Representatives recently passed a farm bill that would continue high-paying subsidies. These go mostly to farmers in the Midwest and South who grow corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans. The bill would also add money for growers of fruits and vegetables. The bill now goes to the Senate. President Bush has threatened to veto it. He opposes subsidies for farmers currently receiving high prices for crops like corn and soybeans. Today's farm subsidies have roots in the Great Depression. In nineteen thirty-three, Congress passed a law that paid farmers not to plant on some of their land. The idea was to control crop supplies and support prices, while protecting the soil. Since nineteen thirty-three, legislation known as the farm bill has come before Congress about every five years for renewal. After the nineteen sixties, aid to farmers increased. In nineteen ninety-six, Congress passed the Freedom to Farm Act. This law removed the requirement to leave areas of land unplanted in order to receive government money. Economist and author James Weaver thinks political pressure on Congress will make big cuts in subsidies unlikely anytime soon. He says most farmers with high subsidies like the system the way it is. The amount received is based on production area. So the wealthiest farmers with the most land often receive the most money. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Saving Lives and Guiding Ships Along US East Coast
* Byline: Lighthouses along the coast of North Carolina provide a guiding light to sea travelers.?  transcript of radio broadcast

 VOICE ONE:? This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the lighthouses that protect ships sailing along the coast of North Carolina. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lighthouses are built along coasts to signal to passing ships. Lighthouses are tall buildings of wood or stone or brick with large bright lights on top. Every night they shine lights to warn ships about dangerous areas where there are rocks, low water levels, or strong currents. The lighthouses along North Carolina’s coast are recognized as signs of safety for travelers at sea. Over the years, fierce ocean storms have sent many ships crashing into the North Carolina coast. Other boats have been lost in wars. During World War Two, for example, German submarines sank many allied transport ships in that area. History experts say more than six hundred ships have been wrecked near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Storms still uncover the ruins of wrecked ships along the Outer Banks. The lighthouses shine their signals to prevent more wrecks. Many ships and lives have been saved because of the United States Life Saving Service and workers at lighthouses along the coast. VOICE TWO: The Outer Banks is a group of narrow islands stretching along the North Carolina coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands shelter North Carolina’s inland water passages. For thousands of years, these barrier islands have survived severe weather. Every few years, an ocean storm in the North Atlantic Ocean will move through the Outer Banks with destructive force. Each island of the Outer Banks has its own lighthouse with a special design and history. In addition, each lighthouse has its own signal, which boats see from a distance. The different light signals help sailors identify their position from the land. This helps them judge if they are close to dangerous water passages. Today, the light signals work on an electrical timing system. In the past, workers living in the lighthouses had to turn the lights on and off. VOICE ONE: Ocracoke LighthouseNorth Carolina’s simplest lighthouse is on Ocracoke Island in the southern Outer Banks. Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in eighteen twenty-three. It is considered the oldest lighthouse on the Carolina coast. Its signal is a continuous white light, which can be seen almost twenty-five kilometers out at sea. Although the plans used to build Ocracoke lighthouse appear normal, the building was built off-center. As a result, it rises more sharply on one side. Ocracoke Island is said to be the place where the pirate Blackbeard lost his head in the early seventeen hundreds. This famous ocean robber was killed in a battle with a British officer more than a century before Ocracoke Lighthouse was build. Lieutenant Robert Maynard was protecting England’s colonial interest in the New World. Historians say he tricked Blackbeard into battle and then cut off his head. Stories passed down through the years say that the spirit of Blackbeard still walks around Ocracoke Island searching for his head. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Cape Hatteras LighthouseMany people agree that the most recognized lighthouse in America is at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The building stretches fifty-eight meters in the air – making it the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. It was completed in eighteen seventy. Its signal shines a white light every seven and one-half seconds. Ships thirty-seven kilometers from land are able to see the signal. Historians believe more people have read about, painted or taken pictures of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse than any other lighthouse in North America. It is the picture on the official documents of the United States Lighthouse Service. It is also a memorial to hundreds of men and women who worked to make North Carolina’s coast safe for sea travelers. VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-nine, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved more than nine hundred meters. Officials wanted to protect the building by moving it farther away from the ocean. Huge lift equipment picked up the more than four thousand ton building and carried it inland. The lighthouse was then lowered onto a new eighteen meter square concrete support structure. Engineers inspected the repositioned building. They declared that it is standing tall and strong on its new foundation. Visitors can climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, but they need to be in good physical condition. This is because two hundred sixty-eight steps lead to the top of North America’s tallest brick lighthouse. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another lighthouse along North Carolina’s Outer Banks is the Bodie Lighthouse. Its history is quite interesting. The fifth financial inspector of the United States Treasury Department built the first Bodie Lighthouse in eighteen forty-eight. Stephen Pleasonton’s main concern while building the structure was to save money. As a result, his workers were not permitted to spend enough money to build a safe base. In addition, the building was fitted with a light system that was not considered effective even then. Shortly after it opened, Bodie Island Lighthouse started sinking on one side. Workers soon had to leave it. Several years later, the United States Congress ordered a new lighthouse be built. In eighteen fifty-two, work began on a new and improved structure. The second Bodie Lighthouse was to be representative of a new look in lighthouses. It was shaped like a circular cone, made of earthen bricks made hard in a fire. Its base was built on supporting bars driven into the earth. VOICE ONE: The second Bodie Lighthouse was destroyed in the American Civil War. Confederate soldiers from the South wrecked the building to prevent the Union navy of the North from gaining a position to help its ships. The structure was finally rebuilt and completed in eighteen seventy-two. It rises forty-eight meters in the air. Today, the Bodie Lighthouse needs several repairs. This is why the building is not open to the public to climb. However, the lighthouse signal is still recognized by passing ships. It is on, off, and on again for two and one-half seconds each time, then off for twenty-two and one-half seconds. Boats up to thirty-three kilometers out at sea are able to recognize the Bodie Lighthouse signal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The most northern lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is at Currituck Beach. Like the other lighthouses along the coast, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse still serves as an aid to sailors. The lighthouse runs its light signal from sunset to sunrise. The signal is three seconds on, seventeen seconds off. The light can be seen as far away as thirty-three kilometers. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse remains unpainted to help tell it apart from other lighthouses along the coast. This also gives visitors a strong sense of the one and one-half million bricks used to build the building, which stands forty-seven meters in the air. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse was completed in eighteen seventy-five. It was the last major brick lighthouse built on the Outer Banks. Visitors are permitted to climb to the top. VOICE ONE: Wild horses run free near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. Horses are not native to North America. Yet for more than four hundred years, these animals have run unrestricted along the northern Outer Banks. Historians are not sure how the horses first arrived in America. They believe either Spanish or English settlers transported them. The wild horses are called Barbs. They are known for their size, their ability to work hard, their easy movement, and their long lives. Historians say there was nothing but sea, sand and grass when these Barb horses first arrived on the Outer Banks. A continual increase in summer visitors over the past forty years has made survival for the horses more difficult. Because of this, a group of concerned citizens has built a fence to separate the horses from people. This gives them about six thousand hectares of land to live on. The group is trying to make sure the animals will be permitted to stay on Currituck Beach. Like the lighthouses, the wild Barb horses are a traditional part of life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: When Medicines Become a Risky Mix
* Byline: The dangers of drug interactions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many people take several medicines to treat different conditions at the same time. Each medicine may be safe to use by itself, yet together there could be dangerous or even deadly drug interactions. One example happened last year. Rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter Gerald Levert died at his home in Ohio. A medical examiner found that the death was accidental, caused by a mixture of medicines. He was forty years old. The drugs in his blood included the painkillers Vicodin, Percocet and Darvocet as well as the anxiety drug Xanax. These all require a doctor's approval. Other medications that are sold without the need for a prescription from a doctor were also found in his blood. Earlier this year there was a government report on drug interactions. Researchers said deaths from accidental drug combinations in the United States increased almost seventy percent. That was between nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand four. In two thousand four, nearly twenty thousand people died from accidental drug poisonings. The problem is now the second most common cause of accidental death in the United States, after motor vehicle accidents. Harmful drug interactions are a growing problem throughout the world. The increase is partly a result of patients being given more drugs and more combinations of drugs than ever before. For example, people infected with the AIDS virus often develop tuberculosis. These conditions should be treated together. In some countries, aging populations mean more sickness, which means more need for medicine. Experts say patients should talk with their doctor and pharmacist before taking new medications. These include drugs that do not require a doctor's approval as well as herbal treatments. Even some foods can interact with medicines in ways that may be helpful or harmful. Alcohol may be unsafe with medicines including common painkillers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. The combination can raise the risk of liver damage or stomach bleeding. There are many resources on the Internet about drug interactions. However, it is always a good idea to confirm health information from the Internet with a medical professional. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Wise Writing Instead of '-Wise' Writing: Looking for Beauty in Words
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER, our guest is the author of a new book called "On Words: Insight Into How Our Words Work -- and Don't." RS: Paula LaRocque has worked for many years as a writing instructor and newspaper writing coach. Her advice to English language learners is to try to avoid bad habits that can be found even in the work of professional writers. PAULA LaROCQUE: "If they're thinking about beauty and clarity, they won't be seduced by the things that cheapen the language. And, to my mind, that's the proliferation of unnecessary euphemisms or fad and clich?, the things that are embedded in the language like the proliferation of the -ize and the -wise suffixes. I remember reading in an obituary this sentence: 'The officer will be funeralized Tuesday.'" AA: "Someone actually wrote that?" PAULA LaROCQUE: "Yes, somebody actually wrote it. And you and I have no difficulty in seeing how even silly but ugly that is and how it cheapens the language and makes it less elegant than it could be. But a person speaking the language as second language might say, 'Oh, this is what a professional writer does and so this is what I should do.' "Let's say that a member of your audience turns on the television here and gets the weather and the person says 'Let's see what the picture is weather-wise.' It's more elegant to say 'Let's see what the weather is.'" RS: "You do talk about words in the media and you come down a little bit hard on the media. Tell us why and what are the things that perhaps an English language learner might want to avoid when listening to the media." PAULA LaROCQUE: "When they listen to the media, the first thing they're going to hear is what I think of as media-speak. It's a small vocabulary, flat because it's overused; verbs such as spawned, spurred, fueled, triggered, decimated, sparked. They have these little bunches of words that fall into the sentence kind of fully born: 'He is the architect of a plan hammered out in wide-ranging discussions.'" RS: "Isn't written language different from spoken language? Not to defend these words, but -- " PAULA LaROCQUE: "I know you're not defending it, but here's what I think: no. The only thing that should be different between speech and writing is that writing can be more elegant, because you can edit it. You go back and look at the sentence. We don't have that luxury when we're speaking. But everything else should be the same. "For example, Avi, if you were going to tell me a story and you walked into my office, you would probably do a subject-verb-object sentence." AA: "That's right, that's the natural way people tend to speak." PAULA LaROCQUE: "And if we were working on the newspaper, I'd say 'That's really interesting, maybe you should do a story on that.' So you go out and sit at the computer and write something entirely different. You write something like 'Amid a firestorm of criticism, spawned on Thursday when ... ' "I mean, we know how to engage each other's interests, how to be dramatic without being melodramatic. We know how to deliver a message so that we're not boring, bewildering, annoying people -- in person. And yet we sit down and we write and we do bore, bewilder and annoy." AA: "And one last question. We're about to start a new academic year here in the United States and thousands of students from around the world will be attending classes and getting an introduction to academic American English. What suggestions would you offer them to prepare for the experience?" PAULA LaROCQUE: "When they sit down to write, if they wouldn't think about how I'm going to impress the reader, but only, or rather, how I'm going to get my message across in a pleasing and clear way. I'm not going to try to use a vocabulary that's not mine, because I know what will happen is, some of the words will be just a little bit off. "And in terms of writing itself, if they would just sit down and write something as a roadmap before sitting down at the computer and just putting a sentence into the thing and start writing that way. If you have a beginning, a middle and an end planned -- sometimes now we just simply sit down at the computer, we change things out, we treat paragraphs like interchangeable modules. It stops being organic with really firmly knit transitions between one paragraph that grows out of another. We put the last period on and we say we're done, without ever realizing that what we just wrote was a rough draft." RS: Writing coach Paula LaRocque. Her new book is called "On Words: Insight Into How Our Words Work -- and Don't." AA: You can learn much more about how American English works at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History: How Science and Technology Helped Shape '90s
* Byline: The last decade of the 20th century is often called one of the best periods in US history. There was peace. The economy grew. The Internet spread. But social problems included race riots in Los Angeles. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen nineties. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many experts describe the nineteen nineties as one of the best periods in United States history. During almost all that time, America was at peace. The frightening and costly military competition with the Soviet Union had ended. The threat of a nuclear attack seemed greatly reduced, if not gone. Military officials said America’s defenses were strong. A boy browses a Web site with a TV and wireless keyboard at a store in 1997The economy improved from poor to very good. Inflation was low. So was unemployment. Production was high. Scientists and engineers made major progress in medicine and technology. The Internet computer system created a new world of communications. VOICE TWO: America grew by almost thirty-three million people during the nineteen nineties. This is the most the United States has ever grown during a ten-year period. Some minority groups are growing faster than the white population. For the first time in seventy years, one in ten Americans was born in another country. During the past ten years, there was a huge increase in immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. More than two hundred eighty million people lived in the United States by the end of the twentieth century. This population was getting older, however, and needing more costly health care. And, America had other problems in the nineteen nineties. Some people feared crime in the streets. People were shot and killed in offices and schools. Divisions grew between rich people and poor people. Racial tensions remained high. In nineteen ninety-nine, Congress impeached the president of the United States. President Clinton was accused of lying to courts about a sexual relationship with a young woman who worked in the White House. Bill Clinton was found not guilty. Still, the trial and the events leading to it caused deep concern among some Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American families changed in the nineteen nineties. More people ended their marriages. The rate of these divorces increased. So did the percentage of children living with only one parent. Children in such families were more likely to be poor or get into trouble. Many American children did not live with their parents at all. The number of children living with grandparents increased greatly. Test scores and national studies during the nineteen nineties showed that many public school students were not learning as they should. The nation needed more and better teachers. VOICE TWO: Racial divisions in America were a continuing and serious problem. In nineteen ninety-one, an African-American man named Rodney King was fleeing from police in Los Angeles, California. The police had chased his speeding car for miles before stopping him. They say he reacted violently when they tried to seize him. Police officers beat and kicked Mister King as he lay on the ground. A man who lived nearby filmed the beating with a video camera. He took the video to a local television station. Soon people all over the country were watching the police repeatedly striking Rodney King. The four white police officers were arrested for their actions. They were tried outside Los Angeles at their request. A jury in a nearby wealthy, conservative community found them not guilty. Within a short time, angry African-Americans began rioting on the streets of Los Angeles. The unrest lasted three days. Fifty-five people died in the violence. More than two thousand others were injured. One thousand buildings lay in ruins. VOICE ONE: Another major court trial divided black people and white people. O.J. Simpson had been a football hero and an actor. In nineteen ninety-four, Simpson was accused of killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a male friend of hers. Simpson is African-American. Nicole Brown Simpson was white. Many legal experts believed the case against him was strong. Still, the mainly African-American jury judged him not guilty. Later, a mainly white jury found him guilty in a civil damage case. Studies showed that white people believed Mister Simpson had killed his former wife and her friend. Black people thought he was not guilty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen nineties, scientists worked to map the position of all the genes in the human body. Research on this human genome map progressed slowly at first. Then it speeded up. The goal was to help scientists study human health and disease. The discovery was expected to change the way some diseases are treated. Since nineteen eighty, doctors had made important progress in treating diseases like cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s disease. But they still could not cure them. They hoped treatments developed from knowledge of human genes would help. Computer technology also had progressed greatly in the nineteen eighties. During the next ten years computers became even more important in American life. People depended on computers both at work and at home. They used the Internet to send electronic messages, get information and buy all kinds of products. They completed and sent their income tax forms. They read newspapers and books. They even listened to music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans continued to attend classical music concerts and operas. However, many more people enjoyed popular music. One popular music form was called rap. Rap music is spoken quickly rather than sung to the music of recorded rhythms. Some rap songs suggest violent actions. Others contain sexual suggestions that many people found offensive. But rap music was very popular with many young people. So was a form of rock music called grunge. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen nineties, Americans watched traditional television programs as well as new kinds of shows. Millions of people liked weekly dramas like "ER" that takes place in a busy hospital emergency room. A program called “Law and Order” tells about the work of police officers, lawyers and judges. "NYPD Blue" shows the work of police officers in New York City. A show called “Seinfeld” also told about life in New York City. But this program was very funny. “Seinfeld” was the most popular television show of the decade. Another funny and popular show was the animated series called "The Simpsons." Cable television programs also grew in popularity. One of the most popular was MTV. It showed music videos and other programs for young people. At the movies, Americans saw popular films like “Titanic.” It told about the sinking of the famous passenger ship on its first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen twelve. Two young people are shown falling in love during this tragic event. Another popular film was “Jurassic Park.” It brought ancient, frightening dinosaurs to life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As usual, Americans enjoyed sports. Public interest in baseball decreased sharply, however, after a players’ strike in nineteen ninety-four. The strike cancelled the championship World Series games that year. In nineteen ninety-eight, interest in baseball increased when two great players competed to hit the most home runs. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire helped restore the popularity of baseball. In basketball, experts say Michael Jordan became the best player in history. He led the Chicago Bulls team to win many championships. VOICE TWO: As the nineteen nineties ended, some experts worried about computers making the change to the year two thousand. They feared that computer failures might cause serious problems for everyday life. But midnight of December thirty-first passed with only a few incidents of computer trouble. Millions of people celebrated the beginning of a new century and another one thousand years. Life in the nineteen nineties had been good for many Americans. They hoped for even better days to come. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Some (Adults) Call for Shorter Summer Break for US Kids
* Byline: Why American students traditionally get a long vacation. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The traditional American school year begins in late August or early September. It ends in May or June, followed by summer vacation. Why such a long break? Because long ago, young people had to help their families harvest the summer crops. At least this is what people today may think. The reason has more to it. A recent report from an education policy center at Indiana University explored the historical roots of the traditional school calendar. In the early days of the United States, children were not required by law to attend school. School calendars depended on local needs. Students in rural areas went to school for no more than six months of the year -- half in the summer, half in the winter. They worked on family farms during the other months. City schools were often open much longer, some for eleven months of the year. Parents were happy to have a place for their children to go while the parents worked. National leaders took a fresh look at schools after the Civil War, in the eighteen sixties. They saw a free public education as a way to help support a strong democracy and prepare workers for new industries. Immigration was increasing and so was the student population. More and more people saw the need for a system of required education. But they had different ideas for the calendar. Many city schools wanted a shorter year and a longer summer break. The schools were often crowded. There was no modern air conditioning and air pollution from factories was a problem. Hot days would make it difficult to learn. A long summer break would also give teachers time for other jobs to add to their low pay. Many rural educators, however, pushed for a longer school year. They thought it would keep children safe from industrial dangers at a time when there were few child-labor laws. They also thought it would lead to a better prepared workforce. So the traditional school calendar was a compromise, with roots that now go back about a century and a half. The average school year used to be one hundred seventy days. Times have not changed much. Today the common average is one hundred eighty days. But some experts think the traditional school calendar needs to change because the needs of the nation have changed. This thinking has led some schools to keep students in class longer. More on that next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: For Linda Blair, Life After 'The Exorcist' Includes Animal Rights Activism
* Byline: Also: The results are in from the Special English listener contest. And former Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss returns to music. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to music from Mary Weiss … Answer a question about American actress Linda Blair … And report about the recent Special English listener contest. Listener Contest HOST: The results of the Special English listener study are in. Many of you might have answered our announcement back in May. If you did, thank you for taking a few minutes to communicate with us. The information you provided will help Special English better understand who is listening to us, and how. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: We asked listeners to tell us when they listen to us and how: shortwave or medium wave radio frequency, by satellite or on the Internet. We received just over one thousand letters and e-mails. They came from ninety-nine countries all around the world. More than three hundred responses came from East Asia. More than two hundred sixty came from Africa. The largest number came from listeners in China, followed by Nigeria. Most of our fans are listening to Special English by shortwave, followed closely by the Internet. Here are quotes from some of the e-mails we received: Orlando in Venezuela told us that he listens to Special English every night on his shortwave radio and also downloads the text of our programs from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. He says he is learning to write and read and hear in English and each day is better than the day before. Mohsen from Iran wrote that he has been listening to our programs for more than ten years. He is now an English teacher and recommends our programs to his students. He also uses materials from our Web site to teach his students about the culture, history, people and language of the United States. Joanna from Poland told us that she also uses our Web site. “I can read the text, check the meaning of the words and I can hear the pronunciation... Thank you very much for very interesting information.” We wish we could read on the air all the wonderful messages we received. We also wish we could give every person who responded a shortwave radio. But, only one lucky person wins the radio. That person is Nguyen Kim Vu Bao, an eighteen-year-old student from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Vu Bao wrote a letter saying he has never missed any of our programs since he first discovered our broadcasts on the radio more than a year ago. Twenty other listeners will receive smaller VOA gifts. We want to thank everyone who took part in our study and hope you all will keep listening to Special English. Linda Blair HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Ivan Crespo wants to know what actress Linda Blair has done since she starred in the nineteen seventy-three movie “The Exorcist.” In that famous movie, Linda Blair played a child who becomes possessed by the devil. The movie was very successful. The thirteen-year-old actress was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Today, most people know that the scary parts of "The Exorcist" were done with special effects. But Linda Blair says: "You would not believe how often people ask me to make my head spin around." After ”The Exorcist,” she starred in other movies, playing troubled teenagers. She also starred in the sequel to the movie that made her famous, “Exorcist Two, the Heretic.”? But it was not very successful. In the nineteen eighties she was in several other movies that were not very popular. She also dated the singer Rick James. Some people have said that James wrote his popular song “Cold Blooded” about their relationship. In nineteen ninety, Blair made fun of "The Exorcist" in the movie “Repossessed.”? She also appeared on some television shows. In two thousand one, she hosted the show “The Scariest Places on Earth.” Linda Blair always loved riding horses. In the nineteen eighties she competed in Actress Linda Blair appearing in support of pit bull owners in Sacramento, California, in 2005horse-riding events. She has a long history of helping animals. In fact, as a young girl, she had wanted to become a veterinarian, a doctor who treats animals. She has received many awards from the animal rights organization PETA. The City of Los Angeles honored her for her work with abused and lost animals. She also began the Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation. This organization provides animals with health care, food, training and shelter. It also helps people learn how to care for animals, so that fewer of them will be left alone or hurt in the future. Mary Weiss (MUSIC) HOST: That was "Leader of the Pack," a nineteen sixty-four hit song by the Shangri-Las. The four girls in this popular group were only about sixteen years old when they started making records in Queens, New York. Their songs expressed the ups and downs of being a teenager. Now, more than forty years later, the band’s lead singer Mary Weiss has returned to music. Her new album is called “Dangerous Game.”? Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was the album’s title song, “Dangerous Game.” Mary Weiss worked with the music band Reigning Sound to make her record. They did not want to copy the music of the Shangri-Las. Mary Weiss said that nobody wants to go back to the past. But she did want to keep the style of the past in her record. She said her favorite song on her album is “Break it One More Time.” (MUSIC) Mary Weiss’s deep, smoky voice has changed a lot since she was a teenager. She says she is always surprised to learn how many people still listen to her old songs. Now, people can listen to her new songs. Mary Weiss has said she learned what kinds of music young people are listening to through the social networking Web site, MySpace. She even created her own MySpace page. We leave you with “Cry About the Radio.” This song criticizes the workings of the music industry. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Erin Braswell, Dana Demange and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Recalls Add to Pressure on Toy Industry
* Byline: Mattel, the world's biggest toy company, has urged parents to return millions of products because of risk from small magnets, lead paint. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Parents know about supply and demand. What they supply is not always what children demand. Toymakers have the same problem. These days, they not only face greater competition --?kids have more entertainment choices than ever. But parents could also become more choosey. Last week, the world’s largest toy company announced the largest recall in its history. Mattel is recalling more than eighteen million toys that contain small, powerful magnets. These can cause serious injury if swallowed. One death has already been reported. The toys were made over the past five years based on Mattel designs that the company says have now been improved. Mattel combined its announcement with a separate recall of more than four hundred thousand toy cars. Mattel said the manufacturer, Lee Der Industrial in China, used lead-based paint without permission. Chinese media said the company owner hanged himself. The 'Sarge' vehicle recalled because of lead paint The vehicles are based on the "Sarge" character in the movie "Cars." Mattel is based in California but makes about sixty-five percent of its products in China. The company promises greater testing. On August first, Mattel recalled almost one million toys from its Fisher-Price division because of lead paint. That recall cost the company thirty million dollars. Other companies have also recalled children's products. Last week Toys "R" Us recalled baby bibs made in China. Independent tests showed that the vinyl bibs contained high levels of lead. The seller of a simple test for lead in products has seen its sales jump. The kit from Homax can be found in stores including home improvement centers. Homax's Donald Hamm says the company is receiving five or six calls each day from businesses wanting to sell the LeadCheck kit. The company has now set up a Web site to sell directly to the public, at leadtesttoys.com. China has formed a cabinet-level committee to improve the quality and safety of its exports. This follows a number of recalls around the world. But China has also criticized the quality of some American imports. And it has accused the United States and the European Union of trade protectionism. The American toy industry is worth an estimated twenty-two billion dollars. Eighty percent of the toys are made in China. But now several companies that still make toys in the United States are reporting increased sales. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. ----- Correction: Lee Der Industrial?was involved in Mattel's first recall of lead-painted toys in August, not the second, as reported. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Dangerous Weather, Unforgiving Seas Add Up to Deadliest Job
* Byline: Commercial fishermen have the highest rate of deadly injuries among US workers. Pilots and flight engineers had the second highest in 2006. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Two tragedies at coal mines on opposite sides of the world remind us all how dangerous some jobs can be. In China last week, floodwaters from a river trapped one hundred eighty-one miners in two mines. An official in Shandong province said Thursday that there was no hope of finding them alive. Almost five thousand people died in coal mine accidents last year in China. The Crandall Canyon mine in the American state of Utah collapsed on August sixth, trapping six miners. Last week, another collapse at the mine killed three rescuers and injured six others. Coal mining deaths have been decreasing in the United States. But last year there were forty-seven, more than double the number the year before. Twelve of the deaths resulted from an explosion at the Sago mine in West Virginia. The Labor Department has a newly published report on work-related deaths last year in the United States. The construction industry had the largest number. But the single deadliest job in the United States is commercial fisherman. Fifty-one workers in the fishing industry were killed, a rate of about one hundred forty-two deaths for every one hundred thousand workers. It was by far the highest rate of deaths when compared with other jobs. A popular television program on the Discovery Channel, "Deadliest Catch," takes people inside the dangerous world of professional fishing. NARRATOR: "A boat with a full stack of pots is at its most vulnerable. When loaded, the [Alaskan crab boat] Time Bandit will have one hundred ten thousand pounds of steel stacked above deck, increasing the risk of rollover. In the past, the combination of top-heavy boats and rough seas has consistently led to tragedy." FISHERMAN: "We're laying way over on our side! Five people on the boat, repeat, five people." In all, the Labor Department says five thousand seven hundred three people in the United States died from work-related injuries last year. There were thirty-one fewer deaths than the year before. And the death rate was the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting this information in nineteen ninety-two. But deadly injuries increased in some jobs. Aircraft-related deaths were up sharply. Pilots and flight engineers had the second highest death rate of all jobs last year. The third highest was among workers who cut down trees. Other jobs with high death rates were iron and steel workers, waste collectors and farmers and other agricultural workers. Power-line workers, roofers and professional drivers also had high death rates. Road accidents were down last year but were still the most common cause of work-related deaths in America. Congress approved mine-safety reforms last year after the Sago disaster. But mine operators have another two years to put in place two-way communication and tracking devices to help locate trapped miners. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Nellie Bly, 1864-1922: Newspaper Reporter Used Unusual Methods to Investigate and Write About Illegal Activities in New York City
* Byline: She also was famous for traveling around the world in seventy-six days. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about a reporter of more than one hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year was eighteen eighty-seven. The place was New York City. A young woman, Elizabeth Cochrane, wanted a job at a large newspaper. The editor agreed, if she would investigate a hospital for people who were mentally sick and then write about it. Elizabeth Cochrane decided to become a patient in the hospital herself. She used the name Nellie Brown so no one would discover her or her purpose. Newspaper officials said they would get her released after a while. To prepare, Nellie put on old clothes and stopped washing. She went to a temporary home for women. She acted as if she had severe mental problems. She cried and screamed and stayed awake all night. The police were called. She was examined by doctors. Most said she was insane. VOICE TWO: Nellie Brown was taken to the mental hospital. It was dirty. Waste material was left outside the eating room. Bugs ran across the tables. The food was terrible: hard bread and gray-colored meat. Nurses bathed the patients in cold water and gave them only a thin piece of cloth to wear to bed. During the day, the patients did nothing but sit quietly. They had to talk in quiet voices. Yet, Nellie got to know some of them. Some were women whose families had put them in the hospital because they had been too sick to work. Some were women who had appeared insane because they were sick with fever. Now they were well, but they could not get out. Nellie recognized that the doctors and nurses had no interest in the patients' mental health. They were paid to keep the patients in a kind of jail. Nellie stayed in the hospital for ten days. Then a lawyer from the newspaper got her released. VOICE ONE: Five days later, the story of Elizabeth Cochrane's experience in the hospital appeared in the New York World newspaper. Readers were shocked. They wrote to officials of the city and the hospital protesting the conditions and patient treatment. An investigation led to changes at the hospital. Elizabeth Cochrane had made a difference in the lives of the people there. She made a difference in her own life too. She got her job at the New York World. And she wrote a book about her experience at the hospital. She did not write it as Nellie Brown, however, or as Elizabeth Cochrane. She wrote it under the name that always appeared on her newspaper stories: Nellie Bly. VOICE TWO: The child who would grow up to become Nellie Bly was born during the Civil War, in eighteen sixty-four, in western Pennsylvania. Her family called her Pink. Her father was a judge. He died when she was six years old. Her mother married again. But her new husband drank too much alcohol and beat her. She got a divorce in eighteen seventy-nine, when Pink was fifteen years old. Pink decided to learn to support herself so she would never need a man. Pink, her mother, brothers and sisters moved to a town near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pink worked at different jobs but could not find a good one. One day, she read something in the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper. The editor of the paper, Erasmus Wilson, wrote that it was wrong for women to get jobs. He said men should have them. Pink wrote the newspaper to disagree. She said she had been looking for a good job for about four years, as she had no father or husband to support her. She signed it "Orphan Girl". VOICE ONE: The editors of the dispatch liked her letter. They put a note in the paper asking "Orphan Girl" to visit. Pink did. Mister Wilson offered her a job. He said she could not sign her stories with her real name, because no woman writer did that. He asked news writers for suggestions. One was Nellie Bly, the name of a girl in a popular song. So Pink became Nellie Bly. For nine months, she wrote stories of interest to women. Then she left the newspaper because she was not permitted to write what she wanted. She went to Mexico to find excitement. She stayed there six months, sending stories to the Dispatch to be published. Soon after she returned to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, she decided to look for another job. Nellie Bly left for New York City and began her job at the New York World. VOICE TWO: As a reporter for the New York World, Nellie Bly investigated and wrote about illegal activities in the city. For one story, she acted as if she was a mother willing to sell her baby. For another, she pretended to be a woman who cleaned houses so she could report about illegal activities in employment agencies. Today, a newspaper reporter usually does not pretend to be someone else to get information for a story. Most newspapers ban such acts. But in Nellie Bly's day, reporters used any method to get information, especially if they were trying to discover people guilty of doing something wrong. Nellie Bly's success at this led newspapers to employ more women. But she was the most popular of the women writers. History experts say Nellie Bly was special because she included her own ideas and feelings in everything she wrote. They say her own voice seemed to speak on the page. Nellie Bly's stories always provided detailed descriptions. And her stories always tried to improve society. Critics said Nellie Bly was an example of what a reporter can do, even today. She saw every situation as a chance to make a real difference in other people's lives as well as her own. VOICE ONE: Nellie Bly may be best remembered in history for a trip she took. In the eighteen seventies, French writer Jules Verne wrote the book “Around the World in Eighty Days.” It told of a man's attempt to travel all around the world. He succeeded. In real life, no one had tried. By eighteen eighty-eight, a number of reporters wanted to do it. Nellie Bly told her editors she would go even if they did not help her. But they did. VOICE TWO: Nellie Bly left New York for France on November fourteenth, eighteen eighty-nine. She met Jules Verne at his home in France. She told him about her plans to travel alone by train and ship around the world. From France she went to Italy and Egypt, through South Asia to Singapore and Japan, then to San Francisco and back to New York. Nellie Bly's trip created more interest in Jules Verne's book. Before the trip was over, “Around the World in Eighty Days” was published again. And a theater in Paris had plans to produce a stage play of the book. VOICE ONE: Back home in New York, the World was publishing the stories Bly wrote while travelling. On days when the mail brought no story from her, the editors still found something to write about it. They published new songs written about Bly and new games based on her trip. The newspaper announced a competition to guess how long her trip would take. The prize was a free trip to Europe. By December second, about one hundred thousand readers had sent in their estimates. Nellie Bly arrived back where she started on January twenty-fifth, eighteen ninety. It had taken her seventy-six days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. She was twenty-five years old. And she was famous around the world. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Cochrane died in New York in nineteen twenty-two. She was fifty-eight years old. In the years since her famous trip, she had married, and headed a business. She also had helped poor and homeless children. And she had continued to write all her life for newspapers and magazines as Nellie Bly. One newspaper official wrote this about her after her death: “Nellie Bly was the best reporter in America. More important is the work of which the world knew nothing. She died leaving little money. What she had was promised to take care of children without homes, for whom she wished to provide. Her life was useful. She takes with her from this Earth all that she cared about -- an honorable name, the respect and affection of her fellow workers, the memory of good fights well fought and many good deeds never to be forgotten. Happy the man or woman that can leave as good a record.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Nancy Steinbach. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mercy Corps Seeks to Expand Its Services
* Byline: Youth development and climate change are among new areas of interest for US-based humanitarian aid group. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Often, when a natural disaster strikes, one of the first groups to offer help is Mercy Corps. This American nonprofit organization has assisted people in more than one hundred countries. It grew out of the Save the Refugees Fund. A man named Dan O'Neill started that organization in nineteen seventy-nine. He wanted to help Cambodians who fled the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Soon, he established Mercy Corps with the help of another man, Ellsworth Culver. Today it has programs in more than thirty countries. Joy Portella is the head of communications for Mercy Corps. She says the strengths of the group lie, first of all, in emergency relief services. For example, Mercy Corps partnered with a local aid group to provide help to families affected by the deadly earthquake this month in Peru. Mercy Corps also works in areas of conflict such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur, Sudan. In Iraq, the group says it is helping populations to identify their rights and work for economic independence. Mercy Corps also supports microlending, small business development and technical assistance. And Mercy Corps is expanding its programs in areas of civil society building and democracy. A congressman has nominated the group for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Its leaders hope to expand into several new areas. These include youth development, climate change issues and poverty reduction through technology. Charity Navigator, an independent group that rates American charities, has given its highest rating to Mercy Corps. The American Institute of Philanthropy says Mercy Corps could be more open in reporting which groups receive its donated goods and how those goods are used. But it says the financial performance of Mercy Corps is excellent. A big help is the fact that the group does not have to spend as much to raise money compared to many other charities. More than half of its budget comes from the United States government. Mercy Corps had a budget last year of two hundred twenty million dollars. The group employs more than three thousand people. About fifty percent are Muslim and about ninety percent are citizens of the countries where they work. Joy Portella at Mercy Corps says the group has learned the importance of working with local people who have expert knowledge of a country and its culture. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Two Years After Katrina, Revisiting New Orleans, and Its Struggles
* Byline: Progress continues, but concerns are raised about the physical as well as the mental recovery from the floods. ''There's no way you can tell me to get over it,'' says one man. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Two years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Floodwalls around New Orleans, Louisiana, failed. Soon, eighty percent of the city was underwater. VOICE ONE: Today New Orleans is making progress. But it still faces major problems as people work to rebuild their homes and their lives. (MUSIC) RAY NAGIN: "Our city was totally devastated after Katrina. And after two years we are still trying to recover. But our citizens, they continue to suffer." VOICE TWO: That was New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, speaking this month at a congressional hearing in Washington. Mayor Nagin continues to meet with federal and state officials about ways to rebuild his city and help its citizens. He has expressed dissatisfaction with levels of financial help for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. RAY NAGIN: "I implore, I ask, I beg this committee to really do something to help us. VOICE ONE: Congress has already approved tens of billions of dollars in Gulf Coast aid. That includes seven billion dollars for the Army Corps of Engineers to repair the city's flood protection system. Last week federal officials described proposals for an additional seven and a half billion dollars of improvements by two thousand eleven. They say the plan would sharply reduce the chances of a repeat of what happened after Katrina. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Hurricane Katrina hit land three times in the final days of August of two thousand five. Its third landfall, on August twenty-ninth, was the one that caused the most damage by breaking through the flood barriers. Katrina was blamed for almost one thousand seven hundred deaths. Most of the deaths happened in Louisiana. It was the most costly hurricane in American history with estimates of at least eighty-one billion dollars in property damage. Whole communities were destroyed. VOICE ONE: The floodwaters in New Orleans tore through areas including some of the poorest in the city, such as the Lower Ninth Ward. Local resident Glen Madison expresses his dissatisfaction with the way officials are dealing with the problems in the Lower Ninth Ward. GLEN MADISON: "Instead of sending all that money over there -- more troops. What about us? Because most of the damage was right here. The Lower, Lower Ninth Ward. Had more damage than anybody. And this is the last place they dealing with when it should have been the first." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rebuilding has begun. But workers have yet to clear away many of the homes and other buildings wrecked by the storm. Thousands of people are still living in trailers provided as emergency housing by the government. But there are concerns that the trailers may be making some people sick. The people have reported headaches, nosebleeds and other problems. Officials have been investigating reports that the cause may be high levels of formaldehyde used in building materials. That chemical gives off a gas that can cause breathing difficulties. But there are no national rules about acceptable levels of formaldehyde in trailers. Still, hundreds of people in Louisiana are taking legal action against trailer manufacturers. They accuse them of providing the government with poorly built trailers. Some families in Louisiana and Mississippi have asked to be moved out of their temporary housing because of the concerns. Government officials say they are working to move people from trailers to hotels and other places. VOICE ONE: Many homeowners are still waiting for insurance payments or government help to rebuild. And many people are dissatisfied with a state program, financed mainly by the federal government, called Road Home. This program was designed to help aid the citizens of New Orleans in rebuilding their homes. Homeowners could be approved to receive as much as one hundred fifty thousand dollars to rebuild their home. Or the government could buy their property. As of now, the program is five billion dollars short of what is needed. Residents like Lucas Simmons question if the money is being spent properly. LUCAS SIMMONS: "They keep putting it on the back burner. Then they claim and come back later and say ‘Oh look, we short.’ I guess you is short if you steady lacing everybody’s pocket that don’t need it from the ones that need it. They ain't getting no help." VOICE TWO: Lucas Simmons says two years later, some people do not really understand the lasting mental effect of Katrina and the floods. LUCAS SIMMONS: "Lot of them, they didn’t lose nothing but they always saying ‘Get over it.’ I lost everything. There's no way you can tell me to get over it." VOICE ONE: The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, told lawmakers that he has received shocking reports from city health officials. One report said that since Katrina, New Orleans had seen a forty-seven percent increase in deaths. The medical examiner says there is no question that the after-effects of Katrina are killing people. Stress levels are extremely high and Mayor Nagin said resources for mental health care are limited. Before Katrina, New Orleans had around four hundred fifty thousand people. Many left after the storm. Large numbers relocated to Texas. But in the last two years, thousands of people have returned to New Orleans. Mayor Nagin said the population now is about three hundred thousand. VOICE TWO:Recently a congressional delegation traveled to parts of the Gulf Coast for a two-day visit. The lawmakers promised to work with state and local governments to set goals and time limits to improve health care. That includes mental health services. The lawmakers also said their visit to Louisiana will help them decide what to do about the financially troubled Road Home program. In addition to the federal government, state governments have also provided money for Gulf Coast recovery efforts. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year, HBO television showed a documentary by movie director Spike Lee called "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts." (SOUND) The four-part movie centered on the Lower Ninth Ward. Jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard wrote and performed for the film. But his connection with the project was far more involved. He had lived in the Lower Ninth Ward for sixteen years. His family's home was among those destroyed. His family lost everything. Earlier this month Terence Blanchard released an album called "A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina.)" The songs on the album express the pain caused by the disaster two years ago. This song "Levees" does not need any words to describe feelings both of deep sadness and inner strength. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Undoing the damage to New Orleans after Katrina has been slow in some cases but not so slow in others. Officials of the city known as the Big Easy are proud to talk about the progress that has been made. For example, crowds have returned to traditions like the yearly Mardi Gras parades. Resident Glen Madison says the hurricane may have destroyed parts of New Orleans but not the spirit of its people. GLEN MADISON: "You have mishaps and this is one of those things that just happen. So you just got to regroup and survive." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. To learn more about American life, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-09-05-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Baseball Terms: This Is a Whole New Ballgame
* Byline: Rounding the bases in a game of ball. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Baseball is America’s national sport. So it is not unusual that many popular expressions come from baseball. But first, let me explain a little about the game. Each baseball team has nine players. The pitcher of one team throws the ball to a batter from the other team. The batter attempts to hit the ball. If he misses, it is called a strike. If a batter gets three strikes, he loses his turn at bat and is called out. The batter also is out if he hits the ball in the air and an opposing player catches it. But if the batter hits the ball and it is not caught, the batter tries to run to one or more of the four bases on the field. The batter can run to all four bases if he hits the ball over the fence or out of the ballpark. Such a hit is called a homerun. Now, here are some common expressions from baseball. Someone who is on the ball is intelligent and able to do a good job. But a person who threw a curve ball did something unexpected. Someone who steps up to the plate is ready to do his or her job. A pinch hitter takes the place of someone else at a job or activity. A person who strikes out or goes down swinging attempted something but failed. We also might tell the person that three strikes and you are out. But someone who hit a homerun or? hit it out of the park did something extremely well. Sometimes I have to give information quickly, without time to think it over. Then I would say something right off the bat. If someone is doing an extremely good job and is very successful, you might say he or she is batting one thousand. If I say I want to touch base with you, I will talk to you from time to time about something we plan to do. I might say I touched all the bases if I did what is necessary to complete a job or activity. And if I covered my bases I was well prepared. However, someone who is way off base did something wrong or maybe even dishonest or immoral. A person with strange ideas might be described as out in left field. Let us say I want to sell my car but I do not know exactly how much it is worth. If someone asks me the price, I might give a ballpark figure or a ballpark estimate. If someone offers me an amount that is close to my selling price, I might say the amount is in the ballpark. However, if I say we are not in the same ballpark, I mean we cannot agree because my ideas are too different from yours. Finally, when a situation changes completely, we say that is a whole new ballgame. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Shelley Gollust. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Obesity as a Social Disease? How Friendship Could Be Fattening
* Byline: Also: An explanation of allergic reactions and their treatments. And the game of checkers has a new champion. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we will tell how friendship could be fattening. We also will tell about allergic reactions and their treatments. And, we report on a computer program that has solved a popular game. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When one person gains weight, close friends often do, tooResearchers say they have found that fatness can spread from person to person in social groups. When one person gains weight, close friends often gain weight, too. The study was published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers looked at records from the Framingham Heart Study. It gathered health information about more than twelve thousand people from nineteen seventy-one to two thousand three. The information was very detailed. It listed changes in the body-mass index for each individual. The body mass index measures a person's body fat. The Framingham study also provided information about changes in family and events like marriages and deaths. There was also contact information for close friends of the subjects in the study. As a result, the researchers were able to examine more than forty thousand social ties. VOICE TWO: The study showed that when a person becomes severely overweight, there is a fifty-seven percent increased chance that one of their friends will be, too. A sister or brother of the overweight person has a forty percent increased chance of becoming fat. The increased risk for a wife or husband is a little less than that. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School was a lead investigator in the study. He says his research showed that fat people are not choosing fat friends. He says there is a direct causal relationship between a person getting fat and being followed in weight gain by a friend. VOICE ONE: The study found that the sex of the friends is also an influence. In same-sex friendships, a person has a seventy-one percent increased risk of getting fat. The same was true for brothers and sisters separately. A man has a forty-four percent increased risk of becoming obese after a weight gain in his brother. In sisters, the increased risk is sixty-seven percent. The study also showed that physical closeness of family members and friends did little to increase a person's risk. The other lead investigator was James Fowler of the University of California at San Diego. Mister Fowler says a friend who lives a few hundred kilometers away has as much influence as one in your neighborhood. He says the study demonstrates the need to consider that a major part of a person’s health is tied to his or her social connections. VOICE TWO: Doctor Christakis and Mister Fowler say close friends probably influence what a person finds acceptable and unacceptable. So if a friend gets fat, the condition becomes more acceptable. Both investigators agree their research shows that obesity is not just a private medical issue, but a public health problem. The researchers say more studies into the idea of socially spread obesity could provide new ways to fight fat. If friends help make fatness acceptable, then they might also be influential in the fight against obesity. The researchers note that support groups are already an effective tool in dealing with other socially influenced health problems, like alcohol dependence. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Pollen, as seen using an electron microscopeAn allergy is an unusually strong reaction to a substance. Many things can cause allergies. The most common cause is pollen. Trees usually produce pollen in the spring as part of their reproductive process. Pollen also comes in grasses in the summer and weeds in the fall. Other causes include organisms such as dust mites and molds. Chemicals, plants and dead skin particles from dogs and cats can also cause allergic reactions. So can insect bites and some foods. The most common kind of allergic reaction is itchy, watery eyes and a blocked or watery nose. Allergies can also cause red, itchy skin. Some reactions can be life-threatening -- for example, when breathing passages become blocked. VOICE TWO: Avoiding whatever causes an allergy may not always be easy. Antihistamine drugs may offer an effective treatment. Another treatment is called immunotherapy. A patient is injected with small amounts of the allergy-causing substance. The idea is that larger and larger amounts are given over time until the patient develops a resistance to the allergen. In the United States, experts estimate that up to four percent of adults and up to eight percent of young children have food allergies. Every year these allergies cause about thirty thousand cases of anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that requires immediate treatment. It can result in trouble breathing and in some cases death. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says one hundred to two hundred people die. It says most of the reactions resulted from peanuts and tree nuts such as walnuts. VOICE ONE: People can also be allergic to medicines. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says about five to ten percent of bad reactions to commonly used medicines are allergic. So, a person's natural defense system overreacts and produces an allergic reaction. The most common reactions include skin rashes, itching, breathing problems and temporary enlargement of areas such as the face. But the academy estimates that allergic reactions to drugs cause one hundred six thousand deaths each year in the United States alone. It says antibiotics such as penicillin are among the drugs more likely than others to produce allergic reactions. So are anticonvulsants and hormones such as insulin. Other kinds include some anesthesia medicines, vaccines and biotechnology-produced proteins. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The game of checkers is popular in many countries. In Britain, the game is better known as draughts. Perhaps you feel like playing a game now? But do not plan on winning if you play against a computer program named Chinook. Scientists in Canada developed the computer program. No one has ever defeated Chinook. At best, a player who makes no mistakes would tie the computer program. Chinook represents an important development in computer programming and the area of study known as artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence uses science to understand and create systems of thought and behavior in machines. VOICE ONE: The Chinook project began in nineteen eighty-nine. Jonathan Schaeffer is a computer scientist with the University of Alberta. He wanted to create a program that could defeat a World Checkers Champion. To do this, he talked to expert checker players about their methods for winning. Professor Schaeffer created a computer program with information about the rules of the game, and successful and unsuccessful moves. Then, he and his team carefully corrected and improved the program. For eighteen years, about fifty computers worked without stop on the five hundred billion-billion possible positions in a game of checkers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-two, Chinook played against the World Checkers Champion Marion Tinsley. Mister Tinsley won against the computer program. They played again two years later, but he had to withdraw because of poor health. Mister Tinsley is thought to be the greatest checkers player who ever lived. He only lost three games in forty-one years of competition. Experts will never know if the earlier version of Chinook could have defeated Mister Tinsley. But he was a human being, and could make mistakes. Chinook, in its latest version, has avoided the possibility of mistake. VOICE ONE: Chinook is not the first program to solve a game. For example, there are programs that have yet to lose at the games of Connect Four and Awari. But checkers is by far more complex. Checkers is about one million times more complex than Connect Four. Chinook must make complex decisions in a large and complex space with many possible positions. Professor Schaeffer says his team has taken the knowledge used in artificial intelligence programs to an extreme level. He says he has replaced human decision making with perfect knowledge. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Dana Demange, Mario Ritter and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: China Sees Control of Pig Disease
* Byline: Officials report big drop in blue-ear virus between June and July. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The government of China says much progress has been made in efforts to control the spread of blue-ear pig disease. Government officials said last week that forty-seven thousand pigs were infected in July. That was down more than fifty percent from the number reported for June. The name for the virus comes from the fact that infected pigs can temporarily develop discolored ears. The scientific name is porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome. China has an estimated five hundred million pigs. An Agriculture Ministry spokesman said more than one hundred million pigs have been given vaccine to prevent the disease. The spokesman said two hundred fifty-seven thousand pigs were infected with the virus this year. Sixty-eight thousand of them died. Many more were destroyed. An Agriculture Ministry official said the outbreak involves a form of the virus that is unusually deadly to pigs. Vietnam also has reported recent cases of blue-ear disease. The disease causes reproductive failure in female pigs and breathing difficulties in young pigs. Older pigs may also be affected. Signs of the disease can include high fever and cases of pneumonia. Pigs weakened by the virus are more likely to get bacterial infections. An outbreak of infectious disease killed as many as one million pigs in China last year. China's top veterinary health official said this past June that blue-ear disease was the cause of most of those deaths. China reported the outbreak to the World Organization for Animal Health last September. The World Organization for Animal Health says the disease happens in most major pig-producing areas of the world. The disease was first recognized in nineteen eighty-seven in the United States. Three years later it appeared in western Europe and spread quickly. The agency says the disease does not seem to affect animals other than pigs. Experts say they do not know of any cases of humans who have gotten the pig disease. China is the world's largest producer of pigs. Supply shortages have driven up pork prices this year in China. Still, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said this month that China exported sixty-two thousand metric tons of pork in the first half of the year. That compared with pork exports of two hundred forty-six tons for all of last year. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For more stories about agriculture, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Dry Tortugas: Off the Florida Coast, a Most Unusual National Park
* Byline: One of the islands was once a prison. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember visit one of the must unusual national parks in the United States. It is called the Dry Tortugas National Park. It includes seven very small islands about two hundred kilometers southwest of the southern state of Florida. One of the islands was once a prison. Let us begin our visit by imagining we are traveling back in time more than one hundred years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is the last few days of July in eighteen sixty-five. The United States Navy steamship Florida moves slowly toward a small island. Members of the crew tie the ship to the dock. Passengers begin to leave the ship. They move slowly in the extreme heat of the summer day. In front of them is a huge red brick building. The passengers walk over a small wooden bridge. It crosses an area of water that circles the huge building. They move slowly to the only door. They pass through the door and stop in front of a group of soldiers. VOICE TWO: An officer among the soldiers comes forward and tells the ship’s passengers to stop. He looks at the passengers and says: “You are now within the walls of the Fort Jefferson Military Prison in the Dry Tortugas. You have been tried, convicted and sentenced to serve your punishment here. “No prisoner has ever successfully escaped from Fort Jefferson. No one will ever escape. It is more than two hundred kilometers across open ocean to the nearest occupied land.” VOICE ONE: Four of the prisoners who arrived that long ago day had been found guilty of taking part in the successful plot to murder the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. One of the prisoners was sentenced for giving medical aid to the man who killed President Lincoln. He was also found guilty of being an active member of the plot. That man was Samuel Mudd. He was a thirty-two-year-old doctor from the eastern state of Maryland. He had been sentenced to spend the rest of his life doing hard labor at Fort Jefferson. VOICE TWO The huge red brick building that faced Doctor Mudd and the other prisoners had six sides. It took up most of the land area of the small island. The six wide walls surrounded a large area of open space in the center. Each wall was about fifteen meters tall. Inside the walls were hundreds of rooms. Most of them held huge guns that pointed out to sea. Many other buildings were also inside the huge fort. Soldiers slept in them. Some of the houses were used by the officers. Soldiers and prisoners worked and lived within the walls of the fort. The extreme heat affected them all. Hundreds of sea birds flew over the small island. Doctor Mudd must have believed that those birds would be the only creatures that would ever escape from Fort Jefferson. He must have believed that far away island would be his new home for a very long time. But he was wrong. VOICE ONE: In eighteen sixty-seven, Doctor Mudd was helping the prison doctor treat victims of the disease yellow fever. Many died. Soon, the prison doctor also lost his own battle with the disease. Only Doctor Mudd was left to treat the increasing number of men who became sick with Yellow Fever. Later, the sickness seemed to leave the island. Many of those who survived knew they owed their lives to Doctor Mudd. Almost every man in Fort Jefferson wrote to the President of the United States asking that Doctor Mudd be pardoned because of his work treating patients who had Yellow Fever. They said Doctor Mudd was a hero. In February eighteen sixty-nine, President Andrew Johnson signed a presidential pardon. Doctor Mudd was a free man. He left Fort Jefferson and returned to his home in the state of Maryland. He once again became a family doctor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first European visitor to the small islands was the Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon. He arrived in fifteen thirteen. Ponce de Leon was an older man who was searching for special water that stories said would make him young again. It was called the Fountain of Youth. Ponce de Leon named the little islands the Tortugas. Tortugas is the Spanish word for the sea creature called a turtle. Thousands of them lived on the islands. Ponce de Leon was able to capture many to provide fresh meat for his ship’s crew. He never did find the special water of the Fountain of Youth. In fact, the little islands had no water at all. The Tortugas were dry. The word “dry” began to appear on early maps of the area to warn ships they could find no fresh water there. VOICE ONE: President Thomas Jefferson took an interest in the little islands as a place that could help protect ships traveling in a large area of water called the Florida Straits. He proposed a military base be built there. In eighteen twenty-one, the United States took control of Florida and its islands. The military fort was not begun until eighteen forty-eight, long after Jefferson’s death. The fort was to be the home of one thousand five hundred men and four hundred fifty huge cannon. It would become the largest American fort made of brick building material. VOICE TWO: Fort Jefferson was never really completed. It had to be worked on continually. The salt air, wind, water and sand quickly caused problems. The weight of the brick walls made then sink into the sand. It was difficult to keep the fort in good repair. As workers built new parts of the fort, others worked at repairing damage caused by the environment. Slaves and prisoners did the building and repair work at the fort. Most of the prisoners were army troops. They had been found guilty of some crime and ordered to serve their sentences at Fort Jefferson. In eighteen seventy-four, the American army left Fort Jefferson. Modern artillery made the fort no longer useful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year, almost one hundred thousand people made the long trip to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park. Soldiers no longer greet them when they arrive at Fort Jefferson. Friendly members of the National Park Service do. They meet every boat filled with visitors. They smile and say: “Welcome to Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas National Park.” The small island’s days as a prison are long past. Yet almost every visitor to the Dry Tortugas National Park asks about its most famous prisoner, Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd. They ask to see his room. Most people know that Doctor Mudd did not end his life in the Fort Jefferson prison. VOICE TWO: Today, the huge prison walls are empty. Only a few of the huge cannon remain. These have been left to show visitors what the old fort looked like. The weather continues to affect the fort’s buildings and grounds. So Park Service workers continue the fight against the severe environmental damage. VOICE ONE: The park extends over an area of more than twenty-six thousand hectares. Almost all of this is ocean water and living coral reefs that protect the little islands. Thousands of different kinds of fish live in the waters near the islands. Many ships have sunk in those waters over the past several hundred years. Many are inside the area that is part of the national park. The wrecks of these ships help provide safe places for many of the fish. Some visitors are lucky enough to see the huge sea turtles that gave the islands their name. The little islands are also home to many kinds of sea birds. Visitors are not permitted on some of the islands in the Dry Tortugas National Park because they would frighten birds that are laying eggs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Fort Jefferson was a prison, a sign was placed on the wall for new prisoners to see. It said: “Thee Who Enter Here Leave Hope Behind.” Few prisoners except for Doctor Mudd had any hope of ever leaving there. Today the sad old fort and empty little islands provide a protected home for thousands of birds, fish and turtles. Visitors travel for hours on high-speed boats that bring them from the island of Key West, Florida. They swim in the warm waters and enjoy the bright sun. Many explore the underwater shipwrecks. Still others bring temporary cloth shelters and spend a few days living on the white sand beaches. The striking natural beauty of the island today seems to clash with its earlier history as a lonely, inescapable prison. Doctor Mudd surely would approve of the change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Wayne Shorter. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Worries Over Children and Lead
* Byline: Where you might find lead, the harm it can do, and some ways to avoid it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Lead poisoning is a danger especially to children under six years old. High levels of lead in their growing bodies can cause learning disabilities, behavioral problems, kidney disorders and other damage. Very high levels can be deadly. Currently, ten micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood is what federal health officials in the United States call a level of concern. Yet recent studies have suggested that children with less than that can still suffer harmful effects. Lead is a metal found in nature. It can also be found in toys and other products painted with lead-based paint. Lead is also used in some ceramic and vinyl products, candles, hair colorings and other goods. And it can be found in soil and air pollution from factories, power stations and the use of leaded fuel. Even in places where lead paint is banned, it may still exist in older housing. Young children may chew on lead-painted surfaces or breathe lead dust. Or babies might put pieces of old paint in their mouths. Experts say children and pregnant women should not be present during renovation work in housing that might have lead paint. Public health officials advise people to wash children's hands and toys regularly. Floors and other surfaces should be wet-cleaned every two to three weeks to remove dust that may contain lead. To avoid lead from water pipes, use cold water to prepare food and drinks. Hot water is more likely to contain lead. Also, run the water for fifteen to thirty seconds before drinking it, especially if the water has not been used for a few hours. The National Safety Council says a good diet can help children?reduce the amount of lead that the body absorbs. This includes foods rich in iron, like eggs and beans, and foods high in calcium, like milk, cheese and yogurt. Zinc can also help the body fight lead absorption. In nineteen seventy-eight the United States government banned the sale of lead-based paint for housing. It also banned lead-painted toys and other products meant for use by children. Recently the Environmental Protection Agency proposed additional measures to protect children from contact with lead. Builders would have to be trained in lead safety when working not only in older homes, but also places like child-care centers and preschools. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Debating Year-Round Education
* Byline: Some families and businesses oppose programs that keep schools open all year. Second of two reports about school calendars in the US. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we continue our discussion of school calendars as a new American school year begins. Some people say the traditional calendar of one hundred eighty days no longer meets the needs of American society. They point out that students in most other industrial countries are in school more hours a day and more days a year. Critics also say a long summer vacation causes students to forget much of what they learned. Schools are under pressure to raise test scores. Some have changed their calendars to try to improve student performance. They have lengthened the school day or added days to the year or both. This can be costly if schools need air conditioning on hot days and school employees need to be paid for the extra time. Local businesses may object to a longer school year because students are unable to work as long at summer jobs. Some schools have a year-round schedule. The school year is extended over twelve months. Instead of a long vacation, there are many short ones. The National Association of Year-Round Education says almost five percent of public school students attend year-round schools. It says almost all of the states have some public schools that are open all year. Some parts of the country had year-round programs in the nineteenth century, mostly for economic reasons. They felt it wasted money to use school buildings for only part of the year. Year-round programs can also reduce crowding in schools. In one version, students attend school for nine weeks and then have three weeks off. The students are in groups that are not all in school at the same time. Another year-round calendar has all students in school together for nine weeks and off for three. This is meant to provide the continuous learning that can be lost over a long break. But year-round schooling has opponents. They say it can cause problems for families when they want to make summer plans. And they say it interferes with activities outside school -- including summer employment. Some experts say no really good studies have been done to measure the effect of school calendars on performance. But some educators think year-round schooling especially helps students from poor families that lack educational support at home. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Supreme Court Ruling Decides the 2000 Presidential Election
* Byline: George W. Bush was declared the winner after several weeks of legal battles over the results in Florida. In the end, a divided high court said disputed ballots in that state should not be recounted. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the presidential election of two thousand. It was an event that few Americans would soon forget. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the year two thousand, the United States was preparing to elect a new president. Bill Clinton would finish his second term as president in January, two thousand one. The Constitution prevented him from competing for a third term. This meant Mister Clinton’s Democratic Party needed to choose a new candidate for president. The Democratic Party nominated Vice President Al Gore. Mister Gore had served almost eight years as vice president under President Clinton. Mister Gore chose Senator Joseph Lieberman of the state of Connecticut to compete for vice president. Mister Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in nineteen eighty-eight. He was the first Jewish person ever nominated for one of America’s top positions. VOICE TWO: Al Gore was born in Washington, D.C. in nineteen forty-eight. His father was a United States senator from the state of Tennessee. Young Al Gore grew up in Washington and in Carthage, Tennessee, where his family had a farm. Al Gore studied government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated in nineteen sixty-nine. His father opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam. But Al joined the Army during the war. He spent about six months of his service as a reporter in Vietnam. VOICE ONE: Back in civilian life, Mister Gore again worked as a reporter. Later he studied religion and then law. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in nineteen seventy-six. He became known for supporting nuclear arms control and protecting the environment. Mister Gore was elected to the United States Senate in nineteen eighty-four. He was re-elected six years later. He tried and failed to become the Democratic candidate for president in nineteen eighty-eight. Four years later, Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination. Mister Clinton chose Mister Gore as his vice presidential candidate. As vice president, Al Gore was praised for his work on the environment, technology and foreign relations. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party nominated a son of former President George Bush. They chose Governor George W. Bush of Texas as their candidate for president. Richard Cheney, a former secretary of defense, was chosen to compete for vice president. George W. Bush was born in the state of Texas in nineteen forty-six. He is the oldest child of former President Bush. The younger Mister Bush is often called “W” because his name is so similar to that of his father. George W. Bush grew up in the Texas cities of Midland and Houston. He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He studied business as a graduate student at Harvard University. George W. Bush was a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Later he worked in the oil and gas industry. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-eight, Mister Bush worked on his father’s successful campaign for president. Later, George W. Bush was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team. He was elected governor of Texas in nineteen ninety-four. He was re-elected four years later by a large majority. At Governor Bush’s urging, Texas legislators enacted measures to improve public schools. However, critics charged that public education in Texas was still very poor. And they said the state’s criminal justice policies supported by Mister Bush were too severe. For example, Texas executes more criminals than any other state. VOICE TWO: The candidates?debate in 2000Presidential candidates Gore and Bush disagreed on most major issues. For example, Al Gore said women should have the right to end unwanted pregnancies. He supported gun control and restrictions on tobacco sales. He supported higher wages for the lowest paid workers. Governor Bush opposed him on these issues. Governor Bush supported a plan to provide public money for students to attend private schools. And he supported investing taxes on government retirement money in private retirement plans. Mister Gore opposed these measures. VOICE ONE: Several other candidates also ran for president in the November seventh election. They represented small political parties. For example, activist Ralph Nader was the candidate of the Green Party. He criticized large corporations for having too much influence in America. Conservative Patrick Buchanan ran as the Reform Party candidate. Opinion studies showed that the race between the Republican and Democratic candidates was extremely close. VOICE TWO: On November seventh, two thousand, more than one hundred million people voted for either Mister Gore or Mister Bush. In this popular vote, Al Gore received more votes than George W. Bush. The final vote would show that Mister Gore received about five hundred forty thousand more votes than Mister Bush. But that alone did not make Mister Gore president of the United States. Americans do not vote directly for their presidents. They vote for electors to represent them in the Electoral College. The Electoral College then elects the president. Each state has at least three electors. The states with the most population have the most electors and the most electoral votes. In general, the candidate with the most votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes. There are five hundred thirty-eight electors in the electoral college. To become president, a candidate must win two hundred-seventy electoral votes. Neither Mister Gore nor Mister Bush had received that many electoral votes. No winner was declared because of the situation in the state of Florida. VOICE ONE: Florida had enough electoral votes to make either candidate the winner. The big southern state counted almost six million votes on November seventh. Mister Bush had slightly more votes than Mister Gore. But the election was still not over. Florida State law calls for a recount when the difference in votes between two candidates is less than one-half of one percent of the votes. This meant Florida had to count the votes again. State recounts normally involve the governor. But the Florida governor said he would not be involved. That is because Governor Jeb Bush is a brother of George W. Bush. VOICE TWO: The election in Florida involved several problems. Some voting machines counted the votes incorrectly. Some African Americans said election workers prevented them from voting. And, many supporters of Mister Gore in one area believed they had voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan by mistake. The names of Mister Buchanan and Al Gore were next to one another on the ballot. Democrats charged that the ballot design was illegal. But Republicans say Democratic officials never objected. VOICE ONE: Almost three weeks after the election, Florida declared Mister Bush the winner of the state’s twenty-five electoral votes. Florida election officials said Mister Bush won the popular vote in Florida by five hundred-thirty-seven votes. That total was out of six million ballots. But the election was still not over. Mister Gore and supporters in Florida protested the results. They asked the courts to reconsider because of what they called the many voting problems. The Florida Supreme Court ordered the disputed ballots counted again. This could have given Florida’s electoral votes to Mister Gore. The votes could have made him president. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court set aside a Florida high court ruling that permitted selective ballot recountsBush campaign officials quickly appealed to the United States Supreme Court. A majority of the high court justices declared the Florida court ruling unconstitutional. They said Florida law did not explain how officials should judge the ballots. They ruled that the disputed ballots should not be re-counted. The Supreme Court justices said not enough time remained to settle the problem before the Electoral College held its required meeting. On December eighteenth, two thousand, Electoral College members met in each state capital. They made the election official. George W. Bush became the forty-third president of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program of The Making of a Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Looking for the Best in a Fresh Crop of Graduates From Art School
* Byline: Also: A new presidential coin honors Thomas Jefferson. And a question from Burma about Linkin Park. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our program this week: We listen to music from the group Linkin Park … Visit a show by recent art school graduates … And report about the newest American coin. Thomas Jefferson Dollar HOST: Earlier this month, the United States Treasury Department released a new dollar coin. It is the third in a series that honors American Presidents. Steve Ember has more. STEVE EMBER: The new dollar coin honors Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president. The nation's first president, George Washington, was honored with a similar coin in February. A coin honoring second president John Adams appeared in May. And one honoring fourth president James Madison will follow in November. Congress created the program in the Presidential Dollar Coin Act of two thousand five. It calls for the secretary of the treasury to design and produce presidential dollar coins honoring each president in the order in which they served. Four coins will be released each year. The coins show the president and his years in office on one side. The other side shows the Statue of Liberty. he presidential coins are the same size and color as the golden dollar coin that honors the American Indian guide, Sacagawea. That coin was introduced seven years ago, but has not been very popular with the American public. Department of Treasury official Edmund Moy expects the presidential coins to be more popular. He told reporters the presidential coins have an educational value. They can teach the American public about past presidents. A study carried out last month found that the public does not really know much about the presidents. Only about thirty percent of Americans could name Thomas Jefferson as the nation's third president. Ninety-four percent knew that George Washington was the first president. But only seven percent could name the first four presidents in order. Mister Moy says another coin series already is helping educate Americans about their country. That is the fifty-state quarter program. Each twenty-five cent coin in that series honors an American state. The coins are released in the order in which each state became part of the United States. Reports say more than one hundred forty million people in the United States are collecting those state quarters. They are learning about American history and geography at the same time. Art Show HOST: For three years, Irvine Contemporary gallery in Washington, D.C., has been holding an exhibit for recent art school graduates. This year's show is called "Introductions Three." A group of art collectors examined the work of over two hundred fifty artist graduates. They invited eleven of the best new artists to take part in this year's show. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: 'Your Relentless Tenderness Is Our Prism Pivot Point' by Lauren ClayWhen you walk into Irvine Contemporary, the first piece of work that catches your eye is a tall sculpture. It looks like a pale purple building that is sitting on several green and blue geometric forms. It is made from carefully cut pieces of paper. Lauren Clay made the artwork. Near the sculpture are two of Miz Clay's paintings. She uses bright colors to paint extraordinarily detailed geometric shapes. She explores combining a traditionally female look to very simple geometric objects by painting them in bright colors or by adding paper decorations. Akemi Maegawa was born in Japan but now lives in Washington. Her sculpture is called "Wrapping Project-New Studio." It is a chair and table covered with many different kinds of tools and objects. All the objects are covered in pieces of white felt fabric. Miz Maegawa explores how the material changes common objects. For example, a sharp tool with shiny edges loses its threatening quality and becomes soft and rounded. Each object takes on a whole different form and role in her imaginary studio. Katie Lewis' work, "A Year's Progression," is made up of four forms of a woman's body. The first two look like they are made from small dots drawn in pencil on the wall. But if you look closely, you can see that she has created the shape of the body by writing very small dates in pencil. The other two forms are made up of sharp metal pins that stick into the wall. Miz Lewis carefully wrapped thin pieces of thread up and around the many pins. The art serves as maps of sensation and the body's nervous system. The drawn forms represent the loss of feeling, while the pins show the presence of pain. These are just a few of the interesting pieces in a show that brings the work of some of the best new artists to the nation's capital. Linkin Park HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Burma. Cho The asks about the group Linkin Park. Linkin Park has become one of the most successful heavy metal bands in the United States. Drummer Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, and singer Mike Shinoda formed the band in nineteen ninety-six while they were in high school in southern California. After they graduated, they added Joe Hahn and Dave "Phoenix" Farrell. Three years later, singer Chester Bennington joined the group. The band took the name Linkin Park after Lincoln Park in Santa Monica, California. The group joined with Warner Brother's Records. They released their first album, "Hybrid Theory," in two thousand. It was very successful around the world. "Hybrid Theory" sold over eight million copies in North America. It was the best-selling album of two thousand one in the United States. The group won the Grammy music award for best hard rock performance for this song, "Crawling." (MUSIC) Linkin Park's second album, "Meteora," was released in two thousand three. It was also very successful in the United States and was the number one hit in many countries. Experts say it is a mixture of the band's earlier sound with new effects and instruments. Here is the hit single "Somewhere I Belong." (MUSIC) Linkin Park postponed working on a new studio album for several years. Band members worked on different projects with other musicians. The band also performed in concerts to raise money for victims of hurricanes in the United States and the tsunami in Asia and for aid to Africa. The group's third album, "Minutes to Midnight," was released in May. It sold six hundred thousand copies in the first week. We leave you with that album's first single, "What I've Done." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Erin Braswell, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Mario Ritter was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-30-voa4.cfm
* Headline: How Bad Loans in US Have a Far Reach
* Byline: Investors around the world have bought debt securities based on risky mortgages as a way to earn higher returns. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. A listener in China named Turbo wonders why problems with subprime home loans in America can influence world markets. Subprime mortgages are loans to people who may not have enough money to repay them. These and other risky housing loans are often grouped with other mortgages and sold as debt investments. Investors all over the world have bought bonds and other securities based on subprime mortgages as a way to earn higher returns. Sometimes, the investors are banks that want to spread their risk by investing in several different countries. What happened in late July to a German bank, however, is an example of spreading risk with bad results. IKB Deutsche Industriebank had put money into American debt securities, including some based on subprime loans. Some of those loans started to fail. The bank was in danger of not being able to pay its short-term debts. Other German banks, led by the government-owned KfW Group, agreed to provide almost five billion dollars to aid IKB. In early August, the French bank BNP Paribas had to temporarily bar investors from withdrawing money from three investment funds. Their value dropped by twenty percent in less than two weeks. The bank blamed difficulties in valuing its holdings in the subprime market. Worries over subprime loans have hurt even some of the biggest lenders in the United States. On August sixteenth, the nation's biggest housing lender, Countrywide Financial, had to turn to banks to finance its short-term debt. Normally the company would raise the money in financial markets. Many took this as a sign that investors were becoming unwilling to provide short-term loans to companies. Especially companies involved with subprime loans. A shrinking debt market, a credit crunch, can affect stock markets. Not only have subprime losses hurt financial stocks. Many companies depend on credit. Private equity groups often use borrowed money to finance buyouts of publicly traded companies. Hedge funds also use borrowed money for their investment activities. In an effort to calm financial markets, the Federal Reserve two weeks ago cut the rate it charges banks to borrow money. Many investors hope the central bank will cut its main short-term interest rate when policymakers meet on September eighteenth. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-08/2007-08-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Turkey Gets a New President; Pakistan Waits and Wonders How Its Political Crisis Will End
* Byline: Abdullah Gul was sworn in as the 11th Turkish president, though military leaders boycotted the ceremony. Ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif announced he will return home on September 10 to oppose President Musharraf's re-election plans. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Abdullah Gul was sworn in this week as the eleventh president of Turkey. The fifty-six-year-old economist formerly served as foreign minister. Abdullah Gul after his electionHe easily won the election in parliament on Tuesday. But his victory came after four months of dispute over the idea of a president with an Islamic past. Mister Gul began his political life as part of an Islamist party that is now banned. A political crisis followed his nomination earlier this year by the ruling Justice and Development Party, known as the AK party. Thousands of people went into the streets to protest his candidacy. The crisis resulted in early parliamentary elections in July which the AKP won. The election of Mister Gul is widely seen as a vote of support for the economic gains that Turkey has made in recent years. The AK party was first elected in two thousand two. But military leaders boycotted Mister Gul's swearing-in ceremony. The army considers itself the guardian of the separation of government and religion. The army has ousted four governments since nineteen sixty. Not since nineteen eighty, however, has this happened with force. Turkey has had a constitutional separation of religion and government for more than eighty years. Mister Gul promises to honor it. The new president is an observant Muslim. Those who want to keep religion out of government are uneasy about the idea that his wife, Hayrunisa, wears an Islamic headscarf. So do more than half of all Turkish women. But the hijab has been banned in public offices and schools for almost thirty years. What concerns the secularists most, however, is that Mister Gul will be able to appoint officials like constitutional court judges and the head of the military. He will also have the power to veto legislation. As Turks were getting a new president this week, Pakistanis were considering the future of their country's leadership. Nawaz Sharif at a news conference Thursday in LondonOn Thursday, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif announced that he will return to Pakistan on September tenth. The Pakistani Supreme Court ruled last week that he can return from exile. He says he will fight the re-election plans of President Pervez Musharraf. General Musharraf overthrew him eight years ago and sent him into exile in Saudi Arabia. Now Mister Sharif is demanding that the general step down as both president and army chief. President Musharraf is expected to seek another five-year term in a vote in parliament in the coming weeks. But his public support has fallen. The president has reportedly been seeking an alliance with Benazir Bhutto, another former prime minister. She lives in exile by choice but still heads Pakistan's largest opposition party. She said the president must leave the army before she would support his re-election. In exchange, she wants the government to drop corruption charges against her and her family and let her serve a third term as prime minister. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. You can download transcripts and MP3 files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-08-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Samuel Gompers, 1850-1924: 'The Grand Old Man of Labor'
* Byline: He was the first president of the American Federation of Labor. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about one of the country’s greatest labor leaders, Samuel Gompers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Samuel Gompers was born in London, England in eighteen fifty. His parents were poor people who had moved to England from the Netherlands to seek a better life. Sam was a very good student. However, when he was ten years old, he was forced to quit school and go to work to help feed the family. He was the oldest of five sons. Like his father, Sam became a tobacco cigar maker. He liked the cigar-making industry because it had a group of members. During meetings, workers could talk about their problems. This is where young Sam began to develop an interest in labor issues. VOICE TWO: But life was difficult for the Gompers family in London, even with both Sam and his father working. They soon decided to move to the United States to again try to make a better life for themselves. In eighteen sixty-three, the Gompers family got on a ship and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Seven weeks later, the ship arrived in New York City. The Gompers settled in a poor part of New York where many immigrants lived. VOICE ONE: Sam soon learned that life in America was not easy. At that time, most people worked many hours each day for little money. They worked making goods in factories. Often these factories had poor working conditions. New York was known for these so-called “sweatshops.”? Whole families, including young children, worked fourteen hours a day in sweatshops for just enough money to stay alive. Sam hated the sweatshops and refused to work there. Instead, he and his father became cigar makers again. Soon Sam joined the Cigarmakers International Union. In those days, labor unions were not strong or permanent. They did little to help workers in their struggle for better working conditions and a better life. Sam believed this needed to change. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sam Gompers was married at the age of seventeen. He became a father one year later. He earned a living making cigars in shops around New York City. Employers recognized him as a skilled and valuable worker. The men he worked with recognized him as an effective labor activist. Sam also became a student of socialism. In eighteen seventy-three, he started working for an old German socialist, David Hirsch. Most of Mister Hirsch’s workers were also socialists from Germany. These men became Samuel Gompers’ teachers. They taught him much about trade unions. One teacher was Karl Laurrell, who had been the leader in Europe of the International Workingman’s Association. Mister Laurrell taught Sam Gompers what labor unity meant. He also taught him about “collective bargaining.”? This is how representatives of labor groups meet with the people they work for and negotiate an agreement. For example, labor and management might negotiate for more money, fewer hours and cleaner working places for workers. VOICE ONE: In time, Samuel Gompers used his knowledge of labor issues to help cigar makers throughout New York form a single, representative union. It was called the Cigarmakers’ Local Number One Hundred Forty-Four. Each cigar shop in New York had its own small union that elected a representative to sit on the council of a larger union. In eighteen seventy-five, this council elected Mister Gompers as president of Cigarmakers’ Local Number One Hundred Forty-Four. The union’s constitution was like the constitution of a democratic government. All people in the union had a representative voice. Experts say the organizing of Cigarmakers’ Local Number One Hundred Forty-Four was the beginning of the American labor movement. VOICE TWO: Sam Gompers believed that one day all working men and women could belong to organized trade unions. He believed workers should not be forced to sell their labor at too low a price. He also believed each person must have the power to improve his or her own life. A person can get this power by joining with others in a union. He believed a democratic trade union can speak and act for all its workers. This is the same way a democratic government speaks for the people because voters elect officials to represent them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Labor organizations began to grow stronger in America during the late nineteenth century. At the same time, Sam Gompers started to speak of new ideas. He dreamed of bringing all trade unions together into one big, nation-wide organization that could speak with one voice for workers throughout the country. In eighteen eighty-one, Mister Gompers was sent as the delegate of the cigar makers union to a conference of unions. The delegates agreed to organize an alliance called the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. The alliance held yearly meeting of national union and local labor councils. It was designed to educate the public on worker issues, prepare labor-related legislation, and pressure Congress to approve such bills. Sam Gompers was an officer in the alliance for five years. VOICE TWO: During that time, he worked for several measures to improve the lives of workers and children. These included proposals to reduce the work day to eight hours, limit child labor and require children to attend school. He soon learned, however, that the alliance of unions had neither the money nor the power to do much more than talk about these issues. So, in eighteen eighty-six, Sam Gompers helped organize a new union for all labor unions. It was called the American Federation of Labor. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE: Sam Gompers was elected president of the American Federation of Labor in eighteen eighty-six. He held that position, except for one year, for thirty-eight years until he died. In eighteen ninety, the A.F.L. represented two hundred fifty thousand workers. Two years later, the number had grown to more than one million workers. Under his leadership, the A.F.L. grew from a few struggling labor unions to become the major organization within the labor movement in the United States. VOICE TWO: As leader of the A.F.L. Mister Gompers had enemies both within and outside the labor movement. Some opponents believed Mister Gompers was more interested in personal power than in improving the rights of workers. They believed his ideas about strikes and collective bargaining could not stop big business. They believed the American Federation of Labor was a conservative organization designed to serve skilled workers only. Other opponents considered Sam Gompers a foreign-born troublemaker who wanted to destroy property rights. At the same time, opponents in industry and business feared that the labor leader was demanding too much for workers. They said his talk violated the law, and that he excited workers and urged them to strike. VOICE ONE: Sam Gompers was not troubled by any of these attacks. He argued that because there was freedom of speech in America, he would not be afraid to speak freely. He said that no one hated strikes more than he did because workers suffered the most in a strike. However, he said that in a democracy, strikes were necessary. After a strike, he said, businessmen and workers understood each other better and this was good for the nation. He said: “I hope the day will never come when the workers surrender their right to strike.” Sam Gompers also had an interest in international labor issues. At the end of World War One, he attended the Versailles Treaty negotiations. He was helpful in creating the International Labor Organization under the League of Nations. He also supported trade unionism in Mexico. VOICE TWO: Samuel Gompers died in nineteen twenty-four. He is remembered as “the grand old man of labor.”? He worked during his whole life for one cause – improving the rights of workers. He led the fight for shorter working hours, higher pay, safe and clean working conditions and democracy in the workplace. In nineteen fifty-five, the American Federation of Labor joined with the Congress of Industrial Organization to form the A.F.L.-C.I.O. This organization has become an influential part of American economic and political life. It has also helped improve the lives of millions of American workers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO:? And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-05-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Top Brass: What American Workers Call Their Employers
* Byline: It is all work and no play around the boss. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) The Italians have an old saying, "Il dolce far niente."? The words mean it is sweet, or enjoyable, to do nothing. On weekends and during holidays, many of us enjoy doing nothing. But most of the time we have to work. And, to keep our jobs, we must work hard. Our employer will not like it if we do nothing. American workers often call their employers bosses. The word boss comes from the Dutch word, baas, meaning master. Sometimes company bosses are called the brass. They also are sometimes called top brass, or brass hats. Experts disagree about how these strange expressions started. But, they may have come from Britain. Leaders of the nineteenth century British army wore pieces of metal called oak leaves on their hats. The metal, brass, has a color similar to that of gold. So a leader or commander came to be called a member of the brass. Or he might have been called a brass hat. Or, even the top brass. By the nineteen forties, the expression had spread beyond military leaders. It also included civilian officials. A newspaper in the American city of Philadelphia used the term in nineteen forty-nine. It called the most important police officials, top brass. Other expressions that mean boss or employer have nothing to do with brass or hats. One of these is big cheese. A cheese is a solid food made from milk. The expression probably started in America in the late nineteenth century. Some experts believe it comes from a word in the Uersian or urdu languages -- chiz. The meaning is a thing. So the meaning of big cheese may be a big thing. Other experts say the word cheese in this expression was really an incorrect way of saying chief. The word chief means leader. So the expression may mean big leader. An employer usually does not object to being called boss. But most workers would not call their employers big cheeses, top brass or brass hats to their faces. These words are not really insulting. But neither do they show great respect. Employers also have expressions to describe their workers. One of them that describes a good worker is that he or she works like a Trojan. This expression probably comes from the ancient writings of the Greek poet Homer. He wrote about the Trojans who lived in the city of Troy. He said Trojans worked very hard to protect their city. Now, the expression often is used to describe an employee who works hard for a company. A loyal, hard-working employee is said to work like a Trojan. So be happy if your company's brass hats say you work like a Trojan. They may consider you valuable enough to increase your pay. (MUSIC)This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. (MUSIC)This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-08-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Finders of Two Fossils in Kenya Call for Rewrite of Human Evolution?
* Byline: A new study attempts to explain why penguins are eating more small sea organisms instead of fish. And we answer a question from Vietnam about an eye disease. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we will tell how a discovery in Kenya has started a scientific debate about early human ancestors. We also will tell how people might have influenced the diet of birds on Antarctica. And, we will answer a question from Vietnam about an eye disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A team of researchers recently announced discovery of two fossils that it says should change the theory of human development. The Koobi Fora Research Project says the fossils came from two ancestors of human beings. Their remains were discovered seven years ago in Kenya. The British magazine Nature published a report on the discovery. One fossil is an upper jawbone -- a long curved bone along the mouth. The other is a skull -- the bone that holds and helps protects the brain. The researchers say the upper jawbone is about one million four hundred forty thousand years old. They believe the skull fossil is even older. It is believed to be about one million five hundred fifty thousand years old. VOICE TWO: Anthropologists Maeve Leakey and her daughter, Louise, are leading the Koobi Fora Project. They say the jawbone belonged to the early human ancestor Homo habilis. They say it is from a period when scientists thought Homo habilis had already disappeared from Earth. The Leakeys say the discovery means that Homo habilis lived at the same time as Homo erectus. If confirmed, that could change scientific theories about the development of modern human beings. VOICE ONE: Many scientists believe that humans, or Homo sapiens, developed from Homo erectus. They also believe that Homo erectus developed from Homo habilis. The Leakeys say the shared period of existence makes it unlikely that Homo erectus developed from Homo habilis. They say both species probably developed two million to three million years ago. And, they say, the long period as separate species probably means they were not competing for food and shelter. They survived as species using different methods. Other anthropologists are not persuaded that the jawbone forces a change in the theory of human development. They say it is likely that the Leakey's mistakenly identified a Homo erectus jawbone as a Homo habilis one. VOICE TWO: The Koobi Fora Project researchers also found a skull they identified Homo erectus. However, it is the smallest Homo erectus skull ever found. The researchers say the small skull suggests a sexual dimorphism was common among the Homo erectus species. Sexual dimorphism is when the size difference between the sexes is great. This quality would make Homo erectus closer to gorillas than human beings. But, other scientists argue that what the researchers found is simply the skull of a very young Homo erectus, not of a small adult. They also say two fossils are not enough evidence to change a theory of development based on hundreds of finds. There are also fossil experts who support the Leakey findings. They note that the skull found is in especially good condition making identification easier. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. With Steve Ember. I'm Faith Lapidus in Washington. Two hundred years ago, Adelie penguins ate a diet rich in fish along the coast of Antarctica. But researchers say the diet of these black and white birds is very different now. They say the penguins began to depend on small sea organisms for food after fish populations decreased. Scientists from universities in the United States and Canada announced the discovery. They reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. VOICE TWO: Steven Emslie and William Patterson studied the chemistry of the eggshells of Adelie penguins. They used pieces of the shells from Ross Island in the Ross Sea. Explorers collected the eggs there in the nineteen hundreds. The cold Antarctic climate kept them in good condition. The most recent eggs in the study were one hundred years old. The oldest were thirty eight thousand years old. The researchers compared the chemistry of the shells with the chemistry of fish and small sea organisms like krill. VOICE ONE: One finding was surprising. Climate change about ten thousand years ago did not make major changes in what the animals ate, the researchers say. But they found that the chemistry of the eggshells became very different during the past two centuries. The chemistry changed from heavier to lighter isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. Isotopes are a form of chemical element. The researchers believe that people were important in this change. They say the populations of krill in the southern seas increased after hunters killed almost all the Antarctic fur seals in the nineteenth century. VOICE TWO: In the twentieth century, hunting of whales greatly decreased the whale population. Whales and seals eat large amounts of krill. So the reduction of those animals increased the krill population. The researchers believe the penguins started eating more krill because it was easily available to them. It was also easier for the birds to gather krill than catch fish. Today, the population of krill also is threatened by an increased number of krill fisheries. The researchers say climate warming caused by humans also is reducing the sea organisms. They say this means the choice of foods for Adelie penguins has gotten smaller. Mister Emslie works at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, North Carolina. Mister Patterson is at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The retina is the sensory tissue in the back part of the eye. It gathers light and captures images from the lens, much like film in a camera. The retina processes these images into signals that travel through the optic nerve to the brain. Diseases of the retina can cause vision loss over time. A thirty-year-old listener in Vietnam says he cannot see well and doctors have told him he has retinal degeneration. This is the loss or destruction of the sensory tissue of the retina. Trinh Phuong Bac says he first developed problems in his right eye when he was a child. He would like to know more about this disease. VOICE TWO: Emily Chew is a deputy division director at America's National Eye Institute. She says it is true what doctors have told our listener: there is no cure for retinal degeneration. She says most cases are considered genetic. Scientists have been attempting to develop gene treatments for it. In recent years, there have been some reports of possible progress. But Doctor Chew says these studies of experimental gene therapies have only involved animals. VOICE ONE: Recently, the National Eye Institute reported the findings of a study of diet and a disease called retinopathy. It says the omega-three fatty acids EPA and DHA, both found in fish, protected mice against the development and progression of retinopathy. The study showed that decreasing omega-six fatty acids in the diet also helped. The study was published recently in Nature Medicine. The findings could be useful to research into retinopathy in humans, including a common cause of vision loss in diabetics. A separate form can lead to permanent blindness in babies born too early. VOICE TWO: However, Doctor Chew says this study may have no connection to treating retinal degeneration. She also says there is disagreement about whether taking high levels of vitamin A could reduce the severity of the disease. She says one study suggested that vitamin A helped some people with retinitis pigmentosa. But she notes that other investigators have disputed these findings. Retinitis pigmentosa, or R.P, is a form of retinal degeneration. R.P. is the name for a group of diseases that can be found as early as when a person is a teenager. People with R.P. have genes that give incorrect orders to cells that receive light. As a result, the retina can begin to self-destruct. (MUSIC)?????????????????? VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-08-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Marching to the Music: Songs From the American Labor Movement
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Most of the world observes Labor Day on May first. But the United States has its workers holiday on the first Monday in September. Today on our program, we have a few songs from the history of the American labor movement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Labor songs are traditionally stories of struggle and pride, of timeless demands for respect and the hope for a better life. Sometimes they represent old songs with new words. One example is "We Shall Not Be Moved." It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song. Here is folksinger Pete Seeger with "We Shall Not Be Moved." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many classic American labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the South. Mine owners bitterly opposed unions. In some cases, there was open war between labor activists and coal mine operators. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Once, in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to one man's home but could not find him there. So they waited outside for several days. The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are You On?" Again, here is Pete Seeger. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Probably the most famous labor songwriter in America was Joe Hill. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in the early nineteen hundreds. He worked as an unskilled laborer. Joe Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. More than any other union, they used music in their campaigns, urging members to "sing and fight." VOICE ONE: One of Joe Hill's best-known songs is "Casey Jones." It uses the music from a song about a train engineer. In the old song, Casey Jones is a hero. He bravely keeps his train running in very difficult conditions. In Joe Hill's version, Casey Jones is no hero. His train is unsafe. Yet he stays on the job after other workers have called a strike against the railroad company. Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers sing "Casey Jones (The Union Scab)." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another American labor song is called "Bread and Roses." That term was connected with the women's labor movement. The song was based on a poem called "Bread and Roses" by James Oppenheim. The poem was published in The American Magazine in December of nineteen eleven. The following month there was a famous strike by textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. They won higher pay and better working conditions. Oppenheim's poem gained more attention. At that time, conditions in factories were already a national issue. In nineteen eleven, a fire at a clothing factory in New York had taken the lives of one hundred forty-six people. The victims were mostly immigrant women. Here is Pat Humphries with "Bread and Roses." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Union activists know that labor songs can unite and help people feel strong. This can be true even when the music has nothing to do with unions. "De Colores" is a popular Spanish folksong. It talks about fields in the spring, little birds, rainbows and the great loves of many colors. This song is popular with supporters of the United Farm Workers union. We listen as Baldemar Velasquez leads the band Aguila Negra in "De Colores." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? For many years, folksinger Joe Glazer was a union activist with a guitar. He was also a labor historian. "Labor's Troubadour" was the name of a book he wrote about his life. He believed in organized labor and preserving the musical history of the American labor movement. Joe Glazer died in two thousand six at the age of eighty-eight. Here is Joe Glazer with "Solidarity Forever," written by Ralph Chaplin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. To learn more about American life, go to voaspecialenglish.com, where you can download archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Interest Grows in Training to Prepare for a Disaster
* Byline: Catholic Relief Services is among groups that offer programs for community readiness. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. We talked last week about Mercy Corps, a nonprofit group that provides emergency services after disasters. Another organization involved in this kind of work is Catholic Relief Services, based in Baltimore, Maryland. This is the official international relief and development agency of the United States Catholic community. It was started in nineteen forty-three. Today it operates in ninety-eight countries. Catholic Relief Services has a budget for this year of around six hundred million dollars. CRS gets a lot of its money from the United States government but also from individuals and other donors. The American Institute of Philanthropy rates it among the top American groups for international relief and development work. CRS gets a rating of A-plus. (Mercy Corps gets an A, also a top rating.) Catholic Relief Services is a faith-based organization but says it employs and helps people of all religions. In addition to providing aid after disasters, CRS is training people to prepare before a disaster strikes. It provides emergency preparedness training around the world. Cassie Dummett is the technical adviser for South Asia. She tells us from New Delhi that some of the most successful programs are in parts of central and eastern India. She says the first step is to help communities think about an emergency and identify how best to prepare. These include natural disasters that happen year after year, like seasonal floods, ocean storms, drought or landslides. Committees are formed. An early warning committee, for example, would listen to weather reports or watch river levels. This committee would decide when people should move to safer ground. Another committee might be responsible for rescue efforts and medical assistance. A third committee might supervise food and water supplies, or the movement of farm animals to safety. Other groups such as Oxfam and CARE also do emergency preparedness training. Cassie Dummett says interest in this kind of humanitarian work has grown in the last several years. She says donor organizations are starting to recognize the value of training people to be prepared. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about the work of international development groups by going to voaspecialenglish.com. Click on the program link for our reports. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fresh From the Store, or the Cow? The Debate Over Raw Milk
* Byline: The popularity of unpasteurized dairy products appears to be growing, but health officials warn of the dangers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Some milk drinkers like what they call "real milk," also known as raw milk. This is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized. Homogenization is the mixing process that keeps all the fat from rising to the top. Pasteurization kills bacteria with heat. Ultra-pasteurized milk is quickly heated to an even higher temperature, which keeps it fresh in stores longer. In the United States, health officials warn that drinking raw milk can be dangerous and even deadly. But the popularity seems to be growing. Raw milk is often used in specialty cheeses. Supporters say raw tastes better than pasteurized, though not everyone can taste a difference. In all of the fifty states but Michigan, people are permitted to buy raw milk for animals. But only farms in twenty-eight states can sell it for humans, under restrictions that differ from state to state. People may also buy raw milk in stores in California, Connecticut, Maine, New Mexico and South Carolina. Some people who live where the sale of raw milk is banned get it through a system of cow shares. People buy shares of a cow or a herd of cows. This way, the milk belongs to them as owners. Other people get raw milk through milk clubs or cooperatives. Some of these clubs operate outside the law. One man in Maryland has for years enjoyed thinking that he might be doing something illegal by buying raw milk. He had no idea it was legal there. In nineteen twenty-four the United States Public Health Service proposed rules against the interstate sale of raw milk. Today forty-six states have passed what is known as the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. The exceptions are Pennsylvania, California, New York and Maryland. Earlier this year, federal health officials had another warning for the public about raw milk. They warned of the risks from bacteria including salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, campylobacter and brucella. The warning said there is no meaningful nutritional difference between pasteurized and raw milk, as supporters say. And it said raw milk does not contain compounds that naturally kill harmful bacteria, as some also say. Activists accuse the government of a prejudice against raw milk. They argue that outbreaks of sickness from drinking it are not as widespread as reports have suggested. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Why Some Speeches Just Float Away on the Air and Others Stick in Our Minds
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: from an interview on C-SPAN television, political pollster and strategist Frank Luntz talks about his book "Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear." RS: At one point, Washington Times columnist John McCaslin asked him about some historic sayings, including what President John F. Kennedy said: JOHN F. KENNEDY: "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." FRANK LUNTZ: "If a student in eleventh grade wrote that sentence, they would probably get a D from their English teacher. 'Don't ask what your country can do for you' would have been the more proper way. The greatest speeches have those twists on English and they break the laws of English, and that's why they stick in our minds. 'Don't ask what our country can do for you' doesn't sound nearly as powerful as 'ask not,' and the way that the president delivered it, his emphasis on the word 'ask not,' with a pause, that's why we remember it." JOHN McCASLIN: "Number two, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'" FRANK LUNTZ: "Again, it breaks the rules of English. You don't use the same word that close in the sentence. We shouldn't fear fear, but the longer that he spread it out, and at the time that F.D.R. [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] communicated that -- " JOHN McCASLIN: "The country was fearful." FRANK LUNTZ: " -- and the way that F.D.R. spoke was perfect for radio. Less than ten percent of Americans knew he had polio, because this is before television, and even when you saw [him] in the newsreels, you never saw him on crutches. His voice was booming and deep with a slight New York accent. And he had a great sense of humor, and he was the first president on radio to use the pregnant pause. He'd say something ... And that silence is as powerful as the words itself." JOHN McCASLIN: "Do you think there was somebody behind the scenes teaching him that, did they have a Frank Luntz in those days?" FRANK LUNTZ: "They may have. His adviser James Farley was very astute politically and he had a very smart team around him, but F.D.R. was a natural. It's like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. [Here are three presidents] who had great gut instincts when it came to communication." JOHN McCASLIN: "No doubt. 'Some men see things as they are and ask why' ... " FRANK LUNTZ: "'I dream of things that never were and ask why not.' The ending of every Robert F. Kennedy speech. In fact, whenever he would hit that ending, the reporters knew, speech is over, get on the bus so you're not left behind. That was not created by Bobby Kennedy. Those words come from George Bernard Shaw and they are my favorite words in politics. It says something so beautiful: don't give me excuses, just get it done. "Now Bobby Kennedy said it so much better, but it's how Americans feel right now. We really want politicians to get it done. Those three words -- get it done, or gets things done -- are the most powerful words in the English language right now for an elected representative. If that individual can prove that he or she gets things done, they get re-elected. And, in fact, for political people watching, I'm amazed at how many of them don't ask the question in their surveys for incumbents: Can you name one thing that the incumbent senator, congressman, city councilman, whatever, can you name one accomplishment that the elected official has done since they were elected to office? Here's a rule of thumb, if less than forty percent of your electorate can name something, you get defeated." JOHN McCASLIN: "Last but not least, 'I have a dream.'" FRANK LUNTZ: "The powerful thing about that was not just the setting. It was also the fact that the cadence changed. It began with 'I have a dream that my kids,' 'I have a dream that.' As he went through the cadence, the 'I have a dream' wasn't at the beginning, it became at the end, 'that someday my children will grow up where they are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream' -- pause. "That's what made that so memorable, that the cadence began and then it switched and the first words became the last words. Martin Luther King Junior was brilliant, he was a courageous individual, but he was a brilliant communicator, because he could see the reaction of the people not just in the front row but in the very back row. "And I'm always trying to teach politicians, don't look at the people in the first two or three rows. The people in the very back, who got there late, who really don't care much about you, and are so disengaged, can they hear you, can they see you, can they feel you? One of the things I try to tell the people I work for is get away from the podiums. The best communicators are ones that don't stand there." RS: Courtesy of C-SPAN, that was political adviser Frank Luntz, author of "Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear." For a link to the full program, go to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Parents Warned on Use of Cough and Cold Medicines in Children
* Byline: A drug safety committee will meet next month in US to discuss whether the products are worth possible risks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. How safe and effective is the use of cough and cold medicines in children? An advisory committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration will meet in October to discuss this issue. Some doctors say cough and cold products do not work in children, and they worry about possible risks. F.D.A. officials say that some reports of problems appear to be the result of giving too much medicine to children. This may lead to serious and life-threatening side effects, especially in children age two and younger. The products are sold without the need for a doctor's approval. Yet cough and cold medicines can be harmful if people take them more often or in greater amounts than they should. There is a risk, for example, in taking more than one product containing the same active chemicals. Too much cold medicine may affect the heart. Some medicines have also been linked to high blood pressure and strokes. Products for children may contain medicines that were approved many years ago based on studies in adults. The drug approval process has changed since then. F.D.A. officials have this warning for parents: Do not use cough and cold products in children under two years of age unless a health care provider tells you to. The officials also have other advice. For example, children should never be given medicines that are meant for adults. Cough and cold medicines are sold in different strengths. Ask a medical professional if you are not sure about the right product for a child. If a child is being given other medicines, the child's health care provider should approve their combined use. Read all the information and warnings provided with a drug and carefully follow the directions for use. For liquid products, use the dropper or other measuring device that comes with the medicine or buy the correct one at a drug store. Do not use household spoons; they could provide the wrong amount of medicine. The F.D.A points out that children get better with time and that cough and cold medicines only treat signs of the common cold. They are not a cure. If a child's condition gets worse or does not improve, stop using the product and have the child examined immediately. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Yellowstone National Park: Great Beauty, and a Sleeping Volcano
* Byline: Some experts say the ancient volcano that formed Yellowstone could become very dangerous in the future. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Yellowstone National Park. It is one of the most beautiful national parks in the United States. However, an ancient and extremely violent volcano created the great beauty of Yellowstone. The ancient volcano that formed Yellowstone is not dead. It is only sleeping. And some experts say it could become very dangerous in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yellowstone National Park is in the western state of Wyoming. It is one of the most unusual places in the world. Extremely hot water shoots out of the ground in several hundred places. Small lakes contain water that is so hot it is dangerous to come too close. Visitors can watch bubbles coming up through boiling hot mud. ?They can see rocks that were once liquid and have cooled into strange shapes. Yellowstone is built on an ancient volcano. A lake of hot liquid rock is about six kilometers under the park. This lake is about sixty-five kilometers wide. Experts say this lake is under huge amounts of pressure. The pressure and heat cause hot water to shoot out of the ground and mud to boil at Yellowstone. VOICE TWO: The Yellowstone volcano has often been called a super volcano because it is so big. ?Scientists believe major volcanic activity in the Yellowstone area began about two million years ago. This activity created violent explosions and built mountains and valleys. Experts believe this super volcano had three major explosions called eruptions. Each of those three eruptions may have been more powerful than any in recorded history. Each eruption threw out millions of tons of ash and rock. The last eruption was so huge it covered much of North America with ash. Some of this ash traveled high into the atmosphere and was carried by strong winds around the world. This cloud of volcanic ash circled the Earth many times. It affected the climate by limiting the amount of sunlight that reached Earth’s lower atmosphere and surface. This last eruption formed the mountains and valleys that visitors can see today in Yellowstone. VOICE ONE: When a volcano erupts, a huge amount of material explodes out of the volcano. This leaves a giant circular hole in the ground, called a caldera. Experts have known for many years that Yellowstone was formed by volcanic activity. However they could not find the caldera. Many experts searched a huge area in and around Yellowstone Park looking for the remains of the caldera. A few years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency tested new satellite cameras. They offered Yellowstone Park officials photographs of the park taken from space. VOICE TWO: A national park expert was extremely surprised when he looked at the photographs taken from space. He immediately saw the caldera they had been searching for. The photographs showed that Yellowstone National Park is the caldera. The caldera is about seventy kilometers long and thirty kilometers wide. In fact, the park is a system of calderas formed within the past sixteen million years. Experts now believe that as many fifteen or twenty smaller eruptions also formed calderas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists know the volcanic heart of Yellowstone is deep within the Earth. This area is called a hot spot. It is only one of a few such places on Earth. Extreme pressure deep in the Earth forces liquid rock up through the hot spot to the lake of hot material that is below the surface. This causes the extreme heat that is found in Yellowstone. Scientists also know the Yellowstone hot spot is linked to the activity of the North American plate. The North American plate is one of several plates that make up the surface of the Earth. These plates move a few centimeters each year. The hot spot does not move. Very often the action between the hot spots and the plate causes great earthquakes as plates move against each other. The plates often split apart. And often after earthquakes, the hot spot forces liquid rock to the surface. This has not happened for several thousand years. VOICE TWO: The Yellowstone hot spot has been linked with the North American plate for as long as seventeen million years. At many different times, the hot spot has caused a kind of liquid rock called basalt to explode to the surface. This basalt rock from the Yellowstone hot spot can be found in the western states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho. Evidence of this basalt rock can be found in an area as large as three hundred twenty-two thousand square kilometers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the world. About three million people visit it each year. Its great natural beauty has made it one of the most popular national parks. ????????????? Most visitors like to see “Old Faithful,” the world’s most famous geyser. A geyser shoots hot water high into the air. There are more than three hundred geysers in Yellowstone. Old Faithful is not the biggest or the most beautiful geyser. But it is the most popular. Visitors gather around Old Faithful before each eruption. Experts at the park are able to predict when these will happen. The average time between eruptions is about ninety minutes. Old Faithful shoots water an average of forty meters into the air. This eruption lasts between two and five minutes. Old Faithful releases up to about thirty thousand liters of water into the air each time. ???????? VOICE TWO: The hot spot deep under the ground produces geysers like Old Faithful. Old Faithful is evidence of the volcanic activity at Yellowstone. But will the Yellowstone volcano erupt again? Most experts think the answer is yes. But no one knows when. The most recent of the three extremely powerful eruptions was about six hundred fifty thousand years ago. Experts say at least thirty smaller volcanic eruptions have taken place at Yellowstone. Some of these were perhaps as big as the nineteen ninety-one eruption at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Several are believed to have been much larger. The most recent of these smaller eruptions took place about seventy thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Volcano experts say it is extremely difficult to tell when Yellowstone might become an active volcano again. However, earthquakes near a volcano are usually good evidence that a volcano might become active again. For example, Mount Saint Helens in the northwestern state of Washington exploded in nineteen eighty. Several earthquakes took place near the volcano before that time. On the morning that it exploded, Mount Saint Helens experienced an earthquake of five point one on the Richter scale. Yellowstone National Park experiences several thousand earthquakes each year. ?Most are very small. They cannot be felt. They can only be measured by scientific instruments. However, in August of nineteen fifty-nine, an earthquake at Yellowstone measured seven point five on the Richter scale. Twenty-eight people were killed. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the United States. But Yellowstone’s sleeping giant volcano did not erupt. VOICE TWO: In two thousand one, the United States Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park and the University of Utah signed an agreement. That agreement established the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Under the agreement, the park, the Geological Survey and the university are responsible for improving efforts to study the volcanic system of Yellowstone. The observatory uses information from many different instruments on the ground and from satellites to study the volcano. The information will help officials decided if Yellowstone’s huge volcano is becoming a danger. Then they could warn the public quickly if necessary. Experts at the observatory say Yellowstone represents some danger to the public. It always has. However, its natural beauty also makes it a treasure that could not be possible without the sleeping giant volcano that is under Yellowstone National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: US History Series: After Attacks of 9/11, Bush Launches 'War on Terror'
* Byline: ''It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated,'' the 43rd president declared after hijackers struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He was still in his first year in office. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: This is Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the first term in office of President George W. Bush. Mister Bush dealt with the most deadly terrorist attack against the United States in history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George W. Bush became the nation's forty-third president on January twentieth, two thousand one. He and his vice president, Dick Cheney, were sworn in on the steps of the Capitol building. George Bush's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, had served as the forty-first president. The inauguration marked only the second time in American history that the son of a former president also became president. More than two hundred years ago, John Adams was elected the second president of the United States. His son, John Quincy Adams, later served as the sixth president. VOICE TWO: George W. Bush had been in office for fewer than eight months when the most important event of his first term took place on September eleventh, two thousand one. Americans call the event Nine-Eleven. On that morning, nineteen Islamic extremists hijacked four American passenger airplanes. The planes were flying from the East Coast to California. The hijackers were from Middle Eastern countries. Each group included a trained pilot. American Airlines Flight Eleven had left Boston, Massachusetts, when three terrorists seized control of the plane. Shortly before nine o’clock in the morning, they crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Another group seized United Airlines Flight One Seventy-Five and crashed it into the World Trade Center's South Tower a few minutes later. The two giant skyscrapers stood in the heart of America's financial center. The planes exploded in fireballs that sent clouds of smoke pouring from the skyscrapers. Wreckage and ashes flew into the air. On that morning, each tower held between five thousand and seven thousand people. Thousands of people were able to escape from the buildings. The South Tower of the World Trade Center fell shortly before ten o'clock. The North Tower collapsed about thirty minutes later. Within an hour the ruins of the two buildings were being called Ground Zero. VOICE ONE: Other hijackers on United Airlines Flight Seventy-Seven crashed the plane into the Pentagon, the Department of Defense headquarters near Washington, D.C. The plane exploded against a wall of the huge five-sided building where more than twenty thousand people worked. The hijackers also seized United Airlines Flight Ninety-Three. Some passengers found out about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington through cell phone calls to their families. Several passengers and crew members tried to retake control of the plane. It crashed near the small town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Investigators later said the hijackers probably planned to attack the Capitol building or the White House in Washington. The terrorist attacks on Nine-Eleven were the most deadly in American history. Almost three thousand people died. Most of the victims worked in the World Trade Center. They included many citizens of other countries. The victims also included three hundred forty-three New York City firefighters and twenty-three city police officers. They died trying to save others. VOICE TWO: Search and rescue operations began immediately. Hundreds of rescue workers recovered people and bodies from the wreckage. Aid was organized for victims and their families. President Bush stood in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and promised that the attacks would be answered. It took workers eight months to complete the cleanup of Ground Zero. Every day, thousands of people visited the area to see where the attack took place and to honor those who died there. ???? ??????? Near Washington, D.C., people left flowers and messages near the heavily damaged wall of the Defense Department headquarters. One hundred eighty-four military service members and civilians died there. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: New York City changed forever on that day. The attack destroyed a major part of the financial center of the city. It had a huge economic effect on the United States and world markets. The New York Stock Exchange was closed until September seventeenth. When it reopened, American stocks lost more than one trillion dollars in value for the week. For days after the attacks, most planes stopped flying. When normal flights began again, many people were too afraid to travel by air. The airline and travel industries suffered. Thousands of hotel workers and others lost their jobs. Many other businesses suffered as well. When people started flying again, they found it much more difficult because of increased security at airports. People across America experienced great shock, fear, sadness and loss. They could not understand why anyone would attack innocent Americans. They also felt a renewed love for their country. They put American flags on their houses, cars and businesses. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Bush said Osama bin Laden and terrorists linked to his al-Qaida group plotted and carried out the attacks on Nine-Eleven. On September twentieth, the president declared a War on Terror. The goals were to find and punish Osama bin Laden and to use economic and military actions to prevent the spread of terrorism. PRESIDENT BUSH: "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." VOICE ONE:?????? American officials said the Taleban administration in Afghanistan was sheltering Osama bin Laden. They said al-Qaida terrorists operated a training camp in Afghanistan under Taleban protection. President Bush demanded that the Taleban close the training camp and surrender Osama bin Laden. The Taleban refused. American and British airplanes launched attacks against the Taleban in Afghanistan on October seventh. The goals were to oust the Taleban, capture Osama bin Laden and destroy al-Qaida. VOICE TWO:The bombers struck in and around the Afghan capital, Kabul. Ethnic tribal groups of the Afghan Northern Alliance then led a ground attack. By November the Taleban began to collapse in several provinces. Taleban forces fled Kabul and the city of Kandahar. The military offensive defeated the Taleban and ousted them from power. It also captured a number of Taleban fighters and al-Qaida terrorists. But the war in Afghanistan was not over. And the leader of al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, had not been captured. VOICE ONE: Some enemy fighters seized in Afghanistan were sent to a United States Navy detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States government did not identify them as prisoners of war. Instead, the detainees were called "unlawful enemy combatants." As such, they lacked some of the rights provided by an international treaty on conditions for war prisoners. The United States government also detained hundreds of foreign citizens. Most of these people had violated immigration laws. No terrorism charges were brought against them. Human rights activists and some legal experts protested the treatment of the prisoners. The activists said holding people in secret without trial violated the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO:In October, Congress passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act. It provided the government with more power to get information about suspected terrorists in this country. Critics said the legislation invaded citizens' rights to privacy. Civil liberties groups charged that it gave law enforcement and other agencies too much power. After Nine-Eleven, government agencies were criticized for not cooperating to gather intelligence that might have prevented the terrorist attacks. In two thousand two, a new Department of Homeland Security was created to strengthen defenses against terrorism. Twenty-two agencies were combined into a new department of about two hundred thousand employees. The Department of Homeland Security was one of the major changes brought about by the attacks of Nine Eleven. Many Americans believed the attacks had changed their lives, their country, and the world, forever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program, The Making of a Nation, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss. This is Barbara Klein.VOICE TWO:And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. --- Correction: The plane that hit the Pentagon on?September 11, 2001,?was American Airlines Flight 77, not?United?Flight 77, as stated in this program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-05-voa8.cfm
* Headline: Virginia Tech Report Criticizes Mental Health System, School Actions
* Byline: An official committee presents its findings about the April killings of 32 people by a student. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A committee gave its findings last week about the Virginia Tech shootings in April. The committee appointed by Virginia's governor and led by a retired state police official called for more than seventy changes. The goal is to prevent a similar tragedy in Virginia or anywhere else. On April sixteenth Seung-Hui Cho, a student, killed thirty-two people and wounded seventeen before killing himself. Among other things, the Virginia Tech Review Panel discussed his mental health history. In nineteen ninety-nine, he wrote in middle school about killing himself and others. This was after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado. His teachers thought he should get treatment, which he did. He also received services in high school. But school officials thought privacy laws prevented sharing this information with Virginia Tech. There, he caused a number of troubling incidents. The report says the university in Blacksburg did not intervene effectively. It says no one knew all the information and no one put it all together. The committee pointed to problems with Virginia's mental health system. It also found widespread misunderstanding about federal and state privacy laws. In two thousand five, a court judged the young man a danger to himself and ordered him to get treatment. But he was not ordered into a hospital. Still, his name should have been added to federal and state lists of people barred from buying guns. Virginia law did not make that clear. Governor Tim Kaine has moved to deal with this. But Virginia officials found that less than half the states report any mental health information to a federal database used for gun purchases. At Virginia Tech, emergency services reacted quickly after two people were killed early that morning. But the report says police may have been too quick to decide that a possible suspect was probably no longer in the area. And top administrators are criticized for failing to send out a warning message about the shooting for almost two hours. Minutes after that, the shootings began in Norris Hall. Still, the committee says quickly securing all buildings would not have been possible. Some victims' families want the university president and police chief to resign or be dismissed. The governor rejected that idea. Virginia Tech began a new school year August twentieth, a day after a ceremony for a memorial to the thirty-two victims. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Little League World Series Brings a World of Fun Each Year to Williamsport
* Byline: A question from Vietnam about how young people buy cars in the US. And Disney prepares for ''High School Musical 3'' to be released in movie theaters next year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to music from the television movie "High School Musical Two" … Answer a question about buying a car in the United States … And report about the worldwide baseball program called Little League. Little League HOST: Georgia's Dalton Carriker after hitting a home run for the Warner Robins Little League's 3-2 victory over Tokyo KitasunaLast month, an American baseball team from the state of Georgia defeated a team from Tokyo, Japan, to win the Little League World Series. Children of all ages in more than one hundred countries around the world play in more than seven thousand Little League programs. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Little League began in the state of Pennsylvania in nineteen thirty-nine. It was the result of efforts by a man named Carl Stotz who lived in the small city of Williamsport. He developed the first rules for a summer boys' baseball program. The teams were all from Williamsport. The first Little League game was played on June sixth, nineteen thirty-nine. The program began to expand to nearby areas, then to other parts of the country. A team from Williamsport, the Maynard Midgets, won the first Little League World Series in nineteen forty-seven. Then the organization became international. Canadian children began playing Little League baseball in nineteen fifty-one. In nineteen fifty-seven, a team from Monterrey, Mexico became the first team from outside the United States to win the Little League World Series. Since then, teams from Japan, South Korea and Venezuela have also won the World Series. All the Little League World Series games have been played in Williamsport. The games are no longer for boys only. Girls can also take part in Little League. And the organization has added softball to its programs. The organization notes that many famous professional athletes played Little League Baseball when they were young. One is Cal Ripken, who recently became a member of the American Baseball Hall of Fame. Others grew up to play American football, like Troy Aikman, an award-winning former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Actor Danny DeVito played in Little League. So did writer John Grisham, United States Senator Joseph Lieberman and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. And we cannot leave out the only former Little League player to become president of the United States. As a boy, George W. Bush played catcher on a Little League team in Midland, Texas. Buying A Car HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Misan Ho wants to know if it is possible for a recent college graduate to own a house and a car. Many American college graduates are able to find a job and begin to earn money quickly. However, houses and apartments in the United States are usually too costly to buy right away. Instead of buying a house, most recent college graduates rent an apartment with roommates. However, many college graduates are able to buy their own cars. They may need a car to travel to their jobs. Their first car will probably be a used car because they cost much less than new ones. The prices of used cars can be very different, depending on the kind of car, how old it is and how well it works. A small, older car costs much less than a large, newer one. For example, the average price for a used nineteen ninety-nine Honda Civic is about eight thousand dollars. However, the average price for a used two thousand seven Ford Explorer is about twenty-five thousand dollars. There are several ways to find used cars. Places that sell new cars usually have used cars for sale as well. The car dealerships get these used cars from people who trade them in for new cars. These cars might cost more than other used cars, but they are more likely to work well. Also, many dealers can promise that the car will work for a period of time or they will fix it for free. Some people buy a used car directly from the owner. Car owners advertise these cars for sale over the Internet or in the newspaper. It may cost less to buy a car from the owner, but it can also be a bigger risk. Before you decide to buy any used car, it is a good idea to make sure it works well. You should take the car for a test drive. Also, you should get a professional car mechanic to inspect the car. And you should make sure that the car has all of the required legal documents. There are many good used cars available for sale. You just might have to shop around. High School Musical 2, 3 ... HOST: The top selling record album in the United States last year was from the television movie “High School Musical.”? Reports say the movie has earned one hundred million dollars. People in one hundred other countries have seen it. That success led the Disney Company to plan more "High School Musical" movies. The second movie was shown for the first time on American television last month. Reports say seventeen million people watched. That makes "High School Musical Two" the most watched show ever on an American cable television network. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: “High School Musical” is about two American teenagers who try to get parts in the school play and learn about themselves in the process. “High School Musical Two” is about those students and their friends during summer vacation. At the start of the show, they sing about what they expect. (MUSIC: "What Time Is It?") The story centers around a high school basketball player named Troy. He is attracted to a rich girl named Sharpay and forgets about his other friends, including his girlfriend Gabriella. But events force him to reconsider and decide what values are important to him. Zac Efron plays Troy. He sings about the problem in the song "Bet On It": (MUSIC) The movies are especially popular with girls from ages nine to fourteen. Their parents approve of the movies as well. They say the films are fun and send good messages to kids. The Disney Company is already preparing for "High School Musical Three" to be released in movie theaters next year. But now, we leave you with another song from “High School Musical Two.”? It is called “All For One.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Erin Braswell and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Starting a Business Means Getting Organized
* Byline: Companies are structured different ways for different reasons. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual proprietorship. The proprietor owns all of the property of the business and is responsible for everything. This means that the proprietor gets to keep all of the profits of the business, but also must pay any debts. The law recognizes no difference between the owner and the business. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls. There are limited liability partnerships. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits, but they also do not have as many responsibilities. ?Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share the profits and risks of doing business. A husband and wife can form a business partnership. Partnerships can end at any time. But partnerships and individual proprietorships exist only as long as the owners are alive. The most complex kind of business organization is the corporation. Corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. Corporations can sell stock as a way to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership in a company. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company might use some of its earnings to pay dividends as a reward to shareholders. Or it might reinvest the money into the business. If shares lose value, investors can lose all of the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. A corporation is recognized as an entity -- its own legal being, separate from its owners. A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation. Corporations can have a few major shareholders. Or ownership can be spread among the general public. But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. There are nonprofit groups that are also organized as corporations. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about business and economics by downloading transcripts and MP3 files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fred Thompson: Actor, Senator, and Now a Late Entry in the '08 Presidential Race
* Byline: The former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" star joins a group of Republicans with no clear favorite among them. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, former United States senator Fred Thompson announced his candidacy for president. He joins eight others competing for the Republican Party nomination next year. Fred Thompson arrived in Washington more than thirty years ago as a Senate committee lawyer for the Watergate investigation. He represented Tennessee in the Senate from nineteen ninety-four to two thousand three. He decided to return to a job where he was already well known: acting. He has appeared in movies including "The Hunt for Red October." He played a New York City prosecutor for the past five seasons of the television show "Law and Order." In fact, he has even played a president on TV. So it came as no surprise when he announced his candidacy as a guest on a late-night show. He made an official announcement in a Web video. People thought Fred Thompson would enter the race months ago. He supports President Bush on the Iraq war and hopes to appeal to social conservatives. But he has had problems raising money and organizing a campaign. So he is entering late -- too late, some say. Yet, in most public opinion studies, he was the second or third most popular choice for a Republican nominee. And that was before he declared his candidacy. He joins a group without a clear favorite. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani has been leading the Republican candidates nationally for months. But former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire. Republicans and Democrats are getting ready for the nominating process to begin in January. Iowa and New Hampshire traditionally hold the first votes for delegates, so these two states are important early tests. The election is not until November. But many states are moving their primary and caucus votes to early in the year. February fifth is going to be a big day. A shorter primary season will increase pressure on candidates, especially any late arrivals. Now, a listener in China, Simon Yuan from Jiangsu province, asks about the requirements for an American president. Presidents must be at least thirty-five years old and natural-born citizens of the United States. They must also have lived in the country for at least fourteen years. These requirements are in the Constitution. Simon Yuan also asks how many presidents have been members of the Democratic Party. Of the forty-three presidents, fourteen have been Democrats. Eighteen have been Republicans. In the past, the Republicans were the more liberal party and the Democrats were the more conservative. Presidents have also belonged to parties that no longer exist: The Federalists. The Whigs. The Democratic-Republican Party, and the Democratic/National Union. The first president, George Washington, belonged to no political party at all. And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. If you have a question about the American political process, we might be able to answer it on the air. Write to special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Beverly Sills, 1929-2007: A Beautiful Voice for Opera and the Arts
* Byline: She was the “Queen of American Opera.”Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Beverly Sills. Her clear soprano voice and lively spirit made her one of the most famous performers in the world of opera. Sills worked hard to make opera an art form that the general public could enjoy. She spent the later part of her career as a strong cultural leader for three major performing arts centers in New York City. (MUSIC: “Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille”) VOICE ONE: That was Beverly Sills performing a song from the opera “The Tales of Hoffman” by the French composer Jacques Offenbach. Sills is singing the role of Olympia, a female robot who keeps breaking down while singing a series of high notes. This difficult aria gives a good example of the sweet and expressive voice that made Beverly Sills famous. VOICE TWO: Beverly Sills was born Belle Silverman in nineteen twenty-nine. Her family lived in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn, New York. Her father, Morris, came from Romania and her mother, Shirley, was Russian. Sills said that her father believed that a person could live the real American dream only with an educated mind. Part of her early education came in the form of listening. Beverly’s mother played old opera records. The young child learned to sing by repeating the words of the songs. Shirley Silverman pushed Beverly at a young age to become a performer. By the age of four Beverly was singing on a weekly children’s radio program and also making radio advertisements. (SOUND) Beverly also had roles in several short movies. By the age of nine, she had a voice teacher, Estelle Liebling, who taught her the art of coloratura. Coloratura is a method of singing in which notes are added to make a part of a song more complex. Most coloratura sopranos can sing very high notes. VOICE ONE: Beverly graduated from professional school in nineteen forty-five. She then started singing with traveling opera companies performing the works of such composers as Gilbert and Sullivan. During these ten years she also made guest appearances at opera companies throughout America. She tried seven times to audition and be accepted into the New York City Opera. Finally, in nineteen fifty-five she succeeded. Also that year, Beverly Sills met Peter Greenough while she was performing in Cleveland, Ohio. She married him the next year and moved to Cleveland. VOICE TWO: Sills continued singing for the New York City Opera and traveled back and forth to Cleveland. In nineteen fifty-nine she had a daughter named Meredith. Two years later, she had a son, Peter. Beverly Sills and her husband soon learned that their daughter was deaf. They also found out their son had major developmental problems. He was mentally handicapped and autistic. In nineteen sixty-one, Sills stopped singing to take care of her children during this difficult time. Her daughter slowly learned to go to school and lead a normal life. But her son later had to live in a care center with medical professionals. VOICE ONE: In time, Beverly Sills returned to work. Here she talks about how her family’s situation changed her professionally. The recording is part of a two thousand six documentary movie about her life: BEVERLY SILLS: “My whole attitude about life is different and naturally it affected my singing. It affected my whole attitude about my career. How can I be affected by a trivial thing that someone will say to me backstage, that perhaps that they did not like my singing? How can I be affected by that? That’s something that’s a million miles from me! I felt that as far as my singing was concerned that the only person I really had to please was me.” VOICE ONE: Beverly Sills’ big break into fame took place in nineteen sixty-six when she performed Cleopatra in Handel’s “Julius Cesar.” Her performances received some of the greatest critical praise of her career. Here is a song from that opera. (MUSIC: “Se Pieta Di Me Non Senti”) VOICE TWO: Two years later Sills received more praise for her role in the French opera “Manon.” One critic wrote that if he had made a list of the wonders of New York City to give a traveler, he would put Beverly Sills as “Manon” at the top of the list. She would even be ahead of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building!? Here is Beverly Sills singing the part of Manon. (MUSIC: “Je Marche Sur Tous Les Chemins”) VOICE ONE: Over the next twenty years Beverly Sills became known as "the queen of American opera." In addition to singing, she often appeared on popular television shows. Audiences liked her because of her laughter and funny jokes. Most American opera singers at the time went to Europe for training and jobs. But Sills learned her art in America and that is where she performed. She limited her visits to foreign countries so she could always be near her children. VOICE TWO: When she did perform internationally, critics highly praised her performances. In nineteen seventy-three she performed Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Covent Garden in London. Here is the famous mad scene where Lucia becomes wild with sadness over a lost love. It is one of the more difficult songs in opera to sing, but Sills performs the aria beautifully. (MUSIC: “Il dolce suono ”) VOICE ONE: Beverly Sills retired from singing in nineteen eighty. But she did not leave the opera world. She became director of the New York City Opera. For eight years she worked hard to modernize the City Opera. She also raised millions of dollars to keep it operating. She later held other important positions, including chairwoman of the board of supervisors for New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In two thousand two, she became chairwoman of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House before retiring for good three years later. Beverly Sills died in two thousand seven of lung cancer. She was seventy-eight. She once said that she had never been a happy woman. But she said she had always been able to feel cheerful because her work kept her going. We leave you with Beverly Sills singing the role of Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “La Traviata.” In this magical performance you can hear the joyous celebration she found in music. (MUSIC: “Sempre Libera”) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can learn more about famous Americans and download scripts and audio of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: UNICEF to Work With a Private Group to Fight AIDS
* Byline: Partnership with Family Health International will provide services to women and children in Guyana, India, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Baby girl infected with HIV in IndiaUNICEF is joining with a nonprofit group to bring H.I.V./AIDS programs to more women and children in five countries. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, will work with Family Health International. The new partnership will be established at first in Guyana, India, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia. One of the goals is to improve care for babies infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Another is to prevent the spread of H.I.V. from mother to child. Activities will depend on the needs of each country. In some cases, anti-retroviral drugs will be provided to infected parents of children. Women and children living in rural communities will receive most of the services. Steve Taravella is the head of communications for Family Health International. He says the partnership is separate from UNICEF's international campaign against AIDS but will support the goals of the U.N. agency. Both UNICEF and Family Health International say they hope to expand their partnership into more countries in the future. Family Health International has been working on public health issues since nineteen seventy-one. The organization is based in North Carolina and has programs in seventy countries. It does research on infectious diseases and reproductive health, and also provides services. More than half of its yearly budget of about two hundred forty million dollars comes from the United States government.Experts say an important part of fighting AIDS is political will. One example they point to is Cambodia. That country has been getting attention for its progress in reducing some of the highest infection rates in Asia. Experts praise the government for supporting public education efforts and programs to give condoms to sex workers. Prostitutes are taught to enforce a policy of "one hundred percent condom use" at sex businesses. But there are warnings that H.I.V. rates could still rise among men who have sex with men and among users of injection drugs. Rates could also rise among so-called indirect sex workers -- women who work in bars and clubs.Today about eighty percent of all people infected with H.I.V. in Cambodia receive life-saving drugs for free.And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about H.I.V. and AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Secret to Avoiding Summer Crowds in Washington: Wait for Fall
* Byline: Some things to see on an autumn visit to the nation's capital and beyond. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Visitors to Washington, D.C., in the summer often want to stay inside air-conditioned museums. The cooler days of fall are a good time to explore the outdoors in and around the nation's capital. VOICE ONE: Autumn in Washington is our subject this week. The US Capitol and the fall leaves of a Yoshino cherry tree(MUSIC) Imagine that the calendar says it is fall and you have just arrived on a visit to Washington. The leaves on many of the trees have already begun to change color as they prepare to drop to the ground. Soon they will be gold and orange and red. The summer crowds of visitors have thinned. Children are back in school, parents are back at work. Points of interest will be easier to photograph. There are fewer people to walk in front of your camera. The weather should be more cooperative, too. Washington can get very hot and sticky in summertime. July and August are usually the warmest months. By October, you may need to wear a light jacket, especially after sunset. VOICE TWO: There are tour companies that will take you around the city. Or you can ride public transportation, or rent a car or take taxis. There is plenty you can see just by walking around. One place that might interest world travelers is the area of the city called Embassy Row. Washington has more than one hundred seventy diplomatic and consular offices. About one-third of them occupy Embassy Row. This area is between two streets named for states in New England: Massachusetts Avenue and Connecticut Avenue. VOICE ONE: An embassy usually has two parts. The ambassador lives in the residence while embassy business takes place in the chancery. Some of the finest embassies are along the part of Embassy Row near Dupont Circle. Six roads come together at the circle. A number of hotels and restaurants are also in this area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:Many diplomatic buildings in the capital once were the houses of wealthy Americans. A building that houses the Embassy of Indonesia, for example, was known for many years as the Walsh mansion. Thomas Walsh had it built more than one hundred years ago as a home for his family. The architect designed the mansion similar to a style popular at the time in Paris. Thomas Walsh was born in Ireland. He came to the United States at the age of nineteen. He made a lot of money in the state of Colorado. There, he developed and owned one of the richest gold mines in the world. VOICE ONE: Walsh’s daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean, owned the Hope Diamond. She wore the huge jewel even though she had received warnings that it caused terrible things to happen. Some people saw proof of that in the fact that two of her children and her husband died before her. Many big parties took place among the costly furnishings of the Walsh mansion. Wealthy and famous people visited the beautifully lighted house. VOICE TWO: It was a center of Washington society until the nineteen thirties. The house stood unoccupied for a while, then government agencies used it for offices. During World War Two, the Red Cross made bandages in the house and also used the space to treat soldiers wounded overseas. In the nineteen fifties, Ali Sastroamidjojo bought the building for Indonesia. He served as the country’s first ambassador to the United States. About thirty years later, the old mansion was connected to a modern building that was added. Today, some people attend Friday prayers at the Indonesian embassy. The embassy also offers educational courses. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Traveling along Embassy Row, we pass a number of other embassies. One of the largest is the British Embassy. The grounds include two chancery buildings and a residence. The ambassador's home looks like an English country house. On the embassy grounds a bronze statue of Winston Churchill welcomes visitors and people passing by on the street. VOICE TWO: Winston Churchill was Britain’s prime minister during World War Two. His statue shows him making a V-for-victory sign with one hand. The other hand holds a cane and a cigar. Churchill stands with one foot on British land at the embassy and the other foot in Washington. This placement calls attention to the fact that his father was British and his mother was American. It also calls attention to the honorary United States citizenship that he was given. VOICE ONE: Close to the British Embassy is the United States Naval Observatory. Astronomers use the observatory to study the positions and movements of the Earth, sun, moon and other objects in space. The people who work at the Naval Observatory must also find time for another responsibility. They keep the Master Clock for the United States. We see an electronic sign with red numbers near Massachusetts Avenue. The numbers change by the second. What time is it? Time to continue our tour. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Public tours of the Naval Observatory are available but they are limited. There are several main buildings on the grounds on the Naval Observatory. One of these is a big white house. No, not the house where the president lives. This is the official home of the vice president. VOICE ONE: Next, we leave Embassy Row and head for Washington's historic Georgetown neighborhood along the Potomac River. In Georgetown we stop at a mansion that holds the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Dumbarton Oaks is another fine place for an outdoor visit. In nineteen forty-four, delegates from the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China met at Dumbarton Oaks. World War Two was nearing its end. The purpose of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference was to talk about ways to secure a just and lasting peace in the world. VOICE TWO: Meetings took place between August and October of nineteen forty-four. The delegates talked about proposals for an international organization. Those talks led to the United Nations, which was established in nineteen forty-five. Today, however, it is not the history but the beauty of the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks that captures our attention. VOICE ONE: The gardens offer peace in the middle of a busy city. There are flowers and trees along with pools and fountains of water. Something always seems to be in bloom here. Visitors have even seen roses in full flower in December at the start of winter. Almost all of the sculptures in the garden were made from limestone from the state of Indiana in the Midwest. Greenery and flowering bushes surround the Ornamental Pool in the gardens. A visitor has to resist the urge to jump in for a swim. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Washington has many outdoor memorials and monuments around the National Mall area and throughout the city. But if a road trip out into the country interests you, then here is an idea. One place to enjoy the beauty of nature in autumn is along Skyline Drive in Virginia. The road is about one hundred forty kilometers from Washington, on the other side of the Potomac River. You can rent a car to get there, or go on a tour bus. The trees are pretty even if they have not yet reached their full colors in the fall. Visitors may see deer walking in the road. Drivers have to be careful not to hit them. There is another reason not to drive too fast. The road is not very wide. VOICE ONE: Skyline Drive is in Shenandoah National Park. The park is in the Virginia part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In turn, the Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains. The drive is along the top of the mountains. Skyline Drive is the only road through Shenandoah. It passes through about one hundred seven kilometers of the park. The park has about eighty overlooks where you can pull your car off the road and enjoy a view of nature in all its autumn beauty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. For more programs about American life, go to voaspecialenglish.com, where you can download transcripts and MP3 files. We will also have links if you would like to take a picture tour of the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks or see what the Indonesian embassy looks like. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ?? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Couch Potato: Life as a Full-Time Television Watcher
* Byline: Terms for the active and inactive. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories.(MUSIC) Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time. For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a couch potato. ?A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television. Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen seventy-six. Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government. Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher. It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”? Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as mouse potatoes enjoy working on computers. A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen. The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers. Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get cabin fever. A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city. People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time. Cabin fever is not really a disease. However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes. This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed. Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live. This is called nesting or cocooning. Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change. Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife. So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too. The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago. They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things. These people then had children. Now these children are grown and have left the nest. They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away. Now these parents are living alone without children in their empty nest. They have become empty nesters. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Epilepsy, Treatment Choices Have Grown, but Drugs Are First Step
* Byline: Medical science has developed many treatments for epilepsy. But most sufferers in developing countries receive no treatment for their seizures. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we will examine the brain disorder known as epilepsy. Many people do not understand epilepsy. They may consider it a mental disability or even a sign of evil. Medical experts are working to understand more about epilepsy and improve the lives of those who suffer from it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Chief Justice John Roberts leaves a hospital in July, one day after he suffered a seizureOn July thirtieth, the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, fell near his summer home in Maine. Doctors said the fall was the result of a brain seizure. But they could find no physical cause. A seizure is a sudden attack that may affect a person's mind or body for a short period. Mister Roberts suffered a similar seizure in nineteen ninety-three. Experts say a person who has suffered two or more such attacks is considered to have epilepsy. But just what is epilepsy and how is it treated? VOICE TWO: Epilepsy is a medical condition. A seizure happens when a sudden increase of electrical activity interferes with normal operations in the brain. Nerve cells use electrical particles to communicate with each other. Millions of electrical particles pass between nerve cells in the brain. When the brain has a sudden burst of electricity, the body experiences physical changes that are called epileptic seizures. Victims can shake uncontrollably for brief periods. They also can temporarily lose the ability to communicate or think clearly. VOICE ONE: Different kinds of seizures result when different parts of the brain are affected. If electrical activity increases in only one area of the brain, the person will have what is called a partial seizure. Many times, a person may suffer a partial seizure and not know it. They might note strange feelings in an arm or leg. They also might hear noises or look straight ahead for a few minutes. Sometimes the person will have an uncontrolled movement, like turning the head to one side. Most partial seizures last less than ninety seconds. So it is not always possible for others to recognize them as signs of a disorder. The most famous kind of epileptic seizure is called a grand mal seizure. A person experiencing this kind of seizure will fall to the ground. His or her body will become firm and start to shake. After a few minutes, the patient will stop moving, appear awake and realize what has happened. He or she may move slowly for about thirty minutes. Some grand mal seizures start with partial seizures and become worse. VOICE TWO: Experts report different reasons why an individual may suffer epileptic seizures. For example, head injuries or a lack of oxygen at birth may damage the electrical system in the brain. Other causes are poisoning and high body temperatures. Older adults may develop epilepsy because of an infection, stroke or Alzheimer's disease. But experts say the cause of the disorder is unknown in more than half of all cases. The World Health Organization estimates that fifty million people around the world have epilepsy. At least half of all sufferers are children and young people. The W.H.O. says many people in developing countries suffer from epilepsy as a result of local conditions. In those areas, people have a greater chance of experiencing a medical condition or disease that can lead to permanent brain damage. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says most people with epilepsy receive no treatment. Yet many treatments for the disorder are available. First, a doctor must decide the cause of a patient’s seizures. The doctor will ask the patient what it felt like before, during and after the seizure. The doctor then may order tests to measure electrical signals from brain cells. Other tests may be used to look for any other conditions that may be causing the seizures. Some machines can even find the brain areas where seizures are produced. VOICE TWO: Generally, the first treatment choice for epilepsy is medicine. The Epilepsy Foundation says different kinds of medicines can stop or control different kinds of seizures. These drugs work best only after they reach what experts call a desired level in the body. That level has to be continually present for seizures to be controlled. It might take months to identify the right drug to control the disorder because each one may cause other problems. These include weight gain or loss, eye or stomach problems, sleepiness and loss of balance. Some people may suffer depression, or have problems thinking or talking as a result of taking some drugs. VOICE ONE: Another treatment for epilepsy is an operation to remove the part of the brain suspected of causing the seizures. This is done only when medicines fail to control the disorder. One requirement for the operation is that the part of the brain responsible can be removed without damaging speech, memory or other abilities. Doctors can perform other kinds of brain operations. One can block the spread of electrical activity in the brain. Such operations are performed only at special medical centers. The Epilepsy Foundation says more operations are being done now because new information has increased their safety. Still, some people get no help from operations and others continue to need medication for their seizures. VOICE TWO: Another treatment is called vagus nerve stimulation. It is used in adults and young people who have partial seizures that are not controlled in other ways. In this treatment, electrical energy enters the brain through the vagus nerve in the neck. The electricity comes from a small power supply placed under the skin in the chest. Medical experts set the device to provide a small amount of energy every few minutes. The patient can also send a few seconds of energy through the nerve if he or she feels that a seizure is near. This has been known to stop a seizure. The Epilepsy Foundation says this treatment may cause an uneasy or uncomfortable feeling in the throat of the patient. The group says most people who use this treatment suffer fewer seizures. Some patients report increased effectiveness over time. The foundation says people using vagus nerve stimulation still must take anti-seizure medicines. But the amount may decrease as the treatment continues. VOICE ONE: People with epilepsy may be able to control their seizures by controlling what they eat. The ketogenic diet is very high in fats and low in carbohydrates. It makes the body burn fat for energy instead of sugar. This diet requires family cooperation if the patient is a child. It also requires trained medical supervision. The patient must be in a hospital for the first part of the treatment. And the amount of food and liquid the patient can have at each meal must be carefully weighed for each individual. The patient should obey the dietary restrictions for at least one month before experts know if the treatment is successful. VOICE TWO: The Epilepsy Foundation says about one third of children on the ketogenic diet become seizure-free or almost seizure free. Another third improve but still experience some seizures. The others cannot continue with the diet or it has no effect on their seizures. Experts say a child should follow the dietary restrictions for about two years if the treatment is successfully controlling seizures. Then, other food may be eaten in small amounts to see if the seizures can still be controlled. Other effects of the diet include digestive problems, loss of fluids in the body, and development of kidney stones or gall stones. Thinning bones, an inflamed pancreas and eye problems are other possible effects. Another danger of the diet is that high levels of fat could develop in the blood. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People being treated for epilepsy in one of these ways can still suffer an unexpected seizure. So what can you do if you see someone in this situation?? Experts say the most important thing is to keep the patient safe until the seizure stops. Stay with the patient. Clear the area of anything that could hurt the patient and put something soft under the head. If you can, turn the body on one side. Do not force the mouth open or hold the person down. The seizure will stop on its own. Then speak to the person calmly and offer help to get home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Strip Cropping as a Way to Increase Cowpea Production
* Byline: Farmers in northern Nigeria learn a method used in many countries to provide bigger crops and protect soil. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Nigeria is the world's largest cowpea producer. Cowpeas are also called black-eyed peas. But there is always room for improvement. Recently, before the start of another farming season, some farmers in northern Nigeria received training in ways to increase production. The Institute for International and Tropical Agriculture organized the training in Kano. Extension agents also attended. So did representatives of the United States Agency for International Development and the Kano State Agricultural Development Authority. The program included training in strip cropping. This means repeatedly planting two rows of cereals followed by four rows of cowpeas. Strip cropping is generally done on slopes, or hilly areas. Farmers in many countries use this traditional method with a number of crops. Experts say it can provide bigger crops and protect soil from damage by wind and water. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization suggests using strip cropping with the alternating of crops. That is, not growing the same crop again and again. The F.A.O. says combining these methods can reduce insect pests and fungi. Farmers in the Americas also use strip cropping to reduce erosion. One example is on Prince Edward Island, a province of Canada in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Colorful rows of crops look like an artist designed them. Agricultural specialists on the island say the strip-cropping method works well with potatoes. They say it can reduce erosion rates over hilly areas far better than simply changing crops. At their training in Kano, the farmers also learned about a method called triple bagging to store cowpeas. The system uses three fifty kilogram plastic bags. The cowpeas are placed in the first one, which is then put inside the other two. Insects are not likely to get through all three bags. Cowpeas can be stored this way for five months without the need to use preservatives. The farmers also learned how to use the sun to kill insects that invade cowpeas before storage. The cowpeas are placed on a black plastic sheet under the heat of the sun. Later, the produce is moved into metal cans without any air inside. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can learn more about agricultural methods at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In City by the Bay, Celebrating the History of a Harbor
* Byline: A visit to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This unusual national park celebrates the great harbor of San Francisco, California. It also celebrates the men and women who sailed the ships that made this harbor famous. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: Our story begins long ago in October, seventeen sixty-nine. A group of Spanish explorers have come north from Mexico. They are moving slowly up the coast of the territory of California. The governor of California, Gaspar de Portola, leads the group. The men and horses are tired. It has been a long trip. Governor de Portola decides to rest for a few days. But he still wants to explore the area. He orders a young man to take some soldiers and search to the north for a few kilometers. The young man is Jose Francisco Ortega. VOICE TWO: On the morning of November second, seventeen sixty-nine, Ortega leads his small group of soldiers up a hill. What they see from the top of the hill makes them stop. There, below them, is a body of water. They are looking at a huge bay. Its waters seem to stretch for many kilometers to the north, south and east. The waters are very calm. When the small group of soldiers reports to Governor de Portola, they are excited. They tell him of a huge natural harbor. A Spanish religious worker reports the harbor is so large it could hold all of the ships of Europe. VOICE ONE: Six years after the huge bay was discovered, the Spanish ship San Carlos is sailing north along the coast of California. Juan Manuel de Ayala commands the ship. As the little ship sails along the coast, one of the crew reports to de Ayala. He says there is a huge opening in the landmass several kilometers wide. De Ayala orders the San Carlos to sail carefully into the opening. A crewmember reports the water in the opening is more than one hundred twenty meters deep. ?Slowly the little ship enters the huge natural harbor. For more than a month, de Ayala and his crew will sail their little ship around the huge bay. They make maps and study the area. They discover the bay is more than eighty kilometers long and from three to nineteen kilometers wide. On September eighteenth, seventeen seventy-five, the San Carlos leaves the great bay. The San Carlos was the first ship to enter what would become San Francisco Bay. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spanish exploration was the beginning of the history of San Francisco harbor. That long history is celebrated at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The park’s main visitor center and museum is only a few hundred meters from the waters of the great harbor. The main building and the surrounding area are part of the history of the city and its link with the Pacific Ocean. It is a memorial to the great ships and those who sailed them. The Maritime National Park was designed to tell the story of the huge harbor. It also tells of the importance of the bay to the city of San Francisco, the state of California and the United States. VOICE ONE: The visitor center holds many objects linked to the past of the great harbor. There are small ships, ship equipment, and hundreds of beautiful old photographs. Many of the photographs from about eighteen forty-nine show thousands of sailing ships surrounding the city of San Francisco. This is when gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people came looking for gold and wealth. Many visitors also stop to look at a large painting of a huge sailing ship. The painting shows the ship fighting against an angry ocean. Blue and green waters break against the side of the ship. Men high up in the ship’s masts are trying to control the sails. It is a painting of a ship named the “Balclutha." The ship was built in Scotland in eighteen eighty-six. Visitors learn that the Balclutha fought storms around the tip of South America on its first trip. It reached the harbor of San Francisco after one hundred forty days at sea. It carried a cargo of coal from Britain. Visitors who look at the painting can go out the front door of the visitor center and see the real Balclutha. The Balclutha is the largest of almost one hundred ships and boats that are part of the Maritime National Park. VOICE TWO: People walking near Fisherman’s Wharf often do not believe their eyes when they first see the Balclutha. Almost everyone stops and looks at the huge ship. Many people take photographs. The Balclutha is more than ninety-one meters long. The three tall masts that once carried its sails reach forty-four meters into the sky. It seems to be an object from the past that has arrived in modern San Francisco. The great ship looks almost new. Several years ago, more than one million dollars was spent to repair and paint the Balclutha. Now, more than two hundred thousand people a year visit the ship. The visitors learn how the Balclutha once traveled the world carrying cargo. They can see a photograph of the first crew of the Balclutha. That crew sailed it into San Francisco harbor with a cargo of coal more than one hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Balclutha is perhaps the most popular ship with visitors to the Maritime Park. However they can also visit several others ships. These are also very important to the history of the great harbor. But not all of these ships are open to the public. One that is open is a small steam-powered workboat that was built in nineteen-oh-seven. This small boat is named the Hercules. The Hercules is a tugboat. Until nineteen twenty-four it pulled ships around the harbor. It pulled huge amounts of wood from trees from the city of Seattle, Washington in the north all the way to Panama. And it moved cargo from place to place within San Francisco harbor. VOICE TWO: Another boat popular with visitors is the Eureka. It was built in eighteen ninety. It is the largest wooden ship still floating today. The Eureka was a ferryboat. It carried people and cars across San Francisco bay. It did this until the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge were built. The C.A. Thayer is another sailing ship. It was built in eighteen ninety-five. It carried wood from trees along the Pacific Coast from the state of Washington to California. Later it was used as a fishing boat. It is one of only two West Coast lumber ships in existence. A few years ago, it was badly in need of repair. The park decided to rebuild the ship using traditional materials. The work began in two thousand three. The C.A. Thayer returned to its home in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in April two thousand seven. The superintendent of the park, Kate Richardson, said the project "preserved an important piece of history and culture." VOICE ONE: A much smaller sailing ship is called the Alma. Sailors called this kind of ship a scow. It usually had only two crewmembers and perhaps a boy who was learning how to work on a boat. The Alma was the kind of small ship used during the California Gold Rush. It delivered cargo across the great harbor and up rivers. Ships like the Alma carried almost everything -- bricks, salt, lumber, grain, food. The little ships could carry as much cargo as a large modern truck. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park also has a very unusual looking museum. It is a large building that almost looks like a ship. The museum is filled with interesting equipment. One room has been made to look like a ship’s radio room. Radio operators show visitors how the equipment was used. One of the most interesting objects in the museum is a small sailboat only large enough for one person. It is only five-and-one-half meters long. The little boat is named Mermaid. In nineteen sixty-two, Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie sailed the Mermaid alone across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. No one had ever done such a thing before. VOICE ONE: From the top of the building, visitors can watch the ships of the world sail in and out of the great harbor. Visitors to the San Francisco Maritime National Park learn that the history of the harbor is important to the past. And the work of San Francisco harbor continues into the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Gaining Weight as Friends, and Maybe Losing It Too
* Byline: Researchers say that if social ties help make obesity acceptable, then they could also be influential in fighting the fat. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. When one person gains weight, their close friends often follow. Researchers have just offered evidence in a study that says obesity appears to spread through social ties. But the findings might also offer hope. A fitness class in PennsylvaniaIf friends help make obesity acceptable, then they might also be influential in losing the fat. The researchers note that support groups are already an effective tool in dealing with other socially influenced problems, like alcoholism. The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers used information collected from twelve thousand people. It was collected between nineteen seventy-one and two thousand three as part of the Framingham Heart Study. The information was highly detailed. There was even contact information for close friends of the people in the study. The researchers examined more than forty thousand social ties. They found that a person's chances of becoming severely overweight increased by fifty-seven percent if a friend had become obese. A sister or brother of a person who became obese had a forty percent increased chance of becoming obese. The risk for a wife or husband was a little less than that. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School was a lead investigator in the study. He says there is a direct causal relationship between a person getting fat and being followed in weight gain by a friend. The study found that the sex of the friends was also an influence. In same-sex friendships, a person had a seventy-one percent increased risk of becoming obese. Men had a forty-four percent increased risk of becoming obese after weight gain in a brother. In sisters, it was sixty-seven percent. The researchers also considered the effect of where people lived in relation to each other. James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, was the other lead investigator. He says a friend who lives a few hundred kilometers away has as much influence as one in the same neighborhood. He says the study demonstrates the need to consider that a major part of people's health is tied to their social connections. Both investigators say their research shows that obesity is not just a private medical issue, but a public health problem. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Dude! Check Out Some of the Most Common Slang in Popular Speech
* Byline: 

 AA:?I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: "Slang" that's not necessarily slang. RS:?A. C. Kemp teaches international students as a lecturer in English language studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also runs the Web site slangcity.com and she used to teach a slang class at an adult education center. AC KEMP: "I know when I started teaching this slang class, a lot of my friends said 'Oh, so you're teaching them hip-hop words,' or that sort of thing. And, in fact, the students, what they wanted to learn, were words that most Americans wouldn't consider slang." AA: "Such as?" AC KEMP: "Like 'cool' or idioms like 'kick someone out,' meaning to force someone to leave, or 'screw up,' to make a mistake. A lot of the things that Americans think are just regular English, they're not taught formally. If you're studying English in another country, in Turkey or Japan, they don't usually teach those kind of words." RS: "What do you consider the most important slang words for those students, those who are either coming to the United States or are learning English in other countries?" AC KEMP: "The most important words, I would say, are the most frequent words. The philosophy these days in teaching English as a second language is that when you look at vocabulary, you want to teach words that are very frequent. And that makes sense, because if you have a text, say, or you're listening to a conversation and you know ninety or ninety-five percent of the words, those words that show up from time to time are going to be a lot easier to guess if you know most of what that sentence means." AA:?A. C. Kemp did a little research for us: an analysis of terms currently used in popular culture. AC KEMP: "What I did was I made a list of popular television shows like 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'The Office,' 'Desperate Housewives' and '24,' and I took scripts from those and scripts from movies -- and I tried pick a variety, like 'Finding Nemo' and 'Kill Bill' and 'American Pie' -- and I put all of those scripts, which you can get on the Internet, I took those scripts and put them in a file and ran a computer program called a concordancer.' RS:?The result? A list of how often eA Ch word in the file was used. AA:?A. C. Kemp says linguists usually think of slang as being "insider language:" language that's used by a particular group. But she picked out words that her students would consider slang. A C KEMP: "And the one that I found the most commonly [used] was 'dude.'" AA: "D-u-d-e." AC KEMP: "D-u-d-e, meaning man. And I thought, well, that's kind of strange, why is that so common? And I realized that I had some movies in there and some TV shows that were intended for teenagers. And for teenagers it's not just a word that means man, it's also the way they address each other. So when they say hello, they say 'Hey, dude.' "And the next most common one was 'cool,' which most people know." AA: "And that's been around for decades." AC KEMP: "Oh, that's been around for over a hundred years. But that's one of those things about what is slang, that even though 'cool' has been around for so long, we still think of it as an informal slang word." RS: "What else came up on your list?" AC KEMP: "The third most popular one was 'hot,' meaning sexy or exciting, and 'hottie,' a sexy person. The next one was kind of interesting. That was 'whatever,' used as a sentence. Teenagers say 'whatever' to mean 'I don't care' or 'It doesn't matter to me.'" AA: "And next on the list?" AC KEMP: "'Chick.' That's another word that was really common in the sixties and seventies and it went out of fashion and it came back." RS: "Meaning ... " AC KEMP: "Meaning woman or girl." AA: "And it was a very controversial term in its earlier days, how is it -- because it was seen as very chauvinistic -- " AC KEMP: "Personally, I still see it as a derogatory term but it's -- you know, teenagers, I'm not sure if they see it as a bad thing or not. I suspect many of them do." RS:?A. C. Kemp teaches English to international students at M.I.T. and runs the Web site slangcity.com. She will be back with us next time to continue our conversation. AA:?And that's all for WORDMASTER this week. Archives on online at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "All the Young Dudes"/Mott the Hoople, 1972 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-12-voa4.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: How Bush's War on Terror Led to Iraq
* Byline: The president began making his case about an Iraqi threat in a speech to the U.N. Security Council in September 2002. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English Program about the history of the United States. George W. Bush became president in January two thousand one. Today we tell about the invasion of Iraq that began in March, two thousand three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Islamic terrorists of the al-Qaida group attacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., on September eleventh, two thousand one. After the attacks, the Bush administration supported the policy of preventive war to end threats to its national security. Many of President Bush's top advisers had long supported an invasion of Iraq. As early as that October, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested that military action against Iraq was possible. Government officials charged that Iraq was linked to terrorist groups like al-Qaida. They noted that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons and said he was trying to develop biological and nuclear weapons. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? President Bush gave his yearly State of the Union report to Congress in January two thousand two. He said some nations support terrorist organizations. He said the United States would not wait to be attacked by such groups. Instead, it would strike first at the countries that sheltered them. The president especially noted three nations as supporters of terror. He said North Korea, Iran and Iraq threatened the United States. PRESIDENT BUSH: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. ?They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred." VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Iraq had been defeated in the Persian Gulf War of nineteen ninety-one. The United Nations ordered Iraq to destroy all development and supply centers for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The U.N. had sent teams of weapons inspectors to make sure Iraq was following orders. But since nineteen ninety-eight, Iraq had refused to permit U.N. weapons inspection teams into the country. VOICE TWO: President Bush and his administration believed Iraq was making or hiding weapons of mass destruction, known as WMDs. He said if the United Nations failed to force Iraq to disarm, the United States might launch a military attack against the country. Mister Bush began making his case to the international community for an invasion of Iraq in a speech to the U.N. Security Council in September, two thousand two. Then the president asked Congress to pass a resolution giving him power to use military force against Iraq. Congress approved the resolution in October. In November, Iraq agreed to permit the U.N. weapons inspectors to return. After more investigation, the leader of the inspection team reported to the U.N. in February, two thousand three. He said the team had found no evidence of WMDs. He also said Iraq was not cooperating with efforts to find out if suspected weapons had been destroyed and if weapons programs had been ended. VOICE ONE: In January, two thousand three, President Bush used his State of the Union speech to strengthen his case against Iraq. He said British intelligence reported that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium from Africa. Uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons. But several months later, the White House said the intelligence was false. The president wanted the U.N. to approve military force against Iraq. Britain and Spain also supported military force. They asked the Security Council to pass a resolution approving military action against Iraq. But some important members of the fifteen-member Security Council opposed such action. They included Germany, France and Russia. They said inspections should be increased. They said use of force should be used only as a last choice. The United States withdrew the resolution. VOICE TWO: The United States and Britain decided to invade Iraq without U.N. support. Most Americans supported the decision. But there was widespread international opposition. In February, millions of people around the world took part in anti-war protests in hundreds of cities. Some people argued that the United States would be violating international law by invading a nation that was not an immediate threat. Mister Bush said the war was being launched to prevent Saddam from supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups that might attack the United States or other countries. He also argued that Saddam was an evil dictator who had ordered the killing of thousands of people and should be removed from power. VOICE ONE: On March seventeenth, Mister Bush told Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq or face military action. Saddam rejected the demand. U.N. inspection teams left Iraq four days before the American-led invasion, even though they had requested more time to complete their job. Many international leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, criticized the war. They said the weapons inspectors should have been given more time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? On March twentieth, Iraqi time, air strikes by the United States and Britain began the effort called "Operation Iraqi Freedom.”?? The United States said the war was meant to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism and free the Iraqi people. A number of other countries joined the war effort. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? The coalition quickly defeated the Iraqi military. On April ninth, United States forces took control of Baghdad. In a dramatic event on that day, Iraqis and American forces destroyed a large statue of Saddam Hussein in the capital. The allies controlled all major Iraqi cities. Saddam Hussein had disappeared into hiding. Another dramatic event took place on May first. President Bush landed in a plane onto the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Then he declared victory. PRESIDENT BUSH: "Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans… Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” VOICE ONE: The government in Baghdad had fallen. But a deepening conflict in Iraq lay ahead. American troops and an American inspection team searched Iraq for WMDs. But none were found. That led to accusations against President Bush. Critics of the war said the United States and Britain provided false evidence about Iraqi weapons programs and links to terrorists. They said Mister Bush accepted false or misleading intelligence because he wanted to invade Iraq. More severe critics said he knowingly used false intelligence. VOICE TWO:The United States turned its attention to rebuilding Iraq and establishing a new Iraqi government. The Coalition Provisional Authority was created as a temporary government in Iraq. President Bush replaced a general with State Department official Paul Bremer as head of the Authority. The United States remained in control of Iraq until a temporary Iraqi government could be formed. But establishing normal life in Iraq proved difficult. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? People rioted and stole things from government buildings, museums, banks and military storage centers. In many places there was little or no electric power, running water or waste removal. The Coalition Provisional Authority dismissed the Iraqi army and the government. Those people now had no jobs. The presence of foreigners in their country angered many Iraqis. Some denounced what they called the occupation force. Militants attacked coalition troops. They also attacked Iraqis and international organizations seen as cooperating with American forces. In some areas, longtime religious differences between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims became armed disputes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The invasion of Iraq was the most widely and closely reported war in military history. At the start of the war, as many as seven hundred reporters and photographers were living and traveling with the troops. Also, for the first time in history, troops on the front lines were able to provide direct reporting through Web logs, or blogs, they posted on the Internet. VOICE TWO: In December, two thousand three, United States forces captured Saddam Hussein hiding on a farm near Tikrit. Iraqi officials said he would be tried for crimes against the Iraqi people. But the declaration of an end to "major combat operations" and the capture of Saddam did not mean that peace would soon return to Iraq. ?????? (MUSIC)??? VOICE ONE: This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week when we will tell about other major policies during President Bush's first term in office. You can find our series about the history of the United States on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-12-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Appalachian State in Public Eye After Win Over Michigan
* Byline: Who would have thought it? Well, some might have. The Mountaineers from North Carolina were two-time national champions at their own division level. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. An exciting start to the college football season: A team that many people never heard of defeats one of the best in the country. A Michigan player catches the ball, but Appalachian State captured the gameIf you follow American sports, then you know we are talking about the Michigan-Appalachian State game. It happened on September first at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, in front of more than one hundred thousand people. Appalachian State University is in Boone, North Carolina. Its team plays in a stadium that holds about twenty-five thousand people. The Mountaineers of Appalachian State and the Wolverines of the University of Michigan normally do not even play each other. Michigan is in the newly named Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football. Appalachian State plays in the Football Championship Subdivision. But they decided to meet for the first time. Michigan agreed to pay Appalachian State four hundred thousand dollars, win or lose. Teams like Michigan need victories, even a victory over a lower division team, to get into big, nationally broadcast bowl games. These games are worth millions of dollars at the end of the season. Fans expected an easy Michigan win. After all, in the preseason, sports experts had considered Michigan the fifth best college football team in the country. But Appalachian State is a two-time national champion at its own division level. And its players wanted to show they could play well against a nationally ranked team. And they did. The final score was Appalachian State thirty-four, Michigan thirty-two. The game quickly became known as one of the greatest upsets in college football history. The win has brought national attention to Appalachian State. Local stores reported a huge increase in orders for college clothing and other items. And the university chancellor expects more students to seek admission next year. The university has more than thirteen thousand undergraduates and one thousand six hundred graduate students. It has four colleges and a school of music. Last Saturday, at home, Appalachian State defeated another North Carolina school, Lenoir-Rhyne College, forty-eight to seven. The Wolverines also played again at Michigan Stadium. And they lost for the fourth time in their last four games, this time to the University of Oregon. The score was thirty-nine to seven. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Luciano Pavarotti: A Beautiful Voice Is Silenced
* Byline: A listener in Russia asks what are America's most respected and least respected professions. And the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's book ''On The Road.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to opera music by Luciano Pavarotti … Answer a question about the most respected professions … And report about the anniversary of a famous American book. "On The Road" HOST: Last week was the fiftieth anniversary of an extremely popular book by American writer Jack Kerouac. "On The Road" was first published on September fifth, nineteen fifty-seven. Reports say almost one hundred thousand copies of the book are sold in the United States every year. Shirley Griffith has more. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Some critics considered Jack Kerouac a great writer. Others did not. But one thing is sure--young people loved "On The Road."?? The book is about two young men who travel back and forth across the United States, exploring new places and meeting new people. Their names are Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity. The characters in the book are like Jack Kerouac and his friends. Jack Kerouac did, in fact, travel across America several times in the late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties. He traveled to almost every state in the United States and in Mexico. Often he hitch-hiked: he just asked people for a ride in their car. Sometimes he traveled with his friend Neal Cassady. Jack Kerouac wrote "On The Road" in just three weeks in nineteen fifty-one. He typed it on several long pieces of paper that he connected to form a continuous document about thirty-six meters long. It took six years for the book to be published. But it immediately became a best-seller. One critic said "One the Road" was about all things American: individualism, the pioneer spirit, jazz, even apple pie. Here, Jack Kerouac reads from his famous work: JACK KEROUAC: "There he goes, Dean Moriarity, ragged in a moth eaten overcoat that he brought specially for the freezing temperatures of the East. Walking off alone, the last I saw of him, he rounded a corner of Seventh Avenue. Eyes on the street ahead, intent to it again. Gone!" But Kerouac could not deal with the success and fame resulting from his book. He also could not deal with the way he believed his writing was misunderstood. He drank too much alcohol and died in nineteen sixty-nine at the age of forty-seven. Six years ago, American businessman Jim Irsay bought Kerouac's original typed "On The Road" for more than two million dollars. It was shown all across the United States. Now, for the anniversary, it is being shown in Jack Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. Experts say Jack Kerouac's writing helped start the rebellious movement of American young people in the nineteen sixties. They also say young people today still read and enjoy "On The Road," but are not influenced to leave college and travel as Kerouac did. Respectable?Professions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Moscow, Russia. Andy Martynyuk wants to know which professions in America are thought to be the most and least respected. You might be surprised by some of the results. For thirty years, the research company Harris Interactive has carried out public opinion studies about which professions Americans respect. This year, they spoke to more than one thousand American adults by telephone. The results show that the most respected careers are not the ones that earn the most money. They are the professions that involve providing an important service to help society. The researchers asked people which jobs they thought held very great respect. Sixty-one percent of the people listed firefighters as the most respected career. Scientists and teachers were next with fifty-four percent. The number of people who think teachers have jobs that people respect increased twenty-five points since the study started in nineteen seventy-seven. Fifty-two percent of the people questioned said military officers and doctors had jobs worthy of great respect. Real estate agents who sell houses were at the very bottom of the list. Actors and bankers were the other two least respected professions. The Special English staff could not help but notice that reporters were very low on the list with only a thirteen percent rating. U.S News and World Report magazine made a list of careers it thinks may seem exciting and rewarding but are less so in reality. These include advertising professionals, lawyers, and cooks. For example, the report says it might seem like fun to cook good foods for people in a restaurant. But many professional chefs have very repetitive duties and work very late hours. Luciano Pavarotti HOST: Luciano Pavarotti was considered by many critics and music fans to be the greatest opera singer of the twentieth century. He died last week in his hometown of Modena, Italy, at the age of seventy-one. He had battled pancreatic cancer for more than a year. Steve Ember plays some of his music. STEVE EMBER: Luciano Pavarotti was born near Modena in nineteen thirty-five. His father was a baker who loved to sing. As a child, Luciano listened to many great Italian opera singers in his father’s record collection. He began performing when he was nine years old. Pavarotti started voice lessons ten years later. Another student at the school was his childhood friend Mirella Freni. Years later they performed together. Upon news of his death, Freni said: “The world has lost a great tenor, but I’ve lost a great friend, a brother.” Here Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni sing "Viene la Sera" from the opera "Madama Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini. (MUSIC) Pavarotti sang many other kinds of songs besides opera. He sang with famous pop, rock and jazz singers. He recorded Christmas songs, Italian folk songs and other kinds of music. Pavarotti also made popular recordings with two other famous opera singers, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. The group became known as the Three Tenors. This song is from their first show in Rome, Italy. Listen as Pavarotti sings “Rondine al Nido.” (MUSIC) Some people criticized Luciano Pavarotti for extending his music beyond the limits of opera. But many opera lovers and experts were thankful for his common touch. James Levine of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City said Pavarotti's singing “spoke right to the hearts of listeners, whether they knew anything about opera or not.” We leave you with Luciano Pavarotti singing what is probably his most famous opera song, “Nessun Dorma,” from Giacomo Puccini’s opera "Turandot." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Homeowners Struggle With Rising Loan Rates, Falling House Prices
* Byline: More than $380 billion in subprime adjustable-rate mortgages in the U.S. will reset to higher charges this year or next. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. In the last few years, many Americans have bought houses with ARMs: adjustable-rate mortgages. These loans usually begin with lower interest rates for the first two or three years than fixed-rate mortgages. Then the rate changes as major interest rates rise or fall. Holders could be surprised by their new, larger monthly payments as their loans reset to a higher rate. Some people may not even know they have adjustable-rate mortgages. Some lenders and brokers who found loans for people are accused of misleading borrowers. Yet borrowers often did not even have to show proof of earnings. Now, many people who took out adjustable-rate mortgages may not be able to make their payments. And not only holders of risky subprime loans; even buyers with better credit histories could lose their homes. Next week, the Federal Reserve in Washington is expected to cut its target rate for short-term loans between banks. But long-term rates are the ones that affect things like housing loans, and these have been rising. Investors have been demanding higher returns in exchange for the risk of keeping money in longer-term securities. Federal Reserve records show that homebuyers currently hold eight hundred fifty billion dollars in subprime adjustable-rate mortgages. The nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending points to numbers from UBS Investment Research. These show that two hundred twelve billion dollars in subprime ARMs will reset to a higher rate this year. Over one hundred seventy billion dollars in loans will reset next year. The Center for Responsible Lending says subprime borrowers are the ones having the most trouble right now. One in five of them who received their loans in the last two years could lose their home. Some homeowners hope to refinance their loans to avoid higher payments. But this is a bad time in the housing market. Falling home prices could make it difficult to refinance. This is true especially for buyers who were permitted to use little or no money of their own to buy their house. Two weeks ago, President Bush announced some steps to help families avoid losing their homes while faced with rising payments. But last Friday there was more bad news: the economy lost four thousand jobs last month. It was the first time employers have cut jobs in four years. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Announces Some Troops Will Leave Iraq; Democrats Want More
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, President Bush said he will bring home almost six thousand American troops from Iraq by the end of the year. He also accepted the advice of his top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, for limited reductions by next July. President Bush discussing his Iraq planThe president said his decisions on troop levels are being guided by the idea of what he called return on success. He said the reductions are possible because his decision to send additional troops earlier this year has improved security. Troop levels in Iraq rose from around one hundred thirty thousand to nearly one hundred seventy thousand. The president spoke from the White House Thursday night. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island answered for the Democratic Party which controls Congress. He said an endless and unlimited military presence in Iraq is not a choice. He said the Democrats propose to begin what he called a responsible and rapid redeployment of American troops out of Iraq. A public opinion study by the Associated Press this week showed that almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the war. It also showed that fifty-eight percent believe the troop increase, known as the surge, has not helped the situation in Iraq. The president spoke hours after a bomb killed a local Sunni leader he met during a visit to Anbar last week. Mister Bush called him "one of the brave tribal sheiks who helped lead the revolt against al-Qaeda" in that province. The president again sought to link the war with security at home. He said the nation must succeed for the safety of future generations of Americans. But Senator Reed warned that American interests throughout the world are being damaged. And he said the armed forces are being stretched toward the breaking point. Democrats say the recent troop increase in Iraq has failed to meet what was supposed to be the main goal. That was to give Iraqi leaders the chance to work for political unity. President Bush said Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done. For example, he noted that they have passed a budget and are sharing oil money with the provinces. He said efforts to unite warring groups are making progress locally. As local politics change, he said, so will national politics. Congress wants the Iraqi government to meet eighteen political and security goals. On Friday, the White House gave a new report on these goals, known as benchmarks. The Iraqis are making satisfactory progress on nine of them, it says, one more than in the last report in July. Also Friday, the State Department released its International Religious Freedom Report for two thousand seven. It says that over the past year, the violence in Iraq greatly harmed the ability of all religious believers to practice their faith. It says many individuals were victims of kidnapping, killings and other abuse because of their religious identity. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English -- online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Wright Brothers: They Showed the World How to Fly
* Byline: In 1903, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell the story of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright brothers made a small engine-powered flying machine and proved that it was possible for humans to really fly. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wilbur Wright was born in eighteen sixty-seven near Melville,? Indiana. His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio. Throughout their lives, they were best friends. As Wilbur once said: "From the time we were little children, Orville and I lived together, played together, worked together and thought together." Wilbur and Orville's father was a bishop, an official of the United Brethren Church. He traveled a lot on church business. Their mother was unusual for a woman of the nineteenth century. She had completed college. She was especially good at mathematics and science. And she was good at using tools to fix things or make things. VOICE TWO: One winter day when the Wright brothers were young, all their? friends were outside sliding down a hill on wooden sleds. The Wright brothers were sad, because they did not have a sled. So, Missus Wright said she would make one for them. She drew a picture of a sled. It did not look like other sleds. It was lower to the ground and not as wide. She told the boys it would be faster, because there would be less resistance from the wind when they rode on it. Missus Wright was correct. When the sled was finished, it was the fastest one around. Wilbur and Orville felt like they were flying. The sled project taught the Wright brothers two important rules. They learned they could increase speed by reducing wind resistance. And they learned the importance of drawing a design. Missus Wright said: "If you draw it correctly on paper, it will be right when you build it." ?VOICE ONE: When Wilbur was eleven years old and Orville seven, Bishop Wright? brought home a gift for them. It was a small flying machine that? flew like helicopters of today. It was made of paper, bamboo and? cork. The motor was a rubber band that had to be turned many times until it was tight. When the person holding the toy helicopter let go, it rose straight up. It stayed in the air for a few seconds. Then it floated down to the floor. Wilbur and Orville played and played with their new toy. Finally, the paper tore and the rubber band broke. They made another one. But it was too heavy to fly. Their first flying machine failed. VOICE TWO: Their attempts to make the toy gave them a new idea. They would? make kites to fly and sell to their friends. They made many designs and tested them. Finally, they had the right design. The kites flew as though they had wings. The Wright brothers continued to experiment with mechanical? things. Orville started a printing business when he was in high? school. He used a small printing machine to publish a newspaper. He sold copies of the newspaper to the other children in school, but he did not earn much money from the project. VOICE ONE: Wilbur offered some advice to his younger brother. Make the? printing press bigger and publish a bigger newspaper, he said. So, together, they designed and built one. The machine looked strange. Yet it worked perfectly. Soon, Orville and Wilbur were publishing a weekly newspaper. They also printed materials for local businessmen. They were finally earning money. Wilbur was twenty-five years old and Orville twenty-one when they began to sell and repair bicycles. Then they began to make them. But the Wright brothers never stopped thinking about flying machines. ?VOICE TWO: In eighteen ninety-nine, Wilbur decided to learn about all the? different kinds of flying machines that had been designed and tested through the years. Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He asked for all the information it had on flying. The Wright brothers read everything they could about people who? sailed through the air under huge balloons. They also read about? people who tried to fly on gliders -- planes with wings, but no? motors. VOICE ONE: Then the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine. They used the ideas they had developed from their earlier experiments with the toy helicopter, kites, printing machine and bicycles. Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight. They? wrote to the Weather Bureau in Washington to find the place with? the best wind conditions. The best place seemed to be a thin piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk. It had the right wind and open space. Best of all, it was private. VOICE TWO: In nineteen hundred, the Wright brothers tested a glider that could carry a person. But neither the first or second glider they built had the lifting power needed for real flight. Wilbur and Orville decided that what they had read about air pressure on curved surfaces was wrong. So they built a wind tunnel two meters long in their bicycle store in Dayton, Ohio. They tested more than two hundred designs of wings. These tests gave them the correct information about air pressure on curved surfaces. Now it was possible for them to design a machine that could fly. VOICE ONE: The Wright brothers built a third glider. They took it to Kitty Hawk in the summer of nineteen-oh-two. They made almost one thousand flights with the glider. Some covered more than one hundred eighty meters. This glider proved that they had solved most of the problems of balance in flight. By the autumn of nineteen-oh-three, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine. The plane had wings twelve meters across. It weighed about? three hundred forty kilograms, including the pilot. VOICE TWO: The Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk. On December? seventeen, nineteen-oh-three, they made the world's first flight? in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Orville flew the plane thirty-seven meters. He was in the air for twelve seconds. The two brothers made three more flights that day. The longest was made by Wilbur. He flew two hundred sixty meters in fifty-nine seconds. Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights. One of the men took pictures. Few newspapers, however, noted the event. VOICE ONE: Wilbur and Orville returned home to Ohio. They built more powerful engines and flew better airplanes. But their success was almost unknown. Most people still did not believe flying was possible. It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous. In nineteen-oh-eight, Wilbur went to France. He gave demonstration flights at heights of ninety meters. A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine. VOICE TWO: Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France. One lasted an hour. Orville also made fifty-seven complete circles over a field at Fort Myer, Virginia. The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane. Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes. Newspapers wrote long stories about them. Crowds followed them. But they were not seeking fame. They returned to Dayton where they continued to improve their airplanes. They taught many others how to fly. VOICE ONE: Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in nineteen twelve. Orville? Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years? later, in nineteen forty-eight. Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Visitors to the museum look at the Wright brothers' small plane with its cloth wings, wooden controls and tiny engine. Then they see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon. This is striking evidence of the changes in the world since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight, one hundred years ago. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Web Site Targets World's Unsafe Drinking Water
* Byline: Scientific groups launch drinking-water.org in five languages, with information including treatment methods. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. More than one billion people around the world do not have clean drinking water. Their water supplies are unsafe because of natural or man-made pollution, such as industrial chemicals or human and animal wastes. Water-related diseases, like cholera and guinea worm, kill millions of people each year, mostly children. Last week the United States National Academy of Sciences launched "Safe Drinking Water Is Essential." This Internet-based resource, at drinking-water.org, is presented as the first tool of its kind. The aim is to provide high-quality scientific information about improving the safety of drinking water supplies. The information is provided in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. Some information is presented in short video documentaries. (SOUND) "In rural areas that lack adequate distribution systems, treatment can be applied at the point of use, using household treatment technologies. Some of these technologies have fairly low cost and are used in areas around the world. Some common treatments used in the developing world include chlorination, filtration and solar disinfection. With many treatment options available, there is no one-size-fits-all solution." The nonprofit Global Health and Education Foundation in San Francisco provided money for the project. Almost one hundred thirty science, engineering and medical academies worldwide are also involved. These organizations will share information about the new Web resource with policy makers in their countries. Also, ten thousand free copies of DVD versions of the information will go to nongovernmental groups working to improve water quality. Organizers say the Web site is meant to provide international decision makers with technical answers to drinking water problems. The information will help users learn about the causes of unsafe drinking water and technologies that can improve water quality. The site also has world maps that show the levels of availability of safe drinking water from country to country. Users can compare information from nineteen seventy and two thousand two. Peter Glick is a member of the scientific committee that developed the Web site. He says the failure of the world to meet basic human needs for water is a crisis that can be solved. He says education is central, and the hope is that this new Internet tool can be part of the solution. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the site, at drinking-water.org, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How 'West Side Story' Gave Romeo and Juliet a New Home in America
* Byline: The musical play by Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein opened 50 years ago this month in New York. First of two parts with songs from the original cast recording. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE:Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.VOICE TWO:And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today and next week we bring you the story and songs from the American musical play "West Side Story." (MUSIC)VOICE ONE: "West Side Story" opened fifty years ago this month, in New York's Winter Garden Theater. It was an immediate hit and played there for almost two years. Since then, it has been performed in many other theaters in the United States and in other countries. And millions of people have seen the motion picture version released in nineteen sixty-one. It is possible, however, to enjoy "West Side Story" without having seen the play or movie. For it is the music of composer Leonard Bernstein that is most famous. VOICE TWO: Choreographer and director Jerome Robbins developed the idea for "West Side Story" about fifty-five years ago. Most musicals of that time were not serious plays. They were written and performed purely for enjoyment. Robbins wanted to create a different kind of dance-musical. It would mix real social conflicts into a dream-like work of art. His idea was to make a modern American version of the great tragic play "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. In that play, two innocent teenagers, Romeo and Juliet, fall in love. But their powerful families are old, bitter enemies. They will not give up their hatred of each other. This leads to the deaths of several of their children, including Romeo and Juliet. Jerome Robbins' idea was to make a musical play about the hatred between Americans of different cultures. He and Leonard Bernstein decided to base the play on the tensions caused by the immigration of Puerto Ricans to New York City. Arthur Laurents wrote the words to the play. And Stephen Sondheim wrote the words to the songs. Puerto Rico is an island commonwealth of the United States in the Caribbean. In the nineteen fifties, many Puerto Ricans were moving from their island to the west side of New York. They spoke Spanish. Their culture was different. Some native New Yorkers felt threatened by these new people in town. The story takes place at the end of summer. We are introduced to two groups of teenagers. These two gangs are fighting for control of the streets. The local gang -- the "Jets" -- has long battled with the Puerto Rican gang -- the "Sharks." Now, the Jets want to push the Sharks out of their part of the city. VOICE TWO: Our first song is sung by the actors who appeared in the first production of the play. In the song, the Jets declare that anyone who is a member of their gang -- a Jet -- is always a Jet. Loyalty to the gang is more important than anything else. (MUSIC) Tony is a past leader of the Jets. But he no longer believes much in the gang. He is beginning to imagine a life outside the gang's territory. In this song, Tony senses that something new and important is about to happen to him. The part of Tony is sung by Larry Kert. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE: Now, the action turns to the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks. Bernardo is leader of the Sharks. His seventeen-year-old sister, Maria, has just arrived from Puerto Rico. She has been brought to New York to be married. Her family expects her to marry Chino, another member of the Sharks. That night, there is a dance. Both the Jets and the Sharks attend. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The dance takes place at a neighborhood center -- neutral territory. The situation is tense, even threatening. The gangs dance in their own groups. Then the boy, Tony, and the girl, Maria, see each other across the room. They meet. They dance together. They are from enemy gangs, different cultures. Yet they know, immediately, that they want to be together. Suddenly, Bernardo -- Maria's brother -- sees them. He is angry to see Maria talking with a member of the Jets. He sends her home. VOICE ONE: Tony leaves, too. He tries to find where Maria lives. He sings as he walks. (MUSIC) Tony finds the apartment building where Maria lives with her family. He calls to her window. She comes out quietly to the metal fire escape. Maria can stay for only a few minutes. She and Tony declare their love for each other. Then she must hurry inside. Carol Lawrence sings the part of Maria. (MUSIC)VOICE TWO: It is now very late at night. The Jets and Sharks are about to meet with members of their own gang to plan a big fight, a "rumble." The gang that loses the fight will be forced to leave the area to the winning gang. The play has begun to move toward its tragic ending. That will be our program next week -- the final part of "West Side Story. " We close now with the song "Tonight," sung by Maria as she and Tony say goodnight. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE: Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can download archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hang: Don't Get Excited, Just Hang Loose
* Byline: Expressions that will have you hanging on every word. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC)?? Hang is a simple word. But there are many meanings for hang. Especially when it is used with other words. Two often-heard expressions are to hang tight and to hang loose. When a friend says to hang tight, he is advising you to wait a little longer, not to give up. He might say, for example, "Hang tight. Keep studying. You can still pass the course." But if that same friend tells you to hang loose, he is telling you to take it easy, not to get excited. He could say, "Hang loose. You probably passed the English test." Hang around is an expression with several meanings. Usually, it means to spend your time doing nothing. You may need time to just hang around if you have been working too hard. Hang around also can mean spending time with friends. You hang around with your friends, for example, because you share a common interest in sports. Hanging out is similar to hanging around. You may hang out with the same group of friends and always do things together. A similar-sounding expression, however, has a very different meaning. The expression is let it all hang out. Well, when you let it all hang out, you are being completely open and honest. You do not keep your opinions hidden, even if they may cause you trouble. Sometimes, a person may suffer from a hang-up. Well, a hang-up is an emotional difficulty that causes a problem for a person. You may know someone, for example, whose hang-up is shyness. They have a problem talking with people they do not know well. A hangover can be a very painful condition. A hangover is the headache, upset stomach and other disorders that result from drinking too much alcohol. Another common expression is to get the hang of something. It means to understand how a device works or how to do a job. An office worker might say that she cannot get the hang of using a computer. But after a few days, she may tell you that she finally got the hang of it. One of the early heroes of the American republic, Benjamin Franklin, gave a warning to the other signers of the Declaration of Independence. The warning contained two different meanings of the word hang. "We must all hang together," Franklin said, "or surely, we shall all hang separately." The other signers took Fanklin's advice. They hung together, remained united. As a result, the American colonies won their independence. And none of the signers of the declaration was hanged as a revolutionary by the king of England. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How Ocean Storms Form, Get Names and May React to Climate Change
* Byline: The science of hurricanes, also known as typhoons or cyclones, dependending on where they happen. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Powerful storms are called hurricanes when they form over the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Pacific. They are called typhoons in the northwestern Pacific, and cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean. These storms are the subject of our program this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Severe ocean storms in the northern half of the world generally develop in late summer or early autumn near the equator. Storms can result when the air temperature in one area is different from that of another. Warmer air rises and cooler air falls. These movements create a difference in the pressure of the atmosphere. If the pressure changes over a large area, winds start to blow in a huge circle. High-pressure air is pulled into a low-pressure center. Severe ocean storms happen less often in the southern hemisphere. There, the season of greatest activity is between December and March. South of the equator, the winds flow in the same direction as the hands on a clock. North of the equator, they flow in the opposite direction. ? VOICE TWO: Storms can get stronger and stronger as they move over warm ocean waters. The strongest, fastest winds of a hurricane are found in the eyewall. This is the area that surrounds the center, or eye, of the storm. The eye itself is calm by comparison, with light winds and clear skies. Wind speeds in severe ocean storms can reach more than two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Up to fifty centimeters of rain can fall. Some storms have produced more than one hundred fifty centimeters of rain. These storms also cause high waves and ocean surges. A surge is a continuous movement of water that may reach six meters or more. The water strikes low coastal areas. Surges are commonly responsible for about ninety percent of all deaths from ocean storms. VOICE ONE: Scientists use computer programs to show where a storm might go. The programs combine information such as temperatures, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the amount of water in the atmosphere. Scientists collect the information with satellites, weather balloons and devices floating in the world's oceans. They also collect information from ships and passenger flights and from planes that fly into and around storms. The crews drop instruments on parachutes to record temperature, pressure, wind speed and other conditions. VOICE TWO: The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a way to rate storms based on wind speed. It provides an idea of the amount of coastal flooding and property damage that might be expected. The scale is divided into five groups. A Category One storm has winds of about one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. It can damage trees and lightweight structures. It can also cause flooding. Wind speeds in a Category Two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often powerful enough to break windows or blow a protective covering off a house. Winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour represent categories three and four. Anything even more powerful is a Category Five hurricane. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A Special English listener in Nigeria, Amadi Gabriel, wants to know how hurricanes are named. An Australian scientist began to call storms by women's names before the end of the nineteenth century. During World War Two, scientists called storms by the names of their wives or girlfriends. The weather service in the United States started to use women’s names for storms in nineteen fifty-three. In nineteen seventy-nine, it began to use men’s names, too. Scientists decide on lists of names years in advance. They agree on them at meetings of the World Meteorological Organization. VOICE TWO: Naming storms is part of the job of the National Hurricane Center near Miami, Florida. Storms get a name when they reach a wind speed of sixty-two kilometers an hour, even if they never develop into hurricanes. The first name used in a storm season begins with the letter A, the second with B and so on. The same list of names is not used again for at least six years. And different lists are used for different parts of the world. VOICE ONE: In two thousand five, Greek letters had to be used for the first time to name storms in the Atlantic. That was the plan -- to call storms Alpha, Beta and so on -- if there were ever more than twenty-one named storms in a season. In fact, there were twenty-eight. The two thousand five Atlantic hurricane season was the first on record with fifteen hurricanes. Four reached Category Five strength, also a first. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it was the first season with four major hurricanes to hit the United States. A photo taken in Long Beach, Mississippi, on August 31, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast The most destructive was Katrina. More than one thousand eight hundred people were killed along the Gulf of Mexico coast. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There is debate about the effect of rising temperatures in Earth's atmosphere on hurricanes. A new report says the number of Atlantic hurricanes has increased one hundred percent over the past century. The report blames much of the increase on higher ocean temperatures and changing wind directions linked to climate change. Two Americans, Greg Holland and Peter Webster, studied records of major storms in the north Atlantic Ocean. Mister Holland works for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He says the study provides strong evidence that climate change is a major influence on the increasing number of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. VOICE ONE: The scientists identified three periods since nineteen hundred during which the average number of major storms increased sharply. After the increase, the number of storms remained greater than the earlier average. A yearly average of six major Atlantic Ocean storms was reported between nineteen hundred and nineteen thirty. From nineteen thirty to nineteen forty, the number increased to ten. The number rose to fifteen in the most recent period, from nineteen ninety-five to two thousand five. VOICE TWO: The scientists say the effects of the most recent storm activity have yet to be established. They say this means the average hurricane season might be more active in the future. They also say it is not yet possible to estimate the number of future storms or their intensity. The study showed that the increased number of storms is closely linked with ocean water temperatures. Sea surface temperatures have risen by about seven-tenths of a degree Celsius in the past century. The scientists say the changes in ocean temperatures took place before the number of storms increased. VOICE ONE: But other scientists found different results when they looked at different periods. One of them was Patrick Michaels of the University of Virginia and the Cato Institute. Professor Michaels is currently a visiting scientist with the Marshall Institute in Washington, D.C. He says the rate of category four and five hurricanes in the Atlantic is the same now as it was in the nineteen forties and fifties. He says this shows that natural forces are at work, not climate change caused by human activity. VOICE TWO: Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its estimate of storm activity in the Atlantic Ocean. Its scientists are calling for an eighty-five percent chance of an above-normal hurricane season. They predict only a ten percent chance of a near-normal season, and a five percent chance of a below-normal season. The scientists say their prediction for an above-normal hurricane season mainly resulted from two influences. The first is the continuation of conditions that have supported above-normal hurricane seasons since nineteen ninety-five. The second is the weather event known as La Nina. La Nina develops when winds near the western coast of South America strengthen. This causes cold air to form near the coast. The scientists also say water temperatures remain above average in the western Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The combination of conditions is known to produce high levels of hurricane activity. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can find transcripts and audio files of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Study Links Virus to Bee Disorder in US, but Questions Remain
* Byline: Scientists find evidence of Israeli acute paralysis virus in damaged colonies, but say it may not be the only cause of losses. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. American beekeeping operations have been hit hard by what scientists call colony collapse disorder. Almost half of their worker bees have disappeared during the past season. C.C.D. has also been reported in Israel, Europe and South America. Bees fly away from the hive and never return. Sometimes they are found dead; other times they are never found. Many crops and trees depend on pollination by bees to help them grow. A new report says a virus may be at least partly responsible for the disorder in honey bee colonies in the United States. This virus is called Israeli acute paralysis virus. It was first identified in Israel in two thousand four. Ian Lipkin at Columbia University in New York and a team reported the new findings in Science magazine. Doctor Lipkin says the virus may not be the only cause. He says it may work with other causes to produce the collapse disorder. The team found the virus in colonies with the help of a map of honey bee genes that was published last year. They examined thirty colonies affected by the disorder. They found evidence of the virus in twenty-five of them, and in one healthy colony. The next step is further testing of healthy hives. The researchers suggested that the United States may have imported the disorder in bees from Australia. They say the bees may carry the virus but not be affected. The idea is that unlike many American bees, the ability of Australian bees to fight disease has not been hurt by the varroa mite. This insect attacks honey bees, which could make the disorder more likely to affect a hive. Australian bee producers reject these suspicions. And some researchers suspect that bee production in the United States is down mainly because of the weather. Honey bees gather nectar from flowers and trees. The sweet liquid gives them food and material to make honey. But cold weather this spring in the Midwest reduced the flow of nectar in many flowers. Many bees may have starved. Dry conditions in areas of the country could also be playing a part. Wayne Esaias is a NASA space agency scientist who keeps bees in his free time. He lives in central Maryland, where he has found that flowers are blooming a month earlier than they did in nineteen seventy. Wayne Esaias is organizing a group of beekeepers to document nectar flow around the country. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Five New Sculptures Welcome Visitors to American Indian Museum
* Byline: Artist Nora Naranjo-Morse made them out of natural materials that are not permanent. The sculptures are designed to slowly return to the earth. First in a four-part series on Keeping Traditions Alive. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English?? We begin a series of programs about efforts to keep alive old ways of doing things that are culturally important. Today we tell about a large outdoor art project made of traditional natural materials. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new National Museum of the American Indian is near the United States Capitol building on the grassy mall area in Washington, D.C. The museum building is made of yellow rocks. They are roughly cut and placed so the outside walls look like the tall cliffs in the American Southwest. The design of the building is very different from the other museums and government buildings that are in the center of Washington. Most of these well known buildings are made of white or gray marble or concrete. They look like most building, designed and built by people. The Indian museum reminds people of the natural, native world. Yet the National Museum of the American Indian, like all the other buildings in the city, is designed to look the same forever. VOICE TWO: Something very different has risen from a small space of ground outside the south side of the museum. Five large new sculptures have been built there to welcome visitors. These tall graceful statues are not like most outdoor art, which is made of stone or metal. They are made of materials used by people throughout the world to make their homes. The artist made the sculptures out of local natural resources that are not permanent. The sculptures are designed to slowly return to the earth. VOICE ONE: Nora Naranjo-Morse is the artist. She is a Native American from Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. She grew up in a family that made pots from the clay dug from the ground near their Pueblo. She is a sculptor who usually works with clay or bronze. She is also a poet and filmmaker. In two thousand six, the National Museum of the American Indian announced that Miz Naranjo-Morse won a design competition for outdoor sculptures to be placed next to the museum. The sculptures would celebrate the third anniversary of the museum, which opened September twenty-first, two thousand four. The judges chose her design from among fifty-five entries by artists from Native communities in North America and South America. VOICE TWO: Nora Naranjo-Morse says she had been thinking for a while that she would like to create some public sculptures that would be forever changing. When she heard about the competition of the National Museum of the American Indian she decided to propose building sculptures that would wear away over time. She thought it was be especially interesting in a city like Washington, D.C., where most of the art and the buildings are permanent. She named her sculpture project “Always Becoming.” VOICE ONE: The five sculptures that resulted are from more than two meters to almost six meters tall. Three are together in one grassy area outside the museum. They are named Mother, Father and Little One. Two larger ones are sheltered nearby under a tall old elm tree. They are named Moon Woman and Mountain Bird. All of them are made of organic materials from the earth -- clay, dirt, water, sand, straw, wood and stone. Through the years they will slowly wear away. They will always be changing and becoming something new as the weather works on them. As the outside wears away, something else will appear. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Nora Naranjo-Morse says her sculpture project is based on how Native people through history have been affected by their environment. She says the Native community sees itself as always changing to react to the social, political and natural environment. She says the idea that art, objects and buildings are not permanent is part of Native culture. A long time ago Native Americans made their cooking pots from clay. When a pot broke, it became part of the earth again. ?Houses were built from natural materials. When the houses were no longer used, they slowly returned to the earth. VOICE ONE: Miz Naranjo-Morse began thinking the sculptures should involve designs of Native homes. She wanted them to also represent male and female relations, family and community. Then she says she started playing with ideas, drawing them, and finally making models. Yet she still did not know exactly how the sculptures would look when they were finished. VOICE TWO: She was not really concerned about the exact shape the sculptures would take because she had a feeling that they would find their own voice. She says: “They grew to be whatever they wanted.”? That is the way she usually creates her art. She starts with an idea of what she wants to express and what materials she will use. As she works, she says, the art seems to develop its own life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In May, Nora Naranjo-Morse arrived in Washington from her home in Espanola, New Mexico to begin building the sculptures. The work would take one month. She had several helpers, including her niece from Arizona, Athena Swentzell Steen, Athena’s husband Bill, and their children. The Steens are experts at building structures of natural materials. Don Juan Morales of Durango, Mexico, and his family also helped with the project. They also had experience with natural building materials. They all worked together as a team. The crew found large gray stones to make a solid base for the sculptures. They gathered dirt, sand, clay and straw from the local area. They used their hands and sometimes feet to mix the dry material with water in large containers. VOICE TWO: The sculptures rose from the ground as the handfuls of the wet dirt and straw mixture were added to each shape. They grew slowly. Each layer of the wet mix had to be firmly connected to the dry part. Then it had to dry hard in the sun before any more material could be added. Workers at the Indian Museum and in offices near the museum stopped every day to see how the pieces were changing. Some helped build the sculptures. Groups of small children from the Smithsonian’s Early Education Center helped mix the mud and put it on with their hands. So did a group of teachers who wanted to learn about traditional Native American building methods to teach their students. VOICE ONE: The sculptures are all different. Two of them, Father and Mountain Bird, are made of black locust tree branches. The long wood pieces are placed in a wide circle at the bottom. The poles lean in until they come together at the top like tepees that were used as homes by the Plains Indians of North America. Spaces between the wood poles are filled with woven mats made from bamboo growing near the museum. Vines will grow up the sculptures and enclose them, changing their appearance. Inside the Father sculpture is a special piece of wood. Miz Naranjo-Morse’s parents cut it in New Mexico more than fifty year ago to use as a support in a building. The Mother sculpture is a small rounder clay shape. It has a hole in the center. When you look through it you see a large stone that marks the southern point of the museum. (MUSIC)?? VOICE TWO: At the end of the summer, Nora Naranjo-Morse and some of her crew returned for a week to finish the rough sculptures. They made a smooth mix of dirt, sand and water to cover the outside of the sculptures. Natural colors from different clays were added to the plaster. The plaster dried hard and smooth in the sun. Then they carved Native American designs into some of the surfaces. VOICE ONE: The work of building the sculptures is over. The many hands are through shaping them. Yet sun and rain, snow and wind will continue to shape them through the years. The sculptures will always be changing, always becoming something new. As Nora Naranjo-Morse wrote in her book, "Mud Woman, Poems from the Clay": “There is nothing like an idea that comes to life through clay.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can get more information about activities celebrating the anniversary of the National Museum of the American Indian at our Web site voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next month to EXPLORATIONS for another in a series of programs about efforts to keep traditional ways alive. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: No Need to Freak Out About Some Idioms, Even in More Formal Contexts
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on WORDMASTER: we're back with A. C. Kemp from slangcity.com. She calls it the online home of American slang. RS: We're talking about frequently used terms that her international students in her classroom might consider slang. A. C. Kemp teaches English at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she did a computer analysis for WORDMASTER on slang found in scripts from some popular TV shows and movies. AA: "The first five you found most frequently used in these scripts were 'dude,' 'cool,' 'hot' or 'hotty,' 'whatever' and 'chick.' What comes after those? What's the next five?" AC KEMP: "The next one is 'freak' and 'freak out,' meaning to be very upset or worried. After that was the very typical word, 'buddy,' to mean friend, and then, way down at number eight, 'awesome.' It was really huge in the eighties, awesome, and it's still used, but I think it's perhaps used less than it was. "But what's interesting is that the next word on the list was one that I thought was kind of old fashioned, which was 'nuts,' meaning crazy or insane. And I tend to think of that as an old fashioned word, but I found it in a lot of different TV shows and movies." AA: "Well, keep going." RS: "No, there's only one more." AC KEMP: "Well, there was a tie for the last one, and they both have very similar meanings, and both of them are a little bit vulgar but not too much. One of them is 'crap,' to mean something that's inferior quality, and the other one, which is used by teenagers all the time, is the expression 'it sucks,' to mean it's bad. And those were the last on my list of ten." RS: "You know, you said this list surprised you. I was really surprised after hearing all the words that it surprised you, because the words seemed [like] words that I would associate with slang words that I hear all the time. Maybe it's because I live with a teenager." AC KEMP: "I think what surprised me in particular was dude and chick being so popular, because I think that's changed in the last ten years. I think those are used more now than they were in, say, the nineties." AA: "Now, one thing, getting back to, briefly, we were talking about the terms, idiomatic terms used as substitutes for more formal terms. What sort of advice do you give your students in terms of knowing when to use the more casual term or when to use the more formal term?" AC KEMP: "Well, certainly in writing, you're going to use the more formal terms. But idioms, a lot of my students are surprised that they are so common, because they'll say, well, this is just something that you say to your friends when you're in an informal situation. And I'll say, well, listen to a politician's speech or listen to people on an interview show like, say, 'Oprah' and you'll find that people use these words even in more formal contexts, they'll use idioms. "And so I think in most contexts you can use those. I mean, maybe not slang words. Certainly you wouldn't want to use 'dude' in a formal speech. But expressions like 'kick out' or 'screw up,' you do hear those. Even somebody like Bill Clinton will use those in a speech." RS: "So do you suggest that your students listen to television, radio, all kinds of different media that they can, and kind of track certain words that you as a teacher may or may not highlight?" AC KEMP: "Well, I think that depending on your situation, certainly if you have access to speak to a lot of Americans, that's probably the best way to learn a lot of slang words. But for a lot of people, they don't have that chance and so listening to TV or radio or watching movies is a good way to find those words. And sort of keeping a little notebook of things that you hear a lot can be a useful way to add those words to your vocabulary." AA: A. C. Kemp is a lecturer in English language studies at M.I.T. and runs the Web site slangcity.com. We'll post her top 10 list, along with her sources, at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And that's it for WORDMASTER this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. --- A. C. Kemp's list of most common slang words found in popular television shows and movies, in order of frequency:?1. Dude (man) 2. Cool (great) 3. Hot and hottie (sexy/sexy person) 4. Whatever ("I don't care"/"It doesn't matter to me") 5. Chick (woman or girl) 6. Freak/freak out (be upset) 7. Buddy (friend) 8. Awesome (great) 9. Nuts (crazy/insane) 10. Tie: Crap (something of inferior quality) and "it sucks" (it’s bad) Sources TV: "24," "House," "The Office," "Veronica Mars," "Desperate Housewives," "Gilmore Girls," "Lost," "Grey’s Anatomy," "Heroes." Movies: "Along Came Polly," "Finding Nemo," "American Pie," "Crash," "Fever Pitch,"? "Kill Bill: Volume 1," "School of Rock." Scripts were found on the Internet and were randomly selected from popular recent films and TV programs. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Debating the Teen Brain
* Byline: Are teenagers' brains too undeveloped to make wise decisions about safe behavior? Or is the problem with adults? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Parents might tell teenagers, "Act your age." But some scientists say that is exactly what teens are doing. They say that while teenagers can look all grown up, studies have found that their brains are still developing. How much this explains their behavior, though, is a subject of debate. Jay Giedd of the National Institutes of Health in the United States is a leader in this area of research. Doctor Giedd has been studying a group of young people since nineteen ninety-one. They visit him every two years for a new M.R.I., or magnetic resonance imaging, of their brains. He says considerable development continues throughout the teen years and into the twenties. A part of the brain called the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex appears especially undeveloped in teens. Researchers believe that among its duties, this area controls judgment and consideration of risk. So, in theory, its underdevelopment may explain why young people seem more willing to take risks like driving too fast. Laurence Steinberg is a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He says stronger laws, and stronger parental control, are needed to protect teens from themselves. That includes raising the age for driving. He says research finds that teenage brains are not fully equipped to control behavior. Other scientists, however, say there is not enough evidence to make a strong case for such findings. Psychologist Robert Epstein, a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, notes that teen behavior differs from culture to culture. He says behavior depends for the most part on socialization. As he sees it, if teenagers are with adults more, and treated more like adults, that will lead to better, safer behavior. But is that always true? Mike Males at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco is a founder of youthfacts.org. He suggests that all of this talk lately about "brainless" teens could possibly be an attempt to take away attention from the reality. Writing this week in the New York Times, he says it is middle-aged adults -- the parents -- whose behavior has worsened. In his words, "if grown-ups really have superior brains, why don't we act as if we do?" And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History Series: The 43rd President's First Four Years, Revisited
* Byline: George W. Bush's first-term policy decisions involved, among other issues, education, tax cuts, stem cell research and the environment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we tell about some important policy decisions during the first term of President George W. Bush. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? Republican George W. Bush defeated his Democratic Party opponent, Al Gore, in the presidential election of two thousand. The election results were extremely close. Mister Gore disputed them. Five suspense-filled weeks passed as several courts considered the voting issues. Finally, a decision by the United States Supreme Court effectively settled the election. George W. Bush was to be president. ??????? ?? George W. Bush gives his inaugural speech?at the Capitol in January 2001Mister Bush gave his inaugural speech in January two thousand one to a politically divided nation. He called on Americans to care for and respect others. PRESIDENT BUSH:?"Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character. America, at its best, matches a commitment to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness." VOICE TWO:During his election campaign, Mister Bush had promised he would help social aid organizations linked to religious groups. He established the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives soon after his inauguration. Its goal was to help social agencies fight problems like homelessness and illegal drug use. Critics argued that this would violate the separation of church and state required by the United States Constitution. But Mister Bush said the agencies would provide shelter and food and not religious holy books. VOICE ONE: President Bush took several actions on the environment during his first term. In March two thousand one, he withdrew the United States from the Kyoto Protocol. Many nations had signed the treaty in nineteen ninety-seven in Kyoto, Japan. This treaty developed from earlier international efforts to control climate change. The Kyoto Protocol restricted the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that nations could release into the atmosphere. The limitation was placed to reduce global warming, the increase in the average temperature of Earth's surface. More than one hundred nations have approved the treaty. But Mister Bush said the agreement was unfair. He noted that China and India were not required to limit release of greenhouse gases. The president believed the Kyoto Protocol requirements would harm American industry and the economy. Critics said Mister Bush's decision meant more damage to the environment. They also said it set a bad example for the world.Another environmental issue concerned exploring for oil and gas. The president supported a measure for drilling in a protected wildlife area in the state of Alaska. He said getting the resources from the state would reduce American dependence on foreign oil. Opponents disagreed. They said the measure would destroy wildlife in some of America's most beautiful natural surroundings. Congress did not approve the measure. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: ????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? One of Mister Bush's major goals was improving America's public schools. In January two thousand two, he signed a law called the No Child Left Behind Act. PRESIDENT BUSH: “And we owe the children of America a good education. And today begins a new era, a new time in public education in our country. As of this hour, America’s schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results.” The law increased the role of the federal government in guaranteeing quality public education for all children in the United States. It had several goals: To help poor and minority students improve their performance. To provide choices for parents with students in low-performing schools. And to increase money for schools in low-income areas. The law required all students in grades three through eight to be tested every year in reading and mathematics. It held schools responsible for the progress of their students. Some educators praised No Child Left Behind. But many educators criticized the law. They said teachers had to spend too much time preparing students for the tests. They also said the law permitted students to leave failing schools instead of finding ways to improve those schools. Critics also said not enough federal money was provided for the program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? Another major piece of legislation dealt with health care for senior citizens. President Bush wanted to extend Medicare, the nation's health care plan for people sixty-five and older. In two thousand three he signed a law to help forty million older Americans buy medicines ordered by their doctors. The program was expected to cost four hundred billion dollars. It provided billions of dollars to private health insurance companies. Supporters of the law said it would lead to better private insurance coverage for senior citizens. Opponents said it would help health insurance and drug companies the most and might lead to the end of the Medicare system. ? VOICE TWO: American law lets presidents decide some issues without Congressional action. Mister Bush announced such an executive decision about scientific research. He decided to permit federal financing for research that uses existing groups of cells created from human embryos. It was the first time federal money would be used for such stem cell research. Stem cells can grow into many different kinds of cells. For example, they can become cells of the heart, nerves or brain. Scientists say such cells might in the future be used to treat diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and juvenile diabetes. ??????? ??????? Mister Bush limited use of the cells, however. He said taxpayers' money could finance the research only if the embryos had already been destroyed. The president said more than sixty groups of these cells were available for research. However, some scientists said these stem cells were in poor condition and could not be used for research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of Mister Bush's major goals was reducing taxes for Americans. In two thousand one, he signed a bill calling for more than one trillion dollars in tax reductions. These cuts were to become effective over time. The president said the economy would improve if people had more money to spend. Democrats said big reductions would harm the economy instead of helping it. In two thousand three, Congress passed compromise tax measures. They called for three hundred fifty billion dollars in tax reductions. That was less than half of what the president had proposed. Most reductions went to investors in the stock market, individual taxpayers, couples and businesses. The rest was to help the states. VOICE TWO:? In two thousand two, President Bush signed a law that increased punishments for dishonesty in business. The new law also established an independent group to oversee the accounting industry. That is the industry that investigates the financial records of companies. The action came after several major businesses failed. ? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ??????? For example, the Enron Corporation, once the leading American energy company, failed in two thousand one. It was one of the largest corporate bankruptcy claims in American history. Some Enron investors lost all their money in the failure. Retired employees lost monthly payments they needed to live on. Some top officials in the company had used dishonest accounting methods to hide financial problems from investors. A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas, brought charges against former Enron chairman and chief executive officer Kenneth Lay and other officers. The collapse of Enron was followed by a series of other corporate failures involving dishonest accounting methods. For example, the international communications company WorldCom Incorporated also went bankrupt. The government charged several company officials with wrongdoing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: November second, two thousand four was Election Day. The public would vote on whether to support President Bush for another term in office. Four years earlier, George W. Bush had been elected in one of the closest elections in history. Now he would have another chance to test his popularity with the American people. (MUSIC)???????? VOICE TWO: This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:?????? And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week when we tell about the presidential election of two thousand four. You can find our series about the history of the United States on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. --- Correction: President Bush did not withdraw the United States from the Kyoto Protocol, as stated in this program; he rejected it. The U.S. signed the treaty in 1998, but it was?never sent?to the Senate for approval.(The Senate had gone on record by a 95-0 vote in 1997 to warn that it opposed terms like those in the treaty.) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Longer School Day = More Learning? Not Necessarily
* Byline: Researchers say teachers must be trained to use added time in the classroom effectively. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Recently we talked about how some American schools have made changes in the traditional school year. Their goal is to improve student learning. A teacher and student at Barcroft Elementary in Arlington, Virginia. The school uses a year-round schedule instead of a traditional calendar with a long summer vacation.Some have extended the school year, or reorganized it to avoid a long summer break. Another choice is to extend the school day. A new report from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University examines research into how effective this is. The traditional school day has not changed much in more than a century. Activities or special programs might mean a longer day. But younger children usually go to school from about nine o'clock in the morning until about three in the afternoon. Older ones are traditionally in school from about seven a.m. until around two p.m. Some high schools have changed to later start times because of findings that teenagers learn better that way. But the new report says results have been mixed. Teachers say students are more awake. But students say the changes interfere with after-school activities or jobs. By two thousand one, almost one-third of all secondary schools had some form of block scheduling. The idea is to provide longer periods in the school day to teach basic subjects. More class time should mean better results. This is the thinking, at least. Yet a two thousand one study found that secondary schools with traditional schedules had higher test scores by comparison. Schools with block scheduling did have higher scores in science, though. In any case, the study agreed with earlier findings that students feel better about their schools in systems with nontraditional scheduling. So how useful is a longer school day? Not surprisingly, the policy experts at Indiana say it is what educators do with the extra time that has the largest effect on student learning. They note a criticism that education leaders often make scheduling changes without changing the learning environment of a school. The experts say teachers must be trained to use the added time effectively. Professional development is needed. The report notes that simply adding time to a program that is not very good or very interesting will not increase student learning. Community support is also valuable for any changes. And there is another consideration. Schools may need a lot of extra money to pay for an extended day. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Where Talib Kweli Learned the Power of Language: Mom the Prof
* Byline: Also: A question from Argentina about slang. And remembering Alex, a famous African Grey parrot who had a lot to say. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some hip-hop music from Talib Kweli … Answer a question about American slang … And report about a famous parrot. Alex HOST: A talking parrot named Alex died earlier this month at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. For thirty years, Alex helped scientists learn about the brains of avians, or birds. He changed the idea that parrots can only repeat words without understanding them. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen seventy-three, Irene Pepperberg was studying at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was working to get a doctoral degree in chemistry. Then a television program changed her plans. The program told about how birds sing. Miz Pepperberg completed her requirements in chemistry. But she decided she would study bird recognition and communication instead. She bought an African Grey parrot at a pet store in nineteen seventy-seven. Miz Pepperberg called the parrot Alex. She spent the next thirty years teaching Alex. The parrot learned more than one hundred words. He could identify fifty different objects by name. He could recognize seven colors and five shapes. For example, when shown a group of objects, Alex could identify which ones were blue, metal or round. He could count objects to six, and was working on seven and eight when he died. His abilities changed the way many scientists understand the avian brain. IRENE PEPPERBERG: “What color’s smaller?” ALEX: “Orange.” IRENE PEPPERBERG: “Orange is right. Good boy!” Alex seemed pleased with his abilities. Sometimes he appeared to criticize two other parrots that Miz Pepperberg was studying. “Talk better," he would tell Arthur and Griffin. Reseachers in Miz Pepperberg’s laboratory, however, say the parrot might just have been repeating words he had heard. Experts say Alex had the intelligence of a five-year-old child and the emotions of a two-year- old. Miz Pepperberg said he would sometimes get angry and throw things on the floor. Alex and Miz Pepperberg did their research at a number of America’s finest universities. They often appeared on television science programs worldwide. Irene Pepperberg published a book called “The Alex Studies” in nineteen ninety-nine. She says she will continue her research with Arthur and Griffin. What Alex taught Miz Pepperberg about learning and communication has been used to help children with learning disabilities. Slang HOST: Today we answer a question from a listener in Argentina. Viktor Martinez wants to know about slang. Slang is a popular, less official and often very current form of language. It is an important part of a living language and is constantly changing as language changes. Slang is often playful, direct and sometimes less respectful than the more official and traditional version of language. So now I'm going to lay it on you! To “lay it on” is American slang for “to tell” or “to explain.” Slang can take many forms. For example, slang can be local to one city or area. In Washington, D.C. there is a whole set of slang to describe politics and business in the city. For example, the term POTUS stands for President of the United States. POTUS can often be found with his wife, FLOTUS, the first lady of the United States. “Inside the Beltway” is a popular expression that describes the area of Washington, D.C. The beltway is the large highway that circles the city. The Internet has helped create a whole new kind of computer-related slang. An “angry fruit salad” is an expression that describes a Web site with too many bright colors. “Netiquette” is slang for correct behavior when using the Internet. Young people often develop the latest slang. For example, to say Special English “rocks” or is “phat” means Special English is really great. A “kegger” is a party where beer is served. If something is “wack” it is wild and crazy. Different professions often have their own slang as well. For example, medical workers might refer to a complaining patient as a “gomer."? A “tough stick” is someone whose veins are difficult to find when he or she needs to have blood taken. No matter how well you speak English, there are always new and interesting slang words to discover. There are entire dictionaries for describing slang. Many experts do not even agree on what is and what is not slang. Often slang words later become a part of officially accepted language. Official or not, slang is an energetic and exciting part of the American language that continues to change. Talib Kweli (MUSIC) HOST: That was “Get By” from Talib Kweli’s two thousand two album, “Quality.”? Kweli is often called a thoughtful rapper. Critics say his work has deeper, more intelligent messages than most rap songs. The Blacksmith music agency that represents Talib Kweli says he is able to “educate and entertain” at the same time. Katherine Cole plays more of his music. KATHERINE COLE: Talib Kweli has said he does not want to make what he calls “candy music” -- music that tastes good but is not good for you. But his new album “Eardrum” is proving popular. Immediately after its release last month "Eardrum" went to the number two spot on Billboard magazine’s hip-hop chart. This single, “Hot Thing,” helped put it there. (MUSIC) Talib Kweli has worked in the music industry for ten years. At thirty-two, the Brooklyn, New York, native has released five albums. His mother, a college professor of black literature, influenced Kweli’s work greatly. He told one reporter that she made sure he understood the power of language and of his community. Talib Kweli released “The Beautiful Struggle” in two thousand four. Here is “Black Girl Pain” from that album. (MUSIC)?????????????????? Talib Kweli may be feeling a little trapped by his recognition as a thoughtful rapper. He says his next album will be called “Prisoner of Conscious.”? We leave you now with “Country Cousins” from “Eardrum.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US Central Bank Moves to Ease Credit, Protect Economy?
* Byline: The Federal Reserve appears from its half-point rate cuts to be more concerned with the risk of a recession than with inflation. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. A listener from Indonesia named Efendy asks why the Federal Reserve is so important and how it works. This week offered a good example. The Federal Reserve System is the United States central bank. Its Federal Open Market Committee, led by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, makes monetary policy. It makes decisions that affect the cost of money and credit in the economy. A television at the New York Stock Exchange shows the actions of the Federal Reserve On Tuesday the committee lowered its target for the federal funds rate to four and three-quarters percent. This rate is what banks pay other banks to borrow money overnight. It was the first cut in four years. Major banks including Bank of America, Wachovia and Wells Fargo soon followed with cuts in their prime rate. This is what banks charge their best customers. Financial markets expected a rate cut from the Fed. But the size -- fifty basis points, or half a percentage point -- was double what many people expected. And it persuaded many that the Fed is more concerned about the possibility of a recession than about inflation. Such concerns rose earlier this month on news that in August the economy lost jobs for the first time in four years. That added to worries about the housing finance crisis. The committee said economic growth was moderate during the first half of the year. But it said the reduced availability of credit could intensify the current housing problems and restrain economic growth. The policy makers also said that some inflation risks remain and will be watched carefully. The Fed's action will help some homeowners and other borrowers. What is not clear, though, is how much it will do for many homeowners facing sharply higher payments. Their payments on adjustable-rate mortgages will still go up, though not as high as they would have. By the end of next year, an estimated two million or more holders of subprime loans will have their rates reset higher. These loans were made to people with weak credit histories. The Fed also cut its discount rate for direct loans to banks by half a point, to five and one-quarter percent, to increase their lending ability. The traditional opinion of borrowing from the so-called discount window was that it represented a sign of weakness. Stock markets rose sharply after the Fed cut interest rates. But not everyone was so pleased. Some experts warn that cutting rates could raise inflation. They also say it helps those who made unwise borrowing decisions. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: After Long Duke Case, Debate Over Fairness Is Renewed With 'Jena 6'
* Byline: Thousands protest charges against six black teens in Louisiana in beating of white classmate. Also, a new book examines the highly publicized Duke lacrosse rape case. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Thousands of protesters from around the United States marched this week in the small town of Jena, Louisiana. They came in support of six black teenagers arrested for the beating of a white student at Jena High School in December. This followed racial incidents at the school that led to fights between whites and blacks. No white students faced charges. But five of the so-called Jena Six were charged at first with attempted murder. Since then, many of the charges have been reduced. The case remains in court. This case, with its questions of fairness, comes after another case in the South that produced a strong emotional reaction. The case of three white students falsely accused of raping a black woman is the subject of a book published this month. The book is called "Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case." The authors, Stuart Taylor and K. C. Johnson, examine what they see as failings by the legal system and the media. In March of last year, Crystal Mangum told police that several Duke University lacrosse players raped her. She and another woman had been hired to dance and take off their clothes at a team party. The case in Durham, North Carolina, gained attention not just because of the accusations. It also involved issues of race and economic class. Three lacrosse players were arrested: David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. In the American legal system, suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty. But the local prosecutor, Mike Nifong, called the players "hooligans" and seemed to leave no question about their guilt. He spoke often to the media. A number of Duke professors and students were also quick to publicly judge them. Duke cancelled the rest of the men's lacrosse season and the team coach resigned. Yet Crystal Mangum changed her story several times and evidence conflicted with her claims. Also, she was reported to have struggled with mental health problems. Critics say Mike Nifong used the case against the players from a costly, top university as a way to appeal to black voters. The white prosecutor was campaigning for a new term as district attorney. But in January he withdrew from the case. A state agency later found that he lied to a court and violated other rules of professional behavior in the case. He lost his right to practice law and spent a day in jail earlier this month. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the three players innocent in April. He also said it would be in the best interest of justice not to bring charges against their accuser. The young men have threatened to bring a civil rights case against the city of Durham for their treatment by police. They reportedly are seeking ten million dollars each in a settlement that would also call for legal reforms. On Wednesday, Duke announced it will invest more than one million dollars to create a new law center. The purpose: to train lawyers to fight wrongful charges. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Georgia O'Keefe, 1887-1986: Her Paintings Showed Her Love for the American Southwest
* Byline: People can immediately identify the artists's paintings of huge, colorful flowers or bones in dream-like deserts.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE:? I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, Georgia O'Keeffe. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: America has produced many great painters in the past one hundred years. Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most popular and easily recognized artists. People do not mistake her work for anyone else's. People can immediately identify her paintings of huge, colorful flowers or bones in dream-like deserts. Georgia O'Keeffe said she did not know how she got the idea to be an artist. But, she said, the idea came early. She remembered announcing when she was twelve years old that she planned to be an artist. VOICE TWO: Georgia was born in eighteen eighty-seven, the second of seven children. Her parents were successful farmers in the middle western state of Wisconsin. Georgia's mother also had cultural interests. She made sure that Georgia and her sisters studied art, in addition to their usual school subjects. By the time Georgia was sixteen, the O'Keeffe family had moved to Williamsburg, Virginia. After Georgia finished school, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Georgia was especially pleased with the help she got from her teacher, John Vanderpoel. She later wrote that John Vanderpoel was one of the few real teachers she knew. VOICE ONE:? In nineteen-oh-seven, O’Keeffe began a year at the Art Students League in New York City. The famous painter William Merritt Chase was one of her teachers. Chase had a great influence on O'Keeffe's early artistic development. She described him as fresh, full of energy and fierce. She seemed to understand and agree with his style of painting. Then, in nineteen-oh-eight, Georgia O'Keeffe left the world of fine art. She moved back to Chicago and worked in the advertising business. She drew pictures of products to be sold. Her parents had been struggling financially for some time in Virginia. Later, her mother became sick with tuberculosis. Some art historians suspect these were the main reasons Georgia O’Keeffe spent four years in business instead of continuing her studies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? In nineteen twelve, O'Keeffe returned to art school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Artist and teacher Arthur Wesley Dow taught that art should fill space in a beautiful way. This theory influenced and changed her work. O’Keefe also learned about the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. He wanted artists to represent the inner spirit in outer things. O'Keeffe considered Kandinsky's writings a treasure. She read them throughout her life. VOICE ONE:? In nineteen fifteen, Georgia O'Keeffe decided that much of what she had been taught in art school was of little value. She decided to hang recent work she had done on the wall of her home. She examined it and did not find herself in the art. She wrote that she had been taught to work like others. She decided then that she would not spend her life doing what had already been done. Georgia O'Keeffe began to search for her own style. She used only charcoal, the black material made from burned wood. In her book about her life, she wrote that she decided to limit herself to charcoal until she found she really needed color to do what she needed to do. She wrote that six months later she found she needed the color blue. She used it for a watercolor painting she called "Blue Lines."? VOICE TWO:? Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred StieglitzGeorgia O'Keeffe had met the famous art critic and photographer Alfred Stieglitz at his New York City gallery in nineteen-oh-eight. Their friendship grew as they wrote letters to each other. In nineteen fifteen, O'Keeffe told a friend that she wanted her art to please Alfred Stieglitz more than anyone else. That friend showed O'Keeffe’s charcoal drawings to Stieglitz. ??Stieglitz liked her drawings enough to show them in his art gallery, called Two Ninety One. VOICE ONE: Alfred Stieglitz was a major force behind shows of Georgia O'Keeffe's work for the next twenty-five years. Her first individual show at his gallery was well received. She sold her first piece at that show in nineteen seventeen. Stieglitz became O'Keeffe's strongest supporter. Seven years later he became her husband. He was twenty-four years older than his new wife. The relationship between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz was not an easy one. O’Keeffe once said that to her “he was much more wonderful in his work than as a human being.”? But, she also said she loved him for what seemed “clear and bright and wonderful.”? The two remained married until his death in nineteen forty-six. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO:? Georgia O'Keeffe also had a long love relationship with the southwestern part of the United States. The desert environment was the subject of many of her paintings. O'Keeffe had moved to the state of Texas when she was twenty-five. She accepted a two-year position as supervisor of art in the public schools of Amarillo, Texas. Later, she taught in a small town. She wrote about long walks on narrow paths in a canyon near that town. The dangerous climbs in and out of the canyon were like nothing she had known before. She wrote that many paintings came from experiences like that. In one such painting, the canyon is shown as a huge deep hole of many colors -- reds, oranges and yellows. It looks as if it is on fire. The canyon fills most of the picture. A small area of blue sky in the distance lends additional depth to the picture. VOICE ONE:? In nineteen thirty, Georgia O'Keeffe began spending most of her summers in the state of New Mexico. She called it “the faraway.” She painted big pictures of desert flowers and the high rocky hills. She also began to paint pictures of the bones she found during walks near her summer home. Most of her paintings share the qualities of largeness of subject and richness of color. The artist discussed those two qualities in her book, called “Georgia O’Keefe.”? She wrote that color is more exact in meaning than words. Later, she wrote that she found she could say things with color and shape that she could not express in words. She also spoke of a special need to paint her subjects larger than they are in life. She seemed to want to force people to see more deeply into objects such as flowers. She tried to show the different shapes and colors within a single flower. The artist said she would make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what she saw in flowers. VOICE TWO:? O'Keeffe was angered by some criticism of her work over the years. She rejected critics' claims that there was deep sexual meaning in her paintings of flowers. She said that people linked their own experience of a flower to her paintings. She suggested that critics wrote about her flower paintings as if they knew what she was seeing and thinking. But, she said, they did not know. Georgia O'Keeffe always argued that what others think of the artist's work is not important. She once wrote to a friend, "... I'll do as I please."? VOICE ONE: Georgia O’Keeffe bought her first house in New Mexico in nineteen forty. After Alfred Stieglitz died, she moved to “the faraway’” permanently. She lived in New Mexico for the rest of her life. In the early nineteen seventies, O’Keeffe began losing her sight because of an eye disease. She stopped working with oil paints, but continued to produce watercolor paintings. Around the same time, she met a young artist who would become very important to her. Juan Hamilton made pottery -- objects of clay. He became O’Keeffe’s assistant and friend. They also traveled together. But in the early nineteen eighties Georgia’s O’Keeffe’s health failed severely. She died in nineteen eighty-six. She was ninety-eight. VOICE TWO: Georgia O’Keefe received many honors during her long life. President Gerald Ford presented her with the Medal of Freedom in nineteen seventy-seven. Eight years later, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National Medal of Arts. Students and experts continue to study and write about her work. Her paintings are shown around the world. And, more than one million people have visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico since it opened in nineteen ninety-seven. ?(MUSIC)? VOICE ONE:? This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO:? And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People In America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-10-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Belittle: Thomas Jefferson First Used This Word
* Byline: The third president of the United States was not to be belittled. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program,?Words and Their Stories. Today’s word is belittle. It was first used by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. (MUSIC) Many years ago, a French naturalist, the Count de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history.The books were a great success even though some critics did not like them.Some critics said, “Count Buffon is more of a poet than a scientist.” Thomas Jefferson did not like what the Count had said about the natural wonders of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that the Count had gone out of his way to speak of natural wonders in America as if they were unimportant. This troubled Thomas Jefferson.He, too, was a naturalist, as well as a farmer, inventor, historian, writer and politician.He had seen the natural wonders of Europe.To him, they were no more important than those of the New World. In seventeen eighty-eight, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia.While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Count de Buffon.At that moment, Jefferson created a new word – belittle. He said, “The Count de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic.” Noah Webster, the American word expert, liked this word.He put it in his English language dictionary in eighteen-oh-six. ‘Belittle – to make small, unimportant.’ Americans had already accepted Jefferson’s word and started to use it. In seventeen ninety-seven, the Independent Chronicle newspaper used the word to describe a politician the paper supported. “He is an honorable man,” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.” In eighteen forty-four, the Republican Sentinel of Virginia wrote this about the opposition party:? “The Whigs may attempt to belittle our candidates … that is a favorite game of theirs.” In eighteen seventy-two, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle has no chance of becoming English. And as more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it, the sooner it is forgotten, the better.” This expert failed to kill the word. Today, belittle is used, not only in the United States and England, but in other countries where the English language is spoken. It seems that efforts to belittle the word did not stop people from using it. (MUSIC) You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. I’m Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Child Deaths Found at Record Low
* Byline: The U.N. Children’s Fund says the worldwide number has fallen below 10 million a year for the first time. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. UNICEF says a record low number of children are dying before the age of five. The United Nations Children's Fund has records back to nineteen sixty. It says the number has dropped below ten million a year for the first time. By comparison, there were almost thirteen million deaths in nineteen ninety. The newest report says nine million seven hundred thousand children under five died last year. Almost half were in southern Africa. Just over three million were in South Asia. UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman called the new findings historic but still unacceptable. She says most of the deaths are preventable. A child receives a shot of measles vaccine in Banyusoco village, IndonesiaUNICEF says much of the progress is the result of increased efforts for early health interventions. One example is feeding babies only breast milk for the first six months. Also, vaccinating children against measles has saved many lives. So has the use of vitamin A to strengthen children's immune systems, and chemically treated bed nets to prevent malaria. Morocco, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic have reduced child deaths by more than one-third since nineteen ninety-nine. Madagascar has cut its rate by forty-one percent; Sao Tome and Principe by nearly half. UNICEF says progress in Asia, especially in China and India, has helped drive the worldwide reduction since nineteen ninety. Death rates have dropped sharply in Latin America and the Caribbean, former Soviet republics and countries in East Asia and the Pacific. Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa have also made considerable gains. Malawi’s under-five death rate dropped by twenty-nine percent between two thousand and two thousand four. Reductions of more than twenty percent were reported in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda and Tanzania as well. In nineteen ninety, Asia had the most child deaths. Now, rates are highest in west and central Africa. Gains in child survival have fallen to the spread of H.I.V and AIDS. By two thousand fifteen, Africa south of the Sahara could have almost sixty percent of all deaths in children under five. But UNICEF says Latin America and the Caribbean are on a path to reach a U.N. Millennium Development Goal. The goal is to reduce the death rate in children under five by two-thirds from nineteen ninety levels -- and to do that by two thousand fifteen. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'West Side Story': Love, Hate and the Immigrant Experience
* Byline: Second of two programs marking the 50th anniversary of the musical, set in 1950s New York. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today we complete the story and songs from the American musical play "West Side Story." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some of the greatest artists in American musical theater worked together to create "West Side Story" in nineteen fifty-seven. Choreographer and director Jerome Robbins, who developed the idea. Arthur Laurents, who wrote the play's words. And Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the words to the songs. However, Leonard Bernstein -- who wrote the music -- usually is considered the main creator of "West Side Story. " Although the play is fifty years old this month, his music remains fresh today. VOICE TWO: As we said last week, "West Side Story" is a story about young people in a poor part of New York City in the nineteen fifties. Two groups of teenagers fight each other for control of the streets. Members of the local gang -- the "Jets" -- were born in New York. They hate the Spanish-speaking people who have begun to move to the city from Puerto Rico. The young Puerto Ricans, members of the "Sharks" gang, hate the Jets in return. The Puerto Ricans have the mixed feelings of any group of immigrants. They are divided between loving their old home and being glad to have left its problems behind. The song "America" makes fun of some things in their new land, even as it seems to praise it. The Puerto Rican girls joke that everything is free in America ... if you pay for it. Our music is from the original recording of the play. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Seventeen-year-old Maria is the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. She has arrived recently from Puerto Rico. She is to marry Chino, another member of the Sharks. But at a dance, Maria falls in love with Tony, a former leader of the enemy gang, the Jets. Maria and Tony hope the hatred between the gangs will ease. They no longer understand this hatred. But the Jets and Sharks are making plans for a big fight. The Jets want to push the Sharks out of their area. The gangs agree to fight the next night. They will put the best fighter from the Sharks against the best fighter from the Jets. The winner, and his gang, will take all the street territory. VOICE TWO: The next night, Maria is at home. She is getting dressed to meet Tony. She is very happy and excited. Carol Lawrence sings the part of Maria. (MUSIC) Everyone is nervous, waiting for the big fight. Everyone except Maria and Tony. They are waiting only to see each other. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The gangs meet for the fight. Tony has promised Maria that he will try to stop it. As he does, the action suddenly turns violent. Tony's friend Riff and Bernardo begin fighting each other with knives. (MUSIC) In a moment, Tony's friend Riff is dead -- killed by the brother of the woman Tony loves. Not thinking, Tony strikes back. He kills Bernardo. The gangs run away. Tony stands in horror over the bodies of his friend and Maria's brother. VOICE TWO: Maria knows nothing of what has happened. Then Chino, the man she is supposed to marry, goes to her apartment. He tells Maria that her lover has killed her brother. Chino gets a gun. He goes to search for Tony, to kill him. Maria is praying when Tony climbs in the window of her room. Tony explains that he did not mean to kill her brother. He asks her to forgive him. She does. Together, Tony and Maria imagine a life free of group hatred. The walls of Maria's room move away, and they dance. For a brief time, Tony and Maria are "somewhere" -- in the peaceful place they imagine. But they both know there will now be war between the gangs. VOICE ONE: Tony must hurry away when Maria's friend Anita comes in. Anita is mourning Bernardo, whom she loved. She is angry with Maria for loving Tony. Anita tells Maria that "a boy like that" -- not her own kind -- will only cause her pain. The part of Anita is sung by Chita Rivera. (MUSIC) Finally, Maria makes Anita understand that she loves Tony, even though he has killed Bernardo. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Anita goes to the Jets' hiding place to warn Tony that the police are looking for him. But the Jets are cruel to her and will not listen to her. They treat her so badly that, finally, she tells a lie in anger. Anita says Maria is dead, killed by Chino. Tony runs into the street, calling for Chino to come kill him, too. VOICE ONE: Maria appears. She and Tony hold each other for a moment. There is a shot. Chino has found them. Tony is hit by the bullet. He dies in the street as Maria holds him. The play has ended sadly, but with some hope: together, the Jets and two Sharks carry Tony's body away. We end with "Somewhere," sung by Carol Lawrence. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can download archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: National Arboretum in Washington Offers Art and Science of Nature
* Byline: Forests, gardens, peace and learning can all be found at the Arboretum. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Washington, D.C. is home to famous buildings, memorials and museums that visitors love. But it is also home to a large and beautiful green space. Today, we take you to the United States National Arboretum, an active center for both scientific research and public education. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people who come to Washington are surprised when they first visit the National Arboretum. The Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. However, visitors often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. The Arboretum covers one hundred eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. The area is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. About nine thousand different kinds grow there. VOICE TWO: An arboretum is a place where trees and other plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in nineteen twenty-seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service operates the Arboretum. The goal of the Arboretum is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. The goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public. VOICE ONE: The National Arboretum is a popular stop for visitors to Washington. It is open every day of the year except December twenty-fifth, the Christmas holiday. Money is not necessary to visit the Arboretum. As many as six hundred thousand people visit the Arboretum's grounds each year. Hundreds of thousands also visit with the help of computers. They use the Arboretum’s Internet web site to learn about current research programs and how to care for plants. Director Thomas Elias says Arboretum officials would like to see even more visitors. He says they believe that many people do not know it exists. VOICE TWO: Part of the problem might result from the fact that the Arboretum is about five kilometers from the closest train station. Many famous places in Washington are a short walk from Metrorail, the local train system. The Arboretum is easy to reach by automobile or bus, however. About fifteen kilometers of roads have been built on the property. The roads connect to major collections and seasonal flowers. The Arboretum also welcomes people on bicycles. Disabled persons or those who want to walk only short distances may visit four beautiful areas that are close to each other. People who like longer walks will enjoy the many pathways on the property. For a small amount of money, the Arboretum provides trips around its grounds in an open vehicle or tram. The Arboretum has a small store that sells books and other things. There is no place where you can buy food to eat on the ground. But visitors often bring food and enjoy a meal under a tree. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Right now, the National Arboretum is collecting financial donations for an addition to the grounds. American and Chinese designers plan to build a traditional Chinese garden. The garden will cover an area of almost five hectares. It is to include a lake, several smaller areas of fresh water and some traditional Chinese structures. The buildings will contain objects similar to those from the Ching and Ming periods of China’s history. The garden design will be based on the traditional gardens in the Yangzhou area of Jiangsu Province. China has agreed to provide the structures, artwork, rocks and other objects. It also plans to send experts to Washington to help build the structures. China says the garden will be a gift to the American people from the Chinese people. VOICE TWO: Scientists at the Arboretum have developed many of the trees and flowers now found in the United States and other countries. Over the years, the Arboretum and the Agricultural Research Service have released almost seven hundred different plants. Each year, they offer several new plants. Scientists there also have developed virus-resistant plants with processes of genetic engineering. The Sun Valley red maple is one such example. It was developed as part of a project to study the genetic qualities of leaf color and insect resistance. The Sun Valley red maple produces leaves that remain bright red late into autumn. It was tested in the state of Maryland. The tree kept its colorful leaves for about two weeks before they fell to the ground. It also resisted the potato leafhopper, an insect that feeds on tree leaves. VOICE ONE: Arboretum scientists have another important goal: to develop cleaner and safer methods to protect and support plant growth. Environmental laws and public opinion against the use of chemical products for killing insects has increased. Arboretum scientists have worked with chemical companies to create products that use natural substances to deal with insects. They call such substances, biopesticides. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Agricultural Research Service operates a number of centers and laboratories across the United States. The National Arboretum is best known for its beauty. Visitors can always find flowering plants. You can start looking for flowers in the Arboretum’s Asian Collections, Friendship Garden and National Boxwood Collection. There also are some very useful plants at the Arboretum. The Herb Garden there is said to be the largest of its kind in the world. Herbs can be used in many kinds of food and drinks, but others are medicinal. Herbs also can change the way things smell or add color to cloth. Every plant in the Herb Garden, even the trees, is an herb. The garden contains one hundred different kinds of peppers alone. VOICE ONE: Bonsai is an ancient Asian tradition. It is the art of growing small plants or trees in a container. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the Arboretum has one of the largest collections of these plants in North America. Bonsai is a Japanese word. Penjing is Chinese. The collection began with fifty-three bonsai from the Nippon Bonsai Association in nineteen seventy-six. The plants were a gift to the United States in honor of the two hundredth anniversary of the country's declaration of independence. American bonsai growers have added to the collection over the years. There have also been gifts of penjing from China. The Arboretum now has three bonsai areas containing about one hundred fifty plants. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, the National Arboretum offers a number of educational programs and special events. This month, the Arboretum has a program in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Visitors may learn about herbs used for preparing food and traditional medicines in Spanish-speaking cultures. There will also be other programs this autumn that are connected to the changing colors of tree leaves. And the Arboretum offers nighttime walks through the property when the moon is full. You might even see a raccoon, fox or other night creatures. VOICE ONE: Officials say it would be difficult for the Arboretum to operate as well as it does without the support of private organizations. The Arboretum has about one hundred employees. Yet it depends on many other people who offer their time and effort without payment. For example, the Friends of the National Arboretum is a non-profit group that provides financial support. The money is used for Arboretum training programs, the gardens and collections and special projects. The group also reports to Congress about the Arboretum’s special needs. Another support group is the National Capital Area Foundation of Garden Clubs. The group has its headquarters at the Arboretum. Its members offer their time to help with the Arboretum’s plant collection. They also serve as guides for visitors. They help thousands of people enjoy the National Arboretum, this beautiful natural area in the nation’s capital. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was the producer. To find this report and other Special English programs, please visit voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Demand for Goat Meat Grows in US
* Byline: Experts suggest some things to consider before starting production. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. American farmers are raising more goats for meat these days. The Department of Agriculture says the United States had about three million meat goats in July. That was a five percent increase from July of last year. Goat meat is high in protein and lower in unhealthy, saturated fat than many other meats. Even so, the industry is small compared to chicken, beef and pork. But immigration has brought more of a taste for goat to America from all over the world. In some cases, people who are not even Muslim buy goat at halal markets because other local stores might not sell it. Experts from the University of Illinois offer some questions for people to consider if they are thinking about raising goats. First of all, do you understand that goats are like other farm animals -- there always has to be someone to care for them? How much land do you have available? And how good is it? The experts say poor ground may support two to four goats on half a hectare. Better grassland can support six to eight. If goats and cattle share the land, one or two goats can be added for each cow. The goats will eat weeds and other plants that cattle do not like. Do you have buildings for the number of female goats you plan to keep during winter? Each doe will need about two square meters of space. The experts say an open, cold barn that is dry is better than a closed, warm barn where the air is wet. Do you have the equipment to clean barns and to harvest hay to feed your goats? Or will you get someone else to do it, or buy the hay? Do you have the right fences and all the other equipment needed to care for goats? The experts at the University of Illinois say a profitable business in goat meat may take three to five years to establish. And, of course, there are no guarantees. American farmers commonly raise Boer goats, native to South Africa. They also raise wild goats from Australia and New Zealand. Some raise Nubians, which provide both milk and meat, or Pygmy goats, which are small. Spanish goats are raised mostly in central Texas. And then there is the Tennessee wooden-leg goat, one of several names for an unusual animal. When frightened, the goat may fall over as if its legs were suddenly made of wood. The attack usually lasts for less than thirty seconds and then the goat gets back on its feet. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about goats, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The X-15: How a Plane Put NASA on the Path to Manned Space Flight
* Byline: Much of what was learned from its flights speeded up the development of the American space program. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Doug Johnson and Frank Oliver tell about the first airplane that flew out of the Earth's atmosphere. It was designed to test equipment and conditions for future space flights. The plane was called the X-Fifteen. VOICE ONE: The pilot of the huge B-Fifty-two bomber plane pushes a button. From under the plane's right wing, the black sharp-nosed X-Fifteen drops free. It is eleven-and-one-half kilometers above the Earth. Pilot Scott Crossfield is in the X-Fifteen's only seat. When he is clear of the B-Fifty-two, he starts the X-Fifteen's rocket engine. And so begins the first powered flight of the experimental plane designed to take man to the edge of space. VOICE TWO: The X-Fifteen flies high over the sandy wasteland of California's Mojave Desert. Up, up it flies. After three minutes, its fuel has burned up. It is flying about two thousand kilometers an hour. Scott Crossfield's voice tightens. His breathing becomes harder as the plane pushes against the atmosphere. At that speed, the pressure is three times the force of gravity. Then the X-Fifteen pushes over the top of its flight path. It settles into a long, powerless slide toward the landing field at Edwards Air Force Base. Designers of the X-Fifteen have warned Crossfield about the landing. They say it will be like driving a race car toward a brick wall at one hundred sixty kilometers an hour, hitting the brakes, and stopping less than a meter from the wall. Crossfield lands the plane without any problem. His success shows, as one newspaper reports, that "The United States has men to match its rockets. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That first flight of the X-Fifteen took place in September, nineteen fifty-nine. But the story began in the Nineteen forties with the 'X' series of experimental aircraft. The first plane ever to fly faster than the speed of sound was the X-One in nineteen forty-seven. United States government agencies and America's airplane industry realized then that it was possible to build an even faster plane. It would reach hypersonic speeds -- five times the speed of sound. The first proposal for this new research vehicle, the X-Fifteen, was made in nineteen fifty-four. The space agency, Air Force and Navy jointly supported the program. They wanted a plane that could test conditions for future flights into space. VOICE TWO: The project moved quickly. The North American Aviation Company won the competition to design and build the plane. The design would be part aircraft and part spacecraft. The company took less than four years to produce three X-Fifteens. The planes were not big. They were just fifteen meters long with wings less than seven meters across. They were designed to fly at speeds up to six thousand four hundred kilometers an hour. They were designed to reach heights of eighty kilometers. Their purpose was to explore some of the problems of manned flight, during short periods, in lower space. No one had ever done that before. VOICE ONE: The X-Fifteen project had four major goals. It would test flight conditions at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. It would leave the atmosphere briefly, then return, testing the effects of the extreme heat of re-entry. It would provide information on the controls needed in the near weightless environment of lower space. And it would answer a very important question: How would humans react to space flight? VOICE TWO: The X-Fifteen was a new idea. And it was built with new methods. It was covered in a new material called "inconel x." The material was a mixture of the metals nickel and chromium. It would protect the plane from high temperatures. There were new designs for the plane's rocket engine, landing equipment and the small rockets needed to move it in space. There was a new system of liquid nitrogen to keep the pilot cool and to resist the crushing force of gravity at high speeds. And there was a new fuel, a mixture of liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The X-Fifteen was never designed to go into orbit. Nor could it take off from the ground. It was carried into the air by a B-Fifty-two bomber. The big B-Fifty-two carried the small X-Fifteen under its wing. It looked a little like a mother whale swimming with its baby. At about fifteen thousand meters, the B-Fifty-two released the X-Fifteen. After a few seconds, when the X-Fifteen was safely away, the pilot started its rocket engine. The X-Fifteen flew upward with unbelievable power. VOICE TWO: The three X-Fifteens were flown one hundred ninety-nine times. Each flight was a new experiment. Planning took many days. The pilot spent fifty hours in a simulator -- a copy of the plane on the ground -- preparing for his ten-minute flight. Once the real flight began, the pilot had to remember everything he learned. He had to work quickly and exactly. All his movements were made against a force that could reach six times the power of gravity. He had to struggle to reach forward for the controls while being pushed back hard in his seat. A delay of even one second could affect the information being collected. It could change the plane's path just enough to destroy the pilot's chance of a safe landing. VOICE ONE: The X-Fifteen set height and speed records greater than those expected. The number three plane climbed more than one hundred seven kilometers above the Earth. The number two plane flew seven thousand two hundred thirty-two kilometers an hour. That was more than seven times the speed of sound. The X-Fifteen was the first major investment by the United States in manned space flight technology. Much of what was learned from its flights speeded up the development of the space program. VOICE TWO: The X-Fifteen tested materials for space vehicles. It tested spacesuits worn later by America's astronauts. It tested instruments for controlling a vehicle in the weightlessness of space. And it proved that experienced pilots had the skills necessary to fly in space. Twelve military and civilian test pilots flew the X-Fifteens. A few became astronauts. The X-Fifteen program lasted about ten years. There were about two hundred flights. Some of the flights carried scientific experiments. One was a container on the end of the wing. It gathered dust and tiny meteoroids from the edge of space. Another was a set of special instruments that helped measure the effects of the sun's radiation on the outside of the aircraft. VOICE ONE: The only tragedy connected with the X-Fifteen program happened in nineteen sixty-seven. The pilot was Michael Adams of the United States Air Force. It was his seventh X-Fifteen flight. Everything, at first, appeared to be normal. The plane reached a height of eight kilometers. It was flying more than five times the speed of sound. Then, during a test of the wings, the plane moved sharply off its flight path. It dove toward Earth at great speed, spinning rapidly out of control. Atmospheric pressure was too great for the plane. It broke apart. The pilot did not survive. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The X-Fifteen made its last flight in December, nineteen sixty-eight. NASA needed money for its other projects. It decided to end the X-Fifteen program. Many space experts disagreed with the decision. They felt the X-Fifteen could have continued to provide new information about aviation and space. Today, the X-Fifteen hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It is in a memorial called "Milestones of Flight."? In the memorial, there is the X-One, the first airplane to fly faster than sound. And there is the "Spirit of Saint Louis," which Charles Lindbergh flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean. There also are copies of famous spacecraft like Russia’s Sputnik and Pioneer Ten. On the floor below these aircraft are three spacecraft command ships. One of them, the Apollo-Eleven, traveled to the moon just seven months after the last X-Fifteen flight. It carried the man who became the first human to step on the moon,?Neil Armstrong?, a former X-Fifteen pilot. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Frank Oliver. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Injured Player's Gains Turn Attention to Cold Treatment
* Byline: After US football's Kevin Everett damaged his spine, doctors quickly lowered his body temperature. But studies of hypothermia therapy have produced mixed results. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. On September ninth, American football player Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills tried to bring down an opponent. There seemed to be nothing unusual about what he did. The twenty-five-year-old Everett put his head down and, with his helmet, crashed into the other player to tackle him. But it was Kevin Everett who immediately went down. He had severely injured his spine. He could not move. Kevin Everett of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills is moved off the fieldEven before an ambulance drove him to a hospital, doctors tried an experimental treatment to limit the damage. They wanted to prevent his spinal cord from swelling and destroying nerves. In the ambulance, the doctors injected cold saline, or salt water, into his blood system. This brought his body temperature down to about thirty-three degrees Celsius -- about four degrees below normal. This kind of treatment is sometimes called hypothermia therapy. At the hospital, doctors performed an emergency operation to repair broken bones in his spine and put it back in the correct position. But they also continued the cooling treatment. Kevin Everett received cold saline through a tube into his body for about twenty-four hours. Spinal injuries like these are often life-threatening and almost always completely disabling. Within three days, however, he had some movement again in his arms and legs. How much he might recover is still not clear. But the doctors involved with his care have said they believe the cooling treatment is at least party responsible for his progress. Cooling treatment is common for people who have had strokes. The treatment is also used with people whose hearts have stopped and been restarted. In both situations, doctors hope to limit nerve damage that can result from a lack of oxygen to the brain. Yet studies of hypothermia therapy have shown mixed results. In some cases it may lead to blockages in blood flow and damage to organs. Doctors say cooling treatment for spinal injuries, to be effective, must begin immediately after the injury happens. But some doctors say there is no proof that Kevin Everett is improving because of hypothermia therapy. They suggest that his injuries were not as severe as doctors had first thought. In any case, this past weekend, Kevin Everett sat up in his hospital bed for more than four hours. He also lifted his right arm for the first time. And that's the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: How Foreign Policy Shaped the 2004 Presidential Race
* Byline: The Iraq war and national security after the September 11, 2001, attacks were the major issues in the campaign. This program completes our series, which will start over again next week. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the presidential election of two thousand four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney at the 2004 Republican National ConventionEvery four years, American political parties nominate their candidates for president and vice president. In the summer of two thousand four, Republican Party delegates chose George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for a second four years in office. During President Bush's first term, Islamic terrorists attacked the United States. Almost three thousand people died in strikes against New York City and Washington, D.C., on September eleventh, two thousand one. President Bush declared a war on terror and led the nation into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. ????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ? After the terrorist attacks, Mister Bush enjoyed record popularity. Public opinion studies showed that almost ninety percent of the American public approved of the way the president was doing his job. But this rating decreased over time. One public opinion study organization said the president’s average approval rating for two thousand four was fifty percent. (MUSIC)????????????????????????????????????? VOICE TWO: Before a presidential election, candidates compete in state nominating meetings and elections. The person winning the most votes in these caucuses and primaries traditionally wins the party’s nomination for president. In two thousand three, ten people were campaigning for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Among the candidates was John Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts. Another was Howard Dean, a doctor and former governor of the state of Vermont. Another was John Edwards, a lawyer and first-term senator from North Carolina. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut also was running. Senator Lieberman had been the vice presidential candidate in the election of two thousand. Another senator and a former senator were also seeking the nomination. So were two representatives in Congress, a former general and an African American civil rights activist. Former Vice President Al Gore was not among the candidates. He had lost the extremely close, disputed election of two thousand to George W. Bush. Mister Gore said he would not be a candidate in two thousand four. VOICE ONE: Many people thought Howard Dean would win the Democratic nomination. Doctor Dean actively opposed the war in Iraq.He won praise for the way he raised money for his campaign. Supporters gave him millions of dollars in small gifts through the Internet. Then came the Iowa caucuses, the first step in the presidential nominating process, in January of two thousand four. John Kerry won with a strong thirty-eight percent of the state's delegates. Senator Edwards finished second with thirty-two percent. Doctor Dean finished third with only eighteen percent. VOICE TWO: Senator Kerry continued to gain support in the state primary elections. Several candidates withdrew from the campaign, including Howard Dean. Senator Edwards withdrew in early March. He did so after Senator Kerry won victories in nine state caucuses and primary elections that were held on the same day, called Super Tuesday. John Kerry named John Edwards as his choice for vice president. Senator Kerry officially received the Democratic Party nomination for president at the party's convention in Boston, Massachusetts. The combination balanced the Democratic ticket in several ways. Senator Kerry was considered a liberal. He came from the Northeast. Senator Edwards was considered more moderate. He came from the South. Senator Kerry was Roman Catholic. Senator Edwards was Protestant. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Kerry was born in Colorado in nineteen forty-three. Like Mister Bush, he graduated from Yale University. He joined the United States Navy. Mister Kerry was wounded and won honors for his service in the Vietnam War. He criticized the war after leaving the military. John Kerry graduated from the Boston College law school in nineteen seventy-six. He became a lawyer for the Massachusetts state government. Then he served two years as lieutenant governor of the state. He was first elected to the Senate in nineteen eighty-four. His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is head of a family foundation that gives money to important causes. VOICE TWO: President Bush and Senator John Kerry at the first of their three presidential debates in 2004The presidential candidates debated three times on national television. They campaigned hard across the country. Foreign policy was the major issue during the campaign. Mister Bush centered his campaign on national security. He said he was the best candidate to keep America safe from terrorists. He said Americans could trust him to be strong against terrorism. He presented himself as a decisive leader. He charged that Senator Kerry had changed positions on issues and would be unsure in the face of danger. In two thousand two, Mister Kerry had voted to give President Bush the power to use force against Iraq. But the senator now criticized the way the Iraqi conflict was being fought. By the fall of two thousand four, more than one thousand Americans had died in Iraq since the war started in March, two thousand three. Thousands of Iraqi civilians had also been killed. Mister Kerry talked about the war in Iraq:?? JOHN KERRY: “You’ve got to be able to look in the eyes of families and say to those parents, ‘I tried to do everything in my power to prevent the loss of your son and daughter.’ I don’t believe the United States did that."? VOICE ONE: Senator Kerry said his goal for the United States was "stronger at home, respected in the world."? He believed that the United States had lost respect from many of its allies because of Mister Bush's foreign policy in Iraq. President Bush defended American actions in Iraq. He said the war was needed to fight terrorism. The President also expressed great satisfaction that Iraqis were free of a cruel dictator. VOICE TWO: Mister Kerry said the United States should be recovering faster from a weak economy. The economy had slowed before George W. Bush became president. It got worse after the terrorist attacks in two thousand one. Mister Kerry denounced the growth of the national debt under Mister Bush’s leadership. President Bush praised his administration’s actions in difficult economic times: PRESIDENT BUSH: “Six months prior to my arrival, the stock market started to go down. And it was one of the largest declines in our history. And then we had a recession and we got attacked, which cost us one million jobs. But we acted. I led the Congress. We passed tax relief. And now this economy is growing. We added one point nine million new jobs over the last thirteen months.” VOICE ONE: President Bush proposed a plan for young workers to place some of the taxes on their pay in private retirement accounts. John Kerry opposed this idea. Mister Bush opposed most operations to end unwanted pregnancies. Mister Kerry supported a woman’s right to have an abortion. His position disagreed with the Roman Catholic religion's position on this issue. VOICE TWO: Early in the election campaign, an organization known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was established to oppose John Kerry's candidacy. The group was led by a veteran who, like Mister Kerry, fought in the Vietnam War. The group argued that Mister Kerry was unfit to serve as president because of some statements he made about his military service and his past activism in the anti-Vietnam war movement. The group even questioned the combat medals awarded to Mister Kerry. Other Vietnam veterans, including several who had served with Mister Kerry, denounced the charges against him as completely false. Many people believed the? accusations and the Kerry campaign's delay in answering them had an important effect on the results of the election. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans voted on November second, two thousand four. As in the election of two thousand, there were questions about voting problems during and after the election. The vote was especially close in the state of Ohio. Kerry supporters said there were problems with voting machines. They also said many people were illegally prevented from voting. The state had enough electoral votes to decide the winner of the presidential election. But the day after the election, Senator Kerry decided not to dispute Mister Bush's win in Ohio. The final results showed that President Bush won about fifty-one percent of the national popular vote to about forty-eight percent for John Kerry. George W. Bush would serve four more years as president of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. You can find our series about American history on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Debate Over Merit Pay for Teachers
* Byline: Unions argue that linking performance-based pay to student test scores is unfair. A program in Denver offers a number of ways to earn more money. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than half the teachers in the Houston Independent School District, the largest in Texas, have earned merit pay awards this year. Marjorie Hunt-Bluford is one of them.The idea seems reasonable. Recognize better workers with extra pay. But it's not that simple. Performance may be easy to measure in some workplaces. But teachers say a classroom is not one of them. Last year, we reported on a program in Florida to give merit pay to teachers if student scores increase on a statewide test. But a newspaper in Florida now reports that school systems across the state are rejecting the program for a second year. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune says only about one-third of the school districts in Florida may answer a call for proposals by October first. Why? Teachers say the program forces them to compete against each other. They say it is unfair to link their pay to results on statewide tests. Also, a high school teacher told the paper that a limited budget means that some top teachers may not be recognized. Critics say performance-based pay should recognize all that happens in a classroom, not just student performance on tests. All that will do, they say, is get teachers to teach to the test. This is already a concern now that yearly testing is federally required for millions of students. Attempts at merit pay for American teachers have failed in many cases because of resistance from teachers unions or budget cuts. Lawmakers in Congress are considering a proposal to provide federal money for performance-based pay. It would give merit pay to teachers who do excellent work in schools in poor areas. But the proposal does not necessarily tie the pay to test scores. Lawmakers and others point to a successful program in Denver, Colorado. It began in a few schools about eight years ago. Last year it was expanded to all the public schools in the city. Teachers can earn more by working in unpopular schools or teaching unpopular subjects. They also can earn more by taking classes to improve their teaching, or by raising test scores. The plan also reduces teacher pay if students fail to improve on statewide tests. A local tax increase pays for the program. Reports from Denver say more teachers are asking to work in lower-income areas. And parents in the Denver area seem to support it. New programs have begun or are being planned in Minnesota, Maryland and Virginia. But many experts say there is still more to learn about the most effective ways to identify and recognize excellent teachers. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Writer Says Bias Against Sayers of 'Um' May Have Been Stoked by, Uh, Radio
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is writer Michael Erard, author of a new book called "Um..." MICHAEL ERARD: "People who have studied speech patterns notice that there are really two groups of people: one group that says 'uh' or 'um' more frequently and another group that [restarts] their sentences and they also repeat words more frequently. People who say 'uh' or 'um' are not necessarily uneducated or unprepared or unintelligent, in the same way that people who don't use filler words are necessarily more intelligent or competent." AA: Michael Erard points out that all languages give speakers a way to indicate some sort of delay. MICHAEL ERARD: "In many languages it's a word like 'um' or 'uh,' that kind of neutral vowel. In some languages, it's 'eh' -- that's Hebrew. In French, vowels are a little rounded, so it's 'oo.' There are other languages that take a word that actually means something and they repurpose it for the filler word. So in Japanese the thinking word is 'ano,' which means 'this' or 'that.' So you'll hear people say 'ano, ano, ano.' In Spanish, it's 'este' [meaning 'this']. And it's something that people have to learn. Children have to learn it. And adults who are learning a language as a foreign language would be better off learning how to pause and delay and make the thinking sound in that language." AA: Michael Erard has a master's degree in linguistics and a doctorate in English. He wanted to trace the source of the notion that good speakers don't use 'uhs' or 'ums.' He says he figured it had deep roots because it's so strongly held. So he checked ancient Greek and Roman literature but couldn't find any advice against 'um,' or its ancient equivalent. MICHAEL ERARD: "I thought, well, maybe it's a particularly American concern, and I went looking in some of the nineteenth century literature about how people could improve their vocabulary, improve their pronunciation, get rid of their regional dialects, and there was no discussion of 'uh' or 'um' either. It doesn't really appear until the early twentieth century, particularly after the advent of radio, but certainly after the phonograph. "And so what I think had happened was that the phonograph was people's first opportunity to hear their own voices recorded back to them. And that really becomes an issue in the age of radio. And it turned out that one of the important aspects of the radio performance was to remove the 'uhs' and the 'ums' -- I think because it didn't sound right somehow. But there was also the fact that the radio broadcasts were commercial. They were selling things, selling advertising on the radio, and the 'uhs' or the 'ums' would take up valuable time that you could use to sell pet food and mattresses and whatever other sorts of sponsorships." RS: "What is the takeaway message from the book for students who are learning English as a foreign language?" MICHAEL ERARD: "Part of it, I think, is to not try to speak the way that English is written, but to speak the way native speakers speak. And one of the ways that native speakers speak is they pause and they think and they indicate to their listeners that they are doing so. And so they say 'uh' or 'um,' they say 'you know' and things like that. "I think for those students and for their teachers, it also becomes important to understand different situations, that there are formal situations and less formal situations and that each of those comes with a set of rules. Because, while I wouldn't want an 'um' in a State of the Union address or some other formal situation, when I'm in my own home I want to be able to use that word without being judged." AA: Michael Erard is author of "Um... Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean." And that's WORDMASTER for this week. To learn more about American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Rides, Animals, Presidential Hopefuls and Deep-Fried Everything -- It's All at the Fair
* Byline: A question from Vietnam about day care in the U.S. And the new Van Halen hits the road for a North American tour. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Van Halen … Answer a question about child care in America … And report about agricultural fairs held across the country at this time of the year. State Fairs HOST: Millions of Americans enjoy visiting state and county fairs in August, September and October. These agricultural fairs were traditionally held to honor the work of local farmers. Farmers and their families came to the fair to show their crops and animals and compete for prizes. Today, state fairs offer something for everyone. Shirley Griffith tells us about them. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The sounds, smells and tastes of state fairs are part of the memory of childhood for many Americans. People enjoy hot corn covered in melted butter, sticky sweet cotton candy and ice cream. Today's state fairs offer even more creative foods. All kinds of foods are deep fried and served on a stick -- from hot dogs to peach pie to cookie dough. State and county fairs offer many things for children and adults to enjoy: games, rides, cultural exhibits and famous entertainers. There is also lots of friendly competition. Children and adults bring the farm animals and vegetables they have raised. They also bring arts and crafts projects and homemade foods. Judges then choose the best-looking pig or the largest pumpkin or the tastiest apple pie. The winners receive the highest honor, a blue ribbon. But that is not the only competition you will find at state fairs. This year, the presidential candidates from both political parties have been visiting state fairs. The large crowds make state fairs perfect places for candidates to meet people and gain support. The Iowa state fair in Des Moines is especially popular among presidential candidates. As many as one million people visit the fair each year. Iowa is one of two states involved in the early nominating process for presidential candidates. Every major presidential candidate visited the Iowa State Fair to campaign during eleven hot days last month. The Iowa state fair is also famous for its butter cow. Since the early nineteen hundreds, a life-size cow has been created out of butter at the fair each year. It starts with a frame made of wood and metal. Then the sculptor shapes two hundred seventy kilograms of pure cream Iowa butter to look just like a cow. Norma Lyon retired last year after forty-six years of sculpting cows. This year’s butter cow was sculpted by her replacement, Sarah Pratt. Day Care HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Lan Tran wants to know about day care in the United States. This term describes the care of young children during the day by people other than their parents. The Pew Research Center reported in July that about seventy-five percent of American women work full-time. Many of these working women are mothers who depend on some form of day care. Some parents leave their children with family members, neighbors or friends. Or, they may employ a nanny. This person is a trained care-giver who either lives in the family’s home or comes to work at the house every day. Other parents use an au pair to care for their children. Au pairs are young foreign students taking part in a one-year cultural and educational exchange program. They live in the home of their American family, work about forty-five hours a week and attend classes part-time at a college or university. Day care centers usually cost less than employing a nanny or au pair. Many large companies offer day care for their employees. This service is usually provided by a separate for-profit business. Other day care centers are not connected to companies but are also run as for-profit businesses. Some churches operate day care centers as non-profit organizations. In-home day care is also popular. Single individuals operate these small businesses in their homes. Local laws decide the ages and number of children permitted. The cost of day care in the United States depends on many things, such as the age of the child and where you live. The size of the day-care center and whether it is government-approved can also influence the cost. In Washington, D.C., in-home day care costs about two hundred dollars a week for each child. A for-profit day care center costs about two hundred fifty dollars a week. Non-profit church day care costs about one hundred ninety dollars a week. Professional nannies in the Washington area earn several hundred dollars a week. However, this amount may differ depending on the number of children cared for, and the number of hours worked. Au pairs in the United States receive a small weekly wage. They also are given two weeks paid vacation and five hundred dollars toward the cost of required school work. Most American families can stop paying for day care once the child reaches the age of five and can enter the public school system. Van Halen (MUSIC) HOST: The band Van Halen formed in nineteen seventy-four. It was one of the most popular rock bands in the world before it broke up in nineteen eighty-five. Van Halen was recently honored with membership in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band has re-formed and is again performing some of its most popular music. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The new Van Halen has begun a series of twenty-five shows across North America. The group's first performance was September twenty-seventh in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its Web site says all tickets to the shows in at least five cities were sold immediately after the group announced its plans in August. Members of the new band are Eddie Van Halen, his brother Alex Van Halen, his sixteen-year-old son Wolfgang Van Halen and singer David Lee Roth. Roth told reporters that Wolfgang is bringing a young energy and spirit to the band. He said the teenager chose the hit songs the band is performing. One of those is "I'm The One," from Van Halen’s first album in nineteen seventy-eight. (MUSIC) Van Halen was extremely successful in the past. The Guinness Book of World Records says it has had more number one hits on the Billboard Rock chart than any other band in history. Here is one of them: "Dance The Night Away.” (MUSIC) Van Halen’s final album was called “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” It sold more than ten million copies. We leave you now with the group’s biggest hit record from that album. It was number one on the list of most popular songs for five weeks. Here it is: "Jump.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Brianna Blake, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: GM Deal on Health Costs Signals Change for US Auto Industry
* Byline: A short strike ends with an agreement for General Motors to move retiree benefits to an independent trust. The example may guide union talks with other American automakers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Labor relations in the American auto industry took a new turn this week with a deal that many are calling historic. An employee returns to work at the General Motors factory in Warren, MichiganGeneral Motors and the United Auto Workers agreed on a proposed new contract after a strike that lasted two days. Seventy-three thousand union workers walked off the job. Job security was the top issue for union members. The U.A.W. is seeking to protect jobs in the United States and limit the number of temporary workers used by General Motors. For G.M., the main issue was to find a way to cut its costs for health care for retired workers. The nation's largest automaker estimates its long-term responsibilities at more than fifty billion dollars. Under the agreement, G.M. would create a trust called a volunteer employee benefit association. This VEBA would pay health care costs for retirees. G.M. is expected to invest about thirty-five billion dollars to start the fund. The fund would be independently administered and the union would supervise it. United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said the fund should secure benefits for retirees for the next eighty years. G.M. has seen its share of the North American market shrink while its labor costs have remained far above its biggest competitor, Toyota. The deal would give G.M. the right to lower pay for some new employees. The agreement is likely to provide an example for coming talks with the two other major American automakers, Ford and Chrysler. The new contract still needs final approval by the union. Until then the full details are not being released. The union expects its members to begin voting this weekend. The trust would also need approval by the courts and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The process is expected to take two years. After that, G.M. would no longer have to pay for health benefits for its retirees. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said the agreement will help his company become more competitive. This, he says, will permit G.M. to keep a strong manufacturing presence in the United States and make future investments. This was the first nationwide strike against G.M. since nineteen seventy. The existing contract ended at midnight on September fourteenth. Union members continued working until their leaders called the strike Monday morning. The strike ended early Wednesday after negotiators reached the agreement. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fukuda Takes Office in Tokyo, and First Issue Is the Crisis in Burma
* Byline: Yasuo Fukuda, a moderate, will try to rebuild support for Japan's weakened ruling party. He faces a fight with the opposition over his wish to continue assistance for U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Image from a video released by the Democratic Voice of Burma shows Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai after being shot in Rangoon. He later died.Japan's new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, took office this week -- and quickly faced a crisis. The unrest in Burma claimed the life of a Japanese cameraman. Kenji Nagai was shot Thursday as security forces moved to crush anti-government demonstrations. Mister Fukuda rejected the idea of immediate economic sanctions. He directed a Foreign Ministry official to go and push the government for a full explanation. Japan provides aid but not as much since the military in Burma violently suppressed protests for democracy in nineteen eighty-eight. The next year, the generals ruling Burma changed its name to Myanmar, a name the United States and Britain do not recognize. Mister Fukuda spoke Friday by phone with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao about the situation in China's neighbor. He said he asked that China, given its close ties, exercise its influence and that "Premier Wen said he will make such efforts." Mister Fukuda of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party easily won election Tuesday in the lower house of parliament. The upper house rejected him. Opposition parties won control of the upper house in July. But the L.D.P. still controls the lower house. And the vote of the lower house decides the winner in such a split. This was the first split vote of this kind since nineteen ninety-eight. Mister Fukuda's closest competitor was main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa. The new prime minister is seen as politically moderate. He says one of his goals will be to repair public trust in the ruling party. The L.D.P. has recently faced a series of investigations of financial wrongdoing involving cabinet members. Mister Fukuda has kept much of Shinzo Abe's cabinet. Nobutaka Machimura, the foreign minister under Mister Abe, will serve as chief cabinet secretary. Former defense minister Masahiko Komura will serve as foreign minister. Mister Abe resigned on September twelfth after only one year as prime minister. He has apologized for resigning suddenly. He said he did so only because of health reasons. Mister Fukuda is seventy-one years old. He is the eldest son of former prime minister Takeo Fukuda. And he served as chief cabinet secretary under Junichiro Koizumi. His success could depend on his ability to find a way to work with the opposition. An early test will involve Japan's naval refueling operations in support of American-led forces in Afghanistan. The mission began in two thousand one. Legislation supporting it will end on November first unless Japan extends it. Mister Fukuda supports the idea. But opposition parties are expected to resist an extension. He also faces a high government debt and a longtime budget deficit. Japan has the world's second largest economy after the United States. Japanese newspapers found that more than half the public supported the new prime minister and his cabinet. He gives a policy speech next week. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895: He Fought for Freedom and Equality for African-Americans
* Byline: Born a slave, he became one of America's greatest leaders. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Frederick Douglass. He was born a slave, but later became one of America’s greatest leaders. He was an activist, a writer, a powerful speaker and an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Frederick Douglass suffered severe physical and mental abuse during his many years as a slave. He dreamed of one day learning to read and being free. He believed knowledge would lead the way to freedom. Douglass wrote several books about his life as a slave. In eighteen forty-five he wrote "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave." It became an immediate best seller and remains popular today. VOICE TWO: Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born around eighteen eighteen in Tuckahoe, Maryland, near the Chesapeake Bay. Many slaves lived on large farms owned by white people. Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family who lived in a large house on the property. Frederick and his mother, Harriet Bailey, were slaves on a huge plantation owned by Colonel Edward Lloyd. Their slave owner was a white man named Captain Aaron Anthony. Frederick knew very little about his father, except that he was a white man. Many believed Captain Anthony was his father. Frederick did not know his mother well. Harriet Bailey was sent to work on another plantation when Frederick was very young. She was able to visit him only a few times. She died when Frederick was about seven years old. VOICE ONE: Frederick then lived with his grandparents, Betsey and Isaac Bailey. He said that his grandparents had a loving home and were respected by other slaves in the area. Because of this, he did not realize at first that someone owned him and the others---that they were slaves. It was not unusual for African-American families to be separated, often never seeing each other again. Slaves were not treated as human beings. Slave owners bought and traded them as if they were animals or property. Frederick had to leave his grandparents’ home when he was six years old. He later wrote about that day. He said being forced to leave was one of the most painful experiences in his life. He said he began to understand the evil and oppressive system of slavery. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In eighteen twenty-six, Frederick was sent to work for Hugh Auld, in Baltimore, Maryland. Mister Auld’s wife, Sophia, was very kind to Frederick. She treated him as if he were a member of her family. Missus Auld soon began to teach Frederick to read. Her husband became extremely angry and ordered her to stop immediately. Slaves were denied education. Mister Auld said if slaves could read they would rebel and run away. Sophia Auld stopped teaching Frederick to read. But he learned to read from white boys he met in the city. The boys also told Frederick he had the right to be free. VOICE ONE: Mister Auld sent Frederick to work for a poor farmer, Edward Covey, who beat him often. In eighteen thirty-six, Frederick made an attempt to escape. But he failed and was arrested. He was sent back to the home of Hugh and Sophia Auld home in Baltimore. He met and fell in love with a free black woman named Anna Murray. Miz Murray had a job cleaning other people’s homes. She gave Frederick money to help him escape by getting on a train to New York City. VOICE THREE: "My free life began on the third of September, eighteen thirty-eight. On the morning of the fourth of that month, I found myself in the big city of New York, a free man. For the moment the dreams of my youth and the hopes of my manhood where completely fulfilled. The bonds that held me to “old master” were broken. No man now had the right to call me his slave or try to control me." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Frederick Bailey reached New York he changed his name to Frederick Douglass to hide his identity from slave capturers. Anna Murray joined him and they were married. They settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts and had five children. Frederick Douglass became one of the most important leaders of the abolitionist movement to end slavery in the United States. In eighteen forty-one, he attended the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Douglass was unexpectedly asked to give a speech to describe his experiences as a slave. He had not prepared a speech but he spoke to the huge gathering of people anyway. Most of the supporters were white. He spoke with great emotion in a deep and powerful voice. The crowd praised him. VOICE ONE: After that speech, The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society asked Douglass to travel to cities throughout the North. He continued to tell about his cruel and oppressive life as a slave. He told how slave owners beat slaves everyday. How slaves were given very little food to eat. How they worked all day in the fields during dangerously hot weather. How they slept on cold floors and had very little clothing. Many who heard his story challenged its truthfulness. They refused to believe that Frederick Douglass was ever a slave. Instead, they thought he was an educated man who created the entire story. In eighteen forty-four, Douglass began writing his life’s story. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave" was published the following year. He later published expanded versions of his book. VOICE TWO: Frederick Douglass wrote his first book partly to prove that he had lived through the horrible situations he described in his speeches. He was asked to speak at the Independence Day celebration in Rochester, New York in eighteen fifty-two. He noted the differences of how blacks and whites considered Independence Day. VOICE THREE: ”The purpose of this celebration is the Fourth of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom… This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may celebrate. I must mourn…What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?? I answer:? a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year, the horrible discrimination and punishment to which he is the everyday victim…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States at this very hour." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen sixty-one the American Civil War began. Frederick Douglass and many others saw slavery as the cause of the war. Douglass wanted blacks to be permitted to join the Union Army. However, Northern whites, including President Abraham Lincoln, were against it. They said black soldiers would harm the spirit of white soldiers. They believed black soldiers were not intelligent. Two years later, blacks were permitted to join the Union Army, but they were not treated as soldiers. Although they showed bravery they were given less important jobs. Douglass met with President Lincoln in Washington to discuss the issue. Douglass urge that black soldiers be treated equal to white soldiers. Although President Lincoln agreed, he said there could be no immediate change. VOICE TWO: In eighteen sixty-five, the Civil War ended. The Union forces had defeated the South. A few months later President Lincoln was killed. And later that year, slavery was ended. Frederick Douglass went on to hold several positions in the government, including United States Marshall of the District of Columbia. He never stopped his efforts to gain equality for all people. Historians say Douglass gave two thousand speeches and wrote thousands of articles and letters. His work as an activist also included women’s rights. On February twentieth, eighteen ninety-five, he gave a speech at the National Council of Women. Later that day, he returned to his home in Washington and died of heart failure at the age of seventy-eight. Frederick Douglass ended his "book My Bondage, My Freedom" with these words: VOICE THREE: "I shall labor in the future as I have labored in the past, to work for the honorable, social, religious, and intellectual position of the free colored people; while Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice, my pen or my vote to support the great and most important work of the complete and unconditional freedom of my entire race." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. The writings of Frederick Douglass were read by Shep O'Neal. You can download this program and others from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-10-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Swan Song: It Was My Final Effort and My Finest Work
* Byline: English writers Chaucer and Shakespeare told the story of the swan's last song.Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. These are the living speech of a people. And a story can be told about each of them. The white swan – with its long, graceful neck – is among the most beautiful of birds. The swan is mostly silent through its life. It floats quietly on the water, unable to sing sweet songs like most other birds. In ancient times, however, people believed that the swan was given a special gift of song at the end of its life. They believed a swan sings a most beautiful song…just before it dies. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates talked of this two thousand three hundred years ago. Socrates explained that the swan was singing because it was happy. The bird was happy because it was going to serve the Greek good Apollo. Swans were holy to Apollo, the god of poetry and song. The story of the swan’s last song found a place in the works of other writers, including the early English writers Chaucer and Shakespeare. And, the expression swan song has long been a part of the English language. At first, swan song meant the last work of a poet, musician or writer. Now, it means the final effort of any person. Someone’s swan song usually is also considered that person’s finest work. A political expression with a similar meaning is the last hurrah. The expression may be used to describe a politician’s last campaign, his final attempt to win the cheers and votes of the people. The last hurrah also can mean the last acts of a politician, before his term in office ends. Writer Edwin O’Connor made the expression popular in nineteen fifty-six. He wrote a book about the final years in the political life of a long-time mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. He called his book, The Last Hurrah. Some language experts say the expression came from a name given to noisy supporters of Andrew Jackson…America’s seventh president. They cheered hurrah so loudly for Andrew Jackson during his presidential campaign that they became known as the hurrah boys. Jackson’s hurrah boys also played a part in the election to choose the next president. Jackson’s choice was his vice president, Martin VanBuren. A newspaper of the time reported that VanBuren was elected president, in its words: “...by the hurrah boys, and those who knew just enough to shout hurrah for Jackson.”? So, President Jackson really heard his last hurrahs in the campaign of another candidate, the man would replace him in the White House. (MUSIC) You have been listening to the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today’s program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Project Aims to Raise Demand for Laptops for Poor Children
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The project known as One Laptop Per Child has a new campaign to bring its computers to children in developing countries. The campaign will urge people in the United States and Canada to spend just under four hundred dollars for two laptops. One will go to a child in a poor country. The other will go to the buyer. The "Give One, Get One" campaign will start on November twelfth for two weeks only. Project officials think the donations may help persuade governments of developing countries to buy more. The green-and-white machines are specially designed for children in the developing world. The laptop, called the XO, does not use very much power. And if no electricity is available, users can charge the battery by hand by turning a crank. The computer uses the free, open-source operating system Linux. The color display can change to a black-and-white image so users are able to see it even in bright sunlight. Also, the laptops are able to connect wirelessly to each other, as well as the Internet if local service is available. They have a camera. And they are built to resist dirt and moisture. Mass production is expected to begin in October, once a final design is approved. The XO laptop is currently being tested in Cambodia, Thailand, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uruguay, Brazil and Peru. Walter Bender is head of software and content for the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project. He says officials hope to establish a process through the United Nations for countries to make proposals to get free laptops. Donations may be necessary to launch a laptop program in some poor countries, he says, but governments are needed to keep it going. Partnerships between nations could also help. Italy, for example, has agreed to buy fifty thousand laptops for Ethiopia. The project is led by Nicholas Negroponte, the founding director of the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was waiting for three million orders, but so far that has not happened. In two thousand five he announced the idea for a computer that would cost one hundred dollars. Right now, the cost is almost one hundred ninety dollars. ?? Several countries in Africa and South America have already placed orders. Walter Bender says countries that buy laptops could still receive others through donations. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-09/2007-09-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Seeing the Sights (the Ones Above Water, at Least) for an Afternoon on the Chesapeake Bay
* Byline: Natural beauty, colorful history, a huge bridge, a restored island and even a leaning lighthouse. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we take you to the East Coast for a boat trip on the Chesapeake Bay. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Ten passengers ease themselves carefully from the wooden dock into the sightseeing boat. They have come to learn about the bay, or maybe just to enjoy an afternoon on the water under a bright blue sky. The Chesapeake Bay is about three hundred twenty kilometers long. It passes through Maryland and Virginia. These along with four other states and the District of Columbia all have rivers and other bodies of water that flow into the bay. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. An estuary is a coastal area that has one part that opens to the ocean and contains both saltwater tides and freshwater. The Chesapeake opens into the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia. Some of the rivers that feed the bay have American Indian names like Potomac, Susquehanna and Rappahannock. The bay supported native societies for thousands of years. The name Chesapeake comes from an Algonquin Indian word often defined as "great shellfish bay." VOICE ONE: The sightseeing boat this afternoon is called Sharp’s Island. The captain is Mike Richards. As he pilots the boat away from Tilghman Island in Maryland, it glides by beautiful homes near the water. Some of the homes have yachts and other very nice boats tied a short walk from their back door. The sun is warm but the water is cool. A young man laughs as he leans over the side of the boat into the wind and gets wet. PASSENGER: "Just one, just one wave got me!"The boat is moving quickly now. The wind, the motor and the sounds of the water against the sides are loud but also calming. Ducks and Canada geese call out. Cormorants and blue herons raise their wings against the afternoon sky, then settle on wooden posts in the water. Some of these large birds are ready for a meal. Rockfish hang from their mouths. VOICE TWO: Someone on the boat comments that these are the same waters that Captain John Smith sailed long ago. Next year will be the four hundredth anniversary of when the British explorer mapped this bay. The first mate for today's trip, Kate Richards, daughter of the captain, points at a long, empty piece of land. She identifies it as Poplar Island. Several passengers say they cannot see any poplars -- or any trees. The passengers listen carefully as she explains that the island had been falling into the bay. Wind, storms and tides destroyed it. KATE RICHARDS: "You will notice that there are no trees on Poplar Island at all. And that’s because this is brand-new." VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-six, government agencies approved a twenty-five-year project to save the island. An agreement directed the Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild Poplar Island. Many other agencies and the state of Maryland are also taking part. So are many volunteers. The project is costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The federal government agreed to pay seventy-five percent of the costs. To rebuild the island, workers bring sand and other dredge material from the bottom of ship channels leading to the Port of Baltimore. The entrances to the port are being deepened, so heavier ships can come and go. Today, Poplar Island is home to turtles and birds. The island has gained new life as a wildlife refuge. Eagles, herons, osprey and egrets have their young there. VOICE TWO: Poplar Island has a colorful history. A settler named Daniel Cugley is said to have kept pigs on the island in sixteen thirty-two. Five years later, Indians killed the family of another settler, Richard Thompson. He was away at the time, traveling to trade fur. The early eighteen hundreds were comparatively quiet, although British troops occupied the island during the War of Eighteen Twelve. Next to occupy the island were black cats. In eighteen forty-four, a man bought the island to keep one thousand cats there. Historical records say he wanted to trade in black cat fur. Happily for the animals, the bay froze over in December. The cats escaped to the mainland. VOICE ONE: In the nineteen twenties, during the Prohibition era, the United States banned alcohol. Poplar Island was used to produce it illegally. But this did not last. A local lawman poured the alcohol into the bay. By this time, a lot of Poplar Island had dropped into the bay. The erosion formed a small island that was named Jefferson Island. A clubhouse was built there. During the nineteen thirties it became a favorite weekend place for Democratic Party politicians and businessmen. The clubhouse burned down in nineteen forty-six. The visitors to Jefferson Island included presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: A passenger on the sightseeing boat catches sight of something floating in the distance. It looks huge and bright orange. A sea monster, someone jokes. No, a ship. When the ship is close enough, the sightseers read the company name: Wallenius Wilhelmsen. Captain Richards confirms it. CAPTAIN RICHARDS: "Yeah, Wallenius Wilhelmsen. The ship is designed specifically for carrying automobiles. That ramp falls down and they drive them off six cars abreast." So thousands of shiny new cars are on their way to the Port of Baltimore. And the ten passengers on the sightseeing boat are on their way to see more of the Chesapeake Bay. VOICE ONE: They get close looks at several lighthouses. One of them, within a kilometer and a half of shore, is called Bloody Point Bar Light. It was first lit on October first of eighteen eighty-two. Very soon, however, it began to lean to one side. Repeated attempts were made to balance it. In eighteen eighty-five, for example, workers dropped hundreds of tons of stone around the tower. But even today, it looks a little like Italy’s leaning Tower of Pisa. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty a fire at the lighthouse nearly killed two members of the Coast Guard. They escaped. But the whole structure exploded. The fire began in an equipment area and reached the gas tank for the light. Later, the light was redesigned to operate by itself. It still shines without the need for a human keeper. In the winter, it also sounds a horn to warn about fog, so ships do not get too close to the shore. Over the years, time and nature have made changes to the lines of the Chesapeake shore. Humans also had an influence on the bay as Indian settlements grew into the cities of today. Pollution from farms and factories also found its way to the great Chesapeake. ??????? VOICE ONE: From the water, the steel of the bridge over the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Maryland, glows like silver in the sunlight. The bridge is officially named the William Preston Lane Junior Memorial Bridge, after a former Maryland governor. But most people call it the Bay Bridge. It joins the eastern and western shores of Maryland. The bridge is about seven kilometers long. It was the largest continuous over-water steel structure in the world when it opened in nineteen fifty-two. VOICE TWO: The Chesapeake Bay is also known for something that the sightseers this afternoon will not be able to see unless they dive into the water. The bay is famous for its fish and shellfish, including oysters and blue crabs. People come from far away to enjoy it fresh. Scientists come to study the rich marine environment. The bay has three hundred fifty kinds of fish alone. But pollution and too much fishing have led to restrictions on the watermen who work on the Chesapeake. They are still known as watermen even though they include women. Many people are interested in the future of the Chesapeake, and not just the watermen. A big program is working to clean up the bay. VOICE ONE: Last spring, twelve history fans set out to repeat much of John Smith’s travels on the Chesapeake four centuries ago. Their four-month trip took place in an open wooden boat like Captain Smith’s. The hope is that in another four hundred years, the bay will still be beautiful and productive. That means future generations will still be able to enjoy an afternoon of sightseeing on the Chesapeake. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE:And I'm Steve Ember. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-01-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Health Experts Say Smokers Need a Cigarette Break -- Permanently
* Byline: The W.H.O. says tobacco kills an estimated five million people each year. At current rates, that could double by 2020. A look at the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke, and advice about how to stop. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, some new information about tobacco smoke -- and it’s not good news. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On October 1, 2002, a local law, the first of its kind in Japan, banned smoking on the streets of Tokyo's Chiyoda WardFew people would argue that tobacco smoke is good for you. For more than forty years, scientists have said cigarette smoking can cause serious health problems. But today, smokers and people who do not smoke often argue about smoking in the workplace. Many non-smokers would like to have smoking banned where they work. They fear harmful effects from other people's tobacco smoke, also known as secondhand smoke. Business owners often say a ban on smoking would harm their profits. And, smokers say such a ban would interfere with their rights. In the United States, secondhand smoke causes about three thousand non-smoking adults to die of lung cancer each year. That information comes from a private group, the American Cancer Society. VOICE TWO: Recently, the American Journal of Public Health published two reports about secondhand smoke. The Multnomah County Health Department in Oregon and the Oregon Department of Human Services organized one study. The University of Minnesota Cancer Center in Minneapolis assisted them. The study involved eighty-four non-smokers who worked at restaurants and drinking places in Oregon. Thirty-two worked in businesses that banned smoking. Fifty-two others worked in businesses that permitted smoking. Most worked as servers or prepared drinks. Two thirds of those studied were women. The researchers asked the non-smokers about how much time they had spent around smokers while away from work. The breath of the workers was tested to make sure they had not been smoking. VOICE ONE: Then the researchers tested liquid wastes from the workers. They found a substance called NNAL in the urine. NNAL is a byproduct of NNK, a chemical found only in tobacco products. Other studies have linked NNK to lung cancer. Over time, scientists have identified more than sixty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in people and animals. The researchers tested the urine of the workers before they started their jobs and again as they finished. Those working where smoking was permitted were more likely to have NNK in their urine.The study did not deal with whether secondhand smoke caused health problems in nonsmokers. But last year, the evidence against secondhand smoke caused America's top medical officer to advise banning smoking in buildings. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second report in the American Journal of Public Health came from the Public Health Institute in California. The Public Health Institute is a nonprofit organization that says businesses should be free of smoke. The Institute says employers must keep workplaces safe for employees. It tells employers that they are open to legal action if their environment harms workers. Margaret Chan is director-general of the World Health Organization. She has urged all countries to pass laws banning smoking in workplaces. Businesses are not the only places where secondhand smoke is a threat. People who smoke at home should think about the health of others living with them. The American Cancer Society says secondhand smoke causes lung infections in as many as three hundred thousand young children each year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The W.H.O. estimates that smoking is responsible for the deaths of five million people each year. At current rates, it says tobacco use could kill ten million people a year by two thousand twenty. Smoking by pregnant women can threaten the unborn. Expectant mothers are more likely to have babies with health problems and low birth weight. Babies with low weight at birth have an increased risk of dying young. They may also suffer health problems. VOICE TWO: Older smokers are also at risk. A study in the publication Neurology showed that older adults who smoke face an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Decreased mental health also was more likely in persons who smoked than in non-smokers. Alzheimer’s patients lose ability to think, plan and organize. After a time they become unable to care for themselves. Researchers in the Netherlands studied almost seven thousand adults aged fifty-five years or older. Seven hundred six of the adults developed dementia during the seven years of the study. Dementia is a condition that causes a decrease in a person's thinking ability. Persons who smoked during the study were fifty percent more likely to develop dementia than those who never smoked or had stopped. VOICE ONE: Most people know that smoking causes lung cancer. But it also has been proven to be a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Cigarettes are not the only danger. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. But these facts are not enough to prevent people from smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a few cigarettes is dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Nicotine is a substance in tobacco that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again. This forces the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as difficult to resist as alcohol or the drug cocaine. So experts say it is better never to start smoking than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. So people can hold the smoke in their lungs longer than smokers of other products. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous than other cigarettes. Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. America's National Cancer Institute has said people who smoke low-tar cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting diseases linked to smoking. Scientists found no evidence of improvements to public health from changes in cigarette design and production in the past fifty years. VOICE TWO: Is there no way to smoke without harming your health? The American Cancer Society does not think so. The group wants people to stop or at least reduce smoking. For this reason it organizes the Great American Smokeout every year. The event takes place in November. Local volunteers support the efforts of individuals who want to stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. The chance of heart attack decreases after one day. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE ONE:There are products designed to help people reduce their dependence on cigarettes. Several kinds of nicotine replacement products provide small amounts of the chemical. These can help people stop smoking. Experts also say a drug used to treat depression has helped smokers. The drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. It works by increasing levels of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that produces pleasure. VOICE TWO: Here is some advice from people who have stopped smoking: Stay away from alcoholic drinks. Take a walk instead of smoking a cigarette. Avoid people who are smoking. If possible, stay away from situations that trouble you. It is not easy to stop smoking. And people never can completely control their own health. But as one doctor advises her patients, becoming a non-smoker is one way to gain control of your life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-01-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Jatropha Plant Raises Hopes for Fuel and Poor Farmers
* Byline: Supporters say it does not compete with food crops or harm the environment. But while the future seems to hold promise, there are no guarantees. Transcript of radio broadcast

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Biodiesel is made from plant oils or animal fats. Producers of this renewable fuel often use oils like soybean or palm oil. But a wild plant called Jatropha curcas (JAT-ruh-fuh KUR-kas) is getting a lot of attention lately. Some people see it as a better way to make biodiesel -- and a way to make a better life in some of the world's poorest countries. For example, the New York Times recently described projects in Mali to supply electricity to rural villages with generators that can use the fuel. The Portuguese are thought to have spread jatropha from Central America to other parts of the world centuries ago during their explorations. Jatropha grows all year. It does not need much water and it can grow in poor soil where other crops fail. Some African farmers use it as borders for their crops. It helps protect the soil and keeps animals away from food crops like a fence. The seeds are poisonous, although in many parts of West Africa the plant has been used to make traditional medicines. The Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands says Mali has more than twenty thousand kilometers of jatropha. A company called Mali Biocarburant processes the nuts into oil for fuel. The project is financed by the Dutch government and private investors. Internationally, there are concerns about higher food prices and reduced supply as food crops compete with fuel crops. Such concerns are often raised about corn or sugar cane grown for ethanol. Supporters of jatropha say it does not compete with food crops for good agricultural land or harm the environment. Still, South Africa's agriculture department says it is being careful in studying jatropha. This is what a spokeswoman told the Mail and Guardian newspaper: "Too many lessons have been learned at high cost when plants that promised to be solutions turned into environmental and social disasters for South Africa." In June, two British companies formed a joint effort to grow more jatropha in southeast Asia, southern Africa, central and south America and India. BP and biodiesel producer D1 Oils say their new company could become the world’s largest producer of the oil by two thousand eleven. But while the future seems to hold promise, there are no guarantees. Right now, some jatropha farmers are said to be having problems finding buyers for the seeds. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: La Brea Tar Pits: Where Animals Lived, and Died, Thousands of Years Ago
* Byline: The area is considered one of the richest areas of fossil bones in the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual scientific research area in the United States. It is filled with the remains of ancient animals. This unusual place is in the center of Los Angeles, California. Its name is Rancho La Brea. But most people know it as the La Brea Tar Pits. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: To understand why La Brea is an important scientific research center we must travel back through time almost forty thousand years. Picture an area that is almost desert land. The sun is hot. A pig-like creature searches for food. It uses its short, flat nose to dig near a small tree. It moves small amounts of sand with its nose. It finds nothing. The pig starts to walk away, but it cannot move its feet. They are covered with a thick, black substance. The pig shakes one foot loose, but the others just sink deeper. The more it struggles against the black substance, the deeper it sinks. The pig attempts to free itself again and again. It now screams in fear and fights wildly to get loose. Less than a kilometer away, a huge cat-like creature with two long front teeth hears the screams. It, too, is hungry. Traveling across the ground at great speed, the cat nears the area where the pig is fighting for its life. The cat jumps on the pig’s back. It sinks its long teeth into the pig’s neck. The pig dies quickly, and the cat begins to eat. Almost an hour passes before the cat is finished. When it attempts to leave, like the pig, it finds it cannot move. The more the big cat struggles, the deeper it sinks into the black substance. Before morning, the cat is dead. Its body, and the bones of the pig, slowly sink into the sticky black hole. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the story we have told you happened again and again over a period of many thousands of years. The black substance that trapped the animals came out of the Earth as oil. The oil dried, leaving behind a partly solid substance called asphalt. In the heat of the sun, the asphalt softened. Whatever touched it would often become trapped forever. In seventeen sixty-nine, a group of Spanish explorers visited the area. They were led by Gaspar de Portola, governor of Lower California. The group stopped to examine the sticky black substance that covered the Earth. They called the area “La Brea” the Spanish words for “tar.” Many years later, settlers used the tar, or asphalt, on the tops of their houses to keep water out. They found animal bones in the asphalt, but threw them away. In nineteen-oh-six, scientists began to study the bones found in La Brea. Ten years later, the owner of the land, George Allan Hancock, gave it to the government of Los Angeles. His gift carried one condition. He said La Brea could only be used for scientific work. VOICE ONE: Today, the La Brea Tar Pits are known to scientists around the world. The area is considered one of the richest areas of fossil bones in the world. It is an extremely valuable place to study ancient animals. Scientists have recovered more than one million fossil bones from the La Brea Tar Pits. They have identified more than six hundred fifty different kinds of animals and plants. The fossils are from creatures as small as insects to those that were bigger than a modern elephant. These creatures became trapped as long ago as forty thousand years. It is still happening today. Small birds and animals still become trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A saber-tooth cat at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar PitsRancho La Brea is the home of a modern research center and museum. Visitors can see the ancient fossil bones of creatures like the imperial mammoth and the American mastodon. Both look something like the modern day elephant, but bigger. The museum has many fossil remains of the huge cats that once lived in the area. They are called saber-toothed cats because of their long, fierce teeth. Scientists have found more than two thousand examples of the huge cats. The museum also has many ground sloths and thousands of fossil remains of an ancient kind of wolf. Scientists believe large groups of wolves became stuck when they came to feed on animals already trapped in the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Volunteers dig bones from Pit 91 at the La Brea Tar PitsSince nineteen sixty-nine, scientists have been digging at one area of La Brea called Pit Ninety-One. They have found more than forty thousand fossils in Pit Ninety-One. More than ninety-five percent of the mammal bones are from just seven different animals. Three were plant-eaters. They were the western horse, the ancient bison and a two-meter tall animal called the Harlan’s ground sloth. Four of the animals were meat-eating hunters. These were the saber-tooth cat, the North American lion, the dire wolf and the coyote. All these animals, except the dog-like coyote, have disappeared from the Earth. VOICE TWO: Researchers say eighty percent of the fossils found are those of meat-eating animals. They say this is a surprise because there have always been more plant-eaters in the world. The researchers say each plant-eater that became trapped caused many meat-eaters to come to the place to feed. They, too, became trapped. Rancho La Brea has also been a trap for many different kinds of insects. Scientists free these dead insects by washing the asphalt away with special chemicals. The La Brea insects give scientists a close look at the history of insects in southern California. The La Brea Tar Pits have also provided science with interesting information about the plants that grew in the area. For many thousands of years, plant seeds landed in the sticky asphalt. The seeds have been saved for research. Scientists also have found pollen from many different kinds of plants. The seeds and pollen, or the lack of them, can show severe weather changes over thousands of years. Scientists say these provide information that has helped them understand the history of the environment. The seeds and pollen have left a forty thousand year record of the environment and weather for this area of California. VOICE ONE: Many visitors to the tar pits wonder why they produce large gas bubbles. Now scientists from the University of California, Riverside, have the answer. Bacteria in the natural asphalt are eating away at the oil below the surface and producing methane gas. The scientists discovered more than two hundred kinds of bacteria. Most of them were species that were unknown. The bacteria were trapped in soil that was mixed with heavy oil almost twenty-eight thousand years ago. The bacteria are able to survive in an extreme environment. The scientists say they live in the asphalt with no water, little or no oxygen and many poisonous chemicals. Scientists think the discovery of the bacteria might lead to new methods to clean oil spills and other uses. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Thousands of visitors come each year to see the fossils that have been found at Rancho La Brea. They visit the George C. Page Museum. Mister Page was a wealthy man who became very interested in the scientific work being done at the tar pits. He gave the money to build the museum and research center. At the museum, visitors can watch scientists dig bones from La Brea’s Pit Ninety-One. The scientists dig very slowly, using small tools similar to those used by a doctor to examine teeth. They also use toothbrushes and cleaning fluids to help soften and clean away the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Visitors to the museum can also see the “fish bowl,” a laboratory surrounded by glass. Here, they can watch scientists do their research. Visitors can watch the scientists clean, examine, repair and identify fossils that are still being discovered. Through this process, scientists are able to answer questions and solve puzzles about animals and their environment from thousands of years ago. It is exciting to stand only a few meters away and watch scientists clean the asphalt off a fossil that is thousands of years old. Visitors quickly learn why researchers consider Rancho La Brea a very special place. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about the La Brea Tar Pits at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How to Use Small Talk to Build a Bridge to the Heart of a Conversation
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on WORDMASTER: small talk. It's a topic we've discussed before, and some of you would like us to continue the conversation -- like Said, an English teacher in Egypt, and Thynn, a computer programmer from Burma, now here in the United States. So joining us from Los Angeles is our friend, English teacher Nina Weinstein. NINA WEINSTEIN: "OK, well maybe we should define small talk first. It's the beginning of every conversation, even if you're talking with your good friends. In the American culture, people are very uncomfortable with silence. "Small talk is supposed to be kind of superficial conversation, and the reason it's superficial is because you either don't know the person and you're using small talk to get to know them better, or you're strangers and this is your whole conversation. And so we don't want emotional topics. This isn't the time to say 'So, how is your divorce going?'" AA: "Right. I imagine that this would be especially daunting for someone who is learning English. It's not their native language and they're in a situation where they need to engage in conversation or small talk and maybe they're a little uncomfortable." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Right. So maybe we should talk about some of the topics that they can use and some of the sentences that they can use ... " AA: "Sure, sure, go ahead." NINA WEINSTEIN: " ... for the small talk. So let's say that you're meeting at a building or you're meeting at a restaurant. You can say 'Was there a lot of traffic? Did you have any trouble finding the building?' You can say things like 'Beautiful day, isn't it?' Or 'I hope it doesn't rain again tomorrow.' "And these aren't fascinating topics, but they begin to create a conversation for you. If it's almost the weekend, we can say 'Do you have any plans for the weekend?' Or if the weekend has already passed, you can say 'Did you have a nice weekend?' And based on their answer, you might find deeper topics or deeper conversation. So, again, this can be a kind of road or a bridge." AA: "Now what about if you're on the other side -- let's say the prospective employer or someone interviewing you is the one who has opened with a line like that. What's a good response?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, if it's 'Beautiful day today, isn't it?' you can say 'Yes, it's gorgeous. I love hot, sunny days.' I tell my students this is like playing tennis. When someone says 'Beautiful day today, isn't it?' they've hit the ball to you. You don't want to just say 'Yes,' because then the ball goes down the court and it's on the ground." AA: "It just dribbles away." NINA WEINSTEIN: "It dribbles away. So what you want to do is you want to give them something that they can create easy conversation with." AA: "So now let's say you're in a situation where you're having a conversation, and you suddenly sense that maybe you've said something that has hurt the other person's feelings or you touched on a topic that maybe wasn't a good topic to talk about. Do you draw attention to that? Do you stop and apologize? Or do you say 'Mmm ... let's move on to another topic.'" NINA WEINSTEIN: "My sense is to stop and apologize. If you really sense that you hurt the person's feelings or overstepped, you could kind of question whether you have by saying something like 'I hope I didn't offend you with that comment' or 'I didn't mean to offend you with that comment, I hope you're not offended.' And then it gives the other person a chance to respond and it makes you feel more comfortable and they can feel more comfortable." AA: "And I'm curious, with your own experience with small talk, conversations with people you meet, strangers, business acquaintances, have you learned anything new in recent years about the art of doing this?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "Actually I have, and I've written a set of materials about this that are really easy and they're on business-size cards, and I have my students stick these in their pocket. But I think the most important thing that I've learned is to be truly interested in the other person. "I think if you're truly interested in the other person, they sense it. And everybody loves to talk about him or herself -- that's kind of a fact of life. And so if you're having trouble talking, if you gear the conversation or point the conversation in the direction of the person you are talking to, they will think you are great at making conversation, even though they've spent most of the time talking about themselves." AA: English teacher and author Nina Weinstein. Her set of cards called "Business Entertaining Made a Lot Easier" is available through Amazon.com. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. You can learn more about small talk at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: New Test for H5N1, and New Findings Why Virus Is So Deadly
* Byline: Researchers say a hand-held device developed in Singapore gives results within a half-hour. Also, a study says the bird flu virus even has the ability to infect an unborn child. Transcript of radio broadcast:</ em>

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists continue to look for ways to deal with the deadly form of bird flu virus. Medical workers care for a bird flu patient in Medan, Indonesia, last yearResearchers in Singapore, for example, have developed a new test for the h-five-n-one virus. They call it a "lab on a chip." If successfully marketed, the hand-held device could be used to look for cases in affected areas and help contain outbreaks. Project leader Juergen Pipper says medical or aid workers would know in less than half an hour if a person is infected. The device tests material collected from a quick swab of a person’s throat. The test uses magnetic force to control individual droplets containing added magnetic particles. The scientists say the droplet itself becomes a little laboratory that can do things like pump, separate and mix. They note that an increasing number of similar tests are available to process cells, genetic material and proteins. Juergen Pipper says the device can process complex tasks in a way similar to a traditional biological laboratory. The researchers say it works about ten times faster than current tests for the virus and could cost much less. The developers think the same idea could also be used to find other viruses, including those that cause AIDS, SARS and hepatitis B. Their research was published in Nature Medicine. As of Tuesday, the World Health Organization had counted three hundred twenty-nine cases of the bird flu virus since two thousand three. Sixty percent of the patients died. Many experts worry that the virus could kill large numbers worldwide if it starts to spread easily from person to person. Indonesia has had the most cases, more than one hundred, and the most deaths. Last Friday a twenty-one-year-old man from west Jakarta became the eighty-sixth victim. Health officials say they do not know how he became infected. An international team reported last week that the virus is so destructive, it can even infect unborn children. Researchers studied the bodies of two people killed by h-five-n-one. The study appeared in the Lancet. They found that the virus caused a surprising amount of damage to the lungs. It also spread to the brain and to the digestive and reproductive systems. Ian Lipkin at Columbia University in New York says one victim was pregnant and the virus had spread to her fetus. Yet the findings may help point to ways to limit damage by targeting not only the virus itself, but also how the body reacts. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Civics Questions for US Citizenship Test
* Byline: Officials announce the 100 questions (and answers) about history and government. The newly redesigned naturalization test will be given starting next October. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. What does the Constitution do? What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called?? What did Susan B. Anthony do? These are three of the one hundred history and government questions on the newly redesigned test for American citizenship. People will begin taking the new test in October of two thousand eight as part of the naturalization process. The government will provide study materials beginning early next year. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the new civics questions and answers last week. The reading and writing parts of the naturalization test have also been redone. Government officials began a project in two thousand to redesign the test. Studies had found differences in how it was being given and scored around the country. There were concerns about fairness. Also, officials say preparations for the new test will do a better job of helping people understand the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. As for those three questions, the Constitution sets up and defines the government and protects basic rights of Americans. The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights. And Susan B. Anthony fought for women's rights. Some questions have minor changes from the current version. For example, "Who is the President of the United States today?" is replaced by "What is the name of the President of the United States now?" And some questions no longer appear, such as "What is the name of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America?" and "What group has the power to declare war?" There are new questions like: "What is freedom of religion?" "Name one American Indian tribe in the United States." "What major event happened on September 11, 2001 in the United States?" And "What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?" Among the answers to that one are vote, join a political party, run for office or write to a newspaper. Another new question is "What are two rights only for United States citizens?" The answers are apply for a federal job, vote, run for office and carry a United States passport. All of the new questions and answers are available free on the Citizenship and Immigration Services Web site. It also has vocabulary lists for the reading and writing parts of the new test. For a link to the site, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: History Repeats Itself: A Fresh Start to 'The Making of a Nation'
* Byline: We begin our popular American history series from the beginning again. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today history repeats itself. We start our series over again. The last time we were at the beginning was in February of two thousand three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION has a loyal following. In fact, listener research finds it the most popular weekly program in VOA Special English. It started in May of nineteen sixty-nine. Some people can remember when THE MAKING OF A NATION was on the radio two times a week. People who grew up listening to it are old enough now to listen with their own children, or even their grandchildren. The series tells a story. You can think of it not just as a series of programs about the history of America and its people, but a series of lessons. The subjects include exploration, revolution, civil war, social and political change, the rise of industry and modern technology, and more. VOICE TWO: We ended last week at program number two hundred thirty-eight. The subject was the presidential election of two thousand four. As time adds to the story, we add new programs to the series. In a sense, THE MAKING OF A NATION is a living history. Yet some of the announcers are no longer even alive after all these years. Here and there, too, the language may sound a little dated. For example, some of the programs call black people Negroes. The use of that term may be historically correct, but today the socially accepted name is African-American. Technology has also changed. Today THE MAKING OF A NATION is not just on radio but also on the Internet. At voaspecialenglish.com, you can download MP3 files and transcripts. That way you can listen anytime or anyplace -- and read along. The site also includes archives, in case you ever miss a program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: So how was the nation made? Why did loyal citizens rebel against one nation and start their own, with different laws? THE MAKING OF A NATION answers these and other questions about American history. We tell the story of how a group of farmers, businessmen and lawyers wrote a document they called the Constitution of the United States. On September seventeenth, seventeen eighty-seven, delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia met one last time to sign it. We explain why that document is still extremely important today -- and not just to Americans. Other governments have used it as a guide to creating a modern democracy. VOICE TWO: U.S. ConstitutionWe explore why the writers of the Constitution included guarantees of freedom of speech and religion, and the right to a fair and public trial. We also talk about the reasons for the American Revolution. One of the most important was the idea that citizens of a country should have a voice in its decisions. British citizens in the American colonies paid taxes but had no representatives in the British Parliament. Taxation without representation led to growing anger in the American colonies. The leaders of the revolt made important changes. They decided that any free citizen could be a candidate for public office. And they made sure that all free men who owned land and paid taxes were permitted to vote. Not until nineteen twenty did the Constitution give women the right to vote. Later, another change lowered the voting age for Americans from twenty-one to eighteen. Our programs explain the thinking behind these and other rights. They also tell the story of each presidential election and presidency in American history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION explores the good and the bad in American history. For example, how could slavery exist in a nation whose people declared that "all men are created equal" and with a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?? Many programs tell about the ideas and issues that have shaped the United States. But most importantly, they tell about the people. George WashingtonFor example, George Washington was a farmer before he became a military commander. He became president because the citizens of the new country wanted him as their first leader. After two terms, he gave up power by his own choice. He once again became a farmer and a private citizen. In his farewell address in seventeen ninety-six, he warned Americans about the dangers of political parties. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. It told the world that the people of this new country would no longer answer to a European ruler. VOICE TWO: Some of the people who formed the United States into a nation during the seventeen hundreds were well educated and wealthy. Abraham Lincoln was not. Still, he grew up to become president. Abraham Lincoln became president during the eighteen sixties when several southern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the United States. We tell how President Lincoln dealt with the terrible Civil War that almost split the country apart. VOICE ONE: One of our programs deals with a speech he gave in the little town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A great battle had been fought there. President Lincoln had been asked to come to Gettysburg to say a few words at the dedication of a military burial place. The speech was short. President Lincoln honored the young men who had died on that bloody battlefield. He also told the world why the terrible war was being fought and why it was so important. "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Those words were just the first sentence. After President Lincoln wrote the speech, he felt sad. He considered it a failure. In fact, his words earned the respect of history. You can hear the full Gettysburg Address in our programs about the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: THE MAKING OF A NATION touches on many different subjects. One of them is social change. For example, we tell about the changes that took place in the nineteen twenties, known as the Roaring Twenties. Many young people decided they no longer needed to follow the conservative traditions of their parents and grandparents. This was the age of jazz. (MUSIC)????????????????? VOICE ONE: But music and social values were not the only things changing. The Roaring Twenties were also a time of fast-moving economic change. Productivity grew sharply. At the same time, the divide between rich and poor Americans grew wider. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, the economy was ready to collapse. Then, in October of nineteen twenty-nine, the stock market crashed. What followed was an economic disaster worse than any the modern world has ever known. We examine the causes of the Great Depression and how it affected Americans and the rest of the world. We tell the story of people who lost their jobs, their homes and their hope for the future. VOICE TWO: Franklin Roosevelt was elected with a promise to bring the country out of the Depression. On March fourth, nineteen thirty-three, he was inaugurated to his first of four terms. He served longer than any other president in American history. We discuss Roosevelt's New Deal programs and his leadership during World War Two. But not all of the subjects on THE MAKING OF A NATION are so serious. We also look at the history of American popular culture and subjects like the rise of high technology. Something for everyone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's news is not only tomorrow's history, it will also become part of THE MAKING OF A NATION. But for now, we start again from the beginning. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us at this time next week and every week as we go back in time. Listen on radio or online at voaspecialenglish.com as we bring you THE MAKING OF A NATION in VOA Special English. --- Program #1 in THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American Indians Are Still Poorer Than the US Average but Making Gains
* Byline: Also: Dave Eggers becomes the youngest winner of the Heinz Family Foundation award. And music by some groups that have recently played at the Merriweather Post Pavilion near Washington. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear music from singers who performed recently at the Merriweather Post Pavilion … Answer a question about Native Americans … And report about a recent winner of the Heinz Family Foundation Awards. Heinz Award HOST: Dave Eggers is a respected American writer, publisher and activist. Last month, the thirty-seven-year-old writer became the youngest person ever to win the yearly Heinz Family Foundation award. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Every year, the Heinz Family Foundation gives awards to recognize the important and influential efforts of individuals in American society. The awards are given to people for their extraordinary work in areas including public policy, the environment and the arts. Each winner receives two hundred fifty thousand dollars in prize money. Dave Eggers was named one of the winners. He is well known for his bestselling book “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” published in two thousand. It tells the true story of how he cared for his eight-year-old brother after their parents died. Last year, Eggers wrote "What is the What," another book that was praised by critics and the public. Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng cooperated in the fictional retelling of Deng's life story as one of the lost boys of Sudan. Profits from the book have been used to build schools and community centers in southern Sudan. Dave Eggers has used the money from his other successful books to educate children and support writers in this country. In two thousand two, he started the organization 826 Valencia, named for its street address in San Francisco, California. Eight Twenty-Six Valencia is a writing laboratory. Its volunteers give free classes to teach writing skills to children. The group also organizes trips so students can meet with authors and enjoy projects like learning to make a book. Eight Twenty-Six Valencia has expanded to six more cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Eggers said he will donate his prize money to these seven centers. Dave Eggers also created a literary journal and publishing company called McSweeney’s. The company started as a literary journal for publishing stories that other magazines had rejected. Now, the journal includes stories by well known writers as well as newly discovered writers. One part of the company is called Believer Books. It helps find books by non-English speaking writers and publishes them in English for the first time. Dave Eggers and five other people will receive the Heinz Family Foundation awards at a private ceremony later this month in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. American Indians HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Indonesia. ?Sholeh asks about the lives of American Indians. American Indians have lived on the continent for thousands of years. European explorer Christopher Columbus named them Indians in the late fourteen hundreds. He thought his ship had reached a place called the Indies. Members celebrate in New York after the Seminole Indian Tribe announced in December that it had bought Hard Rock InternationalThere are more than four million American Indians and Alaskan natives in the United States. They belong to more than five hundred Indian tribes. Many tribe members live on reservations. These are areas that the United States government set up for native tribes that had lost their lands to European settlers. There are about three hundred Indian reservations in the United States. Some reservations are larger than American states. The United States Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs supervises these territories. Tribes on reservations have limited self-rule. Generally, American Indians do not enjoy the same economic and educational success as other Americans. A continuing study by Harvard University says American Indians generally earn less money and have more unemployment than other Americans. The study says they also have higher rates of disease and die younger than other American groups. The Bureau of Indian Affairs provides education services to almost fifty thousand Indian children in one hundred eighty-four schools. Experts from Harvard say college attendance rates among the Indian population is half that of the general population. But, they also say the situation is improving. The experts say the number of Native American Indians seeking higher education has more than doubled in the last twenty years. Harvard researchers also say that the American Indian economy has grown at three times the national rate since the nineteen eighties. Some of the improvement has come from expansion of the American Indian gambling industry. More than two hundred Indian tribes have legalized gambling on their reservations. Native American casinos and other gaming businesses earn more than twenty billion dollars each year. Merriweather Post Pavilion HOST: In spring, summer and autumn, Americans like to attend outdoor music concerts. The Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland is one popular place to enjoy music outside. It is in an area of protected land called Symphony Woods. This year Merriweather held many kinds of concerts featuring jazz, country, and rock music. Faith Lapidus plays some of that music. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was “Infinita Maleza” from Manu Chao’s latest album “La Radiolina.”? The song tells about the painful effects that American foreign policy can have on poor populations. Manu Chao gave an energetic and exciting concert at Merriweather in June. This singer was born in Paris, France to Spanish parents. He is very famous in South America and Europe, but is less well known in the United States. In his records Manu Chao often sings in different languages about political oppression and the suffering of displaced people. Alison KraussAlison Krauss and her Union Station bluegrass band performed at Merriweather Post Pavilion in August. Krauss is popular for her clear, sweet voice and expert playing on the fiddle. She recently released an album called “A Hundred Miles or More.” Here is the song “Simple Love.” (MUSIC) This month, the Shins will perform at Merriweather. This band is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Shins are one of the more successful independent rock groups around today. Their latest album, “Wincing the Night Away,” is filled with imaginative and poetic songs. We leave you now with “Red Rabbits.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Caty Weaver who was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Agflation' Raises Grain Prices, but Not Corn Ethanol
* Byline: An oversupply has reduced prices for the fuel, even as inflationary pressures have hit maize and other products. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Right now, many people around the world are feeling the pain of "agflation." Agricultural inflation has been hitting the price of grains and other products. Food prices have risen under pressure from energy costs and growing world demand for food, as well as local problems like the weather. Grain prices are rising. But corn ethanol has seen its price drop in recent months. In the United States, grain prices are reaching historic highs. And supplies have dropped to lows not seen since the nineteen seventies. For one of America's leading crops, the growing use of corn to make fuel has driven up the price. The government has strongly supported ethanol production. In two thousand five, Congress set a national goal of using twenty-eight billion liters of ethanol a year by two thousand twelve. President Bush and Congress have since expanded that goal. As a result, farmers are planting more corn. But more hectares of maize for ethanol mean fewer hectares for crops like soybeans. Meat producers now have to pay more for soybeans because there is less available for animal feed. This is how corn-based ethanol affects the price of meat products. Rising grain prices could signal a change for agricultural commodities around the world. For years, developing countries have opposed government support for farmers in wealthy nations. They make the case that farm subsidies drive down prices for agricultural products, hurting poor farmers. Subsidies have been one of the major disputes limiting progress in the Doha development round of world trade talks. Now, there is worry that the increasing demand for food could drive prices too high, hurting the buying power of the world's poor. Many developing countries have a growing middle class. More people than ever have money to buy high-value agricultural products like meat and milk. In China, for example, Premier Wen Jiabao has called for increased milk production. More milking cows means the need for more feed. Yet prices are not rising for all agriculture-based products. In the United States, while the price of corn remains high, it has not affected ethanol prices. In fact, in recent months, those prices have dropped about thirty percent. Production has expanded faster than demand, so now there is a big oversupply of ethanol. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our broadcasts are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: North and South Korean Leaders Promise to Work for Peace, Economic Cooperation
* Byline: Kim and Roh call for official end to Korean War and agree to work together on nuclear issue. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The leaders of North and South Korea met this week. It was the first such meeting in seven years, and only the second since Korea was divided in nineteen fifty-three. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il after exchanging joint declaration documents in PyongyangSouth Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korea's Kim Jong Il ended three days of talks in Pyongyang on Thursday. They signed a joint declaration to support peace and economic growth on the Korean peninsula. It says the South and the North will closely cooperate to end military hostilities and ease tensions. The two Koreas have been increasingly cooperative, but technically they are still at war. The North invaded the South in nineteen fifty. A truce halted military action three years later. But it was never replaced with an official peace treaty. The two leaders agreed to push for a treaty to declare an end to the war. They called for a three- or four-party meeting to reach that goal. China and the United States also fought in the Korean War. The United States led United Nations forces in Korea. The eight-point declaration also includes a promise by the South and the North to cooperate in efforts to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula. The two sides say they will work to smoothly put into effect a June declaration and a February agreement reached in six-nation talks. South Korean officials confirmed this is the first time Kim Jong Il has personally signed a document relating to the effort to end his nuclear weapons programs. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the agreement as an important step for improving peace and security on the Korean peninsula. The Bush administration said the six-party talks will be an important part of efforts to change the relationship between North Korea and the world. Earlier this week, North Korea agreed to disable its main nuclear centers and document all of its programs by the end of the year. The agreement came in the six-party talks with China, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States. They are offering North Korea financial, diplomatic, security and energy aid if it gives up its nuclear arms program. The North and South Korean leaders also agreed to expand economic ties. The two countries have fought several naval clashes over a sea border established by the United Nations west of the Korean peninsula. The leaders called for the recognition of a common fishing area in an effort to reduce tensions. Their declaration also calls for the two Koreas to begin transporting goods by rail between Munsan in the South and Bongdong in the North. And they will begin a project to increase foreign visitors to North Korea’s Mount Baekdu. President Roh did not accept an invitation from Kim Jong Il to stay an extra day in Pyongyang. But they said they plan to meet again in the future, and their governments are to hold more talks next month. President Roh leaves office in February. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Patsy Cline, 1932-1963: Fans Were 'Crazy' About This Young Country Music Star
* Byline: Other hits included "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces," and "Sweet Dreams." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a young woman named Virginia Patterson Hensley. No one but her family would remember that name. The world remembers her as Patsy Cline. (MUSIC: "Walkin' After Midnight") VOICE ONE: That song is called "Walkin' After Midnight. " It was Patsy Cline's first big hit record. She recorded it in nineteen fifty-seven. It became number three on the list of country music hit recordings and number twelve on the list of most popular music. Patsy had worked for many years to make that first successful record. She began singing when she was a young girl in her home town of Winchester, in the southern state of Virginia. Patsy sang anywhere she could. She sang at weddings and dances. She sang at public eating places for eight dollars a night. Those who knew her said she worked hard to improve her singing. In nineteen fifty-four she won a country music competition near her home. She was twenty-two years old. She was asked to appear on a country music television program in Washington, D.C. She also sang on radio programs in the Virginia area and recorded some records. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-seven, Patsy Cline appeared on a national television show in New York City. It was on this program that millions of people first heard her sing. She sang "Walkin' After Midnight," a song she had recently recorded. Her appearance on the television program helped make that record a major hit. Patsy continued to record more songs. Within two years she had another major hit. It was called "I Fall to Pieces.” By this time Patsy's voice had already become something special. She had learned to control not only the sound but the feelings expressed in her songs. It was the slow, sad love songs that her fans enjoyed most, songs like "I Fall to Pieces. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Patsy Cline's recording of "I Fall to Pieces" became her first number one country music hit. It was also a hit with fans of popular music. Patsy was a major star. She also had begun performing at the country music theater, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Those who knew her after she became a recording star say Patsy Cline was a very good friend. She liked to help young musicians. Later, many of these young musicians became important stars themselves. One of Patsy's biggest hit songs also helped two of these young musicians become known. The song is called "Crazy. " It was written by an unknown musician who later became a major country music star. His name is Willie Nelson. If you listen carefully to Patsy Cline's recording of "Crazy," you can hear the beautiful piano playing of another young musician, Floyd Cramer. He also became a major recording star. Listen to Patsy and Floyd perform Willie Nelson's song, "Crazy." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On March sixth, nineteen sixty-three, Patsy Cline was killed in the crash of a small airplane. She was only thirty years old. She was flying home to Nashville. She had taken part in a special concert in Kansas City to raise money for the family of a country music radio performer who recently had died. Patsy Cline was buried near her home town of Winchester, Virginia. Thousands of people came to her funeral. Ten years after her death, she became the first woman performer elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-five, Hollywood producers made a movie about the life of Patsy Cline. It was called "Sweet Dreams. " Popular actress Jessica Lange played Patsy. No one really could sound like Patsy Cline. So the producers used her old records in the movie. Miz Lange moved her mouth so she appeared to be singing. People who had never heard of Patsy Cline saw the movie and enjoyed her singing. They began buying her records. Today, her records still sell thousands of copies each year as new fans discover her. We leave you with a song Patsy Cline recorded only a month before she died. It sounds almost as though she was singing in Special English. The song is called "Faded Love. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Great Scott: What a Surprise!
* Byline: An exclamation that has lasted, surprisingly. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Every language has its ways of expressing strong emotions -- surprise, shock, anger. The expressions range from mild to strong, from exclamations and oaths, to curses and swear words. The ones that are accepted in public speech change through the years as social rules change. At times, only very mild expressions are socially accepted. Some of the most popular expressions are those that are guaranteed not to offend anyone. Most of these exclamations have survived from earlier days. And their original meanings are long since forgotten. Great Scott! is a good example. It expresses surprise or shock. You might say to someone, "Great Scott! I did not know she was married!" Language expert Webb Garrison tells an interesting story about the expression. Just before the Civil War, the Whig political party was making a last effort to remain a part of American political life. For the election of eighteen fifty-two, the Whigs wanted to offer a colorful candidate for president. They thought that Winfield Scott would be the right candidate. In his thirty years as a general, Winfield Scott had become one of the best-known military leaders in the country. During the war with Mexico, he had captured Vera Cruz and occupied Mexico City. So, party leaders thought that if any whig could be elected president, it was Winfield Scott. General Scott quickly accepted the nomination and began campaigning. It did not take long for the public to realize that General Scott really liked General Scott! His speeches were full of praise for himself. It was evident that he thought he was the greatest candidate who had ever lived. Soon his political opponents began to make fun of him. They called him, Great Scott. General Scott did not come close to winning the presidency. But his name still lives as part of the English language. Other popular exclamations combine holy with other words. Holy Mackerel! is one that expresses surprise or wonder. It comes from earlier days when the Roman Catholic Church ruled that?Catholics must not eat meat on Fridays. Since mackerel was a common and cheap fish in the United States, it was often eaten for dinner on Friday. Then there is Holy Toledo! ?It?is another expression of surprise. It refers to the city of Toledo, Spain, an important religious center in medieval times. Toledo was a holy city for both the Roman?Catholics and the Muslim Moors of Spain. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narriator. I'm Warren Scheer. This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narriator. I'm Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Findings About Husbands, Wives and AIDS
* Byline: A study shows that in some African countries, in a majority of couples where only one partner has H.I.V., that partner is the wife. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A common belief about AIDS and marriage is that husbands are more likely to infect wives than the other way around. Generally speaking this may be true. But a researcher has found that women may be responsible for more infections than experts have thought. Vinod Mishra at Macro International, a research group in the United States, led a study of married couples in Africa. He studied what are known as discordant couples. This meant one partner had H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, while the other did not. He examined population records and medical information from eleven African countries. He found that in four of these eleven countries, women were the infected partners in a majority of cases. This was true in sixty-two percent of couples in Ivory Coast and Kenya. Wives were also the majority of infected partners in Ethiopia and Cameroon. Lesotho had the smallest percentage of couples where only the wife was infected. Yet even there it was thirty-four percent. How does Vinod Mishra explain these findings? More women could be entering marriage already infected, he says. Or they could be getting H.I.V. from non-sexual causes. Maybe they received an injection with a needle that had been used before on someone with H.I.V. But the researcher does not think these are the main explanations. He says there is clear evidence that a majority of women are getting infected within marriage from a person other than their husband. AIDS prevention campaigns to change behavior have been aimed mostly at men. After all, men have generally been considered the main source for the spread of H.I.V. This thinking has been guided in part by the theories of AIDS investigators based on people's own reports about their sexual behavior. But Vinod Mishra says one possibility is that women are not fully reporting their sexual history. He says more research is needed before there can be any firm theories about H.I.V. infections and marriage. This issue is not about who is to blame, he tells us, but instead about saving lives and developing the best AIDS programs possible. He presented his findings in June at a meeting in Rwanda. The event was organized by the American effort known as PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about AIDS, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep ONeal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Few Steps Up From Fast Food, and Down the Road From Fine Dining, Lies the Diner
* Byline: A musical history of this American tradition, where people go when they are hungry for comfort foods, and earlier times. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Note Attached VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This is a three-day weekend for millions of Americans in observance of Columbus Day on Monday. A holiday can be a good time to see new places. And for a hungry explorer in America, nothing compares to the discovery of a good diner. Today, learn about this American tradition, as Faith Lapidus and I serve up a program that was first broadcast in two thousand six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A diner is a small restaurant. Old-time diners were built in a factory and transported to their place of business. Diners usually have an open kitchen and a long counter. People can sit at the counter and watch the cooks make their food. A diner can be a place for people in a community to gather, drink coffee and talk. Or it can be a welcome stop for travelers on the road. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Around the late eighteen fifties, there was a young man in Providence, Rhode Island, named Walter Scott. In fact, the American Diner Museum says he was just seventeen. Walter Scott discovered a way to make extra money. He brought food to men who worked late at night in the city. Back then, restaurants closed by eight o'clock. Hungry workers needed a place where they could buy homemade food quickly and easily. In eighteen seventy-two, Walter Scott began to sell food out of a wagon pulled by a horse. He could move his business from place to place and sell more “night lunches.” VOICE ONE: People in other cities improved on the idea. They bought their own wagons and called them night cafes or lunch wagons. Companies began to make wagons big enough for people to sit inside. In some places, lunch wagons were so popular that city leaders thought there were too many of them in the streets. To avoid trouble, the owners parked their businesses on empty lots that were out of the way. Soon, the owners recognized that they could make more money by staying in one place and selling many different kinds of food. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the nineteen twenties, lunch wagons were bigger and stayed open all day, instead of only at night. Owners added tables, to appeal to women who did not want to sit at a counter. The companies that made lunch wagons began to make them look like the railroad cars of the time. Owners thought that a new name would make people think of the dining cars on trains. They began to call their businesses “diners.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Diners survived the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. Americans who did not have jobs often ate at diners because the meals were low-priced. After World War Two, companies began to make diners that looked like rockets and spaceships. They built diners out of shiny stainless steel, and made brightly colored signs lit by neon gas. Diner owners were always searching for ways to make their businesses look more modern. By this time, thousands of diners were being built across America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Diners are known for “comfort food.”? This kind of food reminds people of the meals their mothers and grandmothers made. Meatloaf is a good diner meal. It is baked in an oven and traditionally served with potatoes that are mashed and mixed with milk or cream. Most diners serve breakfast meals all day long, not just in the morning. Pancakes are a favorite breakfast food at diners. They are a thin, round cake made of flour, eggs and milk -- all cooked on a greased surface. Another popular diner food is a milkshake. This sweet, thick drink is made of ice cream and milk. In the nineteen forties and 'fifties, teenagers would meet at diners to talk, drink milkshakes and listen to music. Many diners had jukeboxes that people could operate from their tables. Someone could put in a coin, choose a song and then listen as it played throughout the restaurant. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Immigrants owned many of the diners across America. They added foods from their own countries to the menu. Many diners offer Greek foods like baklava, a sweet, nut-filled pastry. A gyro is another favorite -- lamb wrapped in soft bread and served with yogurt sauce. Over the years, diners changed as American tastes changed. In the nineteen sixties, diners became less popular. New businesses like McDonald's offered fast food. The prices were low, service was quick and people knew they could find the same meals from place to place. Soon diners across the country began to close. Many owners who stayed in business did not have enough money to improve their buildings. Instead of looking modern and new, diners looked old and tired. They could not keep up with the speed of American living. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Diners are much less common than they used to be. But they still hold a place in the American imagination. Several large companies have opened new diners that recreate the look of the past. VOICE ONE: Some people, though, are loyal to the old diners that have stayed in business. These people prefer to eat at places that have remained in the same spot for years. They eat at diners so often that the waitresses remember their names and ask about their families. The Tastee Diner in Maryland opened in nineteen thirty-five. There are three locations. If you walked into the one in Bethesda, there is a good chance you would meet Jim. He is a regular there. In fact, he says he has been eating at the Tastee Diner since nineteen seventy-four. Jim used to eat three meals a day there. Now, he stops by for coffee and a little something to eat. Nathan has worked as a cook at the Tastee Diner for ten years. Nathan and the waitresses happily greet Jim every time he walks through the door. They talk to him while they go about their work. Jim says that the people who work at the diner are like a second family for him. He laughs, and says a diner is the only place where you can find good food and pretty waitresses. VOICE TWO: Today, the Tastee Diner seems more popular than ever. Frank Long, the manager, says Saturday and Sunday mornings are very busy. People have to wait in long lines outside the small diner. The Tastee Diner also continues another tradition. It stays open twenty-four hours a day. Frank Long says many people come to the diner in the middle of the night to eat comfort food and drink coffee. In a way, not much has changed since Walter Scott sold food out of a cart in Providence, Rhode Island, more than a hundred thirty years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You can learn more on the Internet about the history of American diners. Some of our information, for example, came from the University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program. The university Web site is uvm dot e-d-u (uvm.edu). The American Diner Museum in Providence is not ready to serve visitors in person yet, but it's always open at dinermuseum dot o-r-g. VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Katherine Gypson, who just finished an internship in Special English and works in a diner. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. --- Editor's Note: This program calls baklava a Greek food. It should be noted that there are a number of claims about who invented it. The word itself comes from Turkish, as?does the word yogurt, which is used in another food described in the program, the gyro. (Gyro comes from Modern Greek.) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: This Month, People Around the World Are Looking to the Night Skies
* Byline: The Great World Wide Star Count aims to make a world map of light pollution. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we will tell about an effort to make a world map of light pollution. We tell about studies linking sea ice to the survival of polar bears. And, we report on a debate about brain development in young people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People around the world have been invited to take part in an unusual experiment this month. People of all ages are being asked to look at the night sky from October first to the fifteenth. They are looking for one of two groups of stars called constellations. The event is called the Great World Wide Star Count. It is part of an effort to make a map of stars seen around the world. It is also educating those taking part about the stars. The Great World Wide Star Count is free to anyone who wants to be involved. It was organized by the Windows on the Universe project at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Planetariums and scientific groups around the world are also taking part. VOICE TWO: People in the northern half of the world are looking for the constellation Cygnus. Those in the southern hemisphere are looking for Sagittarius. Observers should look for their constellations about one hour after sundown. The group of stars should be nearly overhead at that time. To get involved, people make their observations of either Cygnus or Sagittarius. Then they can compare their observations with star maps from the Great World Wide Star Count web site. The maps will provide a way for observers to note the brightness of the stars they are looking for. The Web site also has information about the event, including ways to find the constellations that are being studied. It also has writing activity guides for students. VOICE ONE: You can find the web site at this address: w-w-w-dot-windows-dot-u-c-a-r-dot-e-d-u-slash-starcount. But what if the sky is cloudy when you are making your observation?? No problem. The Great World Wide Star Count wants your observations of the weather in that case. You can make your observations from home or you can go to an undeveloped area where more stars can be seen. The date of the Great Worldwide Star Count was chosen so that light from the moon will not interfere with observations. Dennis Ward of University Corporation for Atmospheric Research told VOA that the worldwide experiment will help teach about the night sky. But he said it will also show the need to understand that our understanding of the night sky is part of our environment and is affected by human activity. VOICE TWO: People living in cities can expect to see only a few stars. Bright electrical lighting has created a growing problem for astronomical observation programs around the world. The Great World Wide Star Count will provide direct information about the effects of light pollution that anyone can use. Because the event takes place each year, it will permit researchers to find out where light pollution is getting worse, or improving. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research describes the Great World Wide Star Count as a citizen science event. While useful to astronomers, it is also meant for young people and anyone who has felt wonder at the expanse of the night sky. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Conservation Union estimates the number of polar bears worldwide at between twenty thousand and twenty-five thousand. The group says polar bears are threatened by melting sea ice, pollution and hunting. Polar bears depend on ice to hunt for food in the Arctic Ocean. They climb up on the ice to look for seals and other animals. But scientists say sea ice is decreasing because of climate change. They say rising temperatures have reduced the area in which polar bears can hunt. VOICE TWO: Recently, a number of studies found that future reductions of sea ice could result in a loss of many polar bears within fifty years. The United States Geological Survey announced the findings. Scientists from the Geological Survey and other government agencies studied polar bears and their environment for six months. The studies also involved scientists from Canadian government agencies, universities and private groups. The studies found a direct link between sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and the health of polar bears. The scientists say the animals will disappear from the north coasts of Alaska and Russia in the next fifty years. The only polar bears to survive will be in Canada's far north and the west coast of Greenland. VOICE ONE: Most polar bears in the world live in Greenland and Norway. About twenty-five percent live mainly in Alaska. They travel to Canada and Russia during the year. The scientists say climate change would reduce the animals' living area so that it will no longer include Alaska. The scientists used different imaginary conditions to predict the number of polar bears. They found that almost two thirds of the world’s nineteen polar bear populations will disappear from the earth by the middle of this century. The studies showed that three more groups of polar bears will disappear within seventy-five years. VOICE TWO: Scientists say polar bears still can be saved. But they say the world must begin taking steps to reduce climate change to do this. The Center for Biological Diversity says governments around the world need to reduce the release of pollution like carbon dioxide gases. Scientists say one step toward this goal would be to include polar bears in America's list of endangered species. Then federal agencies would be able to make sure that industrial activities do not threaten their survival. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to examine the new findings when it considers whether polar bears should be included on the Endangered Species List. The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce its decision in January. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Parents might tell older children to, "Act your age."? But some researchers say that is what persons from thirteen to nineteen years old are doing. They say that while teenagers can look all grown up, studies have shown that their brains are still developing. How much this explains their behavior, though, is a subject of debate. Jay Giedd of America's National Institutes of Health is a leader in this area of research. Doctor Giedd has been studying a group of young people since nineteen ninety-one. They visit him every two years for imaging tests of their brains. He says considerable development continues in young people from the teenage years into the twenties. VOICE TWO: A part of the brain called the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex appears especially undeveloped in teenagers. Researchers believe that this area controls judgment and consideration of risk. So, its underdevelopment may explain why young people seem more willing to take risks like driving too fast. Laurence Steinberg is a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He says stronger laws, and stronger parental control, are needed to protect teens from themselves. That includes raising the age for driving. He says research shows that teenage brains are not fully equipped to control behavior. VOICE ONE: Other researchers, however, say there is not enough evidence to make a strong case for such findings. Psychologist Robert Epstein is a visiting scholar at the University of California in San Diego. Mister Epstein notes that teen behavior differs from culture to culture. He says behavior depends for the most part on socialization. He believes that teenagers will demonstrate better, safer behavior if they spend more time with adults, and are treated more like them. But is that always true?? Mike Males works at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco. He suggests that all of this talk lately about brainless teens could be an attempt to take away attention from the reality. Writing in the New York Times, he says it is middle-aged adults whose behavior has worsened. In his words, if grown-ups really have superior brains, why don't we act as if we do? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Coyotes Eyeing the Sheep? Employ a Guard Llama
* Byline: Some US farmers use the big South American animals to protect their flocks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. (SOUND) When Americans think of where coyotes live, they probably think of desert states in the Southwest like Arizona. But over time, these wild dogs have spread all the way to the East Coast. Some farmers have guards to protect their sheep from coyotes. These guards are llamas. Llamas are South American animals usually raised in the United States for their fiber or for show or as pets. But farmers and ranchers noticed that llamas get along well with sheep. They also noticed that over time, coyotes were killing fewer sheep. So they chose llamas for guard duty. Llamas do not need any training. Farmers usually place only one with a group of sheep. Llamas are social animals. Two llamas together will not pay attention to the sheep. A lone llama has no choice. In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, farmer Leo Tammi has several hundred sheep. His dogs help him control and protect the flock of sheep. But the dogs are not always available. So he uses llamas. Whenever anything enters the fields, they know about it. He says their natural interest, and willingness to face almost anything that comes near, is enough to scare away a shy animal like a coyote. Their size also helps. Llamas can weigh as much as one hundred thirty-six kilograms. And they look something like a small horse -- a funny looking horse with a lot of fine, soft fur. Llamas are not vicious animals. However, if they are not around people at a very young age, they will not like to be touched. In many ways a llama is just as defenseless as a sheep. But llamas have a secret weapon. They spit. When they get angry, they spit out the contents of their stomachs. The result looks and smells terrible. Llamas really know how to make a statement. In fact, you can find examples of llama sounds on the Internet -- just remember that llama is spelled with two Ls, L-L-A-M-A. If they sense a threat, they make an alarm sound. This is what a male sounds like: (SOUND) And this is a female alarm call. (SOUND) Llamas are New World camelids along with alpacas, vicunas and guanacos. Camelids are a family of animals that also include the camels and dromedaries of Africa and Asia. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. To see a video report about llamas, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. --- Sound credits Llamas: http://personal.smartt.com/~brianp/allsounds.htmlCoyotes: http://www.naturesongs.com/otheranimals.html 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Making Art From Glass, and Shaping It With a Message of Healing
* Byline: Throughout history, people have been making glass. Artist Tim Tate first became interested by watching glassblowers as a young child. As an adult, he developed his love of glass making for very different reasons. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, you can see a large heart-shaped sculpture made of blown glass. The deep red colored heart is topped with a burning flame also made of glass. It is called the “Sacred Heart of Healing” and was made by the artist Tim Tate. How did he make this interesting glass form? Today we answer this question as we explore the art of making glass. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Throughout history, people from cultures around the world have been making glass. People first found and used glass made by nature. For example, lightning can create tubes of glass when it strikes sand that has the right combination of minerals. Glass pieces produced by lightning are called fulgurites. Obsidian is a kind of black glass formed when the heat of a volcano melts the silica material in sand. Ancient cultures broke off pieces of obsidian to make knives and weapons such as arrows. The ancient Aztec civilization in current day Mexico used obsidian for making hunting tools and jewelry. The Aztecs made extremely sharp knives and weapons from obsidian. This is one reason experts say they never developed the use of metal. VOICE TWO: Glass is considered a physical state of matter. It may look solid, but it is a liquid as well. This is because glass has the hardness of crystal materials while also having a disordered arrangement of molecules like a liquid. The chemical quality of glass is what makes up its color. Impurities in glass such as iron can give it a green or brown color. Adding chemicals to the glass can give it different color intensities and effects. For example, adding copper to glass can make it blue, while adding tin can make it white. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is hard to say exactly when humans first started making glass. The Roman historian Pliny said that Phoenician sailors accidentally discovered how to make glass over three thousand years ago. The sailors landed on a beach and started a cooking fire near some containers of the mineral natron. The next day, they realized that the sand and natron under the fire had melted then cooled into glass. Other experts say glass making first started four to five thousand years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, present day Iraq and Syria. VOICE TWO: One of the earliest methods developed for making glass containers is called core-forming. A glassmaker places a rounded piece of clay material on the end of a long metal stick. Once the clay dries, the glassmaker dips the form in a container of hot liquid glass until it is covered. The artist can then add a second color of glass to make designs over the first layer of glass. Once the glass form cools completely, it is taken off the metal stick. The clay inside is carefully cut out to form a glass container. VOICE ONE: Another ancient method of making glass that still is used today is called casting. Casting involves making a clay form in which the shape of the glass container is carved. Then, the artist puts small pieces of glass material inside of the clay form. When it is cooked at a very high temperature, the glass pieces melt and take the shape of the clay form. Once the solid glass object cools, an artist uses special tools to carve an opening in the container. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: But it was another method of making glass --the blown glass method-- that changed the glass industry of the ancient world. It was first developed in the Roman Empire about two thousand years ago. This new technology made glass production faster and less costly. A glass container made by casting or core-forming could take a few days to make. With glass blowing, an artist could make many containers in a day. VOICE ONE: Glassblowing involves gathering hot liquid glass on the end of a metal pipe called a blowpipe. The glass reaches a temperature of about one thousand degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the glass is a bright orange color. The glassblower must turn the pipe constantly so that the thick liquid glass does not fall off the end. He or she then blows through the pipe so that the glass expands into a rounded bubble form. The blown piece of glass can be worked and formed to create many different kinds of shapes. To reshape the glass, it must be continually reheated to stay soft. VOICE TWO: In modern terms, the hot oven that the glassblower uses to quickly reheat the glass is called a "glory hole." The artist can shape the hot glass using metal tools such as jacks, tweezers and shears. Or, he or she can place the hot glass on a metal table called a marver to shape the form by rolling it back and forth. Watching an expert glassblower is an exciting experience. The artist moves as quickly and as gracefully as a dancer. VOICE ONE: In thirteenth century Italy, the government ordered glassblowers in Venice to move to the island of Murano. The aim was to reduce the threat of fires from the glassmakers’ furnaces. It was also useful for the glassmakers to be together so that they could control the secrets of their trade. Each generation of glassmaker would pass along the secrets of the trade to the next generation. Murano glass became famous around the world. It is still a center for glass production today. In fact, the Murano glassblowing tradition has been a major influence on one of the most famous American glass artists today, Dale Chihuly. Chihuly trained in Murano in the nineteen sixties. His electrically colorful and fluid glass works can be seen in museums around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Washington Glass Studio is located near Washington, D.C., in Mount Rainier, Maryland. This is where the artist Tim Tate works and teaches. Here he tells about his “Sacred Heart of Healing” sculpture that we talked about earlier. 'Sacred Heart of Healing' by Tim Tate TIM TATE: "My name is Tim Tate I am the director of the Washington Glass School and I am a glass sculptor. In the Smithsonian, there is a blown glass heart with a flame coming out of the top. The image in the flame is a hand and off of each fingertip are different natural healing techniques. "The first heart I made was when my mother was extremely ill and after she passed away I made the heart larger. For me, it was a memory piece. For years afterwards I made these large sacred hearts., Some of them were clear and there were things inside of them, some of them were very colorful." VOICE ONE: Making these hearts is not easy. Tate works with a team of glass artists at a studio in the state of North Carolina. Tim Tate is also the director of the Washington Glass School. He says he loves teaching glass skills to students because he learns so much from them. And, he likes to work near the other glass artists in the school because they can exchange ideas and methods. Tate first became interested in glass by watching glassblowers as a young child. As an adult, he developed his love of glass making for very different reasons. TIM TATE: "When I was just a small kid I went to Corning Glass works and watched the glass blowers there and was really mesmerized by that. And then, years ago when I first found out that I was H.I.V.-positive, my initial reason for doing glass was I wanted to leave one glass vase for my nephew and nieces to remember their uncle by. My initial reason was a sense of legacy. "And then, I kept living and twenty-three years later, I am in many museums around the world. I just got good at it, because I knew I had to hurry because I was supposed to die." VOICE TWO: Tim Tate makes glass that is meant to be sculptural. He says the message in his work is usually about healing. TIM TATE: "My messages in all of these is all about healing. Either healing ourselves, or society’s healing, or healing through making art, or healing through viewing art. So, that’s what my content tends to be about." VOICE ONE: Tim Tate also makes sculptures that he calls reliquaries. These works are made of clear blown glass containers with different objects inside. He has a big collection of interesting small objects such as maps, tools, game pieces, and dolls for putting inside the containers. Tim Tate holding the ''Dice'' reliquaryOne reliquary is called “Dice.” It is filled with hundreds of small red cubes for playing games of chance. The surface of the container is covered with writing that has been cut into the glass. The message tells about different methods for guessing about the future. It says that good health can sometimes be a matter of luck. Tim Tate is also working on a series of blown glass sculptures inside of which are small televisions playing videos. In these detailed works, the ancient art of glass meets the modern world of technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m ?????Barbara Klein. You can learn about other artists on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Combination of Medicine and Therapy Called Best for Depressed Teens
* Byline: A $17 million US study shows that the two treatments work better together than either alone. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Depression can cause long periods of sadness and hopelessness, feelings of low self-worth, even physical pain. It is the leading cause of suicide. The World Health Organization says more than one hundred twenty million people worldwide suffer from depression. But many people may not know it can start at a young age. In the United States, for example, health officials estimate that about five percent of adolescents are depressed. Researchers in the United States have just reported on a study of more than three hundred patients ages twelve to seventeen. All suffered from major depression disorder, the most common form of the disease. The researchers divided them into three groups. One received the antidepressant drug Prozac. Another received cognitive behavioral therapy. The third received both. The study found that the best treatment was a combination of antidepressant and cognitive behavioral therapy, or C.B.T. This kind of therapy teaches patients to recognize and deal with the thoughts that can result from depression. It centers on current feelings instead of past events. At twelve weeks, the researchers found reduced levels of depression in all three groups. But they say the group receiving the combination of treatments had the greatest reduction. This continued through the end of the nine-month study. The researchers say eighty-six percent of those who received both treatments had improved. This was compared to eighty-one percent each in the two other groups. The study did not include an untreated control group. So there is no way to know for sure if it was the treatment that eased the depression. The findings by Duke University researchers appear in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The National Institute of Mental Health paid for the seventeen million dollar study. The researchers say the group that received Prozac alone had a higher rate of suicidal thoughts than the other two groups. Experts say antidepressant drugs can increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in teenagers. And, earlier this year, the government asked drug makers to extend that warning to patients age eighteen to twenty-four during initial treatment. Generally that means the first one to two months. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. To learn about World Mental Health Day, observed each year on October tenth, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Columbus Sails, Others Follow, and Spain Is on Top of the World
* Byline: By the 15th century, European countries were ready to explore new parts of the world. Technological improvements helped them succeed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. In the United States, October ninth is observed as Leif Erickson Day. It honors the Norse explorer who sailed around the northeastern coast of what we now call North America about one thousand years ago. Leif Erickson and his crew returned home to Greenland with news of a place he called "Vinland." Following his explorations, a few settlements were built. Experts digging in eastern Canada in the nineteen sixties found the remains of a village with houses like those in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. But the Norse did not establish any permanent settlements in North America. Today, as we launch our series from the beginning again, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell the story of early European explorers in North America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: About ten hundred, Europe was beginning a period of great change. One reason was the religious wars known as the crusades. These wars were efforts by Europeans who were mainly Roman Catholic Christians. They wanted to force Muslims out of what is now the Middle East. The crusades began at the end of the eleventh century. They continued for about two hundred years. The presence of European armies in the Middle East increased trade, which was controlled by businessmen in Venice and other Italian city-states. The businessmen were earning large profits by transporting and supplying the warring armies. When the European crusaders returned home, they brought with them some new and useful products. The products included spices, perfumes, silk cloth, steel products and drugs. Such products became highly valued all over Europe. Increased trade resulted which led to the growth of towns. It also created a large number of rich European businessmen. The European nations were growing. They developed armies and governments. These had to be paid for by taxes from the people. By the fifteenth century, European countries were ready to explore new parts of the world. VOICE ONE: The first explorers were the Portuguese. By fourteen hundred, they wanted to control the Eastern spice trade. European businessmen did not want to continue paying Venetian and Arab traders for their costly spices. They wanted to set up trade themselves. If they could sail to Asia directly for these products, the resulting trade would bring huge profits. The leader of Portugal's exploration efforts was Prince Henry, a son of King John the first. He was interested in sea travel and exploration. So he became known as Henry the Navigator. Prince Henry brought experts to his country and studied the sciences involved in exploration. He built an observatory to study the stars. Portuguese sea captains led their ships around the west coast of Africa hoping to find a path to India and East Asia. They finally found the end of the African continent, the area called the Cape of Good Hope. VOICE TWO: It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spice trade. They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and China. Improvements in technology helped them succeed. One improvement was a new kind of ship. It could sail more easily through ocean storms and winds. Other inventions like the compass permitted them to sail out of sight of land. The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon. They used these weapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The other European nations would not permit Portugal to control this trade for long, however. Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to provide ships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian seaman, Christopher Columbus. Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean. He was right. But he also was wrong. He believed the world was much smaller than it is. He did not imagine the existence of other lands and another huge ocean area between Europe and East Asia. VOICE TWO: Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third, fourteen ninety-two, in three ships. On October twelfth, they stood on land again on an island that Columbus named San Salvador. He explored it, and the nearby islands of what is now known as Cuba and Hispaniola. He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia, which was called the Indies. He called the people he found there Indians. Columbus left about forty men on the island to build a fort from the wood of one of the ships. He returned to Spain with captured natives, birds, plants and gold. Columbus was considered a national hero when he reached Spain in March, fourteen ninety-three. VOICE ONE: Columbus returned across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean area five months later. This time, he had many more men and all the animals and equipment needed to start a colony on Hispaniola. He found that the protective fort built by his men had been destroyed by fire. Columbus did not find any of his men. Seven months later, Columbus sent five ships back to Spain. They carried Indians to be sold as slaves. Columbus also sailed back to Spain leaving behind some settlers who were not happy with conditions. Christopher Columbus made another trip in fourteen ninety-eight, with six ships. This time he saw the coast of South America. The settlers were so unhappy with conditions in the new colony, Columbus was sent back to Spain as a prisoner. Spain's rulers pardoned him. In fifteen-oh-two, Columbus made his final voyage to what some were calling the New World. He stayed on the island of Jamaica until he returned home in fifteen-oh-four. VOICE TWO: During all his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searching for a passage to the Indies. He never found it. He also did not find spices or great amounts of gold. Yet, he always believed that he had found the Indies. He refused to recognize that it was really a new world. Evidence of this was all around him -- strange plants that were not known in either Europe or Asia and a different people who did not understand any language spoken in the East. Columbus' voyages, however, opened up the new world. Others later explored all of North America. VOICE ONE: You may be wondering about the name of this new land. If Christopher Columbus was the first European to attempt to settle the new world, why is it called "America"? The answer lies with the name of an Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. He visited the coast of South America in fourteen ninety-nine. He wrote stories about his experiences that were widely read in Europe. In fifteen-oh-seven, a German mapmaker read Vespucci's stories. He decided that the writer had discovered the new world and suggested that it be called America in his honor. So it was. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Spanish explorers sought to find gold and power in the New World. They also wanted to expand belief in what they considered to be the true religion, Christianity. The first of these Spanish explorers was Juan Ponce de Leon. He landed on North America in fifteen thirteen. He explored the eastern coast of what is now the southern state of Florida. He was searching for a special kind of water that people in Europe believed existed. They believed that this water could make old people young again. Ponce de Leon never found it. VOICE ONE: Also in fifteen thirteen, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean. In fifteen nineteen, Hernan Cortes landed an army in Mexico and destroyed the empire of the Aztec Indians. That same year Ferdinand Magellan began his three-year voyage around the world. And in the fifteen thirties, Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca Indian empire in Peru. VOICE TWO: Ten years later, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had marched as far north as the central American state of Kansas and west to the Grand Canyon. About the same time, Hernan de Soto reached the Mississippi River. Fifty years after Columbus first landed in San Salvador, Spain claimed a huge area of America. The riches of these new lands made Spain the greatest power in Europe. But other nations refused to accept Spain's claim to rights in the new world. Explorers from England, France and Holland also were traveling to North America. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. --- This was program #2 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Green' Schools Grow Around US
* Byline: Environmentally friendly designs cost more to build. But supporters say they lead to energy and water savings and healthier students. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In Alexandria, Virginia, the two thousand students at T.C. Williams High School started classes last month in a new building. It was built as a "green" school based on requirements from the United States Green Building Council. The council is a nonprofit organization made up of building industry leaders. It has a rating system for buildings called Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED. In two thousand one, there were four schools asking for LEED certification. Now there are four hundred, including T.C. Williams. So far, fifty-eight schools have been recognized for meeting the requirements. These include protecting natural areas and limiting the amount of chemicals in building materials. They also include better lighting and improved indoor air quality. Buildings are also rated on how well they use energy and water, and on things like the use of recycling programs. At T.C. Williams, one example of green design can be seen in the many windows that let in natural light. Students say the sunny rooms help them stay awake during class. A rooftop garden is designed to provide stormwater control and help keep the building cool in the sun. And an underground tank can store one million seven hundred thousand liters of rainwater for air conditioning and other systems. The new building cost about ninety million dollars to build. It stands next to the old T.C. Williams building, which officials say will slowly be taken apart and recycled. T.C. Williams High School is still waiting for the final part of the LEED certification process. Schools receive points for the number of requirements they meet. Buildings are rated silver, gold or platinum. Around the country, concerns about limited budgets for public schools sometimes lead to objections to investing in green schools. But the Green Building Council points to a report by Capital E, a Washington, D.C., company that serves the clean energy industry. Capital E examined the cost of thirty green schools in the United States. It says the average cost was only two percent higher compared to a traditional school. And it says this extra cost is small compared to the savings over time from lower energy and water costs and healthier students. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Dana Demange. To learn more about American schools, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Making of Hollywood's Motion Picture Rating System
* Byline: Also: Jenna Bush's book about AIDS and poverty, ''Ana's Story.'' And the band King Wilkie mixes bluegrass with folk and country in their new album, ''Low Country Suite.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from King Wilkie … Answer a question about the American movie rating system … And report about a new book by Jenna Bush. Jenna Bush HOST: Jenna Bush at a party for her bookJenna Bush is the twenty-five-year-old daughter of President Bush and Laura Bush. Last year, she began an internship with the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF. She traveled throughout Latin America. She met with young people living in poverty who do not receive education, social services or health care. One was a seventeen-year-old single mother named Ana. Jenna Bush met with the young woman for the next six months. She decided to write a book about her life. The result is "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope."? Mario Ritter tells us more. MARIO RITTER: Ana's parents had died of AIDS when she was a young child. When she was ten years old, she found out she was born with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. But she was told to keep it a secret. She became a victim of abuse by family members and was also warned not to tell anyone. In her book, Jenna Bush tells of Ana's struggles to survive poverty, abuse and illness. The book also provides important information for young people about H.I.V. and other issues. Jenna Bush says she wants to start a discussion with young Americans about H.I.V./AIDS, poverty, lack of education and other problems that affect millions of children around the world. She has been traveling to more than twenty-five cities around the country to talk about her new book. Last week she took part in VOA's Web chat, T2A. She answered questions from people in India, Ethiopia, Kenya and Germany. Jenna Bush said her job for UNICEF was to meet with children living in extreme poverty, or with H.I.V./AIDS. She said that even these young people with difficult lives had much hope for the future and a positive outlook on life. Jenna Bush also spoke about Ana, the teenager she wrote about in her book. She said Ana got the help she needed from trusted adults like her teachers and her priest. Ana now sees a better future for herself and her daughter. Some of the money earned from the book, "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope," will go to UNICEF to help girls like Ana continue their education. Movie Rating System HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Norway. Xiaoren Chen wants to know how movies are controlled in the United States. Today, American filmmakers produce movies with few restraints about violence, sexuality and adult language. But this was not always the case. The Motion Picture Association of America is the major movie organization that first formed in nineteen twenty-two. The organization helps distribute movies internationally, decides on rating systems, and deals with public relations for the movie industry. When it was first started by the Hollywood production studios, the organization was called the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. The group was popularly called the Hays Office because of its director, Will Hays. This group developed the Motion Picture Production Code in nineteen thirty. The aim was for the film industry and not the government to decide what was morally acceptable to show in movies. The Hays Office examined each film before it could receive permission to be released. The production code was very clear about issues including crime and sex. For example, movies could not show violent killings, methods of stealing, or illegal drug use. The code banned sex scenes, sexual relationships between people of different races, scenes of childbirth, and people not wearing clothing. The Motion Picture Association finally ended the code in nineteen sixty-eight although movie makers had stopped following its rules many years before. The group developed a new voluntary rating system that tells parents whether a movie is right for children. The ratings judge the level of violence, sexuality, and adult language. “G” movies are for people of all ages. “PG” means parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be right for children. “PG-13” means parents are strongly warned that some material may not be right for children under the age of thirteen. “R” mean restricted. Children under the age of seventeen must have a parent or adult guardian with them. And if a movie is rated "NC-17" it means no one seventeen or younger will be admitted. The rating system has its critics. Some movie experts say the ratings warn more about sexual subjects than about extreme violence. Others say a rating can harm a movie’s financial success and ignore its artistic importance. King Wilkie HOST: The band King Wilkie is made up of six young men who love? traditional bluegrass music. Their second full-length album, “Low Country Suite,” mixes the sound of bluegrass with the influence of folk and country music. Faith Lapidus plays some of these songs. (MUSIC: "Crazy Daisy") FAITH LAPIDUS: That was “Crazy Daisy (Don’t You Fade on Me)” from "Low Country Suite." Like many songs on this album, it explores feelings of love and loss. King Wilkie has said the album is about a young man finding his place in the world. Ted Pitney and Reid Burgess formed King Wilkie in two thousand three in Charlottesville, Virginia. They named the band after the favorite horse of Bill Monroe, who is considered the father of bluegrass music. King Wilkie’s first album, “Broke,” was a collection of traditional bluegrass songs. The record earned them an Emerging Artist of the Year Award from the International Bluegrass Music Association. For “Low Country Suite” the band wanted to push their musical boundaries. Reid Burgess says their goal was to free themselves and show different musical sides of the band. He says limiting their music style to bluegrass did not permit them to be as personal and expressive as they wanted to be. Here is the playful sound of “Ms. Peabody.” It tells about a young man’s love affair with an older woman. (MUSIC) Although this record is not traditional bluegrass, the band still plans to play at bluegrass festivals and concerts. Reid Burgess says King Wilkie’s performances are still made for bluegrass stages. He says he loves the personalities, the community and the history of bluegrass shows. We leave you with the energetic beat of “Wrecking Ball.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Making Sense of a Weak Dollar
* Byline: What it means, who likes it, and who doesn't. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Weak or strong. Which is better? If the question is about the American dollar, the answer depends on whom you ask. The dollar has been weakening against several major currencies. One euro is currently worth about one dollar forty cents. A British pound is worth over two dollars. Many widely traded products are bought and sold in dollars. These commodities include oil, soybeans and metals like copper. A weak dollar can mean a better deal for foreign buyers. But for oil producers and countries that tie the value of their own money to the dollar, weakness reduces their purchasing power. A weak dollar, though, may help reduce the American trade deficit because it makes American exports less costly. But in the United States it can raise the cost of imports. An exception is imports from China. The Chinese government sets the value of the yuan on foreign exchanges. This year the yuan has increased less than four percent against the weakening dollar. This has kept the prices of Chinese imports low. In other cases, however, a weak dollar hurts American businesses that deal in imported goods. They may have to raise prices or sacrifice profits. Many companies do not want to raise their prices for fear that they may lose market share. The Federal Reserve has said that inflation remains under control. But the Fed says it is prepared to take action if inflationary pressures increase. Last month the central bank cut short-term interest rates by half a point. It did so to help keep problems in the housing and credit markets from harming the wider economy and causing a recession. But some economic worries appeared to ease after the latest jobs report last Friday. The Labor Department said employment increased by one hundred ten thousand jobs in September. Also, new numbers for August showed a gain of close to ninety thousand jobs. The department had earlier reported that the economy lost four thousand jobs in August, the first report of job losses in four years. Still, critics warn of dangers from a weaker dollar and lower interest rates, which reduce the returns on dollar-based investments. A New York Times commentary, for example, said dollar weakness is rooted in the borrow-and-spend behavior of the government and the public. It said foreign lenders will be less and less likely to want to invest in dollars, and that will only make things a lot worse. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Deaths in Iraq Lead to Calls for More Controls Over Private Guards Working for US
* Byline: Blackwater USA and other companies employed by American agencies face greater attention after shootings of civilians. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Employees of Blackwater USA take part in a battle in the Iraqi city of Najaf in?2004 Recent shootings of civilians have brought new attention to security companies working in Iraq for the United States government. Private guards help protect diplomats, aid groups and even American forces. On Tuesday, guards from an Australian-owned company, Unity Resources Group, killed two women in a car in Baghdad. They say the car failed to stop after warnings. Earlier, the Iraqi government urged American officials to cut ties with Blackwater USA. Blackwater is the largest of three American companies protecting American diplomats in Iraq. Its guards were involved in a September sixteenth shooting in Baghdad. Blackwater says they had come under gunfire. But Iraqi officials say they fired at civilians without cause and killed seventeen people. The Iraqis say the guards should face trial. And they say Blackwater should pay eight million dollars to each of the families of those killed. Blackwater has about one thousand employees in Iraq. The total number of private guards being used there is estimated at twenty thousand to thirty thousand. But the International Peace Operations Association in Washington, a trade group, says most are Iraqis or other non-Americans. The State Department says it has to use private guards because it does not have enough diplomatic security agents to meet expanding responsibilities in Iraq. It ordered stronger controls on Blackwater last week, including video cameras for its vehicles. The shooting is still under investigation by the American military, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a joint committee of American and Iraqi officials. But in Washington, the Center for Constitutional Rights brought a federal case Thursday against Blackwater. The group is seeking damages for one survivor and the families of three of those killed. United Nations officials in Iraq told the Associated Press they are concerned about reports of killings by security contractors. A U.N. human rights officer said officials will look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have taken place. All government contractors would have to answer to American courts under a bill passed last week by the House of Representatives. It would expand a current act for Defense Department contractors outside the United States. The Bush administration opposes the bill, saying it could harm national security activities. A House committee report said Blackwater has been involved in at least one hundred ninety-five shootings in Iraq since two thousand five. It said Blackwater guards fired first in most cases. But Erik Prince, who started Blackwater ten years ago, defended his company at a congressional hearing last week. He says it performs only defensive security duties. He says he has lost thirty men while no one protected by Blackwater has ever been seriously injured. And he says private contractors have provided support to the American military since the Revolutionary War. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Davy Crockett, 1786-1836: King of the Wild Frontier
* Byline: He was a hunter, fighter, storyteller and elected official whose memory lives on in songs, movies and books. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Davy Crockett. He was a hunter, fighter, storyteller and elected official. For many people, he represented the spirit of the American wilderness. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: David Crockett was born in what is now Greene County, Tennessee in seventeen eighty-six. He was the fifth of nine children born to John and Rebecca Hawkins Crockett. Davy’s grandparents were among the first white people to live in eastern Tennessee. His grandfather had moved there in search of land to settle. Before Davy was born, his grandparents and other settlers were killed by a group of Native American Indian warriors. Life in the wilderness was difficult. John Crockett repeatedly moved his family in an effort to find a good place to live. In seventeen ninety-six, he opened a tavern, or drinking place. The tavern was a popular stop for travelers. Davy probably heard many stories told by the people at his father’s tavern. VOICE TWO: Davy Crockett started attending a small school when he was about thirteen years old. A few days later, he fought with another boy at the school. After that, Davy decided to run away from home to escape his father’s punishment. For more than two years, he worked a number of unskilled jobs to support himself. When Davy returned home, he was so tall that his family did not recognize him. When they finally did, they celebrated his return. Two hundred years ago, a boy either worked for his father or surrendered his pay if he worked for someone else. To gain his independence, Davy worked for about a year to help pay his father’s debts. ?He borrowed a gun from one employer and became good at shooting. Within a short time, Davy was a skilled hunter and trapper of wild animals. He was able to provide food and clothing for himself and his family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Davy Crockett married Polly Finley in eighteen-oh-six. At first they lived in a small place near Davy’s parents. Five years later, Davy, Polly and their two boys moved west into what is now Lincoln County, Tennessee. Later, they settled in Franklin County, near what was then the territory of Alabama. About this time, Creek Indian warriors killed many settlers at Fort Mims, Alabama. When news of the attack reached Crockett, he joined an army force under the command of Andrew Jackson. Crockett served in the army during the Creek Indian War. He also explored areas controlled by Indian warriors. Crockett returned home when his military service ended. He decided to re-join the army in eighteen-fourteen, just before the Treaty of Ghent officially ended the fighting. ?At the time, General Jackson’s force was attempting to stop British-trained Indian forces in Florida. VOICE TWO: Davy Crockett returned home after the war. His wife Polly died in eighteen fifteen. Crockett needed a wife to raise his children. A short time later, he met and married Elizabeth Patton, whose husband had died. More and more settlers were moving to Tennessee. Crockett seemed restless and traveled many times into the wilderness. In Alabama, he became infected with malaria and almost died. Later, he and his family moved again, this time to what would become Lawrence County, Tennessee. Crockett was elected to the position of colonel in the local military force. He also was appointed a local court official. He became popular with the people and developed an interest in politics. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Davy Crockett loved the wilderness and became famous as a hunter. He also was a good storyteller. His stories were based partly on fact and partly on his imagination. For example, he told one story about an unusual experience when he was hunting. Crockett said the animal he was hunting looked at him once and surrendered immediately, without a single shot being fired. He also told stories about killing more than one hundred bears in six months. Crockett was able to remember almost anything that he had heard. He found that his storytelling skills were helpful when he was campaigning for political office. For example, he once memorized an opponent’s campaign speech word for word. Crockett repeated the speech as his own during a debate. The opponent was so surprised to hear his own words that he was forced to make unprepared statements. VOICE TWO: Crockett won a seat in the Tennessee legislature in eighteen twenty-one. As a lawmaker, he became an expert in land policy, especially in wilderness areas. Crockett always did what he believed was right. He thought others should do the same. He was known for these words: “Be always sure you are right, then go ahead.” After his term in office, Crockett decided to move his family further into the wilderness. They settled in what is now Gibson County, Tennessee. Crockett was so popular there that he was re-elected to the state legislature. Two years later, he was chosen as a candidate for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. This time, however, he was defeated. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crockett won a seat in the House of Representatives the second time he was nominated in eighteen twenty-seven. He was re-elected two years later. During this period, another Tennessee native, General Andrew Jackson, was elected President. Crockett generally claimed to support President Jackson’s programs. But he opposed the president and other members of Congress from Tennessee on several issues, including land reform. He also opposed a measure that forced Indian tribes from their native lands. However, even with Crockett’s opposition, the Indian Resettlement Act passed. VOICE TWO: President Jackson’s supporters prevented Crockett from winning a third term in Congress. However, he returned to the House of Representatives in eighteen thirty-three. By this time, his fame as a hunter, Indian fighter and storyteller was spreading. First, a book about Crockett was published. Later, he wrote a book about his life. Several artists made paintings of the famous Tennessee woodsman. Some pictures show him wearing clothing made of animal skins and a hat made of raccoon fur. Crockett made several trips to speak in cities in the eastern United States. The Whig political party provided support for the trips. Some Whig leaders were considering Crockett as the party’s candidate for President in eighteen thirty-six. However, his hopes for a political future ended when he lost his seat in the House of Representatives to a supporter of President Jackson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After his political defeat, Davy Crockett had a desire to see the wilderness again. He set out with a number of other men to explore the western area of Texas. Crockett believed that he could renew his political life there. At the time, American settlers in Texas were fighting to gain independence from Mexico. Crockett joined more than one hundred eighty men who had established a fort at the Alamo, an old Roman Catholic mission in San Antonio. The commander of the Texas Army ordered the men to destroy the Alamo. He did not believe it could be defended against a strong Mexican attack. However, the men disobeyed the order. VOICE TWO: A Painting of Davy Crockett fighting at the AlamoWhen Mexican troops attacked the Alamo, the men battled against them for almost two weeks. But on March sixth, eighteen thirty-six, Mexican forces captured the Alamo. Some historians believe that all the defenders died in battle. Others believe that a few men survived the battle, but were executed. Davy Crockett died with the other heroes at the Alamo. He was forty-nine years old. After his death, Davy Crockett became even more famous and popular. His life has been celebrated in books, plays, movies, television shows and songs, like this one. (MUSIC: “The Ballad?of Davy Crockett”) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wildcat: Is It a Fast Car or False Money?
* Byline: Americans use the names of animals in many ways. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today, we tell about the word wildcat. (MUSIC) Humans have always depended on animals. From the beginning of human history, wild animals provided food, clothing and sometimes medicine. We may not depend as much on wild animals now. But we hear about them every day. Americans use the names of animals in many ways. Many companies use animals to make us want to buy their goods. Automobile companies, for example, love to show fast horses when they are trying to sell their cars. They also name their cars for other fast powerful animals. Automobile manufacturers and gasoline companies especially like to use big cats to sell their products. They like lions, tigers and wildcats. When Americans say wildcat, they usually mean a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat. All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. So wildcats represent something fast and fierce. What better way is there to sell a car than to say it is as fast as a wildcat. Or, what better way is there to sell gasoline than to say that using it is like putting a tiger in your tank. An early American use of the word wildcat was quite different. It was used to describe members of Congress who declared war on Britain in eighteen twelve.A magazine of that year said the wildcat congressmen went home. It said they were unable to face the responsibility of having involved their country in an unnecessary war. Wildcat also has been used as a name for money. It was used this way in the eighteen hundreds. At that time, some states permitted banks to make their own money. One bank in the state of Michigan offered paper money with a picture of a wildcat on it. Some banks, however, did not have enough gold to support all the paper money they offered. So the money had little or no value. It was called a wildcat bill or a wildcat bank note. The banks who offered this money were called wildcat banks. A newspaper of the time said those were the days of wildcat money. It said a man might be rich in the morning and poor by night. Wildcat was used in another way in the eighteen hundreds. It was used for an oil well or gold mine that had almost no oil or gold in it. Dishonest developers would buy such property. Then they would sell it and leave town with the money. The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas that are not known to have oil. Yet another kind of wildcat is the wildcat strike. That is a strike called without official approval by a union. During World War Two, an American publication accused wildcat strikers of slowing government production. (MUSIC) This VOA?Special English program, Words and Their Wtories, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm?Warren Scheer. This VOA?Special English program, Words and Their Wtories, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm?Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Finding New Ways to Feed the World’s Hungry Children
* Byline: Doctors Without Borders is calling for the expanded use of ready-to-use food, which it says could reduce child deaths. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. October sixteenth is World Food Day. The campaign chosen for this year by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is "The Right to Food." The aim is to demonstrate that human rights are increasingly recognized as an important part of ending hunger and poverty. Worldwide, the United Nations says more than eight hundred fifty million people do not have enough food. Every year an estimated five million children under the age of five die of nutrition-related causes. When it comes to food aid, quantity is important but so is quality. To help children at risk, the international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders has launched a worldwide appeal. The group is calling for the expanded use of what is known as therapeutic ready-to-use food to treat severely malnourished children. It also wants this kind of food added to children's diets to prevent malnutrition from ever happening. Ready-to-use-food is usually a sweet spread made with peanuts, dry milk, sugar, vegetable fat, minerals and vitamins. The food does not have to be mixed with water, which in many countries may be dirty. And families do not have to go to feeding centers. Individual servings come ready to eat. Doctor Milton Tectonidis is a nutrition expert with Doctors Without Borders. He tells us that traditional methods of fighting hunger in children are not meeting their needs. Enriched flour or a mixture of corn and soy are commonly used to improve children's diets. But he says this kind of food aid lacks enough calories and nutrients to prevent malnutrition. The group is doing research in Niger. Doctor Tectonidis says this research has shown that ready-to-use food is more effective in keeping children from becoming severely malnourished. The World Health Organization estimates that twenty million children at any given time suffer from severe malnutrition. Doctor Tectonidis says only three percent of them will receive ready-to-use-food this year. Doctors Without Borders is urging donors, United Nations agencies and governments to increase support for ready-to-use food. In addition, Doctor Tectonidis says more research is needed to create new forms of it. And not just to help children survive and grow, he says, but even to support the diets of pregnant women. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Going the Distance, Coast to Coast and Border to Border, on America's Highways
* Byline: A history of road building in the United States, including the Interstate Highway System, launched by an act of Congress. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. On June twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-six, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a public works bill. The act of Congress provided federal aid to build the Interstate Highway System. I'm Steve Ember. Today Sarah Long and I present a brief history of road building and how it changed America. (MUSIC) America's national road system makes it possible to drive coast to coast. From the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west is a distance of more than four thousand kilometers. Or you could drive more than two thousand kilometers and go from the Canadian border south to the Mexican border. VOICE TWO: You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic signals and no stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at all. This is possible because of the Interstate Highway System. This system has almost seventy thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Interstate Highway System is usually two roads, one in each direction, separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one hundred and one hundred twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway System is only a small part of the huge system of roads in the United States. VOICE ONE: To understand the Interstate Highway System, it is helpful to understand the history of roads. Roads in most countries were first built to permit armies to travel from one part of the country to another to fight against an invader. The ancient Romans build roads over most of Europe to permit their armies to move quickly from one place to another. People who traded goods began using these roads for business. Good roads helped them to move their goods faster from one area to another. No roads existed when early settlers arrived in the area of North America that would become the United States. Most settlers built their homes near the ocean or along major rivers. This made transportation easy. A few early roads were built near some cities. Travel on land was often difficult because there was no road system in most areas. VOICE TWO: In seventeen eighty-five, farmers in the Ohio River Valley used rivers to take cut trees to the southern city of New Orleans. It was easier to walk or ride a horse home than to try to go by boat up the river. One of the first roads was built to help these farmers return home after they sold their wood. It began as nothing more than a path used by Native Americans. American soldiers helped make this path into an early road. The new road extended from the city of Nashville, in Tennessee to the city of Natchez in the southern state of Louisiana. It was called the Natchez Trace. You can still follow about seven hundred kilometers of the Natchez Trace. Today, the road is a beautiful National Park. It takes the traveler though forests that look much the same as they did two hundred years ago. You can still see a few of the buildings in which early travelers slept overnight. VOICE ONE: The Natchez Trace was called a road. Yet it was not what we understand a road to be. It was just a cleared path through the forest. It was used by people walking, or riding a horse or in a wagon pulled by horses. In eighteen-oh-six, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that approved money for building a road to make it easier to travel west. Work began on the first part of the road in Cumberland in the eastern state of Maryland. When finished, the road reached all the way to the city of Saint Louis in what would become the middle western state of Missouri. It was named the National Road. The National Road was similar to the Natchez Trace. It followed a path made by American Indians. Work began in eighteen eleven. It was not finished until about eighteen thirty-three. The National Road was used by thousands of people who moved toward the west. These people paid money to use the road. This money was used to repair the road. Now, the old National Road is part of United States Highway Forty. By the nineteen twenties, Highway Forty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. You can still see signs that say "National Road" along the side of parts of it. Several statues were placed along this road to honor the women who moved west over the National Road in the eighteen hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen hundred, it still was difficult to travel by road. Nothing extended from the eastern United States to the extreme western part of the country. Several people wanted to see a road built all the way across the country. Carl Fisher was a man who had ideas and knew how to act on them. Mister Fisher built the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway where car races still take place. In nineteen twelve, Carl Fisher began working on his idea to build a coast-to-coast highway using crushed rocks. He called this dream the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. VOICE ONE: Carl Fisher asked many people to give money for the project. One of these men was Henry Joy, the president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Mister Joy agreed, but suggested another name for the highway. He said the road should be named after President Abraham Lincoln. He said it should be called the Lincoln Highway. Everyone involved with the project agreed to the new name. The Lincoln Highway began in the east in New York City’s famous Times Square. It ended in the west in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway was completed in about nineteen thirty-three. VOICE TWO: Later, the federal government decided to assign each highway in the country its own number. Numbers were easier to remember than names. The Lincoln Highway became Highway Thirty for most of its length. Today, you can still follow much of the Lincoln Highway. It passes through small towns and large cities. This makes it a slow but interesting way to travel. Highway Thirty still begins in New York and ends near San Francisco. And it is still remembered as the first coast-to-coast highway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen nineteen, a young Army officer named Dwight Eisenhower took part in the first crossing of the United States by Army vehicles. The vehicles left Washington, D.C. and drove to San Francisco. It was not a good trip. The vehicles had problems with thick mud, ice and mechanical difficulties. It took the American Army vehicles sixty-two days to reach San Francisco. Dwight Eisenhower believed the United States needed a highway that would aid in the defense of the country. He believed the nation needed a road system that would permit military vehicles to travel quickly from one coast to the other. In nineteen fifty-six, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States. He signed the legislation that created the federal Interstate Highway System. Work was begun almost immediately. VOICE TWO: Building such an interstate highway system was a major task. Many problems had to be solved. The highway passed through different areas that were wetlands, mountains and deserts. It was very difficult to build the system. Yet lessons learned while building it influenced the building of highways around the world. Today, the interstate system links every major city in the United States. ?It also links the United States with Canada and Mexico. The Interstate Highway System has been an important part of the nation’s economic growth during the past forty years. Experts believe that trucks using the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold. Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy interstate highways all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places, gasoline stations and shopping centers. The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly from one part of the country to another. The United States government renamed the Interstate Highway System at the end of the twentieth century. Large signs now can be seen along the side of the highway that say Eisenhower Interstate System. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson. My co-host was Sarah Long. I'm Steve Ember. To download a free copy of this show, including a transcript, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-15-voa5.cfm
* Headline: More Species Than Ever Threatened With Extinction, Report Says
* Byline: The IUCN Red List includes almost 200 more plants and animals than last year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today, we examine a new report about the health of the world's many plants and animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists say counting the many different kinds of plants and animals on Earth is one way to measure the health of our planet. Scientists use the word biodiversity to describe the existence of many kinds of plants, animals and other organisms. One definition of biodiversity is the differences of life at all levels of biological organization. Biodiversity is also a way to measure the differences among all the organisms on Earth. Scientists say the existence of biodiversity is extremely important for human life. Plants and animals provide much of our food, medicines and materials for industry. Biodiversity makes possible the natural development of improved crops. Biodiversity helps to create a balance for our atmosphere and water supply. And it provides activities through the enjoyment of nature. Scientists say a lack of biodiversity has led to agricultural crises in history. One example is the potato famine in Ireland in the nineteenth century. At the time, many people in Ireland depended on potatoes for food. When the potato crop failed, millions starved to death or were forced to leave the country. VOICE TWO: Recent scientific findings about biodiversity have not been good. Last month, the World Conservation Union added almost two hundred plants and animals to its list of threatened species. The group warned that life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken. The World Conservation Union is one of the world’s largest groups working to protect Earth's environment. It aims to save, or conserve, natural resources by influencing governments and private citizens around the world. To do this, it supports and develops new conservation science methods, and carries out research internationally. Then it links the research and results to policies by organizing talks among governments, civilians and private companies. The World Conservation Union works with eighty-three nations and more than one hundred government agencies. It also works with more than eight hundred non-governmental organizations, and thousands of scientists and experts. VOICE ONE: The World Conservation Union has offices in forty nations. Its headquarters is in Switzerland. The group was created in nineteen forty-eight after an international conference in France. Its name then was the International Union for the Protection of Nature. Its name was changed to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, or IUCN, in nineteen fifty-six. In nineteen ninety, the group began using the name World Conservation Union. But many people still know it as the IUCN. Experts say the World Conservation Union is an important organization. They say wealthy nations like the United States have their own environmental agencies to study possibly threatened species. But developing nations use the work of the IUCN because they are not able to carry out studies of species within their borders. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Conservation Union says no one knows how many kinds of plants, animals and other organisms are found on Earth. It says scientists believe the number is about fifteen million. But only about two million are known. The group says seven hundred eighty-five species have disappeared from the Earth in the past five hundred years. And it says that sixty-five others are in danger of disappearing, or becoming extinct. They are now only found in places that are protected by people. Each year, the World Conservation Union publishes a report that names those organisms it considers threatened or in danger of becoming extinct. The report is called the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. VOICE ONE: This year, information in the Red List came from more than ten thousand scientists in one hundred forty seven countries. The scientists considered more than forty-one thousand species. They found that more than sixteen thousand of them are in danger of becoming extinct. That is one hundred eighty-eight more threatened species than the report found last year. The scientists said it is possible to reduce this number but that people around the world must begin to act now. They said the IUCN recognizes that some species naturally disappear over time. But they said studies have found that human activity is speeding up this process. The group says rates of extinction today are at least one hundred to one thousand times greater than they would be naturally. VOICE TWO: Animals listed as in danger of extinction include the western lowland gorilla in Africa. IUCN officials said the gorilla is in trouble as a result of hunting and the spread of the Ebola virus. The report said the population of these animals has decreased by more than sixty percent during the past twenty to twenty-five years. Another animal in danger of extinction is the orangutan. Species of orangutans found in Sumatra and Borneo are dying because people are cutting down the trees in which they live. One animal in extreme danger is the Yangtze River dolphin or baiji. Threats to its survival include fishing and pollution. IUCN officials said the baiji could already be considered extinct because only one or two individuals are known to live in China. The Gharial crocodile in India and Nepal faces extinction because much of its living area has been destroyed. The scientists are blaming the destruction on dam building, agricultural projects and sand mining. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Conservation Union added corals to its Red List for the first time this year. Ten coral species from the Galapagos Islands are included. The report says threats to the corals include climate change and the weather event known as El Nino. El Nino and climate change are also threatening seventy-four kinds of seaweed in the Galapagos. Twelve thousand different kinds of plants are also named in the report. More than eight thousand are considered threatened. Only one has been declared extinct. That plant is a Malaysian herb known as the woolly stalked begonia. It is only known from collections made on Penang Island in the late nineteenth century. Not one of these plants has been seen in the past one hundred years. VOICE TWO: Seven hundred thirty-eight kinds of reptiles also are named on the threatened species list. Ninety are threatened with extinction. One example is a Mexican freshwater turtle. This creature is in danger because of a loss of its living area. Another reptile on the list is a kind of rattlesnake in Mexico. Hunters are threatening this snake. More than one thousand kinds of birds are also included on the list. This year, the survival of only one species has improved. It is the Mauritius Echo Parakeet. This bird species was considered one of the world's rarest fifteen years ago. The Mauritius Echo Parakeet is still in danger. But its numbers have increased recently as a result of human protection and a captive breeding and release program. VOICE ONE: The World Conservation Union says governments around the world have accepted two thousand ten as a target year for slowing the rate of biodiversity loss. Yet it says human activity remains the main reason for the drop in the number of species. The group says people are destroying the places in which living things live, poisoning the air and spreading disease among them. It also recognizes climate change as a serious threat to many kinds of plants, animals and insects. The group says most of the threatened animals live in some of the world's hottest places. It says nations with large numbers of threatened species are Australia, Brazil, China and Mexico. IUCN officials say it is in the interest of people to protect wildlife around the world. They say human life is linked to biodiversity and our very survival may depend on protecting it. The World Conservation Union says its report clearly shows that much more needs to be done to protect and improve biodiversity. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-15-voa6.cfm
* Headline: As Some Animal Diseases Spread, One May Be Near an End
* Byline: Vaccines have sped progress against the rinderpest virus, and some experts are hopeful about a goal to end the disease by 2010. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Rinderpest, foot-and-mouth disease and bluetongue disease are all animal viruses that can ruin a farmer. An outbreak of one disease is bad enough. Britain has been dealing with foot-and-mouth?--?and now its first cases of bluetongue. United Nations officials see the recent arrival of that virus in the United Kingdom as another sign of a bigger problem. The Food and Agriculture Organization says animal diseases once limited to warm, tropical climates are on the rise around the world. It says countries need to invest more to control them. It says things like the globalization of trade, the movement of people and goods and probably also climate change may only further their spread. Sheep can be affected by bluetongue diseaseBluetongue can kill sheep and cattle and other ruminant animals like goats and deer. It does not affect humans. The virus is spread by small biting flies called midges. It was first discovered in South Africa. It spread widely and by the end of the nineteen nineties had crossed the Mediterranean. Since last year, bluetongue has been found in several countries in northern Europe. There are safe vaccines against forms of the southern virus, but not yet for the northern one. But there is better news about one of the deadliest of all animal diseases: rinderpest. Some experts are hopeful that the world can be declared free of it by two thousand ten. This is the goal of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Program. Vaccines have helped speed the progress. Rinderpest can lead to starvation in areas where people depend on cattle and buffalo for food and work. In the eighteen hundreds, it killed eighty to ninety percent of cattle in southern Africa. After another epidemic in the nineteen eighties, thirty-four African nations combined their efforts to fight the disease. Rinderpest has also struck hard in central Asia, where it started. There have still been some outbreaks in recent years. But the World Organization for Animal Health has declared most nations in the world free of rinderpest. They have not reported a case for at least five years. Some other nations have declared themselves free of it for at least two years. But they still need official recognition for trade purposes. Other animals affected by rinderpest?include yaks, sheep, goats and some pigs. It can spread through the air. It can also spread through water infected with waste from sick animals. Some animals die after just a day or two. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: National Aviation Hall of Fame in Ohio Honors Leaders in Flight
* Byline: Almost 200 people, some famous, some not so famous, are in the Hall of Fame. Five more were honored this year, including Steve Fossett, who disappeared last month while flying a small plane in Nevada. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about some men and women who are members of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. They have been honored for what they did for flying. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Aviation Hall of Fame is in Dayton, Ohio. It opened in nineteen sixty-two. Since that time, the Hall of Fame has honored one hundred ninety-five men and women for their work in aviation. Five new members were honored this year. They are Walter Boyne, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, Sally Ride, Frederick Smith and Steve Fossett. VOICE TWO: Walter Boyne is a retired Air Force pilot. He is a former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. He has written more than five hundred reports and more than thirty books about aviation. Evelyn Bryan Johnson is a flight teacher. She has completed more hours in flight and trained more pilots than any other woman in the world. Sally Ride became America's first female astronaut as a flight engineer on the Space Shuttle Challenger in nineteen eighty-three. She also flew on Challenger the following year. She is also an activist for improving science education for young girls. Frederick Smith is a former Marine Corps pilot. In nineteen seventy-one, he started the Federal Express Corporation. The company soon began using airplanes to fly letters and packages to twenty-five cities. Today, FedEx serves more than two hundred countries and territories around the world. The company has more than two hundred eighty thousand employees. VOICE ONE: Steve Fossett was one of the world's greatest adventurers. He held more than one hundred aviation records. He held several world records for his flights in balloons, gliders and powered aircraft. In two thousand two, he became the first person to travel around the world alone in a hot-air balloon. Three years later, he became the first person to fly around the world alone in an airplane, without stopping or refueling. Last year, he made the longest nonstop flight in aviation history in a lightweight experimental airplane. But on September third, Fossett disappeared while flying a small plane on what was supposed to be a short flight in the state of Nevada. Rescue teams on the ground and in the air searched for the missing pilot in the deserts and mountains of Nevada for several weeks. They were not able to find the pilot or his plane. They suspended the official search on October third. Steve Fossett was sixty-three years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Throughout the years, the National Aviation Hall of Fame has honored famous heroes of aviation. The first two people chosen as members were Orville and Wilbur Wright. They lived and worked in Dayton, Ohio. The Wright Brothers were the first humans to make and fly a powered aircraft. Their story is well known. Another early member of the Aviation Hall of Fame is Charles Lindbergh. His record-setting flight across the Atlantic Ocean began on May twentieth, nineteen twenty-seven. Neil Armstrong is another member of the Aviation Hall of Fame. He was the first human to walk on the moon. The story of the Apollo Eleven landing on the moon is also well known. However, other members of the Aviation Hall of Fame are not as famous. We will tell you about some of these people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Have you ever heard the name Edwin Link?? Probably not. Yet many pilots know him. Mister Link was a pioneer in flight training. He invented a machine that helped teach new pilots to fly. Edwin Link became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen seventy-six. The device he invented is called the Link Trainer. Link Trainers did not really fly. But they were designed to copy flight. New pilots could use flight controls and instruments as if they were inside a real plane. A new pilot learned how to fly in the air by flying a Link Trainer that never left the ground. The Link Company improved their trainers over time. More experienced pilots used them to learn to fly using only flight instruments to find their way. Edwin Link made it possible for many pilots to learn difficult skills in complete safety. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Just south of the city of San Diego, California is a small hill that looks toward the Pacific Ocean. A huge airplane wing rises out of the ground there. It is a monument to John Montgomery, another member of the Aviation Hall of Fame. Not many people remember John Montgomery now. Yet many aviation experts believe he was the father of basic flying. He flew in gliders -- aircraft that have no power. John Montgomery built gliders for more than twenty years. He died in a glider accident in nineteen eleven. Mister Montgomery made most of his flights before anyone understood how to control an aircraft in flight. Mister Montgomery’s study of flight and his attempts at flying led the way for the many others who followed. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen seventy-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Giuseppe Bellanca is another name you probably do not know. He became a member of the Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-three. He came to the United States from Sicily in nineteen eleven. Mister Bellanca designed and built airplanes for the Wright Aircraft Company in the eastern state of New Jersey. Charles Lindbergh decided to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen twenty-seven. He wanted to use a Wright-Bellanca aircraft. Mister Lindbergh met with Giuseppe Bellanca. Mister Bellanca said his airplane could make the flight. He was very excited about Lindbergh’s plan. The Wright Company, however, did not approve of him using one of the company’s planes. Company officials thought Mister Lindbergh might fail. Charles Lindbergh had to find a different airplane to make his famous flight. Later, a Wright-Bellanca airplane was the first to fly the Atlantic Ocean in both directions. And, in nineteen thirty-one, Giuseppe Bellanca designed and built an airplane that became the first to fly across the Pacific Ocean without stopping. It was called the Miss Veedol. It flew from Samishiro Beach, Japan, to the town of Wenatchee in the western state of Washington. Clyde Pangborn was the pilot of Miss Veedol. He is remembered more in Japan than he is in the United States. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Only a few aviation experts can tell you about Charles E. Taylor. His friends called him “Charlie.” He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen sixty-five. On December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three, Orville Wright became the first human to fly in a powered aircraft. Orville and his brother Wilber designed and built the aircraft. Charlie Taylor built the small gasoline engine they used. The three men designed the engine. They drew pictures on pieces of paper. Then Charlie Taylor built the needed part. He made the complete engine in only six weeks using almost no equipment. Today, you can see the Wright airplane when you visit the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Just to the left of the controls is Charlie Taylor’s very important engine. VOICE ONE: Many of the men and women in the Aviation Hall of Fame designed, built and flew different kinds of airplanes. Some are honored for their service to the United States in time of war. Some are honored for the famous aircraft they designed. Others for the aviation companies they started. Members of the Aviation Hall of Fame helped make flying safe for the public. Some were killed in their efforts to improve aviation. And some of those honored have led the way to the exploration of space. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can learn about other American heroes on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Aphorisms: How a Few Words Can Speak Volumes About Life and Living
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is James Geary, author of a new book called "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists." RS: It's his second book on aphorisms. He calls these sayings "the shortest literary form on the planet" -- and we did find some even shorter than the seventeen syllables in Japanese haiku. Yet even as a lifelong collector of aphorisms, he says he has found it impossible to come up with a short definition. AA: So James Geary has drafted what he calls Geary's Five Laws of the Aphorism. JAMES GEARY: "The first law is it must be brief. The second law is it must be definitive. That is, there's no ifs, ands or buts about aphorisms. They just tell it like it is. The third law is it must be personal. That is, it must have an author. And that's the difference between an aphorism and a proverb. Proverbs are just aphorisms that have had the identity of the author worn away by so much use. "The fourth law is it must be philosophical. It has to make you think. That's the difference between an aphorism and a platitude or a bromide. And the fifth law is it must have a twist. That can be a psychological twist or a linguistic twist or even a sort of humorous twist that gives it that something special, that sting in the tail that really makes an aphorism stick in your head." AA: "And you just perfectly described an aphorism from Steven Wright, the American comic -- JAMES GEARY: "Yeah!" AA: "He said, 'The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.'" I had to think about that one." JAMES GEARY: "Exactly! But it's a good example of how aphorisms are also like jokes because, just as with a really good joke, you have to think about it. And then there comes that moment of enlightenment when you get it, there's a punch line, just like you get a joke." AA: "When you realize that the first mouse tripped the mouse trap -- JAMES GEARY: "Exactly!" AA: "And the second mouse came along and got the cheese." JAMES GEARY: "Precisely. Steven Wright is a wonderful aphorist. Another great one of his is, 'When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.'" RS: "How did you get obsessed, you said you were obsessed with aphorisms -- " JAMES GEARY: "I am." RS: "Why?" JAMES GEARY: "Well, when I was a kid, my parents were faithful subscribers to Reader's Digest and at the tender young age of eight I turned the Quotable Quotes section and something about the magical wordplay of aphorisms, the way that so much is compressed into so few words, the sense of humor that you often find in aphorisms, it just really entranced me. And that's how I became a collector. "Plus, I think because one of the five laws is that aphorisms are personal, they have an author, when you read a collection of aphorisms by a single person, then you really get a flavor of that person as an aphorist, much more than you would if you just read one isolated aphorism." AA: "Well certainly, it's the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." JAMES GEARY: "Exactly. Now, oooh, I can't think of who that was!" AA: "Aristotle." JAMES GEARY: "Oh, very good!" AA: "Under Philosophers and Theorists, page three hundred nineteen here." JAMES GEARY: "Well, Aristotle, Plato. The aphorism is not only the shortest literary art form, it is also the oldest literary art form -- written literary art form, I should say. And it started back [in] five thousand B.C. with the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Chinese. The very first written texts are a collection of aphorisms." AA: "Do you think these started out with the intention to be these sort of philosophical statements? Or did they just sort of happen to strike the listener that way?" JAMES GEARY: "No, I think they did start out that way. The very first Egyptian texts, for example, are collections of little sayings that a father has written to his son. You know, words of wisdom, words to live by, much as people are still doing today -- the way that every family has a classic saying or two that gets passed down from generation to generation. My father, for example, he was fond of saying 'Little said, easily mended.'" RS: "Are aphorisms universal? Do they evolve over time, or can anyone from any culture understand them?" JAMES GEARY: "Yes, I think they are universal, in the sense that I think every culture and every language has its own collection of aphorisms. Aphorisms, they speak to sort of archetypes of human experience, so the basics of living and dying, the essential things that happen to us along the way. This is what aphorisms speak to, and I think this is why they're so potent and powerful." RS: Next week, listen for more examples from "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists." James Geary is an American journalist who lives in London. AA: And that's all for WORDMASTER this week. To learn more about American English, check out the WORDMASTER website at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Of 'Knockout' Mice and the Men Who Developed Them
* Byline: The three winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine found a way to target individual genes for study. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. This year's Nobel Prize in medicine will go to three researchers who found a way to learn about the duties of individual genes. They discovered how to inactivate, or knock out, single genes in laboratory animals. The result is known as "knockout mice."? The Karolinska Institute named the winners last week. Two Americans, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, will share the one and one-half million dollar prize with Martin Evans of Britain. They will receive what is officially called the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on December tenth. In the nineteen eighties, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies both studied cells in mice to find how to target individual genes for changes. But the kinds of cells they independently studied could not be used to create gene-targeted animals. Martin Evans had the solution. He developed embryonic stem cells that could produce mice that carried new genetic material. The research greatly expanded knowledge about embryonic development as well as aging and disease. It led to a new technology -- gene targeting. And this has already produced five hundred mouse models of human conditions. Knockout mice are used for general research and for the development of new treatments. International efforts aim to make them available in the near future for all genes. Mario Capecchi is a researcher at the University of Utah. He was born in Italy in nineteen thirty-seven. He was homeless and on his own for years as a young boy. His mother had been sent to a Nazi German death camp. But she survived, and after she was freed she found him in a hospital. He was nine years old and being treated for severe malnutrition. They came to the United States where he entered school for the first time. Later, he became an American citizen. Oliver Smithies was born in Britain in nineteen twenty-five and also became an American citizen. He is a professor at the University of North Carolina. And, at age fifty, he learned to fly. He flies a motor glider and small airplanes. Martin Evans was born in nineteen forty-one, also in Britain. He is director of the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University in Wales. He called winning the Nobel Prize "a boyhood dream come true." And that's the VOA Special English Health report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: A Difficult Life for English Settlers
* Byline: Survival required help from American Indians. Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in the New World, and tobacco became a profitable crop. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the first permanent English settlements in North America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World, although it was too weak to do this openly at first. But Queen Elizabeth of England supported such explorations as early as the fifteen seventies. Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts. He did not establish any lasting settlement. He died as he was returning to England. Gilbert's half brother Sir Walter Raleigh continued his work. Raleigh sent a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America. He called the land Virginia to honor England's unmarried Queen Elizabeth. In fifteen eighty-five, about one-hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast of the present day state of North Carolina. These settlers returned to England a year later. Another group went to Roanoke the next year. This group included a number of women and children. But the supply ships Raleigh sent to the colony failed to arrive. When help got there in fifteen-ninety, none of the settlers could be found. History experts still are not sure what happened. Some research suggests that at least some of the settlers became part of the Indian tribe that lived in the area. VOICE TWO: One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack of the Spanish Navy against England in fifteen eighty-eight. King Phillip of Spain had decided to invade England. But the small English ships combined with a fierce storm defeated the huge Spanish fleet. As a result, Spain was no longer able to block English exploration. England discovered that supporting colonies so far away was extremely costly. So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do this. It was not until after her death in sixteen-oh-three that England began serious efforts to start colonies in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In sixteen-oh-six, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groups permission to establish colonies in Virginia, the area claimed by England. Companies were organized to carry out the move. The London Company sent one hundred settlers to Virginia in sixteen-oh-six. The group landed there in May, sixteen-oh-seven and founded Jamestown. It was the first permanent English colony in the new world. The colony seemed about to fail from the start. The settlers did not plant their crops in time so they soon had no food. Their leaders lacked the farming and building skills needed to survive on the land. More than half the settlers died during the first winter. VOICE TWO: The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing about living in such a wild place. They wanted the settlers to search for gold, and explore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East. One settler knew this was wrong. His name was Captain John Smith. He helped the colonists build houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians. Still, the Jamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, lack of food and Indian attacks. The London Company sent six thousand settlers to Virginia between sixteen-oh-six and sixteen twenty-two. More than four thousand died during that time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A cooking fire in a re-creation of a Powhatan Indian villageHistory experts say that all the settlers surely would have died without the help of the local Powhatan Indians. The Indians gave the settlers food. They taught them how to live in the forest. And the Powhatan Indians showed the settlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building. The settlers accepted the Indians' help. Then, however, the settlers took whatever else they wanted by force. In sixteen twenty-two, the local Indians attacked the settlers for interfering with Indian land. Three hundred forty settlers died. The colonists answered the attack by destroying the Indian tribes living along Virginia's coast. The settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by sixteen twenty-four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop, tobacco. VOICE TWO: The other early English settlements in North America were much to the north of Virginia, in the present state of Massachusetts. The people who settled there left England for different reasons than those who settled in Jamestown. The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money for English businesses. The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religious freedom. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman Catholic Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant religion in England. It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, however, was similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church. Not all Protestants liked this. Some wanted to leave the Anglican Church and form religious groups of their own. In sixteen-oh-six, members of one such group in the town of Scrooby did separate from the Anglican Church. About one hundred twenty-five people left England for Holland. They found problems there too, so they decided to move again...to the New World. These people were called pilgrims, because that is the name given to people who travel for religious purposes. VOICE TWO: An artist's depiction of the MayflowerAbout thirty-five pilgrims were among the passengers on a ship called the Mayflower in sixteen twenty. It left England to go to Virginia. But the Mayflower never reached Virginia. Instead, it landed to the north, on Cape Cod Bay. The group decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown. The pilgrims and the others on the Mayflower saw a need for rules that would help them live together peacefully. They believed they were not under English control since they did not land in Virginia. So they wrote a plan of government, called the Mayflower Compact. It was the first such plan ever developed in the New World. They elected a man called William Bradford as the first governor of their Plymouth Colony. We know about the first thirty years of the Plymouth Colony because William Bradford described it in his book, Of Plymouth Plantation. As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth died the first winter. The survivors were surprised to find an Indian who spoke English. His name was Squanto. He had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and had lived in England before returning to his people. The Pilgrims believed Squanto was sent to them from God. He made it possible for them to communicate with the native people. He showed them the best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them. He provided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive. The settlers invited the Indians to a feast in the month of November to celebrate their successes and to thank Squanto for his help. Americans remember that celebration every year when they observe the Thanksgiving holiday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England. One large group was called the Puritans. Like the pilgrims, the Puritans did not agree with the Anglican Church. But they did not want to separate from it. The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy. Their desire for this change made them unwelcome in England. The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in sixteen thirty. By the end of that summer, one thousand Puritans had landed in the northeastern part of the new country. The new English King, Charles, had given permission for them to settle the Massachusetts Bay area.VOICE TWO: The Puritans began leaving England in large groups. Between sixteen thirty and sixteen forty, twenty thousand sailed for New England. They risked their lives on the dangerous trip. They wanted to live among people who believed as they did, people who honored the rules of the Bible. Puritans believed that the Bible was the word of God. The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people in the New World. They were America's native Indians. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE:This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich KleinfeldtVOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Voice of America Special English program about the history of the United States. --- Program #3 in THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Colleges See Green in Sustainability Studies
* Byline: Schools around the US are developing new programs related to the environment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We talked last week about a movement to build environmentally friendly school buildings in the United States. Today we look at the spread of "green" studies in higher education. Dominican University of California has what it calls the Green MBA program. John Stayton, left, is the director.Many colleges and universities around the country now offer programs in sustainability studies. These programs combine environmental science, social science, economics, agriculture, renewable energy and other subjects. Antioch University in New Hampshire and Maharishi University of Management in Iowa are just two of the schools with sustainability programs. At Dominican University of California, near San Francisco, students can receive a master's of business administration in sustainable enterprise. School officials say their Green MBA brings?together the aims of the financial world with those of the social justice and environmental movements. This year, Arizona State University opened its Global Institute of Sustainability. The aim is to do research across many departments, then bring that information to schools, businesses and industries. Arizona State has also launched a School of Sustainability. Like many sustainability programs, this one grew out of an existing environmental studies program. The school is just starting its first academic year. Students can take courses towards a master's degree or a doctorate in sustainability. And the school will soon offer undergraduate programs. Officials say the School of Sustainability aims to educate a new generation of leaders to solve environmental, social and economic problems. But experts sometimes question whether students who study sustainability will be able to sustain themselves by finding jobs. Charles Redman is the director of the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. He says more and more local governments around the country are forming sustainability committees that need environmental experts. And he says companies increasingly want experts who know how to make businesses as environmentally responsible as possible. He cannot talk yet about graduates of his own school, since it has just started. But he says he does know that among colleges and universities, there is a high demand for professors who can teach sustainability. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Dana Demange. Last week's report about green schools can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Record Company Gives Listeners a World of Different Musical Traditions
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from a record company that helps listeners explore different musical traditions … And we answer a question about Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Foqrul Islam asks about the huge American discount store called Wal-Mart. The first Wal-Mart store opened in nineteen sixty-two in Arkansas. Businessman Sam Walton believed a store could succeed by selling more products at lower prices than other stores. His idea proved correct. Lower prices brought more people into the store and resulted in more sales. Within five years, the company had twenty-four stores in Arkansas. Wal-Mart expanded outside the state in nineteen sixty-eight, and began trading stock in nineteen seventy-two. Wal-Mart opened its first international store in Mexico in nineteen ninety-one. Today, Wal-Mart is one of the largest companies in the world. It sells more than three hundred billion dollars worth of goods in more than six thousand stores. It employs almost two million people in thirteen countries. People shop at Wal-Mart mainly for the low prices. The stores also offer many different kinds of products, from food to furniture to clothing. However, some people refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. They say the company pays low wages, is not fair to women and treats its workers poorly. Wal-Mart also has been criticized for opposing unions and buying many of its products outside the United States. Many Americans oppose the building of Wal-Mart stores in their communities because they say the huge stores ruin local businesses. Wal-Mart has had other problems recently. Last year, the company closed its stores in Germany and South Korea because of poor sales. In August, Wal-Mart announced that sales at stores open for at least a year increased only about two percent in the business period that ended in June. That was the worst showing in the company’s history. And its share price on the stock exchange has not increased since two thousand. Recent news reports say Wal-Mart is trying to improve the public's ideas about the company by becoming more environmentally friendly. Last month, Wal-Mart announced that it is joining with the Carbon Disclosure Project to measure the amount of energy used to create the products it sells. Officials say Wal-Mart wants its suppliers to reduce the amount of harmful gases they release into the atmosphere. And they say that Wal-Mart wants other large companies to do the same. Putumayo World Music HOST: Putumayo World Music helps listeners explore different musical traditions. The record company recently released an album called “World Hits.”? The eleven songs on this album are world music songs that became internationally successful. They are called "crossover hits" because of their popularity in both local and international markets. Putumayo says the songs show that people love good music no matter where it comes from. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was the song “7 Seconds” performed by the Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour and the Swedish-born singer Neneh Cherry. Youssou N’Dour was born and raised in Dakar. He started singing as a young man and soon became one of the most popular singers in Senegal. Later, he performed around Europe and recorded songs with the famous singers Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. The song “7 Seconds” sold over two million copies around the world, making it one of Youssou N’Dour’s most financially successful single recordings. Putumayo World Music also has an interesting success story. Dan Storper started the company in nineteen seventy-five. He owned several Putumayo stores that sold handmade clothing and objects from South America and other parts of the world. By the early nineteen nineties, Mister Storper had seven stores. One day he heard African singers performing outside in a park in San Francisco, California. He bought their album and started playing it in his stores. His workers and customers loved the music. Dan Storper soon started Putumayo World Records to support international musicians and introduce people to new musical traditions. The company has released one hundred fifty recordings. Some albums include the songs of one artist. Other albums combine different artists from one area of the world. The company’s goal is to make music that is “guaranteed to make you feel good.” Dan Storper sold his stores in nineteen ninety-seven and now works on his music business full-time. He says that great music helps connect people to other cultures in a good way. He says this helps people see past the bad images of war, poverty and disease that are so often in the news. (MUSIC) That was the song “(You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back” performed by Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Peter Tosh was one of the most popular reggae musicians in Jamaica. He and a group of reggae musicians including Bob Marley created the band called the Wailers in the nineteen sixties. When Peter Tosh left the Wailers, he continued recording on his own. His performance at the One Love Peace Concert in nineteen seventy-eight caught the attention of Mick Jagger. Peter Tosh soon started recording and performing with the Rolling Stones. Since its beginning, Putumayo has taken on other projects. In two thousand, the company started a one-hour-long weekly radio show called Putumayo World Music Hour. The show plays music from different cultures by unknown as well as famous artists. Over one hundred fifty radio stations around the world broadcast the music show. The company even makes a series of world music records for children on its Putumayo Kids label. Putumayo also gives money to non-profit organizations around the world. For example, part of the profit from the “World Hits” record will be given to World Learning. This international organization supports intercultural learning and economic development through its training and education programs. We leave you with the song “Lambada.” It was first recorded by a Bolivian band. This version was made in nineteen eighty-nine by the French band Kaoma. The song is performed by the Brazilian singer Loalwa Braz. “Lambada” became a huge hit, first in France and then around the world. Its lively beat makes you want to get up and start dancing. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 2007 Nobel in Economics: Designing Better Markets
* Byline: Three Americans -- including the oldest-ever Nobel Prize winner -- will share award for creating mechanism design theory. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many things perform effectively but not efficiently. To be efficient means to produce a desired effect with as little waste as possible. How can markets be designed to make them more efficient? This is a question that the three winners of this year's Nobel Prize in economics have tried to answer. They established mechanism design theory. Leonid HurwiczIt began with work by Leonid Hurwicz of the University of Minnesota in nineteen sixty. Eric Maskin of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and Roger Myerson of the University of Chicago further developed it. The three Americans will share the award worth about one and a half million dollars. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the winners this week. In everyday life, there are many things that get in the way of efficient markets. There may not be true competition. Buyers and sellers may keep some information private from each other. Also, the production and use of goods may result in outcomes like pollution or social costs. Eric MaskinMechanism design theory permits economists to identify situations where markets work well and where they do not. For example, it shows why an auction is generally the most efficient way to sell many kinds of goods. In fact, experts say the theory explains why a version called a double auction is often the best way to trade. In a double auction, buyers and sellers both make price bids. The Swedish academy says the theory also explains why there is often no good market solution to providing some goods, like uncrowded roads. Mechanism design theory is part of the wider economic idea of game theory and it has many uses -- including in political science. Roger MyersonRoger Myerson even built a mathematical model for elections. He found a voting system that he says would have helped Florida avoid its problems in the two thousand presidential election. The Nobel Prize award ceremonies will take place on December tenth. The official name of the economics award is the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Swedish central bank created the prize in nineteen sixty-eight. Leo Hurwicz was born in Russia in nineteen seventeen. He developed new ways to understand markets. He began his work after World War Two. At ninety years old, he is the oldest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: As Communist Party Meets in Beijing, Eyes Look to 2012 Change
* Byline: sults of the 17th national congress will guide China for the next five years, and intensify predictions about who will be its next president. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The opening ceremony of the 17th Communist Party Congress in the Great Hall of the PeopleChina's Communist Party is meeting this week in Beijing. More than two thousand delegates are electing party leaders and deciding policies that will guide China for the next five years. The seventeenth party congress comes at a time of increasing social unrest in China. The meeting opened on Monday and will end on Sunday. Party congresses are held every five years. Much of the discussion is held in secret. The delegates are expected to elect President Hu Jintao to a second five-year term. The results of the party congress will intensify predictions about China's next leaders after Mister Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao retire in five years. President Hu JintaoIn his opening speech on Monday, the president included among his goals a promise to fight corruption. Some political observers, however, noted that corruption can be especially difficult to fight in a one-party form of government. There are few checks and balances on local officials. Other problems caused by twenty years of fast economic growth in China include pollution, high prices and disputes over land. Violent protests and riots have taken place in rural areas. Officials heavily increased security in Beijing for the party congress. Human rights groups say several dissidents and other activists have been detained or questioned in recent weeks. Last week, twelve thousand people signed an open letter demanding reforms and help for their problems. Activists say the leader of the group was detained. Past congresses have resulted in major changes in the party. For example, at the seventh party congress in nineteen forty-five, Mao Zedong's "thought" became the official thinking of the party. At the nineteen eighty-two meeting, Deng Xiaoping’s form of socialism started the economic reforms that continue to drive China’s growth. The Communist Party has ruled China since nineteen forty-nine. That was when the People's Liberation Army defeated the Chinese Nationalists in a civil war. The Nationalists fled to Formosa, now called Taiwan. In recent months tensions between China and Taiwan have increased following Taiwan's latest attempt to join the United Nations. China considers Taiwan a part of Chinese territory awaiting reunification – by force, if necessary. In his speech Monday, President Hu warned Taiwan against declaring independence. But the statement differed from past speeches. It did not directly threaten the use of force to bring Taiwan under Chinese rule. President Hu also called for negotiations on a peace agreement if Taiwan accepts the idea of "one China." A Taiwanese spokesman said Taiwan will not talk with a government that suppresses Tibet, kills its own citizens and supports the military rulers in Burma. And President Chen Shui-bian said a peace treaty based on the "one China" idea would really be a surrender agreement. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wilma Rudolph, 1940-1994: 'The Fastest Woman in the World'
* Byline: She was the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE:? I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: They called her “the Black Pearl,” “the Black Gazelle” and “the fastest woman in the world.”? In nineteen sixty, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She was an extraordinary American athlete. She also did a lot to help young athletes succeed. Wilma Rudolph was born in nineteen forty, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was born too early and only weighed two kilograms. She had many illnesses when she was very young, including pneumonia and scarlet fever. She also had polio, which damaged her left leg. When she was six years old, she began to wear metal leg braces because she could not use that leg. VOICE TWO: Wilma Rudolph was born into a very large, poor, African-American family. She was the twentieth of twenty-two children. Since she was sick most of the time, her brothers and sisters all helped to take care of her. They took turns rubbing her crippled leg every night. They also made sure she did not try to take off her leg braces. Every week, Wilma's mother drove her to a special doctor eighty kilometers away. Here, she got physical treatments to help heal her leg. She later said: “My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.” VOICE ONE: Soon, her family’s attention and care showed results. By the time she was nine years old, she no longer needed her leg braces. Wilma was very happy, because she could now run and play like other children. When she was eleven years old, her brothers set up a basketball hoop in the backyard. After that, she played basketball every day. As a teenager, Wilma joined the girl’s basketball team at Burt High School. C.C. Gray was the coach who supervised the team. He gave her the nickname “Skeeter.” She did very well in high school basketball. She once scored forty-nine points in one game, which broke the Tennessee state record. Many people noted that Wilma was a very good basketball player and a very good athlete. One of these people was Ed Temple, who coached the track team of runners at Tennessee State University. Ed Temple asked C.C. Gray to organize a girl’s track team at the high school. He thought Wilma Rudolph would make a very good runner. She did very well on the new track team. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Wilma Rudolph went to her first Olympic Games when she was sixteen years old and still in high school. She competed in the nineteen fifty-six games in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest member of the United States team. She won a bronze medal, or third place, in the sprint relay event. In nineteen fifty-seven, Wilma Rudolph started Tennessee State University, where she joined the track team. The coach, Ed Temple, worked very hard for the girls on the team. He drove them to track competitions and made improvements to the running track with his own money. However, he was not an easy coach. For example, he would make the members of the team run one extra time around the track for every minute they were late to practice. Wilma Rudolph trained hard while in college. She did very well at her track competitions against teams from other colleges. In nineteen sixty, she set the world record for the fastest time in the two thousand meter event. She said: “I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened.” VOICE ONE: That same year, Wilma Rudolph went to the Olympics again, this time in Rome, Italy. She won two gold medals -- first place -- in the one hundred meter and the two hundred meter races. She set a new Olympic record of twenty-three point two seconds for the two hundred meter dash. Her team also won the gold medal in the four hundred meter sprint relay event, setting a world record of forty-four point five seconds. These three gold medals made her one of the most popular athletes at the Rome games. These victories made people call her the “world’s fastest woman.” (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Wilma Rudolph received a lot of attention from the press and the public, but she did not forget her teammates. She said that her favorite event was the relay, because she could share the victory with her teammates Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones. All four women were from Tennessee State University. The Associated Press named Rudolph the U.S. Female Athlete of the year. She also appeared on television many times. Sports fans in the United States and all over the world loved and respected her. She said: “The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wilma Rudolph was a fine example for many people inside and outside the world of sports. She supported the civil rights movement -- the struggle for equality between white and black people. When she came home from the Olympics, she told the governor of Tennessee that she would not attend a celebration where white and black people were separated. As a result, her homecoming parade and dinner were the first events in her hometown of Clarksville that white people and black people were able to attend together. After she retired from sports, Wilma Rudolph completed her education at Tennessee State University. She got her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and became a teacher. She returned to coach the track team at Burt High School. She also worked as a commentator for women’s track competitions on national television. In nineteen sixty-three she married her high school boyfriend Robert Eldridge. They had four children, but later ended their marriage. Wilma Rudolph won many important athletic awards. She was voted into the Black Athlete’s Hall of Fame and the United?States Olympic Hall of Fame. She was also voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. In nineteen seventy-seven, she wrote a book about her life called “Wilma.”? She wrote about her childhood problems and her athletic successes. NBC later made the book into a movie for television. VOICE TWO: Rudolph said her greatest success was creating the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in nineteen eighty-one. This organization helped children in local communities to become athletes. She always wanted to help young athletes recognize how much they could succeed in their lives. She said: “The triumph can’t be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.” Rudolph also influenced many athletes. One of them was another African American runner, Florence Griffith Joyner. In nineteen eighty-eight, Griffith Joyner became the second American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She went on to win a total of six Olympic medals. Wilma Rudolph was very happy to see other African American female athletes succeed. She said: “I thought I’d never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner – every time she ran, I ran.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wilma Rudolph died of brain cancer in nineteen ninety-four in Nashville, Tennessee. She was fifty-four years old. She influenced athletes, African Americans and women around the world. She was an important example of how anyone can overcome barriers and make their dreams come true. Her nineteen sixty Olympics teammate, Bill Mulliken, said: "She was beautiful; she was nice, and she was the best." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Erin Braswell and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can learn more about famous Americans at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Rocket Scientist: You Do Not Have to Be Extremely Intelligent to Understand This
* Byline: Rocket scientists can have problems just like everyone else. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Hello. I'm Phil Murray with WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, a program in Special English. (MUSIC) "You do not need to be a rocket scientist."? Americans hear these words often. People say them in schools, offices and factories. Broadcasters on radio and television use them. This is how you might hear the words used. Workers in an office are afraid to try to use their new computer system. Their employer tells them not to be foolish. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to learn this," he says. Or, high school students cannot seem to understand something their teacher is explaining. "Come on," she says. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand this." Or, a company that makes soap is trying to sell its product on television. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that our soap cleans better," the company says. These words send a strong message. They say that you do not need to be extremely intelligent to understand something. How did the expression begin? No one seems to know for sure. But an official of the American space agency, NASA, says the expression just grew. It grew, he says, because rocket scientists probably are the most intelligent people around. Not everyone would agree. Some people might be considered more intelligent than rocket scientists. For example, a person who speaks and reads fifteen languages, or a medical doctor who operates on the brain. Still, many people would agree that there is something special about scientists who build rockets. Maybe it has to do with the mystery of space travel. Moving pictures from before World War Two showed a man named Buck Rogers landing on the planet Mars. He was a hero who could defeat any enemy from outer space. The rocket scientist is a different kind of hero. He or she makes space travel possible. Rocket scientists, however, can have problems just like everyone else. A Washington rocket scientist tells about a launch that was postponed many, many times. Finally, everything seemed right. Mechanical failures had been repaired. The weather was good. The scientists had planned that part of the rocket would fall into the ocean after the launch. All ships and boats within many kilometers of the danger area had been warned. But in the last few seconds a small boat entered the area. Once again, the launch was postponed. When the work goes well, most rocket scientists enjoy their jobs. One scientist said, "As a child I loved to build rockets. Now I am grown. I still love to build rockets. And now I get paid for it." (MUSIC) This program, Words and Their Stores, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Phil Murray. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hunger: New Causes for Same Old Problem
* Byline: Poverty, disease and conflict have always threatened food security, but now risks also come from rising food prices and climate change. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Three out of four of the world's hungry live in rural areasThe United Nations says more than eight hundred fifty million people do not have enough food. For this year's World Food Day observance last week, VOA reporters examined the current causes of hunger. Poverty, disease and conflict have historically threatened food security. Now, rising food prices and issues like climate change add to these threats. A new study warns of future losses in world food production because of crop damage from changes in the weather. William Cline wrote the study from the Center for Global Development in Washington. He says countries closest to the equator will be hardest hit. For example, he predicts that if nothing is done, global warming could cut India's food production by up to forty percent by the year twenty eighty. Africa and Latin America could lose twenty percent or more. Governments concerned about global warming and dependence on oil are investing in biofuels from corn and other plants. But Lester Brown at the Earth Policy Institute in Washington says demand for fuel crops is pushing up food prices. He says the world's eight hundred sixty million automobile owners are now in direct competition with the two billion poorest people. This comes as grain supplies are at their lowest level in years. Experts see a number of reasons. These include not enough investment in agricultural technology. A loss of farmland to development. Droughts and floods made worse by climate change. And, growing competition for water. Population growth also means a greater demand on food supplies. The United Nations predicts a population of more than eight billion by the year twenty thirty. By that time, demand for animal products could double, led by growing economies like China and India. Francois Le Gal of the World Bank says climate change and the globalization of trade raise the risk of spreading animal diseases. Experts say most countries are not ready for a health crisis caused by a disease jumping to humans. And, finally, they say the growing population of cities is adding to the world's hunger problem. Danielle Nierenberg at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington says the poor can spend fifty to eighty percent of their money on food. She points out that city people do not have farm animals to sell in times of need. So they are especially threatened when prices go up. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Dancers, Artists and Merry-Go-Round Lovers Can All Enjoy This Park
* Byline: Each year a half-million people visit historic Glen Echo Park along the Potomac River in Maryland. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. ?VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program we explore the history of Glen Echo Park in Glen Echo, Maryland. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: On a warm autumn day, men and women of all ages are gathered in the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park near Washington, D.C. Some are dressed like professional dancers. Others are in blue jeans. A few have taken off their shoes. Social dancing is a favorite activity at the park. As the LaSalle Dance Orchestra plays, dancers turn and swing their partners. Some people look as if they have been dancing forever. Others are learners. A few look a little uneasy. Men make a bridge with their arms and their partners step underneath. Some women have on wide skirts that make a swooshing sound as they pass under the bridge. Colors fade and mix as the beat goes on. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most of the people brought a partner -- their husband or wife or a friend. A woman is dancing with her young daughter. The woman is beautiful and wears a floor-length dress and long white gloves. The little girl also wears a floor-length dress. She is smiling and laughing. Once or twice the child sits down on the dance floor. VOICE ONE: A man steps away from the dance floor to take a break for a few minutes. He explains that he always comes to dance at Glen Echo. But he says he will never compete on any of those dancing shows that have become popular on American television. Beginners in Spanish Ballroom can get help. There are teachers who give lessons. And there are people known as "dance buddies." These are volunteers who can help newcomers keep in step. VOICE TWO: Dance bands at Glen Echo play foxtrot, waltzes and tangos. (MUSIC) There is also square dancing and contra dancing. These are group dances that involve changing partners. And bands often play zydeco, Cajun, rock and roll and salsa. (MUSIC) This New Year’s Eve, twenty-five dollars will buy a lesson, a night of swing dancing and light refreshments. George Gee and the Jump, Jivin’ Wailers will perform. VOICE ONE: The Spanish Ballroom has been restored. But with a little imagination, you can still hear the famous musicians who performed long ago. Bandleaders like Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman and Stan Kenton. Bill Haley and His Comets appeared during the early days of rock 'n' roll. (MUSIC) Dance bands at Glen Echo also play in the Bumper Car Pavilion. This was where drivers crashed little cars into each other during Glen Echo’s amusement park days. VOICE TWO: Today the arts are a driving force at Glen Echo Park. Visitors can paint, make pottery or improve their photography. Families enjoy children’s plays at the Adventure Theatre and the Puppet Company. There are also seasonal festivals like "Fall Frolic." This day of crafts, theater performances, Halloween activities and dance is set for October twenty-seventh. Glen Echo Park sits on about four hectares of land along the Potomac River. Each year a half-million people come to the park for events and programs. But some visitors just like to sit in the sun and feed the squirrels. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two wealthy brothers, Edward and Edwin Baltzley, provided the land for Glen Echo in the nineteenth century. They wanted it to be an education center called a Chautauqua. Chautauqua was a popular movement in the United States at the time. It gave working people in crowded cities a chance to learn and to experience nature. The Glen Echo Chautauqua opened in eighteen ninety-one. There were classes in languages, science and other subjects. VOICE TWO: A year later, Glen Echo became a home for traveling shows. Then it grew into a small amusement park, and later a bigger amusement park. But not all of its history was fun and games. For years the park did not admit black people. In nineteen sixty, civil rights activists demonstrated at the park. The next year, Glen Echo opened to everyone. VOICE ONE: Five years later, in nineteen sixty-six, there was violence at the park on the day after Easter. Some people called it a race riot. Whatever it was, it did nothing to help a little park that had been losing popularity anyway. In nineteen sixty-eight, the park closed. Many rides and attractions were sold or destroyed. VOICE TWO: The federal government became the owner of the Glen Echo land in nineteen seventy. The government along with neighbors of the park wanted to limit development near the Potomac River. The National Park Service now operates Glen Echo in cooperation with a group called the Glen Echo Partnership for Arts and Culture. The park is in Montgomery County, Maryland. The county created the nonprofit group. The partnership manages Glen Echo’s programs, fund raising and marketing. The National Park Service takes care of historical presentation, safety, security, resource protection and grounds keeping. VOICE ONE: A good way to picture the early days of Glen Echo is to walk around its historic area. The Spanish Ballroom and the Bumper Car Pavilion are part of that area. But there is also the Yellow Barn, now a center for artists. The Picnic Grove is a popular place for outdoor meals. The Arcade now houses photography projects, art exhibits and theaters? instead of games. And there is the historic Clara Barton House. Clara Barton was the nurse who established the American Red Cross. VOICE TWO: The Crystal Pool at Glen Echo Park was big enough to hold three thousand people. Now, instead of water and swimmers, the pool is filled with dirt. Weeds and some wildflowers grow out of the top. A tall woman wearing sunglasses remembers that as a small child, she would always ask her mother to let her swim in the pool. But that was at a time when many children were getting sick from polio. Doctors were advising parents to keep their children away from crowds. So her mother always said no. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Organ music leads visitors to the Dentzel Carousel. Neighbors of Glen Echo Park worked hard to keep it after the park closed. People called it the jewel of the park. A Glen Echo town councilwoman named Nancy Long led a successful drive to buy it back. Supporters organized to restore the carousel. That project took many years and a lot of money. Now it operates on weekends from May through September. On an early fall day, the line for this merry-go-round is not too long. Most of the people waiting are little children. But older riders are excited too. The ticket-taker smiles and says not to worry. She says carousels were really created for adults. VOICE TWO:There are four ostriches on the carousel. The birds are finely carved and painted. They share the merry-go-round with horses, rabbits, a giraffe, a deer, a lion and a tiger. The ostriches go up and down as the carousel turns. A few horses away, another adult is riding a rabbit. On a carousel, grabbing the brass ring as you pass it is supposed to win you a prize and a happy future. The man on the rabbit tries to pull the small brass ring but he cannot reach it. You also try. No one can reach it. It is there only for show. But then, you think maybe the visit to Glen Echo Park is the real brass ring. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can learn more about Glen Echo Park by clicking on a link at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Musical Training Found Important for Communications Skills
* Byline: Also: How sleeping for a few minutes during the day can improve your health. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week, we will tell about a new finding about the value of musical training. We will also tell how a short rest during the day can help your heart. And, we tell about an American law that protects all kinds of plants and wildlife. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American scientists say musical training seems to improve communication skills. They found that developing musical skills involves the same process in the brain as learning how to speak. The scientists say that could help children with learning disabilities. Nina Kraus is a neurobiologist at Northwestern University in Illinois. She says musical training involves putting together different kinds of information. She says the process involves hearing music, looking at musical notes, touching an instrument and watching other musicians. She says the process is not much different from learning how to speak. Both involve different senses. VOICE TWO: Professor Krauss says musical training and learning to speak each make us think about what we are doing. She says speech and music pass through a structure of the nervous system called the brain stem. The brain stem controls our ability to hear. Until recently, experts have thought the brain stem could not be developed or changed. But Professor Krauss and her team found that musical training can improve a person's brain stem activity. Their study was reported in the Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences. VOICE ONE: The study involved individuals with different levels of musical ability. They were asked to wear an electrical device that measures brain activity. The Individuals wore the electrode while they watched a video of someone speaking and a person playing a musical instrument -- the cello. Professor Krauss says cellos have sound qualities similar to some of the sounds that are important with speech. The study found that the more years of training people had, the more sensitive they were to the sound and beat of the music. Those who were involved in musical activities were the same people in whom the improvement of sensory events was the strongest. Professor Kraus says the study shows the importance of musical training to children with learning disabilities. She says using music to improve listening skills could mean they hear sentences and better understand facial expressions. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Medical experts say most Americans do not get enough sleep. They say more Americans need to rest for a short period in the middle of the day. They are advising people to sleep lightly before continuing with other activities. One study earlier this year found that persons who sleep for a few minutes during the day were less likely to die of heart disease. The study followed more than twenty-three thousand Greek adults for about six years. Adults who rested for half an hour at least three times a week had a thirty-seven percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who did not nap. Study organizers said the strongest evidence was in working men. The organizers said naps might improve health by reducing tension caused by work. VOICE ONE: Some European and Latin American businesses have supported the idea of napping for many years. They urge people to leave work, go home and have a nap before returning. In the United States, some companies let workers rest briefly in their offices. They believe this reduces mistakes and accidents, and also increases the amount of work a person can do. Sleep experts say it is likely that people make more mistakes at work than at other times. They say people should not carry out important duties when they feel sleepy. And they say the best thing to do is to take a nap. About twenty minutes of rest is all you need. Experts say this provides extra energy and can increase your effectiveness until the end of the day. But experts warn that a nap should last no more than twenty to thirty minutes. A longer nap will put the body into deep sleep. Waking up will be difficult. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have known for years that human life on Earth depends on the continued survival of many different kinds of plants, animals and other organisms. That is one reason why governments make laws to protect the environment. In the United States, a major environmental law is the Endangered Species Act of Nineteen Seventy-Three. Earlier laws provided only limited ways to protect native animals considered in danger. A conference in nineteen seventy-three led to a treaty that restricted international buying and selling of plants and animals believed to be harmed by trade. Later that year, the United States Congress approved the Endangered Species Act. VOICE ONE: The law expanded America's list of threatened animal species to include foreign animals. It defined the words endangered and threatened. The law extended protection to plants and other organisms. It also required federal agencies to carry out programs to help guarantee the survival of endangered and threatened species. Federal agencies were also barred from taking any step that would harm a listed species or destroy or change its living area. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service calls the Endangered Species Act one of the most far-reaching wildlife conservation laws ever approved. Its purpose is to protect endangered and threatened species and their environments. It also requires the government to take action to help such species. VOICE TWO: To get this protection, a plant or animal species must be added to the Federal list of wildlife and plants said to be in the greatest need of help. Each species is listed as either endangered or threatened. The two words describe two levels of threat. An endangered species is one that is close to disappearing from all or much of its living area. One that is threatened will likely become endangered if nothing is done. A species is added to the list when scientists have confirmed that its survival is threatened. The threats may include the destruction of its environment, disease and too much hunting or fishing. Government action is taken within one year of the proposal. The final listing of each proposed species may be published, withdrawn or extended. VOICE ONE: After a species has been added to the list, it can receive government protection. This includes prevention of harmful activities and restrictions on taking, transporting or selling a species. Officials say they want to increase the population of the listed species to a level where federal protection is no longer required. One recent success story took place earlier this year. In June, the Department of the Interior announced that it was removing the bald eagle from the list. Officials say the bald eagle was one of the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act. But action was taken to help it much earlier. Beginning in nineteen-forty, federal laws made it illegal to kill a bald eagle. But continued use of the insect poison DDT after World War Two made the birds' eggs unable to produce young. This reduced the number of bald eagles in the wild. VOICE TWO: The government banned the use of DDT in nineteen seventy-two. And federal agencies began other efforts to save the bald eagle. The results were so good that in nineteen ninety-five, officials lowered the threat level for the bald eagle from endangered to threatened. In nineteen sixty-three, only four hundred seventeen breeding pairs of bald eagles were known to exist in the lower forty-eight United States. Each breeding pair consisted of a fully-grown male and a female. Today, the forty-eight states are home to more than nine thousand pairs. Officials say the bald eagle in Alaska has never needed protection. They say between fifty and seventy thousand bald eagles live there. The bald eagle will continue to enjoy federal protection under the Bald Eagle Protection Act of Nineteen Forty. That law makes it illegal to kill, sell or in any other way hurt eagles, their nests or eggs. But American officials say they are now sure about the future security of the bald eagle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by SooJee Han and Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: World Bank Urges More Farm Aid; Is Criticized on Own Africa Record
* Byline: Lender uses its latest World Development Report to call for more investment in agriculture in developing countries. Earlier, the bank faced criticism from its Independent Evaluation Group. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The fall meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund just took place in Washington. Earlier, the bank used its latest World Development Report to call for more investment in agriculture in developing countries. World Bank Group Chief Economist Francois Bourguignon and Kathy Sierra, vice president of sustainable development, release the World Development ReportThe World Bank says agriculture must be at the center of development issues if international goals are to be met. These goals are to cut extreme poverty and hunger in half by two thousand fifteen. The report says agricultural and rural areas have suffered from underinvestment over the past twenty years. Seventy-five percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. But the bank says only four percent of official development assistance goes to agriculture in developing countries. Africa south of the Sahara depends on agriculture for economic growth. The World Bank says public spending there for farming is also just four percent of total government spending and taxes are high. Recently the World Bank has faced criticism of its assistance to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. That criticism comes in a new report from the bank's own Independent Evaluation Group. In the nineteen eighties and nineties African governments faced severe financial problems. As a result, the bank urged them to reduce their support for agriculture. The idea was that market forces would push agricultural growth. But the report says private business failed to replace government support for agriculture. The result? High fertilizer prices, reduced credit and lack of improved seeds. The report compares agricultural performance between nineteen eighty-seven and two thousand one with levels in South Asia and Latin America. Cereal production in South Asia, for example, increased while poverty levels decreased. But cereal production and poverty levels in southern Africa were unchanged. Cereal production was only one-third the level of Latin America. In many sub-Saharan nations, more than sixty percent of the people work in agriculture. Yet slow agricultural growth combined with fast population growth means that most countries are still trying to get enough food. World Bank officials differed with some of the observations in the report. But they say the bank is already investing more in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For links to the report and the management response, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Green Festival: A Party With a Purpose
* Byline: Thirty thousand people attended the Washington event to celebrate and learn about renewable energy, fair trade and improving the environment. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Washington, D.C. Green Festival that took place earlier this month. An estimated thirty thousand people attended this two-day event. They learned about businesses, organizations and communities that support renewable energy, fair trade and improving the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For the past four years, the Green Festival in Washington, D.C., has brought together people from around the country who are interested in the environmental movement. The event is a joint project between two nonprofit organizations, Global Exchange and Co-op America. The groups call the festival a “party with a purpose.” They say the goal of the Green Festival is to create a fair and inclusive economy in which natural resources are used in a way that does not destroy the environment. To the people who organize the event, “green” means having a safe and healthy community and a strong local economy. VOICE TWO: The Green Festival was held at the Washington, D.C., Convention Center. Over one thousand people volunteered to help the festival run smoothly. Four hundred businesses and organizations showed their products and projects. But not everyone can be an exhibitor. Green Festival organizers create a list of green requirements that all exhibitors must follow to be able to attend. Visitors can find everything from naturally made organic food to clothing made from bamboo plants. There are even companies that help people put their money in environmentally safe investments. VOICE ONE: Throughout the two-day event, there were over one hundred fifty speakers and discussion groups. For example, you could learn how to be an environmentally friendly traveler. You could also watch several movies about political and environmental issues. Then you could listen to some live music performances. After sitting for so long, visitors could take a yoga exercise class. There was even an area for children. Younger visitors could enjoy fun games and lessons on subjects like protecting the rainforest and creating fairly traded chocolate sweets. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This “party with a purpose” is not limited to the Washington, D.C. area. There are also yearly Green Festivals in San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; and Chicago, Illinois. You might be wondering about the environmental effect of holding such large and crowded events. The Green Festival organizers set out large containers at all events to collect materials to be used again, or recycled. All forks, knives, spoons and plates used for eating food at the event are made from fiber from the sugarcane plant. At the San Francisco gathering last year, organizers said they recycled ninety-six percent of the waste produced by exhibitors and visitors. This included over seventeen hundred kilograms of recycled cardboard paper material. And, festival organizers say they recycled over four thousand kilograms of plant waste into compost soil fertilizer. VOICE ONE: Many organizations at the D.C. Green Festival work on different community action issues. The Rachel Carson Council works to educate the public about the harmful effects of chemicals used for killing insects. It was created to continue the efforts of the scientist and writer Rachel Carson. In nineteen sixty-two she published “Silent Spring”. This important book brought public attention to the usage of deadly pesticides. The Nuclear Policy Research Institute works to educate the public about the dangerous effects of the nuclear industry. Its goal is to create a world free from nuclear power and weapons. Other groups work on animal rights issues. Friends of Animals and the Farm Animal Reform Movement teach people to respect animals. They both work to end cruelty to animals and actively support a meat-free vegetarian diet. VOICE TWO: Green building was another important subject at the festival. Many companies and organizations aim to create environmentally safe buildings. They design structures with reduced energy use, fewer chemicals and recycled materials. The Loading Dock is an organization based in Baltimore, Maryland. Its message is that “a person could build a house with what others throw away.” The Loading Dock collects donations of used building materials such as flooring, lighting, doors, and windows. These materials would otherwise end up in a landfill trash center. Then, the group resells the materials. This way, the materials are recycled. This form of recycling provides entire families and neighborhoods with low cost solutions for rebuilding their communities. Several companies such as Helicon Works and the Sustainable Design Group are experts in designing environmentally friendly homes. Companies like these represent a growing market in the United States and around the world for building green structures. Solar Household Energy also attended the festival. This organization applies energy-saving methods to a smaller part of the home, the cooking area. CAMILLE MCCARTHY: “My name is Camille McCarthy and I work with Solar Household Energy. We are a non-profit that tries to bring solar cooking to the developing world. It is a solar oven. It’s a panel type solar oven. It is made of aluminum reflector. Then, there is a glass pot with an enamel steel pot inside of it. Heat has really nothing to do with the ability to cook. It is all based on the solar radiation. So, anywhere there is sun, you can cook. We are working on programs in Central America, in Guatemala and El Salvador and then in West Africa also, in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon.” VOICE ONE: In many countries around the world, people burn wood or waste from animals and crops in order to cook meals. The smoke from these fires contains poisons that are very harmful to humans and the environment. Cutting down trees for firewood creates additional environmental problems. Solar ovens powered by heat from the sun give families a cooking method that is safe, environmentally friendly, and low in cost. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Better World Books is a group that gives used books a second home. This group has gathered millions of books during collection programs at libraries and over one thousand universities. They sell the books to help raise money for reading programs around the world, including India, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. Two college students came up with the idea for Better World Books. They wanted to sell their books at the end of the school year to raise some money. The two realized many other students had used textbooks to sell that might otherwise be thrown away. So, the two young men created a book-selling business that would also be socially and environmentally responsible. Another group at the festival was Solar Publishing, based in Owings Mills, Maryland. ZACCAI FREE: "My name is Zaccai Free and I am with Solar Publishing. We do children’s books with an environmental theme. Right now I have two titles, one is called 'Mbutu’s Mangos' which is about a little boy who loves mangos so much he wants to save them all and he ends up learning a lesson about having to giving back and being in harmony with nature. And the other is called 'My Mom Loves Trees.' It’s about a tree-hugging nature loving mom and her skeptical, embarrassed daughter and how the daughter learns to appreciate the mom’s way of life a little bit better by the end of the book." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One area of the festival had exhibitors who make natural health and body products. We met with a skin care expert who works only with natural and handmade products. SARA DAMELIO: "My name is Sara Damelio and I am a licensed aesthetician from Washington, D.C. I am representing Derma Hair Care, which is an organic med spa, one of the few in the country that is certified by Co-op America. All of the products that we sell in our spa are completely eco-friendly, non-toxic, organic. Skincando is another product line that we sell. I make it myself, actually. It’s handmade. It’s completely organic, a hundred percent natural. It’s very, very healing." VOICE ONE: One of Miz Damelio's skin care products is called “Combat-Ready Balm.”? It has been used by American soldiers in Iraq. They say the cream helps heal sun damage and insect bites. VOICE TWO: The Green Festival also had many healthful food choices. Companies like Clif Bar, L?RABAR, and Bumble Bar make natural high-energy food products with dried fruit, nuts and chocolate. Or, you could buy a hot meal from Gail’s Vegetarian Catering or Great Sage Restaurant. These food sellers offer healthful natural foods that do not contain meat. You could also drink natural tea and organic wine alcohol. Spending a day at the Green Festival showed people many solutions for improving the health of our planet. Being green extends from the things people buy to the ways people eat, think, and live. The Green Festival connects a wide community of people who care deeply about, and are working to improve, our shared environment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m ???Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m ?????Barbara Klein. You can learn more about the green movement on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Children's Health: New Polio Worries in Africa | US Committee Urges Limits on Cough and Cold Drugs
* Byline: Sudan has its first new polio case since 2005, while Nigeria suffers rare cases of vaccine-caused infection. In the U.S., drug-safety advisers say cold products should not be used in children under 6 years old. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Today we have two reports, both about children. We start in Sudan. Health officials are launching a campaign to vaccinate eight million children after a case of polio was reported there. A nurse prepares a polio vaccination for a baby in the Otash refugee camp in South DarfurUnited Nations and Sudanese agencies will carry out the campaign this week and again in November. Sudan had been polio-free since two thousand five. The new case of wild polio virus was confirmed last month in South Darfur. Health officials also announced last month that Nigeria has had almost seventy new cases of polio since two thousand five. Those cases, however, were caused by the polio vaccine itself. There are two kinds of polio vaccine. The one given by injection contains killed virus, which cannot cause polio. The one given by mouth contains live but weakened virus. In very rare cases the virus can change and cause polio. The way to stop the spread now is more vaccinations. But officials worry that people in northern Nigeria may, once again, fear the vaccine. In recent years, local leaders spread stories that Western nations had poisoned the vaccine with the virus that causes AIDS. Now, an update to our story last month about popular medicines to treat coughs and colds in children. The United States Food and Drug Administration had told parents not to give them to children under age two unless a doctor says to use them. The F.D.A. gave the advice as it announced a meeting of experts to discuss cold medicines for children. That advisory committee met last week -- and voted that these drugs should not be given to children under the age of six. Members said there is not enough evidence to show that these drugs work in children. They called for more research. The committee also said that liquid medicines should all use the same measurement terms. This could reduce the risk of parents giving their children too much. In rare cases, deaths have been reported from overdoses. The drug industry says its products are safe and effective for children. But it says parents need to be better educated about how to use them. A week before the meeting, the industry decided to end sales of cold products for children under two. The F.D.A. does not have to follow the recommendations of its advisers. Even if the agency restricts use of the drugs, that would not necessarily lead to a ban. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: What Aphorists Have to Say About the Cultures That Produced Them
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we continue our conversation with James Geary about his new book, "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists." An aphorism is a philosophical saying whose author is known. Two years ago Geary wrote "The World in a Phrase" and it became a best seller. So for his new book, he spent last year reading everything about aphorisms he could find in the British Library -- he's an American who lives in London -- and he had some books translated from Polish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. He says aphorists reflect the cultures that produce them. JAMES GEARY: "If you take America, for example, there's a long line of aphorists starting with Benjamin Franklin who are sort of down-home philosophers who pretend to be more stupid than they really are. Like Benjamin Franklin, for example, was a very educated man but he created Poor Richard and Poor Richard's Almanac. And these aphorisms are sort of homely, have a homely wisdom, but they're also very, very sophisticated. One of my favorites from Benjamin Franklin is, 'It's hard for an empty sack to stand upright.' "And people who followed him had the same kind of down-home humor and sense of humor that he did. And there's another great aphorist who's all but forgotten today named Josh Billings. And he was a contemporary of Mark Twain, slightly older than Mark Twain, and at one point he was much more famous than Mark Twain. And, in fact, Mark Twain sort of paraphrased some of Josh Billings' sayings. "But Josh Billings, he was the son of a senator and was from New England, but he adopted this sort of Midwestern cowboyish-type persona. And one of his great sayings is, 'Man was created a little lower than the angels, and he's been getting a little lower ever since.'" AA: "Now you mentioned that some of his aphorisms worked their way into Mark Twainisms, which sort of leads to the next question [which] is, in researching this book, how could you be sure that the people were responsible for some of these wonderful sayings?" JAMES GEARY: " Well, that's a very good question. I have made some mistakes. 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.' Now I thought that was Edmund Burke for sure. But very scrupulous readers pointed out to me that it's not Edmund Burke, and in fact no one knows who it is." RS: "If we didn't read the aphorisms in your book, where would we find an aphorism in daily life?" JAMES GEARY: "Often advertisements come close to being aphorisms. Where they most often fail is they're not philosophical. Like something like Nike's slogan, 'Just do it,' could be an aphorism but is really not philosophical. And it's urging people to all do the same thing, which is essentially buy Nike products, obviously -- which is not the effect that a real aphorism has on people. It's much more individual than that. "So I think advertising is one place. Let's see if I can think of ... " RS: "Woody Allen. Movies." JAMES GEARY: "Moves are another one. Woody Allen is also a great aphorist, so there's lots of aphorisms in his films and his monologues and one of the things he says was, 'Eighty percent of success is showing up." "Pop music is also a great place to find aphorisms. Bob Dylan, for example. 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows' is a very famous one. But also Leonard Cohen, he's a great aphorist as well, and one of my favorites from him is, 'There's a crack in everything. [It's] how the light gets in.' But there's also, if you just have a conversation with anybody on the street, I guarantee you that if you explain what an aphorism is to them, that they will have one that they know and have been living by. One of the best ones I had recently was from a woman that I met at a reading and she said, 'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.'" RS: "Finally, I just want to ask this question: You've been obsessed with aphorisms all your life, have you compiled like a list of your favorites that you can't live without?" JAMES GEARY: "I am so glad you asked me that question because yes I have. There are three that I really can't live without. And the first is by Ralph Waldo Emerson and that is, 'Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day.' The second one is by Josh Billings and that is one of the most inspirational aphorisms I think I've ever read: 'Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.' And the third one which I just think is so funny and so brilliant and so -- it's a brilliant piece of poetry as well as aphorism, and it's by a Polish aphorist from the beginning of the twentieth century named Stanislaw Jerzy Lec and that is, 'No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.'" AA: James Geary, speaking to us from the VOA bureau in New York. His new book is called "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists." And that's WORDMASTER for this week. The first part of our interview is at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- ?James Geary's Top 10 Favorite Aphorisms1. "Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day." — Ralph Waldo Emerson2. "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." — Stanislaw Jerzy Lec3. "Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there." —Josh Billings4. "When you're going through hell, keep going." — Winston Churchill 5 (tie). "In most men there is a dead poet whom the man survives." —Charles Augustin Saint-Beuve 5 (tie). "To be a poet at twenty is to be twenty; to be a poet at forty is to be a poet." — Eugene Delacroix 6. "States of need are gift-laden carpets." — Ibn Ata'allah al-Iskandari7. "Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it." — Buddha8. "Love decreases when it ceases to increase." —?Francois Rene Chateaubriand 9. "As soon as you find you can do anything, do something you can't." —Rudyard Kipling.10. "Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learnt to walk." — Cyril Connolly 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Buffalo, 'Mystery Dogs' (Horses) and the Lives of the Plains Indians
* Byline: Native people believed that the bison offered everything they needed. Nothing went to waste. But hunting them was difficult -- until the Spanish brought horses to North America in the 1500s. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about early Native Americans. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe that the native peoples of America came here thousands of years ago during the last ice age. These people settled the land from the cold northern areas to the extreme end of South America. As the groups of people settled different parts of the land, they developed their own languages, their own cultures and their own religions. Each group's story is important in the history of the Americas. However, it is perhaps the tribes of the central part of the United States that are most recognized. They will be our story today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In eighteen-oh-four, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of explorers to the Pacific Ocean. They were the first educated Americans to see some of the native tribes of the Great Plains. And they were the first white people these Native American people had ever seen. When the group of explorers neared the eastern side of the great Rocky Mountains, they met with a tribe of Indians called the Shoshoni. Merriwether Lewis was the first to see them. Let us imagine we are with Merriwether Lewis near the Rocky Mountains almost two hundred years ago. Across a small hill, a group of sixty Shoshoni men are riding toward us. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first thing we see is that these men are ready for war. Each is armed with a bow and arrows. Some carry long poles with a sharp knife on the end. They are riding very fast. Some horses seem to be without riders. But a closer look shows that the men are hanging off the sides, or under the horse’s neck. They are using the horses' bodies as protection. The horses are painted with many different designs that use blue, black, red or other colors. Later we learn that each design has a special meaning for the man who owns the horse. Each one tells a story. For example, the man riding one horse is a leader during battle. Another has killed an enemy in battle. One of the designs protects the horse and rider. VOICE TWO: As they come nearer, the Shoshoni group sees that we are not ready for war. They slow their horses but are still very careful. Merriwether Lewis holds up a open hand as a sign of peace. The leader of the Shoshoni does the same. They come closer. The Shoshoni are dressed in clothes made from animal skin. Most of these skins are from deer or the American buffalo. The shirts they wear have many designs, and tell stories like the designs on the horses. One shows a man has fought in a battle. Another shows a man has been in many raids to capture horses. Still another shows the man saved the life of a friend. VOICE ONE: Captain Lewis smiles at these men. He again makes a hand sign that means peace. The signs are now returned. Lewis and the Shoshoni chief cannot speak each other's language. They can communicate using hand signs. VOICE TWO: One young Shoshoni man comes near. He drops to the ground from his horse. He is tall and looks strong. His hair is black in color and long. He wears one long bird feather in the back of his hair. Some of his hair is held in place by animal fur. His arms have been painted with long lines. We learn that each line represents a battle. There are many lines. But we leave the Shoshoni without him adding another one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Shoshoni were only one of many tribes of native people who lived in the Great Plains area. The life, culture and society of these tribes developed because of the land that was their home. The Great Plains today is still huge. Even in a car, traveling at one hundred kilometers an hour, it can take two long days of driving to cross the Great Plains. The plains reach from several hundred kilometers north in Canada across the middle of the continent to Mexico in the south. In the East, the Great Plains begin near the Mississippi River and go west to the huge Rocky Mountains. It is the center of the United States. There are big rivers here, deserts and mountains. Other areas are so flat that a person can see for hundreds of kilometers. Millions of kilometers of this land were once covered by a thick ocean of grass. VOICE TWO: 'Buffalo Lancing in the Snow Drifts -- Sioux' by artist George Catlin The grass provided food for an animal that made possible the culture of the Indians of the Great Plains. The grass fed the bison, the American buffalo. The buffalo was the center of native Indian culture in the Great Plains. The huge animal provided meat for the Indians. But it was much more than just food. It was an important part of the religion of most of the native people in the Great Plains. The Lakota tribe is one of the people of the Great Plains. The Lakota are sometimes called the Sioux. They believed that everything necessary to life was within the buffalo. Another Plains tribe, the Blackfeet, called the animal "My home and my protection." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The back of the huge buffalo provided thick skin that was used to make homes for the Plains Indians. Other parts were made into clothing. Still other parts became warm blankets. Buffalo bones were made into tools. Nothing of the animal was wasted. No one knows how many buffalo were in North America when Merriwether Lewis first met the Shoshoni. But experts say it was probably between sixty million to seventy-five million. VOICE TWO: Another animal also helped make possible the Indian cultures of the Great Plains. Native Americans first called these animals mystery dogs, or big dogs. They had no word for this animal in their language. We know it as the horse. No horses existed in North America before the Spanish arrived in the fifteen hundreds in what is now the southern part of the United States. Native peoples hunted, moved and traveled by foot. Traveling long distances was difficult, so was hunting buffalo. The horse greatly changed the life of all the people of the Great Plains. It gave them a method of travel. It provided a way to carry food and equipment. It made it easier and safer to follow and hunt the buffalo. The horse made it possible to attack an enemy far away and return safely. The number of horses owned became the measure of a tribe's wealth. VOICE ONE: Spanish settlers rode horses to the small town of Santa Fe in what is now the southwestern state of New Mexico. They arrived there in about the year sixteen-oh-nine. It is not known how native peoples in Santa Fe got the first horses in the country. Perhaps they traded for them. Perhaps they captured them in an attack. Many tribes soon were trading and capturing horses. By the seventeen fifties, all the tribes of the Great Plains had horses. They had become experts at raising, training and riding horses. They became experts at horse medicine. Each Indian of the Great Plains could ride a horse by the age of five. As an adult, a young man would have a special horse for work. Another horse would be trained for hunting. And another would be trained for war. An Indian warrior's success depended upon how closely he and his horses worked together. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Fisk painted this picture of George Catlin in 1849George Catlin was an artist who traveled a great deal in the early American west. He painted many beautiful pictures of American Indians. Mister Catlin said the Plains Indian was the greatest horse rider the world has ever known. He said the moment an Indian rider laid a hand on his horse he became part of the animal. VOICE ONE: The buffalo and horse were extremely important to the Plains Indian. Because the horse made hunting easier, more time could be spent on things like art. The Plains Indians began to make designs on their clothing, and on special blankets their horses wore. Even common objects were painted with designs. VOICE TWO: The coming of white settlers to the Great Plains was the beginning of the end of the buffalo and horse culture of the American Indians. Settlers did not want buffalo destroying their crops. The buffalo were killed. By the year eighteen eighty-five, the Indians of the Great Plains were mostly restricted to area of land called reservations. VOICE ONE: Many of the Great Plains tribes that survive today work hard to keep their traditional cultures. They produce art, music, and clothing. They keep alive the memory of these people who added greatly to the history of America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Weighing the Idea of a Year Off Before College
* Byline: Some students use the time to explore professional interests. Others see a 'gap year' as a chance to recover after high school. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In Britain and other countries, young people sometimes take a "gap year," a year off between high school and college. This idea never gained a big following in the United States. Recent news reports have suggested that interest may be growing, though there are no official numbers. Charles Deacon is the dean of admissions at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He estimates that in the current first-year class of one thousand six hundred students, only about twenty-five decided to take a year off. He says this number has not changed much over the years. Mister Deacon says the most common reason is to have a chance to travel. But he says international students may take a gap year to meet requirements at home for military duty. Some high school graduates see a year off as a chance to recover after twelve years of required education. But it can also give students a chance to explore their interests. Students who think they want to be doctors, for example, could learn about the profession by volunteering in a hospital for a year. Many colleges and universities support gap-year projects by permitting students to delay their admission. Experts say students can grow emotionally and intellectually as they work at something they enjoy. The Harvard admissions office has an essay on its Web site called "Time Out or Burn Out for the Next Generation."? It praises the idea of taking time off to step back, think and enjoy gaining life experiences outside the pressure of studies. It also notes that students are sometimes admitted to Harvard or other colleges in part because they did something unusual with that time. Of course, a gap year is not for everyone. Students might miss their friends who go on directly to college. And parents might worry that their children will decide not to go to college once they take time off. Another concern is money. A year off, away from home, can be costly. Holly Bull is the president of the Center for Interim Programs. Her company specializes in helping students plan their gap year. She notes that several books have been written about this subject. She says these books along with media attention and the availability of information on the Internet have increased interest in the idea of a year off. And she points out that many gap-year programs cost far less than a year of college. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Dana Demange. I'm Jim Tedder in Washington. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Day of the Dead Honors Loved Ones Who Died, and Celebrates the Living
* Byline: Also: A listener in Egypt would like to know more about actress Julianne Moore. And songs from the latest album by British singer Annie Lennox. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Annie Lennox … Answer a question about an American actress … And report about a holiday that honors the dead. Day of the Dead HOST: An altar at the National Museum of the American IndianOn October thirty-first, many Americans will celebrate Halloween. On that night, people dress up in special clothing to look like scary creatures such as monsters, witches or ghosts. Many children will go door to door in their neighborhoods to “trick or treat” and collect sweets. But for people from Mexico and Central America, this day marks the beginning of celebrations for “Dia de Los Muertos”, or “Day of the Dead.” Barbara Klein tells us about it. BARBARA KLEIN: Day of the Dead honors the memory of loved ones who have died while also celebrating the continuation of life. The ancient tradition started among the native cultures of Mexico. It has its roots in an Aztec tradition of honoring and remembering the dead. When the Spanish came to Mexico in the sixteenth century, they celebrated the Christian holiday of All Saint’s Day in which dead loved ones are also honored. Day of the Dead developed into a combination of both traditions. People celebrate Day of the Dead on November first and second. Families visit the burial places of their loved ones and make their graves beautiful. They place orange marigold flowers and lighted candles. ?They bring special food and drinks and spend the night celebrating and telling stories with other members of their community. Traditional food includes tamales and “pan de muerto,” a sweetened bread formed in the shape of a person. Friends and family exchange presents such as “calaveras," sugar candies in the form of a skeleton head. Families have special places in their homes called altars. Here they place flowers, candles and photographs of the loved one being remembered. Many families from Mexico and Central America keep the tradition alive in the United States. For example, in San Francisco, California, a large community celebration will take place November second. Local artists will create five large public altars. People from around the city will place flowers, photographs and food on the altars. The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona will also celebrate the day with Mexican music and an altar. And, across the street from VOA in Washington, D.C., the National Museum of the American Indian will hold Day of the Dead celebrations this weekend. There will be food, storytelling and music and dance performances. Julianne Moore HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Egypt. Ashraf Yusif Ewiss wants to know about the American actress Julianne Moore. She has become famous for her skillful acting, good looks and striking red hair. Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in nineteen sixty. Because her father worked for the United States military, Julie and her brother and sister moved often when they were young. Julie graduated from the American High School in Frankfurt, Germany before attending Boston University in Massachusetts. Moore first found work as an actress in the daily television series “As the World Turns.” Several years later, she started to appear in movies. She had supporting roles in popular movies such as “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle”, “Benny and Joon” and “The Fugitive.”? In nineteen ninety-three she had a small role in “Short Cuts” directed by the famous American director Robert Altman. Her performance received great critical praise. Soon, she started getting roles in larger Hollywood movies. These include “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and “Hannibal.”? Julianne Moore has appeared in more than forty movies. They include large expensive movies as well as smaller independent art films. Moore has been nominated four times for the Academy Award. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for “Boogie Nights” and “The Hours.”? She received Best Actress nominations for “The End of the Affair” and “Far From Heaven.”? Julianne Moore lives in New York City with her husband, the movie director Bart Freundlich. They met ten years ago during the filming of his movie “The Myth of Fingerprints.” The couple has two young children, a son and a daughter. Moore is also one of the busiest American actresses. She will be appearing in three movies this year -- "Next," "I'm Not There" and "Savage Grace." Julianne Moore is currently making the movie “Blindness," directed by Fernando Meirelles. It is based on the book by Brazilian writer Jos? Saramago. “Blindness” is expected to be released next September. Annie Lennox HOST: The British singer Annie Lennox has been making records for over twenty-five years. She started her musical career with the famous band the Eurythmics. Now she has been recording on her own. Lennox made her latest album, “Songs of Mass Destruction,” to honor all the humanitarian workers and peace activists around the world. Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC: "Coloured Bedspread") FAITH LAPIDUS: That was the song “Coloured Bedspread.” It gives a good example of Annie Lennox’ strong and emotional voice. “Songs of Mass Destruction” is the last album Lennox will make under her record deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment. She says she is very glad to have had the record deal. She says in the past, musicians needed record contracts to guarantee future business. But now she can make any kind of music she wants. She says she might like to work with other singers or maybe even make an album of folk or Latin music. This fall, Annie Lennox will be performing her new songs in sixteen concerts across North America. Here is the energetic beat of “Ghosts in My Machine."? It tells about how painful memories are hard to forget. (MUSIC) Annie Lennox wrote one song on the album to bring attention to preventing pregnant women with HIV/AIDS from spreading the disease to their babies. If you listen carefully, you can hear the voices of twenty-three famous female performers. They include Madonna, Faith Hill and Bonnie Raitt. Annie Lennox says she asked the women to join her to make a strong political statement. By writing the song, she says she is empowering those women who do not have an international voice. We leave you with “Sing”. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written and produced by Dana Demange. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. --- Correction: This program describes?writer Jos? Saramago as?Brazilian. He is Portuguese. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Microsoft, the EU and Facebook
* Byline: Software maker ends appeals of European orders to share information with competitors. Separately, Microsoft is buying a small interest in social site Facebook, which it values at $15 billion. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, Microsoft agreed to end its fight against European Union competition officials. The world's largest software company withdrew its remaining appeals at a European court. Microsoft has faced record European Union fines and may still owe more. But it says it wants to put its energies into meeting its legal duties and strengthening its relationship with the European Commission. In two thousand four, the commission ordered Microsoft to share information with competitors. This information would help them develop software for server computers to "interoperate," or work easily, with Windows. Windows is the Microsoft operating system found on more than ninety percent of personal computers. The company argued that it needed to protect trade secrets. But now, Microsoft has agreed to share secret information with developers for a one-time payment of ten thousand euros. That is about fourteen thousand dollars at current exchange rates. Microsoft also wanted to charge competitors almost six percent of the sales from products that use its information. But in the end it agreed to charge less than half a percent for worldwide use. The European Union began to investigate Microsoft in nineteen ninety-eight after Sun Microsystems accused the company of being anti-competitive. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, fought back. But last month, it lost a big ruling. The second-highest court in the European Union agreed that Microsoft abused its market position. In a separate case, Microsoft decided last week not to appeal a thirty-four million dollar fine by the Fair Trade Commission in South Korea. But Microsoft could at least claim a victory in one of its efforts to expand its Internet business. This week it won the right to invest in Facebook and to expand an advertising partnership with the social networking site. Facebook chose Microsoft over Google, the leading Internet search company. Microsoft will invest two hundred forty million dollars to buy a one and one-half percent interest. Microsoft values Facebook at fifteen billion dollars. Facebook reportedly expects about one hundred fifty million dollars in revenue this year. The company will be four years old in February and says the site has almost fifty million active users. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online with transcripts at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How the Job Description for US President Has Gotten Longer Over Time
* Byline: A listener in Cambodia asks about the duties and responsibilities of the president. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. A listener in Cambodia heard our recent call for questions about the process of electing an American president. Tath Sok in Phnom Penh wants to know about the duties and responsibilities of the president. This question touches on a continual debate in American society. The separation of powers in the federal government was designed to create a system of checks and balances. Experts could argue for hours about the limits to the powers of the president, Congress and the courts. But we just wanted a few facts, so we looked in the World Book Encyclopedia. The Constitution gives the president the duties of chief administrator of the nation and commander of the armed forces. But developments including court decisions, laws and customs have expanded those duties. Today the president has seven major areas of responsibility. First, as chief executive, the president is responsible for enforcing federal actions and developing federal policies. The president is also responsible for preparing the national budget and appointing federal officials. The president nominates cabinet members, Supreme Court justices and other officials who must be confirmed by the Senate. There are other jobs in government agencies that the president can fill without Senate approval. As commander in chief, the president shares some military powers with Congress. Under the Constitution only Congress has the power to declare war. The president also serves as foreign policy director, as the encyclopedia calls it. For this job, the Constitution gives the president the power to appoint ambassadors, make treaties and receive foreign diplomats. Treaties and appointments of ambassadors require Senate approval. As legislative leader, the president has influence over many laws passed by Congress. The president has the power to veto any bill. But if a vetoed bill is passed again, this time by a two-thirds majority in both houses, the bill can still become law. The president is also the head of a political party and has responsibilities as popular leader and chief of state. So these are the main duties of the president. But our listener in Cambodia would also like to know how much the president earns. The job currently pays four hundred thousand dollars a year. Just this week, in a blog at washingtonpost.com, political reporter Peter Baker wrote about the current debate over presidential powers. He noted criticisms of President Bush's claims of powers by Hillary Clinton, the Supreme Court and others. But he also wrote about the long history of battles over presidential powers, or what is known as "executive privilege." Presidents have expanded their powers during wartime and also during times of peace. Peter Baker noted that before Thomas Jefferson was president, he was an activist for limited central government. But then he more than doubled the size of the country on his own with the purchase of the Louisiana territory. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Walt Disney, 1901-1966: It All Started with a Mouse
* Byline: Disney's popular cartoon movies led to huge and successful entertainment parks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created. (MUSIC: "When You Wish Upon?a Star) VOICE ONE: That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star."? It is from Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio."? For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work. The song is about dreams -- and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture the imagination of children and adults all over the world. VOICE TWO: Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan. Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro Disney in France. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois in nineteen-oh-one. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products. In nineteen twenty-three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life. VOICE TWO: A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place. VOICE ONE: Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. ?For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands. The artists called him "Mickey."? Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie."? Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in nineteen twenty-eight. It was a huge success. VOICE TWO: Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi."? In Italy, he was "Topolino."? In Latin America, he was "Raton Miquelito."? Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was the female mouse called "Minnie."? Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto. VOICE ONE: Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too. In the middle nineteen thirties, he was working on his first long movie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."? "Snow White" was completed in nineteen thirty-seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies. VOICE TWO: Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature. VOICE ONE: Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in nineteen forty with the movie "Pinocchio."? The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy. Disney's artists drew two-and-one-half million pictures to make "Pinocchio."? The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects. "Pinocchio" was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty."? These movies are still popular today. VOICE TWO: In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings. Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evil forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland."? He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places -- as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future. Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands. VOICE TWO: Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture. But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world. Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in nineteen seventy-one, after Disney's death. The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in nineteen sixty-six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Kick: This Is an Idea Worth Kicking Around
* Byline: Here are some English expressions with kick. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) From birth to death, the word kick has been given an important part in expressing human experience. The proud and happy mother feels the first signs of life kicking inside her womb. And that same life -- many years later -- comes to its end in a widely-used expression, to kick the bucket, meaning to die. The expression to kick the bucket is almost two hundred years old. One belief is that it started when an English stableman committed suicide by hanging himself while standing on a pail, or bucket. He put a rope around his neck and tied it to a beam in the ceiling, and then kicked the bucket away from under him. After a while, to die in any way was called kicking the bucket. Another old expression that comes from England is to kick over the traces, meaning to resist the commands of one's parents, or to oppose or reject authority. Traces were the chains that held a horse or mule to a wagon or plow. Sometimes, an animal rebelled and kicked over the traces. The word kick sometimes is used to describe a complaint or some kind of dissatisfaction. Workers, for example, kick about long hours and low pay. There are times when workers are forced to kick back some of their wages to their employers as part of their job. This kickback is illegal. So is another kind of kickback: a secret payment made by a supplier to an official who buys supplies for a government or company. Kick around is a phrase that is heard often in American English. A person who is kicked around is someone who is treated badly. Usually, he is not really being kicked by somebody's foot. He is just not being treated with the respect that all of us want. A person who has kicked around for most of his life is someone who has spent his life moving from place to place. In this case, kicking around means moving often from one place to another. Kick around has a third meaning when you use it with the word idea. When you kick around an idea, you are giving that idea some thought. There is no physical action when you kick a person upstairs, although the pain can be as strong. You kick a person upstairs by removing him from an important job and giving him a job that sounds more important. . . But really is not. Still another meaning of the word kick is to free oneself of a bad habit, such as smoking cigarettes. Health campaigns urge smokers to kick the habit. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Science Journals Examine Poverty and Development
* Byline: Last week, journals around the world joined together to publish articles related to the subject. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Last Monday, science journals around the world published what was called a "Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development." Organizers at the Council of Science Editors said the project involved two hundred thirty-five journals from thirty-seven countries. The council said the goal was to increase interest and research in the subject and to spread the results as widely as possible. It said the journals were publishing more than seven hundred fifty articles involving eighty-seven countries in all parts of the world. A partial list of the articles is on the Council of Science Editors' Web site. The group has urged all journals that published articles to make them available free to the public. This is the third time a global theme issue has been published. The first issue in nineteen ninety-six dealt with worldwide threats from diseases. Thirty-six journals published articles. The second issue in nineteen ninety-seven was on aging. Articles appeared in ninety-seven journals. The editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, organized the two earlier issues. JAMA published several articles for the newest one. The research examined how knowledge about effective health interventions can be put to use locally to help the poor. Other widely read journals that published articles included Science, Nature and The Lancet. The project also included journals on medicine and biology from the Public Library of Science. That nonprofit organization publishes its journals free of charge on the Internet. The United States National Institutes of Health held an event to launch the Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. A group of experts from N.I.H. and the Council of Science Editors chose seven articles for recognition. The subjects included childbirth safety, H.I.V./AIDS, malaria treatment and the effects of influenza on children. The United Nations recognized the link between health and development in the Millennium Development Goals approved in September of two thousand. But many experts believe the targets for health improvements will not be reached at current rates of progress. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the list of journals that took part in the global theme issue, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Is Your Favorite Song About Autumn?
* Byline: Here are some favorite songs about autumn. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. It is autumn in the northern part of the world. So it is time to play some of our favorite songs about this season. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have written and recorded hundreds of songs about autumn. Many of these songs express sadness that summer is over. The days are shorter. It is getting darker earlier each day. The weather is cooler. The skies are gray. Birds fly south because they know winter is coming. The leaves turn colors of red and gold and then die, falling to the ground. Some songs about autumn also express the sadness of lost love. Mary Dawson, in her Internet Writing Journal, writes that this season influenced songwriters to write some of the greatest songs of all time. Here are some of our favorite songs about autumn. VOICE TWO: "September Song" by Kurt Weill is one of the most well known, and saddest, songs about the season. It was introduced back in nineteen thirty-eight in the Broadway musical "Knickerbocker Holiday." Many people have recorded this song. Probably the most famous version is sung by Frank Sinatra. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another famous song about this season is "Autumn Leaves." This song also expresses sad emotions. It was first introduced in a French movie in nineteen forty-six. Later, the famous American songwriter Johnny Mercer was asked to write English words to the music. Since then, many artists have recorded it. Here is a lovely version by Eva Cassidy from her album "Songbird." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Moody Blues are a British rock band that first became famous in the nineteen sixties. They also recorded a song about fallen leaves, darker days and lost love. It is called "Forever Autumn." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Here is another sad song about things that happen in autumn. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is by the band Green Day from their album "American Idiot." The song is about the death of a father. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: The rock group the White Stripes has a song called "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," from their album "White Blood Cells." Jack White sings about a woman who did not wait for him while he was away. ???? (MUSIC)???????????????????????????????????? VOICE ONE: But not all the songs about autumn are sad. Here is a more hopeful song, James Taylor's "October Road" from his album by the same name. The song is about leaving the big city for the countryside, going home again after a long time away. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For people who live in New York City, autumn is an exciting time of the year. New plays open in theaters on Broadway. The season also brings the promise of new love. Vernon Duke wrote the song "Autumn in New York" in nineteen thirty-four. Many famous artists have recorded it. We leave you with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing this famous song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can hear other American songs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio archives of our programs. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study of College Athletes Finds Exercise-Induced Asthma Is Common
* Byline: Also: Two Americans and a Briton win the Nobel Prize for their work on the duties of individual genes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: Researchers at Ohio State University studied exercise-induced asthma among top athletes at the school. Ohio State football players practice earlier this year.And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we will tell about the winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine. We will tell about a health problem resulting from physical exercise. We also report on depression in young people and genetic studies of an ancient animal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The two thousand seven Nobel Prize in medicine will go to three men who found a way to learn about the duties of individual genes. They discovered how to inactivate, or knock out, single genes in laboratory animals. The result is known as "knockout mice."? Mario Capecchi holds a laboratory mouseThe Karolinska Institute named the winners earlier this month. They are Martin Evans of Britain and two Americans, Mario Capecchi and . They will receive what is officially called the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at a ceremony in Sweden on December tenth. They also will share about one million five hundred thousand dollars in prize money. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen eighties, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies both studied cells in mice. They wanted to find how to cause changes in individual genes. But the kinds of cells they independently studied could not be used to create gene-targeted animals. Martin Evans had the solution. He worked with embryonic stem cells to produce mice that carried new genetic material. Oliver SmithiesThe research greatly expanded knowledge about embryonic development, aging and disease. It also led to a new technology -- gene targeting. This has already produced five hundred mouse models of human conditions. Knockout mice are used for general research and for the development of new treatments. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new study shows the breathing disorder asthma is common among students who take part in college athletic programs. Researchers studied American college athletes for signs of breathing problems. Athletes need skill and strength to compete in a sport. Yet test results suggested that more than one-third of those studied had a condition called exercise-induced asthma. In other words, physical exercise caused their asthma. This was true even among college athletes who had no history of the disorder. Exercise-induced asthma happens when exercise restricts the flow of air to the lungs. The narrowing and closing of the airway usually begins just after heavy exercise. One sign of exercise-induced asthma is increased amounts of sticky fluid, or mucus, in the airway. Other signs include difficulty breathing and tightness in the chest. Two dangers of the condition are reduced athletic performance and serious breathing problems. VOICE TWO: Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center organized the study. They examined one hundred seven student athletes at the university. The athletes were from Ohio State’s top sports teams. Forty-two of those tested showed signs of exercise-induced asthma. Thirty-six members of that group had no earlier history of the breathing disorder. The researchers say the sex of the athlete and the breathing demands of the sport did not affect the rate of exercise-induced asthma. Jonathan Parsons was the lead writer of the report. He says college students were tested because many of the reported severe cases of asthma after exercise have involved athletes twenty years of age or younger. VOICE ONE: Doctor Parsons says the findings suggest that many athletes do not know they have exercise-induced asthma. He says many parents, trainers and even athletes accept signs of the disorder as normal effects of physical activity. Other athletes in the study showed signs of breathing problems after exercise. But the researchers say they were not common cases of exercise-induced asthma. Doctor Parsons says the signs of exercise-induced asthma are not always clear. He says linking the condition to all breathing problems tied to exercise will result in wrong findings. This, he says, is why testing is so important. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. With Bob Doughty, I'm Faith Lapidus in Washington. (MUSIC) Depression can cause long periods of sadness and hopelessness, feelings of low self-worth, even physical pain. ?It is the leading cause of suicide. ?The World Health Organization says more than one hundred twenty million people worldwide suffer from depression. ?But many people may not know it can start at a young age. ? Recently, researchers in the United States reported on a study of more than three hundred young people. All the patients were twelve to seventeen years of age. ?They suffered from major depression disorder, the most common form of the disease. The researchers divided them into three groups. ?One group received the antidepressant drug Prozac. ?Another received cognitive behavioral therapy. ?This kind of treatment teaches patients to recognize and deal with the thoughts that can result from depression. ?The third group received both cognitive behavioral therapy and the antidepressant drug. VOICE ONE: The study found that the combination of treatments was most effective. ?At twelve weeks, the researchers found reduced levels of depression in all three groups. ?But they say the group receiving the combined treatments had the greatest reduction. ?This continued through the end of the nine-month study. The study did not include an untreated control group. ?So there is no way to know for sure if it was the treatment that eased the depression. The findings by Duke University researchers appear in the Archives of General Psychiatry. America's National Institute of Mental Health paid for the study. ? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An international team of scientists has recovered genetic information from hairs of ancient wooly mammoths. The scientists say the genetic material will provide valuable information about an animal alive today -- the elephant. They say it may also help in the study of mammoths and other ancient animals. ?? Mammoths lived on Earth thirty thousand to sixty thousand years ago. They are ancestors of modern African and Indian elephants. Most of the hairs in the study came from a frozen mammoth. Its remains were found in the Siberia area of Russia in seventeen ninety-nine. For the past two centuries, the hair remains were stored at room temperature at the Zoological Museum in Saint Petersburg. VOICE ONE: Stephan Schuster was part of the team that made a genetic map from the mammoth hair remains. He works at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. Professor Schuster says no team member thought it would be possible to get usable genetic material from the hair remains. He says the scientists had thought that removing the hairs from a cold climate would have destroyed every gene. Yet the scientists found genetic information in even the smallest piece of hair. Professor Schuster notes that scientists are able to collect genes from the bones of dinosaurs. That is how they know about the age and development of the ancient creatures. But he adds that genetic studies of dinosaur bones are costly and difficult. The bones have very small holes. It is difficult to separate the genes scientists want to study from bacteria, plant and other material. VOICE TWO: Professor Schuster says genetic testing of hair is simple and does not cost much. He says his team found the bacteria on the outer end of the hair remains. The scientists were able to the outer end whiter while the other end remained undamaged. After removing the bacteria, the scientists were able to observe very pure genetic material from the mammoth. Professor Schuster says this kind of test can be performed on something as small as a single hair. And he says the scientists found usable genes along the complete hair, not just the hair root closest to the skin. Professor Schuster says the genetic map will tell scientists a lot about the development of Indian and African elephants. He says it may provide clues about how long it took before they separated and their last common ancestor. A report describing the study was published in Science magazine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Lawan Davis, SooJee Han and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Growing a Big Pumpkin. A Really Big Pumpkin
* Byline: Joe Jutras of Rhode Island grew this year's world record-setter, at seven hundred sixty kilograms. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Joe Jutras lives in a small state, Rhode Island, but he thinks big. This year he grew a pumpkin weighing seven hundred sixty kilograms. His pumpkin broke the world record set in two thousand six. Another Rhode Islander, Ron Wallace, grew last year's champion. That one weighed six hundred eighty-one kilograms. Huge pumpkins like these can sell for ten thousand dollars. Some people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a single seed. Sue Jutras explained to us how her husband grew his record pumpkin and a few smaller but still really big ones. He started the seeds indoors in April. When the third leaf appeared, he planted them outdoors under a temporary shelter. He removed the shelter once the root system began to push against it. He buried the vines so the root system could continue to grow. He fed the plant a mixture containing fish and seaweed. He worked with his record-breaker twenty to thirty hours each week during the main growing season in July and August. He needed a forklift truck to carry it to the official weighing. The competition took place a few weeks ago at a fair in Topsfield, Rhode Island. By the way, Joe Jutras is not a farmer. He operates a woodworking business -- that is, when he is not taking care of his pumpkins. When Americans, especially children, think of pumpkins, they usually think of Halloween on October thirty-first. Pumpkins are a traditional part of the celebration. People like to cut funny or scary faces into pumpkins and put a candle inside. Fresh pumpkins might end up as jack-o-lanterns at Halloween. But canned pumpkin meat is popular in pies, breads and other baked goods, and pumpkin seeds are eaten as snacks. Five states produced more than one hundred million dollars worth of pumpkin last year. The top producers by value were Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and California. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. We leave you with a song by John McCutcheon called "Pumpkin Man."???? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How to Build a House With Bales of Straw
* Byline: Second part of a series of programs on keeping traditional ways alive.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. We continue our series of reports about efforts to keep alive traditional ways of doing things. Today we tell about building homes out of a simple natural material -- straw. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It was a cold winter in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the early nineteen eighties. Athena Swentzell was a student in college there. She owned some property. She wanted her own place to live in but she did not have much money to build a house. The usual building materials of wood, concrete and brick were too costly. So she decided to try to build a house using big rectangular bales of straw, the waste material that remains after wheat and other grains are harvested. She covered the outside of the small house with a cement plaster to keep the straw dry. Miz Swentzell had never seen or heard of a house built of straw. She thought she had invented the idea and was surprised how livable it was. Later she learned that straw bale houses have been built since the late eighteen hundreds after a machine was invented to form the dry straw into bales. And she learned there are straw bale houses in many countries throughout the world. VOICE TWO: A straw bale house at the Canelo Project in ArizonaIn nineteen eighty-nine, Bill Steen was taking photographs for a small book about straw bale houses. He met Athena Swentzell after he took a picture of the house she had built. Athena Swentzell and Bill Steen married and she moved to his home in Canelo, Arizona. They decided to hold a workshop. They wanted to teach other people how to make buildings out of straw bales, clay, sand and water -- materials that are available almost everywhere. VOICE ONE: The workshop was a success. Through the years more people became interested in learning how to build a house by hand with natural materials. The Steens's first book, "The Straw Bale House," was published in nineteen ninety-four. Miz Steen says interest really increased after that. The book demonstrated how to use natural materials throughout a house. It showed how people who are not experts can build straw bale houses. It explained how the thickness of the straw walls kept the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And it showed how beautiful these hand-built houses made of natural materials can be. VOICE TWO: In recent years, the interest in straw bale building has spread across the United States and in other countries. Workshops and demonstrations of straw bale building are popular. Many books on the subject have been published, including several more by Athena and Bill Steen. Straw bales are used in large houses and very small ones, in office buildings and in schools. The structures may have metal or wood supports for the roof with straw bales used to fill the walls. Or the straw bales alone may support the roof. Windows and doorways may be round or unusual shapes. Walls may be gently curved. A plaster made of clay, lime or cement is used to cover the outside of the straw bale An imaginative doorway in a straw bale structurewalls. The inside walls are covered with clay and then painted with naturally colored paints made of clay, wheat paste and water. The designs are very creative. The resulting structures look very different from modern buildings with their straight walls of wood, cement or brick. Some small straw bale buildings look like works of art. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen nineties, Bill and Athena Steen started the Canelo Project. It is a small non-profit organization that aims to connect people, culture and nature. It explores natural building methods that are simple, low cost and pleasing to look at. A small building at the Canelo Project done with mostly local materialsThrough the Canelo Project, the Steens work with people to create simple, livable shelters using local and natural materials. They are concerned with balancing the wisdom and skills of the past with modern improvements. Bill Steen says they try to match the materials to the skills of people doing the building. Athena Steen says their goal is to keep the materials and tools simple so people can work with family and friends to build their own homes. This way, she says, they feel a connection to their home that is lost when someone else is the builder. VOICE TWO: The Steens hold workshops at their home in Canelo, Arizona, in the spring and autumn. They live in the large old house made of adobe that was on the property. The dried clay and straw adobe mixture is the same building material used by people living in dry areas all over the world. Now, there are about twelve smaller structures used for storing things or for visitors. Some were built to demonstrate new ideas. The small buildings look like the big adobe house but all have straw bales inside the earth covered walls. VOICE ONE: People who attend the workshops are from many places including Australia, South Korea, Japan, South America, as well as the United States and Canada. They learn the methods of building with straw bales by helping build a small structure. One of the workshops is called Straw Bale Comprehensive. It is for people who are seriously considering building a home out of straw bales and want to do much of the work themselves. This week-long class lets people take part in a group project to design and build a small structure. People learn the methods of building with straw bales. They learn that the straw must be kept completely dry or it will not last. They learn how to put in electricity and plumbing. And they learn how to build roofs that will keep rain from the walls. VOICE TWO: Another week-long workshop is called Artistry in Clay and Lime. The Steens show how natural materials can be used to cover walls and floors, build furniture and create paints. During the workshop, the Steens teach traditional plastering methods used to cover walls in Japan, Mexico, Germany and the American Southwest. And they demonstrate methods and plaster materials they have developed. People learn how to make clay or earth plasters especially for inside walls and lime plasters that are less affected by the weather. VOICE ONE: People using straw bales for their main building material often want to use other natural materials inside the building. So the workshop includes information about natural paints that are easy to make and cost very little. These paints of clay or other earth materials provide beautiful colors – warm rich red, brown and gray. Clay paints can be used over almost any wall surface including wood and cement. The workshop also includes ways to make furniture out of clay, straw and local plant materials. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-five, the Steens began working in Sonora, Mexico. The organization, Save the Children, invited them to help people living in a poor farming community near the city of Obregon build low cost houses. Athena Steen says the people in the community were not happy at first with the idea of building new houses with straw and clay. They wanted to use modern materials like cement and brick. Then the Save the Children organization decided it wanted a new office building in Sonora. The Steens and a team of local women and men were trained by two skilled Mexican builders, Emiliano and Teodoro Lopez. They produced an office building of more than four hundred fifty square meters. VOICE ONE: They started with a floor plan so the space would meet the organization’s needs. Yet the building itself was designed as it was built. Bill Steen says they all learned and invented together as the building grew, room by room. They worked as friends and equals. The office building has outside walls made of straw bales to keep the desert heat out. The inside walls are made of straw and clay blocks. The walls are covered in earth plaster with clay from the area in colors of soft yellow, dark red and rich brown. VOICE TWO: Straw bale structure being built on a ranch in Sonora, MexicoThe result is a useful and beautiful office building. The women in the poor Mexican village decided they wanted to build their own small houses of the same materials. They worked with the Steens and others who had taken part in their workshops. It was a cooperative community effort, which is the way houses have been built for centuries. They built twelve one-room houses for about five hundred dollars each. One owner of a new straw bale house said that she always thought she would have to have a lot of money to have something beautiful. "Now I know that is not true," she said. "You just have to be willing to work for it." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next month to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English for another program about efforts to keep traditional ways alive. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US Doctor Group Urges Autism Testing for All Babies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The American Academy of Pediatrics says all children should be tested for autism by the age of two. Ryan Taylor was diagnosed with autism in 2004; he is shown with his father, Craig, at their home in ConnecticutAutism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical professionals call them autism spectrum disorders. Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that they say can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results. The medical group released two reports Monday with detailed information to help doctors identify autism. Chris Johnson at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio was one of the authors. She says doctors should look for signs of autism when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months. Doctors traditionally consider the possibility of autism only if a child shows delayed speech or unusually repetitive behaviors. These may be clear signs of it, but they usually do not appear until a child is two or three years old. Doctor Johnson says the medical profession has learned a lot about earlier signs of autism. She says the identification process can begin in the waiting room at a doctor’s office. Parents could answer a list of written questions about their baby. Then the doctor could perform tests as simple as observing the baby's ability to follow a moving object with its eyes. Experts say failing to watch a moving object may be a sign of autism. Doctors and parents can also look for behaviors that are normal in babies under one year of age. For example, does the baby appear to respond to a parent’s voice? Does the baby make eye contact? Does the baby wave or point at things? Young children usually have a favorite soft object like a stuffed animal or a blanket. But children with autism may like hard objects instead, and want to hold them at all times. They may not turn when a parent says their name or when the parent points at something and says "Look at that." Doctor Johnson says the goal of the new advice is early intervention instead of the traditional "wait and see" method to identify autism. The second report from the American Academy of Pediatrics deals with management of autism cases. We will discuss that next week. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: A Clash of Cultures in the New World
* Byline: Differences over land ownership and religion led to mistrust between European settlers and Indian tribes. The arrival of diseases from Europe further damaged relations. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story today is a sad one. It is the story of a clash of peoples, religions, ideas, and cultures. It is a story of strongly held ideas and a lack of compromise. It is the story of the relations between Europeans and the natives who had lived for thousands of years in the area we now call North America. VOICE TWO: Teton Sioux horse races in South Dakota. Artwork by Karl Bodmer from the 1830s.Many different Native American groups lived on the East Coast of what would become United States. They spoke many different languages. Some were farmers, some were hunters. Some fought many wars, others were peaceful. These groups are called tribes. Their names are known to most Americans...the Senecas, the Mohawks, the Seminole, the Cherokee to name only a few. VOICE ONE: These tribes had developed their own cultures many years before the first European settlers arrived. Each had a kind of religion, a strong spiritual belief. Many tribes shared a similar one. The Indians on the East Coast shared a highly developed system of trade. Researchers say different tribes of Native Americans traded goods all across the country. VOICE TWO: The first recorded meetings between Europeans and the natives of the East Coast took place in the fifteen hundreds. Fishermen from France and the Basque area of Spain crossed the Atlantic Ocean. They searched for whales along the east coast of North America. They made temporary camps along the coast. They often traded with the local Indians. The Europeans often paid Indians to work for them. Both groups found this to be a successful relationship. Several times different groups of fishermen tried to establish a permanent settlement on the coast, but the severe winters made it impossible. These fishing camps were only temporary. VOICE ONE: The first permanent settlers in New England began arriving in sixteen twenty. They wanted to live in peace with the Indians. They needed to trade with them for food. The settlers also knew that a battle would result in their own, quick defeat because they were so few in number. Yet, problems began almost immediately. Perhaps the most serious was the different way the American Indians and the Europeans thought about land. This difference created problems that would not be solved during the next several hundred years.(MUSIC)VOICE TWO: Land was extremely important to the European settlers. In England, and most other countries, land meant wealth. Owning large amounts of land meant a person had great wealth and political power. Many of the settlers in this new country could never have owned land in Europe. They were too poor. And they belonged to minority religious groups. When they arrived in the new country, they discovered no one seemed to own the huge amounts of land. Companies in England needed to find people willing to settle in the new country. So they offered land to anyone who would take the chance of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. For many, it was a dream come true. It was a way to improve their lives. The land gave them a chance to become wealthy and powerful. VOICE ONE: American Indians believed no person could own land. They believed, however, that anyone could use it. Anyone who wanted to live on and grow crops on a piece of land was able to do so. The American Indians lived within nature. They lived very well without working very hard. They were able to do this because they understood the land and their environment. They did not try to change the land. They might farm in an area for a few years. Then they would move on. They permitted the land on which they had farmed to become wild again. They might hunt on one area of land for some time, but again they would move on. They hunted only what they could eat, so the numbers of animals continued to increase. The Indians understood nature and made it work for them. VOICE TWO: The first Europeans to settle in New England in the northeastern part of America were few in number. They wanted land. The Indians did not fear them. There was enough land for everyone to use and plant crops. It was easy to live together. The Indians helped the settlers by teaching them how to plant crops and survive on the land. But the Indians did not understand that the settlers were going to keep the land. This idea was foreign to the Indians. It was like to trying to own the air, or the clouds. As the years passed, more and more settlers arrived, and took more and more land. They cut down trees. They built fences to keep people and animals out. They demanded that the Indians stay off their land. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Religion was another problem between the settlers and the Indians. The settlers in New England were very serious about their Christian religion. They thought it was the one true faith and all people should believe in it. They soon learned that the Indians were not interested in learning about it or changing their beliefs. Many settlers came to believe that Native Americans could not be trusted because they were not Christians. The settler groups began to fear the Indians. They thought of the Indians as a people who were evil because they had no religion. The settlers told the Indians they must change and become Christians. The Indians did not understand why they should change anything. VOICE TWO: The European settlers failed to understand that the Native American Indians were extremely religious people with a strong belief in unseen powers. The Indians lived very close to nature. They believed that all things in the universe depend on each other. All native tribes had ceremonies that honored a creator of nature. American Indians recognized the work of the creator of the world in their everyday life. VOICE ONE: Other events also led to serious problems between the Native Americans and the settlers. One serious problem was disease. The settlers brought sickness with them from Europe. For example, the disease smallpox was well known in Europe. Some people carried the bacteria that caused smallpox, although they did not suffer the sickness itself. Smallpox was unknown to Native Americans. Their bodies' defense systems could not fight against smallpox. It killed whole tribes. And, smallpox was only one such disease. There were many others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first meetings between settlers and Native Americans were the same in almost every European settlement on the East Coast of America. The two groups met as friends. They would begin by trading for food and other goods. In time, however, something would happen to cause a crisis. Perhaps a settler would demand that an Indian stay off the settler's land. Perhaps a settler, or Indian, was killed. Fear would replace friendship. One side or the other would answer what they believed was an attack. A good example of this is the violent clash called King Philip's War. VOICE ONE: Matacom was a leader of the Wampanoag tribe that lived in thenorthern-most colonies. He was known to the English as King Philip. Without the help of his tribe, the first European settlers in that area might not have survived their first winter. The Wampanoag Indians provided them with food. They taught the settlers how to plant corn and other food crops. The two groups were very friendly for several years. As the years passed, however, fear and a lack of understanding increased. Matacom's brother died of a European disease. Matacom blamed the settlers. He also saw how the increasing numbers of settlers were changing the land. He believed they were destroying it. VOICE TWO: One small crisis after another led to the killing of a Christian Indian who lived with the settlers. The settlers answered this by killing three Indians. A war quickly followed. It began in sixteen seventy-five and continued for almost two years. It was an extremely cruel war. Men, women and children on both sides were killed. Researchers believe more than six hundred settlers were killed. They also say as many as three thousand Native Americans died in the violence. VOICE ONE: History experts say the tribe of Indians called the Narraganset were the true victims of King Philip's War. The Narraganset were not involved in the war. They did not support one group or the other. However, the settlers killed almost all the Narraganset Indians because they had learned to fear all Indians. This fear, lack of understanding and the failure to compromise were not unusual. They strongly influenced the European settlers relations with Native Americans in all areas of the new country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. --- This was program #5 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-10/2007-10-31-voa3.cfm
* Headline: From the Airwaves to Webcasting, the Many Sounds of College Radio
* Byline: Students gain experience at stations that each have their own personality. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. No two college radio stations sound alike. (SOUND) Some stations have a low-budget sound and students do all the work. Others, like WBRU at Brown University in Rhode Island, have a professional operation heard throughout their communities. College stations play all kinds of music, from jazz to hard rock. Many also have news, including national or international programming. More than three hundred college radio and television stations belong to a group called Collegiate Broadcasters Incorporated. CBI helps organize a National College Media Conference which this year took place in Washington. Hundreds of students, professors and media professionals were at the four-day event last week. Warren Kozirenski at the State University of New York-Brockport is chairman of CBI. He points to WBRU as an example of a commercial station, meaning it earns money by selling time to advertisers. The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission which polices the public airwaves. For example, the station could be fined if it broadcasts offensive language. Many colleges and universities operate stations that are also licensed by the F.C.C but do not sell advertising. They raise money other ways, including donations from listeners. Stations like these including KTRU at Rice University in Houston are known as public broadcasters. (SOUND) College radio stations may receive money from the student government or their school administration. Warren Kozirenski says a majority have small budgets of less than fifty thousand dollars a year. Some stations do not broadcast over the public airwaves so they do not have to follow F.C.C. rules. They stream their programming over the Internet or are heard through cable systems. Or they use low-power transmitters heard only on school grounds. Still, many of their adult advisers want the young broadcasters to act professional. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rufus Wainwright Aims High With New Album, 'Release the Stars'
* Byline: Also: A listener in Burma asks about the election process in the United States.? And we explore the newest extension of the Denver Art Museum. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Rufus Wainwright … Answer a question about American elections … And report about the Denver Art Museum. Denver Art Museum HOST: Today we explore the collections of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado. The two main buildings of the museum contain art from many periods and places. The newest extension of the museum opened last year. The tall, silver-colored building was designed by the internationally famous American architect Daniel Libeskind. Faith Lapidus tells us about this interesting museum. FAITH LAPIDUS: When you first walk toward the Denver Art Museum, you might not realize the building you are looking at is a museum. The tall North Building looks like a defensive structure built long ago. It was actually built in nineteen seventy-one by the architect Gio Ponti. He once said that “art is a treasure and these thin but jealous walls defend it.” The surface of the building is covered in over one million glass tiles that shine in the bright Colorado sun. Next to this building is Daniel Libeskind’s bold creation. Its sharp angles and tall extensions are covered in silver-colored titanium metal. Mister Libeskind says the building was influenced by the light and environment of the nearby Rocky Mountains. The inside of the Denver Art Museum is as interesting as its outside. There are rich collections of modern and ancient art as well as art from Asia, Africa, America and Europe. The American Indian collection includes a finely-made face covering by the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe artist George Walkus. This bold mask has four bird faces painted in red, white and black. It was worn as part of a special dance ceremony. In its main entry, the new building has an unusual piece of art by the Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima. It is made up of eighty mirrored glass circles placed on the walls in different areas. Each circle has a lighted number in its center. The numbers count up and down at different speeds between the numbers one through nine. The Denver Art Museum recently had an exhibition of works by the abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still. When he died in nineteen eighty, he gave his collection of work to a city that would build a museum to protect and present his art. The Clyfford Still museum will be built next door to the Denver Art Museum. But we will have to wait until two thousand ten to explore its collections. American Elections HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Burma. Ko Maw Gyi wants to know about the United States election process and who will win the two thousand eight presidential election. National elections are held in the United States every two years. Each time, voters elect all members of the House of Representatives for a two-year term, and one-third of Senate members for a six-year term. Many states also choose governors and state legislatures in national elections. Citizens may also vote on different questions of state or local interest. Two thousand eight is a presidential election year, as well. The Constitution requires the president and vice president be elected every four years. By law, voting is to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Although many Americans may have an opinion about who will win the presidential election next year, it is too early to make any predictions. Presidential candidates have more than one year left to campaign. A voter gives her 9-year-old daughter a lesson in voting during the Maryland primary elections in 2006The two major parties in the United States are the Democrats and the Republicans. Every four years, the parties hold national conventions to officially choose their nominees for president and vice president. Many states hold special primary elections to choose delegates to the national conventions. Each presidential candidate lists on state primary ballots a group of delegates who have promised to support the candidate at their party’s convention. Citizens show their choice for the presidential nomination by voting for the group of delegates committed to that candidate. Off-year elections in American politics are considered general elections held during odd-numbered years. The next off-year election is November sixth. Voters will select mayors, city council members, school board officials and many other local offices. A few states will also hold elections for governor and state legislators on Tuesday. Rufus Wainwright HOST: Rufus Wainwright is a musician who comes from a family of folk singers. His fifth album, “Release the Stars,” is musically rich and complex. With his emotional voice, Wainwright sings about deeply personal stories. Some songs are playful, while others are more serious. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Rufus Wainwright recorded “Release the Stars” last summer in Germany. He wanted to create a musically straightforward and simple record. Instead, he ended up writing rich and complex musical arrangements that include fourteen string and horn instruments. The album combines the sounds of popular music with those of opera, classical and cabaret music. Here is the song “Rules and Regulations.” (MUSIC) Rufus Wainwright made this album for his mother, the musician Kate McGarrigle. While he was recording the songs, she had to have a serious medical operation. He said her sickness gave him a sense of urgency about the record he wanted to create. Last year, Rufus Wainwright gave a bold performance at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City. He recreated the songs from a historic concert given by the American singer Judy Garland in nineteen sixty-one. His performance received great critical praise. But one of his close friends did not attend. Wainwright wrote this song about his friends. “Release the Stars” tells about the old days of movie production studios in Hollywood, California. But Wainwright says the larger message is about letting everything go and being the best person you can be. (MUSIC) Rufus Wainwright has also written many songs for movies such as “Shrek”, “Moulin Rouge” and “Brokeback Mountain.”? The Metropolitan Opera in New York City has even asked him to write an opera. We leave you now with his song “Slideshow.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Finance: Merrill Lynch CEO O'Neal Is Out After Huge Loss
* Byline: Stan O'Neal retires under pressure following the company's $2 billion loss after taking an $8 billion charge on mortgage-related investments. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, directors of investment bank Merrill Lynch forced out its chief executive officer, Stan O'Neal. He retired less than a week after Merrill reported its first quarterly loss in six years, and the biggest in its ninety-three-year history. Merrill is the world's largest brokerage company. It lost over two billion dollars in the period from July through September. That was because of more than eight billion dollars in write-downs. A write-down represents a reduction in the value of investments or other assets. The results were mostly related to subprime mortgages -- housing loans to people with risky credit histories. Merrill has had the largest losses so far of any American bank with investments tied to subprime loans. Many of these investments are complex securities called collateralized debt obligations. Merrill had almost eight billion dollars in write-downs on C.D.O.s and subprime mortgages. That was even more than the four and one-half billion dollars expected. Its other divisions, however, remained profitable. Stan O'Neal worked for Merrill Lynch for twenty-one years. He held the top job since two thousand two. Board members were angry at the losses and at reports that he proposed a merger deal with Wachovia Bank without their approval. He chose most of the members of that board. Critics say he failed to listen to warnings about the risk of subprime debt. Yet his decisions to make riskier investments than chief executives before him helped produce record profits for the company. He also pushed to reduce costs, including thousands of job cuts -- a culture change for a company that was known as "Mother Merrill." He leaves with about one hundred sixty million dollars worth of stock and retirement pay. Stan O'Neal was the first African-American to lead a major Wall Street investment bank. He rose out of poverty. As a boy he picked cotton on a family farm in Alabama. Later he was a factory worker at General Motors. Some market watchers think Merrill Lynch may have to write down an additional four billion dollars in the fourth quarter of the year. But the company was not alone in reporting big third-quarter losses. In Europe the investment bank UBS said it lost about seven hundred million dollars. It wrote down more than three billion dollars of investments linked to subprime loans. And UBS warned that it could end the year with more losses. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fernandez Makes History in Argentina, but Soon Comes the Real Work
* Byline: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, senator and first lady, is the first woman to be elected president. The country faces energy shortages and high inflation. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Senator and first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner this week became the first woman to be elected president of Argentina. The fifty-four-year-old lawyer and politician received about twice as many votes as her closest opponent, Elisa Carrio. Cristina Fernandez will take office in December when her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, steps down after one term. She will face difficult issues including Argentina's high inflation rates and energy shortages. Her support comes mainly from Argentina’s lower classes. Political observers say she could lose that support if she is unable to slow inflation and deal with the energy problems. Elisa Carrio, a former legislator known for her campaign against corruption, had the strong support of wealthier voters. She won the big cities of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, after Brazil. The economy has grown at more than eight percent a year during Nestor Kirchner's presidency. But the country has a large international debt. And one-fourth of its thirty-seven million people still live in poverty. President-elect Fernandez has promised to continue her husband’s policies. Many people believe his success in improving the economy helped her rise to the presidency. Argentina suffered a financial crisis in two thousand one and two thousand two. She says she will work to improve employment, health care, education -- and Argentina’s foreign relations. Her husband has traveled little outside the country during his four years as president. But she has spent recent months meeting with foreign leaders. Citizens eighteen to seventy living in Argentina are required to vote. Those living outside the country are not required. But Argentine Embassy spokeswoman Danielle de la Fuente in Washington said many came to the consulate to vote in Sunday's election. Argentina also has a law to support the involvement of women in politics. It requires one-third of legislative candidates to be women. Cristina Fernandez will join Michelle Bachelet of Chile as the only female presidents in Latin America. But while Argentina will have its first elected female president, she will not be the first woman to lead the country. Vice President Isabel Peron became president after her husband, General Juan Peron, died in nineteen seventy-four. President Nestor KirchnerPresident Kirchner and his wife lead the Peronist party, a movement that grew out of the rule of General Peron. Some people think they will try to exchange the presidency between them for the next twelve years. Argentine law permits a former president to run again after a four-year wait. Many people compare Cristina Fernandez to American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Both women are senators and lawyers whose husbands were governors and then presidents. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. To learn more about Argentina and its politics, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Maria Callas, 1923-1977: A Beautiful Voice and Intense Personality
* Byline: She influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about one of the most famous opera singers of the twentieth century, Maria Callas. (MUSIC: March From "Norma") VOICE ONE: Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes. Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States. VOICE TWO: Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well-known operas remain very popular today. Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen twenty-three. Her real name was Maria Kalogeropoulous. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years. In nineteen forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Eida" by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt. (MUSIC: "Ritorna Vincitor" from "Aida")) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world. In nineteen fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul, became one of her most famous parts. (MUSIC: "Casta Diva" from "Norma")) VOICE TWO: During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this. When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera. (MUSIC: "Vissi D'arte" from "Tosca")) VOICE TWO: Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in?nineteen sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy. Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "Master Class." VOICE ONE: Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice. Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen seventy-seven. She was fifty-three. VOICE TWO: Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning. " People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world. (MUSIC: March From "Norma") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Monkey: No Monkey Business Here
* Byline: Expressions about tricky people or playful acts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Monkeys are very similar to us in many ways. Most have ten fingers and ten toes, and brains much like ours. We enjoy watching them because they often act like us. In fact, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution says that monkeys and humans share a common ancestor. Songwriter William Gilbert, in the musical "Princess Ida", wrote: "Darwinian man, though well-behaved, at best is only a monkey shaved." His words -- sung to Sir Arthur Sullivan's music -- make listeners smile. Well, monkeys make us smile, too, because they are creatures full of playful tricks. This is why many monkey expressions are about tricky people or playful acts. One of these expressions is monkeyshines, meaning tricks or foolish acts. The meaning is clear if you have ever watched a group of monkeys playfully chasing each other: pulling tails, stealing food, doing tricks. So, when a teacher says to a group of students: "Stop those monkeyshines right now!" you know that the boys and girls are playing, instead of studying. You might hear that same teacher warn a student not to monkey around with a valuable piece of equipment. You monkey around with something when you do not know what you are doing. You are touching or playing with something you should leave alone. Also, you can monkey around when you feel like doing something, but have no firm idea of what to do. For example, you tell your friend you are going to spend the day monkeying around with your car. You do not have any job or goal in mind. It is just a way to pass the time. Monkey business usually means secret, maybe illegal, activities. A news report may say there is monkey business involved in building the new airport, with some officials getting secret payments from builders. You may make a monkey out of someone when you make that person look foolish. Some people make a monkey out of themselves by acting foolish or silly. If one monkey has fun, imagine how much fun a barrel of monkeys can have. If your friend says he had more fun than a barrel of monkeys at your party, you know that he had a really good time. Monkey suits are common names for clothes or uniforms soldiers wear. In earlier years in many American cities, you would find men playing musical hand organs on the street.Dancing to the music would be the man's small monkey dressed in a tight-fitting, colorful jacket similar to a military uniform. So, people began to call a military uniform a monkey suit. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES,?was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES,?was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Maurice Joyce was the narrator. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Keeping Count of Who Enters the World or Leaves
* Byline: A campaign is launched to make sure all of the world’s births and deaths are recorded. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Governments may be accused of keeping too many records on their people. But no one seems to argue with recording births, deaths and marriages. This is called civil registration. Birth and death records help governments count populations and know how long people live and what they die from. This information is important for planning schools, hospitals and other services. A birth certificate is also important for another reason. That piece of paper is legal proof that an individual exists. Yet the World Health Organization believes that almost forty percent of all births go unrecorded. It estimates that one hundred twenty-eight million babies are born each year. So one way to look at this is to say that every year close to fifty million people are denied legal identities. And in the least developed countries the rate could be as high as seventy percent. The situation is no better for death records. Every year fifty-seven million people die. But perhaps only one-third of these deaths are counted. The W.H.O., the United Nations health agency, has one hundred ninety-three member states. Yet it receives dependable cause-of-death information from just thirty-one countries. Researchers say most developing countries have limited civil registration systems or none at all. Now, a partnership supported by the W.H.O., called the Health Metrics Network, will try to improve the situation. Last week it launched a campaign to register all of the world’s births and deaths. The effort was announced at a conference in Beijing, the Global Forum for Health Research. The director general of the W.H.O., Margaret Chan, said no single U.N. agency is responsible for making sure births and deaths are recorded. Yet without these numbers, she says, who knows if one hundred twenty billion dollars in official development aid each year is being spent wisely? The campaign began with four papers published in The Lancet medical journal describing the situation. Also, the Health Metrics Network is launching intensive efforts to help six countries. The group has already started to work with Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Syria. By the end of this year, three more countries will be identified for help to make sure everyone gets counted. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about civil registration, go to voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Veterans, Pride in Service, and Health Systems Pushed to Limits
* Byline: A look at issues facing wounded troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. November eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. The holiday honors those who served in the military. That describes almost twenty-five million people alive today. This week on our program, we talk about veterans and some current issues they face. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A visitor to the National World War Two Memorial in Washington stands looking at the water rising from the fountains in the middle. The memorial has an Atlantic side and a Pacific side. The visitor, a man with white hair, walks over to the Atlantic side -- the war in Europe. He looks at the stone block honoring veterans from Massachusetts, his home state. Fighting in the war was terrible, he says. But being a veteran changed his life. He explains that he attended college and became an engineer because of legislation passed in nineteen forty-four. The law was known as the "GI Bill of Rights." GI is slang for a soldier. It provided veterans with money for education. It guaranteed loans for homes and businesses. It helped support veterans who had trouble finding jobs. Today, there is a modern version called the Montgomery GI Bill. The last military draft ended in nineteen seventy-three. Since then the armed services have been all-volunteer. VOICE TWO: Many young veterans today served in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in some cases both. Military and veterans health systems have faced struggles and criticisms of their ability to meet current needs. Close to thirty thousand American troops have been wounded in Iraq since the war began in two thousand three. Many were severely injured, including lost arms and legs and brain injuries as a result of bomb explosions. President Bush says the system for managing care is old and needs to be changed. His proposals are based on suggestions from the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. Some measures can be taken without legislation; others have to be approved by Congress. The president appointed the commission in March after news reports brought the issue to national attention. VOICE ONE: In February, the Washington Post reported on problems for soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. These included poor living conditions and long delays in decisions about the future of their care and their military service. President Bush visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center in July. A photo provided by the White House shows him after he gave a Purple Heart to Army National Guard Specialist Dave Saucier.The newspaper series raised wider questions and quickly brought promises of improvements. For example, the Army is developing new teams in an effort to improve case management for wounded soldiers. But the Government Accountability Office recently reported that the Army is having trouble filling positions on these teams. At the same time, long-standing problems remain to be solved. Last month, Mister Bush proposed legislation to speed up the process for wounded service members. Now, they go through medical tests and complete paperwork for the Department of Defense. They have to repeat the same process for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the V.A. The legislation calls for the Defense Department to decide if a wounded veteran could return to active duty. Those too badly injured would be moved to the care of the V.A. The V.A. would rule on the extent of their injuries. VOICE TWO: Family members caring for veterans would receive six months of unpaid leave from work so they would not lose their jobs. Also, all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans could get care for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. They would not have to prove it was connected to their service. And other measures are being proposed. The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, in its final report last month, called for an immediate increase in disability payments. The group was established in the two thousand four defense budget. The commission said Congress should increase payments by up to twenty-five percent. This is being called for as a step toward future measures based not just on work-related losses but losses in quality of life. (MUSIC)?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? VOICE ONE: Almost one and one-half million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over a four-year period doctors reported about sixty thousand people with PTSD or serious brain injuries. Several drugs and mental health treatments are used for post-traumatic stress disorder. But a report released last month said most of the treatments are unproven. The report came from a committee of the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies in Washington. The experts found problems with many studies of PTSD treatments. They decided that there is not enough evidence to make judgments about any medications. In the words of chairman Alfred Berg from the University of Washington in Seattle: "These therapies may or may not be effective -- we just don't know." VOICE TWO: The committee said the same thing about most of the psychotherapies. However, the experts found enough evidence to say that exposure therapies are effective in treating people with PTSD. These forms of therapy expose people to a threat in a safe environment to help them deal with their fears. Still, the experts said they were not suggesting to discontinue any treatment or only use exposure therapies. Doctor Berg said there is an urgent need for high-quality studies of the best possible care. The committee found that there is not even a generally accepted definition for recovery from the disorder. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? VOICE ONE: PTSD is the most common service-related mental disorder found in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost thirteen percent of those who fought in Iraq, and about six percent in Afghanistan, are believed to have experienced it. The Institute of Medicine noted that large numbers of Vietnam veterans and veterans of earlier conflicts have also reported PTSD. And most people who suffer from it also have other conditions such as alcoholism, depression, drug use or anxiety disorders. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The V.A. says about one-third of homeless adults in the United States have served in the armed forces, mostly during the Vietnam War. The department says an estimated one hundred ninety-five thousand veterans are homeless on any given night. And, it says, perhaps twice as many are homeless at some point during any given year. The V.A. has special treatment programs and services that were established twenty years ago to serve homeless veterans. VOICE ONE: Last year there was a documentary film about homeless veterans called "When I Came Home." It tells the story of an Iraq war veteran with PTSD named Herold Noel. In one scene, he talks about living in his automobile in New York. (SOUND) HEROLD NOEL: "You want to see my home? You want to see my home? My home is right there. That's my home. You understand? There's my home."? VOICE ONE: The press materials for the film included a newspaper story about Herold Noel in the New York Post in January of two thousand five. The story said he was seeing a psychiatrist at a V.A. hospital and had been given three different drugs for his PTSD. But he needed housing for his family. He went to an emergency assistance office in the city. The story said he was told there was no more government-assisted housing available. VOICE TWO: The documentary shows how his life changes after meets Paul Rieckhoff. Mister Rieckhoff is the founder of an organization called Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The movie follows Herold Noel as he becomes active and receives media attention. It shows him going to Washington to ask Congress for more help for other veterans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Three years ago, Illinois Army National Guard pilot Tammy Duckworth was flying in a Black Hawk helicopter near Baghdad. A rocket struck the aircraft. She lost both legs and suffered severe injuries to her right arm. She says veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars helped her through her painful recovery with support and advice. Last year she was a Democratic candidate for Congress. It was her first campaign for public office. She lost the election. But she now serves as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. VOICE TWO: Another veteran, Joyce Robinson, keeps a book of memories. One of them is a photograph of a young woman in the military. That was her, more than sixty years ago. She served in the Army occupation forces in Japan after World War Two. Joyce Robinson says she is happy she served, and glad to be a veteran. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Telescope to Search for Life Beyond Earth
* Byline: Also: Leading scientific publications join together to examine poverty and development. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we will tell about an effort to search for intelligent life beyond our universe. We will tell about a method shown to increase attention and reduce tension. We will also report on new concerns about the health of children in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California, is being used to search for intelligent lifeThe search for life in the universe took a step forward last month with the opening of the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California. The telescopes were partly made possible by a gift of twenty-five million dollars from Paul Allen. He helped start the computer software company Microsoft. He joined with the Radio Astronomy Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley and the SETI Institute to provide money for the project. The total cost of the project is already fifty million dollars. Currently, there are forty-two radio telescopes working at the Hat Creek observatory. The signals they receive are combined to create what is equal to a single, very large telescope. VOICE TWO: Objects in space release radio waves that can be collected and studied. Astronomers can make pictures of objects using radio wave information. These pictures can show structures not observed in other wavelengths of light. The telescope will be used to observe objects like exploding stars, black holes and other objects that are predicted but have not yet been observed. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute says this is the first telescope whose main purpose is to search for signals from intelligent life in space. What makes the Allen Telescope Array unusual is that it can collect and study information from a wide area of the sky. In addition, the forty-two telescopes can study information about several projects at the same time. That means studies of large areas of the sky can be made faster than ever before. VOICE ONE: The Allen Telescope Array uses parts that are not specially made. But they are easily available, including telecommunications technology. This helps keep the cost down. Each telescope is about six meters across. Some officials estimate the Allen Telescope Array will be completed in three more years. Three hundred fifty individual radio telescopes are planned. The SETI institute is based in Mountain View, California. The organization supports the search for other life forms in the universe. The new abilities of the Allen Telescope Array will make searching for stars similar to the sun much faster. An earlier search by SETI, Project Phoenix, studied about eight hundred stars to a distance of two hundred forty light years. The project ended in two thousand four. With the Allen Telescope Array, astronomers hope to gather thousands of times more information in the search for life beyond our planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recent studies have shown that performing intensive meditation for long periods can help to improve attention. They also showed meditation reduces emotional or mental pressure and makes it easier to deal with difficult activities. Meditation is a kind of guided thought. People who meditate often spend months or years in training. ?But an American study found that people can get the same helpful effects in five days if they use a process called integrative mind-body meditation. The process combines rest, controlled breathing, mental imagery and mindfulness training. In earlier studies, such activities have been shown to improve attention, emotion, and social behaviors. VOICE ONE: Researchers at the University of Oregon developed integrative mind-body training. The researchers taught it to forty university students in China. They compared the results of the training to the results of deep rest in another group of students. The study found that the students in the trained group performed better than the others on measures like attention and emotion. The researchers also measured levels of the natural hormone cortisol. Cortisol has been called the worry hormone. The body produces it when we are afraid. The study found cortisol levels were much lower in the mind-body trained group than in the other group. VOICE TWO: Michael Posner is an expert on attention at the University of Oregon. He helped to write a report on the study. Professor Posner says he was surprised by the findings. He says he thought they might have resulted from where the study was carried out. He says many people in China are already believers in intensive meditation. But he says Chinese university students have concerns about traditional Chinese medicine. The report on the gains of short-term mind-body training is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. With Faith Lapidus, I'm Bob Doughty in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health officials in Sudan have launched a campaign to vaccinate eight million children after a case of polio was reported there. United Nations and Sudanese agencies are carrying out the campaign. Sudan had been polio-free since two thousand five. The new case of wild poliovirus was confirmed in South Darfur two months ago. Health officials also announced in September that Nigeria has had almost seventy new cases of polio since two thousand five. Those cases, however, were caused by the polio vaccine itself. VOICE TWO: There are two kinds of polio vaccine. The one given by injection contains killed virus, which cannot cause polio. The one given by mouth contains live but weakened virus. In very rare cases, the virus can change and cause polio. The way to stop the spread now is more vaccinations. But officials worry that people in northern Nigeria may, once again, fear the vaccine. In recent years, local leaders spread stories that Western nations had poisoned the vaccine with the virus that causes AIDS. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Recently, major science publications around the world produced what was called a "Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development."? The Council of Science Editors organized the project. The Council said it involved two hundred thirty-five scientific journals from thirty-seven countries. The group said the goal was to increase interest and research in the subject and to spread the results as widely as possible. It said the journals published more than seven hundred fifty stories involving eighty-seven countries. The web site of the Council of Science Editors released a partial list of the stories. The group has urged all journals that published the articles to make them available free to the public. VOICE TWO: This is the third time scientific journals have joined together to report on a single issue. The first time was in nineteen ninety-six. That is when thirty-six journals published articles about worldwide threats from diseases. In nineteen ninety-seven, ninety-seven journals joined together to report on the issue of aging. The editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, organized the two earlier efforts. JAMA published several articles for the newest one. The research examined how knowledge about effective health interventions can be put to use locally to help poor people. VOICE ONE: Other widely read journals that published articles included Science, Nature and The Lancet. The project also included journals on medicine and biology from the Public Library of Science. That organization publishes its journals free of charge on the Internet. America's National Institutes of Health held an event to launch the Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. Experts from the N.I.H. and the Council of Science Editors chose seven articles for recognition. The subjects included childbirth safety, AIDS, malaria treatment and the effects of influenza on children. Seven years ago, the United Nations recognized the link between health and development in the Millennium Development Goals. But many experts believe the targets for health improvements will not be reached at current rates of progress. ? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Soo Jee Han, Mario Ritter and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Farming Marginal Lands
* Byline: It is possible to reclaim poor quality land for agriculture, but care is needed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. To call land "marginal" means it is not very good. Farmers have their own way to describe it. Marginal land is the last to be planted under good conditions and the first to be avoided when situations are bad. Low quality soil is not the only reason why land could be considered marginal. The land might be in an area where rainfall is limited. Or it might be on a hillside that rises too sharply. Yet there are uses for marginal land. Most often it is used as grassland. Grasses provide excellent feed for grazing animals like cattle, sheep and goats. A farmer might use native grasses or non-native seed. Either way, it is important to establish good ground cover to avoid the loss of soil through erosion. Forage crops like clover and alfalfa could be planted. These members of the legume family provide high protein food for grazing animals. They also improve the quality of the soil. Most plants use up nitrogen. But legumes put nitrogen back into the soil. Forage crops also help limit erosion. But using marginal land for grazing is not as simple as it might sound. There is a risk of overgrazing. Cattle can damage forage crops by eating down to the roots. Also, the animals crush the soil with their weight. That can make the ground too hard for growing. A way to reduce the damage is to move animals from one field to another. This method is known as rotational grazing. Agricultural experts say rotational grazing is extremely important for marginal land. Another use for marginal land is for tree crops. Studies have shown that the white pine and loblolly pine are two kinds of trees that grow well on such land. They grow fast and provide good quality wood. Another kind to consider is the poplar. And there are slower-growing trees like the black walnut that provide wood as well as a nut crop. Trees help support the soil. They reduce the damaging effects of wind and rain. And they can provide grazing animals with shade from the sun. Marginal lands need care to protect them. Failing to take that care might only make a bad situation worse. But good planning can turn a marginal resource into a highly productive one. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question about agriculture, send it to special@voanews.com. Please tell us your name and where you are from. We might be able to answer your question on our program. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Worldwide, a Language Dies Every Two Weeks
* Byline: Over half of the 7,000 languages in the world are in danger of disappearing. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we travel far and wide to learn about some of the rarest languages in the world. Experts say over half of the world’s seven thousand languages are in danger of disappearing. Every two weeks one language disappears. As the last speakers of a language die off, the valuable information contained within a language also disappears. Join us as we learn about the cultural value of language and why endangered languages must be protected. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: What would happen if you were the only person left who spoke your language? Who would you share stories with, sing songs to, or exchange jokes with?? Who would understand your names for local plants, animals and traditions? This is the example David Harrison and Gregory Anderson use to explain the situation of many people around the world whose local languages are disappearing. Mister Harrison and Mister Anderson head Living Tongues, an organization that studies and protects endangered languages. VOICE TWO: Sometimes a language disappears immediately when the last person speaking it dies. Or, a local language might disappear more slowly. This happens when an official language is used more often and children stop learning the local language of their parents. This is not a new process. Official languages often represent a form of control over a group of people. Throughout history, the language spoken by a powerful group spreads across a civilization. The more powerful culture rarely respects the language and culture of smaller ethnic groups. So, smaller cultures lose their local language as the language of the culture in power becomes the stronger influence. VOICE ONE: For example, many native languages in the Russian area of Siberia are threatened. This is largely because of the hostile language policies of the former Soviet Union that forced the use of Russian as the official language. The Internet could be thought of as a new method of language control. The United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, says that ninety percent of the world’s languages are not represented on the Internet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts say protecting languages is very important for many reasons. Languages contain the histories, ideas and knowledge of a culture. Languages also contain valuable information about local medicines, plants and animals. David Harrison and Gregory Anderson of Living Tongues say that many endangered languages are spoken by native cultures in close contact with the natural world. Their ancient languages contain a great deal of information about environmental systems and species of plants and animals that are unknown to scientists. VOICE ONE: Each language also shows how a culture organizes information. For example, one word in the native language Carrier spoken in British Colombia means “he gives me an object like the fruit blueberries.” In the Nivkh language of Siberia, each number can be said twenty-six different ways based on the object being counted. And, in one language in Botswana, there are three main kinds of plants and animals: edible “eat-things”, harmful “bite-things” and “useless things.” Here Gregory Anderson talks about why languages are important: GREGORY ANDERSON: “Language is in many ways, a window to the mind. What these languages contain are all kinds of ways that we structure the world. Language is a way of storing the history of a people. Languages reflect a different historical contact with other groups, for example, in the form of loan words that get borrowed from one language into another. And, for people that have no written history, language can be one of the ways that that history can be gotten at just by looking carefully at the different layers in the language.” VOICE TWO: The Living Tongues group has partnered with National Geographic to create the Enduring Voices Project. The goal of the project is to increase public attention about endangered languages and to study and document them. The project also works to prevent languages from dying out by identifying the most threatened areas where languages are disappearing. These “hotspot” areas include Northern Australia, Central South America, Eastern Siberia and parts of the United States and Canada. VOICE ONE: For example, native people in the Northern Territory of Australia speak more than one hundred fifty languages. Many native aboriginal languages are only spoken, so there is no written record of their existence. Within this hotspot, at least eleven languages are extremely endangered. The Living Tongues team traveled to Australia in July, two thousand seven to study and record some of these native languages. Patrick and Mona Nanudjul, shown with linguist David Harrison, are among the last speakers of Magati KeThey worked with aboriginal groups to give them ideas on how to protect and teach these endangered languages. Some languages like Magati Ke only have three known speakers. So there is little that can be done to save that language. At the very least, a sound recording of the language will remain. Listen to the words of “Old Man” Patrick Nanudjul speaking Magati Ke. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Many languages are also disappearing from the northwestern part of the United States. The languages spoken by native tribes are increasingly endangered as younger generations learn and speak English. One of the most endangered languages is called Siletz Dee-ni. It was spoken on the Siletz reservation, where the tribe lives on a protected area of land within the state of Oregon. The reservation was created in the nineteenth century to hold people from twenty-seven different native groups. The groups spoke different languages, so they developed Chinook Jargon to communicate with each other. With increased use of Chinook Jargon and English, the number of people speaking their native languages decreased. VOICE ONE: Today, only one person on the reservation speaks Siletz Dee-ni. Living Tongues has helped the tribal members create a Siletz Dictionary to preserve knowledge of this language. Here is a recording of several words in the dictionary. (SOUND) The Siletz Tribal Council also started an Athabaskan Language Program in two thousand three. The program works to create a dictionary and gives weekly classes to schoolchildren. (SOUND: Max Chura speaking) VOICE TWO: That was an example of the secret mixed language of Kallawaya, spoken by male traditional healers in a small community in southern Bolivia. Kallawaya is a mixed language. It has some grammar structure and words from several other languages that are unknown or that have disappeared. Kallawaya is an ancient language. Traditional healers spoke the language at least as early as the fifteenth century during the height of the Inca civilization. Why is it a secret language? Kallawaya is passed down within families from father to son as a way of protecting the special knowledge of healers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say bringing back threatened languages is not easy, but it is very important work. One example takes place in the American state of Hawaii. The United States first claimed Hawaii as a territory in eighteen ninety-eight. Two years before, the use of the Hawaiian language was banned in private and public schools. English became the official language of Hawaii. Slowly, fewer and fewer young natives learned to speak Hawaiian fluently. The language began to disappear. William Wilson teaches at the University of Hawaii. He says that in nineteen eighty-six fewer than fifty children in Hawaii could speak their native language fluently. That same year, the language ban was lifted after extended protests by native groups. The Hawaiian language began to be taught again in schools. Today, Mister Wilson says about two thousand children now speak Hawaiian. He says that more importantly, many families now speak Hawaiian at home. VOICE TWO: In Australia, Living Tongues helped an eighty-year-old woman teach a Yawuru language class to schoolchildren. She is one of only three speakers of this rare language. Gregory Anderson says the children willingly signed up to take her class. He and his team of researchers asked the children why they were in the class. The children said that Yawuru is a dying language and they needed to learn it. They said it was up to them to keep the language alive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can learn more about Living Tongues and the Enduring Voices Project on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. All sound clips of language?examples?and photographs are from livingtongues.org. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Children’s Doctors Group Calls for Early Medical and Educational Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders
* Byline: American Academy of Pediatrics urges early treatment for autistic spectrum disorders. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week we reported about new advice on autism from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It said doctors should look for signs of the brain disorder when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months. At the same time, the medical group provided new guidelines for care and treatment of children once they are identified as autistic. We promised more information on that part of the new guidelines this week. Autism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical professionals call them autism spectrum disorders. Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results. The new guidelines include educational interventions, medical care and family support tools. The American Academy of Pediatrics says young autistic children should enter some kind of learning program. It says such children should be actively involved in the program at least twenty-five hours a week all year long. The group also says it is best if there is a small number of students for each teacher. The A.A.P. says autistic children do better with more direct attention from and interaction with their teachers. The group also calls for interaction between autistic children and non-autistic children of the same age when possible. However, the A.A.P. guidelines note that children with more severe cases of autism spectrum disorder may have serious behavior problems. These could make interactions with other children difficult or even harmful. The experts advise parents to receive training for dealing with autism. But the A.A.P. warns parents and doctors against several kinds of treatment programs. These include those that claim a high level of success or a cure for the disorder. The guidelines suggest using treatments that are based on results of controlled studies supported by established scientific organizations. The A.A.P. says autistic children should have the same general health care as other children, including immunizations against disease. It says some autistic children have behavior, social or medical problems that may require treatment with drugs. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: After 40 Years, Calculators in School Still Add Up to Debate
* Byline: Teachers say electronic brains can be useful, but young students should know basic operations before they begin using them. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Can you do the math: What is one hundred times four, divided by the square root of a hundred? If you know that, then you know the answer to this: How many years ago did three scientists at Texas Instruments invent the handheld electronic calculator? The handheld electronic calculator was invented in 1967The answer is forty. The scientists were Jerry Merryman, James Van Tassel and Jack Kilby. Their first device could add, subtract, multiply and divide. It had twelve bytes of memory -- close to nothing compared to today's powerful calculators. And it weighed more than a kilogram. But it was powered by batteries. That meant it could be taken anywhere. Other electronic calculators had to be plugged into electricity. Not only that, they weighed close to twenty-five kilograms and were almost as big as typewriters. In the United States, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics says teachers at every level should support the use of calculators. Students are even permitted to use them when they take college entrance tests. That may surprise parents who still think of the days of paper-and-pencil only. Yet after forty years, calculators in the classroom still add up to the same old debate. Some education experts think calculators are used too much. Children, they say, learn to depend on these electronic brains instead of their own. Calculators may not only give students answers to questions they do not really understand, critics argue. They may also keep them from discovering ideas for themselves. The danger? Students who cannot even do simple addition and subtraction. Other experts, though, say calculators have helped make mathematics more understandable to more students. They say calculators give students more time to understand and solve problems -- and to develop a better sense of what numbers mean. That way, the reasoning goes, they can study higher level ideas than they would otherwise. And they can feel better about their abilities. What do teachers think? Generally they say calculators can be useful -- especially with more complex math. But they also say that young students should know basic operations before they begin using them. What do you think of calculators in the classroom? Send your thoughts to special@voanews.com. Tell us about your own experience. And be sure to include your name and where you are from. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: How a Desire for Religious Freedom or Land, or Both, Led to Colonies
* Byline: Puritans from England settled Massachusetts. The Dutch settled the area now called New York State. And Quakers, unwelcome in England, settled Pennsylvania. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the movement of European settlers throughout northeastern America. And we tell how the separate colonies developed in this area. VOICE ONE: The Puritans were one of the largest groups from England to settle in the northeastern area called Massachusetts. They began arriving in sixteen thirty. The Puritans had formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in England. The king had given the company an area of land between the Charles and Merrimack rivers. The Puritans were Protestants who did not agree with the Anglican Church. The Puritans wanted to change the church to make it more holy. They were able to live as they wanted in Massachusetts. Soon they became the largest religious group. By sixteen ninety, fifty thousand people were living in Massachusetts. Puritans thought their religion was the only true religion and everyone should believe in it. They also believed that church leaders should lead the local government, and all people in the colony should pay to support the Puritan church. The Puritans thought it was the job of government leaders to tell people what to believe. Some people did not agree with the Puritans who had become leaders of the colony. One of those who disagreed was a Puritan minister named Roger Williams. VOICE TWO: Roger Williams believed as all Puritans did that other European religions were wrong. He thought the Native Indian religions were wrong too. But he did not believe in trying to force others to agree with him. He thought that it was a sin to punish or kill anyone in the name of Christianity. And he thought that only church members should pay to support their church. Roger Williams began speaking and writing about his ideas. He wrote a book saying it was wrong to punish people for having different beliefs. Then he said that the European settlers were stealing the Indians' land. He said the king of England had no right to permit people to settle on land that was not his, but belonged to the Indians. The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony forced Roger Williams to leave the colony in sixteen thirty-six. He traveled south. He bought land from local Indians and started a city, Providence. The Parliament in England gave him permission to establish a new colony, Rhode Island, with Providence as its capital. As a colony, Rhode Island accepted people of all religious beliefs, including Catholics, Quakers, Jews and even people who denied the existence of God. Roger Williams also believed that governments should have no connection to a church. This idea of separating church and state was very new. Later it became one of the most important of all America's governing ideas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other colonies were started by people who left Massachusetts to seek land. One was Connecticut. A group led by Puritan minister Thomas Hooker left Boston in sixteen thirty-six and went west. They settled near the Connecticut River. Others soon joined them. Other groups from Massachusetts traveled north to find new homes. The king of England had given two friends a large piece of land in the north. The friends divided it. John Mason took what later became the colony of New Hampshire. Ferdinando Gorges took the area that later became the state of Maine. It never became a colony, however. It remained a part of Massachusetts until after the United States was created. VOICE TWO: The area known today as New York State was settled by the Dutch. They called it New Netherland. Their country was the Netherlands. It was a great world power, with colonies all over the world. A business called the Dutch West India Company owned most of the colonies. The Dutch claimed American land because of explorations by Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Netherlands. The land the Dutch claimed was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglican tobacco farmers in the south. The Dutch were not interested in settling the territory. They wanted to earn money. The Dutch West India Company built trading posts on the rivers claimed by the Netherlands. People in Europe wanted to buy goods made from the skins of animals trapped there. In sixteen twenty-six, the Dutch West India Company bought two islands from the local Indians. The islands are Manhattan Island and Long Island. Traditional stories say the Dutch paid for the islands with some trade goods worth about twenty-four dollars. The Dutch West India Company tried to find people to settle in America. But few Dutch wanted to leave Europe. So the colony welcomed people from other colonies, and other countries. These people built a town on Manhattan Island. They called it New Amsterdam. It was soon full of people who had arrived on ships from faraway places. It was said you could hear as many as eighteen different languages spoken in New Amsterdam. In sixteen fifty-five, the governor of New Netherland took control of a nearby Swedish colony on Delaware Bay. In sixteen sixty-four, the English did the same to the Dutch. The English seized control of New Amsterdam and called it New York. That ended Dutch control of the territory that now is the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most of the Dutch in New Amsterdam did not leave. The English permitted everyone to stay. They let the Dutch have religious freedom. The Dutch were just not in control any more. The Duke of York owned the area now. He was the brother of King Charles the Second of England. The king gave some of the land near New York to two friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley. They called it New Jersey, after the English island where Carteret was born. The two men wrote a plan of government for their colony. It created an assembly that represented the settlers. It provided for freedom of religion. Men could vote in New Jersey whatever their religion. Soon, people from all parts of Europe were living in New Jersey. Then King Charles took control of the area. He sent a royal governor to rule. But the colonists were permitted to make their own laws through the elected assembly. The king of England did the same in each colony he controlled. He collected taxes from the people who lived there, but permitted them to govern themselves. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One religious group that was not welcome in England was the Quakers. Quakers call themselves Friends. They believe that each person has an inner light that leads them to God. Quakers believe they do not need a religious leader to tell them what is right. So, they had no clergy. Quakers believe that all people are equal. The Quakers in England refused to recognize the king as more important than anyone else. They also refused to pay taxes to support the Anglican Church. Quakers believe that it is always wrong to kill. So they would not fight even when they were forced to join the army. They also refuse to promise loyalty to a king or government or flag or anyone but God. The English did not like the Quakers for all these reasons. Many Quakers wanted to leave England, but they were not welcome in most American colonies. One Quaker changed this. His name was William Penn. VOICE ONE: William Penn was not born a Quaker. He became one as a young man. His father was an Anglican, and a good friend of the king. King Charles borrowed money from William's father. When his father died, William Penn asked that the debt be paid with land in America. In sixteen eighty-one, the king gave William Penn land which the King's Council named Pennsylvania, meaning Penn's woods. The Quakers now had their own colony. It was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglicans in the south. William Penn said the colony should be a place where everyone could live by Quaker ideas. That meant treating all people as equals and honoring all religions. It also meant that anyone could be elected. In most other colonies, people could believe any religion, but they could not vote or hold office unless they were a member of the majority church. In Pennsylvania, all religions were equal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. --- This was program #6 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Names Are Read to Mark 25th Anniversary of Vietnam Veterans Wall
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from the movie "Into the Wild"… Answer a question about a famous American landmark… And report about a special anniversary for Veterans' Day. Anniversary of the Wall HOST: November eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. It is the day Americans remember those who have fought in the nation's wars. This year is a special one at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. That memorial honors American men and women who served in the Vietnam War. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: A Vietnam veteran holds a rose to a name on the memorialThis year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial known as the Wall. The Wall is two large,shiny, black stones built into the ground, forming the letter V. The names of more than fifty-eight thousand Americans are cut into the stone. These are the names of those who died or who are missing as a result of their service in Vietnam. As part of the anniversary observance, the names of all those listed on the Wall are being read aloud this week. (SOUND) The Wall has the power to create strong feelings. The shiny black stone acts like a mirror. It seems to draw in visitors so that they too are part of the Wall. This is especially emotional for those visitors who served in Vietnam and for the family members of those killed there. Vietnam Veteran Jan Scruggs thought of the idea for the memorial as a way to honor those killed in one of America's most divisive wars. He formed an organization to build the memorial. In nineteen eighty, a competition was held to choose the design. Judges considered more than one thousand designs. They chose the design of a twenty-one-year-old Yale University student, Maya Lin. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was officially opened on November thirteenth, nineteen eighty-two. The design of the memorial caused great debate. Supporters thought it was simple and powerful. But some people said it was not personal enough and did not show the heroic efforts of those who fought in the war. As a result, other structures were added to the memorial. They are the Three Servicemen Statue and the Vietnam Women's Memorial statue. A special plaque honors those who died later as a result of injuries from the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the most visited memorial in the nation's capital. More than four million people visit each year. Some visitors make a copy of one of the names on the Wall. Others leave a special object of love and remembrance. Visitors have left tens of thousands of such objects at the Wall. These include flowers, letters, poems, toys, photographs, baseballs and military medals. These objects are links between those who were killed and those who will always remember them. The Gateway Arch HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Russia. Andrey Lopatin wants to know about the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri. This famous curved steel structure next to the Mississippi River rises one hundred ninety-two meters in the air. This is the same distance between the arch’s two legs. The Gateway Arch is the tallest freestanding federal monument in the United States. Plans for the arch developed in the nineteen thirties. During this time, the city of Saint Louis decided to build a federal monument to honor the westward expansion of the United States during the nineteenth century. In eighteen oh three, President Thomas Jefferson had bought more than two million square kilometers of land from France, including what would become the state of Missouri. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States at the time. This famous land deal made it possible for the young American nation to expand and grow. The next year, President Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore this large new area of land. The Lewis and Clark Expedition started just west of Saint Louis. So Saint Louis became known as the Gateway to the West. The Jefferson National Expansion Park was established in nineteen thirty-five. The federal government and city of Saint Louis agreed to share the building costs. During the nineteen forties, city officials created a national competition among building designers to decide what form the new monument would take. The Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen won the competition in nineteen forty-eight. Building the arch finally began in nineteen sixty-three was completed two years later. The arch is an example of excellent structural engineering. The shape of the structure is called an inverted catenary curve. This is the form a free-hanging heavy rope or metal chain takes when it is hung between two supports. Each year, about one million visitors ride special vehicles to the top of the Gateway Arch to enjoy its history and expansive views of Saint Louis. "Into The Wild" HOST: Emile Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless in 'Into the Wild'“Into the Wild” is a new movie that tells the true story of a young man named Christopher McCandless. In the nineteen nineties, he dropped out of society after college to test himself in the American wilderness. Actor Sean Penn wrote and directed the movie, which is based on a book by Jon Krakauer. Penn asked his friend, the singer Eddie Vedder, to write the music for this powerful film. The songs help express the inner voice and personal discovery of this brave young man. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was Eddie Vedder singing “No Ceiling.” You might recognize his voice. Vedder is the lead singer for the rock band Pearl Jam. This is the first album in which he performs on his own. Vedder says that when he read the book “Into the Wild” and started to write songs for the movie, the story of Christopher McCandless took control of him. For two years, this young man traveled through deserts, down rivers, and up mountains in the western United States. He traveled all the way to the northern state of Alaska. On the road, he met many people and influenced them with his intense and intelligent personality. Here is the song “Hard Sun.”? (MUSIC) Christopher McCandless did not survive his adventure. Some people have noted that he really was not prepared to survive in the wild. He died of starvation at the age of twenty-four, all alone in the Alaskan wilderness. But the story of his independence and desire to live in the simple beauty of nature lives on. We leave you with the song “Society.” In it, Eddie Vedder imagines the thoughts of Chris McCandless as he says goodbye to the rules and demands of society in order to lively freely on his own. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Citigroup's Prince Resigns as CEO
* Byline: Biggest U.S. bank estimates write-downs of up to $11 billion in the current quarter on mortgage-related investments. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, we told you about big losses at the investment bank Merrill Lynch. But the losses may be even bigger at the nation's biggest bank, Citigroup. Citigroup estimated this week that it would take losses of eight billion to eleven billion dollars on investments in risky housing loans. Many people who bought houses with subprime mortgages are now unable to pay them back. The estimated write-downs are for the bank's current period, October through December. Citigroup says they represent five to seven billion dollars after taxes. The bank reported six and a half billion dollars in credit-related losses for the third quarter of the year. Charles Prince, Citigroup's chief executive officer, resigned under pressure on Sunday. He led the New York-based bank since two thousand three. He took over for Sanford Weill who built Citi into one of the world's largest financial groups. Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe and a British and German citizen, will serve as chief executive for now. Former United States treasury secretary Robert Rubin was named chairman of the board. He will help lead the search for a permanent replacement for the C.E.O. Charles Prince was the second head of a major bank to be forced out in recent days. Last week, Stan O'Neal resigned at Merrill Lynch after his company reported a loss for the third quarter of over two billion dollars. Merrill Lynch had to write-down eight billion dollars in mortgage-related losses. Citigroup announced that it has fifty-five billion dollars worth of investments directly related to subprime mortgages. Forty-three billion dollars of that is in complex investments called collateralized debt obligations. A big problem for banks is putting a value on the mortgage-related securities that they hold. Investors are no longer interested in trading these securities. This has frozen the market for them. So banks like Citigroup depend on mathematical models to place a value on these complex investments. Credit rating agencies reacted to this week's bad news. Moody's Investors Service lowered Citigroup's credit rating one level to its third highest rating. Moody's said the expected write-downs would result in a sizeable quarterly loss for Citigroup. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. To learn more about the problems with subprime mortgages, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Pakistani Police Keep Bhutto From Leading Protest Near Capital
* Byline: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was freed late Friday after a day of house arrest that prevented her from attending a demonstration in Rawalpindi. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The political crisis in Pakistan deepened Friday. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto tried to lead a big protest against emergency rule declared last Saturday by President Pervez Musharraf. Instead, the former prime minister spent the day under house arrest. Benazir Bhutto, top center, and her supporters try to push through a police barrier She tried to leave her home in Islamabad to attend the demonstration that she organized in nearby Rawalpindi. But she could not get past barriers and hundreds of police around her home. Late in the day, however, Benazir Bhutto was freed. The government said the detention order had been withdrawn. In Rawalpindi, police clashed with several hundred protesters who violated a ban on demonstrations. Benazir Bhutto says she still plans to lead a protest march early next week from Lahore to Islamabad. She returned to Pakistan last month after eight years of exile to avoid corruption charges. Before she returned, she had been negotiating with President Musharraf on a possible political alliance. Last weekend, the president dismissed the Supreme Court. He has placed the chief justice and other judges under house arrest. He also suspended the constitution and shut down privately owned television news stations. And he gave wide powers to officials to crush dissent. Protests have been suppressed, sometimes violently, by police in recent days. How many people have been detained is unclear. The number is in the thousands, including opposition members, human rights activists and lawyers. The opposition is demanding that President Musharraf end emergency rule, retire as army chief and hold elections in January. World leaders, including President Bush, have also called on him to do these things. President Bush considers the leader of the nuclear-armed nation an important ally against terrorism. Since two thousand one the United States has given Pakistan almost ten billion dollars in aid, mostly for its military. National elections were planned for early January. This week, General Musharraf said elections would now be held by February fifteenth. He also said he will resign as army chief before he is sworn in again as president. He said he will keep that promise once the new Supreme Court confirms his re-election. Benazir Bhutto said the election announcement was simply an attempt to quiet growing dissent. General Musharraf seized power in nineteen ninety-nine. Later he was elected to a five-year term. And, last month, lawmakers elected him to another term. Many political observers say he declared emergency rule because he feared that the Supreme Court would cancel his re-election. The court had been considering whether he was permitted by law to run for president while serving as army chief. General Musharraf says he declared emergency rule because of a growing threat from Islamic militants and activist judges. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. For more news about Pakistan, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: James Stewart, 1908-1997: He Starred in Some of the Best-loved American Movies
* Byline: The actor was also a war hero and writer of poetry. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell the story of actor James Stewart. His movies were loved by people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Maitland Stewart was born in the small eastern town of Indiana, Pennsylvania in nineteen-oh-eight. His father had a hardware store that had been owned by the Stewart family since the eighteen fifties. During high school, Jimmy played football, and acted in plays. He also learned to play the accordion. He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical group called the Triangle Club. Through the club, he met students interested in performing. Jimmy studied architecture at Princeton. He graduated in nineteen thirty-two. Just before graduation, a friend asked him to join an acting group for the summer. Jimmy agreed because he thought it would be a good way to meet girls. VOICE TWO: Jimmy Stewart said later that if his friend had not asked him to join the summer theater group, he would never have been an actor. He would have returned home to help his father in the store. Instead, he met a number of good young actors while performing that summer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. One was Henry Fonda, who would be a friend throughout his life. VOICE ONE: Jimmy Stewart performed in Broadway plays in New York City until the Metro Goldwyn Mayer movie company gave him an acting job. He moved to California in nineteen thirty-five. He acted in more than twenty-four movies over the next six years. He appeared in all kinds of movies: funny ones, sad ones and musical ones. He even sang a song in the movie "Born to Dance. " It is called "Easy to Love": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The movie that made Jimmy Stewart a real Hollywood star was "Mister Smith Goes to Washington. " It was released in nineteen thirty-nine. JIMMY STEWART: “It's a funny thing about men, you know. They all start life being boys. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of these Senators were boys once. And that's why it seemed like a pretty good idea to me to get boys out of crowded cities and stuffy basements for a couple of months out of the year and build their bodies and minds for a man-sized job, because those boys are gonna be behind these desks some of these days.” VOICE TWO: The next year, he won an Academy Award for best actor in "The Philadelphia Story. " The night he won the Academy Award, his father called him on the telephone from Pennsylvania. "I hear you won some kind of an award," Alex Stewart said. "You had better bring it back here and we'll put it in the window of the store. " Jimmy Stewart's Oscar statue stayed in the window of Stewart's hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania for twenty-five years. VOICE ONE: Jimmy Stewart was already an established and successful actor when World War Two started in Europe. Early in nineteen forty-one, he tried to join the Army. But he was rejected because he did not weigh enough. So he started eating high fat foods and tried again. This time, he was accepted for military service. The Army put him in the Air Corps because he already knew how to pilot a plane. In nineteen forty-three, he went to Europe as commander of an Air Force bomber group. He flew more than twenty combat missions, leading as many as one thousand planes at a time over Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen forty-five as a colonel. VOICE TWO: Jimmy Stewart won several military awards for excellent performance under very dangerous conditions. He remained in the Air Force Reserve after the war. In nineteen fifty-nine he was made a general. Each year, he took part in two weeks of active military duty. In nineteen sixty-six, he requested combat duty and took part in a bombing strike over Vietnam. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood. He found that his new movies were not as popular as his earlier ones had been. One example was "It's a Wonderful Life." It was released in nineteen forty-six. The movie was not a success at first. But over time it has become one of the best loved American movies. JIMMY STEWART: “Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's pickin' up some bargain. Now, we can get through this thing???? all right. We've, we've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other.” VOICE ONE: Jimmy Stewart said in later years that "It's a Wonderful Life" was the movie he liked best. It tells the story of a small town man who feels the world would have been better if he had never lived. An angel comes to him and shows him that this is not true. The movie celebrated values like loyalty and love of family. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jimmy Stewart decided to play other kinds of parts after what seemed to be the failure of "It's a Wonderful Life. " He was a reporter in "Call Northside Seven Seven Seven" the next year. He was a suspicious head of a school in the murder movie "Rope" in nineteen forty-eight. In the nineteen fifties, he appeared in many western movies such as "Winchester Seventy-Three" and "Broken Arrow. " VOICE ONE: Jimmy Stewart enjoyed his greatest popularity in the nineteen fifties. In nineteen fifty-nine, he won awards from the Venice Film Festival, the New York film critics and the Film Daily writers. The awards honored him for his performance in the movie "Anatomy of a Murder. " He was the defense attorney for an army officer accused of murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for playing a man who has an imaginary rabbit friend, in the movie "Harvey. " Jimmy Stewart is well known for his work with the famous director of mystery movies, Alfred Hitchcock. These movies included "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Rear Window" and "Vertigo. " Mister Stewart also played real heroes in several movies. He was band leader Glenn Miller in "The Glenn Miller Story. " And he was pilot Charles Lindbergh in "The Spirit of Saint Louis. " VOICE TWO: Jimmy Stewart appeared in fewer films in the nineteen sixties. He was a senator in the Old West in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”? In "The Shootist" he was a doctor in a small town. He also appeared on television. But his two television shows were not successful. Mister Stewart began experiencing health problems as he aged. He had heart disease, skin cancer and hearing loss. But he found time to travel. And he published a book of poetry in nineteen eighty-nine. It sold more than three hundred thousand copies. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty, Jimmy Stewart was honored by the American Film Institute with an award for his lifetime work. Three years later, he received a Kennedy Center Honor for his work. And in nineteen eighty-five, President Ronald Reagan gave him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. People who knew Jimmy Stewart did not praise him just because he was a good actor and a war hero. They said Jimmy Stewart was one of the nicest people they had ever met. He was a man who lived by the values he was taught as a child in that small town in Pennsylvania. He went back to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen eighty-three, for his seventieth birthday. The town held a huge celebration in his honor. President Reagan sent planes to fly over the court house. Parades were held. And a statue of him was placed in the town center. VOICE TWO: Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean in nineteen forty-nine. She had two sons from an earlier marriage. Jimmy raised them as his own. One of the boys was killed during the Vietnam War while serving in the Marine Corps. Jimmy and Gloria also had twin daughters. Gloria Stewart died in nineteen ninety-four. Friends said Jimmy Stewart was never the same after that. They said he withdrew into his house because he did not know what to do without her. His health got worse. He died on July the second, nineteen ninety-seven. VOICE ONE: Jimmy Stewart's daughter Kelly Harcourt spoke at his funeral in Beverly Hills. She reminded mourners of the message of her father's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life:" No man is poor who has friends. "Here's to our father," she said, "the richest man in town." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Losing It: It's Hard When You Lose Control
* Byline: Mary was angry with herself. She said, "Am I losing it?" Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Tom Smith is the best hitter on his company's baseball team. For weeks during the playing season, Tom hit a home run in every game the team played. But then suddenly he stopped hitting home runs. He could not hit the baseball at all. One day he struck out three times in one game. He said, "I am afraid I am losing it." Mary Jones bought a dress in a woman's clothing store. She felt very happy about buying the dress until she got home. Then she remembered she had left her credit card at the store when she used it to pay for the dress. It was the third time that month that Mary had forgotten something important. Mary was angry with herself. She said, "Am I losing it?" Emma Cleveland was teaching a class in mathematics at a college. She began to explain to the students how to solve a very difficult problem. She undersood it very well. But somehow, at that moment, she could not explain it. Emma said, "I must be losing it." Americans seem to have a lot of concern about losing it. At least that is what you would think from hearing them talk. They use the expression when they feel they are losing control. It can mean losing emotional control. Or losing the ability to do something. Or losing mental powers. Word experts differ about how the expression started. Some believe it came from television programs popular in the nineteen eighties. Others believe it began with psychologists and psychiatrists who deal with how people think, feel and act. One psychologist said, "We Americans have many concerns about controlling our lives. Perhaps we worry too much." She continued, "In many situations, to say you are losing it eases the tension. It is healthy.And most people who say they are having a problem are not losing it." People may feel more like they are losing it when they are "down in the dumps." People who are down in the dumps are sad. They are depressed. Word expert Charles Funk says people have been feeling down in the dumps for more than four-hundred years. Sir Thomas More used the expression in fifteen thirty-four. He wrote, "Our poor family ... has fallen in such dumps." Word experts do not agree what the word dumps means. One expert, John Ayto, says the word dumps probably comes from the Scandanavian countries. The languages of Denmark and Norway both have similar words. The words mean to fall suddenly. Americans borrowed this saying. And, over the years, it has become a popular way of expressing sadness. (MUSIC) This?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2008-05-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Losing It: It Can Be Hard When You Lose Control
* Byline: Mary was angry with herself. She said, "Am I losing it?" Transcript of radio broadcast:
I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. 
Tom Smith is the best hitter on his company's baseball team. For weeks during the playing season, Tom hit a home run in every game the team played. But then suddenly he stopped hitting home runs. He could not hit the baseball at all. 
One day he struck out three times in one game. He said, "I am afraid I am losing it." 
Mary Jones bought a dress in a woman's clothing store. She felt very happy about buying the dress until she got home. Then she remembered she had left her credit card at the store when she used it to pay for the dress. It was the third time that month that Mary had forgotten something important. 
Mary was angry with herself. She said, "Am I losing it?" 
Emma Cleveland was teaching a class in mathematics at a college. She began to explain to the students how to solve a very difficult problem. She undersood it very well. But somehow, at that moment, she could not explain it. Emma said, "I must be losing it." 
Americans seem to have a lot of concern about losing it. At least that is what you would think from hearing them talk. They use the expression when they feel they are losing control. It can mean losing emotional control. Or losing the ability to do something. Or losing mental powers. 
Word experts differ about how the expression started. Some believe it came from television programs popular in the nineteen eighties. Others believe it began with psychologists and psychiatrists who deal with how people think, feel and act. 
One psychologist said, "We Americans have many concerns about controlling our lives. Perhaps we worry too much." 
She continued, "In many situations, to say you are losing it eases the tension. It is healthy.?And most people who say they are having a problem are not losing it." People may feel more like they are losing it when they are "down in the dumps." 
People who are down in the dumps are sad. They are depressed. 
Word expert Charles Funk says people have been feeling down in the dumps for more than four-hundred years. Sir Thomas More used the expression in fifteen thirty-four. He wrote, "Our poor family ... has fallen in such dumps." 
Word experts do not agree what the word dumps means. One expert, John Ayto, says the word dumps probably comes from the Scandanavian countries. The languages of Denmark and Norway both have similar words. The words mean to fall suddenly. 
Americans borrowed this saying. And, over the years, it has become a popular way of expressing sadness. 
(MUSIC) 
This?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark.

 I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Tom Smith is the best hitter on his company's baseball team. For weeks during the playing season, Tom hit a home run in every game the team played. But then suddenly he stopped hitting home runs. He could not hit the baseball at all. One day he struck out three times in one game. He said, "I am afraid I am losing it." Mary Jones bought a dress in a woman's clothing store. She felt very happy about buying the dress until she got home. Then she remembered she had left her credit card at the store when she used it to pay for the dress. It was the third time that month that Mary had forgotten something important. Mary was angry with herself. She said, "Am I losing it?" Emma Cleveland was teaching a class in mathematics at a college. She began to explain to the students how to solve a very difficult problem. She undersood it very well. But somehow, at that moment, she could not explain it. Emma said, "I must be losing it." Americans seem to have a lot of concern about losing it. At least that is what you would think from hearing them talk. They use the expression when they feel they are losing control. It can mean losing emotional control. Or losing the ability to do something. Or losing mental powers. Word experts differ about how the expression started. Some believe it came from television programs popular in the nineteen eighties. Others believe it began with psychologists and psychiatrists who deal with how people think, feel and act. One psychologist said, "We Americans have many concerns about controlling our lives. Perhaps we worry too much." She continued, "In many situations, to say you are losing it eases the tension. It is healthy.And most people who say they are having a problem are not losing it." People may feel more like they are losing it when they are "down in the dumps." People who are down in the dumps are sad. They are depressed. Word expert Charles Funk says people have been feeling down in the dumps for more than four-hundred years. Sir Thomas More used the expression in fifteen thirty-four. He wrote, "Our poor family ... has fallen in such dumps." Word experts do not agree what the word dumps means. One expert, John Ayto, says the word dumps probably comes from the Scandanavian countries. The languages of Denmark and Norway both have similar words. The words mean to fall suddenly. Americans borrowed this saying. And, over the years, it has become a popular way of expressing sadness. (MUSIC) This?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Shining a Light on Water to Prevent Infections
* Byline: Some water purifiers use ultraviolet light to destroy harmful organisms. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Viruses, bacteria and other organisms in dirty water sicken hundreds of millions of people every year. Yet there are many different water-treatment technologies available. Some systems use ultraviolet light to destroy harmful organisms. One product that disinfects water with UV light is called AquaStar, made by Meridian Design. The American company says most UV water-purification systems put into homes have one or more filters. These use carbon or mesh to catch impurities. The filters are added to improve the taste and smell of water. But the company says a complex system like this is often not needed in situations where the aim is just to make water safe to drink. The AquaStar device is a one-liter bottle with an ultraviolet lamp inside. The user pushes a button and the light goes on for about a minute and a half. The lamp is powered by two small batteries. Two electrical engineers, Dan Matthews and Kurt Kuhlmann, designed the system. They brought it to market in January of two thousand five. Since then, they say, Meridian Design has sold about two thousand devices a year, at a price of eighty-nine dollars. Meridian's newest water treatment device is called the mUV ("move"). This micro-UV device floats and is small enough to use in a glass. It works like the AquaStar purifier but has a rechargeable battery. Dan Matthews says it can be connected to almost any battery for enough of a charge to clean twelve liters of water. He tells us that Meridian Design is currently supporting a project by the Mexican nonprofit organization Niparaj?. The group is producing containers that disinfect water with UV lights powered by the sun. The containers hold fifteen liters. The device is called the UV Bucket, and it won an award last year from the World Bank. Families in parts of Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in Guatemala are using it. Meridian Design is also working with several partners on a solar-powered version of its AquaStar purifier. This has already been developed and is now being tested. Dan Matthews says the goal is to be able to sell it at a low price. Meridian Design is also working with a partner to develop a different kind of solar-powered purification system. This one would make a chlorine-based disinfectant out of salt added to water. The goal there is to be able to store large amounts of water and keep it disinfected. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about water treatment, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: North to Alaska: Call of the Wild Leads Visitors to the Last Frontier
* Byline: Today, it may seem hard to imagine that the decision to buy the territory from Russia for $7 million was unpopular. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Among the fifty states, California is the largest in population. But which state is the largest in area? Texas? No, another state is even bigger than Texas: Alaska. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Alaska is a state of wild beauty. It calls itself the Last Frontier. Alaska is on the border with northwestern Canada -- so far north, part of it is within the Arctic Circle. It has a million and a half square kilometers of territory. It has forests to hike, mountains to climb and waters to sail or fish. Alaska is known for its salmon, crab and other seafood. The travel season in Alaska is between May and September. Some areas, especially in the interior, get surprisingly warm in the summer. The Alaska Climate Research Center says one rule has been found to work for most travelers in Alaska. Always be prepared for one season colder than the time you are traveling. This is true especially if you visit Alaska early or late in the travel season. VOICE TWO: Much of Alaskan life is shaped by ice and snow, especially in the Arctic north. Not surprisingly, then, climate change is an important issue for the state. September marked the end of what scientists call the melt season for Arctic sea ice. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado says the sea ice fell this year to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began. That was in nineteen seventy-nine. If earlier ship and aircraft records are included, Arctic sea ice may have fallen by as much as half from levels in the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: In September, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin signed an order establishing an advisory group within her cabinet. The Climate Change Sub-Cabinet will prepare a plan for dealing with the expected effects of global warming. In a statement, the governor said many scientists note that Alaska’s climate is changing. She said Alaskans are already seeing effects like coastal erosion, melting ice and record forest fires. The cabinet group will also look at ways to develop and expand programs for renewable energy from wind and other sources. In addition, the governor is seeking a natural gas pipeline that she says would help the nation by providing clean energy. (MUSIC)?? VOICE TWO: Native groups have lived for thousands of years in Alaska. In the seventeen hundreds, Russia took control of the territory. Alaska is just across the Bering Strait from Siberia. The Russians traded with the local people and brought animal furs back home to Russia to sell. Later, the Russians decided to sell the territory itself. The United States bought it in eighteen sixty-seven for seven million dollars. Alaska became a territory of the United States. The name came from Alyeska, an Aleut native word for "great land." Many Americans did not think Alaska was such a great land. They did not think it had valuable resources. In fact, it was one of the best deals the United States ever made. VOICE ONE: Today, Alaska's biggest industries are oil production, tourism and fishing. The state also has gold and copper mines and other mineral resources. Around nineteen hundred, gold was found in the Yukon area. Many people went to Alaska hoping to get rich in the Yukon gold rush. Most of them did not succeed. Finally, in nineteen fifty-nine, Alaska entered the Union as the forty-ninth state -- the forty-ninth star on the American flag. Later that same year Hawaii became the fiftieth. Alaska and Hawaii are the only states that are not physically connected to the others. VOICE TWO: Alaska has fewer people per square kilometer than any other state. But the population has been growing. The most recent estimate from the Census Bureau shows there were six hundred seventy thousand people last year. Most Alaskans live in central and southern Alaska. The climate is more moderate compared to the north and there is more daylight during winter. Alaska’s largest city is Anchorage, with about two hundred eighty thousand people. Fairbanks and Juneau, the capital, have about thirty thousand each. The Alaska Native Heritage Center says Alaska Natives represent about sixteen percent of the state population. The Heritage Center says eleven native Alaskan cultures and twenty languages survive today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sled dogs are an important part of the history of Alaska. For many, many winters, sleds pulled by dogs provided the only transportation across the frozen territory. Dog sled drivers are called mushers. The early ones in some cases even used wolves to pull their sleds. Mushers and their dogs carried mail, food and other supplies to miners after the rivers were frozen and boat travel was blocked. Sometimes the sleds carried the miners’ gold on the return trip. In nineteen twenty-five, heavy snows blocked all the roads into the city of Nome. A serious disease, diphtheria, was spreading among children there. The nearest medicine was in Anchorage. Twenty dog sled teams took part in getting the medicine from Anchorage to Nome. They got it there in five and a half days. Even as airplanes and snowmobiles came to replace dog sleds, that event has never been forgotten. VOICE TWO: In March of each year, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is held in Alaska. Organizers wanted to create an event that would preserve the memory of dog sleds. They chose a race over what had been the Iditarod Trail, one of the paths traveled by dog sleds. The race from Anchorage to Nome, on the Bering Sea coast, is more than one thousand eight hundred fifty kilometers long. The first one took place in nineteen seventy-three. The mushers travel from one rest area to another, much the same way mushers did many years ago as they took supplies to the miners. But the modern sleds travel much faster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Alaska is a popular vacation place. One reason is its eight national parks. The best known is Denali National Park. Denali is home to North America’s highest mountain. Mount McKinley is over six thousand meters high. Denali National Park also has rivers and large glaciers. Wildlife in the park includes wolves, moose and grizzly bears. There are hotels in the park, but some visitors like to set up tents and sleep outdoors. Most visitors come in the summer months. During winter, the road into the park is closed except for visitors using skis, snowshoes or dog sleds. Tourists in Alaska do not have to go camping to see glaciers. Many people go on cruise ships that sail past these slow-moving mountains of ice. Another way to experience Alaska is by train. There are railroad tours that are several days long. VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy-three the United States was facing a Middle East oil crisis. Congress passed legislation that President Richard Nixon signed into law to permit the building of an oil pipeline across Alaska. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is almost one thousand three hundred kilometers long. It extends from the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope to the port of Valdez. Oil brings money for Alaska, but also risks. Almost twenty years ago, Alaska experienced an environmental disaster that killed fish, birds, seals and other animals. In nineteen eighty-nine, the tanker ship Exxon Valdez tore open on underwater rocks and created a huge oil spill along the coast. The clean-up took a long time and led Congress to pass legislation to try to reduce the danger of oil pollution. Today environmental groups are fighting calls to open protected areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. Drilling supporters say the oil is needed to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Opponents say it would defeat the purpose of a wildlife refuge. VOICE ONE:? One thing cannot be disputed. Alaska's biggest industries -- oil, tourism and fishing -- all depend on its natural resources. That includes the wild and wide-open beauty that every year brings more than one million visitors to the Last Frontier. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Discovery That Stored Blood Loses a Life-Saving Gas Could Solve Mystery
* Byline: Also: A 7-year-old listener asks how to help a friend with a genetic disorder called phenylketonuria, or PKU. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week, we will tell about a gas that helps to carry oxygen from the blood. We will also report on a British sleep study. And we answer a question from Canada about a genetic disorder. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Stored blood loses nitric oxideScientists have discovered that stored blood loses a life-saving gas. The discovery may explain why a great number of people get sick after receiving stored blood. In recent years, experts have wondered why patients who should survive sometimes die after receiving a blood transfusion. The cause of death is often a heart attack or stroke. VOICE TWO: Jonathan Stamler is a professor of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina. He and other researchers found that stored blood has very low levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a gas found in red blood cells. The gas helps to keep blood passages open so that oxygen in the red cells can reach the heart and other organs. Professor Stamler and his team found that nitric oxide in blood begins to break down as soon as the blood is collected. Their findings were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. VOICE ONE: Another team of Duke University scientists carried out a separate study. Professor Stamler says that study showed the breakdown of nitric oxide begins within hours of blood collection. He says the life-saving gas is partly lost after three hours, and about seventy percent of it is lost after just one day. As a result, he says, there is almost no time that stored blood has enough nitric oxide. VOICE TWO: Scientists tested their theory on dogs and found that low levels of nitric oxide reduced the flow of blood. Professor Stamler says the scientists corrected the situation by adding nitric oxide to the stored blood. He says the extra nitric oxide repaired the ability of red blood cells to expand blood passages. He says blood when injected in animals does a very fine job of improving blood flow and getting oxygen to tissues. Professor Stamler says people who are in serious need of a blood transfusion should have one immediately. But he says more studies are needed to show who would receive the most help from stored blood. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A British study suggests that women who fail to get enough sleep are at higher risk than men of developing high blood pressure. Researchers at the University of Warwick Medical School led the study. Their report was published last month in Hypertension magazine. The researchers studied health information from more than ten thousand British public employees. The information was gathered in the nineteen eighties. At the time, the employees were between thirty-five and fifty-five years of age. The researchers also used more recent information about some of the volunteers. This information was collected in the late nineteen nineties, and again in two thousand three and two thousand four. VOICE TWO: Earlier studies have shown a link between lack of sleep and an increased risk of high blood pressure, or hypertension. Hypertension is known to increase the risk of heart disease. Blood pressure readings are measured in millimeters of mercury and often given as two numbers. The researchers described hypertension as blood pressure higher than or equal to a reading of one hundred forty over ninety. The volunteers were identified as having hypertension if they commonly used medicine to treat high blood pressure. VOICE ONE: By the end of the study, twenty percent of the people had developed high blood pressure. The risk was higher among women who did not get enough sleep. The women who slept less than or equal to five hours were two times as likely as women who slept for seven hours or more. The study found no difference between men who slept less than five hours and those sleeping seven hours or more. Francisco Cappuccio from the Warwick Medical School led the study. He says women who sleep less than five hours a night should attempt to get more rest. He also says other evidence suggests lack of sleep as possibly influencing weight gain and conditions like diabetes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An American study has examined treatment of AIDS in Africa, south of the Sahara. The study involved people who have AIDS or the virus that causes the disease. Researchers at Boston University studied reports about adults who have HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. The patients received HIV medicines in thirteen countries in southern Africa over a seven-year period. Two years after beginning treatment, only sixty-one percent of patients on average were still taking the medicines. The Public Library of Science reported the findings. VOICE ONE: Christopher Gill of Boston University says the study was designed to estimate the effectiveness of HIV drug programs in the thirteen countries. Professor Gill is an expert on infectious diseases. He is concerned that up to one-third of the patients discontinued their treatment. He says that for whatever reason, the programs were unable to follow the patients. He says the patients may have died or stopped using the drugs. Professor Gill says public health officials have proved that it is possible to bring HIV medicines to poor countries. He says the problem now is to find ways to make sure people who are taking the medicines continue to do so. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Phenylketonuria is a genetic disorder. It is also called PKU. A seven-year-old listener from Canada has a friend in China with the disorder. Sarah Sun wants to know more about PKU and how to help people with it. People with PKU are unable to break down an amino acid called phenylalanine, or Phe. The body uses this amino acid to build proteins. There is a gene that helps the body take in Phe. But some people are born with genetic orders that change how the gene operates. This causes Phe levels in the blood to increase. Extremely high levels of the amino acid can cause severe damage to a baby’s brain. That is why it is important to identify the disorder in newborns so a special diet can be established early in life. Many hospitals in wealthy nations require PKU tests on young babies. Early medical intervention provides the best results. VOICE ONE: Babies with PKU who eat low-protein foods can develop normally. If they remain on the diet, they may never experience any signs of the condition. But, it is tricky because phenylalanine is in a lot of foods. For example, all meats and milk products have high amounts. Beans and nuts are also high in Phe. And, children with PKU should not use the non-sugar sweetener aspartame. It contains a lot of Phe. Aspartame can be found in many sugar-free products like drinks. Everyone needs some protein for health. So, many doctors advise their PKU patients to take a special phenylalanine-free formula. The formula contains protein, vitamins, minerals and extra calories, but no Phe. Several drug companies make these products. VOICE TWO: In the past, doctors often only suggested this diet while their patients were babies. Older children with PKU were told they could begin to eat all foods. But, studies have shown that many older PKU patients on a normal diet have problems with thinking and remembering. So, patients now are usually advised to stay on a low protein diet their whole lives. There are emotional sides to any health problem. Children with the disorder sometimes feel cheated out of fun and tasty foods, like French fries. The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota suggests ways to help ease the situation faced by a PKU patient. Officials there say it helps to not place a lot of attention on food. Instead, invest time and energy on other things children enjoy like a sports activity or a musical skill. VOICE ONE: Also, the Mayo Clinic says to be sensitive around holiday celebrations. It is not unusual for holidays to include big meals. But, they do not have to. Holiday story telling or other activities could become more important. PKU patients need monthly blood tests to check Phe levels. They also need to keep records of what they eat and how much. This way doctors can make changes to the patients’ diets as needed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Lawan Davis, Soo Jee Han and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Points to Risk in Common Method of Enriching Soil
* Byline: An Illinois team warns that too much nitrogen fertilizer can reduce organic carbon instead of building it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For more than half a century, many farmers worldwide have added nitrogen fertilizer to their soil. They do this to increase the supply of organic carbon for the long-term health of the soil. Corn needs a lot of nitrogen fertilizerBut four scientists from the University of Illinois say too much synthetic nitrogen may instead reduce the organic carbon. They report their findings in the current Journal of Environmental Quality. The team led by Saeed Khan studied soil taken from the Morrow Plots. These experimental farm fields near the University of Illinois have been used for more than one hundred years. The researchers studied one area where corn is continuously grown. They compared it with another area where corn is planted in turn with oats and hay. Over a period of more than fifty years, the area where only corn was grown got more chemical nitrogen fertilizer than the other area. But production in the continuous corn area was twenty percent lower compared to the other area. And the scientists found that both areas had reduced levels of organic carbon. The researchers also studied field reports from around the world. They say they kept finding evidence of organic carbon reductions for synthetically fertilized soils. Team member Richard Mulvaney says organic carbon is extremely important for healthy soil. For example, it helps provide air for root growth and increases the soil’s ability to store water. Farmers traditionally made nitrogen with animal waste. They would also plant corn one season and a crop like alfalfa the next season. But many farmers changed their growing methods when synthetic nitrogen became widely available in the nineteen fifties. Before then, the chemical had been used mostly for weapons production for the two world wars. Corn production and profits rose. But the researchers say over-fertilization often resulted because farmers underestimated the amount of nitrogen already in the soil. Too much fertilization reduces profits and is bad for the environment. The scientists say they do not question the importance of nitrogen fertilizers for crop production. What their research shows, they say, is the importance of testing the soil before adding them. Saeed Khan and Richard Mulvaney have created what they call the Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test. Some agriculture experts have praised it. Others, though, have questioned its effectiveness. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Making Soaps with a Story, and the Story of Making Soaps
* Byline: We explore the history and chemistry of soap. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Have you ever wondered when washing your hands what materials go into a bar of soap and why it cleans? Today, we answer that question with a visit to a soap maker at her Mount Harmony farm in Middleburg, Virginia. Each kind of soap made by Jean Ann Feneis has a special story. She started her business to support local farmers and their markets. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market in Washington, D.C., you can buy fresh fruits, vegetables, and plants from many local producers. In one area of the market, there is a friendly woman with white blonde hair who sells soaps made from these naturally grown products. Jean Ann Feneis and her husband, Ralph, own Mount Harmony, a nineteenth century farm in the state of Virginia. Miz Feneis named her soap business Mount Harmony in honor of the place where she makes her creations. JEAN ANN FENEIS: "I am Jean Ann Feneis. I am a farmer entrepreneur with a cottage industry near Middleburg, Virginia. I wanted to do value-added agriculture. When we bought this little, tiny farm I had several ideas. I wanted it to be a learning center of some kind. But I was looking for a product that we could grow things, add to them, and sell them at the farmers market because I wanted to be a part of saving open land, helping small farmers, helping to control growth. I studied soap and I decided it was a product that I could perfect, that I could make the very best soap in the world.” VOICE TWO: To really understand the spirit behind Mount Harmony soaps, it helps to visit its planted gardens. Many of the materials in the soaps come from Miz Feneis’ farm. JEAN ANN FENEIS: “You’ll see little plum trees and little peach trees, apple trees. And in that corner are our large dahlias. We have different kinds of thyme, different kinds of mint, rosemary, marjoram." At Mount Harmony, soap making takes place in a large cooking area in the barn building. Miz Feneis has workers to help her in the many steps of the process. Mount Harmony soaps are made from olive oil. They also contain palm and coconut oils so that the soap lathers, or creates a foam when rubbed with water. VOICE ONE: Mount Harmony soap makers first add water and sodium hydroxide little by little to a large pot of heated oil. When the soap has reached “trace” it means the liquid soap has come to a point where it will not separate back into oil and water. Later, the soap makers add exact measurements of herbs, flowers and essential oils. The dried herbs and flowers are mostly added for looks and texture. The essential oils give the soap its intense smell. Miz Feneis has many bottles of different kinds of essential oils that she buys from producers all over the world. Smelling these oils is like breathing in an entire field of lavender flowers or a forest of pine trees. VOICE TWO: Next, the liquid soap is poured into rectangular wooden mold forms. The molds are wrapped in plastic for several days so the soap can dry and harden. Later, the soap is taken out of the mold and placed in a storage area to cure or dry for four weeks. This curing process permits water to evaporate from the soap. The soap soon becomes firmer which helps it last longer. The soaps are taken to the markets as soon as they have cured so that they are fresh and have an intense smell. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Understanding soap making also requires a short chemistry and history lesson. Soap is made from a chemical reaction called saponification. During saponification, an alkali base such as sodium hydroxide reacts with a fat to form a small amount of alcohol called glycerol and a metal salt of fatty acids, or soap. Soap cleans because its molecules attach to nonpolar molecules like oil and polar molecules like water. One end of the soap molecule is attracted to oil and keeps away water, while the other end attaches itself to water and repels oil. This special quality of the soap molecule allows it to suspend oils, which attract dirt. Water can then wash away the soap and the dirt. VOICE TWO: No one knows exactly when humans first developed soap. Archeologists have found containers filled with a material similar to soap while studying the ancient cultures of Babylon and Egypt. One story says that soap got its name from Mount Sapo, a place where ancient Romans used to sacrifice animals to their gods. Rainwater washed melted animal fat and wood ashes down the mountain into a river where women were washing clothes. The women found that the ashes and fat combination made their clothes much cleaner. The story may not be true. But it is likely that the discovery of how to make soap may have been accidental. VOICE ONE: Soap businesses began to appear in England, France and Italy during the Middle Ages. By the twelfth century, soap making centers had developed in cities such as Marseilles, France and Savona, Italy. Later, Bristol, England also became an important city for soap production. Two scientists helped modernize soap production. The French chemist Nicolas Leblanc discovered how to make soda ash from salt in the late eighteenth century. As a result, soda, a main material in soap, became easier to make. But this process also released large amounts of deadly hydrochloric acid gas. The Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay later developed a better method of soda ash production in the eighteen sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Jean Ann Feneis first started her Mount Harmony business, she hired a soap expert to help her develop different kinds of products. She soon started to develop her own ideas for new combinations of smells and colors. She has created about two hundred kinds of soaps. We asked Miz Feneis what influences her to create a new product. Jean Ann Feneis named one of her soaps after Zaphora, a girl she met in UgandaJEAN ANN FENEIS: “People! Or a cause. I try to make soaps for people that we love. For our families, our friends, our staff. Or occasionally for a fundraiser. This is our newest soap to support the elephant sanctuary. The sanctuary takes in elephants that have been in circuses or zoos and need a place to retire. Zaphora has her own soap. She’s a child I met in Uganda and it gives us a little bit towards her schooling and her? books.” VOICE ONE: She says some soaps are influenced by current movies, or by places that are important to her. Other soaps are just made for fun. JEAN ANN FENEIS: “This one is called the 'Yellow Submarine' because it has a little block of yellow in the middle of it. One of our first soaps was called 'Sir Robert the Bruce of Bergamot.' People always think I am talking about the Scottish warrior Robert the Bruce. But, really, Robert Bruce was a three-year-old boy. He was my first soap maker’s son. I am blessed with great soap makers who aren’t afraid to try new things.” VOICE TWO: People can buy pieces of Mount Harmony soaps that are cut off of a large rectangular block. Or, they can buy soap that has been beautifully wrapped in brightly colored tissue paper and cloth ribbons. The thin paper wrapping allows the soap to breathe and continue to dry out. The idea for this colorful presentation came from the expertly wrapped objects Miz Feneis discovered in stores on trips to Paris, France. VOICE ONE: Mount Harmony soaps are sold at as many as thirteen different farmers’ markets every week. Miz Feneis employs about twenty-six part time workers to sell at the markets. She says she is very careful about choosing the people who work for her. She says she does not check the number of soaps that her workers take to and bring back from the markets. She says her business operates on a system of trust. Mount Harmony produces about forty-five thousand bars of soap every year. Extra soaps are donated to children without parents who live in an orphanage home in Juarez, Mexico. The company also gives soaps to a women’s shelter and a retirement home for old people. VOICE TWO: When Jean Ann Feneis is not working on her soap business, she likes to travel. While visiting South America, she studied different herbs as possible materials in her soaps. In Africa, her visit to the spice farms in Zanzibar also gave her new ideas for her creations. Jean Ann Feneis also travels internationally as a volunteer. She travels with a group led by Five Talents. This religious-based organization helps people in poor communities get small loans to start businesses. Every year Miz Feneis goes to Rwanda and Uganda to teach people about her own business experiences and to train people in micro-financing methods. When she travels to these countries in Africa, she brings hundreds of soaps to give as gifts. The people Miz Feneis meets on her travels may never actually visit Mount Harmony. But they can experience an important part of the farm by using one of its handmade products. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of Mount Harmony and its soaps on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Group Led by Seattle Writer Promotes Good (Not Perfect) Grammar
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Martha Brockenbrough, a writer in Seattle and founder of SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. Five thousand people get her free e-mails about grammar, usage and what she calls "related outrages," and she has a blog at her Web site, spogg.org. She's always watching for errors like misplaced modifiers. MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "I found one last week in a letter home from school. They were encouraging us to have our daughter apply to pre-school and they said 'Believing in a nurturing environment, our preschool is located in a house.' Well, 'our preschool' is the subject of that sentence. Does our preschool believe in the nurturing environment, or do the teachers? And so it's the sort of thing that can be confusing. "And when you step back a minute, and you think about all the problems in the world that come from bad communication, well, how many of them, if we just took a little bit of care with our language, could we prevent?" RS: "How would you rewrite that sentence?" MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "I would probably break it into two sentences. I would say 'We believe in creating a nurturing environment for our preschoolers. So, we've put our preschool in an actual house, instead of a traditional academic building.' Something like that." AA: "I'm curious, as a grammar activist, have you faced any opposition or what we now call 'pushback' in your efforts?" MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "Well, everyone who writes in the public eye gets criticism. So I'm pretty regularly told 'You're stupid,' and I would take it a lot more seriously if they used the apostrophe instead of just Y-O-U-R. But there are two kinds of pushback that I do think about and I do take seriously, and I'll try to address them. "So linguists tend to disdain prescriptive grammarians. So they say, 'Oh, language evolves and language isn't the rules that have been codified, sometimes even centuries ago, but it's how living speakers use it.' And I think that there's a bit of truth and wisdom to that, and that's why I'm the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, not perfect grammar. I do think that there's some flexibility. "The second objection is when people say, 'Well, isn't grammar sort of racist and classist, that these rules are created by rich white folk and for people who are using their own legitimate and consistent dialect, isn't this totally unfair?' You know, there probably is some truth to that. But, on the other hand, let's look at clothes as an example. You're not going to make it very far in the business world if you're not dressed to the code." RS: "How have you seen this Web site evolve?" MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "Well, I would love to have the time to post more frequently. I would also love to get more members and have people, when they find ungrammatical roads signs, send them in. They do it to a certain extent, but for right now it's just me. It would be great to be able to get into schools and show that it can be fun and funny to find errors and correct them. I don't think you need to be mean or snotty about it. We're also starting National Grammar Day. The first one is next year, on March fourth, which is not only a date, it's a complete sentence. ..." AA: "How's that?" RS: "How's that?" AA: "Oh, march forth! March, M-A-R-C-H, forth, F-O-R-T-H." MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "Yep, march forth for good grammar!" AA: "Now, last question here. Earlier, we heard your kids in the background playing. Now I'm curious, what are you doing to put them on the road to good grammar, and are you afraid that maybe when they grow up, because of what their mom's been doing, that they're actually going to rebel against it?" MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "My youngest is three, and she already knows the difference between 'can I' and 'may I' and I think that's just because she's heard it. And so when my kids do make little mistakes, I don't stop them and correct them, but I will repeat their question or their comment back using the correct grammar, and I'm hoping they'll eventually pick it up." AA: "And for those who may not be clear on the difference between 'can I' and 'may I,' would you like to explain that?" MARTHA BROCKENBROUGH: "If you 'can' pick up a fifty pound box of books, that means you're strong. But if you 'may,' that means that you have someone's permission to do so." AA: Martha Brockenbrough, founder of SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Compounding Makes All the Difference Between a Black Bird and a Blackbird
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away, but joining me from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain our topic on Wordmaster this week. It's a feature of the language called compounding. LIDA BAKER: "Compounding is when we take two words in English and we put them together to make a brand-new word. For example, you can take the word race and the word car and you can put it together and you have a race car. But interestingly you can also combine those two words together in the opposite order, car plus race. And then you have ... " AA: "Car race." LIDA BAKER: "Car race, which is a kind of ... " AA: "Race." LIDA BAKER: "Isn't that interesting? So a race car is a kind of car and a car race is a kind of race. One of the rules, I guess, of the meaning of compounds in English is that the core meaning is the word on the right." AA: "So what are some other examples?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, there are all kinds of compounds in English. The most common ones are when we combine two nouns -- so race car, housekeeper. One of the things that's confusing about compounds is the spelling, because sometimes it's written as two words; for example, race car. Sometimes it's written as one word; for example, housekeeper. And sometimes it's written with a hyphen. I actually would have to check this myself, but I think the word baby-sitter is written with a hyphen. "Now the point is, even native speakers of English don't always know how to spell compounds and they have to consult a dictionary. So I would give my students exactly the same advice. "Now let's move away from the written language and talk about the spoken language. There is a unique feature of compounds which is that the first word is normally the one -- well, always the one that is stressed. So notice, for example, that we say RACE car, HOUSE keeper, BLACK bird, MAKE up, BABY sitter. You see how the first -- we've talked on this program about word stress before. In a compound the first word is the one that gets stressed, and that's one of the things that actually identities it as a compound. What if you have, for example -- well, where does the president of the United States live?" AA: "In the White House." LIDA BAKER: "In the WHITE House, and it's stressed on the first word. But I live in a white HOUSE. So there's a difference between a compound which is a unit that has a meaning of its own, like White House, which is the residence of the president of the United States, as opposed to a house that happens to be white. Another famous example of that is blackbird, which is a specific type of bird, and a black bird as opposed to a blue bird or a red bird, you see? AA: "Uh-huh." LIDA BAKER: "So what we have to do in the classroom -- first of all, explain to students what I just explained to you, and then do what we call ear training. I can propose a couple of activities that teachers can do that can help students to learn compounds. One of them is a simple matching activity where you have two columns. And what the students have to do is take a word from the first column and match it with a word in the second column and create the compound and then practice saying it correctly. So, a simple matching activity. "But there's another activity that is really fun, and that is to take these -- you know how we were talking about the difference between 'White House' and 'white house' or 'blackbird' and 'black bird'? You take those phrases and you try to create -- this is kind of for advanced students -- but try to make one sentence that contains both of those. So as an example: 'I saw a white house on my way to the White House?' Can you hear the difference?" AA: "Uh-huh." LIDA BAKER: "Or I saw a black bird, but I'm not sure if it's a blackbird.' I've done this and it's a lot of fun. You see students, you know, they're pounding on the desk trying to figure out where the stressed word is and so on." AA: Lida Baker, speaking to us from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. Her most recent books are "Real Talk" and "Real Talk 2: Authentic English in Context." And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can learn more about American English at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Blackbird"/Beatles 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-13-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Diabetes Called a Growing Worldwide Epidemic
* Byline: This year's World Diabetes Day observance, the first recognized by the U.N., centers on children. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Today is World Diabetes Day, part of a campaign to urge governments to do more to fight the disease. Organizers warn of a diabetes epidemic affecting two hundred forty-six million people worldwide. Last December the United Nations passed a resolution to observe World Diabetes Day every November fourteenth. The International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization began the event in nineteen ninety-one. The federation is an alliance of diabetes groups. It also has partnerships with drug companies. People with diabetes have too much glucose, or sugar, in their blood. The body changes food into glucose for energy with the help of insulin, a hormone. In diabetics, the body produces little or no insulin or has trouble using the insulin that is produced. As a result, too much glucose remains in the blood instead of entering cells. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage. It also can lead to strokes and heart disease. People with type one diabetes need insulin injections. Many with type two do not. Instead, it can be controlled through diet, exercise and treatment. And people may be able to prevent it. This year's World Diabetes Day campaign is about children and adolescents. Dr. Francine KaufmanOne of the organizers is Doctor Francine Kaufman. She traveled around the world for a film called "Diabetes: A Global Epidemic." The Discovery Health Channel will show it on Sunday. Type two diabetes used to appear mostly in adults, but now more and more children have it. Doctor Kaufman says it is spreading as more people rise out of poverty in developing countries -- for example, India. FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "They’re in cars all day long, and they’ve got satellite dishes outside their houses. They are eating more food, and more westernized food and getting overweight and developing diabetes." She says another place where diabetes is spreading is South Africa. FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "We were in the townships and people were overweight. There is more food available than has been in the past. And people are getting on buses and going to offices and not necessarily being as physically active as they have been in the past.” Doctor Kaufman says solutions must be developed country by country and patient by patient. In Brazil, for example, a health clinic holds dances to get diabetes patients more active. Doctor Kaufman says the message of World Diabetes Day is that the disease is manageable and, in the case of type two diabetes, preventable. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Slavery Arrives as Colonial Expansion Heads South
* Byline: In 1619, a Dutch ship brought a group of Africans to the British colony at Jamestown. African traders had kidnapped and sold them to the ship's captain, who sold them to the Virginia colonists. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we finish the story about the first thirteen American colonies. We tell about how the southern colonies developed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The most northern of the southern colonies was Maryland. The king of England, Charles the First, gave the land between Virginia and Pennsylvania to George Calvert in sixteen thirty-two. George Calvert was also called Lord Baltimore. He was a Roman Catholic. George Calvert wanted to start a colony because of religious problems in England. Catholics could not openly observe their religion. They also had to pay money to the government because they did not belong to the Anglican Church, which was the Church of England. George Calvert never saw the colony that was called Maryland. He died soon after he received the documents. His son Cecil Calvert became the next Lord Baltimore, and received all the land. He had the power to collect taxes, fight wars, make laws and create courts in Maryland. Cecil Calvert named his brother Leonard as the colony's first governor. Cecil Calvert, center, the second Lord of Baltimore, in a work by artist James BarryCecil Calvert believed that English Catholics could live in peace in Maryland with people who believed in Protestant religions. So he urged Catholics to leave England. To get more settlers, he permitted them to own their farms and gave them some power in local politics. Some Catholics did go to Maryland, but not as many as expected. Protestants were in the majority. In sixteen forty-nine, Lord Baltimore accepted a Toleration Act passed by the local government. It guaranteed freedom of religion, but only for Christians. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: King Charles the Second of England gave away more land in America in sixteen sixty-three. This time, he gave to eight English lords the land known as Carolina. It extended south from Virginia into an area known as Florida. Spain controlled Florida. Spain also claimed the southern part of Carolina. Spanish, French and English settlers had tried to live in that area earlier. But they were not successful. But the eight new owners promised forty hectares of land to anyone who would go to Carolina to live. They also promised religious freedom. The first successful Carolina settlers left England in sixteen seventy. They built a town in an area where two rivers met. They called it Charles Town, for King Charles. Spanish ships attacked the port city many times, but the settlers kept them away. The settlers planted all kinds of crops to see what would grow best. They found rice was just right for the hot, wet land. Their pigs and cattle did so well that settlers in Carolina started selling meat to the West Indies. Many of Charles Town's settlers came from Barbados, a port used in the West Indies slave trade. The settlers began buying black slaves to help grow the rice. By seventeen-oh-eight, more blacks than whites lived in southern Carolina. The work of slaves made possible a successful economy. VOICE ONE: Northern Carolina grew much more slowly than the southern part of the colony. Many settlers to this area were from nearby Virginia. People who did not agree with the Anglican Church were not welcome in Virginia. Some of them moved south to the northern part of Carolina. History experts say that the area that became North Carolina may have been the most democratic of all the colonies. The people generally did not get involved in each other’s lives. They permitted each other to live in peace. They faced danger together from pirates who made the North Carolina coast their headquarters. Experts say the people in northern Carolina were independent thinkers. In sixteen seventy-seven, some of them rebelled against England. They did not like England's Navigation Acts. These laws forced people in Carolina to pay taxes to England on goods sold to other colonies. Some northern Carolina settlers refused to pay this tax. They even set up their own government and tried to break free of England. But the English soldiers in the colonies stopped the rebellion by arresting its leader. The differences between the people of northern Carolina and southern Carolina became too great. ?The owners of the colony divided Carolina into two parts in seventeen twelve. VOICE TWO: The last English colony founded in the New World was Georgia. It was established in seventeen thirty-two, under King George the Second. Georgia was the idea of a man named James Oglethorpe. He wanted to solve the debtor problem in England. Debtors are people who cannot re-pay money they owe. At that time, debtors were placed in prison. This made it impossible for them to earn the money needed to pay their debts. Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony where debtors could go instead of going to prison. He wanted it to be a place where people could have good lives. But not many debtors wanted to go to Georgia. The people who settled there were much like the people in the other colonies. They did not agree with all of Oglethorpe's ideas. They wanted to do things he did not believe were right, like drinking alcohol and owning slaves. The settlers won in the end. They did not accept Oglethorpe's ideas about how they should live. Life was not easy in Georgia. Spaniards and pirates captured ships of all nations along the coast. Spain controlled Florida and also claimed Georgia and the Carolinas. Border fights were common. Oglethorpe lost all his money trying to establish Georgia. King George took control of the colony in seventeen fifty-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As all these new colonies were being established nearby, the colony of Virginia was growing. A way of life was developing there that was very different from that found in the north. Most people in Virginia at this time were members of the Church of England. Religion was not as important a part of their lives as it was to the people in the north. In the New England colonies, the clergy were considered the most important people in town. In the southern colonies, rich land owners were more important. People in Virginia did not live in towns, as people did in Massachusetts. They lived along rivers on small farms or on large farms called plantations. Living on a river made it easy to send goods to other nations by ship. Virginians were sending large amounts of tobacco to England on those ships. It was the crop that earned them the most money. VOICE TWO: Growing tobacco destroys the elements in the soil that support plant life. After a few years, nothing grows well on land that has been planted with tobacco. A farmer has to stop planting anything on the land every few years. That means he needs a lot of land. He also needs many workers. So tobacco farmers in Virginia began to buy land and workers. At first, they bought the services of poor people who had no money or jobs. These people were called indentured servants. They made an agreement to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years. Then they were freed to work for themselves. Slaves preparing dried tobacco to be shipped to England from JamestownIn sixteen nineteen, a Dutch ship brought some Africans to Jamestown. They had been kidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship's captain. He sold them to the Virginia settlers. Those first blacks may have been treated like indentured servants. Later, however, colonists decided to keep them as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers. Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away. Blacks could not. They had no place to go. Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia that made it legal to keep black people as slaves. By seventeen fifty, there were more Africans in Virginia than any other group. VOICE ONE: History experts continue to debate if slavery caused prejudice in America or prejudice caused slavery. No one knows the answer. Most Europeans of the seventeenth century felt they were better than African people. The reasons for this included the Africans' different customs, religion and the black color of their skin. Europeans believed the color black represented danger and death. Slavery in the American south affected the history of the United States for many years. It divided the people and led to a great civil war. But slavery did not start in America. That will be our story next week. VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. --- This was program #7 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Number of Foreign Students Rises in US
* Byline: A new report shows a 3 percent increase last year, the first notable gain since 2001. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A new report says the number of foreign students at colleges and universities in the United States increased three percent last year. This was the first notable increase since two thousand one. And it included a ten percent jump in new international students. The "Open Doors" report is from the Institute of International Education in New York, with support from the State Department. American schools last fall had five hundred eighty-three thousand foreign students. The record is five hundred eighty-six thousand. That was set in two thousand two after many years of gains. But after that the numbers fell. The September eleventh, two thousand one, terrorist attacks led to more restrictive visa requirements. Now, stronger efforts are being made to get more foreign students to study in the United States. For the sixth year, India sent the most international students last fall, almost eighty-four thousand. That was up ten percent from the year before. China remained in second place, and South Korea was third. Japan was fourth among the twenty leading senders of foreign students. But the number of Japanese fell sharply -- nine percent. There were three percent drops from Indonesia and Kenya, the only African country in the top twenty last year. But there were notable increases from Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Vietnam. The number of Saudi students more than doubled, to nearly eight thousand. For a sixth year, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles had the most foreign students -- more than seven thousand. Columbia University in New York was second. Other schools in the top five were New York University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University. The leading area of study was business and management. That was the choice for eighteen percent of foreign students last year. Second was engineering. The new report also says more than two hundred twenty thousand Americans studied in other countries. That was during the two thousand five-two thousand six school year. It was a record number, and an increase of eight and a half percent from the year before. But only five and a half percent of them stayed for a full year. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For a link to the "Open Doors" report, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Allowance Helps Children Learn About Money
* Byline: Parents can use small amounts to teach their children about giving, spending and saving. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly. The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance. In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money. At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance. The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics. Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life. Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works. Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it. Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future. Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance. A savings account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest. Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on. That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about economics, and download MP3 files and transcripts of our weekly reports, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Looking High and Low for Meaning of 'Pop Culture'
* Byline: Also: Cal Ripken's visit to China as a sports ambassador. And music from ''90 Millas,'' the latest album by Gloria Estefan. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from singer Gloria Estefan … Answer a question about "pop culture" … And report about an American sports hero's trip to China. Sports Ambassador HOST: Cal Ripken at No.1 Dahushan Road Elementary School in ShanghaiAmerica's newest sports ambassador has returned home from his first government supported trip outside the United States. Former Baltimore Orioles baseball player Cal Ripken was named to the position in August. His first trip was to China. Bob Doughty has more. BOB DOUGHTY: Cal Ripken was in China for ten days, visiting with sports officials and young people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. He talked about baseball and showed Chinese young people how to play the game. His hometown newspaper, The Baltimore Sun, provided sound from his trip on its Web site. Here, he works with students at Xidan Elementary School in Beijing. (SOUND) Cal Ripken is not the first American sports ambassador. Last year, figure skater Michele Kwan visited China and Russia. She said that meeting with young people of other nations gives them a better understanding of the United States. She also said such meetings help change any false ideas that people have about this country. Baseball is not very well understood or very popular in China. The Chinese people enjoy basketball and soccer much more. But things are changing. American major league baseball just signed four Chinese players and Major League Baseball International has begun a program in China. Cal Ripken says he went to China to open communication with another culture through sports. He told reporters that sports bring people together in a friendly way, and he is sharing with others the sport that he loves. One thing he says he has learned is that children are children no matter where they live. They love to play and want to have fun. Cal Ripken says being a sports ambassador means teaching baseball as a way of making friends in other nations. And he says that the rules of baseball include values that provide people with an idea of American life. Pop Culture HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. H. Nguyen wants to know what the expression "pop culture" means. This is a good question that requires a more complex answer than we can give in a few minutes. In very general terms, pop culture, or popular culture, includes the movies, television shows, sports, music, cooking, clothing styles and other examples of mass culture that a society produces. Examples of American pop culture that have become, well, popular around the world include the movies of Sylvester Stallone, hip-hop music, fast food, and blue jeans. Many professors who study culture argue about what is, what is not, and what once was but is no longer, popular culture. The fact that popular culture is always changing makes it even more difficult to define exactly. Most people would probably agree that popular culture is influenced in some way by the cultural products that sell well and make money. Some experts note the differences between a popular or "low" culture and a "high" culture valued by wealthier and more educated people in a society. For example, such experts might say that a song by Britney Spears is an example of pop culture, but music by classical composers like Mozart or Bach is not. Within this group, some might say that commercial and market forces corrupt culture. Then again, other experts believe that there is no longer a "low" and "high" culture because the two have mixed together. The American economist Tyler Cowen does not believe in organizing culture into high and low. Instead, he says that a strong economy makes all kinds of culture possible. And no discussion of popular culture could be complete without talking about Andy Warhol, the father of Pop Art. During the nineteen sixties, Warhol created a movement that celebrated turning everyday images of famous people and food advertisements into fine art. Pop artists praised popular culture in all of its forms and made it the subject of their art. Andy Warhol said that once you understood Pop you could never see a sign the same way again. And he said that once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again. Gloria Estefan HOST: Gloria Estefan has been making records for over twenty years. Her latest album "90 Millas" honors the musical traditions of Cuba, the country where she was born. The songs express a longing for the home she left as a young child. Estefan helped write most of the songs on the album, which are in Spanish. She gathered famous musicians from around Latin America to perform with her. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC) BARBARA KLEIN: That was the song "No Llores" or "Don't Cry." The well-known Mexican-American musician Carlos Santana plays guitar on this song. Gloria Estefan made this album with her husband, record producer and musician Emilio Estefan. The couple live in Miami, Florida, which has a large population of Cuban-Americans. The name of this album means "90 miles." This is the distance between Cuba and the United States. It is a small distance, but to many Cuban-Americans with families still in Cuba it feels much larger. Gloria Estefan invited several performers in the world of Latin music to join her in this album. These include the flute player Johnny Pacheco and Israel Cachao Lopez, who is known as the inventor of mambo music. Gloria Estefan has said that her only wish was that the Cuban-born salsa singer Celia Cruz had been alive to perform on this album. Cruz died in two thousand three. Here is "A Bailar" with the Puerto Rican musician Pappo Luca playing the piano. (MUSIC) Gloria Estefan has made a career out of combining the sounds of Latin America with popular dance music. In "90 Millas" she gives a modern version of traditional Cuban songs. But her first songs mixed the dance sounds of disco and salsa music. In ninety eighty-five, she and her band, the Miami Sound Machine, released "Conga." We leave you with that song which helped launch Gloria Estefan's career. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Michael Mukasey, New US Attorney General, Steps Into a Shaken Agency
* Byline: The retired federal judge won Senate approval by what critics noted was the narrowest vote in years for a Justice Department head. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Michael Mukasey became America's top law enforcement official last Friday. But this week, a ceremonial swearing-in attended by President Bush took place at the Justice Department. Wednesday's event was the first chance for the new attorney general to speak publicly with his employees. He talked about their duty to the law and the Constitution, saying "the result of faithful performance of our duty is justice." The retired federal judge from New York takes over a struggling department that critics say has become too political. Several top officials have resigned, and delays in replacing them have only added to the criticisms. On Thursday, President Bush announced five nominees for leadership positions at the Justice Department. Among them is Mark Filip, a federal judge in Chicago. The president nominated him for Senate confirmation as deputy attorney general. Several other positions also need to be filled. Michael Mukasey is the third attorney general under the Bush administration, which has fourteen months left in office. John Ashcroft left in two thousand four. Alberto Gonzales resigned in September. Already, Mister Mukasey has re-opened an investigation into the part that Justice Department lawyers played in the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The Bush administration began the program after the September eleventh, two thousand one, attacks. The president gave the National Security Agency permission to listen to calls and read e-mail of people in the United States without a warrant. The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility opened the investigation early last year. But it was suspended after the National Security Agency denied security clearances to the investigators. Those clearances have now been received. And, at the beginning of this year, the administration said it had ended the use of surveillance without court approval. The Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey last week by a vote of fifty-three to forty. The American Civil Liberties Union noted it was the narrowest vote to confirm an attorney general in half a century. His confirmation was slowed by the way he dealt with questions about the interrogation method known as waterboarding. During hearings last month, he said answering questions about it might risk the careers or freedom of those who might be using it. The United States military has banned the practice which creates a sense of drowning. But human rights groups say the Central Intelligence Agency has used it on terrorism suspects in recent years. Mister Mukasey deplored waterboarding and said torture violates the Constitution. But he told lawmakers that he could not say whether waterboarding is torture. He said he did not have enough information because he was still a private citizen. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Dian Fossey, 1932-1985: She Worked to Protect the Mountain Gorillas of Central Africa
* Byline: Her book, "Gorillas in the Mist," brought attention to these endangered animals. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Dian Fossey. She studied the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa. Her work resulted in efforts to save these rare and endangered animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Dian Fossey was born in nineteen thirty-two in San Francisco, California. Her parents ended their marriage when she was young. She stayed with her mother, who married another man a short time later. Dian said she had a difficult relationship with both her mother and stepfather. Dian was interested in animals all her life. She started making plans to be a veterinarian, a doctor who treats animals. After high school, she attended San Jose State College in California. There, she was successful in some subjects, but not others. She changed her program of study to occupational therapy. Occupational therapists help injured and sick people learn to do their day-to-day activities independently. She completed her studies at San Jose State in nineteen fifty-four. VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey left California and moved to the state of Kentucky. She accepted a position at the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital in the city of Louisville. People there said she had a special gift of communicating with children with special needs. Yet she also had a desire to see more of the world. Through friends, she became interested in Africa. She read a book about the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa written by American zoologist George Schaller. The mountain gorilla is the largest of the world’s apes. VOICE ONE: Fossey borrowed money and made a six-week trip to Africa in nineteen sixty-three. She visited a camp operated by the famous research scientists Louis and Mary Leakey. The Leakeys were best known for their studies of the development of human ancestors. Fossey met with Louis Leakey and discussed the importance of scientific research on the great apes. She decided to study mountain gorillas, which were in danger of disappearing. Later on her trip, she traveled to the mountains of Rwanda. This is where she first saw mountain gorillas. VOICE TWO: Fossey returned to the United States with a desire to work in Africa. She met with Professor Leakey a second time when he visited the United States to give a series of talks. This time, he asked her to begin a long-term study of the gorillas. He said information she collected might help to show how human ancestors developed. A group called the Wilkie Foundation agreed to support her research. The Wilkie Foundation already supported another researcher, Jane Goodall, in her study of wild chimpanzees. Fossey also received help from a major scientific and educational organization -- the National Geographic Society. VOICE ONE: Fossey returned to central Africa in nineteen sixty-six. She spent a short time observing Jane Goodall. Then she began setting up her own research camp in what was then the country of Zaire. Fossey sought help from the local native people who knew how to follow mountain gorillas in the wild. A short time later, political unrest forced her to move to nearby Rwanda. She settled in a protected area between two mountains, Karisimbi and Visoke. There, she established the Karisoke Research Center. This would be her home for most of the next eighteen years. Much of that time, she worked alone. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey spent thousands of hours observing mountain gorillas. She worked hard to gain acceptance among the animals. To do this, she copied their actions and sounds. She studied the gorillas daily and developed an understanding of each individual. Many people had believed that mountain gorillas are fierce. Fossey found just the opposite. She learned that gorillas are both gentle and intelligent. They use their strength mainly when defending other members of their family or group. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy, the National Geographic Society wanted to publish a story about Fossey and her research. It sent a photographer named Bob Campbell to Karisoke to take pictures. He took a picture of an adult male gorilla named Peanuts touching Fossey’s hand. This became the first friendly gorilla-to-human action ever recorded. The picture appeared on the front cover of National Geographic magazine. It helped to make Fossey and her work famous. The American researcher was able to sit among the gorillas and play with them and their young. She made notes of everything she saw. She took a count, or census, of the gorilla population. She noted what the animals ate and their environment. Fossey learned a lot about the gorillas. But it became difficult for her to remain an independent observer. She believed that the animals would disappear forever unless something was done to protect them and their environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey needed money to continue her research project. She believed that she could get more financial assistance for her work by getting an advanced degree. She left Africa in nineteen seventy and attended the University of Cambridge in England. She received a doctorate in zoology a few years later. Fossey returned to Rwanda to find that hunters were killing some of what she called “her gorillas.”? The hunters earned money by selling the heads, hands and feet of the animals. Among the gorillas killed was one called Digit. Fossey had observed Digit for many years and treated him almost like a friend. His remains were placed with those of other dead gorillas in a special burial area near her camp. VOICE ONE: After Digit was killed, Fossey established a program to increase international support for efforts to protect mountain gorillas. It was called the Digit Fund. Fossey also began an active campaign to stop the killing of the gorillas. She opposed efforts by Rwandan officials to increase the number of visitors to the animals’ native environment. She formed a small force to help guard mountain gorillas against humans. She destroyed traps used to catch the animals. She threatened the hunters and the people who helped them. National Geographic magazine published a report about her efforts. Many people who read the story sent money to support the campaign. However, not everyone supported what Fossey was doing. Some people condemned her treatment of the hunters. Rwandan officials opposed her efforts to control an area that she did not own. And, some animal experts criticized her strong emotional links with the gorillas. They also questioned her work as a scientist. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey suffered from a number of health problems. As she grew older, she spent less time in the field and more time at her camp doing paperwork. This was partly because she had college students assisting in her research efforts. In nineteen eighty, Fossey left Karisoke and accepted a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. There, she began to write a book about her years with the mountain gorillas. Her book was published in nineteen eighty-three. It is called “Gorillas in the Mist.”? By then, there were only about two hundred mountain gorillas in the world. Dian Fossey made a large number of public appearances to publicize her book and the efforts to save the mountain gorillas. Then she returned to Rwanda. On December twenty-sixth, nineteen eighty-five, she was found murdered at her camp. A few days later, her body was buried near the remains of some of her gorillas. VOICE ONE: Even now, her death remains unsolved. Some people believe that she was killed by someone who opposed her strong attempts to protect the gorillas. Three years after her death, a major American motion picture based on her book was released. It is also called “Gorillas in the Mist.”? It helped tell her story to millions of people around the world. Dian Fossey kept a written record of her daily activities. She wrote: When you understand the value of all life, you think less about what is past and think instead about the protection of the future. Dian Fossey loved her work and used her research to help save the gorillas and their environment. Today, the mountain gorilla population is increasing. Some people have said that without her efforts the animals would no longer exist. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International continues her work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Water: She Is In Hot Water
* Byline: Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.(MUSIC) Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. But many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings. The expression to be in hot water is one of them. It is a very old expression. Hot water was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing?boiling water down on enemies attacking a castle.That is no longer the custom. But we still get in hot water. When we are in hot water, we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble--serious, and not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A boy can be in hot water with his mother, if he comes into the?house with dirty, wet shoes. Being in deep water is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in deep water, you are in?difficulty. ?Imagine a swimmer in water over his head who cannot reach the shore.You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you do not have the ability to solve. The problem is too deep for you. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market. To keep your head above water is a colorful expression that means staying out of debt. A company that can keep its head?above water can survive economic hard times. Water over the dam is an expression about a past event. It is something that is over and done with.It cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water that has fallen over a dam cannot be brought back again.When a friend is troubled by a mistake he has made, you might tell him to forget about it. ?You say it is water over the dam. Another common expression, to hold water, is about the strength or weakness of an idea,?opinion or argument. It probably comes from the way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong. The expression is used the same way to describe an idea or argument.If the argument can hold water, it is solid and strong without any holes. If it does not hold water, then it is weak and?cannot be proved.Throwing cold water also is an expression that deals with ideas or proposals. It means not to?like an idea. For example, you want to buy a new computer, so you can do some of your work at home. But your wife throws cold water on the idea, because a computer costs too much.(MUSIC)This VOA Special English program,?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A WiLD Idea: Wireless Long-Distance Internet for Rural Poor
* Byline: Researchers in California have developed a way to extend the reach of Wi-Fi technology. WiLDNets have been set up in several countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Eric Brewer at the Intel Research Berkeley LabEric Brewer is a busy man. He is a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also director of the Intel Research Berkeley Lab. There, he leads a team of students and Intel company researchers on projects with new technologies. One of their creations is a WiFi-based long distance network, or WiLDNet. Wi-Fi is short for wireless fidelity. Wi-Fi connections, or hot spots, can be found in airports, hotels, coffee shops and many other places. But Wi-Fi is designed for short distances. Eric Brewer predicts that most WiLDNets will only need to cover several kilometers of territory. Yet, in Venezuela, a network using WiLDNet technology and special software reaches over three hundred eighty kilometers. Each endpoint in a WiLDNet uses a router that takes only about seven watts of power. It can be powered by car batteries, energy from the sun or electricity from a local provider. The routers cost about four hundred dollars. But Eric Brewer tells us the price should be less once the technology is finalized for mass production. The networks use antennas aided by relays in places where they cannot be stationed in direct line of sight of one another. WiLDNets can be used for humanitarian or business purposes or both. The hope is that companies will expand connectivity in rural markets. Rural schools in Ghana and the Philippines are using WiLDNets to connect to the Internet. And in Guinea-Bissau, networks are being used to link community radio stations. In southern India, a WiLDNet connects eye-care centers in poor villages to an eye hospital in the city of Theni. Villagers receive care from doctors at the hospital through videoconferencing. So far, thirty thousand patients have been examined this way. Eric Brewer says three thousand patients with especially serious vision problems now are able to see much better as a result of their care. One more thing about Professor Brewer: he is a former billionaire. He and a Berkeley graduate student formed the Internet search company Inktomi in nineteen ninety-six. It became profitable. But the dot-com crash and rising competition from Google shook the company and it was sold to Yahoo in two thousand three. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Civics: Law, History and Political Science Combined
* Byline: The answers to five questions about civics and government in the United States. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is American civics. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Civics is a subject that deals with the rights and duties of citizens. It brings together law, history and political science. In the nineteen sixties, a nonprofit group called the Center for Civic Education got started. Its job is to help people in the United States and other countries learn about the ideas of democracy. Its work includes an international civic education exchange program, Civitas. In nineteen ninety-four, the Center for Civic Education developed five questions for teaching about civics and government. We will use these questions to guide our program. The answers will combine our own reporting with information from the center. Question one: "What are civic life, politics and government?" VOICE TWO: The simple answer is that people have their personal life, but they also have a civic life. This involves issues that affect their community and their nation. Politics is a process. It is a way for people with opposing interests and beliefs about issues to reach decisions. Government is the organization in society with the power to put these decisions into effect. It also has the power to enforce them. In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of government. The founders of the nation wanted to protect individual rights. At the same time, however, they also wanted to work for the common good. Under the Constitution, government officials must follow the rule of law. This means they must follow the same rules as everyone else. The Constitution is the highest law in the land. VOICE ONE: Constitutions are also vehicles for change. One example involves the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment took effect in eighteen sixty-eight, after the Civil War. It guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. It meant that former slaves had the same rights as other Americans. Black Americans used this amendment to seek better treatment during the civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second question presented by the Center for Civic Education asks: "What are the foundations of the American political system?" The system is built on the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and property. The Constitution also establishes a system of checks and balances on government power. Congress passes bills for the president to sign into law. If the president refuses, Congress has the power to reject the veto. The Supreme Court has the power to strike down laws if it finds they violate the Constitution. VOICE ONE: The Constitution also recognizes the powers of the states. In fact, the American political system is built on the idea that states have any powers not given to the federal government. The system was also built on the idea that the different groups in society would all share a common identity as Americans. And several intellectual traditions have influenced the American political system. One is classic liberalism. Classic liberalism represents the idea that governments are created by the people, for the people. This theory had its roots in Europe, through writers like John Locke. The American Declaration of Independence is an example of a document that supports the main ideas of classic liberalism. It guaranteed the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." VOICE TWO: Another theory that influenced early America is classic republicanism. A republic is a state governed by elected representatives instead of directly by the people. The United States is known as a constitutional representative democracy. Classic republicanism links the idea of civic virtue to the common good. Civic virtue means that people put the interests of society before their own. But a belief in the public good may conflict with a desire for the protection of individual rights. So classic republicanism and classic liberalism can sometimes clash. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Here is question number three from the Center for Civic Education: "How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purposes, values and principles of American democracy?" There are many ideas behind American democracy, but one of the most important is federalism. Early leaders wanted to create a government system that would prevent the misuse of power. So they created several levels of government. Power and responsibilities are divided among the national, state and local governments. VOICE TWO: The federal government is organized into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The judicial branch is the Supreme Court and the federal court system. The executive branch is the president and the fifteen cabinet-level agencies. The federal government also has about sixty independent agencies. VOICE ONE: State governments are established by state constitutions. Each of the fifty states has its own legislative, executive and judicial branch. State and local governments provide police and fire protection, education, public works and other services. To pay for services, taxes are collected at all levels of government. The American political system also provides citizens with the ability to influence how laws are made. Some people become involved in political or public interest groups. Others are civically active through groups such as unions or religious organizations. The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. So the media also play a part in civic life and shaping public opinion. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: "What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs?" This is the fourth question asked by the Center for Civic Education. At times, the United States has closed itself off from the world. At other times, it has been an active leader. National politics and the guiding ideas of the Constitution have shaped and reshaped relations. Disagreements over foreign policy have led to difficult periods in American history. The United States declared its independence from Britain on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, it is often called the last remaining superpower, after the fall of the Soviet Union. But military strength is only one measure of power. Economic power also influences relations between countries. And the United States has the largest economy in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The final question asks: "What are the roles of citizens in American democracy?" In the words of the Center for Civic Education, "democratic citizens are active."? They must know what their personal, political and economic rights are. And they must know what responsibilities come with those rights. The center says those responsibilities include voting in elections and giving time to community organizations. It says another responsibility is serving as a helpful critic of public organizations, officials and policies. But, above all, it says people must see how democracy depends on knowledgeable citizens who care about other citizens and their country. This is what Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, said in eighteen fifty-four: "If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions." In other words, to keep democracy alive, citizens must do it themselves. VOICE TWO: The Center for Civic Education organized its teachings around questions because, in its words, "democracy is a discussion." Citizens exchange ideas. They search for new and better ways. The use of questions is meant to show that the process is never-ending. The center provides materials to schools. It also trains teachers and organizes community programs. For more information, you can write to the Center for Civic Education at five-one-four-five Douglas Fir Road, Calabasas, California, nine-one-three-zero two, U-S-A. Internet users can go to civiced dot o-r-g. Civiced is spelled c-i-v-i-c-e-d. And the e-mail address is c-c-e at civiced dot o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus, inviting you back again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Remembering a Chimp Known for Her Use of American Sign Language
* Byline: Also: Experts suggest early autism testing for all babies. And scientists are developing plants to eat chemical waste. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we will tell about an animal known for her ability to communicate with people. We will tell about a call for autism testing in all babies. And, we report on plants specially designed to eat chemical wastes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Washoe's trainers say she grew to understand about 250 wordsAn animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe died of natural causes late last month at a research center in the American state of Washington. Washoe lived forty-two years. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language. Washoe had become known in the scientific community and around the world for her ability to use American Sign Language. Her skills also led to debate about primates and their ability to understand language. Primates are the animals most closely related to human beings. VOICE TWO: Washoe was born in Africa. Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching her sign language in nineteen sixty-six. Sign language is a way of communicating using hand movements instead of words. It is a method many deaf people use to communicate. In Nineteen Sixty-Nine, the Gardners described Washoe’s progress in a scientific report. Once the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed. VOICE ONE: The people who took care of Washoe say she grew to understand about two hundred fifty words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, "Who is coming to play?"? However, critics argue Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They say she never developed true language skills. Some researchers have suggested that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes VOICE TWO: Yet her keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, she taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive. Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believe Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is because this kind of research takes a very long time. Debate continues about chimps’ understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure -- Washoe changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American Academy of Pediatrics says all children should be tested for autism by the age of two. Autism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical experts call them autism spectrum disorders. Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that they say can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results. Recently, the group released two reports to help doctors identify autism. One report came from Chris Johnson of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. She says doctors should look for signs of autism when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months. VOICE TWO: Doctors normally consider the possibility of autism only if a child shows delayed speech or unusually repetitive behaviors. These may be clear signs of it, but they usually do not appear until a child is two or three years old. Doctor Johnson says experts have learned a lot about earlier signs of autism. She says the identification process can begin in the waiting room at a doctor’s office. Parents could answer a list of written questions about their baby. Then the doctor could perform tests as simple as observing the baby's ability to follow a moving object with its eyes. Experts say failing to watch a moving object may be a sign of autism. VOICE ONE: Doctors and parents can also look for behaviors that are normal in babies under one year of age. Young children usually have a favorite soft object like a blanket. But children with autism may like hard objects instead, and want to hold them at all times. They may not turn when a parent says their name or when the parent points at something and says "Look at that." Doctor Johnson says the goal of the new advice is early intervention instead of the traditional "wait and see" method to identify autism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Academy of Pediatrics says young autistic children should enter some kind of learning program. The Academy says such children should be actively involved in the program at least twenty-five hours a week all year long. The group also says it is best if there is a small number of students for each teacher. It says autistic children do better with more direct attention from and contact with their teachers. The group also is calling for contacts between autistic children and non-autistic children of the same age when possible. However, it notes that children with severe cases of autism spectrum disorder may have serious behavior problems. These could make interactions with other children difficult or even harmful. VOICE ONE: Experts advise parents to receive training for dealing with autism. But the Academy warns parents and doctors against several kinds of treatment programs. These include those that claim a high level of success or a cure for the disorder. The group suggests using treatments that are based on results of controlled studies supported by established scientific organizations. The Academy says autistic children should have the same general health care as other children. It says some autistic children have behavior, social or medical problems that may require treatment with drugs. (MUSIC)?VOICE TWO: Finally, scientists have developed plants to remove harmful chemical wastes from soil near military or industrial centers. The process is called phyto-remediation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published two reports about the process on its web site. Scientists describe how they used a special kind of plant to take up a chemical that results from military and manufacturing operations. The plants were products of genetic engineering. Their genetic information has been changed. VOICE ONE: One report describes a study of a chemical called RDX. The lead writer of the report was Liz Rylott of the University of York in Britain. She says RDX is often found in places where there was an explosion or where weapons have been stored. ?Professor Rylott says RDX is important for explosives. She says it does not break down naturally. The chemical instead leaks into the soil and threatens water supplies. Professor Rylott and her team collected soil from military training areas. They found bacteria that were able to break down RDX themselves and use it as their food supply. Her team identified the gene in the bacteria that breaks down RDX. They changed the genetic information so that enough of the gene can be produced to attack the harmful wastes. VOICE TWO: Professor Rylott says the next step is to use this technology to create grasses that can grow in military training areas. A likely test area for the bacteria is the Massachusetts Military Reservation in the northeastern United States. The use of RDX has been restricted there because of its threat to drinking water supplies. But some scientists say there could be serious problems. Terry Hazen is the head of the Center for Environmental Technology at the Energy Department's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Berkley, California. He says something has to be done with the plants after they take up chemical wastes from the soil. He warns that the plants could be carried away or spread by insects and animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake, Soo Jee Han and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. --- Correction: Terry Hazen works?at the?Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, not the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as reported. Also, the story misspelled Berkeley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Turkey Production Costs Are Up; Not Good News at Thanksgiving
* Byline: High corn prices mean farmers are paying more for feed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This Thursday is Thanksgiving, the most popular holiday for Americans to eat turkey. But people may have to pay a little more for their holiday bird this year. How much more will depend on competition between stores. Production costs are up. Turkeys are fed mainly corn and soybean meal. Corn was an average of two dollars a bushel last year. This year it was three dollars, and prices topped four dollars at times. Not only that, soybean production is down from last year's record high. Many farmers are growing corn to make fuel. The Department of Agriculture says one-fourth of the record corn crop expected this year could become ethanol. Also, higher oil prices mean higher transportation costs -- another reason for costlier corn. Rising food prices might be one thing on the minds of Thanksgiving Day meal planners this year. But some things never change. A turkey can be a little tricky to cook. The breast meat cooks faster than the leg meat, so it can get dried out. Countless turkey suggestions are on the Internet. We found a recipe called "The World's Best Turkey." It calls for butter, two apples, a tablespoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Oh, and it also calls for two-thirds of a seven hundred fifty milliliter bottle of Champagne. For the turkey. The Champagne is poured over the inside and outside of the bird in a roasting bag. However the turkey is cooked, someone has to cut it. Advice about carving turkeys like a professional is also available online. The University of Illinois Extension service, for example, suggests practicing on a chicken during the off-season. For people who do not eat meat, there are products like Tofurky made of tofu, which comes from soybeans. Turkey producers in the United States are expected to raise two hundred seventy-two million birds this year. That estimate is four percent higher than last year. Two-thirds of the turkeys are expected to come from Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri and California. The Census Bureau says the United States imported ten million dollars worth of live turkeys during the first half of the year. Almost all came from Canada. During that period the United States had a five million dollar trade deficit in live turkeys. But it had a nine million dollar surplus in cranberries. And it had a fifteen million dollar surplus in sweet potatoes, another popular food at Thanksgiving. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: UN Lowers Estimate of HIV Cases
* Byline: A new report says 33 million people are living with the AIDS virus, not 39.5 million as estimated last year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. United Nations officials now say fewer people than they thought are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Last year, the agency known as UNAIDS estimated that thirty-nine and one-half million people were living with H.I.V. On Tuesday it reduced that by sixteen percent to a little more than thirty-three million. Agency officials say the lower number represents better information and information from more countries. The single biggest reason, however, was an intensive re-examination of India's epidemic. At the same time, the agency reduced its estimates for five African countries: Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Also, UNAIDS says it now believes the number of new H.I.V. cases per year reached a high in the late nineteen nineties at more than three million. This year, it estimates that two and one-half million people became infected, and that two million people died of AIDS. Yet even as the number of new infections has dropped, the number of people living with H.I.V. is increasing. Better treatments are extending lives, and more people are getting the drugs. Also, the new report says prevention efforts appear to be changing risky behavior in several of the countries most affected by H.I.V. But U.N. officials say AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the major cause in Africa. African death rates remain high, they say, because treatment needs are not being met. Sub-Saharan Africa had almost seventy percent of the new cases of H.I.V. reported this year. But UNAIDS officials say this is a notable reduction since two thousand one. Many scientists who study epidemics have long argued that the agency has been overestimating the extent of H.I.V. worldwide. They say national estimates have been based mostly on findings from high-risk groups in large cities. The lower estimate just released came from more studies of wider society, including rural areas. Even so, experts say there is a need to further improve the research methods. Billions of dollars are being spent to prevent and treat H.I.V. Activists worry that the new estimate may lead to a drop in financial support. But UNAIDS officials say it does not change the need for immediate action and more money. They warn that in some countries, infection rates were falling but are now rising again. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can learn more about AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-20-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Voyager: The First Airplane to Fly Around the World Nonstop
* Byline: Some people thought the project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. It was called the last great goal in flying. It would be a flight around the world without stopping or adding more fuel. Today, Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson tell about a special plane called Voyager and the effort to set a difficult world record. VOICE ONE: Voyager began as a quick drawing on a small piece of paper. Six years later, the drawing was a plane that made history. Many people gave their time, energy and money to help make the flight happen. But three people had lead parts in the event: Dick Rutan,?Burt Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Dick Rutan was an experienced flier. He had been a pilot in the United States military during the war in Vietnam. After the war, he worked as a test pilot. He flew planes designed by his younger brother Burt. Burt Rutan was well-known as a designer of experimental planes. And Jeana Yeager held nine world flight records as a pilot. VOICE TWO: One day in early nineteen eighty-one, Dick, Burt and Jeana were eating in a restaurant in Mojave, California. Burt turned to his brother and asked a wild question: "How would you like to be the first person to fly around the world without stopping to re-fuel?" The three considered the idea. A non-stop flight around the world without re-fueling was the last flight record to be set. The flight always had been considered impossible. No plane could carry enough fuel to fly that far: forty thousand kilometers. But now there were new materials for planes. Burt thought he could build a plane that could make the voyage. Dick and Jeana thought they could fly it. No one could think of a good reason not to try. Burt picked up a small piece of paper. He drew an airplane that looked like a giant wing, and not much more. That was the beginning. VOICE ONE: Not since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright had the people making a record flight designed and built their own aircraft. Dick, Burt and Jeana did. Some people thought their Voyager project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous. The Voyager crew worked on the plane in a small building at an airport in California's Mojave Desert. Dick, Burt and Jeana received no government money. Instead, they got small amounts of money from lots of different people. As news of the project spread, more and more people offered to help. There were aviation engineers and workers from the space agency's experimental plane project. Several airplane companies offered equipment to be used in the plane. When Voyager was finished, it had two million dollars' worth of parts in it. VOICE TWO: Burt Rutan had built light-weight planes before. He knew a normal plane made of aluminum metal could not make a trip around the world without adding fuel. So his solution was to build Voyager almost completely out of new materials. The materials were very light, but very strong. This meant Voyager could lift and carry many times its weight in fuel. The finished plane weighed just nine hundred kilograms, about the weight of a small car. The full load of fuel weighed three times that much, about three thousand kilograms. Voyager was not built to be a fast plane. It flew about one hundred seventy-five kilometers an hour. VOICE ONE: The main wing of the finished plane was more than thirty-three meters across. That is wider than the main wing on today's big passenger planes. The center part of the plane held the crew. And on either side of this body were two long fuel tanks. In fact, almost all of the Voyager was a fuel tank. Seventeen separate containers were squeezed into every possible space. During the flight, the pilots had to move fuel from container to container to keep the plane balanced. One engine at each end of the body of the plane provided power. The area for the two pilots was unbelievably small. It was just one meter wide by two-and-one-quarter meters long. The person flying the plane sat in the pilot's seat. The other person had to lie down at all times. VOICE TWO: After many test flights, the Voyager was finally ready in December, nineteen eighty-six. The best weather for flying around the world is from June to August. That time was far past. But the pilots were tired of delays. They made the decision to take off, knowing the weather might be bad. On December fourteenth, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager walked around the plane one more time. It looked like a giant white flying insect. They were going to be trusting their lives to this strange plane for the next nine days. Dick climbed into the only seat. Jeana lay on the floor. They were ready to go. Flight controllers at Edwards Air Force Base in California cleared them for a trip no one had ever attempted before. VOICE ONE: The long, thin wings of the plane were so loaded with fuel that they almost touched the ground. Voyager began to move down the runway, slowly. But something was wrong. The ends of the wings were not lifting. Burt Rutan sent a radio message to his brother to lift the plane's nose. "Pull back on the stick!" he screamed. "Pull back!" But Dick did not hear the warning. And he did not see the wings. He was looking straight ahead. Voyager was getting dangerously close to the end of the runway. It appeared about to crash. Finally, just in time, the long wings swept up. The plane leaped into the air. Planes following Voyager could see that the ends of the wings were badly damaged. Dick turned the plane so the force of air currents would break off the broken ends. Then he aimed Voyager out over the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: Weight was the main consideration in designing the experimental plane. Not safety. Not comfort. Voyager did not have most of the normal safety equipment of modern planes. There were no special materials to block the noise of the engines. And space for the pilots was so tight they had great difficulty changing places. Voyager's long wings moved up and down as the winds changed. It seemed to sail on waves of air, just like a sailboat on ocean waves. This motion meant the flight was extremely rough. VOICE ONE: It was not an enjoyable trip. Dick and Jeana were always tense. At the end of the second day, the weather expert for the flight warned of trouble. Voyager was heading for an ocean storm. Dick was able to fly close to the storm and ride its winds. On the third day, Voyager was in trouble again. It had to fly between huge thunderhead clouds on one side and Vietnam's airspace on the other. Dick was able to keep the plane safely in the middle. Over Africa, the two pilots struggled with continuous stormy weather. Dick had flown almost all of the first sixty hours of the flight. Then he changed places with Jeana for short periods. Both were extremely tired. Suddenly, a red warning light turned on. It was a signal that there was not enough oil in one engine. Dick and Jeana had been so busy trying to fly around bad weather and mountains that they had forgotten to watch the oil level. But luck stayed with them. They added the necessary oil. The engine was not damaged. VOICE TWO: Once past the violent weather over Africa, Dick and Jeana began planning the way home. A computer confirmed that they had enough fuel left to make it. But as they flew up the coast of Mexico, the engine on the back of the plane failed. Fuel had stopped flowing to it. The more powerful front engine already had been shut down earlier to save fuel. With neither engine working, Voyager quickly began to lose speed and height. The plane fell for five minutes. Dick finally got the front engine started again. Then fuel started flowing to the back engine, and it began to work again, too. VOICE ONE: Nine days after take-off, Voyager landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It had completed a forty thousand kilometer flight around the world. It had not stopped. And it had not re-fueled. Dick said after landing: "This was the last major event of atmospheric flight." Jeana added: "It was a lot more difficult than we ever imagined." Burt Rutan's revolutionary plane design had worked. And, with it, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had joined the list of the world's greatest fliers. (MUSIC) This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Meet a Labor Lawyer Whose Labor of Love Is Writing About Slang
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is Tom Dalzell, senior editor of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English -- and, now, the Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. RS: "How do you hope that readers use this dictionary?" TOM DALZELL: "There is the traditional role of the dictionary: 'I don't know what this word that I heard or I read means, I'll look it up.' But it's a browsing pleasure, because when you start seeing clusters of words that come out of the Caribbean, there's just such hope and joy of life there. And then you see a skepticism and irony in Australia. You see different cultures emerging as you browse through it." AA: "Speaking of changes in attitude or culture, or cultural differences, I'm curious since you've looked at -- let's just focus on American slang for a moment here -- you've looked at slang from nineteen forty-five to the present. Have you seen any shifts in attitude or in the culture as expressed through the slang?" RS: "Or trends." TOM DALZELL: "Sure, sure. I've seen two things. One is homogenization of American slang. If you looked in nineteen forty-five, you would find very different slang in the cities and in rural areas. And there's a lot more uniformity now, and I attribute that to media. With young people, with the advent of MTV in the early eighties, that really became a national media outlet for language. So I've seen homogenization, and there's something lost in that. "And the other thing that one sees, beginning in the late nineteen thirties but certainly continuing on almost a linear way up is the influence of African-American vernacular, African-American slang on American slang in general. With the Swing movement and jitterbugs in the late thirties, there was a conscious attempt by white Americans to learn African-American slang, and it has just become more and more a part of mainstream American slang." RS: Tom Dalzell is a labor lawyer, but when he's not doing that, his labor of love is writing about slang. We asked him if he found any terms that are especially difficult for non-native English speakers to understand. TOM DALZELL: "Well, even among English-as-first-language speakers, there's a great deal of vagueness in slang -- intentionally. When you say 'Well, we hooked up,' that could mean anything from 'We just happened to meet each other at a club and talked' to romantic involvement. I mean, there's a wonderful scene in [the movie] 'Pulp Fiction' when Vincent Vega tells the Samuel Jackson character that Marcellus wants him to take out Uma Thurman. Take out, as in kill? Or as in, to take out on a date? There's a lot of vagueness and sometimes context doesn't even suggest the answer." AA: "Do you run into any uses of slang that confuse you or other lawyers or judges?" TOM DALZELL: "Well, actually, I'm testifying as an expert witness up in a murder trial in Spokane [Washington] in early December about a slang term, where the prosecuting attorney deemed it to mean only one thing and the defense is arguing that it could mean many things." RS: "What is that word?" TOM DALZELL: "The term is to 'hit a lick.' The defendant told several friends that he had 'hit a lick,' and the prosecutor is urging that the only possible definition of that term is to commit an armed robbery. My research tells me otherwise, that 'hit a lick' actually more commonly means to come into a sum of money, in somewhat shady circumstances, but in one fell swoop and by no means necessarily armed robbery. And here somebody's life depends on how a jury is going to interpret him saying 'I hit a lick.' RS: Tom Dalzell, senior editor of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. The two-volume set is being republished in a concise form without the citations and with new entries from around the English-speaking word. AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. To learn more about American English, we invite you to browse through the archives at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: By 1750, Almost One in Four People in the Colonies Were Slaves
* Byline: Many Americans thought slavery was evil but necessary. Benjamin Franklin owned slaves for 30 years. But his beliefs changed. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION,?a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about slavery, and how it affected the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Slavery is one person controlling or owning another. Some history experts say it began following the development of farming about ten thousand years ago. People forced prisoners of war to work for them. Other slaves were criminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed. Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what is now Iraq more than five thousand years ago. Slavery also existed among people in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It expanded as trade and industry increased. This increase created a demand for a labor force to produce goods for export. Slaves did most of the work. Most ancient people thought of slavery as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time. Few saw it as evil or unfair. In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners and become citizens. In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products that were in demand. Sugar was one of these products. Italians established large sugar farms beginning around the twelfth century. They used slaves from Russia and other parts of Europe to do the work. By the year thirteen hundred, African blacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves. They were bought or captured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years. By the fifteen hundreds, Spain and Portugal had American colonies. The Europeans made native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies. Most of the Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment. So the Spanish and Portuguese began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves. France, Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies. VOICE TWO: England's southern colonies in North America developed a farm economy that could not survive without slave labor. Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations. These large farms produced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton and tobacco. Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family. That family lived in a large house, usually facing a river. Many separate buildings were needed on a plantation. For example, a building was needed for cooking. And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such as furniture that were used on the plantation. The plantation business was farming. So there also were barns for animals and buildings for holding and drying crops. There was a house to smoke meat so could be kept safely. And there was a place on the river from which goods were sent to England on ships. VOICE ONE: The plantation owner controlled the farm and saw that it earned money. He supervised, fed and clothed the people living on it, including the slaves. Big plantations might have two hundred slaves. They worked in the fields on crops that would be sold or eaten by the people who lived on the plantation. They also raised animals for meat and milk. Field slaves worked very long and hard. They worked each day from the time the sun rose until it set. Many of these slaves lived in extremely poor conditions in small houses with no heat or furniture. Sometimes, five or ten people lived together in one room. House slaves usually lived in the owner's house. They did the cooking and cleaning in the house. House slaves worked fewer hours than field slaves, but were more closely supervised by the owner and his family. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Slaves preparing dried tobacco to be shipped to England from JamestownLaws approved in the southern colonies made it illegal for slaves to marry, own property or earn their freedom. These laws also did not permit slaves to be educated, or even to learn to read. But some owners permitted their slaves to earn their freedom, or gave them money for good work. Other owners punished slaves to get them to work. These punishments included beatings, withholding food and threatening to sell members of a slave's family. Some plantation owners executed slaves suspected of serious crimes by hanging them or burning them alive. History experts say that people who were rich enough to own many slaves became leaders in their local areas. They were members of the local governments. They attended meetings of the legislatures in the capitals of their colonies usually two times a year. Slave owners had the time and the education to greatly influence political life in the southern colonies, because the hard work on their farms was done by slaves. VOICE ONE: Today, most people in the world condemn slavery. That was not true in the early years of the American nation. Many Americans thought slavery was evil, but necessary. Yet owning slaves was common among the richer people in the early seventeen hundreds. Many of the leaders in the colonies who fought for American independence owned slaves. This was true in the northern colonies as well as the southern ones. One example is the famous American diplomat, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin. He owned slaves for thirty years and sold them at his general store. But his ideas about slavery changed during his long life. Benjamin Franklin started the first schools to teach blacks and later argued for their freedom. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Slavery did not become a force in the northern colonies mainly because of economic reasons. Cold weather and poor soil could not support such a farm economy as was found in the South. As a result, the North came to depend on manufacturing and trade. Trade was the way colonists got the English goods they needed. It was also the way to earn money by selling products found in the New World. New England became a center for such trade across the seas. The people who lived there became shipbuilders so they could send the products to England. They used local wood to build the ships. They also sold wood and wood products. They became businessmen carrying goods around the world. The New England shipbuilding towns near the Atlantic Ocean grew quickly as a result. The largest of these towns was Boston, Massachusetts. By seventeen twenty, it had more than ten thousand people. Only two towns in England were larger: London and Bristol. More than twenty-five percent of the men in Boston had invested in shipping or worked in it. Ship captains and businessmen held most of the public offices. VOICE ONE: The American colonies traded goods such as whale oil, ginger, iron, wood, and rum, an alcoholic drink made from sugarcane. Ships carried these goods from the New England colonies to Africa. There, they were traded for African people. The Africans had been captured by enemy tribesmen and sold to African slave traders. The New England boat captains would buy as many as they could put on their ships. The conditions on these ships were very cruel. The Africans were put in so tightly they could hardly move. Some were chained. Many killed themselves rather than live under such conditions. Others died of sicknesses they developed on the ship. Yet many did survive the trip, and became slaves in the southern colonies, or in the Caribbean islands. Black slaves were needed to work on Caribbean sugar plantations. The southern American colonies needed them to work on the tobacco and rice plantations. By seventeen fifty, almost twenty-five percent of the total number of people in the American colonies were black slaves. From the fifteen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds, Europeans sent about twelve million black slaves from Africa to America. Almost two million of them died on the way. VOICE TWO: History experts say English ships carried the greatest number of Africans into slavery. One slave ship captain came to hate what he was doing, and turned to religion. His name was John Newton. He stopped taking part in slave trade and became a leader in the Anglican Church. He is famous for having written this song, "Amazing Grace". (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. --- This was program #8 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-21-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Pilgrims Face Competition in Thanksgiving Lessons
* Byline: Who really did hold the first celebration in America? For some teachers, including those of American Indian children, that is beside the point. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Tradition says early English settlers known as the Pilgrims held the first celebration in sixteen twenty-one in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They invited local Indians to a feast to thank them for help in surviving their first year in America. Yet the Berkeley Plantation along the James River in Virginia calls itself the site of the first official Thanksgiving in America. In sixteen nineteen an English ship arrived with directions for the crew to observe their arrival date as a yearly day of thanksgiving to God. But now comes a book called "America's REAL First Thanksgiving." A Florida schoolteacher, Robyn Gioia, tells the story of Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez who founded Saint Augustine, Florida. He celebrated with a thanksgiving feast with the native Timucua Indians. That was in fifteen sixty-five. Students at an elementary school in Long Beach, California, prepare for a Thanksgiving performance So what are schoolchildren learning these days about Thanksgiving? Sharon Biros is a first-grade teacher in Clairton, Pennsylvania. Her students learn about the holiday as they discuss being good citizens. They read stories about the Indians and the Pilgrims. And the children tell what they are each thankful for. Many of the families are poor. The school organizes a project in which students bring food and money to share with those in need. Brook Levin heads a preschool in Broomall, Pennsylvania. She says the kids learn about native culture and the Pilgrims and how people at that time grew their own food. Thanksgiving, she says, is a good time to teach about the importance of sharing. The children make bread and other foods and invite their parents to school to enjoy them. Cheryl Burrell is curriculum director for the public schools on the reservation of the Winnebago Indian tribe in Nebraska. She is not American Indian, and she says there is only one native teacher. But she says all the teachers are trained in native culture and history. Students learn about the Pilgrims, she says, but not at Thanksgiving time. They learn about them when they study American history. Thanksgiving is used as a time to strengthen a sense of community. She says most of the families in the tribe celebrate Thanksgiving just like other Americans do. But in addition the students take part in a traditional Indian harvest festival in October. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Green Day Has Redefined Punk Rock for a Wider Audience
* Byline: Also: The VSA arts competition for people with disabilities chooses this year's winners. And learn why the Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday is called ''Black Friday.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (THEME) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from the group Green Day … Report about an art show by some very special young artists … And explain why the day after Thanksgiving has a special name. VSA arts HOST: VSA arts is an organization that works to give people with disabilities a chance to learn about and enjoy the arts. For six years, the group has partnered with the automobile company Volkswagen of America to create a competition to support artists with disabilities. The artists are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five. This year, over two hundred artists entered the contest. A group of art experts chose fifteen winners. The artists received a total of sixty thousand dollars in prize money. Steve Ember has more. STEVE EMBER: Every year, the VSA arts competition chooses a subject for its art competition. This year, the theme and name of the exhibition is “Driven.” The artists were asked to make works that show what forces and ideas move them to create. Twenty-one year old Jacolby Satterwhite from Baltimore, Maryland, won the twenty thousand dollar first prize for his painting “Remission and Resilience.” This large and colorful painting shows six people doing different activities. Behind them is an expressive blue and orange sky. Jacolby started making art at the age of three. But by age eleven, he developed bone cancer and had to have parts of his right arm removed. This disability did not stop him from creating his art. He says continuing to make art with these limits is a way of winning over a dark period in his life. Laurel Ebenal from the state of Washington won second prize for her “Faun” photograph of a person wearing a theatrical face covering. Laurel is influenced by an imaginary world of dreams and stories. Although she has lost half of her hearing, she says her art permits her to express herself in ways that words cannot. E. Brooke Lanier from Chicago, Illinois won third prize for her painting called “Staring.” Her art expresses what it is like for an artist to go blind. The painting has a white background with bold black letters. It looks like the picture an eye doctor uses to test a person’s eyesight. The letters start big, then get smaller towards the bottom. The letters say: “I cannot see you but I know you are staring at me.” Green Day HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Russia. Viacheslav wants to know about the rock group Green Day. This band is considered to have brought punk rock style music to a wider audience of listeners. From left, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike DirntBillie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt from Berkeley, California, formed the band in nineteen eighty-seven when they were fifteen years old. The two friends gave their first performance at the restaurant where Billie Joe’s mother worked. Billie Joe and Mike later asked Tr? Cool to replace Green Day’s first drummer who left the group to attend college. The band’s first two full-length albums were called “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” and “Kerplunk.” Their first album with a large record company came out in nineteen ninety-four. “Dookie" sold over ten million copies around the world. It also earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Group. Here is the hit song “Basket Case” from that album. (MUSIC) In nineteen ninety-five, Green Day released the album “Insomniac” which had a darker and more intense sound. Two years later, the group released “Nimrod.”? The album “Warning” earned Green Day eight California Music awards, though it was not one of their best selling albums. Here is the song “Minority” from that album. (MUSIC) Green Day later began making a new album, but the recordings of the songs were stolen from the band’s music studio. Green Day decided not to recreate the same album. They decided to do something different. In two thousand four they released “American Idiot” which became an international best seller. The songs criticize American policy over the war in Iraq. Billie Joe Armstrong said that he knew the album could be a risky choice for the band. But he felt it was worth the risk to be able to honestly voice the band’s political beliefs. This year Green Day recorded a song for an album made by Amnesty International. The aim of the recording is to increase attention about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. We leave you with Green Day’s version of “Working Class Hero” written by John Lennon. (MUSIC) Black Friday HOST: Yesterday, November twenty-second, was Thanksgiving in the United States. It was a day for family members to get together, share a meal and express thanks for the good things in the past year. The day after Thanksgiving also has its own tradition. Barbara Klein explains. BARBARA KLEIN: Today, the day after Thanksgiving, is considered the first day of the holiday shopping season in the United States. It even has a name -- “Black Friday.”? The name comes from the idea that this is the day when store owners begin to show a profit for the year. In the past, before calculators and computers, workers recorded the profits and losses of American businesses in special books. They used red ink to record losses. They used black ink to record profits. They used the term “in the red” to mean losing money. "In the black” meant making a profit. So “Black Friday” was the day when the store owners moved from being “in the red” to “in the black.” Many people consider “Black Friday” to be the busiest shopping day of the year. But that is probably false. Researchers say it may be the day when the largest number of people go to stores. But it is not necessarily the day when shoppers spend the largest amount of money. Some experts say Americans just want to get out of the house the day after Thanksgiving. And many stores reduce some of their prices on “Black Friday.”? However, experts say that many people wait until much closer to Christmas, December twenty-fifth, hoping to find even lower prices. They say the busiest day of the year in terms of the amount of shoppers and sales is usually the Saturday before Christmas. A marketing services company carried out a public opinion study about shopping last month. It asked almost one thousand Americans about their gift buying plans. One-third said they plan to go to stores to shop on the day after Thanksgiving. The study found that these shoppers are mainly young people, probably because older people do not want to deal with huge crowds. In fact, business leaders say many older Americans are doing their shopping at home -- on the computer. They say the day most people shop online is the Monday after “Black Friday.”? They even have a name for it -- "Cyber Monday.”? HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Petroleum: A Short History of Black Gold
* Byline: By the early 1900s, the Standard Oil Company of John D. Rockefeller came to control almost all of the American oil industry. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. With oil around one hundred dollars a barrel, this may be a good time for a short history of petroleum. Petroleum has been important since ancient times. The Greek historian Herodotus told of its use in the form of pitch for building and road making in the ancient city of Babylon in present-day Iraq. In Latin, the name means "rock oil." Petroleum is a fossil fuel. The liquid comes from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago. These remains were buried deep below levels of rock over time and under great pressure. This geological process created complex molecules of hydrogen and carbon. Oil can also contain other elements. Crude oil, or unprocessed petroleum, is called sour when it contains a lot of sulfur, an impurity. Sour crude requires more refining than sweet crude, which is low in sulfur and, as a result, often more valuable. The modern history of oil started in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. At that time, a method was found to make kerosene fuel from petroleum. This kind of fuel became popular for heating and lighting. Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States in eighteen fifty-nine near Titusville, Pennsylvania. In the early eighteen sixties, John D. Rockefeller entered the oil business. Rockefeller and his partners understood the power of controlling all levels of production. By eighteen seventy, Rockefeller and his partners formed the Standard Oil Company. Standard Oil and other companies that it owned performed every level of production -- from drilling to refining to transporting and selling. But in its efforts to grow, Standard Oil was strongly criticized for crushing smaller competitors. Finally, in nineteen eleven, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was misusing its powerful market position. The ruling divided Standard Oil into thirty-four independent companies. Today, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron are some of the companies whose roots go back to the breakup of Standard Oil. They are among the largest publicly traded companies in the world. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our history of petroleum continues next week. That includes a look at the history of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC. Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Super Duper Tuesday' Will Mark a Short but Intense Primary Season
* Byline: We answer a question about the importance of the event known as Super Tuesday in the American presidential campaign. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. From time to time we are answering questions about the American election process. Today, from Jigawa, Nigeria, Mustapha Aminu Gumel asks why Super Tuesday is so special in the presidential campaign. Super Tuesday is a day when a large number of states hold primary elections or caucus meetings. Primaries and caucuses are part of the nominating process. In the two thousand four campaign, ten states held their events on Tuesday, March second. Next year Super Tuesday will come almost a month earlier -- on February fifth. And it has earned the name "Super Duper Tuesday" or "Tsunami Tuesday." This time more than twenty states will hold primaries or caucuses. These include big states with a lot of delegates like California, Illinois and New York. During the nominating season, people vote for a candidate. But what they are really doing is choosing delegates to the national political conventions later in the year. These are where the Democrats and Republicans nominate their candidates for the general election in November. The two thousand eight presidential campaign began much earlier than Americans are used to. The national conventions are not until late summer. But the likely nominees should become clear by February fifth -- Super Tuesday -- if not sooner. Traditionally, Iowa holds the first caucuses in the nation and New Hampshire holds the first primary. The results of the voting get a lot of attention. The idea behind these early tests is to give candidates with less money a chance to compete against those with bigger campaigns. Critics, however, say this tradition gives these small states an unfair amount of influence in the presidential campaign. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner announces January 8 as the date for its primaryThe Iowa caucuses will take place on January third. And New Hampshire will hold its primary on January eighth. The date was set after the Michigan Supreme Court this week cleared the way for Michigan to hold its primary on January fifteenth. New Hampshire is required by state law to hold its primary at least a week before any similar election. Florida, South Carolina and Nevada, along with Republicans in Wyoming, will also hold their primaries or caucuses in January. Opinion is divided about the idea of so many states holding their votes so early in the election year. Supporters say earlier primaries could give voters a greater choice of candidates. Yet states that moved their voting ahead to February fifth, hoping to get more attention from candidates, may still find their influence limited. Some experts say the nominating season is so heavy at the start, so front-loaded, that doing well in Iowa and New Hampshire will be more important than ever. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. You can learn more about American politics at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us a question, click on Contact Us and please include your name and where you are. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Ray Kroc, 1902-1984: The Man Who Made McDonald's Popular Around the World
* Byline: He helped develop the fast food industry.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Ray Kroc, the man who helped make the fast food industry famous. He expanded a small business into an international operation called McDonald’s. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You probably know what fast food is. It is cooked food that is ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place. It does not cost much. It is popular with most Americans and with many people around the world. Some experts say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and potatoes cooked in hot oil called French fries. Other fast food places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos. VOICE TWO: You see fast food restaurants almost everywhere in the United States. The names and the designs of the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald’s. Most are chain restaurants. That means each one is part of a huge company. Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign that can be recognized from far away. Each offers its own carefully limited choice of foods. Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain. VOICE ONE: The fast food industry began with two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the nineteen forties. Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant. They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers. People stood outside the restaurant at a window. They told the workers inside what they wanted to eat. They received and paid for their food very quickly. The food came in containers that could be thrown away. The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices. VOICE TWO: Ray Kroc sold restaurant supplies. He recognized the importance of the McDonald brothers’ idea. He saw that food sales could be organized for mass production -- almost like a factory. Mister Kroc paid the McDonald brothers for permission to open several restaurants similar to theirs. He opened the first McDonald’s restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-five. Soon, more McDonald’s were opening all across the United States. Other people copied the idea and more fast food restaurants followed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Raymond Albert Kroc was a very wealthy businessman when he died in nineteen eighty-four. But he had not always been successful. Ray was born in Illinois in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were not rich. He attended school in Oak Park, near Chicago. Ray never completed high school, however. He left school to become a driver for the Red Cross in World War One. He lied about his age to be accepted. He was only fifteen. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe. VOICE TWO: After the war, Ray became a jazz piano player. He played with famous music groups. He got married when he was twenty. Then he began working for the Lily Tulip Cup Company, selling paper cups. He kept trying new things, however. He attempted to sell land in the southern state of Florida. That business failed. Ray Kroc remembered driving to Chicago from Florida after his business failed. He said: “I will never forget that drive as long as I live. The streets were covered with ice, and I did not have winter clothing. When I arrived home I was very cold and had no money.” VOICE ONE: Ray Kroc went back to being a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup Company. He was responsible for product sales in the central United States. His life improved when he started a small business that sold restaurant supplies. He sold a machine that could mix five milkshakes at one time. In nineteen fifty-four, he discovered a small restaurant that was using eight of his machines. He went there and found that the owners of the restaurant had a good business selling only hamburgers, French fries and drinks. At first, Mister Kroc saw only the possibility for increasing the sales of his mixers to more restaurants. Then he proposed an agreement with the McDonald brothers to start a number of restaurants. Under the agreement, the McDonald brothers would get a percentage of all sales. VOICE TWO: The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-five. Ray Kroc was fifty-two years old -- an age when many people start thinking about retirement. He opened two restaurants. Soon he began to understand that the real profits were made in selling hamburgers, not the mixers. He quickly sold the mixer company and invested the money in the growing chain of McDonald’s restaurants. In nineteen-sixty, Mister Kroc bought the legal rights to the restaurants from the McDonald brothers. By then, the chain had more than two hundred restaurants. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fast food restaurants spread quickly in the United States because of franchising. Franchising means selling the legal right to operate a store in a company’s chain to an independent business person. If the company approves, the business person may buy or lease the store for a period of years. Many people want to own a McDonald’s restaurant, but only a few are approved. Each restaurant buys its supplies at a low cost from the parent company. Each restaurant also gives the company about ten percent of the money it earns in sales. Today, about seventy percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent businessmen and women. VOICE TWO: Ray Kroc was good at identifying what the public wanted. He knew that many American families wanted to eat in a restaurant sometimes. He gave people a simple eating place with popular food, low prices, friendly service and no waiting. And all McDonald’s restaurants sold the same food in every restaurant across the country. Ray Kroc established rules for how McDonald’s restaurants were to operate. He demanded that every restaurant offer “quality, service and cleanliness.”? People lucky enough to get a franchise must complete a program at a training center called Hamburger University. They learn how to cook and serve the food, and how to keep the building clean. More than sixty-five thousand people have completed this training. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: McDonald’s began to expand around the world in nineteen sixty-seven. Ray Kroc’s business ability made McDonald’s the largest restaurant company in the world. There are now more than thirty thousand McDonald’s restaurants on six continents. The company operates in about one hundred twenty countries. Every day, McDonald’s restaurants around the world serve about fifty million people. VOICE TWO: In later years, Ray Kroc established the Kroc Foundation, a private organization that gives money to help others. He also established a number of centers that offer support to families of children who have cancer. They are called Ronald McDonald houses. Many people praised Ray Kroc for his company’s success and good works. But other people sharply criticized him for the way McDonald’s treated young employees. Many of the workers were paid the lowest wage permitted by American law. Health experts still criticize McDonald’s food for containing too much fat and salt. In the nineteen seventies, Ray Kroc turned his energy from hamburgers to sports. He bought a professional baseball team in California, the San Diego Padres. He died in nineteen eighty-four. He was eighty-one years old. VOICE ONE: That first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, was torn down. It was replaced by a store and visitors center that attempts to copy what was in the original building. Another museum in nearby Oak Park describes the life of Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc’s story remains an important part of McDonald’s history. And his way of doing business continues to influence fast food restaurants that feed people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was the producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Computer Terms: Ever Google Someone?
* Byline: Hackers, bloggers and spam -- what does it all mean? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Computer technology has become a major part of people’s lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word mouse. A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields. It is a small device that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer. The mouse moves the pointer, or cursor, on the computer screen. Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen sixties. The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the computer. Using a computer takes some training. People who are experts are sometimes called hackers. A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language. But the word hacker is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer systems. ??????? Another well known computer word is Google, spelled g-o-o-g-l-e. It is the name of a popular search engine for the Internet. People use the search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l, is an extremely large number. It is the number one followed by one hundred zeros. When you Google a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the Internet. If you Google someone, you might find that person’s name on a blog. A blog is the shortened name for a Web log. A blog is a personal Web page. It may contain stories, comments, pictures and links to other Web sites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers. Blogs are not the same as spam. Spam is unwanted sales messages sent to your electronic mailbox. The name is based on a funny joke many years ago on a British television show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Some friends are at an eating place that only serves a processed meat product from the United States called SPAM. Every time the friends try to speak, another group of people starts singing the word SPAM very loudly. This interferes with the friends’ discussion – just as unwanted sales messages interfere with communication over the Internet. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Cool Way to Keep Food From Spoiling
* Byline: Mohammed Bah Abba's pot-in-pot cooling system. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world's poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity. Yet spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly. But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the "Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System." It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system. Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving. The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks. People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five thousand pot-in-pot systems for his own community and five villages nearby. In two thousand, the Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland honored him with the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award recognizes people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being. A committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects. The award is given every two years. The next one will be given in two thousand eight. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about the Rolex Awards at rolexawards.com. And you can learn more about technology and the developing world at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Every Year the Kennedy Center Honors Five Artists for a Lifetime of Excellence
* Byline: Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese and Diana Ross received the Kennedy Center Honors this year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to This Is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. is one of the official cultural centers of America. For the past thirty years, the center has presented awards honoring five artists for their lifetime of work. These artists were chosen this year for the Kennedy Center Honors:? The singers Diana Ross and Brian Wilson. The actor and writer Steve Martin. The pianist Leon Fleisher. And the film director Martin Scorsese. They will be honored this Sunday, December second. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Good Vibrations" and the other songs Brian Wilson wrote for The Beach Boys remain as fresh and energizing today as they were forty years ago. Wilson started the band with his two brothers, a cousin and a friend in the early nineteen sixties. The Beach Boys made a new kind of American rock music popular. Their songs express the fun of being young, enjoying girls, driving cars and surfing the ocean in California. VOICE TWO: Brian Wilson not only wrote The Beach Boys' songs. He also sang, played the bass guitar and keyboard, and produced the band’s records. Some experts believe that their album “Pet Sounds” was one of the most inventive and important records in rock music history. The Beach Boys were also one of the most popular bands in America during a time when the British band The Beatles were capturing the attention of the world. VOICE ONE: (MUSIC) Steve Martin is a popular writer, actor and comedian. He is also a skilled banjo player. Martin first started his career writing for funny television shows like “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” In the nineteen seventies he began performing his funny jokes and acts on the weekly television program “Saturday Night Live.” (SOUND) Steve Martin: “You know, a lot of people ask me if Steve Martin is my real name. Have I changed it for show business or anything like that. And, now I am not ashamed to admit it. Because I did have a funny name when I was a kid, and I decided to change it for show business. But I think enough time has gone by and audiences are more sophisticated now that they won’t laugh at my real name. My real name is bybybuhbuh … So my parents had a sense of humor. My sister’s name is hurhurhurhr? . And my mother would go out to? call us for dinner and she’d go bybybuhbuh! Hrrhrhr bbrbrb! So, we had to move around a lot. But other than that I had a very normal childhood.” He also won Grammy awards for the records of his live comedy performances, one of which you just heard. VOICE TWO: Steve Martin has also made over thirty-five movies, many of which he helped write. These include “The Jerk”, “All of Me”, “Parenthood”, and, more recently, “Shopgirl.” Martin has written articles, books and successful plays such as “Picasso at the Lapin Agile." He wrote a book about his years of performing as a comedian, “Born Standing Up,” that was released last week. His next movie will be “Pink Panther Deux.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was a recording of the pianist and conductor Leon Fleisher playing part of Schubert’s Sonata in B Flat Major. Fleisher began studying the piano at the age of four. By the time he was sixteen, he was playing with the New York Philharmonic. Leon Fleisher traveled far and wide playing in the finest concert halls in the world and also recording music. In nineteen sixty-five, a neurological disorder called dystonia forced Fleisher to rethink his career. He lost the use of his right hand, but he did not let this stop him. VOICE TWO: Leon Fleisher poured his energy into teaching and also conducting groups of musicians. He also began to specialize in performing piano music written for the left hand. In the nineteen nineties, doctors began to treat Fleisher’s damaged hand with Botox injections. Over time, Leon Fleisher recovered and started playing piano works for both hands once again. He has said that if he could relive his life, he would not change what happened to his hand. He says his experience helped him become a much better musician and teacher. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: That was a scene from the movie “Goodfellas”, directed by Martin Scorsese. Many people consider him one of the greatest living American film directors. Scorsese is best known for his movies about characters linked to crime and violence. Many of his movies are about Italian-American characters. Still, over the years, he has made movies about many subjects. “Kundun” tells the story of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. “The Aviator” is about the American businessman Howard Hughes. Scorsese also brought to life periods from the American past in movies like “Gangs of New York” and? “The Age of Innocence.”? His latest movie, “The Departed,” is about opposing groups of criminals and police officers. It won four Academy Awards last year, including best director and best movie. Martin Scorsese has also made documentary movies about musicians, including Bob Dylan. He will soon release a movie about the Rolling Stones. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: That was the clear, sweet voice of Diana Ross singing “You Can’t Hurry Love” with her back-up singers. The Supremes were from Detroit, Michigan. They became one of the most popular female singing groups of the nineteen sixties. The Supremes mixed the sounds of popular music with the soulful music born in Detroit called Motown. By nineteen seventy, Diana Ross had left the band to sing on her own. She made many best-selling records including “Diana Ross”, “Surrender” and “diana." VOICE ONE: Diana Ross also acted in television shows and movies. Her performance as Billie Holiday in the movie “Lady Sings the Blues” earned her an Academy Award nomination. Over the years, Ross has won many American Music Awards. Billboard magazine named her the “Entertainer of the Century.” The Guinness Book of World Records called Diana Ross the Most Successful Recording Artist of All Time. Her most recent album “I Love You” came out earlier this year. VOICE TWO: Brian Wilson, Steve Martin, Leon Fleisher, Martin Scorsese and Diana Ross are remarkable performers. On Sunday, the Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their artistic gifts with people all over the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Six Medical Researchers Who Gave All to Their Work; in Some Cases, Even Their Lives
* Byline: The stories of Jesse Lazear, Clara Maass, Joseph Goldberger, Matthew Lukwiya, Carlo Urbani and Anita Roberts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE : This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, the stories of some medical heroes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At the start of the twentieth century, the United States Army had a Yellow Fever Commission. The Army wanted medical experts to study yellow fever and find a way to stop the disease. One team went to Cuba to test the idea that mosquitoes spread yellow fever. The team was led by Walter Reed, the Army doctor and scientist noted for his work on infectious diseases. In August of nineteen hundred, the researchers began to raise mosquitoes and infect them with the virus. Nine of the Americans let the infected insects bite them. Nothing happened. Then two more let the mosquitoes bite them. Both men developed yellow fever. VOICE TWO: Jesse LazearA doctor named Jesse William Lazear recognized that the mosquitoes that bit the last two men had been older than the others. Doctor Lazear proved that mosquitoes did carry yellow fever. Doctor Lazear himself was also bitten. No one is sure how it happened. He said it happened accidentally as he treated others. But some people said he placed the mosquito on his arm as part of the experiment. Medical historians say he may have reported the bite as an accident so his family would not be denied money from his life insurance policy. VOICE ONE: Jesse Lazear died of yellow fever. His death shocked the others on the team in Cuba. But they continued their work. More people let themselves be bitten by mosquitoes. Others were injected with blood from victims of yellow fever. Some people in this test group developed the disease, but all recovered to full health. Members of the team praised the work by Jesse Lazear. They called it a sacrifice to research that led the way to one of the greatest medical discoveries of the century. VOICE TWO: The research answered the question of how yellow fever was spread. Now the question was how to protect people. The researchers had a theory. They thought that people who were bitten by infected mosquitoes, but recovered, were protected in the future. To test this idea, the team in Cuba offered one hundred dollars to anyone who would agree to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Nineteen people agreed. The only American was Clara Maass. She was a nurse who worked with yellow fever patients in Cuba. Clara Maass was bitten by infected mosquitoes seven times between March and August of nineteen-oh-one. Only one of the nineteen people developed the disease -- until that August. Then seven people got yellow fever. Clara Maass died six days after she was bitten for the seventh time. VOICE ONE: The experiment showed that the bite of an infected mosquito was not a safe way to protect people from yellow fever. Medical historians say the death of Clara Maass also created a public protest over the use of humans in yellow fever research. Such experiments ended. Cuba and the United States both honored Clara Maass on postage stamps. And today a hospital in her home state of New Jersey is known as Clara Maass Medical Center. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Joseph GoldbergerJoseph Goldberger was a doctor for the United States Public Health Service. In nineteen twelve, he began to study a skin disease that was killing thousands of people in the South. The disease was pellagra. Doctor Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people suffered from pellagra. He studied the victims and their families. Most of the people were poor. The doctor came to believe that the disease was not infectious, but instead related to diet. He received permission from the state governor to test this idea at a prison. Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual foods, mostly corn products. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk. Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not. VOICE ONE: But some medical researchers refused to accept that a poor diet caused pellagra. For the South, pellagra was more than simply a medical problem. There were other issues involved, including Southern pride. So Doctor Goldberger had himself injected with blood from a person with pellagra. He also took liquid from the nose and throat of a pellagra patient and put them into his own nose and throat. He even swallowed pills that contained skin from pellagra patients. An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger's wife. None of them got sick. Later, the doctor discovered that a small amount of dried brewer's yeast each day could prevent pellagra. Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in nineteen twenty-nine. He was fifty-five years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the exact cause of pellagra: a lack of the B vitamin known as niacin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: was the medical administrator of Saint Mary’s Hospital in the Gulu District of northern Uganda. In two thousand, the hospital was the center of treatment for an outbreak of Ebola. The virus causes severe bleeding. No cure is known. Doctors can only hope that victims are strong enough to survive. Doctor Lukwiya acted quickly to control the spread of infection. He kept the people with Ebola separate from the other patients. He ordered hospital workers to wear protective clothing and follow other safety measures. One day he had to deal with a patient who was dying of Ebola. The man had been acting out of control. The doctor knew him well. The patient was a nurse who worked at the hospital. The man was coughing and bleeding. Doctor Lukwiya violated one of his own rules. He wore no protection over his eyes. Matthew Lukwiya died from the virus in December of two thousand. He was forty-two years old. Ugandans mourned his death. He was an important influence in the community. Experts say his work during the outbreak helped stop the Ebola virus from spreading out of control. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-eighth, two thousand three, the Vietnam-France Hospital in Hanoi asked Carlo Urbani for help. The Italian doctor was an expert on communicable diseases. He was based in Vietnam for the World Health Organization. The hospital asked Doctor Urbani to help identify an unusual infection. He recognized it as a new threat. He made sure other hospitals increased their infection-control measures. On March eleventh, Doctor Urbani developed signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Four days later, the World Health Organization declared it a worldwide health threat. Carlo Urbani was the first doctor to warn the world of the disease that became known as SARS. He died of it on March twenty-ninth, two thousand three. He was forty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our final medical hero is molecular biologist Anita Roberts. She was widely recognized by other researchers for her work with a protein called transforming growth factor-beta. TGF-beta can both heal wounds and make healthy cells cancerous. In nineteen seventy-six, Anita Roberts joined the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. She worked for many years with another researcher, Michael Sporn. They found that TGF-beta helps to heal wounds and is important in the body’s defense system against disease. At the same time, though, the two scientists found that the protein can also support the growth of cancer in some cells. VOICE ONE: Between nineteen eighty-three and two thousand two, Anita Roberts published more than three hundred forty research papers. Many other scientists gave credit to her published work. In fact, the publication Science Watch listed her as the forty-ninth most-cited researcher in the world during that twenty-year period. She was the third most-cited female scientist. But in two thousand four, after years of studying cancer, Anita Roberts learned that she herself had the disease. She died of gastric cancer in May of two thousand six. She was sixty-four years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Internet users can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Not All Carrots Are Orange
* Byline: Advice about growing one of the world's most popular vegetables. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Carrots are grown on farms and in family gardens throughout the world. Carrots are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They taste good. And they contain a lot of carotene, which the body makes into vitamin A. When people think of carrots, they usually picture in their mind a vegetable that is long, thin and orange in color. But carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange. For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are, as their name suggests, white. For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it and turn it over. Then, mix in some plant material or animal fertilizer. Weather, soil conditions and age will affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing carrots that taste great. Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early, they will not have enough sugar. But carrots loose their sweetness if you wait too long to pull them from the ground. The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste. Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as during the summer months. If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed. Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to stews. Or, once they are washed, they are eaten just as they come out of the ground. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For more agricultural advice, along with transcripts and archives of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American Folklife Center: Preserving the Voices, Songs and Stories of Everyday People
* Byline: The third part of a series of programs on keeping traditions alive.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. We continue our series of reports about efforts to keep alive some traditional ways of doing things. Today we tell about preserving stories, experiences and beliefs of everyday people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the largest library in the world is a collection of voices. Voices of people telling the stories about important events in their lives. Singing songs they sang as children. Explaining the ceremonies and celebrations of their families and communities. This unusual collection is in the American Folklife Center, which is part of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. American Indian dancers Corina Drum and Mary Snowball take part in the Grand Entry at the Omaha Indian Powwow in 1983The Folklife Center was created to collect and preserve the traditional knowledge that is passed on to others by spoken word and custom. The folklife collections include the folklore, cultural activities, traditional arts and personal histories of everyday people from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Peggy Bulger is the director of the American Folklife Center. She says the songs people sing, the stories they tell, the things they make are an important part of history. So the Folklife Center contains a historical record of a people told in their own voices, not described by political leaders, professors or writers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy-six, the United States Congress passed a law that created the American Folklife Center to preserve and present the history of American folklife. The materials in the Center are available to researchers at the Library of Congress and at the library’s Web site. It also provides recordings, live performances, exhibits and publications. And it trains people to do the collecting. More than four million objects are now in the collections of the American Folklife Center. Most of them are in the biggest and oldest part of the Center, which is the Archive of Folk Culture. It was established at the Library of Congress almost eighty years ago and was known for years as the Archive of American Folk Song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, left, of Fisk University recording a group of singers at the Fort Valley State College Folk Festival In nineteen twenty-eight, the head of the Library of Congress decided that the library should collect American folk songs sung by people as they worked and played. Robert Gordon was chosen to lead this project. He had already decided his goal in life was to collect every American folk song. He traveled around the country, recording people in their homes or communities. The recordings were made on wax cylinders, a device that Thomas Edison invented in eighteen seventy-seven. When John and Alan Lomax took over the job in nineteen thirty-two, they began collecting more than music and song. They recorded and documented personal histories. These included what people cooked, the crafts they made, and the jokes and stories passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. This is the kind of information about everyday life that often disappears through the years. VOICE TWO: Peggy Bulger says experts in folklore, music, or culture travel around the country and the world to record folklife. They work either as private individuals or for the Library of Congress or other federal and state agencies. Many of them use equipment lent to them by the Library of Congress. In return, the collectors give their sound and video recordings, research notes, papers, and photographs to the library’s collection. Through the years, the folklife collections have grown to include traditions and culture from every area of the United States. You can find almost anything in the collections, including Native American song and dance music, ancient English story songs and cowboy poetry. You can listen to the memories of ex-slaves, experiences of Italian-American wine makers and memories of boat makers in the state of Maine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Peggy Bulger says the materials in the Archive of Folk Culture are from almost every place in the world. People who come from other countries to settle in the United States bring their folklore with them. So the folklore and traditions of the immigrants become part of the collections – including those from Sudan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bosnia and Latin America. Miz Bulger says the collections document the culture of the world as it exists today in the United States. VOICE TWO: The Archive of Folk Culture continues to grow. Individuals who have made a career of collecting folklore material want their collections to go to the Library of Congress when they retire. They want the materials to be preserved and made available to researchers in the future. For example, Miz Bulger says that next year a folklorist who documented women’s traditions in Afghanistan in the nineteen sixties is giving his collection to the Folklife Center. VOICE ONE: Peggy Bulger is excited about helping native groups record and save their own traditions and folklore. Two members of the Masai tribe of Kenya will spend a week getting training at the Folklife Center. Miz Bulger says the Masai do not want outsiders coming in to document their sacred ceremonies and songs. The Masai want to learn how to record and film themselves so they can be sure their traditions survive for future generations. And they want to have control over the use of the recordings, keeping ceremonial traditions secret, but making other information available to outsiders. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bob Patrick is head of the Veterans History Project. The idea for the project began when United States Representative Ron Kind of Wisconsin was at a family gathering. His father and his uncle started talking about their experiences in war. Representative Kind decided to?make a video recording of them telling their stories to save for his children when they were older. He decided then that the memories of all men and women who served in wars are important to record and preserve. In the year two thousand, Representative Kind introduced a bill in Congress to establish the Veterans History Project. The bill passed with no opposition and was signed into law. The main purpose of the project is to collect and preserve the remembrances of people who served in all wars. Bob Patrick says the project now has more than fifty thousand individual stories, including recordings or videos of veterans telling their stories about war. The collections also include photographs, letters, and other personal materials. All the materials are kept in the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress. Some of them are available through the Web site. VOICE ONE: Mister Patrick says many organizations and individuals volunteer to make the recordings. Retirement communities, veterans’ organizations, historical societies, libraries, and high school and college students are part of the project. The most important volunteers are family members and friends who talk to the veterans about their lives and record their memories. Mister Patrick says that today’s technology makes that easy to do. The Veterans History project Web site has suggestions to help people who do the recordings. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: Most new recordings in the American Folklife Center are in digital form, especially those made for the Veterans History Project and StoryCorps. People being recorded now are asked to give permission for their information to be shared with others through the World Wide Web at www.loc.gov/folklife. Peggy Bulger hopes that in the future more older materials will be available to researchers around the world. Miz Bulger says efforts by the Library of Congress to record and preserve dances, songs and stories help support traditional cultures.These efforts?help young people realize the knowledge of older people is valuable. Every year, she says, more people recognize that folklife is an important part of the historical record. VOICE ONE: Peggy Bulger says the recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture prove that voices are very powerful. Listening to someone talk about his or her life gives you so much more information, she says, than just reading about it. The growing collections of voices that are part of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress are a lasting record of social and cultural life. They are a record that is truly of, by and for the people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can find out more about the American Folklife Center at our web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next month to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English for another program about keeping traditions alive. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Stored Blood Found to Lose a Life-Saving Gas
* Byline: The loss of nitric oxide may explain some unexpected deaths in patients after transfusions. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists have discovered that stored blood loses a life-saving gas. This discovery may explain why a great number of people get sick after receiving stored blood. In recent years, experts have wondered why patients who should survive sometimes die after receiving a blood transfusion. The cause of death is often a heart attack or stroke. Jonathan Stamler is a professor of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina. He and other researchers found that stored blood has very low levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a gas found in red blood cells. The gas helps to keep blood passages open so that oxygen in the cells can reach the heart and other organs. Professor Stamler and his team found that nitric oxide in blood begins to break down as soon as the blood is collected. Their findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Another team of Duke University scientists carried out a separate study. Professor Stamler says the second study found that the breakdown of nitric oxide begins within hours of blood collection. He says the life-saving gas is partly lost after three hours. And about seventy percent of it is lost after just one day. As a result, he says, there is almost no time that stored blood has enough nitric oxide. The researchers tested their findings on dogs. They found that low levels of nitric oxide reduced the flow of blood in the animals. However, Professor Stamler says the scientists corrected the situation. They added nitric oxide to the stored blood given to the dogs. He says the extra nitric oxide repaired the ability of red blood cells to expand blood passages. Professor Stamler says people who are in serious need of a blood transfusion should have one. But he says more studies are needed to show who would receive the most help from stored blood. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by SooJee Han. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a general question about health, click on the Contact Us link or write to special@voanews.com. We might answer your question in a future report, so please include your name and country. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: British Defeat the French in a Struggle for North America
* Byline: During the 18th century, powerful European nations fought each other all over the world. The battle in North America was called the French and Indian War. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is THE MAKING OF A NATION in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we tell about the conflicts among the nations in Europe during the eighteenth century and how they affected North America. VOICE ONE:??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? During the eighteenth century, Spain, France and Britain controlled land in North America. Spain controlled Florida. France was powerful in the northern and central areas. Britain controlled the east. All three nations knew they could not exist together peacefully in North America. The situation could only be settled by war. The powerful European nations already were fighting each other for land and money all over the world. These small wars continued for more than one hundred years. They were called King William's War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War and the French and Indian War. VOICE TWO: The French and Indian War was fought to decide if Britain or France would be the strong power in North America. France and its colonists and Indian allies fought against Britain, its colonists and Indian allies. The war began with conflicts about land. French explorers had been the first Europeans in the areas around the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. France had sent traders and trappers to these territories and had established trading centers there. Britain claimed the same land. When the king gave land in North America to someone, the land was considered to extend from east coast to west coast, even though no one knew where the west coast was. The land along the east coast had become crowded, and settlers were moving west. White people were destroying the Indians' hunting areas. And Indians became worried that they would lose the use of their land. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Indian tribes may have been able to resist the people moving west if they had been united. But their own conflicts kept the Indian groups apart. When Britain and France started fighting each other, some Indians helped the British. Others helped the French. The French settlers lived mainly in what was called New France. Today it is part of Canada. Life there was different from life in the British colonies to the south. There was no religious freedom, for example. All settlers in French territories had to be French and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. So, many French people who belonged to Protestant churches settled in the British colonies. France also did not like the fact that the British paid the Indians high prices for animal furs. France was more interested in the fur trade than in settling the land. The British hurt the French traders' business when they bought fur from the Indians. VOICE TWO: One of the French trading forts was built in the area where the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is today. The French called it Fort Duquesne. The British claimed it was in Virginia and that the land belonged to them. In seventeen fifty-four, the governor of Virginia sent a twenty-one-year-old colonist named George Washington to tell the French to get out. This was the same George Washington who would later become the first President of the United States. The French refused to leave Fort Duquesne. So Washington and one hundred fifty men tried to force them out. They attacked a group of Frenchmen and killed ten of them. The French and Indian War had begun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The defeat of General Edward Braddock in Virginia in 1755, in a detail from a work by artist John AndrewBritish troops under the command of General Edward Braddock joined George Washington at Fort Duquesne. The British general expected to fight the way battles were fought in Europe. There, troops lined up on open fields and fired their weapons as they marched toward each other. The French and Indians did not fight this way. They hid in the woods. They wore clothes that made them difficult to see. They shot at the British from behind trees. The British had more troops than the other side. But the French and Indians won the battle of Fort Duquesne. General Braddock was killed. VOICE TWO: Most of the French and Indian War was fought along two lakes in an area of New York state near the border with Canada. One was Lake George. The other, Lake Champlain north of Lake George. It reaches almost all the way to the city of Montreal in Canada. These lakes provided the best way to move troops and supplies during the French and Indian war. Few roads existed in North America at that time. The military force, which controlled the lakes and rivers, controlled much of North America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The French had military bases in the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The British had military bases along New York's Hudson River. The area between them became the great battleground. Fighting increased after the British defeated the French near Lake George in the last months of seventeen fifty-five. The French then built a new military base to control Lake Champlain and the surrounding area. The French military base was at the southern end of Lake Champlain. They built a strong camp, the kind called a fort. They called it Fort Carillon. The fort would control Lake Champlain and the area needed to reach the northern part of Lake George. The fort was designed to provide a strong defense against attack. The French built two big walls of logs, several meters apart. The area between the walls was filled with dirt. Later, a strong stone front was added. Troops inside the walls were well protected. The British built a similar fort at the southern end of Lake George. They called it Fort William Henry. VOICE TWO: France sent one of its best military commanders to take command of its troops in America. His name was the Marquis de Montcalm. General Montcalm attacked several British forts in seventeen fifty-seven. One of these was Fort William Henry on Lake George. The British commander was forced to surrender. General Montcalm promised that the British troops would be treated fairly if they surrendered. But the Indian allies of the French did not honor the surrender agreement. They began to kill British soldiers and settlers. No one is sure how many people died. It could have been more than one thousand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, soldiers often marked their powder horns with maps and other imagesIn seventeen fifty-eight, a strong British force attacked Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain. General Montcalm was the French commander. Fort Carillon was strong enough that the smaller French force was able to defeat the bigger British force. The British withdrew, but attacked again the next year. This time the British commander was General Jeffery Amherst. Amherst was successful. The British defeated the French. They changed the name of Fort Carillon to Fort Ticonderoga. It became an important military center in the French and Indian War. Fort Ticonderoga would also become important later, during America's war for independence. VOICE TWO: The Battle for Quebec was the turning point in the war. Britain and France signed a treaty to end it in Paris in seventeen sixty-three. The British had won. They took control of the lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now claimed all the land from the east coast of North America to the Mississippi River. Everything west of that river belonged to Spain. France gave all its western lands to Spain to keep the British out. Indians still controlled most of the western lands, except for some Spanish colonies in Texas and New Mexico. VOICE ONE: Today, you can still visit the two forts that were so important in the French and Indian War. Little of the original buildings have survived. However, both have been re-built using the original designs. The area surrounding both forts is very beautiful, including the two lakes, Lake George and Lake Champlain. Many people spend their holidays in this area enjoying the outdoors. The area includes one of America's national historical parks, Saratoga. It also includes the Lake George Beach State Park. Few people who visit the area stop to remember the terrible fighting that took place there two-hundred fifty years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again at this time next week for another program about the history of the United States in Special English on the Voice of America. --- This was program #9 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Talking Dictionaries on Web Offer an Earful of Pronunciations
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we answer some questions from listeners. RS: Asad in Bangladesh and Emmanuel in Ghana ask somewhat related questions. Asad would like advice about a dictionary or a Web site to consult for the correct pronunciation of English words. And Emmanuel would like to know the American pronunciation of two words in particular: these, T-H-E-S-E, and those, T-H-O-S-E. AA: Well, we can direct both of you to free dictionaries on the Internet that provide audio files with many entries. For example, at bartleby, B-A-R-T-L-E-B-Y, dot com, here is how the American Heritage Dictionary pronounces T-H-E-S-E. (SOUND) AA: And here is how it pronounces T-H-O-S-E. (SOUND) RS: Once again? (SOUND) RS: And? (SOUND) AA: Our next question comes from a Burmese listener, Rajiv, and it also involves the letters T and H. "When I say 'birthday,' do I need to blow air at the end of the first syllable?" RS: The answer is: yes. BIRTH-day. And just to prove it, I hold my hand in front of my mouth -- BIRTH-day. And, yes, there was a puff of air at the end of the first syllable, enough to have blown out a birthday candle. Moving on to the next question, an Iranian ophthalmologist -- wait, that is the correct pronunciation, isn't it? (SOUND) Anyway, an Iranian doctor, H. Hashemian, says: "We live in a complex of buildings we call here a "shahrak' meaning small town. What do you call it in American English?" AA: Well, a lot of people would call it a complex. But a couple of other terms that come to mind are "development" or "project." Generally there's a specific name. For example, Los Angeles has the Park La Brea Apartments. These buildings were started in the early nineteen forties and have a total of more than four thousand apartments. We see on the Park La Brea Web site that the company that owns the property refers to it as a "complex" and a "gated community." Gated community is the term for a housing development with a wall or a fence around it. RS: We're going to have some fun with this next question -- actually, a set of questions from Sampath Kumar in India. Let's see if you can fill in the blanks. First question: Someone who performs daring gymnastic feats is a __________? AA: That's easy -- a gymnast. RS: One who studies the evolution of mankind is __________? AA: We're going to say, an evolutionary biologist. RS: One who overhears the conversation of others is __________? AA: An eavesdropper. RS: One who pretends to know a great deal about everything is __________? AA: Well, the first term that comes to mind is a know-it-all. RS: One who thinks of his own welfare and talks about himself is __________? AA: Self-centered or conceited. RS: And, finally, one who talks in his or her sleep is __________? AA: Is, is -- we didn't know! People who walk in their sleep are called sleepwalkers. That's a common term. But we've never heard anyone refer to "sleeptalkers." So we did a little research on the Internet. RS: We found that the medical name for talking in your sleep is -- AA: Somniloquy. RS: Which means that a person who does this would be a -- AA: Somniloquist. And in case you're wondering, somniloquy is spelled S-O-M-N-I-L-O-Q-U-Y. RS: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. You can learn more about American English at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: And speaking of fancy words, we leave you with Lou Berryman and a song called "Lexical Dude." (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Unscientific Poll: Calculators Subtract From Thinking Skills
* Byline: We asked for your opinions, and found more critics than supporters of using calculators in school. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Recently we asked how you feel about calculators in school. We heard from about thirty people in twelve countries, including a large number of Chinese. Turbo Zhang writes: "My brain is rusting. Why? Because I use calculators everywhere, on my mobile phone, on my computer, etc. New technology makes us use everything except our brain." Joony Zhu says calculators can provide us with an answer, but we may not understand it completely. And a student at an architectural and engineering college in China, Zhao Jing-tao, calls using a calculator "a kind of laziness." Critics of using calculators in school, at least until high school or university, outnumbered supporters two to one. Khaled Hamza in Cairo says "calculators affect badly on the thinking ways of students." Jose Gudino from Mexico City says this is because "you don't need to make an effort to get a result."? Hemin, a math teacher in Kurdistan-Iraq, says good math skills help in life. So he believes in solving problems with a pencil until high school. Randy Bin Lin, a Ph.D. candidate from China at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, writes: "You should work out problems with some kind of pain without computers. Then you may come to appreciate the power of these sophisticated machines." Abbas from Iran, now living in Sweden, says it is good to use your brain because calculators are not always available. "Last week I met a university student who could not subtract six from forty and used a calculator," says Abbas. But He Wenbo from China says calculators reduce careless mistakes. And Yang Linwei, an eleventh grader from China, says: "When I was young we couldn't use calculators. But when I entered high school we have to solve a lot of math problems. We have to use a calculator. It makes my homework easier." From Burkina Faso, Compaore Tewende Michel writes: "I can say that the handheld calculator has been important in my studies and even in my life." And Barnabas Nyaaba in Ghana advises that "as we enjoy the use of calculators, let's be careful so that it does not have any bad effects on us." Finally, Thomas, a student in China, says he likes using electronic calculators in school. But he wanted to tell us about what he called a special calculator which he does not know how to use. He even sent us a picture of this special -- and, in fact, ancient -- calculator. In English we call it an abacus. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Worldwide Spread of Oil
* Byline: Persian Gulf countries hold more than half of the world's? petroleum reserves, but production has grown in other areas. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be the Middle East. But petroleum development takes place worldwide. Nigeria, for example, is the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest producer in the world. Russia is the world's second largest exporter of oil and the top exporter of natural gas. But the country that produces and exports more oil than any other is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis hold one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves. Last year, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries produced about twenty-eight percent of the world's oil supply. The United States Energy Department says they also held fifty-five percent of known reserves. The other Gulf producers are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Iran has ten percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Iraq is also estimated to have a large supply of oil, and unexplored areas may hold much more. In nineteen sixty Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Today OPEC has twelve members. The newest is Angola which joined this year. High oil prices have brought new attention to OPEC. Its members produce about forty percent of the world's oil. But two of the world's top three oil exporters, Russia and Norway, are not OPEC members. Its influence may have reached a high point during the oil crisis connected to the nineteen seventy-three Arab-Israeli war. Arab oil producers boycotted the United States, western Europe and Japan because of their support for Israel. Since then, new discoveries and increased production in areas including countries of the former Soviet Union have provided more oil. National oil companies are estimated to control about eighty percent of the world's oil supply. In recent years, rising oil prices have led more governments to act, either directly or indirectly, to take control of their oil industries. President Hugo Chavez has moved to nationalize oil operations in Venezuela. And in Russia, a series of actions resulted in state-owned Rosneft gaining control of reserves held by Yukos. Yukos was Russia's largest private company, until the government said it owed billions of dollars in taxes and jailed its founder, Russia's richest man. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our report last week on the history of oil can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. --- Correction: OPEC has 13 members, not 12 as reported, based on information from its Web site. Ecuador, which left the group 15 years ago, rejoined in November. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Smith, Say Hi to Garcia: Two Hispanic Names Now in Top 10 in US
* Byline: Also: Music from a new album by Deborah Harry. And a question from Burundi about the Apple iPod. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Deborah Harry … Answer a question about the iPod … And tell about a recent report listing common names in America. Census Study of Names HOST: The English poet and playwright William Shakespeare asked “What’s in a name?” The United States government has an answer. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: The United States Census Bureau has released a report about family names. The information comes from the study of the American population in two thousand. The report tells the most common last names of Americans and some information linked to them. It says people recognize others by their names, and that people can tell a lot about a person just from knowing his or her name. Almost two hundred seventy million people provided information to the Census Bureau in two thousand. The researchers found six million different last names among them. One million or more people have one of seven names. The most common is Smith. More than two million people answer to that name. The next most common names are Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Miller and Davis. More than one million people are called each of those names. Two hundred sixty-eight other family names are also fairly common. Each of those names is shared by more than one hundred thousand people. The study also found that for the first time, two Hispanic names are among the top ten most common names in the country. They are Garcia and Rodriguez. Each name is shared by more than eight hundred thousand people. The report says more than ninety percent of all people with those names are Hispanic. One newspaper report says it is probably the first time that any non-English sounding name has been listed among the most common. The presence of those names on the list shows that an increasing number of Hispanic people are living in the United States. The number grew by fifty-eight percent in the nineteen nineties to almost thirteen percent of the population. Other Hispanic names appearing in the top twenty-five most common names are Martinez, Hernandez, Lopez and Gonzalez. iPods HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Burundi. Josephine Uwangabe wants to know about the small iPod device made by the Apple computer company. The iPod is the most popular device made for storing and playing digital music. Because of its size, iPod users can enjoy listening to music while on the go. In two thousand, Apple realized that digital music players were not selling because they were not well designed. Apple decided to change this. The company worked to develop a device that would have a fast computer connection so songs could go from a computer to the player quickly. The device also had to work well with Apple’s music program called iTunes, which permits users to easily organize thousands of songs. It had to be very easy to use. And it had to be good looking. Have iPod, must travel ... on a New York subwayAn advertising writer on Apple's team came up with the name iPod. He was influenced by the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” He saw the music device as a small “pod” that attached to a main spaceship, or, in this case, a computer. Apple released the first iPod in October, two thousand one. Since then, Apple has developed several versions of the device. Some iPods are small enough to fit in your hand, while others can play videos, store photographs or connect to the Internet. They come in different colors, prices, and memory storage sizes. In October, Apple announced that it had sold one hundred and twenty million iPods. Experts say these revolutionary devices are having a big effect on the music industry. Apple has sold over one billion digital songs from its iTunes program. This represents important income for many record companies that have been experiencing reduced album sales. Museums and schools are using iPods to play educational programs for visitors and students. iPods have changed the way people listen to music. It would be hard to walk down a busy street or college campus in America without seeing several people with iPods and earphone devices. Music lovers can now hold thousands of songs in the palm of their hand. Deborah Harry (MUSIC) HOST: That was Deborah Harry singing with her band Blondie. The post-punk/new wave group had many hits in the late nineteen seventies and eighties. Shirley Griffith has more about Deborah Harry's new album, "Necessary Evil." SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Deborah Harry's has a new solo album after fourteen years of silence. Here is “Two Times Blue” from “Necessary Evil.”? The song made it into the top ten of Billboard Magazine’s Hot Dance Club Plays in the United States. (MUSIC) “Necessary Evil” came out last month. Harry started a series of live shows to support the album this month. She began the tour at the Fillmore Theater, in her hometown of New York City. Critics have praised Deborah Harry for staying current in her musical style. “Necessary Evil” is not a re-visiting of Blondie. Harry says she still loves the music of Blondie and many former punk bands. But she says musicians have to keep moving forward. She says being stuck in the past equals death for an artist. Here Deborah Harry sings the romantic song “If I Had You.” (MUSIC) Deborah Harry wrote the songs on “Necessary Evil.”? She told one reporter that the album is about love and relationships like most pop songs. Harry herself has been married three times. She said she is in love with love --- sometimes. We leave you with Deborah Harry singing “Naked Eye.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-11/2007-11-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Israel, Palestinians Will Try Again for Two-State Solution for Peace
* Byline: The two sides promised at the Annapolis conference to seek an agreement by the end of 2008. A committee to guide renewed talks will hold its first meeting December 12. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush walks with Ehud Olmert, left, and Mahmoud Abbas to the conference at the U.S. Naval Academy in AnnapolisTuesday's Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland, put Israelis and Palestinians back on the road map to peace. Now the question is, how far will they get? The "road map" is the name for a plan that is supposed to lead to a permanent, two-state solution to the conflict. The Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations launched the plan in two thousand three. The plan did not go far. But this week Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to immediately restart negotiations. They promise to seek a peace treaty that furthers the goal of an independent Palestine. The two sides have not held serious negotiations in seven years. A committee that will guide the talks will hold its first meeting December twelfth. The aim is to reach an agreement by the end of next year. Many Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, attended the international conference held by the United States. Iran was not invited. President Bush said in Annapolis that the United States will be actively involved in the peace process. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named retired general James Jones as her new special diplomat for Middle East security. He will work with Israelis and Palestinians. But the Palestinians are split politically and physically. The Islamic Hamas movement seized control of Gaza in June. Mister Abbas' Fatah party holds power in the West Bank, which has a larger population. The main issues between Israel and the Palestinians include final borders and the right of return for refugees. But the most divisive issue may be the future of Jerusalem. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Olmert recently said he is ready to hand over some Arab neighborhoods in that part of the city. But he faces opposition from those who want to keep an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the nineteen sixty-seven Arab-Israeli war. About four hundred fifty thousand Israelis live in East Jerusalem and nearby settlements on the West Bank. Israel was established in nineteen forty-eight under a United Nations plan to divide the area into Arab and Jewish states. Arab nations rejected the plan and invaded Israel a day after its independence. Carnegie scholar Eric Davis is a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He says the most important thing that must come out of Annapolis is a real plan where both sides begin to compromise. He notes concerns that Mister Olmert and Mister Abbas do not hold enough political power to make compromises that would keep the talks moving. Without strong support, he says, the chance exists that their enemies could try to block the road to peace. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Margaret Sanger, 1883-1966: She Led the Fight for Birth Control for Women
* Byline: She became an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the 20th century. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them. Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year. This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress. Margaret Sanger was considered a rebel in the early nineteen hundreds. VOICE TWO: The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in eighteen eighty-three in the eastern state of New York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins. Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said he taught her to be an independent thinker. Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies. She was always tired and sick. Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become a nurse. Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because of their low position in society. Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem. Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor union organizer. She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism. Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in nineteen thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the United States prepared to change women’s lives. VOICE TWO: At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession. But she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote. She decided to continue working alone. One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, nineteen fourteen. The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution. Sanger had an immediate goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail. VOICE ONE: The Woman Rebel became well known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper. Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods. In August, nineteen fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act. Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women’s issues. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women. While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her. VOICE ONE: Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in nineteen sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail. With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In nineteen twenty-one, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in nineteen twenty-three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one. Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until nineteen twenty-eight. In the nineteen thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the nineteen twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents. Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements. VOICE ONE: Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In nineteen forty-two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two. Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in nineteen fifty-two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents. The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group. VOICE TWO: Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in nineteen sixty-six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Money: He Hit the Jackpot
* Byline: What does it take to have a rich life? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) I think people everywhere dream about having lots of money. I know I do. I would give anything to make money hand over fist. I would like to earn large amounts of money. You could win a large amount of money in the United States through lotteries. People pay money for tickets with numbers. If your combination of numbers is chosen, you win a huge amount of money – often in the millions. Winning the lottery is a windfall. A few years ago, my friend Al won the lottery. It changed his life. He did not have a rich family. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. ?Instead, my friend was always hard up for cash. He did not have much money. And the money he did earn was chicken feed – very little. Sometimes Al even had to accept hand-outs, gifts from his family and friends. ?But do not get me wrong. My friend was not a deadbeat. He was not the kind of person who never paid the money he owed. He simply pinched pennies. He was always very careful with the money he spent. In fact, he was often a cheapskate. ?He did not like to spend money. The worst times were when he was flat broke and had no money at all. One day, Al scraped together a few dollars for a lottery ticket. He thought he would never strike it rich or gain lots of money unexpectedly. But his combination of numbers was chosen and he won the lottery. He hit the jackpot. ?He won a great deal of money. ? Al was so excited. The first thing he did was buy a costly new car. He splurged on the one thing that he normally would not buy. Then he started spending money on unnecessary things. He started to waste it. It was like he had money to burn. ?He had more money than he needed and it was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent it quickly. When we got together for a meal at a restaurant, Al paid every time. He would always foot the bill, and pick up the tab. ?He told me the money made him feel like a million dollars. He was very happy. But, Al spent too much money. Soon my friend was down and out again. He had no money left. He was back to being strapped for cash. He had spent his bottom dollar, his very last amount. He did not even build up a nest egg. He had not saved any of the money. I admit I do feel sorry for my friend. He had enough money to live like a king. Instead, he is back to living on a shoestring -- a very low budget. Some might say he is penny wise and pound foolish. He was wise about small things, but not about important things. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Group Works to Build Peace Through Medicine
* Byline: Physicians for Peace sends teams of volunteers to developing countries to provide medical training and care. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. How do you define diplomacy? For the group Physicians for Peace, diplomacy is all about bringing medical education and care to places where they are needed most. A young patient in RwandaThis nonprofit organization brings together medical volunteers from different cultures and opposing sides of conflicts. Its message is "building peace and international friendships through medicine." Physicians for Peace is based in the American state of Virginia. Doctor Charles Horton, a plastic surgeon known for his humanitarian work, established the group in the nineteen eighties. More then five hundred teams of doctors, dentists, nurses and others have gone to nearly sixty countries. Some programs have lasted for years. For example, Physicians for Peace has had a program to treat burn victims in Nicaragua since nineteen ninety-two. Other developing nations use this program as an example for their own burn care programs. In Africa, the group is active in Liberia, Senegal, Mali and Malawi. And, in January, Physicians for Peace will launch a class in pediatrics and general surgery in Eritrea. Thirteen medical students will learn about treating children and performing operations. In the future they will train others. The project involves a partnership with George Washington University Medical Center in Washington and the Eritrean Health Ministry. In the Philippines, Physicians for Peace is helping to provide eye care to people who have never had their eyes examined before. The group is also helping to fit replacement arms and legs for people who have had limbs removed. The group is also helping rebuild a pediatric hospital in Sri Lanka that was destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami in two thousand five. And two times a year, it sends medical volunteers to the West Bank. Charity Navigator, a service that rates nonprofit organizations, gives Physicians for Peace its top rating. Health care providers from the United States donate their time and pay their own travel costs. The group had a budget last year of thirty-five million dollars. Most of that was the value of donated medical supplies. Ron Sconyers, a retired Air Force brigadier general, is the chief executive officer of Physicians for Peace. He tells us that the group goes only where it is invited. He says it receives more requests for assistance than it can meet, but works hard not to turn anyone down. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How a Chemist Gets a Reaction From a Class of English Learners
* Byline: David Bennett taught science at a boys' school. Now he helps adults improve their American English. Also, advice about learning the language. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we talk about learning English. (SOUND)? ??????? VOICE ONE: We are listening to a class of English language learners. For this exercise they have to repeat a series of words beginning with the letter T. Some laugh as they struggle with the words. They are trying to say "The tip of the tongue to the teeth." TEACHER AND STUDENTS: "The tip of the tongue to the teeth. The tip of the tongue to the teeth." TEACHER: "OK."STUDENTS: "The tip of the tongue to the teeth."TEACHER: "Uh-huh, it's also a bit of a tongue twister." VOICE TWO: The teacher, David Bennett, speaks slowly and clearly. He has a doctorate in chemistry. He retired from teaching science at a private boys school in Washington, D.C. Now he teaches this English class two times each week at a church in nearby Bethesda, Maryland. Not all of the exercises are tongue twisters -- a mouthful like "she sells seashells by the seashore." DAVID BENNETT: "Wake." STUDENTS: "Wake. Wake." Here, David Bennett leads the class in pronouncing words that begin with W. DAVID BENNETT: "So I can wake in the morning, or I wake up. Wake. Wall."STUDENTS: "Wall." DAVID BENNETT: "Wall, yes. What’s the next one?"STUDENTS: "Walk." DAVID BENNETT: "Walk, yes walk."ONE STUDENT: "Walk."DAVID BENNETT:? "Walk. There’s no L sound in it at all. It’s just walk. OK."ONE STUDENT: "Warm." ALL: " Warm"DAVID BENNETT: "The room’s warm. Warm. Warm. A duck has feet that are, that have, a web. Or a spider makes a web." VOICE ONE: In class on this autumn day are seven women from six countries: Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, France, Japan and Slovakia. Some are in the United States because of their husband's work. Others are here to work in child care as au pairs. The women have already studied beginning English. They are taking the class because they want to learn more American English. They want to be able to understand common expressions like "beating around the bush." That means to avoid answering a question or saying something directly. David Bennett points out that another expression -- "beating the drum" -- has two meanings. It could simply mean playing the musical instrument, a drum. Or it could mean leading a campaign, like beating the drum for political change. VOICE TWO: Learning a language can be a chance to learn about a culture as well. Recently the students read a story from the Internet about the history of the American holiday of Thanksgiving. Pencils and pens flew over copies of the story as the students marked words they did not understand, so they could ask the meaning. As each student read a part of the story to the class, the teacher would repeat any word they did not say correctly. Then the speaker would repeat the word after him. VOICE ONE: The teacher also asked the women about festivals or holidays in their own countries. A young au pair from Bolivia talked about a fish festival at Lake Titicaca. As she talked her words started to come with greater ease. Another woman described a grape festival in Slovakia. Others talked about wine and film festivals. Their teacher listened carefully and repeated words that were hard for them to say. VOICE TWO: Yet even words that might be easy to say can still lead to misunderstandings, at least in spoken English. David Bennett talks about the word "week." Spelled W-E-E-K it means a period of time. There are seven days in a week. But "weak," spelled W-E-A-K, has a very different meaning. It means the opposite of strong. VOICE ONE: The students in the class practice what they learn among themselves. The program centers not just on writing, but also speaking and understanding English. There are different ways to teach a language. These days, English teachers are taught that the best method is the communicative approach. The goal is for students to be able to communicate in their new language. This means teaching the language used in real-life situations -- like getting a job or completing medical forms or speaking to a child's teacher. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Language schools can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But some programs, like the one in Bethesda, cost only the price of the workbooks. Many religious groups organize classes like this. Classes are also offered through public schools and community colleges. English lessons are in strong demand in the United States, and people may have to wait for an opening. VOICE ONE: English learners and teachers can find many free resources on the Internet, including at sites like manythings.org and eslcafe.org. Two other resources that might also be of interest to teachers are TESOL and TESL-L. TESL-L is an international discussion list for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. They represent all levels of experience and training. There is no cost to subscribe to this independent online list. The easiest way to find it is to do an Internet search for T-E-S-L-dash-L. T-E-S-O-L is TESOL, short for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. About fourteen thousand members belong to this organization. TESOL is also connected with other education groups throughout the world. For more information, the Web site is tesol.org. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Kelly Lopez is an American citizen who was born in Honduras. Spanish was her first language. Her advice for English learners is to think in English instead of just translating. She also suggests trying to find people who were born in the United States and practice with them. VOICE ONE: Maria Neves of Recife, Brazil, was in the United States several years ago to attend a dance program in New York. She keeps English fresh in her mind by writing letters to American friends. She also suggests that language learners record their voice, then listen and try to correct mistakes. And, she says, "Never miss an American movie." Reading English subtitles or closed captioning can also be helpful when watching DVDs or television shows. Movies, TV shows and songs have helped millions of people learn languages. But there are other useful resources that adult learners might not think of -- like children's books and comic books. VOICE TWO:?????? Adults can do a good job of learning languages, but children are just naturally better while their brains are still forming. Nine-year-old Ukyeon Kim from South Korea is a good example. He attends the fourth grade at a public school in Fairfax County, Virginia. The family has decided to return to South Korea. But people who know Ukyeon say he learned English very fast. He thinks his mother had something to do with that. She read books to him in English before the family came to the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SooJee Han is in the United States through a cooperative program at the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. She is from Seoul where she studied international relations at the Graduate School of International Studies. She learned to read and write English in school in South Korea. But mostly she learned the grammar and structure of the language. More recently, she discovered Special English programs, like this one. She says they have helped her improve her English skills. (SOUND) SOOJEE HAN: "A good thing is, several years ago, I was lucky to find VOA English on the Internet. And I was so glad they have Special English. The broadcasters read news with slow speech so I can follow their accurate pronunciations." VOICE TWO: SooJee Han likes to download MP3 files from voaspecialenglish.com and listen to them on her iPod while walking or riding the train. In fact, she even asked for, and received, an internship in the Special English office. Special English does not teach English the way a foreign language program would. But many people find it highly useful as a way to improve their American English. Transcripts of programs -- including this one -- can be downloaded along with MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. And there are links to other resources for people who want to learn the world's most widely taught foreign language. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. --- Correction: Nine-year-old Ukyeon Cho was misidentified in this story?as Ukyeon Kim. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Get Skin Cells to Act Like Stem Cells, but Much Work Remains
* Byline: Also: Some researchers fear a new study could lead people to believe that weighing too much is not as big a health problem as many had thought. And we answer a question about the AIDS virus. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: File photo of embryonic stem cells in a laboratory?dishAnd I'm Pat Bodnar. This week, we will tell about efforts to make what appear to be embryonic stem cells without using embryos. We will tell how body fat may help to protect against some diseases. We also answer a question about the disease AIDS and report on its spread. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American and Japanese scientists have reported a major discovery in the creation of human stem cells. The scientists say they have found a way to make human skin cells act like embryonic stem cells. Two groups of scientists performed similar experiments in different parts of the world. They reported their findings in the scientific publications Cell and Science. Both teams did generally the same thing. They injected skin cells with four kinds of retroviruses. Each retrovirus carried a different gene that helps control embryo development. The scientists say the four genes "reprogrammed" the skin cells. The genes turned other genes on or off and caused the skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. VOICE TWO: Scientists can make stem cells grow into any kind of cell of the body, such as nerve or heart cells. Scientists believe stem cells could be used in future treatments for many diseases. Until now, scientists were able to get human stem cells by taking them from a human embryo several days after fertilization. The embryo was destroyed in the process. The need to destroy human embryos has made stem cell research one of the most divisive political issues in the United States. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin helped write the report published in Science. He said he believes more scientists will attempt to reprogram cells to get stem cells instead of taking them from embryos. VOICE ONE: The scientific publication Cell reported the results of researchers at Kyoto University in Japan. They said they were able to make the newly created stem cells produce many kinds of tissue cells. One of the researchers was Shinya Kamanaka. In June, his team identified four genes in the skin cells of mice that could turn other genes on or off to make skin cells act like embryonic stem cells. The researchers say they still must confirm that the reprogrammed human skin cells really are the same as stem cells from human embryos. They say they have much to learn about the reprogrammed stem cells before they could possibly be tested in people. One concern is that the cells might lead to cancer because the retroviruses used to reprogram the skin cells can cause changes in their genes. In fact, one gene used by the Japanese researchers can cause cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Is it healthy or unhealthy to be too fat?? Some researchers fear a new study could lead people to believe that weighing too much is not as big a health problem as many had thought. They say that may or may not be true. The new study included medical information about almost forty thousand Americans. The information was collected between nineteen seventy-one and two thousand four. The study also included the causes of death of more than two million people in two thousand four. Federal government researchers wanted to learn if some earlier studies were correct. Those studies suggested reduced health dangers from being overweight. The researchers found that people who were overweight, but not extremely overweight, died at lower rates than people of normal weight. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. VOICE ONE: The researchers found a higher death rate in extremely overweight or obese people from heart disease. But obese people did not have an increased chance of dying from cancer. And they found that being thin increased the death rate from all diseases except heart disease and cancer. The researchers also found more than one hundred thousand fewer deaths among overweight people than was expected. They said being overweight was linked to death only from diabetes and kidney disease, not heart disease or cancer. They also found a protective effect against other causes of death such as injuries, pneumonia, tuberculosis and Alzheimer's disease. VOICE TWO: The researchers do not know why being overweight should protect people from some diseases. But they said it could be that extra weight may help make the body stronger to fight off sickness. They also said it is important to remember that the results are about people who weigh too much, not people who are very overweight or obese. Other researchers have problems with the study. They say the dangers of weighing too much have already been established by research. They say many studies have linked being overweight to increased chances of developing diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: United Nations officials say fewer people than they thought are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The agency known as UNAIDS estimated last year that more than thirty-nine million people were living with H.I.V. -- the human immunodeficiency virus. Last month, agency officials reduced that to a little more than thirty-three million. They say the lower number represents better information and information from more countries. The single biggest reason, however, was an intensive re-examination of the problem of AIDS in India. At the same time, the agency reduced its estimates for five African countries. ?Also, UNAIDS says it now believes the number of new H.I.V. cases each year reached a high in the late nineteen nineties. VOICE TWO: Even as the number of new infections has dropped, the number of people living with H.I.V. is increasing. Better treatments are extending lives, and more people are getting the drugs. The new report also says prevention efforts appear to be changing risky behavior in several of the countries most affected by H.I.V. But U.N. officials say AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the major cause in Africa. African death rates remain high, they say, because treatment needs are not being met. African countries south of the Sahara had almost seventy percent of the new H.I.V. cases reported this year. But UNAIDS officials say this is a notable reduction since two thousand one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We recently received a letter from a listener in Burma. Joseph San Min wants to know if mosquitoes can carry and infect people with the virus that causes AIDS. The short answer is, luckily, no. However, scientists did worry and investigate the possibility after the disease was first recognized. When a mosquito bites a person, it does not release any of its own blood or blood from an earlier bite into the victim. What the mosquito releases in a bite is its own saliva. This substance helps the insect feed on the human blood. VOICE TWO: Some viruses and parasitic organisms can live for many days in mosquitoes and are able to reproduce. The viruses and parasites also are able to enter the insect’s saliva glands. Then they could pass to a person during a bite from the host mosquito. But, the human immunodeficiency virus, H.I.V., cannot live in mosquitoes. The mosquito’s system considers the virus as food. So the mosquito eats and breaks down the virus as part of the larger blood meal. H.I.V. never infects the insect. VOICE ONE: There were theories that a mosquito could pass H.I.V. if the insect moved immediately from one bite to another. If the mosquito first fed on someone infected with H.I.V., the insect might have virus particles on its mouth. Let us say the mosquito flew immediately to feed on a non-infected person. Could the remaining blood particles on its mouthparts pass to the second person? The answer is no for two reasons. The first is just the result of simple mosquito behavior. Mosquitoes rest between meals. The second is that a mosquito cannot carry enough H.I.V. particles on its mouthparts to infect a person. People with H.I.V. do not always have high levels of the virus in their blood. But even if a mosquito bit someone with high levels, the insect would not carry enough blood away on its mouth to make a difference. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again at this time next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. --- Correction: Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka was misidentified in this story as Shinya Kamanaka. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Want to Grow a Root? Beets Are Hard to Beat
* Byline: Advice for growing a colorful and nutritious vegetable. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A Yale student carries beets grown on an organic farm near the university in New Haven, ConnecticutBeets are a tasty root vegetable that do not require much work to grow. People might think beets are always dark red. But they can also be pink, yellow or white. Beets with circles of red and white inside are known as candy cane or candy stripe beets. Beets are high in nutrients including folate, iron and fiber. They can be eaten fresh or frozen, canned or pickled. And not just the root but also the tops can be eaten. The leaves make good salads when the plants are young, and the greens can be cooked when the plants are older. Beets like cool temperatures, between sixteen and eighteen degrees Celsius. They grow best in full sun and in loose soil that is not too wet. Remove stones from the soil while preparing the ground. And test the soil before adding lime and fertilizer. Some experts say the best fertilizers for beets are low in nitrogen. Beets need the acidity level in the soil to be six to seven and a half. Beet seeds can be planted as soon as the soil is able to be worked at the start of the growing season. Planting them every two or three weeks would provide a continuous harvest into the fall. Iowa State University horticulture specialist Cindy Haynes suggests planting the seeds one and one-quarter centimeters deep. They should be planted in rows that are spaced thirty to forty-six centimeters apart. A beet seed is a fruit containing several seeds. Overcrowding the plants will mean that the roots cannot spread out and grow. Thin the beets by removing the smaller ones. These can be used as greens. Cindy Haynes says little or no fertilizer is needed in fertile soils. But once the seeds are planted, she does suggest covering the soil with a little mulch to protect it during rains and dry periods. She also suggests putting a fence around the plants to keep away rabbits and deer. She says the only work needed once beets have been thinned is weeding and, when the weather is dry, a weekly watering. For best results, beets should be picked when the roots are two and one-half centimeters around. Beets much larger than that can be tough and have to be cooked for a long time. Some people like beets prepared simply in butter. Others like to cook them with cinnamon and ginger. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For links to more information about growing beets, from the Iowa State University Extension and Ohio State University, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Power of Crowds: Designing a Way to Harvest Electricity
* Byline: Also: Astronomers discover a fifth planet orbiting a nearby star. And details of the recent shuttle flight to the International Space Station. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This week, we tell about a system of planets orbiting a star called Fifty-Five Cancri. And we hear about a plan to harvest electricity from crowds. But first, we begin with the latest trip of the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: That was the sound of the space shuttle Discovery landing at Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida last month. It was the one hundred twentieth shuttle flight and the twenty-third to the International Space Station. The United States space agency had two main goals for this flight of Discovery. First, the crew was to move a structure from one side of the space station to the other. And then they were to add a new room to the space station. But the astronauts faced two unexpected problems during the mission. VOICE TWO: NASA calls the new addition to the space station the Harmony connecting module. Harmony was built in Torino, Italy as part of an agreement between NASA and the European Space Agency. It is the first new room added to the space station since two thousand one. Harmony is about seven meters long and about four meters wide. It will permit future shuttle missions to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus Research Laboratory. It will also permit a Japanese experimental module to be added as well. Harmony will be a passageway between the laboratories and the rest of the space station. VOICE ONE: NASA officials had known there was a problem with a device linked to the solar energy system of the space station. The part, called a joint, lets one set of solar arrays point toward the sun at all times. Solar arrays are flat solar energy collectors that gather sunlight and turn it into electricity. The solar arrays provide power to the space station. NASA engineers noted that the joint did not appear to be operating correctly. It shook as it moved and used too much power. NASA decided to use the fourth spacewalk of the mission to examine the joint. Astronaut Daniel Tani went outside the space station to make the examination. He looked inside the joint and found small pieces of metal. NASA officials had hoped that the metal would be aluminum and not steel. This would have meant that important moving parts were not rubbing together. However, later examination of the metal showed that it was, in fact, steel. This meant the joint was damaging itself when it moved. Supervisors for the space station decided to stop using the joint so that its parts would not rub against one another. VOICE TWO: A second problem developed with one of the space station's solar arrays. The shuttle astronauts had to move a structure carrying a solar array from one side of the space station to the other. To do so, they folded the large flat solar panels and moved the structure. But a wire caught on one of the solar panels, tearing it in two places when the astronauts extended it again. The crew used the space station's robotic arm to carry astronaut Scott Parazynski to the torn area on the solar array. He was able to repair the array using parts made by the crew on the shuttle. The repair was very dangerous because the array carries more than one hundred volts of electrical current. But Scott Parazynski successfully fixed the tear in the solar panel and the space station crew was able to fully extend the array. The space station is now being prepared for a visit from space shuttle Atlantis. This mission will attach the Columbus Research Laboratory to the International Space Station. Launch for Atlantis is planned for December sixth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Science has made it possible to harvest energy from the wind, sun and water. All these renewable resources are used today to power an energy-hungry world. But imagine harvesting energy from crowds of people moving to and from work every day. That is one of the possibilities of piezoelectricity, the science of gaining power from motion. Some materials create an electrical charge when they are placed under pressure or stretched. These materials are said to be piezoelectric. Some crystals, such as quartz, and some ceramic materials are piezoelectric. VOICE TWO: James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk?are two graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. They designed a way to capture the energy of people's footsteps. They created a design for a special floor covering that moves a little when people step on it. The movement would create an electrical current that could be captured to provide electrical power. Mister Graham and Mister Jusczyk say one footstep could create enough energy to light two sixty-watt lights for one second. That might not sound like very much energy. But consider what hundreds of thousands of footsteps might create in an underground train station in a major city. The two researchers note that it takes about twenty-eight thousand steps to power a train for one second. VOICE ONE: Gathering power from the movements of large groups of people is called "crowd farming."? And interest in crowd farming continues to grow. Mister Graham and Mister Jusczyk took first prize at an international competition on city design earlier this year. The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction held the competition. At this point, Mister Graham and Mister Jusczyk only have designs for their large crowd farming project, not a finished product. Seat designed by James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk makes electricity when someone sitsHowever, they have built a smaller example of piezoelectronics to show how it can work. They made a seat that creates electricity when someone sits on it. The action of sitting on the seat turns a wheel that creates an electrical charge. This then turns on lights attached to the seat. Mister Jusczyk has said that one of the goals of his work is to have people understand the relationship between their movements and the energy produced. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Space scientists have been searching nearby stars for planets with great success. The United States space agency says that two hundred sixty-four exoplanets have been discovered so far. But, until now, few of the planetary systems found orbiting other stars have been like our own solar system. That has all changed with the discovery of a fifth planet orbiting a star called Fifty-Five Cancri in the constellation Cancer. Astronomers have known of at least one planet circling Fifty-Five Cancri since nineteen ninety-six. The star is forty-one light years away from Earth. It is also very similar to our own sun. Last month, astronomers announced the discovery of a fifth planet orbiting Fifty-Five Cancri. What makes the discovery extraordinary is that the new exoplanet orbits in what astronomers call a "habitable zone."? This means temperatures on the planet may be warm enough for liquid water to exist either on its surface or on one of its moons. VOICE ONE: An artist's picture of the fifth exoplanet discovered orbiting 55 Cancri, a star similar to our sunThe fifth exoplanet is about the size of the planet Saturn. Its mass is about forty-five times greater than that of Earth. Scientists believe it is unlikely to hold life. But they say that the exoplanet could have one or more large moons like Titan, a large moon of Saturn in our own solar system. Such a moon could hold water and the conditions for life. Astronomers add that there may be small planets similar to Earth in this complex planetary system. Astronomers can find exoplanets by looking for very small movements in nearby stars. The movements are evidence that the gravity of a massive planet is acting on the star. By observing a star long enough, astronomers can uncover this evidence. But currently astronomers do not have the technology to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting even nearby stars. VOICE TWO: Scientists made the observations at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California and the Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. More than three hundred twenty separate measurements were needed to identify each of the planets in the system. Eighteen years of observations were required. The observations started before anyone knew there were planets orbiting other stars. The United States space agency and the National Science Foundation supported the research. Other planets in the system orbit the star at distances similar to planets in our own solar system. The closest orbits at only about five and one half million kilometers from Fifty-Five Cancri. After our own sun, Fifty-Five Cancri now has the most known planets of any star. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. You can find more space and technology news on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Controlling Cholera May Be Easier Than Thought
* Byline: A computer model shows that existing oral vaccines could cut new cases in high-risk areas. And only half the population would need vaccinating once every two years. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. There are low-cost vaccines, taken by mouth, that can protect against cholera. The vaccine is commonly provided to international travelers, but not to communities that suffer cholera epidemics. There are questions about how effective it would be as a control measure. New findings suggest that it would be highly effective. These are based on the predictions of a computer model. Researchers say the model shows that the vaccine could reduce new cases in high-risk areas by ninety percent. And they say only half the population would have to take it once every two years. Cholera is a serious bacterial disease found mainly in developing countries. People can get it from water or food that comes in contact with human waste. The intestinal infection causes a loss of fluids. Cholera is treated by drinking an oral rehydration solution which replaces lost fluids and salts. In the most severe cases, fluids are injected into the body. Without treatment, it usually kills people within eighteen hours to several days. Estimates are that the disease kills at least one hundred thousand people a year. Ira Longini at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, led the new work. A team from the United States, South Korea and Bangladesh based it on a large study of oral cholera vaccine. The study took place between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-nine. It involved two hundred thousand women and children in rural Bangladesh. The team developed the computer model based on the results of the study. The model showed that if fifty percent of a high-risk community is vaccinated, many unvaccinated people also would be protected. The researchers say the number of new infections could drop below one in one thousand people in the unvaccinated population. This would be the result of what is known as "herd protection." The idea is that vaccinated people would not become infected, so they would not create conditions for spreading the disease. Unvaccinated people then would have a better chance of avoiding it. Ira Longini says researchers are very good at predicting where cholera is likely to spread. So vaccination efforts could target those areas. The findings appear in the medical journal published by the Public Library of Science and available free of charge at plos.org. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Excuse Me, Professor, How Much Do You Earn?
* Byline: We answer a question about the salaries of American professors. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we answer a question from a listener who wants to become a Spanish professor. Orlando Carvajal asks how much professors earn in the United States. Money from the sale of books written by professors can add to their salaries. Florida State University professor Darrin McMahon shows his book 'Happiness: A History.'We looked in the almanac published by the Chronicle of Higher Education. It shows that the average salary for full professors last year was ninety-nine thousand dollars. For associate professors it was seventy thousand. And for assistant professors it was fifty-nine thousand dollars. Private, independent schools pay more than public colleges and universities. But how do professors compare with other professions? For that we turn to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Assistant professors earned about the same last year as workers in business and financial operations. But they earned about ten thousand dollars less than computer programmers, for example. The highest paying group of jobs in the United States is in management. The average wage last year was ninety-two thousand dollars. Next came lawyers and other legal workers, at eighty-five thousand. Orlando also asks about benefits, things like health insurance and retirement plans. Benefits differ from school to school just as salaries do. The Chronicle Almanac shows that new assistant professors in foreign language earned forty-eight thousand dollars last year. That was a little more than the national average for all education jobs. But averages do not tell the whole story. Sally Hadden is an associate professor of history and law at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She notes that language professors generally earn less than those in subjects like engineering, for example. But these days, professors of some languages, including Arabic, can earn much more than Spanish professors. Universities are competing for them with government and industry. Professor Hadden also notes that colleges in different areas of the country pay different salaries. Some states have strong unions that have negotiated set increases in salaries for professors. And different schools value different skills in their professors. Community and liberal arts colleges generally value good teaching skills more than big research universities do. Salaries can also be tied to something else -- tenure. More about that next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Britain Says No to 'No Taxation Without Representation'
* Byline: The Stamp Act said the colonists had to buy a British stamp for every piece of printed paper they used. They refused. Parliament finally cancelled the law -- but passed an act saying Britain could pass any law it wanted. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about relations between the American colonies and Britain after the French and Indian War about two hundred fifty years ago. VOICE ONE: The French and Indian War was one part of a world conflict between Britain and France. It was fought to decide which of the two powerful nations would rule North America. The British defeated the French in North America in seventeen sixty-three. As a result, it took control of lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now was responsible for almost two million people in the thirteen American colonies and sixty thousand French-speaking people in Canada. In addition to political and economic responsibilities, Britain had to protect all these colonists from different groups of Indians. This would cost a lot of money. Britain already had spent a lot of money sending troops and material to the colonies to fight the French and Indian War. It believed the American colonists should now help pay for that war. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The colonists in America in seventeen sixty-three were very different from those who had settled there more than one hundred years before. They had different ideas. They had come to consider their colonial legislatures as smaller -- but similar -- to the Parliament in Britain. These little parliaments had helped them rule themselves for more than one hundred years. The colonists began to feel that their legislatures should also have the powers that the British Parliament had. VOICE ONE: The situation had changed in England too. In seventeen-oh-seven, the nation became officially known as Great Britain. Its king no longer controlled Parliament as he had in the early sixteen hundreds. Then, the king decided all major questions, especially those concerning the colonies. But power had moved from the king to the Parliament. It was the legislature that decided major questions by the time of the French and Indian War, especially the power to tax. The parliaments in the colonies began to believe that they should have this power of taxation, too. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first English settlers in America considered themselves citizens of England. They had crossed a dangerous ocean to create a little England in a new place, to trade with the mother country and to spread their religion. By seventeen sixty-three, however, the colonists thought of themselves as Americans. Many of their families had been in North America for fifty to one hundred years. They had cleared the land, built homes, fought Indians and made lives for themselves far away from Britain. They had different everyday concerns than the people in Britain. Their way of life was different, too. They did not want anyone else to tell them how to govern themselves. VOICE ONE: The British, however, still believed that the purpose of a colony was to serve the mother country. The government treated colonists differently from citizens at home. It demanded special taxes from them. It also ordered them to feed British troops and let them live in their houses. Britain claimed that the soldiers were in the colonies to protect the people. ?The people asked, "From whom?" As long as the French were nearby in Canada, the colonists needed the protection of the British army and navy. After the French were gone -- following their defeat in the French and Indian War? -- the colonists felt they no longer needed British military protection. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The British government demanded that the colonists pay higher and higher taxes. One reason was that the British government wanted to show the colonists that it was in control. Another reason was that Britain was having money problems. Foreign wars had left it with big debts. The British thought the colonists should help pay some of these debts, especially those resulting from the French and Indian War. The American colonists might have agreed, but they wanted to have a say in the decision. They wanted the right to vote about their own taxes, like the people living in Britain. But no colonists were permitted to serve in the British Parliament. So they protested that they were being taxed without being represented. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In seventeen sixty-four, the British Parliament approved the Sugar Act. This legislation placed taxes on sugar, coffee, wines and other products imported to America in large amounts. It increased by two times the taxes on European products sent to the colonies through Britain. The British government also approved new measures aimed at enforcing all trade laws. And it decided to restrict the printing of paper money in the colonies. The American colonists opposed all these new laws. Yet they could not agree about how to resist. Colonial assemblies approved protests against the laws, but the protest actions were all different and had no real effect. Business groups tried to organize boycotts of goods. But these were not very successful...until the British government approved another tax in seventeen sixty-five: a tax on stamps. VOICE TWO: The Stamp Act probably angered more American colonists than any earlier tax. It said the colonists had to buy a British stamp for every piece of printed paper they used. That meant they would be taxed for every piece of a newspaper, every document, even every playing card. The colonists refused to pay. Colonial assemblies approved resolutions suggesting that the British Parliament had no right to tax the colonies at all. Some colonists were so angry that they attacked British stamp agents. History experts say the main reason the colonists were angry was because Britain had rejected the idea of "no taxation without representation."? Almost no colonist wanted to be independent of Britain at that time. Yet all of them valued their local self-rule and their rights as British citizens. They considered the Stamp Act to be the worst in a series of violations of these rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American colonists refused to obey the Stamp Act. They also refused to buy British goods. Almost one thousand storeowners signed non-importation agreements. This cost British businessmen so much money that they demanded that the government end the Stamp Act. Parliament finally cancelled the law in seventeen sixty-six. The colonists immediately ended their ban against British goods. VOICE TWO: The same day that Parliament cancelled the Stamp Act, however, it approved the Declaratory Act. This was a statement saying the colonies existed to serve Britain, and that Britain could approve any law it wanted. Most American colonists considered this statement to be illegal. History experts say this shows how separated the colonies had become from Britain. Colonial assemblies were able to approve their own laws, but only with the permission of the British Parliament. The colonists, however, considered the work of their assemblies as their own form of self-rule. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In this cartoon, British Treasury Secretary George Grenville is carrying a child's coffin marked 'Miss Ame-Stamp born 1765 died 1766' Britain ended the Stamp Act but did not stop demanding taxes. In seventeen sixty-seven, Parliament approved a series of new taxes called the Townshend Acts. These were named after the government official who proposed them. The Townshend Acts placed taxes on glass, tea, lead, paints and paper imported into the colonies. The American colonists rejected the Townshend Acts and started a new boycott of British goods. They also made efforts to increase manufacturing in the colonies. By the end of seventeen sixty-nine, they had reduced by half the amount of goods imported from Britain. The colonies also began to communicate with each other about their problems. VOICE TWO: In seventeen sixty-eight, the Massachusetts General Court sent a letter to the legislatures of the other colonies. It said the Townshend Acts violated the colonists' natural and constitutional rights. When news of the letter reached London, British officials ordered the colonial governor of Massachusetts to dismiss the legislature. Then they moved four thousand British troops into Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts -- and the biggest city in the American colonies. VOICE ONE: The people of Boston hated the British soldiers. The soldiers were controlling their streets and living in their houses. This tension led to violence. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. ______ This was program #10 in THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Museum in Pittsburgh Gives Its Dinosaurs a Timely Makeover
* Byline: Also: A listener in Cambodia asks about the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. And music from a new album by Judy Kuhn, singing songs of Laura Nyro. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Judy Kuhn … Answer a question about the Space Race … And tell about a new display of dinosaur bones. Dinosaurs In Their Time HOST: Dinosaurs are not what they used to be, at least not at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Katharine Cole tells us about big changes in the museum's Dinosaur Hall. KATHARINE COLE: The Carnegie Museum has one of the largest collections of dinosaur bones in the world. The only problem is that the way they were presented all these years was wrong. Visitors might have come away with the idea that all dinosaurs were huge, slow moving creatures. But newer discoveries show that dinosaurs were generally smaller and faster than scientists once thought. So directors of the Carnegie Museum decided to rebuild the ten dinosaurs in their collection. And they added new ones. Andrew Carnegie, the wealthy businessman, built the Dinosaur Hall a century ago. He paid for a scientific trip that discovered a new kind of dinosaur. Those bones are still in the collection. But it was time to give the hall a makeover. Now, after more than two years and thirty-six million dollars, most of the work is finished. The museum opened its new exhibit to the public on November twenty-first. The collection is now called "Dinosaurs in Their Time." Museum officials say the aim is to show the great diversity of life that existed during the Mesozoic period. The dinosaurs are placed among examples of the hundreds of plants and animals that shared their environments. Officials say they wanted to show the way groups of dinosaurs really lived. The rooms in the exhibit hold plants and animals that existed more than one hundred fifty million years ago. And they show how some creatures evolved into animals that exist today. The new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh is three times the size of the old one. It will hold nineteen dinosaurs once the second part opens in the spring. The Space Race HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cambodia. Rey Sopheak asks about the history of the space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union. It began fifty years ago. In October of nineteen fifty-seven, the Soviets launched the first manmade satellite into orbit around Earth. It was called Sputnik One. Weeks later Sputnik Two was launched. Their success was a victory for the Communists. It added to the tensions of what was known as the Cold War, which many people worried could lead to nuclear war. And it pushed Americans to teach more science and math in school -- and to work harder to reach outer space. Three months later, the United States launched its own satellite. Then, in nineteen sixty-one, the Soviet Union sent the first person into space, Yuri Gagarin. American Alan Shepard followed less than a month later. Neil Armstrong took this picture of Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 mission to the moonThe race continued. The finish line was the moon. And it was reached when the crew of Apollo Eleven landed in nineteen sixty-nine. Americans returned to the moon five more times. No one has been back since nineteen seventy-two. NASA, the American space agency, hopes to send astronauts to the moon again by two thousand nineteen. That will be the fiftieth anniversary of the first landing. Today, there is cooperation between the Russian and American space programs. Astronauts and cosmonauts share duties on the International Space Station. And other countries are expanding their space programs. In two thousand three, China became the third country ever to send a person into space using its own rocket. Then, in two thousand five, it sent a crew of two on a five-day flight. Another manned trip is planned next year. And China launched a moon orbiter in October. Other active countries include Japan, India and South Korea. Some experts say that space exploration today should not be compared to the Cold War space race fifty years ago. Just this week, a Chinese official said his country's moon orbiter has no military purposes and that China supports the peaceful use of space. Judy Kuhn Sings Laura Nyro HOST: Laura Nyro was one of the most influential singers and songwriters of the nineteen sixties and seventies. Judy Kuhn is a Broadway singer who has performed on concert stages around the world. Their talents combine on a new album. Shirley Griffith plays some of the music. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Judy Kuhn has been nominated for several awards for singing in musicals on Broadway in New York. She has also performed in musicals in other cities, in concert, on television and in movies. Her new album is called "Serious Playground: The Songs of Laura Nyro." Judy Kuhn says Laura Nyro's songs live in a world where loneliness and loss exist side by side with joy in the pleasures of life. Here she sings "Sweet Blindness." (MUSIC) Laura Nyro was born in New York in nineteen forty-seven. She began writing songs as a teenager. Her songs combined the music of gospel, pop, soul, folk, rock and jazz. When she was nineteen, she released the first of four albums of personal and emotional songs. Judy Kuhn says this opened the door for female songwriters who at that time were not recording their own songs. Several of Laura Nyro's songs became huge hits when they were recorded by other performers. These include Barbra Streisand, the Fifth Dimension, Blood, Sweat and Tears and Three Dog Night. Here Judy Kuhn sings "Stoney End." (MUSIC) Laura Nyro died of ovarian cancer in nineteen ninety-seven at the age of forty-nine. Her music influenced many female singer-songwriters working today. Judy Kuhn recorded "Serious Playground" to honor the composer of these beautiful, sad and joyful songs. We leave you with "Save the Country." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our writers were Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. And please include your full name and where you are from. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sovereign Wealth Funds: When Governments Become Players
* Byline: Government-owned investment funds are estimated to control over $2 trillion in assets. Most funds are tied to oil money. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last month, America's biggest bank, Citigroup, agreed to sell five percent of its shares to the government of Abu Dhabi. The deal, worth seven and a half billion dollars, was another example of growing investments by sovereign wealth funds. These are owned by governments. They are separate from the holdings of central banks. Sovereign wealth funds are estimated to hold more than two trillion dollars. Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab EmiratesThe largest is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, established in nineteen seventy-six. The emirate does not say how much its fund is worth. Estimates are between five hundred billion and nine hundred billion dollars. Most sovereign wealth funds are tied to money from oil exports. Oil prices reached a record high near one hundred dollars a barrel in November. Oil is traded in dollars. And dollars have been flowing into Gulf economies like Abu Dhabi. But there is a limit to how much money can be pumped into an economy without causing inflation to jump. Brad Setser is a fellow for geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He notes that one problem facing these oil exporters is that their currency values are linked to the dollar, and the dollar has fallen. Oil exporters can use sovereign wealth funds to build up reserves of money to protect against a drop in oil prices. But a severe drop seems unlikely. So instead they are making foreign investments that they hope will pay good returns. Sovereign funds are known for highly conservative investments. But now some appear willing to take more risk. Not all funds involve oil money. A good example is the China Investment Corporation. This newly formed company is financed by selling government bonds and buying foreign exchange from the Chinese central bank. Much of the money in the China Investment Corporation is meant to provide capital for state-owned Chinese banks. The fund will also support the international expansion of state-owned Chinese companies. The fund is expected to reach a value of about two hundred billion dollars. Back to Abu Dhabi: Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries met there on Wednesday. They decided to leave OPEC production unchanged for now, but agreed to meet again February first. They also welcomed their thirteenth member, Ecuador, which rejoined OPEC in November. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US Intelligence Report Enters Into Debate on Iran Nuclear Issue
* Byline: American intelligence agencies say Iran halted a weapons program in 2003. But President Bush and some other leaders say Iran is still a danger. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Sixteen government agencies form what is known as the intelligence community in the United States. From time to time, this community puts together reports called National Intelligence Estimates that deal with foreign activities and threats. Parts are sometimes made public. Iran says its nuclear program is only for producing energy. A reactor building is shown at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2005.This week, officials released major judgments from a new report on Iran's nuclear activities. It says Iran operated a secret program to develop nuclear weapons but halted that program in late two thousand three. The report suggests that Iran did so mainly because of international pressure. It says Iran may be more open to influence than was thought. But Iran continues to enrich uranium for civilian use, the report says, and this could be used to produce weapons if desired. The report says Iran might have enough nuclear material to build a bomb in the next three to eight years, at the earliest. But it says Iran now appears less determined to produce nuclear weapons than was believed. The findings came as a surprise. A National Intelligence Estimate two years ago said Iran was working hard to develop nuclear weapons. President Bush said the report released Monday was the result of better intelligence. But he said nothing has changed. He said Iran is still a danger. And he urged governments to continue to pressure Iran about its nuclear activities. That the program was halted, he says, is not as important as the finding that it once existed and could be restarted. The report comes as the Bush administration has been trying to win support for new international restrictions against Iran. In recent weeks, the president has warned that the world cannot risk a nuclear-armed Iran, saying it could lead to World War Three. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the new American intelligence report a declaration of victory. He says it shows that Iran's nuclear program is for energy, not weapons. In Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak rejected the intelligence report. He said he believes it is incomplete and that Iran has restarted its nuclear weapons program. He offered no evidence, though. On Thursday, NATO foreign ministers expressed support for a proposed third set of sanctions in the United Nations Security Council. And, in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Iran is still a danger. Britain also says it remains concerned about Iran's nuclear program. But Russia and China have resisted further sanctions. Russian and Chinese officials say the new report will have to be considered in those discussions. Both countries, as permanent members of the Security Council, could veto any additional sanctions. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and MP3s of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Barbara Cooney, 1917-2000: She Created Popular Children's Books
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today,? Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. She died in March two thousand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. She wrote some. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. Her name appears on one hundred ten books in all. The last book was published six months before her death. It is called "Basket Moon."? It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in "Basket Moon" as quiet and beautiful. It says they tie together "the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft."? VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. One example is in her artwork for the book "Eleanor."? It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Miz Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details. Another example of her detailed work is in her retelling of "Chanticleer and the Fox."? She took the story from the "Canterbury Tales" by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England. VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. "How many children will know or care?" she said. "Maybe not a single one. Still I keep piling it on. Detail after detail. Whom am I pleasing -- besides myself?? I don't know. Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later."? Miz Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the nineteen fifty-nine Caldecott Medal for "Chanticleer and the Fox."? The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book, "Ox-Cart Man." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen forties. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard. The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. Thick black ink is spread over the clay. The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. With each cut of the black ink, the white clay shows through. To finish the piece the artist may add different colors. Scratchboard is hard work, but this process can create fine detail. Later, Barbara Cooney began to use pen and ink, watercolor, oil paints, and other materials. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney was born in New York City in nineteen seventeen. Her mother was an artist and her father sold stocks on the stock market. Barbara graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts in nineteen thirty-eight with a major in art history. During World War Two Barbara Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps. She also got married, but her first marriage did not last long. Then she married a doctor, Charles Talbot Porter. They were married until her death. She had four children. VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney said that three of her books were as close to a story of her life as she would ever write. One is "Miss Rumphius," published in nineteen eighty-two. We will tell more about "Miss Rumphius" soon. The second book is called "Island Boy."? The boy is named Matthias. He is the youngest of twelve children in a family on Tibbetts Island, Maine. Matthias grows up to sail around the world. But throughout his life he always returns to the island of his childhood. Barbara Cooney also traveled around the world, but in her later years always returned to live on the coast of Maine. VOICE ONE: The third book about Barbara Cooney’s life is called "Hattie and the Wild Waves."? It is based on the childhood of her mother. The girl Hattie lives in a wealthy family in New York. One day she tells her family that she wants to be a painter when she grows up. The other children make fun of the idea of a girl wanting to paint houses. But, as the book explains, “Hattie was not thinking about houses. She was thinking about the moon in the sky and the wind in the trees and the wild waves of the ocean."?? Hattie tries different jobs as she grows up. At last, she follows her dream and decides to "paint her heart out." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Of all of Barbara Cooney's books, the one that seems to affect people the most is "Miss Rumphius."? It won the American Book Award. It was first published in nineteen eighty-two by Viking-Penguin. "Miss Rumphius" is Alice Rumphius. A young storyteller in the book tells the story which begins with Alice as a young girl: VOICE THREE: "In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, 'When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.’ ‘That is all very well, little Alice,' said her grandfather, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' 'What is that?' asked Alice. ‘You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' said her grandfather. 'All right,' said Alice. But she did not know what that could be. In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework. And pretty soon she was grown up." VOICE ONE: Alice traveled the world. She climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. One day, however, she hurt her back getting off a camel. VOICE THREE: “'What a foolish thing to do,' said Miss Rumphius. 'Well, I have certainly seen faraway places. Maybe it is time to find my place by the sea.'? And it was, and she did. Miss Rumphius was almost perfectly happy. 'But there is still one more thing I have to do,' she said. 'I have to do something to make the world more beautiful.'? But what?? 'The world is already pretty nice,' she thought, looking out over the ocean." VOICE TWO: The next spring Miss Rumphius' back was hurting again. She had to stay in bed most of the time. Through her bedroom window she could see the tall blue and purple and rose-colored lupine flowers she had planted the summer before. VOICE THREE: "'Lupines,' said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction. 'I have always loved lupines the best. I wish I could plant more seeds this summer so that I could have still more flowers next year.'? But she was not able to." VOICE ONE: A hard winter came, then spring. Miss Rumphius was feeling better. She could take walks again. One day she came to a hill where she had not been in a long time. "'I don't believe my eyes,' she cried when she got to the top. For there on the other side of the hill was a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines!” VOICE THREE: "'It was the wind,' she said as she knelt in delight. ‘It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here!? And the birds must have helped.'? Then Miss Rumphius had a wonderful idea!" VOICE TWO: That idea was to buy lupine seed -- lots of it. All summer, wherever she went, Miss Rumphius would drop handfuls of seeds: over fields, along roads, around the schoolhouse, behind the church. Her back did not hurt her any more. But now some people called her "That Crazy Old Lady."? The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius had done the most difficult thing of all. The young storyteller in the book continues: VOICE THREE: "My Great-aunt Alice, Miss Rumphius, is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there are more and more lupines. Now they call her the Lupine Lady. ... "'When I grow up,' I tell her, 'I too will go to faraway places and come home to live by the sea.' 'That is all very well, little Alice,' says my aunt, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' 'What is that?' I ask. "'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.'" VOICE ONE: Many readers, young and old, would agree that Barbara Cooney did just that. VOICE TWO: Many of Barbara Cooney's later books took place in the small northeastern state of Maine. She spent summers there when she was a child, then moved to Maine in her later years. She loved Maine. She gave her local library almost a million dollars. The state showed its love for her. In nineteen ninety-six, the governor of Maine declared Barbara Cooney a "State Treasure." (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Adrienne Arditti was the storyteller. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Take a Deep Breath: Tips on Preparing for an Oral Presentation
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: English teacher Nina Weinstein joins us from Los Angeles for an oral presentation about oral presentations. NINA WEINSTEIN: "You know, some people will tell you, well, don't be nervous. I think that's kind of counterintuitive because you're going to be nervous -- you feel what you feel. But I think it's important to realize that everybody is nervous. And so I give students breathing exercises that they can do before the presentation." AA: "Talk a little bit about those breathing exercises." NINA WEINSTEIN: "There's a very simple breathing exercise you can do where you take a deep breath and hold it in your chest, as full as you can make it. And now push it down to your lower abdomen. "And I have my students put their hands on their lower abdomen so that they can feel the breath all going down to the lower abdomen. You're going to hold it to the count of ten, and then you're going to very slowly breathe it out through your nose." RS: "That's like my yoga class. This is the same thing I do in my yoga class. Similar." NINA WEINSTEIN: "And how do you feel now?" RS: "How do I feel? AA: "Lightheaded?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "No, but did it make you feel calmer?" RS: "Yeah, it relaxes you. I mean, proper breathing is good." NINA WEINSTEIN: "Well, it is, but they don't focus on this in classrooms necessarily, or in places where people are preparing to do presentations. So this is just a skill that they can use before the presentation. I also tell them to go off by themselves for a few minutes and just kind of center and focus on what it is they're trying to transmit to the audience. "A lot of times people are nervous because they're focused on themselves. And I tell them that's not the focus. When you're giving a talk, people are there to get the information and they may notice you for a minute or two. But as soon as you start to talk, if you're the authority, they'll forget about you and they'll just be listening to what you're saying." RS: "So we've taken a little hike. We've prepared ourselves -- " NINA WEINSTEIN: "We've come back." RS: "We've come back, we've prepared ourselves with breathing exercises. How do we get started?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I have students put notes on three-by-five cards, but I tell them that they're not going to be reading those notes. They're going to be just practicing those before the speech or before the presentation -- because, again, [you're] the authority. And if you're the authority, you shouldn't be reading. You should know what you're going to be saying. So they practice that. "And I also caution the ones who are doing PowerPoint -- and a lot of people really like to do PowerPoint presentations. And that's fine, but I caution them that the PowerPoint is the assistant. They're the presentation and so they should not be focused wholly on the PowerPoint. It should just be a kind of augmentation or help for the presentation." AA: "Well, this raises a question here, because I've sat through a lot of PowerPoint presentations and I've always wondered: are you supposed to read what's on the slide or do you just put a few words on the slide? I mean, what do you recommend for people to do with PowerPoint?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "What I've come to the conclusion of is that we shouldn't be reading on the screen, because if we're reading what's on the screen, we're not listening to the speaker. And so there should just be a few points on the screen. It shouldn't be mostly words anyway. Words can be said. We don't need the words on the screen. "One of my students gave a very effective PowerPoint presentation on robots and what robots will be doing for homeowners and elderly people in the future. And what he did was he showed a soccer game at a RoboCup international competition. And so that got the audience's attention, that was on the PowerPoint and that was really effective, because that's not something he could say as effectively as he could show." "Another example was a student who gave a presentation on E.Q., which is the emotional intelligence [quotient]. And so in order to get the audience involved in that, she gave a very short test in the beginning, of maybe five questions that we would answer. And based on our answers she told us how much E.Q. we had. And then she began her discussion. So something like that, that's an example that pulls us in, something we can do as the audience, something that's shown to us that helps us relate to the topic, and then the audience is yours from that moment on." AA: Nina Weinstein will have more advice about oral presentations a week from now. RS: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Archives are at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. CPF/AA/rs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More Money: Money Can Make People Do Strange Things
* Byline: Does money really make the world go round? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Many people believe that money makes the world go around. Others believe that money buys happiness. I do not agree with either idea. But I do admit that money can make people do strange things. Let me tell you about a person I once knew who liked to play card games for money. He liked to gamble. My friend Bob had a problem because he liked to gamble at all costs. He would play at any time and at any price. To take part in a card game such as poker, my friend would have to ante up. He would have to pay a small amount of money at the beginning of the game. Bob always played with cold, hard cash --only coins and dollar bills. Sometimes my friend would clean up. He would win a lot of money on one card game. He liked to tell me that one day he would break the bank. What a feeling it must be to win all of the money at a gambling table! Other times my friend would simply break even. He neither won nor lost money. But sometimes Bob would lose his shirt. He would lose all the money he had. He took a beating at the gambling table. When this happened, my friend would have to go in the hole. He would go into debt and owe people money. Recently, Bob turned to crime after losing all his money. In his job, he kept the books for a small business. He supervised the records of money earned and spent by the company. Although my friend was usually honest, he decided to cook the books. He illegally changed the financial records of the company. This permitted him to make a fast buck. My friend made some quick, easy money dishonestly. I never thought Bob would have sticky fingers. He did not seem like a thief who would steal money. But, some people will do anything for love of money. Bob used the money he stole from his company to gamble again. This time, he cashed in. He made a lot of money. Quickly he was back on his feet. He had returned to good financial health. His company, however, ended up in the red. It lost more money than it earned. The company was no longer profitable. It did not take long before my friend’s dishonesty was discovered. The company investigated and charged him with stealing. Bob tried to pass the buck. He tried to blame someone else for the deficit. His lie did not work, however. He ended up in jail. Today, I would bet my bottom dollar that my friend will never gamble again. I would bet all I have that he learned his lesson about gambling. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More People Hear Call of Mobile Activism
* Byline: MobileActive.org seeks to share knowledge of people using mobile phones to effect change. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Activists fight for different things. But one thing many activists around the world hold in common is their use of mobile phones as a tool for their work. In South Africa, for example, AIDS activists are using text messages to direct people to the nearest H.I.V. testing station. In Argentina, activists used their phones to get city officials in Buenos Aires to support a waste reduction campaign. Politicians are often a target of mobile activism. (SOUND) This is a ringtone popular among Filipinos in the last two years. It came, supposedly, from a phone call between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and an election official. Opponents said the call showed that she cheated in the two thousand four elections. The Philippine government said the call was recorded illegally and then falsified. These and other examples of mobile activism can be found at MobileActive.org. MobileActive describes itself as a community of people who are using mobile technology in their work to make the world a better place. So far, two thousand people have become members of the site. MobileActive.org offers free information about mobile-related tools and services. It also has resource guides on how to sign up voters, organize campaigns or raise money using mobile technology. Nokia, the mobile phone company, gave the group money to create its resource guides. Other partners have helped build its Web site and organize small training events. MobileActive hopes to hold its next meeting in July in Johannesburg. Katrin Verclas helped start MobileActive in two thousand five. She lives in New York but we reached her on her mobile phone in Amman. She was in Jordan for a meeting of nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups. They were discussing uses for mobile technology in observing elections. She noted that in many countries, mobile phones are the least costly way to communicate, and far more common than the Internet. More than three billion people worldwide use mobile phones. And Katrin Verclas says people keep finding new uses for the technology. The goal of MobileActive, she says, is to collect their stories and experiences and then spread that knowledge. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Quilt Exhibit Pieces Together a Story About American History
* Byline: The exhibit "Going West! Quilts and Community" shows the creative expression and skill of generations of women. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we visit a quilting exhibit at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Quilts are colorful bed coverings made by sewing together pieces of cloth into different designs. These finely crafted works of art celebrate the creativity and skill of generations of women. (MUSIC)VOICE ONE: The Renwick exhibit is called "Going West! Quilts and Community." It includes fifty quilts made from around the eighteen thirties to the nineteen thirties in the area of what is today the Midwestern state of Nebraska. Robyn Kennedy is the chief of the Renwick Gallery. She says the guest curator of the exhibit, Sandi Fox, wanted to look at the quilts that settlers in a certain area of the United States brought with them, then later made. Sandi Fox looked at more than two thousand quilts before she chose the ones to show. VOICE TWO: Starting in the eighteen forties, three major paths leading to the western territories of the United States ran alongside each other. The Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail and California Trail came together along the Great Platte River. This area by eighteen fifty-four was called the Nebraska Territory. Settlers in their wagons pulled by horses followed these trails to find land and create a new life for themselves. Some settlers continued on to areas further west. But others decided to settle in Nebraska. The Renwick exhibit explores quilts made by settlers and later generations of quilters in this part of America known for its severe winters. VOICE ONE: A few of the quilts in the "Going West!" exhibit were treasures that families brought with them from Europe as reminders of the life they left behind. For example, one family from Sweden who settled in Nebraska in the eighteen sixties brought with them a whole cloth quilt made from red silk. The quilt is remarkable for its richly detailed stitching. Looking at this quilt, you can imagine how the family enjoyed its warmth and beauty while building a new life in America. Robyn Kennedy explains how some quilts in the exhibit tell a story about the groups of people who settled in Nebraska. ROBYN KENNEDY: "Well, it really gives you an idea of the sense of community that these people had. Many of these were done as fund raisers for a variety of different projects. And sometimes they were auctioned several times. People would pay twenty-five cents to have their name on it, but then once the completed quilt was done, then that would be auctioned off." VOICE TWO: For example, one red and white piece called the "Omaha Commerce Quilt" was made in eighteen ninety-five by a women’s aid group at a Lutheran church. Local businesses bought advertising space on the quilt. Different women in the church group stitched each cloth advertisement. The quilt was probably set out to create publicity for the businesses that gave money to the women’s cause. It might also have been sold to raise more money. Robyn Kennedy points to a quilt that shows a community coming together for another reason. ROBYN KENNEDY: "This is an anniversary quilt for this couple, for their fiftieth anniversary, nineteen-oh-seven. But they first got married in eighteen fifty-seven. So this is their community celebrating." VOICE ONE: This shiny blue quilt with yellow stitching also represents a change in the technology of quilt making. One area of the quilt was clearly sewn by hand by different friends and family members of the married couple being honored. But the words sewn into the center of the cloth proudly announce that they were stitched with a sewing machine made by the New Home company. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Other quilts tell a story about an individual’s life. Edith Withers Myers made a quilt called "You Are the Darling of the Earth" in about eighteen ninety-eight. This crazy quilt is like a written journal of this young woman’s social life. Crazy quilts are a popular form of quilt design. There is no set pattern. A quilter can use her imagination to piece together cloth in whatever form or shape she wishes. Edith Meyers stitched onto her quilt words describing parties and dances she attended. She stitched in the names of her friends as well as popular slang words at the time, including "toots" and "buzz." VOICE ONE: For a quilt made in about nineteen ten, a woman named Azuba Read recreated the objects found in a hat maker’s store. She was a professional hat maker herself. She covered her spirited crazy quilt with flowers and feathers like the ones she might have placed on the hats she made for women. VOICE TWO: By definition, a quilt is made from two layers of fabric with a soft material such as wool or cotton batting in between. The two sides of fabric are sewn together to keep the filling from moving around inside the quilt. The stitches can be made in such a way as to form detailed patterns or designs on the quilt. A quilt made from a solid piece of fabric on top is called a whole cloth quilt. Patchwork quilts are made from many pieces of different colored fabrics that have been sewn together, or "pieced," in a design. Often the small pieces of fabric that make up the quilt come from old pieces of clothing. A quilter can also sew different pieces of fabric onto the top of the quilt to form designs. This method is called appliqu?. VOICE ONE: Quilting in general is not American. Through history, cultures around the world have created quilted coverings and clothing. But quilting in the United States developed qualities that are now very much American, such as patchwork. Quilts were more than warm protection against cold winters. Quilt making provided women with an important form of creative expression and invention. Quilting is also a social activity. Quilters come together at quilting bees to work on coverings together and to enjoy socializing. VOICE TWO: There are many traditional American designs that appear on quilts. These include the double wedding ring, bear’s paw and honeycomb patterns. Some patterns like the wagon wheel, log cabin and lone star represent the experiences of settlers on the American frontier. ? VOICE ONE: Quilt exhibits are very popular in the United States. The Smithsonian has had several quilt exhibits over the years. People enjoy the expressive colors and inventiveness of the art. And quilt exhibits are especially popular among the large and active quilting communities around the country. Every Tuesday and Friday, for the exhibit, several members of the Annapolis Quilting Guild set up their materials in the Renwick Gallery. The quilters are there to answer the questions of museum visitors and to show them how quilts are made. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One quilt in the exhibit tells a story about a life other than that of the person who made it. In fact, historians do not know who made "The Civil War Quilt." In eighteen sixty-one, a young soldier in the American Civil War was ordered to visit nearby farms and ask for warm blankets for the troops. One family gave Joseph Miller this extraordinarily detailed appliqu? quilt covered in red flowers and leaves. He kept the quilt throughout the war. It became black with dirt, but somehow remained in one piece. After the war, he cleaned the quilt and kept it with him for the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: Looking at the beautiful condition of the quilts at the Renwick Gallery, you might find it hard to believe many are well over a hundred years old. Robyn Kennedy explains that to help preserve the quilts, the Renwick shows them in rooms that have low lighting. The quilts are hung from the walls in such a way as to permit air to move behind them. Also, museum workers always wear white gloves when touching the quilts. The oils or dirt on a person’s hands could harm the cloth. Miz Kennedy says the museum sometimes has a problem with visitors who want to touch the quilts to look at how they were made. So the Smithsonian offers public "white glove" events where visitors can look up close at the methods used for each quilt. When the quilts travel, they are gently folded, wrapped in acid-free paper and placed in acid-free boxes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some quilts in the show are made from more unusual materials. For example, one is made out of the cloth from men’s suits. Another quilt, from nineteen thirty-five, is made from men's neckties. "The Holen Boys Ties Quilt" is made from almost one hundred silk ties. They form a striking pattern and radiate outwards like the rays of the sun. Robyn Kennedy says that ninety-three relatives of the Holen family plan to visit their ancestral quilt at the Renwick. VOICE ONE: The Holen quilt helps show that generations later, the personal stories and experiences captured by these skillful works of art are still powerful. The quilts remain as expressive and lovely today as they were when they first were stitched. VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. We also have pictures of some of the quilts in the exhibit. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Finding Ways to Deal With Harmful Algae
* Byline: Dangerous blooms are believed to be increasing worldwide, creating risks for sea life and people as well as economic losses. But not all ''red tides'' are a threat. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In the sea, at the base of what scientists call the food web, are single-celled plants. These microscopic algae provide the energy for the web that feeds higher forms of life. Algae-affected waters in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor in June, after a harmful bloom near the southern Chinese city of ShenzhenUnder some conditions, algae suddenly begin to spread very quickly, an event known as a bloom. Usually blooms are not harmful. But some kinds of algae produce poisons. These toxins can be deadly to sea animals and also dangerous to people. When algae bloom, they can discolor the water as they form dense areas near the surface. You may have heard the term "red tide." But experts at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts say this is incorrect. Blooms are not connected with tides. And they not always red -- the water can appear brown or greenish. And, in fact, some algae can be harmful without discoloring the water. So instead of "red tide," scientists use the term "harmful algal (al-ghul) bloom." Algal is the adjective form of alga, a single plant. But they also just say HAB for short. The toxins can very quickly kill fish, such as herring and anchovies, that feed on algae. But even if they survive they can be dangerous to eat. Not only that, bigger fish that eat the algae-eaters may also be dangerous. Some toxins harm only sea life. But others can cause severe stomach and intestinal problems as well as neurological disorders and even death in people. The only way to know if these toxins are present, unless people get sick, is through laboratory testing of fish and shellfish. Experts say the meaty or hard muscle parts of shrimp, crab, scallops and lobster are safe to eat because they do not absorb the poison. But people should not to eat the liver or other organs or soft tissues. Also, people should not eat other kinds of shellfish during a HAB. These include oysters, clams, mussels and whelks. In the United States, the government says harmful algal blooms cause more than eighty million dollars in economic losses each year. A government report in July noted that HABs are widely believed to be increasing worldwide. The report was the first step in a process to create a plan for predicting and dealing with them in American waters. In Florida, for example, satellites and computer models are now being used to provide algae forecasts that are just like weather reports. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For links to more information about harmful algae, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: In California, Wildfires Compete With Cars in Producing CO2
* Byline: Also: Using ultraviolet light to purify water. And advice for treating minor injuries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we will tell about an environmental study of the recent wildfires in California. We will also tell how some water-treatment products use ultraviolet light to destroy harmful organisms. And we offer suggestions for treating minor cuts and wounds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An air tanker drops fire retardant chemicals in Malibu, California, in NovemberAmerican scientists have been studying the effects of the recent wildfires in California. One study confirmed that large fires produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, a gas linked to climate change. It also found that such fires produce as much carbon dioxide in a few weeks as California's motor vehicle traffic does in a year. Vehicles, factories and power stations produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Such gases have been shown to trap warm air in Earth's atmosphere. Many climate scientists believe these gases are responsible, at least in part, for rising temperatures on Earth. VOICE TWO: The study used satellite observations of fires and a new computer program. The program created estimates of carbon dioxide production based on the amount of plants burned. The study estimated that fires in the United States mainland and Alaska release about two hundred ninety tons of carbon dioxide each year. That is about four to six percent of the amount of carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels like oil. The study found that fires are responsible for a higher percentage of the greenhouse gases in some western and southeastern states. Very large fires can quickly release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere. VOICE ONE: Christine Wiedinmyer works for America's National Center for Atmospheric Research. She developed the computer program to study the wildfires. Her estimates show the fires produced nearly eight million metric tons of carbon dioxide in just a one-week period. That is almost twenty-five percent of the monthly average production from all fossil fuel burned in California. Miz Wiedinmyer worked on the study with Jason Neff of the University of Colorado at Boulder. He says the recent wildfires in the United States partly resulted from a century of fire suppression. He says attempts to control fire have had the unplanned effect of storing more carbon in our forests and reducing the effect of burning fossil fuels. As these forests now begin to burn, that stored carbon is moving back into the atmosphere. Professor Neff says this may affect the current problems with carbon dioxide. VOICE TWO: The study found that evergreen forests in the South and West are the main reason for carbon dioxide emissions from fires. Fires in grasslands and agricultural areas have less carbon dioxide because of less plant life there. Generally, carbon dioxide emissions are highest during the spring in the southeastern and central United States. During the summer, the emissions are highest in the West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special ENGLISH. With Bob Doughty, I'm Steve Ember in Washington. (MUSIC) Viruses, bacteria and other organisms in dirty water sicken hundreds of millions of people every year. Yet there are many different water-treatment technologies available. Some systems use ultraviolet light to destroy harmful organisms. One product that disinfects water with UV light is called AquaStar, made by Meridian Design. The American company says most UV water-purification systems put into homes have one or more filters. These use carbon or mesh to catch impurities. The filters are added to improve the taste and smell of water. But the company says a complex system like this is often not needed in situations where the aim is just to make water safe to drink. VOICE TWO: The AquaStar device is a one-liter bottle with an ultraviolet lamp inside. The user pushes a button and the light goes on for about a minute and a half. Two small batteries provide power to the light. Two electrical engineers, Dan Matthews and Kurt Kuhlmann, designed the system. They brought it to market in January of two thousand five. Since then, they say, Meridian Design has sold about two thousand devices a year, at a price of eighty-nine dollars. VOICE ONE: Meridian's newest water treatment device is called the mUV ("move"). This micro-UV device floats and is small enough to use in a glass. It works like the AquaStar purifier but has a rechargeable battery. Dan Matthews says the mUV can be connected to almost any battery for enough of a charge to clean twelve liters of water. He says Meridian Design is currently supporting a project by the Mexican nonprofit organization Niparaj?. The group is producing containers that disinfect water with UV lights powered by the sun. The containers hold fifteen liters. The device is called the UV Bucket, and it won an award last year from the World Bank. Families in parts of Baja California Sur, Mexico, and in Guatemala are using it. VOICE TWO: Meridian Design is also working with several partners on a solar-powered version of its AquaStar purifier. This has already been developed and is now being tested. Dan Matthews says the goal is to be able to sell it at a low price. Meridian Design is also working with a partner to develop a different kind of solar-powered purification system. This one would make a chlorine-based disinfectant out of salt added to water. The goal there is to be able to store large amounts of water and keep it disinfected. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Finally, we have some helpful first aid information. First Aid is the kind of medical care given to a victim of an accident or sudden injury before trained medial help can arrive. First Aid treatments are generally easy to carry out. They can be taught to people of all ages. Learning them is important. Knowing how to treat someone in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death. VOICE TWO: Minor cuts are common and are usually not serious injuries. But they can become dangerous and lead to infection when left untreated. An increasing number of bacterial skin infections are resistant to antibiotic medicines. These infections can spread throughout the body. Bacteria can enter the body through even the smallest cut in the skin. Taking good care of any injury that breaks the skin can help prevent an infection. Medical experts suggest first cleaning the wound with clean water. Lake or ocean water should not be used. To clean the area around the wound, medical experts suggest using a clean cloth and soap. There is no need to use liquids such as hydrogen peroxide or iodine. VOICE ONE: It is important to remove all dirt and other materials from the wound. After the wound is clean, add a small amount of antibiotic ointment or cream. Studies have shown that these medicated products can aid in healing. They also help to keep the surface of the wound from becoming dry. Finally, cover the cut with a clean bandage while it heals. Change the bandage daily and keep the wound clean. VOICE TWO: As the wound heals, inspect for signs of infection including increased pain, redness and fluid around the cut. A high body temperature is also a sign of infection. If a wound seems infected, let the victim rest. Physical activity can spread the infection. If infection develops, seek the help of a medical expert. For larger wounds, or if bleeding does not stop quickly, add direct pressure. Place a clean piece of cloth on the area and hold it firmly in place until the bleeding stops or medical help arrives. VOICE ONE: Direct pressure should be kept on a wound for about twenty minutes. Do not remove the cloth if the blood drips through it. Instead, put another cloth on top and continue pressure. Use more pressure if the bleeding has not stopped after twenty minutes. Deep cuts usually require immediate attention from trained medical experts. Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years. A tetanus booster shot may be required if a wound is deep or dirty. To learn more about first aid, contact a hospital or local organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent society. There may be training programs offered in your area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Soo Jee Han and Jill Moss. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Erie Canal: How an Idea That Some Laughed at Became America's First National Waterway
* Byline: In 1825, the canal joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It made New York City a major port, but the effects were wider reaching than that. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. In the early eighteen hundreds, traveling in the United States was dangerous. Business and trading were limited. Then came the waterway called the Erie Canal. It helped build America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: July Fourth, eighteen seventeen, was a special day in Rome, New York. People there celebrated the anniversary of America’s independence from Britain. They also marked the groundbreaking for the building of the Erie Canal. When it was completed eight years later, the canal became America’s first national waterway. The Erie Canal crossed the state of New York from the city of Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany and Troy on the Hudson River. The Hudson River flowed into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. So the canal joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The canal made New York City a major port. VOICE TWO: The difficulty of traveling through the Appalachian Mountains had kept many people from going west. The mountains also prevented people in the West from sending their wood and farm products east. But the canal overcame the natural barrier of those mountains. It helped open the American West. The Erie Canal made the United States a richer and stronger young nation. VOICE ONE: Politicians, businessmen, farmers and traders had talked about creating a canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean for one hundred years. A lawyer and politician named De Witt Clinton finally succeeded in getting the canal built. As early as eighteen-oh-nine, Clinton saw the need for the canal. Then he had to defend his idea against people who laughed at him. Some critics called the canal “Clinton’s Folly” -- a stupid project. In eighteen twelve, the federal government rejected a proposal to provide money for the canal. But five years later, the New York State legislature provided more than seven million dollars for the project. The lawmakers named Clinton to head a committee to supervise the development of the canal. De Witt Clinton was elected governor of New York that same year. VOICE TWO: The Erie Canal was five hundred eighty-four kilometers long, more than eight meters wide at the bottom and one and one-half meters deep. It could not have been completed without the hard and dangerous labor of many workers. Historians say about one-third of the workers had recently moved to the United States from Ireland. They received about fifty cents a day for building the Erie Canal. The men used explosives to break the rocky earth. Many workers were injured. Many were infected with the disease malaria. Twenty-six workers died of smallpox. Some were buried in unmarked graves along the canal. VOICE ONE: A painting of Governor De Witt Clinton pouring out water from Lake Erie into the Hudson River Big guns were fired in October, eighteen twenty-five, in Buffalo, New York. The cannons were part of a celebration to observe the completion of the Erie Canal. Governor De Witt Clinton and his wife left Buffalo on a barge called the Seneca Chief. The boat moved at the rate of less than five kilometers per hour. It reached the Hudson River nine days later. To mark the arrival, Governor Clinton dropped some water from Lake Erie into the Hudson River. VOICE TWO: Within ten years, the Erie Canal had repaid the cost of building it. Transportation of products by canal was less costly than other methods.The waterway carried barges. Most of these boats had flat bottoms for carrying goods. The barges measured up to twenty-four meters long and about four and one-half meters wide. Mules and horses on land pulled the barges through the canal using ropes. Eighty-three devices called locks raised the barges on the canal by more than one hundred seventy meters from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Men and animals worked hard to pull the barges. A mule named Sal became famous in a folksong called “The Erie Canal.”?? Ken Darby and the Whiskeyhill Chorus sing about life on the canal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over time, the canal grew. Many improvements were made between eighteen thirty-five and eighteen sixty-two. But a few years later, the canal began to lose importance. Trains were becoming an easier and more profitable way to transport goods. As the Erie Canal was losing business, some of its levees began to break. Levees normally hold back the water, preventing floods. The breaks damaged the towpaths next to the canal and stopped travel. VOICE TWO: Age or heavy rains often caused the levees to break. But the breaks were not always an accident. Towns like Forestport, New York had been suffering from the closing of businesses. Then, in the last years of the eighteen hundreds, several area levees broke under suspicious conditions. Breaks in the levees should have been bad news for Forestport. Difficult repairs were needed. But few people in the town seemed sad about the breaks. Instead, many were pleased. Almost two thousand men were brought in to repair the damage. That was more than the normal population of Forestport. People crowded into places to eat, drink and play games of chance. The town had money again. Life became as profitable and wild as it had been during the best days of trade on the canal. VOICE ONE: The administration of New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt grew suspicious. Officials investigated. State officials charged several men from Forestport with plotting to damage canal property. Newspaper reporter Michael Doyle wrote a book called “The Forestport Breaks.”? He wrote the book after researching his ancestors who had lived in Forestport. Mister Doyle said he learned that his great-grandfather took part in the wrongdoing. At the beginning of the book, a farmer sees water flooding over a levee in Forestport. He warns local officials. His warning prevents more severe damage. But some of the townspeople do not praise the farmer for his action. Instead, Mister Doyle writes that they want to kill him. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-oh-three, some businesses were pressuring New York to build a whole system of canals. These people did not want the railroads to completely control the transport of goods. So the state formed the New York State Barge Canal System in nineteen eighteen. The Erie Canal became the largest part, linked to three shorter canals. The canal system stayed busy until nineteen fifty-nine. At that time, the United States and Canada opened the Saint Lawrence Seaway. This waterway permitted ocean ships to sail up the Saint Lawrence River and through the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal lost a lot of its business. VOICE ONE: But the Erie Canal and the other parts of the New York canal system got help. In nineteen ninety-one, people who cared about the historic canal held a big public event. The group is called Erie’s Restoration Interests Everyone. It made the same trip that had celebrated completion of the Erie Canal in eighteen twenty-five. As Governor and Missus Clinton had done, the group traveled from Buffalo, New York to the Hudson River. A man taking the part of De Witt Clinton dropped water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor. A few days later, citizens voted to take measures to re-develop the canal system. Today, barges still use the system to transport heavy goods. One estimate says the canal system carries more than four hundred thousand tons of goods each year. More than one hundred fifty thousand pleasure boats also use the system each year. VOICE TWO: Today, an area called the Canalway National Heritage Corridor contains parts of the Erie Canal of the eighteen hundreds. You can walk, run or ride a bicycle in this area. You can take pictures or study plants, birds and other wildlife. You can ride on the canal in a small boat called a canoe. Or, you can take a historic Erie Canal boat trip. Thousands of people do this every year. The boat moves slowly along the water. You can listen to guides tell about the animals and the men who pulled the barges. And, musicians play songs of the days when the Erie Canal was helping a young nation grow. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Fast Way to Make Yourself a Better Understood Speaker? Slow Down
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: More advice about giving oral presentations. Last week English teacher Nina Weinstein talked about ways to get mentally prepared. The most important part of any speech is you, Nina says. But for the audience, the focus is not you but the information they are there to get. And one way for English language learners to make themselves more understandable is to slow down. NINA WEINSTEIN: "You can't make your pronunciation perfect if it's not there yet. You need to take pronunciation classes or whatever, but you still have to give your speech. And so one of the most effective ways to be understood is to cut your speed in half. Whenever you're speaking to a group you have to slow down anyway, even if you're a native speaker. So that's one technique. "Another technique is to open your mouth wider. A lot of times students feel that they're pronouncing the 'th' sound or the 'w' sound or the 'b' sound fully, but in actuality if their mouths are not open wide, then maybe thirty percent of the sound is being trapped. And so just doing those two things makes it easier for the audience to understand you no matter what level you are." RS: "So how would you practice doing these skills? Basically what we've talked about is the end game, of actually making a presentation. How do you get there? How do you practice -- can you divide this up into bits?" AA: "Do you write out the speech word for word and try to memorize it?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "No, no, I don't encourage my students to do that, and none of the places that I've taught have encouraged that. If you write it out word for word, then what you're ultimately going to do is memorize it, and then you're reading. You just memorize something, and you're kind of giving that as if you're reading it. No, I have my students put it on three-by-five cards and just put lines as if they're outlining it, just put things that will help them with the sequence of it, so they don't forget something that they want to say. "As far as the actual practicing of it, they practice in front of a mirror, we practice in class. But one of the things that they should do that I think is really effective is to have someone videotape them. Because one of the issues about giving a speech is controlling your body language. "You don't want to stand like a statue, but on the other hand you don't want nervous gestures. I had a student who played with his hair the whole time, so that becomes really distracting and it focuses the audience's attention on the fact that he's nervous. "So if you videotape, you're going to see something like that. Or sometimes students will kind of sway back and forth a little bit or maybe they're holding the cards in their hands and they're tapping on them with their index finger, or those kinds of things that can be caught if they videotape." AA: "And kind of look back and forth across the audience as you talk, look in front and in back? What do you tell people to do with their gaze?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "They need to make eye contact. What happens sometimes is that students will sweep the audience but they won't go all the way to each side, so the people on the ends are left out. And that's how it feels as an audience member if the speaker doesn't look at you, you feel as if you've been left out. "So you want to make sure that you're looking at everyone. You don't have to actually look at them, but you have to look in their direction, so it feels like you're looking at them. In a small group, you actually will be looking at them. But let's say that you're speaking in front of fifty people or a hundred people. You won't actually be looking at each person, but you'll be sweeping the room so that it looks like you are." RS: "And just moving on beyond the classroom, how do you think that by doing these kinds of oral presentations in the classroom can help them with their English language learning outside the classroom?" NINA WEINSTEIN: "I think it can help them in every way. First of all, they get confidence because they feel what it is to be in control of English. I think when we learn another language we know that we're not in control. We're trying our best and we're juggling so many different skill areas and so forth. But the tricks that I teach them, the slowing down, the opening your mouth wider, if there's a grammar issue and people don't understand, you can go back to the basic grammar structure of subject-verb-object -- these are all tricks and tools for them to control themselves in English. "And so I think once they feel that, my students tell me that they apply it to their other classes, whether they're giving oral presentations or they're just expressing their opinion in a class. It's basically the same skill." AA: English teacher and author Nina Weinstein comes to us from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. Her books are available through Amazon.com. And you can find previous segments with Nina at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Want to Stay Warm in Winter? Think COLD
* Byline: Four steps to take to avoid frostbite and hypothermia. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Winter in many places means ice skating, sledding and snowball fights. But unless someone is prepared, outdoor fun can also mean frostbite and hypothermia. Today we talk about how to stay warm, dry and safe. Frostbite is damage that happens when skin is exposed to extreme cold for too long. It mainly happens on the hands, feet, nose and ears. People with minor cases of frostbite that affect only the skin may not suffer any permanent damage. But if deeper tissue is affected, a person is likely to feel pain every time the area gets cold. If blood vessels are damaged, people can suffer an infection, gangrene. Sometimes, doctors have to remove frostbitten areas like fingers and toes. Hypothermia happens when the body cannot produce as much heat as it loses. The condition comes on slowly. Signs include uncontrollable shaking, unusually slow breathing and difficulty thinking clearly. If not treated, hypothermia can be deadly. The best way to avoid cold-related injuries is to be prepared for the outdoors. Here is a simple way to remember four basic steps to staying warm. Think of COLD -- C.O.L.D. The C stands for cover. Wear a hat and scarf to keep heat from escaping through the head, neck and ears. And wear mittens instead of gloves. Gloves may not keep hands as warm because they separate the fingers. The O stands for overexertion. Avoid activities that will make you sweaty. Wet clothes and cold weather are a bad mix. L is for layers. Wearing loose, lightweight clothes, one layer on top of another, is better than a single heavy layer of clothing. Also, make sure outerwear is made of water resistant and tightly knit material. Can you guess what the D in COLD stands for? D is for dry. In other words, stay as dry as possible. Pay attention to the places where snow can enter, like the tops of boots, the necks of coats and the wrist areas of mittens. And a couple of other things to keep in mind, one for children and the other for adults. Eating snow might be fun but it lowers the body's temperature. And drinking alcohol might make a person feel warm, but what it really does is weaken the body’s ability to hold heat. Next week, experts talk about what to do, and not to do, to help someone injured by extreme cold. And that’s the VOA Special English Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3s of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: A Tea Party at Night, on the Road to Revolution
* Byline: Relations between Britain and its American colonies changed after the Boston Tea Party in 1773.? The colonists began to prepare to fight for their independence. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Today, we tell about the start of the American colonies' war for independence from Britain in the late seventeen hundreds. VOICE ONE: The road to revolution lasted several years. The most serious events began in seventeen seventy. War began five years later. Relations between Britain and its American colonists were most tense in the colony of Massachusetts. There were protests against the British policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament. To prevent trouble, thousands of British soldiers were sent to Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts. On March fifth, seventeen seventy, tension led to violence. This is what happened. VOICE TWO: The Boston Massacre in 1770, as drawn by Henry PelhamIt was the end of winter, and the weather was very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. (SOUND) Five colonists were killed. The incident became known as the Boston Massacre. VOICE ONE: The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers were tried in court for murder. Most were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament cancelled most of its taxes. Only the tax on tea remained. This eased some of the tensions for a while. Imports of British goods increased. The colonists seemed satisfied with the situation, until a few years later. That is when the Massachusetts colony once again became involved in a dispute with Britain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The trouble started because the British government wanted to help improve the business of the British East India Company. That company organized all the trade between India and other countries ruled by Britain. By seventeen seventy-three, the company had become weak. The British government decided to permit it to sell tea directly to the American colonies. The colonies would still have to pay a tea tax to Britain. The Americans did not like the new plan. They felt they were being forced to buy their tea from only one company. VOICE ONE: Officials in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New York sent the East India Company's ships back to Britain. In Massachusetts, things were different. The British governor there wanted to collect the tea tax and enforce the law. When the ships arrived in Boston, some colonists tried to block their way. The ships remained just outside the harbor without unloading their goods. Detail from 'Boston Tea Party' by W.D. Cooper, published in the 1789 book 'The History of North America'On the night of December sixteenth, seventeen seventy-three, a group of colonists went out in a small boat. They got on a British ship and threw all the tea into the water. The colonists were dressed as American Indians so the British would not recognize them, but the people of Boston knew who they were. A crowd gathered to cheer them. That incident -- the night when British tea was thrown into Boston harbor -- became known as the Boston Tea Party. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Destroying the tea was a serious crime. The British government was angry. Parliament reacted to the Boston Tea Party by punishing the whole colony of Massachusetts for the actions of a few men. It approved a series of laws that once again changed relations between the colony and Britain. One of these laws closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Other laws strengthened the power of the British governor and weakened the power of local colonial officials. In June, seventeen seventy-four, the colony of Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the other colonies to consider joint action against Britain. VOICE ONE: This meeting of colonial delegates was called the First Continental Congress. It was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September, seventeen seventy-four. All the colonies except one was represented. The southern colony of Georgia did not send a delegate. The delegates agreed that the British Parliament had no right to control trade with the American colonies or to make any laws that affected them. They said the people of the colonies must have the right to take part in any legislative group that made laws for them. VOICE TWO: As one of its final acts, on October 25, 1774, the First Continental Congress approved a petition to King George IIIThe First Continental Congress approved a series of documents that condemned all British actions in the American colonies after seventeen sixty-three. It approved a Massachusetts proposal saying that the people could use weapons to defend their rights. It also organized a Continental Association to boycott British goods and to stop all exports to any British colony or to Britain itself. Local committees were created to enforce the boycott. One of the delegates to this First Continental Congress was John Adams of Massachusetts. Many years later, he said that by the time the meeting was held, the American Revolution had already begun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Britain's King George the Second announced that the New England colonies were in rebellion. Parliament made the decision to use troops against Massachusetts in January, seventeen seventy-five. The people of Massachusetts formed a provincial assembly and began training men to fight. Soon, groups of armed men were doing military exercises in towns all around Massachusetts and in other colonies, too. VOICE TWO: British officers received their orders in April, seventeen seventy-five. By that time, the colonists had been gathering weapons in the town of Concord, about thirty kilometers west of Boston. The British forces were ordered to seize the weapons. But the colonists knew they were coming and were prepared. Years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about what happened. The poem tells about the actions of Paul Revere, one of three men who helped warn the colonial troops that the British were coming: (SOUND) Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town tonight Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light, -- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm For the country folk to be up and to arm." VOICE ONE: When the British reached the town of Lexington, they found it protected by about seventy colonial troops. These troops were called "Minute Men" because they had been trained to fight with only a minute's warning. Guns were fired. Eight colonists were killed. No one knows who fired the first shot in that first battle of the American Revolution. Each side accused the other. But the meaning was very clear. It was called "the shot heard round the world." (SOUND) VOICE TWO: From Lexington, the British marched to Concord, where they destroyed whatever supplies the colonists had not been able to save. Other colonial troops rushed to the area. A battle at Concord's north bridge forced the British to march back to Boston. It was the first day of America's war for independence. When it was over, almost three hundred British troops had been killed. Fewer than one hundred Americans had died. VOICE ONE: The British troops had marched in time with their drummers and pipers. The musicians had played a song called "Yankee Doodle."? The British invented the song to insult the Americans. They said a Yankee Doodle was a man who did not know how to fight. After the early battles of the revolution, the Americans said they were glad to be Yankee Doodles. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts government organized a group that captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York State. The other colonies began sending troops to help. And another joint colonial meeting was called:? the Second Continental Congress. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. ______This?was program #11 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Life on the Tenure Track: A Historian's History
* Byline: Second of two reports about salaries for professors in the U.S. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Now, we continue our discussion from last week about the pay for professors in the United States. We looked at the averages. Today we narrow that to one example. Andrew McMichaelAndrew McMichael is a young history professor in his sixth year at Western Kentucky University, a state school in Bowling Green. He started as an assistant professor, teaching seven courses a year. His starting pay was forty-three thousand dollars, plus benefits. These included health insurance for himself and his family, life insurance and a retirement plan. His position was on the tenure track. This meant the university would have to decide either to award him tenure, which provides job security, or ask him to leave. He requested tenure after five years. He had to present evidence of his research, teaching and service on committees. Teaching skills are measured through evaluations by students and observations by other professors. The research requirement includes publishing three articles or writing a book or translating a foreign work into English. Professors may think they have met all the requirements for tenure, but there are no guarantees. The process can seem mysterious and unfair. In recent years many schools have reduced their number of tenured positions. Doing that saves money and gives administrators more control. It also means greater competition for fewer jobs. Earlier this year, Andrew McMichael received the decision about his future at Western Kentucky. It was good news: he earned tenure. That meant a promotion to associate professor. It also meant a ten percent pay increase as well as a one-time payment for good work. He now earns almost fifty-eight thousand dollars a year -- not a huge amount, he admits. And he knows that even a starting professor outside the liberal arts, in an area like accounting, earns a lot more. He also knows that his school could hire someone to teach the same number of classes he does for about fifteen thousand dollars, with no benefits. But being a professor means more than teaching classes. Professor McMichael says tenure will mean the freedom to speak out and do research on whatever he wants. History is not his only interest. In the spring he will be team-teaching a class with a biologist on the history and science of beer and brewing. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Last week's report about pay for professors can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A First for Girls in This Year's Siemens Math and Science Competition
* Byline: Also: A question from Burma about the White House.? And music from the latest album by Melissa Etheridge. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some music from Melissa Etheridge … Answer a question about the White House … And tell about the results of a recent high school science competition. Siemens Competition HOST: Last week, the Siemens Foundation announced the winners of the Mathematics, Science and Technology Competition for high school students. The foundation created the competition nine years ago to improve student performance in math and science in the United States. It is open to any student who is a citizen or legal resident. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Isha Jain This year was a first in the history of the Siemens Competition. It was the first time females won the top prizes in both the individual and team competitions. The individual winner was Isha Jain of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She received one hundred thousand dollars toward her college education for her research into bone growth. The Siemens judges said she is the first to discover that bone growth takes place in many different short periods of time. They said her work was equal to that of a graduate student in college. Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff The top team winners were Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff of Plainview, New York. They are sharing one hundred thousand dollars for their college educations. They did research on the disease tuberculosis. They created a molecule that helps block drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria from reproducing. The contest judges said the students created new compounds to kill tuberculosis by targeting a protein that could lead to a new treatment for drug-resistant TB. The Siemens Foundation joined with the College Board and six universities to start the competition. The Siemens Foundation president says the number of girls entering the contest has increased each year. This year, more than one thousand six hundred students took part. Forty-eight percent were female. Experts from the universities judge competitions in six areas of the country. The individual and team winners from those contests then compete nationally. They demonstrate their projects to a group of university professors and scientists. This year, the judges were led by Joseph Taylor, a winner of the Nobel Prize in physics. As part of their prize, the winning students will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in February. The White House HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Burma. Tharr Naing wants to know about the White House, the home of the President of the United States and his family. This famous building is at sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue, in the center of Washington, D.C. The first American President, George Washington, worked with the city planner Pierre L’Enfant to choose the land for the new presidential home. A competition was held to find a building designer. Nine plans were considered, and the architect James Hoban won. Construction began in seventeen ninety-two. The first president to live there was John Adams. He and his wife Abigail moved into the White House in eighteen hundred. During the war of eighteen twelve, British troops burned most of the inside of the White House. James Hoban helped rebuild it. Over the years, each president has made changes or additions to the building. For example, the north portico area of the building was added under President Andrew Jackson. Presidents also changed the furniture inside to show current styles. The White House walls are made of stone that is painted white. But the famous building has had other names over time, including the President’s House and the Executive Mansion. In the early nineteen hundreds, President Theodore Roosevelt made the White House the official name. In the nineteen thirties, President Franklin Roosevelt decided to rebuild and expand part of the building that became known as the West Wing. Some of the public rooms in the White House are named after a color. There is the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room. In December, the White House becomes filled with holiday decorations, based on a theme. The subject of the Christmas tree decorations this year is National Parks. First lady Laura Bush thought of the idea because she hikes in the parks throughout the year. She says that the White House sent a Christmas tree decoration to each of America’s more than three hundred national parks. Different artists painted each ornament in a way to celebrate that national park. To see pictures of these holiday decorations, you can visit www dot white house dot gov. Melissa Etheridge HOST: Melissa Etheridge has been making rock music for twenty years. This award-winning performer recently released her ninth album called “The Awakening.”? It is Etheridge's first record since she discovered she had cancer in two thousand four. The songs express the story of her life and her spiritual sense of awakening after overcoming her sickness. Katherine Cole has more. (MUSIC) KATHERINE COLE: That was “California,” one of the first songs on the album. It tells how Melissa Etheridge left her home and family in the state of Kansas to follow her dreams of fame in California. Etheridge has said that she hopes listeners will take time out of their busy days to listen to her album from beginning to end. She says the songs tell a universal story about her political and spiritual beliefs and discoveries. The main influence for the album was her cancer. Melissa Etheridge believes the cancer gave her a new power and fearlessness. Here is the song “I’ve Loved You Before.” Etheridge imagines how she and the person she loves have searched for and found each other in past lives. (MUSIC) Melissa Etheridge is also known for her interest in social activism. She strongly supports the environmental “green” movement. She wrote the song “I Want to Wake Up” for former Vice President Al Gore’s movie on climate change called “An Inconvenient Truth.”? She also supports rights for people in same-sex relationships. And, in several songs on “The Awakening”, Etheridge expresses her political beliefs. We leave you with “Imagine That.”? In it, Melissa Etheridge criticizes the United States government’s policy over the war in Iraq. She praises the activist Cindy Sheehan whose son was killed in the war. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Helping Subprime Borrowers: Too Little? Too Much?
* Byline: How a private alliance brought together by the Bush administration plans to try to keep some people from losing their homes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Imagine that you want to buy a house but are not sure you could meet the monthly payments. Your credit history is considered subprime -- not good enough for the lowest interest rates available. But a broker who finds lenders for homebuyers offers you a deal. A loan with payments low enough to fit your budget. After two or three years, however, your payments will go up, possibly thirty percent or more. Do you accept? In the United States, an estimated two million subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are expected to reset higher in the next two years. These loans make up about seven percent of all mortgages. But now many of the owners are in danger of losing their homes because of rising payments. Last week, President Bush announced a plan to help some people with subprime loan troubles. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson brought together a new private alliance called HOPE NOW. He and other government officials met with lenders, loan servicers, investors and others to work out terms of the plan. The goal is to help families keep their homes -- and help avoid further injury to the already weak housing market. Lenders generally do not want to be in the business of selling houses reclaimed through foreclosure. The White House says as many as one million two hundred thousand homeowners could receive assistance under the plan. They could be helped in one of three ways, depending on their situation. One way is by refinancing an existing loan into a new private mortgage. Another is by moving their mortgage into a loan secured by the Federal Housing Administration. And the third way is by freezing their current interest rate for five years. The plan is only for loans that were started between January of two thousand five and July of this year and that have not reset already. Borrowers must be living in the home and facing a payment increase of ten percent or more. Democrats in Congress say the plan does not do enough to protect homeowners. Yet some critics say it does too much, helping people who borrowed more than they should have. Not only that, subprime loans were sold to investors worldwide as mortgage-related securities. Some investors could go to court to try to stop the loans from being renegotiated. But with the current troubles in the housing and credit markets, they may have to settle for whatever they can get. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Writers Strike Throws Shadow on Hollywood's Season to Honor Itself
* Byline: The main issue is payment for movies and TV shows that appear on the Internet. Producers say it is too early to know how much profit can be made from the Web, or how it should be divided. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Thousands of members of the Writers Guild of America and their supporters march in Los Angeles last month More than ten thousand film and television writers in the United States have been on strike since November fifth. Work has stopped on many TV shows and movies. The international market for American entertainment means that Americans are not the only ones watching and waiting for a settlement. This week, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced nominees for its Golden Globe Awards next month. This is supposed to be an exciting time in Hollywood: the awards season, leading up to the Academy Awards in February. But tensions are growing. The strike could continue into the New Year. Talks broke down a week ago between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The writers now accuse the producers of violating federal labor law by breaking off the negotiations. The producers rejected the charges. The most recent negotiations ended last week when the producers refused to continue talks until the writers drop several demands. Among these is a proposal to include writers of reality shows and animated programs in their union. But the main issue is this: Writers and producers have been unable to agree about payment for work that appears on the Internet. The download market for TV shows and movies is still small but expected to grow. No one knows exactly how much "old media" will move into new media. Writers want a share of the profits. But producers say it is too early to know how much profit can be made on the Web, and how that money should be divided. Their proposals would need to renegotiated in the future. TV shows are already competing for attention with Web sites and video games. Yet the strike could end up costing shows more fans. Without new material, programmers have to fill time with repeats and depend heavily on reality shows and game shows. The first programs affected were late-night shows. Without writers to keep people laughing, the programs immediately went to repeats. But now, Daily Variety has reported that some late-night shows may be returning by early January -- with or without their writers. After all, who wants old jokes from hosts like Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jon Stewart during a presidential campaign? The dispute may become even more complex once movie and TV directors begin their own negotiations with the producers alliance. The current contract between the Directors Guild of America and production companies ends in June. The directors decided this week to go forward with negotiations, but not until January. They say they want to give the writers and producers one last chance to return to talks. A writers strike in nineteen eighty-eight lasted twenty-two weeks. An entertainment industry strike affects a lot of people. Think of all the names in the closing credits of shows and movies. In Los Angeles alone, film and television production creates an estimated thirty billion dollars in economic activity each year. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007: His Books Combined Science Fiction and Humor With Social Criticism
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Kurt Vonnegut, a writer and thinker who shook up the country with his unusual writing style and subjects. He helped energize huge numbers of young people to protest the Vietnam War and to always question the powers that be. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It took Kurt Vonnegut about twenty-five years to write his most famous book, “Slaughterhouse-Five.”? It was published in nineteen sixty-nine. The book remains required reading in high school and college English classes across the country. It includes this description of the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany, by Allied forces during World War Two, as witnessed by a soldier named Billy Pilgrim: READER: “There was a fire-storm out there. Dresden was one big flame. The one flame ate everything organic, everything that would burn. It wasn’t safe to come out of the shelter until noon the next day. When the Americans and their guards did come out, the sky was black with smoke. The sun was an angry little pinhead. Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes.” VOICE TWO: Kurt Vonnegut, a prisoner of war like Pilgrim, witnessed the bombing of Dresden. The waste of human life and other treasures greatly angered him. His novels contain some of that anger. But Vonnegut always balanced his work with humor and the use of wildly unlikely events presented as normal. For example, in "Slaughterhouse-Five," Billy Pilgrim visits the make-believe planet Tralfamadore. He and a beautiful movie star named Montana Wildhack fall in love there in a clear ball of a house. They are studied by the Tralfamadorians and find happiness. Kurt Vonnegut compared the science fiction in “Slaughterhouse-Five” to the clowns in the plays of sixteenth century English writer William Shakespeare. Vonnegut believed such literary devices give the reader a rest before the story gets serious again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Kurt Vonnegut’s own life was also filled with tragedy and laughter. He was born in nineteen twenty-two in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father was a building designer. His mother was from an extremely wealthy family. She suffered from mental illness and unhappiness as a failed writer. Vonnegut said his mother would have periods of madness where she would emotionally abuse his father. Vonnegut said his father was the gentlest man on the planet. Edith Vonnegut killed herself on Mother’s Day, in nineteen forty-four. The act affected her son his whole life. In nineteen fifty-eight, Kurt Vonnegut’s sister and her husband died within two days of each other. Vonnegut and his wife at the time adopted the couple’s three children. VOICE TWO: Kurt Vonnegut was interested in writing from at least his teenage years. He worked on his high school’s newspaper. Later he studied at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and became an editor of that school’s newspaper. Vonnegut studied biochemistry. He followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Bernard, who was a scientist. However, Kurt Vonnegut was not a very good student. He left Cornell in nineteen forty-three and joined the army during World War Two. German forces captured him during the Battle of the Bulge in Western Europe. Vonnegut’s experiences as a soldier and the bombing of Dresden were among the major influences in his life. He was a pacifist, someone who opposes war and violence for settling conflict. He once said: “You can teach people savagery. They may need savagery, but it’s bad for the neighbors. I prefer to teach gentleness.” He was not always gentle on himself, however. He battled depression for most of his life. In nineteen eighty-four, he tried to kill himself by taking too much sleep medicine. He said later that children of a parent who committed suicide will naturally think of death as a sensible solution to any problem. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, Vonnegut married a childhood friend, Jane Cox. They moved to Chicago, Illinois in nineteen forty-five. They had three children. Vonnegut studied anthropology at the University of Chicago. He also worked as a reporter. Kurt Vonnegut also began writing short stories. They were published in literary magazines. In nineteen fifty-two he wrote his first novel. “Player Piano” was influenced by Vonnegut’s work at the power company, General Electric. Vonnegut said it was there that he got the idea of everything being controlled by computers. He told Playboy Magazine in nineteen seventy-three that it made perfect sense to have little clicking boxes, as he called them, make all the decisions for humans. But he said it was not good for human workers to be replaced by machines. Vonnegut said that he wrote science fiction because General Electric was science fiction to him. “Player Piano” describes a place called Ileum where the humans have surrendered to a computer. Writers of science fiction are often considered less serious than writers of other kinds of fiction. As a result, Vonnegut’s work was published in paperback and ignored by critics for several years. VOICE TWO: But people started listening more closely to Kurt Vonnegut’s literary voice in the nineteen sixties. There was great public anger and protest over American military action in Vietnam. Distrust for the United States government was growing. Young people and minorities especially were speaking up against America’s leaders and cultural restrictions. Vonnegut’s statements about America, its people and its leaders mixed perfectly with that atmosphere. His novels became favorites of many people involved in the anti-establishment, politically progressive movement of that time. “Cat’s Cradle,” published in nineteen sixty-three, is one example. It tells the story of a fictional scientist who helped invent the atomic bomb and something even more dangerous – a substance called ice-nine. “Cat’s Cradle” is an extremely funny condemnation of many things. These include the arms race at the time -- efforts by countries to increase their nuclear weapons. It also makes jokes about organized religion and the United States government. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-four, “Cat’s Cradle” won a Hugo Award for science fiction. Also that year, Kurt Vonnegut began teaching at the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. He was a professor for many years and taught English at several universities and colleges. He wrote at least fifteen more books, including non-fiction. One of those books was “Breakfast of Champions,” published in nineteen seventy-three. Vonnegut tells the story of a wealthy and crazy car salesman named Dwayne Hoover. Hoover reads science fiction books written by a man named Kilgore Trout. Hoover becomes more and more sure that the books are not fiction but reality. Here Kurt Vonnegut reads from an early version of “Breakfast of Champions.”? The reading took place in New York City in nineteen seventy. KURT VONNEGUT: "My name is Dwayne Hoover and I am an experiment by the creator of the universe. I am the only creature in the entire universe who has free will. I am the only creature who has to figure out what to do next and why. Everybody else is a robot. I am pooped. I wish I were a robot too. It is perfectly exhausting having to reason all the time in a universe I never made." VOICE TWO: Kurt Vonnegut and his wife Jane separated in nineteen seventy. Vonnegut married photographer Jill Krementz nine years later. They adopted a daughter. Vonnegut continued to be politically outspoken. He used the American political crime called the Watergate scandal in his novel “Jailbird.”? He was also an early environmental activist. He spoke often and loudly about the long-term dangers of fossil fuel use, pollution and waste of natural resources. Vonnegut also condemned the Bush administration and the war in Iraq that began in two thousand three. VOICE ONE: Kurt Vonnegut published his last book in two thousand five. “A Man Without A Country” is a collection of his opinions of many subjects, including issues in modern American society. ?He died in two thousand seven after suffering brain injuries from a fall in his home. He was eighty-four. Kurt Vonnegut’s children placed notes of thanks to his fans on the Vonnegut Web site. His daughter Nanny wrote:? “I am so sorry for your loss as well as mine.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Jim Tedder read the "Slaughterhouse Five" passage. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. You can learn about other famous Americans at voaspecialengish.com. And join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Money, Money, Money: Dinner Is on the House
* Byline: Working hard to bring home the bacon. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Most people enjoy working for several reasons. Their job might be fun, or they like their employer and the other people at work. Most people I know, however, work for the money. I do not know anyone who is loaded, or extremely rich. ?Most of my friends work to earn enough money to live. They have to make ends meet. ?They have to earn enough money to pay for the things they need. Some even live from hand to mouth. They only have enough money for the most important things. They struggle to earn enough money to bring home the bacon. ?It can be difficult to earn enough money for a family to survive. Sometimes, poor people even get caught short. ?They do not have enough money to pay for what they need. Or they have to spend or lay out more money than they want for something. When this happens, poor people have to tighten their belts and live on less money than usual. I hate when I have to live on less money. It takes me longer to get back on my feet, or return to good financial health. ? However, other people are on the gravy train. They get paid more money than their job is worth. These people make a bundle. ?They really rake in the cash. In fact, they make so much money that they can live high off the hog. They own the best of everything and live in great ease. Sometimes they pay an arm and a leg for something. Because money is no object to wealthy people, they will pay high prices for whatever they want. Sometimes, they even pay through the nose. ?They pay too much for things. I am not rich. I did not make a killing in the stock market when my stocks increased in value. Yet, I am not poor either. When I go out with friends, I do not want to shell out or pay a lot of money. Often, my friends and I will chip in or pay jointly for a fun night out. When we go to restaurants the meal is Dutch treat. Each person pays his or her own share. Once, the owner of a restaurant gave us a dinner on the house. We did not have to pay for our meals. ?However, I admit that we had to grease someone’s palm. ?We had to pay money to the employee who led us to our table. The money was for a special request. Yes, it was a buy off. The employee put us at the top of the list for a table instead of making us wait like everyone else. We had a great time that night and the meal did not set me back at all. ?I did not have to pay anything. Because of that experience, I will always remember that nice things still happen in a world that is driven by money. But, that is just my two cents worth. It is just my opinion. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Project Seeks Free E-Books for Colleges in Developing Nations
* Byline: The Global Text Project aims to fill a Web-based library with 1,000 textbooks. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Books are a high cost of higher education. But the Global Text Project hopes to create a free library of one thousand electronic textbooks for students in developing countries. The aim is to offer subjects that students may take in their first few years at a university. The books could be printed or read on a computer or copied onto a CD or DVD. Two professors in the United States are leading the Global Text Project. Richard Watson is the acting head of the department of management information systems at the University of Georgia. And Donald McCubbrey is a professor of information technology and electronic commerce at the University of Denver, in Colorado. Professor Watson tells us that the idea for this project goes back several years. He was teaching a computer programming class but did not have a good textbook. So he asked his students to each write part of a book that he would organize and edit. By the end of the term, Professor Watson had a finished product. Since then he has used it for other classes. Now, Professors Watson and McCubbrey are seeking volunteers to supervise the creation of books for the library. They are looking for professors or other professionals. The Global Text Project is similar in technology to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit on the Internet. But only one or two people will be able to make the final edits in texts. The project includes a committee of scholars, mostly from developing countries, to advise on required textbooks and their content. Globaltext.org has a link to the Prototype Global Text Library, with two books on information systems and economic analysis. Other free texts on subjects including linear algebra and oceanography are also available at globaltext.org. The group’s first book on information systems is being tested in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Professor Watson says the plan is to offer about ten free books within the next year, including an English grammar text. Project organizers also want to offer textbooks in Arabic, Chinese and Spanish. They are working with a translation company in the United States. And Professor Watson says students could also get involved. For example, a student learning English in an Arab country could translate part of a book into Arabic. Then another student and the class professor could check the translation. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For a link to the Global Text Project, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Getting a Feel for the Finger Lakes and Champlain, Not a Great Lake but Nice Anyway
* Byline: Exploring some of the lakes of New York state, including Lake Champlain. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, we tell you about Lake Champlain and the Finger Lakes in the northeastern United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Lake Champlain borders two states, New York and Vermont, and Quebec, Canada. Many people like to vacation at this freshwater lake. They enjoy sailing and fishing, water skiing, swimming, or just sitting at the water’s edge, daydreaming. The waters can look so still and blue, like a painting, though they can also become rough with waves when the wind blows. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? Much of the area around Lake Champlain has a country feeling. Nearby are woods where people can hike. In the fall, visitors can watch the sugar maple trees surrender their colorful autumn leaves. Many animals and birds live around Lake Champlain. Road signs warn drivers to watch out for moose, big animals that can walk into the road. Visitors at the lake also keep their eyes open for "Champ." Champ is like an American Nessie, the sea monster that supposedly lives in Loch Ness in Scotland. VOICE ONE: Over the years there have been reports of some thing in Lake Champlain. A nineteen seventy-seven photograph only fed the mystery. In the distance it shows what appears to be a large creature in the water. Champ can also be found helping the local economy by appearing on souvenirs like T-shirts and coffee cups. (MUSIC)?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ???????????? VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Lake Champlain is a long, narrow body of water. The lake is one hundred ninety-three kilometers long and nineteen kilometers at its widest. It reaches a depth of one hundred twenty-two meters. The lake flows north from Whitehall, New York. Over the Canadian border it makes its way into the Richelieu River in Quebec. The Richelieu joins the Saint Lawrence River which feeds into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Lake Champlain lies in a valley between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York. A number of communities are near Lake Champlain. The largest is Burlington, a city of thirty-eight thousand people in Vermont. VOICE ONE: Lake Champlain has more than seventy islands. One island in Vermont, Isle La Motte, is known for its prehistoric geological formations. The Chazy Reef on the island contains coral, like a reef in a warm, tropical ocean. Scientists say this is because when the Chazy Reef began to form hundreds of millions of years ago, it was in the southern half of the world. Then the plates that form the surface of the Earth began to move around and gave the reef a new home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lake Champlain is named for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain who first saw it in sixteen-oh-nine. In the seventeen hundreds, the Champlain Valley became a battleground in the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War. French troops in Canada built a fort to control passage to the lake as a defense against British troops moving north. The French named it Fort Carillon. But in seventeen fifty-nine, the British took control of the fort and renamed it Ticonderoga. Troops from the English colonies that would become the United States supported the British army in the war. But later, during the American Revolution, colonial troops fought against the British at Fort Ticonderoga. And later still, during the War of Eighteen Twelve, the Americans defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain. The defeat not only ended British demands for territory in New England. It also put an end to British hopes of controlling the Great Lakes area. VOICE ONE: The Great Lakes are Michigan, Erie, Huron, Superior and Ontario. Champlain is smaller than any of them. But in March of nineteen ninety-eight, it joined the list -- Congress declared Champlain the sixth Great Lake. This was because of efforts by Patrick Leahy, a senator who has represented Vermont for more than thirty years. Senator Leahy was trying to get research money for Lake Champlain from the National Sea Grant Program. This program operates under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The program pays for water research at universities that border either the oceans or the Great Lakes. So Senator Leahy got the words "Great Lakes including Lake Champlain" into the bill. Many people in Midwestern states that border the Great Lakes were not at all happy. John Glenn, the former astronaut who was then a senator from Ohio, put it this way: "I know the Great Lakes. I’ve traveled the Great Lakes. And Lake Champlain is not one of the Great Lakes." VOICE TWO: Still, there are similarities. Lake Champlain has wildlife and rock formations that are similar to or even the same as the Great Lakes. All six were formed from the same huge piece of ice. And all six flow into the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. Lake Champlain also has the same kinds of environmental problems, including pollution and nonnative sea life, as the Great Lakes. VOICE ONE: For people in the Champlain area, having it declared a Great Lake was great news. They saw it as a chance to get more help for the lake’s problems, and more national attention for the area. But the measure that declared Lake Champlain a Great Lake lasted less than three weeks. The angry reaction from the Midwestern states succeeded in killing it. Vermont, however, still won the right for its researchers to ask for money under the National Sea Grant Program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Grapevines stand empty of their fruit on a hillside overlooking Keuka LakeIn central New York state, there are five lakes that look like fingers on a map. Their names come from American Indian culture. Seneca. Cayuga. Keuka. Canandaigua, and Skaneateles. These are the five major Finger Lakes. Cayuga Lake is the longest among them. But Seneca Lake is the biggest and the deepest, at almost two hundred meters. Compare that to the nine-meter depth of Honeoye?Lake. Honeoye is among what are considered the six minor Finger Lakes in central and western New York. The others are Owasco, Otisco, Canadice,Hemlock and Conesus. VOICE ONE: Most of the eleven lakes contain cold water fisheries like trout as well as bass and other warm water fishing. The Finger Lakes area is home to industries and large cities like Syracuse and Rochester. But there are still many farms. And the area has a large number of grape vineyards and wine producers. VOICE TWO: Several colleges and universities are in the Finger Lakes area. They include Ithaca College, Colgate University and Cornell University. Cornell honors Cayuga Lake in its school song, which begins: "Far above Cayuga’s waters / With its waves of blue / Stands our noble alma mater / Glorious to view.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first people to view the beauty of the Finger Lakes were the Indians. The Iroquois believed that the Great Spirit formed the lakes. The Great Spirit was closely linked with nature. VOICE TWO: Science tells us that a large body of ice moved across the land. The last glacier covered large areas of what is now the northeastern United States about twenty thousand years ago. The glacier moved south and then north again. In doing so, it moved through many river valleys. It made the valleys deeper and wider than they were before. Then the ice started melting and moved north again. The glacier left huge amounts of soil and rocks in what scientists call the Valley Heads Moraine. A moraine is a landform created by all the material carried and left by a glacier. VOICE ONE: The Valley Heads Moraine prevented old rivers from flowing south, as they had before. This left the valleys filled with water. And this is how scientists say the Finger Lakes came to be. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Transcripts and MP3s of our programs can be downloaded at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Diabetes Is, How It Is Treated, and What You Can Do to Prevent It
* Byline: Learn about the different kinds of diabetes, and how exercise and diet may reduce the risk of developing type two diabetes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today, we tell about the disease diabetes. The United Nations World Health Organization says diabetes killed more than one million people around the world in two thousand five. The W.H.O. says the disease was also involved in many other deaths. It warns that deaths linked to diabetes are likely to increase by more than fifty percent in the next ten years without urgent action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Diabetes is the name for a medical condition in which too much glucose, or sugar, builds up in the blood. Diabetes develops when the body does not make enough of the hormone insulin or makes no insulin at all. It also can develop when the body is not able to use the insulin that is made. The body changes food into a sugar called glucose. Glucose enters the blood and is taken to cells in all parts of the body. Insulin helps the muscles, organs and tissues take in the glucose and change it into energy. VOICE TWO: The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. When too much glucose is in the blood, the pancreas produces the necessary insulin and sends it into the blood. The insulin reduces the level of blood sugar by letting it enter cells. Diabetes is present when too much glucose remains in the blood and does not enter cells. If the amount of glucose in the blood remains too high, it begins to damage the body. Over time, diabetes can cause blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage. High glucose levels in the blood also can lead to strokes and heart disease. Blood flow also is affected, especially in the legs. Often, victims of diabetes must have a foot or even a leg removed because of problems linked to the disease. Diabetes patients are more likely than other people to die of heart disease or kidney failure. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are two main kinds of diabetes: type one and type two. Type one diabetes generally affects children and young people. It results from a lack of insulin production. The exact cause is not known. But some experts believe the body’s defenses against disease for some reason destroy the cells that produce insulin. Signs of the disease may develop suddenly. People suffering from type one Diabetes may develop a strong desire for food or something to drink. Other signs are increased production of liquid wastes, loss of body weight, changes in eyesight and feeling extremely tired. People with type one diabetes almost always need daily injections of insulin. Diabetes patients must always know their blood sugar levels. When glucose levels are too high, they must use insulin to reduce them. Type one patients must inject insulin every day, often several times. Type two patients may use medicines that help reduce their glucose levels. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization estimates that about ninety percent of people with diabetes worldwide have type two. This kind of diabetes was seen only in adults until recently. It is now being increasingly seen in children who are very fat. Most people with type two diabetes are overweight and need physical exercise. Their bodies cannot produce enough insulin to reduce glucose levels in their blood. Or their bodies do not react correctly to the insulin being produced. Signs of type two diabetes are similar to those of type one. But experts say many people with type two diabetes have no signs. As a result, the disease may not be recognized until after the patient has already begun to develop medical problems. VOICE ONE: Steve Fuchs is a dental health expert who lives in Washington, D.C. When he was fifty years old, he became concerned about an unusual feeling in his feet. So he went to a foot doctor. The doctor said the unusual feeling could be an early sign of diabetes. He urged Mister Fuchs to seek immediate medical help. The foot doctor was correct. Steve Fuchs was found to have type two diabetes. Steve says he was not really surprised because his father and other family members also had the disease. VOICE TWO: Experts say genes seem to be important in the development of diabetes. They say that about ninety percent of those with type two diabetes have family members who also had the disease. In recent years, scientists have found several genes linked to type two diabetes. Some also are linked to being extremely overweight. Medical experts say people with type two diabetes can take steps to help their cells get more glucose from the blood. This can be done with medicine, increased physical exercise and dietary changes. VOICE ONE: Allison Brown is a mother of two young children. She lives with her family in Cleveland, Ohio. She discovered her extremely high blood sugar levels a few years ago after a blood test required by an insurance company. She had never experienced any signs of diabetes. Miz Brown says she was fairly surprised to learn the test results. But at the same time she was not shocked because her grandmother and great grandmother also had diabetes. Her doctor immediately treated her with medicine to reduce her blood sugar levels. She began exercising more and changed her diet. Today, Miz Brown takes medicine and eats no carbohydrates or sugar and not a lot of fruit. Carbohydrates such as potatoes, pasta and rice appear in the blood as sugar. And many kinds of fruit enter the blood as sugar. VOICE TWO: Allison Brown measured her blood sugar levels even more carefully when she became pregnant. She says pregnancy can be dangerous for a diabetic person without medical supervision. She visited her doctors often and had many tests. She also began injecting insulin instead of taking pills to control her blood sugar. She changed back to taking the medicine after each of her children was born. Miz Brown says it is important for people to measure their blood sugar levels so diabetes can be discovered before it begins to damage the body. She says diabetes changes your life, but you will be healthier as a result of medical treatment. VOICE ONE: Allison Brown knew she had diabetes before she became pregnant. But some women develop unexpected diabetes during pregnancy. This is called gestational diabetes, and usually disappears after the baby is born. Hormones produced during pregnancy slowly stop the action of insulin in the body. Usually, the woman's pancreas is able to produce more insulin to answer this change. If not, sugar levels will increase, and the woman will develop gestational diabetes. Treatment for gestational diabetes is similar to the treatment for type two diabetes: dietary changes and exercise. Some women also may need to take insulin. Medical researchers say gestational diabetes increases the risk of the developing child having diabetes later in life. Also, women who have had it are at a sixty percent increased risk of developing type two diabetes. But doctors say women can reduce that risk by keeping a healthy weight and exercising. VOICE TWO: Women who develop gestational diabetes know they are at increased risk for the disease. Others who get type two diabetes have no idea they may develop it. That is why medical experts say it is so important for people to get health examinations, because diabetes can be prevented. Doctors have identified a condition they call pre-diabetes. This is when a person has higher than normal levels of glucose in the blood, but not high enough to be considered diabetes. Doctors say people with this condition can reduce the chance of getting diabetes by increasing exercise and eating low-fat foods. At least two kinds of medicine have been shown to be effective in preventing diabetes in people with pre-diabetes. Doctors say healthy people should have their blood sugar tested every year, especially those with a family history of diabetes. That way, they will have a chance to change their medical futures and prevent or delay the development of diabetes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: When the END Comes: Fighting Exotic Newcastle Disease
* Byline: The infection spreads quickly among chickens and other birds and can cause huge economic losses. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Exotic Newcastle disease is a bird virus found in many parts of the world. Many kinds of birds carry it. But it especially affects chickens and a few others. It spreads very fast and there is no treatment. Many birds die without appearing sick. The infection does not present a serious health threat to humans. But economic losses can be huge as birds are destroyed and trade is restricted to contain outbreaks. Exotic Newcastle disease, also known as END, is the most severe form of Newcastle disease. Experts say the easiest way to prevent the virus is to import birds from flocks that are disease-free. Vaccines are also used, although experts say the virus may sometimes cause deaths even in vaccinated flocks. In the United States, the Agriculture Department says poultry birds are rarely vaccinated against the virus unless an outbreak happens. The most recent outbreak began in two thousand two in California. State officials said it cost more than one hundred sixty million dollars to fight. California was declared disease-free the next year, after the killing of more than three million birds. The Global Invasive Species Database says signs of the disease may appear from two to fifteen days after a bird is infected. An infected hen lays fewer or no eggs, or eggs with thin shells. A sick bird may develop breathing and intestinal problems and twist its head and neck. It may run around in circles or not move at all. Exotic Newcastle disease spreads fastest among birds kept close together. The virus is spread through bird droppings and fluid from the nose, mouth and eyes. To control outbreaks, experts advise quick destruction of infected flocks. They also advise limiting entry to farms and disinfecting vehicles as they come and go. People can also transport the virus on their shoes and clothes. The virus can survive several weeks in a warm, moist environment. And there seems to be no limit if it is frozen. But ultraviolet rays in sunlight can kill it. To reduce infection risks, the Organization for World Animal Health warns against keeping any pet birds on a farm. It even advises against hiring pet bird owners as farm workers. The Agriculture Department says Amazon parrots, for example, can spread the virus for more than a year but not get sick. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: For Art Lovers, Art Basel in Miami Beach Was the Place to Be
* Byline: Visitors could see art from 200 galleries representing 30 countries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we travel to the warm and sunny city of Miami, Florida to visit the largest modern art show in the United States. For the past six years, art galleries, dealers, and artists from all over the world have gathered for Art Basel Miami Beach. Many other smaller art fairs also take place around the city. For five days in December, these fairs in Miami become an important center of the art industry and market. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Art Basel Miami Beach is linked to Art Basel, a famous art show that has been taking place for over thirty-eight years in Switzerland. The Miami version of the show was held this year in the Miami Convention Center from December fifth to the ninth. Forty-three thousand people visited the fair, which included art from two hundred galleries in thirty countries. Walking through the fair is an exciting experience in which you are completely surrounded by art. You might feel like you are in a museum, but the artwork around you is all for sale. On the walls of the many gallery exhibition spaces, you could find works by some of the most famous artists in the world such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. There were also works by many important living artists such as Barbara Kruger, Anish Kapoor, and Damien Hirst. VOICE TWO: Modern art can take surprising forms. You are as likely to find videos, machines, or light bulbs as you are to find paintings and photographs. One unusual sculpture combined ice and sound. (SOUND) This sculpture is by American artist Kelly Nipper. Pieces of ice hanging from a metal form fell onto a surface similar to a drum instrument. The falling drops made a sound, which was then repeated much more loudly by a speaker device. VOICE ONE: You might even find a few pieces that do not at first seem like a work of art. For example, the artist Xu Zhen made an installation piece that looks like a modern food shop in China. The artist recreated boxes and bottles of common foods and drinks. He included lights and shelves for storage. There was even a woman operating the cash register where visitors could try to pay for goods. But all of the containers were empty. So the store became pointless. Xu Zhen makes an interesting statement about modern society and the culture of buying and using, or consuming, goods. VOICE TWO: Art that comments on the culture of consumption serves as a reminder that Art Basel is, after all, about business. Millions of dollars of art are bought and sold at this event. Many companies pay large amounts of money to help support the show and its many events and parties. For some collectors, buying art is more about making an investment than about having something nice to hang on the wall. VOICE ONE: The art market can be very competitive. Some collectors decide to “flip” art by purchasing art from a gallery at a good price. As the artist’s work becomes more popular, its price increases because there is higher demand than supply. Several years later, a collector can sell the same piece of art at an auction house where buyers compete to purchase the piece. The collector can then make a great deal of money. To fight this problem, art galleries can require buyers to sign an agreement that if they resell the art, they must first make an offer to sell it back to the art gallery. Some art collectors like the fact that they can get higher prices for their works in the competitive sales environment of an auction house. But for artists, higher prices mean their work is less likely to be bought by museums. And some artists would rather see their works enjoyed by collectors rather than treated like a traded object. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Art Basel may be the place to buy some of the most costly and famous art. But more than twenty other art fairs also take place in Miami at the same time. One of them is called Pulse Miami, now in its third year. This contemporary art show included works from eighty galleries in sixteen countries. The show takes place in the Wynwood area of Miami, which is filled with industrial buildings and warehouses. Helen Allen helped create Pulse. She says that in such a competitive area as the art world, Pulse helps support new and inventive art and programs that are separate from the Art Basel show. VOICE ONE: One striking artist at Pulse is represented by the Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York City. Mark Wagner makes extraordinarily detailed collage works. He cuts pieces of paper and sticks them with glue to a paper surface to create pictures. But the kind of paper he uses might surprise you. MARK WAGNER: "Hello, I’m Mark Wagner. I’m an artist based out of Brooklyn and I make artwork that’s made entirely out of the U.S. one dollar bill. I was making a lot of collage and realized that a lot of people were drawn to things that were familiar to them, so eventually ended up on? what’s the most familiar piece of paper in America, and it’s the one-dollar bill. Everyone has it in their hands all the time. And, I wanted to take that thing that everyone was familiar with and make something very unfamiliar out of it." Since the American President George Washington is on the dollar bill, many of Mark Wagner’s works show Washington doing different activities. In one work, he is cutting a cherry-tree while in another piece he is rowing a boat in a sea of dollar bills. VOICE TWO: Another gallery at Pulse called bitforms showed artists who make moving sculptures. One work by Choe U-Ram looked like a large metal flower that opened and closed. The work was as artistically interesting as it was mechanically perfect. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The NADA art fair is organized by the New Art Dealers Alliance. Galleries from Europe, Mexico, Japan and other countries come together in a building called the Ice Palace to show their art. For example, Rodeo Gallery from Istanbul showed the work of the Turkish artist Ahmet ?ğ?t. ?zge Ersoy works with this gallery. She explained that this artist's twenty-three drawings show different important artists, museum directors and art historians. With these works and others, he explores the power structures that exist within the art world. VOICE TWO: One gallery from New York City had a moving sculpture called “The Message” by David Ellis and Roberto Lange. You could hear the work before you could actually see it. (SOUND) “The Message” consists of a processor that controls a typewriter and a box of bottles and paint cans. The typewriter writes out the words of a song onto paper while a drum instrument hits glass and metal objects to create a beat. Listen as one of the artists explains more. ROBERTO LANGE: “My name is Roberto Lange. The piece is called “The Message” and it is based on the Grandmaster Flash song “The Message.” So, it types out the lyrics and keeps the lyrics in tempo of the beat. The piece was made by David Ellis and myself. David Ellis he put the whole sculpture together and did the whole concept and I did the musical composition aspect of it.” VOICE ONE: Other shows took place in more unusual settings. Fountain, a show with galleries from Brooklyn, New York, was held in a warehouse. If you were tired of seeing art inside, you could walk outside Fountain and see well-known graffiti artists creating spray-painted pictures on the walls. The galleries Aqua and Flow held their shows in hotels. And another group of galleries showed their collections on a boat called the SeaFair. This seventy meter long yacht was specially built to be an exhibition space. If you got tired -- or seasick -- from looking at art, you could rest at one of the restaurants on the boat. VOICE TWO: Philae Knight works for the New York art sellers Phillips de Pury and Company. She says that smaller art shows like Pulse and NADA allow experienced art collectors the satisfaction of discovering the work of artists who are not yet well known. And, she says that the shows are also great for beginning art collectors to find work they love at good prices. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Visiting Art Basel and the other shows was about more than just the art. It was also a good excuse for a party. Every day there were many social gatherings and concerts throughout the city. For example, the American rock musician Iggy Pop gave a concert one night on the beach. Another night, Busta Rhymes and Moby performed. And visitors could watch the artist Jona Cerwinske paint a picture in the swimming pool of the Delano Hotel. VOICE TWO: Art Basel and its satellite shows gave visitors an exciting chance to explore and discover every imaginable kind of art. Visitors got to experience the inventiveness, energy and creativity of art today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m ????Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. To learn more about Art Basel and see photographs of its galleries and visitors, you can visit w-w-w dot art basel dot com. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. --- Correction: Art Basel Miami Beach?was held at the Miami Beach Convention?Center in the city of Miami Beach, not at the Miami Convention Center, or the city of Miami, as reported in this story. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In Treating Hypothermia, Slow and Gentle Are Best
* Byline: Sudden movements of cold blood in the body can cause shock and a heart attack. Second of two reports. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. We talked last week about ways to avoid hypothermia and other cold-weather injuries. Today we are going to talk about emergency treatment. Hypothermia can be mild, moderate or severe. Mild hypothermia is something that most people who live in cold climates have experienced. You feel so cold that your body starts to shake, not very much but uncontrollably. The treatment for mild hypothermia starts with getting out of the cold, and changing into dry clothes if necessary. Drinking warm, non-alcoholic liquids and eating something sugary can stop the shivering. Taking a warm bath or sitting by a fire or doing some exercise can also help the body warm up. These are all common sense treatments. But the treatment changes when people enter the moderate or severe stages of hypothermia. Their body temperature drops below thirty-five degrees Celsius. They lose the ability to think clearly. Their muscles become stiff. They might bump into things or fall over objects. Adrienne Freeman is a park ranger at Yosemite National Park in California. She is part of the Yosemite Search and Rescue team. She says rescuers will first try to prevent additional heat loss by placing extra covering around a victim’s chest, head and neck. She says it is important to work fast to get people out of the cold and to medical help as soon as possible. But she says it is equally important to move the victim slowly and gently. Ranger Freeman says any rough or sudden movement can force cold blood from the arms, legs and hands deep into the warmer middle of the body. The sudden flow of cold blood can create shock, a serious condition. It can also cause a dangerously abnormal heartbeat. Adrienne Freeman says the process of "rewarming" a person needs to be done slowly, in a hospital setting. She says something else to keep in mind is that a hypothermia victim may seem dead but still be alive. An extremely low body temperature can cause the heart to beat so slowly that a pulse may be difficult to find. Ranger Freeman says members of search and rescue teams have a saying that victims are not dead until they are warm and dead. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. If you missed last week's advice about how to avoid cold-weather injuries, it can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US History: A Declaration for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
* Byline: A 33-year-old Virginia planter, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration of Independence in 17 days. America’s colonial leaders wanted the world to understand why they were rebelling against Britain. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION,?a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen hundreds. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Battles had been fought between Massachusetts soldiers and British military forces in the towns of Lexington and Concord. Yet, war had not been declared. Even so, citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight. George Washington's commission as commander-in-chief, signed by John Hancock and Charles ThompsonThis was the first question faced by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Who was going to organize these men into an army?? Delegates to the Congress decided that the man for the job was George Washington. He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. He was thought to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. Washington accepted the position. But he said he would not take any money for leading the new Continental Army. Washington left Philadelphia for Boston to take command of the soldiers there. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Britain. They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. The king would not even read the message. You may wonder:? Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight?? The answer is that most members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from Britain. They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British Empire. But that was not to be. VOICE ONE: Detail from a drawing made shortly after the Battle of Bunker Hill by British Lieutenant Thomas PageTwo days after the Congress appointed George Washington as army commander, colonists and British troops fought the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills:? Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston. Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill one night in June, seventeen seventy-five. By morning, the hill was filled with troops. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them:? Do not fire until you see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes. VOICE TWO: The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder. The British captured Breed's Hill. More than one thousand had been killed or wounded in the attempt. The Americans lost about four hundred. That battle greatly reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. And the Continental Congress approved a declaration condemning everything the British had done since seventeen sixty-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: General George Washington in 'The Prayer at Valley Forge,' painted by H. BruecknerThe American colonists fought several battles against British troops during seventeen seventy-five. Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. The colonists feared these soldiers and hated Britain for using them. At about the same time, Thomas Paine published a little document that had a great effect on the citizens of America. He named it, "Common Sense."? It attacked King George, as well as the idea of government by kings. It called for independence. About one hundred fifty thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in America. Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Continental Congress began to act. It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. On June seventh, delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution for independence. VOICE TWO: The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. Signing such a document would make delegates to the Continental Congress traitors to Britain. They would be killed if captured by the British. The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. One member of the committee was the Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. He had already written a report criticizing the British form of government. So the other committee members asked him to prepare the new document. They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. It took him seventeen days to complete the document that the delegates approved on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. It was America's Declaration of Independence. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jefferson's document was divided into two parts. The first part explained the right of any people to revolt. It also described the ideas the Americans used to create a new, republican form of government. The Declaration of Independence begins this way: ANNOUNCER: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. VOICE ONE: Jefferson continued by saying that all people are equal in the eyes of God. Therefore, governments can exist only by permission of the people they govern. He wrote: ANNOUNCER: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. VOICE ONE: The next part states why the American colonies decided to separate from Britain: ANNOUNCER: That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it. VOICE ONE: This is why the Americans were rebelling against England. The British believed the Americans were violating their law. Jefferson rejected this idea. He claimed that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. He and others believed a natural law exists that is more powerful than a king. The idea of a natural law had been developed by British and French philosophers more than one hundred years earlier. Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. In later years, however, he said he did not re-read these ideas while he was writing the Declaration. He said the words came straight from his heart. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second part of the Declaration lists twenty-seven complaints by the American colonies against the British government. The major ones concerned British taxes on Americans and the presence of British troops in the colonies. After the list of complaints, Jefferson wrote this strong statement of independence:?? ANNOUNCER: That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States they have the full Power to levy War, conduct Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. VOICE TWO: The last statement of the Declaration of Independence was meant to influence the delegates into giving strong support for that most serious step -- revolution: ANNOUNCER: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Shep O’Neal read the Declaration of Independence. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. ______This was program #12 in THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: College Athletes: Students First, Athletes Second?
* Byline: A rundown of the debate over the treatment of players in American schools. First of two parts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. One of our listeners has a question about college athletes in the United States. Amni Garcia in Mexico would like to know how much they study. Well, we suppose that like any other students, there are those who study a lot, those who study just enough and those who struggle. But this question touches on a hotly debated subject. Football great Joe Namath, right, graduating Saturday from the University of Alabama -- 42 years after he left to join the New York JetsCollege sports, especially football and basketball, are a big industry. Nationally rated teams and television broadcast rights can be worth millions of dollars. This could be seen as a good deal all around. Colleges invest in their players and, in return, the schools earn money and attention. The athletes often get a free education. And they gain experience that might lead to a chance to play professionally. But critics question the morality of a situation where college athletes may seem valued more as athletes than as college students. Praise is heard for recent improvements in graduation rates. Yet critics say that some players who finish college never really learn anything except their sport. Getting back to the question of how much college athletes study, a better answer would be: it all depends. The expectations and pressures on athletes differ from school to school and sport to sport. The National Collegiate Athletic Association governs college sports in the United States. For the past few years, this organization has been increasing requirements for student athletes. That includes high school students who want to compete on Division One teams -- the top division in college sports. College athletes are required to make continual progress toward earning their degree. New reforms aim to punish Division One schools that do not graduate enough of their athletes. Yet finishing college is not always a goal for students who are good enough to play professionally. Is this short-term thinking? A sports career may not last very long, or lead to the wealth and fame that young players may dream of. But there are always exceptions. Fans of American football may remember the retired New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. Last weekend, he graduated from the University of Alabama. He left that school forty-two years ago to play for the Jets. Now he is sixty-four, but he went back -- in part, he says, because he had promised his mother to finish his education. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Next week, more on the subject of college athletes. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Washington Crafts Show Brings Together Artists Using Many Different Materials
* Byline: Also: A listener in Burma asks how Americans celebrate Christmas. And holiday music nominated for a Grammy Award. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We listen to some holiday music that has been nominated for a Grammy Award … Answer a question about how Americans celebrate Christmas … And tell about a yearly craft show. Washington Craft Show HOST: Earlier this year, we told about the Smithsonian Craft Show that takes place in Washington, D.C., in the spring. This month, another yearly craft show was held in the city. Visitors to the Washington Craft Show could see the work of almost two hundred skilled artists from around the United States. The artists make beautiful works of art out of materials such as glass, cloth, wood, metal and paper. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The company Crafts America organizes three craft shows every year. The shows are in Westchester County, New York; West Palm Beach, Florida, and Washington, D.C. Every year, Crafts America appoints three craft experts to choose from among one thousand artists who apply to be in the craft show. The judges rate each artist on creativity, skill, and quality. Walking through the Washington Craft Show is an exciting experience filled with artistic surprises. For example, you might see basket containers made by Christine and Michael Adcock. These artists from the state of California weave together fiber material from plants. They create wildly unusual baskets in different shapes and earthy colors. Jeung-Hwa Park makes colorful scarves to wear around the neck. But her silk and wool creations are more like sculptures than just clothing. She forms the material to make small balls that almost look like bubbles. At the Craft Show, Miz Park hung all her scarves based on color. Her exhibit space looked like a rainbow of cloth art. David D’Imperio is an artist and inventor who works with light. His lights for the home combine the details of machinery with the forms found in nature. One light, called "La Brea," is made for placing on a table or desk surface. It looks like a small bending tree made from stainless steel. The branches of the tree have very small LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes. The La Brea light combines modern technology with the timeless beauty of trees. To see pictures of the work made by these artists and many others, you can visit www.craftsamericashows.com. Christmas in America HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Burma. Soe Lwin Kyaw asks how Americans celebrate Christmas, December twenty-fifth, the day Christians believe Jesus Christ was born. Not all Americans celebrate Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. But those who do celebrate Christmas do so in many different ways. Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. They have put bright colorful lights on the outside of their houses. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree, placing it in their house and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, the family will gather around the tree to open presents. Some people will travel long distances to be with their families for Christmas. But others will take a holiday trip to a warm area. Elizabeth Varela of McLean, Virginia likes to go to Florida with her husband and two little boys. But, she says, this year they do not feel as carefree about financial issues. She says they will stay home and save money. Most Christmas celebrations include some kind of gift exchange. Many young children believe gifts come from Santa Claus. Tradition says Santa is a fat, happy man who brings presents to children around the world on the night before Christmas. Some people pay little attention to Santa, however. Kris Solberg is director of a Baptist pre-school in Falls Church, Virginia. She says Santa is not a major subject in classes. She says she wants her students to think more about the birth of Jesus Christ. Santa Claus is also the subject of debate this year in the United States. The acting Surgeon General Steven Galson recently said the fat man is a bad example for children. He was speaking at a conference on obesity among children. His comments created much debate for and against fat Santas. Americans also continue to debate the appearance of Christmas traditions in public places. Some argue that such displays may offend or insult people who do not celebrate the holiday. And they say such displays violate laws that separate religion and government. But opponents say the United States is a majority Christian country based on freedom of religion. They say moves to restrict displays and traditions connected to the holiday amount to a “War on Christmas.” Christmas Music Nominated for Grammies HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has announced the list of nominees for the two thousand eight Grammy Awards. The ceremony will be held in Los Angeles, California in February. Barbara Klein tells us about some of them. BARBARA KLEIN: The Grammy Awards recognize excellent musical recordings and the people who create them. The award is a small statue that is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Recording Academy choose the best music each year. Awards are given for all kinds of music — popular, jazz, classical, country, rap and many others. Singers nominated for the Traditional Pop Vocal Album award this year are Michael Buble, Queen Latifah, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor and Bette Midler. Two of the nominated albums have Christmas songs. The first is "James Taylor At Christmas." Here is one of the songs on that album, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." (MUSIC) The other Christmas album nominated for a Pop Vocal Grammy this year is Bette Midler's "Cool Yule."? We leave you now with the title song. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Volunteer Experts Help Businesses in Developing Economies
* Byline: How a trip to Ghana added up for an accountant sent by the International Executive Service Corps. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Abe Mirza is an American, fifty-nine years old and retired. He was trained as an accountant. In fact, he has three degrees in financial record keeping. And he has over twenty years of experience as a business executive. After four years of retirement, he decided that it was time to give something back. On the Internet, he found an economic development organization, the International Executive Service Corps. This private, nonprofit group links volunteer experts and paid consultants with local business people in developing countries. It was established in the United States in nineteen sixty-four as a Peace Corps for businesspeople. In September, the International Executive Service Corps paid for Abe Mirza to travel to West Africa. He spent more than two months preparing for an intensive, two-week experience as a volunteer in Ghana. He went to Accra, the capital, to meet with bankers and businesspeople. From his early meetings he learned that the bankers wanted the businesspeople to keep better financial records. So he taught major accounting methods to eighty businesspeople. These were leaders of medium-sized businesses, like Home Food Processing and Cannery, a seller of palm oil and spices. Another example was All Pure Nature, a maker of shea butter for skin care and other products. The businesses were large enough to be ready to export their goods. But they had not reached the level of record keeping that would permit them to develop a lending relationship with banks. The owners all had the same need to understand international accounting rules. Accountants in Ghana and other countries are adopting a new system of financial reporting. Abe Mirza had to provide a lot of information. He says it was like learning everything for a four-year college degree in one week. He not only showed the businesspeople how to present financial statements. He also showed them how, and why, banks look at the information. Abe Mirza says he did a lot in his years as a businessman, but nothing compares to the feeling of satisfaction he got from his short time in Ghana. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. For a link to the International Executive Service Corps, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and MP3 files of our reports. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Two Years of Talks Lie Ahead to Write a New Global Warming Treaty
* Byline: Agreement reached at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali will launch negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gives a speech in BaliTen thousand delegates from one hundred ninety countries attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. It ended last Saturday with an agreement to begin negotiations for a new treaty on global warming. The new treaty will replace the Kyoto Protocol when parts of that treaty end in two thousand twelve. Most countries seemed pleased with the steps taken in Bali. The agreement is being called the Bali Roadmap. It took thirteen days to reach the agreement, one day longer than planned. A major area of dispute in the final hours was whether to include detailed goals for reductions in the release of heat-trapping gases. The European Union led a group of countries and environmentalists that wanted to include them. But a group led by the United States and including Canada, Japan and Saudi Arabia objected. In the end, the American delegation accepted a compromise. Emissions targets were made into a footnote at the end of the document. The road map calls for emission levels recorded in two thousand to be cut in half by two thousand fifty. But future negotiations will decide whether or not detailed goals are included in a final treaty. The next step will be two years of negotiations on a new treaty. Conferences are planned for Warsaw next year and Copenhagen in two thousand nine. U.N. climate scientists warned this year of the risk of disaster unless emissions are reduced sharply by two thousand twenty. The scientists say there is a danger of rising seas, severe droughts and extinctions of plants and animals. The U.N. scientists shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, the former American vice president. Speaking in Bali, he said the United States was mainly responsible for blocking progress at the conference. He spoke before the agreement was announced in Bali. In Washington, President Bush this week signed into law a major energy bill. Among other things, cars and light trucks will have to average five more kilometers per liter of fuel by two thousand twenty. The bill aims to reduce the nation's dependence on oil and to limit harm to the environment. But shortly after the signing, federal officials rejected a proposal by California to increase restrictions on vehicle emissions in that state. California was seeking permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to set pollution rules that go further than current federal law. But the head of the agency said the Bush administration is moving forward with what he called a clear national solution. He said this is better than if individual states were to act alone and set their own rules. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he plans to sue the federal government. The E.P.A. refusal also affects sixteen other states that want to set their own carbon dioxide limits on cars and trucks. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Words of 2007, From 'Surge' to 'Left of Boom' to 'E-Mail Bankruptcy'
* Byline: 

 ADAM PHILLIPS: Welcome to Wordmaster. I'm Adam Phillips sitting in for Avi Arditti and Roseanne Skirble. Today we look at some of the interesting English words that popped up in 2007. My guest today is author, editor and public radio host Grant Barrett. GRANT BARRETT: "And I am a lexicographer. That means I am somebody that compiles and edits dictionaries for a living. I specialize in new words and slang. It's the kind of stuff that most people don't know about yet but I'm there early. I hunt it down, I figure out what it means and then I put it into print."? AP: "Let's start with the serious stuff first. The war in Iraq has been foremost in many people's minds and I understand there have been some new words have come out of that. For instance, the word 'surge.'"? GB: "That's right. Surge was a term that came about, I think it was at the end of 2005. And what it meant was that the American government was going to send more troops to Iraq in order to better fight the war there. ?"And the troops themselves however it call it the splurge. It's kind of their way of poking fun at it. By splurge, they mean they are throwing a lot of money and a lot of resources and a lot of technology at a problem. AP: "What's boom? I understand boom is a word." GB: "Well, boom specifically, of course, is an instance of an explosion. So let's say an IED -- an improvised explosive device -- is a boom. But the way the government looks at it and the Defense department looks at that [is] you're left of boom. When you talk about 'left of boom' you talk about all the things you do in order to prevent those explosions or to prepare for them. And when you talk about 'right of boom' you talk about all the things you do after an explosion happens. And that means better hospital care or better methods of tracking down the person who caused the explosions."?AP: "Why 'left' or 'right' for those meanings?" GB: "Well, if you look at a timeline typically, what is to the left is always older and what is to the right is newer."?AP: "Of course, soldiers are always great at grisly slang. I understand there is a new word - meat tag." GB: "Yes, meat tag. Soldiers wear dog tags around their necks. These have their identification numbers on them and their names. Now some soldiers, because they are worried about their bodies not being recognized if they should die in an explosion, are getting their information tattooed on their body. It's put on their skin with ink." AP: "Elsewhere in the news, there has been a lot of talk about global warming, the environment and all that. I understand there is an interesting phrase that sounds sort of like global warming -- but isn't." GB:?"The phrase is global weirding. And I think that requires a little bit of explanation. By weirding we mean that the changes in temperature and changes in the environment are making animals do strange things. Like they will migrate differently or they will go to countries they never went to before. Others are dying off; others are thriving. We're getting strange storms in parts of the world that have never had that kind of weather before. Generally, it's very unusual patterns. And altogether, you can say it's weird or odd." AP:?"The bees. They may - or may not - be an example of global weirding right?" GB:?"Yes. This year, one of the terms that came about was colony collapse disorder. The beekeepers who keep bees in order to pollinate agricultural crops are coming back to the hives and finding them empty. The hives are just dying. And they are not sure why the bees are dying. It could be mites, which are very tiny little insects that inhabit the beehives. We don't know. Definitely weird."?AP:?"Now, money and computers are always a favorite theme. I understand you have a couple of words along that line." GB:?"Yeah. One of the terms I really like this year is e-mail bankruptcy. And I should say that this term, unlike the others, isn't necessarily brand-new, but what it is, it came to importance this year. It became really significant." AP:?"What's the 'bankruptcy' element?" GB:?"That comes from banking. When you are in debt and you can't pay it off you can go to court and say 'I am sorry, I can't do this anymore. I can't pay my debts. I am officially declaring bankruptcy. ?"And e-mail bankruptcy is when you have so much e-mail -- that is, so many digital messages -- that you can't handle them, and you give up. And you say to yourself 'I'm not even going to bother with these.' And you either delete them or you file them away and then you send a blanket response, one generic response, to everybody that ever sent you a message and says 'Look. If you didn't get a reply from me, you're never going to get a reply from me. I am declaring e-mail bankruptcy. It's done!'" AP:?"Now, on the other end of the gravity scale, we've got pap." GB: ?"Pap is short for paparazzi. Paparazzi is an Italian word that means photographers of stars and famous people. And they are like gnats. They are like bugs. If you're famous, they are constantly hovering around you and taking photographs. And taking photographs like that is now called 'papping.' So there is a new verb, to pap. which is to take a photograph of a famous person."?AP:?"Thank you very much, Grant, for talking to us. And I wish you a very great year full of lots of new words and great meanings!" GB:?"And global weirding to you, too!" AP: ?Grant Barrett is the co-host of "A Way with Words," a language-related public radio program and the editor of "The Double-Tongued Dictionary." For WORDMASTER, I'm Adam Phillips. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Five New Year's Resolutions for Learners to Improve Their English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker suggests five resolutions for people who want to improve their English in the New Year. LIDA BAKER: "My first resolution that I would recommend people make is to spend a certain amount of time listening to English -- and it can be five minutes a day or it can be 10 minutes a week or it can be whatever suits a person's work schedule, life schedule or whatever. But it's really important to set goals and to stick to them. And it would be very helpful if people had Internet access to do this, because what I'm going to recommend is listening to sites that have scripts included. " RS: "What do you do if you don't have access to a computer, how can you listen better? LIDA BAKER: "Well, almost everyone all over the world has access to pop music. And one of my resolutions would be to spend time listening to English music. The advantage of listening to music is that it's a really wonderful way to work on your pronunciation, because you get a feeling for the stress and the rhythm of the language when you're singing. And also music is full of idioms, so it's a terrific way to learn colloquial vocabulary and to work on your pronunciation. And a third advantage of listening to music is that it's really easy to remember. "So for people who have access only to a radio, even they can do something to improve their English just by listening to pop music. And I might add, if you do have access to the Internet, there are lots of Internet sites that will give you the lyrics to pop songs. Do a search, type 'music' or 'songs' plus 'lyrics,' and you'll find sites where you can type in the name of the song and it will give you the lyrics to the song. RS: "So spend a little bit more time listening, or have a goal for listening. Listen to English music. What else?" LIDA BAKER: "Something else I tell my students, and they're always surprised when I tell them this, is read children's books." AA: "That makes sense, though." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. Why do you say that?" RS: "Well, few words." AA: "It's simpler." RS: "Direct, simple. Lots of pictures." LIDA BAKER: "There you go." RS: "That puts it in a context." LIDA BAKER: "There you go. And the other thing is, you can find children's books at all levels. If you were a total beginner in English, you start with books that have just a few words on the page and lots of pictures, and you can work your way up to books that have relatively speaking more text and fewer illustrations. But again, children's books are very motivating. To this day I enjoy reading the books that I read to my daughter when she was a little girl." AA: "So now we've got the listening to the radio, listening to music, going online and looking for scripts of programs to go with the audio, reading children's books. What's your next resolution?" LIDA BAKER: "Learn a new word every day. And if you don't have time to do it every day, do it every other day. Again, pick a realistic goal. Choose your word, look up the meaning, but then don't stop there. Look at the examples in the dictionary for how the word is used. Is it used as a noun? Is it a verb? Is it used to talk about people? If it's an adjective, does it have a positive meaning or a negative meaning? So look for what's called the connotation of the word. And then, when you're sitting in your car, or you're walking to the bus stop or sitting on the bus, practice. Put the word into your own sentences. Think of ways that you could use that word. "And so now we come to our last resolution, which in a way is the most difficult one, because my last resolution would be, even if it's only very occasionally, talk to native speakers every chance you get." RS: Lida Baker teaches English and writes textbooks in Los Angeles, California. AA: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And Internet users can read and listen to all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Johnny Cash, 1932-2003: 'The Man in Black' Recorded More Than a Thousand Songs
* Byline: He recorded not only country music, but religious songs, rock and roll, folk and blues. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about world famous country music performer Johnny Cash. (MUSIC: "I?Walk The Line") VOICE ONE: That was Johnny Cash singing his first major hit record, “I Walk The Line”. It has sold more than two million copies since it was released in nineteen fifty-six. Music industry experts say Johnny Cash recorded one thousand five hundred songs during his life. He sold more than fifty million records. He recorded not only country music, but religious songs, rock and roll, folk and blues. Johnny Cash’s music could be as dark as the black clothes he always wore. Those songs told stories about poor people, outlaws, prisoners, coal miners, cowboys and laborers. He sang about loneliness, death, love and faith. He also sang very funny songs, like this one, “A Boy Named Sue.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Johnny Cash was born in nineteen thirty-two in the southern state of Arkansas. His parents were poor cotton farmers. He worked in the fields alongside his parents, three brothers and two sisters. He also listened to country music on the radio. He began writing songs and he performed on radio programs. After high school, he joined the United States Air Force. He served as a radio operator in Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen fifty-four and married Vivian Liberto. They moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He got a job selling kitchen equipment and went to school to learn how to be a radio announcer. Cash formed a band with two friends and performed at local events. They began recording for Sun Records in Memphis. One of the songs Cash wrote became the first country music hit record for the company. It was “Cry, Cry, Cry.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Johnny Cash continued to record on his own for Sun Records. He performed all across the United States and Canada. He also appeared on radio and television shows. His next big hit record sold more than one million copies. It was a hit for a second time in nineteen sixty-eight after Johnny Cash recorded it live at Folsom Prison. It was “Folsom Prison Blues.”? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen fifty-eight, Johnny Cash was a successful recording artist, songwriter and singer. He was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He performed his music in front of live audiences in the United States and in other countries. But he was often afraid to perform in front of a lot of people. He began using drugs to help him perform and quickly became dependant on the drugs. His serious drug problem caused the end of his marriage. Johnny Cash said he took drugs regularly for seven years during the nineteen sixties. Then he would drive cars and boats too fast and get into dangerous accidents that almost killed him. He finally decided that he needed to stop taking drugs. One of his best friends, country singer June Carter, helped him through this difficult time. The Carter family is considered one of the earliest country and western singing groups. Johnny Cash and June Carter recorded together. They won a Grammy award in nineteen sixty-eight for best country and western performance by a group. The song was “Jackson.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Johnny Cash and June Carter were married in nineteen sixty-eight. They performed many times with the Carter family. She also helped him re-discover his Christian faith. Years earlier, June Carter had written a song about her feelings for Johnny. His record of that song became one of his biggest hits, “Ring Of Fire.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Johnny Cash had his own television show and also acted in movies. He published two books about his life. He won many awards, including eleven Grammy Awards and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was elected to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Johnny Cash suffered many health problems as he got older. When June Carter Cash died in May, two thousand three, his friends feared the worst. But Cash decided to continue recording. He recorded more than fifty songs in the four months before he died on September twelfth, two thousand three, in Nashville. He was seventy-one years old. VOICE ONE: Fans say that Johnny Cash’s music was important because it told simple stories about life and death. They say he cared about social issues and continued to express support for those who are poor and without political power. One of the last songs he recorded was one made popular by the rock and roll group Nine Inch Nails. It is called “Hurt.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A reporter once asked Johnny Cash what he hoped people would remember about his music. Cash said he hoped people would remember that his music described the feelings of love and life. That it was different. And that it was honest. (MUSIC: "I Walk The Line") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawalay. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: White Christmas: One of the Best Loved Holiday Songs
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with a VOA Special English holiday program. (MUSIC) Music fills the air. Colorful lights shine brightly in windows. Children and adults open gifts from loved ones and friends. These are all Christmas traditions. Another tradition is snow. Christmas in the northern part of the world comes a few days after the start of winter. In many places, a blanket of clean white snow covers the ground on Christmas Day. This is what is meant by a "White Christmas." Of course, many places do not get snow at Christmas. In fact, they may be very warm this time of year. People who like snow, but live where it is warm, can only dream of having a white Christmas. American songwriter Irving Berlin captured these feelings in his song, "White Christmas."? It is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. The opening words explain why the singer is dreaming of a white Christmas. Most people never hear these words so they never really understand the true meaning of the song. Here’s how it starts:? The sun is shining. The grass is green. The orange and palm trees sway. I’ve never seen such a day in Beverly Hills, L.A. But it’s December the twenty-fourth And I’m longing to be up north. Up north, where it is cold and snowy. Not south, where it is warm and sunny. Over the years, hundreds of singers and musicians have recorded "White Christmas."? But the version most people still know best was sung by Bing Crosby. (MUSIC) Songwriter Irving Berlin was born in Russia in eighteen eighty-eight. He did not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. He was Jewish. (MUSIC) But his song celebrates an idea of peace and happiness that anyone, anywhere -- snowy or not -- can enjoy. To all of you, best wishes this holiday season from all of us in VOA Special English. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From Traditional to Modern, Sampling This Year's Christmas Records
* Byline: Songs from 10 holiday albums released in 2007. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. Music is traditionally a big part of Christmas celebrations. This week on our program, we have songs from some of the new holiday albums that came out in two thousand seven. (MUSIC)???????????? This is singer Patti Labelle with "Nativity." Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wrote the song and produced her new album, "Miss Patti’s Christmas."? So when is a Christmas album not just a Christmas album? When it is also the top selling album on pop music charts: Josh Groban’s "Noel." Here is Josh Groban singing "I’ll Be Home For Christmas." (MUSIC) Another singer with a new holiday album is Michael Buble. Here he is with the title song from "Let It Snow." (MUSIC) From "Let It Snow" we move on to "Snow Angel," the new album from the husband-and-wife team of Over the Rhine. Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist wrote most of the songs on their new album. And even traditional Christmas songs like "O Little Town of Bethlehem" get surprise elements. Here is their version, called "Little Town." (MUSIC) Fans of the rock band the Smithereens can dance to the songs on their new release, "Christmas With the Smithereens." Here is "Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree." (MUSIC) The Isley Brothers Featuring Ronald Isley add a touch of romance to the season with their new album, "I’ll Be Home for Christmas." The Isleys have performed since the nineteen fifties, but this is their first holiday album. Here is "Winter Wonderland." (MUSIC) Among this year's Christmas albums, "My Holiday" from Mindy Smith might be the prettiest and it might be the best. This was the opinion of a New York Times critic. The recording artist Chely Wright wrote several of the songs. Mindy Smith wrote several others, including the title track. (MUSIC) Fans of traditional holiday music with a country feel could find lots of it on "A Classic Christmas" from Toby Keith. This two-disc set includes "Little Drummer Boy." (MUSIC) For a less traditional country Christmas, there is Raul Malo's "Marshmallow World and Other Holiday Favorites." Here is his version of the Spanish Christmas song "Feliz Navidad." (MUSIC) Our show was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English, on the radio or at voaspecialenglish.com. We leave you with a new version of one of the most popular holiday songs on American radio. Here is Johnny Mathis singing "The Christmas Song" on the new Mannheim Steamroller album, simply called "Christmas." (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Do-It-Yourself: Preparing Fish for Drying or Smoking
* Byline: Rule number one: begin with fish that are just out of the water. First of two parts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Canning and freezing are not the only ways to keep fish for future use. Today we have the first of two reports describing, step by step, how to prepare dried or smoked fish. Begin with fish that are just out of the water. If the fish are small, leave their heads on. Cut off the heads if the fish are longer than twenty centimeters or weigh more than one hundred fifteen grams. Now clean the freshly caught fish. Cut off the scales and cut open the stomach. Remove everything inside. Then wash the fish in clean water and rub salt into them. Next, put the fish in a container with a solution of three hundred grams of salt and one liter of water. This will remove the blood from the meat. Keep the fish in the salt water for about thirty minutes. Then remove them and wash them in clean water. Now, put the fish in a solution that has more salt in the water. It should be salty enough so that the fish float to the top. If the fish sink to the bottom, add more salt to the water in the container. Cover the container with a clean piece of wood. Hold the wood down with a heavy stone. Leave the fish there for about six hours. After that, remove them from the salt water and place them on a clean surface. Cover the fish with a clean piece of white cloth and let them dry. But we are not done yet. We will discuss the next steps in drying fish next week. We will also describe the smoking process. Another method of preparing fish is called dry salting. Wooden boxes or baskets are used for dry salting. After cleaning the fish, put a few of them on the bottom of the box or basket. Cover them with salt. Put more fish on top. Cover them with salt too. Continue putting fish and salt in the container until it is full. Do not use too much salt when using the dry salting method. You should use one part salt to three parts fish. For example, if you have three kilograms of fish, you should use one kilogram of salt. Remove the fish after a week or ten days. Wash them in a mixture of water and a small amount of salt and let them dry. We have talked a lot about salt. Keep in mind that doctors advise people to limit the sodium in their diet. It can raise blood pressure, and some people have more of a reaction than others.And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Christmas With the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
* Byline: Music has always been an important part of the holiday. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: I’m Shirley Griffith with a VOA Special English program for the Christmas holiday. Christians around the world are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In the United States, people are observing the Christmas holiday in homes and religious centers. Music has always been an important part of Christmas. Holiday music fills the air. Today, we will hear a program of Christmas music performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (MUSIC) HOST: That was the?Mormon Tabernacle Choir?with “Joy To the World.”? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is one of the largest singing groups in the world. It has more than three hundred singers. (MUSIC) The members of the choir offer their time and skills without payment. All choir members are Mormons who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many Christmas songs sound most beautiful when sung by a large group. Here is the choir performing a Ukrainian song, “Carol of the Bells.” (MUSIC) HOST: “Silent Night” is perhaps the best known of all Christmas songs. An Austrian clergyman named Joseph Mohr wrote the words. His friend Franz Gruber wrote the music. The song was performed for the first time at a religious service on the night before Christmas in eighteen eighteen. At that time, it was performed with a single musical instrument -- a guitar. Here are the men of the Tabernacle Choir with “Silent Night.” (MUSIC) HOST: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is based at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. The choir made its first recording in nineteen ten. Since then, it has made more than one hundred fifty recordings. One recording of holiday music is called “A Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas.”? You are listening to music from that recording. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Shirley Griffith. We hope you enjoyed our program of Christmas music. This program was written and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Greg Burns. All of us in Special English wish you a very happy holiday season. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Special Trees and Plants Are Part of the Christmas Tradition
* Byline: Evergreen trees, mistletoe and poinsettias brighten the holiday. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. December twenty-fifth is Christmas. The holiday has many traditions. Some special trees and plants are part of the Christmas tradition. One of the most popular is the evergreen tree. It is usually a pine or a fir. It remains green during the cold, dark months of winter in the northern part of the world.Many people buy an evergreen tree for Christmas.They put it in their house and hang small lights and colorful objects on its branches. Some people buy living trees and plant them after the Christmas holiday.Others cut down a tree or buy a cut tree. Another popular evergreen plant is mistletoe. It has small white berries and leaves that feel like leather. The traditional Christmas mistletoe is native to Europe.Mistletoe is a parasite plant. It grows by connecting itself to a tree and stealing the tree's food and water. It can be found on apple trees, lindens, maples and poplars. Priests of the Druid religion of ancient Britain and France believed mistletoe had magical powers. Today, some people hang mistletoe in a doorway at Christmas time. If you meet someone under the mistletoe, tradition gives you permission to kiss that person. One of the most popular plants at Christmas is the poinsettia. These plants are valued for their colorful bracts, which look like leaves. Most poinsettias are bright red. But they also can be white or pink. Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They are named after America's first ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett. He liked the plant and sent some back to the United States. Many people believe that poinsettias are poisonous. But researchers say this is not true. They say the milky liquid in the plant's stem can cause a person's skin to become red. If children or animals eat the leaves they may become sick, but they will not die. Two thick, sticky substances from trees have been part of Christmas from the beginning. They are frankincense and myrrh. Both have powerful, pleasant smells. Tradition says three wise men carried them as gifts to the Christ child in Bethlehem. Finally, there are several herbs used in Christmas foods, drinks and decorations. One is sage. Its leaves are cooked with turkey or goose. ?And sweet-smelling rosemary plants are hung on doors or cut to look like little Christmas trees. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. We wish all of our listeners happy holidays. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Taking the Pulse of Public Opinion About Health Problems
* Byline: Researchers asked people in 47 countries to rate public health issues and the efforts of donor nations. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. What do you think of health in your country? Researchers asked people in forty-seven countries around the world. They also asked them what they think of the efforts of donor nations. The findings are in the new Kaiser/Pew Global Health Survey. Majorities in almost every country said wealthier nations are not doing enough to help poorer ones. That includes help with economic development, reducing poverty and improving health. But in countries that receive the most development aid, people were much more likely to say that wealthy nations are doing enough. And in wealthier nations, there was strong support to do more to help. The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Global Attitudes Project did the survey. The top health concern in the Latin American and Middle Eastern countries in the survey was fighting hunger and poor nutrition. In Central and Eastern Europe, people said they worry most about their ability to get health care. And in parts of Africa and Asia, the most pressing health issue is preventing and treating H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. In some countries, large majorities said AIDS is a bigger problem now than it was five years ago. But in most countries, the survey found a strong sense of progress in treating and preventing H.I.V. Yet finding new drugs and other treatments for public health problems is one thing. Putting them to use in developing countries where they could save thousands of lives each day is another. Scientists at the Fogarty International Center in Maryland say more work in the area of implementation science could bridge the problem. Karen Hofman is head of international science policy at the center, part of the National Institutes of Health. She describes implementation science as the next level for health research. One example she notes is male circumcision. Studies have found that it may help prevent the spread of H.I.V. But different cultures react differently to the idea of circumcision. Doctor Hofman says researchers must now study how best to employ this medical intervention in culturally sensitive ways. Another example is drugs that are normally effective in suppressing H.I.V. In poor countries, these might not work in patients who also suffer from malaria, tuberculosis or bad nutrition. In other words, Doctor Hofman says, when it comes to treatments, one size does not fit all. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Protecting Native American Languages and Culture
* Byline: The last of our four-part series on keeping traditions alive. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This is the last in our series of reports about efforts to keep traditional ways alive. Today we tell about attempts to preserve Native American cultures and languages. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In December two thousand six, the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act became an American law. United States Representative Heather Wilson of New Mexico wrote the bill to help stop American Indian languages from disappearing. She says languages are an important part of American heritage and, once lost, will never be recovered. The purpose of the law is to help keep Native American languages alive through language immersion programs. In immersion programs, the native language is used most of the time to teach different subjects and to communicate with students. Federal money will be provided to teach endangered languages to tribal members, especially children, who do not speak their native language. Native American programs called "language nests," survival schools, and restoration programs will compete for the three-year grants. Tribes can receive money to expand existing programs and to create new programs. VOICE TWO: To receive federal money, language nests must provide language teaching and childcare for at least ten children under the age of seven. They also must offer classes in the native language to parents of the students. Language survival schools have to provide at least five hundred hours of teaching in a native language to each of at least fifteen students. Survival schools also must provide teacher training. Language restoration programs must provide at least one Native American language program for the community and train teachers of such languages. The restoration programs also must develop Native American language teaching materials. VOICE ONE: Willard Gilbert is the president of the National Indian Education Association, known as NIEA. NIEA works with all tribes to make sure the educational and cultural needs of Native American students are met. Mister Gilbert says the Esther Martinez Native Languages Preservation Act should help create new speakers of languages that are dying out. He says there were one hundred seventy-five Native American languages still spoken in nineteen ninety-six. However only twenty of these languages will still be spoken by the year two thousand fifty without urgent help to keep them alive. Representative Wilson says native languages were very important to Esther Martinez. She says passage of the law helps to honor her and her work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Esther Martinez was a Tewa language teacher and storyteller. She lived in northern New Mexico at San Juan Pueblo, now known by its Tewa name, Ohkay Owingeh. Missus Martinez worked for years to preserve the Tewa language spoken in six of the northern New Mexico pueblos. She was honored in two thousand six by the National Endowment for the Arts for her language work and storytelling. She died in a car accident on the way home from receiving the award. She was ninety-four. The National Endowment for the Arts called Missus Martinez a national treasure. It said Esther Martinez had been a keeper of the language that was the center of Pueblo expression and identity. VOICE ONE:? Esther Martinez grew up in a community where storytelling was the only way of passing on knowledge. The Tewa language was spoken, not written. Missus Martinez began to learn to write Tewa in the nineteen sixties when she was fifty-four. She took some college classes and began teaching the language to children in the San Juan school. She wrote a San Juan Tewa language dictionary that was published in nineteen eighty-three. In two thousand three, "My Life in San Juan Pueblo, Stories of Esther Martinez" was published. The book contains stories about her life and traditional Tewa teaching stories. Tessie Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo was a friend of Esther Martinez for many years. In a foreword to the book Miz Naranjo explains that their people come from a tradition that values the music of language. In Tewa, she says, the words sing as they are spoken; they create images. She says the stories in the book honor this love of language. VOICE TWO: In "My Life in San Juan Pueblo," Missus Martinez explains about life when she was a child. She tells about taking care of sheep, grinding corn, and helping an old man who took care of animals. She tells about traveling by horse and wagon. And she tells how she got her name, Blue Water, the English version of her Tewa name. VOICE ONE: Missus Martinez learned most of the traditional teaching stories from her grandfather. In her book she writes: “You who have grandparents to talk to are so lucky, because I treasure my grandparents and the things that I have learned from them. My grandfather was a storyteller. Indian people get their lessons from stories they were told as children. So a lot of our stories are learning experiences.” Tessie Naranjo says storytelling connects Pueblo people to their past. Stories told by older people in the community taught about community values, correct behavior and relationships with other people. VOICE TWO: In nineteen eighty-eight, Esther Martinez began telling the traditional Tewa stories in English. These stories often involve animals and imaginary creatures. Sue-Ellen Jacobs was a professor at the University of Washington. She worked with Esther Martinez for many years recording her stories and developing CDs for the Tewa Language Project. She says stories serve both a religious and everyday purpose in the pueblo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Northern Pueblos Institute is part of Northern New Mexico College in Espanola. Tribal leaders began the Institute about fifteen years ago. They wanted to create a center at the college level for Pueblo people to do research and take classes. Tessie Naranjo and Sue-Ellen Jacobs have been directors of the Institute for about three years. One of the programs the Institute offers is for language teachers in the northern New Mexico pueblos. They teach children of all ages in area schools and adults at night. The teachers knew the language but had problems with classroom management. So the Northern Pueblos Institute decided to try to help them. Now, the teachers meet at Northern New Mexico College to share ideas and learn from each other about ways to be effective teachers. VOICE TWO: Through the Northern Pueblos Institute, Miz Naranjo and Miz Jacobs have developed a new program called Pueblo Indian Studies. It is a two-year college degree program designed to protect the culture of Pueblo Indian people. It offers classes such as Agricultural Practices Among Pueblo Indians, Native American Literature and Plants and Animals of the Tewa World. Tessie Naranjo says some of the young parents in the program want their children to learn the old stories from their communities. So in an independent study class they will be able to work with Sue-Ellen Jacobs to create CDs of traditional stories told at least in part in Tewa. Miz Jacobs says the Pueblo Indian Studies program is trying to support members of the Pueblo communities to help their cultures and languages survive. However, she says, the program is also seeking students who are not from the Pueblos so they can understand the traditions and culture of the Pueblo people. VOICE ONE: Sue-Ellen Jacobs says the community school at Ohkay Ohwingeh is continuing Esther Martinez’s efforts to keep the Tewa language alive. She says that although the school does not have an immersion program, almost everyone who teaches or works there speaks Tewa. That means the children hear the language used all day. Tessie Naranjo says it is important to create new language speakers at the college level, the community level and the individual level. Everyone must get involved, she says, because without new speakers of native languages, the cultures will disappear. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can find the other parts of this series at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: How the Revolution Against Britain Divided Families and Friends
* Byline: Political disagreement about the war divided Benjamin Franklin and his son, William, for the rest of their lives. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late seventeen hundreds. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Delegates to the American Continental Congress approved and signed a Declaration of Independence on July Fourth, seventeen seventy-six. The new country called the United States of America was at war with Britain. Yet, not everyone in the former colonies agreed on the decision. No one knows for sure how many Americans remained loyal to Great Britain. The Massachusetts political leader, John Adams, thought about thirty-three percent of the colonists supported independence, thirty-three percent supported Britain, and thirty-three percent supported neither side. Most history experts today think that about twenty percent of the colonists supported Britain. They say the others were neutral or supported whichever side seemed to be winning. VOICE TWO: As many as thirty thousand Americans fought for the British during the war. Others helped Britain by reporting the movements of American rebel troops. Who supported Britain?? They included people appointed to their jobs by the king, religious leaders of the Anglican Church, and people with close business connections in Britain. Many members of minority groups remained loyal to the king because they needed his protection against local majority groups. Other people were loyal because they did not want change or because they believed that independence would not improve their lives. Some thought the actions of the British government were not bad enough to make a rebellion necessary. Others did not believe that the rebels could win a war against such a powerful nation as Britain. VOICE ONE: Native American Indians did not agree among themselves about the revolution. Congress knew it had to make peace with the Indians as soon as the war started, or American troops might have to fight them and the British at the same time. To prevent trouble, American officials tried to stop settlers from moving onto Indian lands. In some places, the Indians joined the Americans, but generally they supported the British. They expected the British to win. They saw the war as a chance to force the Americans to leave their lands. At times, the Indians fought on the side of the British, but left when the British seemed to be losing the battle. Choosing to fight for the British proved to be a mistake. When the war was over, the Americans felt they owed the Indians nothing. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Black slaves in the colonies also were divided about what side to join during the American Revolution. Thousands fought for the British, because that side offered them freedom if they served in the army or navy. Some American states also offered to free slaves who served, and hundreds of free blacks fought on the American side. Many slaves, however, felt their chances for freedom were better with the British. Details are not exact, but history experts say more blacks probably joined the British in the North than in the South. VOICE ONE: At least five thousand African-Americans served with the colonial American forces. Most had no choice. They were slaves, and their owners took them to war or sent them to replace their sons. Others felt that a nation built on freedom might share some of that freedom with them. In the South, many slave owners kept their slaves at home. Later in the war, every man was needed, although most slaves did not fight. Instead, they drove wagons and carried supplies. Many African-Americans also served in the American navy. Blacks who served in the colonial army and navy were not separated from whites. Black and white men fought side by side during the American Revolution. History experts say, however, that most black slaves spent the war as they had always lived:? working on their owners' farms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American rebels called themselves patriots. They called British supporters Tories. Patriots often seized Tories' property to help pay for the war. They also kidnapped Tories' slaves to be used as laborers for the army. Many Tories were forced from towns in which they had lived all their lives. Some were tortured or hanged. In New Jersey, Tories and patriots fought one another with guns, and sometimes burned each other's houses and farms. VOICE ONE: Some history experts say the American Revolution was really the nation's first civil war. The revolution divided many families. Perhaps the most famous example was the family of Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence. His son William was governor of the colony of New Jersey. He supported the king. Political disagreement about the war tore apart this father and son for the rest of their lives. VOICE TWO:? Different ideas about the war existed among the patriots, too. That is because the colonies did not really think of themselves as one nation. They saw themselves as independent states trying to work together toward a goal. People from Massachusetts, for example, thought Pennsylvania was a strange place filled with strange people. Southerners did not like people from the North. And people who lived in farm areas did not communicate easily with people who lived in coastal towns and cities. This meant that the Continental Congress could not order the states to do anything they did not want to do. Congress could not demand that the states provide money for the war. It could only ask for their help. George Washington, the top general, could not take men into the army. He could only wait for the states to send them. History experts say George Washington showed that he was a good politician by the way he kept Congress and the thirteen states supporting him throughout the war. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As the people of America did not agree about the war, the people of Britain did not agree about it, either. Many supported the government's decision to fight. They believed that the war was necessary to rescue loyalists from the patriots. Others did not think Britain should fight the Americans, because the Americans had not invaded or threatened their country. They believed that Britain should leave the colonies alone to do as they wished. ?? King George was not able to do this, however. He supported the war as a way to continue his power in the world, and to rescue British honor in the eyes of other national leaders. Whichever side British citizens were on, there was no question that the war was causing severe problems in Britain. British businessmen could no longer trade with the American colonies. Prices increased. Taxes did, too. And young men were forced to serve in the royal navy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: At the start of the war, the British believed that the rebellion was led by a few extremists in New England. They thought the other colonies would surrender if that area could be surrounded and controlled. So, they planned to separate New England from the other colonies by taking command of the Hudson River Valley. British general John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, New York, in October 1777, as painted by Percy MoranThey changed this plan after they were defeated in the Battle of Saratoga in New York state. Later, they planned to capture major cities and control the coast from Maine in the north to Georgia in the south. They failed to do this, although they did occupy New York City for the whole war, and at times had control over Philadelphia and Charleston. VOICE ONE: The British experienced many problems fighting the war. Their troops were far from home, across a wide ocean. It was difficult to bring in more forces and supplies, and it took a long time. As the war continued, American ships became more skilled at attacking British ships at sea. The colonial army had problems, too. Congress never had enough money. Sometimes, it could not send General Washington the things he needed. Often, the states did not send what they were supposed to. Americans were not always willing to take part in the war. They were poorly trained as soldiers and would promise to serve for only a year or so. VOICE TWO: The political and economic developments of the American Revolution concerned not just the Americans and the British. European nations were watching the events in America very closely. Those events, and the reactions in Europe, will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. _____ This?was program?#13 in?THE MAKING OF A NATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rating College Football Teams Off the Field
* Byline: U.S. schools face growing pressure to make sure athletes graduate. Second of two parts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we have the second of two reports about the education of college athletes in the United States. Millions of Americans follow college sports, mainly football and basketball. Schools with good teams are under pressure to win. But now they are also under pressure to do more to make sure their players get a complete education. Ohio State quarterback Todd Boeckman throws a pass during a game in OctoberOn January seventh, the two top college football teams will play in New Orleans for the national championship. Ohio State, rated number one, will play number two Louisiana State. Privacy laws limit what schools can say about academic performance. Still, we wondered how these two universities support their football players off the field as well as on. Stan Jefferson directs player development for the football program at Ohio State University. He says all the players can receive the same academic help. This includes, in their first year of school, required meetings of what is known as the Interactive Study Table. This is a program in which players meet with a tutor before classes to discuss their work. Stan Jefferson tells us that players also meet with counselors who make sure they are progressing toward their degrees. L.S.U. says on its Web site that football players there also receive extra help. It says one hundred tutors are available and can provide help in every subject. We noted last week that the organization that governs college sports is paying closer attention to academic performance. Schools now receive an academic progress rate, or APR, from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. This number represents graduation rates for athletes on scholarships in each sport. An APR of nine hundred twenty-five equals a graduation success rate of about sixty percent. So how are the top schools doing? Nine hundred fifty was the average APR for all the male sports teams in Division One in the last report in May. Football teams had a lower average -- nine hundred thirty-one. Louisiana State had an APR of nine hundred forty-one. And the Ohio State football team had an APR of nine hundred twenty-eight. Teams below nine hundred twenty-five must develop plans to improve their athletes' academic performance. Good athletes often get a free education on a scholarship. Critics say it is only fair to these young players to invest in their minds as much as their bodies. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. The first part of our report can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World Bank Finds China's Economy 40 Percent Smaller Than Thought
* Byline: New methods for measuring economic production show that China's economy is smaller.? Also, China invests more overseas than foreign investors do in China.Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. China has one of the world's fastest growing economies. In two thousand seven, the Chinese economy grew by more than eleven percent for most of the year. But recently the World Bank announced that the Chinese economy was smaller than had been thought. The World Bank released its International Comparison Program report on December seventeenth. It said that the size of the world economy had been overestimated. And it found that the total value of goods and services produced by China had been overestimated by forty percent. The World Bank used new tools to compare the economies and buying power of people in one hundred forty-six countries. This year's report marked the first time that China took part in the World Bank's International Comparison Program. The World Bank says China is the second largest economy after the United States by its new measurements. But the revaluation has caused experts to reconsider economic progress in China. It also raises questions about the exchange rate of Chinese money. Critics have long argued that China should let the value of its money rise freely against the value of the dollar and other currencies. It may be that Chinese money is not undervalued if the Chinese economy is not as large as once thought. However, some experts point to other economic statistics to argue that China's money is undervalued. China faces other problems as well. Inflation hit an eleven-year high in November. The country's huge trade surplus reached a record two hundred thirty-eight billion dollars in the first eleven months of this year. This has raised tensions with trading partners, such as the United States and the European Union. ?And China has been criticized for permitting its manufacturers to produce unsafe products. Two thousand seven marks another event for China's economy. It is the first year in which China invested more money in foreign countries than foreign countries invested in China. The Wall Street Journal says Chinese companies and the government invested over twenty-nine billion dollars in foreign companies. Investors from the rest of the world invested less than twenty-two billion dollars in Chinese companies this year. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Movies, Music and Much More: A Look Back at 2007
* Byline: Some of the year's highlights on AMERICAN MOSAIC. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We look back at two thousand seven --? some stories we have reported, listener questions we have answered and music we have played. (MUSIC) That was a song from the Disney television movie, "High School Musical Two."? Last summer, we reported that it was the most popular show ever broadcast on an American cable television network. The music from the show is the second best selling album of the year. Billboard Magazine says it has sold two million seven hundred thousand copies. We also reported about other musical shows during two thousand seven. We played songs from the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening" and the movie "Dreamgirls."? Here, Jennifer Hudson sings "I Am Changing " from that movie. (MUSIC) In May, we reported about a new album from singer Josh Groban. Now he has another best selling album -- of Christmas music. Billboard Magazine says Josh Groban's "Noel" is the top selling album of two thousand seven. It has sold almost three million copies. Here Josh Groban sings "The Christmas Song." (MUSIC) Several music critics say the song "Rehab" by British singer Amy Winehouse is the best single of the year. "Rehab" is on the album "Back To Black."? We played another song from that album when we reported about Winehouse in June. Listen as Amy Winehouse sings "Rehab." (MUSIC) This year, "American Mosaic" answered questions from listeners in twenty-four countries around the world. We heard from people in Burma, Russia, Egypt, Norway, Argentina, Hungary, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, China, Japan and others. They asked many different kinds of questions about American life. For example, places in the United States like the Alamo, the White House, the Everglades, the Great Lakes and an area of New York City called Hell's Kitchen. Some questions were about American history, such as the Jim Crow Laws, the Marshall Plan, the Whiskey Rebellion and the Space race. Some listeners wanted to know more about American business. So we discussed buying a car, told about the store Wal-Mart, and explained the advertising expression "Diamonds Are Forever."? We also answered questions about elections, urban legends, traffic, pop culture, u.f.o.'s and global warming. Listeners also wanted to know about the movie rating system and the television show "Twenty-Four."? And they asked about actors Julianne Moore, Sandra Bullock and Linda Blair. We answered questions about musicians, and played some of their music. They included singer Hillary Duff, the punk rock group Green Day and the heavy metal band Linkin Park. Here is a song from that group's album, "Minutes to Midnight," that was released in May. It is called "What I've Done." (MUSIC) Another question we answered this year was about the Billboard Hot One Hundred List. This is the list of the one hundred most popular singles in the United States. Billboard also releases a Hot One Hundred List for the end of the year. We leave you now with the song named by Billboard Magazine as the top single of two thousand seven -- "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Nancy Steinbach. Mario Ritter was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find the scripts of all the stories we talked about in our report today.Please continue to send questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. And thank you to everyone who sent us holiday greetings. We received beautiful postcards from listeners in Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia and Costa Rica. Also from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Libya, Malta, the Netherlands, Thailand and Tunisia. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And Happy New Year to everyone! 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Virginia Tech Killings Voted Top News Story of 2007 by US Editors
* Byline: Associated Press releases top news story picks of the year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On December twentieth,? the editors and news directors of the Associated Press voted for the top ten news stories of two thousand seven. On April 23,?a moment of silence was observed for each of the 32 Virginia Tech shooting victims They chose the tragic killings of thirty-two people at Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia, as the top news story of the year. Twenty-three-year-old Seung-Hui Cho shot students and professors at his university on April sixteenth before taking his own life. It was the worst mass shooting in American history. The United States home mortgage crisis was second on the list of top stories this year. Many homeowners have lost, or are in danger of losing, their homes because of rising payments. A sharp drop in housing prices also caused major losses in financial markets. Major General Rick Lynch speaks with Sunni Sheik Emad Ghurtani, right, in Haswah, Iraq, in OctoberThe war in Iraq was voted the third top story this year, down from last year, when it was the top news story. A major increase in American troops in Iraq is believed to have improved the nation’s security situation. Still, thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of Americans were killed in violence in Iraq. Critics say the troop increase failed to meet what was supposed to be the main goal -- to give Iraqi leaders the chance to work for political unity. Rising oil prices was next on the list. Oil prices hit record highs this year, reaching almost one hundred dollars a barrel. The increase in fuel costs pushed American lawmakers to pass a new energy bill. It requires cars and light trucks to use less gasoline by two thousand twenty. Also among the top news stories was a series of recalled exports from China. These products included poisonous toothpaste, unsafe pet food and toys containing dangerous lead paint. Another major issue this year was global warming. United Nations climate scientists warned about the danger of rising seas, severe dry weather and the disappearance of plants and animals. The U.N. scientists shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former American Vice President Al Gore. In the American state of Minnesota, a large bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed on August first. Thirteen people were killed and about one hundred others were injured. The American presidential campaign was also the subject of major new stories this year. Many candidates traveled around the country seeking support in the primary elections that will choose the nominees from the two major political parties. Also in the United States, debate continued on immigration after a compromise plan failed in Congress because of Republican Party opposition. Illegal immigration is among the major presidential campaign issues. And finally, the United States and several other countries continued to press Iran to stop enriching uranium. Iran said it never had a nuclear weapons program. But a recent American intelligence report said Iran did have a nuclear weapons program, but that it ended in two thousand three. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Remembering Four Interesting People Who Died This Year
* Byline: Learn about the lives of philanthropist Brooke Astor, daredevil Evel Knievel, business leader Leona Helmsley and jazz musician Max Roach. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we remember four interesting Americans who died in two thousand seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The woman often called the First Lady of New York died on August thirteenth. Brooke Astor was one hundred five years old. The extremely wealthy and famous New Yorker spent much of her life helping the needy in her beloved city. She was born Brooke Russell in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was the only child of a high level military officer. She lived in several countries and liked learning about different cultures. VOICE TWO: After two earlier marriages, she married Vincent Astor in nineteen fifty-three. He came from a family that had been rich for at least one hundred years. Among other things, he owned many buildings in New York City. Brooke Astor became one of the richest women in the world when Vincent Astor died. She also became head of a huge charity organization founded by her husband. He reportedly had told her she would have fun giving away his money. VOICE ONE: And apparently she did. Missus Astor gave tens of millions of dollars mainly to places and people in New York City. She said it was the sensible choice because that was where the money had been made. She gave financial support to the city’s cultural centers, its poor and disabled as well as to many other smaller charities. She won a Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work. Brooke Astor also wrote two books about her life. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the last years of her life. When she died, the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, said the city would not be what it is today without her support. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: America lost its most famous daredevil this year. Evel Knievel rode motorcycles through the air in increasingly dangerous and exciting tricks in the nineteen sixties and seventies. He became a folk hero. Robert Craig Knievel was born in nineteen thirty-eight in Butte, Montana. As a boy, he was arrested for stealing car parts. He said the police gave him the nickname “Evil,” spelled E-V-I-L. He later legally changed his first name to "Evel," spelled E-V-E-L. Evel Knievel began riding motorcycles in his teens. He said his first motorcycle was a Harley Davidson he had stolen. He was a good athlete and played professional ice hockey for a time. He also served in the United States Army where he became a paratrooper. He made more than thirty jumps from airplanes. VOICE ONE: Evel Knievel performed his first public motorcycle jump when he was twenty-seven. He had just opened a motorcycle store and wanted the public to know about it. He lined up several cars along with a box of poisonous snakes and a mountain lion tied up at the end. He drove his motorcycle up a ramp and began the twelve-meter long jump. He landed in the rattlesnakes. Later, he began performing such tricks all over the United States and Europe. Sometimes his jumps were successful; sometimes they were not. But his shows were always popular. Toy companies sold dolls that looked like him. His life story was told in two movies and a song about him became a hit. VOICE TWO: But Evel Knievel’s body suffered greatly. He said he had as many as fifteen major operations to repair broken bones. One crash was so bad he was in a coma and lost consciousness for a month. Knievel’s personal choices also damaged his health. He drank too much alcohol and used illegal drugs. In his later years, he also suffered from diabetes and an incurable lung disease. The former daredevil died November thirtieth in Clearwater, Florida, at the age of sixty-nine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: She was known as the "Queen of Mean" because she was not a very nice person. Leona Helmsley owned costly hotels and other property in New York City. She died August twentieth of heart failure. She was eighty-seven. Leona Rosenthal was born in nineteen twenty in a rural area of New York state. Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she grew up. She became a successful real estate agent, selling homes in New York City. She met a rich investor, Harry Helmsley, as a result of her work. He soon asked her to work for one of his companies. Shortly after that he left his wife of more than thirty years and married Leona in nineteen seventy-two. VOICE TWO: Over the years, the Helmsleys owned property worth five billion dollars. At one time, they owned the famous Empire State Building in New York City and thirty hotels around the country. Leona became the main spokesperson for their hotels. She was the star of a very successful advertising campaign. Reports of Leona Helmsley’s treatment of employees and family members often appeared in New York newspapers. She was criticized for her self-important behavior. A former housekeeper said Helmsley told her that she and her husband did not pay taxes. “Only the little people pay taxes,” Helmsley reportedly added. But Leona Helmsley later may have regretted that statement. In nineteen eighty-nine she was found guilty of not paying federal income taxes. She served eighteen months in prison and had to pay millions of dollars. When she died, Leona Helmsley left twelve million dollars to her little dog, Trouble. The money is to care for him until the end of his life. It was the largest amount of money she left anyone, including her brother and grandchildren. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: And finally we remember the inventive and highly skilled jazz drummer, Max Roach. (MUSIC) He died August sixteenth in New York City at the age of eighty-three. He had been sick for several years. Max Roach established an unusual new rhythm to jazz that was an important part of the birth of bebop. Until the nineteen forties, jazz drummers mainly served to keep musical time. But Max Roach believed the drums had greater musical possibility. The drum beat style he and others established was more closely linked to the melody of the music. Here he plays at a live concert in Frankfurt, Germany in nineteen fifty-two. The song is “Undecided.” He performs with several other jazz greats including saxophone player Lester Young. (MUSIC: “Undecided”) VOICE TWO: Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born in a small town in North Carolina in nineteen twenty-four. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York when he was four. Max’s mother was a gospel singer and he followed in her musical footsteps. He learned to play the piano and bugle as a very young boy. But by the age of ten he was playing the drums for gospel bands. When he was still a teenager Max began playing with Duke Ellington’s orchestra at the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn. He also played at music clubs in the Harlem area of Manhattan. Listen now as he plays “Garvey’s Ghost,” recorded in nineteen sixty-one. (MUSIC: “Garvey’s Ghost”) VOICE ONE: Max Roach won many awards and honors. He was among the most politically active jazz musicians. In nineteen sixty, he made an album called "We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite."? It was about the black people's struggle for equality in the United States and Africa. In the nineteen seventies, Max Roach formed an all percussion orchestra called M’Boom. We leave you with Max Roach and that group performing “A Quiet Place.” (MUSIC: “A Quiet Place”) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Get Your Act Together: Organization Is the Name of the Game
* Byline: Some expressions that might be heard at business meetings. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States. The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago. "I studied English before I left home, " she said. "But I still was not sure that people were speaking English." Her problem is easy to understand. Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere. They have a language of their own. Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work. Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry. One such saying is get your act together. When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry. He may shout, "Stop making mistakes. Get your act together." Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, "Let us get our act together." Either way, the meaning is the same. Getting your act together is getting organized. In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action. It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began. But, it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry. Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes. The director may have said, "Calm down, now. Get your act together." Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late nineteen seventies. Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in nineteen seventy-eight. The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together. Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet. One company even called its yearly report, "Getting Our Act Together." The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people. It is cut to the chase. She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company. One official was giving a very long report. It was not very interesting. In fact, some people at the meeting were falling asleep. Finally, the president of the company said, "Cut to the chase." Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material. Hurry and get to the good part. Naturally, this saying was started by people who make movies. Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies. Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars, or in airplanes or on foot. Cut is the director's word for stop. The director means to stop filming, leave out some material, and get to the chase scene now. So, if your employer tells you to cut to the chase, be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly. (MUSIC) This?WORDS AND THEIR STORIES?program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Beyond 'Auld Lang Syne': Music That Plays at the Heart Like New Year's
* Byline: Music and emotions go hand in hand. Songs can make us feel the heartbreak of a lost love, or the excitement of finding a new love. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember, and today we bring you music for the New Year. (MUSIC) In the United States and other countries, this old Scottish song, "Auld Lang Syne" is played when a new year begins. It is about remembering old friends. New Year's is a holiday for memories and for hopes. The past and the future come together at midnight. Not surprisingly, emotions are as much a part of New Year's Eve as noisemakers and fireworks. After all, a traditional way to welcome the New Year is to kiss the person you love. "Old Lang Syne" lends its name to a modern song about a man and a woman who once were lovers. One day, a week before New Year's, they meet again by chance. The singer is Dan Fogelberg and the song is called "Same Old Lang Syne." (MUSIC) On December sixteenth, two thousand seven, fans of Dan Fogelberg lost an old friend. The American singer and songwriter died of prostate cancer at the age of fifty-six. He was known for the kind of soft rock popular in the nineteen seventies and eighties. "Same Old Lang Syne" was one of the hits from his nineteen eighty-one album "The Innocent Age." The idea of meeting an old lover by chance is also at the heart of a Paul Simon song. Here is the title song from Paul Simon's nineteen seventy-five album "Still Crazy After All These Years." (MUSIC) Chance meetings are one of life's little surprises. They can happen anywhere -- in a market, on the street, even in a taxicab. This song by Harry Chapin is called "Taxi." (MUSIC) Harry Chapin was a popular folk singer and songwriter. In nineteen eighty-one, at the age of thirty-eight, he died in a car crash on his way to a performance. Music and emotions go hand in hand. Songs can make us feel the heartbreak of a lost love, or the excitement of finding a new love. Songs can also capture the pain of a wish that a person knows will never come true. Here is James Blunt with "You're Beautiful." (MUSIC) The nineteen eighty-nine movie "When Harry Met Sally" was about a relationship. Billy Crystal plays Harry and Meg Ryan is Sally. They meet and become friends, though not at first. Later, they fall in love, though not for very long. Then, on New Year's Eve, Harry comes to his senses and finds Sally at a party. (SOUND) From New Year's Day, we turn to "A New Day." That was the name of Celine Dion's music and dance show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. It closed on December fifteenth, two thousand seven, after almost five years. It earned a reported four hundred million dollars in ticket sales. The show's run ended two months before the start of a worldwide tour for a new album by the Canadian singer. But some fans came to the show again and again, so closing night was like an emotional goodbye to an old friend. We leave you with Celine Dion and a song that some of you will probably sing along with. From the nineteen ninety-seven movie "Titanic," here is "My Heart Will Go On." (MUSIC) We hope you will join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English, on the radio or online at voaspecialenglish.com. Wishing you a happy New Year from all of us, I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-30-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Do-It-Yourself: How to Dry or Smoke Fish, Part 2
* Byline: Last week we described how to prepare fish by cleaning and salting them. Now, the next steps. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Today we have the second of two reports explaining how to prepare fish by drying or smoking them for future use. We talked last week about the first steps of cleaning and salting freshly caught fish. Internet users who missed that report can find it at voaspecialenglish.com. To dry fish, you will need either a drying table or a place to hang them. If a table is used, it should have a top made of wire screen or thin pieces of wood with space between each piece. Lay the cleaned, wet salted fish on top of the table. Do not let them touch each other. Be sure that air can reach the fish from all sides, including the top and bottom. Build a small smoky fire under the drying table for the first day to keep the flies away. After that, you can keep the flies away by covering the fish with a thin cloth. Do not let the cloth touch the fish. Fish taste better if they are out of bright sunlight while they are being dried. For best results, put the drying table under a tree. Turn the fish over every other day. Small fish will dry in about three days if the air is dry. Large fish will take a week or ten days to dry. After the fish have dried, place them in a basket. Cover them with clean paper or large leaves. Then put the basket in a cool, dry place, not on the ground. To smoke the fish, you must first remove as much of the saltwater as possible. The smoking can be done in a large, round metal container. Remove the top of the drum and cut a small opening on one side at the bottom. Cover the top with a strong wire screen. This is where you put the fish. Build a small fire in the drum by reaching in through the opening at the bottom. Wood from fruit trees makes good fuel for your fire. Such wood will give the smoked fish good color and taste. Hardwoods such as hickory, oak and ash also burn well. It is important to keep the fire small, so it does not burn the fish. You want a lot of smoke but very little flame. One way to get a lot of smoke is to use green wood, not dried wood. You should smoke the fish for five days or longer if you plan to keep them for a long time. After you finish smoking the fish, remove them and let them cool. Then wrap them in clean paper. Put the fish in baskets and keep them in a cool, dry place off the ground. Dried fish must be kept completely dry until they are eaten. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. Transcripts and MP3 archives of our reports can be downloaded at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Forget the Gunplay, These Cowboys Get Their Kicks From Wordplay
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: palindromes aplenty. RS: A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards or forwards. Palindromes make us think of Janus, the Roman god with one face looking forward and another looking backward. AA: And from Janus we get January, and from that we get the idea to rerun "The Ballad of Palindrome" each New Year. RS: It features a skit that spoofs a cowboy show on television in the 1950s called "Paladin." Here now is the group Riders in the Sky joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western. Riders in the SkySOUND: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" RS: That's Riders in the Sky from their 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label. AA: And that's WORDMASTER for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-31-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Choosing the Right Calendar Takes Time
* Byline: Will it be cats, cars, beautiful women in swimsuits or Elvis? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, a Special English program for the New Year. I'm Faith Lapidus. The New Year is the time for new beginnings. It is also the time to buy a new calendar. Yet it can take a lot of time just to choose the right one. There are lots and lots of choices. There are small ones. Big ones. Calendars that sit on a desk. Calendars that hang on the wall. Calendars to carry around. Calendars that show a whole month or one day at a time. Of course, in one way all calendars are the same. They all list the same days of the year in exactly the same order. But people do not buy calendars just to know what day it is. Calendars have become popular gifts because many are filled with beautiful pictures. Some have pictures of famous art works. It is like hanging a different painting on your wall each month. You can even learn from calendars. They often give information about their subject -- such as famous writers or American Indians or flower gardens. There are calendars about food and about beautiful places in the world. Calendars about sports and about movies. Funny calendars with popular cartoon characters. Calendars of famous people, like Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe. For pet lovers, there are calendars with pictures of cats doing unusual things. Three hundred sixty-five of them – one for each day of the year. Calendars of dogs wearing clothes. And calendars of beautiful women in swimming suits, not wearing much at all. Would you rather look at pictures of cars? There are calendars with those, too. For busy mothers, there is a magnetic calendar to hang on the wall. There are even calendars for children who can draw the pictures themselves. Some people do not just look at their calendars. They use them to write down important things they must remember, like meetings or doctor’s appointments. Busy people can buy small calendars to carry around to help them organize and plan their life. But what if they forget to look at their calendar? Do not worry, there are electronic organizers that make sounds to remind people of things they must do. These days, if you forget something, it is getting harder and harder to find a good excuse. Some people do not like little calendars, or big ones, or noisy electronic ones. They are happy just to write down notes to themselves on small pieces of paper. The smaller the better, usually. These people never worry about all the time it takes them to find their small pieces of paper when they need them. I'm Faith Lapidus wishing all our listeners a Happy New Year. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2007-12/2007-12-31-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Imagine, There Was a Time When People Had No Need to Measure Time
* Byline: Exploring one of the universe's great mysteries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week our program is about a mystery as old as time. Bob Doughty and Sarah Long tell about the mystery of time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A sundial at the state Capitol in Olympia, Washington, on a rare winter day when the skies were clear enough for it to workIf you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing. For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe. VOICE TWO: One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes. VOICE ONE: In the real world -- the world with time -- changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness -- one day. VOICE TWO: People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun's highest position until it returned to that position. They counted three hundred sixty-five days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year. VOICE ONE: Early humans also noted changes in the moon. As it moved across the night sky, they must have wondered. Why did it look different every night? Why did it disappear? Where did it go? Even before they learned the answers to these questions, they developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time. The moon was "full" when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same -- about twenty-nine suns. Twenty-nine suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes from place to place in search of food. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. They learned to use animals to help them work, and for food. They found they no longer needed to move from one place to another to survive. As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars. No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months. When people started farming, the wise men of the tribes became very important. They studied the sky. They gathered enough information so they could know when the seasons would change. They announced when it was time to plant crops. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia four thousand years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every three hundred sixty-five days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into twenty-four equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds. VOICE TWO: Humans have used many devices to measure time. The sundial was one of the earliest and simplest. A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes. The sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, other ways were invented to measure the passing of time. VOICE ONE: One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight --- wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true "hour" glass, it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour. By the eighteenth century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic. VOICE TWO: So, we have devices to mark the passing of time. But what time is it now? Clocks in different parts of the world do not show the same time at the same time. This is because time on Earth is set by the sun's position in the sky above. We all have a twelve o'clock noon each day. Noon is the time the sun is highest in the sky. But when it is twelve o'clock noon where I am, it may be ten o'clock at night where you are. VOICE ONE: As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world. In eighteen eighty-four, an international conference divided the world into twenty-four time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east. The time at Greenwich -- as measured by the sun -- is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time. VOICE TWO: Some scientists say time is governed by the movement of matter in our universe. They say time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Some say it will stop expanding some day and will begin to move in the opposite direction, to grow smaller. Some believe time will also begin to flow in the opposite direction -- from the future to the past. Can time move backward? Most people have no trouble agreeing that time moves forward. We see people born and then grow old. We remember the past, but we do not know the future. We know a film is moving forward if it shows a glass falling off a table and breaking into many pieces. If the film were moving backward, the pieces would re-join to form a glass and jump back up onto the table. No one has ever seen this happen. Except in a film. VOICE ONE: Some scientists believe there is one reason why time only moves forward. It is a well-known scientific law -- the second law of thermodynamics. That law says disorder increases with time. In fact, there are more conditions of disorder than of order. For example, there are many ways a glass can break into pieces. That is disorder. But there is only one way the broken pieces can be organized to make a glass. That is order. If time moved backward, the broken pieces could come together in a great many ways. Only one of these many ways, however, would re-form the glass. It is almost impossible to believe this would happen. VOICE TWO: Not all scientists believe time is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. They do not agree that time must always move forward. The debate will continue about the nature of time. And time will remain a mystery. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and read by Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Science in the News, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Happy New Year! Yet January First Wasn't Always So Special
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of people are taking part in New Year’s celebrations around the world. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about some of these activities on this VOA Special English New Year’s program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People around the world celebrate the coming of a New Year. The celebrations include parties and religious observances. Many people take part in special activities said to bring good luck and success in the New Year. Ancient Romans observed New Year’s Day on March first. Later, Roman leaders made January first the beginning of the year. One thousand years ago, parts of Europe started the year on March twenty-fifth. By the year sixteen hundred, many European nations agreed on a new system to measure time. It is called the Gregorian calendar. This calendar moved New Year’s Day to January first. VOICE TWO: Today, Europeans have many ways to celebrate the New Year. Scotland has a famous celebration called Hogmanay. No one knows for sure where the word came from. It could be from the Anglo-Saxon words for “holy month.”? Another possibility is a Gaelic expression for “new morning.”? Some people think Hogmanay could be from an old French word meaning “gift.”? That is because it was common to give gifts at the new year. For many centuries, fire ceremonies have been an important part of Hogmanay. The Scots set small fires as a way to end the old year. Today, Hogmanay includes huge celebrations on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh on New Year’s Eve. More than one-hundred-thousand people attend these street parties. Bells ring at midnight. Everyone kisses each other and sings the traditional New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne. Poet Robert Burns based some of the song’s words on a Scottish poem. Another tradition is called First Footing. Many Scots believe that the first person to enter your house in the New Year will bring either good or bad luck. A tall, dark-haired visitor who comes with a gift is considered very good luck. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: January first is an important day in Greece. It is both the beginning of a New Year and Saint Basil’s Day. Saint Basil was a leader of the early Greek Orthodox Church. Stories say he would come in the night and leave presents for children in their shoes. Many children leave their shoes out by the fireplace in the hope that Saint Basil will visit them. In Greece, it is a New Year’s tradition to serve Basil’s Bread, or Vassilopitta. A piece of money is added to the bread before it is baked. When the bread is ready, it is divided in a traditional way. The first piece is cut for Saint Basil. The next goes to the oldest person in the house. Everyone is served, from the oldest to the youngest. Whoever finds the money in their piece of bread will have luck during the New Year. VOICE TWO: Other European countries have New Year’s traditions. In Belgium, for example, children write messages to their parents on colorful pieces of paper. The children read the messages to their families on New Year’s Day. In Spain, everyone must have at least twelve grapes ready on the final day of the year. One grape represents each month in the year. As the New Year begins, a person puts a grape in his or her mouth each time the clock rings. Each piece of fruit is said to bring good luck and happiness in the New Year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The New Year is celebrated in a big way in Japan. Japanese people often begin by cleaning their homes in late December. Some people hang long ropes across the front of their home. This is supposed to keep bad spirits away. Many Japanese people visit a Buddhist religious center, or shrine. Some people wear traditional Japanese clothing. Bells at Shinto shrines ring one hundred eight times. A traditional story says that there are one hundred eight desires in every person. The story says that people can clean their hearts by listening to the bells ringing. VOICE TWO: Shrines in Japan offer visitors a small piece of white paper. Each has a message about what will happen to that person in the future. Many people tie the paper to a tree near the shrine. January first is a special day for children because they often receive money from their parents. New Year’s greeting cards are another popular tradition. Millions of people write and send these cards to friends in December. Japan’s mail service works to guarantee that all the letters arrive by January first. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all countries celebrate the New Year at the same time. This is because people in different areas have different ways to measure time. Some systems are based on the movement of the moon. Others are based on the position of the sun. Still others are based on both the sun and the moon. Like much of Asia, Korea has two New Year celebrations. One is on January first. The other is on the first day of the Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year begins on the day of the first new moon of the new year. The first day of the Lunar New Year is called Sol-nal (sole-lahl). Sol-nal has many special meanings and events. It is a day for family members to re-unite. On the day before Sol-nal, Koreans place objects made of grass on their doors and walls. This is supposed to protect their families from evil spirits in the New Year. Some families attend a bell-ringing ceremony. VOICE TWO: Many Koreans make wishes for the New Year while watching the sunrise. Some wear traditional clothing. Family members gather early in the morning to remember their ancestors. After the observance, they eat a kind of rice cake soup. Koreans believe that eating this food will add an extra year to their life. After the meal, young people lower their heads to honor their parents and older adults. This means good health and good wishes. Many parents give the children money. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Vietnam’s New Year is officially known as Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet. It begins between January twenty-first and February nineteenth. The exact date changes from year to year. Tet lasts ten days. The first three days are the most important. Vietnamese people believe that how people act during those days will influence the whole year. As a result, they make every effort to avoid arguments and smile as much as possible. Many Vietnamese people prepare for the holiday by paying their debts and cleaning their homes. Some people believe that different gods live in their homes. They say these gods watch over and protect family members. VOICE TWO: Just before the first day of Tet, the mother or grandmother in each family lights a firecracker. This is done to welcome the New Year. Then people go to sleep and wait for the sun to rise. At sunrise, they get up and put on new clothes. Rice cake is a popular New Year’s food. Like people in Scotland, Vietnamese people believe that the first person through the door on New Year’s Day brings either good or bad luck. Children receive gifts of money, as they do in other countries. Some Vietnamese families give money or other gifts to visitors during the holiday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: British Columbia, Canada has an interesting New Year’s tradition. People of all ages put on swimwear and dive into the icy waters of English Bay, near Vancouver. The yearly event is called the Polar Bear Swim. It is named for the large, white animals native to northern Canada. The Polar Bear Swim started about eighty years ago. Today, the event has grown to more than two thousand divers. Thousands of other people watch the event. VOICE TWO: In Brazil, New Year celebrations also involve water. But it is the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean. Millions of people go to the beach on New Year’s Eve to watch fireworks. They wear white clothes to welcome the New Year and to bring good luck. Some people jump over the waves and throw flowers into the water while they make wishes for the New Year. Others light candles on the beach. However you choose to celebrate the holiday, we in Special English wish all our listeners a Happy New Year! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English New Year’s program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Yearly Camp Offers Free Medical Care in Gujarat, India
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors expect to treat more than twenty thousand people this month at a special medical camp in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The two-week camp takes place each year during January at a hospital in the village of Bidada. This year, the camp opens on January second. A non-profit organization called the Shree Bidada Sarvodaya Trust organizes the event. Doctors from India, the United States and England will treat the patients. Manilal Mehta is one of the organizers of the medical camp. He tells us that patients come from all over India, especially since the hospital in Bidada opened a new treatment center. The center was built as a result of the deadly earthquake in Gujarat in January of two thousand one. Children as well as adults are treated at the medical camp. Doctor Mehta says doctors treat patients for more than twenty medical problems and diseases. Hundreds of operations will be performed. Doctor Mehta says about one thousand minor operations were done last year. More than three hundred patients with serious problems were sent to hospitals in Mumbai. The Bidada medical camp began thirty-one years ago. At first, doctors treated only patients with eye diseases. Then the organizers expanded the camp to help people with other problems. Doctor Mehta says about two-and-a-half million patients have been treated since the camp began in nineteen seventy-four. People in India, the United States and other countries give money to operate the medical camp. About two hundred doctors and other medical workers from Mumbai take part in the yearly event. They work with a medical team of about fifty members from the United States. All of those involved in the camp provide their services without being paid. Many of the doctors were born in Kutch but are now living in the United States. Some of them have been returning to the camp for many years. The doctors from the United States also teach local Indian doctors about developments in medical science. The Shree Bidada Sarvodaya Trust also organizes smaller medical camps for patients at other times of year. The organization operates the hospital in Bidada as well as Maru Hospital in Mumbai. These hospitals treat about three hundred patients each day. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Diners: A Taste of the Past Stays Fresh in Minds, and Stomachs
* Byline: Written by Katherine Gypson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, sit down and enjoy an American tradition -- the diner. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A diner is a small restaurant. Old-time diners were built in a factory and transported to their place of business. Diners usually have an open kitchen and a long counter. People can sit at the counter and watch the cooks make their food. A diner can be a place for people in a community to gather, drink coffee and talk. Or it can be a welcome stop for travelers on the road. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Around the late eighteen fifties, there was a young man in Providence, Rhode Island, named Walter Scott. In fact, the American Diner Museum says he was just seventeen. Walter Scott discovered a way to make extra money. He brought food to men who worked late at night in the city. Back then, restaurants closed by eight o'clock. Hungry workers needed a place where they could buy homemade food quickly and easily. In eighteen seventy-two, Walter Scott began to sell food out of a wagon pulled by a horse. He could move his business from place to place and sell more “night lunches.” VOICE ONE: People in other cities improved on the idea. They bought their own wagons and called them night cafes or lunch wagons. Companies began to make wagons big enough for people to sit inside. In some places, lunch wagons were so popular that city leaders thought there were too many of them in the streets. To avoid trouble, the owners parked their businesses on empty lots that were out of the way. Soon, the owners recognized that they could make more money by staying in one place and selling many different kinds of food. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the nineteen twenties, lunch wagons were bigger and stayed open all day, instead of only at night. Owners added tables, to appeal to women who did not want to sit at a counter. The companies that made lunch wagons began to make them look like the railroad cars of the time. Owners thought that a new name would make people think of the dining cars on trains. They began to call their businesses “diners.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Diners survived the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. Americans who did not have jobs often ate at diners because the meals were low-priced. After World War Two, companies began to make diners that looked like rockets and spaceships. They built diners out of shiny stainless steel, and made brightly colored signs lit by neon gas. Diner owners were always searching for ways to make their businesses look more modern. By this time, thousands of diners were being built across America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Diners are known for “comfort food.”? This kind of food reminds people of the meals their mothers and grandmothers made. Meatloaf is a good diner meal. It is baked in an oven and traditionally served with potatoes that are mashed and mixed with milk or cream. Most diners serve breakfast meals all day long, not just in the morning. Pancakes are a favorite breakfast food at diners. They are a thin, round cake made of flour, eggs and milk -- all cooked on a greased surface. Another popular diner food is a milkshake. This sweet, thick drink is made of ice cream and milk. In the nineteen forties and 'fifties, teenagers would meet at diners to talk, drink milkshakes and listen to music. Many diners had jukeboxes that people could operate from their tables. Someone could put in a coin, choose a song and then listen as it played throughout the restaurant. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Immigrants owned many of the diners across America. They added foods from their own countries to the menu. Many diners offer Greek foods like baklava, a sweet, nut-filled pastry. A gyro is another favorite -- lamb wrapped in soft bread and served with yogurt sauce. Over the years, diners changed as American tastes changed. In the nineteen sixties, diners became less popular. New businesses like McDonald's offered fast food. The prices were low, service was quick and people knew they could find the same meals from place to place. Soon diners across the country began to close. Many owners who stayed in business did not have enough money to improve their buildings. Instead of looking modern and new, diners looked old and tired. They could not keep up with the speed of American living. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Diners are much less common than they used to be. But they still hold a place in the American imagination. Several large companies have opened new diners that recreate the look of the past. VOICE ONE: Some people, though, are loyal to the old diners that have stayed in business. These people prefer to eat at places that have remained in the same spot for years. They eat at diners so often that the waitresses remember their names and ask about their families. The Tastee Diner in Maryland opened in nineteen thirty-five. There are three locations. If you walked into the one in Bethesda, there is a good chance you would meet Jim. He is a regular there. In fact, he says he has been eating at the Tastee Diner since nineteen seventy-four. Jim used to eat three meals a day there. Now, he stops by for coffee and a little something to eat. Nathan has worked as a cook at the Tastee Diner for ten years. Nathan and the waitresses happily greet Jim every time he walks through the door. They talk to him while they go about their work. Jim says that the people who work at the diner are like a second family for him. He laughs, and says a diner is the only place where you can find good food and pretty waitresses. VOICE TWO: Today, the Tastee Diner seems more popular than ever. Frank Long, the manager, says Saturday and Sunday mornings are very busy. People have to wait in long lines outside the small diner. The Tastee Diner also continues another tradition. It stays open twenty-four hours a day. Frank Long says many people come to the diner in the middle of the night to eat comfort food and drink coffee. In a way, not much has changed since Walter Scott sold food out of a cart in Providence, Rhode Island, more than a hundred thirty years ago. (MUSIC) ?VOICE ONE: You can learn more on the Internet about the history of American diners. Some of our information, for example, came from the University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program. The university Web site is uvm.edu. The American Diner Museum in Providence is not ready to serve visitors in person yet, but it's always open at dinermuseum.org. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Katherine Gypson, who just finished an internship in Special English and works in a diner. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 2005: Looking Back at the Year in Science
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. This week on our show: a year in science in fifteen minutes. We will tell you about some of the major science stories of two thousand five: VOICE ONE: We tell about false stem cell research … VOICE TWO: Intelligent design and evolution … VOICE ONE: The return of America’s space shuttle … VOICE TWO: The latest on bird flu and a new treatment for malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the biggest science stories last year was the research on stem cells announced by South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk. But now it appears that the research was false. In June, Mister Hwang reported that he and his team at Seoul National University had created eleven new stem cell lines. Stem cells have the ability to grow into other cells. Science magazine published the report. The new lines were made from the eggs of eighteen women and skin cells from eleven other people. Most importantly, Mister Hwang reported that all those who gave skin cells had some kind of disease or spinal cord injury. This would have meant that the South Korean scientists had produced the first stem cells that were genetic copies of people with injury or disease. At the time, Mister Hwang said the development was important in efforts to find cures for disease and injury. VOICE TWO: But, a few months ago, serious questions were raised about Mister Hwang’s research. First it was discovered that he had not been truthful about where he got the human eggs for the research. In reality, some came from women who worked in his laboratory. This caused concern about a possible violation of ethics in his work. In fact, an American scientist who served as an advisor on the report withdrew his name from it. A short time later, Mister Hwang admitted that some of the photographs he provided for the report were false. This meant the work itself was suspect. VOICE ONE: Then, on December twenty-third, a committee of experts at Seoul National University announced the results of an investigation. It said that Mister Hwang had provided false information about at least nine of the eleven stem cell colonies he reported about in Science magazine. Mister Hwang and his co-authors withdrew the report. Mister Hwang also resigned from his position at Seoul National University and apologized for the incident. Another major development reported by the scientist is also under investigation now. Mister Hwang claimed to have produced an exact genetic copy of a dog last year. The university committee said it strongly questions the truthfulness of that report. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another major science story last year came from the United States. On December twentieth, a federal judge ruled that teaching “intelligent design” in public schools is a violation of the United States Constitution. Judge John Jones said that intelligent design is not science. He said it is a version of Christianity. So to teach it in public schools violates the law that requires the separation of church and state. VOICE ONE: Intelligent design opposes the theory of evolution. Scientists around the world generally accept the theory of evolution. It is written into science education programs across the country. Evolutionary theory says that complex life forms have developed through cellular changes over millions of years. It says most animals reproduce in larger numbers than their environment can support. Only those animals best able to live in the environment survive. They then produce similarly strong young. Species must change as the environment changes, or they die out. This is the idea commonly known as “natural selection.” Supporters of intelligent design criticize the science of evolution. They say that biological life is too complex to be explained by natural selection. They argue that the natural world must be the work of an intelligent designer. Many scientists and critics say“intelligent designer” is just another way to say God. They say intelligent design is the same as creationism — the belief that a higher power created the universe. Most intelligent design supporters are Christians who believe God created the universe. VOICE TWO: The recent court case dealt with the public school system of Dover, Pennsylvania. Last year, the school became one of the first in the country to include intelligent design in high school biology classes. Parents who opposed this took legal action against the school officials. Opponents of intelligent design praised the court ruling. They hope it will influence school systems in other areas of the country that want to teach intelligent design. Supporters of intelligent design say the court ruling will not stop their efforts. They say they will continue to fight for a critical discussion of evolutionary theory and intelligent design in American classrooms. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There was also news last year about the American space program. The American space shuttle returned to the skies in July. Discovery and its seven-member crew made the first shuttle flight in two and one-half years. NASA had suspended shuttle flights following the deadly explosion of the shuttle Columbia in two thousand three. VOICE TWO: That explosion was the result of damage done to Columbia during its launch. A piece of lightweight protective material fell off the shuttle’s external fuel container. The object hit the shuttle at a high rate of speed and made a hole in one of the wings. This permitted extremely hot gases to enter the shuttle and destroy the spacecraft as it returned to Earth. VOICE ONE: A similar problem happened during Discovery’s launch July twenty-sixth although the results were not tragic. A large piece of foam protective material again broke off the external fuel tank. The object did not hit the space shuttle. But NASA officials decided to suspend future shuttle flights until experts fix the problem. Last month, NASA announced a solution. It said it would remove two foam structures from the outside of the fuel tank to prevent them from breaking off and hitting the shuttle. NASA tests during the past two months have suggested that the shuttle is safe without those pieces of foam. VOICE TWO: NASA experts had made major improvements to the shuttle for its July launch. They added many cameras to the launch area and to the shuttle itself. This permitted them to closely record each minute of the launch. And they designed a new warning system to inform shuttle crewmembers and ground control of any problems. Now, NASA officials say they are considering launching another shuttle in May. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Avian influenza was also a major science story last year. The h-five-n-one virus appeared in birds in Europe for the first time. Yet the only known human cases of the disease have been in East Asia. There have been about one hundred forty confirmed cases of bird flu since two thousand three. About half the people have died. Many of the victims had touched or been around infected farm birds. But health experts around the world began warning that the virus could change into a form that is passed from person to person. VOICE TWO: Several countries are working on vaccines to protect people against avian influenza. The effectiveness cannot be known, however, until the virus enters the general population. If that happens, the drug Tamiflu is the best-known treatment. Yet late last month, researchers said resistance to the drug may be more common than experts had thought. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There was good news about the disease malaria. A non-profit international group called the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative announced a new treatment for the deadly disease. The new treatment will combine the most effective drugs currently used. The group says the treatment will be easier and cost about half the price of current treatments. Experts say more people will use it as a result. The new treatment will be ready by late this year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was the producer. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Business of Bees and Beekeeping (Part 3 of 3)
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Bees not only produce honey and wax, they also provide an important service to farmers. Many crops require bees to pollinate them. Bees gather sweet liquid called nectar from flowers. As they do this, the reproductive material of the flowers, pollen, sticks to the bee. Pollen travels from plant to plant this way. Many different fruits, vegetables, nuts and seed crops depend on bees for reproduction. Also, many flowers grown for their beauty need bees to pollinate them. In the United States, the secretary of agriculture appoints industry leaders to the National Honey Board. This group provides production information about the honey and beekeeping business. One of the reports said bees pollinated more than fourteen and one-half thousand million dollars worth of crops in two thousand. Selling the services of bees as pollinators is also an important business. Bees pollinate almost all almond and apple trees. Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, celery and onions require bee pollination. Experts say even crops that do not require bee pollination can be increased with the help of bees. Also, the quality of many crops depends on the amount of pollination they receive. Crops like apples can grow unevenly if bees do not provide enough pollen for good reproduction. Pollinated crops supply much of the vegetable fats in the human diet. As much as one-third of all food products are directly or indirectly linked to bee-pollinated crops. Bee pollination is a central activity in the food supply chain. The United States was estimated several years ago to have two and one-half million colonies being used to pollinate crops. Between two and four colonies are needed to pollinate one hectare of most crops. ? Today, many beekeepers see pollination as a more important activity than producing honey. Many farmers see bee pollination as a good investment because it improves the quality and productivity of their crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This was the third and final part of our report about bees and beekeeping. Internet users can read and listen to all of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a general question about agriculture, e-mail it to special@voanews.com. Please include your name and where you are. We cannot answer questions personally, but we might be able to use them in our reports. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Beethoven Died From Lead Poisoning
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis

 I’m?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT. Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)Ludwig van Beethoven is remembered as one of the most famous composers in history. He wrote some of the world’s greatest classical music. Beethoven lived only fifty-seven years. He died in eighteen twenty-seven. Recently, tests confirmed that Beethoven died of severe lead poisoning. The United States Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory supervised the testing. Bill Walsh directed the Beethoven Research Project. He is the chief scientist at the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Warrenville, Illinois. Mister Walsh and his team examined pieces of bone belonging to Beethoven. They found a large amount of lead in the pieces, or bone fragments. They said the lead levels were equal to those found in pieces of his hair in earlier studies. Genetic tests confirmed the bone fragments and hair came from Beethoven. The researchers also examined bone fragments from someone else who lived during the same period. Both were from the top of the head, or skull. The fragments from Beethoven had more lead than those from the other person. The study found no measurable levels of cadmium or mercury in the fragments from Beethoven’s skull. Both elements had been thought to be possible causes of his health problems. Beethoven was sick for much of his life. He experienced stomach problems and a change of personality when he was around twenty years old. He also was easily angered, and suffered from depression and hearing loss. His health problems became worse as Beethoven grew older. Mister Walsh says severe stomach pain is a sign of lead poisoning. He said the lead levels found in Beethoven’s skull suggest the metal may have been present in his body for many years. Mister Walsh said there is no strong evidence that lead poisoning was a cause of Beethoven’s hearing loss, or deafness. He said there have been recognized cases of deafness caused by lead poisoning. But he said this is very rare. Ludwig van Beethoven visited many doctors throughout his life to find a cure for his health problems. Beethoven wrote a letter to a friend before he died. He urged researchers to examine his body after he died so that other people would not have to suffer as he did. This VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT was written by Lawan Davis. This is Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-03-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Young People Around the World Are Active in Politics
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 See correction below (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: Young and active in LiberiaAnd I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about how young people around the world are influencing politics in their own countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Patrick McHenry is the youngest member in the United States House of Representatives. This Republican from North Carolina is just thirty years old. But he says his age never stopped him from seeking office. Congressman McHenry is like many young Americans. He developed a love of politics while in college. Voter groups and political parties are active at colleges and universities across the country. Karl Bach heads a group called the New Voters Project at George Mason University in Virginia. This organization tries to sign up, or register, as many young voters as possible. The voting age in the United States is eighteen. VOICE TWO: Other young activists, such as Chris Brooks, work on campaigns. Mister Brooks is a member of College Republicans at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In November, he and other club members traveled to the state of New Jersey to campaign for the Republican candidate for governor. A group of College Democrats from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia also traveled to New Jersey. They campaigned for their party’s candidate for governor. Although their political interests are different, the members of both groups have one thing in common – a love of politics. VOICE ONE: Many young people also work for the national political parties at their colleges or universities. The National College Republicans have two hundred thousand members at one thousand five hundred colleges around the nation. The group’s president is Paul Gourley. He is a student at the University of South Dakota. But he has an office in Washington, D. C., and earns seventy-five thousand dollars a year. The job, he says, permits him to be the voice for other people his age. Young people working in congressional offices on Capitol Hill feel the same. The average age of the estimated ten thousand full-time employees is thirty-one. Hundreds of even younger people work for little or no money. Most of these interns are college students. They open mail, answer telephones, or follow bills through the legislative process. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Government work is not the only way that young people are affecting politics. Thousands work for non-profit groups, political organizations and research organizations in Washington. For example, twenty-four year old Faaiza Rashid researches South Asian issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She was born in Pakistan, has lived in several countries in the Middle East and speaks several languages. Her age, she says, has not stopped her supervisors from taking her seriously. VOICE ONE: Faaiza Rashid is one of many young immigrants influencing politics in the United States. Cambodian immigrant Davy Kong is a press officer at Millennium Challenge Corporation. This government organization gives aid money to developing nations. She says she was taught in school that American culture includes politics. Political involvement, she says, is part of being a citizen. Stan Dai, a Chinese immigrant, agrees that political activism is part of citizenship. He is the president of the Conservative Student Union at George Washington University. Mister Dai believes more and more immigrants will become politically active as they continue to live in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Young people in other countries are also interested in politics. In Africa, a group of one hundred sixty young people from forty-five countries is trying to improve development. The African Youth Parliament was launched in Nairobi, Kenya in two thousand three. Members work on projects dealing with poverty, armed and social conflicts and health issues such as H-I-V and AIDS. VOICE ONE: Parliament member Omowumi Olumide Obidiran teaches information and communications technology to young people in Nigeria. She says she is concerned about the so-called “digital divide” between Africa and the western world. People who cannot connect to the Internet computer system are caught in this divide. The Internet helps people share information, communicate with family and friends, and start businesses. To help bridge the divide, Miz Obidiran helped start an organization called the Global Resource Information Network. The group urges young people to use information and communication technology to change their societies. VOICE TWO: Another member of the African Youth Parliament is twenty-five year old Ansuya Naidoo. Doctor Naidoo is concerned about AIDS and H-I-V, the virus that spreads the deadly disease. She works at a hospital in South Africa. She also works at community health centers. Doctor Naidoo believes that educating women about their sexual choices will help stop the spread of H-I-V and AIDS. VOICE ONE: Benedict Thuita, a twenty-two-year-old law student Kinuthia is involved in youth politics as well. He works for the Kenyan Youth Parliament, which has ties to the African Youth Parliament. Mister Kinuthia wants politicians to consider the concerns of young Kenyans. In his job, he urges young people to campaign for political parties or seek elected office. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The youth population in some Middle Eastern countries is also a growing force for change. In Egypt, for example, pro-democracy activists held hundreds of street protests last year. The loosely organized movement is known as Kifaya, the Arabic world for “enough.”? People in their twenties and thirties led many of the demonstrations. Thirty-eight-year-old Ahmed Salah is a member of the Egyptian group Youth For Change. This organization is linked to the Kifaya movement. Mister Salah believes the problems facing Egypt are common in other parts of the Arab world. He says the Kifaya movement has influenced pro-democracy groups in other countries, such as Tunisia and Yemen. VOICE ONE: For many years, young people in other Middle Eastern countries have pushed for political change. For example, in nineteen seventy-nine, university students played a major part in the Iranian revolution. Young Iranians were also behind the push for change that brought reformist President Mohammed Khatamei to power in nineteen ninety-seven. But the promised reforms never took place. Many young Iranians lost interest in politics. Voters in Iran elected a conservative president last year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the past, young people in several Asian countries have pushed for political change as well. Efforts were successful in helping to bring democracy to South Korea. Today, however, political experts say few Asian youth are involved in politics. They say the values of young Asians now are a sign of how Asia has changed. Youthful activism grew from anger over repressive governments. But experts say interest in politics has weakened as areas of Asia have developed and personal freedoms have increased. ?VOICE ONE: Bam Aquino heads the Philippine National Youth Commission. He says young Filipinos are angry because politicians have failed to create economic growth in the country. As a result, he says many young people do not get involved in politics. Mister Aquino believes that involving young people in community development is a better way to build political interest than protests. Rajendra Mulmi in Nepal feels the same. His group, Youth Initiative in Kathmandu, plans programs for young people. It organizes debates, political discussions and government training programs. Mister Mulmi says he is trying to increase social and political interest in Nepal through education. VOICE TWO: Some youth leaders are hopeful that Asia’s young people will once again become a powerful force for change. But experts say this will not happen until young Asians regain trust in political organizations and government. For these are the organizations and government that they, and other young people around the world, will one day have to lead. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. --- Correction: The National College Republicans should have been identified as the College Republican National Committee. Also, the group says its president, Paul Gourley, earns fifty-five thousand dollars a year, not seventy-five thousand dollars. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Adults Make Few Gains in Reading Skills Since 1992
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. About one in twenty adults in the United States cannot read English. A new federal study shows that adults made little progress in their reading skills between nineteen ninety-two and two thousand three. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is the most important test of how well adult Americans can read. Researchers tested nineteen thousand people over the age of sixteen. The study represents an adult population of two hundred twenty-two million. Those who took part were tested on how well they could read and understand information used in everyday life. The study found that eleven million adults, or five percent, cannot read English. They could not answer even the easiest written questions. Four million of them most likely cannot speak English either. The study shows that more than forty percent of adults can perform only simple reading activities. For many, even that can be difficult. Fifty-six percent of adults can perform moderate or complex activities. Moderate can mean finding information in a book. Of that number, thirteen percent can perform complex tasks like comparing two different newspaper commentaries. Researchers say part of the problem is that many young Americans do not read as much for pleasure anymore. Also, there are greater numbers of non-English speaking immigrants. Reading skills can directly affect the ability to earn a living. The best readers were found to earn up to twenty-eight thousand dollars a year more than those who lacked simple reading skills. Yet, compared to the last study in nineteen ninety-two, adult reading skills were about the same or lower across every level of education. This was true even among people who have completed college. By race and ethnic group, blacks and Asians had the biggest increases in English reading skills. But levels decreased among Hispanics. Experts say, however, that while many Hispanics are unable to read in English, they may read well in Spanish. Overall, American adults improved the most in answering questions that involved numbers. Even so, the test found that the average adult cannot do much more than perform simple, everyday math. The Department of Education says the literacy findings show the need for reforms especially at the high school level. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Brianna Blake. And it can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: test-ignore
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-04-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Theodore Roosevelt Becomes America's Youngest Leader
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The war between the United States and Spain in eighteen ninety-eight was one of the shortest in American history. The fighting lasted about three months. Yet that short war led to long-term changes for America. Victory made the United States an increasingly important world power. This is Shep O'Neal. Today, Larry West and I tell about those developments. VOICE TWO: The United States received several of Spain's island colonies as part of the peace agreement. The most important was the Philippines. VOICE TWO: The United States received several of Spain's island colonies as part of the peace agreement. The most important was the Philippines. Many Americans thought the United States should not have overseas territories. But President William McKinley thought the Philippines were unprepared for independence. He decided to keep the islands and prepare the people for self-government in the future. A Filipino nationalist group led by Emilio Aguinaldo rejected American control. Aguinaldo declared the formation of a Philippine republic. And he started a guerrilla war against the occupying forces. VOICE ONE: The rebellion in the Philippines became a major issue in America's presidential election of nineteen hundred. VOICE ONE: The rebellion in the Philippines became a major issue in America's presidential election of nineteen hundred. The Republican Party re-nominated William McKinley as president. And it nominated a hero of the Spanish-American War, New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt, as vice president. The Democratic Party, for the second time, nominated Congressman William Jennings Bryan as president. It nominated a former vice president, Adlai Stevenson, as vice president again. VOICE TWO: William Jennings Bryan campaigned against the American take-over of the Philippines. He received support from a new group, The Anti-Imperialist League. Members included leading American politicians, businessmen, and writers. VOICE TWO: William Jennings Bryan campaigned against the American take-over of the Philippines. He received support from a new group, The Anti-Imperialist League. Members included leading American politicians, businessmen, and writers. President McKinley did not campaign much. He let vice presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt do it. Roosevelt spoke of America's success as a new economic and political power in the world. He said the Republican Party was responsible. The majority of voters liked what Roosevelt said. They elected the Republican candidates. VOICE ONE: The Republican victory destroyed the hopes of many nationalists in the Philippines. With William McKinley in the White House again, they saw little chance of gaining independence. Nationalist leader Emilio Aguinaldo, however, refused to surrender. As long as he remained free, the guerrilla war would continue. VOICE ONE: The Republican victory destroyed the hopes of many nationalists in the Philippines. With William McKinley in the White House again, they saw little chance of gaining independence. Nationalist leader Emilio Aguinaldo, however, refused to surrender. As long as he remained free, the guerrilla war would continue. For months, American forces tried without success to find him. Finally, with the help of a tribe of Filipino mercenary soldiers called the Maccabebe Scouts, they captured him. Aguinaldo signed an agreement to support the United States. With this agreement, the rebellion ended on the island of Luzon. But it continued for more than a year in the southern Philippines. Hostilities ended officially on July fourth, nineteen-oh-two. VOICE TWO: American occupation of the Philippines made the United States a major power in the far east. As such, it began to develop new policies toward Asia. Especially a new policy toward China. VOICE TWO: American occupation of the Philippines made the United States a major power in the far east. As such, it began to develop new policies toward Asia. Especially a new policy toward China. Americans had been trading with China for years, but not heavily. As the American economy grew, however, businessmen saw China -- with a population of four hundred million people -- as a great market for American products. Other countries were interested in this market, too. Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia all claimed special rights in parts of China. They began to divide the country into areas called "spheres of influence. " It seemed these areas could become foreign colonies. Then the United States would be cut off from trading directly with China. To prevent that from happening, American Secretary of State John Hay proposed what became known as the "open door" policy. VOICE ONE: Secretary Hay asked the nations involved to agree to equal trading rights for all countries in all parts of China. No nation, he said, should interfere with the rights or powers of any other nation in China. VOICE ONE: Secretary Hay asked the nations involved to agree to equal trading rights for all countries in all parts of China. No nation, he said, should interfere with the rights or powers of any other nation in China. No one welcomed the proposal. But no one rejected it, either. Most of the nations involved said they agreed with the idea. But they said they could not approve it unless everyone else did. Secretary Hay refused to wait for them to act. So in may, nineteen hundred, he announced that all the nations involved had given their approval to the "open door" policy. The new policy was tested very soon. Within a month of Hay's announcement, violence broke out against foreigners in China. VOICE TWO: The attacks were led by a secret group called "Righteous, Harmonious Fists." Foreigners called its members "Boxers."? Boxers hated all foreign influence in China. They organized in areas where foreign influence was strongest. They killed Christian missionaries and Chinese who had accepted the Christian religion. They also destroyed foreign industries, especially railroads. VOICE TWO: The attacks were led by a secret group called "Righteous, Harmonious Fists." Foreigners called its members "Boxers."? Boxers hated all foreign influence in China. They organized in areas where foreign influence was strongest. They killed Christian missionaries and Chinese who had accepted the Christian religion. They also destroyed foreign industries, especially railroads. The Chinese government in beijing supported the Boxer Rebellion. It permitted the boxers to occupy the capital. The rebellion lasted about two months. It ended when an allied force of American, British, French, German, and Japanese soldiers reached Beijing and ended the Boxer occupation. VOICE ONE: The foreign powers began to negotiate with China on paying for damages. The United States was worried about the results. It believed some of the nations involved would use the Boxer Rebellion as a way to gain more control over Chinese territory. VOICE ONE: The foreign powers began to negotiate with China on paying for damages. The United States was worried about the results. It believed some of the nations involved would use the Boxer Rebellion as a way to gain more control over Chinese territory. Secretary of State Hay quickly announced America's policy on the issue. The United States, he said, wanted a settlement which would bring peace and safety to China. The settlement must protect China's territorial rights so it would not be divided into foreign colonies. Britain and Germany agreed. With their help, Secretary Hay got the others to accept money -- not territory -- as payment for damages. The final settlement forced China to pay three hundred thirty-three million dollars. The United States used some of its share to pay for the education of Chinese students in America. VOICE TWO: The results of the boxer rebellion and the Spanish-American War made clear that the new century would have a new world power: the United States. And this new power had a president with the political skills to do the job: William McKinley. VOICE TWO: The results of the boxer rebellion and the Spanish-American War made clear that the new century would have a new world power: the United States. And this new power had a president with the political skills to do the job: William McKinley. In September, nineteen-oh-one, President McKinley made a major foreign policy speech at the Pan-American Fair in Buffalo, New York. He spoke about the importance and the promise of America's new position in the world. The next day, President McKinley went to the fair's temple of music. He planned to spend several hours meeting the public and shaking hands. VOICE ONE: A young man waited in line to see him. When the young man stepped in front of McKinley, McKinley reached out to shake his hand. Two shots rang out from a gun the man had hidden under a cloth. One of the bullets struck McKinley in the stomach. VOICE ONE: A young man waited in line to see him. When the young man stepped in front of McKinley, McKinley reached out to shake his hand. Two shots rang out from a gun the man had hidden under a cloth. One of the bullets struck McKinley in the stomach. The president was taken to an emergency hospital on the fairgrounds. He was not conscious. The bullet had damaged his stomach, pancreas, and one kidney. But doctors did not believe he was in danger of dying. VOICE TWO: The man who shot McKinley was Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz was an anarchist. He believed all rulers were enemies of the people. He believed the people had the right to kill them. Czolgosz also was mentally ill. He had tried to join several anarchist groups. They refused to accept him, however, because of his mental condition. VOICE TWO: The man who shot McKinley was Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz was an anarchist. He believed all rulers were enemies of the people. He believed the people had the right to kill them. Czolgosz also was mentally ill. He had tried to join several anarchist groups. They refused to accept him, however, because of his mental condition. After shooting President McKinley, Czolgosz explained why he had done it. He said it was not right for one man to receive so much public honor, while he received none. VOICE ONE: For two days, the president remained in a coma. Then his condition changed. He regained consciousness and was able to talk. He rested and became stronger. VOICE ONE: For two days, the president remained in a coma. Then his condition changed. He regained consciousness and was able to talk. He rested and became stronger. Then the president's condition changed again. An infection developed in his wound. It spread throughout his body. In another few days, he was dead. VOICE TWO: Vice President Roosevelt hurried to Buffalo. He went to the house where the president's body lay. Then he went to another house to be sworn in as president. He was forty-two years old -- the youngest man ever to hold the office. VOICE TWO: Vice President Roosevelt hurried to Buffalo. He went to the house where the president's body lay. Then he went to another house to be sworn in as president. He was forty-two years old -- the youngest man ever to hold the office. Roosevelt declared that the administration would go on as before. "It is my aim," he said, "to continue unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace, the prosperity, and the honor of our beloved country." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Shep O’neal and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Shep O’neal and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: R.C. Gorman: Remembering the 'Picasso of American Painters'
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear music by a jazz group … Answer a question about Pepsi-Cola … And tell about a Native American artist. R. C. Gorman The painter R.C. Gorman was once called “the Picasso of American Painters.” His beautiful representations of Native American women in traditional clothing made him famous. The artist died recently. Faith Lapidus tells about his life and work. FAITH LAPIDUS: Rudolph Carl Gorman was born on Navajo tribal land in Chinle, Arizona. He was called R.C. from birth in either nineteen thirty-two or thirty-three. The artist said he was never sure exactly how old he was. R.C.’s father, Carl Gorman, was also a painter. But he was more famous for his work as a “code talker” during World War Two. He was one of about thirty Navajo who developed a secret communication system with their native language. It permitted commanders to pass battle plans and other information by radio without knowledge by the enemy. R.C. helped work with the family’s farm animals as a young boy in Canyon de Chelley [pronounced shay]. He said he would draw on rocks and in the dirt. He served in the United States Navy before college. Then he studied art and literature at Northern Arizona University and in Mexico. He was greatly influenced by the artists of that country, including Diego Rivera. Gorman first became successful after some art shows in the late nineteen fifties. He was living in San Francisco, California at the time. He moved a few years later to Taos, New Mexico. He opened an art gallery there in nineteen sixty-eight. He was the first American Indian to own one. R.C. Gorman was most famous for his pictures of Native women. His representations came from clean lines and large blocks of color. There were few details in most paintings. One of his paintings would show a moon, a mountain and a woman sitting beneath them. Or a beautiful brown face and neck behind a large bouquet of bright yellow flowers. R.C. Gorman was not only a painter. He also was a sculptor. And he wrote books about art and cooking. He died in November in Albuquerque, New Mexico. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson called Gorman a giant in the arts. He said the painter was a great spokesman for the Navajo Nation and for artists around the world. Pepsi-Cola HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener in Burma. Ko maw gyi wants to know the history of the soft drink Pepsi-Cola. Pepsi Cola started in a drug store in New Bern, North Carolina in eighteen ninety-six. At the time, most drug stores included a long, high, narrow table where people could gather socially. They could order sweet drinks called sodas. Caleb Bradham was the pharmacist at the drug store in New Bern. He prepared medicines for patients. He also was well known for his special drinks. Mister Bradham wanted to make a drink that tasted good, could increase a person’s energy and help the body process food. The pharmacist created a mixture of bubbly water, sugar, vanilla, oils and kola nuts and tried it out on the New Bern community. The drink became very popular. For a while, it was known simply as “Brad’s Drink.”? Mister Bradham re-named it Pepsi-Cola in eighteen ninety-eight. Demand for the drink grew. Drugstores in nearby towns began to order large amounts of the syrup used to make the drink. Mister Bradham realized it was time to build a whole company around the drink. In nineteen-oh-three, the pharmacist received legal ownership of the name Pepsi-Cola from the United States government. He moved the soft drink production to a large building in New Bern. In his first year as Pepsi-Cola owner, Mister Bradham sold more than thirty thousand liters of syrup. The former pharmacist did well in business for many years. By nineteen fifteen Pepsi-Cola was worth more than one million dollars in sales and property. But World War One affected the soda industry. When the war ended, the price of sugar increased. Mister Bradham bought huge amounts of sugar because he thought the price would go higher. But then the price of sugar fell to almost nothing. This resulted in huge losses for the Pepsi-Cola Company. Caleb Bradham lost his company in nineteen twenty-three. Pepsi-Cola has had several owners since that time. Today, it is part of a larger group of companies called PepsiCo. Last month, PepsiCo made history. For the first time since its creation, the value of the company’s stock was worth more than that of its main competitor, the Coca-Cola company. The Brad Mehldau Trio HOST: The Brad Mehldau Trio is a jazz music group. Last September, the production company Nonesuch released a collection of the group’s recordings. The collection, or album, is called “Day is Done.”? The album has been popular in the United States. Pat Bodnar tells us more. PAT BODNAR: Brad Mehldau plays piano. Larry Grenadier plays bass and Jeff Ballard plays drums. Critics say “Day is Done” is filled with music that represents changing color, emotion and meaning. Several of the pieces are “cover” songs. They are jazz versions of famous songs written and performed by other artists. These include songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach and the British group Radiohead. Here is an example. Brad Mehldau plays his version of the Beatles’ song, “Martha My Dear.” (MUSIC) Brad Mehldau has recorded ten albums in the past ten years. He performs by himself or with the two other members of his group. He also wrote two songs for “Day is Done.”? This one is called “Turtle Town.” (MUSIC) The Brad Mehldau Trio has performed several times in Europe during the past three months. It will also perform soon in the United States and Canada. We leave you with the group’s version of a song written by Red Evans and David Mann and first recorded in the nineteen fifties. The song is called “No Moon at All.”? (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Gold Prices Reach Their Highest Levels in Years
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Gold has long been valued, and not just for its beauty. The metal is also valuable for its resistance to chemical reactions, and for its electrical qualities. But some people have always valued gold most as an investment, even without any guarantee of growth in its value. For years, gold prices fell. Now gold is in the news because prices have risen to their highest levels since the early nineteen eighties. Gold is trading above five hundred dollars a troy ounce, about thirty-one grams. There seems to be no simple explanation for the increase in gold prices. Experts say investments in precious metals have increased in general. This is true even without the economic warning signs that have traditionally led many investors to buy gold. In any case, the common belief in the security of gold has a long history. From nineteen hundred to nineteen thirty-three, United States money was fully based on gold. In fact, under the gold standard, anyone who wanted could exchange paper money for gold coins. But President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress began to cut the link between gold and money. Congress passed the Legal Tender Act of nineteen thirty-three. All United States money, paper or metal, became acceptable as payment for all debts, public and private. In nineteen thirty-four, the Gold Reserve Act made it illegal to use gold as a form of currency within the United States. But the gold standard remained important to international trade. In nineteen forty-four, the United Nations held a meeting at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The Bretton Woods conference established a new international monetary system. Other currencies were linked to the value of the American dollar, and the dollar remained linked to the value of gold. The official price of gold was controlled. It stayed at about thirty-five dollars an ounce until the late nineteen sixties. In nineteen seventy-one, the gold standard ended in the United States. By nineteen seventy-six, the International Monetary Fund agreed to a new system of exchange rates. But the process did not go smoothly. Gold prices reached record levels in the early eighties, at a time when inflation also jumped. Today, gold remains important to the wealth of nations. But money supplies and gold supplies no longer have the relationship they had in the past. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Now for Israeli Politics, and Middle East Peace?
* Byline: Written by Avi Arditti with VOA News reports

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The stroke that left Ariel Sharon fighting for his life this week also left political experts debating the effects on Middle East peace efforts. The seventy-seven-year-old former general was expected to win a record third term as prime minister in Israeli elections this March. He held a strong lead over former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party. Mister Sharon recently left Likud to form the Kadima Party. VOA's Jim Teeple in Jerusalem reported Friday that the Kadima Party could still win, based on public opinion studies. But Tel Aviv University political scientist Joshua Teitelbaum says the Kadima Party may soon lose support. He thinks some of the popularity now is a "sympathy vote." Mister Sharon suffered severe bleeding in the brain Wednesday. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, became acting prime minister. As a young man, Ariel Sharon joined an armed Jewish group seeking to force British troops out of Palestine. The British administration ended after World War Two. But Arabs rejected a United Nations plan to divide the area into independent Arab and Jewish states. Arab armies invaded Israel a day after it became a nation in nineteen forty-eight. Ariel Sharon was severely wounded in Israel's War of Independence. Mister Sharon became known as a fearless military commander. But he was also criticized as someone who could act without restraint. In nineteen eighty-two, as defense minister, he organized the invasion of southern Lebanon. He led the offensive to stop attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization of Yasser Arafat. But armed Lebanese groups killed hundreds of Palestinians at two refugee camps under Israeli control near Beirut. Mister Sharon was removed from office. Israeli investigators found him indirectly responsible. He began a return to politics in two thousand. Many critics saw his visit to a disputed holy place in Jerusalem as incitement for more violence by Palestinians. That violence played a part in the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Mister Sharon won a huge victory as prime minister in two thousand one. Israelis re-elected him in two thousand three. Last year Palestinians elected Mahmud Abbas as their president after Yasser Arafat died. The election renewed hopes for a final peace agreement, with the goal of a Palestinian state. But progress slowed. Shukri Abed at the Middle East Institute in Washington calls Ariel Sharon "the father of building settlements" in Gaza and the West Bank. He says many Palestinians probably hated him for his strong positions. But last year Ariel Sharon completed the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza. That followed an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire. Mister Sharon's decision to withdraw from Gaza caused trouble within the Likud Party. In November, he and some allies formed their new centrist Kadima Party. Kadima means "forward" in Hebrew. Now people are waiting to see what direction the future takes. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Marian Anderson: Her Voice Became Famous Around the World
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ? VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we begin the first of two reports about singer Marian Anderson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A tall black woman is singing in a concert hall. Her eyes are closed. She is not looking at the crowd of people sitting silently before her. But she feels their presence. She tries to make the music touch their minds and hearts. Her deep, powerful voice reaches out to all parts of the concert hall. She finishes, and there is a long silence. Then the people clap and cheer. They call out for another song. And they call out her name: Marian Anderson. VOICE TWO: Marian Anderson was an American. But she found success in Europe before finding it in her own country. She was born in eighteen ninety-seven in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up surrounded by poverty. Yet she remembered her family as a happy one. The Andersons were deeply religious and involved in their church. It was in church where Marian first began to sing in public. She was six years old. The songs she sang were spirituals -- the religious songs that African Americans sang as slaves. The songs are about suffering, and the hope of a better life after death. VOICE ONE: Marian's interest in music grew as she got older. When she was eight, her father brought home an old piano. She never thought she would be able to play it. One day, however, she heard piano music coming from an open window. She looked inside the house. There she saw a woman, playing ever so beautifully. Her skin was dark, like Marian's. She knew then that if another black woman could play the piano so could she. Marian Anderson The Andersons were too poor to pay someone to teach Marian. So she was able to teach herself only a few simple songs. Her voice remained her most important musical instrument. VOICE TWO: Marian's father died when she was ten years old. She had to go to work to help support her family. She continued to sing at church on Sunday. Soon, other churches heard of the young girl with the beautiful, deep voice. They invited her to sing for them. Marian accepted. She began singing in African-American churches all over Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: At about this time, several people told Marian that she should have a voice teacher. They told her that a beautiful voice can be destroyed if it is not trained. Marian said she always sang naturally, without any thought of how she did it. She realized that she would need some training. The people in Marian's church were very proud of her. They wanted to help, even though many of them were as poor as the Anderson family. They collected enough money to pay for a few voice lessons. She went to a local music school in Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: A group of girls was waiting to enter the school. Before Marian could enter, however, a young white woman who worked in the school told her to go away. "We do not take black people here," she said. Marian was shocked. Never before had anyone insulted her because of her race. Years later, she remembered her feelings: VOICE ONE: "I just looked at the woman. I was shocked that such words could come from someone so young. I did not understand how a person surrounded by the joy of music could not have some of its sense and beauty inside her. It was as if a cold and horrible hand had touched me. I had never heard such brutal words. My skin was different, but not my feelings. " VOICE TWO: Marian Anderson was to hear those hateful words many times again during her life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marian Anderson continued to sing at churches and special gatherings. Her singing became more widely known. But she still felt that her voice needed training. Finally, a friend promised to help her meet a well-known voice teacher. The teacher was Giuseppe Boghetti. Only the best singers in Philadelphia were his students. Marian went to see Mister Boghetti. She was nervous, because she wanted to please him. He told her that he already had too many students. He made it clear that he would listen only because he knew her friend. Marian's nervousness disappeared when she began to sing. The song she chose was one she knew best. It was called "Deep River". (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mister Boghetti sat quietly when Marian finished. There were tears in his eyes. Finally, he said: "You will start training at once. I will need just two years with you. After that, you will be able to go anywhere and sing for anybody. " Marian Anderson was very happy. Her friends agreed to help pay for her lessons. Mister Boghetti taught her how to control and direct her voice. He also taught her how to breathe correctly. Marian learned to sing classical music -- the songs of the great European composers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marian Anderson grew to love opera, because it joined singing and acting. But Mister Boghetti advised her not to choose opera as a way to make a living. He knew that black singers in America were not permitted to sing with white opera groups. Instead, he told her she could be successful by singing in concert theaters. She followed his advice. In nineteen twenty-four, Anderson sang in New York City for the first time. In those days, a singer had to be recognized in New York to be successful everywhere else. She sang in one of the most important concert theaters in the city -- Town Hall. She sang some spirituals and some classical music. She wanted to make sure she would be judged as a singer who happened to be black -- not as a black singer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Marian Anderson's town hall concert was not successful. Few people came to listen. The next day, newspapers sharply criticized her. They said she sang the European music without feeling or understanding. Anderson was crushed. She decided to return to Philadelphia. She thought about never singing again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. We continue the story of Marian Anderson and how she went on to gain great success as a singer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: To Build A Fire
* Byline: Written by Jack London

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "To Build a Fire."? It was written by Jack London. Here is Harry Monroe with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: The man walked down the trail on a cold, gray day. Pure white snow and ice covered the Earth for as far as he could see. This was his first winter in Alaska. He was wearing heavy clothes and fur boots. But he still felt cold and uncomfortable. The man was on his way to a camp near Henderson Creek. His friends were already there. He expected to reach Henderson Creek by six o'clock that evening. It would be dark by then. His friends would have a fire and hot food ready for him. A dog walked behind the man. It was a big gray animal, half dog and half wolf. The dog did not like the extreme cold. It knew the weather was too cold to travel. The man continued to walk down the trail. He came to a frozen stream called Indian Creek. He began to walk on the snow-covered ice. It was a trail that would lead him straight to Henderson Creek and his friends. As he walked, he looked carefully at the ice in front of him. Once, he stopped suddenly, and then walked around a part of the frozen stream. He saw that an underground spring flowed under the ice at that spot. It made the ice thin. If he stepped there, he might break through the ice into a pool of water. To get his boots wet in such cold weather might kill him. His feet would turn to ice quickly. He could freeze to death. At about twelve o'clock, the man decided to stop to eat his lunch. He took off the glove on his right hand. He opened his jacket and shirt, and pulled out his bread and meat. This took less than twenty seconds. Yet, his fingers began to freeze. He hit his hand against his leg several times until he felt a sharp pain. Then he quickly put his glove on his hand. He made a fire, beginning with small pieces of wood and adding larger ones. He sat on a snow-covered log and ate his lunch. He enjoyed the warm fire for a few minutes. Then he stood up and started walking on the frozen stream again. A half hour later, it happened. At a place where the snow seemed very solid, the ice broke. The man's feet sank into the water. It was not deep, but his legs got wet to the knees. The man was angry. The accident would delay his arrival at the camp. He would have to build a fire now to dry his clothes and boots. He walked over to some small trees. They were covered with snow. In their branches were pieces of dry grass and wood left by flood waters earlier in the year. He put several large pieces of wood on the snow, under one of the trees. On top of the wood, he put some grass and dry branches. He pulled off his gloves, took out his matches, and lighted the fire. He fed the young flame with more wood. As the fire grew stronger, he gave it larger pieces of wood. He worked slowly and carefully. At sixty degrees below zero, a man with wet feet must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. While he was walking, his blood had kept all parts of his body warm. Now that he had stopped, cold was forcing his blood to withdraw deeper into his body. His wet feet had frozen. He could not feel his fingers. His nose was frozen, too. The skin all over his body felt cold. Now, however, his fire was beginning to burn more strongly. He was safe. He sat under the tree and thought of the old men in Fairbanks. The old men had told him that no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero. Yet here he was. He had had an accident. He was alone. And he had saved himself. He had built a fire. Those old men were weak, he thought. A real man could travel alone. If a man stayed calm, he would be all right. The man's boots were covered with ice. The strings on his boots were as hard as steel. He would have to cut them with his knife. He leaned back against the tree to take out his knife. Suddenly, without warning, a heavy mass of snow dropped down. His movement had shaken the young tree only a tiny bit. But it was enough to cause the branches of the tree to drop their heavy load. The man was shocked. He sat and looked at the place where the fire had been. The old men had been right, he thought. If he had another man with him, he would not be in any danger now. The other man could build the fire. Well, it was up to him to build the fire again. This time, he must not fail. The man collected more wood. He reached into his pocket for the matches. But his fingers were frozen. He could not hold them. He began to hit his hands with all his force against his legs. After a while, feeling came back to his fingers. The man reached again into his pocket for the matches. But the tremendous cold quickly drove the life out of his fingers. All the matches fell onto the snow. He tried to pick one up, but failed. The man pulled on his glove and again beat his hand against his leg. Then he took the gloves off both hands and picked up all the matches. He gathered them together. Holding them with both hands, he scratched the matches along his leg. They immediately caught fire. He held the blazing matches to a piece of wood. After a while, he became aware that he could smell his hands burning. Then he began to feel the pain. He opened his hands, and the blazing matches fell on to the snow. The flame went out in a puff of gray smoke. The man looked up. The dog was still watching him. The man got an idea. He would kill the dog and bury his hands inside its warm body. When the feeling came back to his fingers, he could build another fire. He called to the dog. The dog heard danger in the man's voice. It backed away. The man called again. This time the dog came closer. The man reached for his knife. But he had forgotten that he could not bend his fingers. He could not kill the dog, because he could not hold his knife. The fear of death came over the man. He jumped up and began to run. The running began to make him feel better. Maybe running would make his feet warm. If he ran far enough, he would reach his friends at Henderson Creek. They would take care of him. It felt strange to run and not feel his feet when they hit the ground. He fell several times. He decided to rest a while. As he lay in the snow, he noticed that he was not shaking. He could not feel his nose or fingers or feet. Yet, he was feeling quite warm and comfortable. He realized he was going to die. Well, he decided, he might as well take it like a man. There were worse ways to die. The man closed his eyes and floated into the most comfortable sleep he had ever known. The dog sat facing him, waiting. Finally, the dog moved closer to the man and caught the smell of death. The animal threw back its head. It let out a long, soft cry to the cold stars in the black sky. And then it tuned and ran toward Henderson Creek…where it knew there was food and a fire. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the AMERICAN STORY called "To Build a Fire."? It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Harry Monroe. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O'Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Working With Clay: A How-to Guide
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I'm?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Clay is found almost everywhere in the world. It is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years. The rocks change in both chemical and physical ways. Chemically, elements like potassium and aluminum are added and taken away. Physically, the rocks break down into smaller and smaller pieces. After a long time, some of the rock changes to clay. Clay is important because it is used around the world to make containers of all kinds. Potters add water to soften the clay. This makes it easier to form into shapes by hand or by machine. Then it is fired in an extremely hot stove. ?The result is a container with a hard surface that will last for many years. In many countries, clay was formed from volcanoes. This kind of clay usually contains many minerals. So the fires to make containers from volcanic clay must be hotter than those used for non-volcanic clay. The fires may be as hot as one thousand four hundred degrees Celsius. It is also important to dry the clay containers slowly. This means that the highest temperature should not be reached too fast. You can add materials to clay to gain desired results. For example, you can add sand to prevent tiny breaks or lines from forming in the finished product. But you should not use sand from the coasts of oceans. Instead, you should use sand from rivers or from other areas of land that are not near the sea. You can usually find good clay in low areas of islands or land, especially if volcanoes helped form the land. Clay often exists in fields covered with some water. The clay will be found about one meter below the ground. River banks often also have clay about one meter or less under the surface. You can recognize clay because it is very shiny when it is wet. You can also perform a test. Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread. Then press it in your hand until it is about the size of an egg. It is probably clay if it holds together instead of falling apart when you stop pressing. You can learn more about working with clay from publications that can be ordered online at enterpriseworks dot o-r-g. Click on the link for VITA publications. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Steve Ember? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 'Phantom of the Opera' Rewrites Broadway History After 18 Years
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we hear music from “The Phantom of the Opera.”? That show sets a record this week. (MUSIC) A mysterious man who covers his deformed face with a mask. A beautiful young singer who falls under the man's control. Her lover, who does not believe that this phantom exists. The story has made “The Phantom of the Opera” the longest-running show ever performed on Broadway. Its success is told in numbers: as of Monday night, seven thousand four hundred eighty-six performances in New York City alone. There have been tens of thousands of performances around the world. 'Phantom' has brought in more than three thousand million dollars in ticket sales. VOICE TWO: Until now, the longest-running show on Broadway was "Cats."? Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber who wrote the music for "Phantom," was also responsible for "Cats."? That show closed in New Year in two thousand. “The Phantom of the Opera” was first seen at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in nineteen eighty-six. The show opened in New York on January twenty-sixth, nineteen eighty-eight. It has won many top awards in Britain and the United States. VOICE ONE: “The Phantom of the Opera” is based on a book by Gaston Leroux. The Phantom lives in a strange world under the Paris Opera House. He loves a young woman named Christine. She wants to be a great singer. The Phantom wants Christine to sing his music. But she falls in love with a wealthy and good-looking man named Raoul. Listen as Christine and Raoul -- Sarah Brightman and Steve Barton -- sing “Think of Me.”?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Christine loves Raoul. But she wants to be an opera singer. The Phantom gives her singing lessons. She believes he is her "Angel of Music."? Michael Crawford is our Phantom. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Phantom takes Christine to his place under the opera house. He believes that only Christine can sing his music. He calls it “the music of the night.”? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? In the Phantom’s strange home, Christine faints. She wakes up hours later. She decides to pull away the mask that always covers most of the Phantom’s face. She is horrified at what she sees. Christine and the Phantom return to the surface. But he tells her, now that she has seen his face, she will never be free. The Phantom demands that the producers of a new opera make Christine the lead singer. They refuse. The Phantom becomes angry. He does something to the voice of the lead singer to make her sound terrible. And he kills an opera worker and throws the body onto the stage. VOICE ONE:?????? Christine and Raoul flee. Raoul tries to tell her there is no Phantom of the Opera. But she says she has seen the man. Raoul promises to protect her. They sing a love song. The song is called “All I Ask of You.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Phantom hears their song. In great anger, he makes a huge chandelier fall onto the stage. Act Two opens months later at a masquerade party. The guests all wear masks to hide their identity. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Raoul wants to announce that he and Christine are planning to marry. But she fears that the Phantom would not like it. The Phantom appears at the party, uninvited. He orders the opera managers to perform an opera he has written. At first they refuse. But then, Raoul and the opera managers decide to use the Phantom’s musical drama to trap him. They are sure the Phantom will appear if Christine has a lead part. VOICE TWO: Christine does not want to sing in the Phantom’s opera. But she hears his voice calling to her. Christine goes to the burial place of her father. She sings to him. The song is called “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Phantom is at the burial ground. He wants Christine to join him. But Raoul comes and takes her away. She sings in the Phantom’s opera. On opening night, guards and policemen surround the theater. They hope to catch the Phantom. With Christine singing, the Phantom appears on stage as expected. But things do not happen as Raoul and the managers had planned. The Phantom escapes with Christine. She again looks at his face. This time, instead of fear, she reacts with sympathy. VOICE TWO: Raoul follows them. The Phantom gives Christine a terrible choice. She can stay with him forever -- or he will kill Raoul. The Phantom says they have reached the point of no return. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At this point, Christine tells the Phantom that forcing her to make a choice has changed her feelings again. Now, instead of feeling sorry for him, she hates him. This causes the Phantom of the Opera to make a decision of his own. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Winter Cold: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Snow
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Winter weather has returned to northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas. Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain. VOICE TWO: Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two and one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two and one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two and one-half centimeters of rain. VOICE ONE: Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced. Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther. VOICE TWO: Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance. Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four thousand nine hundred meters above sea level. VOICE TWO: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred snowstorms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington. VOICE ONE: People in many other areas have little or no snowfall. In nineteen thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice. Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. A few years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States. It struck the Southeast in January ninety ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast. The storm was blamed for more than one hundred deaths. It forced nine states to declare emergency measures. Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest. In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one meter high. Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles. Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two. A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast. In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down. Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations. VOICE ONE: People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack. It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies. VOICE TWO: Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat. People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Agriculture: Shrinking but More Productive
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A listener in Burkina Faso named Irisso wants to know the place that agriculture occupies in the United States economy. The answer might be surprising. The United States has the largest economy in the world. The size of an economy is usually described in terms of the Gross Domestic Product. The Gross Domestic Product, or G.D.P., is the value of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. In two thousand four, the United States had a G.D.P. estimated at close to twelve million million dollars. What percentage of that was agriculture?? The government says just nine-tenths of one percent. Farm workers make up an even smaller percentage of American labor: seven-tenths of one percent. So what is the Gross Domestic Product mainly a product of these days?? In two thousand four, almost twenty percent came from industry -- and almost eighty percent came from services. The number of farms continues to decrease in America. The Census Bureau counted a little more than two million farms in two thousand four. About half of those farms had less than forty hectares. Still, farm earnings have risen to record levels in recent years. Agricultural productivity continues to increase because of new technology and methods. But the Agriculture Department estimates that nine percent of farm income last year came from government payments. That number is expected to decrease in the future. Exports have provided American farmers with an average of about twenty-five percent of their money for the last fifteen years. What is the top export by value?? Soybeans. Canada and Mexico are two of the three biggest markets for American farmers. In fact, in two thousand two, Canada replaced Japan for the first time as the top buyer of American agricultural exports. The Department of Agriculture says exports to the European Union are slowing. But exports to other countries within the Americas and to Asia are growing. The United States has traditionally enjoyed an agricultural trade surplus. But that surplus has been eaten away as the United States imports more and more food. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. If you have a question, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer mail personally, but we might be able to answer your question on our program. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-10-voa7.cfm
* Headline: International Sustained Dialogue: Solving Long-Term Conflicts
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a process that helps people involved in long-term conflicts. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Middle East, Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. These are some areas of the world where there are long-lasting conflicts. A new organization is working with citizens in those areas on a process to develop new relationships to end the conflicts. The process is called sustained dialogue. Sustained dialogue is a continuing discussion. It is the central work of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue in Washington, D.C. The Institute leads some dialogues. It also works with other organizations that want to learn how to develop sustained dialogues in their countries. The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue began in October, two thousand two. Harold Saunders is president. He was assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. In the late nineteen seventies he helped to negotiate the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. He has been doing international work for the Kettering Foundation of Dayton, Ohio, for almost twenty years. VOICE TWO: Sustained dialogue helps citizens who have violently disagreed and fought with each other to change their relationships. The process is aimed at citizens, not government officials. Mister Saunders says sustained dialogue is for people who are so angry at each other that they are not ready to work together in any setting. Dialogue is the beginning step for people who cannot negotiate because they are not ready to cooperate. In many situations, groups are so hostile to each other that they cannot talk. But, Mister Saunders says, usually in those groups there are a few people who want peace so much they are willing to talk to the enemy. Either they decide to reach out to each other or someone else creates a space for dialogue and invites the conflicting parties to come. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sustained dialogue is different in two main ways from other methods of trying to end long-term conflicts. First, it centers on the relationships that cause the hostilities. Most other methods begin by trying to get people to deal with the issues. Sustained dialogue proves that people involved in conflict can effectively deal with their problems if they first change their relationships. Mister Saunders says that sustained dialogue also accepts that it takes time to change relationships. He says progress does not happen in just one meeting. The sustained dialogue movement has developed a process that brings the same people together for many meetings, sometimes for years. VOICE TWO: Harold Saunders says that those involved in sustained dialogue have learned that relationships develop in five different steps. These five stages show the progress of interactions when individuals from different groups meet repeatedly over a long time. Recognizing these steps helps moderators and people involved in the dialogues to know how to move on. Mister Saunders says, “These stages are what people naturally seem to do when they sit down with their opponents and try to deal with a problem that affects them both.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first stage of the sustained dialogue process is usually the most difficult. That is when people have to make a decision to meet and talk with the enemy. The second stage is “the blame game.”? During the first meetings, those involved express their anger and blame the other side for the conflict. This stage ends when someone says, “What we really need to work on is…”?? When that finally happens, Mister Saunders says, those taking part in the dialogue begin to talk less at each other and more about the problem which affects them all. The third stage in a sustained dialogue is when people begin to define the problem as they understand it. Then they begin to explore what they can do about it. VOICE TWO: The fourth stage is when those taking part in the dialogue say, “If we want to move in this direction, what do we do to get there?”?? They look at what may block them from reaching their goal, and the way around these blocks. They consider who can remove the blocks and in what order moves should be made. During the first four stages, all of the meetings are private and the dialogue discussions are kept secret. The fifth stage moves the dialogue and design for action into the general population. It is then the people involved in the dialogue go back to their groups and try to get others to accept the plan to end divisions between their communities. VOICE ONE: Mister Saunders says this process was used in Tajikistan beginning in nineteen ninety-three. Tajikistan was in the middle of a bitter civil war that began after the Soviet Union ended. The Tajik opposition was split into many groups. In its first year of operation, the dialogue was the only method of communication between people connected to the government and people in the different opposing groups in the country. The dialogue group met six times in that first year. Mister Saunders says that after three meetings, people in the group decided they needed to negotiate. Yet they did not know how to represent the many voices of the opposition. After the fourth dialogue, the different groups in opposition to the government met in Tehran, Iran and formed the united Tajik opposition. They presented a joint proposal to the government. This made it possible for the leaders of the Tajik civil war to join United Nations peace negotiations, which led to a peace agreement in nineteen ninety-seven. But the dialogue did not end. Members continued meeting. In two thousand, they created their own non-government organization, the Public Committee for Democratic Processes, to continue dialogues in seven areas of Tajikistan. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Randa Slim is vice president of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue. She was born in Lebanon and speaks Arabic, French and English. She moved to the United States more than twenty years ago to attend graduate school. In nineteen ninety, Miz Slim began working with the sustained dialogue process as a program officer for the Kettering Foundation. Miz Slim says an Arab-American-European dialogue officially began in two thousand three. The first paper describing this project was written in October, two thousand one. Miz Slim says it was her personal attempt to deal with the horrors of the time. She says, “I felt that the two parts of the world I most care about were heading toward a major confrontation.”? There was an atmosphere of hostility and mistrust. She felt there must be attempts to start developing creative ways for changing the conflicting relations between the people of the United States and Arab nations. The dialogue, she says, is a move in that direction. VOICE ONE: The Arab-American-European dialogue includes five Americans, five Europeans and fourteen Arabs. They meet for three days every four months. In recent meetings they have discussed reforms in the Arab areas and the relations between government, society and religion in both Arab Muslim and Western cultures. Miz Slim says that after two years of joint meetings those taking part in the dialogue are able to think about and work together on issues that concern them all. And, she says, they are developing some joint solutions to the problems even though their cultural and political differences remain. Now, Miz Slim says, the Arab-American-European dialogue is at a stage where it can make its work public. VOICE TWO: Miz Slim says that the sustained dialogue process is effective in great part because it involves the same group of people meeting over a long period of time. This means that the people learn to trust each other personally and then to move on to deal with difficult political issues. Those who take part in dialogues are people of influence, Miz Slim says. The hope is that their efforts to build new relationships will spread through the wider community. VOICE ONE: Next week, we will tell about how the Sustained Dialogue process has been used in South Africa and Zimbabwe and at colleges in the United States. For more information about the work of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, go to www.sustaineddialogue.org. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-10-voa6.cfm
* Headline: What Do 'Refugee,' 'Jump the Couch' and 'Spokesweasel' Have in Common?
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: closing the dictionary on some words of 2005. RS: Grant Barrett is project editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang at Oxford University Press. We talked to him last week before the 16th annual words of the year vote by the American Dialect Society. A.D.S. is a small, scholarly group founded in 1889. AA: We asked Grant Barrett what he thought those words might be. The first one that came to his mind was a word that stirred up debate in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. GRANT BARRETT: "I think one of the top candidates is going to be 'refugee.' In order to qualify for the A.D.S vote, a word doesn't have to be new, it only has to be very important for the last 12 months. And refugee was indeed that, not only because of the number of people who were forced to migrate out of the Gulf Coast area, but because we discovered -- that is, we those people in the language business -- that the general public has a different idea of what refugee means than what is actually in the dictionaries. "For many of them, it's pejorative. It says things about you being poor or unable to take of yourself or unliked by your country or uncared for by your country. So people did not want to be called that. They chose evacuee or a variety of other terms." RS: "And other words?" GRANT BARRETT: "Well, there was a word that at Oxford University Press we have decided is the slang word of the year, and it's actually a slang term. It's called 'jump the couch.' Now this has been discussed ad nauseum, and I think there actually might be a backlash vote against it because it's been discussed so heavily." RS: "Jump the couch." GRANT BARRETT: "That's right. Jump the couch means to exhibit strange or frenetic behavior, and it stems from an appearance by Tom Cruise on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' in May where he was professing his love for Katie Holmes. And he did a sack dance -- you know, the little jig that the football players do when they score a touchdown. He was knuckle-wrestling Oprah. He had her hands in his hands, he was standing over her, it was like a test of strength. And then he leapt up on the guest couch next to her." OPRAH WINFREY: "We've never seen you behave this way before." TOM CRUISE: "I know." OPRAH WINFREY: "Have you ever felt this way before? [shrieks from?audience]" RS: "How would you use jump the couch in a sentence?" GRANT BARRETT: "Well, actually, I should tell you a little bit more about the history of the word and then you'll understand why they're using it the way they're using it. Jump the couch comes from 'jump the shark,' which is a slightly older slang term which means to be past your peak of popularity or to kind of be over with, creatively, to not have any more new ideas in you. "And that comes from an episode of 'Happy Days' where Fonzie water-skied over a shark, and many people feel that was the worst episode and the point of the downturn of that television show." AA: "Right, and so that led to a -- wasn't there a book by that title? It became 'jump the shark' a few years ago. And so now it's -- jump the shark has become jump the couch." GRANT BARRETT: "So if I were to say to you that Tom Cruise had jumped the couch, I mean that he is just doing whatever he can to get attention because he's kind of past his popular prime." RS: "Did you have a favorite this year?" GRANT BARRETT: "I did, and it's a very simple one, and it's very transparent, and it's the word 'spokesweasel.'" RS: "Spokesweasel." GRANT BARRETT: "Do you know what a spokesweasel is?" RS: "No." GRANT BARRETT: "A spokesweasel is a spokesperson or a press person or a public relations person." AA: "So this is not a term of praise." GRANT BARRETT: "Oh, by no means. A weasel goes back, how far back into American history? A weasel has never been a desirable name for a human being. It's always been somebody who's a little slimy and smarmy and you can't respect them, and they have a tendency to fudge the truth or lie or to try to cheat you." RS: "So this is a spokesperson who is a little suspect." GRANT BARRETT: "Yeah, and let's face it, sometimes spokespersons are put in odd positions, aren't they? Because the people they represent do things that the spokesperson has to explain away, and it's a difficult task. So they are forced to kind of not answer the questions as they're asked or not answer them fully, or give an answer that's more of a misdirection than it is an explanation." AA: Grant Barrett, project editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, speaking from Albuquerque, New Mexico. So how did "jump the couch" do in the voting at the American Dialect Society meeting? It was selected as "Best Tom-Cruise-Related Word." RS: As for "refugee," all Katrina-related words came in second in the voting for Word of the Year. The winner was "truthiness." It's defined by the linguists as "the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true." Truthiness comes from a show on the Comedy Central channel on cable television. "The Colbert Report" -- or as they say on the show, "kohl-BEAR re-POR" -- is a satire of the news. AA: And that's the truth! That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and all of our reports are at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-10-voa8.cfm
* Headline: What Happens in a Stroke? Experts Liken It to a 'Brain Attack'
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. A false-color image of a brain affected by a stroke.Everyone has heard of a heart attack. But what about a "brain attack"?? Some medical experts say that is one way to think of a stroke. On December eighteenth, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a minor stroke. Then, last Wednesday, the seventy-seven-year-old leader had a severe stroke with bleeding in the brain. There are two major kinds of strokes. The more common is an ischemic stroke. A blood clot blocks or restricts the flow of blood to the brain. Brain cells begin to die. About ninety percent of strokes are the ischemic kind. Hemorrhagic strokes are more serious. A blood vessel in the brain bursts. There is bleeding into or around the brain. Mister Sharon had to have operations to stop the bleeding. Doctors also took another step to ease the pressure on his brain. They gave him drugs to create what is known as a medically induced coma. Then, on Monday, they began to wake him. Doctors reported signs of improvement in his condition. But it was too soon to measure possible brain damage. Each side of the brain controls the opposite side of the body. In most people, the left side of the brain controls speech and language. Experts say a stroke on the right side, like Mister Sharon had, often causes some loss of movement. Strokes can result in temporary or permanent disability. Common warning signs of a stroke are sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm or leg. Others signs include trouble speaking or understanding, loss of balance or a sudden, severe headache. Last Wednesday Mister Sharon felt some pain in his chest and weakness. Overweight people are at greater risk of a stroke. Other risk factors include high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol levels in the blood. Strokes are the third leading cause of death in the United States, Canada and Japan, after heart disease and cancer. There are drugs designed to target the effects of a stroke while it is happening. After an ischemic stroke, doctors may give blood thinners, as in the case of Mister Sharon in December. Experts say the possible risk, however, is a greater chance of a bleeding stroke. In any case, doctors say it is important to seek treatment for a stroke right away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports can be found on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-10-voa10.cfm
* Headline: Self-Instruction: Five New Year's Resolutions for English Learners
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker suggests five resolutions for people who want to improve their English in the New Year. LIDA BAKER: "My first resolution that I would recommend people make is to spend a certain amount of time listening to English -- and it can be five minutes a day or it can be 10 minutes a week or it can be whatever suits a person's work schedule, life schedule or whatever. But it's really important to set goals and to stick to them. And it would be very helpful if people had Internet access to do this, because what I'm going to recommend is listening to sites that have scripts included. " RS: "What do you do if you don't have access to a computer, how can you listen better? LIDA BAKER: "Well, almost everyone all over the world has access to pop music. And one of my resolutions would be to spend time listening to English music. The advantage of listening to music is that it's a really wonderful way to work on your pronunciation, because you get a feeling for the stress and the rhythm of the language when you're singing. And also music is full of idioms, so it's a terrific way to learn colloquial vocabulary and to work on your pronunciation. And a third advantage of listening to music is that it's really easy to remember. "So for people who have access only to a radio, even they can do something to improve their English just by listening to pop music. And I might add, if you do have access to the Internet, there are lots of Internet sites that will give you the lyrics to pop songs. Do a search, type 'music' or 'songs' plus 'lyrics,' and you'll find sites where you can type in the name of the song and it will give you the lyrics to the song. RS: "So spend a little bit more time listening, or have a goal for listening. Listen to English music. What else?" LIDA BAKER: "Something else I tell my students, and they're always surprised when I tell them this, is read children's books." AA: "That makes sense, though." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. Why do you say that?" RS: "Well, few words." AA: "It's simpler." RS: "Direct, simple. Lots of pictures." LIDA BAKER: "There you go." RS: "That puts it in a context." LIDA BAKER: "There you go. And the other thing is, you can find children's books at all levels. If you were a total beginner in English, you start with books that have just a few words on the page and lots of pictures, and you can work your way up to books that have relatively speaking more text and fewer illustrations. But again, children's books are very motivating. To this day I enjoy reading the books that I read to my daughter when she was a little girl." AA: "So now we've got the listening to the radio, listening to music, going online and looking for scripts of programs to go with the audio, reading children's books. What's your next resolution?" LIDA BAKER: "Learn a new word every day. And if you don't have time to do it every day, do it every other day. Again, pick a realistic goal. Choose your word, look up the meaning, but then don't stop there. Look at the examples in the dictionary for how the word is used. Is it used as a noun? Is it a verb? Is it used to talk about people? If it's an adjective, does it have a positive meaning or a negative meaning? So look for what's called the connotation of the word. And then, when you're sitting in your car, or you're walking to the bus stop or sitting on the bus, practice. Put the word into your own sentences. Think of ways that you could use that word. "And so now we come to our last resolution, which in a way is the most difficult one, because my last resolution would be, even if it's only very occasionally, talk to native speakers every chance you get." RS: Lida Baker teaches English and writes textbooks in Los Angeles, California. AA: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And Internet users can read and listen to all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. --- A version of this program first aired on December 22, 2004 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: University of Virginia Is New Home for 'Semester at Sea'
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report. Three times each year, the Semester at Sea program takes more than six hundred college students sailing around the world. Since nineteen sixty-three, almost forty thousand students have taken part. The University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, has organized the program since nineteen eighty. Last month, the Institute for Shipboard Education announced that Semester at Sea will soon have a new home: the University of Virginia. Virginia will take control of the program beginning this summer. University President John Casteen says it will help the school increase its international activities for students. The Semester at Sea program takes place on a ship named the M.V. Explorer. Students and professors live and work on the Explorer. Classes are held each day that the ship is at sea. The ship is really a floating university. It has classrooms, a library and a computer laboratory with wireless Internet. It also has a student center, a store, two dining rooms, a swimming pool and an exercise center. And the ship has two hundred crew members. Most of the students in the program are from the United States. But students have also come from other countries around the world. Each student must take at least four classes during the one hundred day semester on the ship. On shorter summer trips, students must take at least three classes. In one required class, students learn about the places they will be visiting. Students have traveled to sixty countries over the years. Recent stops have included Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, India, Burma, Vietnam, China and Japan. When the ship is in port, students take part in field activities organized by the teachers. In the past, students have stayed with local families, visited universities and traveled to places of historic interest. The cost is about sixteen thousand dollars for the one hundred day semester. The cost for a sixty-five day summer trip is almost ten thousand dollars. Officials say financial aid is offered. For more details, you can visit the Semester at Sea Web site: semesteratsea dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Theodore Roosevelt Leads America Into the 20th Century
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) In September, nineteen-oh-one, President William McKinley was assassinated. His vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, succeeded him. This is Shep o’neal. Today,Maurice Joyce and I tell the story of Roosevelt and his administration. VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt became president at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time of rapid changes in American society. The changes were a result of technology. VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt became president at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time of rapid changes in American society. The changes were a result of technology. Great progress had been made, for example, in transportation. Almost every American city had a street railroad, or trolley. These systems were powered by electricity. Thousands of Americans owned automobiles. And Henry Ford was planning a low-cost version which even more people could buy. Great progress had been made in communications. There were telephones in almost every business office in the cities and in many homes. And Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi had sent the first wireless message across the Atlantic Ocean. VOICE ONE: It was clear that the United States had made great progress in technology. Yet many believed it had made little progress in social issues. These people felt America's natural resources were being mis-used. They felt America's farmers were poorer than they should be. They felt America's industries were unfair to workers. Since the late eighteen hundreds, a spirit of reform had been growing in the United States. It started among farmers and led to the creation of a new political party -- the Populists. Then organized labor joined the movement. Then middle class Americans. Not everyone agreed on ways to solve society's problems. But they were united in the belief that social progress had to be made. The future of American democracy, they said, depended on the success of the progressive movement. Theodore RooseveltThe man who came to represent the spirit of reform most of all was the new president, Theodore Roosevelt. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt was born to a wealthy family in New York City in eighteen fifty-eight. He was a weak child with poor eyesight. He spent much of his time reading. When Theodore was thirteen years old, he got into an argument with two other boys. He tried to fight them. But he was not strong enough. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt was born to a wealthy family in New York City in eighteen fifty-eight. He was a weak child with poor eyesight. He spent much of his time reading. When Theodore was thirteen years old, he got into an argument with two other boys. He tried to fight them. But he was not strong enough. That incident was a turning point in Roosevelt's life. He decided to overcome his physical weaknesses through exercise and hard work. He lifted weights, ran long distances, and learned how to be a boxer. He continued these activities while he attended Harvard University. After college, Roosevelt married Alice Lee and returned to New York. He became active in the Republican Party. When he was just twenty-three years old, he was elected to the state legislature. Roosevelt quickly became known as a reform politician. He denounced all forms of dishonesty in government. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's first political career did not last long. He withdrew after four years, following the deaths of his wife and mother. His sadness was so great that he could not continue. Roosevelt moved to a ranch in the Dakota territory of the American west. He began to raise beef cattle. At first, the local cowboys laughed at him. They called him "four eyes," because he wore eyeglasses. They stopped laughing when they found he could do the hard work of a cowboy as well as any of them. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt spent two years in the west. Then he returned to New York and a life in politics. He became the Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, but lost the election. Then he campaigned for Republican Benjamin Harrison in the presidential election of eighteen eighty-eight. Harrison won. And he named Roosevelt head of the federal Civil Service Commission. Roosevelt fought hard to keep politics out of the civil service. Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected president four years later. He approved of Roosevelt's civil service reforms. He asked him to remain in the job. Roosevelt did so for another two years. Then he became Commissioner of Police in New York City. Once again, he pushed for reforms. He removed policemen found guilty of receiving illegal payments. VOICE ONE: In eighteen ninety-seven, President William McKinley named Theodore Roosevelt Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The United States went to war against Spain a year later. Roosevelt wanted an active part in the war. So, he resigned and joined the army. He organized a force of horse soldiers known as the "Rough Riders." They were honored for bravery in the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba. Roosevelt was now a war hero. Republican Party leaders in New York thought he would be the perfect candidate for governor. Teddy, as the public called him, won a close election. He soon made clear he would not take orders from party leaders. The new governor proposed controls on businesses. His main targets were companies that supplied the public with water, electricity, and natural gas. He demanded changes in the food and drug industries. And he shortened the work day for women and children. VOICE TWO: The public praised Roosevelt's reform efforts. Local party leaders did not. As one said: "I do not want him raising hell in my state any longer."? Local leaders decided the best way to get him out of New York politics was to support him for vice president of the United States. The office gave a man very little voice or power in politics. Roosevelt did not want the job, for that reason. By then he wanted just one thing: to be president of the United States. He was sure being vice president would ruin his chances. But he accepted the nomination at the national convention. He would run on the ticket with William McKinley. Sadly he said: "I do not expect to go any further in politics." Several months after he was sworn-in as vice president, he was sworn-in as President. William McKinley was dead. Theodore Roosevelt became president as the result of an assassin's bullet. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt promised party leaders that he would continue McKinley's policies. He said he would move slowly in making any changes. In his first message to Congress, President Roosevelt offered a few new proposals. He asked for a Department of Commerce and Labor to deal with industrial problems. He called for a stronger Navy and for limits on immigration. And he proposed building a canal in central America to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. VOICE TWO: Businessmen who feared the worse when Roosevelt became president began to breathe easier. It seemed he was not going to push for reforms after all. But Roosevelt was only following an old hunting rule of African tribesmen. "Speak softly," the rule said, "and carry a big stick." Roosevelt spoke softly during his first months as president. He would use the big stick later. When the blow came, it was against big business. A group of wealthy railroad owners had agreed to join their railroads into one. They formed a company to control it. The new company would have complete control of railroad transportation in the American west. There would be no competition. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt believed the company violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The law said it was illegal for businesses to interfere with trade among the states. The law also said it was illegal for any person or group to get control of a whole industry. Since the anti-trust law had been passed in eighteen ninety, few companies had been found guilty of violating it. So, many people were shocked when Roosevelt announced he was taking action under the law against the railroad trust. He said there could be no compromise in how the law was enforced. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Shep o’neal and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Shep o’neal and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: On the Job, at Minimum Wage
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Minimum wage is the lowest hourly pay rate permitted by law. In the United States, the federal minimum wage is five dollars and fifteen cents an hour. It has not changed since nineteen ninety-seven. And it does not include all jobs. For example, workers who receive extra money in the form of tips can be paid two dollars and thirteen cents an hour. Also, the federal rate may not cover some workers for small companies. State laws often set minimum pay in these cases. The Department of Labor says about two million workers earn the minimum wage or less. That is about three percent of all workers paid by the hour. Ohio and Kansas have lower minimum wages for some workers than under federal law. But sixteen of the fifty states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the federal one. In California, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger?has just proposed what he says is a much-needed raise. California's minimum wage would rise one dollar, to seven dollars and seventy-five cents an hour, over the next year and a half. State lawmakers passed a bill last year to add a dollar to the minimum wage. But Mister Schwarzenegger vetoed it because it would have also required yearly increases for inflation. State governments led the way in the history of the minimum wage in America. Massachusetts passed a law for women and children in nineteen twelve. But in nineteen twenty-three, the Supreme Court found wage requirements for private employers unconstitutional. It ruled that states could not interfere with pay agreements. ?In nineteen thirty-eight, however, the Fair Labor Standards Act established a federal minimum wage. At that time, it was twenty-five cents. Some economists and lawmakers argue that markets, and not the government, should set prices for labor. They say minimum wage laws reduce the number of jobs for unskilled workers and young people. Employers might not be happy with higher labor costs. But labor activists warn that inflation has reduced the buying power of today’s minimum wage. They say a minimum wage must be a “living wage.” ?That is, it must be enough for workers and their families to live on. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Lou Rawls: Remembering a Voice 'Soft as Velvet, Strong as Steel'
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We honor singer Lou Rawls who died last week ... Answer a question about a funny news service ... And report about the historic birthday of a famous American. Benjamin Franklin This month is the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the most important men in the history of the United States. Benjamin Franklin was born on January seventeenth, seventeen-oh-six. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. FAITH LAPIDUS:?Benjamin Franklin was a writer, printer, inventor and diplomat. He was the only person to sign four historic documents. They are the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain and the Constitution of the United States. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He left school at the age of ten because his parents could not pay for his education. He taught himself mathematics, science and five foreign languages. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of seventeen. He worked for several printers. Then he bought his own print shop. He wrote and published a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette. He became well known as the paper became successful. ?Franklin had even more success with a publication called “Poor Richard’s Almanac”. It was famous for wise sayings that people still use today. Here is one: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. Benjamin Franklin wanted to improve life in Philadelphia. He served as its postmaster. He helped establish the first library and organized a fire department. He started a program to light city streets, gathered money to open a hospital and helped establish the city’s first university.Benjamin Franklin was also a scientist. His experiments proved that lightning is a current of electricity. He invented the lightning rod to protect buildings from damage. He also invented a stove that heated a room more effectively than others. Benjamin Franklin helped establish the United States government by helping to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Later, he served as a diplomat to France. He died in seventeen ninety, at the age of eighty-four. The city of Philadelphia has launched a year-long celebration of the life of Benjamin Franklin. Libraries are honoring him with special readings. Writers are speaking about his influence. And musicians are honoring him with special performances. Philadelphia has also developed a traveling show explaining different parts of the life of this most interesting American. The Onion HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener in Turkey. Sibel Karaaslan asks about the American humor magazine called The Onion. The Onion was started by two University of Wisconsin students in nineteen eighty-eight. They declared their paper “America’s Finest News Source.”? For the first few years it enjoyed local popularity. Then in nineteen ninety-six the weekly Onion entered cyberspace. The humorous new online news magazine became very popular. The Web site says The Onion now has three million readers every week. The popularity of the online magazine led to increased interest in the print version. The Onion print magazine says it has almost one million readers each week. The Onion covers all kinds of subjects – international, national, business, entertainment, politics and science. The Onion writers use a kind of humor called satire. They use a serious, journalistic language and style to make fun of people’s ideas and activities. For example, a recent Onion online cover showed a picture of a dissatisfied young man in his disorganized home. The headline read, “Plan to straighten out entire life during weeklong vacation yields mixed results.”? The report that followed was written in newspaper style. But, of course, this man’s problems were not really worthy of newspaper coverage! The Onion includes features found in a real newspaper. For example, there is a section called American Voices. It includes photographs of several people who have been stopped on the street. They provide their opinions on whatever subject they are asked about. Those quotes are funny in themselves. But what is funnier is that The Onion uses the same photographs every week, but changes the names of the people. So, readers realize quickly that the joke is on them. Onion Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers has published several books of collected Onion reports. The most recent is called “Embedded in America.”? Not everyone likes The Onion. Some people find it offensive. Others do not recognize it as a humor magazine. And, sometimes an Onion story is reported by a real news organization as a real news report. Lou Rawls Lou Rawls sings the national anthem at baseball's 2005 World Series in OctoberLast week, the famous singer Lou Rawls died of cancer in Los Angeles, California. He was seventy-two years old. Pat Bodnar remembers him and plays some of his music. PAT BODNAR: Lou Rawls made more than sixty albums. He sang it all: rhythm and blues, jazz, soul and pop. But like many great American singers, he started singing Christian gospel music as a child in church. His grandmother raised him in Chicago, Illinois, and had a major influence in his gospel music beginnings. As a teenager, Lou Rawls discovered jazz and doo-wop. He and a classmate, the future famous singer, Sam Cooke, sang doo-wop together. In nineteen fifty-eight, Lou Rawls was in a tragic car accident. One man died and Rawls came close to death. He later said the experience changed him for the better. He said he began to learn acceptance, direction and understanding. Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke moved to Los Angeles to seek music careers. A few years later, in nineteen sixty-seven, Rawls won the first of three Grammy awards. Here is that hit song, “Dead End Street.” (MUSIC) Lou Rawls’ music was played in disco dance clubs in the nineteen seventies. In fact, he produced his biggest hit during that period. Here is “You’ll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine).” (MUSIC) Lou Rawls also worked as an actor in television, movies and theater. He was well known for his support of humanitarian groups. But he was best known for his voice. Critics called it “sweet as sugar, soft as velvet, strong as steel and smooth as butter.”? We leave you now with Lou Rawls singing “Natural Man.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We honor singer Lou Rawls who died last week ... Answer a question about a funny news service ... And report about the historic birthday of a famous American. Benjamin Franklin This month is the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the most important men in the history of the United States. Benjamin Franklin was born on January seventeenth, seventeen-oh-six. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. FAITH LAPIDUS:?Benjamin Franklin was a writer, printer, inventor and diplomat. He was the only person to sign four historic documents. They are the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain and the Constitution of the United States. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He left school at the age of ten because his parents could not pay for his education. He taught himself mathematics, science and five foreign languages. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of seventeen. He worked for several printers. Then he bought his own print shop. He wrote and published a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette. He became well known as the paper became successful. ?Franklin had even more success with a publication called “Poor Richard’s Almanac”. It was famous for wise sayings that people still use today. Here is one: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. Benjamin Franklin wanted to improve life in Philadelphia. He served as its postmaster. He helped establish the first library and organized a fire department. He started a program to light city streets, gathered money to open a hospital and helped establish the city’s first university.Benjamin Franklin was also a scientist. His experiments proved that lightning is a current of electricity. He invented the lightning rod to protect buildings from damage. He also invented a stove that heated a room more effectively than others. Benjamin Franklin helped establish the United States government by helping to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Later, he served as a diplomat to France. He died in seventeen ninety, at the age of eighty-four. The city of Philadelphia has launched a year-long celebration of the life of Benjamin Franklin. Libraries are honoring him with special readings. Writers are speaking about his influence. And musicians are honoring him with special performances. Philadelphia has also developed a traveling show explaining different parts of the life of this most interesting American. The Onion HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener in Turkey. Sibel Karaaslan asks about the American humor magazine called The Onion. The Onion was started by two University of Wisconsin students in nineteen eighty-eight. They declared their paper “America’s Finest News Source.”? For the first few years it enjoyed local popularity. Then in nineteen ninety-six the weekly Onion entered cyberspace. The humorous new online news magazine became very popular. The Web site says The Onion now has three million readers every week. The popularity of the online magazine led to increased interest in the print version. The Onion print magazine says it has almost one million readers each week. The Onion covers all kinds of subjects – international, national, business, entertainment, politics and science. The Onion writers use a kind of humor called satire. They use a serious, journalistic language and style to make fun of people’s ideas and activities. For example, a recent Onion online cover showed a picture of a dissatisfied young man in his disorganized home. The headline read, “Plan to straighten out entire life during weeklong vacation yields mixed results.”? The report that followed was written in newspaper style. But, of course, this man’s problems were not really worthy of newspaper coverage! The Onion includes features found in a real newspaper. For example, there is a section called American Voices. It includes photographs of several people who have been stopped on the street. They provide their opinions on whatever subject they are asked about. Those quotes are funny in themselves. But what is funnier is that The Onion uses the same photographs every week, but changes the names of the people. So, readers realize quickly that the joke is on them. Onion Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers has published several books of collected Onion reports. The most recent is called “Embedded in America.”? Not everyone likes The Onion. Some people find it offensive. Others do not recognize it as a humor magazine. And, sometimes an Onion story is reported by a real news organization as a real news report. Lou Rawls Lou Rawls sings the national anthem at baseball's 2005 World Series in OctoberLast week, the famous singer Lou Rawls died of cancer in Los Angeles, California. He was seventy-two years old. Pat Bodnar remembers him and plays some of his music. PAT BODNAR: Lou Rawls made more than sixty albums. He sang it all: rhythm and blues, jazz, soul and pop. But like many great American singers, he started singing Christian gospel music as a child in church. His grandmother raised him in Chicago, Illinois, and had a major influence in his gospel music beginnings. As a teenager, Lou Rawls discovered jazz and doo-wop. He and a classmate, the future famous singer, Sam Cooke, sang doo-wop together. In nineteen fifty-eight, Lou Rawls was in a tragic car accident. One man died and Rawls came close to death. He later said the experience changed him for the better. He said he began to learn acceptance, direction and understanding. Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke moved to Los Angeles to seek music careers. A few years later, in nineteen sixty-seven, Rawls won the first of three Grammy awards. Here is that hit song, “Dead End Street.” (MUSIC) Lou Rawls’ music was played in disco dance clubs in the nineteen seventies. In fact, he produced his biggest hit during that period. Here is “You’ll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine).” (MUSIC) Lou Rawls also worked as an actor in television, movies and theater. He was well known for his support of humanitarian groups. But he was best known for his voice. Critics called it “sweet as sugar, soft as velvet, strong as steel and smooth as butter.”? We leave you now with Lou Rawls singing “Natural Man.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-13-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Bird Flu: Hoping for the Best, but Preparing for the Worst
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. There are more warnings about the need to prepare for the possibility of a worldwide outbreak of bird flu. VOA's Steve Herman in Tokyo reported Friday on the results of a two-day meeting held by Japan and the World Health Organization. Delegates from more than twenty countries discussed a plan they hope might contain the early spread of any influenza pandemic. W.H.O. Western Pacific director?Shigeru Omi?says containment alone is not enough. He says "all the possible options" must be used. That includes doing more to watch for the risk of person-to-person infection. Doctor Omi also says some countries need to be more open about reporting infections in animals and people. He did not say which countries. The W.H.O. says about one and one-half thousand million dollars will be needed over three years to prepare for a pandemic. A meeting next week in Beijing will deal with how to pay for it. The World Bank has just offered five hundred million dollars. The current outbreak of bird flu began in Southeast Asia in December of two thousand three, leading to about eighty deaths. Health officials say the victims have been mostly young people who had close contact with infected birds or sick people. China and Turkey have reported the most recent human infections. The W.H.O. says the h-five-n-one virus already has met two of the three conditions for a pandemic. It is new, so there is no natural protection. And it can make people very sick. The third condition is that a virus must change into a form that can pass easily from person to person. W.H.O. officials say tests on two people who died in Turkey found a small genetic change in the virus. But they say it is too soon to know how this might affect the spread of the virus. They say similar changes appeared in two thousand three in Hong Kong and last year in Vietnam. Experts continue to learn more about the virus. New research may show it to be more widespread but not as deadly as people have thought. This week, the Archives of Internal Medicine published a study by Swedish and Vietnamese scientists. Their findings suggest that sick or dead birds can spread mild avian influenza to humans. They say doctors may be seeing only the most severe cases. The W.H.O. is taking no chances. It wants every country to develop a plan. France, for example, has announced plans to gather enough facemasks and medicines for all its people. European Union countries have until February seventh to propose how they will keep watch for bird flu. E.U. officials this week extended a testing program for poultry and wild birds. In the United States, efforts include new public guidelines about how to prepare for a pandemic. The government has a Web site, www.pandemicflu.gov. More information about avian influenza can also be found at www.who.int and at www.voanews.com. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Marian Anderson: 75 Thousand People Heard Her Sing at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we complete the story of singer Marian Anderson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marian Anderson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early nineteen hundreds. She began singing in church. Soon, her rich deep voice became widely known in the area. Marian Anderson loved opera. At that time, however, black singers were not permitted in white opera companies in the United States. So she performed as a concert artist instead. Her first concert in New York City was not successful. She felt defeated and did not sing again in public for many months. Then her mother became sick. Anderson knew she would have to work to keep her family together. Singing was her work. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen twenties Marian Anderson won two singing competitions. She sang in New York with the Philharmonic Orchestra. This concert was a huge success. She signed an agreement to perform in other cities. Most of the time, only black people attended her concerts. When she was in the southern part of the United States, she was not permitted to stay in hotels for white people. She did not let racial hatred affect her music. Yet she knew she would never be completely successful until she could sing for all people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty, Marian Anderson received money to study music in London. In those days, Europe seemed to be the only place where a black artist could gain recognition. So Marian traveled to Europe. Many years later, she described her experience there: "I was made to feel welcome, even at a hotel. People accepted me as a person. They judged me for my qualities as a human being and an artist. . . Nothing else. " VOICE TWO: In the nineteen thirties, Anderson studied and performed in London and Berlin, Germany. She gave few concerts at first. Then she was invited to give a series of concerts in Sweden. The musician Kosti Vehanen played the piano at Marian's concerts. He said her voice was so powerful that it seemed to come from under the earth. He described it as a voice that overflowed with a deep, tragic feeling. Marian Anderson had her first great success in Sweden. The Swedish people loved her voice. They especially liked the spirituals she sang. Few of them had heard this kind of American music before. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marian Anderson traveled through the countries of Scandinavia. People praised her singing everywhere she went. In Helsinki, Finland she sang for the famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. He told her: “The roof of my house is too low for your voice." Anderson sang in Scandinavia for three concert seasons. She sang for the kings of Denmark and Sweden. Finally, she decided to return to the United States. She said she wanted to test herself in her own country. VOICE TWO: News of her success in Scandinavia did not mean much to concert hall owners in the United States. They knew black concert singers were not popular. Anderson was back where she began -- singing at churches and small gatherings. She decided to go back to Europe. Again, she was greeted warmly. The famous Italian orchestra conductor Arturo Toscanini heard her sing in Austria. After the concert he said: "She has a voice that one hears only once in a hundred years."? Toscanini's comment spread throughout the world of music. Finally, Marian Anderson was famous. She returned to the United States and sang all around the country. In nineteen thirty-five she appeared for the second time at Town Hall in New York. This time she was a great success. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marian Anderson gave concerts in northern and southern cities. She firmly believed that her music was the best weapon against racial hatred. At one concert in the southern state of Mississippi, Anderson saw that her singing could bring people together. It had been a long concert. Yet the crowd kept calling for more. Marian asked the audience to join her in singing one last song. The people stood. Black people and white people sang together, side by side. The local newspaper described what happened: "Sometimes the human spirit rises above itself, above racial prejudice. " VOICE TWO: Another incident became famous around the world. Marian Anderson was to sing in Washington, D.C. at Constitution Hall. This concert hall was owned by an organization called the Daughters of the American Revolution, or D.A.R. The D.A.R. would not permit Anderson to perform in the concert hall because she was black. Many people protested, including Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the American president. With Missus Roosevelt's help, Anderson was able to sing for an even bigger crowd in Washington. She gave a free concert in the open air, near the Lincoln memorial. Seventy-five thousand people attended that concert on Easter Sunday, April ninth, nineteen thirty-nine. Years later, Anderson described how she felt on that day: VOICE ONE: "There seemed to be people as far as the eye could see. I felt that a great wave of goodwill poured out from those people. When I saw them, my heart jumped wildly. I could not talk. I wondered if I would be able to sing." VOICE TWO: ?Marian Anderson did sing. And seventy-five thousand voices -- black and white -- joined with hers. They sang the national song of the United States. Then they listened as she sang another song about America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-five, Marian Anderson was asked to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera company. It was the first time a black singer performed regularly with an American opera group. Marian Anderson's presence made it possible for other black singers to become opera singers in the United States. VOICE TWO: Marian Anderson received many honors and awards during her life. In nineteen fifty-eight she was appointed a delegate to the United Nations, expanding her job as goodwill ambassador of the United States. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen sixty-three. Anderson retired from singing two years later. She lived quietly with her husband, Orpheus Fisher, in the state of Connecticut. After he died, she lived with her sister’s son, orchestra conductor James DePriest. Marian Anderson died in nineteen ninety-three at the age of ninety-six. Experts say she is remembered not only for the quality of her voice, but also because of the way she carried out her right to be heard. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Keesh
* Byline: Written by Jack London

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story this week is "Keesh."? It was written by Jack London. Here is Shep O’Neal to tell you the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: Keesh lived at the edge of the polar sea. He had seen thirteen suns in the Eskimo way of keeping time. Among the Eskimos, the sun each winter leaves the land in darkness. And the next year, a new sun returns, so it might be warm again. The father of Keesh had been a brave man. But he had died hunting for food. Keesh was his only son. Keesh lived along with his mother, Ikeega. One night, the village council met in the big igloo of Klosh-kwan, the chief. Keesh was there with the others. He listened, then waited for silence. He said, “It is true that you give us some meat. But it is often old and tough meat, and has many bones.” The hunters were surprised. This was a child speaking against them. A child talking like a grown man! Keesh said, “My father, Bok, was a great hunter. It is said that Bok brought home more meat than any of the two best hunters. And that he divided the meat so that all got an equal share.” “Naah! Naah!” the hunters cried. “Put the child out! Send him to bed. He should not talk to gray-beards this way!” Keesh waited until the noise stopped. “You have a wife, Ugh-gluk,” he said. “And you speak for her. My mother has no one but me. So I speak. As I say, Bok hunted greatly, but is now dead. It is only fair then that my mother, who was his wife, and I, his son, should have meat when the tribe has meat. I, Keesh, son of Bok, have spoken.” Again, there was a great noise in the igloo. The council ordered Keesh to bed. It even talked of giving him no food. Keesh jumped to his feet. “Hear me!” he cried. “Never shall I speak in the council igloo again. I shall go hunt meat like my father, Bok.” There was much laughter when Keesh spoke of hunting. The laughter followed Keesh as he left the council meeting. The next day, Keesh started out for the shore, where the land meets the ice. Those who watched saw that he carried his bow and many arrows. Across his shoulder was his father’s big hunting spear. Again there was laughter. One day passed, then a second. On the third day, a great wind blew. There was no sign of Keesh. His mother, Ikeega, put burned seal oil on her face to show her sorrow. The women shouted at their men for letting the little boy go. The men made no answer, but got ready to search for the body of Keesh. Early next morning, Keesh walked into the village. Across his shoulders was fresh meat. “Go you men, with dogs and sleds. Follow my footsteps. Travel for a day,” he said. “There is much meat on the ice. A she-bear and her two cubs.” His mother was very happy. Keesh, trying to be a man, said to her, “Come, Ikeega, let us eat. And after that, I shall sleep. For I am tired.” There was much talk after Keesh went to his igloo. The killing of a bear was dangerous. But it was three times more dangerous to kill a mother bear with cubs. The men did not believe Keesh had done so. But the women pointed to the fresh meat. At last, the men agreed to go for the meat that was left. But they were not very happy. One said that even if Keesh had killed the bear, he probably had not cut the meat into pieces. But when the men arrived, they found that Keesh had not only killed the bear, but had also cut it into pieces, just like a grown hunter. So began the mystery of Keesh. On his next trip, he killed a young bear…and on the following trip, a large male bear and its mate. Then there was talk of magic and witchcraft in the village. “He hunts with evil spirits,” said one. “Maybe his father’s spirit hunts with him,” said another. Keesh continued to bring meat to the village. Some people thought he was a great hunter. There was talk of making him chief, after old Klosh-kwan. They waited, hoping he would come to council meetings. But he never came. “I would like to build an igloo.” Keesh said one day, “but I have no time. My job is hunting. So it would be just if the men and women of the village who eat my meat, build my igloo.” And the igloo was built. It was even bigger than the igloo of the Chief Klosh-kwan. One day, Ugh-gluk talked to Keesh. “It is said that you hunt with evil spirits, and they help you kill the bear.” “Is not the meat good?” Keesh answered. “Has anyone in the village yet become sick after eating it? How do you know evil spirits are with me? Or do you say it because I am a good hunter?” Ugh-gluk had no answer. The council sat up late talking about Keesh and the meat. They decided to spy on him. On Keesh’s next trip, two young hunters, Bim and Bawn, followed him. After five days, they returned. The council met to hear their story. “Brothers,” Bim said, “we followed Keesh, and he did not see us. The first day he came to a great bear. Keesh shouted at the bear, loudly. The bear saw him and became angry. It rose high on its legs and growled. But Keesh walked up to it.” “We saw it,” Bawn, the other hunter, said. “The bear began to run toward Keesh. Keesh ran away. But as he ran, he dropped a little round ball on the ice. The bear stopped and smelled the ball, then ate it. Keesh continued to run, dropping more balls on the ice. The bear followed and ate the balls.” The council members listened to every word. Bim continued the story. “The bear suddenly stood up straight and began to shout in pain. “Evil spirits,” said Ugh-gluk. I do not know,” said Bawn. “I can tell only what my eyes saw. The bear grew weak. Then it sat down and pulled at its own fur with its sharp claws. Keesh watched the bear that whole day.” “For three more days, Keesh continued to watch the bear. It was getting weaker and weaker. Keesh moved carefully up to the bear and pushed his father’s spear into it.” “And then?” asked Klosh-kwan. “And then we left.” That afternoon, the council talked and talked. When Keesh arrived in the village, the council sent a messenger to ask him to come to the meeting. But Keesh said he was tired and hungry. He said his igloo was big and could hold many people, if the council wanted a meeting. Klosh-kwan led the council to the igloo of Keesh. Keesh was eating, but he welcomed them. Klosh-kwan told Keesh that two hunters had seen him kill a bear. And then, in a serious voice to Keesh, he said, “We want to know how you did it.” Did you use magic and witchcraft?” Keesh looked up and smiled. “No, Klosh-kwan. I am a boy. I know nothing of magic or witchcraft. But I have found an easy way to kill the ice-bear. It is head-craft, not witchcraft.” “And will you tell us, O Keesh?” Klosh-kwan asked in a shaking voice. “I will tell you. It is very simple. Watch.” Keesh picked up a thin piece of whalebone. The ends were pointed and sharp as a knife. Keesh bent the bone into a circle. Suddenly he let the bone go, and it became straight with a sharp snap. He picked up a piece of seal meat. “So,” he said, “first make a circle with a sharp, thin piece of whale bone. Put the circle of bone inside some seal meat. Put it in the snow to freeze. The bear eats the ball of meat with the circle of bone inside. When the meat gets inside the bear, the meat gets warm, and the bone goes snap! The sharp points make the bear sick. It is easy to kill then. It is simple.” Ugh-gluk said, “Ohhh!” Klosh-kwan said “Ahh!”? Each said something in his own way. And all understood. That is the story of Keesh, who lived long ago on the edge of the polar sea. Because he used head-craft, instead of witchcraft, he rose from the poorest igloo to be the chief in the village. And for all the years that followed, his people were happy. No one cried at night with pains of hunger. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "Keesh."? It was written by Jack London. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Studies Say New Rotavirus Vaccines Are Safe and Effective
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve?Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Studies show that two new vaccines are safe and effective to protect young children against a common cause of intestinal infection. Rotavirus can cause severe diarrhea. The loss of fluids can be deadly unless it is treated. Most of the estimated half-million deaths each year are in poor countries. In fact, rotavirus disease is a leading killer of young children in the developing world. The newly reported studies are among the largest vaccine tests ever done. Together, they involved more than one hundred thirty thousand children. The drug company GlaxoSmithKline makes one of the vaccines, Rotarix. Merck makes the other, called RotaTeq. The study supported by GlaxoSmithKline involved more than sixty-three thousand children, mostly in Latin America. The researchers say Rotarix was eighty-five percent effective in protecting against severe rotavirus disease. In the study for Merck, scientists say RotaTeq was ninety-eight percent effective. They tested it with sixty-eight thousand children mainly in developed places, including the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine published the studies earlier this month. It also published a commentary by two scientists at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They say differences in the two studies and the populations observed might explain the different results. They say Rotarix may be just as effective as RotaTeq. GlaxoSmithKline launched Rotarix in Mexico last year. It says the vaccine is now approved in twelve Latin American countries and also the Philippines and Singapore. And it says Rotarix could soon become the first rotavirus vaccine approved for children in the European Union. The company also plans to seek approval in the United States. ? Both vaccine makers have announced plans for tests in poor counties in Africa and Asia. RotaTeq is not for sale yet. Merck says the vaccine could get final approval later this year in the United States. In nineteen ninety-nine, the drug maker Wyeth removed a rotavirus vaccine from the American market. That drug was blamed for some cases of a blockage in which one part of the intestine slides into the next. The studies of Rotarix and RotaTeq, however, say the two new vaccines did not show any increase in risk for that condition. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. You can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Continuing Mystery of America's 'Lost Colony'
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Roanoke Island is off the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States, in North Carolina. In fifteen eighty-seven, more than one hundred people arrived from England to live on the island. Three years later, they were gone. Today we revisit the mystery of whatever happened to America’s "Lost Colony."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? Britain’s first settlement of families in America was supposed to be along the Chesapeake Bay. The colonists, however, settled on Roanoke Island instead of sailing farther north. No one knows why. Roanoke is a low, narrow island between the mainland and the islands of the Outer Banks. The island has thick wetlands, tall oak trees and a lot of wildlife. Today it appears much as it did when the colonists arrived. VOICE TWO: The one hundred seventeen men, women and children were not the first white people to try to live on the island. A group of more than one hundred Englishmen had arrived two years earlier, in fifteen eighty-five. But they arrived too late in the year to plant crops, and their supplies nearly ran out. They also fought with Indians. The Englishmen returned home the following year. Then came the families of what would become the Lost Colony. Governor John White led this group to the New World. Soon, he recognized that the settlers would need more supplies and weapons to survive. So, after only a few months, he decided to return to England. Ten days before he sailed, his daughter Eleanor Dare had a baby girl. Virginia Dare became the first English child born in America. John White would never know his granddaughter. The last time the governor saw his family was just before he returned to England. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When he arrived in England, John White found himself trapped by the situation there. Britain had declared war with Spain in fifteen eighty. All the ships were sent to battle. Finally, in fifteen ninety, Governor White returned to Roanoke Island. But he did not find the small settlement busy and growing. Instead, it was empty. Where could the people have gone?? The only evidence was cut into a tree and a fence: the letters C-R-O and the word Croatoan, C-R-O-A-T-O-A-N. VOICE TWO:?????? John White thought the colonists had gone to live with the Croatoan Indians south of Roanoke. He was ready to investigate. But a great storm damaged some equipment on his ships. He was forced to return again to England. The governor tried several more times to go back to America. He never succeeded. John White never knew what happened to the colony or his family. VOICE ONE: Historians have theories. Native Americans may have killed the colonists. Or the British could have been killed by Spanish troops who came up from what is now Florida. Or perhaps the settlers went farther inland. There, they might have met friendly Indians and married into their tribes. ???? VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? ?????? The most interesting theory about the Lost Colony started with a rock found in nineteen thirty-seven. The rock was discovered less than one hundred kilometers from Roanoke Island. It was covered with writing. Many people thought it was a message from Eleanor Dare to her father, telling him the colonists fled the island after an Indian attack. Almost forty other rocks were discovered over the next three years. Together, they told a story of how the colonists traveled, and how Eleanor Dare died in fifteen ninety-nine. Many historians did not believe the story. But many reporters did. In time, however, an investigative reporter discovered that the whole story was a lie. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As time passed, the settlement itself disappeared. Trees and bushes started to cover the buildings. In about sixteen fifty-three, a trader named John Farrar and three friends landed on the island from Virginia. Some historians say the group found objects from the Lost Colony and left with them. In the eighteen sixties, during the American Civil War, Union soldiers won a battle on Roanoke Island. While there, the soldiers apparently dug for evidence of colonial life. In the nineteen forties, professional archeologists started to investigate the island. But little has been found in recent years. VOICE TWO: The Institute for International Maritime Research, based in North Carolina, is looking for more objects from the colonial period. But its director, Gordon Watts, is not digging for the artifacts. Instead, the archeologist is diving for them. The research is part of a project to search on land and in the water for remains of the Lost Colony. A North Carolina lawyer named Phil Evans organized a group called the First Colony Foundation to raise money for this purpose. In the nineteen eighties, Mister Evans worked at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. During that time, he found what was left of an old well from colonial days. He made this discovery in Roanoke Sound. VOICE ONE: Gordon Watts says the sea, over time, may have worn away areas of land. As a result, he says other objects from colonial life may be under the waters of the Roanoke Sound. Some other experts reject this erosion theory. But National Park Service archeologists did underwater research in two thousand. They found more than two hundred places that might contain historical objects. Mister Watts and his team have begun work on the northeast side of Roanoke Island. In October of two thousand five, the divers explored an area close to shore. So far, their findings have included pieces of a brick that could be from building materials used in colonial times. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? Visitors to Roanoke Island can learn more about the Lost Colony. At the northern end of the island is the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. This park was developed on the same land used by the colonists. Objects from the colonial period include an Indian smoking pipe. There are pieces of iron farming equipment. And there are metal counting devices used for keeping financial records. A model fort is the only structure in the park built in the exact place as the first building. The model was designed to look the same as when those first Englishmen arrived. The fort was mainly a square building with pointed structures called bastions. A bastion is a secure position used for defense against attack. VOICE ONE: Inside the visitors center at the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is the Elizabethan Room. It has wooden walls and a stone fireplace. The fireplace is from a sixteenth-century British home. The Elizabethan Room is similar to rooms in the home of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a wealthy British investor who supported the settlement of Roanoke Island. Outside the visitors center are the Elizabethan Gardens, created by the Garden Club of North Carolina. Beautiful paths lead visitors among flowers and plants. People visiting the Elizabethan Gardens can enter through a sixteenth-century garden house. VOICE TWO: During summer nights, visitors to the island can see a play called “The Lost Colony.”? The Roanoke Island Historical Association has been performing this play since nineteen thirty-seven. Music and dance tell the mysterious story of the colonists. The show is performed in a historic outdoor theater near the Elizabethan Gardens. VOICE ONE: Questions about Eleanor Dare and the other lost colonists continually bring historians and other researchers to Roanoke Island. They hope to discover new evidence about what happened to the young mother and her baby. For now, the mystery of America’s Lost Colony is a story whose ending remains to be written. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Visitors can also find a link to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, with information about a free electronic field trip for students. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? And I'm Steve Ember. Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Long Way from Home: Americans Farming in Brazil
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. To increase profits, some farmers change what they grow. But some farmers in the American Midwest are changing where they grow. The Midwest is the traditional center of American agriculture. Yet some farmers from Iowa have recently made news by moving to Brazil. And not only from Iowa, it seems. Why such a big move?? In Brazil, undeveloped land can cost two hundred forty dollars a hectare, or less. That is a little more than one-tenth the cost of land in the Midwest. Some of the farmers see low-cost land in Brazil as a way to expand their operations. And it may serve other purposes. It may help keep farming in the family, by letting other family members have their own farm. Crops like soybeans and cotton grow well in Brazil's climate. The South American country has grown into a major agricultural exporter. It is the second largest exporter of soybeans after the United States. In the last five years, millions of hectares have been newly planted in Brazil. Growth has been especially high in central states with grassland known as cerrado [pronounced ser-HAH-due]. It usually gets rain in summer and is dry in winter. A company based in Iowa called Brazil Iowa Farms helps American investors and farmers invest in Brazil. David Kruse is the company president. He says it makes sense to invest in Brazil, and to do it with money borrowed in the United States. He says farming in Brazil is more profitable than in the Midwest, but borrowing costs in Brazil are high. John Zulk is chief financial officer of Brazil Iowa Farms. Mister Zulk tells us that his company has three hundred investors. But he says he knows of only about ten or twelve American families that have moved to Brazil to start farms. Farming in undeveloped areas is not easy. Many areas lack roads and railways to transport crops. Plus, laws and customs are different in Brazil. And the Portuguese language can be a barrier. American farmers must also consider other issues. Changes in the exchange rate of the Brazilian real can shrink profits. Also, while Brazil is open to foreign investors, in most cases they must have a local partner. And farmers will not have the government protections or price supports they might have in the United States. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: New Drug Combination May Shorten TB Treatment
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Cynthia Kirk and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. This week on our show: A new combination drug treatment for tuberculosis ... VOICE ONE: A big year for baby pandas ... VOICE TWO: And the mystery animal of Borneo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A tuberculosis clinic in New DelhiA new drug combination could help reduce the time needed to treat people infected with tuberculosis. Reports say it could expand the number of patients receiving treatment and save millions of lives. Researchers announced the findings last month at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in Washington, D.C. The new drug combination is supported by the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection. TB usually attacks the lungs, but can affect any organ in the body. Most people infected with the bacteria never develop active TB. Those who do often have weakened defense systems. People with active cases of the disease spread the bacteria through the air when they cough or sneeze. One third of the world’s population is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. About eight million new cases develop each year. Tuberculosis can be deadly. Each year about two million people die of the disease. TB is the leading cause of death for people infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. A bad cough that lasts for weeks can be a sign of tuberculosis. Other possible signs include a pain in the chest, coughing up blood, weakness, weight loss and high body temperature. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization advises patients to take a combination of four drugs to treat tuberculosis. These four antibiotics must be taken for about six months to cure the disease. Some people, however, take the drugs only until they feel better. Discontinuing treatment is a mistake. The bacteria can develop resistance to the antibiotics if people do not follow the directions. Finding ways to shorten the length of treatment has been a goal of the Stop TB Partnership. This public health campaign was established in two thousand. VOICE ONE: In the new study, the South African Medical Research Council tested patients infected with tuberculosis in the lungs. Some also had H.I.V. infections. The researchers replaced one of the four drugs in the combination currently used to treat TB. They replaced ethambutol with a drug called gatifloxacin. The scientists reported that the new combination with gatifloxacin can successfully treat TB in four months. They say ethambutol could also be replaced with another drug, moxifloxacin. Further tests are planned to learn if the new four-month treatment is just as effective as the current six-month treatment. The tests will take place in Benin, Guinea, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. China says two thousand five was a very successful year for its panda reproduction programs. A record-breaking year, in fact. Chinese officials say twenty-one of the twenty-five baby pandas born in China last year survived. The Xinhua news agency says twelve cubs were born in captivity in two thousand four, and nine of them survived. VOICE ONE: Sixteen of the surviving cubs last year came from eleven births. The rare animals are at the Wolong Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center in Sichuan province. The other five are in the care of research centers in the cities of Chengdu and Luoguantai and the Beijing Zoo. Experts say giant pandas in captivity rarely show a natural interest in mating. As a result, pandas born in zoos and research centers are almost always the result of artificial insemination. This is where reproductive fluid from the male is placed inside the female. Researchers have used this method with giant pandas in China since the nineteen sixties. But it took years to improve the process. Among female pandas, the right conditions for pregnancy happen only a few days each year. China says it now has one hundred eighty-three giant pandas in captivity. Just over half are at Wolong. China's Ministry of Forestry and the international wildlife group WWF say about one thousand six hundred giant pandas are left in the wild. VOICE TWO: More than twenty pandas live in zoos in the United States, Japan, Germany, Austria and Thailand. In the United States, zoos in San Diego and Washington, D.C., had panda births last year. At the National Zoo in Washington, Tai Shan [pronounced tie-SHON] turned six months old last week. Tai Shan has lived longer than any other panda born at the National Zoo. His parents arrived in the United States in two thousand. They had been born through the reproduction program at Wolong. American zoos with pandas on loan from China pay one million dollars a year for the animals. Tai Shan is expected to be sent to China when he is two years old. He will enter a panda reproduction program. His parents, Mei Xiang [may SHONG] and Tian Tian [tee-YEN tee-YEN], are to be returned to China in two thousand ten. VOICE ONE: Wildlife researchers have released two pictures of a mysterious animal on the island of Borneo. Indonesia shares the island with Malaysia and Brunei. The animal is about the size of a house cat. It has dark red hair and a long tail. It also has small ears and large back legs. Scientists believe the animal may be a meat-eater. If so, it would be the first new kind of carnivore found on Borneo in more than one hundred years. The scientists hope to confirm the animal’s identity by catching one. Stephan Wulffraat of the Netherlands is supervising studies of the animal for WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund. Mister Wulffraat says local people on Borneo who saw the pictures said they had never seen the animal before. The Dutch biologist says several local wildlife experts had the same reaction. Some thought it looked like a lemur, but he says most thought it was a new species of carnivore. WWF researchers say the creature could be a new kind of marten or civet cat -- or a completely new species. The pictures were made when the animal entered a camera trap. The camera was in a rainforest in Kayan Mentarang National Park, on the Indonesian side of Borneo. VOICE TWO: WWF also reported that large areas of forest in Borneo are being cleared to produce rubber, palm oil and wood products. The group says the animal might remain a mystery forever if its home is not protected. It says it is working to get Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei to protect an especially valuable part of the island from development. The area is known as the heart of Borneo. The land includes almost twenty-one million hectares of rainforest. WWF says protecting the heart of Borneo would help both wildlife and people. The group reported in April that at least three hundred sixty-one new kinds of animals were discovered on the island in recent years. The discoveries took place between nineteen ninety-four and two thousand four. The report also said there are probably thousands of new plants and animals still to be found. Only on Borneo and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra do orangutans, elephants and rhinoceros live together. All of them are in danger of disappearing. Other threatened animals on Borneo include clouded leopards, sun bears and Bornean gibbons. The Bornean gibbon is a small ape that lives only on that island. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you have a question about science, we might be able to answer it on our program. Send it to special@voanews.com, and be sure to include your name and where you are from. Or write to VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Please understand that we cannot answer questions personally. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-17-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Sustained Dialogue: Solving Conflicts Among People
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the process of sustained dialogue that is being used in Africa and at American colleges. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told about the work of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue. It is helping people involved in long term conflicts begin new relationships so they can deal with issues that affect them all. Harold Saunders is president of the organization. Sustained dialogue is a continuing series of meetings among citizens outside government. It involves the same people meeting again and again. Mister Saunders says that when the same people meet many times they develop a trust in each other and learn to cooperate to solve their own problems. VOICE TWO: The Sustained Dialogue process is being used for an Arab-American-European dialogue. Individuals from some Arab countries, from the United States and from Europe are beginning their third year of meetings. The aim of this dialogue is to work together to find ways to end conflicts and move toward better relationships. The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue is also helping citizen groups in Tajikistan, Russia and Puerto Rico. It often works with other organizations that want to learn to use and teach Sustained Dialogue. The IISD is also helping develop dialogues in South Africa and at American colleges. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Teddy Nemeroff has been working for two and one-half years at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, known as Idasa. His job is Sustained Dialogue Coordinator. He is organizing the dialogue program at Idasa to be used as a tool for building democracy and peace throughout the southern African area. Mister Nemeroff explains he was attending Princeton University in New Jersey when he first became involved with Sustained Dialogue. He met Harold Saunders at that time. After he finished at the university, Mister Nemeroff continued work with Sustained Dialogue programs. In two thousand three, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa decided it wanted to start a Sustained Dialogue program for southern Africa. Mister Saunders suggested Mister Nemeroff could help. VOICE TWO: Mister Nemeroff has designed and helped organize a number of different projects since he arrived in South Africa. He says the ideas came from either local organizations or individuals who recognized the need for dialogue and requested help in organizing them. One Sustained Dialogue project involves young people in Harare, Zimbabwe. It helped these young people who are in opposing political parties begin to talk to each other. The aim was to reduce youth involvement in political violence. Fourteen Zimbabwean non-government organizations and an Italian organization are in charge of the project. Mister Nemeroff helped design the project and provided training in the Sustained Dialogue process. Mister Nemeroff says young people who took part in the Sustained Dialogue now are helping mediate conflicts in their communities. He says people who took part in the organized dialogue groups are developing plans for more Sustained Dialogues in their own communities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Institute for Democracy in South Africa began another Sustained Dialogue project in January, two thousand four to help farming communities in South Africa. Mister Nemeroff says it is helping overcome past political divisions so community members can cooperate in developing plans for economic development. About thirty local leaders from nine villages are now trained to organize their own dialogues. The dialogue groups have worked together to establish new economic development projects in agriculture and home crafts. Idasa also is involved with the South African Council of Churches to help organize dialogues in local churches to discuss race relations. Mister Nemeroff says they have established six dialogue groups and held two conferences to help improve relations among people of different races. VOICE TWO: Mister Nemeroff says people he has worked with identify the process of Sustained Dialogue as a way to solve problems. He has learned that African cultures believe it is important to reach common agreement when making decisions. Yet, he says, South Africans find the dialogue method very different from the usual way decisions are made in official meetings. ?He says it takes a while for people to see the value of Sustained Dialogue’s unofficial method of problem solving. In the future, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa is hoping to use the Sustained Dialogue process to improve relations between the citizens and the government. Mister Nemeroff says that Idasa also wants to establish working ties with other organizations in the rest of Africa to help deal with local conflicts. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another project of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue involves students in colleges and high schools. It is called the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, known as SDCN. The organization began in two thousand two to connect students across the country who are involved in Sustained Dialogue. SCDN provides training for students interested in organizing dialogues and for moderators who will keep the discussions going. There are about fifteen universities and high schools connected to the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network. VOICE TWO: The first student dialogue took place in nineteen ninety-nine at Princeton University. Some students went to the university officials and said they were concerned about race relations. The officials called Mister Saunders, a Princeton graduate. He helped the students organize Sustained Dialogue groups. In the nineteen eighties, Mister Saunders and Russia’s Evgeny Primakov were chairmen of the longest continuous dialogue between Soviet and American citizens, the Dartmouth Conference. In the nineteen nineties, Mister Saunders helped organize Sustained Dialogues in places of conflict, such as Tajikistan. His book, “ A Public Peace Process: Sustained Dialogue to Transform Racial and Ethnic Conflicts,” is based on his experience with the Dartmouth Conference and in Tajikistan. Mister Saunders believed the Sustained Dialogue process could be a tool to help students understand individuals who were different from them. He thought that small groups of students meeting several times a month would be able to build new relationships that could have a lasting effect. VOICE ONE: Clark Herndonbegan working with Sustained Dialogue when he was a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He says the university has a very active dialogue program. In two thousand four, more than three hundred students took part in twenty dialogue groups led by thirty-five trained student moderators. The groups discussed issues that divide students such as race, ethnic origins and religion. Mister Herndon now is a program director for the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network. He says SDCN is pushing to create organizations at universities and high schools that can operate on their own. He says there is no limit to the possible growth of the Campus Network if it has enough financial support. VOICE TWO: Tessa Garcia discovered Sustained Dialogue as a student while trying to find a way to improve race relations at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Now she is a program director for the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network. Miz Garcia says every fall the two SDCN program directors visit all universities and high schools with Sustained Dialogue programs to train student moderators. And in January all schools with active programs send new people to the SDSN headquarters in Washington, D.C., to be trained in the process. The Sustained Dialogue Campus Network is working to develop ways to measure the success of the dialogues. Mister Herndon says evidence now of the success of Sustained Dialogue is when a student says, “I used to think this way. Now I have a new way to think about people around me.” For more information about Sustained Dialogue for students, go to the Web site, www.sdcampusnetwork.org. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-17-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Feeling No Pain: The World of Anesthesia
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Anesthesia is used during operations and other medical procedures to block pain signals from traveling through the nervous system. The kind of anesthesia that patients receive depends on their condition and the kind of procedure they need. Local anesthesia is used to make a small area of the body lose feeling. Usually, local anesthesia is for minor procedures, like fixing a tooth or closing a wound. The person remains fully awake. Regional anesthesia is used to block pain in a large area of the body. For example, when a woman is giving birth, she might request an epidural anesthesia. It is injected into the fluid in the spine. It acts on the lower half of the body. General anesthesia makes a person fall asleep. This is known as being "put under."? The drugs are injected into the blood or breathed as gas. General anesthesia also blocks memory. People are not supposed to remember an operation when they wake up. In rare cases, they do. The Mayo Clinic says patients may have a sense of their surroundings during about one-fifth of one percent of all operations. It says they generally do not feel pain, but may wish to talk to a mental health provider if the memories trouble them. An anesthesiologist is a doctor specially trained to give anesthesia. During an operation, the anesthesiologist will observe the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure and amount of oxygen in the blood. A breathing tube may be put into the person's windpipe. The tube is connected to a respirator machine. There are, of course, risks to anesthesia. People can have different reactions to the drugs. Mistakes can happen. But medical experts say the safety of anesthesia has greatly improved. The Mayo Clinic says not too long ago, one in ten thousand cases resulted in death. Now, it says, the number is one in two hundred fifty thousand. The experts say everyone's experience with anesthesia is different. To reduce the risks, the Mayo Clinic says open communication is important among the patient and the doctors before an operation. Patients can expect questions like: What is your current health?? What medications do you take?? Do you smoke or drink alcohol?? Do you know if you have any allergies to foods or medicines?? And what experiences have you had in the past with anesthesia? This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-17-voa6.cfm
* Headline: When There Is Bad News, Helping Cancer Doctors Find the Right Words
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: giving doctors better skills to communicate bad news. RS: Anthony Back [pronounced like Bach] is a medical oncologist at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He and four colleagues are in the fifth year leading a program funded with one and one-half million dollars from the National Cancer Institute. AA: Doctor Back says specially trained actors play cancer patients to help oncologists learn how to avoid sounding insensitive when the prognosis is grim. ANTHONY BACK: "Probably the biggest misconception I face is that you're either born with this or you're not. In fact, what the research shows is that people learn to do this over time. And the way they learn to do it is they see good role models, they practice, they get specific feedback on what they're doing, they try out new things, they innovate and develop new conversational practices for themselves." AA: "Can you give us some examples of those conversational practices -- what are some ways to impart bad news? ANTHONY BACK: "Here's an example: The patient has had cancer in the past, has been doing well and is coming in for some routine follow-up tests. The routine follow-up tests unexpectedly show the cancer has started to come back. "The doctor will typically go in and say to the patient, 'Guess what, your cancer's back.' And the patient will be just blown away, right? There are a couple of practices there that doctors can do that can help. One is to start with -- especially if you don't know the patient -- asking what the patient expected, what did they understand about their cancer, what were they expecting with this test. "Because if the patient says to you 'You know, they didn't tell me anything. I'm just here because I got this appointment in the mail,' that's one whole kind of comprehension level. Whereas if the patient says 'I had a t-one-n-one-m-zero lung cancer and they told me I had a fifty-five percent chance of disease recurrence in the next two years,' that's a whole different story, right? "The second thing is that after you give this difficult news, then I think it's really important to address both the cognitive reaction and also the kind of the emotional side of it." RS: "What are some of the phrases or the ways in which you can couch this news?" ANTHONY BACK: "You know, the way to make it easier is to make sure that you are going from the context the patient drew for you. So you go from what the patient understands and you try to use their words as much as possible. And then, when you get to the really bad part of the news, I think it's actually important to be direct and concrete and not to couch the news. "It's better to say 'The cancer has come back' than to say 'There are hypo-densities in your liver on the CT' [or] 'You have a malignancy.' All those euphemisms force patients to struggle to understand what's happening to them, and it adds to their confusion and distress." RS: "Well, should they say things like 'I wish things were different' or 'I hope for the best,' or should a doctor kind of maintain a distance?" ANTHONY BACK: "You know, my thought about that actually is that the more skilled the physician, the less they have to distance themselves. There are some phrases that we use, and the most important ones are really the ones that are about empathy for the patient. You know, 'I see this is a difficult situation, I see this is not what you expected, I'm hoping for the best.' And I think it's fine for doctors to talk about hope, and I think it's important actually." AA: "Let me ask you, have you seen any cultural differences come up in the training programs as you've had doctors go through?" ANTHONY BACK: "You know, we have actually a very multicultural group of physicians who come, and they all bring in all their own different values about how frank should people be. Because the American standard, of course, is that patients themselves get all the information, they make the decision themselves, and there's this very strong emphasis on autonomy. And in a lot of other cultures that's really not the case." RS: "And what got you started in the first place?" ANTHONY BACK: "What got me started was, when I was an oncology trainee, and this was after a personal experience -- my mother had died of a pre-leukemia kind of thing -- I remember walking around in the bone-marrow transplant wards with this experienced -- it was this other, older senior physician -- going around having these life-and-death conversations with patients and thinking, 'God, there has got to be a better way to do this." AA: The result, says Doctor Tony Back in Seattle, is a program that has now trained about one hundred-eighty oncologists at retreats held twice a year. The program Web site is oncotalk.info -- that's o-n-c-o-t-a-l-k dot i-n-f-o. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Proposes to Expand Foreign Language Teaching
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm?Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. President Bush has proposed to increase the study of foreign languages in American schools. The new plan is called the National Security Language Initiative. It will involve the departments of State, Education and Defense, and the director of National Intelligence. The plan calls for teaching foreign languages to more children, as early as the age of four. It also aims to increase foreign language instruction in college and graduate school. The hope is to bring more foreign language speakers into government service. And it calls for expanding an effort begun three years ago to increase the number of military officers who speak foreign languages. Most of the new teaching would be in languages not widely taught now in American schools. These include Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Hindi and Russian. Administration officials will ask for one hundred fourteen million dollars in two thousand seven to start the program. They say too many American children learn only English. They say only forty-four percent of American high school students take any foreign language. And seventy percent of those are learning Spanish. Officials say money would be used to help foreign-language students pay for their education in exchange for future service. The plan also calls for sending more American students to other countries for part of their college studies. And it calls for bringing more foreign language teaching assistants to the United States. Officials say the United States does not have enough foreign language teachers. Research shows that children have an easier time than adults learning languages. Yet less than one-third of American elementary schools teach languages other than English. And experts say most of these schools just teach the basics, not how to speak a foreign language well. President Bush says America needs intelligence officers who can understand languages likes Arabic, Farsi or Urdu. But he says that is not the only reason for the program. He says it will also show that Americans care enough about other cultures to learn to speak their language. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Theodore Roosevelt Answers Public Demand for Reforms
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a time of great technological progress in the United States. Yet many people felt there was too little social progress. They demanded reforms in politics, industry, and the use of natural resources. Theodore Roosevelt supported the call for reforms. His first target was big business. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the story of Roosevelt's administration. VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-hundreds, a group of wealthy American businessmen agreed to join their railroads. They formed a company, or trust, to control the joint railroad. The new company would have complete control of rail transportation in the American west. There would be no competition. President Roosevelt believed the new company violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The law said it was illegal for businesses to interfere with trade among the states. Roosevelt said he would make no compromises in enforcing the law. He asked the Supreme Court to break up the railroad trust. "We are not," roosevelt said, "attacking these big companies. We are only trying to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them. But we believe they must be controlled to serve the public good." VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court ruled against the railroad trust. In the next few years, other trusts would be broken up in the same way. The American people called this trust-busting. And they called Theodore Roosevelt the trust-buster. Roosevelt made several speeches explaining his position on big business. Everywhere he went, he found wide public support. Later, he told a friend why people liked him so well. He said: "I put into words what is in their hearts and minds. . . But not in their mouths." VOICE TWO: President Roosevelt won even more public support for his actions during a labor crisis in the coal industry. The incident was one of many in American history in which a president had to decide if he should interfere in private industry. Coal miners went on strike in the spring of nineteen-oh-two. They demanded more pay and safer working conditions. Mine owners refused to negotiate. One even insulted the miners. He said: "The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for. It will not be the labor activists who take care of him. It will be the Christian men to whom God in his great wisdom has given the control of the property interests of this country." This self-serving use of religion made many Americans support the striking workers. VOICE ONE: After several months, President Roosevelt invited coal mine owners and union leaders to a meeting in Washington. He asked them to keep in mind that a third group was involved in their dispute: the public. He warned that the nation faced the possibility of a winter without heating fuel. Roosevelt said: "I did not call this meeting to discuss your claims and positions. I called it to appeal to your love of country." The union leaders said they were willing to have the president appoint an independent committee to settle the strike. They said they would accept the committee's decision as final. The mine owners rejected the idea. One warned the president not even to talk about it. Such talk, he said, was illegal interference in private industry. VOICE TWO: That made Theodore Roosevelt angry. Later, he said: "If it were not for the high office I held, I would have taken him by the seat of the pants and the nape of the neck and thrown him out the window." Finally, Roosevelt got both sides to agree to a compromise. Mine owners agreed to have an independent committee study the miners' demands. And the miners' agreed to return to work until the study was completed. Several months later, the report was ready. The committee proposed that miners accept a smaller pay increase in exchange for improved working conditions. Both sides accepted the proposal. The coal strike ended. VOICE ONE: Not everyone was happy. Many people still felt Roosevelt had no right to interfere. Roosevelt disagreed. "My business," he said, "is to see fair play among all men -- capitalists or wage-workers. All I want to do is see that every man has a fair deal. No more, no less." Roosevelt believed the United States needed a strong leader. He planned to strengthen the presidency whenever he could. Roosevelt was an active, noisy man. As one writer described him: "Theodore is always the center of action. When he goes to a wedding, he wants to be the bride. When he goes to a funeral, he wants to be the dead man." Many of Roosevelt's friends thought he was an over-grown boy. "You must always remember," one said, "that the president is about six years old." Another friend sent this message to Roosevelt on his forty-sixth birthday: "you have made a very good start in life. We have great hopes for you when you grow up." VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt loved outdoor activities. He especially loved the natural beauty of the land. He worried about its future. Roosevelt wrote: "I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural riches of our land. But I do not recognize the right to waste them, nor to rob -- by wasteful use -- the generations that come after us." Roosevelt set aside large areas of forest land for national use. He created fifty special areas to protect wildlife. And he established a number of national parks. VOICE ONE: Theodore Roosevelt faced the responsibilities of foreign policy with the same strength he used in facing national problems. He firmly believed in expanding American power in the world. "We have no choice," he said, "as to whether or not we will play a great part in the world. All that we can decide is whether we will play our part well or poorly." To play well, Roosevelt said, the United States needed a strong Navy. It also needed a canal across Central America so the Navy could sail quickly between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. VOICE TWO: For many years, people had dreamed of such a waterway. With a canal across Central America, ships could sail directly from ocean to ocean. They would not have to make the long, costly voyage around the southern end of south America. The most likely place to build such a canal was at the thinnest point of land: Panama. Another possible place was just to the north: Nicaragua. Over the years, several attempts were made to build the canal. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen eighties, Ferdinand de Lesseps -- builder of the Suez Canal -- formed a French company to build a waterway across Panama. De Lesseps spent three hundred million dollars to build just one-third of the canal. He could get no more money. His company failed. In the eighteen nineties, an American company tried to build a canal across Nicaragua. It made little progress. After three years, it gave up the attempt. When Theodore Roosevelt became president in the early nineteen hundreds, he was ready to try again. VOICE TWO: A study was made to decide which would be a better place for the canal -- Panama or Nicaragua. Engineers said it would cost less to complete the canal De Lesseps had started twenty years earlier in Panama. But De Lesseps' company still owned the land on which the canal would be built. The United States would have to buy the land, as well as the rights to build the waterway. The study decided it would be less costly, overall, to build the canal in Nicaragua. The proposal went to the United States Congress for approval. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Economic Conditions: Trying to Read the Future
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Economics and weather have a lot in common. Knowing what conditions will be like weeks or months in the future is not easy. One thing that helps economists predict the future is the index of leading economic indicators. An index is a way to measure changes in a group of numbers over time. In financial markets, for example, an index of stocks will rise or fall with changes in the wider market. The changes measured by an index can be represented with a single percentage. The index may start at a base period of time with a value of one hundred. Now say that a month later the value is recorded as one hundred one. That means it gained one percent. If the index lost one percent, however, the value would be ninety-nine. The leading economic indicators are really ten indexes. Four deal with manufacturing activity. One deals with unemployment claims. Another measures people’s expectations of the economy. Still others involve financial information like the money supply and interest rates. The index of leading indicators is just one of the tools used to measure the business cycle. Business cycles are the normal changes that happen in economic growth over time. A measure called the coincident index provides information about current conditions. Employment rates are an important part of it. There is also a lagging index. It helps confirm economic changes that currently appear to be taking place. Interest rates are an important lagging indicator. The Conference Board publishes economic indicators for the United States. The Conference Board is a non-profit organization based in New York. It brings together business leaders to learn new ideas from one another. It has member companies around the world. The Conference Board also does economic research. Its work helps show business and government leaders what conditions might be ahead. But this group did not always produce the index of leading economic indicators. It took over the job in nineteen ninety-five from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the Commerce Department. The Conference Board also publishes economic indicators for Australia, France, Germany and Japan. Others are Britain, Mexico, South Korea and Spain. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Born of the 9/11 Attacks in New York, a Weekend of World Music
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some songs from artists taking part in a global music festival … Answer a question about a secret American organization … And report about the popularity of a new kind of game. Sudoku A numbers game that has been enjoyed for years in Japan is now becoming very popular in the United States. Pat Bodnar tells us more about the game Sudoku, and how it is quickly gaining interest throughout the world. PAT BODNAR: The name Sudoku is Japanese, meaning single numbers. But the game is believed to be an American invention, created by a man named Howard Garns. The earliest known examples of the game were published in nineteen seventy-nine. In the nineteen eighties, the game appeared in Japan under the name Sudoku. In recent years, newspapers in Britain began publishing the game. And last year, its popularity spread back to the United States. Now the games are found in several major American newspapers, in bookstores, and on the Internet. You can even play Sudoku on cellular telephones. Sudoku is designed to be played by one person. The rules of the game are simple, although completing it can be extremely difficult, especially higher-level Sudoku games. Although the game uses numbers, you do not have to be good at mathematics to complete Sudoku successfully. Anyone who can count can solve Sudoku. The game includes a box that contains eighty-one spaces, or smaller boxes. The goal is to fill in each space with a number, one through nine. Some of the spaces are already filled in so the player must complete the rest. The numbers must be placed in such a way that each number is represented in every line of spaces, going across the box, and up and down. Nine areas within the main box must also contain each number, one through nine. A single mistake in Sudoku makes the whole game wrong. The games are rated, depending on their level of difficulty. Numbers have been called an international language because they are the same in any language. Sudoku is a good example of this international language of numbers that anyone, in any country, can understand. Sudoku books are currently among the top sellers in the United States. Ku Klux Klan HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dang Cam Y asks about an organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, and the meaning of the name. The Ku Klux Klan was once a secret terrorist organization in the United States. Its members were white men who dressed in white robes with pointed hoods that covered their faces. They threatened or killed members of minority groups. Members of the Klan believed that they were under attack and were acting to protect their way of life. Experts say the Klan’s enemies were always minorities that were in economic competition with its white members. At different times these enemies have been African-Americans, Catholics, Jews, immigrants, homosexuals and others. Six college students in the southern town of Pulaski, Tennessee started the Klan after the Civil War in eighteen sixty-six. They were former Confederate officers who were on the losing side of the Civil War. The group was at first a social club. Members wore unusual clothes, covered their faces and rode their horses around town after dark. These appearances frightened people in the area, especially former black slaves. The group expanded to different towns. In eighteen sixty-seven, a meeting was held to officially establish rules. Members took the name Ku Klux Klan from the Greek word “kuklos” meaning circle. They believed the circle represented white people. The circle is also the oldest symbol of unity. Reports say the name meant “White Racial Brotherhood.”? Ku Klux was a way of saying “kuklos”. “Klan” was added to mean group. Many white men joined the Klan in its early days because they opposed the federal government’s policy of Reconstruction. This policy was aimed at extending the rights of African-Americans. Klan members felt this was taking away their rights. Strong Klan groups developed in small towns in the South. They attacked former slaves, teachers, judges and government officials. They burned wooden crosses outside the houses of people they wanted to frighten. Membership in the Klan increased again in the early nineteen hundreds after the release of a movie about Reconstruction called “Birth of a Nation.”? During this period, the Klan terrorized European immigrants who had moved to the United States. Later, action by the government and law enforcement agencies stopped the growth of the Klan and destroyed it as an organization. Global Fest A yearly festival of new world music is taking place this weekend in New York City. Musicians from all over the world will perform Saturday and Sunday at the Public Theater. Steve Ember has more about Global Fest. STEVE EMBER: Global Fest was created by three Americans who are world music show producers -- Maure Aronson, Bill Bragin and Isabel Soffer. They began working together after the terrorist attacks against the United States in two thousand one. They wanted to make sure that international music continued to be performed in the United States. Critics say they have succeeded. Maure Aronson says that for they past two years they had more demand than space at the festival. That is why they have expanded the program this year to two nights. Thirteen acts will be performing each night. The performers represent many different cultures and music. One is Niyaz, who performs electronic Persian and Indian folk music. Here is a song from her album, “Niyaz.”? It is called “Nahan.” (MUSIC) Global Fest has attracted musicians hoping to increase their popularity in North America. Another group performing is the Senegalese hip-hop group Daara J. This song is “Paris Dakar.” (MUSIC) Critics say the festival has succeeded in bringing new international music groups to more people in the United States. We leave you now with a Global Fest performer from France -- flamenco guitarist Juan Carmona. He is playing a tango called “Cuida Mi Rosa.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: One Woman President Takes Office, While Another Is Elected
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the people of Chile elected their first female president -- and Africa's first elected woman president took office. In Chile, Michelle Bachelet won fifty-three percent of the ballots in a second vote held Sunday. She was the Socialist candidate of the ruling coalition. Opposition candidate Sebastian Pinera, a businessman of great wealth, had forty-six percent. Michelle Bachelet is fifty-four years old. She is a medical doctor, and a single mother with three children. Her father was an adviser to Socialist president Salvador Allende. General Alberto Bachelet was jailed and tortured after a military overthrow of Allende in nineteen seventy-three. General Bachelet died after six months in prison. Secret police later put his wife and daughter in torture centers. Once freed, they fled to Australia and then Germany. Michelle Bachelet returned to Chile in nineteen seventy-nine. But the government of Augusto Pinochet refused to let her work as a doctor. The dictatorship ended in nineteen ninety. In two thousand, President Richard Lagos made Doctor Bachelet health minister. Two years later, she became Chile's first woman defense minister. Today, she promises to be a president "for all women and all men."? She says she will lead a government that will better meet the needs of women and the poor. And she says she will work to continue Chile's economic growth and close ties with the United States. President Bachelet will be sworn in on March eleventh. In Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in on Monday. She is sixty-seven years old. Over the years she has served in the government and the opposition. She served as finance minister. But she also spent time in prison and exile for her political activism. Miz Johnson-Sirleaf defeated a former soccer star for president in November. Now she has the job to begin rebuilding a nation torn by civil war. Charles Taylor started a rebellion in nineteen eighty-nine. He later became president. Conflict continued until he resigned in two thousand three. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf promises a break with the past. She says many years of problems have hurt progress and national unity, and kept old disagreements alive. She says her goal is to improve the lives of the people of Liberia. Miz Johnson-Sirleaf studied economics at Harvard University in the United States. American first lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both attended the historic swearing-in. Liberians call their new president the "Iron Lady" and "Ma Ellen."? Miz Johnson-Sirleaf explained both names to a reporter from the New York Times. The Iron Lady, she says, "comes from the toughness of many years of being a professional in a male-dominated world."? She says Ma Ellen has to do with the suffering she has seen in Liberia, and how it "brought out the motherliness" in her. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Story of an Eyewitness
* Byline: Written by Jack London

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) The western American city of San Francisco, California suffered a huge earthquake on April eighteenth, nineteen-oh-six. More than three thousand people are known to have died. The true number of dead will never be known. Two hundred fifty thousand people lost their homes. Just a few hours after the terrible earthquake, a magazine named Collier’s sent a telegraph message to the famous American writer Jack London. They asked Mister London to go to San Francisco and report about what he saw. He arrived in the city only a few hours after the earthquake. The report he wrote is called, “THE STORY OF AN EYEWITNESS.”? Here is Doug Johnson with the story. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: Not in history has a modern city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories and a few homes that were near the edge of the city. Its industrial area is gone. Its business area is gone. Its social and living areas are gone. The factories, great stores and newspaper buildings, the hotels and the huge homes of the very rich, are all gone. Within minutes of the earthquake the fires began. Within an hour a huge tower of smoke caused by the fires could be seen a hundred miles away. And for three days and nights this huge fire moved in the sky, reddening the sun, darkening the day and filling the land with smoke. There was no opposing the flames. There was no organization, no communication. The earthquake had smashed all of the modern inventions of a twentieth century city. The streets were broken and filled with pieces of fallen walls. The telephone and telegraph systems were broken. And the great water pipes had burst. All inventions and safety plans of man had been destroyed by thirty seconds of movement by the earth. By Wednesday afternoon, only twelve hours after the earthquake, half the heart of the city was gone. I watched the huge fire. It was very calm. There was no wind. Yet from every side, wind was pouring in upon the city. East, west, north and south, strong winds were blowing upon the dying city. The heated air made a huge wind that pulled air into the fire, rising into the atmosphere. Day and night the calm continued, and yet, near the flames, the wind was often as strong as a storm. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: There was no water to fight the fire. Fire fighters decided to use explosives to destroy buildings in its path. They hoped this would create a block to slow or stop the fire. Building after building was destroyed. And still the great fires continued. Jack London told how people tried to save some of their possessions from the fire. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:?Wednesday night the whole city crashed and roared into ruin, yet the city was quiet. There were no crowds. There was no shouting and yelling. There was no disorder. I passed Wednesday night in the path of the fire and in all those terrible hours I saw not one woman who cried, not one man who was excited, not one person who caused trouble. Throughout the night, tens of thousands of homeless ones fled the fire. Some were wrapped in blankets. Others carried bedding and dear household treasures. Many of the poor left their homes with everything they could carry. Many of their loads were extremely heavy. Throughout the night they dropped items they could no longer hold. They left on the street clothing and treasures they had carried for miles. Many carried large boxes called trunks.They held onto these the longest. It was a hard night and the hills of San Francisco are steep. And up these hills, mile after mile, were the trunks dragged. Many a strong man broke his heart that night. Before the march of the fire were soldiers.Their job was to keep the people moving away from the fire. The extremely tired people would arise and struggle up the steep hills, pausing from weakness every five or ten feet. Often, after reaching the top of a heart-breaking hill, they would find the fire was moving at them from a different direction. After working hour after hour through the night to save part of their lives, thousands were forced to leave their trunks and flee. At night I walked down through the very heart of the city. I walked through mile after mile of beautiful buildings. Here was no fire. All was in perfect order. The police patrolled the streets. And yet it was all doomed, all of it. There was no water. The explosives were almost used up. And two huge fires were coming toward this part of the city from different directions. Four hours later I walked through this same part of the city. Everything still stood as before. And yet there was a change. A rain of ashes was falling. The police had been withdrawn. There were no firemen, no fire engines, and no men using explosives. I stood at the corner of Kearney and Market Streets in the very heart of San Francisco. Nothing could be done. Nothing could be saved. The surrender was complete. (MUSIC) It was impossible to guess where the fire would move next. In the early evening I passed through Union Square. It was packed with refugees. Thousands of them had gone to bed on the grass. Government tents had been set up, food was being cooked and the refugees were lining up for free meals. Late that night I passed Union Square again. Three sides of the Square were in flames. The Square, with mountains of trunks, was deserted. The troops, refugees and all had retreated. The next morning I sat in front of a home on San Francisco’s famous Nob Hill. With me sat Japanese, Italians, Chinese and Negroes. All about were the huge homes of the very rich. To the east and south of us were advancing two huge walls of fire. I went inside one house and talked to the owner. He smiled and said the earthquake had destroyed everything he owned. All he had left was his beautiful house. He looked at me and said, “The fire will be here in fifteen minutes.” Outside the house the troops were falling back and forcing the refugees ahead of them. From every side came the roaring of flames, the crashing of walls and the sound of explosives. Day was trying to dawn through the heavy smoke. A sickly light was creeping over the face of things. When the sun broke through the smoke it was blood-red and small. The smoke changed color from red to rose to purple. I walked past the broken dome of the City Hall building. This part of the city was already a waste of smoking ruins. Here and there through the smoke came a few men and women. It was like the meeting of a few survivors the day after the world ended. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: The huge fires continued to burn on. Nothing could stop them. Mister London walked from place to place in the city, watching the huge fires destroy the city. Nothing could be done to halt the firestorm. In the end, the fire went out by itself because there was nothing left to burn. Jack London finishes his story: (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: All day Thursday and all Thursday night, all day Friday and Friday night, the flames raged on. Friday night saw the huge fires finally conquered, but not before the fires had swept three-quarters of a mile of docks and store houses at the waterfront. San Francisco at the present time is like the center of a volcano. Around this volcano are tens of thousands of refugees. All the surrounding cities and towns are jammed with the homeless ones. The refugees were carried free by the railroads to any place they wished to go. It is said that more than one hundred thousand people have left the peninsula on which San Francisco stood. The government has control of the situation, and thanks to the immediate relief given by the whole United States, there is no lack of food. The bankers and businessmen have already begun making the necessary plans to rebuild this once beautiful city of San Francisco. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have just heard “THE STORY OF AN EYEWITNESS.”? It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was published in Collier’s Magazine, May fifth, nineteen-oh-six. ?Your narrator was Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another AMERICAN STORY, in Special English, on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. ? ??????? ? (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New Efforts Aim to Get More H.I.V. Drugs to Poor Countries
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. The fight against AIDS got some more help earlier this month. The Swiss drug manufacturer Roche and the Clinton Foundation announced separate efforts to provide H.I.V. drugs to poor nations. Roche says it will provide drug companies in developing nations with technical assistance to make copies of a drug called saquinavir. Saquinavir is taken in combination with other medicines. It is used to treat H.I.V. patients with or without AIDS. H.I.V. is the virus that develops into AIDS. Victims lose their ability to fight infections. For example, many people with AIDS die of tuberculosis. Roche says it plans to start its technology transfer program in more than sixty nations, mostly in Africa and Asia. Officials say the countries represent about seventy percent of all people living with H.I.V. and AIDS. Medical experts say more than forty million people are infected around the world. Roche says it will have a special team to deal with requests later this year. The company's chief, William Burns, says the drug maker wants to share its knowledge to help strengthen local drug manufacturers. Some of the team will be based in Africa. The action announced by the Clinton Foundation involves two other H.I.V. medicines: efavirenz and abacavir. The foundation has negotiated agreements with drug makers to cut the cost of these two antiretroviral drugs by more than thirty percent. This will involve five companies in India and South Africa. The Clinton Foundation says it has also secured agreements involving tests for H.I.V. Four companies have agreed to provide developing nations with testing supplies at half of what they cost now. The companies are in China, India, Israel and the United States. Bill Clinton calls the agreements an important step in the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS. The former president says that together they will help fifty developing nations. H.I.V. can be spread by sexual relations, or infected blood or blood products. The virus can pass between pregnant women and their babies, and between drug users who share injection needles. Last year the world had an estimated three million AIDS-related deaths and five million new infections. Medicine can suppress H.I.V., but not prevent it or cure it. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-22-voa4.cfm
* Headline: F. Scott Fitzgerald Wrote About the 'Roaring Twenties'
* Byline: Written by Richard Thorman

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. VOICE ONE: Early in nineteen twenty, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was poor and unknown. He was twenty-four years old. The girl he wanted to marry had rejected him. Her family said he could not support her. Later that same year, Fitzgerald's first novel, “This Side of Paradise,” was accepted for publication. He said that when the news arrived in the mail: "I left my job. I paid my debts, bought a suit of clothes and woke in the morning to a world of promise. " He quickly became rich and famous. That year before “This Side of Paradise” was published, he said he earned eight hundred dollars by writing. The following year, with his first book published, he earned eighteen thousand dollars by writing. Yet by the time F. Scott Fitzgerald died in nineteen forty, at the age of forty-four, his money was gone, and so was his fame. Most people could not believe that he had not died years before. The problem was that he was so much a part of the age he described, the "Roaring Twenties. " So when the period ended people thought he must have ended with it. VOICE TWO: The nineteen twenties began with high hopes. World War One, the "War to End All Wars," was over. The twenties ended with a huge drop in stock market prices that began the Great Depression. Fitzgerald was a representative of the years of fast living in between. The nation's values had changed. Many Americans were concerned mainly with having a good time. People broke the law by drinking alcohol. They danced to jazz music. Women wore short skirts. Money differences between one group of Americans and another had become sharper at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the nineteen twenties, many people believed that gaining the material things one desired could bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the lives of people who lived as if that were true. VOICE ONE: There was more to Fitzgerald than a desire for material things. "The test of a first-rate intelligence," he said, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still have the ability to act. " His two opposing ideas involved seeking happiness from material things, and knowing that material things only brought unhappiness. Of his own time, he said: "There seemed no question about what was going to happen. America was going on the greatest party in its history and there was going to be plenty to tell about. " Yet if he described only the party, his writings would have been forgotten when the party ended. "All the stories that came into my head," he said, "had a touch of unhappiness in them. The lovely young women in my stories were ruined, the diamond mountains exploded. In life these things had not happened yet. But I was sure that living was not the careless business that people thought. " Fitzgerald was able to experience the wild living of the period yet write about its effect on people as though he were just an observer. That is a major reason his writings still are popular. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in the Middle Western city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. He grew up there. In his mother's family there were southern landowners and politicians. The member of the family for whom he was named had written the words to "The Star- Spangled Banner," America's national song. His father was a businessman who did not do well. Scott went to free public schools and, when he was fifteen, a costly private school where he learned how the rich lived. When F. Scott Fitzgerald was seventeen, he entered Princeton University. VOICE ONE: Fitzgerald was not a good student. He spent more time writing for school plays and magazines at Princeton than studying. His poor record troubled him less than the fact that he was not a good enough athlete to be on the university's football team. University officials warned him he had to do better in his studies or he would be expelled. So he decided to leave the university after three years to join the United States Army. It was World War One, but the war ended before he saw active duty. He met his future wife while he was at one of the bases where he trained. The girl, Zelda Sayre, was a local beauty in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. She and Fitzgerald agreed to marry. Then she rejected him when her family said that Fitzgerald could not give her the life she expected. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald was crushed. He went to New York City in nineteen-nineteen with two goals. One was to make a lot of money. The other was to win the girl he loved. He rewrote and completed a novel that he had started in college. The book, “This Side of Paradise,” was published in nineteen-twenty. It was an immediate success. Fitzgerald told his publisher that he did not expect more than twenty thousand copies of the book to be sold. The publisher laughed and said five thousand copies of a first novel would be very good. Within one week, however, twenty thousand copies of the book were sold. Fitzgerals and his wife, Zelda, after they were marriedAt twenty-four, Fitzgerald was famous and rich. A week after the novel appeared, Scott and Zelda were married. F. Scott Fitzgerald had gained the two goals he had set for himself. At this point the fairy tale should end with the expression: "They lived happily ever after. " But that was not to be the ending for the Fitzgeralds. VOICE ONE: Fitzgerald is reported to have said to his friend, the American writer Ernest Hemingway, "The very rich are different from you and me. " Hemingway is reported to have answered, “Yes, they have more money."? The exchange tells a great deal about each writer. Hemingway saw a democratic world where people were measured by their ability, not by what they owned. Fitzgerald saw the deep differences between groups of people that money creates. He decided to be among the rich. To do this he sold short stories to magazines and, when he had time, continued to write novels. He also continued to live as though his life was one long party. For several years he was successful at everything. Editors paid more for a story by Fitzgerald than by any other writer. And he sold everything he wrote. Some stories were very good. He wrote very fast, though. So some stories were bad. Even the bad ones, however, had a spirit and a life that belonged to Fitzgerald. As soon as he had enough good stories, he collected them in a book. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald quickly learned that a life of partying all the time did not help him write his best. But he could not give up the fun. Scott and Zelda lived in New York City. He drank too much. She spent too much money. He promised himself to live a less costly life. Always, however, he spent more than he earned from writing. In addition to the individual stories, two collections of his stories, “Flappers and Philosophers,” and “Tales of the Jazz Age,” appeared in nineteen twenty and nineteen twenty-two. A second novel, “The Beautiful and Damned,” also was published in nineteen twenty-two. VOICE ONE: The novel was well received, but it was nothing like the success of his first novel. Fitzgerald was unhappy with the critics and unhappy with the money the book earned. He and his wife moved to France with their baby daughter. They made many friends among the Americans who had fled to Paris. But they failed to cut their living costs. Fitzgerald was always in debt. He owed money to his publisher and the man who helped to sell his writings. In his stories he says repeatedly that no one can have everything. He seemed to try, though. It looked for a brief time like he might succeed. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald continued to be affected by the problems that would finally kill him -- the drinking and the debts. Yet by nineteen twenty-five his best novel, “The Great Gatsby,” was published. It is the story of a young man's search for his idea of love. It also is a story of what the young man must do to win that love before he discovers that it is not worth having. Next week we shall discuss this important novel. And we shall tell you about the rest of Fitzgerald's short life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week as we conclude the story of the life of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-22-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Telecommuting: Going to Work Without Ever Leaving Home
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Millions of Americans are now paid to spend at least some of their work hours working from home. Computers, telephones and fax machines keep them connected to their offices. VOICE ONE: Today we examine the popularity – and problems – of telecommuting. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some Americans start their workday fifteen minutes after they wake up. Some even stay in their nightclothes. These people are among a growing number who work from home at least one day a month. Some even do this every day. This way of working is called telecommuting or teleworking. Telecommuters do not always work from home. They might go to an office, but still it is away from their main place of employment. The idea of telecommuting by computer goes back more than thirty years. For awhile, it did not gain as much popularity as its supporters had expected. VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? Then came the nineteen nineties, and the rise of the personal computer and the Internet. Today, telecommuting is gaining much wider acceptance. In nineteen ninety-seven, about twelve million people in the United States worked at home at least one day a month. That is what researchers found. Research done in August of two thousand five found a much different situation. More than forty-five million people had worked from home at some time during the past month. VOICE TWO: Government Computer News reported in December on the popularity of teleworking among federal employees. That publication told about a study by the United States Office of Personnel Management. The study found that more than one hundred forty thousand federal workers took part in telecommuting in two thousand four. That was up from about seventy-three thousand in April of two thousand one. Eight percent of federal civilian workers now telecommute. Federal law requires most government agencies to establish a telecommuting policy. Telecommuting is especially popular in the departments of Defense, Treasury, Justice, and Health and Human Services. VOICE ONE: Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia is a big supporter of telecommuting. Mister Wolf says teleworking can reduce heavy traffic and road damage in the Washington, D.C., area. He leads a subcommittee in the House of Representatives that provides money for government operations. Congressman Wolf wants more agencies to let workers telecommute. And he wants those that already do to increase their number of telecommuters or lose millions of dollars. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Telecommuting can also increase the employment of disabled workers, as President Bush called for in two thousand three. And it may be important for continuing government operations in times of severe weather, or an emergency like a terrorist attack. (MUSIC) Of course, not everyone could telecommute and still get their jobs done. Could a plumber fix a broken pipe from home?? Maybe -- by guiding someone else through the repairs. But many people have jobs that seem natural for telework. Experts say lawyers, computer programmers and college professors are often good candidates. So are people like financial advisers, tax experts and online teachers. VOICE ONE: But the idea of telecommuting does not appeal to everyone. Some people do not want to mix home and office life. Some fear that if they telecommute, they will not make progress in their organizations. They fear they may become less important to their employers. Employers may or may not provide equipment for work at home. And tying into an employer's computer system may not always be easy. VOICE TWO: But many people want to telecommute. They welcome it as recognition of good work and dependability. It saves the time and cost of traveling to and from work. In some cases, having employees work from home can reduce tensions in the workplace. It can give workers more freedom, so they feel more control over their lives. They can better decide how to balance work and family needs. For parents, that can mean fewer worries about children home alone. Some telecommuters say having permission to work from home makes them better workers. They might feel the need to work harder and communicate more with their supervisors. VOICE ONE: Some employers may have their suspicions about telecommuting. But many managers say they are pleased with it. They note that it can reduce the need for office space, and even cut down on employee absences. People who might make others sick if they came to work might still be well enough to work from home. Experts say telecommuting can help organizations keep good workers who live far from the office, or want to move out of the area. It can also help when the office itself moves. VOICE TWO: Some unions have concerns about telecommuting. They worry that it might make enforcing work rules or conditions more difficult if people are away from the workplace. One union said it was unfair to other workers that telecommuters did not have to travel to the office. Cisco Systems is the leading seller of equipment for making networks on the Internet. It says companies that want to establish telecommuting have dealt with union concerns in several ways. Some let only non-union workers telecommute. Others make decisions without negotiating with the union. Still others have union representatives attend planning programs for telecommuters. VOICE ONE: Concerns about telecommuting extend beyond union issues. Employees who have to stay in the office might feel hostility toward those who are able to work from home. Or they might feel that a telecommuter is not working hard enough -- or never did enough to earn the right to work from home. And what happens if there is a crisis that suddenly requires more people than are in the office to deal with it???? These are all issues that employers and employees must think about. Another is information security. There may be worries about the stealing of information from a telecommuter's home or computer. Experts, however, say good planning can reduce that risk, just as it can in an office. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the first telecommuters in the United States may have been the president of a bank in Boston, Massachusetts. In eighteen seventy-seven he began to use a telephone line that operated from his home to his bank. But it took many years for modern telework to develop. It also took a rocket scientist. Jack Nilles is called the father of telecommuting and telework. Mister Nilles was educated as a scientist and engineer. He led the design process for several space vehicles and communications systems for NASA and the Air Force. VOICE ONE: Jack Nilles was teaching at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, when he started his research on working from home. In nineteen seventy-three he began tests of a computer system. Telecommuters at home used machines linked to large computers at their jobs. His studies helped lead to office telecommuting as well as call centers. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? ? In recent years, many companies have moved customer service operations out of a central office. Instead, they use customer service agents who work at home. These workers often take orders for products and services, anything from airplane tickets to flowers to health plans. The pay is not high, but the people have more control over their hours. Many have young children or older family members who need care. Today, telecommuting is not only changing how Americans work. It is also changing how a lot of people live. (MUSIC)??????????????????????????????????? VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? And I’m Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Spacecraft Comes Home With Stardust Memories of the Solar System
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Brianna Blake and George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. This week on our show: Star dust memories of our solar system ... VOICE ONE: Measuring the effects of world trade on global warming ... VOICE TWO: And are frogs feeling the heat from higher world temperatures? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lead scientist Donald Brownlee makes a victory sign as material from the Stardust capsule is examinedOn January fifteenth, a long-awaited American spacecraft returned safely to Earth. The flight lasted seven years and more than four thousand million kilometers. It carried home a small amount of star dust and space dust from the tail of the comet called Wild-Two. And yes, the engineers and scientists who waited all these years were wildly happy. VOICE TWO: Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle is the lead investigator on the Stardust program for the NASA space agency. He described the contents of the capsule as a treasure from the edge of the solar system. NASA launched the Stardust spacecraft toward the path of Wild-Two in nineteen ninety-nine. In January of two thousand four, the ship came within two hundred forty kilometers of the comet. Stardust opened a collector to capture material from the comet's tail. Inside the collector was a substance called aerogel to trap particles floating in space. Aerogel weighs almost nothing. It looks a lot like smoke. Scientists call it glass smoke. VOICE ONE: Comets are often called "dirty snowballs."? Scientists say they contain materials left over from the huge cloud of gas and dust that formed into the sun and the planets. Stardust spent about six months collecting particles. Then the robotic craft moved the collector into a sample return capsule, and headed for Earth. On January fourteenth, Stardust released the forty-five-kilogram capsule. It happened about one hundred ten thousand kilometers above the Earth. That capsule is what landed at an Air Force testing ground in the desert of the western state of Utah. It shot through the atmosphere at about forty-five thousand kilometers an hour, a record speed for a spacecraft re-entry. Now, scientists expect to learn more about the birth of the solar system more than four and one-half thousand million years ago. In fact, Donald Brownlee says some of the captured particles are sure to be older than the sun. VOICE TWO: The scientists and engineers were tense as they awaited the return of the Stardust capsule. Then they saw long-distance images of an open parachute. In two thousand four, NASA watched the return of a similar spacecraft, Genesis. It returned with material expelled from the sun. Its parachute, however, failed. Genesis crashed into the Utah desert. It broke open, but scientists have said it could still have some research value. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English from Washington. A new study finds a direct link between the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere and the loss of some kinds of creatures. The study involved brightly colored frogs that live in mountain forests of Central and South America. There were about one hundred ten kinds of these harlequin frogs twenty years ago. Now, scientists say, more than seventy have disappeared. Experts believe that a fungus killed them. The bacterial disease has attacked frogs and other amphibians around the world. Amphibians live on land and in water. They are considered easy victims because of their thin skin. VOICE TWO: But the new study found that the losses of harlequin frogs happened in years with sharp increases in world temperatures. American biologist Alan Pounds led the study. He says the timing of the events shows a "very clear relationship."? Mister Pounds works at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve and Tropical Science Center in Costa Rica. Yet the fungus grows best in cooler temperatures. The scientists offer an explanation. They say warmer weather led to more water in the air, which led to more clouds. The cloud cover produced cooler days, though the nights got warmer. The scientists say the conditions helped spread the fungus. They say the recent losses are tied to global warming. But other scientists are not so sure. Some criticized the new study. They say it did not consider other environmental changes that could have affected the frogs. VOICE ONE: Scientists say more than one hundred species of amphibians around the world have disappeared since nineteen eighty. Some say almost one-third of the world's six thousand different frogs, toads and salamanders are threatened. Ecologist Karen Master took part in the study. She says many ecological systems are at risk from global warming. She says eighteen to thirty-five percent of plant and animal populations could disappear in the next forty-five years. Researchers say climate change is also a danger to humans. The World Health Organization says higher temperatures are helping to spread diseases tied to insects and water. As a result, it estimates that an additional one hundred fifty thousand people will die this year and five million others will get sick. VOICE TWO: Periods of warming and cooling are normal for Earth. But scientists widely believe that human activity is responsible for most of the recent warming. They say carbon dioxide and others gases from factories and vehicles trap extra heat in the atmosphere. The Earth’s average temperature rose by about six-tenths of one degree Celsius in the twentieth century. A United Nations group has estimated that temperatures could rise one-point-four to five-point-eight degrees by the end of this century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another recent study looks at the importance of world trade in the production of carbon dioxide linked to climate change. This one is by two scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Shui Bin and Robert Harriss wondered about the growth of the huge trade deficit the United States has with China. What if the United States had produced the goods itself instead of importing them?? What effect would there have been on air pollution? VOICE TWO: The findings suggest that in two thousand three, the United States would have released six percent more carbon dioxide. But China would have released fourteen percent less had it not made goods for the United States. The two countries are the biggest producers of heat-trapping gases. The United States is estimated to produce about twenty-five percent of the world total. The scientists say China is responsible for about fifteen percent. But, in general, China releases more industrial gases on average to make a product than the United States would. The scientists say this is because Chinese manufacturers depend more on coal and technologies that pollute more. VOICE ONE: The scientists examined the growth of imports from China between nineteen ninety-seven and two thousand three. They estimate that the trade imbalance added seven hundred twenty million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That was one percent of the combined amount released by the two nations during that period. The study found that in two thousand two and two thousand three, releases of carbon dioxide grew eight to nine percent a year in China. In the United States, the rate was about one percent a year. The scientists note that neither country has approved the Kyoto Protocol. That treaty aims to cut heat-trapping gases. The National Science Foundation supported the research. The publication Energy Policy published the study online. Shui Bin urged the United States to increase exports to China of technology for cleaner production. Not only could it help China reduces its pollution, she says. It could also improve the balance of trade between the two countries. VOICE ONE: If you have a question about science, send it to special@voanews.com. Be sure to include your name and where you are from. Or write to VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. We might be able to answer your question on our show. But we cannot answer questions personally. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Brianna Blake and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Don't Know Much About Mulch?
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Mulch is important to farmers. Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made out of organic material, like crop waste. Farmers may keep the remains of maize or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. This is called conservation tillage. Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Mulch not only protects the soil against wind and water damage. It also helps keep the soil from getting too dry, and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing. Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil. The United States Department of Agriculture says it is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut-up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds. The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. Mulched areas usually warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down slowly in autumn. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil. Mulch used to help moderate the effects of winter weather can be added late in autumn. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals will probably find another place to live. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. Read and listen to our reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Teaching Older People to Become Better Listeners to Avoid Alienating Others
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: communication skills for the elderly. RS: And to teach it to them is George Shames, professor emeritus in psychology and communications disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. Last year, he began a short course for older people that draws on some basic skills used in counseling. AA: Professor Shames says he came upon the idea accidentally. He taught a course where his young students had to find a partner to interview during the course of a semester. Some chose older people in retirement communities. Professor Shames says older people want to share what they have learned about life. GEORGE SHAMES: "But they don't know how to do it in a way that is acceptable to their listeners, because they are often judgmental, they often give advice and tell people how to do things. And that can very easily alienate a younger person and turn them off, to the point where the older person just doesn't get an opportunity to share these world experiences and the wisdom that they have accumulated." RS: "What would you say are the skills to be a good communicator?" GEORGE SHAMES: "Well, being a good communicator, generally you have to be a good listener. And it's not a matter of listening and then immediately focusing on yourself, but staying focused on the person who's trying to share with you. And there are ways to learn that, to learn what it means to be a good listener. "I'll give you an example of a listening project. I get the class in there -- and they pair off, by the way. They work in groups in terms of the doing part of it. So one of the things that I have them do as a group, I just say in terms of listening, 'I want you to say exactly what I say right after I say it.' So I say yes, and the whole class says yes. And then I say well, and the whole class says well. Now what I'm doing is, I'm getting them into the mode of repeating exactly what they hear me say." RS: "You're also getting their attention." GEORGE SHAMES: "And getting their attention. And your nonverbal and body language is extremely important to being a good listener. You're not looking out a window or at your watch or anything else, but you've got good eye contact, you're close enough -- but not too close. You're close enough so that they know that you're in touch with them. "So what I do is have them do what I just said three times in a row. When they're successful, I then add another word. I say 'OK, now I'm going to say two words: yes but.' And I do that three times. And I gradually build that up to twelve words that they can exactly repeat." AA: "Which is not what you're suggesting they would actually do in an conversation, though." GEORGE SHAMES: "Oh, no, not at all. No, it has nothing to do with the conversation. It has to do with the skill of listening." RS: "And where do you go from there?" GEORGE SHAMES: "OK, from there, then, we go into some behaviors that are designed to get a person to talk to you. Well, what you do is you say things like, 'And tell me' -- actually it can be with open questions. 'What would you like to talk to me about today?' That's an open question. Or, 'Why don't you tell me about your family?' That's an open instruction. "You get these encouragements that -- they're minimal encouragers, like you say yes, uh-huh, I understand, tell me more, I don't understand, could you explain that to me more? These are all minimal encouragers to get the person to talk more. You're not judging it, you're not even paraphrasing it, you're just encouraging it. "Sometimes, just saying the last word of something that somebody says to you -- for example, they say, 'Well, today I had a pretty rough day.' And as the counselor you would say 'a rough day,' and that then stimulates them to pick up on it and tell you more. "And from there, you can go into specific kinds of behaviors like paraphrasing the content. So if somebody tells you something, then you put it into your own words and then you feed it back to them. Reflecting feeling is another thing. Now these all come from counseling. By the way, what I call this course when I teach it, it's called 'Communicating as a Real-Life Encounter.'" RS: And next week, Professor Emeritus George Shames begins his second year of teaching this course at the University of Pittsburgh. He also teaches it through the Academy of Lifelong Learning, housed at Carnegie Mellon University, also in Pittsburgh. AA: George Shames is retired not only as a psychologist, but also as a speech pathologist and authority on stuttering. He now writes fiction, and has just authored a crime novel about the struggles of a young man who stutters. The book is called "The Company of Truth." RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-24-voa4.cfm
* Headline: International Consumer Electronics Show Presents Latest Technology
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we visit the International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES. This four-day gathering takes place every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is one of the most important events in the technology industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The goal of CES is for companies to show their products before they are for sale to the general public. CES is the largest yearly consumer electronics show in the world. It is the largest trade show of any kind in America. This year, two thousand five hundred companies from more than one hundred countries attended the event. It is estimated that more than one hundred and fifty thousand people visited the show earlier this month. VOICE TWO: The Consumer Electronic Show started about thirty years ago in New York City. The Consumer Electronics Association organizes the event. At first, this show was small but it has grown a great deal. Many important products have been introduced at this event over the years. For example, the videocassette recorder made its first appearance at CES in nineteen seventy. The CD player was shown for the first time at CES in nineteen eighty-one. VOICE ONE: This year, the International Consumer Electronics Show took place from January fifth to the eighth. Visiting CES is an exciting experience. It is so large that two convention centers and three hotels are needed to show all of the products. There are so many flashing lights and big colorful signs that it is hard to know where to look first. As you explored the show, you were surrounded by thousands of people speaking in many different languages about one common idea -- technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: To help visitors, the show is organized by color-coded areas. Each color represents one kind of product. For example, one area is just for electronic games. Another area contains digital televisions. Other kinds of products include home security systems, digital cars, and wireless communications. This kind of organization is helpful because CES takes up almost one hundred fifty thousand square meters of space. Within each color-coded area are many booths. These booths are enclosed areas that companies pay for to show their products. Some booths are only a few square meters. VOICE ONE: Other companies like Sony of Japan had big booths that can fit hundreds of people. Sony showed many exciting entertainment products this year. One very interesting new technology is wireless television. Sony showed how its service called “location free” television works. With an Internet connection and a special Sony computer or television, you can watch TV programs from anywhere in your house. You can even watch movies and TV while you are traveling. The company makes another new product called the Sony Reader. This small device permits you to store up to eighty electronic books. Instead of turning the pages of a book, you click on the screen to continue reading. You can hold your whole library in one hand! The Sony Reader will be for sale this spring. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another area of the International Consumer Electronics Show was in a hotel called Alexis Park. Here, instead of going into a booth, you enter a hotel room to look at the electronics. The companies here mostly make high performance audio devices. These products are designed to produce excellent sound quality when you listen to music and movies. For example, in one room you could hear the speakers made by the Amphion company from Finland. Speakers are the devices that produce sound. Amphion speakers are carefully designed to produce a natural live sound when you listen to music. To do this, the company’s technology experts have studied the way the human ear works. Using these studies, they have made speakers that reproduce the sound the human ear hears best. When you listen to music on these speakers, the sound is clear and rich. It is as if the musician is sitting next to you. VOICE ONE: In another room, you could see a product called the Kaleidescape System from an American company. It looks like a large white box with blue lights. This product is able to store thousands of DVD movies and CD music albums. You simply have to load your movies and music and it stores them as digital information. The device is linked by the Internet to the Kaleidescape company’s database. It provides you with an image and explanation of every movie and song. This way the Kaleidescape lets you search through hundreds of titles with the click of a button. This system has a huge amount of memory. It can store more than five terabytes of information. This means you can have more than eight hundred DVD’s stored in one place. But this big memory comes at a big price. The price for this system starts at more than twenty thousand dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Outside the hotel, next to the?swimming pool, the American company Doron showed a very different device. Their large machine looks like a car without windows. The roof of the “car” opens up to show seats for several people. Once you get inside, the Doron representative closes the door. Inside, there is a large movie screen that plays a battle scene in space. As the actors and spaceships move around in the movie, the “car” you are in moves up, down and around. It is as though you are living the movie, with all of its sights, sounds, and motions. Doron makes these “active entertainment” devices for use in places like amusement parks. VOICE ONE: The International Consumer Electronics Show also has more traditional technologies. For example, a company called Eton showed its many shiny and colorful radios. This German company has been making high quality radios for years. Eton says that it is reinventing radios by centering on design and necessity. Their radios have excellent sound and also look great. One model receives satellite radio. This kind of new digital radio permits listeners to have many choices of special channels. Another radio model represents an agreement between Eton and the American Red Cross. This radio is powered by batteries so it can be useful during an emergency when there is no electricity. The radio even comes with an Emergency Preparedness Guide. Still another model combines AM, FM, digital and shortwave radio. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The International Consumer Electronics Show is not just about looking at electronics. You could listen to famous industry leaders talk about new devices and technologies. For example, Bill Gates, the chief of Microsoft Corporation, gave a speech that opened CES. He talked about the sales growth of personal computers. He also talked about his company’s newest software that will be for sale later this year. Bill Gates described a future where people are surrounded and connected by many useful technologies. Companies at CES often invite well-known actors, singers, musicians and athletes to their events. For example, the company Monster Cable had a special concert for its guests. At this event the singer Stevie Wonder gave a live performance. The Internet company Yahoo invited the famous actor Tom Cruise to one of its presentations. The actor Robin Williams made an appearance at a talk by leaders of the company Google. VOICE ONE: This is the first time that Yahoo and Google have attended CES. These Internet companies have a big influence on the electronics market. For example, both companies are developing ways to provide television programs to computers and cell phones. Companies that make cell phones and computer programs want to be part of this technology revolution. Television broadcast companies are also working to create partnerships with Google and Yahoo. The Internet companies are changing the way people receive media. Experts say these changes are redefining the way the world uses technology and digital information. CES has become one of the most important gatherings of the technology industry. Each year, the industry leaders show their newest inventions. Who knows what technological magic will be presented next year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Dana Demange. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-24-voa5.cfm
* Headline: U.N. Warns of Coming Risk to Africa From Bird Flu
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 UPDATE: The story below is from January. With the bird flu now found in Nigeria, get the latest information from?VOA's Avian Flu News page ----- I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Nobody can tell where bird flu will appear next. But experts from the United Nations say it could be Africa. Delegates heard warnings last week at an international conference in Beijing. The U.N. coordinator for avian influenza, David Nabarro, says Africa is a strong possibility this spring because of the pathways of wild birds. Still, Mister Nabarro says every country in the world should get prepared. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization had its own warnings for the coming months. It says wild birds coming from Africa could spread the virus in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East areas. It says trade and the movement of people could also spread the flu. The World Health Organization says at least eighty people have died of the h-five-n-one virus since December of two thousand three. This month, Turkey became the first country outside East Asia to report cases in people. The conference in Beijing took place to raise money to fight bird flu. The United States and others offered almost two thousand million dollars. ?U.N. officials said they had expected less. Experts say the virus could kill millions if it changes into a form that spreads easily from person to person. People are warned about the risk from sick or dead birds or infected waste. But the W.H.O. says heat kills the virus in poultry meat if all parts are cooked to at least seventy degrees Celsius. The virus has not been reported in Africa. But the fact that many Africans, like many Asians, keep chickens and other poultry is a cause for concern. Also, many areas already suffer from hunger, poverty and high death rates from AIDS. Experts say Africa does not enough resources to identify birds that might be infected. Money would also be needed to contain any outbreaks, and to treat any infected people. Scientists are working on vaccines to protect against the virus. They are also working on new influenza treatments. Some say there is not enough evidence to know how effective current antiviral drugs like Tamiflu might be against bird flu. One new drug said to have shown some promise in laboratory tests is peramivir. Tests in people began in December. American officials have agreed to a speedy approval process for this new drug. Yet experts say public health measures as simple as hand washing are also important in the fight against bird flu. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: As Demands on Cheerleaders Grow, Injuries Take a Big Jump
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. About three million young people in the United States are involved in cheerleading. People often think of cheerleaders when they think of school spirit. Cheerleaders are a tradition at football games and other sports events. They help get the crowds excited for their team. In the past, cheerleading at American schools mostly involved shouting cheers and jumping up and down. But cheerleading has grown into a sport of its own. The moves are more physical. Cheerleaders, for example, are often thrown into the air. The difficulty of modern cheerleading has led to more injuries. A new study shows that the number nationwide increased one hundred ten percent during the years examined. It says hospital emergency rooms treated more than two hundred thousand cheerleaders between nineteen-ninety and two thousand two. During that same period, the number of students who became cheerleaders increased by eighteen percent. Two children's medical researchers in Ohio did the study. The report appeared this month in the Journal of Pediatrics. Almost all of the injured cheerleaders were female. Eighty-five percent of the injuries were in those between the ages of twelve and seventeen. Leg and foot injuries represented the largest share of cases, thirty-seven percent. Nineteen percent were injuries to the head or neck. But the study says few cheerleaders were injured seriously enough to be admitted to the hospital. Almost ninety-nine percent were treated and released from the emergency department. Researchers say cheerleaders often attempt difficult performances before they are physically ready. They are often expected to perform risky moves when they compete for honors against other schools. Most school sports are played during one season. Cheerleading is done all year. So it is difficult to compare the injury rates to other sports. In many American schools, cheerleading is not considered an official sport. This means it is not held to the same rules and requirements. Because of this, the adult coaches who direct cheerleading programs are often not required to complete any special training. In their report, the researchers call for steps to increase the safety of cheerleading. These include required safety training for all coaches. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Brianna Blake. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: President Roosevelt Decides to Build the Panama Canal
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States in nineteen-oh-one. He firmly believed in expanding American power in the world. To do this, he wanted a strong navy. And he wanted a way for the navy to sail quickly between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Roosevelt decided to build that waterway. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Richard Rael and I tell the story of the Panama Canal. VOICE TWO: For many years, people had dreamed of building a canal across central America to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The most likely place was at the thinnest point of land: Panama. Another possible place was to the north: Nicaragua. President Roosevelt appointed a committee to decide which place would be better. Engineers said it would cost less to complete a canal that had been started in the eighteen eighties in Panama. But the United States would have to buy the land and building rights from a French company. The price was high: more than one hundred million dollars. So, the committee decided it would be less costly, overall, to build a canal in Nicaragua. The proposal went to the United States Congress for approval. VOICE ONE: The House of Representatives quickly passed a bill to build the Nicaragua canal. Then the French company reduced its price for the land and building rights in Panama. It decided some money was better than no money at all. President Roosevelt was pleased. He gave his support to the Panama plan. When the Senate began debate, however, it appeared the Nicaragua plan would win. Then a volcano exploded in the caribbean area. A city was destroyed. Thirty-thousand people were killed. Soon, reports said another volcano had become active and was threatening a town. The volcano was in Nicaragua. Nicaragua's president denied there were any active volcanoes in his country. But one of Nicaragua's postal stamps showed a picture of an exploding volcano. That little stamp weakened support for the Nicaragua canal. The Senate passed a bill for a Panama canal, instead. The House of Representatives changed its earlier decision. It approved the Senate bill. VOICE TWO: At that time, Panama was a state of Colombia. Canal negotiations between America and Colombia did not go smoothly. After nine months, the United States threatened to end the talks and begin negotiations with Nicaragua. The threat worked. In January, nineteen-oh-three, Colombia signed a treaty to permit the United States to build the Panama Canal. The treaty gave the United States a canal zone. This was a piece of land ten kilometers wide across Panama. The United States could use the canal zone for one hundred years. In exchange, it would pay Colombia ten million dollars, plus two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year. The United States Senate passed the treaty within two months. The Colombian Senate rejected it. The Colombian government demanded more money. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt was furious. He saw the issue in terms of world politics...not simply Colombia's sovereignty. ?He said: "I do not think Colombia should be permitted to bar permanently one of the future highways of civilization."? Roosevelt was ready to take over Panama to build the canal. That was not necessary. A revolt was being planned in Panama to gain independence from Colombia. The United States made no promises to support the rebels. But it wanted the rebels to succeed. Under an old treaty, Colombia had given the United States the right to prevent interference with travel across Panama. Now, the United States used the old treaty to prevent interference from Colombian troops. Several American warships were sent to Panama. VOICE TWO: The local leader of the Panamanian revolt was Manuel Amador. Amador had the support of the French company that still owned the rights to build the Panama Canal. The chief representative of the company was Philippe Bunau-Varilla. He worked closely with an American lawyer, William Cromwell. Bunau-Varilla and Cromwell provided Manuel Amador with a declaration of independence, a constitution, and money. Amador used the money to buy the support of the Colombian military commander in Panama City, the capital. He also got the support of the governor, who agreed to let himself be arrested on the day of the revolt. Amador formed a small army of railroad workers and fire fighters. The rebel army planned to take over Panama City on November fourth, nineteen-oh-three. Just before that date, five hundred Colombian soldiers landed at Colon, eighty kilometers away. The soldiers could not get to Panama City, however. All but one railroad car had been moved to the capital. VOICE ONE: Manuel Amador gave a signal. The revolution began. There was a little shooting, but no one was hurt. Most of the shots were fired into the air to celebrate the call for Panama's independence. Colombian officials were arrested quickly. Then Amador made a speech. He said: "Yesterday, we were slaves of Colombia. Today, we are free. President Theodore Roosevelt has kept his word. Long live the Republic of Panama! long live President Roosevelt!" Colombia asked the United States to help it re-gain control of Panama. The United States refused. It said it would oppose any attempt by Colombia to send more forces there. The United States also recognized Panama's independence. And, almost immediately, it started negotiations with the new government on a canal treaty. VOICE TWO: The two sides reached agreement quickly. The treaty was almost the same as the one the Colombian Senate had rejected earlier. This time, however, the canal zone would be sixteen kilometers wide, instead of ten. And the United States would get permanent control of the canal zone. The treaty was signed on November eighteenth, nineteen-oh-three. That was just fifteen days after Panama declared its independence. VOICE ONE: Colombia protested. It said the United States had acted illegally in Panama. Many American citizens protested, too. They called President Roosevelt a pirate. They said he had acted shamefully. Some members of Congress questioned the administration's deal with the French canal company in Panama. Several investigations examined the deal. Theodore Roosevelt did not care. He was proud of his success in getting the canal started. He said: "I took the canal zone and let Congress debate. And while the debate goes on...so does work on the canal." VOICE TWO: It took ten years for the United States to complete the Panama Canal. The first ship passed through it in August, nineteen fourteen. In that same year, the United States signed an agreement with Colombia. The agreement expressed America's regret for its part in the Panamanian revolution. And it provided a payment of twenty-five million dollars to Colombia. Theodore Roosevelt was no longer president when the agreement was signed. But he still had many friends in the Senate. He got them to reject it. After Roosevelt's death, the United States signed another agreement with Colombia. The new agreement included the payment of twenty-five million dollars. It did not include the statement of regret. The Senate approved the new agreement. VOICE ONE: The issue of America's involvement in Panama caused much bitterness in other countries of Latin America. Some did not feel safe from American interference. President Roosevelt said the United States would not interfere with any nation that kept order and paid what it owed. Roosevelt was worried because some Latin American countries were having difficulty re-paying loans from European banks. He did not want the issue of non-payment used as an excuse for European countries to seize new territory in the western hemisphere. Roosevelt said the United States was responsible for making sure the debts were paid. His policy led to further United States involvement in Latin America. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Maryland Law Could Force Wal-Mart to Spend More on Health Care
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A new state law in Maryland says large companies must spend at least eight percent of their total wages on health care. If not, then they will have to pay the difference to the state to help provide health care to the poor. The amount for non-profit employers is six percent. The new law is called the Fair Share Health Care Fund Act. It will affect only companies with ten thousand or more employees in Maryland. At least four companies are that big. But only one is known not to meet the new requirement: Wal-Mart Stores. The legislation became known as "the Wal-Mart Bill."? Wal-Mart employs about seventeen thousand workers in Maryland, and more than a million nationwide. It has faced a lot of criticism about its employment policies. The Maryland law is the first of its kind in the fifty states. Labor activists say they will try to get more than thirty other states to pass similar legislation. America's biggest labor group, the AF.L.-C.I.O., says fewer employers offer health coverage than five years ago. It notes that many workers in low-paying jobs, including some at Wal-Mart, have to be covered by Medicaid. Medicaid is a state and federal program that provides health care for the poor. Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich vetoed the legislation last May. He called it bad policy. He said it sends an anti-business message and does little to deal with the national problem of limited health care for the poor. But earlier this month Maryland's Democratic-controlled legislature voted to cancel the veto by the Republican governor. Wal-Mart strongly opposed the law. The company told Maryland lawmakers that it spends between 7 and 8 percent on health care. It says less than one-half of one percent of Maryland workers without health insurance work at Wal-Mart. It says more than three-fourths of its employees have health insurance. And it says every Wal-Mart employee in Maryland can gain health coverage for as little as twenty-three dollars a month. Wal-Mart and business groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce say the law will hurt companies that create jobs. Wal-Mart could try to stop the new law in court. It says Maryland lawmakers, in its words, "placed the special interests of Washington, D.C., union leaders ahead of the well-being of the people they serve." This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Luck
* Byline: Written by Mark Twain

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "Luck."? It was written by Mark Twain. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? I was at a dinner in London given in honor of one of the most celebrated English military men of his time. I do not want to tell you his real name and titles. I will just call him Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby. I cannot describe my excitement when I saw this great and famous man. There he sat, the man himself, in person, all covered with medals. I could not take my eyes off him. He seemed to show the true mark of greatness. His fame had no effect on him. The hundreds of eyes watching him, the worship of so many people did not seem to make any difference to him. Next to me sat a clergyman, who was an old friend of mine. He was not always a clergyman. During the first half of his life he was a teacher in the military school at Woolwich. There was a strange look in his eye as he leaned toward me and whispered – “Privately – he is a complete fool.” He meant, of course, the hero of our dinner. This came as a shock to me. I looked hard at him. I could not have been more surprised if he has said the same thing about Nepoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon. But I was sure of two things about the clergyman. He always spoke the truth. And, his judgment of men was good. Therefore, I wanted to find out more about our hero as soon as I could. Some days later I got a chance to talk with the clergyman, and he told me more. These are his exact words: About forty years ago, I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich, when young Scoresby was given his first examination. I felt extremely sorry for him. Everybody answered the questions well, intelligently, while he – why, dear me – he did not know anything, so to speak. He was a nice, pleasant young man. It was painful to see him stand there and give answers that were miracles of stupidity. I knew of course that when examined again he would fail and be thrown out. So, I said to myself, it would be a simple, harmless act to help him as much as I could. I took him aside and found he knew a little about Julius Ceasar’s history. But, he did not know anything else. So, I went to work and tested him and worked him like a slave. I made him work, over and over again, on a few questions about Ceasar, which I knew he would be asked. If you will believe me, he came through very well on the day of the examination. He got high praise too, while others who knew a thousand times more than he were sharply criticized. By some strange, lucky accident, he was asked no questions but those I made him study. Such an accident does not happen more than once in a hundred years. Well, all through his studies, I stood by him, with the feeling a mother has for a disabled child. And he always saved himself by some miracle. I thought that what in the end would destroy him would be the mathematics examination. I decided to make his end as painless as possible. So, I pushed facts into his stupid head for hours. Finally, I let him go to the examination to experience what I was sure would be his dismissal from school. Well, sir, try to imagine the result. I was shocked out of my mind. He took first prize! And he got the highest praise. I felt guilty day and night – what I was doing was not right. But I only wanted to make his dismissal a little less painful for him. I never dreamed it would lead to such strange, laughable results. I thought that sooner or later one thing was sure to happen: The first real test once he was through school would ruin him. Then, the Crimean War broke out. I felt that sad for him that there had to be a war. Peace would have given this donkey a chance to escape from ever being found out as being so stupid. Nervously, I waited for the worst to happen. It did. He was appointed an officer. A captain, of all things! Who could have dreamed that they would place such a responsibility on such weak shoulders as his. I said to myself that I was responsible to the country for this. I must go with him and protect the nation against him as far as I could. So, I joined up with him. And anyway we went to the field. And there – oh dear, it was terrible. Mistakes, fearful mistakes – why, he never did anything that was right – nothing but mistakes. But, you see, nobody knew the secret of how stupid he really was. Everybody misunderstood his actions. They saw his stupid mistakes as works of great intelligence. They did, honestly! His smallest mistakes made a man in his right mind cry, and shout and scream too – to himself, of course. And what kept me in a continual fear was the fact that every mistake he made increased his glory and fame. I kept saying to myself that when at last they found out about him, it will be like the sun falling out of the sky. He continued to climb up, over the dead bodies of his superiors. Then, in the hottest moment of one battle down went our colonel. My heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby was the next in line to take his place. Now, we are in for it, I said… The battle grew hotter. The English and their allies were steadily retreating all over the field. Our regiment occupied a position that was extremely important. One mistake now would bring total disaster. And what did Scoresby do this time – he just mistook his left hand for his right hand…that was all. An order came for him to fall back and support our right. Instead, he moved forward and went over the hill to the left. We were over the hill before this insane movement could be discovered and stopped. And what did we find? A large and unsuspected Russian army waiting! And what happened – were we all killed? That is exactly what would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. But no – those surprised Russians thought that no one regiment by itself would come around there at such a time. It must be the whole British army, they thought. They turned tail, away they went over the hill and down into the field in wild disorder, and we after them. In no time, there was the greatest turn around you ever saw. The allies turned defeat into a sweeping and shining victory. The allied commander looked on, his head spinning with wonder, surprise and joy. He sent right off for Scoresby, and put his arms around him and hugged him on the field in front of all the armies. Scoresby became famous that day as a great military leader – honored throughout the world. That honor will never disappear while history books last. He is just as nice and pleasant as ever, but he still does not know enough to come in out of the rain. He is the stupidest man in the universe. Until now, nobody knew it but Scoresby and myself. He has been followed, day by day, year by year, by a strange luck. He has been a shining soldier in all our wars for years. He has filled his whole military life with mistakes. Every one of them brought him another honorary title. Look at his chest, flooded with British and foreign medals. Well, sir, every one of them is the record of some great stupidity or other. They are proof that the best thing that can happen to a man is to be born lucky. I say again, as I did at the dinner, Scoresby’s a complete fool. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "Luck."? It was written by Mark Twain and adapted for Special English by Harold Berman. Your narrator was Shep O’Neal. Listen again next week at this same time for another American Story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Susan Clark. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Geena Davis Is Not Really a President, but She Plays One on TV
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music from Madonna’s latest album … Answer a question about how we answer questions … And report about a popular new television show. 'Commander in Chief' Chile and Liberia are welcoming newly elected female presidents. Will a woman ever become president of the United States?? It seems the closest the United States has come to a female leader is on television. Faith Lapidus tells us about that show, “Commander In Chief”. FAITH LAPIDUS: “Commander in Chief” is a television show about the United States’ first woman president, Mackenzie Allen. She is a forty-five-year-old former college professor. When the show began in September, Vice President Allen took the highest office after the president died. The former president’s supporters wanted her to resign so the Speaker of the House of Representatives would become president. She refused. Geena Davis plays President Allen. Donald Sutherland is the Speaker of the House, Nathan Templeton. In this scene from the television show, she tells him what she is going to do: PRESIDENT ALLEN: "I’m going to go out there and I’m going to take the oath of office. I’m going to run this government. And if some Islamic nations can’t tolerate a female president then I promise you it will be more their problem than mine." SPEAKER TEMPLETON: "Why? Why do you want to be president? "For the same reason that Teddy Bridges did. Because I believe the people of America deserve to have a president ... " "No no. In this room where it’s just you and me, just the two of us, the answer that you should be giving me is that you want to be president because you want the power. You want the power to control the universe." "That’s not me." "Well, that’s the problem!" President Allen’s family has faced problems because of their new situation. Living in the White House changed the lives of her children. Her husband had to decide if he would work in or out of her administration. And her mother came to live at the White House. The new president also has had to deal with dangerous international problems. One story was about the danger of a nuclear war. Another told about important negotiations with Russia. And President Allen has political problems. She knows the Speaker of the House still wants to be president and is not her political ally. “Commander in Chief” has been one of the most popular new shows on American television this year. Last week, Geena Davis won a Golden Globe Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as best leading actress in a television drama. It looks like Mackenzie Allen will continue to serve as America’s first female president for a few more years at least. Sources HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Moninre Farhangnia asks where Special English writers find answers to listeners’ questions. We often use an Internet search engine to find a Web site that will provide information. For example, we answered a question about the Pepsi Cola company. Its Web site provided information about the history of the company. We also found articles in newspapers and magazines. We confirm information with second and third sources to make sure the information is correct. Sometimes we also use an encyclopedia, a set of books containing information on almost any subject. Encyclopedias are written by experts and have been a trusted source of information for years. Now there is also a free online encyclopedia called Wikipedia. It is written by people around the world. Anyone can edit or add to an article. But this has caused problems. Last year, a former editor of the paper USA Today discovered wrong information about him on Wikipedia. Someone had written an article that falsely linked him to a political assassination. This wrong information was quickly corrected. Later, the publication Nature studied Wikipedia and a well-known printed encyclopedia, Britannica, to see which had more mistakes. It found an average of four mistakes in a Wikipedia article, and three in an article in Britannica’s. Wikipedia supporters note that they are able to correct information when they find a mistake. Written publications are not able to do this. Wikipedia started in two thousand one. The word “wiki” comes from “wiki wiki” which means “quickly” in the Hawaiian language. Reports say it is the largest single source of information in history. It is also one of the fastest growing sites on the Internet. It offers more than three million articles in more than two hundred languages. Each month, it records more than two thousand million page visits. Jimmy Wales helped start Wikipedia. He says its purpose is to provide all people with a free encyclopedia written in their native language. You can find information on just about every subject on Wikipedia, even about Special English. However, some experts warn people not to believe everything they read online, no matter where they read it. Madonna? Popular singer Madonna has been making records for more than twenty years. She recently released a new album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor.”? The songs represent a new kind of nineteen seventies disco music. Pat Bodnar tells us more. (MUSIC) PAT BODNAR: That was “Hung Up,” the international hit song from Madonna’s new album. “Hung Up” and the other songs on the album are considered “retro.” Retro is a word used to describe an earlier kind of music that is re-made in a new way. Madonna combines dance music of the nineteen seventies with a new modern beat. All the songs on Madonna’s new album are continuous. The beat of one song develops into the beat of the next song. This means you never have to stop dancing. Religious leaders in Israel have criticized one song on the album called “Isaac.”? They said it was wrong to use the name of a sixteenth century spiritual leader in a song meant to earn money. Madonna has defended the song. She said it is called “Isaac” because that is the name of the man who sings it with her. If you listen carefully, you can hear the voice of Isaac Sinwani singing in Hebrew. This song also expresses some of Madonna’s own interest in spirituality. (MUSIC) Music critics say that this is one of Madonna’s best albums in years. They say it represents what Madonna does best-- getting people onto the dance floor. We leave you now with the song “Like it or Not”. In this song, Madonna says that she will keep on going, no matter what people think of her. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Dana Demange, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Palestinians Described as 'Simply in Shock' After Hamas Win
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The Islamic group Hamas won seventy-six of the one hundred thirty-two seats in the Palestinian parliament. Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah party. The majority is enough for Hamas to rule by itself in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Fatah won forty-three seats. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and his government resigned. On Friday Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said he will ask Hamas to form the next government. The group is sworn to the destruction of Israel and has refused to disarm. Hamas has carried out many attacks against Israelis. Israel, the United States and the European Union say they will not work with a government led by Hamas. They call it a terrorist organization. In Iran, the Foreign Ministry says the election will strengthen resistance against Israel. But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says the results will only make the creation of a Palestinian state more difficult. European Union foreign ministers will meet Monday to discuss the situation. E.U. officials say they cannot give money to a government that carries on an armed fight with Israel. The international group that wrote the so-called road map to peace will also meet Monday. The members are the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union. Even as many world leaders expressed displeasure at the results, they praised the exercise in democracy. President Bush said the voting was a reminder that democracy "can open up the world's eyes to reality by listening to people."? Mister Bush described the Hamas victory as a "wake-up call" to the leadership in the Palestinian territories. In his words: "The people are demanding honest government. The people want services."? But he added that he did not see how a group that supports the destruction of a country can be a partner in peace. The nineteen ninety-three Oslo peace agreements created the Palestinian Authority to administer the territories. Hamas does not recognize Israel. Yet the Palestinian Authority must deal with the Israeli government in areas like water and power supplies. The agreements also say that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be settled peacefully. The question is how might Hamas change now that it will control the Palestinian Authority. Israel will hold national elections at the end of March. Some people think Israel is more likely now to take more steps on its own to separate itself from the Palestinians. Some Israelis say their government never should have given up the Gaza Strip. They say Hamas used the Israeli withdrawal last year for political gain. Yet many Palestinians say they never expected Hamas to do so well, or Fatah to do so poorly. Palestinian reporter Khalil Assali says: "People are simply in shock."? IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 'Great Gatsby': A Great Event in U.S. Literature
* Byline: Written by Richard Thorman

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program, People in America. Every week, we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen twenty-five, just five years after his first novel appeared, F. Scott Fitzgerald published “The Great Gatsby.” It was a major event in American writing. “The Great Gatsby” is a story about success -- American success -- and what one must do to gain it. It is a story about appearance and reality. It is a story about love, hate, loyalty, and disloyalty. This is how the story begins: VOICE TWO: "In my younger years, my father gave me some advice. The ability to do what is good and right is not given out equally at birth. The rich and powerful -- who should have it -- often do not. And those who were born knowing neither good nor right, sometimes know it best. " VOICE ONE: Jay Gatsby, the main character in the book, learns this moral lesson. He dies at the end of the story. Yet his spirit survives, because of his great gift for hope. It was the kind of hope, Fitzgerald said, that he had never found in any person. Yet it was hope that used Gatsby and finally, in the end, destroyed him. Gatsby is a self-made man. Almost everything about his life is invented -- even his name. He was born Jimmy Gatz. As a child, Jimmy Gatz sets a daily program of self-improvement. These are the things he feels he must do every day to make himself a success. VOICE TWO: When Jimmy Gatz invents himself as Jay Gatsby, part of his dream of success is the love of a beautiful woman. He finds the woman to love -- as Fitzgerald did -- while training in the army during World War One. The other part of his dream is to be very rich. That, too, was part of Fitzgerald's dream. In just three years, Gatsby gains more money than he thought possible. All he needs to do now is to claim the woman he loves. In those same three years, however, she has married someone else. The story of “The Great Gatsby” is told by a narrator, Nick Carraway. When Gatsby seeks to renew his earlier love, Carraway says, "I would not ask too much. You cannot repeat the past. " Gatsby answers, "Cannot repeat the past. Why, of course you can!" VOICE ONE: For a brief time, Gatsby seems to succeed. He does not know that he can never succeed completely. The woman he loves, Daisy Buchanan, is part of the very rich world that Fitzgerald found so different. It is a group that does not share what it has with people like jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald wrote: VOICE TWO: "They were careless people. They smashed up things and creatures. Then they retreated back into their money, or their great carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together. They retreated and let other people clean up the messes they had made.” VOICE ONE: The mess they make in “The Great Gatsby” is a tragic one. They hit a woman with a car, and kill her. Gatsby accepts the blame, so Daisy will not be charged. He, then, is killed by the dead woman's husband. Not even Gatsby’s few friends come to his funeral. Of all the hundreds of people who came to his parties, no one will come when the party is over. After Gatsby’s death, Nick Carraway, the storyteller, says: VOICE TWO: "I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first recognized the green light at the end of Daisy's boat dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn. His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to hold it. He did not know that it was already behind him . . . "Gatsby believed in the future that, year by year, moves away from us... "So we beat on -- boats against the current -- carried back endlessly into the past. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: “The Great Gatsby” was not the popular success F. Scott Fitzgerald expected. Yet other writers saw immediately how skillful he had become. His first books showed that he could write. “The Great Gatsby” proved that he had become an expert in the art of writing. The story is told by a third person. He is a part of the story, but he rejects the story he is telling. His answers are like those heard in an ancient Greek play. The chorus in the play tells us what to think about what we see. “The Great Gatsby” is a short novel whose writing shines like a jewel. The picture it paints of life in America at that time -- the parties, the automobiles, the endless fields of waste -- are unforgettable. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald wrote at great speed to make money. Yet no matter how fast he wrote, he could not stay out of debt. By the end of the nineteen twenties, the Jazz Age had ended. Hard times were coming for the country and for the Fitzgeralds. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty, Zelda Fitzgerald became mentally sick. She lived most of the rest of her life in mental hospitals. Scott Fitzgerald also became sick from drinking too much alcohol. And he had developed the disease diabetes. F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald honeymoon In nineteen thirty-one, the Fitzgeralds returned to the United States from Europe. Zelda entered a mental hospital in the state of Maryland. Scott lived nearby in the city of Baltimore. Zelda lived until nineteen forty-seven. She died in a fire at another mental hospital. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-four, Fitzgerald wrote another novel, “Tender is the Night.” He thought it was his best. Many critics disagreed. They said Fitzgerald no longer recognized what was happening in the United States. They said he did not understand what was important to the country during the great economic depression. “Tender is the Night” tells the story of a young American doctor and his marriage to a rich, beautiful patient. In the early part of his life, he believes in success through hard work. Slowly, however, his wife's great wealth ruins him. His energy is weakened, his work destroyed. His wife recovers her health while he becomes worse. In the end, she seems to have stolen his energy and intelligence. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-six, Fitzgerald wrote a book he called “The Crack-Up.” It describes his own breakdown, and how he attempted to put himself and his life together. "It seemed a romantic business to be a successful writer," he said. "Of course. . . You were never satisfied. But I, for one, would not have chosen any other work. " At the age of thirty-nine, he realized that his life had cracked into pieces. It became a time for him to look at himself. He realized that he had not taken care of the people and things he loved. "I had not been a very good caretaker of most of the things left in my hands," he said, "even of my own skills. " Out of the wreckage of his life and health, he tried to rebuild himself. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald had always written many stories. Some were very good. Others were not good. He wrote quickly for the money he always needed. After his crack-up, however, he discovered he was no longer welcome at the magazines that had paid him well. So, to earn a living, he moved to Hollywood and began writing for the motion picture industry. He had stopped drinking. He planned to start writing novels and short stories again. It was too late. His health was ruined. He died in Hollywood in nineteen forty at the age of forty-four. There were few people who could believe that he had not died years before. VOICE ONE: Fitzgerald was working on a novel when he died. He called it? “The Last Tycoon.” Fitzgerald's friend from Princeton University, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, helped to get it published. Wilson did the same thing for a book of Fitzgerald's notes and other pieces of writing, called “The Crack-Up.” These books re-established Fitzgerald's fame as both an observer of his times and a skilled artist. That fame rests on just a few books and stories, but it seems secure. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-02-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The God of His Fathers
* Byline: Written by Jack London

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story this week is called "The God of His Fathers."? It was written by Jack London in the year nineteen-oh-one. Here is Shep O'Neal with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Silently the wolves circled the herd of caribou deer. Gray bellies close to the ground, the wolves in the pack surrounded a pregnant deer. They pulled her down and tore out her throat. The rest of the caribou herd raced off in a hundred directions. The wolves began to feed. Once again the Alaska territory was the scene of silent death. Here, in its ancient forests, the strong had killed the weak for thousands and thousands of years. Small groups of Indians also lived in this land at the rainbow's end. But their Stone Age life was ending. Strange men with blond hair and blue eyes had discovered the lands of the North. The Indian chiefs ordered their warriors to fight them. Stone arrow met steel bullet. The Indians could not stop the strangers. The White men conquered the icy rivers in light canoes. They broke through the dark forests and climbed the rocky mountains. One of these men sat in front of a tent, near a river. His name was Hay Stockard. Over the smoke and flames of his fire, he watched an Indian village not far from his own camp. From inside his tent came the cry of a sick child, and the gentle answering song of its mother. But the man was not concerned now with them. He was thinking of Baptiste the Red, the chief of the Indian village, who had just left him. "We do not want you here," Baptiste had told him. "If we permit you to sit by our fires, after you will come your church, your priests and your God."? Baptiste the Red hated the White man's God. His father had been an Englishman; his mother, the daughter of an Indian chief. Baptiste had been raised among White men. When Baptiste was a young man he fell in love with a Frenchman's daughter, but her father opposed the marriage. A Christian priest refused to marry them. So Baptiste took the girl into the forests. They went to live among his mother's people. A year later, the girl died while giving birth to her first child. Baptiste took the baby back to live among the White people. For many years he lived in peace with them, as his daughter grew up -- tall and beautiful. One night, while Baptiste was away, a White man broke into their home and killed the girl. When Baptiste asked for justice, he was told the White man's God forgives all sins. So Baptiste killed his daughter's murderer with his own hands, and returned forever to his mother's people. "I have sworn to make any White man who comes to my village deny his God if he wants to live," he told Hay Stockard. "But since you are the first, I will not do this if you go and go quickly." "And if I stay?" Hay Stockard had asked quietly as he filled his pipe. "Then soon you will meet your God, your bad God, the God of the White man!"? The Indian chief rose to his feet and left Hay Stockard's camp to return to his village. The next morning Hay Stockard watched with angry eyes as three men in a long canoe came to the river bank. Two of the men were Indian. The third, a White man, wore a bright red cloth around his head. Hay Stockard reached for his gun, and then changed his mind. As soon as the canoe landed, the White man jumped out and ran up to Stockard. "So we meet again, Hay Stockard!? Peace be with you. I know you are a sinner, but I, Sturges Owen, am God's own servant. I will bring you back to our church. "Listen to me," Stockard warned, "if you stay here you'll bring trouble to yourself and your men. You'll all be killed and so will my wife, my child, and myself!" Owen looked up to the sky. "The man who carries God in his heart and the Bible in his hand is protected." Later that morning, the Indian chief Baptiste came back to Stockard's camp. "Give me the priest," Baptiste demanded, "and I will let you go in peace. If you do not, you die." Sturges Owen grabbed his Bible. "I am not afraid," he said. "God will protect me and hold me in his right hand. I am ready to go with Baptiste to his village. I will save his soul for God." Hay Stockard shook his head. "Listen to me, Baptiste. I did not bring this priest here, but now that he is here, I can't let you kill him. Many of your people will die if we fight each other." Baptiste looked into Stockard's eyes. "But those who live," he said, "will not have the words of a strange God in their ears." After a moment of silence, Baptiste the Red turned and went back to his own camp. Sturges Owen called his two men to him and the three of them kneeled to pray. Stockard and his wife began to prepare the camp for battle. As they worked they heard the sound of war-drums in the village. As Sturges Owen waited and prayed, he began to feel his religious fever cooling. Fear replaced hope in his heart. The love of life took the place of the love of God in his mind. The love of life!? He could not stop himself from feeling it. Owen knew that Stockard also loved his life. But Stockard would choose death rather than shame. The war-drums boomed loudly. Suddenly they stopped. A flood of dark feet raced toward Stockard's camp. Arrows whistled through the air. A spear went through the body of Stockard's wife. Stockard's bullets answered back. Wave after wave of Indians warriors broke over the barrier. Sturges Owen ran into his tent. His two men died quickly. Hay Stockard alone remained on his feet, knocking the attacking Indians aside. Stockard held an ax in one hand and his gun in the other. Behind him, a hand grabbed Stockard's baby by its tiny leg and pulled it from under his mother's body. The Indian whipped the child through the air, smashing its head against a log. Stockard turned, and cut off the Indian's head with his ax. The circle of angry faces closed on Stockard. Two times they pushed up to him, but each time he beat them back. They fell under his feet as the ground became wet with blood. Finally, Baptiste called his men to him. "Stockard," he shouted. "You are a brave man. Deny your God and I will let you live!" Two Indians dragged Sturges Owen out of the tent. He was not hurt, but his eyes were wild with fear. He felt anger at God for making him so weak. Why had God given him faith without strength? Owen stood shaking before Baptiste the Red. "Where is your God now? " demanded the Indian chief. "I do not know," Owen whispered. "Do you have a God?" "I had." "And now?" "No." "Very good," Baptiste said. "See that this man goes free. Let nothing happen to him. And send him back to his own people so he can tell his priests about Baptiste the Red's land where there is no God." Baptiste turned to Hay Stockard. "There is no God," Baptiste said. Stockard laughed. One of the young Indian warriors lifted the war spear. "Do you have a God?" Baptiste shouted. Stockard took a deep breath. "Yes, he said, "the God of my fathers." The spear flew through the air and went deep into Stockard's chest. Sturges Owen saw Stockard fall slowly to the ground. Then the Indians put Owen in a canoe. Sturges Owen went down the river to carry the message of Baptiste the Red, in whose country there was no God. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The God of His Fathers."? It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Shep O'Neal. I'm Susan Clark. Listen again next week for another AMERICAN STORY in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: WHO Warns Against Misuse of Malaria Drug
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization is warning people not to use only one drug to treat malaria. That drug is artemisinin. W.H.O. officials say people should take it only in combination with other malaria drugs. The fear is that artemisinin could lose its effectiveness if it is misused. Arata Kochi is the new director of the malaria department at the W.H.O., the United Nations health agency. He says: "If we lose artemisinin, we will no longer have an effective cure for malaria."? And if that happens, he says, it might take at least ten years before a new one could be discovered. Drug combinations are also used to treat diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis. Experts say combination treatments are not only more successful than single-drug, or monotherapy. They also slow the development of resistance to medicines. The organisms that cause malaria have already developed resistance to many other drugs. The W.H.O. has called on eighteen drug manufacturers to immediately halt the sale of artemisinin by itself. The companies are in China, India, Vietnam and other countries. The health agency cannot force them to obey. But there are steps it could take to pressure companies that continue to sell artemisinin as a monotherapy. For example, the W.H.O. could urge the World Bank, the Global Fund and other agencies not to buy drugs from those companies. Artemisinin comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood. Chinese researchers discovered it more than thirty years ago. The W.H.O. says artemisinin is more than ninety-five percent effective in curing malaria when used correctly with other anti-malarial drugs. Doctor Kochi says there have been no documented cases yet where treatment failed because of resistance to artemisinin. But he says there is concern about decreased reaction to the drug in Southeast Asia. That area is traditionally where resistance to anti-malaria drugs has first appeared. Malaria produces high body temperatures and a dangerous loss of fluids. The W.H.O. estimates there are more than three hundred million cases of malaria in the world each year. At least one million people die. Nine out of ten deaths happen in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. Most of the victims are young children. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ride 'em, Cowboys and Cowgirls! Rodeos Keep Old West Spirit Alive
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? Matt Austin rides a bull at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in DecemberAnd I’m Steve Ember. The spirit of the old American West can still be found at rodeos. Modern-day cowboys compete to stay on wild, jumping horses, or struggle to ride bulls that weigh up to a ton. Cowgirls also compete in rodeos. VOICE ONE: Rodeos used to be found mainly in small towns out in the country. But today Americans in big cities also get the chance to shout "ride 'em, cowboy!" (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first major open-air rodeo of the season is called La Fiesta de los Vaqueros -- Spanish for the Celebration of the Cowboys. And the cowboys will be celebrating February eighteenth to the twenty-sixth in Tucson, Arizona. Current and former world champions of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association will take part. In all, about seven hundred competitors will demonstrate their skills. And if that is not enough, there is also the Tucson Rodeo Parade on February twenty-third. Organizers call it "the world's longest non-motorized parade."? Who needs a motor when four legs and a horse will do? VOICE ONE: La Fiesta de los Vaqueros is one of hundreds of professional rodeos in the United States. Rodeos have long been a tradition in the West. But the sport is also popular in major cities in the Midwest like Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In fact, rodeos can be found from coast to coast. Georgia and North Carolina are two Eastern states with rodeo programs for high school students. Some rodeos are held in big sports centers. And some are shown on television. A rodeo might also have related events. In December, the Minneapolis Invitational held parties to celebrate the New Year. Rodeos have gone from small, local events to big business. For example, the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo took place in January in Denver, Colorado. It gave away five hundred thousand dollars in prize money. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: American rodeos developed long ago from the skills that cowboys needed to work with cattle in the West. Cowboys had to know how to train wild horses. They had to be excellent riders. And they had to know how to use a rope to catch and tie a runaway cow. By eighteen fifty, cowboys were competing in roping and riding in New Mexico. But Pecos, Texas, is called the "Home of the World's First Rodeo."? The event was held in eighteen eighty-three. It took place on July fourth, America's birthday. Other early rodeos took place in Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona. In nineteen twelve, some wealthy businessmen in Canada agreed to pay for a rodeo in the town of Calgary, in Alberta Province. That rodeo was called the Calgary Stampede. If offered cowboys prize money up to a thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: Today, rodeos include events like bull riding, calf and steer roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding and bareback bronc riding. Bronc is short for bronco. A bronco is a wild horse, or a horse that still acts like one. A steer is a young male cow that has been neutered. Steer wrestling and bareback bronc riding developed as rodeo sports in the twentieth century. Saddle bronc riding, however, was a traditional cowboy skill. It developed because of the need to train a wild horse to accept a saddle and rider. The rider gets on a saddle bronc in a narrow space. But a good saddle bronc hates to be ridden. The horse will buck. It will jump up and down and kick its back legs high in the air. The horse wants to throw its rider. The door is raised, and the animal and rider burst out in front of the crowd. The cowboy rides the horse as if he is riding an earthquake. He is supposed to stay on the bucking bronco for eight seconds. He also must show good form. Professional rodeo judges rate each rider. Half the rating depends on how violently the animal bucks. So cowboys hope they get a really lively one. VOICE TWO:?????????????????????????????? Cowboys also compete to see who can ride a bull the longest. And they compete to see who can bring a cow under control the fastest. In one event, the cowboy throws a rope around the neck of a calf, and then has to tie three of the legs of the young cow. In another event, the cowboy jumps off his moving horse to take a full-grown cow by the head. The cowboy has to pull the animal to the ground. Cowgirls also compete in professional rodeos, but not to the extent they did a long time ago. In fact, men and women used to compete together in the same events. Now at mixed rodeos the women take part in timed events in barrel racing. Barrels are big round containers. The cowgirls have to make sharp turns on their horses to race around three barrels. It takes a lot of skill. There are all-women rodeos. And these are getting more popular. All-women rodeos include the same events that cowboys excite the crowds with. VOICE ONE: Not everyone likes rodeos. In fact, some people hate the idea. Animal activists say rodeos are cruel to the animals. Rodeo defenders disagree with that. There is no question that rodeos can be dangerous for the humans involved. A top competitor can earn thousands of dollars for eight seconds of work. But those seconds are hard on the body. And rodeo performers do not earn the millions of dollars that some athletes do in other sports. Cowboys can suffer many injuries. Often, though, they simply get up and dust themselves off. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now, meet some top rodeo stars. Ryan Jarrett wears the gold belt buckle of the all-around world champion of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. The champion has to win at least one hundred thousand dollars in a season. Last year, at the age of twenty-one, Ryan Jarrett became the second youngest person ever to earn that title. And he did it in only his second year of championship competition. The youngest was Ty Murray. He was twenty the first time he became all-around champion in nineteen eighty-nine. Trevor Brazile gave Ryan Jarrett strong competition for the title. Brazile is a three-time national champion. He often appears on television. He also helps advertise a number of products including cowboy hats. Ryan Jarrett is known for tie-down roping. He won more than eighty thousand dollars in one event. When he is not competing, he helps his father operate a farm in northwestern Georgia. VOICE ONE: Among professional cowgirls, Kelly Kaminski holds the current world title in barrel racing. Her horse is named Rocky. As they make the turns, trying to avoid the barrels, Rocky leans far to the side. He is so low to the ground, he looks almost like he is lying down. Kelly Kaminski, the two thousand five champion, also won the gold buckle the year before. She formerly taught young children to read. Some rodeo people lead two working lives. When Kappy Allen is not competing, she is a full-time lawyer in Austin, Texas. Kappy Allen won the world title of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association in two thousand. ?????????????? ?????????????? ???? Perhaps the best-known cowgirl in America is Charmayne James. She won ten world championships, nineteen eighty-four through nineteen ninety-three. The first time, she was just fourteen years old. Charmayne James won an eleventh world championship in two thousand two. The following year, she announced her retirement. VOICE TWO: Now Charmayne James is raising and training barrel horses. She has taught barrel racing in the United States and internationally. Her horse Scamper has an interesting story. No one thought he could be ridden until Charmayne James came along. Scamper was named to the Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in nineteen ninety-six. That made him the only barrel racing horse ever to win that honor. VOICE ONE: Another place to learn about rodeo's colorful past is the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Visitors do even not have to travel all the way to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to see it. Internet visitors just have to go to nationalcowboymuseum -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ours program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Scientist Says Restricting Fish in Pregnancy Diet Might Do Harm
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week on our show: A scientist says eating less fish during pregnancy may do more harm than good ... VOICE ONE: Studies say two new vaccines against rotavirus are safe and effective for young children ... VOICE TWO: And explaining the ancient Plague of Athens. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two years ago, the United States government advised pregnant women to limit fish in their diet to three hundred forty grams a week. Women in some other countries get the same advice. The aim is to reduce the risk that mercury pollution in fish could harm the developing nervous system in children. But now an American government researcher says women who follow this advice may be harming their children instead of protecting them. Joseph Hibbeln [pronounced HIH-beh-lin] is a medical doctor who works at the National Institutes of Health. He says the value to brain development from the omega-three fatty acids in fish oil outweighs the risk from mercury. On January seventeenth he spoke at a scientific meeting in London to report the findings of new research. VOICE TWO: Doctor Hibbeln and British scientists used information about thousands of British children. The information came from a health study known as the Children of the Nineties project, based at the University of Bristol. The research led by Doctor Hibbeln looked at the records of nine thousand pregnant women. The information included the amount of seafood their mothers ate while pregnant. The researchers compared families that ate plenty of fish against those that ate less than three hundred forty grams per week. They also compared the development of the children at different ages. They found important differences between the children of women who ate a lot of fish and the children of women who did not. The scientists based their observations on thirty-one different tests. VOICE ONE: These are some of the reported findings: By around two years old, children whose mothers ate no fish had lower scores in tests for motor, communication and social skills. At the age of seven, they had more problems dealing with other children. And by eight they were more likely to do poorly on intelligence tests of language skills. Mothers who had the most omega-three fatty acids in their diet had the children with the best fine-motor skills at age three-and-a-half. Doctor Hibbeln has called some of the findings "frightening."? He says those responsible for the health advisory looked only at a study of the effects of eating whale meat with high mercury levels. He says they did not consider the risk of restricting the nutrients that pregnant women can get from fish. Doctor Hibbeln would not comment further on the study until the findings appear in a scientific publication. First, other scientists must read and approve the report. But he tells us that the Medical Research Council of Britain, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health paid for the research. VOICE TWO: Nearly all fish contains some amount of mercury. Some kinds contain more than others. Mercury is a metallic element. It gets into the environment from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels. It also comes from the use of mercury in electronics and other products. The advisory in two thousand four came jointly from the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. They said eating seafood is not a health concern for most people. But they had advice for young children and three groups of women. These are pregnant women, women who might become pregnant and those who breastfeed their babies. The women and children were advised not to eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish because they contain high levels of mercury. The agencies said five of the most commonly eaten fish that are low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. Albacore or "white" tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna. The women and children were also told to be very careful about the safety of fish caught in local waterways. VOICE ONE: Omega-three fatty acids have been in the news for years. Research has shown that some may reduce the risk of heart attacks by reducing the risk of blockages in the blood system. Also, Doctor Hibbeln says countries with the highest rates of eating fish have lower rates of depression, and even lower rates of murder. Walnuts and seed oils also contain omega-threes. But many researchers say fish oil, or fish oil supplements, are the best way to get them. There may be limits to the power of fish oil, though. Scientists have just reported that it does not appear to reduce the risk of cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. More than two thousand four hundred years ago, a sickness struck Athens. The disease is said to have killed up to one third of all Athenians, including their leader Pericles. The huge loss of life helped to change the balance of power between Athens and its enemy, Sparta, in the ancient world. Historians say the sickness began in what is now Ethiopia. They say it passed through Egypt and Libya before it entered Greece. Knowledge of the disease has come mainly from the writings of the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who survived it. So what caused the fall of Athens?? Among the diseases that have been suggested are anthrax, bubonic plague, measles and smallpox. Now, a study based on genetic testing says it was probably typhoid fever. Greek researchers announced the results. The International Journal of Infectious Diseases published the findings online last week. VOICE ONE: Researchers from the University of Athens tested human remains from an ancient burial place in the Greek capital. The researchers collected genetic material from teeth. They say tests found genetic evidence similar to that of the modern-day organism Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. Manolis Papagrigorakis led the University of Athens team. He says the findings throw light on one of the most debated mysteries in medical history. Typhoid fever is a life-threatening disease that is common today in developing countries. Experts say there are more than twenty-one million cases each year. VOICE TWO: Typhoid can be spread by food or drink that has been handled by a person infected with the bacteria that causes it. Bacteria expelled in human waste can pollute water supplies. So water used for drinking or to wash food can also spread the infection. Hand washing is important to reducing the spread of typhoid. And there are vaccines that can help prevent it. People with typhoid fever usually develop a body temperature as high as forty degrees Celsius. But experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States say typhoid can usually be treated with antibiotics. Some people recover but continue to carry the bacteria. These carriers can get sick again. And they may continue to infect others. Doctors can do tests to make sure the bacteria has left the body. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another disease that is common in developing countries is rotavirus. Babies and young children around the world are affected by this intestinal condition. Yet rotavirus is a leading killer of young children in the developing world. The severe diarrhea it causes can be deadly unless treated. Most of the estimated half-million deaths each year are in poor countries. But major studies show that two new vaccines are safe and effective in preventing most cases of severe rotavirus in young children. The drug company GlaxoSmithKline makes one of the vaccines, called Rotarix. Merck makes the other one, called RotaTeq. The New England Journal of Medicine published the studies, which were supported by the makers. Rotarix is already sold in some countries. RotaTeq is not yet for sale. In nineteen ninety-nine, the drug company Wyeth removed a rotavirus vaccine from the American market. That drug was blamed for some cases of an intestinal blockage. The studies of Rotarix and RotaTeq, however, say the two new vaccines did not show any increase in risk for that condition. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Greater Use of Ethanol Fuel Could Drive New Markets for Corn
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The American Midwest is known as the corn belt. Most of the nation’s maize is grown along that stretch of the country. The farmers who grow the corn have been very successful. So successful, they now face oversupply and low prices. Most of the corn goes to feed animals. But some of it goes into cars and trucks as ethanol fuel. Some farmers hope greater use of ethanol will drive new markets for corn. Ethanol is made from plant matter that contains complex carbohydrates, or starch. Starch breaks down into simple sugars. And yeast organisms break down the sugars into alcohol. Ethanol has a long history. It is ethyl alcohol, also called grain alcohol, the same kind found in alcoholic drinks. Corn is not the only crop that can be used to make ethanol. Barley, wheat, even the leaves and stalks of corn, rice and sugar cane can be used. In some parts of the country, fuel companies are required to add ethanol to gasoline as a way to reduce air pollution. The United States Department of Energy says many automobiles can run on ten percent ethanol without any need for changes. The government has supported the development of vehicles with the ability to use a mixture called E-eighty-five. It is eighty-five percent ethanol and fifteen percent gasoline. Some people may not even know that their cars and trucks have this ability. Many of these vehicles are common models made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. A number of state laws support the use of ethanol. So does federal law. The Energy Policy Act of two thousand five requires the production of fifteen thousand million liters of renewable fuels this year. There are also tax reductions for ethanol makers, farmers and buyers of vehicles that can run on E-eighty-five. Some experts, however, say they are concerned that using food crops to make fuel is bad policy. Some say it might use more energy than it produces. Others say using a lot of corn for fuel might shrink food supplies. But the process that separates starch to make ethanol, called wet milling, uses only part of the corn. Plant-based fuels are not new. For many years Brazil has used fuel made with alcohol from sugar cane. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: An English Learner Is in a Jam Over What to Call Slow-Moving Traffic
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some listener mail. RS: Faisal in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is stuck in traffic -- traffic terminology, that is. Faisal is taking an English course. It seems that one day, many of the students were late because of what they referred to as a "traffic jam." AA: Their British instructor, however, told them they were using the wrong term. She told them to say "traffic congestion." Faisal says: "Now my question is what should I say when there are lots of slow-moving vehicles on the roads?" He wants to know if there is a difference between British and American terms. RS: Well, we can't speak for the British, but most Americans in causal conversation use the phrase "traffic jam." AA: Congested roads are such a part of life these days in many communities, people who are late will often just say "traffic," and other people will know what they mean. Traffic congestion" is more formal and more likely heard in news reports. RS: Our next stop is a question from Noureddine Boutahar, an English teacher in Morocco who has designed a number of activities to teach about the present perfect tense. He says, "But a colleague of mine told me that the following one is not correct: AA: "I'd like to show my students a picture of the famous Moroccan athlete Said Aouita, who has stopped practicing, and tell them to give sentences in the present perfect about his experience. RS: He goes on to say that the sentences would be: "He has broken 5 world records. He has worked for Athletics Australia. He has coached many famous athletes. He has played football.' Are these sentences," he asks, "appropriate and correct?" RS: Well, it depends. Since you point out that Said Aouita no longer trains competitively, then the present perfect might not be the most appropriate tense. The present perfect suggests a lack of completion. Take your example "He has broken 5 world records." That might imply that he is still trying to break world records. A way to avoid that situation is to just use the past tense: "He broke 5 world records." RS: Now, as with so many things in English, there could be exceptions. If we were writing a report about his accomplishments, then we might say: "In his lifetime he has done many things. He has broken 5 world records, he has coached many famous athletes. But now ... " and you could go on from there. AA: Noureddine, don't feel bad if you find the present perfect tense confusing, as you tell us. Our friend Lida Baker, the English teacher in Los Angeles, says learning it is something her students always wrestle with. LIDA BAKER: "One of the basic meanings of the present perfect tense is to talk about things that began in the past and continue up to the moment of speaking. So an example of that would be something like 'I have lived in Los Angeles for 25 years,' 'she's been a teacher since she was 25 years old.' So cases where the action began in the past and continues until this moment, that's one way in which we use the present perfect tense." RS: Another way is when an event has happened in the past, and there is a good chance that it may happen again. You can find Lida's complete explanation on our Web site, at voanews.com/wordmaster. A follow-up question from Noureddine: "Sorry for bothering you once again," he says, "but I wonder if you could possibly tell me the difference between the words 'inhumane' and 'inhuman.'" AA: That's a little easier to explain, although the distinctions between inhumane and inhuman are kind of subtle. Inhuman suggests not human -- either literally or metaphorically. Inhuman would describe a Martian. But it could also be used to describe a person who seems to lack any human kindness. RS: Inhumane suggests cruel or uncaring, either toward other people or towards animals. For instance, "That farmer treats his animals very inhumanely." In real life, that farmer could get in trouble with an organization that works to promote the protection of animals: the Humane Society of the United States. AA: Our last question comes from Cassius Abreu in Brazil. "I usually use the words 'I think ...' when I want to express my opinion about some subject. What's the difference between 'I think' and 'I do think'? Is there some rule about it?" RS: Well, we don't know if there is a rule, but we do know that when you want to make an opinion clear -- or emphasize one position as opposed to another -- then one way you can do that is to say "I do think." AA: And I do think that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you can find all of our segments posted at voanews.com/wordmaster. Go to the bottom of the page and click on the link for the Lida Baker segments. Her explanation of the present perfect tense aired in August of 2004. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Let the Games Begin: Winter Olympics Start Feb. 10 in Turin
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Twentieth Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Athletes Village?in TurinThe Winter Olympic Games open February tenth. They will continue until February twenty-sixth. An estimated two thousand five hundred athletes and two thousand five hundred officials from about eighty-five countries will take part in the games. The athletes will compete to win medals in eighty-four events. They will test their skills in seven winter sports: biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating and skiing. More than six hundred judges and other officials will supervise the games. About ten thousand reporters and media operators will report on the games. Thousands of people will attend, and millions more around the world will watch the Olympics on television. VOICE TWO: This will be the twentieth time the Olympic Winter Games have been held. The last Winter Games were held in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States in two thousand two. The next Winter Olympic games will take place in Vancouver, Canada in two thousand ten. The goal of the Olympic games is to bring people together in peace to honor universal moral ideas and the Olympic spirit. The modern Olympics are named after games held in ancient times. The games are said to have started in the ancient Greek city of Olympia, more than two thousand seven hundred years ago. VOICE ONE: The first thirteen Olympic games were foot races during celebrations to honor the Greek god, Zeus. Winners were honored with a crown of olive leaves placed around their heads. Greece continued to hold the games every four years for the next one thousand years. The ancient Romans banned them in the fourth century when they ruled Greece. The Romans also destroyed the Olympic centers and sports fields. VOICE TWO: The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece in eighteen ninety-six. Athletes from eight countries competed in ten sports. A French diplomat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, had proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games in Greece. The purpose was to help athletes develop strength and values through competition. And the international event would provide a way for athletes of all nations to become friends. VOICE ONE: Today, the Olympics are the world’s most famous sports event. The five rings of the Olympic sign represent this athletic friendship. They represent the linking, through sports, of five parts of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. The colors of the rings are blue, yellow, black, green and red. Under the rings is the Olympic saying in Latin: “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” In English, the words mean: “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.” (MUSIC:Olympic Fanfare) VOICE TWO: The Turin Winter Olympics will include eighty-four events in seven sports. Some of the sports are well known, like skiing and skating. Others, like luge, are not. Luge is the French word for sled. Luge athletes race by lying on their backs on sleds with steel runners. The athletes control the sleds with their feet as they speed down a track covered with ice. They compete to see who is the fastest. The sleds can reach speeds of up to one hundred thirty kilometers an hour. Curling is another sport that is not as well known. It began in Scotland. Each athlete on a four-member team slides a stone across the ice toward a circular target. The target is about two meters wide. The object is to slide the stone to the center of the target. VOICE ONE: Biathlon was added to the Winter Olympic Games in nineteen sixty. This sport began as a method for survival. Northern Europeans skied to hunt for food. Later they skied with weapons to defend their countries. Today, biathlon is considered a combination of two sports: cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Snowboarding became an Olympic sport in nineteen ninety-eight. In this sport, the athletes’ feet are attached to a board as they move quickly on the snow. In one event, snowboarders slide up the sides of a huge hole built especially to perform jumps. The athletes are judged on their skills and how high they jump. VOICE TWO: Olympic athletes spend many hours training for the games. This can be very costly. In many countries, the government provides them with special trainers, equipment and economic support.In the United States, Olympic athletes do not receive such support from the government. Instead, they depend on help from private groups and companies, or from the United States Olympic Committee. The committee supervises all activities of the United States Olympic teams. VOICE ONE: The United States Olympic Committee helps gain money to support American athletes who hope to compete in the Olympics. It does this in several ways. The committee receives most of its money from private companies. The companies pay the committee for the rights to use the Olympic sign to help sell their products. The committee also earns money by selling sporting goods, clothing and other products with the Olympic sign. Television companies also pay the committee for the right to broadcast the Olympic games around the world. (MUSIC: Olympic Fanfare) VOICE TWO: The Olympics have many traditions. For example, a special Olympic flame always burns at the games. In ancient Olympia, a fire burned for the god Zeus during the Olympic sports competition. Now, runners carry a torch with the flame from Olympia, Greece to the city where each Olympics is held. The torch for this Winter Olympics was lit during a special ceremony in Olympia in late November. It was then transported to Rome, Italy. On December eighth, runners began to carry it to the city of Turin. For the past two months, more than ten thousand runners have taken turns carrying the flame throughout all provinces and territories in Italy. They have carried the flame a distance of about eleven thousand kilometers. The torch will arrive in Turin on February tenth, just in time for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games. VOICE ONE: Another Olympic tradition is music. Millions of people around the world who watch the Olympics on television know one song called “Olympic Fanfare.”? It was taken from “Bugler’s Dream” by Leo Arnaud. The music was first heard during the nineteen sixty-eight Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France. (MUSIC: Olympic Fanfare) VOICE TWO: Some songs were written especially for the games. This one was first heard at the nineteen eighty-eight Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. It became a popular hit record for American singer Whitney Houston. ?It describes an athlete’s feelings toward his or her sport. The song is called “One Moment In Time.” (MUSIC: One Moment In Time) VOICE ONE: Finally, we leave you with music by the famous American songwriter John Williams. He has written music for many recent Olympic games. This song is called “Summon the Heroes.” He wrote it for the nineteen ninety-six Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, in the southern United States. (MUSIC: Summon the Heroes) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-31-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Once-Daily Pill Could Simplify H.I.V. Treatment?
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Sometimes the best medicine is more than one kind of medicine. Malaria, tuberculosis and H.I.V./AIDS, for example, are all treated with combinations of drugs. But that can mean a lot of pills to take. It would be simpler if drug companies combined all the medicines into a single pill, taken just once a day. Now, two companies say they have done that for people just starting treatment for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The companies are Bristol-Myers Squibb and Gilead Sciences. They have developed a single pill that combines three drugs currently on the market. Bristol-Myers Squibb sells one of them under the name Sustiva. Gilead combined the others, Emtriva and Viread, into a single pill in two thousand four. Combining drugs involves more than technical issues. It also involves issues of competition if the drugs are made by different companies. The new once-daily pill is the result of what is described as the first joint venture agreement of its kind in the treatment of H.I.V. In January the New England Journal of Medicine published a study of the new pill. Researchers compared its effectiveness to that of the widely used combination of Sustiva and Combivir. Combivir contains two drugs, AZT and 3TC. The researchers say that after one year of treatment, the new pill suppressed H.I.V. levels in more patients and with fewer side effects. Gilead paid for the study. Professor Joel Gallant at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, led the research. He is a paid adviser to Gilead and Bristol-Meyers Squibb as well as the maker of Combivir, GlaxoSmithKline. GlaxoSmithKline reacted to the findings by saying that a single study is of limited value. It says the effectiveness of Combivir has been shown in each of more than fifty studies. ?The price of the new once-daily pill has not been announced. But Gilead and Bristol-Myers Squibb say they will provide it at reduced cost to developing countries. They plan in the next few months to ask the United States Food and Drug Administration to approve the new pill. There are limits to who could take it because of the different drugs it contains. For example, pregnant women are told not to take Sustiva because of the risk of birth disorders. Experts say more than forty million people around the world are living with H.I.V. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Educators Consider Later High School Start Times
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Medical research is leading American education officials to consider having high school classes start later in the morning. The research says teenagers are more awake later at night than adults are. When teenagers stay up late at night they have problems learning early in the morning. Researchers in the state of Rhode Island measured the presence of the hormone melatonin in peoples’ mouths at different times of the day. Melatonin causes people to feel sleepy. They found that melatonin levels rise later at night in teenagers than they do in children and adults. And they remain at a higher level in teenagers later in the morning. They say this shows that teenagers have difficulty learning early in the morning. Yet most school systems in the United States begin high school classes at about seven o’clock. A few school districts have made some changes. In nineteen ninety-six, school officials in Edina, Minnesota changed high school opening from about seven thirty until eight thirty. Two years later, the nearby city of Minneapolis did the same. Teachers there reported that students were no longer sleepy in class and were happier. And staying in school later in the day did not seem to be a problem for students who had jobs after school. Health experts say teenagers need between eight and nine hours of sleep a night. Students who do not get enough sleep are likely to be late for school, fail to do their homework, fall asleep in class and have trouble taking part in class discussions. Yet some adults oppose changing school start times. School district officials say it is not possible to carry high school and elementary students on buses at the same time. And parents of young children do not support having elementary schools start earlier in the morning. They say it would require young children to wait for school buses in the dark. Others do not support a later start time because they say it would limit the time for practicing sports after school. However, the Minnesota schools found that this did not hurt school sports competitions. More American school districts are discussing the possibility of changing high school start times. Researchers and teenagers say they cannot make the change quickly enough. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Teddy Roosevelt's Policies Lead to Social Reform in America
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States during the early years of the twentieth century. He was a forceful leader. His national policies led to social reforms and federal protection of wild areas. His foreign policy led to greater American involvement in world events. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue a report on the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-oh-three, Panama declared its independence from Colombia. Fifteen days later, Panama and the United States signed a treaty. The treaty gave the United States the right to build a canal across Panama. To protect the canal, President Roosevelt declared greater responsibility for a wide area around the canal. The greatest responsibility was financial. Roosevelt said the United States would guarantee re-payment of loans made to latin American countries. He did this to prevent European countries from using the issue of non-payment as an excuse to seize new territory in the Western Hemisphere. VOICE ONE: Some Latin American nations were in serious economic trouble. Venezuela was one. At that time, Venezuela owed millions of dollars to Britain and Germany. The Venezuelan ruler refused to make payments on the loans. Britain and Germany decided to use force to get the money. Their ships began blocking Venezuela's ports. When they began shelling coastal areas, President Roosevelt intervened. He urged them to let the international court of arbitration at the hague settle the dispute. They agreed. And the blockade of Venezuela ended. VOICE TWO: Less than two years later, a similar financial problem arose in the Dominican Republic. Revolutions and dictatorships there prevented re-payment of foreign loans. The United States offered a solution. It would take over collection of import taxes at ports in the Dominican Republic. Forty-five percent of the money would be paid to the Dominican government. The other fifty-five percent would be used to re-pay loans. The Dominican Republic agreed. The plan succeeded. Some countries in Latin America and the Caribbean questioned the right of the United States to act as policeman for the Western Hemisphere. But none openly opposed President Roosevelt's policy. VOICE ONE: Theodore Roosevelt had become president after the assassination of President William McKinley. He completed the last three years of McKinley's term. Then he was ready to be elected in his own right. Republican Party leaders, however, were not so sure. Roosevelt had made businessmen angry, because of his attempts to control big companies. But he made voters happy, because of his fight for social reforms. Roosevelt's only serious competitor for the nomination was a long-time senator and presidential adviser. But the man died before the nominating convention. So, Roosevelt won the nomination easily. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party, in the past two elections, had nominated a progressive, Congressman William Jennings Bryan, as its candidate. This time, the Democrats chose a more conservative candidate. He was a New York judge, Alton Parker. Judge Parker had no chance to win the election. Theodore rRosevelt was the best-known man in America. He won easily. On inauguration day, Roosevelt made a short speech. He said America's capitalist economic system had done much good for the country. But it also had created a crisis in social relations. And the crisis had to be solved. "If we fail," Roosevelt said, "the cause of self-government throughout the world will suffer greatly." VOICE ONE: During his new term in office, President Roosevelt was able to get Congress to approve two major new laws. One was the Hepburn Act. This law gave the Interstate Commerce Commission power to limit how much railroads could charge for transporting goods. The purpose was to keep the cost of railroad transportation reasonable. The other new law was the Pure Food and Drug Act. This law declared it illegal to make or sell foods and medicines containing harmful chemicals. The purpose was to protect the health of all Americans. VOICE TWO: President Roosevelt's most important foreign policy success came as a result of a war between Russia and Japan. At that time, Russia occupied Manchuria in northern China. Japan occupied Korea. Japan wanted control of Manchuria. It needed that area's coal and iron ore. Japan also wanted to end any Russian threat to Korea. So, it decided to fight. Japan's navy easily defeated all the Russian fleets sent to the Pacific. But the two sides continued to fight on land. When both began to run out of money, they accepted President Roosevelt's offer to make peace. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt invited Japanese and Russian diplomats to meet with him in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He told them his greatest hope and prayer was for them to find a just and lasting peace quickly. A quick settlement, however, was not easy. Japan demanded six hundred million dollars for war damages. It also wanted Sakhalin Island. Russia rejected both demands. It had agreed to give up southern Manchuria. Russia would give up nothing else. Negotiations lasted many days. President Roosevelt became more and more angry when neither side would compromise. But, he remained calm and kept the talks going. Later, he said: "What I really wanted to do was give an angry shout, jump up, and knock their heads together." VOICE TWO: Finally, Roosevelt made a secret appeal to the Emperor of Japan. He asked the Emperor to drop demands for money and for Sakhalin Island. He warned that Russia was ready to fight again if the peace talks failed. The Emperor agreed to drop the demand for money. But, he still demanded half of Sakhalin Island. Russia agreed to this compromise. The two sides signed a peace treaty. VOICE ONE: Theodore Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russian-Japanese war. However, his efforts were denounced in Japan. Roosevelt was held responsible for the loss of war damage payments. It was money Japan needed badly. Anti-American riots broke out in some parts of the country. At the same time, tense relations developed between American citizens and Japanese immigrants in California. Poor Japanese immigrants were willing to work for low pay. As a result, Americans lost jobs. They protested. Then school officials in San Francisco barred Japanese children from attending school with white children. President Roosevelt opposed the decision. He asked the officials to lift the ban. In exchange, he agreed to ask Japan to stop its poor farmers and laborers from going to live in America. Japan said it would. The understanding became known as the Gentleman's Agreement. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt worked hard to improve America's relations with Japan. Yet he made clear that the United States would defend its interests in Asia and the Pacific. As a warning, he sent a naval force on a voyage around the world. The force included sixteen battleships and twelve thousand men. It was called the Great White Fleet. The voyage lasted fourteen months. The fleet sailed down the Atlantic coast of South America. It went around the bottom of South America into the Pacific Ocean, then on to Hawaii, Australia, and Japan. Surprisingly, it received its warmest welcome in Japan. An American reporter said: "The fleet made a deep and far-reaching impression. It caused the Japanese to understand the great power of the United States. . . as nothing else could possibly have done." President Roosevelt believed this show of American strength prevented war with Japan. "Sending out the fleet," he said, "was the most important thing I did for peace." VOICE ONE: Theodore Roosevelt greatly enjoyed playing the part of peace-maker. After successfully ending the war between Russia and Japan, he was asked to settle another international dispute. At issue was control over Morocco. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: NFL: Pittsburgh Defeats Seattle, 21-10, in Super Bowl
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music by Wilson Pickett … Answer a question about a hero of the American Revolution … And report about the American professional football championship game. The Super Bowl Sunday, February fifth, is not a holiday in the United States, but it may seem like one to millions of Americans. They will be attending parties to watch the championship game of American professional football on television. Thousands of others will attend the Super Bowl game in Detroit, Michigan. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Super Bowl is played every year between the champion teams of the two conferences of the National Football League. On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks are playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in the team’s thirty-year history. American sports experts say the game should be a good one. Still, they expect Pittsburgh to win by a little more than three points. The Steelers have a historic link to the Super Bowl. They have won it four times. But that was in the nineteen seventies. The Steelers say they had another important reason for getting to the Super Bowl this year. One of the oldest Steelers players is Jerome Bettis, whose hometown is Detroit, Michigan. All year long, Bettis has been telling his teammates to help get him home to Detroit for the Super Bowl. Bettis is expected to retire from professional football after this year. So it was even more important to him to play in the Super Bowl in his hometown. Detroit has been preparing for the expected one hundred thousand people who will arrive for the game. The city has spent a great deal of money improving the central business area. Visitors will also attend some of the one hundred twenty other events in the city linked to the championship football game. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick told the New York Times newspaper that having the Super Bowl in his city will help the local economy greatly. He says the Super Bowl could bring as much as three hundred million dollars to the city. This includes spending on hotel rooms, food, transportation and other activities in the city. Haym Salomon HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. John Achugonye asks about someone in American history named Haym [HA-yim] Salomon. Haym Salomon was a Jewish immigrant to the United States. He played an important part in raising money for the American war of Independence against Britain. Haym Salomon was born in Poland in seventeen forty. He settled in New York City in seventeen seventy-two. He became successful as a financial dealer in securities. He also became active in the cause for American independence as a member of a group called The Sons of Liberty. When the Revolutionary War began in seventeen seventy-six, he was arrested and jailed by the British as a spy. British officials discovered that he could speak several languages so they used him to speak to their German troops. Instead, he urged the Germans to leave the British military service. He was arrested again two years later, but escaped to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Haym Salomon again established himself as a dealer in financial securities. He was also active in Jewish life in Philadelphia. He was a founding member of the city’s first Jewish religious center. He also helped lead efforts to change laws that barred non-Christians from holding public office in Pennsylvania. Haym Salomon continued to work for American independence from Britain. The French Minister appointed him paymaster for the French forces fighting with the Americans. The Dutch and Spanish governments also used him to sell securities that supported their loans to the American Continental Congress. Later, he worked to help pay American government expenses during the war. He also personally loaned money to members of the Continental Congress and other federal officials. Haym Salomon died in seventeen eighty-five. He had no money, possibly because he provided so much support to the early American government. Later, Congress refused to recognize claims made by his family that it re-pay money it owed him. In nineteen thirty-six, Congress voted to build a memorial to him in the District of Columbia, but never released the money to do so. In the nineteen seventies, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor. The stamp called Haym Salomon a “Financial Hero of the American Revolution." Wilson Pickett American soul singer Wilson Pickett died last month of a heart attack. He was sixty-four years old. Steve Ember looks back at his life and his music. STEVE EMBER: Wilson Pickett learned to sing in church as a boy in the southern state of Alabama. He moved to Detroit, Michigan with his family when he was fourteen. He soon joined local singing groups. Pickett started recording on his own in the early nineteen sixties. His first hit song was one he wrote with guitar player Steve Cropper. It was “In The Midnight Hour”. (MUSIC) Wilson Pickett recorded nine albums in the next five years. His hit songs included “Funky Broadway” and “634-5789.” Years later, in nineteen ninety-one, several of his songs became popular again. They were performed by an Irish soul band in the movie “The Commitments”. Here is Wilson Pickett singing one of those hits, “Mustang Sally.” (MUSIC) Wilson Pickett was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-one. He continued performing until poor health forced him to stop two years ago. We leave you now with his song, “Land of a Thousand Dances.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ford Motor Company to Cut Jobs in North America
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Ford Motor Company plans to close fourteen factories and cut as many as thirty thousand jobs in the United States and Canada. Its North American operations employ more than one hundred twenty thousand people. Ford plans to do this over six years. The action will affect workers in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and Georgia, and in Ontario, Canada. The news from Ford last week was not unexpected. General Motors announced similar cost-cutting measures in November. G.M. and Ford have both been losing market share in North America. As recently as nineteen ninety-eight, Ford had twenty-five percent of the United States market. Autodata, an industry information provider, says the number has shrunk to around nineteen percent. By closing factories, Ford and G.M. expect to reduce costs. They are also reducing their production capacity in North America. Experts say the carmakers have been making too many vehicles for their share of the market. Credit rating companies have also been concerned about the cutting of prices through sales incentive programs. Low prices sell more cars, but they also lower profits. G.M., for example, sold more than nine million vehicles last year, its second highest total ever. Yet it reported a loss of more than three thousand million dollars. Ford reported a profit of two thousand million dollars last year. But most of the gains were from financial services. Ford's automotive business lost about one thousand million dollars. Most of that was from its sales in North America. Ford reported profits in South America, Europe and Asia. Both Ford and G.M. have reported fast growth in Asia. Ford says its sales in China grew forty-six percent last year. Sales growth in South America has also been strong. The market in North America is changing. Strong sales in trucks and sports utility vehicles provided big profits in recent years. Today, with fuel prices up, many people are buying more economical cars. America’s Big Three carmakers -- G.M., Ford and DaimlerChrysler -- face competition from another big three. Those are Toyota, Honda and Nissan of Japan. In fact, Toyota could soon pass General Motors to become the biggest seller of automobiles in the world. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 'The United States Will Not Retreat From the World,' Bush Says
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush gave his State of the Union speech to both houses of Congress and the American people Tuesday. This year, one of the major subjects was the nation's dependence on oil. Mister Bush said, in his words, “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.”? He promised to help reduce the need for foreign oil. He called for twenty-two percent more federal money for research into other kinds of fuel. The president said his goal is to reduce oil imports from the Middle East by seventy-five percent by two thousand twenty-five. Energy officials say oil from the Persian Gulf is now eleven percent of all the oil used in the United States. The largest suppliers are Mexico and Canada. Mister Bush also spoke about helping the Gulf Coast recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. And he again called on Congress to make his tax cuts permanent. He also called for additional programs to improve public education. One proposal is to train seventy thousand high school teachers to lead advanced-placement courses in math and science. Students can get college credit for such classes. On another subject, Mister Bush called for a commission to study the increasing costs of social and health programs for poor and older Americans. These are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And the president spoke again of his goal to spread freedom and democracy around the world. He called on the government of Egypt to "open paths of peaceful opposition."? He urged Saudi Arabia to press forward with what he described as the first steps of reform. And he discussed the first Palestinian legislative elections in ten years. On January twenty-fifth, the Islamic movement Hamas defeated the longtime ruling party, Fatah. Mister Bush said "now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism and work for lasting peace." Also in his speech, the president dismissed calls to withdraw troops from Iraq. And he said the nations of the world must not permit Iran to gain nuclear weapons. Mister Bush also spoke about support at home for the fight against terror. He told Americans they cannot find security by "retreating within our borders."? He said, "The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil."? The new governor of Virginia gave the Democratic Party response to this year's speech. Tim Kaine accused the Bush administration of what he called "poor choices and bad management."? Governor Kaine said all Americans support the goal of winning the war on terrorism. And that, he said, leads Democrats to ask this question: "Are the president's policies the best way to win this war." IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Diane Arbus: Revolutionary Photographer of Unusual People
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Diane Arbus, a revolutionary modern photographer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Diane Arbus is known for creating intense black and white photographs of very unusual people. She used a special camera that produced square shaped images. Often her subjects look sad, conflicted or physically abnormal. But they do not try to hide their insecurities. They openly stare at the camera. One art expert said Diane Arbus turned photography inside out. Instead of looking at her subjects, she made them look at her. 'Identical Twins,' 1967Arbus learned to mix the realistic nature of photography with its expressive possibilities. She explored how people live with sameness and difference as well as acceptance and rejection. These combinations created very interesting art that was often disputed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Diane Arbus was born in nineteen twenty-three to a wealthy family in New York City. Her father David Nemerov, owned a large clothing store in a costly area near Fifth Avenue. Her parents collected art and were part of the “high society” of New York. The family traveled often to Europe. They helped their children express their artistic goals. Diane’s brother was the famous poet, Howard Nemerov. Her sister became a sculptor. After finishing high school at the age of eighteen, Diane married Allan Arbus. Mister Arbus worked in the advertising department of her father’s store. VOICE ONE: It was Mister Arbus who gave Diane her first camera. Diane soon decided to take a class with the famous photographer Berenice Abbott. The Arbuses eventually started taking photographs of clothing. These images were used as advertisements for Diane’s father’s store. After the birth of their daughter, Doon, the Arbuses started a business together. Their purpose was to photograph clothing fashions. Diane Arbus was the stylist. She would prepare the hair and faces of the fashion models who wore the clothing being photographed. Allan Arbus took the pictures. VOICE TWO: The couple soon had jobs from important fashion magazines such as “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar”. Their work was very successful during the nineteen fifties. They became part of a group of artists that were helping to redefine visual culture. They were breaking with past traditions to create a new look for a new decade, the sixties. VOICE ONE: But Diane was not satisfied with her secondary role. She wanted a more active part in making photographs. She wanted to explore her own artistic expression and freedom. To do this, she stopped working with her husband. Then she started taking photography classes at the New School in New York City. Arbus’ teacher, Lisette Model, influenced her in many ways. She showed Diane how to use a camera like an expert. She also taught Diane to use her art to face her doubts and fears. Miz Model once said that Diane soon started “not listening to me but suddenly listening to herself.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Diane Arbus chose her subjects very carefully. She photographed many of these people in or near New York City. She often chose to photograph unusual people living on the edge of acceptable society. But she showed the common and recognizable side of such unusual people. For example, she took pictures of extremely short and extremely tall people. She photographed men dressed as women, circus performers, and even patients with severe mental limitations. She once said: “My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.” VOICE ONE: One of her famous photographs was taken in nineteen sixty- six. It is of a young transvestite. A transvestite is a man who dresses and acts like a woman. This man is wearing plastic objects in his hair to curl and shape it. He is also wearing makeup on his face to make it look more like a woman. The picture is taken from close up with severe lighting effects. In the dark centers of his eyes you can see the light from Arbus’ camera. You can see every detail and imperfection of his pale skin. He looks directly at you as though he has nothing to hide. His look is one of interest and acceptance. VOICE TWO: Another photograph like this is called “Mexican Dwarf in His Hotel Room in N.Y.C.” It was taken in nineteen seventy. Here, Arbus uses similar dramatic lighting. She shows a close-up view of the upper body and face of this extremely small man. He looks directly at the camera with the suggestion of a smile. You can see all the lines on his small short fingers. The hair on his chest and face seems very close. You can almost smell the alcohol on the table beside him. You can almost feel the smooth cloth sheets on his bed. It is as though you have entered the personal world of this small stranger. The expressions of these men are so honest that it is almost unpleasant to observe. Diane Arbus explored this tension in her work. She caught her subjects in positions where they show themselves completely. They do not seem afraid to show their imperfections and strangeness. They do not hide the parts of themselves that are not beautiful. They openly show their bodies and souls. Seeing the pictures, you sometimes feel you are interfering in the private lives of these strange people. You feel like maybe you are not supposed to be looking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some art critics believe Diane Arbus photographed such unusual people as a result of her background. She grew up in a safe and wealthy environment. In photographing the strange and imperfect people in society, she rejected her own social group. She revolted against her upbringing to prove that she was artistically independent. She chose to explore the unusual sides of society instead of accepting common subjects to photograph. Arbus also photographed everyday people in a way that made them look very unusual. She was able to take the most recognizable people and environments and make them seem strange. For example, she took pictures of couples and families and even of female twins, sisters born at the same time. VOICE TWO: One of her most famous photographs is called “Identical Twins.” It was taken in nineteen sixty-seven in Roselle, New Jersey. Two little girls take up the entire center of the photograph. Their faces and bodies are exactly alike. They are wearing the same dark dresses and white bands in their hair. The girls look calmly at the camera with large, pale eyes. Although they are young, they look very wise, like they are intense little adults. VOICE ONE: This image of the twins became the cover of an important book of photography titled “Diane Arbus.” The book was published in nineteen seventy-two. It became one of the best-selling photography books in history. The photograph of the twins was also part of a major exhibition of Arbus’ work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City that same year. This show set new records in attendance numbers. Sadly, Diane Arbus did not live to see this show. She had killed herself the year before. She was forty-eight years old. VOICE TWO: The photographs of Diane Arbus remain very popular in America. In March of two thousand five, the Metropolitan Museum in New York had a major exhibit of her work. The museum curators gathered many of her important photographs for the show. They also exhibited many less well-known works. But they also tried to show the personal side of this famous woman. They showed her letters, cameras and books. The book “Diane Arbus Revelations” documents this special exhibition. VOICE ONE: Diane Arbus once said: “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.”? This comment helps explain what is so powerful about Diane Arbus’s work. The people in her photos show themselves, but a great deal about them remains hidden as well. Her images make you ask what you might show about yourself -- and what you might try to hide. VOICE TWO: Today, Diane Arbus’ images remain as fresh and intense as they were forty years ago. Experts say her revolutionary way of capturing people on film has produced some of the most important images in twentieth century photography. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Report Says Six Percent of Babies Are Born with Genetic Disorders
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report estimates that eight million children each year are born with serious disorders caused at least partly by their genes. That is about six percent of all births worldwide. The report is from the March of Dimes organization. Researchers found that about ninety-five percent of births with serious defects happen in the developing world. They say Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Benin have the highest rates of birth defects. Others with the ten highest rates include Burkina Faso, the Palestinian territories, the United Arab Emirates and Tajikistan. And they include Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. The study links high birth-defect rates in developing countries to poor health care and nutrition. The researchers also note higher than average rates of marriage among blood relatives, and of older women having babies. The most common genetic defects include heart disorders, Down syndrome and incorrectly formed backbones and brains. They also include disorders of the red blood cells, such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia. The report says hundreds of thousands of other children are born with serious defects that are caused during pregnancy. Pregnant women risk harm to their babies from alcohol and tobacco. There is also a risk if they get infected with diseases like rubella or syphilis, or do not get enough nutrients like iodine and folic acid. The March of Dimes says the report identifies for the first time what it calls the "hidden" worldwide extent of birth defects. Researchers collected information on almost two hundred countries. They found that every year more than three million children under the age of five die from birth defects. Those who survive may have mental or physical problems for life. The report suggests a number of ways to deal with the international problem. One step is to make sure women have a healthy diet during their reproductive years. Another is to test men and women to identify those at higher risk of having children with genetic disorders. But the report says the first step is to educate people about the problem of birth defects and ways to prevent or treat them. The March of Dimes says the ideas in the report could reduce death and disability from birth defects by up to seventy percent. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. You can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Jamestown Gets Ready to Celebrate Its 400th Anniversary
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. Almost four hundred years ago, three British ships loaded with passengers and supplies sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. The passengers settled on the edge of the James River in sixteen-oh-seven. They immediately began building what was to become England’s first permanent settlement in America. Today, Sarah Long and I tell the story of Jamestown, Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Unlike the first colonists on Jamestown Island, people today arrive by car. As they drive up, visitors can either stop at the Jamestown Settlement or they can see the very place where the colonists first settled on Jamestown Island. The Jamestown Settlement is a re-created version of the colony and a nearby Powhatan Indian village. Visitors can see what life was like in the colony almost four hundred years ago. The people who work at the settlement speak English the way people did in the seventeenth century. They also wear clothes from that time period and fire musket guns from colonial days. Visitors can see the kind of food the settlers ate, the games they played and the way they lived. There are also recreated versions of the ships that carried the colonists to Jamestown Island. The ships were called the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. VOICE ONE: Jamestown Settlement was built by the state of Virginia in nineteen fifty-seven to celebrate the three hundred fiftieth anniversary of the former colony. The goal was to bring more visitors to the area. This is because the true place where the settlers landed on Jamestown Island offered visitors little to see. Today, however, this has changed. Historians, archeologists and research experts are now working to uncover the remains of the old colony. The United States National Park Service and a Virginia historical organization jointly run Jamestown Island. The two groups work together to provide visitors with a full understanding of the historical value of the land and the remains that are being discovered there. VOICE TWO: For example, several months after arriving in America in sixteen-oh-seven, the colonists built a three-sided structure, or fort, along the edge of the island. Some of the remains of that fort still exist today. However, for years, researchers believed the fort had worn away into the James River. People visiting Jamestown Island will see a huge archeological project. Guides answer questions about the discoveries being made. Several hundred-thousand historical objects have already been recovered from the colony, including the remains of an early settler. Visitors can see many of these historic objects at the visitor center at the entrance to Jamestown. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first few years of life in the Jamestown colony were extremely difficult. The colonists suffered from lack of food and diseases. They clashed with the Native American Indians who lived there. The winter of sixteen-oh-nine was one of the worst periods in the colony’s history. It was called “the starving time” because everyone went hungry. Almost ninety percent of the colonists died that year. Weapons and valuable farming tools were traded to the Indians for small amounts of food. Wood from people’s homes was burned for heat. There were no crops, and no hope. To mark this difficult time, a memorial cross was built on the eastern coast of Jamestown Island. It honors some of the three hundred burial places dug by the settlers during the starving time. Queen Elizabeth of England attended the observance in Jamestown in nineteen fifty-seven when the Memorial Cross was raised. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jamestown is divided into two areas: Old Towne and New Towne. The new area of the settlement was built in sixteen twenty. This is when the colonists had become economically secure through the trade of smoking tobacco. Many settlers built homes in the New Towne area. Visitors can still see parts of these buildings, including the ruins of the Ambler Mansion. This was a two-floor home built in the mid-seventeen hundreds. It is one of the oldest standing structures at Jamestown. VOICE ONE: Another historic building on Jamestown Island is the old colonial church. A wood version of this church was first built in sixteen seventeen. Years later, in sixteen thirty-nine, a stone church was built in its place. Jamestown Church has great historical value. The first representative legislature in America met here in sixteen nineteen. During this meeting, a plan of self-government was established for all future American colonies. VOICE TWO: People can also visit the Old Colonial Tower next to the Jamestown Church. This tall building was added to the church in sixteen forty-seven. Traditionally, builders of seventeenth century English churches added the bell tower after the church was finished. At one time, the Old Colonial Tower stood fourteen meters high and had two upper floors. Six small windows were on the top floor. Those openings permitted light to enter the upper room. They also let the sound of the church bell be heard across the colony. VOICE ONE: Near the historic Old Church Tower is a statue of the Indian woman, Pocahontas. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She married English colonist John Rolfe in sixteen fourteen. This marriage began an eight-year period of peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians. Jamestown used this peaceful time to develop and grow a new crop -- tobacco. With the help of Pocahontas, tobacco for smoking became as valuable as gold. By sixteen nineteen, the colony had exported more than nine thousand kilograms of tobacco to Europe. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Near the statue of Pocahontas is the Tercentenary Monument. This tall memorial stands thirty-one meters high. It was built in nineteen-oh-seven to mark the three hundredth anniversary of Jamestown. The monument is made of smooth white stone. Tercentenary Monument is a place where visitors gather before a Jamestown guide leads them on a walk around the former colony. For visitors who want to drive around the island, there is a four- or eight-kilometer road that circles Jamestown. The drive provides visitors with a look at the natural environment first discovered by the settlers. Signs along the drive tell about the early industries and agricultural traditions of the colonists. Down the road from Jamestown is a stone building known as the glasshouse. Local artists work here every day. They demonstrate for visitors how the Jamestown settlers made glass products. Glass-blowing was one of the early industries started by the English colonists in Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nearly one hundred years after Jamestown was settled, a rebellion led by colonist Nathaniel Bacon burned the settlement to the ground. The colony fell into ruin in sixteen ninety-nine, when the capital of Virginia moved to Williamsburg. Jamestown never became the great city its first settlers imagined. But it did allow England to establish a permanent presence in North America. Jamestown, America’s first colony, started a culture that would shape this country forever. In two thousand seven, Jamestown will celebrate its four-hundredth anniversary. State and federal officials are planning special events. They want Jamestown to be remembered as the place where America’s government, economy and culture were born. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Return of a Private
* Byline: Written by Hamlin Garland

 Announcer:? And now, the weekly Special English program of AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called, "The Return of a Private. " It was written by Hamlin Garland. Here is Harry Monroe with our story. (MUSIC) Narrator: The soldiers cheered as the train crossed the border into the state of Wisconsin. It had been a long trip from the south back to their homes in the north. One of the men had a large red scar across his forehead. Another had an injured leg that made it painful for him to walk. The third had unnaturally large and bright eyes, because he had been sick with malaria. The three soldiers spread their blankets on the train seats and tried to sleep. It was a cold evening even though it was summertime. Private Smith, the soldier with the fever, shivered in the night air. His joy in coming home was mixed with fear and worry. He knew he was sick and weak. How could he take care of his family? Where would he find the strength to do the heavy work all farmers have to do? He had given three years of his life to his country. And now he had very little money and strength left for his family. Morning came slowly with a pale yellow light. The train was slowing down as it came into the town of La Crosse where the three soldiers would get off the train. The station was empty because it was Sunday. "I'll get home in time for dinner," Smith thought. "She usually has dinner about one o'clock on Sunday afternoon,” and he smiled. Smith and the other two soldiers jumped off the train together. "Well, boys," Smith began, "here's where we say good-bye. We've marched together for many miles. Now, I suppose, we are done." The three men found it hard to look at each other. "We ought to go home with you," one of the soldiers said to Smith. "You'll never be able to walk all those miles with that heavy pack on your back." "Oh, I'm all right," Smith said, putting on his army cap. "Every step takes me closer to home." They all shook hands. "Good-bye!" "Good luck!" "Same to you!" "Good-bye!" Smith turned and walked away quickly. After a few minutes, he turned again and waved his cap. His two friends did the same. Then they marched away with their long steady soldier's step. Smith walked for a while thinking of his friends. He remembered the many days they had been together during the war. He thought of his friend, Billy Tripp, too. Poor Billy! A bullet came out of the sky one day and tore a great hole in Billy's chest. Smith knew he would have to tell the sad story to Billy's mother and young wife. But there was little to tell. The sound of a bullet cutting through the air. Billy crying out, then falling with his face in the dirt. The fighting he had done since then had not made him forget the horror of that moment when Billy died. Soon, the fields and houses became familiar. Smith knew he was close to home. The sun was burning hot as he began climbing the last hill. Finally, he reached the top and looked down at his farm in the beautiful valley. He was almost home. Misses Smith was alone on the farm with her three children. Mary was nine years old. Tommy was six and little Teddy had just turned four. Misses Smith had been dreaming about her husband, when the chickens awakened her that Sunday morning. She got out of bed, got dressed and went out to feed the chickens. Then she saw the broken fence near the chicken house. She had tried to fix it again and again. Misses Smith sat down and cried. The farmer who had promised to take care of the farm while her husband was away had been lazy and dishonest. The first year he shared the wheat with Misses Smith. But the next year, he took almost all of it for himself. She had sent him away. Now, the fields were full of wheat. But there was no man on the farm to cut it down and sell it. Six weeks before, her husband told her in a letter that he would be coming home soon. Other soldiers were returning home, but her husband had not come. Every day, she watched the road leading down the hill. This Sunday morning she could no longer stand being alone. She jumped up, ran into the house and quickly dressed the children. She carefully locked the door and started walking down the road to the farmhouse of her neighbor, Misses Gray. Mary Gray was a widow with a large family of strong sons and pretty daughters. She was poor. But she never said 'no' to a hungry person who came to her farm and asked for food. She worked hard, laughed often and was always in a cheerful mood. When she saw Misses Smith and the children coming down the road, Misses Gray went out to meet them. "Please come right in, Misses Smith. We were just getting ready to have dinner." Misses Smith went into the noisy house. Misses Gray's children were laughing and talking all at the same time. Soon she was laughing and singing with the rest of them. The long table in the kitchen was piled with food. There were potatoes, fresh corn, apple pies, hot bread, sweet pickles, bread and butter and honey. They all ate until they could eat no more. Then the men and children left the table. The women stayed to drink their tea. "Mamma," said one of Misses Gray's daughters. “Please read our fortunes in the tea leaves! Tell us about our futures!" Misses Gray picked up her daughter's cup and stirred it first to the left, then to the right. Then she looked into it with a serious expression. "I see a handsome man with a red beard in your future," she said. Her daughter screamed with laughter. Misses Smith trembled with excitement when it was her turn. "Somebody is coming home to you," Misses Gray said slowly. "He's carrying a rifle on his back and he's almost there." Misses Smith felt as if she could hardly breathe. "And there he is!" Misses Gray cried, pointing to the road. They all rushed to the door to look. A man in a blue coat, with a gun on his back, was walking down the road toward the Smith farm. His face was hidden by a large pack on his back. Laughing and crying, Misses Smith grabbed her hat and her children and ran out of the house. She hurried down the road after him, calling his name and pulling her children along with her. But the soldier was too far away for her voice to reach him. When she got back to their farm, she saw the man standing by the fence. He was looking at the little house and the field of yellow wheat. The sun was almost touching the hills in the west. The cowbells rang softly as the animals moved toward the barn. "How peaceful it all is," Private Smith thought. "How far away from the battles, the hospitals, the wounded and the dead. My little farm in Wisconsin. How could I have left it for those years of killing and suffering?” Trembling and weak with emotion, Misses Smith hurried up to her husband. Her feet made no sound on the grass, but he turned suddenly to face her. For the rest of his life, he would never forget her face at that moment. "Emma!" he cried. The children stood back watching their mother kissing this strange man. He saw them, and kneeling down he pulled from his pack three huge, red apples. In a moment, all three children were in their father's arms. Together, the family entered the little unpainted farmhouse. Later that evening, after supper, Smith and his wife went outside. The moon was bright, above the eastern hills. Sweet, peaceful stars filled the sky as the night birds sang softly, and tiny insects buzzed in the soft air. His farm needed work. His children needed clothing. He was no longer young and strong. But he began to plan for next year. With the same courage he had faced the war, Private Smith faced his difficult future. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The Return of a Private." It was written by Hamlin Garland, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Harry Monroe. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time to another AMERICAN STORY. This is Susan Clark. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Seeks to Cut Levels of Chemical for Teflon and Other Products
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Brianna Blake and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: Action on health concerns over a chemical used to make Teflon and other products ... VOICE ONE: What happens when scientists go fishing for the world's smallest fish ... VOICE TWO: And a genetic study of modern cats follows their steps back in time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We begin with new developments in a story we first reported in two thousand four. It involves concern about possible health risks from a chemical used to make Teflon and other non-stick products. The chemical is known as PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid. Over the years, PFOA has become widespread in the environment. Many people have small amounts of it in their blood. It has also been found in wildlife, even in polar bears in the Arctic. On January twenty-fifth, the United States Environmental Protection Agency sent letters to eight manufacturing companies. The E.P.A. invited them to reduce their releases of the chemical into the environment. Another goal is to reduce the presence of PFOA in products. The aim is to reduce both levels by ninety-five percent by two thousand ten. Companies are supposed to work toward cutting the levels completely by two thousand fifteen. The eight companies are all in the United States. They are expected to honor the request. DuPont, the maker of Teflon, has agreed to join the program. But in a statement the company says, "Products made with or using DuPont materials are safe."? VOICE TWO: Non-stick surfaces keep food from sticking to pots and pans. They help clothing stay clean and dry. They have industrial and even medical uses. Research on PFOA continues, but the concerns are that it could be linked to birth disorders and other conditions. Last week, an independent scientific committee advised the E.P.A. to consider the chemical a "likely" cause of cancer. DuPont disagreed. The plan by the Environmental Protection Agency calls for yearly public reports about the progress made toward reaching the goals. Methods for measuring PFOA reductions must also be developed. In December, the agency announced a sixteen and one-half million dollar settlement with DuPont involving PFOA. Officials found that DuPont violated federal law on reporting chemical risk information. VOICE ONE: Perfluorooctanoic acid is a processing aid used by different companies to make high-performance plastics. Some of these are sold under the Teflon name. DuPont says studies done under normal cooking conditions have not found any release of PFOA from Teflon products. The company says, in its words: "Cookware coated with Teflon has been safely used for more than forty years."? DuPont says it has also agreed to cut the amount of PFOA that is present in its soil, stain and grease repellant products. The chemical is not used in those products, but is created when they are manufactured. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Most people who hope to catch a record-size fish hope to catch a really big one. Scientists compete to see who can claim the world's smallest fish. A report published last month tells of a newly discovered kind of fish in Southeast Asia. It lives in blackwater wetlands. Scientists said it appeared to be the smallest fish known, as well as the smallest vertebrate. Vertebrates are animals with a backbone. VOICE ONE: Experts discovered it on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. And they needed a microscope to measure it. The smallest fully grown female they measured was just seven-point-nine millimeters. The longest was ten-point-three millimeters. Scientists say the new fish is a member of the carp family. It has a body so thin, light can pass through it. Maurice Kottelat from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore, led the study team. The Royal Society in London published the findings. In the competition to find small fish, a few tenths of a millimeter or even a single tenth of a millimeter can make a big difference. And some scientists argue that smallest can also mean lightest. VOICE TWO: The new report did not include any weights. But one interesting discovery about the new fish is an area of hardened skin on the underside of the male. The scientists say no other fish is known to have this. They believe it is used to hold the female during mating. The fish is also unusual in that its brain is not completely covered by protective bone, like most vertebrates. The scientists say development and agriculture threaten the Indonesian wetlands that are home to the fish. Several populations of fish are reported to have disappeared already. So the researchers hope to learn as much as possible before this little fish could be lost. Examples were first collected in nineteen ninety-six. But scientists only recently recognized the fish as a new species. They call it Paedocypris progenetica, a long scientific name. VOICE ONE: Now this fish story has gotten longer since the report appeared late last month. On January twenty-seventh the University of Washington in Seattle put out a news release. It said the scientists with the seven-point-nine millimeter fish "have failed to make note of work published last fall." In that work, a University of Washington professor, Ted Pietsch, described some fully grown male anglerfish. He reported that the shortest one measured six-point-two millimeters. It was collected in the Philippines. It was attached to the back of a forty-six-millimeter long female anglerfish. "That is how they mate," the news release explained. Professor Pietsch tells us that he is friends with the scientists in Singapore, and they told him that they just missed his report. The Ichthyological Society of Japan published it. Ichthyology is the study of fishes. Anglerfish live deep in oceans around the world. But those fish on Sumatra live in freshwater. So perhaps they might be called the world's smallest freshwater fish ... at least for now. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When you find a fish, you might also find a cat hoping for a tasty meal. Thirty-seven kinds of cats are alive today. They include big cats like lions and tigers. They also include the small cats that share their homes with people. A study of modern cats shows they developed from animals that lived in Asia almost eleven million years ago. The newly published research shows how new kinds of cats developed as they spread around the world. Warren Johnson and Stephen O’Brien led an international team that did the study. The two scientists work for the National Cancer Institute at its Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in Frederick, Maryland. Science magazine published the results. VOICE ONE: The researchers suggest that cats became world explorers because of the rise and fall of sea levels. Land bridges appeared as water levels fell. The researchers say ancient cats used the Bering land bridge to travel from East Asia to North America. They are also said to have crossed the Panamanian land bridge that connected North and South America. There are few remains of old cat bones. And it is difficult to identify differences between these fossils. So it has been hard for scientists to understand the cat family. But the new study of cat genetics might even help researchers who study human diseases. The researchers examined genetic material from the sex chromosomes of all thirty-seven kinds of cats. They also studied material from energy-producing mitochondria in cells. Evidence of genetic changes over time helped the scientists produce a history of the cat family. Dating of the fossils assisted in the placement of cats into this genetic family tree. VOICE TWO: The researchers placed every kind of cat into one of eight lines of ancestry. They say cats moved between continents at least ten times. Low ocean levels let the first modern cats spread from Asia into Africa. The spread into North America produced other kinds of cats. The researchers say the most recent of the ancestry lines started about six million years ago in Asia and Africa. They believe it produced the cats of today. And today cats can be found on all continents except Antarctica. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Brianna Blake and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: Action on health concerns over a chemical used to make Teflon and other products ... VOICE ONE: What happens when scientists go fishing for the world's smallest fish ... VOICE TWO: And a genetic study of modern cats follows their steps back in time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We begin with new developments in a story we first reported in two thousand four. It involves concern about possible health risks from a chemical used to make Teflon and other non-stick products. The chemical is known as PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid. Over the years, PFOA has become widespread in the environment. Many people have small amounts of it in their blood. It has also been found in wildlife, even in polar bears in the Arctic. On January twenty-fifth, the United States Environmental Protection Agency sent letters to eight manufacturing companies. The E.P.A. invited them to reduce their releases of the chemical into the environment. Another goal is to reduce the presence of PFOA in products. The aim is to reduce both levels by ninety-five percent by two thousand ten. Companies are supposed to work toward cutting the levels completely by two thousand fifteen. The eight companies are all in the United States. They are expected to honor the request. DuPont, the maker of Teflon, has agreed to join the program. But in a statement the company says, "Products made with or using DuPont materials are safe."? VOICE TWO: Non-stick surfaces keep food from sticking to pots and pans. They help clothing stay clean and dry. They have industrial and even medical uses. Research on PFOA continues, but the concerns are that it could be linked to birth disorders and other conditions. Last week, an independent scientific committee advised the E.P.A. to consider the chemical a "likely" cause of cancer. DuPont disagreed. The plan by the Environmental Protection Agency calls for yearly public reports about the progress made toward reaching the goals. Methods for measuring PFOA reductions must also be developed. In December, the agency announced a sixteen and one-half million dollar settlement with DuPont involving PFOA. Officials found that DuPont violated federal law on reporting chemical risk information. VOICE ONE: Perfluorooctanoic acid is a processing aid used by different companies to make high-performance plastics. Some of these are sold under the Teflon name. DuPont says studies done under normal cooking conditions have not found any release of PFOA from Teflon products. The company says, in its words: "Cookware coated with Teflon has been safely used for more than forty years."? DuPont says it has also agreed to cut the amount of PFOA that is present in its soil, stain and grease repellant products. The chemical is not used in those products, but is created when they are manufactured. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Most people who hope to catch a record-size fish hope to catch a really big one. Scientists compete to see who can claim the world's smallest fish. A report published last month tells of a newly discovered kind of fish in Southeast Asia. It lives in blackwater wetlands. Scientists said it appeared to be the smallest fish known, as well as the smallest vertebrate. Vertebrates are animals with a backbone. VOICE ONE: Experts discovered it on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. And they needed a microscope to measure it. The smallest fully grown female they measured was just seven-point-nine millimeters. The longest was ten-point-three millimeters. Scientists say the new fish is a member of the carp family. It has a body so thin, light can pass through it. Maurice Kottelat from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore, led the study team. The Royal Society in London published the findings. In the competition to find small fish, a few tenths of a millimeter or even a single tenth of a millimeter can make a big difference. And some scientists argue that smallest can also mean lightest. VOICE TWO: The new report did not include any weights. But one interesting discovery about the new fish is an area of hardened skin on the underside of the male. The scientists say no other fish is known to have this. They believe it is used to hold the female during mating. The fish is also unusual in that its brain is not completely covered by protective bone, like most vertebrates. The scientists say development and agriculture threaten the Indonesian wetlands that are home to the fish. Several populations of fish are reported to have disappeared already. So the researchers hope to learn as much as possible before this little fish could be lost. Examples were first collected in nineteen ninety-six. But scientists only recently recognized the fish as a new species. They call it Paedocypris progenetica, a long scientific name. VOICE ONE: Now this fish story has gotten longer since the report appeared late last month. On January twenty-seventh the University of Washington in Seattle put out a news release. It said the scientists with the seven-point-nine millimeter fish "have failed to make note of work published last fall." In that work, a University of Washington professor, Ted Pietsch, described some fully grown male anglerfish. He reported that the shortest one measured six-point-two millimeters. It was collected in the Philippines. It was attached to the back of a forty-six-millimeter long female anglerfish. "That is how they mate," the news release explained. Professor Pietsch tells us that he is friends with the scientists in Singapore, and they told him that they just missed his report. The Ichthyological Society of Japan published it. Ichthyology is the study of fishes. Anglerfish live deep in oceans around the world. But those fish on Sumatra live in freshwater. So perhaps they might be called the world's smallest freshwater fish ... at least for now. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When you find a fish, you might also find a cat hoping for a tasty meal. Thirty-seven kinds of cats are alive today. They include big cats like lions and tigers. They also include the small cats that share their homes with people. A study of modern cats shows they developed from animals that lived in Asia almost eleven million years ago. The newly published research shows how new kinds of cats developed as they spread around the world. Warren Johnson and Stephen O’Brien led an international team that did the study. The two scientists work for the National Cancer Institute at its Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in Frederick, Maryland. Science magazine published the results. VOICE ONE: The researchers suggest that cats became world explorers because of the rise and fall of sea levels. Land bridges appeared as water levels fell. The researchers say ancient cats used the Bering land bridge to travel from East Asia to North America. They are also said to have crossed the Panamanian land bridge that connected North and South America. There are few remains of old cat bones. And it is difficult to identify differences between these fossils. So it has been hard for scientists to understand the cat family. But the new study of cat genetics might even help researchers who study human diseases. The researchers examined genetic material from the sex chromosomes of all thirty-seven kinds of cats. They also studied material from energy-producing mitochondria in cells. Evidence of genetic changes over time helped the scientists produce a history of the cat family. Dating of the fossils assisted in the placement of cats into this genetic family tree. VOICE TWO: The researchers placed every kind of cat into one of eight lines of ancestry. They say cats moved between continents at least ten times. Low ocean levels let the first modern cats spread from Asia into Africa. The spread into North America produced other kinds of cats. The researchers say the most recent of the ancestry lines started about six million years ago in Asia and Africa. They believe it produced the cats of today. And today cats can be found on all continents except Antarctica. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Brianna Blake and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Norway Plans to Store Seeds of All the World's Crops
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 This is Shep O’Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to represent all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on Earth. An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his words, "the worst came to the worst."? Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above zero degrees Celsius. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high-security doors. The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below zero Celsius. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced. Mister Fowler says the proposed structure will be the "world's most secure gene bank."? He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the nineteen eighties. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was permitted use of Spitsbergen. New Scientist says the plan won United Nations approval in October at a meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Nanotechnology: How the Science of the Very Small Is Getting Very Big
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the most important research fields in technology. It is called nanotechnology. It is the science of making things unimaginably small. But there is nothing small about the problems that scientists hope nanotechnology will solve. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nanotechnology gets its name from a measure of distance. A nanometer, or nano, is one-thousand-millionth of a meter. This is about the size of atoms and molecules. Nanotechnologists work with materials this small. Many experts credit the idea to physicist Richard Feynman. In nineteen fifty-nine, this Nobel Prize winner gave a speech. He called it “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”? Mister Feynman discussed the theory that scientists could make devices smaller and smaller -- all the way down to the atomic level. Although he did not use the word nanotechnology, the speech got many scientists thinking about the world of the very small. But for years this idea remained only a theory. VOICE TWO: At the time, no way existed to record structures the size of molecules. Not even electron microscopes could do the job. But as the nineteen eighties began, two researchers found a way. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer worked at a laboratory in Zurich Switzerland. They worked for IBM, the American company International Business Machines. They invented what they called a scanning tunneling microscope. This permitted scientist to observe molecules and even atoms in greater detail than ever before. VOICE ONE: Once they could see nano-sized structures, the next step for scientists was to find a way to create their own. By the middle of the nineteen eighties, scientists had increased their research on carbon. They were interested in the ability to use this common element to make nano-sized structures. Carbon had already been engineered in chemical reactions to make long poly-carbon chains. Today, the result of carbon chemical engineering is everywhere -- in the form of plastic. Scientists in the nineteen eighties wanted to create nano-structures from carbon atoms. In nineteen eighty-five, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley succeeded. They aimed a laser at carbon. This powerful light caused some of the carbon to become a gas. The scientists cooled the gas to an extremely low temperature. Then they looked at the carbon material that remained. They found, among several kinds of carbon, a molecule of sixty atoms -- carbon sixty. VOICE TWO: Carbon sixty is a group of tightly connected carbon atoms that forms a ball. It is a very strong structure. This is because all the atoms share any loose electrons that might take part in chemical reactions with other atoms. This kind of molecular carbon can also appear with different numbers of carbon atoms. There is also carbon seventy, for example. For their work, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in nineteen ninety-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next nano-structure development came in nineteen ninety-three. Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima of the company NEC developed carbon nanotubes. These nano-sized objects are really six-sided atomic structures connected to form a tube. They are extremely strong. Scientists believe that someday nanotubes could replace the carbon graphite now used to make airplane parts. Soon after this discovery, researchers started to think about using nanotubes to build extremely small devices. In two thousand three, IBM announced that it had made the world's smallest light. Researchers used a carbon nanotube attached to a silicon base. They sent opposing electrical charges down the tube. The reaction between the charged particles produced an extremely small amount of light. IBM says the wavelength of light produced could be used in communications. VOICE TWO: Nanotubes appear to have many different uses. Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have developed a way to make a flat material, or film, out of nanotubes. The researchers create the super thin film by chemically growing nanotubes on a piece of glass. They use another piece of sticky material to remove the film of nanotubes from the glass. When the film is finished, it is only fifty nanometers thick. That is about one one-thousandth the width of human hair. The material is extremely strong and it carries electricity as well. Researchers think the nanotube material could be used to make car windows that can receive radio signals. They also believe it could be used to make solar electricity cells, lights or thin, moveable displays that show pictures like a television. VOICE ONE: Nano-materials are already being used in some products. For example, materials using mixtures of nano-materials are being used to make sporting goods like tennis balls and tennis rackets better. Soon, nano-materials could be used to improve devices that reduce pollution released by cars. Similar technology could be used to warn of the presence of poisonous molecules in the air. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Computer scientists hope developments in nanotechnology will help break barriers of size and speed. In nineteen sixty-five, electronics expert Gordon Moore recognized that computer chips, the engines that drive computers, would quickly grow in power. He even thought of a way to measure this progress. He said researchers would double the number of tiny transistors on a computer chip about every two years. A transistor is a device that controls electrical current. That statement is known as Moore’s law. It has proved correct for more than forty years. Mister Moore would go on to help start the company Intel, one of the world’s leading computer chip makers. And Moore’s law is one of the most talked about scientific barriers. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-one, Intel created a computer chip containing two thousand three hundred transistors. In two thousand four, Intel made a chip with five hundred ninety-two million transistors. But current technology has reached its limit. The next jump to one thousand million transistors will require new discoveries in nanotechnology. Researchers are trying to solve the problems of creating nano-sized transistors. In two thousand two, IBM announced that it had created the world’s smallest transistor based on the element silicon. IBM said the transistor was four to eight nanometers thick. In two thousand five, researchers for the company Hewlett Packard wrote about the problems of creating nano-transistors in the magazine Scientific American. They said transistors are often measured by the distance between the middle of two current-bearing wires. Their nano-wire transistor measured thirty-nanometers in size. They said the smallest transistor currently used in a computer is ninety nanometers. But making nano-transistors small enough to meet the demands of Moore’s law may be years in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?? Although nanotechnology is exciting, there are concerns about the safety of super small structures. Scientists and environmental activists worry that nano-materials could pass into the air and water causing health problems. There is reason for concern. A study by NASA researchers found that nano-particles caused severe lung damage to laboratory mice. Other studies suggest that nano-particles could suppress the growth of plant roots or could even harm the human body’s ability to fight infection. VOICE ONE: The Environmental Protection Agency says there is not much known about the effects of nano-structures in the environment. This is because the laws of physics do not work in the same way at the level of the extremely small. The EPA recognizes that this could mean that there are unknown health risks involved in nanotechnology. The government is expected to spend about thirty nine million dollars on research meant to investigate the health risks of nano-materials. But that is less than four percent of total government spending, which will be more than one thousand million dollars this year. Many environmental groups say at least ten percent of that total is needed. They say private industry needs to spend more on safety research. And, they say, the government needs to develop rules for nano-materials, which are already being made in hundreds of places around the country. ?? ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: U.S., European Drug Officials Approve Inhaled Insulin
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. A form of insulin for people with diabetes to take by mouth is expected to be sold within a few months. The new medicine is called Exubera. The United States Food and Drug Administration and the European Commission both recently approved it for adults. It could make life easier for many diabetics who require daily injections of insulin to control their blood sugar levels. But it will not replace all insulin injections. And it is not for everyone. People who smoke or have stopped smoking for less than six months should not take Exubera. Some patients with lung disease should not take it either. Three drug companies -- Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and Nektar Therapeutics -- developed the inhaled insulin. Pfizer recently bought the rights to sell it worldwide. Experts say about fifteen percent of diabetics who need insulin do not take it. The treatment can involve several injections each day. Insulin is a hormone that the body uses to change food into energy. Failure to control blood sugar levels can lead to serious problems, including blindness and loss of blood flow to the feet. It can also lead to heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. Insulin has been sold as a drug since the nineteen twenties. This is the first new way to take it. Exubera uses a powder breathed into the lungs through a mouthpiece. Pfizer will study the long-term effects. It says some patients have reported a mild cough while using the inhaled insulin. People are advised to have their lungs examined before using Exubera, and at least once a year after that. Many people do not know they have diabetes. There are two forms. Most diabetics have the Type Two form. Their body does not make enough insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. It is common in people who are overweight and not active. Most Type Two diabetics do not take insulin. Their medicines can be taken by mouth. Diet, exercise and weight control are also important. Type One diabetes often begins in childhood. With this type the body is unable to produce insulin. Officials say diabetics with either type could use inhaled insulin, either before or after a meal. But Type One diabetics and some with Type Two would still need a longer-lasting injection at least once a day. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-07-voa5.cfm
* Headline: 'You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation'
* Byline: 

 I'm Nancy Beardsley, filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we'll talk about communication -- and miscommunication -- between mothers and daughters. Our guest is Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University linguistics professor who writes best selling books about how conversation styles affect relationships. She's written about dialogues among men and women, adult family members, friends and co-workers. Her latest book is called "You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation." Ms. Tannen says mother-daughter relationships are like other close bonds-but even more intense: DEBORAH TANNEN: "In every relationship you have to balance how close or distant you want to be, but girls in particular are very focused on that closeness-distance dimension, as well as the sameness and difference. (They are) always asking, are we the same, or are we different? What I see in you, what does that say about me? "And talk is the glue that holds the relationship together for girls and women, and less so for boys and men. So mothers and daughters talk more. They talk about more personal topics, which gives you more of an opportunity to say the wrong thing." NB: "And in fact you found that a mother with more than one daughter is more likely to have flare-ups with the daughter she talks to more?" DEBORAH TANNEN:?"Yes. The closer you are, the more opportunity to step on each other's toes. And women are much more focused often on appearance, and that's where you get what I call 'the big three,' and that's clothing, hair and weight, where daughters feel their mothers are criticizing, and mothers feel, 'I can't open my mouth. She takes everything as criticism.' "And the caring and the criticizing really are communicated in the same words. So if the mother says, 'Do you like your hair that long?' or if she says, 'Do you think that skirt really fits you?' the daughter is going to hear it as criticism. In the first case, 'Your hair doesn't look good.' In the second, 'You're putting on weight.'" NB: "And you talk about the way messages and metamessages work in mother-daughter communication. Would you explain what that means?" DEBORAH TANNEN:?"The message is the meaning of the words, and we always agree on that if we speak the language, but the metamessage is what we think it says about our relationship that you say these words in this way at this time. Often between mothers and daughters, you're having a conversation that seems like an amiable chat, and then suddenly somebody says something and everybody's back is up. "So when the mother says to the daughter about the granddaughter, 'She would look so pretty if she would comb her hair,' the metamessage the daughter hears is--first of all, she may be reminded her mother was always at her to brush her hair when she was a child, which reminds her that her mother didn't really approve of her because she was kind of a tomboy. "And then there's the level that her parenting is being criticized. So she might snap something like, 'She's perfectly fine, Mom, leave her alone.' Now who introduced that note of contention? The daughter thinks the mother did by criticizing the grandchild's hair. But the mother thinks she may have made an innocent comment, and the daughter has changed it. NB: "Given the years that shape these messages and their interpretation, how can mothers and daughters change the way they communicate to avoid some of these misunderstandings?" DEBORAH TANNEN: "Both need to recognize that caring and communicating are in the same words, so mothers can try to bite their tongues. One mother said her mantra is 'Don't advise, don't criticize.' But daughters can remind themselves that it really is a sign of love, and you're probably going to miss it when your mother is gone. "Humor is very helpful. One family said, one time the mother was giving a recipe and she was so detailed the daughter said, 'You know, I think I know you should sift the flour without your telling me,' so whenever she feels her mother is giving her too much advice she says, 'It's like the cake recipe, Mom.' And then they laugh, because it's something they share, and that in itself makes them feel connected." NB: "Did you find any differences among ethnic groups in the way mothers and daughters communicate?" DEBORAH TANNEN:?"I did interview African Americans, Asian American women and white women of all backgrounds. And no, I didn't find that much difference. A woman wrote to me who grew up in Guyana. And she said her mother said to her word for word the title of my book 'you're wearing that?' in Guyanese the night before a party. And even though she thought the dress was fine, when her mother said that, she stayed up all night and made a new dress. So it does seem to be quite universal. I'm sure there are some levels of difference, but I found many fewer than I expected." NB: Deborah Tannen, thank you very much. Ms. Tannen is the author of "You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you can find all of our segments posted at voanews.com/wordmaster. Filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, I'm Nancy Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Winners of Children's Book Awards Announced
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 This is?Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Every year, the American Library Association honors artists and writers of books for children. One of these honors is the Newbery award. It is named for a book seller in England in the eighteenth century, John Newbery. The Newbery Medal winner for two thousand six is Lynne Rae Perkins for writing "Criss Cross."? Her book is about four teenagers in a small town. They are trying to find the meaning of life and love. They are fourteen years old. "Criss Cross" is written in several different ways. Sometimes it is like a song. Sometimes it is like a poem: (READER) She wishedsomethingwould happen. Something good. To her. Looking at the bright, fuzzy picture in themagazine, she thought, Something like that. Lynne Rae Perkins is a writer and artist. "Criss Cross" is her sixth book. Another award, the Caldecott, honors the best American picture book of the year. It is named for an artist from England, Randolph Caldecott. The Caldecott Medal winner this year is Chris Raschka for "The Hello, Goodbye Window," written by Norton Juster. In the book, a little girl tells about visiting the home of her grandparents. The committee that chose Chris Raschka for the award praised how he captures the natural way children draw. It says the pictures express the emotional warmth of connections between older family members and children. Chris Raschka also won the award in nineteen ninety-four. In addition to the winners, four Caldecott Honor Books and four Newbery Honor books were named last month. Another honor from the American Library Association is the Margaret L. Batchelder Award. It goes to the company that publishes the best translation of a children’s book into English. The winner for two thousand six is Arthur A. Levine Books for "An Innocent Soldier" by Josef Holub. Michael Hoffman translated it from German. Awards are chosen by committees of people who work with children’s books. But in some schools, children vote unofficially for their own Newbery and Caldecott winners. This year, schoolchildren could watch the award ceremony live on the Internet. A teacher in Wisconsin says her students cheered as each winner was announced. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Karen Leggett. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: William Howard Taft Replaces Teddy Roosevelt as President
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The United States played a small part in world events during the eighteen hundreds. At the beginning of the nineteen hundreds, however, it expanded its interests throughout the world. America's president at that time strongly supported the expansion. He was Theodore Roosevelt. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Shirley Griffith and I complete the story of America's twenty-sixth president. VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt became president in nineteen-oh-one after the assassination of President William McKinley. He completed the last three years of McKinley's term. Then he was elected in his own right. Those four years are spoken of as Roosevelt's second term. VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt became president in nineteen-oh-one after the assassination of President William McKinley. He completed the last three years of McKinley's term. Then he was elected in his own right. Those four years are spoken of as Roosevelt's second term. It was during this second term that Roosevelt gained his most important foreign policy success. He negotiated an end to a war between Russia and Japan. Later, he was asked to settle another international dispute. At issue was Morocco. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-four, France and Britain signed an agreement on North Africa. The agreement gave Britain control over Egypt. It gave France responsibility for security and reforms in Morocco. Germany opposed the agreement. It felt threatened by any French-British alliance. And it feared France would block German trade ties with Morocco. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-four, France and Britain signed an agreement on North Africa. The agreement gave Britain control over Egypt. It gave France responsibility for security and reforms in Morocco. Germany opposed the agreement. It felt threatened by any French-British alliance. And it feared France would block German trade ties with Morocco. Germany demanded an "open door" policy that would permit all countries to trade freely in Morocco. It proposed an international conference to settle the dispute. France and Britain rejected the idea. The ruler of Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm the Second, warned that the dispute could lead to war. The Kaiser asked Theodore Roosevelt to intervene. VOICE TWO: President Roosevelt agreed to help. Some American lawmakers criticized him. They said it was an American tradition not to get involved in European disputes. But Roosevelt believed peace was more important than tradition. He set up the conference in the Spanish seaport of Algeciras. Twelve European nations and the United States attended. The conference agreed to an open door trade policy in Morocco. It organized an international bank to control Morocco's finances. And it gave France and Spain almost complete control over police forces in Morocco's port cities. VOICE ONE: Theodore Roosevelt had become a powerful world leader. At home, however, he was losing power. One reason was an economic depression. Business leaders blamed it on Roosevelt. They said it was the result of his efforts to gain government control over industry. The other reason was one he had created himself. At that time, there was no law limiting a president's term in office. But America's first president, George Washington, had established a tradition of only two terms. When Theodore Roosevelt won the election of nineteen-oh-four, he announced he would not be a candidate in nineteen-oh-eight. He had completed the term of President McKinley. He would serve a full term of his own. That was enough. Later, he said: "I would be willing to cut off my hand if I could call back that statement." VOICE TWO: During his last year in office, Roosevelt was a "lame duck" president. Everyone knew he would not be back. There was little political reason to support him. He faced increased opposition from Congress and from his own Republican Party. His final message to Congress was extremely bitter. President Roosevelt accused Congress and the court system of working only to help rich Americans. He called for a tax on earnings. He called for legislation to give workers a greater share of the nation's wealth. The House of Representatives voted to reject the message. It said Roosevelt had failed to show respect for the legislative branch of government. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt refused to give up hope for the policies he believed America needed. He would not be able to fight for these policies himself. But he could find a presidential candidate who would. He was sure the people would vote for his choice. He decided on his close friend, Secretary of War William Howard Taft. Taft had spent most of his life in government service. He had been a judge in both a state court and a federal court. He had been a lawyer in the justice department. And he had been governor of the Philippines. VOICE TWO: There was one problem, however. Taft did not want to be president. He really wanted to be Chief Justice of the United States. But there were no immediate openings on the Supreme Court. Also, his wife, his brothers, and his good friend -- Theodore Roosevelt -- urged him to run. So, Taft agreed to be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in nineteen-oh-eight. When he won the nomination, taft said: "Mr. Roosevelt led the way to reform. My job -- if elected -- will be to complete and perfect his programs." The Democratic Party nominated William Jennings Bryan. Bryan had been a candidate two times before, without success. VOICE ONE: The presidential campaign was not especially exciting. William Howard Taft did not like being on the campaign trail. He was a big, heavy man. He did not like to travel. Roosevelt urged him to campaign with more energy. "Hit hard, old man," Roosevelt said. "Make the people see the truth. Let them know that for all your gentleness and kindliness, there never existed a man who was a better fighter when the need arose." Roosevelt's advice and strong support helped Taft win a big victory on election day. VOICE TWO: A few weeks after Taft was sworn-in as president, Roosevelt left on a year-long trip overseas. He spent most of the time hunting wild animals in Africa. President Taft wrote a warm goodbye letter to his friend. He promised to do his best as president. But he admitted he could not lead as Roosevelt had done. In fact, Taft said, he was still surprised when anyone called him "Mr. President."? Each time it happened, he turned around to see if Roosevelt was there. VOICE ONE: There was no question that Taft's way of leading was much different from Roosevelt's. Taft believed a president should not interfere too deeply in the actions of Congress. He also believed a president should not claim special powers or rights. He believed in the supreme power of the law. . . even if the law did not work very well. The progressives who had supported Roosevelt did not support Taft. They said he was too friendly with conservatives. They said he had surrendered to special interest groups. Taft, for his part, did not like progressives. He thought they were too emotional and extreme. VOICE TWO: Yet Taft worked hard to put into law many parts of Roosevelt's progressive programs. He was successful in several areas. During his administration, for example, a separate Department of Labor was established. Two Constitutional amendments won congressional approval and were sent to the states for ratification. One amendment provided for a federal tax on earnings. The other provided for direct, popular election of senators. Taft also worked even harder than Roosevelt to break up companies, or trusts, that blocked economic competition. VOICE ONE: At the same time, Taft failed in several areas. He signed legislation that lowered import taxes. Neither businessmen nor progressive Republicans liked it. He negotiated a free trade agreement with Canada. The Canadian parliament rejected it. He believed in protecting America's wilderness areas. Yet he did not believe existing laws gave him the right to close public lands to private development. So he was seen as an enemy of conservation. These struggles and failures made Taft's four years as president the unhappiest of his life. VOICE TWO: The final blow came in an effort to reduce the powers of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The speaker was a conservative Republican. Progressive Republicans opposed him. The issue split the party. Theodore Roosevelt -- far from home -- read about the trouble. He had promised to stay out of politics. But each of the opposing groups in his party had asked for his support. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Black History Month: Remembering Coretta Scott King
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. February is Black History Month in the United States. This week on our show, we celebrate the history of African-Americans. We answer a question about races in the United States … Report about a building that is being saved for historic reasons … And remember a leader of the American civil rights movement. Coretta Scott King (MUSIC) That song is called “We Shall Overcome.”? It was a major song of the American civil rights movement in the nineteen sixties. Among those who worked toward civil rights for African-Americans were Martin Luther King Junior and his wife, Coretta. Coretta Scott King died last week at the age of seventy-eight. Barbara Klein tells us about her. BARBARA KLEIN: Coretta Scott was born in the southern state of Alabama in a family that valued education. She graduated from Antioch College in Ohio. Then she studied singing at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Coretta Scott was already involved in civil rights when she met Martin Luther King Junior in Boston. They were married in nineteen fifty-three. She gave up her music studies to work with her husband in the civil rights movement. The Kings had four children but that did not stop Missus King from taking part in civil rights activities. She sang, read poems and spoke at more than thirty Freedom Concerts to raise money for the civil rights movement. After Martin Luther King was murdered in nineteen sixty-eight, Coretta Scott King worked to keep his dreams alive. Here, she speaks to a crowd after her husband’s death: CORETTA SCOTT KING: "How long will it take, how many men must die before we can really have a free and true and peaceful society?" Coretta Scott King worked to establish the Martin Luther King Junior holiday that is celebrated each January. And she started the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Missus King served as its president for twenty-six years. Her son Dexter King has served as president since nineteen ninety-four. Coretta Scott King also worked for the rights of other minorities and women. She once called on American women to unite and form a solid block of woman power to fight the three great evils of racism, poverty and war. Coretta Scott King suffered a stroke last August. She also suffered from ovarian cancer. Her last public appearance was last month at a dinner in Atlanta to raise money for the King Center. It also celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior Day. Uncle Tom’s Cabin HOST: Last month, the local government of Montgomery County, Maryland took ownership of a historic building linked to the American Civil War. It was a part of the life of a black slave whose story affected the whole country. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Josiah Henson was an African-American slave in the southern state of Maryland in the eighteen hundreds. He lived on a farm owned by the Riley family. In eighteen thirty, he decided to flee to Canada with his family. His owner had refused to honor a promise to permit him to buy his freedom. In eighteen forty-nine, he wrote a short book about his life. He called it “Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave.”? The book described his life as a slave and his escape to the province of Ontario, Canada. An American writer named Harriet Beecher Stowe read his book. She used Josiah Henson’s experiences to write her own book about a man she called Uncle Tom. Her book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was published in eighteen fifty-two. It told the world about the horrors of slavery in the United States. It sold three hundred thousand copies in the first year and had a huge effect on the country. It helped build support for the movement to end slavery. President Abraham Lincoln once said that Missus Stowe’s book helped start the Civil War. Now, the Riley farmhouse in Maryland is the property of Montgomery County. Officials bought it for one million dollars after its owner died in September. They say it could become a museum or an education center. People in the area have been calling the house “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. That is not really correct. Officials say it was not a slave cabin, but an eighteenth century house and kitchen. Josiah Henson’s writings show that he did sleep in the kitchen. There is another Uncle Tom’s Cabin, however. A property near the town of Dresden, Ontario, Canada is also known by that name. The Ontario Heritage Foundation owns the property. It includes a cabin, a church and a museum. It is where Josiah Henson settled after escaping from slavery in the United States. Black History Museum HOST: Our VOA Special English question this week comes from Nigeria. Iyke Chinyere asks about racial groups in the United States. The United States government lists seven different racial and ethnic populations in the country. They are American Indian and Alaska Native peoples. Asian Americans. Hispanic or Latino populations. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders. White populations. Multiracial populations. And black or African-Americans. The United States is beginning to honor its minority groups with museums. In two thousand four, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. opened the National Museum of the American Indian. It shows the history and culture of Native Americans. Last week, the Smithsonian announced plans to build a similar museum in Washington to honor African-Americans. The National Museum of African-American History and Culture will tell the stories of African-Americans from slavery through the struggle for civil rights. It will be built on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. Officials say the building will be about the size of the National Museum of the American Indian, which is also on the Mall. President Bush signed the bill ordering the African-American museum to be built more than two years ago. Smithsonian officials say they hope the museum will be completed in about ten years. They expect it to cost about four hundred million dollars. The federal government will pay half the cost; private money will pay for the other half. But it is not the only museum honoring African-Americans. The Museum of African-American History opened in Detroit, Michigan in nineteen ninety-seven. In December, the Museum of the African Diaspora opened in San Francisco, California. And the city of Seattle, Washington is building the Northwest African-American Museum. It is expected to open next year. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Company Says Legal Threat Will Not Stop BlackBerry E-mail Service
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Millions of people hold the world in their hand. Small wireless devices let them use e-mail, search the Internet and get the latest news. But lately the news has worried many users of the popular BlackBerry devices from the Canadian company Research in Motion. A small company in Virginia has asked a court to shut down most BlackBerry service in the United States. Network Technology Partners does not make or sell products. N.T.P. is a patent holding company. And it says Research in Motion is using technology protected by patents held by N.T.P. Research in Motion says BlackBerry was invented independently of the patents. And the United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected all five in dispute, though its decision was not final. But in two thousand two a federal jury in Virginia sided with Network Technology Partners. The jury ordered Research in Motion to pay N.T.P. millions of dollars. In two thousand three Research in Motion lost an appeal. A court gave an order that would stop the company from selling many of its products in the United States. The case continues. Last month the United States Supreme Court refused to get involved. A judge called a hearing for February twenty-fourth on the possibility of suspending BlackBerry service. Many government agencies that use the devices would not be included. And other users might not have to worry either. On Thursday, Research in Motion announced it has developed and tested "software workaround designs" for all its BlackBerry handsets. It says these workarounds will permit service to continue should the court shut down the existing system. Jim Balsillie, the chairman and co-chief executive officer, described the action as an attempt to balance N.T.P.'s threats. He says his company remains willing to enter into a settlement. He says N.T.P. risks losing all future payments if the workaround is put into effect. Research in Motion said it will put the software on a Web site at a later date. The company in Waterloo, Ontario, says it has more than four million users worldwide. The case has led a number of technology companies to call for new laws to limit lawsuits like this one. But supporters of current patent laws say these are the only way for small patent holders to enforce their rights. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Cartoons: How an Exercise in Free Expression Led to Deadly Costs
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 Protesters in Kuala LumpurI'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The drawings that have led to increasing protests by Muslims in recent days first appeared in a Danish newspaper last September. The Jyllands-Posten published twelve images of the Prophet Mohammad. Many Muslims say Islam bars showing any images of the prophet. Yet one cartoon, for example, showed Mohammed as a terrorist with a bomb on his head. The newspaper says it published the cartoons as a form of political protest. Another newspaper had reported that a writer could not find anyone to draw pictures for a book about the prophet. Artists reportedly were afraid to draw them. In October, ambassadors from ten Muslim nations and the Palestinian representative in Denmark wrote to the Danish prime minister. They urged him to take action against those responsible for the drawings. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he is sorry the cartoons offended Muslims. But he has refused to apologize for their being published. Danish Muslim groups began legal action against the newspaper that published them. In December, leaders from the Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned the cartoons. They discussed them during their meeting in Saudi Arabia in Islam's holiest city, Mecca. Delegates from a Danish coalition of twenty-seven Muslim groups had brought the cartoons to the Middle East in December to seek support. The delegates also included some images that had not been published. A spokesman has said they were not an attempt to mislead. He says they were mailed to Danish Muslims who had criticized the published cartoons. In January, Danish government lawyers decided not to bring charges against the newspaper. A few days later, a publication in Norway printed the cartoons to show support for the Danish paper and for freedom of the press. Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador from Denmark and began a boycott of Danish goods. A statement from the Jyllands-Posten apologized for offending Muslims, but supported the decision to print the drawings. Since then, news media in other countries have also printed them. As protests spread to different countries, they turned violent and deadly. Danish and Norwegian embassies have been attacked. There has been much debate about the reasons behind the protests. Many people say the protests show the anger of Muslims at treatment by Westerners. They say the demonstrations also show anger at the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. But even some Muslims say the protests are being used in some cases to push for goals unrelated to defending Islam. Denmark's prime minister says "religious extremists" have fueled the flames. In published comments this week Mister Rasmussen also criticized Syria and Iran. He says they have used the situation to gain support because they are both under international pressure. He says Denmark is a liberal country, but its values must be honored. These include freedom of expression, equality for men and women and a separation of politics and religion. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Shirley Horn: One of the Great Jazz Singers of the 1950s and 1960s
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA IN VOA Special English. Today we tell about jazz singer and pianist Shirley Horn. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Shirley Horn was considered one of the great jazz singers of the nineteen fifties and sixties. She was often compared to the famous singers Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. She performed for more than fifty years. Shirley Horn’s voice was smooth and expressive, but never hurried. She was one of the slowest singers in jazz. When she sang a song, she wanted the audience to feel it in the same way she did. She had a small voice. But her songs had a big effect. Here, Shirley Horn sings her popular song “You’re My Thrill.” (You’re My Thrill) VOICE TWO: Shirley Horn was born in Washington, D.C. in nineteen thirty-four. She lived all her life in and around Washington. Shirley began taking piano lessons when she was four years old. Her mother recognized her skill and love for the instrument. Shirley Horn said most of the songs she performed were ones she grew up with. She said her family loved music and there was always music by the greatest singers and bands playing in her home. Horn said she lived for music. She said it was like food and water to her. Shirley Horn studied classical music as a teenager. When she was seventeen, she had a chance to attend the famous Juilliard School in New York City. But financial difficulties prevented her from going. Instead, she studied classical music at Howard University in Washington. VOICE ONE: Shirley Horn had planned to have a career playing classical music on the piano. But she said all that changed after she began going to jazz clubs in Washington. She said she was influenced by some of the greatest jazz artists, such as Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal. When asked about her change from classical music to jazz, she would later say:? “I loved Rachmaninoff, but then Oscar Peterson became my Rachmaninoff. And Ahmad Jamal became my Debussy.”? Horn did not plan to be a singer. She said it happened by accident when she was seventeen and playing classical music on the piano at a restaurant. A man offered to give her a huge toy teddy bear if she would sing the song “Melancholy Baby.”? Although she had never sung in public before, she agreed. She later realized that she could make a living singing and playing jazz. Here she sings the famous song by Cole Porter, “Love for Sale.” (Love for Sale) VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-four, Shirley Horn began to sing jazz in clubs and started her own jazz group. In nineteen sixty, she recorded her first album, called “Embers and Ashes.”? The album did not get a lot of attention. But the famous jazz musician, Miles Davis, heard it. He liked it so much that he invited Horn to play music with him in New York City. She sang as the opening act before his performance at New York’s Village Vanguard nightclub. Davis had refused to play unless the club owner let Horn sing. Shirley Horn and Miles Davis developed a close friendship over the years. Here she sings and he plays the trumpet on the song “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Cryin.” (Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin') VOICE ONE: Shirley Horn’s performance with Miles Davis in New York led to a record deal with Mercury Records. She was soon performing around the United States. She also recorded with Quincy Jones and other top musicians. But Horn soon left Mercury Records because of creative differences. She wanted to play the piano on all her recordings, but the record company did not agree. Shirley Horn stopped performing around the country in the nineteen sixties so she could spend more time at home with her husband and daughter. She played at local nightclubs in the Washington area during the nineteen sixties and seventies. VOICE TWO: Shirley Horn rebuilt her career in the nineteen eighties. She began performing more widely at jazz festivals and concerts around the world and received strong praise. In nineteen eighty- seven, she signed a record deal with Verve Records and remained with the record company for the rest of her career. In nineteen ninety, Horn reunited with her good friend and teacher, Miles Davis, on the song, “You Won’t Forget Me.”? She went on to record several successful albums and performed around the world. She also worked on several soundtracks for movies. Here are Shirley Horn and Miles Davis with “You Won’t Forget Me.” (You Won't Forget Me) VOICE ONE: Shirley Horn was nominated for several Grammy Awards. In nineteen ninety-eight, she won the award for the album, “I Remember Miles,” in memory of Miles Davis, who died in nineteen ninety-one. Horn received many honors during her career. But her last years were difficult. She had a series of health problems, including treatment for breast cancer. And in two thousand two, she had her foot removed because of problems caused by diabetes. Shirley Horn continued to sing for audiences, but she did so in a chair, with someone else playing the piano. The loss of her foot made it difficult for her to work the pedals that control the way the piano sounds. However, during her last performances, she returned to playing the piano with the help of a device that took the place of her foot. In June of two thousand five, Horn suffered a stroke. She died four months later at the age of seventy-one. VOICE TWO: Critics say Shirley Horn influenced many young jazz musicians of today, including Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Critics say she will be remembered as one of the best singers in a great period of American jazz. In two thousand five, Verve Records released a collection of her work, called “But Beautiful:? The Best of Shirley Horn.”?? We leave you now with a song from that album called “Here’s to Life.” (Here's to Life) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Bad Will Malaria Season Be? New System Could Help Tell
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This Is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists have what they say is a better early warning system for the spread of malaria. The system uses computer programs from Europe to study climate conditions. Changes in climate and rainfall influence the spread of malaria. The risk of a severe outbreak increases after a season of heavy rain. The disease is caused by a parasite carried by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. So more water means more places for the insects to reproduce. The World Health Organization estimates that more than one million people every year die from malaria. Most are young African children. Hundreds of millions of other people get sick. The new system is called Demeter. The scientists say it can help show countries with malaria what the weather will be like several months into the future. The computer models combine information on ocean warming, sea surface temperatures, wind and rainfall levels. The scientists described the new system in a report in the journal Nature. They tested it with climate information from Botswana from between nineteen eighty-two and two thousand two. The models were most successful at predicting years with very low outbreaks of malaria. The scientists say Demeter was correct eighty-five percent of the time. The work involved scientists from Britain, the United States and Botswana. Tim Palmer led a team in England at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. He says the system will give health officials more time to try to limit the spread of malaria. Other early warning systems used in parts of Africa provide only several weeks to prepare. More time to prepare would mean more time to supply people with anti-malaria drugs and bed nets treated with insect poison. It would also mean more time to cover water supplies and areas where rainwater collects. Demeter is being used now to help countries in southern Africa. Simian Mason from the Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York is involved in the project. He says the findings so far suggest that the next malaria season should not be especially bad. He says there was a risk of a little higher rainfall than normal. But he says the scientists did not feel this would mean a big increase in the risk of malaria epidemics this year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: After Safest Year on Record, Coal Mining Deaths Raise Concerns
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Coal mining is a historically dangerous job -- and it is our subject this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America produces more than half of its electric power from coal. Mineral experts say the country has the world's largest supply of coal waiting to be mined. Coal mining in the United States is much safer than it used to be. Yet nineteen miners were killed in the first five weeks of two thousand six. That was almost as many as were killed in all of last year. VOICE TWO: Most of the recent deaths happened in West Virginia. Twelve men died in a mine where inspectors found more than two hundred safety violations last year. Now, more than two hundred federal safety officials are examining the mines in West Virginia. West Virginia produces more coal than any other state except Wyoming. The recent accidents led to a federal request for all coal mines in the nation to stop work for one hour on February sixth to discuss safety. And there have been other steps. In Pennsylvania, the governor ordered the re-inspection of all seventy-seven active underground mines in his state. VOICE ONE:?????? In Congress, a Senate hearing took place late last month to discuss mine safety. Senator Arlen Specter and others questioned David Dye, the acting assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. Senator Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, noted a reduction in the number of federal mine inspectors as a result of budget cuts. Mister Dye said he did not think that played a part in the mine accidents. The Mine Safety and Health Administration in the Labor Department inspects about two thousand coal mines nationwide. That is in addition to more than twelve thousand other mines. VOICE TWO: Members of Congress from West Virginia have proposed several measures to improve safety for coal miners. Hearings on the proposed legislation are expected to begin in early March. West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin has already signed similar legislation for his state. Between January second and February first, West Virginia had four accidents that killed sixteen miners. VOICE ONE: The first was an explosion in the Sago Mine. It killed one miner immediately. Eleven others became trapped in poisoned air. Each had about one hour of emergency oxygen. A misunderstood communication from rescue workers made the events even more terrible for the families. At first, the mining company reported that the trapped men were alive. Hours later came the crushing news, though rescuers did find a thirteenth miner alive. Then, on January nineteenth, two miners were killed in a fire in another West Virginia coal mine. And separate accidents on February first claimed the lives of two other men. The year also began with coal mine accidents in Kentucky and Utah that resulted in three deaths. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Bush has nominated Richard Stickler to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The last chief resigned in November of two thousand four. Mister Stickler is a former miner. Later he spent thirty years as a mining company official in Pennsylvania. He also led the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety. Senator Edward Kennedy expressed concern during a confirmation hearing. The Massachusetts Democrat questioned whether the nominee might be too friendly to coal companies. Senator Mike Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, said Mister Stickler has the knowledge and experience to do a good job. Senator Enzi said he believes the Senate will confirm Mister Stickler. VOICE ONE: The office of Congressman George Miller, a California Democrat, released a report on the Mine Safety and Health Administration. It showed that since two thousand one, the agency had withdrawn or delayed eighteen safety rules proposed under President Bill Clinton. The agency, however, says it has increased its enforcement actions against mine operators. And it says it continues to seek ways to improve safety. On February seventh David Dye, the acting administrator, announced special action to make several new rules. These would require mine operators to keep additional oxygen supplies in a storage area for each miner underground. Operators would also have to provide lifelines along all escape pathways to help guide miners out of the mine. And they would have fifteen minutes to inform the agency of an accident. Current rules say only that the agency must be told "immediately."? The agency said it was acting under a rarely used process for emergency temporary rulemaking. At the end of January, in Saskatchewan, Canada, there was a fire in a potash mine operated by an American company. Seventy-two miners all escaped the poison gas. They waited in a safety room equipped with additional oxygen. Workers rescued the last of the trapped miners after about thirty hours. VOICE TWO: The United States has about one hundred thousand mineral miners. Close to eighty thousand of these men and women mine coal. Today they produce more coal from surface mining than from underground mining. The Labor Department says miners earn an average of about fifty thousand dollars a year. The pay is good, especially for poor communities. Miners say it helps them face the dangers of their work. The risks can include fires, explosions, floods and deadly gases like methane and carbon monoxide. The government says more than one hundred thousand miners have been killed since early in the twentieth century. But over the years the numbers have decreased sharply. There were twenty-two deaths last year -- the fewest on record. Each year, the United States produces more than one thousand millions tons of coal. America is the second largest producer of coal, after China. Coal mines in China are known as the world's deadliest. Chinese officials reported that accidents killed almost six thousand coal miners in two thousand five. VOICE ONE: In the United States, mine accidents and pressure from unions have influenced safety legislation over the years. The United Mine Workers union was established in eighteen ninety. Eight years later it helped establish an eight-hour workday. Protections like health insurance and retirement pay came later. Mine operators often owned the communities where their workers lived. The miners could use their pay only at company stores and for company services. VOICE TWO: One of the worst coal mine accidents in American history took place in nineteen-oh-nine in Cherry, Illinois. The Cherry mine was considered the safest and most modern of its time. People said there could never be a fire. But one November day there was. It trapped four hundred miners. Some were under the age of sixteen. Two hundred fifty-nine men and boys died. Some miners who escaped kept going back. Like miners all over the world, they did not want to leave others behind. ? VOICE ONE: In the end, the mine operator was punished for violating child-labor laws, not for wrongful death. The state ordered the company to pay about six hundred dollars. Angry public reaction led to a major effort at mine safety reform. Congress passed the Organic Act of Nineteen Ten. The law established the Bureau of Mines to provide advice, training and research. But the bureau did not even have the power to inspect mines and investigate accidents. That changed in the nineteen forties and fifties. In nineteen sixty-eight, a mine explosion at Farmington, West Virginia, led to the deaths of seventy-eight miners. The victims included an uncle of the state’s current governor. Congress later passed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of nineteen sixty-nine. That law expanded federal power to inspect mines and report violations. It also established health and safety rules for all mines. For example, it required payment for workers with black lung disease from coal and rock dust. Later came additional legislation. Ten years ago, the Bureau of Mines ceased to exist. Its researchers moved to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: To Build A Fire
* Byline: Written by Jack London

 American Stories - Download MP3 American Stories - Download RealAudio <A class=media-asset href="/specialenglish/figleaf/ramfilegenerate.cfm?filepath=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Evoanews%2Ecom%2Fmediaassets%2Fspecialenglish%2F2005%5F10%2FAudio%2Fra%2FAS%20To%20Build%20a%20Fire%2Era" )onclick="dcsMultiTrack('DCS.dcsuri','http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2005_10/Audio/ra/AS To Build a Fire.ra','WT.media','RAMFILE:http://www.voanews.com/mediaassets/specialenglish/2005_10/Audio/ra/AS To Build a Fire.ra,displayarticle,specialenglish,/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa14.cfm,specialenglish,/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa14.cfm');">Listen to American Stories Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "To Build a Fire."? It was written by Jack London. Here is Harry Monroe with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: The man walked down the trail on a cold, gray day. Pure white snow and ice covered the Earth for as far as he could see. This was his first winter in Alaska. He was wearing heavy clothes and fur boots. But he still felt cold and uncomfortable. The man was on his way to a camp near Henderson Creek. His friends were already there. He expected to reach Henderson Creek by six o'clock that evening. It would be dark by then. His friends would have a fire and hot food ready for him. A dog walked behind the man. It was a big gray animal, half dog and half wolf. The dog did not like the extreme cold. It knew the weather was too cold to travel. The man continued to walk down the trail. He came to a frozen stream called Indian Creek. He began to walk on the snow-covered ice. It was a trail that would lead him straight to Henderson Creek and his friends. As he walked, he looked carefully at the ice in front of him. Once, he stopped suddenly, and then walked around a part of the frozen stream. He saw that an underground spring flowed under the ice at that spot. It made the ice thin. If he stepped there, he might break through the ice into a pool of water. To get his boots wet in such cold weather might kill him. His feet would turn to ice quickly. He could freeze to death. At about twelve o'clock, the man decided to stop to eat his lunch. He took off the glove on his right hand. He opened his jacket and shirt, and pulled out his bread and meat. This took less than twenty seconds. Yet, his fingers began to freeze. He hit his hand against his leg several times until he felt a sharp pain. Then he quickly put his glove on his hand. He made a fire, beginning with small pieces of wood and adding larger ones. He sat on a snow-covered log and ate his lunch. He enjoyed the warm fire for a few minutes. Then he stood up and started walking on the frozen stream again. A half hour later, it happened. At a place where the snow seemed very solid, the ice broke. The man's feet sank into the water. It was not deep, but his legs got wet to the knees. The man was angry. The accident would delay his arrival at the camp. He would have to build a fire now to dry his clothes and boots. He walked over to some small trees. They were covered with snow. In their branches were pieces of dry grass and wood left by flood waters earlier in the year. He put several large pieces of wood on the snow, under one of the trees. On top of the wood, he put some grass and dry branches. He pulled off his gloves, took out his matches, and lighted the fire. He fed the young flame with more wood. As the fire grew stronger, he gave it larger pieces of wood. He worked slowly and carefully. At sixty degrees below zero, a man with wet feet must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. While he was walking, his blood had kept all parts of his body warm. Now that he had stopped, cold was forcing his blood to withdraw deeper into his body. His wet feet had frozen. He could not feel his fingers. His nose was frozen, too. The skin all over his body felt cold. Now, however, his fire was beginning to burn more strongly. He was safe. He sat under the tree and thought of the old men in Fairbanks. The old men had told him that no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero. Yet here he was. He had had an accident. He was alone. And he had saved himself. He had built a fire. Those old men were weak, he thought. A real man could travel alone. If a man stayed calm, he would be all right. The man's boots were covered with ice. The strings on his boots were as hard as steel. He would have to cut them with his knife. He leaned back against the tree to take out his knife. Suddenly, without warning, a heavy mass of snow dropped down. His movement had shaken the young tree only a tiny bit. But it was enough to cause the branches of the tree to drop their heavy load. The man was shocked. He sat and looked at the place where the fire had been. The old men had been right, he thought. If he had another man with him, he would not be in any danger now. The other man could build the fire. Well, it was up to him to build the fire again. This time, he must not fail. The man collected more wood. He reached into his pocket for the matches. But his fingers were frozen. He could not hold them. He began to hit his hands with all his force against his legs. After a while, feeling came back to his fingers. The man reached again into his pocket for the matches. But the tremendous cold quickly drove the life out of his fingers. All the matches fell onto the snow. He tried to pick one up, but failed. The man pulled on his glove and again beat his hand against his leg. Then he took the gloves off both hands and picked up all the matches. He gathered them together. Holding them with both hands, he scratched the matches along his leg. They immediately caught fire. He held the blazing matches to a piece of wood. After a while, he became aware that he could smell his hands burning. Then he began to feel the pain. He opened his hands, and the blazing matches fell on to the snow. The flame went out in a puff of gray smoke. The man looked up. The dog was still watching him. The man got an idea. He would kill the dog and bury his hands inside its warm body. When the feeling came back to his fingers, he could build another fire. He called to the dog. The dog heard danger in the man's voice. It backed away. The man called again. This time the dog came closer. The man reached for his knife. But he had forgotten that he could not bend his fingers. He could not kill the dog, because he could not hold his knife. The fear of death came over the man. He jumped up and began to run. The running began to make him feel better. Maybe running would make his feet warm. If he ran far enough, he would reach his friends at Henderson Creek. They would take care of him. It felt strange to run and not feel his feet when they hit the ground. He fell several times. He decided to rest a while. As he lay in the snow, he noticed that he was not shaking. He could not feel his nose or fingers or feet. Yet, he was feeling quite warm and comfortable. He realized he was going to die. Well, he decided, he might as well take it like a man. There were worse ways to die. The man closed his eyes and floated into the most comfortable sleep he had ever known. The dog sat facing him, waiting. Finally, the dog moved closer to the man and caught the smell of death. The animal threw back its head. It let out a long, soft cry to the cold stars in the black sky. And then it tuned and ran toward Henderson Creek…where it knew there was food and a fire. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the AMERICAN STORY called "To Build a Fire."? It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Harry Monroe. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O'Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: AIDS Study Finds Big Risk in Taking Breaks From Drugs for H.I.V.
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: People with H.I.V. are warned of the dangers if they go for periods without their medicine ... VOICE ONE: A study offers good news for parents of babies born prematurely … VOICE TWO: And a Valentine's Day report on mother love -- was it a bridge-builder to humanity? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American health officials are advising people with H.I.V. to take their medicine every day and not to stop. They warn that breaks in treatment could sharply increase the risk of AIDS or death. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say their warning is based on findings from a large study. It examined the effects of controlled suspensions in drug treatment. The study involved more than five thousand people. Medicines can suppress H.I.V., the virus that develops into AIDS. But the daily treatment can be very costly. And there can be serious short- and long-term side effects. VOICE TWO: Researchers at the National Institutes of Health began the study in January of two thousand two. They called it SMART -- Strategies for Management of Anti-Retroviral Therapy. They wanted to study six thousand people around the world. The scientists reached more than ninety percent of the target before they halted new enrollments last month. They did so earlier than planned. The researchers tested all the people for the level of CD-four cells in their blood. These cells are a measure of the strength of the body’s defense system. The researchers divided the patients into two groups. One group stayed on continuous anti-retroviral therapy. They took their medicines every day. The others took them periodically. They took the drugs only when their CD-four count fell below two hundred fifty cells per cubic millimeter of blood. The patients would go off the drugs again once their cell count climbed above three hundred fifty. The study found that these patients were two times as likely to develop AIDS or to die as the group on continuous treatment. VOICE ONE: In November, an independent scientific committee looked at the information gathered from the study. The Data and Safety Monitoring Board called for an end to new enrollments. Just over half of the patients were in the United States, but the study involved people in thirty-three countries. Almost three fourths were men and the average age at entry was forty-six. The study cost more than seventy million dollars. The results were not what many AIDS activists and experts had hoped for. Some smaller studies had raised hopes for the idea of periodic anti-retroviral therapy. Now, some people worry that the new findings will end the search for a method that might prove successful. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. For children born with extremely low birth weights, life begins as a struggle. More than one-fourth of low birth-weight babies experience problems such as delayed development, blindness or cerebral palsy. Only two percent of normal birth-weight boys and girls experience these problems. But researchers in Canada are reporting some good news. A study followed the development of low birth-weight babies into young adults. And it compared their development with individuals who had been born at a normal weight. The researchers found that the two groups had similar levels of education, employment and independence. Saroj Saigal led the researchers. She is a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The United States National Institute of Child Health and Development provided financial aid for the study. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results earlier this month. VOICE ONE: The Canadian study involved one hundred sixty-six people. They were born between nineteen seventy-seven and nineteen eighty-two. At birth, each weighed only between one-half and one kilogram. The researchers compared this group with one hundred forty-five people who were a normal weight at birth. The two groups were compared as eight-year-olds, as older children and as young adults. The researchers found similar rates of high school completion. Eighty-two percent in the low birth-weight group had a high school education, compared to eighty-seven percent in the other group. About one-third of the members in each group were still continuing their education beyond high school. Forty-eight percent of those in the low birth-weight group were permanently employed. This compared to fifty-seven percent in the normal birth-weight group. The researchers say this difference is not major. Nor did they find major differences in the rates of those who lived independently, were married or were parents. Doctor Saigal says more studies are needed. But she says the findings should provide hope for parents worried about the long-term future of babies born too soon. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Valentine's Day, February fourteenth, is a holiday all about love. So this is a good day to talk about a special kind of love: mother love. There is a new book called "The Bridge to Humanity."? It argues that a need for expressions of love helped early humans learn to live cooperatively. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan spoke with the writer. Walter Goldschmidt is an anthropologist. He studies the physical, social and cultural development of humans. Professor Goldschmidt is ninety-two. He retired from the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds the honor of professor emeritus of anthropology and psychiatry. VOICE ONE: Biologists know that creatures sometimes sacrifice themselves in the interest of their children. They follow the biological urge to protect the genetic future of a population. Scientists who study human development know that people sometimes act against their biological interest. Some biologists say this is caused by the "selfish gene." So how did humans escape the control of their biology and still survive?? Professor Goldschmidt says this question has long been a mystery about human evolution. He thinks the answer might have something to do with a mother’s love. VOICE TWO: Humans raise their children for an unusually long time. Professor Goldschmidt says the love of a mother does more than just help the social development of her children. He argues that this special relationship led to the social relations that led to societies. He says human culture began to develop with homo habilis, an early human that made simple tools. The anthropologist says continual growth of the brain after that gave humans the ability to think logically. And he thinks logical thought developed in two directions: one through language and the other through tool-making. He says both skills are the result of the same mental abilities. These skills developed within ancient communities and, in turn, aided human development. Professor Goldschmidt sees this process repeated today. He sees it in families as children interact with and learn from their parents. Walter Goldschmidt says physical and emotional ties are important. These are not just wants, he says, but needs. Healthy development depends on them. And he says the same is true of other populations of mammals. Professor Goldschmidt argues that this need in people defeats the so-called selfish gene. The author of "The Bridge to Humanity" says evolution is a story of cooperation as much as competition. He says the part played by the loving mother is a missing link to understanding human development. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you have a question about science, send it to special@voanews.com. Please be sure to include your name, and tell us where you are from. Our postal address is VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. We cannot answer questions personally, but we might be able to answer your question on our show. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: As Biotech Crops Increase, E.U. Is Found to Stand in the Way
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In the last ten years, biotech crops have gone from the laboratory to farms in more than twenty nations. About one-third of all agricultural land in America is now planted with genetically engineered crops -- about fifty million hectares. Soybeans are the biggest crop. Others include corn and cotton. Millions of hectares are also planted in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada and China. Opinions about biotechnology in agriculture are still divided, however. Over the years the European Union has restricted many biotech crops. It says it wants to guarantee they are safe for humans, animals and the environment. It also requires products of biotechnology to be clearly identified. The World Trade Organization says the Europeans have been making it too difficult for biotech crops to be approved. Last week, the W.T.O. found that some European actions violated international trade rules. A final report must still be written. The United States, Canada and Argentina first brought action against the European policies in thousand three. Fifteen other countries later joined the negotiations. American companies such as Dow Chemical, DuPont and Monsanto hope to enter the European seed market. They have invested heavily in the development of biotech farming. Some genetically changed crops are grown in the European Union. For example, farmers in Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and the Czech Republic grow a biotech version of maize. A recent report said that of twenty-one countries worldwide growing biotech crops, eleven are developing nations. The report is from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. That group supports the use of such crops to feed the poor in developing countries. It says the area of approved biotech crops worldwide reached ninety million hectares last year. It estimates that eight and one-half million farmers now plant them. Most are in China and India. Asia’s most important crop, rice, is also being bio-engineered. Iran officially released a biotech rice in two thousand four. The report says farmers there are expected to make full use of it this year. China has also been a leader in biotech rice research and is expected to approve a version soon. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In the last ten years, biotech crops have gone from the laboratory to farms in more than twenty nations. About one-third of all agricultural land in America is now planted with genetically engineered crops -- about fifty million hectares. Soybeans are the biggest crop. Others include corn and cotton. Millions of hectares are also planted in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Canada and China. Opinions about biotechnology in agriculture are still divided, however. Over the years the European Union has restricted many biotech crops. It says it wants to guarantee they are safe for humans, animals and the environment. It also requires products of biotechnology to be clearly identified. The World Trade Organization says the Europeans have been making it too difficult for biotech crops to be approved. Last week, the W.T.O. found that some European actions violated international trade rules. A final report must still be written. The United States, Canada and Argentina first brought action against the European policies in thousand three. Fifteen other countries later joined the negotiations. American companies such as Dow Chemical, DuPont and Monsanto hope to enter the European seed market. They have invested heavily in the development of biotech farming. Some genetically changed crops are grown in the European Union. For example, farmers in Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and the Czech Republic grow a biotech version of maize. A recent report said that of twenty-one countries worldwide growing biotech crops, eleven are developing nations. The report is from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. That group supports the use of such crops to feed the poor in developing countries. It says the area of approved biotech crops worldwide reached ninety million hectares last year. It estimates that eight and one-half million farmers now plant them. Most are in China and India. Asia’s most important crop, rice, is also being bio-engineered. Iran officially released a biotech rice in two thousand four. The report says farmers there are expected to make full use of it this year. China has also been a leader in biotech rice research and is expected to approve a version soon. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Full-Size Copy of Stonehenge, in a Search for Long-Lost Answers
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell some of the latest discoveries about the ancient mysterious structure in Britain called Stonehenge. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists say the circle of stones called Stonehenge has stood in England for at least four thousand years. In modern times, millions of people from all over the world have visited the ancient monument. Experts believe the builders of Stonehenge knew about design, engineering and sound. These ancient people did not have highly developed tools. But they built a huge monument of heavy stones. One of the largest stones weighed about forty thousand kilograms. VOICE TWO: Stonehenge is the best known of a number of such ancient places in Britain. It stands on the flat, windy Salisbury Plain, near the city of Salisbury, England.Most of the stones of Stonehenge stand in incomplete formations of circles. They differ in height, weight and surface texture. For centuries, people have questioned the meaning of the stones. Early Britons built Stonehenge from bluestone and a very hard sandstone called sarcen. Some of the monument's standing stones have lintel stones on top. The lintels lie flat on the standing stones. Some monument stones are more than seven meters high. Other, broken stones lie on the ground. VOICE ONE: Work on Stonehenge may have started as early as five thousand years ago. Scientists believe it was completed over three periods lasting more than one thousand years. Archeologists have studied Stonehenge for many years. Their research helped make possible the building of an exact, full-size copy or replica of the mysterious circle. VOICE TWO: A television company, the National Geographic Channel, paid for the replica. One goal was to learn more about Stonehenge. And National Geographic Channel filmmakers wanted to record the process. The result was a television film called "Rebuilding Stonehenge" or more simply, "Stonehenge.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most scientists have thought that Stonehenge was built to line up with the summer sunrise on the longest day of the year. Was the stone circle meant to observe the activities of the sun, moon and stars?? Was it a theater? A religious center that honored the dead?? Or was it all those things? Archeologist and Stonehenge expert Mike Pitts designed the replica to help answer those questions. The result was a huge laboratory for experiments. Crawley Creatures, a British company that makes special effects for movies, was chosen to create the replica. The company built its version of the ancient monument in a huge military building in Bicester (BUY-stir) in Oxfordshire, England. VOICE TWO: The National Geographic Channel film follows the special effects team as it made and placed copies of more than one hundred seventy stones. Crawley Creatures said it would finish the project by June twenty-first, two thousand five. That was the summer solstice, the? longest day of every year. The winter solstice, on December twenty-first, is the shortest day of the year. The special effects team shaped and cut the copied stones. They used a lightweight material called Styrofoam. The workers had to follow Mister Pitts’ design exactly. Even the smallest mistake could have harmed the project. For example, if the lintels were cut wrong, they could not lie correctly on the upright stones. But after three months of hard work, the team was ready to put the replica in place. VOICE ONE: The British Department of Defense lent the company a special train to carry the Styrofoam Stonehenge. Like the real Stonehenge, the replica was to stand on Salisbury Plain. The team succeeded in setting it up by June twentieth. But all that night the designers worried. Would the winds blow over some of the copied stones?? In the morning, however, the replica looked fine. VOICE TWO: The movie cameras photographed Mike Pitts as he inspected the replica. It was an important day for him. Mister Pitts saw what he believes is Stonehenge as it looked when first completed. Stones that had disappeared over the years were reproduced. For example, three tall stones called trilithons stood inside the replica’s outer circle. Only one is left at the real Stonehenge. And Stonehenge has only thirty-four stones remaining within what is called the Sarcen Circle. The replica has eighty-nine of these stones. VOICE ONE: Broken stones cover a large area in the center of Stonehenge. There are none in the replica. This gave Mister Pitts a new feeling of open space in the inner Stonehenge area. The appearance of the replica’s center provides information about the monument’s purpose. It seems to strengthen a current scientific theory. This idea proposes that the early Britons used Stonehenge as a ceremonial theater or religious center. The inner space of the replica looks like it could have worked well for that purpose. VOICE TWO: The replica permitted several other scientists to also test that theory. For example, Aaron Watson performed experiments with sound. National Geographic Channel cameras show Mister Watson as he moved his equipment around the replica. He made valuable discoveries from the inner circle. Sounds there were the most dramatic and theatrical. They carried from that area to other parts of the monument. The effect is similar to that of modern theaters. The placement of the stones focuses sound from the center to the places that lined up to the summer sunrise and the winter sunset. Aaron Watson’s work shows that the Stonehenge builders may have known something about sound engineering. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many scientists agree that the ancient Stonehenge builders meant to line up their monument with the sunrise at summer solstice. But Clive Ruggles proposes that the sunset at winter solstice might have been a more important reason for building Stonehenge where it is. Mister Ruggles is an archeologist and astronomer. His research seems to strengthen the evidence for the monument as a theater or religious center. VOICE TWO: Mister Ruggles used an intense light to represent the sun on December twenty-first, the winter solstice. In the National Geographic film, the light makes the outer stones look like an entrance. A path of light leads to the circle. The sun sets between the two largest upright replica stones. This unusual light show could have been in front of visitors as they arrived. The sight suggests that the builders might have purposely planned the effect to welcome? visitors to Stonehenge. VOICE ONE: Modern visitors often ask why prehistoric Britons would have come to Stonehenge. Some experts say the people needed to mark the changing seasons. Farmers needed to know that the long dark nights of winter would get shorter. They needed to know that longer days of sunlight were coming. Stonehenge could have provided this information. Ceremonies there could have celebrated the “rebirth” of the sun and moon. Some scientists say people came to Stonehenge to honor their ancestors. Archeologist Mike Parker Pearson is an expert in death and burial customs. Mister Pearson believes that some of the stones represent individual people. This could explain why its builders chose special stones from places far away. VOICE TWO: Gordon Pipes is a wood worker, not a scientist. But in the film, Mister Pipes proposed yet another theory about Stonehenge. Many experts believe the heaviest stones came from thirty-two kilometers away on Salisbury Plain. Mister Pipes demonstrated how he believes people got such stones to Stonehenge without modern equipment. In his experiment, specially cut parts of trees supported a block of material weighing almost eleven thousand kilograms. In the experiment, people moved the stone forward with other tree trunks. To do this, they looked like they were rowing a boat. VOICE ONE:? The experiment showed that thirty-two people would have needed an estimated three months to move a similar group of stones to Stonehenge. In modern life, that may seem a long period of extremely hard labor. But the movie suggests that early Britons had lots of time. And they had a valuable goal. They built Stonehenge, a monument for the ages. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-14-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Study Finds Risk of Lung Cancer Greatest in Black Smokers
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers have found more evidence that suggests a relationship between race and rates of lung cancer among smokers. A new study shows that black people and Native Hawaiians are more likely to develop lung cancer from smoking. It compared their risk to whites, Japanese-Americans and Latinos. The study, however, found almost no racial or ethnic differences among the heaviest smokers. These were people who smoked more than thirty cigarettes each day. Other comparisons have shown that blacks are more likely than whites to get lung cancer from smoking. But the scientists say few studies have compared the risks among Native Hawaiians, Asians and Latinos. Researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Hawaii did the new study. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. The eight-year study involved more than one hundred eighty thousand people. They provided details about their tobacco use and their diet as well as other information. They included current and former smokers and people who never smoked. Almost two thousand people in the study developed lung cancer. Researchers say genetics might help explain the racial and ethnic differences. There could be differences in how people's bodies react to smoke. But environmental influences, including the way people smoke, could also make a difference. African-Americans and Latinos in the study reported smoking the fewest cigarettes per day. Whites were the heaviest smokers. But the scientists note that blacks have been reported to breathe cigarette smoke more deeply than white smokers. This could fill their lungs with more of the chemicals in tobacco that cause cancer. Many researchers disagree not only about the effect of race on the risk of disease, but even about the meaning of race. Yet scientists know that some diseases effect different groups differently. And some drug companies have begun to develop racially targeted medicines. Last June, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug designed to treat heart failure in black patients. The name is BiDil. The agency called it "a step toward the promise of personalized medicine."? This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Brianna Blake. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Stagecraft: Acting Like an Actor to Improve Your Memory
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: acting like an actor to improve your memory. RS: Our guest is Tony Noice, an actor, director, teacher and cognitive researcher - someone who studies how we think. He and his psychologist wife Helga have spent years trying to understand how actors remember their lines. They've found that these same skills can also help others. AA: They've trained older people to improve their recall with theater skills. So, just how do actors memorize their script? TONY NOICE: "First thing you do is read it and read it again, and read it again, and read it again, because the most important thing to lay the basis for memory is to really understand the meaning, the deep meaning. Then when you do that, you then go back to the beginning and now that you have a knowledge of the essential core meaning -- what we call the spine of the entire piece -- you then start looking at your lines and break them down into what we call intentions or objectives. "That is, you determine why you are saying everything that you are saying. And by determining that, that already has a lot to do with memory because the lines are not coming out of the blue. It's not material to be memorized. As I often say, actors don't memorize material, they make material memorable." RS: "So you break the script down into intentions, you really analyze the script." TONY NOICE: "You analyze the script, saying, 'What am I really trying to get from the other person or do to the other person? What behavior can I see in the other person that will make me know I've achieved my goal at this moment?'" RS: "It's still a mystery to me how you remember all those lines." TONY NOICE: "Well, that has a lot to do with it, but then there's something about what we call 'active experiencing' which is not a theater term; it's one my wife and I coined to describe this to psychologists. But the act of experiencing, of really meaning what you are saying and meaning it in terms of the other actors -- really looking them in the eyes and trying to affect the change in their eyes by influencing them with whatever you are trying to do at that moment -- seems to not only improve memory for the specific lines, but it also improves memory in general. Because when we do four weeks of it, this sort of training for people in their 60s through 90s, we find that their ability to memorize anything improves." AA: "And so what it sounds like to me you're saying is that acting is really pretending." TONY NOICE: "No. In fact, I would say just the opposite. We always stop the people the second there's any indication that they are pretending. We stop them and say, 'No, don't pretend to do it, just do it. Do it for real.' And if you're trying to threaten the other person, really threaten the other actor -- right now. Don't try to look and sound like you're doing it, don't pretend, do it for real." RS: "That could be kind of scary. [laughter]" TONY NOICE: "Oh yes!" AA: "If you have a knife in your hand or something." TONY NOICE: "In fact, we often tell beginning acting students that we know you'll have trouble with this because acting is, among other things, an act of bravery. It really is hard to go out there and really try to affect another person." RS: "I want to bring our audience into this. Now what suggestions or what, perhaps, what exercises -- what exercises would you suggest that you use that our students of English as a foreign language might find useful?" TONY NOICE: "Oh, I think just the very basic application of always saying, 'What is the purpose of this sentence?' Obviously it applies directly to drama or comedy. But in addition to that it applies to almost anything, because we've done these studies with boring prose material, computer instructions and so forth, and we still find it benefits memory if, instead of trying to just remember the computer instructions, you picture yourself giving this information to a person, a good friend who vitally needs it. And you really try to get through to this person in your imagination. "And so I would say using your imagination to not just remember the information but really live the material, try to make it as active as you possibly can by, in your own mind, communicating whatever you're trying to remember to another person." RS: Tony Noice teaches theater at Elmhurst College in Illinois, where his wife Helga is a psychology professor. They describe their research in this month's issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can read and listen to all our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. CPF/AA/RS/rms 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Advanced Placement Programs Grow in U.S. High Schools
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Sixty percent of high schools in the United States now offer college-level work through Advanced Placement courses. Two times as many students take A.P. courses today compared to ten years ago. The College Board administers the program, along with others including the SAT college entrance test. The non-profit organization has a new report out that marks the fiftieth anniversary of Advanced Placement. The program now offers thirty-five courses in twenty subjects. These include art, biology, calculus and history, as well as language, music, physics and psychology. Classes prepare students to take A.P. exams. Last year, more than one million students worldwide took more than two million A.P. exams. The results are in the form of a number from number from one to five. Five represents excellent college work. Three is average. Most American colleges and universities give credit to students who receive a three or better on their A.P. exams. That means they can start with higher level college classes than students who did not do as well or did not take the tests. Students can take an A.P. exam even without the coursework. Each test costs about eighty dollars. Among minority students, Latinos are well-represented in Advanced Placement classes in many states. African-Americans are not. Black students are more than thirteen percent of the student population. But they are only six percent of those who take A.P. exams. The College Board notes that studies support the value of the Advanced Placement program. These include the most recent Trends in International Math and Science Study. It shows that in two thousand three, the United States was near the bottom among sixteen countries on a calculus test. But the American students who had taken A.P. calculus did as well as the top students on the test. President Bush wants to increase the number of A.P. math and science students. And he has proposed training seventy thousand more teachers over five years to teach them. Three hundred eighty thousand American students currently take A.P. math and science exams. The goal is to increase that to one and one-half million by two thousand twelve. Details of the new report can be found on the Web at?collegeboard.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-15-voa4.cfm
* Headline: President Taft Breaks From Teddy Roosevelt -- His Closest Friend
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) June eighteenth, nineteen ten, was an exciting day for Theodore Roosevelt. It was the day the former American president returned from a long trip to Africa and Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people were in New York City to welcome him home. There were speeches and bands and a parade. VOICE TWO: It was the perfect end to a trip that began three weeks after Theodore Roosevelt completed his presidency. Teddy RooseveltMost of the trip was a huge success. In Africa, Theodore Roosevelt spent months hunting wild animals. He shot many lions, elephants, and other animals. He brought all of them back and gave them to the Smithsonian Institution. After hunting in Africa, he and his wife, Edith, went to Europe. VOICE ONE: The Roosevelts visited Italy and met the king and queen. They visited Vienna and met the ruler of Austria and Hungary. In Germany, they met Kaiser Wilhelm the second. Kaiser Wilhelm invited the former American president to watch a big parade of German troops. He told him: "You are the first civilian who has ever joined the Kaiser in reviewing the troops of Germany." The two men were photographed shaking hands. On the back of the photograph, the Kaiser wrote: "When we shake hands, we shake the world." The Roosevelts met the kings and queens of Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They met the crown princes of Sweden and Denmark. And, while in England, Mr. Roosevelt served as America's official representative at the funeral of King Edward the Seventh. VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt made a number of speeches at several universities, including Oxford and the Sorbonne. Yet all these activities did not keep him from reading newspapers and letters from home. The news troubled him. He had led the Republican Party with great success. Now, the party seemed to be falling apart. It had split into two groups. One group included conservatives who supported President William Howard Taft. The other group included progressives who opposed Taft. Theodore Roosevelt had worked hard to get William Howard Taft elected. President Taft had been in office a little more than a year. Yet in that short time, he had broken almost completely with the progressives who had supported Roosevelt. VOICE ONE: The split developed because progressives expected Taft to rule as Roosevelt had done -- with energy and emotion. They wanted a man who could excite people with dreams of social progress. Theodore Roosevelt was such a man. William Howard Taft was not. He was a big, slow-moving man. He refused to make quick decisions. As a former judge, he depended on facts, not emotion, to make decisions. President Taft did much to carry out the reform programs? Theodore Roosevelt had begun. But his methods led people to believe that he was really trying to kill the programs. VOICE TWO: Taft wrote to Roosevelt shortly before the former president sailed for home. "I do not know if I have had harder luck than other presidents," he said. "but I do know I have succeeded far less than others. I have been trying to carry out your policies. But my method of doing so has not worked smoothly." A few weeks later, Theodore Roosevelt returned home. In a speech to those who welcomed him in New York, he said: "I am ready and willing to do my part to help solve America's problems. And these problems must be solved if this country is to reach the high level of its hopes." To president Taft, Roosevelt wrote: "I will make no speeches or say anything for two months. But I will keep my mind open. . . as I keep my mouth shut." VOICE ONE: President Taft invited Theodore Roosevelt to visit him at the White House. Roosevelt said he could not. However, he did meet with many of the progressive opponents of the president. Later, he met with Taft at the president's summer home in Massachusetts. It was not a happy meeting. The two friends were tense. By this time, Roosevelt had decided that he agreed with the progressives. He believed President Taft had turned back many of Roosevelt's policies. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt decided it was time for him to go to the American people. He accepted an invitation to a celebration in Wyoming. He traveled west by train. He stopped in many towns and cities to?make speeches. He spoke of party unity. He tried to heal the split that had weakened the Republican Party. But the policies he proposed were progressive. Conservatives refused to support them. President taft could not understand Rosevelt's purposes. "If only I?knew what he wanted," Taft said, "I would do it. But he has told me nothing. I am deeply wounded. He gives me no chance to explain my position or to learn his." VOICE ONE: Theodore Roosevelt hoped his speaking trip would help Republican Party candidates win in the nineteen ten congressional elections. His efforts seemed to fail. Republicans were defeated in many states. For a year after the party's defeat in the congressional elections, Theodore Roosevelt remained silent. Then, near the end of nineteen eleven, America's political parties began to prepare for the presidential election that would be held the following year. Roosevelt was sure Taft could not be re-elected. Taft had become very conservative. He had close ties to business interests. What the people wanted, thought Roosevelt, was a progressive president. What they wanted was a man like himself. So, Theodore Roosevelt began to speak out again in opposition to many of the things President Taft was doing. For example, President Taft had proposed treaties with Canada, Britain, and France. Roosevelt criticized them. VOICE TWO: Taft was troubled. He told a friend: "It is very hard to take all these blows from Roosevelt. I do not know what he is trying to do, except to make my way more difficult. It is very hard to see a close friendship going to pieces like a rope of sand." By now it was clear to Taft that Roosevelt wanted to be the presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the election of nineteen twelve. Earlier, this would have pleased Taft. He would have been happy to leave the White House. But the situation was different now. Roosevelt had changed. Taft felt that the policies he proposed seemed too extreme. Taft decided it was his duty to oppose Roosevelt and the progressives. He would seek re-election. Taft believed he could win the Republican nomination for president. He still had the support of many party leaders. VOICE ONE: Four months before the Republican nominating convention opened, several progressive Republican governors appealed to rRosevelt. They urged him to declare himself a candidate for president. Roosevelt, they said, was the man to lead the nation into a new era of social progress. Then Taft made a strong statement against the progressives. "They are seeking," he said, "to pull down the temple of freedom and representative government." A reporter asked Roosevelt to answer Taft's statement. Roosevelt said: "my hat is in the ring." That meant he was a candidate. Now, the conflict was in the open. And Roosevelt was ready to fight. VOICE TWO: In his speeches, Roosevelt criticized Taft bitterly. In a voice shaking with hatred, he said Taft was controlled by conservative politicians. He said taft stood in the way of progress. He said Taft was disloyal. Taft had to answer. In one speech, he said: "This tears my soul. I am here to answer an old and true friend who has made many charges. I deny all those charges. I do not want to fight Theodore Roosevelt. But I am going to fight him." After the speech, a reporter looked for the president. He found him sitting alone, his head in his hands. His eyes were filled with tears. "Roosevelt was my closest friend," Taft said. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Tools of the Trade: The Federal Reserve and the Money Supply
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week in Washington, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve made his first appearances before Congress. Ben Bernanke says the economy has performed well even with increased military spending and the storm damage along the Gulf Coast. But Mister Bernanke says inflation is still a concern because of energy prices. That means the Federal Reserve could continue to raise target interest rates. On January thirty-first, the central bank approved its fourteenth increase since June of two thousand four. The action came on Alan Greenspan's last day as chairman. The Federal Reserve affects interest rates mainly through its open market operations. The Fed can either buy or sell United States government securities. These bonds, bills and notes are all debt guarantees that pay interest until they are repaid. Thirty-year Treasury bonds are the longest-term debt that the government sells. The Fed suspended sales in two thousand one, but started again on February ninth. The Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve trades in securities as a way to increase or decrease the money supply. If the Fed wants to make a purchase on the open market, it places an order through its trading offices in New York City. The Fed buys the securities from dealers. It credits the amount of the sale to the dealers' banks. Those banks then have more money to lend, which increases the money supply. More money in the economy can drive down interest rates. People and businesses borrow more when lending costs are low. If the Fed sells securities, this shrinks the money supply and can drive interest rates up. A smaller money supply can ease inflationary pressure. The Federal Reserve has two other tools. One is called the discount window. This involves three special interest rates that the Fed really does control. Banks can borrow at these rates for short periods. The program serves large or small banks as well as those with seasonal needs, like agricultural banks. Finally, the central bank can change the amount of money that banks are required to keep with the Federal Reserve itself. Increasing the reserves reduces the money supply, since it leaves banks with less money to lend. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and hear our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Figure Skating: Now It Is Little Sister Emily's Turn on Olympic Ice
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some Grammy award winning music … Answer a question about the government’s space agency … And report about some Winter Olympic athletes. Olympic Athletes HOST: The Winter Olympic Games are being played in Turin, Italy until February twenty-sixth. About two thousand six hundred athletes from more than eighty countries are taking part. More than two hundred American athletes are competing in the Winter Games. Barbara Klein tells us about three of them. BARBARA KLEIN: American figure skater Emily Hughes will be competing in her first Winter Olympic Games. But she almost missed the Olympics completely. Emily Hughes finished third at the United States National Figure Skating Championship last month. The three top women skaters at that competition usually represent the United States at the Olympics. But figure skating champion Michelle Kwan was injured and did not compete in the United States nationals. She asked the United States Olympic Committee to permit her to compete in Turin. The officials agreed. But last Sunday, Michelle Kwan withdrew from the Games because of another injury. So Emily Hughes will get her chance at the Winter Olympics. Emily Hughes is seventeen years old. Her older sister Sarah won the figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics four years ago in Salt Lake City, Utah. Another American athlete at the Winter Games is World Cup ski champion Bode Miller. He won two second place silver medals at the last Winter Games four years ago. The media have called Bode Miller a rebel. Last month, he said on a television show that he competed in a ski race after drinking too much alcohol the night before. Miller does not travel or stay with the other members of the United States ski team. He travels and lives in his own motor home. Some experts have called him the best and most exciting ski racer in the world. But so far he has disappointed his fans by failing to win a medal in two ski events this week. He competes again next week. A third American athlete at the Olympics has an unusual nickname: the Flying Tomato. He is nineteen-year-old Shaun White. His nickname is the result of having long red hair and being able to fly on a board over the snow. On Sunday, he won the first place gold medal in the men's halfpipe snowboarding event. Shaun White had already won the Superpipe competition at the Winter X Games last month. He told reporters in Turin that that X Games was great but winning at the Olympics was special because it involves the whole world. NASA HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nairobi, Kenya. Ezekiel Owino asks about the United States government agency known as NASA. NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It has many jobs involving flight. NASA's aeronautics teams work to improve aircraft travel. But it is best known as the agency that plans, supervises and organizes the exploration of space. Thousands of scientists, engineers and others work for NASA at ten major centers throughout the country. These include the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Texas and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. NASA headquarters are in Washington, D.C. NASA began in nineteen fifty-eight. Its first big program was Project Mercury. That was an effort to learn if humans could survive in space. Next came Project Gemini, which used spacecraft big enough for only two astronauts. Later, Project Apollo aimed to explore the moon. The fight of Apollo Eleven put the first humans on the moon in nineteen sixty-nine. Since the nineteen eighties, NASA has flown space shuttles. Astronauts from the United States and other nations have used these to do research and to build the International Space Station. NASA also has launched a number of important scientific spacecraft such as Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini. They have explored the planets and other areas of the solar system. NASA has sent several spacecraft to investigate the planet Mars. And the Hubble Space Telescope has helped scientists discover much new information about the universe. NASA says its jobs are to explore, discover and seek to understand. It says its goal is to answer these questions. What is out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find? And what can we learn that will make life better here on Earth? Grammy Winners The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented its yearly Grammy Awards last Wednesday, February eighth. Faith Lapidus tells us about the awards and plays some of the winning songs. FAITH LAPIDUS: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was organized by recording artists, songwriters and technicians. Its highest award recognizes excellent recordings and the people who make them. The award is called the Grammy. The Grammy is a small a statue that is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word "Grammy" is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Academy vote to choose the best recordings of the year. The Irish rock band U2 won the Grammy for writing the best song of the year. The song also won the award for best performance by a rock vocal duo or group. It is called "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own". (MUSIC) U2 also won three other Grammies this year. It won best rock album and album of the year for "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb". And it won best rock song for "City of Blinding Lights". (MUSIC) The Grammy award for record of the year went to the group Green Day. We leave you now with Green Day's award winning song, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". (MUSIC) ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-17-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Trying to Contain the Spread of Bird Flu
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. More countries found the h-five-n-one virus in birds this week. Cases of the deadly virus in chickens and turkeys in Egypt led to an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday. Earlier in the week, health officials found the virus in additional countries in Europe. Tests showed dead wild swans to be infected in Austria, Bulgaria Germany, Greece, Italy and Slovenia. European Union health officials held a two-day meeting in Brussels to discuss the situation. Experts are concerned that the animal virus could mix with a human virus and spread worldwide. So far, health officials say the virus has spread to most human victims directly from infected birds. The World Health Organization reported one hundred sixty-nine laboratory-confirmed cases as of February thirteenth. These have been since the end of two thousand three. Ninety-one of the people have died. Most were in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. There have been at least eight deaths in China, four each in Turkey and Cambodia and one in Iraq. The virus was confirmed in Africa for the first time earlier this month. It was found in Nigeria. Scientists are not sure how it got there. Some think it reached Nigeria through trade in farm animals. They say the virus would have appeared in other African nations by now if wild birds had carried it there. On Friday the Food and Agriculture Organization expressed growing concern that the virus may spread to other countries in West Africa. The United Nations agency said the country of greatest concern is Niger, which borders the affected areas in Nigeria. The virus quickly kills birds. The F.A.O. says two million people in Niger are already at risk of severe hunger. The agency's chief animal health officer urged African farmers to immediately report any suspected outbreaks. He warned of the risk that poor farmers might act quickly to sell birds on the market. Asian economic losses from bird flu have been estimated at about ten thousand million dollars since the end of two thousand three. The F.A.O. says almost two hundred million poultry birds have died or been killed to contain the spread of the virus. To reduce the risk of infection, the agency says people should wash their hands after they touch poultry. They should also disinfect their shoes before they enter or leave a poultry farm. Poultry birds should be kept in structures with a roof to keep out wild birds. And chickens should be kept separate from ducks and other kinds of birds. Health experts say people should not touch wild birds, live or dead. The World Health Organization says heat can kill the virus in food. It says all parts of the meat must be cooked to seventy degrees Celsius. And it says eggs should also be cooked fully, until the yolk is firm. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Mark Twain: One of America's Best Known and Best Loved Writers
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of America’s best-known writers, Mark Twain. We also talk about his famous book, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mark Twain wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in eighteen eighty-four. Since then, the book has been published in at least sixty languages. Some people say it is the best book ever created by an American writer. American students still read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”? And parents, teachers and literary experts still debate the issues discussed in the book. VOICE TWO: The writer who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in eighteen thirty-five. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi River. After his father died in eighteen forty-seven, young Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words “mark twain!”? That was a measure for the depth of water. In eighteen sixty-one, the American Civil War put an end to steamboat traffic on the Mississippi. So Clemens traveled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California. VOICE ONE: Later, he wrote funny stories and called himself Mark Twain. Twain became famous for his story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in eighteen sixty-five. It tells about a jumping competition among frogs. Twain also traveled a lot and began writing books about his travels. His stories about a trip to Europe and the Middle East were published in “The Innocents Abroad.”? And his stories about life in the western United States became the book called “Roughing It.” In eighteen seventy, he married Olivia Langdon and moved to Hartford, Connecticut. During the eighteen eighties, he wrote books for children, such as “The Prince and the Pauper.”? It tells about a poor boy who trades identities with a member of England’s ruling family. Twain also wrote “Life on the Mississippi.”? This book describes his days as a steamboat pilot and his return to the river twenty years later. VOICE TWO: Mark Twain was already a successful writer before he became famous as a public speaker. Over the years, he had invested a lot of money in unsuccessful businesses. In eighteen ninety-three, he found himself deeply in debt. So to earn money, he traveled around the world giving humorous talks. His speeches made people laugh and remember events they had experienced. However, his later life was not a happy one. Two of his daughters died. His wife died in nineteen-oh-four after a long sickness. Some critics think Mark Twain’s later works were more serious because of his sadness. He died of heart failure in nineteen ten. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mark Twain was the first writer to use the speech of common Americans in his books. He showed that simple American English could be as fine an instrument for great writing as more complex language. Through his books, he captured American experiences as no other writer had. Many of the stories take place in Hannibal, Missouri. The small wooden house where he lived as a boy still stands there. Next to the house is a wooden fence. It is the kind described in Twain's book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” published in eighteen seventy-six. In that story, Tom has been told to paint the fence. He does not want to do it. But he acts as if the job is great fun. He tricks other boys into believing this. His trick is so successful that they agree to pay him money to let them finish his work. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is considered one of the best books about an American boy’s life in the eighteen hundreds. VOICE TWO: Tom Sawyer's good friend is Huckleberry, or "Huck," Finn. Mark Twain tells this boy's story in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”? Huck is a poor child, without a mother or home. His father drinks too much alcohol and beats him. Huck's situation has freed him from the restrictions of society. He explores in the woods and goes fishing. He stays out all night and does not go to school. He smokes tobacco. Huck runs away from home. He meets Jim, a black man who has escaped from slavery. They travel together on a raft made of wood down the Mississippi River. Huck describes the trip: READER: "It was lovely to live on the raft. Other places seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft... Sometimes we'd have that whole river to ourselves for the longest time... We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. Jim, he allowed they was made, but I allowed they happened; I judged it would have took too long to make so many." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mark Twain started writing “Huckleberry Finn” as a children's story. But it soon became serious. The story tells about the social evil of slavery, seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Huck’s ideas about people were formed by the white society in which he lived. So, at first, he does not question slavery. Huck knows that important people believe slavery is natural, the law of God. So, he thinks it is his duty to tell Jim's owners where to find him. Here is part of the story after Huck decides he must do this. READER: "I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt. And I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking -- thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking... And I see Jim before me all the time; in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind." VOICE TWO: Huck comes to understand that Jim is a good man. He finds he cannot carry out his plan to tell Jim’s owners where to find him. Instead, he decides to help Jim escape. He decides to do this, even if God punishes him. Huck's moral search is part of Twain's humor. Huck's heart leads him to do the right thing, even when everything he has been taught tells him it is wrong. Huck's nature is good, but he has no idea of it. Twain tells us more through Huck's voice than Huck himself knows. VOICE ONE: It took Mark Twain longer to write “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” than any of his other books. He started writing in eighteen seventy-six, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in eighteen eighty-three. It was published the next year. From the beginning, the book was hotly debated. Some early critics praised its realism and honesty. But the leading critics of Twain's time hated it. They objected to the personality of Huck -- a rough, dirty and disobedient boy. They were insulted by Twain’s attacks on the commonly accepted morals and traditions of white society. And they disliked the way Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story. No writer had ever done that before. VOICE TWO: The debate over “Huckleberry Finn” re-opened in recent years, but for different reasons. The book uses the racist expressions of its time. So some people say reading it is too painful and insulting for black children. They know that Twain was really attacking racism. But he attacked indirectly, and with humor. So they feel young people will not understand what he was attempting to do. A few American schools have banned the book for young children. A few have banned it for all students. Some schools used a version in which all racist words have been removed. Other people say young people can understand “Huckleberry Finn” if they study it with a good teacher. They say the book remains one of the best denunciations of racism ever written. Ernest HemingwayVOICE ONE: There is no longer any debate about the importance of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in American literature. In nineteen thirty-five, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn.’? There was nothing before. And there has been nothing as good since.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver was our producer. Doug Johnson read the part of Huckleberry Finn. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-19-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
* Byline: Written by Mark Twain

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story is called “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”? It was written by Mark Twain. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: A friend of mine in the East asked me to visit old Simon Wheeler, to ask about my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley. I did as my friend asked me to do and this story is the result. I found Simon Wheeler sleeping by the stove in the ruined mining camp of Angel's. I saw that he was fat and had no hair, and had a gentle and simple look upon his peaceful face. He woke up, and gave me “good-day.”? I told him a friend had asked me to find out about a friend named Leonidas W. Smiley, who he heard was at one time living in Angel's Camp. I added that if Mister Wheeler could tell me anything about this Leonidas W. Smiley, I would feel a great responsibility to him. Simon Wheeler forced me into a corner with his chair and began telling me this long story. He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice. But all through the endless story there was a feeling of great seriousness and honesty. This showed me plainly that he thought the heroes of the story were men of great intelligence. I let him go on in his own way, and never stopped him once. This is the story Simon Wheeler told. (MUSIC) Leonidas W. …. h'm… Le… well, there was a man here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in the winter of eighteen forty-nine--or may be it was the spring of eighteen-fifty. Anyway, he was the strangest man. He was always making money on anything that turned up if he could get anybody to try to make money on the other side. And if he could not do that, he would change sides. And he was lucky, uncommon lucky. He most always was a winner. If there was a dog-fight, he would try to win money on it. If there was a cat-fight, he would take the risk. If there was a chicken-fight, he would try to win money on it. Why, if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would want you to decide which one would fly first so he could win money. Lots of the boys here have seen that Smiley and can tell you about him. Why, it did not matter to him. He would try to make money on anything. He was the most unusual man. Parson Walker's wife was very sick once, for a long time, and it seemed as if they were not going to save her. But one morning he come in, and Smiley asked him how was his wife, and he said she was better, thank God. And Smiley, before he thought, says, “Well, I'll risk my money she will not get well.'" And Smiley had a little small dog. To look at the dog, you would think he was not worth anything but to sit around and look mean and look for a chance to steal something. But as soon as there was money, he was a different dog. Another dog might attack and throw him around two or three times. Then all of a sudden Smiley’s dog would grab that other dog by his back leg and hang on till the men said it was over. Smiley always come out the winner on that dog, at least until he found a dog once that did not have any back legs. The dog’s legs had been cut off in a machine. Well, the fighting continued long enough, and the money was gone. Then when Smiley’s dog come to make a grab the other dog’s back legs, he saw in a minute how there was a problem. The other dog was going to win and Smiley’s dog looked surprised and did not try to win the fight anymore. He gave Smiley a look that said he was sorry for fighting a dog that did not have any back legs for him to hold, which he needed to win a fight. Then Smiley’s dog walked away, laid down and died. He was a good dog, and would have made a name for himself if he had lived, for he had intelligence. It always makes me feel sorry when I think of that last fight of his and the way it turned out. (MUSIC) Well, this Smiley had rats, and chickens, and cats and all of them kind of things. You could not get anything for him to risk money on but he would match you. He caught a frog one day, and took him home, and said he was going to educate the frog. And so he never done nothing for three months but sit in his back yard and teach that frog to jump. And you bet you he did teach him, too. He would give him a little hit from behind. And the next minute you would see that frog dancing in the air and then come down all on his feet and all right, like a cat. Smiley got him so the frog was catching flies, and he would catch one of those insects every time. Smiley said all a frog wanted was education, and he could do almost anything. And I believe him. Why, I have seen him set Dan'l Webster down here on this floor--Dan'l Webster was the name of the frog -- and sing out, "Flies, Dan'l, flies!" And quicker than you could shut your eyes that frog would jump straight up and catch a fly off the table. Then he would fall down on the floor again like a ball of dirt and start rubbing the side of his head with his back foot as if he had no idea he had been doing any more than any frog might do. You never seen a frog so honest and simple as he was, for all he was so skilled. And when it come to jumping, he could get over more ground in one jump than any animal of his kind that you ever saw. Smiley was very proud of his frog, and people who had traveled and been everywhere all said he was better than any frog they had ever seen. Well, one day a stranger came in and says to Smiley, "What might be that you have got in the box?" And Smiley says, "It’s only just a frog." And the man took it, and looked at it careful, and turned it round this way and that, and says, "H'm, so it is. Well, what is he good for?" "Well," Smiley says, easy and careless, “he can out jump any frog in Calaveras county." The man took the box again, and took another long look,? and gave it back to Smiley, and says, "Well, I don't see anything about that frog that is any better than any other frog." "Maybe you don't," Smiley says. "Maybe you understand frogs and maybe you don't. Anyways, I will risk forty dollars and bet you that he can jump farther than any frog in Calaveras County." And the man studied a minute. "Well, I'm only a stranger here, and I do not have a frog. But if I had a frog, I would risk my money on it. And then Smiley says, "That's all right. If you will hold my box a minute, I will go and get you a frog." And so the man took the box, and put up his forty dollars and sat down to wait. He sat there a long time thinking and thinking. Then he got the frog out of the box. He filled its mouth full of bullets used to kill small birds. Then he put the frog on the floor. Now Smiley had caught another frog and gave it to the man and said, “Now sit him next to Dan’l and I will give the word.” Then Smiley says, “One-two-three-go!” and Smiley and the other man touched the frogs. The new frog jumped. Dan’l just lifted up his body but could not move at all. He was planted like a building. Smiley was very surprised and angry too. But he did not know what the problem was. The other man took the money and started away. And when he was going out the door, he looked back and said "Well, I don’t see anything about that frog that is any better than any other frog." Smiley stood looking down at Dan'l a long time, and at last says, "I wonder what in the nation happened to that frog. I wonder if there is something wrong with him.” And he picked up Dan’l and turned him upside down and out came a whole lot of bullets. And Smiley was the angriest man. He set the frog down and took out after that man but he never caught him. (MUSIC) Now Simon Wheeler heard his name called and got up to see what was wanted. He told me to wait but I did not think that more stories about Jim Smiley would give me any more information about Leonidas W. Smiley, and so I started to walk away. At the door I met Mister Wheeler returning, and he started talking again. "Well, this here Smiley had a yellow cow with one eye and no tail…” However, lacking both time and interest, I did not wait to hear about the cow. I just left. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have heard the American Story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”? Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. This story was written by Mark Twain and adapted into Special English by Karen Leggett. Listen again next week at this time for another American Story in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Media Group Details Attacks on the World Press in 2005
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has released its yearly report on press freedoms around the world. The report describes hundreds of cases of media repression, threats and other attacks on the press last year in more than fifty countries. The group says one hundred twenty-five journalists were jailed for doing their jobs. And forty-seven were killed, down from fifty-seven the year before. Most were murdered. The report says about ninety percent of the killings went unpunished. The group says murders of journalists in Lebanon, Libya and Iraq have changed reporting in the Middle East. Iraq is described as the deadliest conflict for reporters since the group began in nineteen eighty-one. Twenty-two journalists were killed in Iraq last year. In Latin America, the group says "self-censorship is widespread in areas of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil."? It says crime and dishonesty are strong and government agencies weak in those areas. Fewer reporters are willing to take personal risks. In Cuba, twenty-four journalists were jailed last year. But the report says media in China remain the most firmly controlled in the world. It says thirty-two journalists were jailed there. Last week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang defended China's restrictions on Internet use. He said it is normal for countries to try to guide the "healthy and orderly" development of the Internet. The Committee to Protect Journalists says press freedoms suffered last year in Africa. Fifteen reporters were jailed in Eritrea and thirteen were seized in Ethiopia. The report says government repression also continued in Cameroon, Gambia and Zimbabwe. In Eurasia, the media group says independent reporting has been "undermined" in nations such as Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It says the cooperation of their leaders in the American-led war on terrorism has played a part. The group says the situation has made it easier for those leaders "to justify repressive media policies in the name of security."? There was some good news for press freedom. Journalists were freed from prison in several nations, including Burma and Yemen. Community radio stations have improved freedom of information in some areas of Asia. And the Philippine government is taking some steps to deal with killing of reporters. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Coming Face-to-Face With the History of Slavery in New York City
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: 1851: A slave named Caesar (photographer unknown)And I'm Steve Ember. Slavery was not just in the South. Some early Americans in the North also owned African slaves. In fact, historians say the capital of American slavery for more than two hundred years was New York. In colonial times, one of out five people in the city was a slave. VOICE ONE: Now, many people are interested in learning more about this part of the history of America's largest city. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A discovery in New York City in nineteen ninety-one brought people face-to-face with the past. Workers found human remains as they broke ground for a new federal office building. More than four hundred remains from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were unearthed. In nineteen ninety-three, officials declared the African Burial Ground a National Historic Landmark. Now an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society explores the history of slavery in the city. Visitors see hundreds of objects, including slave ship documents, bills of sale and wanted posters for runaway slaves. Events are recreated with sound and pictures. Visitors learn how slavery was important to the northern economy. VOICE ONE: New York City used to be called New Amsterdam. It was a Dutch colony on the southern end of Manhattan Island, at the mouth of the Hudson River. It was the main settlement in the territory of New Netherland. The Dutch West India Company settled New Amsterdam in sixteen twenty-four. The first slaves from Africa arrived a few years later. VOICE TWO: In the words of the New-York Historical Society: "Enslaved Africans were at work in New Amsterdam from its beginning."? The slaves wore Dutch clothing. They learned the Dutch language. They lived much like the Dutch, except they were the property of other people. Slave owners included Peter Styvesant, the director-general of the colony. The slaves cleared land, grew crops and built roads, buildings and defenses. Wall Street, where the New York Stock Exchange is located, runs along what was once the wall of a fort built by slaves. Slaves built Fort Amsterdam, where Battery Park is now located. And they cut the road famous today for its theaters: Broadway. First the Dutch and then the British built the local economy on ships, slaves, crops and manufactured goods. Many people profited from slavery. Historians say that without slave labor, New Amsterdam might not have survived. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the sixteen forties, the Dutch West India Company began to give slaves "half-freedom."? They could settle nearby in what the Dutch called “the land of the blacks.”? But the people who lived there had to pay a yearly tax. They had to work for the colony whenever needed. And their children became slaves. But the people were free to farm their own lands and sell what they grew. New Amsterdam did not have enough colonists to do the work needed to create a major port city. As the New-York Historical Society explains, efforts to get more Dutch people to move there largely failed. So did efforts to put Native Americans from nearby villages to work, and keep them from fleeing. The Dutch often seized European ships in the Atlantic and captured their African crew members. In the words of the historical society: "Bringing the captured African seamen to New Amsterdam seemed to solve these problems. The Africans could be forced to work, and they could not escape and go home." VOICE TWO: In sixteen sixty-four, the British captured New Amsterdam. They renamed it New York. The British expanded slavery and strengthened slave laws. Blacks could not own property. They could not gather at night or in groups of more than three. And there were restrictions on where they could go. Historians note that the British rewrote many of these laws often, which suggests that the measures did not work well. Records show that the British were much rougher in their treatment of slaves than the Dutch had been. Slaves faced death or other severe punishment for crimes like robbery, setting fires or plotting to revolt. Punishments were often carried out in public. Yet even under repressive laws many slaves married and had families. They attended religious services and produced poetry, art, music and literature. Denied a vote, they organized political pressure groups and created a "lively press," the New-York Historical Society says. VOICE ONE: During the seventeen hundreds, historians say, forty percent of all households in New York owned slaves. At the time of the American Revolution, New York had more slaves than any American city except Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a major port in the South. "Almost anything that people bought in New York – cheese, tobacco, cloth, rum, sugar, butter – was grown or made by enslaved labor," the historical society says. Often the goods arrived on ships owned by slave traders. The local economy was built on a large, unpaid labor force that kept stores well-supplied and prices reasonable. VOICE TWO: Unlike the South, New York City did not have large plantation farms. Slaves did not live in rooms with large numbers of other slaves. They lived in the kitchens or back rooms of their owners' houses. Southern slaves most often worked either in the fields or as house servants. In New York, enslaved men often learned a skill. Early builders and manufacturers depended on them. A few were taught to read and write. Most females slaves worked as servants and could not read or write. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some slaves rebelled. A reported plot in seventeen forty-one led to the execution of thirty blacks and four whites. It became known as the “Great Negro Plot”? to destroy New York. In the end, the American Revolution crushed the system of slavery in New York City. The thirteen British colonies in America declared their independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. The British lost the war in seventeen eighty-three. But they kept their promise of freedom and passage to Canada for more than three thousand slaves who fought on their side. VOICE TWO: The issue of slavery had always divided people in the city. But after the war, more and more white New Yorkers started to think that slavery should end. They saw that it conflicted with the goals of freedom and equality that led to the revolution and the creation of the United States. Poor European immigrants increasingly did the work that slaves had done. Slave labor, though, was still important to the New York City economy. Slavery would end, but it would end slowly. VOICE ONE: The legislation was a compromise. Laws delayed the end of slavery in New York State until July fourth, eighteen twenty-seven. Some other states in the North also passed similar laws of gradual emancipation. New York City became actively involved in the Underground Railroad which helped blacks escape from slavery. In the Confederate states of the South, the plantation economy still depended on slaves. It took President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War in the eighteen sixties to end slavery in America. VOICE TWO: Listen now to some of the reactions that visitors have recorded at the slavery exhibit in New York:? (SOUND) VOICE ONE: "Slavery in New York: A Landmark Exhibition" has been extended through March twenty-sixth at the New-York Historical Society. The Web site is slaveryinnewyork, all one word, dot o-r-g (slaveryinnewyork.org). There is also a related book called "Slavery in New York," edited by two history professors, Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: THIS IS AMERICA was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can read and hear our programs at voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Low-Fat Diets Alone Do Not Reduce Health Risks
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis and Jerilyn Watson

  VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: We tell about a discovery made on a mountain in eastern Indonesia. We also will talk about a report on the value of calcium in the human diet. VOICE ONE: But first, we tell about low-fat diets and their effects in women. (MUSIC) An American study has examined the effects of a low-fat diet on the health of women. The study found that such a diet does not reduce the risk of at least one kind of cancer, heart disease or stroke. For years, medical experts have thought that a diet that is low in fat helps reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Researchers with America's National Institutes of Health created a study to test this theory. It is one of the largest studies ever done on this subject. The researchers studied the health of almost fifty thousand women for eight years. These women were between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine years. VOICE TWO: The women in one group reduced the fat in their diet to twenty percent of their total daily food supply. They also increased their daily servings of vegetables, fruits and grains. Another group of women did not make any dietary changes. The researchers compared the two groups. The results of the study show the different diets had little effect on the health of the women. Both groups had the same rates of heart disease and colorectal cancer. The researchers said the women who followed the low-fat diet might have less risk of breast cancer. But the difference was so small that it is not considered important. VOICE ONE: Experts say the results are important for both men and women. Some critics of the study fear many people will think that diet is not important. Other studies have shown that a healthful diet is still important, but so are other choices. For example, exercising, avoiding smoking, and keeping a normal body weight are also necessary for good health. Other experts noted the study called for reducing total fat instead of the kinds of fats that are not healthful. For example, fats in some foods like fish and nuts are considered good for human health. Unhealthful fats include saturated and trans fats. The study did not note differences between these two kinds of fat. Experts also said that dietary changes might need to begin earlier in life to have a greater effect on disease and cancer prevention. Some researchers suggest the study would have shown better results if the women had eaten even less fat. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most American children are not getting enough of the element calcium in their diet. Calcium helps the body to make bones strong and hard. The hardness prevents bones from breaking later in life. Getting enough calcium can also reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a bone-thinning disease. It usually develops in old age and affects millions of Americans. Most people with osteoporosis are women. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a report about the calcium needs of children. The academy represents thousands of children's doctors and researchers. The report says that only during their first six months of life are most American children receiving enough calcium. All other ages are lacking calcium in their diet. Children between the ages of twelve and nineteen years are getting far less calcium than the amount that experts suggest. Calcium is especially important during this period, when most bone growth is taking place. VOICE ONE: Doctors believe that one reason older children are not getting enough calcium is because they choose soft drinks like Coca-Cola instead of milk. Often young adults also choose soft drinks instead of natural fruit drinks that contain calcium. Most people can receive the calcium they need from eating or drinking milk products three times each day. Older boys and girls require calcium in their diet four times each day. Foods rich in calcium include milk, cheese and yogurt. Experts say milk products low in fat contain as much calcium as those with higher fat levels. Calcium can also be found in some green vegetables, although milk products are the most common way people get calcium. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people in the United States need more physical exercise. A recent study found that one-third of all Americans between the ages of twelve and nineteen years were in poor physical condition. Such persons also had an increased risk of health problems linked to heart disease. Researchers at Northwestern University in the American state of Illinois organized the study. The research team used information from a four-year study that involved more than five thousand people. More than three thousand of them were twelve to nineteen years old. The rest were adults between the ages of twenty and forty-nine years. None were known to have heart disease before the study. VOICE ONE: The five thousand individuals were tested on a common piece of exercise equipment: a treadmill. The treadmill test measured their physical condition or cardio-respiratory fitness. Cardio-respiratory fitness is the ability of the heart and lungs to react to an increase in physical activity. More than thirty percent of the teenagers were in poor physical condition. Almost fourteen percent of the adults also had poor test results. The researchers say the number of adults with poor physical health may be greater. They said some adults in the study did not take the treadmill test. Those adults already were at risk for heart disease. Mercedes Carnethon led the study. She says women may be at greater risk because they are less likely to be in good physical condition. Doctor Carnethon said those in poor physical condition often have higher levels of blood pressure and cholesterol in the blood. They also can have a higher risk of developing the disease diabetes and gaining too much weight. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists working in Indonesia have found many kinds of wildlife that had never been described before. The wildlife was discovered on top of a mountain in a forest on the island of New Guinea. The scientists explored the forest in the Foja Mountains of Papua Province late last year. Bruce Beehler is vice president of the Melanesia program of the environmental group Conservation International. He described the forest as the closest to the Garden of Eden that humans will find on Earth. The writings of Jews, Christians, and Muslims tell of Eden as a beautiful place where the first man and woman lived until they violated God's law and were expelled. Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences organized the research. The team of scientists came from Indonesia, Australia and the United States. The Foja Mountain forest is part of more than one million hectares of land seemingly never influenced by humans. VOICE ONE: Among the creatures discovered was the Berlepsch [pronounced BEAR-lapsh] Six-Wired Bird of Paradise. No researcher had seen this kind of bird since eighteen ninety-seven. At that time, German bird expert Otto Kleinschmidt identified it from wildlife skins in a collection owned by Hans von Berlepsch. The bird got the rest of its name from the strange wires that extend from its head. The scientists also took the first pictures of a bird called the Golden-fronted Bowerbird. They reportedly saw a male Bowerbird hanging up fruit for a female Bowerbird. The male's actions were part of the mating process. Conservation International says at least twelve attempts were made over about eighty years to find a Bird of Paradise and a Bowerbird. VOICE TWO: In all, the team discovered more than forty animals that scientists have not identified before. The discoveries included four kinds of butterflies and twenty kinds of frogs. They also found a larger animal new to Indonesia. It is called the golden-mantled tree kangaroo. Earlier, it was known to live on only one mountain in the nearby nation of Papua New Guinea. Scientists thought that hunters had killed the last such animal. As its name suggests, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo lives in the trees. The scientists also found and took pictures of a huge rhododendron plant. Its flower measured about fifteen centimeters wide. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange, Lawan Davis and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Legumes: Good for People and Soil
* Byline: 

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many different kinds of plants are part of the leguminosae group. They are called legumes. These plants can produce their own nitrogen. Beans are legumes. Peanuts are legumes. Alfalfa is a legume. There are also many different kinds of trees that are legumes. As a food, beans are high in protein. Most beans also contain a lot of nutrients such as calcium, iron, phosphorus and niacin. Some beans contain amino acids and lysine. The leaves of bean plants and other legumes also are high in nutrients. They are often fed to farm animals. Some farmers grow legumes especially for their animals. Cows, goats and other animals are permitted to eat the leaves on the plants in the fields. Many farmers around the world know the value of growing legumes along with their main crops, or between harvests. The legumes replace nitrogen used by crops. They also provide a cover for the soil to help protect it from heavy rains and strong winds. The roots of the legume plants hold the soil in place. This keeps the soil from being blown away by the wind or washed away by rain. The roots also loosen the soil. This lets the rain reach deep into the ground. Legumes produce nitrogen through a process involving bacteria in the soil and nitrogen in the air. The bacteria form small growths on the plant roots. These growths are called nodules. They capture the atmospheric nitrogen that has entered the soil. The nodules change the nitrogen into ammonia, a form of nitrogen that plants can use. The process is called nitrogen fixation. The bacteria needed for the process, rhizobia or frankia, are found in most soils. But if they are not present in the soil in a field, they can be "painted" on the legume seeds before the seeds are put in the ground. A local agriculture agent can show how to do this. When planted next to fields, legume trees will add nitrogen to the soil. They provide shade and protect young crop plants from the heat of the sun. They provide firewood. And their wood can be used as building material. Some legume trees also provide medicines and chemicals for coloring cloth. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Providing Health Care for Native Communities in Mexico
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an organization that is helping provide health care for native communities in Mexico. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lack of good health care is an issue in many areas of the world. In industrial countries, the biggest problem is the cost of health care. The issue is far more serious in developing areas of the world, especially for native groups. The indigenous people are usually among the poorest. They often live in mountains or areas far from the center of cities where most doctors and hospitals are found. VOICE TWO: For centuries, indigenous groups provided their own health care. They had their own doctors who were called healers, curanderos, or medicine women or men. They knew which plants growing in the area could be used to treat different sicknesses. The old healers taught their unwritten medical knowledge to chosen young people who went through a difficult training. In recent years, many young people have moved to cities to find jobs. Others who remained in the villages were not interested in learning plant medicine and natural medical treatments. Through the years the old healers and traditional medicine experts died. Their knowledge died with them. VOICE ONE: International groups such as the World Health Organization recognize that indigenous groups throughout the world lack good health care. The director-general of the W.H.O. spoke about the problem on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People in two thousand four. He said governments should recognize the right of indigenous people to good health. He called for nations to provide for indigenous health needs while honoring traditional healing methods and knowledge. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An organization in Oaxaca, Mexico, is helping indigenous groups learn to provide for their own health care. Oaxaca is one of thirty-two Mexican states. Oaxaca is also the name of the capital city. Indigenous groups in Oaxaca state speak sixteen different languages. Many indigenous villages are very far from any doctors or hospitals. In nineteen ninety-one, Roman Catholic Archbishop Bartolome Carrasco Briceno began a campaign to improve health care for the poor in Oaxaca. He wanted indigenous people to re-learn the use of natural medicines. Doctors were brought into Oaxaca to teach many of the natural medical techniques used by indigenous cultures for centuries. When the doctors left, an organization, PROSA, was created to continue the teaching of natural medicine. PROSA means Promoters of Health in Defense of the Life of the Community. VOICE ONE:? Isabelle Harmon has been working with PROSA since she arrived in Oaxaca in nineteen ninety-three. She is a nurse and a member of the Medical Mission Sisters, a Roman Catholic organization that provides health care for people in developing countries. Sister Isabelle helps teach poor families how to make their own medicines from locally grown plants. She says the goal is to have indigenous people use their own traditional herbal medicines to provide for their own health. She helped PROSA produce a book, “Medicinal Plants”, in both English and Spanish. It includes drawings of medicinal plants found in Oaxaca with an explanation of how to use them. Magda Pittaro is a Medical Mission Sister from Italy. She has been in Oaxaca for several years helping PROSA by doing massages that ease tension in the muscles of the body. Mary Hicken is with Maryknoll Mission. She helps PROSA find financial support. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Three indigenous women from the Oaxaca area now are officers of PROSA. Veronica Estaban is president. Soledad Rendon is coordinator and Lurdes Rendon is treasurer. They are experts in natural healing methods. They prepare the herbal medicines sold in the PROSA office. And they travel to distant villages to help train community representatives as health promoters. PROSA has an office in Oaxaca city. It includes a room where natural medicines are made and kept and some small rooms for treatments. PROSA is in a building that has offices for other groups that provide services for poor and indigenous Mexicans. Two days a week, PROSA helps people who have made the long trip to Oaxaca city to seek treatment for a health problem. First, the patient is examined. The PROSA experts do one of several tests to find out what is wrong. One test is called the O-ring test. It tests the energy coming from organs and other parts of the body to find problems. Once the health problem is discovered, it may be treated in several different ways. VOICE ONE: A common treatment is natural medicine. Dried herbs are crushed and put in dark bottles with water and alcohol for a month to make tinctures. Different tinctures are mixed to make another kind of medicine called a microdose. The dried herbs are also sold to make teas to drink. People can buy the medicines for a small amount of money or, if they have no money, they may pay with herbs they have grown. People may be treated in several other ways. One is called Cerebral Thermal Regulation. Patients are given small pieces of copper metal to wear on their wrists and feet to re-balance energy in the body. Or they may be treated by Alejo Pinacho Remirez with a kind of acupuncture that involves only the ear. He does ear pressure point treatments. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: PROSA health educators visit between twelve and fifteen villages each year. They teach a series of workshops about ways to treat sicknesses caused by different kinds of environmental or physical problems. The women and men who complete the workshops are called health promoters. They are expected to teach others in their villages. Since nineteen ninety-one, PROSA has trained more than five hundred people in about two hundred communities. The series of five workshops deal with:? Sicknesses caused by lack of pure water and waste treatment. Lack of warm clothing and safe housing. Poor working conditions and tension. Problems of female and male reproduction systems. And? sicknesses caused by lack of food and an unbalanced diet. VOICE ONE: Late one afternoon, seven women leave their work in their fields and homes and gather in a covered area outside a home in a small farming village. PROSA educators have arrived from Oaxaca to teach another in the series of workshops about sicknesses caused by poor working conditions and tension. The women listen carefully as Soledad Rendon explains about nerve problems and a natural medicine to treat these problems. They write down the kinds and amounts of substances to be used in the tonic and when and how it should be used. Then the women help prepare a mixture of dried plants, fresh grains and vegetables to be boiled in water. After boiling, the solid material is removed and the liquid is mixed with alcohol. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: PROSA holds two workshops a year in the city of Oaxaca for trained health promoters. The women and men share experiences in their villages and continue to learn about ways to prevent as well as treat sicknesses. In the spring of two thousand five, thirty people gathered in a large room in a church in Oaxaca. Some of the people had traveled for many hours to get to the three-day meeting. They talked about their successes and problems as health promoters in their villages. They watched videos about pollution. They learned about natural ways to kill harmful insects so the earth is not poisoned by chemicals. VOICE ONE: A university professor talked about the problems caused by corn that has been genetically changed. This transgenic corn is replacing the many kinds of native corn grown in Mexico for centuries. The director of an organization for organic farming explained that transgenic corn does not provide the nutrients that people need. And, she said, the seeds have to be bought each year. This means many poor farmers cannot continue to grow corn so they have to sell their land. The workshop in Oaxaca ended with a ceremony. PROSA educators and health promoters joined hands. They promised to continue working together to improve their health, the health of their communities, and the health of their land. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. There is more information about PROSA treatments in the article “Integrative Medicine in Mexico.”? It was printed in the publication “Alternative and Complementary Therapies” in August, two thousand two. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Chronic Diseases: The World's Leading Killer
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death in the world. Yet health experts say these conditions are often the most preventable. Chronic diseases include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and lung disorders. The World Health Organization says chronic diseases lead to about seventeen million early deaths each year. The United Nations agency expects more than three hundred eighty million people to die of chronic diseases by two thousand fifteen. It says about eighty percent of the deaths will happen in developing nations. The W.H.O. says chronic diseases now cause two-thirds of all deaths in the Asia-Pacific area. In ten years it could be almost three-fourths. People are getting sick in their most economically productive years. In fact, experts say chronic diseases are killing more middle-aged people in poorer countries than in wealthier ones. The W.H.O. estimates that chronic diseases will cost China alone more than five hundred thousand million dollars in the next ten years. That estimate represents the costs of medical treatment and lost productivity. Russia and India are also expected to face huge economic losses. Kim Hak-Su is the head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Last week in Bangkok he presented a W.H.O. report on the problem. It says deaths from chronic diseases have increased largely as the result of economic gains in many countries. The report details the latest findings from nine countries. They include Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, India and Nigeria. The others are Pakistan, Russia and Tanzania. Mister Kim says infectious and parasitic diseases have until recently been the main killers in Asia and the Pacific. But he says they are no longer the major cause of death in most countries. Health officials say as many as eighty percent of deaths from chronic diseases could be prevented. They say an important tool for governments is to restrict the marketing of alcohol and tobacco to young people. Also, more programs are needed to urge healthy eating and more physical activity. U.N. officials aim through international action to reduce chronic-disease deaths by two percent each year through two thousand fifteen. They say meeting that target could save thirty-six million lives. That includes twenty-five million in Asia and the Pacific. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Praise for Advanced Placement Classes, but Also Criticism
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Education Report. The Advanced Placement program is fifty years old. As we reported last week, it was created to let high school students do college-level work. They can earn college credits if they do well on an exam. In the United States, one-third of students who graduate from high school take at least one Advanced Placement course. Choices differ from school to school. Yet schools in poorer areas might offer few A.P. courses or none at all. The program has many supporters. They point to studies that show that students with A.P. experience are better prepared for college. In fact, some arrive with enough credits to start at the second-year level. That saves money. But the program also has critics. Some students and educators say A.P. classes often try to teach too much, so the learning is not very deep. And critics argue that classes can seem taught too much to the exam. Students and teachers might not have a lot of time to explore other areas. Another issue has to do with the increasing competition for college. Some education experts say the fears of parents are helping to fuel the growth of A.P. classes. But a study by two economics professors suggests that the program might be expanding too fast to guarantee quality. Kristin Klopfenstein and Kathleen Thomas compared the performance of students in Texas. They say A.P. students were no more likely than non-A.P. students to have higher grade point averages after their first semester at college. They also found that students with A.P. experience were generally no more likely than others to return for a second year of college. Another researcher, Philip Sadler, presented a study last week at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This study involved students who got high marks on an A.P. science exam but still took a beginning-level science class in college. Mister Sadler says they did well, but not as well as many people might have expected. The College Board, which administers the A.P. program, says the study was too small to mean much. It says other research shows that students who do well on Advanced Placement exams are likely to be more successful in college. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Woodrow Wilson Wins 1912 Presidential Election
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The first ten years of the twentieth century in America were shaped by the strong leadership of President Theodore Roosevelt. And in the second decade, Roosevelt returned to national politics to bring, once more, dramatic changes to the United States. In nineteen twelve, he organized a new political party: the Progressives. Roosevelt created this new party after he failed to win the Republican presidential nomination. The Republican convention of nineteen twelve had been controlled by conservative supporters of President William Howard Taft. And they nominated Taft for four more years in the White House. VOICE TWO: As a result, Roosevelt broke with the Republicans. And he and his supporters held their own convention. They formed the Progressive Party and approved a platform that promised reforms. These reforms were proposed to make the government serve the people and carry out more fully their desire for social progress. The Democratic Party also nominated a candidate who supported progressive ideas. The Democrats chose Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, a former president of Princeton University. So, for the first time in many years, there were three major candidates for president. Wilson clearly had the best chance to win. He had the support of almost all the Democrats. The Republicans, however, were split. Some supported Taft. The others were for Roosevelt. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt refused to accept the idea of defeat. He campaigned hard, visiting many cities and towns, making speech after speech. Wilson also campaigned hard. He seemed to enjoy it as much as Roosevelt. Taft did not like it at all. He refused to do much campaigning. He spent most of the time at his summer home. It was a quiet election campaign. . . until the middle of October. Then, only three weeks before election day, Roosevelt was shot. VOICE TWO: Theodore RooseveltIt happened in Milwaukee. Roosevelt had just left his hotel and climbed into the automobile that would carry him to the hall where he planned to make a speech. As he stood in the open car, an extremist named John Schrank ran up to him, pulled a gun from his coat, and fired a bullet into Roosevelt's chest. The bullet knocked him down. Roosevelt said it felt as if he had been kicked by a mule. He jumped up and put his hand to the wound. The bullet had passed through the inside pocket of his coat. It struck a steel case that held his glasses, and went through the folded fifty pages of his written speech. These slowed the bullet, and it went only a few centimeters into his chest. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt did not know if he was seriously wounded. He put his hand to his mouth and coughed. No blood came. And he knew the shot had not damaged his lungs. Roosevelt ordered the crowd around to stop beating Schrank. "Bring him to me," he said. He looked down at the man. "You poor creature," said Roosevelt. Then he turned away. Doctors arrived. They said Roosevelt must go at once to the hospital. But Roosevelt refused. He said he would go to the hall. "I will make this speech," he said, "or die. It will be one or the other." On his way to the hall, he told a friend: "It takes more than that to kill a Roosevelt. I do not care a rap about being shot. Not a rap." VOICE TWO: At the hall, he stood before the big crowd. His face was white. But he stood straight, without help. Someone announced that Roosevelt had been wounded, but still planned to speak. Roosevelt's voice was very low, almost a whisper. "I Am going to ask you to be very quiet. And please excuse me from making a long speech. I will do the best I can. But there is a bullet in me." He paused and then continued. "It is nothing.I am not hurt badly. I have something to say. And I will say it as long as there is life in my body." VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's speech was not important. He said nothing that he had not already said many times before. What was important, however, was his cool courage. Men did not see his act as foolish or overly-dramatic. They saw it as the brave act of a strong man. To the public, he was a hero. Roosevelt spoke for almost an hour. Finally, very weak, he let himself be helped from the hall. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors could examine the wound. VOICE TWO: The doctors found that the bullet had broken a rib, but caused no serious damage. They decided to leave the bullet where it was. The next day, Roosevelt made a statement from his hospital bed. "Tell the people not to worry about me. For if I go down, another will take my place." President Taft and Woodrow Wilson sent messages of regret to Roosevelt. They announced that they would not campaign until Roosevelt was able to do so. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's condition improved quickly. After two weeks of rest, he was ready to continue his campaign for the presidency. He made a speech to a big crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Everyone was surprised to see how strong and healthy he seemed. Wilson ended his campaign in New York City the next day. He told a cheering crowd of Democrats: "What the Democratic Party proposes to do is to go into power and do the things that the Republican Party has been talking about for sixteen years." VOICE TWO: On November fifth, the people voted. The winner was Woodrow Wilson. He received more than six million votes. Roosevelt was second with four million. Taft received only about three and a half million. Wilson's victory was even greater in the electoral vote. He got four hundred thirty-five. Roosevelt got only eighty-eight. And Taft received only the eight electoral votes of Utah and Vermont. The Democrats won not only the White House, but also control of Congress. And a number of Democratic governors were elected in states formerly controlled by Republicans. VOICE ONE: The nineteen twelve campaign ended public life for Theodore Roosevelt. Soon after the election, a friend visited Roosevelt and talked of possible victory in nineteen sixteen. "I thought you were a better politician," Roosevelt said. "The fight is over. We are beaten. There is only one thing to do. That is to go back to the Republican Party. You cannot hold a party like the Progressive Party together. There are no loaves and fishes. . . no financial support." VOICE TWO: War was soon to break out in Europe. The United States would enter the struggle in nineteen seventeen. As always, Roosevelt was ready to join in a fight. He asked for permission to organize an American force and lead it into battle in France. President Wilson, however, turned down the request. Roosevelt was sure that it was a political decision. He never forgave Wilson for keeping him out of the war. Although Roosevelt himself could not fight, four of his sons went into battle. One -- his youngest son Quentin -- did not return. When he received news of his son's death, Roosevelt wrote these words to honor him: VOICE ONE: "Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die. And none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life. Both life and death are parts of the same great adventure. All of us who give service and stand ready for sacrifice are torch bearers. We run with the torches until we fall, satisfied if we can then pass them to the hands of other runners. "The torches whose flame is brightest are carried by the brave men on the battlefield and by the brave women whose husbands, lovers, sons, and brothers struggle there. These are the torch bearers. These are they who have dared the great adventure." VOICE TWO: Roosevelt's own great adventure was itself coming to an end. He suffered from painful attacks of inflammatory rheumatism and from a serious ear infection. He had difficulty in hearing and could not walk. But the old man was still cheerful. He spent his sixtieth birthday in the hospital. And to his family and friends, he said: "I am ahead of the game. Nobody ever packed more kinds of fun and interest into sixty years." Death came to Roosevelt as he slept on the night of January sixth, nineteen nineteen. Said Vice President Thomas Marshall: "Death had to take him sleeping. For if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Leo Scully. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Leo Scully. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Are You Ready for Gyrotonics?
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play music by Roseanne Cash … Answer a question about Asian food … And report about a popular new kind of exercise. Gyrotonics An exercise method designed to stretch muscles and improve strength and balance is becoming popular in the United States. Faith Lapidus tells us more about Gyrotonics and the man who invented this special form of exercise. FAITH LAPIDUS: Gyrotonics is a kind of exercise that combines the movements of dancing and swimming with the mental and physical practice called yoga. It helps lengthen muscles, improve balance, and exercise the joints, the parts of the body where bones are joined. A Hungarian dancer named Juliu Horvath developed this special form of exercise. After he was injured dancing, Mister Horvath studied yoga intensely. In the nineteen eighties, he developed a new exercise method as a special kind of yoga to strengthen dancers. Mister Horvath says that he based his method on the octopus, monkey and cat. He says these animals have no restrictions. They can move in any direction with control and strength. He designed the Gyrotonic movements to help the human body move more freely. A special machine made of wood and weights helps guide the body through the many Gyrotonics exercises. You sit or lie on a flat board. You put your legs or hands through special cloth handles attached to a line with weights. With the tension created by the weights, you must try to move through the exercises. Seven kinds of backbone movements form the base of Gyrotonics. For example, you can stretch your back to the left and right or forward and backward. While moving your back, you can also work on arm or leg motions. These movements must be done in a smooth way. Often the motions are circular. When Juliu Horvath first developed Gyrotonics, he was the only teacher. He has since taught almost seventy master trainers. Now, there are more than eight hundred official schools in the world where you can learn Gyrotonics. Ethnic Food HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cambodia. Long Sothea asks if Americans enjoy eating in Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants. The simple answer to the question is yes. Americans do enjoy eating in restaurants that serve foods of other nations. The American Restaurant Association says the popularity of ethnic food in the United States has greatly increased in the past ten years. The Association says the three most popular kinds of ethnic foods in the United States are Chinese Cantonese, Italian and Mexican. Association officials say nine of every ten people in the United States have tried Chinese, Italian and Mexican food at least one time. The most recent research about the number of restaurants offering ethnic food comes from the United States Economic Census of two thousand two. The census counted more than thirty-two thousand Chinese restaurants in the country. There were more than twenty-nine thousand Mexican restaurants. And there were more than twenty-two thousand Italian restaurants. ?? The American Restaurant Association says many ethnic foods are increasing in popularity. They include Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese sushi and Middle Eastern. American Restaurant Association research shows that fifty-three percent of Americans have eaten Japanese food. Twenty-six percent have tried Thai food. Nineteen percent have eaten Vietnamese food and sixteen percent of Americans have tried Korean food. The Association says many people from these countries are settling in the United States and opening restaurants. And many older Americans are trying new kinds of foods they had not eaten before. The Restaurant Association says Americans between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four are more likely than older people to eat ethnic food in restaurants quite often. It says younger people do not consider eating such foods to be different or experimental, just a normal part of what they usually eat. Rosanne Cash The singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash has been making music for more than twenty years. In her records she combines the sounds of country, rock and pop music. Her newest album is called “Black Cadillac.”? It is an exploration of family memories, mourning, and letting go. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN:?Rosanne Cash has spent her life surrounded by music. Her father, Johnny Cash, and stepmother, June Carter Cash, were famous country music singers. Recently, both of these family members as well as Rosanne’s mother died within two years of each other. This album represents Rosanne Cash’s expression of her sadness about losing these loved ones. Here is “House on the Lake”. In this song Cash remembers the sights and sounds of the house where she lived as a child. She thinks about the voice of her father and how it has gone away. (MUSIC) Rosanne Cash says that in making this album she had to show a degree of restraint. She had to find the right balance between expressing her sadness while also making enjoyable music. Critics say this is a rich and expertly made album. Some critics have even said it is the best record of her long musical career. Here is? “World without Sound.”? Rosanne Cash sings about her desire for clear answers in a world that can be very unsure. (MUSIC) We leave you with “I Was Watching You”. This song expresses the way that families care for each other over many years. It tells how love can survive everything, even death. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Dubai Company Agrees to Delay Takeover of U.S. Port Operations
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A political storm grew this week over a deal to sell operations at six American ports to a government-owned company in Dubai. Critics see a "homeland security accident waiting to happen," as Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York called it. Influential Republicans have also criticized the deal. Late this week Dubai Ports World offered a compromise. The company still expects to complete the sale on March second. But it says it will not exercise control of those port operations while it holds further discussions on security. The ports are in Baltimore, Miami, Newark, New Orleans, New York City and Philadelphia. Foreign companies operate most of the shipping terminals at American ports. But critics say the United Arab Emirates has a mixed record in fighting terrorism. The Bush administration calls the U.A.E. an important ally. Dubai Ports World says the deal covers thirty terminals in eighteen countries, and the American operations represent a small part. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company of Britain currently owns the terminals. Last October, a part of Dubai Ports World offered to buy P and O. On February thirteenth, P and O shareholders voted to accept an increased offer. DP World was formed in September when the Dubai Ports Authority joined with DPI Terminals. In January of last year, DPI bought CSX World Terminals, the international port business of the CSX Corporation in the United States. Treasury Secretary John Snow headed CSX before he joined the administration in two thousand three. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved the deal that is now being criticized. This government committee, chaired by the Treasury secretary, investigates business deals that could affect national security. President Bush has promised to veto any attempt by Congress to block the port deal. The White House now says it should have informed members of Congress sooner. VOA's White House reporter Scott Stearns says the president did not learn about the deal until it was already approved. Last year an oil company controlled by the Chinese government tried to buy an American business. Opponents raised national security concerns. The Chinese company withdrew its offer, blaming the "political environment." This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Internet Business: Google Resists U.S. Demands, but Not China's
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. In January, the United States Justice Department asked for millions of Internet search records. Its lawyers asked Google, Yahoo, American Online and Microsoft's MSN for one week of searches by their users. Google refused. Last week the California company presented a twenty-five page legal answer. Google says the request would violate the privacy of its users and make its trade secrets public. Privacy activists have praised the company. It also argues that the list of search words would not mean much anyway. The government says it does not want personal details about the users. It says it wants to better understand how people use the Internet. The lawyers say they are trying to show that children need more protection from sexual material and other dangers online. The Justice Department is trying to defend a law called the Child Online Protection Act. The Supreme Court blocked enforcement in two thousand four. The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the law, and supports Google. It says the government has not established a need for the information. A judge plans to hear arguments on March thirteenth. As Google refuses to cooperate with the United States government, it is cooperating with the government of China. Google has the most popular search engine on the Internet. But Google is not the only Internet company competing for more than one hundred million Internet users in China. Others include Yahoo and Microsoft. In doing so, they have cooperated with Chinese officials in different ways. For example, Yahoo provided information about the Internet activities of two Chinese citizens. The two have since been arrested and jailed. The Chinese government says it is normal for countries to try to guide the "healthy and orderly" development of the Internet. But critics say American companies should not help suppress dissent, by blocking sites or restricting searches and e-mail. Just this month the American State Department announced a Global Internet Freedom Task Force. Officials from Google and other companies faced heavy criticism before a congressional committee last week in Washington. Lawmakers said the companies have put profits before their duties as responsible world citizens. A Google vice president said his company made a reasonable choice between honoring Chinese law and not operating in China. He said it is better for Chinese users that Google operates under legal restrictions than not at all. This week, Chinese officials investigated Google's permit to operate its newly launched Web site for China. Some saw the investigation as a attempt to pressure Google to cooperate even more if it wants to do business in China. The findings were not immediately announced. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Radio Pioneers Pulled Words, Music and World Events Out of Thin Air
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC)??VOICE ONE:??I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we will tell about several men who influenced the development of radio. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people say radio was invented by Guglielmo [gu-lee-YER-mo) Marconi of Italy. Marconi sent the first radio communication signals through the air in eighteen ninety-five. In fact, no one person can be called the inventor of radio. Many people, including several Americans, helped to develop radio. You may not know their names. However, their work affected many people. ?Over the years, radio has become one of the most important forms of communication. It can be used for two-way communication, such as between a ship and land. Scientists even use radio to communicate into space. And radio broadcasts let people send words, music and information to any part of the world. ?VOICE TWO: ?The first experimental radio broadcasts in the United States were made in the early nineteen hundreds. One of the first broadcasts came from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in nineteen ten. It included music by the great singer Enrico Caruso. An American inventor, Lee De Forest, produced that broadcast.Only a few people could hear the broadcast. Some were people in the New York area who had built radio receivers. Some ships at sea and military radio stations received the broadcast. Many newspapers of the day reported on the event. The name of Lee De Forest became part of broadcasting history. VOICE ONE: ?De Forest developed some of the technology used in early radio. During his lifetime, he invented hundreds of devices that were used in telephones, shortwave radio broadcasts, and similar technology. His most famous invention was the vacuum tube, or electron tube. In nineteen-oh-six, the electron tube was considered the single most important development in electronics. The device made it possible to strengthen radio signals and to send them over long distances. It was a major reason for the fast growth of the electronics and communications industries in the early part of the twentieth century. ?VOICE TWO: Edwin Armstrong was another American inventor who was important in the development of electronics and radio communication. Armstrong developed technology that helped to improve radio reception. He discovered ways to limit unwanted radio signals. Edwin Armstrong also was a leader in using radio to reproduce sounds clearly. This process became known as frequency modulation, or FM radio. FM radio provided better sound reproduction and less noise or interference than traditional AM radio. Armstrong also developed radio receivers that became widely used. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many experts say station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the first American radio station. It broadcast results of the American presidential election in November, nineteen twenty. That is generally considered the start of professional radio broadcasting in the United States. Soon, radio stations began to appear in other areas. In nineteen twenty-two, two stations in New York State joined together to broadcast the championship game of American baseball. The stations were connected by telephone lines. This permitted them to share the same program. It was one of the first examples of a radio network. VOICE TWO: By the middle of the nineteen-twenties, there were two main radio networks in the United States. The National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, was formed by the Radio Corporation of America. NBC became the first permanent national network. The other network was the Columbia Broadcasting System, called CBS. The networks provided programs to radio stations across the country. Local stations created very few programs. What listeners heard in New York was often heard in Los Angeles, California and other cities. ?VOICE ONE: David Sarnoff was the man responsible for NBC. As a young man, Sarnoff had taught himself Morse code. He got a job with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company where he worked as a telegraph operator. He was on duty when the passenger ship Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen twelve. Sarnoff helped the rescue effort by informing other ships about the accident. He understood that someone using radio could affect many lives. By nineteen twenty-one, Sarnoff was an official of the Radio Corporation of America. He pushed RCA to enter broadcasting. The company soon earned huge profits. Five years later, David Sarnoff helped create NBC. David Sarnoff developed the theory of broadcasting. This was very different from the communication between two people speaking to each other on a telephone. Radio meant that someone could speak to millions of people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William S. Paley developed another radio network. In nineteen twenty-eight, Paley left his family's business. He spent several hundred thousand dollars on several radio stations. These stations became known as the Columbia Broadcasting System. Paley's friends and advisers told him that he had made a huge mistake. They said his dream of building a large and important radio network would never come true. Paley did not listen to them. Instead, he went to see the heads of some of the largest American companies to get their financial support for his network. Then, Paley searched for the best people he could find to produce the radio shows and news programming he wanted. He paid them well. William Paley was always looking for people with special skills. One night, he attended a show by the popular Tommy Dorsey Band. A young man with the group sang during the performance. His name was Frank Sinatra. Sinatra soon had his own program with CBS, Paley's radio network. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Radio was extremely popular in the United States between the late nineteen twenties and the early nineteen fifties. This period is known as the Golden Age of Broadcasting. During this period, families gathered in their living rooms every night to listen to radio shows. Children hurried from school to hear shows created for them. In the daytime, millions of women listened to radio plays called soap operas. They were called soap operas because companies that make soap paid for the shows. VOICE TWO: Radio influenced the way many people felt about their community and the world. It permitted them to sit at home and hear what was happening in other areas. During World War Two, people could hear the voices of world leaders, such as American President Franklin Roosevelt. ?(SOUND)? VOICE ONE: ?Listeners also could hear the voices of reporters covering World War Two. Edward R. Murrow became famous for reporting about the war. People sometimes could hear guns and bombs exploding during his report. ?(SOUND)? VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-seven, Edward R. Murrow was the only representative of CBS in Europe. Murrow built a team of news reporters whose names would become well known to listeners. Edward R. Murrow Murrow and reporter William Shirer made broadcasting history in nineteen thirty-eight. They organized a special broadcast with European reaction to the seizure of Austria by Nazi Germany. The show had reports from London, Berlin, Paris and Rome. It was a huge success. ?VOICE ONE: In the United States, the rise of television in the nineteen fifties ended the Golden Age of Radio Broadcasting. More and more people started to watch television. Most of the popular shows disappeared from radio. Many people believed television would cause radio broadcasting to become unimportant. However, the number of radio listeners continues to grow. Most experts say radio will continue to be important during this century.(MUSIC)??VOICE TWO: ?This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm? Steve Ember. ?VOICE ONE: ?And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Line of Least Resistance
* Byline: Written by Edith Wharton

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "The Line of Least Resistance.”? It was written by Edith Wharton. Here is Larry West with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Mister Mindon returned home for lunch. His wife Millicent was not at home. The servants did not know where she was. Mister Mindon sat alone at the table in the garden. He ate a small piece of meat and drank some mineral water. Mister Mindon always ate simple meals, because he had problems with his stomach. Why then did he keep a cook among his servants?? Because his wife Millicent liked to invite her friends to big dinners and serve them rare and expensive food and wine. Mister Mindon did not enjoy his wife's parties. Millicent complained that he did not know how to enjoy life. She did a lot of things that he did not like. Millicent wasted Mister Mindon's money and was unpleasant to him. But he never got angry with his wife. After eating, Mister Mindon took a walk through his house. He did not stay long in the living room. It reminded him of all the hours he had spent there at his wife's parties. The sight of the formal dining room made him feel even more uncomfortable. He remembered the long dinners where he had to talk to his wife's friends for hours. They never seemed very interested in what he was saying. Mister Mindon walked quickly past the ballroom where his wife danced with her friends. He would go to bed after dinner. But he could hear the orchestra playing until three in the morning. Mister Mindon walked into the library. No one in the house ever read any of the books. But Mister Mindon was proud to be rich enough to have a perfectly useless room in his house. He went into the sunny little room where his wife planned her busy days and evenings. Her writing table was covered with notes and cards from all her friends. Her wastepaper basket was full of empty envelopes that had carried invitations to lunches, dinners, and theater parties. Mister Mindon saw a letter crushed into a small ball on the floor. He bent to pick it up. Just as he was about to throw it into the wastepaper basket, he noticed that the letter was signed by his business partner, Thomas Antrim. But Antrim's letter to Mister Mindon's wife was not about business. As Mister Mindon read it, he felt as if his mind was spinning out of control. He sat down heavily in the chair near his wife's little writing table. Now the room looked cold and unfamiliar. "Who are you?" the walls seemed to say. "Who am I?" Mister Mindon said in a loud voice. "I'll tell you who I am! I am the man who paid for every piece of furniture in this room. If it were not for me and my money, this room would be empty!"? Suddenly, Mister Mindon felt taller. He marched across his wife's room. It belonged to him, didn't it? The house belonged to him, too. He felt powerful. He sat at the table and wrote a letter to Millicent. One of the servants came into the room. "Did you call, sir?" he asked. "No," Mister Mindon replied. "But since you are here, please telephone for a taxi cab at once." The taxi took him to a hotel near his bank. A clerk showed him to his room. It smelled of cheap soap. The window in the room was open and hot noises came up from the street. Mister Mindon looked at his watch. Four o'clock. He wondered if Millicent had come home yet and read his letter. His head began to ache, and Mister Mindon lay down on the bed. When he woke up, it was dark. He looked at his watch. Eight o'clock. Millicent must be dressing for dinner. They were supposed to go to Missus Targe's house for dinner tonight. Well, Mister Mindon thought, Millicent would have to go alone. Maybe she would ask Thomas Antrim to take her to the party! Mister Mindon realized he was hungry. He left his room and walked down the stairs to the hotel dining room. The air -- smelling of coffee and fried food -- wrapped itself around his head. Mister Mindon could not eat much of the food that the hotel waiter brought him. He went back to his room, feeling sick. He also felt hot and dirty in the clothing he had worn all day. He had never realized how much he loved his home! Someone knocked at his door. Mister Mindon jumped to his feet. "Mindon?" a voice asked. "Are you there?"? Mister Mindon recognized that voice. It belonged to Laurence Meysy. Thirty years ago, Meysy had been very popular with women -- especially with other men's wives. As a young man he had interfered in many marriages. Now, in his old age, Laurence Meysy had become a kind of "marriage doctor.”? He helped husbands and wives save their marriages. Mister Mindon began to feel better as soon as Laurence Meysy walked into his hotel room. Two men followed him. One was Mister Mindon's rich uncle, Ezra Brownrigg. The other was the Reverend Doctor Bonifant, the minister of Saint Luke's church where Mister Mindon and his family prayed every Sunday. Mister Mindon looked at the three men and felt very proud that they had come to help him. For the first time in his married life, Mister Mindon felt as important as his wife Millicent. Laurence Meysy sat on the edge of the bed and lit a cigarette. "Misses Mindon sent for me," he said. Mister Mindon could not help feeling proud of Millicent. She had done the right thing. Meysy continued. "She showed me your letter. She asks you for mercy." Meysy paused, and then said: "The poor woman is very unhappy. And we have come here to ask you what you plan to do." Now Mister Mindon began to feel uncomfortable. "To do?" he asked. "To do? Well…I, I plan to…to leave her." Meysy stopped smoking his cigarette. "Do you want to divorce her?" he asked. "Why, yes! Yes!" Mister Mindon replied. Meysy knocked the ashes from his cigarette. "Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?" he asked. Mister Mindon nodded his head. "I plan to divorce her," he said loudly. Mister Mindon began to feel very excited. It was the first time he had ever had so many people sitting and listening to him. He told his audience everything, beginning with his discovery of his wife's love affair with his business partner, and ending with his complaints about her expensive dinner parties. His uncle looked at his watch. Doctor Bonifant began to stare out of the hotel window. Meysy stood up. "Do you plan to dishonor yourself then?" he asked. "No one knows what has happened. You are the only one who can reveal the secret. You will make yourself look foolish.” Mister Mindon tried to rise. But he fell back weakly. The three men picked up their hats. In another moment, they would be gone. When they left, Mister Mindon would lose his audience, and his belief in himself and his decision. "I won't leave for New York until tomorrow," he whispered. Laurence Meysy smiled. "Tomorrow will be too late," he said. "Tomorrow everyone will know you are here." Meysy opened the hotel room door. Mister Brownrigg and Doctor Bonifant walked out of the room. Meysy turned to follow them, when he felt Mister Mindon's hand grab his arm. "I…I will come with you," Mister Mindon sighed. "It's…it's…for the children." Laurence Meysy nodded as Mister Mindon walked out of the room. He closed the door gently. (MUSIC) Announcer:? You have just heard the story "The Line of Least Resistance.”? It was written by Edith Wharton and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Larry West. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O’Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: An Olympic Winner Turns His Victory Into Child's Play
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. The twentieth Winter Olympics have just ended in Turin, Italy. But for some possible future Olympians, the games are about to begin with help from an American speed skater. Joey Cheek won a gold medal in the five hundred meter event. And he won a silver medal in the one thousand meter race. The United States Olympic Committee gave him forty thousand dollars in prize money. Twenty-five thousand dollars for his gold medal, and fifteen thousand for the silver. Joey Cheek announced that he was giving the money to the international group Right to Play. This group is based in Toronto, Canada. It brings sports and play to children in developing countries. Olympic and professional athletes from around the world help support Right to Play with their time and money. Right to Play uses athletes as ambassadors. It says star athletes are not only the heroes of children, they can also influence decision makers. The group says well-designed sports and play programs help children develop physically, mentally and socially. Sports can help create connections between children and adults. They can also bring children together to learn teamwork, conflict resolution and cultural understanding. For example, Right to Play has programs in Israel and the Palestinian territories. In parts of Africa, the group uses sports as a way to build community support for national health campaigns. It says a new project in Sri Lanka and Indonesia will work with people affected by the tsunami in December of two thousand four. Right to Play also has programs in Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Thailand. Right to Play began as Olympic Aid. It started as a way to show support for people in areas of war and crisis and collect money for them. The Lillehammer Olympic Organizing Committee came up with the idea. That was in preparation for the nineteen ninety-four Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. The president and chief executive officer of Right to Play is Johann Olav Koss. He has four gold medals in speed skating, three of them from Lillehammer. Right to Play says it reaches more than five hundred thousand children each week. Its Web site is w-w-w dot righttoplay, all one word, dot com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hollywood Presents a Serious Side in Oscar Hopefuls
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the seventy-eighth Academy Awards ceremony which takes place next Sunday in Los Angeles, California. For people who make movies and for people who love to watch them, it is the most exciting event of the year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On March fifth, actors, directors, producers and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood, the center of the American film industry. They will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. This statue is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Five films are nominated for best motion picture. They are “Brokeback Mountain,” “Good Night, and Good Luck,”? “Crash,” “Capote” and “Munich.”? The directors of these movies were also nominated for best director. These five films are different from the ones that are often nominated for best picture. They are all realistic films for adults that deal with serious political or social issues. Four of the movies were mainly produced outside the major Hollywood movie studio system. They cost far less money to produce than most major Hollywood movies. VOICE ONE: “Brokeback Mountain” received eight nominations, the most of any movie this year. They include best director for Ang Lee and nominations for two actors and one actress in the film. “Brokeback Mountain” is the story of two young cowboys in the western state of Wyoming. They fall in love during the nineteen sixties. They marry young women and have children. But the two men continue their secret relationship for twenty years. VOICE TWO: Two of the other films received six nominations each. “Good Night, and Good Luck” is about the television newsman Edward R. Murrow in the nineteen fifties. His broadcasts opposed the powerful Senator Joseph McCarthy. George Clooney directed “Good Night, and Good Luck.” He also wrote the screenplay with Grant Heslov. And Clooney acts in the movie. Clooney was also nominated as best actor in a supporting role in another movie, “Syriana.”? He plays a secret United States government agent in the Middle East. The film “Crash” also received six nominations. Paul Haggis wrote and directed the movie. “Crash” is about racial tensions among a group of people in Los Angeles. These strangers meet during thirty-six hours and are involved in car crashes and crimes. VOICE ONE: Bennett Miller directed “Capote," another nominee for best picture. It is a true story about the writer Truman Capote. It tells about his relationship with two men sentenced to be executed for killing a family in a small town in Kansas. Capote wrote about the killings in his famous book, “In Cold Blood.”? The last nominee for best picture is “Munich,” directed by Steven Spielberg. It is also based on true events. “Munich” deals with the killing of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian terrorists. That happened at the Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, in nineteen seventy-two. The movie is about Israeli agents and their efforts to find and kill the men responsible for the deaths. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Five men were nominated for the best performance by an actor in a leading role. Three of them play famous American men during the nineteen fifties and sixties. The three actors changed their appearances and voices to look and sound like the real people. David Strathairn plays Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night, and Good Luck.”? Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote in “Capote.”? And Joaquin Phoenix plays the famous country singer Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”? Heath Ledger was nominated for his role as one of the gay cowboys in “Brokeback Mountain.” And Terrence Howard was nominated for his role in the movie “Hustle and Flow.”? He plays a man who tries to become a rap music singer in Memphis, Tennessee. VOICE ONE: Five women received nominations for best performance by an actress in a leading role. Judy Dench plays a women who owns a musical theater in London during World War Two. Her movie is called “Missus Henderson Presents.”? Keira Knightley plays a young woman in a family of five sisters who seek husbands in nineteenth-century England. The movie is based on the book called “Pride and Prejudice.” Reese Witherspoon plays, and sings the songs of, the famous country music singer June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line.”? Charlize Theron was nominated for the movie “North Country.” She plays a woman who works in a mine. She takes legal action against the male workers who mistreat her. And, in the most unusual role, Felicity Huffman was nominated for “Transamerica.”? She plays a man about to have an operation to become a woman. The man discovers for the first time that he has a teenage son. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Five movies were nominated for best documentary, a movie showing real people and events. “Darwin’s Nightmare” is about the difficult life for the poor people of Tanzania. The movie shows how valuable fish from the country’s waters are sent to rich countries while the people of Tanzania are left hungry. “March of the Penguins” is a French movie about the struggle for survival of emperor penguins in Antarctica. “Murderball” is about disabled American athletes who compete in specially designed wheelchairs in a sport called Quad Rugby. VOICE ONE: Another nominee for best documentary is “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.” It is about the top officials of the formerly powerful energy-trading company. The failure of the company affected the lives of its employees and American business. Two of those Enron officials are currently on trial on charges of plotting to cheat investors. “Street Fight” is the fifth nominee. It is about a recent election for mayor in Newark, New Jersey. The film raises hard questions about American politics, democracy and race. VOICE TWO: More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday. The people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects will receive awards. So will the people who wrote the best screenplays and did the best film and sound editing. Songs from “Crash,” “Hustle and Flow” and “Transamerica” are nominated as best original song. Musical scores from five other movies are nominated for best original score. VOICE ONE: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. Members of the Academy begin the process of choosing award winners. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote to choose the final winners. VOICE TWO: The awards are presented in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the Academy Awards ceremony. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. The women wear beautiful dresses and costly jewelry provided by famous designers. Camera lights flash. The actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the nominees and the winners. Then the winners go up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday night. The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors and technicians. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Study of Women's Health Proves a Headache for Doctors, Patients
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week: the findings of a fifteen-year study of women's health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Results from the Women's Health Initiative, a huge project in the United States, seem to have created more questions than answers. Many doctors are now wondering what advice to give their patients, especially older women. And many patients are wondering what choices to make to improve their health. The National Institutes of Health began the project in nineteen ninety-one. The goal was to learn more about how to prevent major causes of death and disability in older women. These are heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer and the bone-weakening disorder osteoporosis. The studies involved more than one hundred sixty thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. VOICE TWO: One of the major parts of the Women's Health Initiative was a clinical trial. This involved studies of diet, hormone therapy and treatment with calcium and vitamin D. In the end, doctors did not find much of what they had expected to find. For example, doctors have urged people for years to eat a low-fat diet. Studies have suggested that a diet low in fats and high in fruits, vegetables and grains might lower the risk of heart disease. Yet the Women’s Health Initiative found no such link. About fifty thousand women were involved in the diet part of the study. Almost twenty thousand of them were put on a low-fat diet. The others continued with the foods they usually ate. The goal for the women who changed their eating was to meet a daily target of twenty percent energy from fat. But most of them met only about seventy percent of the desired reduction. Researchers followed the progress of the women for an average of eight years. The study used a controlled research design to test the findings of earlier studies. Those studies used observational research. That leaves a greater chance for influences other than diet to affect the results. The results of the new study appeared earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association. VOICE ONE: The researchers say the low-fat diet did not reduce the risk of heart disease. Almost seven percent of the low-fat group suffered heart disease. That compared to just over seven percent of the group without a restricted diet. The difference was small enough that scientists say it could be explained by chance. But the researchers note that the study was not designed to compare the effects of different kinds of fats. Still, they say the findings pointed toward a reduction in heart disease risk in women who decreased their saturated and trans fats the most. VOICE TWO: Both groups in the diet study had similar rates of colorectal cancer. So the low-fat diet did not appear to reduce the risk. The scientists note that this form of cancer can take a long time to develop, so a five-year follow-up study is being done. The women who changed their diet had a nine percent lower rate of breast cancer that those who followed their usual diet. The reduction is considered small enough that it could have resulted from chance. Yet the scientists say there are reasons to think it might not be the result of chance alone. For example, women who started with a higher level of fat in their diet, and did more to lower it, had greater reductions in breast cancer risk. The researchers say it is too soon to know if exercise had any effect on the women in the study. The findings are still being examined. And the study does not answers questions about what effects dietary changes might have on younger women. VOICE ONE: The findings from the tests of added calcium and vitamin D in the diet also surprised many people. The study found that these supplements offered only limited bone improvements. And there was no effect on the risk of colorectal cancer. Eighteen thousand women took calcium and vitamin D; eighteen thousand others took a placebo, an inactive substance. None of the women knew which one they received. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results. VOICE TWO: The results suggest that calcium and vitamin D might reduce the risk of a broken hip in some women, especially those over the age of sixty. But there was no evidence that the supplements prevented other broken bones. The study found that the group that took the calcium and vitamin D had a greater risk of kidney stones. The women had a seventeen percent increase in kidney stones compared to the other group. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. When a woman experiences menopause, her reproductive ability ends. The body produces less and less estrogen and other female hormones. The ovaries no longer release eggs into the uterus and monthly bleeding stops. As a result of these changes, women can experience sweating and intense feelings of heat as they enter menopause. They might also get angry or sad easily. Some women feel extremely tired. Others go through times when they cannot sleep peacefully. To deal with these effects, doctors sometimes treat women with female hormones. This is called hormone replacement therapy. But three years ago the Women's Health Initiative had some bad news for women who took a combination of progestin and estrogen. The study showed that the women who took these two hormones had an increased risk of breast cancer. Researchers halted that part of the study early as a result. VOICE TWO: But even the shortened study provided other findings as well -- and more bad news than good. Researchers say the combined hormone treatment also increased the risk of heart disease and loss of mental abilities from dementia. Yet the women who took progestin and estrogen did show a reduced risk of osteoporosis and colorectal cancer. Another part of the hormone study examined the use of estrogen alone. Estrogen taken alone can cause cancer of the uterus. So the estrogen-alone study only involved women who in the past had to have their uterus removed. About ten thousand women took part in the study. One group took estrogen; another received a placebo. Doctors followed the progress of the women for almost seven years. Overall, the doctors found an increased risk of stroke and blood clots. But they say the estrogen appeared to reduce the risk of osteoporosis. They found no effect on rates of colon cancer. The researchers say the effects on breast cancer were not clear. VOICE ONE: Some researchers noted that younger women in the group that took estrogen appeared to gain some protection from heart disease. For example, they were found to have a lower rate of heart bypass operations than the older women in the group. These findings are from what is called a subgroup. Researchers sometimes question the value of results based on a group within a group. They say the findings might not be as scientifically strong as those based on the full study. Subgroup findings can still be informative, however, and lead to further research. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States government spent more than seven hundred million dollars on the Women’s Health Initiative. People hoping for some simple advice to follow will not find it in the reports. The results are complex. Not all of the women did what they were supposed to do during all of the years of the studies. And some scientists have criticisms of the way the research was designed. Big is not always better, they say. VOICE ONE: Jacques Rossouw, the project officer for the Women's Health Initiative, agrees that the findings are not very clear. Doctor Rossouw has said he shares concerns about how people will understand them. He says the results do not mean that a high-fat diet is fine or that calcium supplements are not useful. People might not like it when studies conflict with widely held beliefs. Yet scientists would argue that testing widely held beliefs is the very nature of scientific study. After all, proof is often a moving target. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bird Flu: Composting the Remains of Farm Birds
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers usually have to destroy all of their chickens and other birds if a case of bird flu is found. Then they face another difficult decision: What to do with the remains?? Some farmers choose composting. They avoid the danger of transporting infected birds, the cost of burning them and the risk that burial could pollute ground water. Composting uses the natural action of microorganisms to break down organic materials. Many agricultural extension services explain ways to compost animal remains. Composting must be carefully controlled. The balance of carbon and nitrogen is very important. A correct nutrient balance requires extra material like dry grass or pieces of wood. These materials are called bulking agents. Also, the compost must hold the right amount of water. Too little, and bacteria cannot do their job; too much, and air will not reach all the compost. The mixture should reach temperatures between fifty-seven and about sixty-three degrees Celsius. If the pile begins to smell bad, this could be a sign that ammonia is building up. Adding the chemical ferrous sulfate can help solve this problem. Experts say a simple way to compost farm birds is to create a windrow. A windrow is simply a mass of material. It should be three to four meters wide and about two meters high. It can be as long as space permits. A windrow this size should contain three levels of birds, placed between layers of bulking agent. Windrows should not be near be homes, animal shelters or water resources. Experts say one thousand birds weighing a little over one kilogram each would need about ten cubic meters of bulking material. The material should be placed loosely so air can pass through it. The windrow should take about one week to reach a high temperature. After another week to ten days, the temperature will begin to drop. At this point, the windrow must be turned. Turn all the material completely. If it is too dry, add water. If it is too wet, add more bulking agent. Completely bury any bird remains that might be uncovered. Experts say that after about three to four weeks more, the compost should be ready to use as fertilizer. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and hear our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. We also have a link to detailed information from the University of Maryland on composting poultry. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Women Around the World Continue to Struggle for Their Rights
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: A woman votes in Uganda's elections on February 23And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about efforts women are making around the world to gain equality. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the past few months, women have been elected the leaders of Germany, Liberia and Chile. Throughout the world, women are taking steps to improve their rights and increase their freedom. Yet, they have also suffered problems in their struggle for equality. In many parts of the world, women have almost no voice in politics and government. Their human rights are also denied. Sexual attack, violence in the home, even murder are crimes that women in many parts of the world face daily. VOICE TWO: The international community has taken steps to protect and enforce the rights of women. More than twenty-five years ago, the United Nations approved a treaty called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The nineteen seventy-nine treaty is considered a bill of rights for women. To date, one hundred eighty nations have approved the treaty. But, women in many of these countries are still treated as unequal citizens. The U.N. estimates half a million women die every year while having babies. The number of women and girls in the world infected with H.I.V. and AIDS is growing. Often this is the result of a sexual attack. And, violence against women, forced labor and human trafficking of young females continue. VOICE ONE: Janet Walsh is an official of the organization Human Rights Watch. She says many nations that approved the treaty accept mistreatment of women as normal. These governments, she says, see human rights violations against women as private family or cultural issues. Experts point to Russia as one example. A report by the human rights group Amnesty International says about nine thousand women in Russia are killed each year by a husband, partner or other family member. Amnesty International worker Friederike Behr says Russian officials are doing little to solve the problem. She says they do not recognize violence in the family as a serious crime. Mizz Behr says that Russia needs to pass criminal laws that recognize violence against women as a violation of human rights. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Kashmiri women reach out for aid three days after the powerful South Asia earthquake on October 11Experts say violence against women in their homes is a serious problem in Pakistan as well. Such domestic violence is considered culturally acceptable and a personal issue. Human Rights Watch says that Pakistani women struggle in other ways as well. Girls are forced into marriages, young women are kept out of school, and men have complete control over their families. Experts say hundreds of Pakistani women are murdered every year by their families. They are victims of so-called honor killings. They are suspected of doing something to dishonor their families, such as having a sexual relationship. The women are either killed or injured so severely that they are forced to leave their families. VOICE ONE: The Pakistani government has declared honor killings a crime punishable by death. It has also taken steps to protect women who marry against their parents’ wishes. Human rights activists in Pakistan have also launched a campaign against a severe Islamic law known as the Hudood Ordinance. Under this law, women who fail to prove that they have been raped face criminal charges. Women’s rights activists say the law protects rapists and punishes victims. They say the law has sent more than twenty thousand mostly innocent women to prison. However, religious groups in Pakistan oppose any changes to the law. They say it protects traditional Islamic values. VOICE TWO: Islamic traditions have influenced women’s rights in the Middle East as well. For example, Sheikha Yousef Hasan Al Gerifi was campaigning for city council in Qatar. Her family refused to let her put pictures of herself in campaign information. Most Qatari women cover themselves, including their faces, when they appear in public. But she won her election anyway. However, most women in Arab nations have a very hard time getting elected. In Bahrain, for example, thirty-nine women ran for local and national office in two thousand two. Not a single woman was elected. VOICE ONE: Political scientist Hala Mustafa at the Al-Ahram Foundation in Egypt says few Arab countries have a sizeable number of women in government. But, small changes are beginning. In Egyptian parliamentary elections last year, only four female candidates were elected. President Hosni Mubarak increased the total number of women in parliament by giving them five of the ten appointed seats after the election. In Kuwait, women were given the right to vote for the first time in May. Their first election will be next year. Women’s rights activists say they are excited that women’s voices will finally be heard through their votes. Yet, they say they do not expect much to come of it. Change is also starting to happen in Jordan. Two years ago, the government approved a measure to guarantee that at least six women were elected to parliament. Morocco and Algeria have high numbers of women in parliament compared to other countries in the area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The fight for a political voice and equal rights for women in Africa is also gaining strength. In January, Liberia swore in its first elected female leader. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf says one of her goals is to guarantee that men who sexually attack women are punished. Liberia’s temporary parliament took steps in this direction recently by passing a rape law. It calls for sentences of between seven years and life in jail depending on the seriousness of the crime. Rape is also a serious problem in refugee camps in other countries, including Ivory Coast. Women’s rights activists there say the camps are not secure. So women become victims of sexual crimes in the one place they are seeking safety. VOICE ONE: In Kenya and Uganda, the lives of women are linked to their husbands. Laws in these countries give women the right to own and control land and property. Yet, tradition and custom often prevent them from receiving what is rightfully theirs. When a women’s husband dies, his relatives often seize the land and possessions. The woman is forced to leave her home. In cases when a marriage ends, joint property is not evenly divided. Often, the man claims everything. Women’s activists in Africa are trying to change this. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Women in the United States have an easier time owning property. They also have more educational, professional and political choices than in the past. Yet, they still face struggles in the fight for equality. Susan Scanlan heads the National Council of Women’s Organizations. She says the average American woman has a high school education but did not go to college. She owns a house with her husband and has a job to help support her family. In addition to working away from her home, she is also the main caregiver of children at home. The average woman in the United States often cannot pay for health insurance. She is also concerned about having enough money to live after she retires. American women are generally paid less than men. VOICE ONE: Sociology Professor Robert Jackson of New York University has written on women’s issues. He says that American women have more legal rights and a better chance to succeed now than in the late nineteenth century. Considerable progress was made during the women’s movement in the nineteen sixties. At that time, more and more females entered college and started jobs. Professor Jackson believes that pressure from increasingly educated and skilled women now will lead to more equality in the United States. But around the world, the struggle for women’s rights and equality is progressing slowly. Women are about half the population in the world. But experts wonder if they will ever have social, financial, legal, political and professional equality with men. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-28-voa4.cfm
* Headline: W.H.O. Urges Action to Stop Counterfeit Medicines
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report. A warning about street medicinesThe World Health Organization says more effort is needed to stop the trade in counterfeit medicines. The United Nations health agency says countries must work together to fight the growing threat from drugs that are not what they seem. W.H.O. officials discussed the problem during a recent high-level meeting in Rome. Delegates at the conference included representatives of government agencies, consumer groups and the drug industry. Counterfeit medicines trick people into believing they are taking something that will make them well. Instead, it might make them sicker or even kill them. The World Health Organization says counterfeit drugs are part of a wider problem of low-quality medicines. But it says the difference is that they are purposely misidentified. Some contain no active substances. Some contain dangerous substances. Counterfeit drugs can also add to the problem of drug resistance. The World Health Organization says counterfeit medicines are present in all countries. They are thought to represent ten percent of drug sales worldwide. A group in the United States estimates that profits from counterfeit drug sales will reach seventy-five thousand million dollars by two thousand ten. The Center for Medicines in the Public Interest estimated the profits last year at almost forty thousand million dollars. Criminals often target high-demand drug such as antibiotics, malaria drugs and painkillers. Also, with recent fears about bird flu, there have been reports of counterfeiting of the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Experts say the counterfeit drug problem is worst in developing countries. W.H.O. officials say identifying counterfeit medicines is getting more difficult. Criminals are improving their methods. Representatives at the meeting in Rome agreed to create an international expert group. Among its duties, the new group will try to strengthen national laws and establish better systems to identify counterfeit drugs. Counterfeit medicines are often sold on the Internet. But the Internet can also be used to fight the problem. Last year, the W.H.O. set up a Web-based system to gather reports on what it calls "drug cheats" in the western Pacific area. It says this system should be expanded to all areas. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and hear our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-02/2006-02-28-voa5.cfm
* Headline: F-u-n With Broadway's 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'
* Byline: 

 AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a track from the original Broadway cast recording of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." RS:?? The show is a musical satire of spelling competitions and the pressure to "go to Washington" – where, in real life, the best young spellers compete in the National Spelling Bee. VOICE:?? Ms. Peretti. Please spell "syzygy." RONA:???S-y-z-y-g-y. Syzygy? VOICE:???We have a winner! RONA:???Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. CHIP:???At the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeMy parents keep on telling meJust being here is winning.AlthoughI know it isn't so. RONA:?? But it's a very niceVery, very nice ... RONA, CHIP:???Very, very niceVery nice beginning. RONA:???Our winner here last year: Chip Tolentino. SCHWARZY:?? Ms. Peretti! RONA:???And our youngest competitor, Logainne Schwarzandgrubeniere. CONEYBEAR:???At the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling game -- Bee!I'll stand when they announce my name: RONA:???Leaf Coneybear. CONEYBEAR:???And try and keep from shaking. SCHWARZY:???AlasHis shaking will not pass CONEYBEAR/CHIP/RONA/SCHWARZY: 'Cause it's a very big, Very fraught Simple but it's notIt's a very big undertaking. RONA:???Returning after last year's tragic setback, William Barfee. BARFEE:???It's pronounced Barfee, there's an accent egue. RONA:?? I'm not sure who this girl is. MARCY:???Marcy Park. Recent transfer. SCHWARZY:???Winner's destination: Washington, D.C. CHIP/SCHWARZY:???Plasma TVIn a fancy hotel. MARCY/CHIP/SCHWARZY:?? Where they treat you well. ALL:?? All because you love to spell.We spell. RONA:?? It's a marvelous memoryIf you win the spelling bee.One's life improves from A to ZThe minute you are crowned here.I see a trophy held by me!And when I wonDid I swell?Oh the stories I could tell!But braggarts don't do wellAround here. OLIVE:?? Hi, I'm Olive Ostrovsky. Do you know where I check in? BARFEE:?? Shut up! CONEYBEAR:?? At the 25th AnnualWe memorize the manual ... ALL:?? About how to spell these words.Words that require thought.People think we're automatons. But that is exactly what we're not. MARCY:? ?We hear the word. SCHWARZY:?? We breathe. CONEYBEAR:?? We wait. ALL:?? Unlike idiots we ideate. RONA:?? To ideate is to form an image or idea, to think CONEYBEAR:?? At the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee ... SCHWARZY:? ?We feel no animosity. SCHWARZY/OLIVE:?? And yet our heads are spinning. BARFEE:?? We areThe slightest bit bizarre. MARCY:?? But since the time is now ... CONEYBEAR:?? Holy cow! SCHWARZY:? ?We shall make a solemn vowTo concentrate on winning. ALL:?? We concentrate on winning.At the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeWe speak so damn convincingly. RONA:?? They're nervous but they're grinning. GIRLS:???It seemsWe're living out our dreams. BOYS:?? Which is a very niceVery nice, very very very nice ALL:?? Very nice, very niceVery very very niceVery niceBeginning RONA:?? 25th Annual SPELLERS:? ?25th Annual ALL:?? Putnam County Spelling Bee! RS:?? "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" is on stage in New York and San Francisco. A national tour is scheduled to begin later this year. AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week -- online at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Summers Resigns After Five Years as Harvard President
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Education Report. Harvard University President Lawrence Summers announced last week that he will resign as of June thirtieth. The former Treasury secretary has led the nation's oldest and richest university for five years. Education experts say one of his main difficulties was a power struggle with professors who control undergraduate education. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences had been expected to consider a measure this week expressing a lack of support in his leadership. He lost a similar "no confidence" vote a year ago. That happened after he suggested that biological differences may be a reason for the few women in top science and math jobs. Critics called him sexist. Mister Summers apologized. But his comments led Harvard to begin working toward increasing the number of women in science. Soon after he arrived at Harvard, he angered minority groups by criticizing Cornell West, a well-known black studies professor. Mister Summers accused him of grading his students too highly and not carrying out serious research. The dispute led Mister West to leave Harvard for Princeton University. Mister Summers also criticized grade inflation in other classes. A recent conflict involved the resignation of Arts and Sciences Dean William Kirby. Some professors believe Mister Summers dismissed him. Mister Kirby has said it was a joint decision. Opponents say Mister Summers was not able to lead the university effectively. Supporters say he made too many enemies as he worked to improve the university by changing it. Among his efforts, Mister Summers helped make it possible for more students from poor families to attend Harvard. Yet some experts on higher education say his experience at Harvard could affect reform efforts at other schools. The Harvard student newspaper, the Crimson, recently asked undergraduates how they felt about Mister Summers’ leadership. Fifty-seven percent said they supported him. Nineteen percent wanted him to leave. The university is now searching for a new leader. Former president Derek Bok will serve until one is found. Mister Summers plans to spend a year away from Harvard and return as an economics professor. Harvard is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was established in sixteen thirty-six. Gifts and investments have increased its endowment wealth to more than twenty-five thousand million dollars. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and hear our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: America's Economic Life Changes Under President Woodrow Wilson
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Woodrow WilsonA new leader stood before the American people on March fourth, nineteen-thirteen. He was Woodrow Wilson -- the twenty-eighth president of the United States. Wilson belonged to the Democratic Party. He was a progressive Democrat. He believed government should take an active part in efforts for social reforms. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I begin the story of Wilson's administration. VOICE TWO: Woodrow Wilson had spent most of his life at Princeton University. First he was a professor. Then he was university president. Next, Wilson was elected governor of the state of New Jersey. His early success as governor made him a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-twelve. Wilson traveled widely around the country during the campaign. He made speeches to many groups. He tried to make himself and his ideas known to as many Americans as possible. VOICE ONE: Wilson called his program "the new freedom." One of his campaign promises was to fight for better conditions for America's small business owners. William Howard TaftSuch proposals helped him win the Democratic nomination for president. Then he defeated President William Howard Taft and former president Theodore Roosevelt in the election. Woodrow Wilson, the former president of a university, had become the president of a nation. The largest crowd in Washington, D.C.'s history welcomed Wilson outside the Capitol Building on the day of his inauguration. He called on the American people to join him in making the country a better place. "Our duty," Wilson said, "is to correct the evil without hurting the good. I call all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men to my side." VOICE TWO: Wilson wasted no time. He immediately called a special session of Congress to act on Democratic campaign promises to reduce import taxes, or tariffs. Wilson felt strongly about the need to reform these taxes. He broke tradition by leaving the White House to appear before Congress, in person, to appeal for his tariff proposals. Many members of Congress opposed Wilson's plans. But the new president used the results of a Senate investigation to win the fight. The investigation showed that a number of senators owned companies that depended on high tariffs for their profits. The votes of these senators were influenced by their property holdings. Public knowledge of the situation forced many of them to give up their holdings and stop resisting tariff reform. Congress finally approved Wilson's proposals. VOICE ONE: Lower tariffs reduced the amount of money taken in by the federal government. So the Senate also approved a tax on income, or earnings. A constitutional amendment had been passed earlier to permit such a tax. President Wilson and the Democratic Party were pleased with the new tariff and income tax bills. But they were far from finished. Next they turned their efforts to reform of the banking industry. For several years, many people had recognized the need for changes in the banking system. The old system of uncontrolled private banks had developed years earlier, before the United States became a major industrial nation. Many people agreed that a more modern system was needed. But they could not agree on details. VOICE TWO: President Wilson said control of the nation's wealth was held by too few men. He noted a report that said just two men controlled ten percent of the total wealth of the United States. Wilson said the nation needed a money supply that could be increased or reduced, when necessary, to correct economic conditions. He said a method was needed to let banks help each other during economic emergencies. And he said laws were needed to prevent a few wealthy men from using the economic resources of the country for their own purposes. Finally, Wilson said, "The control of this system of banking must be public, not private. It must belong to the government itself." VOICE ONE: Wilson called his proposal for a central bank the Federal Reserve System. Under the plan, the nation would be divided into twelve areas. Each area would have its own federal reserve bank. These area banks would not do business with the public. They would serve only as "bankers' banks. " And they would issue a new form of money supported by the federal government. Most important, the leaders of the new system would be chosen by the government. . . not by private business. VOICE TWO: Bankers, business leaders, and their representatives in Congress sharply criticized President Wilson's proposals. They said government control of the banking system was socialism, not capitalism. But Wilson refused to change his proposals. And he helped to lead the fight to make them law. Finally, Congress agreed. It did not take long for bankers to discover that the new system was much better than the old one. Today, the Federal Reserve System is one of the most important institutions in the United States. VOICE ONE: For Woodrow Wilson, the fight over the banking system was yet another political success. He had won major reforms in the nation's tariffs, taxes, and banking systems. Now he told Congress that new legislation was needed to control the power of monopolies and trusts. These were the giant companies and business alliances that controlled complete industries. Wilson proposed a new anti-trust law to control the actions of large companies. His supporters in Congress wrote a bill that listed a number of business activities that no longer would be permitted. For example, no longer could a company set prices that would reduce competition or create a monopoly. No longer could corporations buy stocks of competing companies. No longer could they demand that a store refuse to sell competing products. The new bill also protected labor unions from being charged with anti-trust violations. It gave unions more power to organize and protect workers. VOICE TWO: At President Wilson's request, Congress also prepared a law that set up a government agency called the Federal Trade Commission. The commission was given the job of investigating wrong-doing in business. It had the power to force companies to obey the new anti-trust laws and other rules. Both the anti-trust law and the Federal Trade Commission helped protect small business owners from the power of business giants. Once again, the proposals caused fierce debate. But, once again, Congress finally voted to give Wilson most of what he wanted. VOICE ONE: The early months of Wilson's term were one of the most successful times in the history of any president. The new president had won the election by promising major reforms in the economic life of the country. And he had kept that promise. The reforms were not only a victory for Woodrow Wilson. They also changed the face of American business and economics for many years to come. The income tax, for example, grew to become the federal government's main source of money. VOICE TWO: Woodrow Wilson had taught history in the days when he was a professor at Princeton University. He knew his actions as president could influence the country for a long time. But, as a historian, he also knew his own term in the White House could be changed by unexpected events. That is just what happened. Wilson campaigned for president mainly on national issues. But he soon was forced to spend more and more time on international issues. His first big problem was across the United States' southern border. . . In Mexico. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of President Woodrow Wilson. (PROMO) (PROMO) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Program Will Soon Make It Easier to Travel to U.S.
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play songs nominated for an Academy Award … Answer a question about American English … And report about new rules for traveling to the United States. Travel to the United States Visiting the United States will soon become easier for international travelers under a new government plan. Barbara Klein tells us more about this new program. BARBARA KLEIN: Travel to the United States decreased after the terrorist attacks of two thousand one. In reaction to the attacks, the United States government increased security requirements for travelers. These requirements have caused long lines in airports and extended searches of passengers and their belongings. Businesses and universities have become increasingly concerned that the problems involved with travel have reduced the number of foreign visitors. But recently, the Bush administration announced a plan it says will improve security at the nation’s borders, while welcoming foreign visitors. The plan uses improved technology to speed up security processes. Officials say the new system will reduce problems that often delay the approval of international travel documents, or visas. People coming to the United States to study at American colleges will receive visas that permit them to remain in the country for longer periods of time. Under the new program, travelers will no longer be required to appear at American diplomatic offices in their country to be questioned for visas. Instead, they can be questioned at local offices throughout their country on live video broadcasts. The government plan also includes changes at American airports to make foreign visitors feel more welcome when they arrive in the United States. This program will first be tested at airports in Houston, Texas and Washington, D.C. Foreign travelers arriving in the United States through these airports will receive helpful information and personal assistance. New passports, called e-passports, will also be created. These documents will contain biological information on computer chips. The biological information makes it difficult to copy the passports for illegal use. Other governments in addition to the United States are also beginning to develop these documents. American and British English HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iraq. Harbey Muhammad Ali asks about differences between American and British English. Language experts say that spoken English was almost the same in the American colonies and Britain. Americans began to change the sound of their speech after the Revolutionary War in seventeen seventy-six. They wanted to separate themselves from the British in language as they had separated themselves from the British government. Some American leaders proposed major changes in the language. Benjamin Franklin wanted a new system of spelling. His reforms were rejected. But his ideas influenced others. One was Noah Webster. Webster wrote language books for schools. He thought Americans should learn from American books. He published his first spelling book in seventeen eighty-three. Webster published The American Dictionary of the English Language in eighteen twenty-eight. It established rules for speaking and spelling the words used in American English. Webster believed that British English spelling rules were too complex. So he worked to establish an American version of the English language. For example, he spelled the word “center” “c-e-n-t-e-r” instead of the British spelling, “c-e-n-t-r-e”. He spelled the word “honor” “h-o-n-o-r” instead of “h-o-n-o-u-r” as it is spelled in Britain. Noah Webster said every part of a word should be spoken. That is why Americans say “sec-re-ta-ry” instead of “sec-re-t’ry” as the British do. Webster’s rule for saying every part of a word made American English easier for immigrants to learn. For example, they learned to say “waist-coat” the way it is spelled instead of the British “wes-kit”. The different languages of the immigrants who came to the United States also helped make American English different from British English. Many foreign words and expressions became part of English as Americans speak it. Sometimes Americans and British people do not understand each other because of different word meanings. For example, a “jumper” in Britain is a sweater. In the United States, it is a kind of a dress. The British word “brolly” is an “umbrella” in America. A “wastebasket” in America is a “dustbin” in Britain. French fried potatoes in the United States are called “chips” in Britain. All these differences led British writer George Bernard Shaw to joke that Britain and America are two countries separated by the same language. Oscar Nominated Songs The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present its Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, Sunday night. Bob Doughty tells us about the nominees for the best song written for a movie. BOB DOUGHTY: Three songs were nominated for the best original song. This one is from the movie “Crash."? Michael Becker and Kathleen “Bird” York wrote “In The Deep.”? York sings it. (MUSIC) The second Oscar-nominated song is from the movie “Hustle and Flow.”? Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard wrote the song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” Country singer Dolly Parton wrote and performs the final original song nominated for an Academy Award. It is from the movie “Transamerica.”? We leave you now with that song, “Travelin’ Thru.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Organizing a Business to Meet Different Needs
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual proprietorship. The proprietor owns all the property of the business and is responsible for everything. This means the proprietor receives all the profits -- but must also pay any debts. The law recognizes no difference between the owner and the business. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls. There are limited liability partnerships. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits. But they also do not have as many responsibilities. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share the profits and risks of doing business. A husband and wife can form a business partnership. Partnerships can end at any time. But partnerships and individual proprietorships exist only as long as the owners are alive. The most complex kind of business organization is the corporation. Corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. Corporations can sell stock to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company might use some of its earnings to pay shareholders what are called dividends. Or the company might reinvest the money into the business. If shares lose value, investors can lose all the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. A corporation is recognized as an entity -- its own legal being, separate from its owners. A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation. Corporations can have a few major shareholders. Or ownership can be spread among the general public. Incorporating offers businesses a way to gain the investments they need to grow. But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. There are non-profit groups that are also organized as corporations. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: As New Orleans Marks Mardi Gras, a Dispute Affects a Deal Tied to Its Port and Five Others
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. American lawmakers continue to debate the sale of some operations at six ports in the United States to a Dubai company. Democrats want Congress to have the right to disapprove the deal. Influential Republicans have also spoken out against the sale. There are calls to make national security more of a concern in approving foreign investments in the United States. But leaders of the Republican majority in Congress say they want to wait until a new investigation is completed before they consider any measures. The Dubai Ports World company has agreed to delay taking control of the operations until after the forty-five day investigation. The sale involves port terminals where goods are loaded and unloaded from ships. DP World is buying these and others around the world from a British company. On Thursday, a British High Court judge approved the sale of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. But he agreed to place a hold on the ruling until a Miami-based company can go before the Court of Appeal. Eller and Company objects to the sale which it says could harm its business. The court is expected to hear a request for an appeal on Monday. American officials approved the deal after a thirty-day investigation. Foreign companies own about eighty percent of the terminals at American ports. DP World is owned by the government of Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates. Critics say the U.A.E. has a mixed record in fighting terrorism. Others argue that the deal will have little effect on port security. They say security is mainly the responsibility of federal agencies. The American Association of Port Authorities represents public agencies that own ports around the country. The group has not taken a position on the issue. But it notes that news reports have been wrong to suggest that DP World would "own," "control" or "take over" the ports. The six ports are in New York City, Philadelphia, Newark, Miami, Baltimore and New Orleans. Second Chief Lil Bo performs with the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indian gangNew Orleans was in the news this week for another reason. Celebrations of Mardi Gras came to a close. Six months ago, most of New Orleans was under water when floodwalls failed during Hurricane Katrina. The terrible effects of the storm are still easy to see. This week city officials renewed a search for bodies, looking for three hundred to four hundred missing people. More than a thousand bodies were found after the storm. Officials say New Orleans normally has about one million visitors for Mardi Gras. This year, the number was estimated at three hundred thousand. There were parades, but fewer of the usual parties. Store owners say their sales are down about forty percent. For a full report on New Orleans after Katrina, listen at this time for THIS IS AMERICA on Monday, March thirteenth. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Rappaccini's Daughter, Part 1
* Byline: Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We will tell the story in two parts. Here is Kay Gallant with the first part of our story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Many years ago, a young man named Giovanni Guasconti left his home in Naples to study in northern Italy. He rented a small room on the top floor of a dark and ancient palace. Long ago, the building had belonged to a noble family. Now, an old woman, Signora Lisabetta, rented its rooms to students at the University of Padua. Giovanni’s room had a small window. From it he could see a large garden that had many plants and flowers. “Does the garden belong to you?” he asked Signora Lisabetta one day. “Oh no!” she said quickly. “That garden belongs to the famous doctor, Giacomo Rappaccini. People say he uses those plants to make strange kinds of medicine. He lives in that small brown house in the garden with his daughter, Beatrice.” Giovanni often sat by his window to look at the garden. He had never seen so many different kinds of plants. They all had enormous green leaves and magnificent flowers in every color of the rainbow. Giovanni’s favorite plant was in a white marble vase near the house. It was covered with big purple flowers. One day, while Giovani was looking out his window, he saw an old man in a black cape walking in the garden. The old man was tall and thin. His face was an unhealthy yellow color. His black eyes were very cold. The old man wore thick gloves on his hands and a mask over his mouth and nose. He walked carefully among the plants, as if he were walking among wild animals or poisonous snakes. Although he looked at the flowers very closely, he did not touch or smell any of them. When the old man arrived at the plant with the big purple flowers, he stopped. He took off his mask and called loudly, “Beatrice! Come help me!” “I am coming, Father. What do you want?” answered a warm young voice from inside the house. A young woman came into the garden. Her thick, dark hair fell around her shoulders in curls. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were large and black. She seemed full of life, health and energy as she walked among the plants. Giovanni thought she was as beautiful as the purple flowers in the marble vase. The old man said something to her. She nodded her head as she touched and smelled the flowers that her father had been so careful to avoid. Several weeks later, Giovanni went to visit Pietro Baglioni, a friend of his father’s. Professor Baglioni taught medicine at the university. During the visit, Giovanni asked about Doctor Rappaccini. “He is a great scientist,” Professor Baglioni replied. “But he is also a dangerous man.” “Why?” asked Giovanni. The older man shook his head slowly. “Because Rappaccini cares more about science than he does about people. He has created many terrible poisons from the plants in his garden. He thinks he can cure sickness with these poisons. It is true that several times he has cured a very sick person that everyone thought would die. But Rappaccini’s medicine has also killed many people. I think he would sacrifice any life, even his own, for one of his experiments.” “But what about his daughter?” Giovanni said. “I’m sure he loves her.” The old professor smiled at the young man. “So,” he said, “You have heard about Beatrice Rappaccini. People say she is very beautiful. But few men in Padua have ever seen her. She never leaves here father’s garden.” Giovanni left professor Baglione’s house as the sun was setting. On his way home, he stopped at a flower shop where he bought some fresh flowers. He returned to his room and sat by the window. Very little sunlight was left. The garden was quiet. The purple flowers on Giovanni’s favorite plant seemed to glow in the evening’s fading light. Then someone came out of the doorway of the little brown house. It was Beatrice. She entered the garden and walked among the plants. She bent to touch the leaves of a plant or to smell a flower. Rappaccini’s daughter seemed to grow more beautiful with each step. When she reached the purple plant, she buried her face in its flowers. Giovanni heard her say “Give me your breath, my sister. The ordinary air makes me weak. And give me one of your beautiful flowers.” Beatrice gently broke off one of the largest flowers. As she lifted it to put it in her dark hair, a few drops of liquid from the flower fell to the ground. One of the drops landed on the head of a tiny lizard crawling near the feet of Beatrice. For a moment the small animal twisted violently. Then it moved no more. Beatrice did not seem surprised. She sighed and placed the flower in her hair. Giovanni leaned out of the window so he could see her better. At this moment, a beautiful butterfly flew over the garden wall. It seemed to be attracted by Beatrice and flew once around her head. Then, the insect’s bright wings stopped and it fell to the ground dead. Beatrice shook her head sadly. Suddenly, she looked up at Giovanni’s window. She saw the young man looking at her. Giovanni picked up the flowers he had bought and threw them down to her. “Young lady,” he said, “Wear these flowers as a gift from Giovanni Guasconti.” “Thank you,” Beatrice answered. She picked up the flowers from the ground and quickly ran to the house. She stopped at the door for a moment to wave shyly to Giovanni. It seemed to him that his flowers were beginning to turn brown in her hands. For many days, the young man stayed away from the window that looked out on Rappaccini’s garden. He wished he had not talked to Beatrice because now he felt under the power of her beauty. He was a little afraid of her, too. He could not forget how the little lizard and the butterfly had died. One day, while he was returning home from his classes, he met Professor Baglioni on the street. “Well, Giovanni,” the old man said, “have you forgotten me?” Then he looked closely at the young man. “What is wrong, my friend? Your appearance has changed since the last time we met.” It was true. Giovanni had become very thin. His face was white, and his eyes seemed to burn with fever. As they stood talking, a man dressed in a long black cape came down the street. He moved slowly, like a person in poor health. His face was yellow, but his eyes were sharp and black. It was the man Giovanni had seen in the garden. As he passed them, the old man nodded coldly to Professor Baglioni. But he looked at Giovanni with a great deal of interest. “It’s Doctor Rappaccini!” Professor Baglioni whispered after the old man had passed them. “Has he ever seen your face before?” Giovanni shook his head. “No,” he answered, “I don’t think so.” Professor Baglioni looked worried. “I think he has seen you before. I know that cold look of his! He looks the same way when he examines an animal he has killed in one of his experiments. Giovanni, I will bet my life on it. You are the subject of one of Rappaccini’s experiments!” Giovanni stepped away from the old man. “You are joking,” he said. “No, I am serious.” The professor took Giovanni’s arm. “Be careful, my young friend. You are in great danger.” Giovanni pulled his arm away. “I must be going,” he said, “Good night.” As Giovanni hurried to his room, he felt confused and a little frightened. Signora Lisabetta was waiting for him outside his door. She knew he was interested in Beatrice. “I have good news for you,” she said. “I know where there is a secret entrance into Rappaccini’s garden.” Giovanni could not believe his ears. “Where is it?” he asked. “Show me the way.” (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard part one of the story called "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant. Listen next week for the final part of our story. This is Shep O’Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Do Vaccines Reach the Developing World?
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Several weeks ago, we reported about two vaccines to protect young children against a common cause of intestinal infection. Studies showed the vaccines were effective against the disease rotavirus. Rotavirus is a leading killer of young children in the developing world. More than five hundred thousand die from it each year. Rotavirus can cause severe diarrhea, or watery wastes. The loss of fluids robs them of salts and body fluids. Last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved one of the vaccines, called RotaTeq. Also, an advisory committee suggested that RotaTeq be given to all babies. The committee sets vaccination policy in the United States. The drug maker Merck and company manufactures RotaTeq. The company says RotaTeq should be given three times to babies between the ages of six and thirty-two weeks. Merck plans to sell a single treatment of the vaccine for about sixty-two dollars. The complete treatment would cost more than one hundred eighty dollars. This would make RotaTeq one of the most costly vaccines ever sold. Critics say many poor people will suffer because the price is too high. Merck has stated that it will offer RotaTeq to developing countries at reduced prices. However, the company does not expect any action until a study of the vaccine is completed in Africa and Asia. Merck hopes the study will begin by the end of this year. Getting new drugs and vaccines into developing countries has become an international issue. Several methods have proven effective. For example, developing countries can import less costly copies of the drugs or negotiate reduced prices with drug makers. Also, rich nations, aid groups or other organizations can buy drugs at reduced prices. They can then provide them for free or at a low cost to developing countries. Drug makers can also agree to let manufacturers in developing counties produce copies. One example is the Swiss-based drug maker Roche. Roche has offered technical help to companies in developing countries for production of the drug Saquinavir. It is used to treat persons infected with the virus that causes the disease AIDS. Merck says it is investigating a number of methods to see how best to get RotaTeq to children in the developing world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Winslow Homer: American Painter
* Byline: Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People In America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Winslow Homer, considered to be the greatest American artist of the nineteenth century. Homer created pictures that showed the relationship between humans and nature. The strong, clear images he drew and painted matched the wild, developing and proud United States of the late eighteen hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Winslow Homer was the second of three sons of Henrietta Benson and Charles Savage Homer. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in eighteen thirty-six and grew up in Cambridge. His father was an importer of tools and other goods. His mother was a painter. Winslow got his interest in drawing and painting from his mother. But his father also supported his son’s interest. Once, on a business trip to London, Charles Homer bought a set of drawing examples for his son to copy. Young Winslow used these to develop his early skill. VOICE TWO: Winslow’s older brother Charles went to Harvard University in Cambridge. The family expected Winslow would go, too. But, at the time, Harvard did not teach art. So Winslow’s father found him a job as an assistant in the trade of making and preparing pictures for printed media. At age nineteen, Winslow learned the process of lithography. This work was the only formal training that Winslow ever received in art. VOICE ONE: Winslow did this work for about two years. Then the young man decided to become an independent illustrator, someone who makes drawings and pictures for a living. He worked in Boston for a few years, drawing illustrations for stories in several newspapers. He also did work for a magazine that was different from any other of the time. Harper’s Weekly, in New York City, needed good illustrations and had lots of space for them. The young Winslow began to establish himself as an artist in demand. VOICE TWO: In eighteen fifty-nine, Winslow Homer moved to New York City to work for Harper’s Weekly. Homer also started to paint seriously. He hoped to go to Europe to study painting. But, something would intervene that would change the direction of Winslow Homer’s artistic work. Harper’s magazine would send him to draw pictures of the biggest event in American history since independence. It was the Civil War between the Union and the rebel southern states. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Winslow Homer went to Washington, D.C., in eighteen sixty-one. He drew pictures of the campaign of Union Army General George McClellan the next year. His pictures of the war showed the many ways that conflicts affect people. In one illustration, he showed Union soldiers on horses advancing heroically. The Southern Confederate soldiers are shown forced under the feet of the horses, while the horsemen hold their swords high. The illustration is called "The War for the Union, Eighteen Sixty-Two — A Cavalry Charge." VOICE TWO: In another famous illustration, "The Army of the Potomac — A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty," Homer showed a different side of war. A soldier sitting in a tree is holding a rifle. He is aiming at a target far in the distance. Many critics say the picture shows the cold, mechanical nature of warfare, bringing death to the unsuspecting. Winslow Homer also made a famous painting called "Home, Sweet Home." It shows two soldiers listening to music played by military musicians. This was common during the Civil War. At the end of the day, musicians on both sides would play to raise the spirits of soldiers. Often they would play the song "Home, Sweet Home." Homer painted two Union soldiers preparing a meal. The musicians are in the distance. The two soldiers appear to be stopped in the middle of their preparations by thoughts of home and family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics widely praised Homer’s work during the Civil War. His work gained him membership in what is now called the National Academy. One painting, "Prisoners from the Front," was chosen to represent the United States at the Exposition Universelle. This event was held in Paris, France in eighteen sixty-six. Homer went to Europe for the first time. However, little is known about his stay in Europe. VOICE TWO: The next major change in Winslow Homer’s life was a decision to work in a new medium. Until now, Homer had used oil-based paints. Colorful substances are mixed with oil. These thick paints can be spread in layers, one over another, to produce interesting effects of light and color. Oil paints are usually put on canvas cloth. Most people consider oil painting "serious painting." But in the summer of eighteen seventy-three, Homer began using watercolor paint. VOICE ONE: Watercolor paint is color, or pigment, dissolved in water. The paint is thin. Sometimes you can see through the paint to the paper underneath. Watercolor paint can be used to color drawings or by itself. It is a much faster medium than oil painting. But it is a different and difficult skill to learn. Homer’s decision to use watercolor may have been connected with another major decision. Two years after he started using watercolor, he stopped illustrating for magazines like Harper’s. In doing so, he ended a good way to earn a living. Instead, he decided to make a living only from selling his paintings. He was completely independent. Just as he said he always wanted to be. VOICE TWO: One of Homer’s best paintings from this period is called "Breezing Up." It was shown for the first time in eighteen seventy-six. It shows three boys and a man in a small sailboat. A strong wind fills the sails. The man pulls in the sail, causing the boat to gain speed. One of the boys holds?the rudder, which controls the direction of the boat. The two other younger boys hold on for the ride. "Breezing Up" is considered one of Homer’s finest paintings. Today, it is part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the late eighteen seventies, experts say Homer experienced some kind of crisis. Before, he had been a very social person. But after this period, he withdrew from social activities. Some critics say he had an unhappy relationship with a woman. Whatever changed him, Homer must have felt a need to escape. He traveled to Britain in eighteen eighty-one. He spent most of his time in the fishing village of Cullercoats, near New Castle. There he painted many pictures of life and events on and near the sea. VOICE TWO: Homer returned to the United States the following year. He settled in Prouts Neck, Maine. He would call it home for the rest of his life. His brothers, Arthur and Charles, both owned houses there. It appeared that Homer withdrew from social life. He avoided visits from people wanting to meet America’s greatest living painter. But Homer’s later life was also filled with travel, which provided subjects for his paintings. He visited warm places – Bermuda, the Bahamas, Cuba and the American state of Florida. He made several trips to fish and to paint. In these places, he used bright watercolor paints. VOICE ONE: Homer also spent time in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. There he found rich subject matter in the people, hunters and wildlife of the area. But now, a new subject became more important in his work. As he grew older, Homer increasingly painted subjects facing death. One of Homer’s last paintings is called "Right and Left." It shows two ducks that have just been shot by a hunter as they fly above the surface of a wide expanse of water. The painting is named for a hunter’s trick. It describes how a hunter can use both barrels of a shotgun to bring down two birds very quickly. In the painting, the water and sky are grey. It is very early in the morning. If you look carefully at the painting, you can see two small points of the color orange. Looking closer still, you can see that one is a small part of a rising sun. The other is more surprising. It is the firing of the shotgun. Almost hidden behind one of the falling ducks is the boat carrying the hunter. Here, Homer did something very unusual. The observer of the painting is directly in the line of gunfire. VOICE TWO: Winslow Homer died at Prouts Neck, Maine, in nineteen ten. He was firmly established as America’s greatest painter of the time. You can see many painting by Winslow Homer online at the National Gallery’s Web site, www.nga.gov. Click on Search and enter the name Winslow Homer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Ballroom Appeal Gives Americans Dancing Feet, in Step With Times
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we take you out on the dance floor for a report on ballroom dancing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The two dancers step slowly at first, then move into faster rhythms. Soon their feet fly across the wooden dance floor. Their bodies move apart, and then close together. They look into each other's eyes. The woman wears a long, shining gold dress. Or it might be a dress that leaves little to the imagination. The man wears a black tuxedo over a white shirt. He raises the woman off the floor and spins her over his head. She lands on her feet and slides back into his arms. VOICE TWO: For some people, this kind of dancing is a sport. The best of them take part in high-level competitions. Some perform at the Olympics, though they cannot yet compete for medals. But for most people, ballroom dancing is just for fun. Either as a sport or a social activity, this traditional kind of dance has captured the American imagination in new ways in recent years. People of all ages are trying it, especially young people. They learn the steps, then add their own. Millions of people also enjoy watching ballroom dancers compete. ABC Television has had great success with a show called “Dancing with the Stars." VOICE ONE: "Dancing with the Stars" works like this: Stars are teamed with professional dancers. At first, some of the stars clearly have trouble. They miss steps. Or they cannot follow the lead of their partner. But in time most improve. People watching at home vote for the couples they like best. They do this by telephone or online. Their votes are combined with the votes of professional judges on the show. The results are announced a few days later on a second show. The man and woman with the lowest score are removed from the competition. This goes on until one couple wins. Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke win the second season of 'Dancing with the Stars'Last week musician Drew Lachey and dancer Cheryl Burke won the second season of "Dancing with the Stars."? Lachey had called the big shining prize an "ugly trophy," but was clearly happy to win it. "Dancing with the Stars" is the American version of the BBC series "Strictly Come Dancing." VOICE TWO: Public broadcaster PBS recently had a two-part special called "America's Ballroom Challenge.”? The top winners were Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova of New Jersey. They have been national champions two times in professional Latin American dance. And they have represented the United States in the World Latin American Dance Championships three times. They became dance partners in Moscow. They moved to the United States in nineteen ninety-nine and got married. On the "Ballroom Challenge" colorfully dressed dancers competed for the honor of "America’s Best."? The dances included the traditional, high-energy music of the Spanish bullring. VOICE ONE: Ballrooms dancers have to plot their moves carefully. But even with skilled dancers, things sometimes go wrong. They crash into each other. Or they might push another couple off the dance floor. When that happens during a competition, people might wonder if it was really an accident. Yet when the music is demanding, the dancers have to move fast. They have to lead, follow or get out of the way. (MUSIC ) VOICE TWO : Another television show is “Ballroom Bootcamp” on TLC. Boot camp is the name for the training the makes people into soldiers -- very demanding, in other words. In "Ballroom Bootcamp," three average people are chosen to learn one kind of ballroom dance. Their teachers can do anything they think is needed to make excellent dancers of their students. When the lessons are finished, each new dancer joins a professional dancer. Then they take part in a competition with judges approved by the National Dance Council of America. VOICE ONE: Ballroom dancing can also be found at the movies. There was a movie last year called "Mad Hot Ballroom."? It follows some real schoolchildren in New York City as they learn ballroom dancing in the fifth grade. They take part in a citywide competition. Some of the children really get into the spirit. A movie called “Take the Lead" opens in theaters on April seventh. The creators got their idea from a true story as well. "Take the Lead" stars Antonio Banderas. He plays Pierre Dulaine, a ballroom dancer who offers his skills at a high school in a poor area of New York City. But these young people do not want to learn ballroom dancing. What interests them is hip-hop. So the two forms are combined. VOICE TWO:?????? Jennifer Lopez taught Richard Gere in the two thousand four movie “Shall We Dance?”? But the renewed interest in ballroom dancing is not so new. In nineteen ninety-two, for example, there was an Australian movie called “Strictly Ballroom.”? ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first steps for many ballroom dancers are through the doors of a dance school. Some of the students are teenagers. Some are much older. And some just want to learn to dance for a special event, like a party or a wedding. Dance school teachers say their students especially like the cha cha, the rumba and the samba. Does this samba make you feel like dancing? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each week hundreds of people gather in the Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo Park in Glen Echo, Maryland. Last month, the Washington Swing Dance Committee presented a seven-piece band called the Junkyard Saints. The band’s New Orleans kind of party music set the rhythm for swing and other dances. Swing was not always considered a ballroom dance. But in recent times many ballroom dancers have liked it and asked for more. VOICE ONE: “Swing” describes different kinds of fast dancing. Many locally popular versions developed across the country. People enjoyed dances like the Lindy and the Jitterbug at the Savoy Ballroom in New York's Harlem area. The Savoy opened in nineteen twenty-six. The best African-American bands played swinging jazz there. Swing has changed and developed in new ways over the years. But it is still fast and demands lots of energy in those dancing feet. Waltzes are slower. They can be very romantic. The dancers move to the rhythm of one-two-three, one-two-three. Listen as the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra plays a Strauss waltz. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ballroom dancing is something many people's grandparents did. But their grandparents might not recognize some of the new versions popular today. Joyce is a ballroom dancer in the Washington, D.C., area. She goes dancing once a week. She and a friend do the most modern dances. But what Joyce likes dancing to most is a smooth nineteen-forties piece performed by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Joyce is over eighty years old. She says “In the Mood” makes her feel young again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2007-02-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Winslow Homer: American Painter
* Byline: Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People In America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Winslow Homer, considered to be the greatest American artist of the nineteenth century. Homer created pictures that showed the relationship between humans and nature. The strong, clear images he drew and painted matched the wild, developing and proud United States of the late eighteen hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Winslow Homer was the second of three sons of Henrietta Benson and Charles Savage Homer. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in eighteen thirty-six and grew up in Cambridge. His father was an importer of tools and other goods. His mother was a painter. Winslow got his interest in drawing and painting from his mother. But his father also supported his son’s interest. Once, on a business trip to London, Charles Homer bought a set of drawing examples for his son to copy. Young Winslow used these to develop his early skill. VOICE TWO: Winslow’s older brother Charles went to Harvard University in Cambridge. The family expected Winslow would go, too. But, at the time, Harvard did not teach art. So Winslow’s father found him a job as an assistant in the trade of making and preparing pictures for printed media. At age nineteen, Winslow learned the process of lithography. This work was the only formal training that Winslow ever received in art. VOICE ONE: Winslow did this work for about two years. Then the young man decided to become an independent illustrator, someone who makes drawings and pictures for a living. He worked in Boston for a few years, drawing illustrations for stories in several newspapers. He also did work for a magazine that was different from any other of the time. Harper’s Weekly, in New York City, needed good illustrations and had lots of space for them. The young Winslow began to establish himself as an artist in demand. VOICE TWO: In eighteen fifty-nine, Winslow Homer moved to New York City to work for Harper’s Weekly. Homer also started to paint seriously. He hoped to go to Europe to study painting. But, something would intervene that would change the direction of Winslow Homer’s artistic work. Harper’s magazine would send him to draw pictures of the biggest event in American history since independence. It was the Civil War between the Union and the rebel southern states. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Winslow Homer went to Washington, D.C., in eighteen sixty-one. He drew pictures of the campaign of Union Army General George McClellan the next year. His pictures of the war showed the many ways that conflicts affect people. In one illustration, he showed Union soldiers on horses advancing heroically. The Southern Confederate soldiers are shown forced under the feet of the horses, while the horsemen hold their swords high. The illustration is called "The War for the Union, Eighteen Sixty-Two — A Cavalry Charge." VOICE TWO: In another famous illustration, "The Army of the Potomac — A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty," Homer showed a different side of war. A soldier sitting in a tree is holding a rifle. He is aiming at a target far in the distance. Many critics say the picture shows the cold, mechanical nature of warfare, bringing death to the unsuspecting. Winslow Homer also made a famous painting called "Home, Sweet Home." It shows two soldiers listening to music played by military musicians. This was common during the Civil War. At the end of the day, musicians on both sides would play to raise the spirits of soldiers. Often they would play the song "Home, Sweet Home." Homer painted two Union soldiers preparing a meal. The musicians are in the distance. The two soldiers appear to be stopped in the middle of their preparations by thoughts of home and family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics widely praised Homer’s work during the Civil War. His work gained him membership in what is now called the National Academy. One painting, "Prisoners from the Front," was chosen to represent the United States at the Exposition Universelle. This event was held in Paris, France in eighteen sixty-six. Homer went to Europe for the first time. However, little is known about his stay in Europe. VOICE TWO: The next major change in Winslow Homer’s life was a decision to work in a new medium. Until now, Homer had used oil-based paints. Colorful substances are mixed with oil. These thick paints can be spread in layers, one over another, to produce interesting effects of light and color. Oil paints are usually put on canvas cloth. Most people consider oil painting "serious painting." But in the summer of eighteen seventy-three, Homer began using watercolor paint. VOICE ONE: Watercolor paint is color, or pigment, dissolved in water. The paint is thin. Sometimes you can see through the paint to the paper underneath. Watercolor paint can be used to color drawings or by itself. It is a much faster medium than oil painting. But it is a different and difficult skill to learn. Homer’s decision to use watercolor may have been connected with another major decision. Two years after he started using watercolor, he stopped illustrating for magazines like Harper’s. In doing so, he ended a good way to earn a living. Instead, he decided to make a living only from selling his paintings. He was completely independent. Just as he said he always wanted to be. VOICE TWO: One of Homer’s best paintings from this period is called "Breezing Up." It was shown for the first time in eighteen seventy-six. It shows three boys and a man in a small sailboat. A strong wind fills the sails. The man pulls in the sail, causing the boat to gain speed. One of the boys holds?the rudder, which controls the direction of the boat. The two other younger boys hold on for the ride. "Breezing Up" is considered one of Homer’s finest paintings. Today, it is part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the late eighteen seventies, experts say Homer experienced some kind of crisis. Before, he had been a very social person. But after this period, he withdrew from social activities. Some critics say he had an unhappy relationship with a woman. Whatever changed him, Homer must have felt a need to escape. He traveled to Britain in eighteen eighty-one. He spent most of his time in the fishing village of Cullercoats, near New Castle. There he painted many pictures of life and events on and near the sea. VOICE TWO: Homer returned to the United States the following year. He settled in Prouts Neck, Maine. He would call it home for the rest of his life. His brothers, Arthur and Charles, both owned houses there. It appeared that Homer withdrew from social life. He avoided visits from people wanting to meet America’s greatest living painter. But Homer’s later life was also filled with travel, which provided subjects for his paintings. He visited warm places – Bermuda, the Bahamas, Cuba and the American state of Florida. He made several trips to fish and to paint. In these places, he used bright watercolor paints. VOICE ONE: Homer also spent time in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. There he found rich subject matter in the people, hunters and wildlife of the area. But now, a new subject became more important in his work. As he grew older, Homer increasingly painted subjects facing death. One of Homer’s last paintings is called "Right and Left." It shows two ducks that have just been shot by a hunter as they fly above the surface of a wide expanse of water. The painting is named for a hunter’s trick. It describes how a hunter can use both barrels of a shotgun to bring down two birds very quickly. In the painting, the water and sky are grey. It is very early in the morning. If you look carefully at the painting, you can see two small points of the color orange. Looking closer still, you can see that one is a small part of a rising sun. The other is more surprising. It is the firing of the shotgun. Almost hidden behind one of the falling ducks is the boat carrying the hunter. Here, Homer did something very unusual. The observer of the painting is directly in the line of gunfire. VOICE TWO: Winslow Homer died at Prouts Neck, Maine, in nineteen ten. He was firmly established as America’s greatest painter of the time. You can see many painting by Winslow Homer online at the National Gallery’s Web site, www.nga.gov. Click on Search and enter the name Winslow Homer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Greenland's Glaciers Are Moving Faster, Melting Faster Into the Sea
* Byline: Written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week: Climate warming and the effects on ocean levels ... VOICE ONE: The effects of war on soldiers ... VOICE TWO: Marriage through sickness and health ... VOICE ONE: And fighting chronic diseases. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new study has examined the loss of ice from glaciers in Greenland. It found that the amount of ice that drops into the Atlantic Ocean has increased almost one hundred percent in the past five years. Glaciers are slow-moving mountains of ice. Researchers say the ones in southern Greenland are melting faster because they are moving faster. They say rising temperatures appear to be the cause. The American study used recent changes in glacier speed to estimate the ice loss for almost all of Greenland. The results appeared in Science magazine. They were also reported last month at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. VOICE ONE: Eric Rignot is a researcher in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He says glaciers take a long time to form and melt, but they can react quickly to temperature changes. He says he is concerned that current estimates of Greenland’s ice loss fail to consider the speed of glacial ice falling into the sea. This means ocean levels could rise faster than scientists have estimated. Mister Rignot and Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas used satellite observations to confirm the glacial speeds. They found that ice from Greenland is responsible for a rise of about one-half millimeter in ocean levels every year. Worldwide, ocean levels are rising about three millimeters a year. VOICE TWO: The air temperature in southeastern Greenland has risen by three degrees Celsius during the past twenty years. For the past ten years, the glaciers in southeastern Greenland have been largely responsible for increases in glacier flow from the island. Mister Rignot says glaciers farther north have increased speed since the year two thousand. He says the northward spread of mild weather might be responsible. He also notes that scientists do not yet fully understand the complex processes by which glaciers gain speed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Social connections are important to a person's health. A study with older people demonstrates this. It shows how the health of one person in a marriage can affect the health of the other. The study is the largest of its kind to look at how sickness in one person affects the risk of death in the other. It involved more than one million people in the United States. They were between the ages of sixty-five and ninety-eight. VOICE TWO: Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Pennsylvania did the study. They examined the effect of a major sickness in one person on the risk of death in a care-giving partner. They also examined the effect of the death of a wife or husband on the risk of death in the other person. The researchers considered these two effects together. They studied cases where a husband or wife was sick enough to require hospital treatment. They found that some conditions affect a partner more than others do. VOICE ONE: For example, the study found almost no effect on a man's risk of death if his wife had colon cancer. But if she had heart disease, the man's risk of death was twelve percent higher than if his wife were healthy. And the risk increased twenty-two percent if his wife were being treated for dementia, a mental disorder. The scientists say they found similar effects in women whose husbands were being treated. But there was a difference. The scientists found that if a husband became mentally disabled, the effect on his wife was even worse than if he had died. VOICE TWO: The study confirmed that sickness or death in one partner has an especially large effect on the other person within the first thirty days. This risk of dying early in reaction to a partner's death is commonly known as the "widower effect." The New England Journal of Medicine published the results. The research began in nineteen ninety-three and continued for nine years. The National Institute on Aging supported the study. VOICE ONE: Paul Allison is chairman of the Sociology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He says it was surprising that highly deadly diseases, like lung cancer, had little effect on the risk of death for a partner. By comparison, mental disorders led to big increases in the partner's risk of death. The explanation is that having to care for someone with a mental condition places a great responsibility on the partner. In a separate but related study, Harvard sociologists Felix Elwert and Nicholas Christakis looked at race in connection with the widower effect. They say that while it is common in whites, they saw no effect in African-Americans. They say this could suggest that blacks families are more densely connected and help care for the surviving partner. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Researchers have gone back in time to examine the physical and emotional effects of war on soldiers. They studied soldiers who fought in the American Civil War. They chose that war because the medical history is complete. All of the soldiers are dead. The Civil War took place from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five. The Union army defeated the Confederacy in the South. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, did the study. The Archives of General Psychiatry published the results. VOICE ONE: The researchers studied medical and military records of fifteen thousand Union soldiers. All of the soldiers received physical examinations before they joined the army. Government doctors also recorded the medical history of soldiers after the war. Conditions are named in words of the time. For example, doctors used the term "soldier's heart" to describe the physical and emotional effects of the war. Now, they would call it post-traumatic stress disorder. Military companies with higher rates of soldiers killed had higher rates of disorders among the survivors. The study found that these soldiers were fifty-one percent more likely to develop heart, stomach and nervous system disorders. VOICE TWO: The researchers say the youngest men had the worst medical records. These were men who had joined the army when they were seventeen or younger. After the war, the youngest men had the highest risk of dying early. Some soldiers joined the army when they were as young as nine. Others joined when they were seventy or older. The researchers say the effects seen in the nineteenth century are likely to be true for twenty-first century soldiers as well. Professor Roxane Cohen Silver led the study. She says the records show that horrible war experiences are linked to what she calls "a lifetime of increased physical disease and mental health difficulties." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says chronic diseases lead to about seventeen million early deaths each year. Chronic diseases are the world's leading cause of death. These include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and lung disorders. The W.H.O. expects them to claim to more than three hundred eighty million lives by two thousand fifteen. The United Nations health agency says about eighty percent of the deaths will happen in developing nations. Victims are often in their most productive years. Experts point out that more middle-aged people die from chronic diseases in poorer countries than in wealthier ones. VOICE TWO: The W.H.O. is seeking international action to reduce deaths from chronic diseases. Up to eighty percent of these deaths are considered preventable. Health officials say one important tool for governments is to restrict the marketing of alcohol and tobacco to young people. Also, more programs are needed to urge healthy eating and more physical activity. The goal is to save thirty-six million lives by two thousand fifteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. Avi Arditti was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Art of Darkness: Growing Vegetables in Shade
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers often feel they need a lot of sunshine to produce a good crop. But lots of vegetables grow well without much sun. The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania published a report about this subject some years ago in its magazine Organic Gardening. The report said many different kinds of foods from blueberries to beans can be grown in the shade. Some vegetables do need a lot of sun. A vegetable crop expert at the University of Maine advised putting these vegetables where they can get from eight to ten hours of sunlight a day. Tomatoes, melons, squash and peppers are among those that need the most sun. Plants that produce root crops, such as carrots and beets, need from six to eight hours of sunlight every day. But leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, need only six hours of sunlight a day. The Rodale Institute says a garden should be planned carefully especially if you grow different kinds of foods. For example, rows of vegetables should be planted in an east-west direction. That way, as the sun passes overhead, all the plants will receive an equal amount of light. This is especially important when the plants grow to different heights. Nut trees such as filbert, hazelnut and yellowhorn produce well with only sun in the morning. Some fruits also do well without a lot of sunlight. In the United States, blueberries, raspberries, and several kinds of pears need only a little sun each day. In Asia, the hardy kiwi grows well in the shade. Many herbs grow well without much sun. Mint plants, for example, grow well in the shade. So do sage, dill, oregano, borage, chamomile and several kinds of thyme. The owner of a garden seed company warned against removing shade trees. He cut down all his shade trees to provide more sun for his crops. But then he had to protect his summer lettuce from the heat of the sun by hanging a piece of cloth to provide shade. Instead of cutting trees, he suggested putting plants that need a lot of sunlight, such as tomatoes, in containers. That way they can be moved as the sun moves. Internet users can learn more about the Rodale Institute at?rodaleinstitute.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: 
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-07-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Wet and Dry, Fire and Ice: Visiting Seven of America’s Natural Wonders
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. We received a special request in a letter from a listener in Nagano, Japan. Atsumi Shimoda asked for a report about what the Special English writers thought were the seven natural wonders of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: So now we will visit these natural wonders. Some are huge. Some are powerful. And some are even a little frightening!? But, we will keep a safe distance. The first stop is a natural wonder that the United States shares with Canada. (SOUND) That thundering crash is the tens of thousands of cubic feet of water that flow each second over Niagara Falls which includes the American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. The American Falls in New York State extends more than three hundred twenty meters across part of the Niagara River. The American Falls is more than fifty meters high. Canada owns the larger Horseshoe Falls. It is about eight hundred meters wide and almost fifty meters high. It is shaped like the letter U, or a horse’s shoe. VOICE TWO: Niagara Falls formed about twelve thousand years ago when huge melting sheets of ice formed the Great Lakes. The land was uneven with several drops in level, some very sharp. Water from Lake Erie began to flow north to Lake Ontario as a result of the loss of the ice barrier. In modern times, several people have gone over Niagara Falls, most of them on purpose. Most also survived. But, we think the beauty and power of Niagara Falls is best experienced from near the water, not in it. Now we travel southeast to the state of Florida. We will visit the area once called “the liquid heart” of that state -- the Everglades. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hundreds of birds fly in a sunny blue sky. The only sounds are bird calls and the soft noise made by tall grasses as the water slowly moves them. Hidden in the grasses, dark green alligators move at the edge of the water, like part of the Earth come alive. This is the Everglades -- a low, watery, partly coastal area that covers ten thousand square kilometers. The area is filled with sawgrass. This plant grows in sharp, thin pieces that are three to ten meters tall. The Everglades is sometimes called “river of grass.” The area also contains forests of palm, cypress, mangrove and pine. And beautiful plants and sweet-smelling flowers grow in the Everglades. These include several kinds of the highly prized and rare flower, the orchid.Animal species are plentiful. Many colorful birds and butterflies live here. So do snakes, foxes, frogs and even big cats, called Florida panthers. But, the Everglades alligators and crocodiles are probably the animals most identified with the Everglades. No other place in the world is home to both. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we travel to the north central part of the country. We are in the state of South Dakota. The land is big and mostly flat with many fields of corn, wheat and soybeans. But as we travel west, the cropland gives way to wild grasses. A strong dry wind blows continuously from the west. Suddenly, the land becomes torn and rocky, dry and dusty -- no longer green and gold. It is now a light red-brown color. All around are broken disordered forms. There are hills and valleys of all sizes and strange shapes. VOICE ONE: These are the Badlands. Hundreds of thousands of years ago the area was grassland. But, then, forces of nature destroyed the grass. Water and ice cut into the surface of the earth. They beat at the rocks, wearing them away. The result is one of the world’s strangest sights. All together, the Badlands cover more than fifteen thousand square kilometers. About ten percent is national parkland. ?The area is a study in extremes. Temperatures in the summer have been as high as forty-six degrees Celsius. In the winter they have dropped to as low as forty-one degrees below zero. Life in the Badlands is difficult. But animals do survive. The most well known is the prairie dog. This small mammal lives in a series of underground passages. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As we continue west we also take a sharp dive south. We want to see the huge hole in the Earth, called the Grand Canyon in the state of Arizona. The first sight is breathtaking. The Grand Canyon stretches for hundreds of kilometers before us and hundreds of meters below us. It is about twenty-four kilometers across at its widest point. Its deepest point is almost two thousand meters down. The Grand Canyon is a series of deep long cuts in rock. There are many passages and large raised areas. There are forests on the top level and desert areas down below. They provide support for several different ecosystems. ?The Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon.The Canyon offers a lot of information about the physical history of Earth. There is a huge amount of fossil evidence. And its walls provide a record of three of the four major periods of the Earth’s geologic time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now, we are at the hottest, driest and lowest place in North America. Death Valley is part of the Mojave Desert. It lies mostly in the western state of California although part of it reaches into Nevada. An area called Badwater sits about eighty-six meters below sea level. There is not really any water there. The area gets fewer than five centimeters of rain a year. During the summer the temperature in Death Valley can reach fifty-seven degrees Celsius. But, it can be dangerously cold in the winter there, too. And storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the valley floor. In other words, Death Valley is an unforgiving place. The heat has killed people in the past. And it will continue to kill those who are not careful in dealing with the area’s extreme climate. Death Valley holds much evidence of nature’s past violence. For example, there is Ubehebe [u-be-he-be] Crater. This hole is about one kilometer across and more than two hundred thirty meters deep. It is the remains of a major volcanic explosion about two thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now it is time to cool off in the far northern state of Alaska. We could probably just call all of Alaska a natural wonder. But, of special interest are its glaciers. These huge, slow-moving masses of ice cover about seventy-five thousand square kilometers. About one hundred thousand of these rivers of ice flow down mountains. Some start from thousands of meters up a mountain. They can flow to areas just a few hundred meters above sea level. The largest Alaskan glacier is called Malaspina. It is more than two thousand two hundred square kilometers. VOICE ONE: Most glaciers move very slowly. But sometimes one will suddenly speed ahead for a year or two. These are called surge-glaciers. The most recent surges were in two thousand. The Tokositna glacier and Yanert Glaciers now have deep, narrow cuts on their formerly smooth surfaces. Yanert Glacier dropped ninety-one meters as a result of the surge. It is always very cold on the glaciers. Next we go to a hot spot. Sometimes very hot. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Welcome to Mount Kilauea, the world’s most active volcano. It is on the island of Hawaii. Kilauea is not far from Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world. Kilauea has been releasing burning hot liquid rock called lava continuously since nineteen eighty-three. The lava flows down the mountain to the Pacific Ocean. Its fierce heat produces a big cloud of steam when it hits the cold water. Kilauean lava continues to add land to the island. Sometimes visitors are able to walk out near the edge of this new black volcanic rock. VOICE ONE: These seven natural American wonders, from waterfalls to volcanoes, are not the only ones in the United States. What about the Great Salt Lake, the Old Faithful Geyser, the Mammoth Caves and the giant redwood forests?? We will have to report about them and other natural wonders another time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-07-voa6.cfm
* Headline: 'Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today'
* Byline: 

 I'm Nancy Beardsley, filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we'll talk about bad manners-and how they're reflected in what people are saying and not saying to one another these days. Our guest is British writer Lynne Truss, whose new book is called "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door." She takes her title from the expression "Talk to the hand, 'cause the face ain't listening," which captures some of the frustration she describes in trying to interact with people in public. Ms. Truss says there is a link between the subject of her latest book and her earlier best seller about punctuation, called "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." LYNNE TRUSS: "When we write e-mails to each other without punctuation, that is a bit rude, because the reader has to do all the work of working out what we were trying to say. So I did always think punctuation was in some ways a branch of manners. But whereas punctuation is all about rules, this (book) is about the illusion of rules -- if you hold the door open, someone should say 'thank you.' "And what we're beginning to realize is that other people don't accept that that's the rule. They have a different rule, which is never speak to anybody. And if anybody speaks to you, tell them in the roughest possible terms to go away. NB: "And neglecting to say things like 'please,' 'thank you,' or 'I'm sorry,' is the first example of bad manners you write about in this book. What makes those lapses so irritating?" LYNNE TRUSS: "It's just so interesting that people don't notice the gap. It seems very straightforward. They are only words, why don't people say them? Once you look into it, of course, you realize that politeness and being aware of other people is not just to make the other person feel better. It is to make one's self better. It is to give a sense the world is a safe place. If everybody obeys the same rules, then the world seems safe." NB: "And then there's the second example of rudeness in your book--all those push button choices and recorded messages we find whenever we try to do business these days. Aren't they supposed to make our lives easier?" LYNNE TRUSS: "Yes, and they dress it up a lot, these automated switchboards. They often say you have all the control here. And of course what's happening is that businesses are taking advantage of the technology they have now to make us do all the work of getting in touch with them. We can't just call them up and ask for anything. We have to navigate their system." NB: "And that's followed by number three on your list of rude annoyances, which you call 'My Bubble, My Rules.' What's that mean?" LYNNE TRUSS: "That is people treating the outside as though it's inside, being out in public as though they are in private. And obviously having private phone calls in public places is the biggest example of that. And they're very defiant. If you were to deliberately look at them as if to say, you are in public, they would look at you with complete shock that you should dare to impinge on their privacy." NB: "Which is your next complaint about inconsiderate behavior today: we don't dare tell people they're being rude for fear of encountering even more rudeness?" LYNNE TRUSS: "Yes. For a while I did try to say things to people, and I was so shocked by the kind of response I got, because to them, breaking into their bubble is itself very rude, and they feel justified in being very rude in return. People are not regarding themselves as a community. They just regard themselves all as individuals." NB: "And you also suggest there's a widespread lack of respect for age or authority or stature, which you refer to as booing the judges. Would you talk more about that?" LYNNE TRUSS: "That's a really shocking thing. In the U.K., we're very disrespectful towards celebrities, to the royal family and to judges and teachers. While we do want more egalitarianism, surely if you have that philosophy, then everyone should treat everyone with the same respect." NB: "And finally, the rude behavior you describe as someone else will clean it up. What does that mean when it comes to good manners?" LYNNE TRUSS: "I think a lot of people feel that anything they do is not only their right to do, they also are not responsible for it. If they've done something bad, then you can blame somebody else, or you can blame the system. It's never 'I did it. I made the decision. I chose it.'" NB: "Do you see any root causes for all this rude behavior?" LYNNE TRUSS: "I think some of the root causes are probably very well intentioned. Parenting was meant to be kind, to give kids less discipline and less shame and fear, and so you end up with people who have got a lot of self respect, but they haven't got much respect for other people. "And we've also got a technology that encourages a rather lonely life of being on your own and in control. But we do have a responsibility to other people. We are part of the human race, and we do have to pull together sometimes." NB: Lynne Truss is the author of "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you can find all of our segments posted at voanews.com/wordmaster. Filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, this is Nancy Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Version of Test for Graduate School Is Delayed
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. The Educational Testing Service has delayed the new version of its Graduate Record Examinations test. Use of the new G.R.E. General Test was supposed to begin this October. Now it will not start until the fall of two thousand seven. The test is required to get into many graduate schools in the United States, especially in the arts and sciences. The testing service is moving to end the paper version of the G.R.E., so students take it only by computer. But officials say the problem is not enough testing centers worldwide to administer the new Internet-based version. The new G.R.E. will be given only thirty times a year. Now it is given on many more days. The new test will take four hours, up from three. And it will cost more. Another difference will involve the way questions are asked on the computer-based test. Now, if a student answers a difficult question correctly, the next question becomes more difficult. The more correct answers, the more difficult the questions become. The new test will end this system for security reasons. Everyone who takes the G.R.E. on the same day will answer the same questions in the same order. Different questions will be used on the next test date. Each year about five hundred thousand students take the G.R.E. About twenty-five percent are foreign students who want to attend graduate school in the United States. Already there are criticisms that changes in the verbal section could make the new test more difficult for non-native English speakers. E.T.S. officials say it is true that the new test asks more questions that require reasoning and understanding of the language. But they say this will better show universities which students are most prepared for graduate work. As a result of the delay, many educators are advising students to take the G.R.E. before it changes in the fall of two thousand seven. The delay in the Internet-based version is based on lessons learned as the testing service makes the same move with the TOEFL. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a question about education in the United States, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer mail personally, but we might be able to use your question on our program. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Wilson Presidency Remembered Best for Its Foreign Policy
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Woodrow WilsonWoodrow Wilson's first year as president in nineteen thirteen showed the American people that they had elected a strong and effective leader. After taking office, he moved quickly to fulfill his campaign promises. He won congressional approval for lower import taxes, a new tax on earnings, and restrictions on the power of big companies. These were some of the most important economic reforms the nation had seen in many years. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today,?Larry West and I continue the story of Wilson's administration. VOICE TWO: Most of Woodrow Wilson's political victories were on national issues. He had little experience with international issues. But foreign events soon began to demand more and more of his time. With all of his successes at home, it is a surprising fact of history that his presidency is remembered best for its foreign policy. The story of Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy is full of high ideas and political bravery. But it also is a story of fierce struggle and lost hopes. It is a story that begins across America's southern border...in Mexico. VOICE ONE: At that time, Mexico had been ruled for many years by Porfirio Diaz. As Diaz grew older, his power began to weaken. In nineteen eleven, a revolt broke out. It was led by Francisco Madero, the leader of a land reform movement. Diaz understood he could not win. He resigned and fled the country. Madero declared himself president. However, powerful groups in Mexico opposed him. In a short time, one of his own generals, Victoriano Huerta, arrested him. Madero was murdered soon after Huerta seized power. President Wilson refused to recognize Huerta's government. He believed other forces would rise up against him. Wilson was right. Another revolt began, led by General Venustiano Carranza. VOICE TWO: Wilson offered aid to Carranza. Carranza rejected the offer. He was afraid of American interference in Mexico. He told Wilson that Mexican troops would do all the fighting. He only wanted guns and ammunition. American forces did, however, get involved in the conflict. President Wilson learned that a ship from Germany was bringing supplies to the Huerta government. The ship would land at the Mexican port of Vera Cruz. Wilson ordered the United States Navy to seize and occupy the port. The move started a storm of criticism in the United States and throughout Latin America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people denounced President Wilson. They called him an imperialist and a fool. They asked: what right did the United States have to interfere in Mexico. Wilson finally stopped American military action in Mexico. He tried to settle the dispute at an international conference at Niagara Falls, Canada. The effort failed. The conference did not produce a settlement. While the diplomats were talking, Carranza's revolutionary forces were fighting. They moved on Mexico City, the capital. President Huerta fled. Carranza formed a new government. VOICE TWO: The new government began to split apart almost immediately. Another general, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, tried to seize power. He forced Carranza out of Mexico City. Then he formed his own government. President Wilson recognized Villa and his government. Carranza, however, refused to give up. Day by day, his army grew stronger. He forced Villa to retreat. Then President Wilson recognized Carranza's government. Like Carranza, Villa refused to give up. He decided to try to start a war between Mexico and the United States. Pancho Villa wanted the United States to attack Carranza. Then he would step in to lead Mexican forces in battle. That would make him a hero. With this plan in mind, Pancho Villa attacked an American town across the border in Texas. He killed nineteen persons. VOICE ONE: President Wilson immediately ordered a large American force to find and punish Villa. At first, Carranza welcomed the move. Villa was his enemy. He wanted him captured. Then Carranza began to fear that the American troops might threaten his government. He demanded the withdrawal of all American soldiers from Mexico. Tensions increased between the two countries. Villa's forces attacked another town in Texas. President Wilson considered asking Congress to declare war. But the crisis cooled down before then. American forces were withdrawn. And the people of Mexico elected a new government. They chose Carranza as president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As President Wilson dealt with the situation in Mexico, trouble began to surface in another part of the world. The crisis was in Europe. Tensions were growing between several groups of nations. They were on the edge of what would become World War One. The major powers in Europe had been threatening each other for years. But they had not fought for more than forty years. Most Americans believed there would never be another European war. Such a war would be unbelievably destructive. Millions would die. No nation would win. VOICE ONE: Europe depended on a balance of power to keep the peace. On one side were the central powers -- Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. On the other side were the members of the triple entente -- Britain, France, and Russia. Each side made every effort to win the support of Europe's smaller nations. A number of nations refused to join either side. The neutrals included Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. VOICE TWO: This political balance did not prevent the major nations from competing with each other for colonies and economic power. They competed all over the world. In China, in the Middle East, in Africa -- everywhere money could be invested. Competition was especially sharp in the Balkans. This was the area of Europe between the Adriatic and Black Seas. Many nations claimed special interests in the Balkans. And several Balkan countries were fighting each other. The whole continent seemed ready to explode. VOICE ONE: The spark that set off the explosion came in the city of Sarajevo. The date was June twenty-eighth, nineteen fourteen. Sarajevo had been taken over by Austria. And the Archduke of Austria -- Ferdinand -- had come for a visit. Ferdinand was expected to become the next emperor of Austria. Seven young extremists from the area decided to assassinate the Archduke to protest Austrian control. One of the extremists threw a bomb at the royal family. The bomb missed its target. But another extremist shot at the group. He killed both the Archduke and the Archduke's wife. VOICE TWO: The assassinations in Sarajevo started a series of events that quickly brought war to all of Europe. Soon the continent was covered with armies, battles, and death. The war in Europe forced President Wilson to face the greatest crisis of his presidency. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of President Woodrow Wilson. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of President Woodrow Wilson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Golden Gate Bridge: The Story of a 'Mighty Task'
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play a new kind of music that combines traditional Jewish beliefs with reggae … Answer a question about a famous American bridge … And report about the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Writing Award. PEN/Faulkner Award American writer E. L. Doctorow will officially receive an important writing award in May. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation recently announced that he won its fiction award for two thousand six. The PEN/Faulkner award is the largest writing award in the country that is judged by other writers. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: E.L. Doctorow won the PEN/Faulkner award for his book “The March.”? He created his novel from historical events that took place during the American Civil War between the Union and the rebellious southern states in the eighteen sixties. The book is about a Civil War military campaign led by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. His troops marched through the southern states of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina on the way to winning the war for the Union. The book describes how this march affected the lives of soldiers from both sides as well as freed slaves and other civilians. Doctorow says he got the idea for the book after reading a soldier’s memories of the march. The actions of the troops under Sherman’s command were extremely destructive. They killed civilians, seized and destroyed property and even killed farm animals in the fields. The PEN/Faulkner prize committee awarded Doctorow fifteen thousand dollars. One judge on the committee said “The March” was one of the best books yet written by the seventy-five year old Doctorow. This is the second PEN/Faulkner fiction prize for E.L. Doctorow. He was honored for his book “Billy Bathgate” in nineteen ninety. Doctorow also wrote the popular novel “Ragtime” and several other books. The PEN/Faulkner Foundation honored four other novels. The writers will each receive five thousand dollars. William Henry Lewis wrote “I Got Somebody in Staunton.”?? His story collection examines the lives of African-Americans. Karen Fisher’s first book, “A Sudden Country,” tells about people moving to the western United States in the nineteenth century. Bruce Wagner wrote “The Chrysanthemum Palace” about the film industry in Hollywood, California. And James Salter’s story collection “Last Night” tells about failed relationships. Golden Gate Bridge HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Vilasith Phonepadith asks about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The Golden Gate Bridge has been called one of the world’s most beautiful bridges. It is also one of the most visited places in the world. Experts say about nine million people visit the bridge each year. They say more than one thousand million vehicles have used the bridge since it opened almost seventy years ago. The bridge has always been painted the color called “International Orange.”? The color was chosen because it went well with the natural surroundings. It also is easier to see in the heavy fog that often covers the area. But the Golden Gate Bridge was not named for its orange color. It was named for the body of water that it crosses, the Golden Gate Strait. The Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate Bridge links the city of San Francisco with Marin County, California. Planning for the bridge began in the nineteen twenties when the area around San Francisco was growing. People living in the area needed another way to get to the city besides the small ferry boats. The chief engineer for the project was Joseph Strauss. Work began in nineteen thirty-three. Mister Strauss demanded the strongest safety protections in the history of bridge building. These protections included the first use of the hard hat and special glasses to protect the workers’ eyes. A special safety net was suspended under the bridge. This net saved the lives of nineteen men during the construction. Still, eleven others were killed when they fell from the bridge through the net. The Golden Gate Bridge opened in nineteen thirty-seven. It extends one thousand two hundred eighty meters across the water. It was the largest suspension bridge in the world until nineteen sixty-four. That is when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in New York City. Joseph Strauss wrote a poem called “The Mighty Task is Done” after the Golden Gate bridge was completed. Here is how the poem begins: At last the mighty task is done; Resplendent in the western sun The Bridge looms mountain high; Its titan piers grip ocean floor, Its great steel arms link shore with shore, Its towers pierce the sky. Matisyahu Not many musicians are popular with both reggae music listeners and Jewish religious leaders. But the singer known as Matisyahu [ma-tees-YA-hoo] combines his musical and religious interests. Matisyahu is influenced by his traditional Hasidic Jewish beliefs and his love of reggae. He has created a very new and exciting kind of musical mixture. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Matisyahu was born Matthew Miller in West Chester, Pennsylvania in nineteen seventy-nine. As a teenager he started to sense a spiritual emptiness in his life. Matthew began to explore his religious roots and beliefs. A trip to Israel helped him more fully explore his Jewish identity. He soon dropped out of high school to attend a special nature school in Oregon. There, he started studying music and performing reggae and hip-hop songs. Here is the song “Lord Raise Me Up” from his album called “Live at Stubb’s.” (MUSIC) When Matthew returned to his home in New York City, he started college. He also continued his spiritual search. He began to understand the magical role of song in Hasidic Judaism. He talked with Jewish religious leaders. He changed his name to Matisyahu. He decided to follow a Hasidic lifestyle and live according to Jewish Law. His religious community gives him a sense of spiritual and mental fullness. And he can also continue his role as a musician. Here is the song “Refuge. Matisyahu sings about the important role of a good and strong leader. (MUSIC) We leave you with “King Without a Crown.”? This song has recently become a top forty hit in the United States. Soon, listeners can enjoy new songs by Matisyahu. He will release a new album this month. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-09-voa5.cfm
* Headline: AT&T to Buy BellSouth in Big Telecom-Industry Deal
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A proposed deal announced this week could change the future of the telecommunications industry in the United States. It would make the biggest telephone company in America, AT&T, even bigger. AT&T plans to buy BellSouth, a major provider of local telephone service. AT&T has offered to buy BellSouth for about sixty-seven thousand million dollars in stock. The combined company would have more than one hundred twenty thousand million dollars in yearly earnings. The company formerly known as American Telephone and Telegraph controlled the United States market for phone service. That changed in nineteen eighty-four. A judge ordered AT&T to divide itself into competing businesses. It was broken up to form seven companies to supply local telephone service in different areas of the country. An eighth part became a long-distance carrier. It kept the name AT&T. Now AT&T plans to buy back one of its former pieces – BellSouth of Alabama. Directors of both companies have approved the merger deal. It must still be approved by shareholders of both companies and by federal officials. AT&T plans to cut about ten thousand jobs after the deal is closed. Some experts believe the government might be willing to approve the merger. The reason is that the telecommunications business has changed a lot in recent years. Now millions of people have wireless phone service and the Internet. And they have more choices. For example, some people buy telephone service from their cable television provider. BellSouth's president says the merger will probably take about a year to complete. He says it will mean new services and more competition. Some public interest groups are not so sure, though. They worry about higher prices if AT&T is permitted to grow again. But some experts say it might lead competitors to join forces to be in a better position to compete. And now, to follow up a recent story: Research in Motion has settled the dispute over the ownership of technologies for its BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices. The Canadian company announced the deal last Friday. That avoided a possible court order to shut down the popular service. Research in Motion agreed to pay NTP, a patent-holding company in Virginia, more than six hundred million dollars. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Brianna Blake. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Releases Yearly Report on Human Rights Around the World
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the State Department released its "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.”? American officials use these yearly reports to develop policies, carry out diplomacy and decide about aid and other assistance. The first ones appeared in nineteen seventy-seven as required by Congress. They began with eighty-two countries which all received American aid. Now, there are reports on one hundred ninety-six countries. The reports are based on rights described in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These include individual, civil, political and worker rights. Others are freedom from torture or cruel punishment and from long terms in jail without charges. They also include freedom from secret imprisonment and from other violations of the right to life, liberty and personal security. The new report says countries ruled by a single person or a small group are often the "most systematic human rights violators."? Seven countries are listed as examples: North Korea, Burma, Iran, Zimbabwe, Cuba, China and Belarus. It says nations that violate the rights of their own people are likely to be threats to other nations as well. Here the examples given are Burma, North Korea, Iran and Syria. Some of the most serious violations take place during armed conflicts. One example listed is the continued violence in the Darfur area of Sudan. Others are the conflicts in Nepal, Ivory Coast, Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia's Northern Caucasus area, and countries in central Africa. In Columbia, human rights violations continued but fewer killings and kidnappings were reported. The report also names countries that used laws against the media and non-governmental organizations last year. Examples listed are Cambodia, China, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Belarus and Russia. The State Department report praises nations that held democratic elections in two thousand five. The examples given are Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Indonesia, Lebanon and Liberia. Nations where serious problems were reported in elections included Egypt, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. The report says many countries had mixed progress last year on democratic reform and human rights. For example, it notes that President Pervez Musharraf has stated his support for democratic change in Pakistan. But it says that country's human rights record continued to be poor. The Chinese government now reacts to American criticism with its own reports on the United States. China's report called American democracy "a game for the rich."? It says the United States has a high murder rate, spies on its own people and violates the rights of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. China defines human rights in terms of a right to things like food, clothing and housing. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Susan Sontag: One of America’s Most Influential 20th-Century Thinkers
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I‘m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a writer who helped influence modern culture. Her name was Susan Sontag. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Susan Sontag was considered one of the most influential liberal thinkers in the United States during the twentieth century. She wrote seventeen books. They have been translated into thirty languages. They include novels, short stories, essays and film scripts. She was also a filmmaker, playwright and theater director. And she was a human rights and anti-war activist. She was said to own fifteen thousand books in her personal library in her home. She was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York City in nineteen thirty-three. Her father, Jack Rosenblatt, was a trader in China. Susan’s mother spent most of her time in China with her husband. Family members raised Susan and her younger sister, Judith, when they were very young. When Susan was five, her father died of tuberculosis. Her mother returned from China and moved the girls to Tucson, Arizona. There, Missus Rosenblatt met Nathan Sontag. The couple married and the family moved to Los Angeles, California. VOICE TWO: Susan Sontag was an extremely intelligent child. She could read by age three. She finished high school at the age of fifteen. Two years later, Susan completed her college education at the University of Chicago in Illinois. While at the university, she attended a class taught by Philip Rieff. He was a twenty-eight year old expert on human society and social relationships. The two were married in nineteen fifty, ten days after they first met. Susan was seventeen years old. The couple moved to Boston, Massachusetts. In nineteen fifty-two, they had a son, David. He grew up to become a writer and the editor of his mother’s works. VOICE ONE: Susan Sontag completed two master’s degrees from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first was in English; the second was in philosophy. She also began a doctorate program in religion at Oxford University in England. However, she never completed that program. Susan and Philip ended their marriage in nineteen fifty-eight. Several months later, Susan moved with her son to New York City. She held several jobs teaching at universities and writing. VOICE TWO: Susan Sontag began her professional life writing creative literature. She published her first book in nineteen sixty-three. It was an experimental novel called “The Benefactor.”? It examined dreams and how people think. Four years later, she published her second novel, called “Death Kit.”?? The story included sharp criticism of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Sontag wrote several books of creative literature. Yet, she became famous for her critical essays that examined different kinds of social and artistic issues. She wrote serious studies about popular art forms. She wrote essays about books, movies and photography. She also wrote essays about sickness. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-four, she wrote an essay called “Notes on Camp.”??? It was an immediate success that made her famous. Camp is a form of art or popular culture that is humorous? because it is purposely bad, false or common. In the essay, Sontag argued that a piece of art may be bad yet considered good if it creates emotional feelings in the person looking at it. The essay also included the idea about popular culture that something can be “so bad it is good.” “Notes on Camp” is still widely read today. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-nine, Susan Sontag wrote “The Style of Radical Will.”? It explored modern culture including drugs, film and music. She once said it took between nine months to a year to write one thirty-page essay. Her collection of six essays about photography as an art form took five years to write. “On Photography” was published in nineteen seventy-seven. It received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her essays explored the value of the photographic image and the act of picture taking in modern culture. Photographs, she wrote, have shaped how people see the world. She wrote that photographs make us unable to sympathize with human suffering. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen-seventies, Susan Sontag learned she had breast cancer. Doctors did not expect her to survive. However, she went through a series of difficult treatments and she survived. Her experience with the disease became the subject of one of her most famous works. “Illness as Metaphor” was published in nineteen seventy-eight. A metaphor is a word or phrase that usually means one thing and is used to mean another thing. “Illness as Metaphor” is a critical study of modern life. Sontag argued that modern culture creates myths or stories about sickness. She also criticized the language that people use when they talk about sickness – such as “battling a disease” or “the war on cancer.”? Sontag felt these terms made sick people feel responsible for their condition. Her book gave readers the power to demand more information from doctors. Ten years later, she extended her opinions to the disease AIDS. Her short story “How We Live Now” was published in nineteen eighty-six in the New Yorker magazine. Her book “AIDS and its Metaphors” was published two years later. It was about the social and personal effects of the disease. Susan Sontag was also politically active. During the late nineteen eighties, she served as president of the American group of an international writers’ organization. She led a number of campaigns to support oppressed and imprisoned writers around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In her later life, Susan Sontag grew tired of writing essays and critical studies. In nineteen ninety-two she wrote a historical love story. The novel, called “The Volcano Lover,” spent two months on the New York Times list of best-selling books. The story is about an eighteenth century British diplomat in Italy, his wife and her famous lover. In two thousand, Sontag was accused of copying the work of someone else in her final book, called “In America.”? She strongly denied the accusations. “In America” is based on the life of a nineteenth century Polish actress. The actress moves to the United States and tries to establish a perfect community in California. The novel received a National Book Award. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Public reaction to Sontag’s writings was often divided. At times, her essays angered readers. For example, she once praised the communist societies of Cuba and North Korea. Years later, she denounced communism as a form of oppression. After the terrorist attacks against the United States in two thousand one, Sontag wrote an article in the New Yorker magazine critical of American policies. She wrote that the terrorist attacks were the result of some American alliances and actions. She also wrote that the attackers should not be considered weak because they were willing to die. Many people criticized the article. Sontag later apologized for her comments. Her last book was “Regarding the Pain of Others,” published in two thousand three. It was a long essay on the imagery of war and disaster. One of her last published essays was called “Regarding the Torture of Others.”? She wrote it in two thousand four in reaction? to the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by Americans at Abu Ghraib prison. VOICE TWO: Susan Sontag received many awards in the United States and from other countries. Israel, Germany and Spain honored her with awards. In two thousand four, two days after her death, the mayor of Sarajevo announced the city would name a street after her. The mayor called her a writer and a humanist who actively took part in the creation of the history of Sarajevo and Bosnia. Susan Sontag was different from other social critics and intellectuals. She often appeared on television. She made public statements. She appeared in films and in advertisements. Susan Sontag died of leukemia in New York City in two thousand four. She was seventy-one years old. One critic praised Susan Sontag’s writing even though he said he often disagreed with what she wrote. He said, “She showed you things you had not seen before. She had a way of reopening questions.” ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Jill Moss. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rappaccini's Daughter, Part 2
* Byline: Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Today, we complete the story "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Kay Gallant with the second and final part of “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Many years ago, a young man named Giovanni Guasconti left his home in Naples to study in northern Italy. He took a room in an old house next to a magnificent garden filled with strange flowers and other plants. The garden belonged to a doctor, Giacomo Rappaccini. He lived with his daughter, Beatrice, in a small brown house in the garden. From a window of his room, Giovanni had seen that Rappaccini’s daughter was very beautiful. But everyone in Padua was afraid of her father. Pietro Baglioni, a professor at the university, warned Giovanni about the mysterious Doctor Rappaccini. “He is a great scientist,” Professor Baglioni told the young man. “But he is also dangerous. Rappaccini cares more about science than he does about people. He has created many terrible poisons from the plants in his garden.” One day, Giovanni found a secret entrance to Rappaccini’s garden. He went in. The plants all seemed wild and unnatural. Giovanni realized that Rappaccini must have created these strange and terrible flowers through his experiments. Suddenly, Rappaccini’s daughter came into the garden. She moved quickly among the flowers until she reached him. Giovanni apologized for coming into the garden without an invitation. But Beatrice smiled at him and made him feel welcome. “I see you love flowers,” she said. “And so you have come to take a closer look at my father’s rare collection.” While she spoke, Giovanni noticed a perfume in the air around her. He wasn’t sure if this wonderful smell came from the flowers or from her breath. She asked him about his home and his family. She told him she had spent her life in this garden. Giovanni felt as if he were talking to a very small child. Her spirit sparkled like clear water. They walked slowly though the garden as they talked. At last they reached a beautiful plant that was covered with large purple flowers. He realized that the perfume from those flowers was like the perfume of Beatrice’s breath, but much stronger. The young man reached out to break off one of the purple flowers. But Beatrice gave a scream that went through his heart like a knife. She caught his hand and pulled it away from the plant with all her strength. “Don’t ever touch those flowers!” she cried. “They will take your life!” Hiding her face, she ran into the house. Then, Giovanni saw Doctor Rappaccini standing in the garden. That night, Giovanni could not stop thinking about how sweet and beautiful Beatrice was. Finally, he fell asleep. But when the morning came, he woke up in great pain. He felt as if one of his hands was on fire. It was the hand that Beatrice had grabbed in hers when he reached for one of the purple flowers. Giovanni looked down at his hand. There was a purple mark on it that looked like four small fingers and a little thumb. But because his heart was full of Beatrice, Giovanni forgot about the pain in his hand. He began to meet her in the garden every day. At last, she told him that she loved him. But she would never let him kiss her or even hold her hand. One morning, several weeks later, Professor Baglioni visited Giovanni. “I was worried about you,” the older man said. “You have not come to your classes at the university for more than a month. Is something wrong?” Giovanni was not pleased to see his old friend. “No, nothing is wrong. I am fine, thank you.” He wanted Professor Baglioni to leave. But the old man took off his hat and sat down. “My dear Giovanni,” he said. “You must stay away from Rappaccini and his daughter. Her father has given her poison from the time she was a baby. The poison is in her blood and on her breath. If Rappaccini did this to his own daughter, what is he planning to do to you?” Giovanni covered his face with his hands. “Oh my God!” he cried. “Don’t worry, the old man continued. “It is not too late to save you. And we may succeed in helping Beatrice, too. Do you see this little silver bottle? It holds a medicine that will destroy even the most powerful poison. Give it to your Beatrice to drink.” Professor Baglioni put the little bottle on the table and left Giovanni’s room. The young man wanted to believe that Beatrice was a sweet and innocent girl. And yet, Professor Baglioni’s words had put doubts in his heart. It was nearly time for his daily meeting with Beatrice. As Giovanni combed his hair, he looked at himself in a mirror near his bed. He could not help noticing how handsome he was. His eyes looked particularly bright. And his face had a healthy warm glow. He said to himself, “At least her poison has not gotten into my body yet.” As he spoke he happened to look at some flowers he had just bought that morning. A shock of horror went through his body. The flowers were turning brown! Giovanni’s face became very white as he stared at himself in the mirror. Then he noticed a spider crawling near his window. He bent over the insect and blew a breath of air at it. The spider trembled, and fell dead. “I am cursed,” Giovanni whispered to himself. “My own breath is poison.” At that moment, a rich, sweet voice came floating up from the garden. “Giovanni! You are late. Come down.” “You are a monster!” Giovanni shouted as soon as he reached her. “And with your poison you have made me into a monster, too. I am a prisoner of this garden.” “Giovanni!” Beatrice cried, looking at him with her large bright eyes. “Why are you saying these terrible things? It is true that I can never leave this garden. But you are free to go wherever you wish.” Giovanni looked at her with hate in his eyes. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know what you have done to me.” A group of insects had flown into the garden. They came toward Giovanni and flew around his head. He blew his breath at them. The insects fell to the ground, dead. Beatrice screamed. “I see it! I see it! My father’s science has done this to us. Believe me, Giovanni, I did not ask him to do this to you. I only wanted to love you.” Giovanni’s anger changed to sadness. Then, he remembered the medicine that Professor Baglioni had given him. Perhaps the medicine would destroy the poison in their bodies and help them to become normal again. “Dear Beatrice,” he said, “our fate is not so terrible.” He showed her the little silver bottle and told her what the medicine inside it might do. “I will drink first,” she said. “You must wait to see what happens to me before you drink it.” She put Baglioni’s medicine to her lips and took a small sip. At the same moment, Rappaccini came out of his house and walked slowly toward the two young people. He spread his hands out to them as if he were giving them a blessing. “My daughter,” he said, “you are no longer alone in the world. Give Giovanni one of the purple flowers from your favorite plant. It will not hurt him now. My science and your love have made him different from ordinary men.” “My father,” Beatrice said weakly, “why did you do this terrible thing to your own child?” Rappaccini looked surprised. “What do you mean, my daughter?” he asked. “You have power no other woman has. You can defeat your strongest enemy with only your breath. Would you rather be a weak woman?” “I want to be loved, not feared,” Beatrice replied. “But now, it does not matter. I am leaving you, father. I am going where the poison you have given me will do no harm. Good bye to you, Giovanni.” Beatrice dropped to the ground. She died at the feet of her father and Giovanni. The poison had been too much a part of the young woman. The medicine that destroyed the poison, destroyed her, as well. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant. This is Shep O’Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Six Months After Storm, New Orleans Tries to Reclaim Famous Spirit
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, we have a report on the recovery efforts in New Orleans. Six months ago that city found itself in the deadly path of Hurricane Katrina. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over the years, millions of people have visited New Orleans for its music, food, architectural design and unusual history. New Orleans was a mainly African-American city with many ethnic influences and traditions. Almost one half-million people lived there. But at the end of August, Hurricane Katrina hit states along the Gulf Coast, in the southeastern United States. Louisiana suffered the greatest losses. More than one thousand people were killed in that state. About two thousand people are still listed officially as missing, although many are believed to be alive. Louisiana's medical examiner says the missing include several hundred in New Orleans. More than five hundred fifty people are known to have died in New Orleans. A new search for bodies in the wreckage started earlier this month, using dogs to smell for remains. VOICE TWO: Estimates differ, but the current population of New Orleans seems to be around two hundred thousand. Many people have resettled, at least temporarily. Many are in Houston, Texas, and Baton Rouge, the Louisiana capital. New Orleans was almost seventy percent black before the storm. So far, many of the African-Americans who left have not returned. Fewer families means fewer children. Most of the public schools in New Orleans remain closed. Some people who went home briefly had a terrible shock. They were unable to find even where their houses had stood. They said the damage looked like a huge bomb had exploded. VOICE ONE :????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ?????? ?????????????? ??????? Hurricane Katrina produced winds of two hundred eighty kilometers per hour or stronger. But in some areas, the winds alone did not do as much damage as expected. Then came the deadly floods. Floodwalls and earthen levees could not hold back the rising waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Soon, most of the city was underwater. Driving through New Orleans today, you see areas that appear normal. But you also see areas of what looks like endless wreckage. In many cases people lost everything they had. VOICE TWO: Considering the extent of the damage, New Orleans officials often express surprise that so many people survived. Most people acted on warnings. They left New Orleans before the storm. Others stayed in their homes, either for lack of transportation or simply by choice. Rescuers in helicopters and boats pulled some people to safety. Others had to wait a long time for help. Thousands of people went to the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome for shelter. Conditions became crowded and deplorable. There were situations of anarchy in the city. But some reports by public officials and the news media were later found to have been overstated. VOICE ONE: There have been investigations in Congress and the administration into what went wrong and what could be done better in the future. Democrats in the House of Representatives, however, want an independent investigation of the federal reaction to Katrina. A newly broadcast videotape shows a conference call with President Bush and other federal officials a day before Katrina hit. They hear warnings that water could flow over the top of the levees. The president later said he did not think anybody believed the levees would fail. All levels of government have been accused of failures in the crisis. The director of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, resigned in September. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin have also faced a lot of criticism. In another newly broadcast video, from the hours after the storm hit, the governor tells federal officials that the levees appeared unbroken. Since Katrina, Mayor Nagin has had to work harder for re-election. He now faces more than twenty opponents. The election is April twenty-second. The mayor, who is black, recently apologized after he faced criticism for stating: "This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Logan is a researcher at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Mister Logan says people of all colors and economic levels suffered in Katrina, but black people suffered the most flood damage. He found this was especially true of poor African-Americans. Many lived in the city's lowest-lying areas. New Orleans is built below sea level. Other researchers have presented different findings about race and the effects of the storm. These dispute the idea that black people suffered a much greater share of the effects than whites did in relation to their numbers. Some people displaced by Katrina do not have enough money to return and rebuild. Some had no homeowner's insurance, or policies that only paid for wind damage. Some are having to make loan payments on flooded houses even while paying to live in other places. But several areas of New Orleans are not ready to be re-occupied yet. The Lower Ninth Ward, for example, in nearly empty. Thousands of homes in the city might be too damaged to repair. The next Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June first. The Army Corps of Engineers is working to repair the levee system around New Orleans in time. Yet why rebuild, some Americans say, when future storms might be as bad if not worse than Katrina? VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? Supporters of New Orleans see many reasons to rebuild the city. Local officials point out, for example, that New Orleans is a major seaport for a lot of trade to and from the United States. Oil and agriculture are two industries that depend on it. New Orleans is also a major place for tourism. And a big reason for that is the yearly celebration of Mardi Gras. The name means "Fat Tuesday" in French. It marks the day before the beginning of the Christian season of Lent. (MUSIC ) VOICE TWO: After Hurricane Katrina, some people did not think New Orleans should hold a Mardi Gras celebration this year. But the city carried on a tradition begun in the eighteen hundreds. By Fat Tuesday, February twenty-eighth, an estimated one hundred thirty thousand visitors had gathered in New Orleans. There were smaller crowds and fewer events than in the past. Still, people stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the parades and joined in the noisy spirit of Mardi Gras. Officials estimated that the two weeks of Carnival celebrations had about seventy percent of the usual crowds. Still, it appeared that the local economy gained at least two hundred million dollars. Some people who lived in the city before the storm returned for Mardi Gras. They included a number of African-Americans. Some talked of returning to live in New Orleans. VOICE ONE: A Mardi Gras float this yearColorful floats paraded along the streets of the French Quarter. Marching bands played New Orleans jazz. Mayor Nagin rode a horse in a parade organized by an African-American group, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. He dressed as Russel Honore, Army general who led military support in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi after Katrina. A small group paraded in the Lower Ninth Ward, past the tortured shapes of wreckage. Houses, cars, buses, bicycles, mailboxes, trees. VOICE TWO: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast later in the season, were two of the most intense Atlantic storms ever recorded. Officials at FEMA says eighty-eight thousand million dollars in federal money has already been approved for aid, recovery and rebuilding. And President Bush is asking Congress for twenty thousand million more. Last week he discussed his budget request during his tenth visit in the last six months to New Orleans and other affected areas. Thirty-four members of Congress recently visited storm-damaged areas of the Gulf Coast. The lawmakers said they wanted to see how the federal money was being spent. They wanted to see progress, or lack of it. What the lawmakers saw when they visited New Orleans could play a part in deciding the future of that city. (MUSIC) VOICE? ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: World Bank to Open 'Artisan Market' in Washington
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank is often in the news, but not always for reasons it might like. The official name is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In recent years, its big meetings at its headquarters in Washington have become the target of anti-globalization protesters. Its lending policies and support for free trade are criticized. Environmental activists have objected to its financing of dams and some other projects. But supporters say the World Bank Group and its member organizations are making progress in reducing poverty. One of the members is the International Finance Corporation. The I.F.C. helps private businesses in developing countries. In February, its directors approved new environmental and social requirements to replace existing ones for projects it finances. There are new requirements for community health, safety, and security as well as labor conditions and pollution prevention, among others. A major program of the International Finance Corporation is the Grassroots Business Initiative, headed by Harold Rosen. Mister Rosen tells us that the program helps bridge developing economies and the international marketplace. It seeks to strengthen small businesses through technical assistance. They might also receive financing. Mister Rosen says the Grassroots Business Initiative is socially driven, because the aim is to help people most in need. Among the businesses in the program is an African company called Gone Rural. It employs about seven hundred women in Swaziland. They make baskets, table items and other goods from natural materials. Today, their products are sold in about thirty-five countries around the world. Each woman supports, on average, eight other people. So the company is said to have an influence in society. Gone Rural educates the women about AIDS and H.I.V., the virus that causes it. An estimated forty percent of Swazi adults are infected with H.I.V. Mister Rosen says a store opening soon in Washington will sell items from Gone Rural. It will also sell goods from other businesses supported by the International Finance Corporation. Suppliers must guarantee that their goods are produced without child labor or environmental harm. The Pangea Artisan Market and Cafe will sell items from Africa, Asia and Latin America. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Parkinson's Disease: A Movement Disorder and a Medical Mystery
* Byline: Written by George Grow and Oliver Chanler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is Parkinson’s disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Muhammad Ali is known around the world as one of the great sports stars of the twentieth century. He needed great energy and power to became the world boxing champion. As he grew older, though, he began to change. The energy and power began to disappear. His face lost its expressiveness. His legs lost their speed. Muhammad Ali is sixty-four now and long retired from boxing. Yet it was not age that changed him so much. It was Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: Parkinson’s is a disease of the central nervous system. It is a progressive disorder. It gets worse over time. The disease affects a small area of cells in the middle of the brain. This area is called the substantia nigra. The cells slowly lose their ability to produce a chemical called dopamine. The decrease in the amount of dopamine can result in one or more of the general signs of Parkinson’s disease. These include shaking in the hands, arms and legs. They also include difficulty in moving or general slowness of movement. Another symptom is difficulty keeping balanced while walking or standing. Other signs in some people include decreased movement of the face. Victims might swallow less often than normal. And they might have difficulty forming words when they talk. Also, there can be emotional changes, like feeling depressed or worried. VOICE ONE: The disease is named after James Parkinson. He was a British doctor who first described this condition in eighteen seventeen. Doctor Parkinson did not know what caused it. During the nineteen sixties, medical researchers discovered changes in the brains of people with the disease. These discoveries led to medicines to treat the effects. There is no cure, however, and no way that doctors know of to prevent it. And there is still mystery about the cause. Parkinson’s is found in all parts of the world. At least six million people have the disease. Most are older adults. But fifteen percent of patients develop the disease before they are fifty years old. Also, it affects men a little more often than women. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. Most patients have what is called idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Idiopathic means the cause is unknown. People who develop the disease often want to link it to some cause they can identify. This might be an injury or a medical operation or extreme emotional stress. Many doctors, however, reject this idea of a direct link to Parkinson’s. The doctors point to other people who have similar experiences and do not develop the disease. Still, doctors say it is possible that such events might cause symptoms of Parkinson's to appear earlier than they would have. VOICE ONE: Some medicines used to treat other problems can cause movement disorders similar to Parkinson’s disease. These include medicines used to treat older adults who see things that do not exist. And they include some drugs used to treat people suffering from extreme tension or from stomach problems. Another disease that can cause movement problems and other effects like those of Parkinson’s is encephalitis. In the early twentieth century, encephalitis spread to many parts of the world. Many victims of the disease had symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. This led to investigations into the possibility of a virus as a cause of Parkinson’s. But scientists could not find evidence to support this theory. VOICE TWO: Another area of study is family genetics. There are some cases of many members of a family having the disease. In two thousand four, scientists linked changes in a gene called PARK-eight to cases of Parkinson’s disease in some families. They identified the gene in a study of five families with a history of the disease. The families lived in England and in the Basque area of Spain. VOICE ONE: Other research involves genes that might increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease in some ethnic groups. Two new studies looked for changes in a gene called LRRK-two as a cause of Parkinson's in Jews and North African Arabs. Researchers in the United States led one of the studies. They tested the genes of one hundred twenty Ashkenazi Jews with Parkinson's disease. Ashkenazi Jews are those whose ancestors came from eastern Europe. The study found changes in the LRRK-two gene in eighteen percent of the patients. That compares to just one percent of a healthy group. The rate was highest, thirty percent, among patients with a family history of Parkinson's. VOICE TWO: Researchers in France and Algeria carried out the other study. They tested the genes of fifty-nine North African Arabs with Parkinson’s disease. They found the same genetic changes in about forty percent of them, compared to three percent in a healthy group. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of both studies at the end of January. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Improved treatments to ease the symptoms of Parkinson's disease make it possible for many patients to live almost normal lives. People who have lost their ability to do many things might be able to regain some of their old abilities with treatment. The most commonly used drug is levodopa. When it reaches the brain, levodopa is changed into dopamine, the chemical that is lacking in people with the disease. Levodopa helps deal with the symptoms of Parkinson's. But it does not prevent more changes in the brain that are caused by the disease. It can also produce unwanted effects in some people. These side effects include feeling sick to the stomach. To prevent this from happening, other substances can be combined with levodopa. Other drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease act like dopamine. They produce reactions in the nerve cells in the brain. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say an antiviral drug called amantadine also appears to reduce symptoms of the disease. VOICE TWO: Doctors sometimes perform operations to treat Parkinson’s. Recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved an operation called deep brain stimulation, or D.B.S. Doctors place small electrical devices into the brain. These are connected to a small piece of equipment called a pulse generator. Deep brain stimulation can reduce the need for levodopa and other drugs. It also helps to reduce symptoms such as shaking, slowness of movement and problems with walking. VOICE ONE: Another development in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease is brain tissue transplants. This involves replacing tissue in areas connected to symptoms of the disease. Early experiments used brain tissue from unborn babies. Doctors said the experiments appeared to have highly successful results. But the experiments became a subject of moral debate over the issue of ending unwanted pregnancies. Researchers have begun working with genetically changed cells and animal cells that can be made to produce dopamine. Still, most doctors agree that such operations should be considered only after drugs fail to treat the signs of Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: The symptoms of Parkinson's differ from person to person. They also differ in their intensity. Some people develop minor effects. ?Others become severely disabled as the effects get worse. Around the world, there are groups that provide education and support services for patients and their families. Last month, the World Parkinson Congress took place in Washington, D.C. More than two thousand people, from scientists to patients, gathered to discuss the latest progress and treatments. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Oliver Chanler. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: More Nations Move to Vaccinate Farm Birds Against Deadly Flu
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A zoo employee in Lille, France, tries to capture a goose for vaccination against bird flu Until last year, only China, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam widely used vaccines in an effort to protect farm birds against bird flu. But now other countries are interested. In late February the European Union gave France and the Netherlands permission to vaccinate farm birds against the h-five-n-one virus. Experts say vaccines might provide a good way to protect chickens and other poultry in areas where wild birds could spread infection. But vaccines are not the only way to contain the disease. Another preventive measure is to keep farm birds sheltered, away from wild birds. Also, farm birds should not drink from open water supplies where they could become infected. But animal health experts say wild birds are only part of the? problem. In some areas, trade in poultry products might be a greater risk to spread the virus. Experts say one of the best weapons against bird flu is information. They advise health officials to use schools and other public places to keep people informed. Farm birds must be destroyed when an outbreak has been confirmed. Also, restrictions must be placed on travel to and from the affected areas. Fast local action is an important first step. Observing biological security measures is also important. Workers involved in destroying birds must wear protective clothing. They are advised to clean all clothing and tools with soap for at least ten minutes. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says governments should pay farmers for their destroyed animals. This way, farmers are more likely to report possible cases of disease. The F.A.O. says poor farmers have suffered the worst economic effects of avian influenza. In Indonesia, twenty percent of workers in the farm bird industry have lost their jobs. In Vietnam and Cambodia, meat prices jumped thirty percent after bird flu hit live bird markets. Wild birds like ducks and seabirds are blamed for the spread of the virus in many cases in Europe. But in Africa, health officials are concerned that bird flu is spreading through trade. They point to a lack of disease-control measures among farmers and traders in markets. Infected birds have been found in a number of states in Nigeria. The more people are around infected birds, the more chance for the deadly virus to gain the ability to pass easily from person to person. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Trip Along the Potomac River, One of America’s Historic Waterways
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Join us today as we travel along the Potomac River in the eastern United States. The Potomac is one of America’s most historic waterways. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: The Potomac River flows more than six hundred kilometers from the Allegheny Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic Ocean coast. The river flows through West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. It also flows through the United States capital, Washington, D.C. The Potomac is the wildest river in the world that flows through a heavily populated area. It supplies water for more than eighty percent of the four million people who live in the Washington area. Millions of people use the river and the land nearby for recreational activities. These include boating, fishing, hiking and bird watching. The area is home to important birds such as the great blue heron and the American bald eagle. The Potomac River has played an important part in American history. For example, America’s first President, George Washington, lived for many years along the Potomac in Virginia. He urged that the river be developed to link Americans with the West. VOICE TWO: We will explore the Potomac River in a small boat called a canoe that we move through the water using sticks called paddles. Our trip will take seven or eight days. The boat has only enough space for two or three people. But we will not be alone on the water. Other canoes float nearby. We start in the calm waters of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. A guide in the boat next to us says people lived here fifteen thousand years ago. The Potomac River was a meeting place for American Indians long before Europeans arrived. The Indians gathered to trade food and furs. Today, people often find objects that the Indians left behind. VOICE ONE: We work hard to paddle our canoe, and are happy to stop and rest at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. During the nineteenth century, this village was an important transportation center for the river, a smaller waterway and a railroad. At Harpers Ferry, the Potomac flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here it meets the Shenandoah River. From our boat we can see the water flowing toward huge rocks. Green trees cover the mountains on either side. Round white clouds hang low against a blue sky. It looks very peaceful. VOICE TWO: But this area is not known for peace. In eighteen fifty-nine, the United States was close to civil war between the northern and southern states. The federal government had a weapons center at Harpers Ferry. John Brown, a militant who was against slavery, decided to raid it. Historians believe he did this to provide slaves with weapons for a rebellion. John Brown and eighteen of his supporters captured the weapons center. However, federal troops recaptured the center the next day. John Brown was later hanged. But his name was made famous forever by American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson wrote that although Brown had died, his spirit would march on. VOICE ONE: Harpers Ferry became a national historical park in nineteen forty-four. Today the park welcomes visitors who come to learn about life along the river. The park also operates a program to restore an important bird, the peregrine falcon, to the area. About fifty years ago, the use of the insect-killing chemical DDT had almost killed all these large birds. DDT was banned in nineteen seventy-two. Wildlife experts now bring baby peregrines from the Chesapeake Bay area. Then they place the birds in rocky areas high above the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry. The baby birds wear a device that sends signals telling where there are. The devices let wildlife experts follow the birds’ movements. They hope that before too long, many peregrines again will fly in these skies. (SOUNDS) VOICE TWO: Most of the time we paddle smoothly over the Potomac. But sometimes the river is wild. George Washington understood that the Potomac was difficult to travel on, even for much bigger boats than ours. He proposed a waterway to avoid dangerous places on the river. But he did not live to see it built. Washington died in seventeen ninety-nine. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was built more than twenty-five years later. VOICE ONE: Over the years, continued flooding from the Potomac damaged the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Today it no longer carries goods. Instead, the C and O Canal is a national park. Kayaks and barges float on the waterway, passing through devices called locks. The locks close off the canal and use special gates to raise or lower the boats. They do this by raising or lowering the water level. The area between the Potomac River and the canal is called a towpath. The towpath extends about three hundred kilometers from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland. Today we see families walking their dogs along the towpath. Other people are running or riding their bicycles. Still others are fishing. ?(SOUND) VOICE TWO: Now we are getting close to Washington, D.C. Here the river begins to look dangerous. Signs warn boats away from the twenty-four kilometers of the Potomac Gorge. So we leave our canoe to walk along the towpath. Water moves fast in the gorge. There are many rocks and waterfalls. The gorge begins above a large waterfall called Great Falls. Here the water drops to sea level. The gorge then extends to Theodore Roosevelt Island, named for America’s twenty-sixth president. Here we get a quick look at a blue heron. This beautiful bird stands for a minute on a rock on one long, thin leg. An eagle spreads its wide wings in the sky, but does not land. VOICE ONE: We take land transportation to follow the river into America’s capital. Washington, D.C. was built on a low wetland area in eighteen hundred. The British burned the city in eighteen twelve. But Americans soon rebuilt it. While in Washington, we decide to continue our trip on the Potomac River in a larger boat for visitors. This will take us past George Washington’s home in Virginia. He helped design the big white house, called Mount Vernon. George Washington and his wife, Martha, are buried on the property. Today we see sheep and goats eating grass on the hill between the back of the house and the river. This sight probably looks about the same as it did when George Washington supervised his beautiful riverside farm. After passing Mount Vernon, we end our trip on the Potomac River as it flows toward the Chesapeake Bay. By now, we have a deep feeling for the beauty of the river. But the beauty always exists under threat. VOICE TWO: Over the centuries, industry, agriculture and human development severely damaged the environment of the Potomac River. By the nineteen seventies, people described the river’s condition as sickening. Then Congress passed the Clean Water Act in nineteen seventy-two. The river has been improved greatly since then. Still, coal mines in West Virginia drop harmful acids into the water. Waste material from the Anacostia River floats on the Potomac. Sediment material that falls to the bottom prevents traffic on some areas of the river. Pesticides and fertilizers pollute the water. Many environmental activists worry especially about the building of new homes and businesses along the Potomac. VOICE ONE: The Potomac River faces many environmental problems as a result of population growth and its resulting pressures on land and water resources. The river flows through land controlled by developers, private owners and state and local governments. These groups often have conflicting ideas about what is good and bad for the river. Several organizations work to protect and improve the Potomac River and the land near it. The Potomac Conservancy is one of them. It carries out a land protection program, develops land and water restoration projects, and provides education programs for adults and young people. VOICE TWO: We have enjoyed our trip on the Potomac River. The trip was sometimes peaceful and sometimes exciting. We learned a lot about the river and its history. We hope that Americans will always take good care of their historic Potomac River. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Dana Reeve's Death Adds to Questions on Lung Cancer in Women?
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Experts say that each year more than one million people worldwide die of lung cancer. It is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. Last week, Dana Reeve died of lung cancer at the age of forty-four. The singer and actress became an activist for victims of spinal cord injuries after her husband's horse riding accident. She took care of "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve for nine years. He died in October of two thousand four. Last August Dana Reeve announced that she had lung cancer. Smoking is linked to about ninety percent of cases. But Dana Reeve did not smoke. Researchers say this is true of up to thirty percent of American women who develop lung cancer. In fact, experts say a higher rate of non-smoking women get the disease than non-smoking men. Studies have shown that men and women react differently to tobacco smoke. Scientists are not sure why. Some suggest that cells in women’s lungs might be more easily damaged by smoking. There could be genetic or environmental reasons. Experts say even people who do not smoke could still be considered "passive smokers" if they breathe other people's tobacco. Derek Raghavan is director of the Cancer Center at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He thinks secondhand smoke causes at least half the cases of lung cancer in non-smokers. The cause in Dana Reeve's case is not known. But Doctor Raghavan notes that singers and other people in the entertainment business often work around smokers. A common sign of lung cancer is a cough that does not go away and gets worse over time. Other common signs include chest pain, coughing up blood, shortness of breath and repeated cases of pneumonia. By the time most people feel sick enough to see a doctor, the cancer has spread too far to be treated effectively. The five-year survival rate is only about fifteen percent. Treatment includes removing the growth. Chemotherapy drugs and radiation can help kill cancer cells and shrink the tumor. There is no cure. And two support groups, the Lung Cancer Alliance and Women Against Lung Cancer, say there is not enough money for research. For now, researchers say the best way to fight lung cancer is to try to prevent it. Dana Reeve leaves behind a thirteen-year-old son and Christopher Reeve's two adult children. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: When Jazz Lovers Get Together to Listen and Learn
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Bob Doughty?with the VOA Special English Education Report. (MUSIC) Bireli Lagrene performing with the WDR Big Band, Germany, during the 2006 IAJE conferenceJazz began in America. It represents a mix of African and European music and cultures. One of the best places to hear jazz is New York City. Which is why the International Association of Jazz Education sometimes holds its yearly conference there. The group has more than eight thousand members in forty countries. The conference is five days and nights of concerts, discussion groups, jam sessions -- just about anything related to jazz. Many discussions center on the methods of jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis. The jazz lovers at the conference in January included teachers, famous musicians and music industry experts. Top school groups performed from a number of countries. Crowds were energized by the beats of big bands and groups like Sisters in Jazz. Brazil's Oscar Castro-Neves mixed jazz stylings with the sounds of his homeland. (MUSIC) During the conference, the National Endowment for the Arts honored several jazz performers. Jazz remains an important art form, but its following has gotten smaller over the years. The National Endowment for the Arts recently started a program called NEA Jazz in the Schools. The goal is to help connect young people to jazz as a way of understanding American history. Now, we leave you with a group from Japan that performed at the conference. Here is the No Name Horses Jazz Orchestra playing “Toil, Moil.” (MUSIC) This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m?Bob Doughty. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Wilson Is Re-elected in 1916 on a Promise: 'He Kept Us Out of War!'
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) In nineteen fourteen, Europe exploded into flames as World War One began. It was a war no nation really wanted. But no nation seemed able to stop it. The assassination of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the city of Sarajevo was the spark that set off the explosion. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell about the war and how it affected the United States and President Woodrow Wilson. VOICE TWO: The Austrian Archduke was murdered by Serbian nationalists. They opposed Austrian control of their homeland. After the assassination, Austria declared war on Serbia. One of Serbia's allies was Russia. Russia agreed to help Serbia in any war against Austria. Austria had allies, too. The most important was Germany. Germany wanted Russia to stay out of the war. When Russia refused, Germany declared war on Russia. Then Germany declared war on Russia's close ally, France. Britain entered the war a few days later when Germany violated the neutrality of Belgium. VOICE ONE: One nation after another entered the conflict to protect its friends or to honor its treaties. Within a week, most of Europe was at war. On one side were the Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary. On the other side were the Triple Entente Allies: France, Britain, and Russia. Many other nations took sides. Bulgaria and Turkey joined the Central Powers. Italy, Romania, Portugal, and Greece joined the Allies. VOICE TWO: The United States hoped to stay out of the war. President Wilson immediately declared American neutrality. He said: "It is a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes cannot touch us." Woodrow WilsonMost Americans agreed with President Wilson. They did not want to get involved in the fighting. However, many found it difficult to remain neutral in their hearts. Some Americans had family roots in Germany. They supported the Central Powers. A greater number of Americans had family roots in Britain or France. They supported the Allies. Yet the official American policy was neutrality. The United States planned to continue to trade with both sides. VOICE ONE: Germany and Austria expected a quick victory in the war. They were caught between two powerful enemies: Russia and France. But German military leaders were not worried. They had a battle plan they were sure would succeed. The German generals planned to strike quickly at France with most of the German army. They expected to defeat France in a short time and then turn to fight Russia. In this way, the German army would not have to fight both enemies at the same time. VOICE TWO: At first, the plan worked. Two million German soldiers swept across Belgium and into France. They rushed forward toward Paris, hoping for a fast victory. But the German commanders made a mistake. They pushed their men too fast. When British and French forces struck back -- outside Paris -- the tired and worn German soldiers could not hold their positions. The battle was fierce and unbelievably bloody. In the end, the Germans were forced to withdraw. The German withdrawal gave the allies time to prepare strong defenses. There was no chance now for a quick German victory. Instead, it would be a long war, with Germany and Austria facing enemies on two sides. Britain and France were on the West. Russia was on the East. VOICE ONE: The Allies took immediate steps to reduce Germany's trade with the rest of the world. The British navy began seizing war supplies found on neutral ships sailing toward German ports. It then expanded its efforts to block food exports to Germany. The blockade by Britain and the other allies was very successful. Germany faced possible starvation. Its navy was not strong enough to break the blockade with surface ships. Its only hope was to break the blockade with another naval weapon: submarines. Germany announced that it would use its submarines to sink any ship that came near the coast of Britain. The threat included ships from neutral nations that tried to continue trading with the Allies. VOICE TWO: The United States and other neutral nations immediately protested the German announcement. They said it was a clear violation of international law. When a German submarine sank a British ship in the Irish Sea, one of the victims was an American citizen. A few weeks later, an American oil ship was damaged during a sea battle between British navy ships and a German submarine. Then came the most serious incident of all. It involved a British passenger ship called the Lusitania. The Lusitania was sailing from New York City to Britain when it was attacked by a German submarine. The Lusitania sank in eighteen minutes. One thousand two hundred persons were killed. One hundred twenty-nine were Americans. VOICE ONE: The sinking of the Lusitania shocked and horrified the American people. They called it mass murder. They turned against Germany. President Wilson warned that he might declare war on Germany, if Germany continued to sink civilian ships. Germany did not want war with the United States. It already faced a strong fight against the European Allies. It promised not to sink any more civilian ships without warning. And it offered regrets for the Lusitania incident. VOICE TWO: President Wilson accepted Germany's apology. Like most Americans, he hoped to stay out of the bloody European struggle. And he also knew that the record of the Allies was not completely clean. For example, he was troubled by reports of mass hunger in Germany. He and other Americans felt the British food blockade was cruel. They also were shocked by the way British forces brutally crushed a rebellion in Ireland at the time. Most of all, the American people were sickened by reports of what was happening on the battlefields of Europe. The armies were using poison gas and other terrible weapons. Soldiers on both sides were dying by the millions. The war had become a bloodbath. VOICE ONE: The United States had a presidential election in nineteen sixteen. President Wilson won the nomination of the Democratic Party to seek re-election. Democrats around the country shouted their support with these words: "He kept us out of war!"? Wilson himself did not like the words. He felt it raised false hopes. But people continued to say it, because they did not want war. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes as its candidate for president. Hughes was a moderate Republican. He supported a number of social reforms. Like Wilson, Hughes promised to keep the United States neutral. However, one of his supporters was former President Theodore Roosevelt. And Roosevelt called for strong American policies that could lead to war. Roosevelt's words led many Americans to see Wilson as the candidate of peace....and Hughes as the candidate of war. VOICE ONE: Voting in the presidential election was very close. At first, it seemed Hughes had won. He went to bed on election night believing he would be America's next president. But voting results later that night confirmed Wilson as the winner. The election was so close the Republicans did not accept defeat for two weeks. Woodrow Wilson had won another term. During that term, he would find it increasingly difficult to honor the words of the campaign:? "? Finally, he would find it impossible. The United States entered World War One while Woodrow Wilson was president. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time, when we will continue the story of American president Woodrow Wilson. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time, when we will continue the story of American president Woodrow Wilson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Baseball Hits the Road for the World Baseball Classic
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play songs for Saint Patrick’s Day … Answer a question about a famous Supreme Court decision … And report about a new international baseball competition. World Baseball Classic 'Dream Come True': The headline in Seoul after South Korea reached the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic with a 2-1 win over Japan at Angel Stadium in California on WednesdayMany of the best baseball players in the world are competing for their home countries this month in a new international baseball tournament. The games are being played in Japan, Puerto Rico and the United States. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: It is called The World Baseball Classic. It will be held again in two thousand nine, then every four years. It is the first series of international baseball games to include professional major league players from the United States and Canada. It is being played before the North American professional baseball season opens in April so the players can take part. Experts say the tournament is an attempt by North American professional baseball to increase the popularity of the sport around the world. Players are competing for their home countries and territories. Sixteen countries and territories are taking part in the competition. They are Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Mexico. Also the Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and Venezuela. American sports writers say the games so far have been fun. The fans are excited to see competition between their favorite players and others who are not so famous. Some of the players are former professionals. Others have other jobs and just enjoy playing good baseball. And some players from the same professional team are playing against each other. For example, New York Yankees player Derek Jeter is on the United States team. His teammate Bernie Williams is playing for Puerto Rico. This is how the games are being played: The sixteen teams were divided into four groups of four teams each. Each team played the other three teams in the group. The top two teams from that competition then moved into the second series of games. In these games, the top teams of each group compete against each other. Then the group champions play each other in the semifinals. The winners of those games will face each other to decide the World Baseball Classic champion. The semifinals and championship games will take place Saturday and Monday in San Diego, California. Roe v. Wade Our VOA listener question this week comes from Kurdistan in Iraq. Azad Kirkuki asks about Roe versus Wade. Roe versus Wade is the name of the Supreme Court decision that made it legal in the United States for a woman to have a medical operation to end a pregnancy. Such an operation is called an abortion. The Court said the United States Constitution protects a woman’s right to have an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. The Supreme Court made that ruling in nineteen seventy-three. The Court based its decision on a citizen’s constitutional right to privacy. It said a woman has the right to make a private decision about having a baby. But it said states could restrict some abortions in the late months of pregnancy. Opponents of abortion were angry about the decision. They organized a movement against abortion. They call their position “pro-life”. They believe every fetus has a right to live and must be protected. The movement campaigned successfully to elect pro-life politicians to state and national offices. It also was able to get Congress to approve laws affecting some abortion activities. For example, one law says the federal government will not pay for abortions for poor women. The Supreme Court has permitted states to make it more difficult for women to get abortions. Women in some states must wait twenty-four hours before a doctor in a medical center will perform the operation. Or a young woman may need to get permission from her parents before she can have an abortion. Earlier this month, lawmakers in South Dakota approved a law banning most abortions in the state. The law makes it a crime for a doctor to perform the operation unless it is needed to save a woman’s life. The governor of South Dakota said the purpose of the law is to create a situation that would force the Supreme Court to re-consider the Roe versus Wade decision. Abortion rights supporters call their position “pro-choice.” They say women should have the right to control their own bodies, including choosing to end an unplanned pregnancy. They say the new South Dakota law is dangerous, unconstitutional and not what a majority of Americans would support. Abortion rights groups say they will use all legal efforts to stop the law from taking effect in July. Saint Patrick’s Day Music HOST: March seventeenth is Saint Patrick’s Day -- the day Irish people honor the man who brought the Roman Catholic religion to their country. It is a religious holiday in Ireland. It is not an official holiday in the United States, but a lot of Americans celebrate it anyway. Steve Ember explains. STEVE EMBER: You know it is Saint Patrick’s Day in the United States because you see more than the usual amount of the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some people color their hair or their faces green. The city of Chicago, Illinois even colors its river green. People across the country celebrate by drinking green beer and singing Irish songs, like this one, “The Unicorn.”?? (MUSIC) The first Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations in the United States took place in Boston, Massachusetts more than two hundred fifty years ago. People whose families had come to the United States from Ireland took part in those celebrations. An old story says that New York City started the tradition of holding Saint Patrick’s Day parades. Twelve Irish-born members of the New York State military force decided to march to breakfast on Saint Patrick’s Day in seventeen sixty-two. Such parades spread throughout the country as more Irish people came to live in the United States. Today, New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade is the biggest in the country. Thousands of people march along Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of thousands of other people gather along the street. They watch and listen as marching bands play traditional Irish music. Here the Gallowglass Ceili Band plays “The Plough and the Stars”. (MUSIC) Many Americans join in the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day. They like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on that day. HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Saving More for Retirement
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. One of the most important questions a worker can ask is: “Will I have enough money for retirement?” For more than thirty years, Americans have used individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, to increase retirement savings. Today, there are several plans that let workers invest. The plans also offer tax savings. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of nineteen seventy-four provided for the first IRAs. It set rules for retirement plans run by big businesses. Other measures provided for individuals who did not qualify for such plans, called pensions. The first kind of IRA is now called a traditional IRA. A worker can put up to four thousand dollars of his or her yearly earnings into a special account. Workers over the age of fifty can invest four thousand five hundred dollars. Unlike a pension, the saver controls the account and decides how it is invested. Money put in a traditional IRA is not taxed until it is withdrawn. But, savings cannot be withdrawn before the account holder is fifty-nine and one-half years old. If the money is withdrawn before that time, it is taxed like income and there is a ten percent fine. The account holder must start withdrawals by age seventy and one-half or there also are fines. At first, IRAs were only for people not covered by pensions at work. But in nineteen eighty-one, everyone could to open an IRA. Six years later, congress banned highly paid individuals from claiming tax reductions. A Roth IRA is a similar plan. Workers can invest up to four thousand dollars of earnings yearly. But there is no tax savings on the year’s earnings. Instead, withdrawals from a Roth IRA are generally not taxed. Roth IRA withdrawals cannot start until the saver is fifty-nine and one half years old. There are also fines for putting too much money in them. But people over seventy can still invest. Small businesses can also set up a kind of IRA. Simplified Employee Pensions, or SEP IRAs, have elements of both traditional IRAs and pensions. SEP IRAs are simple investment accounts controlled by the saver. And, like pension plans, employers add money to them too. Limits on these accounts are higher. A worker and an employer can invest twenty-five percent of the employee’s yearly pay up to forty-two thousand dollars. The money is not taxed until it is withdrawn. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: After Three Years, Iraq Still a Major Issue in American Politics
* Byline: 

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Three years ago, on March nineteenth, President Bush ordered American-led coalition forces to invade Iraq. One goal was to free the Iraqi people. The other was to prevent Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from using weapons of great destruction. The United States believed Iraq had such weapons. The coalition forces gained a quick military victory and the Iraqi government was ousted. But weapons of great destruction were never found. More than two thousand three hundred American troops have died in Iraq in the past three years. The Bush administration says at least thirty thousand Iraqis have also died. Some reports say many more have been killed. Today, President Bush says the goal of the military operation is to protect American security by turning Iraq into a democracy. He adds that Iraq has gone from dictatorship to freedom, to self-rule, to a constitution, and to national elections. But gaining a secure peace in Iraq has been difficult. Deaths and injuries to American troops continue. So do attacks against Iraqi civilians and violence among religious extremists. The United States has been training the Iraqi military and police so that they could accept more responsibility for security operations. But some experts say training alone is not enough to provide security. They say Iraq needs a government that is both effective and permanent. Shiite and Kurdish coalitions won the most seats in parliament in the Iraqi elections last December. But the coalitions lack the clear majority needed to govern. The United States ambassador in Iraq has proposed creation of a national unity government that would include Sunni representatives. But this proposal has been met with resistance. President Bush has spoken around the country to increase support for his policy in Iraq. Last month, Mister Bush said his administration is fixing what has not worked. ?He said the administration would take necessary steps to make Iraq able to defend itself, and serve as a strong ally in the war on terror. But recent public opinion studies suggest that American support for the effort in Iraq is decreasing. Several opinion studies show that most Americans now oppose the war in Iraq. They do not believe the war effort was worth the cost. And, they fear Iraq may be close to civil war. Experts say Iraq is still the most important issue in American politics today. This could affect the final three years of Mister Bush’s presidency. Political experts say the public’s concerns about Iraq have raised questions about the president’s leadership. The president’s Republican Party hopes the situation in Iraq will become more secure before the American congressional elections in November. Experts say they expect the opposition Democratic Party to gain seats in the elections, at least in part, because of public dissatisfaction about the situation in Iraq. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra Were Famous Around the World
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the great jazz musician, Edward Kennedy Ellington. He was better known to the world as "Duke" Ellington. Duke Ellington (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: That was Duke Ellington's orchestra playing "Take the 'A' Train. " Just the first few notes of that song are enough to tell any music expert who is playing. It is like a musical sign. The sign says, "Listen! You are about to hear something by Duke Ellington's orchestra. " It was always the first song his orchestra played. "Take the 'A' Train" was only one of hundreds of songs he played all over the world. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April twenty-ninth, eighteen ninety-nine, in Washington, D.C. His family lived in the African-American area of Washington. It was a time when racial separation was the law in much of the United States. Racial laws and racial hatred were to follow Edward Kennedy Ellington all through his life. Young Edward liked clothes. A friend once looked at him and said, "You look like a duke. " He meant that Edward 's clothes were so good that he looked like a member of a royal family. Other friends laughed. Yet they all began calling him "Duke. " The name stayed with him the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: When he was about seven years old, Duke Ellington began to play the piano. When he was in high school, he began to paint. He became very good at both. A famous art school in New York City invited him to take classes there. But he had already decided to become a musician. He got his first professional job in nineteen sixteen. He played music at night and painted business signs during the day. The most popular music back then was called ragtime. Duke listened to ragtime piano players who visited Washington. Then he tried to play as well or better than they did. Years later, he recorded a song that showed how well he could play the piano. It is a ragtime song called "Lots o' Fingers." (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: Duke Ellington moved to New York City in nineteen twenty-three. He had a small band. Soon it was playing at the famous Cotton Club, where it would play for many years. Duke and his band could play at the Cotton Club. But they could not come to hear anyone else, because they were black. Duke did not become angry. He did not become filled with hatred toward white people. He let his music speak for him. VOICE ONE: In time, Duke Ellington's band got bigger. It was a jazz orchestra. More people began hearing the orchestra's music. They could hear it on a radio program from the Cotton Club. The program often could be heard all over the United States. At the same time, Duke Ellington and the members of his orchestra began recording their songs. Their first hit record was one of their most famous. It was recorded in October of nineteen thirty. It was called "Dreamy Blues. " Later, Duke changed the name. It is still considered a great blues song and is often played today. It is called "Mood Indigo."? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An orchestra is a team made up of individual players. Like any team, the individuals in an orchestra must cooperate to produce good music. The leader of a team, or an orchestra, must learn the strength and the weakness of each member. And a good leader will use this knowledge to make the team or orchestra produce the best result. In the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties, members of a dance orchestra never stayed with one group for long. Musicians moved from group to group. Yet, when a musician played with Duke Ellington, he usually stayed, sometimes for many years. VOICE ONE: This had an effect on the group's music. Duke would write music especially for musicians in the orchestra. His songs used the strengths of one or two individuals. The rest of the orchestra cooperated with them. This cooperation became the method Ellington used again and again to produce beautiful sound colors. His music could make people feel deep emotions -- feelings of happiness, or sadness, or loneliness, or joy. VOICE TWO: Some members of the Duke Ellington orchestra were the best jazz musicians of their day. Their cooperation produced a sound that is almost impossible for others to re-create. To create that same sound, you would need the musicians who first played the music. One of those musicians was "Cootie" Williams. He played the trumpet in the Duke Ellington orchestra for many years. Duke Ellington used the strength of Cootie Williams when he wrote a song called, "A Concerto for Cootie. " Critics said this work showed the unity between the music writer, the leader of the orchestra, and its members. Listen as Cootie Williams seems to lead the orchestra. Hear how the other members cooperate with him to produce a very beautiful and special sound. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for the second part of our People in America program about Duke Ellington on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The White Heron
* Byline: Written by Sarah Orne Jewett

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, American stories. (MUSIC) Today's story is called "The White Heron."? It was written by Sarah Orne Jewett. Here is?Kay Gallant?with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: The forest was full of shadows as a little girl hurried through it one summer evening in June. It was already eight o'clock and Sylvie wondered if her grandmother would be angry with her for being so late. Every evening Sylvie left her grandmother's house at five-thirty to bring their cow home. The old animal spent her days out in the open country eating sweet grass. It was Sylvie's job to bring her home to be milked. When the cow heard Sylvie's voice calling her, she would hide among the bushes. This evening it had taken Sylvie longer than usual to find her cow. The child hurried the cow through the dark forest, following a narrow path that led to her grandmother's home. The cow stopped at a small stream to drink. As Sylvie waited, she put her bare feet in the cold, fresh water of the stream. She had never before been alone in the forest as late as this. The air was soft and sweet. Sylvie felt as if she were a part of the gray shadows and the silver leaves that moved in the evening breeze. She began thinking how it was only a year ago that she came to her grandmother's farm. Before that, she had lived with her mother and father in a dirty, crowded factory town. One day, Sylvie's grandmother had visited them and had chosen Sylvie from all her brothers and sisters to be the one to help her on her farm in Vermont. The cow finished drinking, and as the nine-year-old child hurried through the forest to the home she loved, she thought again about the noisy town where her parents still lived. Suddenly the air was cut by a sharp whistle not far away. Sylvie knew it wasn't a friendly bird's whistle. It was the determined whistle of a person. She forgot the cow and hid in some bushes. But she was too late. "Hello, little girl," a young man called out cheerfully. "How far is it to the main road?"? Sylvie was trembling as she whispered "two miles." She came out of the bushes and looked up into the face of a tall young man carrying a gun. The stranger began walking with Sylvie as she followed her cow through the forest. "I've been hunting for birds," he explained, "but I've lost my way. Do you think I can spend the night at your house?" Sylvie didn't answer. She was glad they were almost home. She could see her grandmother standing near the door of the farm house. When they reached her, the stranger put down his gun and explained his problem to Sylvie's smiling grandmother. "Of course you can stay with us," she said. "We don't have much, but you're welcome to share what we have. Now Sylvie, get a plate for the gentleman!" After eating, they all sat outside. The young man explained he was a scientist, who collected birds. "Do you put them in a cage?" Sylvie asked. "No," he answered slowly,? "I shoot them and stuff them with special chemicals to preserve them. I have over one hundred different kinds of birds from all over the United States in my study at home." "Sylvie knows a lot about birds, too," her grandmother said proudly. "She knows the forest so well, the wild animals come and eat bread right out of her hands." "So Sylvie knows all about birds. Maybe she can help me then," the young man said. "I saw a white heron not far from here two days ago. I've been looking for it ever since. It's a very rare bird, the little white heron. Have you seen it, too?" He asked Sylvie. But Sylvie was silent. "You would know it if you saw it," he added. "It's a tall, strange bird with soft white feathers and long thin legs. It probably has its nest at the top of a tall tree." Sylvie's heart began to beat fast. She knew that strange white bird! She had seen it on the other side of the forest. The young man was staring at Sylvie. "I would give ten dollars to the person who showed me where the white heron is." That night Sylvie's dreams were full of all the wonderful things she and her grandmother could buy for ten dollars. Sylvie spent the next day in the forest with the young man. He told her a lot about the birds they saw. Sylvie would have had a much better time if the young man had left his gun at home. She could not understand why he killed the birds he seemed to like so much. She felt her heart tremble every time he shot an unsuspecting bird as it was singing in the trees. But Sylvie watched the young man with eyes full of admiration. She had never seen anyone so handsome and charming. A strange excitement filled her heart, a new feeling the little girl did not recognize…love. At last evening came. They drove the cow home together. Long after the moon came out and the young man had fallen asleep Sylvie was still awake. She had a plan that would get the ten dollars for her grandmother and make the young man happy. When it was almost time for the sun to rise, she quietly left her house and hurried through the forest. She finally reached a huge pine tree, so tall it could be seen for many miles around. Her plan was to climb to the top of the pine tree. She could see the whole forest from there. She was sure she would be able to see where the white heron had hidden its nest. Syvlie's bare feet and tiny fingers grabbed the tree's rough trunk. Sharp dry branches scratched at her like cat's claws. The pine tree's sticky sap made her fingers feel stiff and clumsy as she climbed higher and higher. The pine tree seemed to grow taller, the higher that Sylvie climbed. The sky began to brighten in the east. Sylvie's face was like a pale star when, at last, she reached the tree's highest branch. The golden sun's rays hit the green forest. Two hawks flew together in slow-moving circles far below Sylvie. Sylvie felt as if she could go flying among the clouds, too. To the west she could see other farms and forests. Suddenly Sylvie's dark gray eyes caught a flash of white that grew larger and larger. A bird with broad white wings and a long slender neck flew past Sylvie and landed on a pine branch below her. The white heron smoothed its feathers and called to its mate, sitting on their nest in a nearby tree. Then it lifted its wings and flew away. Sylvie gave a long sigh. She knew the wild bird's secret now. Slowly she began her dangerous trip down the ancient pine tree. She did not dare to look down and tried to forget that her fingers hurt and her feet were bleeding. All she wanted to think about was what the stranger would say to her when she told him where to find the heron's nest. As Sylvie climbed slowly down the pine tree, the stranger was waking up back at the farm. He was smiling because he was sure from the way the shy little girl had looked at him that she had seen the white heron. About an hour later Sylvie appeared. Both her grandmother and the young man stood up as she came into the kitchen. The splendid moment to speak about her secret had come. But Sylvie was silent. Her grandmother was angry with her. Where had she been. The young man's kind eyes looked deeply into Sylvie's own dark gray ones. He could give Sylvie and her grandmother ten dollars. He had promised to do this, and they needed the money. Besides, Sylvie wanted to make him happy. But Sylvie was silent. She remembered how the white heron came flying through the golden air and how they watched the sun rise together from the top of the world. Sylvie could not speak. She could not tell the heron's secret and give its life away. The young man went away disappointed later that day. Sylvie was sad. She wanted to be his friend. He never returned. But many nights Sylvie heard the sound of his whistle as she came home with her grandmother's cow. Were the birds better friends than their hunter might have been? Who can know? (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have been listening to the story called "The White Heron" written by Sarah Orne Jewett. It was adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was?Kay Gallant.Listen again next week at the same time for this Special English program of American stories. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Honoring People Who 'Stick Their Necks Out'
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 I'm?Steve?Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. An organization based in the United States honors people who, in its words, "stick their necks out for the common good."? That means they take a risk. The organization is named for the animal with the very long neck. The group is called the Giraffe Project. Phil Borges is among recent "Giraffe Heroes."? He is a doctor who fixes people’s teeth, but he is also a photographer. Mister Borges started an organization called Bridges to Understanding. It sends photographers to small villages to give cameras to children and teach them how to take pictures. Bridges to Understanding has sent photographers to Peru, the Arctic, Kenya, Nepal and India as well as a Native American village in Arizona. Mister Borges has also taken his camera to Afghanistan. He took pictures of women helping to improve the lives of other women and children. The Giraffe Project says Mister Borges stuck his neck out to connect children all over the world with photography. Two other Giraffe heroes are Azim Khamisa and Plez Felix. They live in California. Members of a street gang robbed and killed Mister Khamisa’s son Tariq. He was twenty years old. The young man who killed him was Mister Felix’s fourteen-year-old grandson, Tony. He is now in prison. Plez Felix apologized to the Khamisa family for the actions of his grandson. He and Mister Khamisa now work together to tell young people that killing and violence do not solve problems. Since nineteen eighty-two, the Giraffe Project has named more than nine hundred heroes. These "Giraffes," as they are also known, do not receive money. Instead, they are presented as examples for others to follow. Their stories are told through the news media, schools and the Internet. Anyone can nominate a Giraffe hero. There are Giraffe heroes all over the world. Ann Medlock is the woman who started the Giraffe Project. She says it is easy to think that a problem is too big to be solved. Miz Medlock says the non-profit group helps people understand that they can start with small actions to solve small parts of a problem. The group is based in the northwestern state of Washington. The Web site is giraffe-dot-o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Podcasts: When Students Speak in Class, the World Can Listen
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, an example of how podcasting technology is being put to the test in American schools. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Write a story about your life. It sounds like a simple project, especially for a group of high school students. But not for these students at Mountain View Alternative High School in Centreville, Virginia. They are among a growing number of students at schools in the United States that use podcasting in their classrooms. Podcasting is like radio broadcasting, except it uses the Internet. Anyone with a computer and a microphone can record a show about any subject. Anyone with a computer and an MP3 player can download the podcast and listen. Podcasting does require some technical knowledge, but not very much. Many education-related podcasts are aimed at college students. But a growing number are created for, and by, students in middle school and high school. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The students at Mountain View have spent several weeks preparing for their project. They have written their stories. And they have recorded music and other sound to use in their podcasts. Next, they bring together the different elements on a computer. Their teachers help by offering comments and suggestions. The students have made decisions about how to present their information. They have decided how it will be read, and how other sound will be used. Some students decide to read their story themselves. Others choose to create a different effect by having someone else read parts of it. VOICE ONE: Through voices, music and sound effects, the students are able to create something deeply personal. In this podcast, nineteen-year-old Tamim uses traditional music from Afghanistan to create the atmosphere of his homeland. (MUSIC)?? VOICE TWO: Through his story, Tamim brings us along with his family as they flee Afghanistan after Taleban forces capture their city. He and his family live as refugees in Pakistan for two years before coming to the United States. But his difficulties do not end there. Once in the United States, Tamim struggles to learn English. TAMIM: "The funniest thing about being in the U.S. was that I could not talk to my cousins. My cousins didn’t know a word in Farsi and I didn’t know a word in English. It took me about months till I start understanding what my cousins were talking about.”??? VOICE ONE: Other students use different methods to tell their stories. Marvin tells the story of an experience he had as a young child. He was walking to the market, the mercado, in Guatemala City where his mother worked. MARVIN: "[music] I’m here to tell you a story about me, about my childhood – about something that left a scar not physically, but mentally on me.” VOICE ONE: Marvin goes on to tell about walking across the rail lines as he often did on his way to the market. But on this day, he falls down on the rails just as a train is coming in the distance. MARVIN: "I could see the entrance to the Mercado. Suddenly I fell over the railroad and then I could hear a train coming in the same direction towards me [train warning sound]. From that moment on, I got so scared that I couldn’t even stand up. For myself, a woman with long hair came out of the nothing just to pull me – just to pull me off and save my life [train sound]. And the only thing I remember is that I was crying so bad and my brother did not even realize it. At that moment I thought that I was going to die.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In another podcast, Jonathan, in his last year of high school, describes his life in terms of basketball. He tells us his story by visiting different places he has played the game. He explains what he has learned about life while winning and losing. JONATHAN: “I guess that ‘s the story of this court. The winners come back because they love to win and the losers they come back because they hate being losers, and that’s what keeps the circle going [music]." VOICE ONE: Jonathan recorded the sound of a basketball hitting the floor. He says he wanted to give the listener the feeling of being there with him. Jonathan wants to become a professional basketball player. ? But in his story, it sounds like he does not think that is possible, because of mistakes he has made in his young life. JONATHAN: “Man I felt?like?I was on the right road for years. I never was. You have all the support of the coaches until something happens. Then you’re out of school and you can’t play for a team if you’re not enrolled, you know. But I don’t blame them. I take full responsibility for my actions. [music]” VOICE TWO: Jonathan says he now wants to help his younger brother to reach his goals. JONATHAN: “ I want to be the coach of him I never had. I’ll teach him everything I know about basketball and life. I just don’t want him to make the same mistakes I made in life, ya know what I’m saying?" VOICE ONE: With podcasting, students are using their skills in writing, reading and public speaking. At the same time, they are learning several new skills. They learn to work with the computer programs that are used for podcasting. They also gain experience in communications, broadcasting and problem solving. Podcasts are being used in English classes and social studies, as well as foreign language classes. Being able to listen to recordings of their own voice helps students to hear mistakes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are tens of thousands of podcasts on the Internet. They can be found on almost any subject, from current events to financial planning, religion and poetry. People are now recording their thoughts on just about everything. Any MP3 device can be used to play podcasts off the Internet. But the name comes from the iPod devices made by Apple Computer. IPods can also be used to record sound. Some schools are purchasing them for their students. For the project at Mountain View Alternative High, the students used hand-held tape recorders or recorded directly into a computer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An alternative school is different from a traditional school. At Mountain View, many of the students come from difficult situations that have interfered with their schooling. Some are adults returning to finish their requirements for completing high school. Others just need a program that can fit their work or family situations. This project was the first time that teachers Ann Bearden and Peter Garvey used podcasting in their English class. Both agreed they want to continue to use the technology for similar projects. Miz Bearden says the students knew that a podcast can possibly be heard by millions of people through Web sites like Podcast.net. So it increased their desire to do a good job. Or, in the words of Marvin, “I put a lot more heart into this one.” MARVIN: “The one thing I have learned is to help others.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Brianna Blake and produced with Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find a link to some of the podcasts from the students at Mountain View -- and download Special English podcasts. We invite you to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Stress and Failed Pregnancies | Ice Loss in Antarctica | Anger and Injuries | Hummingbirds Never Forget
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week:?a report that Antarctica is losing ice at an increasing rate. We also will tell about a bird with an excellent memory. VOICE ONE: But first, we tell about a study of special interest to women. (MUSIC) Women who experience emotional tension in the first weeks of pregnancy may be at greater risk of suffering a failed pregnancy. A new study suggests a link between the tension, worry, and pressure a woman feels and her ability to carry an unborn child, or fetus. The failure of a pregnancy and resulting death of the fetus is called a miscarriage. The results of the study were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. VOICE TWO: Pablo Nepomnaschy works for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in North Carolina. His research team studied sixty-one women for one year. All the women lived in Guatemala and were already caring for at least one baby. The researchers tested the women for pregnancy and measured cortisol in their liquid wastes. Cortisol is a substance, or hormone, produced by the body. Other studies have linked it to emotional tension, also known as stress. Twenty-two of the sixty-one women became pregnant during the study. The researchers compared the pregnant women who had higher than normal cortisol levels to those who did not. They found that women with the higher levels during the first three weeks of pregnancy were nearly three times more likely to miscarry. VOICE ONE: The researchers say a woman’s body may recognize increased cortisol levels as a sign that conditions are not right for pregnancy. They also say other studies might have failed to find the link between stress and miscarriages because they involved women who had been pregnant for at least six weeks. Most miscarriages happen during the first three weeks of pregnancy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An American study suggests that anger appears to increase your risk of suffering an injury. It found that angry adults are more likely than other men and women to suffer an injury requiring emergency medical care. Study organizers say the risk of serious injury also is higher for men than for women. Dan Vinson of the University of Missouri at Columbia led the research team. They questioned more than two thousand people who had been treated in hospital emergency rooms. The patients were asked to describe their emotions twenty-four hours before the injury and then in the minutes just before their injury. The answers were compared with those provided by a group of uninjured adults. VOICE ONE: Some of the patients described themselves with words such as excited, angry and hostile. Patients who described themselves as feeling easily angered had a thirty percent increased risk of suffering a serious injury. Among men, the risk of injury increased one hundred percent if the man described himself as being hostile or angry at himself. The study also suggested a link between anger and sports injuries and attacks. VOICE TWO: Professor Vinson and his team also examined suspected links between anger and traffic injuries. But they were unable to find such a link. Professor Vinson noted that some people get angry when they drive. Yet their actions generally do not cause traffic accidents. An earlier study in Finland reached the same finding. Professor Vinson estimates that at least ten percent of emergency room visits could be avoided if people did not take action when they are angry. He urged doctors to begin recognizing when their patients have injured themselves because of anger. He said doctors also may need to suggest anger control programs in addition to medical treatment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two weeks ago on this program we talked about the melting of ice from glaciers in Greenland. Now comes news that Antarctica is also losing ice at an increasing rate. Science magazine published a new report. It says the Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as one hundred fifty-two cubic kilometers of ice every year. Scientific researchers from the University of Colorado in Boulder carried out the study. They used information from a project called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE. Germany and the United States launched two GRACE satellites in two thousand two. The satellites measure changes in Earth’s gravitational pull. Changes in the power of that pull provide clues about the mass of different areas on the planet. VOICE TWO: The GRACE satellites travel around the Earth sixteen times each day. One follows the other always at a distance of two hundred twenty kilometers. When the gravity field changes, so does the distance between the two satellites. Equipment on the satellites can record a change in distance of as small as one micron. John Warh is a physics professor at the University of Colorado and a leader of the study. He says the strength of the GRACE satellite equipment is that it let scientists measure all of Antarctica at once. VOICE ONE: Antarctica contains almost seventy percent of the world’s fresh water. The continent is almost all ice. In some areas that ice is close to two thousand meters thick. The last major study of the Antarctic ice sheet was completed in two thousand one. Government scientists from several countries were involved. Those scientists had expected a different future for the world’s fifth largest continent. They said that Antarctica would gain ice mass in the future. They believed that a warming of Earth’s climate would lead to more rain and snow. The scientists said more rain and snow would lead to increased ice. But, the new report shows that is not happening. Or at least not yet. VOICE TWO: Some scientists argue that the new study is too early in the life of GRACE. They say three years of measurement of the ice mass is not long enough. Isabella Velicogna was the lead writer of the report. She is a researcher at the University of Colorado and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mizz Velicogna says this is the first study to report a decrease in a total mass balance of Antarctica. She agrees that more information from GRACE would provide a clearer picture of the continent’s future. But she also says she does not think the ice loss she discovered is going to stop right away. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you think the elephant is the only animal that never forgets, you are wrong. That is the judgment of scientific researchers who studied a very small North American bird. The researchers reported that hummingbirds can remember visits to at least eight different areas over several days. The results of their study were published in Current Biology. Many scientists think that only people had comparable abilities. Earlier studies showed that some animals could remember an object or event. Those animals could remember where they saw the object or event. But it is not clear if they knew when they saw it. VOICE TWO: Timing is very important to a hummingbird. These birds collect a sweet substance called nectar from flowers. If a hummingbird returns too soon to a flower, it will not get more nectar. Or, if the bird waits too long for a first visit, another hummingbird may get there first. In the new study, Jonathan Henderson and Susan Healy of the University of Edinburgh led an international research team. Its members tested three wild, male rufous hummingbirds in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. VOICE ONE: The hummingbirds recognized eight different objects that looked like flowers. The objects were put in the place where their usual feeders were kept. The researchers refilled four of the objects. They said it took one to two hours to train the birds to feed from them. Every ten minutes, the researchers put a sweet substance in the four objects. The researchers filled the four other objects every twenty minutes. The hummingbirds demonstrated that they could remember the placement of these man-made flowers. They also could remember when they had last visited them. The hummingbirds returned to the flowers that were refilled more often than the others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Why Farm Aid Has its Critics and Supporters
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Aid to farmers has become a major issue in world trade talks. Industrial nations provide farmers with payments to improve farm earnings. But, developing nations say aid to farmers in rich nations suppresses world agricultural prices. The issue of agricultural subsidies has nearly halted the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks. The Doha Round is the latest in a series of negotiations by WTO members to improve international trade. Farm subsidies were a major reason that talks in Cancun, Mexico, failed in two thousand three. And, no major agreements were reached in Hong Kong in December of last year. Today’s system of farm subsidies in America began in the nineteen thirties during The Great Depression. Prices in the nation dropped. At that time, twenty-five percent of the nation’s population lived on farms. And farmers were among those hurt most by dropping prices. In nineteen thirty, Congress and President Herbert Hoover tried to protect American markets by taxing foreign imports. Crops were also protected. But this caused other nations to create trade barriers. This closed markets to American goods, making the world economic situation worse. Three years later, Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the Agricultural Adjustment Act. That law and several that followed put in place most forms of farm subsidies that continue today. These include paying farmers not to plant crops. They also include guaranteed prices for some crops, surplus buying programs and loans. Not all crops can receive subsidies. But, the Department of Agriculture is required by law to provide subsidies for wheat, corn and other grains used to feed animals. The USDA must also subsidize seeds used to make oil, milk, peanuts, sugar, honey, wool, tobacco and other products. Farm subsidies are estimated to cost between seventeen and twenty thousand million dollars through next year. Critics of the system say it does not provide a market solution to agricultural prices. They say a small number of the largest farms receive most of the subsidies. But supporters say subsidies are necessary because crop prices have dropped for at least fifty years. They note that competitors in the European Union have been unwilling to lower their large farm subsidies. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Castillo de San Marcos: Story of Ships, Explorers, Disease and War
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Our story today tells of ships, explorers, pirate attacks and wars. It is the story of an old military base, the Castillo de San Marcos. It was built in the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States -- Saint Augustine, in the southern state of Florida. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To reach the Castillo de San Marcos you must drive through part of the city of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine is in northeastern Florida near the Atlantic Ocean. You drive on a small, narrow road with vehicles slowly going both ways. On one side of the road is water. On the other side is the city. You pass businesses, eating places, stores and hotels. And then you see it, just as the road turns to the left. It looks like a hill of rock rising out of the ground. It seems fierce. And it looks very foreign. There can be no mistake about what it is. It is a very old military base -- the kind that is called a fort. It looks like it should be in some European country, not on the coast of Florida. VOICE TWO: Near the entrance is an area to leave your car. A large sign says “National Park Service, Castillo de San Marcos.”? In English the name means the “Castle of Saint Mark.” A National Park Service worker sells us a ticket to enter the old fort. It only costs a few dollars. Slowly we make our way across a wide, water-filled area called a moat. VOICE ONE: Passing through the huge walls of the fort is a little like walking back in time. Sounds from the street and the city of Saint Augustine do not reach inside. The fort is very much like it was when its builders completed most of it in sixteen ninety-five. There are ancient guns here. Most of the huge cannon are made of bronze. They are a green color because of their great age. Some have deep marks showing the gun was made by the royal weapons factory in Spain. Others are British. If you could look down at the fort from above, you would see it is shaped like a star with four large points. The fort has more than twenty rooms. Some rooms were used to store weapons, medical supplies and food. One of the rooms was used to hold religious services. Soldiers lived in others. VOICE TWO: The Spanish built nine forts in this area before they built San Marcos. They needed some kind of strong protection after they arrived in fifteen sixty-five. That was when explorers first claimed the area for Spain. Soldiers were left there to provide protection for Spanish treasure ships sailing from the Americas back to Spain. They were also there to protect Spain’s claim to Florida. The first forts were made of wood. They were not very strong. One of the early ones was burned in fifteen eighty-six by the famous British sea captain, Francis Drake. The Florida heat and insects quickly destroyed other wood forts. Spanish military officials in Florida knew they needed more protection. They asked Spain for the money to build a stronger fort. Each time they asked, however, they were refused. The need for a stronger fort became clear on the night of May twenty-eighth, sixteen sixty-eight. VOICE ONE: Earlier that day, a ship sailed near Saint Augustine. The townspeople thought it was Spanish. It was not. That night, pirates attacked the town and the wooden fort. The Spanish soldiers were able to keep the pirates from capturing the wooden fort, but they could not protect the town. Many people in Saint Augustine were killed or captured. The pirates left when they could find nothing else to steal. They destroyed much of the town. VOICE TWO: Spanish officials immediately began sending money to build a stronger fort. They also sent workers to Saint Augustine to replace the wooden fort with something that offered more protection. Workers found a nearby area where they could begin cutting thick stone to build the fort. It took almost four years to gather enough money and to prepare the land for the fort. But on October second, sixteen seventy-two, Governor Don Manuel de Cendoya held a special ceremony to observe the beginning of the work. VOICE ONE: The Castillo de San Marcos grew very slowly. It took twenty-three years to complete. There never seemed to be enough money to pay the workers. There never seemed to be enough workers. Disease often struck the builders. The fierce heat of Florida’s summer months slowed the work each year. The work was extremely difficult, but the new fort was finished just in time. War was soon declared. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The year seventeen-oh-two was the first real test of the Castillo’s strength. The War of Spanish Succession had begun in Europe. Britain, Austria and their allies were fighting Spain and France to prevent a French prince from becoming the King of Spain. The governor of the British colony of Carolina was James Moore. He hoped to capture the fort to prevent a possible attack by Spanish or French forces on his British colony further up the coast. Governor Moore commanded five hundred British troops and three-hundred Indians in his invading army. The Spanish army only had two hundred thirty soldiers and one hundred eighty Indian allies at Castillo de San Marcos. Moore’s army arrived with eight small ships, and blocked the harbor of Saint Augustine. The people of the town fled into the Castillo. Governor Moore could make no progress in his attack. The huge new fort was too strong. Then, several Spanish war ships arrived to help the Spanish soldiers. Moore burned his small ships and retreated to the north. He burned the town of Saint Augustine before he left. But the Spanish soldiers and the people of the town had survived in the fort. The battle had lasted for fifty days. VOICE ONE: The Spanish again strengthened the fort after the British attack. This time they made a wall of earth around Saint Augustine to protect the town. They also improved the fort’s defenses. Saint Augustine became a walled city. In seventeen forty, the British again attacked Castillo San Marcos. For twenty-seven days they fired huge shells at the fort. The shelling had little effect. The British withdrew. VOICE TWO: In seventeen sixty-three, Spain gave up its claim to Florida. The? British took control. Castillo de San Marcos soon became Fort Saint Mark. The British occupied the fort during the American Revolution. When the war ended, Florida was once again returned to Spain. Spain held Florida until eighteen twenty-one. Then, tensions between Spain and the United States caused Spain to give up its claim to Florida. The name of the old fort was changed again. It was now called Fort Marion. During the next one hundred years the fort was used as a prison to hold American Indians from the western States. It was also used as a military prison. In nineteen twenty-four, Fort Marion was declared a national historical monument. In nineteen thirty-three, the United States War Department gave the old fort to the National Park Service. The National Park service changed its name back to Castillo de San Marcos. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, the Castillo de San Marcos still seems to protect the city of Saint Augustine. However, no enemy has attacked since the year seventeen forty. Each day hundreds of people do what no enemy was ever able to do. They enter the fort. The National Park Service representatives lead small groups of visitors through the fort. They explain how it was built. And they tell stories of the people who built it. They also tell of pirates and English invaders. They explain why it was so very difficult for even a strong enemy to capture the fort. Children play near the huge old guns that are no longer dangerous. They play that they are fighting against fierce invaders. Most visitors have cameras and take pictures. Everyone enjoys looking at the beautiful surroundings from the top of the old fort’s walls. Many visitors stand inside the small guard rooms at each point of the star. Inside the guard room, you can look out the little windows at the ocean, much the same way Spanish soldiers watched for enemies. Then, for a few moments, Castillo de San Marcos may seem again to be protecting the city of Saint Augustine, and the treasure ships returning to Spain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Concise and Precise: A Way to Force People to Think Before They Write
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: some advice about writing. RS: For the past 18 years, Jim Allan has run a secretarial center in Los Angeles. He offers typing -- and a lot more. He draws on his background as a corporate lawyer in Canada to teach clients about what he calls "being concise and being precise." AA: And it all starts with a sheet of lined paper. JIM ALLAN: "Think about each thought that you want to write about, and write down one word to represent that thought. Write one word on the first line, one word on the second line, one word on the third line, so forth. When you've listed all your thoughts, look at them and see if they're in the order that you want them in. You may have to rewrite the list and put it in a different order. "Having done that, then, expand that single word into one sentence. Now you can take each sentence, you can take sentence number one and you can write more sentences under that, just stick to the idea that's in the first sentence. But by doing what I'm describing, thinking of one word to represent one thought and another word to represent the next thought and so forth, you force the person to think before they write, to put it in a logical order, and of course it's concise." RS: "And to think clearly, is what you're saying here." JIM ALLAN: "Yes, do the thinking before you put the pen on the paper. I've done it with people in my office now and they come back and then they're like a different person, their writing is all of a sudden so clear for me. And I mean this technique benefits clients, it doesn't matter how well-spoken they are or how new they are to the American language." AA: "Well, let me ask you, you tell us you've worked with Hollywood screenwriters, you're there in Los Angeles, and that some of your suggestions have been incorporated in films. I'm curious, have you also worked with television writers, and do you have any thoughts about the skills, or comparing movie and television writers?" JIM ALLAN: "I really can't answer that question because although I work with them, it's not my main area. It's not challenging sitting and typing scripts. I mean, I've typed scripts for movies, for television. "I have to say one of the most exciting things that I did in the office at one point was -- it's wasn't a script really, but it was an outline for a movie. And it was somebody that had infiltrated the drug trade in Florida and actually was working with Drug Enforcement and so forth. At the time I had people in my office working on other things, and it ended up they were all around the monitor of my computer and watching the words as I transcribed them, and they were showing on the screen. It was just very exciting." AA: "Did it turn out into a big movie?" JIM ALLAN: "I don't know. This often happens. People come in to me with material or problems and I do my part and it goes on from there." AA: "You know, you sound like a Hollywood movie waiting to happen or a TV show or something." JIM ALLAN: "I've had two producers tell me separately, independently, that they could do a sitcom on my office." AA: "A situation comedy!" JIM ALLAN: "I mean, my work is with university professors, with business management people. I have two clients that are involved in oil. I mean, you know, the hot spot of the world now is Dubai, which of course is getting some news. And I mean I'm dealing with Dubai all the time on behalf of my clients. Over there the royal family control a lot of the business, so I find myself communicating with the royal family over there." AA: Jim Allan runs Allan's Secretarial Centers in the Marina del Rey area of Los Angeles. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-21-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Portable Music Players Linked to Hearing Loss
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Shep O’Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. A college student listens to her iPodElectronic devices are changing the way people listen to music. But studies show the devices may be causing hearing loss in many people. Some experts say people may be playing them too loud and for too long. Researchers from Zogby International did a study for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It involved three hundred high school students and one thousand adults. They were asked about their use of portable music devices. Some of the most popular are Apple Computer’s iPod, C.D. players and portable laptop computers. Forty percent of students and adults said they set the sound levels, or volume, at high on their iPods. But students were two times more likely to play the music at a very loud volume. More than half of the students said they would probably not limit their listening time. And about a third said they were not likely to reduce the volume. The study found that more than half of the students and less than forty percent of the adults had at least one kind of hearing loss. Some reported difficulty hearing parts of a discussion between two people. Others said they had to raise volume controls on a television or radio to hear it better. And, some experienced ringing in their ears or other noises. Hearing experts say part of the problem is the listening equipment people are using. They say large earphones that cover the whole ear are probably safer than the smaller earbuds that come with most music players. Earbuds are thought to be less effective than earphones in blocking out foreign noises. Hearing loss may not be apparent for years. But once it happens, it is permanent. About thirty million Americans have some hearing loss. One third of them lost their hearing as a result of loud noises. Experts at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota say any sound above ninety decibels for long periods may cause some hearing loss. But most portable music players can produce sounds up to one hundred twenty decibels. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is working with manufacturers and government officials on setting rules for use of portable music devices. The group says the best way to protect your hearing is to reduce the volume, limit listening time and using earphones that block out foreign noises. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shep O’Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Intel Science Talent Search Winners Announced
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Education Report. An eighteen-year-old high school student from Utah has won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search in the United States. The winners receive a computer and money for a college education. More than one thousand five hundred students from across the country entered projects in the competition this year. Their research involved chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, engineering, computer science -- almost every area of science. ? Forty students were invited to Washington, D.C., for the final judging. A group of scientists judged them on their research abilities, critical thinking skills and creativity. The judges also questioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the winners. The top winner receives one hundred thousand dollars for college. Shannon Babb of American Fork High School studied the water quality of the Spanish Fork River in Utah for six years. She found that people have a harmful effect on the river through human activity, including agriculture. And she suggested ways to improve the water quality in the future. These include educating the public not to put household chemicals down storm drains, which lead to the river. Seventeen-year-old Yi Sun of the Harker School in San Jose, California, earned second place. He won a seventy-five thousand dollar scholarship for new discoveries about a mathematical theory known as random walks. His work could help computer scientists and chemists. Yi Sun was born in China. The third-place winner was also seventeen and born in China. Yuan "Chelsea" Zhang of Montgomery Blair High School in? Rockville, Maryland, won a fifty thousand dollar scholarship. She researched the molecular genetics of heart disease. Her findings could aid the development of new medicines. The Intel Science Talent Search is the oldest science competition for high school students in the United States. It is sixty-five years old this year. Past winners have gone on to receive six Nobel prizes and other top honors in science and math. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question about the American education system, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer mail personally, but we might be able to answer your question on our program. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Right Is More Precious Than Peace': U.S. Enters World War One
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Woodrow WilsonThere was one main issue in America's presidential election of nineteen sixteen: war. Europe was in the middle of what is now remembered as World War One. It was the bloodiest conflict the world had ever known. Most Americans wanted no part of the struggle in Europe. They supported their country's official position: neutrality. This desire was the main reason President Woodrow Wilson won re-election. People gave Wilson their votes, because they hoped he would continue to keep America out of war. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Larry West and I tell more about Wilson's presidency. VOICE TWO: Like most Americans, Woodrow Wilson did not want war. He feared that entering the conflict would cost the United States many lives. Wilson read the reports from European battlefields. The news was unbelievably terrible. By the end of nineteen sixteen, several million men had been killed, wounded, or captured. At the Battle of Verdun, French forces stopped a German attack. The cost was high on both sides. More than seven hundred thousand soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured. The Battle of the Somme followed. Britain lost sixty thousand men on the first day. By the time the battle was over, losses for both sides totaled more than a million. Germany also was at war on its eastern border, with Russia. Losses on that battlefront, too, totaled more than a million men. VOICE ONE: At the time of America's presidential election in nineteen sixteen, Germany seemed to be winning the war. Its losses were terrible. But the losses of its enemies -- The Allies -- were even worse. German forces occupied much of northern France and almost all of Belgium. German and Austrian soldiers also held parts of Russia, Italy, Romania, and Serbia. Germany was winning on the battlefield. The Allies were winning at sea. A British blockade cut off almost all German trade with the rest of the world. Even food shipments were blocked. As a result, Germany faced mass starvation. It urgently needed to break the blockade and get food. VOICE TWO: This situation finally forced Germany to make the decision that would bring the United States into the war. It decided to use its submarines to break the British blockade. The submarines would attack any ships that came near Britain or other parts of Europe. This included ships from neutral countries, like the United States. Earlier, Germany had made a promise to the United States. Its submarines would not attack civilian ships unless warning was given and the lives of those on the ships were saved. Now Germany was withdrawing that promise. It said unrestricted submarine warfare would begin immediately. German ruler Kaiser Wilhelm said: "If Wilson wants war, let him make it, and let him then have it." VOICE ONE: President Wilson immediately broke diplomatic relations with Germany. He still hoped the two nations would not go to war. He left that decision to Germany. If German submarines sank American ships, Wilson would have no choice but to declare war. Most American shipping companies feared attack by German submarines. Throughout the early part of nineteen seventeen, they kept their ships in home ports. They wanted protection. So they asked for permission to arm their ships. At first, President Wilson refused to seek such permission from Congress. He did not want to do anything that might cause Germany to declare war. Then he received secret news from Britain. British agents had gotten a copy of a telegram from Germany's foreign minister to Germany's ambassador in Mexico. The telegram said Germany was planning hostile acts against the United States. Wilson acted quickly. He began putting guns and sailors on American trade ships. VOICE TWO: It did not take long for the worst to happen. Within days, a German submarine sank an unarmed American ship, the Algonquin. Then three more American ships were sunk. Many lives were lost. President Wilson no longer had a choice between war and peace. There would be war. Wilson called a special session of Congress. Members of both the Senate and house of representatives gathered in one room. They stood as the president walked quickly to the front. He stood silent for a moment before speaking. This is what he said: VOICE ONE: 'I fully understanding the serious step I am taking, I advise that the Congress declare the recent acts of the German government to be, in fact, nothing less than war against the United States. "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war. But right is more precious than peace. And we will fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts -- for democracy, for the rights and liberties of small nations, and for the belief that a worldwide union of free people can bring peace and safety to all nations." VOICE TWO: President Wilson's emotional speech brought tears to the eyes of many of the lawmakers. They felt the great seriousness of his request. Outside, crowds lined the street to cheer Wilson as he returned to the White House from the Capitol Building. He sat in his car and shook his head sadly. "Think of what it is they are cheering," he said. "My message today was a message of death for our young men. How strange it seems they would cheer that." On April sixth, nineteen seventeen, Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany. VOICE ONE: The Allies -- Britain, France and Russia -- welcomed American involvement. The war was going badly for them. It had been very costly in lives, money, and supplies. Allied shipping was suffering heavy losses from German submarine attacks. A British naval blockade had greatly reduced food shipments to Germany. Now, Britain itself faced dangerously low supplies of food. Allied representatives went to Washington to explain what The Allies needed. They needed supplies -- especially food -- immediately. They needed money to pay for the supplies. They needed ships to get the supplies from America to Europe. And they needed American soldiers. VOICE TWO: President Wilson and Congress worked together to organize the United States for war. Congress gave Wilson new wartime powers. He soon formed a council to build ships, improve industrial production, and control national transportation. He formed an agricultural agency to increase food production and food exports. And he formed an information committee to build public support for the war. Wilson's efforts succeeded. The Allies quickly got the ships, supplies, and money they requested. Most important, they soon got American soldiers. VOICE ONE: Allied military leaders said only about a half-million troops were needed from the United States. But American officials decided to build a much larger army. Before long, large numbers of American soldiers were crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They would fight the Germans at the western battlefronts of Europe. The extra strength they gave the Allies would play a major part in helping defeat Germany. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of American president Woodrow Wilson. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of American president Woodrow Wilson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Internet Gets Younger as More Teens Turn to Blogging
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake, Jill Moss and Katy Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play songs by new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame … Answer a question about copying information from Web sites … And report about teenage bloggers. Teenage Bloggers Personal Internet Web sites, or blogs, are becoming more and more popular among young people. But the risks to personal privacy are also increasing. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Millions of young people are creating blogs. Millions of others are reading them. The word “blog” is a short way of saying Web log. Many popular Web sites now offer free, easy ways to create personal Web pages and fill them with writings and pictures. Web sites called “Facebook” and “MySpace” are some of the most popular blog sites for young people. Many young adults use their blogs to write about daily activities and events in their lives. They also provide a place for people to write their ideas and opinions and react to the ideas of others. Blogs offer young people a place to show their writings and other forms of self-expression. Blogs can also be helpful to connect young people with larger social groups. But some researchers say the seemingly harmless blogs can become dangerous when read on the Internet by millions of people all over the world. People are concerned that students are including information in their blogs that create a threat to their own privacy and safety. Recent studies show that young people often provide their name, age and where they live. This personal information puts them at risk of being sought out by dangerous people who want to harm them. Many students do not know about privacy and are surprised to learn that adults can easily read their personal daily records. Students can also get into trouble when they include information on their blogs that can be seen as a threat to others. In several American states, students have been expelled from their schools or even arrested after their blogs were found to include threats against other students or teachers. As a result, many schools have banned the use of blogging Web sites on school computers. Many schools have also begun teaching parents about the Web sites. Researchers say parents should know what their children are doing online and should read their blogs to make sure they are not giving out private information.One way to avoid these problems is by using programs that permit blogs to be read by “friends only.”? These blogs permit people to read the website only if they know a secret word chosen by the blogger. Public Domain HOST: Our listener question this week comes from a student at Bogazici University in Turkey. Serkan Polat asks if it is legal to download audio and text from the Special English Web site. Almost all of the audio, video and written materials created by Special English are free for public use. We urge you to visit our Web site and download programs. You can hear our features and read along with the written texts. This is a great way to improve your English. Special English can provide its material for free because the Voice of America is financed with taxpayer money. Our programs are not protected by copyright, except for some American Stories adapted into Special English. These may only be broadcast by Special English. They may not be used for any other purposes. We do not place these stories on our Web site. The American Stories that are on our Web site are no longer under copyright protection. Anyone can request a copyright for his or her creative work. The holder of a copyright can prevent others from copying that creative work. The United States Library of Congress supervises this process through its Copyright Office. When the terms of the copyright protection end, the work is released into the “public domain.” Publicly owned works, such as most Special English programs, are part of the public domain. They may be used by anyone for any purpose. A creative work is considered part of the public domain if there are no laws which restrict its use by the public. The term “public domain” is often poorly understood when it is about material on the Internet. It is possible for anyone to post copyrighted material on the Internet freely and easily. So this may be why many people believe that all information on the Internet is in the public domain. This is false. Getting information for free does not mean that someone is free to republish it. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Several famous recording artists were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week during a ceremony in New York City. Barbara Klein tells us about the new members and plays music by three of them. BARBARA KLEIN: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honors artists at least twenty-five years after the release of their first album. The ceremony this year included a minor dispute among some winners and a major rejection by one. The Sex Pistols, a British punk rock band, refused to attend. A note on the group’s Web site said: “We’re not coming. We’re not your monkeys.”? The Sex Pistols are as anti-establishment as they were when they began in the nineteen seventies. Here is one of the band’s most popular songs, “Pretty Vacant.” (MUSIC) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also honored the punk/pop band Blondie. Band members, including lead singer Debbie Harry, played their old hit, “Heart of Glass.” However, Blondie refused to let three former band members join in the performance. Listen now to the Blondie hit, “The Tide is High.” (MUSIC) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also honored the bands Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd. And it awarded membership to the jazz great, Miles Davis, who died in nineteen ninety-one. The Hall of Fame admits that the trumpet player and composer never played rock and roll. But it says many rock and roll fans welcomed his music. And, it says Miles Davis’s work was a major influence on rock music. We leave you now with Miles Davis’s nineteen sixty-nine recording, “Spanish Key.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Saving for Retirement, Part 2
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many workers depend on plans offered by their employers to help pay for their retirement. There are two major kinds of retirement plans. One is defined by what is paid out, the other by what is paid in. The first is called a defined benefit plan, or pension. It provides set payments based on the number of years an employee has worked. These plans often pay for health care and other costs. They might also provide money to family members when the pensioner dies. Pensions, however, can be a big cost to employers. In the United States, the change from a manufacturing economy to a service economy has resulted in fewer and fewer traditional plans. In nineteen seventy-four, the Employment Retirement Income Act set rules to protect pensions. That law also created a federal agency called the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. On Thursday its executive director announced that he will leave at the end of May. Bradley Belt has led the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for two years. During that period the agency had to deal with a record level of pension plan failures. ? As a result, it is now responsible for the current and future pensions of more than one million workers. At the end of last September, it reported a deficit of almost twenty-three thousand million dollars in its single-employer insurance program. The agency takes control of pensions that do not have enough money to pay claims. It currently guarantees thirty thousand plans. Forty-four million Americans are in these plans. But there are limits to how much they can receive if their pension fails. The other major kind of retirement plan is called a defined contribution plan. Two things define how much a worker will get at retirement. The first is how much both the worker and the employer paid into the plan. The other is the performance of its investments. One popular version is a four-oh-one-k plan, named after a part of the tax law. It offers investments for workers to put money into. Their employer usually adds to the savings. Defined contribution plans can reduce the taxes of workers and employers. But some plans are very complex. An easier way for small employers to offer retirement savings is through a Savings Incentive Match Plan. It permits contributions of up to ten thousand dollars a year toward retirement. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: International Criminal Court Calls First Defendant, From D.R.C.
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The world's first permanent court for war crimes was established in the Netherlands in two thousand two. Since then the International Criminal Court has not had anyone to bring to trial. This week the court in The Hague called its first prisoner to appear. Officials say Thomas Lubanga Dyilo led one of the most violent armed groups in the Ituri area of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is accused of forcing children under the age of fifteen to take part in hostilities. Congolese officials have had him under arrest for a year. He was flown to The Hague on March seventeenth. Mister Lubanga was in court Monday for a pre-trial hearing. It lasted half an hour. He confirmed his identify. He gave his profession as "politician."? Details of the charges are to be read at the next hearing, set for June twenty-seventh. The International Criminal Court was created as a place to seek justice when national systems fail. The court has also sought the arrest of leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. And it has begun investigations into the violence in the Darfur area of Sudan. One hundred twenty nations agreed to the court at a United Nations conference in Rome in nineteen ninety-eight. But the idea really began after World War Two with the trials of war criminals from Nazi Germany and Japan. The idea gained support more recently during U.N. trials resulting from the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The Rome Statute is the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. The United States opposes the treaty; it says there are serious problems with the document. The United States signed the treaty, but President Bill Clinton never sent it to the Senate for approval. Finally, President Bush withdrew any support. American officials say the court could be used against American troops and citizens for political purposes. They argue that because the court is independent, its officials are responsible to no one. Some say it might even violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court is supposed to be America's highest court. The United States has said it will try any Americans suspected of war crimes. The International Criminal Court is one of more than one hundred international legal organizations with headquarters at The Hague. Another is the International Court of Justice, known as the World Court. The United Nations established the World Court in nineteen forty-five. The main purpose is to settle legal disputes between nations. Another court in The Hague has been in the news lately: the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. It spent four years trying Slobodan Milosevic, until the sudden death of the former president earlier this month. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Duke Ellington: His Life Story, Part 2
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we finish our report about the great jazz musician, Duke Ellington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song is "Take the 'A' Train. " It is like a musical sign that says, "You are listening to Duke Ellington and his orchestra. " Music fans around the world know the song is linked closely to Duke Ellington. Yet they may not know that he did not write it. Duke Ellington "Take the 'A' Train" was written by a close friend and orchestra member, Billy Strayhorn. Billy and Duke had a very close working relationship for almost thirty years. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell which man had written a new song for the orchestra. Members of the group often argued about who had written it . . . Duke or Billy Strayhorn. VOICE TWO: Duke Ellington always wrote music. Music experts say he may have written as many as two thousand different songs. He wrote music wherever he went. He wrote late at night. He wrote on the train or bus or airplane when the orchestra traveled. Friends say he wrote music even in eating places while he waited for his food. Listen to this Ellington song, played by Russell Procope. Procope played the clarinet in the Ellington orchestra for many years. In this song, Procope was able to play his part a different way each time. Ellington let individual players create their own parts. This means it is almost impossible today to reproduce the sound of Duke Ellington's orchestra. The song is called, "Four-Thirty Blues." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Duke Ellington tried many new and different ways to play music. For example, he put different instruments together in groups that no one had tried before. He also was the first song writer to use a human voice as an instrument. He wrote music for a singer but no words. The song is called "Creole Love Call. " The singer here is Adelaide Hall. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Duke Ellington was one of the most popular musicians in the twentieth century. Yet, music experts and critics say he was much more important as a song writer and orchestra leader than as a piano player. Billy Strayhorn once said, "Duke plays piano. But his real instrument is the orchestra. " The orchestra was Duke Ellington's first love. In later years, when large orchestras were not popular, Duke often paid his musicians with his own money to keep the group together. To him, the orchestra was everything. VOICE ONE: Duke Ellington always was looking for ways to make his orchestra sound better. Like many song writers, he often took old songs, changed them, and made them new again. Last week, we played a song called "Concerto for Cootie. " In later years, a singer named Al Hibbler joined the Ellington orchestra. Duke added words to the song. Then he changed its name to "Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me. " Both songs were major hits for the orchestra. Listen as Al Hibbler sings, "Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Duke Ellington and his orchestra played around the world before millions of people. More than eight hundred musicians played with the Ellington orchestra at one time or another. After doctors told Duke that he had lung cancer, he continued to perform. One of his last concerts was at Westminster Abbey in London. His orchestra performed religious music. Duke Ellington was honored by people around the world. Former president Richard Nixon give him the presidential medal of freedom -- America's highest civilian honor. Leaders from around the world wrote him letters to thank him for his music. Duke Ellington died on May twenty-fourth, nineteen seventy-four. VOICE ONE: If you really want to know the real Duke Ellington, you must listen to his music. The music he left the world is truly a great gift. We leave you with Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing like they always did. This recording was made in a room full of people dancing to his music. The place is McElroy's ballroom in the city of Portland, Oregon. It is near the end of the evening. You can hear the crowd in the big room. The people have been dancing and do not want to stop. Ellington Duke Ellington, sitting at the piano, starts another song. It is his signal to the orchestra. Once again, the Duke Ellington orchestra begins to play "Things Ain't What They Used to Be. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Richard Rael. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Cask of Amontillado
* Byline: Written by Edgar Allan Poe

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "The Cask of Amontillado." It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Here is Larry West with the story.(MUSIC) Storyteller:? Fortunato and I both were members of very old and important Italian families. We used to play together when we were children. Fortunato was bigger, richer and more handsome than I was. And he enjoyed making me look like a fool. He hurt my feelings a thousand times during the years of my childhood. I never showed my anger, however. So, he thought we were good friends. But I promised myself that one day I would punish Fortunato for his insults to me. Many years passed. Fortunato married a rich and beautiful woman who gave him sons. Deep in my heart I hated him, but I never said or did anything that showed him how I really felt. When I smiled at him, he thought it was because we were friends. He did not know it was the thought of his death that made me smile. Everyone in our town respected Fortunato. Some men were afraid of him because he was so rich and powerful. He had a weak spot, however. He thought he was an excellent judge of wine. I also was an expert on wine. I spent a lot of money buying rare and costly wines. I stored the wines in the dark rooms under my family's palace. Our palace was one of the oldest buildings in the town. The Montresor family had lived in it for hundreds of years. We had buried our dead in the rooms under the palace. These tombs were quiet, dark places that no one but myself ever visited. Late one evening during carnival season, I happened to meet Fortunato on the street. He was going home alone from a party. Fortunato was beautiful in his silk suit made of many colors: yellow, green, purple and red. On his head he wore an orange cap, covered with little silver bells. I could see he had been drinking too much wine. He threw his arms around me. He said he was glad to see me. I said I was glad to see him, too because I had a little problem."What is it?" he asked, putting his large hand on my shoulder. "My dear Fortunato," I said, "I'm afraid I have been very stupid. The man who sells me wine said he had a rare barrel of Amontillado wine. I believed him and I bought it from him. But now, I am not so sure that the wine is really Amontillado."?"What!" he said, "A cask of Amontillado at this time of year. An entire barrel? Impossible!" "Yes, I was very stupid. I paid the wine man the full price he wanted without asking you to taste the wine first. But I couldn't find you and I was afraid he would sell the cask of Amontillado to someone else. So I bought it." "A cask of Amontillado!" Fortunato repeated. "Where is it?" I pretended I didn't hear his question. Instead I told him I was going to visit our friend Lucresi. "He will be able to tell me if the wine is really Amontillado," I said. Fortunato laughed in my face. "Lucresi cannot tell Amontillado from vinegar."?I smiled to myself and said "But some people say that he is as good a judge of wine as you are."?Fortunato grabbed my arm. "Take me to it," he said. "I'll taste the Amontillado for you."?"But my friend," I protested, "it is late. The wine is in my wine cellar, underneath the palace. Those rooms are very damp and cold and the walls drip with water."?"I don't care," he said. "I am the only person who can tell you if your wine man has cheated you. Lucresi cannot!" Fortunato turned, and still holding me by the arm, pulled me down the street to my home. The building was empty. My servants were enjoying carnival. I knew they would be gone all night. I took two large candles, lit them and gave one to Fortunato. I started down the dark, twisting stairway with Fortunato close behind me. At the bottom of the stairs, the damp air wrapped itself around our bodies."Where are we?" Fortunato asked. "I thought you said the cask of Amontillado was in your wine cellar." "It is," I said. "The wine cellar is just beyond these tombs where the dead of my family are kept. Surely, you are not afraid of walking through the tombs. He turned and looked into my eyes. "Tombs?" he said. He began to cough. The silver bells on his cap jingled. "My poor friend," I said, "how long have you had that cough?"?"It's nothing," he said, but he couldn't stop coughing."Come," I said firmly, "we will go back upstairs. Your health is important.You are rich, respected, admired, and loved. You have a wife and children. Many people would miss you if you died. We will go back before you get seriously ill. I can go to Lucresi for help with the wine." "No!" he cried. "This cough is nothing. It will not kill me. I won't die from a cough."?"That is true," I said, "but you must be careful." He took my arm and we began to walk through the cold, dark rooms. We went deeper and deeper into the cellar.Finally, we arrived in a small room. Bones were pushed high against one wall. A doorway in another wall opened to an even smaller room, about one meter wide and two meters high. Its walls were solid rock. "Here we are," I said. "I hid the cask of Amontillado in there." I pointed to the smaller room. Fortunato lifted his candle and stepped into the tiny room. I immediately followed him. He stood stupidly staring at two iron handcuffs chained to a wall of the tiny room. I grabbed his arms and locked them into the metal handcuffs. It took only a moment. He was too surprised to fight me. I stepped outside the small room. "Where is the Amontillado?" he cried. "Ah yes," I said, "the cask of Amontillado." I leaned over and began pushing aside the pile of bones against the wall. Under the bones was a basket of stone blocks, some cement and a small shovel. I had hidden the materials there earlier. I began to fill the doorway of the tiny room with stones and cement. By the time I laid the first row of stones Fortunato was no longer drunk. I heard him moaning inside the tiny room for ten minutes. Then there was a long silence.I finished the second and third rows of stone blocks. As I began the fourth row, I heard Fortunato begin to shake the chains that held him to the wall. He was trying to pull them out of the granite wall. I smiled to myself and stopped working so that I could better enjoy listening to the noise. After a few minutes, he stopped. I finished the fifth, the sixth and the seventh rows of stones. The wall I was building in the doorway was now almost up to my shoulders.Suddenly, loud screams burst from the throat of the chained man. For a moment I worried. What if someone heard him? Then I placed my hand on the solid rock of the walls and felt safe. I looked into the tiny room, where he was still screaming. And I began to scream, too. My screams grew louder than his and he stopped. It was now almost midnight. I finished the eighth, the ninth and the tenth rows. All that was left was a stone for the last hole in the wall. I was about to push it in when I heard a low laugh from behind the stones.The laugh made the hair on my head stand up. Then Fortunato spoke, in a sad voice that no longer sounded like him. He said, "Well, you have played a good joke on me. We will laugh about it soon over a glass of that Amontillado. But isn't it getting late. My wife and my friends will be waiting for us. Let us go." "Yes," I replied, "let us go." I waited for him to say something else. I heard only my own breathing. "Fortunato!" I called. No answer. I called again. "Fortunato!"? Still no answer. I hurried to put the last stone into the wall and put the cement around it. Then I pushed the pile of bones in front of the new wall I had built. That was fifty years ago. For half a century now, no one has touched those bones. "May he rest in peace!" (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "The Cask of Amontillado. " It was written by Edgar Allan Poe and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Larry West. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O'Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Poor Nutrition in the Developing World
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new World Bank report warns that children who do not get enough good food in the first two years of life suffer lasting damage. They may be underdeveloped or under weight. They may suffer from poor health or limited intelligence. In addition, poorly nourished children are more likely to drop out of school and earn less money as adults. The report is called “Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development.”? It notes that too little food is not the only cause of poor nutrition. Many children who live in homes with plenty of food suffer for other reasons. For example, the study says that mothers often fail to give their newly born babies their first breast milk. This milk-like substance is called colostrum. It is full of nutrients that improve a baby’s ability to fight infections and disease. The study also links malnutrition to economic growth in poor countries. A lack of nutrition in early childhood can cost developing nations up to three percent of their yearly earnings. Many of these same countries have economies that are growing at a rate of two to three percent yearly. The study suggests that poor countries could possibly double their economic growth if they improved nutrition. Africa and South Asia are affected the most by poor nutrition. The study says about half of all children in India do not get enough good food. The World Bank study also notes that rates of malnutrition in South Asia are almost double those in central and southern Africa. Other parts of the world are also severely affected, including Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Guatemala and Peru. The study recommends that developing countries change their policies to deal with malnutrition. Instead of directly providing food, the study suggests educational programs in health and nutrition for mothers with young babies. It also recommends cleaner living conditions and improvements in health care. World Bank nutrition specialist Meera Shekar was the lead writer for the report. She said the period of life between pregnancy and two years is extremely important. Governments with limited resources should take direct action to improve nutrition for children during this period. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com? I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Library of Congress Presents 'Song of America' Tour
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week -- America's cultural history takes to the road. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? The world’s largest library is in Washington, D.C. It has more than one hundred thirty million items in its collection. That includes more than twenty million books. It also includes maps, movies, music recordings and television shows. The Library of Congress serves as a research center for the legislature. It also serves as a center of cultural history for the American people. Now the Library of Congress is sharing some of that history with people who live far from Washington. The "Song of America" tour is part of a major program by the library to celebrate creativity across America. The first part of the program celebrates creativity in music. The classical singer Thomas Hampson has been presenting a traveling concert series. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Thomas HampsonThomas Hampson began an eleven-city tour in November. He started in the Midwest, the American heartland. In January he appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York. The final performance is planned in California in June. One of the historic songs he is presenting around the country is from nineteen fifteen. It was written by an African-American musician, Henry Burleigh, also known as Harry Burleigh. He wrote the music to a poem by Walt Whitman. "Ethiopia Saluting the Colors" is about a chance meeting between a Union soldier and an old slave woman during the American Civil War. The victory by Union soldiers led to the end of slavery in the South. The woman wears a cloth around her head in the colors of the Ethiopian flag: yellow, red and green. She salutes the American colors -- the red, white and blue flag -- as the troops of General William Tecumseh Sherman march past. (MUSIC) WHO are you dusky woman, so ancient hardly human,With your woolly-white and turban’d head, and bare bony feet?Why rising by the roadside here, do you the colors greet? Who are you dusky woman??? (’Tis while our army lines Carolina’s sands and pines,Forth from thy hovel door thou Ethiopia com’st to me,As under doughty Sherman I march toward the sea.)? VOICE ONE:?????? As Thomas Hampson travels for his Song of America tour, the famous baritone presents master classes to teach local musicians. People can also see old printed music and pictures and listen to recordings from the Library of Congress collection. This way they can learn about a city's musical history. The library is also continuing its "Stories of America" program as part of the Song of America tour. The stories program has the recorded histories of more than two thousand Americans. The speakers are people who fought in wars, others who were active in the civil rights movement, and just average citizens. VOICE TWO: The Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress will also travel for the Song of America tour. Ted Kooser will hold readings and organize workshops where poets can get advice about their work. Ted Kooser is in his second term as America’s official poet. He was chosen by the Librarian of Congress, James Billington. Mister Billington calls him a major poetic voice for the America of small towns and wide open spaces. Ted Kooser is the first poet laureate from the Great Plains of the Midwest. He won the two thousand five Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book, “Delights & Shadows.”? Here, for Special English listeners, he reads his poem “A Happy Birthday":? TED KOOSER: “This evening, I sat by an open windowand read till the light was gone and the bookwas no more than a part of the darkness.I could easily have switched on a lamp,but I wanted to ride this day down into night,to sit alone and smooth the unreadable pagewith the pale gray ghost of my hand.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Song of America tour will also send classic films around the nation, to movie houses chosen by Mister Billington. These theaters have machines that are able to show old movies. The movies in the tour include "The Great Train Robbery," "Yankee Doodle Dandee" and “All Quiet on the Western Front."? "All Quiet on the Western Front" opened in nineteen thirty. It is considered unusually well made for its time. The story comes from the German novel by Erich Maria Remarque. A young German soldier in World War One believes fighting in a war is an honorable tradition of manhood. He comes to understand the terrible suffering in wartime. VOICE TWO: Another old film to be shown is “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”? Warner Brothers produced this drama of mystery and adventure in nineteen forty-eight. It was the first movie in which actor Humphrey Bogart and director John Huston worked together. “Mister Smith Goes to Washington” will also be shown around the country. In this nineteen thirty-nine film, Jimmy Stewart plays a young senator who sees only the good in politics. Others aim to get him expelled from the Senate on false accusations. To save himself, he talks and talks for hours to try to stop a vote on the Senate floor. JAMES STEWART: “I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me ... “ VOICE ONE: More than four thousand people work for the Library of Congress. The Song of America tour is just one of many activities organized by the library. Last month, for example, there was a talk by former ambassador Richard Gardner. He discussed and signed copies of his book “Mission Italy: On the Front Lines of the Cold War.” Peter Schikele?is a music expert who likes to be funny. Mister Schikele lectured at the library on the subject “String Quartet: The Dark Horse of Contemporary Music.” VOICE TWO:?????? The Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress stands near the Capitol, the building where Congress meets. There is a round copper top to the Jefferson building. The metal dome is green with age. The building looks like an Italian palace of the fifteen hundreds. This is the heart of the Library of Congress. Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States. He played an important part in the history of the Library of Congress. VOICE ONE: That history began in eighteen hundred, when John Adams was America’s second president, after George Washington. Imagine this: the library started with eleven boxes of law books. The books were kept in one room of the Capitol building. By eighteen fourteen, the collection had grown to about three thousand books. But all of them were destroyed that year as British troops invaded Washington and burned the Capitol building. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson was the next president. He offered his own collection of books to help rebuild the library. Jefferson had about seven thousand books in seven languages. His wish to help the library might have made him willing to offer his books. His debts might have also played a part in his decision. In any case, Congress purchased them. In eighteen ninety-seven, the library moved into its own building, across the street from the Capitol. A second building was opened in nineteen thirty-nine. It was named for President John Adams. But there was still not enough space for the library. So in nineteen eighty, a third building was completed near the first two. It was named for America’s fourth president, James Madison. VOICE ONE: And today there is another place where you can visit the Library of Congress: the Internet, at loc.gov. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. ? VOICE TWO: ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Preparing for a Bird Flu Pandemic: Waiting, Worrying and Wondering
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Our subject this week is bird flu. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are many kinds of avian influenza. The one that has many people concerned is caused by the virus h-five-n-one. This virus has killed birds in about forty countries. It is highly deadly to chickens, turkeys and other poultry. But birds are not the only ones at risk. The first known cases in humans appeared in nineteen ninety-seven in Hong Kong. Since two thousand three, the virus has been found in more than one hundred eighty people in at least eight countries. More than one hundred of them have died. So far, experts say most of the victims have been infected directly from sick birds. But there is concern that the virus could change into a form that spreads easily from one person to another. VOICE TWO: Infections have been found in sixty kinds of wild birds. The part that migratory birds play in spreading the virus is still being studied. Experts still do not know exactly how the virus spread from Asia to Europe and Africa. Migratory birds fly long distances between a winter home and a summer home. Some researchers say these birds are getting too much blame. But American scientist Robert Webster believes ducks are a big part of the problem. He says ducks might not get sick from bird flu but spread the disease easily to chickens. Some experts think the virus could reach the United States in April or May. They say it could arrive when ducks and other wild birds from Asia reach Alaska. Government scientists are testing thousands of wild birds flying across the state. VOICE ONE: Animal health experts say people who want to protect chickens and other birds should keep them in closed areas, away from wild birds. Also, farm birds should not drink from water used by wild birds. If the virus appears, people with special training and protective clothing should kill all the birds on the farm. The farm must be cleaned completely. To help prevent an outbreak, people should clean their hands and shoes before and after they visit farms or markets where birds are kept. Washing clothes and equipment after contact with birds is also important. Any equipment or supplies that are shared with people who keep birds should be cleaned after use. Experts say items made of materials like wood and fiber should not be shared because they are more difficult to disinfect. VOICE TWO: In many places, chickens are kept close to or inside people's homes. This can be an infection risk, especially when children play with them. People should cover their face and hands when they work with farm birds or wild birds. Facial protection will reduce the risk of breathing dust that might carry the infection. To increase the protection, people should not eat, drink or smoke while working with birds. Birds that get the virus often die within forty-eight hours. Other possible signs are lack of egg production, or eggs with soft shells; lack of energy; swelling in the eyes and neck; and a purple color around the legs. Any suspected cases should be reported to animal health officials immediately. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. In France, the h-five-n-one virus was found in a wild duck about one kilometer from the farm of a man named Daniel Clair. Soon his chickens also had the virus. But he did not believe the duck was responsible. Mister Clair blamed reporters. He said they brought the virus to his farm on their shoes after they went to where the dead duck was found. The infection can spread on shoes, tires, farm equipment, clothes and people’s hands. And it can spread whenever birds are transported, either legally or illegally. Illegal trade is a concern because it can sabotage efforts to stop an outbreak. VOICE TWO: Products made with bird waste are another concern. Bird waste is often used to make fertilizer. It is also used as food in fish farming. But untreated waste can spread the infection. In some cases wild birds are believed to have been infected by drinking water in fish farms. Experts say the virus can live in water for three weeks. The World Health Organization says the virus can be killed in poultry products at a heat of seventy degrees Celsius. The W.H.O. also has other rules for food safety: Wash your hands before eating. Disinfect all equipment and surfaces that are used to prepare food. And do not place uncooked meat next to cooked meat. VOICE ONE: There are no warnings to avoid countries with cases of bird flu. But officials do advise travelers not to visit bird farms or have other contact with birds before or during their travels. Public health officials are trying to prevent a human pandemic. A pandemic is a worldwide outbreak of disease. Pandemics happen when people have no resistance to an aggressive new virus. Flu pandemics happen from time to time. The worst known was the nineteen eighteen Spanish flu. Many researchers estimate the dead at between twenty million and fifty million. Some say the number could be as high as one hundred million. Many scientists say the next flu pandemic is likely to be caused by the h-five-n-one virus. Others point out that there is no way to know. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Influenza viruses continually change. Scientists have to make new vaccines each year to protect people. It takes six months or more to develop a new flu vaccine. And even in a normal flu season it takes time to produce enough to meet demand. Scientists are now working on vaccines to protect people against a possible bird flu pandemic. There is no cure for bird flu, just like other kinds of influenza. Two anti-viral drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, might help reduce the severity in some cases if taken very soon after a person gets sick. But, sooner or later, medicines can lose their effectiveness as viruses and bacteria develop resistance. So doctors are being urged to limit the use of Tamiflu and Relenza now in case they are needed for a pandemic. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization is telling all countries to have a plan in case of a pandemic. A good plan must include information about finding enough hospital space for sick people. There must be information about when to close schools or workplaces. And information about when to require people to stay home, and how to get medicine. But officials say only about forty countries have a plan. The United States said in January that it will provide three hundred thirty-four million dollars to help other countries deal with outbreaks. International health officials have been meeting to work on a plan so all nations get vaccines and anti-viral medicines. About thirty countries are buying large amounts of medicine. But right now the W.H.O. says it believes most developing countries will not have enough supplies to deal with a pandemic. Some medical experts see little chance that even the United States would have enough to prevent a pandemic within the next three years. Others, though, think people worry too much about the h-five-n-one virus. VOICE TWO: So why does the animal virus rarely spread from human to human?? New reports in Science magazine and Nature offer an explanation. Two separate teams found that the virus is only able to enter cells deep in the lungs. Human flu viruses attach to cells in the upper part of the breathing system. People then spread the infection from the nose and mouth when they cough and sneeze. The scientists, in the United States, Japan and the Netherlands, note that genetic changes would be needed for the h-five-n-one virus to cause a pandemic. VOICE ONE: Before we go, here are three sites on the Internet to learn more about avian influenza. One is the Web site of the World Health Organization: who.int. VOICE TWO: The second is a United States government site: pandemicflu.gov. VOICE ONE: And the third is our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can find a link to the latest news about bird flu. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Pat Bodnar. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Listen next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Eating or Looking: Wild About Cherries
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There is something hard to resist about cherries. The small red fruit is a popular seasonal food around the world. In northern areas, cherry trees are just beginning to produce flowers. The cherry is a member of the same family of plants as the rose. It is closely related to the plum. Like cherry trees, plum trees also flower in early spring. Cherries are thought to be native to western Asia. There are two major kinds of cherries harvested in the world: sweet and sour. Sour cherries are not eaten fresh because they contain little sugar. Instead, they are processed to make prepared foods like jellies and pies and to make alcoholic drinks. The United States is a major producer of sour cherries. Among the states, Michigan is the top producer. Russia, Poland and Turkey are other important cherry-producing nations. Sweet cherries contain much more sugar than their sour relatives and are usually eaten fresh. Washington state is the biggest American producer, followed by California and Oregon. The United States, Iran and Turkey are major producers of sweet cherries. In the United States, production fell by twenty percent last year after a record harvest in two thousand four. Fresh cherries do not store well. They must reach market as soon as possible. So they cost more than many other kinds of fresh fruit. Farmers produce different kinds of cherries through the process of grafting. They take cuttings from existing trees and join them to related trees, known as root stock. The cuttings, called scions [SY-uhnz], grow into the root stock, so the two kinds of trees grow as one. Cherry trees are also valued for their springtime blossoms. Cherry blossoms are popular in many parts of Asia and Europe. But Washington, D.C., has some of the most famous cherry trees in the world. Japan gave the United States three thousand cherry trees in nineteen twelve as a gift of friendship. There were twelve different kinds of cherry trees, but most were a kind called Yoshino. Years later Japan gave another gift of three thousand eight hundred trees. In the early nineteen eighties, the United States provided Japan with cuttings from the Yoshino trees in Washington. These cuttings helped replace Japanese trees lost in a flood. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mysterious Creatures: Are Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster Real?
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Many people in America’s Pacific Northwest believe in the existence of an animal that is half human and half ape. Other people have reportedly seen a huge creature in a famous lake in Scotland. Today we tell about these and several other mysterious creatures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-eight a young man named Jerry Crew was on his way to work. Mister Crew worked for the Wallace Construction Company in Humboldt County, northern California. Mister Crew drove large construction equipment for the company. It had rained for the past several days and the area where the construction vehicles were kept was very wet and muddy. VOICE TWO: As Jerry Crew walked toward the vehicle he would drive that day, he saw something extremely unusual. What he saw frightened him. There, in the mud, were footprints -- footprints that were almost ten times larger than a normal human foot. Newspaper reporters found out about the huge footprints. They talked to Mister Crew and took pictures of the footprints. They published stories all over California. One newspaper story called the creature that made the prints “Bigfoot.” VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-seven a man named used a small movie camera to take pictures of an ape-like creature moving from a clear area into a forest. Many people said this proved Bigfoot was real. The movie pictures showed a large ape-like creature walking on two large feet. Over the years, books and magazine stories were printed about Bigfoot using photographs from Mister Patterson’s film. Large groups of people spent their holiday time searching forests for Bigfoot. Many people worked long hours in an effort to prove that Bigfoot exists. VOICE TWO: In two thousand two a man named Ray Wallace died of heart failure. He was the man who owned the Wallace Construction Company where the mystery creature’s footprints first appeared. Soon after Mister Wallace’s death, his family told reporters that Mister Wallace had invented Bigfoot. They told how he had made huge feet out of wood and tied them to his shoes. They said Ray Wallace left the footprints that Jerry Crew found. They said Ray Wallace had done this as a joke. The Wallace family said the joke became bigger and bigger. They said Ray Wallace just could not stop. He was having too much fun. For example, in nineteen sixty-seven he dressed his wife in a monkey suit with large feet. Ray Wallace and Roger Patterson filmed her walking into the woods. That film became famous among people who really believed the creature existed. VOICE ONE: Our story about Ray Wallace and his joke should end here. But the Bigfoot story has not died with Ray Wallace. Many people say the Wallace family is lying. They say Ray Wallace never made the footprints. They say there really is a Bigfoot creature. They say someday someone will find the creature. These people plan to continue their search for Bigfoot. Several organizations of people are still searching for the creature. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can find many stories about Bigfoot. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People have always been afraid of large areas of water, sometimes with good reason. Crocodiles and alligators have attacked people in rivers and lakes. That still happens in several areas of the world. But many people in many different countries tell of other huge creatures that live in deep lakes. In the United States, some people say a creature called Champ is living in Lake Champlain, in New York State. These beliefs are not new. More than two hundred years ago reports began about a creature named Selma seen in a lake in Norway. Other reports are very recent. In nineteen ninety-seven someone took video pictures of some kind of creature in Lake Van in eastern Turkey. But the most famous creature that reportedly lives in a very deep lake is the Loch Ness Monster, called Nessie. Many people believe Nessie lives in Loch Ness in the highlands of Scotland. Loch Ness is the largest freshwater lake in Britain. It is about thirty-seven kilometers long and about two kilometers wide. Special equipment shows it is as much as two hundred fifty meters deep. The first written record of Nessie appeared in the year five hundred sixty-five. A Catholic religious leader named Saint Columba reportedly made the creature disappear after it threatened several people. VOICE ONE: Few people visited the Loch Ness area until the nineteen thirties. In nineteen thirty-three a man and woman claimed to have seen a huge animal in the water. It looked like nothing they had ever seen before. In nineteen thirty-four Robert Wilson took a photograph of an unusual looking animal he said he saw in Loch Ness. The photograph and a story were printed in the London Daily Mail newspaper. That photograph provided the best evidence of the creature for the next sixty years. It showed an animal with a long neck sticking out of the water. It looked like some kind of ancient dinosaur.Doctor Wilson’s photograph can be seen in books, magazine stories and on many Internet Web sites about the famous Loch Ness Monster. Over the years, scientists have investigated Loch Ness. They have used special equipment to search the deep lake. These include special underwater cameras and sound equipment. Nothing of great importance has ever been found. VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-three a man named Christian Spurling admitted that he made the monster in the famous photograph. Mister Spurling said this as he was dying. He said it began as a joke with his brother and father. His brother really took the famous photograph. Then they asked Robert Wilson to take the photograph to the newspapers. The Loch Ness Monster became extremely famous after the photograph was printed. Thousands of people came to Loch Ness each year in hopes that they too would see the famous creature. Each year about one hundred thirty people report that they have seen Nessie or at least something unusual in the lake. Loch Ness has hotels, museums, and boat trips that provide holidays for people hoping to see the Loch Ness Monster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people believe in the truth of the stories about Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster and other creatures. Research scientists say that it is not good science to dismiss all claims of unusual animals. For example, many scientists dismissed reports of an animal we now know as the gorilla until scientists studied one in eighteen forty-seven. In nineteen twelve reports of a huge, fierce, meat-eating lizard were confirmed. ?Today we know this to be the famous Komodo dragon that lives on a few islands of Indonesia. It is the largest lizard in the world. In nineteen thirty-eight fishermen caught a strange-looking fish. Scientists recognized it as a fish they had only seen as a fossil. They thought the fish had disappeared from the Earth millions of years ago. The fish is called a coelacanth [SEE-la-canth]. Coelacanths are unusual but they are still very much alive. VOICE TWO: Scientists say reports from people who claim to have seen unusual creatures are interesting. Photographs reportedly taken of such creatures are also interesting. However reports and photographs are not scientific evidence. Researchers say some claims have led to real scientific research. However, no one has found the body of Bigfoot or Nessie or the many other creatures reported by people around the world. Scientists must have a live animal or the body of such a creature to prove that animals like Nessie or Bigfoot really exist. Even the bones would be valuable evidence to study. Scientists must take detailed photographs. They must study the blood, hair, teeth, and genetic material of the animal. VOICE ONE: So we have no scientific news to report about any of the mysterious creatures that live on land or in deep lakes. If we do find good scientific information about these creatures we will report it. Until then, visiting the northwestern part of the United States or Scotland’s Loch Ness is still a great holiday -- even if you do not see anything unusual. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Increased Efforts Urged to Fight Tuberculosis
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. Almost two million people every year die from tuberculosis. Almost nine million develop new cases. Experts say about one-third of the world’s population is infected with TB. People who are infected might never develop an active case. They might never get sick from the infection. But enough do get sick that the World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a worldwide emergency in nineteen ninety-three. Southeast Asia has the largest number of new TB cases. But southern Africa has the highest rates of the disease, almost two times that of Asia. Last week the W.H.O. released a progress report for World TB Day, observed each year on March twenty-fourth. The report praises twenty-six countries worldwide for meeting their goals on tuberculosis control. They include Vietnam and the Philippines. Both have high TB rates. Still, the report says the number of cases worldwide is rising one percent a year as a result of the TB crisis in Africa. TB kills more than five hundred thousand people there every year. W.H.O. officials praised Kenya for emergency measures. But they say African leaders need to invest more to control tuberculosis. TB is the leading cause of death among people with H.I.V. and AIDS. More than twenty-seven million people in Africa are infected with H.I.V, the virus that causes AIDS. People with H.I.V. lose their natural resistance to disease. TB is a bacterial infection. It is spread through the air when a person with an active case coughs or sneezes. Possible signs include a bad cough for three weeks or more and pain in the chest. Others are coughing up blood and sweating at night. Tuberculosis can be cured with medicines. In many countries, though, experts say incorrect or incomplete treatment of TB is creating drug-resistant forms. They say drug-resistant TB is now in almost every country and is hurting worldwide success rates. In January, the Global Plan to Stop TB was launched. This is a ten-year plan. It calls for countries to invest fifty-six thousand million dollars to help nations identify and treat new cases. Officials say the first new TB drug in forty years could be ready in two thousand ten. The World Health Organization says the Global Plan to Stop TB, if fully supported, could save fourteen million lives. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Students Face New Worry: Wrongly Scored College-Entry Tests
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. About five hundred thousand students took the SAT college-admissions test last October. The College Board, which owns the test, says about five thousand of them received wrong scores. The problem became known after two students questioned their scores. They asked to have their tests scored again, this time by hand instead of by computer. Further investigation led to more and more wrongly scored tests. Most of the scores were too low. College Board spokesman Brian O'Reilly says only four students gained three hundred points or more. He says most gained ninety points or less. A perfect SAT score is two thousand four hundred points. The College Board is not telling students or colleges about scores that were too high. Mister O'Reilly says students should not be punished for something out of their control. He says the scores were no more than fifty points too high. He tells us correcting them would not have affected college acceptance decisions. The tests went to a processing center in Texas. Pearson Educational Measurement has scored the SAT for the College Board since March of last year. The company took the place of E.T.S., the Educational Testing Service. The College Board says humidity in the air caused the paper to expand and change the position of the answers. It says the problem affected tests with light or incomplete answer marks. Mister O'Reilly says Pearson has already corrected the problem. He says the company has improved its computer systems and will now scan all answers two times. The College Board has asked schools to reconsider any students they rejected before their SAT scores were increased. Higher education officials say acceptance decisions are based only partly on test scores. But higher scores can mean more financial aid. Now, lawyers are reportedly looking to represent people who want to take the College Board to court. Students are not the only ones who have been affected by testing mistakes recently. E.T.S. has just agreed to pay eleven million dollars to settle cases involving a test for teachers. Thousands who took the Praxis in two thousand three and two thousand four received scores that were too low. More than four thousand of them were told they had failed when they had passed. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tribes in California Attempt to Preserve Native American Dialects
* Byline: Written by Lonny Shavelson

 (MUSIC) More than half of the over one hundred native California tongues have disappeared. Many others have only a few, aging speakers. When this last fluent generation dies, languages spoken by Californians over centuries, will also die. At a recent gathering of some 200 Native Americans struggling to maintain their dialects, Robert Geary remembered driving in his car, listening to a tape of his long-deceased great uncle speaking the native Elem Pomo language. ROBERT GEARY:?"I was listening to this recording and I was so lost hearing my language that I was doing 80 [mph] and I didn't even know it. I got a ticket, yeah, I got a ticket." Robert decided he had to learn his ancestor's language - and immediately ran into a pervasive problem for California's Native Americans. ROBERT GEARY:?"There is only one speaker left, her name is Loretta Kelsey. With her also not having anyone to speak it to, the language is even getting lost with her."?? (SOUND) At the shoreline of the Pomo reservation on Clear Lake, Loretta Kelsey parts some tule reeds, looks over the blue-green waters to where Mount Konocti reaches for the clouds, then turns toward Robert. It's not a struggle for her to bring back memories of the lake of her childhood; it is a struggle to tell Robert about it, in Pomo. LORETTA KELSEY: "Amah ko set. Kuchinwallit. Mecha wee hah ket kay. Help me out, Robert." ROBERT?GEARY: "She was saying something about eating tules." LORETTA KELSEY: "Where we're at now is where I was raised. We'd go down to the water, we'd eat the tules." Robert and Loretta have spent the last five years recovering the language. Now they teach it to others in their tribe. But it's been an agonizing process. Pomo was never written down, no dictionaries, no materials to teach the language - Robert and Loretta are inventing those as they go. LORETTA KELSEY: "Now we're just having to do it the way classrooms do it." (SOUND: Teacher saying words in Pomo) The wind blows off the shore of clear lake as 20 native Americans from 7 to 70 gather along a row of picnic tables, watching Robert write on an old grade-school blackboard. ROBERT GEARY: "Tichen, aweyah. Eee. Tzama, Tzama."? Sixty-eight-year-old?Elizabeth Jean spoke Pomo as a child. She remembers her school days. ELIZABETH JEAN: "We spoke very poor English when I went to school. We needed to go to the bathroom and we didn't know how to say it in English." Jean did learn English, and she lost her Pomo. But with only one remaining El?m Pomo speaker, who herself struggles with the language, it may be beyond recovery. Jocelyn Ahlers, an assistant professor of cultural linguistics at California State University in San Marcos, is here at the class. She's been studying the attempts to revive the Pomo language. JOCELYN AHLERS: "Most linquists would come to a situation like this and say, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do, in terms of making this a vibrant speaking community again. It's over. I'm sorry." (SOUND) In today's class, students struggle to learn greetings and names of foods. If the goal is to revive the language in daily life on this reservation, success may be far away, or impossible. But Professor Ahlers thinks the common bond of learning the language may be enough. JOCELYN?AHLERS: "People tend to define linguistic community strictly as this place where everybody speaks the language all the time, and I think your language community could be the people who share a desire to learn your language with you, people who say hi to you or pray with you." At dusk, the class winds down and the students gather in the ritual roundhouse to dance and pray. ROBERT GEARY: "The center of it is a pole that's sticking up. It's kind of like our gateway to God." Robert says that even the limited Pomo now spoken on the reservation is of value, most of all, in prayers to the spirits. ROBERT?GEARY: "It makes me feel that much more special to be able to talk to the creator in the language that he gave us. That's irreplaceable."?Loretta stands at the shore, amid a tangled mass of tule reeds. When she hears the others speaking Pomo, she feels both ancient burden, and new possibility. LORETTA KELSEY: "It seems like I haven't carried it on the way I should have. Which was wrong. Because it's not really dying. I refuse to say dying." (MUSIC) For VOA News Now, from the Pomo Reservation at Clear Lake, California, this is Lonny Shavelson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 1918: American and German Forces Meet on a Battlefield Near Paris
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I continue the story of American President Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow WilsonVOICE TWO: In nineteen seventeen, Europe was at war. It was the conflict known as World War One. After three years of fighting, Europe's lands were filled with the sights and sounds of death. But still, the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers continued to fight. The United States had tried to keep out of the European conflict. It declared its neutrality. In the end, however, neutrality was impossible. Germany was facing starvation because of a British naval blockade. To break the blockade, German submarines attacked any ship that sailed to Europe. That included ships from neutral nations like the United States. The German submarines sank several American ships. Many innocent people were killed. VOICE ONE: German submarine attacks finally forced the United States into the war. It joined the Allies: Britain, France, and Russia. Like most Americans, President Wilson did not want war. But he had no choice. Sadly, he asked Congress for a declaration of war. Congress approved the declaration on April sixth, nineteen seventeen. It was not long before American soldiers reached the European continent. They marched in a parade through the streets of Paris. The people of France gave them a wild welcome. They cheered the young Americans. They threw flowers at the soldiers and kissed them. VOICE TWO: The Americans marched to the burial place of the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was the French military leader who had come to America's aid during its war of independence from Britain. The United States wanted to repay France for its help more than a hundred years earlier. An American Army officer made a speech at the tomb. He said: "Lafayette, we are here!" VOICE ONE: And so the Americans were there. They were ready to fight in the bloodiest war the world had ever known. Week by week, more American troops arrived. By October, nineteen seventeen, the American army in Europe totaled one hundred thousand men. The leader of that army was General John?J. Pershing. Pershing's forces were not sent directly into battle. Instead, they spent time training, building bases, and preparing supplies. Then a small group was sent to the border between Switzerland and Germany. The Americans fought a short but bitter battle there against German forces. The Germans knew the American soldiers had not fought before. They tried to frighten the Americans by waving their knives and guns in a fierce attack. The Americans surprised the Germans. They stood and fought back successfully. VOICE TWO: Full American participation in the fighting did not come for several months. It came only after another event took place. That event changed the war...and the history of the Twentieth Century. It was the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Its leader was Vladimir Lenin. The Russian Revolution began in the spring of nineteen seventeen. The people of that country were tired of fighting Germany. And they were tired of their ruler, Czar Nicholas. The Czar was overthrown. A temporary government was established. It was headed by Alexander Kerenski. President Woodrow Wilson sent a team of American officials to Russia to help Kerenski's new government. The officials urged Russia to remain in the war. VOICE ONE: Under Kerenski, Russia did keep fighting. But it continued to suffer terrible losses. Many Russians demanded an end to the war. Lenin saw this opposition as a way to gain control of the government. So he went to the city of Petrograd. There, he led the opposition to the war and to Kerenski. Night after night, he spoke to big crowds. "What do you get from war." He shouted. "Only wounds, hunger, and death!" Lenin promised peace under Bolshevik Communism. Within a few months, he won control of the Petrograd Soviet. That was an organization of workers and soldiers. Another Bolshevik Communist, lLon Trotsky, controlled the Soviet in Moscow. VOICE TWO: Kerenski's government continued to do badly in the war. More and more Russian soldiers lost hope. Many fled the army. Others stayed. But they refused to fight. The end came in November, nineteen seventeen. Soldiers in Petrograd turned against Kerenski. Lenin ordered them to rebel. And he took control of the government within forty-eight hours. Russia was now a Communist nation. As promised, Lenin called for peace. So Russia signed its own peace treaty with Germany. The treaty forced Russia to pay a high price for its part in the war. It had to give up a third of its farmland, half of its industry, and ninety percent of its coal mines. It also lost a third of its population. Still, it did not have real peace with Germany. VOICE ONE: The treaty between Russia and Germany had a powerful influence on the military situation in the rest of Europe. Now, Germany no longer had to fight an enemy on two fronts. Its eastern border was quiet suddenly. It could aim all its forces against Britain, France, and the other Allies on its western border. Germany had suffered terrible losses during four years of war. Many of its soldiers had been killed. And many of its civilians had come close to starving, because of the British naval blockade. Yet Germany's leaders still hoped to win. They decided to launch a major attack. They knew they had to act quickly, before the United States could send more troops to help the Allies. VOICE TWO: German military leaders decided to break through the long battle line that divided most of central Europe. They planned to strike first at the north end of the line. British troops held that area. The Germans would push the British off the continent and back across the English Channel. Then they would turn all their strength on France. When France was defeated, Germany would be victorious. The campaign opened in March, nineteen eighteen. German forces attacked British soldiers near Amiens, France. The Germans had six thousand pieces of artillery. The British troops fought hard, but could not stop the Germans. They were pushed back fifty kilometers. The attack stopped for about a week. VOICE ONE: Then the Germans struck again. This time, their target was Ypres, Belgium. The second attack was so successful it seemed the Germans might push the British all the way back to the sea. The British commander, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, ordered his men not to withdraw. Haig said: "There is no other course open to us, but to fight it out." The British fought hard and stopped the attack. Losses on both sides were extremely high. Yet the Germans continued with their plan. VOICE TWO: Their next attack was northeast of Paris in May. This time, they broke the Allied line easily and rushed toward Paris. The German Army chief, General Erich Ludendorff, tried to capture the French capital without waiting to strengthen his forces. He got close enough to shell the city. The French government prepared to flee. Allied military leaders rushed more troops to the area. The new force included two big groups of American marines. VOICE ONE: Americans and their captives in the Battle of Belleau WoodThe heaviest fighting was outside Paris at a place called Belleau Wood. The American Marines were advised to prepare for a possible withdrawal. One Marine said: "Withdraw? We just got here!" The Marines resisted as the Germans attacked Allied lines in Belleau Wood again and again. Then they attacked the German lines. The Battle for Belleau Wood lasted three weeks. It was the most serious German offensive of the war. The Germans lost. We will continue our story of World War One next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Not Just a Man's Game: The First Woman in Baseball’s Hall of Fame
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Lawan Davis

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We play songs by Jamie Foxx … Answer a question about retirement in America … And report about the first female member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Woman In Baseball Hall of Fame The North American Professional Baseball season opens next week. Earlier this month, Major League Baseball named eighteen people to the Baseball Hall of Fame. They include the first woman ever so honored. Her name was Effa Manley. Faith Lapidus tells us about her. FAITH LAPIDUS: Effa Manley was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in eighteen ninety-seven. She died in nineteen eighty-one. Effa Manley was white. She married a black man and considered herself to be black as well. She and her husband, Abe, owned the Newark Eagles baseball team in New Jersey during the nineteen thirties and forties. The team was part of the Negro League. This was a time when white players and black players played on separate teams. Black players played on the teams of the Negro League. History experts say Effa Manley used the sport of baseball to improve the civil rights for African-Americans. She campaigned to get as much money as possible for the black players in the Negro League. The Baseball Hall of Fame says Effa Manley controlled the business part of the Newark Eagles baseball team. She organized the team’s travel, schedule, payroll and daily details from nineteen thirty-six until nineteen forty-seven. The experts praised her efforts to make the Newark Eagles a successful team. The Eagles won the Negro League World Series in nineteen forty-six. The next year, a baseball player named Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to join a major league baseball team. Soon other major league baseball teams began hiring Negro League players. Effa Manley worked to get major league owners to pay the Negro League owners for the players they lost. She wrote a book about Negro League baseball in nineteen seventy-three. And she continued to urge the Baseball Hall of Fame to recognize the Negro League and honor its players. Before this year, eighteen Negro League players had been admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame. This year, it is honoring Effa Manley and sixteen other players and officials from teams in the Negro League and earlier black teams. The ceremony will be held at the Baseball Hall of Fame headquarters in Cooperstown, New York on July thirtieth. Retirement HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Valmecir Jose de Souza asks at what age Americans retire and how many years they work before retirement. Generally, Americans may retire from their jobs after working a number of years that is decided by the employer. Usually they must work at least twenty years. Then they may receive a pension. Pension money comes from personal savings, the government’s Social Security program and private plans from the employer. Federal law requires businesses to provide pensions to all people who have worked for the company a set number of years. The federal government’s Social Security program is the largest pension plan. It was established in nineteen thirty-five. Workers pay a little more than six percent of their wages each month into Social Security. Their employers do the same. Most self-employed workers also pay a percent of their wages into Social Security. People then receive payments after they retire for as long as they live. To receive Social Security, a person must have worked for at least ten years and be at least sixty-two years old. The amount of money received each month depends on the age at which the person retires. For example, a worker who retires at age sixty-two may receive one thousand dollars a month. If he waits until the age of sixty-five, the amount he receives each month will be larger. The Social Security program was never meant to fully support retirement. Today, many people cannot live on what they receive from Social Security. These people may also have personal savings or a private pension plan or both. Most business pensions are paid with money from workers and their employers. Self-employed workers can establish independent plans through banks or insurance companies. Workers pay a percent of money they earn each month into the plan. They receive payments after they retire. Americans traditionally retire at about the age of sixty-five. However, some find that they do not enjoy retirement. Or they are not getting as much pension money as they need. So they continue working until they are older. Jamie Foxx Jamie Foxx has been a successful actor in television and films. Now he has become a popular singer. Pat Bodner tells us more. PAT BODNAR: Jamie Foxx first became popular in the early nineteen nineties. He appeared on the television shows “In Living Color” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.”? The actor is also a skilled singer and musician. He recently released an album called “Unpredictable.”? It has sold more than one million copies. Listen as he sings “Extravaganza.” (MUSIC) Jamie Foxx has been a musician since he was very young. He began learning to play the piano when he was three years old. Jamie was raised by his grandparents. He went to church with them every day. He later became music director at his church. And he studied music in college. Last year, he combined his acting and music skills. He won an Academy Award for playing the famous singer Ray Charles in the movie “Ray.”? Jamie Foxx says he has gained success because of the life lessons his grandmother taught him. She is no longer living, but he honors her with this song, “Wish You Were Here.” (MUSIC) Later this year Jamie Foxx will appear in the film “Miami Vice.”? He also will star in the film “Dreamgirls,” a version of a musical that played on Broadway. And he is enjoying the success of his new album. We leave you now with Jamie Foxx singing the title song from his album, “Unpredictable.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. And our audio engineer was Greg Burns. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-03/2006-03-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: General Motors Moves to Cut Costs
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. General Motors lost almost eleven thousand million dollars last year. Now the cost-cutting efforts of the world's largest automaker are gaining speed. Last week, talks with the United Auto Workers union resulted in a major deal. G.M. agreed to offer buyouts to one hundred thirty-one thousand factory workers. No one knows how many will accept. The deal affects hourly workers at G.M. and its biggest parts supplier, Delphi. A buyout is an offer of money, and sometimes other terms, if an employee will agree to leave a job or retire early. Workers at G.M. who are too young to retire are being offered as much as one hundred forty thousand dollars to accept the buyout. They would lose things like their health care plans. Older workers are being offered smaller payments but the chance to retire early under G.M.'s retirement program. Buyouts are costly, but G.M. hopes to save money in the long term. Its share of the American car market has been shrinking for years. The offer is part of a plan announced last June to cut thirty thousand jobs through two thousand eight. The deal with the union does not involve supervisors or others who earn a salary instead of an hourly wage. The company wants to cut up to seven percent of its non-hourly workers this year. On Tuesday G.M. cut several hundred salaried jobs. ? G.M. is trying to do something that several steel makers and airline companies have tried but failed to do. It is trying to restructure without seeking bankruptcy court protection from its creditors. The company is moving to reduce its interests in some businesses it owns or controls. G.M. says it sold seventy-eight percent of G.M.A.C. Commercial Holding on March twenty-third to three investment companies. The deal is worth almost nine thousand million dollars. G.M. also has agreed to sell its eight percent share in the Japanese carmaker Isuzu. And the company wants to sell a large share of its financing company that provides loans for cars, homes and businesses. G.M has been in talks to sell fifty-one percent to Cerberus Capital Management in a deal estimated at eleven thousand million dollars. This week General Motors released its yearly report which had been delayed. The company restated several years of financial results. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Punish Illegal Immigrants? Welcome Them as Future Citizens? Congress Debates Immigration
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Immigration was a major subject as President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox met this week. They were in Cancun, Mexico, joined by the new prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. The North American leaders also discussed trade and other issues during their two days of meetings. The two presidents both support the idea of a guest worker program that would not punish illegal immigrants now in the United States. But Mister Bush's Republican Party is divided on issues of immigration reform. The Pew Hispanic Center says fifty-six percent of illegal immigrants in the United States are from Mexico. It estimates that the United States has eleven million to twelve million illegal immigrants. Some other estimates put the number higher. In Washington, a vote this week cleared the way for the full Senate to debate an immigration bill. The Judiciary Committee approved legislation that would make it possible for some illegal immigrants to become American citizens. They would have to prove they have jobs and are not wanted for crimes. They would also have to learn English and pay any tax debts. The proposal would also expand guest worker programs to let four hundred thousand people into the country each year. After six years they could ask for permission to stay permanently. The Senate bill conflicts with legislation approved by the House of Representatives in December. Under the House version, illegal immigrants and anyone who helps them could face criminal charges. In the past week, many thousands of Latinos and others marched in Los Angeles and other cities to protest that legislation. Students walked out of high school classes to join the protests. Anger at the House bill could hurt efforts to get more Latinos to vote Republican in congressional elections this November. The party controls both houses of Congress. Some lawmakers want to discuss only border enforcement and security. They oppose legislation that would permit illegal immigrants to become citizens. They say it is not fair to immigrants who obeyed the law. Others support changing the immigration laws as a way to improve the lives of those living in the country illegally now. Supporters say the economy depends on them. They say these workers do jobs that Americans refuse to do. Opponents might not dispute that. But they say there is currently not enough enforcement of laws against employing illegal immigrants in jobs that Americans will do. The building trades are often used as an example. Last Monday, President Bush spoke at a ceremony for new citizens. He expressed support for guest worker programs for economic reasons. But he also said he will not support any plan that pardons all of those who have been working in the United States illegally. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Baseball Legend Babe Ruth
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Babe Ruth, America's greatest baseball player. Some say he was the greatest sports hero of all time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Herman Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in eighteen ninety-five. George's parents owned a bar where people came to drink alcohol. His mother died when he was very young. His father was killed in a street fight. Young George was forced to live on the streets of Baltimore. He stole things. He fought with other children. He got into trouble. At the age of eight, he was sent to live at Saint Mary's industrial school for boys. Catholic religious workers operated the school. The religious workers helped George to act better. And they taught him how to play baseball. VOICE TWO: By the age of eighteen, George was an excellent baseball player. In nineteen fourteen, a teacher at the school wrote to a friend of his, Jack Dunn. Dunn was the manager of the Baltimore Orioles minor league baseball team. He was the one who decided who would play for the team. The teacher invited Dunn to see the young player. Dunn watched George pitch the baseball. He offered the young left-handed pitcher a job playing baseball for six months. He said the Baltimore Orioles team would pay George six hundred dollars. Jack Dunn had to take responsibility for the boy or George could not leave the school. Dunn decided to become George's legal parent. Jack Dunn and his new player arrived at the Orioles' baseball park. The older Orioles' players joked about the new young player. They called him, "Dunn's babe. " The young baseball player became known forever as Babe Ruth. VOICE ONE: That year, the Boston Red Sox baseball team bought the right to make Babe Ruth a player for their team. Ruth pitched for the Red Sox teams during the next two years. He became the best pitcher in the American baseball league. Then the Red Sox discovered that he could hit the ball even better than he could throw it. So Ruth became an outfielder instead of a pitcher. In nineteen nineteen, he hit the ball out of the baseball park twenty-nine times. He hit more home runs than any other player that year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth's contract to the famous New York Yankees baseball team. That year, Babe Ruth hit fifty-four home runs. This was more home runs than any other American League team hit that season. The next year, he hit fifty-nine home runs. Babe Ruth's baseball skill and friendly nature made him famous across the country and around the world. Many people came to the Yankee games just because they wanted to see Babe Ruth play. He helped the team earn a great deal of money. The Yankees built a new baseball stadium. Even today, Yankee stadium is known as "the house that Ruth built." VOICE ONE: Baseball fans loved Babe Ruth because he was what some people called "larger than life. " Sports writer Paul Gallico wrote that Babe Ruth played ball in the same intense way that he lived his life. Gallico said that whenever Ruth hit a ball out of the baseball park the fans would become so excited that they were ready to break the seats. It was impossible to watch Ruth swing his bat without experiencing a strong emotion. In fact, in nineteen twenty, a man reportedly died of excitement while watching Babe Ruth hit a home run. The name of Babe Ruth appeared so often in the newspapers that sports writers thought up new names for him. They called him "The Sultan of Swat." "The King of Clout." "The Babe. " They called him "Bambino." Sometimes they shortened that name to "Bam." VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth led the New York Yankees to seven championships, including four World Series titles. He hit more home runs than any other baseball player. In nineteen twenty-seven, he hit sixty home runs. During his lifetime, he hit a total of seven hundred fourteen home runs. Before he became a power hitter, he had been among the best pitchers of his time. All these skills made Babe Ruth the greatest player baseball has ever had. In nineteen thirty, Ruth earned eighty thousand dollars. This was more money than the president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, earned that year. Reporters asked Ruth why he should be paid more than President Hoover. Ruth reportedly said: "Why not? I had a better year than he did." Ruth also earned money by permitting his name to be used on many products. A candy bar was named after him. "Baby Ruth" candy bars still are popular today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sometimes, Babe Ruth got into trouble on the baseball field. He often arrived late. He got angry often. He hit a baseball umpire. He had many disputes with the chief baseball official. In nineteen twenty-one, the Yankees' manager suspended Ruth from playing. The next year, Ruth did the worst thing a baseball player could do. He left the field during a game to chase a fan who said something he did not like. He had to pay five thousand dollars for violating the rules. VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth also got into trouble off the baseball field. He was a very large man who liked to have a good time. He ate too much. He drank too much alcohol. He played cards and lost money. He went to nightclubs. He drove his car too fast. Some people were unhappy about the way he acted. In nineteen twenty-two, New York State Senator Jimmy Walker appealed to Babe Ruth at a dinner of the baseball writers association. Mister Walker asked the great baseball star to be a better example to the children of America. Babe Ruth stood up with tears running down his face. He promised he would be a better person. He kept his promise. He was never in trouble again. VOICE ONE: Yet Babe Ruth continued to eat too much. In nineteen twenty-five, he was returning on a train from baseball spring training in the South. He became hungry. He stopped at a train station. He reportedly ate twelve hot dog sandwiches. He drank eight bottles of soft drink. Ruth developed severe stomach problems. He was taken to a hospital in New York. Babe Ruth was so sick that doctors had to operate on him. He was in the hospital for seven weeks. Many Americans worried about him until he got well. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth loved children. In nineteen twenty-six, a child named Johnny Sylvester lay in a hospital bed. He was very weak after an operation. His doctor thought that a visit from Johnny's hero might help the boy get better. So Babe Ruth came to the hospital. He wrote his name on a baseball and gave it to Johnny. He promised to hit a home run that afternoon for the boy. Babe Ruth kept his promise. In fact, he hit three home runs that day. VOICE ONE: There are many stories about Babe Ruth and his life. Experts do not agree about which ones are true. The most famous story about him concerns the nineteen thirty-two World Series championship game. The Yankees were playing the Chicago Cubs in Chicago. Ruth was at bat getting ready to hit. The Cubs and their fans were trying to make Ruth angry. They insulted him. Ruth swung his bat and missed the first pitch. The crowd laughed at him. Ruth swung and missed the second pitch. The crowd made more noises. Then Ruth pointed his bat at the seats past the center field of the ball park. He showed the crowd where he would hit the next ball. And that was exactly where he hit the ball out of the park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ruth stopped playing baseball in nineteen thirty-five. The next year he was one of the first five players to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. After he retired as a player, he wanted to be manager of a baseball team. But no such position was offered to him. Ruth died in nineteen forty-eight of throat cancer. He was fifty-three years old. Babe Ruth is buried near New York City. People still come to visit his burial place. They leave things there: A Yankees baseball hat. A small American flag. A baseball. Americans leave these things to show that they have not forgotten the Babe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another people in American program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Diamond Lens, Part 1
* Byline: Written by Fitz-James O'Brien

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "The Diamond Lens. " It was written by Fitz-James O'Brien. We will tell the story in two parts. Now, here is Maurice Joyce with part one of "The Diamond Lens." (MUSIC) Storyteller:? When I was ten years old, one of my older cousins gave me a microscope. The first time I looked through its magic lens, the clouds that surrounded my daily life rolled away. I saw a universe of tine living creatures in a drop of water. Day after day, night after nigh, I studied life under my microscope. The fungus that spoiled my mother’s jam was, for me, a land of magic gardens. I would put one of those spots of green mold under my microscope and see beautiful forests, where strange silver and golden fruit hung from the branches of tiny trees. I felt as if I had discovered another Garden of Eden. Although I didn’t tell anyone about my secret world, I decided to spend my life studying the microscope. My parents had other plans for me. When I was nearly twenty years old, they insisted that I learn a profession even though we were a rich family, and I really didn’t have to work at all. I decided to study medicine in New York. This city was far away from my family, so I could spend my time as I pleased. As long as I paid my medical school fees every year, my family would never know I wasn’t attending any classes. In New York, I would be able to buy excellent microscopes and meet scientists from all over the world. I would have plenty of money and plenty of time to spend on my dream. I left home with high hopes. Two days after I arrived in New York, I found a place to live. It was large enough for me to use one of the rooms as my laboratory. I filled this room with expensive scientific equipment that I did not know how to use. But by the end of my first year in the city, I had become an expert with the microscope. I also had become more and more unhappy. The lens in my expensive microscope was still not strong enough to answer my questions about life. I imagined there were still secrets in Nature that the limited power of my equipment prevented me from knowing. I lay awake nights, wishing to find the perfect lens – an instrument of great magnifying power. Such a lens would permit me to see life in the smallest parts of its development. I was sure that a powerful lens like that could be built. And I spent my second year in New York trying to create it. I experimented with every kind of material. I tried simple glass, crystal and even precious stones. But I always found myself back where I started. My parents were angry at the lack of progress in my medical studies. I had not gone to one class since arriving in New York. Also, I had spent a lot of money on my experiments. One day, while I was working in my laboratory, Jules Simon knocked at my door. He lived in the apartment just above mine. I knew he loved jewelry, expensive clothing and good living. There was something mysterious about him, too. He always had something to sell: a painting, a rare stature, an expensive pair of lamps. I never understood why Simon did this. He didn’t seem to need the money. He had many friends among the best families of New York. Simon was very excited as he came into my laboratory. “O my deer fellow!” he gasped. “I have just seen the most amazing thing in the world!” He told me he had gone to visit a woman who had strange, magical powers. She could speak to the dead and read the minds of the living. To test her, Simon had written some questions about himself on a piece of paper. The woman, Madame Vulpes, had answered all of the questions correctly. Hearing about the woman gave me an idea. Perhaps she would be able to help me discover the secret of the perfect lens. Two days later, I went to her house. Madame Vulpes was an ugly woman with sharp, cruel eyes. She didn’t say a word to me when she opened the door, but took me right into her living room. We sat down at a large round table, and she spoke. “What do you want from me?” “I want to speak to a person who died many years before I was born.” “Put your hands on the table.” We sat there for several minutes. The room grew darker and darker. But Madame Vulpes did not turn on any lights. I began to feel a little silly. Then I felt a series of violent knocks. They shook the table, the back of my chair, the floor under my feet and even the windows. Madam Vulpes smiled. “They are very strong tonight. You are lucky. They want you to write down the name of the spirit you wish to talk to.” I tore a piece of paper out of my notebook and wrote down a name. I didn’t show it to Madame Vulpes. After a moment, Madame Vulpes’ hand began to shake so hard the table move. She said the spirit was now holding her hand and would write me a message. I gave her paper and a pencil. She wrote something and gave the paper to me. The message read: “I am her. Question me.” I was signed “Leeuwenhoek.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. The name was the same one I had written on my piece of paper. I was sure that an ignorant woman like Madame Vulpes would not know who Leeuwenhoek was. Why would she know the name of the man who invented the microscope? Quickly, I wrote a question on another piece of paper. “How can I create the perfect lens?” Leeuwenhoek wrote back: “Find a diamond of one hundred and forty carats. Give it a strong electrical charge. The electricity will change the diamond’s atoms. From that stone you can form the perfect lens.” I left Madame Vulpes’ house in a state of painful excitement. Where would I find a diamond that large? All my family’s money could not buy a diamond like that. And even if I had enough money, I knew that such diamonds are very difficult to find. When I came home, I saw a light in Simon’s window. I climbed the stairs to his apartment and went in without knocking. Simon’s back was toward me as he bent over a lamp. He looked as if he were carefully studying a small object in his hands. As soon as he heard me enter, he put the object in his pocket. His face became red, and he seemed very nervous. “What are you looking at?” I asked. Simon didn’t answer me. Instead, he laughed nervously and told me to sit down. I couldn’t wait to tell him my news. “Simon, I have just come from Madame Vulpes. She gave me some important information that will help me find the perfect lens. If only I could find a diamond that weighs one hundred forty carats!” My words seemed to change Simon into a wild animal. He rushed to a small table and grabbed a long, thin knife. “No!” he shouted. “You won’t get my treasure! I’ll die before I give it to you!” “My dear Simon,” I said, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I went to Madame Vulpes to ask her for help with a scientific problem. She told me I needed an enormous diamond. You could not possible own a diamond that large. If you did, you would be very rich. And you wouldn’t be living here.” He stared at me for a second. Then he laughed and apologized. “Simon,” I suggested, “let us drink some wine and forget all this. I have two bottles downstairs in my apartment. What do you think?” “I like your idea,” he said. I brought the wine to his apartment, and we began to drink. By the time we had finished the first bottle, Simon was very sleepy and very drunk. I felt as calm as ever…for I believed that I knew Simon’s secret. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard part one of the "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien. It was adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Maurice Joyce. Listen again next week for the final part of our story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Small Packet of Chemicals, a Big Effect on Dirty Water
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists have developed a water treatment system that they say is a powerful but simple way to save lives. Four grams of chemicals can treat ten liters of dirty water for a low cost, about ten cents. Experts say infections from dirty water kill several thousand children in developing countries every day. The Procter and Gamble company has been developing the "PUR Purifier of Water" system since nineteen ninety-five. The company has been working with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. C.D.C. researchers tested it in Guatemala, Pakistan and Kenya. Procter and Gamble researcher Greg Allgood says cases of diarrhea in those studies fell by about fifty percent. Procter and Gamble scientist Greg Allgood demonstrates treatment Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland tested the system at a refugee camp in Liberia. Mister Allgood says that study found a reduction of more than ninety percent. Use of the system is being expanded worldwide. Findings were described last week at an American Chemical Society meeting. A small container holds the chemicals as a powder that is mixed in dirty water for five minutes. Once the water is clear, it is filtered through a cloth to catch impurities that settle. The water is considered safe to drink twenty minutes later. The treatment contains bleach to kill disease-causing organisms. It also contains ferric sulfate which dirt and other particles stick to. Mister Allgood says the chemicals can remove lead and other dangerous metals and even agricultural poisons like D.D.T. Mister Allgood heads the Children's Safe Drinking Water program at Procter and Gamble. He says about forty million packets of the treatment have been given to countries for free. They have been used in emergencies and in areas with limited supplies of clean water. Clean water is a limited resource in many parts of the world. Delegates from about one hundred thirty nations attended the Fourth World Water Forum last month in Mexico City. Scientists, policy experts and others discussed ways to provide clean water to the world’s poor. Organizers say more than twenty percent of the world population lacks clean drinking water. The final declaration did not go so far as to declare water a human right. But it did say that governments, not private companies, must take the lead in improving the public’s ability to have clean water. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: National Poetry Week: When Words Take Flight
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we bring you some poems that Americans like best. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: April is National Poetry Month in the United States. The Academy of American Poets started the special celebration ten years ago. National Poetry Month brings together publishers, booksellers, poetry groups, libraries, schools and poets around the country. They celebrate poetry and its important place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations take part. They hold readings, celebrations, book displays, educational events and other activities. This month, the Academy of American Poets will launch the first-ever Poetry Read-a-Thon. This is for students ages ten to thirteen. The goals of the Read-a-Thon are to celebrate the reading of poems and writing about poems. Students will choose poems to read and then write about the poems they read. Poetry is very popular in the United States. America even has a chief poet, known as the Poet Laureate. Robert Pinsky was the Poet Laureate a few years ago. He started the Favorite Poem Project, to find out which poems Americans liked best. Thousands of Americans wrote to Mister Pinsky about their favorite poems. He chose two hundred poems by poets from the United States and many other countries. The poems are included in a book called “Americans’ Favorite Poems.”?? It was edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz. Along with the poems are comments by some of the people who chose them. We will read five of these poems by American poets. Our first poem is by Black Elk, a famous spiritual leader of the Oglala Lakota Native American tribe. He took part in two famous battles against American troops during the late eighteen hundreds. At the end of his life, he told about a number of his tribe’s ceremonies and ideas about life. Among these was the poem called “Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.”? FIRST READER: Everything the Power of the World doesis done in a circle. The sky is round,and I have heard that the earth is roundlike a ball, and so are all the stars.The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles,For theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same,And both are round. Even the seasonsform a great circle in their changing,and always come back again to where they were. The life of man is a circle from childhood to childhood,and so it is in everything where power moves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our next poem chosen as one of Americans’ favorites is by Rita Dove. She was the youngest person and the first African-American ever named Poet Laureate of the United States. She served from nineteen ninety-three to nineteen ninety-five. Rita Dove is a professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Many of her poems are based on the lives of her family, especially her grandparents. Dove often writes about the experience of being a mother, like in this poem, called “Daystar.” SECOND READER: She wanted a little room for thinking:but she saw diapers steaming on the line,a doll slumped behind the door.So she lugged a chair behind the garage to sit out the children’s naps. Sometimes there were things to watch –the pinched armor of a vanished cricket,a floating maple leaf. Other daysshe stared until she was assured when she closed her eyesshe’d see only her own vivid blood. She had an hour, at best, before Liza appearedpouting from the top of the stairs.And just what was mother doing out back with the field mice? Why, building a palace. Laterthat night when Thomas rolled over andlurched into her, she would open her eyesand think of the place that was hersfor an hour – whereshe was nothing,pure nothing, in the middle of the day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Robert Frost was perhaps the most popular and beloved of twentieth century American poets. So it is not surprising that six of his poems are included in the book “Americans’ Favorite Poems.” He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times. He often wrote about the land and people of the northeastern American states. His poems often combine images of nature with ideas about how to live one’s life. This one is called “The Road Not Taken.”? It is one of his most famous poems. THIRD READER: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claim,Because it was grassy and wanted wear;Though as for that, the passing thereHad worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes published more than thirty books. He started with poetry and then expanded into novels, short stories, plays and personal memories. He was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. This was the celebration of African-American literature, art and music in New York City in the nineteen twenties. He continued writing into the nineteen sixties. Hughes’ work often spoke plainly about the difficult lives of black people living in big cities. This poem is called “Mother to Son.” FOURTH READER: Well son, I’ll tell you:Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.It’s had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor –Bare.But all the timeI’se been a-climbin’ on,And reachin’ landin’s,And turnin’ corners,And sometimes goin’ in the darkWhere there ain’t been no light.So boy, don’t you turn back.Don’t you set down on the steps‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.Don’t you fall now –For I’se still goin’, honey,I’se still climbin,’And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edna Saint Vincent Millay's poetry is also included in “Americans’ Favorite Poems.”? She lived during the first half of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in nineteen twenty-three. She was also famous for the free way she lived her life and for her many lovers. Here is one of her poems about love, called “Sonnet Twenty-four.” FIFTH READER: When you, that at this moment are to meDearer than words on paper, shall depart,And be no more the warder of my heart,Whereof again myself shall hold the key;And bed no more – what now you seem to be –The sun, from which all excellences startIn a round nimbus, nor a broken dartOf moonlight, even, splintered on the sea;I shall remember only of this hour –And weep somewhat, as now you see me weep –The pathos of your love, that, like a flower,Fearful of death yet amorous of sleep,Droops for a moment and beholds, dismayed,The wind whereon its petals shall be laid. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our poetry readers were Doug Johnson, Pat Bodnar, Steve Ember, Shep O’Neal and Barbara Klein. I’m Faith Lapidus. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for This is America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Stopping to Smell the Roses, and Lots More, at the Botanic Garden
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the country. Botanical gardens provide a protected area for green plants, flowing plants and trees. They also are place for education and scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The thin green leaves of fern plants seem to reach out to welcome visitors as they enter the United States Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is just a short walk from the United States Capitol building. Plants from around the world grow there. Plants also grow across the street in the Frederic Auguste Bartholdi Park. People come to the Botanic Garden to see its large collection of flowers, trees and other plants. It is probably one of the most beautiful places to see in Washington. VOICE TWO: From early April through early June, the Botanic Garden is presenting an exhibit that honors its beginnings. The show will recognize the United States Exploring Expedition. The expedition was a navy trip made for scientific research in the nineteenth century. Some educators say it was America’s most important scientific naval exploration before the Civil War. The trip began on August eighth, eighteen thirty-eight. At the time, a Navy officer named Charles Wilkes led ships from the eastern state of Virginia on scientific travels. Wilkes commanded the flagship Vincennes. Five other ships started traveling with the Vincennes. Wilkes’s group visited South America and the west coast of North America. It also traveled to Southeast Asia, the southern Pacific Ocean and even South Africa. The one hundred forty thousand-kilometer trip became known as the Wilkes Expedition. VOICE ONE: Artists and scientists joined the crew of the Wilkes Expedition. Crewmembers made fun of the scientists. The sailors called them insect catchers. But these insect catchers did important work. They collected more than sixty-thousand kinds of plants and birds. Charles Wilkes also explored Antarctica. He described it as not just a big piece of ice, but a continent. Historians remember him as a great sailor and explorer. After he returned, the Navy brought charges against Wilkes for striking members of his crew. He was accused of using severe beatings as punishment. During his life, Wilkes defended himself two times against charges in a military court. But he did not earn much love from his sailors. VOICE TWO: The Wilkes Expedition brought the start of an international collection of seeds, birds and plants to the United States. They added to the richness of nature in the country. The living plants and seeds were taken to a specially built greenhouse near the Old Patent Office Building in Washington. A greenhouse is a building with a glass top and sides where plants can grow in cold weather. Later, the plants were given to the newly formed Smithsonian Institution. The seeds became part of its collections. The new Botanic Garden exhibit honoring Wilkes’s gifts to America opens today [April 4]. A vessel fern in the Garden’s collection will be among the objects shown. The plant with its thin leaves is believed to have developed directly from a fern from the Wilkes expedition. VOICE ONE: About a year ago, the Botanic Garden showed a much older kind of plant -- a Wollemi pine. The plant came from trees that existed in the age of dinosaurs. Until eleven years ago, it was believed that the last similar Wollemi lived ninety million years ago. A special container protected the three-year-old pine tree while in the Botanic Garden. The loan of the pine was part of a cooperative program with plant and wildlife organizations in Australia. About one hundred Wollemi were found near Sydney in nineteen ninety-five. Only a few people know where the plants were discovered. Experts fear that people might harm them. VOICE TWO: Another unusual plant was shown at the Botanic Garden in July of two thousand three. Many thousands of people stood in line to see a rare flower from Indonesia. The Titan Arum opens every one to three years. Its flower lasts only a few days. While the flower is open, the Titan Arum smells terrible. The Botanic Garden could have shown the flower longer. But experts decided that its condition was worsening. They thought the flower might have died by the next day. The Botanic Garden wanted to save parts of the flower to let it open again. So a plant expert was called in. He was asked to prepare the Titan Arum so it could be saved. Workers cut away the parts above ground. ?But the lower part is in a sleeping condition. Sometime within the next several years, it will send up leafy parts. They will make food for the flower. That process is expected to provide enough energy for Titan Arum to flower again. VOICE ONE: Protecting and restoring plant life is important to the Botanic Garden. In June, the Garden is taking part in presenting a training program toward that goal. The Denver Botanic Gardens in Colorado is assisting with the program. An organization called the Center for Plant Conservation will teach the genetics involved in protecting plants. It also will explore the science of growing flowers, fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. These plants include flowers like roses and trees like holly trees. Holly is known for its small red fruit, or berries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Orchids at the Botanic GardenAbout four thousand plants grow in the Botanic Garden. Experts have placed the plants in different areas designed to meet their special requirements. Each area has different environmental needs for the plants growing in it. Light from the glass covering falls from high above. Modern equipment controls the temperature, water and other needs of each plant group. The tradition leading to the present Botanic Garden began almost two hundred years ago. In eighteen sixteen, a cultural organization in Washington proposed creating a special garden. This garden was to have plants from the United States and other nations. VOICE ONE: Four years later, Congress established the garden of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. The plants were grown in an area west of the Capitol building until eighteen thirty-seven. The Columbian Institute stopped meeting that year. People in Washington, however, did not want to be without a garden. So a new greenhouse was built. In eighteen forty-two, Charles Wilkes and his group gave two hundred fifty four living plants to the new greenhouse. A few years later, workers moved the plants into another structure. They were now on the land where the first garden had been. In nineteen thirty-three, the current greenhouse, called the conservatory, was built. VOICE TWO: The United States Botanic Garden offers a number of services to the public. The Botanic Garden answers requests about plants. It also holds special education programs. Many of these programs are free to anyone who wants to attend. The Botanic Garden works with local and national garden groups and scientific organizations. It exchanges plants with them and helps them develop educational programs. And it holds special flower shows throughout the year. One show, for example, celebrates the Christmas holiday. VOICE ONE: The Botanic Garden continues to grow and change. A private group is raising money for a National Garden. It is being built just west of the Botanic Garden. Several areas are planned for the National Garden. An Environmental Learning Center will offer space for teaching science and gardening. Visitors to the National Garden will also see many grasses, flowers and other plants native to the Washington area. One area will be filled with hundreds of historical and modern roses. A butterfly garden will have plants often visited by these colorful insects. Young visitors will be able to play in a children’s garden. And, a water garden will honor the wives of American Presidents. The United States Botanic Garden has existed for many years. It continues to prove that beauty and science go together. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the country. Botanical gardens provide a protected area for green plants, flowing plants and trees. They also are place for education and scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The thin green leaves of fern plants seem to reach out to welcome visitors as they enter the United States Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is just a short walk from the United States Capitol building. Plants from around the world grow there. Plants also grow across the street in the Frederic Auguste Bartholdi Park. People come to the Botanic Garden to see its large collection of flowers, trees and other plants. It is probably one of the most beautiful places to see in Washington. VOICE TWO: From early April through early June, the Botanic Garden is presenting an exhibit that honors its beginnings. The show will recognize the United States Exploring Expedition. The expedition was a navy trip made for scientific research in the nineteenth century. Some educators say it was America’s most important scientific naval exploration before the Civil War. The trip began on August eighth, eighteen thirty-eight. At the time, a Navy officer named Charles Wilkes led ships from the eastern state of Virginia on scientific travels. Wilkes commanded the flagship Vincennes. Five other ships started traveling with the Vincennes. Wilkes’s group visited South America and the west coast of North America. It also traveled to Southeast Asia, the southern Pacific Ocean and even South Africa. The one hundred forty thousand-kilometer trip became known as the Wilkes Expedition. VOICE ONE: Artists and scientists joined the crew of the Wilkes Expedition. Crewmembers made fun of the scientists. The sailors called them insect catchers. But these insect catchers did important work. They collected more than sixty-thousand kinds of plants and birds. Charles Wilkes also explored Antarctica. He described it as not just a big piece of ice, but a continent. Historians remember him as a great sailor and explorer. After he returned, the Navy brought charges against Wilkes for striking members of his crew. He was accused of using severe beatings as punishment. During his life, Wilkes defended himself two times against charges in a military court. But he did not earn much love from his sailors. VOICE TWO: The Wilkes Expedition brought the start of an international collection of seeds, birds and plants to the United States. They added to the richness of nature in the country. The living plants and seeds were taken to a specially built greenhouse near the Old Patent Office Building in Washington. A greenhouse is a building with a glass top and sides where plants can grow in cold weather. Later, the plants were given to the newly formed Smithsonian Institution. The seeds became part of its collections. The new Botanic Garden exhibit honoring Wilkes’s gifts to America opens today [April 4]. A vessel fern in the Garden’s collection will be among the objects shown. The plant with its thin leaves is believed to have developed directly from a fern from the Wilkes expedition. VOICE ONE: About a year ago, the Botanic Garden showed a much older kind of plant -- a Wollemi pine. The plant came from trees that existed in the age of dinosaurs. Until eleven years ago, it was believed that the last similar Wollemi lived ninety million years ago. A special container protected the three-year-old pine tree while in the Botanic Garden. The loan of the pine was part of a cooperative program with plant and wildlife organizations in Australia. About one hundred Wollemi were found near Sydney in nineteen ninety-five. Only a few people know where the plants were discovered. Experts fear that people might harm them. VOICE TWO: Another unusual plant was shown at the Botanic Garden in July of two thousand three. Many thousands of people stood in line to see a rare flower from Indonesia. The Titan Arum opens every one to three years. Its flower lasts only a few days. While the flower is open, the Titan Arum smells terrible. The Botanic Garden could have shown the flower longer. But experts decided that its condition was worsening. They thought the flower might have died by the next day. The Botanic Garden wanted to save parts of the flower to let it open again. So a plant expert was called in. He was asked to prepare the Titan Arum so it could be saved. Workers cut away the parts above ground. ?But the lower part is in a sleeping condition. Sometime within the next several years, it will send up leafy parts. They will make food for the flower. That process is expected to provide enough energy for Titan Arum to flower again. VOICE ONE: Protecting and restoring plant life is important to the Botanic Garden. In June, the Garden is taking part in presenting a training program toward that goal. The Denver Botanic Gardens in Colorado is assisting with the program. An organization called the Center for Plant Conservation will teach the genetics involved in protecting plants. It also will explore the science of growing flowers, fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants. These plants include flowers like roses and trees like holly trees. Holly is known for its small red fruit, or berries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Orchids at the Botanic GardenAbout four thousand plants grow in the Botanic Garden. Experts have placed the plants in different areas designed to meet their special requirements. Each area has different environmental needs for the plants growing in it. Light from the glass covering falls from high above. Modern equipment controls the temperature, water and other needs of each plant group. The tradition leading to the present Botanic Garden began almost two hundred years ago. In eighteen sixteen, a cultural organization in Washington proposed creating a special garden. This garden was to have plants from the United States and other nations. VOICE ONE: Four years later, Congress established the garden of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. The plants were grown in an area west of the Capitol building until eighteen thirty-seven. The Columbian Institute stopped meeting that year. People in Washington, however, did not want to be without a garden. So a new greenhouse was built. In eighteen forty-two, Charles Wilkes and his group gave two hundred fifty four living plants to the new greenhouse. A few years later, workers moved the plants into another structure. They were now on the land where the first garden had been. In nineteen thirty-three, the current greenhouse, called the conservatory, was built. VOICE TWO: The United States Botanic Garden offers a number of services to the public. The Botanic Garden answers requests about plants. It also holds special education programs. Many of these programs are free to anyone who wants to attend. The Botanic Garden works with local and national garden groups and scientific organizations. It exchanges plants with them and helps them develop educational programs. And it holds special flower shows throughout the year. One show, for example, celebrates the Christmas holiday. VOICE ONE: The Botanic Garden continues to grow and change. A private group is raising money for a National Garden. It is being built just west of the Botanic Garden. Several areas are planned for the National Garden. An Environmental Learning Center will offer space for teaching science and gardening. Visitors to the National Garden will also see many grasses, flowers and other plants native to the Washington area. One area will be filled with hundreds of historical and modern roses. A butterfly garden will have plants often visited by these colorful insects. Young visitors will be able to play in a children’s garden. And, a water garden will honor the wives of American Presidents. The United States Botanic Garden has existed for many years. It continues to prove that beauty and science go together. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Clone Pigs to Make Omega-3 Fatty Acids
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists say they have developed pigs that produce omega-three fatty acids. These fatty acids are believed to help fight heart disease. But it could be some time before these experimental pigs go to market. The animals are clones, genetic copies of each other. The Food and Drug Administration has never approved a cloned animal for use as food. Still, some people believe Americans might someday buy the new pork if they see it as heart-healthy. Professor Jing Kang at Harvard Medical School took the first step in the work that led to the cloned pigs. His research suggests that no mammal naturally produces omega-three fatty acids. So Doctor Kang genetically engineered mice with a gene that can create them from another fatty acid. He took the gene from a kind of small worm that scientists have studied for years. Doctor Kang published his findings with two other researchers in two thousand four. This research led the way for Randall Prather at the University of Missouri to clone pigs that can do the same thing. Pigs have been cloned before, but not for a purpose like this. Last month, Nature Biotechnology published a report describing how the experiment was done. Seventeen scientists took part in the study. Fatty acids are the building materials of fat. Omega-three fatty acids are believed to reduce the risk of heart disease. They are also thought to reduce levels of harmful cholesterol in the blood. The human body can make most kinds of fat by itself out of sugars. But it cannot make omega-three or omega-six fatty acids. These must come from foods or dietary supplements. But it is still not clear how soon genetically engineered animals might be approved for Americans to eat. Some people would have no concerns about eating meat produced through biotechnology. ?Others, though, say they see the idea as a step too far removed from nature. This new research is aimed at producing pigs with a healthier form of fat. Fat gives flavor. But in the United States, pork producers have cut the fat, hoping to appeal to people worried about heart disease. Twenty years ago the industry launched a marketing campaign comparing pork to chicken. It called pork "the other white meat."? Now the National Pork Board has a new marketing campaign. The aim is to get Americans to think of pork as a way to add a little excitement to dinner. The message: "Don't be blah."? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A New Life Treating AIDS in Africa, Then Tragedy Strikes
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. Botswana has a small population, less than two million, but a big problem with AIDS. Forty percent of its people age thirty to thirty-four are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The most recent report also shows that six percent of children are infected. Yet, like other countries in southern Africa, Botswana does not have enough people trained to care for H.I.V. patients. One way it gets help is through a program with the University of Pennsylvania. The American school sends doctors to provide training and to treat patients. Medical students also go. The Penn Medicine Program in Botswana is based at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone. Recently an American doctor named Richard Root went to help lead the training for two months. Doctor Root retired a few years ago from the University of Washington in Seattle with the honor of professor emeritus. In the early nineteen seventies he had helped form the infectious disease division in the Department of Medicine at Penn. His specialty was how the body defends itself against bacterial infections. Doctor Root also became known internationally for his teaching skills. He taught other doctors and helped medical schools develop teaching programs. He was known too for his ease with patients. Doctor Root was married forty-one years to Marilyn Parletta Root. They had grandchildren. He took care of her after she developed a progressive neuromuscular disorder. After she died in two thousand one, he suffered depression. Marilyn Root was a mental health counselor. She was known for her work with art to help women who had been mistreated as children. In two thousand four Doctor Root remarried. Friends and family saw a new sense of purpose in his life. He had worked for a short time in the nineteen seventies as a visiting doctor in Iran. Now he was excited about the chance to help AIDS patients in Africa. On March nineteenth he was in a canoe on the Limpopo River in Botswana, on a guided trip to see wildlife. All of a sudden, reports say, a crocodile pulled him into the river. His remains were found later and sent home to Seattle last week. His wife of eighteen months, Rita O'Boyle, saw the attack from another boat. They had been in Botswana just short of a month. Doctor Richard Root was sixty-eight years old. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How 'The Thing' Has Entered the Language of People in New Orleans
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the language of Hurricane Katrina. RS: Debra Howell is an artist who has lived in New Orleans on and off since the late 1960s. She says she never evacuated for a hurricane before in her life. Last August she waited until the last hours before the storm hit to leave. AA: Her neighborhood was lucky. Debra Howell was back in her house by the end of October. DEBRA HOWELL: "We had wind damage around here, but we had very little flooding. The floodwaters from the levee breeches reached about three blocks away ... and stopped as they approached the river. I'm part of what they refer to as the 'Sliver by the River,' the area that didn't flood from the levee breeches." AA: "So now when you and your neighbors and your friends talk about the storm and the effects and so forth, let us in a little bit on what influence Katrina has had on the language, the local language in New Orleans." DEBRA HOWELL: "There's a local columnist at the Times-Picayune newspaper named Chris Rose and he has coined this phrase 'The Thing.' He will not refer to Katrina by name, and he always calls it The Thing, and a lot of people have picked up that habit. "A lot of people are very -- they infuse the word Katrina with so much venom that it's almost hard to say. And people who are named Katrina have been using their middle names, for example. I adopted a little dog who was a stray living in City Park on her own, and the thing I remember the most frequent comment being was, 'Whatever you do, don't name her Katrina.' That name has just taken on such a world of significance. "People have other things, people talk about 'Katrina brain.' Everybody here suffers from short-term memory loss and it just seems universal. And of course it's one of the first signs, or first, um ... " AA: "Of shock." RS: "Of shock." DEBRA HOWELL: "Of post-traumatic stress disorder, otherwise known as PTSD which everybody refers to. And, you know, people laugh about it, but it is just sort of universally referred to as Katrina brain or a Katrina moment. No more senior moments, it's all Katrina moments." RS: "So what are some other words that describe your situation, unique to New Orleans and the hurricane." DEBRA HOWELL: "Well, let's see. 'Pre-K' and 'post-K,' which have nothing to do with school." AA: "Kindergarten, yeah." DEBRA HOWELL: "Yeah, nothing to do with kindergarten whatsoever. Everything is pretty much pre-K and post-K, and the acronyms for the 'New New Orleans,' N-U-N-O. You see that written a lot, as a short term for New New Orleans." RS: "N-U-N -- " DEBRA HOWELL: "N-U-N-O." RS: "-O, right. NUNO." AA: "For a city that's often known as NOLA, for New Orleans Louisiana, right?" DEBRA HOWELL: "Right." AA: "N-O-L-A. So you talked earlier about how the term Katrina is often infused with a lot of anger and bitterness, and that's certainly understandable. I'm curious, are there other terms that have developed, maybe more humor or humorous or ironic or kind of ... " DEBRA HOWELL: "Well, funny, a perfect example of that is we just had the Tennessee Williams literary festival this past weekend, which is an annual thing, and part of the festival every year -- y'all might already know about this -- part of the festival every year is a Stella shouting contest. Somebody stands on a balcony and people in the street, one at a time, compete over the best shout of 'Stella.'" AA: "As if they're Marlon Brando -- " DEBRA HOWELL: "As if they're Marlon Brando [in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.']" MARLON BRANDO: "Hey Stella!!" DEBRA HOWELL: "And it's a contest, and it's a very popular contest, lots of people go to watch. This year the winner surprised everybody. This middle-aged man got up there, looked like he was going to do the regular thing, and he shouted 'FEMA!! [laughter] FEMA!!' And oh my god, it was hysterical -- and he won.'" AA: "FEMA, for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, much criticized around New Orleans." DEBRA HOWELL: "Very, very much so. And he just infused the word with all the hopelessness it deserved." RS: Debra Howell is a self-employed printmaker and photographer in New Orleans. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can download all of our segments for free at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: George Catlin Became One of the Most Famous Artists in American History
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. A new exhibit of paintings is being shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Today, we tell about the man who painted them. His name was George Catlin. And in this first part of two programs, we tell how he became one of the most important artists in American history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Catlin loved people. He loved their faces. He loved to paint faces expressing feelings. He understood how to paint feelings. You can look at one of his paintings of a person and see pride, honor, respect, intelligence and humor. George Catlin is most famous for painting Native Americans. In the eighteen thirties, George Catlin traveled into areas of the American West to paint and record the history of Native Americans. He learned more about the culture of Native Americans than most other white people of his time. George Catlin spent a good part of his life trying to show these people to the world. VOICE TWO: George Catlin showed his paintings in Washington, D.C; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Thousands of people came to see them. Thousands more came to see them in London, England and in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. George Catlin probably did more than any other person to educate the public about the great people who lived in North America before Europeans arrived. We begin our story just a few years after George Catlin was born, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was born in seventeen ninety-six. His family soon moved to New York State near the great Susquehanna River. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Catlin always said his early years were fun. He said he had to have a book in one hand because he was in school. In the other hand he most often had a fishing pole. When he was not reading or fishing, he was drawing the natural world he saw outside each day. George Catlin had little training in art. He mostly taught himself. However, his father made sure that he had a good education. His father was a lawyer and he wanted George to be a lawyer too. George did as his father wished and became a lawyer. However he was not happy. VOICE TWO: As a young man George Catlin was only happy when he was painting. He truly loved to paint. He decided to stop being a lawyer and become an artist. He moved into a small building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began to paint pictures of people. He was good at this and he loved the work. He painted very small pictures of people. The pictures are called miniatures. Women often wore this kind of painting tied to a ribbon around their necks. Soon, he moved to New York City. He painted miniatures and larger pictures. He was becoming a well-known artist. He began painting pictures of important people. One was the governor of the state of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Life seemed good for the young artist. George Catlin was doing what he loved and he was making a living as an artist. However, he thought something was missing from his life and his work. He wanted very much to paint something that was important. He wanted to give something to the world of art that would be different. But he had no idea what this could possibly be. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen twenties, George Catlin saw something that would change his life forever. It was a delegation of Native Americans. About fifteen representatives from several tribes were passing through Philadelphia. They were on their way to Washington, D.C. to meet with the president of the United States. George Catlin had never seen anything like these Native Americans. Their skin was the color of the metal copper. Their hair and eyes were dark black. They wore clothes made of animal skins. They seemed fierce and dangerous. Within a few days, George Catlin made an important decision. He told his family and friends he would study and paint Native Americans. His family was opposed to the idea. They told him it was extremely dangerous. They told him he might be killed. George Catlin answered his friends and family. He said, “Nothing but the loss of my life will prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In eighteen thirty, George Catlin traveled to the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. At that time Saint Louis was one of the last cities or towns you would find if you were traveling west. There was not much beyond Saint Louis but the Great Plains. There was nothing but wild, unexplored country. The country beyond Saint Louis could be extremely dangerous. Few white people had ever been further than Saint Louis. However, George Catlin met someone who knew about the lands of the far West and had been there. He also knew many of the Native American tribes that George Catlin wanted to visit. That man was William Clark. Twenty-six years before, William Clark was part of the famous team of Lewis and Clark who were the first white Americans to explore the far West. They had traveled from Saint Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. VOICE ONE: George Catlin immediately had a friend in William Clark. Mister Clark liked his idea of painting and learning about Native Americans. He did not think George Catlin’s idea was dangerous. He did his best to help. General William Clark was the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He immediately took Mister Catlin along on a trip up the Mississippi River to a place called Prairie du Chien. Here George Catlin saw a gathering of Native American tribes. He saw their clothes. He watched them and learned about their culture. He listened to their language. This trip was important to George Catlin because it strengthened his idea and plans to learn about and paint pictures of Native Americans. VOICE TWO: George Catlin quickly returned home to Philadelphia to raise money for his project. Within a year he traveled west again. This time he went north to Fort Union in an area called the Dakotas. Here he set up his painting equipment and began to paint. He said of this experience:? “I have this day been painting a picture of the head chief of the Blackfoot Nation. He is surrounded by his own warriors. He is an important man.” The man George Catlin painted that day was named Stu-mick-o-sucks. He was chief of the Blood Tribe of the Kainai Blackfoot. George Catlin said the Blackfoot were a fierce and war-like tribe. They lived in the area that is now the border between the United States and Canada. VOICE ONE: The beautiful painting of Stu-mick-o-sucks shows this fierce chief at the height of his powers. The chief of the Blood Tribe was about thirty years old when George Catlin painted his picture. His face is a deep copper color. He has red paint on his jaw. His eyes are intelligent and watchful. His black hair hangs down to his shoulders. Part of his hair falls down between his eyes and is cut straight across. A head covering made of small feathers surrounds his hair. One large feather is worn to the right side of his head. Stu-mick-o-sucks is dressed in his best clothing for this painting. It is clothing that he would wear for special ceremonies. On his chest is a round design made with several colors. The shoulders of his shirt are covered with pieces of cloth and hair to form other designs. George Catlin captured in paint a man of honor and courage, a leader of his people. The artist had wanted to go west to paint Native Americans. With this painting and the many that were to follow, George Catlin succeeded. He had found his life’s work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Join us again next week when we continue the story of George Catlin and his efforts to paint the people of the American West. If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you can see Mister Catlin’s famous painting of Blackfoot Chief Stu-mick-o-sucks and many others. Use a search engine and type the name Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Oceangoing Programs for International Students
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Education Report. In January, we talked about the Semester at Sea program and its move to a new home at the University of Virginia. For years the program has taken college students around the world on a ship where they live and study. The University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, had been home to the Semester at Sea program since nineteen eighty. But the school withdrew its support last year. There were growing tensions with the Institute for Shipboard Education. The non-profit institute operates the Semester at Sea program. University officials noted, for example, that the ship visited Kenya when the State Department had warned against it. A bus accident in India in nineteen ninety-six killed four students in the program and resulted in big legal claims. And in January of last year, a fifteen-meter wave damaged the ship during a storm in the Pacific. The University of Pittsburgh said it was not questioning the safety of future trips. Instead, it said the institute was not providing schools and individuals with enough information to weigh the risks involved. The Institute for Shipboard Education says both sides decided to end ties as a result of a disagreement. At the University of Virginia, a group of professors questioned the quality of the classes that would be offered on the ship. University officials defended the program and named an expert in Spanish literature to lead it. Professor David Gies said he would develop a new study plan for the Semester at Sea. He said the ship will now sail to ports along the west coast of Latin America. The first trip is planned for this summer. There is a new, unrelated program for college students who want to study at sea. The Scholar Ship was recently announced with support from Royal Caribbean Cruises and other partners. Students who join the program are being offered academic credits from Macquarie University in Australia. Five schools in Morocco, Mexico, China and Ghana will provide teachers and administrators. The first sixteen-week trip is planned for January from Greece. The plan is for at least six hundred students to visit eight countries. Scholar Ship President Joe Olander says organizers have already heard from four thousand interested students. He told us earlier this week that the program is still negotiating for a ship. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Technology Helps the Allied Forces Win World War One
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Larry West and I continue the story of American involvement in World War One. The nation's president at that time was Woodrow Wilson. VOICE TWO: Nineteen eighteen was the final year of the most terrible war the world had ever known. But World War One did not end quickly or easily. The German Army made a final effort to defeat the Allies. The United States had entered the conflict. And Germany wanted a victory before large numbers of American troops could get to Europe. Americans and their captives in the Battle of Belleau WoodsGermany's effort became easier after it signed a peace treaty with the new Bolshevik government in Russia. The treaty made it possible for Germany to use all its forces against the Allies on its western border. In the end, however, Germany's plan failed. Allied troops pushed back the German attack in a series of bloody battles. The addition of American soldiers greatly increased Allied strength. VOICE ONE: The leader of American forces in Europe was General John?J. Pershing. General Pershing used a weapon new to the world of war: air power. Airplanes were used first simply as 'eyes in the sky'. They discovered enemy positions so ground artillery could fire at them. Then they were used as fighter planes. They carried guns to shoot down other planes. Finally, planes were built big enough to carry bombs. General Pershing also used another new weapon of war: tanks. He put these inventions together for his battle plan against Germany. VOICE TWO: Pershing's target was the Argonne Forest. It was a tree-covered area Germany had held since nineteen fourteen. The forest was protected by barbed wire and by defensive positions built of steel and concrete. It was the strongest part of the German line. It also was the most important part. If Argonne fell, Germany's final lines of defense would fall. The fighting in the Argonne Forest was fierce. Thousands of men died. Sometimes, troops got lost because the forest was so thick with trees. But day by day, the Allies pushed the Germans back. VOICE ONE: Germany's leaders were losing hope. In September, nineteen eighteen, they met with German ruler Kaiser Wilhelm. The army chief reported that the war was lost. Germany had no choice, he said. It must give back all the territory it had seized and try to negotiate a peace agreement. Other officials told the Kaiser that the situation at home was bad, too. People were starving. Revolutionaries were plotting to overthrow the government. Woodrow WilsonKaiser Wilhelm agreed it might be best to seek peace now. . . Before Germany was destroyed completely. He asked his foreign secretary to send a secret message to American President Woodrow Wilson. The message would propose immediate negotiations to end the war. VOICE TWO: President Wilson received it. He did not tell the other Allied leaders. Instead, he returned a message to Germany. Wilson asked if Germany was willing to accept the peace proposals he had offered many months earlier. Germany's Chancellor answered that his government did accept the proposals. However, the events of war ended the secret exchange of messages between Germany and the United States. German submarines had increased attacks on Allied shipping. Two passenger ships were sunk. Eight hundred twenty persons were killed. Many were women and children. President Wilson was shocked. He told Germany there could be no peace negotiations with such an inhuman enemy. VOICE ONE: In late October, nineteen eighteen, Wilson sent a final message to Germany. He wanted a settlement that would make it impossible for Germany to fight again. Germany, Wilson said, must promise to withdraw its forces from all Allied territory. It also must close its weapons factories. Wilson added that the Allies would negotiate only with a government that truly represented the people of Germany. . . not with military rulers. The new German Chancellor was Maximilian, Prince of Baden. Prince Max received President Wilson's message. He succeeded in getting Kaiser Wilhelm to dismiss the man responsible for German military policy. But he failed to get the Kaiser himself to give up power. VOICE TWO: Not all allied leaders supported President Wilson's plan to end World War One. They could not agree on some parts of it. Britain, for example, opposed the part about freedom of the seas. Britain said it would prevent the kind of naval blockade which had been so effective against Germany. France and Italy opposed the part about creating a new international organization. Wilson had called it a league of nations. To solve these differences, Wilson sent his closest adviser to Europe to meet with Allied leaders. The discussions were long and sometimes bitter. Many of the Allies thought Wilson was being too kind to the defeated enemy. But in the end, they all agreed to accept the plan as a starting point for peace talks. VOICE ONE: By this time, in early November, the situation in Germany was growing worse. Communists and Socialists were calling for a rebellion. The navy was ordered to go to sea. Sailors refused, and killed some officers. Reports told of rebellion in parts of the German army, too. The nation's leaders had no choice. They would negotiate a peace treaty. On the morning of November eighth, a German delegation went to Allied military headquarters to discuss terms. VOICE TWO: The Germans were met by the Supreme Allied Commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France. Foch greeted them coldly. And he did not offer peace terms until they officially asked for a ceasefire. Germany -- not the Allies -- had to put down its weapons first. The Germans were shocked when they heard the terms. The list was severe. Among other things, Germany must withdraw its forces from all occupied territories. It must give up Alsace-Lorraine, a part of France it had held for almost fifty years. It must give up most of its weapons including airplanes, submarines, and battleships. And it must turn over large numbers of trucks, railroad engines, and other supplies. VOICE ONE: The German delegation said it could not sign such an agreement. Germany, it said, was not surrendering. It was only asking for a ceasefire. The delegation said it could not accept the peace terms without communicating with the government in Berlin. But the German government was falling apart. Kaiser Wilhelm had finally resigned and left the country. A new cabinet had been formed. And a new prime minister had declared a German republic. Yet the situation remained unsettled. Because of this, the German delegation negotiating with the Allies had to decide for itself. After much argument, the men agreed to the Allied terms. They signed the peace treaty. A ceasefire began a few hours later. VOICE TWO: News that the shooting had stopped set off wild celebrations throughout the world. People danced in the streets. They cheered the end of the worst war in history. There were celebrations along the battle lines, too. But these were quiet. Soldiers from both sides climbed out of long trenches dug in the ground. They met the men who, a short while earlier, had been their deadly enemy. The bloody European conflict was over. The dispute, however, was not. Another fierce battle was ready to begin. This time, the battle would be among diplomats. The fight over the peace treaty officially ending World War One was about to begin. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of American president Woodrow Wilson. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of American president Woodrow Wilson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Native Americans Explore the Life and Art of Their Ancestors
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week… We play music by opera singer Anna Moffo… Answer a question about the melting pot… And…Report about a new exhibit of American Indian art. Listening To Our Ancestors The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. is offering a new exhibit for its visitors. It shows the art and culture of the people who live on the Northwest coast of the United States and Canada. Barbara Klein tells us about it. BARBARA KLEIN: The exhibit is called “Listening To Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast.”? It includes more than four hundred objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Native people used the objects in the American states of Washington and Alaska and British Columbia in Canada. They used the objects in everyday life and for special ceremonies. Representatives from eleven Native groups worked with museum officials to create the exhibit. The Native groups include the Coast Salish, Makah, Haida and Tlingit. The representatives helped decide which objects would be displayed and how they would be presented. Part of the Coast Salish display from Washington State includes a carved wooden boat called a dugout. The Haida group lives in British Columbia and Alaska. Its display includes jewelry made from whale bone. The Heiltsuk group also lives in British Columbia. Its display includes beautifully painted masks that cover the face. The group representatives also provided important information about the objects and how they are used. One example is the Makah tribe of Neah Bay, Washington State. The tribe has hunted whales for thousands of years. Boats, spears and other whale-hunting tools are included in its display. One special area in the exhibit is the Family Activity Room. It is a place where children and their families can explore the cultures and traditions of the Native groups they are learning about. The students can learn more about the drawings and designs used by the different groups. They can also learn how the Native groups weave cloth. Preslie Handey and Taylor Bost are teenagers from South Carolina who recently visited the exhibit. They agreed that the Activity Room was the best part of the exhibit. It gave them a chance to learn more about the way Native Americans live. Melting Pot HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dang Van Khuong asks about the meaning of the term “melting pot” and why it is linked to many ethnic groups. “Melting pot” means a place where people from many different ethnic groups or cultures form a united society. The idea comes from heating metals in a container. When they melt, the metals unite and become something new and stronger. The term has been used to describe the United States as a nation created from people who came here from many different countries. A Frenchman who was living in America expressed the idea more than two hundred years ago. J. Hector de Crevecoeur published a book called “Letters From an American Farmer” in seventeen eighty-two. He wrote that America had people from many different countries. He said that they would become a new people whose work would one day change the world. For many years, Americans generally accepted the idea of their country as a melting pot. They welcomed immigrants from many nations. Yet some of those immigrants criticized the melting pot idea. They felt they were forced to lose their culture and language in order to be accepted in America. Other people also criticized the idea. They said the aim of the melting pot is to make different cultures disappear into the one representing the largest group. New groups of immigrants from Asia and Latin America are changing the United States today. Some are resisting learning American culture and language. Reports say some Americans fear that the nation is separating into many groups that have no shared purpose. Others say the melting pot is no longer changing the nation’s immigrants, but the immigrants are changing America. Some experts who study immigration say they now compare American society not with a melting pot, but with a salad bowl. A salad is made of many different foods. They each keep their own taste while being part of a successful product. In this way, cultural groups keep their customs and language and are still part of American society. Anna Moffo HOST: Opera singer Anna Moffo died last month in New York City. She was seventy-three. Moffo was a star of the opera stage and also worked in television and in film. Faith Lapidus has our report on the singer and her music. FAITH LAPIDUS: Anna Moffo was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Her beautiful soprano voice was discovered at a school music event when she was just seven years old. Moffo was a very beautiful young woman. She was offered work in Hollywood movies right after she graduated from high school. But she wanted to sing. Moffo went to Philadelphia to study at the Curtis Institute of Music. Later she won a Fulbright Award to study in Italy. She performed in her first professional opera there in nineteen fifty-five. Two years later, Anna Moffo sang professionally for the first time in the United States. She sang the role of Mimi in Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme.”? Here is a recording of Moffo in another Puccini opera, “Madame Butterfly.” (MUSIC) Anna Moffo performed often at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. She became famous singing the part of Violetta in “La Traviata” by Guiseppe Verdi. (MUSIC) Anna Moffo’s star in the opera world burned brightly but also briefly. She said she worked too hard and traveled too much early in her career. It was mostly over by the nineteen seventies. We leave you now with Anna Moffo singing in the opera “Manon” by Jules Massenet. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The World Bank Fights the “Cancer of Corruption”
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. World Bank headquarters in Washington DCThe main goal of the World Bank is to fight poverty. But, for almost ten years, the World Bank also has investigated financial crimes by government and bank officials. In nineteen ninety-six, former World Bank President James Wolfensohn warned of the need to deal with the “cancer of corruption.”? The World Bank defines corruption as offering, giving, receiving, or asking for anything of value to influence the action of a public official. For example, a local official may demand that a foreign company pay him money, or a bribe, to permit a project to go forward. The World Bank says corruption is the biggest barrier to development. Corruption hurts the poor people who are supposed to gain from development bank loans and aid. The World Bank created a group of anti-corruption investigators in nineteen ninety-nine. It later became the Department of Institutional Integrity. The Bank says the D.I.I. has investigated almost two thousand accusations of corruption. The Bank has twenty-two investigators. It spends about ten million dollars each year on anti-corruption measures. It says this is more than all other development banks combined. The current World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz, was appointed last year. Mister Wolfowitz says he will increase the number of investigators and the budget for fighting corruption. He also has suspended loans to India, Kenya, Bangladesh and other nations over concerns about corruption. Reports say some members of the World Bank governing board do not agree with Mister Wolfowitz’s actions. They say it is not fair to deny a loan for purposes such as health care because some of the money goes to corrupt uses. Critics of the Bank’s lending say it is not carefully supervising the loans and projects it finances. The Bank approves about two hundred forty new projects each year. And it has more than one thousand existing loans, each of which may contain many agreements. The World Bank is part of the World Bank Group. It includes the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has one hundred eighty-four member nations. In two thousand four, the World Bank Group provided or guaranteed more than twenty-five thousand million dollars in loans. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Delay, Leaving Congress, Has 'No Fear' of Any Investigations
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, Tom DeLay announced he will resign from Congress. The former House majority leader plans to leave by the middle of June. Mister DeLay entered the House of Representatives in nineteen eighty-five. He is in his eleventh term representing an area of Texas. He was seeking re-election this November. But he was in a close race and it appeared he could lose his seat to a Democrat. That could hurt Republican chances to keep a majority in the House. Mister DeLay resigned in September as majority leader, the second most powerful job in the House after speaker. He did so after he was charged in Texas with violating state laws on campaign finance. He denies the charges. Now, former aides to Mister DeLay are cooperating in a federal investigation tied to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is also cooperating. Lobbyists represent special interests to public officials. Until recently Jack Abramoff was a powerful lobbyist in Washington. He has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with efforts to influence members of Congress and their aides. Two former aides to Mister DeLay have also pleaded guilty. Now the Justice Department wants to know if Tom DeLay and others in Congress accepted gifts like travel in exchange for votes. Lawmakers are now debating how to reform the rules for lobbying in Congress. Mister DeLay says he has done nothing wrong. He says he is the target of a personal campaign by "liberal Democrats."? He says: "I have no fear whatsoever about any investigation into me or my personal or professional activities."? On March twenty-ninth a judge in Miami, Florida, sentenced Jack Abramoff to almost six years in prison in an unrelated case. It involved the illegal financing of casino ships. Those who know Tom DeLay say his friends are being pressured into making statements against him. For years he has been one of the most powerful members of Congress. He helped the Republican Party gain its majority in the House in nineteen ninety-four. Republicans now control the Senate as well. President Bush is also a Republican. Democrats would need to gain fifteen seats to take control of the House. They would need to gain six for a majority in the Senate. There are one hundred seats in the Senate and four hundred thirty-five in the House. Democratic leaders point to studies showing that sixty-eight percent of Americans are not satisfied with the direction of the country. Democrats think this will mean good news for their party this November. But Republicans say the Democrats will fail. They say the party does not have good ideas for the future. As for his own future, Tom DeLay says he plans to live in Virginia and work privately to support conservative positions. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Zora Neale Hurston Wrote About African-American Life in the South
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Zora Neale Hurston. She was one of the most recognized black women writers. She wrote seven books and more than one hundred short stories, plays and articles for magazines. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Zora Neale Hurston was born in eighteen ninety-one in Notasulga, Alabama. A short time later, her family moved to Eatonville, a small town in central Florida. All of the people of Eatonville were African-American. The town shaped Hurston’s life and her writing. As a child, she would listen closely to the stories told by the adults in the town. Several of her books take place in communities very similar to Eatonville. The people she wrote about in her books are very similar to people she knew there. Zora was born at a time of racial tensions between blacks and whites in the southern United States. But she never felt angry about being black. In her stories, she described Eatonville as a place where black Americans could live as they pleased. Zora Neale Hurston was known for her ability to tell a story. Storytelling is an important part of many cultural traditions. African-American storytelling is a strong family tradition that dates back hundreds of years. It is a way for people to establish their identities in often unfriendly areas as they struggle to hold their communities together. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Zora Neale Hurston was the fifth of eight children. Zora’s mother was a schoolteacher. Her father was a builder and a church preacher. He also became the mayor of Eatonville. Zora’s mother died in nineteen-oh-four, when Zora was thirteen years old. Her mother’s death severely affected Zora’s life. She was rejected by her father and his second wife. Zora was forced to take care of herself. She left Eatonville and moved north when she was fourteen years old. She worked for a traveling theater company. She also worked as a maid, cleaning the homes of white people. One of her employers recognized Zora’s abilities. She made it possible for her to attend high school in Baltimore, Maryland. Zora was twenty-six years old when she began high school. But she said she was only sixteen. Throughout her life, she often said she was younger than she really was. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighteen, Zora Neale Hurston attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. She studied with Alain Locke. He was a professor of philosophy and an expert on black culture. She earned money by working as a maid and doing other work. Hurston published her first short stories at Howard University. Her stories were about black folklore and life in Eatonville. She won prizes for her writings that were published in newspapers and magazines. The early nineteen twenties marked the beginning of Zora Neale Hurston’s life as a writer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-five, Hurston traveled to New York City. This was during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem is a famous area in New York. The Harlem Renaissance was a period in which black artists explored their culture and showed pride in their race. This was expressed in literature, music and other art forms. Hurston and her stories about Eatonville became important during the Harlem Renaissance. She met other young black writers of the time, such as poet Langston Hughes. Hurston became the first black student to attend Barnard College in New York. She studied with anthropologist Franz Boas. She became interested in anthropology -- the study of the origin, development and actions of humans. Boas recognized Hurston’s storytelling ability and deep interest in the black culture of the South. He urged her to do more research there. ? VOICE ONE: Hurston received financial support for most of her research from a wealthy woman in New York named Charlotte Osgood Mason. During the next several years, Hurston traveled in Florida and the Caribbean to collect and write stories about what she saw. She learned about the traditions of the people she met. She spoke with men and women, young and old, collecting their stories in their own words. She wanted to keep the language exactly as they told it. Many of the stories were like those she had heard as a child. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-six, Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti with a financial award from the Guggenheim Foundation. The Caribbean people accepted her as one of them. They spoke with her freely, even about religious traditions. In Haiti, she learned a great deal about the voodoo religion. Hurston published two important collections of stories based on her research. They were “Mules and Men” and “Tell My Horse.” Both examined the voodoo religion. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Zora Neale Hurston published her first book, “Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” in nineteen thirty-four. The story takes place in a small Florida town. It is about two people similar to her parents. Her second book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” was published three years later. It is widely considered her most important work. She wrote the book in seven weeks while she was traveling in Haiti. It is the story of a black woman’s search for happiness and her true identity, during twenty-five years and three marriages. In nineteen forty-two, Hurston published a story about her own life, called “Dust Tracks on a Road.” But the book was widely criticized. Literary experts said it was full of false information. Others said it added to the mystery surrounding the writer.Hurston’s last two novels were the biblical story “Moses, Man of the Mountain” and “Seraph on the Suwanee.”?? This was the only book she wrote about white people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Zora Neale Hurston’s stories were about the pain-filled and sometimes magical world that surrounded blacks in the South. The stories tell about faith, love, family, slavery, race and community. They also include humor. Hurston was well known for her writing. She also became known for her outspoken opinions, her clothing and the great pride she had in herself and her race.She was married three times. But she found it impossible to settle down. Her husbands usually expected her to give up her writing. But she said that was the one thing she could not do. VOICE ONE: Hurston received praise for her work by both blacks and whites. But not everyone enjoyed her work. Some of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance criticized her for writing about black culture instead of relations between the races. Many blacks also rejected Hurston’s political ideas and her support for racial separation laws in the South. Hurston, however, made no apologies for her work. She said the richness of black culture existed to be enjoyed, celebrated and made into literature. VOICE TWO: During the late nineteen forties, she began to publish less and less. She was arrested and charged with sexual wrongdoing with a ten-year-old boy. The charges were later dropped, but the event affected her work and her life.In nineteen fifty, Hurston returned to Florida. Although her work was quite popular, she was unable to make a living with her writing. In her later years, she worked as a teacher, a librarian and as maid. In nineteen fifty-nine, Hurston suffered a stroke and entered a nursing home in Fort Pierce, Florida. She died there a year later and was buried in an unmarked grave. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, Zora Neale Hurston has not been forgotten. She influenced other African-American female writers, including Alice Walker. Because of Walker’s efforts, Hurston’s work was rediscovered in the nineteen seventies. During the nineteen nineties, her book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” sold more than one million copies. Many young people in American schools are reading the book. In addition, two of Hurston’s plays have been produced. New books have been written about her. And her work and life are the subject of many studies, conferences and festivals. In nineteen seventy-three, Alice Walker placed a marker in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Hurston is believed to be buried. The stone reads, “Zora Neale Hurston, A Genius of the South.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-02-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Diamond Lens, Part 2
* Byline: Written by Fitz-James O'Brien

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story is called "The Diamond Lens. " It was written by Fitz-James O'Brien. Today we will hear the second and final part of the story. Here is Maurice Joyce with part two of "The Diamond Lens." (MUSIC) Storyteller: When I was a child, someone gave me a microscope. I spent hours looking through that microscope, exploring Nature's tiny secrets. As I grew up, I became more interested in my microscope than in people. When I was twenty years old, my parents sent me to New York City to study medicine. I never went to any of my classes. Instead, I spent all my time, and a lot of my money, trying to build the perfect microscope. I wanted to make a powerful lens that would let me see even the smallest parts of life. But all my experiments failed. Then one day, I met a young man, who lived in the apartment above mine. Jules Simon told me about a woman who could speak to the dead. When I visited Madame Vulpes, she let me speak to the spirit of the man who invented the microscope. The spirit of Anton Leeuwenhoek told me how to make a perfect lens from a diamond of one hundred forty carats. But where could I find a diamond that big? When I returned home, I went to Simon's apartment. He was surprised to see me and tried to hide a small object in his pocket. I wanted to discover what it was, so I brought two bottles of wine to his apartment. We began to drink. By the time we had finished the first bottle, Simon was very drunk. "Simon, I know you have a secret. Why don't you tell me about it?" Something in my voice must have made him feel safe. He made me promise to keep his secret. Then he took a small box from his pocket. When he opened it, I saw a large diamond shaped like a rose. A pure white light seemed to come from deep inside the diamond. Simon told me he had stolen the diamond from a man in South America. He said it weighed exactly one hundred forty carats. Excitement shook my body. I could not believe my luck. On the same evening that the spirit of Leeuwenhoek tells me the secret of the perfect lens, I find the diamond I need to create it. I decided to steal Simon's treasure. I sat across the table from him as he drank another glass of wine. I knew I could not simply steal the diamond. Simon would call the police. There was only one way to get the diamond. I had to kill Simon. Everything I needed to murder Simon was right there in his apartment. A bottle full of sleeping powder was on a table near his bed. A long thin knife lay on the table. Simon was so busy looking at his diamond that I was able to put the drug in his glass quite easily. He fell asleep in fifteen minutes. I put his diamond in my pocket and carried Simon to the bed. I wanted to make the police think Simon had killed himself. I picked up Simon's long thin knife and stared down at him. I tried to imagine exactly how the knife would enter Simon's heart if he were holding the knife himself. I pushed the knife deep into his heart. I heard a sound come from his throat, like the bursting of a large bubble. His body moved and his right hand grabbed the handle of the knife. He must have died immediately. I washed our glasses and took the two wine bottles away with me. I left the lights on, closed the door and went back to my apartment. Simon's death was not discovered until three o'clock the next day. One of the neighbors knocked at his door and when there was no answer, she called the police. They discovered Simon's body on the bed. The police questioned everyone. But they did not learn the truth. The police finally decided Jules Simon had killed himself, and soon everyone forgot about him. I had committed the perfect crime. For three months after Simon's death, I worked day and night on my diamond lens. At last the lens was done. My hands shook as I put a drop of water on a piece of glass. Carefully, I added some oil to the water to prevent it from drying. I turned on a strong light under the glass and looked through the diamond lens. For a moment, I saw nothing in that drop of water. And then I saw a pure white light. Carefully, I moved the lens of my microscope closer to the drop of water. Slowly, the white light began to change. It began to form shapes. I could see clouds and wonderful trees and flowers. These plants were the most unusual colors: bright reds, greens, purples, as well as silver and gold. The branches of these trees moved slowly in a soft wind. Everywhere I looked, I could see fruits and flowers of a thousand different colors. "How strange," I thought, "that this beautiful place has no animal life in it." Then, I saw something moving slowly among the brightly-colored trees and bushes. The branches of a purple and silver bush were gently pushed aside. And, there, before my eye, stood the most beautiful woman I had ever seen! She was perfect: pink skin, large blue eyes and long golden hair that fell over her shoulders to her knees. She stepped away from the rainbow-colored trees. Like a flower floating on water, she drifted through the air. Watching her move was like listening to the sound of tiny bells ringing in the wind. She went to the rainbow-colored trees and looked up at one of them. The tree moved one of its branches that was full of fruit. It lowered the branch to her, and she took one of the fruits. She turned it in her tiny hands and began to eat. How I wished I had the power to enter that bright light and float with her through those beautiful forests. Suddenly, I realized I had fallen in love with this tiny creature! I loved someone who would never love me back. Someone who is a prisoner in a drop of water. I ran out of the room, threw myself on my bed and cried until I fell asleep. Day after day, I returned to my microscope to watch her. I never left my apartment. I rarely even ate or slept. One day, as usual, I went to my microscope, ready to watch my love. She was there, but a terrible change had taken place. Her face had become thin, and she could hardly walk. The wonderful light in her golden hair and blues eyes was gone. At that moment, I would have given my soul to become as small as she and enter her world to help her. What was causing her to be so sick? She seemed in great pain. I watched her for hours, helpless and alone with my breaking heart. She grew weaker and weaker. The forest also was changing. The trees were losing their wonderful colors. Suddenly, I realized I had not looked at the drop of water for several days. I had looked into it with the microscope, but not at it. As soon as I looked at the glass under the microscope, I understood the horrible truth. I had forgotten to add more oil to the drop of water to stop it from drying. The drop of water had disappeared. I rushed again to look through the lens. The rainbow forests were all gone. My love lay in a spot of weak light. Her pink body was dried and wrinkled. Her eyes were black as dust. Slowly she disappeared forever. I fainted and woke many hours later on pieces of my microscope. I had fallen on it when I fainted. My mind was as broken as the diamond lens. I crawled to my bed and withdrew from the world. I finally got better, months later. But all my money was gone. People now say I am crazy. They call me "Linley, the mad scientist." No one believes I spoke to the spirit of Leeuwenhoek. They laugh when I tell them how I killed Jules Simon and stole his diamond to make the perfect lens. They think I never saw that beautiful world in a drop of water. But I know the truth of the diamond lens. And now, so do you. (MUSIC) Announcer:? You have just heard "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien. It was adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Maurice Joyce. Listen again next week for another AMERICAN STORY told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: African Farmland Found to be Severely Infertile
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report says seventy-five percent of farmland in southern Africa has lost nutrients needed to grow crops. The highest rates of nutrient loss are in Guinea, Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. More than sixty kilograms of nutrients per hectare are being lost each year. The study also warned that food imports to Africa would need to increase if immediate action is not taken. The international nonprofit organization I.F.D.C. released the report at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City last month. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo headed the event. He called on African leaders, aid groups and farming organizations to support a meeting in Nigeria in June to discuss Africa’s soil crisis. The meeting would discuss ways to increase agricultural productivity across Africa. These include reductions in nutrient mining, limits on cutting of trees, less use of infertile grassland, and better farming methods that protect the environment. The meeting also would aim to increase the use of natural and manufactured chemical fertilizers in Africa. Lack of rain is also harming soil fertility in Africa. The World Meteorological Organization says dry weather conditions in East Africa will continue in April. Several of the worst affected areas have recorded their driest months since nineteen sixty-one. The United Nations warns that more than eleven million people in the area urgently need food assistance. The World Food Program has launched a new program that could help pay for a possible humanitarian emergency in Ethiopia this year. The U.N. agency has purchased an insurance agreement that will pay money if rainfall does not reach a certain level this year. The insurance policy is reported to have cost nine hundred thirty thousand dollars. It was awarded to a French insurance company. The company will pay the World Food Program about seven million dollars if rainfall between March and October in Ethiopia is below a certain level. The money would be used to get emergency aid more quickly. James Morris heads the World Food Program. He says the insurance program could help change the way governments think about emergency aid. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Mountain and Cowboy Culture Meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we travel to the mountains of Wyoming for a trip to Jackson Hole. VOICE ONE: This beautiful valley was named after the nineteenth-century explorer and hunter David Jackson. After he spent a winter in the area, his friends started to call it “Jackson’s Hole.”? VOICE TWO: The valley looks like a hole in the middle of the mountains that surround it. Over time, the name stuck. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jackson Hole is about forty-eight kilometers long. The valley includes the town of Jackson. About eight thousand people live there. The valley also includes the Grand Teton National Park and much of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Jackson Hole is a popular holiday place. In the summer, people go there to ride horses, climb mountains, catch fish and take trips on the rivers and lakes. Many visitors take a trip across the valley on the Snake River. The Snake Indians once lived near this river. It turns from side to side, like a snake on the move. Some visitors bird-watch from sailboats. One of the birds they can see is America’s national symbol, the bald eagle. Other people go white-water rafting. Rubber rafts carry them along the fastest parts of the river. The water moves so fast, it becomes white with foam. VOICE TWO: In the winter, people come to Jackson Hole to ski. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort provides some of the best downhill skiing and snowboarding in the world. And there are other kinds of skiing. Some people skate ski; they speed across level snow. Others enjoy the slower speed of cross-country skiing. Some people go dog sledding in Jackson Hole. They get on a sled and are pulled by a team of dogs through the snow. This is one of the many ways to enjoy the extraordinary mountain views. Some wealthy people have homes near the ski resort. Other people stay in the many hotels nearby. Some of these hotels are new and very costly. In fact, the average sale price of a single-family home in Jackson Hole is more than one million dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Visitors to Jackson Hole have many shopping, dining and entertainment choices. People can imagine they are in a town in the Old West. At the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, instead of chairs, they can sit on saddles as if riding a horse. On some nights there are dance lessons. People can learn the two-step, a kind of Western dance. Or they can eat dinner and listen to live music at the Mangy Moose Saloon. There, a large dead moose hangs from the ceiling. At the Silver Dollar Bar, a long table is covered with more than two thousand shiny silver dollars. If you look carefully, you see that the coins are all from the year nineteen twenty-one. Visitors can also enjoy an evening at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. In the summer, actors perform musicals and other plays. This brightly painted old theater is one of the oldest wood buildings in town. It has been a popular entertainment place since the nineteen fifties. VOICE TWO:?????? Some of the stores in Jackson Hole sell unusual things, like furniture made of deer antlers. Antlers are the hard and bony points that grow on the heads of male deer. These stores sell chairs, lights and other objects made from antlers. They look more like pointy sculptures than furniture. Many stores in Jackson Hole sell winter sports equipment and clothing. Some sell cowboy clothing. C.J. James owns the Jackson Hole Hat Company. Her Web site describes the cowboy as a "symbol of American independence and strength."? She will sell you a cowboy hat made to fit the exact size of your head. There are many shapes, colors and materials to choose from. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some of the ways of the Old West cowboy are kept alive in Jackson Hole. In the summer, visitors can go to a rodeo to see competitions based on traditional cowboy skills. Some people say it is the truest of American sports. The rodeo usually begins with a parade of cowboys and their horses. Then comes the competition. In one event, riders try to stay on a wild animal for eight seconds. They ride wild horses and large bulls. The animals try to throw the cowboys to the ground. The cowboys try not to fall off. VOICE TWO: In another event, the cowboy throws a rope around the neck of a young cow. Then he tries to tie the rope around three of its legs. The cowboy who does this in the shortest amount of time wins. Visitors to Jackson Hole can experience different parts of cowboy life. They can ride horses. They can eat meals cooked outdoors over a fire. In the summer, they can watch actors dressed as cowboys perform “The Shootout.”? This short Western play has been performed since the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Arts and culture are important in Jackson Hole. Each summer, musicians from around the country perform classical music at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Musical guests also visit local schools while they are in town. Each autumn, Jackson holds the Fall Arts Festival. This event celebrates many examples of visual and performing arts. It also provides many examples of fine local foods. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Jackson Hole can explore the National Museum of Wildlife. When this museum opened, it was located in the center of town. But soon the museum space was not large enough to hold the art collection. In nineteen ninety-four the museum reopened in a new building made of stone. It looks like a fortress built centuries ago. The museum contains over two thousand artworks showing nature and animals. There are many paintings, photographs and sculptures of antelope, deer, birds, horses and other animals. The museum says its art celebrates the powerful connection between animals and humans. VOICE ONE: This art shows the natural beauty of the land and its creatures. To see this beauty in real life, all you have to do is walk outside the museum. The building sits on a hillside overlooking the National Elk Refuge. The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world. It had an estimated seven thousand elk this season. The refuge has ten thousand hectares of land. It was started in nineteen twelve to help protect the local elk population. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Six kilometers north of Jackson, Wyoming, is the Grand Teton National Park. Congress created this park in nineteen twenty-nine. In the nineteen forties the wealthy John D. Rockefeller bought a great amount of land nearby. Then he gave it to the federal government. Both Rockefeller and the government added to the park later. Today, the government controls about ninety-seven percent of all the land in the Jackson Hole area. VOICE ONE: The park is named for the Grand Teton Mountains. These mountains rise directly from the floor of the valley. They are part of the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Tetons are about four thousand meters high and sixty-five kilometers long. Many artists have captured images of these beautiful mountains. The Native Americans who lived in the area many years ago called the mountains Teewinot, meaning “many pinnacles.”? Fur trappers from Canada had their own idea of what the three largest mountains looked like. These French-speaking hunters named them “les Trois Tetons” -- "the Three Breasts." VOICE TWO: The Grand Teton Mountains were formed about ten million years ago. This makes them some of the youngest mountains in North America. The Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, for example, are about two hundred million years old. Many of the lakes around the Grand Tetons were formed millions of years ago by slow-moving sheets of ice. Some small glaciers are still active in the mountains. VOICE ONE: People come to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from around the world to enjoy the best of cowboy and mountain culture. If you ever go, just don’t forget your cowboy hat. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Dana Demange and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Insects Eating Your Crops? Call on a Ladybug
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There are lots of insects that farmers hate. But there also are some they like. These protect crops against damage from other insects. A good example is the lady beetle, also known as the ladybug. Lady beetles are a natural control for aphids. Aphids are tiny insects that develop colonies on plants and eat plant fluids. Aphids can also spread crop diseases. Adult lady beetles can eat fifty aphids a day. The young beetle larvae can eat hundreds of aphids. Asian Lady BeetleLady beetles are red, orange or black. They often have black spots, though some have light colored spots. Different kinds of lady beetles have different numbers of spots. There are lady beetles with four, five, seven and fourteen spots. Many of the well-known kinds of lady beetles come from Asia or Europe. They now are common throughout the United States. American scientists imported one kind of lady beetle, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, as early as nineteen sixteen. They released them as an attempt to control some kinds of inspects. Over the years, the beetle has become established, possibly helped by some that arrived with imported plants on ships. Experts say over four hundred fifty kinds of lady beetles are found in North America. Some are native to the area. Others have been brought from other places. Almost all are helpful to farmers. The Asian lady beetles now in the United States probably came from Japan. The Asian lady beetle eats aphids that damage crops like soybeans, fruits and berries. In the southern United States, Asian lady beetles have reduced the need for farmers to use pest-killing poisons on pecan trees. This popular tree nut suffers from aphids and other pests that the beetles eat. But some people say the Asian lady beetle has itself become a pest. Lady beetles have no food after crops have been harvested. It is time for them to prepare for winter. Normally this is in the ground, but it can also be in someone’s home. Some farmers also worry that the beetles may eat their late-autumn fruit crops. Experts say Asian lady beetles may appear in large numbers in some years. But they say the insects are too helpful to consider pests. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Depression Study Finds Hope in Different Treatments, at Least for Some People
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver & Brianna Blake

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: A big study of depression and treatments... VOICE ONE: Smarter children, bigger brains?? No, but scientists say there is a physical difference... VOICE TWO: And the effects of social rejection in school. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Results have been published from what researchers say is the first depression study of its kind. It examined the effectiveness of different attempts to treat so-called treatment-resistant patients. The six-year study involved almost three thousand people around the United States. The National Institute of Mental Health paid for it. VOICE TWO: In the first level of the study, the patients took the antidepressant drug citalopram, sold under the name Celexa. They took it for up to fourteen weeks. The treatment helped some of the patients. The researchers say white, well-educated women with a job and a husband had some of the best results. By comparison, many of those with poorer results had a lower quality of life. These included people with problems with alcohol or illegal drugs or physical disorders. VOICE ONE: The results say one-third of the patients became symptom-free after they took the Celexa. But two-thirds of the people still had signs of depression. These patients were then offered several treatment choices. These included changing medicines or continuing with Celexa, but combined with a second drug. About one thousand four hundred people continued with the study. Those who decided to change medicines were divided into three groups. Each group received a different antidepressant drug. In the end, each of the three different drugs produced similar findings. The researchers says one-fourth of the people who changed to a new medicine lost their signs of depression within fourteen weeks. So what about the patients who continued on Celexa but added a second medicine?? The results say about one-third of them became symptom-free. VOICE TWO: The researchers say the findings offer good news for people with depression. They say patients should keep trying different treatments. "If the first treatment attempt fails, patients should not give up," says Doctor Thomas Insel. He is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health. But some experts say the findings are also bad news because they show that a lot of people were not helped by the medicines. The findings have led to new discussion about the best treatments for depression and also about the causes. Depression is blamed on chemical imbalances in the brain. Experts note that the drugs used in the study work in different ways -- yet none appeared to work better than the others. VOICE ONE: The study is known as STAR*D, for Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression. It did not involve experiments to compare the different drugs under controlled conditions. Instead, the scientists observed what they call "real world patients." There were four levels to the study. The results from Level One appeared in January in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Level Two findings just appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers are now examining the results from patients who did not complete the study and those who continued on Celexa alone. They are also observing a group of patients who failed to get any improvement with drug treatments. These patients are now in psychotherapy, talking with mental health professionals about their depression. VOICE TWO: Depression interferes with daily life. It causes great feelings of sadness. Common signs include a lack of energy and a loss of interest in activities that a person once enjoyed. Other signs are feelings of hopelessness and difficulty thinking. Depressed people might have problems sleeping and eating. Depression can also be hidden in physical conditions like headaches, back problems and stomach pains. The National Institute of Mental Health says major depressive disorder affects about seven percent of adults in the United States. It says depression is the leading cause of disability among Americans age fifteen to forty-four. Depression is also a leading cause of disability worldwide. The institute says up to twenty-five percent of women and about ten percent of men will experience depression. People with major depression often experience two or more periods of it in their lifetime. Each episode can last two years or more. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. Scientists have found that brain growth in very intelligent children is different from that in other children. They say their study is the first to show a link between intelligence and brain development. Researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health and Canada's University of McGill did the study. The findings appeared in the magazine Nature. VOICE TWO: The researchers say they found developmental differences in the cerebral cortex. This is the outer part of the brain, often called the gray matter. The cerebral cortex plays some part in almost all brain activity. The researchers call it the “thinking” part of the brain. The cortex goes through a process of development in which it thickens and thins as children grow up. But the researchers say the cortex reaches its thickest at a later age in highly intelligent children. The study followed just over three hundred young people, ages five to nineteen years old. They were divided into three levels of intelligence: average, high and superior. They took traditional intelligence tests to measure their I.Q., their intelligence quotient. Many experts say I.Q. levels change little over time. The value of I.Q. testing itself, however, is widely debated. The children in the study were tested only once as they grew up. The scientists also took pictures of the children’s brains as they got older. They used magnetic resonance imaging. Most of the children got at least two M.R.I.’s, two years apart, during the study. ??? VOICE ONE: Study researcher Judith Rapoport says I.Q. is related to cortex development, not to the amount of gray matter at any one age. The researchers say the smartest children generally started with a thinner cortex. But it grew faster than the cortex of the average children. It also thickened over a longer period of time. The researchers say the children in the average group completed the process by eight years of age. But thickening of the cortex continued in the most intelligent children until they were eleven or twelve. One possible explanation is that their brain had more time to develop high-level thinking abilities. VOICE TWO: The children in all three groups did have something in common. Their cortex began to thin by their teen years. But during the late teen years, the smartest children had the fastest rate of thinning. Thinning of the cortex is believed to represent the loss of unused brain cells, neurons and connections as young people become adults. Philip Shaw led the study team. He says people with a more active mind generally have a more active cerebral cortex. But he also says intelligence is probably a complex mix of the brain a person is born with, and what it experiences in life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Children will do well in school even if they are rejected by others their age. In fact, they might even work harder to please their teachers. Parents at least have to hope these statements are true. A new study suggests the opposite. It found that children who face social rejection are more likely to withdraw from school activities. They also are more likely do poorly in their schoolwork. Researchers studied three hundred eighty students in the central United States over a five-year period. All of them were between five and eleven years of age. ?????? The Journal of Educational Psychology published the results. The study says the problem seems to affect girls and boys equally. Eric Buhs of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln led the study. The professor says group rejection appears to be one of the strongest measures of a child’s likely success in school. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Brianna Blake. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: George Catlin Painted Native American Tribes and Their Cultures During the 1830s
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our program about American artist George Catlin and his paintings of Native Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how George Catlin had begun his working life as a lawyer. However, he was not happy with this work. He gave up the law and began painting, first in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later in New York City. He became a successful painter. He painted large and small paintings of people. But he still felt that he needed to paint something that was important. George Catlin decided to paint Native Americans after he saw a delegation of Indians on their way to Washington, D.C. By the year eighteen thirty, he had traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri. From there he traveled north into lands that few white Americans had ever seen. It was here that he met the first of the many American Indians he would paint. VOICE TWO: George Catlin left many letters telling about his travels. He wrote that he often traveled alone, with only his horse Charlie. He carried his painting supplies and enough food for a few days. He also carried a rifle for hunting. Between eighteen thirty and eighteen thirty-six, Mister Catlin made five trips into areas of the West that were considered unexplored Indian country. He traveled many thousands of kilometers and visited fifty different tribes. VOICE ONE: George Catlin painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of unusual land that no white person had ever seen before. He painted Native American men, women, and children. He painted their clothes, weapons and villages. He painted the people taking part in religious ceremonies, dances and the hunting of buffalo. He often painted three pictures in one day. George Catlin tried to capture in paint the Native American people and their culture. For example, he painted many pictures of Indians playing a ball game. The game is played with a stick that has a small net at one end. The net is used to control the ball. This Native American game is still played in the United States and other countries today. It is called by the name the French gave it – lacrosse. George Catlin also kept exact records of the people, places and events. Most of his paintings include the names of the people and when they were painted. VOICE TWO: George Catlin began to have deep feelings about the people that he painted. He learned a great deal about them. He learned that they were honest. They were intelligent. They represented different cultures that had great value. George Catlin believed that many of the men he painted were great leaders in their own culture and would have been great leaders in any culture. He believed the Native American Indians were people of great worth. He also understood that the Indians could not block or stop the westward movement of white people in America. He believed that the American Indian would quickly disappear. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Catlin put together a collection of his many paintings. He called the display George Catlin’s Indian Gallery. He began showing the paintings in many cities in the United States. He also gave long speeches about the Indians he lived with. He told those who came to his talks that he had never felt afraid while living in Native American villages. He said no one ever threatened him or stole anything from him. He tried to make people understand what a great people Native Americans were. He said huge areas of the country should be left for Native Americans to enjoy life as they always had. VOICE TWO: Many people criticized George Catlin. Some said the people in his pictures did not really look as intelligent and brave as he had painted them. They said the religious ceremonies he painted were false and that Indians did not really have ball games. Some critics said George Catlin had invented these people. The critics made George Catlin angry. He began to seek white Americans who had traveled in Indian country. He asked army officers, fur traders and others to sign documents that said the people and events he painted were real. The critics stopped saying his paintings were a lie. VOICE ONE: George Catlin took his collection of paintings to Europe. He also took many objects made by American Indians. The George Catlin Indian Gallery was popular in London, England and in Paris, France. French art experts praised his paintings. His paintings and speeches were popular. Many people paid money to visit his Indian Gallery, but he did not earn enough money. He soon had financial problems. Mister Catlin returned to the United States. There were about five hundred paintings in his Indian Gallery. He offered to sell them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Several people worked to have the United States government buy the paintings for the Smithsonian. However, Congress never approved a measure needed for the sale. VOICE TWO: George Catlin found a buyer for his Indian Gallery. It was Joseph Harrison, a businessman in Philadelphia. Mister Harrison bought the paintings but did nothing with them. For many years they were left in a room in his factory. Mister Catlin was able to pay most of his debts from the money he earned by selling his paintings. He began painting again. His new paintings were displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s famous building called The Castle. For the last year of his life, he worked in a room in that building provided by the museum. George Catlin died in eighteen seventy-two. His famous Indian Gallery paintings were still in a room in Mister Harrison’s factory. A fire at the factory almost destroyed them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-nine, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was Spencer Baird. Mister Baird knew the historic value of George Catlin’s paintings. The owner of the paintings, Joseph Harrison, had died. So Mister Baird began to negotiate with Joseph Harrison’s wife, Sarah. He asked her to give the collection to the Smithsonian. Missus Harrison agreed. She gave George Catlin’s famous Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian. The gift also included many Indian objects that Catlin had collected. These included maps, books, letters and other papers that told George Catlin’s story. Sarah Harrison’s gift was one of the most important ever received by the Smithsonian. For more than one hundred twenty-five years, the public has been able to see George Catlin’s paintings. Art critics, art students and western history experts have studied and examined them. VOICE TWO: Today, George Catlin’s Indian Gallery is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The paintings have been carefully cleaned for this event. They look new and fresh, as if they were painted recently. Art experts have praised and criticized George Catlin’s work. Some say he was not a good artist and could not paint the human body well. Others say this is because he painted very quickly. Most critics say his paintings of people’s faces are beautiful. They seem alive and real. VOICE ONE: You can see many of George Catlin’s paintings on the Internet by using a search engine. Type the name Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. VOICE TWO: George Catlin was afraid the American Indian would disappear from the Earth. That was one of the reasons he painted so many different tribes and different people. He wanted a record to leave for history. George Catlin was wrong. The American Indian did not disappear. But his paintings provide a close look at the people, places and events from a time that is now long gone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO:? ?And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Measles Campaign Cuts Deaths by Almost Half
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. Measles is an infection of the breathing system. The cause is a virus. It spreads through the air when infected people cough or sneeze. Measles spreads very easily. Deaths from measles are often the result of related infections like pneumonia or severe diarrhea. Those who survive can suffer brain damage, blindness or other disabilities. The most recent estimate is that measles led to more than four hundred fifty thousand deaths in two thousand four. Most who die are children under the age of five. And the highest numbers are in southern Africa. Measles is now rare in wealthier countries where parents usually have their children vaccinated against the disease. But it is still common in many developing countries. The World Health Organization says more than thirty million people are affected each year. Experts say weak vaccination programs are the main reason. They say almost all children who have not been vaccinated will get measles if they come in contact with the virus. This is especially true if a person has not had enough vitamin A or has a weakened defense system. There has been a vaccine against measles for the past forty years. Still, measles remains the leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths around the world. But there is good news. A new report says an international campaign reduced measles deaths by almost half between nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand four. During that time, it says, almost five hundred million children in forty-seven countries were vaccinated. The report is from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF. It says countries in southern Africa had the largest reduction: cases and deaths fell an estimated sixty percent. The Measles Initiative was launched in February of two thousand one. The international program is expanding technical and financial support to countries in South Asia. They have the highest numbers of measles deaths outside of southern Africa. The W.H.O. says children in developing countries who get measles should receive two doses of vitamin A. These are given twenty-four hours apart. They can help prevent eye damage and improve chances of survival. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: School Districts Approve Plans to Link Teacher Pay with Student Performance
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last month, the Florida Board of Education approved a program that will link increases in teachers’ pay to improvements in students’ test scores. The program will take effect next school year. It increases a teacher’s pay if his or her students increase their scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The test measures reading and mathematics knowledge. It is now used to decide if students will pass to the next grade level. The state gives extra money to schools whose scores are good or have increased from the year before. Normally, the money is divided among the school workers. The new program requires all school districts in the state to list the top ten percent of teachers in each subject area. These teachers will receive an increase of five percent in their yearly pay. For an average teacher, that would be about two thousand dollars. Those who teach reading and mathematics will be judged on the test scores only. That is, how much their students have improved since the year before. But those who teach other subjects like geography, art and music will have to be judged differently. State officials say they will develop a system to do this. Florida is not the only state with a plan to link teacher pay and student performance. Schools in Texas, Colorado and Minnesota have similar programs. But not all of them link pay with test scores alone. Teacher groups around the country generally oppose such programs. They say it is not fair to judge teachers by how well students score on a test. They say many things affect a student’s test scores, such as learning problems or lack of sleep. They also say that there are other ways to judge strengths and weaknesses of students. Some teachers say the quality of teaching will decrease if teachers are forced to compete with each other for money and praise. They fear that teachers will refuse to work in schools where many children have learning problems or do not speak English well. ????? Those who support the new pay programs say teachers must be judged the way other professionals are — by the results of their work. And they say that using student test scores is a true measure of a teacher’s performance. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m?Steve Ember. Our weekly reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: President Wilson Begins Negotiations for a World War One Peace Treaty
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) On November eleventh, ninteen eighteen, a truce was signed ending the hostilities of World War One. The Central Powers -- led by Germany -- had lost. The Allies -- led by Britain, France, and the United States -- had won. The war had lasted four years. It had taken the lives of ten million persons. It had left much of Europe in ruins. It was described as 'the war to end all wars'. I'm Doug Johnson. Today, Barbara Klein and I tell about American President Woodrow Wilson and his part in events after the war. VOICE TWO: The immediate task was to seek agreement on terms of a peace treaty. The Allies were filled with bitter anger. They demanded a treaty that would punish Germany severely. They wanted to make Germany weak by destroying its military and industry. And they wanted to ruin Germany's economy by making it pay all war damages. Germany, they said, must never go to war again. Woodrow WilsonPresident Woodrow Wilson of the United States did not agree completely with the other Allies. He wanted a peace treaty based on justice, not bitterness. He believed that would produce a lasting peace. President Wilson had led negotiations for a truce to end the hostilies of World War One. Now, he hoped to play a major part in negotiations for a peace treaty. To be effective, he needed the full support of the American people. VOICE ONE: Americans had supported Wilson's policies through most of the war. They had accepted what was necessary to win. This meant higher taxes and shortages of goods. At the time, Americans seemed to forget party politics. Democrats and Republicans worked together. All that changed when it became clear the war was ending. Congressional elections were to be held in November, nineteen eighteen. President Wilson was a Democrat. He feared that Republicans might gain a majority of seats in Congress. If they did, his negotiating powers at a peace conference in Europe would be weakened. Wilson told the nation: "The return of a Republican majority to either house of Congress would be seen by foreign leaders as a rejection of my leadership." VOICE TWO: Republicans protested. They charged that Wilson's appeal to voters was an insult to every Republican. One party leader said: "This is not the president's private war." The Republican campaign succeeded. The party won control of both the Senate and House of Representatives. The congressional elections were a defeat for President Wilson. But he did not let the situation interfere with his plans for a peace conference. He and the other Allied leaders agreed to meet in Paris in January, nineteen nineteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the weeks before the conference, Wilson chose members of his negotiating team. Everyone expected him to include one or more senators. After all, the Senate would vote to approve or reject the final peace treaty. Wilson refused. Instead, he chose several close advisers to go with him to Paris. Today, American history experts say Wilson's decision was a mistake. Failure to put senators on the negotiating team, they say, cost him valuable support later on. In early December, President Wilson sailed to France. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean lasted nine days. He arrived at the Port of Brest on December thirteenth. Wilson felt very happy. Thirteen, he said, was his lucky number. VOICE TWO: French citizens stood along the railroad that carried him from Brest to Paris. They cheered as his train passed. In Paris, cannons were fired to announce his arrival. And a huge crowd welcomed him there. The people shouted his . He said: "I do not think there has been anything like it in the history of the world." People cheered President Wilson partly to thank America for sending its troops to help fight against Germany. But many French citizens and other Europeans also shared Wilson's desire to establish a new world of peace. They listened with hope as he made an emotional speech about a world in which everyone would reject hatred...a world in which everyone would join together to end war, forever. VOICE ONE: More than twenty-five nations that helped win the war sent representatives to the peace conference in Paris.All took part in the negotiations. However, the important decisions were made by the so-called 'Big Four': Prime Minister David Lloyd-George of Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, Premier Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States. Wilson hoped the other Allied leaders would accept his plan for a new international organization. The organization would be called the League of Nations. Wilson believed the league could prevent future wars by deciding fair settlements of disputes between nations. He believed it would be the world's only hope for a lasting peace. VOICE TWO: Most of the other representatives did not have Wilson's faith in the power of peace. Yet they supported his plan for the League of Nations. However, they considered it less important than completing a peace treaty with Germany. And they did not want to spend much time talking about it. They feared that negotiations on the league might delay the treaty and the re-building of Europe. Wilson was firm. He demanded that the peace treaty also establish the league. So, he led a group at the conference that wrote a plan for the operation of the league. He gave the plan to the European leaders to consider. Then he returned to the United States for a brief visit. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Wilson soon learned that opposition to the League of Nations existed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Many Americans opposed it strongly. Some Republican senators began criticizing it even before Wilson's ship reached the port of Boston. The senators said the plan failed to recognize America's long-term interests. They said it would take away too many powers from national governments. Thirty-seven senators signed a resolution saying the United States should reject the plan for the League of Nations. That was more than the number of votes needed to defeat a peace treaty to which, Wilson hoped, the league plan would be linked. VOICE TWO: The Senate resolution hurt Wilson politically. It was a sign to the rest of the world that he did not have the full support of his people. But he returned to Paris anyway. He got more bad news when he arrived. Wilson's top adviser at the Paris peace conference was Colonel Edward House. Colonel House had continued negotiations while Wilson was back in the United States. House agreed with Wilson on most issues. Unlike Wilson, however, he believed the Allies' most urgent need was to reach agreement on a peace treaty with Germany. To do this, House was willing to make many more compromises than Wilson on details for the League of Nations. VOICE ONE: Wilson was furious when he learned what House had done. He said: "Colonel House has given away everything I had won before I left Paris. He has compromised until nothing remains. Now I have to start all over again. This time, it will be more difficult."? For Woodrow Wilson, the most difficult negotiations still lay ahead. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. I’m Barbara Klein with Doug Johnson. Your producer was Jill Moss. The audio engineer was Calvin Fowler. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of the administration of America's twenty-eighth president, Woodrow Wilson. We will tell more about Wilson's part in negotiating a peace treaty after World War One. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. I’m Barbara Klein with Doug Johnson. Your producer was Jill Moss. The audio engineer was Calvin Fowler. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of the administration of America's twenty-eighth president, Woodrow Wilson. We will tell more about Wilson's part in negotiating a peace treaty after World War One. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Population Growth of the United States Leads Industrial Nations
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week… We play religious songs by Kirk Franklin… Answer a question about the Easter holiday… And report about population in the United States. Diversity?in?America HOST: The number of people in the United States is expected to reach three hundred million by October. Studies by the Census Bureau show the population is growing one percent a year. This makes the United States the fastest growing industrial nation. Sixty percent of this population growth is natural. Forty percent is caused by people coming to live in the United States from other countries. Faith Lapidus tells about a new population study. FAITH LAPIDUS:? The study by the Brookings Institution shows that more members of minority groups are moving to areas outside large cities. The study says many are moving to western and southern parts of the United States. Population expert William Frey studied population changes in the United States between the years two thousand and two thousand four. Mister Frey says immigrants have traditionally settled in big cities where they had friends and family to provide support. These include Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Chicago, Illinois and New York City. Now, however, more immigrants are likely to choose areas for economic reasons. Lower housing costs and more jobs are two reasons immigrants are moving to other parts of the country. Mister Frey says the fastest growing cities for immigrants now are Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona, and Orlando, Florida. The Brookings study reports that the white population has dropped in more than one hundred cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, California. The report says that many retired white Americans are moving to smaller places in western states like Utah and Idaho. The Brookings study also reports a return to the South for many African-Americans. Fewer are moving to states traditionally considered part of the “Old South,” like Mississippi and Alabama. Instead, many are settling in “New South” states, like Texas, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The top city for African-Americans in the South is Atlanta, Georgia. Mister Frey says this move toward more diversity in American cities is likely to continue. He says there are more minority children than white children under the age of fifteen in almost one-third of the country’s largest cities. To learn about population growth around the world, listen to the Special English program Explorations on Wednesday. Easter (MUSIC) HOST: Our listener question today comes from Ida, a student at a middle school in China. Ida asks how Americans celebrate the Christian holiday of Easter. Easter is the day that most Christians believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead more than two thousand years ago. Easter is the major celebration of the Christian church. American Christians observe Easter on a Sunday in spring. This year, Western Christians will celebrate Easter this Sunday. Orthodox Christians will observe the holiday a week later. The meaning of Easter, however, is the same. Thousands of American churches hold services in the open air at sunrise on Easter morning. Sunrise services usually include members of many Christian religious groups. Perhaps the most famous outdoor service takes place most years in the Hollywood Bowl, a music center in Los Angeles, California. This is the eighty-fifth anniversary of this Easter sunrise service. The Hollywood Bowl Easter celebration probably will have even larger attendance than usual this year. For the past two years, repair work on the center made it impossible to hold the event. Official and unofficial parades are also part of Easter celebrations. People in many cities walk through the streets on Easter morning after church. They wear their new Easter clothes. Americans also observe Easter customs not directly linked to religious tradition. People celebrate Easter as a cultural holiday that welcomes the season of spring. In colder parts of the country, this means a return of colorful trees and flowers and warmer weather. Some families color eggs and hide them for children to find. There is a popular story that a rabbit – the Easter bunny – leaves the Easter eggs. Here in Washington, a celebration takes place each year on the day after Easter on the grounds around the White House. On Monday, President and Missus Bush will welcome children and their parents for the yearly Easter Egg Roll. White House officials say children of all ages are invited to take part. Kirk Franklin HOST: Some music critics say gospel singer and songwriter Kirk Franklin has changed modern music more than any other artist in recent years. ?Steve Ember tells us more. STEVE EMBER: In nineteen ninety-three, the album “Kirk Franklin and the Family” was released. It quickly became very popular. It was the first time a new gospel album had ever sold more than one million copies. The success of Kirk Franklin’s albums caused a major change in the music industry. Every major record company created a gospel music division. Kirk Franklin released a new album recently. It is called “Hero.”? He and his singers perform the song “Imagine Me.” (MUSIC) Kirk Franklin’s songs are designed to provide messages of hope for young people. However, people of all ages enjoy his lively music. Franklin rarely sings. He says he is not a good singer. Instead, he speaks while the choir sings, as in this song, “Could’ve Been.” (MUSIC) Many people say Kirk Franklin gets better and better with each album. Some say “Hero” is his best work ever. We leave you with the hit song from that album, “Looking For You.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Jill Moss, Jeri Watson and Lawan Davis who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tax Time in America
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. This year, April seventeenth is the last day for Americans to pay federal income taxes for two thousand five. Millions of Americans send the 1040 income tax form to the I.R.S every AprilMost taxpayers have had enough income tax collected by their employers during the year. So they do not owe any more money. In fact, most Americans get some money back. Last year, the Internal Revenue Service returned at least some money to more than one hundred million Americans paying individual income tax. The United States has what is called a progressive tax system. Tax rates increase as earnings increase. This year, people earning more than three hundred twenty-six thousand dollars are taxed at the highest rate. Earnings above that amount are taxed at thirty-five percent. Earnings below that amount are taxed at lower rates. Individuals who earn less than seven thousand three hundred dollars pay no income tax. But they do pay Social Security, Medicare and other taxes. There are many different ways for people and businesses to reduce their federal income taxes. Most homeowners, for example, can reduce their taxes a little by reporting to the I.R.S. the interest they pay on a home loan. This is called a tax deduction. Companies deduct many costs involved in doing business. And many industries can deduct costs of research, exploring for natural resources and the use of property and equipment. In two thousand four, personal income taxes provided the government with most of its money: thirty-five percent of the budget. Social security and other retirement taxes provided thirty-two percent. Other forms of income include business income taxes, money borrowed to cover the deficit and special taxes on trade and property. But income from taxes did not provide enough to pay for government spending. The I.R.S. says the budget deficit for two thousand four was about four hundred thousand million dollars. Preparing tax documents can be complex. The I.R.S. estimates that taxpayers need an average of about thirteen hours to prepare tax documents. ?And that is just for the basic tax form. For businesses, the I.R.S estimates an average tax preparer needs more than fifty hours. This is why a lot of Americans pay professional tax preparers to complete their tax documents for them. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Iran Rejects Appeal to Stop Enriching Uranium
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Iran has rejected an appeal from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to suspend its uranium enrichment activities. United Nations nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei met Thursday in Tehran with Iranian officials. Mister ElBaradei said Iran repeated its promise to answer questions about issues involving its nuclear program. He also said he could not confirm Iran’s claim that it has enriched uranium to a level used in nuclear power centers. Mister ElBaradei said the only way to solve the issue is through negotiation. And he said there is enough time to negotiate a settlement. Earlier this week, Iran announced that it now can enrich uranium to the level used in nuclear power centers. That would raise the possibility of making nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that international pressure would not influence his nation. Mister Ahmadinejad said that from now on, the world would have to deal with Iran as a nuclear power. Iranian officials say they plan to make fuel for a one thousand megawatt nuclear reactor. The officials say they plan to greatly increase the centrifuge devices needed for the process. They said they plan to expand the program to make three thousand centrifuges by the end of the year. They said they are currently using one hundred sixty-four centrifuges. Iranian officials have said their nuclear activities are peaceful. But the United States and European nations believe the Iranians are operating a secret nuclear weapons program. In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized Iran. Miz Rice said the nation could face increasing international punishment if it does not stop its nuclear work. A high level State Department official, Nicholas Burns, spoke to a VOA reporter. Mister Burns said a large international coalition, including the United States, Russia, China and Europe, does not want Iran to develop nuclear weapons. He said these countries believe Iran has not told the truth about its secret nuclear weapons research program. Russia says it will hold more talks next week on the situation. Representatives from the United States, the European Union and China are to attend the meeting Tuesday in Moscow. On Friday, a Chinese diplomat began a visit to Iran and Russia to discuss the issue. The United Nations Security Council meets later this month to consider punishing Iran for its nuclear program. The Council had told Iran to stop all uranium enrichment activities before the end of this month. The Council will wait to hear from Mister ElBaradei before deciding on its next step. Mister ElBaradei reports to the Security Council on April twenty-eighth. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. You can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Andy Warhol:? The Father of Pop Art
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Andy Warhol, one of the most influential people in American modern art. Warhol was best known for his bright colored images of famous people and food cans. Through both his art and lifestyle he explored the nature of fame, popular culture, and the media. His artistic influence and unusual personality redefined the modern art world. (THEME) ?VOICE ONE: Andy Warhol was not always famous around the world. He was born in nineteen twenty-eight in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Their last name was Warhola, which Andy later shortened to Warhol. As a child Andy spent a great deal of time sick in bed. While he was recovering, he would draw pictures. When his father died, he left enough money for Andy to attend art school. AndyWarhol Andy Warhol attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology where he studied pictorial design. Pictorial design is the art of creating images and drawings. Often these drawings are used in the production of advertisements and magazines. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-nine Warhol moved to New York City to work as a commercial artist. He drew pictures for magazines and advertisements. He became very successful. During the nineteen fifties Warhol drew images for many important magazines such as “Vogue” and “Harper’s Bazaar.” He also became very well known for a series of ads he made for shoes. Warhol used his experience in commercial art as an entry into fine art. He began his painting career as part of the Pop Art movement. This movement was at its strongest during the nineteen sixties. VOICE ONE: Pop Art was defined by images of material goods and popular culture. Pop artists rejected the serious nature of the art world. To do this, these artists painted or printed everyday images of things that usually are not considered art. These images included photographs from magazines, drink advertisements and drawings from popular comic strips. Dollar Sign VOICE TWO: Some critics say that Pop Art was a reaction to Abstract Expressionism. Artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement took themselves very seriously. They did not approve of popular culture. They thought artists should not be concerned with such unimportant parts of culture. Pop artists, however, celebrated popular culture in all of its forms. They approved of using mass media and mass production as an influence in their art. Pop Art also reflected the rise in wealth and the importance of owning things that America experienced in the nineteen fifties. One art critic defined Pop art as popular, low-cost, young, mass-produced and sexy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of Warhol’s first exhibits was in nineteen sixty-two. He created thirty-two paintings of red and white soup cans. These paintings shook the art world. The soup cans looked like the soup produced by one of America’s most popular food companies, Campbell’s. Every painting looked the same except for the words written on the can that described the different kinds of soup. Warhol used a very smooth painting method so the artwork almost did not look hand-made. The paintings looked like they came out of the same factory that made the soup cans. No one had ever seen art like this. Warhol also made paintings using images such as Coca Cola bottles, dollar symbols, and popular cleaning products. He took the most everyday objects and turned them into fine art. VOICE TWO: Warhol soon started making silk-screen prints. This method of reproduction permitted the artist to make many images very quickly. He would often repeat the same picture many times in one artwork. He liked the idea of mass produced art. He once said that he thought everyone should think alike and be like a machine. In fact, the place where he created his art was called The Factory. He had many assistants who helped him produce his art. VOICE ONE: Warhol explored many other subjects. For example, he made a series of paintings on death and disaster. These works showed images of car accidents and executions. He also made pictures of famous people such as the actress Marilyn Monroe and the singer Elvis Presley. Warhol was very interested in fame. He celebrated famous people and they celebrated him. Marilyn Monroe VOICE TWO: Andy Warhol once said something about fame that became very popular and is still repeated today. He said? that in the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes. Warhol certainly enjoyed being well known. He created a very unusual public personality. He would wear strange wigs on his head made of white hair. He would go out every night to parties and other social gatherings where there were beautiful and important people. He would talk to reporters in a very shy manner. Often he would provide unclear answers to their questions. Here is a recording of Andy Warhol being asked about his art. It is from a nineteen ninety-one documentary film about Warhol’s life. (WARHOL) VOICE ONE: Andy Warhol was much more than just a painter. He was also a film maker, publisher, and manager of a rock band. For example, he produced several low budget art films in the early nineteen sixties. One was called “Empire”. It showed a filmed image of the Empire State Building in New York City. The film was eight hours long. In the movie “Sleep” Warhol recorded a friend sleeping. The film lasts six hours. When asked about the uneventful nature of these films, Warhol answered that he liked boring or uninteresting things. VOICE TWO: In the middle nineteen sixties Warhol also managed a rock band called The Velvet Underground. He helped produce one of their records and designed the cover of the album. Another of Warhol’s projects was the creation of “Interview” magazine. This magazine covered many kinds of American popular culture. Andy Warhol was able to interview the kinds of people he liked best, famous people. ?A colorful drawing of a famous person was on the cover of every issue of the magazine. The image was drawn in the style of Warhol’s paintings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-eight Andy Warhol was shot by a woman who had been in one of his films. Valerie Solanas was angry with Warhol for not making a movie based on a play she wrote. The bullet from the gun hit several of Warhol’s organs and almost killed him. The media’s reaction to this event made him even more famous. VOICE TWO: Even though he worked on many other projects, Andy Warhol always kept producing artwork. In the nineteen seventies he made millions of dollars painting people’s portraits. Wealthy people all over the world paid a great deal of money to have him paint their picture. In the nineteen eighties Warhol worked with several younger artists. They included Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Warhol also wrote several books and created two cable television programs. VOICE ONE: Warhol’s art would have surely continued in many new directions. But he died as a result of problems after a minor operation in nineteen eighty-seven. He was fifty-eight years old. At his death, Warhol’s total estimated worth was more than one hundred million dollars. Most of this money helped create the Andy Warhol Foundation which helps support the visual arts. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-four the Andy Warhol Museum opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This museum is in a large industrial building. As you walk up the seven floors of the museum, you can see more than five hundred works of art by Warhol. The museum has pieces from every period of his career. VOICE ONE: On the fifth floor there is a special exhibit called Silver Clouds. This room is based on an art gallery show that Warhol designed in nineteen sixty-six. The room is filled with many silver colored balloons that are square shaped. The balloons contain helium and oxygen so that they float around with the air currents. Warhol’s idea was to create a joyful and magical room in which the artwork moved around the visitors. VOICE TWO: Andy Warhol helped change the way the world defined modern art. His colorful Pop Art images and unusual personality made him one of the most famous and important people in American art and culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Devil and Tom Walker
* Byline: Written by Washington Irving

 Announcer:? Now, an American short story in Special English.(MUSIC) Our story today is, "The Devil and Tom Walker. " It was written by Washington Irving. Here is Shep O'Neal with our story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Before we begin our story, let us go back three hundred years to the late sixteen hundreds. In those years, one of the most famous men in the world was Captain William Kidd. Captain Kidd was a pirate. He sailed the seas, capturing any ships he found. He and his men took money from these ships. Captain Kidd hid this money in different places.Captain Kidd was captured by the English in Boston, Massachusetts and executed in the year seventeen-oh-one. From that time on, people all over the world searched in many places for Captain Kidd's stolen money. The people who lived in Massachusetts in the seventeen hundreds believed Captain Kidd buried some of his treasure near Boston. Not far from Boston was a small river which ran into the Atlantic Ocean. An old story said that Captain Kidd had come up this river from the ocean. Then he buried his gold and silver and jewels under a big tree. The story said that this treasure was protected by the devil himself, who was a good friend of Captain Kidd. In the year seventeen twenty-seven, a man named Tom Walker lived near this place. Tom Walker was not a pleasant man. He loved only one thing -- money. There was only one person worse than Tom. That was his wife. She also loved money. These two were so hungry for money that they even stole things from each other. One day, Tom Walker was returning home through a dark forest. He walked slowly and carefully, so that he would not fall into a pool of mud. At last, he reached a piece of dry ground. Tom sat down on a tree that had fallen. As he rested, he dug into the earth with a stick. He knew the story that Indians had killed prisoners here as sacrifices to the Devil. But this did not trouble him. The only devil Tom was afraid of was his wife. Tom's stick hit something hard. He dug it out of the earth. It was a human skull. In the skull was an Indian ax. Suddenly, Tom Walker heard an angry voice: "Don't touch that skull!" Tom looked up. He saw a giant sitting on a broken tree. Tom had never seen such a man. He wore the clothes of an Indian. His skin was almost black and covered with ashes. His eyes were big and red. His black hair stood up from his head. He carried a large ax. The giant asked, "What are you doing on my land?" But Tom Walker was not afraid. He answered, "What do you mean? This land belongs to Mister Peabody." The strange man laughed and pointed to the tall trees. Tom saw that one of the trees had been cut by an ax. He looked more closely and saw that the name Peabody had been cut into the tree. Mr. Peabody was a man who got rich by stealing from Indians. Tom looked at the other trees. Every one had the name of some rich, important man from Massachusetts. Tom looked at the tree on which he was sitting. It also had a name cut into it -- the name of Absalom Crowninshield. Tom remembered that Mister Crowninshield was a very rich man. People said he got his money as Captain Kidd did -- by stealing ships. Suddenly, the giant shouted: "Crowninshield is ready to be burned! I'm going to burn many trees this winter!" Tom told the man that he had no right to cut Mister Peabody's trees. The stranger laughed and said, "I have every right to cut these trees. This land belonged to me a long time before Englishmen came to Massachusetts. The Indians were here. Then you Englishmen killed the Indians. Now I show Englishmen how to buy and sell slaves. And I teach their women how to be witches."?Tom Walker now knew that the giant was the Devil himself. But Tom Walker was still not afraid. The giant said Captain Kidd had buried great treasures under the trees, but nobody could have them unless the giant permitted it. He said Tom could have these treasures. But Tom had to agree to give the giant what he demanded. Tom Walker loved money as much as he loved life. But he asked for time to think. Tom went home. He told his wife what had happened. She wanted Captain Kidd's treasure. She urged him to give the Devil what he wanted. Tom said no. At last, Misses Walker decided to do what Tom refused to do. She put all her silver in a large piece of cloth and went to see the dark giant. Two days passed. She did not return home. She was never seen again. People said later that Tom went to the place where he had met the giant. He saw his wife's cloth hanging in a tree. He was happy, because he wanted to get her silver. But when he opened the cloth, there was no silver in it -- only a human heart. Tom was sorry he lost the silver, but not sorry he lost his wife. He wanted to thank the giant for this. And so, every day he looked for the giant. Tom finally decided that he would give the giant what he wanted in exchange for Captain Kidd's treasure. One night, Tom Walker met the giant and offered his soul in exchange for Captain Kidd's treasure. The Devil now wanted more than that. He said that Tom would have to use the treasure to do the Devil's work. He wanted Tom to buy a ship and bring slaves to America. As we have said, Tom Walker was a hard man who loved nothing but money. But even he could not agree to buy and sell human beings as slaves. He refused to do this. The Devil then said that his second most important work was lending money. The men who did this work for the Devil forced poor people who borrowed money to pay back much more than they had received. Tom said he would like this kind of work. So the Devil gave him Captain Kidd's treasure. A few days later, Tom Walker was a lender of money in Boston. Everyone who needed help -- and there were many who did -- came to him. Tom Walker became the richest man in Boston. When people were not able to pay him, he took away their farms, their horses, and their houses. As he got older and richer, Tom began to worry. What would happen when he died?? He had promised his soul to the Devil. Maybe. . .maybe. . . he could break that promise. Tom then became very religious. He went to church every week. He thought that if he prayed enough, he could escape from the Devil. One day, Tom took the land of a man who had borrowed money. The poor man asked for more time to pay. "Please do not destroy me!" he said. "You have already taken all my money!" Tom got angry and started to shout, "Let the Devil take me if I have taken any money from you!"?That was the end of Tom Walker. For just then, he heard a noise. He opened the door. There was the black giant, holding a black horse. The giant said, "Tom, I have come for you." He picked up Tom and put him on the horse. Then he hit the horse, which ran off, carrying Tom. Nobody ever saw Tom Walker again. A farmer said that he saw the black horse, with a man on it, running wildly into the forest.After Tom Walker disappeared, the government decided to take Tom's property. But there was nothing to take. All the papers which showed that Tom owned land and houses were burned to ashes. His boxes of gold and silver had nothing in them but small pieces of wood. The wood came from newly cut trees. Tom's horses died, and his house suddenly burned to ashes. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard the story, "The Devil and Tom Walker." It was written by Washington Irving. Our storyteller was Shep O'Neal. Listen again next week at this same time for another AMERICAN STORY told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fifty-seven Nations Face Serious Shortages of Health Care Workers
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve?Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says fifty-seven nations in southern Africa and Southeast Asia are facing a serious shortage of health care workers. This crisis is affecting how governments fight diseases and improve health. The W.H.O says more than four million additional doctors, nurses and other health workers are urgently needed to improve the situation. The warning came in a new W.H.O. report released on April seventh -- World Health Day. The report says the health care crisis is most severe in southern Africa. The continent has eleven percent of the world’s population, but only three percent of the world’s health care workers. The report warns that the ability of poor countries to provide important life-saving services is in danger. In addition, many patients are not able to get the treatments they need for diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. W.H.O. official Timothy Evans says part of the problem is caused by rich nations that offer high-paying jobs to doctors and nurses from poor countries. In addition, Mister Evans says few trained health care professionals are working where they are needed most. Those in poor countries usually work in cities instead of farming areas. The W.H.O. report provides a ten-year plan to deal with the crisis. It calls for national leadership and new policies for health workers. It also urges more international assistance and foreign aid. The report says that nations facing the most serious shortages must increase health care spending. Effective use of public money for health care was also the subject of an international conference this month in Beijing, China. Researchers presented three books that describe cost-effective answers to health problems in developing countries. The books recommended simple things. They include speed barriers on roads to help reduce the number of traffic accidents. Another idea is to give aspirin to people to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. The books are designed for policy makers, health program supervisors and aid groups. The Disease Control Priorities Project published the books. They are free to anyone with a computer. To learn more, visit the project’s web site at www.dcp2.org. A link is provided at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Itzhak Perlman: A Citizen of the World, With His Violin as a Passport
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Itzhak PerlmanMany consider him the greatest concert violinist in the world. The music of Itzhak Perlman is our program today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. I’m Steve Ember. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in ninteen forty-five. Today he lives in New York City. But his music has made him a citizen of the world. He has played in almost every major city. He has won fifteen Grammy awards for his recordings. He has also won four Emmys for his work with television. Itzhak Perlman suffered from polio at the age of four. The disease damaged his legs. Today he uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches on his arms. (MUSIC) But none of this stopped him from playing the violin. He began as a young child. He took his first lessons at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv. Very quickly, his teachers recognized that he had a special gift. At thirteen he went to the United Sates to appear on television. His playing earned him the financial aid to attend the Juilliard School in New York. In nineteen sixty-four Itzhak Perlman won the Leventritt Competition in that city. His international fame had begun. (MUSIC) His music is full of power and strength. It can be sad or joyful, loud or soft. But critics say it is not the music alone that makes his playing so special. They say he is able to communicate the joy he feels in playing, and the emotions that great music can deliver. Anyone who has attended a performance by Itzhak Perlman will tell you that it is exciting to watch him play. His face changes as the music from his violin changes. He looks sad when the music seems sad. He smiles and closes his eyes when the music is light and happy. He often looks dark and threatening when the music seems dark and threatening. In nineteen eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan honored Itzhak Perlman with a Medal of Liberty. In two thousand, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Several major universities have awarded him honors. He continues to receive honors for his music. ?(MUSIC)????????????????????????????? Today, Itzhak Perlman is also busy leading orchestras. He appears on television. He teaches young musicians. He has worked with most of the top young violinists. He has recorded every major work for the violin, and has also recorded jazz, ragtime and Jewish folk music. Years ago a reporter asked Itzhak Perlman why he did not play the Violin Concerto in D Major by Beethoven. He answered that he would play it when he had more experience. He has since played it and recorded it several times. For a few moments, close your eyes and imagine you are in a theater. In front of us is the stage. To the left, Itzhak Perlman sits in his chair, near the conductor. The orchestra has already played the first two movements of Beethoven's D Major Concerto. The violin leads us to the third, and immediately announces the major theme. Listen now as Itzhak Perlman performs with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Carlo Maria Giulini is the conductor. (MUSIC) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How Farm Pay Compares to Industrial Pay in America
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A listener in China asks about the earnings of farmers in the United States. Kevin Wan from Sichuan would also like to know how pay for farmers compares with that of industrial workers. The farm economy of the United States has changed a lot in the last seventy years. In the nineteen thirties, twenty-five percent of the nation’s population lived on farms. Today less than one percent of Americans do. Farm incomes have changed over the years too. For example, in nineteen thirty-three, people living and working on farms had much less money to spend than other Americans. At that time, farm families had about one-third the income of non-farmers after all necessary expenses had been paid. By the late nineteen seventies, however, that difference had almost disappeared. In two thousand four, farmers had their best year ever. The United States Department of Agriculture says the average farm family earned about eighty-one thousand dollars. That is more than the average American family, which earned about sixty thousand dollars. Yet these numbers do not completely explain the situation for all farmers. Those who have small farms often take other jobs to earn extra income. And farm earnings for large farms grew faster than for small ones. The Department of Labor measures the pay of industrial workers differently. It measures the average hourly and weekly pay for industrial workers. This is because factory workers are generally paid by the hour unlike farmers who earn income from their farm businesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average hourly pay for all private industrial workers is about sixteen dollars. The B.L.S. says average weekly pay for all industrial workers is about five hundred fifty dollars. But that is an average. Workers can earn as much as twice the average or as little as half of it depending on the industry in which they work. Industrial workers are about twenty-three percent of the labor force. But that number has been decreasing. Most Americans have jobs that provide services. Professional, technical and other services employ about seventy-six percent of the labor force. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep?O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Plate Tectonics: Nature's Way of Stretching
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:? And I'm Bob Doughty. Scientists who study the Earth tell us that the continents and?ocean floors are always moving. Sometimes, this movement is violent and might result in great destruction. VOICE ONE: Today we examine the process that causes earthquakes. ? (MUSIC) The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green land masses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would. Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as had been thought. Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth’s outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again. VOICE TWO: Only since the nineteen-sixties have scientists begun to understand that the Earth is a great, living structure. Some experts say this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents -- a process called plate tectonics. Earthquakes are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the surface of the Earth changes and how?those changes cause earthquakes. VOICE ONE:? ? Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a giant eggshell. They call the pieces tectonic plates. As many as twenty of?them cover the Earth. The plates float about slowly, sometimes?crashing into each other, and sometimes moving away from each?other. When the plates move, the continents move with them. Sometimes?the continents are above two plates. The continents split as the plates?move. VOICE TWO: Tectonic plates can cause earthquakes as they move. Modern?instruments show that about ninety percent of all earthquakes?take place along a few lines in several places around the Earth. These lines follow underwater mountains where hot liquid rock?flows up from deep inside the planet. Sometimes, the melted rock?comes out with a great burst of pressure. This forces apart?pieces of the Earth's surface in a violent earthquake. Other earthquakes take place at the edges of continents. Pressure increases as two plates move against each?other. When this happens, one plate moves past the other,?suddenly causing the Earth’s surface to split. VOICE ONE: One example of this is found in California, on the West Coast of the United States. One part of?California is on what is known as the Pacific plate. The other part of?the state is on what is known as the North American plate. Scientists say the Pacific plate is moving toward the northwest,?while the North American plate is moving more to the southeast. Where?these two huge plates come together is called a fault line. The?name of this line between the plates in California is the San Andreas Fault. It is along or near this line that most of?California’s earthquakes take place, as the two tectonic plates?move in different directions. The city of Los Angeles in Southern California is about fifty kilometers from the San Andreas Fault. Many smaller fault lines can be found throughout?the area around Los Angeles. A major?earthquake in nineteen ninety-four was centered along one of?these smaller fault lines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? ? The story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener in the early part of the twentieth century. He first proposed that the continents had moved and were still moving. He said the idea came to him when he observed that the coasts of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. He proposed that the two continents might have been one, then split apart. Later, Alfred Wegener said the continents had once been part of a huge area of land he called Pangaea. He said the huge continent had split more than two hundred million years ago. He said the pieces were still floating apart. VOICE ONE: Wegener investigated the idea that continents move. He pointed out a line of mountains that appears from east to west in South Africa. Then he pointed out another line of mountains that looks almost exactly the same in Argentina, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He found fossil remains of the same kind of an early plant in areas of Africa, South America, India, Australia and even Antarctica. Alfred Wegener said the mountains and fossils were evidence that all the land on Earth was united at some time in the distant past. VOICE TWO: Wegener also noted differences between the continents and the ocean floor. He said the oceans were more than just low places that had filled with water. Even if the water was removed, he said, a person would still see differences between the continents and the ocean floor. Also, the continents and the ocean floor are not made of the same kind of rock. The continents are made of a granite-like rock, a mixture of silicon and aluminum. The ocean floor is basalt rock, a mixture of silicon and magnesium. Mister Wegener said the lighter continental rock floated up through the heavier basalt rock of the ocean floor. VOICE ONE: Support for Alfred Wegener’s ideas did not come until the early nineteen-fifties. American scientists Harry Hess and?Robert Dietz said the continents moved as new sea floor was?created under the Atlantic Ocean. They said a thin valley in the Atlantic Ocean was a place where the ocean floor splits. They said hot melted material flows up from deep inside the Earth through the split. As the hot material reaches the ocean floor, it spreads out, cools and hardens. It becomes new ocean floor. The two scientists proposed that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is moving away from each side of the split. The movement is very slow -- a few centimeters a year. In time, they said, the moving ocean floor is blocked when it comes up against the edge of a continent. Then it is forced down under the continent, deep into the Earth, where it is melted again. Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said this spreading does not make the Earth bigger. As new ocean floor is created, an equal amount is destroyed. VOICE TWO: The two scientists also said Alfred Wegener was correct. The continents move as new material from the center of the Earth rises, hardens and pushes older pieces of the Earth away from each other. The continents are moving all the time, although we cannot feel it. They called their theory "sea?floor spreading."? The theory explains that as the sea floor?spreads, the tectonic plates are pushed and pulled in different?directions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mount St. Helen's exploding, May 18, 1980.The idea of plate tectonics explains volcanoes as well as earthquakes. Many of the world's volcanoes are found at the?edges of plates, where geologic activity is intense. The large number of volcanoes?around the Pacific plate has earned the name "Ring of Fire."? Volcanoes also are found in the middle of plates, where there is?a well of melted rock. Scientists call these wells "hot spots."? A hot spot does not move. However, as the plate moves over it,?a line of volcanoes is formed. The Hawaiian Islands were created?in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as the plate moved slowly over?a hot spot. This process is continuing, as the plate continues?to move. VOICE TWO: Volcanoes and earthquakes are among the most frightening events that nature can produce. The major earthquake in South Asia in October of two thousand five, for example, killed more than seventy thousand people. More than three million people were made homeless because of the earthquake. At times like these, we remember that the ground is not as solid and unchanging as people might like to think. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? ? SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer was Cynthia Kirk. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:? ? And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the?Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Population Growth is Dropping in Industrialized Nations and Increasing in Some Developing Ones
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss from VOA News reports

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about population changes around the world and the problems they have created. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? More than six and one-half thousand million people are living in the world today. By the year twenty fifty, that number is expected to reach nine thousand million. Population experts say most of this growth will be in developing nations in Latin America, South Asia and Africa. Africa’s population, for example, is expected to double to almost two thousand million. And South Asia will have an additional one thousand million people within the next fifty years. VOICE TWO: While population growth is increasing in some developing countries, it is falling in many industrialized nations. The United States is unusual because its population is increasing about one percent a year. This makes the United States the world’s fastest growing industrialized nation. These changes in population growth have raised questions among experts. For example, how will industrialized countries provide for their aging populations, especially with fewer workers? How can poor countries provide for their growing populations while poverty, hunger and health care remain problems?? And how does immigration influence both situations?? VOICE ONE: Population experts say Russia faces the most severe population decrease of any country. The population of Russia is now one hundred forty-three million. It is expected to drop twenty-two percent over the next forty-five years. If this happens, Russia could lose more than forty percent of its active workforce and have economic problems. The government of President Vladimir Putin is looking for ways to prevent an economic slowdown. Part of the problem is the short length of time that Russian men generally live. The average life expectancy for Russian men is just fifty-eight years. Russian women live fourteen years longer. And men in Western Europe live sixteen years longer. Drugs, tobacco smoking and alcohol are some of the main causes of death among Russian men. There are also high numbers of accidents and men killing themselves. VOICE TWO: Russia also has low birth rates. A record number of Russians reportedly married last year. But many do not seem ready to have children. Those who do take risks. Research shows that seven out of every ten Russian babies suffer from health disorders. Every twelfth baby is born weighing too little. All of these changes in Russian society are affecting the country’s economy (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: China is the world’s most populous country, with one point three thousand million people. It is also dealing with economic problems linked to population. The government has a firm family planning policy that limits parents to having only one child. As a result, China has one of the lowest population growth rates in the developing world – just six tenths of one percent a year. The population is expected to increase to one point five thousand million people in twenty-five years and then begin to decrease. The Chinese government said its one-child policy has led to fast economic growth. Yet, some people believe it has created a troubled economic future. Wang Feng is an expert on Chinese population issues at the University of California-Irvine in the United States. He says fewer people will be entering the Chinese workforce in coming years. But, more people over age sixty-five will be demanding retirement payments from the government. So he says a smaller workforce could have bad effects on the economy. Experts believe China’s one-child policy has affected the country in other ways. Chinese society values sons over daughters. Some parents choose to end a pregnancy if the fetus is a girl. So more boys than girls are born in China. As a result, experts say about forty million Chinese men will not be able to find women to marry within the next fifteen years. Experts say this could lead to kidnappings and more trafficking of woman and girls. VOICE TWO: Almost all of the world’s population growth is expected to take place in cities in developing countries. By the year twenty thirty, more than sixty percent of the world’s population will be living in cities. Within the next ten years, experts say there will be twenty-five “mega-cities” of more than ten million people each. In India, concerns are increasing about the movement of people from farming areas to these mega-cities. The Indian capital, New Delhi, and Bombay will be among the largest cities in the world. Environmental experts worry about social pressures and poor living conditions in mega-cities. These huge cities generally lack effective education, health care and transportation systems. In addition, as mega-cities spread, they take over surrounding agricultural land. VOICE ONE: Experts say these problems are intense in Bombay. About half of the city’s population of fifteen million people live in so-called “slums.”? Houses are close together and not well built. They lack clean water and waste removal systems. Diseases spread quickly when people live too close together. Indian officials are trying to deal with the problem. Yet, they admit it will be difficult when an estimated two hundred families move to cities like Bombay each day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States is the only industrial country to experience population growth. In the past ten years, the population increased from two hundred sixty-three million to an expected three hundred million later this year. The American population is increasing at almost one percent a year. Forty percent of this growth comes from immigration. Population experts say most immigrants are settling in cities like New York; Miami, Florida; Houston and Dallas, Texas; and Los Angeles, California. Some officials are concerned about the increase of immigrants in major American cities. They worry about how schools and health care systems will deal with this population growth. Children of recent immigrants often have problems in public schools where classes are taught in English. VOICE ONE: European governments are dealing with a different issue linked to immigration and population growth. Racial and ethnic tensions are increasing in some European countries. This issue intensified last year in France when hundreds of young Arab and African men rioted. They were protesting against economic inequality and the failure of French society to accept them. Many rioters were the children of immigrants who had moved from countries like Algeria and Tunisia in the nineteen fifties and sixties. The population of Europe is also aging faster than any other part of the world, except Japan. Birth rates are also down in many European countries. Experts say the number of people depending on workers will rise as the number of workers falls. They say spending in European countries will have to increase for retirement, health care and long-term care for old people in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: While population growth has dropped in most industrialized nations, birth rates in Africa are the highest in the world. By the year two thousand fifty, twenty percent of the world’s population will live on the African continent. That will be almost two thousand million people, up from eight hundred fifty-five million people today. Especially large population growth is expected in Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Other countries likely to have major growth include Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Somalia and Uganda. VOICE ONE: Experts are warning that overpopulation will put more pressure on already poor African nations to provide public services. World Bank population expert John May says family planning programs are the answer. Mister May works in Niger where the average woman has eight children. He says the government is going to start offering free birth control services to the public. It has also taken steps to raise the legal age of marriage, which is now fourteen years old for girls. Experts admit that population estimates for the future may prove to be incorrect. However, officials believe that poor nations will face strong pressure from future population growth. Such countries are already struggling to provide for their current populations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-18-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Increasing Supplies of Malaria Drug Through Genetic Engineering
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. Malaria infects as many as five hundred million people every year. And more than one million people die from the disease each year. Those who do not die become seriously ill. Southern African countries have the largest number of malaria deaths, mostly among young children. The disease is also common in Asia. Malaria is caused by a parasite. Mosquitoes carry the infection from person to person. Researchers say the parasite is becoming increasingly resistant to older drugs used to treat the disease. Artemisinin (ar-te-MIS-in-in) is the most effective treatment for malaria and the best drug for treating resistant forms. The World Health Organization says artemisinin should always be used in combination with other drugs to prevent drug resistance. Artemisinin is made from the sweet wormwood plant found in China and Vietnam. But supplies of the plant are limited. And it takes a lot of plant material to get enough of the drug to treat one patient. Many suppliers are unable to meet the strong demand. The drug is costly to produce. Each treatment costs more than two dollars. So many people with malaria in developing countries are unable to get the drug. Jay Keasling is a chemical and biological engineer at the University of California at Berkeley. His research team has found a possible solution to the problem. They reported their research in the publication Nature. They placed genes from the wormwood plant into a yeast organism and got it to produce large amounts of artemisinic acid. This acid can be made into the drug artemisinin in just a few chemical steps. The researchers say this would end the need for a lot of plants. Mister Keasling says chemical tests show that the genetically engineered artemisinin is structurally the same as the natural form. The new drug must be tested in animals and people to make sure it is safe and effective against malaria. So the researchers say the drug is still about five to ten years away from final development. They say their findings could reduce the cost of the active substance in artemisinin by ninety percent. This could help save many lives. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lost for Words? Here Are Some Tips to Remember About Improving Memory
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: "We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place." RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches memory skills. One technique she uses she calls the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve. ELDH: "That is, you have to say, what is the piece of information I want to learn, and you record that. Then you have to figure out where you're going to put it. I don't just throw it in my brain. Am I going to put it with car information, will I put it with insurance information. So you actually get disciplined enough to organize the information you retain in some kind of filing system. And then when you're ready to retrieve it, you know where to get it, just like filing information in a filing cabinet." RS: "But this is your head." [laughter] ELDH: "Exactly." AA: "Is your brain set up that way?" ELDH: "Sometimes. It takes a lot of work. And I would say that in addition to the epiphany of learning that until you learn it you can't forget it, I think the other thing to realize about memory is that it takes a tremendous amount of discipline." RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that?" ELDH: "Well, there are many different memory techniques. I would say that the majority of them have to do with using very intense visual images. The more elaborate, the more bright, the more it draws on all your senses, the better you'll remember. Let's say somebody's name is Campbell. How are you going to remember Campbell? Well, break it up -- camp bell. You want to see that person at a campsite. He's got a huge bell in his hand and he's ringing it. And you see that in your mind, and you hear the bell ringing, very loudly, and you smell the pine needles. Now, you're never going to forget Mister Campbell." AA: "So you file that, what file do you put that under?" ELDH: "I'm going to put that under names, and I would probably file it -- depending on the scenario -- under a workplace name. Now that is a danger, though, because then we have what is called 'queue dependency." RS: "Aren't you at risk of forgetting your cue?" [laughter] ELDH: "You definitely are, and in fact that is one of the ways that we forget. We forget from decay. If you've studied another language, you know that if you don't use it, you lose it. And we've all heard that. Another is depression. When we have either a mental or a physical illness, our ability to remember and retain information goes down dramatically." RS: "How would you apply these techniques that you've been talking about, the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve -- to learning a foreign language?" ELDH: "I think that I would use a lot of the pneumonic devices where you make associations with words. I would also use the device that we use where you use the first letter of each of the words that you have to memorize. I'll give you an example: In America, we have what are known as the Great Lakes. Of course, we all know that. How do we remember the Great Lakes. Can either one of you remember how you ... " AA: "Let's see, Huron, Michigan, Superior -- what are the other two?" [laughter] RS: "Erie." AA: "Erie, right, of course." ELDH: "Now, I'll tell you an easier way to memorize this. You take the H for Huron, the O for Ontario, the M for Michigan, the E for Erie and the S for Superior and you make the word homes. Now you don't stop there -- and this is what I really want people to get from this information, that you don't just stop at homes, you don't just stop at an acronym, you take it further. You see homes -- it can be floating homes, on the lake, and you see people talking about their homes on the lake, and they're saying 'aren't these lakes beautiful that we float around on in our homes.' And so you can see you deepen the image that you have." RS: "At one point in my life, I really, really wanted to be good at telling jokes. I never told many jokes and I thought it would be really fun to do that. And so what I did is -- but I could never remember the punch lines of the jokes that I'd hear. So I would write the punch lines down or a word or two, and all of a sudden I had a repertoire of jokes. So I think that writing down reinforces in some ways the things you're trying to remember." AA: "Assuming you can remember where you put the paper. You know that situation ... " ELDH: "Absolutely." AA: "You write something down and you can't -- is there a simple way to remember where you put the paper?" ELDH: "Ahhh ... " RS: Memory and communications trainer Wendi Eldh. Now let's see if you can remember some addresses. AA: The first address is our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. Next, our e-mail address. That's word@voanews.com. And, finally, our postal address. It's VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Thanks for the Memory"/Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, from the film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" --- Repeat from March 2005 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: College Applications From International Graduate Students Increase
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A recent report says more international graduate students are seeking to continue their education in the United States this year than last year. The Council of Graduate Schools announced the report. It is based on a study of more than one hundred fifty colleges and universities. They include schools that have the most foreign students. The study says graduate applications from international students increased eleven percent from last year. This growth follows a two-year decrease of thirty-two percent. Graduate students have already completed at least four years of college and have earned at least one degree. They are seeking to earn an advanced degree. The report said the number of requests or applications increased the most among students from India and China. Applications from students in India rose by twenty-three percent. Applications from students in China increased by twenty-one percent. Each year these two nations send the largest number of students to American colleges and universities. The Council of Graduate Schools said applications increased in all areas of study, including the sciences. Applications to study engineering, for example, rose by seventeen percent. Those from students wanting to study the life sciences increased by sixteen percent. However, international applications are still down twenty-three percent since two thousand three for the universities in the study. Experts say this was the result of increased security in the United States after the terrorist attacks in two thousand one. This increased security made it more difficult for students to get permits, or visas, to enter the United States. Security measures also increased the time to process these visas. Debra Stewart is president of the Council of Graduate Schools. Miz Stewart said the federal government has made progress in improving the visa process for foreign graduate students. She said the process has been helped by small policy changes made by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. Miz Stewart noted that international competition for foreign graduate students is increasing. She said the United States must make sure the best students attend graduate schools in this country. This VOA Special English Education report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: World War One Ends, but Wilson Knows His Battle Is Only Half Over
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Larry West. Today, Shirley Griffith and I continue the story of the peace conference following World War One. The Allies -- led by Britain, France, Italy, and the United States -- had won the war. The central powers -- led by Germany -- had lost. VOICE TWO: Woodrow Wilson in 1919American President Woodrow Wilson was one of the chief negotiators at the conference in Paris. Throughout the early months of nineteen nineteen, he struggled hard for a treaty that would result in peace with justice for all sides. Wilson demanded a treaty that provided for a new international organization. He called it the League of Nations. To Wilson, the league was more important than any other part of the treaty. Not all Americans shared Wilson's opinion. Many feared the league would take away the power of the American government to declare war and make treaties. They also agreed with the leaders of the other allied nations. Establishing the league was less important than punishing the defeated enemy. VOICE ONE: The other major allied leaders at the peace conference were prime minister David Lloyd-George of Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and Premier Vittorio Otto of Italy. Lloyd-George, Clemenceau, and Otto understood how much Wilson wanted the League of Nations. They used this knowledge to win Wilson's approval for other parts of the peace treaty. Wilson soon learned that, to get the league, he had to compromise on many issues. For example, he had to accept British and French demands to make Germany pay all war damages. The payments added up to more than three hundred thousand million dollars. Wilson also had to accept the allied takeover of Germany's colonies. VOICE TWO: Some of Wilson's compromises violated his belief in self-determination. This was the right of all people to decide for themselves who would govern them. One compromise, for example, gave to Japan Germany's colonial rights in the Shantung area of China. China protested the decision. It asked that control of Shantung be returned to the Chinese government. But President Wilson needed Japan's support for the League of Nations. So he accepted Japan's demand for control of Shantung. There were other violations of the policy of self-determination. These affected the people and land along the borders of several European nations. For example, three million Germans were made citizens of the new nation of Czechoslovakia. Millions of other Germans were forced into the newly formed nation of Poland. And Italy received territory that had belonged to Austria. VOICE ONE: Today, most history experts agree Woodrow Wilson was correct in opposing these decisions. They say Germany's loss of territory and citizens caused deep bitterness. And the bitterness helped lead to the rise of fascist dictator Adolph Hitler in the nineteen thirties. In east Asia, Japanese control over parts of China created serious tensions. Both decisions helped plant the seeds for the bloody harvest of World War Two twenty years later. But allied leaders at the Paris peace conference were not looking far into the future. As one person said at the time: "They divided Europe like people cutting up a tasty pie." VOICE TWO: After months of negotiations, the peace treaty was completed. The Allies gave it to a German delegation on May seventh, nineteen nineteen. The head of the delegation objected immediately. He said the treaty was unfair. He urged his government not to sign it. At first, Germany did not sign. The leader of the government refused and resigned in protest. But a new government was formed. And its leader signed the document at a ceremony at the palace in Versailles outside Paris. Finally, World War One was officially over. VOICE ONE: President Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States after the treaty signing ceremony. He was not completely satisfied with the treaty. Yet he believed it was still valuable, because it established the League of Nations. Wilson's battle for the league was only half over when the treaty was signed in Europe. He had to win approval from the United States Senate. That half of the battle would not be easy. VOICE TWO: Part of the problem was political. Wilson was a member of the Democratic Party. The Senate was controlled by the Republican Party. Also, Wilson had refused to name any important Republicans to his negotiating team at the peace conference. Part of the problem was personal. A number of senators disliked Wilson. One was Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge was the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He told a friend he never expected to hate anyone as much as he hated Wilson. VOICE ONE: Wilson spoke before the Senate just two days after he returned from Europe. He urged it to approve the peace treaty. Wilson said: "The united power of free nations must put a stop to aggression. And the world must be given peace. Shall we and any other free people refuse to accept this great duty? Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world? We cannot turn back. America shall show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead and nowhere else." VOICE TWO: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee began hearings on the treaty. It heard a number of people who opposed the League of Nations. They said the league would destroy the freedom and independence of the United States. The committee completed its hearings and prepared a report for the full Senate. The report said the United States should reject the treaty, unless changes were made. The committee proposed almost forty changes. VOICE ONE: The committee's report was a blow to President Wilson both politically and personally. He had worked extremely hard to win Europe's support for the idea of a league of nations. Great crowds in Paris had cheered him and his idea. Now, the Senate of his own country was about to reject it. Wilson decided he must take his case out of the hands of the peoples' representatives. He would take the case directly to the people themselves. He would build public support for the treaty. If enough citizens supported it, he believed, the Senate could not reject it. VOICE TWO: President Wilson planned a speaking trip all across the country. His family and his doctor urged him not to go. They said he was still weak from a recent sickness. But Wilson refused the advice. He said the treaty was more important to him than his own life. The president left Washington in early September. He traveled in a special train. In city after city, he made speeches and rode in parades. He shook thousands of hands. At times, he suffered from a painful headache. But there was no time to rest. VOICE ONE: Everywhere Wilson stopped, he urged the people to support the League of Nations. It was, he said, the only hope for peace. In Boulder, Colorado, ten thousand people waited to hear him. By then, Wilson was extremely weak. He had to be helped up the steps of the building where he was to speak. He made the speech. He said he was working to honor the men who had died in the war. He said he was working for the children of the world. VOICE TWO: Wilson put all his heart and energy into his speeches. And, as his family and doctor had warned, the pressure was too great. While in Wichita, Kansas, the pain in his head became terrible. He could not speak clearly. His face seemed frozen. A blood vessel had broken in his brain. Wilson had suffered a stroke. The president was forced to return to Washington. His condition got worse every day. Soon, he was unable to move. Woodrow Wilson would spend the rest of his presidency as a terribly sick man. He continued to hold on to his dreams of a League of Nations. But his dreams now filled a broken body. We will continue our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Is It Reggae? Is It Hip-Hop? Reggaeton From Puerto Rico Is Both
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Anne Pessala

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week … We play some examples of a kind of music called reggaeton … Answer a question about the pandas at the National Zoo … And report about community service organizations. Fraternal Orders The United States has many community social groups that work for important causes and also have fun. Pat Bodnar tells us more about fraternal orders, and how they are not just for grandparents anymore. PAT BODNAR: Fraternal orders, also called fraternal organizations, are social and service groups. Until recently, they were most popular among older people. But lately, these groups are experiencing an increase in younger new members. Many fraternal orders were started more than one hundred years ago. They were often organized to serve a special purpose. For example, the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, was started to help support farmers. Other groups aimed to offer members financial help in times of sickness or death. One well known fraternal order is called the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, or the Elks. Others are the Kiwanis and the Lions Clubs International. Some fraternal orders are national and others have members all over the world. They are usually divided into smaller, local groups in different towns and cities. They often have their own meeting place where members gather to socialize. Many fraternal orders also organize events to raise money to help people in the community. For example, they may raise money to provide scholarships for students to pay for their college education. Many Americans joined fraternal orders after World War Two. But during the past twenty years, fraternal orders in the United States have struggled with decreasing membership as people have left the organizations or died. However, a recent interest in these groups among younger people is now helping them to survive. In American cities like Detroit, Michigan; Hoboken, New Jersey, and Austin, Texas young professionals are joining fraternal orders. Younger new members say they like the groups because they are involved in helping their communities. They also enjoy having a place to go and meet with friends. Fraternal order gatherings are less crowded than many of the popular eating and drinking places in large cities. Many fraternal orders have special swearing-in ceremonies for their new members. Some of the groups have secret traditions. Many fraternal orders have historically been limited to only men. But some now permit women to join. Giant Pandas HOST: Our listener question today comes from China. Miss He wants to know about the giant pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. She also wants to know if they have had a baby. Tian Tian [tee-YEN tee-YEN], the male panda, and his mate, Mei Xiang? [may SHONG] are doing well in Washington. They became parents nine months ago. On July ninth, Mei Xiang gave birth to a male cub, Tai Shan [tie SHAHN]. The baby weighed only one hundred grams at birth. But he has grown a lot. He now weighs about eighteen kilograms. The panda cub is very popular. In December, zoo officials began to let the public see him. Almost four hundred thousand people have visited the zoo to see him. Millions of other people have watched his activities on the National Zoo’s Internet Web site. Tai Shan is fun to watch. He likes to roll around, climb trees and hang upside down. He drinks milk from his mother. He plays with her. His father, however, stays in a separate area. Male pandas do not take much interest in their young. The pandas’ areas at the zoo were designed especially for them. Their two outdoor areas have grass and huge rock caves. The cave structures are cooled to protect the pandas from the heat in the summer. An expanded Giant Panda Habitat with more activities will open this autumn. Tai Shan’s parents came to the United States in two thousand. China lent them to the United States for ten years in exchange for ten million dollars. The money helps support programs in China to save giant pandas in the wild. The birth of Tai Shan resulted from artificial insemination. Reproductive material from Tian Tian was placed in Mei Xiang’s body in March of last year. It took place during the two or three days each year that a female panda can become pregnant. This short fertile period is one of the reasons why giant pandas are in danger of disappearing from Earth. Tai Shan will be sent to live in China when he is two years old. When that time comes, many Americans will be very sad. Reggaeton Reggaeton is a kind of music that is becoming very popular with young Americans. It is a combination of Caribbean reggae and Spanish hip-hop that started in Puerto Rico. Steve Ember tell us more. STEVE EMBER: Listeners say reggaeton is a musical blend that is different from their parents’ traditional music and American hip-hop. Most reggaeton stars are Puerto Rican. But reggaeton is popular with many young Americans, even though some do not understand the Spanish words. Daddy Yankee was one of the first artists to become popular with non-Spanish-speaking listeners. Here is one of his most popular songs, “Gasolina.” (MUSIC) Many reggaeton artists sing about their difficult experiences being poor. Some people say the words of some of the songs are too violent and dishonor women. One artist is trying to change that. Ivy Queen sings about the problems that women face. Another artist originally performed this song, “Si Una Vez."? Here is Ivy Queen’s reggaeton version. (MUSIC) Reggaeton can be heard on radios and in nightclubs across America. It was made for dancing, so we will leave you with a song whose title means just that. Here is “Bailando”? by Yaga and Mackie. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake, Jeri Watson and Anne Pessala. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Some Companies Stop Telling What They Expect to Earn
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many companies provide earnings guidance. They tell their shareholders how much they expect to earn in the future. Often companies report expected earnings for each three-month period. Earnings are usually measured in terms of earnings-per-share. That is, the amount of earnings divided by the number of shares in a company. Companies usually have millions, even thousands of millions, of shares. So even earnings-per-share of one cent can add up to a lot of money. But not everyone supports the idea of earnings guidance. First of all, some say the pressure to report earnings growth can lead to dishonest reporting. One example they point to is the case of the failed energy-trading company Enron. Its two former leaders, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, are currently on trial in Houston, Texas. They are charged with letting company officers make false business deals to give the appearance of earnings growth. They deny any wrongdoing. Companies are under pressure to report growth. It can increase the price of their shares. Stock prices largely show how much investors are willing to pay for growth over time. But another reason many experts dismiss quarterly earnings guidance is that companies are often wrong. In fact, most official statements from companies include a warning that it might be a “forward-looking statement.”? In other words, a statement about the future. It means the company should not be held responsible if the statement is wrong because something unexpected happens. At the end of two thousand two, the Coca-Cola Company announced a decision to stop giving quarterly or even yearly earnings guidance. The investor Warren Buffet is believed to have influenced that decision. Since then, a number of large companies have moved away at least from quarterly guidance. They include AT&T, McDonald’s, Ford and Motorola. Some experts see no reason to stop. They say the pressure for growth will remain because stock market analysts will continue to estimate earnings for large companies. They say investors would have less information about smaller ones. Critics say earnings guidance supports short-term business thinking. But others say ending it could give the appearance that a company is trying to hide bad news. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Investigative Reporting, Coverage of Katrina Earn Pulitzer Prizes
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, Columbia University in New York announced the winners this year of the Pulitzers. The Pulitzer Prize in Journalism is the top honor for American newspapers. The Washington Post won four awards. Susan Schmidt, James Grimaldi and Jeffrey Smith received the investigative reporting award. They reported on wrongdoing in Congress involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff. David Finkel won the explanatory reporting prize for stories on United States efforts to bring democracy to Yemen. Dana Priest won the beat reporting prize. She reported on secret prisons and other parts of the government’s anti-terrorism campaign. And Robin Givhan received the criticism award for turning commentary about fashion into critical observations of society. The New York Times won three Pulitzers. Nicholas Kristof received the commentary award for writing about the violence in Darfur, Sudan. Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley won the international reporting award for stories about the changing legal system in China. And James Risen and Eric Lichtblau received a national reporting award. They reported that the government in its war on terrorism was listening to the calls of some Americans. An award also went to the San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service. Their stories led to prison for a dishonest congressman. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, won two Pulitzers. Jim Sheeler won the feature writing award for a story about a Marine who helps families of those killed in Iraq. And Todd Heisler won the feature photography award for pictures of the funerals of local Marines killed in Iraq. The Pulitzer for breaking news photography went to the Dallas Morning News for the effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Reporting on Katrina earned public service awards for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi. The Times-Picayune also won the Pulitzer for breaking news reporting. And the Pulitzer for editorial writing went to Rick Attig and Doug Bates of the Oregonian for describing conditions at a state mental hospital. This was the ninetieth year of the Pulitzers. Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer left money to Columbia University to establish them. There are also prizes in letters, drama and music. Winners receive a medal and most get ten thousand dollars. The award ceremony is May twenty-second. And Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will take home his second Pulitzer for editorial cartooning. ?The judging committee praised his drawings as powerful yet simple. For example, one last year marked the deaths of two thousand American soldiers in Iraq. Their names formed the word "WHY" followed by a question mark. To learn more about political cartoons and other kinds that Americans like, listen for THIS IS AMERICA Monday at this same hour. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
* Byline: Written by Washington Irving

 Announcer: The Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Today's story is called "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It is about something strange that happed long ago in a valley called "Sleepy Hollow". It was written by Washington Irving. The story is told by Doug Johnson. (MUSIC) Narrator: The valley known as Sleepy Hollow hides from the world in the high hills of New York state. There are many stories told about the quiet valley. But the story that people believe most is about a man who rides a horse at night. The story says the man died many years ago during the American revolutionary war. His head was shot off. Every night he rises from his burial place, jumps on his horse and rides through the valley looking for his lost head. Near Sleepy Hollow is a village called Tarry Town. It was settled many years ago by people from Holland. The village had a small school. And one teacher, named Ichabod Crane. Ichabod Crane was a good name for him, because he looked like a tall bird, a crane. He was tall and thin like a crane. His shoulders were small, joined two long arms. His head was small, too, and flat on top. He had big ears, large glassy green eyes and a long nose. Ichabod did not make much money as a teacher. And although he was tall and thin, he ate like a fat man. To help him pay for his food he earned extra money teaching young people to sing. Every Sunday after church Ichabod taught singing. Among the ladies Ichabod taught was one Katrina Van Tassel. She was the only daughter of a rich Dutch farmer. She was a girl in bloom…much like a round red, rosy apple. Ichabod had a soft and foolish heart for the ladies, and soon found himself interested in Miss Van Tassel. Ichabod's eyes opened wide when he saw the riches of Katrina's farm: the miles of apple trees and wheat fields, and hundreds of fat farm animals. He saw himself as master of the Van Tassel farm with Katrina as his wife. But there were many problems blocking the road to Katrina's heart. One was a strong young man named Brom Van Brunt. Brom was a hero to all the young ladies. His shoulders were big. His back was wide. And his hair was short and curly. He always won the horse races in Tarry Town and earned many prizes. Brom was never seen without a horse. Sometimes late at night Brom and his friends would rush through town shouting loudly from the backs of their horses. Tired old ladies would awaken from their sleep and say: "Why, there goes Brom Van Brunt leading his wild group again!" Such was the enemy Ichabod had to defeat for Katrina's heart. Stronger and wiser men would not have tried. But Ichabod had a plan. He could not fight his enemy in the open. So he did it silently and secretly. He made many visits to Katrina's farm and made her think he was helping her to sing better. Time passed, and the town people thought Ichabod was winning. Brom's horse was never seen at Katrina's house on Sunday nights anymore. One day in autumn Ichabod was asked to come to a big party at the Van Tassel home. He dressed in his best clothes. A farmer loaned him an old horse for the long trip to the party. The house was filled with farmers and their wives, red-faced daughters and clean, washed sons. The tables were filled with different things to eat. Wine filled many glasses. Brom Van Brunt rode to the party on his fastest horse called Daredevil. All the young ladies smiled happily when they saw him. Soon music filled the rooms and everyone began to dance and sing. Ichabod was happy dancing with Katrina as Brom looked at them with a jealous heart. The night passed. The music stopped, and the young people sat together to tell stories about the revolutionary war. Soon stories about Sleepy Hollow were told. The most feared story was about the rider looking for his lost head. One farmer told how he raced the headless man on a horse. The farmer ran his horse faster and faster. The horseman followed over bush and stone until they came to the end of the valley. There the headless horseman suddenly stopped. Gone were his clothes and his skin. All that was left was a man with white bones shining in the moonlight. The stories ended and time came to leave the party. Ichabod seemed very happy until he said goodnight to Katrina. Was she ending their romance? He left feeling very sad. Had Katrina been seeing Ichabod just to make Brom Van Brunt jealous so he would marry her? Well, Ichabod began his long ride home on the hills that surround Tarry Town. He had never felt so lonely in his life. He began to whistle as he came close to the tree where a man had been killed years ago by rebels. He thought he saw something white move in the tree. But no, it was only the moonlight shining and moving on the tree. Then he heard a noise. His body shook. He kicked his horse faster. The old horse tried to run, but almost fell in the river, instead. Ichabod hit the horse again. The horse ran fast and then suddenly stopped, almost throwing Ichabod forward to the ground. There, in the dark woods on the side of the river where the bushes grow low, stood an ugly thing. Big and black. It did not move, but seemed ready to jump like a giant monster. Ichabod's hair stood straight up. It was too late to run, and in his fear, he did the only thing he could. His shaking voice broke the silent valley. "Who are you?" The thing did not answer. Ichabod asked again. Still no answer. Ichabod's old horse began to move forward. The black thing began to move along the side of Ichabod's horse in the dark. Ichabod made his horse run faster. The black thing moved with them. Side by side they moved, slowly at first. And not a word was said. Ichabod felt his heart sink. Up a hill they moved above the shadow of the trees. For a moment the moon shown down and to Ichabod's horror he saw it was a horse. And it had a rider. But the rider's head was not on his body. It was in front of the rider, resting on the horse. Ichabod kicked and hit his old horse with all his power. Away they rushed through bushes and trees across the valley of Sleepy Hollow. Up ahead was the old church bridge where the headless horseman stops and returns to his burial place. "If only I can get there first, I am safe," thought Ichabod. He kicked his horse again. The horse jumped on to the bridge and raced over it like the sound of thunder. Ichabod looked back to see if the headless man had stopped. He saw the man pick up his head and throw it with a powerful force. The head hit Ichabod in the face and knocked him off his horse to the dirt below. They found Ichabod's horse the next day peacefully eating grass. They could not find Ichabod. They walked all across the valley. They saw the foot marks of Ichabod's horse as it had raced through the valley. They even found Ichabod's old hat in the dust near the bridge. But they did not find Ichabod. The only other thing they found was lying near Ichabod's hat. It was the broken pieces of a round orange pumpkin. The town people talked about Ichabod for many weeks. They remembered the frightening stories of the valley. And finally they came to believe that the headless horseman had carried Ichabod away. Much later an old farmer returned from a visit to New York City. He said he was sure he saw Ichabod there. He thought Ichabod silently left Sleepy Hollow because he had lost Katrina. As for Katrina, her mother and father gave her a big wedding when she married Brom Van Brunt. Many people who went to the wedding saw that Brom smiled whenever Ichabod's name was spoken. And they wondered why he laughed out loud when anyone talked about the broken orange pumpkin found lying near Ichabod's old dusty hat. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" written by Washington Irving. It was first published in eighteen twenty. Listen next week to the Voice of America for another AMERICAN STORY in Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mae West: The Wild Woman of Film and Stage
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about film actress Mae West. She was also a writer, producer and businesswoman. The sexual nature of her life and art represented her liberal and often disputed ideas. Her funny jokes have become part of the language of American popular culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mae West was born in Brooklyn, New York in eighteen ninety-three. Her father, John West, had several jobs but started his career as a competitive fighter. Mae’s mother, Matilda, played an important role in developing her daughter’s career as an entertainer. Mae started to perform in local theater groups as a young child. By nineteen oh seven she was part of a national vaudeville tour that performed across the country. Vaudeville was a theatrical show with several entertainers performing songs, dances and jokes. Vaudeville was very popular in the United States during the early nineteen hundreds. When Mae West was about eighteen years old she started performing on Broadway, the famous theater area of New York City. She appeared in many musical shows such as “Hello, Paris” and “A la Broadway.” For the next fifteen years she sang and danced in both Broadway and vaudeville shows. VOICE TWO: In the middle nineteen twenties, Mae West started to write, produce and act in her own plays. She also started to create the sexual jokes that would make her famous -- and also get her into trouble. Her first Broadway play was called “Sex.” The play was very popular, but soon closed temporarily. City officials put Mae West in jail for more than a week. The police arrested her because they said the play was not moral. Mae West knew that this incident would make her a national success --- and it did. Serving time in jail did not stop West from writing more plays or causing new disputes over their sexually suggestive subject matter. In fact, she said that she learned from her jail experience. She said the people she met in jail influenced the characters she later created. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mae West wrote many kinds of theatrical productions, but some details remained the same. Her humor was often sexual. But her jokes had two meanings. Her statements were humorous and intelligent because they could be understood in two different ways. She was also funny because she greatly overstated her sexy nature and love for men. Mae West always played the role of a young and strong woman. She also made sure that she always had the biggest role. She wanted everyone to know she was the star and she was in charge. VOICE TWO: One of her most famous plays was called “Diamond Lil.” Mae West made careful choices when writing this play so that it would be popular with a wide audience. She set the play in a famous New York City area called the Bowery. Audiences knew the history of this dangerous area. West also had the story take place in the late nineteenth century. She knew that the clothing from this period looked good on her large and curvy body. She thought that older people would like the time period. Female audiences would like her rich clothing. And younger people would like the play’s action and sexy style. West plays a singer named Lil who works in a saloon, a public drinking place. She walks around in very tight, shiny dresses. She has shiny, golden, wavy hair. She wears diamond jewels and large hats. She has many lovers and adventures. VOICE ONE: “Diamond Lil” was a big success. It was performed more than three hundred times on? Broadway. Then it was performed all over the country. Lil became the most representative example of Mae West’s characters. It was a role she would play many times in her life. “Diamond Lil” shows the way Mae West appeared in many of her productions, and even in real life. Mae West once said: ''It isn't what I do, but how I do it. It isn't what I say, but how I say it, and how I look when I do it and say it.” VOICE TWO: After the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine, Mae West faced a difficult period. Many theaters could no longer remain open in this time of economic depression. She also had to deal with legal battles over the disputed subjects of her plays. Her latest musical was a failure on Broadway. And, in nineteen thirty her mother died. It was soon time for Mae West to make a change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-two Mae West moved to Hollywood, California to start her film career. Her first film was called “Night After Night.”? At first, Mae West had refused to be in the film because she was not satisfied with her character. But the producer allowed her to rewrite parts of the story. West helped give the film a special humor and excitement. The next year she starred in the movie “She Done Him Wrong.” This was the film version of her successful play, “Diamond Lil”. But making this movie was not easy. The Hays Office had forbidden several of Mae West’s plays such as “Diamond Lil” from being made into movies. The Hays Office was in charge of enforcing a severe production code. This code controlled what was considered morally acceptable subject matter for American movies. VOICE TWO: To make this movie, the producers changed the name of the play and its characters. And Mae West brought her intelligence to the film. She created sexy statements that the Hays Office had to accept. Instead of direct sexual comments, she perfected her sexually suggestive jokes. In this film, Cary Grant plays the role of Mae West’s main love interest, Captain Cummings. This is one of Cary Grant’s earliest roles. He soon became a big Hollywood star. In this scene from the movie, Mae West makes her most famous statement. Her character, Lady Lou, is in love with Captain Cummings. She is trying to get him to “come up and see her.” (SOUND) Lady Lou: You know, I always did like a man in a uniform. That one fits you grand. Why don’t you come up sometime and see me…I’m home every evening. Captain Cummings: I’m busy every evening. Lady Lou: Busy? So what are you trying to do, insult me? Captain Cummings: Why no! Not at all. I’m just busy, that’s all. You see, we’re holding meetings in Jacobsen’s Hall every evening. Anytime you have a moment to spare, I’d be glad to have you drop in. You’re more than welcome. Lady Lou: I heard you. But you ain’t kidding me any. You know, I’ve met your kind before. Why don’t you come up sometime, huh? Captain Cummings: Well, I… Lady Lou: Don’t be afraid, I won’t tell. Come up, I’ll tell your fortune. VOICE ONE: This movie made Mae West a great success. “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime” became one of the most famous statements in film history. For a period, she was one of the highest paid female entertainers in America. Some experts say her movies helped save the production company Paramount Pictures from financial ruin. Audiences all over the world either loved or hated this wild woman. Mae West both starred in and wrote her next film, “I’m No Angel.”? She played a circus performer. As always, her character drives men crazy with desire. When the film opened, it broke records for attendance and profits. Here is Mae West performing the theme song of this movie. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mae West continued to make films – and trouble -- throughout the nineteen thirties and early forties. Critics say this was the most exciting part of her career. They say that after this period, she only repeated herself. While she had offers for films, she refused to play the role of an older or weak woman. West continued to act on stage, wrote books and appeared on television. At the age of eighty-five she starred in a film called “Sextette.” Not surprisingly, Mae West played a sexy woman that men could not resist. Some critics dismissed the film. Others praised her spirit for never surrendering to old age on film. Two years later, Mae West died at her home in California. She was eighty-seven. VOICE ONE: Mae West remains one of the most famous and liberated actresses in American film and stage history. She used her yellow hair, playful voice, and shapely body to create a whole new kind of Hollywood star. She was a strong woman who kept careful artistic control over her work. Her independence, humor and sexy nature continue to influence performers today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Number of Refugees in the World at Lowest Level in 25 Years
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. The number of refugees in the world is at its lowest in twenty-five years. The United Nations refugee agency estimates the current number at a little more than nine million. More than half are people who have been in exile for at least five years. The agency says no solutions to their cases can be seen. But it notes progress in efforts to return millions of others to their home countries. For example, more than four million have returned to Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have returned to Angola, Sierra Leone, Burundi and Liberia. ? Antonio Guterres is the U.N. High Commissioner or Refugees. He says that although the numbers of refugees are down, their well-being remains a concern. A report from his office last week says immigrants and asylum-seekers face greater barriers than ever. These include fears of terrorism, stronger immigration limits and growing rejection of foreigners. Mister Guterres says there is a growing intolerance happening everywhere. In his words: "This is creating a difficult environment in which the foreigner, the one that is different, is sometimes hated, sometimes feared.” The high commissioner says the world also faces problems with how it deals with people displaced by conflict. Refugees are defined as people who flee their country because of violence, natural events or political disputes. Internally displaced persons, I.D.P.'s, leave their homes for the same reasons. But the difference is that they remain within their country. Today conflicts within nations are more common than conflicts between nations. As a result, the report says, fewer people are crossing international borders. The I.D.P. situation is described as especially bad in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations estimates that seven-and-one-half million people in those two countries were forced from their homes last year. A nineteen fifty-one document called the United Nations Refugee Convention defines what refugees are and demands their protection. There is no similar document for internally displaced people. Their number is estimated at twenty-five million worldwide. Antonio Guterres says I.D.P.’s urgently need help. “Internal displacement,” he says, “is the world’s biggest failure in humanitarian action.” ??????? ??????? This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: From Donald Duck to Biting Commentary, Cartoons in America
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO:?????? And I’m Steve Ember. This week: how cartoons can tell a story or send a message. Or both. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: The new family movie “Ice Age: The Meltdown” is written for laughs. But some people might also see it as a serious message about the dangers of climate warming. The film brings back the animated animals from the two thousand two hit movie "Ice Age."? The main characters are a wooly mammoth named Manny, a sloth named Sid and a saber-toothed tiger named Diego. VOICE TWO: In the first movie, Manny, Sid and Diego faced the dangers of the coming prehistoric freeze. This time they are threatened by floods from the melting of the Ice Age. At first, the animals love the water. Later, when they discover the threat, they must warn everyone else and find a way to save their valley. MOVIE SOUND: "It's all part of my 'Accu-weather' forecast. The five-day outlook is calling for intense flooding followed by ... THE END OF THE WORLD!" VOICE ONE: The world of cartooning has changed a lot since the days when Walt Disney drew his characters by hand. Animated cartoons are especially labor-intensive. Animators create a sense of movement through a progression of many images. Each image is a little different than the one before it. Today many animators, including the ones who made the "Ice Age" movies, get help from computers. But Walt Disney's work still influences modern cartooning. He started his company in nineteen twenty-three. He had his first big success five years later. He combined animation with sound in the nineteen twenty-eight film “Steamboat Willie.”? (SOUND) VOICE TWO:"Steamboat Willie" was the first movie to star Mickey Mouse. Later came other famous Disney characters, including Donald Duck. Donald Duck is over seventy years old now, but you could never tell by looking at him. To animate something means to give it life. Animated characters can live forever -- or at least as long as they stay popular. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another form of cartooning is the comic strip. Comic strips are a drawing or a series of drawings that present a situation or tell a little story. Comic strips are usually good for a laugh or at least a smile. American newspapers commonly publish a page or more of them each day. These are usually black-and-white drawings. Sunday funnies are often published in color. ? Readers of all ages enjoy the comics in the newspaper. On television, cartoons used to be thought of as mainly for children. But times have changed. For example, Cartoon Network says one-third of the people who watch its programs are over the age of eighteen. So it offers special late-night programming called "Adult Swim."? These cartoons are meant to appeal to what it calls "a grown-up sense of humor and other adult sensibilities."? One of the shows, "The Boondocks," is based on a newspaper comic strip. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: "The Boondocks" is the story of Huey and Riley, two young African-American boys. They come from a rough part of Chicago, Illinois. Now they live with their grandfather in a mainly white community. The characters are known for their sharp observations about life there, and life in general. Huey speaks his mind like a revolutionary. (SOUND) "The Boondocks" often deals with issues of race and social justice. The strip is more political than most comic strip readers are used to. Some think it is great; others think it goes too far. "The Boondocks" appears in about three hundred fifty newspapers. Aaron McGruder is the cartoonist who created it. He has been taking a break from the print version since March, and does not plan to have new ones until October. "Every well needs refreshing," he says. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? Charlie Brown and Snoopy“Peanuts” is an example of a more traditional comic strip. Charles Schulz is the artist who created Charlie Brown and Snoopy the dog and all their friends. Charles Schulz died in two thousand. But the cartoons he drew are still being repeated. The humor is timeless. Many readers also enjoy comics like “Garfield and Friends."? Garfield is a fat cat who likes thinking of food and making fun of his owner. And some readers never miss “Dennis the Menace.”? This single-drawing cartoon is about a five-year-old boy. Dennis is always causing trouble for his parents and a retired neighbor, Mister Wilson. But to his fans since the nineteen fifties, Dennis is always likeable. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Another form of cartooning is the editorial cartoon. These express the opinion of the artist or the artist’s publication. Nineteenth century cartoonist Thomas Nast drew for Harper’s Weekly and the humor magazine Puck. In his political cartoons he drew an elephant to represent Republicans and a donkey for Democrats. Today these animals are still used to represent the two major parties in America. VOICE ONE:?????? In the twentieth century, cartoonists like Peter Arno, James Thurber and Charles Addams drew for the New Yorker magazine. The New Yorker has a tradition of publishing cartoons as social commentary. Peter Arno liked to make fun of people of wealth and social position and self-importance. He drew his subjects with heavy lines. James Thurber's cartoons pointed out human weaknesses. He drew his subjects with a light touch. VOICE TWO: James Thurber also wrote many humor books. He created the character of Walter Mitty. Walter Mitty is a mild little man who daydreams of doing exciting things. Cartoonist Charles Addams created the Addams Family. They looked like a scary family out of a horror movie. But Addams made funny situations from these strange characters. Somehow his artistry made normal people seem strange. VOICE ONE: Today, New Yorker cartoons are still known for their sharp humor. For example, a lawyer advises a man that the best defense in his situation is to lie. New Yorker cartoonists can find humor in almost any situation. A well-known cartoon that appeared in nineteen ninety-three was drawn by Peter Steiner. Two dogs are at a computer. One says to the other, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." (MUSIC) VOICE? TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? One of America’s most influential political cartoonists worked at the Washington Post for fifty-five years. His name was Herbert Block. But readers knew him better as Herblock, the name he used to sign his work. During the nineteen fifties, Herblock was known for his cartoons against Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy accused many people of being communists. Finally, the Senate condemned McCarthy for his actions. Over the years, Herblock won three Pulitzer prizes and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. He continued drawing until shortly before his death in two thousand one, at the age of ninety-one. VOICE ONE: Cartoons can make powerful statements about events. In nineteen sixty-three, President John F. Kennedy was shot. That led cartoonist Bill Mauldin to draw another president who died that way. He drew the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Washington. In the cartoon, President Lincoln is crying. Almost forty years later, in two thousand one, cartoonists drew the Statue of Liberty crying in New York Harbor. That was after the September eleventh attack on the nearby World Trade Center. VOICE TWO:?????? Cartoons can make people sad. They can also make them angry. Last September a newspaper in Denmark published cartoons that insulted Muslims. Other newspapers later republished these cartoons. Protests and deadly riots took place in a number of countries earlier this year. The cartoons and the reaction led to international debate about responsibility and freedom of speech. VOICE ONE: Cartoons can make us think, they can make us laugh, they can make us cry. Cartoons can make a difference in how we look at life. (MUSIC)??????? Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Water on Saturn Moon? | New Dinosaur | iPods and Hearing
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake, Mario Ritter and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: Evidence of water on one of the moons of Saturn ... VOICE ONE: Meet Erketu ellisoni, a newly identified dinosaur ... VOICE TWO: And warnings about the danger of hearing loss from personal music players. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Life on Earth requires water. When scientists look for life in other places, they look for signs of water. And they now say they have found them on a moon of Saturn. The American spacecraft Cassini passed close to Enceladus [en-SELL-ah-dus] in February of two thousand five. Cassini captured images of what appears to be material shooting away from the moon. The leader of the team studying the pictures of Enceladus is Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. She says the finding could change the way scientists look at conditions for life in the solar system. Scientists considered several possible causes for the jet of material seen in the pictures from Cassini. But they found the most likely was that water was shooting out of Enceladus. They describe these jets as geysers, just like the boiling water that shoots out of the ground in places like Yellowstone National Park. VOICE TWO: The main difference between Yellowstone’s geysers and those of Enceladus is temperature. Geysers on Earth are caused by heat below the ground. Ground water enters these areas, begins to heat and shoots through openings in the ground. Scientists believe the geysers on Enceladus are only about zero degrees Celsius -- just above freezing. This may seem cold to us. But on Saturn’s icy moon, zero degrees is very hot. Scientific measurements show that Enceladus is very cold -- about two hundred degrees below the freezing point of water. But measurements by Cassini have shown that some parts of Enceladus are much warmer -- only one hundred sixty-degrees below freezing. Scientists suggest that even warmer temperatures may exist below the surface of the moon. If there is liquid water, it would be much warmer than the surrounding ice. This could cause the liquid water to explode out of openings in the surface, causing the picture that Cassini captured. VOICE ONE: How could water exist on such a cold world?? Planetary scientists have developed theories that liquid oceans exist on several icy worlds. Two moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, Callisto and Europa, are good candidates. Information gathered by the Voyager and Galileo space vehicles suggests that powerful forces are at work under the surfaces of these moons. The strong force of gravity from Jupiter may make underground temperatures on Callisto and Europa warm enough to melt water. But there is a closer example of liquid water hidden under ice right here on Earth. Ten years ago, Russian and British scientists confirmed the existence of a lake in the coldest part of the world -- Antarctica. It is called Lake Vostok. It lies under four thousand meters of ice. VOICE TWO: There are several theories for why water in the lake remains liquid. One is that warmth from the Earth has melted the ice. Another is that pressure from the huge weight above the ice caused it to melt. Whatever the reason, Lake Vostok has led some scientists to believe some moons of Jupiter and now Saturn could have whole oceans hidden under their icy surface. Cassini will get another close look at Enceladus in two thousand eight. (MUSIC) You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. VOICE ONE: Scientists say they recently identified a new kind of dinosaur. The dinosaur belongs to the group of plant-eating creatures called sauropods. These creatures were among the largest land animals that ever lived. The scientists have named the dinosaur Erketu [er-KEE-tu] ellisoni. They say its neck was more than seven meters long. But what makes Erketu ellisoni so special is the length of the neck when compared to its body. The scientists estimate the body was about three and one-half meters tall. That means the neck was probably more than two times as long as the rest of the body. VOICE TWO: The dinosaur’s remains were found four years ago in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. Two research scientists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York made the discovery. They described the remains in a report published in Novitates, the museum magazine. In total, the researchers found a chest bone, two leg bones, an anklebone and several neck bones. Mark Norell said the dinosaur’s secret to moving with such a long neck is found in its unusual bones. He said the bones within the neck were large but full of air holes. This made the bones very strong, while at the same time, very light. VOICE ONE: The researchers believe the ancient animal did not hold its neck up high in the air. Instead, they believe the neck was held out in front of the body and level with the ground. Erketa ellisoni appears to be similar to other members of the sauropod group Titanosauria. These creatures spread throughout the world and survived until the end of the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs died off. The Cretaceous Period ended about sixty-five million years ago. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: How loud do you listen to music? Researchers from Zogby International did a study for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It involved three hundred high school students and one thousand adults. They were asked about their use of portable music players like the Apple iPod. Other popular devices are CD players and laptop computers. Forty percent of students and adults said they set the sound levels, or volume, at high on their iPods. But students were two times more likely to play the music at a very loud volume. More than half of the students said they would probably not limit their listening time. And about a third said they were not likely to reduce the volume. VOICE ONE: The study found that more than half of the students and less than forty percent of the adults had at least one kind of hearing loss. Some reported difficulty hearing parts of a discussion between two people. Others said they had to raise volume controls on a television or radio to hear it better. And, some experienced ringing in their ears or other noises. Hearing experts say part of the problem is the listening equipment people are using. They say large earphones that cover the whole ear are probably safer than the smaller earbuds that come with most music players. Earbuds are thought to be less effective than earphones in blocking out foreign noises. VOICE TWO: Hearing loss may not be apparent for years. But once it happens, it is permanent. About thirty million Americans have some hearing loss. One third of them lost their hearing as a result of loud noises. Experts at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota say any sound above ninety decibels for long periods may cause some hearing loss. But most portable music players can produce sounds up to one hundred twenty decibels. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is working with manufacturers and government officials on setting rules for use of portable music devices. The group says the best way to protect your hearing is to reduce the volume, limit listening time and using earphones that block out foreign noises. VOICE ONE: On March twenty-ninth Apple Computer announced a way for users to set a personal volume limit on the iPod Nano and fifth-generation iPod. It requires a free download of a software update from the company's Web site. Parents can also use the software to enforce a volume limit on their children's iPod with a secret combination code. The iPod came on the market in October of two thousand one. Apple has sold more than forty million. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, Brianna Blake and Cynthia Kirk, who also produced our program. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. You can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And we hope you listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-24-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Going Biotech: A Spanish Farmer Discusses His Experience
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO, held its two thousand six international convention earlier this month in Chicago. It says attendance set a record with more than nineteen thousand people from sixty-two countries. BIO represents more than one thousand companies and other organizations. Its members genetically engineer products in health care, agriculture and other areas. The convention included former President Bill Clinton and what the organizers called the world's largest indoor cornfield. Jose Manuel Pomar is a farmer from the Aragon area of Spain who attended the convention. Mister Pomar grows Bt maize. Bt maize contains a gene from a bacterium that produces a poison. This poison helps the plants resist insects, especially the maize borer. Some things do not change with biotech crops. Mister Pomar says he uses the same amount of fertilizer with Bt maize as he does with conventional corn. The main difference, he says, is in the use of insecticide. Mister Pomar says he sprays his conventional maize with insect poisons three to four times a season. With Bt maize, he says, he might spray once if maize borers are present in large numbers. Chemicals are costly. The savings help pay for the higher cost of the biotech seeds. Mister Pomar says his profit on Bt corn is fifteen to twenty percent higher than his conventional maize. He also says he harvests more. He grows about two hundred hectares of Bt maize for animal food. This is only a part of his cropland. He also grows three hundred fifty hectares of non-Bt maize. And he grows alfalfa, soybean and other crops. In all, Mister Pomar has one thousand two hundred hectares of farmland. Most of his crops are not biotech. But some people do not like that he uses genetically engineered crops at all. He says people have complained to him. And he worries about possible legal issues in the future. Still, he says many other farmers in his area grow some biotech crops. The Spanish farmer says he is pleased with his results. He says the added profits could be important if the European Union cuts farm aid in the coming years. Next week, we talk to two American farmers who grow biotech maize and cotton. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sleepless in America: Report Says Millions Have Trouble at Bedtime
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis

 I'm Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. A new report says an estimated fifty million to seventy million Americans have sleep problems. It says many more are suffering from lack of sleep. A group of sleep research organizations asked the Institute of Medicine to study the problem. The institute is part of America’s National Academy of Sciences. The study examined why we need sleep, the effects of sleep loss and other sleep disorders. A fourteen-member committee carried out the study. The Institute of Medicine reported their findings earlier this month. Harvey Colten of Columbia University in New York City led the study. He says sleep disorders are not recognized enough by the general public and the medical community. The report says too few researchers are studying sleep disorders. It also says too few health care workers are trained to identify and treat the problem. The report says American businesses lose more than one hundred thousand million dollars a year because of tired workers. Some employees are too tired to report for work. They have accidents or are less productive at work. Other costs included increased visits to doctors. The study found that twenty percent of injuries caused by serious car accidents are linked to sleepy drivers. Alcoholic drinks were not linked to the accidents. Other studies have linked poor sleep to an increased risk of health problems like heart disease, depression and unhealthy amounts of body fat. Researchers say the reason for this link is unclear. Many experts say a good amount of sleep is as important to health as diet and exercise. They say most people need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Less than that can interfere with mental and physical abilities. It can lead to more serious problems, including severe sleeplessness. It also can lead to sleep apnea. People with this condition temporarily stop breathing while they sleep. Researchers involved in the study are suggesting a number of steps to help prevent sleep disorders. They suggest a campaign to inform the public about the problem. They want increased education and training among health care workers. And they are calling for new technology to identify and cure sleep problems. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Sticky Black Hole of Ancient Death, Right in the Middle of Los Angeles
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual scientific research area in the United States. It is filled with the remains of ancient animals. This unusual place is in the center of Los Angeles, California. Its name is Rancho La Brea. But most people know it as the La Brea Tar Pits. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To understand why La Brea is an important scientific research center we must travel back through time almost forty thousand years. Picture an area that is almost desert land. The sun is hot. A pig-like creature searches for food. It uses its short, flat nose to dig near a small tree. It moves small amounts of sand with its nose. It finds nothing. The pig starts to walk away, but it cannot move its feet. They are covered with a thick, black substance. The pig shakes one foot loose, but the others just sink deeper. The more it struggles against the black substance, the deeper it sinks. The pig attempts to free itself again and again. It now screams in fear and fights wildly to get loose. Less than a kilometer away, a huge cat-like creature with two long front teeth hears the screams. ?It, too, is hungry. Traveling across the ground at great speed, the cat nears the area where the pig is fighting for its life. The cat jumps on the pig’s back. It sinks its long teeth into the pig’s neck. The pig dies quickly, and the cat begins to eat. Almost an hour passes before the cat is finished. When it attempts to leave, like the pig, it finds it cannot move. The more the big cat struggles, the deeper it sinks into the black substance. Before morning, the cat is dead. Its body, and the bones of the pig, slowly sink into the sticky black hole. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the story we have told you happened again and again over a period of many thousands of years. The black substance that trapped the animals came out of the Earth as oil. The oil dried, leaving behind a partly solid substance called asphalt. In the heat of the sun, the asphalt softened. Whatever touched it would often become trapped forever. In seventeen sixty-nine, a group of Spanish explorers visited the area. They were led by Gaspar de Portola, governor of Lower California. The group stopped to examine the sticky black substance that covered the Earth. They called the area “La Brea” the Spanish words for “tar.” Many years later, settlers used the tar, or asphalt, on the tops of their houses to keep water out. They found animal bones in the asphalt, but threw them away. In nineteen-oh-six, scientists began to study the bones found in La Brea. Ten years later, the owner of the land, George Allan Hancock, gave it to the government of Los Angeles. His gift carried one condition. He said La Brea could only be used for scientific work. VOICE ONE: Today, the La Brea Tar Pits are known to scientists around the world. The area is considered one of the richest areas of fossil bones in the world. It is an extremely valuable place to study ancient animals. Scientists have recovered more than one million fossil bones from the La Brea Tar Pits. They have identified more than six hundred fifty different kinds of animals and plants. The fossils are from creatures as small as insects to those that were bigger than a modern elephant. These creatures became trapped as long ago as forty thousand years. It is still happening today. ?Small birds and animals still become trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rancho La Brea is now the home of a modern research center and museum. Visitors can see the ancient fossil bones of creatures like the imperial mammoth and the American mastodon. Both look something like the modern day elephant, but bigger. The museum has many fossil remains of the huge cats that once lived in the area. They are called saber-toothed cats because of their long, fierce teeth. Scientists have found more than two thousand examples of the huge cats. The museum also has many ground sloths and thousands of fossil remains of an ancient kind of wolf. Scientists believe large groups of wolves became stuck when they came to feed on animals already trapped in the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Since nineteen sixty-nine, scientists have been digging at one area of La Brea called Pit Ninety-one. They have found more than forty thousand fossils in Pit Ninety-one. More than ninety-five percent of the mammal bones are from just seven different animals. Three were plant-eaters. They were the western horse, the ancient bison and a two-meter tall animal called the Harlan’s ground sloth. Four of the animals were meat-eating hunters. ?These were the saber-tooth cat, the North American lion, the dire wolf and the coyote. All these animals, except the dog-like coyote, have disappeared from the Earth. VOICE TWO: Researchers say eighty percent of the fossils found are those of meat-eating animals. They say this is a surprise because there have always been more plant- eaters in the world. The researchers say each plant-eater that became trapped caused many meat-eaters to come to the place to feed. They, too, became trapped. Researches say the number of large animals caught in the tar pits represents only about three every ten years. Many more escaped. However, this represents many large animals over a period of several thousand years. Visitors often ask if the bones of any dinosaurs have been found at La Brea. The answer is no. Dinosaurs disappeared about sixty-five- million years before animals first became trapped at La Brea. The La Brea area and much of California was part of the Pacific Ocean when dinosaurs were alive in North America. VOICE ONE: Rancho La Brea has also been a trap for many different kinds of insects. Scientists free these dead insects by washing the asphalt away with special chemicals. The La Brea insects give scientists a close look at the history of insects in southern California. The La Brea Tar Pits have also provided science with interesting information about the plants that grew in the area. For many thousands of years, plant seeds landed in the sticky asphalt. The seeds have been saved for research. Scientists also have found pollen from many different kinds of plants. The seeds and pollen, or the lack of them, can show severe weather changes over thousands of years. Scientists say these provide information that has helped them understand the history of the environment. The seeds and pollen have left a forty thousand year record of the environment and weather for this area of California. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Thousands of visitors come each year to see fossils that have been found at Rancho La Brea. They visit the George C. Page Museum. Mister Page was a wealthy man who became very interested in the scientific work being done at the tar pits. He gave the money to build the museum and research center. At the museum, visitors can watch scientists dig bones from La Brea’s Pit Ninety-one. The scientists dig very slowly, using small tools similar to those used by a doctor to examine teeth. They also use toothbrushes and cleaning fluids to help soften and clean away the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Visitors to the museum can also see the “fish bowl,” a laboratory surrounded by glass. Here, they can watch scientists do their research. Visitors can watch the scientists clean, examine, repair and identify fossils that are still being discovered. Through this process, scientists are able to answer questions and solve puzzles about animals and their environment from thousands of years ago. It is exciting to stand only a few meters away and watch scientists clean the asphalt off a fossil that is thousands of years old. Visitors quickly learn why researchers consider Rancho La Brea a very special place. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can visit the Rancho La Brea Page Museum. Have your computer search for the Spanish words La Brea, L-A B-R-E-A, and look for the Page Museum link. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: 'The Meaning of Tingo': One Man's Favorite Words, From 254 Languages
* Byline: 

 Welcome to Wordmaster. I’m Adam Phillips, filling in for Avi Arditti and Roseanne Skirble. This week, we hear from a Londoner whose special love is the quirky words found in languages other than English. His name is Adam Jacot de Boinod, and he has collected his favorite words from 254 languages in a new book. JACOT DE BOINOD:?“It’s called 'The Meaning of Tingo' and it’s about all the world’s most extraordinary, telling, thought-provoking, culturally informative, funny, wacky and bizarre words. TINGO itself is from Easter Island, and it means to borrow objects from a friend’s home one-by-one until there is nothing left." Jacod de Boinod’s fascination with exotic words began innocently enough when he was working for a BBC television quiz show. It was one of his jobs to find strange and unusual words. JACOT DE BOINOD:?“I picked up, just out of sheer curiosity, an eleven hundred page Albanian to English dictionary, and found within minutes that there were 27 words for moustache and 27 words for eyebrow. And so I thought what a treasure trove! Indeed, I would go as far as to claim that if you get hold of a really authoritative, massive dictionary of a really exotic place, you’ll find out more from that than you will from the vast majority of guidebooks about the culture.” As he pored through the 220 or so foreign-language dictionaries to compile his “Tingo” book, Jacot de Boinod says it wasn’t hard to spot the “keepers” among the tens of thousands of interesting words: JACOT DE BOINOD: “Like NAKHUR, a six letter Persian word meaning a camel that won’t give milk until her nostrils are tickled. GURFUR is a uniquely telling word. It’s an Arabic word and it means the amount of water scooped up with one hand. And then of course Hawaiian is just a godsend because it’s got OHKULLANOCKANOCKA, meaning a day spent in nervous anticipation of a coughing spell." Some of the words in “The Meaning of Tingo” are culture-specific. Most Americans do not need the 108 words Hawaiians have for different types of sweet potato, or the 29 words the Banuit Tribe of Brazil uses for ants. JACOT DE BOINOD: “But there are all sorts of words that do belong to a universal condition or sensation or sentiment. Like ZECHPRELLER, the German word for someone who leaves without paying the bill. I love TORSCHLUSSPANIK, a German word for the fear of diminishing opportunities, and it applies in particular to women in their mid-30s concerned that they may not have time to have babies and so on. And I love NEKO-NEKO, which is an Indonesian word for someone who has a creative idea which only makes things worse.” Or BAKU-SHAN, the Japanese word for a woman who appears beautiful when seen from behind, but not from the front, or the Yiddish words SHMUGEGGESHNORRER, PASKUDNIK or YOLD, all of which mean “loser.” But Jacot de Boinod? seems especially fond of words that describe distinctly local customs or occupations. JACOT DE BOINOD: “I am very fond of AREODJAREKPUT, an Inuit word meaning to exchange wives for a few days only. And CIGERCI, a Turkish word for a seller of livers and lungs. It tells us what a great diversity there is in this world and we should be celebrating that diversity. This comes at a time when languages are dying out at the rate of one every two weeks [and] we really should be doing our best to make them prosper and flourish and survive. And we should be embracing the joy, the glory, the wonder of foreign words and expressions.” Many words in Jacot de Boinod’s book seem like pure poetry. JACOT DE BOINOD: “I love the word MEHRS [as heard]. It’s a Persian word meaning looking beautiful after a disease. But in my experience, of the most uniquely exciting languages, one is Japanese. It has MUKAMUKA meaning one is so angry one feels like throwing up -- but also Malay, or Indonesian which has some wonderful words to describe physical action and methods of moving which we don’t begin to attempt. Like KONTAL-KONTIL, the swinging of long earrings, or the flaying of one’s dress as one walks. [Or] BONGKING, sprawling face down with your bottom in the air." There are several words from Native American languages in “The Meaning of Tingo” that can offer insight into how these cultures come to view other cultures and what they produce. JACOT DE BOINOD:?"Words like Hopi, for instance, which has MASA’YTAKA, and it’s a word meaning insects or airplanes or pilots – in fact, anything that flies, except birds. And Apache is a very interesting dictionary to delve into because it corresponds parts of the body with parts of automobiles. So the front bumper is DAW, meaning chin or jaw, the front fender is WOS for shoulder, the chassis is CHUN or back, and so on. “And the metaphorical naming continues inside the car as well. So you have TSAWS is the electrical wiring, meaning the 'veins’; and ZIK is the 'liver,' meaning the battery; and PITT is the 'stomach,' meaning the petrol tank; and so on."? Adam Jacot de Boinod is the author of “The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World,” published by Penguin Press. To find more exotic words and what they mean, go online and visit www.themeaningoftingo.com. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Some American Colleges Drop the SAT and ACT as Required Tests for Admission
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States has more than three thousand colleges and universities. Most require high school students to take an admissions test, either the SAT or the ACT. But some have reconsidered. The activist organization FairTest opposes the requirements. It lists more than seven hundred individual schools now where testing is optional. Students can provide their results, but only if they want to. The list is on the Web site fairtest.org. A number of the schools are related as campuses within university systems. Yet in some cases, it appears that other campuses do still require testing. Testing critics say one reason to drop the requirement is that preparing for the tests takes away too much time from schoolwork, and life. They say the requirement places too much importance on one test and causes too much stress for students. Admissions officers at other schools, however, say test scores are important but are only one of the things they consider. Still, critics question just how much the tests really show about a student. They say higher scores in some cases might only show that a student's family had the money for costly test-preparation classes. One of the first colleges to drop the requirement was Bates College in Maine in nineteen eighty-four. Over the next twenty years, it compared students who provided their test scores and those who did not. The study found that grades and graduation rates were the same. Bates College also found an increase in the number of women, minorities and poor students who applied. The same was true of students with learning disabilities and international students. Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts ended its requirement in two thousand one. Mount Holyoke is a small, highly rated liberal arts college for women. Recently its president, Joanne Creighton, wrote in the Los Angeles Times about the effects of making the SAT optional. Like Bates, Mount Holyoke has compared student performance. Joanne Creighton says the study has found "no meaningful difference." She says the SAT might have made sense in the nineteen twenties when it was developed. College then was only for a relatively limited group of people. But she says American students and schools are too different today for what she calls a "one-size-fits-all test." This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-26-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Wilson Builds Public Support for the League of Nations
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Woodrow Wilson in 1919After the end of World War One, President Woodrow Wilson sought national support for his idea of a League of Nations. He took his appeal directly to the American people in the summer of nineteen-nineteen. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I continue the story of Wilson's campaign. VOICE TWO: The plan for the League of Nations was part of the peace treaty that ended World War One. By law, the United States Senate would have to vote on the treaty. President Wilson believed the Senate would have to approve it if the American people demanded it. So he went to the people for support. For almost a month, Wilson traveled across America. He stopped in many places to speak about the need for the League of Nations. He said the league was the only hope for world peace. It was the only way to prevent another world war. Wilson's health grew worse during the long journey across the country. He became increasingly weak and suffered from severe headaches. In Witchita, Kansas, he had a small stroke. A blood vessel burst inside his brain. He was forced to return to Washington. VOICE ONE: For a few days, President Wilson's condition improved. Then, his wife found him lying unconscious on the floor of his bedroom in the White House. Wilson had lost all feeling in the left side of his body. He was near death. The president's advisers kept his condition secret from almost everyone. They told reporters only that Wilson was suffering from a nervous breakdown. For the next few days, the medical reports from the White House were always the same. They said Mr. Wilson's condition had not changed. People began to wonder. Were they being told the truth. Some people began to believe that the president was, in fact, dead. Vice President Thomas Marshall was worried. If the president died or could not govern, then he -- Marshall -- would become president. But even Vice President Marshall could get no information from Wilson's doctors. VOICE TWO: After several weeks, the president seemed to get a little stronger. He was still very weak. He could not work, except to sign several bills. This simple act took most of his strength. Wilson's wife Edith guarded her husband closely. She alone decided who could see him. She alone decided what information he could receive. All letters and messages to Woodrow Wilson were given first to Edith Wilson. She decided if they were important enough for him to see. Most, she decided, were not. She also prevented members of the cabinet and other government officials from communicating with him directly. Misses Wilson's actions made many people suspect that she -- not her husband -- was governing the country. Some spoke of her as the nation's first woman president. VOICE ONE: There was one issue Misses Wilson did discuss with her husband: the League of Nations. The Senate was completing debate on the Treaty of Versailles. That was the World War One peace agreement that contained Wilson's plan for the league. It seemed clear the Senate would reject the treaty. Too many Senators feared the United States would lose some of its independence and freedom if it joined the league. The leader of Wilson's political party in the Senate, Gilbert Hitchcock, headed the administration campaign to win support for the treaty. He received Misses Wilson's permission to visit her husband. Hitchcock told the president the situation was hopeless. He said the Senate would not approve the treaty unless several changes were made to protect American independence. If the president accepted the changes, then the treaty might pass. VOICE TWO: Wilson refused. He would accept no compromise. He said the treaty must be approved as written. Senator Hitchcock made one more attempt to get Wilson to re-consider. On the day the Senate planned to vote on the treaty, he went back to the White House. He told Misses Wilson that compromise offered the only hope for success. Misses Wilson went into the president's room while Hitchcock waited. She asked her husband: "Will you not accept the changes and get this thing settled?"? He answered: "I cannot. Better a thousand times to go down fighting than to surrender to dishonorable compromise." VOICE ONE: The Senate voted. Hitchcock's fears proved correct. The treaty was defeated. The defeat ended Wilson's dream of American membership in the League of Nations. Misses Wilson gave the news to her husband. He was silent for a long time. Then he said: "I must get well." Woodrow Wilson was extremely sick. Yet he was not the kind of man who accepted opposition or defeat easily. From his sick bed, he wrote a letter to the other members of the Democratic Party. He urged them to continue debate on the League of Nations. He said a majority of Americans wanted the treaty approved. Wilson probably was correct about this. Most Americans did approve of membership in the League of Nations. But they also wanted to be sure membership would not restrict American independence. VOICE TWO: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed to re-open discussion on the treaty. It searched yet again for a compromise. It made new efforts to get Wilson to accept some changes. But, as before, Wilson refused. He was a proud man. And he thought many of the Senators were evil men trying to destroy his plan for international peace. Wilson's unwillingness to compromise helped kill the treaty once and for all. The Senate finally voted again, and the treaty was defeated by seven votes. The treaty was dead. The United States would never enter the League of Nations. And one of the most emotional and personal stories in the making of the American nation had ended. VOICE ONE: The long battle over the Treaty of Versailles ended with political defeat for Woodrow Wilson. Yet history would prove him correct. Wilson had warned time and again during the debate that a terrible war would result if the world did not come together to protect the peace. Twenty years later, war came. The First World War had been called 'the war to end all wars'. But it was not. And the Second World War would be far more destructive than the first. VOICE TWO: The debate over the Treaty of Versailles was the central issue in American politics during the end of Woodrow Wilson's administration. It also played a major part in the presidential election of nineteen twenty. Wilson himself could not be a candidate again. He was much too sick. So the Democratic Party nominated a former governor of Ohio, James Cox. Cox shared Wilson's opinion that the United States should join the League of Nations. He campaigned actively for American membership. The Republican Party chose Senator Warren Harding as its candidate for president. Harding campaigned by promising a return to what he called 'normal times'. He said it was time for America to stop arguing about international events and start thinking about itself again. VOICE ONE: The two presidential candidates gave the American people a clear choice in the election of nineteen twenty. On one side was Democrat James Cox. He represented the dream of Woodrow Wilson. In this dream, the world would be at peace. And America would be a world leader that would fight for the freedom and human rights of people everywhere. On the other side was Republican Warren Harding. He represented an inward-looking America. It was an America that felt it had sacrificed enough for other people. Now it would deal with its own problems. Warren Harding won the election. VOICE TWO: The results of the election shocked and hurt Woodrow Wilson. He could not understand why the people had turned from him and his dream of international unity and peace. But the fact was that America was entering a new period in its history. For a long time, it would turn its energy away from the world beyond its borders. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Investigating Crimes the Scientific Way: Secrets of Forensic Medicine
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week… We play music by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs… Answer a question about professional wrestling… And report about a special kind of medical science known as forensics. Forensic Science HOST:? When life unexpectedly ends, people want to know the cause. Forensic science experts can provide answers. Forensics is a special kind of medical science that explains how people die. A show about forensic science is at the National Library of Medicine near Washington, D.C. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The show is called? “Visible Proofs — Forensic Views of the Body”. It presents the history of forensic medicine. For centuries, medical professionals have worked to develop ways to help explain death. Such methods are also used to solve crimes, protect the innocent, or prove human rights violations. Among the objects in the show are the medical tools used in the autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln. An autopsy is a detailed medical examination of a dead body to discover the cause of death. Autopsy was among the first scientific methods used by experts to help solve crimes. President Lincoln’s autopsy in eighteen sixty-five confirmed his death from a gunshot wound. The show at the National Library of Medicine also includes several small models of crime areas. These are part of a collection called the “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.” Frances Glessner Lee, a wealthy woman living in Boston, Massachusetts, created the collection in the nineteen forties and fifties. Missus Lee was interested in forensic medicine and scientific crime investigation. In nineteen thirty-six, she helped establish a school for legal medicine at Harvard University. She later gave her collection to the university to be used as teaching tools. Students training to become crime investigators used the models to learn about evidence. Michael Sappol organized the show “Visible Proofs — Forensic Views of the Body”. He is a cultural history expert on death and medicine. Mister Sappol says people naturally withdraw in the presence of death. When a life unexpectedly ends, people need answers and seek the cause. Mister Sappol says the show is meant to help people better understand death. “Visible Proofs” continues at the National Library of Medicine through February, two thousand eight. The Library is on the grounds of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. To learn more about the history of forensic medicine, listen on Wednesday to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Professional Wrestling HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. P.K. Visvesvaran asks about World Wrestling Entertainment and how much the performers are paid. World Wrestling Entertainment is the largest professional wrestling organization in North America. It was called World Wrestling Federation until it changed its name because of a legal dispute. Its more than one hundred wrestlers fight each other in competitive matches that are written and practiced before they are performed. Professional wrestlers are athletes but act as entertainers. They are not seeking athletic records, but instead want to excite an audience. To do this, they use unusual names and wear special clothing during wrestling matches. These wrestlers include the Stone Cold Stunner and the Undertaker. Most professional wrestling matches are between two men or two women. They fight inside an area called a ring that is separated from the audience by ropes. Each match continues until one wrestler forces the other’s shoulders to the floor and holds them there for a count of three. Most World Wrestling Entertainment matches continue for only about four to seven minutes. An organization official called a promoter decides before the match who will win. But who wins and who loses is not the important thing in professional wrestling. The important thing is that the audience enjoys the pretend fight. Some wrestlers rarely win, but continue to be popular. Not all wrestling matches are between two people. Some are called tag team matches and involve teams of two, three or four wrestlers. Another kind of match is called a battle royal. It involves thirty to sixty wrestlers competing against each other. A wrestler loses when he or she is thrown out of the ring. The winner is the last wrestler still standing. Most professional wrestlers attend special schools to learn the skills they will need. Not all the students succeed. But those who do can earn a lot of money. We found a Web site that claims to show recent yearly earnings of sixty-five W.W.E. wrestlers. The wrestlers earned from forty-one thousand dollars to more than two million dollars a year. Yeah Yeah Yeahs HOST: “Show Your Bones” is the newest album from a musical group with an unusual name, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The energetic music made by these three rock musicians is becoming very popular in America. Steve Ember tells us more. STEVE EMBER: A singer, guitar player and drummer make up the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Their rock sound is inventive, unusual, and full of personality. Their music is considered an example of “indie” rock. Indie musicians like to protect their independence or artistic freedom. One way to do this is to avoid using major recording companies. Lead singer Karen O is known for wearing wild clothing and hairstyles while performing. Sometimes she even pours beer over herself and the audience. Imagine Karen O dancing around on stage as you listen to her sing this song, “Phenomena”. (MUSIC) The words to the songs on “Show Your Bones” are poetic and also a little strange. It is not always clear what the songs mean. In this song called “The Sweets”, Karen O describes colors and the motion of water. She wonders about meeting someone again. (MUSIC) The Yeah Yeah Yeahs started singing in New York City. But Karen O has moved to Los Angeles, California. She says she likes flying between the two cities and the band is now “bi-coastal.” Karen O also said this album was the most difficult to make. The band was trying to find a different sound from their earlier albums. Their work seems to have been worth the effort. Critics say “Show Your Bones” might be one of the best albums of the year. We leave you now with another Yeah Yeah Yeahs song. It is called “Cheated Hearts.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Protecting an Investment With Stock Options
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Stock options are agreements to trade shares of a stock at a set price by a set dateStock options are a way to profit from changes in the price of a stock without the need to buy the shares immediately. Stock options are agreements to trade shares of a stock at a set price by a set date. An option comes with a strike price. This is the agreed price at which the stock will be traded. Options also have an expiration date. After that date the agreement is cancelled. An option holder buys a contract. It can be a contract to purchase or a contract to sell shares of a stock in the future. Option holders commonly buy contracts to protect the value of a stock investment. Say an investor has recently bought stock at ten dollars a share. The investor worries that the price will drop in the next three months. To protect that investment, the investor can buy an option to sell the shares at ten dollars each. That way, if the stock price drops to five dollars, the investor can exercise the option and sell the shares at ten dollars. The investor loses only the cost of the option contract. But the option has served as insurance against a loss. What would have happened had the price of the stock gone up?? Say it jumps to fifteen dollars. The option gives the holder the right to sell at ten, but now that is below the market price. In this case the investor would not exercise the option. The contract expires and becomes worthless. But who cares?? The stock is now worth fifty percent more than what it was. Some investors buy options because they think a stock price will rise. An option to buy a stock at today’s price could be valuable if the price goes up before the option expires. So far we have heard about option holders. Option writers are the ones who sell the contracts on exchanges. The price paid is called a premium. It usually represents the difference between the strike price and the market price of the stock. Options trading is organized by a clearinghouse. A clearinghouse settles trades between holders and writers and credits profits or losses. The biggest clearinghouse is the Options Clearing Corporation in the United States. Next week, we will discuss why stock options are in the news and how they will affect American business earnings this year. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Politics and Bullets: Facing Maoist Rebels in Nepal and India
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Mao Zedong led the revolutionary army that established the People's Republic of China in nineteen forty-nine. Mao led Communist China until he died in nineteen seventy-six. Today, governments in two countries that border on China face rebels following in his name. India's Maoist rebellion goes back almost forty years. The conflict has intensified. Rebels are now active in areas of southern, eastern and central India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described it as the biggest threat to internal security since independence. More than six thousand people have been killed in violence between rebels and government forces in the last twenty years. The Maoists say they are fighting for the poor and unemployed against wealthy farmers and landowners. Government officials in New Delhi are urging state governments to form local resistance groups. Human rights activists have criticized some of the measures being taken to deal with the rebellion. At the same time, the Indian government has been working to return democratic rule across the border in Nepal. Nepal is a small country surrounded by India and China. Rebels have been trying to overthrow the government of Nepal for ten years. At least eleven thousand people have been killed. The rebels are now cooperating with seven political parties supporting a democracy movement. King Gyanendra seized full control of the government in February of last year. The opposition alliance organized protests that began earlier this month and resulted in deadly clashes with security forces. Almost three weeks of demonstrations ended with a victory Monday for the opposition. King Gyanendra announced that Parliament would meet for the first time in four years. He was, in effect, returning power to elected political leaders. At first, the rebels rejected the king’s move. They said it was a trick to let him hold onto power. But on Thursday, Prachanda the Maoist rebel leader announced a three-month ceasefire. And King Gyanendra named an eighty-four-year-old politician, Girija Prasad Koirala, as the new prime minister. Mister Koirala was too sick to attend the opening of Parliament on Friday. But in a written statement he proposed a ceasefire, talks with the rebels and elections for a special assembly to rewrite Nepal's constitution. Parliament prepared for debate on Sunday. And American Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher prepared to visit Nepal next week. He says the United States might renew military aid -- if the army accepts a full return to democracy. Mister Boucher says the political parties should decide on the king’s future relationship with the government. And he says the United States would like to see the Maoists stop the violence and play a part in governing Nepal. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Country and Western Singer Hank Williams Wrote Songs About Love and Heartbreak
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death. VOICE ONE: Hank Williams was born in nineteen twenty-three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy. The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life. VOICE TWO: By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys." For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but wasunknown nationally. Then, in nineteen forty-nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues." (MUSIC) Hank Williams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star. VOICE ONE: Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular styles. Either way, the songs will always be his. Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best. When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart."? One music expert said: "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself.” (MUSIC) "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early nineteen fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music. VOICE TWO: Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question. Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask: “Why can't we make this marriage work?”? Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have the emotional strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life. Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. ?But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems. Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music. Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times. Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty-three. He was twenty-nine years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and?Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-05-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
* Byline: Written by Ambrose Bierce

 Announcer: Now, the V.O.A. Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today?is called, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. " It was written by Ambrose Bierce. The occurrence, or event, in our story takes place during the?Civil?War of the eighteen sixties between the American states of the north and the states of the south. A group of soldiers is hanging a southern farm owner for trying to stop northern military movements across the Owl Creek Bridge. In the last moments of his life, the southern prisoner dreams he has escaped. And everything that happens in the story is really the images in the prisoner's mind just before he dies. Here is Shep O’Neal with our story. Narrator:? A man stood on a railroad bridge in Alabama looking down into the swift waters of the Owl Creek River below. The man's hands were tied behind his back. There was a rope around his neck. The rope was tied to part of the bridge above him. Three soldiers of the northern army stood near the prisoner, waiting for their captain's orders to hang him. Everybody was ready. The prisoner stood quietly. His eyes were not covered. He looked down and saw the water under the bridge. Now, he closed his eyes. He wanted his last thoughts to be of his wife and children. But, as he tried to think of them, he heard sounds -- again and again. The sounds were soft. But they got louder and louder and started to hurt his ears. The pain was strong. He wanted to shout. But the sounds he heard were just those of the river running swiftly under the bridge. The prisoner quickly opened his eyes and looked at the water. "If I could only free my hands," he thought. "Then I could get the rope off my neck and jump into the river. I could swim under the water and escape the fire of their guns. I could reach the other side of the river and get home through the forest. My house is outside of their military area, and my wife and children are safe there. I would be, too…" While these thoughts raced through the prisoner's mind, the captain gave the soldiers the order to hang him. A soldier quickly obeyed. He made the rope firm around the prisoner's neck. Then he dropped him through a hole in the bridge. As the prisoner fell, everything seemed black and empty. But then he felt a sharp pain in his neck and could not breathe. There were terrible pains running from his neck down through his body, his arms and his legs. He could not think. He could only feel, a feeling of living in a world of pain. Then, suddenly, he heard a noise…something falling into the water. There was a big sound in his ears. Everything around him was cold and dark. Now he could think. He believed the rope had broken and that he was in the river. But the rope was still around his neck, and his hands were tied. He thought: "How funny. How funny to die of hanging at the bottom of a river!" Then he felt his body moving up to the top of the water. The prisoner did not know what he was doing. But his hands reached the rope on his neck and tore it off. Now he felt the most violent pain he had ever known. He wanted to put the rope back on his neck. He tried but could not. His hands beat the water and pushed him up to the top. His head came out of the water. The light of the sun hurt his eyes. His mouth opened, and he swallowed air. It was too much for his lungs. He blew out the air with a scream. Now the prisoner could think more clearly. All his senses had returned. They were even sharper than before. He heard sounds he never heard before -- that no man's ears ever heard -- the flying wings of small insects, the movement of a fish. His eyes saw more than just the trees along the river. They saw every leaf on the trees. And they saw the thin lines in the leaves. And he saw the bridge, with the wall at one end. He saw the soldiers and the captain on the bridge. They shouted, and they pointed at him. They looked like giant monsters. As he looked, he heard gunfire. Something hit the water near his head. Now there was a second shot. He saw one soldier shooting at him. He knew he had to get to the forest and escape. He heard an officer call to the other soldiers to shoot. The prisoner went down into the river, deep, as far as he could. The water made a great noise in his ears, but he heard the shots. As he came up to the top again, he saw the bullets hit the water. Some of them touched his face and hands. One even fell into the top of his shirt. He felt the heat of the bullet on his back. When his head came out of the water for air, he saw that he was farther away from the soldiers. And he began swimming strongly. As he swam, the soldiers fired their rifles. Then they fired their cannon at him. But nothing hit him. Then, suddenly, he could not swim. He was caught in a whirlpool which kept turning him around and around. This was the end, he thought. Then, just as suddenly as it had caught him, the whirlpool lifted him and threw him out of the river. He was on land! He kissed the ground. He looked around him. There was a pink light in the air. The wind seemed to make music as it blew through the trees. He wanted to stay there. But the cannon fired again, and he heard the bullets above his head. He got up and ran into the forest. At last, he found a road toward his house. It was a wide, straight road. Yet it looked like a road that never had any travelers on it. No farms. No houses on its sides, only tall black trees. In the tall black trees, the prisoner heard strange voices. Some of them spoke in words that he could not understand. His neck began to hurt. When he touched it, it felt very large. His eyes hurt so much that he could not close them. His feet moved, but he could not feel the road. As he walked, he was in a kind of sleep. Now, half-awake, half asleep, he found himself at the door of his house. His lovely wife ran to him. Ah, at last. He put his arms about his beautiful wife. And just then, he felt a terrible pain in the back of his neck. All around him there was a great white light and the sound of a cannon. And then…then…darkness and silence. The prisoner was dead. His neck was broken. His body hung at the end of a rope. It kept swinging from side to side. Swinging gently under a hole in Owl Creek Bridge. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the American story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It was written by Ambrose Bierce. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. Listen again next week at this same time for another American story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-30-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Public Health Experts Criticize World Bank on Malaria Efforts
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. A year ago, the World Bank announced a new program to control malaria in Africa and Southeast Asia. It launched the Global Strategy and Booster Program in April of two thousand five on Africa Malaria Day. The five-year plan calls for expanded use of medicines and preventions like bed nets treated with insect poisons. Public health experts say mosquitoes spread as many as five hundred million cases of malaria each year. Now, thirteen of those experts in North America, Africa and Europe have criticized the World Bank for its history on the disease. Their criticism appeared in the medical publication the Lancet. They accuse the World Bank of wasting money on ineffective medicines. They say claims of "success stories" in India and Brazil are wrong. And they accuse the bank of false claims about increased spending in Africa in the past five years. Amir Attaran at the University of Ottawa in Canada and the other experts call on the World Bank to close down its malaria projects. They say the bank should instead finance groups that are better able to save lives quickly. The Lancet published a reaction from World Bank officials, led by Jean-Louis Sarbib. The officials call the financial reporting accusations untrue. And they use evidence from India to dispute the accusations about treatments. They say the bank is basing drug treatment policies on differences in the disease within the country. They say a one-size-fits-all policy would not work there. The statement says malaria control efforts have been successful in parts of Brazil, Eritrea, India and Vietnam. But it also says that the bank's overall efforts in the past did not have enough money or people. The officials say the bank has learned from the past years. They call the new plan "results-driven." Malaria kills more than one million people each year, mostly young children in Africa. The Abuja declaration of two thousand calls for a fifty percent cut in malaria deaths in Africa by two thousand ten. A Lancet editorial says that if the World Bank is serious about being judged on results, then this is a chance for cost-effective action. In economic terms, the disease costs an estimated twelve thousand million dollars a year of lost productivity in Africa alone. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-04/2006-04-30-voa6.cfm
* Headline: The Empire State Building Turns 75
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. One of the best known buildings in the world is having a birthday. This famous building in New York City is seventy-five years old. And it is our subject this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The ground was broken on January twenty-second, nineteen thirty. Workers dug a hole about seventeen meters deep for the foundation. In March, work began on the steel structure. It grew taller and taller. By November, well ahead of plans, the stonework on the outside of the building was finished. On May first, nineteen thirty-one, President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington, D.C. On went the lights of, at that time, the world’s tallest building. The Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan was open for business. VOICE TWO: The Empire State Building is just over four hundred forty-three meters tall. That includes the sixty-two meter tall lightening rod on top. There are one hundred three floors. And if you want to reach them all on foot, just know there are more than one thousand eight hundred sixty stairs. Runners compete in a yearly race to the top. If even the thought of that makes you tired, then you might want to ride an elevator instead. The building has seventy-three of them. The Empire State Building sits on more than seven thousand square meters of land. The building has five entrances and six thousand five hundred windows. And, last but not least, it has two hundred fifty workers who take care of the building. VOICE ONE: The Empire State Building holds a special place in the hearts of Americans. For one thing, it was the tallest building in the world for more than forty years. But the Empire State Building is also a big player in the cultural history of New York City. One reason is its light shows. The first took place in nineteen thirty-two. A searchlight was lit on top of the building to honor the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president. New York is known as the Empire State, and Roosevelt was its governor. In nineteen fifty-six, four large searchlights were added to the building. They were called Freedom Lights. They were meant as a way to send a message of welcome and hope to immigrants. The Freedom Lights were also meant to signal the hopes of Americans for peace. People at that time worried about the threat from the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: More lights were added in nineteen sixty-four. But a big surprise came in nineteen seventy-six. The Empire State Building shined in red, white and blue. The colors of the flag celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of American independence. Ever since then, the owners of the Empire State Building have observed holidays and special events with color. For example, on February fourteenth, the building glows red for Valentine’s Day, the day for love. On Saint Patrick’s Day, March seventeenth, the Empire State Building turns green to honor the patron saint of Ireland. And on April twenty-second, it shines a combination of green and blue to mark Earth Day. There are also special colors to mark the independence days of several countries and to honor campaigns against diseases. There are even light shows to celebrate the birthdays of cartoon characters like Popeye and Betty Boop. Sometimes the building goes dark as a remembrance, as it did in two thousand four after the death of former President Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: Even if you have never visited New York, there is a good chance you have seen the Empire State Building. It has been photographed countless times. It has even played parts in movies. 1933 film King Kong In nineteen thirty-three the Empire State Building was one of the stars of “King Kong.”? A huge ape climbs to the top, fighting off airplanes and holding in his hand a screaming woman, played by Fay Wray. //ACT 1 -- King Kong// “Attention all stations. King Kong is going west. He is making for the Empire State Building. Standby for further reports.” “If he goes up there what can we do?” “We won’t be able to get near him.” "Kong is climbing the Empire State Building. He is still carrying Ann Darrow. That is all.” “That licks us.” “There’s one thing we haven’t thought of.” “What?” “Airplanes. If he should put Ann down and they can fly close enough to pick him off without hitting her…” “You’re right! Planes! Call the field…” “Oh boy, what a story…” VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-seven the Empire State Building appeared in the love story "An Affair to Remember."? Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr play a man and a woman who meet and fall in love on a ship. They are looking at the New York City skyline from the ship when they plan a future meeting. //ACT 2-- An Affair to Remember// “Nicky…” “Oh, I was so worried that you…” “I didn’t have time to get dressed. I didn’t get to bed until five…” “I didn’t sleep at all…” “Oh…Now listen carefully…” “Yes” “…if everything goes right,…” “Yes” “…and I mean for both of us, in six months…here I started to write it out…” “Should I read it now?” “Mmm-hmm” “Alright… ‘Darling’--- that’s me?” “Mmm-hmm…” “ ‘You have a date my beloved, July the first at five o’clock.’ But you don’t say where…” “Well you name the place and I’ll obey.” “I don’t know…I can’t think…How about the top of the Empire State Building?” “Oh, yes, that’s perfect. It’s the nearest thing to heaven we have in New York.” “The 102nd floor…and don’t forget to take the elevator…” “No, I won’t…” VOICE ONE: He goes there, but she has an accident that prevents her from meeting him. He waits and wonders what has happened to her. VOICE TWO: More recently, in "Sleepless in Seattle," two people in love agree to meet at the Observation Deck on Valentine’s Day. Both do arrive, but one is a little later. They almost miss each other. The makers of that film made a small mistake. They should have lit the tower in red. In the movie "Independence Day" the Empire State Building is destroyed by creatures from space. But there is one motion picture in which the main character IS the Empire State Building. The Pop artist Andy Warhol made the nineteen sixty-four movie “Empire.”? He and a crew set up a camera in an office high up in another tall building. They filmed the Empire State Building through an evening into night. The camera never moved. The result is a silent film eight hours long in black-and-white. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen seventies, the Empire State Building lost its place as the tallest building in New York. People in the city now had the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center to look up to. Tragically that all changed the morning of September eleventh, two thousand one. Members of al-Qaida crashed hijacked passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers and destroyed them. The Empire State Building again became the city's tallest building. The Empire State Building survived a plane crash. In nineteen forty-five, a large military plane hit the building at the seventy-ninth floor. The pilot had gotten lost in foggy conditions. The pilot and two passengers were killed. The crash also killed eleven people in the building. Yet a woman survived a drop of seventy-five floors in an elevator after the cable lines broke as a result of the crash. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people say the Empire State Building looks like a giant pencil. They may be right. John Jacob Raskob was the business leader mainly responsible for the Empire State Building. The story goes that Raskob held up a pencil in front of the architects and asked them how high they could build it. VOICE ONE: Raskob chose the architects at Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. They planned for the top of the building to serve as a port for airships. But that never happened. The winds were too strong at that height. Still, the height of the building was useful for another purpose. NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, placed a television tower on the building in nineteen fifty. It was the most powerful transmitter in the world. Antennas on the Empire State Building still serve many communication needs. VOICE TWO: More than one hundred million people have visited the Empire State Building since it opened in May of nineteen thirty-one. It is very popular with people who visit New York City. But the building never became as popular with large companies as the developers had hoped. Today the building has about nine hundred tenants. Small businesses are the main occupants. The Empire State Building opened during the Great Depression. At that time few people were willing or able to pay for office space there. But the depression did cut in half the expected cost of putting up the building. The structure alone cost about twenty-five million dollars. The cost of the land brought the price to more than forty million. VOICE ONE: The Web site of the Empire State Building offers a virtual tour and use of cameras on top of the building to see New York City. The Web site is e-s-b-n-y-c dot com. Again, the Empire State Building is on the Internet at esbnyc.com. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Read and listen to our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ?Now we leave you with music that George Gershwin wrote for the opening of the Empire State Building in nineteen thirty-one. Here is "Rhapsody in Rivets." (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How Sigmund Freud Changed What People Thought of the Mind
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Sigmund Freud is on a lot of minds. This week is the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of his birth. VOICE ONE: So this is a good time to talk about his influence on the treatment of mental disorders through psychotherapy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sigmund Freud was born May sixth, eighteen fifty-six, in Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Freud studied medicine. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was developing some exciting new ideas about the human mind. Yet his first scientific publications dealt with sea animals, including the sexuality of eels. VOICE ONE: Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and reason. He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis. He wanted to see if putting patients into a sleep-like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only temporary. Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. He sat with his patients and listened. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All ideas, thoughts -- anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no holding back because of fear or guilt. VOICE TWO: Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the unconscious self. This part of the mind, he said, contains wishes, desires and experiences too frightening to recognize. If these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the patient would again feel the pain. But this time the person would experience them as an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally understand them. In this way, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly weakened. They would lose their hold over the person’s physical health. Soon the patient would get better. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sigmund Freud saw the mind as divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. Under this theory, the superego acts as a restraint. It is governed by the values we learn from our parents and society. The job of the superego is to help keep the id under control. The id is completely unconscious. It provides the energy for feelings that demand the immediate satisfaction of needs and desires. The ego provides the immediate reaction to the events of reality. The ego is the first line of defense between the self and the outside world. It tries to balance the two extremes of the id and the superego. VOICE TWO: Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual connections. These included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their mothers and daughters toward their fathers. If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Many others came to accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health. Professor James Gray at American University in Washington says three of Freud's major ideas are still part of modern thinking about the mind. One is the idea of the unconscious mind. Another is that we do not necessarily know what drives us to do the things we do. And the third is that we are formed more than we think in the first five years, but not necessarily the way Freud thought. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Freud was trained as a neurologist. He treated disorders of the nervous system. But physical sickness can hide deeper problems. His studies on the causes and treatment of mental disorders helped form many ideas in psychiatry. Psychiatry is the area of medicine that treats mental and emotional conditions. Freud would come to be called the father of psychoanalysis. VOICE TWO: Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy. It includes discussion and investigation of hidden fears and conflicts. Sigmund Freud used free association. He would try to get his patients to free their minds and say whatever they were thinking. He also used dreams and other methods to try to explore unconscious fears and desires. His version of psychoanalysis remained the one most widely used until at least the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Psychoanalysis is rarely used in the United States anymore. One reason is that it takes a long time; the average length in the United States is about five years. Patients usually have to pay for it themselves. Health insurance plans rarely pay for this form of therapy. Psychoanalysis has its supporters as well as its critics. Success rates are difficult to measure. Psychoanalysts say this is because each individual case, after all, is different. VOICE TWO: More recently, a number of shortened versions of psychological therapy have been developed. Some examples are behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavior is actions; cognition is knowing and judging. Some patients in therapy want to learn to find satisfaction in what they do. Others want to unlearn behaviors that only add to their problems. There might be a lot of talk about the past. Or patients might be advised to think less about the past and more about the present, and the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other kinds of therapy involve movement, dance, art, music or play. These are used to help patients who have trouble talking about their emotions. In many cases, therapy today costs less than it used to. But the length of treatment depends on the problem. Some therapies, for example, call for twenty or thirty visits. How long people continue their therapy can also depend on the cost. People find that health plans are often more willing to pay for short-term therapies than for longer-term treatments. VOICE TWO: Mental health experts say therapy can often help patients suffering from depression, severe stress or other conditions. For some patients, they say, a combination of talk therapy and medication works best. Today there are many different drugs for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional disorders. Critics, however, say doctors are sometimes too quick to give medicine instead of more time for talk therapy. Again, cost pressures are often blamed. Mental health problems can affect work, school and life in general. Yet they often go untreated. In many cases, people do not want others to know. VOICE ONE: Mental disorders are common to all countries. The World Health Organization estimates that mental, neurological or behavioral problems affect four hundred fifty million people at any given time. The W.H.O. says these disorders have major economic and social costs. Yet governments face difficult choices about health care spending. The W.H.O. says most poor countries spend less than one percent of their health budgets on mental health. There are treatments now for most conditions. Still, the W.H.O. says there are two major barriers. One is lack of recognition of the seriousness of the issue. The other is lack of understanding of the services that exist. VOICE TWO: The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, died on September twenty-third, nineteen thirty-nine. Freud left Vienna soon after troops from Nazi Germany entered Austria in nineteen thirty-eight. The Nazis had a plan to kill all the Jews of Europe, but they permitted Freud to go to England. His four sisters remained in Vienna and were all killed in Nazi camps. VOICE ONE: Freud was eighty-three years old when he died in London after a struggle with cancer. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children, became a noted psychoanalyst herself. Before Sigmund Freud, no modern scientist had looked so deeply into the human mind. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Going Biotech on the Farm: Second of Two Parts
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers from a number of countries were in Chicago recently for a convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. The Council for Biotechnology Information offered some of them to the media to discuss the need for new agricultural technologies. Last week we talked about a farmer from Spain who grows Bt maize. ?Today we talk about two American farmers. Al Skogen farms about one thousand six hundred hectares near Valley City, North Dakota. He, too, grows Bt maize. The corn is engineered with a gene from a bacterium poisonous to some insects. Mister Skogen also grows Roundup Ready soybeans. The Monsanto company genetically engineered this plant to resist glyphosate [gly-FOSS-ate], an herbicide it sells under the name Roundup. The poison kills unwanted plants, but it can also kill crop plants. Other seed producers make similar herbicide-resistant soybeans. Mister Skogen says he can now spray one herbicide on his crop two times a year, instead of different herbicides three times. He says he avoids having to till herbicide into the soil before planting. Mark Williams in West Texas grows more than one thousand hectares of cotton and almost five hundred hectares of corn. He uses strip tilling, a way to reduce the loss of topsoil. Global positioning technology helps place seed along a series of narrow lines plowed into the soil. Mister Williams grows Bt corn, but he plants about half of his fields with non-Bt corn. This area is meant as a refuge for insects. The aim is to keep them from becoming resistant to the poison made by the biotech plants. Mister Williams has grown both Bt cotton and Roundup Ready cotton. He says the Bt cotton usually does not need insecticide. And the herbicide-resistant cotton saves on time and labor. There is no need to remove weeds by hand during part of the growing season. With traditional crops, he says, farmers spend less money at planting time and more on pest control later. He says the biotech seed costs about two times as much as some non-biotech kinds, but it requires fewer chemicals. Both farmers say one of their biggest goals is to reduce the amount of chemicals they put into the environment. They say they understand that some people do not trust biotech crops. But they point out that the government says these crops are safe. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Forget 'Chicken' and 'Egg,' What Comes First With 'After' and 'Before'?
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker explains the use of the words "after" and "before." LIDA BAKER: "I'm going to say a few sentences and I just want you to tell me two things: Is the sentence correct? And if it's correct, which action happened first? Are you ready?" RS: "Let's go." LIDA BAKER: "OK, sentence number one: 'After I wash the dog, comma, I'll call my grandmother, period.'" RS: "That's good." LIDA BAKER: "So you think it's correct. OK, and which thing happened first: washing the dog or calling the grandmother?" RS: "Washing the dog." AA: "Washing the dog." LIDA BAKER: "That's correct. Let me give you another sentence: 'I'll wash the dog, period. Afterwards, or after that, comma, I'll call my grandmother, period." RS: "Sounds OK to me." AA: "Yeah." RS: "So you'll wash the dog first." LIDA BAKER: "That's right." AA: "I think there's a trick question number three coming up here." LIDA BAKER: "That's -- you know me so well, Avi [laughter]. Here comes number three: 'I'll wash the dog, period. After, comma, I'll call my grandmother, period.'" RS: "Now that's incorrect." LIDA BAKER: "Good! But that is the mistake that a lot of people learning English make." AA: "Why don't you say that again slowly, just so we catch it here." LIDA BAKER: "I'll wash the dog. After, I'll call my grandmother.'" RS: "You have no subject in there. After what?" AA: "What if you said 'After that, I'll call my grandmother'?" LIDA BAKER: "Exactly!" RS: "Or 'afterwards' -- " LIDA BAKER: "That's correct." RS: "Or 'afterwards,' you can say." LIDA BAKER: "That's right. So the confusion is that English has two different ways of connecting the actions that we're talking about. "We have the word 'after,' which in technical terms we can call a subordinator. It's used in what are called complex sentences, which consist of two parts and they have a comma in the middle.' "But we also have the word 'afterwards' or 'after that' which function in the say way. And what they do is they come at the beginning of a sentence and they have a comma after them." RS: "And they're transition words." LIDA BAKER: "They're transition words, right. So English has both of these. But there are some languages that have only one; they only have the word 'after.' So students who are unaware of the fact that English has two different ways of structuring the meaning here get confused and they put -- they overgeneralize and use the word 'after' and they put it in the wrong place. "Because what they don't understand is that in English -- and this is so counterintuitive, it's exactly the opposite of what you would expect if?you were learning this language -- the word 'after' signals the first event." RS: "It signals the end of the first event." LIDA BAKER: "Right. You can put it that way as well. But the point is, doesn't it make more sense that the word 'after' --if you put yourself in the position of an English learner, wouldn't it make more sense if the word 'after' signaled the second event? "Because there's this potential for confusion with the words 'before' and 'after.' And you can alleviate that confusion by avoiding those words and very simply writing 'and then.' "Now actually we haven't said anything yet about the word 'before.' But it's the same case. If I say, 'Every morning, I take a shower before I eat breakfast,' what happens first?" RS: "You take the shower." AA: "Yeah." LIDA BAKER: "You take the shower. And yet the second event starts with the word 'before.' See how confusing that is?" AA: "Ohhh." LIDA BAKER: "Here's how I would teach this: I would give students a set of written sentences containing the words 'before' and 'after.' And I would ask students to write the numbers one and two above the verbs, and identify which action happened first and which action happened second. And at the same time notice where we put the words 'before' and 'after,' so that they can begin to associate the words 'after' and 'before' with the appropriate action. In other words, the first action or the second action. So that's how I would start." AA: English teacher Lida Baker, in Los Angeles. Her newest book is a listening-speaking text called "Real Talk," published by Pearson/Longman. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our segments are all posted, at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Forensic Science Is Often Used to Solve Crimes
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about forensics – a special kind of medical science used to solve crimes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? From nineteen seventy-six to nineteen eighty-three, a military dictatorship in Argentina carried out a campaign to kidnap, torture and kill its critics. About twenty thousand men, women and children were lost in Argentina’s so-called “dirty war.”? The victims were never found and became known as the “disappeared.” The military government fell in nineteen eighty-three. The new civilian government invited forensic scientists from the United States to investigate the killings. Anthropologist Clyde Snow and a group of Argentinean university students discovered remains in hundreds of mass graves. The bones they collected helped prove the mass killings. In nineteen eighty-five, six of nine former Argentine military leaders were found guilty for the deaths of the “disappeared.” VOICE TWO: Clyde Snow and the Argentinean students used archeological techniques and laboratory methods to identify the “disappeared.” ?Clyde Snow says such forensic investigations are done for three reasons. CLYDE SNOW: “The first is to collect the forensic evidence in the hopes that eventually some justice can serve the needs, such as we did in the junta trial in Argentina.” Mister Snow says the second reason is to establish a historical record that can be used in a court of law. And a third reason for forensic investigations is to return any remains of victims to their families. VOICE ONE: Today, the work of forensic investigators has captured the public’s imagination. Several popular television shows, films and best-selling books have led to a new form of entertainment. In most situations, forensic investigators solve violent crimes. How does forensic medicine establish facts about something that is unexplained? How does it provide evidence that can be used against people guilty of violent crimes?? The answer is based on years of work by experts. VOICE TWO: French anthropologist Alphonse Bertillon created the first record-keeping system of criminals in eighteen seventy-nine in Paris. It included physical measurements and photographs of individual criminals. French police used the descriptive information to identify suspects. In eighteen eighty-four, Mister Bertillon used his system to help French police identify more than two hundred repeat criminals. Police in Europe and the Americas used the system as well. In time, law enforcement moved away from this system to fingerprint identification. Yet, parts of the system are still used today. These include the traditional “mug shot” or photograph of the suspected criminal after he or she is arrested. VOICE ONE: In the second half of the nineteenth century, forensic science became interested in other ways to identify criminals. In Argentina, police official Juan Vucetich developed the first workable system of fingerprint identification. In eighteen ninety-two, he was also the first person to successfully use fingerprint evidence in a murder investigation. The case involved the murder of two boys in a village near Buenos Aires. Police suspected a man linked to the boys’ mother. But the police could not get their suspect to admit to the crime. Investigators found a bloody fingerprint while studying the crime area. Mister Vucetich compared the fingerprint to those of the male suspect and the boys’ mother. The fingerprint matched one of the mother’s. When presented with the evidence, she admitted her guilt. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteenth century, low-cost manufactured chemicals began to be used in homes, farms and industry. Many of these chemicals were poisonous to humans. Poisoning became a method of killing that was sometimes hard to identify. So researchers developed toxicology as a kind of forensic medicine to help solve crimes. Toxicologists identify small amounts of poisons and other substances through a series of tests. Such tests might involve blood, bodily fluids, tissue or a piece of hair examined under a microscope. In fact, scientists can establish a person’s complete history of drug use by studying one small piece of hair. VOICE ONE: British chemist James Marsh developed the most famous toxicology test in eighteen thirty-six. The Marsh Test is used to identify small amounts of arsenic poison. Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila used the test in eighteen forty to help solve a disputed murder case in France. Mister Orfila is considered the “father of toxicology.”? He worked to make the study of chemicals a common part of forensic medicine. Today, researchers continue to discover new ways to separate, study and identify chemical substances in the body. One of the more modern technologies is gas chromatography, which separates substances. Another modern technology is mass spectrometry. This method measures the mass of molecules. Both help toxicologists identify very small amounts of poison in the bodies of victims. The technologies also help investigators collect evidence after a crime. VOICE TWO: Forensic radiology is another modern method used by investigators to solve crimes. Radiology can make images of what is hidden in the body. Forensic radiologists use X-rays, computer tomography and magnetic resonance imaging to follow the path of objects inside the body. Radiologists can use this technology to identify the remains of bodies destroyed beyond recognition. A forensic odontologist uses radiology to examine evidence related to teeth. Such technology helped solve a horrible crime in two thousand three in Switzerland. Three women were found beaten to death in a building near Zurich. One of the victims had a bite mark on her shoulder. Scientists created models of teeth and used radiological images to prove the guilt of a suspect. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, new technologies are changing forensic science. For example, investigators increasingly use genetic tests involving D.N.A. to identify people, including criminals. Every cell in every living thing contains D.N.A., the molecule that carries genetic information. In nineteen ninety-eight, D.N.A. tests helped identify an American soldier buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. First Lieutenant Michael Blassie had been shot down over South Vietnam in nineteen seventy-two. Almost twenty years later, his family received word that his remains might be buried in the cemetery near Washington, D.C. The family urged the Department of Defense to open the Tomb of the Unknowns and carry out D.N.A. tests on the damaged bones inside. A match was found and the remains of First Lieutenant Blassie were returned to his family in the state of Missouri. VOICE TWO: D.N.A. tests have been used to study blood and other bodily fluids to identify suspects of crimes. These tests have also shown that some people found guilty of crimes were really innocent. For example, in nineteen eighty-five, Kirk Bloodsworth was sentenced to death for the sexual torture and murder of a nine-year-old girl. A Maryland court found him guilty based on information from an unidentified person and reports that placed him near the crime area. No physical evidence had linked him to the killing. In prison, Bloodsworth learned about D.N.A. testing. With the help of his lawyer, he urged officials to compare his D.N.A. with evidence from the trial. The tests proved his innocence. Kirk Bloodsworth won his freedom in nineteen ninety-three. A nonprofit legal organization called The Innocence Project supported the case. The group is based in New York City. It was created to support the use of D.N.A. tests to help release innocent prisoners. The Project says more than one hundred seventy-five prisoners have been found innocent of their crimes because of D.N.A. testing. VOICE ONE: The use of forensic science to identify and punish violators of human rights has spread around the world. In two thousand five, there were forensic human rights investigations in more than thirty countries. Investigators have documented victims of mass murders as well as those responsible for the crimes. Anthropologist Clyde Snow says the “disappeared” in Argentina started the movement. CLYDE SNOW: “Our work in Argentina was the first in which the forensic sciences were used in the investigation of human rights abuses.” But experts say forensic teams work at great personal risk in countries where human rights violators remain in power. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Jill Moss. Our audio engineer was Wojciech Zorniak. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Midwestern U.S. Fights a Mumps Outbreak
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. States in the American Midwest are working to contain an outbreak of the mumps virus. Health workers are vaccinating college students and others who live or work close together. Mumps used to be common in the United States in babies, children and young adults. In nineteen sixty-seven, researchers developed a vaccine to prevent it. Mumps is usually not serious. There is a risk, however, that it can lead to problems like infection of the brain and hearing loss. In women it can cause failed pregnancies; in men it can cause testicular damage. Iowa is the state most affected by the outbreak. Since December, Iowa has reported more than one thousand cases of mumps, either confirmed or suspected. Health officials say young adults eighteen to twenty-five years old have had the highest number of cases in Iowa. This is the largest mumps outbreak in America in years. The United States has had an average of fewer than three hundred cases yearly since two thousand one. Mumps generally causes high body temperature, headaches, muscle pain and tiredness. It also causes painful swelling of salivary glands near the jaw line, especially below the ears. People with mumps are sick generally for about a week or so. Many people get mild cases. Some infected people never even get sick. The virus spreads easily. That can happen when infected people sneeze, cough, kiss or share food or drinks. People who touch surfaces with the virus on it can also get infected. Hand washing can help prevent the spread of mumps. There is no treatment. Most American children receive a combined vaccine to prevent mumps and two other diseases: measles and rubella. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the outbreak might have begun at a college. And it might have started with a traveler. Britain has been dealing with a mumps outbreak that has resulted in more than sixty thousand cases. C.D.C. officials note that the British cases have happened mostly in young adults who had only one injection of mumps vaccine or none at all. The experts say one vaccination should prevent about eight out of ten cases of mumps. Two should prevent about nine out of ten. Young adults in the Midwest are being urged to find out if they had one or two vaccinations as children, or any at all. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-03-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Maryland Educator Is Named National Teacher of the Year
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A twenty-nine-year-old kindergarten teacher from Maryland has been named National Teacher of the Year. On June first she will begin a year as a national and international spokeswoman for education. Kimberly Oliver is the first National Teacher of the Year from her state. She teaches five-year-old children at a public school in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. President Bush honored her and other top teachers last week at the White House. Kimberly Oliver says she wants people to understand that the first years of a child’s life are the most important for learning. She says investing in children at a very young age will result in great gains later in school and in life. She urges parents to read to children from an early age so they do not fall behind in school. One of the activities at her school is an event called “Books and Supper Night.”? Families read together at the school and receive free books to take home. Parents, children and teachers also eat dinner together. Broad Acres Elementary School is in a poor area. Many of the parents are immigrants with limited English. Kimberly Oliver has helped improve learning at her school. She has received money to buy electronic learning systems, tape players and books in English and Spanish to send home with students. Parents say she has shown them how to help their children at home. She was born and raised in Delaware. She holds one degree in English and another in elementary education. Kimberly Oliver will follow in the steps of another teacher from the Washington area as National Teacher of the Year. The current winner, Jason Kamras, was honored for his work teaching math to middle school students in the nation’s capital. The National Teacher of the Year program began in nineteen fifty-two. It is a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers, with support from the publisher Scholastic and the financial services company ING. A fourteen-member committee chooses from among teachers honored as the best in their state. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. Now here is a message for teachers:? If you teach with Special English, let us know. Tell us how, and for what ages and subjects. And don't forget to tell us where you are from. Write to special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-03-voa5.cfm
* Headline: America Turns Inward After World War One
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The years after World War One were an important turning point in the making of the American nation. The country turned away from the problems of Europe. Now it would deal with problems of its own. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the many changes in America during the early nineteen twenties. VOICE TWO: Woodrow WilsonThere was a presidential election in America in nineteen twenty. President Woodrow Wilson was not a candidate. He had suffered a stroke and was too sick. The two major candidates were Democrat James Cox and Republican Warren Harding. Voters had a clear choice between the two candidates. Cox supported the ideas of President Wilson. He believed the United States should take an active part in world affairs. Harding opposed the idea of internationalism. He believed the United States should worry only about events within its own borders. Warren Harding won the election. By their votes, Americans made clear they were tired of sacrificing lives and money to solve other people's problems. They just wanted to live their own lives and make their own country a better place. VOICE ONE: This was a great change in the nation's thinking. For twenty years, since the beginning of the century, the United States had become more involved in international events. Young Americans had grown up with presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Both Wilson and Roosevelt had active foreign policies. Both helped start the nation on the road to becoming a major world power. Then came World War One. It was like a sharp needle that bursts a balloon. The United States and the Allies won the war against Germany and the Central Powers. But thousands of American troops had died in the European conflict. And many months were taken up by the bitter debate over the peace treaty and the League of Nations. Most Americans did not want to hear about Europe and international peace organizations any more. VOICE TWO: Instead, Americans became more concerned with material things. During World War One, they had lived under many kinds of restrictions. The federal government had controlled railroads, shipping, and industrial production. At the end of the war, these controls were lifted. Industries that had been making war supplies began making products for a peacetime economy. Wages for most workers in the United States were higher than ever at the beginning of the nineteen twenties. Men and women had enough money to enjoy life more than they had in the past. VOICE ONE: Technology made it possible for millions of people to improve their lives. It also caused great changes in American society. Two of the most important new technologies were automobiles and radio. In the early years of the twentieth century, automobiles were very costly. Each one was built separately by a small team of skilled workers. Most Americans did not have the money to own an automobile. Then Henry Ford decided to make cars everyone could buy. He built them on an assembly line. Cars were put together, or assembled, as they moved slowly through the factory. Each worker did just one thing to the car before it moved on to the next worker. In this way, the Ford Motor Company could build cars more quickly and easily. And it could sell them for much less money. VOICE TWO: Before long, there were cars everywhere. All these cars created a need for better roads. Outside cities, most roads were made just of dirt. They were chokingly dusty in?dry weather and impassably muddy in the rain. They were rough and full of holes. Few bridges connected roads across rivers and streams. America's new drivers demanded that these problems be fixed. So, local and state governments began building and improving roads as they had never done before. As new roads were built, many new businesses opened along them. There were gasoline stations and auto repair shops, of course. But soon there were eating places and hotels where travelers could eat and sleep. In the nineteen-twenties, the United States was becoming a nation of car-lovers. VOICE ONE: Cars changed more than the way Americans traveled. They changed the way Americans lived. They removed some of the limitations of living conditions. For example, families with cars no longer had to live in noisy, crowded cities. They could live in suburbs -- the wide-open areas outside cities. They could use their car to drive to work in the city. Businesses moved, too. No longer did they have to be close to railroad lines. With new cars and trucks, they could transport their goods where they wanted, when they wanted. They were no longer limited by train times. Cars also made life on farms less lonely. It became much easier for farm families to go to town on business or to visit friends. VOICE TWO: Cars helped Americans learn more about their nation. In the nineteen twenties, people could drive all across the land for not much money. Places that used to be days apart now seemed suddenly closer. Families that normally stayed home on weekends and holidays began to explore the country. They drove to the seashores and lakeshores. To the mountains and forests. To places of historical importance or natural beauty. VOICE ONE: Not all the changes linked to the car were good, of course. Automobile accidents became more common and deadly. Other forms of transportation, such as railroads, began to suffer from the competition. Some railroads had to close down. Horses and wagons -- once the most common form of transportation -- began to disppear from city streets. There were not enough cars in the nineteen-twenties to cause severe air pollution. But the air was becoming less pure every year. And the roads were becoming more crowded and noisy. VOICE TWO: While the automobile greatly changed America's transportation, radio greatly changed its communication. The first radio station opened in the state of Pennsylvania in nineteen-twenty. Within ten years, there were hundreds of others. There were more than thirteen-million radio receivers. Most of the radio stations were owned by large broadcasting networks. These networks were able to broadcast the same program to stations all over the country. VOICE ONE: Most programs were simple and entertaining. There were radio plays, comedy shows, and music programs. But there also were news reports and political events. Millions of people who never read newspapers now heard the news on radio. Citizens everywhere could hear the president's voice. Like the automobile, radio helped bring Americans together. They were able to share many of the same events and experiences. VOICE TWO: Radio also was a great help to companies. Businesses could buy time on radio programs for advertisements. In these 'ads', they told listeners about their products. They urged them to buy the products: cars. Electric refrigerators. Foods. Medicines. In this way, companies quickly and easily created a nationwide demand for their goods. Automobiles and radios were not the only new technologies to change American life in the days after World War One. Still one more invention would have a great effect on how Americans spent their time and money. That was the motion picture. It will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will tell more about the social and political changes in America in the nineteen twenties. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will tell more about the social and political changes in America in the nineteen twenties. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Night Out at the Movies in Washington
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Daniel Kirch

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week… We play music from the Pointer Sisters… Answer a question about C-Span… And report about Filmfest D.C. Filmfest DC HOST: For twenty years Filmfest DC has brought movies from around the world to Washington, D.C. This twelve-day event took place in movie theatres all over the city. It ended on Sunday. Thousands of local movie fans enjoyed the latest examples of international cinema. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The festival celebrated its twentieth year with a special opening night party. Visitors saw the new British film “Wah- Wah” staring actor Gabriel Byrne. Mister Byrne was also a special guest that night. He talked about the movie and how it was made. The film is about a young British boy growing up in Africa in the nineteen sixties. Mister Byrne said that filming in Swaziland and learning about that country was one of the best experiences of his career. Filmfest DC movies dealt with two main subjects this year. One theme was the cinema of Brazil. Filmfest DC officials say Brazil is currently producing many energetic and creative movies. Audiences enjoyed ten examples of new Brazilian films and true-life documentaries. Another theme of the festival was hip-hop music. This kind of music started in America, but its influence and sounds have traveled all over the world. Several films explored hip-hop culture in countries like Morocco and Senegal. One movie is called “La Fabri-K”. It tells about a group of hip-hop musicians from Cuba. The musicians say their songs help express how young people feel in Cuba. The songs talk about social problems such as racial identity. In the movie, the Cuban rappers travel to the United States to perform. They talk about the differences between American and Cuban hip-hop culture. Filmfest DC also showed new movies from the United States. One film is called “Akeelah and the Bee”. It tells the story of Akeelah, a young girl with a special ability for spelling words. Her teacher helps the young girl compete in spelling competitions. Akeelah faces many difficulties with bravery and spirit. C-Span HOST: Our listener question this week is from Mohammed Shahrear Sarker. He wants to know what C-SPAN means. C-SPAN stands for “Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network.” C-SPAN is a private, non-profit service of the cable television industry. Its goal is to broadcast unedited, balanced programs showing government meetings and public policy events. C-Span offers three television channels and one radio channel. C-SPAN is a private business. But unlike other broadcasting stations, C-SPAN does not aim to make a profit. Cable television systems across the United States pay C-SPAN for its programs. It does not receive any money from the United States government. C-SPAN’s main purpose is to inform the American people about the work of their lawmakers. It also provides general information about political activities. America’s cable television industry created C-SPAN in nineteen seventy-nine. It broadcasts meetings of the United States House of Representatives. In nineteen eighty-two, C-SPAN expanded its programs to twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In nineteen eighty-six, C-SPAN two was created and began televising meetings of the United States Senate. It also presents programs about current events and issues. And it broadcasts a popular program on weekends called Book TV. C-SPAN three began broadcasting in nineteen ninety-seven. It shows public affairs events from Washington and around the country. It broadcasts meetings of Congressional committees, news conferences, meetings of political groups and speeches by political leaders. The C-Span radio program mainly offers a mix of programs from the three television networks. Today, eighty-five million homes in the United States can receive C-SPAN television. Estimates say more than twenty-eight million people watch C-SPAN each week. Internet users around the world can watch all three C-SPAN television channels and listen to C-SPAN radio online. Go to www.C-SPAN.org. The Pointer Sisters HOST: The Pointer Sisters have been a popular singing group since the nineteen seventies. The group started with four sisters. The youngest sister, June, died last month. She will be remembered through the songs she sang with her sisters. Steve Ember tells us more. STEVE EMBER: Music critics say the Pointer Sisters defined music of the nineteen seventies and eighties. The four sisters began singing when they were children. They sang with their two older brothers in their father’s church in Oakland, California. The sisters later formed a group and became popular during the nineteen seventies. Their first album, called “The Pointer Sisters,” was released in nineteen seventy-three. Their first hit song was “Yes We Can Can.” (MUSIC) The youngest sister, June, recorded two albums of her own. Here she sings “Love on the Line” from her album called “June Pointer.“ (MUSIC) In nineteen eighty-four the Pointer Sisters won two Grammy Awards for their songs “Automatic” and “Jump (For My Love.)”? Another of their songs remains popular today. We leave you with that song, “I’m So Excited,” by the Pointer Sisters. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Daniel Kirch. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Stock Options Take Bite Out of Earnings Statements
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve?Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, we described stock options. These are agreements that give investors the right to buy or sell shares of stock for a set price at a time in the future. For years, companies have used stock options as a form of pay. At first, only top officers in companies got them. The value of a stock option rises or falls with the price of a company stock. So this gave the people at the top a strong reason to do their jobs well. During the nineteen nineties, technology companies started to offer stock options to skilled workers. Many of these businesses were newly formed Internet companies. Soon stock options became a common form of pay in American businesses. Since options are linked to stock market prices, estimating their value can be difficult. Most companies did not report them as an expense, a cost of doing business. As a result, shareholders were not getting a true picture of a company's financial condition. New rules from the Financial Accounting Standards Board are meant to change that. The board is a private organization that establishes how financial reports should be prepared. Its work is officially recognized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The new rules start with the two thousand six financial year. Companies publicly traded in the United States must now treat options as an expense against earnings. Some already do. A company can deal with employee stock options in two ways. It can trade its own stock when an employee exercises an option. Or it can create additional stock. But more stock weakens the value of a company’s shares. In other words, either the company pays for the options or its shareholders pay. Since last year, company purchases of stock to pay for options have increased sharply. Standard & Poor's said in November that the new rules will cut earnings by more than four percent at companies on the S&P Five Hundred list. The financial rating agency says the information technology industry will see its earnings reduced the most, eighteen percent. In its last three-month period, expensed options cut fifteen percent from the earnings at Intel, the leading maker of computer processors. Standard & Poor's says some companies will have to report a loss as a result of the new rules. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. You can find the first part of our report on stock options at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Galbraith and Jacobs: Remembering Two Voices of the 20th Century
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Two influential thinkers of the twentieth century have died. John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist, died on April twenty-ninth at the age of ninety-seven. Jane Jacobs, a defender of cities, died April twenty-fifth at the age of eighty-nine. Jane Jacobs believed cities should be densely populated and full of different people and activity. She believed in the value of natural growth. She opposed the kind of city planning that involves big development and renewal projects that tear down old communities. She is best known for her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” published in nineteen sixty-one. Another book was "The Nature of Economies."? Yet she never finished college. Jane Jacobs was an activist in New York City. Her work defeated a road plan to build a big highway through the Greenwich Village area. She was also against the war in Vietnam. She had sons almost old enough to be called for duty. In nineteen sixty-eight the family moved to Canada. But she remained a community activist. Soon she was fighting a road plan in Toronto. Jane Jacobs had critics, and some people think it is time for other theories. But urban planning experts say her ideas shaped modern thinking about cities. For example, she supported mixed-use buildings as a way to increase social interaction. People live on the upper floors. The ground level has stores and offices. Mixed-used buildings are a lot more common in American cities than in the suburbs around them. But most population growth since World War Two has taken place in suburban areas. By two thousand, the Census Bureau says, half the population lived in suburbs. Jane Jacobs was born in the United States but lived and died in Canada. John Kenneth Galbraith was born in Canada but lived and died in the United States. Among his best-known books is “The Affluent Society,” from nineteen fifty-eight. He wrote that American society had too many goods but not enough social services that show people care about each other. He warned about widening divisions between the very rich and the very poor. John Kenneth Galbraith believed in the power of government to improve lives. He believed in a system of progressive taxes, and in public support for the arts and government involvement in education. He also supported the idea of public ownership of housing and medical services. A Democrat two meters tall, he advised presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson. He also advised officials in other countries. He was ambassador to India and taught economics at Harvard University for many years. Experts say John Kenneth Galbraith and Jane Jacobs led many to question not only how and where they want to live and work. It also led them to wonder what kind of society they wanted to leave for their children. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Eugene McCarthy: His 1968 Campaign Forced a President From Office
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Eugene McCarthy. His campaign for the presidency in nineteen sixty-eight increased popular opposition to the war in Vietnam. And it changed American history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Eugene McCarthy was a quiet and mentally gifted lawmaker from Minnesota. As a young man, he was interested in being a religious worker – or a baseball player. Later, he was a college professor. He wrote poetry. He also became active in Democratic Party politics. In the nineteen sixties, he was one of the first Democrats in the United States Congress to oppose the party leadership. He expressed opposition to the war Americans were fighting in Vietnam. And he forced a president from office. VOICE TWO:? Eugene McCarthy was born in nineteen sixteen in the town of Watkins, Minnesota. His father’s parents came from Ireland. His father bought farm animals and was a storyteller. His mother raised four children. Eugene completed a study program at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He continued his education at the University of Minnesota. There, he completed study programs in economics and sociology. ??McCarthy taught social sciences in public high schools for a few years. Then he taught economics, education and sociology at two colleges in Minnesota. He married another teacher, Abigail Quigley. They would later have four children. VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Eugene McCarthy worked as a technical aide for a military intelligence office of the War Department. He became active in the Democratic Party after the war. In nineteen forty-eight, he became head of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Ramsey County, Minnesota. That year he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He served five terms. ??In nineteen fifty-eight, McCarthy defeated a Republican Party Senator and won a seat in the United States Senate. Two years later, he became famous by speaking at the Democratic Party’s national nominating convention. He nominated Adlai Stevenson for president. But the Democrats chose John F. Kennedy as their candidate. In nineteen sixty-four, McCarthy easily won re-election to a second term in the Senate. He served in the Senate for a total of twelve years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-seven, opposition to the war the United States was fighting in Vietnam was growing. It had begun to harm President Lyndon Johnson’s popular and political support. In October, thousands of demonstrators marched in Washington, D.C. to protest the increasing conflict. Eugene McCarthy was a leader of the anti-war movement. McCarthy announced he would show his opposition to the war and to President Johnson. He asked Democrats for their support in the party’s presidential primary elections in nineteen sixty-eight. “There is only one thing to do – take it to the country!” he declared. VOICE ONE:? McCarthy made political campaign stops across the country. He said the American people were against the war for military, economic, diplomatic and moral reasons. And he said they wanted a change. He said: “Party unity is not a sufficient excuse for silence.”? He also said: “We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.”? Many young peace activists and college students worked on McCarthy’s presidential campaign. During the nineteen sixties, many students wore long hair and unusual clothing. But the students who worked for the McCarthy campaign changed their appearance. They cut their hair and wore nicer clothing. The media said these students became “Clean for Gene.”? His campaign for president was also called a “Children’s Crusade” because of the many young people involved. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Nineteen sixty-eight was a difficult year for the nation. It was filled with surprises, tragedy, violence and sadness. The primary election in New Hampshire was the first step of the presidential nominating process. McCarthy surprised experts by winning forty-two percent of the Democratic vote in the New Hampshire primary. That was just seven percentage points behind President Johnson. The results of this vote helped the anti-war movement. They showed the deep division within the Democratic Party. A few days after McCarthy’s success, Senator Robert Kennedy entered the race for the Democratic nomination for president. Robert Kennedy was a brother of President John Kennedy, who had been murdered in nineteen sixty-three. Robert Kennedy had served as the top government lawyer in his brother’s administration. Senator Kennedy also opposed the Vietnam War. Many people were pleased when he announced his plans to be a candidate. But McCarthy and his supporters were angry that Kennedy had entered the race. VOICE ONE: On March thirty-first, President Johnson spoke to Americans about the war in Vietnam and his efforts to limit it. At the end of his speech, President Johnson surprised the nation. He announced that he would not seek or accept the nomination of his party for another term as president. ? Another shocking event took place a few days later. On April fourth, the nation’s top civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior, was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. His death led to riots in more than one hundred cities. ??After the riots, Vice President Hubert Humphrey decided to seek the presidential nomination. Traditional Democrats supported him. McCarthy won Democratic primaries in four states. On June fourth, he lost the important California primary to Senator Kennedy. Then another tragic event happened. Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles shortly after giving his victory speech. VOICE TWO: In August, Democrats gathered in Chicago, Illinois for their nominating convention. Thousands of McCarthy supporters and war protesters also went to Chicago. Rioting and violent clashes broke out between the protesters and the city’s police force. I Inside the meeting place, delegates voted for the party’s presidential candidate. But having forced President Johnson out of office, McCarthy failed to win the nomination. The Democrats nominated Humphrey as their candidate to face the Republican candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon. Nixon defeated Humphrey in the election and became president. The war in Vietnam would continue for seven more years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After losing the fight for the nomination, McCarthy did not offer to help Vice President Humphrey. In fact, he did not express support for the Democratic candidate until a few days before the election. The next year he gave up his seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He separated from his wife of twenty-four years. He also announced he would not seek reelection to the Senate in nineteen seventy. After retiring from the Senate, McCarthy moved to Rappahannock County, Virginia. He lived alone near the Blue Ridge Mountains. He wrote books, poetry and stories for newspapers. VOICE TWO: McCarthy was a candidate for President four other times. But he was not taken seriously as a candidate. McCarthy became increasingly critical of the two-party system and traditional politicians, even Democrats. In nineteen eighty, he supported the Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan, for president over the Democrat, President Jimmy Carter. McCarthy remained active until the end of his life. In two thousand five, he published a collection of stories and poems. It is called “Parting Shots From My Brittle Bow: Reflections on American Politics and Life.” VOICE ONE: Eugene McCarthy died in two thousand five in Washington. He was eighty-nine years old. A memorial service was held at the Washington National Cathedral. Hundreds of people came to remember him. Among them were people who had worked on his campaign as college students. They said McCarthy had touched their lives with a message of hope. Former President Bill Clinton was one of the speakers at the service. He remembered that difficult year of nineteen sixty-eight. He said it all started when Eugene McCarthy was willing to stand alone and change history. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Paul's Case, Part One
* Byline: Written by Willa Cather

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "Paul's Case."? It was written by Willa Cather. "Paul's Case" will be told in two parts. Here is Kay Gallant with part one of the story. Storyteller: Paul hated school. He did not do his homework. He did not like his teachers. Paul's father did not know what to do with him. His teachers did not know either. One afternoon, all his teachers at Pittsburgh high school met together with him to discuss his case. Paul was late. When he entered the room his teachers sat waiting for him. He was tall for his age and very thin. His clothes were too small for him, but they were clean. He had a bright red flower in the button hole of his black jacket. One of the teachers asked paul why he had come to the meeting. Paul said politely that he wanted to do better in school. This was a lie. Paul often lied. His teachers began to speak. They had many complaints. One said Paul talked to the other students instead of paying attention to the lessons. Another said Paul always sat in class with his hands covering his eyes. A third teacher said Paul looked out the window instead of looking at her. His teachers attacked him without mercy. Paul's eyesbrows moved up and down as his teachers spoke. His smile never left his face, but his fingers shook as he touched the flower on his coat. At last the meeting was over. Paul's smile got even wider. He bowed gracefully and left the room. His teachers were angry and confused. The art teacher spoke for all of them when he said there was something about paul that he didn't understand. "I don't think he really means to be bad," he said. "There's just something wrong with that boy."? Then the art teacher remembered one warm afternoon when Paul had fallen asleep in his class. Paul's face was white with thin blue veins under the skin. The boy's face looked tired and lined, like an old man's. His eyebrows moved up and down, even in his sleep. After he left the meeting, Paul ran down the hill from the school whistling. He was late for his job at the concert hall. Paul was an usher there. He showed people to their seats. He carried messages for them. He brought them their programs with a polite bow. Everyone thought he was a charming boy and the best usher at the hall. When Paul reached the concert hall that evening, he went immediately to the dressing room. About six boys were already there. Paul began changing his clothes with excited hands. He loved his green uniform with the gold pockets and design. Paul rushed into the concert hall as soon as he had changed clothes. He ran up and down the hall, helping people. He became more and more excited. His face became pink and his eyes seemed larger and very bright. He looked almost handsome. At last everyone was seated. The orchestra began to play and Paul sat down with a sign of relief. The music seemed to free something in Paul's spirit. Then a woman came out and began to sing. She had a rich, strong soprano voice. Paul felt truly happy for the first time that day. At the end of the concert Paul went back to the dressing room. After he had changed his clothes again he went outside the concert hall. He decided to wait for the singer to come out. While he waited he looked across the street to the large hotel called "The Schenley."? All the important people stayed at The Schenley when they visited Pittsburgh. Paul had never been inside it, but he used to stand near the hotel's wide glass doors. He liked to watch the people enter and leave. He believed if he could only enter this kind of a hotel, he would be able to leave school, his teachers, and his ordinary, gray life behind him. . . forever. At last the singer came out of the concert hall. Paul followed her as she walked to the hotel. He was part of a large crowd of admirers who had waited to see her. When they all reached the hotel, she turned and waved. Then the doors opened and she disappeared inside. Paul stared into the hotel as the doors slowly closed. He could feel the warm, sweet air inside. And for a moment, he felt part of a golden world of sparkling lights and marble floors. He thought about the mysterious dishes of food being served in the hotel's dining room. He thought about green bottles of wine growing cold in silver buckets of ice. He turned away from the hotel and walked home. He thought of his room with its horrible yellow wallpaper, the old bed with its ugly red cover. He shook his head. Soon he was walking down the street where he lived. All the houses on Cordelia Street were exactly alike. Middle class businessmen had bought them for their families. All their children went to school and to church. They loved arithmetic. As Paul walked toward his house he felt as if he were drowning in ugliness. He longed for cool colors and soft lights and fresh flowers. He didn't want to see his ugly bedroom or the cold bathroom with its cracked mirror and gray floor. Paul went around to the back of his father's house. He found an open window and climbed into the kitchen. Then he went downstairs to the basement. He was afraid of rats. But he did not want to face his own bedroom. Paul couldn't sleep. He sat on the floor and stared into the darkness until morning came. The following Sunday Paul had to go to church with his family. Afterwards, everyone came home and ate a big dinner. Then all the people who lived on Cordelia Street came outside to visit each other. After supper Paul asked his father if he could visit a friend to get some help with his arithmetic. Paul left the house with his school books under his arm. But he didn't go to his friend's house. Instead he went to see Charley Edwards. Charley was a young actor. Paul liked to spend as much time as he could at the theater where Charley Edwards and his group acted in their plays. It was only at the theater and the concert hall that Paul felt really alive. The moment he smelled the air of these places he felt like a prisoner suddenly set free. As soon as he heard the concert hall orchestra play he forgot all the ugly, unpleasant events in his own life. Paul had discovered that any kind of music awakened his imagination. Paul didn't want to become a musician, however. He didn't want to become an actor, either. He only wanted to be near people who were actors and musicians. He wanted to see the kind of life these artists led. Paul found a schoolroom even worse after a night at the theater or the concert hall. He hated the school's bare floors and cracked walls. He turned away from his dull teachers in their plain clothes. He tried to show them how little he thought of them and the studies they taught. He would bring photographs of all the actors he knew to school. He would tell the other students that he spent his evenings with these people at elegant restaurants. Then he would announce that he was going away to Europe or to California, or to Egypt for a while. The next day he would come to school smiling nervously. His sister was ill, he would say. But he was still planning to make his trip next spring. Paul's problems at school became worse. Even after the meeting with his teachers, things did not get better. He told them he had no time to study grammar and arithmetic. He told them he had to help the actors in the theater. They were old friends of his. Finally, his teachers went to Paul's father. He took Paul out of school and made him get a job. He told the manager at the concert hall that Paul could not work there anymore. His father warned the doorman at the theater not to let Paul into the place. And Charley Edwards promised Paul's father not to see Paul again. All the actors at the theater laughed when they heard about the stories Paul had been telling. The women thought it was funny that Paul had told people he took them out to nice restaurants and sent them flowers. They agreed with the teachers and with his father that Paul's was a bad case. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have just heard part one of the American story "Paul's Case."? It was written by Willa Cather. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant.Listen again next week at this time for the final part of "Paul's Case" told in Special English on the Voice of America. I'm Steve Ember. You have just heard part one of the American story "Paul's Case."? It was written by Willa Cather. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant.Listen again next week at this time for the final part of "Paul's Case" told in Special English on the Voice of America. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Medical Terms:? Doctors Give Me a Clean Bill of Health
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Many professions have their own words and expressions. This is true for the medical profession. Doctors use many technical terms that most people do not understand. But there are also expressions we use every day to tell about a person’s health. Let me explain. Last month, I was not feeling well. I was under the weather. I thought I had caught a cold. I had a runny nose, itchy eyes, a sore throat and a cough. I felt tired and run down. I was in poor condition because I had not been getting enough rest. My body hurt all over. I also had severe head pains -- a real splitting headache. And I was running a fever. My body temperature was higher than normal. At one point, I blacked out. That’s right, I was out cold. I lost consciousness and my friend had to bring me around. He used cold water on my face to restore my consciousness. I grew concerned that I might take a turn for the worse. I did not want to become sicker because then surely I would be at death’s door. ? My friend took me to the doctor. I told the doctor I thought I had come down with a cold. When the doctor saw me, she immediately wanted to run some tests. She said that medical tests would help her discover why I was sick. The doctor also asked when I had my last physical. I do not get yearly check-ups. But I probably should get a medical exam by a doctor every year. Then the nurse drew my blood. She used a needle to take a small amount of blood from my arm. She sent it to a laboratory for tests. The nurse also took my temperature. She used a thermometer to measure my body temperature. The doctor told me I had influenza, or the flu. But she told me I would recover soon. She said I was over the worst of the disease. She told me to rest at home and to stay away from other people because the flu can spread. It is contagious. Thankfully, I did not have to go under the knife. I did not need an operation. Instead, I did just what the doctor ordered. I went home and did exactly what was needed to become healthy again. Soon, I was on the mend. I was pulling through and recovering from my sickness. Now, I am back on my feet. I am physically healthy again. Even better, the doctor has given me a clean bill of health. She says that I am one-hundred percent cured. I am back to normal and I feel great. In fact, I feel on top of the world. My friends say I now look like the picture of health. (MUSIC)????????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Financial Product Lets Investors Support Independent Media
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Investors are being offered a new way to support independent media in developing countries. The Swiss private bank Vontobel and the social investment group responsAbility launched the offering last week. They say the new product will provide not just a financial return, but "social added value."? They say it is a chance to invest in press freedom with a moderate level of risk. Vontobel spokeswoman Claudia Kraaz says the new financial product will be listed on the Swiss Exchange starting May eighteenth. The product combines two things. One is a bond-like investment. The other is a loan to a New York non-profit organization, the Media Development Loan Fund. The goal is to raise twenty million Swiss francs, about sixteen million dollars. Twenty percent of that will go into the loan. Interest on the loan will be charged at a rate of one percent. The announcement said Bank Vontobel and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation will guarantee the product is tradable at all times. And they will guarantee that investors can resell it, if necessary, before the end of the five-year term. The Media Development Loan Fund will use the money for low-cost financing of projects in developing democracies. The group has financed independent media companies in seventeen countries. The money is used for such things as broadcasting equipment, computers and printing presses. The Media Development Loan Fund currently has out about thirty million dollars in loans. Spokesman Peter Whitehead tells us that loan losses are three percent. Sasa Vucinic started the Media Development Loan Fund in nineteen ninety-five. He was chief of independent Radio B-92 in Serbia. He calls the new investment product a "truly revolutionary step."? He says it could provide an example for using private finance to support other social projects around the world. The announcement came on May third, World Press Freedom Day. The group Reporters Without Borders said at least sixty-three journalists and five media assistants were killed worldwide last year. It says more than one thousand three hundred media workers were attacked or threatened, the most since nineteen ninety-five. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Chicago: Some Big Places to See in the 'City of the Big Shoulders'
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week: some places to see in Chicago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Early last century, the poet Carl Sandburg described Chicago, Illinois, as the “City of the Big Shoulders.”? That still seems right. Chicago does a lot of things in a big way. For example, the city is a big transportation center in the Midwest for trains, trucks, ships and planes. Manufacturing is one of the biggest industries in Chicago. Chicago lakefront areaAnd Chicago has one of America’s busiest ports. The city stretches for about forty kilometers along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. The Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in nineteen fifty-nine. It connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Chicago is big on music. Visitors can find all kinds, from classical to hip-hop. Some of the best places for jazz and blues are along Rush Street. There are lots of things to see and hear in Chicago. At the Art Institute of Chicago, people can see fine Asian art and much more. At the Museum of Science and Industry, visitors crowd a working coal mine and a World War Two submarine. At the Adler Planetarium, people see stars and learn about space. And at the Shedd Aquarium, they see colorful fish and learn about life under the sea. VOICE ONE: Not surprisingly Chicago has a lot of big buildings. The two tallest are the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building. Many people take architectural tours around Chicago. There are many interesting landmarks and building designs to see. The Wrigley Building, near the Chicago River, opened in the early nineteen twenties. This office building is hard to miss. It is bright white. Downtown Chicago, the business center, is known as the Loop. There are many offices and stores. The Loop includes the financial district around LaSalle Street. The financial district is home to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Stock Exchange and many banks. (MUSIC) VOICE? TWO:? Another big thing to see, and feel, is the weather. After all, another name for Chicago is the "Windy City."? People turn their shoulders to the strong winds off Lake Michigan. In winter, Chicago gets a lot of snow; in summer, the weather is hot and sticky. Almost three million people live in Chicago. Chicago is America's third largest city, after New York and Los Angeles. More than nine million people live in surrounding communities. Over the years many immigrants have settled in Chicago. Many of its people have ethnic roots in Poland, Germany, Ireland and Italy. More recent immigrants have come from all over the world. Today just under half the population of the city of Chicago is non-Hispanic white. The city has large black and Hispanic populations. Four percent of the people are Asian. VOICE ONE: When people in Chicago want to be outdoors, one place to go is Millennium Park. In this City of Big Shoulders, almost everything about Millennium Park is big. It covers ten hectares. It took almost nine years to finish. Millennium Park is on Michigan Avenue near Lake Michigan. It officially opened in two thousand four. It cost four hundred seventy-five million dollars. Millennium Park has gardens and places for music, dance and ice skating. It also has one of the largest outdoor sculptures in the world. Anish Kapoor of Britain created this work of public art. It weighs one hundred ten tons. A huge rounded form of shiny steel captures a looking-glass image of the Chicago skyline and the clouds above. The sculpture is called “Cloud Gate.”? VOICE TWO: The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa designed the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park. The fountain is surely one of the most unusual in the world. The artist set a pool of water between two tall glass towers. Video images appear on the towers. The images are a series of pictures of nature and people’s faces. The water appears to pour from their mouths. The faces represent the many different people of Chicago. VOICE ONE: Millennium Park has music in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The architect Frank Gehry designed this modern-looking structure. It can seat four thousand people under its open-top steel ribbons. There is also an area called the Great Lawn to listen to the music. The sound system makes the music seem like it is coming from inside a concert hall. The pavilion is a home for the Grant Park Music Festival. Listen as the Grant Park Symphony plays “Julius Caesar: Symphonic Epilogue After Shakespeare," Opus Twenty-eight, composed by Robert Kurka. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In?warm weather, people eat outdoors in the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink in Millennium Park. In winter, skaters come out to enjoy the ice. Visitors can also walk and ride bicycles in several areas of the plaza. An indoor space has room for three hundred bicycles. There are also places where people who ride their bikes to work can clean up and change clothes. Another part of Millennium Park is the Lurie Garden. This one-hectare area is bordered by what is called the "Shoulder Hedge."? Trees almost five meters tall form a living wall around the garden. "Shoulder" in this case is meant to honor the poet Carl Sandburg. One hundred thirty-eight kinds of plants grow in the Lurie Garden. VOICE ONE: Many people enjoy the activities at Millennium Park. But critics wonder why the city needed a park so big and costly. They say the city should have spent the money instead on its more than six hundred public schools. They say it could have helped the poor. Twenty-one percent of people in the city of Chicago were living below the poverty level in two thousand four. The official poverty rate nationally that year was about thirteen percent. VOICE TWO: Other people say Millennium Park has improved the appearance of the area where it was built. The mayor and many other city leaders believed a big park would bring more people, more homes and more businesses to the area. Mayor Richard M. DaleyMayor Richard M. Daley is the son of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. The father is still remembered for his control over the local Democratic Party organization. The city has not elected a Republican mayor since nineteen fifteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? Another big development, the Chicago Cultural Center, stands across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park. It contains the city's official Visitor Information Center. It is also a showplace for the arts. The building that now houses the cultural center was completed in eighteen ninety-seven. It held the first permanent collection of the Chicago Public Library. It served as library headquarters until nineteen ninety-one. There are white walls made of marble from Carrara, Italy. And there are two Tiffany domes. The bigger dome is one of the largest Tiffany designs in the world. It rises almost twelve meters above the floor. People say the restored Chicago Cultural Center looks like a home for kings and queens. Some call it “the People’s Palace.” VOICE TWO: Visitors can listen to all kinds of music at the Chicago Cultural Center. For example, Monday through Friday, there are free LunchBreak Concerts. Listen now to Middle Eastern music performed by Safwan Matni, a popular LunchBreak Concert guest artist. (MUSIC) Dancers from Hubbard Street Two in Chicago have also performed at the Cultural Center. Hubbard Street Two is a six-member dance group. It trains promising dancers between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five. They perform works by young choreographers. VOICE ONE: Carl Sandburg would probably not have been surprised by big projects like the Chicago Cultural Center and Millennium Park. The poet wrote: “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive … ” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you with Frank Sinatra singing about "My Kind of Town." (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Replacement Bladder, Grown in the Lab From Patients' Own Cells
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week: Human organs grown in a laboratory ... VOICE ONE: Health and the power of prayer ... VOICE TWO: And scientists fill a missing link in the fossil record between fish and land animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Seven young people with diseased bladders have received new organs grown from their own cells. Doctors in the United States have described the experimental treatment in a report published in the Lancet. The seven children and teenagers were born with incomplete closure of the backbone. This disorder affected their bladder, the small organ that stores the body's liquid wastes. High pressure from bladder disease can damage the kidneys. Also, their bladders leaked urine, as often as every thirty minutes. VOICE TWO: Doctor Anthony Atala began work on engineering bladders in nineteen ninety. Nine years later, he operated on the first patient. The seven patients were ages four to nineteen. At the time, he directed a tissue engineering program at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. In two thousand four Doctor Atala moved to the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina. He directs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. VOICE ONE: The organs are grown from bladder cells and muscle cells taken from the patient. Through the process of culturing, the cells divide and grow in the laboratory. The cells are placed on a structural form shaped like a bladder. Cells are placed on top of cells on top of other cells. Doctor Atala compares the process to making a layer cake. The bladder is then warmed. The cells continue to grow until the new organ is ready. Doctors then remove part of the diseased bladder and attach the new one, still connected to the structure. The form is made of material that breaks down in the body. The body can reject tissue that comes from another person. In this case, since it grew from the patients' own cells, there was no risk of rejection. VOICE TWO: The complete process takes about two months. The doctors report that so far, the engineered bladders have worked well. The seven patients must empty them through a tube. But the leakage problem improved and, most importantly, the dangerous pressure eased. Doctors for a century have used tissue from the intestines to repair bladders. But problems are common with this method. Testing of the new bladders will continue. Doctor Atala is now working to produce twenty different tissues and organs, including hearts. He says regenerative medicine could someday be an answer to the shortage of replacement organs around the world. VOICE ONE: Sixteen-year-old Kaitlyne McNamara, one of Doctor Atala's patients, has had her new bladder for five years. Before that, her kidneys were close to failure. Now they are working well. And she says her quality of life has improved now that accidental leaks have stopped. She says she no longer has to worry about people making fun of her. (MUSIC) You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. VOICE TWO: A study that was supposed to end debate about the power of prayer has instead added to it. The Study of Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer, or STEP, is the largest prayer research project ever completed. Intercessory prayer is when a person prays for another person. STEP began in ninety ninety-nine and involved researchers from six medical centers in the United States. The study cost more than two million dollars. Most of it came from the John Templeton Foundation in Pennsylvania. That private group works on issues of religion and science. The researchers studied just over one thousand eight hundred hospital patients with heart disease. Each person had a coronary artery bypass graft. Doctors perform this operation when blood flow to the heart muscle is restricted. VOICE ONE: One of the study leaders was Jeffrey Dusek of Harvard Medical School. He says the main goal was to learn if intercessory prayer, or the knowledge of receiving it, would influence the patients and their recovery. The researchers asked members of three Christian groups to say the same prayers for about two-thirds of the patients. No one was asked to pray for the others. Two of the religious groups were Catholic and the other Protestant. Each member received the name of one patient. Half of those named in the prayers were told that someone was praying for them. Those in the other half were told that someone might pray for them. The praying started the day before the operation and continued for fourteen days. VOICE TWO: The study noted any medical complications for thirty days after the operations. The researchers say there were problems in fifty-nine percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for. That compared to fifty-two percent of the patients who were named in prayers but were not sure if someone was praying for them. And it compared to fifty-one percent of the patients who were not named in prayers. The scientists say all three groups had similar rates of major complications and death within the thirty days. They say the findings show that intercessory prayer itself had no effect on a complication-free recovery. But they say people who knew they were receiving it were more likely to have problems. Some researchers involved with the study say telling patients that someone is praying for them might increase their worries about their condition. VOICE ONE: The American Heart Journal published the findings. The researchers say all the patients had similar religious beliefs and most believed in spiritual healing power. Many of the patients said family and friends would be praying for them. And researchers expected that some patients would pray for themselves. Researcher Herbert Benson from Harvard Medical School says the study does not mean people should stop praying for others. Doctor Benson says the study raises more questions than answers. It has also raised criticisms. These include the argument that studies of religious or spiritual effects on health are a waste of time and money. Some say people believe in prayer because it has worked for them or someone they know. ?Others say research money would be better spent on treatments based on medical science. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have evidence of a fish that lived three hundred seventy-five million years ago. They suspect it was among the first sea creatures to walk on land. Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago and Edward Daeschler with the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia reported the discovery. Their team found several fossil remains of the fish on Ellesmere Island in northern Canada. The fish measured between one and three meters long. The scientists say it had extended fins to help with balance and swimming. But they also note qualities that suggest the beginnings of a land creature. The fossils have simple, hand-like structures that show the beginnings of fingers. There is also evidence of wrists, elbows and shoulders. The fish had a flat head, a neck and other similarities to four-legged land animals known as tetrapods. The first tetrapods lived about three hundred sixty-five million years ago. VOICE ONE: The scientists call the ancient fish Tiktaalik [tic-TAH-lick] roseae. Tiktaalik is a word known to people native to Canada’s Nunavut Territory, where the fossils were discovered. It means a large fish that swims in low water. The scientists say Tiktaalik was a freshwater fish. At that time, weather on Ellesmere Island was much warmer. The area was then part of a continent near the equator. The magazine Nature published the discovery. It also published comments by two independent scientists. Both describe Tiktaalik as a clear link between fishes and the first animals to live on land. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Building a Windbreak to Protect Crops
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I'm Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land from damage by farming and the forces of nature. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. There have been studies done on windbreaks in parts of West Africa, for example. These found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks compared to fields without such protection. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA, now part of EnterpriseWorks/VITA, is on the Web at vita.org. Internet users can read and listen to our Agriculture Reports at voaspecialenglish dot com. And if you have a question, send it to special@voanews.com. Make sure to include your name and tell us where you are from. We might be able to answer your question on the air, but please know that we cannot answer questions personally. This VOA Special Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Venus Express Spacecraft Explores Earth’s Mysterious Sister Planet
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter and Daniel Kirch

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a NASA space vehicle orbiting Mars. We also hear what it is like to live in space. But first, we tell about Venus Express, the European Space Agency vehicle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Venus is almost the same size as Earth. Its orbit brings it closer to us than any other planet. But its atmosphere remains a mystery. Last month, the European Space Agency successfully deployed a space vehicle that will study the atmosphere and surface of Venus in greater detail. It is called Venus Express. VOICE TWO: Venus Express carries seven instruments that measure different kinds of electro-magnetic radiation. They include a camera, radar and a device that captures space particles. The vehicle started to take some pictures of Venus on April twelfth. These were the first images of Venus’s south pole. The spacecraft’s final orbit will take it as close as two hundred fifty kilometers above the planet. VOICE ONE: The European Space Agency launched Venus Express November ninth from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The agency chose to send a vehicle to Venus to study the planet’s mysterious climate. Venus is so much like Earth in size and substance that it is called our sister planet. Yet, its surface is anything but Earth-like. The planet’s surface temperature is more than four hundred degrees Celsius. Scientists want to find out why and how Venus became so hot. Earlier explorations of the planet seem to suggest that there were once oceans on Venus. But those oceans heated up and boiled away. VOICE TWO: The thick atmosphere of Venus now has only very small amounts of gaseous water and nitrogen. Ninety-seven percent of the atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is known as a greenhouse gas because it traps heat. Scientists believe carbon dioxide is one of the causes of the planet’s extreme climate. The atmosphere of Venus holds another mystery. Winds cause the upper layers of atmosphere to travel around the planet at up to three hundred fifty kilometers an hour. That is much faster than Venus rotates. In fact, Venus is the slowest spinning planet in the solar system. It rotates only once every two hundred forty-three Earth days. Venus Express will measure wind speeds and temperatures at different areas of the planet. Scientists hope the spacecraft will help answer some of the questions about the planet’s climate. They also hope that study of the extreme? atmosphere will help increase understanding of our own complex climate system. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mars, like Venus, is similar to Earth in some ways. Several spacecraft are exploring the fourth planet. The most recent to arrive is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The American space agency’s Orbiter arrived near the planet on March tenth. Last month, the spacecraft took its first pictures to test the abilities of its cameras. The Orbiter carries special cameras that will take pictures useful to scientists studying the atmosphere, surface and geology of Mars. VOICE TWO: NASA says the Orbiter is carrying the most powerful telescopic camera that has ever traveled to another planet. It is called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera. It is expected to be able to take pictures showing objects smaller than one meter. The camera will take pictures of only one percent of the surface of Mars during the whole project. This is because of the high power and narrow field of the images taken. The Context Camera will take pictures showing more of the surface. And the Mars Color Imager will take pictures of changes in the Martian atmosphere. VOICE ONE: The Orbiter serves several purposes. Many of them are related to the search for water and conditions in which life could exist. Scientists will use the spacecraft to study the surface of Mars in more detail than ever before. And they will search the atmosphere for signs of water and a form of molecular oxygen called ozone. Special instruments on the spacecraft are designed to search for evidence of water. The Shallow Subsurface Radar will look a little beneath the surface for signs of ice and possibly liquid water. Cameras will look for evidence of ancient landforms caused by liquid water and possible recent ones. Another instrument will inspect in detail what minerals are present on Mars. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars will analyze light to look for minerals that may have formed with the help of water.The Orbiter will also provide highly detailed images of possible places for future spacecraft to land. VOICE TWO: NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on August twelfth. The Orbiter is expected to perform experiments and take pictures for two years. But it has not reached its final orbit. By November, it should settle in an almost circular orbit about three hundred kilometers from Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people wonder what life in space is like. But, in many ways, life in space is not too different from life on Earth. Astronauts wear normal clothes, eat almost normal food, sleep every night – and have fun. Yet, life in space can also be strange when compared to life on solid ground. VOICE TWO: Many people wonder what kind of clothes astronauts wear when they are working in space. At the International Space Station, astronauts wear clothes they would wear on Earth. For example, they wear normal shirts, shorts and pants. But astronauts have to wear these clothes much longer than on Earth. To save water, there is no washing machine on the Space Station. There also is not enough room to store clothes on the Space Station. So, crews do not change their clothes very often. NASA says crewmembers change their shirts every ten days. They change their underwear every second day. They place old clothes and other waste in a container that falls to Earth and burns up in the atmosphere. However, astronauts must wear special? clothing for launch and landing. Crewmembers on the American Space Shuttle wear Launch and Entry Suits. These suits cover the whole body. They are designed to maintain the right amount of air pressure around the astronaut. VOICE ONE: When astronauts are done with their work, they can decide how to spend the rest of their day. As on Earth, they may want to have fun in their free time. NASA says it is important for astronauts to have fun, especially when they are staying on the International Space Station for a long time. So, scientists who plan the missions try to give astronauts enough free time. Astronauts can watch movies, read books, play games and talk to their families. There are also devices for exercise. Many astronauts simply enjoy looking out of the window. On the Space Shuttle, astronauts can also look out of the pilot’s window to observe the Earth below. Or they can watch the sun rise and set, which takes place every forty-five minutes. VOICE TWO: To do their work carefully, astronauts need enough sleep. They usually sleep for about eight hours. But in space, there is no up and down. Everything is weightless. So, astronauts can sleep in any position. For safety reasons, however, they have to attach themselves to a wall or a seat so they do not float around. Space Station crews are awakened by sound from a clock. But, the crew of a Space Shuttle is traditionally awakened with music. Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, plays musical requests. The wake-up music can be rock and roll, country, western or classical music. VOICE ONE: Astronauts eat three times a day: in the morning, at noon and in the evening. Food experts plan their diet so the astronauts get a balanced supply of healthy food that includes vitamins and minerals. Food scientists at the Space Food System Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston research and develop special food for space missions. Months before, astronauts can choose what kind of food they would like to eat during their trip. For example they can choose different kinds of fruits, meat and seafood. But the foods must be easy to prepare and eat. Astronauts can heat their food in an oven. But there is no way to cool food. Astronauts also have drinks like coffee and tea. But, some things are very different than they are on Earth. Astronauts cannot use normal salt or pepper because it would float away. So food scientists have developed liquid salt and pepper for use in space. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Daniel Kirch and Mario Ritter who was also the producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-09-voa4.cfm
* Headline: UNICEF Says China Meets Child Nutrition Goal, Urges Other Nations to Do More
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. A new report from the United Nations says the world must do much more to reduce the number of underweight children. It says one in four children under the age of five is seriously underweight. Malnourished children face increased risk of disease and early death. Poor nutrition is linked to more than half of all child deaths. Experts say it is a cause in more than five and one-half million deaths each year in children under five years old. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, published the report last week. The report measures progress toward reaching the first Millennium Development Goal: reducing extreme poverty and hunger. In two thousand, world leaders approved a list of eight goals to reach within fifteen years. The aim is to improve the lives of the world’s poor. UNICEF says China has already met the target of a fifty percent reduction in the number of underweight children. It says China has cut the rate from nineteen percent to eight percent. A growing economy and government efforts to reduce poverty and improve nutrition are given credit. But UNICEF says at current rates, the goal of cutting malnutrition in half worldwide will not be met. It says rates of underweight children in developing countries have dropped by just five percentage points since nineteen ninety. The head of UNICEF,? Ann Veneman, says nutrition affects life at every point of development, starting before a child is even born. But she says too many people do not know about its importance, and how serious a problem there is around the world. UNICEF says about one hundred forty-six million children in developing countries, twenty-seven percent, are underweight. It says the problem is worst in South Asia. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have half the world’s underweight children. The report says almost one-third of children in southern and eastern Africa are undernourished. The problem is fueled by conflict, food crises and widespread disease. The report says only one country, Botswana, is making enough progress to reach the goal by two thousand fifteen. UNICEF says food aid alone is not enough to solve the problem of undernourished children. Still, it says adding nutrients such as iron, iodine and vitamin A to foods would help protect the lives of millions. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-09-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Like It or Not, a Discourse Marker Making Its Mark on a Wider Stage
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster: a report from NBC News that caught our attention. RS: It's about a word that is spreading like no other. (MUSIC) FEMALE: "Like, I saw these guys who, like, were really cute." MALE: "And he was, like, 'Yeah' and I was, like, 'What do you mean?" FEMALE: "Because, like ... " MALE: "Are you listening to me? Like, you are not listening to me." AL ROKER: "It's, like, everywhere." MALE: "You got, like, three feet of air that time." AL ROKER: "It's used in commercials." FIRST ACTOR: "Just gives you the feeling, like, she's not, like, listening to me." SECOND ACTOR: "Have you tried not saying 'like' every other word?" FIRST ACTOR: "What?" AL ROKER: "It's used by celebrities." ROSEANNE BARR: "Like, if it was, like, a psychic thing and he was, like, 'OK Roseanne ... '" AL ROKER: "It's even, like, used by our president." PRESIDENT BUSH: "And, like, citizens, you know, I don't like that at all"/"If I think the story is, like, not a fair appraisal, I'll move on." MALE: "It gets out of control. It's like a like crisis." FEMALE: "Like totally, dude!" AL ROKER: "The word like has gone from California slang to worldwide phenomenon." CARMEN FOUGHT: "Like is what we call a discourse marker, which means, like 'um' or 'uh,' it takes the place of a little section where you're thinking." ACTRESS: "He went from, like, totally chic to totally geek." AL ROKER: "So, like, when did it all begin? Experts say the 1983 movie 'Valley Girl' put the term on the map." MOVIE: "Man, he's just like trippindicular, you know"/"It's like I'm totally not in love with you anymore, Tommy." AL ROKER: "But it was the movie 'Clueless' that really launched like into our everyday vocabulary." MOVIE: "People came that, like, did not RSVP, so I was like totally buggin'." CARMEN FOUGHT: "After that movie came out, I do think we saw a spread of like into new areas." AL ROKER: "Do you use the word like a lot?" FEMALE: "Yes." AL ROKER: "Like how?" FEMALE: "Like that." AL ROKER: "Like what?" FEMALE: "Like how?" AL ROKER: "Like how?" FEMALE: "Like yeah." FEMALES: "Like totally!" AL ROKER: "OK, give me a little Valley Girl." FEMALE: "Like totally!" AL ROKER: "I like this." FEMALES: "Like totally!" AL ROKER: "I like it a lot. When you're talking, do you ever use the word like?" MALE: "Like what?" AL ROKER: "Do you like like?" FEMALE: "I like like." AL ROKER: "Do you like like? So what's the word like in German?" GROUP: "Wie [pronounced vee]." AL ROKER: "Do you ever use the word like?" MALE: "Yeah." AL ROKER: "How do you use it?" MALE: "Like, I don't know." AL ROKER: "Like you're not sure?" MALE: "Yeah." AL ROKER: "Do you ever hear how the young people use the word like?" MALE: "Most of them are idiots." AL ROKER: "But like it or not, one thing is for sure: You're loving like." GROUP: "I love like." AL ROKER: "They love like! Well, Carmen Fought is, like, expert on the word like. She's a professor of linguistics at Pitzer College in California. Like, welcome, Carmen!" CARMEN FOUGHT: "Like, thank you so much." AL ROKER: "How did this make the jump?" CARMEN FOUGHT: "You mean to other countries?" AL ROKER: "Right." CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, basically what happened is that they were interviewing celebrities like Brittany Spears or ... [laughter, crosstalk] SUCH AS Britney Spears. There you go. And since these celebrities were using like in their quotes in newspapers and so forth, you began to see that a lot in places like Australia, South Africa. "Then Australian pop stars and people would begin to say -- in the media, would begin to use like that way. And then eventually it passed to just the common person on the street in Australia or South Africa saying, 'There was this, like, shark biting my leg.' [laughter] KATIE COURIC: "And you called it, what did you call it in the piece, a language interrupter? Or what did you call it?" CARMEN FOUGHT: "A discourse marker?" KATIE COURIC: "Yeah. So what does that mean, a discourse marker?" CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, we all need a little space to think sometimes about what we're going to say. And this occurs in all languages. In Spanish they say 'este.' In French they use this weird sound that I can't pronounce." ANN CURRY: "But how we talk and how we think can somehow be related sometimes, and so is there any evidence that this may slow our thinking or mean that we're getting lazy in our thinking when we use something that's a discourse marker?" CARMEN FOUGHT: "Well, I don't think so. I think everyone uses them." KATIE COURIC: "I was thinking that it's almost because we talk so rapidly and try to get so in on the high pace of the world that you don't have time to really articulate and have sort of brain-mouth coordination, you know. You know, you know -- that's what I do. [crosstalk]" MATT LAUER: "Is like just [a phenomenon] today? I mean, are we going to be seeing this die out and fizzle out in the coming years and we'll have another word we'll all be griping about?" CARMEN FOUGHT: "Are you going to be sad if I say no? [laughter] I think it's here to stay, because it's spreading." AA: Linguist Carmen Fought, talking with Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry on NBC's "Today" show. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Getting Into a Top College Gets Harder For Young Americans
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Some of America's best universities have accepted an unusually low percentage of students for admission this fall. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported that Stanford University had a record low admission rate this year. The newspaper said the California school accepted less than eleven percent of the students who applied. College admissions officers give a number of reasons for the higher rates of rejection letters this year. They say the main reason is that high school seniors are applying to more schools than in the past. Some colleges reported big increases in the number of applications. Another reason is the general increase in students going to college. Electronic forms make applying easier. For example, students can send an online form called the Common Application to many different colleges and universities. Many students who apply to top schools are placed on a waiting list. They do not get a decision until the school knows how many applicants who are offered admission will accept the offer. Just as students compete, so do schools. Wait-listed applicants might not find out until May or June, at the end of their senior year. Admissions officers say they use wait-listing because it is difficult to know which applicants really want to attend their school. The increasing competition for the best colleges means more worry for students and parents. They wonder just what schools are looking for. They wonder why a top student is accepted at one school but not another. The Wall Street Journal says some top schools are actively looking for students who have shown great interest in helping others. Other schools are said to be looking for students who have musical talent. Some experts say it should be understood that the situation this year involves only the very top universities. They point to many other very good schools where they say students can be equally happy and successful. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you are a teacher and you teach with Special English, please let us know. Tell us how you use Special English in the classroom, and for what ages and subjects. And please tell us what country you are in. Write to special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Lost in the Stars: Movies Become Big Business in 1920s America
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell more about the technological and social changes that took place in the United States in the early nineteen twenties. VOICE TWO: Some of the most important changes came as a result of the automobile and the radio. Automobiles began to be mass-produced. They were low enough in cost so many Americans could buy them. Gasoline was low in cost, too. Together, these developments put America on the move as never before. Automobiles made it easy for Americans to travel. Trucks made it easy for goods to be transported. Many people and businesses moved out of crowded, noisy cities. They moved to open areas outside cities: suburbs. VOICE ONE: As automobiles helped Americans spread out, the radio helped bring them closer together. Large networks could broadcast the same radio program to many stations at the same time. Soon, Americans everywhere were listening to the same programs. They laughed at the same jokes, sang the same songs, heard the same news. Another invention that produced big changes in American life was the motion picture. VOICE TWO: American inventor Thomas Edison began making short motion pictures at the turn of the century. In nineteen-oh-three, a movie called "The Great Train Robbery" was the first to tell a complete story. In nineteen fifteen, D. W. Griffith made a long, serious movie called "Birth of a Nation." By the early nineteen twenties, many American towns had a movie theater. Most Americans went to see the movies at least once a week. The movie industry became a big business. People might not know the names of government officials. But they knew the names of every leading actor and actress. VOICE ONE: Movies were fun. They provided a change from the day-to-day troubles of life. They also were an important social force. Young Americans tried to copy what they saw in the movies. And they dreamed about far-away places and a different kind of life. A young farm boy could imagine himself as romantic hero Douglas Fairbanks or comedian Charlie Chaplin. A young city girl could imagine herself as the beautiful and brave Mary Pickford. Rich families and poor families saw the same movies. Their children shared the same wish to be like the movie stars. In this way, the son of a banker and the son of a factory worker had much in common. The same was true for people from different parts of the country. VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen twenties, Americans also began reading the same publications. The publishing industry used some of the same kinds of mass-production methods as the automobile industry. It began producing magazines in larger amounts. It began selling the same magazines all over the country. One of the most widely-read magazines was the Saturday Evening Post. In nineteen-oh-two, it sold about three hundred thousand copies each week. Twenty years later, it sold more than two million copies each week. Americans everywhere shared the same information and advice in such nationwide magazines. The information was not always correct. The advice was not always good. But the effect was similar to that caused by the automobile and radio. Parts of American society were becoming more alike. They were trying to move toward the same kind of life -- economically and socially. VOICE ONE: Other industries used the techniques of assembly-line production to make their goods, too. They discovered that producing large numbers of goods reduced the cost of each one. One company that expanded in this way was the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. It was called A&P for short. The A&P was one of the first large American grocery stores to sell all kinds of food. It sold milk, meat, bread, canned fruits, and vegetables all in the same store. Shopping at the A&P was much faster and easier than going to different stores to get different kinds of food. In nineteen twelve, A&P had four hundred stores in the United States. About ten years later, it had more than eleven thousand stores. It could buy huge amounts of goods and sell each at a very low price. VOICE TWO: Mass production also came to the clothing industry. People began wearing clothes made in factories, instead of by a family member or local tailor. Before long, the same kinds of clothes could be found everywhere. Mass production removed some differences that had marked Americans in the past. Prices dropped, so people with little money could still buy nice clothes. It became more difficult to look at Americans and know by their clothes if they were rich or poor. VOICE ONE: Social changes also resulted from great progress in medical research. Doctors and scientists reported new developments in the fight against disease. This progress gave most Americans a longer life. In nineteen hundred, for example, the average person in the United States could expect to live forty-nine years. By nineteen twenty-seven, the average person could expect to live fifty-nine years. VOICE TWO: Life expectancy rates climbed, because doctors and scientists developed effective ways to prevent or treat diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and influenza. Yellow fever and smallpox were no longer a threat. One new medicine was insulin. It was used to treat diabetes. A man-made version gave diabetics the insulin their bodies did not have. It cut the death rate from the disease from seventy percent to about one percent. Doctors and scientists also learned the importance of vitamins to good health. Now they could cure several diseases caused by a lack of vitamins. VOICE ONE: Americans in the nineteen twenties lived much better than their fathers and mothers. A man received more pay than in the past, even though he worked fewer hours each day. He lived in a better house with new labor-saving devices. He had a car to drive to work and to take his family on holiday trips. He received a better education than his father. He and his family wore better clothes. They ate healthier foods. The average American in the nineteen twenties had more time for sports and entertainment. He enjoyed listening to the radio and watching movies. He was more informed about national and world events. VOICE TWO: Life was good for many Americans as World War One ended and the nation entered the nineteen twenties. Yet that life was far from perfect. Many Americans did not have the same chances to improve their lives. Black Americans continued to suffer from racism. Society continued to deny them their rights as citizens. Women did not have equal rights, either. For example, they could not vote. It was during this time that the United States experienced one of its worst incidents of public hatred. Many people turned strongly against labor unions and leftists. They feared a threat to democracy. The federal government took action against what it called political extremists. Many of the charges were unfair. Many innocent lives were harmed. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: America Remembers Its Space Travelers at Astronaut Hall of Fame
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about Elvis Presley and play some of his music … Report about an unusual American language … And tell about a Hall of Fame that honors American space heroes. Astronaut Hall of Fame Most people have heard of the Baseball and Football Halls of Fame. But they may not know about the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. It is at the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. Last week, the Hall of Fame honored three more space heroes. Barbara Klein explains. BARBARA KLEIN: The idea for the Astronaut Hall of Fame began in nineteen eighty-four. The six surviving members of America’s first group of astronauts and the widow of the seventh had the idea. They wanted to create a place where astronauts could be honored and remembered. The United States Astronaut Hall of Fame opened in nineteen ninety. The former astronauts also wanted to help support America’s leadership in science and technology. So the group began providing money to American students to help pay for their college educations. In nineteen ninety-five, they established the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Each year, it provides almost two hundred thousand dollars to help American students attend college to study science. It also helps supervise the choice of the astronauts to be honored each year. Members of the Astronaut Hall of Fame must have made his or her first flight at least twenty years before. They must be retired at least five years. They must be United States citizens who have trained at the American space agency. And they must have orbited the Earth at least once. On May sixth, three former space shuttle commanders became the newest members. Charles Bolden flew on four shuttle flights and was the pilot on the trip that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. He also commanded the first joint American-Russian Space Shuttle flight. Henry Hartsfield flew on three space shuttle trips and piloted the shuttle Columbia’s final test flight. He also commanded the first space flight of the Shuttle Discovery. Brewster Shaw flew on three space shuttle trips. His first space trip carried the European-built Spacelab and the first international shuttle crew. He also served on the committee that investigated the space shuttle Challenger explosion in nineteen eighty-six. Sixty-three space explorers are honored at the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. They include Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, and Sally Ride. The Gullah New Testament HOST: The Gullah people of the southern United States have honored their language and culture for more than one hundred years. Many people are making efforts to keep the Gullah traditions alive. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Gullah people are an African-American population. They live mainly in the Sea Islands and coastal areas of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Gullah people have a rich culture including their own language. It is a Creole language created by slaves who came to the United States from West Africa in the eighteen hundreds. It combines West African languages with English. For many years efforts have been made to save the Gullah language and culture. One project began in nineteen seventy-nine. The goal was to translate the New Testament part of the Christian holy book, The Bible, into Gullah. Experts say it was a difficult process. Gullah is not a written language. It is a spoken language only. A team of Gullah speakers began working on the translation to make The Bible easier to understand for those who spoke Gullah as their main language. The Gullah version is called De Nyew Testament. It is written in English on one side of the page. Next to it is the Gullah translation. De Nyew Testament was published by the American Bible Society. The project also received help from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Wycliffe Bible Translators, the United Bible Societies and the Penn Center. Experts believe the translated Bible is a major step in saving the Gullah language and traditions. Robert Hodgson of the American Bible Society worked on the project. He says this is more than a Bible translation. He says De Nyew Testament raises the Gullah language and culture to a new level. The language had been dishonored as a lesser form of English. Ardell Greene is a member of the translation team. She calls the book “a treasure.”? She says the Gullah version of the Bible will be read in churches and will help young people keep the Gullah language alive. You can learn more about the Gullah traditions and language at this Web site: www.knowitall.org. That is spelled k-n-o-w-i-t-a-l-l. Click on Gullah Net. Elvis Presley HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Burma. Ko Maw gyi asks about popular singer Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley may be the most popular recording artist in history. More than one thousand million of his recordings have sold throughout the world. He was a success in many different kinds of music—popular, country, religious and rhythm and blues. People everywhere still enjoy his recordings and films. One of Elvis Presley’s most popular records was this one, “Hound Dog”. It sold five million copies when it was released in nineteen fifty-six. (MUSIC) Elvis Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi in nineteen thirty-five. His family was extremely poor. He was working as a truck driver when he recorded his first record in nineteen fifty-three. It led to a series of local shows, new recordings and television appearances. One of these new recordings was “Heartbreak Hotel”. (MUSIC) Elvis Presley became a movie actor in the nineteen fifties. He acted in thirty-one movies. He served in the United States Army, then returned home to perform in shows and on television. In the nineteen seventies, he began taking drugs to help him sleep and to control his weight. He also suffered from the emotional sickness, depression. He died in nineteen seventy-seven. Medical tests showed many drugs in his body. Experts say they probably caused his death. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home in Memphis, Tennessee every year. And fans continue to buy his music. We leave you now with another of Elvis’ huge hit records, “Love Me Tender.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: When Companies Choose a Private Life
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. What is the difference between a public company and a private one? In the United States, almost all companies are private in the sense that they are not government owned. A "public company" in America is a company that sells shares of ownership to the public on a stock exchange. Public companies must meet special rules. Most notably, they must report their financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The government says these rules help protect shareholders. "Private" companies do not sell shares to the public. So they are not required to tell the federal government about their finances or ownership. Private companies come in all sizes, from small to huge. Cargill, a family-owned agriculture business, tops the Forbes magazine list of the largest private companies in America. Some investors in private companies are wealthy individuals. Others are groups of people who form private equity companies. Big ones in the United States include the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. In the nineteen eighties, private equity companies became known for leveraged buyouts. These are deals that use large amounts of borrowed money to buy a company, usually to resell it later. Leveraged buyouts are popular again. But the biggest one to date took place in the United States in nineteen eighty-nine. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and another private equity company, Forstmann Little, bought RJR Nabisco. They paid thirty-one thousand million dollars. Buyouts can involve a hostile takeover. That means leaders of the target company oppose the sale. The deal takes place if shareholders accept the offer, or the buyer gains control of a majority of shares. Private equity groups make much of their profits by "going public" with companies they buy. Going public means they make a public stock offering to raise money for a company. Some private equity companies are even offering traditional investment products as a way to raise more money for themselves. Yet, at the same time, some public companies are going private. That means they buy back their stock and stop selling it to the public. It also means they no longer have to meet the financial reporting requirements for publicly traded companies. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Drug Control Officials Are Warned of Growing Threat From 'Meth'
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Among illegal drugs, methamphetamine now has more users worldwide than cocaine and heroin combined. That statement comes from the chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration in the United States. Karen Tandy spoke this week at the International Drug Enforcement Conference, held by the D.E.A. and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. More than three hundred high-level officials from eighty countries gathered in Montreal. Karen Tandy says marijuana is still the most widely used illegal drug, with an estimated one hundred sixty million users. But she said more than twenty-six million people use amphetamines, largely methamphetamine. Meth is relatively easy to make and low cost. Users become highly dependent. And they can become violent or depressed. The drug is destructive to the body and the environment. The chemicals used to make it are poisonous and explosive. Even small laboratories in homes can require costly cleanup. Last year the National Sheriffs' Association said: "The war on drugs in America is currently facing its most difficult and most dangerous challenge to date as a result of methamphetamines."? The increase in production is of growing concern to law enforcement officials around the world. Officials say they have made some progress over the past year. Miz Tandy said officials last November raided a major methamphetamine laboratory in Indonesia. The seizure was a joint effort of the D.E.A. and agencies in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. Also, Afghanistan cooperated with the United States to surrender two accused drug leaders who supported the former Taliban government. And Israel surrendered one of its citizens to face American charges of being a major trafficker of the drug ecstasy. Among Arab governments, the New York Times reported this week that Dubai is moving aggressively to fight drugs. Efforts include educational campaigns and drug treatment programs. United Nations officials estimate that Arab countries have at least five hundred thousand users of illegal drugs. The United Nations estimates that users worldwide spend more than three hundred twenty thousand million dollars each year. Miz Tandy noted that the amount is bigger than the economies of almost ninety percent of all countries. She told the officials that cooperation and information-sharing are more important than ever. This is because drug intelligence can also aid terrorism investigators. Opponents of criminal drug laws held their own meeting near the conference. They argue that United States policy has not been successful. Karen Tandy, however, said the number of adults, including young adults, who use illegal drugs has dropped. Next year, the twenty-fifth anniversary International Drug Enforcement Conference will take place in Spain. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Margaret Bourke-White: A Fearless News Photographer
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about photographer Margaret Bourke-White, (burk-white) one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A young woman is sitting on her knees on top of a large metal statue. She is not in a park. She is outside an office building high above New York City. The young woman reached the statue by climbing through a window on the sixty-first floor. ?She wanted to get a better picture of the city below. The woman is Margaret Bourke-White.She was one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century. But she did not write the news. She told her stories with a camera. She was a fearless woman of great energy and skill. Her work took her from America’s Midwest to the Soviet Union. From Europe during World War Two to India, South Africa and Korea. Through her work, she helped create the modern art of photojournalism. Margaret Bourke-White In some ways, Bourke-White was a woman ahead of her time. She often did things long before they became accepted in society. She was divorced. She worked in a world of influential men, and earned their praise and support. She wore trousers and colored her hair. Yet, in more important ways, she was a woman of and for her times. She became involved in the world around her and recorded it in pictures for the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Margaret Bourke-White was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-four. When Margaret was very young, the family moved to New Jersey. Her mother, Minnie Bourke, worked on publications for the blind. Her father, Joseph White, was an engineer and designer in the printing industry. He also liked to take pictures. Their home was filled with his photographs. Soon young Margaret was helping him take and develop his photographs. When she was eight years old, her father took her inside a factory to watch the manufacture of printing presses. In the foundry, she saw hot liquid iron being poured to make the machines. She remembered this for years to come. Margaret attended several universities before completing her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in nineteen twenty-seven. She studied engineering, biology and photography. She married while she was still a student. But the marriage only lasted one year. VOICE ONE: Margaret took the name Bourke-White, the last names of her mother and father. In nineteen twenty-eight, she began working in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. It was then one of the centers of American industry. She became an industrial photographer at the Otis Steel Company. In the hot, noisy factories where steel was made, she saw beauty and a subject for her pictures. She said: “Industry is alive. The beauty of industry lies in its truth and simpleness. Every line has a purpose, and so is beautiful. Whatever art will come out of this industrial age will come from the subjects of industry themselves…which are close to the heart of the people.” Throughout America and Europe, engineers and building designers found beauty in technology. Their machines and buildings had artistic forms. In New York, the Museum of Modern Art opened in nineteen twenty-nine. One of its goals was to study the use of art in industry. Bourke-White’s photographic experiments began with the use of industry in art. VOICE TWO: Bourke-White’s first pictures inside the steel factory in Cleveland were a failure. The difference between the bright burning metal and the black factory walls was too extreme for her camera. She could not solve the problem until she got new equipment and discovered new techniques of photography. Then she was able to capture the sharp difference between light and dark. The movement and power of machines. The importance of industry. Sometimes her pictures made you feel you were looking down from a great height, or up from far below. Sometimes they led you directly into the heart of the activity. VOICE ONE: In New York, a wealthy and influential publisher named Henry Luce saw Bourke-White’s pictures. Luce published a magazine called Time. He wanted to start a new magazine. It would be called Fortune, and would report about developments in industry. Luce sent a telegram to Bourke-White, asking her to come to New York immediately. She accepted a job as photographer for Fortune magazine. She worked there from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Margaret Bourke-White told stories in pictures, one image at a time. She used each small image to tell part of the bigger story. The technique became known as the photographic essay. Other magazines and photographers used the technique. But Bourke-White – more than most photographers – had unusual chances to develop it. VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen thirties, she traveled to the Soviet Union three times. Later she wrote: “Nothing invites me so much as a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have opened that door. And I wanted to be first. I believed in machines as objects of beauty. So I felt the story of a nation trying to industrialize – almost overnight – was perfect for me.” VOICE TWO: On her first trip to the Soviet Union, Bourke-White traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway. She carried many cameras and examples of her work. When she arrived in Moscow, a Soviet official gave her a special travel permit, because he liked her industrial photographs. The permit ordered all Soviet citizens to help her while she was in the country. Bourke-White spoke to groups of Soviet writers and photographers. They asked her about camera techniques, and also about her private life. After one gathering, several men surrounded her and talked for a long time. They spoke Russian. Not knowing the language, Bourke-White smiled in agreement at each man as he spoke. Only later did she learn that she had agreed to marry each one of them. Her assistant explained the mistake and said to the men: “Miss Bourke-White loves nothing but her camera.” VOICE ONE: By the end of the trip, Margaret Bourke-White had traveled eight thousand kilometers throughout the Soviet Union. She took hundreds of pictures, and published some of them in her first book, “Eyes on Russia.” She returned the next year to prepare for a series of stories for the New York Times newspaper. And she went back a third time to make an educational movie for the Kodak film company. Bourke-White visited Soviet cities, farms and factories. She took pictures of workers using machines. She took pictures of peasant women, village children, and even the mother of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She took pictures of the country’s largest bridge, and the world’s largest dam. She used her skill in mixing darkness and light to create works of art. She returned home with more than three thousand photographs – the first western documentary on the Soviet Union. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Margaret Bourke-White had seen a great deal for someone not yet thirty years old. But in nineteen thirty-four, she saw something that would change her idea of the world. Fortune magazine sent her on a trip through the central part of the United States. She was told to photograph farmers – from America’s northern border with Canada to its southern border with Mexico. Some of the farmers were victims of a terrible shortage of rain, and of their own poor farming methods. The good soil had turned to dust. And the wind blew the dust over everything. It got into machines and stopped them. It chased the farmers from their land, although they had nowhere else to go. VOICE ONE: Bourke-White had never given much thought to human suffering. After her trip, she had a difficult time forgetting. She decided to use her skills to show all parts of life. She would continue taking industrial pictures of happy, healthy people enjoying their shiny new cars. But she would tell a differentstory in her photographic essays. Under one picture she wrote: “While machines are making great progress in automobile factories, the workers might be under-paid. Pictures can be beautiful. But they must tell facts, too.” We will continue the story of photographer Margaret Bourke-White next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Paul's Case, Part Two
* Byline: Written by Willa Cather

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Today we complete the story "Paul's Case."? It was written?by Willa Cather. Here is Kay Gallant with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: Paul was a student with a lot of problems. He hated school. He didn't like living with his family on Cordelia Street in the industrial city of Pittsburgh. Paul wanted to be surrounded by beautiful things. He loved his part-time job as an usher at the concert hall. He helped people find their seats before the concert. Then he could listen to the music and dream of exciting places. Paul also spent a lot of time at the local theater. He knew many of the actors who worked there. He used to do little jobs for them. And they would let him see plays for free. Paul had little time left for his studies. So he was always in trouble with his teachers. Finally, Paul's teachers complained again to his father. His father took him out of school and made him take a job in a large company. He would not let Paul go near the concert hall or the theater. Paul did not like his job as a messenger boy. He began to plan his escape. A few weeks later, Paul's boss, Mr. Denny, gave Paul a large amount of money to take to the bank. He told Paul to hurry because it was Friday afternoon. He said the bank would close soon and would not open again until Monday. At the bank, Paul took the money out of his pocket. It was five thousand dollars. Paul put the money back in his coat pocket. And he walked out of the bank. He went to the train station and bought a one way ticket for New York City. That afternoon Paul left Pittsburgh forever. The train traveled slowly through a January snowstorm. The slow movement made Paul fall asleep. The train whistle blew just as the sun was coming up. Paul awoke, feeling dirty and uncomfortable. He quickly touched his coat pocket. The money was still there. It was not a dream. He really was on his way to New York City with five thousand dollars in his pocket. Finally the train pulled into Central Station. Paul walked quickly out of the station and went immediately to an expensive clothing store for men. The salesman was very polite when he saw Paul's money. Paul bought two suits, several white silk shirts, some silk ties of different colors. Then he bought a black tuxedo suit for the theater, a warm winter coat, a red bathrobe, and the finest silk underclothes. He told the salesman he wanted to wear one of the new suits and the coat immediately. The salesman bowed and smiled. Paul then took a taxi to another shop where he bought several pairs of leather shoes and boots. Next, he went to the famous jewelry store, Tiffany's, and bought a tie pin and some brushes with silver handles. His last stop was a luggage store where he had all his new clothes put into several expensive suitcases. It was a little before one o'clock in the afternoon when Paul arrived at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. The doormen opened the hotel's glass doors for Paul and the boy entered. The thick carpet under his feet had the colors of a thousand jewels. The lights sparkled from crystal chandeliers. Paul told the hotel clerk he was from Washington, D.C. He said his mother and father were arriving in a few days from Europe. He explained he was going to wait for them at the hotel. In his dreams Paul had planned this trip to New York a hundred times. He knew all about the Waldorf-Astoria, one of New York's most expensive hotel's. As soon as he entered his rooms, he saw that everything was perfect--except for one thing. He rang the bell and asked for fresh flowers to be sent quickly to his rooms. When the flowers came, Paul put them in water and then he took a long, hot bath. He came out the bathroom, wearing the red silk bathrobe. Outside his windows, the snow was falling so fast that he could not see across the street. But inside, the air was warm and sweet. He lay down on the sofa in his sitting room. It had all been so very simple, he thought. When they had shut him out of the theater and the concert hall, Paul knew he had to leave. But he was surprised that he had not been afraid to go. He could not remember a time when he had not been afraid of something. Even when he was a little boy. But now he felt free. He wasn't afraid anymore. He watched the snow until he fell asleep. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when Paul woke up. He spent nearly an hour getting dressed. He looked at himself often in the mirror. His dark blue suit fit him so well that he did not seem too thin. The white silk shirt and the blue and lilac tie felt cool and smooth under his fingers. He was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be. Paul put on his new winter coat and went downstairs. He got into a taxi and told the driver to take him for a ride along Fifth Avenue. Paul stared at the expensive stores. As the taxi stopped for a red light Paul noticed a flower shop. Through the window, he could see all kinds of flowers. Paul thought the violets, roses, and lilies-of-the valley looked even more lovely because they were blooming in the middle of winter. Paul began to feel hungry so he asked the taxi driver to take him back to the hotel. As he entered the dining room, the music of the hotel orchestra floated up to greet him. He sat at a table near a window. The fresh flowers, the white tablecloth, and the colored wine glasses pleased Paul's eyes. The soft music, the low voices of the people around him and the soft popping of champagne corks whispered into Paul's ears. This is what everyone wants, he thought. He could not believed he had ever lived in Pittsburgh on Cordelia Street!? That belonged to another time and place. Paul lifted the crystal glass of champagne and drank the cold, prescious, bubbling wine. He belonged here. Later that evening, Paul put on his black tuxedo and went to the opera. He felt perfectly at ease. He had only to look at his tuxedo to know he belonged with all the other beautiful people in the opera house. He didn't talk to anyone. But his eyes recorded everything. Paul's golden days went by without a shadow. He made each one as perfect as he could. On the eighth day after his arrival in New York, he found a report in the newspaper about his crime. It said that his father had paid the company the five thousand dollars that Paul had stolen. It said Paul had been seen in a New York hotel. And it said Paul's father was in New York. He was looking for Paul to bring him back to Pittsburgh. Paul's knees became weak. He sat down in a chair and put his head in his hands. The dream was ended. He had to go back to Cordelia Street. Back to the yellow-papered bedroom, the smell of cooked cabbage, the daily ride to work on the crowded street cars. Paul poured himself a glass of champagne and drank it quickly. He poured another glass and drank that one, too. Paul had a taxi take him out of the city and into the country. The taxi left him near some railroad tracks. Paul suddenly remembered all the flowers he had seen in a shop window his first night in New York. He realized that by now every one of those flowers was dead. They had had only one splendid moment to challenge winter. A train whistle broke into Paul's thoughts. He watched as the train grew bigger and bigger. As it came closer, Paul's body shook. His lips wore a frightened smile. Paul looked nervously around as if someone might be watching him. When the right moment came, Paul jumped. And as he jumped, he realized his great mistake. The blue of the ocean and the yellow of the desert flashed through his brain. He had not seen them yet! There was so much he had not seen! Paul felt something hit his chest. He felt his body fly through the air far and fast. Then everything turned black and Paul dropped back into the great design of things. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have just heard the American story "Paul's Case."? It was?written by Willa Cather. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant. Listen again next week at this time for another American story told in Special English on the Voice of America. I'm Steve Ember. ? ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-15-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Back, Shoulders and Chest:? A Pat on the Back for a Job Well Done
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. There are many American expressions that use parts of the body. These include the eyes, ears, nose, mouth and even the heart. Today we will tell you some expressions that use other body parts – the back, shoulders and chest. When I am facing a lot of pressure at work, my back and neck will start to hurt. Sometimes, this tension is the result of too much work. I have too many things to do because my supervisor is on my back all the time. In other words, my employer is always telling me to do things. Sometimes, I want to tell my employer to get off my back!?? I want her to stop criticizing me and making too many demands on my time. I can not say this, however. I would never turn my back on her and refuse to help when there is a need. If I did refuse to help, my supervisor might say bad things about me behind my back. She might criticize me when I am not present. This would surely be a stab in the back. It is never kind to unfairly harm or say bad things about other people. Sometimes, when I am very productive in my job, my employer gives me a pat on the back. She praises my work. She might even say “I will scratch your back if you will scratch mine.”?? This means she will do something for me, if I do something helpful for her in exchange. Such an offer usually comes straight from the shoulder. My supervisor has a very direct, open and honest way of speaking. I know that my employer carries a lot on her shoulders. She is responsible for many things at the office. And because she is so important, she sometimes gets to rub shoulders with the top officials. She gets to spend time with some very important people. I believe the top official values my supervisor. He never gives her the cold shoulder. He is never unfriendly to her. He always treats her like she is an important part of the organization. I also value my supervisor. In fact, I think she is very effective in her job. Of course, I could yell my opinion at the top of my lungs, or as loudly as I possibly could. It might even feel good to get my emotions off my chest. It is always helpful to tell people how you feel so that your emotions do not trouble you. But it is not necessary for me to praise my supervisor. Most of my co-workers feel the exact same way about her. So, I think I will just save my breath. I will keep silent because talking or repeating myself will not do any good. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Need to Dig a Well? Start Here
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Development Report. There are several low-cost ways to dig or drill a well to get water out of the ground. One method is to make a hole by turning a large drill bit device by hand, over and over again, into the ground. From time to time, the drill bit must be lifted to the surface and cleared of soil. This method is good for most kinds of earth, but not for rocks. Holes of twenty-five meters deep can be made in this way. It usually takes four to six people working as a team. Drilling in this way usually goes quickly for the first five meters or so. But after that, it is much slower. Parts of the drill bit and connecting machinery have to be taken apart each time the drill is brought to the surface. More complex equipment use machines to power the drill bit. These machine-driven drill bits have structures that look like moving teeth. Sometimes the drill bit hits large stones or rocks. If this happens, the well may not be straight down into the ground. The well may still be usable as long as the hole is mostly straight, especially in depths of thirty to sixty meters. Another way to dig a well is limited to going about twenty meters deep for a hole fifteen to twenty centimeters across. This method uses a heavy metal container that is dropped into the hole again and again. It looks like an empty can. The action of hitting the dirt breaks up soil and rocks. As it hits the dirt, the soil and rocks fill up the container. It is brought to the surface and emptied, and then lowered again. Sometimes wells can no longer be used because they are not straight enough, or they no longer produce water, or the water is too dirty. If a well is no longer used, it must be closed to keep people from using it and to keep small children or animals from falling in. The best way is to fill the well with clay soil up to about one meter from the top. From there to the top it should be filled with concrete. You can get more information about digging and drilling wells from VITA, Volunteers in Technical Assistance, now part of EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The Web site is v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you would like to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Sociological Association Names Top Protest Songs
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. This week we bring you some of the most important protest songs of the past century. (MUSIC) VOICE: Music is a way to express thoughts, feelings and ideas. People have written protest songs to speak about political and social issues. Protest songs have denounced slavery, war, poverty and inequality. They have supported peace and civil rights. The American Sociological Association has made a list of the most important protest songs in America during the past century. The list of fourteen songs was published in the journal Contexts. We will tell about eight of those songs. (MUSIC) During the civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, African-Americans protested for equal rights. The American Sociological Association says two songs were probably sung the most during that time. They are “We Shall Overcome” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round.” Both songs are versions of traditional spiritual songs sung by black people. The organization also named another song from the civil rights movement on its list of important protest songs. The song is “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”? It was written by brothers James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson in the early nineteen hundreds. The words of the song came from a poem James Weldon Johnson wrote. He had been asked to speak at a birthday celebration in his hometown in Florida for former President Abraham Lincoln. The song later became know as the national song of praise for African-Americans. Singer Kelli Williams recorded “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” (MUSIC) Music experts say the song “Strange Fruit” is one of the greatest protest songs ever. It condemns the hanging of African–American men in the American South. Abel Meeropol wrote a poem about this subject in nineteen thirty-seven. He was a school teacher in New York City. He showed the poem to blues singer Billie Holiday who turned it into a song. (MUSIC) Florence Reece wrote the song “Which Side Are You On?” in the nineteen thirties during the labor struggles of coal miners in the state of Kentucky. The group Peter, Paul and Mary sings about the need to organize workers into labor unions. (MUSIC) Bob DylanBob Dylan has written and sung many protest songs that condemn war or support civil rights. The American Sociological Association says it was difficult to choose just one of his famous protest songs. They include “Blowin’ in the Wind” “Only a Pawn in Their Game” and Masters of War.”? However, the organization chose this song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” (MUSIC) Sometimes the reason for protest is a very personal one. Otis Redding wrote this song. Soul singer Aretha Franklin asks the man in her life to honor her, to show her some “Respect.” (MUSIC) In hip-hop music, rappers have also made calls for social change. In nineteen eighty-nine, the hip-hop group Public Enemy sang about equal rights and freedom of speech in the song “Fight the Power.” (MUSIC) Singer John Lennon wrote and sang several protest songs. He wrote the song “Imagine” in the late nineteen-sixties to call for peace during the Vietnam War. Experts say the message of the song remains important today. It calls on people all over the world to live in peace and unity. (MUSIC) We leave you now with the song “We Shall Overcome.”? This song has been sung around the world for many different causes, including civil rights, human rights and workers’ rights. (MUSIC) Our program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-15-voa5.cfm
* Headline: A Study of Young Coral Could Assist Efforts to Protect Reefs
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson, Lawan Davis, Jill Moss and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: underwater action -- studying the movements of baby coral ... VOICE ONE: Some award-winning environmental activists. VOICE TWO: And ancient dentistry -- people were getting their teeth drilled a lot earlier than scientists have thought. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Example of coral reef damageSome coral reefs are small. Others extend for thousands of kilometers. But a genetic study of coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea shows that corals do not move very far from their place of birth. Experts say this finding could help scientists and policymakers to better direct their efforts to protect local reefs. Coral polyps are small animals. They usually live in colonies. There are different kinds of corals, including the kind that build reefs. Reefs start to form as corals attach to rocks or other hard surfaces underwater. As colonies die, they leave limestone remains. Other corals build on them. Over time, these structures grow into reefs along shorelines and around islands. VOICE ONE: Researchers Stephen Palumbi and Steven Vollmer recently examined staghorn coral in the Caribbean. Mister Palumbi works at Stanford University in California. Mister Vollmer works at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. They did the study for the Bahamas Biocomplexity Project at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The researchers studied free-swimming young coral. The goal was to learn if these coral larvae could help repopulate damaged reefs. They examined the genetic material of more than two hundred sixty coral samples. These were collected from an area that extended from the Bahamas to Panama and from the Yucatan Peninsula to Curacao. The scientists measured similarities to find out how closely the corals were related. They found that some coral collected between two kilometers and one hundred kilometers apart were related. But samples collected one hundred to five hundred kilometers apart were unrelated. The scientists say this shows that young coral do not travel very far. Their swimming distance is not enough to repopulate damaged reefs. VOICE TWO: Pollution, coastal development and too much fishing can all damage coral reefs. So can severe storms. Some researchers have estimated that ten percent of the world's coral reefs are damaged beyond repair. They say more than half of all coral reefs are threatened. Coral is important to sea life. It is also used in manufacturing, medicine and jewelry. It is valuable to the environment, as well as the economies of some countries. People who visit places like the Bahamas want to see beautiful coral reefs. VOICE ONE: The loss of reefs is especially bad in the Caribbean. The American Museum of Natural History says coral cover in the area has decreased over the years by eighty percent. Stephen Palumbi says growing coral in a laboratory to repair damaged reefs is not a realistic solution. He says coral develops at a yearly rate of only about one centimeter. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. Winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize have been announced. The yearly award is the largest of its kind. Winners receive one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars for their environmental activism. VOICE ONE: The six winners this year include Silas Siakor, the winner for Africa. He gathered evidence against former Liberian president Charles Taylor. Mister Siakor showed that Mister Taylor used profits from illegal tree-cutting operations to help pay for the civil war that lasted fourteen years in Liberia. The information led to a continuing United Nations ban on Liberian wood exports. Yu Xiaogang is the prize winner from Asia. He studied the effects of dams on communities in China and developed related programs. Prize officials say his work helped lead the government to now consider the social effects of such projects on villagers. Tarcisio Feitosa da Silva is the winner for South and Central America. He was honored for his efforts in Brazil to create the world’s largest area of protected rain forest. Mister Feitosa faced death threats for reporting illegal tree cutting to the government. VOICE TWO: Ukrainian lawyer Olya Melen won the Goldman prize for Europe. She was able to temporarily halt the building of a major waterway through the Danube Delta, a valuable wetland area. The former Ukrainian government denounced her actions, which took place through the legal system. The award for islands and island nations went to Anne Kajir of Papua New Guinea. Prize officials say she found evidence of widespread government involvement in illegal tree cutting. In nineteen ninety-seven, she successfully defended an appeal before the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea. It was her first year working as a lawyer. Prize officials say the final ruling led to payment of damages to local landowners. VOICE ONE: And this year's winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America is Craig Williams of the United States. He successfully appealed to the Defense Department to halt plans to burn old chemical weapons stored around the country. Mister Williams started a campaign in nineteen eighty-five to call for safer ways to destroy them. Mister Williams and the other winners were honored with a ceremony in late April in San Francisco, California. Richard and Rhonda Goldman established the prize in nineteen ninety. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists say they have recovered the earliest known evidence of dental work. They report finding eleven human teeth with small holes carefully made in them. The teeth came from nine adults who lived between seven thousand five hundred and nine thousand years ago. That means dentistry is about four thousand years older than experts had thought. Roberto Macchiarelli of the University of Poitiers in France led the study. He and the research team worked at a burial area in what is now Pakistan. Nature magazine published a report on the study. VOICE ONE: The researchers say they found examples of dental work in the remains of both men and women. They used microscopes and other equipment to examine small holes cut in the eleven teeth. The researchers do not believe the holes were drilled for ceremonial reasons or for beauty. They say some of the teeth showed signs of disease. They suggest that some kind of material may have been placed as a filling in the damaged areas. The researchers also found pieces of drills they suspect were used to make beads for artwork. Beads with holes drilled in them can be worn as jewelry. The researchers say the same technology was also used to treat damaged teeth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The most effective treatment today for malaria is made from a plant found in China and Vietnam. But supplies of the sweet wormwood are limited. Now researchers led by Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley, have a possible solution. They placed genes from the plant into a yeast organism and got it to produce large amounts of artemisinic acid. This acid can be made into the drug, artemisinin, in just a few chemical steps. A report appeared in the journal Nature. The scientists say their process could reduce the cost of the active substance in artemisinin by ninety percent. But they say the genetically engineered version is still about five to ten years away from final development. VOICE ONE: One more thing. The World Health Organization says artemisinin should always be used in combination with other malaria drugs. If not, experts worry that resistant forms of malaria could defeat it sooner instead of later. (THEME) SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson, Lawan Davis, Jill Moss and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a science question, send it to special@voanews.com. We might be able to answer it on our show. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Chicago Board of Trade Moves Into the Future
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

  I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Chicago Board of Trade is one of the largest exchanges for futures trading, and one of the oldest. It opened in eighteen forty-eight. A futures contract is an agreement on a price and a date to buy or sell goods in the future. Agricultural futures have long been a way to limit risk with crop prices. Futures trading can help protect against losses. Companies also buy futures to guarantee costs for materials. At the Chicago Board of Trade, or CBOT, futures have always been traded using the open outcry system. Floor brokers bring together buy orders with sell orders in an area called the pit. Brokers shout and wave their hands. The system looks disorganized. But in fact it is part of an orderly market. Hand signals identify buyers and sellers and show how many contracts will be traded. The open outcry system will continue. But starting August first, the Chicago Board of Trade will begin using a new electronic system at the same time. This system is called ecbot. Now traders will be able to trade futures in corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean oil, soybean meal and rough rice by computer. The use of two systems is similar to the hybrid market at the New York Stock Exchange. Trading takes place both on a physical trading floor and electronically. CBOT says its new electronic trading system will help it expand internationally. Last year, the Board of Trade began to offer contracts for Brazilian soybeans. This meant that contracts to receive a shipment of soybeans could be traded among buyers both inside and outside the United States. Futures trading can get highly complex. But farmers commonly use futures as a way to protect against low crop prices. The crop is still sold at harvest time. Market forces still set prices. But, before the crop is ever harvested, a farmer can buy a contract giving the right to sell an amount of the crop at a set price. Futures guarantee prices for goods. Yet, in futures trading, real shipments of goods rarely take place. In fact, CBOT says only about four percent of contracts result in any products being sent to a buyer. A futures market could not operate without speculators. Speculators are investors who purposely take risks trying to guess which direction prices will go. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Development Marketplace: Turning Ideas Into Action
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a World Bank program that supports people with new ways to solve social problems. It is called the Development Marketplace. The World Bank program identifies and pays for the best ideas in development. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people around the world are trying to create new kinds of businesses. Entrepreneurs organize, build and support their business proposals. They may have ideas about new products. Or, they may have ideas about new ways to do business. Social entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneurs. However, social entrepreneurs try to improve conditions in their communities. They organize, build, and support new and creative projects. Their goal is to improve people’s lives. Their work is very important. Usually, social entrepreneurs do not receive much support for their work. However, the World Bank is trying to change this. The bank recognizes the need for social entrepreneurs and has developed a special program to offer them support. VOICE TWO: About every eighteen months, the World Bank brings together social entrepreneurs in a friendly competition called the Development Marketplace. During the gathering in Washington D.C., competitors explain their ideas to groups that can provide financial and technical support. At the end of the two-day competition, winners are given money to carry out their plans within one year. VOICE ONE: The World Bank competition serves as a chance for the development community to share ideas. Non-governmental organizations, aid groups, government agencies, educators and private companies are able to discuss new ways to solve social problems. Anyone can compete in the Development Marketplace. The only requirement is that their idea be creative, designed to change people’s lives, and help end poverty. Also, other people must be able to copy the idea in their own communities. A group of judges from the World Bank and other organizations chooses the winners. VOICE TWO: One hundred eighteen social entrepreneurs from fifty-five countries were in Washington last week for this year’s Development Marketplace. The judges chose thirty winning projects from twenty-two countries. Africa was the area with the biggest number of winners – fourteen. India had the largest number of winners from a single country with five. Benin, Cambodia, Kenya and Senegal each had two winners. Each competitor proposed a project in one of three areas: water supply, healthy living conditions and energy services for the poor. The winning projects shared five million dollars. Each project received up to two hundred thousand dollars. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz described the winners as imaginative people with the ability to solve difficult development problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each social entrepreneur competing at the Development Marketplace offered a creative approach to ease world poverty. One of the winners was a? proposal for China to use native freshwater shellfish called mussels to clean polluted lakes. David Aldridge works for Cambridge Environmental Consultants. He says that mussels can clean about forty liters of water a day by taking in organic matter. The project will start in three Chinese lakes. If it is effective, it may expand into more lakes. Mister Aldridge says the mussels also will produce pearls – a kind of jewel. Local people will be able to sell the pearls for money. A winning proposal in India is called “Fences for Fuel.”? It uses the native Jatropha plants. Jatropha plants produce oil that can provide a clean and renewable form of energy. The group Humana People to People India plans to work with farmers’ groups in forty villages in the Jaipur area. The groups will establish a supply of the plants for villagers. The villagers can use the plants to build fences around their gardens and fields to protect the soil. VOICE TWO:? Another winner at the Development Marketplace was a proposal to use solar power to make ice. Carl Erickson is the president of Solar Ice Company. The United States-based company is trying to help farmers in Kenya. Money from the World Bank will help the company establish milk collection centers near farming communities. The centers will use solar-powered technology to keep milk cold and to store it overnight. In Kenya, dairy farmers collect cow’s milk in the morning and in the afternoon. The morning milk can be sold at market. But, the afternoon milk often goes bad before it can be transported to collection centers is larger cities. Now, new Solar Ice Collection Centers will permit dairy farmers to sell their afternoon milk. Farmers could increase their earnings by up to twenty dollars a day. Carl Erickson estimates the project could affect as many as six hundred fifty thousand people in farming areas throughout Kenya. VOICE ONE: Another winning proposal at the Development Marketplace will provide energy to communities in Nepal that lack electricity. The American-based company EcoSystems will use World Bank money to pay for a pedal generator. This device looks like a bicycle. People who ride the pedal generator can produce an environmentally safe source of power. This power can charge a large twelve-volt battery, which in turn, can charge several small six-volt rechargeable batteries. The small batteries can be transported to farming areas in Nepal for a small cost. EcoSystems believes its project will support two hundred homes in Nepal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not all of the projects competing at the Development Marketplace were winners. Yet, many creative ideas were presented. For example, the organization Accion Contra el Hambre, or A.C.H., proposed a safe drinking water system for Palestinians in Gaza. The water supply in the Palestinian territories is not good. In addition, bottled drinking water transported into the territories costs too much for poor people to buy. The A.C.H. proposed a device to clean water using the sun’s energy. The group calls the device a solar still. It looks like a big box with a glass top. The sun heats water in the bottom of the box. The water changes into steam. This steam is trapped on the glass inside the box. It becomes condensation or drops of clean water. The water drops are then collected in another container for drinking. A.C.H says its solar still can clean chemical and biological pollutants from water. It says homes throughout the Palestinian territories could be equipped with solar stills. VOICE ONE: Safe drinking water is also a problem in Mozambique. Water wells become empty during the country’s dry season. As a result, women and children spend huge amounts of time collecting and carrying water from other sources. Rainwater harvested in underground storage containers can ease the situation. A group called Practica Foundation wants to capture rainwater and guide it into natural aquifers. An aquifer is an underground layer of rock or sand that can contain water. Wells can be dug into aquifers. Water that passes from an aquifer into a well could be lifted out using a rope pump system. Practica Foundation estimates about ten thousand liters of water could be collected during a series of heavy rains. An estimated eleven thousand people in Mozambique would be affected. The rainwater harvesting system could be built locally with low-cost equipment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Development Marketplace started in nineteen ninety-eight as a small competition within the World Bank. The goal was to provide money for projects that were not able to find money through usual financial supporters. Over the years, the competition has grown into an international event. About forty-two million dollars has been awarded to one thousand projects in more than seventy countries. More than two thousand five hundred people entered ideas for this year’s competition. You can learn more about how to take part in the next Development Marketplace. Visit the World Bank website at www.worldbank.org. World Bank is spelled as all one word. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Listen again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: What Does It Mean When Something Is 'For Good' or Offered 'On a Plate'?
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some listener questions. RS: Starting with this one from Rajpal Rawal in India, who sends us two sentences with questions about pronunciation -- more specifically, about the reductions that take place in spoken American English. AA: Here is the first sentence: "I would not mention it." I would not mention it. The question is: Is it correct to keep the d at the end of "would" silent in rapid speech? Well, maybe the best thing we can do is model it, so you can listen for yourself: RS: "I wouldn't mention it." "I wouldn't mention it." AA: "I wouldn't mention it." Well, you can still slightly detect the 'd' once you form the contraction. And, by the way, most Americans are likely to use the contraction "wouldn't" rather than say "I would not mention it," unless of course, they were angry and speaking slowly on purpose. RS: Rajpal also asks about this sentence: "That won't help." The question here is: Is it OK to keep the t at the end of both "that" and "won't" silent while speaking rapidly? Well, listen again, first slowly and then fast. AA: "That won't help." RS: Now fast. AA: "That won't help." RS: Slowly. AA: "That won't help." RS: Fast. AA: "That won't help." RS: The t at the end of "that" is pretty much silent. But in this particular case we do hear the t at the end of won't. AA: Next question. Iulian Grigoras in Romania asks what the expression "for good" means in the sentence: "He left the country for good." RS: That's easy. When you do something "for good," that means you do it permanently. Now Jeffrey Liu, an English learner from China, wants to know what it means to be offered something "on a plate." And he's not talking about a dinner plate. AA: Nevertheless, imagine you are a guest at a dinner. All you have to do is sit there and wait until someone puts a platter of food down in front of you. RS: Get the idea? Well, for an official explanation, we checked the newest addition to our small collection of slang dictionaries. It's the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, first published this year simultaneously in Britain and North America. It defines "on a plate" or "on a platter" this way: "easily acquired; with little or no effort required." AA: Now speaking of slang, a listener named Java writes: "Dear slang casters, I have a suggestion as an English teacher. As you may know the best kind of learning takes place after a brainstorm, and what comes after fills the gaps made by the storm." So Java suggests that one way to get a brainstorm going is to start by discussing the slang used in the top ten U.S. movies. And to fill the gaps in the minds of music lovers, Java writes that you can also brainstorm about the slang used in the top ten U.S. songs. RS: So let's give that a try. We asked our buddy Larry London in VOA Music Mix what the top song in the country is this week on the Billboard charts. It's "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" by Rihanna. See if you can catch some of the slang in the lyrics. We'll explain at the end. (MUSIC) "This time please someone come and rescue me"'Cause you on my mind, it's got me losing it"I'm lost, you got me looking for the rest of me,"Got the best of me, so now I'm losing it"Just your presence and I second guess my sanity "Yes it's a lesson, it's unfair, you stole my vanity"My tummy's up in knots so when I see you I get so hot"My common sense is out the door, can't seem to find the lock"Take on me (uh huh) you know inside you feel it right"Take me on, I could just die up in your arms tonight."I'm out with you, you got me head over heels"Boy you keep me hanging on the way you make me feel "S.O.S. please someone help me."It's not healthy... for me to feel this way" AA: OK, S.O.S. is the international distress signal, so that's not really slang. But if you were taking notes on the song, there's "losing it" ... RS: Meaning, losing control. AA: "Tummy up in knots" ... RS: Literally, a nervous stomach. AA: Common sense "out the door" ... RS: Out the door. Gone. Get lost. AA: Head over heels ... RS: Really excited. AA: Which keeps her "hanging on" ... RS: Keeps her alive. And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can keep us hanging on with your questions. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And our segments are all on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)"/Rihanna 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-16-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Drink Companies Agree Not to Sell Sugary Soda in U.S. Schools
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. These days, about half of all drinks sold in American schools are sugary soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi. Opponents have fought these sales for years. They say sugary soft drinks are largely responsible for the increase in overweight young people. The soft drink industry has rejected the blame and raised the issue of not enough physical exercise. But earlier this month there was a big announcement. The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Cadbury Schweppes have agreed to stop selling these products in schools. The companies agreed to limit sales in high schools to diet soft drinks, sports drinks, juices, milk and water. High schools sell the most soft drinks. Elementary and middle schools would be limited to bottled water, milk and juice. Limits on serving sizes and calorie counts in drinks are also part of the agreement. States such as California and Connecticut have already banned or restricted soft drink sales in public schools. Other places have been considering action. Leading soda makers say less than one percent of their money comes from school sales. But many schools face limited budgets. Marketing agreements with food and drink companies offer one solution. Many parents and others, though, say it is a bad solution. The industry agreement is part of a campaign to reduce childhood obesity. The campaign is led by the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. The government says five percent of teenagers were overweight in nineteen eighty. By two thousand four, it was seventeen percent. For younger children, the rate increased from seven to nineteen percent. The Center for Science in the Public Interest had threatened legal action if no agreement was reached. The group argues that sugary soda should come with health warnings, just like cigarettes. The agreement is expected to be fully in place by two thousand ten. But other companies do not have to honor it. And some people say it does not go far enough. In a separate development, the Disney Company and McDonald's last week announced an end to their ten-year alliance. Both sides say the decision to stop marketing Disney-related products in McDonald's Happy Meals was for business reasons. They rejected suggestions that Disney did not want?to be linked to concerns about fast food and overweight children. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Blogs Help Teachers Learn From Each Other
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Education Report. Blogs are being used more and more by teachers. Many Internet services now offer free and easy ways to create personal Web pages. Through comments on blogs, or Web logs, teachers can share their classroom experiences. They can exchange ideas. Or they can just sympathize with each other. A teacher in the American state of North Carolina recently wrote on her blog: “Apparently the teachers at my school use too much paper. So my principal yelled at everyone at the last staff meeting for, like, ten minutes. Now, I've just been told, we are not getting anymore paper for the rest of the year.” This unidentified blogger is in her third year of teaching, but still calls her site firstyearteacher.blogspot.com. Chris Lehmann is principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His blog is practicaltheory.org. On a recent day, Mister Lehmann wrote about a project he had just learned about. The aim is to put a "human face" on the scientists who furthered the knowledge of chemistry. Mister Lehmann noted that there is a lot of talk now about teaching as story-telling. He wonders if this is moving into the idea of telling the "story" of science. “What would it do for students to learn about the people involved in these discoveries?" he wrote in his blog. "Does it make a difference if we see these 'facts' as discovered? If we see science as ever-evolving, does it help us to help our kids see their own role as scientists themselves?" A blogger who calls himself Mister Lawrence works as a substitute teacher. In April he wrote about a disputed plan to split the Omaha, Nebraska, public schools into three separate systems, divided along racial and ethnic lines. Supporters argued that it would give minority parents more power over their children's education. But Mister Lawrence wrote at teachersparadise.blogspot.com: "I'm afraid that what this 'says' to a lot of people is that blacks, whites and Hispanics are not equal, and 'reinforces' racist beliefs among people." Educators did not become involved with blogging right away. Many were concerned with privacy issues and security. But now, thousands of teacher blogs can be found on the Internet. Many teachers do not identify themselves, and they change the names of students and co-workers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Brianna Blake. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: America's Fear of Communism in 1920 Becomes a Threat to Rights
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Americans have always valued their right to free speech, a free press, and freedom of religion. The Bill of Rights protects these and other individual rights. However, there have been several brief periods in American history when the government violated some of these rights. In the seventeen hundreds, for example, President John Adams supported laws to stop Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic Party from criticizing the government. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took strong actions to prevent newspapers from printing military news. And during the nineteen-fifties, Senator Joseph McCarthy unfairly accused a number of innocent people of being communists and traitors. Some of the most serious government attacks on personal rights took place in nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty. A number of government officials took strong, and sometimes unlawful, actions against labor leaders, foreigners, and others. VOICE TWO: These actions took place because of American fears about the threat of communism. Those fears were tied closely to the growth of the organized labor movement during World War One. There were a number of strikes during the war. More and more often, workers were willing to risk their jobs and join together to try to improve working conditions. President Woodrow Wilson had long supported organized labor. And he tried to get workers and business owners to negotiate peacefully. Woodrow Wilson in 1919But official support for organized labor ended when strikes closed factories that were important to the national war effort. President Wilson and his advisers felt workers should put the national interest before their private interest. They told workers to wait until after the war to demand more pay and better working conditions. VOICE ONE: In general, American workers did wait. But when the war finally ended in nineteen eighteen, American workers began to strike in large numbers for higher pay. As many as two million workers went on strike in nineteen nineteen. There were strikes by house builders, meat cutters, and train operators. And there were strikes in the shipyards, the shoe factories, and the telephone companies. Most striking workers wanted the traditional goals of labor unions: more pay and shorter working hours. But a growing number of them also began to demand major changes in the economic system itself. They called for government control of certain private industries. Railroad workers, for example, wanted the national government to take permanent control of running the trains. Coal miners, too, demanded government control of their industry. And even in the conservative grain-farming states, two hundred thousand farmers joined a group that called for major economic changes. VOICE TWO: All these protests came as a shock to traditional Americans who considered their country to be the home of free business. They saw little need for labor unions. And, they feared that the growing wave of strikes meant the United States faced the same revolution that had just taken place in Russia. After all, Lenin himself had warned that the Bolshevik Revolution would spread to workers in other countries. Several events in nineteen nineteen only increased this fear of violent revolution. A bomb exploded in the home of a senator from the southeastern state of Georgia. And someone even exploded a bomb in front of the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, the nation's chief law officer. However, the most frightening event was a strike by police in Boston, Massachusetts. Calvin CoolidgeThe policemen demanded higher wages. But the police chief refused to negotiate with them. As a result, the policemen went on strike. When they did, thieves began to break into unprotected homes and shops. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge finally had to call out state troops to protect the people. His action defeated the strike. Most of the policemen lost their jobs. VOICE ONE: All this was too much for many Americans. They began to accuse labor unions and others of planning a revolution. And they launched a forceful campaign to protect the country from these suspected extremists. Leaders of this campaign accused thousands of people of being communists, or "Reds." The campaign became known as the "Red Scare. " Of course, most people were honestly afraid of revolution. They did not trust the many foreigners who were active in unions. And they were tired of change and social unrest after the bloody world war. A number of these Americans in different cities began to take violent actions against people and groups that they suspected of being communist extremists. In New York, a crowd of men in military uniforms attacked the office of a socialist newspaper. They beat the people working there and destroyed the equipment. In the western city of Centralia, Washington, four people were killed in a violent fight between union members and their opponents. Public feeling was against the labor unions and political leftists. Many people considered anyone with leftist views to be a revolutionary trying to overthrow democracy. Many state and local governments passed laws making it a crime to belong to organizations that supported revolution. Twenty-eight states passed laws making it a crime to wave red flags. VOICE TWO: People also demanded action from the national government. President Wilson was sick and unable to see the situation clearly. He cared about little except his dream of the United States joining the new League of Nations. But Attorney General Palmer heard the calls for action. Palmer hoped to be elected president the next year. He decided to take strong actions to gain the attention of voters. One of Palmer's first actions as Attorney General was to prevent coal miners from going on strike. Next, he ordered a series of raids to arrest leftist leaders. A number of these arrested people were innocent of any crime. But officials kept many of them in jail, without charges, for weeks. Palmer expelled from the country a number of foreigners suspected of revolutionary activity. He told reporters that communists were criminals who planned to overthrow everything that was good in life. VOICE ONE: Feelings of fear and suspicion extended to other parts of American life. Many persons and groups were accused of supporting communism. Such famous Americans as actor Charlie Chaplin, educator John Dewey, and law professor Felix Frankfurter were among those accused. The Red Scare caused many innocent people to be afraid to express their ideas. They feared they might be accused of being a communist. But as quickly as the Red Scare swept across the country so, too, did it end in nineteen twenty. In just a few months, people began to lose trust in Attorney General Palmer. They became tired of his extreme actions. Republican leader Charles Evans Hughes and other leading Americans called for the Justice Department to obey the law in arresting and charging people. VOICE TWO: By the summer of nineteen twenty, the Red Scare was over. Even a large bomb explosion in New York in September did not change the opinion of most Americans that the nation should return to free speech and the rule of law. The Red Scare did not last long. But it was an important event. It showed that many Americans after World War One were tired of social changes. They wanted peace and business growth. Of course, the traditional way for Americans to show their feelings is through elections. And this growing conservatism of the nation showed itself clearly in the presidential election of nineteen twenty. That election will be the subject of our next program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your announcers have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your announcers have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Music Mash-Ups | Mashed-Up Data | Train Travel in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange and Daniel Kirch

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week … We answer a question about train travel in the United States … Play some “mash-up” music … And report about new computer software that mixes two different Web sites. Mashed-Up Data Have you ever heard of mixing together different Web sites? To mash-up something is to cut it up and mix it together. Mash-up Web sites are a new software technology combining the information and services of two Web sites. These new programs are changing the way companies and individuals use the Internet. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: Many Web sites can tell you about crime rates in an area. Other Web sites can show you maps of an area. But what if you wanted to have a map that shows all of the recent crimes in your area? This is exactly what a Web site developer named Adrian Holovaty decided to make. He combined the information from a Chicago, Illinois police department Web site with an online map of that city. His Web site has become a popular example of the useful services mash-ups can provide. There are many other mash-up examples. One mash-up Web site shows a map of New York City covered with flags. Each flag represents a theater. You can see the name and time of every play being presented in the city. You can also see the names of nearby restaurants where you can eat before or after the show. Another mash-up shows streets all over the United States that have strange or funny names. If you know of an unusual street name, you can add it to this Web site. Volunteer computer programmers lead the mash-up movement. These people are taking control of the Internet in new and creative ways. They often take information from the Web sites of large companies such as Google and Yahoo. At first, these Web site companies did not want people using their maps and information. But now, companies like Yahoo permit mash-up creators to gather information more easily. These companies see mash-ups as a free form of research and advertising. Some companies are even starting to develop new software to make mash-ups easier to build. But not all companies want to invest in this software. Some business experts think mash-ups are a temporary movement. They say mash-ups are fun and interesting, but do not add value. Others say mash-ups represent a valuable experiment. They say mash-up technology might be the future of the Internet. Mashed-Up Music HOST: The term “mash-up” can also mean a new kind of musical experimentation. Mash-ups combine the music from one song with the singing from another. But this kind of musical creation has caused much debate. Bob Doughty has more. BOB DOUGHTY: Deejays are musical professionals who create and play popular songs. A few years ago a young man who calls himself Deejay Reset experimented with the song “Debra” by the singer Beck. Using digital software and his computer he made changes to the song. He then added the voice of musician Jay-Z. He also added some other sounds, such as the beat of drums. The result was a whole new mash-up song called “Frontin’ on Debra.” (MUSIC) Beck liked this new version of his song. Soon, people could buy Deejay Reset’s song online. However, some mash-up deejays have gotten into trouble. Record companies own the original songs that the deejays change. These companies threaten legal action against people who use their music without permission. Mash-ups represent the complex nature of copyright law. Here is the mash-up of “I Wanna Dance with Some Bono.” It combines the voice of Whitney Houston with the music of the band U2. (MUSIC) Today many people use digital technology to make mash-ups. They can post their songs on the Internet for the world to hear. Mash-up fans around the world exchange songs on the Internet. Some radio stations even have special mash-up programs. We leave you with “A Stroke of Genius” created from songs by Christina Aguilera and the Strokes. Critics say this popular mash-up is better than the original songs it combines. (MUSIC) Train Travel HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Taiwan. Chiu Hsien-Cheng asks if it is true that train transportation is not popular in the United States. Most people like driving their own cars or flying in an airplane to get from one city to another. A study from the United States Department of Transportation found that train transportation is unpopular compared with cars and airplanes. Officials of the department studied how many miles Americans traveled using different ways of transportation in two thousand one. Only trips longer than fifty miles, or eighty kilometers, were part of the study. Fifty-six percent of all miles were traveled in a personal vehicle. Forty-one percent were traveled in an airplane. Two percent were traveled in a bus. And less than one percent of miles were traveled in a train. Amtrak is the national provider of train transportation in the United States. In the past ten years the number of its passengers increased by eighteen percent. In two thousand four, Amtrak had about sixty-nine thousand passengers a day on average. During the whole year, twenty-five million people rode Amtrak trains, more than ever before. Although the number of passengers increased, it is still very low. In countries such as France, Germany or Japan, more people use trains. These countries also have nationwide systems of high-speed trains, which the United States does not have. There are several reasons why many people do not like to ride trains. Americans love to drive their own cars. On high-speed roads, cars can travel as fast as trains. These highways connect all major cities. Many travelers like to be independent. When they use their own cars they can decide when to travel. In addition, many buses travel between major cities. Bus travel is much less costly than train travel. In a huge country like the United States, distances between cities are great. In some cases, riding a train from one city to another may take more than a day. Airplanes can carry passengers over long distances much faster. People who do not want to sit in a train for a long time decide to fly. For many people, saving time is the most important thing. I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange and Daniel Kirch. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Inflation Rises More Than Expected in April
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The cost to borrow money is the interest rate. For many years, the United States central bank has used its target interest rate as a tool to fight inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben BernankeThe idea behind this policy is that higher interest rates will mean less borrowing. Less borrowing will mean less spending. And less spending will mean less demand. The aim is to reduce pressures that raise prices for goods, materials and labor. Last week, the Federal Reserve again raised its target interest rate. The federal funds rate is what banks charge other banks to borrow money overnight. These short-term loans come from balances held in the Federal Reserve. The Federal Open Market Committee at the bank increased the target rate by twenty-five basis points. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point. The target is now five percent, the highest since early two thousand one. The committee is led by Ben Bernanke, the new chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. This was the sixteenth increase in a series that began in two thousand four. Markets expected it. But many investors were hoping for a clear signal that this would be the last one at least for now. In its statement, the committee said economic growth has been strong so far this year. It said a slowing housing market and rising interest rates and energy prices have largely contained inflation pressures. But the committee also said that higher prices for energy and materials could add to those pressures in the future. To deal with inflation risks, the committee said "some further policy firming may yet be needed."? Policy firming is the term for raising rates. But the statement added that the extent and timing will depend on further information about the economy. On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced that the consumer price index rose six-tenths of one percent in April. Experts thought this important measure of inflation would increase no more than five-tenths of one percent. The increase was the biggest in three months. And it showed that the effect of higher energy prices might be spreading. Higher energy costs push up prices for transportation and many products. Economists are divided on what the report will mean for interest rates. The open market committee meets next for two days starting June twenty-eighth. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Difference Between Giving Credit and Taking Credit: Plagiarism
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This is the opening weekend for the movie version of “The Da Vinci Code.”? The mystery about art, religion and murder is based on the book by Dan Brown. The latest reports say his three-year-old book has already sold sixty million copies worldwide. It also led to a trial earlier this year in Britain. Two writers accused Dan Brown of plagiarism -- stealing someone else's words or ideas. They said he copied the main idea of their book "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail."? A High Court judge in London did not agree. He said the idea was too general to be considered protected under British copyright laws. Recently a number of stories involving accusations of plagiarism have been in the news. Kaavya ViswanathanKaavya Viswanathan, a nineteen-year-old student at Harvard University, lost a major book deal. It appeared she copied from five other writers in parts of her book, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life."? Her publisher, Little, Brown & Company, finally withdrew the young-adult novel from sale. Earlier, she told the New York Times that some of the plagiarism may have happened because she remembers what she reads. "I really thought the words were my own," she said. Another situation involved the chief of Raytheon, a leading defense company. William Swanson wrote a small, unpublished work called “Swanson’s Unwritten Laws of Management."? The company offered it free to anyone interested. But some of it came from material that did not receive credit, including a nineteen forty-four book, "The Unwritten Laws of Engineering." Mister Swanson apologized. He said he meant the advice as an expression of old rules, but in terms of his own experience over the years. Raytheon directors took action to punish him with about one million dollars in lost pay. Mister Swanson earned seven million dollars last year. Plagiarism has always been an issue in schools. Teachers say the Internet has made it much easier to find and copy material. But teachers have their ways to use the Internet to catch plagiarism. Turnitin, for example, is a Web site that offers a service to identify papers that contain copied material. It says a common mistake is to believe that electronic material is not private property in the same way books are. Punishments for plagiarism differ in schools. A high school student might fail the project. A college student might fail the class and be suspended for a year. In some colleges and universities, a student or professor caught plagiarizing might be told to leave and never return. Using information from experts is usually OK, as long as where the material came from is identified. Any material copied word-for-word is supposed to appear inside quotation marks. Where people get in trouble is when they try to claim other people's words as their own. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Margaret Bourke-White Helped Create Modern Photojournalism
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we complete our report about photographer Margaret Bourke-White. She helped create the modern art of photojournalism. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Margaret Bourke-White began her career as an industrial photographer in the early nineteen thirties. Her pictures captured the beauty and power of machines. They told a story – one image at a time. The technique became know as the photographic essay. In nineteen thirty-six, American publisher Henry Luce started a new magazine, called Life, based on the photographic essay. In this magazine, the pictures told the story. Bourke-White had worked as a photographer for one of Luce’s other magazines, called Fortune. Luce chose her to work on his new magazine. VOICE TWO: Margaret Bourke-White took the picture that appeared on the first cover of Life magazine. It was a picture of a new dam being built in the western state of Montana. The light on the rounded supports showed the dam’s great strength. The small shapes of two men at the bottom showed the dam’s huge size. Bourke-White was no longer satisfied just to show the products of industry in her pictures, as she had in the past. She wanted to tell the story of the people behind the industry:? In this case, the people who were building the dam. VOICE ONE: The dam in Montana was a federal project. Ten thousand people worked on it. Bourke-White took pictures of those people – at the dam, in the rooms where they lived, and in the places where they had fun. With her pictures in Life magazine, she told a story about America’s “Wild West” in the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Margaret Bourke-White was a social activist. She was a member of the American Artists Congress. These artists supported state financial aid for the arts. They fought discrimination against African-American artists. And they supported artists fighting against fascism in Europe. In the nineteen thirties, Bourke-White met the American writer Erskine Caldwell. Caldwell was known for his stories about people in the American South. The photographer and the writer decided to produce a book to tell Americans about some of those poor country people of the South. They traveled through eight states, from South Carolina to Louisiana. Their book, “You Have Seen Their Faces,” was published in nineteen thirty-seven. It was a great success. Caldwell’s words were beautiful. But Bourke-White’s pictures could have told the story by themselves. They showed the faces of people in a land that still wore the mask of defeat in America’s Civil War. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-eight, some countries in Europe were close to war. Bourke-White and Caldwell went there to report on these events. They produced another book together, this time about Czechoslovakia. It was called “North of the Danube.”? The next year Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell were married. They continued to work together. By the spring of nineteen forty-one, Europe had been at war for a year and a half. Bourke-White and Caldwell went to the Soviet Union. They were the only foreign reporters there. For six weeks, Bourke-White took pictures of the Soviet people preparing for war. Then, one night in July, Soviet officials announced that German bomber planes were flying toward Moscow. No civilians were permitted to stay above ground because of the coming attacks. VOICE TWO: As others were hurrying to safety, Bourke-White placed several cameras in the window of her hotel room. She set the cameras so they would remain open to the light of the night sky. Then she joined the others in rooms under the hotel. While she waited for the bombing attack to end, her cameras recorded the explosions, which lit up the rooftops of the city. Before leaving the country, Bourke-White received permission to meet with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She returned home with his picture and a series of other photographic essays for Life magazine. She also had enough material for a book on the war in the Soviet Union. Margaret Bourke-White’s marriage to Erskine Caldwell ended in divorce in nineteen forty-two. VOICE ONE: During World War Two, she became an official photographer with the United States Army. Her photographs were to be used jointly by the military and by Life magazine. She was the first woman to be permitted to work in combat areas during World War Two. Bourke-White flew with American bomber planes in England as they prepared to attack enemy targets on the European continent. She wanted to fly with the Army to North Africa, where the allies were fighting German troops in the desert. But the commanding general told her it would be too dangerous. So she sailed for North Africa instead. Before she reached the African coast, enemy bombs hit the ship and sank it. An allied warship rescued Bourke-White and the other survivors and took them to Algeria. VOICE TWO: The incident did not stop Bourke-White from reporting on the war. She flew in an allied bombing attack on a German airfield at El Aouina in Tunisia. She flew over the terrible fighting in the Cassino Valley in Italy. And she moved along the Rhine River with the United States Third Army, under the command of General George Patton. At the end of the war, she was with American troops when they entered and freed several Nazi death camps. She took photographs of the prisoners in the Buchenwald death camp in Germany in nineteen forty-five. Later, she wrote about the war. She said she sometimes pulled an imaginary cloth across her eyes as she worked. In the death camps, she said, the cloth was so thick that she did not really know what she was photographing until she saw the finished pictures. In addition to her stories for Life magazine, Bourke-White published books on the allied campaign in Italy and on the fall of Nazi Germany. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the war, Life magazine sent Margaret Bourke-White to India. She stayed for three years as India prepared for its independence from Britain. She photographed the battles between Muslims and Hindus. And she met with the leader of India’s non-violent campaign for independence, Mohandas Gandhi. She made a famous photograph of him called “Gandhi at His Spinning Wheel.” ?She was the last person to photograph Gandhi before he was murdered in nineteen forty-eight. VOICE TWO: After that, Bourke-White traveled to South Africa. Her job was to tell the story of the black people who worked in the country’s gold mines. To get the pictures she wanted, she followed the workers deep into the mine tunnels. In the early nineteen fifties, she went to Korea to photograph the effects of war on the Korean people. She took a famous photograph of a returning soldier reunited with his mother in South Korea in nineteen fifty-two. The mother had believed that her son had been killed several months earlier in the Korean War. VOICE ONE: Margaret Bourke-White tried to make her pictures perfect. Often, she was not satisfied with what she had done. She would look at her pictures and see something she had failed to do, or something she had not done right. Reaching perfection was not easy. Many things got in the way of her work. She said: “There is only one moment when a picture is there. And a moment later, it is gone forever. My memory is full of those pictures that were lost.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More of Margaret Bourke-White’s beautiful pictures were to be lost, sooner than anyone expected. In the middle nineteen fifties, she began to suffer from the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Her hands shook so badly that she could not hold a camera. She wrote a book about her life, called “Portrait of Myself.”? And, even though she was unable to take photographs, she continued to work for Life magazine until nineteen sixty-nine. She died in nineteen seventy-one at the age of sixty-seven. Margaret Bourke-White was a woman doing what had been a man’s job. Her work took her around the world, from factories to battlefields. Her life was full of adventure. She was one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Horseman in the Sky
* Byline: Written by Ambrose Bierce

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called, "A Horseman in the Sky."? It was written by Ambrose Bierce. Here is Roy Depew with the story. (MUSIC) Narrator: Carter Druse was born in Virginia. He loved his parents, his home and the south. But he loved his country, too. And in the autumn of eighteen sixty-one, when the United States was divided by a terrible civil war, Carter Druse, a southerner, decided to join the Union Army of the north. He told his father about his decision one morning at breakfast. The older man looked at his only son for a moment, too shocked to speak. Then he said, "As of this moment you are a traitor to the south. Please don't tell your mother about your decision. She is sick, and we both know she has only a few weeks to live." Carter's father paused, again looking deep into his son's eyes. "Carter," he said, "No matter what happens -- be sure you always do what you think is your duty." Both Carter Druse and his father left the table that morning with broken hearts. And Carter soon left his home, and everyone he loved to wear the blue uniform of the Union soldier. One sunny afternoon, a few weeks later, Carter Druse lay with his face in the dirt by the side of a road. He was on his stomach, his arms still holding his gun. Carter would not receive a medal for his actions. In fact, if his commanding officer were to see him, he would order Carter shot immediately. For Carter was not dead or wounded. He was sleeping while on duty. Fortunately, no one could see him. He was hidden by some bushes, growing by the side of the road. The road Carter Druse had been sent to guard was only a few miles from his father's house. It began in a forest, down in the valley, and climbed up the side of a huge rock. Anyone standing on the top of this high rock would be able to see down into the valley. And that person would feel very dizzy, looking down. If he dropped a stone from the edge of this cliff, it would fall for six hundred meters before disappearing into the forest in the valley below. Giant cliffs, like the one Carter lay on, surrounded the valley. Hidden in the valley's forest were five union regiments -- thousands of Carter's fellow soldiers. They had marched for thirty-six hours. Now they were resting. But at midnight they would climb that road up the rocky cliff. Their plan was to attack by surprise an army of southerners, camped on the other side of the cliff. But if their enemy learned about the Union Army hiding in the forest, the soldiers would find themselves in a trap with no escape. That was why Carter Druse had been sent to guard the road. It was his duty to be sure that no enemy soldier, dressed in gray, spied on the valley, where the union army was hiding. But Carter Druse had fallen asleep. Suddenly, as if a messenger of fate came to touch him on the shoulder, the young man opened his eyes. As he lifted his head, he saw a man on horseback standing on the huge rocky cliff that looked down into the valley. The rider and his horse stood so still that they seemed made of stone. The man's gray uniform blended with the blue sky and the white clouds behind him. He held a gun in his right hand, and the horse's reins in the other. Carter could not see the man's face, because the rider was looking down into the valley. But the man and his horse seemed to be of heroic, almost gigantic size, standing there motionless against the sky. Carter discovered he was very much afraid, even though he knew the enemy soldier could not see him hiding in the bushes. Suddenly the horse moved, pulling back its head from the edge of the cliff. Carter was completely awake now. He raised his gun, pushing its barrel through the bushes. And he aimed for the horseman's heart. A small squeeze of the trigger, and Carter Druse would have done his duty. At that instant, the horseman turned his head and looked in Carter's direction. He seemed to look at Carter's face, into his eyes, and deep into his brave, generous heart. Carter's face became very white. His entire body began shaking. His mind began to race, and in his fantasy, the horse and rider became black figures, rising and falling in slow circles against a fiery red sky. Carter did not pull the trigger. Instead, he let go of his gun and slowly dropped his face until it rested again in the dirt. Brave and strong as he was, Carter almost fainted from the shock of what he had seen. Is it so terrible to kill an enemy who might kill you and your friends? Carter knew that this man must be shot from ambush -- without warning. This man must die without a moment to prepare his soul; without even the chance to say a silent prayer. Slowly, a hope began to form in Carter Druse's mind. Perhaps the southern soldier had not seen the northern troops. Perhaps he was only admiring the view. Perhaps he would now turn and ride carelessly away. Then Carter looked down into the valley so far below. He saw a line of men in blue uniforms and their horses, slowly leaving the protection of the forest. A foolish Union officer had permitted his soldiers to bring their horses to drink at a small stream near the forest. And there they were -- in plain sight! Carter Druse looked back to the man and horse standing there against the sky. Again he took aim. But this time he pointed his gun at the horse. Words rang in his head -- the last words his father ever spoke to him: "No matter what happens, be sure you always do what you think is your duty." Carter Druse was calm as he pulled the trigger of his gun. At that moment, a Union officer happened to look up from his hiding place near the edge of the forest. His eyes climbed to the top of the cliff that looked over the valley. Just looking at the top of the gigantic rock, so far above him, made the soldier feel dizzy. And then the officer saw something that filled his heart with horror. A man on a horse was riding down into the valley through the air! The rider sat straight in his saddle. His hair streamed back, waving in the wind. His left hand held his horse's reins while his right hand was hidden in the cloud of the horse's mane. The horse looked as if it were galloping across the earth. Its body was proud and noble. As the frightened Union officer watched this horseman in the sky, he almost believed he was witnessing a messenger from heaven. A messenger who had come to announce the end of the world. The officer's legs grew weak, and he fell. At almost the same instant, he heard a crashing sound in the trees. The sound died without an echo. And all was silent. The officer got to his feet, still shaking. He went back to his camp. But he didn't tell anyone what he had seen. He knew no one would ever believe him. Soon after firing his gun, Carter Druse was joined by a Union sergeant. Carter did not turn his head as the sergeant kneeled beside him. "Did you fire?" The sergeant whispered. "Yes." "At what?" "A horse. It was on that rock. It's not there now. It went over the cliff." Carter's face was white. But he showed no other sign of emotion. The sergeant did not understand. "See here, Druse," he said, after a moment's silence. "Why are you making this into a mystery. I order you to report. Was there anyone on the horse?" "Yes." "Who? " "My father." (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard the story called, "A Horseman in the Sky." It was written by Ambrose Bierce, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Roy Depew. For VOA Special English, this is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-21-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Bird Words:? Someone Who Eats Like a Bird Eats Very Little
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today we explain some expressions about birds. For example, if something is for the birds, it is worthless or not very interesting. Someone who eats like a bird eats very little. And a birds-eye view is a general look at an area from above. Did you know that if you tell a young person about the birds and the bees you are explaining about sex and birth??? Have you ever observed that birds of a feather flock together?? In other words, people who are similar become friends or do things together. Here is some good advice: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means you should not risk losing something you have by trying to get more of something you do not have. Sometimes I can do two things by performing only one action. This is called killing two birds with one stone. But I would never really kill any birds. I love all kinds of animals. This is a real feather in my cap. It is something to be proud of. Most of the people I work with are early birds. They believe that the early bird catches the worm. They think that a person who gets up early in the morning for work has the best chance of success. Everyone in my office works hard, but some people have had their wings clipped. Their jobs have been limited. This is because the office is organized by pecking order. People with more years and experience are given more responsibility. Some bird expressions are about crows, chickens and ducks. For example, when I am driving, I always travel as the crow flies. I go the most direct way. Anyone who eats crow has to admit a mistake or defeat. Now let’s talk about my sister. She is not very young. She is no spring chicken. She will work any job for chicken feed -- a small amount of money. She is easily frightened. For example, she is too chicken-livered to walk down a dark street alone at night. Often she will chicken out – she will not go out alone at night. My sister was an ugly duckling. She looked strange when she was a child, but she grew up to be a beautiful woman. Sometimes she thinks too much about having something in the future before she really has it. She counts her chickens before they are hatched. Sometimes her chickens come home to roost. That means her actions or words cause trouble for her. However, my sister does not worry about what people say about her. Criticism falls off her like water off a duck’s back. Politicians are sometimes considered lame ducks after losing an election. They have little time left in office and not much power. Congress holds a lame duck session after an election. Important laws are not passed during this period. (MUSIC)????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Students Work on Ideas for 'People, Prosperity and the Planet'
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Winners of an environmental design competition for college students in the United States will now try to bring their ideas to market. Six teams won the second year of the event, called P-Three: People, Prosperity and the Planet. The competition is held by the Environmental Protection Agency and other public and private organizations. Teams compete to design sustainable technologies that support economic growth but also protect the environment. One of the winning teams is from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. ?The students propose to research low-cost, environmentally friendly fuels. One idea is to use waste vegetable oil to make biofuel that poor families and local farmers can use. Another winning proposal is from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. The students will design a water supply system in Honduras for the village of La Fortuna. They will look for simple technologies, local materials and community involvement. Students from Portland State University in Oregon will create a Web site as a teaching tool for the local public schools. The interactive site will explain how the world is connected environmentally. At Stanford University in California, students will put their award money toward what they call a "Green Dorm."? The goal is to develop student housing where environmentally friendly systems can be tested. Students from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell will explore a possible cancer treatment. Their work will involve compounds found in green tea. And the sixth winning team is from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The students will work with building materials made from natural compounds and plastics that can be recycled. The team will develop and test new product designs. Forty-one teams each received ten thousand dollars to develop their projects over the school year. They presented their ideas earlier this month in Washington, D.C. Judges from the National Academies helped choose the six winners. Each team can now receive as much as seventy-five thousand dollars more to continue work. Four teams from last year have already started small businesses. Only schools in the United States can enter the P-Three competition, but they can work with foreign colleges and universities. Proposals for next year will be accepted starting in December. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Issues of Economics, Fairness Shape Debate on Working Mothers
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Can a mother work outside the home and still take good care of her children?? This question has long been the subject of debate in American society. VOICE ONE: And this week on our program, we examine the latest developments. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On a television talk show, two women look at one another with hostile eyes. One says she knows the right way to be a mother. No, the other says SHE knows the right way to be a mother. The first one says a good mother stays home to take care of her children. The other woman says a good mother helps her family by earning money. She says a full-time working mother makes her time with her children more meaningful because there is less of it. “Impossible!” the first one shouts. Voices rise. And so goes a unusually heated example of what some people call the mommy wars. Even that name incites reaction. Some find it insulting for such a serious subject. The debate is emotional and deeply personal. The arguments involve issues of equality, fairness and economic realities. They also involve struggles with guilt and inner conflict as parents try to decide what is best for their children. VOICE ONE: In America, seven out of ten mothers have paid jobs, either full time or part time. These include more than half of women with babies or young children. As many as twelve million children of working mothers are too young for school. Two million of them in a recent year spent most of their parents' workdays in day care centers. Other children receive individual care, either in their own home or someone else's. Some are cared for by family members, and many go to a combination of places. In some families where both parents work, they organize their jobs so that one parent is always home. VOICE TWO: On one side of the debate are women who say mothers should not work, especially when their children are very young. They say there are many good reasons why raising a child should be a mother's full-time job. For one thing, they say, children in day care are more likely to get sick. Some studies support their opinions, but others do not. On the other side of the debate are mothers who say day care helps children learn social skills. They point out that early education programs in many day care centers also help prepare children for school. And they note that some medical studies show that day care helps children develop resistance, so they get sick less often as they get older. VOICE ONE:? Half a century ago, few American mothers with little children worked away from home. But over the years, many families found they needed two earners to pay for their houses, cars and other costs of living. The women’s liberation movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies also changed American life. More and more young women were college educated. Influential feminists like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan urged them to put their knowledge and skills to work outside the home. Today, half of mothers with babies under a year old return to work within the first six months. Some say no one would ever question a man's desire to succeed as an individual. But others have no choice. Their husbands do not earn enough to support the family. Or their husbands have no job. Or they have no husband. The poorer the family, the greater the pressure on the mother to work. Women with more money can face a different kind of pressure: social pressure. Some people condemn them if they want to work. Yet others condemn them if they want to be traditional homemakers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? Some commentators say the media are fueling the idea of "mommy wars" because it makes a good story. But whatever they call it, this is a subject that women, and men, discuss on talk shows. They write about it in newspapers, magazines and Web sites. There are books on the subject. These include Beth Brykman's “The Wall Between Women: The Conflict Between Stay-at-Home and Employed Mothers.”? Businesswoman and writer Leslie Morgan Steiner edited a book in which twenty-six women describe their lives as mothers. The book is called “Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families.”? VOICE ONE:?? Carol Evans is founder of Working Mother Media, which publishes Working Mother magazine. She notes that many women with young children find different solutions in their lives. Some telecommute to their jobs from home by computer, fax machine or even just a telephone. Others work just part time. And some leave their jobs for years to raise their children. Business schools at Harvard and other universities have created educational programs to help prepare women to re-enter the working world. ??????? VOICE TWO: If that is their choice. There have been recent stories about young women at top universities who say they want to become stay-at-home mothers. Employment of women with babies under one year dropped in the most recent period reported by the Census Bureau. The rate decreased from fifty-nine percent in nineteen ninety-eight to fifty-five percent in two thousand two. The Census Bureau said this was the first recorded drop since it began to keep these records in nineteen seventy-six. A new mother from Bethesda, Maryland, left a good job at a bank to raise her child. That was in two thousand. "Children are only young once," she says. VOICE ONE: Sometimes, though, mothers who decide to stay home find the change surprisingly difficult. In nineteen eighty-seven, a postal worker named Joanne Brundage left her job to become a stay-at-home mother. Soon she felt lonely. She wanted to talk to other mothers. But most were working. So she formed a support group for mothers who had left the workplace. Today, her organization Mothers & More has seven thousand members around the country. They work not only to improve the lives of mothers. They also try to educate other people about the value of the work that mothers do. Other groups for mothers include Mothers of Preschoolers. MOPS has members in the United States and more than thirty other countries. VOICE TWO:?????? Joanne Brundage made her own decision to leave her job after she became a mother. Some women, however, have that decision made for them: mothers who lose their jobs or their chances at better jobs. This is illegal, if a woman can prove that her employer violated her civil rights. Many new mothers and fathers take time off under a federal law, the Family and Medical Leave Act. It lets an employee take up to twelve weeks a year of unpaid leave for a number of family or medical reasons. Congress targeted this nineteen ninety-three law to employers with fifty or more workers. But many smaller employers also offer unpaid family leave. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Research shows that married women who work still do much of the housework for their families. Salary.com wanted to put a dollar value on all the work that mothers do. So the Web site asked women to identify their ten most important jobs at home. These include housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook and computer operator. Other jobs include washing the clothes and acting as the family driver and mental health specialist. Salary.com said that together these ten jobs would normally pay more than one hundred thirty thousand dollars a year. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Stay-at-home mothers point out that they avoid many of the costs that often reduce the earnings of working mothers. Child care services can add up to thousands of dollars a year. Working families also have less time to prepare their own meals, so they eat out more. A young mother of two in Alexandria, Virginia, works in a hospital far from her home. She says she could not do her job and manage her family without the services now offered for busy people. Her life is too busy, she admits. But she also says that the money she earns makes life more pleasant for her family. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. ?I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. You can read and listen to our shows at voaspecialenlgish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Weather: Tornado Science, in a Land With Plenty of Experience
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week -- the science of tornadoes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For many parts of the United States, the spring season brings with it tornadoes. A tornado is a violently turning tube of air suspended from a thick cloud. It extends from a thunderstorm in the sky down to the ground. The shape is like a funnel: wide at the top, narrower at the bottom. Tornadoes form when winds blowing in different directions meet in the clouds and begin to turn in circles. Warm air rising from below causes the wind tube to reach toward the ground. Because of their circular movement, these severe wind storms are also known as twisters. The most severe tornadoes can reach wind speeds of three hundred twenty kilometers an hour or more. In some cases, damage paths can stretch more than one kilometer wide and eighty kilometers long. VOICE TWO: With a tornado, bigger does not necessarily mean stronger. Large tornadoes can be very weak. And some of the smallest tornadoes can be the most damaging. But no matter what the size, tornado winds are the strongest on Earth. Tornadoes have been known to carry homes, cars and trees from one place to another. And they can also destroy anything in their path. Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica. But weather scientists say the country where they are most common is the United States. The United States has more than one thousand tornadoes a year. Last year, twelve of them resulted in deaths. In all, thirty-eight people were killed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tornadoes are observed most often in the central part of the United States where the land is mostly flat. The area where the most violent tornadoes usually happen is known as “Tornado Alley.”? This area is considered to extend from north central Texas to North Dakota. Weather scientists say Texas is the state with the greatest number of tornadoes. But the state with the most tornadoes in relation to area is Florida. In Florida, tornadoes often develop along the edges of severe ocean storms. Tornadoes can happen any time of the year. But they happen most often in March, April and May. There is a second high season in November. VOICE TWO: In the spring, warm air moves north and mixes with cold air remaining from winter. In November, the opposite happens. Cold weather moves south and combines with the last of the warm air from summer. Tornadoes can strike with little or no warning. Most injuries happen when flying objects hit people. Experts say the best place to be is in a small room, without windows, in the middle of the lowest part of a building. People driving during a tornado are told to find low ground and lie flat, facedown, with their hands covering their head. People in the path of a tornado often have just minutes to make life-or-death decisions. VOICE ONE: The deadliest United States tornado on record is the Tri-State Tornado of March eighteenth, nineteen twenty-five. It tore across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. About seven hundred people were killed. A "tornado outbreak" is often defined as six or more tornadoes produced by the same weather system within a day. But the outbreak of April third and fourth, nineteen seventy-four, set a national record. It is remembered as the "Super Outbreak."? One hundred forty-eight tornadoes struck during a twenty-four-hour period. More than three hundred people were killed and six thousand others were injured. One tornado that was especially destructive hit Xenia, Ohio. The sound you are about to hear comes from the Web site ohiohistory.org. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: No two tornadoes look exactly alike. And no two tornadoes act the same way. It takes the right combination of wind, temperature, pressure and humidity to create even a weak tornado. Weather scientists can identify these conditions. And, when they observe them, they can advise people that tornadoes might develop. But they are not able to tell exactly where or when a tornado will hit. Usually a community will receive a warning at least a few minutes before a tornado strikes. But each year there are some surprises where tornadoes develop when they are least expected. VOICE ONE: The tornado reporting system involves watches and warnings. When people are told that a tornado watch is in effect, that means tornadoes are possible in the area. A tornado warning means that a tornado has been seen. People are told to take shelter immediately. Yet tornadoes can be difficult to see. Sometimes only the objects they are carrying through the air can be seen. Some nighttime tornadoes have been observed because of lightning strikes nearby. But tornadoes at night are usually impossible to see. Tornadoes that form over water are called waterspouts. But tornadoes cover a much smaller area than hurricanes, which form over oceans. Tornadoes can be measured using wind speed information from Doppler radar systems. Tornadoes usually travel in a northeasterly direction with a speed of thirty-two to sixty-four kilometers per hour. But they have been reported to move in other directions and as fast as one hundred seventeen kilometers an hour. VOICE TWO: In the United States, the force of a tornado is judged by the damage to structures. Scientists inspect the damage before they estimate the severity of a tornado. They measure tornadoes on the Fujita scale. Ted Fujita was a University of Chicago weather expert who developed this system in the nineteen seventies. There are six levels on the Fujita scale. Tornadoes that cause only light damage are called an F-zero. Those with the highest winds that destroy well-built homes and throw vehicles more than one hundred meters are called an F-five. VOICE ONE: Some people make a sport out of watching and following tornadoes. They are called tornado chasers or storm chasers. Their work can be seen in the extreme weather videos that are increasingly popular on television. Some chasers are part of weather research teams. Others do it to help document storms and warn the public. Still others do it just because it is their idea of fun. Storm chasers usually drive large vehicles to areas of severe weather. They follow storms for long distances. For some, the appeal of a tornado is to get closer and take better pictures than others have, without getting killed in the process. VOICE TWO: The National Weather Service says the United States gets more severe weather than any other country. For one thing, it is also bigger than most other countries. And it has many different conditions that create many different kinds of weather. ? There are beaches and deserts, flatlands and mountains. The West Coast is along the Pacific Ocean, which is relatively calm. The East Coast is along the Atlantic Ocean, which is known for its hurricanes. These strike mainly the Southeastern states. The hurricane season officially begins on June first and ends on November thirtieth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a science question, send it to special@voanews.com. We might be able to answer it on our show. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: More Organic Foods at Wal-Mart Stores
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Sales of organic foods in the United States have been growing since the nineteen seventies. The Organic Trade Association says sales last year reached almost fourteen thousand million dollars. Yet that was only two and one-half percent of all food sales. But now there is a sign that organics have risen to a new level of economic importance. This spring, Wal-Mart announced an effort to double the number of organic products in its stores. Stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have sold organic products for years. But in recent years organic sales have grown sharply. Products like organic milk and eggs have appeared in most grocery stores. Wal-Mart sells thousands of products, including food. Many of its stores contain markets. Wal-Mart says it wants to offer greater choice to more people. But critics say the actions of such a huge seller could put pressure on organic producers. They say it will be harder to know if producers are following the rules for organics as larger companies push demand higher. At the same time, Wal-Mart's efforts are expected to push prices lower. A Wal-Mart official reportedly said his company plans to sell organics at only ten percent over the price of non-organic versions. Some people have been willing to pay five or ten times that. They believe organic foods are healthier and safer. Others dispute this, and some say it can depend on the products. Organic products may not be genetically engineered. They must be made only with natural processes and materials. Crops must be raised without most of the chemicals that farmers use now. Animals cannot be given antibiotics or other drugs to increase growth. And they must be fed organically grown food. Yet the food industry uses many different marketing terms. Claims like "all-natural" can mean different things. But a product must contain at least ninety-five percent organic materials to be called organic. Some people worry that the rules for organic foods will be weakened as big companies expand into the market. The National Organic Program of the United States Department of Agriculture sets those rules. Farms must give a production plan to a certifying agent approved by the department. If the agent approves the plan, only then can the U.S.D.A. Organic Seal appear on their products. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado: Protecting the Culture of Ancient Native Americans
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano and Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a large National Park established to protect the culture of ancient Native Americans. It is called Mesa Verde. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It was cold that day in eighteen eighty-eight in southwestern Colorado. Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law were trying to find some missing cattle. They were up on Mesa Verde. Spanish explorers had named the area. The high, flat mountaintop is covered with many green juniper and pinon pine trees. It looks like a huge green table, which is “mesa verde” in Spanish. The two men came to the edge of a deep canyon. Through the falling snow, they saw what looked like a small city across the canyon. It was suspended in the middle of the rock wall. There were many connected rooms built into a natural opening in the rock. They named the ruins Cliff Palace. In the next few days, they found two more large ruins. They named one Spruce Tree House. They named the other Square Tower House. VOICE TWO: A number of other people had seen and taken pictures of some of the cliff dwellings earlier. But the Wetherill family was the first group to study them. Soon after his discovery, Richard Wetherill returned to Mesa Verde, to the ruins that had remained silent and untouched for centuries. Richard Wetherill collected many objects. It was an easy task. It looked as if the people who had lived there had just walked away, leaving everything they owned. Cooking pots by the fireplaces. Food bowls on the floors. Shoes in the corners. Sticks for digging by the doors. The ruins in Colorado had been home to the ancestors of the present day members of the Pueblo tribes. They were named Anasazi, or ancient ones, by the Navajo Indians. They moved to Mesa Verde about one thousand five hundred years ago and left seven hundred years ago. They built the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde toward the end of the eight hundred years they lived there. VOICE ONE: Richard Wetherill showed his collection of objects in nearby towns. People were not interested. Just some more old Indian things, they said. Finally, he sold his collection to the Colorado Historical Society. But the Wetherill family continued exploring Mesa Verde. Their finds became known in the eastern United States and in Europe. Hundreds of people went to Mesa Verde to see for themselves. VOICE TWO: One of the earliest visitors was a young man from Sweden, Gustaf Nordenskiold. Mister Nordenskiold spent months exploring the area. He traveled on foot and on horseback. He took pictures that were published in a book, “The Cliff Dwellers of the Mesa Verde.” Gustaf Nordenskiold collected hundreds of objects he found in the ruins. He loaded them on teams of mules and sent them to the nearby town of Durango, Colorado. Local officials tried to prevent him from removing so many objects. But there were no laws to stop him. Mister Nordenskiold shipped the objects to Sweden. Later, they were given to the national museum in Helsinki, Finland, where they remain today. VOICE ONE: Many people were shocked by the continuing removal of objects from the ruins at Mesa Verde. One was a woman named Virginia McClurg. She had visited the area and had explored a few small ruins. From eighteen eighty-seven to eighteen ninety-six, she campaigned throughout the country to get laws to save the cliff dwellings. She gave speeches describing the destruction of the dwellings by people seeking treasures. She worked for years with members of the United States Congress to get such laws passed. Finally, on June twenty-ninth, nineteen-oh-six, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a bill creating Mesa Verde National Park. It was the first National Park designed to protect the works of humans. Then Congress approved the Federal Antiquities Act of nineteen-oh-six. The act helps protect ancient ruins on federal lands. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, from a distance, Mesa Verde appears as it did centuries ago. It rises more than five hundred forty meters above the floor of the valley. Visitors can drive up to the top of Mesa Verde on a winding mountain road. When you reach the top, you are two thousand four hundred meters above sea level. In the distance are the flat lands and mountains of the Four Corners area. That is where the western states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona meet. This area has one of the largest numbers of archeological sites in the United States. VOICE ONE: Within the national park are more than five thousand ruins from the time of the Ancestral Puebloan people. Six hundred are cliff dwellings. Most of the ruins remain unexplored. Some have been uncovered and supported to make them safe to visit. These ruins are open to the public during most of the year. During the winter, activities are limited. The visitors' center at the park is open during the summer. The museum is open all year. The visitors’ center and the museum provide information about the history of the culture of the ancient Pueblo people and about present-day Indians. National Park Service guides lead visitors to the ruins. They give talks about the cultural history of the area. And they talk about the geology and wildlife. VOICE TWO: Some of the ruins in the Four Corners area are from the earliest people who lived there. They were hunters and gatherers, now known as Basket Makers. The Basket Makers lived in simple caves. Their civilization existed two thousand years ago. The first evidence that ancient people had moved to Mesa Verde is from about the year five hundred. Those people lived in pit houses. Pit houses were large holes in the ground with roofs of wood and mud. In about the year seven hundred fifty, the early Pueblo people began building square structures of large connected rooms, or pueblos, above ground. Finally, in about eleven hundred, they climbed down the canyon walls and began building cliff dwellings. Today, visitors to Mesa Verde can see some of the remains of all four kinds of settlements. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde and also in North America. It has one hundred fifty rooms. It is difficult to get to it. Visitors must climb down into the canyon on a narrow path with many steps. They must also climb down several ladders. But the trip is well worth the effort. Visitors can examine a huge and beautiful structure made of stone and clay. Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park. It has one hundred fourteen rooms. It also has eight underground rooms called kivas. The Indian men gathered in the kivas for special ceremonies. About one hundred people lived in this cliff dwelling during the thirteenth century. Spruce Tree House is the easiest cliff dwelling to visit. The path curves down into the valley and then up to the ruin. Signs along the path point to trees and plants used by the Ancestral Puebloan people. Also along the path are the juniper and pinon pine trees that make Mesa Verde green. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: About five hundred thousand people visit Mesa Verde National Park each year. The park’s archeologists have recovered many objects that the ancient Pueblo people used, including pots, tools and jewelry. Many of the objects are shown in the visitors’ center. However, human remains or any object from a grave may not be touched or shown. This is to honor the wishes of the modern Puebloan people who live in the area today. Mesa Verde National Park occupies twenty-one thousand hectares of land. However, only about ten percent of the area has been explored. VOICE ONE: Mesa Verde is recognized as a special place. The United Nations named it one of the first World Heritage sites in nineteen seventy-eight. Special events were held at Mesa Verde during its one hundredth anniversary in two thousand six. They included tours of areas never before open to the public. Today's Pueblo Indians whose ancestors lived in Mesa Verde consider it a sacred place. And for visitors from around the world, it remains a place of mystery and beauty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: In Choice of Immigration Terms, Some Say Focus on the Act, Not the Actor
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: what to call people who are in the United States without following immigration laws. RS: Sometimes they are called "undocumented immigrants" or "undocumented workers" or "illegal aliens." The most common term by far, though, at least as reflected in the news media, is "illegal immigrants." Yet in the debate over immigration policy, linguist Otto Santa Ana at the University of California, Los Angeles, sees it as a biased political term. AA: Which may help explain why Professor Santa Ana has found a small increase since 2004 in the use of more-neutral terms in newspapers. He traces this to a speech by President Bush in January of 2004 during his re-election campaign. OTTO SANTA ANA: "I believe that he opened up and made legitimate, for once, the characterization of immigrants as family members, as people, as God-fearing, hard-working individuals trying to make a living. Until that time no one with the president's power ever referred to immigrants as people. "And so although that is understood, it is articulated each and every time that we say 'immigrants without papers,' 'people who are working here without legal documents' or other sorts of circumlocutions, to not focus the illegality on the immigrant. "And, in fact, in Congress right now, what the senators and representatives are discussing is the official status of those people. So by using the term 'illegal immigrant' solely, what the journalists do is articulate a partisan perspective." RS: In fact, Professor Santa Ana calls the term illegal immigrant a "vigilante term." OTTO SANTA ANA: "You know, for one thing news editors already exclude the notion of 'illegal' as a noun. In the early '90s, people were very comfortable with saying 'Oh, those illegals.' But that was already understood to be pejorative. In a very negative way, it characterized people as primarily criminals. But they have broken a civil law that's equivalent in some sense -- in very many senses -- to jaywalking, but we don't call jaywalkers 'illegal pedestrians.'" AA: "You're talking about the act of being within the United States ... " OTTO SANTA ANA: "Is currently a civil infraction of the law. It is technically illegal. But the term illegal immigrant -- if you say the people who are here without legal papers, that's a more appropriate characterization." RS: "So what I'm hearing you say is that since 2004 you're seeing in the media other words next to immigrant: undocumented, without papers ... " OTTO SANTA ANA: "Right." RS: " ... without legal papers." OTTO SANTA ANA: "Exactly." RS: "And so those phrases are ... " OTTO SANTA ANA: "They provide an alternative way of viewing the immigrants. We'd never say, for example, that the people who are hiring immigrants who don't have papers 'criminal bosses' or 'illicit businesses. If we did, then one could argue that illegal immigrant is perfectly neutral. "But we are not characterizing, we are not focusing on the characterization of the status of the immigrant in the totality. We're focusing on that individual and calling that person a criminal up front." RS: "Among themselves, what do immigrants call their situation?" OTTO SANTA ANA: "Well, they use all sorts of terms. They will say 'indocumentado' ... " RS: "Undocumented." OTTO SANTA ANA: "They will say 'illegal.'" RS: "Illegal. They'll say illegal?" OTTO SANTA ANA: "Yes, yes. They'll also say 'sin papel,' without papers, and all sorts of other terminology. The range -- it's not like a standard term that's being used, but what I want to focus our attention on is journalistic language." AA: "What about on the macro level? What would -- is there an alternative to the term illegal immigration? Or is that OK to use that term, do you think? I mean, if you were a news editor or a headline writer and you had to use the term, like to put in a headline, what term would you use?" OTTO SANTA ANA: "I'd avoid any adjective." AA: "You'd just refer to immigration." OTTO SANTA ANA: "Immigration." RS: Linguist Otto Santa Ana is an associate professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA and author of several books. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. RS: And you can read and listen to all our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Americans Vote for Change in 1920 as Harding Promises 'Normalcy'
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about America's presidential election of nineteen twenty and the man who won it, Warren Harding. VOICE TWO: The presidential election of nineteen twenty was a turning point in American politics. It ended a period of social reforms at home and an active foreign policy. It began a period of conservative thinking in both the political and social life of the nation. American reporter H. L. Mencken described the national feeling this way: "The majority of Americans are tired of idealism. They want capitalism -- openly and without apology." VOICE ONE: President Woodrow Wilson had suffered a stroke during his second term. He was very sick. No one expected him to be a candidate again. Yet he refused to announce that he would not run for a third term. Woodrow Wilson had done much during his administration. He helped pass important laws dealing with trade, banking, and the rights of workers. He led the nation through the bloody world war in Europe. He tried, but failed, to have the United States join the new international organization -- the League of Nations. The American people honored Wilson for his intelligence and ideas. But they were tired of his policies of social change. And they did not want to be involved in international problems anymore. VOICE TWO: The leaders of President Wilson's Democratic Party understood the feelings of the people. They knew they had little chance of winning the presidential election if they nominated a candidate of change. Delegates to the democratic nominating convention voted forty-four times before agreeing on a candidate. They chose the governor of the state of Ohio, James Cox. The Republican Party also had a difficult time at its nominating convention. Four men wanted to be president. The delegates voted six times. None of the men gained enough support. So, several party leaders met in private. They agreed that only one man -- a compromise candidate -- could win the support of the convention. He was a senator from the state of Ohio, Warren Harding. The delegates voted ten more times before choosing Harding as their candidate for president. For vice president, they chose Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts. VOICE ONE: Warren Harding had owned a newspaper in Ohio. People advised him to enter politics, because he was such a good public speaker. During the campaign, he promised lower taxes, less immigration, and more aid to farmers. He called for "normalcy" -- a new period of peace and quiet, with few changes. That is what the voters wanted to hear in nineteen twenty. Warren Harding won the election with sixty-eight percent of the popular vote. In his first act as president, he invited people to visit the White House. He permitted them to walk in the garden. The act was a sign. The government seemed to be returning to the people. VOICE TWO: Warren Harding is remembered mostly for two events. One was a successful international conference. The other was a shameful national incident. After World War One, Britain, Japan, and the United States expanded their navies. They built bigger and better ships. Many members of the United States Congress worried about the cost. They also worried about increased political tension in Asia. They asked President Harding to organize a conference to discuss these issues. VOICE ONE: The conference was held in Washington in November, nineteen twenty-one. President Harding invited representatives from the major naval powers of the time: Britain, Japan, France, and Italy. He also invited representatives from countries with interests in Asia: China, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands. He did not invite the new Soviet leaders in Russia. Mr. Harding's Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, spoke. He offered the conference a detailed plan to reduce the size of the world's major navies. He proposed that the world's strongest nations should stop building warships for ten years. He also proposed that Britain, Japan, and the United States should destroy some ships to make their navies smaller immediately. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the conference debated the plan for three months. Japan demanded, and won, the right to have more ships. But the final agreement was very close to the one proposed by Secretary Hughes. The conference was not a complete success. For example, it did not prevent countries from building some kinds of ships. These ships would prove important in the second world war. Also, it did not create ways to protect China and the islands in the South Pacific Ocean from Japanese expansion. Yet the naval treaty of nineteen twenty-one was the first in which the world's strongest countries agreed to reduce the size of their armed forces. Most people thought it was a good treaty. VOICE ONE: The second thing for which President Harding is remembered is the Teapot Dome scandal. It involved the mis-use of underground oil owned by the federal government. Warren Harding was an honest man. But he did not have a strong mind of his own. He was easily influenced. And he often accepted bad advice. He explained the problem with these words: "I listen to one side, and they seem right. Then I listen to the other side, and they seem just as right. I know that somewhere there is a man who knows the truth. But I do not know where to find him." VOICE TWO: President Harding appointed several men of great ability to his cabinet. They included Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, and Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover. However, some of his appointments were dishonest men. One was Interior Secretary Albert Fall. He was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal. Secretary Fall gave a private company the right to take oil from land owned by the federal government. In return, the company gave him money and cattle. The oil was not supposed to be taken from the ground. It was supposed to be saved for the United States navy to use in an emergency. Private oil companies and many politicians opposed this policy. They said saving the oil was unnecessary. VOICE ONE: Albert Fall opposed the policy when he was a member of the Senate. When he became Interior Secretary, his department took control of the lands containing the underground oil. Then he permitted private companies to use the land for a period of time. During that time, the companies could take out the oil. Some of the oil was in the western state of Wyoming. The rock mass on the surface looked like a container for making tea. So, the area was called Teapot Dome. When the Senate uncovered Secretary Fall's wrong-doing, the press quickly called the incident the Teapot Dome scandal. The Senate investigation led to several court cases which lasted throughout the nineteen-twenties. Secretary Fall was found guilty of mis-using his government position. He was sentenced to prison for one year. VOICE TWO: President Harding did not live to see the end of the Teapot Dome incident. In the summer of nineteen twenty-three, he made a political trip to Alaska and western states. On the way home, he became sick while in San Francisco. He died of a heart attack. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was in the northeastern state of Vermont when he heard that President Harding had died. Coolidge's father was a local court official there. He gave the oath of office to his son. That is how Calvin Coolidge became the thirtieth president of the United States. The story of his administration will be the subject of our program next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the?VOA Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by David Jarmul. Join us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-23-voa5.cfm
* Headline: F.D.A. Approves New Artificial Knee Implants for Women
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT. Women who have problems with artificial knee implants may get some help soon. The United States Food and Drug Administration recently approved a replacement knee designed especially for women. About four hundred thousand people in the United States have knee replacement operations each year. More than sixty percent of them are women. People who have damaged cartilage in their knees are good candidates for a replacement operation. Cartilage is a kind of soft connective tissue. Injuries or disease may cause cartilage loss. When cartilage is gone in the knee, bones rubbing together may restrict movement and cause severe pain. In a replacement operation, doctors remove damaged parts of the thighbone, the shinbone and the kneecap. They replace the damaged parts with parts made of metal and plastic. Studies have shown that a knee implant lasts about fifteen years. Women report more problems with implants than men do. Problems include pain and difficulty moving the knee. In some cases, another operation is needed. Experts believe this is because makers of knee implants are more concerned about size than shape. A man’s knee is shaped differently than a woman’s. Men usually have shorter and wider knees. Women’s knees are smaller and narrower. Makers of the new knee implant say it is shaped to fit a woman’s bone structure. They say women should experience less pain and recover more quickly. Currently, complete recovery can last three months or longer. Makers of the new product say it will also make knee replacement operations easier to carry out. Zimmer Holdings Incorporated built the new Gender Solutions knee. The company already makes other replacement knees and hips. Nine medical experts helped to design the Gender Solutions knee. One of them is Kim Bertin of L.D.S. Hospital in Utah. He compared existing knee implants to putting men’s shoes on women’s feet. Other experts question the effectiveness of the new knee. They believe it is just a marketing tool to interest women. No studies have shown that the new implant works better than other products. Also, Zimmer has competition. Another company, Stryker Orthopedics, says it makes a knee to fit both men and women. This VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-23-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Florida to Require High School Students to Declare a Major
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Lawmakers in Florida have taken a step to add a college tradition to high schools in their state. The Florida Legislature has approved a requirement for high school students to declare a major interest of study. The measure is included in an education bill that would also require students to take a fourth year of math. It calls for new programs for students who do not plan to go to college, and special classes for struggling students. And it calls for younger students to get instruction about planning for the kind of work they would like to do when they grow up. Florida Governor Jeb Bush supported the legislation as part of an education reform plan. He says declaring a major area of interest will make high school more interesting to many students. And he says it will give them a chance to discover what their interests are. The major could be a subject like biology, math or a foreign language. Or it could be a skill such as car or computer repair. Students would have to declare their interest in eighth grade and take four classes in that area during their four years in high school. Supporters of the idea say the goal is to get students to think about what they want to do and help them prepare for their future. But some people say the program could make it difficult for students to explore different possibilities. And they say fourteen-year-old eighth-graders are too young to know what they want to do in life. Studies have shown that at least half of all college students change their majors. Educators say this will probably happen in Florida high schools, too. But they say the students could use the classes as credit to meet graduation requirements, so they will not have lost time. Florida education officials say the high school graduation rate in two thousand five was seventy-two percent. Supporters hope the new plan will lead more students to stay in school because they will be learning a job skill. And they say the majors should represent the needs of each community because the programs are to be created locally. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you are a teacher and use Special English in school, let us know how. We invite you to tell us what you teach and where you are. Write to special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Springsteen Sings the Songs of Seeger
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust, Daniel Kirch and Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the Internet … Play some new recordings of folk songs by Bruce Springsteen … And report about a few movies being released this summer. Summer Movies HOST: Summer is the most popular season for Hollywood movies. Faith Lapidus tells about three movies that opened recently. FAITH LAPIDUS:? One of the most talked-about movies is called “United Ninety-three.”? It tells about one of the planes that Islamic terrorists hijacked in the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. The movie shows how several of the passengers tried to gain control of the plane from the terrorists. The target of the plane was thought to be either the White House or the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. However, the plane crashed in a field in the state of Pennsylvania, killing everyone. “United Ninety-three” was directed by Paul Greengrass, who is British. There are no famous actors in the film. In fact, several people who took part in the events of that day play themselves in the movie. Many critics praised “United Ninety-three” as realistic. However, some Americans refuse to see it because they say it presents a tragic event for entertainment purposes. The first big adventure movie of the summer is “Mission: Impossible Three.”? It is the third in a series of movies based on a popular American television program of the nineteen sixties. Tom Cruise again stars as secret government agent Ethan Hunt. In this movie, he must rescue another secret agent. Later, he must rescue the woman he marries in the film. And he must stop a dangerous weapons dealer, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. “Mission: Impossible Three” has exciting car crashes, helicopter chases and explosions. Tom Cruise even jumps between tall buildings in Shanghai, China. This is the first motion picture directed by J.J. Abrams, who created two popular television series. “The Da Vinci Code” opened last Friday. It is based on the book by Dan Brown that has sold more than forty million copies. The movie stars Tom Hanks as a professor who must solve a murder mystery involving art history and religion. Some of the movie was filmed in the Louvre Museum in Paris where parts of the story take place. Some Catholic officials around the world have urged people not to see “The Da Vinci Code.”? They say it presents theories about Jesus that insult the Christian religion. However, director Ron Howard said people should remember that "this is supposed to be entertainment."? Early reports said “The Da Vinci Code” had an estimated two hundred twenty-four million dollars in ticket sales worldwide during its first three days in theaters. Internet Connections Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Tran Khanh Linh wants to know how a dial-up Internet connection, a DSL connection and an ADSL connection are different. A dial-up connection is where the computer connects to the Internet over a traditional telephone line. With dial-up service, users enter a phone number into their computer and wait until the connection is set up. Dial-up connections are slow. That means it can take a long time to load Web sites. Until a few years ago, dial-up connections were the only way most people could use the Internet. New and improved technologies offer much faster connections. In the United States, the use of dial-up service is less and less common. Today, most Americans who use the Internet have a high-speed connection, also known as broadband. With broadband, the computer always stays connected to the Internet. Several kinds of technologies provide high-speed connections. Among them are DSL and ADSL. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. With DSL connections, Internet users have much faster download speeds than with a traditional phone line. The download speed is how long it takes to see a Web page or save a music file or an e-mail attachment. Another kind of DSL is ADSL. It stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Asymmetric means unequal. With ADSL, the upload speed is slower than the download speed. That means it takes longer to send information from a computer to the Internet than to receive information from the Internet. ADSL connections cost less than other DSL service. People usually have ADSL because they do not need to upload large amounts of information like a business would. To them it is more important to have fast download speeds. Other ways to get fast Internet are by cable modem, fiber optic connection and satellite. People can also find wireless service in more and more public places. And some lucky people have high-speed service on their cell phones. Springsteen Plays Seeger HOST: Rock and roll musician Bruce Springsteen has released a new album. It honors folk music singer Pete Seeger. The collection of thirteen traditional folk songs can be described as music to listen to loudly. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: Springsteen’s new record is called “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.”? Springsteen and a new group of musicians performed some of the songs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival last month. The city is still recovering from damages caused by Hurricane Katrina last August. “The Seeger Sessions” is Springsteen’s first album of “cover” songs. They are Springsteen’s version of folk music made popular by Pete Seeger. Seeger is a musician, songwriter and social activist. He was a leader of the political folk music movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties. For example, Seeger recorded this song in nineteen sixty-three. He was performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. (MUSIC: “We Shall Overcome”) Here is Bruce Springsteen with the same song. (MUSIC) Bruce Springsteen says he got the idea for the album in nineteen ninety-seven. At that time, Springsteen was recording music for a different album in honor of Pete Seeger. Springsteen says that experience sent him looking for a new band. He says he wanted a special sound – the sound of people just sitting around playing music. This song from “ We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” represents just that sound. It is called “Old Dan Tucker.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust, Daniel Kirch and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fannie Mae Agrees to Big Fine to Settle Accounting Case
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company, agreed this week to pay a fine of four hundred million dollars. The United States government will get some of that money. Most of it will go to shareholders. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says top officers at Fannie Mae created a false image of always meeting earnings targets. This let them receive millions of dollars in extra pay. The office released a report that deals with the period from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand four. It says former chief Franklin Raines set high goals for earnings per share. Company officials then produced misleading financial reports that gave the appearance of smooth growth. The report says Mister Raines received fifty-two million dollars in bonus payments. Mister Raines says he never approved or knew about any violations of accounting rules. And his replacement, Daniel Mudd, says Fannie Mae has "learned some powerful lessons."? Yet the report says Mister Mudd did not fully investigate concerns expressed by three employees. Fannie Mae buys home loans from banks and other lenders. This gives them money to lend for other purposes. Fannie Mae is a private company. It began in nineteen thirty-eight as the Federal National Mortgage Association, created by Congress. To buy mortgages, Fannie Mae borrows huge amounts of money. In fact, it is the second largest borrower in the world after the United States government. Fannie Mae sells and trades investment products secured by mortgages. The report says Fannie Mae sought to present itself as a very low-risk company when, in fact, it was out of control. The report also says Fannie Mae officials tried to slow the investigation through influence in Congress. The civil fine is one of the largest ever in such a case. The settlement does not require Fannie Mae to admit or deny wrongdoing. Under the agreement, Fannie Mae will not add to its mortgage holdings without approval. And it must propose a system of financial controls. Fannie Mae has already been ordered to restate its earnings to correct for accounting mistakes. These are currently estimated at about eleven thousand million dollars. Fannie Mae and a smaller company, Freddie Mac, control about half the home loans in the nation. Three years ago, Freddie Mac reported five thousand million dollars in accounting mistakes. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: W.H.O. Members Mourn Death of Agency Chief Lee Jong-wook
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Lee Jong-wook Health ministers from more than one hundred ninety countries met this week in Geneva to discuss issues like bird flu and other threats. But the yearly meeting of the World Health Assembly opened with tragic news. Lee Jong-wook, head of the World Health Organization, had died hours before he was supposed to give a speech at the meeting. Doctor Lee suffered a stroke last weekend. He died Monday following an operation to remove a blood clot from his brain. Doctor Lee, a South Korean, was sixty-one years old. The W.H.O. named Assistant Director-General Anders Nordstrom as acting leader. Officials say it could take as a long as a year for the organization to choose a new director-general. On Wednesday, more than one thousand people attended funeral services in Geneva for Lee Jong-wook. Speakers there and at the fifty-ninth World Health Assembly praised his efforts to improve health conditions around the world. Doctor Lee had worked for twenty-three years for the W.H.O., the United Nations health agency. He played a major part in campaigns against tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria and polio. He became director-general in two thousand three. One of his major goals was to get treatment to many more people with H.I.V. and AIDS in developing countries. He worked to make the W.H.O. more effective in dealing with infectious diseases. The agency says his work has made the world better prepared for the possible spread of avian flu. One example is an agreement last year among W.H.O. members to develop a fast reporting system for suspected cases. More than two hundred cases have been confirmed in ten countries since two thousand three. These have resulted in more than one hundred twenty deaths. Most of the cases are believed to have been caused directly by contact with infected birds or their waste. But as world health ministers were meeting in Geneva, medical teams were investigating an unusual situation in northern Indonesia. At least six members of a family died from the h-five-n-one virus in the past month. The W.H.O. sent experts to North Sumatra to investigate. The agency said all the cases can be directly linked to close and extended periods of contact with a patient. Julie Gerberding heads the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She said in Geneva that experts believed the disease spread among family members caring for others who were sick. Early reports suggested that three of the people had spent a night in a small room with the woman who had the first case in the family. Officials say tests on the victims found no evidence that the virus had changed in ways that would let it spread easily from person-to-person. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-06-04-voa4.cfm
* Headline: A Municipal Report
* Byline: Written by O. Henry

 ANNOUNCER: And now, the weekly VOA Special English program of American stories. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "A Municipal Report." ?It was written by O. Henry and first published in nineteen-oh-four. Here is?Shep O'Neal?with the story. (MUSIC)? STORYTELLE:? It was raining as I got off the train in Nashville, Tennessee -- a slow, gray rain. I was tired so I went straight to my hotel. A big, heavy man was walking up and down in the hotel lobby. Something about the way he moved made me think of a hungry dog looking for a bone. He had a big, fat, red face and a sleepy expression in his eyes. He introduced himself as Wentworth Caswell -- Major Wentworth Caswell -- from "a fine southern family."? Caswell pulled me into the hotel's barroom and yelled for a waiter. We ordered drinks. While we drank, he talked continually about himself, his family, his wife and her family. He said his wife was rich. He showed me a handful of silver coins that he pulled from his coat pocket. By this time, I had decided that I wanted no more of him. I said good night. I went up to my room and looked out the window. It was ten o'clock but the town was silent. "A nice quiet place," I said to myself as I got ready for bed. Just an ordinary, sleepy southern town." I was born in the south myself.But I live in New York now. I write for a large magazine. My boss had asked me to go to Nashville. The magazine had received some stories and poems from a writer in Nashville, named Azalea Adair. The editor liked her work very much. The publisher asked me to get her to sign an agreement to write only for his magazine. I left the hotel at nine o'clock the next morning to find Miss Adair. It was still raining. As soon as I stepped outside I met Uncle Caesar. He was a big, old black man with fuzzy gray hair. Uncle Caesar was wearing the strangest coat I had ever seen. It must have been a military officer's coat. It was very long and when it was new it had been gray. But now rain, sun and age had made it a rainbow of colors. Only one of the buttons was left. It was yellow and as big as a fifty cent coin. Uncle Caesar stood near a horse and carriage. He opened the carriage door and said softly, "Step right in, sir. I'll take you anywhere in the city." "I want to go to eight-sixty-one Jasmine Street," I said, and I started to climb into the carriage. But the old man stopped me. "Why do you want to go there, sir??" "What business is it of yours?" I said angrily. Uncle Caesar relaxed and smiled. "Nothing, sir. But it's a lonely part of town. Just step in and I'll take you there right away." Eight-sixty-one Jasmine Street had been a fine house once, but now it was old and dying. I got out of the carriage. "That will be two dollars, sir," Uncle Caesar said. I gave him two one-dollar bills. As I handed them to him, I noticed that one had been torn in half and fixed with a piece of blue paper. Also, the upper right hand corner was missing. Azalea Adair herself opened the door when I knocked. She was about fifty years old. Her white hair was pulled back from her small, tired face. She wore a pale yellow dress. It was old, but very clean. Azalea Adair led me into her living room. A damaged table, three chairs and an old red sofa were in the center of the floor. Azalea Adair and I sat down at the table and began to talk. I told her about the magazine's offer and she told me about herself. She was from an old southern family. Her father had been a judge. Azalea Adair told me she had never traveled or even attended school. Her parents taught her at home with private teachers. We finished our meeting. I promised to return with the agreement the next day, and rose to leave. At that moment, someone knocked at the back door. Azalea Adair whispered a soft apology and went to answer the caller. She came back a minute later with bright eyes and pink cheeks. She looked ten years younger. "You must have a cup of tea before you go," she said. She shook a little bell on the table, and a small black girl about twelve years old ran into the room. Azalea Aair opened a tiny old purse and took out a dollar bill. It had been fixed with a piece of blue paper and the upper right hand corner was missing. It was the dollar I had given to Uncle Caesar. "Go to?Mister Baker's store, Impy," she said, "and get me twenty-five cents' worth of tea and ten cents' worth of sugar cakes. And please hurry." The child ran out of the room. We heard the back door close. Then the girl screamed. Her cry mixed with a man's angry voice. Azalea Adair stood up. Her face showed no emotion as she left the room. I heard the man's rough voice and her gentle one. Then a door slammed and she came back into the room. "I am sorry, but I won't be able to offer you any tea after all," she said. "It seems that Mister Baker has no more tea. Perhaps he will find some for our visit tomorrow." We said good-bye. I went back to my hotel. Just before dinner, Major Wentworth Caswell found me. It was impossible to?avoid him. He insisted on buying me a drink and pulled two one-dollar bills from his pocket. Again I saw a torn dollar fixed with blue paper, with a corner missing. It was the one I gave Uncle Caesar. How strange, I thought. I wondered how Caswell got it. Uncle Caesar was waiting outside the hotel the next afternoon. He took me to Miss Adair's house and agreed to wait there until we had finished our business. Azalea Adair did not look well. I explained the agreement to her. She signed it. Then, as she started to rise from the table, Azalea Adair fainted and fell to the floor. I picked her up and carried her to the old red sofa. I ran to the door and yelled to Uncle Caesar for help. He ran down the street. Five minutes later, he was back with a doctor. The doctor examined Miss Adair and turned to the old black driver. "Uncle Caesar," he said, "run to my house and ask my wife for?some milk and some eggs. Hurry!" Then the doctor turned to me. "She does not get enough to eat," he said. "She has many friends who want to help her, but she is proud. Misses Caswell will accept help only from that old black man. He was once her family's slave." "Misses Caswell." I said in surprise. "I thought she was Azalea Adair." "She was," the doctor answered, "until she married Wentworth Caswell twenty years ago. But he's a hopeless drunk who takes even the small amount of money that Uncle Caesar gives her." After the doctor left I heard Caesar's voice in the other room. "Did he take all the money I gave you yesterday, Miss Azalea?"? "Yes, Caesar," I heard her answer softly. "He took both dollars." I went into the room and gave Azalea Adair fifty dollars. I told her it was from the magazine. Then Uncle Caesar drove me back to the hotel. A few hours later, I went out for a walk before dinner. A crowd of people were talking excitedly in front of a store. I pushed my way into the store. Major Caswell was lying on the floor. He was dead. Someone had found his body on the street. He had been killed in a fight. In fact, his hands were still closed into tight fists. But as I stood near his body, Caswell's right hand opened. Something fell from it and rolled near my feet. I put my foot on it, then picked it up and put it in my pocket. People said they believed a thief had killed him. They said Caswell had been showing everyone that he had fifty dollars. But when he was found, he had no money on him. I left Nashville the next morning. As the train crossed a river I took out of my pocket the object that had dropped from Caswell's dead hand. I threw it into the river below. It was a button. A yellow button...the one from Uncle Caesar's coat. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have just heard the story "A Municipal Report."? ?It was written by O. Henry and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Shep O'Neal. This is Susan Clark. Join us again next time for another American story?on the Voice of America. ANNOUNCER:? You have just heard the story "A Municipal Report."? ?It was written by O. Henry and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Shep O'Neal. This is Susan Clark. Join us again next time for another American story?on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-31-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Dog Talk:? Most Dogs in the U.S. Seem to Have an Easy Life
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Most dogs in the United States seem to have an easy life. They sleep a lot and get fed often. People take their dogs for a walk two times a day and also let them play outside. Dogs get medical care when they are sick or injured. What a great life!? Right?? Well, we say people with a similar, carefree existence enjoy a “dog’s life.”? They have no troubles or responsibilities. They can come and go as they please, sleep all day, and never have to work. But not everyone has it so easy. In fact, some people say we live in a “dog-eat-dog world.”? That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to “work like a dog.”? This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people “dog-tired.”? And, the situation would be even worse if they became “sick as a dog.”? Still, people say “every dog has its day.”? This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that “you can never teach an old dog new tricks.”? They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things. Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as “meaner than a junkyard dog.” ?Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person appears to be mean and threatening but is really not so bad. We say “his bark is worse than his bite.” A junkyard is not a fun place for a dog. Many dogs in the United States sleep in safe little houses near their owners’ home. These doghouses provide shelter. Yet they can be cold and lonely in the winter. Husbands and wives use this “doghouse” term when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for coming home late or forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is “in the doghouse.”?? She may not treat him nicely until he apologizes. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide “to let sleeping dogs lie.” Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. “The dog days of summer” are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it “to rain cats and dogs.”? (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Scott Joplin: The King of Ragtime Music
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and work of one of America’s greatest music writers: Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song is called “Maple Leaf Rag.”? Scott Joplin wrote it more than one hundred years ago. The song changed Joplin’s life. It was very popular. The composer earned a good living from the sales of the sheet music. He also became famous. But, even today, much about Scott Joplin remains a mystery. There is conflicting information about the most basic facts, like when and where he was born.Official population documents suggest Scott Joplin was born in eighteen sixty-seven and eighteen sixty-eight. He was born in Texas, probably near the border with Arkansas. The Joplins moved to Texarkana, Texas sometime after eighteen seventy-five and Scott grew up there. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scott was the second of seven children born to Giles and Florence Joplin. His father was a freed slave who worked on the railroad. His mother cleaned people’s homes. The whole Joplin family was musical. Scott’s father played the violin. His mother played the banjo. And all the Joplins enjoyed singing together at home. Scott learned to play several musical instruments. But Florence Joplin wanted her son to learn how to play the piano. When Scott was about seven years old he began taking piano lessons with a music teacher at his school. The Joplins were poor, so Scott’s mother paid for the weekly lessons with food. Florence Joplin also got permission for her son to use a piano in one of the houses she cleaned in Texarkana. Florence and Giles Joplin separated before Scott became a teenager. Some experts think Scott blamed himself for the break-up. Many experts also think Scott Joplin’s opera “Treemonisha” included incidents of his life with his mother after Giles Joplin left. For example, the character “Treemonisha” receives music lessons paid for by her mother who cleans people’s houses. Listen to this aria from the opera. Carmen Balthrop is Treemonisha. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scott Joplin’s early piano lessons did not include ragtime. That kind of music was played in dance and drinking places and was not considered acceptable.Scott first studied classical music with several teachers. They included a German immigrant named Julius Weiss who probably had the strongest influence on the boy. ?VOICE TWO: Scott left Texas when he was a teenager. He worked as a piano player and gave lessons in the guitar and mandolin. In his twenties he settled in Sedalia, Missouri. He formed a group called the Texas Medley Quartet. The group sometimes traveled great distances to perform. Scott Joplin began his music-writing career in Sedalia. He attended college classes to learn to become a composer. Joplin also got a permanent job in Sedalia playing the piano in a new nightclub. Sedalia’s most important citizens visited the Maple Leaf Club. The job permitted Joplin time to write and play his own work. Something even more important happened to Joplin in Sedalia. He met John Stark, the owner of a local music store. In eighty ninety-nine, Stark published the song “Maple Leaf Rag.”? It was not Joplin’s first published music. But it was the he was most proud of. Stark offered to pay Joplin a percentage of each sale of “Maple Leaf Rag” sheet music. This was an extremely unusual business agreement for a white publisher and black composer at that time. Usually, white publishers paid only a small amount of money for full ownership of music written by African-Americans. The agreement was very good for both Scott Joplin and John Stark. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ragtime music is dance music. It combines a solid, often lively, beat with a looser, complex melody. Most experts agree that the traditional music and dance of American slaves played a big part in the development of ragtime. Here is a perfect example. Scott Joplin and John Stark published “A Breeze From Alabama” in nineteen-oh-two. It is music for a dance called the two-step. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Stark decided that Scott Joplin was going to become too popular to stay in the small town of Sedalia. He decided to move his music business to the big city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Joplin moved to Saint Louis with a woman named Belle Hayden. Later they were married. But Joplin was not as successful in love as he was in music. He and Belle separated in nineteen-oh-two. Two years later Joplin married again. But his wife, Freddie Alexander, died just three months later. The Scott Joplin Organization in Sedalia, Missouri says Joplin wrote this rag, “The Chrysanthemum,” for his second wife. (MUSIC) After his wife’s death, in nineteen-oh-five, Joplin wrote a concert waltz called “Bethena.”? The piece has a sad sound to it, quite unlike Joplin’s earlier work. You might recognize it as the theme music for the Special English program Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Joplin lived in many places in the years that followed. He also worked on his opera,? “Treemonisha.”? He had hoped his longtime business partner John Stark would publish it, but he refused. Stark did not think a ragtime opera would sell. After nineteen-oh-seven Joplin lived mostly in New York City. He and his new wife Lottie tried for many years to get “Treemonisha” produced. But its opening night did not come until more than fifty years after Joplin’s death. By about nineteen fifteen, Scott Joplin began suffering badly from syphilis. The disease robbed him of his ability to play piano. It also destroyed his ability to write music. He died in New York City in nineteen-seventeen. Scott Joplin left the world sixty musical works. These include many piano rags that are still played today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. We leave you now with one of Scott Joplin’s prettiest rags, “Heliotrope Bouquet.” 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Honoring Military Service and Sacrifice
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The last Monday in May is a national holiday. Memorial Day honors those who died in military service. VOICE ONE: But any time of year, visitors to the nation's capital can see a number of memorials that honor members of the armed forces. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A bugler at Arlington National CemeteryPart of the tradition of an American military funeral is the playing of a bugle call known as taps. Taps is also played at military burial grounds during Memorial Day ceremonies. Another traditional honor in many communities is a Memorial Day parade. And new for two thousand six was a ceremony held a week earlier on the grounds of the Washington Monument. The event, called "A Time of Remembrance," was described as the first of its kind. Organizers invited family members who lost relatives in every conflict since the Revolutionary War. Children of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan received special gold medals. Memorial Day honors all of those who have died in America's wars. But the holiday began as a way to remember soldiers killed in the Civil War. On May thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. VOICE ONE: Today, more than two hundred sixty thousand people are buried there. Lines of simple white headstones mark the graves. The eighty-hectare cemetery also serves as a burial place for people of national and historical importance. The cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington. Next to the burial ground is the Defense Department headquarters at the Pentagon. VOICE TWO: A funeral with full military honors traditionally includes a caisson to transport the body. A caisson is a wagon pulled by horses. At Arlington, six black or gray horses pull caissons made in nineteen eighteen. A seventh horse carries the leader of the procession. Sometimes a horse without a rider also takes part in a funeral. The best known riderless horse was Black Jack. He took part in the funerals of presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. The horse was named after a famous general known as “Black Jack” Pershing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each year about one and one-half million people visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is one of the most-visited places in Washington. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of a former soldier named Jan Scruggs. He fought in the Vietnam War. The war ended in nineteen seventy-five. Many soldiers came home only to face the anger of Americans who opposed the war. Jan Scruggs organized an effort to remember those who never returned. In nineteen eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a competition to design a memorial. The winner, Maya Lin, was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Maya Lin designed a memorial formed by two walls of black stone. VOICE TWO: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen eighty-two. The walls are about seventy-six meters long. They are set into the earth. They meet to form a wide V. The names of more than fifty-eight thousand Americans killed or declared missing-in-action are cut into the stone. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They are looking in the direction of the names. Another statue honors the service of women in the war. ?Almost any time of day, you can see people looking for the name of a family member or friend who died in the war. Once they find the name, many rub a pencil on paper over the letters to copy it. Many people leave remembrances at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. One day, as crowds passed by, two young men left notes. A woman in her late seventies or eighties left a handful of red roses. VOICE ONE: After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Congress approved a memorial to Korean War veterans. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in July of nineteen ninety-five. It is near the Vietnam memorial. The Korean War lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty-three. The memorial honors those who died. It also honors those who survived. The Korean War has been called the last foot soldier's war. The memorial includes a group of nineteen statues of soldiers. The soldiers appear to be walking up a hill, toward an American flag. Artist Frank Gaylord made the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters tall. People who drive along a road near the memorial sometimes think the statues are real soldiers. VOICE TWO: On one side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial is a stone walkway. It lists the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to Korea under United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone? wall. Sandblasted into the wall are images from photographs of more than two thousand five hundred support troops. A Pool of Remembrance shows the numbers of American and United Nations forces killed, wounded, captured or missing. The total is more than two million. Cut into the wall above the pool is a message: "Freedom is Not Free." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the lesser known memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is often called "the temple."? The round stone structure honors people from the District of Columbia who died in World War One. The war was fought from nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighteen. The memorial was completed in nineteen thirty-one. It is the only District of Columbia memorial on the National Mall. VOICE TWO: In nineteen eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to honor women in the military. The Women in Military Service for America Memorial opened in nineteen ninety-seven. The memorial is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. It recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's wars. About two million women have served or currently serve in the armed forces. Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall shaped in a half-circle. In front, two hundred jets of water meet in a pool. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. Computer records contain the names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two hundred fifty thousand military women. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World War Two Memorial is the newest of the major memorials in Washington. It rises between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall. America entered the war after Japan bombed the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh, ninety forty-one. Sixteen million men and women served in the American military between nineteen forty-one and nineteen forty-five. More than four hundred thousand died. VOICE TWO: The World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. It is built of bronze and granite. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. Except in very cold weather, water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. When the sun is just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent each of the American states and territories, plus the District of Columbia, at the time of the war. On two tall arches appear the names of where the fighting took place. One says Atlantic; the other says Pacific. Many visitors to the memorial served during the war. One visitor, a former Navy man, once said: "The only good thing about my fighting in the war was that I was too young to be terrified." VOICE ONE: A federal law passed in two thousand calls on Americans to stop for one minute at three o'clock local time on Memorial Day. The National Moment of Remembrance honors the members of the armed forces and others who have died in service to America. (MUSIC) VOICE? TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: With Solid Fuels, a Deadly Risk of Indoor Air Pollution
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says half of the world’s population burns wood, coal, animal waste or other solid fuels. More than three thousand million people use solid fuels to cook and to heat and light their homes. But people who burn these fuels often breathe in large amounts of smoke. This can lead to pneumonia and other diseases. Children are especially at risk. The W.H.O., the United Nations health agency, recently published a report about the dangers of solid fuels. The report says these fuels are the cause of one and one-half million deaths each year. Two out of three deaths happen in Southeast Asia and in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Among the victims are an estimated eight hundred thousand children and five hundred thousand women. Experts say indoor pollution also kills two hundred thousand men each year. The World Health Organization says there has been little progress since nineteen ninety in supplying more people with modern cooking fuels. The report discusses what it would take to cut the use of solid fuels in half by two thousand fifteen. To do that, almost five hundred thousand people every day would need to gain modern energy services. But experts say gains in health and productivity would more than pay for the costs required. The W.H.O. estimates a yearly cost of thirteen thousand million dollars to supply liquefied petroleum gas to half the people now using solid fuels. It says that investment would result in yearly economic gains of ninety-one thousand million dollars. Other kinds of fuel would cost more. Eva Rehfuess wrote the W.H.O. report. She says there are simple solutions that could help people in the short term. These include cleaner-burning stoves and better systems to clear the air in homes. She says longer-term solutions include a change to cleaner cooking fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas, biogas, ethanol or plant oils. Miz Rehfuess says users would pay most of the investment costs, but some public investment would be needed to start the process. The report is called "Fuel for Life: Household Energy and Health."? It can be found on the World Health Organization Web site at w-h-o dot i-n-t (who.int). Enter the words "Fuel for Life" in the search box at the top. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Lawan Davis. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World No Tobacco Day: A Chance for Smokers to Give Their Bodies a Cigarette Break
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, the health risks of smoking -- and some advice about how to stop. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that tobacco is bad for your health. Yet millions of people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that each year, smoking is responsible for the deaths of five million people. And that number is increasing. At current rates, W.H.O. officials say tobacco use could kill ten million people a year by two thousand twenty. In the United States, a nation of almost three hundred million people, an estimated forty-four million adults are smokers. Health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the country. Researchers believe that four hundred thirty-eight thousand Americans will die this year of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: The dangers of smoking are well known. Heart disease and stroke are just two of the risks. Tobacco smoke is the leading cause of lung disease. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for almost nine out of ten cases of lung cancer in the United States. Smoking is also a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than sixty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Cigarettes are not the only danger. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: Smoking harms not only the smoker. Women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems and low birth weight. Low birth-weight babies have an increased risk of early death. They may also suffer from a number of health disorders. Family members at home and people at work who breathe tobacco smoke can also get sick. This is the danger of what is known as secondhand smoke. Each year, secondhand smoke causes an estimated three thousand non-smoking adults in the United States to die of lung cancer. At the same time, researchers say, it also causes lung infections in as many as three hundred thousand young children. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. VOICE TWO: On May thirty-first of each year, the World Health Organization holds World No Tobacco Day. This event seeks to increase understanding about the public health effects of tobacco. Another purpose of World No Tobacco Day is to reduce individual dependence on tobacco. Last year, a smoking-related treaty became part of international law. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control came into force on February twenty-eighth, two thousand five. Any country that approves the treaty is required to obey its rules. The treaty deals with things such as price and tax increases on cigarettes, marketing restrictions, secondhand smoke and illegal trade in tobacco products. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nicotine is a substance in tobacco that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again. This forces the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as difficult to resist as alcohol or the illegal drug cocaine. So experts say it is better never to start smoking than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE TWO: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. Most who try, however, find it difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. So people can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other products. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous than other cigarettes. VOICE ONE: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. In two thousand one, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting diseases linked to smoking. Scientists found no evidence of improvements to public health from changes in cigarette design and production in the past fifty years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. But, if you are a smoker, doctors say you will probably live longer if you do stop. Smokers who stop feel better and look better. You will not only help yourself. You will also protect the health of other people around you. The American Cancer Society says the sooner people stop, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. The chance of heart attack decreases after one day. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE ONE: There are products designed to help people reduce their dependence on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the chemical. These can help people stop smoking. Experts also say a drug used to treat depression has proven effective for many smokers. The drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. It works by increasing levels of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that produces feelings of pleasure. There is evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people with schizophrenia and other mental disorders. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Cancer Society says there is no single "right way" to stop smoking. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. These include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth a try. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Stay away from public places where people are smoking. And try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Alcohol can weaken a person's will to stop smoking. So people who drink may find it easier to give up cigarettes if they stay away from alcohol temporarily. VOICE ONE: Many experts say the best thing for a smoker is to stop completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you will probably feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach might feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit instead. For a long time, you can expect to continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. But these times will come less and less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. ?Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Carbon Trading: How the Chicago Climate Exchange Works
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A carbon exchange is like a stock exchange for pollution. The idea of trading in greenhouse gases has its roots in the Kyoto Protocol. This is the international treaty to reduce levels of gases that trap heat and are linked to climate change. The Chicago Climate Exchange is known as the CCX. It provides a market for businesses to trade on the release and capture of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Agricultural businesses can earn credits because plants remove carbon dioxide from the air. The process is called carbon sequestration. Six different polluting gases are traded on the CCX. These include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. So how do people trade in greenhouse gases?? The system is called cap and trade. Members agree to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere by a percentage. That limit is the cap. Trading takes place when members release less than their limit. That leaves them with a surplus of emission credits. These credits can then be sold to members that have released more than their limit. Market forces drive the price of the credits. The credits are called Carbon Financial Instruments. Each credit is equal to one hundred metric tons of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. By this December, members of the CCX are supposed to have reduced their emissions four percent below levels in a baseline period. That period is nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand one. A six percent reduction is the target for two thousand ten. The CCX was the first carbon exchange when it opened in two thousand three. Today it is the only exchange of its kind in North America. In Europe, big producers of greenhouse gases are required to take part in emissions trading. The CCX owns the European Climate Exchange, in the Netherlands. No one is required to take part in the Chicago Climate Exchange. But those who do are legally required to observe their emission agreements and the rules of the exchange. Richard Sandor started the CCX. He helped develop the financial futures market for the Chicago Board of Trade. Mister Sandor has said he thinks the market for carbon credits could one day be larger than the market for oil. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Two Places, One Pursuit: English Teaching in Nepal and Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: interviews with two English teachers, one from Nepal, the other from Afghanistan. I met them recently at the international convention of TESOL. TESOL is the professional organization Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. GOVINDA RAJ BHATTARAI: "I am Govinda from Nepal. We have altogether ninety-four living languages spoken in Nepal. Out of those languages, English has sixty-fourth position. And the native speakers of English, the number of the native speakers of English is something -- two thousand thirty or like that [laughs]." AA: "Not very many." GOVINDA RAJ BHATTARAI: "Not many at all. The government is very anxious and very eager to improve the situation of English. There are three [examples of that] -- I think these examples are not found in other parts of the world. Earlier, we had English from grade four to ten, now from grade one. Secondly all textbooks are translated into English from grades one to ten. And thirdly government is trying to give training to the teachers who do not have good proficiency level in English. "And other organizers like NELTA -- which I represent -- Nepal English Language Teachers Association. We have some four hundred members who are English teachers from primary to university levels in our kingdom. And we hold conferences, publish materials, give workshops and trainings for English language teachers to promote their quality." YAR MOHAMMAD BAHRAMI: "My name is Yar Mohammad Bahrami and I am from Kabul, Afghanistan." AA: "How much demand is there in Afghanistan for learning English right now?" YAR MOHAMMAD BAHRAMI: "Very much, and very much as you know that is clear to everyone that Afghanistan is now changing and is being changed. And we have international community with us, and Afghanistan intends not to be alone, but intends to have relations with the world, international community. "So very high demand is for English because we have a lot of international staff, both civilians and military in our country, and they need people to speak English, especially those who want to have a high salary and work with them as translators and interpreters. Especially nowadays, people try to English, even aged people are trying to learn English and find good salary in our country." AA: "At what age do you start teaching English?" YAR MOHAMMAD BAHRAMI: "Very long ago, English was taught only as a subject in schools from seventh grade. But according to the changes and new connections, the system has been changed and now the English is going to be taught from grade four." AA: "What are some of the challenges now in implementing these English teaching programs?" YAR MOHAMMAD BAHRAMI: "The big challenges we have in our country is lack of professionals, because we were not used to or we were not familiar much more with the English long ago, and people were not entrusted to learn English. That's one. Or people were entrusted but they were afraid, especially when our country was invaded by the former Soviet Union and people were afraid to learn English and the Russian language took the place of the English language. And even sometimes people were forced to live and not learn English and instead learn Russian. But the big challenge we have is lack of professionals. "But I hope it will be solved because the international community and especially the Fulbright programs we have in Afghanistan, the British Chevening scholarships we have. And a good example is that four of my colleagues are now abroad and do their studies and doing M.E.s [earning Masters of Education degrees]. Two of them are in the U.K. and two of them are in the U.S.A. through Chevening scholarships and Fulbright." AA: "And they'll come home with masters in education." YAR MOHAMMAD BAHRAMI: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. The good news for us is when I left Kabul a week ago, two of them arrived back to the country with master's degrees, one from the U.S.A. and one from the U.K. AA: Yar Mohammad Bahrami is a lecturer in the English Department at Kabul University. And earlier you heard Govinda Raj Bhattarai, an English professor and assistant dean of the Faculty of Education at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. They were among the visitors to the VOA Special English booth at the 40th annual convention of the group TESOL, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. The convention took place in March in Tampa, Florida. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all posted at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-30-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Cervical Cancer Vaccine Moves Toward U.S. Approval
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Health Report. A vaccine to protect against cervical cancer has moved toward approval in the United States. The drug company Merck developed the vaccine, called Gardasil. A federal advisory committee accepted Merck's findings that Gardasil is safe and effective for females age nine to twenty-six. A final decision from the Food and Drug Administration is expected by June eighth. The World Health Organization says almost half a million women each year develop cervical cancer. More than half of them die from it. Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in women in developing countries. Gardasil is designed to protect against infection with human papillomavirus, or HPV. The vaccine blocks two kinds of HPV that experts say are responsible for seventy percent of all cervical cancers. The vaccine is also designed to protect against two other forms that cause most cases of genital warts. HPV is a common infection among sexually active people. The virus is spread by skin-to-skin contact. Experts say most cases go away within a few years. Many people never show signs of infection. But in some people, the virus remains for many years. And in some women it can lead to cervical cancer. The new vaccine does not prevent all forms of HPV linked to cervical cancer. And it is not a replacement for medical examinations. Experts say a yearly Pap test is the best way to find cervical cancer cells early, when they can be treated most successfully. The test has sharply reduced rates of cervical cancer in the United States and other countries where it is widely used. Merck says Gardasil is effective for at least five years. It says the vaccine works best in those who are not yet sexually active. The company is also testing Gardasil in boys and men. The vaccine is given in three injections over a six-month period. Gardasil is expected to cost three hundred to five hundred dollars. There are concerns that the price could limit its use. Also, some conservative groups have expressed concern that the vaccine could lead young people to become more sexually active. Later this year, the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline plans to seek approval of a cervical cancer vaccine called Cervarix. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-30-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Carl Sagan Helped People Understand Science
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about American scientist Carl Sagan. He spent much of his life helping make space travel possible far out in the universe. He also helped people understand science. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year is nineteen forty-seven. Twelve-year-old Carl Sagan is standing outside a small house in the eastern city of Brooklyn, New York. It is dark. He is looking up at the sky. After a few minutes, he finds the spot for which he has been searching. It is a light red color in the night sky. Carl is looking at the planet Mars. Carl has just finished reading a book by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is the story of a man who travels from Earth to the planet Mars. He meets many strange and interesting creatures there. Some of them are very human. The name of the book is “The Princess of Mars.” It is just one of many books that Mister Burroughs wrote about travels to Mars. VOICE TWO: In “The Princess of Mars,” the man who travels to Mars can make the trip by looking at the planet for several minutes. He then is transported there by a strange force. Carl Sagan stands watching the red planet. He wishes he could travel across the dark, cold distance of space to the planet Mars. After a while, young Carl realizes this will not happen. He turns to enter his home. But in his mind he says, "Someday. Someday it will be possible to travel to Mars." VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan never had the chance to go to Mars. He died in December, nineteen-ninety-six. However, much of the work he did during his life helped make it possible for the American Pathfinder vehicle to land on Mars. It landed on July fourth, nineteen ninety-seven. It soon began sending back to Earth lots of information and thousands of pictures about the red planet. Carl Sagan's friends and family say he would have been extremely happy about the new information from Mars. They say he would have told as many people as possible about what Pathfinder helped us learn. VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan was a scientist. He was also a great teacher. He helped explain extremely difficult scientific ideas to millions of people in a way that made it easy to understand. He made difficult science sound like fun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen thirty-four. Even as a child he wanted to be a scientist. He said it was a child's science book about stars that helped him decide to be a scientist. Mister Sagan said he read a book that told how our sun is a star that is very close to Earth. The book also said that the stars in the night sky were also suns but very far away. Mister Sagan said that suddenly, this simple idea made the universe become much larger than just Brooklyn, New York. VOICE TWO: It should be no surprise to learn that Carl Sagan studied the stars and planets when he grew older. He did this at the University of Chicago. Later he taught astronomy at Harvard University and Cornell University. In the nineteen fifties, Mister Sagan helped design mechanical devices for use on some of the first space flights. He also published two important scientific theories that were later confirmed by space flights. One theory was that Venus is extremely hot. The other was that Mars did not have a season when plants grew as scientists had believed. He said that the dark areas on Mars that were thought to be plants were really giant dust storms in the Martian atmosphere. VOICE ONE: Mister Sagan was deeply involved in American efforts to explore the planets in our solar system. He was a member of the team that worked on the voyage of Mariner Nine to Mars. It was launched in nineteen seventy-one. Mariner Nine was the first space vehicle to orbit another planet. Mister Sagan helped choose the landing area for Viking One and Viking Two, the first space vehicles to successfully land on Mars. He also worked on Pioneer Two, the first space vehicle to investigate the planet Jupiter. And he worked on Pioneer Eleven, which flew past Jupiter and Saturn. VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan was a member of the scientific team that sent the Voyager One and Voyager Two space vehicles out of our solar system. He proposed the idea to put a message on the Voyager, on the chance that other beings will find the space vehicles in the distant future. Mister Sagan worked for many months on what to say in the message. It was an extremely difficult task. When the Voyager space vehicles left our solar system they carried messages that included greetings from people in many languages. They carried the sound of huge whales in our oceans. And they carried the sound of ninety minutes of many different kinds of music from people around the world. Carl Sagan had created a greeting from the planet Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan was an extremely successful scientist and university professor. He was also a successful writer. He wrote more than six hundred scientific and popular papers during his life. And he wrote more than twelve books. In nineteen seventy-eight, he won the Pulitzer Prize for one of them. It is called “The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.” He even helped write a work of science fiction in the nineteen eighties. The book is called “Contact.” It is about the first meeting between beings from another world and the people of Earth. It was made into a popular movie. VOICE TWO: Perhaps Carl Sagan may best be remembered for his many appearances on television. He used television very effectively in his efforts to make science popular. He first became famous in nineteen eighty when he appeared on a thirteen-part television series about science. The show was called “Cosmos." It explored many scientific subjects--from the atom to the universe. It was seen by Four hundred million people in sixty countries. Mister Sagan wrote a popular book based on his television show. VOICE ONE: Millions of people saw Carl Sagan on television in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties. He especially liked to talk about science and scientific discoveries on the late night television program "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Mister Sagan said he always tried to accept invitations to “The Tonight Show” because about ten million people watched it, people who were not usually interested in science. On television, Mister Sagan was a good story-teller. He was able to explain complex scientific ideas in simple ways. He believed that increasing public excitement about science is a good way to get more public supporters. He said much of the money for science and scientific studies comes from the public, and people should know how their money is being spent. VOICE TWO: Some scientists criticized Carl Sagan because of his many appearances on television. They said he was not being serious enough about science. They said he was spending too much time appearing on television trying to make science popular. Other scientists valued his efforts to explain science. They said he communicated his message with joy and meaning. VOICE ONE: One of Carl Sagan's last books is called “The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human in Space.” Mister Sagan said he got the idea for the book from a picture taken by the Voyager One space vehicle. As it passed the planet Neptune, Voyager turned its cameras back toward the distant Earth. Mister Sagan said: “And there it was. Very small. The small blue dot in space with all of us. And you can't tell the difference between one nation and another. You can't even tell the difference between continents and oceans.” He said: "I thought it had a great deal to say about the foolishness of the issues that divide us. I thought it said we need to care for each other. And we have to also preserve this small dot in space. It is the only home we have ever known. " VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan died December twentieth, nineteen ninety-six in Seattle, Washington. He was being treated at a medical center there for a bone marrow disease. Carl Sagan was sixty-two years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Experts Will Study How to Improve Math Teaching in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new committee of experts will look for the best ways to improve math education in the United States. The effort is part of the American Competitiveness Initiative that President Bush discussed in his State of the Union message in January. The program calls for spending more than two hundred million dollars to improve the teaching of mathematics. The Education Department says the experts will examine how to prepare for, and succeed in, learning algebra. One goal is to decide about teaching higher-level math at younger ages. American fifteen-year-olds performed below the average in math on the most recent Program for International Assessment. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says: "To keep America competitive in the twenty-first century, we must improve the way we teach math."? But there is disagreement about which teaching methods are the most effective. Traditional ones depend heavily on memory and tests. Newer methods are based more on developing creative problem-solving skills. Supporters of the traditional way say it may not be exciting but students get the right answers. Critics say many students never understand why the answers are correct. Some say the best way to teach math is to combine the new and traditional methods. The debate is similar to the one over the best way to teach reading. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel will be led by Larry Faulkner, a former president of the University of Texas at Austin. The seventeen experts also include the president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. A study has found that less than half of American high school graduates are prepared for college math. Other studies suggest that strong math skills developed in the early teen years can lead to college success. The experts will consider scientifically based research and then advise the president and the education secretary. Margaret Spellings says all high school graduates need solid math skills. And she says the nation must give more high school students the chance to take advanced math and science courses. The new advisory committee gives its first report in January. A final report is expected by February of two thousand eight. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-05/2006-05-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: After Harding Dies, Coolidge Aims to Rebuild Trust in the Government
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I tell about Calvin Coolidge and how he became president of the United States. VOICE TWO: The early nineteen twenties were a troubled time for the United States. Congress and the public began to discover crimes by several officials in the administration of President Warren Harding. Harding himself became seriously sick during a trip to Alaska and western states. He died in a hotel room in California in August, nineteen twenty-three. Harding's vice president, Calvin Coolidge, became the new president. Both men were Republicans. Their policies on issues were much the same. Coolidge, however, was a very different man. He was completely honest. He was the kind of president the country needed to rebuild public trust in the government. VOICE ONE: Calvin Coolidge was quiet and plain-looking. He was the son of a farmer and political leader from the small northeastern state of Vermont. Young Calvin worked at different jobs to pay for his college education. He became a lawyer. He moved to another northeastern state -- Massachusetts -- where he became active in Republican Party politics. First he was elected mayor of a town. Then he was elected to the state legislature. Finally, he was elected governor of Massachusetts. It was as governor that Coolidge first became known throughout the United States. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-nineteen, a group of policemen in the city of Boston tried to start a labor union. This violated the rules of the police department. So the commissioner of police suspended nineteen of the union's leaders. The next day, almost seventy-five percent of Boston's policemen went on strike. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-nineteen, a group of policemen in the city of Boston tried to start a labor union. This violated the rules of the police department. So the commissioner of police suspended nineteen of the union's leaders. The next day, almost seventy-five percent of Boston's policemen went on strike. Criminals walked freely through the city for two nights. They robbed stores and threatened public safety. Frightened Americans all across the country waited to see what Governor Coolidge would do. VOICE ONE: He took strong action. He called on state troops to end the strike. He said: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by any body, any where, any time." Most Americans approved of what Coolidge did. The people of Massachusetts supported him, too. They re-elected him governor by a large number of votes. Then, in nineteen twenty, Republicans nominated Warren Harding for president. They nominated Calvin Coolidge for vice president. When President Harding died in California, Coolidge, his wife, and two sons moved to the White House. VOICE TWO: America's thirtieth president was, in some ways, an unusual kind of person to lead the country. He said little. He showed few feelings. Coolidge's policies as president were not active. He tried to start as few new programs as possible. He was a conservative Republican who believed deeply that government should be small. Coolidge expressed his belief this way: "If the federal government should go out of existence, most people would not note the difference." And once he said: "Four-fifths of our troubles in this life would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still." VOICE ONE: Coolidge believed that private business -- not the federal government -- should lead the country to greater wealth and happiness. He continued President Harding's policy of supporting American business both inside the United States and in other countries. The government under President Coolidge continued high taxes on imports in an effort to help American companies. VOICE TWO: Many Americans shared Coolidge's ideas about small government and big business. In the early nineteen twenties, many of them were living better than ever before. At that time, companies were growing larger. The prices of their stocks rose higher and higher. There were lots of jobs. And the wages of many workers increased. Americans agreed with their president that there was little need for government spending and government programs, when private industry seemed so strong. VOICE ONE: The American economy grew in the nineteen twenties for several reasons. The world war had destroyed many factories and businesses in Europe. The United States did not suffer the same destruction. It was still a young country. It had great natural resources, trained workers, and a huge market within its own borders. When peace came, Americans found their economy stronger than any other in the world. VOICE TWO: Changes in the American market also helped economic growth. "Installment buying" became popular. In this system, people could buy a product and pay for it over a period of several weeks or months. The total cost was higher, because they had to pay interest. But the system made it possible for more people to buy more goods. It also made the idea of borrowing money more acceptable to many Americans. VOICE ONE: The growing importance of the New York stock markets also helped economic growth in the nineteen twenties. Millions of Americans bought shares of stock in companies that seemed to grow bigger every month. Such investment almost became a national game. People would buy shares of stock, then sell them when the stock rose in value. There were many stories of poor people who became rich overnight by buying the right stocks. The American Congress also helped the economy by lowering income taxes. People had more money to spend on new goods. Another important reason for economic growth was a change in the way American companies were operated. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen twenties, the idea of manufacturing goods in the most scientific way became very popular. The father of this idea of "scientific management" was an engineer, Frederick Taylor. Mister Taylor developed a system to study manufacturing. He studied each machine involved in the process. He studied how much work each person did. He studied how goods moved from one part of a factory to another. Then he offered ideas to business owners about ways to produce goods faster and for less cost. VOICE ONE: Taylor's ideas of scientific management appealed to business owners. Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford proved that the ideas could work in his new car factory in the state of Michigan. Ford used the assembly line system of production. In this system, each worker did one thing to a product as it moved through the factory. This helped cut prices and increase wages. VOICE TWO: Ford and other businessmen learned a great deal about how to control costs, set prices, and decide how much to produce. All these changes in production and marketing helped Ford and other American companies grow larger and stronger. Henry Ford's Model-T car became popular throughout the country. So did other new products. Radios. Refrigerators for cooling food. Vacuums to clean carpets. Ready-made cigarettes. Beauty products. Americans in the nineteen twenties began to buy all kinds of new products they had never used before. VOICE ONE: Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. However, business led the nation. Times were good. Americans trusted business and its leaders. It became an honor to call someone a businessman. Colleges organized business classes. Middle-class citizens in almost every city and town gathered to discuss business ideas. President Coolidge spoke for millions of Americans when he said: "The chief business of the American people is business." VOICE TWO: Coolidge represented traditional values and a simple way of life. He knew exactly how every dollar he earned was saved or spent. And he spent no more money than was necessary. The strange thing was that Coolidge was extremely popular with a public that was spending large amounts of money. Some economic experts warned that the country's quick economic growth would end in economic depression. Most Americans, however, believed that the good times had come to stay. They enjoyed the good things in life that work and success in business could bring. On our next program, we will see how the economic growth of the nineteen twenties brought exciting changes to the day-to-day life of millions of Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to?V.O.A. Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Join us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States. You have been listening to?V.O.A. Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Join us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Traditional Life: The Amish of Pennsylvania Dutch Country
* Byline: Written by Jeri Watson, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week… We answer a question about the Amish people… Play some new music by the group Pearl Jam… And report about how modern medicine saved a horse’s life. Prosthetic Pony HOST: Last month, an American horse called Barbaro broke his leg during a race in Baltimore, Maryland. Animal doctors operated to save his life. Recently, we heard about another horse whose life was saved by modern medicine. Faith Lapidus has the story of a fifteen-year-old pony named Molly. FAITH LAPIDUS: Animal rescuers first saw the pony walking in a grassy field in Louisiana last year following the huge ocean storm called Hurricane Katrina. They called Kaye Harris, a woman who owns a pony farm near New Orleans. Molly’s owners gave Miz Harris permission to take the pony to her farm where she cares for many homeless animals. Molly did well there until a dog on the farm attacked her. The dog also had been rescued after the storm. It had never been aggressive. But Miz Harris saw the dog fiercely biting the pony. Miz Harris separated the animals. Then she called a doctor who cares for animals. Allison Barca treated Molly for wounds to her jaw, stomach and all four legs. Miz Harris gave Molly special care for months. But the pony’s right front leg became infected. It seemed like the only answer was to destroy the pony. Kaye Harris and animal surgeon Rustin Moore with MollyInstead, Miz Harris and Doctor Barca took Molly to animal experts at Louisiana State University. They hoped she could receive a man-made leg called a prosthesis. Animal surgeon Rustin Moore finally decided that Molly might be able to wear one. Dwayne Mara makes prostheses for a company called Bayou Orthotic and Prosthetic Center. He makes prostheses for people and had never made one for a horse. But he did not let that stop him. After much planning, Doctor Moore and his expert team removed the affected leg at the knee. They gave Molly a temporary device to walk on. Five weeks later, she received the leg that Mister Mara had made for her. Soon she was standing and walking. Now, Molly visits the prosthetic center often. Children who use the center’s services welcome her. She has become an unofficial ambassador to children with disabilities. And, a fund has been established in Molly’s name at Louisiana State University to help other animals like her. The Amish People HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is about the Amish people. It comes from Jing Ren, who was born in China but now lives in the United States. Amish people came to the United States from Germany and Switzerland in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. They were expelled from their home countries or chose to leave because of religious oppression. Most settled in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Other Amish people live in twenty-two American states and in Ontario, Canada. Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County is known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country. About sixteen to eighteen thousand Old Order Amish live there. Dutch is a name for people from the Netherlands, yet many of the Amish came from Germany. Old stories say they were called Dutch because English colonists could not say the correct word, “Deutsch.”? But language experts now say that people in England often used the term Dutch to mean German. Amish families live as their ancestors did many years ago. They live in farmhouses heated with wood stoves. They get their water from wells. They do not drive cars. Instead, they travel in buggies pulled by horses. They do not have electricity or telephones. They do not want connections to the outside world. Most Amish people are easy to recognize. The women wear long, dark-colored dresses. They cover their hair with white cloth hats. The men wear black clothing and dark hats. They grow long beards. Most Amish families have seven or eight children who leave home only when they marry. Everyone in an Amish family works in the fields. The Amish are good farmers. They also keep farm animals. Each family takes care of its own farm of about twenty hectares. They plant and harvest crops without modern technology. The Amish do not depend on people outside their own community. Every Amish man can build a house, make furniture and raise crops and animals. Every Amish woman can preserve food, make clothing and bed covers called quilts. Quilt-makers all over the world recognize the beauty of Amish quilts. The Amish community works together to do big jobs like build houses for their people. They also gather for religious services. The Amish permit few differences among their own people. They continue to live separate from the people in the world around them. Pearl Jam’s New Album HOST: The band Pearl Jam has released its eighth album. The group’s sound has remained true to its roots in grunge music out of Seattle, Washington. Barbara Klein plays some songs from the new album. BARBARA KLEIN: The album called “Pearl Jam” was at number two on American record sales lists in the second week after its release. It is the group’s first recording in four years. The band’s music remains alternative and political. Here lead singer Eddie Vedder and his bandmates protest war in the song “Worldwide Suicide.” (MUSIC) The album took a year and a half to complete. Guitarist Mike McCready says the band members were only concerned about making a great record in their own time. Vedder says he wrote as many as thirteen early versions of several songs on the album. Critics have noted the influence of the Beatles in one of the songs. Here is “Parachutes.” (MUSIC) Pearl Jam ended its fifteen-year relationship with Epic Records. The band has a long history of difficulty with the business side of making music. Pearl Jam recorded this album with J Records, as a one-album deal with the company. Its owner, music industry leader Clive Davis, is likely to want to continue making albums with Pearl Jam, considering the success of this one. We leave you now with Pearl Jam performing the song “Comatose.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bush Nominates Paulson to Lead Treasury
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. President Bush has named Henry Paulson Junior to replace John Snow as the secretary of the Treasury. Mister Paulson is the chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, a leading American investment bank. President Bush announced his decision Tuesday at the White House. Mister Bush said the nominee has a deep knowledge of financial markets. He said Mister Paulson would be his main adviser on a wide group of economic issues. Henry Paulson has led Goldman Sachs for seven years. During that time, the stock price of the company has grown by more than one hundred percent. Mister Paulson earned almost forty million dollars at the company last year. Employees of Goldman Sachs have served in the administrations of both political parties. Robert Rubin, another former top official of the company, served as Treasury secretary in the Clinton Administration. The present White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, is another former Goldman Sachs employee. He played a large part in getting Mister Paulson to accept the nomination as Treasury secretary. Mister Paulson is considered to be a business leader without ties to the Bush administration. His nomination must be confirmed by the United States Senate. In accepting the nomination, Mister Paulson said major economies around the world are increasingly linked. But he noted the world looks to the United States to drive growth. He said America must continue to compete economically, providing a free and open market. Experts say Mister Paulson will face pressure to reduce spending and limit the budget deficit. Mister Paulson also serves as chairman of the board of the Nature Conservancy. The group seeks to save wildlife and wild lands from development. Henry Paulson was born in Palm Beach, Florida in nineteen forty-six. He grew up on a farm in Illinois, which he still owns. He earned a business degree from Harvard University. Mister Paulson worked at the Defense Department and in the Nixon Administration in the early nineteen seventies. He has worked for Goldman Sachs since nineteen seventy-four. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Observing a Killer: 25 Years of AIDS, and 25 Million Deaths
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the United Nations held a high-level meeting to discuss progress against AIDS and to set new goals for the future. The three-day meeting in New York ended Friday. It marked twenty-five years since public health officials in the United States reported the first cases of AIDS. A new U.N. report says the AIDS epidemic appears to be slowing down in its worldwide spread. But new infections continue to increase in some areas and countries. The report says India now has the largest number of H.I.V. infections, but Africa still has the largest number of people with AIDS. The report? describes the progress of countries toward targets set in two thousand one. U.N. officials say important progress has been made in some cases. But other efforts have had limited success. For example, the World Health Organization failed to meet its "Three-by-Five" target. The goal was to get treatment to three million people with H.I.V. in developing countries by the end of two thousand five. The new report says sixty-five million people have become infected with H.I.V. in the past twenty-five years. Twenty-five million of them have died of AIDS-related sicknesses. These numbers include four million new infections last year and almost three million deaths. Around the world, about thirty-eight million people are now living with the virus that causes AIDS. Treatments have improved, but there is still no AIDS vaccine and no cure. Still, the U.N. report says there was eight thousand million dollars last year for the worldwide effort against AIDS. That is five times the level of financing in two thousand one. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The first documented cases appeared in a report dated June fifth, nineteen eighty-one. The Centers for Disease Control described a mysterious infection in five young homosexual men in Los Angeles, California. All had developed an unusual kind of pneumonia. One month later, the C.D.C. reported four more cases in Los Angeles and six around San Francisco. It also reported twenty-six cases of an unusual kind of cancer in New York and Los Angeles. Other reports followed. In nineteen eighty-three, researchers discovered the human immunodeficiency virus as the cause of AIDS. The earliest known H.I.V. infection was found in blood stored since nineteen fifty-nine. The blood came from a man in what is now the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa. Last week, a team of scientists reported confirmation that H.I.V. came from chimpanzees in the nearby country of Cameroon. The researchers believe the virus passed to humans when hunters came in contact with infected blood. The infection could have crossed borders as people traveled along the Sanaga River and other waterways. Study leader Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama says AIDS may have started in Africa as early as nineteen ten. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: John Henry
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Today we tell a traditional American story called a “tall tale.”? A tall tale is a story about a person who is larger than life. The descriptions in the story are exaggerated – much greater than in real life. Long ago, the people who settled in undeveloped areas of America first told tall tales. After a hard day’s work, people gathered to tell each other stories. Each group of workers had its own tall tale hero. An African American man named John Henry was the hero of former slaves and the people who built the railroads. He was known for his strength. Railroads began to link the United States together in the nineteenth century. The railroads made it possible to travel from one side of the country to the other in less than a week. Before then, the same trip might have taken up to six months. Railroad companies employed thousands of workers to create the smooth, flat pathways required by trains. John Henry was perhaps the most famous worker. He was born a slave in the southern United States. He became a free man as a result of America’s Civil War. Then, he worked for the railroads. Confirming details of John Henry’s life is not possible. That is because no one knows or sure if he really lived. This is one of the things that makes his story interesting. However, John Henry is based, in part, on real events. Many people say he represents the spirit of growth in America during this period. Now, here is Shep O’Neal with our story. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:? People still talk about the night John Henry was born. It was dark and cloudy. Then, lightening lit up the night sky. John Henry’s birth was a big event. His parents showed him to everyone they met. John Henry was the most powerful looking baby people had ever seen. He had thick arms, wide shoulders and strong muscles. John Henry started growing when he was one day old. He continued growing until he was the strongest man who ever lived. John Henry grew up in a world that did not let children stay children for long. One day, he was sitting on his father’s knee. The boy picked up a small piece of steel and a workman’s tool, a hammer. He looked at the two objects, then said, “A hammer will be the death of me.” Before John Henry was six years old, he was carrying stones for workers building a nearby railroad. By the age of ten, he worked from early in the morning until night. Often, he would stop and listen to the sould of a train far away. He told his family, “I am going to be a steel-driver some day.” Steel-drivers helped create pathways for the railroad lines. These laborers had the job of cutting holes in rock. They did this by hitting thick steel drills, or spikes. By the time John Henry was a young man, he was one of the best steel-drivers in the country. He could work for hours without missing a beat. People said he worked so fast that his hammer moved like lightening. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:? John Henry was almost two meters tall. He weighed more than ninety kilograms. He had a beautiful deep voice, and played an instrument called a banjo. John Henry married another steel-driver, a woman named Polly Ann. They had a son. John Henry went to work as a steel-driver for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, or C-and-O. The company asked him to lead workers on a project to extend the railroad into the Allegheny Mountains. The workers made good progress on the project until they started working near Big Bend Mountain in West Virginia. The company’s owners said the mountain was too big to build a railroad around it. So the workers were told they had to force their drills through it. This meant creating a tunnel more than one-and-one half kilometers long. The project required about one thousand laborers and lasted three years. Pay was low and the work was difficult. The workers had to breathe thick black smoke and dust. Hundreds of men became sick. Many died. John Henry was the strongest and fastest man involved in the project. He used a hammer that weighed more than six kilograms. Some people say he was able to cut a path of three to six meters a day. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: That July was the hottest month ever in West Virginia. Many workers became tired and weak in the heat. John Henry was concerned his friends might lose their jobs. So, he picked up their hammers and began doing their work. One week, he did his own work and that of several other steel-drivers. He worked day and night, rarely stopping to eat. The men thanked John Henry for his help. He just smiled and said, “A man ain’t nothing but a man. He has just got to do his best.” The extreme heat continued for weeks. One day, a salesman came to the work area with a new drilling machine powered by steam. He said it could drill holes faster than twelve men working together. The railroad company planned to buy the machine if it worked as well as the salesman said. The supervisor of the workers dismissed the salesman’s claims. He said, “I have the best steel-driver in the country. His name is John Henry, and he can beat more than twenty men working together.”? The salesman disputed the statements. He said the company could have the machine without cost if John Henry was faster. The supervisor called to John Henry. He said, “This man does not believe that you can drill faster. How about a race?’ John Henry looked at the machine and saw images of the future. He saw machines taking the place of America’s best laborers. He saw himself and his friends unemployed and standing by a road, asking for food. He saw men losing their families and their rights as human beings. John Henry told the supervisor he would never let the machine take his job. His friends all cheered. However, John Henry’s wife Polly Ann was not happy. “Competing against the machine will be the death of you,” she said. “You have a wife and a child. If anything happens to you, we will not ever smile again.” John Henry lifted his son into the air. He told his wife, “A man ain’t nothing but a man. But, a man always has to do his best. Tomorrow, I will take my hammer and drive that steel faster than any machine.” (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:? On the day of the big event, many people came to Big Bend Mountain to watch. John Henry and the salesman stood side by side. Even early in the day, the sun was burning hot. The competition began. John Henry kissed his hammer and started working. At first, the steam-powered drill worked two times faster than he did. Then, he started working with a hammer in each hand. He worked faster and faster. In the mountain, the heat and dust were so thick that most men would have had trouble breathing. The crowd shouted as clouds of dust came from inside the mountain. The salesman was afraid when he heard what sounded like the mountain breaking. However, it was only the sound of John Henry at work. Polly Ann and her son cheered when the machine was pulled from the tunnel. It had broken down. Polly Ann urged John Henry to come out. But he kept working, faster and faster. He dug deep into the darkness, hitting the steel so hard that his body began to fail him. He became weak, and his heart burst. John Henry fell to the ground. There was a terrible silence. Polly Ann did not move because she knew what happened. John Henry’s blood spilled over the ground. But he still held one of the hammers. “I beat them,” he said. His wife cried out, “Don’t go, John Henry.” “Bring me a cool drink of water,” he said. Then he took his last breath. Friends carried his body from the mountain. They buried him near the house where he was born. Crowds went there after they heard about John Henry’s death. Soon, the steam drill and other machines replaced the steel-drivers. Many laborers left their families, looking for work. They took the only jobs they could find. As they worked, some sang about John Henry. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have just heard the story of John Henry. It was adapted for Special English by George Grow. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. Join us again next week for another AMERICAN STORY, in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Invisible Man': Ralph Ellison Wrote About Race and Social Identity
* Byline: Written by Richard Thorman

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about writer Ralph Ellison and his famous novel “Invisible Man.”? The book is about a nameless black man’s search for his identity and place in society. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ralph Ellison's novel, “Invisible Man”, was published in nineteen fifty-two. Ellison was at once called a major new writer. The book won the National Book Award, a high and rare honor for a first novel. Since then millions of copies have been printed. The book is still used in many universities and other schools. One professor said that he has used the book in his teaching for twenty-five years. He said that each time he returns to “Invisible Man” he finds new ideas in it. Ellison writes in the beginning of his book: READER: "I am an invisible man … I am a man of substance, flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination – indeed, everything and anything except me.” VOICE TWO: From the start, “Invisible Man” was a book that changed the way white Americans thought about black Americans. It also changed the way black Americans thought about themselves. And it caused major disputes among both black and white critics. Black critics said the book was too difficult to read. One black critic said that the black man needed “Invisible Man” like he needed a knife in his back. Another black writer dismissed Ellison because Ellison demanded that writing skills must be learned before political ideas can be expressed. Some white critics refused to accept a black writer who did not write from direct anger at whites. They seemed to want him not to write from his mind, but from the color of his skin. Yet the book continues to live long after most people have forgotten the disputes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ralph Ellison was born in nineteen fourteen, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His father died when Ralph was three. His mother supported herself and her son by cleaning other people's houses. She also supported her son's interest in music and writing. She would take home old music recordings and magazines from the houses where she worked. Ralph liked jazz, and played trumpet in his high school band. He dreamed of writing serious music. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-three, Ralph entered a black university, Tuskegee Institute, in the state of Alabama. He wanted to study music. He moved to New York City in nineteen thirty-six. He still planned to study music and art. However, that same year he ran out of money and could no longer attend school. The nineteen thirties in America were difficult economic times. There were not many jobs to be found, and even fewer for black men. Ellison worked at many things. He shined people's shoes. He played trumpet in a jazz band. He worked for the Young Men's Christian Association. He worked in factories. He worked for a brief time taking pictures. Lack of money was an important reason for Ralph Ellison becoming a writer. He said: READER: "I have always read a lot, and I began to realize I had a certain talent for it. It was not easy to be the kind of musician I wanted to be: I did not have enough money to go to Juilliard [school of music]. So I stuck with what I had.” VOICE ONE: In New York City, Ellison joined the Federal Writers Project. This was a program created during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency to keep writers employed at writing. He met two important black writers, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. Wright soon would publish “Native Son,” the book that made him famous. Later, during World War Two, Ellison served as a cook in the United States Merchant Marine. Merchant marine ships carried war supplies to American and allied soldiers. For Ellison, the war was a time of learning and trying to write. He read books by the American writers T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner. And he read books by foreign writers like the Irish writer James Joyce. VOICE TWO: Ralph Ellison's stories were first published during World War Two. When the war was over, he visited a friend in the state of Vermont. Ellison said: READER: "One day I wrote, 'I am an invisible man.’ I did not know what those words represented at the start, and I had no thought about what gave me the idea." The book that started with those words took almost seven years to write. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Like many other novels, Ellison's story is a series of experiences as the storyteller learns to deal with life. Yet, unlike other novels, “Invisible Man” takes place in a dream-like atmosphere in the United States. It is a world where dreams come close to reality, and the real world looks like a frightening dream. The man telling his story in “Invisible Man” lives in a hidden underground space. But to prove that he exists, at least to himself, he has lit his underground room with one thousand three hundred sixty-nine lights. They remain lit with power he has stolen from the electric company. In much of Ellison's novel the person telling the story is a victim, usually of white people, but also of some blacks. He both loves and hates the world. He plans some day to leave his underground shelter. He says that as a man he is willing to believe that "even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all.” VOICE TWO: The man telling the story says that as a boy, white men covered his eyes with a cloth. The white men tell the boy to blindly fight other black boys. The blacks are forced to fight each other to please whites. At the end of the novel the story has moved from the American South to the North. There are riots in Harlem, the black area of New York City. Instead of ten black children fighting each other blindly, grown black men are battling each other to the death. Blacks still are having their strength turned upon themselves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics said “Invisible Man” was well written. But some critics called this a weakness. They said the writing seemed to hide the book's ideas and make them less a product of black life. One critic said that he found it difficult to call “Invisible Man” an African-American novel. He said that the main person in the book is a southern black man. But, the critic said, he is all of us, no matter where we were born or the color of our skin. VOICE TWO: After “Invisible Man” was published in nineteen fifty-two, Ralph Ellison taught at a number of universities. He retired from New York University in nineteen eighty. While he was alive, he published only two other books. They were books of criticism and essays, called “Shadow and Act” and “Going to the Territory.” Ralph Ellison died in nineteen ninety-four, at the age of eighty. After his death, a book of his stories, “Flying Home,” was published. Shortly before his death, Ellison had told someone that his second novel was almost finished. He had worked on the novel for forty years without finishing it. Parts of the book had appeared in magazines during the nineteen sixties and seventies. Ellison had to rewrite the novel after a large part of it was burned in a fire at his home in nineteen sixty-seven. The novel was said to be two thousand pages long. Finally, his friend John Callahan put the book together after Ellison died. The novel was published in nineteen ninety-nine. It was called “Juneteenth.” VOICE ONE: Since “Invisible Man” was published, many American writers have said how much Ellison influenced them. In nineteen ninety, another black writer, Charles Johnson, was given the National Book Award. In receiving the prize, Johnson thanked Ralph Ellison for leading the way for black writers. Ellison was present at the ceremony. He thanked Johnson. Then he expressed his belief that black writers should not be influenced only by other black writers. He said: READER: "You do not write out of your skin. You write out of your ideas and the quality of your mind. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Shep O’Neal read the part of Ralph Ellison and quotes from “Invisible Man.”? I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sportswear Fitted to the Needs of Muslim Girls
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Development Report. This Friday, the World Cup opens in Germany. Teams from thirty-two countries will compete in sixty-four games. The champion of the world's most popular sport will be decided in the World Cup final on July ninth in Berlin. Sports are important for physical health, but they can also educate people. Sports can teach teamwork, conflict resolution and cultural understanding, and improve how people feel about themselves. These are some of the goals of a project launched by the United Nations refugee agency and Nike, the sports equipment company. The project is called "Together for Girls."? It began in two thousand four in refugee camps in Dadaab, in eastern Kenya. Most of the people in the camps are Somalis who fled civil war in their country in the early nineteen nineties. The project was created as a way to improve education for girls in the camps. The U.N. refugee agency says that in the first year, new classrooms were built and additional teachers were hired. Students received books and other supplies. Nike took the program a step further. The American company has designed sportswear for Muslim girls among the refugees. The clothing gives them more freedom of movement than the traditional Somali hijabs they wear around their heads and bodies. Nike sent a team of female designers to research and create a new hijab for girls who play volleyball. Volleyball is a fast-moving game. It requires a lot of jumping and diving. The new hijab is fitted yet conservative, so it is culturally sensitive to Somali Muslims. Nike has said it will provide enough material for several hundred hijabs to be made. The company has also taught girls in Dadaab how to make them using locally produced materials. Other sportswear makers also have special designs for Muslim women. Nike is one of several companies represented on a business advisory committee to the U.N. refugee agency. The Council of Business Leaders was launched last year. Microsoft is also on the council. The computer software company has been working with the agency on a system called Project Profile. This is used to store pictures and detailed records of the people in U.N. refugee camps. A number of Microsoft employees have given their time to help set up the system in more than forty countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: They Sing in English, Put on American Works, and Redefine Opera
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, operas in English by American composers. VOICE ONE: We start with the works of Carlisle Floyd, who just recently celebrated his eightieth birthday. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most of the operas by Carlisle Floyd are based on stories or plays by American writers. But he developed his best-known opera, “Susannah,” from a Bible story. From "Susannah," you just heard the soprano Renee Fleming singing "Ain’t It a Pretty Night?" Carlisle Floyd was born in nineteen twenty-six in South Carolina. He gained recognition even when opera houses rarely performed American works. “Susannah” first appeared in nineteen fifty-five. It is now a classic opera performed around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The most recent opera by Carlisle Floyd is "Cold Sassy Tree."? He composed it from the book with that name by Olive Ann Burns. In "Cold Sassy Tree," an older man marries a young woman soon after his wife dies. For his community, it is too soon. The Houston Grand Opera in Texas presented the first performance in two thousand. The Houston opera has long been known for producing new works. "Cold Sassy Tree" is part tragedy, part comedy, but it also deals with issues of religious extremism. Listen as Dean Peterson sings "Rucker’s Sermon."? (MUSIC)?????????????????? VOICE TWO: Another opera written by Carlisle Floyd came from the book “All the King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren. The opera is called “Willie Stark.”? The story is about a powerful Southern politician. He is a lot like Huey Long, the populist governor of Louisiana who was elected a United States senator in nineteen thirty. A classic story by Robert Louis Stevenson led to Carlisle Floyd’s opera “Markheim.”? This is a story of murder and its effects on the murderer. Some critics argue that works like these are more plays with music than true opera in the European tradition. But others say new American opera is helping to renew interest in opera in the United States. This seems true especially when the stories deal with social and moral issues. As one critic said, the music may not always be easy to remember, but the operas succeed well as theater. Carlisle Floyd described the situation this way: Some opera boards like to produce only the five or six operas they may know by name. And these have to be sung in a language they do not understand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Richard Danielpour was born in New York to Iranian parents in nineteen fifty-six. He is a Grammy Award-winning composer. His first opera, "Margaret Garner," appeared for the first time in two thousand five. He wrote it with Toni Morrison. Her awards include the Nobel Prize in Literature. The story is based in part on true events. Margaret Garner was an escaped slave in the eighteen hundreds. She killed her baby daughter to save her from slavery. This real-life story is what led Toni Morrison to write her novel “Beloved.” Now, here are Tracie Luck and James Kee with music from “Margaret Garner” performed by the Michigan Opera Theatre. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? Composer Jake Heggie developed an opera from the book “Dead Man Walking” by Sister Helen Prejean. The Roman Catholic nun and activist against death sentences wrote about her friendship with a prisoner awaiting execution. Jake Heggie was born in nineteen sixty-one. Before his opera, he was known mainly for writing songs. "Dead Man Walking" was a major motion picture in nineteen ninety-five. But many people did not believe audiences would pay to hear an opera about this subject. The San Francisco Opera thought they would. Playwright Terrence McNally went to work on the story. The opera had a very successful premiere in two thousand. Since then, it has been produced again and again. Listen as Susan Graham, as Sister Helen, tells the condemned man that she will be with him as he faces death by poison injection. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? The classic American novel "Little Women" was first published in eighteen sixty-eight. It was an immediate success. The story by Louisa May Alcott is about four sisters. Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy live in New England in the eighteen sixties, after the Civil War. Over the years, the story has been told in plays, films and on television. Now there is "Little Women" the opera, composed by Mark Adamo. Mark Adamo was born in nineteen sixty-two. He had not written an opera before “Little Women.” Carlisle Floyd suggested that he offer the work to the Houston Grand Opera. Mark Adamo did not think the opera company would be interested. He was wrong. VOICE TWO: The Houston Grand Opera presented "Little Women" in nineteen ninety-eight and again two years later. Since then, opera companies across the country have presented this work. The opera shows the emotional conflicts in the life of Jo. She is a gifted writer. But she fights growing up. Listen now as Jo, played by Cherry Duke, sings about a bad day. She wishes she could start the day over. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other examples of American operas include “Our Town."? Ned Rorem wrote the music based on the play by Thornton Wilder about life in a small town. The Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire" led Andre Previn to compose an opera. And John Harbison composed an opera version of “The Great Gatsby” from the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The list goes on. VOICE TWO: Composer Douglas Moore and librettist John Latouche called upon the history of the American West for "The Ballad of Baby Doe."? ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-04-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Words About Clothes:? Let's See If I Can Name a Few Off the Cuff
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes?? Let’s see if I can name a few off the cuff, or without any preparation. People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are restless or nervous have ants in their pants. They might also fly by the seat of their pants. They use their natural sense to do something instead of their learned knowledge. Sometimes, people may get caught with their pants down. They are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say she wears the pants in the family. Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can burn a hole in your pocket. Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you have less money than usual, you may have to tighten your belt. You may have to live on less money and spend your money carefully. But once you have succeeded in budgeting your money, you will have that skill under your belt. I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really take my hat off to them. Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it at the drop of a hat – immediately, without waiting. And sadly, you cannot pull money out of a hat. ?You cannot get money by inventing or imagining it. Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are too big for their boots think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people. I really do. You can bet your boots on that. Yet, truly important people are hard to replace. Rarely can you fill their shoes or replace them with someone equally effective. My father is an important person. He runs a big company. He wears a suit and tie and a shirt with sleeves that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too firm and severe. They think he is a real stuffed shirt. But I know that my father wears his heart on his sleeve. He shows his feelings openly. And, he knows how to keep his shirt on. He stays calm and never gets angry or too excited. Also, my father has never lost his shirt in a business deal. He is too smart to lose all or most of his money. This is because my father rolls up his sleeves and prepares to work hard. He often has a special plan or answer to a problem that he can use if he needs it. He is like a person who does magic tricks. We say he has a card up his sleeve. (MUSIC)???????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Finds Only Five Percent of Tropical Forests Are Protected
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A major study has looked at efforts to save the tropical forests that remain in the world. Researchers found that less than five percent of the forest land is being protected. The study examined the use of sustainable management plans by forest operators. Such a plan seeks a continuous flow of forest products, without damage to the future of the forest or its environment. The International Tropical Timber Organization did the study. The researchers studied the supervision of more than eight hundred million hectares of forests in thirty-three countries. This land represents two-thirds of all the natural tropical forests in the world. Tropical forests are divided into two major kinds: production and protection. Production forests are harvested for wood. These forests can be natural or planted. The study found that only about seven percent of production forests are managed sustainably. Yet four times as much land is supposed to be managed under plans developed by forest operators. The researchers say it is much easier to develop a plan than to follow it, even if operators truly want to. Protection forests are recognized as valuable not for harvested wood, but as shelters for animal and plant life, a lot of it rare. Protected areas represent more than four hundred sixty million hectares of forests. Yet management plans have been developed for just four percent of that land. And the study found that the plans are being followed on only two percent. From Asia to Africa to the Americas, progress is uneven in efforts to save tropical forests. Good management requires law enforcement and money. It also requires interest and ability. Yet there is good news. The report says sustainably managed forests now cover at least thirty-six million hectares, an area the size of Germany. The United Nations established the International Tropical Timber Organization in nineteen eighty-six. The group was formed in reaction to concerns about shrinking forest resources. At the time, almost none of the world’s tropical forests had plans for sustainable management. Fifty-nine nations are members of the organization which is based in Yokohama, Japan. They are responsible for about eighty percent of the world’s tropical forests and ninety percent of trade in tropical wood. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: AIDS at 25: Scientists Confirm That H.I.V. Came From Chimps
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and Lawan Davis

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, twenty-five years into the AIDS crisis, new findings about its history ... VOICE ONE: Also, a new theory about the history of humans and chimps ... VOICE TWO: And a report on the dangers of indoor air pollution from solid cooking fuels. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On June fifth, nineteen eighty-one, a medical report described an unusual infection in five young men in Los Angeles. The Centers for Disease Control reported that all five were homosexuals, and two had died. Soon doctors identified more and more cases. In time, the infection became known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. A United Nations report last week said the spread of AIDS worldwide appears to be slowing. But rates of new infections continue to increase in some areas of the world. The newest estimate is that around forty million people are currently infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The report says about three million people died of AIDS in two thousand five. Four million others became infected. VOICE TWO: After twenty-five years, scientists continue to work on a vaccine to protect against H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. There is no cure for AIDS. But antiretroviral medicines can add years to survival. Scientists say H.I.V., human immunodeficiency virus, is related most closely to an animal virus. This virus is known as S.I.V., simian immunodeficiency virus. Simians include apes and monkeys. Scientists have known for years that S.I.V. has been found in chimpanzees living in captivity. But they were not sure if the virus existed in chimps in the wild. Now experts say they have direct evidence to confirm that the human virus came from chimps. In west-central Africa, they have found what they call an important missing link in the history of H.I.V. An international team gathered chimpanzee waste from the forest floor in areas of southern Cameroon. VOICE ONE: Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham led the study. Doctor Hahn says tests on the droppings showed antibodies to S.I.V. Antibodies are white blood cells that fight invading organisms. The scientists also did genetic tests on the waste to identify individual chimps as well as communities of chimps. Doctor Hahn says these tests showed which ones had the kind of S.I.V. that led to what is now the most common form of the human virus. The researchers found infection rates as high as thirty-five percent in some chimp communities in southern Cameroon. VOICE TWO: The scientists believe that the virus spread from chimps to humans most likely through bushmeat hunters. Developing the tests to do this study without further endangering chimp populations took seven years. Science magazine published the findings. But there are questions that remain, such as how the virus developed in chimps before it jumped to humans. VOICE ONE: The first known case of H.I.V. was found in a man from what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. His name is not known. He had given blood in nineteen fifty-nine for research on genetic resistance to malaria. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle stored the blood for future study. In nineteen eighty-six, five years after the first report of AIDS, the blood tested positive for H.I.V. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Genetic experts say humans and chimps are ninety-eight percent related. A new study suggests that the development of humans from chimps may have been more recent than scientists have thought. And more complex. The scientists who did the study say they found evidence of a period when humans reproduced with chimps. The result when different species are combined is a hybrid. Scientists traditionally believe that hybrid populations die out. But the new theory suggests that this one continued to evolve into the humans of today. VOICE ONE: The theory comes from scientists at the Broad [pronounced brode] Institute. This is a joint program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The findings appeared in the publication Nature. David Reich led the team that did the research. In his words: "The study gave unexpected results about how we separated from our closest relatives." VOICE TWO: The scientists studied the genetic history of humans and of chimps and other apes. They believe that more than one million years after the ancestors of humans and chimps split, the two species produced hybrids. The theory is that modern humans developed from these hybrids, not from the earlier forms of humans. The scientists say human females might have mated with chimps because males of hybrid species often cannot reproduce. They say the final split between humans and chimps took place perhaps less than five million four hundred thousand years ago. VOICE ONE:? This estimate differs from findings by other researchers. In two thousand two, scientists reported the discovery in Chad of a skull from a creature known as Toumai. Tests suggested that this nearly complete head bone was between six million and seven million years old. The scientists who found Toumai described it as a new kind of hominid, a member of the family that includes modern humans. It apparently had human-like teeth and walked on two legs. The researchers who did the new study say the dating of Toumai could be wrong. But if the fossil is that old, they say, then it may have come from before the final split into humans and chimps. Possible evidence for their theory that the separation took longer and was not as clean a break as people might think. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says half of the world’s population burns wood, coal, animal waste or other solid fuels. More than three thousand million people use solid fuels to cook and to heat and light their homes. But people who burn these fuels often breathe in large amounts of smoke. This can lead to pneumonia and other diseases. The W.H.O. recently published a report about the dangers of solid fuels. The report says these fuels are the cause of one and one-half million deaths each year, mostly in Southeast Asia and southern Africa. Most victims of indoor air pollution are children and women. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says there has been little progress since nineteen ninety in supplying more people with modern cooking fuels. The report discusses what it would take to cut the use of solid fuels in half by two thousand fifteen. To do that, almost five hundred thousand people every day would need to gain modern energy services. But experts say gains in health and productivity would more than pay for the costs required. VOICE TWO: The W.H.O. estimates a yearly cost of thirteen thousand million dollars to supply liquefied petroleum gas to half the people now using solid fuels. It says that investment would result in yearly economic gains of ninety-one thousand million dollars. Other kinds of fuel would cost more. The report says there are simple solutions that could help people in the short term. These include cleaner-burning stoves and better systems to clear the air in homes. Longer-term solutions include a change to cleaner cooking fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas, biogas, ethanol or plant oils. VOICE ONE: The report is called "Fuel for Life: Household Energy and Health."? It can be found on the World Health Organization Web site at w-h-o dot i-n-t (who.int). Enter the words "Fuel for Life" in the search box at the top. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Lawan Davis. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Above Ground but Under the Sea: Visiting Some Popular Aquariums
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. For thousands of years, people have wanted to explore the world under the sea. Such activity was not possible until modern times. Today, divers can survive for hours underwater and photograph fish and other sea creatures. Not everyone can swim with fish in the ocean. But they can enjoy underwater life in another way -- by visiting an aquarium. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts do not really know when people began keeping fish as pets. But they say that people have been interested in fish for thousands of years. Some say the ancient Sumerians were the first civilization to keep fish in ponds more than four thousand years ago. The Chinese kept and studied carp and goldfish more than one thousand years ago. The ancient Romans kept eels as pets. And the Greek philosopher Aristotle made what is believed to be the first known study of sea life, including sharks and dolphins. Experts say that keeping fish at home in small water tanks called aquariums is extremely popular today. And everyone seems to enjoy visiting huge public aquariums that have opened around the world. VOICE TWO: By the middle of the eighteen hundreds, science had shown that plants, fish and other sea creatures could survive together under water. So it was no longer necessary to change the water in a tank for fish to live there. This led to the building of the first public aquariums. `The first one opened in London, England in eighteen fifty-three. In the next fifteen years, other aquariums opened in Europe and the United States. By nineteen twenty-eight, there were about forty-five public aquariums. Today, millions of people visit aquariums around the world. Jane Valentine is an official with the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. She says the United States has more than seventy-five public aquariums. And she says that about forty-seven million people visit these places each year. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most famous aquariums is in Monterey, California. Officials say the Monterey Bay Aquarium has been recognized as the finest aquarium in the United States. It is in a building that used to be a kind of factory called a cannery. This was where workers prepared fish and placed them in cans to be sold. The Monterey Bay Aquarium shows visitors the underwater life in the bay. Scientists at the aquarium also study the animals and work to help many survive. For example, the Monterey Bay Aquarium cared for nineteen penguins from New Orleans, Louisiana. They were rescued after hurricane Katrina struck the area in two thousand five. These penguins were kept until they were ready to be returned to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. VOICE TWO: The Monterrey Bay Aquarium also works to save the sea otter. Aquarium workers rescue lost or hurt young sea otters and prepare them to survive in the wild. The ones that cannot be released are kept in the aquarium and entertain visitors by swimming quickly and playing tricks in the water. Visitors especially enjoy watching them play with objects in the water. When sea otters find new objects, they smell them, hold them, play with them and hit them against other hard objects. The otters hit their toys against the walls of the tank in front of the happy visitors. VOICE ONE: At the center of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a huge tank more than eight meters high. It is one of the tallest aquarium exhibits in the world. The tank holds more than one million liters of seawater and many different kinds of fish. It also holds more than one hundred kinds of plants. Officials say the tank was built in the center of the aquarium because it would get the most sunlight each day. All this sun helps the plants grow -- about ten centimeters every day. An official says the Monterey Bay Aquarium was the first aquarium in the world to show a living kelp forest. A kelp forest is a kind of ecosystem established around colonies of a seaweed plant called kelp. Kelp can extend between two and thirty meters or more from the sea floor to the surface of the water. These plants provide homes to many fish and other sea animals. The aquarium is also an education center. Workers help visitors and especially children understand sea creatures and their importance in the world. Children and adults can see many sea creatures being fed and watch a movie about underwater life. They can even touch some of these creatures in small tide pools. Workers make sure visitors touch the rays, crabs and sea stars very carefully. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One extremely large public aquarium opened in Atlanta, Georgia in two thousand five. The Georgia Aquarium says it is the largest in the world. It has more than one hundred thousand sea animals in thirty million liters of water. These include two whale sharks -- the world’s largest fish. The Georgia Aquarium is divided into sixty different environments called habitats. The largest holds more than twenty-two million liters of water. It was especially designed for the whale sharks and the thousands of other animals that live in the ocean. The second largest habitat was designed to copy the natural environment of beluga whales. Building large public aquariums is very costly. Most of the money to build the Georgia Aquarium was provided by businessman Bernard Marcus. He and his wife gave two hundred fifty million dollars to help pay for the building. The total cost was two hundred ninety million dollars. Reports said that more than one million people visited the Georgia Aquarium in the first six months that it was open. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another aquarium re-opened in two thousand five in Camden, New Jersey. The Adventure Aquarium first opened in nineteen ninety-two. It spent about fifty million dollars to expand its building and improve its exhibits. Visitors can watch a hippopotamus in the West African River Experience area of the Adventure Aquarium. Reports say the Adventure Aquarium is the only one in the country that has two hippos. One exciting area of the aquarium is the shark tunnel. Visitors can watch twenty-six dangerous creatures up close without fear. The tunnel is suspended in the middle of the shark tank. Even more exciting for visitors is the chance to get in the water and swim with the sharks!? Swimmers wear special clothes and must follow a few rules. For example, they must not make the sharks angry or make any quick movements. Swimming with the sharks costs more than one hundred dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another aquarium that provides education and adventures with sharks is the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore Aquarium has more than ten thousand sea animals. It opened in nineteen eighty-one. Its shark adventure includes a tour with an expert to learn about these ancient creatures and how the aquarium workers feed and care for them. Children can even sleep near the sharks overnight. Children sleep in the viewing area as sharks sleep nearby, behind protective glass. The National Aquarium in Baltimore also presents a dolphin show. It shows how young dolphins learn and develop the skills they need to survive. VOICE ONE: Aquariums provide the public with many chances to experience life under the sea. These fun and educational places can be found in most areas of the world. Visiting an aquarium is a good way for children to learn about sea creatures. They might even want to start an aquarium at home and join the millions of people around the world who keep fish as pets. (MUSIC: "Under The Sea") VOICE TWO: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Taking Care With Medicines
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. Recently VOA's reporters have explored some of the issues facing health care systems around the world. Today we talk about three separate issues with one thing in common: they all involve medicines. One problem is counterfeit medicines. These can be difficult even for highly trained medical professionals to identify. Counterfeit drugs are made to look and feel like the real medicines whose names they are sold under. But they do little or no good, and in some cases might be harmful. Patients also miss the chance to take the real medicines. The World Health Organization says an estimated ten percent of the drugs sold worldwide are counterfeit. In developing countries, however, twenty-five percent or more of the medicines taken are believed to be counterfeit. It is difficult to identify who makes these drugs or where. But many experts believe criminals in India and China are involved. The W.H.O. has created a group to better enforce the safety and quality of medicines in developing countries. One way that drug makers show government agencies that new medicines are safe and effective is through human trials. Yet these can sometimes present great risks to the people involved. Recently, six men in London came close to dying during tests of an experimental drug. They developed severe reactions within minutes of being injected with a drug for leukemia and other diseases. The American drug research company Parexel International says the reaction was unusual and rare. The British government has formed a committee to consider stronger rules for human drug trials. Public interest groups argue that many drug companies take too many risks in testing new medicines. Yet the safety and effectiveness of any drug can also depend on how it is used. Disease-causing organisms can become resistant to drugs, especially if the medicines are not taken correctly. The W.H.O. has warned of such a threat to what is now the most effective drug for malaria. The agency is trying to pressure drug companies only to sell artemisinin in combination with other malaria drugs. Experts say taking it alone will only speed up the development of resistance. Some companies have agreed to stop selling it alone, but others have not. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com? And to learn about other health care issues, listen Tuesday at this time for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Roaring Twenties' a Time of Economic and Social Change
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we have seen in recent programs, the administrations of President Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were a time of economic progress for most Americans. Many companies grew larger during the nineteen twenties, creating many new jobs. Wages for most Americans increased. Many people began to have enough money to buy new kinds of products. The strong economy also created the right environment for many important changes in the day-to-day social life of the American people. The nineteen twenties are remembered now as an exciting time that historians call the "roaring twenties." VOICE TWO: The nineteen twenties brought a feeling of freedom and independence to millions of Americans, especially young Americans. Young soldiers returned from the world war with new ideas. They had seen a different world in Europe. They had faced death and learned to enjoy the pleasures that each day offered. Many of these young soldiers were not willing to quietly accept the old traditions of their families and villages when they returned home. Instead, they wanted to try new ways of living. VOICE ONE: Many young Americans, both men and women, began to challenge some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. For example, some young women began to experiment with new kinds of clothes. They no longer wore dresses that hid the shape of their bodies. Instead, they wore thinner dresses that uncovered part of their legs. Many young women began to smoke cigarettes, too. Cigarette production in the United States more than doubled in the ten years between nineteen eighteen and nineteen twenty-eight. Many women also began to drink alcohol with men in public for the first time. And they listened together to a popular new kind of music: jazz. Young people danced the Fox Trot, the Charleston, and other new dances. They held one another tightly on the dance floor, instead of dancing far apart. VOICE TWO: It was a revolution in social values, at least among some Americans. People openly discussed subjects that their parents and grandparents had kept private. Sigmund FreudThere were popular books and shows about unmarried mothers and about homosexuality. The growing film industry made films about all-night parties between unmarried men and women. And people discussed the new ideas about sex formed by Sigmund Freud and other new thinkers. An important force behind these changes was the growing independence of American women. In nineteen twenty, the nation passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Of equal importance, many women took jobs during the war and continued working after the troops returned home. Also, new machines freed many of them from spending long hours of work in the home washing clothes, preparing food, and doing other jobs. VOICE ONE: Education was another important force behind the social changes of the nineteen-twenties. More and more Americans were getting a good education. The number of students attending high school doubled between nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty. Many of the schools now offered new kinds of classes to prepare students for useful jobs. Attendance at colleges and universities also increased greatly. And colleges offered more classes in such useful subjects as teacher training, engineering, and business administration. Two inventions also helped cause the social changes. They were the automobile and the radio. The automobile gave millions of Americans the freedom to travel easily to new places. And the radio brought new ideas and experiences into their own homes. Probably the most important force behind social change was the continuing economic growth of the nineteen twenties. Many people had extra money to spend on things other than food, housing, and other basic needs. They could experiment with new products and different ways of living. VOICE TWO: Of course, not all Americans were wearing strange new "flapper" clothes or dancing until early in the morning. Millions of Americans in small towns or rural areas continued to live simple, quiet lives. Life was still hard for many people including blacks, foreigners, and other minority groups. The many newspaper stories about independent women reporters and doctors also did not represent the real life of the average American woman. Women could vote. But three of every four women still worked at home. Most of the women working outside their homes were from minority groups or foreign countries. The films and radio stories about exciting parties and social events were just a dream for millions of Americans. But the dreams were strong. And many Americans -- rich and poor -- followed with great interest each new game, dance, and custom. VOICE ONE: The wide interest in this kind of popular culture was unusually strong during the nineteen twenties. People became extremely interested in exciting court trials, disasters, film actors, and other subjects. For example, millions of Americans followed the sad story of Floyd Collins, a young man who became trapped while exploring underground. Newsmen reported to the nation as rescue teams searched to find him. Even the "New York Times" newspaper printed a large story on its front page when rescuers finally discovered the man's dead body. Another event that caught public attention was a murder trial in the eastern state of New Jersey in nineteen twenty-six. Newsmen wrote five million words about this case of a minister found dead with a woman member of his church. Again, the case itself was of little importance from a world news point of view. But it was exciting. And Americans were tired of reading about serious political issues after the bloody world war. VOICE TWO: The nineteen twenties also were a golden period for sports. People across the country bought newspapers to read of the latest golf victory by champion bobby jones. "Big Bill" Tilden became the most famous player in tennis. And millions of Americans listened to the boxing match in nineteen twenty-six between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. In fact, five Americans reportedly became so excited while listening to the fight that they died of heart attacks. Babe RuthHowever, the greatest single sports hero of the period was the baseball player, Babe Ruth. Ruth was a large man who could hit a baseball farther than any other human being. He became as famous for his wild enjoyment of life as for his excellent playing on the baseball field. Babe Ruth loved to drink, to be with women, and to play with children. VOICE ONE: The most famous popular event of the nineteen twenties was neither a court trial nor a sports game. It was the brave action of pilot Charles Lindbergh when he flew an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He was the first man in history to do this. Lindbergh flew his plane alone from New York to France in may, nineteen twenty-seven. His flight set off wild celebrations across the United States. Newspapers carried story after story about Lindbergh's success. President Coolidge and a large crowd greeted the young pilot when he returned to Washington. And New York congratulated Lindbergh with one of the largest parades in its history. Americans liked Lindbergh because he was brave, quiet, and handsome. He seemed to represent everything that was best about their country. VOICE TWO: The nineteen twenties was also a time of much excellent work in the more serious arts. We will take a look in our next program at American art, writing, and building during the exciting "roaring twenties". (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Trying to Get More Students to Finish High School
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m?Mario Ritter?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many young people in the United States never finish high school. Exactly how many drop out is another issue. Recent studies of dropout rates have had conflicting results. For one thing, schools define and measure their dropout rates differently. Some researchers say about fifteen to twenty percent of public school students do not complete their education. But many other experts and policymakers believe that for the past twenty years, the dropout rate has been around thirty percent. For Latino and black students, the numbers are even higher. Researchers say almost half of them leave school. At the same time, almost half the states let students leave school before the age of eighteen without informing their parents. Finding a good job without a high school education is more and more difficult. A Northeastern University study in two thousand two found that almost half of all dropouts age sixteen to twenty-four did not have a job. The lack of a high school education can also lead to other problems. An estimated two-thirds of prisoners in the United States dropped out of high school. Recent studies have shown that the majority of students who drop out do not do it because they are failing. Many are bored with their classes or feel disconnected from their school and teachers. Some students feel that educators place low expectations on them. Teen pregnancies also add to the dropout problem. During the past twenty years, there have been efforts to increase graduation rates through education reforms. Some communities are working on dropout prevention programs. These include alternative high schools to meet special needs. Some programs, for example, provide free transportation and childcare to help young mothers and fathers finish school. Yet special programs can cost a lot, and many school systems have limited budgets. Federal spending on second-chance programs to help students finish school has decreased from the nineteen seventies. This was shown in a report last year from the Educational Testing Service. Experts suggest "early warning systems" to help identify young schoolchildren at risk of dropping out of high school. They say schools also need to get parents more involved, especially if their children are missing school often. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Under P-r-e-s-s-u-r-e: National Spelling Bee Goes Big Time on TV
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Barbara Klein. On our show this week… We answer a question about Hawaii… Play some music from new bands… And report about the latest national spelling contest. National Spelling Bee HOST: Every year, expert young spellers from around the world gather to compete in Washington, D.C. For almost eighty years, the goal has been to help students improve their knowledge of English words and usage. More than two hundred and seventy boys and girls just competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Steve Ember tells us more. STEVE EMBER: The national spelling bee takes place over two days in a large hotel meeting room. The spellers sit together in front of a group of judges. To be part of this event, spellers must first win local competitions. The kids each stand when their turn comes to spell a word. Spellers may ask the judges for help once they hear the word they must spell. For example, a speller can ask for the definition of the word or for its language root. Students who spell the word correctly continue in the competition. If a speller makes a mistake, a bell sounds and the child must leave the group. Friends and family watch the spellers tensely. Recently there have been movies, a book and a Broadway musical about spelling bees. As part of that popularity, the last hours of this year's competition were shown at night on national television. Three girls made it to the final moments of the event. The winner was thirteen-year-old Katharine "Kerry" Close from New Jersey. This was her fifth year in the national spelling bee. She won by spelling ursprache -- U-R-S-P-R-A-C-H-E. This word borrowed from German is defined as: "a parent language, especially one reconstructed from the evidence of later languages."? A reporter later asked a joyous Kerry to give advice to other spellers. She said to study very hard and never give up. The eighth-grader is the first girl to win the spelling bee since nineteen ninety-nine. She won thirty thousand dollars along with a five thousand dollar college scholarship and other prizes. Hawaii? HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Munna asks if Hawaii is an American state. Experts believe that Polynesian people first discovered the Hawaiian Islands about two thousand years ago. A king ruled the islands when British sea captain James Cook arrived in seventeen seventy-five. In eighteen eighteen, the Hawaiian King Kamehameha said the group should be called the “Islands of the Kingdom of Hawaii”. Britain gave the islands their independence in eighteen forty-three. The king was ousted fifty years later by a group of American businessmen. Hawaii became the fiftieth state of the United States in nineteen fifty-nine. The state of Hawaii includes eight major islands in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean. The main islands are Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Hawaii, also called the Big Island. The island of Niihau is privately owned. Kahoolawe has no people. Honolulu Hawaii is very far from other populated areas. It is more than three thousand kilometers from the state of California. It is more than six thousand kilometers from Japan. Hot liquid rock called lava formed the Hawaiian Islands millions of years ago. The lava flowed up from the sea through openings in the sea floor. Visitors today can watch this process continue on the Big Island where the world’s most active volcano still produces lava. Each of the Hawaiian Islands has a wet side and a dry side. It rains much more on the northeast sides of the islands and much more in winter than in summer. This gives each island two separate climate areas. One area is dry and desert-like. The other area has green plants, rivers and waterfalls. More than six million people visit Hawaii each year. They enjoy the beautiful land and the warm weather. They swim, watch the whales and other marine life and visit beautiful gardens. Hawaii has some of the most beautiful, interesting and unusual places on Earth. Rolling Stone's Bands to Watch HOST: Every year the editors of the music magazine Rolling Stone create a list of new musicians they think are going to become popular. Mario Ritter tells us about three of the musicians Rolling Stone has chosen as this year’s best. MARIO RITTER: Usually music listeners know about bands because they are already famous. Here is your chance to discover some new voices before they become popular. Rolling Stone listed ten musicians or groups they think are going to be important. Listen and see if you agree. (MUSIC) That was “Young Liars” by a group called TV on the Radio. The group has been performing for several years. This song is from an album released in two thousand three. The band has a second full album being released this month. Another new band is called Rock Kills Kid. These five musicians have an energetic rock sound. Some critics say it is a mix between the bands U2 and The Cure. Rock Kills Kid just released a first full album called “Are You Nervous?” Here is the song “Paralyzed.” (MUSIC) Nicole Atkins’ first full-length album has not been released yet. This young musician started singing while in college. Her songs are often sad and poetic. Listen to Atkins’ dreamy and warm voice in this version of her song “Skywriters.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Barbara Klein. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: As Boomers Age, Times Change in the U.S. Labor Market
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 Correction attached I’m Mario Ritter with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The oldest of America's baby boomers are sixty years old this year. One-fourth of Americans alive today were born in a population explosion between nineteen forty-six and nineteen sixty-four. As they retire, they will leave a labor market very different from the one they entered. In the middle of the twentieth century, one worker in three was a member of a labor union. Now it is one worker in eight. American unions had their greatest influence in the fifties and sixties. In nineteen fifty-five, the American Federation of Labor joined with the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The first president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O, George Meany, was a political force until he stepped down in nineteen seventy-nine. Last July, the federation suffered a split that included the loss of the fastest growing union in the country. The Service Employee International Union has almost two million members. Its president, Andrew Stern, says unions today must organize workers at big international companies. He supports a new labor federation, Change to Win. The unions in Change to Win together claim six million members. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. now has about nine million. Industrial changes have hurt some unions more than others. Automobile industry unions have traditionally been among the strongest. But many of those jobs have disappeared as General Motors and Ford shrink their North American operations. G.M. faces a strike threat at a major parts supplier. Delphi is seeking to cancel union agreements and cut pay. The United Auto Workers voted last month to permit a strike. Delphi, formerly part of G.M., is under bankruptcy court protection from its creditors. As the economy has changed, major new employers are companies like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart says unions are not needed in its stores. It says it does not need a “middle man” in its relationship with its employees. And now unions are facing a television campaign that uses humor to present a serious message. A group has gathered what it calls "a wealth of information" about the political and criminal activities of the American labor movement. The Center for Union Facts says it is supported by foundations, businesses, union members and the general public. It does not name its supporters. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. --- Correction: An earlier version of this page said "almost" one-fourth of Americans are baby boomers. The Census Bureau estimate is 26 percent. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Iraqis Get Full Cabinet; Forces Hunting Zarqawi Get Their Man
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On Thursday, Iraqi and American officials announced the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq is blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings there and his native Jordan. And officials say he personally cut off the heads of some Western hostages in Iraq. American planes dropped two bombs on a house in northern Iraq on Wednesday evening. Each bomb weighed two hundred twenty-five kilograms. Officials say the airstrike also killed his spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, and four other people. On Friday a top military official, Major General William Caldwell, provided more details about the operation: When American troops joined Iraqi security forces at the house, Abu al-Zarqawi was badly wounded but still alive for a short time. He tried to move off a medical-aid stretcher and, just before he died, spoke something that could not be understood. The United States offered twenty-five million dollars to find him. President Bush says special operation forces acted on information and intelligence from Iraqis. He called Abu al-Zarqawi "the operational commander of the terrorist movement in Iraq."? He described the death as "a severe blow to al-Qaida" and "a victory in the global war on terror."? The president said it also represents a chance for Iraq's new government to, in his words, "turn the tide of this struggle." Hours after the killing, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the final appointments to his cabinet. Parliament approved the nominations and the three new members immediately took office. The appointments ended a long dispute among Iraq’s religious groups about who should hold the positions. The new defense minister is a Sunni Arab. The interior minister and the minister of state for national security are Shiites. These three men are seen as highly important to the government as it seeks to take control of security in Iraq within eighteen months. President Bush meets with his top advisers on Monday to discuss, as he put it, "the way forward in Iraq."? They will meet at the presidential home at Camp David, Maryland. American diplomats and military commanders in Iraq will provide reports about recent political, economic and security changes. On Tuesday, Iraq's new ambassador to the United States will join them. They will hold a teleconference with Iraq's prime minister and members of his cabinet. Mister Maliki says anyone who looks to take Abu al-Zarqawi’s place in trying to incite violence between Sunnis and Shiites will be killed. Still, no one expects his death to end the violence in Iraq. British Prime Minster Tony Blair warned of even more attacks by insurgents, in answer to the killing. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Celia Cruz: The Singer Was Known as the 'Queen of Salsa'
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Celia Cruz. She was one of the most influential and energetic female singers in the history of Afro-Cuban Music. More than seventy of her albums help document the history of the music known as salsa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song was “Tu Voz”, which means “Your Voice” in Spanish. It was a hit song performed by Celia Cruz and her band, La Sonora Matancera, in nineteen fifty-two. They performed many hit songs. They toured all over the world together spreading the sounds of Cuba. “Tu Voz” is about love and desire. The music helps to transport you to the sunny streets of Havana, Cuba. Like most of the songs of Celia Cruz, this music makes you want to start dancing. VOICE TWO: Celia Cruz was born in nineteen twenty-five in Havana, Cuba. Her parents were not musicians. But music played an important role in her childhood. Her grandmother once said that Celia could sing before she could talk. Celia would often sing at school and community gatherings. Later, as a teenager Celia started competing in singing contests. She won many competitions. Her father wanted her to be a teacher. But Celia wanted a career in music. She later said that she was both a singer and a teacher. She said that her music taught the world about Cuban culture and the happiness of living life to the fullest. VOICE ONE: Music is an important part of the cultural life of Cubans. During the nineteen thirties and forties in Havana, Celia heard many kinds of music. Famous music groups and singers would perform live on the radio. She could listen to dance music like the rumba, mambo and guaracha. These kinds of songs were influenced by the music of Africa and Spain. This Cuban music or “son” is defined by the beat of the drum and the call of the singer. It is music made for dancing. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-seven Celia started studying at the Cuban Conservatory of Music. She was discovered a few years later by the music group La Sonora Matancera. This group of was one of Cuba’s most famous orchestras. Their lead singer had just left the band, so they needed a new performer. When the group heard Celia’s voice, they hired her immediately. At first, listeners missed the band’s former singer. But soon, they fell in love with the powerful voice of Celia Cruz. Here is another of her songs recorded with La Sonora Matancera. It is called “Caramelos”. Cruz tells about a candy seller singing in the streets about his delicious goods. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen sixties, great political changes took place in Cuba. After a revolution, the communist leader Fidel Castro took power in the country. Like many other Cubans, Celia Cruz decided to move to the United States. She later became an American citizen and never again returned to her country. A few years later, she married the trumpet player of her band, Pedro Knight. Soon Cruz and her husband separated from La Sonora Matancera. They had played together for fifteen years. But it was time to explore new musical choices. VOICE TWO: Celia Cruz lived in New York City where Latin music could be heard in many forms. Many musicians were experimenting with mixing different traditions, rhythms, and styles. The music known as salsa was a combination of Cuban “son” with other Latin sounds. This music expressed the happiness and the pain of life in Latin American communities. Celia Cruz soon became the voice of salsa. She?? performed and made records with many musicians. She would wear wildly colorful clothing with tall shiny shoes. Her face was often painted with bright makeup. And her dancing was as energetic as her voice. Here is a recording of Cruz singing “Isadora” with Johnny Pacheco and the Fania AllStars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen seventies Celia Cruz became famous for calling out “Az?car!” while singing. This word means “sugar” in Spanish. Cruz would shout out this word to energize her band and her audience. You can hear her saying this word in many recordings. Celia Cruz always enjoyed taking on new projects. She sang many songs with musicians that were not salsa performers. For example, she sang with the hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean on one of his albums. She also sang with musicians such as David Byrne and Patti Labelle. Cruz also appeared in several movies. One of her most well known roles was in the film “The Mambo Kings” in nineteen ninety-two. Not surprisingly, Cruz plays the part of a salsa singer. Here is Cruz performing the song “Guantanamera” from the sound track of this movie. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Celia Cruz enjoyed a full and successful life. She won many Grammy Awards. With her seventy albums, she became the most famous voice of salsa music. She was a strong and powerful woman in a music industry made up mostly of men. Celia Cruz also used her fame to help other people. In two thousand two, her husband started the Celia Cruz Foundation. This organization gives money to poor students who want to study music. It also helps cancer patients. In two thousand three, Celia Cruz died as a result of brain cancer. Her life was celebrated at two funerals. Hundreds of thousands of people attended the funerals. Actors, politicians, musicians as well as thousands of fans attended to say goodbye to the Queen of Salsa. We leave you with the song “Rie y Llora” from Celia Cruz’s last album. It is a song about laughing and crying. Cruz reminds her listeners to live their lives fully and enjoy every moment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Paul Bunyan
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Today we tell a traditional American story called a “tall tale.” A tall tale is a story about a person who is larger than life. The descriptions in the story are exaggerated – much greater than in real life. This makes the story funny. Long ago, the people who settled in undeveloped areas in America first told tall tales. After a hard day’s work, people gathered to tell each other funny stories. Each group of workers had its own tall tale hero. Paul Bunyan was a hero of North America’s lumberjacks, the workers who cut down trees. He was known for his strength, speed and skill. Tradition says he cleared forests from the northeastern United States to the Pacific Ocean. Some people say Paul Bunyan was the creation of storytellers from the middle western Great Lakes area of the United States. Other people say the stories about him came from French Canada. Early in the twentieth century, a writer prepared a collection of Paul Bunyan stories. They were included in a publication from the Red River Lumber Company in Minnesota. It is not known if the stories helped the company’s sales, but they became extremely popular. Here is Shep O’Neal with our story about Paul Bunyan. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:? Many years ago, Paul Bunyan was born in the northeastern American state of Maine. His mother and father were shocked when they first saw the boy. Paul was so large at birth that five large birds had to carry him to his parents. When the boy was only a few weeks old, he weighed more than forty-five kilograms. As a child, Paul was always hungry. His parents needed tens cows to supply milk for his meals. Before long, he ate fifty eggs and ten containers of potatoes every day. Young Paul grew so big that his parents did not know what to do with him. Once, Paul rolled over so much in his sleep that he caused an earthquake.This angered people in the town where his parents lived. So, the government told his mother and father they would have to move him somewhere else. Paul’s father built a wooden cradle -- a traditional bed for a baby. His parents put the cradle in waters along the coast of Maine. However, every time Paul rolled over, huge waves covered all the coastal towns. So his parents brought their son back on land. They took him into the woods. This is where he grew up. As a boy, Paul helped his father cut down trees. Paul had the strength of many men. He also was extremely fast. He could turn off a light and then jump into his bed before the room got dark. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:? Maine is very cold for much of the year. One day, it started to snow. The snow covered Paul’s home and a nearby forest. However, this snow was very unusual. It was blue. The blue snow kept falling until the forest was covered. Paul put on his snowshoes and went out to see the unusual sight. As he walked, Paul discovered an animal stuck in the snow. It was a baby ox. Paul decided to take the ox home with him. He put the animal near the fireplace. After the ox got warmer, his hair remained blue. Paul decided to keep the blue ox and named him Babe. Babe grew very quickly. One night, Paul left him in a small building with the other animals. The next morning, the barn was gone and so was Babe. Paul searched everywhere for the animal. He found Babe calmly eating grass in a valley, with the barn still on top of his back. Babe followed Paul and grew larger every day. Every time Paul looked, Babe seemed to grow taller. In those days, much of North America was filled with thick, green forests. Paul Bunyan could clear large wooded areas with a single stroke of his large, sharp axe. Paul taught Babe to help with his work. Babe was very useful. For example, Paul had trouble removing trees along a road that was not straight. He decided to tie one end of the road to what remained of a tree in the ground. Paul tied the other end to Babe. Babe dug his feet in the ground and pulled with all his strength until the road became straight. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER:? In time, Paul and Babe the Blue Ox left Maine, and moved west to look for work in other forests. Along the way, Paul dug out the Great Lakes to provide drinking water for Babe. They settled in a camp near the Onion River in the state of Minnesota. Paul’s camp was the largest in the country. The camp was so large that a man had to have one week’s supply of food when walking from one side of the camp to the other. Paul decided to get other lumberjacks to help with the work. His work crew became known as the Seven Axemen. Each man was more than two meters tall and weighed more than one-hundred-sixty kilograms. All of the Axemen were named Elmer. That way, they all came running whenever Paul called them. The man who cooked for the group was named Sourdough Sam. He made everything -- except coffee -- from sourdough, a substance used in making sourdough bread. Every Sunday, Paul and his crew ate hot cakes. Each hot cake was so large that it took five men to eat one. Paul usually had ten or more hot cakes, depending on how hungry he was. The table where the men ate was so long that a server usually drove to one end of the table and stayed the night. The server drove back in the morning, with a fresh load of food. Paul needed someone to help with the camp’s finances. He gave the job to a man named Johnny Inkslinger. Johnny kept records of everything, including wages and the cost of feeding Babe. He sometimes used nine containers of writing fluid a day to keep such detailed records. The camp also was home to Sport, the Reversible Dog. One of the workers accidentally cut Sport in two. The man hurried to put the dog back together, but made a mistake. He bent the animal’s back the wrong way. However, that was not a problem for Sport. He learned to run on his front legs until he was tired. Then, he turned the other way and ran on his back legs. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: ?Big mosquitoes were a problem at the camp. The men attacked the insects with their axes and long sticks.Before long, the men put barriers around their living space. Then, Paul ordered them to get big bees to destroy the mosquitoes. But the bees married the mosquitoes, and the problem got worse. They began to produce young insects. One day, the insects’ love of sweets caused them to attack a ship that was bringing sugar to the camp. At last, the mosquitoes and bees were defeated. They ate so much sugar they could not move. Paul always gave Babe the Blue Ox a thirty-five kilogram piece of sugar when he was good. But sometimes Babe liked to play tricks. At night, Babe would make noises and hit the ground with his feet. The men at the camp would run out of the buildings where they slept, thinking it was an earthquake. When winter came, Babe had trouble finding enough food to eat. Snow covered everything. Ole the Blacksmith solved the problem. He made huge green sunglasses for Babe. When Babe wore the sunglasses, he thought the snow was grass. Before long, Babe was strong and healthy again. One year, Paul’s camp was especially cold. It was so cold that the men let their facial hair grow very long. When the men spoke, their words froze in the air. Everything they said remained frozen all winter long, and did not melt until spring. Paul Bunyan and Babe left their mark on many areas. Some people say they were responsible for creating Puget Sound in the western state of Washington. Others say Paul Bunyan and Babe cleared the trees from the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. They prepared this area for farming. Babe the Blue Ox died in South Dakota. One story says he ate too many hot cakes. Paul buried his old friend there. Today, the burial place is known as the Black Hills. Whatever happened to Paul Bunyan?? There are lots of stories. Some people say he was last seen in Alaska, or even the Arctic Circle. Another tradition says he still returns to Minnesota every summer. It says Paul moves in and out of the woods, so few people ever know that he is there. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have just heard the story of Paul Bunyan. It was adapted for Special English by George Grow. Your narrator was Shep O’Neal. ?Join us again next week for another American story, in Special English, on the Voice of America. This is?Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Planning a Wedding Becomes a Marriage of a Million Details
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week -- weddings in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each year, more than two million weddings take place in the United States. The Association for Wedding Professionals International says more than eighty thousand million dollars is spent on those weddings. And that does not include honeymoon travel for the newlyweds. Some people have big weddings and invite everyone they know. Some have small, simple weddings and invite only their closest friends and family members. And some elope. They get married first and tell people later. Still another choice is a "destination wedding."? These are popular now. The bride and groom invite a small group of guests to travel to someplace special for the ceremony. Think of it as a wedding and honeymoon all in one. VOICE TWO:?????? June is the beginning of summer. It is also considered the traditional start of the wedding season. Hollywood has had a lot of fun with weddings. In the summer of two thousand five there was the movie "Wedding Crashers."? Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn play two friends who trick their way into weddings. Why?? Simple: to meet women. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Many couples organize their weddings themselves. But some hire a wedding planner to organize everything for them. The planner helps the bride find a wedding dress as well as dresses for her bridesmaids. The planner helps find a place for the reception after the ceremony. And the planner organizes all the details for the celebration, from the flowers to the food to the entertainment. In the movie "The Wedding Planner," Jennifer Lopez stars as a highly organized planner with a suddenly disorganized personal life. She falls in love with a doctor, played by Matthew McConaughey. Only he turns out to be the man who is supposed to marry her most important client. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Hollywood has also had fun with wedding planners. In the Steve Martin and Diane Keaton movie "Father of the Bride," Martin Short plays their daughter's "wedding coordinator." (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Traditionally the bride's parents pay for the wedding. But Americans now get married at an older age than they once did. So working couples might pay for some or all of the wedding themselves. “What a wonderful idea,” once joked a real-life father of the bride. VOICE TWO: Couples can have a religious ceremony. Or they can have a civil wedding before a judge or other public official. Or they can have both. The couple might also read special vows they have written for each other. Many ceremonies share common customs. For example, the bride may wear a long white dress and have a white veil over her face. The veil is pulled back when the newlyweds kiss at the end of the ceremony. The groom traditionally wears a tuxedo. If the suit is black and the shirt is white, picture in your mind a penguin. A nervous penguin. An old tradition says brides should wear something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. These four things are supposed to bring good luck. Different cultures have their own traditions. At African-American weddings, for example, there is "jumping the broom."? This is an old tradition where couples jump over a broomstick laid on the ground. VOICE ONE:?????? ??????? America is known as a nation of immigrants. Each group brings its own wedding customs and traditions to the mix. But one tradition at most weddings is music. Many people hire D.J.s, disc jockeys, to play recorded dance music. A wedding might also have live music. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many couples hire small chamber groups to play classical music before and at the end of their wedding ceremony. One musical tradition is "Trumpet Voluntary." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another classical favorite at weddings is “Sheep May Safely Graze” by Johann Sebastian Bach: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some couples want to get married in a famous place like Disneyland or Las Vegas. The eightieth floor of the Empire State Building in New York City is a popular place for weddings. Couples can enter a competition for a chance to get married there on Valentine’s Day. Couples sometimes hold their wedding in a romantic place where they met. Or they choose a place that will not be too far for all the guests to travel. Or they hear about a beautiful place where many other people have gotten married. Many couples get married on the beach in Hawaii and the mainland, or travel to Mexico or an island in the Caribbean. With a destination wedding, the celebration often lasts three days. All the guests are invited to a dinner on the night before the wedding. Then there is the ceremony and the meal that follows. And often there is an early morning breakfast the following day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? Thanks to the Internet, couples can make a lot of their wedding preparations online. Technology has also made it easier for other people to decide what to give them for a wedding gift. The future newlyweds can go to stores and choose the gifts they would like to receive. The information is entered into a list on a wedding registry at each store. Then their friends and relatives can choose what to buy. This means the bride and groom get things they want. It also means they avoid many of the things they do not want – like three toasters for their morning bread. Some couples planning a wedding create their own Web sites so they can provide information to the people they invite. VOICE TWO: With all the planning that goes into some weddings, it is easy to forget what the event is all about. A Protestant minister in Maryland advises couples to remember one thing. Their wedding is over quickly, but their feelings for each other have to last a lifetime. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And we invite you to listen against next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Says 12 Nations Not Doing Enough to Stop Human Trafficking
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Development Report. The State Department says twelve nations are failing to do enough to fight the modern-day slave trade. The department last week released its "Trafficking in Persons Report" for two thousand six. Countries are rated on the efforts by their governments to control the international trade in forced labor. Four of the twelve countries given the lowest rating this year are in east and central Asia. The four are Burma, Laos, North Korea and Uzbekistan. Three of the countries are in the Middle East: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Another three are in Latin America: Belize, Cuba and Venezuela. And two of the lowest rated nations are in Africa: Sudan and Zimbabwe. More than one hundred fifty nations are listed in the report. They are grouped based on information from American diplomats as well as non-governmental organizations and other groups. Congress requires the report every year under a law called the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of Two Thousand. Governments that meet the requirements of the law are listed in Tier One. Those that do not fully meet the requirements but are trying to improve are listed in Tier Two. Countries that may fall back in their progress are placed on a Tier Two “Watch List.”? Tier Three is for governments that fail to make serious efforts to enforce laws against trafficking and to protect victims. These countries face possible measures such as restrictions in non-humanitarian aid. Countries that moved up from Tier Three last year to the Tier Two "Watch List" include Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Venezuela rejected its repeated placement in Tier Three. The Venezuelan Embassy in Washington says the country has been working to fight human trafficking. It says the report was a political move against the government of President Hugo Chavez. The report also notes concerns about possible increases in human trafficking for the sex trade in Germany during the World Cup. Prostitution is legal in Germany, but the German government says it has taken steps to prevent trafficking. World Cup games are being played in twelve cities. More than three million people are expected to attend the month-long championship which ends July ninth. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-04-voa6.cfm
* Headline: More Words About Clothes:? I Am Not Talking Through My Hat
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Last week, I explained some English expressions about clothes. Everything I told you was true. I did not talk through my hat or say something without knowing the facts. Everyone knows there are many English expressions about clothes. There is no need to keep it a secret, or to keep it under your hat. In fact, if I keep talking, soon enough you will start to think I am an old hat about this -- a real expert. Do not be fooled, though. My friends sometimes call me a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is someone who acts like a good person, but is really a bad person. I’m not really a bad person. But I do love clothes. It is always fun to get dressed up. I look great in my best clothes. When I put them on, I feel decked out. You might say when I wear my best clothes, I am dressed to the nines or dressed to the teeth. In fact, my husband says I look dressed to kill. Of course, I would never kill anyone. But, there is something special about putting on clothes that are pleasing to the eye. My best clothes are not modern or fashionable. Maybe someday they will come into fashion. But I really do not care. They certainly look better on me than my birthday suit. Did you know that everyone has a birthday suit?? You wear it when are wearing no clothes at all. Babies are born wearing their birthday suits. I am very careful with my clothes. I handle them with kid gloves. I try not to get them dirty or torn. Most of my clothes fit like a glove. ?They fit perfectly. But when I eat too much, I feel like my clothes might burst at the seams. My clothes feel too restrictive and tight. Some of the clothes I like best are hand-me-downs. My older sister gave them to me when she no longer wanted them. Hand-me-downs are great because clothes often cost too much money. I live on a shoestring. I have a very small budget and little money to spend on clothes. However, my sister has a lot of money to spend on clothes. Maybe someday the shoe will be on the other foot. The opposite will be true. I will have a lot of money to buy clothes and my sister will get hand-me-downs from me. I admit I dream of being rich. I dream that someday I will be able to live like a rich person. I will know what it is like to walk in another person’s shoes. Some of my friends got rich by riding someone else’s coat tails. They are successful today as a result of someone else being successful. But, I believe you should never criticize others for something you would do yourself. What is said about someone else can also be said about you. Remember, if the shoe fits, wear it. (MUSIC)? ??????? Jill Moss wrote this VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Raising Rabbits Offers a Big Return From a Small Investment
* Byline: 

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Rabbits are easy to raise. The long-eared animals are clean and quiet. They do not need a lot of room. And you do not have to spend a lot of money to feed them. With rabbits, you get a big return from a small investment. One male and two females will produce in a year as many as fifty more rabbits. That is enough to provide a good supply of meat for a family. Rabbit meat is high in protein and low in fat. You do not have to be a farmer to raise rabbits. You can raise them in the city. There are about sixty different kinds of rabbits. The ones that produce the most meat from the least amount of feed weigh four and one-half kilograms. Rabbit houses are easy to make with wood and wire fencing material. They do not have to be very big. But each rabbit must have its own little room in the house. This is very important. Each room should be about seventy-five centimeters wide, sixty centimeters high and one meter deep. Fencing is used for the sides and floor of the rabbit house. The holes in the wire fencing should be about one centimeter square. Wastes from the animals will drop through the holes. This keeps the rabbit house clean and dry. Rabbits need a lot of fresh air and sunlight. Cover the sides of the rabbit house only to protect it from rain. Rabbits eat mostly grass and leaves. Feeding containers hung on the outside of the house let the rabbits eat whenever they want. They simply pull the grass and leaves through the holes in the wire. Each room should have fresh water. The water containers should be heavy so the rabbits cannot turn them over. Or you can tie the containers to the wire. One month after mating, female rabbits give birth to about eight babies. In two months, a baby rabbit should weigh about two kilograms. This is big enough to make a meal for a small family. Rabbits are also valuable for their fur. It takes time, skill and money to prepare the fur and skin for use. If you have only a few rabbits, it probably would be best to let a professional tanner prepare the fur for you. Skill is also needed to remove the fur from the rabbit. But rabbits do not have to be dead to be valuable. Many people enjoy keeping rabbits as friendly pets. And rabbit manure makes an excellent fertilizer. It can be mixed directly into the soil to improve the growth of vegetables, trees and flowering plants. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Shocks to the System: Taking a Reading of the Health of Health Care
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? A child with a high body temperature is given oxygen at a hospital in Bombay (also known as Mumbai), IndiaAnd I'm Pat Bodnar. Recently VOA News had a team of reporters examine some of the problems and issues facing health care systems around the world. VOICE ONE: Our program this week is based on what they found. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One could argue that a nation’s health is only as good as its health care system. In many developing nations, the poor often go without even the most basic care. Either the cost is too high or the nearest doctor is too far away. Yet money is not the only thing in short supply. Some nations are dealing with shortages of doctors and other trained medical professionals. VOICE ONE: Efforts to reform public health systems can produce mixed results. Consider the situation in Thailand. The country has a health care program known as the “thirty baht” plan. Patients pay just thirty baht, or about seventy-five cents, for every medical visit. The program serves almost eighty percent of the sixty-two million people in Thailand. It offers basic services and even many high-cost operations and treatments. These include treatments for AIDS and cancer. The thirty baht plan is popular with voters, especially in the countryside. The program helped the Thai Rak Thai party win the general elections in two thousand one. And it was again an important part of the campaign in the last elections in April. ? VOICE TWO: The thirty baht program marked a major step toward universal health care in Thailand. But now hospitals are the ones feeling the pain. They say the program is breaking them financially. Public hospitals and many doctors say the plan is based on poor policy. And they say that even though government financing has increased, it has still fallen short. Hospitals now face big debts. Siriraj Hospital is Thailand’s oldest medical school. Today it has debts of about thirteen and one-half million dollars. Other major teaching hospitals have withdrawn from the plan to avoid similar situations. Critics of the program note that many doctors have left the public health system in Thailand because of rising work pressures. As a result, hospitals often do not have enough doctors to see the increased numbers of patients. Officials estimate that more than two thousand doctors have resigned from state hospitals over the last four years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. We continue now with India, where most poor people are in the care of a struggling public health system. About two-thirds of all Indians live in villages. Most hospitals, however, are in big cities. The hospitals are crowded. Patients wait in long lines to see specialists. They can wait months for tests or operations. Many poor people do not have enough money for a stay in the hospital, so they will not even make the trip. The lack of an effective public health system has led to a successful private system. Highly skilled doctors treat wealthy patients in modern, privately owned hospitals. India has even developed a medical tourism industry. Patients travel to India to receive services at a much lower cost than they would pay in their own countries. VOICE TWO: The test for India is to put high-quality health services within reach of the majority of its people. Other countries face similar situations. Pedro Francke is leader of a group of civil organizations in Peru called “Foro Salud,” Spanish for Health Forum. The group is fighting to improve the ability of poor Peruvians to receive health care. Mister Francke tells V.O.A. that about twenty-five percent of Peruvians cannot get health services. He says this is mainly because of economics. People have to pay at public hospitals for medicines and operations. Most people, he says, do not have the resources. VOICE ONE: In the Philippines, the public health system is suffering as doctors and nurses leave for better paying jobs in other countries. Former health secretary Jaime Galvez Tan tells V.O.A. that the situation is near crisis level. Many rural areas are now without trained medical professionals. He says the situation is similar to the nineteen fifties. Experts estimate that more than one hundred thousand nurses have left the Philippines since nineteen ninety-four. Within the past few years, thousands of doctors have followed. VOICE TWO: South Africa also has a limited number of doctors and nurses. They have to treat a population where almost one-fifth of the adults are living with H.I.V. The AIDS virus hit South Africa with force about ten years ago. At that time, the nation was beginning to recover from years of racial separation laws. Public services were being expanded to reach all South Africans, black and white. The spread of H.I.V. and AIDS overloaded the health services. Many health workers left the country. Poor areas in South Africa have been affected the most. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: International health experts estimate that about half of poor farmers in China go without medical care. Most hospitals and medical centers are in large cities hours away from where they live. In addition, the cost of treatment is often too high for them. In the nineteen seventies, the communist leadership in China launched a campaign to close the health care divide between cities and villages. Health workers who traveled the countryside became known as “barefoot doctors.”? They provided free medicines and other basic services to villagers. But free-market reforms and economic development have been a shock to the system. Medical services in China are now provided mostly at hospitals in large cities. A low-cost health insurance plan has been established, but critics say it has reached few people. Still, a World Health Organization official recently said the government has clearly recognized the need to re-invest in health. In March, Chinese leaders promised to spend thousands of millions of dollars to improve services in the countryside. VOICE TWO: Across the border from China, Russia is taking steps to reform its health care system for the first time in fifteen years. The plan calls for the government to spend more than three thousand million dollars beginning this year. Some of that is expected to be used for pay increases for doctors and nurses. The money is also to be used to buy new equipment and build eight high-technology medical centers in the countryside. But critics of the plan say the quality of patient care in Russia will suffer. The plan reportedly calls for the dismissal of tens of thousands of specialists. The Russian government wants more doctors who can treat general medical problems. Russian news reports say many hospitals could be shut down in the next few years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Even the world’s wealthiest nation has problems with its health care system. Karen Davenport is director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, a research group. She says one of the biggest problems is the situation of uninsured patients. The United States has three hundred million people. An estimated forty-six million do not have health insurance. Most health services are privately operated. Government programs pay for care only for the poor. Americans are generally offered insurance through their jobs; their employers usually share the costs. But some people work in jobs that do not provide insurance or it costs too much. Health plans also differ in the services they will pay for. Karen Davenport notes that many of the uninsured delay medical care when they need it. When they finally do seek help, they often require more complex services including emergency care. So the cost is much higher. When hospitals cannot collect on the bills, the result is higher costs for other patients. VOICE TWO:? Public opinion research shows that health care reform is a major concern among American voters. Calls for national health insurance have been debated for years. Opponents including the medical and insurance industries say that idea would be worse for the nation's health than the current situation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. Read and listen to our shows at voaspecialenglish.com, and find a link to other reports from VOA's health care series. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Morocco's New Way to Teach English Proves Popular, at Least With Students
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away -- this week on Wordmaster: meet a young English teacher from Morocco. LAHCEN TIGHOULA: "My name is Lahcen Tighoula. I am a high school English teacher from the south of Morocco. I am from the city called Agadir. It's to the Atlantic coast. It's just two hundred kilometers from Marrakech -- I think Marrakech, lots of people know it -- so it's a beautiful city." AA: "So tell me about developments in English teaching in Morocco." LAHCEN TIGHOULA: "In the last three years or so there has been a reform in Morocco, of the educational system in general. And concerning English, now we [have] started to teach English in middle schools. That is, just after the elementary school. Before, we just taught English in high school. So this is the first change. "The second change is in the curriculum. Before, it was structure-based, it was just teaching grammar and so on. Now, we include content, we teach the content through English -- like, for example, in our textbooks you'll have units on citizenship, on environment, on human rights, on women in the world, etcetera. So this is why now teachers have started to be involved in projects like tackling issues of citizenship, issues of human rights and using them as springboards to teach English in the classroom." AA: "How do the students like that?" LAHCEN TIGHOULA: "Well, the students enjoy it, because these are issues that really interest them [and] they would like to know about. Especially with the global changes now, the things -- I mean, and unfortunately what happened on September the eleventh, students are preoccupied with a lot of issues that are sometimes taboos. "So the English classroom provides them with an opportunity to talk about this. And at the same time they are learning English. Instead of teaching English in the traditional, boring way, you teach it through exciting and interesting issues, and that's really a big thing. And we notice that the students in their feedback like that and they carry out projects in their cities about these topics and issues." AA: "So the students like it. How do the teachers like it?" LAHCEN TIGHOULA: "Well, for the teachers, there's just a little problem. We have a problem of in-service training. The teachers are used to the traditional way of teaching English. So just now a lot of teachers are not yet motivated or sometimes they are not well equipped to do this, to implement the content. But we are trying in our association -- we have an association of English teachers in Morocco -- trying to help teachers deal with this problem. But still the government, and the ministry, needs to do more efforts in this way. So it has to do with teacher training, in-service teacher training. We still have a lack in that domain." AA: "That's common, isn't it. In other countries, too, they face the same problems when they try to change the style of teaching English. Is there an example of a project that your students have done where they've taken it outside the classroom?" LAHCEN TIGHOULA: "Sure. I can assure you that at least my students have done a lot in this. And I feel really satisfied that a lot of my students have done so much in this domain. For example, just before I came here, three groups of students did projects in their city. "One did it on the effect of American culture on Arab youth. And she talked about things like students' favorite stars, students' favorite brands in terms of clothes, etcetera. And then the second part of her project was to talk about the American culture and to try to explain the difference between American culture and the image that we have about America in the media. "And one other group of my students did a project in the city on the environment, how to protect the environment in our city. They went out of the school, did interviews in Arabic first and then translated them into English and came to the classroom and presented. And they felt very satisfied with their work, and they encouraged them and they felt very happy that the students can really do something with the language and in topics of interest to them that are motivating for them. And a lot of other colleagues are doing the same thing in Morocco, although other teachers need to do the same thing, but we feel that this is the start for more projects or more collaboration maybe." AA: Lahcen Tighoula of Morocco was in Tampa Florida, for the convention of the international group TESOL -- Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. He's been an English teacher for eight years. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and all of our segments can be found on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Place of Beautiful Extremes: Yosemite National Park in California?
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 Editor's Note attached (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most famous national parks in the United States. You can find it high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the western state of California. It is one of the most beautiful places in the country. Its name is Yosemite. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: Yosemite National Park is a place of extremes. It has high mountains. It has valleys formed by ancient ice that cut deep into the Earth millions of years ago. Water from high in the mountains falls in many places to the green valley far below. There are thirteen beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. One of these waterfalls, Yosemite Falls, is the fifth highest on Earth. Up in the mountains are clear lakes, quick-moving small rivers, and huge formations of rock. One huge rock is called Half Dome. It rises more than two thousand seven hundred meters into the air. Yosemite has a beautiful slow-moving river and large grassy areas where you can see wild animals. More than sixty kinds of animals live in the park. Deer are very common. You can see them almost everywhere. They have little fear of humans. You might even see a large black bear. You can also see two hundred different kinds of birds. In a place called the Mariposa Grove, visitors can see some of the largest, tallest and oldest living things on Earth. These are the giant Sequoia Trees. One of these trees is called Grizzly Giant. It is more than one thousand eight hundred years old. One tree is almost ninety meters tall. Another is more than ten meters around. The huge old trees can make you feel very, very small. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the area that is Yosemite National Park begins about five hundred million years ago. The area then was at the bottom of an ancient sea. Scientists believe strong earthquakes forced the bottom of the sea to rise above the water. After millions of years, it was pushed up into the air to form land and mountains. At the same time, hot liquid rock from deep in the Earth pushed to the surface. This liquid rock slowly cooled. This cooling liquid formed a very hard rock known as granite. Many centuries of rain caused huge rivers to move violently through this area. Over time, these rivers cut deep into the new mountains. During the great Ice Age, millions of tons of ice cut and shaped the cooled granite to form giant rocks. Millions of years later these would become the giant rocks called Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite Park. VOICE ONE: Humans have lived in the area of Yosemite for more than four thousand years. The people who first lived there were hunters. Most were members of a tribe of Native Americans called the Miwok. They lived in Yosemite Valley near the river. During the extremely cold winters, these people would move to lower, warmer areas. They would return when the winter months had passed. The first white Americans may have been hunters looking for fur animals. A famous American hunter and explorer named Joseph Walker passed through the area in the eighteen thirties. He reported about the huge rock formations and said there was no way to reach the valley below. VOICE TWO: Citizens who had formed a military group were the first real modern explorers of the valley. They were at war with the local Indians and came into the valley. The white soldiers called the Indians Yosemites. The valley was named for the Indian tribe. Soon, reports of its great natural beauty were sent all the way back to Washington, D.C. In eighteen sixty-four, a United States senator called for legislation to give the Yosemite Valley to the state of California as a public park. The legislation said the valley should be preserved and protected. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill after Congress approved it. This event was extremely important in the history of the United States. It was the first time that a government had approved a law to preserve and protect land because of its great beauty. The land was to be kept for the public to enjoy. Yosemite became the first state park. It was the first real park in the world. In eighteen ninety, it became a national park. The National Park Service is responsible for the park today. It is preserved and protected for all people to enjoy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: No major roads lead to Yosemite National Park. Visitors must leave the highways and drive their cars over smaller roads. Yosemite is about three hundred twenty kilometers east of San Francisco. It is deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The roads leading to the park pass over lower parts of the huge mountains. Then the road goes lower and lower into the area of the park called Yosemite Valley. Visitors can stay in different kinds of places in Yosemite Park. Several beautiful old hotels have been built on the property. Some are very costly. Others cost less. Many people bring temporary cloth homes called tents. It costs only a few dollars a day? to place a tent in the approved areas. Visitors can walk through many areas in the beautiful valley and the mountains. These walking paths are called trails. The National Park Service has improved more than one thousand one hundred kilometers of trails. It is fun to explore these trails. Some take only a few minutes to walk. Others can take several days to complete. VOICE TWO: People come from all over the world to climb one of the huge rock formations at Yosemite. The most famous of these is called El Capitan. People who climb it call it “El Cap.”? Climbing El Cap is only for experts. This activity is called “hard rock climbing.”? It is extremely difficult and can be very dangerous. A climber must have expert skill and great strength. The climb is straight up the face of a rock wall. Experts say it can take about three days to climb to the top of El Cap. The climbing is very slow. Climbers must look for cracks in the rock. They place their hands and feet in the cracks and then work their way up. They also use ropes and special equipment. From the bottom of the valley to the top of El Cap is about one thousand one hundred meters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the summer months, Yosemite Park is filled with visitors. Large buses bring people from San Francisco to spend the day. They leave San Francisco very early in the morning and arrive back late at night. They drive from one place to another to see Yosemite. Other visitors come by car. Some even come by bicycle. Some visit for just a few hours. Others take several days or weeks to enjoy the park. Many visitors come to Yosemite again and again. About four million people visit the park every year. VOICE TWO: In the winter, heavy snow falls in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite. The snow usually begins to fall in the month of November. Heavy snow forces some of the roads into Yosemite to close during the winter months. The National Park Service works hard to keep most of the roads open. Drivers must use special care because of ice and snow on the roads. They enjoy a special beauty never seen by the summer visitors. Many winter visitors come to Yosemite to spend their time skiing at Badger Pass. Badger ski area is the oldest in California. It has a ski school for those who want to learn the exciting sport. Many visitors come to enjoy the park with its heavy coat of white snow. In some areas the snow is many meters deep. Some of the tall mountains keep their snow until the last hot days of summer. VOICE ONE: Whenever visitors come to Yosemite, they experience great natural beauty. A visit to the park provides lasting memories of what nature has produced. Most people who come to Yosemite usually bring a camera. They take many of pictures of the huge rocks, the beautiful Yosemite Valley, the waterfalls and the giant trees. But you do not really need a photograph to remember its great natural beauty. Yosemite will leave its image in your memory forever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. --- Editor's Note: We received an e-mail from a listener who says the first Native Americans who lived in the area of Yosemite were not Miwoks but Paiutes. We checked several sources. Some sources say the first people in the area were Miwoks. Some say they were Paiutes. Some say members of both tribes lived in the area. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-13-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Growing Replacement Organs From Patients' Own Cells
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 This is Shep O’Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. Around the world, there is a shortage of replacement organs. Some doctors see a possible solution: growing new organs from patients' own cells. Doctor Anthony Atala is director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He and other doctors recently described an experimental treatment with seven young people who had diseased bladders. They received new bladders grown from their own cells. The report appeared in the Lancet. The seven children and teenagers were born with incomplete closure of the backbone. This disorder affected their bladder, the small organ that stores the body's liquid wastes. High pressure from bladder disease can damage the kidneys. Also, their bladders leaked urine, as often as every thirty minutes. Doctor Atala began work on engineering bladders in nineteen ninety. Nine years later, he operated on the first patient. The seven patients were ages four to nineteen. At the time, he directed a tissue engineering program at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. For a century doctors have used tissue from the intestines to repair bladders. But problems are common with this method. The engineered organs are grown from bladder cells and muscle cells taken from the patient. Through the process of culturing, the cells divide and grow in the laboratory. The cells are placed on a structural form shaped like a bladder. Cells are placed on top of cells on top of other cells. Doctor Atala compares the process to making a layer cake. The bladder is then warmed. The cells continue to grow until the new organ is ready. Doctors then remove part of the diseased bladder and attach the new one, still connected to the structure. The form is made of material that breaks down in the body. The body can reject tissue that comes from another person. In this case, since it grew from the patients' own cells, there was no risk of rejection. The complete process takes about two months. The doctors reported that the engineered bladders have worked well. The seven patients must empty them through a tube. But the leakage problem improved and, most importantly, the dangerous pressure eased. In his laboratory, Doctor Atala is now working to grow twenty different kinds of tissues and organs, including hearts. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Caty Weaver. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O’Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fresh Out of College, and Already in Debt
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A college education can be very costly in the United States, especially at a private school. Rising costs have led more and more families to borrow money to help pay for college. There are different federal loans and private loans for students and parents. Interest rates on some of these loans will go up on July first. As borrowing has increased, there are growing concerns that many students graduate with too much debt. In nineteen ninety-three, less than one-half of graduates from four-year colleges had student loans. Now two-thirds of them do. Their average loan debt when they graduate is nineteen thousand dollars. At public universities, the average is seventeen thousand dollars. The Project on Student Debt is an action group that collects these numbers from reports. It notes that averages do not present the full picture. For example, in two thousand four, one-fourth of students with loans graduated more than twenty-five thousand dollars in debt. And that did not include borrowing by their parents. The Project on Student Debt says parents as well as students are borrowing more to pay for college. Students can expect to take about ten years to pay back their loans. Repayment does not begin until after they are out of school. Higher borrowing limits have also helped push up student debts. Students from all economic levels are borrowing more. Corrected for inflation, student loans have increased around sixty percent in ten years. Researchers say one effect is that the higher the debts, the more likely graduates are to look only for high paying jobs. That means there is less chance they will take jobs in areas like teaching or other public service. A study done in two thousand two for a major student lender found that debts can also affect lives in other ways. Some students paying back their college loans said they delayed buying their first house. Some delayed marriage or having children. In May, groups representing students, parents and college officials asked the government to change some of its loan repayment rules. The requested changes would recognize graduates who have difficulty repaying their loans because they do not earn very much. They would be able to pay less right after they graduate, then pay more as their earnings increase. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-14-voa4.cfm
* Headline: In the 1920s, a Burst of American Art and Expression Takes Form
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) There were many changes in the social customs and day-to-day life of millions of Americans during the administration of President Calvin Coolidge. As we saw in our last program, many young people began to challenge the traditions of their parents and grandparents. They experimented with new ideas and ways of living. People of all kinds became very interested in the new popular culture. Radio and films brought them exciting news of court trials, sports heroes, and wild parties. However, the nineteen twenties also was one of the most active and important periods in the more serious arts. Writers, painters, and other artists produced some of the greatest work in the nation's history. Today, we will take a look at American arts during this exciting period. VOICE TWO: Most Americans approved strongly of the economic growth and improved living conditions during the nineteen twenties. They supported the conservative Republican policies of President Calvin Coolidge. And they had great faith in the country's business leaders and economic system. However, many of the nation's serious artists had a different and darker view of society. They were troubled deeply by the changes they saw. They believed that Americans had become too interested in money and wealth. These artists rejected the new business society. And they also questioned the value of politics. Many of them believed that the first world war in Europe had been a terrible mistake. These artists had little faith in the political leaders who came to power after the war. They felt a need to protest the way the world was changing around them. VOICE ONE: The spirit of protest was especially strong in serious American writing during the nineteen twenties. Many of the greatest writers of this period hated the new business culture. One such writer was Sinclair Lewis.He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lewis wrote about Americans living in the towns and villages in the central part of the United States. Many of the people in his books were foolish men and women with empty values. They chased after money and popularity. In his famous book "Main Street," Lewis joked about and criticized small-town business owners. Social criticism also was central to the writing of the newspaper writer H. L. Mencken, from the eastern city of Baltimore. Mencken considered most Americans to be stupid and violent fools. He attacked their values without mercy. Of course, many traditional Americans reacted strongly to such criticism. For example, some religious and business leaders attacked Mencken as a dangerous person whose words were treason against the United States. But many young people thought Mencken was a hero whose only crime was writing the truth. VOICE TWO: The work of Lewis, Mencken, and a number of other writers of the nineteen twenties has been forgotten by many Americans as the years have passed. But the period did produce some truly great writing. One of the greatest writers of these years was Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway wrote about love, war, sports, and other subjects. He used short sentences and rough words. His style was sharper and different from traditional American writing. And his strong views about life set him apart from most other Americans. Another major writer was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald wrote especially about rich Americans searching for happiness and new values. His books were filled with people who rejected traditional beliefs. His book "The Great Gatsby" is considered today to be one of the greatest works in the history of American writing. William FaulknerA third great writer of the nineteen twenties was William Faulkner. Faulkner wrote about the special problems and ways of life in the American south. His books explored the emotional tension in a society still suffering from the loss of the Civil War sixty years before. Some of Faulkner's best books were "The Sound and The Fury," "As I Lay Dying" and "Absalom, Absalom." Like Hemingway, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. VOICE ONE: The nineteen twenties also produced the greatest writer of theater plays in American history, Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill was an Irish-American with a dark and violent view of human nature. His plays used new theatrical methods and ways of presenting ideas. But they carried an emotional power never before seen in the American theater. Some of his best known plays were "Mourning Becomes Electra," "The Iceman Cometh" and "A Long Day's Journey into Night." A number of American writers also produced great poetry during the nineteen twenties. Probably the most famous work was "The Waste Land," a poem of sadness by the writer T. S. Eliot. VOICE TWO: There also were important changes in American painting during the nineteen twenties. Economic growth gave many Americans the money to buy art for their homes for the first time. Sixty new museums opened. Slowly, Americans learned about serious art. Actually, American art had been changing in important ways since the beginning of the century. In nineteen-oh-eight, a group of New York artists arranged a historic show. These artists tried to show real life in their paintings. They painted new kinds of subjects. For example, George Bellows painted many emotional and realistic pictures of the sport of boxing. His work, and the painting of other realistic artists, became known as the "Ash Can" school of art. Another important group of modern artists was led by the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz. This group held a major art show in nineteen thirteen in New York, Chicago, and Boston. The show presented modern art from Europe. Americans got their first chance to see the work of such painters as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The show caused a huge public debate in the United States. Traditional art critics accused the organizers of the show of trying to overthrow Christianity and American values. Former president Theodore Roosevelt and others denounced the new art as a threat to the country. However, many young American painters and art lovers did not agree. They became very interested in the new art styles from Europe. They studied them closely. Soon, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, and other American painters began to produce excellent art in the new Cubist style. John Marin painted beautiful views of sea coasts in New York and Maine. And such artists as Max Weber and Georgia O'Keeffe painted in styles that seemed to come more from their own imagination than from reality. As with writing, the work of many of these serious modern painters only became popular many years later. VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd WrightThe greatest American designer of buildings during the nineteen twenties was Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright believed that architects should design a building to fit its location, not to copy some ancient style. He used local materials in new ways. Wright invented many imaginative methods to combine useful building design with natural beauty. But again, most Americans did not know of Wright's work. Instead, they turned to local architects with traditional beliefs. These architects generally designed old and safe styles for buildings -- for homes, offices, colleges, and other needs. VOICE TWO: Writers and artists now look back at the roaring nineteen twenties as an extremely important period that gave birth to many new styles and ideas. Hemingway's style of writing continues to influence American writers more than half a century later. Many painters say the period marked the real birth of modern American art. And architecture students in the United States and other countries now study the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright. The changes in American society caused many of these artists much sadness and pain in their personal lives. But their expression of protest and rich imagination produced a body of work that has grown in influence with the passing years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: StoryCorps in Action | Naming American Kids | Remembering Soraya
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about how Americans name their children … Play some music from singer Soraya … And report about a project that is recording the stories of many Americans. StoryCorps HOST: The StoryCorps project is helping to record and keep the personal stories of everyday Americans. Mario Ritter tells us more about this digital recording experiment that shows how listening can be an act of love. Mario Ritter: A radio producer named Dave Isay developed the StoryCorps project in two thousand three. He wanted to create a way for Americans to record and keep the stories of their friends and families. He saw that recording interviews between loved ones could produce rich experiences. Mister Isay wanted to be able to protect these important memories and teach people the importance of listening closely. StoryCorps started in New York City three years ago in a small recording studio in Grand Central train terminal. At a set time, people visit the recording studio. With the help of a StoryCorps professional, they ask each other questions. They record stories about their lives and experiences or those of family members. Afterwards, they can keep a copy of the interview. StoryCorps sends another copy to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. where the recordings are safely preserved. The recordings are also posted on the StoryCorps Web site. StoryCorps has become very popular. It opened another small recording studio in New York City and started visiting other cities. Last month, it celebrated the one-year anniversary of its two movable recording studios. These studios are built inside trailers that attach to cars so they can travel around the country. The trailers started their road trip from the Library of Congress. They stayed for several weeks in each place. One trailer traveled to western cities. The other trailer traveled to eastern cities and has now returned to Washington. So far, StoryCorps has helped people capture more than seven thousand stories. They are stories about love, death, friendship and family. These stories represent a rich spoken history of Americans from many races, ages, and backgrounds. To listen to these recordings on the Internet, visit www.storycorps.net. And remember to listen closely. Naming Children HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Liu Jia Hai asks if there are any rules about how Americans name their children. American parents generally can choose any name they want for their children. They may choose a name because it honors a family member. Or they may choose a name just because they like it. A Web site called Baby Center lists some unusual names given to American babies born last year. Some were named for characters in old stories, such as Hero, Thor and Ulysses. Other people named their babies after kinds of food, like actress Gwyneth Paltrow did in two thousand four. She named her daughter Apple. Other people named their babies Banana, Pumpkin and Cookie. Still other babies born last year were named for places. These include Brazil, India and Rome. Some parents used names of famous people from history such as Newton and Hannibal. Other parents named their babies after flowers or the weather. These babies were named Buttercup, Iris, Sunshine and Thunder. Recording artists and movie actors influence some parents’ choices of names. Babies were named Beyonce, Charlize, Reba, Pierce, Shakira and Whitney. Movie actors themselves often give their babies unusual names. For example, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt recently named their baby daughter Shiloh. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes named their little girl Suri. Some American parents do not want unusual names. They want their baby’s name to honor their religious faith. Such names include Abraham for boys or Sarah for girls. And many people give their babies the same name as a family member or good friend. The United States Social Security Administration published a list of the most popular names for American girls and boys born last year. Many of the top ten boys names are from the Jewish and Christian Bibles. They are Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew and Ethan. Also Andrew, Daniel, Anthony, Christopher and Joseph. The top ten girls names are Emily, Emma, Madison, Abigail and Olivia. Also, Isabella, Hannah, Samantha, Ava and Ashley. Soraya HOST: Hundreds of thousands of women develop breast cancer each year. Latina musician Soraya was among those women who bravely battle the disease. However, last month, her fight ended. But her story, and her work to educate women about breast cancer, will help others for years to come. Barbara Klein remembers the singer and songwriter’s life and plays some of her music. Barbara Klein: Soraya Lamilla was born in the state of New Jersey in nineteen sixty-nine. Her parents had come to the United States from Colombia. Soraya discovered her interest in music early in life. She began studying guitar when she was five. She was playing the violin at age eight. Her family traveled often between Colombia and the United States. Soraya’s music was a mix of those cultures. In fact, she released both Spanish and English versions of her first two albums. Listen to the title song from her first album “En Esta Noche.”? She wrote it to honor her mother who died of breast cancer. The disease also killed her grandmother and aunt. (MUSIC: "En Esta Noche") Soraya discovered her breast cancer during a self-examination six years ago. She began treatment and was cancer free for several years. She spent much of that time spreading the message of the importance of breast examination and treatment. She also kept making music, much of it about hope. Like this song, “Casi,” or in English, “Almost.” (MUSIC) Soraya won a Latin Grammy and other awards during her short career. Her last album, "El Otro Lado Di Mi," was nominated for a Grammy. We leave you with a song from that recording. Here is “Como Seria.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.This show was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver who was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio agazine in Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hedge Funds Let Wealthy Investors Take Risks for Profits
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many people know that hedge funds are investments for the wealthy. But what exactly are they? A hedge fund is an investment group often organized as a limited partnership. Hedge funds are governed by agreements between investors and one or more advisers. Hedge funds have existed for more than fifty years. There are different kinds, and thousands of different funds. Still, the industry in the United States is small compared to the value of mutual funds. Hedge funds, though, do not have to report their activities to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. is the government agency that supervises financial markets. But as of this year, advisers must register so the agency knows who they are. Funds must also have a rules officer and written rules to help protect investors. Complex investment positions mean investors may not know the value of their investments at any given time. Hedge fund investors must be worth at least one million dollars. But a person with at least twenty-five thousand dollars to invest can put the money into funds that invest in hedge funds. Not all of these register with the S.E.C., however. To hedge is to balance investment risk. Like mutual funds, hedge funds may buy stocks and bonds. But hedge funds often borrow very large amounts of money to trade in risky investments in hopes of high returns. That does not always happen. Hedge funds can be very profitable to manage. Management costs can take from one to five percent of the total value of the fund. And advisers can receive twenty or even forty percent of the profits. In nineteen ninety-eight, a major hedge fund got into financial trouble and almost failed. Long-Term Capital Management controlled investments worth more than one hundred thousand million dollars. The Federal Reserve helped get the parties involved to agree on a plan to save the company. World markets were already weak, so the central bank intervened to avoid a crisis. Recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned of risks to the financial system from the fast growth of the hedge fund industry. And the European Central Bank called hedge funds a major risk to world markets. Yet Alan Greenspan had praise for hedge funds. The former central bank chairman said they improve markets by finding what he called mispriced securities. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: East Timor and Somalia: Two Different Reactions to Peacekeepers
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. East Timor asked for United Nations peacekeepers following the recent riots there. But international peacekeeping forces are not always welcomed. The Somali parliament wants African troops to help return law and order after fifteen years without a strong government. But the plan has slowed talks between the temporary government and the Islamic Courts Union. That group recently declared the capture of areas including Mogadishu, the capital. Somalia is an extremely poor nation of about ten million people. It became independent in nineteen sixty after rule by Britain and Italy. Since nineteen ninety-one, different groups have struggled for control. American troops intervened at the end of nineteen ninety-two to provide security for United Nations efforts to aid millions of Somalis. In nineteen ninety-three, eighteen Americans died in a battle in Mogadishu. American troops left the following year. United Nations peacekeepers left the year after that. A two-year-old temporary government is based in Baidoa. This week, the parliament accepted a proposal by the African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development to send peacekeepers. People in Baidoa demonstrated in support of the plan. But protests included a march Friday in Mogadishu by several thousand people organized by the Islamic Courts Union. The chairman of the Islamic Courts Union has written to American officials. He said his group would help prevent Somalia from becoming a refuge for terrorists. Western nations worry it may be too late. Foreign governments are believed to be helping warlords who oppose the group. An American official said Friday that the group will be judged by its actions. Also this week, the United States held an international meeting in New York to discuss Somalia. And United Nations officials said as many as two million Somalis need food aid. In East Timor, President Xanana Gusmao thanked peacekeepers from Australia and other nations for returning order. He said the government was partly to blame for the recent violence because it was unable to solve the nation’s problems. Economic progress has been slow. East Timor hopes to earn lots of money from oil found under the Timor Sea. Yet for now many people are unemployed. In May, East Timor celebrated the fourth anniversary of international recognition of its independence. U.N. peacekeepers left the former Indonesian province last year. Now East Timor wants them back. The violence involved different groups of East Timorese. At least thirty people were killed; one hundred thousand fled their homes. It began after Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri dismissed six hundred soldiers in March. They were protesting what they said was unfair treatment of soldiers from the western side of East Timor. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Milton Hershey Built a Successful Business and a Sweet Town
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Milton Hershey. He built one of the sweetest towns in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Milton Snavely Hershey was born in eighteen fifty-seven in central Pennsylvania. His mother was a member of the Mennonite Church. The religious group valued self-denial and community service. His father worked at many different jobs. The Hershey family moved several times during Milton’s childhood. His parents did not have a happy marriage. They lived separately for much of their lives. Missus Hershey finally rejected her husband after a daughter died in eighteen sixty-seven. VOICE TWO: Milton Hershey stopped attending school when he was twelve years old. He first went to work as an assistant for a man who published a German language newspaper. Milton did not like the job. He was dismissed after dropping his hat into a machine. Milton then got a job with a candy and ice cream maker in the town of Lancaster. There, he learned how to mix sugar and water to make candy products. At the time, American candy makers used chocolate mainly to cover candies. Reports say it was bitter tasting and not at all like the taste of chocolate today. VOICE ONE: Milton moved to the city of Philadelphia when he was eighteen years old. He had already learned all he could about candy production. His mother and her family offered to help him set up a candy store. But the business failed after six years. Milton decided to join his father in the western state of Colorado. The younger Hershey found a job with a candy maker in Denver. There, he worked with a kind of sticky candy: caramel. He also learned the importance of using fresh milk in making good caramel. Milton later attempted candy businesses in Chicago and New York City. But like before, each business failed. VOICE TWO: Milton returned to Lancaster. Most family members considered him a failure. But he continued to receive help from his mother’s sister and a man who had worked at the Philadelphia store. Milton began making caramels his own way – with fresh milk. His caramels were softer than others being sold and less sticky. One day, an English importer tasted Hershey’s caramels and placed a large order. Soon the Lancaster Candy Company was a success. Hershey became one of Pennsylvania’s top businessmen. He was selling his candies all across the United States and Europe. VOICE ONE: Things began changing for Hershey after he visited the Chicago World’s Fair in eighteen ninety-three. At the World’s Fair, he saw chocolate making machines from Germany. He decided that chocolate was the future of the candy business, and bought the machines. He had them moved to Pennsylvania, and sold the Lancaster Candy Company. He was developing an unusual plan -- to build a large chocolate factory and a town to support it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Michael D’Antonio wrote a book about Milton Hershey. It says Hershey got the idea for his town from the Cadbury family in Britain. The Cadburys made chocolates. They also built a factory surrounded by a town. The book says Hershey decided to do the same. He paid for many buildings in his town. He wanted to create a place where his factory’s workers could own their own houses. In this way, he prevented Hershey, Pennsylvania from becoming a factory town in which the workers were forced to pay their employers for a place to live. Hershey’s town was modern. It had nice houses, large public buildings, and an electric railway system for easy transportation. Nearby farms provided the chocolate factory with fresh milk for its products. VOICE ONE: Milton Hershey and his company found a way to make large amounts of milk chocolate. The secret was using fat free milk with the seeds of cacao trees and heating them slowly. The Hershey Candy Company was on its way to success. Most of the company’s workers loved Milton Hershey. He made it possible for them to earn good wages and live well. The book “Hershey” says he sometimes shared the company’s financial success with them. Yet Milton Hershey was not always fair. Writer Michael D’Antonio says not everyone was happy living in a place where one man and his company attempted to control so much. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Milton Hershey did not marry until he was over forty years old. He surprised his family when he married Catherine Sweeney in eighteen ninety-eight. Some members of his family did not approve of her. She was a Roman Catholic from New York State. Milton called her, Kitty. The Hersheys first lived in Lancaster. They later moved to a large house near the factory. The land around the house was known for its many flowers and plants. Catherine Hershey was sick for much of her married life. She died in nineteen fifteen at the age of forty-two. VOICE ONE: The Hersheys were unable to have children, so they decided to help needy children by creating a school for them. Milton Hershey said the school had been his wife’s idea. She reportedly wanted to provide a safe place for those in need of a good home and a better chance in life. In nineteen-oh-nine, the Hersheys created the Hershey Industrial School for boys who had lost one or both parents. They established a special legal agreement, or trust, to provide money for the school. They gave nearly two hundred hectares of farmland to the trust. At first, ten white boys attended the school. But more and more boys attended as time went on. The school provided the boys with a good education and farming skills. VOICE TWO: After his wife died, Hershey gave Hershey Chocolate Company stock shares with a value of sixty million dollars to the trust. This money made it possible for the school to expand. After Hershey died, the name of the school was changed to the Milton Hershey School. Later, the school opened its doors to boys and girls of all races and religions. Today, the Milton Hershey School has more than one hundred student homes. Each has the latest technological equipment, including computers. A man and his wife live in each house. They serve as parents to eight to ten students. In two thousand-six, the Milton Hershey School educated about one thousand three hundred students. And, the gift first made by Milton Hershey has grown to more than five thousand million dollars. VOICE ONE: Many Americans experienced economic hardship during the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties. But Milton Hershey put many people to work in the town by building a large hotel and a sports center. He also created a not-for-profit organization to provide education and culture to the local townspeople. This organization continues to support the Hershey Theater and other cultural centers in the area. In the early nineteen sixties, the Milton Hershey School Trust gave money and land to the Pennsylvania State University for a medical center. The Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center opened in nineteen sixty-seven. Today, it has five thousand employees. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Milton Hershey died in nineteen forty-five. He left behind the company, the town, the school and the trust that supports it. At the time of his death, the company he built is said to have produced about ninety percent of all the milk chocolate made in the United States. In two thousand two, officials of the Milton Hershey School Trust announced plans to sell the company. They said they wanted to help protect the finances of the school. Townspeople and others in Pennsylvania demonstrated against the sale. They said it would destroy the town Hershey had worked so hard to create. Former students at the Milton Hershey School also worked against the sale. In the end, the sale was not completed. VOICE ONE: Today, Hershey, Pennsylvania is unlike any other town in the United States. The streetlights are shaped like the candy called Hershey’s Kisses. The air there often smells like chocolate. Millions of people come every year to stop at a visitor’s center near the factory, stay at the Hershey Hotel, and enjoy the Hershey Amusement Park. Milton Hershey was not a perfect man. But he may always seem that way to thousands of people in Pennsylvania. They say they live in the sweetest town in the country. VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein inviting you to join us next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Benito Cereno, Part One
* Byline: Written by Herman Melville

 ANNOUNCER:?Now, the?V.O.A.Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Our story today?is called "Benito Cereno." It was written by Herman Melville. We tell the story in three parts. Here is Shep O'Neal with part one?of "Benito Cereno." (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: Captain Benito Cereno hurried aboard his ship. It was ready to sail. A bright sun and a soft breeze promised good weather ahead. The ship's anchor was raised. And the San Dominick -- old but still seaworthy - moved slowly out of the harbor of Valparaiso, on the west coast of Chile. It was carrying valuable products and slaves up the Pacific coast to Callao, another Spanish colonial port near Lima, Peru. The slaves, both male and female, slept on deck. They were not chained, because their owner, Don Alexandro, said they were peaceful. The San Dominick moved steadily forward under a clear sky. The weather showed no sign of change. Day after day, the soft breeze kept the ship on course toward Peru. Slave traffic between Spain's colonial ports in this year of seventeen ninety-nine had been steady. But there were few outbreaks of violence. What happened, therefore, on board the San Dominick could not have been expected. On the seventh day out, before daybreak, the slaves rose up in rebellion. They swept through the ship with handspikes and hatchets moving with the fury of desperate men. The attack was a complete surprise. Few of the crew were awake. All hands, except the two officers on the watch, lay in a deep untroubled sleep. The rebels sprang upon the two officers and left them half dead. Then, one by one, they killed eighteen of the sleeping crew. They threw some overboard, alive. A few hid and escaped death. The rebels tied up seven others, but left them alive to navigate the ship. As the day began to break, Captain Cereno came slowly, carefully up the steps toward the chief rebel leader, Babo, and begged for mercy. He promised to follow Babo's commands if he would only put an end to the killings. But this had no effect. Babo had three men brought up on deck and tied. Then, the three Spaniards were thrown overboard. Babo did this to show his power and authority -- that he was in command. Babo, however, promised not to murder Captain Cereno. But everything he said carried a threat. He asked the captain if in these seas there were any negro countries. "None," Cereno answered. "Then, take us to Senegal or the neighboring islands of Saint Nicholas." Captain Cereno was shaken. "That is impossible!" he said. "It would mean going around Cape Horn. And this ship is in no condition for such a voyage. And we do not have enough supplies, or sails or water." "Take us there, anyway," Babo answered sharply, showing little interest in such details. "If you refuse, we will kill every white man on board." Captain Cereno knew he had no choice. He told the rebel leader that the most serious problem in making such a long voyage was water. Babo said they should sail to the island of Santa Maria near the southern end of Chile. He knew that no one lived on the island. But water and supplies could be found there. He forced Captain Cereno to keep away from any port. He threatened to kill him the moment he saw him start to move toward any city, town or settlement on shore. Cereno had to agree to sail to the island of Santa Maria. He still hoped that he might meet along the way, or at the island itself, a ship that could help him. Perhaps -- who knows -- he might find a boat on the island and be able to escape to the nearby coast of Arruco. Hope was all he had left. And that was getting smaller each day. Captain Cereno steered south for Santa Maria. The voyage would take weeks. Eight days after the ship turned south, Babo told Captain Cereno that he was going to kill Don Alexandro, owner of the slaves on board. He said it had to be done. Otherwise, he and the other slaves could never be sure of their freedom. He refused to listen to the captain's appeals, and ordered two men to pull Don Alexandro up from below and kill him on deck. It was done as ordered. Three other Spaniards were also brought up and thrown overboard. Babo warned Cereno and the other Spaniards that each one of them would go the same way if any of them gave the smallest cause for suspicion. Cereno decided to do everything possible to save the lives of those remaining. He agreed to carry the rebels safely to Senegal if they promised peace and no further bloodshed. And he signed a document that gave the rebels ownership of the ship and its cargo. Later, as they sailed down the long coast of Chile, the wind suddenly dropped. The ship drifted into a deep calm. For days, it lay still in the water. The heat was fierce; the suffering intense. There was little water. That made matters worse. Some of those on board were driven mad. A few died. The pressure and tension made many violent. And they killed a Spanish officer. After a time, a breeze came up and set the ship free again. And it continued south. The voyage seemed endless. The ship sailed for weeks with little water on board. It moved through days of good weather and periods of bad weather. There were times when it sailed under heavy skies, and times when the wind dropped and the ship lay be-calmed in lifeless air. The crew seemed half dead. At last, one evening in the month of August, the San Dominick reached the lonely island of Santa Maria. ?It moved slowly toward one of the island's bays to drop anchor. Not far off lay an American ship. And, the sight of the ship caught the rebels by surprise. The slaves became tense and fearful. They wanted to sail away, quickly. But their leader, Babo, opposed such a move. Where could they go. Their water and food were low. He succeeded in bringing them under control and in quieting their fears. He told them they had nothing to fear. And they believed him. Then, he ordered everyone to go to work, to clean the decks and put the ship in proper and good condition, so that no visitor would suspect anything was wrong. Later, he spoke to Captain Cereno, warning him that he would kill him if he did not do as he was told. He explained in detail what Cereno was to do and say if any stranger came on board. He held a dagger in his hand, saying it would always be ready for any emergency. The American vessel was a large tradeship and seal hunter, commanded by Captain Amasa Delano. He had stopped at Santa Maria for water. On the American ship, shortly after sunrise, an officer woke Captain Delano, and told him a strange sail was coming into the bay. The captain quickly got up, dressed and went up on deck. Captain Delano raised his spy glass and looked closely at the strange ship coming slowly in. He was surprised that there was no flag. A ship usually showed its flag when entering a harbor where another ship lay at anchor. As the ship got closer, Captain Delano saw it was damaged. Many of its sails were ripped and torn. A mast was broken. And the deck was in disorder. Clearly the ship was in trouble. The American captain decided to go to the strange vessel and offer help. He ordered his whale boat put into the water, and had his men bring up some supplies and put them in the boat. Then they set out toward the mystery ship. As they approached, Captain Delano was shocked at the poor condition of the ship. He wondered what could have happened. . . And what he would find. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have heard part one of the American story "Benito Cereno." ?It was written by Herman Melville.Your storyteller was Shep O'Neal. Listen again next week at this time when we continue the American story "Benito Cereno" in V.O.A. Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. ANNOUNCER: You have heard part one of the American story "Benito Cereno." ?It was written by Herman Melville.Your storyteller was Shep O'Neal. Listen again next week at this time when we continue the American story "Benito Cereno" in V.O.A. Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: As Fake Malaria Drugs Spread in Asia, Next Target Feared Is Africa
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm?Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. This week, we report on a new warning about the worldwide problem of counterfeit medicines. Scientists warn of a growing industry that is producing illegal copies of the anti-malaria drug artesunate. They say these counterfeits are spreading quickly through mainland Southeast Asia. Counterfeit drugs are sold under the names of real medicines. They often contain no active substance, or not enough to work. Paul Newton of the University of Oxford in England led an investigation. The researchers tested artesunate tablets that were used to treat a man at a hospital in eastern Burma last year. Artesunate is normally effective, but the twenty-three-year-old man died from common malaria. The fake tablets were sold as a real product made by Guilin Pharmaceutical of China. The scientists discovered that the tablets contained only ten milligrams of artesunate. The real product contains fifty milligrams. The hospital had bought a large supply of the drug. It was all fake. The researchers say there are now at least twelve different kinds of counterfeit artesunate. They say that in Southeast Asia, between forty and fifty percent of drugs identified as artesunate may contain no active substance. The report expresses concern that Africa could be next. The researchers say the high cost of real artesunate and the shortage of it in Africa create conditions for the spread of fake drugs. Fake artesunate was found in Cameroon in two thousand five. They say the problem may already be widespread. The World Health Organization estimates that each year almost one million people die from malaria. Most are young children in Africa south of the Sahara. One of the scientists who did the study is working to develop tests that could identify counterfeit anti-malaria drugs within seconds. Facundo Fernandez is a researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Current methods take two hours. Paul Newton and his team say the counterfeit drug trade is not just criminal, some might call it murder. Their report appears in the June publication of PLoS Medicine. PLoS is the Public Library of Science. This non-profit organization publishes scientific journals that anyone can read free of charge on the Internet. The Web site is plos.org -- again, plos.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Visit to Houston, Where Cowboys, Astronauts and Culture Meet
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 From VOA News: Heavy rains caused flooding Monday, June 19,?in?Houston, blocking roads and forcing some schools and businesses to close for the day. Texas Governor Rick Perry ordered National Guard trucks and crews, helicopters and swift-water rescue teams to Houston in response to the twenty-seven centimeters of rain that fell. Some residents were rescued from stranded vehicles. Flooding was also reported in southwestern Louisiana. From VOA News: Heavy rains caused flooding Monday, June 19,?in?Houston, blocking roads and forcing some schools and businesses to close for the day. Texas Governor Rick Perry ordered National Guard trucks and crews, helicopters and swift-water rescue teams to Houston in response to the twenty-seven centimeters of rain that fell. Some residents were rescued from stranded vehicles. Flooding was also reported in southwestern Louisiana. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, explore the biggest city in Texas. Houston is home to cowboy culture, space travel, art cars and much more. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two brothers established Houston in eighteen thirty-six. Augustus and John Allen were land developers from New York state. They purchased more than twenty-five square kilometers of land in a low-lying area near a small river, or bayou. They named the town after a hero of Texas history, Sam Houston. The Allens wanted to build a city that would become a center of government and commerce. They succeeded. Houston soon became a center for the cotton trade, then later the oil industry. The Port of Houston links the city to the shipping traffic in the nearby Gulf of Mexico. The capital of the state of Texas is Austin. But Houston for a time in its early years was the capital of the Republic of Texas. Texas was part of Mexico until a rebellion by Anglo-American colonists and Tejanos, Mexicans living in Texas. After that, the territory was an independent republic for almost ten years. In eighteen forty-six, Texas became the twenty-eighth state. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Today, Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. Two million people live there. The area now spreads over more than one thousand six hundred square kilometers of southeastern Texas. Oil and gas exploration are still important to the Houston economy. But other industries have also grown over the years. One of these is the space industry. Houston is home to the Johnson Space Center. Astronauts train there. And it is also where the NASA space agency has its Mission Control. Controllers direct space shuttle flights from Houston, just as they did with the old Apollo flights to the moon. (SOUND) Movies like "Apollo Thirteen" have only added to the image of Houston as "Space City." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Houston is also a center of culture. For example, visitors to the Museum District can explore the Menil Collection. This is considered one of the finest private collections of art in the world. John and Dominique de Menil created the museum for their personal collection. Next to the museum is the Rothko Chapel. The Menils created this, too. It represents a work of both religious and modern art. VOICE TWO: The space serves as a place of worship for people of all religious beliefs. Visitors can stand or sit in an eight-sided room with high walls. On the walls are fourteen huge paintings that the artist Mark Rothko created for this purpose. The paintings are mixtures of dark color that help create a calm environment. Visitors to the Museum District can find many art museums as well as others devoted to science and history. VOICE ONE: Tall office buildings rise in the center of Houston. Some of these shining glass structures were designed by world-famous architects. Downtown Houston is also home to the Theater District. Many performing arts organizations are located there. In fact, Theater District officials say Houston has more to offer than most other American cities. Houston has its own permanent professional companies in all of the major performing arts: opera, ballet, music and theater. VOICE TWO: But art does not have to be traditional to be enjoyed. Every year in Houston, people gather for the Art Car Parade. They come from around Texas and other parts of the country to see who has the best design for making a car into art. In the parade, the cars are driven slowly down a main street. People stand on the sidewalks and cheer when they see ones they like. One winning car, for example, was covered in shining pieces of silver glass and colorful round pieces of plastic. Attached to the back of the car were life-size sculptures of people playing music. Another artist had a small car designed as a piece of fruit. He painted his old Volkswagen Beetle orange and placed a big leaf on top. This art car was called “Orange-A-Peel." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Houston is a big modern city. But many Houstonians wear cowboy hats and boots. They enjoy country music and dance the Texas two-step. The tradition of the old western cowboy is a part of Texas culture that remains important to many people. Yet there are still many cattle ranches in Texas. So cowboy culture lives on. VOICE TWO: Every year, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo creates much excitement around the city. This event is described as the largest of its kind in the world. It was started in the nineteen thirties. People compete to see who raised the best farm animals. At the rodeo, visitors can watch competitions based on traditional cowboy skills. Thousands of people give their time to organize these events. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo raises millions of dollars. The money helps provide financial aid to students all over Texas. VOICE ONE: Texans have a tradition of doing things in a big way. The Houston Astrodome is a good example. This huge ballpark opened in nineteen sixty-five. It was named for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball, who have since moved. When the Astrodome was built, some people called it the eighth wonder of the world. They had never seen a ballpark with a roof over the playing field. It meant that the climate-controlled stadium could be kept cool even in the heat of the Texas summer. The roof was covered in glass. But players soon found that sunlight shining off the glass made baseballs hit in the air difficult to see. So workers painted over the glass on the roof. Without sunlight, however, the grass on the field died. ? A new invention called Astroturf soon replaced the real grass. This artificial grass became popular on playing fields around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Are you hungry?? Houston has plenty of different restaurants. In fact, Houstonians are said to eat out more than people in any other American city. There are foods from around the world. But the city is especially well known for Tex-Mex, Texas cooking combined with traditional foods from Mexico Texas barbecue is also popular. The smoke from burning wood gives a rich flavor to the meat. And to clean your plate, be sure and try a piece of hot cornbread. VOICE ONE: Houston has a large Latino population. It also has one of the largest populations of ethnic Vietnamese in the United States. Many Nigerians also live there. In fact, if you listen carefully, it is possible to hear about ninety languages being spoken in the Houston area. Houston continues to grow, sometimes in unexpected ways. In late two thousand five, Houston received many of the people forced from their homes in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Officials say ninety thousand, and perhaps as many as one hundred fifty thousand, remain in Houston and surrounding areas. VOICE TWO: To many people, Houston is a city that has it all. In fact, it is one of the least costly cities in America. But not everything that is said about Houston is good. For example, the company MapQuest has declared Houston the most difficult of major cities in the United States for visitors to navigate. The Houston Chronicle reported this under the headline: "It's easy to get lost in our big, fat, hot, polluted city."? The story said: "In survey after survey, Houston has been picked on for being the fattest, the hottest and the most polluted of U.S. cities."? The newspaper noted that a public opinion study had even just found Houstonians terrible at cleaning up after their dogs. Yet some people do not seem to mind too much that Houston appears on lists like these. A city spokesman told the Chronicle: "Houston is fast becoming the third-largest city in the United States, so somebody is not reading the bad lists."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Dana Demange and produced by Caty Weaver. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. We hope you listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Numbers:? I, for One, Use These Expressions a Lot
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. Today I will tell about expressions using numbers. Let us start with the number one. Numbers can be tricky. On the one hand, they are simply numbers. On the other hand, they have meanings. I for one use these expressions a lot. Many people consider themselves number one, the most important person. They are always looking out for number one and taking care of number one. It is as if they are the one and only person on Earth. Some people however, are not so self-centered. My brother is such a person. It is true – no joke. I am not trying to pull a fast one on you. First, you have to understand that my brother is one in a million. He is such a nice person. All his friends like him. They consider him one of the boys. Recently, my brother had a bad day at the office. It was just one of those days. Nothing went right. So he stopped at a local bar -- a drinking place -- after leaving work. My brother planned to have a glass of beer with his friends -- a quick one –? before he went home. But a quick one turned into one or two, and soon those became one too many. As my brother was leaving, he ordered a last drink -- one for the road. His friends became concerned. One by one, they asked him if he was able to drive home safely. Now my brother is a wise and calm person. He is at one with himself. He recognizes when he has had too much alcohol to drink. So he accepted an offer for a ride home from a female friend. At one time in the past, my brother had been in love with this woman. She is a great person -- kind, thoughtful and intelligent -- all good qualities rolled up into one. But sadly their relationship did not work. He always used to say “One of these days, I am going to marry this girl.”?? But that never happened. For one thing, she did not love him as much as he loved her. It was just one of those things. The situation was regrettable and my brother had to accept it. But even now, he considers her the one that got away. However, they are still friends. And because my brother had been kind to her, she felt that one good turn deserves another. He was good to her and she wanted to help him in return. So she drove him home. If my brother had driven home from the bar that night, his number would have been up. Something bad would have happened. Thankfully he made it home safely. And, he and the woman are back to square one. They are back to where they started – being friends. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Food for Thought: How Vitamins Are Important to Health
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about vitamins. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many jobs must be done with two people. One person takes the lead. The other helps. It is this cooperation that brings success. So it is with the human body. Much of our good health depends on the cooperation between substances. When they work together, chemical reactions take place smoothly. Body systems are kept in balance. Some of the most important helpers in the job of good health are the substances we call vitamins. VOICE TWO: The word vitamin dates back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk in nineteen twelve. He was studying a substance in the hull that covers rice. This substance was believed to cure a disorder called beriberi. Funk believed the substance belonged to a group of chemicals known as amines [uh-MEENS]. He added the Latin word "vita," meaning life. So he called the substance a “vitamine” [vita-MEEN] -- an amine necessary for life. VOICE ONE: Funk was not able to separate the anti-berberi substance from the rice hulls; it was later shown to be thiamine. Other studies found that not all vitamines were amines after all. So the name was shortened to vitamin. But Funk was correct in recognizing their importance. Scientists have discovered fourteen kinds of vitamins. They are known as vitamins A, the B group, C, D, E and K. Scientists say vitamins help to carry out chemical changes within cells. If we do not get enough of the vitamins we need in our food, we are at risk of developing a number of diseases. VOICE TWO: This brings us back to Casimir Funk. His studies of rice were part of a long search for foods that could cure disease. One of the first people involved in that search was James Lind of Scotland. In the seventeen-forties, Lind was a doctor for the British Navy. He was investigating a problem that had existed in the Navy for many years. The problem was the disease scurvy. So many sailors had scurvy that the Navy’s fighting strength was very low. The sailors were weak from bleeding inside their bodies. Even the smallest wound would not heal. Doctor Lind thought the sailors were getting sick because they failed to eat some kinds of foods when they were at sea for many months. VOICE ONE: Doctor Lind separated twelve sailors who had scurvy into two groups. He gave each group different foods to eat. One group got oranges and lemons. The other did not. The men who ate the fruit began to improve within seven days. The other men got weaker. Doctor Lind was correct. Eating citrus fruits prevents scurvy. Other doctors looked for foods to cure the diseases rickets and pellagra. They did not yet understand that they were seeing the problem from the opposite direction. That is, it is better to eat vitamin-rich foods to prevent disease instead of eating them to cure a disease after it has developed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Which foods should be eaten to keep us healthy?? Let us look at some important vitamins for these answers. Vitamin A helps prevent skin and other tissues from becoming dry. It is also needed to make a light-sensitive substance in the eyes. People who do not get enough vitamin A cannot see well in darkness. They may develop a condition that dries the eyes. This can result in infections and lead to blindness. Vitamin A is found in fish liver oil. It also is in the yellow part of eggs. Sweet potatoes, carrots and other darkly colored fruits and vegetables contain substances that the body can change into vitamin A. VOICE ONE: Vitamin B-one is also called thiamine. Thiamine changes starchy foods into energy. It also helps the heart and nervous system work smoothly. Without it, we would be weak and would not grow. We also might develop beriberi. Thiamine is found not just in whole grains like brown rice, but also in other foods. These include beans and peas, nuts, and meat and fish. Another B-vitamin is niacin. It helps cells use food energy. It also prevents pellagra -- a disease that causes weakness, reddish skin and stomach problems. Niacin is found in meat, fish and green vegetables. Vitamin B-twelve is needed so folic acid can do its work. Together, they help produce red blood cells. Vitamin B-twelve is found naturally in foods such as eggs, meat, fish and milk products. Folic acid has been shown to prevent physical problems in babies when taken by their mothers during pregnancy. Vitamin B-twelve is found in green leafy vegetables and other foods, like legumes and citrus fruits. In some countries, it is added to products like bread. VOICE TWO: Three years ago, Japanese researchers made the first vitamin discovery of the twenty-first century. They identified a new member of the B-vitamin group. It is a substance known as pyrroloquinoline quinone [pi-RO-lo-QUI-no-leen qui-NOHN], or PDQ. The researchers found that PDQ is important in the reproductive and defense systems of mice. They said the substance is similarly important for people. PDQ is found in fermented soybeans and also in parsley, green tea, green peppers and kiwi fruit. VOICE ONE: Vitamin C is needed for strong bones and teeth, and for healthy blood passages. It also helps wounds heal quickly. The body stores little vitamin C. So we must get it every day in foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and uncooked cabbage. Vitamin D increases levels of the element calcium in the blood. Calcium is needed for nerve and muscle cells to work normally. It also is needed to build strong bones. Vitamin D prevents the children’s bone disease rickets. Ultraviolet light from the sun changes a substance in the skin into vitamin D. Fish liver oil also contains vitamin D. In some countries, milk producers add vitamin D to milk so children will get enough. Vitamin K is needed for healthy blood. It thickens the blood around a cut to stop bleeding. Bacteria in the intestines normally produce vitamin K. It can also be found in pork products, liver and in vegetables like cabbage, kale and spinach. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some people fear they do not get enough vitamins from the foods they eat. So they take products with large amounts of vitamins. They think these products, or vitamin supplements, will improve their health and protect against disease. Recently, a group of medical experts gathered to discuss the latest research on vitamin supplements. The experts met at America’s National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C. They found little evidence that most supplements do anything to protect or improve health. But they noted that some do help to prevent disease. VOICE ONE: The experts said women who wish to become mothers should take folic acid to prevent problems in their babies. They said vitamin D supplements and calcium can protect the bones of older women. And, they said zinc and antioxidants may slow the development of the disease age-related macular degeneration. The experts also said that taking too much of some vitamins can be harmful. For example, too much vitamin A can lead to the bone weakening condition osteoporosis. Too much vitamin E can cause bleeding. And, too much niacin can damage the liver. VOICE TWO: The experts said persons who smoke should not take extra beta-carotene because it can increase their chances of developing lung cancer. They also said that people should be sure to discuss what vitamins they take with their doctors. This is because some vitamins can cause harmful effects when mixed with medicines. The experts agreed with doctors who say that people who know they lack a vitamin should take vitamin supplements. Some older adults, for example, may not have enough vitamin B-twelve. That is because, as people get older, the body loses its ability to take it from foods. Also, people who spend a lot of time in buildings may need extra vitamin D since the skin makes this vitamin from sunlight. VOICE ONE: Vitamins are important to our health. Different vitamins are found in different foods -- grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, eggs and milk products. And even foods that contain the same vitamins may have them in different amounts. Experts say this is why it is important to eat a mixture of foods every day, to get enough of the vitamins our bodies need. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: To Make a Long Story Short: Summary Skills for Better Readers and Writers
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. With us this week on Wordmaster: Emily Kissner, a sixth-grade teacher in Pennsylvania and author of a new book called "Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Retelling." EMILY KISSNER: "When you summarize, you need to first choose what's important in the text -- look for the main ideas. And a good way to do that is to look at what the author refers to over and over again, because that's probably what's important. "And then you need to condense those main ideas. You need to get rid of the repeated ideas. You need to exclude the trivia, those little details that are in there to keep you interested but really don't contribute to the main idea." AA: "And then from there, you've boiled it down, you're looking for the important ideas, how do you begin to put them down on paper?" EMILY KISSNER: "Different readers use different methods. There's been a lot of research on retelling, which is where you just retell the important ideas to someone else. Even without someone telling you it's good or bad, retelling what you've read changes something about how you store the information in your brain and helps you to understand it better. So one great way to start summarizing is just to turn to someone else and say 'Hey, I just read this, listen to what the author's talking about.' "And from there, you can maybe list some of the main ideas. And then if you need to write a formal summary to give to someone else, you can kind of look for the connections between those ideas and then use those to frame your summary." AA: "You write in your book here, you say: 'Left to their own devices, most students write the topic of a text when they're asked to write a main idea.' Now what's the difference between the topic and the main idea?" EMILY KISSNER: "The topic is usually just one word or phrase to which everything in the text refers. So, for instance, if you were reading about dinosaurs, the topic of the book could be 'dinosaurs.' A main idea is usually a sentence that explains why the topic is important or explains something about the topic. So one article about dinosaurs might be 'dinosaurs evolved to many unusual creatures.' And so then everything in the text would go back to that main idea." AA: "Do you find these techniques of summarizing to be helpful at all, or especially helpful, to English learners?" EMILY KISSNER: "Where I teach right now, we actually have quite a significant population of students who are learning English, and one method that I found especially helpful for them was looking for key words in the article or the text. And so we would kind of develop their background knowledge first, and then they would look for key words that were important. "And using some of these techniques like finding the main idea and looking for the structure of the text helped them to -- by the end of the year, they were writing some really competent summaries. And that really shows they were understanding the texts." AA: "What would a bad summary look like?" EMILY KISSNER: "A lot of students, and a lot of adults, use what's called the copy-and-delete method: 'Oh geez, I have to write this summary. I don't really know how. I'm just going to go through and pick up a few sentences here and a few sentences there, copy it down, I'll leave out a few sentence, and I have something that looks like a summary.' So when you're seeing a lot of text that's directly taken out of the main article, you can tell that the writer of that summary isn't working with very effective strategies for summarizing." AA: "Now what's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Since the title of your book is 'Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Retelling,' what's the difference?" EMILY KISSNER: "Paraphrasing is just putting ideas into your own words. So, for instance, you could read a paragraph about global warming and you could paraphrase it and it could be just as long as the original paragraph. The key part with paraphrasing is that it's in your own words. With summarizing, you have a more formal product that is shorter than the original text." AA: No one says any of this is easy, even for teachers. Emily Kissner recalls the day she told her students about her book. EMILY KISSNER: "And then one kid just looked at me, and raised his hand and with a kind of sly smile said, 'Missus Kissner, could you summarize the book for us?' And suddenly I was put on the spot and I had to put all of what was in the book to the test to try to summarize this book in a way that the students could understand." AA: "And did you pass the test?" EMILY KISSNER: "Well, I think I did. [Laughter] It's hard to do on the spot." AA: "Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Retelling," by Emily Kissner, is published by Heinemann. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and find us online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. --- For more?about the rules of summarizing, and how readers interact with text,?Emily Kissner provided these?references: • Brown, A. and J. Day. 1983. “Macrorules for Summarizing Texts: The Development of Expertise.” Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 22: 1-14.• van Dijk, T.A and W. Kintsch. 1978. “Toward a model of text comprehension and production.” Psychological Review, 85: 363-394. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tuskegee Airmen: First African-Americans Trained as Fighter Pilots
* Byline: Written by Vivian Bournazian

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Men of 99th Squadron in January 1944This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell about the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots. (MUSIC) There was a little fog near the ground. But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew into the air. It was only a few minutes before the planes were flying over the Mediterranean Sea. The sea was calm, and very blue. It was July first, nineteen forty-three. The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes travelling to Italy. The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their guns were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. At the target area, the bombers began to unload their bombs. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions. VOICE TWO: A group of enemy fighters immediately appeared to attack the bomber planes. The enemy airplanes flew near. The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them. In the battle that followed, the men of the Ninety-Ninth gained their first victory. Lieutenant Charles B. Hall shot down a German airplane. He said it was the first time he had seen the enemy close enough to shoot at. He saw two German airplanes following the bombers just after the bombs were dropped. "I headed for the space between the fighters and bombers...I fired a long burst and saw my tracers penetrate the second aircraft. He was turning left, but suddenly fell off and headed straight into the ground." Charles Hall won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service that day. He and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama, to fight that battle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty, blacks made up about one-point-five percent of the American Army and Navy. But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes. They had begun fighting for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One. In nineteen seventeen, blacks who requested acceptance into pilot training programs were told that colored air groups were not being formed at the time. Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many whites that blacks could not fight. In nineteen thirty-one, Walter White and Robert R. Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of an important organization for blacks, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute. The War Department refused their request. It said that the Air Corps chose men with technical experience. The department also said that blacks were not that interested in flying. And, it said so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many whites had to be refused acceptance. VOICE TWO: The War Department's refusal led many to feel that blacks would be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps only through legislation by Congress. Black leaders used the United States' preparation for and entry into World War Two to pressure Congress. They attacked the unfair treatment of blacks in the armed services. In nineteen thirty-nine, Congress passed a bill that guaranteed blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots. It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established at Tuskegee, Alabama. VOICE ONE: Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military. Yet they continued to attack the military policy of racial separation. The War Department answered the criticisms by making plans to form several new black fighting groups. It also promoted a black Colonel, Benjamin O. Davis Senior, to Brigadier General. And, the department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, who was head of Howard University Law School, as Civilian Aide on Negro Affairs. VOICE TWO: Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flying training school at Tuskegee. He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separately. The Air Corps, however, said there was no room in other programs. It said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training program. Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition to the plan, even though he was not satisfied with it. Fred Patterson was president of the Tuskegee Institute then. He also objected to the separate training of black pilots at Tuskegee. He said that it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. Mister Patterson finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He realized blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks were now able to be military pilots. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. On March seventh, nineteen forty-two, the first group of African-Americans ever to be trained as fighter pilots completed the program at Tuskegee. General Davis's son, Benjamin O. Davis Junior, was among the first graduates. Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces. Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October of nineteen forty-two. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Junior commanded it. The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, nineteen forty-three. The pilots were able to gain fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of nineteen forty-three, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time "air power alone ... completely destroyed all enemy resistance." The Tuskegee airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in January of nineteen forty-four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth squadron shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Their performance earned them two awards. And, their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war. VOICE TWO: In September, nineteen forty-three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three Hundred Thirty-Second Fighter Group. The Ninety-Ninth squadron became a part of the group. There were four hundred fifty pilots in the all-black group. They flew more than fifteen thousand five hundred flights in southern France, Greece, the Balkans and finally in Germany. The Tuskegee airmen guarded bomber airplanes. They destroyed more than one hundred enemy airplanes in the air and one hundred fifty others on the ground. They flew more than two hundred combat flights in Germany in nineteen forty-five. Not one Allied bomber fell to enemy fighters when guarded by the Tuskegee airmen. They were considered the best at their job. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nine hundred ninety-six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee airmen represented both honor and inequality. Eighty-five of them won the Distinguished Flying Cross during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the racial policies of the military. History books say the Tuskegee airman proved that black men could fly modern airplanes in highly successful combat operations. And, the success of the group helped end the separate racial policies of the American military. In nineteen forty-eight, President Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen. The next year, the Air Force, which no longer was part of the Army, announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated. Back in civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airmen became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their continued fighting spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Food Prize Goes to Three Who Helped Open Brazil's 'Closed Lands'
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Three men who worked to make the Cerrado area of central Brazil fertile and productive will receive the World Food Prize this year. Alysson Paolinelli and Edson Lobato will share the prize with an American, Colin McClung. The winners were announced last Thursday at a ceremony at the State Department in Washington. The World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa, will present the two hundred fifty thousand dollar prize in October. The three men helped open the so-called "closed lands" of the Cerrado. Their work independent of one another took place over a period of many years. The area changed from a dry plain into highly productive farmland. In the nineteen fifties, Mister McClung studied the soils of what most people considered wastelands. He showed that adding lime, micronutrients and fertilizer would greatly improve the soil. He was able to get lime producers and fertilizer companies as well as maize and soybean processors to invest in research. Mister Paolinelli served as agriculture minister of Brazil from nineteen seventy-four to nineteen seventy-nine. He helped form the policies that provided low-interest loans and other programs for farmers to develop the land. Within a period of three years, farmers planted more than three million hectares in the Cerrado. Today, soybeans, corn and cotton are among the crops that are grown on more than forty million hectares of farmland. Mister Lobato is a soil expert who worked on soil fertility research for thirty years, starting in the nineteen seventies. His studies increased knowledge about the use of phosphate as a fertilizer in the soils of the Cerrado. His book “Cerrado: Soil Correction and Fertilization” remains important to farmers, researchers and students of agricultural science. The World Food Prize honors the work of people who have added to the world’s ability to feed itself. Norman Borlaug established the prize twenty years ago. Mister Borlaug is called the “Father of the Green Revolution.”? He received the nineteen seventy Nobel Peace Prize for expanding agricultural productivity through science. Mister Borlaug attended the ceremony last week. He called the opening of the Cerrado to farming “one of the great achievements of agricultural science in the twentieth century." This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-20-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Pregnant Women Warned About a Kind of Blood Pressure Medicine
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. Some of the most commonly used medicines for high blood pressure are drugs called ACE inhibitors. Doctors have given these drugs to patients for twenty-five years. A government study in the United States found that the use almost doubled between nineteen ninety-five and two thousand. Doctors have known for years that women should not take ACE inhibitors during the last six months of pregnancy. The medicine can injure the baby. ACE inhibitors, though, have been considered safe when taken during the first three months. But a new study has found that women who take these drugs early in their pregnancy still increase the risk of birth disorders. The study shows that, compared to others, their babies were almost three times as likely to be born with major problems. These included problems with the formation of the brain and nervous system and holes in the heart. The researchers say they found no increased risk in women who took other blood pressure medicines during the first three months. Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Boston University did the study. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results. The researchers studied the records of almost thirty thousand births between nineteen eighty-five and two thousand. Two hundred nine babies were born to women who took ACE inhibitors during the first three months of their pregnancies. Eighteen of the babies, or almost nine percent, had major disorders. ACE inhibitors are often given to patients with diabetes. But diabetes during pregnancy can result in birth defects. So the study did not include any women known to be diabetic. ACE inhibitors suppress a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE. This enzyme produces a chemical in the body that makes blood passages narrow. The drugs increase the flow of blood so pressure is reduced. New drugs are tested on pregnant animals to see if they might cause birth defects in humans. But experts say these tests are not always dependable. The United States Food and Drug Administration helped pay for the study. The F.D.A. says women who might become pregnant should talk with their doctor about other ways to treat high blood pressure. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Brianna Blake. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com? I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Concerns at Progress of Boys in School Lead to Many Theories
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. There is a lot of discussion in the United States about differences between boys and girls in school. Lately that discussion has centered on concerns that boys are not doing as well as girls. Boys, for example, receive seventy percent of all failing grades. In April, the Manhattan Institute released its yearly study of graduation rates. The research group used information from two thousand three. The researchers found that seventy-two percent of girls successfully completed their high school education. That compared to sixty-five percent of boys. The newspaper Education Week noted earlier this year that, in some ways, what people are worried about now is really not new. Boys have scored lower than girls on tests in the National Assessment of Educational Progress since at least nineteen seventy-one. And the differences are not limited to the United States. Education Week noted the results of an international reading test in two thousand three. Fifteen-year-olds took the test in forty-one countries. Girls scored higher than boys in almost every country. Differences between males and females are a continuing issue of fierce debate. Cultural and economic influences play an important part. But recent findings suggest that another part of the answer lies in differences between the male and female brain. These include differences in learning rates. As a result, some researchers say, boys may not be able to develop language and reading skills as well as girls do. The last time there was a lot of concern about differences in school, it was about girls, especially in math and science classes. Efforts to improve the situation for girls included hiring more female teachers. Yet some people think the opposite situation exists now. They say not enough male teachers is one reason why boys may not learn as well in class. Another explanation being heard involves the increased testing in American schools. Some people say schools are preparing for these important tests by forcing boys to sit quietly at their desks. They say this is unfair. Still others say that society is failing boys, by giving them the message that studying is not manly. And others say boys are failing in school because they become too interested in the girls in their classes. One attempt to solve problems like these is the use of same-sex classrooms. That will be our report next week. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Turn to the Right: Conservatism Grows in America in the 1920s
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Americans experimented with many new customs and social traditions during the nineteen twenties. It was a time filled with new dances, new kinds of clothes and some of the most imaginative art and writing ever produced in the United States. But in most ways, the nineteen twenties were a conservative time in American life. Voters elected three conservative Republican presidents: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. And they supported many conservative social and political policies. VOICE TWO: One such policy concerned immigration. Most Americans in the nineteen twenties had at least some ties through blood or marriage to the first Americans who came from Britain. Many people with these kinds of historic ties considered themselves to be real Americans, true Americans. Americans traditionally had welcomed newcomers from such western European countries as Britain, France, or Germany. But most of the people arriving in New York City and other harbors in the nineteen twenties were from the central, eastern and southern areas of Europe. Some Americans became afraid of these millions of people arriving at their shores. They worried that the immigrant newcomers might steal their jobs. Or they feared the political beliefs of the immigrants. VOICE ONE: Pressure to control immigration increased following the world war. Congress passed a bill that set a limit on how many people would be allowed to enter from each foreign country. And, the Congress and President Calvin Coolidge agreed to an even stronger immigration law in nineteen twenty-four. Under the new law, limits on the number of immigrants from each foreign country depended on the number of Americans who had families in that country. For example, the law allowed many immigrants to enter from Britain or France, because many American citizens had families in those countries. But fewer people could come from Italy or Russia, because fewer Americans had family members in those countries. The laws were very difficult to enforce. But they did succeed in limiting the number of immigrants from certain countries. VOICE TWO: A second sign of the conservative feelings in the nineteen twenties was the nation's effort to ban the sale of alcoholic drinks, or liquor. This policy was known as Prohibition, because it prohibited -- or banned -- alcoholic drinks. Many of the strongest supporters of Prohibition were conservative Americans living in rural areas. Many of them believed that liquor was evil, the product of the devil. A number of towns and states passed laws banning alcohol sales during the first years of the twentieth century. And in nineteen nineteen, the nation passed the eighteenth amendment to the federal constitution. This amendment, and the Volstead Act, made it unlawful to make, sell, or transport liquor. VOICE ONE: Prohibition laws failed terribly from the start. There was only a small force of police to enforce the new laws. And millions of Americans still wanted to drink liquor. It was not possible for the police to watch every American who wanted to buy a drink secretly or make liquor in his own home. Not surprisingly, thousands of Americans soon saw a chance to make profits from the new laws. They began to import liquor illegally to sell for high prices. Criminals began to bring liquor across the long, unprotected border with Canada or on fast boats from the Caribbean islands. At the same time, private manufacturers in both cities and rural areas began to produce liquor. And shop owners in cities across the country sold liquor with little interference from local police. By the middle of the nineteen twenties, it was clear to most Americans that Prohibition laws were a failure. But the laws were not changed until the election of President Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-two. VOICE TWO: A third sign of conservatism in the nineteen twenties was the effort by some Americans to ban schoolbooks on modern science. Most of the Americans who supported these efforts were conservative rural Americans who believed in the traditional ideas of the Protestant Christian church. Many of them were fearful of the many changes that had taken place in American society. Science became an enemy to many of these traditional, religious Americans. Science seemed to challenge the most basic ideas taught in the Bible. The conflict burst into a major public debate in nineteen twenty-five in a trial over Charles Darwin's idea of evolution. VOICE ONE: British scientist Charles Darwin published his books "The Origin of the Species" and "The Descent of Man" in the nineteenth century. The books explained Darwin's idea that humans developed over millions of years from apes and other animals. Most Europeans and educated people accepted Darwin's theory by the end of the nineteenth century. But the book had little effect in rural parts of the United States until the nineteen twenties. William Jennings Bryan led the attack on Darwin's ideas. Bryan was a rural Democrat who ran twice for president. He lost both times. But Bryan remained popular among many traditional Americans. Bryan told his followers that the theory of evolution was evil, because it challenged the traditional idea that God created the world in six days. He accused scientists of violating God's words in the Bible. Bryan and his supporters called on local school officials to ban the teaching of evolution. Some state legislatures in the more conservative southeastern part of the country passed laws making it a crime to teach evolution theory. VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-five, a young science teacher in the southern state of Tennessee challenged the state's new teaching law. The teacher -- John Scopes -- taught Darwin's evolution ideas. Officials arrested scopes and put him on trial. Some of the nation's greatest lawyers rushed to Tennessee to defend the young teacher. They believed the state had violated his right to free speech. And they thought Tennessee's law againt teaching evolution was foolish in a modern, scientific society. America's most famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow, became the leader of Scopes' defense team. Bryan and other religious conservatives also rushed to the trial. They supported the right of the state of Tennessee to ban the teaching of evolution. The trial was held in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Hundreds of people came to watch: religious conservatives, free speech supporters, newsmen and others. The high point of the trial came when Bryan himself sat before the court. Lawyer Clarence Darrow asked Bryan question after question about the bible and about science. How did Bryan know the Bible is true. Did God really create the earth in a single day. Is a day in the Bible twenty-four hours. Or can it mean a million years. VOICE ONE: Bryan answered the questions. But he showed a great lack of knowledge about modern science. The judge found Scopes guilty of breaking the law. But in the battle of ideas, science defeated conservatism. And a higher court later ruled that Scopes was not guilty. The Scopes evolution trial captured the imagination of Americans. The issue was not really whether one young teacher was innocent or guilty of breaking a law. The real question was the struggle for America's spirit between the forces of modern ideas and those of traditional rural conservatism. The trial represented this larger conflict. VOICE TWO: American society was changing in many important ways during the early part of the twentieth century. It was not yet the world superpower that it would become after World War Two. But neither was it a traditional rural society of conservative farmers and clergy. The nineteen twenties were a period of growth, of change and of struggle between the old and new values. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Thanks in Part to 'Soccer Moms,' Game Grows in the U.S.
* Byline: Written by Erin Shiavone and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about Americans and the game of soccer … Play some music from a Tony award winning musical play … And report about a new cellular telephone ringtone that some people cannot hear. Ringtone HOST: Cellular phones are extremely popular in the United States and around the world, especially among young people. Now, teenagers are using a cell phone ringtone that many adults cannot hear. Mario Ritter has more. MARIO RITTER: The sound that the cell phone releases is a very high frequency, or pitch. Many older people are not able to hear the ringtone. Teenagers are using it to communicate during school classes. Students are supposed to have their cell phones turned off during classes. But some students use the ringtone so they can send text messages to each other during class without their teachers knowing. For example, the frequency of normal talking is as high as eight kilohertz. The frequency of the ringtone is said to be about seventeen kilohertz. Over time, most adults over the age of forty or fifty lose their ability to hear high frequency sounds. So most young people can hear the ringtone but many older people cannot. A British security company first created the sound and called it the Mosquito. The Mosquito device is a small black box that sends out sounds at a very high frequency. The device was used to solve a problem for British storeowners. Many teenagers gathered in stores without buying anything. Storeowners used the Mosquito sound to make the teenagers leave the store. The Mosquito sound was reinvented as a ringtone for cell phones. Teenagers in the United States found the ringtone on the Internet. Some students downloaded the ringtone onto their cell phones and sent it to their friends. The ringtone quickly spread among teenagers in the United States and in other countries. Many people from around the world have written about the ringtone on Web sites. Some people over forty years old said they could hear the ringtone, too. And some young people found the ringtone to be painful to hear. They said it hurt their ears and gave them headaches. Here is the ring tone. Can you hear it?? Here it is again! Soccer HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from South Korea. Byoung-Lip Ha asks why the game of soccer is not as popular in the United States as in other parts of the world. That is a good question to answer right now as the World Cup is being played in Germany. Most of the world is very interested in this series of football games. In fact, it is the world’s most popular sport. Reports say as many as one thousand million people around the world are expected to watch the championship game on July ninth. Still, most people in the United States have little interest in the World Cup, even though the United States team is taking part. Many sports experts say the American public has never shown much interest in the game called soccer in the United States. However, they say this is only true of older Americans. These adults did not play soccer when they were children. They did not grow up with the sport as people in other countries have. Sports like American football, baseball and basketball have always been more popular in the United States than soccer. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association says more than seventeen million people have played soccer at least once this year. That makes soccer one of the most popular team sports in the country. Experts say children are making soccer more popular in the United States because almost anyone can play the game. There are teams for girls, boys, older children and young adults. Some Americans have become interested in soccer because their children play. This has produced a new American expression, “soccer mom.”? This is a mother who spends a lot of time driving her children to soccer games and watching them compete. The experts say soccer is increasing in popularity among Americans. The United States national team has qualified for four World Cup competitions. The new Major League Soccer organization has been making progress since it began about ten years ago. The increased use of the Internet is permitting American soccer fans to communicate with those in other parts of the world. And more television stations are broadcasting soccer games. Still, most Americans say they would rather play soccer than watch it on television. Tony Awards HOST: Last week, the American Theater Wing presented its sixtieth yearly Tony Awards. ?The Tony awards honor work on the Broadway stage in New York City. Barbara Klein plays music from one of the winning musical plays. BARBARA KLEIN: Tony Awards are given to people who work in all areas of Broadway stage productions. These include actors, writers, directors and designers. One of the top awards is presented to the best musical play of the year. The winner this year is the show “Jersey Boys.”? It is the story of the Four Seasons rock and roll group that was popular in the nineteen sixties. It tells how the four young men from New Jersey got together, became successful and then broke up. The Four Seasons wrote their own songs and created their own special sound. They sold one hundred seventy-five million records around the world. Maybe you remember the group. Here are the real Four Seasons singing their big hit, “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” (MUSIC) Theater critics praised the actors in “Jersey Boys” for their versions of the Four Seasons music. Listen now to the actors in the musical sing that same song. (MUSIC) “Jersey Boys” won several Tony awards last week. Christian Hoff won the Tony for featured actor in a musical for his work as Four Seasons member Tommy DeVito. And John Lloyd Young won the Tony for best actor in a musical. He plays Four Seasons lead singer Frankie Valli. We leave you now with John Lloyd Young singing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Erin Schiavone and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Getting Started as an Investor
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Stock and bond listingsStocks, bonds, land -- people invest in different things and for different reasons. But all investors share the same goal. They want to get more money out of their investment than they put into it. The money they invest today provides capital for future growth in the economy. But people can watch their own financial future take a wild ride as markets rise and fall. So investors have to decide how much risk they are willing to take and for how long. One choice for people who want a low-risk investment is the money market. Usually individuals do this through money market mutual funds. Mutual funds are investment pools. They gather the money of many investors. Money market mutual funds earn interest from short-term loans to government and businesses. But the return to investors is low because little risk is involved. Notes and bonds are loans, too. They have terms from two to thirty years. The longer the term of a loan, the greater the risk that the investment will not be repaid. So notes and bonds usually pay higher interest rates than short-term bills or commercial paper. Millions of people invest in bonds and other debt-based products. This is true especially as people get older and want to reduce the level of risk in their investments. But over time, debt-based investments have traditionally provided lower returns than stocks. Stock is a share of ownership in a business. Common stock gives investors a vote on company issues and leadership. It might also pay a small percentage of its value, a dividend, one or more times a year. Not all stocks pay dividends. Some are valued more for their growth. Technology stocks, for example, rarely pay dividends. Preferred stock is different from common stock. Holders of preferred stock have no vote on company issues, but they also have less risk. They get paid a stated dividend before the company even considers paying dividends on common stock. Investing in stocks of individual companies can be very risky. Bad news can quickly cut their value. Instead, many people invest in stock mutual funds so their money goes into many different stocks. Balanced funds mix stocks and bonds to spread risk -- and capital -- even more. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. You can read a transcript of this report and download the audio at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.N. Human Rights Council Opens; Annan Sees 'Great New Chance'
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Kofi Annan speaks Monday?to the opening meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The meeting in Geneva?will last until June 30.This week, in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations Human Rights Council met for the first time. The new council is the result of a U.N. decision last September to replace the Commission on Human Rights. That larger group was considered ineffective. Critics said it was too easy to gain membership for nations with poor human rights records. In March of this year, a General Assembly resolution created the Human Rights Council. And in May, the General Assembly elected the members. Sixty-three nations were candidates for the forty-seven seats on the council. To be elected, they needed a majority vote from the General Assembly. All the candidate nations promised to work toward the aim of the new council. That is, to improve and protect human rights in their own lands and others around the world. Some candidate nations that are criticized on human rights did not receive enough votes, such as Iran and Venezuela. But others did. These include China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Critics express worry that these members could harm the work of the new council. But others note changes that they say will make the council more effective than the commission it replaced. For example, the commission met once a year for six weeks. The new group will meet for ten weeks throughout the year. And the rules for the new council make it easier to call special meetings to deal with crises. Another change is that the council will have the power to examine the human rights records of all one hundred ninety-one U.N. members. Former commission members that did not seek election to the new group included Congo, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan and Vietnam. Another nation that did not try to join the Human Rights Council is the United States. It will take part as an observer this year. Ambassador John Bolton explained the reasons in March in a statement to the General Assembly. He said the United States was not sure the council will be any better than the commission. He expressed support for the aims of the council, but also regret at the lack of support for some proposals. One would have required council members to be elected by a two-thirds majority. Another listed conditions designed to keep human rights violators off the council. A State Department spokesman said in April that the United States will cooperate with members to make the council as strong and effective as possible. He also said the United States might seek election to the council next year. At the first meeting this week, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: “This council represents a great new chance for the United Nations, and for humanity, to renew the struggle for human rights."? He made an appeal not to let that chance be lost. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American Red Cross Founder Clara Barton: Life of Caring for Others
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about a woman who spent her life caring for others, Clara Barton. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Clara Barton was a small woman. Yet she made a big difference in many lives. Today her work continues to be important to thousands of people in trouble. Clara Barton was an unusual woman for her time. She was born on Christmas day, December twenty-fifth, eighteen twenty-one. In those days, most women were expected to marry, have children and stay home to take care of them. Barton, however, became deeply involved in the world. By the time of her death in nineteen twelve, she had begun a revolution that led to the right of women to do responsible work for society. As a nurse, she cared for thousands of wounded soldiers. She began the American Red Cross. And, she successfully urged the American government to accept the Geneva Convention. That treaty established standards for conditions for soldiers injured or captured during wartime. VOICE TWO: Clara Barton really began her life of caring for the sick when she was only eleven years old. She lived with her family on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. One of her brothers, David, was seriously injured while helping build a barn. For two years, Clara Barton took care of David until he was healed. Most eleven-year-old girls would have found the job impossible. But Clara felt a great need to help. And she was very good at it. She also seemed to feel most safe when she was at home with her mother and father, or riding a horse on her family's land. As a young child, Clara had great difficulty studying and making friends at school. Her four brothers and sisters were much older than she. Several of them were teachers. For most of Clara's early years, she was taught at home. She finished school at age fifteen. Then she went to work in her brother David's clothing factory. The factory soon burned, leaving her without a job. VOICE ONE: Clara Barton decided to teach school. In eighteen thirty-six, she passed the teacher's test and began teaching near her home in North Oxford, Massachusetts. She became an extremely popular and respected teacher. After sixteen years of teaching, she realized she did not know all she wanted to know. She wanted more education. Very few universities accepted women in those days. So Clara went to a special school for girls in Massachusetts. While in that school, she became interested in public education. VOICE TWO: After she graduated, a friend suggested she try to establish the first public school in the state of New Jersey. Officials there seemed to think that education was only for children whose parents had enough money to pay for private schools. The officials did not want Barton to start a school for poor people. But she offered to teach without pay for three months. She told the officials that they could decide after that if she had been successful. They gave her an old building with poor equipment. And they gave her six very active little boys to teach. At the end of five weeks, the school was too small for the number of children who wanted to attend. By the end of the year, the town built her a bigger, better school. They had to give her more space. She then had six hundred students in the school. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Within a year, Clara Barton had lost her voice. She had to give up teaching. She moved to Washington, D.C., to begin a new job writing documents for the United States government. Clara Barton started her life as a nurse during the early days of the Civil War in eighteen sixty-one. One day, she went to the train center in Washington to meet a group of soldiers from Massachusetts. Many of them had been her friends. She began taking care of their wounds. Not long after, she left her office job. She became a full-time nurse for the wounded on their way from the fields of battle to the hospital. Soon, Barton recognized that many more lives could be saved if the men had medical help immediately after they were hurt. Army rules would not permit anyone except male soldiers to be on the battlefield. But Barton took her plans for helping the wounded to a high army official. He approved her plans. VOICE TWO: Barton and a few other women worked in the battle areas around Washington. She heard about the second fierce battle at Bull Run in the nearby state of Virginia. She got into a railroad car and traveled there. Bull Run must have been a fearful sight. Northern forces were losing a major battle there. Everywhere Barton looked lay wounded and dying men. Day and night she worked to help the suffering. When the last soldier had been placed on a train, Barton finally left. She was just in time to escape the southern army. She escaped by riding a horse, a skill she gained as a young girl. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For four years, Clara Barton was at the front lines of the bloodiest battles in the war between the North and the South. She was there at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Charleston. She was there at Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Richmond. She cleaned the wounds of badly injured soldiers. She eased the pain of the dying. And she fed those who survived. When she returned to Washington, Clara Barton found she was a hero. She had proved that women could work in terrible conditions. She made people understand that women could provide good medical care. She also showed that nursing was an honorable profession. After the war ended, Barton's doctor sent her to Europe to rest. Instead of resting, she met with representatives of the International Red Cross. The organization had been established in eighteen sixty-three to offer better treatment for people wounded or captured during wars. She was told that the United States was the only major nation that refused to join. VOICE TWO: Barton began planning a campaign to create an American Red Cross. Before she could go home, though, the war between France and Prussia began in eighteen seventy. Again, Clara Barton went to the fields of battle to nurse the wounded. After a while her eyes became infected. The woman of action was ordered to remain quiet for months in a dark room, or become blind. When she returned to the United States she again suffered a serious sickness. She used the time in a hospital to write letters in support of an American Red Cross organization. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty-one, Barton's campaign proved successful. The United States Congress signed the World's Treaty of the International Red Cross. This established the American Chapter of the Red Cross. Clara Barton had reached one of her major goals in life. The next year she successfully urged Congress to accept the Geneva Convention. This treaty set the international rules for treatment of soldiers wounded or captured in war. For twenty-five years, Clara Barton continued as the president of the American Red Cross. Under her guidance, the organization helped people in all kinds of trouble. She directed the aid efforts for victims of floods in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Galveston, Texas. She led Red Cross workers in Florida during a outbreak of the disease Yellow Fever. And she helped during periods when people were starving in Russia and Armenia. VOICE TWO: Clara Barton retired when she was in her middle eighties. For her last home, she chose a huge old building near Washington, D.C. The building had been used for keeping Red Cross equipment and then as her office. It was made with material saved from aid centers built after the flood in Johnstown. In that house on the Potomac River, Clara Barton lived her remaining days. She died after a life of service to others in April, nineteen twelve, at age ninety. She often said: "You must never so much as think if you like it or not, if it is bearable or not. You must never think of anything except the need --- and how to meet it." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-07-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Benito Cereno, Part Two
* Byline: Herman Melville

 ANNOUNCER:? Now, the V.O.A. Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Today, we continue the story "Benito Cereno." ?It was written by Herman Melville. (MUSIC) Last week, we told how African slaves on a Spanish ship rebelled in seventeen ninety-nine. They killed most of the Spanish sailors. Only the captain, Benito Cereno, and a few others were left alive. The leader of the rebellion was a slave named Babo. He ordered Captain Cereno to sail the ship back to Senegal, the slaves' homeland. But food and water were low. So the ship stopped at an island off the coast of Chile to get the needed supplies. When it arrived, an American ship was in the harbor. The American captain, Amoso Delano, thought the Spanish ship might be in trouble. He would offer help. Babo decided to remain close to Captain Cereno and act as if he were the captain's slave. Babo would kill him if he told Captain Delano the truth about what happened. Now, here is Shep O'Neal to continue our story. STORYTELLER:? As Captain Delano came up in his whale boat, he saw that the other ship needed scraping, tarring and brushing. It looked old and decayed. He climbed up the side and came aboard. He was quickly surrounded by a crowd of black men. Captain Delano looked around for the man who commanded the ship. The Spanish captain stood a little away off against the main mast. He was young looking, richly dressed but seemed troubled and tired with the spirit gone out of him. He looked unhappily toward his American visitor.At the Spanish's captain side stood a small black man with a rough face. Captain Delano struggled forward through the crowd, went up to the Spainard and greeted him.He offered to help him in any way he could. Captain Benito Cereno returned the American's greeting politely, but without warmth. Captain Delano pushed his way back through the crowd to the gangway. He told his men to go and bring back as much water as they could, also bread, pumpkins, sugar and a dozen of his private bottles of cider. The whale boat pushed off. Left alone, Captain Delano again observed with fresh surprise the general disorder aboard the ship. Some of the men were fighting. There were no deck officers to discipline or control the violent ones. And everyone seemed to do as he pleased. Captain Delano could not fully understand how this could have happened. What could explain such a break down of order and responsibility? ?He asked Don Benito to give him the full story of his ship's misfortunes. Don Benito did not answer. He just kept looking at his American visitor as if he heard nothing. This angered Captain Delano, who suddenly turned away and walked forward to one of the Spanish seamen for his answer. But he had hardly gone five steps when Don Benito called him back. "It is now a hundred and ninety days," Don Benito began, "that the ship sailed from Buenos Aires for Lima with a general cargo. Pedigree, tea, and the like, and a number of negros, now not more than a hundred and fifty as you see, but then numbering over three hundred souls. The ship was officered and well-manned, with several cabin passengers. Some fifty Spaniards in all. Off Cape Horn we had heavy gales."? Captain Cereno coughed suddenly and almost collapsed. ?He fell heavily against his body servant. "His mind wanders," said Babo. "He was thinking of the disease that followed the gales.My poor, poor master.Be patient senor, these attacks do not last long. Master will soon be himself." Don Benito recovered, and in a broken voice continued his story. "My ship was tossed about many days in storms off Cape Horn. And then there was an outbreak of scurvy. The disease carried off many whites and blacks.Most of my surviving seaman had become so sick that they could not handle the sails well.For days and nights we could not control the ship. It was blown north-westward. The wind suddenly left us in unknown waters with oppressive hot calms. Most of our water was gone. And we suffered terribly, especially after a deadly fever broke out among us. Whole families of blacks and many Spaniards, including every officer but myself, were killed by the disease." Don Benito paused. He looked down at the black man at his side. Babo seemed satisfied. The Spanish captain saw him take his hand from the knife hidden under his shirt. Captain Delano saw nothing. His mind was filled with the terrible tale he had just heard. Now he could understand why the other captain seemed so shaken. He took Don Benito's hand and promised to give him all the help possible. He would give him a large permanent supply of water, and some sails and equipment for sailing the ship. And he also promised to let Don Benito have three of his best seamen for temporary deck officers. ?In this way, the San Dominick could without delay start for Concepcion. There the ship could be fixed and prepared for its voyage to Lima. Don Benito's face lighted up. He seemed excited by Captain Delano's generous offer. But, Babo appeared troubled. "This excitement is bad for master," Babo whispered, taking Don Benito's arm and with soothing words gently drawing him aside. When Don Benito returned, Captain Delano observed that his excitement was gone. Captain Delano decided to talk of other matters. But the Spanish captain showed no further interest. He answered Captain Delano's questions with sharp words and suddenly with an angry movement he walked back to Babo. Captain Delano watched the two men whispering together in low voices. It made an ugly picture, which Captain Delano found so extremely unpleasant that he turned his face to the other side of the ship. Their actions made Delano suspicious of Captain Cereno.He began to wonder about him. His behavior. His coughing attacks. His weakness. His empty wild looks. Was he really half mad or a faker playing a part?? One moment Captain Delano had the worst suspicions of Don Benito. But the next he would feel guilty and ashamed of himself for having such doubts about the man. Presently, Don Benito moved back toward his guest, still supported by his servant. His pale face twitched. He seemed more nervous than usual. And there was a strange tone in his husky whisper as he spoke. "May I ask how many men you have on board, senor?"? Captain Delano became uneasy, but answered. "About twenty-five all total." "And at present, senor, all on board?"? "All on board,"?Captain Delano answered. "And will be tonight, senor?" At this last question, Captain Delano looked very seriously at Don Benito, who could not return the look but dropped his eyes to the deck. Captain Delano could think of only one reason for such a question. But no, it was foolish to think that these weak and starving men could have any idea of seizing his ship. But still he remained silent. "And will they be aboard tonight?"?? Again the question from Don Benito. Captain Delano decided to answer truthfully. Some of his men had talked of going off on a fishing party about midnight. And he told Don Benito this. As he answered, Captain Delano again looked straight at Don Benito.But the Spanish captain refused to meet his eyes. Then as before, he suddenly withdrew with his servant. And again the two men began whispering to each other in low voices. Captain Delano tried to push the worry from his mind. ?But what were those two strange men discussing? ?That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have been listening to the?V.O.A. Special English program, American Stories. Your narrator was Shep O'Neal. We invite you to listen again next week for the final part of "Benito Cereno" by Herman Melville. I'm Jim Tedder. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: More Words About Numbers:? Two Heads Are Better Than One
* Byline: Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. Last week, I told about the number one. Today, I will tell about expressions using other numbers. Some problems are difficult to solve. But there are a lot of number expressions that can help. For example, if we put two and two together, we might come up with the right answer. We know that two heads are better than one. It is always better to work with another person to solve a problem. Sometimes there are no two ways about it. Some problems have only one solution. You cannot be of two minds over this. But with any luck, we could solve the problem in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. We could have our answers quickly and easily. Sometimes we can kill two birds with one stone. That is, we can complete two goals with only one effort or action. But we must remember that two wrongs don’t make a right. If someone does something bad to you, you should not do the same to him. If you are going out with your girlfriend, or boyfriend, you do not want another friend to go along on your date. You can just say to your friend: two’s company, three’s a crowd. When I was a young child in school, I had to learn the three R’s. These important skills are reading, writing and arithmetic. These three words do not all start with the letter “R.”? But they have the sound of “R.”? My teachers used to give three cheers when I did well in math. They gave praise and approval for a job well done. Some of my friends were confused and did not understand their schoolwork. They were at sixes and sevens. In fact, they did not care if they finished high school. They saw little difference between the two choices. Six of one, half a dozen the other – that was their position. But they were really happy when they completed their studies and graduated from high school. They were in seventh heaven. They were on cloud nine. Nine times out of ten, students who do well in school find good jobs. Some work in an office doing the same things every day at nine-to-five jobs. You do not have to dress to the nines, or wear your best clothes, for this kind of work. Last year, one of my friends applied for a better job at her office. I did not think she would get it. I thought she had a hundred to one shot at the job. Other people at her office thought her chances were a million to one. One reason was that she had been caught catching forty winks at the office. She slept at her desk for short periods during the day. But her supervisor appointed her to the new job at the eleventh hour -- at the very last minute. I guess her lucky number came up. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Route 66 at Age 80: Taking a Drive on the Historic 'Mother Road'
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) ?VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The historic Route Sixty-Six from Chicago to Los Angeles is eighty years old this year. This week, we go for a ride through the colorful history of a road that has been called "the Main Street of America.”? (MUSIC: "Route 66”/Rosemary Clooney) VOICE ONE: The idea for Route Sixty-Six started in Oklahoma. Citizens there wanted to link their state with states to the east and west. By the nineteen twenties, federal officials wanted to connect state roads to provide a shorter, faster way across the country. So a plan was developed to connect existing state roads into one long national highway. United States Highway Sixty-Six was established on November eleventh, nineteen twenty-six. It was one the first federal highways. It crossed eight states. It was three thousand eight hundred kilometers long. Route Sixty-Six became the most famous road in America. It passed through the center of many cities and towns. It crossed deserts, mountains, valleys and rivers. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen thirties, people suffered through the Great Depression. In Oklahoma, many poor families lost their farms because of dust storms. So they traveled west to California on Route Sixty-Six in search of a better life. In nineteen thirty-nine, John Steinbeck wrote about these families in "The Grapes of Wrath." VOICE ONE: In his book, Steinbeck wrote: "66 -- the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map ... over the red lands and the gray lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys.” Steinbeck wrote: "66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land … 66 is the mother road, the road of flight." VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-six, the songwriter Bobby Troup and his wife drove across the country to Los Angeles. He wrote a song about traveling on Route Sixty-Six. The song told people they could have fun, could get their kicks, on that drive. In Los Angeles, Bobby Troup took the song to Nat King Cole, who recorded it. It became a huge hit. (MUSIC: "Route 66"/Nat King Cole) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen fifties, holiday travel brought more and more families out West to explore. Route Sixty-Six represented the spirit of movement and excitement. In the nineteen sixties, Americans watched a popular television series called "Route Sixty-Six."? It was the story of two young men driving across the country. The show was filmed in cities and towns across America. Yet only a few shows were filmed on the real Route Sixty-Six. VOICE TWO: In real life, people were getting fewer and fewer kicks on Route Sixty-Six. By nineteen sixty-two, parts of the road were closed because they were in poor condition. The federal government was building bigger highways. Cars and trucks could travel at higher speeds. People started driving on these new interstate highways instead of the old Route Sixty-Six. Finally, in nineteen eighty-five, Route Sixty-Six was officially removed from the national highway system. People have formed groups to save parts of the old Sixty-Six and many of the interesting places to eat, stay and see along the way. VOICE ONE: Award-winning writer Michael Wallis is an expert on the historic highway. He is the author of "Route Sixty-Six: The Mother Road."? Michael Wallis was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, right off the highway. He has lived in seven of the eight states along its path. His Web site, michaelwallis.com, has information and stories about the history of the Mother Road. (MUSIC: "Route 66"/Chuck Berry) VOICE TWO: Now it is our turn to take a trip on Route Sixty-Six. We will have to search for it at times. Many parts of the road have new names or numbers. Some parts of it are included in other interstate highways. Our trip begins in the Midwest, in Chicago, Illinois. Almost three million people live there. Chicago is America’s third largest city. From Chicago, the road goes southwest through many small towns in Illinois. One of them is Springfield, the home of America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. Now we cross into Missouri. We drive through Saint Louis, the city known as "the Gateway to the West."? More than three hundred thousand people live there. There are many natural wonders to see in Missouri. One of the most famous along Route Sixty-Six is Meramec Caverns in Stanton. VOICE ONE: Inside the cave, visitors see beautifully colored stalagmites and stalactites. These are mineral formations. Stalagmites rise from the floor; stalactites hang from the ceiling. Long ago, local Indian tribes used the Meramec Caverns for shelter. A French miner named Jacques Renault discovered saltpeter in the caverns in the seventeen hundreds. The material was used to produce gunpowder. Later, the outlaw Jesse James is said to have used the caverns as a hiding place. VOICE TWO: From Missouri, our drive takes us for a very short time through the state of Kansas. Then we enter Oklahoma. Oklahoma may well be the heart and soul of Route Sixty-Six. That is because there are more kilometers of the road in Oklahoma than in any other state. In Claremore, Oklahoma, a statue honors a famous American, Will Rogers. Will Rogers was born in Claremore. He became a popular actor, radio broadcaster and newspaper writer in the nineteen twenties and thirties. We pass through many historic towns in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma City, we can visit the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. And in Clinton, we can stop at the Route Sixty-Six Museum. This official museum tells the complete history of the road and its importance to America. (MUSIC: "Route 66"/Depeche Mode) VOICE ONE : Now we drive through the northern part of Texas. The area is called the Texas Panhandle. We stop near the city of Amarillo to look at some unusual art that celebrates Route Sixty-Six. Welcome to Cadillac Ranch. A Cadillac is a large, costly automobile. Cadillac Ranch has ten of them half buried in the ground. A wealthy farmer and art collector named Stanley Marsh created Cadillac Ranch to honor America’s roads. Continuing west, we travel through the states of New Mexico and Arizona. We pass through some of the most beautiful country in the Southwest. Petrified Forest National Park is one of the natural wonders of Arizona. Trees that are millions of years old have turned to stone in unusual shapes. North of Route Sixty-Six is a desert known for its red and yellow sand and rocks. Its name is the Painted Desert. (MUSIC: "Route 66"/John Mayer) VOICE TWO: We continue on our trip, driving on a winding road up and down the Black Mountains. We arrive at Oatman, Arizona. Long ago, Oatman was a rich gold-mining town. Everyone left the town when the mining ended. Today Oatman still looks like it did in the past. Now we enter California. We pass through the Mojave Desert, some mountains and several interesting towns. The old highway gets lost among the modern road systems of Los Angeles. Finally, we arrive at the Pacific Ocean in the city of Santa Monica. Our trip ends. ?We watch the tide come in, and thank Route Sixty-Six for the ride. (MUSIC: "Route 66"/Buckwheat Zydeco) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can listen to this show and read a transcript at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also get the names of all the artists you just heard singing versions of "Route Sixty-Six."? And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Report: Aid, Economic Growth Fail to Cut Poverty in Poorest Nations
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report says an increase in development aid has improved health and education levels in some of the world's poorest countries. But the United Nations report says poverty rates in these countries are not improving overall. Development aid has increased since two thousand two. Still, the report says severe poverty continues to worsen, in part because of H.I.V./AIDS. Environmental conditions also add to poverty. The report says climate change already affects many low-lying and island nations, and more problems are likely in the years to come. The report does show some areas of progress, however, which it credits to direct aid. For example, there are signs of improvement in many countries in elementary education and adult-reading levels. Other social measures including equality between males and females are also improving, but remain the lowest in the world. Many of the fifty countries rated as least developed have had strong economic growth in recent years. More than half recorded average yearly growth rates of four percent or more between two thousand and two thousand four. The report notes the effects of economic reforms, and the gains that oil producing countries have made from high oil prices. But in eighteen of the least developed countries, the economies shrank between nineteen ninety and two thousand four. And seven of these nations also saw a drop in their life expectancy, often because of AIDS. For example, the life expectancy of people in Lesotho dropped sharply between nineteen ninety and two thousand five. It fell from fifty-eight years to thirty-six. The report says that in many of the poorest countries, high birth rates are reducing the effects of economic improvements. So is a lack of equality when it comes to who gets resources. The report is for a meeting this September of the U.N. General Assembly. Delegates will discuss progress halfway through a ten-year Program of Action for the Least Developed Countries. Of the fifty, thirty-four are in Africa south of the Sahara. Fifteen are in Asia and the Pacific. And one is in the Caribbean: Haiti. Anwarul Chowdhury, the U.N. High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, called on the world to continue to help them. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Brianna Blake. If you would like to read and listen to all of our reports online, go to voaspecialenglish.com? I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Protections Increased for Waters of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach, Erin Schiavone and Jerilyn Watson

 Correction attached (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: A blue parrotfish swims by a coral on a reef near Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian IslandsAnd I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: The world's largest protected marine area ... VOICE ONE: And the search for some very old objects stolen in the American South ... VOICE TWO: But first a report on "monster tumors." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Researchers are studying the qualities of an unusual kind of cancer called a teratoma. They hope to use teratomas for stem cell experiments, without? the need for human embryos. Scientists are experimenting with stem cells to try to develop medical treatments. Embryonic stem cells are able to grow into the different kinds of cells and tissues in the body. But the stem cells can be collected only when an embryo is destroyed. Opponents of such research say it destroys human life. VOICE TWO: Teratoma cells form a large mass in the body. The cells develop like a fertilized egg. The name teratoma comes from a Greek word for monster. Like some frightening creature, teratomas can grow hair, teeth and skin. But they can also produce stem cells. Some researchers think teratomas offer a better way to see how cancer drugs will act in humans than tests on mice. But mice could be a way to produce a supply of teratomas to use for testing medicines. A recent report in the New York Times described work by researchers in Israel. They injected stem cells from human embryos into the legs of the mice. The animals developed teratomas. The researchers then put laboratory-grown cancer cells into the same areas. The cancer cells quickly spread through the teratomas, producing what the scientists think is a fertile place to test drugs. Teratomas can produce many different kinds of human tissue, so drugs could be tested on different kinds of cells. But some researchers think they may be most valuable for their stem cells. Teratomas that develop from egg cells lack the biological programming of embryos. So their stem cells could be used for research, but could not develop into human beings. VOICE ONE: Growths on the lower back, called sacrococcygeal teratomas, are common in children. Teratomas generally do not become malignant, the most serious form of cancer. Still, they can be dangerous. In fetuses, a teratoma can grow large enough to cause heart failure. But doctors may be able to remove it while the baby is still inside its mother. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The Pacific Ocean now has the world’s largest protected area for sea life. Earlier this month, President Bush established the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. It extends for more than three hundred sixty thousand square meters. The area is home to about seven thousand kinds of sea life. Many are found nowhere else. Ten islands, atolls and other landforms are in the newly protected area northwest of the main islands of Hawaii. The president noted that the area is larger than forty-six of the fifty states. He said the waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands will now receive the nation's highest form of marine environmental protection. The action calls for an end to commercial fishing in those waters over a five-year period. VOICE ONE: The declaration will limit visitors in most areas, but will provide for educational and scientific activities. It will also provide for cultural activities by Native Hawaiians. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will enforce the rules. Other presidents over the years have taken steps to protect the area. Almost one hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt declared much of Hawaii a national wildlife refuge. And, in recent times, Bill Clinton ordered additional protections. President Bush used a law passed by Congress a century ago. The National Antiquities Act lets the president take immediate action to protect important cultural or natural resources. VOICE TWO: A plan to declare the area a national marine sanctuary could have taken a year. And sanctuaries do not ban fishing except in special areas. Mister Bush signed the measure during a ceremony at the White House. The guests included Jean-Michel Cousteau. His father was the undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau. Mister Bush had seen a film that the son produced about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and their environmental threats. He says it helped him decide to take the action he did. Millions of seabirds live on the islands. So do the last of the severely endangered Hawaiian monk seals and most of the state's threatened green sea turtles. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Has anyone seen a large collection of very old earthen containers?? They were stolen from the Moundville Archeological Park in Alabama in nineteen eighty. Two hundred sixty-four bowls, bottles and broken pieces of pottery are missing. Some objects date back to prehistoric times. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has tried to find the artifacts. Not one piece of the collection is known to have been offered for sale. That leads some experts to believe all the objects are still together. Some people believe the artifacts have been taken out of the country. VOICE TWO: The Moundville archeological area is along the Black Warrior River in central Alabama. The Native Americans who lived there made their pottery of earth hardened by fire. Some of the containers have handles. Some have artwork. Animals are shown on some of the artifacts. The animals are thought to have had religious meaning. The stolen pottery represented twenty percent of the complete Moundville collection. The Alabama Museum of Natural History kept the artifacts in the Erskine Ramsay Archeological Repository. Experts say the best artifacts were stolen. VOICE ONE: The area is called Moundville because people built twenty-six small hills of earth around a large public square. One mound, known as Mound A, may have supported the home of the chief. The chief ruled the city-state apparently with total control. Experts say the settlement was occupied from one thousand years ago to five hundred fifty years ago. Archeologists discovered public buildings and many small houses. People were buried under some of the floors. The community was a political and religious center overlooking the river and protected by huge wooden walls. About ten thousand people are believed to have lived in the settlement and nearby areas. VOICE TWO: The warm climate and spring flooding in the lowlands of the Black Warrior River made the land fertile for growing maize. The first archeology at Moundville did not result from work by a trained scientist. Instead, the first investigator was a wealthy man from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For twenty years, Clarence Moore explored the southeastern United States in his steamboat. He explored the Black Warrior River area in nineteen-oh-five. A year later, he returned with a crew and began to dig. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-eight, the Civilian Conservation Corps unearthed the major discovery of the Moundville community. The Corps was one of the New Deal programs created by President Franklin Roosevelt. Many people had no jobs during the Great Depression. President Roosevelt put some to work on projects like saving historic places. From the findings at Moundville, scientists learned that the people did artistic work in pottery, stonework and copper. VOICE TWO: Vernon Knight works for the Alabama Museum of Natural History. He says the Moundville society seemed to do well until about six hundred fifty years ago. At that time, Mister Knight says, Moundville stopped looking like a community. But it still was used as a political and ceremonial center. After that, however, the society seemingly lost importance. Moundville was largely unoccupied by the fifteen hundreds. No one knows why. So two mysteries remain. What happened to the people?? And where are their stolen artifacts? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Erin Schiavone and Jerilyn Watson. If you missed any of our show, you can read a transcript and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. --- Correction: An earlier version of this page contained the sentence: "What works in humans does not always work in animals." It should have read: "What works in animals does not always work in humans." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-26-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Japan Awaits Final Tests Before End to Ban on U.S. Beef
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 Correction attached I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Japan agreed last week to import beef from the United States again. But first, Japanese officials will inspect American meat processors as a final step to be sure the beef is safe. The Japanese government banned American beef in December of two thousand three. At that time, the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease. The official name is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B.S.E. Scientists link the brain disease in cows to a rare version in humans. The Japanese government eased its import ban last December, after two years. But the discovery in January of backbone material in a shipment of meat led officials to renew the ban. Experts say spinal cords may spread B.S.E. To reduce the risk of B.S.E., beef products exported to Japan must come from cattle twenty months or younger. Under the new agreement, Japanese experts will inspect all thirty-five American meat-processing centers permitted to export to Japan. The teams are expected to finish their work by July twenty-first. In the future, Japanese officials will be able to join American inspectors for surprise inspections. Also, Japan has agreed to consider steps like the rejection of individual shipments instead of a complete ban. The agreement followed long negotiations by agricultural and trade officials. Lawmakers in Congress have proposed to punish Japan with high customs if it does not open its market by August thirty-first. The United States was one of the largest exporters of beef until the finding of B.S.E. in a cow in Washington state in two thousand three. After that, exports dropped by more than eighty percent. A second infected cow was found in Texas last year. But exports have started to recover. The government says it expects American farmers to export more than four hundred thousand metric tons of beef this year. Still, that is less than half the levels in two thousand three. The United States is the world's largest producer and user of beef, as well as the biggest importer. Japan is the second biggest importer. But until two thousand three, it was the top market for American beef. That year, Japan imported more than one thousand million dollars worth. Since then, Australia and New Zealand have increased their beef exports to Japan. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. If you would like?to read and listen to our report online, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. --- Correction: Officials have announced three cases of mad cow disease in the United States, not two; the third was reported in Alabama in March. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How a Child's Ability to Learn Language Figures Into the Immigration Issue
* Byline: 

  RS: Our guest is Hoyt Bleakley, an economist at the University of Chicago. He and Aimee Chin at the University of Houston have studied the effects of age on the earnings of immigrants to the United States. HOYT BLEAKLEY: "We found when we looked at people who had come to the country, when they were brought as children by their parents, that it had a substantial impact -- on the order of, using our design, looking at numbers like ten, fifteen, twenty percent differences between people who were brought early enough that they could acquire English at essentially a native level, versus people who were brought later. "The idea is that before puberty, certain maturation changes happen in your brain that makes it more difficult to learn language, makes it sort of almost impossible to get, to acquire the language to the point where you have no accent, but even difficulty in understanding the grammatical structures and acquiring vocabulary. And, as I say, this happens sometimes before puberty, different ages for different people, but maybe nine, ten, eleven isn't such a bad number." RS: "What message, would you say, does this have for the public policy debate about the teaching of English as a foreign or second language in our public schools?" HOYT BLEAKLEY: "When you consider that a difference of five or so years makes a difference of five to ten to fifteen percent in your wages and also, in effect, makes that person a first-generation instead of a second-generation immigrant -- then policies that can accelerate the process by which families with children can come into the country at younger ages I think are worth considering. "So I would suggest that a lot of the people who are here who haven't really been able to learn, it's maybe because it's very difficult for them to do so. Why else would they apparently leave this money on the table and not decide to learn it facing these big incentives?" RS: "The incentive is there, but if they can't speak the language, they can't get the jobs." HOYT BLEAKLEY: "That's right. And so part of the kind of compact or bargain that traditionally we've had with regard to immigrants is that their children will be given a fair shot. And so a lot of people come maybe even accepting that their own status is going to be relatively low, but on the other hand their children will have these terrific opportunities. "That actually ties into the second study that we've done which is actually looking at the group that we mentioned before, the sort of early and late … arrivers, and looking at their children. And the idea being: Is there something about being in a household that has a strong English speaker versus a weak English speaker which actually helps children in their realization as well, both educationally and in terms of integration into the language and culture of the U.S." AA: "And what did you find there?" HOYT BLEAKLEY: "There we find that even though these children are natives, of course a lot of their language environment comes from the home, and so they're enrolling in school with language deficiencies. And that's certainly an issue, maybe not in preschool or kindergarten where you're perhaps not learning anything besides social interaction. But once you start learning hard skills like arithmetic and reading and so forth in primary school, it's very important to really be up to speed on the language." RS: Hoyt Bleakley is a professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. The second study he mentioned is not yet published, but the first appeared in the Review of Economics and Statistics. AA: Now to follow up on our recent segment about what to call people who are in the United States without following immigration laws -- which is currently classified as a civil rather than a criminal offense. We talked to linguist Otto Santa Ana at the University of California, Los Angeles. He says "illegal immigrant" is a biased political term, and that a neutral term like "undocumented immigrant" is better. RS: Listener James Metcalf in Durban, South Africa, disagrees. He writes: "It's a long time since I heard such specious arguments, but it's the kind of thing one expects from left-of-center liberals from U.S. universities. It is illegal to enter the U.S. (or any other country) without proper permits. Ipso facto, they are therefore illegal immigrants." AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. If you have a comment, or a question, we'd love to hear it. Write to word@voanews.com. And you can download all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Visiting Seven Man-Made Wonders of the U.S.
* Byline: Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC)VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. There are many natural wonders in the United States. Today, we take you to seven man-made wonders in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: “Against the city's gleaming spires,"Above the ships that ply the stream,"A bridge of haunting beauty stands –"Fulfillment of an artist's dream.” That poem is about our first man-made wonder – the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. It extends more than four hundred eighty meters over the East River to connect the areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. A famous bridge builder David B. Steinman wrote the poem. But he did not build the Brooklyn Bridge. VOICE TWO: It was the dream of another man, John A. Roebling. He was a member of the design team and became chief engineer of the building project in eighteen sixty-seven. Sadly, he became sick and died before work even started. He had an accident when visiting the area where the bridge was to be built. Building began in eighteen seventy. It was very dangerous. Few records were kept on such events. But, historians say between twenty and thirty men died as a result of the building project. Some died from falling off the bridge or from being struck by equipment. Others died or were injured from working in the structures called caissons. These lay deep below the surface of the Earth. The workers would get a pressure sickness called the bends. VOICE ONE: John Roebling’s son, Washington, was severely disabled by the bends. He had been named chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge project soon after his father died. Washington Roebling continued the work from his home after he was disabled. The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May twenty-fourth, eighteen eighty-three. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is still a beautiful structure. The bridge has tens of thousands of suspension wires that spread many meters across and up and down to towers on each side. From a distance the many wires look like the stringed musical instrument called the harp. The center of the Brooklyn Bridge rises almost forty meters above the East River. It is one of the most famous and beloved New York City landmarks. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another bridge makes our list of the seven man-made wonders. This one is in northern California. The Golden Gate Bridge is named after the waterway it crosses. The Golden Gate Strait lies between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. The bridge over it links the city of San Francisco with Marin County. Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge. Building began in nineteen thirty-three. The bridge opened in nineteen thirty-seven. It is almost one thousand three hundred meters long. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world for almost thirty years. Then, in nineteen sixty-four, the larger Verrazano Narrows bridge opened in New York City. VOICE ONE: Joseph Strauss used newly developed protective equipment for the men who worked on the bridge. These included a special safety net under the bridge. But still, eleven men were killed during construction. The color of the bridge, International Orange, is very important. It was chosen partly because it is easier to see through the heavy fog that often covers San Francisco. Many people consider the Golden Gate Bridge the most beautiful bridge structure in the world. VOICE TWO: Joseph Strauss wrote a poem about his bridge when the work was done. Here is part of “The Mighty Task is Done.” “At last the mighty task is done; Resplendent in the western sun The Bridge looms mountain high; Its titan piers grip ocean floor, Its great steel arms link shore with shore, Its towers pierce the sky.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our next man-made wonder is as famous a landmark in the Midwest United States as the first two are on the East and West Coasts. The Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is the tallest freestanding monument in the nation. The shiny, steel curve rises to almost two hundred meters. Below, the arch is exactly as wide as it is tall. The famous Finnish American building designer, Eero Saarinen, designed the Gateway Arch during a national competition in the late nineteen forties. However, building did not begin until February, nineteen sixty-three. It was completed in October, nineteen sixty-five. Later a transport system was added to permit people to visit an observation area inside the top of the arch. The Gateway Arch rises above the Mississippi River. It was named in honor of Saint Louis, which was historically called “The Gateway to the West.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There is one place in America that almost everyone agrees is a man-made wonder:? South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore. Giant faces of four great American presidents are cut into the rock near the top of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills. Each face is about eighteen meters high. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum was chosen to create the Mount Rushmore memorial. It was completed in nineteen forty-one, after fourteen years. Each president represents important values in America. George Washington led the cause for independence. Thomas Jefferson represented the belief in equality. Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and saved the Union. And Theodore Roosevelt was a conservationist and symbol of the progressive spirit of America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We go next to one of the largest and most difficult structures ever built in the United States: Hoover Dam. The dam is in the Black Canyon, near Las Vegas, Nevada. It controls the water of the Colorado River and produces electric power. Workers began to build Hoover Dam in nineteen thirty-one. They finished in just five years. More than twenty thousand men worked on the project. It was very dangerous. Ninety-six workers were killed. Many others were injured. The Hoover Dam is two hundred twenty-one meters tall. It weighs more than six and one half million tons. At the time, it was the largest and tallest dam in the world. And it was one of the largest producers of electric power ever built. Hoover Dam also created Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another man-made wonder of the United States was built long before the nation was established. About nine hundred years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan people built villages high in the walls of canyons in Mesa Verde, Colorado. Six hundred cliff dwellings are now part of the Mesa Verde National Park. Visitors can stand at the top of the mesas and look into the dwellings almost hidden in openings of the rock walls. The Puebloan people cut small steps into the rock. A series of such steps connected buildings containing hundreds of rooms. The rock walls have protected the buildings from severe weather in the area. So they remain mostly unchanged in the hundreds of years since they were built. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our final man-made wonder is in the northwestern city of Seattle, Washington. The Space Needle was built as the central structure for the nineteen sixty-two World’s Fair. Edward Carlson designed the one hundred eighty-four meter tall structure. The Space Needle has a wide base on the ground. It is narrow in the middle. On top is a large ring-like structure. The structure was meant to look like a “flying saucer,” a vehicle that was popular in science fiction space travel stories. The saucer includes an observation area and eating-place. The restaurant slowly turns to provide visitors with a three hundred sixty degree view of Seattle. The Space Needle was not very costly. The building project cost about four million five hundred thousand dollars. It was designed and completed in about a year and opened on the first day of the World’s Fair. Today, the Space Needle is the most popular place for visitors to Seattle. And it remains the internationally known symbol of the city. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Say Anger Disorder 'Much More Common' Than Believed
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. Lots of people get angry in traffic. But some people get really angry. This hostility can lead to aggressive actions or, in some cases, violence. Angry drivers have been known to pull out a gun or cause a crash. For years people have called it road rage. Now we are hearing a medical name. Experts say that in some cases, these actions are linked to a deeper problem: intermittent explosive disorder, or I.E.D. It means that from time to time people explode in anger. They may attack others or damage property. Medical experts say this disorder is caused by an imbalance in brain chemicals. The National Institute of Mental Health recently paid for a study of intermittent explosive disorder. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at the University of Chicago did the work. The researchers used information from a study of more than nine thousand adults in the United States. They found that intermittent explosive disorder is "much more common" than has been recognized. They say it affects as many as seven percent of adults at some point in their lifetimes, depending on how widely it is defined. The study suggests that the condition affects up to sixteen million Americans. It generally appears around the age of fourteen, and is more common in men than in women. Doctors say it usually begins with incidents of extreme anger directed at family members. They say the problem is made worse for some by stress from bad drivers, long travel times, crowded roads and busy lives. They say a small traffic problem can cause the person to become uncontrollably angry. Mental health specialists say the study is important because not many people know about intermittent explosive disorder. They say the anger can be controlled with medication and therapy. The findings are published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. More than eighty percent of the people with the disorder also had depression, anxiety or problems with drugs or alcohol. But the researchers say less than thirty percent were ever treated for their anger. They suggest that early treatment of anger might prevent some of the other disorders. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Brianna Blake. You can find this report online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Blacks Set Out in Search of a Better Life in 1920s American Society
* Byline: David Jarmul

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The early years of the twentieth century were a time of movement for many black Americans. Traditionally, most blacks lived in the Southeastern states. But in the nineteen twenties, many blacks moved to cities in the North. Black Americans moved because living conditions were so poor in the rural areas of the Southeast. But many of them discovered that life was also hard in the colder Northern cities. Jobs often were hard to find. Housing was poor. And whites sometimes acted brutally against them. The life of black Americans forms a special piece of the history of the nineteen twenties. That will be our story today. VOICE TWO: The years just before and after nineteen twenty were difficult for blacks. It was a time of racial hatred. Many whites joined the Ku Klux Klan organization. The Klan often terrorized blacks. Klan members sometimes burned fiery crosses in front of the houses of black families. And they sometimes beat and murdered blacks. The Ku Klux Klan also acted against Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. But it hated blacks most of all. VOICE ONE: Smoke over Tulsa, Oklahoma, during 1921 race riotsThe United States also suffered a series of race riots in a number of cities during this period. White and black Americans fought each other in Omaha, Philadelphia, and other cities. The worst riot was in Chicago. A swimming incident started the violence. A black boy sailing a small boat entered a part of the beach used by white swimmers. Some white persons threw stones at the boy. He fell into the water and drowned. Black citizens heard about the incident and became extremely angry. Soon, black and white mobs were fighting each other in the streets. The violence lasted for two weeks. Thirty-eight persons died. More than five-hundred were wounded. The homes of hundreds of families were burned. The violence in Chicago and other cities did not stop black Americans from moving north or west. They felt that life had to be better than in the South. VOICE TWO: Black Americans left the South because life was hard, economic chances few, and white hatred common. But many blacks arrived in other parts of the country only to learn that life was no easier. Some blacks wrote later that they had only traded the open racism of the rural Southeast for the more secret racism of Northern cities. Blacks responded to these conditions in different ways. Some blacks followed the ideas of Booker T. Washington, the popular black leader of the early nineteen hundreds. Washington believed that blacks had to educate and prepare themselves to survive in American society. He helped form a number of training schools where blacks could learn skills for better jobs. And he urged blacks to establish businesses and improve themselves without causing trouble with whites. Other blacks liked the stronger ideas of William Du Bois. W. E. B. Du BoisDu Bois felt that blacks had to take firm actions to protest murders and other illegal actions. He published a magazine and spoke actively for new laws and policies to protect black rights. Du Bois also helped form a group that later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The N.A.A.C.P. became one of the nation's leading black rights organizations in the twentieth century. VOICE ONE: Probably the most important leader for black Americans in the nineteen twenties did not come from the United States. He was Marcus Garvey from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Garvey moved to New York City in nineteen sixteen. He quickly began organizing groups in black areas. His message was simple. He said blacks should not trust whites. Instead, they should be proud of being black and should help each other. Garvey urged blacks to leave the United States, move to Africa, and start their own nation. Marcus Garvey organized several plans to help blacks become economically independent of whites. His biggest effort was a shipping company to trade goods among black people all over the world. Many American blacks gave small amounts of money each week to help Garvey start the shipping company. However, the idea failed. Government officials arrested Garvey for collecting the money unlawfully. They sent him to prison in nineteen twenty-five. And two years later, President Coolidge ordered Garvey out of the country. Marcus Garvey's group was the first major black organization in the United States to gain active support from a large number of people. The organization failed. But it did show the anger and lack of hope that many blacks felt about their place in American society. VOICE TWO: Blacks also showed their feelings through writing, art, and music. The nineteen twenties were one of the most imaginative periods in the history of American black art. Claude Mckay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen were three of the leading black poets during this time. Mckay was best known for his poems of social protest. Hughes produced poems about black life that experts now say are among the greatest American poems ever written. Black writers also produced longer works. Among the leading black novelists were Jessie Faucet, Jean Toomer, and Rudolph Fisher. VOICE ONE: The nineteen twenties also were an exciting time for black music. Black musicians playing the piano developed the ragtime style of music. Singers and musicians produced a sad, emotional style of playing that became known as the blues. And most important, music lovers began to play and enjoy a new style that was becoming known as jazz. Louis ArmstrongJazz advanced greatly as a true American kind of music in the nineteen twenties. Musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Eubie Blake played in gathering places and small theaters. White musicians and music experts from universities came to listen. Soon the music became popular among Americans of all kinds and around the world. VOICE TWO: Blacks began to recognize in the nineteen twenties their own deep roots in the United States. They began to see just how much black men and women already had done to help form American history and traditions. The person who did the most to help blacks understand this was black historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson received his training at two leading universities: Harvard in Massachusetts and the Sorbonne in France. He launched a new publication, The Journal of Negro History, in which he and other experts wrote about black life and history. Historians today call Woodson the father of the scientific study of black history. VOICE ONE: The nineteen twenties also were a period in which a number of blacks experimented with new political ideas and parties. The difficult social conditions of the period led many blacks to search for new political solutions. Two leftist parties -- the Socialists and the Communists -- urged blacks to leave the traditional political system and work for more extreme change. Two leading black Socialists, Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph, urged blacks to support Socialist candidates. However, they gained little popular support from blacks. Communists also tried to organize black workers. But generally, black voters showed little interest in communist ideas. The most important change in black political thinking during the nineteen twenties came within the traditional two-party system itself. Blacks usually had voted for Republicans since the days of Abraham Lincoln. But the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen twenties caused many blacks to become Democrats. By nineteen thirty-two, blacks would vote by a large majority for the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And blacks continue to be a major force in the Democratic Party. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your speakers have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New Study Disputes Idea of a Boy Crisis in U.S. Schools
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. As we discussed last week, there have been a lot of reports that boys are in trouble in American education. Some people say efforts to improve education for girls, especially in math and science, have resulted in a crisis for boys. That belief has led to what a new report calls a growth industry of experts advising how to make schools more "boy friendly."? Yet that report, released this week, suggests that the truth is far different from what people might think. It says American boys in most cases are doing better than ever. "But girls have just improved their performance on some measures even faster," it says. As a result, girls have narrowed or closed differences with boys in some areas and moved farther ahead of them in others. The report is by Sara Mead at Education Sector, an independent research group launched in January in Washington. She bases her arguments on tests used since the early nineteen seventies for a national measure of educational progress. The report does agree that some groups of boys are in trouble. It says this is true especially of Hispanics and blacks and those from poor families. But it says closing racial and economic differences would help them more than reducing differences between boys and girls. Another concern is the large number of boys being identified with learning and emotional disabilities. Also, the report says policymakers now recognize the need to reform public high schools. Such changes should help boys as well as girls. But the report questions what it calls "simplistic" proposals to fix problems for boys in American schools. One example given is expanding single-sex schooling. In nineteen ninety-eight, only a few public schools offered any kind of single-sex learning environment. Today, there are more than two hundred. The majority normally teach boys and girls together but offer some single-sex classes. Findings on the success of the idea have differed. The Education Sector report calls for more study into the differences between boys and girls and into the culture of schools. It says the research will help teachers and parents better understand why gains for boys are not rising as fast as for girls. But the report also advises the public not to worry too much, and to be careful not to harm the gains that girls have made. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and audio can be downloaded at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Poet Laureate Donald Hall | 'Da Vinci Code' | Anthony Hamilton's Music
* Byline: Lawan Davis, Erin Schiavone and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about “The Da Vinci Code”… Play some music from Anthony Hamilton… And report about America’s new poet laureate. New Poet Laureate HOST: Donald Hall has been named the new poet laureate of the United States. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. FAITH LAPIDUS: The poet laureate is responsible for increasing interest among Americans in reading and writing poetry. The poet laureate serves for at least one year. Donald Hall is the fourteenth poet laureate of the United States. He is seventy-seven years old. Mister Hall lives in the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He lives in a two hundred year old farmhouse that his grandparents owned for many years. Donald Hall has written fifteen books of poetry. He has also written other books, short stories, plays and children’s books. He has been honored with many awards. A documentary film was made about Mister Hall and his wife, the poet Jane Kenyon. The film was called “A Life Together.”? Here is Shep O’Neal reading part of Mister Hall’s poem “An Old Life.”?? SHEP O'NEAL: Snow fell in the night.At five-fifteen I woke to a bluishmounded softness wherethe Honda was. Cat fed and coffee made,I broomed snow off the carand drove to the Kearsarge Mini-Martbefore Amy openedto yank my Globe out of the bundle.Back, I set my cup of coffeebeside Jane, still half-asleep,murmuring stuporousthanks in the aquamarine morning. FAITH LAPIDUS: Mister Hall has written many poems about nature and about his wife. Jane Kenyon died of leukemia, a cancer of the blood, in nineteen ninety-five. She was forty-seven. Mister Hall has written many different kinds of poems. Here is part of his poem “Baseball”: SHEP O'NEAL: Well, there are nine players on a baseball team, so to speak, and there are nine innings, with trivialexceptions like extra-inning gamesand games shortened by rain or darkness,by riot, hurricane, earthquake... FAITH LAPIDUS: As the new poet laureate, Donald Hall has many goals. He hopes to have more radio broadcasts of poetry on public radio stations. He would also like to see more television programs about poetry. The last poet laureate, Ted Kooser, writes a weekly column about poetry that is printed in newspapers around the country. Mister Hall says he would also like to write a newspaper column about poetry. And he says he wants to work to protect Americans’ freedom of speech. The Da Vinci Code HOST:? Our listener question today comes from Vietnam. Mai Lien wants to know if the story in the movie “The Da Vinci Code” is true. Ron Howard directed the film, “The Da Vinci Code.”? It is based on a book of the same name by Dan Brown. Both men say the story is fiction, a work of imagination. But some of the history, places and events in the story are real. So it is not hard to see why people are arguing about the truth, or lack of it, in “The Da Vinci Code.” People have bought more than sixty million copies of the book in three years. The movie is also very popular. In its first weekend alone, the movie earned more than two hundred twenty million dollars around the world. The story tells about a dangerous search for the Holy Grail. The Grail usually has been thought of as a cup, a container used during the last meal of Jesus and his followers. The Grail also is said to have held the blood of Jesus as he died on the cross. But “The Da Vinci Code” is based on the idea that one of Jesus’ followers, Mary Magdalene, was also his wife. The story says she and Jesus had a baby daughter. The film says Mary Magdalene herself is the Holy Grail. The story says Mary and her daughter fled to France after Jesus was killed. It says their descendants are alive today. Critics say this idea attacks the central beliefs of the Christian religion. They say it unfairly charges that the Roman Catholic Church has been suppressing the truth. Some Catholic officials have called on Catholics to boycott the movie. Most experts on the Bible, the Christian holy book, say there is no evidence that Jesus was ever married. Others say no evidence exists that he was not married. In the film, actors? struggle to discover the secret of the Grail. Tautou’s character’s grandfather knew the secret. But he is found dead in the Louvre museum in Paris, France. This is the home of the famous? “Mona Lisa” painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. The story says that Da Vinci’s artworks contain clues about where the body of Mary Magdalene is buried. But a number of real-life art experts dispute the idea. Anthony Hamilton HOST: Singer Anthony Hamilton is one of today’s most popular performers of rhythm and blues music. But there was a time when it seemed he would not become a widely known singer. Mario Ritter tells us about him. MARIO RITTER: In two thousand three, Anthony Hamilton gained praise from music critics with his album “Comin’ From Where I’m From.”? The album sold more than one million copies. Before the success of that album, Hamilton had recorded songs with two other record companies. But in both cases the companies failed before his albums were released. Anthony Hamilton recently released another album. ?It is called “Ain’t Nobody Worryin’.”? Here he sings the title song from the album. (MUSIC) Anthony Hamilton has been compared to some of the best soul singers including Al Green and Bill Withers. Hamilton’s voice is natural and easy. His writes and sings songs that are filled with emotion. That combination works well in the love song “Can’t Let Go.”? (MUSIC) Hamilton says he writes songs about real life issues including his personal experiences. We leave you with the song “Pass Me Over” from Anthony Hamilton’s album “Ain’t Nobody Worryin’.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Lawan Davis, Erin Schiavone and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-29-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Warren Buffett Gives Huge Gift to Gates Foundation
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In the past, investor Warren Buffett was known for making money, not giving it away. On June twenty-sixth, Mister Buffett changed all that when he announced a huge gift to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mister Buffett said he would give away about eighty-five percent of his stock in Berkshire Hathaway, the company he has built for more than thirty years. The value of the gift is based on the price of Berkshire stock. It is currently estimated at about thirty-seven thousand million dollars. Mister Buffett says he plans to give a total of ten million class B shares in his company to the Gates Foundation. Five percent of those shares will be given each year starting this month. This year’s gift is about one point five thousand million dollars. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was formed in two thousand. Bill Gates is well known as the world’s wealthiest man. He started and is the largest shareholder of Microsoft, the largest computer software company in the world. The Gates Foundation currently holds more than twenty-nine thousand million dollars. It gave away about one point three thousand million dollars last year. The foundation mainly gives money to solve world health problems, ease poverty and increase technology among people in developing countries. Mister Buffett announced his gift at the New York City Public Library. He said he believed in giving something back to society. He said he thought the Gates Foundation could do a better job of giving his money away than he could. He said he thought Bill and Melinda Gates could take on large projects that could help all of humanity. Mister Buffett’s gift is unusual not only for its size. It also comes with several conditions. First, either Bill or Melinda Gates must remain alive and active in running their foundation. The foundation must continue to be a non-profit group that does not pay taxes. And, the foundation must spend five percent of its total money each year, including all of Mister Buffett’s yearly gift. Mister Buffett has also promised large gifts to four other foundations established by him and his wife. Warren Buffett is one of the world’s most successful investors. ?Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company, designed to hold stock of other companies. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-06/2006-06-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Buffett's Gift: Starting a New Page in the History of Giving to Charity
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Americans gave an estimated two hundred sixty thousand million dollars to charity last year. That was an increase of six percent over two thousand four. The Giving USA Foundation says about half the increase resulted from giving after natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina and other severe storms hit the Gulf Coast. There was the earthquake in Pakistan, and the effects of the Indian Ocean tsunami. The United States has more than one million philanthropic organizations, including churches and other religious groups. Individual giving is the single biggest way American charities get money. More than three-fourths of their money last year came from individuals. But no one has ever given more than Warren Buffett is about to give. The seventy-five-year-old investor is worth an estimated forty-four thousand million dollars. This week he announced he will give most of that away. The majority is to go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve health and education around the world. In all, five organizations will receive shares in his Berkshire Hathaway holding company in Nebraska. The Chronicle of Philanthropy calls Mister Buffett's gift "the largest in philanthropic history."? The newspaper says Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, held the record until now. The word philanthropy comes from Greek and Latin. It means a love of humankind, especially as shown through an act like giving to charity. One early American philanthropist was Benjamin Franklin. When he died in seventeen ninety, he left some of his wealth to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston. Another was Andrew Carnegie. The Carnegie Steel Company made him the world’s richest man. But in the early nineteen hundreds he gave away most of his money. He gave money to build more than two thousand public libraries. He started organizations to further scientific research and other knowledge and to support international peace. Today, American philanthropists include the Hungarian-born George Soros. His Open Society Institute supports activities in more than fifty countries. But he is also known for his activism in American politics. Another modern-day philanthropist is the media personality Oprah Winfrey. Her Oprah’s Angel Network supports non-profit groups. Still another is Larry Ellison, chief of the software company Oracle. He was in the news this week -- not for giving, but for taking back an offer. Mister Ellison had offered one hundred fifteen million dollars to Harvard University to create a global health foundation. He has now cancelled the gift after the resignation of Harvard President Larry Summers. Reports say he is expected to make another offer in the near future. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about Warren Buffett's gift, go to voaspecialenglish.com and listen Monday at this time to the DEVELOPMENT REPORT. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Benito Cereno, Part Three
* Byline: Herman Melville

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the V.O.A. Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Today we complete the story of Benito Cereno, written by Herman Melville. As we told you in earlier parts of our story, rebel slaves seized the ship San Dominick off the coast of Chile. They killed?many of its officers and crew. The captain, Benito Cereno, was ordered to sail to Senegal. But first, he was forced to take the ship to the lonely island of Santa Maria, near the southern end of Chile. There, it could safely get water and supplies for the long, dangerous voyage to Africa. At the island, the rebels were surprised and frightened when they found an American ship anchored in the harbor. It also had stopped for water. Many of the rebels wanted to sail away. But their leader, Babo, opposed it. They had little water and food, and could not go far. Babo created a story to keep anyone from suspecting that the Spanish vessel was in the hands of rebels, and that its captain was a prisoner. At first, Babo seemed successful.The captain of the American ship, Amasa Delano, visited the San Dominick. He suspected nothing, although surprised by the general disorder on board. He also could not understand the strange behavior of its captain, Benito Cereno. Later incidents, however, began to worry him. Captain Delano grew more and more suspicious. At one time, he even feared that his life might be in danger. Twice, he caught the Spanish captain and his servant, Babo, with their heads together, whispering like two conspirators. It made Captain Delano wonder. Were they plotting to kill him and seize his ship?? Who were these men, cut throats?? Pirates? Captian Delano grew nervous. Then, he was happy to see his whale boat off in the distance. It was returning with supplies for the Spanish ship. The sight of his boat calmed him. It made his suspicions and fear quickly disappear. He felt foolish for having had such dark thoughts. Now, here is Shep O'Neal with the rest of our story, "Benito Cereno." STORYTELLER:? Captain Delano went down to Captain Cereno’s cabin to cheer him up and say goodbye. “Better and better, Don Benito,” he said as he entered the cabin, “your troubles will soon be over.”? The American invited the Spanish captain to come aboard his boat for a cup of coffee. Cereno’s eyes brightened. But then the light in them died. He shook his head and said he could not accept the invitation. Captain Delano was offended. He was about to withdraw when Don Benito rose from his chair and took Delano’s hand. The Spaniard’s hand shook. And he was too excited to speak. Delano pulled his hand away and turned, climbing back to the deck. His face was troubled. Captain Delano could not understand Don Benito's actions. One minute the Spaniard was warm and polite. Then -- just as quickly -- cold and hostile. Captain Delano asked himself:?Why did he refuse to join me??Why is he so unfriendly? Captain Delano got to the deck and was about to step down into his boat when he heard his name. To his surprise, Don Benito was calling, coming quickly toward him. Captain Delano was pleased and turned back to meet him. Don Benito warmly took his hand, with more energy and emotion than he had ever shown. But his excitement seemed too much for him, and he could not speak. Babo then came between the two men and put his arm around Don Benito to support him. Clearly, he wanted to end the meeting between the two captains. Walking between the two men, Babo went with them to the walkway. Don Benito would not let go of Captain Delano’s hand. He held it tightly across the servant’s body. Soon, they were standing by the ship’s side, looking down onto the American boat. Its crew turned up their wondering eyes.Captain Delano did not know what to do as he waited for Don Benito to let go of his hand. He wanted to step down into his boat. But Don Benito still firmly held his hand. Then, in an excited voice the Spaniard said: “I can go no further. Here I must say goodbye. Farewell, my dear, dear Don Amasa. Go! Go!”? And he tore his hand loose. “Go, and God protect you better than he did me. Go, Don Amasa, my best friend.” Captain Delano was deeply moved. He would have stayed for another minute or so, but he caught the eye of Babo. It seemed to say, ‘This is bad for Don Benito’s health.’ And so he quickly took the short step down into his boat with the continuing farewells of Don Benito, who stood rooted at the ship’s side. Captain Delano sat down in the back of his boat, gave Don Benito a last salute, and ordered his men to push off. The boat began to move. Suddenly, Don Benito sprang over the side and came down at Delano’s feet. And he kept shouting toward the Spanish ship. His cries were so wild that no one could understand him. An American officer asked what does this mean. Captain Delano turned a cold smile upon Captain Cereno and said he neither knew nor cared. It seems, he added, that the Spaniard has taken it into his head to give his people the idea that we want to kidnap him. Or else…and suddenly Captain Delano shouted: “Watch out for your lives!” He saw Babo, the servant, on the rail above, with a dagger in his hand. He was ready to jump. What followed happened so quickly that Captain Delano could not tell one incident from another. They all came together in one great blur of violent action and excitement. As Babo came down, Captain Delano flung Don Benito aside and caught the rebel leader, pulling the dagger from his hand. He pushed Babo firmly down in the bottom of the boat, which now began to pick up speed. Then, Babo, with his one free hand, pulled a second dagger from his clothes and struck at Captain Cereno. Captain Delano knocked it from his hand. Now, he saw everything clearly: Babo had leaped into the whale boat – not to kill him – but to kill Captain Cereno. For the first time, he understood the mysterious behavior of Don Benito – a prisoner under sentence of death. He looked back at the Spanish ship and got a clear picture of what its captain had escaped. On board the San Dominick, the shouting rebels were raising their axes and knives in a wild revolt. They stopped some of the Spanish sailors from jumping into the sea. A few, however, jumped, while two or three, who were not quick enough, went hurrying up the top-most wood arms. Captain Delano signaled to his ship, ordering it to get its guns ready. When the whale boat reached his ship Captain Delano asked for ropes. He tied Babo, and had him pulled up on deck. A small boat was quickly sent out to pick up three Spanish sailors who had?jumped from Captain Cereno’s ship. Captain Delano asked Don Benito what?guns the rebels had. He answered that they had none that could be used. In the first days of the rebellion, a cabin passenger now dead had destroyed the few guns there were. The Americans fired six shots at the San Dominick. But the rebel ship moved out of reach. Small boats were armed and lowered. Captain Delano ordered his men into them. And they moved out to capture the rebel ship. The boats caught up with the San Dominick when it was nearly night. But the moon was rising, and the gunners were able to see where they were shooting. The rebels had no bullets. And they could do nothing but yell. Many of the rebels were killed and the San Dominick was captured. After an investigation, Babo was found guilty of stealing a ship and of murder, and was hanged. Captain Benito Cereno never was well again and?he soon died.So, ended the terrible story of the slave revolt aboard the slave ship, the San Dominick. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have just heard the American Story "Benito Cereno."? It was written by Herman Melville. Your storyteller was Shep O'Neal. Join us again next week for another American Story in V.O.A. Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Todd Duncan Broke Race Barriers With Music
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell the story of Todd Duncan -- a concert singer and music teacher. He is the man who broke a major color barrier for black singers of classical music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is nineteen-forty-five. The place is New York City. The New York City Opera Company just finished performing the Italian opera "Pagliacci." Todd Duncan is on the stage. He had just become the first African American man to sing with this important American opera company. No one was sure how he would be received. But the people in the theater offered loud, warm approval of his performance. Duncan did not sing a part written for a black man. Instead, he played a part traditionally sung by a white man. All the other singers in the New York City Opera Company production were white. His historic performance took place ten years before black singer Marian Anderson performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. VOICE TWO: Todd Duncan opened doors for other black musicians when he appeared in "Pagliacci."? Until that night, black singers of classical music had almost no chance of performing in major American opera houses and theaters. Many African American classical singers of today say they still do not have an equal chance to perform. But Todd Duncan began a major change in classical musical performance in the United States. VOICE ONE: Todd Duncan lived a very long life. He was ninety-five years old when he died in March, nineteen-ninety-eight in Washington, D.C. He taught singing until the end of his life. Robert Todd Duncan was born in nineteen-oh-three in the southern city of Danville, Kentucky. His mother, Nettie Cooper Duncan, was his first music teacher. As a young adult, he continued his music studies in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended both a university and a special music college in this middle western city. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirty, he completed more musical education at Columbia University in New York City. Then he moved to Washington. For fifteen years, he taught music at Howard University in Washington. African Americans had gained worldwide fame for their work in popular music -- especially for creating jazz. But not many black musicians were known for writing or performing classical music. Teaching at Howard gave Duncan the chance to share his knowledge of classical European music with a mainly black student population. He taught special ways to present the music. These special ways became known as the Duncan Technique. Here Todd Duncan sings? "O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me" from the opera "Lost in the Stars" composed by Kurt Weill. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In addition to teaching, Duncan sang in several operas with performers who all were black. But it seemed he always would be known mainly as a concert artist. Duncan sang at least five-thousand concerts in fifty countries during twenty-five years as a performer. However, his life took a different turn in the middle nineteen-thirties. At that time, the famous American music writer George Gershwin was looking for someone to play a leading part in his new work, "Porgy and Bess." Gershwin had heard one-hundred baritones attempt the part. He did not want any of them. Then, the music critic of the New York Times newspaper suggested Todd Duncan. VOICE TWO: Duncan almost decided not to try for the part. But he changed his mind. He sang a piece from an Italian opera for Gershwin. He had sung only a few minutes when Gershwin offered him the part. But Duncan was not sure that playing Porgy would be right for him. Years later, he admitted that he had no idea that George Gershwin was such a successful composer. And, he thought Gershwin wrote only popular music. Duncan almost always had sung classical works, by composers such as Brahms and Schumann. Todd Duncan said he would have to hear "Porgy and Bess."? He did. Then he accepted the part of Porgy. But he said he found it difficult to perform because Porgy has a bad leg and cannot walk. He spends most of the opera on his knees. Duncan used his special methods to get enough breath to produce beautiful sound. He was able to do this even in the difficult positions demanded by the part. Here Todd Duncan sings "Porgy's Lament" from the Gershwin opera, "Porgy and Bess." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Todd Duncan sang in the opening production of "Porgy and Bess" in nineteen thirty-five. Then he appeared again as Porgy in nineteen-thirty-seven and nineteen-forty-two. He often commented on the fact that he was best known for a part he played for only three years. His fame as Porgy helped him get the part in "Pagliacci" with the New York City Opera Company. He also sang other parts with the opera company. Earlier, you heard him sing a song from one of the operas he enjoyed most. The part was that of Stephen Khumalo in "Lost in the Stars."? It was a musical version of the famous novel about Africa, "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. American writer Maxwell Anderson wrote the words for the music by German composer Kurt Weill. Listen as Todd Duncan sings the title song from "Lost in the Stars." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Todd Duncan gained fame as an opera singer and concert artist. But his greatest love in music was teaching. When he stopped teaching at Howard, he continued giving singing lessons in his Washington home until the week before his death. He taught hundreds of students over the years. Some musicians say they always can recognize students of Todd Duncan. They say people he taught demonstrate his special methods of singing. VOICE ONE: Donald Boothman is a singer and singing teacher from the eastern state of Massachusetts. He began studying with Todd Duncan in the nineteen-fifties. Boothman was twenty-two years old at the time. He was a member of the official singing group of the United States Air Force. He had studied music in college. But he studied with Duncan to improve his singing. Boothman continued weekly lessons with Duncan for thirteen years. After that, he would return to Duncan each time he accepted a new musical project. He says he considered Duncan his teacher for a lifetime. Many other students say they felt that way, too. VOICE TWO Todd Duncan was proud of his students. He was proud of his performances of classical music. And, he was proud of being the first African-American to break the color barrier in a major opera house. He noted in a V-O-A broadcast in Nineteen-Ninety that blacks are singing in opera houses all over America. "I am happy," he said, "that I was the first one to open the door -- to let everyone know we could all do it." (MUSIC: "Oh, Lord, I'm on My Way" from?"Porgy and Bess") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Buffett’s Gift of Wealth Will Aid Efforts to Cure Diseases
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. The decision by investor Warren Buffett to give away most of his wealth has raised the hopes of public health officials especially. The biggest gift will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More than sixty percent of its giving last year went to projects related to health. The Gates Foundation is known, among other things, for supporting the development of drugs for AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases. But there is also demand for more money for projects that aim to save lives now instead of in the future. The foundation will receive yearly gifts of stock. The first gift next month will be worth about one and one-half thousand million dollars. The charity organization gave away almost as much last year. Mister Buffett’s gift is expected to double the size of the foundation, already the largest in the world. It is currently valued at thirty thousand million dollars. Bill and Melinda Gates say they will use the gift announced last week to strengthen their work in world health and education. Mister Gates said: “There is no reason we can't cure the top twenty diseases." The foundation began in nineteen ninety-four as the William H. Gates Foundation. At first, its efforts were mostly within the United States. Today, in developing countries, it works to improve health, reduce poverty and increase the use of technology in public libraries. The foundation has spent six thousand million dollars to fight diseases in developing countries. Melinda Gates says there is work now to bring a new drug to India and Bangladesh to fight what is known as black fever. The foundation also supports efforts in the United States to improve education and expand technology in libraries. Mister Gates recently announced that he will withdraw from his daily responsibilities at Microsoft by July of two thousand eight. He will remain chairman of the computer software company, but wants to spend more time on his foundation. Warren Buffett is the world’s second wealthiest person after his friend Bill Gates. Mister Buffett's gift is larger than the economies of many small nations. Some of his money will go to foundations led by his three children. These groups support efforts including family planning programs and campaigns against nuclear weapons. Other issues include the environment, education and human rights. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and audio are at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Celebrating July Fourth With Fireworks, Music, Picnics and Parades
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. July Fourth is America's birthday. This year is the two hundred thirtieth anniversary of independence. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of people are expected to celebrate Independence Day at Mount Vernon, Virginia, the home of George Washington. As a general, he led an army of colonists against British rule. Later George Washington became the first president of the United States. He helped the nation grow during its very early, very difficult days. July Fourth celebrations take place each year at Mount Vernon. But organizers at the home of the man they call the first American hero say this year is special. There will be an expanded military presence – eighteenth century military, that is. Members of groups including the Fifes and Drums of Prince William the Third will perform. VOICE TWO: Visitors will listen to eighteenth century and modern music as they eat birthday cake to celebrate the Fourth of July. And the George Washington Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution will lead a procession. It will end at George Washington’s burial marker. There will be actors dressed as George and Martha Washington. And visitors will hear a reading of the Declaration of Independence. VOICE ONE: Holiday observances also take place at Monticello, the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. Like Washington, Jefferson was a hero of America's earliest days. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. And he became the third president of the United States. At Monticello a naturalization ceremony will be held to swear in new American citizens. This Independence Day event has been a yearly tradition since nineteen sixty-three. Almost three thousand people have been sworn in as citizens at the Fourth of July ceremonies at Monticello. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence after war began between the American colonies and their British rulers. King George the Third of England taxed the colonies, but they could not elect members to Parliament. Taxation without representation angered the colonists. So did other British laws for the colonies. In seventeen seventy-five, the first Americans died in battle against British troops. Some colonists remained loyal to England. But others were in full rebellion. Among them was Richard Henry Lee. Lee? represented Virginia in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. On June seventh, seventeen seventy-six, he proposed a resolution. The resolution said Congress should declare America free of British rule. VOICE ONE: A committee was named to prepare the document. Thomas Jefferson wrote it between June eleventh and June twenty-eighth. And on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six, members of the Second Continental Congress approved it. They called it "The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America." Listen now to some of the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence. READER: "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." VOICE TWO: Today the original Declaration of Independence is shown at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. VOICE ONE: Independence Day is celebrated across the country as a national holiday. But it was not always that way. Federal law says Congress can declare official holidays only for federal employees and the District of Columbia. States and local governments can choose to observe these holidays or declare their own. Massachusetts became the first state to officially recognize Independence Day. That is where the Revolutionary War began. Massachusetts declared the Fourth of July a holiday in seventeen eighty-one. Two years later, Boston, Massachusetts, became the first city to make Independence Day an official holiday. VOICE TWO: Outdoor gatherings with family and friends are a Fourth of July tradition. And no picnic meal would be complete without one of the favorite sweet fruits of summer -- watermelon. “We get the watermelon all over our faces and hands," says a woman from Valencia, California. "Sometimes insects bite us. Or we get too much sun. But it would not be the Fourth of July without a picnic.” Patriotic music is another Fourth of July tradition. Listen as Faith Hill sings "The Star-Spangled Banner."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Francis Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in eighteen fourteen as America and Britain were at war. The poet and lawyer watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. After the battle ended, he could see that the American flag still waved above the fort. He wrote a poem and said it should be sung to the music of the popular English song "To Anacreon in Heaven."? That poem later became America's national anthem. But some people say the high notes are too difficult to sing, or the words do not make enough sense. Some think “America the Beautiful” would make a better national anthem. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Cities and towns of all sizes hold Independence Day celebrations. Hebron, Indiana, with a population of less than four thousand, will hold a parade. In California, the Taiwan Visitors Association is one of the organizers of a music and fireworks show planned in San Francisco. Not surprisingly, some of the biggest Fourth of July celebrations take place in the nation's capital. The National Independence Day Parade in Washington includes invited bands from across the country. VOICE ONE: Then, in the evening, the National Symphony Orchestra performs a free concert. The event takes place on the West Lawn of the Capitol building, where Congress meets. People gather along the National Mall to listen to the music. The United States Army Salute Battery provides cannon fire during the “Eighteen-Twelve Overture” by Tchaikovsky. And, weather permitting, the night ends with a big fireworks show over the Washington Monument. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can download a transcript and audio of this show at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Reaction to 'An Inconvenient Truth' | New Planetary System Found
* Byline: Caty Weaver and George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week: Reaction to Al Gore's movie about global warming ... VOICE ONE: And European astronomers find an unusual planetary system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Former Vice President Al Gore is starring in a new movie called “An Inconvenient Truth.”? It is a documentary about global warming. This is a subject that Mister Gore has been interested in for many years. For the past six years, Mister Gore has been traveling around the country and the world giving talks about global warming. He has given the talks more than one thousand times. Most of “An Inconvenient Truth” is filmed at these events. Mister Gore speaks to groups of people with a big screen behind him. Satellite pictures, scientific models, graphs and other images appear on the screen as he talks. VOICE ONE: The subject of global warming has been debated for years. Factories, power stations and vehicles produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases trap warm air in the atmosphere. Most climate scientists believe these gases are responsible, at least in part, for temperature increases on Earth. The debate centers on the extent to which greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming. In the movie, Al Gore reports about the sharp increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the last fifty years. He compares countries around the world and their share of carbon dioxide releases. He also shows a similar increase in the Earth’s temperature. He shows melting glaciers and huge pieces of ice crashing into the ocean. He provides biological examples of global warming. He shows tropical animals, plants and diseases on the move northward as temperatures increase. And he shows a model of rising sea levels spreading over southern Florida, parts of India, Africa and other areas in the world. He also discusses the population explosion in the world and its increasing problems for the planet. VOICE TWO: Critics of the movie say Mister Gore is using the issue of global warming and his movie for a political campaign. They say he plans to run for president again. Mister Gore says he has no such plans. Critics also say Mister Gore’s warnings about what will happen if global warming continues are based more on guesswork than science. Richard Lindzen is a professor of Atmospheric Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He strongly criticized Mister Gore’s movie in the Wall Street Journal newspaper. VOICE ONE: Mister Lindzen protested one of Mister Gore’s major points of argument. The professor wrote it was wrong for Mister Gore to state that there is general agreement among scientists about global warming. For example, he argued that most evidence suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is growing, not shrinking. He wrote that warming temperatures are not necessarily the cause of glacial melt. He wrote that glaciers retreat and advance unexpectedly and for reasons science cannot explain. He also wrote that the disease malaria was once common in the northern American state of Michigan and in Siberia. VOICE TWO: However, other scientists who saw the movie say Mister Gore’s facts are generally right. The Associated Press said it had spoken to nineteen climate experts who saw the movie and generally approved of how the science was presented. A new report also supports Mister Gore’s movie. An independent group of scientists in the United States generally confirmed the findings of a major study on global warming from nineteen ninety-nine. The study had been disputed since its release. A group of twelve scientists organized by the National Research Council now says they generally support the study’s main finding. It found that the last few decades of the twentieth century were warmer than any comparable period in the last four hundred years. VOICE ONE: The United States Congress had asked the National Research Council to investigate the global warming study. The council is part of the leading scientific organization in the United States, the National Academies. It advises the American government and citizens about scientific issues. Michael Mann was the climatologist who led the study that was examined. He was a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst at the time. The study was the first of its kind. It combined many different methods for estimating surface temperatures historically. These included examinations of rings on very old trees, studies of growth and loss of glaciers, cave research and many other methods. The evidence from all the sources was then organized to try to provide a whole picture of climate changes in the past one thousand years. VOICE TWO: The model of climate change it provided has been nicknamed “the hockey stick” after a stick used to play the sport of hockey. The graph shows a timeline at the bottom and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on the side. The levels are mostly the same for hundreds of years but rise sharply toward the end of the timeline that represents the last hundred years or so. Scientists at the American space agency, NASA, study climate change from direct temperature measurement. They report that two thousand five was the hottest year ever recorded. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. European astronomers have discovered a planetary system with at least three planets. These are all low mass and similar in size to Neptune in our own solar system. The planets orbit a star about forty-one light years from Earth. One light year is a distance of more than nine million million kilometers. The star is named HD six-nine-eight-three-zero. It has a little less mass than our sun. It is part of the star group Puppis, the constellation known as the Stern. The astronomers used a European Southern Observatory telescope in South America, at La Silla, in Chile. Their report appeared in Nature magazine. The lead writer was Christophe Lovis from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. VOICE TWO: They discovered the planets with an instrument called the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. They did not see the planets. Instead, they used a system of indirect observation. As the Planetary Society explains on its Web site, planetary.org, a star does not remain completely still when it is orbited by a planet. Instead, it moves in a very small circle in reaction to the gravitational pull of the planet. So, planet hunters use a spectrograph to measure the movement of stars. Newer instruments can measure extremely small changes in speed. In this case, the HARPS spectrograph measured the movement of the star at between two and three meters a second. VOICE ONE: The radial velocity method has led to the discovery of almost all the planets found outside our solar system. Since nineteen ninety-five, scientists have found almost two hundred planets. But this is the first planetary system where all the planets are similar in mass to Neptune. In other systems, at least one of the planets is the size of Jupiter, hundreds of times bigger than Earth. In this one, the smallest planet is about ten times the mass of Earth. The largest is about eighteen times as big. Something else also makes this planetary system interesting. ?Scientists recently found that the star could also have an asteroid belt. The main asteroid belt in our solar system orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids are rocky objects thought to be left over from the formation of the universe. VOICE TWO: The three planets orbit the star in periods of nine days, thirty-two days and one hundred ninety-seven days. The astronomers believe the planet closest to the star is rocky. The middle one is probably a mixture of rock and gas. And the one farthest away probably produced some ice during its formation. It is likely to have a rocky, icy center. The outer planet also orbits within the so-called habitable zone of the star. That means liquid water could exist at the surface. Because of its heavy mass, however, this planet is probably not like Earth. The atmosphere is most likely hydrogen. Still, the astronomers say this newly found planetary system has a lot in common with our own. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and George Grow and produced by Brianna Blake. You can download free transcripts and audio of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Jojoba: Not Your Usual Oilseed Crop
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. We have an e-mail from Phan Tan Hien, who wants to know about the jojoba [ho-HO-ba] plant and the uses for its oil. Jojoba is a woody plant that grows in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It needs dry weather and cannot survive low temperatures. The jojoba plant produces a high quality oil. In fact, more than half of the seed can be oil. This liquid wax does not spoil easily. And it keeps its chemical qualities at temperatures up to three hundred degrees Celsius. Jojoba oil is mainly used in skin care and beauty products. Scientists say the oil is chemically similar to the oil produced by human skin. But jojoba oil can also be used to control insects on crops. It was approved in the United States as a pesticide in nineteen ninety-six. It can be sprayed on all crops to fight white flies. It is also used to control mildew on grapes and on non-food plants. Jojoba-based pesticides work mainly by forming a barrier between a plant leaf and pests. The Environmental Protection Agency says jojoba oil is not a risk to non-target organisms. And it says it does not know of any harmful effects to humans even if the oil is eaten. But farmers should not release jojoba products into waterways. Oils are generally dangerous to water life. Many industrial uses for jojoba oil are being studied. It can be used as a lubricant for machines or electronic parts. It has even been considered as a low-calorie food additive because the body cannot break down jojoba oil. Large plantings of jojoba in the United States are said to date back to the late nineteen seventies. The export market started to grow in the middle of the nineties. By two thousand, the Agriculture Department found that about ninety percent of American jojoba oil was exported. France, Switzerland and Japan are major importers. The International Jojoba Export Council has members in Mexico and the United States. It also includes companies and universities in Australia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Egypt and Israel. A limited number of producers, and changing harvest conditions, mean that prices for jojoba oil can change sharply. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. For more information about jojoba, go to voaspecialenglish.com. We have a link to a guide written by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Gold Rush! Thousands Hoped to Strike It Rich in Canada's Klondike
* Byline: Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we begin the first of two programs about the discovery of gold. Huge amounts of gold. Enough gold to make a person extremely rich. Our story begins in an area called the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of western Canada. The discovery took place on a warm August day in eighteen ninety-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Carmack and his two Indian friends, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, were working near the edge of a small river in western Canada’s Yukon Territory. The area was just across the border from Alaska, which was owned by the United States. The men were using large steel pans to search for gold. They placed dirt and rocks in a pan and then filled it about half way with water. Slowly, they moved the water around in the pan until most of the dirt and water washed away. This left only very small rocks. This method was a very good way to find small amounts of gold. The three men had often worked like this in an effort to find gold. But they had never been very successful. VOICE TWO: The three men moved along the small river as they worked. History does not say which of the three found gold first. But it does say that all three began to find large amounts. In eighteen ninety-six, gold was selling for about sixteen dollars for twenty-eight grams. The three men knew they were rich after just a few days. They also knew they must go to the government office and claim the land. They had to keep their discovery a secret until they had a legal claim to the land where they had found the gold. VOICE ONE: George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie were the first men to discover a great amount of gold in the Klondike. Before that August day, others had found gold, but never in huge amounts. The three men had found one of the largest amounts of gold ever discovered lying on the surface of the Earth. The news of this discovery could not be kept secret very long. Other people quickly traveled to the area of the great Klondike River where the three had made the discovery. Some also found huge amounts of gold, enough to make them extremely rich. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On July sixteenth, eighteen ninety-seven, the ship Excelsior came into the American port of San Francisco, California. It carried the first men who had found gold in the Klondike. The next day, the ship Portland landed in Seattle, Washington. It too carried men who had found gold in the Yukon. Clarence Berry was one of these men. He was a fruit farmer from California. He came off the ship Excelsior in San Francisco with one hundred thirty thousand dollars worth of gold. Niles Anderson came off the ship Portland with one hundred twelve thousand dollars in gold. They were only two men among more than one hundred who left the ships with huge amounts of money. Photographs taken when the ships landed show thousands of people meeting the two ships. Newspapers printed long stories about the discovery of gold and the rich men who had just returned from the Yukon. The news quickly traveled around the world that gold had been discovered. VOICE ONE: To understand the excitement it caused, you must understand the value of that much money at the time.In eighteen ninety-seven, a man with a good job working in New York City was paid about ten dollars each week. To earn the one hundred thirty thousand dollars that Clarence Berry took off the ship, that man would have had to work for two hundred fifty years!? People all over the world became excited about the possibility of finding gold. Newspaper stories said it was easy to find the gold. It was just lying on the ground. All you had to do was go to Alaska, and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon Territory of Canada and collect your gold. VOICE TWO: The possibility of finding gold caused thousands of people to make plans to travel to Alaska and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon. American and Canadian experts say between twenty and thirty thousand people may have traveled to the gold fields. These people were called “stampeders.”? The word “stampede” means a mass movement of frightened animals. In eighteen ninety-seven, the word came to mean the huge groups of people running or stampeding to Alaska and the Klondike. The people wanted a chance to become rich. The United States was suffering a great economic depression. It had begun in the southern United States as early as eighteen ninety. By eighteen ninety-seven, thousands of people were out of work. Men who had no jobs decided to use all the money they had left to go to Alaska. Many believed that it would be worth taking a chance to become extremely rich. VOICE ONE: Newspapers and magazines began writing stories about traveling to Alaska. Books told what a person would need to be successful at finding gold. Other books explained sure methods of finding gold. Many of these books told people what they wanted to hear -- that finding gold in the Yukon was easy. Most of the people who wrote the books had no idea at all where the Canadian Yukon Territory was. Many did not know anything about the American territory of Alaska. The people who wrote the books had no idea what was involved. They were only interested in selling books. Many of the people who would travel to the gold fields had no idea what they would face. They did not know about the extremely cold weather that could kill. Most did not know they would face? extremely hard work and terrible living conditions. VOICE TWO: This was not true of the Canadian government. The Canadian government knew how hard it was to live in the western part of the country. The Canadian government quickly approved a law that said each person must bring enough supplies to last for one year. This was about nine hundred kilograms of supplies. Each person would have to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else they needed for one year. The reason for this was very simple. There were no stores in the Yukon. There was no place to buy food. The nearest port was more than one thousand kilometers away from where the gold discovery had been made. There were no railroads. At first, there were no roads that would permit a horse and wagon. The stampeders would have to walk all the way, and transport the supplies by themselves. The price of these supplies quickly increased. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen ninety-seven, a travel company in the middle western American city of Chicago, Illinois listed the prices of what it cost to travel to Alaska. A ticket to ride the train from Chicago to Seattle, Washington was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents. The company said a ticket on a ship from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska was thirty-five dollars. Companies across the United States offered to sell all the supplies a gold seeker would need to take to the Klondike. Newspapers and magazines printed long lists of the supplies a stampeder would need. The price for these goods was often extremely high. The trains and the ships would carry these supplies for an additional price. VOICE TWO: A young man who had the money to buy the supplies and the necessary tickets to travel to Alaska usually landed at the little port of Skagway. The first shipload of several hundred gold seekers landed at Skagway on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven. Many ships quickly followed. The little town of Skagway soon had thousands of people looking for a place to live, food to eat and directions to where they could find gold. The stampeders were in a hurry. They wanted to quickly travel to the area where they could find gold. Many wanted to buy the rest of the supplies they would need before they began the trip into Canada. These supplies became extremely valuable. Prices increased even more. Violence and a lack of a police department soon caused problems. People fought over supplies. The gold seekers quickly learned that life in Alaska would be extremely difficult. And they soon learned they still had more than one thousand kilometers to travel. They learned they would have to carry their supplies over high mountains. Then they would need to build a boat to travel on the Yukon River. They learned the last part of their trip would be the hardest of all. That trip and what the thousands of gold seekers found will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Health: Looking for Skin Cancer
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report. Skin cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer. The risk increases in summer because ultraviolet rays from the sun are the main cause of skin cancer. Tanning beds can also be high in UV radiation. Anyone can get skin cancer, but people with light colored skin, hair or eyes are at greatest risk. A history of sunburns early in life also increases the risk. So does a family history of skin cancer. The sooner skin cancer is found, the easier it is to treat. So doctors advise people to examine all areas of their skin once a month, from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet. Even look under the nails and between the toes. Professional examinations are also important. See a doctor if a mole bleeds or itches or is bigger than six millimeters. Knowing what your skin looks like will help you recognize any changes in the size, shape or color of growths. The Cleveland Clinic suggests taking pictures of moles and dating the images to compare over time. The two most common forms of skin cancer are basal cell and squamous cell cancers. They can develop as flat, discolored areas or as raised growths, often with a rough surface. Melanoma is far more dangerous. Melanomas can appear even in areas of the body that do not get a lot of sun. They can be flat or raised and have areas of black, brown and other colors. Other signs include uneven borders or one half different from the other. Without early treatment, deadly melanomas can quickly spread within the body. Hats, sunglasses and clothing offer protection from harmful sunrays, but that can depend. Experts say the denser the weave of the material, the less ultraviolet radiation reaches the skin. Also, darker colors may offer more protection, and natural cotton can block more than bleached cotton. When clothing is wet or stretched, however, it lets more UV radiation pass through. Choose sunscreen products and sunglasses designed to protect against both UV-A and UV-B rays. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remind people to put on sunscreen before they go outdoors. UV levels can be high even on cloudy days. Put a thick amount on all areas of skin that will get sun. Put on more sunscreen if you stay in the sun for more than two hours, and after you swim or sweat a lot from activities. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Brianna Blake. To learn more about skin cancer, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-05-nation-test.cfm
* Headline: Thousands Rushed to Find Gold in the Klondike in Western Canada
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 But most of the people who traveled to the gold fields in the 1890s had no idea what they would face. They did not know about the extremely hard work and terrible living conditions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we begin the first of two programs about the discovery of gold. Huge amounts of gold. Enough gold to make a person extremely rich. Our story begins in an area called the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of western Canada. The discovery took place on a warm August day in eighteen ninety-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Carmack and his two Indian friends, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, were working near the edge of a small river in western Canada’s Yukon Territory. The area was just across the border from Alaska, which was owned by the United States. The men were using large steel pans to search for gold. They placed dirt and rocks in a pan and then filled it about half way with water. Slowly, they moved the water around in the pan until most of the dirt and water washed away. This left only very small rocks. This method was a very good way to find small amounts of gold. The three men had often worked like this in an effort to find gold. But they had never been very successful. VOICE TWO: The three men moved along the small river as they worked. History does not say which of the three found gold first. But it does say that all three began to find large amounts. In eighteen ninety-six, gold was selling for about sixteen dollars for twenty-eight grams. The three men knew they were rich after just a few days. They also knew they must go to the government office and claim the land. They had to keep their discovery a secret until they had a legal claim to the land where they had found the gold. VOICE ONE: George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie were the first men to discover a great amount of gold in the Klondike. Before that August day, others had found gold, but never in huge amounts. The three men had found one of the largest amounts of gold ever discovered lying on the surface of the Earth. The news of this discovery could not be kept secret very long. Other people quickly traveled to the area of the great Klondike River where the three had made the discovery. Some also found huge amounts of gold, enough to make them extremely rich. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On July sixteenth, eighteen ninety-seven, the ship Excelsior came into the American port of San Francisco, California. It carried the first men who had found gold in the Klondike. The next day, the ship Portland landed in Seattle, Washington. It too carried men who had found gold in the Yukon. Clarence Berry was one of these men. He was a fruit farmer from California. He came off the ship Excelsior in San Francisco with one hundred thirty thousand dollars worth of gold. Niles Anderson came off the ship Portland with one hundred twelve thousand dollars in gold. They were only two men among more than one hundred who left the ships with huge amounts of money. Photographs taken when the ships landed show thousands of people meeting the two ships. Newspapers printed long stories about the discovery of gold and the rich men who had just returned from the Yukon. The news quickly traveled around the world that gold had been discovered. VOICE ONE: To understand the excitement it caused, you must understand the value of that much money at the time.In eighteen ninety-seven, a man with a good job working in New York City was paid about ten dollars each week. To earn the one hundred thirty thousand dollars that Clarence Berry took off the ship, that man would have had to work for two hundred fifty years!? People all over the world became excited about the possibility of finding gold. Newspaper stories said it was easy to find the gold. It was just lying on the ground. All you had to do was go to Alaska, and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon Territory of Canada and collect your gold. VOICE TWO: The possibility of finding gold caused thousands of people to make plans to travel to Alaska and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon. American and Canadian experts say between twenty and thirty thousand people may have traveled to the gold fields. These people were called “stampeders.”? The word “stampede” means a mass movement of frightened animals. In eighteen ninety-seven, the word came to mean the huge groups of people running or stampeding to Alaska and the Klondike. The people wanted a chance to become rich. The United States was suffering a great economic depression. It had begun in the southern United States as early as eighteen ninety. By eighteen ninety-seven, thousands of people were out of work. Men who had no jobs decided to use all the money they had left to go to Alaska. Many believed that it would be worth taking a chance to become extremely rich. VOICE ONE: Newspapers and magazines began writing stories about traveling to Alaska. Books told what a person would need to be successful at finding gold. Other books explained sure methods of finding gold. Many of these books told people what they wanted to hear -- that finding gold in the Yukon was easy. Most of the people who wrote the books had no idea at all where the Canadian Yukon Territory was. Many did not know anything about the American territory of Alaska. The people who wrote the books had no idea what was involved. They were only interested in selling books. Many of the people who would travel to the gold fields had no idea what they would face. They did not know about the extremely cold weather that could kill. Most did not know they would face? extremely hard work and terrible living conditions. VOICE TWO: This was not true of the Canadian government. The Canadian government knew how hard it was to live in the western part of the country. The Canadian government quickly approved a law that said each person must bring enough supplies to last for one year. This was about nine hundred kilograms of supplies. Each person would have to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else they needed for one year. The reason for this was very simple. There were no stores in the Yukon. There was no place to buy food. The nearest port was more than one thousand kilometers away from where the gold discovery had been made. There were no railroads. At first, there were no roads that would permit a horse and wagon. The stampeders would have to walk all the way, and transport the supplies by themselves. The price of these supplies quickly increased. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen ninety-seven, a travel company in the middle western American city of Chicago, Illinois listed the prices of what it cost to travel to Alaska. A ticket to ride the train from Chicago to Seattle, Washington was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents. The company said a ticket on a ship from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska was thirty-five dollars. Companies across the United States offered to sell all the supplies a gold seeker would need to take to the Klondike. Newspapers and magazines printed long lists of the supplies a stampeder would need. The price for these goods was often extremely high. The trains and the ships would carry these supplies for an additional price. VOICE TWO: A young man who had the money to buy the supplies and the necessary tickets to travel to Alaska usually landed at the little port of Skagway. The first shipload of several hundred gold seekers landed at Skagway on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven. Many ships quickly followed. The little town of Skagway soon had thousands of people looking for a place to live, food to eat and directions to where they could find gold. The stampeders were in a hurry. They wanted to quickly travel to the area where they could find gold. Many wanted to buy the rest of the supplies they would need before they began the trip into Canada. These supplies became extremely valuable. Prices increased even more. Violence and a lack of a police department soon caused problems. People fought over supplies. The gold seekers quickly learned that life in Alaska would be extremely difficult. And they soon learned they still had more than one thousand kilometers to travel. They learned they would have to carry their supplies over high mountains. Then they would need to build a boat to travel on the Yukon River. They learned the last part of their trip would be the hardest of all. That trip and what the thousands of gold seekers found will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. How the newsgathering resources of the Voice of America can help you learn American English VOA Special English is a service used?by?English teachers and learners?around the world. Our Web site provides free transcripts and audio of our radio shows and?video of our TV reports. We write with a controlled vocabulary and speak at a reduced speed. We offer world news every day, plus?science, business, American life -- something for everyone. | Questions: special@voanews.com How the newsgathering resources of the Voice of America can help you learn American English VOA Special English is a service used?by?English teachers and learners?around the world. Our Web site provides free transcripts and audio of our radio shows and?video of our TV reports. We write with a controlled vocabulary and speak at a reduced speed. We offer world news every day, plus?science, business, American life -- something for everyone. | Questions: special@voanews.com 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-05-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Visiting Teacher Programs Offer a Chance to Work in U.S.
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Jim Tedder with the VOA Special English Education Report. Everyone knows about exchange and visitor programs that give students a chance to study in another country. But today we are going to talk about two programs that give teachers a chance to teach in the United States. One of them is the Visiting International Faculty Program. VIF is based in North Carolina and says it is the United States’ largest cultural exchange program for teachers and schools. This program has brought about seven thousand teachers to the United States since nineteen eighty-seven. The program is open to teachers from Latin America, Europe, South Africa, Canada, Australia, the Philippines and New Zealand. It places them in schools in seven states for one to three years. After that, they must return home. The seven states are North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida and California. The teachers work for local school systems and are paid the same as an American teacher. The majority are placed in elementary education, Spanish language and English as a second language, special education, math and science. Some teachers are placed in other language classes and other subjects. Teachers in the program must have an advanced proficiency level in English. They must have a teaching or university degree equal to an American bachelor's degree. And they must have three years of teaching experience with students between the ages of five and eighteen. Two years of driving experience is also required. Visiting teachers may also be able to earn a master's degree while in the United States. Another visiting teachers program is offered by the Spanish government. Teachers from Spain are placed in elementary, middle and high schools in several American states and in Canada. This program is also for one to three years. The teachers from Spain are teamed with teachers in Spanish language classes. They also help students who speak English as a second language. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. To find this report online, and for links to the Web sites of these two programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And one more thing -- if you are a teacher using Special English in your classroom, please let us know. We are interested to know where you are and what you teach, and how you put our programs to use for your students. Write to special@voanews.com. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-05-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Coolidge Easily Wins Election of 1924
* Byline: David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Vice President Calvin Coolidge moved to the White House in nineteen twenty-three following the death of President Warren Harding. The new president quickly gained the trust of most Americans by investigating the crimes of Harding's top officials. And his conservative economic policies won wide support. Coolidge had one year to prove his abilities to the American people before the nineteen twenty-four election. That election is our story today. VOICE TWO: Coolidge was a quiet man who believed in limited government policies. But his silence hid a fighting political spirit. Coolidge had worked for many years to gain the White House. He would not give it up without a struggle. Coolidge moved quickly after becoming president to gain control of the Republican Party. He named his own advisers to important jobs. And he replaced a number of officials with people whose loyalty he could trust. Most Republicans liked Coolidge. They felt his popular policies would make him a strong candidate in the presidential election. For this reason, Coolidge faced only one serious opponent for the Republican presidential nomination in nineteen twenty-four. Coolidge's opponent was the great automobile manufacturer Henry Ford of Michigan. Ford had been a Democratic candidate for the Senate in nineteen eighteen. He lost that election. But after the election, some people in his company began to call for Ford to be the Republican presidential nominee in nineteen twenty-four. VOICE ONE: Ford was one of history's greatest inventors and manufacturers. But he had limited skills in politics. Ford was poorly educated. He had extreme opinions about a number of groups. He hated labor unions, the stock market, dancing, smoking, and drinking alcohol. But most of all, Ford hated Jews. He produced a number of publications accusing the Jewish people of organizing international plots. At first, Ford appeared to be a strong opponent to Coolidge. But soon, he realized that Coolidge was too strong politically. His economic policies were popular among the people. And the nation was at peace. The party could not deny Coolidge's nomination. Ford himself put an end to his chances by telling the nation that it was "perfectly safe with Coolidge." Calvin Coolidge won the presidential nomination easily at the nineteen twenty-four Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio. The Republican delegates chose Charles Dawes of Illinois to run with him as the vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party was much more divided. Many of the groups that traditionally supported Democratic candidates now were fighting against each other. For example, many farmers did not agree on policies with people living in cities. The educated did not agree with uneducated people. And many Protestant workers felt divided from Roman Catholic and Jewish workers. These differences made it hard for the Democratic Party to choose a national candidate. There was little spirit of compromise. Two main candidates campaigned for the Democratic nomination. The first was former Treasury Secretary William McAdoo. McAdoo had the support of many Democrats because of his strong administration of the railroads during the world war. Democratic voters in southern and western states liked him because of his conservative racial policies and his opposition to alcohol. The second main candidate was Alfred Smith, the governor of New York. Smith was a Roman Catholic. He was very popular with people in the eastern cities, Roman Catholics and supporters of legal alcohol. But many rural delegates to the convention did not trust him. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party convention met in New York City. It quickly became a battle between the more liberal delegates from the cities and the more conservative delegates from rural areas. It was July. The heat was intense. Speaker after speaker appealed to the delegates for votes. One day passed. Then another. For nine days, the nation listened on the radio as the delegates argued about the nomination. The delegates voted ninety-five times without success. Finally, McAdoo and Smith agreed to withdraw from the race. Even then, the delegates had to vote eight more times before they finally agreed on compromise candidates. The Democratic delegates finally chose John Davis to be their presidential nominee. Davis was a lawyer for a major bank. He had served briefly under President Wilson as ambassador to Britain. The delegates also chose Charles Bryan to be the vice presidential candidate. Bryan was the younger brother of the famous Democrat and populist leader, William Jennings Bryan. VOICE TWO: There also was a third party in the nineteen twenty-four election. Many of the old Progressive supporters of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson opposed the choices of the Republicans and Democrats. They thought the country needed another candidate to keep alive the spirit of reform. Progressive candidates had done well in the congressional election of nineteen twenty-two. But following the election, communists had gained influence in one of the major progressive parties. Most progressives did not want to join with communists. So, they formed a new Progressive Party. The new party named Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin to be its presidential candidate. LaFollette campaigned for increased taxes on the rich and public ownership of water power. He called for an end to child labor and limits on the power of the courts to interfere in labor disputes. And LaFollette warned the nation about the dangers of single, large companies gaining control of important industries. VOICE ONE: Coolidge won the nineteen twenty-four election easily. He won the electoral votes of thirty-five states to just twelve for Davis of the Democrats. LaFollette won only Wisconsin, his home state. Coolidge also won more popular votes than the other two candidates together. The American people voted for Coolidge partly to thank him for bringing back honesty and trust to the White House following the crimes of the Harding administration. But the main reason was that they liked his conservative economic policies and his support of business. VOICE TWO: LaFollette's Progressive Party died following the nineteen twenty-four election. Most of his supporters later joined the Democrats. But the reform spirit of their movement remained alive through the next four years. They were difficult years for Progressives. Conservatives in Congress passed laws reducing taxes for corporations and richer Americans. VOICE ONE: Progressives fought for reforms in national agriculture policies. Most farmers did not share in the general economic growth of the nineteen twenties. Instead, their costs increased while the price of their products fell. Many farmers lost their farms. Farmers and progressives wanted the federal government to create a system to control prices and the total supply of food produced. They said the government should buy and keep any extra food that farmers produced. And they called for officials to help them export food. Coolidge and most Republicans rejected these ideas. They said it was not the business of a free government to fix farm prices. And they feared the high costs of creating a major new government department and developing export markets. Coolidge vetoed three major farm reform bills following his election. VOICE TWO: The debate over farm policy was, in many ways, like the debate over taxes or public controls on power companies. There was a basic difference of opinion about the proper actions of government. More conservative Americans believed the purpose of government was to support private business, not to control it. But more liberal Americans believed that government needed to do more to make sure that citizens of all kinds could share the nation's wealth more equally. Coolidge and the Republicans were in control in the nineteen twenties. For this reason, the nation generally stayed on a conservative path. The Democrats and Progressives would have to wait until later to put many of their more liberal ideas into action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-06-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Enron's Ken Lay Dies at 64 | Bill Aims to Renew Hedge Fund Rule
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Kenneth Lay, the former chairman of Enron, died Wednesday in Aspen, Colorado. A medical examiner said the cause was a heart attack. Ken Lay was sixty-four years old. In May, a jury in Houston, Texas, found him guilty of six charges related to the failure of the energy trading company. He faced sentencing in October to a long prison term. The jury found former Enron president Jeffrey Skilling guilty of nineteen charges. False record-keeping and other actions made Enron appear profitable even as its financial troubles grew. Its request for bankruptcy protection in two thousand one marked, at the time, the biggest business failure in American history. More than twenty people later admitted or were found guilty of charges of wrongdoing. Jurors said Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were responsible for what took place. A week ago, government lawyers asked a judge to order the two men to pay more than one hundred eighty million dollars. They were seeking forty-three million of that from Ken Lay. After Enron’s failure, Congress moved to strengthen accounting rules with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of two thousand two. Ken Lay had built Enron into one of the nation's biggest companies. News reports about his death noted that President Bush called him "Kenny-Boy."? Legal experts say his death clears his criminal record because he did not have a chance to appeal. But civil actions to reclaim money can continue, though possibly with limits. Ken Lay said his company was a victim of bad market conditions and unfair media coverage. After the jury found him guilty, he told reporters: "I firmly believe that I am innocent of the charges against me, as I have said from day one." Before we go, a quick update. Recently we said hedge fund advisers had to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That was true at the time, at least for advisers with fifteen or more investors. On June twenty-third an appeals court rejected that rule. But three members of the House of Representatives have since proposed a bill that would give the agency the power to renew it. Hedge funds are estimated to hold between one and two million million dollars. But they are not governed by investor protections like mutual funds are. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. A free transcript of this report is at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Story of How a 1907 Painting by Klimt Just Sold for a Record $135 Million
* Byline: Dana Demange, Sarah Randle and Nancy Stienbach

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about dams in the United States … Play some music from the Dixie Chicks … And report about the record-setting sale of a famous painting. Klimt Painting A famous painting called “Adele Block-Bauer One” was recently sold to a museum in New York City. The head of the museum reportedly paid one hundred thirty-five million dollars for the painting. This would be the highest price ever paid for a painting. However, this big price is not the only reason the painting is special. Mario Ritter tells us more about the complex, unusual history of this beautiful painting. MARIO RITTER: One hundred years ago, Adele Bloch-Bauer was a young woman living in Austria. She was smart, beautiful and rich. Her husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, loved her very much. He asked the famous artist Gustav Klimt to paint her portrait in nineteen-oh-seven. Mister Klimt painted a wonderful portrait. The woman in his painting looks mysterious and beautiful. The background of the painting is a rich gold. Many experts said the painting looks like pictures painted by Egyptian artists thousands of years ago. Klimt had created four other paintings for the Bloch-Bauer family. Adele Bloch-Bauer died in nineteen twenty-five. In nineteen thirty-eight, the Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler invaded Austria. Because he was Jewish, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer quickly fled to Switzerland. He wrote that the Klimt paintings should be given to the surviving members of his family. It was too late, however. The Nazis had already seized all the family’s property, including the valuable paintings. Maria Altmann is a member of the Bloch-Bauer family who escaped from Austria. She lives in Los Angeles, California. In nineteen-ninety eight, the Austrian government passed a law about works of art stolen by the Nazis. The law requires museums to return such art works to the families that owned them before World War Two. So Maria Altmann went to court to gain back her family’s paintings. The legal arguments lasted for seven years. In January, a group of experts in Vienna decided that the paintings should be returned to Missus Altmann and her family. Last month, the family sold the painting “Adele Bloch-Bauer One” to Ronald Lauder and others. Mister Lauder is the founder and president of the Neue Galerie, a small museum of Austrian and German art in New York. Maria Altmann said she wanted to make sure the public could always see her family’s famous paintings. All five Klimt paintings will be shown at the Neue Galerie for two months, starting next week. Dams in U.S. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Misan Ho wants to know the purpose of dams and which is the biggest dam in the United States. The purpose of all dams is to reduce or prevent flooding by controlling the water in a river. The United States Society on Dams lists many reasons why dams are important. It says they provide clean water to drink. They also provide water for industry and farming. They create lakes for fishing and other kinds of fun activities. Dams also provide water to produce hydroelectric power. Naming the biggest dam in the United States is not easy. Is it the tallest dam? The one that contains the most concrete material? Or the one that produces the most electricity? If you ask an American to name the most famous dam in the country, he or she would probably say Hoover Dam. It is on the Colorado River near Las Vegas, Nevada. Hoover Dam was the tallest dam in the world when it was finished in nineteen thirty-six. Until nineteen forty-eight, it was also the largest producer of hydroelectric power. But this is no longer true. The United States Society on Dams says the highest dam in the United States is the one on the Feather River near Oroville, California. The Oroville Dam is two hundred thirty-five meters high. It was completed in nineteen sixty-eight to provide electric power, drinking water and water for agriculture in central and southern California. The dam that produces the most hydroelectric power in the United States is the Grand Coulee Dam in the state of Washington. ?It controls flooding on the Columbia River and is said to be the largest single producer of electricity in the country. It is the main source of electric power to the northwestern states. The Grand Coulee Dam was completed in nineteen forty-two. It is one of the largest concrete structures in the world. Hoover Dam is still at the top of the list of dams in one way. The building of the dam created Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in America. People use Lake Mead for boating, swimming and other activities that would not be possible in that desert area. Dixie Chicks' New Album The Dixie Chicks used to be known as the biggest-selling female group in music history. Now they are known as one of the most disputed. These three women are making a lot of noise with their new album “Taking the Long Way.”? Katherine Cole has more. KATHERINE COLE: In two thousand three, Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, was in the news. During a concert in London, she criticized President Bush for his political actions. She spoke less than two weeks before the invasion of Iraq. The Chicks did not realize the effect of those words. They soon lost fans. They even received death threats. The comment changed the direction of their lives, music, and beliefs. (MUSIC) That was “The Long Way Around” by the Dixie Chicks -- Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison. The song shows their new musical direction. It is about acting and thinking freely. Maines openly sings about criticizing the president. She says she learned about herself by expressing her beliefs. The song also represents the Chicks’ new musical style. In the past, they only sang songs influenced by country music. They did not always write their own music. Now, they are adding the sound of rock to their song collection. And they wrote every song on the album. Here is “Lullaby”. This calming song is about loving someone forever. (MUSIC) “Taking the Long Way” quickly became the top-selling album in the country when it was released at the end of May. But many country music radio stations will not play music by the Dixie Chicks. Many people in the country music industry now oppose the band for criticizing the president. We leave you with “Not Ready to Make Nice.”? The Dixie Chicks express the importance of standing firmly and bravely for what you believe -- no matter what people may think or say. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Sarah Randle and Nancy Stienbach. Mario Ritter was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Discovery Resupplies Space Station NASA Faces Pressure to Finish
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the space shuttle Discovery flew to the International Space Station as NASA struggles to meet an important date. A plan to complete the station by two thousand ten is at risk. This is only the second shuttle flight since two thousand three. In February of that year, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart as it prepared to land. The accident killed the seven crew members. Now, just short of a year has passed since the return to flight. Plans call for sixteen shuttle flights by two thousand ten. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has fallen behind in its effort to reach that goal. The goal is part of a plan that President Bush announced two and a half years ago to send astronauts to the moon again. Government money would finance a new spaceship that could take people to the moon by two thousand twenty. The last time anyone went there was in nineteen seventy-two. The plan also calls for traveling to Mars. But Mister Bush said the first goal was to finish the space station by two thousand ten, to study the long-term effects of living in space. Fifteen other nations are also involved in the space station. NASA plans to retire its three remaining shuttles once the station is completed. This week, Discovery became the first shuttle launched on America’s Independence Day. It lifted off with a crew of seven on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Bad weather had delayed the launch. Also, there had been some concerns about the safety of the foam protective material on the external fuel tank. During the Columbia launch, a piece of material fell off the fuel tank and struck a wing. The piece weighed more than seven hundred grams. It put a hole in the heat shields and the shuttle came apart on re-entry. A small amount of foam did come loose from the fuel tank on the Discovery. But officials decided it was not enough to be dangerous. Also, astronauts are examining the heat shields while at the space station. If any damage were serious, an emergency plan calls for the astronauts to remain on the station. NASA would then send up another shuttle to return them to Earth. Discovery carried up thousands of kilograms of equipment and supplies. On Friday, crew members connected a big storage container to the station. The Italian-made container is called Leonardo. The shuttle also brought a German astronaut who will remain on the station for six months. The arrival of Thomas Reiter means a full three-person crew for the first time since May of two thousand three. The other two crew members, Pavel Vinogradov of Russia and American Jeff Williams, arrived on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in March. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. ?You can download our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: All About Eyes:? People’s Eyes Can Be a Window Into Their Hearts
* Byline: Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Today’s program is all about eyes. When it comes to relationships, people’s eyes can be a window into their hearts. This means that their eyes can tell a lot about how they feel. We will tell a story about a man and woman who are teachers at the same school. The woman is interested in the man. She uses many methods to catch his eye, or get him to notice her. Once he sets eyes on her, or sees her, she might try to get him interested in her by acting playful. In other words, she might try to make eyes at him or give him the eye. Let us suppose that this man gets hit between the eyes. In other words, the woman has a strong affect on him. He wants to spend time with her to get to know her better. He asks her out on a date. She is so happy that she may walk around for days with stars in her eyes. She is extremely happy because this man is the apple of her eye, a very special person. She might tell him that he is the only person she wants, or “I only have eyes for you.” On their date, the couple might eat a meal together at a restaurant. If the man is really hungry, his eyes might be bigger than his stomach. He might order more food than he can eat. When his food arrives at the table, his eyes might pop out. He might be very surprised by the amount of food provided. He might not even believe his own eyes. If fact, all eyes would be watching him if he ate all the food. This might even cause raised eyebrows. People might look at the man with disapproval. During their dinner, the couple might discuss many things. They might discover that they see eye to eye, or agree on many issues. They share the same beliefs and opinions. For example, they might agree that every crime or injury should be punished. That is, they firmly believe in the idea of an eye for an eye. They might also agree that it is wrong to pull the wool over a person’s eyes. This means to try to trick a person by making him believe something that is false. But the man and woman do not believe in the evil eye, that a person can harm you by looking at you. The next day, at? their school, the woman asks the man to keep an eye on, or watch the young students in her class while she is out of the classroom. This might be hard to do when the teacher is writing on a board at the front of the classroom. To do so, a teacher would need to have eyes in the back of his head. In other words, he would know what the children are doing even when he is not watching them. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Pilot and Writer of 'Small Works of Art'
* Byline: Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She was a famous pilot and writer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anne Spencer Morrow was born in nineteen-oh-six in Englewood, New Jersey. Her father was a very rich banker. He later became the American ambassador to Mexico. Her mother was an educator and poet. Anne went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She wanted to become a writer. She won two major prizes from the college for her writing. VOICE TWO: Anne Morrow was a quiet, shy and small young woman when she met Charles Lindbergh in nineteen twenty-seven. He was staying with her family in Mexico City. The twenty-five year old man was tall and good-looking. Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous people in the world. He had just become the first person to fly a plane alone across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. Two years later, Anne and Charles Lindbergh were married. Reports about their marriage were on the front pages of newspapers around the world. VOICE ONE: After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh, Anne became a pilot. She learned to plan an airplane flight as a navigator, operate a radio and fly a plane. She began making many long airplane flights with her husband? In nineteen thirty, she became the first woman in the United States to get a pilot’s license to fly a glider, which does not have an engine. That same year, the Lindberghs set a speed record for flying across the United States. They flew from Los Angeles, California to New York City in fourteen hours and forty-five minutes. Anne Lindbergh was seven months pregnant at the time. The Lindberghs explored new ways to fly around the world. They flew almost fifty thousand kilometers over five continents. Anne and Charles Lindbergh were famous around the world. They seemed to enjoy the greatest luck that any young people could have. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Then in nineteen thirty-two something terrible happened. The Lindbergh’s first baby, twenty-month-old Charles, was kidnapped from their home in New Jersey. The body of the baby was discovered more than ten weeks later. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested, tried, found guilty and executed for the crime. There were a huge number of press reports about the case. Newspapers called it “The Crime of the Century.”? After the trial, the Lindberghs found it difficult to live in the United States. There were threats on the life of their second child. And there were too many newspaper stories about them. So Anne and Charles Lindbergh moved to Europe in nineteen thirty-five. Four years later they moved back to the United States. VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh never fully recovered from the death of her first child. Yet, she and her husband had five more children. She continued flying. In nineteen thirty-four, she became the first woman to win the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Gold Medal. She was honored for her exploration, research and discovery. Anne Lindbergh began writing to ease her sadness. She wrote several books about the flights with her husband. Her first book was “North to the Orient” in nineteen thirty-five. She wrote about their flight in a single-engine airplane over Canada and Alaska to Japan and China. This is what she wrote about landing in northern Canada and jumping out of the plane: VOICE THREE: “Then two little Eskimo boys came up shyly and followed me about. Their bright eyes shone under their caps as they searched my face and costume curiously. ‘You see,’ said one of the traders, ‘You’re the first white woman they’ve ever seen. There’s never been one here before.’ ” VOICE TWO: Three years later Anne Lindbergh wrote “Listen! The Wind.”? It was about the Lindberghs’ fifty thousand kilometer flight. It became very popular. One critic said it described the poetry of flight as no other book on flying had ever done. In nineteen forty, Anne Lindbergh wrote a book called “The Wave of the Future.”? She wrote it while Europe was fighting World War Two. She wrote that she did not support communism or fascism. But she said they were unavoidable. She wrote that she hoped the United States could avoid entering the conflict. And, in a letter, she wrote that she was beginning to feel that the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was a very great man. Her husband had become unpopular for expressing similar beliefs. Many people criticized the book. Missus Lindbergh later admitted that both she and her husband failed to see the worst evils of the Nazi system. She stopped writing for many years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh began writing again in nineteen fifty-five. She wrote a book called “Gift from the Sea.” It was about women’s search for meaning in their lives. “Gift from the Sea” was one of the most popular books in America. It has sold more than one million copies and has influenced many women. In “Gift from the Sea”, Missus Lindbergh wrote about the many different kinds of pressures that women face. She wrote that women who are wives and mothers have many different interests and duties. They must be able to deal with their husband, children, friends, home and community. She found it difficult for women to balance all these duties and still make a place for themselves. Yet she said that women must try to find a balance in their lives. VOICE TWO: In “Gift from the Sea,” Anne Lindbergh described how women had to perform many jobs that pulled them in different directions like a circus performer. VOICE THREE: “What circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame. Look at us. We run a tight rope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now!? This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.” VOICE ONE: Anne Lindbergh found that one answer to this problem was to be alone. The book described how she spent time by herself on an island by the sea. She studied the sea shells she found. And she made her life simpler. During the nineteen seventies, Anne Lindbergh wrote several more books about the happy and sad events of her life. One of these is called “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead.”? She wrote about the joy of flying. She also wrote about the pain she and her husband felt after the body of their baby son was discovered. VOICE THREE: “We sleep badly and wake up and talk. I dreamed right along as I was thinking – all of one piece, no relief. I was walking down a suburban street seeing other people’s children and I stopped to see one in a carriage and I thought it was a sweet child, but I was looking for my child in his face. And I realized, in the dream, that I would do that forever.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Charles Lindbergh died in nineteen seventy-four at the age of seventy-two. The next year, the readers of Good Housekeeping magazine voted Anne Morrow Lindbergh one of the ten women in the world they liked the most. In nineteen ninety-six, Missus Lindbergh was invited to join the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was honored for her success as a pilot. Anne Morrow Lindbergh died at her home in Vermont in two thousand one. She was ninety-four years old. Many people have been influenced by the way she dealt with both happiness and sadness. They respect the way she lived life to the fullest. And they like the advice about living that they find in her books. VOICE THREE: “If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly in those moments.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. Our reader was Sarah Long. And our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith. ?VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Approves New AIDS Treatment for Poor Countries
* Byline: Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a new AIDS treatment for poor countries. The medicine combines three drugs commonly used to suppress H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The new product contains the active ingredients in the drugs sold under the trade names Epivir, Retrovir and Viramune. The drugs are lamivudine, zidovudine, and nevirapine. The drug company Aurobindo Pharma in Hyderabad, India, will manufacture the approved combination. The tablets will be offered to fifteen countries under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. President Bush announced that program during his State of the Union speech in two thousand three. The five-year, fifteen thousand million dollar plan seeks to provide AIDS drugs to developing countries. This is the first time the Food and Drug Administration has approved a product like this under the plan. The decision is a tentative approval. That means the product meets all quality and safety requirements for marketing in the United States. Full approval would mean that the product could be sold in the United States. But that is not possible because of patent protections and marketing agreements. The new fixed-dose combination tablet will simplify treatment of H.I.V. Patients will take a single tablet two times a day, instead of having to take several medicines. There are not only cost savings, but also less of a threat of drug resistance caused by missed treatments. Experts say around forty million people are living with H.I.V. More than sixty percent are in southern Africa. That area has only eleven percent of the world's population. The United Nations says H.I.V. rates worldwide are believed to have reached their highest levels in the late nineteen nineties. They appear to have settled after that, although rates continue to increase in several countries. For example, the two thousand six U.N. AIDS report said the epidemics in eastern Europe and central Asia continue to expand. AIDS has resulted in twenty-five million deaths in the last twenty-five years. The World Bank declared it a development crisis in two thousand. And more than thirteen million children under the age of fifteen have lost one or both parents because of it. Experts believe this number will double by two thousand ten. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. For transcripts of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Going the Distance on America's Highways
* Byline: Paul Thompson

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. On June twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-six, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a public works bill. The act of Congress provided federal aid to build the Interstate Highway System. I'm Steve Ember. Today Sarah Long and I present a brief history of road building and how it changed America. (MUSIC) America's national road system makes it possible to drive coast to coast. From the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west is a distance of more than four thousand kilometers. Or you could drive more than two thousand kilometers and go from the Canadian border south to the Mexican border. VOICE TWO: You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic signals and no stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at all. This is possible because of the Interstate Highway System. This system has almost seventy thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Interstate Highway System is usually two roads, one in each direction, separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one hundred and one hundred twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway System is only a small part of the huge system of roads in the United States. VOICE ONE: To understand the Interstate Highway System, it is helpful to understand the history of roads. Roads in most countries were first built to permit armies to travel from one part of the country to another to fight against an invader. The ancient Romans build roads over most of Europe to permit their armies to move quickly from one place to another. People who traded goods began using these roads for business. Good roads helped them to move their goods faster from one area to another. No roads existed when early settlers arrived in the area of North America that would become the United States. Most settlers built their homes near the ocean or along major rivers. This made transportation easy. A few early roads were built near some cities. Travel on land was often difficult because there was no road system in most areas. VOICE TWO: In seventeen eighty-five, farmers in the Ohio River Valley used rivers to take cut trees to the southern city of New Orleans. It was easier to walk or ride a horse home than to try to go by boat up the river. One of the first roads was built to help these farmers return home after they sold their wood. It began as nothing more than a path used by Native Americans. American soldiers helped make this path into an early road. The new road extended from the city of Nashville, in Tennessee to the city of Natchez in the southern state of Louisiana. It was called the Natchez Trace. You can still follow about seven hundred kilometers of the Natchez Trace. Today, the road is a beautiful National Park. It takes the traveler though forests that look much the same as they did two hundred years ago. You can still see a few of the buildings in which early travelers slept overnight. VOICE ONE: The Natchez Trace was called a road. Yet it was not what we understand a road to be. It was just a cleared path through the forest. It was used by people walking, or riding a horse or in a wagon pulled by horses. In eighteen-oh-six, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that approved money for building a road to make it easier to travel west. Work began on the first part of the road in Cumberland in the eastern state of Maryland. When finished, the road reached all the way to the city of Saint Louis in what would become the middle western state of Missouri. It was named the National Road. The National Road was similar to the Natchez Trace. It followed a path made by American Indians. Work began in eighteen eleven. It was not finished until about eighteen thirty-three. The National Road was used by thousands of people who moved toward the west. These people paid money to use the road. This money was used to repair the road. Now, the old National Road is part of United States Highway Forty. By the nineteen twenties, Highway Forty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. You can still see signs that say "National Road" along the side of parts of it. Several statues were placed along this road to honor the women who moved west over the National Road in the eighteen hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen hundred, it still was difficult to travel by road. Nothing extended from the eastern United States to the extreme western part of the country. Several people wanted to see a road built all the way across the country. Carl Fisher was a man who had ideas and knew how to act on them. Mister Fisher built the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway where car races still take place. In nineteen twelve, Carl Fisher began working on his idea to build a coast-to-coast highway using crushed rocks. He called this dream the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. VOICE ONE: Carl Fisher asked many people to give money for the project. One of these men was Henry Joy, the president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Mister Joy agreed, but suggested another name for the highway. He said the road should be named after President Abraham Lincoln. He said it should be called the Lincoln Highway. Everyone involved with the project agreed to the new name. The Lincoln Highway began in the east in New York City’s famous Times Square. It ended in the west in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway was completed in about nineteen thirty-three. VOICE TWO: Later, the federal government decided to assign each highway in the country its own number. Numbers were easier to remember than names. The Lincoln Highway became Highway Thirty for most of its length. Today, you can still follow much of the Lincoln Highway. It passes through small towns and large cities. This makes it a slow but interesting way to travel. Highway Thirty still begins in New York and ends near San Francisco. And it is still remembered as the first coast-to-coast highway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen nineteen, a young Army officer named Dwight Eisenhower took part in the first crossing of the United States by Army vehicles. The vehicles left Washington, D.C. and drove to San Francisco. It was not a good trip. The vehicles had problems with thick mud, ice and mechanical difficulties. It took the American Army vehicles sixty-two days to reach San Francisco. Dwight Eisenhower believed the United States needed a highway that would aid in the defense of the country. He believed the nation needed a road system that would permit military vehicles to travel quickly from one coast to the other. In nineteen fifty-six, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States. He signed the legislation that created the federal Interstate Highway System. Work was begun almost immediately. VOICE TWO: Building such an interstate highway system was a major task. Many problems had to be solved. The highway passed through different areas that were wetlands, mountains and deserts. It was very difficult to build the system. Yet lessons learned while building it influenced the building of highways around the world. Today, the interstate system links every major city in the United States. ?It also links the United States with Canada and Mexico. The Interstate Highway System has been an important part of the nation’s economic growth during the past forty years. Experts believe that trucks using the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold. Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy interstate highways all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places, gasoline stations and shopping centers. The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly from one part of the country to another. The United States government renamed the Interstate Highway System at the end of the twentieth century. Large signs now can be seen along the side of the highway that say Eisenhower Interstate System. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson. My co-host was Sarah Long. I'm Steve Ember. To download a free copy of this show, including a transcript, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Could Face Shortage of Animal Doctors for Food Inspection
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 This is?Shep?O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Veterinarians are a first line of defense not only for diseases that affect animals, but also those like bird flu that can spread to humans. Animal doctors also help protect the food supply and the agricultural economy. Diseases like avian influenza and foot-and-mouth disease can cause huge economic losses. In the United States, there is growing demand for veterinarians. A recent study by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association warns that there could soon be a shortage. Some experts worry that there will not be enough veterinarians specially trained to inspect animals raised for food. The journal says half of all state and federal veterinarians are close to or already at the age when they could retire. In two thousand four, the United States had about sixty-one thousand veterinarians. But most of them work in areas other than the care of food animals. Some study diseases. Some work for drug companies. And about half of all veterinarians care for the more than one hundred million cats and dogs and other pets that Americans keep. To become a veterinarian, students take two years of preparatory studies in college. They learn about animal biology and treatment of diseases. Then, like a medical doctor, they attend four years in a college of veterinary medicine. They work in laboratories and treatment centers and learn to perform operations. There are twenty-eight schools of veterinary medicine in the United States. Three out of four of the students are women. Currently about two thousand new veterinarians enter the job market each year. Veterinarians must pass a test to get a license to treat animals in the state where they want to work. The American Veterinary Medical Association is one of the oldest groups in the profession. It started in eighteen eighty-nine. The organization approves schools that teach veterinary science. The United States Department of Agriculture established the National Veterinary Accreditation Program in nineteen twenty-one. This program gives veterinarians extra training. They learn to work with federal veterinarians and state animal health officials. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. You can download transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com.This is?Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: While Other Threats Make News, Heat May Be Nature’s Top Killer
* Byline: Oliver Chanler and Nancy Steinbach

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about some health problems linked to extreme heat. We also tell about what to do to prevent and treat these problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Floods, storms and other natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. Health experts say that between nineteen seventy-nine and nineteen ninety-nine, extremely hot weather killed more than eight thousand people in the United States. In that period, more Americans died from extreme heat than from severe storms, lightning, floods and earthquakes together. And in nineteen ninety-five, more than six hundred people died in a period of extremely hot weather in one city -- Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO:?????? To measure extreme heat, weather experts have developed the Mean Heat Index. It measures the average of how it felt all day on an extremely hot day. Experts say it is the total heat of a hot day or several hot days that can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become deadly when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes intense stress on the human body. Doctors say people can do many things to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink lots of cool water. Wear light-colored clothing made of natural materials. Make sure the clothing is loose, permitting freedom of movement. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. The causes of heat stress include physical work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE TWO: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors also say severe heat increases problems for small children, older people and people suffering from the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood flow, nervousness or depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. That is how the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. Dehydration limits a person’s ability to work and think. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a general feeling of sickness, a fast heartbeat, breathing problems, and pain in the head, chest or stomach. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious, not knowing what is happening. Doctors say the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook when body temperature is higher than forty-two degrees Celsius. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say immediate treatment is necessary or the person could die before help arrives. VOICE TWO: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Raise the person’s feet up about thirty centimeters. Then, take off the person’s clothing. Put water on the body. And place pieces of ice in areas where blood passageways are close to the skin. These areas include the back of the neck and under the arms. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water is also needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water each day to replace all the body water lost in liquid wastes and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. Experts say it is especially important to drink before, during and after exercise. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cold liquids is best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. Yet experts say that sweet drinks are not good to drink in hot weather. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through liquid wastes. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking cool water, doctors say there are other things that can protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, lightweight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. If possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. Also, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about some health problems linked to extreme heat. We also tell about what to do to prevent and treat these problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Floods, storms and other natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. Health experts say that between nineteen seventy-nine and nineteen ninety-nine, extremely hot weather killed more than eight thousand people in the United States. In that period, more Americans died from extreme heat than from severe storms, lightning, floods and earthquakes together. And in nineteen ninety-five, more than six hundred people died in a period of extremely hot weather in one city -- Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO:?????? To measure extreme heat, weather experts have developed the Mean Heat Index. It measures the average of how it felt all day on an extremely hot day. Experts say it is the total heat of a hot day or several hot days that can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become deadly when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes intense stress on the human body. Doctors say people can do many things to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink lots of cool water. Wear light-colored clothing made of natural materials. Make sure the clothing is loose, permitting freedom of movement. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. The causes of heat stress include physical work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE TWO: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors also say severe heat increases problems for small children, older people and people suffering from the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood flow, nervousness or depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. That is how the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. Dehydration limits a person’s ability to work and think. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a general feeling of sickness, a fast heartbeat, breathing problems, and pain in the head, chest or stomach. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious, not knowing what is happening. Doctors say the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook when body temperature is higher than forty-two degrees Celsius. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say immediate treatment is necessary or the person could die before help arrives. VOICE TWO: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Raise the person’s feet up about thirty centimeters. Then, take off the person’s clothing. Put water on the body. And place pieces of ice in areas where blood passageways are close to the skin. These areas include the back of the neck and under the arms. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water is also needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water each day to replace all the body water lost in liquid wastes and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. Experts say it is especially important to drink before, during and after exercise. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cold liquids is best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. Yet experts say that sweet drinks are not good to drink in hot weather. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through liquid wastes. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking cool water, doctors say there are other things that can protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, lightweight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. If possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. Also, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Economists Pursue Happiness by Asking Americans How They Feel
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: happiness as defined by an economist. RS: For almost a year, economists at the University of Michigan have been asking Americans about their happiness for the school's?widely quoted monthly measure of consumer confidence. AA: Miles Kimball is an economics professor at Michigan. He says only results from the first three months have been analyzed so far. We asked him how all this works, language-wise. MILES KIMBALL: "What we did was we added to the survey of consumers the following question: 'Now think about the past week and the feelings you've experienced. Please tell me if each of the following was true for you much of the time this past week: You were happy. You felt sad. You enjoyed life, You felt depressed.' And people are asked to give yes-no answers to each of those four questions. That takes only about forty-five seconds for people to answer that, so it's quite quick." RS: "Why would you want to know the answers to these questions?" AA: "And then we can ask you, what have you found so far?" MILES KIMBALL: "Well, actually maybe I could explain how this relates to language because I think that answers those questions, too. So, in most languages, the word for happiness is related to the word for good luck. And in English, for example, we have the word 'happenstance' or this archaic phrase 'as happ has it,' which are both about luck and things that happen by chance. "And so that meaning of happiness ends up meaning something like having a good life or the outcome of good fortune. And it's important to realize this is a different meaning of happiness than just how you feel. They're obviously related, and that's important -- related but different. "One of the striking facts about happiness in the sense of how you feel is that it tends to go back to normal pretty fast. So we found this in our data after -- in people's reaction after Hurricane Katrina. So we measured the happiness of people across the country -- so almost none of these people are those who are directly affected by the hurricane, and yet their happiness dipped down for a week or two. And then it came back to normal. "So it's not too surprising that people would react strongly to Katrina. But then that becomes a measuring rod for other things. One of the surprising things we found was that a month later there was almost as strong a dip in happiness after the earthquake in Pakistan. To me this makes sense. You know, you see on TV suffering people and it doesn't matter if they're suffering people on the other side of the world or in your own country -- I mean it does matter, but either way you care about them because they're human beings." AA: "Well, let me ask you, there have been a lot of stories recently I've noticed about happiness, and studies of happiness, and economists and others seem very interested in this. What's going on, why the interest now in happiness?" MILES KIMBALL: "Well, a lot of the interest is based on these two meanings. Some of the interest is based on something bigger than I think we can actually do. The big thing would be if somehow these two meanings of happiness happen to be equal to one another. So, in other words, if you could go out and ask people how happy they felt and have a measure of how well their life was going overall, that would be very handy and you could do all kinds of things with that. "And so, for example, there is an economist in England, Richard Laird, who has written a book on happiness who proposes to do public policy on that basis. That's taking things a little bit too far. You can learn a lot from looking at happiness, but in order to learn about what matters to people, you'd actually have to find news events. "The trouble you find is that these news effects go away after a while. People adjust to new situations. There's a name for that, 'hedonic adaptation,' that the happiness goes back to normal. And the other interesting thing is that the normal level of happiness depends on a lot of things that are not necessarily an overall measure of how well your life is going." RS: Economist Miles Kimball at the University of Michigan hopes to get a three-year grant to continue measuring Americans' happiness. The current funding lasts through September. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and you can download all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Klondike Gold Rush: Stories of Riches Build Dreams Beyond Reality
* Byline: Paul Thompson

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell the second part of our story about the discovery of gold in the area of Canada called the Yukon. We tell about the thousands of people who traveled to Alaska and on to Canada hoping that they would become rich. (MUSIC) This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell the second part of our story about the discovery of gold in the area of Canada called the Yukon. We tell about the thousands of people who traveled to Alaska and on to Canada hoping that they would become rich. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how three men discovered huge amounts of gold near the Yukon River in northwestern Canada. Their discovery started a rush of people traveling to the American territory of Alaska and across the border to Canada. History experts believe that between twenty and thirty thousand people traveled to the area. Newspapers printed stories that said it was easy to become rich. All you had to do was pick up the gold from the ground. Books and magazines told how to travel to the area and the best method of finding gold. However, most of this information was false. It was not easy to find gold. It was extremely hard work under very difficult conditions. VOICE TWO: The first ship carrying the gold seekers arrived in the port town of Skagway, Alaska, on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven. These people were very lucky. It was summer and the weather was warm. However, they found few places to live in Skagway. Most people had to make temporary houses out of cloth. Skagway was a very small port town. It had very few stores. And everything was very costly. Skagway also had a crime problem. One of the chief criminals was a man named Jefferson Randolph Smith. He was better known as “Soapy” Smith. He did his best to take money from men who were on their way to seek gold. Soapy Smith VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how three men discovered huge amounts of gold near the Yukon River in northwestern Canada. Their discovery started a rush of people traveling to the American territory of Alaska and across the border to Canada. History experts believe that between twenty and thirty thousand people traveled to the area. Newspapers printed stories that said it was easy to become rich. All you had to do was pick up the gold from the ground. Books and magazines told how to travel to the area and the best method of finding gold. However, most of this information was false. It was not easy to find gold. It was extremely hard work under very difficult conditions. VOICE TWO: The first ship carrying the gold seekers arrived in the port town of Skagway, Alaska, on July twenty-sixth, eighteen ninety-seven. These people were very lucky. It was summer and the weather was warm. However, they found few places to live in Skagway. Most people had to make temporary houses out of cloth. Skagway was a very small port town. It had very few stores. And everything was very costly. Skagway also had a crime problem. One of the chief criminals was a man named Jefferson Randolph Smith. He was better known as “Soapy” Smith. He did his best to take money from men who were on their way to seek gold. One method he used seems funny, now. Soapy Smith had signs printed that said a person could send a telegram for five dollars. Many people paid the money to send telegrams to their families back home to say they had arrived safely in Skagway. But they did not know that the telegraph office wires only went into the nearby forest. It was not a real telegraph office. It was a lie Soapy Smith used to take money from people who passed through Skagway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most of the gold seekers wanted to quickly travel to the area where gold had been discovered. However, the Canadian government required that each person had to bring enough supplies to last for one year if they wanted to cross the border into Canada. This was about nine-hundred kilograms of supplies. People who brought their supplies with them on the ship were lucky. Others had to buy their supplies in Skagway. They had to pay extremely high prices for everything they needed. VOICE TWO: When they had gathered all the supplies, the gold seekers then faced the extremely hard trip into Canada. Their first problem was crossing over a huge mountain. They could cross the mountain in one of two places -- the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass. Each gold seeker began by moving his supplies to the bottom of the mountain. Their progress to the mountain was painfully slow. One method he used seems funny, now. Soapy Smith had signs printed that said a person could send a telegram for five dollars. Many people paid the money to send telegrams to their families back home to say they had arrived safely in Skagway. But they did not know that the telegraph office wires only went into the nearby forest. It was not a real telegraph office. It was a lie Soapy Smith used to take money from people who passed through Skagway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most of the gold seekers wanted to quickly travel to the area where gold had been discovered. However, the Canadian government required that each person had to bring enough supplies to last for one year if they wanted to cross the border into Canada. This was about nine-hundred kilograms of supplies. People who brought their supplies with them on the ship were lucky. Others had to buy their supplies in Skagway. They had to pay extremely high prices for everything they needed. VOICE TWO: When they had gathered all the supplies, the gold seekers then faced the extremely hard trip into Canada. Their first problem was crossing over a huge mountain. They could cross the mountain in one of two places -- the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass. Each gold seeker began by moving his supplies to the bottom of the mountain. Their progress to the mountain was painfully slow. A man named Fred Dewey wrote to friends back home that it took him two weeks just to move his supplies from Skagway to the mountain. His wrote that his body hurt because of the extremely hard work. VOICE ONE: Then the gold seekers had to move their supplies up the mountain. Some men made as many as thirty trips before they had all of their supplies at the top. But others looked at the mountain and gave up. They sold their supplies and went back to Skagway. At the top of the mountain was the United States border with Canada. Canadian officials weighed the supplies of each man. If the supplies did not weigh enough, the men were sent back. They were not permitted to cross into Canada. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A gold seeker who had successfully traveled up the mountain still faced the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip. Both trails up the mountain ended near Lake Bennett in British Columbia. From there it was almost nine-hundred kilometers by boat down the Yukon River to the town of Dawson were gold had been discovered. But there was no boat service. Each person or small group had to build their own boat. They cut down many trees to build the boats. Within a few months, some forests in the area were gone. The summer quickly passed and winter began. The gold seekers were still building their boats. The Yukon River turned to ice. Winter in this area was extremely cold. The temperature often dropped to sixty degrees below zero Celsius. The cold could kill an unprotected person in just a few minutes. VOICE ONE: American writer Jack London was among the gold seekers. He became famous for writing about his experiences in Alaska and Canada. He wrote a short story that perhaps best explains the terrible conditions gold seekers faced. It is called “The White Silence.” In the story, Mister London explained how the extreme cold made the world seem dead. It caused strange thoughts. He said the cold and silence of this frozen world seemed to increase a man’s fear of death. This cruel cold could make a man afraid of his own voice. The story also tells what could happen to a person who had an accident. There were not many doctors in the gold fields. A seriously injured person could only expect to die. Jack London’s many stories truthfully explained just how hard it was to be a gold seeker in eighteen ninety-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the end of winter, the area around Lake Bennett was a huge temporary town of more than ten-thousand people. They were all waiting for the ice to melt so they could continue on to the gold fields. On May twenty-eighth, eighteen ninety-eight, the Yukon River could again hold boats. The ice was melting. That day, more than seven-thousand boats began the trip to Dawson. Many of these gold seekers did not survive the trip on the Yukon River. All of the boats had to pass through an area called the White Horse Rapids. The water there was fast and dangerous. Many boats turned over. Many of the gold seekers died. VOICE ONE: At last, the remaining gold seekers reached the city of Dawson. Dawson had been a small village before the discovery of gold. It became a big city within a short time. Stores and hotels were quickly built. The price of everything increased. One man named Miller brought a cow to Dawson. He sold the milk for thirty dollars for a little less than four liters. For the rest of his life he was known as “Cow Miller.” He did not get rich seeking gold. But he made a great deal of money selling milk. Many people did the same thing. They bought supplies in the United States and moved them to Dawson. Then they sold everything at extremely high prices. VOICE TWO: The gold seekers quickly learned that most of the valuable areas of land had already been claimed by others. Many gave up and went home. Some gold seekers searched in other areas. Others went to work for people who had found gold. Experts say about four thousand people became rich during the great Klondike gold rush. Groups of men formed large companies and began buying land in the area. The large companies used huge machines to dig for gold. One of these companies continued to make a profit digging gold until nineteen sixty-six. History records say that in only four years the area around Dawson produced more than fifty-one million dollars in gold. This would be worth more than one thousand million dollars today. VOICE ONE: The great Yukon gold rush was over by the end of eighteen ninety-nine. As many of the gold seekers began to leave, news spread of another huge discovery of gold. Gold had been found in Nome, Alaska. Gold was later discovered in another part of Alaska in nineteen-oh-two. Today, people visiting the area of the great Klondike gold rush can still find very small amounts of gold. The amount of gold is not much. But it is enough to feel the excitement of those gold seekers more than one-hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. A man named Fred Dewey wrote to friends back home that it took him two weeks just to move his supplies from Skagway to the mountain. His wrote that his body hurt because of the extremely hard work. VOICE ONE: Then the gold seekers had to move their supplies up the mountain. Some men made as many as thirty trips before they had all of their supplies at the top. But others looked at the mountain and gave up. They sold their supplies and went back to Skagway. At the top of the mountain was the United States border with Canada. Canadian officials weighed the supplies of each man. If the supplies did not weigh enough, the men were sent back. They were not permitted to cross into Canada. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A gold seeker who had successfully traveled up the mountain still faced the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip. Both trails up the mountain ended near Lake Bennett in British Columbia. From there it was almost nine-hundred kilometers by boat down the Yukon River to the town of Dawson were gold had been discovered. But there was no boat service. Each person or small group had to build their own boat. They cut down many trees to build the boats. Within a few months, some forests in the area were gone. The summer quickly passed and winter began. The gold seekers were still building their boats. The Yukon River turned to ice. Winter in this area was extremely cold. The temperature often dropped to sixty degrees below zero Celsius. The cold could kill an unprotected person in just a few minutes. VOICE ONE: American writer Jack London was among the gold seekers. He became famous for writing about his experiences in Alaska and Canada. He wrote a short story that perhaps best explains the terrible conditions gold seekers faced. It is called “The White Silence.” In the story, Mister London explained how the extreme cold made the world seem dead. It caused strange thoughts. He said the cold and silence of this frozen world seemed to increase a man’s fear of death. This cruel cold could make a man afraid of his own voice. The story also tells what could happen to a person who had an accident. There were not many doctors in the gold fields. A seriously injured person could only expect to die. Jack London’s many stories truthfully explained just how hard it was to be a gold seeker in eighteen ninety-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the end of winter, the area around Lake Bennett was a huge temporary town of more than ten-thousand people. They were all waiting for the ice to melt so they could continue on to the gold fields. On May twenty-eighth, eighteen ninety-eight, the Yukon River could again hold boats. The ice was melting. That day, more than seven-thousand boats began the trip to Dawson. Many of these gold seekers did not survive the trip on the Yukon River. All of the boats had to pass through an area called the White Horse Rapids. The water there was fast and dangerous. Many boats turned over. Many of the gold seekers died. VOICE ONE: At last, the remaining gold seekers reached the city of Dawson. Dawson had been a small village before the discovery of gold. It became a big city within a short time. Stores and hotels were quickly built. The price of everything increased. One man named Miller brought a cow to Dawson. He sold the milk for thirty dollars for a little less than four liters. For the rest of his life he was known as “Cow Miller.” He did not get rich seeking gold. But he made a great deal of money selling milk. Many people did the same thing. They bought supplies in the United States and moved them to Dawson. Then they sold everything at extremely high prices. VOICE TWO: The gold seekers quickly learned that most of the valuable areas of land had already been claimed by others. Many gave up and went home. Some gold seekers searched in other areas. Others went to work for people who had found gold. Experts say about four thousand people became rich during the great Klondike gold rush. Groups of men formed large companies and began buying land in the area. The large companies used huge machines to dig for gold. One of these companies continued to make a profit digging gold until nineteen sixty-six. History records say that in only four years the area around Dawson produced more than fifty-one million dollars in gold. This would be worth more than one thousand million dollars today. VOICE ONE: The great Yukon gold rush was over by the end of eighteen ninety-nine. As many of the gold seekers began to leave, news spread of another huge discovery of gold. Gold had been found in Nome, Alaska. Gold was later discovered in another part of Alaska in nineteen-oh-two. Today, people visiting the area of the great Klondike gold rush can still find very small amounts of gold. The amount of gold is not much. But it is enough to feel the excitement of those gold seekers more than one-hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Explaining the Placebo Effect
* Byline: 

 I'm Katherine Cole with the VOA Special English Health Report. Studies of new drugs traditionally involve at least two groups of people. The people in one of those groups are given only what they think is the drug. Really they get a placebo -- an inactive substance. The drug is proven effective if it performs better than the placebo. Some researchers do not think drug studies should use placebos. They say it makes more sense to compare new medicines to drugs already on the market. Then people would know if a new drug is any better. "Placebo” is Latin for “I shall please.”? It may contain nothing more than sugar. Yet some people who are given a placebo experience improvements in their health. This is called the placebo effect. Some doctors use the placebo effect in their treatments. An influential study published in nineteen fifty-five said placebo treatments made patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. But in two thousand one, Danish researchers reported that they had examined more than one hundred studies. They found little evidence of healing as a result of placebos. Still, there is continued belief in the placebo effect. A Swedish study published last year suggested that a placebo can reduce the emotional effects of unpleasant experiences. The study involved people who looked at images of dead bodies and other unpleasant pictures. The findings appeared in the journal Neuron. The researchers said the effects in the brain were similar to those seen when placebos have been used as a pain treatment. In both cases, they said, expectations of improvement are a major influence. But more than expectations might explain why placebos appear effective sometimes. Researchers led by Scot Simpson at the University of Alberta, in Canada, just had a report published in the British Medical Journal. They examined twenty-one studies. These compared death rates between patients who always took their medicine and those who did not. Even patients who took placebos had better results than those who did not follow doctor's orders. The researchers see this finding as support for the idea of a so-called healthy adherer effect. That is, a person who takes a drug treatment as directed may also do other things to live a healthy life. And that is the VOA Special English Health Report. You can download free transcripts and MP3 files of our weekly reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Katherine Cole. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Reaction Is Split as More Women, Fewer Men, Go to College
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Recently we had two reports about concerns over the progress of boys in the American education system. Some people say there is a crisis for boys. Others say there are problems for some boys. But they say the situation is not so much that boys are falling behind as that girls are catching up with boys. Today we examine changes that have taken place at the college level. Here there are similar issues. Some people are worried about the situation for men while others praise areas of progress for women. In nineteen seventy, women represented forty-two percent of college students in the United States. Now they are about fifty-six percent. A recent report called “The Truth About Boys and Girls" included this information -- but not as evidence of a crisis. Sara Mead, a policy analyst at the research group Education Sector, wrote the report. She sees the situation this way: Potential students and their parents visit Duke University in Durham, North CarolinaYes, men are earning fewer four-year college degrees than women. But men are still earning more degrees than they have in the past, only at a slower growth rate than women. And, yes, more women than men are also earning master's degrees. But men still earn more doctorates. These are the degrees needed to become a doctor or a lawyer or a professor. In addition, men hold more positions of power and earn more money on average than women do. There are many theories why males and females perform differently in their schooling. Some are based on recent brain research, but others center on environment. Some people say boys now face a hostile environment in American education. Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote the book "The War Against Boys."? She says the lower percentage of men in college points to a serious problem in the education of American boys. So how many Americans go to college?? The Census Bureau reports that in nineteen seventy-five, eighteen percent of men in the United States had a four-year degree. That compared to eleven percent of women. By two thousand, the numbers were twenty-eight percent of men and twenty-four percent of women. The Census Bureau says that each year since nineteen eighty-two, more women than men have earned a four-year degree. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Brianna Blake. You can find our earlier reports on this subject at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: By 1920, America Had Become World's Top Economic Power
* Byline: David Jarmul

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The nineteen twenties are remembered today as a quiet period in American foreign policy. The nation was at peace. The Republican presidents in the White House generally were more interested in economic growth at home than in relations with foreign countries. But the world had changed. The United States had become a world power. It was tied to other countries by trade, politics, and joint interests. And America had gained new economic strength. VOICE TWO: Before World War One, foreigners invested more money in the United States than Americans invested in other countries -- about three thousand million dollars more. The war changed this. By nineteen nineteen, Americans had almost three thousand million dollars more invested in other countries than foreign citizens had invested in the United States. American foreign investments continued to increase greatly during the nineteen twenties. Increased foreign investment was not the only sign of growing American economic power. By the end of World War One, the United States produced more goods and services than any other nation, both in total and per person. Americans had more steel, food, cloth, and coal than even the richest foreign nations. By nineteen twenty, the United States national income was greater than the combined incomes of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and seventeen smaller countries. Quite simply, the United States had become the world's greatest economic power. VOICE ONE: America's economic strength influenced its policies toward Europe during the nineteen twenties. In fact, one of the most important issues of this period was the economic aid the United States had provided European nations during World War One. Americans lent the Allied countries seven thousand million dollars during the war. Shortly after the war, they lent another three thousand million dollars. The Allies borrowed most of the money for military equipment and food and other needs of their people. The Allied nations suffered far greater losses of property and population than the United States during the war. And when peace came, they called on the United States to cancel the loans America had made. France, Britain, and the other Allied nations said the United States should not expect them to re-pay the loans. VOICE TWO: The United States refused to cancel the debts. President Coolidge spoke for most Americans when he said, simply: "They borrowed the money." ?He believed the European powers should pay back the war loans, even though their economies had suffered terribly during the fighting. However, the European nations had little money to pay their loans. France tried to get the money by demanding payments from Germany for having started the war. When Germany was unable to pay, France and Belgium occupied Germany's Ruhr Valley.As a result, German miners in the area reduced coal production. And France and Germany moved toward an economic crisis and possible new armed conflict. VOICE ONE: An international group intervened and negotiated a settlement to the crisis. The group provided a system to save Germany's currency and protect international debts. American bankers agreed to lend money to Germany to pay its war debts to the Allies. And the Allies used the money to pay their debts to the United States. VOICE TWO: Some Americans with international interests criticized President Coolidge and other conservative leaders for not reducing or canceling Europe's debts. They said the debts and the new payment plan put foolish pressure on the weak European economies. They said this made the German currency especially weak. And they warned that a weak economy would lead to serious social problems in Germany and other countries. However, most Americans did not understand the serious effect that international economic policies could have on the future of world peace. They believed that it was wrong for the Europeans -- or anyone -- to borrow money and then refuse to pay it back. VOICE ONE: Many Americans of the nineteen twenties also failed to recognize that a strong national military force would become increasingly important in the coming years. President Coolidge requested very limited military spending from the Congress. And many conservative military leaders refused to spend much money on such new kinds of equipment as submarines and airplanes. Some Americans did understand that the United States was now a world power and needed a strong and modern fighting force. One general, Billy Mitchell, publicly criticized the military leadership for not building new weapons. But most Americans were not interested. Many Americans continued to oppose arms spending until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in nineteen forty-one. VOICE TWO: American policy toward the League of Nations did not change much in the nineteen twenties. In nineteen nineteen, the Senate denied President Wilson's plea for the United States to join the new League of Nations. The United States, however, became involved unofficially in a number of league activities. But it continued to refuse to become a full member. And in nineteen thirty, the Senate rejected a proposal for the United States to join the World Court. The United States also continued in the nineteen twenties to refuse to recognize the communist government in Moscow. However, trade between the Soviet Union and the United States increased greatly during this period. And such large American companies as General Electric, DuPont, and?R-C-A provided technical assistance to the new Soviet government. VOICE ONE: The Coolidge administration was involved actively in events in Latin America. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes helped several Latin American countries to settle border disputes peacefully. In Central America, President Coolidge ordered American Marines into Nicaragua when President Adolfo Diaz faced a revolt from opposition groups. The United States gave its support to more conservative groups in Nicaragua. And it helped arrange a national election in nineteen twenty-eight. American troops stayed in Nicaragua until nineteen thirty-three. However, American troops withdrew from the Dominican Republic during this period. And Secretary of State Hughes worked to give new life to the Pan American Union. VOICE TWO: Relations with Mexico became worse during the nineteen twenties. In nineteen twenty-five, Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles called for laws to give Mexico more control over its minerals and natural wealth. American oil companies resisted the proposed changes. They accused Calles of communism. And some American business and church leaders called for armed American intervention. However, the American Senate voted to try to settle the conflict peacefully. And American diplomat Dwight Morrow helped negotiate a successful new agreement. VOICE ONE: These American actions in Nicaragua and Mexico showed that the United States still felt that it had special security interests south of its border. But its peaceful settlement of the Mexican crisis and support of elections in Nicaragua showed that it was willing to deal with disputes peacefully. America's policies in Latin America during the nineteen twenties were in some ways similar to its policies elsewhere. It was a time of change, of movement, from one period to another. Many Americans were hoping to follow the traditional foreign policies of the past. They sought to remain separate from world conflict. VOICE TWO: The United States, however, could no longer remain apart from world events. This would become clear in the coming years. Europe would face facism and war. The Soviet Union would grow more powerful. And Latin America would become more independent. The United States was a world power. But it was still learning in the nineteen twenties about the leadership and responsibility that is part of such power. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: After Almost 20 Years, Superman Returns to Movie Theaters
* Byline: Erin Schiavone and Nancy Steinbach

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week… We answer a question about long English words… Play some music from Paul Simon… And report about Superman. Superman Returns (SOUND: “Look! Up in the sky! ?It’s a bird!? It’s a plane!? It’s Superman!) HOST:?? America’s most famous comic book hero, Superman, has returned in the new movie “Superman Returns.” Faith Lapidus tells us the history of this popular superhero. FAITH LAPIDUS: Superman was the first comic book hero who had super powers. Superman can fly. He has powerful vision and hearing. He is called the “man of steel” because he is very strong. Superman protects innocent people from harm, fights evil and carries out justice. Superman was born on the planet Krypton. His father sent him to the planet Earth as a baby to keep him safe. Krypton exploded soon after. When Superman landed on Earth, an old couple made him a home on their farm. As he grew, he learned that he had super powers. During the day he works as a quiet newspaper reporter named Clark Kent. He tries to keep his identity as Superman a secret. Superman was really born in Cleveland, Ohio in the early nineteen thirties. Two young men named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the Superman character as a comic strip. Jerry and Joe both liked science fiction. Joe drew the pictures and Jerry wrote the story. The two friends wanted their comic to be published in the newspaper. But newspapers rejected Superman. Finally, in nineteen thirty-eight “Superman” was published in a comic book called Action Comics Number One. Superman was immediately popular. In less than a year, Superman became a newspaper comic strip. Mister Siegel and Mister Shuster did not make much money from their creation. They sold the legal rights to the comic for one hundred and thirty dollars. Still, the Superman story was very successful. It is still published in comic books today. In nineteen forty, Superman became the star of a radio show. In the nineteen fifties, George Reeves starred in the popular Superman television series. In nineteen seventy-eight, Christopher Reeve starred in the first of four Superman movies. The last was released in nineteen eighty-seven. Sadly, Reeve was severely injured in a horse riding accident in nineteen ninety-five. He was paralyzed and could not move from the neck down. He died in two thousand four. The new Superman movie stars Brandon Routh as the Man of Steel. This superhero has returned to the movies after almost twenty years. Superman is still very popular. In its first week, the movie earned more than one hundred million dollars. Longest English Word HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Yuji Ishibashi asks us about the longest word in the English language. The Oxford English Dictionary Web site says the longest word listed in Oxford dictionaries is this one: “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.”? This forty-five letter word is the name of a kind of lung disease. The dictionary’s Web site says that the word is like other examples of the longest words. They are not really spoken in everyday life. The Oxford English Dictionary Web site also lists other interesting facts about words. For example, what are the longest English words containing no letter more than once?? They are two fifteen-letter words—“uncopyrightable” and “dermatoglyphics.”? There are several one-syllable English words that have nine letters. Examples include “screeched”, “scratched”, “scrounged,” “scrunched” and “stretched.” Another source of long English words is the Guinness Book of Records. It says the longest real word in the English language is “floccinaucinihilipilification.” It is also the longest non-technical word listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. It has twenty-nine letters. It means the act of estimating something as worthless. The Guinness Book of Records says it was first used in seventeen forty-one. In recent times, United States Senator Jesse Helms used the word. So did former President Bill Clinton’s press secretary. The best known long English word is probably “antidisestablishmentarianism.”? This is the word for a nineteenth century movement in Britain that opposed the separation of church and government. The word is twenty-eight letters long. There is a well known song about another long English word. It is from the nineteen sixty-four Walt Disney movie “Mary Poppins.”? It has thirty-four letters. It is “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” The song was written by Robert Sherman. He said he and his brother created the word when they were boys at summer camp. The song describes using the word as a way to talk oneself out of difficult situations, and even as a way to change one's life. (MUSIC:? "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious") Paul Simon's "Surprise" HOST: Paul Simon started writing and recording songs in the nineteen sixties. Simon’s first songs were calm and poetic with a folk music style. Now Paul Simon is sixty-four years old. Mario Ritter tells us about his latest album called “Surprise.” MARIO RITTER: This album is different from Paul Simon’s earlier music because it has an electronic sound. Simon worked with Brian Eno who is known for electronic music. Eno produced music for the bands U2 and Talking Heads. Paul Simon’s voice sounds the same as in his past records. But the electronic sound makes the new album more exciting. Simon told the New York Times that he thought about the September eleventh attacks against America while making the album. Simon wanted the songs to have American sounds. One of his earlier albums, “Graceland,” was influenced by the music of South Africa. The song “Outrageous” is from Paul Simon’s new album. This song has lots of energy. It sounds like a pop song. It asks the question, “Who will love you when your looks are gone?” (MUSIC) Another song from the album “Surprise” is called “Sure Don’t Feel Like Love.”? In this song, Simon says there is a lack of love and caring in the world. The music has a hip-hop rhythm, unlike his past music. (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from Paul Simon’s new album, “Surprise.”? “Another Galaxy” has a very electronic sound. The song also has softer guitar music. Simon sings about leaving home and other changes in a person’s life. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Erin Schiavone and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: European Union Fines Microsoft -- Again
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The European Commission ruled Wednesday that Microsoft is still using its powerful market position illegally. The top European Union official for competition policy ordered a fine of more than two hundred eighty million euros. The amount is almost three hundred sixty million dollars. Microsoft said it would appeal in court. In March of two thousand four, the commission ordered Microsoft to release technical information about its Windows operating system. At that time, the commission fined the company almost five hundred million euros. The order was meant to permit competitors to create software that can operate with Microsoft products. It is estimated that more than ninety percent of personal computers in the world use Windows. Brad Smith is Microsoft's top lawyer. He released a statement from the company headquarters in Redmond, Washington, after the fine was announced. Mister Smith says Microsoft has already provided thousands of pages of technical documents. He says the March two thousand four decision was not clear and that clarity is the real issue. Mister Smith says Microsoft finally received a clear definition of the requirements this April and has already met nearly all of them. He says the company has "over three hundred employees working around the clock" to finish by July twenty-fourth. And he says it is hard to understand the huge fine when, in his words, "the agreed-upon finish line is just days away." Neelie Kroes is the European Union commissioner for competition policy. She says the two thousand four decision was completely clear. She noted that a European court had ordered Microsoft more than eighteen months ago to release the information without delay. Mizz Kroes said Microsoft did not even come close to providing complete information as demanded. This is the first time the European Union has fined a company for failing to meet an anti-trust decision. If Microsoft does not satisfy the commission by July thirty-first, it faces possible fines of three million euros per day. That is almost four million dollars. Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen started Microsoft in nineteen seventy-five. Microsoft earned just under three thousand million dollars in profit in the period from January through March of this year. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. You can download transcripts and audio of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Future for Terrorism Suspects Depends on Congress
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. In Washington, one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in years has now led to discussions in Congress. At issue is the power of the president, even at a time of war. The decision came June twenty-ninth in a case called Hamdan versus Rumsfeld -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Salim Ahmed Hamdan is a Yemeni held at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He is charged as a former driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida. Salim Hamdan was captured in Afghanistan after the American invasion in two thousand one. The military action followed the al-Qaida attacks that killed almost three thousand people in the United States on September eleventh. Congress, in a joint resolution, gave President Bush the power to react with "all necessary and appropriate force." The case decided by the Supreme Court involved the rights of captured terrorism suspects. The court ruled that the Bush administration could not set policy for them without approval by Congress. President Bush says he will work with Congress "to find a way forward."? He said he would like for there to be a way to return people from Guantanamo to their home countries. But, he added, "some of them need to be tried in our courts."? The Supreme Court voted five to three in its decision. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion. The court found that the president's plan to hold trials before military commissions violates international law and has no basis in federal law. In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that denying the president the right to hold military trials would limit his ability to fight terrorism. Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito also wrote dissenting opinions. Chief Justice John Roberts did not take part in the case. The decision also means the president alone cannot declare that terrorism suspects lack protection under the Geneva Conventions. Those are the international agreements that govern the treatment of prisoners of war. The administration declared the suspects illegal enemy combatants and not prisoners of war. This week, however, the Defense Department made public a July seventh memo signed by Deputy Secretary Gordon England. The memo said prisoners taken in the conflict against al-Qaida are included under Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions. Article Three bans “violence to life and person” in the treatment of prisoners. In another development, there was news that the president has conditionally agreed to let a court rule on another program. That one involves listening to the international calls and reading the e-mails of people in the United States when suspected terrorists are involved. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written this week by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mouth Expressions:? You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth
* Byline: Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. People use their mouths for many things. They eat, talk, shout and sing. They smile and they kiss. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word mouth. But some of them are not so nice. For example, if you say bad things about a person, the person might protest and say “Do not bad mouth me.” Sometimes, people say something to a friend or family member that they later regret because hurts that person’s feelings. Or they tell the person something they were not supposed to tell. The speaker might say: “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.”? If this should happen, the speaker might feel “down in the mouth.”? In other words, he might feel sad for saying the wrong thing. Another situation is when someone falsely claims another person said something. The other person might protest: “I did not say that. Do not put words in my mouth.” Information is often spread through “word of mouth.”? This is general communication between people, like friends talking to each other. “How did you hear about that new movie?” someone might ask. “Oh, by word of mouth.”?? A more official way of getting information is through a company or government “mouthpiece.”? This is an official spokesperson. Government-run media could also be called a “mouthpiece.” Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend was going to say. When this happens, the friend might say: “You took the words right out of my mouth!”? Sometimes a person has a bad or unpleasant experience with another person. He might say that experience “left a bad taste in my mouth.”? Or the person might have had a very frightening experience, like being chased by an angry dog. He might say: “I had my heart in my mouth.” Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. There is an expression for this, too. You might say such a person “was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” This rich person is the opposite of a person who lives “from hand to mouth.”? This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food. Parents might sometimes withhold sweet food from a child as a form of punishment for saying bad things. For example, if a child says things she should not say to her parents, she might be described as “a mouthy child.”? The parents might even tell the child “to stop mouthing off.”?? But enough of all this talk. I have been “running my mouth” long enough. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'In Cold Blood': How Truman Capote Invented the Nonfiction Novel
* Byline: Dana Demange

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Truman Capote, one of America’s most famous modern writers. He invented a new kind of book called the nonfiction novel. This literary form combined factual reporting with the imaginary possibilities of storytelling. Capote’s writing ability and his wild personality captured the interest of people all over the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Truman Capote became famous for living a wild and exciting life. He traveled a great deal and divided his time between homes in New York City and Switzerland. But he started out from more common roots. Truman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in nineteen twenty-four. His name was Truman Streckfus Persons. When he was a very young child, Truman’s mother sent him to live with her family in Monroeville, Alabama. He lived with his aunts and cousins for several years. Truman rarely saw his parents. But he did become friends with the little girl who lived next door to his family. Her name was Harper Lee. She would later grow up to be a famous writer. Her book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” would earn her a Pulitzer Prize. One of the characters in the book is based on Truman as a child. VOICE TWO: Truman was a very lonely child. He later said that he felt very different from everyone around him. He said he felt he was much more intelligent and sensitive than others and feared that no one understood him. This helps explain why Truman began writing. Putting his thoughts on paper helped him feel less lonely. As a child he would write for about three hours a day after school. VOICE ONE: When Truman was about ten years old he joined his mother in New York City. She had remarried a Cuban-American businessman named Joseph Capote. Mister Capote soon became the legal parent of Truman. He renamed his stepson Truman Garcia Capote. Truman did not do well in school. He was very smart but did not like classes. He stopped attending high school when he was seventeen years old. Instead, he started working for The New Yorker magazine. And, he kept on writing. VOICE TWO: Truman Capote once said: “I had to be successful and I had to be successful early.” He said that some people spent half of their lives not knowing what they were going to do. But Capote knew he wanted to be a writer and he wanted to be rich and famous. He succeeded. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-five Truman Capote sold his first short story to a major magazine. This story, “Miriam”, won a literary prize called the O.Henry Award. A publishing company soon gave him money to start working on a book. Capote was only twenty-three years old when he finished his first novel, “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” It tells the story of a southern boy who goes to live with his father after his mother dies. The story is an exploration of identity. The boy learns to understand and accept that he loves men. VOICE TWO: “Other Voices, Other Rooms” was a great success. Critics praised its clarity and honesty. But the story was also disputed. It openly deals with homosexual issues of men loving men. Truman Capote had relationships with men and was not afraid of expressing this fact to the world. The photograph on the book cover also caused a dispute. The picture of Capote is intense and sexually suggestive. Capote loved shocking the public. He liked to get all kinds of publicity. Truman Capote soon became well known in the literary world. He loved rich people from important families. Capote was as famous for his personality as he was for his writing. He attended the best parties and restaurants. His small body, boyish looks, and unusual little voice became famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Capote wrote many more short stories and essays. In nineteen fifty-eight, he published a book called “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” It has become one of the most well known stories in American culture. The main character is Holly Golightly. She is a free-spirited young woman living in New York City. Holly is very beautiful and has many lovers. She runs from party to party wearing little black dresses and dark sunglasses. But she has a mysterious past that she tries to escape. At the end of the story Holly leaves New York forever. She disappears from the lives of the men who knew her. But they can never forget her colorful personality. VOICE TWO: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was soon made into a movie. The film stars Audrey Hepburn. She captures Holly Golightly’s spirit perfectly. Here is a scene from the movie. Holly and her friend Paul are visiting Tiffany’s, a very costly jewelry store. (SOUND: "Breakfast?at Tiffany's") Holly: Isn’t it wonderful? You see what I mean how nothing bad could ever happen to you in a place like this? It isn’t that I give a hoot about jewelry except diamonds of course…like that! What do you think? Paul:Well… Holly: Of course, personally I think it would be tacky to wear diamonds before I am forty. Paul: Well, you’re right. but in the mean time you should have something. Holly: I’ll wait. Paul: No, I’m going to buy you a present. You bought me one -- a typewriter ribbon and it brought me luck. Holly: All right, but Tiffany’s can be pretty expensive. Paul: I’ve got my check and …ten dollars. Holly: Oh, I wouldn’t let you cash your check. But a present for ten dollars or under, that I’ll accept. Of course, I don’t exactly know what? we’re going to find at Tiffany’s for ten dollars. VOICE ONE: In the late nineteen fifties Truman Capote started developing a method of writing that would revolutionize journalism. He wanted to combine the facts of reporting with the stylistic richness of storytelling. He became interested in a short New York Times report published in November of nineteen fifty-nine. The report described the murder of a family in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. A husband, wife and two children had been shot in their home in the middle of the night. VOICE TWO: Truman Capote immediately traveled to Kansas to learn more about the killings. His childhood friend Harper Lee went with him. Together they spoke with everyone involved in the investigation. They met with police officers and people living in the town. Capote even became friends with the two killers. The writer met with them many times in jail after they were arrested. Capote spent the next few years researching what would become his next literary project. His book would give a detailed description of the murders. It would explore the effects of the killing on the town. And it would even tell the story from the point of view of the killers. VOICE ONE: But Capote became involved in a moral conflict. He could not complete his book until he knew its ending. So, he had to wait until the end of the trial to see if both killers were found guilty and put to death. As a writer he wanted to finish the story. But as a friend, it was difficult for him to watch the two men die. Capote was torn between his duty towards human life and his duty to his work. VOICE TWO: Capote worked for six years to produce his book “In Cold Blood.” It was finally published in nineteen sixty-six. It immediately became an international best seller. Truman Capote had invented a whole new kind of writing. He called it the non-fiction novel. He was at the top of his profession. Here is a recording of Truman Capote from a two thousand five documentary about him. Listen to Capote’s small southern voice as he talks about style: “I think one has style or one doesn’t, but style is one’s self. It’s something that you don’t, you cannot…learn. It’s something that has to come from within you. And bit by bit, be arrived at and it’s simply there like the color of your eyes.” VOICE ONE: Truman Capote decided to celebrate his new success. In nineteen sixty-six he gave what people called the “party of the century”. He invited five hundred friends for a night of eating, drinking and dancing at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Guests included famous writers, actors and important people from the media. They were told to wear either black or white formal clothing. Capote’s “Black and White Ball” was one of the most famous events in the history of New York society. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: But Truman Capote’s popularity soon decreased. His drinking and drug use seriously affected his health. His writing also suffered. He published stories that insulted his rich and powerful friends. Many people no longer wanted to have anything to do with him. Capote died in ninety eighty-four. He was fifty-nine. VOICE ONE: Truman Capote’s writing is still celebrated today for its clarity and style. In two thousand five the film “Capote” renewed interest in his work and personality. This little man from Alabama left an important mark on American literary culture. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Young People Are Subject of World Population Day
* Byline: Jill Moss

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The world has more than six thousand million people. Almost half are under the age of twenty-five. This year's World Population Day on July eleventh dealt with the subject of young people and the problems many face. Poverty, crime, barriers to education and jobs, AIDS -- the list goes on. World population is expected to grow by more than 40 percent by 2050A message from the United Nations secretary-general said the lives of young people are shaped by forces beyond their control. Yet today's young people also know more about the lives led by others their age around the world. Kofi Annan says as a result many are demanding action to narrow the divide between rich and poor. He says there is a clear need to answer the calls for measures to improve the lives of all. He says information and services related to sexual and reproductive health are especially important for youth empowerment. He noted that these are often overlooked. Kofi Annan says providing for young people is not just a moral duty, but an economic necessity. The United Nations Population Fund has estimated that about half of all unemployed people are between fifteen and twenty-four years old. And it says many young people who do find work are trapped in low-wage jobs with few chances to learn skills. The Youth Employment Summit Campaign was launched in two thousand two. This ten-year campaign known as YES aims to create programs and policies that lead to more jobs. Young activists lead the campaign with support from the U.N. Population Fund and other organizations. The next world meeting of the YES Campaign will be held in September in Kenya. About two thousand representatives, from more than one hundred twenty countries, are expected to attend. Half will be young people. The International Labor Organization says people younger than sixteen should not work. But the I.L.O. also says it recognizes this is not always possible. A family’s economic survival may depend on the labor of its younger members. Still, the U.N. agency reported in May that child labor has decreased worldwide for the first time. The levels fell by an estimated eleven percent between two thousand and two thousand four. The report said the end of child labor is within reach. And it called on countries to work to end the worst forms of child labor within ten years. With the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss, this is Shep O'Neal. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Fresh Look for Two Art Museums in Washington
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. This week, come along to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. These two museums in Washington, D.C., have re-opened after six years of renovation work. VOICE ONE: The two collections are housed in a huge and historic building of white stone. The building dates back to eighteen thirty-six. It was where inventors established claims for their inventions. The Old Patent Office Building became part of the Smithsonian Institution in nineteen sixty-two. It is now the Smithsonian Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. VOICE TWO: The renovations cost more than two hundred eighty million dollars. Congress and private donors provided the money. There is no charge to visit the museums. Space for showings is much bigger now with the new look. The roof is new. Workers also redid the floors. Hundreds of windows have been improved. Skylights have been re-opened. Elizabeth Broun is director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She talks about the importance of the additional natural light. This is especially true for some works, like the colored glass windows by the artist John La Farge, who died in nineteen ten. Many people used to make separate visits to see the two collections. Now, the museums share a common main entrance. In fact, they seem to melt into each other. The National Portrait Gallery is on the east side of the first floor of the building. The Smithsonian American Art Museum, known as SAAM, is on the west side. VOICE ONE: In SAAM, traditional paintings share the museum with old silver-print photographs and hangings of woven material. Sculptures formed from steel and stone share space with works made from bottle tops and egg containers. We stop at one of the works of fine art, a nineteen thirty-two oil painting of the New York City skyline. The work is simply called "Manhattan." ?Georgia O’Keeffe painted it. When we think of Georgia O'Keeffe, one of the first things we think of is flowers. She liked to paint flowers. Sure enough, we see three of them positioned among the colorful, abstract shapes of the tall buildings. The artist once said of this work: “One cannot paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.”? Georgia O'Keeffe died in nineteen eighty-six, at the age of ninety-eight. VOICE TWO: On now to a technological creation from nineteen ninety-five. The video artist Nam June Paik called it “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii.”? Paik used more than three hundred televisions to create a standing video map of the United States. Televisions within each state present all sorts of images, including scenes from famous Hollywood movies. Bright neon lights mark the borders of the states. ? Nam June Paik was born in nineteen thirty-two in Seoul, Korea. He lived in the United States for many years. He died in January at the age of seventy-three. His "Electronic Superhighway" is twelve meters wide and four and one-half meters tall. It is so big, it occupies its own room. VOICE ONE: Some of the artists whose works appear in the Smithsonian American Art Museum are not very well known. Martin Ramirez was born in eighteen eighty-five. He was an immigrant from Mexico. He created folk art with pencil, watercolor, small pieces of paper joined together -- whatever materials he could find. His works of people and places are densely drawn and highly detailed. Markings are often repeated. To know more about the artist is to know that this was the work of a troubled mind. Doctors identified Martin Ramirez as paranoid schizophrenic. He spent many years in mental hospitals in California. VOICE TWO: Now it is time to look at some other folk art -- like a giraffe made of metal bottle caps. The unidentified artist also used rubber, glass, animal hair and sheet metal. A retired coal miner painted a picture of a train carrying coal. Jack Savitsky had worked in the mines for thirty-five years. He produced the oil painting in an art class after poor health forced him to retire. Smoke rises from the engine as the train climbs a hill. VOICE ONE: The National Portrait Gallery is a collection of almost twenty thousand paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and photos. These are the faces of people who have influenced American history and culture. Some are easy to recognize; others are nameless images from long ago. We see the faces of people who helped build America. Laborers from the Industrial Revolution. Immigrant settlers. We also see Native Americans and those whose people arrived as slaves from Africa. We see cowboys and farmers and people left jobless by the Great Depression. And we see Americans of today. VOICE TWO: A good way to start a visit to the National Portrait Gallery is to see one of America’s best-known portraits. The painting of George Washington is by Gilbert Stuart. The first president appears as a tall, aging statesman. He is looking toward his right and has his right hand extended. The painting is known as the “Lansdowne" portrait. A very wealthy senator and his wife commissioned the work in seventeen ninety-six for the first Marquis of Lansdowne. The marquis was an ally in the British Parliament during the American Revolution. The portrait had been on loan. A thirty million dollar gift in two thousand one permitted the gallery to buy the painting. The gift came from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas, Nevada. The director of the gallery, Marc Pachter, calls the Lansdowne portrait the jewel of the collection. VOICE ONE: The National Portrait Gallery exhibits portraits of all the American presidents. These include a portrait of Lyndon Johnson by an artist who received much praise for his art, Peter Hurd. But Johnson, who became president in nineteen sixty-three, disliked this portrait. It was too traditional and official-looking for him. So he rejected it for the White House. VOICE TWO: Another, very different kind of portrait at the gallery is of Marilyn Monroe. Andy Warhol used a silkscreen print on paper to make this image of the actress. Her famous blonde hair has an orange-ish look. A graphite drawing by Elaine de Kooning from around nineteen sixty-five shows jazz musician Ornette Coleman playing his saxophone. Wendy Wick Reaves is the head of prints and drawings at the gallery. She points out areas of uneven and unclear pencil marks in the drawing. She says these are meant to represent the feeling of freedom in jazz. VOICE ONE: Also in the National Portrait Gallery is a painted-wood sculpture of Rosa Parks. The civil rights activist is being seized by agents of the law. The sculpture is by Marshall Rumbaugh. In nineteen fifty-five, Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That incident helped launch the modern civil rights movement. Visitors can also find a portrait of basketball player Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq has his hand over his face. We see just one eye looking out of this black-and-white photograph by Rick Chapman. VOICE TWO: A special exhibit celebrates the nineteenth-century poet Walt Whitman. Historian David Ward notes that Whitman had a connection to the building that houses the two museums today. For a while, the poet worked there in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. During the Civil War, he helped the wounded in a hospital set up in the building. VOICE ONE: The Old Patent Office Building is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. People say it is one of the most beautiful buildings in Washington. And why not?? A building that houses some of the finest works of art of a nation should itself be a work of art. VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can see some of the art we talked about, and get a transcript of this show, at voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hepatitis: Five Diseases That All Have the Same Target -- the Liver
* Byline: Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: A nurse with two patients at a hospital in eastern Ukraine in 2003 after an outbreak of hepatitis AAnd I’m Barbara Klein. This week -- all about five diseases caused by five different viruses. These diseases all attack the liver. Doctors have one name for them: hepatitis. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The liver is in the upper right part of the stomach area. This dark red organ is big -- it weighs more than one kilogram. And it has a big job. The liver helps to clean the blood and fight infection. It also helps break down food and store energy until the body needs it. Hepatitis destroys liver cells. But some kinds of hepatitis are much more serious than others. The five kinds that scientists have identified over the years are called by the letters A through E. Which kind a person has can only be identified by tests for antibodies in the blood. Antibodies are special proteins that the defense system produces in reaction to a threat. Identify the antibody and you identify the threat. VOICE TWO: Hepatitis A is usually spread through human waste in water or food. It is in the same group of viruses as those that cause polio. The hepatitis A virus causes high body temperature, tiredness and pain. It causes problems with the stomach and intestines, making it difficult to eat or digest food. Also, the skin of a person with hepatitis may become yellow. This is a sign that the liver is not operating normally. To help prevent the spread of hepatitis A, people should wash their hands after they use the bathroom or change a baby's diaper. People should also wash their hands before they eat or prepare food. VOICE ONE: Hepatitis A can spread quickly to hundreds or thousands of people. But this virus is deadly in less than one percent of cases. In fact, many people never even get sick. Those who do generally recover within two months. The Centers for Disease Control Web site -- cdc.gov -- says the usual treatment is bed rest and a balanced diet. Also, a person should avoid alcohol for at least six months. People who have had hepatitis A cannot get it again. And there is a vaccine that can prevent hepatitis A. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization calls Hepatitis B "one of the major diseases of mankind."? It says two thousand million people, or one-third of all people, are infected with the hepatitis B virus. The highest rates are in developing countries. This virus is in the same group as the herpes and smallpox viruses. There have been hepatitis B vaccines since the early nineteen eighties. Hepatitis B spreads when blood from an infected person enters the body of another person. An infected mother can infect her baby. The virus can also spread through sex, and if people share injection devices. Blood products from an infected person can spread hepatitis B. And people can get infected if they share personal-care items that might have blood on them, like shaving razors or toothbrushes. VOICE ONE: Worldwide, most hepatitis B infections happen in children. Young children are the ones most likely to develop a lifelong infection. The W.H.O. estimates that more than three hundred fifty million people are chronically infected with the virus. The risk of a lifelong infection is small for those infected after age four. But about ninety percent of those infected with hepatitis B during their first year develop chronic infections. They are at high risk of death from liver disease and liver cancer. When scientists developed a hepatitis B vaccine, it was considered the first medicine to protect people against cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Hepatitis C is even more dangerous. Like hepatitis B, it spreads when blood from an infected person enters someone who is not infected. It belongs to the same group of viruses as yellow fever and West Nile virus. Most people infected with hepatitis C develop chronic infections, often without any signs. They are at high risk for liver disease and liver cancer. The World Health Organization says about one hundred eighty million people are infected with hepatitis C. And each year as many as four million more become infected. The W.H.O. says the highest rates are in Africa, Latin America and Asia. VOICE ONE: Scientists have been working to develop a vaccine against hepatitis C. The virus was first observed in nineteen seventy-four. But it was not officially recognized as a new kind of hepatitis until nineteen eighty-nine. Research suggests that each year as many as twelve thousand people in the United States die of hepatitis C. A study by the National Institutes of Health found high rates of the virus in some groups, including prisoners and homeless people. People who received blood and blood products before nineteen ninety-two also have an increased risk. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Hepatitis D is also spread through blood but only infects people who already have hepatitis B. The virus greatly increases the chance of severe liver damage. The W.H.O says ten million people around the world are infected with hepatitis D. Doctors can treat some cases of hepatitis B, C and D. The drugs used are very costly, however. But they are less costly than another treatment possibility: getting a new liver. VOICE ONE: The fifth virus is hepatitis E. Experts say it spreads the same way as hepatitis A -- through infectious waste. Outbreaks often result from polluted supplies of drinking water. Medical science recognized hepatitis E as a separate disease in nineteen eighty. Hepatitis E is also found in animal waste. Studies have shown that the virus can infect many kinds of animals, including pigs, cows and monkeys. The W.H.O. says epidemics of hepatitis E have been reported in Central and Southeast Asia, North and West Africa and Mexico. There are no vaccines or medicines for hepatitis E. Most people recover, usually in several weeks or months. But the disease can cause liver damage. And, in some cases, hepatitis E is deadly. The virus is especially dangerous to pregnant women. Twenty percent of women with hepatitis E in the last three months of pregnancy die. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are no cures for any kind of hepatitis. The only way to protect against infection is to avoid contact with the virus. And that may be difficult or impossible. But experts say vaccines can greatly reduce the risk of hepatitis A and B. And there are other steps people can take to protect themselves. As we said, a person can get some kinds of hepatitis through sex or sharing needles. VOICE ONE: Supplies of blood products should be carefully tested for hepatitis. People in high-risk groups and those who have had hepatitis should not give blood. Exceptions may be made for people who had hepatitis A before age eleven. Donated organs can also spread hepatitis. Experts say the only way to control the spread of hepatitis is through preventive measures. Even something as simple as washing your hands. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. If you have a question about science, send it by e-mail to special@voanews.com. Please understand that we cannot answer questions personally, but we might be able to answer your question on our show. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. You can learn more about hepatitis, and download transcripts and audio of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Do-It-Yourself: Growing Carrots
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Carrots are grown on farms and in family gardens throughout the world. Carrots are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They taste good. And they contain a lot of carotene, which the body changes into vitamin A. When people think of carrots, they usually picture in their mind a vegetable that is long, thin and orange in color. But carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange. Russian Purple carrotsFor example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are, as their name suggests, white. For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it and turn it over. Then, mix in some plant material or animal fertilizer. Weather, soil conditions and age will affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing carrots that taste great. Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early, they will not have enough sugar. But carrots lose their sweetness if you wait too long to remove them from the ground. The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste. Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as during the summer months. If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed. Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to stews. Or, once they are washed, they are eaten just as they come out of the ground. With the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, I'm Steve Ember. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Shifting Sands' of English Teaching Bring Changes to Schools in Middle East
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: international perspectives on teaching English. RS: Recently we brought you interviews with English teachers from Afghanistan, Nepal and Morocco. Today we add Sudan and a country at the top of the news right now -- Lebanon. AA: All of these interviews took place earlier this year at the TESOL convention in Florida. TESOL is the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Nada Wanni (far right) with other 2005 participants in the Five College African Scholars Program in MassachusettsNADA WANNI: "My name is Nada Wanni. I teach at the University of Khartoum -- the Department of English there -- which is the oldest university in the country. I teach applied linguistics and sociolinguistics as well as literature courses." AA: "This is your first visit to TESOL?" NADA WANNI: "This is my first visit to the TESOL convention and we've just finished our first presentation. We had a panel session with some colleagues from the Middle East. Its title was 'the Shifting Sands of Teaching English and Linguistic Policies Concerning English Language in the Middle East.' We had a panel of some countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq. So it was quite interesting." AA: "So how are those sands shifting?" NADA WANNI: "One of the most striking observations is that in this last year, the year before two thousand and six, there seems to be a realization, a strong realization by our governments in those countries of the need to start English at an earlier stage than a lot of our countries. "We are starting at a preliminary or elementary, whatever you can call it, stages. At the society level there is this great and increasing need especially among the younger generation to master English for proficiency, either for young professionals or for students who want to do their postgraduates abroad. "And these needs are certainly common to all of our countries. And the problems, of course, are more or less -- we are all suffering from issues of like what to do about teacher training, what to do about materials development, curriculum design. So ... " AA: "And if you had one bit of advice to give to someone listening to this, an English teacher or an English learner, what would it be?" NADA WANNI: "I would say issues of motivation is really important and realizing your own specific needs and experimenting -- really experimenting with your own situation on the ground. We can read a lot sometimes of theory of the best way to do things, what's the best way to approach second language teaching. "But it's really you there, the teacher in the classroom, who can just really realize what needs to be done. And I suggest that they just take the initiative, experiment with different ways and methods. Find out what triggers the attention of their students, and just develop sometimes your own, own method, your own way, your own approach. Be yourself and you'll find out what works best for you and for your students." GINA AL BADAWI: "My name is Gina al Badawi. I am a principal of one of the Makassed schools in Lebanon and I was previously the English coordinator at that school. And it's my first year as a principal." AA: "What do you find to be the best motivator for teaching English to children?" NADA WANNI: "You know, different people learn in different ways, so you have to cater for their needs. And that's why I've made a special session once per week for integrating English, and they learn English through computer games, and we've started the clubs, like drama clubs and movie clubs, and all of them are in English. We had something like a morning message and the students would speak in front of the whole school about a certain topic. "So you have to move from the old way of the teacher only lecturing and students only listening, because most people are not only auditory." AA: "So far, as principal, what's been your biggest challenge?" NADA WANNI: "You know, I've changed the culture of the school. It was like a more traditional one and I wanted it to be more lively. And things take time. Sometimes you face teachers who wanted the old way. But in general everyone is happy. But it needs time, it needs money." AA: That was Ghina al-Badawi, the principal of a primary school in Beirut, speaking to me earlier in the year, along with Professor Nada Wanni from the University of Khartoum. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can get English teaching ideas and hear from other teachers at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Project Mercury: Soviet Successes Push U.S. to Build a Space Program From the Ground Up
* Byline: Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley

 VOICE ONE: Explorations-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (SOUND: Countdown?and launch) That announcement was made May fifth, nineteen sixty-one. It was the first manned flight of project Mercury. Today, Tony Riggs and Larry West tell about the beginning of the United States space program that carried humans into space. VOICE TWO: The United States entered the Space Age in nineteen forty-five, at the end of World War Two. German rocket scientists, with the support of the German government, had spent fifteen years developing rockets as weapons. Near the end of the war, Germany began firing huge rocket bombs at Britain. Called V2 rockets, the German weapons carried a ton of explosives three hundred twenty kilometers. They flew as high as eighty kilometers. When the war ended, American forces found the parts for about one hundred V2 rockets. They brought the German rockets to America and launched sixty-six of them. VOICE ONE: The Army opened the V2 launch program to American scientists at several universities. Civilian scientists used the V2 rockets to study the Earth's atmosphere. They gathered much new information and learned much about designing instruments for scientific rockets and satellites. Many of Germany's top rocket scientists came to the United States after the war. They worked with American scientists and engineers to develop and test new rockets for military and scientific use. In nineteen fifty-six, the United States launched a Jupiter military rocket that flew more than five thousand kilometers. VOICE TWO: Military officials immediately offered to use the Jupiter to put a scientific satellite into orbit around the Earth. But the American government said no. Officials decided not to mix military and civilian rocket programs. The United States said it would not launch a scientific satellite until a non-military rocket -- the Vanguard -- could be completed to carry it into space. Navy scientists were building the Vanguard for scientific purposes. They planned to launch it in nineteen fifty-eight. The twenty-two meter long rocket would put a little scientific satellite into orbit as one of the events of the International Geophysical Year. The satellite itself would weigh less than two kilograms. But it would contain many tiny electronic instruments for scientific research. VOICE ONE: Soviet scientists also were working on rockets and satellites. In nineteen fifty-seven, a Soviet military rocket carried a small satellite into Earth orbit. The eighty-three kilogram satellite, called Sputnik, had two radios that sent signals as it circled the world. One month later, a larger Sputnik was launched with a dog inside. The dog survived the launch. But there was no way to return it to Earth. So it died in space. A few months later, the Soviet Union put a one thousand three hundred sixty kilogram satellite into space. VOICE TWO: The Soviet successes with its Sputnik satellites caused the United States to change its space plans. Officials decided to launch the Vanguard as soon as possible. The attempt was made on December sixth, soon after the first two Sputnik launches. The attempt failed. The rocket exploded during the launch. Less than two months later, however, the United States put its first satellite into orbit. The rocket was an Army Jupiter. The satellite was Explorer One. It weighed only fourteen kilograms. But it carried a great many electronic instruments for scientific research. The instruments reported much new information about conditions in space. The most important was the discovery of a belt of radiation around the Earth. It was what we now call the Van Allen Belt. VOICE ONE: Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. Its job: the scientific exploration of space. Its major goal: sending the first Americans into space. VOICE TWO: The new space agency was given a lot of money and thousands of engineers and technicians from military and civilian agencies. Within three months, the man-in-space program had a name: Project Mercury. The name came from the ancient Greeks. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods. Much work had to be done before Project Mercury could put an American astronaut into space. Dependable rockets needed to be built and tested. A spacecraft had to be designed and built. A worldwide radio system was needed to communicate with orbiting astronauts. And astronauts had to be chosen and trained. VOICE ONE: To save time, NASA decided to work on all parts of the program at the same time. It placed orders for four different kinds of military rockets for Mercury flights. It chose the McDonnell Aircraft Company to design and build the Mercury spacecraft. And it began to look for men who would be astronauts. NASA said its astronaut candidates had to be between twenty-five and forty years old, and in excellent health. They could be no taller than one hundred eighty centimeters. Candidates had to be highly intelligent, with an education in science or engineering. NASA also said the first astronauts had to be military pilots with experience in test flying airplanes. Test pilots already were trained to make quick, correct decisions in dangerous situations. VOICE TWO: One observer said in a joking way that the space agency was just looking for a group of "normal, everyday supermen." But it was not a joke. NASA found seven normal, everyday supermen in a group of five hundred candidates. On April seventh, nineteen fifty-nine, the space agency introduced the first American astronauts. They were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. All were married and had children. All were from small towns or cities. All were about the same height, weight and age. And all were experienced military test pilots. VOICE ONE: Each of the new astronauts, however, brought his own special knowledge and skills to the Mercury project. Navy pilot Scott Carpenter, for example, was well trained in communications and navigation. So he helped with Mercury's communications and navigation systems. Walter Schirra, another Navy flier, was an expert on the pressure suits worn by navy divers. He helped design the space suits that would protect the Mercury astronauts in space. VOICE TWO: Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper became an expert on the Redstone Rocket that would launch Mercury astronauts on short training flights. Donald Slayton, another Air Force flier, worked on the long-range Atlas Rocket. Marine John Glenn was an expert on airplane instruments. So he helped design easy-to-use instruments for the Mercury spacecraft. Navy pilot Alan Shepard helped plan Mercury's worldwide communication system. And Virgil Grissom, of the Air Force, worked on Mercury's electrical systems. VOICE ONE: NASA made its first unmanned test flight of the Mercury spacecraft nine months after the project started. The launch was made from the space center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight tested the heat shield. The shield protected the spacecraft from the great heat produced when it returned through the Earth's atmosphere. Many other unmanned test flights followed in the next two years. The final test flight was made at the end of January, nineteen sixty-one. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven hundred kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. However, he never wanted to get close to a space capsule again. VOICE TWO: Space officials announced that astronaut Alan Shepard would become the first American in space. He would be launched early in May, nineteen sixty-one, on a short, fifteen minute flight. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to Explorations-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. It was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and Frank Beardsley. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week to the second part of the story of the Mercury program that took the first American astronauts into space. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Surgeon General Says Secondhand Smoke Unsafe at Any Level
* Byline: Caty Weaver

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientific evidence has been building about the dangers to people who do not smoke from those who do. Now the top doctor in the United States says the evidence cannot be argued: secondhand tobacco smoke is a serious public health risk. Recently Surgeon General Richard Carmona released the government's largest report ever on secondhand smoke. For example, it says nonsmokers increase their risk of lung cancer by up to thirty percent if they live with a smoker. Doctor Carmona noted the added dangers faced by children who have to breathe secondhand smoke. These children are at increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome, severe breathing problems and ear infections. The report says smoking by parents also slows lung growth in their children. Children are especially at risk from the poisonous chemicals in tobacco smoke because their bodies are still developing. Smoking during pregnancy can lead to babies with low birth weight. And low birth weight can lead to many health problems. The surgeon general says there is no safe level of secondhand smoke. Effects in the blood can be seen after even a short time in a smoky room. Scientists have estimated that secondhand smoke kills about fifty thousand adults in the United States each year. Most of these nonsmokers die from heart disease, the others from lung cancer. Also, an estimated four hundred thirty newborn babies die from sudden infant death syndrome as a result of secondhand smoke. Scientists have identified more than fifty cancer-causing substances in secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke also damages blood passages. And it reduces the ability of the heart to correct abnormal heartbeats. The report says separating smokers from nonsmokers or trying to clean the air in buildings is not enough protection. Doctor Carmona noted the progress in establishing smoke-free public places in the United States. Blood tests show that Americans are being exposed to secondhand smoke in fewer numbers and at lower levels since the late nineteen eighties. But the surgeon general says almost half of all nonsmokers in the United States are still breathing tobacco smoke at home, work or both. The first surgeon general's report warning about the dangers of cigarettes came out in nineteen sixty-four. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report for this week, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2007-10-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Shifting Sands' of English Teaching Bring Changes to Schools in Middle East
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: international perspectives on teaching English. RS: Recently we brought you interviews with English teachers from Afghanistan, Nepal and Morocco. Today we add Sudan and a country at the top of the news right now -- Lebanon. AA: All of these interviews took place earlier this year at the TESOL convention in Florida. TESOL is the international association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Nada Wanni (far right) with other 2005 participants in the Five College African Scholars Program in MassachusettsNADA WANNI: "My name is Nada Wanni. I teach at the University of Khartoum -- the Department of English there -- which is the oldest university in the country. I teach applied linguistics and sociolinguistics as well as literature courses." AA: "This is your first visit to TESOL?" NADA WANNI: "This is my first visit to the TESOL convention and we've just finished our first presentation. We had a panel session with some colleagues from the Middle East. Its title was 'the Shifting Sands of Teaching English and Linguistic Policies Concerning English Language in the Middle East.' We had a panel of some countries: Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq. So it was quite interesting." AA: "So how are those sands shifting?" NADA WANNI: "One of the most striking observations is that in this last year, the year before two thousand and six, there seems to be a realization, a strong realization by our governments in those countries of the need to start English at an earlier stage than a lot of our countries. "We are starting at a preliminary or elementary, whatever you can call it, stages. At the society level there is this great and increasing need especially among the younger generation to master English for proficiency, either for young professionals or for students who want to do their postgraduates abroad. "And these needs are certainly common to all of our countries. And the problems, of course, are more or less -- we are all suffering from issues of like what to do about teacher training, what to do about materials development, curriculum design. So ... " AA: "And if you had one bit of advice to give to someone listening to this, an English teacher or an English learner, what would it be?" NADA WANNI: "I would say issues of motivation is really important and realizing your own specific needs and experimenting -- really experimenting with your own situation on the ground. We can read a lot sometimes of theory of the best way to do things, what's the best way to approach second language teaching. "But it's really you there, the teacher in the classroom, who can just really realize what needs to be done. And I suggest that they just take the initiative, experiment with different ways and methods. Find out what triggers the attention of their students, and just develop sometimes your own, own method, your own way, your own approach. Be yourself and you'll find out what works best for you and for your students." GHINA AL-BADAWI: "My name is Ghina al-Badawi. I am a principal of one of the Makassed schools in Lebanon and I was previously the English coordinator at that school. And it's my first year as a principal." AA: "What do you find to be the best motivator for teaching English to children?" GHINA AL-BADAWI: "You know, different people learn in different ways, so you have to cater for their needs. And that's why I've made a special session once per week for integrating English, and they learn English through computer games, and we've started the clubs, like drama clubs and movie clubs, and all of them are in English. We had something like a morning message and the students would speak in front of the whole school about a certain topic. "So you have to move from the old way of the teacher only lecturing and students only listening, because most people are not only auditory." AA: "So far, as principal, what's been your biggest challenge?" GHINA AL-BADAWI: "You know, I've changed the culture of the school. It was like a more traditional one and I wanted it to be more lively. And things take time. Sometimes you face teachers who wanted the old way. But in general everyone is happy. But it needs time, it needs money." AA: That was Ghina al-Badawi, the principal of a primary school in Beirut, speaking to me earlier in the year, along with Professor Nada Wanni from the University of Khartoum. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can get English teaching ideas and hear from other teachers at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Immediate Pay Increase Urged for U.S. Teachers
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Almost half of new American teachers leave the profession within five years. Some get tired of large class sizes, limited planning time and support, and wishing to feel more valued by society. At the same time, experts say too many teachers lack the required knowledge of what they teach, especially math and science. Criticisms of teaching are usually less about the working conditions than about the pay. A new report calls for an immediate pay increase of fifteen to twenty percent. It says this would lift teachers from the bottom in starting pay among professions. The report, "Teachers and the Uncertain American Future," is from the Center for Innovative Thought. The College Board formed this group last year with "some of the best minds in education," in its words. The College Board is a non-profit organization that owns the SAT college entry test. It also administers the Advanced Placement program. The report urges new programs to solve a crisis in the number of qualified math and science teachers. It says less than half of students who finish high school are ready for college-level math or science. It says another problem is a shortage of minority teachers, to better represent society. It says two times as many black and three times as many Hispanic, Asian and Native American teachers are needed. The report says the nation needs a new agreement, a "compact," with its teachers to defend its position in the world. All this would be financed with public and private money through a proposed "Teachers' Trust."? The suggested fifteen to twenty percent pay raise would rise to fifty percent. Teachers would work eleven months of the year instead of ten. Excellent teachers and those who agree to teach in troubled schools and subjects with shortages could get extra pay. The plan also calls for better working conditions, and more pathways into teaching for those without traditional training. The National Education Association is America's largest teachers union. Its president says the proposals from the Center for Innovative Thought are nothing new. Reg Weaver says schools will not improve until teachers have the support, skills and training necessary to do their jobs. He says the surest way to end the teacher shortage is for all teachers to receive pay that recognizes the job they have to do. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Election of 1928: Americans Are Presented With a Clear Choice
* Byline: David Jarmul

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The presidential election of nineteen twenty-eight gave American voters a clear choice between two different kinds of candidates and political parties. The Democratic Party nominated Al Smith, the popular governor of the state of New York. The Republican Party chose Herbert Hoover, an engineer and businessman who served as secretary of commerce for Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. VOICE TWO: Governor Alfred Smith of New York had campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen twenty-four. But he was defeated at the party convention by a compromise candidate, John Davis. Four years later, however, Smith could not be stopped. He had a strong record as governor of the nation's most heavily-populated state. He campaigned for the presidency on a policy of building new electric power stations under public control. Smith knew that many conservative Americans might be worried by his new ideas and his belief in strong government. So he chose as his campaign manager a Republican industrial leader who had worked with General Motors, DuPont, and other major companies. Smith hoped this would prove his faith in the American private business system. VOICE ONE: Al Smith was a strong political leader and an effective governor. But he frightened many Americans, especially conservative citizens living in rural areas. They lived on farms or in small towns. Al Smith was from the city. And not just from any city, but New York City, a place that seemed big and dirty and filled with foreign people and strange traditions. Al Smith's parents came from Ireland. He grew up in New York and worked as a salesman at the Fulton Fish Market. Smith was an honest man. But many rural Americans simply did not trust people from big cities. Al Smith seemed to them to represent everything that was new, different, and dangerous about American life. But being from New York City was not Al Smith's only problem. He also opposed the new national laws that made it illegal to buy or produce alcoholic drinks. And he had political ties to the New York political machine. But worst of all, in the eyes of many Americans, Al Smith was a Roman Catholic. VOICE TWO: From George Washington through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and up to Calvin Coolidge, every American president had been male, white, and a Protestant Christian. Of course, there was no law requiring a candidate to be Protestant. But millions of traditional Americans just were not ready to give their vote to a Roman Catholic. Opponents of the Smith campaign generally did not speak openly about his religion. But many of them were afraid that Smith would take his orders from the Vatican in Rome, instead of working with the Congress in Washington. Al Smith fought back. He told the country, "I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a Catholic could possibly be in conflict with what is good citizenship. My faith," he said, "is built upon the laws of God. There can be no conflict between them. " VOICE ONE: But many Protestant Americans thought there was a conflict. And they looked to the Republican Party to supply a strong candidate to oppose Smith and the Democrats. The Republicans did just that. They nominated former secretary of commerce? Hoover, one of the country's most popular men. Hoover was well-known to Americans. People trusted him. And they liked the way he had gained great personal success from poor beginnings. In fact, Hoover's life story would have pleased Abraham Lincoln, another American who rose from a poor family to fame. Hoover was born in the farm state of Iowa in eighteen-seventy-four. His father was a poor metal worker who kept moving his family from state to state. Herbert Hoover's father died when the boy was just six years old. His mother died four years later. Young Herbert had to move to the western state of Oregon to live with his mother's brother. Herbert's uncle was luckier in life than Herbert's parents. He had made money in the land business. And he helped the boy gain admission to Stanford University in California. At the university, Herbert showed great skill in mathematics. And he decided to go into business as a geologist studying the science of the earth. VOICE TWO: After college, Herbert Hoover got a job as a mine worker. During the next several years, Hoover spent most of his time working as an engineer in foreign countries. And he succeeded beyond his greatest dreams. By the time he was forty years old, he had earned more than one million dollars. After World War One, he organized the effort to provide food for starving people in Europe. He did an excellent job, winning praise from people in Europe and the United States alike. Next, Hoover joined the administration of President Warren Harding, serving as the Secretary of Commerce. Again, he did a very good job. Hoover left the cabinet in nineteen twenty-five. But two years later, he organized efforts to provide relief for victims of a flood in the southern state of Mississippi. And again, Americans all around the country took note of this quiet, serious man who did such effective work in so many different kinds of situations. Some Americans, however, did not like Hoover, including some people who usually supported Republicans. For example, many professional Republican politicians did not trust him, because he had spent most of his life in business, not politics. Some stock market traders thought Hoover might change the rules on the New York Stock Exchange. And many farmers believed Hoover had no new ideas about how to solve their growing economic problems. VOICE ONE: This, then, was the choice Americans faced in nineteen twenty-eight. On the one hand, Al Smith. A Democrat. A Roman Catholic. A politician from the city. A man wanting some social change. And on the other hand, Herbert Hoover. A Republican. A businessman who had proven the dream that even a poor boy could become great in America. A man who seemed to succeed with every effort he touched. The main issue in the campaign was not economics or religion, but the new national laws banning alcoholic drinks. Hoover was for the laws; Smith against them. The two candidates also argued about how to provide aid to struggling farmers, and how to increase electricity and water supplies. VOICE TWO: Herbert Hoover won the election of nineteen twenty-eight. It was one of the greatest victories in presidential history. Hoover won fifty-eight percent of the votes. Smith got just forty percent. And Hoover captured four hundred forty-four electoral votes to Smith's eighty-seven. And so it was that the engineer and businessman Herbert Hoover entered the White House in nineteen twenty-nine. There was some trouble the day he moved in. Outgoing President Coolidge was a man who watched every dollar he owned. And he accused some White House workers of stealing his shoes on the day of the inauguration. But -- finally -- safe, conservative, business-like Herbert Hoover was leading the country. VOICE ONE: The nation's stock market reacted by pushing stock prices to record high levels. Everyone expected that economic growth would continue and expand. But the happy times were just a dream. Within one year, the stock market collapsed. Millions of people lost their jobs. The nation fell into the worst economic crisis it had ever faced. Herbert Hoover was not personally responsible for the crisis. In many ways, it was his own bad luck to be elected just before the disaster struck. But it was his job to guide the nation through its troubled waters. And he would prove to be the wrong person to give such leadership. His four years in office would be one of the most difficult periods in the nation's history. We will look at President Hoover's administration in our next program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Empowered Women International: An American Group Using Art and Business to Help Women Refugees?
* Byline: Shelley Gollust, Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Barbara Klein. On our show this week… We answer a question about Alaska… Play some music from Smokey Robinson… And report about a program to help refugee women in the United States. Empowered Women International HOST: Two creative women work together in the Washington, D.C. area to help immigrant and refugee women in the United States. Faith Lapidus tells us about them and their organization. FAITH LAPIDUS: Marga Fripp came to the United States four years ago from Romania because her young son needed emergency medical treatment. She stayed in the United States. She started an organization called Empowered Women International, or E.W.I., in Alexandria, Virginia. Miz Fripp’s organization helps immigrant and refugee women meet each other and start their own businesses. The group also holds classes to help these women understand how to start and run a successful business. Empowered Women International organizes events where women sell their own art. In two thousand four, one hundred women took business and personal classes from E.W.I. Thirty artists received business and personal advice. Many Americans give money and time to help organizations like Empowered Women International. One of them is Kate Campbell Stevenson, an actress and singer. Her performances have provided money for E.W.I. Miz Stevenson’s one-woman show is called “Women: Back to the Future.”? She plays the parts of famous American women in history who have succeeded. She says in her opening song that their lives teach lessons to women of today: (MUSIC) Your life is a story, it's scripted by you. By the new things you learn, by the things that you do. You can reach for the stars. You can help others, too. You can learn from the past so our futures come true. Miz Stevenson performs stories about women who worked hard to realize their dreams. For example, she talks on stage while she changes the color of her face and puts on the kind of pilot’s hat worn by Bessie Coleman. Miz Coleman was a poor, black woman from the southern United States during the nineteen twenties. She wanted to learn to fly an airplane. And she did. Kate Campbell Stevenson also plays the parts of women like Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. And Abigail Adams, the wife of President John Adams. Miz Stevenson says her show is a message of hope. (MUSIC) So reach for the stars. Let yourself shine. I know you can do it one step at a time. Dig deep down inside, polish the glow. Your story’s within you. Now let it grow. Alaska HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from two listeners. Munna from Bangladesh asks if Alaska is a state of the United States. The short answer to that question is yes. Prinya Plabodiwatt from Thailand asks why the United States bought the territory of Alaska from Russia. The United States bought that land in eighteen sixty-seven, during the administration of President Andrew Johnson. When Russia offered it for sale, Secretary of State William Seward quickly prepared a treaty of purchase. The United States paid about seven million dollars for the land. It was decided to call the area Alaska, after the Aleut Indian name for part of the area, Alakshak. Many Americans at the time criticized the purchase. They said seven million dollars was too much to pay for what they thought was a worthless piece of frozen land. They said the deal was foolish. They called it “Seward’s Folly”. Those critics were proved wrong. ?Americans found work in Alaska’s salmon fishing industry and its gold and copper mines. In later years, Alaska’s oil, natural gas, trees, fish and animal skins made the area extremely valuable. Today, history experts consider the sale to be one of the greatest deals any country ever made for territory. Why did Secretary Seward buy Alaska? He had wanted to buy the area for a long time. American traders and business leaders knew that the area was rich with minerals and animals. They said owning Alaska would improve business in the Pacific coast states. Political leaders said the purchase would be good for the United States because it would end all Russian presence in North America. And they said it would help guarantee friendly relations with Russia. The people of Alaska first asked to be part of the United States in nineteen sixteen. That request was rejected. They asked again in the nineteen fifties. In nineteen fifty-eight, Congress approved the Alaskan statehood act. Alaskans became American citizens after they voted to accept the measure. The date was January third, nineteen fifty-nine. Alaska is the largest of all the states in territory. It is above northwest Canada. Alaska and Hawaii are the only states that do not share borders with any other states. Smokey Robinson ?HOST: Many pop and soul singers have recorded albums of their versions of so-called standards. These are love songs by great composers like Cole Porter and George Gershwin. These songs were popular more than fifty years ago. The latest to record such songs is Smokey Robinson. Mario Ritter tells us about his new album, “Timeless Love.” MARIO RITTER: Smokey Robinson is best known for the songs he recorded for the Motown record label during the nineteen sixties. At the age of twenty, Robinson started writing and recording songs as the leader of his group the Miracles, and later alone. He has had more than seventy top hits. And he has written hit songs for others. Now, at the age of sixty-six, Smokey Robinson is honoring some of the great songwriters who came before him. Twelve of the thirteen songs on his new album, “Timeless Love,” are his versions of standards. Here is one of them, “Night and Day.” (MUSIC) Smokey Robinson writes about these songs in the notes to his album: “This was a labor of love and joy. I love these songs. I grew up hearing them from as far back as I can remember.”? Here Robinson sings “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with another song from “Timeless Love” by Smokey Robinson: “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Barbara Klein. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust, Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Building a Knowledge of Foundations
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Foundations are in the news a lot. They support everything from A to Z -- from the arts to zoos. They give away money in the form of grants or provide free services. Governments generally do not tax these organizations. Wealthy individuals establish most foundations. But companies and communities can also form them. In the United States, the Foundation Center estimates that foundations gave away almost thirty-four thousand million dollars last year. The Giving USA Foundation says that was about twelve percent of all charitable giving by Americans. Foundations are required to provide the federal tax agency with information on their financial activities. There are groups, like the Foundation Center in New York, that also keep records on foundations. The center, in its most recent report, says the nation had almost sixty-eight thousand grantmaking foundations in two thousand four. That year, about one thousand three hundred new foundations were formed. The increase was small compared to the year two thousand, when more than six thousand new foundations appeared. The Foundation Center divides private foundations into three groups. Independent foundations are set up by individuals or families. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an example. There are more than sixty thousand independent foundations in the United States, far more than any other kind. Corporate foundations receive money from the companies that created them, but are legally separate. The third kind, operating foundations, use their money to provide programs and services. So they generally do not give away grants. There also are public foundations, or "grantmaking public charities."? The New York Community Trust is the largest example. Public foundations depend on money from large numbers of individuals and groups. They may also invest in stocks and earn money from selling gifts of property. Most foundations in the United States are small. Sixty-four percent hold less than one million dollars. But the top two percent hold most of the money in foundations. At the end of two thousand four, active foundations held more than five hundred thousand million dollars. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Listen next week to learn more about foundations. And you can find transcripts and archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hezbollah in Lebanon: A Group With a History of Social Services and Deadly Attacks?
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim organization formed in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in nineteen eighty-two. The name means “Party of God."? Hezbollah calls itself a resistance group. It took credit when Israel ended the occupation of southern Lebanon in two thousand. The United States, among others, considers it a terrorist organization. Hezbollah's history of attacks includes the bombing that killed two hundred forty-one Americans in Beirut in nineteen eighty-three. Most of the dead were Marines. That attack led to the withdrawal of American peacekeepers from Lebanon. This week Marines were back in Beirut to help Americans leave the country. Most Western experts believe Hezbollah gets much financial and military support from the Iranian government. Iran says it gives only moral support. An Iranian spokesman this week denied an Israeli charge that Iranian forces were in Lebanon helping Hezbollah fire rockets into Israel. He also said Israel would face great losses if it attacked Syria, which withdrew troops from Lebanon last year. Hezbollah is organized into political and military parts. It has thousands of rockets, which the group has used to kill Israelis. But Hezbollah also provides social services, including schools and hospitals, in Lebanon. And it has entered Lebanese politics. It holds seats in Parliament and, after elections last year, has two members in the government. Hezbollah operates from mainly Shiite areas of Beirut, southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. American intelligence experts say some members are active in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is the secretary-general of Hezbollah. He says Israel is the aggressor. He says Muslims have a duty to fight Israeli occupation of their lands. But critics says the group's actions are hurting Lebanon at a time when its economy was beginning to recover from years of civil war. On Thursday, at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an immediate end to the hostilities of the past week. He said Hezbollah started the crisis and is holding the nation of Lebanon hostage. On July twelfth Hezbollah members kidnapped two Israeli soldiers inside Israel. But Mister Annan also condemned the Israeli military actions that have followed as "excessive." Israel says its goal is to end the threat of attacks from Hezbollah. It also wants the kidnapped soldiers back. Hezbollah's leader demanded a prisoner exchange. Kofi Annan called for an international conference on putting Security Council guidelines into effect. Israel has said it would welcome any effort on Resolution Fifteen Fifty-Nine. That resolution calls for the deployment of Lebanese troops along the border, and the disarming of militant groups including Hezbollah. And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Jacob Riis: A Reporter Who Fought for the Poor in Old New York
* Byline: Herbert Sutcliffe

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Jacob Riis. He was a writer who used all his energy to make the world a better place for poor people. (MUSIC)??? VOICE ONE: In the spring of eighteen seventy, a young man traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. The young man came from Denmark. His name was Jacob Riis. He was just twenty-one years old. His first years in the United States were difficult, like those of most immigrants at that time. It was difficult to get a job. Jacob Riis went from place to place seeking work. He did any kind of work he could find. Farming, coal mining, brick-making. He even tried to earn money as a peddler. He went from house to house selling things. Many times he slept wherever he could. Soon he was beginning to lose hope. He decided to leave New York. He started to walk north. After a time, he arrived in the Bronx, the northern part of New York City. His feet burned with pain. And he was hungry. VOICE TWO: "I had not eaten a thing since the day before. I had no breakfast, and decided to have a swim in the Bronx River, instead. But that did not help. I was just as hungry when I came out of the water. "Then I walked slowly to Fordham College, which was not far from where I was. The doors to Fordham College were open, and I walked in, for no reason. I was just tired and had nothing else to do. "Fordham is a Catholic college. And an old monk came to me and asked in a kind voice if I was hungry. I still remember in my dreams at night the beautiful face of that old monk. I was terribly hungry, and said I was, although I did not mean to do so. I had never seen a real live monk before. My own religious education as a Lutheran did not teach me to like Catholic monks. "I ate the food that was brought to me. But I was troubled. I was afraid that after giving me food, the churchman would ask me to change my religious beliefs. I said to myself: 'I am not going to do it. ' But when I had eaten, I was not asked to do anything. I was given more food when I left, and continued on my way. I was angry with myself for having such bad thoughts about the Catholic churchmen at Fordham College. For the first time, I learned something about how to live with people of different religious beliefs." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Later, Jacob Riis learned more about liking people, even if they are different. This time, it happened while he was working on a railroad with men who did rough work and looked rough. VOICE TWO: "I had never done that sort of work, and it was not the right job for me. I did my best to work like the other men. But my chest felt heavy, and my heart pounded in my body as if it were going to explode. There were nineteen Irishmen in the group. They were big, rough fellows. They had chosen me as the only 'Dutchman' -- as they called me -- to make them laugh. They were going to use me as part of their jokes. "But then they saw that the job was just too hard for me. This made them feel different about me. It showed another side to these fun-loving, big-hearted people. They thought of many ways to get me away from the very rough work. One was to get me to bring water for them. They liked stronger things to drink than water. But now they suddenly wanted water all the time. I had to walk a long way for the water. But it stopped me from doing the work that was too hard for me. These people were very rough in their ways. But behind the roughness they were good men. " VOICE ONE: At last, Jacob Riis got a job writing for a newspaper in New York City. This was his chance. He finally had found a profession that would lead to his life work -- making the world a better place for poor people. The newspaper sent him to police headquarters for stories. There he saw life at its worst, especially in a very poor part of New York which was known as Mulberry Bend. VOICE TWO: "It was no place for men and women. And surely no place for little children. It was a terrible slum -- as such places are called -- where too many are crowded together, where the houses and streets are dirty and full of rats. The place began to trouble me as the truth about it became clear. Others were not troubled. They had no way of finding out how terrible the lives of people were in Mulberry Bend. But as a newspaper reporter, I could find the truth. So I went through the dark dirty streets and houses, and saw how the people suffered in this area. And I wrote many stories about the life there. "I did good work as a police reporter, but wanted a change. My editor said, 'no'. He asked me to go back to Mulberry Bend and stay there. He said I was finding something there that needed me.”? VOICE ONE: The words of Jacob Riis' editor proved to be very true. Riis started a personal war against slum houses, the sort he saw in Mulberry Bend. He learned to use a camera to show the public clearly what the Mulberry Bend slum was like. The camera in the eighteen eighties was nothing like it is today. But Riis got his pictures. VOICE TWO: "I made good use of them quickly. Words could get no action to change things. But the pictures did. What the camera showed was so powerful that the city's health officials started to do something. At last I had a strong partner in the fight against Mulberry Bend -- my camera. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jacob Riis continued the fight to clean up the slums for many years. There were not many people to help him. It was a lonely fight. But his camera and fighting words helped to get a law passed which would destroy the Mulberry Bend slum. Finally, the great day came. The slum housing was gone. The area had become a park. VOICE TWO: "When they had fixed the ground so the grass could grow, I saw children dancing there in the sunlight. They were going to have a better life, thank God. We had given them their lost chance. I looked at these dancing children and saw how happy they were. This place that had been full of crime and murder became the most orderly in the city. "The murders and crimes disappeared when they let sunlight come into the Bend. The sunlight that shone upon children who had, at last, the right to play. That was what the Mulberry Bend Park meant. So the Bend went. And I was very happy that I had helped to make it go. " VOICE ONE: That was not Riis' last battle to make life cleaner and better for many people. He had great energy. And his love for people was as great as his energy. He started a campaign to get clean water for the state of New York. He showed that water for the state was not healthy for people. State officials were forced to take actions that would clean the water. He also worked to get laws against child labor, and made sure that these laws were obeyed. In those days, when Riis was a fighting newspaper reporter, laws against child labor were something new. People did not object to making young children work long hours, in places that had bad air and bad light. But in the United States today, child labor is not legal. It was because of men like Jacob Riis that this is so. He was also successful in getting playgrounds for children. And he helped establish centers for education and fun for older people. His book, “How the Other Half Lives,” was published in eighteen ninety. He became famous. That book and his newspaper reports influenced many people. Theodore Roosevelt, who later became president of the United States, called Riis the most useful citizen in New York City. Riis continued to write about conditions that were in need of major reform. His twelve books including “Children of the Poor” helped improve conditions in the city. The books also made him popular as a speaker in other cities. Jacob Riis's concern for the poor kept him so busy writing and speaking around the country that he ruined his health. He died in nineteen fourteen. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Herbert Sutcliffe and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fighting Malaria in Africa From Your Home Computer
* Byline: Jill Moss

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Personal computers can spend a lot of time doing nothing. But scientists keep finding reasons for computers connected to the Internet to stay busy. And maybe even help the world. Now researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute have developed a program called MalariaControl.net. The idea is to use surplus computing power to test how well a vaccine and other malaria interventions might work in Africa. The findings could help direct the best use of resources. The World Health Organization estimates that almost one million people each year die from malaria. Most of them are young children in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. The scientists say their research with mathematical models could take up to forty years on their own computers. Now imagine thousands of computers worldwide, working together and linked to the University of Geneva over the Web. They might be able to do the job in just a few months. MalariaControl.net is another example of volunteer computing. This is based on the idea that most computers are inactive most of the time. During these times when they are not being used, they can help solve complex scientific or engineering problems. Volunteers download a program from a Web site. Usually, the software works as a screensaver. Every so often, using the Internet, the program uploads results or downloads more information to be processed. In nineteen ninety-nine, scientists launched the SETI@home project developed at the University of California, Berkeley. SETI is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The search involves listening by radio telescope for signals from space. Computers process the information collected. The software has been downloaded onto millions of personal computers worldwide. Now the idea of SETI@home has led to Africa@home. The Web site is africaathome.net. This is a site for volunteer computing projects involving humanitarian issues in Africa. The first project, MalariaControl.net, is still early in its development. By last week the scientists had reached a target of about two thousand users. They said they would not accept new users for the next few weeks. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. You can find a link to Africa@home and transcripts of our reports at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Nose and Ears:? He Has His Nose In the Air
* Byline: Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. A person’s nose is important for breathing and smelling. The nose is also used in many popular expressions. ? Some people are able to “lead other people by the nose.”? For example, if a wife “leads her husband by the nose,” she makes him do whatever she wants him to do. Some people are said to be “hard-nosed.”? They will not change their opinions or positions on anything. If someone is hard-nosed, chances are he will never “pay through the nose”, or pay too much money, for an object or service. It is always helpful when people “keep their nose out of other people’s business.”? They do not interfere. The opposite of this is someone who “noses around” all the time. This kind of person is interested in other people’s private matters. He is considered “nosey.” Someone who keeps his “nose to the grindstone” works very hard. This can help a worker “keep his nose clean” or stay out of trouble. One unusual expression is “that is no skin off my nose.” This means that a situation does not affect or concern me. We also say that sometimes a person “cuts off his nose to spite his face.” ?That is, he makes a situation worse for himself by doing something foolish because he is angry. More problems can develop if a person “looks down his nose” at someone or something. The person acts like something is unimportant or worthless. This person might also “turn up his nose” at something that he considers not good enough. This person thinks he is better than everyone else. He has his “nose in the air.” In school, some students “thumb their nose” at their teacher. They refuse to obey orders or do any work. Maybe these students do not know the correct answers. My mother always told me, if you study hard, the answers should be “right under your nose” or easily seen. I think we have explained the “nose” expressions. What about ears?? Well, I hope you are “all ears”, or very interested in hearing more expressions. We might even “put a bug in your ear,” or give you an idea about something. We also advise you to “keep your ear to the ground.” ?This means to be interested in what is happening around you and what people are thinking. If you are a good person, you will “lend an ear” to your friends. You will listen to them when they have a problem they need to talk about. Our last expression is to “play it by ear.”? This has two meanings. One is to play a song on a musical instrument by remembering the tune and not by reading the music. “Play it by ear” also means to decide what to do at the last minute instead of making detailed plans. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Making Beautiful Music Under the Stars at Ravinia and Tanglewood
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. This week -- making music under the sky. Steve Ember and Faith Lapidus tell you about two of America’s best known open-air music parks. (MUSIC) It is late summer at Ravinia Park, in the American Midwest, near Chicago, Illinois. The night is hot. But the wind cools the darkness. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is performing Symphony Number One by Johannes Brahms. Thousands of people are in the park. A husband and wife sit on the ground, far from where the music is coming. Their two little boys look at picture books. When the sky becomes dark, the boys sit close to their parents. Every so often, they all look up, beyond the trees, at the stars. The sound of the Brahms music surrounds them. (MUSIC) As someone once said, "Music played outside, especially after dark, is one of the great pleasures of summer."? Millions of Americans attend outdoor concerts each summer. The concerts are performed at parks across the country. Some American music parks serve as the summer home for a city orchestra. At these parks, musicians may play well-known classical music, like the Brahms symphony. Or they may play folk music, jazz or popular music. Ravinia Festival park is about thirty kilometers north of Chicago. The park has a large area of open land where people sit on the ground. People also can sit inside, in a pavilion. The front and sides of this kind of building are open so everyone can see the performers. The music of some of the great composers floats out from the pavilion into the summer darkness. Listen as Betty Buckley sings "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by George Gershwin. (MUSIC) People have been enjoying summer on this same land for almost a century. During the early nineteen-hundreds the area had a baseball field. There were rooms for eating and dancing. And there was an open-air theater. An early version of the present Ravinia Festival opened in nineteen-eleven. By nineteen-nineteen, it had become a summer home for some of the world’s great performers. Over the years visitors heard performances by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For people who liked jazz, there were Benny Goodman, Harry James and Lionel Hampton. The great economic Depression forced the Ravinia organization to close in nineteen-thirty-one. But several years later, businessmen formed the Ravinia Festival Corporation. They brought the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the park in nineteen-thirty-six. One of the most famous conductors to lead the symphony orchestra at Ravinia is James Levine. He was appointed music director in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. He continued serving at Ravinia until nineteen-ninety-three. Ravinia’s fame has now spread far beyond the city of Chicago. There is good reason to believe that Ravinia will be offering summer music in the park for many years to come. (MUSIC) Another of America's most famous music parks is called Tanglewood. The Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood is in the Berkshire Mountains, in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra also performs at Tanglewood. Listen as John Williams leads the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus singers in the traditional spiritual, "Deep River." (MUSIC) Tanglewood exists mainly because of Serge Koussevitsky. Born in Russia, he earned great success in Europe as a musician. He also formed his own orchestra. Then he came to the United States. Koussevitsky began leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in nineteen-twenty-four. His dream of presenting music in a beautiful mountain area came true in the middle nineteen-thirties. That is when he led the Boston orchestra in its first concerts at Tanglewood. Koussevitsky also helped open the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in nineteen-forty. The center has provided classes for some of America's most promising music students. One was Leonard Bernstein, remembered as one of the country's best composers and conductors. Bernstein himself later directed students at the music center. Another famous American composer, Aaron Copland, served as Koussevitsky's first assistant director at Tanglewood. The two men prepared programs of music written by composers hundreds of years earlier. They also prepared programs by modern composers who wrote pieces for the Boston Symphony. And the orchestra played the works of two composers Koussevitsky had helped make famous in Europe: Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. Over the years, Tanglewood has also won praise for presenting operas. Here is music from one of these traditional stories told through song:? "Falstaff,” by Giuseppe Verdi. (MUSIC) Classical, jazz and folk music all are popular at Tanglewood. We leave you now with the music of Bill Crofut of the United States and Benjamin Luxon of England. They sing the American folk song "Simple Gifts" combined with the British "Lord of the Dance." (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Getting Scientists to Tell All About Possible Conflicts of Interest
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week -- dealing with possible conflicts of interest in scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, is changing its publication policy. The editors say they are strengthening the rules as a result of recent cases involving possible conflicts of interest. JAMA says a conflict may exist when relationships with other organizations could influence a researcher. Those possible conflicts recently have led to corrections to a few studies that appeared in the journal. The corrections listed ties to the drug industry that researchers had not reported. ? VOICE TWO: In May, the journal published a report on the risks of rare harmful effects from two drugs used for rheumatoid arthritis. The report said studies of the drugs, Humira and Remicade, suggested an increased risk of serious infections and cancers. JAMA published a correction after the authors of the report provided more information about possible conflicts of interest. The two doctors who listed a drug industry connection had more extensive ties than were reported with the study. Still, the two doctors say they do not believe these financial relationships influenced their scientific work. VOICE ONE: That was also what researchers involved in another study said after JAMA editors learned of their financial ties to drug companies. That study appeared in February. It found that pregnant women who stop taking antidepressant drugs increase their chances of becoming depressed again. The report listed thirteen researchers involved in the study. Later, the editors of JAMA learned that most of the thirteen had ties to drug companies that make antidepressants. The Wall Street Journal reported that the authors failed to list more than sixty different financial links to drug companies. The researchers told the newspaper that these links have no effect on their work. Before the study appeared, only two of the thirteen researchers provided information about possible conflicts. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A third study that led to a correction appeared in the journal dated July nineteenth. The study involved migraine headaches and cardiovascular disease in women. The report did not list any possible conflicts of interest. But a reporter informed JAMA about financial relationships between the researchers and drug companies. The journal published a correction on its Web site on July eighteenth to list these ties. They include research support and payments for advice and for acting as a speaker. These are all common forms of relationships between drug companies and researchers. The researchers say they believe they have no financial interests or relationships that are important to this study. The journal editors disagreed. In any case, the researchers say they have learned it is best to report all relationships with for-profit companies. That way, they say, the publication can decide what is "relevant." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Readers might have no trouble with a study that offers good news for a company even if they know that the company paid for the study. Or if they know that the authors of the study have close ties to the industry. But people cannot know what to think of these relationships unless they know about them. They need to consider all the information as they weigh the study in their mind. If they find out later about possible conflicts, then their trust in the scientists and possibly in the publication may be damaged. If enough situations like this happen, then science in general is the loser. This, in short, is the argument of those who criticize researchers for not reporting possible conflicts. And there are more immediate concerns. The studies that appear in medical journals also help guide doctors in their treatment decisions. VOICE TWO: For example, many doctors who treat women on antidepressants are now unsure what to advise them if they become pregnant. The findings of the study suggested that women on antidepressants should continue to take them throughout their pregnancy. But doctors may now wonder if they can be sure that drug company connections did not influence these findings. This issue of trust and reporting possible conflicts of interest is not limited to publications. Government agencies have to deal with similar concerns. People could question the independence of government scientists who have close ties to private industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Drug companies have to test their products. They can do it themselves. Or they can seek the services of experts at universities and other research centers. Independent testing is important especially if a drug requires government approval. Sometimes, so many experts have close ties to companies, it can seem difficult to find some who do not. People could argue that the situation has gotten out of control and represents a threat to public health. But others would say business is business, even in the business of medicine. Scientists who are investigating a new drug for a company today may have done work for a competitor in the past. VOICE TWO: By this argument, problems exist only when researchers fail to report financial relationships that present real conflicts. Scientists can be accused of misleading people if they do not disclose their industry ties. Yet what might appear to be a conflict of interest to some might not to others. As a result, it can be difficult for scientists to know what to report. Could the gift of a medical book for speaking at training programs put on by a drug company represent a conflict?? Scientists may truly believe they have nothing to hide. At the same time, they do not want to give people a reason to question their scientific judgment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Studies in major publications like the Journal of the American Medical Association are peer-reviewed. That means other researchers have to agree that a study should be published. These reviewers have to decide that the study was designed well and that the findings have scientific value. Since the late nineteen eighties, JAMA policy has required complete reporting of all ties related to the subject discussed in an article. There is a special form for each member of a research team to list any possible conflicts of interest. VOICE TWO: JAMA is amending this policy beginning next year. Researchers will have to include all possible conflicts of interest in their article at the time they send it in for consideration. Researchers will have to list at the end of their article all company connections or other financial support for their work. They will be expected to include information from within the past five years and for the near future. Journal editors say each researcher’s list will be considered part of the study if the report is accepted for publication. They say more information is always better than less. Researchers who are not sure what to list are being told to call the journal office for guidance. VOICE ONE: The Center for Science in the Public Interest says violators of the policy should face a three-year ban from the journal. A JAMA spokeswoman, Jann Ingmire, says that is not likely to happen. She says a ban could be considered illegal, a restraint of trade. Jann Ingmire says the most important question when deciding to accept research for publication should be this: is the science good?? She says research that uses good science and study design is the one that should be published and used to guide medical decisions. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rains Help Ease Crop Worries in U.S. Corn Belt
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. America's leading food crop is corn. Most of that corn comes from the middle of the country. Recently, farmers in the Corn Belt states of the Midwest have been concerned about the weather. They have been worried that dry conditions and unusually high temperatures could mean a smaller crop this year. Rains and cooler weather last week improved conditions in many fields and helped ease concerns, at least for now. The thought of a hot, dry summer may be enough to worry any farmer. But July is an extremely important month for maize pollination. Corn kernels may not develop if the soil gets too dry or the sun too hot. Drought conditions are the leading threat each year to farmers in the United States. The area of the country known as the Corn Belt includes Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana and Wisconsin. Other states are South Dakota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky. The Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service says producers have planted thirty-two million hectares of corn this year. That is a little less than last year, but more than they had expected in March. As of July tenth, sixty-three percent of the corn crop was rated good to excellent. That number was up from fifty-eight percent last year. But it was down from sixty-eight percent the week before. In the past few weeks, corn futures reached their highest prices in two years on the Chicago Board of Trade. On July twelfth, a bushel of corn for shipment in December cost about two dollars and eighty-five cents. The rains last week brought corn prices down from their recent highs. Now the question is how far those prices will drop. Demand for corn is growing, not just to feed cattle and people but also to feed engines. Ethanol from corn is becoming more popular as a plant-based fuel because of high oil prices. Corn is used in thousands of products. Last year, American farmers produced more than eleven thousand million bushels of corn. Farmers reported planting fifty-two percent of their corn last year from genetically engineered seed. The Economic Research Service says reports this year put the number at just over sixty percent. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. ?To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Learning English by Listening, Um, to How People, Uh, Really Speak It
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about authentic listening materials. RS: It's the subject of her latest textbook, called "Real Talk 1." LIDA BAKER: "One of the trends in the field in the last few years has been to try to expose students to authentic language, which is language -- English the way people really talk." AA: "So you got your tape recorder out and you walked around and eavesdropped or what did you do?" LIDA BAKER: "That's one of the ways that we collected the authentic language samples. So, yeah, we would put a microphone on a table and we would ask people to talk about a certain topic. In-person recordings were one kind of authentic speech samples that we collected. "The second kind was phone interviews and phone conversations. And we tried to make these as relevant to real life as we could. So we had, for example, we asked somebody to call up two different car rental agencies and find out about the price of renting a car. Now the student's task in that case is to listen to both phone recordings and decide if they were going to rent a car, which company would they go to. "So that's an example of where not only the input, the recording itself, is authentic, but the task is also authentic, which is another aspect in this movement in our profession towards authentic language teaching. It's not only authentic language teaching, but it's authentic language use." AA: "Let me ask you, obviously when people talk we don't always follow the rules of grammar and syntax and all that. So how does it benefit students to learn from authentic materials rather than maybe a more traditional approach?" LIDA BAKER: "By listening to the way people really talk, what students have to do is learn how to filter out the parts of the language that are not part of the message they are supposed to get, and tune in to the parts of the utterance that are part of the message. Does that make sense? So if I say 'ummm .... ummm ... well, let's see ...'" AA: "I filter that out." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, as a native speaker you know that that's not part of the message that I'm trying to convey. We actively teach students how to filter that stuff out, because natural language has all kinds of junk in it, if you want to call it that -- we make grammatical errors when we talk, we hesitate, we repeat ourselves, we use fillers which are things like 'uh,' 'um,' 'you know,' 'kind of' and, of course, the famous 'like.' And like is a really interesting example of something that students have to learn how to either tune out or attend to depending on the meaning." AA: "Let me ask you, at what level would you start using authentic materials -- beginner, intermediate, where would you start?" LIDA BAKER: "Believe it or not, you can do it at any level -- you can do it with absolute beginners. But you have to take care to present the language in very small segments with beginners and you also have to create tasks that are at the student's level of ability. Now let me give you a really simple example of what I mean. Very low level students, you might ask them to listen for instance to ... let's say to a weather report. "And things like weather reports are good because they're short. Now you can give them a list of words related to the weather: it's windy, it's raining, it's cloudy and so on. And you can have students listen to the weather report, which could be as short as ten or fifteen seconds and they have to put a check mark next to the adjectives that they hear. Now that's a really simple task that you can do with beginning students using an authentic recording." AA: Lida Baker, co-author with Judy Tanka of "Real Talk 1: Authentic English in Context." RS: There are even some Wordmaster scripts in their textbook, so you know we're authentic! AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. RS: And you can find other segments with Lida Baker at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: 'Light This Candle': Alan Shepard Is Launched Into Space in 1961
* Byline: Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we finish the story of the first American program to send a person into space. It was called Project Mercury. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American space agency opened for business October first, nineteen fifty-eight. NASA's most important job was to send an American into space and return him safely to Earth. Project Mercury was the plan for doing this. It would use one of several dependable military rockets to launch a small, one-man spacecraft. The space vehicle would return to Earth and land in the ocean. Astronauts would be chosen for the program from the best military test pilots who had education in science or engineering. The idea was simple. But making it happen was not a simple job. Thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and other workers were needed. And money was needed -- thousands of millions of dollars. VOICE TWO: Congress approved the money. NASA organized the program. The McDonnell Company designed and built the spacecraft. The Army and Air Force built the Redstone, Jupiter and Atlas rockets. NASA announced the seven astronauts it had chosen on April nineth, nineteen fifty-nine. They immediately began training for space flight. No time was wasted. The first test flights began later that year. Those test flights did not carry astronauts. Men would fly the Mercury spacecraft only after it was proved safe. The final test flight was made at the end of January, nineteen sixty-one. A Mercury spacecraft carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven hundred kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. There were some problems. But the animal survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. ] VOICE ONE: Three months later, NASA sent an astronaut into space. He was Navy pilot Alan Shepard. Shepard crawled into his little Mercury spacecraft early on the morning of May fifth. There was almost no room to move inside it. One description said it was like sitting in the driver's seat of a small car, while wearing two heavy raincoats. Alan Shepard waited in the spacecraft for four hours. The weather caused part of the delay. Clouds would prevent filming of the launch. And some last-minute repairs were made to his radio system. Tired of waiting, he told the ground crew, "Why don't you fellows solve your little problems and light this candle. " VOICE TWO: Finally, they did start the rocket. With a roar, it began to rise slowly from the launch pad. Its speed increased. Soon, it was out of sight. Shepard's flight lasted only a few seconds longer than fifteen minutes. But he flew one hundred eighty-seven kilometers high, and four hundred eighty kilometers from the launch pad. He re-entered the atmosphere and slowed the Mercury spacecraft. The first flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean, as planned. Shepard reported, "Everything is a-okay. " Within minutes, a helicopter lifted him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. The first manned flight of project Mercury was a complete success. VOICE ONE: Radio, television and newspaper reporters made it possible for millions of people to share the excitement of the flight. The United States had decided at the very beginning of its space program that all launches would be open to news reporters. Successes and failures would all be reported to the world. Television and news film showed flight preparations and launch. People could hear -- on radio and television -- the talk between the astronaut and the flight controllers. VOICE TWO: Ten weeks later, there was another Mercury launch. Astronaut Gus Grissom repeated Shepard's successful short flight. But there was a serious problem after the landing. Grissom almost drowned when the door of the spacecraft opened too soon. The spacecraft filled with water and sank. Grissom escaped. He had to swim for a few minutes before helicopters rescued him. VOICE ONE: The results of the two short flights made space officials believe the Mercury program was ready for its first orbital flight. Again, an animal would fly first. A chimpanzee named Enos was launched on a three-orbit flight. The flight tested the worldwide communications system that linked the spacecraft to flight controllers at Cape Canaveral. It also tested the effect of weightlessness on living creatures. A problem developed during the second orbit. One of the small thruster rockets that turned the spacecraft stopped working. Flight controllers decided to bring it down at the end of the second orbit. The landing was perfect. Enos suffered no bad effects. VOICE TWO: Now, everything was ready for an astronaut to make an orbital flight. NASA announced that the astronaut would be John Glenn. He would circle the Earth three times during a five-hour Mercury flight. The launch was planned for January twenty-seventh, nineteen sixty-two. But it was postponed for almost a month because of weather and mechanical problems. Finally, on February twentieth, John Glenn climbed into his tiny spacecraft on top of the huge Atlas rocket. After several short delays, the final seconds were counted off. (SOUND: Countdown) VOICE ONE: Five minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Atlas rocket. John Glenn was in orbit – one hundred sixty kilometers above the Earth. His speed was twenty-eight thousand kilometers an hour. Glenn reported that all systems were "go. " Everything was "a-okay" for an orbital flight. Glenn's flight plan called for him to spend most of the first orbit getting used to the feeling of being weightless. After about an hour of being beyond the pull of Earth's gravity, Glenn reported he felt fine. He said being weightless was not a problem. Glenn explained later that at times it helped to be free of gravity. He said he was busy taking pictures when he suddenly had to do something else. So he left the camera floating in the air. It stayed there, as if he had laid it on a table! VOICE TWO: Near the end of the first orbit, Glenn reported a problem. One of the small rockets of his automatic control system stopped working. This caused the spacecraft to turn to one side. Glenn solved the problem by turning off the automatic system. He took control of the system to correct the movement. All of the systems on the Mercury spacecraft sent radio signals to flight controllers. The signals, or telemetry, reported on the condition of the systems. During the second orbit, one of these signals warned that the heat shield might not be locked firmly to the bottom of the spacecraft. This could be a serious problem. The shield protected the spacecraft from burning up from the extreme heat of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. Engineers believed the warning signal was wrong and the shield was locked. But they told Glenn not to release rockets connected to the heat shield. The rockets, normally released before returning to Earth, could help keep a loose heat shield in place. VOICE ONE: Near the end of his third orbit, Glenn fired other rockets to slow his speed. The spacecraft began to return to Earth. As it re-entered the atmosphere, radio communications stopped. Flight controllers could no longer hear Glenn. Everyone was worried about the heat shield. The radio silence, caused by the heat of re-entry, lasted for seven minutes. Then the controllers heard the astronaut again. Glenn reported that he was okay. The heat shield had been locked. Parachutes lowered the Mercury spacecraft to the ocean surface. Glenn remained inside. A navy ship reached it in seventeen minutes, and lifted it aboard. Glenn opened the door and stepped out. John Glenn got a hero's welcome when he returned to Cape Canaveral. President John Kennedy flew to Florida and presented a special award to the astronaut. Glenn became famous. He later was elected to the United States Senate from the state of Ohio. And in nineteen ninety-eight, at age seventy-seven, he returned to space in an historic flight. VOICE TWO: Three more flights were made in Mercury spacecraft. The last one, by astronaut Gordon Cooper, circled the Earth twenty-one times. It lasted thirty-four hours. Cooper spent much of the time doing medical checks and taking pictures. His work cleared the way for project Gemini. Gemini was the next step toward President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the nineteen sixties. Project Mercury astronauts made the goal seem possible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-25-voa5.cfm
* Headline: A One-Pill Answer to Treating H.I.V.
* Byline: Caty Weaver

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The first treatment for H.I.V. in the form of one pill taken once a day is going to market in the United States. A spokesman for the drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb says the new product, called Atripla, has already been shipped to suppliers. Atripla is the result of some unusual cooperation among drug companies. The government approved the treatment on July twelfth. Food and Drug Administration officials had until October to make a decision. But they acted quickly. Doctors believe a one-pill-a-day plan will be more successful than current treatments which can involve several pills a day. Patients are less likely to miss treatments. Missed treatments can help the virus gain resistance to drugs. Atripla combines three medicines widely used to treat the most common form of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. One of the three is Sustiva, made by Bristol-Myers. The other two are Viread and Emtriva, both from Gilead Sciences. The new tablets are approved for use alone or with other antiretroviral products to treat adults. Earlier this year, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study of Atripla. Gilead paid for the study. Researchers compared the effectiveness of Atripla to the widely used combination of Sustiva and Combivir, from GlaxoSmithKline. They reported that Atripla suppressed virus levels in more patients and with fewer side effects. A one-month supply in the United States will cost more than one thousand dollars, the same price as for the separate drugs it contains. Gilead and Bristol-Myers will jointly market Atripla. AIDS activists praised the cooperation between drug makers as historic. They also called on them to provide the treatment to developing nations. The Bristol-Myers spokesman says his company and Gilead want to do that. They are currently negotiating with Merck. That company has rights to market the active substance in Sustiva in a number of countries outside the United States. The spokesman says the new product could be offered as early as September through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The plan provides drugs to fifteen poor countries, mostly in Africa. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a two-pill-a-day H.I.V. treatment for use under the emergency plan. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hoover's High Hopes for American Economy Come Crashing Down
* Byline: David Jarmul

 THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. The election of Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover in nineteen twenty-eight made Americans more hopeful than ever about their future. In March nineteen twenty-nine, Hoover rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in the rain to become the new president. "I have no fears for the future of our country," he told the cheering crowd. "It is bright with hope." Herbert Hoover seemed to have just the right experience to lead the nation to new economic progress. He had training in engineering, business, and national leadership. He understood economics and had faith in the future of private business. The clearest evidence of the public's faith in the economy is the stock market. And the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the new president with a wild increase in prices. During the months after Hoover's election, prices generally rose like a rocket. Stocks valued at one hundred dollars climbed to two hundred, then three hundred, four hundred. Men and women made huge amounts of money overnight. Publications and economic experts advised Americans to buy stocks before prices went even higher. Time and again, people heard how rich they could become if they found and bought stocks for companies growing into industrial giants. "Never sell the United States short," said one publication. Another just said, "Everybody ought to be rich." A number of economic experts worried about the sharp increase in stock prices that followed Hoover's election. The president himself urged stock market officials to make trading more honest and safe. And he approved a move by the Federal Reserve Board to increase the interest charged to banks. However, both efforts failed to stop the growing number of Americans who were spending their money wildly on stocks. Some experts pointed to danger signs in the economy during the summer of nineteen twenty-nine. The number of houses being built was dropping. Industries were reducing the amount of products that they held in their factories. The rate of growth in spending by average Americans was falling sharply. And industrial production, employment, and prices were down. These experts warned that the American economy was just not strong enough to support such rapid growth in stock prices. They said there was no real value behind many of the high prices. They said a stock price could not increase four times while a company's sales stayed the same. They said the high prices were built on foolish dreams of wealth, not real value. But the prices went still higher. Buyers fought with each other to pay more and more for company stocks. The average price of all stocks almost doubled in just one year. It seemed everybody was buying stocks, even people with little money or economic training. A clothing salesman got advice from a stock trader visiting his store and made two hundred-thousand dollars. A nurse learned of a good company from someone in the hospital. She made thirty thousand dollars. There were thousands of such stories. By early September, the stock market reached its high point of the past eighteen months. Shares of the Westinghouse company had climbed from ninety-one dollars to three hundred thirteen. The Anaconda Copper company had risen from fifty-four dollars to one hundred sixty-two. Union Carbide jumped from one hundred forty-five to four hundred thirteen. Life was like a dream. But like any dream, it could not last forever. In September, nineteen twenty-nine, stock prices stopped rising. During the next month and a half, stock prices fell, but only slowly. Then suddenly, at the end of October, the market crashed. Prices dropped wildly. Leading stocks fell five, ten, twenty dollars in a single day. Everyone tried to sell their stocks. But no one was buying. Fear washed across the stock market. People were losing money even faster than they had made it. The stock market collapsed on Thursday, October twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-nine. People remember the day as "Black Thursday," the day the dreams ended. The day began with a wave of selling. People from across the country sent messages to their stock traders in New York. All the messages said the same thing: Sell! Sell the stocks at any price possible! But no one was buying. And so down the prices came. The value of stock for the Montgomery Ward store dropped from eighty-three dollars to fifty in a single day. The R-C-A radio corporation fell from sixty-eight dollars to forty-four...twenty-four dollars in just a few hours. Down the stocks fell, lower and lower. Several of the country's leading bankers met to discuss ways to stop the disaster. They agreed to buy stocks in large amounts to stop the wave of selling. The bankers moved quickly. And for two days, prices held steady. But then, like snow falling down the side of a mountain, the stocks dropped again. Prices went to amazingly low levels. One business newspaper said simply: "The present week has witnessed the greatest stock market disaster of all time." The stock market crash ruined thousands of Americans. In a few short weeks, traders lost thirty thousand million dollars, an amount almost as great as all the money the United States had spent in World War One. Some businessmen could not accept what had happened. They jumped from the tops of buildings and killed themselves. In fact, one popular joke of the time said that hotel owners had to ask people if they wanted rooms for sleeping or jumping. But the stock market crash was nothing to laugh about. It destroyed much of the money that Americans had saved. Even worse, it caused millions of people to worry and lose faith in the economy. They were not sure what to expect tomorrow. Business owners would not spend money for new factories or business operations. Instead, they decided to wait and see what would happen. This reduced production and caused more workers to lose their jobs. Fewer workers meant fewer people with money to buy goods. And fewer people buying goods meant less need for factories to produce. So it went. In short, economic disaster. Why did the stock market crash? One reason, people had been paying too much for stocks. Everyone believed that prices would go higher and higher forever. People paid more for stocks than the stocks were worth. They hoped to sell the stocks at even higher prices. It was like a children's balloon that expands with air, blowing bigger and bigger until it bursts. But there were other important reasons. Industrial profits were too high and wages too low. Five percent of the population owned one-third of all personal income. The average worker simply did not have enough money to buy enough of all the new goods that factories were producing. Another problem was that companies were not investing enough money in new factories and supplies. There were also problems with the rules of the stock market itself. People were allowed to buy stocks when they did not have the money to do so. Several government economic policies also helped cause the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine. Government tax policies made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And the government did little to control the national money supply, even when the economy faced disaster. The stock market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression -- a long, slow, painful fall to the worst economic crisis in American history. The Depression would bring suffering to millions of people. It would cause major political changes. And it would be a major force in creating the conditions that led to World War Two. We will look at the beginning of the Great Depression in our next program. (MUSIC) You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Iron Science Teacher' and More at the Exploratorium
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, calls itself "the museum of science, art and human perception."? The museum gets more than five hundred thousand visitors each year. Millions more visit online at exploratorium.edu. Exploratorium officials say their Web site averages more than eighteen million visitors a year. That makes it one of the most visited museum Web sites in the world. And millions of people see displays designed by the Exploratorium at science centers around the world. The museum has a Teacher Institute and is working to help teachers improve science education at all grade levels. There are professional development materials that teachers can download from the Web site at no cost. The Exploratorium also offers professional development programs for scientists. This is a joint effort with the University of California, Santa Cruz, and King’s College London. Exploratorium.edu also includes experiments that people can do at home. And it offers many Webcasts -- including a show called “Iron Science Teacher.”? The idea came from the popular "Iron Chef" cooking competition on Japanese television. At the Exploratorium, people watch science teachers develop demonstrations around everyday objects. The teachers have ten minutes to put together an interesting classroom activity. The teachers come to the competition already knowing what the object will be. Recently it was fruit. Winners are chosen by the reaction of the audience. The loudest applause went to a science teacher at Opportunity Charter School in Harlem, in New York City. Linda Paparella stuck pieces of zinc and copper into oranges cut in half. The oranges acted as a "fruit battery."? Free electrons naturally stored in the fruit flowed through wires connected to the pieces of metal. There was enough electricity to power a calculator. The teacher also demonstrated with a stopwatch and a buzzer. Museum officials say the "Iron Science Teacher" competition started as a joke. It was meant to be just a one-time show, but it was so popular they continued it. The next live Webcast is set for nineteen hours Universal Time on August eleventh. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find a link to archives of Iron Science Teacher Webcasts. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Four Internet Magazines Connect Young Professionals Near and Far
* Byline: Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about women’s rights activist Betty Friedan … Play some music from Los Lonely Boys … And report about some young people who reach out to the world through the Internet. The CulturalConnect HOST: Three young professional people recently started four magazines on the Internet. They expected other young professional people in the United States to read their magazines. But now there are readers in more than ninety-five countries. Barbara Klein tells us about The CulturalConnect. BARBARA KLEIN: Sumaya Kazi is twenty-three years old. She is an American whose family comes from Bangladesh. Miz Kazi works for Sun Microsystems, a big technology company in California. Raymond Rouf and Kaiser Shahid are both twenty-five years old. They also work for technology companies. Miz Kazi, Mister Rouf and Mister Shahid started an organization called The CulturalConnect. Their Internet magazines are for young people in their twenties and thirties whose families come from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia. The magazines tell about successful young people and organizations that help people or work to solve social problems. For example, The DesiConnect told about the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action. This group works on issues important to immigrants in San Francisco, California. The LatinConnect told about the Latin American Folk Institute, which organizes music celebrations in Washington, D. C. In the magazine AsiaConnect, there is a story about a group called ASPIRE, which means Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence. The MideastConnect told about Nihad Dukhan, a Palestinian American who teaches engineering at the University of Detroit in Michigan. He is also an artist who creates designs using Arabic words and letters. Readers of CulturalConnect magazines learn about people like Max Ramirez of New York City. Mister Ramirez is twenty-eight years old. He has become very successful helping companies sell their goods to people in the United States who speak Spanish. Each magazine tells readers how to contact the individuals and the organizations. Sumaya Kazi says the magazines have grown very big very fast. She says many college students want to learn about the kinds of jobs they could have when they graduate. She also says the magazines build bridges between people of different ethnic groups and professions. “Young adults around the world are learning about each other in meaningful and helpful ways,” says Sumaya Kazi. The magazines are on the Internet at www.theculturalconnect.com. Betty Friedan HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Japan. Motoji Okamoto asks about women’s rights activist Betty Friedan.Fifty years ago, many Americans said, “A woman’s place is in the home.”? Parents often urged their daughters to get married and let a man take care of them. Few girls studied science, law or engineering. Betty Friedan was born in nineteen twenty-one in Peoria, Illinois. She graduated from Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Later she moved to New York City and worked for labor union newspapers. But she stopped working when she had children. As a young wife and mother, Betty Friedan was dissatisfied with her life. She wondered if her former college classmates felt the same way. So she studied the opinions of other Smith College graduates during the nineteen fifties and early sixties. The study showed that other women also wanted to be more than homemakers. Her research led her to write “The Feminine Mystique” in nineteen sixty-three. She wrote that women suffered from feelings of lack of worth. She said women felt that way because they depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support. Millions of people read “The Feminine Mystique.”? It became one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. It helped more women seek higher education and better jobs. In her long life, Betty Friedan did much more than write an important book. In nineteen sixty-six she helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. Four years later she led a march of one-half million women in New York City. The event was called “Women’s Strike for Equality.” A year later, she helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus. She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment. She also worked hard for an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. Betty Friedan wrote more books as she grew older. One of these, “Life So Far”, was published when she was almost eighty. By that time, she had become deeply involved in the struggle for the rights of old people. Betty Friedan died earlier this year, on her eighty-fifth birthday. You can hear more about her life and work Sunday on the Special English program People in America. Los Lonely Boys HOST: The group called Los Lonely Boys has a new record called “Sacred.” Mario Ritter tells about the album and plays a few songs. MARIO RITTER: Critics say “Sacred” is a lively combination of dance songs and love songs that have great guitar playing and rich vocals. The three Garza brothers in Los Lonely Boys are from Texas. Their father, Enrique Garza, taught the boys how to play all their instruments. He also let them play in his band while they were growing up. The boys honor their father on the album with a special guest appearance in this song, “Outlaws.”? The famous singer Willie Nelson also joins in. (MUSIC) The Garza brothers say their father taught them to always help each other while performing on stage. If one is having trouble with an instrument or makes a mistake, the other two just have to play harder. The main guitarist, Henry Garza, also says his father used to say, “If one string breaks, you still have five others.” Here is a hit single from “Sacred” called “Diamonds.” (MUSIC) A music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle called Henry Garza, “the ball of fire at the center of Los Lonely Boys.”? We leave you now with the band and its burning hot guitar sound in another song from “Sacred,” “Living My Life.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Rise of Foundations
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. As we told you last week, the United States has about seventy thousand foundations for charitable giving. They are required to give away at least five percent of their total holdings each year. Most foundations are formed by wealthy individuals. People who put their wealth into foundations can become known for their social good works. At the same time, gifts to charity can bring tax savings. Fifty percent of the value of a gift to a public charity can be used to reduce taxes. For private foundations, that percentage is smaller -- thirty percent -- but still a lot. Not surprisingly, strong foundation growth takes place during strong economic growth. For example, foundations grew quickly during the nineteen forties and fifties. A growing economy and changes in tax laws also led to sharp growth during the eighties. The economic expansion of the middle and late nineties resulted in record foundation growth. In two thousand, as the stock market reached its highest level, so did the number of new foundations. More than six thousand that year alone. Researcher Steven Lawrence says foundation growth has shown surprising staying power since then, even as economic growth slowed. He says new foundations continued to appear at a rate of about two percent in two thousand four. Mister Lawrence is the top researcher at a group that studies such things, the Foundation Center. But foundations can also run out of money and close. This happens at an average rate of one percent a year. Many of the rules that govern foundations come from the Tax Reform Act of nineteen sixty-nine. Congress established a number of differences between public charities and private foundations. The new law defined all individual, corporate and operating foundations as private. That meant greater restrictions and different financial reporting rules than for community foundations. At the time, some people thought the changes in the law would mean the end of private foundations. The number of public charities grew in the nineteen seventies. In some years, the holdings of private foundations even shrunk. Today public charities represent just one percent of all foundations. But they are responsible for almost one-tenth of all foundation giving. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Next week, listen for the third and final part of our series on foundations. Part one can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: W.T.O. Talks: As Nations Trade Blame, World Trade Goals Must Wait
* Byline: Brianna Blake

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Almost five years of talks among countries in the World Trade Organization came to a halt this week. Director-General Pascal Lamy in Geneva suspended the troubled negotiations. He says restarting them will require work within countries. The talks began with the hope for an agreement that would open up world markets and reduce poverty in developing nations. But negotiators failed to agree on ways to permit more free trade in agricultural and industrial goods. Since two thousand one, members of the World Trade Organization have debated how to reach goals they set in November of that year. The meeting took place in Doha, Qatar; the trade talks became known as the Doha Development Round. A meeting in Seattle in nineteen ninety-nine had failed to begin a new round of trade talks then. The Doha Round opened at a rough time, two months after the terrorist attacks on the United States. Negotiators set out to lower trade restrictions and take other steps to help poorer countries. The main issue for many developing countries is government support programs for farmers. Farmers in developing nations say they cannot compete with agricultural prices driven down by farm subsidies in rich nations. But the trade ministers could not reach agreement on what steps were needed to let the talks move forward. And soon, countries started blaming each other for the failure. The European Union said the United States refused to cooperate. Peter Mandelson is the E.U. trade commissioner. He said the United States was making "very large demands," but was not willing to make new offers to cut aid to its farmers. American officials called his statements false and misleading. They said the European Union and other W.T.O. members were not willing to do enough to lower their import barriers to farm products. American officials also said Brazil and India were refusing to cut barriers on industrial imports. A Bush administration spokesman said American trade officials will continue discussions with other nations in the hope of an agreement. So what does all this mean for the future of world trade? Gawain Kripke is a trade expert with the aid group Oxfam International. Mister Kripke says the failure of the Doha round will hurt the poorest countries the most. He notes that under the rules of the World Trade Organization, each country's voice is given equal weight. He says this is often not the case when two countries, or countries in the same area, try to negotiate trade agreements themselves. A successful trade deal in the Doha round could increase the world economy by as much as ninety-six thousand million dollars a year. It could pull sixty-six million people out of poverty. These are both estimates by the World Bank. Officially the talks are not dead, only suspended. But many countries believe it could take anywhere from months to years to restart them. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Betty Friedan: A Leader in the Modern Women’s Rights Movement
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE? IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Betty Friedan. She was a powerful activist for the rights of women. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Betty Friedan is often called the mother of the modern women’s liberation movement. Her famous book, “The Feminine Mystique,” changed America. Some people say it changed the world. It has been called one of the most influential nonfiction books of the twentieth century. Friedan re-awakened the feminist movement in the United States. That movement had helped women gain the right to vote in the nineteen twenties. Modern feminists disagree about how to describe themselves and their movement. But activists say men and women should have equal chances for economic, social and intellectual satisfaction in life. VOICE TWO: Fifty years ago, life for women in the United States was very different from today. Very few parents urged their daughters to become lawyers or doctors or professors. Female workers doing the same jobs as men earned much less money. Women often lost their jobs when they had a baby. There were few child care centers for working parents. Betty Friedan once spoke to ABC television about her support for sharing responsibility for the care of children: “If child-rearing was considered the responsibility of women and men or women and men and society, then we really could pull up our skirts and declare victory and move on.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Betty Friedan was born Betty Goldstein in nineteen twenty-one in Peoria, Illinois. Her immigrant father worked as a jeweler. Her mother left her job with a local newspaper to stay home with her family. Betty attended Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. It was one of the country’s best colleges for women. She finished her studies in psychology in nineteen forty-two. After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley to continue her studies. But her boyfriend at the time did not want her to get an advanced degree in psychology. He apparently felt threatened by her success. So Betty left California and her boyfriend. She moved to New York City and worked as a reporter and editor for labor union newspapers. In nineteen forty-seven, Betty Goldstein married Carl Friedan, a theater director who later became an advertising executive. They had a child, the first of three. The Friedans were to remain married until nineteen sixty-nine. VOICE TWO: When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she was dismissed from her job at the newspaper. After that she worked as an independent reporter for magazines. But her editors often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the traditional interests of women. In nineteen fifty-seven, Friedan started research that was to have far-reaching results. Her class at Smith College was to gather for the fifteenth anniversary of their graduation. Friedan prepared an opinion study for the women. She sent questions to the women about their lives. Most who took part in the study did not work outside their homes. Friedan was not completely satisfied with her life. She thought that her former college classmates might also be dissatisfied. She was right. Friedan thought these intelligent women could give a lot to society if they had another identity besides being homemakers. VOICE ONE: Friedan completed more studies. She talked to other women across the country. She met with experts about the questions and answers. She combined this research with observations and examples from her own life. The result was her book, “The Feminine Mystique,” published in nineteen sixty-three. The book attacked the popular idea of the time that women could only find satisfaction through being married, having children and taking care of their home. Friedan believed that women wanted more from life than just to please their husbands and children. The book said women suffered from feelings of lack of worth. Friedan said this was because the women depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support. VOICE TWO: “The Feminine Mystique” was a huge success. It has sold more than three million?copies. It was reprinted in a number of other languages. The book helped change the lives of women in America. More women began working outside the home. More women also began studying traditionally male subjects like law, medicine and engineering. Betty Friedan expressed the dissatisfaction of some American women during the middle of the twentieth century. But she also made many men feel threatened. Later, critics said her book only dealt with the problems of white, educated, wealthy, married women. It did not study the problems of poor white women, single women or minorities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-six, Betty Friedan helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women seeking jobs. Friedan also worked on other issues. She wanted women to have the choice to end their pregnancies. She wanted to create child-care centers for working parents. She wanted women to take part in social and political change. Betty Friedan once spoke about her great hopes for women in the nineteen seventies: “Liberating ourselves, we will then become a major political force, perhaps the biggest political force for basic social and political change in America in the seventies.” VOICE TWO: Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration in New York City for women’s rights. Demonstrations were also held in other cities. A half-million women took part in the Women’s Strike for Equality on August twenty-sixth, nineteen seventy. The day marked the fiftieth anniversary of American women gaining the right to vote. A year after the march, Friedan helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus. She said the group got started “to make policy, not coffee.”? She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment. VOICE ONE: Friedan wanted a national guarantee of that equal treatment. She worked tirelessly to get Congress and the states to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution that would provide equal rights for women. The House of Representatives approved this Equal Rights Amendment in nineteen seventy-one. The Senate approved it the following year. Thirty-eight of the fifty state legislatures were required to approve the amendment. Congress set a time limit of seven years for the states to approve it. This was extended to June thirtieth, nineteen eighty-two. However, only thirty-five states approved the amendment by the deadline so it never went into effect. The defeat of the E.R.A. was a sad event for Betty Friedan, NOW and other activists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen eighty-one, Betty Friedan wrote about the condition of the women’s movement. Her book was called “The Second Stage.”? Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and other such events had passed. She urged the movement to try to increase its influence on American political life. Some younger members of the movement denounced her as too conservative. As she grew older, Friedan studied conditions for older Americans. She wrote a book called “The Fountain of Age” in nineteen ninety-three. She wrote that society often dismisses old people as no longer important or useful. Friedan’s last book was published in two thousand. She was almost eighty years old at the time. Its title was “Life So Far.”?? Betty Friedan died on February fourth, two thousand six. It was her eighty-fifth birthday. Betty Friedan once told a television reporter how she wanted to be remembered: “She helps make it better for women to feel good about being women, and therefore she helped make it possible for women to more freely love men.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can download a transcript and audio of this show at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Recycling Scrap Metal Into Money
* Byline: Gary Garriott

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Development Report. People have been recycling metals for hundreds of years. Today, re-using metal waste or scrap provides work for many people, especially in developing countries. Three kinds of metals are recycled. They are ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and precious metals. Ferrous metals contain iron. They are low in cost and recycled in huge amounts. Metallic iron called pig iron is produced when iron is heated in a hot industrial stove. This kind of stove is called a blast furnace. Pig iron also contains another element, carbon. Pig iron is useful because it can be formed into solid, heavy objects or objects with unusual shapes. Another kind of iron is steel, which is iron without the carbon. Making steel is simply removing the carbon by burning it away. This makes the steel stronger and easier to cut than iron. Both pig iron and steel waste or scrap are useful because they can be melted to make new products. In countries where there is a shortage of steel scrap, old tin cans are sometimes used. Tin cans are mostly steel. They can be melted. If the scrap is heated before the temperature gets to the melting point, the blast furnace can be more simply designed and less costly. These simpler furnaces are called foundries. Products are made in foundries all over the world, but especially in Asia. Non-ferrous metals include copper and aluminum. Copper is the perfect material for recycling. It is valuable, easy to identify and easy to clean. People who operate foundries around the world buy copper wire and cable to recycle. Aluminum is another very popular non-ferrous scrap metal. It is cheap to produce and very easy to work with. In developing countries, small foundries produce aluminum bars, sheets and wire. Precious metals like silver also are recycled. Silver can be found in pictures made with old cameras. And it can be found in X-rays after they have been developed. X-ray film is very valuable for recycling silver, because both sides of the film are usually developed. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report. You can learn more about recycling metals through VITA, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Web at enterpriseworks.org. And Internet users can find transcripts and archives of all of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. --- Correction: This?report describes steel as iron without the carbon, and as easier to cut than iron. Reduced amounts of carbon are still present, and steel is not necessarily easier to cut than iron. The report also states that aluminum is cheap to produce. The overall system cost, however, must include all the electricity needed to reduce bauxite into aluminum. Also, copper is not necessarily easy to clean, as the report suggests. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: All About Names:? An Average Joe Was Walking Down the Street
* Byline: Jill Moss

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. A person’s name is very important. Some names also have special meanings in popular American expressions. To better understand what I mean, sit back and listen. You might even want to get a cup of Joe, I mean, a cup of coffee. One day, an average Joe was walking down the street. An average Joe is a common person – either male or female. This average Joe was lost. He did not know Jack about where he was going. By this, I mean he did not know anything about where to find things in the city. So average Joe asked John Q. Public for directions to the nearest bank. John Q. Public is also a common person – male or female. “Jeez Louise,” said John Q. Public. This is an expression of surprise. “Jeez Louise, don’t you know that all banks are closed today?? It is Saturday.” “For Pete’s sake,” said average Joe. This is also an expression used to show a feeling like surprise or disappointment. “For Pete’s sake. I do not believe you,” said average Joe. He was being a doubting Thomas, someone who does not believe anything he is told. At that moment, Joe Blow was walking down the street with a woman. Joe Blow is also an expression for a common man. Now this Joe Blow was NOT walking next to a plain Jane. A plain Jane is a woman who is neither ugly nor pretty. She is simply plain. No, the woman with Joe Blow was a real Sheila – a beautiful woman. Average Joe asked the woman if all banks were closed on Saturday. “No way, Jose,” she answered. This is a way of saying “no.”? “No way, Jose. Many banks are open on Saturdays.” Average Joe did not know either of these two people from Adam. That is, he did not know them at all. But he followed their directions to the nearest bank. When he arrived, he walked to the desk of the chief bank employee. Now this man was a true Jack of all trades. He knew how to do everything. “I am here to withdraw some money so I can pay my taxes to Uncle Sam,” said average Joe. Uncle Sam represents the United States government. The banker produced some papers and told average Joe to sign his John Hancock at the bottom. A John Hancock is a person’s signed name – a signature. Historically, John Hancock was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. Hancock had a beautiful signature and signed his name larger than all the others. As average Joe left the bank he began to sing. But sadly, average Joe was not a good singer. He was a Johnny One Note. He could only sing one note. (MUSIC)? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: American Clergy: Still Mostly a Man's World, but Women Make Gains
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein. This week our subject is women clergy. (MUSIC) A new leader begins a nine-year term this November as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Katharine Jefferts Schori will become the first woman to lead one of the churches in the Worldwide Anglican Communion. There are almost eighty million Anglicans in all. More than two million of them are members of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Bishop Jefferts Schori won election in June at the church’s General Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Episcopal bishops elected her on the fifth ballot. She was the only woman among seven candidates. Some Episcopalians wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury to object to the new presiding bishop-elect. The archbishop, Rowan Williams, is leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. He says Bishop Jefferts Schori will bring "many intellectual and pastoral gifts to her new work."? But he also noted that her election "brings into focus some continuing issues." The Church of England has just recently begun steps toward letting women become bishops. But that might not happen before two thousand twelve. The Episcopal Church is almost four hundred years old. The American church accepted women as priests and bishops thirty years ago. But church leaders in California, Illinois and Texas still bar women clergy. The fact that the next leader is a woman is not the only issue. Bishop Jefferts Schori is now bishop of Nevada. The Episcopal Church in her state permits blessing ceremonies for the relationships between two people of the same sex. She believes homosexuals should be fully included in the church. In two thousand three she supported the election of a gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire. The subject has divided Episcopalians and other Anglican churches. Katharine Jefferts Schori is fifty-two years old. The next leader of the Episcopal Church says she brings “different life experiences” to her work. She has a doctorate in science. She studied oceans. And this former oceanographer is also a pilot who likes to fly a small plane. She and her husband have a daughter who is a pilot in the Air Force. (MUSIC) Antoinette Brown Blackwell is credited as the first woman in the United States to be officially appointed as a minister. She attended the seminary at Oberlin College and served in a Congregationalist church in South Butler, New York. Antoinette Brown Blackwell became ordained in eighteen fifty-three. A person who is ordained is given the full responsibilities of a member of the clergy. But she left the church less than a year after that. She later became a Unitarian. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of the oldest religious organizations in the United States. In two thousand, Vashti Murphy McKenzie became the first woman elected a bishop in the A.M.E. Church. Now another woman minister hopes to become a bishop. She is Reverend Debora Grant of Saint John A.M.E. Church in Columbus, Georgia. The election for bishop of the A.M.E. churches in Georgia will take place in two thousand eight. ??? Religious groups in the United States commonly require ministers to have studied in a seminary. This is true especially of major denominations. The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada collects information from more than two hundred fifty seminaries. In the school year that ended in two thousand five, the association says, one-third of students in ministry programs were women. Future ministers learn not just about religion. They often study archeology and sociology, as well as art and music related to religion. And they learn about administration and about helping the sick and troubled. Most seminary students gain experience as student ministers before they graduate. Many religious groups continue not to accept women clergy. Different groups offer different reasons. But custom, tradition and a desire to honor what is believed to be the will of God, often as expressed in holy writings, all play a part. Leaders of the Mormons, for example, say men hold the priesthood offices of the church because God has stated that it should be so. However, the church says women have important leadership duties, and teach and pray The Roman Catholic Church has faced a lot of pressure to let women become priests. The church has expanded the duties that women can perform, but they still cannot become priests. Among Protestants, not all groups accept women clergy. And some churches limit the service of women ministers. The biggest Protestant denomination in the United States is the Southern Baptist Convention. For many years, women could serve as senior ministers in its churches. Senior ministers have the most responsibilities and earn the most pay. But in two thousand the Southern Baptists decided that women should no longer enter these jobs. Many Protestant denominations do let women become senior ministers. Even so, some women believe there are unwritten rules that can keep them from getting jobs. In some denominations, a church official appoints ministers to their jobs. In other denominations, ministers must find their own church. A Protestant minister in Washington who works with hospital patients has looked for a senior ministry position for a long time. She asks not to be named. She says: “People would be happy for me to work with children or sick and old people. But many places do not want a woman for the top job.” (MUSIC) In the Jewish religion, women can become Reform, Reconstructionist or Conservative spiritual leaders. In nineteen seventy-two Sally Priesand became the first woman rabbi to be ordained in the United States. Hebrew Union College in Ohio ordained her as a rabbi in Reform Judaism. Two years later the first woman graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Pennsylvania. The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York serves as the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism. The seminary ordained its first woman rabbi in nineteen eighty-five. That followed more than ten years of intense debate. Orthodox Judaism does not ordain women as rabbis. But a small number of women are said to have completed studies in Orthodox seminaries. (MUSIC) Amina Wadud teaches Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Professor Wadud made international news in March of two thousand five. She led a group of men and women in Friday prayers. At least eighty people gathered in the Synod House of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, an Episcopal church. Other places refused the event because of reports of bomb threats. Some Muslims denounced Professor Wadud. They said the prayer leader, or imam, should be a man and that men and women should not have prayed together. Conservative Muslims said her actions violated traditions of Islam. But many liberal Muslims praised what she did. A seventy-year-old woman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, says she has been a loyal Roman Catholic all her life. She says that years ago, she agreed with the belief that women should not become priests. Now she disagrees with that. “Women have always cared for homes, families and communities. Why not let them care for people’s spiritual needs?" she asks. As long as people have an answer, this issue will continue to be debated in America and across the world. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein. You can download transcripts and archives of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Artificial Intelligence at 50 | Moving Objects With Thought
* Byline: Jill Moss

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week -- thinking about artificial intelligence ... VOICE ONE: And technology that uses thought to control movement could offer hope to people with spinal cord injuries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Artificial intelligence is technology designed to perform jobs that require higher-level thinking skills. In other words, skills like those of human intelligence. A.l. systems have many different uses. They are used in economics, to study things like stock market activity. They are used in medicine -- for example, to help doctors recognize disorders and choose the best treatments. And they are used in the military, to develop systems like self-guiding vehicles and so-called smart bombs that look for their targets. Robotic systems with artificial intelligence can perform many industrial duties. These robots can also help doctors operate on patients. They can even pilot spacecraft. VOICE TWO: In the summer of nineteen fifty-six, a small group of scientists gathered in Hanover, New Hampshire. They discussed how to create computer programs and machines that could think the way humans do. The conference was proposed as a two-month study. It was called the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. The idea of intelligent machines is ancient. But the name of the Dartmouth project marked the first known use of the term "artificial intelligence."? So says the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. Dartmouth College just marked the fiftieth anniversary of that summer study. In July the school held a conference called AI@50 to explore the next fifty years in artificial intelligence. Organizers say about one hundred seventy-five people attended the three-day event. Young graduate students got to meet the two men often called the fathers of artificial intelligence: Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy. Fifty years ago, Mister Minsky was a junior fellow at Harvard University. Mister McCarthy was a professor of mathematics at Dartmouth. These two researchers, and two others, wrote a proposal for the summer research project. Mister McCarthy is the one credited for the name "artificial intelligence."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The organizers of the nineteen fifty-six conference based it on a theory. The idea was that every part of human intelligence could be described in such detail that a machine could be made to copy it. James Moor is a philosophy professor at Dartmouth. He directed the AI@50 conference last month. Professor Moor says it is true that computers are being built that operate in some ways like the brain. These are known as neural net computers. But, he adds, machines are unlikely to fully capture all human emotions, feelings and creativity -- at least not anytime soon. The professor says computers may never replace humans, but humans should expect to find more and more "smart machines."? These devices could someday even be implanted in the body. Research into artificial intelligence includes areas like learning, reasoning and action. The work brings together people from many different areas of expertise. Yet progress with artificial intelligence has been slower than those scientists fifty years ago had hoped. For example, Professor Moor notes the continued difficulty to train computers to use and translate language. Using language correctly requires a knowledge of countless social and cultural situations and conditions. So language is an area where humans can still consider themselves smarter than machines. VOICE TWO: Carey Heckman teaches in the philosophy and computer science departments at Dartmouth. He notes that artificial intelligence plays an important part in national security and anti-terrorism programs. For example, A.I. systems are used in collecting communications and recognizing faces in a crowd. Uses like these incite debate about issues like government spying and loss of privacy. Artificial intelligence is not just fertile ground for science fiction writers. There are social and economic issues to consider as the technology spreads. Even just the idea of trying to get computers to think like humans is enough to frighten some people. At the same time, A.I. research involves philosophical questions about intelligence and the mind. These questions relate to how humans work and think. Carey Heckman at Dartmouth says the more scientists learn about artificial intelligence, "the more we learn about ourselves." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Scientists and engineers have created all kinds of technology to make people's lives easier. This is true for disabled people as well. But what about those with severe spinal-cord injuries, who cannot move their arms or legs?? A new device could make their lives easier, too. This may not be an example of artificial intelligence, but it is an example of what human intelligence can do with technology. A report last month in Nature magazine described a study by a team led by researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island. VOICE TWO: For nine months, the researchers followed a twenty-five-year-old disabled man as he learned to move objects simply with thought. This ability was made possible by a small electronic device in his brain. The device is a neuromotor prosthesis called BrainGate. It measures four millimeters by four millimeters. The BrainGate device acts as a brain-to-movement system. Doctors inserted it into the motor cortex, a part of the brain involved in controlling movements. The man had suffered a spinal cord injury three years earlier. But the researchers found that nerve activity continued in his motor cortex. The team had not known for sure if movement signals would still be sent in this part of his brain. The patient was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a knife wound that cut his spinal cord. But with the BrainGate system, he was able to guide a computer cursor and control objects on the screen. He could open e-mail and play "Neural Pong," a simple video game. The patient could also operate a television. He was able to perform these actions while speaking at the same time. He was even able to pick up small objects with a robotic arm. VOICE ONE: Nerve activity recorded by the BrainGate sensor is processed into movement commands. The system used in the study includes wires attached to the skull. These wires pass through the skin to carry nerve signals to computers and other equipment to process them. After the report was written, the scientists added a second patient with spinal cord injury to the study, a man fifty-five years old. Research with neuromotor prosthetics has also been done with monkeys. Experts say the BrainGate system marks a big improvement in what is known as brain-computer interface technology. Scientists say the device could one day control a wheelchair or prosthetic arms and legs. They say the device, if combined with a muscle movement system, might even return the use of paralyzed limbs. But a lot more work is needed before any of this might be possible. VOICE TWO: A company called Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems created the BrainGate device. Professors and students at Brown University formed Cyberkinetics in two thousand one. They based their work on research developed in the laboratory of neuroscientist John Donoghue. The government paid for much of the research. Professor Donoghue has been working on the BrainGate technology for more than ten years. He is chief scientific officer at Cyberkinetics and helped lead the study published in Nature. In a related paper, researchers at Stanford University say the device produces an even faster reaction when placed in a different area in the brain. They say it could someday be possible to communicate information at a rate equal to typing fifteen words per minute on a computer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss and produced by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-07/2006-07-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Japan Imports U.S. Beef Again
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. American beef is returning to Japan. The Japanese government last week ended a ban in place since January over concerns about mad cow disease. Japanese officials recently inspected thirty-five beef processing centers in the United States. They said all but one met Japanese safety requirements. The ban on beef led to threats in Congress of trade restrictions against Japan. The Japanese were the top buyer of American beef. The government first banned shipments in December of two thousand three. That was when the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease -- bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B.S.E. The Japanese lifted their ban last December, but renewed it in January after the discovery of backbone material in a meat shipment. In all, there have been three confirmed cases of B.S.E. in the United States. The first was in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. Last year a cow in Texas was found to have B.S.E.. And in March of this year, a cow in Alabama tested positive for the disease. About twenty nations continue to ban American beef; others restrict some kinds of cattle products. Japan accepts only beef from cattle twenty months of age or younger. Also, processors must remove backbones and other parts that experts say could spread the disease. Eating infected meat products has been blamed for more than one hundred fifty deaths, mostly in Britain. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says "American beef is extremely safe."?? The Japanese ended their ban one week after Mister Johanns announced reductions in the B.S.E. testing program. The program will now test about forty thousand animals a year. That is still ten times the level suggested by the World Animal Health Organization. Since June of two thousand four, the Agriculture Department has tested an average of more than one thousand animals per day. Two years of testing found two cases of B.S.E. Mister Johanns noted that both animals were born before the United States banned feeding cattle protein to other cattle. A seven-year government study estimated the most likely number of cases at between four and seven out of forty-two million adult cattle. But critics say the United States should be testing more cattle, not fewer. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'The Greatest Experience': Ed White and America's First Spacewalk
* Byline: Marilyn Christiano

 EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Harry Monroe and Tony Riggs report about America's second manned space program, Gemini. Two astronauts flew on each flight. Gemini's purpose was to bring the United States closer to its goal of landing astronauts on the moon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The astronauts of America's first manned program, Project Mercury, made six successful flights. They proved that people could survive the hostile environment of space. Ed White on June 3, 1965In nineteen sixty-five America's space agency, NASA, was ready to begin its second manned program. NASA called it Gemini. The program was named for the two stars Castor and Pollux in the star group Gemini. The Gemini program would send two astronauts at a time into space. Gemini would test the men's ability to live and work in space. Gemini, it was hoped, would move America closer to its goal of landing astronauts on the moon. VOICE TWO: The first Gemini spacecraft would carry astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Young. Its Titan rocket could lift three times as much weight into space as the Atlas rocket used for the Mercury flights. The launch took place without a problem on March twenty-third, nineteen sixty-five. Grissom and Young orbited the Earth only three times. But they did something that the Mercury astronauts had not been able to do. They changed their orbit while in space. The Gemini astronauts were developing the control that would be needed for a trip to the moon. Less than two months later, James McDivitt and Ed White went into space on the second Gemini flight. Their flight included several experiments. But one seemed almost unbelievable -- a space walk. Ed White would leave the protection of the spacecraft and move out into the unknown emptiness of space. VOICE ONE: When it was time for him to leave the spacecraft, this is what the world heard:? "Roger, Flight, we're GO."? Those were the words from the flight director on the ground. Then a voice came down from space. "He is ready to leave right now," called McDivitt. The astronauts had removed all air pressure from the spacecraft. Only their special space clothing would provide the air pressure they needed to stay alive. VOICE TWO: Slowly, Ed White moved out the open door. He was tied to the spacecraft by a long rope. He floated out and away from the spacecraft. Millions of people listened as he said, "This is the greatest experience. I am looking down right now. And it looks like we are coming up on the coast of California." At space agency headquarters, doctors studied his medical condition as the information was being sent back to Earth. They said that being outside the spacecraft did not seem to affect him. VOICE ONE: It was time for Ed White to end his space walk. James McDivitt had to beg him to return. White was having a wonderful time. He wanted to stay out longer. Finally, he climbed back inside. He had floated around in the emptiness of space for twenty-one minutes. Then a problem developed. The door of the spacecraft refused to shut tightly. The astronauts' clothing protected them during the flight. But what would happen during re-entry?? James McDivitt had to try to repair the door. VOICE TWO: Scientists always knew it would not be easy for humans to work in the weightlessness of space. Each time an astronaut puts pressure in one direction, their body moves in the opposite direction. There is no gravity to hold them in place. NASA scientists had tried to solve the problem by designing new tools for use in space. McDivitt tried one of the new tools. It worked. He was able to repair the broken door so it shut tightly. VOICE ONE: Solving this problem, however, created a new one. The astronauts had planned to re-open the door during their four-day flight. They had planned to throw away materials they no longer needed, including uneaten food. But now they decided it would not be wise to re-open the door. Soon, the inside of the spacecraft began to fill up with all kinds of junk. McDivitt and White had to learn to sleep and work as things floated around their heads. VOICE TWO: On the sixty-second orbit, the astronauts prepared to return to Earth. They fired the spacecraft's control rockets. The spacecraft slowed and began to re-enter the atmosphere. It landed safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Rescue helicopters reached McDivitt and White within seven minutes of landing. The two American astronauts were in excellent condition. They had made the first space walk. And they had proved that people could both live and work in space. VOICE ONE: The next Gemini launch was planned for just two months later. Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad were to spend a record eight days in space. Soon after the launch, Cooper and Conrad noted a problem that almost ended their flight early. They discovered a drop in pressure in the fuel cells that supplied electricity. These fuel cells powered the communications and computer systems. And they were very important to the environmental control systems in the spacecraft. VOICE TWO: Gemini's flight director decided to reduce the use of power on the spacecraft, instead of ending the flight early. Cooper and Conrad turned off the radar, radio, computer and even some environmental control systems. The spacecraft floated silently through space. Suddenly the power began to increase. The astronauts turned the systems back on. By the third day in orbit, all was normal again. Then another problem developed with the same fuel cells. The cells created electricity by mixing hydrogen with oxygen. The process also produced some water. But the fuel cells were producing too much water. Containers that held the water were filling up too fast. NASA was worried that the extra water could destroy the power supply needed for the spacecraft's return to Earth. So, Cooper and Conrad again turned off most of the power in the spacecraft. VOICE ONE: Again, the spacecraft floated almost silently above the Earth. Communications were few. Cooper and Conrad could not do any of the planned experiments. But each day, they set another record for surviving in space. Eight days after their launch, Cooper and Conrad fired the control rockets and re-entered the atmosphere. They had circled the Earth one hundred twenty times. They had seen one hundred twenty sunrises and sunsets. They had traveled more than five million kilometers. They had proved that people could live and work in space for the time it would take to get to the moon and back. VOICE TWO: Now, it was time for Gemini Six to make its mark in history. Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford were the astronauts. Schirra had been the pilot on an almost perfect Mercury flight three years before. Stafford was from the second group of American astronauts. They were to make the first effort at a space chase. The two men would chase another object orbiting Earth, a satellite. They would try to move their spacecraft as close as possible to the satellite. This move had to be successful before any moon landing could be attempted. But things did not go as planned. The satellite that Schirra and Stafford were supposed to chase apparently exploded after it was launched. NASA postponed the flight of Gemini Six. VOICE ONE: Space agency officials had to find the reason for the failure of the target satellite. That would take valuable time. So, they decided to launch the next flight, Gemini Seven, instead of waiting. The astronauts for that flight were Frank Borman and James Lovell. They planned to set another record -- fourteen days in space. It would be the longest, most difficult flight yet. Then NASA considered another plan. There was nothing wrong with the Gemini Six spacecraft. So, NASA announced that Gemini Seven would lift off on December third, nineteen sixty-five. Then, if everything else was ready, Gemini Six would be launched a few days later. It would attempt to meet in space with the orbiting Gemini Seven. VOICE TWO: NASA quickly added a warning to its plan. There was less than a fifty percent chance of success. But Americans were hopeful. If the plan succeeded, it would be the greatest space act since manned flights began. We will continue our story of America's Gemini space program next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study in Ferrets Shows H5N1 Virus Does Not Spread Easily
* Byline: Caty Weaver

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In recent days there have been two seemingly hopeful pieces of news about bird flu. One involves a study by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. They combined a human influenza virus with the deadly H-five-N-one form of avian influenza. Ferrets react to flu viruses in ways similar to humans.The researchers wanted to see if this combination virus, or hybrid, would spread easily among laboratory animals. They injected the virus into ferrets. These animals easily catch and spread human flu. But they do not easily catch the H-five-N-one virus -- which so far is also true of humans. In the study, as expected, human flu viruses spread easily among the ferrets. But the researchers say the hybrid virus did not spread easily. They even passed a hybrid virus through a series of ferrets. But that did not result in genetic changes that would make the virus more aggressive. One way for an animal virus to become able to pass easily from person to person is to combine with a human virus. Scientists say hybrids led to the flu pandemics of nineteen fifty-seven and sixty-eight. But they believe the so-called Spanish flu of nineteen eighteen might have jumped directly from birds to humans after some genetic changes. Julie Gerberding is director of the Centers for Disease Control. She says the new findings do not mean the H-five-N-one virus cannot change into a form easily passed between people. She says the findings suggest only that such a process is not simple. The research appeared this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Since two thousand three, the World Health Organization has recorded more than two hundred thirty human cases of the H-five-N-one virus. Almost sixty percent of those people have died. Last week GlaxoSmithKline said it was hopeful about tests of a vaccine to protect against the virus. The British drug maker tested it in four hundred adults in Belgium. GlaxoSmithKline says the vaccine requires only a very small amount of adjuvant, so?the company could produce larger supplies. An adjuvant is a substance that helps a vaccine work better in the body. GlaxoSmithKline says it could have the vaccine ready as early as next year. The company would need approval from governments. And the vaccine might be of little use if a different virus causes the next pandemic. And that’s the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Listening to the Sound of Words for Subtle Clues to Their Meaning
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: sensing the meaning of words from their sound. A study in next week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the connection. RS: Researchers studied the sound, or phonology, of more than three thousand nouns and verbs. Then they analyzed how typical these sounds are in relation to one another. AA: For the findings, we sounded out one of the authors at Cornell University, Morten Christiansen. MORTEN CHRISTIANSEN: "There is a standard case of onomatopoeia [AH-noh-mah-toh-PEE-uh] where, you know, when you hear the word 'buzz,' it sort of very directly indicates what that word means. But in general the relationship between the sound of a word and what it refers to or what it means is sort of more arbitrary. But what we have found is that there is actually some information in the words themselves that can tell you whether the word is a noun or a verb, and that's something that people are sensitive to." RS: "How did you test this?" MORTEN CHRISTIANSEN: "We had people reading sentences on a computer screen, word by word, so one word at a time. And essentially they're just looking at a screen, they press the space bar and then a word will come up on the screen, and then another word when they press the space bar next. And we measure how long it takes them to read each word. "And what we found was that when people are reading the nouns that were typical -- in terms of what they sound like -- of other nouns, then people would read these words faster than if you had a word, say a noun, that was more actually verb-like in what it sounds like." AA: "I'm curious, is there an application to -- one thing that comes to mind would be maybe technical writing, instructions. If you were writing instructions and you wanted people to read them as quickly as possible, maybe in a?case of an emergency, you would choose -- what advice, you know, might you have in terms of choice of nouns or verbs or things like that?" MORTEN CHRISTIANSEN: "I actually haven't thought about it, but it's actually a very good idea, I think. Certainly you could potentially make a certain set of instructions more easily to comprehend, at least allow people to comprehend them faster, if you could potentially find nouns and verbs and the same would go for other kinds of words such as adjectives ... " AA: "That are common? Maybe you have some examples?" MORTEN CHRISTIANSEN: "Well, it's not just common, but it's something about the typicality of the words themselves. Now I can give you examples but unfortunately this kind of typicality is very subtle. So I can say 'marble,' for instance, is a very typical noun in terms of its phonology whereas 'insect' is not. But if you just hear the two words, you're not really going to be sort of able to pick out which one is which. But, nonetheless, if you were to read this word on an experiment, you would read marble faster than you read insect." RS: "Now does this have applications, could this be applied to learning of English as a foreign or second language?" MORTEN CHRISTIANSEN: "Well, actually we have a study that [is] currently being, in the process of being written up, where what we did was that we created new words, words that don't exist in English. So these are called non-words. And then we gave them to six- and seven- and eight-year-old kids and we asked them to essentially listen to one of these words. And then they would see two pictures, one of an action such as somebody throwing something or a picture of an object which could sort of be any object, such as a house or something. And we asked them to point to which one they thought the word referred to. Now this was done in the context of, we had a little puppet that was speaking a foreign language and they had to figure out what the puppet was trying to tell them." AA: "And how did it turn out?" MORTEN CHRISTIANSEN: "Well, it turned out that these six-, seven- and eight-year-olds were actually sensitive to what we call phonological typicality. That is, that there's something about the sounds of words that are typical of whether they are a noun or a verb. And they're sensitive to this such that, in particular for verb-like non-words, they were much more likely to choose the picture of the action than of the object." RS: Morten Christiansen is a psychology professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He concedes that the concept of "phonological typicality" may seem a little abstract. But he hopes this research will lead to a better understanding of how children and adults acquire language with the help of certain cues, like sound. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. If you're an English learner, or just interested in language, then visit our Web site?at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Fulbright Exchange Program Turns 60
* Byline: Nancy Steinbach

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week is the sixtieth anniversary of the Fulbright Program of international educational exchanges. On August first, nineteen forty-six, President Harry Truman signed legislation to create the program. Fulbright grants are given to graduate students, to scholars and professionals, and to teachers and administrators. Today about six thousand people each year receive grants. People come to the United States to study or teach, while Americans go to other countries. The Fulbright program operates in about one hundred fifty countries. Around two hundred seventy-five thousand people have taken part over the years. Some have gone on to become Nobel Prize winners and leaders in areas like business, technology and politics. Those who take part in the program are called Fulbright scholars or "Fulbrighters."? They receive money for travel, education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United States government and by foreign governments and private groups. Thomas Farrell is a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department which supervises the program. He says that right now the number of American students who want to spend a year as a Fulbright scholar is at the highest point ever. And, he says, so is the number of Fulbright scholarships they are being awarded. The number is close to one thousand two hundred a year. In nineteen forty-six? of Arkansas proposed the legislation to create the program. At that time, just after World War Two, he saw the idea as a way to improve world understanding. Senator Fulbright thought exchanges would help people better understand other ways of life as well as their own. He believed the program could educate future world leaders. You can learn more about the program online from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. We have a link to the Web site at voaspecialenglish.com, where you can also download archives of our reports and listen online. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. A program note -- in September we will begin our Foreign Student Series. This is information about how to attend school in the United States. So please send us your questions. Write to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer mail personally, but we might answer your question during our series. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Great Depression: Fear Took Hold as an Economy Came Apart
* Byline: David Jarmul

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine marked the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. Millions of people lost their jobs. Thousands lost their homes. During the next several years, a large part of the richest nation on earth learned what it meant to be poor. Hard times found their way into every area, group, and job. Workers struggled as factories closed. Farmers, hit with falling prices and natural disasters, were forced to give up their farms. Businessmen lost their stores and sometimes their homes. It was a severe economic crisis -- a depression. VOICE TWO: Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, one of America's greatest writers, described the depression this way: "It was a terrible, troubled time. I can't think of any ten years in history when so much happened in so many directions. Violent change took place. Our country was shaped, our lives changed, our government rebuilt." Said John Steinbeck: "When the stock market fell, the factories, mines, and steelworks closed. And then no one could buy anything. Not even food." VOICE ONE: An unemployed auto worker in the manufacturing city of Detroit described the situation this way: "Before daylight, we were on the way to the Chevrolet factory to look for work. The police were already there, waving us away from the office. They were saying, 'Nothing doing! No jobs! No jobs!' So now we were walking slowly through the falling snow to the employment office for the Dodge auto company. A big, well-fed man in a heavy overcoat stood at the door. 'No! No!' he said. There was no work." One Texas farmer lost his farm and moved his family to California to look for work. "We can't send the children to school," he said, "because they have no clothes." VOICE TWO: The economic crisis began with the stock market crash in October, nineteen twenty-nine. For the first year, the economy fell very slowly. But it dropped sharply in nineteen thirty-one and nineteen thirty-two. And by the end of nineteen thirty-two, the economy collapsed almost completely. The gross national product is the total of all goods and services produced. During the three years following the stock market crash, the American gross national product dropped by almost half. The wealth of the average American dropped to a level lower than it had been twenty-five years earlier. All the gains of the?nineteen twenties were washed away. Unemployment rose sharply. The number of workers looking for a job jumped from three percent to more than twenty-five percent in just four years. One of every three or four workers was looking for a job in nineteen thirty-two. VOICE ONE: Those employment numbers did not include farmers. The men and women who grew the nation's food suffered terribly during the Great Depression. This was especially true in the southwestern states of Oklahoma and Texas. Farmers there were losing money because of falling prices for their crops. Then natural disaster struck. Year after year, little or no rain fell. The ground dried up. And then the wind blew away the earth in huge clouds of dust. "All that dust made some of the farmers leave," one Oklahoma farmer remembered later. "But my family stayed. We fought to live. Despite all the dust and the wind, we were planting seeds. But we got no crops. We had five crop failures in five years." VOICE TWO: Falling production. Rising unemployment. Men begging in the streets. But there was more to the Great Depression. At that time, the federal government did not guarantee the money that people put in banks. When people could not repay loans, banks began to close. In nineteen twenty-nine, six hundred fifty-nine banks with total holdings of two hundred million dollars went out of business. The next year, two times that number failed. And the year after that, almost twice that number of banks went out of business. Millions of persons lost all their savings. They had no money left. VOICE ONE: The depression caused serious public health problems. Hospitals across the country were filled with sick people whose main illness was a lack of food. The health department in New York City found that one of every five of the city's children did not get enough food. Ninety-nine percent of the children attending a school in a coal-mining area reportedly were underweight. In some places, people died of hunger. The quality of housing also fell. Families were forced to crowd into small houses or apartments to share costs. Many people had no homes at all. They slept on public streets, buses, or trains. One official in Chicago reported in nineteen thirty-one that several hundred women without homes were sleeping in city parks. In a number of cities, people without homes built their houses from whatever materials they could find. They used empty boxes or pieces of metal to build shelters in open areas. VOICE TWO: People called these areas of little temporary houses "Hoovervilles." They blamed President Hoover for their situation. So, too, did the men forced to sleep in public parks at night. They covered themselves with pieces of paper. And they called the paper "Hoover blankets." People without money in their pants called their empty pockets "Hoover flags." People blamed President Hoover because they thought he was not doing enough to help them. Hoover did take several actions to try to improve the economy. But he resisted proposals for the federal government to provide aid in a major way. And he refused to let the government spend more money than it earned. Hoover told the nation: "Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive decision." Many conservative Americans agreed with him. But not the millions of Americans who were hungry and tired of looking for a job. They accused Hoover of not caring about the common citizen. One congressman from Alabama said: "In the White House, we have a man more interested in the money of the rich than in the stomachs of the poor." VOICE ONE: On and on the Great Depression continued. Of course, some Americans were lucky. They kept their jobs. And they had enough money to enjoy the lower prices of most goods. Many people shared their earnings with friends in need. "We joined our money when we had some," remembered John Steinbeck. "It seems strange to say that we rarely had a job," Steinbeck wrote years later. "There just weren't any jobs. But we didn't have to steal much. Farmers and fruit growers in the nearby countryside could not sell their crops. They gave us all the food and fruit we could carry home. VOICE TWO: Other Americans reacted to the crisis by leading protests against the economic policies of the Hoover administration. In nineteen thirty-two, a large group of former soldiers gathered in Washington to demand help. More than eight-thousand of them built the nation's largest Hooverville near the White House. Federal troops finally removed them by force and burned their little shelters. Next week, we will look at how the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties affected other countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: YouTube Finds Success | Pets in America | R&B Music Awards
* Byline: Erin Schiavone, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about animals Americans keep as pets … Play some award winning rhythm and blues music … And report about a popular Internet site that shows videos. YouTube HOST: YouTube is a very popular Web site on the Internet. People can make their own short videos and place them on YouTube. Anyone around the world can watch the videos online. Mario Ritter has more. MARIO RITTER: Chad Hurley and Steve Chen created YouTube last year. The two young men had made a video at their friend’s party. They wanted to share the recording with other friends online. But they could not find a good Web site to put the video on. So they decided to create a Web site where friends can share videos. Mister Hurley and Mister Chen are both younger than thirty. Both young men had experience working for another Web site. Their creation, YouTube, started small and became very popular. YouTube says that people watch one hundred million videos on the site every day. Users post about sixty thousand videos on YouTube each day. Fifty million videos are on the Web site at any one time. There are many different kinds of videos on YouTube. Most of the videos are made by young people under the age of thirty. Most are only a few minutes long. Some of the videos are funny. They show people singing, or dancing. They show cats doing funny things. Some videos make fun of politicians. Other videos are more serious. American soldiers post videos from the war in Iraq. Recently, people in Israel and Lebanon have posted hundreds of videos of the conflict taking place there. People can also watch commercial videos on YouTube. These include music videos, interviews from television programs and scenes from new movies. Anyone can put a video on YouTube. But YouTube cannot show some programs because of copyright protection laws. These laws do not permit YouTube to show television programs without the permission of the television networks. The employees of YouTube work hard to honor these laws. They also remove violent or sexual videos from the Web site. YouTube is the most popular video Web site, especially among young people. As a result, commercial television stations and film studios want to show their programs on YouTube. You can see what it’s all about at YouTube.com. Americans and Their Pets HOST: This week’s listener question comes from Iran. Mansour Karami asks about the popularity of keeping animals as pets in the United States. Pets live in more than sixty-nine million American homes. That is about sixty-three percent of all American homes. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association did a study of pet owners this year. It said American families have about ninety million cats and seventy-three million dogs. Americans keep one hundred forty-eight million fish and sixteen million birds. They keep eighteen million other small animals like rabbits, hamsters and gerbils. Americans have eleven million reptiles – animals like iguanas, salamanders and snakes, even poisonous snakes. Other more unusual animals also are gaining popularity as pets. They include pot-bellied pigs, llamas, rare birds, hedgehogs and goats. Yes, I said goats. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association says Americans are expected to spend more than thirty-eight thousand million dollars this year on their pets. People buy specially prepared food costing a total of more than fifteen thousand million dollars a year. They buy pet supplies, toys and clothing like little sweaters. They buy jewelry and clothes for themselves with images of their animals on them. For example, many people – including adults – wear T-shirts showing cats or dogs. Americans spend more than nine thousand million dollars a year for their pets’ health care. They take their pets to doctors for animals called veterinarians. The pets get vaccine medicines to protect them against diseases. The veterinarians also care for illnesses and broken bones. And they neuter animals to prevent them from reproducing. Some owners even bury their dead pets in special burial grounds. The pet dog of a woman who lives in Maryland recently died of old age. The woman missed him so much that within a few weeks, she took in another animal. Her new dog, Toby, was homeless for a while after getting lost in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana last year. She says Toby seems happy now, although he acts frightened during storms. She says, “I think we both needed each other.” Rhythm and Blues Foundation Awards HOST: The Rhythm and Blues Foundation recently presented its Pioneer Awards at a ceremony in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The organization honors great rhythm and blues performers. It also seeks to continue the influence of rhythm and blues music. The Rhythm and Blues Foundation has honored more than one hundred fifty artists since nineteen eighty-eight. Faith Lapidus tells us about some of the award winners this year. FAITH LAPIDUS: The winner of the Foundation’s Legacy Award was singer Otis Redding. The Foundation says his work is an outstanding example of “southern soul” music. e recorded what may have been his biggest hitH Perhaps his biggest hit song was this one, “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay”: (MUSIC) Another Rhythm and Blues Foundation Award winner was The DelFonics. This group won the Performance Group Award. The three group members grew up in Philadelphia. They were one of the first groups to sing what became known as “The Philly Soul Sound.”? Here they sing their hit,? “La La Means I Love You.” (MUSIC) The winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award was record company official Berry Gordy. Gordy started Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. He? discovered many popular recording artists, including The Four Tops, The Supremes and this group, The Temptations. We leave you now with one of their biggest hits, “My Girl.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Erin Schiavone, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Foundations and the Estate Tax
* Byline: Mario Ritter

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Now, our third and final report on foundations, what they are and what they do. In the United States, education gets the most foundation dollars -- about twenty-five percent. Next is health, then programs known as human services. Money also goes to the arts and many other causes. In the past, wealthy Americans who started foundations often did not want much control over how gifts to charity were spent. Times have changed. Steven Lawrence at the Foundation Center says donor-advised funds have grown quickly since the early nineteen nineties. These funds are large gifts from individuals, usually to community foundations. The foundation agrees to spend the money as directed by the donor. Donor-advised funds have fewer restrictions than independent foundations, cost less to operate and can mean greater tax savings. One big reason wealthy people form foundations is the estate tax. This is a tax on large gifts of wealth to family members after a person dies. Opponents call it the "death tax."? Right now the top rate is forty-six percent on estates worth more than two million dollars. It will rise in five years to fifty-five percent on estates worth more than one million dollars, unless Congress changes the law. The House last Saturday agreed to reduce the estate tax. At the same time, the bill would raise the federal minimum wage for people in low-paying jobs. Republican leaders want to keep these two actions combined. But on Thursday Democrats blocked a Senate version of the bill. Congress is now away for a month. Supporters of the estate tax include Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Recently Mister Buffett announced he is giving most of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Some people noted that by giving his money to charity, he will avoid the tax he supports for others. But supporters of charitable giving hope other rich people will follow his example. Supporters of the estate tax say it increases charitable giving and helps pay for needed services. Opponents say the tax is unfair. They also point out that it can drive wealth to foundations that are set up mainly as tax shelters. Foundations do not have to pay many kinds of taxes. And they can choose to give away only the smallest amounts required by law. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. For our earlier reports on foundations, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Citizens of War-Torn Congo Await the Outcome of Historic Elections
* Byline: Jerilyn Watson

 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo had to wait a long time for the elections last Sunday. It was the first time in almost a half-century that there were candidates from more than one party. Great numbers of people voted in the presidential and legislative elections. But a slow start to counting votes means another wait. Early reports suggested that President Joseph Kabila faced his strongest competition from Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba. More than thirty presidential candidates were on the ballot. If no one gets fifty percent of the vote, citizens will choose between the two top candidates in October. President Kabila heads a large coalition of parties. Mister Bemba is a former leader of a rebel force. Several human rights groups have accused him of major violations. He is one of four vice presidents in a temporary government of national unity. Almost ten thousand candidates competed for the five hundred seats in the national legislature. Thousands more ran for local legislatures. Final results are not expected for about three weeks. The United Nations helped organize the elections. U.N. peacekeeping troops and a force from Gabon assisted with security. The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire, is a huge country in Central Africa with sixty million people. The U.N. Security Council praised the millions who, it said, took part "freely and peacefully, in democratic elections of historical importance for their nation."? It also appealed to the Congolese people "to receive the results with the same spirit of civic responsibility." Most foreign observers were satisfied with the voting process. But several presidential candidates say there was cheating. They include former rebel leader Azarias Ruberwa. He was supported by Rwanda during the years of civil war in which almost four million people died in Congo. A number of nations took part in the fighting between nineteen ninety-six and two thousand two. The main opposition party, led by Etienne Tshisekedi, boycotted the elections. Some local election officials accused his supporters of setting fire to election centers and voting materials in a diamond-mining city. Mister Tshisekedi became active in politics in nineteen sixty. That was the year Congo won independence from Belgium. In nineteen ninety-seven Laurent Kabila, father of the current president, ousted the longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Joseph Kabila became president after his father was killed at his palace in two thousand one. Supporters say Joseph Kabila united the rebels to help end the war. Critics say he should not lead Congo because he was not born there -- something he denies. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written this week by Jerilyn Watson. You can read transcripts of our shows and listen online at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Woody Guthrie: Singing About the Lives of 'Dust Bowl Refugees'
* Byline: Shelley Gollust

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we begin a two-part story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. He wrote songs about common people and social issues in the nineteen thirties. His music influenced many people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Imagine you are in America in the nineteen thirties. A train passes through the countryside. It is night time. And the only sound that can be heard is the long, lonely whistle coming from the train’s engine. Inside the train’s boxcars are groups of men sitting or lying on the floors. The men are dirty and their clothing is torn. In one boxcar, a short man with long, curly brown hair is playing a guitar and singing. His name is Woody Guthrie. He is singing a song about men who look for work as they travel from town to town. (MUSIC: "I Ain't Got No Home") VOICE TWO: Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in nineteen twelve in the American state of Oklahoma. The Guthrie family lived in a small farming town called Okemah. Woody’s father, Charles, was a businessman who bought and sold land. Woody’s mother, Nora, was a school teacher. She also liked to play the piano and sing. When Woody was young, his mother sang him songs she had learned as a girl. These songs told stories about love and death and difficult times. VOICE ONE: Woody’s early years were happy ones. But his life began to change when he was only ten years old. One day, his sister, Clara, spilled oil on her dress and accidentally set herself on fire. She died the next day. Woody never forgot her death. As time passed, Woody’s mother began acting strangely. She lost control over her actions and speech. Many people thought she was insane. Because of this, the Guthrie family became more private as they attempted to hide Nora’s problems. The loss of his daughter and his wife’s suffering ruined Charles Guthrie. He began drinking alcohol. His business soon failed. The Guthrie family left Okemah and lived in several towns in Oklahoma and Texas. Young Woody often had to work instead of attending school because his family was poor. VOICE TWO: The first musical instrument Woody learned to play was the harmonica. He learned to play the harmonica by watching an old man play the instrument. Woody learned how to play the guitar by watching his father’s brother play. In the nineteen twenties, Woody was living in the town of Pampa, Texas. Pampa was known as a “boom town” because it had grown quickly after oil was discovered nearby. On weekends, Woody joined other young men to play music at dances in the town. Years later, Woody described what singing meant to him: “When you sing a song, it reaches out and enters people’s ears. It makes them jump up and down, and sing it with you. The best part about singing is that you can sing what you think. You can tell all kinds of stories in a song, and put your ideas across to another person.” VOICE ONE: Woody liked to communicate with other people through his music. Yet he did not like to say much about himself. One reason for this was that he did not want people to know that his mother was in a hospital for insane people. Nora Guthrie suffered from Huntington’s Chorea, a disease that destroys the brain and nervous system. Woody knew that someday he also might develop the disease. He was seventeen years old when his mother died, in nineteen twenty-nine. That was the year when the economy of the United States began to slow down. Over the next several years, many Americans lost their jobs. The period became known as the Great Depression. In Pampa, the oil fields dried up. Farms in many areas failed because little or no rain fell for several years. The land became so dry that wind easily blew away the top soil. These areas of Texas, Oklahoma and other states became known as the Dust Bowl. VOICE TWO: Like many other people, Woody Guthrie left Pampa to travel around Texas and the Southwest looking for work. He often made trips by train. But because he had no money, he would jump on the train’s boxcars and ride for free. This was often dangerous, because guards on the train would throw the men off or arrest them. However, Woody found this life exciting. One of the first songs he wrote was about leaving home and fleeing the Dust Bowl. (MUSIC: "So Long, It’s Been Good to?Know You") VOICE ONE: Woody Guthrie married Mary Jennings in nineteen thirty-three. They had three children. Three years later, Woody left his family and traveled to California. He met many kinds of people during his travels. He also learned songs from many different parts of the country. Yet what affected him most was the suffering he saw. He said: “When I saw hard-working people suffering under debts, sickness and worries, I knew there was plenty to make up songs about.” VOICE TWO: In California, Woody earned money by playing his guitar and singing. Later, he began performing on a radio program with a friend, Maxine Crissman. She was called Lefty Lou. They had one of the most popular radio programs in Los Angeles. They sang songs Woody had written about social issues. His best songs were about the troubles Americans faced during the Depression. This song is about the dangers of coal mining. It is called “The Dying Miner.” (MUSIC: "The Dying Miner") VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-eight, Woody Guthrie left the radio program to travel around California. He found that conditions had become worse for many people who had lost their land and fled the Dust Bowl. Most of these “Dust Bowl refugees” could only find seasonal farm work like gathering fruit from trees. Farm owners did not pay these workers much money. The workers lived in camps that were often dirty and had no running water. Hunger and sickness were widespread. The people in the camps seemed to have lost all hope of improving their lives. Woody wrote a song about them called “Dust Bowl Refugees.” (MUSIC: "Dust Bowl Refugees") VOICE TWO: The oppression and bad conditions in the workers’ camps made Woody Guthrie angry. He began helping labor organizers establish unions to help the workers. Next week, we tell about how he traveled to New York City and became a well-known musician. (MUSIC: "This Land Is Your Land") VOICE ONE:? This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO:? And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Let's Do Business:? I Made a Sweetheart Deal Last Week
* Byline: Jill Moss

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. There are many special terms in the world of business. ??????? The following story is about a sweetheart deal which I made last week. I made the deal with a friend, and we both made a profit. I had started a small company several years ago. I worked hard to make it successful. It was a sign-making business. It was a small compay, not a blue chip company. It was not known nationally for the quality of its signs. It did not make millions of dollars in profits. And it was private. It was not a public company with shares traded on the stock market. Still, I worked hard building up my business. I did not work only a few hours each day -- no banker’s hours for me. Instead I spent many hours each day, seven days a week, trying to grow the company. ?I never cut corners or tried to save on expenses. I made many cold calls. I called on possible buyers from a list of people I had never seen. Such calls were often hard sells. I had to be very firm. Sometimes I sold my signs at a loss. I did not make money on my product. When this happened, there were cut backs. I had to use fewer supplies and reduce the number of workers. But after several years, the company broke even. Profits were equal to expenses. And soon after, I began to gain ground. My signs were selling very quickly. They were selling like hotcakes. I was happy. The company was moving forward and making real progress. It was in the black, not in the red. The company was making money, not losing it. My friend knew about my business. He is a leader in the sign-making industry – a real big gun, if you know what I mean. He offered to buy my company. My friend wanted to take it public. He wanted to sell shares in the company to the general public. My friend believed it was best to strike while the iron is hot. He wanted to take action at the best time possible and not wait. He offered me a ball park estimate of the amount he would pay to buy my company. But I knew his uneducated guess was low. My company was worth much more. He asked his bean-counter to crunch the numbers. That is, he asked his accountant to take a close look at the finances of my company and decide how much it was worth. Then my friend increased his offer. My friend’s official offer was finally given to me in black and white. It was written on paper and more than I ever dreamed. I was finally able to get a break. I made a huge profit on my company, and my friend also got a bang for the buck. He got a successful business for the money he spent. (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-06-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Take Me Out to the Ball Game, for Hits of the Musical Sort
* Byline: Shelley Gollust

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. For sports fans, August means different things. For those who follow American football, August is traditionally when players begin training. For tennis lovers, the United States Open begins on August twenty-eighth in New York City. For basketball fans -- well, they have a little time. The National Basketball Association just released its full list of games for the coming season. Opening night is October thirty-first. Fans of stock car racing just had one of the major events of the NASCAR season, the Allstate Four-Hundred at the Brickyard. So what have we left out? Oh yes, the boys -- and girls -- of summer. Little League baseball. Their World Series is August twenty-seventh in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. As for the major leagues, their World Series is not until October. So we still have time to bring you some music and poetry of America's traditional pastime. Here are Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Baseball expert Warner Fusselle writes that there are probably more than one thousand songs about baseball. The most popular is "Take Me Out to the Ball Game. " It was written in nineteen-oh-eight by Jack Norworth. He wrote it after seeing a sign about baseball in an underground train in New York City. His friend, Albert Von Tilzer, put the words to music. Mister Norworth reportedly had never seen a Major League Baseball game. He did not see one until thirty-three years after he wrote the song. VOICE THREE:? People still sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during baseball games. Near the end of the game, people become tired of sitting on the hard seats. So, during a special time in the game, everyone stands up and stretches their arms and legs. This tradition is called "the seventh inning stretch. " Everyone sings a song together. Most often, it is "Take Me Out to the Ball Game. " Here, it is sung by the National Pastime Orchestra and singers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Baseball expert Richard Miller writes that many songs about other subjects -- such as love -- use words and expressions from baseball. For example, in a song written in nineteen twelve, a woman tells her boyfriend that she will not like him unless he is a good baseball player. The song is called "If You Can't Make a Hit in a Ball Game, You Can't Make a Hit with Me. "? VOICE THREE:? In nineteen forty-three, George Moriarty wrote a song designed to support American forces fighting in World War Two. Mister Moriarty was a former baseball player and manager for the Detroit Tigers team. His song is called "You're Gonna Win That Ball Game, Uncle Sam. " It is performed here by the National Pastime Orchestra and singers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Many songs have been written about America's baseball teams. These include the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Chicago Cubs. Other songs have been written about famous baseball players: Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Joe DiMaggio. Some people think Joe DiMaggio was the greatest player in the history of baseball. He hit safely in a record fifty-six games in a row for the New York Yankees in nineteen forty-one. This record never has been broken. That same year, Les Brown and his band recorded the song "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio." Betty Bonney sings about the way DiMaggio hit the ball very, very hard -- how he jolted it. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE:? In nineteen fifty-five, a popular musical play about baseball opened on Broadway in New York. It was called "Damn Yankees. " It was about a middle-aged man who gets a chance to play baseball for his team, the Washington Senators. He plays against the best team in baseball, the New York Yankees. The Senators are not a very good team. Their manager wants them to play better. He urges them to play with all the feeling that is in their hearts. Here the cast of "Damn Yankees" sings "You Gotta Have Heart. "? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? In addition to the many songs written about baseball, there is a famous poem about the game, too. It is called "Casey at the Bat. " A young man named Ernest Thayer wrote the poem in eighteen eighty-eight. It was published in the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. The poem still is popular today. "Casey at the Bat" is about a baseball team from a town called Mudville. The team is losing an important game. The game is almost over. Mudville is depending on its best player, Casey, to win the game. VOICE ONE: The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play.And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The restClung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;They thought if only Casey could get but a whack at that --We'd put up even money now with Casey at the bat. VOICE THREE:? To the surprise of the crowd, two players hit the ball well. They reach second and third base. They are ready to score. Then it is Casey's turn at bat. He can win the game if he hits the ball hard enough so that he and the other players can cross home plate. That will give their team more points than their opponent. VOICE ONE: There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat. Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,Defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip. VOICE THREE:? The opposing pitcher throws the ball. But Casey does not try to hit it. The pitcher throws the ball again. Again, Casey does not try to hit it. There are now two strikes against him. One more strike and he will be out. The game will be over. Will Casey finally hit the ball? Will he win the game? The crowd is sure he will. VOICE ONE:? The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow. Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;But there is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Casey has struck out. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and read by Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. I'm Barbara Klein. You can download archives of our shows and listen online at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Better Control of TB Seen If a Faster Cure Is Found
* Byline: Jill Moss

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of all people are infected with bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Most times, the infection remains inactive. But each year about eight million people develop active cases of TB, usually in their lungs. Two million people die from it. The disease has increased with the spread of AIDS and drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. Current treatments take at least six months. People have to take a combination of several antibiotic drugs daily. But many people stop as soon as they feel better. Doing that can lead to an infection that resists treatment. Public health experts agree that a faster-acting cure for tuberculosis would be more effective. Now a study estimates just how effective it might be. A professor of international health at Harvard University led the study. Joshua Salomon says a shorter treatment program would likely mean not just more patients cured. It would also mean fewer infectious patients who can pass on their infection to others. The researchers developed a mathematical model to examine the effects of a two-month treatment plan. They tested the model with current TB conditions in Southeast Asia. The scientists found that a two-month treatment could prevent about twenty percent of new cases. And it might prevent about twenty-five percent of TB deaths. The model shows that these reductions would take place between two thousand twelve and two thousand thirty. That is, if a faster cure is developed and in wide use by two thousand twelve. The World Health Organization developed the DOTS program in nineteen ninety. DOTS is Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course. Health workers watch tuberculosis patients take their daily pills to make sure they continue treatment. Earlier this year, an international partnership of organizations announced a plan to expand the DOTS program. The ten-year plan also aims to finance research into new TB drugs. The four most common drugs used now are more than forty years old. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development says its long-term goal is a treatment that could work in as few as ten doses. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. The new study appears in Public Library of Science Medicine. This is an online research publication that can be read for free at p-l-o-s dot o-r-g. And you can read transcripts of our reports and listen online at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More Fish, Less Tobacco Could Lower Risk of Blindness in Older People
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week -- research into eating fish as a possible way to help save eyesight in older people. VOICE ONE: A study says moderate coffee drinking may reduce the risk of some diseases. VOICE TWO: Muhammad Ali enters the snack food business, but the aim is to help overweight young people. VOICE ONE: And if you are listening to us on a personal computer, get ready to wish the P.C. a happy birthday on Saturday. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Two studies are suggesting ways to reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration. A.M.D. is the main cause of blindness among older adults. It affects the macula, the part of the eye that lets you see in detail. The disease makes seeing less and less clear and in time leads to blindness. One study found that cigarette smokers were almost two times as likely to develop A.M.D. as people who did not smoke. Researchers with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary organized the study. Their findings appeared in the Archives of Ophthalmology. The study involved men with twin brothers, almost seven hundred individuals. The average age was about seventy-five. The men were asked questions about their diet and history of cigarette smoking, alcohol use and physical activity. Some of the men already had age-related macular degeneration. The study found that the men who ate more fish, even those who smoked cigarettes, were less likely to develop A.M.D. Those who ate more than two meals a week containing fish were the least likely to develop the disease. VOICE ONE: A second study produced similar results. It found that people who ate at least one meal containing fish each week were forty-percent less likely to develop A.M.D. Researchers with the University of Sydney in Australia studied information on almost three thousand people. Each person was forty-nine years of age or older. They were asked about their diet and medical history, and then tested for the disease after five years. The results of both studies have not yet been confirmed. But they do show a possible link between eating fish and prevention of age-related macular degeneration. Researchers say the best fish to eat are those high in omega-three fatty acids, like salmon and mackerel. Some people take fish oil supplements or eat foods, like flax seeds and walnuts, that also have them. (MUSIC) ? VOICE TWO: Many people drink coffee to quickly increase their energy levels. Researchers from Norway and the United States say there may be another reason to drink coffee. They found that drinking moderate amounts of coffee each day may help protect against some health problems, including heart disease. The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. David Jacobs of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis worked on the study with researchers from the University of Oslo. He says the findings suggest there may be health reasons for drinking coffee. The researchers studied the link between coffee drinking and risk of death from heart disease, cancer and other diseases that involve inflammation of tissue. VOICE ONE: The researchers used information about nearly forty-two thousand women. The women were between fifty-five and sixty-nine years of age when they entered the study. ? The researchers removed some of the women from consideration because of their condition. Those removed already had heart disease, cancer, diabetes, colitis or liver cirrhosis. As a result, the number of women studied dropped to twenty-seven thousand three hundred. During a fifteen-year period, almost four thousand three hundred of them died. VOICE TWO: The researchers found a link between the amount of coffee the women reported drinking and their risk of dying from heart disease. Coffee drinking was measured in cups. One cup is equal to about two hundred twenty-five grams. There was a reduced risk of death from heart disease among women who drank from one to three cups of coffee each day. A reduction in the risk of death from other inflammatory diseases was also seen. Professor Jacobs says this risk reduction did not decrease among women who drank more coffee. But the risk reduction for death from heart disease did decrease in women who drank more than three cups a day. The professor told Reuters Health he would like to see other studies done before making a "very strong statement" in support of coffee drinking. The researchers say antioxidants in coffee might reduce the risk of heart disease. Earlier studies found that coffee has high levels of antioxidants. Antioxidants have been shown to help prevent cancer, heart disease and other conditions. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali has started a company that will make healthy food products for young people to eat and drink between meals. The goal is to help young people who are overweight. ? The foods and drinks will contain no more than one hundred fifty calories each. They will contain added vitamins and fiber.The long-established food company, Mars Incorporated, will help develop the products. Mister Ali’s new company is called GOAT Food and Beverage. The name comes from the beginning letters of words used to describe the former boxer -- “Greatest of All Time.” Early next year, some stores will introduce the snack foods, which will be shaped like equipment used in boxing. A company official said the new foods are meant for people ages sixteen to twenty-four who often eat between meals. The idea is for young people to eat the healthy snacks several times a day instead of high-calorie, high-fat foods. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says more than fifteen percent of American children and young people weigh too much. Many experts say this is partly because they eat and drink too many foods that are high in calories, fat and sugar. Doctors say that extreme overweight in young people can have serious results. Being too fat can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes and liver disease. Some observers praised the idea of Mister Ali’s new snack foods. But others said people might not buy them. They said people often do not buy food described as healthy because they do not believe it will taste good. Other critics said young people might eat too much of the low calorie food. Mister Ali became concerned about overweight children after his son, Sadi, struggled with weight problems. Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champion of the world three times. Now he is sixty-four years old. He suffers from Parkinson’s syndrome. Mister Ali says he wants to pass on the values that made him a champion to the next group of champions. He believes that better nutrition can help young people be the best they can be. (MUSIC BRIDGE) ? VOICE ONE: Last week we discussed the fiftieth anniversary of an important event in the history of computing. It was the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. Now we have another computer-related anniversary to mark. In New York, on August twelfth, nineteen eighty-one, the International Business Machines company announced a new product. It was the IBM Personal Computer. That machine was the first P.C. to become a success on the market. Personal computers have done a lot in twenty-five years. But, by now, the traditional P.C. is considered old technology. Listen next week for more on the past, present and future of computing. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis and Jerilyn Watson. Mario Ritter was the producer. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. If you have a question about science that we might be able to answer on our show, send it to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: High-Priced Oil Raises Appeal of Biofuels
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. As oil prices climb, so does interest in fuels made from agricultural products. Many farmers hope biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel will expand their markets. Government support has helped to make a few renewable fuels profitable. Much of this support is in the form of lower taxes for producers. In the United States, the American Coalition for Ethanol says Iowa leads the nation in ethanol production. That Midwestern state has twenty-two ethanol refineries. Five more are being built. But there is debate about biofuels in terms of both energy and agricultural policy. Newspaper opinion pages are a good guide to the positions. One side basically argues that ethanol cannot replace the huge amounts of oil that American use. Also, some people say using food crops to make fuel could reduce the food supply. That could mean less to send to other countries in times of hunger. The other side argues that the food supply is secure and that biofuels are good for the economy and good for the environment. Burning petroleum and other fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas blamed as a cause of climate change. Each day, Americans use more than one thousand million liters of gasoline. Biofuels are still a small part of the national market. But it is estimated that as much as one-fifth of this year’s corn crop could be used for ethanol. Ethanol is the most widely used biofuel. The Renewable Fuels Association says American producers now make about two hundred eighty thousand barrels of it a day. This is expected to increase by almost half as new refineries are completed. Making ethanol does not require the whole corn grain. For example, corn oil and corn protein can also be taken from the same grain used to make ethanol. And new technologies are being developed to make ethanol from plant wastes. All current American cars can use a fuel mixture of up to ten percent ethanol. In many places, ethanol is added to gasoline to cut pollution. Biodiesel is usually sold as a mixture of petroleum-based fuel and vegetable or animal fats. Many diesel engines can run without changes on mixtures of up to twenty percent plant or animal oils. The National Biodiesel Board says there were sales last year of more than two hundred eighty million liters of biodiesel. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can read transcripts of our reports and listen online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 1965: Two Gemini Craft Meet in Space, Another Step Toward Moon
* Byline: 

 EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Shirley Griffith and Tony Riggs complete a report about America's second manned space program, Gemini. Its purpose was to bring the United States closer to its goal of landing astronauts on the moon. VOICE ONE: To explore the surface of the moon, astronauts must be able to survive outside the protection of their spacecraft. So an astronaut on the flight of Gemini Four, Ed White, took that first frightening step into the unknown. For more than twenty minutes, he floated outside his spacecraft in the emptiness of space. Astronauts on the next flight, Gemini Five, suffered a number of technical problems. But they were able to survive in space for eight days. Then it was time to launch Gemini Six.Its crew would attempt a move that would be necessary for any landing on the moon.The astronauts would chase another object orbiting Earth. And they would move their spacecraft as close as possible to it. However, the target -- a satellite -- apparently exploded after it was launched. So America's space agency, NASA, said there was?no reason to send up Gemini Six. NASA decided to move ahead with the next flight, Gemini Seven. VOICE TWO: Then NASA considered yet another plan. It would launch Gemini Seven. And, if everything was ready, it would launch Gemini Six a few days later. Gemini Six would chase, and get close to, Gemini Seven instead of a satellite. Astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell were the crew of Gemini Seven. They would make the longest, most difficult flight ever. They would spend fourteen days in their tiny spacecraft. VOICE ONE: Gemini Seven lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Friday, December third, nineteen sixty-five. Workers at the space center examined the launch area. There appeared to be no major damage. The workers quickly moved another huge Titan rocket into place. On top of the rocket sat the Gemini Six spacecraft. NASA announced that Gemini Six would be launched in the early morning of Sunday, December twelfth. The timing would put the two spacecraft in the correct orbit to meet in space. Astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford prepared for their flight. They had waited once in a spacecraft that never left the ground. Their first launch had been cancelled because the target satellite exploded. This time, they hoped, things would be different. VOICE TWO: On that Sunday morning, Schirra and Stafford were again in their tiny Gemini Six spacecraft atop the Titan rocket. Borman and Lovell, in Gemini Seven, speeded across the United States. The countdown at Cape Canaveral reached zero as Gemini Seven passed overhead. Frank Borman's disappointed words from space told the story. "I saw ignition...and then shutdown."? For some reason, the Titan rocket engines had fired as planned. But then they shut themselves off one second later. For several tense minutes, the astronauts of Gemini Six were sitting on top of a highly explosive mass of rocket fuel. Schirra waited with his hand on a special device. If he pulled it, he and Stafford would get away safely. If he did not pull it, and the rocket exploded, they would be killed. With nerves of steel, the astronauts waited. The rocket did not explode. VOICE ONE: Once again, Schirra and Stafford climbed out of Gemini Six. Borman and Lovell continued to circle the Earth. Soon, the public heard the report. A tiny part at the bottom of the rocket had fallen out too early. That tiny part sent a signal to computers that the launch had taken place. The computers immediately shut off the rocket engines. Space agency officials decided to try one more time. They set the launch for three days later. It would be the last chance for Gemini Six to attempt to meet with Gemini Seven in space. If this attempt failed, the United States would suffer a serious delay in its goal to land astronauts on the moon. Borman and Lovell continued to circle the Earth, day after day, as workers hurried to meet the new launch date. They were almost three hundred kilometers high. They were moving at twenty-eight thousand kilometers an hour. VOICE TWO: December fifteenth, nineteen sixty-five.This was it.What could be an impossible effort in the history of space flight was ready to lift off on its final chance for success. For the third time, Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford put on their space clothing. They took their places in the Gemini Six spacecraft. The countdown reached zero just as Frank Borman and James Lovell, in Gemini Seven, passed overhead. This time, with a thundering roar, Gemini Six rose into the air. As it headed into space, a radio announcer said, "This whole nation pushed that one up." VOICE ONE: Now there were four Americans in space. Gemini Six followed Gemini Seven, but in a lower orbit that moved the two spacecraft closer together. Flight controllers on the ground held their breath. Success was near. Yet failure was still very possible. The spacecraft were almost two thousand kilometers apart. They needed to get within six hundred meters of each other. Only then would space agency officials consider the project a complete success. VOICE TWO: Time passed quickly as Schirra moved Gemini Six closer and closer to its target. Gemini Six was now eight kilometers behind, and twenty-four kilometers below, Gemini Seven. Schirra fired a rocket exactly long enough to put his spacecraft in the same orbit. Then radar on each spacecraft noted the other spacecraft. Happily, Schirra sent a radio message to Gemini Seven. "We'll be up shortly," he said. A few minutes later, the astronauts were able to see each others' spacecraft. Success seemed within reach. Only six-and-one-half kilometers separated them. The two spacecraft continued to float together, far out in space. VOICE ONE: They moved closer and closer together as they flew across the Indian Ocean. It was about six hours since the launch of Gemini Six. For a while, there was no communication from space to Earth. The spacecraft were too far from any ground station to send clear messages. Finally, the voice of Thomas Stafford came through the silence of space. "We are thirty-six meters apart and sitting." Thirty-six meters!? That was far better than the six hundred meters space agency officials would have considered a complete success. In fact, the two spacecraft almost touched each other before they separated. Space agency officials now knew that it was possible to join two orbiting spacecraft. The crew on Gemini Six had made the operation seem easy. VOICE TWO: As the American astronauts continued to float through space, they inspected each other and each other's spacecraft. Frank Borman noted happily that after twelve lonely days in space, he and James Lovell finally had company for one night! The next day, Schirra and Stafford completed their flight. Gemini Six landed in the Atlantic Ocean within twenty kilometers of the rescue ship. Gemini Seven continued to speed on. VOICE ONE: On December eighteenth, ground controllers asked Borman and Lovell if they were ready to come home. "Ready!? Ready!" the astronauts answered. Gemini Seven landed as perfectly as Gemini Six. Astronauts Borman and Lovell had been in space more than three hundred thirty hours. They had traveled almost eight million five hundred thousand kilometers. VOICE TWO: The flights of Gemini Six and Gemini Seven greatly increased hope that Americans soon would be able to land on the moon. Schirra and Stafford proved that spaceships could link up while in orbit. Borman and Lovell proved that humans could survive in space for the time needed to get to the moon and back. The distance to the moon suddenly seemed shorter. VOICE ONE: Five more Gemini flights followed. Other spacecraft joined with other targets in space and landed exactly where planned. Astronauts worked for longer periods of time in the hostile environment of space. The Gemini program had reached all its goals. Now, the United States was ready for the next historic jump into space. ?It would be Project Apollo. Project Apollo would land men on the moon. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Tony Riggs. I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Indonesia Passes Vietnam as Nation With Most Bird Flu Deaths
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Indonesia passed Vietnam this week as the country with the highest confirmed number of human deaths from bird flu. It happened Monday when a sixteen-year-old boy from West Java died in a hospital in Jakarta. That brought the number of deaths to forty-three. On Tuesday Indonesian officials reported another death. ?They said a girl, also sixteen, died in a hospital west of the capital. Vietnamese officials have reported no cases of bird flu in humans so far this year. Vietnam has had forty-two confirmed deaths from the H-five-N-one virus. There are concerns that people illegally bringing chickens and other poultry into Vietnam could undo measures taken to control the virus. But Indonesia is of special concern because that country has had a number of human cases close together. In all, Indonesia has had almost one hundred sixty cases of bird flu in humans. All have been reported since last year. Last week, Indonesia agreed to make public the genetic information of the H-five-N-one viruses that have killed Indonesians. The World Health Organization received permission to share the genetic sequences with non-W.H.O. scientists and laboratories. Scientists are studying the virus as it spreads. They are watching for any genetic changes that might let it pass easily between people. The deaths in Indonesia and Vietnam represent, together, more than sixty percent of all deaths from bird flu. There have been about one hundred forty deaths out of around two hundred forty cases since late two thousand three. Thai officials at a chicken farm in Nakhon Phanom provinceThailand has reported two deaths from bird flu in the last two weeks. These were the first confirmed human cases in Thailand this year. As a result, workers have destroyed hundreds of thousands of farm birds. Thai officials also declared twenty-nine of the seventy-six provinces as bird flu emergency areas. The declaration means the government can provide financial help to farmers whose birds are destroyed. In another development, China confirmed Tuesday that its first human case of bird flu was in two thousand three. That is two years earlier than China had reported. The Health Ministry says it did not know until recently that tests of the man’s blood showed he had the virus. In June, Chinese medical researchers reported the two thousand three case in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. And that’s the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Understanding the Reasons for Grammar, Not Just Learning the Rules
* Byline: 

  RS: Diane Larsen-Freeman is director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. She believes grammar is better understood when people understand the reasons behind the rules. DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "So, for example, there's a rule that says with active verbs you can use the -ing, the present participle, as in 'I am speaking about grammar.' But if you have a stative verb, a so-called stative verb, you can't use the -ing, so you can't say 'I am knowing about grammar.' "Now that's a rule, and it works more or less. But it works less -- the less part comes in when you have verbs that have both active and stative meanings. So a verb like weigh -- w-e-i-g-h -- you can't say 'I am weighing a hundred pounds,' but you can say 'I am weighing the meat at the scale' because it's an action as opposed to a state." AA: "Where you would say 'I weigh a hundred pounds.'" DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "That's right, you say 'I weigh a hundred pounds' but 'I am weighing the meat that I'm going to buy.'" RS: "You can also say 'I weigh the meat.'" DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "You wouldn't say that in the moment. You would say 'I weigh the meat every time to make sure I get the proper portion.' You wouldn't say it in the moment." AA: "Right, it would be for a continual process." DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "That's what the -ing signals. And my point is that the -ing is not incompatible with certain verbs as long as you use the active meaning. But it can help you go beyond. For example, 'want' is a stative verb, so in theory I can't say 'I am wanting a new car' or 'I am wanting a new bicycle.' "However, if I use it with the present perfect progressive -- 'I've been wanting a new bicycle for some time' -- it becomes more acceptable because the -ing suggests a process. And if I use the present perfect progressive, then I'm talking about a span of time, a duration of time. "Or you can even do things like, if there's a change of state -- for example, I can say something like 'I'm loving my English class more and more these days.' And if I go 'more and more,' I've indicated there's a change of state and then the -ing works." RS: "How do you go, as a teacher of English as a foreign or second language, how do you go about teaching these concepts?" DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "Well, you see, if you lecture about reasons, then it becomes very static knowledge, just as if you lecture about rules. I think you have to set up situations where the meaning and the use of these forms is transparent, is clear to learners. "So I'm a firm believer that grammar is not only about structure. In fact, I talk about the three dimensions of grammar. Structure, or form, is one of them. But grammar structures also have a meaning, as we just indicated with the -ing. And they have a use, an appropriateness of use." AA: "So now as we get close to the start of another school year, and you've got -- you're director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan -- DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "Yes." AA: "And as you say, you tell us it's the oldest in the country?" DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "It is the oldest, it was established -- we just had our sixty-fifth anniversary a few weeks ago,?the oldest English language teaching and research institute." AA: "What's basically the first challenge that the teachers tend to face with a new group of students [as] you're trying to introduce them to American English?" DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "Well, there are a lot of challenges, but relevant to what I was just saying, one of the first challenges is that students come in filled with rules. And, again, the rules can be helpful. But then they encounter spoken American English that doesn't necessarily conform to the rules and they are confused by that. "And one of our jobs is to help them see how what speakers do is an extension of the rules or a creation beyond the rules. Language is constantly changing, it's not something static." RS: "And what are your suggestions for those students that are marching through the door, what is your advice for those students?" DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN: "Be open. Listen carefully. Make notes when something sounds strange, ask your teacher about it. If you don't have a teacher, make notes yourself -- see if you can detect the patterns. You know, being able to see the patterns, to see the reasons, certainly facilitates the learning process. It makes it easier." AA: Diane Larsen-Freeman is the director the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can find lots of ideas for learning and teaching English at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Great Depression: How It Affected U.S. Foreign Relations
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine began a long and difficult period for the United States. President Herbert Hoover struggled to find solutions as the nation sank into the worst economic crisis in its history. But the Great Depression was not the only problem demanding answers from Hoover. The president also had to deal with a number of important foreign policy issues. There were revolutions in South America. The economic situation created serious problems in America's relations with Europe. And Japan launched a campaign of aggression in northeastern China. Hoover failed in his efforts to solve America's economic troubles. But as we will see in our program today, he did succeed with some of his foreign policies. He and most other Americans, however, would fail to understand the long-term importance of the forces gaining control in Germany and Japan. VOICE TWO: Herbert Hoover's foreign policies were marked by his desire to make friends and avoid war. Like most Americans, the new president had been shocked by World War One. Hoover had seen the results of that terrible war with his own eyes. He led the international effort to feed the many European civilian victims of the fighting. And the new president was a member of the Quaker religious group that traditionally opposes armed conflict. Hoover shared the wish of most Americans that the world would never again fight a major war. He felt the bloody bodies at Verdun, the Marne, and the other battlefields of World War One showed that conflict should be settled by peaceful negotiations. VOICE ONE: Hoover worked toward this goal even before he entered the White House. Following his election, he had several months free before becoming president. Hoover used this period to travel to Latin America for ten weeks. He wanted to show Latin American nations that they could trust the United States to honor their rights as independent nations. Hoover kept his word. The year after he took office, his administration announced that it would recognize the governments of all Latin American countries, including governments that the United States did not like. Hoover told the nation that he would not follow the Latin American policies of President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had decided in nineteen-oh-four that the United States had a right to intervene in Latin America if governments there did not act in the right way. Hoover said this was wrong. He told the country that it was more important to use friendship instead of force. VOICE TWO: Hoover withdrew American forces from Nicaragua. He arranged to withdraw them from Haiti. And he showed restraint as some fifty revolutions shook the nations of Latin America. Some revolutionary governments opposed the United States. They refused to pay debts to American companies or claimed ownership of foreign property. But Hoover refused to advance American interests by force. He wanted to prove that the United States could act towards Latin American nations as equals. The policy was quite successful. And relations between the United States and Latin American countries generally improved under Hoover's leadership. VOICE ONE: The situation in Europe was much more difficult and serious for the United States. The problem was simple: money. The Great Depression did not stop at America's borders. It moved to Britain, Europe, and beyond. And it brought extremely hard economic conditions. In Germany, the value of the national currency -- the mark -- collapsed. German people were forced to buy goods with hundreds, thousands, and millions of marks. They lost faith in the existing system. And they looked for some new leader to provide solutions. The economic crisis also put great pressure on the international circle of debt that had been created after the war. Suddenly, American bankers could no longer make loans to Germany. This meant that Germany could not pay back war debts to France and the other Allied nations of World War One. And without this money, the Allied nations could not repay money they owed American banks. The circle of debt fell apart. VOICE TWO: The situation grew steadily worse throughout the early months of nineteen thirty. Hoover finally had to announce that all nations could delay their debt payments to the United States for one year. Hoover's action did what he wanted it to. It put a temporary stop to the international debt crisis. But it caused great damage to private banks. People lost faith in banks. Throughout Europe, people withdrew their money from banks. As a result, the European banks could not repay more than a thousand million dollars they had borrowed from private American banks. VOICE ONE: This was not the only problem. Nations throughout Europe also were forced to take their currencies off the gold standard. This meant their money no longer could be exchanged for gold. The economic situation grew worse. And as it did, serious political tensions began to threaten peace in Asia and Europe. VOICE TWO: The threat in Asia became clear first. Japan had defeated Russia in a war in nineteen-oh-five. The victory gave Japan control over the economy of southern Manchuria in the northeastern part of China. As years passed, Japan began to feel threatened by two forces. First, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek was trying to organize all of China under the control of his Nationalist forces. Second, Russia was extending the Chinese eastern railway to the Siberian city of Vladivostok. Japan's army took control of the government in Tokyo in late nineteen thirty-one. The army was fearful of the growing threat to Japan's control of Manchuria. So it moved Japanese troops immediately into several Manchurian cities. And it claimed political control of the whole area. President Hoover and most Americans opposed Japan's aggression strongly. But they were not willing to take any action that might lead to another major war. VOICE ONE: Japan's military leaders knew that the people of Europe and America had no desire to fight to protect China. And so their army marched on. It invaded the huge city of Shanghai, killing thousands of civilians. Western leaders condemned the action. American Secretary of State Henry Stimson said the United States would not recognize Japanese control in these areas of China. But again, Hoover refused to consider any economic actions against the Japanese. And he strongly opposed taking any military action. The League of Nations also refused to recognize Japan's takeover. It called Japan the aggressor in Manchuria. Japan reacted simply. It withdrew from the League of Nations. VOICE TWO: Most Americans were not happy about Japan's clear aggression. But they were not willing to fight force with force. This was less true for Secretary of State Stimson. Stimson was a follower of the old ideas of President Theodore Roosevelt. He believed a nation could only have a strong foreign policy by being strong and using its military power in times of crisis. But Stimson's voice was in the minority. Most Americans did not believe Japan really threatened the security of the United States. And they were not ready to risk their lives to help people in China. Many Americans would change their opinion about Japan only after its airplanes attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in nineteen forty-one. VOICE ONE: The same story was true in Europe. France was worried about the rising power of the Nazis in Germany, and of Fascists in Italy and Spain. It proposed creation of an international army. Hoover opposed the plan. He called for all nations to reduce their weapons. He believed negotiation, not force, was the way to solve the problem. But the new leaders in Germany and Japan would listen much more closely to the footsteps of marching troops than to the high words of political leaders or peace supporters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Interns Provide Free Labor, But Internships Are Not Always Free
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Many college students in the United States use their summer break to earn money in a temporary job. But more and more are working as summer interns. Some internship programs accept students in high school. Internships are usually unpaid, and the work might not always be the most exciting. But they offer a chance to gain experience in business, public service or some other area of interest. They can also be a chance to get to know a possible future employer. More importantly, internships can help students make sure their area of study is a good choice. For most organizations, interns mean extra workers for little or no cost. They also get a chance to see if a student might make a good future employee. Some interns are promised a full-time job once they finish their studies. Yet some students have no choice but to get a paying job during the summer. They have a real financial need. Interns provide free labor, but internship programs can involve costs for travel, housing and meals. Businesses might require interns to receive college credit for their experience. These businesses are concerned about labor laws that say workers must receive something in return for their work. So, if not money, then credits. Many colleges and universities resist such requirements. They say students should earn credit only for school experience. Some other schools provide the credits but charge students for them. So, for a student from a poor family, an unpaid internship just may not be possible. Economic realities like this sometimes lead to criticism of internship programs. But some colleges and universities are offering help for students who want to be interns. Some provide scholarships to help pay for housing and meals, but they do not always give academic credits. Brandeis University near Boston, Massachusetts, offers a summer internship class. Students pay for one college credit. They must write an essay or keep a journal of their internship. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is considering a similar one-credit summer class. Associate Dean John Bader says the students would work with a professor, but would not have to pay any money. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can read transcripts and hear past reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Pat Bodnar. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Is the Segway the Answer to City Traffic and Pollution?
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about what Americans do on their vacations … Play some music by Cat Power … And report about some new uses for a transportation device called a Segway. The Segway Human Transporter HOST: A few years ago, we reported about a new transportation device called the Segway Human Transporter, also known as the Segway. Its inventor called it the world’s first self-balancing individual transport vehicle for short distance travel. Mario Ritter has an update on this new kind of transportation. MARIO RITTER: The Segway looks like a large stick with two wheels. The wheels are connected to a platform. The stick has handles for a person to hold. The person stands on the platform and holds the handles. The transporter moves forward or backward when the person moves his or her body in that direction. The driver turns the handles to go left or right. Computers and gyroscope devices on the Segway make it move and balance. It is powered by batteries that are recharged with electric power. It can travel at speeds of nineteen kilometers an hour. Dean Kamen invented the Segway. He says it was meant to reduce pollution and solve other environmental problems in cities. But it was not designed to travel on roads. A Segway costs about five thousand dollars. Many people say it is too costly. However, people who have bought a Segway say it is extremely useful. This is especially true for people who have trouble walking because of medical problems. They report that a Segway makes it possible for them to join others on walks and to travel to their jobs. Other people use the Segway instead of their cars for short trips. They say it is a great way to save money on gasoline. Segways are being used in more than twelve American airports. Security officers say they are able to move quickly on the devices in emergency situations. People on vacation are also learning to use Segways. Segway tours are popular in several American cities. These include Chicago, Illinois; Louisville, Kentucky; San Francisco, California, and Washington, D.C. Tour company officials say it takes from ten to thirty minutes to teach people how to ride a Segway. Then the group uses them to move around the city and see the sights. American Vacations HOST: And speaking of vacations, our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Joshua Hu asks what Americans do on their summer holiday vacations. Americans do many different things during their vacations. Some people stay at home and enjoy time with their families. They may go to a local swimming pool, zoo or museum. Other people travel to enjoy large national parks, the mountains, the ocean, or large amusement parks. Many people visit interesting American cities or historic areas. Some people visit family members in other states. Still other Americans visit foreign countries. We recently heard about a new use for vacation time -- learning about a new kind of job. This program is called Vocation Vacations. People pay between six hundred and five thousand dollars to work at a job for a few days or a week. Brian Kurth of Portland, Oregon, started Vocation Vacations. He says it serves a valuable purpose. It gives people a chance to try out a job they always wanted without leaving their present job. People use Vocation Vacations to try many kinds of jobs around the United States. These are jobs that anyone can learn to do. For example, they can learn how to make beer, wine, cheese or cakes. They can help train dogs or horses. They can learn how to be a hunting and fishing guide or a gardener. They can work with a sports announcer, television producer, wedding planner or photographer. Or they can learn how to operate a very small hotel, called a “bed and breakfast.”? Vocation Vacations recently added several new jobs. They include comedian, dog sled driver and hair stylist. The company says the most popular job so far is winemaking. The Vocation Vacations Web site recently asked visitors what prevents them from working at their dream job. More than two thousand people answered. Forty-two percent said the main block is money. Lack of the right education or experience was the answer given by twenty-five percent. Other answers included fear of failure and lack of family support. Cat Power HOST: Cat Power has a warm and dreamy voice. Her latest album, “The Greatest,” has a slow blues sound. Critics say it is one of her most powerful records yet. They say the music is soft like a kiss but also as fierce as a kick. Katherine Cole?has more. KATHERINE COLE: Cat Power is from the southern state of Georgia. Her real name is Chan [pronounced as Shawn] Marshall. Cat Power has been making records for about ten years. She wrote all the songs on her latest album. They explore different kinds of emotion, including love, hate and loss. Listen to her rich, smoky voice as she sings “Living Proof.” (MUSIC) Cat Power is known for giving unusual live performances. Sometimes she gets stage fright and refuses to sing. Or she makes emotional comments about her performance if she makes a mistake. Often she stabs her hands in the air to call attention to the words she sings. But Power’s fans like her honesty. She expresses this emotional tension in her actions and in her songs. Here is “The Moon”. Cat Power sings about the beauty and distance of the moon. She compares the moon to a person she knows. (MUSIC) Cat Power made this album in Memphis, Tennessee, an important city in the music industry. Many country and soul musicians became famous in Memphis. Cat Power recorded her album with a group of well-known soul musicians. For example, the guitarist Teenie Hodges plays on all the songs. We leave you with the title song from “The Greatest.”? The images and feelings Cat Powers sings about are like poetry. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Oil Flow From Prudhoe Bay May Take Months to Return to Normal
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The oil company British Petroleum has shut down a pipeline connecting the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in Alaska to the Trans-Alaska pipeline. The Prudhoe Bay field, north of the Arctic Circle, provides eight percent of America’s oil production. It is the largest oil field in the United States. On August seventh, BP said it had discovered a leak and a small oil spill of four or five barrels in the frozen arctic area. The company said thinning of the wall of the pipeline had taken place. At the time, BP said it was testing the thirty-five kilometer oil transit pipeline. Last Sunday, BP cut the flow of two hundred thousand barrels of oil a day. BP plans to shut down the rest of the line soon. The company says the four hundred thousand barrels of oil a day represent half of all the oil produced in Alaska’s North Slope area. On news of the shutdown, the price of oil increased three percent to about seventy-seven dollars a barrel. The Department of Energy remains hopeful that the reduction in oil production will be limited. On Wednesday, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said he believed other supplies could be found to take the place of the Alaskan oil. But experts say it would probably be months before the flow of oil from Prudhoe Bay returns to normal. BP said it deeply regretted the action it had to take. It said it is using all necessary resources to complete the work. BP is not the only company affected by the shutdown. The Wall Street Journal reports that oil companies Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips own even larger shares in Prudhoe Bay than BP. The shutdown is expected to affect the economy of the state of Alaska the most. Almost ninety percent of Alaska’s money comes from taxes on oil. The state does not have a sales tax or income tax. The Associated Press reports that Alaska is losing more than six million dollars in oil taxes every day. Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski has temporarily stopped all hiring of new state employees. He has called for an investigation of the shutdown. The affected pipelines are not part of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, but feed into it. BP owns forty-seven percent of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Time to Deliver' Is Message of International AIDS Conference
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The sixteenth international AIDS conference will be held in Toronto, Canada, from August thirteenth to the eighteenth. Organizers say the meeting will be the world’s largest since the first international conference took place in nineteen eighty-five. Twenty-four thousand delegates from one hundred thirty-two countries are expected to attend the conference. The delegates include scientists, health care providers, activists, and political and business leaders. They also include people living with AIDS and H.I.V., the virus that causes the disease. The main organizing group is the International AIDS Society. It says the conference will be a place to exchange ideas, information and research about H.I.V and AIDS. The aim is to increase knowledge about treatments and prevention around the world. Conference officials say the delegates will examine the progress that has been made against AIDS and decide on steps for the future. The major message of the conference this year is “Time To Deliver.”? This means that it is time to bring effective treatments to people in all parts of the world. Some developing countries cannot pay for the needed drugs and prevention programs. Conference organizers say they want to make it possible for everyone around the world to know about the disease and be able to prevent and treat it. More than four thousand scientific papers will be presented at the international AIDS conference. The main issues to be discussed are:? -- Increasing research to end the spread of AIDS. -- Expanding services to improve prevention and treatment. -- Increasing the involvement of affected groups. -- Building new leadership to work toward stopping the disease. -- And learning from past experience around the world. Officials expect the new conference Web site to expand the meeting’s influence. They say the Web site will make it easy for people unable to attend the meeting to receive the information presented there. The conference Web site address is www.aids2006.org. Twenty-five years ago, the United States Centers for Disease Control first reported about a new sickness that later came to be known as AIDS. A United Nations report released in June said sixty-five million people have become infected with H.I.V. since then. Twenty-five million of them have died of sicknesses linked to AIDS. These numbers include four million new infections last year and almost three million deaths. Around the world, about thirty-eight million people are now living with H.I.V. Ten years ago, an effective treatment for AIDS was announced at the international AIDS conference in Vancouver, Canada. But there is still no vaccine or cure for the disease. And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can read transcripts of our shows and listen online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'This Land Is Your Land': The Life, Music and Politics of Woody Guthrie
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we complete our story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Woody Guthrie grew up in Oklahoma and Texas during the nineteen twenties. A short time later, many farms in these states failed. Extreme dry weather ruined the soil. This area became known as the Dust Bowl. Like many people, Woody left for California to find work. However, many people could only find work on farms gathering fruit or other crops. These workers often lived in camps with poor conditions. Woody visited these farm worker camps. He played his guitar and sang songs he wrote that described the conditions at the camp he was visiting. VOICE TWO: Labor union organizers in California found Woody Guthrie useful to their cause. They urged him to go to New York City to make recordings of his songs. Woody liked the idea and left California for New York City in nineteen forty. There he met Alan Lomax, an expert on America’s traditional music. Lomax worked for the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He collected and recorded traditional American folk music. When he heard Woody sing, Lomax knew he had found a true singer of American folk music. VOICE ONE: Alan Lomax recorded many of Woody’s songs for the Library of Congress. He also helped Woody find work in New York. One company agreed to record some of Woody’s songs. The record he made was called “Dust Bowl Ballads.”? The songs told stories of people who had lost their land. Many music critics praised Woody and the songs he wrote. Lomax also helped Woody get a job with CBS Radio. He sang and played folk music on a radio program that was broadcast across the United States. VOICE TWO: Woody and several other musicians joined together to write political protest songs. One of these was Pete Seeger. Woody wrote performed with a group called the Almanac Singers. Later, some members of the group formed the folk singing group called the Weavers. It was during this time in New York that Woody wrote what became his most famous song, “This Land is Your Land.”? He described the beauty and richness of America that he had seen during his travels. He believed America should be a place that belongs to rich and poor people alike. The first version of his song expressed opposition to private property. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-one, the Interior Department asked Woody Guthrie to write songs supporting the building of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state. He wrote twenty-six songs in a month. The best known of these is “Roll On Columbia.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Woody Guthrie wrote a book about his early life in Oklahoma and Texas. It was published in nineteen forty-three. He called it “Bound for Glory.” He described his childhood, and the pain of watching his mother slowly becoming insane. He also wrote about his travels and the needy people he saw in many parts of America. One book critic wrote: “Someday, people are going to wake up and realize that Woody Guthrie and his songs are a national treasure, like the Yellowstone or Yosemite parks.” VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Woody joined America’s Merchant Marine. The Merchant Marine transported soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Later, Woody served in the Army. He returned to New York when the war ended. Woody’s wife had left him a few years earlier. In nineteen forty-five, he married Marjorie Mazia. She was a dancer with the Martha Graham dance group. Woody and Marjorie had a daughter named Cathy Ann. In nineteen fifty, Woody began writing songs for children. These became very popular. Here is one called “Riding in My Car.”? It shows his sense of fun and humor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One day, while Woody and Marjorie were away, a fire started in their house. Their daughter Cathy Ann was severely burned. She died the next day. Woody was crushed by her death. He remembered how his sister had died the same way. He was never the same after Cathy Ann died. He had trouble earning money. He began drinking alcohol. Woody and Marjorie had several more children after Cathy Ann’s death. But their marriage ended. Woody Guthrie began noting something strange about himself. He found that the words he wrote often did not make sense. And he had sudden attacks of uncontrollable shaking. In nineteen fifty-two, doctors confirmed his worst fears. He had Huntington’s chorea, the same disease of the brain and nervous system that had killed his mother. Woody Guthrie was forty years old. VOICE ONE: There was no treatment for the disease. His condition got worse. In nineteen fifty-four, Woody Guthrie traveled one more time across America. He wanted to see the places where he had lived and the workers’ camps where he had sung. Old friends had trouble recognizing him. Instead of a young man full of life, they saw an old man who could not speak clearly or control his shaking. Finally, he entered a hospital because he could no longer care for himself. But while he seemed to be forgotten, his music was not. By the late nineteen fifties, folk music became popular again in the United States. More Americans began listening and playing the songs of Woody Guthrie. Young folk singers, like Bob Dylan, came to New York to visit Woody in the hospital. Dylan and others copied the way Woody sang and played the guitar. And like Woody, they wrote protest songs that called for social and political justice. VOICE TWO: Woody Guthrie remained in the hospital until he died in nineteen sixty-seven. His family and friends visited him each week. In the last years of his life, Woody could hardly speak. But his family and friends knew he still believed in the causes he had sung and written about all his life. They knew this because when they sang his songs, Woody’s eyes would become brighter and his defiant spirit would shine through. (MUSIC: "Hard Travelin'") VOICE ONE:? This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO:? And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Baseball Terms:? This Is a Whole New Ballgame
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Baseball is America’s national sport. So it is not unusual that many popular expressions come from baseball. But first, let me explain a little about the game. Each baseball team has nine players. The pitcher of one team throws the ball to a batter from the other team. The batter attempts to hit the ball. If he misses, it is called a strike. If a batter gets three strikes, he loses his turn at bat and is called out. The batter also is out if he hits the ball in the air and an opposing player catches it. But if the batter hits the ball and it is not caught, the batter tries to run to one or more of the four bases on the field. The batter can run to all four bases if he hits the ball over the fence or out of the ballpark. Such a hit is called a homerun. Now, here are some common expressions from baseball. Someone who is “on the ball” is intelligent and able to do a good job. But a person who “threw a curve ball” did something unexpected. Someone who “steps up to the plate” is ready to do his or her job. A “pinch hitter” takes the place of someone else at a job or activity. A person who “strikes out” or “goes down swinging” attempted something but failed. We also might tell the person that “three strikes and you are out.”? But someone who “hit a homerun” or? “hit it out of the park” did something extremely well. Sometimes I have to give information quickly, without time to think it over. Then I would say something “right off the bat.”? If someone is doing an extremely good job and is very successful, you might say he or she is “batting one thousand.”?? If I say I want to “touch base” with you, I will talk to you from time to time about something we plan to do. I might say I “touched all the bases” if I did what is necessary to complete a job or activity. And if I “covered my bases” I was well prepared. However, someone who is “way off base” did something wrong or maybe even dishonest or immoral. A person with strange ideas might be described as “out in left field.” Let us say I want to sell my car but I do not know exactly how much it is worth. If someone asks me the price, I might give “a ballpark figure” or “a ballpark estimate.” ? If someone offers me an amount that is close to my selling price, I might say the amount is “in the ballpark.”? However, if I say “we are not in the same ballpark,” I mean we cannot agree because my ideas are too different from yours. Finally, when a situation changes completely, we say “that is a whole new ballgame.” (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Shelley Gollust. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Non-Governmental Organizations Influence Policy Around the World
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The sixteenth international AIDS conference opened on Sunday in Toronto, Canada. More than twenty-four thousand delegates from one hundred thirty-two countries are attending the six-day conference. They include scientists, health care providers, activists, political and business leaders and people living with the disease. Many people attending the AIDS conference represent private non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. Political scientists often describe NGOs as “pressure groups” because of their effect on world issues. They have little official power over international decision-making. However, NGOs often influence international policy. A broad definition of NGO is any non-profit group that is independent of government. Most of these private organizations have one or more goals. For example, some support community development, provide social services and help poor people. Others support human rights and social justice. Still others work to protect the environment. NGOs support many issues and operate around the world. Some of the most well-known include Oxfam, Amnesty International and Greenpeace. James Paul heads the Global Policy Forum. It is an NGO in New York City that studies policy-making at the United Nations. He says that some NGOs represent industries or businesses, the interests of governments, or even criminal groups. He says it would be a mistake to believe that all NGOs are neutral. The World Bank has divided NGOs into three main groups. The first is community-based organizations that serve populations in a small geographical area. The second is national NGOs, which operate in individual developing countries. International NGOs are the third kind. These organizations usually have their headquarters in industrialized countries. They carry out operations in more than one developing nation. Information about the total number of non-governmental organizations is incomplete. However, experts estimate that tens of thousands of NGOs are active around the world. Large international NGOs may have operating budgets of tens of millions of dollars. However, most NGOs are much smaller. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read transcripts of our reports and listen online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: White House Pressroom Getting a Makeover
* Byline: 

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week we report on the reporters who report on the president. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The correspondents take their seats in the James S. Brady Briefing Room. Other reporters and photographers crowd around. The White House press corps represents print and electronic media from around the world. The time is half past one. The afternoon press briefing is about to begin. The atmosphere is different from the briefings in the morning. The morning briefing is called a gaggle. Gaggles are informal. They are a chance to discuss events that will take place that day in the government. They are also a chance to find out what reporters are interested in that day. Gaggles are usually not permitted to be broadcast. Afternoon briefings are – and today this one is special. VOICE TWO: Behind press secretary Tony Snow on the speaker’s stage are five former press secretaries. They include the man for whom the briefing room is named. James Brady was shot in the head and partially paralyzed in nineteen eighty-one. He was struck when a gunman, John Hinckley, wounded President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. Since then Mister Brady and his wife have campaigned against gun violence. Sarah Brady was with her husband at the White House for the press briefing. Two other special guests also stopped by: President Bush and his wife, Laura. So what was the event?? Tony Snow explained in his opening announcements: TONY SNOW: "Welcome to the final briefing before we christen the next swimming pool here at the White House. Scared silence. No, no, no. The last iteration of the present version of this briefing room. The next time we have a briefing here, it will be spiffed-up and high-tech. But it's a wonderful thing and a wonderful day and I'm glad you are all here." VOICE ONE: The pressroom is built over Franklin Roosevelt’s swimming pool. Members of the public raised the money to build the pool. They wanted to thank President Roosevelt for guiding the nation through the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt enjoyed exercising in water, though polio robbed him of the use of his legs. He was president from nineteen thirty-two until his death in nineteen forty-five. Years later, Richard Nixon had the swimming pool covered over. President Nixon wanted to create a pressroom that could handle modern television equipment. Nixon left office in nineteen seventy-four, the only president ever to resign. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, the pressroom started to show its age. Coffee found its way onto the floor, onto the once fine carpets. The forty-two seats in the room often need repair. This past January, a television camera hanging near President Bush came loose as he spoke in the pressroom. The camera fell and hung by a strap. The room will be modernized. Among other things, the blue curtain backdrop that millions of people have seen on television will be gone. A big video screen is expected to take its place behind the speaker's stand. Reporters will work from a building across the street from the White House while the pressroom is closed. The work is expected to take about nine months. VOICE ONE: The White House, at Sixteen-Hundred Pennsylvania Avenue, is where the president lives and works. The office of the vice president is next door, in the Old Executive Office Building. The pressroom looks large on television, but reporters say it is not nearly large enough. Some days the room gets more crowded than usual. Hundreds of journalists cover stories at the White House from time to time. Thirteen journalists, or even fewer, sometimes have to gather information for the other members of the press corps. This is known as pool duty. Reporters pool their information. Some events, and places like the president's Oval Office, do not have enough room to fit a big crowd of journalists. Pool reporters are supposed to do the best they can to supply others, including their competitors, with information. Reporters share the responsibility of pool duty. A journalist who spent ten years in the White House press corps says pool duty often worried her more than any other part of her job. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Every press corps has someone who is considered its dean. Merriman Smith of United Press International had that honor at the White House for many years. Yet the story for which he is best known took place in Dallas, Texas. The date was November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three. Smitty, as he was known, was traveling in the motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was shot. The president had been riding in an open car. Merriman Smith was seated next to the radio-telephone in the press car. He quickly reached for it and got through to the U.P.I. office in Dallas to report the news. He stayed on the phone, even as a reporter from the Associated Press hit him on the back again and again to give it up. Smith had bruises on his back -- but U.P.I. beat its fiercest competitor on the story. Merriman Smith won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy. VOICE ONE:?????? Today the journalist long called the dean of the White House press corps is Helen Thomas. She has covered the White House for more than forty years. She celebrated her eighty-sixth birthday on August fourth. For many years Helen Thomas was White House correspondent for United Press International. Now she writes commentaries for the Hearst newspapers. She also writes books. Her newest is called "Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public." Helen Thomas often criticizes President Bush and the war in Iraq. Some people say she is not a true journalist but a liberal activist. Others say her position now as an opinion columnist gives her freedom to say what she thinks. VOICE TWO:?????? Free speech and a free press were two of the rights written into the First Amendment to the Constitution. These guarantees have led to many disagreements over the limits to press freedom. In the United States, most news organizations are privately owned. There are public broadcasters, but only part of their financial support comes from the government. Presidents and the press have a complex relationship. It can be tense, it can be friendly; it can be friendly and tense, all in the same breath. Some people think White House reporters are too aggressive. Others think they are not aggressive enough. Working in the White House is seen as one of the top jobs in journalism. Yet the working spaces for the press are small and crowded. And reporters who have the job say that all too often it can involve simply covering events. These include photo opportunities. Photo ops are short events designed mostly for the cameras. They are a fact of life in politics. Efforts by an administration to prevent news leaks and to control the flow of information can limit the ability to dig for stories. So can time pressures. Reporters today face greater demands to feed nonstop news operations and the Internet. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen fourteen, eleven members of the press corps formed the White House Correspondents’ Association. They had heard a rumor about press conferences to be given by President Woodrow Wilson. They had heard that other reporters would choose who would cover them. But the story was not true. The White House reporters got to cover the president’s briefings. For six years the White House Correspondents’ Association seemed to have no real purpose. Then the group started to hold dinners and invited presidents to attend. VOICE TWO: The association has other responsibilities, like trying to get more chances to question the president. But to the public its best known activity is its yearly dinner. Presidents take part in the entertainment. The dinner is one of those Washington traditions that bring together people who make the news and those who report it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of our shows and listen online to our archives at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. --- Correction: Franklin Roosevelt was president from 1933 to 1945, not 1932 as stated.Also, an earlier version of this page incorrectly reported the date of the final briefing at the White House before the pressroom renovation. It took place Aug. 2. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-15-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Indian Ban on Lentil Exports Causes Price Jump
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Classic lentils, left, and red lentilsStaple crops provide foods that are an important part of the diet. For example, rice is a staple crop in much of Asia. An Eastern European staple is the potato. The lentil is just such a crop for many South Asians. The lentil plant is known for its seeds, which grow inside a protective covering, or pod. Lentils, or dal, are extremely important to Indian cooking. Soups and other foods are made with dal. In the United States, prices for Indian lentils have increased by one hundred percent or more in recent months. Some stores sold all their lentils and have been unable to get more. A poor harvest has been blamed for the shortage of dal in India. Reports say people started to hold back supplies. Recently, the Associated Press reported that prices for things like lentils and sugar rose more than twenty percent in India. Rising prices caused the Indian government to ban exports of lentils in June. India is not expected to end the ban until next year. India’s effort to control inflation has not only led to high prices in the United States. Reports from Bangladesh say that country is also experiencing higher prices for lentils. Many South Asian communities around the world also have been affected. India and Canada are the world’s biggest producers of lentils. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations says India produced about one million metric tons last year. But Indian farmers grow many different kinds that are not grown in other countries. That is why many people of Indian ancestry want to cook with Indian dal instead of other lentils. People have grown lentils for more than five thousand years. The plant is probably native to southwest Asia and then spread to Egypt and East Asia. Lentils are a very healthy food. They contain up to twenty-five percent protein. Because of this, they are extremely important in cultures that do not eat meat. Lentils are also good for the soil. Their roots are home to bacteria that put nitrogen, an important plant food, into the soil. In India, lentils are usually planted in November. After harvest, the lentil plant makes excellent fertilizer. Often, other crops are planted on the same fields as part of a crop rotation. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Shep O’Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-15-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Rethinking the Personal Computer in an Internet World
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO:? A visitor, right, at the Taipei Computer Applications Show earlier this monthAnd I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we talk about the past, present and future of personal computers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You could say the first personal computers were the simple counting devices of ancient times. But maybe we are going back too far. Some people would say the first real counting machines were the inventions of Blaise Pascal in the middle of the sixteen hundreds. Pascal was a French scientist and inventor who designed a machine with wheels and cuts. These worked together to add or take away numbers. A few years later, a German scientist improved on Pascal’s work and created a system that permitted multiplication and division. VOICE TWO: In the same period, an Englishman named George Boole developed a math system based on zero and one. Boolean logic was important to the development of the computers of today. But we still have some more historical ground to cover. In eighteen ninety, census workers counted the United States population with help from a system designed by Herman Hollerith. That system, designed two years earlier, used two machines. One machine put holes into paper to mark information. The other machine quickly read the holes and produced a final count. VOICE ONE: Herman Hollerith went on to establish a company called Tabulating Business Machines. In nineteen eleven he sold the company -- and thirteen years later it became International Business Machines. The company had already been operating under the IBM name in Canada. So now we jump from nineteen twenty-four to nineteen eighty-one -- August twelfth, nineteen eighty-one, to be exact. That was the day the company announced a new product called the IBM Personal Computer. It was not the first personal computer ever invented, but its success helped build a new market. So now we are up to the age of the modern P.C. But we have left out some steps along the way. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty, the analog computer used gears and shafts to solve differential equations. Complex mathematics became easier. Later, IBM’s Mark One computer performed operations using a system of electromechanical switches. Then in nineteen forty-six came the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer -- ENIAC. It used a system of vacuum tubes. ENIAC was huge. It took up almost one hundred seventy square meters in a building at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was unlike anything before. Its digital processing was lightning fast, at least compared to older computers. Analog computers used moving parts. Digital devices process information electronically in the form of numbers. The difference was like night and day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Until the nineteen seventies, computers were far too big and costly for the average person. There were mostly mainframe computers in government agencies, research centers and big companies. But people found ways to shrink computers, and to increase the power and speed. Transistors replaced vacuum tubes. Later, integrated circuits combined many transistors on a single small chip. The Apple Computer Company in California started selling personal computers in the late seventies. But the IBM Personal Computer is credited with producing widespread interest in home computers. VOICE TWO: An IBM official called it "the computer for just about anyone who has ever wanted a personal system at the office, on the university campus or at home."? Many Americans found the price reasonable: about one thousand five hundred dollars. The success of the IBM Personal Computer helped not only IBM. It also helped two young companies develop into the industry leaders they are today. IBM bought the processor, the brain, for its personal computer from Intel. Intel was then a ten-year-old company. And IBM brought in Microsoft to provide the programming. Microsoft was then a small, little-known company. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in nineteen seventy-five. The IBM Personal Computer came with the first version of Microsoft DOS, or disk operating system. Today Microsoft operating systems are found on most of the personal computers in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The development of laptop computers meant that people could take them anywhere. And computers kept getting smaller. In the nineteen nineties people started talking about PalmPilots and BlackBerries and other P.D.A.'s -- personal digital assistants. A person could hold a small computer and, in some cases, a phone and the Internet all in one hand. Microprocessors and improved wireless communications led to the age of cell phones, then cell phones with cameras and more. Today people can hold in their hand more computing power and speed than the room-sized mainframes of the past. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The IBM Personal Computer started to face growing competition before long. One was the Apple Macintosh, launched in nineteen eighty-four. What people really liked was its ease of use. DOS users had to enter written commands. But Mac users could simply click on icons, little pictures on the screen. Apple had borrowed the idea from designers at Xerox. Then Microsoft borrowed the idea for its Windows operating system. Today Apple still has a loyal following, but those users represent a small share of the market for personal computers. IBM does not even make personal computers anymore. It sold that part of its business last year to the Chinese company Lenovo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: So where will the future take the personal computer?? Before we discuss that, we should talk a little about the Internet. It began in the nineteen sixties as a Defense Department project. It was designed to link researchers around the United States with a secure way to communicate even in the event of a nuclear war. The designers linked together a network of networks, with no point of central control over the system. That way, messages could get through even if one or more links were lost. It was built sort of like a spider's web. The Internet came into popular use in the nineteen nineties. People learned that "www" meant World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee invented this system at the CERN physics laboratory in Switzerland. Now the public had a new way to send e-mail, find information and buy goods. Today many people could not live without it. As a result, many see the future of the Internet as the future of the personal computer. VOICE TWO: Ray Ozzie is one of those people. He designed Lotus Notes, IBM's widely used e-mail system and database for linking groups. He was recently named chief software architect at Microsoft. VOICE ONE: Since joining Microsoft last year, Ray Ozzie has tried to make its software work better with the Internet. Across the industry, programs are increasingly being designed for use on the Web, instead of being housed on personal computers. Microsoft is offering more Web-based services. Last month, at a meeting of financial analysts, Ray Ozzie discussed the changing times. He described what he called "the P.C. era" as in the past. He said this is a new period in which the Internet is at the center. VOICE TWO: But where is the Internet itself going?? There is a lot of talk about improvements that people say will represent the next version of the Internet. Internet 2.0, they call it. There are hopes, but at the same time there are reports of security weaknesses that will need to be fixed. Also, in recent months there has been a lot of debate about the issue of "Net neutrality."? Internet neutrality basically means that Internet service producers should not speed up or slow down or block any traffic on the Web. In other words, all Web content providers should be treated the same. Telecommunications companies say they spend a lot of money to build systems that carry Internet traffic. They say they should be able to charge more for those who use these systems more often, or are willing to pay more for special services. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Mario Ritter. Internet users can find transcripts and download archives of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-15-voa8.cfm
* Headline: At AIDS Conference, More Efforts Urged to Empower Women
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Prevention is a central issue being discussed at the sixteenth International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada. Twenty-four thousand delegates are at the conference which ends Friday. Bill and Melinda Gates called for faster research to develop preventions like microbicides for women to use when they have sex. The hope is that such products could protect against infection with the virus that causes AIDS. Melinda Gates said the way to "change this epidemic" is to put power in the hands of women. In southern Africa, for example, about sixty percent of adults living with HIV are women. Bill Gates said women today often have no choice but to depend on men not to infect them. "A woman should never need her partner's permission to save her own life," he said as the conference opened Sunday. The world's richest man said "stopping AIDS" is the top priority of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. On Monday, former President Bill Clinton said more people would get tested for HIV if an aggressive effort took place to fight the stigma. But reducing fears of social rejection is not enough. Mister Clinton said people also need a guarantee they would get medicine to suppress the virus. Researchers at the conference presented the results of a new study of HIV testing. It involved more than one hundred thousand people tested in California last year. Some received a quick test, with results in about twenty minutes. The others received a test that is more commonly used; the results take two weeks. The researchers say twenty-five percent of the people who had the longer test did not return to learn the results. But that was true of only two percent of those who had the quick test. George Lemp of the University of California led the study. He says quick tests could be especially important in developing countries with limited transportation. Speakers at the AIDS conference also discussed high rates of new HIV infections among black Americans. Julian Bond is chairman of the NAACP, a leading civil rights group. He said African-Americans must, in his words, "face the fact that AIDS has become a black disease." Public health officials say half of all new HIV infections in the United States are in blacks. African-American delegates at the conference said they will prepare a five-year plan to reduce infection rates and increase testing. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. All of our weekly reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-15-voa10.cfm
* Headline: Spaceflight History: Excitement and Tragedy in Preparing for Moon
* Byline: 

 EXPLORATIONS?-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Launch of Apollo 7The nineteen sixties were exciting times in space exploration. Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe look back at the first flights of the Apollo program designed to land humans on the moon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The decision to go to the moon was made in May nineteen sixty-one. President John Kennedy set the goal in a speech to Congress and the American people. He said he believed the United States, before the end of the nineteen sixties, should land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. He said no other effort would be so important to the exploration of space. And he said no other effort would be so difficult or cost so much to do. VOICE TWO: At the time President Kennedy spoke, the Soviet space program seemed far ahead. The Soviet Union put the first satellite into Earth orbit. A Soviet spacecraft was the first to land instruments on the moon. And a Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was the first man in space. Alan ShepardThe United States had just sent an astronaut of its own into space for the first time. Alan Shepard made only a fifteen-minute flight in the little one-man Mercury spacecraft. But his flight gave Americans the feeling that the United States could pull ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race. There was great public support for President Kennedy's moon landing goal. And Congress was ready to spend the thousands of millions of dollars that a moon landing program would cost. VOICE ONE: Much happened in the months after America decided to go to the moon. New space flight centers were built. Designs for launch rockets and spacecraft were agreed on. And a new spaceflight program -- Project Gemini -- was begun. Flights in the two-man Gemini spacecraft tested the men, equipment and methods to be used in the Apollo program to the moon. Gemini let astronauts learn about the dangers of radiation and the effects of being weightless during long flights. Astronauts learned to move their spacecraft into different orbits and to join with other spacecraft. VOICE TWO: While the Gemini program prepared astronauts for Apollo flights, NASA engineers were designing and building the Apollo spacecraft. It was really two spacecraft. One was a cone-shaped command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module. And they would return home in it. The second craft was a moon-landing vehicle. Two astronauts would ride in it from the orbiting command module to the moon's surface. Later, the landing vehicle would carry them back to the command module for the return trip to Earth. VOICE ONE: Engineers also were working on a huge new rocket for Apollo. It needed much more power than the rockets used to launch the one-man Mercury and the two-man Gemini flights. The Apollo rocket was called Saturn. Two Saturn rocket systems were built. One was the Saturn one-B. It did not have enough power to reach the moon. But it could launch Apollo spacecraft on test flights around the Earth. The other was the Saturn five. It would be the one to launch astronauts to the moon. Saturn one-B rockets launched six unmanned Apollo spacecraft. The test flights showed that all the rocket engines worked successfully. They also showed that the Apollo spacecraft could survive the launch and could re-enter Earth's atmosphere safely. VOICE TWO: By the end of nineteen sixty-six, NASA officials considered the Apollo spacecraft ready for test flights by astronauts. Three astronauts were named for the first manned Apollo test flight: Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. Four weeks before the flight, the three men were in the command module at Cape Kennedy, Florida. They were testing equipment for the flight. Suddenly, fire broke out in the spacecraft. When rescuers got the door open, they found the flames had killed the three astronauts. Grissom, White and Chaffee were the first Americans to die in the space program. VOICE ONE: Engineers redesigned and rebuilt the Apollo command module. They designed a new door that could be opened more quickly. They improved the electrical wiring. And they used only materials that would not burn easily. By November nineteen sixty-seven, the moon launch rocket, Saturn Five, was ready for a test flight. It thundered into space perfectly, pushing an unmanned Apollo spacecraft more than eighteen thousand kilometers up into the atmosphere. VOICE TWO: The huge Saturn rocket, as tall as a thirty-six-floor building, was the heaviest thing ever to leave Earth. It weighed more than two million seven hundred thousand kilograms. The noise of its rockets was one of the loudest sounds ever made by humans. At the end of the test flight, the speed of the Apollo spacecraft was increased to forty thousand kilometers an hour. That was the speed of a spacecraft returning from the moon. The spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere without damage. Apollo flights five and six tested the moon-landing module and the Saturn Five rocket. VOICE ONE: Astronauts first flew in the Apollo spacecraft in October nineteen sixty-eight. Apollo Seven astronauts Walter Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele spent eleven days orbiting the Earth. They tested the spacecraft systems. And they broadcast, for the first time, live television pictures of men in orbit. Everything worked perfectly. VOICE TWO: The successful flight of Apollo Seven led NASA officials to send the next flight, Apollo Eight, to the moon. The launch was early on the morning of December twenty-first, nineteen sixty-eight. Millions of people were watching on television. Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders were in the spacecraft at the top of the Saturn Five rocket. NASA officials counted down the seconds: five, four, three, two, one. The mighty engines fired. Slowly the giant rocket lifted off the Earth. VOICE ONE: Three hours later, NASA officials told the crew that everything was "OK" for what they called "TLI" or "trans-lunar injection." This meant the Apollo Eight astronauts could fire the rocket that would send them from Earth orbit toward the moon. Less than three days later, Apollo Eight was orbiting the moon. The American spacecraft was just one hundred ten kilometers from its surface. On December twenty-fourth, the astronauts made a television broadcast to Earth. They described the moon's surface as a strange, gray, lonely place. And, as they talked, people on Earth could see pictures of the moon on their television sets. Apollo Eight returned to Earth without problems. It landed in the Pacific Ocean near a waiting ship. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eight showed that humans could travel to the moon and return safely. The next step was to test the lunar landing craft. That was the job of the astronauts of Apollo Nine: James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. They spent ten days in Earth orbit during March nineteen sixty-nine. During the flight, they separated the lunar lander from the command module and flew it for eight hours. They tested all its systems. Then, they joined the two spacecraft together again, just as astronauts would do after a moon landing. Engineers decided that after Apollo Nine, one more test flight was needed. They wanted to test the landing module near the moon. So astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan did that during the flight of Apollo Ten. VOICE ONE: They reached the moon in May nineteen sixty-nine. Astronauts Stafford and Cernan entered the landing craft and separated it from the command ship. Stafford and Cernan flew the lander down to only thirteen kilometers from the moon. They described the moon during a radio and television broadcast. "It is like wet clay," they said. "Like a dry river bed in New Mexico or Arizona. It is a beautiful sight. " On May twenty-third, the lander rejoined the command module one hundred kilometers above the moon. Apollo Ten started for home. The final testing was done. Apollo was ready to land on the moon. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to EXPLORATIONS?on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo moon landing program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-15-voa11.cfm
* Headline: Getting Into the Writing Game, With Words of Advice From a Coach
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: advice from a writing coach. RS: Jack Hart is a managing editor at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. We talked to him last year about the classic writing guide by William Strunk and E.B. White called "The Elements of Style." AA: Now Jack Hart has written his own book, based on forty years of experience as an editor and writing coach. It's called "A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words That Work." JACK HART: "I always start every piece of writing I do by thinking about what is the core thing that I really want to say. And the first thing that I always write is theme -- the word theme, t-h-e-m-e, colon -- and then try to come up with a theme statement that is a simple subject-predicate-object sentence that is my core idea." AA: "And that's more to guide you? I mean, does that sentence work its way into the final -- " JACK HART: "It probably will never appear in print, so there's no angst associated with it. It's not for public consumption. But it's right there on the top of my screen to guide me all through the writing process. "Then I like a little jot outline, just a rough sketch of where you're going from there. And it often will consist for me just of three or four numbered points; these are the three or four main topics that I'm going to cover in this piece of work. "Or if it's something more scenic -- a piece of creative nonfiction or a piece of fiction or something like that -- it would be a scenic outline: scene one, scene two, scene three, and what I'm going to accomplish in those scenes." RS: "So what you're saying is you have kind of a roadmap for beginning your composition or your article or whatever you're writing -- you have some prewriting in there." JACK HART: "Yeah, it's a lot easier to write if you know where you're headed." AA: "Do you have any quick, off-the-top-of-your-head troubleshooting tips for people who might be listening, having trouble writing something?" JACK HART: "Well, the most astounding thing I discovered in my career has to do with process as well, and that is: If you are having problems at any one step of the process, the trouble probably originated in the immediately preceding step of the process. So if you are having problems with your draft, you probably don't have a good organizational scheme. If you are having problems organizing your material, you probably didn't do a particularly good job gathering your information. And so on and so forth." RS: "Or perhaps don't understand it yourself enough to write it." JACK HART: "That's right. If you don't have the right information, then you didn't hone your idea perhaps well enough in the first place." RS: "Give us some of those techniques -- tell us a few of your tricks that might even help us." JACK HART: "Here's a good one: expletives. We just think of expletives as profanities. But, in fact, an expletive is any empty word that doesn't really have any content to it. And the most common ones in English are things like 'there is,' 'there was,' 'it is,' 'it was.' "And there's nothing grammatically wrong with a sentence constructed with 'there is' or 'there was' in it, but usually you can construct a much more forceful sentence by getting rid of 'there was' or 'there were': 'There were six geese waddling across the golf course.' How about just 'Six geese waddled across the golf course.'" RS: "Could you give us a few more tricks that might help listeners who are writing English as a foreign language but want to write more?" JACK HART: "Well, particularly if you're writing English as a foreign language, I would think there's a tendency to be a bit timid with the language and to include a lot of little qualifiers. E.B. White, in his wonderful book with Strunk, talked about little qualifiers, which White called the 'parasites in the pond of prose' -- so things like 'a little bit' and 'rather' that are almost never necessary. "'Instead' -- here's an example -- 'Instead, the somewhat dark rooms are suffused with a cool glow from embedded lights.' What do we need 'somewhat' for in a sentence like that? 'In a refined, civilized, technically efficient if somewhat frostbitten way' -- well, why not just step out and say 'if frostbitten way.' 'Viewed as stodgy and a bit behind the times' -- just say 'stodgy and behind the times.' But a lot of folks get in the habit of just qualifying every other statement that way -- " AA: "Those are hedge words, right?" JACK HART: "They're hedge words that weaken what we say." RS: Jack Hart is author of "A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words That Work." AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And for more advice about writing, check out our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Election of 1932: A Long Conservative Period in U.S. Politics Ends
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) President Herbert Hoover worked hard to rescue the American economy following the crash of the stock market in October nineteen twenty-nine. Within one month, he called the nation's business leaders to the White House. "Don't lower wages," the president told them. Hoover called on the Federal Reserve Bank to make it easier for businesses to borrow money. He tried to provide funds to help farmers get fair prices for their crops. He pushed Congress to lower personal taxes. And above all, the president urged Americans not to lose hope in their economy or in themselves. VOICE TWO: But it was no use. The economy was in ruins, falling faster with each passing day. The value of stocks had collapsed. Millions of workers lost their jobs. The level of industrial production in the country was less than half what it had been before the stock market crash. Hoover's efforts were not enough to stop the growing crisis. In ever greater numbers, people called on the president to increase federal spending and provide jobs for citizens out of work. But the president was a conservative Republican. He did not think it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide relief for poor Americans. And he thought it was wrong to increase spending above the amount of money that the government received in taxes. VOICE ONE: The situation seemed out of control. The nation's government and business leaders appeared to have no idea how to save the dollar and put people back to work. Although Hoover did more than most presidents before him, he was not willing to take the severe actions that many Americans felt were needed. Hoover would spend government money to help farmers buy seeds and fertilizers. But he refused to give wheat to unemployed workers who were hungry. He created an emergency committee to study the unemployment problem. But he would not launch government programs to create jobs. Hoover called on Americans to help their friends in need. But he resisted calls to spend federal funds for major relief programs to help the millions of Americans facing disaster. VOICE TWO: Leaders of the Democratic Party made the most of the situation. They accused the president of not caring about the common man. They said Hoover was willing to spend money to feed starving cattle for businessmen, but not to feed poor children. Hoover tried to show the nation that he was dealing with the crisis. He worked with the Congress to try to save the banks and to keep the dollar tied to the value of gold. He tried hard to balance the federal budget. And he told the American public that it was not the responsibility of the national government to solve all their problems. VOICE ONE: Late in nineteen thirty-one, Hoover appointed a new committee on unemployment. He named Walter Gifford, the chief of the large American Telephone and Telegraph company, to be its head. Gifford did Hoover more harm than good. When he appeared before Congress, Gifford was unable to defend Hoover's position that relief was the responsibility of local governments and private giving. He admitted that he did not know how many people were out of work. He did not know how many of them needed help. How much help they needed. Or how much money local governments could raise. VOICE TWO: The situation grew worse. And some Americans began to lose faith in their government completely. They looked to groups with extreme political ideas to provide answers. Some Americans joined the Communist Party. Others helped elect state leaders with extreme political ideas. And in growing numbers, people began to turn to hatred and violence. However, most Americans remained loyal to traditional values even as conditions grew steadily worse. They looked ahead to nineteen thirty-two, when they would have a chance to vote for a new president. VOICE ONE:? Leaders of the Democratic Party felt they had an excellent chance to capture the White House in the election. And their hopes increased when the Republicans re-nominated President Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis in the summer of nineteen thirty-two. For this reason, competition was fierce for the democratic presidential nomination. The top candidate was Franklin Roosevelt, the governor of New York state. Roosevelt had been re-elected to that office just two years before by a large vote. He came from a rich and famous family, but was seen as a friend of the common man. Roosevelt was conservative in his economic thinking. But he was a progressive in his opinion that government should be active in helping citizens. He had suffered polio and could not walk. But he seemed to enjoy his life and his work. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt's two main opponents were Al Smith and John Garner. Smith had been the governor of New York before Roosevelt. Garner, a Texan, was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Together, they hoped to block Roosevelt's nomination. And they succeeded the first three times the delegates voted at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Roosevelt's chief political adviser, James Farley, worked hard to find Roosevelt the votes he needed at the convention. Finally, Farley found a solution. He made a deal with supporters of John Garner. Roosevelt would make Garner the vice presidential nominee if Garner's forces voted to make Roosevelt the presidential nominee. Garner agreed. And on the next vote, the Democratic delegates nominated Franklin Roosevelt to be their presidential candidate. Al Smith was so angry about the deal that he left Chicago without congratulating Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted to show the nation that he was the kind of man to take action. That he had more imagination than Hoover. So he broke tradition and flew to Chicago. It was the first time a candidate had ever appeared at a convention to accept a nomination. And Roosevelt told the cheering crowd that together they would defeat Hoover. VOICE?ONE: The main issue in the campaign of nineteen thirty-two was the economy. President Hoover defended his policies. Roosevelt and the Democrats attacked the administration for not taking enough action. Roosevelt knew that most Americans were unhappy with the Hoover administration. So his plan during the campaign was to let Hoover defeat himself. He avoided saying anything that might make groups of voters think he was too extreme. But Roosevelt did make clear that he would move the federal government into action to help people suffering from the economic crisis. He said he was for a balanced federal budget. But he said the government must be willing to spend extra money to prevent people from starving. VOICE TWO: Americans liked what they heard from Franklin Roosevelt. He seemed strong. He enjoyed life. And Roosevelt seemed willing to try new ideas, to experiment with government. Hoover attacked Roosevelt bitterly during the campaign. He warned that Roosevelt and the Democrats would destroy the American system. But Americans were tired of Hoover. They thought he was too serious, too afraid of change, too friendly with business leaders instead of the working man. Most of all, they blamed Hoover for the hard times of the Depression. On election day, Americans voted in huge numbers for Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats. Roosevelt won forty-two of the forty-eight states. The Democrats also gained a large majority in both houses of Congress. VOICE ONE: The election ended twelve years of Republican rule in the White House. It also marked the passing of a long conservative period in American political life. Franklin Roosevelt would become one of the strongest and most progressive presidents in the nation's history. He would serve longer than any other president, changing the face of America's political and economic systems. We will take a look at the beginning of his administration in our next program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In Washington, Summer Is the Season of the Interns
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue with our discussion from last week about internships for students. As we said, interns are sometimes paid. Many times they are not, but they might receive college credit for their work. Sometimes they receive neither pay nor credit. But, as interns are always told, the experience can be valuable. In the United States, many students get internships in Washington. These positions can be a chance to learn about government and business -- and a chance to meet influential people. The Washington Post reports that twenty thousand college students arrive in the capital each summer. About four thousand of them work in Congress, in the offices of representatives and senators. Others work in government agencies or nonprofit organizations or business groups. Internships in other cities offer a chance to see places like New York or Los Angeles or Chicago. But many students look for internships close to their hometowns or schools. Wherever they are, interns can tell everyone about their experiences, good or bad, by writing about them on blogs. Sometimes interns write for a Web log on the Internet site of the place where they are doing their internship. This is how we found the blogs of two interns at Red Hat, a provider of Linux computer software. The company is based in North Carolina. One of the interns, Claire Sauls, described organizing a summer computer camp for middle school students. The other, Matt Carpenter, wrote about working with different technical systems. Not everyone has a great experience as an intern. But many say they gain skills and experience they could not get in a classroom. They get to meet others with similar interests. They might also get a better sense of what they like and dislike about different jobs. And they might even find that their internship helps them get a job in the future. Finally, a programming note -- we will begin our Foreign Student series in September. These reports are for students who want information about how to attend a college or university in the United States. If you have any questions about the process, write to special@voanews.com. We can only accept general questions, and any questions we choose will be answered on our program. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can find our report from last week about internships at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. ?????????????? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Flip-Flops Gains More Footing | Presidential Retirement | Tom Petty
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Faith Lapidus. On our show this week: We answer a question about what American Presidents do after they retire … Play some music by Tom Petty … And report about a popular kind of footwear. Flip-Flops Flip-flop shoes have become very popular in the United States, mostly among young people. Steve Ember tells us about them. STEVE EMBER: Flip-flops have a flat sole and a V-shaped strap. The strap goes between the wearer’s big toe and second toe and around either side of the foot. The name flip-flop comes from the noise the shoes make while slapping against the bottom of the wearer’s foot and the ground when he or she walks. Listen to see if you recognize the sound. (SOUND) People in other countries have worn flip-flops for many years. Today, flip-flops are often made of rubber. They are popular in developing countries because of their low cost. Some flip-flips only cost about a dollar. They recently have become very popular in the United States. Many people have worn flip-flops at the beach or around the house during the summer. But now you can see young women wearing flip-flops just about everywhere. Some people wear simple ones made of rubber. But others wear flip-flops made of leather, cloth or plastic, with jewels and other materials added. Some special flip-flops even cost a lot of money. Most people find flip-flops pleasant to wear, especially this summer when it has been very hot around the country. Some young women wear their flip-flops to work instead of painful high heels. But other people think that flip-flops should be worn only at the beach and not at the office. Last summer, flip-flops were in the news in Washington, D.C. Young female athletes from Northwestern University were honored at the White House. The team had just won the national lacrosse championship. Several of the young women on the team wore flip-flops to the White House celebration. Some people in the media criticized this. Many people thought it was not right to wear such shoes to the White House. While most of the flip-flop wearers are young women, some older women wear them too. So do many young men. But other people will not wear them on city streets. They say they do not protect the foot and do not offer enough support. Some foot doctors agree. They say flip-flops have been linked to a growing number of foot problems among teenagers and young adults. Presidential Retirement Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nepal. Amrit Rai asks what American presidents do after they retire. Former Presidents continue to receive special government services and money after their presidential term ends. Each former president receives retirement pay, money to pay travel costs and money to pay the people who continue to work for them. They also get security protection for the rest of their lives. Some former presidents seem to disappear from public life. But others continue to serve the American people. Former President Jimmy Carter is well known for humanitarian work since he left office. He helps build homes for poor Americans. He also helps settle international disputes. He has served as an election observer in other countries. And he has written several books. Many people have called Mister Carter an example of a successful former president. Some experts note that public approval of Mister Carter increased several years after his defeat in the presidential election of nineteen eighty. Just the opposite happened to former president Ronald Reagan. His popularity fell after he left office. Many people criticized him for accepting an offer from a wealthy Japanese publisher to visit Japan. Mister Reagan was paid about two million dollars to make a few appearances there. In nineteen ninety-four, Mister Reagan announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. He died ten years later. Former President Gerald Ford has made few public appearances since leaving office. Former President George Bush has done the same. Recently, however, he and former President Bill Clinton have traveled together to places in need of aid following natural disasters. They worked together to get help for the people of Thailand following the tsunami there. And they helped the people of the American Gulf coast following the storm known as Hurricane Katrina. Bill Clinton is one of the most active former presidents. He makes speeches around the world. He wrote a best-selling book about his life. And he has a foundation that supports many humanitarian causes. These include providing low cost medicines for people with H.I.V and AIDS around the world. Tom Petty HOST: Rock musician Tom Petty has just released a third record under his own name. It is called “Highway Companion.”? His band, the Heartbreakers, was not part of this album. Katherine Cole tells us more about Petty’s latest effort in his thirty years of making music. KATHERINE COLE: Critics say many of the songs on “Highway Companion” are about being lost in the world and looking for something to hold on to. Petty says he did not plan to create a theme-based record. But, after listening to many of the songs he recognized the idea of being alone in the world. This song combines the sounds of Z-Z Top and John Lee Hooker into a fast beat. It is called “Saving Grace.” (MUSIC) Many songs on “Highway Companion” include images of motion, travel and the road. Other songs are about love. This song is about a man trying to recapture the love of a woman. It is called “Jack”. (MUSIC) Tom Petty joined forces with Jeff Lynne to produce “Highway Companion.”? The two musicians played together in the late nineteen eighties in the band called the Traveling Wilburys. Lynne also helped produce Petty’s first solo album. In “Highway Companion,” the two musicians create a simple sound that mixes rock, country and folk music. Some critics say too many of the songs on “Highway Companion” have the same rhythm. But they agree that “Highway Companion” is worth the trip. We leave you now with another song from “Highway Companion”,? “Big Weekend.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Faith Lapidus. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Jill Moss, Erin Schiavone and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Indra Nooyi to Lead PepsiCo
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. PepsiCo this week named Indra Nooyi to become its chief executive officer on October first. The food and drink company is the world's second-largest soft drink maker, behind Coca-Cola. Miz Nooyi will join just ten other women as CEOs among the five hundred largest companies in the United States. The fifty-year-old executive was born and raised in India; she sometimes wears a traditional sari at events. She came to the United States in nineteen seventy-eight. She has graduate business degrees from Yale University and the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta. Indra Nooyi started with PepsiCo twelve years ago. She led negotiations for the purchase of Quaker Oats and also helped the company buy juice maker Tropicana. She became president and chief financial officer of PepsiCo in two thousand one. Now she will replace Steve Reinemund, who has led the company since that time. He is retiring. Under his leadership PepsiCo passed Coca-Cola last year in stock market value. [The fifty-eight-year-old Reinemund said he is leaving to?spend more time with his family.] PepsiCo had sales last year of almost thirty-three thousand million dollars. Miz Nooyi is the latest in a growing number of foreign-born executives to lead international companies based in the United States. It appears her climb has not been affected by a graduation speech she gave last year at the Columbia Business School in New York. Her statements offended some people. She talked about the United States as the "long middle finger" on a hand representing different parts of the world. Critics said she insulted the United States. PepsiCo offered an apology. PepsiCo has been expanding its foreign markets. But a dispute in her own homeland could serve as the first test for Indra Nooyi as chief executive. A group in New Delhi says PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are misleading people about the safety of their soft drinks in India. The Center for Science and Environment recently tested different drinks made by the two companies. It says the tests found high levels of pesticides in all fifty-seven bottles collected nationwide. Poisons used on farms and in homes can enter groundwater. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola say their products are safe and meet Indian and international health rules. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read and listen to archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Seeks to Continue Intelligence Program; Judge Finds It Illegal
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. A federal judge in the United States says the Terrorist Surveillance Program violates the Constitution. This is the first such ruling against the secret program approved by President Bush. The National Security Agency established the program after the attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. The program lets the agency monitor the international calls and e-mail of individuals in the United States without the need for a court order. The Justice Department is moving quickly to appeal the ruling by Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, Michigan. Her order Thursday to stop the program will not be enforced at least until she hears arguments on September seventh. The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case in January for a group including reporters, researchers and criminal defense lawyers. They say the program interferes with their work and violates free speech and privacy rights. Judge Taylor agreed. She suggested that the president acted like a king and violated the separation of powers in the Constitution. The judge is a former civil rights worker. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the court in nineteen seventy-nine. Administration officials say the surveillance program is carefully administered and has helped stop terrorist attacks. On Friday President Bush condemned the ruling. He said those who praise it do not understand the nature of the world in which we now live. The ruling came as anti-terrorism officials continued to investigate a reported plot to bomb flights from Britain to the United States. British police said last week that they had prevented a plan to carry liquid explosives onto airplanes. More than twenty suspects have been arrested in Britain. Pakistan holds several others. A British judge this week gave police several more days to question twenty-three suspects without criminal charges. The judge said two suspects could be held until Monday and the others until Wednesday. Police could ask to keep the suspects longer. A new anti-terrorism law in Britain gives police more time to hold people without charges, up to twenty-eight days. Britain strengthened its laws after the bombings last year in the London transport system. Some people say Muslim communities are being unfairly targeted under the new measures. For others, the arrests last week only added to fears about so-called homegrown terrorists. Airports in Britain and the United States increased security measures. Officials banned travelers from carrying liquids onto flights in almost all cases. Pakistani officials say they have information to suspect al-Qaida involvement behind the plot. They have suggested that it was timed to mark the fifth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks. And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake and online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Katharine Graham, 1917-2001: A Powerful Media Leader
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Katharine Graham. She was the owner and publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Katharine Meyer Graham was once described as “the most powerful woman in America.”? She was not a government official or elected representative. She owned and published the Washington Post newspaper. Under her leadership, it became one of the most important newspapers in the country. Katharine Meyer was born in New York City in nineteen seventeen. She was the daughter of Eugene and Agnes Meyer. Her father was a successful investment banker. He became an important financial official. Her family was very rich. Katharine grew up in large houses in New York and Washington. Her parents were often away from home, traveling and working. Katharine was often lonely. Katherine Meyer graduated from the University of Chicago in Illinois in nineteen thirty-eight. She got a job as a reporter for a newspaper in San Francisco, California. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-three, Eugene Meyer had bought a failing newspaper, The Washington Post. It was the least successful of five newspapers in Washington. Katharine returned to Washington and got a job editing letters to the editor of her father’s newspaper. She married Philip Graham. He was a lawyer and former assistant to two Supreme Court justices. Mister Graham soon accepted a job at his wife’s father’s newspaper. In nineteen forty-six, Eugene Meyer left the newspaper to become the first president of the World Bank. Philip Graham became publisher of The Washington Post. VOICE ONE: Mister Graham improved The Washington Post. He bought Newsweek magazine and several television stations. He also established close ties with important political leaders. However, Mister Graham treated his wife badly. He made her feel unimportant. He had a sexual relationship with a young reporter. For many years, Mister Graham suffered from mental illness. He killed himself in nineteen sixty-three. ?VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham had four children to raise and a newspaper to operate. At first, she was concerned only with finding a way to keep control of The Washington Post until her sons were old enough to supervise it. She was an insecure person. She did not think she had the ability to do an important job. She had no training in business or experience in operating a large company. In those days, it was unusual for a woman to be the head of a business. Women were expected to supervise only their homes and children. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham met with officials of The Post. She told them the paper would not be sold. She said it would remain in her family. She was elected president of The Washington Post Company. She had no idea about how to operate a newspaper. So she decided to learn. She began by hiring Benjamin Bradlee. He later became chief editor. Mister Bradlee improved the newspaper. He hired excellent reporters and editors. They began doing important investigative reporting. In nineteen sixty-nine, Missus Graham became publisher as well as president of The Washington Post Company. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen seventies, The Washington Post became famous around the world because of two major successes. In nineteen seventy-one, The New York Times newspaper started publishing secret government documents about American involvement in the Vietnam War. They were known as the Pentagon Papers. The administration of President Richard Nixon appealed to the courts to stop the publication of the documents. It said publication would endanger national security. A temporary restraining order from a federal judge stopped The New York Times from publishing the documents. VOICE ONE: Washington Post reporters also got a copy of the Pentagon Papers. They also wanted to publish the documents. Missus Graham had to decide if the paper would publish the stories and risk possible punishment by the government. The newspaper’s lawyers advised her not to publish them. Yet she decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in The Washington Post. The Supreme Court finally decided the issue. They ruled against the judge’s order restraining publication of the Pentagon Papers. That ruling was considered a major success for freedom of the press. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The next year, in nineteen seventy-two, The Washington Post had another major success reporting on a different story. Five men had been arrested after breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office building. Reporters at The Post began an intense investigation of the break-in. The Post published a series of stories by two young reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. After much investigation, the reporters linked the Watergate break-in to President Nixon and his top advisers. Their stories proved that the Nixon administration directed a plot. Its goals were to illegally gather intelligence on the Democratic Party and dishonor opponents of the president. VOICE ONE: Missus Graham supported her reporters and editors through the long Watergate investigation. The Post published the stories even though government officials threatened Missus Graham and her company. The newspaper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in nineteen seventy-three for its Watergate reporting. The next year, President Nixon resigned from office. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham was recognized around the world as an important leader in newspaper publishing. She was the first woman to head a major American company. She successfully expanded The Washington Post Company to include newspaper, magazine, broadcast and cable companies. Katharine Graham played an important role in supporting women in the workforce. More women were employed at The Post and at Newsweek magazine. Missus Graham also was active in groups seeking to improve public education in Washington. She traveled around the country to make many public speeches about news media issues. She also traveled around the world to meet with foreign leaders. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham was well known for having dinner parties at her home in Washington. She invited the most important people in the city. An invitation to one of her parties was almost as valuable as an invitation to dinner at the White House. Missus Graham was a close friend of American and world leaders. Her friends included leaders in government, media, business and entertainment. They included presidents, prime ministers and princesses. In nineteen ninety-one, Donald Graham replaced his mother as publisher and the chief official of The Washington Post Company. At that time, the company was valued at almost two thousand million dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When she was eighty years old, Katharine Graham wrote a book about her life. It was called “Personal History.”? She wrote about the struggles and tragedies of her life as well as the successes. She wrote about how she battled her own insecurities to move from a traditional job as homemaker to a position of power. Critics praised the book for its honesty. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in nineteen ninety-eight. It was extremely popular. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham died of head injuries three years later after a fall. She was eighty-four. More than three thousand people attended her funeral. They included many government and business leaders. Friends of Katharine Graham said she would be remembered as a woman who had an important influence on events in the United States and the world. They said she used her intelligence and bravery to improve the American media. And they said everyone who cares about a free press would greatly miss her. Katharine Graham once wrote: “A world without newspapers would not be the same kind of world.”? After her death, the employees of The Washington Post wrote: ”A world without Katharine Graham will not be the same at all.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Feathertop
* Byline: Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the V.O.A. Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our story today is called “Feathertop.” It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: The long cold winter was gone at last. At first the cold nights went away slowly. Then suddenly, the warm days of spring started to come. There was new life again in the earth. Things started to grow and come up. For the first time, green corn plants began to show. They pushed through the soil and could now be seen above the ground. After the long winter months, the crows, the big black birds, were hungry. And when they saw the little green plants, they flew down to eat them. Old Mother Rigby tried to make the noisy and hungry birds go away. They made her very angry. She did not want the black birds to eat her corn. But the birds would not go away. So, early one morning, just as the sun started to rise, Mother Rigby jumped out of bed. She had a plan to stop those black birds from eating her corn. Mother Rigby could do anything. She was a witch, a woman with strange powers. She could make water run uphill, or change a beautiful woman into a white horse. Many nights when the moon was full and bright, she could be seen flying over the tops of the houses in the village, sitting on a long wooden stick. It was a broomstick, and it helped her to do all sorts of strange tricks. (MUSIC) Mother Rigby ate a quick breakfast and then started to work on her broomstick. She was planning to make something that would look like a man. It would fill the birds with fear, and scare them from eating her corn, the way most farmers protect themselves from those black, pesky birds. Mother Rigby worked quickly. She held her magic broomstick straight, and then tied another piece of wood across it. And already, it began to look like a man with arms. Then she made the head. She put a pumpkin, a vegetable the size of a football, on top of the broomstick. She made two small holes in the pumpkin for eyes, and made another cut lower down that looked just like a mouth. At last, there he was. He seemed ready to go to work for Mother Rigby and stop those old birds from eating her corn. But, Mother Rigby was not happy with what she made. She wanted to make her scarecrow look better and better, for she was a good worker. She made a purple coat and put it around her scarecrow, and dressed it in white silk stockings. She covered him with false hair and an old hat. And in that hat, she stuck the feather of a bird. She examined him closely, and decided she liked him much better now, dressed up in a beautiful coat, with a fine feather on top of his hat. And, she named him Feathertop. She looked at Feathertop and laughed with happiness. He is a beauty, she thought. “Now what?” she thought, feeling troubled again. She felt that Feathertop looked too good to be a scarecrow. “He can do something better,” she thought, “than just stand near the corn all summer and scare the crows.” And she decided on another plan for Feathertop. She took the pipe of tobacco she was smoking and put it into the mouth of Feathertop. “Puff, darling, puff,” she said to Feathertop. “Puff away, my fine fellow.” It is your life.” Smoke started to rise from Feathertop’s mouth. At first, it was just a little smoke, but Feathertop worked hard, blowing and puffing. And, more and more smoke came out of him. “Puff away, my pet,” Mother Rigby said, with happiness. “Puff away, my pretty one. Puff for your life, I tell you.” Mother Rigby then ordered Feathertop to walk. “Go forward,” she said. “You have a world before you.” Feathertop put one hand out in front of him, trying to find something for support. At the same time he pushed one foot forward with great difficulty. But Mother Rigby shouted and ordered him on, and soon he began to go forward. Then she said, “you look like a man, and you walk like a man. Now I order you to talk like a man.” Feathertop gasped, struggled, and at last said in a small whisper, “Mother, I want to speak, but I have no brain. What can I say?” “Ah, you can speak,” Mother Rigby answered. “What shall you say? Have no fear. When you go out into the world, you will say a thousand things, and say them a thousand times…and saying them a thousand times again and again, you still will be saying nothing. So just talk, babble like a bird. Certainly you have enough of a brain for that.” (MUSIC) Mother Rigby gave Feathertop much money and said “Now you are as good as any of them and can hold your head high with importance.” But she told Feathertop that he must never lose his pipe and must never let it stop smoking. She warned him that if his pipe ever stopped smoking, he would fall down and become just a bundle of sticks again. “Have no fear, Mother,” Feathertop said in a big voice and blew a big cloud of smoke out of his mouth. “On your way,” Mother Rigby said, pushing Feathertop out the door. “The world is yours. And if anybody asks you for your name, just say Feathertop. For you have a feather in your hat and a handful of feathers in your empty head.” Feathertop found the streets in town, and many people started to look at him. They looked at his beautiful purple coat and his white silk stockings, and at the pipe he carried in his left hand, which he put back into his mouth every five steps he walked. They thought he was a visitor of great importance. “What a fine, noble face” one man said. “He surely is somebody,” said another. “A great leader of men.” (MUSIC) As Feathertop walked along one of the quieter streets near the edge of town, he saw a very pretty girl standing in front of a small red brick house. A little boy was standing next to her. The pretty girl smiled at Feathertop, and love entered her heart. It made her whole face bright with sunlight. Feathertop looked at her and had a feeling he never knew before. Suddenly, everything seemed a little different to him. The air was filled with a strange excitement. The sunlight glowed along the road, and people seemed to dance as they moved through the streets. Feathertop could not stop himself, and walked toward the pretty smiling young girl. As he got closer, the little boy at her side pointed his finger at Feathertop and said, “Look, Polly! The man has no face. It is a pumpkin.” Feathertop moved no closer, but turned around and hurried through the streets of the town toward his home. When Mother Rigby opened the door, she saw Feathertop shaking with emotion. He was puffing on his pipe with great difficulty and making sounds like the clatter of sticks, or the rattling of bones. “What’s wrong?” Mother Rigby asked. “I am nothing, Mother. I am not a man. I am just a puff of smoke. I want to be something more than just a puff of smoke.” And Feathertop took his pipe, and with all his strength smashed it against the floor. He fell down and became a bundle of sticks as his pumpkin face rolled toward the wall. “Poor Feathertop,” Mother Rigby said, looking at the heap on the floor. “He was too good to be a scarecrow. And he was too good to be a man. But he will be happier, standing near the corn all summer and protecting it from the birds. So I will make him a scarecrow again.” (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have heard the American story, “Feathertop.” It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. The producer was Lawan Davis. Listen again next week at this time for another American story in V.O.A. Special English. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Couch Potato: Life as a Full-time Television Watcher
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time. For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a “couch potato.”?? A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television. Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen-seventy-six. Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government. Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher. It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”? Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as “mouse potatoes” enjoy working on computers. A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen. The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen-ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers. Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get “cabin fever.”? A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city. People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time. Cabin fever is not really a disease. However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes. This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed. Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live. This is called “nesting” or “cocooning.”? Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change. Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife. So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too. The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago. They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things. These people then had children. Now these children are grown and have “left the nest.”? They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away. Now these parents are living alone without children in their “empty nest.”? They have become “empty nesters.” (MUSIC)? ??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Cooking Meals With the Sun for Fuel
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day. It is often difficult to find wood for the fire. People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel. However, there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun. Solar cookers, or ovens, have been used for centuries. A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in seventeen sixty-seven. Today, people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world. People use solar ovens to cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms. There are three kinds of solar ovens. The first is a box cooker. It is designed with a special wall that shines or reflects sunlight into the box. Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top of the cooker. A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food. The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker. It includes several flat walls, or panels, that directly reflect the sun’s light onto the food. The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat energy. People can build panel cookers quickly and with very few supplies. They do not cost much. In Kenya, for example, panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars. The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic cooker. It has rounded walls that aim sunlight directly into the bottom of the oven. Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens. However, these cookers are hard to make. They must be re-aimed often to follow the sun. Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and eye injuries if they are not used correctly. You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper. They will not catch fire. Paper burns at two hundred thirty-two degrees Celsius. A solar cooker never gets that hot. Solar ovens cook food at low temperatures over long periods of time. This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other things. To learn more about solar cooking, you can write to Solar Cookers International. The address is nineteen nineteen Twenty-First Street, Sacramento, California, nine-five-eight-one-four, USA. Or you can visit the group’s Internet Web site. The address is w-w-w-dot-s-o-l-a-r-c-o-o-k-i-n-g-dot-o-r-g. (www.solarcooking.org). VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: MTV at 25: How 'Music Television' Changed Its Tune With the Times
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Some people love it. Some think it ruins young minds. And some remember the days when it was all music. This week our subject is twenty-five years of Music Television -- better known as MTV. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: MTV arrived in the early morning hours of August first, nineteen eighty-one. At one minute after twelve it played "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. MTV was one of the first specialized channels on American television. People could watch artists perform popular songs in videos. The network played music videos all day long. But at first only a few thousand people could watch MTV. It was offered on cable television only in New Jersey. Even the people who worked at MTV had to go to New Jersey if they wanted to see it on television. VOICE TWO: In its early years, MTV was a lot like radio with pictures. Radio stations had DJs, disk jockeys; MTV had VJs, video jockeys. The VJs spoke to the audience between videos. Twenty-five years ago, the music industry did not produce a great many videos. Some people got tired of seeing MTV play the same ones over and over again. Also, some people criticized MTV in its early years because it rarely showed videos by black artists. The network said there were very few choices. In any case, the situation began to change with help from an unusual video. It appeared for the first time in December of nineteen eighty-three. VOICE ONE: Most videos showed rock bands singing and playing instruments. But this one was made to look like a scary movie, complete with zombies risen from the dead. A young man leads the zombies in dance as he sings -- and becomes one of the undead himself. The young man was Michael Jackson. And this was the video for the title song of his album "Thriller."? It was fourteen minutes long, more like a short film than a video. Hollywood movie director John Landis helped create it. The costly effort showed that videos were becoming an important part of the music industry. The video helped make "Thriller" one of the top-selling albums of all time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some musical artists were less than thrilled with the video success of performers like Michael Jackson and Madonna. They thought MTV made the music industry too centered on looks and image and not enough on making good songs. (MUSIC) One band that criticized MTV was the Dead Kennedys. In nineteen eighty-five they had a song called "MTV – Get off the Air." (MUSIC) Some other bands chose not to make videos. This was their way to protest the influence of MTV. But MTV became more and more popular. VOICE ONE Rock stars were not the only people to criticize MTV. Since the beginning, many people saw it as a bad influence on children. They said MTV showed a world without morals or values and full of sex and drugs. From the beginning, MTV edited bad words out of songs and would not show some kinds of images. Then, in the nineteen nineties, it began to do more about its own image. MTV created new programs and campaigns to inform young people about serious issues. There were shows about AIDS, poverty, racism, and violence at home. VOICE TWO: MTV also began to urge young people to vote and expanded its political reporting. In nineteen ninety-four, President Bill Clinton answered questions from a group of young people on MTV. There were thoughtful questions, but one teenager asked him about his choice of underwear: boxers or briefs. "Usually briefs," the president answered. VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-one, MTV began a show called "The Real World."? "The Real World" brought seven young people to live together in New York and have their lives videotaped. The success of the show helps explain the current popularity of reality programs on television. "The Real World" also started a trend on MTV. Instead of showing mostly music videos, it began to show more of other kinds of programming. These included not only reality shows but also cartoons and game shows. Today, MTV shows many more hours of these programs than it does of music videos. But every year MTV honors the best music videos. The two thousand six MTV Video Music Awards will be presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York on August thirty-first. VOICE TWO: MTV is a group of networks owned by Viacom, a major media company in the United States. MTV produces programs in many different languages and in many different countries. Some shows have worldwide popularity -- like the reality show "Pimp My Ride."? The host is the rapper and actor known as Xzibit. Average people are chosen to have their cars made to look really showy. VOICE ONE: Not everyone is happy with the way MTV has changed. Many older fans would like to see less of shows like "Pimp My Ride" and more of the music television that gave MTV its name. They say things like, "Remember when there was music on MTV?" You can still find music on the different MTV channels and networks. You can also find programs about how famous musicians live, or lived, their lives. Some people like to say that MTV today is no better or worse than it used to be, only different. VOICE TWO: MTV has been setting up operations outside of the United States for years. It now broadcasts in more than one hundred and sixty other countries. MTV studies what is popular in each new country it enters. This research helps guide local programs. For example, more people in Germany ride bicycles than drive cars. So, instead of "Pimp My Ride," the German MTV has a show called "Pimp My Bicycle." VOICE TWO: Within the United States, MTV offers a number of specially targeted channels. For example, MTV Desi brings music and culture from India to people of Indian ancestry in the United States. VOICE ONE: Yet some people are uneasy with the idea of programs created for just one group. They worry about cultural fragmentation. They say common culture is breaking into smaller pieces because people have less in common than they used to. MTV is not the only broadcaster with narrowly targeted programming. And people can debate the influence of entertainment shows. Are they more a cause or an effect of changes in culture??? But such issues are probably deeper than most people want to think of when they turn on the television. In the past, many teenagers watched MTV to see what music was popular. Today, they watch to see what activities, cars and clothes are cool. In the past, many parents objected to some of the music videos shown on MTV. Today, they still object to the videos -- along with the activities, the cars and the clothes. So someone could argue that MTV still brings people together. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? Over the past twenty-five years, MTV has presented everything from dancing zombies to discussions of the president’s underwear. It has survived criticism and changing music tastes and expanded around the world. MTV has succeeded in reinventing itself from an all-music network to something completely different. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Sarah Randle and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can download transcripts and listen to our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. And please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Women Are Able to Read More in a Man's Face Than He Might Think
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:? And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week -- learn about three separate studies that all involve faces. One has to do with facial blindness -- scientists have found that this disorder is more common than they thought ... VOICE ONE: The second study examines the ability of women to read a man's face ... VOICE TWO: And the third compares the ability of men and women to look at a face and recognize different emotions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people never forget a face. Some never remember them. Facial blindness is the inability to recognize the faces of people you have seen in the past or even recently. The scientific name for this condition is prosopagnosia. Facial blindness can happen in rare cases after a stroke or a brain injury. There is also a genetic form which scientists have considered even rarer. But a new study suggests that the congenital form of facial blindness is much more common than researchers have believed. And the scientists say the findings provide evidence that this disorder almost always runs in families. VOICE TWO: A team led by researchers at the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Muenster, in Germany, did the study. They tested almost seven hundred students from local schools. The students answered a series of questions to identify if they had facial blindness. The researchers found that seventeen students had the condition. Fourteen of those students agreed to have their family members also take part in the study. The researchers found that each one of the fourteen had at least one immediate family member with facial blindness. The scientists published the first report on how common the disorder is. The report appeared recently in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. An abnormality in a single gene is believed to cause this condition. The scientists have not yet found the gene. VOICE ONE: Many people with facial blindness recognize close family members. But they can find it difficult to follow along with things like television shows because they do not recognize the actors’ faces. In extreme cases, people cannot even recognize their own face in a picture of a group. Some people with facial blindness avoid social situations. Others use excuses like they need new glasses. No cure is known for facial blindness. People who have it usually develop other methods to recognize people. They pay close attention to other details, like voices, clothing, body shape or the way a person walks. There is a Web site where you can learn more about facial blindness. The site is operated by research centers at Harvard University in the United States and University College London. The address is faceblind.org. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The next study we look at examines the ability of women to tell some things about a man just by looking at him. This recent study found that a man's face can tell a woman if he is interested in children. The researchers say women are also able to rate the amount of male sex hormone that a man has just by reading his face. The research took place at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. VOICE ONE: A group of twenty-nine female students at the California school looked at photographs of men’s faces. The young women had to rate what they believed to be the men's interest in children and their manliness. The women also had to rate their own interest in each man. The women were asked if they would be interested in the man as a short-term lover or a long-term partner. The men in the pictures came from different ethnic backgrounds and were told to have a neutral expression. Researchers in Chicago used thirty-nine male college students in the study. They tested them to see how much they liked children. The young men looked at pictures of babies and adults and had to say which pictures interested them more. Five showed no interest in the babies. Some showed little or no interest in the adults. The scientists also tested saliva from the men to measure how much testosterone each man had. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the results from the women and the men. The women were able to tell from the photos of the men which ones had high testosterone levels and which ones liked children the most. Twenty of the twenty-nine women correctly identified the men who liked babies. And nineteen of the women correctly identified the men who showed the least interest in children. So what about when it came to choosing which men appealed most to the women?? The study found that the women were more interested in men with high testosterone levels for short-term relationships. The women considered these men to look more masculine. Earlier research has suggested that a well-defined jaw and thick facial hair are among the signals of high testosterone levels. The men more likely to be chosen for long-term relationships were those who appeared to like children. The men seen as most interested in children were the same ones who had expressed the most interest in children in the picture test. VOICE ONE: Some people might not find these results all that surprising. But the researchers were surprised at how well women can judge testosterone levels and interest in children. Still, they are not sure what it is exactly about men’s faces or their expressions that signal these things to women. Five female graduate students also looked at the pictures of the men. These women had to rate how happy or angry the men looked. The men who were more interested in babies were more likely to be rated as looking happy. In any case, the researchers say they found no connection between how much testosterone a man had and how much he liked babies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A third recent study looked at the way people recognize emotion in facial expressions. For this study, researchers showed pictures of faces to seventy-eight men and seventy-eight women. Each face expressed one of six emotions. These were anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise. The researchers asked the study group to identify the different expressions. They also noted the amount of time it took each person to identify the emotion. The researchers found that anger was the emotion most quickly recognized, a fact that has also been shown in earlier studies. They also found the men were especially quick to identify the faces of angry males. The women were quicker to recognize other expressions, like happiness or sadness. VOICE ONE: The researchers believe their study provides evidence that skills for identifying facial expressions have developed differently in men and women. Men were more likely to face a deadly threat from another man than from a woman. So being able to quickly identify the face of an angry man would have been helpful for survival. Scientists from the United States and Australia led the study. The findings appeared in Current Biology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Finally we have one more study to tell you about. This one involves people who at times become uncontrollably angry. Scientists call it intermittent explosive disorder. They say it is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and at the University of Chicago did the study. They used information from a study of more than nine thousand adults in the United States. They say intermittent explosive disorder is "much more common" than has been recognized. They say it affects as many as seven percent of adults at some point in their lifetimes, depending on how widely it is defined. Doctors say it is made worse for some by stress from bad drivers, crowded roads and busy lives. The findings appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry. More than eighty percent of the people with the disorder also had depression, anxiety or problems with drugs or alcohol. ?But less than thirty percent were ever treated for their anger. The researchers suggest that early treatment of anger might prevent some of the other disorders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Experts Say Water Shortages Affect One-Third of World Population
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A new report says one-third of all people in the world face some form of water shortage. Experts had warned this would happen -- but not until two thousand twenty-five. Sometimes the shortages are caused by too much water use. Groundwater levels fall; rivers get drier and drier. Other times the water is there, but communities do not have the resources to get enough. The report is called the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture. It was released Monday at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. The report examines fifty years of policies and practices in water use and development in agriculture. Seven hundred experts around the world gathered the information over the past five years. Farming uses a lot of water, but it may be surprising just how much. Seventy-four percent of all freshwater used goes to agriculture. Industry uses eighteen percent. Communities use only eight percent. Where the water is stored may also be surprising. Sixty-five percent of all freshwater is held in soil, the result of rain. Thirty-five percent is in rivers and lakes and in aquifers deep underground. The researchers call for more productive use of rainwater. Seventy percent of all cropland depends on rain. Capturing rainwater and using plowing methods that save water are two ways to make better use of each liter of rain that falls. The report identifies areas where better use of water could do the most good. These include poor areas. Investments in water resources could help at least eight hundred million people who depend on farming but have limited water supplies. The report says areas where competition for water is high -- like Egypt, Pakistan and China -- also need more productive methods of water use. Irrigation projects in undeveloped areas can change local economies. And, finally, developed areas where water resources have been overused need new plans to limit decreasing supplies. The report says better use of water through irrigation has helped to increase grain productivity and economic growth. But world demand for food is expected to almost double by two thousand fifty as the population grows. That means farmers will need to do even more to use water productively. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can read and hear our reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'That’s One Small Step …': The Story of the First Humans to Walk on the Moon
* Byline: 

 EXPLORATIONS?-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) (SOUND: Apollo Eleven Countdown) A rocket launch countdown. A common sound in the nineteen sixties. But this was not just another launch. It was the beginning of an historic event. It was the countdown for Apollo Eleven -- the space flight that would carry men to the first landing on the moon. (SOUND: Countdown Continues) The ground shook at Cape Kennedy, Florida the morning of July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine. The huge Saturn Five rocket moved slowly up into the sky. It rose perfectly. Someone on the launch crew spoke the words, "Good luck. And Godspeed. " Today, Steve Ember and Dick Rael tell the story of the flight of Apollo Eleven. VOICE ONE: In the spacecraft at the top of the speeding rocket were three American astronauts whose names soon would be known around the world: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spacecraft. He was a test pilot. He had flown earlier on one of the two-man Gemini space flights. Armstrong was a calm person, a man who talked very little. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was pilot of the moon lander vehicle. The astronauts gave it the name Eagle. Aldrin had flown on the last of the Gemini flights. He also was a quiet man, except when he talked about space. Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module vehicle, Columbia. He also had made a Gemini flight. He would wait in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored the surface. Collins was very popular and always ready with a smile. VOICE TWO: Two-and-one-half minutes after the Apollo Eleven launch, the first-stage rocket separated from the spacecraft. Twelve minutes later, the spacecraft reached orbit. Its speed was twenty-nine thousand kilometers an hour. Its orbit was one hundred sixty-five kilometers above the Earth. This was the time for the crew to test all the spacecraft systems. Everything worked perfectly. So, the NASA flight director told them they were "go" for the moon. They fired the third-stage rocket. It increased the speed of the spacecraft to forty thousand kilometers an hour. This was fast enough to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity. Apollo Eleven was on its way to the moon. In seventy-seven hours, if all went well, Apollo Eleven would be there. VOICE ONE: Halfway to the moon, the astronauts broadcast a color television program to Earth. The broadcast showed how the astronauts lived in the spacecraft. It showed their instruments, food storage, and details of how they moved and worked without gravity to give them weight. The television broadcast also showed the Earth behind Apollo Eleven. And it showed the moon growing larger in the blackness ahead. As hours passed, the pull of the moon's gravity grew stronger. Near the moon, the astronauts fired rockets to slow the spacecraft enough to put it into moon orbit. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eleven circled the moon while the crew prepared for the landing. Finally, spacecraft commander Armstrong and NASA flight controllers agreed it was time to separate the lander module "Eagle" from the command module "Columbia." Armstrong and Aldrin moved through the small opening between the two spacecraft. Then they moved Eagle away from Columbia. Armstrong reported, "The Eagle has wings!" The lunar module was ready. Men were about to land on the moon. On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixon gave federal government workers the day off to watch the moon landing on television. Around the world, five hundred million people watched the television report. Countless millions more listened on their radios. VOICE ONE: Armstrong and Aldrin fired the lander rocket engine. The firing slowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. It was in an area known as the "Sea of Tranquility." The lunar lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward the airless surface of the moon. One hundred forty meters from the surface, the astronauts took control of the lander from the computer. They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing. The voices of Aldrin and Armstrong could be heard in short messages. "Forward. . . Forward. . . Good. Forty feet. Kicking up some dust. Big shadow. Drifting to the right a little. Contact light. Okay. Engine stop. " Armstrong reported, "Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed!" VOICE TWO: NASA's plan had called for the astronauts to test instruments, eat and then rest for four hours before leaving the Eagle. But Armstrong and Aldrin asked to cancel the four-hour sleep period. They wanted to go out onto the moon as soon as they could get ready. NASA controllers agreed. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult -- in Eagle's small space -- to get into space suits that would protect them on the moon's surface. VOICE ONE: Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door. Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At two hours fifty-six Greenwich Mean Time on July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon. "That’s one small step for man," he said, "One giant leap for mankind." The world could see the history-making event on television. But the man who was closest to what was happening, Michael Collins, could only listen. He was orbiting the moon in the command module Columbia. It did not have a television receiver. VOICE TWO: Armstrong moved carefully away from the Eagle. He left the cold, black shadow of the lander and stepped into the blinding white light of the sun. On Earth, all was quiet. No sound came from televisions or radios. No one felt able to talk about what was happening. Armstrong began to describe what he saw. "The surface appears to be very, very fine grain, like a powder. I can kick it loosely with my toes. I can see footprints of my boots in the small, fine particles. No trouble to walk around.” VOICE ONE: Aldrin appeared on the ladder. Down he came, very slowly. Soon, both men were busy placing experiments to be left behind on the moon. They collected more than thirty kilograms of rock and soil to take back to Earth. They moved easily and quickly, because the moon's gravity is six times less than Earth's. Hours passed. Too soon, it was time to return to the Eagle. Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the lander. They rested for a while. Then they began to prepare to launch the lander for the return flight to the orbiting command module. VOICE TWO: Listeners on Earth heard the countdown from Tranquility Base. "Three, two, one. . . first stage engine on ascent. Proceed. Beautiful. Twenty-six. . . thirty-six feet per second up. Very smooth, very quiet ride." Eagle was flying. Man had been on the moon for twenty-one and one-half hours. Eagle moved into the orbit of the command module. It connected with Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined Collins in the command ship. They separated from Eagle and said good-bye to it. The lander had done its job well. VOICE ONE: Eight days after it started its voyage to the moon, Apollo Eleven splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Left behind on the moon were the footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin, an American flag and scientific equipment. Also left forever on the moon is a sign with these words: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon -- July, nineteen sixty-nine A. D. We came in peace for all mankind. " (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Dick Rael. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo space flight program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: W.H.O. Says 4 Million Health Workers Are Needed to Fight AIDS
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The sixteenth International AIDS Conference ended Friday in Toronto, Canada. All week there was discussion of the need to do more to prevent H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Speakers called for educating and empowering women to give them more control over their bodies. The delegates also discussed research on male circumcision as a possible way to reduce the spread of H.I.V. Early studies have suggested that the removal of the foreskin from the penis may reduce the risk of infection. But AIDS experts say they are waiting for results from additional studies to confirm these findings. Delegates also heard calls to speed up the development of microbicide gels to help protect women against H.I.V. during sex. Scientists say an effective microbicide appears to be five to seven years away. But even a partially effective product could cut the number of new infections. Research also continues on a vaccine to protect against the virus. On another issue, critics of South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang called for her to resign. They say she continues to support traditional treatments like beetroot, garlic and lemon over antiretroviral drugs. These drugs are designed to suppress the growth of H.I.V. The government of President Thabo Mbeki started to supply antiretroviral drugs a few years ago. But critics say only a small percentage of those in need receive them. AIDS has claimed more than two million lives in South Africa. Stephen Lewis, the outgoing United Nations special representative for AIDS in Africa, spoke at the close of the conference. Mister Lewis called South Africa's actions "wrong, immoral and indefensible."? South African health officials rejected his statements. The World Health Organization wants everyone who needs antiretroviral drugs to receive them by two thousand ten. But its acting chief, Anders Nordstrom, said countries hit hardest by AIDS face a growing shortage of health care workers. The health agency estimates that more than four million health workers are needed to help the world deal with AIDS. This issue will likely be discussed in detail at the next International AIDS Conference in two thousand eight in Mexico City. Scientists identified the first cases of AIDS twenty-five years ago. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jill Moss. Transcripts and archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 'Islamofascism': Dusting Off an Old Name for a New Form of Extremism
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: extremism by any other name. RS: The term "Islamofascism," or "Islamic fascists," has prompted some debate. We were curious how the term fascism originated and how political scientists define it. AA: So we called Manus Midlarsky, a Rutgers University professor who studies war and extremism. MANUS MIDLARKSY: "It's originally Italian. It comes from the word 'fasci,' which is plural for bundle or group. It originally comes from the sign of authority of the Roman magistrate, of a bundle of rods together with an ax in the middle, carried forward anytime the magistrates met -- and more recently, in the late nineteenth century, got to mean certain radical groups, bundles of people, or groups of people who were gathering for certain political purposes. "Mussolini, in particular, led the Fasci de Combattimento, which was a group of ex-servicemen from World War One in the early nineteen twenties. That became the basis for the fascist movement and then the Fascist Party that governed Italy until nineteen forty-three." AA: "I suppose most people tend to associate the term fascism with the Nazis from Germany from World War Two. So how did they come into it?" MANUS MIDLARKSY: "Partly out of the alliance with Italy during World War Two. Some scholars differentiate between fascism and Nazism. I think these days most agree that Nazism is a form of fascism, meaning that the state is supreme and that the individual is subject to the dictates of the state. "Moreover, there's extreme nationalism in the case of both Italian fascism and German Nazism -- and in the case of Nazism, of course, racism. And all forms of fascism, Nazism and extremism have a collective imperative -- that is, the collectivity takes precedence over the individual -- and arrogate themselves the right to commit mass murder if necessary to effect their political program." RS: "How has the movement evolved in a modern context?" MANUS MIDLARKSY: "I don't think that fascism as we understood it in the inter-war period or during World War Two for Italy or Germany has evolved. What's really happened most recently is President Bush's and other high officials' use of the term Islamofascism or Islamic fascism, especially after the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, and I think that is where the evolution is found today." RS: "What is, or how is President Bush using this term Islamic fascism -- what did he mean when he said those words?" MANUS MIDLARKSY: "I think he meant extremism, and one quality of extremist movements is that they tend to hark back to an earlier time. I believe President Bush used this example -- they want to re-establish the Caliphate, where the Caliphate was the seat of Islamic rule over the Middle East and beyond, and it was terminated by Kamal Ataturk in Turkey in the early nineteen twenties. And Osama bin Laden, in particular, wants to resurrect that. He has stated so openly. Other radical Islamist groups also have that goal." AA: "So do you think then that as a scholar of extremism, that this is an appropriate term?" MANUS MIDLARKSY: "I don't think Islamic fascism is an appropriate term. I think extremism is an appropriate term, because they do allow themselves to kill large numbers as we saw on 9/11 and the more recent, apparently al-Qaida-linked plot with the British-born Muslims that were arrested recently in the London area. So I would not be comfortable with the term Islamic fascism, but I would be comfortable with the term 'radical Islamism' or 'Islamic extremism' -- which uses the religion in a distorted way to justify extreme acts such mass killing." AA: "Just for technical reasons, or why?" MANUS MIDLARKSY: "Fascism was a European phenomenon. Now we've got a surge of something else that looks like it, it has certain similarities with it. But, in the final analysis, it is religion-based. Fascism was not based on any religious ideas; neither was Nazism. Both were anti-Christian, of course anti-Jewish -- anti- virtually any religion." RS: "I hear what you're saying there. However, do you feel that the use of 'fascism' in American English is really substituting for the word 'extremism.'" MANUS MIDLARKSY: "To a certain extent, yes. It's almost like a curse word: 'You're a fascist.' For that reason, it becomes a term of -- almost a term of hate, really. And that's another reason I like to avoid it, because you want to keep these things as emotion-free as you possibly can, I think, in order to reach some sort of settlement." AA: Rutgers University Professor Manus Midlarsky is working on his next book, "The Origins of Political Extremism: Fascism, Communism and Radical Islamism." He will be discussing this topic at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association which opens next week in Philadelphia. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Send e-mail to word@voanews.com, and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'That’s One Small Step': The Story of the First Humans on the Moon
* Byline: 

 EXPLORATIONS?-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (SOUND) A rocket launch countdown. A common sound in the nineteen sixties. But this was not just another launch. It was the beginning of an historic event. It was the countdown for Apollo Eleven -- the space flight that would carry men to the first landing on the moon. The ground shook at Cape Kennedy, Florida the morning of July sixteenth, nineteen sixty-nine. The huge Saturn Five rocket moved slowly up into the sky. It rose perfectly. Someone on the launch crew spoke the words, "Good luck. And Godspeed. " Today, Steve Ember and Dick Rael tell the story of the flight of Apollo Eleven. VOICE ONE: In the spacecraft at the top of the speeding rocket were three American astronauts whose names soon would be known around the world: Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spacecraft. He was a test pilot. He had flown earlier on one of the two-man Gemini space flights. Armstrong was a calm person, a man who talked very little. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was pilot of the moon lander vehicle. The astronauts gave it the name Eagle. Aldrin had flown on the last of the Gemini flights. He also was a quiet man, except when he talked about space. Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module vehicle, Columbia. He also had made a Gemini flight. He would wait in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored the surface. Collins was very popular and always ready with a smile. VOICE TWO: Two-and-one-half minutes after the Apollo Eleven launch, the first-stage rocket separated from the spacecraft. Twelve minutes later, the spacecraft reached orbit. Its speed was twenty-nine thousand kilometers an hour. Its orbit was one hundred sixty-five kilometers above the Earth. This was the time for the crew to test all the spacecraft systems. Everything worked perfectly. So, the NASA flight director told them they were "go" for the moon. They fired the third-stage rocket. It increased the speed of the spacecraft to forty thousand kilometers an hour. This was fast enough to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity. Apollo Eleven was on its way to the moon. In seventy-seven hours, if all went well, Apollo Eleven would be there. VOICE ONE: Halfway to the moon, the astronauts broadcast a color television program to Earth. The broadcast showed how the astronauts lived in the spacecraft. It showed their instruments, food storage, and details of how they moved and worked without gravity to give them weight. The television broadcast also showed the Earth behind Apollo Eleven. And it showed the moon growing larger in the blackness ahead. As hours passed, the pull of the moon's gravity grew stronger. Near the moon, the astronauts fired rockets to slow the spacecraft enough to put it into moon orbit. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eleven circled the moon while the crew prepared for the landing. Finally, spacecraft commander Armstrong and NASA flight controllers agreed it was time to separate the lander module "Eagle" from the command module "Columbia." Armstrong and Aldrin moved through the small opening between the two spacecraft. Then they moved Eagle away from Columbia. Armstrong reported, "The Eagle has wings!" The lunar module was ready. Men were about to land on the moon. On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixon gave federal government workers the day off to watch the moon landing on television. Around the world, five hundred million people watched the television report. Countless millions more listened on their radios. VOICE ONE: Armstrong and Aldrin fired the lander rocket engine. The firing slowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. It was in an area known as the "Sea of Tranquility." The lunar lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward the airless surface of the moon. One hundred forty meters from the surface, the astronauts took control of the lander from the computer. They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing. The voices of Aldrin and Armstrong could be heard in short messages. "Forward. . . Forward. . . Good. Forty feet. Kicking up some dust. Big shadow. Drifting to the right a little. Contact light. Okay. Engine stop. " Armstrong reported, "Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed!" VOICE TWO: NASA's plan had called for the astronauts to test instruments, eat and then rest for four hours before leaving the Eagle. But Armstrong and Aldrin asked to cancel the four-hour sleep period. They wanted to go out onto the moon as soon as they could get ready. NASA controllers agreed. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult -- in Eagle's small space -- to get into space suits that would protect them on the moon's surface. VOICE ONE: Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door. Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At two hours fifty-six Greenwich Mean Time on July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon. "That’s one small step for man," he said, "One giant leap for mankind." The world could see the history-making event on television. But the man who was closest to what was happening, Michael Collins, could only listen. He was orbiting the moon in the command module Columbia. It did not have a television receiver. VOICE TWO: Armstrong moved carefully away from the Eagle. He left the cold, black shadow of the lander and stepped into the blinding white light of the sun. On Earth, all was quiet. No sound came from televisions or radios. No one felt able to talk about what was happening. Armstrong began to describe what he saw. "The surface appears to be very, very fine grain, like a powder. I can kick it loosely with my toes. I can see footprints of my boots in the small, fine particles. No trouble to walk around.” VOICE ONE: Aldrin appeared on the ladder. Down he came, very slowly. Soon, both men were busy placing experiments to be left behind on the moon. They collected more than thirty kilograms of rock and soil to take back to Earth. They moved easily and quickly, because the moon's gravity is six times less than Earth's. Hours passed. Too soon, it was time to return to the Eagle. Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the lander. They rested for a while. Then they began to prepare to launch the lander for the return flight to the orbiting command module. VOICE TWO: Listeners on Earth heard the countdown from Tranquility Base. "Three, two, one. . . first stage engine on ascent. Proceed. Beautiful. Twenty-six. . . thirty-six feet per second up. Very smooth, very quiet ride." Eagle was flying. Man had been on the moon for twenty-one and one-half hours. Eagle moved into the orbit of the command module. It connected with Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined Collins in the command ship. They separated from Eagle and said good-bye to it. The lander had done its job well. VOICE ONE: Eight days after it started its voyage to the moon, Apollo Eleven splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Left behind on the moon were the footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin, an American flag and scientific equipment. Also left forever on the moon is a sign with these words: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon -- July, nineteen sixty-nine A.D. We came in peace for all mankind. " (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Dick Rael. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo space flight program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 1933: An Angry Nation Puts Its Hopes in President Roosevelt
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Americans voted for Democratic candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt in large numbers in the presidential election of nineteen thirty-two. They were tired of the policies of Republican President Herbert Hoover. They thought Hoover had done too little to fight the terrible Economic Depression. And they welcomed Roosevelt's call that the federal government should become more active in helping the common man. The election brought hope to many Americans in the autumn of nineteen thirty-two. VOICE TWO: But Roosevelt did not become president until March nineteen thirty-three, four months after the election. And those months saw the American economy fall to its lowest level in the history of the nation. President Hoover tried to arrange a world economic conference. And he called on President-elect Roosevelt to join him in making conservative statements in support of business. Roosevelt refused. He did not think it was correct to begin acting like a president until he actually became the head of government. He did not want to tie himself to policies that the voters had just rejected. Congress, controlled by Democrats, also refused to help Hoover. VOICE ONE: It was a strange period, a season of uncertainty and anger. The Economic Depression was worse than ever. The lines of people waiting for food were longer than before. Angry mobs of farmers were gathering in the countryside. And the politicians in Washington seemed unable to work together to end the crisis. Hoover said: "We are at the end of our rope. There is nothing more we can do." And across the country, Americans waited -- worried, uncertain, afraid. What would the new president do? VOICE TWO: The new president was fifty-one years old. His family name was well-known to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt -- a distant family member -- had served as one of America's greatest presidents thirty years before. Franklin Roosevelt was born to a rich and important New York family. He went to the best schools: Groton, Harvard, and Columbia Law School. In nineteen-ten, he won election as a Democrat to the New York State Legislature. He showed great intelligence and political understanding as a state senator, and worked hard for other Democratic candidates. Franklin Roosevelt next served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. And in nineteen twenty, he was the Democratic Party's unsuccessful candidate for vice president. VOICE ONE: The next year, Roosevelt suffered a personal tragedy. He was sailing during a holiday with his family. Suddenly, his body became cold. He felt severe pain in his back and legs. Doctors came. But the pain got worse. For weeks, Roosevelt was forced to lie on his back. Finally, doctors discovered that Roosevelt was a victim of the terrible disease poliomyelitis. He lost control of his legs. He would never walk again. Roosevelt had always been an active man who loved sports. But now he would have to live in a wheelchair. All of his money and fame could not get him back the strength in his legs. VOICE TWO: Many Americans thought the illness would end Roosevelt's political dreams. But they were wrong. He showed an inner strength that people had never seen in him before. Roosevelt ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of New York state in nineteen twenty-eight. He won by a small number of votes. Two years later, the voters of New York re-elected Roosevelt. And they cheered his creative efforts to help citizens of the state who were suffering from the Great Depression. VOICE ONE: Franklin Roosevelt always appeared strong and friendly in public. He loved to laugh and enjoy life. But his happy face hid a strong will. Throughout his life, Roosevelt worked to improve life for the common man. And he was willing to use the power of government to do this. He thought the government had the power and responsibility to improve the life of its citizens. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt believed deeply in this. But he was less certain about the best way to do it. He believed in action and was willing to experiment with different methods. "The country demands creative experimentation," he said in his presidential campaign of nineteen thirty-two. "Above all, we must try something." Citizens across the country voted for Roosevelt in large numbers in nineteen thirty-two. They supported his calls for action to end the Depression. But no one was really sure just what this new president from New York -- this man unable to walk -- would really do after he entered the White House. VOICE ONE: Inauguration day in nineteen thirty-three began with clouds and a dark sky. Roosevelt went to church in the morning. And then he drove with President Hoover from the White House to the Capitol. Roosevelt tried to talk with Hoover as they drove. But Hoover said little. He just waved without emotion at the crowd. The two men arrived at the Capitol building. A huge crowd of people waited. Millions more Americans listened to a radio broadcast of the ceremony. The Chief Justice, Charles Evans Hughes, gave the oath of office to Roosevelt. And then the nation waited to hear what the new president would say. This is what he said: VOICE TWO: "I am sure that my fellow Americans expect me to speak openly and honestly about the present situation of our nation. This is a time to speak the truth, the whole truth. This great nation will survive, as it has survived. It will recover and become rich again. Roosevelt's inauguration at the Capitol?in 1933"So first of all, let me tell you that I believe that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. It is this nameless fear which blocks our efforts to move forward. In every dark hour of our nation's history, the people have given their support to honest, active leadership. I firmly believe that you will offer that support now, in these important days." VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's words caught the emotions of the crowd. He seemed sure of himself. He promised leadership. His whole style was different from the empty promises of wealth offered earlier by President Hoover. Roosevelt said that the most important need was to put people back to work. And he said the federal government would have to take an active part in creating jobs. Roosevelt said there were many ways to help the nation recover. But he said it would never be helped just by talking about it. "We must act," he said, "and act quickly." VOICE TWO: Roosevelt's face was strong and serious. He told the crowd that all the necessary action was possible under the American system of government. But, he warned that the Congress must cooperate with him to get the nation moving again. Then, his speech finished, Roosevelt waved to the crowd and smiled. Herbert Hoover shook his hand and left. Roosevelt rode alone through the huge crowds back to the White House. And he immediately began a series of conferences. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's inauguration speech of nineteen thirty-three was one of the most powerful and important speeches in American history. Roosevelt's speech was like an ocean wave that washes away one period of history and brings in a new one. The president seemed strong. He gave people hope. The new president promised the American people action. And action came quickly. During the next three months, Roosevelt and the Democrats would pass more major new programs than the nation had seen for many years. We will look at this beginning of the Roosevelt administration in our next program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and George Mishler. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Ohio University Accuses Engineering Graduates of Plagiarism
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Ohio University has written to forty engineering graduates about copied material in the research papers for their master's degrees. This action is a result of an investigation by a former student at the university in Athens, Ohio. In two thousand four, Thomas Matrka was a graduate student in engineering. Mister Matrka was having trouble getting approval for his master’s thesis. So he started to read the papers of graduates to get ideas. He found that some papers included words or even pages that had been copied from other research work or published books. Some of the papers were written as long as twenty years ago. A number of the graduates now work as engineers and professors. The former students are being accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism is making it appear that someone else's words or ideas are your own. Where material came from must be made clear unless the information is common knowledge. Material copied exactly is supposed to appear within quotation marks. Rules can differ about how to note sources in papers. But if copied material appears without credit, it could be considered plagiarized even if you rewrote it in your own words. All but a few of the graduates in the Ohio University investigation came from other countries. International students can arrive with limited English and limited knowledge of the rules for writing at American universities. But some of the graduates say they do not think what they did was plagiarism at all because they included the names of the authors. The copied material appeared in the literature review, the part of the paper where students discuss research done by others. Yet some of the same material appeared again and again. Critics say professors should have recognized the copying and put a stop to it. A university committee has called for the dismissal of two engineering professors. One of them is now taking legal action. He says statements by university officials have ruined him professionally. Ohio University says the graduates in many cases have agreed to rewrite their papers. That means they could possibly have to defend their research again before a committee of professors. Others can try to show that they did not plagiarize. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach and available online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Grandmother to the Nation' Celebrated in Traveling Art Show
* Byline: 

 Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about America’s capital city … Play some music that honors the city of New Orleans … And report about a new?Grandma Moses art show. Grandma Moses HOST: The American artist known as Grandma Moses did not begin painting until she was more than seventy-five years old. But her work was soon popular all over the world. Barbara Klein tells about a new show of her work. BARBARA KLEIN: The new show is at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. It is called “Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation.”? Critics say the new exhibit of thirty-eight paintings makes it clear why her work was and still is so popular. They say her colorful paintings show American life in a more simple time. Anna Mary Robertson Moses painted happy pictures of everyday life in small farming villages. Her paintings include farms, houses, mountains, fields, animals and people. Sometimes she painted the same scene many times at different times of the year -- in the snowy winter and the green summer. People say Grandma Moses painted the past as she remembered it. But not all the paintings were made from memory. Art experts say she used pictures in magazines and newspapers to help create her paintings. One of the best known of these paintings is called “Sugaring Off.”?? She painted it in nineteen forty-five. It shows people working on a snowy farm gathering and processing maple syrup from trees. “Sugaring Off” was based on a work of art by the famous artists Currier and Ives. “Sugaring Off” is one of the paintings included in the new show at the Fenimore Art Museum. Another is called “A Country Wedding,” painted in nineteen fifty-one. It shows a bride and groom and guests at an outdoor wedding in the summer. Grandma Moses began painting such pictures when the disease arthritis forced her to stop creating art with wool and other materials. She showed her paintings at county fairs and stores in New York State where she lived. An art collector from New York City saw them in a drug store window in nineteen thirty-nine. He bought ten paintings. One year later, Grandma Moses had her first art show. It was called “What a Farmer’s Wife Painted.” Grandma Moses died in nineteen sixty-one at the age of one hundred one. She had produced more than one thousand six hundred paintings in the last twenty years of her life. The exhibit in Cooperstown will travel to four other American cities next year. Washingtons HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Shafiqul Islam asks about the difference between Washington and Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., is the capital city of the United States. The city is also known simply as Washington. It was named for the country’s first president, George Washington. That story goes back to the beginning of the United States more than two hundred years ago. The states approved a constitution in seventeen eighty-eight. But they could not decide where to build the permanent capital. Northern states did not want the capital in the South because slavery existed there. The southern states did not want the capital in the North. Finally, after much negotiation, the United States Congress agreed to build the capital along the Potomac River between the states of Virginia and Maryland. The city would be built in a federal area on land provided by the two states. The city would be called Washington. The larger federal area would be named the District of Columbia. Columbia was another name for the United States, used mostly by poets and other writers. The name came from Christopher Columbus, the explorer who sailed from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to the western hemisphere.So the city became known as Washington, the District of Columbia or Washington, D.C. Many other places in the United States are named after President George Washington. They include the western state of Washington and the town of Washington, Pennsylvania. In fact, twenty-four different American states have towns named Washington. Many other townships and counties within states are also called Washington. And at least fifteen mountains in the United States are called Mount Washington. So you can find many places in the United States called Washington, but only one called Washington, D.C. The River in Reverse HOST: Rock musician Elvis Costello and rhythm and blues artist Allen Toussaint have released an album that honors New Orleans, Louisiana. Mario Ritter tells about “The River in Reverse,” and plays some of its songs. MARIO RITTER: Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint appear to be an unlikely pair. Allen Toussaint’s <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:87909| height=150 alt='Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello "The River in Reverse"' hspace=2 src="/specialenglish/images/toussaint_costello_24aug05_150_se.jpg" width=150 align=right vspace=2 border=0>professional life in music began in the late nineteen-fifties in his hometown of New Orleans. He played piano in clubs in that southern city while still a teenager. He later wrote many rhythm and blues hit songs and became a successful producer. Elvis Costello began recording in London in the late nineteen seventies. He helped build a musical bridge between punk and pop music. Later he explored many other kinds of music including classical and jazz. “The River in Reverse,” includes seven songs Toussaint wrote years ago and five new songs that he and Costello wrote together. Here is the title song, the only one Costello wrote by himself. (MUSIC: “The River in Reverse”) Many of the songs were written long before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans last year on August twenty-ninth. However, the men perform them in a way that creates a musical link to the tragedy. The old song, “Tears, Tears and More Tears,” is a good example. (MUSIC) Elvis Costello’s band, the Imposters, and the Crescent City Horns also perform on the album. Crescent City is a nickname for New Orleans. We leave you now with another song from “The River in Reverse.”? Here is Ascension Day.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: You've Got Trouble: America Online's Big Mistake With Search Data
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. How much information can people learn about you by seeing what you look for on the Internet?? Too much, say some people with Internet service from America Online. These people should know. AOL put the Internet search records of more than six hundred and fifty thousand people in a public area on part of its Web site. The records included every search these users made between March and May of this year. The company says the release was an accident. It says the records were meant for researchers. The purpose was to help them study how people use the Internet so search tools can be improved. To protect privacy, AOL used numbers instead of names to identify the users. But people who saw the records quickly recognized that some users could be identified through the details of their searches. The New York Times decided to prove it. The newspaper was able to identify one of the users as Thelma Arnold of Georgia. The sixty-two-year-old woman was surprised to get a telephone call from the reporter who found her. But she agreed to a story about her searches. Many of them, for example, involved medical conditions. Someone might think she was?very sick. In fact, in many cases, Thelma Arnold was searching for information to help friends. Still, the records from AOL show that Internet searches can tell a lot about what people are thinking. That includes things they might never want others to know they are thinking. The records could be highly useful to marketers. But some researchers say they will not use them because the information is too personal. People became angry when they learned that their searches had been made public. AOL took the information off its Web site. The company apologized and called the release "a screw-up." Some people, however, had already copied the data before AOL removed it. The World Privacy Forum and the Electronic Frontier Foundation want the Federal Trade Commission to punish AOL. Both groups say the company violated its privacy agreement with its millions of customers. AOL has promised to make changes in the company to help keep records private. The incident has cost three people their jobs, including the researcher who posted the information. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Sarah Randle. You can read and listen to archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Pluto and Dark Matter Both Star in a Busy Week for Astronomers??
* Byline: 

 Correction attached This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, there were two big developments in astronomical science. One was a decision to name Pluto a "dwarf planet." The other was the announcement earlier in the week that scientists have found direct evidence for dark matter. But they say they are still not sure what this mysterious matter is or where it comes from. Scientists have theorized about dark matter for about seventy years. The idea is that the matter we see does not have enough gravitational pull to keep galaxies together. Visible matter has been estimated to represent only about five percent of the universe. The new findings come from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. "Bullet cluster"?formed after the collision of two galaxy clusters. The blue areas?show where astronomers find most of the mass in the clusters.Hot gas observed in X-rays is seen as the pink areas, which contain most of the normal matter in the clusters.A team of scientists observed a group of galaxies that formed when two galaxy clusters smashed into each other. They call it the "bullet cluster."? It contains a bullet-shaped cloud of hot gas from a smaller cluster that passed through the hot gas from a larger one. The bullet cluster is more than three thousand million light-years away. It formed in the last one hundred million years. Scientists can observe what they believe to be dark matter only through its gravity. But the team says the crash was violent enough to break dark matter away from "normal" matter. Normal matter in galaxy clusters is mostly in the form of hot gas and stars. They call it the strongest evidence yet that most of the matter in the universe is dark. They say the observations cannot be explained by theories of gravity that remove the need for dark matter. These theories propose that gravity is stronger with huge galaxy clusters than the theories of Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein would suggest. The findings will appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Now on to Pluto. This week the International Astronomical Union met in Prague, in the Czech Republic, with the goal to officially define a planet. Scientists voted to set three requirements for a planet: It must orbit the sun. It must have enough mass so that its own gravity has formed it into a nearly round shape. And it must have cleared the area of other objects around its orbit. That is where Pluto fails: its orbit around the sun crosses paths with Neptune's. American Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in nineteen thirty. People have long debated about considering it the ninth planet in our solar system. Now Pluto will be called a dwarf planet along with at least two others: Xena and Ceres. The changes divide astronomers. But supporters say recent discoveries of large objects in the outer solar system require them. So the new model of our solar system has eight "classical" planets. The smaller, rocky worlds are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The four huge gas planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake and online at voaspecialenglish.com.This is?Shep O'Neal. --- Correction: The definition?approved by the I.A.U. refers to "planets" and "dwarf planets" but?not?to "classical." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-09-11-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Law of Life
* Byline: Written by Jack London

 ANNOUNCER:? Now, the V.O.A. Special English Program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called “The Law of Life.”? It was written by Jack London. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. STORYTELLER:? The old Indian was sitting on the snow. It was Koskoosh, former chief of his tribe. Now, all he could do was sit and listen to the others. His eyes were old. He could not see, but his ears were wide open to every sound. “Aha.” That was the sound of his daughter, Sit-cum-to-ha. She was beating the dogs, trying to make them stand in front of the snow sleds. He was forgotten by her, and by the others, too. They had to look for new hunting grounds. The long, snowy ride waited. The days of the northlands were growing short. The tribe could not wait for death. Koskoosh was dying. The stiff, crackling noises of frozen animal skins told him that the chief’s tent was being torn down. The chief was a mighty hunter. He was his son, the son of Koskoosh. Koskoosh was being left to die. As the women worked, old Koskoosh could hear his son’s voice drive them to work faster. He listened harder. It was the last time he would hear that voice. A child cried, and a woman sang softly to quiet it. The child was Koo-tee, the old man thought, a sickly child. It would die soon, and they would burn a hole in the frozen ground to bury it. They would cover its small body with stones to keep the wolves away. “Well, what of it? A few years, and in the end, death. Death waited ever hungry. Death had the hungriest stomach of all.” Koskoosh listened to other sounds he would hear no more: the men tying strong leather rope around the sleds to hold their belongings; the sharp sounds of leather whips, ordering the dogs to move and pull the sleds. “Listen to the dogs cry. How they hated the work.” They were off. Sled after sled moved slowly away into the silence. They had passed out of his life. He must meet his last hour alone. “But what was that?” The snow packed down hard under someone’s shoes. A man stood beside him, and placed a hand gently on his old head. His son was good to do this. He remembered other old men whose sons had not done this, who had left without a goodbye. His mind traveled into the past until his son’s voice brought him back. “It is well with you?” his son asked. And the old man answered, “It is well.” “There is wood next to you and the fire burns bright,” the son said. “The morning is gray and the cold is here. It will snow soon. Even now it is snowing. Ahh, even now it is snowing. “The tribesmen hurry. Their loads are heavy and their stomachs flat from little food. The way is long and they travel fast. I go now. All is well?” “It is well. I am as last year’s leaf that sticks to the tree. The first breath that blows will knock me to the ground. My voice is like an old woman’s. My eyes no longer show me the way my feet go. I am tired and all is well.” He lowered his head to his chest and listened to the snow as his son rode away. He felt the sticks of wood next to him again. One by one, the fire would eat them. And step by step, death would cover him. When the last stick was gone, the cold would come. First, his feet would freeze. Then, his hands. The cold would travel slowly from the outside to the inside of him, and he would rest. It was easy…all men must die. He felt sorrow, but he did not think of his sorrow. It was the way of life. He had lived close to the earth, and the law was not new to him. It was the law of the body. Nature was not kind to the body. She was not thoughtful of the person alone. She was interested only in the group, the race, the species. This was a deep thought for old Koskoosh. He had seen examples of it in all his life. The tree sap in early spring; the new-born green leaf, soft and fresh as skin; the fall of the yellowed, dry leaf. In this alone was all history. He placed another stick on the fire and began to remember his past. He had been a great chief, too. He had seen days of much food and laughter; fat stomachs when food was left to rot and spoil; times when they left animals alone, unkilled; days when women had many children. And he had seen days of no food and empty stomachs, days when the fish did not come, and the animals were hard to find. For seven years the animals did not come. Then, he remembered when as a small boy how he watched the wolves kill a moose. He was with his friend Zing-ha, who was killed later in the Yukon River. Ah, but the moose. Zing-ha and he had gone out to play that day. Down by the river they saw fresh steps of a big, heavy moose. “He’s an old one,” Zing-ha had said. “He cannot run like the others. He has fallen behind. The wolves have separated him from the others. They will never leave him.” And so it was. By day and night, never stopping, biting at his nose, biting at his feet, the wolves stayed with him until the end. Zing-ha and he had felt the blood quicken in their bodies. The end would be a sight to see. They had followed the steps of the moose and the wolves. Each step told a different story. They could see the tragedy as it happened: here was the place the moose stopped to fight. The snow was packed down for many feet. One wolf had been caught by the heavy feet of the moose and kicked to death. Further on, they saw how the moose had struggled to escape up a hill. But the wolves had attacked from behind. The moose had fallen down and crushed two wolves. Yet, it was clear the end was near. The snow was red ahead of them. Then they heard the sounds of battle. He and Zing-ha moved closer, on their stomachs, so the wolves would not see them. They saw the end. The picture was so strong it had stayed with him all his life. His dull, blind eyes saw the end again as they had in the far off past. For long, his mind saw his past. The fire began to die out, and the cold entered his body. He placed two more sticks on it, just two more left. This would be how long he would live. It was very lonely. He placed one of the last pieces of wood on the fire. Listen, what a strange noise for wood to make in the fire. ?No, it wasn’t wood. His body shook as he recognized the sound…wolves. The cry of a wolf brought the picture of the old moose back to him again. He saw the body torn to pieces, with fresh blood running on the snow. He saw the clean bones lying gray against the frozen blood. He saw the rushing forms of the gray wolves, their shinning eyes, their long wet tongues and sharp teeth. And he saw them form a circle and move ever slowly closer and closer. A cold, wet nose touched his face. At the touch, his soul jumped forward to awaken him. His hand went to the fire and he pulled a burning stick from it. The wolf saw the fire, but was not afraid. It turned and howled into the air to his brother wolves. They answered with hunger in their throats, and came running. The old Indian listened to the hungry wolves. He heard them form a circle around him and his small fire. He waved his burning stick at them, but they did not move away. Now, one of them moved closer, slowly, as if to test the old man’s strength. Another and another followed. The circle grew smaller and smaller. Not one wolf stayed behind. Why should he fight?? Why cling to life?? And he dropped his stick with the fire on the end of it. It fell in the snow and the light went out. The circle of wolves moved closer. Once again the old Indian saw the picture of the moose as it struggled before the end came. He dropped his head to his knees. What did it matter after all?? Isn’t this the law of life? (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have just heard the American story “The Law of Life.”? It was written by Jack London. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. Listen again next week for another American story in V.O.A. Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Roberto Clemente, 1934-1972: First Latino in Baseball Hall of Fame
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Roberto Clemente. He was one of the most honored baseball players in history. He became the first Latino baseball player to be included in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most sports players are known for how great they play a game, or how many records they break. But Roberto Clemente was loved not only for his ability in sports, but also for the kind of person that he was. Clemente was one of the first professional Latino baseball players in the United States. He became one of the best. He also worked to change the way baseball, and the country, treated racial minorities in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He stood up against racism and did not permit anyone to be treated differently in his presence. Today’s Latino baseball players say Roberto Clemente opened doors for them to reach their goals in a sport that had not always treated them equally. VOICE TWO: Roberto Clemente Walker was born in nineteen thirty-four in Carolina, Puerto Rico. Roberto’s family struggled financially. As a young boy, he helped his father, who worked on a sugar farm and also managed a store that sold food. In school, Roberto was an excellent runner. He also won awards for throwing the javelin. But more than anything, he loved playing baseball. Puerto Rico’s warm island climate made it easy for the young boy to play baseball all year. He had many skills. But his strongest quality was his powerful right arm that could throw a ball a great distance. While in high school, Roberto signed a contract to play baseball for the Santurce Crabbers in the Puerto Rican winter league. At the age of eighteen, Roberto was already hitting a baseball better than many professional players in the United States. VOICE ONE: This ability was recognized the following year. An official from the Brooklyn Dodgers team in New York City came to Puerto Rico looking for new, young players. The official, Al Campanis, was pleased with Roberto’s skill. He offered to give him a ten thousand dollar gift to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. But Roberto was unable to join the major league team because he was still in high school. The young baseball player told Mister Campanis that he would join the Brooklyn team as soon as he finished school. By the time he finished high school, Roberto had received several other offers from major league teams in the United States. One team offered him a thirty thousand dollar gift just to sign a contract agreement. Although Clemente had not signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he kept his word to the team. He refused the other offers and signed on to play for Brooklyn. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Dodgers put Roberto Clemente on one of their minor league teams where young players often begin. But soon after his first season, the Pittsburgh Pirates took Clemente for their team. Clemente began playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates in nineteen fifty-five. At the time, Clemente was still learning to speak English. In the nineteen fifties the United States was still very much divided between racial lines. Pittsburgh did not have a Latin American community at the time. Clemente, a black Puerto Rican, was shocked when he experienced racism in America. VOICE ONE: In the spring, baseball players attended training camps in the southern state of Florida. Many eating-places in the South at that time did not serve black people. So the black players on the team were forced to ask their white teammates to buy food for them. The black players would then eat on the bus that drove them to the games. Roberto Clemente had a very strong sense of self-worth. He would not let others treat him unequally. Clemente felt that having to ask his teammates for food was insulting. He later became a strong believer in the messages of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. Clemente’s work helping poor people, especially those in Puerto Rico, became a very important part of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Roberto Clemente stood out among the other players on his team. He was a strong right fielder who quickly became known for his powerful throwing and near-perfect aim. Clemente had an unusual way of hitting the baseball. He stood farther away from the pitcher than most players, and used a heavier bat than most players. He was also known as a very aggressive hitter, swinging hard and fast at almost any ball. The Pittsburgh Pirates did not do well the first few years Clemente played on the team. But by nineteen sixty, all that changed. That year, he played in the first of his twelve All-Star games. Every year, the best players from the National and American leagues compete in an All-Star game. That same year, Clemente helped his team beat the New York Yankees to win the World Series – the national baseball championship. VOICE ONE: Clemente continued to improve. He had suffered for years from pain caused by an automobile accident. Yet even with his health problems Clemente rarely missed a game. By nineteen sixty-one, he was feeling better and it showed. He hit extremely well that year and won his first batting award. Roberto Clemente was one of the best baseball players at the time. But he did not receive as much interest from the national media as other top players like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. Many people believe that was because he played for a team in a smaller city. However, Clemente’s popularity began to grow during the nineteen seventy-one World Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the series against the Baltimore Orioles. Clemente was voted the Most Valuable Player of that year’s World Series. One sports writer later described Clemente’s throwing, running and hitting during the World Series as close to the level of perfection. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Roberto Clemente was also a loving husband and father. He had married Vera Cristina Zabala in nineteen sixty-four. Together they had three sons. Clemente never forgot his Puerto Rican roots. He made sure all of his sons were born on the island. During his eighteen years in the major leagues, Clemente won many awards and helped his team win two World Series championships. In nineteen seventy-two Clemente made his three thousandth hit in the last game of the regular season. At that time, no one knew that it would be his final baseball season. VOICE ONE: During the winter of that year, Clemente returned to Puerto Rico with this family. He began to work on one of his long-time dreams – opening a sports center for the young people of San Juan. Then, on December twenty-third, a major earthquake struck Managua, Nicaragua. Thousands of people were killed. Clemente quickly organized an aid effort to help thousands of homeless earthquake victims. But he was angered by reports from the area that the Nicaraguan government was not getting the supplies to the victims. So Clemente paid for a small plane and a pilot to take supplies to Nicaragua. Clemente and four others were on that plane on December thirty-first, nineteen seventy-two. But the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take-off. Everyone on the plane was killed. Clemente’s body was never found. He was thirty-eight years old. VOICE TWO: The Baseball Writers Association of America held a special election. The usual five-year waiting period for entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame was suspended. Soon after his death, Roberto Clemente became the first Latino player to be included in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Pittsburgh Pirates also honored him in nineteen seventy-three. They removed Clemente’s number – twenty-one – from their team. That meant no other player on the team could ever wear that number. Roberto Clemente once said:? “Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.”? Clemente truly lived, and died, by those words. Some experts have called him baseball’s greatest hero. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Brianna Blake. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can download transcripts and archives of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: One Year After Katrina, Uneven Progress Marks Efforts to Rebuild
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week, our subject is the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The storm hit land three times in the final days of August of two thousand five. Its third landfall, on August twenty-ninth, was the one that caused the most damage. VOICE ONE: Katrina was blamed for about one thousand eight hundred deaths along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Property damage estimated at around seventy-five thousand million dollars made it the most costly hurricane in American history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A newly built flood wall in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward ...In the year since Hurricane Katrina, people in the affected areas have heard many promises and seen some progress. Congress and state governments have provided for thousands of millions of dollars in aid. Engineers are developing plans that they say will improve flood protection systems. And emergency officials say they are planning better ways to get people to safety. But the progress has not been enough to satisfy many of the people who lived through the storm. They say they will believe the promises when they see the results. VOICE ONE: The National Association of Community Health Centers estimates that as many as two million people had to leave their homes because of Katrina. Many found they no longer had a home or a job to return to. A year later, some are still trying to re-establish their lives. Across the affected states, progress has been uneven. Rebuilding has begun. But workers have yet to clear away many of the homes and other buildings wrecked by the storm. Thousands of people now live in temporary trailer housing provided by the government. Many homeowners are still waiting for insurance payments or government help to rebuild. Many people have left to make new lives in other places. Today, perhaps half of New Orleans appears normal or near normal. But other areas of the city look as if Katrina struck yesterday. Almost half of the public schools are still closed. Before Katrina, New Orleans had nine hospitals. Now only a few are open. Katrina was not the only problem. Hurricane Rita caused additional flooding in September. VOICE TWO: About one thousand six hundred people from the state of Louisiana died as a result of Katrina. More than two hundred thirty were killed in Mississippi. Florida, Alabama and Georgia also had victims. The remains of about fifty people are still unidentified in Louisiana. Some were found months after the storm. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the past year, investigations examined government responses to Hurricane Katrina. Rescue operations and evacuations of communities were painfully disorganized. Many thousands of people went for days without receiving food, water or medical care. Government officials blamed each other. And almost everyone blamed FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But, as one investigation put it, there was enough blame to share. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? On June first, the Army Corps of Engineers accepted responsibility for faults in the New Orleans levees. These barriers were built to protect the city which sits below sea level. The corps released a six-thousand-page report that described many problems with engineering and design of the flood protection system. Several levees failed as a result of Katrina and Rita. Water rushed through and covered everything in its path. Saltwater flowed into Lake Pontchartrain. For a while, even areas far inland looked like part of the Atlantic Ocean. In some inland areas, people are still finding pieces of boats that Katrina blew in from the Gulf of Mexico. ? ?????????????? ?????????????? ? VOICE ONE: The Army Corps of Engineers repaired the broken levees. Now the corps says it will begin a project to reduce the damage that future hurricanes might cause. The work includes adding floodgates and pump stations. The project is supposed to be finished by September of two thousand seven. The current hurricane season began June first and will continue through November. Government weather scientists say this Atlantic season probably will not be as severe as the last one. But they still expect an above-normal number of storms. The existing flood protection system is not designed for a Category Five hurricane -- the most severe. For a time Katrina had been at Category Five strength. But the storm lost some of that strength by the time it hit land southeast of New Orleans on August twenty-ninth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some parts of New Orleans were not heavily affected by Katrina. The famous entertainment area around Bourbon Street, for example, began to re-open not long after the storm. But damage was severe and widespread in some other areas of the city, including some of its poorest communities. Some people in New Orleans and other areas hit by Katrina had stayed in their homes after they were warned of the coming storm. They stayed for different reasons. Some had no transportation. Others had survived earlier hurricanes in their homes. They thought they could live through this one. Some were lucky -- they were pulled from rooftops by helicopters or rescued by boats. Others were not -- their bodies were found in the weeks and months after Katrina. VOICE ONE: In New Orleans today, the mostly black community that was the Lower Ninth Ward is almost empty. Film director Spike Lee has made a four-hour documentary on HBO television about the suffering of the Lower Ninth. "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" has received praise but also some criticism. Some people say it could give the wrong idea that mostly black people suffered in Katrina. VOICE TWO: The United States Census Bureau released its most recent population estimates for the affected Gulf Coast areas in January. The report showed that the population of New Orleans was sixty-four percent smaller than before. Only about one hundred fifty-eight thousand people were left in the city. Before the storms, two out of three people in New Orleans were black. Now the average citizen is more likely to be white, a little older and better off financially compared to the averages a year ago. Before Katrina and Rita, thirty-six percent of the people in the New Orleans metropolitan area were black. That number dropped to twenty-one percent. But Katrina increased the populations of cities like Houston, Texas, that received thousands of people needing shelter. Harry and Silvia Pulizzano search for her brother's home in Waveland, Mississippi, on Sept. 1, 2005(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American Psychological Association says many Katrina survivors suffer from depression. They are also at increased risk of drug and alcohol problems. Many displaced families moved several times after the storm. The children may have attended two or three schools, or more. Not surprisingly, some have trouble keeping their minds on their schoolwork. Katrina destroyed a large number of community medical centers that had been providing care to poor people. These centers were under pressure for resources long before the storm. Now the ones that remain do not have enough doctors and nurses. In Louisiana, community health care officials say seventy percent of local doctors and nurses have yet to return to damaged parts of the state. VOICE TWO: In some Gulf Coast communities, strong economic influences have been the driving force to rebuild. Biloxi, Mississippi, is a good example. Before Katrina, eight to ten million people each year came to Biloxi to gamble. Katrina destroyed or heavily damaged the city's famous riverboat casinos. Fifteen thousand employees had no work. Today Biloxi is recovering. Seven of its nine casinos are operating again or will soon. ?Visitors are returning. City official Vincent Creel says Biloxi has lived through hurricanes before. He tells us, "Biloxi will endure and prevail." A young woman who lives and works in New Orleans shows the same spirit about the city that people call the Big Easy. In her words, "There will always be a New Orleans." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and archives of our shows can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO:?????? And I'm Doug Johnson. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-27-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Kiva: How Anyone Can Become a Personal Lender of Microcredit
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Sometimes a small loan is a big deal. Microcredit has helped many poor people who want to develop self-employment projects into businesses. And it has helped small businesses grow so people can rise out of poverty. Today there are thousands of microlending organizations. Most depend on banks and rich supporters for the money they lend. But what about people who do not have a lot to invest but want to be socially active?? They can go through a microlender in San Francisco, California, called Kiva. Kiva means agreement or unity in Swahili. Matthew and Jessica Flannery wanted to create a way for average individuals to lend small amounts to businesses in developing nations. In two thousand four the couple spent several months in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. She worked for Village Enterprise Fund, a microlender; he was a filmmaker. They tested Kiva in Uganda in March of last year. They quickly raised money from friends and family to make loans to seven small businesses. Kiva operates through a Web site, kiva dot org -- k-i-v-a dot o-r-g. People can lend as little as twenty-five dollars at a time. And they can pay with a credit card through the PayPal system, which is processing the payments for free. The money reaches small businesses around the world through Kiva's local lending partners. These partner organizations charge interest but Kiva does not. Loans are generally for a period of six to twelve months, sometimes longer. More than four hundred entrepreneurs are in the process of repaying their Kiva loans. At least thirteen have fully repaid them. Lenders receive e-mails with progress reports about the businesses they supported. On a recent day the Kiva Web site listed twelve businesses in need. Tom Okwii, for example, is an entrepreneur in Mbale, Uganda. He needed five hundred dollars to buy chickens. Alice Wanjiku in Kiserian, Kenya, was trying to raise seven hundred fifty dollars to buy two dairy cows. The biggest Kiva loan listed to date was for two thousand dollars. The local partners are responsible for forwarding repayments every three months. People who lend money do have a risk of not being repaid. But Kiva says its repayment rate so far is one hundred percent. And it says its partners have historical repayment rates that average better than ninety-six percent. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss and online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-27-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Heart to Heart:? Let's Get to the Heart of Matter
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Each week, this program explains the many meanings of English expressions. Today’s expressions include a very important word – “heart.”? We will try to “get to the heart of the matter” to better understand the most important thing about words and their stories. So “take heart.”? Have no fear about learning new expressions. Besides, popular English words can be fun. There is no need for a “heavy heart.”? Such feelings of sadness would only “break my heart,” or make me feel unhappy and hopeless. Now, let us suppose you and I were speaking freely about something private. We would be having a “heart to heart” discussion. I might speak from “the bottom of my heart,” or say things honestly and truthfully. I might even “open up my heart” to you and tell a secret. I would speak with “all my heart,” or with great feeling. When a person shares her feelings freely and openly like this, you might say she “wears her heart on her sleeve,” or on her clothing. Her emotions are not protected. If we had an honest discussion, both of us would know that the other person’s “heart is in the right place.”? For example, I would know that you are a “kind-hearted” and well-meaning person. And, if you are a very good person, I would even say that you have “a heart of gold.”? However, you might have a “change of heart” based on what I tell you. Our discussion might cause you to change the way you feel about something. But, let us suppose you get angry over what I tell you. Or worse, you feel no sympathy or understanding for me or my situation. If this happens, I might think that you have a “heart of stone.”?? And, if you say something to make me frightened or worried, my “heart might stand still” or “skip a beat.” Yet, even though you may be angry, I would know that “at heart,” you are a kind person. In reality, you do care. And any argument between us would not cause me to “lose heart” or feel a sense of loss. “My heart goes out” to anyone who loses a friend over an argument. It really is a sad situation, and I feel sympathy for the people involved. I promise that what I have told you today is true – “cross my heart.” I really wanted to play some music at the end of this feature. In fact, “I had my heart set on it.” So here it is, a song called “Don’t Go Breaking my Heart” by Elton John. (MUSIC)??????? This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Unapproved Biotech Rice in U.S. Is Investigated
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Opponents of genetically engineered crops say they worry about possible dangers to health and the environment. Supporters of biotechnology say these crops are safe and tested before governments approve them. But unapproved crops can accidentally reach market, although such incidents are believed to be rare. American officials are now investigating a case involving rice from Bayer CropScience of Germany. The company tested the long-grain rice in fields in the United States between nineteen ninety-eight and two thousand one. Bayer never tried to market the biotech rice. So officials say they do not know how small amounts of it got into rice from last year’s crop. Bayer reported its findings to the government on July thirty-first and commented publicly on August eighteenth. The company said it was cooperating with the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Last week the Agriculture Department approved a test to find the rice in shipments. But the two agencies say, based on the scientific information they have, there are no public health or environmental concerns. Still, Japan quickly suspended imports of American long-grain rice. Japan mostly imports short- and medium-grain rice from the United States anyway. Also, the European Union will now require imports of American rice to come with statements saying they are free of the unapproved rice. This requirement will stay for at least six months. The rice was found in Arkansas and Missouri, mixed in with supplies from several states. Riceland Foods, a big marketer in Arkansas, said one of its export buyers discovered the unapproved rice in January. It says tests showed that the amounts were very small, about six kernels in ten thousand kernels of rice. The rice contains a protein, called Liberty Link, genetically engineered to resist damage from Bayer's Liberty herbicide. The chemical is used to kill weeds around crop plants. Two other kinds of rice with the same protein have been approved in the United States, although Bayer has not marketed them. But the protein is used in other products. About half of the American rice crop is exported. And about eighty percent of exports are long-grain rice. The government estimates this year’s rice crop at almost two thousand million dollars. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter and online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: From the Laboratory to the Playing Field: World of Sports Doping
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Our subject this week is sports doping. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, American runner Justin Gatlin accepted the results of a drug test from April. The test showed the presence of manufactured testosterone or other steroids. Gatlin has said he "never knowingly used any banned substance."? This was his second offense. The twenty-four-year-old runner could have faced a lifetime ban from competition. But the United States Anti-Doping Agency says Gatlin has promised to cooperate in the effort to end the use of drugs in sports. So the agency agreed to suspend him for as long as eight years. The agreement gives the Olympic gold medal winner the right to seek a reduction in that period. VOICE TWO: In May, in Qatar, Justin Gatlin equaled the world record time of Asafa Powell of Jamaica in the one hundred meter dash. Gatlin will keep that result at least for now, while he appeals his possible eight-year suspension. His first offense, in two thousand one, involved his medicine for attention-deficit disorder. The medicine contained a stimulant banned for athletes. He could have been suspended for two years. ?But officials considered the violation a mistake, so he served only a one-year suspension. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Drug tests recently showed that American cyclist Floyd Landis had unusually high levels of testosterone during the Tour de France. The results led race officials to say they no longer considered Landis the winner. The results also led one of our listeners in Nigeria, Lazarus Adumo, to ask what it means to have high levels of testosterone. Testosterone is a steroid hormone. Hormones are chemicals that help keep the body working normally. VOICE TWO: The effects of testosterone can be seen in boys when they become young men. They develop muscle power and become stronger. Testosterone is also important for other changes, like a deeper voice and the growth of body hair. Testosterone is produced in the reproductive organs and the adrenal glands. Both men and women produce testosterone. Men produce much more of it than women do. But not all males produce the same amounts. Some naturally have higher levels than others. VOICE ONE: Some people take testosterone supplements produced in a laboratory for medical purposes. But some athletes use synthetic testosterone to strengthen their muscles and improve their performance. These products are banned in many sports. Officials say tests on Landis’ urine found synthetic testosterone in addition to high levels of the kind produced naturally in the body. Landis has denied taking any synthetic testosterone. And he has said the high testosterone levels could have resulted from medicines and from drinking beer and whiskey the night before the tests. Floyd Landis is to appear before the United States Anti-Doping Agency next month to try to explain the test results. VOICE TWO: Researchers who have studied testosterone generally agree that long-term use may increase athletic performance. But they disagree about the short-term value. Also, testosterone supplements have risks. ?Most doctors agree that taking large amounts of testosterone can cause harmful effects. These include an increased risk of heart disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-nine, the International Olympic Committee held a conference that led to the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency. This all followed events at the Tour de France. In the summer of ninety-eight, police carried out a raid and found banned medical substances. After that, the International Olympic Committee led efforts to create an independent agency to set and enforce common anti-doping rules. The agency has representatives from the Olympic movement and public officials from around the world. WADA, as the agency is known, has its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? "Doping" is the general term for the use of banned substances or practices to improve athletic performance. The World Anti-Doping Agency says the term probably came from the Dutch word "dop."? That was the name for an alcoholic drink used by Zulu fighters in Africa to improve their performance in battle. The agency says the word doping began to be used for athletes in the beginning of the twentieth century. At first it meant the illegal drugging of racehorses. The agency notes that athletes have used substances for centuries to improve their performance. Ancient Greeks used special foods and drinks. Nineteenth century cyclists and others used alcohol, caffeine, cocaine -- even strychnine, a strong poison. By the nineteen twenties, sports organizations were attempting to stop the use of doping substances. But at the time they lacked scientific ways to test for them. VOICE ONE: One method of doping is called blood doping. This is the use of substances such as hormones or blood itself to increase the production of red blood cells. That way the blood moves more oxygen to the muscles, increasing their strength and performance. One of these hormones is known as EPO. Recently anti-doping officials announced the discovery of EPO in a urine test on Marion Jones. If the results are confirmed, the Olympic champion runner could be banned from competition for two years. Doctors say hormones used for blood doping thicken the blood and increase the chances of heart disease and stroke. Also, the use of blood from another person can spread viruses. But doctors say even the use of a person’s own blood to increase the level of red blood cells in the body can raise the risk of heart disease and stroke. VOICE TWO: Another substance that can be used to increase performance is human growth hormone. This hormone is produced naturally by the pituitary gland in the brain. Athletes may take injections of human growth hormone, although that can be found with blood tests. Experts say such use of the hormone can cause diabetes, muscle and bone pain, high blood pressure and other disorders. VOICE ONE: Some of the most common doping substances are steroids. These drugs are used to increase muscle strength. Steroids can damage the liver and halt the production of testosterone. They can also cause personality changes. People who take them may become increasingly angry. Some become dependent on the steroids and feel they cannot live without them. Users can become depressed and, in some cases, even want to kill themselves. VOICE TWO: Sports dopers continually look for new substances and technologies. The World Anti-Doping Agency has already banned gene doping, although it says it does not believe anyone is doing it yet. Officials say they want to be ready with a test to find genetic changes. For example, imagine an athlete whose body contains genetic material from an animal. In theory, such a person could become a great athlete overnight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, Chinese media reported that investigators found employees injecting students with performance drugs at a sports school. Those employees at the school in the northeastern province of Liaoning now face criminal charges. So what is wrong with doping?? That is a question some people ask, even some health professionals. These people support the idea of medically supervised doping. They say it would reduce the dangers. They say competitions would be fairer if all the competitors were openly permitted to take part in doping. Earlier this month, the World Anti-Doping Agency published a statement on its Web site from its medical director. Alain Garnier says doctors should have nothing to do with doping. Doctor Garnier says helping athletes perform better is not necessarily good for their health. And he called it wrong and irresponsible to say that permitting doping would create an equal playing field. To accept doping, he says, would permit economic resources and scientific expertise to decide competition. And, he adds, only those with the resources and the expertise would win. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Houston, We’ve Had a Problem Here': The Survival of Apollo 13
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS --?a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) American astronauts in Apollo Eleven landed on the moon July twentieth, nineteen sixty-nine. A second landing was made four months later. Both flights were almost perfect. Everything worked as planned. Everyone expected the third moon-landing flight, Apollo Thirteen, would go as well as the first two. But it did not. Today, Shirley Griffith and Sarah Long tell you the story of Apollo Thirteen?-- the flight that almost did not come home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Apollo Thirteen roared into space on Thursday, April eleventh, nineteen seventy. The time was thirteen-thirteen, one-thirteen p.m. local time. Navy Captain James Lovell was commander of Apollo Thirteen. He had flown on Apollo Eight, the first flight to orbit the moon. The two other crew members were civilians -- John Swigert and Fred Haise. Apollo Thirteen was their first space flight. VOICE TWO: The Apollo Thirteen spacecraft was like the earlier Apollos. It had three major parts. One was the command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module and then ride back to Earth in it. It was the only part of the spacecraft that could survive the fiery return through the Earth's atmosphere. The lunar module was the second part. It would carry two of the astronauts to the moon's surface. It would later launch them from the moon to rejoin the command module. The third part of the Apollo spacecraft was the service module. It had a rocket engine that the astronauts fired to begin circling the moon. They fired it again to break out of moon orbit for the return flight to Earth. The service module carried tanks of oxygen for the flight, and the fuel cells that produced electricity and water the astronauts needed to survive. VOICE ONE: There was what seemed to be a minor problem during the ground tests before launch. Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen. The oxygen was the fuel that provided water and electricity for the command module. One of the oxygen tanks failed to empty normally during the ground test. Engineers had to boil off the remaining oxygen by turning on a heater in the tank. Commander Lovell said later he should have demanded the oxygen tank be replaced. But it seemed to be fixed. So no change was made. VOICE TWO: After launch, Apollo Thirteen sailed smoothly through space for two days. Controllers on the ground joked that the flight had gone so well they did not have enough to do. That changed a few hours later. The first sign of trouble was a tiny burst of light in the western sky over the United States. It looked like a far-away star had exploded. VOICE ONE: Near the space center in Houston, Texas, some amateur star-watchers were trying to see the Apollo spacecraft through telescopes. One of the group had fixed a telescope to a television set so that objects seen by the telescope appeared on the television screen. The spacecraft was too far away to be seen. But suddenly, a bright spot appeared on the television screen. Over the next ten minutes it grew into a white circle. The observers on the ground had no reason to believe the white spot they saw was made by the spacecraft. They thought it was a problem with the television. So they went home to bed. VOICE TWO: It was not a problem with their television. It was a serious problem with Apollo Thirteen. It happened a few minutes after the three astronauts completed a television broadcast to Earth. The astronauts heard a loud noise. The spacecraft shook. Warning lights came on. Swigert called to Mission Control, "Houston, we've had a problem here." The number two oxygen tank in the service module had exploded. The liquid oxygen escaped into space. It formed a huge gas ball that expanded rapidly. Sunlight made it glow. Within ten minutes, it was almost eighty kilometers across. Then it slowly disappeared. The cloud was the white spot the observers in Houston had seen on their television. VOICE ONE: The loss of one oxygen tank should not have been a major problem. Apollo had two oxygen tanks. So, if one failed, the other could be used. But the astronauts soon learned that the explosion had caused the other oxygen tank to leak. The astronauts were three hundred twenty thousand kilometers from Earth with little oxygen, electricity and water. Their situation was extremely serious. No one knew if they could get the spacecraft back to Earth, or if they could survive long enough to return. VOICE TWO: The astronauts and the flight control center quickly decided that the lunar module could be their lifeboat. It carried oxygen, water, electricity and food for two men for two days on the moon's surface. But there were three astronauts. And the trip back to Earth would take four days. The men greatly reduced their use of water, food and heat. And they turned off all the electrical devices they could. Back on Earth, space scientists and engineers worked around the clock to design and test new ideas to help the astronauts survive. VOICE ONE: Getting enough good air to breathe became the most serious problem. The carbon dioxide the astronauts breathed out was poisoning the air. The lunar module had a few devices for removing carbon dioxide. But there were not enough to remove all the carbon dioxide they created. Engineers on the ground designed a way the astronauts could connect air-cleaning devices from the module to the air system in the lunar module. The astronauts made the connector from a plastic bag, cardboard and tape. It worked. Carbon dioxide was no longer a problem. VOICE TWO: Now the problem was how to get the astronauts back to Earth as quickly and safely as possible. They were more than two-thirds of the way to the moon on a flight path that would take them to a moon landing. They needed to change their flight path to take them around the moon and back toward Earth. They had to do this by firing the lunar module rocket engine for just the right amount of time. And they had to make this move without the equipment in the command module that kept the spacecraft on its flight path. Five hours after the explosion, flight controllers advised firing the rocket for thirty-five seconds. This sent the spacecraft around the moon instead of down to it. Two hours after Apollo Thirteen went around the moon, the astronauts fired the rocket for five minutes. This speeded up the spacecraft to reach Earth nine hours sooner. VOICE ONE: The lunar module was extremely uncomfortable. The astronauts had very little to drink and eat. But the cold was the worst part of the return trip. The temperature inside the lunar module was only a few degrees above freezing. It was too cold for them to sleep much. They used the electrical power in the lunar module to add electricity to the batteries of the command module. They would need the electrical power for their landing. VOICE TWO: The crew moved back to the command module a few hours before landing. They turned on the necessary equipment and broke away from the damaged service module. As the service module moved away, they saw for the first time the damage done by the exploding oxygen tank. Equipment was hanging from a huge hole in the side of the module. One hour before landing, Lovell, Swigert and Haise said thanks and goodbye to their lifeboat, the lunar module. They separated from it and sent it flying away from them. VOICE ONE: Now, the command module of Apollo Thirteen headed alone toward Earth. It fell through the atmosphere. Its parachutes opened, slowing its fall toward the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa. Ships and planes were waiting in the landing area. And thousands of millions of people around the world were watching the live television broadcast of the landing. People everywhere cheered as the cameras found the spacecraft floating downward beneath its three parachutes. They watched as it dropped softly into the water. The Apollo Thirteen astronauts were safely home. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and directed by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Sarah Long. This is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America when we finish the story of the Apollo moon landing program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Develop Stem Cells Without Loss of Embryos
* Byline: 

 Editor's Note attached This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say they have found a way to produce stem cells from human embryos without harm to the embryo. Image from Advanced Cell Technology shows a single cell being removed from a human embryoThe technology uses a single cell taken from an eight-cell embryo known as a blastocyst. The researchers say that from among the cells they removed, they developed two stem cell lines that were genetically normal. Company scientists at Advanced Cell Technology in Worchester, Massachusetts, did the experiment. Nature magazine published the study online last week. Current technology uses cells from blastocysts that are more developed. But the process destroys the ability of the embryo to continue to grow. Embryonic stem cells are able to develop into all of the different kinds of cells in the body. Many scientists believe embryonic stem cells could be used to develop new treatments for diseases. But the scientific use of embryos is an issue of debate. Some people, including President Bush, say destroying the embryo destroys life. The removal of a single cell from a blastocyst is not a new idea. It is often done when people go for reproductive assistance at fertility clinics. The process is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D. A cell is removed to test for genetic disorders. The cell is destroyed in the process. But the blastocyst from which it came can continue to develop into an embryo and then a fetus. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology was the senior author of the new study. In a statement he said it demonstrates that stem cells can be produced "without interfering with the embryo's potential for life."? Doctor Lanza said that to date, more than one thousand five hundred healthy children have been born following P.G.D. The company's chief executive officer, William Caldwell, tells us there is no evidence that the removal of a single cell has any effect on the embryo. Some people say this method could end the moral debate over the use of embryonic stem cells. But other people think that is not likely. The Bush administration, in a statement, said: "Any use of human embryos for research purposes raises serious ethical concerns."? But a presidential spokeswoman said the study does hold some promise, and that the president believed it should get a good look. And that’s the Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of our reports and download audio files to listen on an MP3 player, at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. --- Editor's Note: The experiment was meant to show that stem cells could be developed with a single cell taken from an eight-cell embryo wiithout?harming the?embryo. In fact, as a corrected?press release from?Nature and other reports later made clear, all 16 embryos used in the study were destroyed because the scientists removed a total of 91 cells. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Importance of New Findings About Charter Schools Argued
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A new school year is beginning in the United States -- and with it comes new debate about charter schools. These are publicly financed but privately operated schools. Charter schools can be found in most of the fifty states and Washington, D.C. The Department of Education says more than one million students attend charter schools. That compares to almost fifty million in traditional public schools. A charter school might be fully independent or connected to the local school system. It might be operated by a non-profit group or a profit-making company. In any case, charter schools do not have to follow all of the same rules as traditional public schools. They have greater freedom to decide what to teach and how to teach. Class sizes may be smaller in charter schools, but the teachers often have less power through unions than in traditional schools. The Bush administration supports charter schools as a choice for parents whose local schools are bad. But some education officials, parent groups and unions argue that the money spent on charter schools could help traditional schools improve. Critics say studies so far have not shown enough gains for charter schools to justify the possible loss of resources from traditional schools. They say a study released last week by the Education Department only strengthened their arguments. Supporters of charter schools, however, found much to criticize in the study. The study used test scores from the two thousand three National Assessment of Educational Progress. The researchers compared the scores of fourth grade students in charter schools with those in traditional public schools. The traditional schools had an average score five points higher in reading and almost six points higher in mathematics than the charter schools. But the study showed that charter schools connected with a public school system performed about the same as traditional schools. Fully independent charter schools had lower scores by comparison. Supporters of charter schools say the results show nothing about student progress over time or about individual schools. And they say charter school students may not do well on tests because they came from terrible traditional schools. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can read and listen to archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 1933: President Roosevelt's First 100 Days Give People Hope
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The inauguration speech of President Franklin Roosevelt in March, nineteen thirty-three, gave hope to millions of Americans. The new president promised to fight the terrible economic crisis, the Great Depression. Roosevelt kept his promise. His administration launched into action even before the inauguration ceremonies were finished. As Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, watched the traditional inauguration parade, his assistants began working. The lights of Washington's federal office buildings burned late that night. And not just on inauguration night, but the next night and the next night, too. The nation was in crisis. There was much work to do. VOICE TWO: The first three months of Franklin Roosevelt's administration were an exciting time. Roosevelt led the Congress to pass more important legislation during this short period than most presidents pass during their entire term. These three months are remembered today as "The Hundred Days." Sunday, March fifth, was the day after the inauguration. Roosevelt told Congress to begin a special meeting on Thursday. And he ordered all the nation's banks to close until the economy improved. Roosevelt also banned the export of gold. Congress met on Thursday, as Roosevelt had asked. It passed everything that Roosevelt wanted. Both the House and Senate approved Roosevelt's strong new banking laws in less than eight hours. Roosevelt signed the bills into law the same day. VOICE ONE: The next day, Friday, Roosevelt called on Congress to cut federal spending. Once again, Congress met and approved Roosevelt's request immediately. Two nights later, Roosevelt spoke to the nation in a radio speech. His warm, powerful voice traveled to millions of homes. He gave listeners hope that they could once again trust their banks and political leaders. On Monday, Roosevelt called on Congress to pass laws making it legal to drink wine or beer. And once again, Congress agreed. Roosevelt's success in passing these important and difficult laws excited the nation. People across the country watched in wonder as the new president fought and won battle after battle. VOICE TWO: Washington was filled with activity. The air was full of energy, like a country sky during an electric storm. People from around the country rushed to the capital to urge the administration to support their ideas. Bankers came by the thousands to win favorable legislation. Experts of all kinds offered new ideas on how to rescue the economy. Ambassadors came from Britain, France, Brazil, Chile, China, and many other countries to speak with Roosevelt on economic and diplomatic issues. And members of the Democratic Party arrived by the thousands to seek jobs in the new administration. Americans watched closely what was happening in Washington. And they liked what they saw. They had voted for action. Now, Roosevelt was giving them action. VOICE ONE: One of the most important areas of action for the new administration was agriculture. American farmers had been hurt more than any other group by the economic depression. The average income of American farmers had dropped in three years from one hundred sixty-two dollars a year to just forty-eight dollars. Farm prices had fallen fifty-five percent. The buying power of the average farmer had dropped by more than half. Many farmers could not even earn enough money to pay for their tools and seeds. The main cause of the farmers' problem was that they produced too much. There was too much grain, too much meat, too much cotton. As a result, prices stayed low. The situation was good for people in cities who bought farm products. But it was a disaster for the farmers themselves. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt attacked the problem by limiting production. His administration put a new tax on grain products, increasing their price and reducing demand. The administration paid cotton farmers to destroy some of their crops. And it bought and killed five million pigs to reduce the amount of meat on the market. It was a strange situation. Some Americans had trouble understanding the economic reason why food had to be destroyed so people could have enough to eat. But more officials agreed that this was the only way to limit supply, raise prices, and save farmers. The plan worked. Production fell rapidly. Hot weather and bad harvests in nineteen thirty-three and nineteen thirty-four reduced the amount of grain even more. As a result, prices rose. Farm income increased fifty percent in four years. VOICE ONE: The administration also attacked the problem of falling industrial production. At the time of Roosevelt's inauguration, American industry was producing less than half the goods that it had just four years before. Business owners reacted by cutting costs: lowering wages and reducing the number of workers. This only reduced the number of people with enough money to buy goods. And so production went down further and further. The administration created a national recovery administration to allow companies to cooperate to increase production. Business owners agreed to follow certain rules, such as limiting the number of hours people could work. They also agreed to raise wages and to stop hiring children. They agreed to improve working conditions and to cooperate with labor unions. At the same time, Roosevelt created a public works administration to provide jobs to unemployed workers. The federal government put people to work building dams, bridges, water systems, and other major projects. VOICE TWO: On money policy, Roosevelt and the Congress decided that the dollar should no longer be tied to the price of gold. They passed a home owner's bill that helped many Americans borrow new money to protect their homes. And a bank insurance bill guaranteed the safety of money that Americans placed in banks, greatly increasing public faith in the banks. Roosevelt and the Congress created a new civilian conservation corps to put young men to work in rural areas to protect the nation's natural resources. These young men planted trees, improved parks, and protected natural water supplies. They also worked with farmers to develop crops and farming methods to protect soil from wind and rain. VOICE ONE: One of Roosevelt's most creative projects was a plan to improve the area around the state of Tennessee in the southeastern part of the country. The Tennessee River Valley area was very poor. Forests were thin, floods common, and income low. Few farms had electricity. Roosevelt and Congress decided to attack all these problems with a single project. The new Tennessee Valley Administration (authority) built dams, cleared rivers, expanded forests, and provided electricity. It succeeded in helping farmers throughout the area, creating new life and hope. VOICE TWO: "The Hundred Days" -- the first three months of the Roosevelt administration -- were a great success. One reporter for the New York Times newspaper observed that the change from President Hoover to President Roosevelt was like a man moving from a slow horse to an airplane. Suddenly, the nation was moving again. There was action everywhere. Newsman Frederick Allen described the situation this way: "The difference between Roosevelt's program and the Hoover program was sharp," Allen wrote. "Roosevelt's was not a program of defense, but of attack. In most of the laws, there was a new push for the good of the common man. There was a new effort to build wealth from the bottom up, rather than from the top down." Said Allen: "there was a new willingness to expand the limits of government." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your reporters were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-08/2006-08-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Music Camp Where Grown-Ups Learn the Art of Bluegrass
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about Uncle Sam … Play some bluegrass music … And report about the Labor Day holiday. Labor Day Monday, September fourth is Labor Day in the United States. In many other countries, Labor Day is celebrated in May. Mario Ritter explains. MARIO RITTER: The first day in May is the day to honor workers in almost every industrial country except the United States and Canada. May first has also been the traditional day to celebrate spring since ancient times. The first link between honoring workers and the ancient May Day celebration was made in eighteen thirty-three. The British social reformer Robert Owen chose that day for the start of a period of joy and hope for the world. In eighteen eighty-nine, the first workers convention in Paris, France declared a great international workers demonstration on May first. Since then, the International Labor Day has been observed on the first of May. The United States, however, chose another day for its labor celebration. New York labor leader Peter McGuire is said to have suggested the first Monday in September as a holiday to honor labor. He proposed public parades to show the strength of labor organizations. And he urged people to end the day with outdoor parties. The first American Labor Day celebration was held in New York City on September fifth, eighteen eighty-two. About ten thousand workers marched through the streets. Then everyone went to a nearby park to eat a meal, and hear speeches and music. The idea quickly spread throughout the country. Congress approved a bill declaring Labor Day a national holiday in eighteen ninety-four. For many years, the first Monday in September was a day when American workers demonstrated for better working conditions and pay. Over the years, however, the conditions of American workers improved. Such demonstrations are no longer common. Now, for most Americans, Labor Day weekend is a day off from work. It is a time to celebrate the last warm days of summer. Many Americans celebrate the holiday by inviting their family and friends to a cookout or barbecue -- a meal cooked and eaten outside. You can hear more about this tradition of barbecues Monday on the Special English program This Is America. Uncle Sam HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Gilberto Moretti asks where the words “Uncle Sam,” meaning the United States, came from. History experts are not really sure where this idea of Uncle Sam as a symbol of the United States came from. The Library of Congress says one idea is that Uncle Sam was named after Samuel Wilson. During the War of Eighteen Twelve, the United States was fighting British troops. Samuel Wilson was a businessman from Troy, New York. He supplied meat to soldiers in the United States Army. The meat was in large wooden containers called barrels. The barrels had letters that said “U.S.,” short for United States. When asked what the letters stood for, one of Sam Wilson’s workers said they stood for Uncle Sam Wilson. The suggestion that the meat shipments came from “Uncle Sam” led to the idea that Uncle Sam represented the federal government. In nineteen sixty-one, Congress passed a resolution that recognized Samuel Wilson as the idea for the symbol of Uncle Sam. Over the years, pictures of Uncle Sam were used to represent the United States. Political cartoonists created Uncle Sam’s traditional appearance. Thomas Nast was one of these political cartoonists. He produced many of the earliest cartoons of Uncle Sam in the eighteen sixties. The most famous picture of Uncle Sam was created in nineteen seventeen during World War One. James Montgomery Flagg painted the picture and used a version of his own face for Uncle Sam. He is shown as an old, white-haired man with a white beard. He wears red, white and blue clothing and a high hat with stars on it. He looks very serious and is pointing his finger straight out. The poster was designed to urge young American men to join the Army. Millions of copies of the poster were printed during World War One. Because of its popularity, the poster was used again during World War Two in the nineteen forties. Below Uncle Sam’s picture are the words: “I Want You for U.S. Army.” Bluegrass Camp Many American children attended camps this summer. While they were at camp, their parents enjoyed some peace and quiet. The RockyGrass Bluegrass Academy, however, is a very different kind of camp. Most people who attend it are not children who want to play in nature, but adults who want to play bluegrass music. Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was “Black Mountain Rag” by Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys. Musicians from the southeastern Appalachia area of America began to play a kind of music they called “bluegrass” in the nineteen forties. Musicians use many instruments with strings to play bluegrass. These include the fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin and bass. Bill Monroe is considered to be the “father of bluegrass music.” Monroe and his band, the Bluegrass Boys, were the first to become popular playing this kind of music. Here is their song “Can You Hear Me Callin.” (MUSIC) The RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival started in nineteen seventy-three in the western state of Colorado. Since then, many of America’s best bluegrass musicians travel to Colorado each year to play for huge crowds. In nineteen ninety-four, a man named Craig Ferguson decided that having a festival every year was not enough. He did not want people just to listen to bluegrass music. He wanted people to come together to learn how to play bluegrass music. So Mister Ferguson started the RockyGrass Bluegrass Academy. The academy meets every summer for four days. Adults and families come to Lyons, Colorado to practice their music skills with expert teachers. Some professional bluegrass musicians come to learn how to play different instruments. People who come to this grown-up summer camp say it is very peaceful. They often play bluegrass music next to the Saint Vrain River. At the end of the camp, everyone stands in the river to sing and play their instruments together. People say that playing music this way makes them feel very happy. We leave you now with another bluegrass song, “Big Country” by Edgar Meyer with Bela Fleck and Mike Marshall. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Sarah Randle and Nancy Steinbach. Mario Ritter was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-08-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Laptop Computer Batteries Become a Hot Issue
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Batteries are rarely a worry except when the devices they supply power to go dead. But in June the battery in a Dell laptop computer caught fire during a conference at a hotel in Osaka, Japan. Pictures of the burning computer spread on the Internet. In the last few weeks, other laptop owners learned that they had good reason to be concerned. Dell and later Apple Computer recalled millions of lithium-ion batteries that could overheat and create a risk of fire. Dell asked the owners of more than four million notebook computer batteries to return them for replacement. More than one million of these batteries were sold outside of the United States. Apple recalled almost two million batteries used with some of its notebook computers. Seven hundred thousand of them were sold in other countries. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recalls. It described them as the two largest recalls in its history involving the consumer electronics industry. Agency officials said Dell had received six reports of batteries overheating. These resulted in property damage but no reports of injuries. The agency said Apple had received nine reports of overheated batteries. These included two reports of minor burns and reports of minor property damage. In Japan, officials have ordered the two companies to investigate reports of fires in at least two Dell laptops and one Apple laptop. Sony of Japan made the millions of recalled batteries. Sony officials say a production problem left very small pieces of metal that could cause a short-circuit and make a battery overheat. Experts from different companies plan to meet in California this month to discuss the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. As laptop computers have gotten more powerful, they require more powerful batteries. Yet batteries are still not powerful enough to satisfy many users. Some people see microcell technology as a solution. Microcells use energy sources like hydrogen and methanol. Many companies are working to find ways to make them safe and useful for computers. Experts say it could be ten years before computers with microcells are widely available. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Sarah Randle. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: California's Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gases
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Environmentalists are praising a bill passed this week in California: the Global Warming Solutions Act of Two Thousand Six. It would make California the first American state to restrict the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Opponents say it would damage the state's economy, one of the largest in the world. State lawmakers? sent the bill to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday. That was a day after the Republican governor reached agreement on the plan with the Democratic majority in the Legislature. He faced opposition within his own party, but says he will sign the bill into law. California is the nation’s most populated state and the world's twelfth largest producer of greenhouse gases. The plan calls for a reduction of about twenty-five percent by two thousand twenty -- to return to nineteen ninety levels. The governor, in an order last year, called for the cuts, along with much greater ones by two thousand fifty. The California Chamber of Commerce says the newly approved bill will cause severe economic harm. And the business group says the rules would do almost nothing to improve the global environment. But supporters say other producers could follow California's lead. The Legislature acted just before the end of its current session. Political experts say the plan will help Governor Schwarzenegger politically. He is seeking re-election this November in a heavily Democratic state known for its environmental activism. The plan calls for controls on major industries including coal-burning producers of electric power. Others include oil and gas refineries and cement makers. Some business leaders worry that electricity costs will increase. Critics also say that some businesses might move their operations to other states or other countries. But other businesses, including those that work with environmentally friendlier technologies, say it could create new industries and jobs. Scientists widely believe that human activity is involved in global warming. State officials say rising temperatures could cause mountain snows in California to melt earlier in the year. That could produce floods and reduce water supplies over time. But some Republican lawmakers noted that disagreement still exists about how much climate change could be natural. Opponents of the bill also argued that climate change is a national and not a state issue. The Bush administration says it supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gases as long as they are done by choice and not required by law. The bill in California also calls for a market trading system, similar to one in Europe. Companies that release less than their limit of greenhouse gases could trade surplus credits to other businesses. And that's IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Our reports, and more, can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Margaret Mead Influenced Understanding of Native Cultures
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about one of the most influential social scientists of the last century -- the anthropologist Margaret Mead. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: People around the world mourned when Margaret Mead died in nineteen seventy-eight. The president of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter, honored the social scientist with America's highest award for civilians. Another honor came from a village in New Guinea. The people there planted a coconut tree in her memory. Margaret Mead would have liked that. As a young woman, she had studied the life and traditions of the village. Miz Mead received such honors because she added greatly to public knowledge of cultures and traditions in developing areas. Many people consider her the most famous social-science researcher of the Twentieth Century. Yet some experts say her research was not scientific. They say she depended too much on observation and local stories. They say she did not spend enough time on comparative studies. They believe her fame resulted as much from her colorful personality as from her research. ?VOICE TWO: Margaret Mead was often the object of heated dispute. She shared her strong opinions about social issues. She denounced the spread of nuclear bombs. She spoke against racial injustice. She strongly supported women's rights. Throughout her life she enjoyed taking a risk. Miz Mead began her studies of cultures in an unusual way for a woman of her time. She chose to perform her research in the developing world. She went to an island village in the Pacific Ocean. She went alone. The year was nineteen twenty-five. At that time, young American women did not travel far away from home by themselves. They did not ask personal questions of strangers. They did not observe births and deaths unless they were involved in medical work. Margaret Mead did all those things. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: Margaret Mead was born in December, nineteen-oh-one, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were educators. Few? women attended college in those days. However, Miz Mead began her studies in nineteen nineteen at De Pauw University in the middle western town of Greencastle, Indiana. She soon decided that living in a small town did not improve one's mind. So she moved to New York City to study at Barnard College. There she studied English and psychology. She graduated in nineteen twenty-three. VOICE TWO: Margaret next decided to study anthropology at Columbia University in New York. She wanted to examine the activities and traditions of different societies. She sought to add to knowledge of human civilization. At the same time, she got married. Her husband, Luther Cressman, planned to be a clergyman. Together, they began the life of graduate students. VOICE ONE: Miz Mead studied with two famous anthropologists: Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. Mister Boas believed that the environment people grow up in -- not family genes -- was the cause of most cultural differences among people. This belief also influenced his young student. Mister Boas was not pleased when Margaret Mead asked to do research in Samoa. He was concerned for her safety. Still, he let her go. Franz Boas told her to learn about the ways in which the young women of Samoa were raised. VOICE TWO: Margaret's husband went to Europe to continue his studies. She went -- alone -- to Samoa, in the Pacific Ocean. She worked among the people of Tau Island. ?The people spoke a difficult language. Their language had never been written. Luckily, she learned languages easily. VOICE ONE: Miz Mead investigated the life of Samoan girls. She was not much older than the girls she questioned. She said their life was free of the anger and rebellion found among young people in other societies. She also said Samoan girls had sexual relations with anyone they wanted. She said their society did not urge them to love just one man. And she said their society did not condemn sex before marriage. Margaret Mead said she reached these beliefs after nine months of observation on Samoa. They helped make her book about Samoa one of the best-selling books of the time. Miz Mead was just twenty-five years old when this happened. VOICE TWO:? Several social scientists later disputed her findings. In a recent book, Derek Freeman says Miz Mead made her observations from just a few talks with two friendly young women. He says they wanted to tell interesting stories to a foreign visitor. However, he says their stories were not necessarily true. Mister Freeman says Samoan society valued a young woman who had not had sexual relations. He says Tau Island men refused to marry women who had had sex. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? After nine months among the Samoans, Miz Mead returned to the United States. She met a psychology student from New Zealand, Reo Fortune, on the long trip home. Her marriage to Luther Cressman ended. She married Mister Fortune in nineteen twenty-seven. Miz Mead and her second husband went to New Guinea to work together. It would be the first of seven trips that she would make to the area in the next forty-seven years. The two observed the people of Manus Island, one of the Admiralty Islands, near mainland New Guinea. They thought the people were pleasant. After a while, though, she and her husband had no more tobacco to trade. Then the people of Manus Island stopped giving them fish. VOICE TWO: Later the two studied the Mundugumor people of New Guinea. Miz Mead reported that both the men and women were expected to be aggressive. Only a few years before, tribe members had given up head-hunting. Traditionally they had cut off the heads of their enemies. Mundugumor parents also seemed to be cruel to their children. They carried their babies in stiff baskets. They did not answer the needs of the babies when they cried. Instead, they hit the baskets with sticks until the babies stopped crying. VOICE ONE: Not long after the New Guinea trip ended, Margaret Mead's marriage to Reo Fortune also ended. In nineteen thirty-six, she married for the third time. Her new husband was Gregory Bateson, a British biologist. Mister Bateson and Miz Mead decided to work together on the island of Bali, near Java in Indonesia. The people of Bali proudly shared their rich culture and traditions with the visitors. Miz Mead observed and recorded their activities. Mister Bateson took photographs. The Batesons had a daughter. They seemed like a fine team. Yet their marriage ended in the late nineteen forties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? As time went on, Margaret Mead's fame continued to grow. Her books sold very well. She also wrote for popular magazines. She appeared on radio and television programs. She spoke before many groups. Americans loved to hear about her work in faraway places. Miz Mead continued to go to those places and report about the people who lived there. VOICE ONE: After her trips, Margaret Mead always returned to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She worked there more than fifty years. She examined the research of others. She guided and advised a number of anthropology students. Miz Mead worked in an office filled with ceremonial baskets and other objects from her studies and travels. People said she ruled the museum like a queen. They said Margaret Mead knew what she wanted from the work of others and knew how to get it. VOICE TWO: Other scientists paid her a high honor when she was seventy-two years old. They elected her president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A few years later, she developed cancer. But she continued to travel, speak and study almost to the end of her life. One friend said: "Margaret Mead was not going to let a little thing like death stop her."? Margaret Mead died more than twenty years ago. Yet people continue to discuss and debate her studies of people and cultures around the world. (MUSIC)? ANNOUNCER: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I'm Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for People in America, from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Cooking in the Great Outdoors (Fireplace Included)
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Millions of Americans are taking a long weekend in honor of Labor Day. The holiday is considered the unofficial end of summer. Many people are traveling. But others are happy to fire up their barbecue and enjoy a restful weekend at home. VOICE ONE: Our subject this week is barbecue and the latest in outdoor living. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: "Barbecue" can mean three things. It can mean the grill where meats and other foods are cooked over hot coals or an open fire. It can mean the act of cooking the foods. And it can mean the foods themselves. Barbecued meats might be soaked in a tasty mixture for several hours and cooked much slower than other grilling methods. Barbecue has long been an American tradition, although favorite preparations and meats differ by area. For example, Kansas City, Missouri, prefers cooking pork with a sweet sauce. Texas is known for its beef barbecue with herbs and spices called rubs. North Carolina favors pork and thin sauces made with tangy vinegar. South Carolina likes a thick sauce made from tomatoes. And in California and other states, many people like to barbecue seafood. Barbecued hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken are popular all across the country. VOICE TWO: The Kansas City Barbecue Society holds the American Royal Barbecue Championship every year in October. The organization says it is one of the biggest barbecue competitions in the world. Teams compete for prizes up to ten thousand dollars. Last year five hundred teams entered the contest. There were nine hundred judges from about thirty states. And, with all that hard work, the American Royal Barbecue Championship also includes a big concert and fireworks show. Last year the group Lonestar performed. Here is Lonestar with "What About Now?" (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many women enjoy barbecuing. But some people call backyards with grills "the man’s kitchen."? A smoky barbecue is part of a culture shared by many American men. These social gatherings are about more than just cooking food. They are often ways for men to build greater friendships. They have humorous arguments about how much barbecue sauce to use or the right temperature for grilling. Each claims to be the best cook or to have the biggest and best grill. Also, each claims to have a secret for the best tasting barbecue sauce. Michael Lampkin is a medical researcher who lives in Bowie, Maryland. Often his work requires him to travel far from home as many as four days a week. Mister Lampkin says that when he returns home, he is happy to cook on his barbecue grill at least once a week. He says there a few reasons he likes to grill. MICHAEL LAMPKIN: "Being outdoors and just the taste in general. It’s a taste that you can’t duplicate inside. I think that’s one of the nicer things about grilling. And grilling is something you can do year-round. I’ve even gone outside in the snow. That's one of the other nice things about grilling --?you can do it any time, all the time." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people have just a simple, low-cost barbecue. They light charcoal, either lump coal or hardwood, and wait for it to get hot. But more and more people are choosing grills that operate with gas. Some of these grills can be very costly. Some people even build a complete outdoor living area around them. These might include a swimming pool and gardens with trees and flowers. Some outdoor living areas include kitchens, so people do not have to go inside the house for water or to keep food cold. There may be a separate outdoor sitting room with a fireplace and a room for eating. Complex music and video systems are also a part of some outdoor rooms. Outdoor living areas can be much less costly yet still be welcoming. In both cases, backyard fountains, with their calming sounds of water, have become more common. VOICE ONE: Designers say technology has had a great effect on outdoor living spaces. Furniture made with newer materials can be cleaned easily with water from a garden hose. In the past, tables and chairs made with wood, cloth or metal often required special cleaning or were easily damaged by rain and the sun. Some people decorate their outdoor living areas to look as nice to them as the inside of their homes. Homeowner Brenda Despanza also lives in Bowie, Maryland. She recently had a patio built in the backyard of her home. A patio is built on a flat, open area. Brenda Despanza’s patio is made of colorful stone. There are tables and chairs with umbrellas to block the sun on hot days. Hanging lights create a pleasant nighttime setting. But Miz Despanza says she likes her flowers and plants the most. BRENDA DESPANZA: "I have a lot of different flowers that I planted. So I have juniper, roses, petunias and I also have hibiscus. I work so many long hours that I want a place to come where I can relax. And so my backyard is kind of my haven from the rest of the world." VOICE TWO: There are no rules for creating the right environment for an outdoor area. Brenda Despanza says all you have to do is choose the things you like -- then invite friends and family over to talk, eat and have a good time. BRENDA DESPANZA: "I entertain a lot more since I’ve gotten it. A lot of people enjoy the space, and so it’s kind of nice because it's so inviting that?people don’t mind when I say 'Hey, come on over -- let’s have dinner,?just sit outside around the plants.'" VOICE ONE: However Americans choose to spend Labor Day and the last days of summer, music is often part of the activities. We leave you with a song that celebrates the season. Here is "Summertime" by Will Smith. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can download transcripts and archives of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Together, Sister Cities Build Friendships and More
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Sister Cities International is an organization that brings together communities from different areas and different cultures. Sister-city relationships can help communities learn from each other and solve problems together. Often these partnerships are based on special projects or exchanges. People share their knowledge in areas like education, government, business or technology. Building sister-city relationships was one of the ideas for the People-to-People Program created by President Dwight Eisenhower. He established the program at a White House conference held on September eleventh and twelfth, nineteen fifty-six. President Eisenhower wanted to connect citizens who shared an interest in other cultures. He wanted to increase international understanding and friendship through educational, cultural and humanitarian activities. He believed that citizen diplomats could help build peace. Sister Cities International is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. The group is involved with programs in one hundred thirty-four countries. Today, seven hundred American communities have partnerships with almost one thousand eight hundred communities in other countries. Atlanta, Georgia, for example, has eighteen sister-city partnerships. One is with Brussels, Belgium. Another is with Lagos, Nigeria. These two relationships have existed for more than thirty years. The areas they involve include economic development and trade. Matthew Corso works for Sister Cities International. He says that within the past fifteen years, more American cities have created partnerships in developing countries. Projects have involved water quality, health care and good government, for example. In Africa, projects might also deal with AIDS and HIV. Mister Corso says that sister-city partnerships usually result from local connections. Local governments also become involved and may provide some leadership. But, generally, citizen groups are responsible for organizing and supporting partnerships. Some sister-city relationships are fifty years old. And now there are even "cyber sister cities" -- partnerships created over the Internet. And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. Sister Cities International is on the Web at sister-dash-cities dot o-r-g. And if you would like to download transcripts of our reports along with audio files, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-08-27-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Computer Terms:? Good Hackers, Bad Hackers and Busy Bloggers
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. Computer technology has become a major part of people’s lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word mouse. A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields. It is a small device that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer. The mouse moves the pointer, or cursor, on the computer screen. Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen sixties. The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the computer. Using a computer takes some training. People who are experts are sometimes called hackers. A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language. But the word hacker is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer systems. ??????? Another well known computer word is Google, spelled g-o-o-g-l-e. It is the name of a popular search engine for the Internet. People use the search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l, is an extremely large number. It is the number one followed by one hundred zeros. When you Google a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the Internet. If you google someone, you might find that person’s name on a blog. A blog is the shortened name for a Web log. A blog is a personal Web page. It may contain stories, comments, pictures and links to other Web sites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers. Blogs are not the same as spam. Spam is unwanted sales messages sent to your electronic mailbox. The name is based on a funny joke many years ago on a British television show, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”? Some friends are at an eating place that only serves a processed meat product from the United States called Spam. Every time the friends try to speak, another group of people starts singing the word Spam very loudly. This interferes with the friends’ discussion – just as unwanted sales messages interfere with communication over the Internet. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Criticism Weighs Heavy on New Solar System
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week -- the debate over what is a planet. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Photo provided by New Mexico State University shows Al Tombaugh, whose father discovered Pluto, at a protest for Pluto at the school on September 1People might think they know a planet when they see one. But even the people who study planets get into arguments. Those disputes have only intensified, now that the International Astronomical Union has voted to define a planet for the first time. The vote in Prague on August twenty-fourth leaves our solar system with eight planets instead of nine -- take Pluto off the list. But astronomy has gained a new kind of object: the dwarf planet. Astronomers say new discoveries made the need for a scientific definition of a planet increasingly urgent. New bodies with orbits more distant from the sun than Neptune and Pluto are being discovered all the time. But one object changed a balance of ideas that held together for more than seventy years. VOICE TWO: In January of last year, a team of astronomers in the United States discovered a large object farther away than Pluto. Scientists have discovered other very distant objects in our solar system. Artist's image of UB313 -- nicknamed Xena -- looking back toward the sunBut the team -- Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz -- later found that the object was bigger than Pluto. It does not have an official name yet; for now it is known as Xena [ZEE-nuh]. Xena presented a problem: If Pluto was big enough to be considered a planet, then what did that make Xena????? VOICE ONE: Some astronomers have never considered Pluto a planet. They see it as just one of many objects in the Kuiper [KY-per] Belt. The Kuiper Belt is an area where comets and other small icy bodies come from. But whatever people said about Pluto, one thing was clear: the existing model of the solar system was no longer working. VOICE TWO: "Planet" comes from a Greek word meaning "wanderer."? Planets are wanderers in a sky filled with stars that appear fixed in their positions. No one knows when humans first recognized the movement of planets. But people used to think of the moon and the sun as planets because they appeared to orbit Earth. By the fifteenth century, Nicolas Copernicus changed the model of thinking about the solar system. The Polish astronomer established that Earth was, in fact, one of the planets orbiting the sun. Later, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler believed there was an importance to the number of planets. He suggested that their distances from the sun were related to the forces that create musical notes. There were six known planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. VOICE ONE: Then, in seventeen eighty-one, astronomer William Herschel discovered a seventh planet. Herschel was a native of Germany but had moved to Britain. The planet was Uranus [YER-uh-nuhs]. This huge world, like Jupiter and Saturn, is mostly gas. It is also extremely cold, with Celsius temperatures of two hundred degrees below zero at its cloud tops. For his discovery, Herschel was named the Astronomer Royal of Britain. He and his sister, Caroline, continued to make important astronomical discoveries. The discovery of Uranus showed that the solar system was not unchanging, as many people believed at that time. But this was only the beginning of a new period of discovery. VOICE TWO: On January first, eighteen-oh-one, Giuseppi Piazzi discovered an object between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At first, the Italian astronomer thought it was a comet, an icy, dusty ball with a long gas tail. But he soon came to think it might be a planet. What Piazzi found was Ceres -- the first recorded asteroid, and the largest one known. Asteroid means "star-like."? Asteroids are mostly rock or metal, or a combination. The astronomers who met in Prague agreed that objects like asteroids will now be described collectively as "small solar-system bodies."? The orbits of these bodies can bring them very close to the sun. Sometimes they cross paths with Earth's orbit. Piazzi’s discovery of an asteroid changed the model of the solar system again. And there were more changes to come. VOICE ONE: Scientists suspected that the orbit of Uranus was being influenced by the gravity of another planet-sized object. Progress in mathematics led Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier to discover the orbit of this body. In eighteen forty-six, the French astronomer wrote Johan Gottfried Galle at the Berlin Observatory. He told Galle where to point his telescope to find the new planet. In about half an hour, Galle found Neptune. VOICE TWO: With Neptune, the discovery of the so-called classical planets came to a close. These planets move around the sun in nearly circular orbits. They include the rocky worlds of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. They also include the huge gas planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. But the American astronomer Percival Lowell was not satisfied. He believed there was evidence of yet another planet -- Planet X. From his observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, he searched and searched beyond the orbit of Neptune. Lowell died in nineteen sixteen, but the observatory continued his work. Success came in February of nineteen thirty when Clyde Tombaugh [TOM-baw] discovered the planet that would be called Pluto. VOICE ONE: Astronomers still know little about Pluto because of its great distance. It takes Pluto close to two hundred fifty years to circle the sun. Pluto is only a point of light even to the largest telescopes. Percival Lowell had expected Planet X to be massive. But for many years Pluto was believed to be a little smaller than Earth. Then, in nineteen seventy-eight, American astronomers discovered that Pluto had a moon. The discovery led scientists to further shrink their estimates of the size of Pluto. Suddenly this "planet" was smaller than our own moon. In January of this year, the American space agency NASA launched the first spacecraft to study Pluto. The robotic ship, called New Horizons, will not arrive until two thousand fifteen. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Earlier this year, the International Astronomical Union created a committee to propose a definition of a planet. The first proposal would have given us twelve planets. There would have been eight "classical planets."? And there would be a new group called "plutons," or Pluto-like planets. Among them would have been Charon -- Pluto’s moon. Charon does not exactly orbit Pluto. They both orbit a common center of gravity between them. Xena and Ceres would have also been called plutons. But after heated debate that proposal was rejected. Instead, the astronomers voted to have eight "planets" and a group called "dwarf planets."? For now, the dwarf planets are Pluto, Xena and Ceres. But other objects are expected to join the list before long. VOICE ONE: The International Astronomical Union was established in nineteen nineteen. The group holds a general assembly meeting every three years. Two thousand five hundred of its nine thousand members attended the meeting last month in the Czech capital. Two weeks of discussions took place. But the vote was left to a reported four hundred twenty-four astronomers who stayed to the end. The definition they agreed to sets three requirements for a planet. It must orbit the sun. It must have enough mass so that its own gravity makes it nearly round. And it must have "cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."? Astronomers who supported this definition say they do not consider the area around Pluto's orbit cleared. They say Pluto has not gathered up enough nearby material and they note that its orbit crosses Neptune's orbit. Yet some people say that by this reasoning, the continued presence of Pluto could mean that Neptune should no longer be called a planet. VOICE TWO: Many astronomers criticize the definition, which considers planets and dwarf planets as two separate classes of objects. Astronomy historian Owen Gingerich led the committee that proposed the idea for twelve planets. The Harvard University professor says it does not make sense to say that a dwarf planet is not a planet. And other issues remain, like what to call huge objects that orbit stars other than the sun. Yet science is a process of continual discovery and change. For now, it means we have to remember that our solar system -- officially, at least -- has only eight planets. But to future generations, today's thinking might seem like the ideas of the first people who looked up and saw stars wandering in the sky. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can download transcripts and audio files of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Days of Apollo: Collecting Rocks, and Making History, on the Moon
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The summer of nineteen sixty-nine was a special time in history. That was when men from Earth -- American astronauts -- flew their Apollo Eleven spacecraft to the moon, landed and returned home safely. The world honored the astronauts as heroes. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first to land on the moon. But they were not the last. NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- launched six more Apollo flights. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell about the flights that followed Apollo Eleven to the moon. VOICE ONE: Apollo Twelve lifted off only four months after the Apollo Eleven flight. Rain had fallen the night before. The clouds cleared, but more rain was expected. Space officials decided the weather was safe enough for them to launch the spacecraft. Thirty-six seconds after lift-off, lightning hit the huge Saturn Five rocket. The Apollo spacecraft lost electrical power to its control system. The astronauts worked calmly to get the power back on. Then lightning struck again. And power was lost again. The lightning, however, did not affect the Saturn rocket. The rocket continued to push the spacecraft on its path. The astronauts soon fixed the electrical problem. The situation returned to normal. Apollo Twelve could continue its flight to the moon. VOICE TWO: All three astronauts of Apollo Twelve were Navy fliers. Charles Conrad was the flight commander. Richard Gordon was pilot of the command module. Alan Bean was pilot of the moon lander. After four days, Apollo Twelve was near its landing area on the moon. It would land in an area called the Ocean of Storms. The Ocean of Storms was about two thousand kilometers west of the place where Apollo Eleven had landed. Richard Gordon remained in the command module circling the moon. Charles Conrad and Alan Bean flew the lander craft to the surface. They came down near Surveyor Three, an unmanned spacecraft that had landed on the moon two years before. Surveyor had sent back six thousand pictures of the moon before it stopped working. Conrad stepped out of the lander onto the moon. He described the surface as he walked away from the spacecraft. "Oh," he said, "is this soft! I don't sink in it too far. " VOICE ONE: Alan Bean followed Charles Conrad to the surface. The two astronauts collected about thirty-five kilograms of rocks. They left five scientific instruments designed to send information back to Earth. And they visited the old Surveyor spacecraft. The two astronauts spent more than thirty-one hours on the moon. Then they returned to the orbiting command module and started back to Earth. They landed in the Pacific Ocean, only six kilometers from the ship that waited to rescue them. VOICE TWO: The next flight in America's Apollo space project -- Apollo Thirteen -- never landed on the moon. Three days after launch, an explosion damaged the spacecraft. The astronauts lost most of their oxygen. They had to cancel the moon landing and use the moon lander as a lifeboat. Oxygen from the lander kept them alive during the long trip back to Earth. Apollo Fourteen was launched in January, nineteen seventy-one. It landed in the hilly Fra Mauro area of the moon. Fra Mauro is a huge highlands east of Apollo Twelve's landing place. A large meteorite hit the area four thousand million years ago. The force of the crash spread material from deep inside the moon. Scientists wanted to study this material. They believed it would give them important information about the early history of the moon. VOICE ONE: The commander of the Apollo Fourteen flight was Alan Shepard. He had been the first American in space. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. One piece of equipment on Apollo Fourteen was a light-weight vehicle with two wheels. The astronauts used it to carry tools and cameras while they were on the moon. The vehicle made it possible for them to travel farther from the spacecraft to collect rocks and do experiments. They walked as far as three kilometers from the moon lander. Even with the two-wheeled vehicle, however, Shepard and Mitchell could not reach one of their goals -- a crater called Cone. They did not have enough oxygen to walk that far. They had to return to the lander. Apollo Twelve and Apollo Fourteen produced much new scientific information. And they increased the interest of scientists in the next Apollo flights to the moon. VOICE TWO: The last three flights would permit astronauts to stay much longer on the moon. They also would provide a vehicle with four wheels in which astronauts could ride. With such a vehicle, astronauts could explore a much larger area of the moon's surface. The vehicle was called a lunar rover. The lunar rover was powered by electricity. It could carry two astronauts more than thirty kilometers from the lander. It could carry more than one hundred ten kilograms of equipment. The lunar rover also had a television camera and an antenna for sending color television broadcasts back to Earth. VOICE ONE: David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin were the crew for Apollo Fifteen. They landed at Hadley Rille near the Apennine Mountains, northwest of the place where Apollo Eleven had landed. Scott and Irwin were the first to use the lunar rover vehicle. They made several trips from the landing area to study the surface of the moon. They gathered seventy-six kilos of moon rocks. And they placed a small satellite in lunar orbit before they returned to Earth. The Apollo Fifteen astronauts returned safely. Scientists were excited about the moon rocks the astronauts brought back. They named one of them "the Genesis Rock." It is believed to be more than four thousand million years old. Scientists say the rock was created very early in the life of the moon. Soil brought back contained bits of orange glass. Scientists said the glass came from material created as deep as three hundred kilometers below the moon's surface. Astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke flew Apollo Sixteen to the moon in April, nineteen seventy-two. Young and Duke landed southwest of the Apollo Eleven landing place. They spent forty-five hours on the moon. They collected rocks and set up scientific equipment. VOICE TWO: Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans made the last Apollo flight to the moon. That was in December, nineteen seventy-two. Cernan and Schmitt landed in a valley almost directly north of the Apollo Eleven landing place. They spent seventy-five hours, in all, on the surface. More than twenty-two hours were spent working outside the lander. The astronauts made three trips in the lunar rover to take pictures and collect rocks. The astronauts also left many scientific devices that would continue to report information about the moon. Cernan and Schmitt lifted off the moon on December fourteenth. Just before leaving, they placed a metal sign on the surface. The sign was to remain forever. It said: Here man completed his first exploration of the moon, December nineteen seventy-two. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind. VOICE ONE: Production of the Saturn Five rocket and the Apollo spacecraft ended with Apollo Seventeen. America's manned explorations of the moon were completed. It was the end of a special time in human history. It had been the first time people moved beyond their small planet into the huge solar system. Now, once again, the moon was beyond human reach. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the story of the United States' Apollo space flight program that sent people to the moon. This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Dry Conditions Lead to Government Aid in the West and South
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced help for American farmers hurt by lack of rain. Mister Johanns said the total amount of aid is about seven hundred eighty million dollars. The aid will include loans, indirect payments and other assistance for farmers in the central western and southern United States. Important farming areas have experienced dry weather for several months. The drought has hurt both crop producers and those raising cattle, or ranchers. The weather has harmed some areas, but left others with enough rain for near record crops. The Northeast, for example, had heavy rainfall during the same period. The U.S. Drought Monitor studies drought conditions across the country. The service operates as part of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska. The Monitor recently reported that exceptional drought conditions exist in Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. It also said that parts of Alabama, Arizona, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming have an extremely severe drought. Secretary Johanns spoke with reporters during a visit last Thursday to South Dakota. He said sixty-four percent of beef cows in America are in drought areas. The dry conditions have left little or no grass in many areas where cattle are raised. Ranchers who feed their cattle grass for part of the year have had to buy food or sell some or all of their animals. The Department of Agriculture will provide fifty million dollars in aid for ranchers. That money will go to affected states in the form of awards, or grants. It will then be given to ranchers. The grants do not have to be repaid. The drought has also affected cotton, sorghum and peanut growers. Farmers in dry states have been offered payments totaling seven hundred million dollars. This aid is part of the Direct and Counter-cyclical Payment Program. It pays farmers an amount based on a set price for their crop and the number of hectares they have. The Program is designed to lift farm income when prices drop. This year, Secretary Johanns has moved up payments so that farmers can receive them now instead of later in the year. Yet the Middle West -- an area known as the Corn Belt -- has received enough rain. Farmers there are expecting excellent harvests of soybeans and corn. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Shep O’Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Gene Therapy Used to Treat Cancer | Stem Cell Study Leads to Criticism, Questions
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study demonstrates what researchers say is the first successful use of genetic engineering to treat cancer. The researchers say they were able to get normal cells from a person's own defense system to recognize and attack cancer cells. The study involved patients with advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Steven Rosenberg led the study team at America’s National Cancer Institute. The treatment was not able to save fifteen of the seventeen patients in the study. But the researchers say the other two are disease-free eighteen months after the therapy began. And they say it might be possible to use this method to treat other cancers. The results appear in Science magazine. Now, here is more information about our story last week on a study by scientists at Advanced Cell Technology. They said they produced embryonic stem cells using what the company called "an approach that does not harm embryos."? The company said its method makes stem cells from a single cell taken from an eight-cell human embryo. In fact, as critics noted, all sixteen embryos used in the experiment were destroyed as the scientists removed ninety-one cells in all. The scientists said they developed stem cell lines from two of these cells. Many experts see the use of embryonic stem cells as a possible way to treat diseases. Critics of the study included an official of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He said the experiment "left no embryos alive, and solves no ethical problem." Company chief William Caldwell dismissed such criticism. He says the aim was to develop a way to make embryonic stem cell lines that would not require the destruction of an embryo. The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported Tuesday that some researchers have questions about the experiment. They say they want more evidence to show how a single cell can be used to create a stem cell line. Nature magazine released the study online on August twenty-third. Nature had to correct its own press release about the experiment two times. Advanced Cell Technology became an independent company early last year. It does not sell any products yet. Two days after its report appeared, the company announced two financing deals with existing investors. These deals could bring more than thirteen million dollars to the company. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'We Have Only Just Begun to Fight': Roosevelt's Campaign of 1936
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Franklin Roosevelt with his wife, Eleanor, at right, leave on a train for a nine-day campaign trip from Washington on October 8, 1936Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies during the nineteen-thirties changed the face of American government. The new president and the Congress passed legislation that helped farmers, strengthened the banking system, and supplied jobs for millions of workers. One of the most important results of Roosevelt's policies was a stronger American labor movement. VOICE TWO: Labor leaders had little success in organizing workers in the United States during the nineteen twenties. Three Republican presidents and a national wave of conservatism prevented them from gaining many members or increasing their negotiating power. In nineteen twenty-nine, organized labor fell even further with the beginning of the great economic depression. By nineteen thirty-three, America's labor unions had less than three million members. But by the end of the nineteen thirties, more than ten-and-a-half million American workers belonged to unions. VOICE ONE: New laws proposed by the Roosevelt administration made the labor growth possible. The National Industrial Recovery Act of nineteen thirty-three gave labor leaders the right to organize and represent workers. The Supreme Court ruled that the law was illegal. But another law, the Wagner Labor Relations Act of Nineteen Thirty-five, helped labor unions to increase their power. Most of the leaders of America's traditional labor unions were slow to understand their new power. They were conservative men. They represented workers with certain skills, such as wood workers or metal workers. They did little to organize workers with other kinds of skills. But a new group of labor leaders used the new laws to organize unions by industries, not by skills. They believed that workers would have much more power if they joined forces with other workers in the same factory to make common demands. These new leaders began to organize unions for the automobile industry, the steel industry, and other major industries. VOICE TWO: The leader of the new movement was the head of the mine workers, John L. Lewis. Lewis was a powerful leader with a strong body and strong opinions. He had begun to work in the coal mines at the age of twelve. Lewis rose to become a powerful and successful leader of the mine workers. But he was concerned about workers in other industries as well. And he believed that most of the leaders in the American Federation of Labor were doing little to help them. For this reason, Lewis and the heads of several other unions formed their own group to organize unions by industry, not by skills. They called their group the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the C.I.O. And they tried immediately to gain members. VOICE ONE: The C.I.O. successfully organized the workers in several major industries. But it succeeded only by hard work and struggle. The C.I.O.'s first big battle was against the giant automobile company, General Motors. Late in nineteen thirty-five, workers at several General Motors factories began a "sit-down" strike at their machines to demand better pay and working conditions. After forty-four days, General Motors surrendered. It recognized that the automobile workers' union had the right to represent GM workers. And it agreed to negotiate a new work agreement. VOICE TWO: The struggle at the Ford Motor Company was more bitter. Ford company guards beat union organizers and workers. But the Ford company finally agreed to negotiate with the new union. The same story was true in the steel industry. But the new labor leaders succeeded in becoming the official representatives of steel workers throughout the country. By nineteen thirty-eight, the C.I.O. had won its battle to organize major industries. In later years, it would join with the more traditional American Federation of Labor to form the organization that remains the most important labor group in America today, the A.F.L-C.I.O. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt was not always an active supporter of organized labor. But neither was he a constant supporter of big business, like the three Republican presidents before him. In fact, Roosevelt spoke out often against the dangers of big business in a democracy. These speeches caused great concern among many of the traditional business and conservative leaders of the nation. And Roosevelt's increasingly progressive policies in nineteen thirty-five made many richer Americans fear that the president was a socialist, a dictator or a madman. Former president Herbert Hoover, for example, denounced Roosevelt's New Deal policies as an attack "on the whole idea of individual freedoms." The family of business leader J.P. Morgan told visitors not to say Roosevelt's name in front of Morgan. They said it would make his blood pressure go up. VOICE TWO: This conservative opposition to Roosevelt grew steadily throughout nineteen thirty-five and thirty-six. Many Americans were honestly worried that Roosevelt's expansion of government was the first step to dictatorship. They feared that Roosevelt and the Democrats were trying to gain power as the Nazis did in Germany, the Fascists in Italy or the Communists in Russia. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party held its presidential convention in the summer of nineteen thirty-six. The party delegates chose Alfred Landon to oppose Roosevelt for president. Mr. Landon was the governor of the farm state of Kansas. He was a successful oil producer with conservative business views. But he was open to some of the social reforms of Roosevelt's New Deal. Republicans hoped he would appeal to average Americans who supported mild reforms, but feared Roosevelt's social policies. The Democrats nominated Roosevelt and Vice President John Garner to serve a second term. VOICE TWO: The main issue in the presidential campaign of nineteen thirty-six was Franklin Roosevelt himself. Roosevelt campaigned across the country like a man sure that he would win. He laughed with the cheering crowds and told them that the New Deal had helped improve their lives. In New York, Roosevelt made a major speech promising to continue the work of his administration if he was re-elected. "Of course we will continue to seek to improve working conditions for the workers of America," Roosevelt told the crowd that day. "Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America. Of course we will continue our efforts for the farmers of America. Of course we will continue our efforts for young men and women. For those unable to walk. For the blind. For the mothers, the unemployed and the aged. We have only just begun to fight." One of the most important results of Roosevelt's New Deal policies was a stronger American labor movement early in the twentieth century. VOICE ONE: The Republican candidate, Alfred Landon, began his campaign by saying that many of Roosevelt's New Deal programs were good. But he said that a Republican administration could do them better and for less money. However, Landon's words became much stronger as the campaign continued. He attacked many of Roosevelt's programs. The campaign became increasingly bitter. Roosevelt said his opponents cared only about their money, not about other Americans. "I welcome their hatred," he said. Landon's supporters accused Roosevelt of destroying the nation's economic traditions and threatening democracy. VOICE TWO: The nation had not seen such a fierce campaign in forty years. But when it was over, the nation also saw a victory greater than any in its history. Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alfred Landon in the election of nineteen thirty-six by one of the largest votes in the nation's history. Roosevelt won every state except Maine and Vermont. The huge election victory marked the high point of Roosevelt's popularity. In our next program, we will look at the many problems he faced in his second administration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Sarah Long. THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Introduction to Our Foreign Student Series
* Byline: 

 This week, we begin a series of reports for students around the world who are interested in higher education in the United States. The last time we broadcast our Foreign Student Series was two years ago. Since then we have gotten more requests for information about how to attend an American college or university. So we will present new reports in our series with the most current information. Each week, we will discuss a part of the process for becoming an international student in the United States. Students have many questions: How do I find out about schools?? How do I choose the right one for me?? Which tests must I take?? What kinds of documents will I need?? And a big question -- how much will it all cost?? Listen for answers to these and other questions over the coming weeks. Our reports will describe the American system of higher education. We will talk about financial aid and rules about employment. We will also discuss English language requirements. And we will tell you where to look in other countries for information and advice about studying in the United States. Our reports will also take you inside some of the colleges and universities in the United States. We will explore programs of study and report on student life. Students who are not able to come to the United States will find out how to take classes over the Internet. In addition, we will examine how the threat of terrorism has changed some of the rules for study in the United States. In researching our series, we talked to people in education and government and to foreign students. Planning is important to the success of an educational experience. And that is the purpose of our series -- to help you plan. We would like to hear from anyone who has a general question about studying in the United States. We will answer questions in our reports. And we will try to answer as many questions as possible during our series. Write to special@voanews.com, or VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven U.S.A. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and audio files of each report in our Foreign Student Series will appear online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Not Satisfied with Video Games on the Market? Design Your Own
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about Zorro ... Play some music from the Zozo Sisters … And report about a new computer program that creates video games. Make Your Own Video Games Have you ever thought about making your own video games?? For creative people who enjoy playing video games, Microsoft has announced some good news.Mario Ritter?has more. MARIO RITTER: Microsoft is offering a computer program for making video games. The XNA Game Studio Express tools are free for download on computers with Windows XP systems to create games. Later this year, people will be able to join a “creators club” and pay ninety-nine dollars a year. That will permit them to build, test and share video games for the Xbox Three-Sixty game machine. The program will make it possible for people to create their own video games and share them with others on Microsoft’s Internet game service. Microsoft representatives say the program will be a simplified version of what professional game designers use. However, professional software costs tens of thousands of dollars. The program will not be as technical as the ones that professionals use. But it will still require users to have some programming knowledge. People who are skilled in game-programming should be able to create a video game in about three weeks using the new program. Microsoft will oversee games created to make sure they do not contain any illegal material. But creators will own their games. Microsoft experts say they hope that giving young people the tools they need to create video games will help them become interested in professional video game design. They say this will help the video game design industry.The company says this new program is the first of its kind to be sold to the public. It says the online sharing service will be similar to YouTube, a Web site where users can watch and share short videos they have created. The new program is the latest among a growing number of tools used to create material to be shared on the Internet. Personal photos, music, and writings are already being shared this way. Zorro (MUSIC from “The Mask of Zorro”) HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Sampath Kumar wants to know about the history of “Zorro.” The Spanish word ‘‘zorro” means fox. American writer Johnston McCulley created the fictional character “Zorro” in nineteen nineteen. Zorro was the hero of his book “The Curse of Capistrano.” The story takes place in the early eighteen hundreds in the area of California when it was ruled by Spain. A young man named Don Diego Vega has returned home from studying in Spain. He discovers that the people are being ruled by an evil governor who misuses his power. Don Diego decides to become a secret hero named Zorro to help the local people and fight injustice. Zorro wears black clothing and hides his identity by wearing a black mask on his face. No one knows he is Don Diego except his servant, Bernardo. During the day, Don Diego is a peace-loving man who likes poetry and music. But at night, he becomes Zorro to fight for the common people. He uses a sword to fight his enemies. And he uses it to mark a large letter Z for Zorro. At the end of the book, the evil Spanish officials are defeated, and Don Diego reveals himself as Zorro. Johnston McCulley may have regretted that ending because the character Zorro became extremely popular. He later wrote more than sixty stories about his hero. In all of them, the true identity of Zorro remains a secret. Many movies have been made about Zorro over the years. They include two popular films called “The Mark of Zorro.”? The first was a silent movie made in nineteen twenty. The second was made in nineteen forty. In the nineteen fifties, the Walt Disney company produced an extremely popular television series about Zorro. Its theme song also became a hit: (MUSIC) In the nineteen nineties, another television series was a joint production of American, French and Italian film companies. It was broadcast in more than <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:88133| height=150 alt='"The Mask of Zorro"' hspace=2 src="/specialenglish/images/mask-of-zorro_7sep06_se.jpg" width=123 align=right vspace=2 border=0>fifty countries. Two recent American movies continued the story. “The Mask of Zorro” was released in nineteen ninety-eight. “The Legend of Zorro” was released last year. Both starred Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Also last year, Chilean writer Isabel Allende published a new book about how Don Diego became Zorro. And recent reports say a musical stage show about Zorro is set to open in London next year. Zozo Sisters Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy have released a new album called "Adieu False Heart." Their beautiful voices combine to sing many kinds of traditional American music. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Linda Ronstadt became famous as a country, pop and rock singer in the nineteen seventies. Since then, she has sung many other kinds of music. Ann Savoy is part of the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band along with her husband, Marc Savoy, and Michael Doucet. She sings Cajun music. This is the music of the French-speaking people of the southern state of Louisiana. She also wrote a book about Cajun music. Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy call themselves the Zozo Sisters on their new album, "Adieu False Heart." They sing folk, bluegrass, pop and Cajun songs by many songwriters. One of these songwriters is Bill Monroe, known as the "father of bluegrass music."? Here they sing Monroe’s song "The One I Love is Gone." (MUSIC) Many excellent musicians play with Ronstadt and Savoy on "Adieu False Heart." This song, "I Can't Get Over You," is by Julie Miller. Her husband, Buddy Miller, plays the guitar. (MUSIC) Critics and fans agree that Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy make beautiful music together. We leave you now with their version of a popular song from the nineteen sixties, "Walk Away Renee."? (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Brianna Blake, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Mario Ritter was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bush Signs Law to Strengthen Pension Plans
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. In August, President Bush signed a bill making major changes to retirement plans operated by companies. These pension plans provide defined payments and services, called benefits, to retired workers. The new law gives workers a better chance to get the retirement benefits they have earned. The new law requires most private companies that provide pensions to have enough money to pay for one hundred percent of benefits for workers who retire. Companies have seven years to fully fund their pension plans. The air travel industry has an extra ten years to do so. The new law also makes it easier for workers to save money in other kinds of retirement plans. Defined contribution plans do not offer guaranteed benefits. Instead, employees, and usually their employers, add money to an investment plan that is not taxed. When workers retire, they can withdraw money from the plan. One example is the four-oh-one-K plan. Part of the new pension law makes it easier for employers to offer investment advice to employees with four-oh-one-K plans. The new law also makes permanent a law that increases the amount of money that people can put into an Individual Retirement Account, or I.R.A. Workers can save money in I.R.As tax-free until retirement. Experts say many current pension plans do not have enough money to provide the benefits promised to workers. Total pension deficits are estimated at between three hundred and four hundred fifty thousand million dollars. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation rescues pensions of failed companies or businesses that cannot meet their plan’s requirements. Earlier this week, the P.B.G.C. took over the pensions of almost two thousand workers and retirees for Oneida Limited, a maker of cooking tools. The P.B.G.C. says it pays monthly benefits to almost seven hundred thousand retirees in about three thousand six hundred pension plans. Experts say the new pension law shows how much retirement has changed in America. In the past, most employees expected to retire from a job they held for most of their working life. Today, workers need pension plans that can be moved from one employer to another. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fight for U.S. Congress Heats Up; Mexico's Presidential Dispute
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week marked the traditional start of the campaign season in the United States after Labor Day. Congressional, state and local elections are November seventh. The Republican Party has controlled both houses of Congress for almost twelve years; opposition Democrats see a chance to win back at least one. These are called midterm elections because they come halfway through the president's term. The Democrats need to gain fifteen out of four hundred thirty-five seats to take control of the House of Representatives. It is unusual for members of Congress to be voted out of office. And most political experts believe changing the current balance of power in the Senate would be even more difficult. Democrats hold eighteen of the seats that will be on the ballot and Republicans hold fifteen. To gain a majority, the Democrats need to win six of those seats and not lose any of their own. In opinion studies, more than sixty percent of the Americans questioned say they disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. But about fifty percent say they support his policies for the war on terror. So security could be a deciding issue on Election Day. President Bush says the country is safer now than it was before the September eleventh attacks. In recent days, the president has given a series of speeches before the fifth anniversary. He confirmed the use of foreign prisons by the Central Intelligence Agency to question suspected terrorists. And he asked Congress to approve the use of military commissions to try suspected terrorists for war crimes. The Supreme Court ruled in June that his plans required such approval. Mister Bush is also urging Congress to approve his decision about monitoring the international calls and e-mail of people in the United States, without a court order. Last month, a federal judge in Detroit ruled the program illegal and unconstitutional. A number of legal experts questioned her reasoning, and the ruling is being appealed. Congress has a lot of unfinished work, but just a few weeks before lawmakers leave to campaign. For example, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says it would be "next to impossible" to pass an immigration reform bill by then. So efforts will center on increased border security and enforcement of rules against employing illegal immigrants. The loss of millions of workers to the United States is one issue that will face Mexico's next president. On Tuesday, Mexico's electoral court declared Felipe Calderon the winner of the July election by less than one percent of the votes. The decision cannot be appealed. Opposition candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he will not accept it. His supporters say there was cheating and illegal government support for Mister Calderon. After weeks of protests, they plan to gather on September sixteenth -- Mexico’s Independence Day. They will discuss what Mister Lopez Obrador says will be a separate government. President Vicente Fox finishes his six-year term in December. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Milton Berle, 1908-2002: 'Mister Television' to Millions
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Milton Berle. He was famous for his funny programs in the early years of American television. To many Americans, he was known simply as "Mister Television." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Milton Berle performed in theaters, on radio and in movies. Yet he is best known as a television performer. He began working in television in nineteen forty-eight. At the time, television was so new that few people could receive it. Milton Berle’s weekly program was so popular that it may have influenced many Americans to buy their first television. Years ago, Americans who did not own a television often went to the home of someone who did to watch his shows. Many others watched it in stores that sold televisions. Milton Berle became so famous that some Americans considered him as part of their family. He was often called Uncle Milty. Like a family member, he was loved when his jokes were funny and even when they were not. VOICE TWO: He was born in New York City on July twelfth, nineteen-oh-eight. His parents, Moses Berlinger and the former Sarah Glantz, were Jews. They named him Mendel Berlinger. He was one of five children. One day, Mendel put on some of his parents’ old clothes. All the adults who saw him said he looked like a small version of the film actor Charlie Chaplin. So, at the age of five years, he entered -- and won -- a local Chaplin look-alike competition. He became a child actor a short time later. In nineteen fourteen, he appeared in his first film, “The Perils of Pauline.”? He was just six years old. The same year, he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in another movie. VOICE ONE: Mendel was given a chance to join a vaudeville act. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early nineteen hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who told jokes, and other acts. Sarah Berlinger supervised her boy’s rise in show business. She pushed him to be a success. Missus Berlinger attended all of her son’s performances. (SOUND:?Milton Berle) "I reached millions of people, who fortunately couldn't reach me. There was one laugh that projected out of the top of them all. That was my mother. And, if people didn't laugh that sat next to her, she used to shove them with the arm and say, 'Laugh it up. That's my son.'" VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty -- at the age of twelve – Mendel first appeared in a show on Broadway in New York City. He formed a vaudeville act with a girl named Elizabeth Kennedy. Later, he formed his own group. As the years passed, his act improved and he worked as a single performer. By the age of sixteen, he was forced to make changes. He had grown too tall to be a child actor. Mendel Berlinger changed his name to Milton Berle. He began performing at New York’s famous Palace Theater in nineteen thirty-one. He was twenty-three years old. Later, he appeared in several Broadway shows, including “Ziegfeld Follies.” VOICE ONE: Early in his adult life, Milton Berle was moderately successful in movies and on radio. He was better known as a comedian who told jokes in nightclub shows for adults. He was reported to be one of the best-paid performers in the country. Yet, Berle did not become truly famous until he appeared on the “Texaco Star Theater” television program in June, nineteen forty-eight. Three months later, the Texaco Company offered him a permanent position with the program. The “Texaco Star Theater” opened with four men who looked like gasoline station employees. They sang a song that the company used to sell its oil and gasoline products. (MUSIC:Texaco Theme) “Oh, we’re the men of Texaco. We work from Maine to Mexico. There’s nothing like this Texaco of ours. Our show tonight is powerful. We’ll wow you with an hour-full of howls from a showerful of stars. We’re the merry Texaco men. Tonight we may be showmen. Tomorrow, we’ll be servicing your cars…” VOICE TWO: Milton Berle was a performer who won the love of a crowd by not being lovable. He developed a show business personality that was funny, yet not always pleasant. He acted aggressive, and often appeared to be selfish or uncivilized. Sometimes, he greeted people with the saying, “Good evening, ladies and germs.” One thing that made Berle’s television shows popular was the way he appeared. He knew how to use funny movements and clothing to make people laugh. He would do anything for a laugh. He sometimes wore women’s clothing and beauty products. In one show, he explained that he had just paid his taxes. He wore only an empty wooden container, which suggested that the government had taken everything, including his clothes. VOICE ONE: Other comedians accused Berle of stealing their jokes. Yet many of the best-known performers in the United States appeared on the “Texaco Star Theater.”? Like any vaudeville show, his program also offered a mix of singers, dancers and animal acts. One Tuesday night, trained elephants appeared on the program. The animals left large droppings on the floor. ?This was a big surprise to the next act -- a group of dancers. Berle’s programs were filled with lots of energy, as we hear in this example. (SOUND: Texaco Star Theater) TEXACO MEN:“And now ladies and gentlemen, introducing America’s number one television star, who gets his nose into everybody’s act, your Cyrano de Bergerac, Milton Berle…” BERLE:“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen…”? (laughing)? “Don’t laugh, lady. You and I go to the same plastic surgeon…”? (laughing)? “That’s your own nose. I like it. It’s my basketball nose. I just had it fixed…” VOICE TWO: Milton Berle had a weekly television series from the late nineteen forties into the middle of the nineteen fifties. More than one hundred shows competed on other networks against his program. They all failed. During one period, four of five Americans who watched television on Tuesday nights watched the program. In nineteen fifty-one, Berle signed a long-term agreement with NBC, the network that provided his program to television stations across the country. Under the agreement, NBC agreed to pay him two hundred thousand dollars a year for thirty years, even if he did not work. VOICE ONE: Berle was tired from performing countless shows. So he demanded the right to take a rest from the program one week in every month. He later said that decision proved to be a mistake. The program began to lose its popularity. The taste of the American public was changing, and new funny acts were developing. The program also lost popularity when an opposing network added a series of religious talks. Berle left weekly television in nineteen fifty-six. In the late nineteen fifties, he appeared in a few NBC shows, but then the work seemed to stop. VOICE TWO: Berle returned to his roots as a comedian who told jokes, mainly at nightclub shows. He appeared in plays and movies. They included, “Let’s Make Love,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and “Broadway Danny Rose.”? He also made appearances on television. Milton Berle was known for his work with non-profit groups. He performed for soldiers during World War Two. He appeared in thousands of shows that helped to raise money for different kinds of organizations. In nineteen forty-nine, he helped to organize a television show for the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund. It may have been the first time that television was used to raise money for a non-profit group. Berle was married two times to a showgirl named Joyce Matthews. Each time, they agreed to end their marriage. Later, he was married more than thirty-five years to another woman, Joyce Cosgrove. After she died in nineteen eighty-nine, he married Lorna Adams. VOICE ONE: For many years, Milton Berle remained a funnyman loved by Americans. He produced projects for several media, and collected awards for his work in television. The Television Academy Hall of Fame added him as one of its members. The story of his life led to the nineteen ninety-two film, “Mister Saturday Night.”? He also wrote books of jokes and his memories. Milton Berle had colon cancer. He died at his Los Angeles home on March twenty-seventh, two thousand two. He was ninety-three years old. He had spent more than eighty-five years making people laugh. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by George Grow. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Africa Praised for Its Progress in Business Reforms
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank has just rated countries on how friendly they are to business. And the biggest news was the progress in Africa. Two African countries, Ghana and Tanzania, are listed this year among the top ten in business reforms. For the last two years, the World Bank found that Africa had the least progress in reforms in studies of ten business-related areas. The international lender says African countries still have the most complex business rules. But it finds that Africa is making progress at a rate faster than Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The report is from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, the private financing agency of the World Bank Group. This is the fourth year of reports called "Doing Business."? The new one is called "Doing Business Two Thousand Seven: How to Reform." It says the top five reformers, in order, are Georgia, Romania, Mexico, China and Peru. France is next, followed by Croatia, Guatemala, Ghana and Tanzania. Efforts to reduce the time, cost and trouble of legal and administrative requirements can mean greater economic activity. Business reforms are important especially to developing economies. For example, until recently, it took more than one year to receive property ownership documents in Ivory Coast. Now the process takes about one month. The government no longer requires a single minister to deal with all requests to register property. In China, the government has established a system of credit records, to help people get personal loans. Now, three hundred forty million Chinese have credit histories. Mexico was praised for increasing protections for investors. And, in El Salvador, business reforms cut the time needed to start a business from more than one hundred days to just twenty-six days. Some nations, however, increased barriers to doing business. The World Bank says these include Bolivia, Eritrea, Hungary, East Timor, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. It says these nations made it more difficult to do things like get credit, register property or move goods across borders. The report rates one hundred seventy-five economies on the ease of doing business. The top five, in order, are Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Hong Kong. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Mario Ritter. A link to the "Doing Business" Web page can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rocket Scientist: You Do Not Have to Be Extremely Intelligent to Understand This
* Byline: 

 Hello. I'm Phil Murray with Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist. . . "? Americans hear these words often. People say them in schools, offices and factories. Broadcasters on radio and television use them. This is how you might hear the words used. Workers in an office are afraid to try to use their new computer system. Their employer tells them not to be foolish. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to learn this," he says. Or, high school students cannot seem to understand something their teacher is explaining. "Come on," she says. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand this." Or, a company that makes soap is trying to sell its product on television. "You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that our soap cleans better," the company says. These words send a strong message. They say that you do not need to be extremely intelligent to understand something. How did the expression begin? No one seems to know for sure. But an official of the American space agency, NASA, says the expression just grew. It grew, he says, because rocket scientists probably are the most intelligent people around. Not everyone would agree. Some people might be considered more intelligent than rocket scientists. For example, a person who speaks and reads fifteen languages, or a medical doctor who operates on the brain. Still, many people would agree that there is something special about scientists who build rockets. Maybe it has to do with the mystery of space travel. Moving pictures from before World War Two showed a man named Buck Rogers landing on the planet Mars. He was a hero who could defeat any enemy from outer space. The rocket scientist is a different kind of hero. He or she makes space travel possible. Rocket scientists, however, can have problems just like everyone else. A Washington rocket scientist tells about a launch that was postponed many, many times. Finally, everything seemed right. Mechanical failures had been repaired. The weather was good. The scientists had planned that part of the rocket would fall into the ocean after the launch. All ships and boats within many kilometers of the danger area had been warned. But in the last few seconds a small boat entered the area. Once again, the launch was postponed. When the work goes well, most rocket scientists enjoy their jobs. One scientist said, "As a child I loved to build rockets. Now I am grown. I still love to build rockets. And now I get paid for it." (MUSIC) This program, Words and Their Stores, was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Phil Murray. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cork: More Than Just a Bottle Stopper
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Cork is a light brown material harvested from the cork oak tree. Cork is lightweight, strong and resistant to water. It is best known for keeping liquids from spilling. For thousands of years, people have used pieces of cork as closures for bottles. Cork is made of small cells filled with air. This structure makes it elastic, so it can be pressed but later return to its full shape. It is said that no technology has been able to copy this unusual material exactly. The cork oak tree is native to the western Mediterranean coast of Europe. The largest cork forests in the world are located in Portugal. In fact, Portugal produces more than half of the world’s cork supply. Cork oak trees have to be at least twenty-five years old before they are ready for harvest. Harvests only happen once every nine years. Cork is gathered by skillfully cutting off the outer layer of the tree with special knives. The harvest weakens the tree temporarily, but it soon starts to grow a new layer of bark. Next, the cork harvest is set out in the open for six months. Then, the cork is boiled in order to clean it and make it softer. After drying, the cork is ready to be cut. Because cork trees are not killed during harvest, they can live for as long as two hundred years. Also, used cork products can be recycled and used again. This makes cork a valuable renewable resource. The wine industry has always been a major supporter of cork production. Wine makers say cork stoppers in their bottles let the wine age and improve over time. But now some wine producers are changing to plastic or metal closures. Some environmentalists worry that if cork starts to lose its value, the cork oak forests of Europe will no longer be protected. These forests are rich with animal and plant life. Cork bottle stoppers make up about sixty percent of all cork products. But many people are finding creative new uses for cork. A designer in Italy, for example, makes cloth out of cork. An American designer uses cork to make large storage containers for food. Cork can be shined and used to cover floors and walls. Because it is fire resistant, cork is even being used as a material in making rockets. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Dana Demange. You can download transcripts and audio files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Storm Warnings: Trying to Understand the Causes of Hurricanes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Powerful storms are called hurricanes when they form over the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Pacific. They are called typhoons in the northwestern Pacific, and cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean. Whatever we call them, these storms are the subject of our program this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Severe ocean storms in the northern half of the world generally develop in late summer or early autumn near the equator. Storms can result when the air temperature in one area is different from that of another. Warmer air rises and cooler air falls. These movements create a difference in the pressure of the atmosphere. If the pressure changes over a large area, winds start to blow in a huge circle. High-pressure air is pulled into a low-pressure center. Severe ocean storms happen less often in the southern hemisphere. There the season of greatest activity is between December and March. South of the equator, the winds flow in the same direction as the hands on a clock. North of the equator, they flow counter-clockwise. This is because as Earth turns, air is pulled to the right in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, air is pulled to the left. VOICE TWO: Heavy winds in Puerto Vallarta, MexicoStorms can get stronger and stronger as they move over warm ocean waters. The strongest, fastest winds of a hurricane are found in the eyewall. This is the area that surrounds the center, or eye, of the storm. The eye itself is calm by comparison, with light winds and clear skies. Winds in severe ocean storms can reach speeds of more than two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Up to fifty centimeters of rain can fall. Some storms have produced more than one hundred fifty centimeters of rain. These storms also cause high waves and ocean surges. A surge is a continuous movement of water that may reach six meters or more. The water smashes across low coastal areas. Surges are commonly responsible for about ninety percent of all deaths from ocean storms. VOICE ONE: Weather scientists use computers to create models that show where a storm might go. Models combine information such as temperatures, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the amount of water in the atmosphere. Scientists collect the information with satellites, weather balloons and devices floating in the world's oceans. They also collect information from ships and passenger flights and from planes that fly into and around storms. The crews drop instruments on parachutes to record temperature, pressure, wind speed and other conditions. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a way to rate storms based on wind speed. It provides an idea of the amount of coastal flooding and property damage that might be expected. The scale is divided into five categories. A Category One storm has winds of about one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. It can damage trees and lightweight structures. It can also cause some flooding. Wind speeds in a Category Two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often powerful enough to break windows or blow the roof off a house. Winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour represent categories three and four. Anything even more powerful is a Category Five hurricane. VOICE ONE: An Australian weather scientist began to call storms by women's names before the end of the nineteenth century. During World War Two, weather scientists called storms by the names of their wives or girlfriends. The weather service in the United States officially started to use women’s names for storms in nineteen fifty-three. In nineteen seventy-nine, it began to use men’s names, too. Scientists decide on lists of names years in advance. They agree on them at meetings of the World Meteorological Organization. VOICE TWO: Naming storms is part of the job of the National Hurricane Center near Miami, Florida. Storms get a name when they reach a wind speed of sixty-two kilometers an hour, even if they never develop into hurricanes. The first name used in a storm season begins with the letter A, the second with B and so on. The same list of names is not used again for at least six years. And different lists are used for different parts of the world. ? For example, names for storms in the Atlantic this year include Alberto, Debby, Florence, Joyce and Oscar. Storm names for the central North Pacific include Akoni, Hana, Lala and Oka. VOICE ONE: Letters of the Greek alphabet had to be used for the first time last year to name storms in the Atlantic. That was the plan -- to call storms Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so on -- if there were ever more than twenty-one named storms in a season. In fact, there were twenty-eight. The two thousand five Atlantic hurricane season was the first on record with fifteen hurricanes. Four reached Category Five strength, also a first. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it was the first season with four major hurricanes to hit the United States. Hurricane KatrinaThe most destructive was Katrina. More than one thousand eight hundred people were killed along the Gulf of Mexico coast, most of them in Louisiana. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There is debate about the influence of global warming on hurricanes. Scientists have found no simple answers. A new study has just been published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in the United States. Scientists examined rising ocean temperatures in areas of the Atlantic and Pacific where hurricanes form. They found an eighty-four percent chance that humans have caused most of the observed rise over the last one hundred years. They say warming sea surface temperatures are mainly the result of an increase in greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Earlier research examined temperature changes over very large ocean areas, such as all of the Atlantic or Pacific. The new study involved much smaller hurricane formation areas. The researchers say they used most of the world's computer climate models to study the causes of the temperature changes. The study involved scientists from ten research centers. These included Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. Tom Wigley from the Colorado team says: "The best explanation for these changes has to include a large human influence." Hurricanes are highly complex. The researchers say increasing ocean temperatures are not the only cause of hurricane intensity, but are likely to be one of the major influences. VOICE ONE: A year ago, Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported an increase in the intensity of hurricanes since the nineteen seventies. He linked it to tropical sea-surface temperatures rising as a result of normal long-term changes and global warming. He said his results suggested that future warming may lead to storms of increasingly destructive power. But other experts say not all storms get stronger as waters get warmer. Some do, others do not. They say major storms may develop when bodies of water reach about twenty-eight degrees Celsius. Other conditions, however, must also be present. These include a large amount of water in the air and low wind speed in the upper atmosphere. VOICE ONE:? Studies have also looked at changes in the number of the most powerful hurricanes each year. Peter Webster and others at the Georgia Institute of Technology reported that the number of intense storms almost doubled in the past thirty-five years. But some other scientists found different results when they looked at different periods. One of them was Patrick Michaels of the University of Virginia and the Cato Institute, and currently a visiting professor at Virginia Tech. He says the rate of category four and five hurricanes in the Atlantic is the same now as it was in the nineteen forties and fifties. He says this shows that natural forces are at work, not global warming caused by humans. Frank Lepore is the public affairs officer at the National Hurricane Center. He says disagreements like these show the great difficulty involved in trying to understand what causes hurricanes. VOICE TWO: In July, ten scientists released a statement about what they called the main hurricane problem facing the United States. They warned that the problem is development in coastal areas at risk from hurricanes. They called on government leaders not to support policies that have increased the density of population and wealth in these areas. Their message was that building in risky coastal areas only increases the amount of destruction when a hurricane strikes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. A link to the National Hurricane Center, along with transcripts and audio files of our programs, can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Plans for Ground Zero Slow to Take Shape in Glass and Steel
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, five years after the September eleventh attacks, we examine what is being done to rebuild Ground Zero in New York. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In April, workers in Lower Manhattan finally broke ground for a high-rise office building called the Freedom Tower. The Freedom Tower is at the center of plans to redevelop the seven-hectare area now known as Ground Zero. Ground Zero is the name for where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood until September eleventh, two thousand one. Members of al-Qaida flew hijacked passenger airplanes into the towers. More than two thousand seven hundred people were killed as the buildings collapsed and disappeared from the New York skyline. VOICE TWO: The Twin Towers, completed in the early nineteen seventies, were among the tallest buildings in the world. The Freedom Tower will also be one of the tallest buildings, at a cost estimated at more than two thousand million dollars. Current plans call for occupancy in two thousand eleven. The building known as Seven World Trade Center was also destroyed on September eleventh. ?Four other buildings were torn down later because of damage. So far, only Seven World Trade Center has been rebuilt. The new high-rise building opened in May. Last week, designs for three other office buildings were made public. Money problems and disputes among public officials, developers and designers, among others, have slowed progress at Ground Zero. (SOUND from September 11, 2001) VOICE ONE: In all, the attacks five years ago killed almost three thousand people. Islamic terrorists also crashed a plane into the Pentagon. The Defense Department headquarters is across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers revolted against the hijackers. Crews working seven days a week repaired the damage to the Pentagon. Some office workers were back in less than a year in the area that had been struck. Work on a memorial to the victims at the Pentagon began this June. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many New Yorkers are angry that the huge hole at Ground Zero has yet to be filled with new buildings. They say it has taken too long to rebuild this economically important part of America's financial capital. But the job of planning has also been huge. Many agencies are involved. And so are many individuals. They include survivors of Nine-Eleven, family members of the victims and people who live near Ground Zero. Arguments about safety and appearance have at times been highly emotional. VOICE ONE: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns the World Trade Center property. But developer Larry Silverstein signed a ninety-nine year lease to operate the World Trade Center. He did so in July of two thousand one, just weeks before the attacks. Since then he has paid millions of dollars in rent each month for the Twin Towers and other buildings that no longer exist. Mister Silverstein was able to rebuild Seven World Trade Center, which he owned. But payments from insurance policies did not provide enough money to rebuild all of Ground Zero. In April, Mister Silverstein agreed to a proposal that aims to make sure there is enough money to complete the project. If this complex agreement becomes final, it could represent a big step toward restoring all of Ground Zero. VOICE TWO:? The agreement calls for Mister Silverstein to give control of the Freedom Tower to the Port Authority. The Port Authority then would pay him to direct the building of the tower. The agency also would guarantee occupants for the Freedom Tower. Mister Silverstein and the Port Authority would divide responsibility for other buildings on the site. The city and state of New York and insurance payments for the Twin Towers are to help finance the Freedom Tower. VOICE? ONE: Mister Silverstein recently announced that more than eight hundred tons of steel is being produced in Luxembourg to provide supports for the Freedom Tower. Kenneth Ringler leads the Port Authority. Mister Ringler said the steel supports will go up early next year. He said this would show the public that work is moving along. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Architects competed to design a plan to restore Ground Zero. ?In two thousand three, Daniel Libeskind of Studio Libeskind was chosen. Some of his best known buildings are museums, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Mister Libeskind proposed plans for the Freedom Tower as part of his master plan for Ground Zero. But his plans called for separate architects for the buildings. That idea was criticized. Some people also said his vision of the Freedom Tower was too large and costly. VOICE ONE: Back in July of two thousand one, Larry Silverstein had hired architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Mister Childs had been hired to make some changes to the existing World Trade Center. Later, Mister Silverstein asked Mister Childs to help work on the plans for the Freedom Tower, after the criticism of the Libeskind proposals. Architects Libeskind and Childs worked together in the second half of two thousand three. But it was not a happy partnership. The design process was reorganized. David Childs became the architect of the Freedom Tower. In the spring of two thousand five, police officials raised concerns about the security of the proposed building. VOICE TWO: Mister Childs hurried to make changes. Within just a few weeks, the new plans for the Freedom Tower were presented. That was in June of last year. David Childs set the building farther back from the street, to leave more room for a public plaza area. Being farther back from traffic would also provide more security against a terrorist attack from the street. The Freedom Tower is expected to rise from a sixty-one meter high base. There are also plans for extensive fire protection systems as well as wide stairways to make an escape to safety easier in an emergency. Most of Mister Libeskind's ideas were gone from the new design for the Freedom Tower, such as windmills to help provide energy. But the new plans kept his proposal for a total height of about five hundred forty-one meters, including a needle-like spire on top. VOICE ONE: With the spire, the building will be one thousand seven hundred seventy-six feet tall. Seventeen seventy-six is an important number to Americans. It was the year the United States declared its independence from Britain. The Freedom Tower will have office space, restaurants and other businesses, as well as an observation deck for visitors. Plans also call for a Beacon of Freedom -- a powerful light to shine from the spire. In late July, New York Governor George Pataki announced good news for the project. He said the General Services Administration, a federal agency, is expected to occupy a large share of the office space. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The plans for Ground Zero include a memorial, a museum and a visitors’ center. The memorial will honor the victims of September eleventh and of the nineteen ninety-three bombing of the Twin Towers. The memorial is called "Reflecting Absence."? The design by Michael Arad and Peter Walker won an international competition. Their design places reflecting pools and waterfalls around where the towers stood. But the project to build a memorial has faced design and financing delays. It has also incited some of the most emotional disputes in the debate over what to do with Ground Zero. VOICE ONE:? Crews are now working on support columns for the memorial. The work stopped for a while in the summer when giving for the project slowed and costs were increasing. A re-design was ordered, and the Port Authority has now take responsibility for the work. The goal is to open the World Trade Center memorial on September eleventh, two thousand nine. VOICE TWO: Another memorial will open much sooner opposite the World Trade Center site. A museum of memories called the Tribute Center is to welcome the public beginning September eighteenth. Four rooms in the center tell the story of the Twin Towers from their first days through their last. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and audio files of our programs can be downloaded at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Building Houses That Are Healthier for People and the Planet
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Green House movement. Its goal is to produce houses that are healthier for people and the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most people think of a greenhouse as a special glass structure used to grow plants all year long. Now there is another definition. A green house is the result of a movement to produce houses that are less harmful to the environment than other houses. Recent films, books, magazines and newspapers have reported about serious threats to the environment. Changes in climate, increasing pollution, rising energy demands, and decreasing supplies of water are worldwide problems. Designers and builders around the world are reacting to these environmental concerns. VOICE TWO: Green houses are designed to be sustainable. Something that is sustainable provides people today with what they need. But it does not use up or damage the natural resources that people will need in the future. Green houses use much less fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal – for energy. The houses are placed on the land so the sun warms them during cold months and is blocked during hot months. The houses have plenty of windows that open to let in cooling air. They have special equipment that uses a lot less water. Green houses are made of wood from fast-growing trees so old growth forests do not have to be cut. They include recycled materials so something old is re-used, not thrown away as waste. The houses are healthier for people to live in. Materials used in them are not processed with strong chemicals that can produce harmful gases. Houses that are environmentally friendly are not new. For years, architects in many areas of the world have designed and built them for environmental activists. But now, rapidly rising energy costs are increasing the demand worldwide for houses that use less energy and other resources. VOICE ONE: The National Building Museum is in a large historic building near the center of Washington, D.C. It is a private, non-profit museum that educates people about buildings. It has exhibits that show how buildings are made, how land is used, how cities expand. The Building Museum has a new major exhibit, “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design.”?? It demonstrates how houses can be designed and built to use less of the Earth’s resources. VOICE TWO: As visitors enter the exhibit, they are entering a house. It is called the Glidehouse. It was built in a factory in many parts. They were transported to the museum and put together. The Glidehouse has glass walls, recycled materials in its floors and walls and wood from fast-growing trees. It also has equipment that uses much less water and energy. The house is both environmentally friendly and modern looking. The glass walls on one side can be covered with sliding wood screens to control the amount of natural light and heat that enter the building. Floors are made of bamboo that is sustainable because it grows so rapidly. Furniture is made of interesting materials. Chair seats, for example, are made from recycled seat belt material from cars. A large colorful table is made of unused ends of different kinds of wood. The Glidehouse? costs less to build than the average new American house not made in a factory. And the costs of energy to operate it are a lot less. Glidehouses have been built in different areas of the United States and Canada. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Green House exhibit at the Building Museum has small models and photographs of twenty other houses. These houses were built in the last five years and follow green design rules. They have been built in Australia, China, Finland, Mexico, the Bahamas, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States. They are on mountainsides, by oceans, in cities, on deserts and in hot, wet areas of the world. Martin Moeller is senior vice president of the Building Museum. He says the houses shown in the exhibit were chosen to show it is possible to combine excellent design with environmental responsibility. He says the examples are international. Some of the most interesting and technologically progressive projects are not in the United States. Many countries lack the natural resources – land, trees, water – the United States has. So there has been more demand elsewhere to find ways to reduce the use of natural resources and energy. VOICE TWO: A film in the exhibit shows the growing demand for energy as population and development increase. It says experts believe worldwide energy needs will increase by fifty-seven percent by the year two thousand twenty-five. The top five energy-using nations now are India, Japan, Russia, China and the United States. The United States has six percent of the world’s population and uses twenty-three percent of the world’s resources. The green house movement aims to cut this resource use. Mister Moeller says the growing demand for green houses and sustainable building in the United States is based on the rising price of gas and oil. He says Americans realize they can learn about green building from other countries. One goal of the Green House exhibit, Mister Moeller says, is to show that individuals can make small changes, even if they are not building new houses. The resource area of the exhibit has sixty examples of green building materials. Visitors can see and touch recycled rubber and glass used for walls or bamboo for floors. They can get information about where to find these materials to use when making changes to older homes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another part of the Green House exhibit at the Building Museum teaches visitors about five rules of sustainability. The first is to stop depending on energy from fossil fuels that experts expect to last only forty more years. Instead, green buildings use the sun’s energy as much as possible for heat and power. The second rule of sustainability is to make sure the air inside a home is healthy and clean. Improve air quality by using air filters to remove pollution and by choosing materials that do not give off harmful gases. The third rule is to use the land responsibly. Build smaller houses and keep as much natural land as possible around them. The fourth rule is to stop wasteful use of energy in a home. Turn off lights and buy household equipment that uses less energy. The fifth rule of sustainability is to wisely use the Earth’s natural resources. Choose materials for a house that are re-useable and last a long time. VOICE TWO: The Green House exhibit helps visitors realize that they can move toward a more sustainable future with the decisions they make about their houses. Next month, the Building Museum will have a weekend of family activities to help people learn how to “Go Green.”? The Green House exhibit will be at the Building Museum until next June. Then it will travel to other American cities. You can learn more about the Green House at www.nbm.org. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In many American cities, new stores are opening that sell parts of old houses and other buildings that were torn down or remodeled. One such store, called Community Forklift, opened last year near Washington, D.C. Jim Schulman started it. The Community Forklift store is in a huge old industrial building. There are hundreds of doors, windows, toilets, stoves, cabinets, refrigerators and big pieces of wood. Mister Schulman says that everything in his huge store would have been thrown away. Instead, the material is sold at low cost to people who re-use it in their homes or businesses. This helps the environment because something new does not have to be manufactured and the old material does not have to buried or destroyed. He says, “I believe that re-using materials is the greenest thing you can do.”? Mister Schulman says he wants to help start some new kinds of small businesses. He wants to train people to take old building materials that do not sell and turn them into something that will. Providing new jobs for people, and a new life for unwanted used building materials, are further steps in the green house movement. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. You can read and download this program at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Thousands of Workers at Ground Zero Still Suffer Lung Problems
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Rescue efforts at the World Trade Center on September 13, 2001Many of the workers who served at the World Trade Center after the September eleventh attacks became sick. They breathed a harmful mix of dust, smoke and chemicals in the ruins of the Twin Towers and a third building that fell. Some went days without good protection for their lungs. Five years later, many of the thousands who worked at Ground Zero in the early days after the attacks still have health problems. Doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City have announced the results of the largest study yet of these workers. The results appeared last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. ?The study is called the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program. It confirmed high rates of breathing problems in members of the building trades, firefighters, police officers and other workers. Almost seventy percent of the workers in the study had a new or worsened breathing problem. These problems developed during or after their time working in the mountain of wreckage. About sixty percent still had breathing problems at the time of their examination. The researchers say they decided to study the effects on breathing first because other disorders might be slower to appear. Mount Sinai says it tested almost twelve thousand people between two thousand two and two thousand four. Eight out of ten of them agreed to have their results used in the report. The new results added strength to a Mount Sinai study released in two thousand four. That study was based on only about one thousand workers. Some lawmakers have sharply criticized city and state officials for letting workers labor at Ground Zero without satisfactory equipment. Officials have also been criticized for saying the air was relatively safe. State and federal officials have promised more than fifty million dollars to pay for treatment of the workers. Doctor Robin Herbert is one of the directors of the Mount Sinai testing program. She says people are still coming to the hospital for treatment of problems they say were caused by the dust at Ground Zero. In her words: "My worry is that money will be gone in a year, and what happens then?"? And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can find more reports on the fifth anniversary of the September eleventh attacks at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A 'Dialect Nomad' Goes in Search of Changes in American English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguist Walt Wolfram from North Carolina State University, a self-described "dialect nomad" who likes to wander through the dialects of American English. RS: "And where has this nomadic journey taken you this time?" WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, it's actually taken me to a new book that attempts to capture a whole range of dialects. It's titled 'American Voices: How Dialects Differ From Coast to Coast.' And what we tried to do in this book is to take some old, traditional dialects that people are aware of -- say, for example, Appalachian English or African-American English -- and show how they're configuring themselves, but at the same time look at dialect areas that people don't even think about in terms of dialects. Like look at dialect areas of the Midwest or look at places like Utah or Arizona, to show how some of these places are sites of emerging varieties of English." AA: "So, for example, what's coming out of Arizona?" WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, to some extent, what's coming out of Arizona is a sort of a carryover from what's happening in terms of California, where varieties of California English are starting to emerge. But also in Arizona what's happening is you're getting this sort of rural-urban split, where some of the rural residents of Arizona sound more Southern and urban speakers are sounding more like California in terms of some of the shifting vowel systems." RS: "What about places like Las Vegas or Orlando, places that are growing so quickly that they can hardly assimilate the numbers of people, let alone the different dialects that are coming into the region?" WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, there's a sort of homogenization that initially takes place. All of these people come in and sort of the native speaker becomes lost. But as a new group settles, what will, for example, happen with Atlanta is it will take some features of its original Southern heritage and it will start to redefine itself linguistically. "So, for example, one of the things that you'll notice is that although there are lot of Northerners who move to Atlanta, within a couple of years they start saying things like 'y'all' and 'fixin' to' -- for 'I'm fixing to go now' -- something that's going to happen in the immediate future. Or they may start producing the vowel of 'time' as 'taime' and so forth. So what happens is, there's a selective process linguistically." AA: "I'm curious, you're talking about the emerging California dialect, and that's a state where I spent many years -- and I'm curious, in the media we think of California-speak as being like the 'surfer talk' or the 'Valley Girl' sorts of ways. Is that what you're referring to, or also the influence of -- " WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, I mean, that's more of the public image. What's really sort of the heart of the developing California dialect is changes in the production of the vowels. So, for example, instead of saying something like 'bat,' people may say something more like 'bet.' Or, for example, instead of saying something like 'cool,' they may say something like 'kewl.' "So whereas we have these associations where, OK, California speech is the use of 'go' to introduce or 'be like' to introduce quotes, for example -- 'So he's like "Whadya doin'?" and I go "Whadya think I'm doin'?"' -- that's the sort of Valley Girl association. And that's certainly part of it, and California is probably where that change started. But what is more significant is some of the more subtle changes in the production of the vowels that people can identify, 'Oh, you're from California.'" AA: Walt Wolfram is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at North Carolina State University. His newest book, which he edited with Ben Ward, is called "American Voices: How Dialects Differ From Coast to Coast." Before we go, we have a question from Kayode Aladeselu in Nigeria, who wants to know it means when Americans say "so long." When a conversation ends with "so long," that simply means goodbye. And now we have to say so long for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And if you'd like to learn more about American English, our segments are all posted with transcripts and audio files at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "So-Long-Farewell-Goodbye"/Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series: Starting Out
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, in our Foreign Student Series, we discuss the first steps to studying in the United States. Step one is to visit an American educational advising center. There are more than four hundred of these offices around the world. You can find them through the State Department Web site for international students. We will give that address later. Or you can ask the public affairs office at a United States embassy to tell you where to find the nearest advising center. Step two is to start gathering information about the different choices in higher education programs in the United States. Some schools, for example, offer one-year certificate programs. These are in subjects like computer programming, public relations and administrative work. Junior or community colleges offer a two-year associate degree. These programs can prepare students for skilled jobs. Or, if students want to continue their education, many universities accept this work as the first two years toward a bachelor’s degree. To get a bachelor’s degree, students traditionally take general subjects during the first two years. These include areas like history, literature, mathematics and science. After that they take classes in their major area of study. At the graduate school level, a master’s degree can take up to three years to complete. A doctorate can take four to six years. But some medical specialties, for example, require years more of study. Whatever you choose, educational advisers say you should begin to plan at least two years before you want to start classes in the United States. The address of the State Department Web site for international students is educationusa.state.gov. If you would like to ask us a question about education in the United States, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot help with individual cases. But we might be able to answer a general question on the air as our Foreign Student Series continues. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Transcripts and audio files of each report in our series will appear on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Next week, the subject is the difference between a college and a university. I’m Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-13-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Roosevelt Aims for Economic Security With 'Second New Deal'
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Franklin Roosevelt's first three months as president were one of the most exciting periods in American politics. Roosevelt entered the White House in March nineteen thirty-three. The nation was in crisis. Banks across the country had closed their doors. The Great Economic Depression was at its lowest point. Roosevelt and the Congress moved quickly to help people without food or money. They launched a series of major economic programs. VOICE TWO: Conditions improved within a year after Roosevelt took office. There was no question about that. Banks were open. More people had jobs. Farmers were doing better. And the poor were not so close to disaster as before. However, conditions were far from perfect. Ten million workers still did not have jobs. Young people leaving school were lucky to find any job at all. And most business owners were only earning small profits, if any at all. After the worst crisis was past, some groups of Americans began to attack Roosevelt and his programs. Conservatives were the first to break with the president. They accused Roosevelt of socialist economic policies. VOICE ONE: Much more serious to Roosevelt was criticism from reformers within his own party. A number of popular leaders with strong views began to attract support from large numbers of Americans. Roosevelt saw his national unity falling apart. Conservatives were accusing him of socialism. Leftist opponents said he was doing too little to end the depression. He saw that he had to change his path. Roosevelt knew he had little chance to re-gain the support of conservative Americans. His policies were too progressive. So halfway through his first term as president, he began to support new reforms in an effort to win more support from the left. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court made the president's effort easier. Early in nineteen thirty-five, the court ruled that several of Roosevelt's earlier programs violated the Constitution and ordered an end to them. Among them were major programs for farmers and industrial planning. The court's decisions forced Roosevelt to create new programs and try new ideas. One of his first new actions was to support a plan for government controls on companies that produced electricity and water. Another was a bill to give jobs to workers. A third new law forced companies doing business with the federal government to pay workers a minimum wage. And the government also began enforcing a new law to control the actions of stock market traders and investment companies. At the same time, Roosevelt began to attack large companies. He spoke about the importance of small businesses in a democracy. He warned the nation that large companies had too much power. And he called for new actions to increase business competition and control large companies. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt supported, and Congress passed, two laws during this period that would change the lives of working Americans for years to come. The first law gave more power to labor unions. The second created a federal system to provide money for workers after they retired. Roosevelt's administration had already supported labor unions in an earlier law. But that law was over-ruled by the Supreme Court. So in nineteen thirty-five, the Congress passed a new law called the National Labor Relations Act. The act created a national labor relations group to help negotiate agreements between workers and business owners. It gave all workers the right to join or form a labor union. And it ordered business owners to negotiate with a union if it represented most of the workers. The new law, for the first time, gave unions real power and negotiating rights. VOICE TWO: The other very important law passed during this period created the national social security system. The law forced every worker and business owner to pay a small amount of money each month to the federal government. In exchange, the government paid money to workers who had retired or lost their jobs. The new law did not serve everyone. Farmers, government workers, and a number of other groups were not included in the system. The plan also did nothing to help people who were already unemployed. A person had to have a job after the new system began and then lose it to get money. However, the national social security law established a system that would grow and become a central part of American life. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt also supported other new laws during this period that changed the American economy. A banking act gave the nation's central bank -- the Federal Reserve Board -- new power to control the total amount of money in use. Another law increased taxes for rich people. A third law limited the power of major companies to gain control of local electric utility companies. The new laws openly challenged the power of big companies, big banks, and big money. Roosevelt rejected the idea that government should cooperate with major companies. Instead, he accused many of the companies of ruining the economy and hurting the working man. He called on Congress to help small companies and the average American. VOICE TWO: Perhaps the most important change during this period was that Roosevelt became willing to accept a federal budget that was not balanced. He began to agree with the views of Marriner Eccles, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank. Eccles believed that government had a duty to spend extra money during times of economic crisis. The extra money, he said, would create jobs for more people. They could buy more goods. And this would increase economic growth. Eccles believed that it was good policy for a government to spend more money than it earned through taxes during such periods. He argued that a growing economy would increase incomes and bring in more tax money. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's administration had spent more money than it earned ever since it took office. But the president and his advisers did so only to end the economic crisis. They believed that it was a necessary evil. But Eccles and others told Roosevelt that it was not bad for the nation if the government spent more than it earned. The British economic expert, John Maynard Keynes, published an influential book that supported the same policy. And Roosevelt and his top advisers began to accept the new idea. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt's economic policies were known as the "New Deal." But the many changes he made during this period became known as the "Second New Deal." They included some of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of the country, such as the National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security law. And Roosevelt's willingness to accept an unbalanced budget would be the first step toward federal budget shortages that would grow steadily in the years to come. Budget shortages would jump under President Lyndon Johnson during the war in Vietnam. They would be an important cause of economic inflation in the United States and the world in the nineteen seventies. And Americans would elect Ronald Reagan president in nineteen eighty partly to try to bring federal spending under control. In nineteen thirty-five, however, most Americans agreed with Franklin Roosevelt that budget shortages were necessary to fight the serious economic depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Larry West. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Modern Times': Bob Dylan Returns to the Top of the Music World
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the Statue of Liberty … Play some new music from Bob Dylan … And report about agricultural fairs across the country. State Fairs (MUSIC) HOST: That was a song from the movie “State Fair”. It is about one family’s experiences attending an agricultural fair. Almost all fifty American states hold such events. They usually take place in August, September or October. Shirley Griffith has more. Shirley Griffith: American agricultural fairs were traditionally held to honor the work of local farmers. Farmers and their families came to the fair to show their crops and animals and compete for prizes. Today, there are hundreds of state and local county fairs. Millions of people visit them. Some fairs last up to three weeks. One of the most famous state fairs takes place every summer in the state of Iowa. The Iowa state fair began in eighteen fifty-four. Today, one million people visit the Iowa state fair each year. A popular competition at state fairs is the cooking contest. People prepare food such as pies. Expert judges decide which ones are the best. Winners receive prizes. Other people take part in food eating contests. They try to eat the most food in a short period of time. The Georgia state fair takes place later this month. Its program lists a hot dog eating contest, a pizza eating contest, a donut eating contest, a corn-on-the-cob eating contest and a chicken wing eating contest! People who visit a fair enjoy watching such contests. They can also see dogs guiding sheep together into herds. They can examine new home products and farm equipment. At some fairs, they can watch cars race or crash into each other at events called demolition derbies. They can attend live music shows with performances by famous entertainers. Children can go on rides. And, of course, everyone can eat many different kinds of food. Anyone who has been to an agricultural fair knows that there is no reason why anyone should go home hungry. Statue of Liberty Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Amir Hossein asks about the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty represents a woman holding a torch of fire. It stands on an island at the entrance to the New York City harbor. It is almost ninety-three meters tall, one of the tallest statues ever built. Its complete name is “Liberty Enlightening the World”. The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. It was an expression of the friendship and liberty shared by the people of both countries. The idea for the statue came from a French history expert in eighteen sixty-five. Six years later, artist Frederic Bartholdi traveled to the United States to seek support for building the statue. He decided it should stand on an island in New York harbor. Bartholdi began designing the statue when he returned to France. He designed the statue’s face to look like his mother’s. French officials organized a group to raise money and supervise the project. The French people gave four hundred thousand dollars to build the statue. In eighteen seventy-seven, the Americans established a similar committee to raise money needed to build the statue’s base. The statue was built in France. Bartholdi had hoped it would be ready on the one hundredth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence in eighteen seventy-six. But it was not. France officially presented the statue to the United States minister to France in Paris on July fourth, eighteen eighty-four. The statue was then taken apart and sent to the United States. “Liberty Enlightening the World” was completed in the United States in eighteen eighty-six. New York City celebrated with a huge parade. President Grover Cleveland and other American and French officials attended the ceremonies. Since then, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of freedom for people all over the world. Its meaning is expressed in the famous poem by Emma Lazarus that is written on the statue’s base. Here is part of that poem. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Bob Dylan's “Modern Times” HOST: <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:88274| height=150 alt='Bob Dylan, "Modern Times"' hspace=2 src="/specialenglish/images/moderntimes_dylan_14sep06_150_se.jpg" width=150 align=left vspace=2 border=0>Bob Dylan’s new album, “Modern Times,” was released at the end of last month. Critics loved the collection of songs. It soon became the top selling album in the United States. This is Dylan’s first Number One album in thirty years. Mario Ritter has more. MARIO RITTER: Bob Dylan is one of the world’s most influential songwriters. Over the past forty years, Dylan has sold almost one hundred million records. He has performed in thousands of shows around the world. His new album, “Modern Times,” shows that Dylan, now sixty-five years old, still has a lot to say. “Modern Times” starts off with this song, called “Thunder on the Mountain.”? Some of the words are about singer Alicia Keys. (MUSIC) Bob Dylan started as a folk singer in the nineteen sixties. He wrote several famous protest songs about very serious issues. The songs in “Modern Times” are not as serious. There is a feeling of playfulness in the words of the songs. Dylan sings about the economy, relationships, aging and regret. Here is an example: “Workingman’s Blues Number Two.” (MUSIC) Bob Dylan’s record company says “Modern Times” is the last in a series of three albums. The first was “Time Out of Mind” in nineteen ninety-seven. “Love and Theft” followed in two thousand one. At an age when other people are retiring, Bob Dylan is still very active. He performs more than one hundred times a year in what he calls his “neverending tour.”? He worked with film director Martin Scorsese on a movie about his life. He has a weekly program on American satellite radio. He is writing the second part of his book of memories. And in a few months, his music will be presented in a dance show on Broadway in New York City. We leave you now with this love song, “Spirit on the Water,” from Bob Dylan’s new album, “Modern Times.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Pretexting' Spells Trouble for Hewlett-Packard
* Byline: 

 Correction attached This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Computer-maker Hewlett-Packard announced this week that the chairwoman of its board of directors will resign in January. How Patricia Dunn came to be forced out after less than two years is a complex story. It involves Hewlett-Packard's use of investigators who gained private telephone records of board members and reporters. Miz Dunn ordered the investigation after private details of board meetings appeared several times in news reports. To get the phone records, the investigators used "pretexting."? Pretexting is when private investigators identify themselves as someone else so they will be given personal information. Commonly they identify themselves as the person whose records they seek. H-P is based in Palo Alto, California. The attorney general of the state, Bill Lockyer, discussed the case on national television Tuesday. He said there is enough evidence to bring criminal charges against people inside and outside the company. Federal officials are also investigating the case. Patricia Dunn and the man appointed to replace her, H-P Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd, have apologized for the methods used. She says the investigation was necessary but that it "went beyond what we understood."? The investigators reported that board member George Keyworth gave information to CNET News. The former science adviser to President Ronald Reagan is a longtime Hewlett-Packard director. In May, the board asked Mister Keyworth to resign. He refused. But his friend, board member Thomas Perkins, resigned in protest over the company's actions. In June, Mister Perkins wrote to Larry Sonsini, an outside lawyer for H-P, to ask for details of the investigation. Mister Sonsini, in an e-mail back, said "pretext calls" were made to phone service providers. But he said the process appeared "within legal limits."? Some members of Congress are now calling for federal laws against pretexting. Patricia Dunn is to remain on the board after she resigns as chairwoman in January. She replaced Carly Fiorina who in February of last year was forced to resign as chairwoman and H-P's chief executive. Carly Fiorina had led H-P to take over Compaq Computer. The move was opposed by some directors and the families of the two men who started Hewlett-Packard. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report for this week, written by Mario Ritter. Archives of our reports are the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. --- Correction: George Keyworth is no longer on the Hewlett-Packard board. He resigned?on September 12, after being told that he could not seek re-election. (He has denied sharing any private board information with reporters.) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Future of Peacekeeping in Darfur Remains Unsettled
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Debate continued this week over what will happen at the end of the month when African Union peacekeepers may leave Darfur. The African Union has a seven-thousand member force in the Darfur area of western Sudan. But violence has continued, and African Union officials say the force is lacking in money. The United Nations has called on the government of Sudan to let a U.N. force replace the peacekeepers. Last month, the Security Council approved a resolution for twenty thousand U.N. troops and police to take over the operation. But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir opposes a U.N. force. On Thursday, he accused the United Nations of plans to "recolonize" Sudan. Sudanese officials say African Union peacekeepers are welcome to stay -- but not as part of a U.N force. The government has said it will fight any U.N. forces that enter Darfur. African Union officials plan to meet in New York on Monday. They will talk more about their decision to withdraw their soldiers from Darfur at the end of the month. Leaders of a rebel group that signed a peace agreement in May have said they will renew fighting if the troops leave and are not replaced. Fighting in Darfur began in two thousand three when local farmers rebelled. They accused the government of unfair treatment. Since then, an estimated two hundred thousand people have died in fighting between rebels and government-supported Arab Janjaweed fighters. Estimates of the number killed by war and disease are as high as four hundred fifty thousand. More than two million people have been displaced from their homes. Government troops recently launched a new offensive against rebel groups that refused to sign the peace agreement in May. United Nations officials have warned that aid groups may have to leave Darfur because of the worsening security. The World Food Program estimated this week that more than three hundred fifty thousand people in north Darfur have gone without food aid for three months. On Thursday, American U.N. Ambassador John Bolton led a special Security Council meeting on Darfur. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel said there must be an international force in Darfur -- if Sudan agrees or not. The Nazi Holocaust survivor compared the situation to Rwanda, where intervention came too late to stop the killings in nineteen ninety-four. Another speaker, actor George Clooney, also appealed for action. He visited Darfur in April. He called the conflict "the first genocide of the twenty-first century." But the ambassador of Qatar, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, dismissed the idea of an actor advising what to do in Darfur. And he criticized those who blame the Sudanese government instead of the rebels for the conflict. Qatar is currently the only Arab member of the council. Reuters news agency said the ambassador also accused the United States of using the Darfur issue for political gain. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Nina Simone, 1933-2003: Singer and Civil Rights Activist
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about singer Nina Simone and play some of her music. She was also active in the civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nina Simone wrote and performed the song you just heard. It is called “Young, Gifted and Black.”? In the nineteen sixties, a major black civil rights group declared it the national song of black people in America. Nina Simone was very young when her musical ability first appeared. She could play songs on the piano when she was three years old. She learned by listening to music and then searching for the correct piano keys. In a book about her life, Nina Simone wrote that everything that happened to her as a child involved music. She said her first memory was of her mother singing. She said her mother always sang Christian songs around the house. That influence shows up years later in the recording of “If You Pray Right” on Miz Simone’s album “Baltimore.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in nineteen thirty-three in the southern town of Tryon, North Carolina. Her parents owned several businesses there. Her mother was also a Methodist minister. The family of ten lived in a big house and made good earnings. However, difficult economic times in the United States hurt the family’s businesses. The family had to move to smaller homes as their finances continued to shrink. VOICE ONE: In time, Eunice’s mother went to work cleaning house for a white woman in the town. The woman knew about Nina’s piano playing. She suggested that Missus Waymon send her daughter to a piano teacher for lessons. When Missus Waymon said the family did not have the money, her employer said she would pay for the girl’s first year of lessons. Nina Simone wrote that she grew to love her first piano teacher, a white woman from England. In fact, the teacher helped set up financial assistance for Nina’s lessons. Nina Simone also wrote about how much she liked her mother’s employer. She wrote that, as a child, she expected all white people to be as kind as they were. VOICE TWO: Eunice Waymon had her first public performance when she was eleven. Many people in the town had given money to help pay for lessons for the young pianist. Miz Simone wrote that it was expected she would perform to show them what their money had produced. The performance was at the town hall. Eunice was at the piano. She looked at her parents just before she was to play. She saw them being forced from their seats in the front. A white family wanted to sit in their place. Her parents did not resist. The young girl stood up and spoke. She said no one would hear her play if her parents were not returned to their seats. They were and the concert began. VOICE ONE: Nina Simone wrote that her whole world changed in that moment. She said nothing was easy anymore. She wrote that racism became real for her like the turning on of a light. Nina Simone continued to stand up and speak out. One of her most famous songs expressed her anger about the treatment of black people in America. “Mississippi Goddam” was released in nineteen sixty-three. Miz Simone wrote the song in reaction to extreme violence against black Americans. The incidents included the murder of a civil rights activist in Mississippi and the killings of four young girls in Alabama. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eunice Waymon graduated from high school at the top of her class in nineteen fifty. She moved to New York City to attend the famous Juilliard School of Music. She had been awarded money to pay for one year at the school. After that first year, Eunice had to support herself financially. For a while she worked as a piano player for people studying singing. Then she learned of summer jobs in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that paid more money. She went to Atlantic City and got a job playing piano at a drinking place. On her second night, she was told she had to sing also. Eunice had never sung in public before. Nina Simone later told a reporter that she decided just to try to sound like the famous singer Billie Holiday. She got the job. Nina Simone recorded a number of songs made famous by Billie Holiday. Some of Miz Simone’s versions also became popular, like this song, “Don’t Explain.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone because of the job at the drinking place. She said she changed her name because she did not want her parents to know what she was doing. But she could not hide her career for very long. In nineteen fifty-eight, Nina Simone recorded her first album. It was called “Little Girl Blue.”? One song became a top radio hit in America. It is “I Loves You, Porgy” from George Gershwin’s opera, “Porgy and Bess.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Nina Simone became very active in the civil rights movement in the nineteen sixties. She came to be known as a protest singer. She was also called the “High Priestess of Soul.”? But she did not like either description. Nina Simone often said she hated to be linked with any one kind of music or message. She sang it all – blues, jazz, Christian spirituals, rock and roll and pop. Miz Simone was married two times. She had a daughter, Lisa, who is also a singer. Nina Simone left the United States in nineteen seventy-three. She said she was angry about the treatment of black people in America. She lived in the Caribbean and Africa before settling in France. She died there at the age of seventy in two thousand three. One of Nina Simone’s most popular songs was “I Put a Spell On You.”? She took the title for the book she wrote about her life, published in nineteen ninety-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Concerns Raised About Future Progress in Mine-Clearing
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines says mine-clearing efforts made more progress last year than ever before. But the group says it is concerned about future progress because international support decreased for the first time. It says the European Commission, the United States and eight other major donors decreased their financing of "mine action."? This is defined as clearing mines and destroying supplies of them. It also includes mine risk education and survivor assistance. The Geneva-based campaign released its "Landmine Monitor Report Two Thousand Six" at the United Nations last week. The report says that seven hundred forty square kilometers, an area about the size of New York City, was cleared of mines last year. It says that is the most land cleared in one year since modern de-mining efforts started in nineteen eighty. Yet the number of reported casualties from landmine explosions was eleven percent higher than in two thousand four. Landmines killed at least two thousand people and wounded more than five thousand others last year. About eighty percent of the victims were civilians. The campaign blames the increase largely on increased conflict in nations including Burma, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Colombia reported the highest number of casualties -- more than one thousand. Numbers of reported casualties are often less than half of the real number. Two countries, Guatemala and Surinam, were declared mine-free. But armed groups in at least ten countries used mines or similar devices in the past year. The report says three governments used them as well: Burma, Nepal and Russia. These nations have not signed the nineteen ninety-seven Mine Ban Treaty. Forty countries remain outside the treaty. Others include China, India, Pakistan and the United States. The treaty bans the use, production and trade of landmines. It also requires countries to clear all territory of antipersonnel mines within ten years of when they joined the treaty. More than one hundred fifty governments have joined the Mine Ban Treaty. Twenty-nine still have to finish mine-clearing within the next few years. But the campaign says thirteen might not meet that goal, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Mozambique and Thailand. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can read transcripts of our reports and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Great-Grandma Did What?! Becoming a Family-History Explorer
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Our subject this week is an area of study that interests millions of people -- genealogy, researching family history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People study their family history for different reasons. For some, genealogy is important to their religion. This is especially true for Mormons. Genealogy is also important for membership in some historical or cultural organizations. These include the General Society of Mayflower Descendents and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Candidates for membership may be asked for evidence about when their families came to America. Other people who get involved in genealogy may want to confirm stories they heard about a family member. Or they may just want to learn more about the strange-looking people in old family pictures. VOICE TWO: Some people say their interest in genealogy came from watching an eight-part series on television called "Roots."? "Roots" was first broadcast in nineteen seventy-seven. It was extremely popular. It was based on a book by the writer Alex Haley. He wanted to find the history of his family. He described how the story began long ago in Africa, as slave traders captured one of his ancestors and brought him to America. After watching "Roots," many Americans wanted to investigate their own roots. In some cases, what they found surprised them. VOICE ONE: For example, one man knew that a member of his family had crossed the United States with members of the Mormon Church in the eighteen hundreds. His ancestor was a builder and did many jobs for the group. The early Mormon Church permitted men to marry more than one woman. A genealogy search showed that the builder was, in fact, married to seven women and had at least thirty children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: So how exactly does someone start a genealogical investigation?? Experts say you should start with yourself. Write down your own history, then if possible work back to your parents and grandparents. One idea is to ask your parents what they can remember about their parents or grandparents. Find out all you can about your ancestors. Where did they live?? What kind of work did they do?? Many people use sound or video recorders as they talk to family members. That way they create a permanent record of family memories. And, like any good investigator, do the best you can to separate facts from stories that may or may not be true. VOICE ONE: You can often find a lot of information in family pictures, letters and other documents. Some of these things may be hidden inside old books. Resources on local history may also provide useful information. Large libraries may have hundreds of helpful books. In the United States, several groups have large collections of genealogical materials. These include the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Family History Library of the Mormon Church. These collections are open to the public. VOICE TWO: The Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, has about two thousand visitors each day. The library has information from almost every area of the world. Most records are from the years fifteen fifty through nineteen twenty. Some people travel to Utah to use the library. But the Mormon Church has established more than four thousand Family History Centers around the world. The church also has a Web site to help people look for information about their family history. The address is familysearch.com. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Records kept by religious groups are among the most dependable for family research projects. Often the most helpful documents are records of marriages and deaths. Death records, for example, tell where the person lived. They also list the names of the person’s parents. And they list the cause of death. Governments usually keep official copies of birth, marriage and death records. You should also examine other records -- you never know what you might find. Useful information might be found in local court and tax records. And local governments may have copies of wills. These statements of final wishes often contain details about a person's life and possessions. VOICE TWO: Governments often have many helpful records for genealogists. The United States government, for example, has done population studies every ten years since the end of the seventeen hundreds. Early census records had few details. They gave the name of the head of the family. They listed the number of people in the family. Recent census records provide more information. They show the value of a family’s property. They also tell where a person’s parents were born. VOICE ONE: For privacy reasons, Census Bureau information on individuals is not made public until after seventy-two years. Copies of old census records are kept on microfilm at centers around the country. More information about Census Bureau records can be found at census.gov. One of the most important places for genealogy researchers is the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The National Archives keeps not only census records but also records on men and women who served in the armed forces. Military records give details of the person’s position and dates of service. These records can show if an ancestor fought in any wars. The National Archives also has records of early settlers who received land from the government. And it has lists of immigrants who arrived in America by ship. More information about the National Archives can be found on the Internet at nara -- n-a-r-a -- dot g-o-v (nara.gov). Passenger records for immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island in New York can be searched online at ellisisland dot o-r-g (ellisisland.org). That site is operated by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, many people use the Internet as they research their family history. There are thousands of Web sites related to genealogy. These can guide people to historical records. They can also provide information about how to write down your family’s history. Some people put all of the information and pictures they collect into nicely designed books and have copies made for family members. Beginning genealogists often believe they can do all of their research on the Internet. But experience has shown that people are often able to gather only a small amount of useful or correct information. Also keep in mind that Web sites may be operated by businesses and groups that are trying to sell products and services. VOICE ONE: Finding your family roots is not always easy. But continuing to search can sometimes produce results. For example, there was a man who knew that part of his family had lived in the same area of Pennsylvania for almost two centuries. He knew the names of many of his ancestors, but nothing more. He searched for additional information but could not find any. Then the man bought a copy of an old map of the area. The map had been produced more than one hundred years earlier. Many burial grounds at that time were near churches. During a trip to the area, the man used the map to find these old burial grounds. The information he found on burial markers answered some of his questions about his ancestors. Yet the answers raised several new questions. This often happens in genealogy. VOICE TWO: People who seek their roots through genealogy say the search is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Many people say it also helps them learn more about history. Their search not only brings history to life by making it more personal. It also gives them a better understanding of their family’s place in history. And it gives them a better understanding of themselves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by George Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. You can download transcripts of our programs, and find links to the Web sites we listed, at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: I’m Shirley Griffith. We hope you can listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Money:? He Hit the Jackpot
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. I think people everywhere dream about having lots of money. I know I do. I would give anything to make money hand over fist. I would like to earn large amounts of money. You could win a large amount of money in the United States through lotteries. People pay money for tickets with numbers. If your combination of numbers is chosen, you win a huge amount of money – often in the millions. Winning the lottery is a windfall. A few years ago, my friend Al won the lottery. It changed his life. He did not have a rich family. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. ?Instead, my friend was always hard up for cash. He did not have much money. And the money he did earn was chicken feed – very little. Sometimes Al even had to accept hand-outs, gifts from his family and friends. ?But do not get me wrong. My friend was not a deadbeat. He was not the kind of person who never paid the money he owed. He simply pinched pennies. He was always very careful with the money he spent. In fact, he was often a cheapskate. ?He did not like to spend money. The worst times were when he was flat broke and had no money at all. One day, Al scraped together a few dollars for a lottery ticket. He thought he would never strike it rich or gain lots of money unexpectedly. But his combination of numbers was chosen and he won the lottery. He hit the jackpot. ?He won a great deal of money. ? Al was so excited. The first thing he did was buy a costly new car. He splurged on the one thing that he normally would not buy. Then he started spending money on unnecessary things. He started to waste it. It was like he had money to burn. ?He had more money than he needed and it was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent it quickly. When we got together for a meal at a restaurant, Al paid ever time. He would always foot the bill, and pick up the tab. ?He told me the money made him feel like a million dollars. He was very happy. But, Al spent too much money. Soon my friend was down and out again. He had no money left. He was back to being strapped for cash. He had spent his bottom dollar, his very last amount. He did not even build up a nest egg. He had not saved any of the money. I admit I do feel sorry for my friend. He had enough money to live like a king. Instead, he is back to living on a shoestring -- a very low budget. Some might say he is penny wise and pound foolish. He was wise about small things, but not about important things. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Study Finds Older Fathers Are More Likely to Have Autistic Children
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week -- a report on the link found between older fathers and the risk of autism in children ... VOICE ONE: And the story of how scientists genetically engineered normal cells to fight cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Findings from a new study suggest a link between a man's age and the chances that his children will develop autism. Researchers found that men age forty and older had autistic children almost six times as often as fathers under the age of thirty. Men in their thirties were about one and one-half times more likely to father an autistic child as dads in their twenties and teen years. The study found no link between autism and older mothers. VOICE ONE: The study involved children born in Israel in the nineteen eighties. The findings come from the records of medical examinations for seventeen-year-olds for required military service. The records for more than one hundred thirty thousand teenagers included the ages of both their father and their mother. Within this group, the records showed that there were one hundred ten cases of autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder is the name for autism and related conditions. The rate of cases was eight out of ten thousand people. VOICE TWO: The scientists discuss several possible genetic causes for the age effect they documented in fathers. They say people should keep in mind, however, that social environments influence the age when a man fathers children. It differs across societies and can change as conditions change over time. Abraham Reichenberg of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London, led the study. The findings appeared earlier this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry, published by the American Medical Association. In the last twenty years, more and more children have been identified as autistic. The researchers say the increase is partly the result of more knowledge about autism and changes in how doctors identify it. But they note that it could also represent an increase in this disorder. VOICE ONE: Ryan Taylor was diagnosed with autism in 2004; he is shown with his father, Craig, at their home in ConnecticutWhat exactly is autism?? This is not an easy question even for experts to answer. A recent press release from the National Institute of Mental Health, in the United States, described it as a mental disorder. Some people, though, object to such a description. Other materials from the institute have called it a brain disorder. Autism appears in early childhood. Autistic children experience delays in the development of social and communication skills. These social and language problems usually appear around three years of age. The disorder is found more often in boys than girls, but girls often have more severe effects. Autistic children often appear emotionally withdrawn from other people. They may also show limited interests and repeat the same actions over and over again, like rocking back and forth. Scientists are trying to better understand autism as they search for its causes and for effective treatments. VOICE TWO: On September seventh, the National Institute of Mental Health announced the start of three major studies of autism. These are being done at its research program at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. One study aims to define differences in autistic children with different developmental histories. Another study will measure the effectiveness of an antibiotic medicine as a treatment for one kind of autism. And the third study will try to find out if chelation [pronounced key-LAY-shun] treatment is effective against autism. Chelation removes heavy metals from the blood. This treatment is used for children with lead poisoning. But many parents seek it for autistic children to try to remove mercury from their blood. They believe that many cases of autism were caused by vaccines that contained thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. That theory is debated. VOICE ONE: Researchers will carry out a controlled study to test the effectiveness and safety of chelation for children with autism spectrum disorders. Institute officials note that chelation does not target mercury alone. It can also remove minerals that the body needs, such as calcium, iron and zinc. Federal officials say most vaccines for children age six and younger now contain either no thimerosal or very small amounts. This has been true since two thousand one, they say, but an exception is inactivated flu vaccine. Currently there is a limited supply of thimerosal-free vaccine against influenza, for use in children six months to twenty-three months old. VOICE TWO: The National Institute of Mental Health says autism may represent several different diseases. Autism presents itself in different ways and is part of a larger group of disorders. These are often called autism spectrum disorders. They also include Asperger's syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder. Institute officials say autism spectrum disorders are currently reported to affect as many as six out of every one thousand children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have successfully used genetic engineering to treat the deadliest form of skin cancer. The journal Science reported the results of a study of patients with advanced melanoma. Steven Rosenberg led a team at the National Cancer Institute. The study involved seventeen patients. The disease had spread through their bodies. Other treatments had failed. The researchers changed the genetic structure of the patients’ own white blood cells to get them to recognize and attack cancer cells. Two patients are now free of melanoma. They are alive a year and a half after the experimental treatment began. All of the other patients have since died. ? VOICE TWO: Using a person's own white blood cells to treat melanoma is not a new idea. But what doctors have done until now is to look for the most aggressive cancer-killing cells that a patient already has. They grow more of them in the laboratory and return them to the patient's body. ? But this treatment is said to work only for melanoma. And it can only be used for patients who already have specialized cells that can recognize cancers. Not very many patients with advanced melanoma produce enough cancer-fighting T-cells naturally in their blood. So Doctor Rosenberg and his team decided to make cancer-fighting cells in their laboratory. VOICE ONE: To do this, the scientists removed normal T-cells from the blood of the patients. Then they infected the cells with a retrovirus. The retrovirus carried special genes. These genes produce T-cell receptors. Once inside the body, the receptors are able to seek out and work against the melanoma cells. The team also has found T-cell receptors that can find other common cancers. The head of the National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni, said the results represent the first time gene therapy has been used successfully to treat cancer. Scientists say they hope this kind of gene therapy could also be used for breast and lung cancer, among others. VOICE TWO: The study showed that engineered cells can stay in the body and, in some cases, shrink large cancers. Other scientists praised the work of Doctor Rosenberg and his team. But they also said the rate of survival with this method must be improved. Studies continue toward that goal, including the use of total-body radiation to improve the effectiveness. In the late nineteen eighties, many scientists believed genetic engineering might help fight a number of cancers. Laboratory studies appeared to offer hope. But most human tests were unsuccessful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Transcripts and audio files of our programs can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Trying to Pump New Life Into World Trade Talks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Trade officials from a number of countries met in Brazil last week to discuss ways to restart world trade talks. The failure of agricultural negotiations led to the suspension of those talks in July. From left, E.U. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and?W.T.O. chief Pascal LamyThe group of developing countries known as the G-Twenty held the meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Trade officials from the United States, the European Union and Japan also attended the meeting. So did Pascal Lamy, the director general of the World Trade Organization. The meeting ended with calls for the Doha Round of world trade talks to start again. A statement released after the meeting noted that agriculture is central to the Doha development issues. "Most of the world's poor make their living out of agriculture," the statement said. But it said their way of life is threatened by government support programs and barriers to markets in international agricultural trade. Mister Lamy suspended the Doha Round after W.T.O. members could not reach agreement on two major issues: subsidies and market reform. Developing nations want wealthy industrial countries to reduce or end subsidies. These payments, they say, drive down prices because they permit farmers from rich nations to sell their products for less on the world market. Industrial nations want developing economies to ease their trade barriers, like import taxes and customs requirements. Developing nations, though, worry that foreign competition will hurt their own industries. Concerns about the effects of foreign competition are not limited to developing nations, of course. ?United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab attended the meeting in Brazil. Earlier, she said she was "actively seeking a new way forward for the Doha Round."? She said the United States had offered big cuts in import taxes and supports. But E.U. Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson called for the United States to make a "fresh proposal." After the meeting, some officials said there had been progress. No agreements were reached to restart the Doha Round. But Brazil’s foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said: "The round is alive." Brazil and other developing countries with fast-growing economies established the G-Twenty in two thousand three. The group has members in Latin America, Asia and Africa. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can download transcripts and archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Women Have Been Leaders in Science Throughout History
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about female scientists around the world and some of the problems they face. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Women scientists have developed drugs to treat diseases like cancer, diabetes, and malaria. Women have made important discoveries about the human body and improved their country’s effectiveness in fighting wars. A few women have won the Nobel Prize, one of the highest honors in the world. Some female scientists never married. Others raised large families and some worked with their husbands. But it has been difficult for women to be successful scientists. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-oh-six, a little girl named Maria Goeppert was born in Germany. She learned to love science from her father. She studied physics and earned a doctorate degree in nineteen thirty. She married an American scientist. Joseph Mayer and Maria Goeppert moved to the United States in nineteen thirty. Mister Mayer became a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. But Maria Goeppert-Mayer worked without pay as a volunteer. Later she became a professor of physics at the University of Chicago in Illinois. In nineteen sixty-three, Maria Goeppert Mayer won the Nobel Prize in physics along with two other scientists. VOICE ONE: Women have been making scientific discoveries since ancient times. Historians believe Merit Ptah was the first named medical doctor more than four thousand six hundred years ago. She is the first woman known by name in the history of science. Her picture has been found in an ancient Egyptian burial place. Around the same time in China, Si Ling-Chi is believed to have been the first Empress of China. She discovered the secret of making a very fine cloth called silk by watching tiny insects called silkworms. Si Ling Chi established farms to raise silkworms. She harvested the thin pieces of silk made by the silkworms and used it to weave the new cloth. VOICE TWO: In the early eighteen hundreds in England, Mary Anning became one of the first women recognized for her discoveries about the ancient history of the Earth. Mary and her father collected fossils in their village on the southern coast of Great Britain. Fossils are plants or parts of animals that have been saved in rocks for millions of years. When she was only twelve years old, Mary became the first person to find the almost complete skeletons of several animals that no longer existed on Earth. She never became famous for her discoveries because she often sold her fossils to get money to support her family. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-ninety one, a young Polish woman named Marie Sklodowska traveled to Paris, France to study physics. She did so because she could not get a college education in Poland. She began working in the laboratory of a man named Pierre Curie. Marie and Pierre Curie married and made many discoveries together. They received the Nobel Prize in physics in nineteen-oh-three along with another scientist. Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize in nineteen eleven, this time in chemistry. Marie Curie is one of the few women who became famous as a scientist. VOICE TWO: However, women have made many scientific discoveries. During times of war, when men left their homes to fight, women had to do men’s work at home. During the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties, women learned to use and improve farm machines. Women also made inventions that helped their countries. For example, a woman in New York invented a way to cover the outside of ships so they would not become covered with tiny sea animals. During World War Two, many American women worked in factories. Their inventions improved fighter planes, containers for fuel and cameras. But after the war, women were expected to stay at home and have babies while their husbands went back to work in factories and laboratories. Women who continued to be scientists were often told it was not natural for women to work outside the home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Even today, many experts say women scientists are often not treated fairly. The Washington Post newspaper reported a study about the number of research articles published in medical magazines in which a woman was the main writer. Women were the main writers only twenty-nine percent of the time. Nancy Andreasen is a scientist at the University of Iowa. Scientists like Miz Andreasen often send stories about their research to special professional publications. Miz Andreasen says her research is published more often when she signs them as N.C. Andreasen rather than Nancy Andreasen. In that way, the editors of the publications do not know if the writer is a man or a woman. VOICE TWO: Women also receive fewer patents for their inventions. A patent forbids others from copying an invention and makes the invention valuable in the world of business. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, anything a woman invented belonged to her husband under the law. But a current study in the United States says there are still more patents awarded to men. The researchers said that this is partly because it is easier for male scientists to receive financial support for their work. VOICE ONE: The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio includes only six women on its list of two hundred thirty-five inventors. Stephanie Kwolek worked for the chemical company DuPont when she invented a cloth called Kevlar. It is five times stronger than steel. It is used to make clothing that stops bullets from a gun. It is also used in space. Miz Kwolek also works to improve science education for all children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In two thousand five, the issue of female scientists caused much debate. The president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, was pressured to resign after he made some statements about female scientists. He was discussing why there are so few female college professors in subjects like engineering and mathematics. He said this might be because of differences in ability between men and women. A report this week from the National Academy of Sciences disputes this. It says that women in science and engineering do not lack ability. Instead, they face unfair treatment by university administrators. The report says female science professors are often paid less than males, receive fewer honors and hold fewer leadership positions. The report recommends changing the way professors are chosen and providing more support for working parents. It says government, universities and research organizations should act to solve the problem. VOICE ONE: One person in the United States has a very unusual personal experience about women in science. Ben Barres is a professor of biology at Stanford University in California. Ten years ago, at the age of forty-two, he chose to have a medical process to change his sex. Before that Ben Barres was a woman named Barbara. He wrote about his experience as both a female and male scientist in a recent issue of the publication Nature. He found that he was treated with more respect as a male. He said this is evidence of the unequal treatment that harms female scientists. Several organizations in the United States are trying to help women in science. For example, the L’Oreal USA company has a Fellowships for Women in Science program. Each year it recognizes, rewards and supports five women in the United States. These women have earned doctoral degrees in science, mathematics or engineering. Other organizations support efforts to help young girls increase their interest in math, science and technology. The Girl Scouts of America has a Web site, www.girlsgotech.org. VOICE TWO: Christiane Nusslein-Volhard of Germany shared the Nobel Price for medicine in nineteen ninety-five. She was the tenth woman to win this prize in one of the sciences. She directs the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany. Doctor Nusslein-Volhard says women in Germany often stop working as scientists when have children. So she has started an organization that gives money to young women scientists who need help paying for someone to care for their children and homes. Doctor Nusslein-Volhard says she hopes life will become easier for women scientists in Germany while Angela Merkel is the chancellor. The leader of Germany has a doctorate degree in physics. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: W.H.O. Calls for Indoor Use of DDT to Control Malaria
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A specialist in protective clothes sprays DDTThe World Health Organization now supports the use of DDT in homes to control malaria. The agency supported indoor spraying with DDT and other insect poisons until the early nineteen eighties. It stopped as health and environmental concerns about DDT increased. But last Friday, an assistant director-general of the United Nations agency announced a policy change. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah said indoor spraying is useful to quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Doctor Asamoa-Baah said DDT presents no health risk when used correctly. The W.H.O. says it supports indoor spraying in areas with high malaria rates, including throughout Africa. But its malaria program director, Arata Kochi, says DDT should be used only inside houses and huts, not outside and not for agriculture use. In the nineteen forties DDT was found to be an excellent way to control insects. It cost little to produce and was not found to harm humans. So it was widely used for people and crops. But in the sixties, environmentalist Rachel Carson and her book "Silent Spring" led to a movement to ban it. The United States did just that in the nineteen seventies. Rachel Carson warned that DDT stayed in the environment for many years. She also warned that it thinned the shells of unborn birds and caused health problems for other animals. Yet the rise of malaria has led some environmental groups to change their thinking. The group Environmental Defense, which led the anti-DDT movement, now supports indoor use to control malaria. The W.H.O. says malaria sickens five hundred million people and results in more than one million deaths every year. Each day, an estimated three thousand babies and young children die from it. The large majority of deaths are in Africa south of the Sahara. But many critics of DDT worry it will not be used with great care. University of Illinois scientist May Berenbaum argues that DDT is not as effective as people might think. Writing in the Washington Post, she noted that some African mosquitoes developed resistance to it. She says DDT should be only one tool among many for insect control. The W.H.O. supports other interventions as well. But it says India sharply cut malaria rates in the past with indoor use of DDT. And ten countries in southern Africa are currently using it for malaria control. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more reports go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From Great Depression's Depths, Creativity Reached New Heights
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Hard economic times and social conflict have always offered a rich source of material for artists and writers. A painter's colors can show the drying of dreams or the flight of human spirits. A musician can express the tensions and uncertainty of a people in struggle. The pressures of hard times can be the force to lift a writer's imagination to new heights. So it was during the nineteen thirties in the United States. The severe economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- created an atmosphere for artistic imagination and creative expression. The common feeling of struggle also led millions of Americans to look together to films, radio, and other new art forms for relief from their day-to-day cares. Our program today looks at American arts and popular culture during the nineteen thirties. Benny Goodman(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The most popular sound of the nineteen thirties was a new kind of music -- "swing" music. And the "King of Swing" was a clarinet player named Benny Goodman. (MUSIC) Benny Goodman and other musicians made swing music extremely popular during the nineteen thirties. Swing music was a new form of jazz. Many of its first players were black musicians in small, unknown groups. It was only when more well-known white musicians started playing swing music in the middle nineteen thirties that the new music became wildly popular. VOICE ONE: One reason for the popularity of swing music was the growing power of radio during the nineteen thirties. Radio had already proven in earlier years that it could be an important force in both politics and popular culture. Millions of Americans bought radios during the nineteen-twenties. But radio grew up in the nineteen-thirties. Producers became more skillful in creating programs. And actors and actresses began to understand the special needs and power of this new electronic art form. Swing music was not the only kind of music that radio helped make popular. The nineteen-thirties also saw increasing popularity for traditional, classical music by Beethoven, Bach, and other great musicians. In nineteen-thirty, the Columbia Broadcasting System began a series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday afternoons. The next year, the National Broadcasting Company, NBC, began weekly opera concerts. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-seven, NBC asked Arturo Toscanini of Italy to lead an orchestra on American radio. Toscanini was the greatest orchestra leader of his day. Millions of Americans listened at Christmas time as Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra began playing the first of ten special radio concerts. It was a great moment for both music and radio. For the first time, millions of average Americans were able to hear classical music by great musicians as it was being played. VOICE ONE: Music was an important reason why millions of Americans gathered to listen to the radio during the nineteen-thirties. But even more popular were a series of weekly programs with exciting or funny new actors. Families would come home from school or work and laugh at the foolish experiences of such actors as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, George Burns, Edgar Bergen, and W.C. Fields. Radio helped people forget the hard conditions of the Great Depression. And it helped to bring Americans together and share experiences. VOICE TWO: Swing music. Classical music. Great comedy programs. The nineteen-thirties truly were a golden period for radio and mass communications. But it was also during this period that Hollywood and the American film industry became much more skilled and influential. In previous years, films were silent. But the "talkies" arrived in the nineteen-thirties. Directors could produce films in which actors could talk. Americans reacted by attending film theaters by the millions. It was a great time for Hollywood. VOICE ONE: The films had exciting new actors. Spencer Tracy. Bette Davis. Katharine Hepburn. The young Shirley Temple. The most famous film of the period was "Gone with the Wind" with actor Clark Gable and actress Vivien Leigh. Directors in the nineteen-thirties also produced such great films as "It Happened One Night," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "The Life of Emile Zola." VOICE TWO: The success of radio and films, as well as the depression itself, caused problems for many Americans newspapers during the nineteen-thirties. The trouble was not so much that readers stopped buying newspapers. It was that companies talked about their products through advertisements on radio instead of buying advertising space in newspapers. Nearly half of the nation's independently-published newspapers either stopped publishing or joined larger companies during the nineteen-thirties. By World War Two, only one-hundred-twenty cities had competing newspapers. VOICE ONE: Weekly and monthly publications faced the same problem as daily newspapers -- increased competition from radio and films. Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life Magazine and the Reader's Digest. Life Magazine had stories for everyone about film actors, news events, or just daily life in the home or on the farm. Its photographs were the greatest anywhere. Reader's Digest published shorter forms of stories from other magazines and sources. VOICE TWO: Most popular books of the period were like the films coming from Hollywood. Writers cared more about helping people forget their troubles than about facing serious social issues. They made more money that way, too. But a number of writers in the nineteen-thirties did produce books that were both profitable and of high quality. One was Sinclair Lewis. His book, "It Can't Happen Here," warned of the coming dangers of fascism. John Steinbeck's great book, "The Grapes of Wrath," helped millions understand and feel in their hearts the troubles faced by poor farmers. Erskine Caldwell wrote about the cruelty of life among poor people in the southeastern United States, and James T. Farrell about life in Chicago. VOICE ONE: The same social concern and desire to present life as it really existed also were clear in the work of many American artists during the nineteen-thirties. Thomas Benton painted workers and others with strong tough bodies. Edward Hopper showed the sad streets of American cities. Reginald Marsh painted picture after picture of poor parts of New York City. The federal government created a program that gave jobs to artists. They painted their pictures on the walls of airports, post offices, and schools. The program brought their ideas and creativity to millions of people. At the same time, photography became more important as cameras improved in quality and became more moveable. Some photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans used their cameras to report the hard conditions of the Depression. VOICE TWO: All this activity in the arts and popular culture played an important part in the lives of Americans during the nineteen-thirties. It not only provided relief from their troubles, but expanded their minds and pushed their imaginations. The tensions and troubles of the Great Depression provided a rich atmosphere for artists and others to produce works that were serious, foolish, or just plain fun. And those works, in turn, helped make life a little better as Americans waited, worked, and hoped for times to improve. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Steve Ember and Bob Doughty. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Choosing Between a College or a University
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. What is the difference between a college and a university?? This is the subject of part three in our series for students who want to attend a college or university in the United States. Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MassachusettsColleges and universities have many things in common. Both provide a greater understanding of the world and its past. Both provide education in the arts and sciences. And both can help prepare young people to earn a living. Students who complete their undergraduate studies either at a four-year college or a university receive a bachelor’s degree. One difference is that many colleges do not offer graduate studies. Universities are generally bigger, offer more programs and do more research. Modern universities developed from those of the Middle Ages in Europe. The word "university" came from the Latin "universitas."? This described a group of people organized for a common purpose. The word "college" came from a Latin word with a similar meaning, "collegium."? In England, colleges were formed to provide students with places to live. Usually each group was studying the same thing. So college came to mean an area of study. But a college can also be a part of a university. The first American universities divided their studies into a number of areas and called each one a college. This is still true. Programs in higher learning may also be called schools. The University of Arizona in Tucson, for example, has eighteen colleges and ten schools. They include the colleges of pharmacy, education, engineering and law. They also include the schools of architecture, dance and public administration. College is also used as a general term for higher education. A news report might talk about "college students" even if they include students at universities. Or someone might ask, "Where do you go to college?" Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal arts. These are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They include language, philosophy and mathematics. The purpose was to train a person's mind instead of teaching job skills. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week with a report about online education. You can find our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And international students can learn more about higher education in the United States at educationusa.state.gov. I’m Steve Ember. See earlier reports??????????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Using Language Technology to Help Learners With Accent Reduction
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: an electronic tutoring system that helps non-native speakers of American English learn to pronounce words with a native accent. RS: The product is called NativeAccent. It's sold by the Carnegie Speech company, with software technology under license from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The system is being used, for example, to train customer service representatives at call centers in India, so they are more understandable to native English speakers in other countries. AA: We talked to Gary Pelton, director of product development for Carnegie Speech, and Jaime Carbonell, director of the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon. They say the aim is accent to reduce an accent, not eliminate it. We asked Jaime Carbonnell which languages are most difficult for NativeAccent to handle. JAIME CARBONELL: "The product has models for different source language, different original languages of the speakers. It has models for Chinese, Spanish, French, Arabic, German -- twenty-six different languages. Some of the languages are harder because they are further away from English. Chinese is one of the harder ones, for example." AA: "So the success rate for NativeAccent, for the software, when it's actually correcting the students, might be lower than if it were, say, Spanish or French?" JAIME CARBONELL: "It's usually measured as time on task. If you're in a language that diverges more from English, you have to use the product longer before you can get to the same level of performance." RS: "I just want to get a clear understanding of how this works. Either you or Gary can tell? us how a student would approach this machine." JAMIE CARBONELL: Well, Gary is the expert on that so I'll turn it over to him. GARY PELTON: "Probably the easiest thing to do?is for me to play an example. What I have here is I have?a Mandarin speaker that is reading a sentence and the sentence is, 'It's just like the picture in my geography book.'" CHINESE SPEAKER: "It's just like the picture in my geography book." GARY PELTON: "So what comes up on the screen is you see the actual words, but some of them are marked in red.What we've done is?we?compared his speech for that little part in the end of the 'geography,' the little y sound, to how a group of native speakers said geography. And, we noticed that he was far away from that group of native English speakers. He also was?far away for?the 'eo' sound in geography." AA: "And, how was the correction suggested?" GARY PELTON: "So below that, what it does is it looks at the part that is farthest away and then gives him some text to tell him how to?make the 'e' sound in geography better and also gives him pictures and so forth of what he has to do in his mouth." AA: "So does?the student hear a correct version too, in addition to the text and the pictures of what to do with his mouth, does he actually?get to hear it and replay the correct way to say it?" GARY PELTON: "Yes. So he actually gets a choice of several different model speakers. Since it is a male, he gets male model speakers. We've done studies that show that that makes a big difference if you're trying to mimic somebody in the same vocal range and speed that what you're working with." RS: "So is what you are doing with all this text and the correction, is that meant to direct the students so that they become aware that this sound exists?" JAMIE CARBONELL: "Yes, the original inventor of this idea, her name is Maxine Eskenazi -- she is the one who designed the techniques. And one of the techniques is to grossly exaggerate the difference between the sound that the student is using and the sound that they really should be saying, so that they can hear that there is indeed a difference. And then after they perceive that difference, then you minimize the exaggeration?until it comes gradually back to normal." RS: Jaime Carbonell, director of the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. We also spoke with Gary Pelton, director of product development for Carnegie Speech. AA: The product NativeAccent was displayed this week at Interspeech 2006: the Ninth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, at Carnegie Mellon. The conference attracted 1,000 scientists from around the world to explore ways in which people and computers use and understand each other. RS: And, that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And it's it American English you want to hear, check out our Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Americans, New Passports Hold Memories of the Electronic Kind
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about American actor Kirk Cameron … Play some music from Susan Cagle … And report about a new kind of American passport. New Passport The United States has begun providing new, electronic passports for its citizens. State Department officials say the new passports are designed to improve border security and travel. Mario Ritter has more. MARIO RITTER: The new electronic passport is the same as the traditional United States passport except that it contains a small computer chip in the back cover. The chip holds the same information as normal, paper passports. This includes the person’s name, birth date, and place of birth. The State Department says the information contained on the chip can only be read using a special device at airports. The chip also stores a computerized version of the passport photograph. This will help border security workers to identify the person pictured on the passport. Officials say the information stored on the chip will make it more difficult to illegally change information on the passport. The chip in the passport uses technology that is already commonly used in credit cards and other secure documents. However, some privacy groups are concerned about the security of the electronic information stored in the chips. Last month, a German security expert showed how information on the passport could be copied and moved to another device. But State Department officials say the electronic passport provides a higher level of security than the old version. They say the new passport contains materials that prevent information from being easily read off the chip. The United States passport agency in the state of Colorado is producing the new electronic passports. Other agencies throughout the country will produce them in the coming months. However, Americans who still have the old passports will be able to use them until they are no longer in effect. Kirk Cameron Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Jin Yan asks about American actor Kirk Cameron. Kirk Cameron is best known for the part he played on the popular television show, “Growing Pains.” The show was broadcast from nineteen eighty-five to nineteen ninety-two. Kirk began acting at age nine. He was just fourteen years old when the television series began. On the show, he played Mike Seaver, a young man who kept people laughing with his jokes and by getting into trouble. Since then, Kirk Cameron’s life has taken a different path. He appeared in some films, including two “Growing Pains” movies. He also acted in movies based on the popular Christian “Left Behind” books. Cameron’s work is now centered on his religion. While working as a child television actor, Cameron says he and his family did not attend religious services. He did not believe in God. But when he was sixteen years old, a friend invited Cameron to a church service. He says the message spoken that day got him thinking more about his life. He became interested in reading the Christian holy book, the Bible. Cameron says his life felt empty even though he was a famous actor and had more money than most people his age. But he says things began to change after he became a Christian. Kirk Cameron currently leads a ministry, an organization that works to help bring people to the Christian religion. The ministry is called The Way of the Master. It helps young people share their beliefs with others. The ministry creates books and teaching materials. It also has a Web site. Cameron does not have any formal training in religion, but says he feels he is doing important work. Kirk Cameron now travels around the country speaking at schools, churches, and community events. He also produces and appears on a television and radio program called “The Way of the Master.”? The program won the National Religious Broadcaster’s award for Best Program of the Year in two thousand five. Susan Cagle HOST: In big American cities you can often see musicians playing on street corners,<IMG id=||CPIMAGE:88364| height=149 alt='Susan Cagle "The Subway Recordings"' hspace=2 src="/specialenglish/images/susan_cagle_subway_21sep06_150_se.jpg" width=150 align=right vspace=2 border=0> in parks or even in public transportation areas. But not many artists become famous this way. Susan Cagle is an interesting exception. She has become successful playing her lively music in New York City underground train stations. Now, she has made a new album with a major record company. Faith Lapidus tells us about her and plays some of her music. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: If you listened carefully to that song, “Shakespeare,” you might have heard the sounds of an underground train. That is because Susan Cagle’s album was recorded among the trains and tunnels of New York City’s subway system. Not surprisingly, the album is called “The Subway Recordings.” Susan Cagle has been playing music most of her life. As a child, her parents and nine brothers and sisters traveled around the world giving street performances. They traveled to spread news about their religious group. Susan learned to sing by the age of four. By age seven she could play the guitar. When Susan grew up, she decided to separate from the religious group. She also started to perform alone. Here is “Manhattan Cowboy”. It is about finding love in New York. (MUSIC) Susan Cagle began playing in the New York City subway five years ago. She soon became very popular and large crowds gathered to listen to her. She sold thousands of CD recordings she made herself. Cagle says she loves the way her music sounds late at night as it expands and echoes off the subway walls. But she says performing there is not always easy. To play music legally in the New York City subway, Cagle had to get a permit from the city. Also, subway performers can become aggressive as they compete for popular stations that have large crowds. We leave you now with “Stay.” Susan Cagle sings about deciding to make New York City her home. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake and Dana Demange. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Housing Market Slows in U.S.
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. On Wednesday, the United States Federal Reserve chose to keep its target interest rate unchanged at five-point-two-five percent. The Federal Open Market Committee said a main reason for its decision was the slowing housing market. The housing industry is one of the most important parts of the United States economy. Economists consider it an important sign of the country’s economic health. The number of new building permits for new private housing is one of the Leading Economic Indicators. The Conference Board, a major business group, publishes this measure to estimate the future direction of the economy. The government says about one million seven hundred thousand building permits were given out in August. This is a two percent drop from July. But, it is a twenty-two percent drop from August of last year. The National Association of Home Builders represents the home building industry. It estimates that the total number of new houses built will decrease by about twelve percent this year and next year. As fewer new homes are being built, existing homes are going unsold for longer periods of time. The government reports that the number of existing homes remaining on the market has increased by almost forty percent in the last twelve months. At the same time, home ownership remains high at almost sixty-nine percent of American families. The large supply of houses on the market has helped keep interest rates for home loans below six and one half percent. And average prices for new and existing homes have even dropped a little. Home building is closely linked to many other parts of the economy. Home building affects labor, manufacturing and the financial industries. Businesses providing building materials are an example. Huge stores like Home Depot and Lowes depend on homebuilders and homeowners to buy tools, supplies and other goods. Ownership shares in these companies have dropped in value by more than ten percent this year. Most experts expect declining home sales to slow the economy in the near future. They estimate economic growth in the second half of the year to be between two and three percent. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Generals in Thailand Find Strong Support, at Least for Now
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Thai military leaders say their seizure of power Tuesday was necessary to unite a nation divided by months of political tension. Eighty percent of Thais in a public opinion study approved of the ouster of Thaksin Shinawatra after five years as prime minister. But some Thais are concerned about the military’s return to power in a nation that has grown deeply involved in the world economy. About one hundred protesters gathered in Bangkok Friday. Many carried signs and denounced the overthrow as undemocratic. Police took no action, although the ruling generals have banned public meetings of five or more people. They have also banned political activities and placed restrictions on the media. The generals have promised to appoint a civilian as temporary prime minister within two weeks, and to hold elections in October of next year. Thailand has had eighteen coups or coup attempts since nineteen thirty-two. That year, King Prajadhipok signed the first constitution for the nation then called Siam. He did so after government workers and military officers led a peaceful coup to demand a constitution. The military last seized power in nineteen ninety-one. General Suchinda Kraprayoon overthrew an elected civilian government. The next year, he was ousted following street demonstrations. Since then, democracy has increased and the military’s influence in politics has decreased -- until this week. The army, led by General Sondhi Boonyaratglin, took power peacefully. Mister Thaksin was in New York for a United Nations meeting. General Sondhi received a statement of support from King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The military has been holding allies of Mister Thaksin, and on Friday appointed a group to gather evidence of wrongdoing by his administration. Mister Thaksin became one of Thailand's richest people as a businessman in technology. Yet the poor were among his strongest supporters. Many others called him dishonest and hungry for power. Also, Thailand is facing a violent rebellion in Muslim-majority provinces in the south. Mister Thaksin appointed General Sondhi, himself a Muslim, as army chief last year. The general thought the prime minister was dealing too aggressively with the rebels. Mister Thaksin, in his first public statement after his ouster, said in London that he wanted to take a rest from politics. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer called the overthrow unacceptable. The Japanese government called it regrettable. And Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he was shocked by the events. The United States criticized the overthrow as unjustified and said it was re-examining aid to Thailand. Thailand is a close ally, but United States laws require such action when a military overthrows civilian elected leaders. State Department officials called the military coup a step backward for democracy in Thailand. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Edward Hopper’s Simple Paintings Hold Meaning for Americans
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about artist Edward Hopper. He painted normal objects and people in interesting and mysterious ways. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In June of two thousand-six, visitors entered the redesigned Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. for the first time. When these people walked into the building, they saw two simple, colorful paintings. These paintings showed normal scenes from American life. But they looked mysterious and beautiful. American artist Edward Hopper painted both of these famous pictures. VOICE TWO: Edward Hopper was born in eighteen eighty-two in Nyack, a small town in New York state. From a young age, Edward knew he wanted to be a painter. His parents were not wealthy people. They thought Edward should learn to paint and make prints to advertise for businesses. This kind of painting is called commercial art. Edward listened to his mother and father. In nineteen hundred, he moved to New York City to study commercial art. However, he also studied more serious and artistic kinds of painting. VOICE ONE: One of Hopper’s teachers was Robert Henri, a famous American painter in the early twentieth century. Henri was a leader of a group of artists who called themselves the Ashcan School painters. The Ashcan artists liked to paint normal people and objects in realistic ways. Henri once expressed his ideas about painting this way:? “Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.” Edward Hopper agreed with many of these ideas about art. He told people that Henri was his most important teacher. VOICE TWO: Hopper studied with Henri in New York City for six years. During those years, Hopper dreamed of going to Europe. Many painters there were making pictures in ways no one had ever seen before. Many of them had begun to paint pictures they called “abstract.”? The artists liked to say these works were about ideas rather than things that existed in the real world. Their paintings did not try to show people and objects that looked like the ones in real life. Most American artists spent time in Europe. Then they returned to the United States to paint in this new way. VOICE ONE: With help from his parents, Hopper finally traveled to Europe in nineteen-oh-six. He lived in Paris, France for several months. He returned again in nineteen-oh-nine and nineteen-ten. Unlike many other people, however, Hopper was not strongly influenced by the new, abstract styles he found there. “Paris had no great or immediate impact on me,” he once said. At the end of these travels, he decided that he liked the realistic methods he had learned from Robert Henri. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Edward Hopper returned from Paris for the last time, he moved into a small apartment in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. He took a job making prints and paintings for businesses. However, the paintings he made outside of his job were not helping him earn money or recognition. He had a show of his work at a gallery in New York. However, most people were not interested in his simple, realistic style. Very few people bought his paintings. VOICE ONE: Things began to improve in nineteen twenty-three. He began a love relationship with an artist named Jo Nivison. Soon they married. His wife sometimes said that Edward tried to control her thoughts and actions too much. However, most people who knew them said they loved each other very much. They stayed married for the rest of their lives. Also, Jo was the model for all of the women in Hopper’s paintings. Success in art soon followed this success in love. In nineteen twenty-four, Hopper had the second show of his paintings. This time, he sold many pictures. Finally, at age forty-three, he had enough money to quit his job painting for businesses. He could now paint what he loved. Edward and Jo bought a car and began to travel around the country to find interesting subjects to paint. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most people say that Hopper’s nineteen twenty-five painting “The House by the Railroad” was his first mature painting. This means that it was the first painting that brought together all of his important techniques and ideas. “The House by the Railroad” shows a large, white house. The painting does not show the bottom of the house. It is blocked by railroad tracks. Cutting scenes off in surprising ways was an important part of Hopper’s style. He became famous for paintings that are mysterious, that look incomplete or that leave viewers with questions. Shadows make many parts of the home in “The House by the Railroad” look dark. Some of the windows look like they are open, which makes the viewer wonder what is inside the house. However, only dark, empty space can be seen through the windows. Strange shadows, dark spaces, and areas with light were important parts of many Hopper paintings. There are no people in the painting, and no evidence of other houses nearby. Hopper was famous for showing loneliness in his art. People often said that, even when there were many people in his paintings, each person seems to be alone in his or her own world. VOICE ONE: During the great economic depression of the nineteen thirties, many people saw Hopper’s lonely, mysterious paintings of everyday subjects. They liked the pictures because they seemed to show life honestly, without trying to make it happier or prettier than it really was. As a result, Hopper continued to sell many paintings during those years, even though most Americans were very poor. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-two, Hopper painted his most famous work, “Nighthawks.”?? The painting shows four people in an eating-place called a diner late at night. They look sad, tired, and lonely. Two of them look like they are in a love relationship. But they do not appear to be talking to each other. The dark night that surrounds them is mysterious and tense. There is no door in the painting, which makes the subjects seem like they might be trapped. Hopper painted “Nighthawks” soon after the Japanese bomb attack against the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Many people thought the painting showed the fear and unhappiness that most Americans were feeling after the attack. The painting became very famous. Today, most Americans still recognize it. The painting now hangs in a famous museum in Chicago, Illinois. VOICE ONE: “Nighthawks” was not Edward Hopper’s only great success. In nineteen fifty, he finished a painting called “Cape Cod Morning.” It shows a brightly colored house in the country. In the middle of the painting, a woman leans on a table and looks out a window. She looks very sad. However, nothing in the painting gives any idea about why she would be sad. Today this painting hangs in a special place in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington. It is one the paintings we noted at the beginning of this program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edward Hopper began to struggle with his art during the nineteen fifties and sixties. He had trouble finding interesting subjects. When he did find good things to paint, he struggled to paint them well. At the same time, the artistic community became less interested in realistic paintings. In the nineteen fifties, the Abstract Expressionist style became very popular. These artists refused to have subjects to paint. They wanted to “paint about painting” and “paint about ideas.” They thought Hopper’s style was no longer modern or important. As a result, the paintings he did complete met less success than during the earlier years. Edward Hopper died in nineteen sixty-seven. His wife Jo died less than a year later. Many years after his death, Hopper’s work is still popular in this country and outside America. In two thousand four, the famous Tate Art Gallery in London had a show of his paintings. This show brought the second-largest number of visitors of any show in the history of the museum. Today, people say Edward Hopper was one of the best American artists of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Sarah Randle and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. You can read, listen to and download this program at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: More Money:? Money Can Make People Do Strange Things
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Many people believe that money makes the world go around. Others believe that money buys happiness. I do not agree with either idea. But I do admit that money can make people do strange things. Let me tell you about a person I once knew who liked to play card games for money. He liked to gamble. My friend Bob had a problem because he liked to gamble at all costs. He would play at any time and at any price. To take part in a card game such as poker, my friend would have to ante up. He would have to pay a small amount of money at the beginning of the game. Bob always played with cold, hard cash --only coins and dollar bills. Sometimes my friend would clean up. He would win a lot of money on one card game. He liked to tell me that one day he would break the bank. What a feeling it must be to win all of the money at a gambling table! Other times my friend would simply break even. He neither won nor lost money. But sometimes Bob would lose his shirt. He would lose all the money he had. He took a beating at the gambling table. When this happened, my friend would have to go in the hole. He would go into debt and owe people money. Recently, Bob turned to crime after losing all his money. In his job, he kept the books for a small business. He supervised the records of money earned and spent by the company. Although my friend was usually honest, he decided to cook the books. He illegally changed the financial records of the company. This permitted him to make a fast buck. My friend made some quick, easy money dishonestly. I never thought Bob would have sticky fingers. He did not seem like a thief who would steal money. But, some people will do anything for love of money. Bob used the money he stole from his company to gamble again. This time, he cashed in. He made a lot of money. Quickly he was back on his feet. He had returned to good financial health. His company, however, ended up in the red. It lost more money than it earned. The company was no longer profitable. It did not take long before my friend’s dishonesty was discovered. The company investigated and charged him with stealing. Bob tried to pass the buck. He tried to blame someone else for the deficit. His lie did not work, however. He ended up in jail. Today, I would bet my bottom dollar that my friend will never gamble again. I would bet all I have that he learned his lesson about gambling. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-24-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Four Countries Gain Increased I.M.F. Voting Rights
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Developing countries were the main subject last week at yearly meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Finance ministers met for two days in Singapore. Members of the I.M.F. approved reform measures that aim to increase the voting power of countries with growing economies. As a first step, they agreed to increases in the voting rights for China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey. These four countries were considered the least represented given the size of their economies. The fund has one hundred eighty-four members. Currently, the weight of each government’s vote is based on the amount of money it provides to the international lender. China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey will increase their I.M.F. shareholdings, so their voting rights will increase. The reforms call for the I.M.F. to develop a way to rebalance voting rights for other countries within two years. Critics say the United States and other Western nations have too much influence in the fund. Aid groups and activists have been pressuring the I.M.F. and World Bank to give poor countries more power in those organizations. Another issue discussed in Singapore was corruption in the aid process. World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said good governance is the fastest way out of poverty. Without it, he said, all other reforms are meaningless. He also urged rich nations to take action against companies doing dishonest business in developing countries. Humanitarian groups say they worry that too much effort to prevent and punish corruption could stop aid from reaching those most in need. But World Bank officials say they will withdraw from projects only when dishonest officials are clearly not interested in reform. Mister Wolfowitz and I.M.F. chief Rodrigo de Rato also called for increased aid for the poorest countries, especially in Africa. At the same time, the World Bank president said partly developed, or middle-income, countries should not be forgotten in the fight against poverty. The two leaders expressed concern that high oil prices, international trade imbalances and barriers to trade could harm economic growth. ?They said the best ways to continue growth are to save energy and to restart world trade talks. Negotiations were suspended in July over disputes about agricultural trade. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can download transcripts and archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-24-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Halls of Fame Mean Sports Stars' Best Days Never Have to End
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. The best people in a sport may be elected to a hall of fame. The United States is home to national or international halls of fame in golf, hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, swimming, bowling bicycling, motor sports and more. This week on our program, we tell you about three of them: the ones for baseball, basketball and professional football. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our first stop is the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. The full name is the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In eighteen ninety-one, a man named James Naismith was teaching physical education at a school in Springfield. One long, cold winter, he had to create a game for eighteen young men to play indoors. So the Canadian-born Naismith wrote some rules. Rule number one: "The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands." Two: "The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands (never with the fist)."? In all, there were thirteen rules – the original rules of basketball. James Naismith is recognized as the inventor of basketball. The National Association of Basketball Coaches established the Hall of Fame in nineteen forty-nine. It opened in nineteen sixty-eight at Springfield College. A new, larger building opened in nineteen eighty-five. And, four years ago, the Hall of Fame moved into a newer building, just south of its former home. The new building increased the size by almost one hundred percent. VOICE TWO: The Basketball Hall of Fame is a museum and entertainment center. It combines history with technology. And it tries to capture the energy and excitement of the game. In the Center Court area, for example, visitors can play interactive games of basketball and take part in skill competitions. The Hall of Fame explores basketball at every level of the game. Visitors learn about professional basketball in the United States and other countries. They learn about women's teams and how the game is played at the college level. They also learn about basketball for disabled people. VOICE ONE: The Hall of Fame honors the best players, teams, coaches and officials in basketball. Earlier this month, six more honorees joined the more than two hundred fifty people in the Hall of Fame. The six new members are Geno Auriemma, Charles Barkley, Joe Dumars, Sandro Gamba, David Gavitt and Dominique Wilkins. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our next stop is also in the Northeast. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cooperstown, in New York State. Some people believe that a man named Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball in that small town in eighteen thirty-nine. Doubleday and his friends used to chase cows out of a field so they could play a game called "town ball."? Town ball involved twenty to fifty boys. The boys attempted to catch a ball hit by a "tosser" who used a flat piece of wood. VOICE ONE: One day, or so the story goes, Abner Doubleday made changes to the game of town ball. He reduced the number of players. He added a pitcher, who threw the ball, and a catcher. He used a stick to draw a square-shaped area in the dirt. And he added bases for the batter to run around after he hit the ball. A century ago the Mills Commission, appointed to investigate the history of baseball, declared that Abner Doubleday invented it. The Mills report, however, was disputed. In any case, in nineteen thirty-four, an old baseball was discovered in a farmhouse near Cooperstown. It was said to have belonged to one of the boys who played the first game of baseball with Abner Doubleday. A local businessman, Stephen Clark, wanted to show the old baseball to the public. So he decided to establish a national baseball museum. VOICE TWO: People from all over the country sent money and baseball-related objects for the new museum. Ford Frick was president of baseball’s National League at the time. He proposed that a Hall of Fame also be established to honor baseball’s best players. The first election for members in the Hall of Fame took place in nineteen thirty-six. Five players were chosen. They were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson. More players were elected every year. The Hall of Fame opened officially in nineteen thirty-nine. The event celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the game. VOICE ONE: Each year, more than three hundred fifty thousand people visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The museum collection has thousands of objects from the history of baseball. These include seats and signs from some of the fields where early baseball games were played. There is also a yearly Hall of Fame Game. Major League teams play on the field where baseball is said to have been first played. VOICE TWO: Two hundred seventy-eight people are currently honored in the Hall of Fame. The eighteen newest members were admitted in July. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, is sometimes called a national treasure. Visitors learn not just about the game, but about American culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans have been playing football in some form since the earliest colonies were established more than three centuries ago. Settlers brought the game with them from England. The game was played about the same way soccer is played. In the middle of the eighteen hundreds, American colleges played a form of football called "association."? Each team had its own rules. In eighteen seventy-six, officials from several universities established a set of rules for all teams to follow. The new game was officially called football. VOICE TWO: The Pro Football Hall of Fame is in the Midwest, in Canton, Ohio, about eighty-five kilometers south of the city of Cleveland. There were several reasons why Canton was chosen. A successful, professional football team, the Canton Bulldogs, played there in the early days of the sport. Jim Thorpe, one of the first great professional players, played with the Bulldogs for a time. Another reason was that the American Professional Football Association was founded in Canton in nineteen twenty. And the citizens of Canton led a well-organized campaign to build the Hall of Fame in their city. It opened in nineteen sixty-three. VOICE ONE: More than seven million people have visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It explores the history of the sport. It also honors the game's greatest players. At the Hall of Fame, visitors can test their knowledge of American football. And they can learn about each of the thirty-two teams in the National Football League. ?VOICE TWO: The Pro Football Hall of Fame has more than two hundred thirty members. They include players, coaches and team owners. There is a statue and picture of each one. New members are chosen each year. Six new members were added at a ceremony on August fifth. The six are Troy Aikman, Harry Carson, John Madden, Warren Moon, Reggie White and Rayfield Wright. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by George Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of our shows and download audio files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Money, Money, Money: Dinner Is on the House
* Byline: 

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Most people enjoy working for several reasons. Their job might be fun, or they like their employer and the other people at work. Most people I know, however, work for the money. I do not know anyone who is loaded, or extremely rich. ?Most of my friends work to earn enough money to live. They have to make ends meet. ?They have to earn enough money to pay for the things they need. Some even live from hand to mouth. They only have enough money for the most important things. They struggle to earn enough money to bring home the bacon. ?It can be difficult to earn enough money for a family to survive. Sometimes, poor people even get caught short. ?They do not have enough money to pay for what they need. Or they have to spend or lay out more money than they want for something. When this happens, poor people have to tighten their belts and live on less money than usual. I hate when I have to live on less money. It takes me longer to get back on my feet, or return to good financial health. ? However, other people are on the gravy train. They get paid more money than their job is worth. These people make a bundle. ?They really rake in the cash. In fact, they make so much money that they can live high off the hog. They own the best of everything and live in great ease. Sometimes they pay an arm and a leg for something. Because money is no object to wealthy people, they will pay high prices for whatever they want. Sometimes, they even pay through the nose. ?They pay too much for things. I am not rich. I did not make a killing in the stock market when my stocks increased in value. Yet, I am not poor either. When I go out with friends, I do not want to shell out or pay a lot of money. Often, my friends and I will chip in or pay jointly for a fun night out. When we go to restaurants the meal is Dutch treat. Each person pays his or her own share. Once, the owner of a restaurant gave us a dinner on the house. We did not have to pay for our meals. ?However, I admit that we had to grease someone’s palm. ?We had to pay money to the employee who led us to our table. The money was for a special request. Yes, it was a buy off. The employee put us at the top of the list for a table instead of making us wait like everyone else. We had a great time that night and the meal did not set me back at all. ?I did not have to pay anything. Because of that experience, I will always remember that nice things still happen in a world that is driven by money. But, that is just my two cents worth. It is just my opinion. (MUSIC)? ??????? WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Severe Form of E. Coli Not a New Problem for Growers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. California produces about seventy-five percent of the spinach grown in the United States. State officials estimated the full value of the California?crop last year at almost two hundred sixty million dollars. Now growers are concerned that the rest of this year’s crop may be lost because of an outbreak of E. coli oh-one-five-seven-H-seven. Since last month, bacterial infections from fresh spinach have sickened more than one hundred seventy people in half of the fifty states. One death was confirmed as related; two others were suspected. On September fourteenth, federal officials warned Americans not to eat spinach sold in bags. Later the warning expanded to all fresh spinach. The Food and Drug Administration says the spinach in the outbreak was grown in three California counties. They are Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara. Officials says the outbreak is not connected to other produce grown in these three counties in the Salinas Valley. And they say spinach grown in other areas of the United States is safe to eat. Frozen or canned spinach has not been linked to the outbreak either. Experts say E. coli in spinach can be killed by cooking at seventy-one degrees Celsius for fifteen seconds. E. coli oh-one-five-seven-H-seven has been found in the intestines of healthy cattle, deer, goats and sheep. The organism produces a strong poison in humans. It can result in kidney failure and death. Officials say more of these infections in the United States have been caused by eating undercooked ground beef than by any other food. But last November the Food and Drug Administration restated concerns about continuing E. coli outbreaks in leafy greens. The F.D.A. noted eighteen outbreaks involving fresh or fresh-cut lettuce and one involving fresh-cut spinach since nineteen ninety-five. Those outbreaks resulted in more than four hundred reported cases of sickness and two deaths. Investigators found that at least eight of the outbreaks involved greens from the Salinas Valley. Officials say the current outbreak might have been caused by water polluted with waste from cattle. Or it might have been caused by wildlife in the fields, or by infected workers. Experience suggests that investigators might never find the exact cause. Last week the Western Growers Association announced it is developing a new food-safety plan. The plan will include measures such as improved water and soil testing. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Health Officials Seek Ways to Fight Extreme Drug-Resistant TB
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Dpug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week -- warnings about a form of tuberculosis that resists almost all treatment ... VOICE ONE: New rules about sales of emergency birth control in the United States ... VOICE TWO: And some good news if you are looking for dinosaurs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry, South Africa, 52 of 53 patients found to have extreme drug-resistant TB quickly died of it Health experts are concerned about a newly identified threat from tuberculosis. They call it extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis. In one recent outbreak, fifty-three people became infected in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. All but one of them died after attempts at treatment failed. A South African news report last week said six gold miners in Free State province were also found to have extreme drug-resistant TB. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that is spread through the air and usually attacks the lungs. The disease kills almost two million people each year. The World Health Organization says one-third of the world’s population is infected with TB. Most people who are infected never develop active tuberculosis, so they never get sick from it. But people with HIV and other conditions that weaken the body's defenses are more likely to develop tuberculosis. Forty-four of the fifty-three patients in KwaZulu-Natal had been tested for the virus that causes AIDS. The tests showed that all forty-four had HIV. VOICE TWO: Extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis is the name for TB strains that resist not only the two main drugs used to fight the disease. They also resist three or more of the six kinds of drugs that are used when the first line of treatment fails. World health officials say it has been found in all parts of the world but is most common in the former Soviet republics and in Asia. These recent findings are based on information from two thousand through two thousand four. Latvia has one of the highest rates of drug-resistant TB in the world. There, nineteen percent of the cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis met the definition of the newly identified threat. In the United States four percent of cases were identified as extreme drug-resistant TB. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says the drug resistance results mainly from poor care of TB patients. This includes incorrect treatment plans and the use of poor quality drugs. It also includes the failure of patients to complete the months of treatment required to cure tuberculosis. The W.H.O. says drug resistant TB appears to be increasing in Africa. The rates are still low compared to Eastern Europe and Asia. But the high rates of HIV in Africa mean that drug-resistant TB could sharply increase the number of deaths. VOICE TWO: The South African Medical Research Council says the recent cases in KwaZulu-Natal demonstrate the risks for people with HIV. The patients died an average of twenty-five days after drug-resistant TB was first suspected. These included patients who had been taking antiretroviral drugs to control their HIV infections. Experts warn that the spread of extreme drug-resistant TB could harm efforts to treat HIV and AIDS. Earlier this month, W.H.O. officials joined TB experts and representatives from eleven African countries at a two-day meeting in Johannesburg. They agreed on a seven-point plan of action to control extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis. They said the first step needed is to urgently do studies in high-risk countries to identify the extent of the threat. They also said more laboratories are needed to carry out testing. VOICE ONE: People with TB have to take a combination of several drugs daily for at least six months. Many stop as soon as they feel better. Yet that can lead to an infection that resists treatment. In nineteen ninety the World Health Organization developed the DOTS program, or Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course. Health workers watch tuberculosis patients take their pills every day. ? Earlier this year, an international partnership of organizations announced a plan to expand the program. The ten-year plan also aims to finance research into new TB drugs. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development says its long-term goal is a treatment that could work in as few as ten doses. The four most common TB drugs currently used are more than forty years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Federal officials in the United States have eased restrictions on sales of the emergency birth-control drug called Plan B. The Food and Drug Administration will now permit women to buy it without a doctor's order if they are at least eighteen years old. Those age seventeen and younger will still need to get a prescription. The newly approved sales are expected to begin by the end of the year. But Plan B will not be as widely sold as other medicines that are sold without a prescription. And buyers will have to present proof of age. Men may also buy Plan B for their sexual partners. VOICE ONE: Plan B is taken by mouth. It is often called the "morning-after" pill. It contains a manufactured form of the hormone progestin. Progestin is widely used in birth control pills. But Plan B contains more of it. The drug comes as two pills. The second pill is taken twelve hours after the first. Plan B works by preventing a woman from producing an egg or by preventing the egg from being fertilized. In addition, it may prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in the uterus. Barr Pharmaceuticals of New Jersey makes Plan B. The company says the product is almost ninety percent effective if taken within seventy-two hours of a single act of unprotected sex. Barr says Plan B reduces the risk of pregnancy but will not end an existing pregnancy. VOICE TWO: The recent action by the Food and Drug Administration followed almost three years of consideration and debate. A year ago, a former F.D.A. director said the agency did not have the power to make such a decision. Supporters of the action say Plan B will reduce the number of women who get abortions. But others say Plan B is a form of abortion because it uses scientific methods to prevent the beginning of life. Critics also say it will be difficult to make sure buyers meet the age requirements -- or that an older person is not buying Plan B for a younger one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new report suggests that scientists will find many new kinds of dinosaurs during the next century. Scientists identify all creatures, including dinosaurs, by groups or genera. The report says that at least seventy percent of dinosaur genera have yet to be found. It also estimates that seventy five percent of the currently unknown dinosaur genera will be discovered in the next sixty to one hundred years. Researchers Steve Wang and Peter Dodson wrote the report. Mister Wang is a mathematician at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Mister Dodson is a scientist with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published their findings. VOICE TWO: The report says the two researchers believe there could be up to one thousand eight hundred fifty different kinds of dinosaurs. It says the fossilized remains of five hundred twenty-seven of these ancient creatures have been found. Mister Dodson produced a similar estimate in nineteen ninety. Comparison with the recent study shows a big increase in discoveries of dinosaur fossils. The report noted that for more than one hundred years, science recognized fewer than three hundred kinds of dinosaurs. Their remains were found mainly in the United States, Britain and Canada. In the past twenty years, the number of places with fossils has increased by one hundred percent. Many fossils have been found in China and South America. VOICE ONE: The researchers say they made the report because little work has been done to estimate the number of dinosaur genera. Mister Wang says a child born today could expect a satisfying life’s work in the study of dinosaurs. But he also says that almost half of dinosaur genera that lived might have died without leaving a fossil as evidence of their existence. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. You can download transcripts and MP3 files and search through archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'National Punctuation Day': Seeking to Put a (Full) Stop to Poor Writing
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the founder of National Punctuation Day. RS: Sunday was the day for a "celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious ellipsis." So says Jeff Rubin, who is honest about why he created National Punctuation Day: for the publicity. Jeff Rubin wonders how this Kentucky health club?stays in business with testimonials from just one memberAA: But the former newspaper journalist, who now publishes newsletters for companies, says he was tired of all the mistakes and bad writing he sees in everyday life. So he did something about it. JEFF RUBIN: "I picked punctuation because it's the thing about our language that frustrates me the most. I just don't understand why people can't get it right. It's not that difficult. You could buy a stylebook. 'The Elements of Style,' I think the pocket edition is ninety-four pages and that includes the index. If you read a page a day, in three months you'd be an expert." RS: "Can you give us some hints that will make it easier for speakers and learners of English as a foreign language to better punctuate their sentences?" JEFF RUBIN: "Well, here's one: In the United States, a comma and a period always go inside a closing quotation mark. In other parts of the world -- most prominently, in England -- they call the period a full stop. Sometimes the period and the comma are placed outside a quotation mark. "Here's an easy way to know when to use i-t-apostrophe-s and i-t-s. When you write a sentence, read it back to yourself, and substitute the words 'it is' for its. If it does not make sense, then you're using it the wrong way. So, for example: 'It's a day for librarians, educators and parents.' So substitute 'it is': 'It is a day.' It sounds correct, so you would use it's. "Here's another one: To make a singular word possessive, you use an apostrophe-s, even if the word already ends in an s." AA: "Right, but some stylebooks would say you can leave off that last s and just put the apostrophe. Isn't that true?" JEFF RUBIN: "Yeah. In fact, there's some controversy about that. 'The Elements of Style' is ... you add the apostrophe-s. The Associated Press, in its stylebook, has taken off the second s. So, you know, these are two -- I grew up with the AP Stylebook and I use that most times. My advice is to pick a style, since they're both accepted, pick a style and stick with it." RS: "Be consistent here." JEFF RUBIN: "Be consistent." AA: "Let me ask you, so now you just marked the third annual National Punctuation Day. As far as you know, did any other Americans mark the day with you?" JEFF RUBIN: "Just my friends and family. But seriously, I did a lot of media interviews and got letters from -- e-mails from all over the United States. Mostly from teachers, but a lot from older people who remember the way it used to be, when you didn't see mistakes in books, in magazines and newspapers, and when good writing skills and English skills were really taught well in the schools." RS: Jeff Rubin, creator of National Punctuation Day, and who does business as The Newsletter Guy, speaking from California. AA: Jeff Rubin and his wife have developed a program to teach elementary school children some punctuation rules. It's called "Punctuation Playtime," and includes a song called "Punctuation Rap." (MUSIC) RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. To hear more of "Punctuation Rap," log on to the Wordmaster Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Excerpt from "Punctuation Rap": PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION I am a QUESTION MARK, what do I do? I'm at the end of questions, like Where? What? or Who? PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION I am a PERIOD, that means full stop, At the end of a sentence, just make a dot. PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION I am a COMMA, if you see me just pause, So hang back, Jack, and think of what was. PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION QUOTATION MARKS hold the talking within, So if somebody speaks, just look for the twins. PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION I am a COLON, I am two dots, I'm the introducer, I express your thoughts. PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION PUNK, PUNK, PUNCTUATION 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Art You Can See for Free, on Streets Around the World
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we travel through city streets all over the world to explore street art, a popular and lively art movement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Street art can be found on buildings, sidewalks, street signs and even trash cans from Tokyo to Paris to New York City. This special kind of art can take the form of paintings, sculptures, cloth or even stickers. Its international presence is supported by Web sites, artist communities, books and magazines. Street art has become part of a global visual culture. Now, even art museums and galleries are collecting the work of street artists. VOICE TWO: It is not easy to provide an exact history of the street art movement. This kind of art has developed in many kinds of ways in places all over the world. Also, because it is illegal to paint public and private property without permission, street artists usually work secretly. This secretive nature of street art and its countless forms make it hard to define exactly. And people have different opinions about the movement. Some think street art is a crime and destroys property. But others see this art as a rich form of non-traditional cultural expression. VOICE ONE: Many experts say the movement began in New York City in the nineteen sixties. Young adults would use paint in special cans to spray their “tag” on walls and train cars around the city. This tag was a name they created to identify themselves and their artwork. This colorful style of writing is also called graffiti. It is visually exciting and energetic. Some graffiti paintings were signs marking the territories of city gangs or illegal crime groups. VOICE TWO: Graffiti also became a separate movement expressing the street culture of young people living in big cities. Graffiti art represented social and political rebellion. This was art that rejected the accepted rules of culture and power. These artists could travel around areas of the city making creative paintings for everyone to see. The artists could become famous without being officially recognized. Sometimes this street art created a dispute between artists and city officials. Graffiti artists created their images and city officials quickly painted over them. During the nineteen eighties two New York painters who began as street artists became very famous. Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat started creating their paintings on the streets. But soon they began showing their work in art galleries and museums. This is when street art started to become part of the more general popular culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Street art today takes many forms. One well known New York City street artist goes by the name of Swoon. Swoon creates detailed paper cutouts of people that she observes around her. She places these life-size images on walls in different areas of New York. For example, one of her artworks is of a little boy playing. He is turning his smiling face and seems to be running into the distance. The lines of Swoon’s drawing give energy and movement to the picture. She placed the picture of the boy next to other large graffiti images. It looks like he is running around between the different pieces of artwork. VOICE TWO: Swoon did not start her career making street art. She studied fine art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. But she says she lost interest in the official workings of art galleries. She soon started taking her art into the streets. Swoon likes how her work changes slowly after it is outside for a while. The art slowly disappears because of the effects of time, sun and rain. She also enjoys the freedom of expression which street art permits. And people enjoy Swoon’s strong and imaginative pictures. In fact, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City has bought three of her works. VOICE ONE: Knitted street art in ParisIn Houston, Texas you can see a very different kind of street art by Knitta Please. This group of artists is ten people who like to knit. Knitting is a way of creating clothing by looping together long thin pieces of material such as cotton or wool. Two members of Knitta Please became tired of starting knitting projects and never finishing them. So they decided to become street artists. They place their knitted projects on door handles, street signs, and cars around town. Many people in Houston collect the colorful . (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Street art is also popular around the world. For example, many street corners in Paris, A space invader in Paris France show the work of an artist known as Space Invader. Space Invader was the name of a video game that was very popular in the nineteen eighties. This French artist uses small colorful squares of glass to make an image of a space creature. He places these creations on buildings all around Paris. Space Invader has been making this art for about ten years. He has been arrested several times. But this does not stop him from working. He says that he is leaving a gift to the city with his art. On Space Invader’s Web site, you can see the many other cities where he has placed his art. Space Invader has traveled to places like Dhaka, Bangladesh; Mombasa, Kenya, and Istanbul, Turkey. If you like his work, you can even buy Space Invader clothing, shoes, and pictures. VOICE ONE: A painting by Os GemeosThe streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil are also rich with artwork. For example, you can find the work of two brothers who go by the name Os Gemeos. They paint images of funny flat-faced people with orange-yellow skin. Their imaginative characters have many different forms and expressions. Sometimes they paint one character alone. Other times they make complex paintings with many characters and actions. Art galleries all over the world have shown the artwork of Os Gemeos. ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Street artists have different reasons for choosing this special kind of creative act. Some artists do not approve of the profit-making business of galleries and museums. They think that these organizations disconnect art from every day life. They also like the fact that street art stays part of the city environment. Other artists express their political beliefs with their art. Some see street art as protesting the culture of big business and corporations. They do not like city walls covered with advertisements that sell products. These artists see these advertisements as examples of corporate aggression. They think that if an advertisement can be on a wall, so can their art. Still other artists like the excitement of working in the streets and trying not to get caught. VOICE ONE: But some people pay a price for making street art. Borf is the street name of an artist in the Washington, D.C. area. He used to place his small images all over the city. Critics say his work expresses hatred towards wealthy people and government oppression. Many young people liked his rebellious art. For these people, Borf’s art had a mysterious and strong message. But other people saw his work as a crime. During the summer of two thousand five police caught Borf painting in the street and arrested him. The judge at his trial said the streets of Washington, D.C. did not exist so Borf could express himself. She said he had hurt the community with his art. And she sentenced him to thirty days in jail. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Street art has become a popular kind of design for advertising companies. Some advertisements show writing or images influenced by street art. This street style often is meant for young people. For example, the sports clothing company Adidas used street art as part of a two thousand six advertising project. Adidas put up large white signs all over the city of Berlin, Germany. There was nothing on these paper signs except the Adidas name and image. The signs were an invitation for street artists to paint on the white paper. Once the signs were covered with graffiti images, Adidas used the artwork to advertise a new sports shoe. VOICE ONE: The Internet has had a big influence on street art. For example, artists can show their work to people all over the world. Web sites like WoosterCollective.com have thousands of pictures of street art from all over the world. Also, artists and fans can communicate with each other and exchange ideas. However, people say the Internet is not a replacement for the experience of seeing street art live. To really understand this art you have to see it in its environment. The street art movement depends on the energy and life of the city. And like cities, this imaginative and exciting art will continue to change and grow. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. You can read and download our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-26-voa8.cfm
* Headline: New Studies Aim to Expand Knowledge of Autism
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A young child with autismScientists are trying to better understand autism. The National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, recently announced the start of three major studies of autism. Autistic children experience delays in the development of social and communication skills. They may also show limited interests and repeat the same actions over and over. Autism generally appears by the age of three. It is part of a larger group of disorders, often called autism spectrum disorders. Others include Asperger's syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder. One of the three new studies will define differences in autistic children with different developmental histories. Another will measure the effectiveness of an antibiotic medicine as a treatment for one kind of autism. And the third study will examine if chelation treatment is effective against autism. Chelation removes heavy metals from the blood; for example, in cases of lead poisoning. But many parents seek this treatment for autistic children. They believe that many cases of autism were caused by vaccines that contained thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. That theory is debated. Institute officials note that chelation does not target mercury alone. It can also remove minerals that the body needs, such as calcium, iron and zinc. Researchers will do a controlled study to test the effectiveness and safety of chelation for children with autism spectrum disorders. Institute officials say these disorders are currently reported to affect as many as six out of every one thousand children. In an unrelated study, scientists have reported that a man's age could affect the chances that his children will develop autism. The study found that men age forty and older had autistic children almost six times as often as fathers under the age of thirty. Men in their thirties were about one and one-half times more likely to father an autistic child as dads in their twenties and teen years. The study, in children born in Israel in the nineteen eighties, found no link between autism and older mothers. The findings appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Internet users can learn more about health issues and download archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: "Punctuation Rap"
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 1930s: 'New Deal' Starts to Fail, Just as Threats Grow Overseas
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Franklin Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act of 1935By the middle nineteen thirties, America seemed to be moving out of the worst economic depression in its history. Most people supported the "New Deal" policies of President Franklin Roosevelt. The dark view that many Americans held during the final days of President Herbert Hoover's administration seemed to be changing. People began to believe that the United States was facing its problems with energy and hope. VOICE TWO: The change could be seen in the way that Americans were moving away from extreme political movements of both the right and the left. Many decided that the best solution was to work through the existing political system. Most importantly, Roosevelt's continued experiments with different programs showed Americans that they did not have to blindly follow political or economic traditions. For years, most Americans had accepted the basic ideas of traditional free market capitalism. But as the depression began, a small number of Americans became interested in the economic ideas of Karl Marx. Roosevelt believed it was best to travel a path between these two opposite ideas. He basically supported the free market system. But he believed government also had a right and responsibility to act when needed. And he supported new government controls in such important areas as banking, transportation, agriculture, and oil production. VOICE ONE: Some Americans did not think it was wise, or even possible, to mix traditional free market capitalism with government intervention or socialism. Former Republican Treasury Secretary Ogden Mills put it this way: "We can have a free country or a socialist one. We cannot have both. Our economic system cannot be half free and half socialistic. There is no middle ground between governing and being governed, between absolute rule and freedom.” Many leftists and socialists agreed with conservatives that it was impossible to mix capitalism and socialism. One leftist publication wrote: "Either the nation must live with the sadness of capitalism or it must prepare to replace capitalism with socialism. There is no longer a practical middle path." However, Roosevelt and his New Dealers happily rejected these arguments. They aimed the country between rightist and leftist extremes and created a whole new set of rules for government, the economy, and democracy. VOICE TWO: Most Americans supported Roosevelt and the Democrats as they experimented with new solutions to the problems of the depression. They elected Democrats to a large majority in Congress in nineteen thirty-four. Two years later, they re-elected Franklin Roosevelt to a second term in the White House by one of the largest victories in American history. Roosevelt's big victory made him stronger than ever. So he decided to fight the part of the government that had been blocking many of his programs -- the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: Most of the nine judges on the Supreme Court in nineteen thirty-six were conservative. They had ruled that many of Roosevelt's most important New Deal programs were illegal. Now the judges were preparing to decide the future of programs to help old people, labor unions, and others. And there was nothing the president could do under the American system of government. So Roosevelt called for changes in the system. He asked Congress to reorganize the federal judicial system. And he asked for the power to add several new members to the Supreme Court. In this way, Roosevelt hoped to gain a new majority on the court that would support his views. VOICE TWO: Most Americans liked Roosevelt. But people of all opinions feared that the president was trying to destroy the careful system of checks and balances in the federal government. They agreed with him in opposing the court's decisions. But they accepted the right of Supreme Court judges to rule as they thought correct. For this reason, the nation rejected Roosevelt's plan to add new members to the court. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to change the Supreme Court came at the same time as the economy began to get worse. Many Americans thought they had defeated the depression in nineteen thirty-five and thirty-six. There was steady economic improvement. Some bankers had even begun to fear that the economy was growing too fast. These bankers called on the nation's central bank -- the Federal Reserve Board -- to control the expanding money supply. And the Federal Reserve acted to limit the amount of money in use. At the same time, the federal government began reducing the amount of money that it was spending. And it launched the new Social Security tax on workers' incomes. The effect of all these government actions was to limit the amount of money being spent by the government, companies, and private citizens. As a result, the economy began to fall once again into depression. VOICE TWO: In August nineteen thirty-seven, stock market prices began to fall sharply. In seven months, the price of stock for the General Motors Corporation fell from sixty dollars to twenty-five. The United States Steel Company stock fell all the way from one hundred twenty-one dollars to thirty-eight. In fact, the stock markets lost in nine months about two-thirds of all the gains that they had made so slowly and painfully since Roosevelt took office. Americans had supported Roosevelt's New Deal program because it offered a solution to the depression. Now that program seemed to be failing. VOICE ONE: Historian Frederick Lewis Allen remembered those dark days of nineteen thirty-seven. "Goods sold slowly," Allen wrote. ”Businessmen became frightened and reduced production. Two million men were thrown out of work in the space of a few months. They became less able to buy what was for sale. The terrible circle of the falling value of the dollar moved all the more rapidly. VOICE TWO: The new economic crisis hurt Roosevelt's popularity. And it came at a time when he faced growing opposition within his own Democratic Party. For several years, conservative Democrats from the southeastern part of the country had supported Roosevelt. They liked his leadership and the power that he brought to all Democrats. But they opposed many of his more liberal or experimental social policies. VOICE ONE: As the economy and Roosevelt's popularity fell, many of these southern Democrats began to openly oppose his leadership. They voted with Republicans on important bills before Congress. Roosevelt became very angry about the new opposition from within his own party. He began to intervene personally in Democratic Party primary elections in nineteen thirty-eight. He told party members in several states that they should only vote for candidates who would support his New Deal policies. Roosevelt's opponents accused him of interfering in local politics. And democratic voters agreed with these criticisms. In almost all cases, they rejected the candidates supported by the president. A few months later, voters in the general election gave the Republicans major gains in both the House of Representatives and Senate. VOICE TWO: In most situations, such a change in support would have signaled the end of a president's power. If people will not follow, a president cannot lead or be elected. But such was not the case for Roosevelt and the United States in the late nineteen thirties. It was true that economic and political troubles were not solved. But another crisis was growing larger every day, making these other problems seem less and less important. The crisis was in foreign policy. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party in Germany seemed ready to make war on Europe. And Japanese forces appeared to be planning new aggression in the Pacific.Americans could no longer just worry about their problems at home. A dark cloud was forming outside their door. That will be the subject of our next several programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Considering an Online Education Program
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Online education is our subject this week as we continue our Foreign Student Series. Our reports are for students around the world who would like to attend a college or university in the United States. Programs where students take classes by computer over the Internet offer a way to earn a degree from home. Online learning is also called distance education. Many American colleges and universities have been offering it for years. One example is New York University in Manhattan. The School of Continuing and Professional Studies began online classes in nineteen ninety-two. Its Virtual College has taught more than ten thousand students from across the United States and other countries. Last year, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies launched NYU Online. It offers NYU's first online programs to earn a bachelor’s degree. Programs are offered in three areas: leadership and management, information systems management and social sciences. University officials say classes are highly interactive, where students communicate with each other and their teachers. Some classes require students to all log in at the same time so they can attend live lectures by a professor. Students can also ask questions and work together on team projects. The university says classes are taught by NYU professors who have been trained in online teaching. International students must take two admissions tests before they can be accepted into the program. These are the SAT and the TOEFL. We will discuss these tests later in our series. The cost to attend NYU Online depends on how many classes a student takes. It can cost as much as fifteen thousand dollars a year. NYU offers no financial aid for international students in this program. You can get more details at nyu.edu. Many other schools offer online education. Students should be especially careful of programs that offer a degree in return for little or no work. These are known as diploma mills, and are illegal in the United States. Educational advisers also say that before you enter any program, make sure the work will be recognized in your country. You should also make sure the schools you are considering are accredited. That will be our subject next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. More information for foreign students can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Making Memories for Orphaned Children Around the World
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the Warner Brothers … Play some music from Regina Spektor … And report about the Memory Project. The Memory Project A young American man is giving children around the world a special gift to remember their childhood. Mario Ritter tells us about the Memory Project. ? MARIO RITTER: Ben Schumaker graduated from the University of Wisconsin in two thousand three. Then he traveled to Guatemala. He worked in a home for children who do not have parents. The conditions at the orphanage were poor. Schumaker wanted to do something to help. But he did not know what he could do. After returning home, he remembered a story that a young Guatemalan man told him. The young man had also been raised in a children’s home because he had no parents. He told Schumaker about one thing that was missing from his life. He had no pictures of himself during his childhood. The man said he had no memories of what he looked like as a child. The man told Schumaker that he wished he could remember more about what he was like as a boy. The man’s story gave Ben Schumaker an idea. Schumaker began taking photographs of young people in orphanages all over the world. Then he brought the photographs back to high schools in America. There, the best art students used the photographs as models to draw or paint pictures of the children’s faces. The finished portraits were then sent back to the children for them to keep. The students who created the pictures also included a photograph of themselves. The Memory Project began in October of two thousand four. Since then, it has spread to hundreds of schools across the United States. Ben Schumaker’s project has touched the lives of thousands of children who now have beautiful portraits of themselves. Schumaker hopes the Memory Project will also affect the lives of the American high school students. He says he hopes the project will help the students connect with children in poor countries. He also hopes the students will better understand the lives of people in need around the world and will want to work for change. So far, portraits have been given to children in twenty-five countries. They include India, Mozambique, Lebanon, Haiti, Honduras and Romania. Ben Schumaker estimates that four thousand high school students will take part in the program this year. To learn more about the Memory Project, visit www.thememoryproject.org. The Warner Brothers Our VOA listener question this week comes from Burma. Ko Maw Gyi asks about the Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers is an American company that produces movies and television shows. It started as a small family business operated by four brothers – Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner. In nineteen-oh-three, the brothers began their business by traveling throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania showing movies using a projector. By nineteen-oh-seven, they opened a movie theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Two of the brothers sold tickets. Another operated the projector. And the youngest, Jack, sang songs between the films. Within ten years, the Warner brothers started producing movies, and moved that part of the business to California. In nineteen eighteen, their first complete picture was called “My Four Years in Germany.”? The film was based on a book by the United States’ ambassador to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm. In nineteen twenty-five, Sam and Harry Warner heard the first experimental movies with sound in a laboratory in New York City. They immediately went to work to include the technology for sound in their movies. Two years later, Warner Brothers Pictures released the first major movie with sound, or “talking picture.”? It was called “The Jazz Singer” and it was a huge success. ?In the nineteen thirties, the company made several films that were highly praised. These included movies about criminals such as “Little Caesar,” “The Public Enemy” and musicals like “The Gold Diggers” and “Forty-Second Street.” The Warner Brothers’ success continued in the nineteen forties with movies like “The Maltese Falcon,” and “Casablanca.”? Movies during this time starred popular actors like Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Gary Cooper and Bette Davis. The company continues to produce popular movies today. By the nineteen seventies, the Warner Brothers studios had also become well established in television. In nineteen ninety, Warner Communications combined with Time Incorporated to form Time Warner Incorporated. In two thousand one, the company combined with America Online. The company now includes film production, cable television networks, music and publishing. This year, the company announced a deal with the CBS Corporation to form a new television broadcast network. The CW began broadcasting this month. Regina Spektor HOST: Regina Spektor is a singer with a story and personality as interesting as her music. <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:88610| height=150 alt='Regina Spektor "Begin Hope"' hspace=2 src="/specialenglish/images/regina_spektor_28sep06_150_se.jpg" width=150 align=right vspace=2 border=0>This young Russian-American musician has been playing since she was a child. Spektor has just released her second major record. “Begin to Hope” is an album full of playful and imaginative songs. Shirley Griffith tells us more. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Regina Spektor makes music that is hard to define. She combines wildly poetic words with unusual music. In some songs, she plays the piano. Other songs have more of a rock music sound. Some songs are happy and fun while others are sad and intense. Listen to Regina Spektor’s clear and strong voice singing “On the Radio.” (MUSIC) Regina Spektor was born in Russia. She started to play classical piano music when she was very young. At the age of nine, Regina and her family immigrated to the United States. They settled in the Bronx area of New York City. Regina started taking music lessons again. But her family did not have enough money to buy a piano. So she would “play” songs by pressing her fingers on her knees.In this love song called “Samson” you can hear Spektor performing on the piano. (MUSIC) After college, Regina Spektor started playing her music in clubs in New York City. She soon became popular and started selling CD’s she made at home. Later, a well-known producer helped her record her first major album. Critics say her second record, “Begin to Hope,” is strong and expressive. Regina Spektor proves she can make many kinds of music. We leave you with the dreamy sound of “Fidelity”. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.This show was written by Brianna Blake and Dana Demange, who was also the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Duties Bill Dropped as U.S. Prepares for Economic Talks With China
* Byline: 

 UPDATED | This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The United States and China plan to hold high-level meetings two times each year to discuss economic issues. The talks, called the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, will be the first of their kind. The first meeting is expected before the end of the year. The agreement was announced last week during a visit to China by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Mister Paulson will lead the American side. China's top negotiator will be Vice Premier Wu Yi. She noted that President Bush proposed the talks to President Hu Jintao in a telephone call in August. Probably the top issue facing the negotiators will be the conflict over the Chinese yuan. Until July of last year, China directly set the exchange rate of the yuan against the dollar. Since then, China has tied the rate to a small group of foreign currencies, including the dollar and the euro. The immediate effect was a two percent rise in value. The yuan has slowly risen further in the past year, but only by an additional two percent or so. That is too little for many American businesses, especially manufacturers. They say China's policies have kept the cost of Chinese goods unfairly low on world markets. Many experts also blame what is seen as a highly undervalued yuan for huge United States trade deficits with China. But the Bush administration opposed a bill in the Senate to punish China for not letting markets set the value of the yuan. The bill called for an import tax of almost thirty percent on Chinese goods. Two senators, Democrat Charles Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, proposed the bill. They announced Thursday that they would drop the legislation. But they said they would work on a new bill early next year to pressure China. Recently the value of the yuan has risen faster. News reports say China is believed to be making policy changes to let this happen. A central bank official told Reuters on Friday that the bank had no new policy statement about the yuan. Secretary Paulson, during his visit last week, urged China to put market-based reforms in place. He said China’s economy is expanding too quickly for government controls to be enough. Mister Paulson did business in China when he led the investment bank Goldman Sachs. He has visited China about seventy times. This was his first visit since he became Treasury secretary in July. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Abe Moves Quickly to Improve Ties With South Korea and China
* Byline: 

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has already taken his first steps to try to repair relations with South Korea and China. Mister Abe and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun spoke by telephone earlier this week and agreed to meet as soon as possible. Leaders from the two countries have not met in almost a year. Some reports said a visit to Seoul could take place before the middle of October. And Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Mister Abe may visit China as early as October. Japan's parliament, the Diet, elected Mister Abe on Tuesday to replace Junichiro Koizumi. Mister Koizumi left office after more than five years as prime minister. South Korea and China were both victims of past aggression by Japan. Relations have suffered in recent years, mainly because of visits by Japanese leaders to a memorial for Japan’s war dead. Several of those honored at the Yasukuni Shrine were found guilty of war crimes during World War Two. Mister Abe has refused to say if will visit the shrine as prime minister. On other issues, he says he plans to continue the economic reforms started by Mister Koizumi. And he says he is serious about cutting government spending. Mister Abe reduced his own pay by thirty percent and his cabinet members’ pay by ten percent. He and President Bush spoke by telephone Wednesday. They agreed to meet in November in Hanoi at the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group. A White House spokeswoman said they expressed a desire to further strengthen the United States-Japan alliance. Japan is a leading trading partner and security ally of the United States. About fifty thousand American troops are based in Japan. Mister Koizumi sent Japanese troops to assist rebuilding in Iraq. And Japanese ships provide fuel for the military operations in Afghanistan. Shinzo Abe is fifty-two years old, making him Japan’s youngest prime minister since World War Two. He was recently elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The only cabinet position he has held was chief cabinet secretary. But his grandfather and great-uncle were prime ministers and his father was foreign minister. Mister Abe gave his first policy speech in parliament Friday. He rejected relations with North Korea until the issue of its kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the past is settled. And he announced that Japan will study how it can take part in collective defense efforts with the United States. Since the end of World War Two, Japanese forces have been constitutionally restricted in their activities. Mister Abe restated his desire to see the constitution changed as soon as possible. And he talked about his desire to create what he calls a "beautiful nation."? Mister Abe says he seeks a Japan that is trusted, honored and loved by the world and active in showing its leadership. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and MP3 files are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-09/2006-09-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: James Baldwin Wrote About Race and Identity in America
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about James Baldwin, one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. Critics praised him for honestly and bravely examining race relations and identity in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Baldwin wrote more than twenty novels, reports and commentary, plays and poetry. He wrote most of them during the nineteen-fifties and sixties. Some critics say his first book, “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” was his best effort at storytelling. The book is based on his early life. James Baldwin was born in nineteen twenty-four in New York City. He grew up in a mostly black area of New York called Harlem. During the nineteen thirties, the United States was suffering an economic crisis called the Great Depression. Many African-Americans, including his family, were even poorer than white Americans. James Baldwin was the oldest child in a family of nine. He never knew his biological father. When he was three years old, his mother married a factory worker. James grew up with a severe step-father. He writes about a similar difficult relationship between father and son in “Go Tell it on the Mountain”. Another similarity between the book and the writer’s life is the importance of Christianity and the church. James’s step-father was also a preacher in a small church in a business area of Harlem. Such religious centers that were former stores were called “storefront churches.”? They were common in African-American areas. VOICE TWO: The boy in “Go Tell it on the Mountain” struggles between choosing to be like his father or doing something else with his life. The events happen on one day -- the boy’s fourteenth birthday. In the end, he decides to do what his father wants. James Baldwin faced a similar struggle. He became a preacher in his step-father’s church for three years. But at age seventeen, he left the church. This struggle and his experience in the church greatly influenced his writing. Critics and Baldwin himself have said the Christian holy book, The Bible, influenced his writing. Critics also said he writes the way African-American clergy speak in church. Baldwin uses similar words, sentence rhythms, and descriptions. Jazz and blues music traditions also influenced his writing. All these have made his writing more powerful and emotionally moving. James Baldwin blamed Christianity for providing support to slavery. He also criticized some black Christians for using their religion as an excuse to accept oppression. But, Baldwin also praised Christianity for helping African-Americans join together to fight racism. VOICE ONE: The book “Go Tell it on the Mountain” also describes how and why the boy’s parents moved separately from the South to New York City. They were part of a great movement of southern blacks to the northern United States in the first half of the twentieth century. It was called the Great Migration. African-Americans moved to escape southern laws on racial separation. Also, there was not enough farm work for everyone, while jobs in industries were increasing in the northern states. Baldwin explains this historical event in the personal stories of one family. His expert storytelling brings history to life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: James Baldwin said he had to write “Go Tell It on the Mountain” so that he could write everything else. He also said he realized at a very young age that he did not have very much as a black person in America. But he knew he had his brain. So he spent a lot of time in libraries reading. And he began to write for his school magazine. James Baldwin finished high school at about the same time that he realized that he did not want to continue as a church preacher. He left home and moved to an area of New York City called Greenwich Village. The area was popular with artists. Baldwin got jobs that did not pay much. He was very poor. But he continued to write. He published reports in magazines such as the Partisan Review and the Nation. They were not very widely read. Baldwin communicated with Richard Wright, a well-known African-American writer. Wright helped Baldwin get financial help to travel to Europe to write. He went to Paris and London in nineteen forty-eight. Baldwin lived in Paris and the south of France for the next six years. He also lived in Istanbul, Turkey. He wrote “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” which was published in nineteen fifty-three. Critics in the United States announced the arrival of a great new voice in American writing. But the book did not become popular until much later. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-five, the essays and commentary Baldwin had written earlier were collected and published in a book. It is called “Notes of a Native Son.”? He wrote about social, political and cultural issues facing black people in America. He also told of his experience as a black man in Europe. Critics praised the book for clearly dealing with one of the most troubling issues of that time: racism. Baldwin continued to write stories based on his experiences. “Giovanni’s Room” was published in nineteen fifty-six. It is about a white American man in Paris who loves both an Italian man and an American woman. The book is about the struggle to accept one’s sexuality. James Baldwin faced a similar struggle. His former religion condemned homosexuality, as did most of society. So it was difficult for Baldwin to accept himself. He wrote about the same issue in his next book, “Another Country.”? This book is mainly based in New York City. It explores race, sex and identity among artists. Some critics said “Another Country” and “Giovanni’s Room” were not very good books. But James Baldwin wrote openly and bravely about subjects that many people would not discuss in public in those days. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Critics praised Baldwin’s books that directly examined true events more than they praised his fiction. His book, “The Fire Next Time,” became one of the best-selling books of nineteen sixty-three. It was called a powerful and leading voice of the civil rights movement. African-Americans and liberal white Americans increased demands and demonstrations for equal rights for black people and other minorities. Many activists went to the southern states to help more black people sign up to vote. Baldwin left Europe for some time to take part in this action. “The Fire Next Time” is in the form of two letters. In the first, Baldwin tells a young family member about the problems he faced as a black man in America. Baldwin also tells him to be strong and fight for justice. The second letter is to America. Baldwin warns that race relations are so bad that something terrible might happen if they do not improve. He urges white Americans to change for their own good because they cannot live without their black brothers. The writer says love is the only way for America not to destroy itself. “The Fire Next Time” was an influential book. It made Baldwin even more famous. His picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine. “The Fire Next Time” remains one of his most widely read books. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Baldwin wrote short stories, books and plays throughout the nineteen seventies and early eighties. He? continued to explore issues of race, religion, sexual identity and history. These books include “The Amen Corner,” “Tell me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” and “If Beale Street Could Talk.”? His last book, “The Evidence of Things Not Seen,” was published in nineteen eighty-five. Baldwin lived both in the United States and France during this time. He taught in colleges, including the University of Massachusetts. He supported new African-American writers who later became famous, such as Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou. James Baldwin was made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor in nineteen eighty-six. He also received many awards in the United States. James Baldwin died at his home in southern France in nineteen eighty-seven. But his voice lives on in the books that young people still read in many American classrooms and around the world. Critics say his urgent warning that we must learn to accept one another’s differences is still important today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. You can download transcripts and archives of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Planting the Financial Seeds for a 'Green Revolution' in Africa
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. As many as twenty countries will be the first to receive assistance from a new effort to improve African agriculture. The Gates and Rockefeller foundations in the United States recently announced the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Their joint effort will begin with what they call a first investment of one hundred fifty million dollars in a seed program known as PASS. PASS is the Program for Africa's Seed Systems. The money is to go toward seeds that can produce bigger harvests in conditions south of the Sahara. To be chosen for the project, countries must be able to support agricultural research systems. Countries with civil unrest or governments unwilling to carry out the program will not be involved. Between the nineteen forties and sixties, the Rockefeller Foundation helped launch the "Green Revolution" in Latin America and Asia. Norman Borlaug, known as the father of the Green Revolution, was a Rockefeller Foundation scientist. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on improved crops and changes in farming methods. Farmers increased their use of fertilizers and pesticide chemicals, and irrigation systems to water crops. Food production sharply increased and helped prevent widespread hunger. The project in Africa has similar goals. One is to develop new seeds that resist disease and dry conditions. Another goal is to make sure those seeds reach farmers, along with fertilizers, chemicals and knowledge of farming. Still another is to invest in training future agricultural scientists in Africa. Asia's Green Revolution centered on wheat and rice. But experts say no single crop will revolutionize farming in Africa because farmers there grow a mixture of different crops. Experts say the project will have to deal with dry conditions, poor soil quality and other realities of farming in southern Africa. Crops are often grown year after year in the same fields, so the soil loses all of its nutrients. At the same time, though, there is concern about too much use of fertilizers. Separately, American businessman George Soros says he will give fifty million dollars over five years to a United Nations project in Africa. The Millennium Village program sends experts into African communities to improve health care, education and farming. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can download transcripts and archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Making of One of Jazz's Most Influential Recordings
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. If one album had to explain jazz, a strong candidate would be "Kind of Blue" by the trumpet player and bandleader Miles Davis. This week on our program, Steve Ember and Gwen Outen tell the story of "Kind of Blue."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Kind of Blue" has influenced musicians for more than forty years. It is also a favorite of listeners. The Recording Industry Association of America marked the sale of three million copies in the United States as of two thousand two. (MUSIC) Like many other albums, "Kind of Blue" was made in two recording sessions. These took place for Columbia Records in New York City in March and April of nineteen fifty-nine. VOICE TWO: Stories about the making of "Kind of Blue" say there was nothing unusual about the project. When the musicians arrived, Miles Davis gave them some short, simple descriptions of the music they would play. He is said to have written these notes just a few hours earlier. His piano player, Bill Evans, helped him write some of the music that would get the musicians started. Miles Davis did not want to tell them too much about what to play. He wanted the music to flow naturally. Such improvisation was nothing new for musicians. Yet the five songs on "Kind of Blue" represented a perfect mix of improvisational talent and musical experimentation. The first song is called "So What."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis played trumpet and led the group. Julian "Cannonball" Adderley played alto saxophone; John Coltrane played tenor saxophone. Paul Chambers was on the bass, and James Cobb played drums. (MUSIC) Miles Davis had a talent for bringing together great musicians. But it also meant that he had to form new bands again and again. Band members would become successful enough as individuals to form their own groups. The band that Miles Davis put together for "Kind of Blue" was no different. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This song is called "Freddie Freeloader."?? On this song, Wynton Kelly plays the piano; he replaced Bill Evans. Listen to how the band works as a team, but also how the musicians play individually over the music. Listen especially to the competing saxophones of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis and his band were experimenting with a new kind of sound on "Kind of Blue."?? This is the sound of a traditional jazz chord progression: (MUSIC) But Miles Davis designed the music on "Kind of Blue" around a modal form. This kind of system permitted the musicians more freedom. After "Kind of Blue," jazz musicians used the modal form more and more. Here is another song from "Kind of Blue."? This one is called "Blue in Green." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Miles Davis and his band were not the only artists testing new ways to do things. There was, for example, the painter Jackson Pollack. His experiments in form and color were playful but went against tradition, just like "Kind of Blue." Pianist Bill Evans himself saw similarities between the music and a form of Japanese art. Some compared the album to the ideas of Zen Buddhism. At that time, a lot of Americans were becoming interested in Asian spirituality. This song is called "All Blues."? Listen how naturally the music appears to develop from one point in the song to the next. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis was born into a wealthy family in Illinois in nineteen twenty-six. He received a trumpet for his thirteenth birthday and began jazz lessons. In nineteen forty-four, he moved to New York. He entered the Julliard School of Music. But he left the school the next year to work with great musicians like Billy Eckstine and Charlie Parker. In nineteen forty-nine Miles Davis released "Birth of the Cool."? This recording also had a big influence on jazz. At that time, listeners were used to the often forceful, fast-moving beats of Louis Armstrong and others. Cool jazz became especially popular on the West Coast. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the civil rights movement grew in the Untied States. Here was a tall, talented, good looking -- and very strong-willed --?? African American man. He wore Italian suits and drove European cars. There were many women in his life, although he was violent with women. Still, many people saw Miles Davis as someone who stood up to a system that often kept African Americans from economic success. VOICE ONE: Miles Davis died in nineteen ninety-one in California, at the age of sixty-five. He is remembered most as one of the best trumpet players ever. Miles Davis played more softly than many of those who came before him. He also did not work as hard to hit as many high notes or low notes. He found his unmistakable sound somewhere in the middle. There was also his sense of timing and the use of silence in his music. ?????????????? Miles Davis had a talent especially for sad love songs. This one is called "Flamenco Sketches," the final song on "Kind of Blue." ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Robert Brumfield and read by Steve Ember and Gwen Outen. Internet users can download MP3 files and transcripts of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shirley Griffith, hoping you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Gene Researchers Work on Flood-Resistant Rice
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Rice plants normally grow well in standing water. But most will die if they are completely underwater for more than four days. Now, researchers have identified a gene that lets rice survive longer underwater. They say the discovery will lead to new kinds of rice plants that can survive flooding. And that could mean more dependable food supplies. Tests are now being done in Laos, Bangladesh and India. The researchers say experimental rice plants with the gene have survived underwater as long as two weeks. Two teams worked together on the research. One was from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. The other was from the University of California at Davis and Riverside. When flooding happens, most kinds of rice plants cannot get enough oxygen, carbon dioxide or sunlight. But the scientists say crop loss depends on several conditions. These include water depth and plant age. Others include the amount of time the plant is underwater and the rate of nitrogen fertilizer used on the crop. On a genetic map of rice, the scientists became interested in a group of three genes. They experimented with one of them, a gene known as Sub-One-A. They found that when this gene is made to become very active, it improves the ability of rice to survive longer when covered by water. They believe it succeeds because it affects the reaction to hormones that govern the ability of a flooded plant to survive. The researchers then placed the gene into rice plants that are especially good for conditions in India. They say the genetically engineered plants not only survived but also produced good crops. American and German government agencies paid for the study. Nature magazine published the results in August. The researchers are now trying to identify all the genes governed by the Sub-One-A gene. Being able to leave water on rice plants for an additional week might also help farmers suppress the growth of weeds. Less weed growth around their crops would mean less need for herbicide chemicals. Finally, we reported last week on the recent outbreak of E. coli infections in the United States from fresh spinach. On Friday the government announced that all the bad spinach came from one California grower and processor, Natural Selection Foods. Officials continue to investigate the cause. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For more reports, including transcripts and MP3 files, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Six Medical Researchers Who Gave All to Their Work
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, the stories of some medical heroes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At the start of the twentieth century, the United States Army had a Yellow Fever Commission. The Army wanted medical experts to study yellow fever and find a way to stop the disease. One team went to Cuba to test the idea that mosquitoes spread yellow fever. The team was led by Walter Reed, the Army doctor and scientist noted for his work on infectious diseases. In August of nineteen hundred, the researchers began to raise mosquitoes and infect them with the virus. Nine of the Americans let the infected insects bite them. Nothing happened. Then two more let the mosquitoes bite them. Both men developed yellow fever. VOICE TWO: Jesse LazearA doctor named Jesse William Lazear recognized that the mosquitoes that bit the last two men had been older than the others. Doctor Lazear proved that mosquitoes did carry yellow fever. Doctor Lazear himself was also bitten. No one is sure how it happened. He said it happened accidentally as he treated others. But some people said he placed the mosquito on his arm as part of the experiment. Medical historians say he may have reported the bite as an accident so his family would not be denied money from his life insurance policy. VOICE ONE: Jesse Lazear died of yellow fever. His death shocked the others on the team in Cuba. But they continued their work. More people let themselves be bitten by mosquitoes. Others were injected with blood from victims of yellow fever. Some people in this test group developed the disease, but all recovered to full health. Members of the team praised the work by Jesse Lazear. They called it a sacrifice to research that led the way to one of the greatest medical discoveries of the century. VOICE TWO: The research answered the question of how yellow fever was spread. Now the question was how to protect people. The researchers had a theory. They thought that people who were bitten by infected mosquitoes, but recovered, were protected in the future. To test this idea, the team in Cuba offered one hundred dollars to anyone who would agree to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Nineteen people agreed. The only American was Clara Maass. She was a nurse who worked with yellow fever patients in Cuba. Clara Maass was bitten by infected mosquitoes seven times between March and August of nineteen-oh-one. Only one of the nineteen people developed the disease -- until that August. Then seven people got yellow fever. Clara Maass died six days after she was bitten for the seventh time. VOICE ONE: The experiment showed that the bite of an infected mosquito was not a safe way to protect people from yellow fever. Medical historians say the death of Clara Maass also created a public protest over the use of humans in yellow fever research. Such experiments ended. Cuba and the United States both honored Clara Maass on postage stamps. And today a hospital in her home state of New Jersey is known as Clara Maass Medical Center. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Joseph GoldbergerJoseph Goldberger was a doctor for the United States Public Health Service. In nineteen twelve, he began to study a skin disease that was killing thousands of people in the South. The disease was pellagra. Doctor Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people suffered from pellagra. He studied the victims and their families. Most of the people were poor. The doctor came to believe that the disease was not infectious, but instead related to diet. He received permission from the state governor to test this idea at a prison. Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual foods, mostly corn products. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk. Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not. VOICE ONE: But some medical researchers refused to accept that a poor diet caused pellagra. For the South, pellagra was more than simply a medical problem. There were other issues involved, including Southern pride. So Doctor Goldberger had himself injected with blood from a person with pellagra. He also took liquid from the nose and throat of a pellagra patient and put them into his own nose and throat. He even swallowed pills that contained skin from pellagra patients. An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger's wife. None of them got sick. Later, the doctor discovered that a small amount of dried brewer's yeast each day could prevent pellagra. Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in nineteen twenty-nine. He was fifty-five years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the exact cause of pellagra: a lack of the B vitamin known as niacin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Matthew Lukwiya was the medical administrator of Saint Mary’s Hospital in the Gulu District of northern Uganda. In two thousand, the hospital was the center of treatment for an outbreak of Ebola. The virus causes severe bleeding. No cure is known. Doctors can only hope that victims are strong enough to survive. Doctor Lukwiya acted quickly to control the spread of infection. He kept the people with Ebola separate from the other patients. He ordered hospital workers to wear protective clothing and follow other safety measures. One day he had to deal with a patient who was dying of Ebola. The man had been acting out of control. The doctor knew him well. The patient was a nurse who worked at the hospital. The man was coughing and bleeding. Doctor Lukwiya violated one of his own rules. He wore no protection over his eyes. Matthew Lukwiya died from the virus in December of two thousand. He was forty-two years old. Ugandans mourned his death. He was an important influence in the community. Experts say his work during the outbreak helped stop the Ebola virus from spreading out of control. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-eighth, two thousand three, the Vietnam-France Hospital in Hanoi asked Carlo Urbani for help. The Italian doctor was an expert on communicable diseases. He was based in Vietnam for the World Health Organization. The hospital asked Doctor Urbani to help identify an unusual infection. He recognized it as a new threat. He made sure other hospitals increased their infection-control measures. On March eleventh, Doctor Urbani developed signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Four days later, the World Health Organization declared it a worldwide health threat. Carlo Urbani was the first doctor to warn the world of the disease that became known as SARS. He died of it on March twenty-ninth, two thousand three. He was forty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our final medical hero is molecular biologist Anita Roberts. She was widely recognized by other researchers for her work with a protein called transforming growth factor-beta. TGF-beta can both heal wounds and make healthy cells cancerous. In nineteen seventy-six, Anita Roberts joined the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. She worked for many years with another researcher, Michael Sporn. They found that TGF-beta helps to heal wounds and is important in the body’s defense system against disease. At the same time, though, the two scientists found that the protein can also support the growth of cancer in some cells. VOICE ONE: Between nineteen eighty-three and two thousand two, Anita Roberts published more than three hundred forty research papers. Many other scientists gave credit to her published work. In fact, the publication Science Watch listed her as the forty-ninth most-cited researcher in the world during that twenty-year period. She was the third most-cited female scientist. But in two thousand four, after years of studying cancer, Anita Roberts learned that she herself had the disease. She died of gastric cancer in May of two thousand six. She was sixty-four years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Internet users can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Pirates May Be Popular in Movies, But Piracy Remains a Threat
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Adults and children alike enjoy stories and movies about pirates-- criminals who steal money or goods from people on ships. One of the most popular has been the movie series, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”? The movies star Johnny Depp as a pirate called Captain Jack Sparrow. But history experts say that Captain Jack and other pirates in movies and books are nothing like pirates in real life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Attacks by pirates are a serious concern in the waters off the coasts of Africa, South America, Indonesia and in the Caribbean. In two thousand three, four hundred forty-five pirate attacks were reported around the world. Sixteen people were killed. Efforts to fight piracy in the Malacca Straits included this joint naval exercise by?Indonesia and Singapore in August in JakartaIn the first three months of two thousand six, sixty-one successful or attempted pirate attacks were reported. Fifty-six such attacks were reported in the same time period the year before. Still, many pirate attacks go unreported each year. In two thousand five, thirty-five pirate attacks were reported in Somalia. The International Maritime Bureau says the pirates target both passenger and cargo ships. In March of two thousand six, Somali pirates seized twenty Filipino seamen on an oil ship at a southern Somali port. The pirates demanded money from the ship owners for their release. The men were released in July following negotiations for their freedom. VOICE TWO: Reports say modern pirates use high-speed motor boats. Most pirates force their way on to the ships, take what they want and are gone within minutes. Sometimes they kill or injure crew members. Modern day pirates are difficult to catch. They return to small rivers or ports where there is little or no law enforcement. In some areas, pirates pay local officials to hide them from the law. And many times it is difficult to take any legal action against pirates because their attacks may take place outside any country’s territorial waters. Pirates are still a major concern for most countries. International efforts continue to catch them and bring them to justice. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say pirates have existed throughout history. Pirates robbed ancient Greek and Roman ships. People of one country sometimes used ships to raid the ships of another country. Often, pirate ships landed on foreign shores and their crews attacked whole towns. They captured citizens and robbed them. The Vikings of Norway, Denmark and Sweden made these kinds of attacks on ships and towns in Europe. In the sixteen and seventeen hundreds, many pirates from Britain attacked the rich ships of France and Spain. People may think these pirates are like those in popular books and movies. Like Long John Silver from “Treasure Island” or Captain Hook from “Peter Pan.”? Or Captain Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean.”? But history experts who have studied pirates say this is mostly false. VOICE TWO: One expert is Marcus Rediker, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He has studied pirate life for more than thirty years. Professor Rediker says many pirates were former sailors. They rebelled against cruel ship captains and the poor pay and food provided by their governments. The pirates created a democratic society for themselves. They elected their own captains, developed rules about how to live together and voted on punishments for those who violated the rules. Another modern pirate expert is David Cordingly. He wrote a book called “Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among The Pirates.”?? The book provides information about real pirates like Calico Jack and Black Bart. It tells about female pirates too, like Anne Bonney and Mary Read. We will tell about three of the most famous pirates -- Henry Morgan, Henry Avery and Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The government of Spain considered Henry Morgan a pirate. The British considered him a hero?? Britain, France, The Netherlands and Spain fought many wars for control of land, trading rights and the riches from new territories. Tensions existed among them even after they signed peace treaties. Spain’s colonies in the western part of the world provided huge amounts of gold, silver and jewels. These riches were transported to Spain in ships. In the middle sixteen hundreds, Henry Morgan attacked Spanish cities and ships several times. He shared with the British government the gold, silver and other goods he took from Spanish ships. Henry Morgan led one of the most famous attacks in history. He captured and burned the city of Panama in sixteen seventy-one. At the time, it was the richest city in all of Spain’s colonies. The British government was very pleased with his work. Spain’s Ambassador to Britain protested the attack. The British government said Morgan would be tried for his crimes. But he never was. He became the assistant governor of Jamaica before he retired. VOICE TWO: But most pirates were not very successful. They lived as pirates for only two or three years. The history experts say that men who became pirates did not expect to live much longer than that. They knew the chances were great that they would be killed, or captured, tried and executed for their crimes. One man, however, may have been the most successful pirate in history. His name was Henry Avery. He was also known as Long Ben Avery. In sixteen ninety-five, Avery and his crew attacked a ship named the Gunsway. It belonged to a great ruler of India. The Gunsway carried millions of dollars in gold, silver and jewels. Avery and his crew took the treasure. They sailed to the West Indies, then left their ship. Some of the crew went to America. Others sailed on different ships. Avery disappeared with a captain’s share of the treasure. He was never caught. Nor was he ever heard from again. VOICE ONE: Edward Teach also became a famous pirate. He was called Blackbeard because he grew long black hair on his face. It is thought he was born in Bristol, England. He went to sea as a young man and became a pirate around seventeen fifteen. Blackbeard was a successful pirate for about two years. Then a British Royal Navy ship caught up with him? near what is now the American state of North Carolina in seventeen eighteen. Blackbeard and his pirates fought the British. Blackbeard was killed. Members of his crew were captured and tried for their crimes. Many were executed. VOICE TWO: But that is not the end of the story about Blackbeard. One of the ships Blackbeard commanded was a captured French ship he renamed “Queen Anne’s Revenge.” He lost the ship when it ran aground and sank in seventeen eighteen. Underwater research experts found the remains of a wooden ship at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of North Carolina in nineteen ninety-six. Many experts believe the sunken ship is Blackbeard’s “Queen Anne’s Revenge”. The researchers say the shipwreck offers a lot to study. They have found arms, ammunition, scientific devices, gold and personal property on the wreckage. And they continue to investigate the ship. They believe the ship is Blackbeard’s because they have no evidence of any other kind of ship sinking in that area in the eighteenth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Old stories say Blackbeard may have buried some of his treasure along the coast of what are now the states of North and South Carolina. People have searched unsuccessfully for that treasure for many years. Most experts do not believe that Blackbeard buried gold and jewels in that area or anywhere else. They say pirates in books and movies may have followed maps to buried treasure. But real pirates did not hide their money. The experts say real pirates spent their gold and silver immediately because they did not expect to live long enough to use it later. People in the United States continue to be interested in pirates as they are shown in books and movies. There are yearly pirate celebrations in Key West, Florida and in Portland, Oregon. There are pirate museums in North Carolina. There is a pirate ride at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. There is a pirate hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. And there is even a yearly International Talk Like a Pirate Day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Accrediting Agencies Play Important Part in U.S. Higher Education
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. And this is the fifth week of our Foreign Student Series about higher education in the United States. Earlier, we talked about the first steps to take if you want to study in America. We also discussed the differences between a college and a university. And we looked at online education. We said last week that students should find out if a school that interests them is accredited. But just what does that mean?? Accreditation is a process. The goal for a college or university is to show that its programs meet accepted levels of quality. The United States Department of Education does not accredit schools. But the law requires the secretary of education to publish a list of private accrediting agencies recognized as dependable. Accrediting agencies are nonprofit organizations. They develop educational goals, then they examine schools to make sure those goals are met. The first step in the process is for a college or university to request accreditation. Then the school does a study of itself to measure its performance against the requirements. The accrediting agency sends a team of specialists who decide if the school meets the standards. The agency will observe an accredited college or university every few years. Schools must be accredited in order for students to receive government financial aid. Accreditation also makes it easier for students to move credits from one school to another. And going to an accredited school can help in getting a good job later. One accrediting agency is the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. It says the United States has more than four thousand accredited colleges and universities that award degrees. More than two thousand five hundred other accredited programs do not award degrees. The agency's Web site lists schools and programs that are accredited by recognized organizations in the United States. And it talks about when to a suspect that a program is not really accredited. The address is c-h-e-a dot o-r-g (chea.org). Again, c-h-e-a dot org. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can find the earlier reports in our series at voaspecialenglish dot com. Next week, learn about government rules for students who want to study in the United States. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Recognizing Medical Emergencies
* Byline: Fast Action Can Save Lives. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical emergencies are not always easy to recognize. Yet any delay in emergency treatment could mean the difference between life and death or permanent disability. The American College of Emergency Physicians is a professional group for doctors who work in hospital emergency departments. It says everyone should know the warning signs of a medical emergency. One is a sudden or severe pain that does not go away. This includes pain in the stomach, chest or head. A severe headache, worse than anything you have ever felt, could mean bleeding in the head from a broken artery. Severe stomach pain could be a sign of appendicitis. Severe chest or back pain could signal a heart attack. Another warning sign of a medical emergency is difficulty breathing. This could mean a heart condition. Or there could be a hole or blockage in a lung. Mental changes are also warning signs. A person who suddenly loses memory or thinking abilities could be suffering a stroke or serious infection. Sudden changes in speech or not being able to see clearly are two other reasons to seek emergency care. Other warning signs include losing consciousness or becoming dizzy and weak. Uncontrolled bleeding from any wound also calls for professional care. So does coughing or vomiting blood. The American College of Emergency Physicians notes that children can show different signs of medical problems than adults. A child might be too young to describe the problem. Yet symptoms that are not as serious for an adult may be more serious for a child. There is also advice about what to do if you ever need care at an emergency department. One suggestion is to bring a list of any medicines you take and any allergies you have. Are you allergic to any foods or insects?? Do you get a bad reaction to any medications or other products?? The doctors group offers medical history forms on its Web site, acep.org. Also, you should know your history of vaccines or the immunizations a child has had against diseases. And, the doctors say, remain calm. That can help increase communication with doctors and nurses at the hospital. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can find other health information and advice at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Walks Raise Money, and Hopes, in Fight Against Breast Cancer
* Byline: Also this week: Latin music star Shakira and a question from Iran about actor Marlon Brando. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about American actor Marlon Brando … Play some music from Shakira … And report about walking to defeat a deadly disease. Breast Cancer Walks October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the United States. However, Americans work throughout the year to help defeat this deadly disease. One popular way many people help raise money for breast cancer research is to take part in organized walks. Shirley Griffith explains. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Large groups of people gather in cities at different times of the year. Each person who walks represents money given by others to help defeat breast cancer. One of these walks is the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade. Officials say the organization has provided more than four hundred million dollars in fifty countries around the world. The money is used to improve treatment for breast cancer and find a cure. Avon Breast Cancer Walks are more than sixty-two kilometers and take place over two days. Breast cancer survivors take part in the walks. So do their families and friends, and family members of those who have died of the disease. Lynn Graham of New Castle, Colorado is one breast cancer survivor who took part in an Avon walk this year. The sixty-two year old grandmother joined more than two thousand others to walk in San Francisco, California, in July. Each of the walkers raised at least one thousand eight hundred dollars for breast cancer research and treatment. Miz Graham says she prepared by joining a health club and walking long distances three or four days a week. She called the walk the best emotional and spiritual experience ever. Another breast cancer walker who shares this feeling is thirty-four year old Kiley McMichael of Blacksburg, Virginia. She took part in the three-day ninety-six kilometer walk organized by the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Each person taking part raised at least two thousand two hundred dollars for breast cancer research and treatment. Miz McMichael walked in Boston, Massachusetts, in August with about two thousand others. She took part in the walk because of personal connections to survivors as well as women who died of breast cancer. Both women say the walk was difficult. But it was filled with joy because they were linking with others working for a common purpose. And they both plan to do another breast cancer walk next year. Marlon Brando HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Mansour Karami asks about American actor Marlon Brando. Many critics say Marlon Brando was the greatest actor of all time. Many actors say he was a great influence on them. Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen twenty-four. His mother acted in the local theater. She and her husband had an unhappy marriage, and Marlon and his father did not have a good relationship. Marlon Brando was an unhappy child. He was always getting into trouble in school and was expelled from one of them. He moved to New York City at the age of nineteen and studied acting. Soon, he was appearing in stage plays. His first major part came in nineteen forty-seven, when he acted the lead in Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.”? His fame grew when he acted the same part in the movie, released in nineteen fifty-one. Marlon Brando was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie, and for his next two movies as well. But he did not win the Oscar until nineteen fifty-four. He received the award for the movie “On The Waterfront.”? Many critics consider his work as failed boxer Terry Malloy his finest performance. Here, Malloy expresses his regrets about losing fights on purpose so his brother could win money betting on them. "You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am. Let’s face it.” Marlon Brando acted in about forty movies and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. He won his second Oscar for his work in the movie “The Godfather” in nineteen seventy-two. He played Vito Corleone, the powerful head of a criminal organization in New York. Brando was active in the civil rights movement and protested the way Native Americans were shown in movies. Marlon Brando died in two thousand four. He was eighty years old. Many famous actors expressed their sadness at his death. One of them said simply: “He was the best.” Shakira The United States is celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month. Each year, the nation honors the work and influence of Hispanic Americans. Shakira is a very popular singer who was born in Colombia. Her sexy and energetic songs have become hits all over the world. Mario Ritter tells us more. (MUSIC) That was “Ciega, Sordomuda” from Shakira’s nineteen ninety-eight Spanish language album. She sings about being deaf, blind and stupid with love for someone. Shakira was born in nineteen seventy-seven to a Columbian mother and Lebanese-American father. She made her first album when she was a teenager. Her strong voice and creative songs soon made her a big star. In two thousand one, Shakira decided to start singing in English. Here is “Wherever Whenever” from her two thousand one album called “Laundry Service.” This song became an international hit and the record sold millions of copies. (MUSIC) Shakira is known as a hard-working woman with great artistic control over her career. She has won many Grammys and Latin Grammys. In fact, this year she has five Latin Grammy nominations, more than any other nominee. Shakira writes, sings, and produces her own songs. She even creates ideas for her own music videos and helps direct and edit them. Shakira is also a skillful performer. She sings and dances around the stage. Imagine her singing and dancing to “Hips Don’t Lie” with the singer Wyclef Jean. This song is about making your body move to the music. So, start dancing! (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Congress Acts to Limit Internet Gambling by Americans
* Byline: Measure to block payment processing could hurt foreign companies serving U.S. gamblers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Congress has voted to ban most financial exchanges that involve gambling on the Internet by people in the United States. The measure threatens to cut the business of several foreign companies. Almost every American state has lottery games. Casinos, often operated by Native American tribes, are also common. And a number of states permit other forms of gambling, such as placing money on horse races. Some forms of electronic gambling based in established centers, like a casino, are legal under federal, state or local laws. But gambling for money on the Internet is in most cases illegal in the United States. ?The new legislation led to a big drop in the value of shares in PartyGaming and some other Internet gambling companies. PartyGaming of Britain is the largest online gambling company based on stock value. Almost eighty percent of the money it earns comes from the United States. Congress passed the act as part of an unrelated bill on port security. President Bush is expected to sign the bill soon. The Internet gambling act would ban the processing of electronic payments from the United States for online gambling purposes. It would affect credit card companies, banks and other businesses. Researchers at Christiansen Capital Advisors estimate that Internet gambling worldwide reached twelve thousand million dollars last year. They estimate that almost twenty-three million people gambled online, including about eight million in the United States. Internet gambling is a fast-growing industry. The American Gaming Association says the number of gambling Web sites is estimated at well over two thousand. These offer sports betting, casino games and other activities. Representative Jim Leach of Iowa proposed the new legislation. He says many American families have been affected by large losses from Internet gambling. He says it is also a national security concern because it can be used to finance criminal and terrorist activities. Some countries, however, see the act as a way to keep foreign companies out of the American gambling market. In two thousand three, the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda brought a dispute to the World Trade Organization. Antigua said American restrictions on Internet gambling went against W.T.O. rules on free trade. At first the W.T.O. took the side of Antigua, but the issue has not yet reached a final settlement. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Road to World War Two: 1930s See Major Changes in Europe, Asia
* Byline: Roosevelt Recognizes Threat From New Leaders, But Memories of First War Are Still Fresh in Americans' Minds. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION?-- a?program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about American foreign policy during the nineteen thirties. VOICE TWO: For much of its history, the United States was not involved in world disputes. Only in the twentieth century did it become a powerful and influential nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to see America as a great power. A few years later, President Woodrow Wilson wanted the United States to become more involved in the world. Many Americans disagreed. They wanted to stay out of international conflicts. The presidents after Wilson stayed informed about world events. But they were much less willing to involve the United States than Roosevelt or Wilson had been. The great economic depression that began in nineteen twenty-nine reduced Americans' interest in the world even more. VOICE ONE: Franklin Roosevelt became president in nineteen thirty-three. Franklin Roosevelt was not like most Americans. He knew the international situation well from his own experience. Like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he wanted to expand America's foreign policies. The terrible crisis of the depression, however, forced him to spend most of his time on national economic issues. He was able to deal with international issues only very slowly. One of his most important first efforts was to improve relations with Latin American nations. VOICE TWO: Thirty years earlier, President Theodore Roosevelt said the United States had the right to intervene in Latin America. In the years that followed, the United States sent troops to several Latin American countries. Many political leaders in the area accused the United States of treating them like children. Leaders throughout Latin America criticized the United States bitterly at a conference in nineteen twenty-eight. When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he promised to treat Latin American nations as friends. He called this his "good neighbor" policy. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's new policy had an unfriendly beginning. His administration refused to recognize a government in Cuba that opposed the United States. Instead, it helped bring to power a new government that showed more support for the United States. After that, however, President Roosevelt was able to prove that he wanted to improve relations with the countries of Latin America. For example, his administration speeded up plans to withdraw American troops from Haiti. It rejected old treaties that gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba. It recognized a revolutionary government in El Salvador. It recognized the right of Panama to help operate and protect the Panama Canal. And it helped establish the Export-Import Bank to increase trade throughout the Americas. VOICE TWO: All of these actions did much to improve the opinion of Latin American leaders about the United States. However, the most important test of Franklin Roosevelt's new policies was in Mexico. The Mexican government seized control of oil companies owned by investors in the United States. A number of influential Americans wanted the president to take strong action. He refused. He only agreed to urge the Mexican government to pay American investors for the value of the oil companies. VOICE ONE: As United States' relations with Latin America improved, its relations with Britain got worse. Britain blamed Franklin Roosevelt for the failure of an international economic conference in nineteen thirty-three. It also felt the United States Congress was unwilling to take a strong position against international aggression by other nations. Some British leaders had so little faith in Roosevelt that they proposed seeking cooperation with Japan instead of the United States. New leaders in Japan, however, soon ended this possibility. They presented Britain with such strong military demands that the British government gave up any idea of cooperation with Japan. VOICE TWO: One big question in American foreign policy in the nineteen thirties concerned the Soviet union. The United States had refused to recognize the government in Moscow after the Bolsheviks took control in nineteen seventeen. Yet Franklin Roosevelt saw the Soviet Union as a possible ally if growing tensions in Europe and Asia burst into war. For this reason, he held talks in Washington with a top Soviet official. In nineteen thirty-three, he officially recognized the Soviet government. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt hoped recognition would lead to better relations. But the United States and the Soviet union did not trust each other. They immediately began arguing about many issues. Within two years, the American ambassador to Moscow urged President Roosevelt to cut diplomatic relations with the Soviets. Roosevelt refused. Relations between the two countries became even worse. Yet Roosevelt believed it was better to continue relations in case of an emergency. That emergency -- World War Two -- was just a few years away. VOICE TWO: Economic issues played an important part in American foreign policy during the early nineteen thirties. In nineteen thirty three, a major international economic conference was held in London. France and Italy led a movement to link the value of every nation's money to the price of gold. American delegates to the conference rejected the idea. They argued that it would slow America's recovery from the great depression. As a result, the London conference failed. Although President Roosevelt opposed linking the value of the American dollar to the price of gold, he did not oppose international trade. During the nineteen thirties, his administration negotiated new trade agreements with more than twenty countries. VOICE ONE: The nineteen thirties saw major political changes in Asia and Europe. President Roosevelt watched these developments with great interest. In Japan, military leaders gained control of the government. Their goal was to make Japan Asia's leading power. In Italy, the government was headed by fascist Benito Mussolini. Another fascist, Francisco Franco, seized power in Spain. And, most important, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party increased their strength in Germany. Franklin Roosevelt understood much sooner than most Western leaders the threat that these new leaders represented. VOICE TWO: Most Americans shared Roosevelt's dislike for the new fascist movements. However, Americans felt another emotion much more strongly. It was their desire to stay out of war. World War One had ended just fifteen years earlier. It was still fresh in the minds of many Americans. A majority of the population opposed any policy that could involve the United States in another bloody conflict. VOICE ONE: A public opinion study was made in nineteen thirty-seven. The study showed that seventy-one percent of Americans believed it had been a mistake for the United States to fight in World War One. So, President Roosevelt was not surprised when Congress passed a law ordering the administration to remain neutral in any foreign conflict. Congress also refused an administration proposal that the United States join the World Court. Franklin Roosevelt shared the hope that the United States would stay out of foreign conflicts. However, Adolf Hitler and other fascists continued to grow more powerful. The situation forced Americans to begin to consider the need for military strength. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Heated Words: Lingo of the Men and Women Who Fight Wildfires
* Byline: 

 Welcome to this week's Wordmaster. I'm Adam Phillips. (SOUND) Fire in IdahoThat is the sound of a wild fire. Although late September and early October usually signal the end of forest fire season in North America, 2006 has been far worse than usual in terms of the number of fires reported, and the extent of the damage they have caused. In the western United States, where the most severe fires are, it is common to have anywhere from five hundred to a thousand firefighters and other personnel working on a blaze. Not surprisingly, firefighters have developed their own special ways of describing the fires they fight and the techniques they use. For example, says Dan Buckley, a fire specialist at the National Park Service in Boise, Idaho, firefighters often speak of the large, out-of-control blazes called GOBBLERS. DAN BUCKLEY:?"We call it a gobbler because it's gobbling up hectares. Another one would be 'the fire is blowing and going,' or the fire is 'misbehaving.' That means the fire behavior is so extreme that it is impossible to predict where it might go." Buckley says that firefighters will often speak of fire as if it had a personality, or feelings. DAN BUCKLEY: "Yeah. You find people who try to apply human or animal descriptions [to fire]. They call it the DRAGON, the BEAST. There are a lot of different terms that folks use." Wildfires certainly behave in strange and dangerous ways. Often, a low-grade fire is said to be SKUNKING AROUND, that is, burning low, keeping to weeds and other ground-level vegetation. But firefighters who drop their guard against such a fire can risk injury or death. According to Jeb Voskamp, a medical expert at the Rattlesnake River fire in central Idaho, SKUNKERS can become BURNOVERS in mere minutes. JEB VOSKAMP:?"Burnovers are when a fire overruns a crew or a location so you can have a burnover of a camp or a burnover of a structure or you can have a burnover of a crew. It means the fire moved onto them too fast for them to retreat. In that case, they take shelter in a safety zone or a fire shelter." That's when it's an excellent idea for fighters to pull out their portable SHAKE and BAKEs, quickly! Shake and Bake is actually the brand name of flour and seasoning-filled bag for coating meats before cooking. Dan Buckley explains what firefighters mean by the term: DAN BUCKLEY:?"Shake and bake is a nickname you might hear someone call a fire shelter, an aluminum pup tent that is used as a last resort by fire fighters if all their escape routes and safety zones away from the fire zone are compromised, they will use the fire shelters to give themselves a little bit of a chance to survive a burnover." Firefighters use many techniques to contain fires they cannot put out right away. One of these is called a BURNOUT, which can help prevent the spread of fires that could damage local logging operations or recreational areas. Merrill Saleen, the Incident Commander at Rattlesnake River, explains. MERRILL SALEEN: "A burnout is where we back off to a road or some kind of natural barrier from the fire edge to close the gap between the fire and the natural barrier that we want to use as the control line." (SOUND) A lot of fire suppression activity is done by flame retardants using aircraft like this giant Hercules C-130 transport plane. After stopping to load up on fuel in what aviators call the PITS, the aircrafts' loading bays are filled with the red powdery retardant chemical, called MUD, thanks to hardworking ground crews called MUD DOGS. Still, most firefighting is done by humans, on the ground, close enough to feel the heat. Dale Jablonski, a fire behavior specialist from Utah, says there are several names for the "fire behaviors" one typically encounters. DALE JABLONSKI: "A CROWN FIRE is where it's burning actively through the crowns. GROUP TORCHING is a clump of trees that will burn up like a candle. TORCHING is one tree. 'Group torching' is maybe two or three trees." Jablonski adds that there are several ways a fire crew can attack a fire, depending both on local conditions and overall strategy. One can HOTSPOT, that is, concentrate one's forces on the most intense portions of the fire itself. Or one can PUT UP A SCRATCH LINE - surround a fire with just enough water with a fire hose to check its advance. And there is SNAGGING. DALE JABLONSKI: "Snagging is a term we use where we are taking out dead trees that pose a threat to firefighters taking out a fire line. If you're STINGING the fire - you can't fully suppress it, but you want to KNOCK IT BACK [retard it], you'll go ahead and knock it with some water or some dirt and 'sting' it." Whatever the firefighters might call the fires they fight and the gear they fight them with, one words truly says it all: HOT! At the Rattlesnake River fire complex in south central Idaho, I'm Adam Phillips reporting. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: South Korea's Ban Seen as Sure to Become Next U.N. Secretary-General
* Byline: Official nominating vote set for Monday in Security Council. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon is expected to become secretary-general of the United Nations on January first. Mister Ban was the winner this week in unofficial voting by the Security Council. He was the only one who did not receive a vote of opposition from a member with veto power. Five countries can veto a council vote: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. These are the five permanent members. The council also has ten elected members. The ballots were secret. But the votes of permanent members were signaled for the first time by a different colored ballot paper. The council plans to take an official vote on Monday to nominate the next secretary-general. Then the nomination will go to the one hundred ninety-two members of the General Assembly. Traditionally, the General Assembly has approved the nomination of the Security Council. There were six candidates in the fourth and final unofficial vote. Shashi Tharoor finished second. The Indian writer is the U.N. undersecretary-general for public information. He congratulated Mister Ban and withdrew his candidacy. The second five-year term of Secretary-General Kofi Annan of Ghana ends on December thirty-first. Ban Ki-moon would be the eighth U.N. secretary-general. He would be the first from Asia since U Thant of Burma. U Thant led the United Nations from nineteen sixty-one to ninety seventy-one. John Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States was very pleased with the result of the vote. Mister Bolton noted that he and Mister Ban had worked together on the plan that led to U.N. membership for both North and South Korea. Both countries joined the United Nations in nineteen ninety-one. Ban Ki-moon was born in Chungju in nineteen forty-four. He joined South Korea’s foreign service in nineteen seventy after studying international relations at Seoul University. He says he wanted to be a diplomat ever since he was eighteen, when he met President John Kennedy at the White House. Mister Ban later earned a master's degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He became foreign minister of South Korea in January of two thousand four. Earlier he served as chief aide to the president of the U.N. General Assembly. Mister Ban has played a part in the six-nation talks about North Korea’s nuclear activity. He announced his candidacy for secretary-general in February. Ban Ki-moon is often described as soft-spoken. But he says he takes strength from recent Korean history and the progress Koreans have made since experiencing war. Major issues that will face the next U.N. chief include the nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea and the violence in Darfur, Sudan. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Out of a World of Darkness and Silence, Helen Keller Brought Hope to Millions
* Byline: Helen Keller proved people could overcome disabilities. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the South during the American Civil War. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child. Until she was a year-and-one-half old, Helen Keller was just like any other child. She was very active. She began walking and talking early. Then, nineteen months after she was born, Helen became very sick. It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf. The doctor could not do anything for her. Her bright, happy world now was filled with silence and darkness. VOICE TWO: From that time until she was almost seven years old, Helen could communicate only by making signs with her hands. But she learned how to be active in her silent, dark environment. The young child had strong desires. She knew what she wanted to do. No one could stop her from doing it. More and more, she wanted to communicate with others. Making simple signs with her hands was not enough. Something was ready to explode inside of her because she could not make people understand her. She screamed and struggled when her mother tried to control her. VOICE ONE: When Helen was six, her father learned about a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. The doctor had successfully treated people who were blind. Helen's parents took her on the train to Baltimore. But the doctor said he could do nothing to help Helen. He suggested the Kellers get a teacher for the blind who could teach Helen to communicate. A teacher arrived from the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston. Her name was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind. But she had regained her sight. At Perkins, she had learned the newest methods of teaching the blind. VOICE TWO: Anne Sullivan began by teaching Helen that everything had a name. The secret to the names was the letters that formed them. The job was long and difficult. Helen had to learn how to use her hands and fingers to speak for her. But she was not yet ready to learn. First, she had to be taught how to obey, and how to control her anger. Miss Sullivan was quick to understand this. She wrote to friends in Boston about her experiences teaching Helen. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: “The first night I arrived I gave Helen a doll. As she felt the doll with one hand I slowly formed the letters, d-o-l-l with my fingers in her other hand. Helen looked in wonder and surprise as she felt my hand. Then she formed the letters in my hand just as I had done in hers. She was quick to learn, but she was also quick in anger. For seven years, no one had taught her self-control. Instead of continuing to learn, she picked up the doll and threw it on the floor. She was this way in almost everything she did. Even at the table, while eating, she did exactly as she pleased. She even put her hands in our plates and ate our food. The second morning, I would not let her put her hand on my plate. The family became troubled and left the room. I closed the door and continued to eat. Helen was on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull the chair out from under me. This continued for half an hour or so. Then she got up from the floor and came to find out what I was doing. Suddenly she hit me. Every time she did this I hit her hand. After a few minutes of this, she went to her place at the table and began to eat with her fingers. I gave her a spoon to eat with. She threw it on the floor. I forced her to get out of her chair to pick the spoon up. At last, after two hours, she sat down and ate like other people. I had to teach her to obey. But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished. So I asked them to let me move with Helen into a small one-room house nearby. The first day Helen was away from her family she kicked and screamed most of the time. That night I could not make her get into bed. We struggled, but I held her down on the bed. Luckily, I was stronger than she. The next morning I expected more of the same, but to my surprise she was calm, even peaceful. Two weeks later, she had become a gentle child. She was ready to learn. My job now was pleasant. Helen learned quickly. Now I could lead and shape her intelligence. We spent all day together. I formed words in her hand, the names of everything we touched. But she had no idea what the words meant. As time passed, she learned how to sew clothes and make things. Every day we visited the farm animals and searched for eggs in the chicken houses. All the time, I was busy forming letters and words in her hand with my fingers. Then one day, about a month after I arrived, we were walking outside. Something important happened. We heard someone pumping water. I put Helen's hand under the cool water and formed the word w-a-t-e-r in her other hand. W-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r. I formed the word again and again in her hand. Helen looked straight up at the sky as if a lost memory or thought of some kind was coming back to her. Suddenly, the whole mystery of language seemed clear to her. I could see that the word w-a-t-e-r meant something wonderful and cool that flowed over her hand. The word became alive for her. It awakened her spirit, gave it light and hope. She ran toward the house. I ran after her. One by one she touched things and asked their name. I told her. She went on asking for names and more names.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From that time on Helen left the house each day, searching for things to learn. Each new name brought new thoughts. Everything she touched seemed alive. One day, Helen remembered a doll she had broken. She searched everywhere for the pieces. She tried to put the pieces together but could not. She understood what she had done and was not happy. Miss Sullivan taught Helen many things -- to read and write, and even to use a typewriter. But most important, she taught Helen how to think. VOICE TWO: For the next three years, Helen learned more and more new words. All day Miss Sullivan kept touching Helen's hand, spelling words that gave Helen a language. In time, Helen showed she could learn foreign languages. She learned Latin, Greek, French and German. Helen was able to learn many things, not just languages. She was never willing to leave a problem unfinished, even difficult problems in mathematics. One time, Miss Sullivan suggested leaving a problem to solve until the next day. But Helen wanted to keep trying. She said, "I think it will make my mind stronger to do it now.” VOICE ONE: Helen traveled a lot with her family or alone with Miss Sullivan. In eighteen eighty-eight, Helen, her mother and Miss Sullivan went to Boston, Massachusetts. They visited the Perkins Institution where Miss Sullivan had learned to teach. They stayed for most of the summer at the home of family friends near the Atlantic Ocean. In Helen's first experience with the ocean, she was caught by a wave and pulled under the water. Miss Sullivan rescued her. When Helen recovered, she demanded, "Who put salt in the water? " VOICE TWO: Three years after Helen started to communicate with her hands, she began to learn to speak as other people did. She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word. Only one who is deaf can understand the loving way I talked to my dolls, to the stones, to birds and animals. Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command. " Those first days when Helen Keller developed the ability to talk were wonderful. But they proved to be just the beginning of her many successes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the first part of the story of Helen Keller. It was written by Katherine Clarke. Your narrators were Sarah Long, Ray Freeman and Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Emergency Aid to Africa Grows; Wiser Spending Is Urged
* Byline: Aid agency CARE says not enough money goes to measures that could prevent crises. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. One of the world's largest aid groups is calling for changes in the way the world reacts to emergencies in Africa. CARE International says emergency aid is growing, yet more than one hundred twenty million Africans still face dangers like starvation. It says they are living permanently on the edge of emergency because international aid is not being spent wisely. CARE, in a new report, says three thousand million dollars was raised in two thousand three to fight emergencies in Africa. That was three times the amount collected in nineteen ninety-seven. But the group says financing is mostly for short-term food aid and often arrives too late. Geoffrey Dennis, chief of CARE International U.K., uses the example of Niger. He says early action would have cost one dollar a day per child to prevent malnutrition during a food crisis last year. But because aid arrived late, he says, the cost to save a child’s life is now about eighty dollars. CARE says more than eighty percent of proposals for measures other than food aid in Kenya this year were rejected. The report says Ethiopia reported itself to be in food crisis ninety-three percent of the time between nineteen eighty-six and two thousand four. Yet, the report says, American spending on long-term aid in Ethiopia is less than one percent of emergency aid. CARE is urging the international aid system to target more money at the root causes of emergencies. It says these include H.I.V./AIDS, lack of local markets, climate change and poverty. The group says long-term projects also need more support, like seed programs for farmers and better care for their animals. By spending money more intelligently, Mister Dennis says, all but the most unexpected food crises could be prevented. He tells VOA he just returned from northeastern Kenya, an area hit hard by dry conditions. He says he met a man named Joseph who a year ago had seventy cattle. All of the animals have died, he says, so now the man needs emergency food, water and shelter. Mister Dennis says this situation could have been prevented had aid money been used wisely. He says that a year ago, aid workers could have made sure the man had food and water for his animals. They could have helped him better market his animals. And they could have suggested that he get a mix of camels, goats and other animals, not just cattle. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I'm Steve Ember. ?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Service Groups Offer All Ages a Chance to Help Those in Need
* Byline: The work is intense, but volunteers find it rewarding. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:And I’m Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we look at some popular national service organizations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Josh Keller of Bethesda, Maryland, is a twenty-four-year-old musician. He studied music for many years. He graduated from the University of Maryland with honors. He is a fine horn player. Not only that, he knows how to lead an orchestra. But these days, Josh Keller is spending his time digging, cleaning up storm damage and helping repair houses. He is working in Port Arthur, Texas, which was struck by Hurricane Rita a year ago. Josh Keller is a member of a program called AmeriCorps-NCCC -- the National Civilian Community Corps. VOICE TWO: Americans are not required to perform national service, except in times of military drafts. But programs like AmeriCorps are finding plenty of interest these days. Some people say they became interested because of the September eleventh terrorist attacks five years ago. Others might be influenced not just by world events but also by their schooling. American schools are increasingly urging young people to get involved in service projects. In some schools, community service is required. Many of the people who join national service programs are college students. In some cases they can receive money to help pay for their studies. Many others are recent graduates who have delayed their entry into the job market. This is true even though there are more jobs for young people who just finished college than they were last year. Job offerings are up about fourteen percent among members of the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The group says starting pay for college graduates also has increased. VOICE ONE: Often the only thing that a person earns from a service organization is the satisfaction of helping others. But it can help young people gain skills for a chosen profession. For those who are not sure about a profession, the experience might help them decide what they want to do. Josh Keller is a good example. His service with AmeriCorps has led him to consider working for a nonprofit agency. But whatever he chooses, he says, he still wants to continue his interest in music. VOICE TWO: Josh Keller has plenty of experience working with other musicians. But he says he has learned now how to work more effectively in teams. He serves on a team of ten people with lots of energy. Besides cleaning up storm damage, he has helped build walking trails for visitors at a state park. He has supervised young people at a recreation center. And he has gotten to see parts of the country that he only knew from pictures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps is for men and women age eighteen to twenty-four. The program requires them to serve for ten months. They live at five training centers in California, Colorado, Maryland and South Carolina. They work in teams of up to twelve to complete service projects throughout the area where they are based. Each project lasts for six to eight weeks. The teams work with nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies, faith-based groups and other community organizations. The program is intensive. Only one in four candidates is accepted. Members learn to improve public lands and to deal with disasters like storms and floods. They also learn how to fight a forest fire and are taught medical aid. VOICE TWO: In return, they get almost five thousand dollars to pay back student loans or to complete their education. They also get help with living expenses. A place to sleep is provided. Sometimes the teams have to sleep outdoors in tents. Josh Keller and the others on his team slept in a tent this past summer in Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Later they stayed in an empty elementary school. The team was involved in the continuing cleanup from Hurricane Katrina, which struck in August of two thousand five. VOICE ONE: In some ways, AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps is similar to a program created in nineteen thirty-three. But that one was started as a result of the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps was established as part of the New Deal policies of President Franklin Roosevelt. That corps provided food and work for people who had no jobs. The workers built roads, planted trees, put up telephone lines and did other public work projects. Proposed federal budget cuts for two thousand seven recently threatened the future of the modern corps. Supporters of the program said a proposed reduction of twenty-two million dollars would have effectively ended its operations. VOICE TWO: Government officials said the program was too costly and did some work already done by other agencies. They also said the teams were not doing enough disaster-related work – one of the main purposes for AmeriCorps. Supporters, however, said this criticism at least in part was the result of luck in two thousand four. There was not much disaster work that year. Last year there was much more, with hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The conservation corps represented half the volunteer hours of national service programs after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. The corps arrived before the storm hit land. The new budget has not yet been approved, but the program no longer appears threatened by the proposed cuts. VOICE ONE: Another program within AmeriCorps is AmeriCorps-VISTA. VISTA is Volunteers in Service to America. This program is similar to the Peace Corps, but VISTA operates inside the United States. Members spend at least one year in full-time service dealing with the needs of poor communities. They work with local organizations and public agencies to help bring individuals and communities out of poverty. They work not only to improve education and health services, but also to create businesses and to increase the use of technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, more than four hundred thousand people have served with AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. This independent federal agency operates with public and private support. Young people are not the only ones involved in its programs. The corporation also operates a Senior Corps for older volunteers. One of the programs within the Senior Corp is called Foster Grandparents. This is for specially trained volunteers age sixty or older. They provide emotional support for mistreated children and try to help troubled teen-agers and young mothers. They also help children with poor reading skills. Members of the program who have medical training care for babies born early. They also work with children with disabilities. Some of the volunteers with limited finances receive free benefits like yearly health examinations. They may also get small payments tax-free. Senior Companions is another Senior Corps program. These companions assist older people who need help with everyday life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Since nineteen ninety, fourteen thousand people have taught in the Teach for America program for recent college graduates. Teach for America looks for top graduates in different subjects who are willing to provide two years of paid service in classrooms. Sometimes they are not paid very much. But over the years, these young teachers have worked with two million children in poor communities across the country. A student at Princeton University, Wendy Kopp, thought of the idea for the program. Teach for America receives public and private support. For example, the Amgen Foundation recently promised five million dollars for a five-year project. Amgen is a biotechnology company. The goal is to double the number of mathematics and science graduates who join Teach for America by two thousand ten. Their job will be to help improve math and science education in poorly performing schools. Nineteen thousand people offered to join Teach for America this year. About twenty percent of them studied math, science or engineering in college. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of this and other programs and download MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith, inviting you to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-08-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Hit:?If a Student's Grades Hit Bottom, It Is Time to Hit the Books
* Byline: Popular English expressions spoken in the United States. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, Words and Their Stories - a VOA Special English program about American expressions. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some expressions containing the word "hit." (MUSIC) Hit is a small word but it has a lot of power. Baseball players hit the ball. Missiles hit an airplane. A car hits a tree. Hit also joins with other words to create many colorful expressions. One is hit the road. It means to travel or to leave a place, as suggested in this song, "Hit the Road." (MUSIC) Another common expression is hit the spot. At first it meant hitting a spot at the center of a target with an arrow. Someone who did so was satisfied with his shooting. Now, hitting the spot usually means that a food or drink is especially satisfying. Many years ago, Pepsi Cola sold its drink with a song that began, "Pepsi Cola hits the spot, twelve full ounces, that's a lot…" Another expression involving hit is hit bottom. Something that has hit bottom can go no lower. If the price of shares of a stock hits bottom that might be the time to buy it. Its value can only go up. A student who tells you his grades have hit bottom is saying he has not done well in school. When a student's grades hit bottom it is time to hit the books. Hit the books is another way to saying it is time to study. A student might have to tell her friends she can not go with them to the movies because she has to hit the books. Not hitting the books could lead to an unpleasant situation for a student. The father or mother may hit the ceiling when they see the low grades. Someone who hits the ceiling, the top of the room, is violently angry. A wife may hit the ceiling because her husband forgot their wedding anniversary. To build something of wood, you usually need a hammer. That is what you use to hit nails into the pieces of wood to hold them together. When you hit the nail on the head, exactly on its top, it goes into the wood perfectly. And when someone says your words or actions hit the nail on the head, he means what you said or did was exactly right. If you are tired after hitting all those nails on the head, then it is time to hit the hay. That expression comes from the days when people slept on beds filled with dried grass or hay. Some people slept on hay in barns where they kept their farm animals. Hitting the hay simply means going to bed. That is a good idea. I think I will hit the hay now. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Frank Beardsley. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Growing an Agritourism Business
* Byline: Farmers find they are not the only ones who like farms. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Agricultural tourism is when people visit farms for entertainment, education or just to get away from the city. Agritourism is increasingly popular in the United States. It can add to farmers' profits or, in some cases, help them save their farms. Farmers can sell farm-fresh products directly to the public. They can offer horseback riding. They can take paying visitors around their farm and explain agricultural methods. Or they can offer historic tours; for example, if their land was a battlefield in the Civil War. Farmers can set up petting zoos for children to learn about farm animals. Or they can offer meeting places for people to gather in pleasant surroundings for special events. The Department of Agriculture says more American farmers should consider developing agritourism businesses. Many areas welcome it. For example, the town of Summerfield, North Carolina, is near a big city, Greensboro, but still has farms. Last week the Summerfield Town Council voted to add agricultural tourism to local development ordinances. Nearby areas already had rules to let farmers operate agritourism businesses. Summerfield town planner Robin Smith says offering services and entertainment on farms can aid both the farmers and the community. Agritourism can help keep open lands from being developed. And people who visit a farm will often travel into the town center and spend money there as well. Not too far from Baltimore, Maryland, is a place called Nixon’s Farm. The land covers about sixty-seven hectares. They grow clover, corn and soybeans there. But Nixon's Farm also holds business meetings, weddings, family reunions and other events. Randy Nixon manages the farm and the business. His parents began farming the land in nineteen fifty-two. His mother, Mildred, added the business for visitors in the nineteen seventies after his father died. Mildred Nixon no longer cooks for visiting groups, as she loved to do. But her recipes for foods like fried chicken are still very popular with guests. Randy Nixon says the business has become so successful, some events are already planned through two thousand nine. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can download transcripts and audio files of our reports at voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Finds Rise in Allergic Diseases in Children Worldwide
* Byline: Eczema and hay fever rates up the most. Transcript of radio broadcast.

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We begin our program this week with findings from an international study of allergies in children ... VOICE ONE: Then, walking sharks? Find out about more than fifty kinds of newly found sea creatures in an area of the western Pacific ... VOICE TWO: And we tell you about some ancient writing found in Mexico. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A study has found that the numbers of children with allergic diseases has increased worldwide, especially among younger children. An allergy is an unusually strong reaction to something by the body's defense system. Hay fever, for example, can result from breathing particles of dust or plants. The breathing disorder asthma and the skin disease eczema are both allergic diseases. Many different things in the environment can cause allergies. But allergic diseases may also involve genetic influences. VOICE TWO: Innes Asher of the University of Auckland in New Zealand led the study. Professor Asher’s team examined information from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. That study examined rates of asthma and other allergic diseases around the world. The first part of the study began in nineteen ninety-one. The researchers repeated the study in two thousand two and two thousand three. They examined information about almost two hundred thousand children ages six and seven. These children lived in thirty-seven countries. The researchers also looked at the records of more than three hundred thousand children ages thirteen and fourteen. These young people came from fifty-six countries including Brazil, Iran, South Africa and Sweden. VOICE ONE:?? The researchers found that allergic disease rates have risen in the past fifteen years. They said the rises were more often found among younger children. The greatest increase was for eczema in the younger group. Hay fever rates rose among all groups. Professor Asher says the average increase was about one-half of one percent a year. She says this may seem small, but it could have a major effect on public health services. And the researcher says the problem might be much worse in highly populated countries. The results of the study appeared in the medical publication The Lancet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Scientists have reported finding more than fifty new kinds of sea creatures in the western Pacific Ocean. The discoveries include two kinds of sharks that appear to walk. The sea creatures were identified during two trips to an area known as the Bird’s Head Seascape earlier this year. The Bird’s Head Seascape is on the northwestern end of Indonesia’s Papua province. VOICE ONE: The new kinds of shark are a major discovery for the scientists. The sharks grow to about one meter long. Unlike other sharks, they are able to walk with their fins. They do this in waters that are not deep. The scientists reported finding twenty-two kinds of fish new to science. They also said they found twenty new kinds of hard corals, and eight new kinds of shrimp. Among the fish that, until now, were unknown to science, is a flasher wrasse. The males of this fish species change in color from brown to bright yellow, blue and purple in an effort to influence females to mate with them. VOICE TWO: The scientists work for Conservation International, an environmental group based in Washington, D.C. Mark Erdmann led the team. Mister Erdman says the Bird’s Head Seascape may be the richest area on earth for ocean life. He says it has more kinds of sea creatures than Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Mister Erdmann is calling for more efforts to protect the waters near the Bird’s Head peninsula. He says fishermen who use explosives are threatening the area and its ocean life. He says only about eleven percent of the area is currently protected. Tree-cutting and increased human development could also harm the undersea wildlife. More than one thousand kinds of fish are native to the Bird’s Head Seascape. So are almost six hundred kinds of hard coral. The area also is home to whales, sea turtles, crocodiles, giant clams, manta rays, dugongs and other animals. Mark Erdmann says that without protection, they will not survive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The oldest writing ever found in the Americas has been discovered on an ancient stone tablet. That is what a research team from Mexico and the United States announced in a report last month in Science magazine. Road builders in the Mexican state of Veracruz found the stone by accident in the late nineteen nineties. Now, the researchers have found that the writing dates back almost three thousand years to the Olmec civilization. Writing was not thought to exist in the New World until about four hundred years later. VOICE TWO: Sixty-two signs are cut into the stone. ?The team says the signs are organized in a way that follows all the expectations of writing. But the researchers say the writing system does not look like anything that came later. So it might not have been developed further. Experts say early Egyptians and Chinese had more complex writing systems. But the discovery confirms the widespread influence of the oldest known civilization in the Americas. The Olmec lived along the Gulf of Mexico, in the area of Mexico and Central America that archeologists call Mesoamerica. The tablet was found at a place called Cascajal. The Olmec used pictures to tell stories, but earlier discoveries of a possible writing system were disputed. Several experts said the new report provides strong evidence that the Olmec did, in fact, have a writing system. VOICE ONE: Stephen Houston of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is a member of the team that examined the stone. The anthropology professor says it is not surprising that the Olmec had a writing system. What is surprising, he says, is that no such evidence had been found before. The Olmec people are best known for creating stone heads more than two meters tall. These huge heads were found in places thought to be religious centers. Scientists have found that Olmec society was highly developed and the people built the first large cities in what is now Mexico. The Olmec influenced other civilizations that followed. VOICE TWO: The stone tablet is thirty-six centimeters long and twenty-one wide. It is thirteen centimeters thick and weighs almost twelve kilograms. The green stone is made of the mineral serpentine. The side with the writing appears to have been used repeatedly as a writing surface. Twenty-nine different symbols are organized in lines on the tablet. Some of the symbols, or glyphs, appear as many as four times. The tablet includes images of everyday life, such as maize and possibly fish. The stone is weather-beaten and the writing is difficult to read after all these years. Yet the way signs are used together in some places even suggests examples of poetic expression. VOICE ONE: But there is one problem with the writing: no one understands what it means. Professor Houston says he believes the tablet may have been used in ceremonies. He says some of the writing might relate to rulers in Olmec society. One thing it does not appear to be is a financial statement, since none of the marks look like numbers. Maybe you can understand what the writing says. You can see a picture of the Cascajal tablet at voaspecialenglish.com. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Plant researchers have developed genetically engineered rice that they say can survive flooding for as long as two weeks. Rice plants are generally grown in standing water. But most will die if they are completely underwater for more than a few days. The scientists say they found a rice gene that could lead to more secure food supplies for populations that depend on rice. This gene, when made to become very active, improves the ability of rice plants to survive longer underwater. Teams from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and the University of California made the discovery. Their report appeared in Nature magazine. The scientists say the experimental rice is being tested in Laos, Bangladesh and India. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Jerilyn Watson and Brianna Blake who was also our producer. Internet users can download transcripts and audio files at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: How the Distant World of Eris Caused Big Changes Here on Earth
* Byline: Pluto is dropped from the list of planets.  Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. The International Astronomical Union has given a name to a solar system object discovered last year. How the distant, icy world called Eris shook up astronomy and struck Pluto from the list of planets is a story worth telling. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On August twenty-fourth, astronomers made a big change to our model of the solar system. They voted to change the number of planets at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. Astronomers debated several proposals, including expanding the definition of the word planet to include a total of twelve solar system objects. But in the end, they decided to limit the definition of planet only to very large bodies. They decided to call Pluto a “dwarf planet” -- not a real planet at all. Our new model of the solar system now has eight planets. A discovery made last year seems to have forced this change. The discovery was a very distant object beyond Pluto’s orbit. The new object was considered bigger than Pluto. It did not have an official name for more than a year after its discovery. Many astronomers believed the new object, now called Eris, was the last evidence needed to prove that Pluto was not a planet. They said since Pluto was not even the largest object beyond the orbit of Neptune, it could not possibly be considered a true planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Astronomy has always used names from ancient stories, or myths. The names of all the planets, except Earth, come from Roman mythology. For example, Mercury was the flying messenger to a whole family of gods. True to its name, Mercury orbits the sun faster than any other planet — in about eighty-seven days. Venus is the Roman goddess of love and is the brightest and most beautiful planet seen from Earth. Mars, the red planet, is named for the Roman god of war. Jupiter, the second brightest planet, is the king of the Roman gods. Saturn is named for Jupiter’s father. It takes almost thirty years to circle the sun — slowest among the bright planets. In seventeen eighty-one, a planet beyond the orbit of Saturn was discovered. It was given the name Uranus, the god of the sky and father to Saturn. And more than sixty-five years later, the last large planet to be discovered was named Neptune, god of the sea and brother to Jupiter. VOICE ONE: The word “nomenclature” describes a system of naming things in an area of science. Nomenclature in astronomy is especially careful to consider past traditions. This could be because study of the sky has taken place longer than written history. It could be that the apparent movement of bodies in the sky is linked to timekeeping. Whatever the reason, object names in astronomy have to stand the test of time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty, a young American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, discovered an object beyond the orbit of Neptune. The object was soon named Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld and death. The name seemed to fit. Pluto is so distant that one orbit around the sun takes two hundred and forty-eight years. At that distance, the sun is much less bright than it is on Earth. It seemed Pluto was a dark, distant world, like the god of the underworld himself. VOICE ONE: There was another reason why Pluto seemed to be a good name. The first letters of Pluto, P and L, are the first letters of the name of the man whose effort brought about Pluto’s discovery. His name was Percival Lowell. He started Lowell observatory in Arizona where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Lowell also did mathematical work suggesting the presence of a large planet beyond Neptune — Planet X. Lowell died in nineteen sixteen. He had expected his Planet X to be massive enough to affect the orbit of Neptune. Today, we know Pluto’s gravitational field is far too small to influence Neptune at all. VOICE TWO: Planets have special signs, or symbols. Except for Uranus, these symbols all come from ancient tradition. The sign for the new planet also honored Percival Lowell. It was the letter P on top of the letter L. But, Pluto’s symbol is no longer that of a planet after the meeting of the International Astronomical Union. Instead, Pluto got a number. Planets do not have numbers in astronomical nomenclature. But other small objects orbiting the sun do. The first such object was Ceres, which was discovered in eighteen hundred. At the time, astronomers did not know about small solar system objects. Ceres orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter and is about nine hundred fifty kilometers across. Ceres also has a number: one. Ceres was the first object of its kind to be discovered. But Pluto, which has only recently become a non-planet, is not so lucky. Pluto is about two thousand three hundred kilometers across — much bigger than Ceres. But it now has the hard-to-remember number of one-three-four-three-four-zero. VOICE ONE: The huge size of Pluto’s number is the result of new technology that has changed the way astronomers search the skies. Before computer technology, astronomers looking for new objects used a painfully slow process. They compared large photographs of exactly the same area of sky taken hours or days apart. Every star in these pictures is in exactly the same place on the photograph. But a solar system object like a planet, asteroid or comet would move and appear in a different place on the second photograph. In this search method, an astronomer is looking for one small point that is misplaced among many thousands. That is how Clyde Tombaugh found Pluto. Today there is a faster way. Computers search photographs taken by robotic telescopes for stars that have “moved.”? Now discoveries happen almost too fast. Fewer than eight thousand small solar system bodies had been found by the end of nineteen ninety-six. But in September, Pluto got its number after more than one hundred thirty thousand earlier discoveries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eris was discovered in the modern way. The team of Mike Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz used pictures taken by the Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. This telescope operates like a huge camera pointing at the sky. In fact, the picture that identified Eris was taken on October twenty-first, two thousand three. The team did not recognize Eris until early last year. But the astronomers did not think it was time to announce the discovery because more research was needed. News started to leak out however. On July twenty-ninth of last year they were forced to announce a new object. Their early measurements showed that it was more than three thousand kilometers across and took five hundred and sixty years to orbit the sun. VOICE ONE: The news was like fuel on a fire. Astronomers heatedly argued whether Pluto was a planet or not on television shows. Reports from the meeting of the International Astronomical Union in Prague described some of the arguments as almost violent. In the end, astronomers voted to define Pluto as something other than a planet. The new object was known as Xena until September thirteenth when it was officially given the name Eris. Astronomers Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz had suggested the name one week before. In mythology, Eris is the Greek name for the goddess of discord — or bad relations and trouble. Greek mythology tells us that she was not invited to the marriage of a king named Peleus and a sea goddess called Thetis. Eris was angry that she was not invited. She put in motion a series of events that caused the Trojan War. The Greek poet Homer tells the story of that war in the long poem, The Iliad. VOICE TWO: But Eris has not finished causing trouble. In September of last year, a team using a telescope at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii discovered that Eris has a moon. It has been given the name Dysnomia, the daughter of Eris in Greek mythology. And better measurements of Eris show that it is about two thousand four hundred kilometers across -- only a little larger than Pluto. In fact, Eris could even be smaller than Pluto. The team that discovered Eris says many more discoveries in the distant area beyond Neptune are likely in the near future. Who knows what changes we will have to make to our model of the solar system next time??? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-10-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Findings About Newer Schizophrenia Drugs Surprise Researchers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say newer drugs used to treat the brain disorder schizophrenia are no better than those that have been used for many years. Schizophrenia can cause people to hear and see things that are not real. It can cause people to believe others want to harm them. It can cause fearfulness, withdrawal and extreme nervousness. The results of the British study surprised the researchers. They re-examined their work for possible recording mistakes. The National Health Service in Britain paid for the study. The findings were published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The British health officials wanted to learn if drugs developed in the nineteen nineties to treat schizophrenia were worth their higher cost. The newer drugs can cost ten times as much as those developed in the nineteen fifties. The newer drugs are thought to reduce unwanted side effects. Older drugs have been criticized for sometimes causing uncontrollable muscle movements among other side effects. Peter Jones of the University of Cambridge in England led the study. It involved two hundred twenty-seven schizophrenia patients from eighteen to sixty-five years old. They were divided into two groups. Members of one group were treated with modern drugs. The others were given older drugs. The patients were not told which drugs they were given. Experts examined the patients before the testing began and three times during one year. The experts did not know which drug the patients were receiving. The experts rated the quality of life for each patient. The researchers said they expected patients taking the newer drugs to have scores five points higher than the others. But, they found that the group given the older drugs had higher quality of life scores, although the difference was very small. The researchers say more testing must be done. A company that makes one of the newer drugs questioned the findings. In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health recently announced a new study about giving antipsychotic drugs to people with schizophrenia. The study will compare the traditional method of daily pills with injections of long-lasting drugs every two weeks. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can download transcripts and archives of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Every Foreign Student Needs a Visa to Enter U.S.
* Byline: Students should contact a United States embassy to arrange a visit. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can attend a college or university in the United States. Our subject this week is government rules and requirements for entering the United States to study. Every foreign student who has been accepted to study in this country must have a legal document called a visa from the United States government. A visa permits a foreign citizen to travel to the United States and request permission to enter the country. The rules for getting a visa can be found on the State Department Web site. The address is unitedstatesvisas.gov. United States visas is all one word. Another State Department Web site for students from other countries is educationusa.gov. If you are requesting a visa for the first time, you may have to appear at the American Embassy in your country to talk to an official. Each student should communicate with the Embassy to find out if such an interview is needed and when it can take place. It is important to apply for the visa early. State Department officials say national security is the most important issue in deciding if a person will be permitted to enter the United States. Officials must find out if a student is on any list of people with possible links to terrorists. Embassies can not issue a visa more than ninety days before the start of the educational program in the United States. If you are a student studying in the United States for the first time, you will not be permitted to enter the country more than thirty days before the start of your classes. Foreign students accepted at an American school will receive a document called a Certificate of Eligibility. The State Department says each student must enter the country using the certificate provided by the school he or she will be attending. It is a violation of the law to enter the country on one school’s certificate but attend another school. You are permitted to stay in the United States on a student visa for the length of your period of study. That means you can stay as long as you are a full-time student. Your college or university will provide the government with reports about your education as long as you continue to study there. We will have more information about that next week. Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish.com. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 1930s: Britain Calls for ‘Peace in Our Time’
* Byline: Challenges to America’s Neutrality in the 1930s. Transcript of radio broadcast.

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a?program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Growing tensions in Europe and Asia created a serious conflict for Americans during the nineteen thirties. Most Americans opposed the Fascist or military leaders gaining control in Germany, Italy, Japan, and other countries. But they were not willing to take any firm action to stop this growing movement. Americans did not want to become involved in another terrible world war. And they called on President Franklin Roosevelt and their representatives in Congress to remain neutral in world affairs. But aggression by Germany and Japan finally would force Americans to choose between their love of democracy and their desire for peace. VOICE TWO: The first challenge to America's policy of neutrality came in October nineteen thirty-five. Troops from Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia. Roosevelt did not feel neutral at all. "Italy is dropping bombs on Ethiopia, and that is war," Roosevelt said to his advisers. He sharply criticized the Fascist Italian leader, Benito Mussolini. Roosevelt issued an order banning Americans from sending arms to either Italy or Ethiopia. And he called on Americans not to send to Italy oil and other materials not covered by the ban on arms. Roosevelt's efforts to stop the export of oil and other products did not succeed. But the efforts by the white house played an important part in leading the international League of Nations to take economic actions against Italy. VOICE ONE: Less than two years later, civil war broke out in Spain. Spanish Fascists led by General Francisco Franco tried to overthrow the democratic government in Madrid. Some Americans went to join the democratic army in Spain to fight Franco. But Roosevelt and the Congress agreed that America should remain officially neutral in the conflict. In this way, Roosevelt was meeting the wishes of the American people by avoiding war. But personally, he was deeply troubled by the events in Europe. In a letter to his ambassador in France, Roosevelt wrote, "One cannot help feeling that the whole European situation is blacker than at any time in your lifetime or mine." VOICE TWO: Another challenge to American neutrality came in Asia. Japan launched a new invasion of China in July, nineteen thirty-seven. Within one month, Japanese forces gained control of Peking [Beijing] and Tientsin. The United States had long supported the Nationalist forces of China. And many Americans were angry about the Japanese invasion. But Roosevelt and his administration once again refused to take strong actions against the aggression. For one thing, the American Navy was weak. There was little it could do to stop Japanese aggression thousands of miles away in Asia. And neither Roosevelt nor the Congress wanted to be first to break America's official policy of neutrality. VOICE ONE: Franklin Roosevelt made clear in private talks with friends that he understood the serious threat to world peace created by Hitler and other Fascists. He believed that the United States could not remain neutral forever if democracy was threatened in so many countries. However, Roosevelt did little to educate the nation about this threat. Instead, he generally followed the wishes of the majority of people who wanted America to remain neutral. VOICE TWO: Public opinion in the United States was strongly against any kind of involvement in foreign conflicts. In nineteen thirty-seven, Roosevelt made an important speech calling for the world's neutral nations to protect themselves from lawless Fascist nations. But many Americans feared that Roosevelt was trying to create a new alliance. And they opposed his efforts. A public opinion study at the time showed that less than one in three Americans was willing to change the nation's strong neutrality laws to give Roosevelt more freedom of action. In the same year, Japanese planes sank an American gunboat in the Yangtze River in China. But few Americans showed any interest in going to war over the incident. Instead, they accepted Japanese apologies. Americans simply had no desire to fight. VOICE ONE: Most Americans honestly believed that the best hope for their country was neutrality. One of the most influential supporters of neutrality was Senator Gerald P. Nye of the state of North Dakota. "There can be no objection to any action our government may take which tries to bring peace to the world," Nye wrote in the New York Times newspaper in nineteen thirty-seven. "But," he wrote, "that action must not tie our population to another world death march. I very much fear that we are once again being made to feel that America must police a world that chooses to follow insane leaders. VOICE TWO: Hitler's Nazi forces moved into the Rhineland in nineteen thirty-six. Two years later, they invaded Austria. And then, in the following months, Hitler began making demands on the government of Czechoslovakia. Britain's prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, was afraid that Hitler might start a general European war if he was blocked from gaining control of Czechoslovakia. In September, nineteen thirty-eight, Chamberlain traveled to Munich to discuss the situation with the German leader. The result was that Britain agreed to a German takeover of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain returned to London promising "peace in our time." VOICE ONE: The first reaction of most Americans to Chamberlain's Munich agreement was one of relief. But then public opinion changed. Americans saw that Hitler's Germany now had control of central Europe. Japan was becoming more powerful in Asia. Chamberlain's weakness only served to show dictators that they could gain land and power through aggression and fear. Roosevelt warned Americans in late nineteen thirty-eight about this Fascist threat. "There can be no peace," he said, "if another nation makes the threat of war its national policy." VOICE TWO: Roosevelt and much of the American public continued to hope that the United States could stay out of foreign conflicts. But increasingly, they understood that war might come. And they began to prepare for possible hostilities. Following the Munich agreement, Roosevelt requested a large increase in the defense budget. He asked Britain and France to buy arms from American manufacturers to give those companies more experience in producing weapons. And he helped bring about an agreement among nations of north and south America to join together to oppose Fascist threats to peace and security. Finally, Roosevelt tried to get Congress to change the neutrality laws. He wanted more freedom as president to resist Fascist aggression and help Britain, France, China, and other friendly nations. VOICE ONE: Congress, however, continued to resist such changes. But events in early nineteen-thirty-nine showed that war was on the way. Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and then Lithuania. Franco's forces took control in Spain. Italy invaded Albania. And then Hitler began making demands on Poland. In August, Germany and the Soviet Union announced to the world that they had signed a joint defense agreement. A week later, Germany attacked Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. VOICE TWO: Germany's invasion of Poland, and the beginning of the war, presented a giant challenge to the United States. On the one hand, almost all Americans supported the European democracies opposing the aggression by Hitler, Mussolini, and other Fascists. But on the other hand, Americans had no desire to fight in what might be a long and bloody war. The following months would force Americans of all political beliefs to consider this problem. It would be a final period of peace for the United States before events once again drew it into a terrible world conflict. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'For Dummies’ Books Are Popular Learning Aids
* Byline: The book series offers easy to understand information. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the beginning of Special English broadcasting … Play some music from Josh Radin … And report about a series of books for "Dummies." Dummies Books HOST: <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:88804| height=126 alt='A book in the "For Dummies" series.' hspace=2 src="/specialenglish/images/for_dummies_2_12oct06_se.jpg" width=100 align=left vspace=2 border=0>Do you know about a series of books that say they are “for dummies”? These American self-help books have been translated into more than thirty-nine languages. They include Chinese, Arabic, Russian, French, German, Greek and Spanish. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: “Dummy” is a slang word for a stupid person. The Dummies books are not really for stupid people. They are designed to show people how to do something they may never have tried before. Things like painting a house or learning a language. The books all say in a funny way that they are for dummies. They include “World History for Dummies”, “Rabbits For Dummies”, “Chinese Cooking For Dummies”, and “Wedding Planning For Dummies”. The first such book was published in nineteen ninety-one. It was called “DOS For Dummies.” It helped people learn how to use the DOS operating system for computers. Since then, more than one hundred fifty million Dummies books have been sold. The Dummies dot com Web site explains the idea behind the books. It says they demonstrate that people can be taught to do anything. It also describes how the books present their information. First they make fun of ideas that are difficult to understand. Then they show how the information can be interesting and easy. The publishers say the books do not provide more information than necessary. They give readers just enough information to do what they want. They say the Dummies books give the best and easiest way to do something. And the books use simple language that is easy to understand. There are more than one thousand different Dummies books. A report in the New York Times newspaper says the top-selling Dummies books are those that explain technology and personal finance. Other top-selling books deal with health, like “Diabetes for Dummies.”?? It was written by a doctor in San Francisco, California. The publishers say the best-selling Dummies books are those that provide information many people need — like information about diseases, education and cooking. People interested in opera, car repair and wine can also find Dummies books to help them. And there are even more Dummies books to come. The publishers say they release about two hundred new Dummies books every year. Special English Anniversary HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Munna asks when the Voice of America started broadcasting programs in Special English. The first broadcast of VOA Special English was on October nineteenth, nineteen fifty-nine. VOA officials wanted a program to communicate with people learning English around the world. They wanted a way for people to get to know the language and, at the same time, learn about the United States and world events. In nineteen fifty-nine, the director of the Voice of America was Henry Loomis. In his job, he traveled around the world. He found that people of all ages wanted to learn English. He wondered if VOA could help. He asked his program manager, Barry Zorthian, to create a broadcast tool that would provide information to listeners who had a limited knowledge of English. Mister Zorthian gathered a small team of young people to develop a list of words to be used in the broadcasts. Forty-seven years ago, on October nineteenth, listeners heard the first Special English broadcast. Paul Parks read a ten-minute news program slowly and carefully. He read at a speed that is about one-third slower than other VOA English broadcasts. He read so that each word could be clearly understood by listeners on their shortwave radios. The sentences were short. And the words used were limited to the most common English words. Special English was an experiment. There was no model for such a broadcast in slow-speed English using simple words. Would anyone listen to such a program?? Would they like it?? Some American experts said the broadcasts would not be successful. But foreign listeners disagreed. They thought it was excellent. In later years, Special English added both short and long feature programs to its broadcasts. Special English soon became one of the most popular programs on VOA. It still is. Joshua Radin HOST: Joshua Radin is a musician with beginner’s luck. The first song he wrote was played on a major American television program. Less than two years after writing more songs, Columbia Records offered him a record deal. Mister Radin’s gentle voice and powerful love songs are becoming very popular. Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was “Winter.” Joshua Radin wrote the song for a live performance in New York City about two years ago. He was working as an artist and movie writer at the time. But when his friends heard the song, they knew it was special. One of Radin’s friends gave the song to a television producer. Soon, “Winter” was played on a television program and fans started asking for more of his music. So, Joshua Radin started making music full-time. Many of the songs on his album, “We Were Here,” are sad love songs. Radin sings about a relationship with a woman that ended. But there are also a few happy songs about falling in love. Here is “Someone Else’s Life”. Radin wrote this song after meeting his current girlfriend. (MUSIC) Joshua Radin’s songs all have a soft and quiet style. This gentle quality adds to their emotional effect. But Radin says there is another reason. When he first learned to play the guitar, he lived in a small apartment room. He had to play very quietly so that the music would not trouble the people living nearby. Now, Joshua Radin can play his music as loudly as he wants. His music is in a new movie and in several television shows. And he is performing around the United States this month. We leave you with “Sundrenched World”. This song tells about a painful and troubling love. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Erin Schiavone and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Edmund Phelps Wins Nobel Prize for Economics
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Edmund Phelps has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics. Mister Phelps is a professor of economics at Columbia University in New York City. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Mister Phelps for his work in macroeconomics. That is the study of large forces that affect economies at the national or international level. Mister Phelps correctly identified the relationship between unemployment and inflation. Since the nineteen thirties, policymakers in many nations dealt with unemployment in the same way. They would let inflation increase to create jobs. For example, they would make credit easier to get. As a result, people would buy more goods. Businesses would hire workers to meet growing demand, forcing prices up. For many years, policymakers accepted that reducing unemployment required higher inflation. Mister Phelps found that inflation did temporarily increase employment. But he discovered that, over the long term, inflation hurt job creation. His ideas were proved by economic conditions in America in the nineteen seventies. That period was known for “stagflation”: having high unemployment and high inflation at the same time. Edmund Phelps also found that if employers expect low inflation in the future, they are more likely to hire workers. Today, economic policy experts believe the best way to create jobs is to fight inflation. Mister Phelps also studied national savings over long periods of time. Common sense suggests that a very high savings rate is best. But, Mister Phelps showed that national savings rates can be too high. He argued that saving too much limited demand in the present, which could slow growth. The best savings rate is not so high that it limits demand in the present. And it is not so low that it limits growth and investment in the future. Still, he argued that governments should take action to raise national savings. Edmund Phelps did much of his research in macroeconomics during the late nineteen sixties and early seventies. His work continues to influence economists. And it has helped change policy at central banks, which now consider fighting inflation a main goal. Mister Phelps will receive about one million four hundred thousand dollars. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm ________. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A History of North Korea's Nuclear Development Efforts
* Byline: The United States plans to deal with the crisis diplomatically. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. North Korea this week announced it carried out its first-ever nuclear test. North Korean officials said they exploded a nuclear weapon under the ground. International testing equipment confirmed that ground movement in the northeastern part of the country suggested a nuclear explosion. Other nations are still working to confirm the reported test. For many observers, the North Korean announcement came as no surprise. They say the country’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon began many years earlier. Intelligence reports showed that North Korea had the materials needed to make such a weapon in the early nineteen nineties. In nineteen ninety-four, North Korea offered to suspend its nuclear program as part of an agreement with the United States. In exchange, North Korea was offered large amounts of fuel oil and help in building two nuclear reactors for electricity. Six years ago, North Korea asked the United States to pay for delays in the reactor project. It also threatened to withdraw from the nineteen ninety-four agreement. President Bush took office in two thousand one. His administration decided to re-examine relations with North Korea. The administration said it was not sure if the North would honor the agreement. Later, Mister Bush identified North Korea, Iran and Iraq as what he called the axis of evil. He also said the North was arming itself with missiles and weapons of great destruction, while starving its citizens. Four years ago, the United States said North Korea admitted to having a secret weapons program. It said the program violated the nineteen ninety-four agreement. The international group building the reactors said it was halting oil exports to North Korea. The country answered the announcement by re-opening its nuclear center in Yongbyon. Within a year, North Korea had expelled international nuclear inspectors, and withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty was created to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. To ease tensions, North Korea opened disarmament talks with the United States and four other nations three years ago. Last September, they released a joint statement. It said North Korea would end its nuclear arms program in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees. North Korea later said it would not return to the talks unless American financial restrictions are lifted. The restrictions are meant to punish the North for its reported involvement in illegal activities. North Korea says it needs nuclear weapons to prevent an attack by the United States. But America has repeatedly said it has no plans to attack the North. It has urged the country to act on its earlier offers to not build nuclear weapons. President Bush said Wednesday that the United States supports diplomacy to settle the nuclear issue. But he rejected calls to open direct talks with North Korea. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Helen Keller, 1880-1968: 'I Try to Make the Light in Others' Eyes My Sun'
* Byline: Second of two parts about the life story of the famed activist for the disabled. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America - a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week we tell about someone who was important in the history of the United States. This week we finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days. VOICE TWO: "One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. ‘What is it?’ I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. "I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time ... Nothing in all the world was like this.” VOICE? ONE: Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. VOICE TWO: "One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. "The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm. "I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. "Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me ... It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anne Sullivan with Helen KellerMiss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the Braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands. The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind. During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote: VOICE TWO: "My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. "I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. "To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages." VOICE ONE: All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings. To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older. She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words. She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm. She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth. Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch. When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music. She also liked to go to museums. She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material. What did Helen Keller think of herself?? What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing?? This is what she wrote as a young girl: VOICE TWO: "Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. "Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'There is joy in forgetting one's self.’ And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun ... The music in others' ears my symphony ... The smile on others' lips my happiness." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Helen Keller was tall and strong. When she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others. Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems. The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties. Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her. VOICE TWO: "It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful. "My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch." VOICE ONE: Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains. (MOVIE) VOICE TWO: You have just heard the last part of the story of Helen Keller. Our Special English program was written by Katherine Clarke and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Investment in Agriculture Urged on World Food Day
* Byline: Forty countries face food shortages worldwide: Transcript of radio broadcast.

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. October sixteenth is World Food Day. This day is also the anniversary of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The U.N. agency leads international efforts to defeat world hunger. It was created in nineteen forty-five. The F.A.O. says more than one hundred fifty countries are holding special events to observe World Food Day. At F.A.O. headquarters in Rome, for example, runners competed in a five kilometer race through the city's historical area. Events in other countries include discussions among experts, press conferences and musical programs. The message of this year's World Food Day is "investing in agriculture for food security."? The F.A.O. says foreign aid for agriculture has decreased during the past twenty years. During the early nineteen eighties, the agency reports nine thousand million dollars was provided each year. In the late nineteen nineties, foreign aid for agriculture had dropped to less than five thousand million dollars a year. Yet, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than eight hundred fifty million people around the world do not get enough food. The U.N. agency notes that most of the world's farmers grow small amounts of food. But, many face problems feeding themselves. The F.A.O. says agricultural aid could help small farmers make a profit from their crops. Farmers would also be able to feed their families throughout the year and reinvest in their farms. And, they could buy better seeds, equipment and chemical fertilizers to help their crops grow. Separately, the Nobel Peace Prize for two thousand six has been awarded to economist Muhammad Yunus and his Bangladesh microfinance organization, the Grameen Bank. The award recognizes their efforts to improve the lives of poor people. The Grameen Bank lends small amounts of money to poor people who are unable to get traditional loans, especially women. The money is used for simple projects that help women support themselves. Mister Yunus says he plans to give his share of the one million three hundred thousand dollar Nobel award to good causes. He says he wants to establish an eye hospital and start a project to produce low-cost food for the poor. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-15-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Crossing Borders, With Books by Four Authors in the United States
* Byline: Allende, Kincaid and Cisneros write about worlds of their homeland or ancestry: Transcript of radio broadcast.

 Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Shep O’Neal. Books about the immigrant experience act as a bridge between cultures. They carry readers across borders and help them experience the lives of people different from themselves. This week, our program looks at the lives of four writers in the United States who have strong ties to Latin America and the Caribbean. They are Isabel Allende, Francisco Goldman, Jamaica Kincaid and Sandra Cisneros. (MUSIC) Isabel AllendeIsabel Allende is one of the most popular immigrant writers from South America. She has written many books for adults and children. One of her most successful was her first book, “The House of Spirits.”? Mizz Allende based it on memories of her family and the political crises in Chile where she grew up. Isabel Allende was born in nineteen forty-two in Lima, Peru. Her father was a Chilean diplomat there. But her parents ended their marriage when she was three years old. After her school years, Isabel Allende got married and worked as a reporter for a magazine and for television. Then in nineteen seventy-three her uncle, the president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was murdered in a military overthrow. In nineteen seventy-five Isabel Allende and her family fled to Venezuela. She based “The House of Spirits” on a letter that she wrote to her grandmother who was dying. The book shows the world from the view of women who suffer but survive the problems they face. Some of Mizz Allende’s other books also deal with this issue. VOICE ONE: Isabel Allende has lived in a number of countries around the world. Her marriage ended in divorce. A year later, she married a man she had met while in the United States to talk about one of her books. That was in nineteen eighty-eight; they have lived in Northern California ever since. After a few years in the United States, Mizz Allende wrote a book called “The Infinite Plan."? The story is about an American man. It is set in the United States. "The Infinite Plan" was very different from her other books, which were mostly set in South America. At least one book critic noted with praise for Mizz Allende that not many immigrants write about natives of their new country. But she still writes in Spanish. Isabel Allende says she always considered herself a Latin American. But, as she told the New York Times, the terrorist attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one, changed her feelings about her identity. She describes these feelings in her two thousand three book, “My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey through Chile.”? Although she is now an American citizen, Mizz Allende says, "My heart isn't divided; it has merely grown larger."? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Francisco GoldmanAnother American writer with strong links to another country is Francisco Goldman. He was born in nineteen fifty-four. He grew up in Guatemala City and Massachusetts. His mother came from Guatemala to the United States by herself before the age of twenty. His father was from a family of Russian immigrants. Now Francisco Goldman divides his time between Mexico City and New York City. He is an English professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His first book, "The Long Night of White Chickens," was about a Guatemalan-American man. He travels to Central America to investigate the murder of a Guatemalan woman he knew as a child. The book received honors. Book critics praised the power with which Francisco Goldman dealt with both love and politics in "The Long Night of White Chickens."? VOICE ONE: His second book was “The Ordinary Seaman."? Fifteen Central American men are brought to the United States illegally to repair an old ship. But they are tricked by the owners. The ship cannot sail from its port in Brooklyn, New York. The men must search for food and a way out of their situation. Critics again praised Mister Goldman for his writing and storytelling. For his third book, he wrote a story based on the relationship between Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti and a Guatemalan woman. The book is called “The Divine Husband: A Novel.”? Francisco Goldman has also written for magazines like The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine. He says reporting and storytelling are not very different for Latin American writers. He has written both ways about the same issues. These include the war in Guatemala in the nineteen eighties. Mister Goldman says he writes to try to find the truth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jamaica KincaidJamaica Kincaid is another writer who sets most of her stories in another country. Her books are set on a Caribbean island nation similar to her native Antigua. Mizz Kincaid was born in nineteen forty-nine. Her parents named her Elaine Potter Richardson. She left Antigua when she was seventeen. She changed her name as an adult when she began writing in New York. Jamaica Kincaid took care of other people's children in New York and went to school. Later, she wrote for magazines. She wrote for The New Yorker for twenty years. Jamaica Kincaid published her first book, called “At the Bottom of the River,” in nineteen eighty-three. This collection of short stories is about a young girl growing up in the Caribbean. The book was praised for its musical writing style and intense emotion. Since then, Jamaica Kincaid's other books have had a similar strong style and subject matter. Most of her writing is based on her life and her difficult relationship with her mother. VOICE ONE: The relationship she presents has been compared to that between Britain and its former colony, Antigua. Jamaica Kincaid dealt with the issue directly in her book “A Small Place.”? She condemned Britain for its history of slave trade and colonialism, and the effects on her native land. Some book critics called “A Small Place” too angry. But Mizz Kincaid once said, “The first step in claiming yourself is anger.” VOICE TWO: Jamaica Kincaid lives in the state of Vermont with her American-born husband and two children. She wrote about the immigrant experience in her book “Lucy.”? Lucy, a Caribbean woman, tries to survive in a strange and difficult environment. She becomes very critical of American society. How does the writer herself feel about that society?? Jamaica Kincaid says America has "given me a place to be myself – but myself as I was formed somewhere else.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sandra CisnerosUnlike the other writers we have discussed, Sandra Cisneros was born in the United States. But she writes mainly about the immigrant experience. Sandra Cisneros is a daughter of Mexican-Americans. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-four. She studied at a writing program in another Midwestern state, Iowa. It was in that program, she says, that she recognized the importance of her ancestry and her experiences as a woman. She says this realization gave her writing its own voice. She has written books of poetry and fiction. Her first book was “The House on Mango Street.”? The book is about a young Mexican-American girl. She wants to leave the poor part of the city where she lives. Later, she accepts and welcomes her ethnic identity. The book was a huge success. It won many prizes. "The House on Mango Street" is widely read in schools. Other books by Sandra Cisneros have also been well-received. VOICE TWO: “Caramelo," published in two thousand three, tells the story of a big Mexican-American family that travels to Mexico City. The book includes the history of modern Mexico and how it is closely linked to United States history. "Caramelo" deals with cultural identity and women in society. It deals with lies and memories. And it deals with childhood and family. Sandra Cisneros says it is important that all people in the United States understand the lives of Mexican-Americans. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. You can download transcripts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. We hope you can listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Farmers Organize to Try to Control Potato Supply
* Byline: Americans are not eating as many potatoes today: Transcript of radio broadcast.

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Potatoes are a traditional part of American meals. But people are not eating as many potatoes as they did in the past. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that it expects potato use to decrease during the next fourteen years. Growers say one main reason is that more people are worrying about getting too fat. Several popular weight-reducing plans restrict carbohydrates. Potatoes are high in carbohydrates. American potato farmers also face competition from foreign growers. To deal with these problems, a non-profit organization is working to get farmers to limit potato production. The United Potato Growers of America was formed more than a year ago. Its members plant most of the potatoes in the nation. Limiting production breaks with tradition. Over the years, many American potato growers have done their best to grow large crops. The more potatoes they produced, the more they had to sell. But too many potatoes for sale can mean too little profit. So the potato growers organization wants to reduce the amount of potatoes reaching the market. The goal is to keep demand strong and continuous. Members promise to reduce their planting of potatoes. They also say they will not send potatoes to market when the supply becomes too large. The idea began about two years ago when potato growers from the state of Idaho formed the United Potato Growers of Idaho. The group expanded its membership to become the national organization. Idaho potato grower Albert Wada is board chairman of United Potato Growers of America. Mister Wada recently compared potato prices before and after formation of the organization. Between September, two thousand four and June, two thousand five, overproduction of potatoes brought prices down. But in the same period a year later, growers received an average price increase of four dollars for every forty-five kilograms of potatoes. But not all potato farmers want to join the organization and restrict their crops. And planting time next spring will bring a test. The organization will learn if members really will limit their planting of potatoes. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To read the next of this program and download audio, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Discoveries Behind This Year's Nobel Prizes for Science
* Byline: Prizes Will Be Presented in December. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week – we tell about the Nobel Prizes. We also tell about the winners of the two thousand six prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Nobel Prizes are presented each year on December tenth. The Peace Prize is given in Oslo, Norway. The others are given in Stockholm, Sweden. December tenth is the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel. He died in eighteen ninety-six. The Swedish engineer held legal rights to more than three hundred inventions. One is for the explosive dynamite. Alfred Nobel left nine million dollars to establish yearly prizes in his name. He said they should go to living people who have worked most effectively to improve human life. He said the physics and chemistry prizes should be given by the Swedish Academy of Sciences. He asked the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm to present the medical prizes. VOICE TWO: The first Nobel prizes were presented in nineteen-oh-one. Each award includes a gold medal and ten million Swedish kronor. Today, that is worth more than one million three hundred thousand dollars. The money is shared if more than one person wins a prize. However, a prize may not be divided among more than three persons. Scientific groups in Sweden choose the winners from among those nominated by past winners and specially chosen university professors. How the choices are made is a secret among the committee members. The names of those nominated are not made public for fifty years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Karolinska Institute this year chose two Americans to share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Craig Mello is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. Andrew Fire is a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California. The scientists did their prize-winning work in the nineteen nineties for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. At the time, the two men worked at laboratories in Baltimore, Maryland. They performed experiments with very small worms. They found they could control genes in the creatures with injections of specially designed ribonucleic acid, or RNA. VOICE TWO: All living cells need molecules of RNA and another chemical, called deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. DNA makes copies of itself for new cells. RNA makes other chemicals necessary for these cells. The RNA used in the experiments needed to possess two lists of genetic orders, or strands. The scientists found that this double-stranded RNA stopped the action of targeted genes within cells more effectively than other methods. This discovery of the way cells control individual genes is known as RNA interference, or RNAi. VOICE ONE: The discovery was made just eight years ago. That is considered very recent for a Nobel Prize. But scientists say the Nobel Committee probably recognized the work so quickly because it changed the science of genetics. They say Professors Fire and Mello opened up a whole new area of research. Later experiments showed that RNAi is present in cells of nearly all organisms. Scientists have begun working on ways to use it to get cells to control genes responsible for causing diseases. The discovery already is being used to develop possible treatments for diseases such as macular degeneration and hepatitis. (MUSIC) John Mather VOICE TWO: Two Americans are the winners of the two thousand six Nobel Prize for physics. John Mather and George Smoot won for producing what scientists say is the strongest evidence yet that the universe began with a great explosion. The two men are being honored for their work with the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite, or COBE. The American space agency launched the satellite into Earth’s orbit in nineteen eighty-nine. An instrument on COBE was designed to receive energy waves from the first big explosion, also known as the Big Bang. It measured the temperature of the energy waves. The measurements confirmed the main idea of the Big Bang theory -- that the explosion created a huge number of microwaves that have continued to expand and cool. VOICE ONE: John Mather is an unusual Nobel Prize winner because he works for the United States government. He is a top scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA. He was the main investigator in developing the COBE satellite. George Smoot works at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California. He led the team that studied the information provided by the satellite. Mister Mather explained their work by calling it an attempt to solve the mystery of the beginning of the universe. He said COBE found small amounts of the earliest moment of time. Scientists have used the findings to estimate the age of the universe as more than thirteen thousand million years old. The chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physics said the two Americans did not prove the Big Bang theory, but gave it very strong support. Per Carlson called their work one of the greatest discoveries of the century. He said it increases our knowledge of our place in the universe. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Still another American won the two thousand six Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Roger Kornberg is being honored for his work in genetic research. The Nobel Prize committee said he showed how information in the nucleus of genes is copied and moved to other parts of a cell. The committee said he was the first to show pictures of this process taking place. The process involves copying information from a cell’s DNA into what is called messenger RNA. The messenger RNA then moves the information from the nucleus to other areas of the cell where it builds proteins that control cell action. Scientists say this “transcription” is what keeps living things alive. Any interference causes cancer, heart disease or other disorders. VOICE ONE: Roger Kornberg told the New York Times newspaper that his work has influenced the development of drugs and treatments for medical conditions. He said understanding transcription is central to research into using stem cells to cure diseases like diabetes. Professor Kornberg works at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. Reports say he is the sixth Nobel Prize winner to have a father who also won a Nobel. Arthur Kornberg shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in nineteen fifty-nine, also for work in genetics. He and Severo Ochoa were honored for discovering how cells produce DNA. Roger Kornberg said he clearly remembers visiting Stockholm when he was twelve years old to see his father receive the Nobel Prize. And he expressed happiness that he can take his family there for the ceremonies this year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It must be noted that Americans won all the scientific Nobel Prizes this year. An Associated News report says Nobel officials were not surprised. The permanent secretary for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences reportedly said the United States is leading Europe in scientific research. Gunnar Oquist also said European governments are not providing scientists with the money they need to carry out good research. Other Nobel Prize committee members said money to pay for research is extremely important to producing good scientific work. Anders Liljas is a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. He reportedly said American universities often have more creative environments than those in other countries. He said American scientists talk to each other a lot instead of working separately. VOICE ONE: This is not the first time that Americans have won the Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics and chemistry all in the same year. In nineteen eighty-three, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar and William Fowler shared the physics prize for increasing the understanding of the universe. Henry Taube won the chemistry prize for work on electron transfer reactions. And, Barbara McClintock won the medicine prize for discoveries in genetics. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can download transcripts and audio files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Mystery of Dreams
* Byline: Everyone dreams. But only some people remember their dreams. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Do you dream? Do you create pictures and stories in your mind as you sleep? Today, we are going to explore dreaming. People have had ideas about the meaning and importance of dreams for hundreds of years. Today brain researchers are learning even more about dreams. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Dreams are expressions of thoughts, feelings and events that pass through our mind while we are sleeping. People dream about one to two hours each night. We may have four to seven dreams in one night. Everybody dreams. But only some people remember their dreams. The word “dream” comes from an old word in English that means “joy” and “music.” ?We dream in color. Our dreams often include all the senses – smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. Sometimes we dream the same dream over and over again. These repeated dreams are often unpleasant and may even be nightmares, or bad dreams that sometimes frighten? us. VOICE TWO: Artists, writers and scientists sometimes say they get ideas from dreams. For example, the singer Paul McCartney of the Beatles said he awakened one day with the music for the song “Yesterday” in his head. The writer Mary Shelley said she had a very strong dream about a scientist using a machine to make a creature come alive. When she awakened, she began to write her book about a scientist named Frankenstein who creates a frightening monster. VOICE ONE: People have been trying to decide what dreams mean for thousands of years. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed dreams provided messages from the gods. Sometimes people who could understand dreams would help military leaders in battle. In ancient Egypt, people who could explain dreams were believed to be special. In the Christian Bible, there are more than seven hundred comments or stories about dreams. ?Stories about the birth of the Muslim leader Mohammed include important events that were first learned in dreams – including the birth of Mohammed and his name. In China, people believed that dreams were a way to visit with family members who had died. Some Native American tribes and Mexican civilizations believe dreams are a different world we visit when we sleep. VOICE TWO: In Europe, people believed that dreams were evil and could lead people to do bad things. Two hundred years ago, people awakened after four or five hours of sleep to think about their dreams or talk about them with other people. Then they returned to sleep for another four to five hours. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Sigmund Freud Early in the twentieth century, two famous scientists developed different ideas about dreams. Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud published a book called “The Interpretation of Dreams” in nineteen hundred. Freud believed people often dream about things they want but cannot have, especially connected to sex and aggression. For Freud, dreams were full of hidden meaning. He tried to understand dreams as a way to understand people and why they acted or thought in certain ways. Freud believed that every thought and every action started deep in our brains. He thought dreams could be an important road to understanding what is happening in our brains. Freud told people what their dreams meant as a way of helping them solve problems or understand their worries. For example, Freud said when people dream of flying or swinging, they want to be free of their childhood. When a person dreams that a brother or sister or parent has died, the dreamer is really hiding feelings of hatred for that person. Or a desire to have what the other person has. VOICE TWO: Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung worked closely with Freud for several years. But he developed very different ideas about dreams. Jung believed dreams could help people grow and understand themselves. He believed dreams provide solutions to problems we face when we are awake. He also believed dreams tell us something about ourselves and our relations with other people. He did not believe dreams hide our feelings about sex or aggression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today we know more about the science of dreaming because researchers can take pictures of people’s brains while they are sleeping. In nineteen fifty-three, scientists discovered a special kind of sleep called REM, or rapid eye movement. Our eyes move back and forth very quickly while they are closed. Our bodies go through several periods of sleep each night. REM sleep is the fourth period. We enter REM sleep four to seven times each night. During REM sleep, our bodies do not move at all. This is the time when we dream. If people are awakened during their REM sleep, they will remember their dreams almost ninety percent of the time. This is true even for people who say they do not dream. VOICE TWO: One kind of dreaming is called lucid dreaming. People know during a dream that they are dreaming. An organization in Canada called the Dreams Foundation believes you can train yourself to have lucid dreams by paying very close attention to your dreams and writing them down. The Dreams Foundation believes this is one way to become more imaginative and creative. The foundation organizes groups of people who travel to wild, natural areas around the world. Here they can be quiet, ride small boats on a calm river or lake and learn how to have lucid dreams. These people believe their dreams can help them understand or even find solutions to personal or community problems. VOICE ONE: Scientists have done much serious research into dreams and how to use them in treating mental or emotional problems. The Association for the Study of?Dreams holds an international meeting every year. Scientists at one meeting talked about ways to help victims of crime who have very bad dreams called nightmares. Scientists have also studied dreams and creativity, dreams of people who are sick and dreams of children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists who study dreaming often attach wires to the head of a person who is sleeping. The wires record electrical activity in the brain. These studies show that the part of the brain in which we feel emotion is very active when we dream. The front part of the brain is much less active; this is the center of our higher level thinking processes like organization and memory. Some scientists believe this is why our dreams often seem strange and out of order. Researcher Rosalind Cartwright says dreams are like memories all placed on top of each other. They are connected by feelings rather than orderly thinking. Miz Cartwright works at the Sleep Disorder Service and Research Center at Rush Presbyterian Saint Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. She is studying the different ways people dream if they are feeling very sad or worried, especially if their marriage is ending. She and many other researchers have found that dreams have more anger, fear and worry than joy or happiness. VOICE ONE: Other researchers are studying how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions. Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Doctor Stickgold says that when we dream, the brain is trying to make sense of the world. It does so by putting our memories together in different ways to make new connections and relationships. Doctor Stickgold believes that dreaming is a biological process. He does not agree with Sigmund Freud that dreaming is the way we express our hidden feelings and desires. In Finland, Antti Revonsuo is another scientist who studies the brain. He believes people dream about threatening events or situations so they can practice how they might deal with such events or avoid them. Doctor Revonsuo says threatening events appear often in dreams of adults and children all around the world. VOICE TWO: All of these scientists believe it is important to keep researching dreams. Doctor Stickgold says it has been more than one hundred years since Sigmund Freud published his important book about dreaming. Yet scientists still do not agree on exactly how the brain works when we are dreaming or why we dream. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Concussions Are Serious Head Injuries for Children and Adults
* Byline: Concussions happen when the brain is shaken inside the skull. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Doctors say the head injury called a concussion is more serious for children and young adults than people might think. They say concussions also may take longer to heal among young people. A concussion is an injury that happens when the brain is shaken inside the skull. It can result from a hit to the head, a sudden stop in movement or violent shaking. Falling off a bicycle, getting hit while playing a sport, or being involved in a car accident are a few of the common causes of concussion. People who have concussions often have trouble thinking or remembering. Concussions can also make a person feel very tired or angry. Other signs of concussion are stomach and head pain, muscle weakness and a loss in sharpness of vision. The National Institutes of Health says there are about one million cases of concussions each year in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of them affect children or young adults involved in sports. Some concussions are more severe than others. But doctors say all of them should be taken seriously. Doctors say children are not necessarily dependable when reporting about their physical condition after a sports injury. Many want to get back in the game, on the bike, or to the playground too soon after a head injury. The National Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, has a program to help high school sports officials deal with the problem. The CDC provides a video about a high school football player who was permanently disabled by a second concussion. The CDC also provides a guide for recognizing signs of concussion and measures to help prevent them. Michael Collins is a brain researcher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. The center is a major researcher on the effects and treatments of concussion. He was one of several researchers who helped develop a computer software program that tests for concussion and its level of severity. Mister Collins says concussion research in the last five years has provided a huge amount of new information. He says young athletes can fully recover from concussion and continue sports activities. But he says they must be sure to give the brain time to heal before the head takes another hit. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can find our reports online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Get Your Act Together: Organization Is the Name of the Game
* Byline: Some expressions that might be heard at business meetings. Transcript of radio broadcast.

 I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States. The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago. "I studied English before I left home, " she said. "But I still was not sure that people were speaking English." Her problem is easy to understand. Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere. They have a language of their own. Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work. Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry. One such saying is "get your act together." When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry. He may shout, "Stop making mistakes. Get your act together." Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, "Let us get our act together." Either way, the meaning is the same. Getting your act together is getting organized. In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action. It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began. But, it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry. Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes. The director may have said, "Calm down, now. Get your act together." Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late nineteen seventies. Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in nineteen seventy-eight. The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government "get its act together." Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet. One company even called its yearly report, "Getting Our Act Together." The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people. It is "cut to the chase." She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company. One official was giving a very long report. It was not very interesting. In fact, some people at the meeting were falling asleep. Finally, the president of the company said, "Cut to the chase." Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material. Hurry and get to the good part. Naturally, this saying was started by people who make movies. Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies. Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars, or in airplanes or on foot. Cut is the director's word for stop. The director means to stop filming, leave out some material, and get to the chase scene now. So, if your employer tells you to cut to the chase, be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly. (MUSIC) This Words and Their Stories program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Foreign Students Need to Know About the SEVIS System
* Byline: U.S. colleges use it to let the federal government know whether visiting students are attending classes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week, we discussed rules for getting permission to enter the United States to study at a college or university. Now, in part seven of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss a computer system that holds information about international students and exchange visitors to the United States. It is called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS. It went into effect in January of two thousand three. All schools in the United States must enter information about each foreign student they admit. SEVIS brings together more than ten thousand American schools and exchange visitor programs. It links them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the largest investigation agency in the Department of Homeland Security. The government uses the system to let a school know when one of the school’s students has entered the country. The school then must report within thirty days whether the student is attending classes. The school must also report if the student leaves school. In two thousand five, law enforcement officials investigated more than eighty-five thousand possible violators. Almost six hundred of them were later arrested for violating the student and exchange visitor rules. Violations include not attending classes, being expelled or suspended from school, or failing to continue as a full-time student. The Department of Homeland Security says SEVIS now lists about seven hundred seventy thousand students and exchange visitors in the United States. Family members who travel with them are also listed. SEVIS has records about more than one hundred fifteen thousand family members of those student and exchange visitors. In two thousand four, the United States began to charge each student and exchange visitor one hundred dollars to help pay for the system. The money also helped pay for the development of the SEVIS Web site. The site now permits students and exchange visitors to examine their SEVIS information and payment record online. Information about SEVIS can be found on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site: www dot i-c-e dot g-o-v. Click on International Students. And you can find our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish dot com. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Mario Ritter. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 1940: Roosevelt Continues Policy of Neutrality After His Re-election
* Byline: War in Europe expands as Germany defeats Denmark, Norway and France. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Germany's attack on Poland and the start of World War Two presented a serious problem to Americans in September nineteen thirty-nine. The United States -- by law -- was neutral. And few Americans had any desire to fight in another world war. But Americans did not like Germany's Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. They hoped for victory for Britain, France, and the other Allied powers. President Franklin Roosevelt made this clear in a radio talk to Americans soon after the war began. He praised the British and other allies. Finally, the president called on Congress to change the neutrality laws that prevented him from sending arms to the Allies to help them fight the Nazis. Congress agreed to change the laws so foreign nations could buy American arms. VOICE TWO: In the months that followed, Hitler and his allies won one victory after another. German and Soviet troops captured Poland quickly in September nineteen thirty-nine. Then Soviet forces invaded the small Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. In late November, they attacked Finland. Fighting between Finland and the Soviet Union continued through the winter, until Finland accepted Russia's demands. VOICE ONE: Fighting grew even more fierce the following spring, in early nineteen forty. Germany attacked Denmark and Norway, defeating them easily. In May, Nazi forces struck like lightning through Belgium and Holland. Within one day, they were in France. British and French forces were unable to stop the Germans from moving deep into northern France. The British forces finally were forced to flee from the European continent in small boats. They sailed from the French town of Dunkerque back to Britain. German soldiers marched through France. And Italian forces joined them by invading France from the south. Soon, Paris fell. A German supporter, Marshal Petain, took control of the French government. And France -- beaten and crushed -- was forced to sign a peace treaty with Hitler. VOICE TWO: Now it was just Britain alone against Hitler and his allies. Only the English Channel separated the British people from a German army that seemed unbeatable. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to resign. The British people turned to a new leader, Winston Churchill. Churchill would prove to be strong and brave in the long months ahead. The British would need strong leadership. Hitler wasted no time in launching a fierce air attack on Britain. Throughout the summer, German and British planes fought above the English Channel. VOICE ONE: All this military action had an important effect on American popular opinion. War and neutrality were no longer just ideas to be discussed in a classroom or political debate. Now they were real concerns, real events. Fascist troops led by a dictator in Berlin were defeating one friendly democracy after another. And Soviet forces were on the march, too. Most Americans still desired neutrality. But how long could America remain at peace. And was peace worth the cost of just sitting by and watching friends like France and Britain be bombed and invaded. VOICE TWO: Other issues melted away as Americans began to consider what to do about the darkening world situation. Some Americans, led by newspaper publisher William Allen White, called for the United States to help Britain immediately. But other groups, like the America First Committee, demanded that the United States stay out of another bloody European conflict. VOICE ONE: Franklin RooseveltThe struggle between those who wanted to help Britain, and those who wanted to remain neutral, did not follow traditional party lines. Some of the closest supporters of Roosevelt's foreign policies were Republicans. And some members of his own Democratic Party opposed his policies. Even so, foreign policy was one of the main issues in the presidential election campaign of nineteen forty. The Democrats, once again, nominated Franklin Roosevelt for president. The Republicans had several popular candidates who were interested in campaigning against Roosevelt. At first, it seemed that these candidates would fight it out in a bitter nominating convention in Philadelphia. But to everyone's surprise, a little-known candidate named Wendell Willkie suddenly gained a great deal of support and won the nomination. VOICE TWO: Wendell WillkieWendell Willkie was a tough candidate. He was friendly, a good businessman, and a strong speaker. He seemed honest. And he seemed to understand foreign policy. Most important, Willkie had a progressive record on many social issues. He was not the kind of traditional conservative Republican that Roosevelt had defeated so easily in his first two campaigns. Instead, Willkie could claim to represent the common man just as well as Roosevelt. And he offered the excitement of a change in leadership. While Willkie and Roosevelt began campaign battles with words, German and British planes were fighting real battles with bullets over the English channel. Winston Churchill sent a desperate message to Roosevelt. The British prime minister said Britain could not fight alone much longer. It needed help immediately. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt did not want to take steps toward war just before an election. But neither could he refuse such an urgent appeal from the British. Roosevelt and Willkie discussed the situation. Willkie agreed not to criticize Roosevelt when the president sent fifty ships to the British navy. He also supported Roosevelt's order for American young men to give their names to army officials so they could be called if fighting began. In this way, Roosevelt and Willkie tried to keep America's growing involvement in the war from becoming a major political issue in the election. VOICE TWO: President Roosevelt won the election of nineteen forty. Roosevelt won twenty-seven million votes to twenty-two million for Willkie. This made Roosevelt the first and only man in American history to win a third term in the White House. Soon after the election, President Roosevelt received a letter from Winston Churchill. The British prime minister wrote that Britain urgently needed more arms and planes to fight Germany. Roosevelt agreed. He went to the Congress to plead for more aid to Britain. He said the United States should change its neutral policy, because Britain was fighting a common enemy of democracy. Roosevelt also said the United States could avoid war if Britain was strong enough to defeat Germany by herself. VOICE ONE: Congress agreed, after a fierce debate, to increase aid to London. And in the weeks and months that followed, the United States moved closer and closer to open war with Germany. In March nineteen forty-one, Roosevelt allowed British ships to come to American ports to be fixed. In June, the United States seized ships under German control. It also took over German and Italian funds in American banks. VOICE TWO: Open fighting could not be prevented with this increase in tension between Germany and the United States. In September nineteen forty-one, a German submarine fired at an American ship. The ship was not damaged. But a number of American troops were killed in other naval incidents that followed. VOICE ONE: By the end of nineteen forty-one, the United States and Germany were almost at war. Even so, most Americans continued to hope for peace. In fact, few Americans could guess that war was just days away. The first blow would come -- not from Germany -- but from Japan. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Nine Parts of Desire': Actress Brings to Life Stories of Iraqi Women
* Byline: Heather Raffo plays all nine parts in stage performance. Also: a question about OK, and music by TV on the Radio. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the American word “OK” … Play some music from a group called TV on the Radio… And report about a new play called “Nine Parts of Desire”. Nine Parts of Desire HOST: A new play is being performed at Arena Stage, a theater in Washington, D.C. The play is about the lives of Iraqi women. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: An Iraqi-American woman named Heather Raffo wrote “Nine Parts of Desire.”? She also is the only performer. She acts the parts of nine Iraqi women. They are of different ages, education, religious and political beliefs. They include an old woman in Baghdad, a doctor, a young Iraqi girl, a political refugee living in London and a young Iraqi-American woman in New York City. All of them tell how their lives have been affected by repression, violence and war. Heather Raffo brings each part to life with small changes in her voice and clothing. The stories of the women are separated by music and the sounds of gunfire and bombings. Heather Raffo says the play is a celebration of women searching for personal freedom. Critics and other people alike have praised the play as powerful and emotionally moving. The name of the play comes from the teachings of an ancient Muslim religious leader. He wrote: ”God created sexual desire in ten parts; then, he gave nine parts to women and one part to men.” Heather Raffo is the daughter of an Iraqi man and an American woman. As a child, she had visited family members in Iraq. She was a student at the University of Michigan in nineteen ninety-one during the Gulf War. She was angry about the war and concerned about her family members in Iraq. In nineteen ninety-three, Miz Raffo visited her family in that country. She says what she discovered there had a powerful effect on her. The visit helped her understand her culture and celebrate the women in her family. She collected the stories of family members and other Iraqi women. Later, she used some of these experiences to write her play, “Nine Parts of Desire.”?? She wanted people to know more about the Iraqi people than what the news media showed. The first version of the play was performed three years ago in Edinburgh, Scotland. It later was performed in London and New York City. Heather Raffo changed the version playing in Washington to include the current war in Iraq. She says she believes strongly in performing this play in Washington. She says the play unites people in considering the humanity of the Iraqi people at a time when important decisions are being made about their country. OK HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from France. Herve Acard asks about the American word “okay”. Where did the word come from and how did it become part of the language? “OK” means “all right” or “acceptable.”? It expresses agreement or approval. Millions of people all over the world use the word “okay.”?? In fact, some people say the word is used more often than any other word in the world. Still, language experts do not agree about where it came from. Some say it came from the native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaws. The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word “OK.”? Experts say early explorers in the American West spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country. But many people dispute this. Language expert Allen Walker Read wrote about the word “OK” in articles published in the nineteen sixties. He said the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct.”? Old stories say some foreign-born people would write all correct as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t but speak it as “OK." Others say “OK” was a way to shorten Greek words that mean everything is fine. Still others say a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word. They say he put the first letters of his names -- O and K -- on each object people gave him to place on the train. Another explanation is that “OK” was invented by a political organization that supported Martin Van Buren for president in the eighteen hundreds. They called their organization the OK Club. The letters O and K were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York. Not everyone agrees with this explanation either. But experts do agree that the word is purely American and has spread to almost every country on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech, not in writing. Serious writers would rather use such words as “agree,” “approve” or “confirm” instead. We hope this is OK with you! TV on the Radio TV on the Radio makes music filled with energetic beats and dissident sounds. This art-rock band of five men is based in Brooklyn, New York. Their new album, "Return to Cookie Mountain," is full of experimental energy. Critics say it might be one of the most strangely beautiful records of the year. Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: "I Was a Lover" is a song with unusual and poetic words. Like many of TV on the Radio’s songs, it describes a world of destruction and change. The song has many sounds. You can hear two voices above layers of guitar, piano, drum, and machine noises. TV on the Radio’s music is not easy to define. The group combines many kinds of music. Each song is very different from the next. And this album is very different from their past albums. The band members like being free to try new sounds. Here is the song “Hours.” (MUSIC) The members of the band say the feeling they want to express is connection. They see their music as expressing emotions that other people can identify with. Some songs express their unhappiness with current politics in the United States. For example, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the band immediately wrote a song. It told about working together for a better future with wiser leaders. We leave you with “Province”. If you listen carefully, you can hear the voice of famous singer David Bowie. The song talks about bravely loving someone in a dark, changing world. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. ?I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Making International Trade Happen
* Byline: A former US official helps India's Tata Group grow in America. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. International trade does not just happen. It is the result of developing relationships and processes to ease the flow of goods and services. This week, we spoke with David Good in Washington, D.C. He is the chief representative for Tata Sons in North America. The Indian company Tata Sons is part of the Tata Group, India’s largest and best-known company. Tata wants to increase economic ties with the United States. That is what David Good’s job is all about. He describes his office as an embassy for Tata Sons in Washington. Mister Good explains Tata’s products and services to American businesses and government officials. He seeks to build trust and understanding. He also advises Tata on American laws and policies and provides information on business conditions. Mister Good learned the skills he uses every day working for the Department of State and the United States Information Agency. He spent thirty-four years in government before joining Tata. The Tata Group is made up of ninety-six companies that employ more than two hundred thousand people. Tata operates in more than fifty-four countries. Its companies run hotels, provide engineering services and business advice. They also make cars and steel, among other things. The group’s yearly sales are about twenty-two thousand million dollars, or almost three percent of India’s total economic productivity. Tata has expanded in the United States mainly by buying ownership shares in other companies. For example, Tata Sons bought thirty percent of a New York-based company that makes Vitaminwater products. Expanding in America is good business for Tata. It also creates American jobs. Mister Good says Tata employs about ten thousand people in this country. Tata continues to grow internationally. This week, Tata Steel proposed to buy the British steel maker Corus Group. Tata also plans major investments in South Africa. Tata also is proud of its tradition of giving money to important causes. Two-thirds of Tata Sons is owned by charitable trusts that are part of the Tata Group. The Group says it gives about one hundred million dollars a year to support science, health and education in India. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Immigrants, Births Put US on Way to 400 Million by 2043
* Byline: National estimate has just passed the 300 million mark. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, the national population clock at the United States Census Bureau reached three hundred million. This is only an estimate -- the next official count is in two thousand ten. But the Census Bureau says the United States is gaining one new person every eleven seconds. Government experts based this on an estimate of one birth every seven seconds and one death every thirteen seconds. They also considered immigration. The Census Bureau says an immigrant enters the country every thirty-one seconds. The United States is the third most populous country in the world, although it is still much smaller than China and India. Some hospitals claimed they had the three hundred millionth baby. Yet the three hundred millionth person in the United States could have been an immigrant. Experts say about fifty-five percent of new population growth has resulted from immigration, including the children of immigrants. Today twelve percent of the population is foreign-born. The leading place of origin is Mexico. In the past, it was Europe. America's population reached one hundred million in nineteen fifteen. It reached two hundred million just over fifty years later, in nineteen sixty-seven. But the country has taken less than forty years to reach three hundred million people. And researchers expect a population of four hundred million in even less time. At that point, in two thousand forty-three, non-Hispanic whites could make up just over half the population. In nineteen sixty-seven, more than eighty percent of Americans were white. Less than five percent were of Spanish ancestry. Today, Hispanics -- either American-born or foreign-born -- make up almost fifteen percent of the population. About thirteen percent of the population is black, and about five percent is of Asian ancestry. The population growth in the United States is unusual among big industrial nations. Japan and some European countries expect their populations to decrease over the next twenty to thirty years. America is known as a nation of immigrants. But today, as at other times in its history, immigration is also a hot issue. There is debate especially about the millions who are in the country illegally. Reporters were invited to watch the Census Bureau clock hit three hundred million Tuesday morning. There was no big ceremony, although bureau employees later held a small event of their own at their offices near Washington. President Bush released a statement. He said the new population mark is, in his words, "further proof that the American Dream remains as bright and hopeful as ever." In nineteen fifteen, the most popular names for babies in the United States were John and Mary. This year they are Jacob and Emily. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Brianna Blake. MP3 files and transcripts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Richard Rodgers, 1902-1979: A Man of a Thousand Songs
* Byline: It is said that one of his shows is always playing somewhere in the world. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That is music from the television show "Victory At Sea" written in nineteen fifty-two. The man who composed that beautiful music is known mainly as a writer of show songs. He wrote more than one thousand songs that helped tell stories in theaters, on television and in the movies. His music has been heard in more than two hundred movies and two thousand television shows. Some experts say his music created more happiness than that of any other American popular composer. His name was Richard Rodgers. Today, we tell his story. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Richard Charles Rodgers was born in New York City on June twenty-eighth, nineteen-oh-two. Both his parents enjoyed singing and playing the piano. His grandparents loved opera and took their grandson to many productions. Richard attended many Broadway shows as a child. Richard Rodgers began playing the piano by the age of three. At the age of fifteen, he decided that he would work in the musical theater. That same year, he wrote the music for a stage show presented by a local group of young people. Then, he wrote music for a production by students at Columbia University. Other future show business leaders were also involved in the Columbia productions. Two of these men would be very important in Richard Rodgers' life -- Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart. VOICE ONE: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart worked as a songwriting team for more than twenty years. Their first hit song was in the musical "The Garrick Gaities" produced in nineteen twenty-five. The song is still performed today. Here is Mickey Rooney singing "Manhattan." (MUSIC) Rodgers wrote the music first, then Hart put words to the music. They also wrote songs for the movies. One of their most widely known songs comes from a movie, "Blue Moon."? Many singers have recorded it since it was written in nineteen thirty-four. It was even a rock and roll hit for the Marcels in the nineteen sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart stopped working together in the early nineteen forties. Hart was an unhappy man. He was in poor health as a result of a serious drinking problem. It was increasingly difficult for Rodgers to work with him. Richard Rodgers turned to another old friend -- Oscar Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein worked differently than did Rodgers and Hart. Oscar Hammerstein would write the words and give them to Rodgers. Rodgers then would write music to go with the words. Their first show together was the historic "Oklahoma!"? It opened in nineteen forty-three. Critics have called it a revolution in American theater. Rodgers and Hammerstein were praised for writing songs that developed the show and helped tell the story. "Oklahoma!" still is performed on Broadway and in other theaters around the world. Here is the famous title song from the first Broadway production. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the songs for nine musical plays, including "The King and I," "Flower Drum Song" and "The Sound of Music."? Their musical plays were also made as movies. Their songs expressed love and pain and told about social problems. One example is this song from the musical "South Pacific" that opened in nineteen forty-nine. One of the men in the musical is in love with a woman of a different race. He sings a song expressing the conflict between his racial feelings and his love. The song is called "You've Got to be Carefully Taught."? Listen to William Tabbert who sang it first on Broadway. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Richard Rodgers wrote both the words and the music for Broadway shows following Oscar Hammerstein's death in nineteen sixty. Critics say the best of these is "No Strings."? It explored a romance between a black woman and a white man. The main song is "The Sweetest Sounds."? Richard Kiley and Diahann Carroll sang it on Broadway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Richard Rodgers and his wife Dorothy had two daughters and six grandchildren. One daughter and two grandsons also write music. Richard Rogers died in nineteen seventy-nine. He was seventy-seven years old. Books written about his life describe him as a cold man who was often depressed. Family members say he was only able to express himself through music. Richard Rodgers once said the show he liked the best was "Carousel," the second musical he wrote with Oscar Hammerstein. It is a sad story about a young girl who marries a thief. One of the songs in the show now is considered to have a religious influence. Here is the song, "You'll Never Walk Alone". (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Music experts say that a Richard Rodgers show is always playing somewhere in the world -- on Broadway, in theaters in different countries, in local school productions. And people all over the world still enjoy the movies linked to Richard Rodgers. Movies with wonderful music such as "State Fair," "South Pacific," "Pal Joey," "The Sound of Music," "Oklahoma" and "Carousel." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC: "Carousel Waltz") 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Grameen Bank Proves Poor People Are Worthy of Loans
* Byline: The microfinance organization and its creator are this year's Nobel Prize winner. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Nobel Peace Prize for two thousand six was awarded earlier this month to economist Muhammad Yunus and his Bangladeshi microfinance organization, the Grameen Bank. The bank lends small amounts of money to poor people, especially women, who are unable to get traditional loans. Mister Yunus says he started Grameen because he wanted to see if banking could be done without collateral. Collateral, such as property or investments, secures the repayment of traditional loans. The Grameen bank, however, does not ask for guarantees or repayment in land or other property if the borrower is not able to repay the loan. A person's promise to repay the loans is all that is needed. No one is rejected for a loan. This trust has resulted in a near perfect loan repayment rate during the bank's thirty-year history. Since Grameen's launch in nineteen seventy-six, the idea of micro-financing for the poor has spread to other countries. In the United States, for example, small loan programs are serving poor Native Americans living on protected land. Farming communities and poor city areas have also seen a rise in micro-financing organizations. The Seattle non-profit group Washington CASH is one example. This group provides small loans to single mothers, refugees and former criminals. Today, the Grameen Bank has about six million borrowers in seventy thousand villages throughout Bangladesh. Ninety-seven percent of the loans go to poor women. An average loan equals less than one hundred dollars. The bank expects to provide more than eight hundred million dollars in loans this year. In addition, the bank gives about thirty thousand financial awards to poor students each year. Worldwide, the Grameen Foundation has established relationships with fifty-two partners in twenty-two countries. Millions of people in Africa, Central and South America, and the Middle East have received assistance. Mister Yunus says he believes credit should be considered a human right. He says money is power. The economist believes poverty would end if the world could create a system of credit for poor people. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Two Special Places in New Mexico Connect With Native History
* Byline: A visit to Bandelier National Monument and Taos Pueblo. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. This week we visit two special places in the state of New Mexico. They are important in the history of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty, a scientist was traveling in the Southwest United States. Adolph Bandelier was researching the history and social organization of the American Indians who had lived there for centuries. When he was in northern New Mexico, men from the Cochiti Pueblo took him to a place where their ancestors had lived in Frijoles Canyon.Mister Bandelier saw the ruins of the ancient pueblo or village and said, “This is the grandest thing I ever saw.” VOICE TWO: Today, many visitors to what is now known as Bandelier National Monument feel the same way. They lift their eyes to the tall rock walls that rise hundreds of meters up from the floor of the valley. They climb ladders to enter some of the caves that were homes centuries ago. They walk along the Frijoles stream lined with green trees that once was the only water supply for the valley. They wonder at the beauty of the area and imagine what it felt like to live there hundreds of years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bandelier National Monument is near the city of Los Alamos and not far from Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. It is on the Pajarito Plateau. This was formed by two explosions of the Jemez volcano more than one million years ago. Ash up to three hundred meters thick covered more than six hundred square kilometers around the volcano. Slowly the area became what visitors see today – a dry land of high flat mesa tops and deep canyons formed through thousands of years by flowing rivers. People moved into the American Southwest more than ten thousand years ago as the last ice age was ending.These early people hunted large animals for food.They did not build permanent structures to live in because they followed the movement of the animals. Archeologists have found evidence of these early people in the Bandelier area. The hunters left spear points shaped out of stone that they used as weapons. VOICE TWO: The climate of the Southwest became drier and warmer. By seven thousand years ago, many large animals no longer existed. Instead, people hunted smaller animals and gathered wild plants for food. About two thousand five hundred years ago the first houses appeared on the flat tops of mesas in what is now northern New Mexico.They were pit houses dug partly underground.Soon after that more permanent houses were built above ground.These early homes were made of a mixture of wet dirt, wood and rocks.Small family groups lived in these homes. They grew crops of corn, beans and squash. ? VOICE ONE: More people moved into the Pajarito Plateau area about eight hundred years ago. They began living together in larger groups. Many people moved from the mesa tops to the bottom of Frijoles Canyon. They built pueblos or villages, some of them large. They had a good water supply in Frijoles Creek and fertile land for growing crops. The traditional stories of American Indians who now live in the pueblos near Bandelier tell of links to the people who lived in Frijoles Canyon long ago. Yet no written record of the area exists until after the Spanish arrived in fifteen forty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now you are at the visitor center at Bandelier National Monument. A long path follows along the floor of Frijoles Canyon through an area of wildflowers and trees. From a distance you can see the tall wall of the canyon ahead. The path leads to the ruins of a large village, named Tyuonyi.It had about four hundred small rooms built around a central open plaza.About one hundred people lived in the pueblo.It is one of several large pueblos whose ruins have been found in Bandelier National Monument. The people who lived here were ancestors of some of today’s Pueblo Indians. Archeologists think they spent much of their time outside. They used the rooms for sleeping and keeping food. Both men and women grew crops. The women ground corn for bread, cooked and made pottery. The men built new rooms, hunted animals for food, and wove cloth. Children played games and took care of small animals. VOICE ONE: The path continues past the ruins of the old pueblo up toward the reddish brown wall of Frijoles Canyon.There are many openings in the rock wall. The canyon walls are made of a soft rock called tuff.Tuff is made of ash from the explosions of the Jemez volcano. After thousands of years the ash became a soft rock.Through the years rain and wind made cracks and openings in it.The ancestral Pueblo people used stone tools to widen the small natural openings in the face of the canyon walls. Visitors can climb up wood ladders to see the inside of several of the cave homes. The ceilings are black from smoke. From a cave room you can see far up and down the canyon and imagine what life was like there seven hundred years ago. Farther up the path are more cave homes with ruins of small stone rooms next to the wall of the canyon. Along the walls and in the caves are designs or symbols carved into the rock or painted on it. VOICE TWO: You can see many other ruins by following the more than one hundred kilometers of trails in Bandelier. Archeologists know that the ancestors of today’s Pueblo Indians lived in the Frijoles Canyon for more than four hundred years. They also know that by the middle fifteen hundreds people left their villages and cave homes and moved south and east toward the Rio Grande River. No one is sure why. Modern Pueblo Indians say they feel a strong link to the spirit of their ancestors in Bandelier National Monument. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Taos Pueblo is near the city of Taos. It is the farthest north of the nineteen present-day Pueblos in New Mexico. It is very high up -- about two thousand two hundred meters. Taos Pueblo is considered to be the oldest community in the United States that has always had people living in it. The Tiwa language spoken by the Taos Indians has never been written. However, their spoken history tells of their ancestors living in the area for about one thousand years. VOICE TWO: The present Taos Pueblo buildings are made of adobe, a mixture of wet dirt and straw. They were finished almost six hundred years ago. They have many rooms built on top of each other. Centuries ago hundreds of people lived there. Today only about one hundred fifty people live in them all the time. These Taos Indians live in the ancient adobe rooms as their ancestors did centuries ago -- without any running water or electric power for lights. Almost two thousand Taos Indians live nearby on land the tribe owns. They live in modern houses with electricity and running water. During the year they return to the Pueblo to take part in the many ceremonies and dances that are held in the ancient plazas. VOICE ONE: The Taos Pueblo you see today looks almost as it did to the Spanish when they arrived almost five centuries ago. Many first time visitors recognize it because artists have been painting the beauty of Taos Pueblo for years. Tall green mountains rise behind the Pueblo.Two large brown adobe buildings containing many rooms are on the north and south side of a stream. The water in the stream flows down from Blue Mountain Lake, a sacred place for the Taos Indians. It provides water for drinking and cooking for the people who live in Taos Pueblo today, just as it has for centuries. VOICE TWO: Much of Taos Pueblo is not open to visitors. Taos Indians keep their history and ceremonies secret. They expect people to honor their privacy and their traditions. But visitors are welcome in small stores that are around the large open plaza areas. You can buy bread baked outside in traditional circular ovens. And you can buy jewelry, drums made of leather, and wood carvings made by members of the tribe. The United Nations has named Taos Pueblo a World Heritage Site, one of the most important historical and cultural places in the world. For the Taos Indians, it will always be the center of their cultural and spiritual world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of our programs and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Losing It:? It's Hard When You Lose Control
* Byline: Mary was angry at herself. She asked, "Am I losing it?" Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Tom Smith is the best hitter on his company's baseball team. For weeks during the playing season, Tom hit a home run in every game the team played. But then suddenly he stopped hitting home runs. He could not hit the baseball at all. One day he struck out three times in one game. He said, "I am afraid I am losing it." Mary Jones bought a dress in a woman's clothing store. She felt very happy about buying the dress until she got home. Then she remembered she had left her credit card at the store when she used it to pay for the dress. It was the third time that month that Mary had forgotten something important. Mary was angry with herself. She said, "Am I losing it?" Emma Cleveland was teaching a class in mathematics at a college. She began to explain to the students how to solve a very difficult problem. She undersood it very well. But somehow, at that moment, she could not explain it. Emma said, "I must be losing it." Americans seem to have a lot of concern about "losing it." At least that is what you would think from hearing them talk. They use the expression when they feel they are losing control. It can mean losing emotional control. Or losing the ability to do something. Or losing mental powers. Word experts differ about how the expression started. Some believe it came from television programs popular in the nineteen eighties. Others believe it began with psychologists and psychiatrists who deal with how people think, feel and act. One psychologist said, "We Americans have many concerns about controlling our lives. Perhaps we worry too much." She continued, "In many situations, to say you are losing it eases the tension. It is healthy.And most people who say they are having a problem are not losing it." People may feel more like they are losing it when they are "down in the dumps." People who are down in the dumps are sad. They are depressed. Word expert Charles Funk says people have been feeling down in the dumps for more than four-hundred years. Sir Thomas More used the expression in fifteen thirty-four. He wrote, "Our poor family ... has fallen in such dumps." Word experts do not agree what the word dumps means. One expert, John Ayto, says the word dumps probably comes from the Scandanavian countries. The languages of Denmark and Norway both have similar words. The words mean to fall suddenly. Americans borrowed this saying. And, over the years, it has become a popular way of expressing sadness. (MUSIC) This Words and Their Stories program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Experts Call for Continued Efforts to Protect Children From Polio
* Byline: Recent campaign attempts to strike back against the disease. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about efforts to defeat the disease polio. ?Polio is spreading again after almost disappearing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say hundreds of thousands of people could get polio unless the disease is stopped in areas where it has always been present. They also say political and financial support is needed to fight polio. Doctors advising the World Health Organization met recently in Geneva, Switzerland. They reported that Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan have endemic polio. That means poliovirus is continually present there. ?The experts warned that this presence threatens almost two hundred countries now free of the virus. Polio spreads easily from person to person. It easily crosses national borders. VOICE TWO: Conference chairman Steve Cochi?said the countries with endemic polio can defeat the disease. But Doctor Cochi said political leaders need to help. He noted progress in Afghanistan after Afghan President Hamid Karzai organized a polio advisory group. Conflict in southern Afghanistan has harmed efforts to provide children with anti-polio medicine called a vaccine. About seventy percent of the world’s polio cases are in Nigeria. Almost nine hundred new cases have been reported there this year. The new cases are mainly in northern Nigeria. Problems there helped delay the goal of ending the threat from polio by two thousand seven. VOICE ONE: False reports had been spreading in northern Nigeria. The reports said a campaign to provide polio vaccines was really a plot to harm Muslims. As a result, the vaccinations stopped for about a year. That was in two thousand three and two thousand four. Many new cases then developed. Polio from Nigeria spread as far as Indonesia. For this reason, a special vaccination program took place in Nigeria last month. In India, the number of polio cases has increased almost ten times compared to the same period last year. Poor areas of Uttar Pradesh Province are responsible for much of the increase. Pakistan has about the same number of cases this year as it did in the same period last year. VOICE TWO: Yagob?Yousef Al-Mazrou is an advisory committee member and represents Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health. He says his nation is concerned about visitors spreading the virus. Millions of people arrive in Saudi Arabia each year for the Islamic religious event called the Hajj. Doctor Al-Mazrou said his nation now requires evidence of vaccination for visitors from polio-affected countries. Children from those countries are given polio vaccines at the Saudi border. This is true even if they had been vaccinated earlier. VOICE ONE: Robert Scott represented the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at the conference. The group has been working against polio for almost twenty years. During that period, the world polio rate has fallen by more than ninety-nine percent. Doctor Scott placed importance on the need for the international community to provide money for vaccination campaigns. The doctor is an official of Rotary International, a service organization and Initiative member. Rotary has given millions of dollars to fight polio. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen nineties, it seemed that modern medicine might soon defeat polio. Health officials set two thousand as a target date for the end of new cases. But before anyone could celebrate, more cases were reported. Officials re-set the date for defeating polio to two thousand five. Then they delayed again, to two thousand seven. Still, the disease keeps spreading. But polio fighters keep striking back. As part of that effort, the World Health Organization launched a campaign in eastern Africa in September. It was the largest such attempt ever made in several countries at once. More than three million children were protected against the disease within a few days. VOICE ONE: Prevention is important because antibiotic drugs cannot help after someone is infected. Antibiotics can kill only bacteria, not viruses. Poliovirus spreads from person to person. Its victims often are young children. But adults also get polio. Many people are infected without knowing it. They may have just a higher than normal body temperature and pain in the throat. But polio sometimes attacks the central nervous system. In just hours, polio patients may not be able to stand or walk. And, some die. Children who received vaccines in the recent Africa campaign live along the borders of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. Some roads in eastern Africa were not passable. But health workers used horses and other animals to reach the children. The workers provided each child with two drops of the vaccine by mouth. Almost one million children received the vaccine in Ethiopia. That nation reported thirty-seven polio cases since December of two thousand four. The children live in areas that share borders with Somalia and Kenya. Finding all the children who needed the vaccine was difficult. Recent flooding in Ethiopia and Somalia displaced many people. Somalia and northern Kenya also have many communities of people who move from place to place. VOICE ONE: Until two thousand five, Somalia had not had any polio cases for three years. But then, two hundred fifteen people became sick with the disease. Officials say the virus came from Yemen. Health workers attempted to reach more than one million five hundred thousand children on the Somali side of the Ethiopian border. Health conditions are poor in Somalia, which has no effective central government. Special efforts were made to include children in areas near the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya. In northern Kenya, two hundred fifty thousand children were vaccinated. Kenya last week reported its first case of polio in more than twenty years. The patient is a three-year-old Somali girl born in a refugee camp in Kenya. She had received a polio vaccine and had never been in Somalia. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says many people gave their time so that all the children could be reached. Groups of women and young people helped. Religious leaders and teachers assisted members of governmental and non-governmental agencies. The campaign was the first of three large campaigns for the Horn of Africa that the W.H.O. hopes to launch this year. At present, however, fifty million dollars is needed to pay for vaccinations in November and December. The organization says without this money, more children will be unable to walk without help. About five to ten percent of those who lose use of their arms or legs also lose their ability to breathe without support and die. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The W.H.O. says the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is the largest public health campaign ever organized. Its main supporters include national governments and UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. Another supporter is America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even with the recent cases of polio, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has made a big difference. Eighteen years ago, one hundred twenty-five countries reported three hundred fifty thousand polio cases. This year, about one thousand two hundred people have been infected. Wild poliovirus passes freely from person to person. It spreads through mouth fluids, waste material, and water systems. Another kind of polio is rare. That kind happens when unexpected genetic changes take place in the Oral Polio Vaccine. VOICE TWO: The success of the first polio vaccine was announced in nineteen fifty-five. American Jonas Salk and his team proved that a vaccine made from a killed virus could kill poliovirus. The Salk vaccine was given by injection. Polio rates decreased greatly in people who had been vaccinated. Later, Albert Sabin used a live, but weakened poliovirus to build protection against the disease. That is the kind of vaccine used for years in huge campaigns in Africa and Asia. Experts say recent changes to the vaccine are improving it. Today, people everywhere hope that anti-polio campaigners armed with vaccine will defeat polio at last. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Pumpkins for All Seasons
* Byline: But bad weather in some US growing areas reduces supply of the Halloween favorite. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Conditions for growing pumpkins were poor in some areas of the United States this year. The East and parts of the Midwest suffered heavy rains and extreme heat. So the supply for sale has decreased, making prices higher than last year. Still, many people are buying the large, round fruit. Pumpkins are an important part of the American celebration of Halloween on October thirty-first. Many families visit farms or farmers markets so their children can pick out the pumpkins they want. They remove the insides of the pumpkin and cut pieces from the outside to make a face. Sometimes they place and light candles inside their carved pumpkin faces. People place the pumpkins outside their homes or in their windows. Americans also use pumpkins for cooking, especially during the American holiday of Thanksgiving in late November. Tradition says early settlers ate pumpkin pie, or something similar to it. Pumpkins belong to the gourd family. They are related to melons, cucumbers and squashes. Some people call pumpkins vegetables. But others, including scientists, call them fruit. Pumpkins have hard skins and seeds in the center. And they contain more Vitamin A than almost any other fruit. People have grown pumpkins in North and Central America for thousands of years. Pumpkins grow on vines or bushes. Most weigh only a few kilograms. But some pumpkins grow to be huge. A farmer from the state of Rhode Island recently won a competition with a pumpkin that weighed six hundred eighty-one kilograms. It could be the largest in the world. Such super pumpkins are often shown at agricultural fairs. Pumpkins get their start when bees fertilize their flowers. The insects carry reproductive material called pollen from the male to the female flowers. No pumpkins will grow if the female flower is not pollinated at the right time. People use pumpkin in pies, breads, cakes and other baked goods. Many Americans also like to eat baked pumpkin seeds. Americans can also buy processed pumpkin in cans. However, experts say it is not a good idea to process fresh pumpkin at home to use in the future because dangerous bacteria can develop. But whole pumpkins can store well for weeks in a cool, dark place. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To read the next of this program and download audio, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hey You, in the Next Cube, Is That Document Buzzword-Compliant?
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and our guest this week on Wordmaster is writer Paul Dixon, just out with a new version of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. PAUL DIXON: "Most slang dictionaries go A-to-Z and they co-mingle the slang of politics and the slang of baseball and the slang of criminals and the slang of all these other things into one thing. What I realized was that really that's not how people actually operate. So I broke it down into all the components: used-car slang and slang of people outdoors, people who work outdoors, the slang of trades people, the slang of real estate. "All of these things -- because when you create a group of people, one of the first things they do is they build their own little language to sort of identify them as such. So a person who is a commercial fisher -- fisher, fisher person -- has a vastly different language than, say, somebody who is a computer programmer or somebody who works in a circus. So what I tried to do is break it down into over forty different pieces. AA: "So, for example, if you use the term 'dancing baloney' -- to me, I've never heard that term before. But I see it here in your dictionary. What is a -- explain dancing baloney." PAUL DIXON: "Dancing baloney are animated .gif files -- which are, you know, digital images -- and other Web files that are useless and serve simply to impress the client. And so somebody might say in a cube, 'This Web page looks kind of dull, maybe we should throw in some dancing baloney to help it.'" AA: "So just kind of flash on the page." PAUL DIXON: "Another of my favorite ones is 'buzzword-compliant.' Buzzword-compliant means that the person who's writing a memo or something that's going through the corporate mechanisms has all the buzzwords, all the hottest terms that upper management wants them to have in the document. So if the buzzword this month is blue-team-red-team-something-or-other, that goes in the document. They might even really not know what it is, but they want to make sure that this is all right, this has got all the buzzwords in it. "Another one I love is 'catering vulture,' which means that somebody -- people in an office building, let's say there's an executive luncheon or something, these are underlings that basically wait till all the VIPs [very important people] are out of the suite -- " RS: "And then they eat the food!" PAUL DIXON: "And then they grab the food. Or there's a party, you know, some special thing -- they come in early in the morning and there's stuff left over from the night before." RS: "This isn't the first edition of this book." PAUL DIXON: "No, no -- what happened was, this is the third, the first one came out in nineteen ninety-one and each dictionary changed radically, because my idea was to capture like a snapshot for that moment. So there are things in the first book that are long gone. I mean, the first book came out before the Internet. And so each time -- so all of these things are electric. "So, so -- one of my favorites is this thing called cube-speak." RS: "Well, can we talk about that a little bit?" PAUL DIXON: "Yes. Cube-speak is -- in the United States especially, and probably true all over the world, the modern office building is really a section of cubes. In the old days, people had their own separate little house -- uh, little room inside the office. Now there are all these cubes. They all have a computer and they all have this and they all have that. "And so it's a very irreverent language of sort of not the corporate executive but the corporate underling. And so, for example, one of my favorites is 'prairie-dogging' and that's when something happens, some loud noise or somebody yells and everybody starts popping up over the edge of their cubicles. They're like prairie dogs popping out of a hole in the desert." AA: Prolific writer Paul Dixon is the author of Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. He says the value of slang is often in its ability to communicate complex ideas simply and quickly. RS: But his advice to English learners is to listen carefully to how others use slang. Because, as everyone knows, a person can sound foolish using slang incorrectly. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And, to learn more about American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Using Independent Courts and a Free Media to Fight Corruption
* Byline: The president of the World Bank calls corruption the single biggest barrier to development. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Recently, VOA reporters examined the problem of corruption around the world. Today, we tell about their investigation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost every day, reports appear in the news about government officials accused of wrongdoing. They may have sold their influence. Or they attempted to hide illegal activities. Such use of power is known as corruption. Corruption can take many forms. Corruption can describe a system that fails to operate like it should. Another example is when someone acts in an unethical way for personal gain. Consider bribery, for example. A bribe is something given to a person in a position of power for special treatment. Money, goods, or services can be given as bribes. Experts estimate that more than one thousand million dollars in bribes are paid each year. Nepotism is another form of corruption. This happens when someone offers a job to a family member or friend instead of someone with better skills. Other forms of corruption include keeping false business records, and trading stock shares based on secret information. VOICE TWO: Louise Shelley works for the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at American University in Washington, D.C. Miz Shelley says corruption is a major problem in poor countries with weak economic systems. She says a rich country is not seriously affected if five or seven percent of its economy is paid in bribes. But nations that depend on a single natural resource for their earnings are more at risk. This is because a small number of people control the money earned from sales of the resource. Miz Shelley says the fight against corruption can be won with strong public and private institutions, such as independent courts and a free media. She says people who are tired of being cheated can also demand change. VOICE ONE: Businesses can also have an influence. Corruption expert Nancy Broswell says the actions of businesses affect even the very poorest people. Miz Broswell works for a group called Transparency International. In English, the word transparency means something that a person can see through. Today the word is also used to mean an open or honest system or activities. Transparency International measures corruption rates in each country. Iceland is currently rated as the least corrupt on the group's Corruption Percentage Index. Chad is last among one hundred fifty-nine countries. VOICE TWO: Nancy Broswell says the more corrupt a country is, the more likely information is hidden from the public. She notes the failure of the American company Enron as an example of business fraud, or trickery. In two thousand, Enron reported earnings of more than one hundred thousand million dollars. One year later, the company was in ruins. Enron employees lost jobs and the money they had invested in the company for retirement. Investors also lost thousands of millions of dollars. Enron officials were later found guilty of untruthful recordkeeping and attempting to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. VOICE ONE: Some experts say corruption in the business world is more common than many people think. Banker Wang Xuebing was once considered a leader in efforts to make China more modern. Three years ago, Wang was found guilty of accepting bribes at the Bank of China office in New York. He was sentenced to twelve years in jail and ordered to pay twenty million dollars in fines. Kimberly Elliott wrote a book about corruption in the world economy. Miz Elliott says there is no way to estimate the true cost of corruption. But its effect on poor countries is clear. She says you see it when teachers refuse to come to school because they have not been paid. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Corruption can affect anyone. In India, for example, farmers often list the number of cows they own to receive government loans and financial aid. Some farmers fool officials about the number of cows they have. They do this by borrowing animals from other farmers. Indian officials have launched an unusual identification system to control the problem. Cows are being forced to swallow microchips that identify both the animal and its owner. The electronic devices remain permanently in the animals. Another problem in India involves government money meant for agricultural development. Experts say some officials take this money for personal use. The World Bank estimates that sixty percent of the Indian population works in agriculture. Yet, farming represents only about twenty percent of all goods and services produced there. VOICE ONE: Bribery is a problem in India. Transparency International says Indians paid about four thousand eight hundred million dollars in small bribes last year. The bribes were given for health care, police protection and other services. Sixty-two percent of Indians questioned say they paid a bribe. Seventy-five percent of those asked say the problem is getting worse. As a result, India has launched a new anti-corruption campaign. Lawmakers have approved a measure that makes it easier for people to receive information about government spending. VOICE TWO: In Mexico, money from drug sales has influenced government reform efforts and the criminal justice system. Criminal justice expert Jorge Chabat says corruption there dates back to colonial rule. ?Mister Chabat says the illegal drug trade has only made the problem worse. He says police officials and members of the army have been corrupted. Celia Toro is a professor at the Center for International Studies at the Colegio de Mexico. She says corrupt police officers have always had a working relationship with criminals. She says powerful drug dealers have helped create a lawless part of Mexican society. Professor Toro says she believes better police officers would result from an improved legal system and a more supportive society. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: International business leaders consider Hong Kong one of the least corrupt places. This was not always true. About forty years ago, Hong Kong police and government officials demanded bribes from people selling goods in the city's markets. Bribes also had to be given for public housing and even medical help. This changed after huge protests in nineteen seventy-three. At that time, a police official suspected of corruption escaped from Hong Kong. The British colonial government was forced to act. Anti-bribery laws were approved. An independent group was created to investigate corruption cases. The group said reports of corruption had dropped by more than half by the late nineteen seventies. VOICE TWO: Corruption also is a problem in the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe. Yet, the World Bank says the problem has been improving in twenty-six former communist countries. A World Bank report says the countries making the strongest market-based economic reforms have made the most progress. Economists say Slovakia and Estonia are success stories. Both countries have reformed their tax systems. The report says corruption is worsening in Albania and the Kyrgyz Republic. Russia, Serbia and Macedonia are also said to have made little progress. The report says many businesses there report having to pay bribes for services. It says the possibility of membership in the European Union is a powerful tool for fighting corruption. The report notes progress in the fight against corruption in Romania and Bulgaria. The countries hope to join the E.U. next year. VOICE ONE: World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz describes corruption as the single biggest barrier to development. Mister Wolfowitz became the Bank’s President last year. Since then, he has made the fight against corruption a major goal. The World Bank has suspended or delayed loans to Chad, Bangladesh and India after corrupt activities were discovered there. Some groups say they worry that too much effort to punish corruption could stop aid from reaching those most in need. But World Bank officials say they will withdraw from projects only when dishonest officials are clearly not interested in reform. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. Mario Ritter was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-24-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Cancer Drugs Save Children's Lives But Come With Risks
* Byline: Study finds survivors eight times as likely as their siblings to have severe or life-threatening conditions as adults. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Doctors say very few children survived cancer before the nineteen seventies. Improved treatments now offer hope of long-term survival for almost eighty percent of young cancer patients. Yet the chemotherapy drugs and radiation used to stop their cancers can lead to other problems later. A newly reported study looked at more than ten thousand adults who survived childhood cancers. They were treated between nineteen seventy and ninety eighty-six. Their average age at the time of the study was twenty-six. The study compared their medical histories with those of three thousand of their brothers and sisters. The researchers found that sixty-two percent of the cancer survivors had at least one long-term health problem. The same was true of only thirty-seven percent of the brothers and sisters. The cancer survivors were eight times as likely as their siblings to have severe or life-threatening conditions as adults. And many of the survivors had three or more conditions. The cancer survivors were at higher risk of problems like heart disease and early bone loss. Chemotherapy can damage bone growth during an important period of development. And radiation for some cancers can increase the risk of other cancers later. Survivors of bone cancers, cancers of the central nervous system and Hodgkin's disease were at highest risk for health problems as adults. The study also found that girls who survived cancer were more likely than boys to have problems later. Doctors say newer cancer treatments are a little safer but not much. Still, the good news is that many of the conditions linked to cancer treatments can be found when they are still treatable. Kevin Oeffinger of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York was lead author of the study. He says doctors should watch closely for problems as childhood cancer survivors get older. He says doctors should also be sure to provide information about problems that a child cancer patient might expect in the future. And he says it is especially important for survivors to eat right, exercise and not smoke. The report is from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. You can get more health news and download MP3 files and transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor Ends American Effort to Avoid War
* Byline: Important changes took place in US politics and life in the years leading up to World War Two. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) History usually is a process of slow change. Customs and traditions flow slowly from day to day. However, certain single events also can change the course of history. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was such an event. So was the first airplane flight by the American inventors, the Wright Brothers. Or the meeting between the Spanish explorer Cortez and the Aztec king, Montezuma. All these events were single moments that changed history. And so it was, too, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty-one. Pearl Harbor attackThe surprise attack on America's large naval base in Hawaii was a great military success for the government in Tokyo. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor had more than a military meaning. It also represented the passing of a period in American history. The attack would force Americans to fight in World War Two. More important, it would make them recognize their position as one of the leading and powerful nations of the world. VOICE TWO: In future weeks, we will discuss the military and political events of World War Two. But let us take a moment today to look back at the years before the battle. We already have seen how the attack ended the historic American tradition of avoiding world conflict. However, Pearl Harbor also marked the end of a shorter period in the nation's history. This period began with the end of World War One and ended with Pearl Harbor. It lasted only twenty-three years, from nineteen eighteen to nineteen forty-one. But it was filled with important changes in American politics, culture, and traditions. VOICE ONE: Let us start our review of these years with politics. In nineteen twenty, the voters of the United States elected Republican Warren Harding to the presidency. The voters were tired of the progressive policies of Democratic President Woodrow Wilson. They were especially tired of Wilson's desire for the United States to play an active part in the new League of Nations. Harding was a conservative Republican. And so were the two presidents who followed him, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. VOICE TWO: All three of these presidents generally followed conservative economic policies. And they did not take an active part in world affairs. Americans turned away from Republican rule in the election of nineteen thirty-two. They elected the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And they continued to re-elect him. In this way, the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen twenties changed to the more progressive policies of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in the nineteen thirties. VOICE ONE: This change happened mainly because of economic troubles. The nineteen twenties were a time of growth and business strength. President Calvin Coolidge said during his term that the business of America was business. This generally was the same belief of the other Republican presidents during the period, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. There was a good reason for this. The economy expanded greatly during the nineteen twenties. Many Americans made a great deal of money on the stock market. And wages for workers increased as well. However, economic growth ended suddenly with the stock market crash of October, nineteen twenty-nine. In that month, the stocks for many leading companies fell sharply. And they continued to fall in the months that followed. Many Americans lost great amounts of money. And the public at large lost faith in the economy. Soon, the economy was in ruins, and businesses were closing their doors. VOICE TWO: President Hoover tried to solve the crisis. But he was not willing to take the strong actions that were needed to end it. As time passed, many Americans began to blame Hoover for the terrible economic depression. Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected mainly because he promised to try new solutions to end the Great Depression. Soon after he was elected, Roosevelt launched a number of imaginative economic policies to solve the crisis. Roosevelt's policies helped to reduce the amount of human suffering. But the Great Depression finally ended only with America's entry into World War Two. VOICE ONE: Roosevelt's victory in nineteen thirty-two also helped change the balance of power in American politics. Roosevelt brought new kinds of Americans to positions of power: labor union leaders. Roman Catholics. Jews. Blacks. Americans from families that had come from such nations as Italy, Ireland, or Russia. These Americans repaid Roosevelt by giving the Democratic Party their votes. VOICE TWO: The nineteen twenties and thirties also brought basic changes in how Americans dealt with many of their social and economic problems. The nineteen twenties generally were a period of economic growth with little government intervention in the day-to-day lives of the people. But the terrible conditions of the Great Depression during the nineteen thirties forced Roosevelt and the federal government to experiment with new policies. The government began to take an active role in offering relief to the poor. It started programs to give food and money to poor people. And it created jobs for workers. The government grew in other ways. It created major programs for farmers. It set regulations for the stock market. It built dams, roads, and airports. American government looked much different at the end of this period between the world wars than it did at the beginning. Government had become larger and more important. It dealt with many more issues in people's lives than it ever had before. VOICE ONE: Social protest increased during the nineteen twenties and thirties. Some black Americans began to speak out more actively about unfair laws and customs. Blacks in great numbers moved from the southern part of the country to northern and central cities. The nineteen twenties and thirties also were an exciting time of change for women. Women began to wear less traditional kinds of clothes. Washing machines and other inventions allowed them to spend less time doing housework. Women could smoke or drink in public, at least in large cities. And many women held jobs. Of course, the women's movement was not new. Long years of work by such women's leaders as Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony had helped women win the right to vote in nineteen twenty. VOICE TWO: The nineteen twenties and thirties also were important periods in the arts. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, and others made this what many called the "Golden Age" of American writing. Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects designed great buildings. Film actors like Clark Gable, and radio entertainers like Jack Benny, did more than make Americans laugh or cry. They also helped unite the country. Millions of Americans could watch or listen to the same show at the same time. VOICE ONE: Politics. The economy. Social traditions. Art. All these changed for Americans during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. And many of these changes also had effects in foreign countries beyond America's borders. However, the change that had the most meaning for the rest of the world was the change produced by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. America's modern history as a great superpower begins with its reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a sudden event in the flow of history. It was a day on which a young land suddenly became fully grown. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Getting Into an American College: The Application Process
* Byline: Admissions directors advise students to apply to at least three schools -- and give plenty of time. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, we talk about the application process for American colleges and universities. This is part eight in our Foreign Student Series. Earlier, we explained how to begin a search for schools by going to one of the American educational advising centers around the world. We also discussed the rules for entering in the United States. And we talked about programs that can be completed online. But if your goal is to come to the United States to study, then it is time to make a list of colleges or universities that interest you. Be sure to choose more than one. Directors of foreign student admissions say students should apply to at least three schools. Some students want to attend a small college. Others want to go to a big university. If a really big university appeals to you, then there are ones like Ohio State. That university in Columbus, Ohio, in the Midwest, has almost fifty-two thousand students. There are students this year from around one hundred fifty countries. Ohio State provides international students with an application on its Web site. You can pay the application charge online with a credit card. Or you can print the forms and mail them with the payment. Many colleges and universities have their applications and also their catalogs online. A catalog is the publication in which a school tells about its programs. You should start on your applications at least two years before you want to begin studies. Completing a college application can take some time. But answering all the questions is not enough. Another important step is taking admissions tests. The SAT is the college entry test that American high school students most commonly take. Another one is the ACT. Colleges and universities may also require international students to take the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language. We will begin discussing these tests next week. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. If you have a general question for our Foreign Student Series, write to special@voanews.com. You can find our earlier reports, and download MP3 files, at voaspecialenglish.com. Another site you might want to visit is educationusa dot state dot g-o-v. This is a State Department Web site for international students. Again, the address is educationusa dot state dot gov. I’m _______________. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Poet Jack Prelutsky: Writing About the Little Things in Life
* Byline: America's first children's poet laureate is chosen. Also: a question about Halloween, and the music of Mindy Smith, a Northerner with a Southern sound. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the American holiday Halloween … Play some music from Mindy Smith … And report about the new children’s poet laureate. Jack Prelutsky The Poetry Foundation recently named American poet Jack Prelutsky as the nation’s first children’s poet laureate. The group created the award as a way to increase Americans’ love of poetry from an early age. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: As children’s poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky will give two public readings in the next two years. He will also advise the Poetry Foundation about children’s literature and take part in projects concerning children and poetry. Jack Prelutsky has been writing poetry for children for almost forty years. He has written more than thirty-five books of poems. His first book was called "A Gopher in the Garden." It was published in nineteen sixty-seven. His latest is called "Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems." Jack Prelutsky is well known for creating new words by combining two words to create a new kind of creature. For example, he combined "radish" with "shark" to get "radishark." "Lion" and "broccoli" became?a "broccolion." Listen now as Jack Prelutsky reads his description of an "umbrellaphant," a mixture of the words "umbrella" and "elephant." Behold The Bold Umbrellaphant That's Not the Least AfraidTo Forage In the Broiling Sun For it is in the Shade. The pachyderm's uncanny trunkIs probably unique.It ends in an umbrellaThat has yet to spring a leak.And so the bold umbrellaphantIs ever at its easeNo matter if the temperatureIs ninety-nine degrees.And when a sudden thunderstormSends oceans from the skyThat fortunate umbrellaphantRemains entirely dry. FAITH LAPIDUS: Jack Prelutsky says children like his poems because he writes about things they care about. Poetry experts say Jack Prelutsky's poems recognize children’s feelings. An example of this is the poem "My Sister is a Werewolf" which is about how it feels to be different. Jack Prelutsky also writes poems about American holidays. We leave you now with Jack Prelutsky reading part of his poem "It’s Halloween," about the holiday celebrated at the end of October. It's Halloween, it's HalloweenThe moon is full and bright.And we shall see what can't be seenOn any other night.Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,Grinning goblins fighting duels,Werewolves rising from their tombs,Witches on their magic brooms.In masks and gowns we haunt the street,And knock on doors for trick or treat.Tonight we are the king and queenFor oh tonight it's Halloween.(MUSIC) HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Ha Duy Kim Khuyen asks about the meaning of Halloween. Halloween is celebrated in the United States every year on October thirty-first. On that night, many people will dress in clothing that makes them look like frightening creatures such as monsters or ghosts. Such traditions developed from Celtic beliefs in ancient Britain. The Celts believed that spirits of the dead would return to their homes on October thirty-first, the day of the autumn feast. They built huge fires to frighten away evil spirits released with the dead on that night. People from Scotland and Ireland brought these ideas with them when they came to America. Some believed that spirits played tricks on people on the last night of October. History experts say many of the Halloween traditions of today developed from those of ancient times. They say that burning a candle inside a hollow pumpkin recalls the fires set many years ago in Britain. And they say that wearing a mask to hide a person’s face is similar to the way ancient villagers covered their faces to force evil spirits away. On Halloween night, American children put on masks and other special clothing. They go from house to house shouting "Trick or treat!"? If the people in the houses do not give them candy, the children may play a trick on them. Some adults dress in costumes on Halloween and attend parties. They also place pumpkins and frightening objects outside their homes. A National Retail Federation study says that Americans are spending almost five thousand million dollars to celebrate Halloween this year. The study also listed the most popular costumes Americans will wear on Halloween. The most popular costume among children is the princess. Other popular costumes for children are pirates, witches and characters from popular movies, like Spiderman. The study says more than six million adults plan to dress like a witch for Halloween. The next most popular costumes for adults are pirates and vampires. Mindy Smith Mindy Smith is a Northerner with a Southern sound. She grew up on Long Island, New York. But she has made a career in the southern state of Tennessee singing country-influenced music. Smith’s second album, "Long Island Shores," shows off her clear voice and emotion-filled songs. Katherine Cole has more. KATHERINE COLE: Mindy Smith was raised by a religious leader and his wife. Sharron Smith was the music director of her husband’s Christian religious center. She taught Mindy to love music and to touch people emotionally with the power of song. Listen to "Little Devil," a song written and performed by Mindy Smith. She talks about how evil things can sometimes appear to be nice. (MUSIC) Mindy Smith's first record, "One Moment More," brought her great success in the world of country music. But she says she does not think of herself as a country artist. She wants to be a singer and songwriter with her own sound. And she wants her music to honestly express her life experiences. Here is "Tennessee," a song about the state that Smith now calls home. (MUSIC) We close with music from a different record. The song "Jolene" was first written and sung by the famous country and western singer Dolly Parton. Here, Mindy Smith performs the well-known song. Dolly Parton said that of all the artists who have performed "Jolene" over the years, Mindy Smith's version is her favorite. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Dollar Is World's Most Traded Currency. But Why?
* Byline: A question from Brazil about the stability of the US currency. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. A listener in Manaus, Brazil, Luiz Roberto Alves da Costa, has a question about money. He asks why the American dollar is more stable or secure than most currencies in the international monetary system. Stability in the value of a nation’s currency depends on foreign exchange markets and economic conditions. The clearest measure of stability is the exchange value of a currency over time. Trading takes place on foreign exchanges around the world. Since nineteen seventy-six, most major economies have used a system of floating exchange rates to value their currency. This means the value of one currency is always changing in relation to others. People who travel pay the spot exchange rate when they have to trade currency. If they wait long enough at the exchange office, they might see the rates change a little within hours or even minutes. Companies and individuals buy and sell an estimated six hundred thousand million dollars on the spot market each day. The dollar is by far the world's most traded currency. And it is worth more than most. The euro, however, is currently worth about one dollar and twenty-seven cents. And the British pound buys almost two dollars. A costly currency adds to the price of exports. That can hurt economic growth. Trade deficits can also grow because a strong currency lowers the cost of imports. Inflation is another influence on the value of money. High inflation cuts the buying power of a currency over time. The United States currently has a yearly inflation rate of about three percent. The Federal Reserve considers this within acceptable limits. This week the central bank left interest rates unchanged for the third month, after seventeen increases. Economic growth has slowed this year and inflationary pressures are expected to ease over time. Even the strongest currencies change in value over time. But there is one basic reason why the market for dollars is mostly stable. The dollar is the currency of the world's biggest economy, worth twelve million million dollars. Larger markets are generally more stable than smaller ones. And nations that trade with the United States, especially in East Asia, continue to accept dollars for the goods they sell to Americans. But there are other issues to consider about the dollar and its place in the world, and we will examine these in an upcoming report. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Women Journalists From Lebanon, China and U.S. Are Honored
* Byline: The International Women's Media Foundation presents its 2006 Courage in Journalism Awards. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The International Women's Media Foundation presented three Courage in Journalism Awards this week at a ceremony in New York. One went to May Chidiac, a Lebanese broadcaster who survived a bomb attack last year. ? Another went to Gao Yu, a Chinese journalist who was jailed for six years. And the third went to American reporter Jill Carroll who was held by kidnappers in Iraq. Each year the foundation honors women journalists whose work has made them champions of a free press. The Courage in Journalism Award is for reporting the news under dangerous or difficult conditions. Jill CarrollJill Carroll was reporting for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper when she was kidnapped on January seventh. Her interpreter, Alan Eniwya, was killed. Miz Carroll was held hostage for eighty-two days. She was released on March thirtieth and, a few days later, she returned to the United States. She had reported from Iraq for three years before her kidnapping. May Chidiac of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation is one of the best known faces on Lebanese television. In September of two thousand five, a bomb exploded under the driver's seat of her car. She lost her left hand and left leg in the explosion. She had just completed a show about the suspected involvement of Syria in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. May Chidiac required nine months of treatment and twenty-six operations. In May, she won the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. She returned to her job in July. Chinese economic and political reporter Gao Yu also won the Courage in Journalism Award in nineteen ninety-five. But she was not able to accept the award the first time because she was being held in prison. Gao Yu was sentenced to six years in prison in nineteen ninety-three. She was found guilty of leaking state secrets through a Hong Kong newspaper. She received a medical release in March of nineteen ninety-nine. She was also arrested in connection with the nineteen eighty-nine pro-democracy movement in China. The foundation also gave Elena Poniatowska of Mexico a Lifetime Achievement Award for her work as a newspaper reporter and author. She is well known for fighting against corruption and for the rights of women and the poor. During the ceremony on Tuesday, a moment of silence was observed in memory of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya. She was murdered in Moscow on October seventh. She won the Courage in Journalism Award in two thousand two. Anna Politkovskaya wrote for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper. She was a strong critic of Russia's human rights record in Chechnya. The International Women's Media Foundation is leading a campaign to call on the Russian government to fully investigate her murder. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. You can find MP3 files and transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Designs: a Water-Purifying Straw, a Firewood-Saving Cookstove
* Byline: The LifeStraw removes bacteria that cause many waterborne diseases; the stove was tested in Darfur, Sudan.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Today we tell you about the LifeStraw water-purifying device. Then learn about a wood-burning cookstove that scientists hope will reduce the loss of forests in poor countries. The LifeStraw is a thick plastic tube twenty-five centimeters long. You place one end into water and drink from the other. The water passes through a series of filters to catch extremely small particles. Iodine and active carbon are also used in the cleaning process. It all takes about eight minutes for one liter. The maker of the LifeStraw says it kills organisms that spread diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera. The device filters most bacteria and parasites. But it has limits, including against viruses. Also, it does not remove arsenic or other heavy metals from water. The Vestergaard Frandsen Group, a Danish company with headquarters in Switzerland, invented the LifeStraw last year. The company makes disease-control textiles including malaria nets treated to kill mosquitoes. The LifeStraw costs about three dollars. It can be worn on a string around the neck. It has a lifetime of up to seven hundred liters, or about one year. The first large shipments went to Pakistan after the earthquake last year. The company notes that each day, worldwide, more than six thousand children and adults die from unsafe drinking water. Another problem in many poor areas is finding enough firewood to cook with. Forests can disappear as more and more trees are cut down. Scientists have developed a cookstove that was tested in refugee camps in Darfur, Sudan. The scientists are from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley. Two of them, Ashok Gadgil and Christina Galitsky, went to Darfur late last year. They found that many refugee families were missing meals for lack of fuel. The light metal stove needs much less fuel than the traditional cooking methods used in the camps. This would mean less need for women to leave the camps to search for firewood and risk being attacked in violence-torn Darfur. Since the visit, the researchers have improved the stove. Now they are trying to set up production. They estimate that the stoves could be built locally in Darfur for about fifteen dollars each. They say about three hundred thousand are needed. The hope is to begin producing five thousand stoves by the end of the year. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Election Day Will Bring Struggle for Power, Direction of US
* Byline: Democrats are hoping that unhappiness with the Iraq war will help them end Republican control of Congress in the November 7 vote. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is American politics. National elections are one week away. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States holds national elections every two years. This year, Election Day is Tuesday, November seventh. Americans will vote in local, state and congressional elections. Voters will choose all four hundred thirty-five members of the House of Representatives. Voters will also choose thirty-three of the one hundred senators. Each state has two senators and at least one representative -- the number depends on the population of each state. House members serve two-year terms. A Senate term is six years. But these are called midterm elections because they come halfway through the president's term. Midterm elections are often seen as a measure of how Americans feel about the policies of the president and Congress. The Constitution limits presidents to two terms. President Bush, a Republican, won a second four-year term in two thousand four. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party has controlled the House since the elections of nineteen ninety-four. Republicans have also led the Senate since that time, except for a period between two thousand one and two thousand two. The party of the president generally loses some seats in Congress in midterm elections. But this year the opposition Democrats hope to gain enough seats to win back the House and possibly also the Senate. Yet, as hopeful as the Democrats might be, something else is also true. Once elected to Congress, lawmakers usually get re-elected again and again. The Democrats need to gain fifteen seats to retake control of the House. In the Senate, they would need to capture six of the fifteen seats on the ballot that are now held by Republicans. At the same time, the Democrats would have to keep all eighteen seats that their own party will be defending on Election Day. VOICE ONE: Opinion studies show that two issues are helping the Democrats build support: unhappiness with the Iraq war and the economy. In some cases, the same is also true of another issue: the handling of the war on terrorism. The war on terror is a top campaign issue for Republican candidates. And political commentators say the economy is in better condition than many people are giving the Republicans credit for. VOICE TWO: In recent weeks there has been much discussion of the Mark Foley issue. Mister Foley was a Republican representative from the southeastern state of Florida. He resigned from Congress on September twenty-ninth. His resignation followed news that he sent sexual messages by e-mail and instant messaging to teenage boys. The young men had been chosen as pages. Pages are high school students who act as messengers and helpers for members of Congress. The Justice Department, the House ethics committee and Florida officials have all opened investigations. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party is known for its defense of traditional family values. But there are disputed accusations that Republican leaders knew about Mark Foley's actions for some time and did not do enough to stop them. Some opinion studies have suggested that this issue might not have much effect on many voters. But there is talk that it could decrease the number of social conservatives who plan to vote. Social conservatives are traditionally among the most loyal voting groups for Republicans. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Democrats have proposed a legislative program they call "A New Direction for America."? One goal is to raise the federal minimum wage for the lowest paid workers for the first time in ten years. Another goal is to end what the Democrats call tax giveaways to large oil companies. The Democrats also say their plan will provide what they call real security at home and overseas. They say they will reshape what they describe as failed Bush administration policies in Iraq, the Middle East and around the world. VOICE ONE: President Bush says Republican leadership has improved the economy and kept America safe. Mister Bush says he believes these are the most important issues to voters. The president says the Democrats would raise taxes, while the Republicans would keep taxes low. Mister Bush says the nation is safer now than it was before the September eleventh attacks five years ago, but still under threat. The president has called Iraq the central front in the war on terror. But a majority of those questioned in recent opinion studies said they disapprove of the president's handling of the war. Even so, measures of public opinion suggest that most Americans do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: With Americans closely divided politically, the balance of power in Congress could rest with independent voters. Will they choose Democrats or Republicans?? A Republican congressman from Illinois, Ray LaHood, was on a television news program a month before the coming elections. He said this was going to be the most difficult thirty days in the last twelve years that Republicans have been in the majority. Many political scientists say the Democrats are in a good position to win the fifteen additional seats they need to retake the House. But the experts believe it will be more difficult to gain the six seats needed to win back the Senate. VOICE ONE: There are intense battles over some of those seats. In Tennessee, Democrat Harold Ford faces Republican Bob Corker for the seat of retiring Senator Bill Frist. Mister Ford, if he wins, would be the first African-American senator elected by a southern state since the late eighteen hundreds. He currently serves in the House of Representatives. VOICE TWO: This year’s elections could be especially important for the two largest minority groups in the United States – Latinos and blacks. Latinos historically do not vote in large numbers. But this year may be different. Earlier this year Latinos held big demonstrations to demand immigration reform. They also denounced proposals to increase punishments for illegal immigrants. The recent debate over immigration could lead greater numbers of Latinos to vote in the elections next week. If that happens, it could affect the results in some states. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More African-American candidates are competing this year than ever before. A record six black candidates are running for either governor or senator. Ken Blackwell, a Republican, is one of the six: he hopes to become governor of Ohio. Another Republican, Michael Steele, is running for senator from Maryland. The House of Representatives currently has forty black members. The Senate has one. Barack Obama is a popular young?Democrat who was elected in Illinois in two thousand four. He is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. This Election Day, voters in thirty-six of the fifty states will choose governors. ?The first black governor elected in more than a century was Douglas Wilder in Virginia in nineteen eighty-nine. On November seventh, in Massachusetts, Democrat Deval Patrick could become the second. VOICE TWO: Candidates and interest groups spend lots of money to campaign by television, radio, telephone and, increasingly, the Internet. But the Internet can help or hurt a candidate. In August, Senator George Allen of Virginia was speaking at a campaign event. He saw he was being videotaped by a worker from his opponent's campaign. The senator made fun of him and used a term that many people considered a racial insult. The young man with the camera was of South Asian ancestry. Soon the world could see the video on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. The senator, seen as a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in two years, apologized. But that incident helped smash the big lead he had in his race against Democrat Jim Webb. Technology is an issue not just for candidates but also for voters. Many people are not sure they trust the electronic voting machines that are replacing older equipment. They worry about security and, in many cases, the lack of a paper record of ballots in case any recounts are needed this Election Day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Brianna Blake and produced by Caty Weaver. You can find MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, and learn more about American issues, at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA. And be sure to listen to VOA Special English on the radio or the Web for results of the November seventh elections. You can also hear special coverage on VOA News Now. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-11-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: It Will Not Wash:? Does It Work, or Not?
* Byline: Will your idea be a good one? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark?with the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. Young Mister Smith had an idea for his employer. It was an idea for saving money for the company by increasing prices. At the same time, Smith suggested that the company sell goods of less value. If his employer liked the idea, Smith might be given more pay. Perhaps he might even get a better job with the company. Business had been very slow. So Mister Smith's employer thought a few minutes about the idea. But then she shook her head. "I am sorry, Smith," his employer said. "It just will not wash." Now, the meaning of these English words should be, "It will not get clean."? Yet Smith's idea did not have anything to do with making something clean. So why did his employer say, "It will not wash?" Most word experts agree that "it will not wash" means it will not work. ?Eric Partridge wrote that the saying probably developed in Britain in the eighteen hundreds. Charlotte Bronte used it in a story published in eighteen forty-nine. She wrote, "That wiln't wash, miss."? Mizz Bronte seems to have meant that the dyes used to color a piece of clothing were not good. The colors could not be depended on to stay in the material. In nineteenth century England, the expression came to mean an undependable statement. It was used mainly to describe an idea. But sometimes it was used about a person. A critic once said of the poet Robert Browning, "He won't wash."? The critic did not mean that the poet was not a clean person. He meant that Browning's poems could not be depended on to last. Today, we know that judgment was wrong. Robert Browning still is considered a major poet. But very few people remember the man who said Browning would not wash. Happily for the young employee Smith, his employer wanted him to do well in the company. So the employer "talked turkey" to him. She said, "Your idea would be unfair to our buyers. Think of another way to save money." A century ago, to talk turkey meant to talk pleasantly. Turkeys in the barnyard were thought to be speaking pleasantly to one another. In recent years, the saying has come to mean an attempt to teach something important. Word expert Charles Funk tells how he believes this change took place. He says two men were shooting turkeys together. One of them was a white man. The other was an American Indian. The white man began stating reasons why he should get all the turkeys for himself. But the American Indian stopped him. He told the white man, "Now, I talk turkey to you." Mister Smith thought of a better idea after his employer talked turkey to him. He was given an increase in pay. So if your idea "will not wash," try "talking turkey" to yourself and come up with a better idea. (MUSIC) This Words and Their Stories program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-11-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Edward Weston, 1886-1958: Influenced How Photography Was Seen
* Byline: His art is known as "straight photography" -- no effects were used to change the image. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE:? I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the American photographer Edward Weston. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edward Weston is one of the most recognized of all American photographers. He is probably most responsible for helping people to see photography as an art form. Today, art experts consider photographers who took pictures like Mister Weston’s to be part of the art movement called Modernism. The kind of photographs Mister Weston took are called “straight photography.”? No unusual effects were used to change the image of the subject. The photographs appear to show reality in a pure and clear way. Yet, Mister Weston did not always use his camera to take pictures that way. At first, he took pictures influenced by the popular photographs of his time. Photographers, then, made pictures that did not appear sharp and clear. Instead, they appeared “soft.”? They were similar to painted pictures that tried to be beautiful, not realistic. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edward Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois, in eighteen eighty-six. When he was sixteen, his father gave him one of the early cameras made by the Kodak Company. Edward soon showed some of his photographs at the Chicago Art Institute. In nineteen-oh-six, Edward Weston decided to move west where he worked for a railroad company. He briefly returned to Chicago to study at the Illinois College of Photography. But, he soon returned to California. He married Flora Chandler in nineteen-oh-nine. They later had four sons. VOICE ONE: Edward Weston owned a store in the area of Glendale, California. He made and sold pictures of people. He also had some of his writing on photography published. Several important photographers he met in southern California influenced him. Imogen Cunningham and Margrethe Mather were two of them. Miz Mather worked with Mister Weston on several pictures. Miz Cunningham praised Mister Weston’s work. She gave moral support that led Mister Weston to seek out other photographic influences. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edward Weston decided to travel to New York City in nineteen twenty-two. He wanted to meet the most influential American photographers in the East. He expected to be praised by members of the artistic community there. Alfred Stieglitz was the most influential photographer in the United States at the time. He was the reason for Mister Weston’s trip to New York City. He was responsible for a magazine called Camera Works. Mister Stieglitz helped many of the photographers whose work he liked, including Paul Strand and Ansel Adams. Alfred Stieglitz met with Edward Weston two times. He did not say that he liked Mister Weston’s work. Mister Stieglitz would point to some parts of the pictures he liked. Then he would point to something he did not like. VOICE ONE: Edward Weston discovered an art community in New York that he had never imagined before. He met many people who, today, are recognized as important American photographers and artists. One of them was Georgia O’Keeffe. Miz O’Keeffe became one of America’s most famous woman painters. Mister Weston saw some of her work in New York. He wrote that he would remember it for many years to come. Edward Weston felt good about his visit to New York, although he was criticized there. He wrote to a friend saying that his artistic sense was changing. He said Alfred Stieglitz had not changed him—only intensified him. VOICE TWO: The photographer Ansel Adams said that in the early nineteen twenties Mister Weston had a growing business taking pictures of people. Yet, he gave up his business and left his family to travel to a foreign land. In February of nineteen twenty-three, Mister Weston wrote, “I leave for Mexico City in late March to start life anew.” Mister Weston traveled to Mexico with Tina Modotti. The two had developed a relationship in Los Angeles. Both were active in the artistic community of southern California. They spent most of three years in Mexico. At the time, many artists and writers were gathering in the Latin American country. Mister Weston depended on Miz Modotti a great deal. With her help, Mister Weston was able to experience a cultural life that was completely foreign to him. He could not speak Spanish, so she helped him communicate. For a time, the two had both a working and personal relationship. Mister Weston agreed to teach Miz Modotti photography. In return, she ran his photography business and helped organize shows. VOICE ONE: Soon, Miz Modotti became a well-known photographer on her own. The two photographers met many famous Mexican artists during their stay. Painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo were among them. Miz Modotti photographed many of Mister Rivera’s wall paintings. Mister Weston made one of his best-known pictures by capturing the intense expression of another Mexican painter, Jose Clemente Orozco. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Mexico, Edward Weston started to sharpen the straight photography way of taking pictures that he had begun to develop before his trip to New York. He took pictures of people he met and of objects and buildings. His pictures appeared to represent the true nature of his subjects. He also took many photographs of cultural objects called folk art. At that time, many artists were reconsidering the importance of folk art. They began to realize that traditional forms of art are as important to culture as the art that normally is shown in museums. Mister Weston’s experience in Mexico changed his ideas about photography. He returned to California permanently in nineteen twenty-six to continue his own work. Miz Modotti became involved in political activism. She traveled to Europe to photograph the rise of Fascism there before she died mysteriously in nineteen forty-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After Edward Weston returned from Mexico he began producing fully developed work. He now made simple photographs that were sharp representations of their subjects. A sea shell and a vegetable called a green pepper were the subjects of two of his most famous photographs. The idea he presented was that simple objects are, in fact, beautiful forms. He would often take pictures of rocks, coastlines, vegetable life and even the unclothed human body. Mister Weston’s goal was to celebrate the beauty of shapes. VOICE TWO: Edward Weston’s life began to change. His marriage to Flora Chandler ended and he married Charis Wilson. They moved to Carmel, California. Mister Weston spent a lot of time at a nearby place on the coast called Point Lobos. Many of his best-known pictures show the beauty of the rocky coastline of northern California. His pictures often were of unusual rock formations. His new wife, Charis, was his most important model during this time. In nineteen thirty-seven, Mister Weston received the highest honor of his lifetime. He was given the first Guggenheim Fellowship ever presented to a photographer. The award signaled that photographers were now considered “serious artists.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edward Weston continued to work through the nineteen thirties and forties. Yet, he never earned much money. He lived in a small house that his sons built for him in Carmel, California. In nineteen forty-five, his second wife, Charis, left him. Mister Weston had to stop work three years later. The effects of Parkinson’s disease ended his ability to take photographs and process them. His sons took care of him until he died ten years later in nineteen fifty-eight. VOICE TWO: Experts say that Edward Weston helped change the way Americans understood photography. Photography had been thought of mainly as a way to record information. Edward Weston showed that photographers worked to capture the same forms that other artists did in their search for beauty. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. --- Correction: An earlier version of this page included a photograph that was misidentified as an?image of Edward Weston. ?? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Saving Historic Barns
* Byline: American farmers are urged to repair what they have and not tear it down. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the Special English Agriculture Report. A big red barn is probably one of the first things most Americans would think of if you asked them to imagine a farm. And not a modern metal barn, but a building made of wood like the ones in the old days. A barn is where farmers keep animals and equipment. Over time, as fewer and fewer people worked the land, more and more barns were torn down to make way for developers. Others that remained might have fallen into poor condition. Or perhaps they just no longer satisfy the needs of a modern farmer. Keeping an old barn in good condition might not be seen as worth the cost if it does not serve much purpose. But Americans with historic barns are being urged to save them. The magazine Successful Farming and the National Trust for Historic Preservation are working together on a program called Barn Again!? The National Trust is a nonprofit organization that works to protect places of historic importance in America. The Barn Again! program advises hundreds of barn owners every year. Awards are given for the projects that best succeed at restoring a barn for continued farm use. Winning buildings are used to demonstrate methods of preservation. The organization suggests how problems with things like stone and concrete block foundations can be fixed. With many old barns, the foundation they are built on is falling apart. Barn Again! also offers advice for other repairs, like how to replace siding and how to use a power washer to remove loose paint. And farmers are given suggestions about how to estimate costs. Leo Fitzpatrick of Beaverton, Michigan, won the two thousand four Barn Again! Award. He made one improvement at a time. The work took more than nine years. He did it himself, even though for a while he held another job in addition to farming. He says it cost him fourteen thousand dollars, much less than a new barn of similar size. The improvements included strengthening the barn. There are no structural supports inside the building; instead, its sides hold it up. Today the barn holds fourteen thousand bales of hay. Leo Fitzpatrick says the barn is a lot stronger than when it was new. His grandfather built it in nineteen fourteen. And Mister Fitzpatrick says his farm would not be the same without it. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about the Barn Again! program, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Very Light Jets' Are About to Shake Up Air Travel
* Byline: Also: A study finds that Tsavo lions do not need a full mane to have a social life ... And why autumn leaves change color. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week: A big idea in small planes. VOICE ONE: Scientists find that even on a bad hair day, the famous male lions of Tsavo still look good to the females. VOICE TWO: And the science of autumn leaves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Make room for some new arrivals in the market for small aircraft. The new airplanes are called very light jets. They are also known by other names including mini jets, microjets and air taxis. The Federal Aviation Administration in the United States expects nearly five thousand to be in service by two thousand seventeen. The new planes will cost up to fifty percent less than business jets now on the market. VOICE TWO: Eclipse Aviation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, proudly calls itself the manufacturer of the world’s first very light jet. The plane is called the Eclipse Five Hundred. It can carry as many as six people. The cost?? Just over one and one-half million dollars. Eclipse has just produced the first plane for the first buyer, businessman David Crowe. And the company says it already has more than two thousand five hundred orders to meet over the next few years. The Eclipse Five Hundred can fly at a top speed of six hundred eighty kilometers an hour. And it can travel one thousand six hundred kilometers without the need for more fuel. The company says a top flight level of almost twelve thousand five hundred meters will avoid most severe weather. VOICE ONE: Another very light jet, the A-Seven Hundred AdamJet, is currently under flight testing by Adam Aircraft of Englewood, Colorado. The AdamJet is twelve meters long and can carry up to eight people. With bigger planes, travelers often have to fly into big cities, then get a car and drive to smaller towns. The mini jets will be able to use smaller airports. In many cases the new aircraft are expected to be used as air taxis for short flights. Very light jets are designed to be easier to fly than other jet planes. And some versions even include a bathroom for long flights. VOICE TWO: Other companies have also entered the market for very light jets -- including one of Japan's top carmakers. Honda Motor has developed the HondaJet. Honda expects to produce seventy jets a year. It hopes to have them on the market in two thousand ten. In August, Honda established the Honda Aircraft Company, with headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Honda appointed HondaJet chief engineer Michimasa Fujino to lead the new business. He spent the past twenty years working to develop a Honda aircraft. The HondaJet can carry up to eight people. And, like the Eclipse Five Hundred and the AdamJet, it has two engines. But Honda officials say their plane will fly faster than other light jets of its kind. They say it will be able to reach speeds of almost seven hundred eighty kilometers per hour. VOICE ONE: Honda began sales of the HondaJet on October seventeenth. The price is more than three and one-half million dollars. Very light jets are expected to be popular not just with air taxi companies and businesses whose employees travel a lot. They are also expected to appeal to wealthy people who want something a little sportier than a sports car. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. In eighteen ninety-eight, two male lions attacked railway workers in the Tsavo [pronounced SAH-voh] area of what is now Kenya. It is said that the lions, over a period of nine months, ate more than one hundred thirty people. A British military officer finally killed the two animals. He observed that they had no manes. Male lions are known for the thick hair along the top and sides of their necks. Yet other lions that the officer saw also had no manes. The lions of Tsavo captured people's imaginations. They became the subject of scientific papers and books. The story was also told in the nineteen ninety-six motion picture "The Ghost and the Darkness." VOICE ONE: Researchers, however, now report that most fully grown Tsavo lions do have manes. They found that this was true of eighty-seven percent of the ones they observed. But the Tsavo lions do not develop their manes as fast as other lions they were compared with. The Journal of Zoology recently published the results of a study by a team from the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: The scientists followed the development of lions living in different parts of East Africa during a period of about seven years. They observed the lions in the hot Tsavo valley area of Kenya. They also studied lions in the cooler Serengeti mountains of Tanzania. The team reported that the difference in mane growth appears most closely linked to climate. The Tsavo lions took eight years to fully develop their manes. The team observed that the lions began to develop their manes later and at a slower rate than the Serengeti lions. The Serengeti lions had longer, thicker manes that were fully grown by age four or five. VOICE ONE: The Serengeti lions reached sexual maturity about the same time their manes were fully developed. The Tsavo lions did not have full manes until after their most sexually active years. But the researchers say even fully grown Tsavo lions with poor manes still mated actively. The findings suggest that a delay in mane development does not compromise the ability to reproduce. These findings conflict with other recent studies of lions. Some research found that female lions like to mate with males that have darker and more developed manes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Leaves on many trees change color in autumn. But why?? (MUSIC) The falling leaves drift by the windowThe autumn leaves of red and goldI see your lips, the summer kissesThe sun-burned hands I used to hold VOICE ONE: OK, more of Nat King Cole later. Here is how scientists explain why leaves change color in the fall. In the spring and summer, leaves produce a green substance called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll changes sunlight, water and carbon dioxide in the air into food energy. Chlorophyll is also what makes leaves green. Other chemicals in trees produce other colors. Carotenoids are orange, xanthophylls are yellow and anthocyanins are red. Scientists say chlorophyll, carotenoids and xanthophylls are present in leaf cells all through the spring and summer. But the green chlorophyll blocks the yellow and orange colors. In autumn, those colors can be seen because the leaves produce less and less chlorophyll, until the production stops. VOICE TWO: Red leaves are the result of anthocyanin production in autumn. Yet scientists are not sure about the purpose of anthocyanins. Some believe they protect the leaves from too much of the sun’s radiation and protect cells from freezing during the cool autumn nights. Others think anthocyanins may help leaves stay on a tree longer. They say the chemicals may make it possible for the tree to receive more growth chemicals from the leaves before the leaves fall off. The anthocyanins then stay inside the tree and its roots until they are needed again in the spring. VOICE ONE: Leaves fall off many kinds of trees when the weather cools. The leaves slowly close the veins that carry the growth chemicals. And special cells form where the leaves attach to the branches of the tree. These cells cause the leaves to separate from the tissues that connected them to the tree. The color of autumn leaves may not be the same each year. The colors are affected by the amount of rain that a tree receives. Lack of rain can delay the appearance of the colors. Warm, wet weather in the autumn will reduce the brightness of the colors that do appear. And extremely cold weather will kill the leaves and cause them to drop early in the season. (MUSIC) Since you went away the days grow longAnd soon Ill hear old winters songBut I miss you most of all my darlingWhen autumn leaves start to fall VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach. And special thanks to Kevin Tunison at the National Arboretum in Washington. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Learn more about science, and download MP3 files of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com? And be sure to listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Great Arches, Hoodoos and an Island in the Sky -- All in Utah
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we explore some national parks of great beauty in the American West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Zion National ParkMillions of people from all over the world visit the state of Utah every year. One reason is the many national parks. These are areas of great natural beauty that are protected by the United States government. More than three hundred fifty national parks can be found in the United States. Today we will visit four of them -- all in the state of Utah. These parks include huge colored rock formations, rivers, waterfalls, beautiful trees, other plants and many different kinds of wild animals. VOICE TWO: The first area we will visit is Arches National Park, near the town of Moab, in eastern Utah. Experts say this park has the greatest number of arches of any similar geographic area in the world. Arches are formations that look like half a circle above an opening or hole in a rock. Arches can also appear as curved bridges between two large rocks. Scientists say the area began forming almost two thousand million years ago. As time passed, the area filled with material left by rivers. Other rocks buried the area. Then great pressure deep in the Earth created huge mountains. A soft rock called sandstone began moving under this pressure. The sandstone moved upwards when it met other, harder rocks. These sandstone structures continued to grow for about one hundred fifty million years. Arches developed from thin rock walls. They resulted when pieces of sandstone fell away from the formations. Scientists say water is the most important element in creating arches. Water destroys the chemicals that keep rock particles together. The rock breaks as the water freezes and expands. Then the wind blows away the loose rock particles. VOICE ONE: Scientists say that most arches seen today developed within the past million years. But they say the land formation continues to change slowly over time. New arches form. Older ones fall away. The National Park Service has counted more than two thousand arches in Arches National Park. The smallest of these is an opening of less than one meter; the longest measures more than ninety-three meters. The rock formations in Arches National Park are mostly a deep red color. Rocks get their color from minerals. The red color is the result of iron oxide or rust. Scientists say the presence of iron in the rock shows that the weather was hot and dry when the rock was first formed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Arches National Park is not the only place in Utah where visitors can see arches and other beautiful rock formations. They are also found in the nearby national park named Canyonlands. Canyonlands National Park is a wild, lonely area of rocks, rivers and desert plants. Only Native Americans, cowboys, and explorers entered this area before the park was established in nineteen sixty-four. Even today, it is difficult to walk or ride through the park. The roads are still made of dirt. Driving requires a special vehicle. The National Park Service says Canyonlands National Park is wild America. VOICE ONE: Rivers created the area as they cut rock into many different formations. At the center of the park are two deep canyons carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers. Three areas that surround these rivers are included in the park. One of these areas is called the Maze District. This area includes rock art made by people who lived there more than two thousand years ago. Yet many people today cannot see the Maze District because it is so difficult to reach. The area is one of the loneliest and wildest in the United States. Another area of the park is called the Needles. It includes long, thin, red and white rocks that reach high into the air like fingers on a hand. VOICE TWO: A good way to see all the areas of Canyonlands National Park is to fly over it. A one-hour trip in a small airplane makes it possible to see the park’s red rocks, arches and flat areas where ancient Indian people once lived. From high in the air, visitors can clearly see the third area of the park -- a high broad flat rock known as the Island in the Sky. The island was formed between the two rivers. Another interesting formation is called the Upheaval Dome. This is a huge hole about four hundred fifty meters deep and one and one half kilometers wide. It is considered to be the most unusual geologic structure in the area. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two other national parks in Utah are included on our trip. The first is Bryce Canyon National Park, in southern Utah. The rock formations there are the result of deposits made by ancient lakes and rivers over a period of about twenty million years. The walls and cliffs of Bryce Canyon once were completely covered with water. About two million people visit Bryce Canyon National Park each year. The park reaches a height of more than three thousand meters. It includes more than eighty kilometers of trails for walking. Or visitors can drive a twenty-nine kilometer long road, stopping off at different points to enjoy the colorful formations. These rock formations at Bryce National Park are extremely beautiful. Sunlight makes many of them appear to be the color of fire. Some of the most unusual kinds of rocks in the park are called hoodoos. They are tall and thin, and seem to grow from the canyon floor. Their colors are bright red, orange and yellow. Some of the hoodoos have interesting shapes and names, like Thor’s Hammer, the Hunter, and the Wall of Windows. One hoodoo known as the Poodle looks like a poodle dog sitting on top of a long narrow rock. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The fourth and final park we will visit today is Zion National Park. It is not far from Bryce. But it is very different. About three million people visit the park each year. Zion National Park is an area of huge rocks that were cut through by a river. The area is really a desert, receiving only about thirty-five centimeters of rain a year. Visitors to Zion National Park are surprised by the huge mountain structures of red, pink and white. Driving is restricted in much of the park. Instead, visitors travel in small buses that take them to areas where they can walk on paths into the wild areas. One easy walk is almost two kilometers. It takes hikers to a clear pool of water and waterfalls. One of the more difficult walks is an eight-kilometer hike that is not for anyone afraid of high places. That is because the path ends at the top of a rock high above Zion Canyon. Another hike is a twenty-two kilometer walk that ends at an unusual rock formation. Experts say it could be the world’s largest free-standing arch. VOICE ONE: Visitors who choose not to take long walks can leave the small bus at different stops. At each stop, they can walk a short path to a viewing area where they can see a different part of the park. Some of the huge mountains have interesting names. One of the park’s largest sandstone formations is known as the Sentinel. Another area includes three mountains next to each other. They are called the Three Patriarchs -- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were given the names by a visiting Christian church leader in nineteen sixteen. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Zion National Park can sleep under the stars in a camping area. Or they can stay at the hotel in the park. Many people stay in the nearby town of Springdale and travel into the park each day. Of course, visiting these parks includes time to watch local wildlife. Visitors can see all kinds of birds, deer, foxes, and even mountain lions, elk, moose and bears. But they must be careful not to get too close. Many wild animals can be dangerous if they feel threatened. Most people who visit America’s national parks bring a camera and take many pictures. They want to enjoy again and again the natural beauty of the rocks, plants and wild animals. But many who have seen the parks we have described today say that such pictures cannot really capture the huge, beautiful areas of land. These visitors say that they will never forget the beauty of the four national parks in Utah. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Mario Ritter. You can read this report online and download audio at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-10/2006-10-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: When Fear Takes Control of the Mind
* Byline: An explanation of panic disorder and how it can be treated. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A panic attack is a sudden feeling of terror. Usually it does not last long, but it may feel like forever. Maryland's?Chesapeake Bay Bridge?is known for scaring?driversThe cause can be something as normally uneventful as driving over a bridge or flying in an airplane. And it can happen even if the person has driven over many bridges or flown many times before. A fast heartbeat. Sweaty hands. Difficulty breathing. A lightheaded feeling. At first a person may have no idea what is wrong. But these can all be signs of what is known as panic disorder. The first appearance usually is between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. In some cases it develops after a tragedy, like the death of a loved one, or some other difficult situation. In the United States, the National Institute of Mental Health says more than two million people are affected in any one-year period. The American Psychological Association says panic disorder is two times more likely in women than men. And it can last anywhere from a few months to a lifetime. Panic attacks can be dangerous -- for example, if a person is driving at the time. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the state of Maryland is so long and so high over the?water, it is famous for scaring motorists. There is even a driver assistance program to help people get across. Some people who suffer a panic attack develop a phobia, a deep fear of ever repeating the activity that brought on the attack. But experts say panic disorder can be treated. Doctors might suggest anti-anxiety or antidepressant medicines. Talking to a counselor could help a person learn to deal with or avoid a panic attack. There are breathing methods, for example, that might help a person calm down. Panic disorder is included among what mental health professionals call anxiety disorders. A study published last week reported a link between anxiety disorders and several physical diseases. It says these include thyroid disease, lung and stomach problems, arthritis, migraine headaches and allergic conditions. Researchers at the University of Manitoba in Canada say that in most cases the physical condition followed the anxiety disorder. But, they say, exactly how the two are connected remains unknown. The report in the Archives of Internal Medicine came from a German health study of more than four thousand adults. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Path to World War Two: Japan Widens Its Influence in Asia
* Byline: Japanese extremists formed an alliance with Nazi Germany before overthrowing the government. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) We have seen in recent programs how the rise of Fascist leaders in Europe threatened American neutrality in the nineteen thirties. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany created the most obvious threat. But there was also Benito Mussolini in Italy and Francisco Franco in Spain. These leaders challenged both the idea of democracy and the security of some of America's closest allies. Hitler's invasion of Poland and the beginning of general war in Europe in nineteen thirty-nine made Americans wonder if they could remain neutral much longer. The United States would finally go to war against Hitler and the other Axis nations. But its first battle would not be in Europe at all. Instead, Washington would enter World War Two following a direct attack by Japan. VOICE TWO: Relations between the United States and Japan had grown steadily worse throughout the nineteen thirties. Both nations were important industrial powers. But they had very different ideas about the economic and political future of eastern Asia, especially China. Until the late eighteen hundreds, Japan had been a nation with ancient political traditions and little contact with the Western world. Visits by Commodore Matthew Perry and American warships helped open Japan to trade with the United States and other nations in the eighteen fifties. And in the years that followed, Japan took giant steps toward becoming a modern industrial nation. By the nineteen twenties and thirties, Japan was a strong country. But it lacked oil, rubber, and other natural materials of its own. For this reason, Japanese leaders looked with envy at the Dutch colonies in Indonesia, French colonies in Indochina, and British colonies in Malaya and Burma. And Japanese businessmen saw huge markets for their products in such nearby countries as Korea and China. VOICE ONE: Japan's desire to use eastern Asia to gain natural materials and sell manufactured products was in direct conflict with American plans for Asia. This was especially true concerning China. Washington was the creator of the "Open Door" policy toward China. It wanted to keep China's natural materials and markets free from control by Japan or any other foreign nation. For this reason, Americans were very concerned when Japanese forces invaded the Manchuria area of China in nineteen thirty-one. And they watched with great interest the efforts of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to oppose the Japanese invaders. The United States was also very concerned about protecting its imports of oil, tin, and natural rubber from southeast Asia. This area of the world was a major supplier of these natural materials in the nineteen thirties. The Middle East had not yet become a leading producer of oil. In these ways, the United States and Japan were competing for the same natural materials and Asian markets. However, there also was a good deal of trade between the two nations. In fact, Japan depended on the United States for most of its metal, copper, and oil. VOICE TWO: This trade with Tokyo became a major concern for President Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress in nineteen thirty-seven. In the summer of that year, more Japanese troops moved into China. They quickly captured much of the Chinese coast. Much of the metal, oil, and other materials that Japan used for its war effort in China came from the United States. Americans did not like selling Japan materials to use against China. But the trade was legal because of a nineteen eleven agreement between Tokyo and Washington. However, the American government told Japan in nineteen thirty-nine that it would end the earlier agreement. It would no longer sell Japan materials that could be used for war. VOICE ONE: Washington's decision made the Japanese government think again about its expansionist plans. And the announcement a month later of the peace treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union gave Tokyo even more cause for concern. The Soviet Union could be a major opponent of Japanese expansion in eastern Asia. And it appeared free from the threat of war in Europe. These two events helped moderates in the Japanese government to gain more influence over foreign policy. A moderate government took power in January, nineteen forty. VOICE TWO: However, this period of moderation in Tokyo did not last long. In the spring of nineteen forty, Germany launched its lightning invasion of Europe. The Nazis captured Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and finally France. Extremists in the Japanese government saw the German victory as their chance to launch their own attack on European colonies in Asia. They quickly began negotiations with Hitler to form a new alliance. And within months, militant leaders overthrew the moderate government in Tokyo. The new Japanese government was headed by a moderate, Prince Konoye. But its minister of war was an expansionist, General Tojo. Tokyo wasted no time in taking action. It forced France to give Japan permission to occupy northern Indochina. And Tokyo also demanded that Britain close the Burma road to the Chinese city of Chungking. VOICE ONE: These events caused relations between Tokyo and Washington to become even worse. In the second half of nineteen forty, President Roosevelt banned the export of metal and oil products to Japan. His administration also lent money to China. And American representatives quietly began to meet with British and Dutch officials to discuss joint defense plans for possible Japanese attacks in the western Pacific. Washington and Tokyo held long negotiations in nineteen forty-one. The American officials hoped the negotiations might delay Japan from launching an attack to the south. They also thought that a delay might give more moderate leaders in Japan a chance to gain more influence. And for a time, the American plan worked. Japan did not make new acts of aggression. VOICE TWO: Again, events in Europe caused this situation to change. Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union in the middle of nineteen forty-one. This prevented Moscow from doing any fighting on its eastern borders. So, Japanese troops were free to invade southern Indochina. President Roosevelt reacted to Japan's invasion of Indochina by taking three major steps. First, he took control of all Japanese money in the United States. Second, he brought the armed forces of the Philippines under American command. And third, he closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. Once again, a conflict developed between moderates and extremists in the Japanese government. More moderate leaders such as Prime Minister Konoye urged one more effort to reach an agreement with the United States. But the Japanese army and navy believed that the time had come to go to war to end American and European power in eastern Asia forever. VOICE ONE: Negotiations between Japan and the United States continued through the final months of nineteen forty-one. But the two nations were on the edge of war. They were as close to hostilities as Washington was with the Nazi government in Berlin. American military officials captured secret messages from Japan during this time. They learned that Tokyo was planning an attack of some kind unless the United States suddenly changed its policies. However, the American officials could not discover exactly where or how the attack would be made. Almost everyone in Washington expected that the Japanese would attack south of Japan. They were wrong. The military leaders in Tokyo were planning a surprise attack on America's main pacific military base, the huge naval center at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Our program was narrated by Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. It was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-01-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Higher Education in America: College Entrance Exams
* Byline: The SAT and the ACT are the subject of Part 9 of our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American colleges and universities consider a number of things about a student who wants to be admitted. Experts on the subject say the most important thing is the student's high school record. Admissions officers look not only at the grades that the student has earned. They also look at the level of difficulty of the classes. A student's interests and activities may also play a part in getting accepted. But in most cases another consideration is how well the student did on college entrance exams. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we discuss two of these tests: the SAT and the ACT. Most American schools accept either one. The SAT measures reasoning skills in mathematics and language. Students have almost four hours to complete the SAT. The newest part is an essay. Students have twenty-five minutes to write an answer to a question. The SAT costs forty-one dollars and fifty cents. The international processing charge is twenty-two dollars more. And test-takers in India and Pakistan must also pay a twenty-one dollar and fifty cent security charge. Students may also need to take SAT subject tests in areas like history, science and foreign language. Subject tests cost eighteen dollars each. The Web site for the SAT is collegeboard.com. The ACT is an achievement test. It is designed to measure what a student has learned in school. Students are tested in mathematics, English, reading and science. A writing test is offered but not required. Without it, the ACT takes about three hours to complete. The essay part adds thirty minutes. The ACT costs forty-nine dollars to take outside the United States. The writing test costs an additional fourteen dollars. The ACT Web site is act.org. Recent Chinese news reports suggested that ACT testing would be expanded in China next year. But an ACT spokesman denies those reports. He tells us they were based on a misunderstanding. He says there are no plans to increase the number of testing centers in China. Ten centers there offer the ACT, but students must first take training classes at those centers. The only place in China where the SAT is offered for Chinese students is in Hong Kong. International students living in China have more choices. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Doug Johnson. --- Next week:?TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Million People Get a Life -- a Second Life, in a World Like No Other
* Byline: Also: Why Democrats and Republicans are represented by a donkey and an elephant, and Sufjan Stevens sings about the states. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the American political party symbols… Play some music about American states… And report about a chance for a Second Life! Second Life HOST: Did you ever wish you could be somebody else?? Now you can, within the growing online community of Second Life. Barbara Klein tells us about it. BARBARA KLEIN: Second Life is a three-dimensional, online world in which computer users can create a new self and live a different life. Second Life is one of the most popular new online games called "massively multiplayer online role playing games." These games are also called MMOs, for short. But unlike the other MMOs, Second Life is not about winning or losing. Second Life is technically a computer game. But people involved in it do not consider it a game because the players create everything. Second Life is more for socializing and creating communities. Users of Second Life are called residents. To take part, they must create an avatar, or an electronic image of themselves. Some avatars look like humans, while others look like animals or imaginary creatures. Inside the Second Life world, residents live different versions of themselves. They build homes, run businesses, buy and sell things, work, play, and attend school. They even have relationships and get married. Second Life was created in two thousand three by Linden Lab in San Francisco, California. Linden Lab controls the Web site where the ever-changing world is being created. There are now about one million people around the world who are active in Second Life. The number has grown quickly since the beginning of the year when there were about one hundred thousand users. The average age of people involved with Second Life is about thirty. However, Linden Lab recently created Teen Second Life for younger users. Second Life has its own economy and its own money, called Linden dollars. Millions of dollars are made and spent each month in Second Life. Users can enter Second Life for free. But they must pay for a membership if they want to own land or buy and sell goods and services. Recently, several major companies have become involved with Second Life. They wanted to be part of the? growing business world that exists within the made-up reality. The car maker Toyota, music producer Sony BMG, and even Reuters news agency are among businesses now existing within Second Life. Political Party Symbols HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Shafiqul Islam asks which animals represent the two major American political parties. That is a good question to answer now because midterm elections in the United States will be held Tuesday, November seventh. Voters will be choosing among members of different political parties to fill local and national offices, but not the presidency. The two major political parties are the Democrats and the Republicans. The donkey represents the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican Party. The reason comes from political cartoons created many years ago. Perhaps the most famous political cartoonist in American history was Thomas Nast. He lived more than one hundred years ago. Thomas Nast used his drawings to show dishonesty and the illegal use of power in government. His cartoons helped create public pressure on elected officials to make government more honest. In eighteen seventy, newspapers supporting the Democratic Party denounced a former Republican cabinet member. Thomas Nast drew a cartoon in protest. He called it “A Live Jackass Kicking A Dead Lion”. The dead lion represented the cabinet member who was no longer in power. The jackass represented the Democratic Party. “Jackass” is an old slang word for someone who is stupid or foolish. It is also another word for donkey. The image of the donkey had been used many years earlier. Democratic President Andrew Jackson used it as his personal political symbol in the eighteen thirties. He did so after his opponents called him a jackass. Later it was used at times to mean the whole Democratic Party. It became established as the party symbol when Thomas Nast used it to represent the Democrats. Thomas Nast was a member of the Republican Party. He chose the elephant as a symbol for his own Party. He first used it in a political cartoon in eighteen seventy-four. And he continued to use the elephant to represent the Republicans in many other cartoons. Soon, it became the Republican Party symbol. Sufjan Stevens Most people know that the United States is made up of fifty states. However, few people know a lot about all fifty of them. Sufjan Stevens is a young American musician. He wants to change this situation. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Sufjan Stevens plans to make an album about each of the fifty American states. During college he played in several musical groups and recorded an album of his own music. However, he wanted to be a writer, not a musician. So after college he moved to New York City to study writing. In New York, Stevens had trouble writing stories. He discovered that he missed music. He also discovered that most of the stories he did write were about his home state of Michigan. So, Sufjan Stevens decided to make an album of songs about Michigan. “Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State” was released three years ago. Here is the song “Say Yes to Michigan.” (MUSIC) The album was a big success. Many young people and music critics liked it. Before long, Stevens announced that he wanted to make an album for every state. He called it his “fifty states project.” Stevens chose Illinois as his next state. He read many books about Illinois. He studied police documents and old newspapers. He talked to people who live in the state. The CD “Illinoise” was released last year. Critics loved the album. It won many awards. “Illinoise” became popular at colleges throughout the United States. People said the CD sounded different from anything else they had ever heard. Here is a song called “Chicago.” (MUSIC) Sufjan Stevens is keeping his next state a secret from reporters. People have said that he is writing about Oregon, Rhode Island, or Minnesota. However, no one but Stevens knows for sure. We leave you with the song “Decatur,” or "Round of Applause For Your Stepmother," from the CD “Illinoise.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Brianna Blake, Sarah Randle and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For a Country, a Lot of Debt Is Not Always a Bad Thing
* Byline: How the United States can be the world's richest nation and its biggest borrower. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Listener Adamu Onakpa at Hillside High School in Cross River State, Nigeria, has a question. How can the United States be both the richest nation in the world and the biggest borrower? Part of the answer lies in how you look at borrowing. Generally, a nation's public debt is considered along with the size of its economy in terms of the gross domestic product. The G.D.P. represents the value of all goods and services produced within a territory in a year. The United States debt is the world's largest: more than eight and one-half million million dollars. But so is the G.D.P.: more than twelve million million dollars. Economists often look at public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product. Measured this way, the United States had the thirty-fifth largest debt last year, about sixty-five percent of G.D.P. That was less than Canada, Germany or France -- and a lot less compared to Japan and Italy. Both have public debts larger than their G.D.P. So, in this way, the United States debt is not considered oversized compared to other developed nations. Still, many experts remain concerned about federal budget deficits. The historical average is a little more than two percent of G.D.P. The White House Office of Management and Budget reported a deficit of just over three and one-half percent in two thousand four. Since then the deficit has fallen. But there are concerns that future costs could grow sharply, in part because of the Iraq war and federal programs for older people. At the same time, the economy has slowed. Increased borrowing in times of slow growth can quickly add to the debt. In the past, the government borrowed mostly from Americans. Today, foreign countries -- especially China and Japan -- have been willing to buy huge amounts of American debt even at low interest rates. Americans have been hearing a lot lately about the economic risks should that willingness ever change. But the issues involved, including international trade, are more complex than that. Foreign direct investment in the United States continues at record levels. The Congressional Budget Office says America's foreign investments add up to almost ten million million dollars. And that is more than the size of its debt. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. You can download transcripts and MP3 files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Why Say Something Nice? US Elections Bring Out Attack Ads
* Byline: Americans criticize negative political messages, but experts say they often work. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The United States will hold local, state and national elections this Tuesday. Opinion studies suggest that the Democrats may be in a position to end Republican control of one or both houses of Congress. Also, thirty-six of the fifty states will elect governors. If the Democrats gain four governor's offices, the Republicans would lose their majority at the state level. So both parties are fighting hard. Elections in America bring a flood of political advertising, especially on television. These messages are often negative or attack ads. They point out not the good qualities of candidates, but the bad qualities of their opponents. Even if the facts are correct, how they are presented may be questionable. Americans traditionally say they dislike negative ads. But political experts say these ads often work. In many cases, the candidates who stand to gain from negative ads can say that their own campaigns were not involved. Outside groups or national party committees often pay for these ads. Some are about issues, like a candidate's position on the war in Iraq or immigration. But political ads increasingly seem to be attacking candidates personally. Some political observers say this year's election has brought more negative ads than ever before. Whether this is true remains to be proven. But some ads have made news, like a Republican National Committee ad against Harold Ford. The Democrat is in a close race in an important Senate election in the southern state of Tennessee. The ad was based on the fact that last year he attended a Super Bowl party held by the men's magazine Playboy. The ad showed an actress with bare shoulders saying she met him at the Playboy party. "Harold, call me," she says. The ad might have seemed humorous, except the woman was white and Mister Ford is black. Critics said it was racist. His Republican opponent, Bob Corker, denounced the ad. It was withdrawn. Democrats are also running attack ads. In many cases, these try to gain from President Bush's low approval ratings by linking Republican candidates to him. But there have also been ads like the one in Florida accusing a Republican congressman of profiting from a so-called drug deal. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was responsible for the ad. The ad noted that Clay Shaw sold stock in a drug company after voting for changes in the Medicare program for older Americans. But the Web site FactCheck.org says the shares were in a company that could not have profited from the legislation. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael McDonald is a professor of government and politics at George Mason University in Virginia. He tells us that the Harold Ford ad in Tennessee appears to have increased early voting in that state. But, as he also noted, more interest in a race can mean more votes for either candidate. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. For more election news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Inside the Clinton Foundation
* Byline: The former president is active on issues including H.I.V/AIDS, health security and climate change. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report.President Bill Clinton left office in January of two thousand one. Since then, he has been leading a private foundation active on a number of world issues. These include H.I.V/AIDS, health security and climate change. Other projects involve poverty reduction, leadership development and working toward racial, ethnic and religious understanding.The Clinton Foundation forms partnerships with individuals, organizations and governments. For the past two years, in New York, the former president has held a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. Each invited guest must make a promise to work toward one of the foundation's goals. The idea is that the foundation will then observe the progress made toward the commitment over the next year. The second Clinton Global Initiative meeting took place for three days in September. At the end, the foundation announced commitments worth more than seven thousand million dollars. These included a three thousand million dollar commitment by Richard Branson to fight global warming. Mister Branson is chief executive officer of Britain's Virgin Group.The Clinton Foundation says more than one thousand leaders of business, government and nongovernmental organizations attended this year. They were joined by almost fifty current and former heads of state. Last year, more than two thousand million dollars worth of commitments were made. One of the major programs that Mister Clinton has launched is an H.I.V./AIDS campaign. For example, he has negotiated lower prices for H.I.V. tests and AIDS drugs in developing countries. On the issue of climate change, the Clinton Foundation has a program for large cities to work together to buy energy-saving products. The goal is to reduce the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere. The cities also receive technical assistance from experts.Bill Clinton and his foundation are also active on other issues. There is even a campaign to work with schools and food companies to reduce the problem of overweight children in America. The Clinton Foundation has offices in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas. Mister Clinton was the governor of Arkansas. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is now one of the two United States senators who represent the state of New York. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. Internet users can download transcripts and MP3 files of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Like Madonna, More and More Americans Turn to Foreign Adoptions
* Byline: The State Department approved almost 23,000 immigrant visas for foreign adopted children last year, up from 8,000 in 1989. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE:? Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week -- a report on the growing number of Americans who adopt children from other countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Madonna, as you might have heard, is in the process of adopting a baby from Malawi. The one-year-old boy named David was flown last month to London. The American pop music star and her husband have a home there. Madonna is married to film director Guy Ritchie and is the biological mother of two children. David’s mother died soon after giving birth. His father, Yohane Banda, a farmer, said he could not care for the baby. So Mister Banda placed David in an orphanage. Madonna recently gave millions of dollars to support efforts to help orphans in Malawi. The southern African country is one of the poorest nations in the world. VOICE TWO: Madonna says she wants to give David a better life. But some people criticized her for adopting a child whose father is still alive, even if the father did agree to it. And some child psychologists and social workers said children do best if they are well cared for in their own homeland. The adoption is not yet final. The Lilongwe High Court gave Madonna and her husband temporary custody of David on October twelfth. The court order is for eighteen months. During that period a social worker will report on how the boy is being cared for. A committee of sixty-seven human rights groups in Malawi argued that adoption laws there normally bar international adoptions. The committee has brought a legal action to make sure Madonna did not receive special treatment. Madonna says she did not. And she has supporters. They include Jane Aronson, an influential expert on adoptions and head of the World Orphans Foundation. She says Madonna is offering David a new life. VOICE ONE: Most people who adopt children from other countries are not famous. They are people like Miriam and John Baxter of Bethesda, Maryland. The Baxters have a biological daughter named Olivia. Olivia was almost eight when her new brother, Matthew, arrived. The Baxters adopted Matthew from an orphanage in South Korea. They had thought about adopting a baby from China. But their plans changed five years ago after the World Trade Center attack in New York. A nearby office where they needed to get a document to satisfy Chinese adoption requirements was closed temporarily. Waiting for the office to re-open would have delayed the process another month. And the Baxters already faced a year of waiting. Then they learned that it might be faster to try to adopt a child from South Korea. Miriam Baxter has a brother and sister who were adopted from there. And, in her words, "we wanted the child so much, we just could not wait any longer."? Matthew is five now. He was seven months old when his new parents brought him home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are many older children in the United States who could be adopted. Finding permanent homes for them is difficult, especially if they have physical or emotional problems. People who want to adopt usually want a child who is healthy and very young. But the number of children given up for adoption in America has decreased sharply. In nineteen seventy-three, the Supreme Court ruled that women have a right to end unwanted pregnancies. Also, more unmarried mothers are keeping their babies than in the past. So, for more and more Americans looking to adopt, the answer is to look in another country. The State Department approved immigrant visas for eight thousand foreign adopted children in nineteen eighty-nine. By last year the number was almost twenty-three thousand. The Census Bureau says two and a half percent of all children in the United States are adopted. Of those, about thirteen percent are foreign-born. VOICE ONE: Immigration reports show that last year, the largest numbers of adopted foreign children came from China and Russia. Americans adopted almost eight thousand children from China last year. Many children also came from Guatemala and South Korea. In the past, Americans could adopt Romanian children. But now Romania bars most foreign adoptions. VOICE TWO:?????? Years ago, few unmarried Americans or couples older than about forty adopted babies. Today, it is much more common for single people to adopt. The same is true of older married couples and older singles. Some couples of the same sex also adopt children. Adoption laws differ from state to state. People who want to adopt must show they can provide a safe and loving home. But sometimes they have to wait years until an adoption agency can find a child for them. So they might seek a private adoption -- for example, by paying a woman to have a baby for them. By some estimates, the average cost of an adoption is less than twenty thousand dollars. But some parents pay a lot more. Foreign adoptions can also be costly. For example, to adopt a Russian child can cost more than thirty thousand dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Many adoption agencies in the United States handle foreign adoptions. For parents, the easiest adoptions often involve what is called direct relinquishment. This means the biological parents might be dead. Or they might have already surrendered their child to an orphanage. But, like many other adoptions, international adoptions take time -- in some cases, many months. Adoption agencies and the State Department have a number of requirements for people who want to adopt a foreign child. The prospective parents must prove they are in good health and able to financially support a child. Officials also look for criminal records. And a social worker visits the home, to make sure the home and family will be good for the child. VOICE TWO: In addition, prospective parents must meet any requirements of foreign adoption agencies and governments. For example, many foreign adoption centers require prospective parents to make two trips. On the first, the people meet and spend time with a child. On the second, they complete the adoption process. Parents are advised to repeat the legal process in the United States when they return. VOICE ONE:?????????????? Some doctors in the United States, like Jane Aronson, provide special services for parents who want to adopt a foreign child. Parents have to know there is a risk that the children they adopt might not be as healthy as they seem. For example, the State Department last month put out a notice to any Americans who recently adopted a child from southern Kazakhstan. The Kazakh government reported that as many as sixty-one children in the Shymkent area were infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The State Department said parents may wish to talk to their child's doctor about testing for H.I.V. It said testing is now required for all children from Kazakhstan adopted by American parents as of the middle of September. VOICE TWO: The United States has been preparing to put into effect an international treaty called the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. That may happen next year. The treaty aims to fight child trafficking and other problems. Some people are concerned that foreign adoptions could take longer and cost more as a result of rule changes required by the treaty. But the Wall Street Journal noted last week that the rules will mean adoption agencies have to try harder to get health information on children. Any adoption can be complex, both for the parents and the child. This is true especially in families with adopted children from other races and cultures. There are issues of identity and acceptance. To what extent do the parents wish to learn about and honor their children's ancestry?? To what extent do the children feel different from all the new people around them?? As they get older, how might these adopted children come to see themselves?? Matthew Baxter was in an orphanage not so long ago. Now the five-year-old from South Korea is living an American life with a big sister and a father and mother to care for him. Miriam Baxter says people in the park sometimes ask her, "Is the little boy yours, or is he adopted?"? She answers, "Both." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. You can read transcripts of our programs and download MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? And I'm Steve Ember, hoping you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Katharine Hepburn, 1907-2003: An Independent, Intelligent Actress
* Byline: She has been called the greatest American actress of all time. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Katharine Hepburn, one of America’s great film and stage actresses. Hepburn’s career lasted almost seventy years. During that time she made more than fifty films. She became known all over the world for her independence, sharp intelligence, and acting ability. Katharine Hepburn holds the record for the most Academy Awards for Best Actress. She won the honor four times. This star holds a special place in American film and popular culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut in nineteen oh seven. She came from a wealthy and highly educated family. Her father, Thomas Hepburn, was a successful doctor. Her mother, Katharine Martha Houghton, was a great supporter of women’s rights issues including the right to birth control. The Hepburns made sure to educate their children about important political and social subjects. The family members were not afraid to express their liberal opinions. VOICE TWO: Doctor Hepburn also believed in the importance of intense exercise. For most of her life Kate was an excellent athlete. She rode horses, swam and played golf and tennis. Here is a recording of Katharine Hepburn from a film about her life. She is talking about the values her family taught her. She says she is not strange, but is fearless. “I don’t think I’m an eccentric, no! I’m just something from New England that was very American and brought up by two extremely intelligent people…who gave us a kind of, I think the greatest gift that man can give anyone, and that is…sort of freedom from fear.” VOICE ONE: Katharine graduated from Bryn Mawr college in Pennsylvania in nineteen twenty-eight. She soon started appearing in small roles in plays on Broadway in New York City. That year she also married a businessman named Ludlow Ogden Smith. Their marriage lasted only a few years. But Katherine later said Ludlow’s support was very important to her during the early part of her career. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Katharine Hepburn was not the usual kind of actress during this period. She had a thin and athletic body. She spoke with a clear East Coast accent. And she was very independent in her thoughts and actions. For example, she wore men’s pants as clothing at a time when women wore only skirts or dresses. Sometimes her independence and liberal opinions got her in trouble. After a few successful plays in New York, Hollywood filmmakers became interested in her. She later signed with the film production company called RKO pictures. Her first movie came out in nineteen thirty-two. VOICE ONE: The next year she made the film “Morning Glory.” In her role as Eva Lovelace, Hepburn plays a stage actress fighting for a successful career. Few directors are interested in her. But by the end of the movie, she has a chance to let her acting skills shine and she becomes a star. This movie earned Hepburn her first Academy Award for Best Actress. Here is a recording from the movie. Hepburn’s character, Eva, tells about how she has changed her name in preparation for becoming a great actress. She talks very quickly, but you can sense the energy behind her performance. "I hope you’re going to tell me your name. I want you for my first friend in New York. Mine’s Eva Lovelace. It’s partly made up and partly real. It was Eva Love. Love’s my family name. I added the Lace. Do you like it or would you prefer something shorter? A shorter name would be more convenient on a sign. Still, Eva Lovelace in “Camille” for instance, or Eva Lovelace in “Romeo and Juliet,” sounds very distinguished, doesn’t it? I don’t want to use my family name because I shall probably have several scandals while I live and I don’t want to cause them any trouble until I am famous, when nobody will mind. That’s why I must decide on something at once while there is still time, before I am famous.”?? VOICE TWO: During the nineteen thirties, critics either loved or hated Katharine Hepburn. Some thought she was a fresh and exciting addition to the Hollywood industry. Others decided she was too bold and self-important. They thought her way of speaking sounded false. But Hepburn wanted to face the movie industry her own way. She liked to play the roles of strong women. She did not want to be like other actresses. She did not wear make up on her face. She would not let photographers take sexy pictures of her. And she did not like talking to her fans or the media. VOICE ONE: Katharine Hepburn continued to work very hard making movies. Yet by the late nineteen thirties she had became unpopular with the public. So movie producers stopped wanting her in their films. But Hepburn was not raised to quit easily. She decided to return to the stage on Broadway in New York City. She starred in a play called “The Philadelphia Story." Hepburn's friend Philip Barry wrote the play especially for her. It is about a wealthy and intelligent woman named Tracy Lord. She is about to marry a man she does not love. In the movie she learns to be more honest with herself and others. She decides to marry a man from her past whom she has always loved. VOICE TWO: The play was a great success. Hepburn immediately bought the legal rights to the play. She knew “The Philadelphia Story” would be made into a movie. And she wanted to make sure she was the star of the film version. In nineteen forty, “The Philadelphia Story” became a great movie success. Hepburn received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She had taken control of her career once again. And she would stay in control of it from now on. Here is a recording from "The Philadelphia Story." Katharine Hepburn’s character, Tracy Lord, is talking with her new friend, Macaulay Connor, a writer. She has just read his book and discovered something surprising about him. Tracy: These stories are beautiful! Why Connor, they’re almost poetry! Macaulay: Well, don’t kid yourself, they are. Tracy: I can’t make you out at all now. Macaulay: Really? I thought I was easy. Tracy: So did I. But you’re not. You talk so big and tough, and then you write like this. Which is which? Macaulay: Both, I guess. Tracy: No. No, I believe you put the toughness on to save your skin. Macaulay: Oh, you think so. Tracy: I know a little about that. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-two, Katherine Hepburn starred in “Woman of the Year.” This was the first of nine movies she starred in with actor Spencer Tracy. They would soon become a famous couple both on and off the movie screen. Usually their movies dealt with finding a balance of power between their two strong characters. Hepburn and Tracy had a magical energy when they acted together. But in real life they kept their love hidden from the public. Spencer Tracy was married to another woman. For religious reasons, he would not end his marriage and divorce his wife. So Hepburn and Tracy led a secret love affair for more than twenty years. Katharine Hepburn had had other love interests. She once had a relationship with the famous American millionaire Howard Hughes. But Spencer Tracy remained the love of her life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of Katharine Hepburn’s most famous roles was in the movie “The African Queen.” She made this movie in nineteen fifty-one with the famous actor Humphrey Bogart. In the film, their two very different characters fall in love on a riverboat in the middle of Africa. As Katharine Hepburn became older, she played more and more wise and complex characters. In nineteen sixty-seven she starred in her last movie with Spencer Tracy. He died a few weeks after filming ended. For this movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” she won her second Academy Award. She won her third Academy Award the next year for “A Lion in Winter.” And, in her mid-seventies she won her last Academy Award for “On Golden Pond.” VOICE ONE: Even into her eighties, Katharine Hepburn kept working. She had roles in several movies and television programs. She also wrote several books, including one about her life. In two thousand three, Katharine Hepburn died. She was ninety-six years old. As part of her last wishes, she helped create the Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center at Bryn Mawr College. This program helps support the things that were important to her: film and theater, women’s rights, and civic responsibility. VOICE TWO: An actor who worked with Katharine Hepburn once said that she brought with her an extra level of reality. He said that when she was near, everything became more interesting, intense and bright. This intensity and intelligence shine in the films that Katharine Hepburn made over her lifetime. People still enjoy her films today. Katharine Hepburn’s work and personality have had a great influence on American film and culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. You can download this program and others from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Water:? She Is In Hot Water
* Byline: Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself.  Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories.(MUSIC) Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. But many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings. The expression "to be in hot water" is one of them. It is a very old expression. "Hot water" was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle.That no longer happens. But we still get in "hot water."? When we are in "hot water," we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble--serious, or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother, if he walks in the?house with dirty shoes. Being in "deep water" is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in "deep water," you are in a difficult position. Imagine a person who cannot swim being thrown in water over his head. You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you do not have the ability to solve. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market. "To keep your head above water" is a colorful expression that means staying out of debt. A company seeks to?keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job."Water over the dam" is another expression about a past event. It is something that is finished.It cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water that has flowed over a dam cannot be brought back again.When a friend is troubled by a mistake she has made, you might tell her to forget about it. ?You say it is water over the dam. Another common expression, "to hold water," is about the strength or weakness of an idea or?opinion that you may be arguing about. It probably comes from a way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong and has no holes in it. If your argument can hold water, it is strong and does not have any holes. If it does not hold water, then it is weak and not worth debating. "Throwing cold water" also is an expression that deals with ideas or proposals. It means to not?like an idea. For example, you want to buy a new car because the old one has some problems. But your wife "throws cold water" on the idea, because?she says a new car?costs too much. (MUSIC)This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cheese Culture Grows and Grows in Vermont
* Byline: The state's producers turn milk from cows, sheep, goats and water buffalo into more than 100 kinds of cheese. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States produces twenty-five percent of the world's cheese. A trade group, the Dairy Export Council, says producers made more than four million metric tons of it from cow's milk last year. And the industry is growing. Cheese production increased by more than ten percent from two thousand one through the start of this year. The state of Wisconsin in the Midwest leads the country in cheese production. Wisconsin faces strong competition from California. But another notable cheese-making state is Vermont. Vermont is already famous for maple syrup. But local experts say that per person, it has the largest number of cheese-makers of any state. Vermont is a small state in the Northeast, on the border with Canada. Cheese-makers in Vermont make more than one hundred kinds of cheese with milk from cows, sheep, goats and water buffalo. Cheeses made the traditional way use raw milk. The producers say the milk tastes better without going through the heating process of pasteurization. Almost forty cheese-makers are along the Vermont Cheese Trail around the state. Many welcome visitors. The huge Cabot Creamery in Montpelier has a visitors center and offers guided tours. In the fall, when many people come to Vermont to watch the leaves change color, Cabot may give as many as four hundred tours daily. Even in winter, about fifty to one hundred groups see Cabot's cheddar cheese in the making. At the Three Owls Farm, visitors can pay to watch cheese being made from sheep's milk. They can even milk a sheep. The University of Vermont offers classes in cheese-making through the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese. Teachers include visiting experts from other countries. Some recent classes were on English cheddar and Italian cheeses. A man named Consider Bardwell built Vermont's first cheese factory in eighteen sixty-four. Today, the Consider Bardwell Farm still produces goat cheese. The arrival of railroads long ago opened new markets to cheese from Vermont. Cheese traveled better than milk without the cold storage that came later. Refrigerated train cars meant that Vermont farmers could market their products widely. And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Flight to Service Hubble Telescope Could Take Place in Early 2008
* Byline: Also: A mouse on Cyprus is Europe's newest-known mammal | A cookstove for Darfur | A water-purifying straw. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week: The future suddenly looks brighter for the Hubble Space Telescope. VOICE ONE: Move over, Mickey Mouse -- meet the Cypriot mouse. VOICE TWO: Also, a technology report on a new cookstove for refugee camps in Darfur. VOICE ONE: And we tell you about a water-purifying device called the LifeStraw. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American space agency has decided to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope. The orbiting observatory is sixteen years old. Over the years, space shuttle astronauts have flown to the Hubble four times to make repairs and improvements. A fifth visit had been set for last year. But in two thousand four, NASA's administrator at the time, Sean O'Keefe, vetoed the plan. He said it would be too risky. At that time all shuttle flights were suspended following the loss of the shuttle Columbia in two thousand three. What about designing a robotic spacecraft to repair Hubble?? Studies showed that would be too costly and too complex to attempt by two thousand seven. Engineers thought Hubble could fail next year because of weakening batteries and aging gyroscopes. The gyroscopes are part of Hubble's guidance system. They help keep the telescope pointed in the right direction. Now, the current NASA administrator has renewed plans to send a shuttle crew on another Hubble repair flight. Michael Griffin announced the decision last week. He said he would not have agreed to it if he did not believe the plan could succeed, and succeed safely. VOICE ONE: NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is preparing to retire its space shuttles. But before then, under the new plan, the shuttle Discovery will fly to the Hubble telescope. It could happen as early as May of two thousand eight. The seven-member crew will carry out repairs and add new equipment, including two new camera instruments. The hope is to keep Hubble operating until two thousand thirteen. NASA chief Michael Griffin says the repair mission can wait until two thousand eight. Engineers have found ways to extend the life of Hubble's batteries and gyroscopes. But even if those systems fail before then, he says, Hubble could operate in a so-called safe mode until the astronauts arrive. The telescope orbits six hundred kilometers above the Earth. Its images of the universe have led to a great many discoveries. Michael Bakich at Astronomy magazine was among those very happy at NASA's decision. He calls the Hubble Space Telescope one of the great machines of all time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Thomas Cucchi is a French archeologist working at Durham University in England. He is an expert on the history of house mice. Two years ago, he was on the island of Cyprus examining fossil remains of mice that lived during the Stone Age. He was comparing their teeth with those of modern European house mice. In the process, he identified a population of mice that live on Cyprus but are different from other European mice. The archeologist says they must have arrived on Cyprus before the island broke away from the mainland. He says the mouse colonized and changed to survive the Cypriot environment several thousand years before humans arrived. Humans are believed to have settled on the island ten thousand years ago. VOICE ONE: Genetic tests at the University of Montpellier in France confirmed that the mouse is a different species. The scientific name is Mus cypriacus. It has a bigger head, ears, eyes and teeth than other European mice. Still, most people might mistake it for one of the common European house mice that also live on the island. But Thomas Cucchi calls it a living fossil. He and other scientists described the new mouse in a report earlier this year in the publication Zootaxa. He says the mystery behind its survival offers a new area of study. He notes that most mammals disappeared from Mediterranean islands after humans arrived. The exceptions are two kinds of shrews, and now this mouse. Mammals are warm-blooded creatures that have hair and drink milk from their mothers. The new species of mouse is one of about twelve kinds of mammals discovered in the world in the past few years. But the discovery of a new mammal species in Europe surprised scientists. Mister Cucchi says new mammal species are mainly discovered in areas like Southeast Asia. They are generally found in areas where few people live and where scientific visits are rare. He notes that scientists generally believed that all the mammals in Europe had already been identified. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have designed a cookstove that could make life a little easier for refugees in the Darfur area of Sudan. It might also help reduce the loss of forests in poor countries where trees are cut down as fuel for cooking fires. The scientists are from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley. Two of them, Ashok Gadgil [ah-SHOKE GAD-gil] and Christina Galitsky, went to Darfur late last year. They found that many refugee families were missing meals for lack of fuel. The light metal stove uses only about one-fourth as much wood as the cooking method currently used in the camps. That method is known as the three-stone fire. Less need for fuel would mean less need for women to leave the camps to search for wood and risk being attacked in violence-torn Darfur. VOICE ONE: Since that visit, the researchers have improved the stove. Now they are trying to set up production. They estimate that the stoves could be built locally in Darfur for about fifteen dollars each. They say about three hundred thousand are needed. The hope is to begin producing five thousand stoves by the end of the year. Ashok Gadgil says his team agrees with aid organizations that the stoves should not be given away free of charge. If they are free, he says, they will be undervalued. People might then try to sell them for the value of the metal. The scientists say microlending programs could help people buy the stoves with loans if they do not have enough money. And people could use borrowed money to start their own stove-building business. VOICE TWO: San Francisco area members of Engineers Without Borders-USA are providing engineering support for the project. The groups working on the Darfur Cookstoves Project are also seeking donations to support their work. The project has a Web site. The address is darfurstoves.lbl.gov. VOICE ONE: During the nineteen nineties, Ashok Gadgil invented a water-purifying system that won awards for its design. The system is called UV Waterworks. It uses ultraviolet light to disinfect water of viruses and bacteria. And it can be powered by a car battery or energy from the sun. Now there is another award-winning water-purifying device on the market. The Vestergaard Frandsen Group, a Danish company with headquarters in Switzerland, invented the LifeStraw last year. The LifeStraw won an award from a nonprofit organization in Denmark that honors designs to improve life. VOICE TWO: The LifeStraw is a thick plastic tube twenty-five centimeters long. You place one end into water and drink from the other. The water passes through a series of filters to catch extremely small particles. Iodine and active carbon are also used in the cleaning process. It takes about eight minutes to filter one liter. Vestergaard Frandsen says the LifeStraw kills organisms that spread diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera. The device filters most bacteria and parasites. But it has limits, including against viruses. Also, it does not remove arsenic or other heavy metals from water. VOICE ONE: The LifeStraw costs about three dollars. It can be worn on a string around the neck. It has a lifetime of up to seven hundred liters, or about one year. The company notes that each day, worldwide, more than six thousand children and adults die from unsafe drinking water. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Learn more about science, and download transcripts and MP3 files of our programs, at voaspecialenglish.com? And join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Study Links Brain Abnormalities to Sudden Death in Babies
* Byline: Findings support belief that lying face down may increase the risk of death as a result of pre-existing problems. Transcript of radio broadcast

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists say they have strong evidence that a biological problem could explain why some babies die suddenly in their sleep. Researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School examined brain tissue from forty-one babies. Thirty-one of them had died of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS; ten died of other causes. The study appeared last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It adds to the belief that lying face down may increase the risk of SIDS as a result of pre-existing problems. The researchers say they found abnormalities in nerve cells in the brainstems of the SIDS babies. The brainstem is involved in controlling breathing and waking from sleep. This part of the brain also controls blood pressure and body heat. The researchers say the brainstems of the SIDS babies had far more of one kind of nerve cell than the other babies. These cells produce and release serotonin, a brain chemical believed to play an important part in controlling sleep. Hannah Kinney of Children’s Hospital Boston was a leader of the study. Doctor Kinney says normal babies will wake up, turn their head and start to breathe faster if they are not getting enough air. But if the serotonin system is bad, then a baby's brain might not get the message to react. The scientists say that things like alcohol use and smoking when a woman is pregnant may harm the development of the brainstem. They also found biological differences that they say may explain why SIDS happens two times as often in boys than girls. ?They say the findings of their study could lead to a test for SIDS risk and possibly treatments someday. But they also note that the small size of their study represents a possible limitation of the research. The United States records about two thousand cases of sudden infant death syndrome each year. SIDS is the nation's leading cause of death for babies between one month and twelve months of age. But the number of cases has fallen in the past few years. This follows the launch of a campaign to urge people to place babies under one year on their back to sleep. Still, sixty-five percent of the SIDS babies in this study were found on their stomach or side. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, with transcripts and MP3 files, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Getting a Good Look: Learning About Mars From the Ground Up
* Byline: NASA scientists study the red planet with orbiters and rovers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the latest exploration of the red planet, Mars. We learn about the travels of the Mars Rover vehicles. And we find out about the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey as they map extraordinary places. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Imagine a land were the average temperature is about sixty-seven degrees below zero. Iron-rich rocks cover the landscape. There is no water to be seen anywhere. Powerful windstorms blow huge amounts of sand hundreds of kilometers, changing the landscape from year to year. Above, two small moons quickly cross the sky like distant airplanes among the stars. This world is the planet Mars. Once Mars was a place known only in the pages of science fiction stories. But today Mars is being explored on its surface and from above. The computer and robotic technology of four space vehicles developed by the American space agency, NASA, has opened Mars to science. VOICE TWO: NASA's Mars Rovers are land vehicles able to move and think for themselves. The two rovers are exactly the same. And it is easy to think of them as living things. They each weigh about one hundred seventy kilograms. And they have computer brains. NASA says they are similar in memory and ability to a well equipped personal computer. Each rover also has eyes -- nine of them. Six cameras on the body help each rover avoid dangers like rocks and holes. Two other cameras are placed on a structure that NASA engineers call the mast. The mast serves as the neck and head of the vehicle. It carries cameras that work together to give the rover depth perception. That means they see the world much as people do. With two cameras working together, a rover can tell how far away objects are. And it can judge distance between objects. This is called stereoscopic vision. Even the area that can be seen by one of these navigation cameras, its field of view, is similar to human vision. Two other science cameras give each rover color vision. And each also has a microscope camera able to produce pictures of soil and rock particles. VOICE ONE: The rovers are valuable to planetary scientists because they can move around on the Martian surface. Each rover has six twenty-five centimeter wheels. Each wheel has its own motor. The rovers will not set any speed records. They can reach a top speed of five centimeters a second. But they rarely reach even that. This is because the rovers are designed to travel for ten seconds, then stop. The rovers then use their cameras to look around for twenty seconds before moving forward again. The most the rovers can travel on a Martian day is about one hundred meters. Scientists designed the rovers for this slow, careful way of traveling. Mars is so far away that it can take up to twenty minutes for a radio signal from Earth to reach it. So, NASA engineers had to design the rovers to think for themselves sometimes, without help from controllers on Earth. The rovers' computers have to make control decisions every day. One error in a mountainous or rocky area and the three hundred twenty million dollar vehicles could be severely damaged or destroyed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: So far, each Mars rover has developed a highly personal story. The rover Spirit landed inside a low-lying area called Gusev Crater on January fourth, two thousand four. The vehicle was expected to survive for ninety Martian days. A day on Mars is about forty minutes longer than a day on Earth. But Spirit is a fighter. Late last month, it spent its one-thousandth Martian day on the red planet. At first, Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists operating the rover worried that Spirit might not survive the extreme Martian winter this year. Last March, one of Spirit’s six wheels stopped working. Now, when the vehicle moves, the other five wheels drag the sixth wheel in the sand. NASA also reported having trouble getting Spirit to move into position so its solar energy collectors could face the sun. The solar panels gather the electricity necessary to run the rover’s scientific instruments and computers. But, Spirit was able to turn to the north. In that position, Spirit has been able to collect enough energy to keep operating. And that is not easy in the Martian environment. During the coldest Martian months, nighttime temperatures can drop to one hundred degrees below zero. Even with its troubles, Spirit has traveled almost seven kilometers over the Martian surface. It is currently in a resting position. It is taking pictures and waiting for the Martian spring. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity landed shortly after Spirit, on January twenty-fifth, two thousand four. It has traveled more than nine kilometers on the Martian surface. It has not had the technical difficulties suffered by Spirit. Last month, Opportunity reached a new place on Mars that is more beautiful and interesting than any it has yet visited. Victoria Crater is a huge round hole about seven hundred fifty meters across. It is seventy meters deep. Victoria Crater is the biggest landmark that Opportunity has visited. It is several kilometers from where Opportunity landed. Scientists are interested in Victoria Crater because its walls cut deep into the Martian surface showing many levels of rock. Opportunity’s special cameras will let scientists studying Martian geology examine material they could not have seen any other way. One scientist called the arrival at Victoria Crater a dream come true. VOICE TWO: From October eighteenth to the twenty-ninth, all Mars spacecraft were cut off from Earth. But this was not because of a technical failure. Every two years, the Earth reaches a point in its orbit where the sun is between it and Mars. This event is called inferior conjunction, meaning that Mars is behind the sun. It is a period when no communication with any Mars vehicles is possible for almost two weeks. For the rovers, that meant no traveling. Instead, NASA scientists ordered the robots to gather scientific information and to take pictures of their surroundings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It could be said that the two robotic rovers are making their mark on the surface of Mars. That has been confirmed by one of the spacecraft in orbit around the red planet. On October ninth, NASA release a picture taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It reached orbit around Mars in March of this year. The orbiter used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera to take a picture of the Mars rover Opportunity from space. The image is extremely detailed. The picture not only shows Opportunity. It even shows marks the rover made in the sand as it approached Victoria Crater. NASA hopes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will show areas on the surface that have been shaped by running water. Scientists who study the geology of Mars are now seeing surface structures that could not be seen with other Mars spacecraft. And the best images are still to come. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter starts the main part of its detailed mapping mission this month. VOICE TWO: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is not the only spacecraft observing Mars from space. The Mars Odyssey continues to take pictures of the surface. These images are being used to make improved maps. Next month, Mars Odyssey will also begin taking pictures meant to give a three-dimensional view of the surface. The orbiter will do this by taking pictures of the same area from different places in its orbit. Mars Odyssey has been in orbit around the red planet since October two thousand one. Since then it has provided the best maps of Mars yet. Odyssey also shares a close link with the rover vehicles. The maps the orbiter provided helped NASA choose the landing area for both Mars rovers. And Odyssey is the main communications link between the rovers and Earth. NASA says the orbiter will support future landing missions on Mars as well. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. For more information about the Mars Rover Program, visit the NASA Web site at www.nasa.gov. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa8.cfm
* Headline: Teachers of English in Russia Feeling Winds of Change in Their Profession
* Byline: 

 I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: teaching English in Russia. (MUSIC) A lunchtime concert at Saint-Petersburg State University. Last month I had the opportunity to speak at two conferences -- one was a meeting of SPELTA, the St. Petersburg English Language Teachers' Association. The other brought top English teachers from across the Russian Federation to Kursk State University, in the Kursk region bordering Ukraine. Both conferences were about using technology to teach English. But it was also a chance to talk with several English language instructors about other developments in the field. LUDMILA KUZNETSOVA: "I'm Ludmila Kuznetsova, a professor of Saint-Petersburg University. I've been recently elected president of [SPELTA.]" AA: "What's it like teaching English today, at a time where traditionally British English has been taught in the Russian schools, but now there seems to be more and more interest in American English?" LUDMILA KUZNETSOVA: "Well, all students have to learn a foreign language. And the English language is taking over, and American English is also taking over from the British version of the language. So there is more and more of American language taught at Russian colleges and universities, as a compulsory course. But also Russian schools and university teachers teach more courses on American culture." AA: "What advice do you have for English teachers who are in a situation where they're trying to get their students to communicate more, to talk more." LUDMILA KUZNETSOVA: "I'm also a teacher trainer and I always tell my trainees that they shouldn't be afraid of giving their power over to students, to trust them more and to involve them more. Not only in responding to the teacher's questions or doing exercises, drills or other tasks, but to create materials for the language classroom -- to unleash their creativity and use it to the benefit of the students." AA: "And what use are you making of Internet technology in language teaching in Russia?" LUDMILA KUZNETSOVA: "Only recently have we started using Internet technologies. And basically we at present are the takers of the information, of the materials from the Internet, and we are learning to use the resources that are out there, but not yet creating our own. This will be probably our next step." DMITRIY KLIMENTIEV: "My name is Dmitriy Klimentiev and I'm associate professor of English language, Kursk State University." AA: "Now you're something of a legend here, it seems, with Internet and information technology. What advice do you give to teachers who are thinking about using the Internet in their lessons, or maybe already using it and not sure how to make the most effective use of it?" DMITRIY KLIMENTIEV: "What I usually say, the first thing we should think about is the reasonable approach. You should use each teaching tool only when it is really more efficient than the one you used to offer before. "So if you need more information, if you need something which the students are not used to, then you go online and you look for something. If the Web connection is not very good, if your computers are old, then don't waste time. Choose whatever is more efficient, whatever saves time and whatever is more motivating for students. "Now you can even make use of a cell phone which plays MP3 files. And they can listen to a book which they download from the Internet or somebody from a CD into their cell phone, and then after having listened to this book, they will just share the contents with the others." Dmitriy Klimentiev teaches at a university, but one of his projects has been to work with local high school students to create English-teaching CDs of their own. They used Microsoft's PowerPoint software to develop a volume of interactive presentations, based on VOA's Special English programs for English learners. They downloaded transcripts and MP3 files from voaspecialenglish.com. And if you're looking for more English teaching advice, check out voanews.com/wordmaster. That's Wordmaster for this week. Next week -- more interviews from Russia. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Taking the TOEFL
* Byline: The Test of English as a Foreign Language now measures the ability to communicate, not just knowledge of the language. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The TOEFL is an important test for non-native English speakers who want to attend an American college or university. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. And it is the subject this week in our Foreign Student Series. The Educational Testing Service is moving to end the use of the paper-and-pencil version of the TOEFL. And on September thirtieth ETS stopped offering its existing computer test. The new version is called the TOEFL iBT, or Internet-Based Test. The TOEFL iBT has been used since two thousand five at testing centers in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Puerto Rico. In March of this year, it was expanded to other countries in Europe and to Africa, Eurasia, the Middle East and Latin America. The charge for the TOEFL iBT is different in each country. Until the TOEFL iBT is offered in a country, the pencil-and-paper test will continue to be used. The TOEFL measures the ability to read, write and understand English. The new test represents about ten years of work by ETS. The testing service redesigned it to measure not just knowledge of the language, but the ability to communicate in English. The four-hour test now includes a speaking part, in addition to reading, writing and listening. Each part of the test is worth a possible thirty points. So the highest score on the TOEFL is one hundred twenty points. Different colleges and universities require different minimum scores on the TOEFL. So be sure to find out the score requirements of the schools that interest you. Experts say the best way to prepare for the TOEFL is to use English as much as you can. The TOEFL Web site offers advice to help you prepare. The address is toefl.org More than six thousand schools and agencies in one hundred ten countries use the TOEFL. But students who have already earned degrees from colleges in English-speaking countries may not be required to take it. And recently we received an e-mail asking if another English test can be used instead of the TOEFL when applying to American schools. Listen next week for the answer. And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the tenth week of our Foreign Student Series. You can find the earlier reports, including transcripts and MP3 files, at voaspecialenglish. I'm?Steve Ember. --- Foreign Student Series: earlier reports 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: US Goes to War After Pearl Harbor, but Japan Is Not the First Target
* Byline: Roosevelt decides to send most American forces to Europe to fight Germany first. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December nineteen forty-one was one of the most successful surprise attacks in the history of modern warfare. Japanese warships, including several aircraft carriers, crossed the western Pacific to Hawaii without being seen. They launched their warplanes on Sunday morning to attack the huge American naval and air base. Many of the American sailors were asleep or at church. They were completely surprised. In fact, some Americans outside the base thought the Japanese planes must be American airmen making training flights in new airplanes. The sounds of guns and bombs soon showed how wrong they were. VOICE TWO: The Japanese planes sank or seriously damaged six powerful American battleships in just a few minutes. They killed more than three thousand sailors. They destroyed or damaged half the American airplanes in Hawaii. American forces were so surprised that they were unable to offer much of a fight. Japanese losses were very light. Japan's destruction at Pearl Harbor was so complete that officials in Washington did not tell the full details immediately to the American people. They were afraid the nation might panic if it learned the truth about the loss of so much American military power. VOICE ONE: The following day, President Roosevelt went to the Capitol building to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. The Senate approved his request without opposition. In the House of Representatives, only one congressman objected. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Congress reacted by declaring war on those two countries. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended the long American debate about whether to become involved in the Second World War. American politicians and citizens had argued for years about whether to remain neutral or fight to help Britain and France and other friends. Japan's aggressive attack at Pearl Harbor united Americans in a common desire for military victory. It made Americans willing to do whatever was necessary to win the war. And it pushed America into a kind of world leadership that its people had never known before. VOICE TWO: President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisers had to make an important decision about how to fight the war. Would the United States fight Japan first, or Germany, or both enemies at the same time? Japan's attack had brought America into the war. And it had severely damaged American military power. But Roosevelt decided not to strike back at Japan immediately. He would use most of his forces to fight Germany. There were several reasons for Roosevelt's decision. First, Germany already controlled much of Europe, as well as much of the Atlantic Ocean. Roosevelt considered this a direct threat. And he worried about possible German intervention in Latin America. Second, Germany was an advanced industrial nation. It had many scientists and engineers. Its factories were modern. Roosevelt was concerned that Germany might be able to develop deadly new weapons, such as an atomic bomb, if it was not stopped quickly. Third, Britain historically was one of America's closest allies. And the British people were united and fighting for their lives against Germany. This was not true in Asia. Japan's most important opponent was China. But China's fighting forces were weak and divided, and could not offer strong opposition to the Japanese. VOICE ONE: Hitler's decision to break his treaty with Josef Stalin and attack the Soviet Union made Roosevelt's choice final. The American leader recognized that the Germans would have to fight on two fronts: in the west against Britain and in the east against Russia. He decided it was best to attack Germany while its forces were divided. So Washington sent most of its troops and supplies to Britain to join the fight against Germany. American military leaders hoped to attack Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. Stalin also supported this plan. Soviet forces were suffering terrible losses from the Nazi attack and wanted the British and Americans to fight the Germans on the west. However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other leaders opposed launching an invasion across the English channel too quickly. They worried that such an invasion might fail, while the Germans were still so strong. And they knew this would mean disaster. VOICE TWO: For this reason, British and American forces decided instead to attack the Italian and German occupation troops in north Africa. British forces had been fighting the Italians and Germans in north Africa since late in nineteen forty. They fought the Italians first in Egypt and Libya. British forces had successfully pushed the Italians across Libya. They killed more than ten thousand Italian troops and captured more than one hundred thirty thousand prisoners. But the British success did not last long. Hitler sent one of his best commanders, General Erwin Rommel, to take command of the Italians. Rommel was brave and smart. He pushed the British back from Libya to the border with Egypt. And in a giant battle at Tobruk, he destroyed or captured more than eight ?hundred of Britains's nine hundred tanks. VOICE ONE: Rommel's progress threatened Egypt and the Suez Canal. So Britain and the United States moved quickly to send more troops and supplies to stop him. Slowly, British forces led by General Bernard Montgomery pushed Rommel and the Germans back to Tripoli in Libya. Dwight Eisenhower In November, nineteen forty-two, American and British forces commanded by General Dwight Eisenhower landed in northwest Africa. They planned to attack Rommel from the west, while Montgomery attacked him from the east. But Rommel knew Eisenhower's troops had done little fighting before. So he attacked them quickly before they could launch their own attack. VOICE TWO: A terrible battle took place at Kasserine in western Tunisia. Rommel's attack failed. The American troops held their ground. And three months later, they joined with Montgomery's British troops to force the Germans in north Africa to surrender. The battle of north Africa was over. The Allied forces of Britain and the United States had regained control of the southern Mediterranean Sea. They could now attack Hitler's forces in Europe from the south. VOICE ONE: The Allies wasted no time. They landed on the Italian island of Sicily in July of nineteen forty-three. German tanks fought back. But the British and American forces moved ahead. Soon they captured Sicily's capital, Palermo. And within weeks, they forced the German forces to leave Sicily for the Italian mainland. In late July, Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, was overthrown and placed in prison. The Germans rescued him and helped him establish a new government, protected by German troops. But still the Allies attacked. They crossed to the Italian mainland. The Germans fought hard, returning bullet for bullet. And for some time, they prevented the allied troops from breaking out of the coastal areas. VOICE TWO: The fighting grew bloodier. A fierce battle took place at Monte Cassino. Thousands and thousands of soldiers lost their lives. But slowly the allies advanced north through Italy. They captured Rome in June of nineteen forty-four. And they forced the Germans back into the mountains of northern Italy. The Allies would not gain complete control of Italy until the end of the war. But they had succeeded in increasing their control of the Mediterranean and pushing back the Germans. One reason Hitler's forces were not stronger in Africa and Italy was because German armies also were fighting in Russia. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Our program was narrated by Jack Weitzel and Rich Kleinfeldt. It was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Veterans Day: Honoring Those Who Served, and Sacrificed
* Byline: Also: the Washington area gets a new museum -- the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Transcript of radio broadcast

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer questions about American Indians … Play some music by the group the Decemberists … And report about Veterans Day. Veterans Day Saturday, November eleventh, is Veterans Day in the United States. It is a day to honor Americans who have served in the country’s military forces. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Many cities and towns across the United States hold ceremonies honoring the nation's veterans. Probably the most ceremonies are held in Washington, D.C. Several memorials honor the men and women who fought and died in the service of their country. The National Veterans Day ceremony takes place at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington. This is where veterans from all the nation's wars are buried. Each year on Veterans Day, the president and other top officials lay a wreath of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknowns. They also attend a memorial service to honor those who were killed. Another ceremony is held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Speakers and military bands honor those killed during the Vietnam War. Their names appear on the memorial itself. The speakers and Vietnam War veterans lay a wreath of flowers following the ceremony. Navy officials lay a wreath at the Lone Sailor Statue at the United States Navy Memorial. Similar ceremonies are held at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the World War Two Memorial and the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. Air Force officials are holding Veterans Day ceremonies at the new Air Force Memorial in Virginia on Friday. The United States Marine Corps also celebrates November tenth every year because it is the Marine Corps birthday. This year, the Marine Corps is celebrating the opening of the National Museum of the Marine Corps near the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. Government and Marine Corps officials are taking part in those opening ceremonies Friday. A Veterans Day memorial ceremony will be held Saturday to honor Marines no longer living. The museum will open to the public on Monday. Officials say the museum will make it possible for visitors to experience what it means to be a United States marine. American Indians HOST: November is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage month in the United States. It honors the history, culture and traditions of American Indians and Alaska Native people. So, this week, we answer two listener questions about American Indians. Godswill Eke Kalu from Nigeria asks why Native Americans are called Indians. And Amrit Rai from Nepal asks about the economic situation of American Indians today. The European explorer Christopher Columbus gave the name “Indians” to the native peoples of North and South America. He thought that he had reached a place called the Indies. In time, the terms "American Indian" and "Indian" became widely used. The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs says the term “Native American” started to be used in the nineteen sixties. It describes American Indians and Alaska Natives. Later the term also included Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. The government agency says the Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska do not like to be called “Indians.” They call themselves “Alaska Natives”. Many American Indians reject the term "Native American." They say it tries to describe too many different groups of people, including American Samoans, Aleuts and Hawaiians. These people want to be called "American Indians."? Some want to be known by their tribe, such as Lakota or Navajo. The United States Census Bureau says more than four million American Indians and Alaska natives lived in the country in two thousand four. Some live on government land called reservations or tribal lands. Others live in cities and towns. The economic situation of American Indians as a group is not good. A continuing study by Harvard University says that American Indians generally earn less money than other Americans. It also says that they have more unemployment, higher rates of death and disease and less family unity than other American groups. However, the study is also finding that an increasing number of tribes are creating successful businesses. For example, the Pequot tribe in the northeast owns and operates a hotel, gambling casino and museum of its culture and history. You can learn about a famous chief of the Lakota Indians known as Crazy Horse on the Special English program People in America on Sunday. The Decemberists HOST: The Decemberists are an independent rock group from Portland, Oregon. They perform songs filled with imaginative and unusual stories. The Decemberists’ music combines the storytelling of traditional songs with a modern rock sound. Their latest album is “The Crane Wife.”?? It tells about magical creatures and faraway?lands. Faith Lapidus has more. (MUSIC) FAITH LAPIDUS: That was “Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)."? It is a song about a nineteenth century American soldier who was killed in battle. He is singing from the dead to the woman he loves. He says he will come back to her one day on the breath of the wind. Colin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter of the Decemberists. His songs have a rich and poetic language. It might not surprise you that he studied English literature in college. Reading his songs is as interesting as listening to them. This autumn, the Decemberists will be traveling in the United States and Europe to perform their magical music. Here is the tragic love song “O Valencia!” (MUSIC) We close with the song the album is named after. “The Crane Wife Three” is based on a popular Japanese story. Colin Meloy discovered the story in a children’s book. He could not stop thinking about the story. Listen to this poetic song about a man who marries a magical bird. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Americans Invest for the Future in Mutual Funds
* Byline: More than half of all families invest in at least one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. People invest money in the hope their wealth will grow over time. People with a lot of money may have financial advisers to make investments for them. But people with limited savings can invest through mutual funds. A mutual fund is a collection of different financial securities. These include stocks and debt-based investments. Stock in a company gives the buyer a financial share in that business. The shareholder may receive a small payment, or dividend, from time to time for each share owned. But the value of stocks can change greatly in a short time. A debt-based security, like a bond, represents a loan for a set period of time. Companies or governments sell these securities as a way to borrow money. Most debt securities pay interest until their period ends, or they reach maturity. After that, the loan is repaid. Mutual funds can invest in stocks, debt securities or a mixture of both. They offer investors a lot of choice. For example, a stock index fund can be designed to match the performance of the whole stock market, investing in thousands of stocks. For as little as one thousand dollars, an investor can own the stock market. Index funds also cost little to own. On the other hand, trading individual stocks and bonds can be costly. Investment trading companies charge investors to make trades on exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ. But if a buyer invests only a small amount, the cost of trading can quickly reduce his or her investment gains. The Investment Company Institute says the average yearly cost of a mutual fund is a little over one percent of the amount invested. And costs continue to drop. Mutual funds also reduce risk. They spread money over hundreds of investments. This limits the harm from a single investment loss. But, even the largest mutual funds still carry some risk. There is no guarantee that a mutual fund will gain or keep its value under bad market conditions. Today, there are almost eight thousand mutual funds in the United States. And Americans continue to increase their mutual fund holdings. About half of all American families own some mutual funds. Their average investment is forty-eight thousand dollars. And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can find our reports, including transcripts and MP3 files, at voaspecialenglish.com? I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: His Party Defeated in Congress, Bush Awaits Iraq Study Results
* Byline: The president says coming proposals could offer a way forward in a war that influenced the midterm elections. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Clarification attached This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. November eleventh is Veterans Day, when Americans honor those who served in the military. Some Americans think the best way to honor the troops in Iraq is to bring them home. Others think more troops should be sent to deal with the violence. But many Americans say that after three-and-a-half years of war, something has to change. Next week, President Bush plans to meet with members of the Iraq Study Group. This group is led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton. Mister Bush says he expects to receive proposals for "a way forward." He also announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Many Democrats and some Republicans had called for Secretary Rumsfeld to be replaced. The president has chosen former central intelligence director Bob Gates as the new defense secretary. Senate confirmation is needed. Mister Bush made the announcement Wednesday, a day after Republicans lost midterm elections. He said he recognized that many Americans voted to show their displeasure at the lack of progress in Iraq. But he also said he believed that most Americans and leaders from both parties "understand we cannot accept defeat." Republicans took a beating in the congressional elections for Mister Bush's last two years in office. He called it a "thumping."? Democrats have not controlled both houses of Congress since nineteen ninety-four. In the House of Representatives, the job of speaker will go to the current minority leader, Nancy Pelosi of California. She will be the first woman to hold the third-highest office after the president and vice president. Nancy Pelosi says the Democrats will demand changes on Iraq. She says they will also deal quickly with other problems facing Americans. She promised what she called "the most honest and open Congress in history." Harry Reid of Nevada is expected to become the majority leader in the Senate. In the Senate, the Democrats will hold a one-vote majority. And in the House their majority will not be so large as to avoid the need for cooperation with Republicans. And cooperation is what the president and the new Democratic leaders have promised. The one hundred tenth Congress will open in January. But Mister Bush noted that the existing Congress still has a lot of unfinished business. In general, voting went smoothly on Election Day, but there were some reports of trouble with electronic voting equipment. Voter studies by news organizations showed that the Republicans held the support of their conservative base. But they lost votes among Latinos and some other groups. Gains with independents and moderates helped push the Democrats to victory. In Minnesota, Democrat Keith Ellison was elected the first black congressman from that state. He will be the first Muslim to serve in Congress. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. For a more detailed report on the elections, listen Monday at this time for THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. --- Clarification:?The?Iraq Study Group is expected to present its final report with its proposals before the end of the year. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Crazy Horse Was Chief of the Lakota, a Warrior and a Holy Man
* Byline: He tried to protect his people's way of living. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of a Native American, Crazy Horse. He was a leader of the Lakota Indians. Some people call his tribe the Oglala Sioux. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's people belonged to one of seven great families who called themselves Lakota. The word Lakota means friends or allies. The Lakota people were hunters. They moved with the seasons. They moved through the great flat lands and the great mountains of the north-central United States. The Lakota depended on wild animals for food and clothing, and for the materials to make their tools and homes. They depended especially on the buffalo, the great hairy ox-like creature. Huge groups of buffalo ran free across their lands. VOICE TWO: Great changes came to the Indian territories during the middle eighteen hundreds. The population of the United States was growing. Settlers left the cities of the East for the wide open spaces of the West. The settlers followed the railroads extending across the continent. More settlers moved west when gold was discovered in California in eighteen forty-nine. The ways of the settlers were not the ways of the Indians. The culture of the white people clashed with the culture of the red people -- often in violence. The United States army was sent to move the Indians and protect the settlers. Many Indian tribes refused to move. Their lands, they said, contained the bones of their fathers and mothers. It was holy ground.They fought the soldiers. VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's tribe, the Lakota, had many powerful leaders and skilled warriors. Crazy Horse, himself, was greatly feared. The soldiers could not defeat him in battle. Most white people did not understand why the Lakota fought so hard. They knew little of the Indians' way of life. They did not know Crazy Horse at all. Much of what we have learned about Crazy Horse came from his own people. Even today, they still talk about him. To the Lakota, he was both a warrior and a holy man. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: No one knows for sure when Crazy Horse was born. Perhaps around the year eighteen forty. But we do know when he died. In eighteen seventy-seven, when he was in his middle thirties. There are no photographs of Crazy Horse. But it is said that he was not very tall. And his skin was lighter than most of the Lakota people. As a boy, Crazy Horse loved to listen to the teachings of the Lakota religion. His father was a holy man of the tribe -- a medicine man. He taught the boy to honor all things, because all things had a life of their own. Not only people and animals had spirits, he said, but trees and rivers, as well. Above all was the Great Spirit. VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's father also told him that a man should be judged only by the goodness of his actions. So the boy tried hard to tell the truth at all times and not to speak badly of others. Crazy Horse learned to be a hunter. He could lie quietly for hours watching wild animals. When he killed a bird or a deer, he always sang a prayer of thanks and sorrow. He always gave the meat to the poor and to the families that had no hunters. That was what Lakota chiefs did. VOICE TWO: In time, Crazy Horse learned that the Indians were not alone in their world. He watched one day as tribesmen brought back the body of one of the chiefs, Conquering Bear. The chief had been shot many times by soldiers after a dispute over a white man's cow. Two times in the next few years, young Crazy Horse saw the burned remains of Indian villages. All the village people, including women and children, had been shot by soldiers. All these events helped shape the personality of the young Indian. Crazy Horse became very quiet. He would go away from his village and spend days alone. His people began to call him "the strange one."? The name Crazy Horse -- in the language of the Lakota -- meant wild horse. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When it was time for him to plan his future, his father took him high into the mountains. Together, they sang a prayer to the Great Spirit, a prayer like this: "Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have existed always, and before you there was no one. Stand close to the Earth that you may hear the voice I send. You, where the sun goes down, look at me! You, where the snow lives...you, where the day begins...you, where the summer lives ... you, in the depths of the heavens, look at me!? And you, Mother Earth. Give me eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. Only with your power can I face the winds." VOICE TWO: Crazy Horse stayed on the mountain by himself for three days and nights. He did not eat or drink. He prayed that the Great Spirit would send him a dream to show him how to live. Crazy Horse dreamed. He entered the world of truth and of the spirits of all things. The Lakota people called this "the real world". They believed our world was only an image of the real world. VOICE ONE: In his dream, Crazy Horse saw a man riding a horse through clouds of darkness and battle. Bullets flew around him, but did not hit him. The man wore a stone under one ear, and a bird feather in his hair. His body was painted with sharp white lines, like lightning. A light followed him, but it was sometimes covered by darkness. Crazy Horse understood the dream as a sign. He knew his people were entering a time of darkness. He dressed himself like the man in the dream, so that no bullets would hurt him. He would try to save his land for his people. He would try to protect their way of living. VOICE TWO: Crazy Horse prayed every day -- as the sun rose, at noon, and as night came. He prayed whenever he had something difficult to do. The prayer songs would carry him back to the peace of "the real world". He would know the right thing to do. In the village, Crazy Horse did not keep things for himself. He even gave away his food. If others needed the food more, he would not eat at all. Crazy Horse spent much of his time with the children. He talked and joked with them. Yet his eyes looked through the children. He seemed to be thinking of something else. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse fought in more than twenty battles against the American army. He was never hit by an enemy's bullet. In battle, his mind was clear. "Be brave!" the young men would shout as they followed him into battle. "The Earth is all that lasts." But the Earth the Indians knew did not last. The government would take most of it. The army destroyed Indian villages and captured those who would not surrender. VOICE TWO: Almost all the buffalo were gone, killed by white hunters. The people were hungry. Many Lakota and other Indians came to Crazy Horse for protection. The government sent a message to Crazy Horse. It said if he surrendered, his people could live and hunt on a part of the land that he chose. Crazy Horse and his people could fight no more. They accepted the government offer. They surrendered. The government, however, did not keep its promise to let them choose where they would live. Several months later, on September fifth, eighteen seventy-seven, Crazy Horse went to the army commander to make an angry protest. Guards arrested him. He struggled to escape. A soldier stabbed him with a knife. The great Lakota Indian chief died the next day. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-nine, the tribe asked an artist to make a statue of Crazy Horse. The Indians wanted a huge statue cut into the side of a mountain. It would show Crazy Horse riding a running horse, pointing his arm to where the Earth meets the sky -- to the lands of the Lakota people. The tribe told the artist:? "We would like the white man to know the red man had great heroes, too." If you visit the mountain to see the statue, you may hear in the wind the song of an old man. He sings: "Crazy Horse, your people depend on you. Be brave. Defend your people!" (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Barbara Dash. It was produced by Mario Ritter. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week?for another People in America program on the Voice of?America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Without Water There Is No Life
* Byline: A yearly U.N. study on poverty gives reasons for world action on water issues. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Development Program says the world is facing a water crisis. It says each year, more than two million children die from diseases caused by unclean water. Most of these deaths are from diarrhea and other sicknesses caused by unclean water polluted by human waste. The warning is in this year's Human Development Report, released by the U.N. agency on November ninth. Kevin Watkins is the lead writer and head of the Human Development Report office. He says these deaths could be prevented with clean water and toilets. The report also finds that almost half the people in developing countries suffer from health problems due to unclean water and lack of waste removal systems. Mister Watkins says the crisis in health care also reduces economic growth in many developing nations. The report says more than one thousand million people in the world do not have clean water and sanitation. ??????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? The Human Development Report proposes a three-part action plan to help solve the crisis. First, Mister Watkins say that governments need to take action to make water a human right. He says national legislation is needed that provides citizens with the right to twenty liters of water a day. Second, the action plan calls on each nation to spend more on water and sanitation. It proposes that each nation spend at least one percent of the value of all the goods and services the country produces. Third, the plan calls for increased international aid. This would require an additional four thousand million dollars a year, or two times as much international aid, in the next ten years. Mister Watkins says the world is not running out of water. The crisis is not because of scarcity. He says there is about the same amount of water in the world every year. The real problem, he says, is the governance of water. Governments need to think of water as a limited, valuable resource. The report also urges governments to consider fairness, equality and social justice when supervising water. Mister Watkins says the poorest people and those with limited land rights are the first to lose their ability to get water. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To read our reports and download audio, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Democrats Plan a Busy First 100 Hours When They Take Control of Congress in January?
* Byline: Party leaders are promising quick action on the Iraq war and other issues. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Our subject this week is the midterm election results. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elections are often about local issues. But two national issues drove the Democrats' return to power in Congress for President Bush's last two years in office. Voters said they were heavily influenced by the war in Iraq and by wrongdoing in Congress. The day after the elections last Tuesday, the president said it was time for new leadership at the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters. Mister Bush announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mister Rumsfeld has served as defense secretary since Mister Bush came into office in two thousand one. Mister Bush said he recognized that many Americans voted to signal their displeasure with the lack of progress being made in Iraq. The president has nominated Robert Gates to become the new defense secretary. The position requires Senate confirmation. Mister Gates directed the Central Intelligence Agency during the presidency of Mister Bush's father, George H.W. Bush. Mister Gates is currently president of Texas A&M University. VOICE TWO: The Democrats' victory marks the first time their party will control the House of Representatives since nineteen ninety-four. Republicans have also controlled the Senate for most of that time, but that too will change. Democrats look set to control the narrowest of majorities in the Senate: fifty-one to forty-nine. VOICE ONE: And that majority will include the last two states decided. Both had very close races. In Montana, Republican Senator Conrad Burns lost to Jon Tester, an organic farmer who was president of the state Senate. And in Virginia, it was Democrat Jim Webb over Republican Senator George Allen. VOICE TWO: Jim WebbMister Webb is an honored Vietnam War veteran and former Republican who served as secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan. He is also a best-selling author of novels. This was his first attempt at elected office. His opposition to the war in Iraq was an important part of his campaign. VOICE ONE: A few months ago, Mister Allen was considered a strong candidate for re-election in a state where he formerly served as governor. But then he made some damaging statements that cost him his lead. On Thursday, two days after the election, George Allen accepted defeat. Now he will have to think about his chances as a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in two years. In Tennessee, Democrat Harold Ford, Jr., a Congressman, lost a close Senate race to Republican Bob Corker, a former mayor of Chattanooga. Mister Ford would have been the first black Senator from the South since the reconstruction period after the Civil War. In New York State, Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton won a second term easily over her Republican opponent John Spencer. The wife of the former President Bill Clinton is seen as a leading choice for the Democratic nomination for President in two thousand eight. Republican Senators who kept their offices include Olympia Snowe in Maine and Richard Lugar of Indiana. Craig Thomas was re-elected in Wyoming and Texas voters re-elected Kay Bailey Hutchison to her Senate seat. If the Senate is ever divided fifty-to-fifty on a vote, then the deciding vote goes to the Vice President of the United States. Under the Constitution, the Vice President acts as President of the Senate. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The newly elected Congress opens in January. Representative Nancy Pelosi of California is to become the next speaker of the House. She will be the first woman in American history to hold the powerful position, and the first Italian-American speaker. The current speaker is Dennis Hastert of Illinois. Nancy? Pelosi represents a district in San Francisco. She comes from a political family. Her father served as mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. President Bush and Representative Pelosi have promised to work with each other. He invited her to have lunch at the White House last Thursday. But Missus Pelosi has called Mister Bush things like "dangerous" and "incompetent."? Many conservatives see her as too liberal for the good of the country. But Nancy Pelosi says Americans made their voices heard in the election. She says Americans want a new direction -- most clearly in Iraq. But she says the Democrats will also work for a more honest and open Congress and for other issues important to Americans. She says the Democrats will move quickly to pass a number of measures in the first one hundred hours of the new Congress. VOICE ONE: There is no single Democratic Party plan for what to do about Iraq. But one thing most Democrats could agree on was their criticism of Donald Rumsfeld. Critics say he failed to provide enough troops and to take other steps that might have avoided the current situation in Iraq. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans also voted in state and local elections. A majority of states will have Democratic governors for the first time in twelve years. Twenty-eight states will have Democratic governors -- the same number as now have Republican leaders. Among the new governors will be Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Mister Patrick will be the second black governor elected in the United States in more than a century. Democrats also made gains in state legislatures. VOICE ONE: One bright spot for the Republicans was the re-election of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California. A year ago, his popularity was down. Many Californians saw him as too conservative. But since then, the former movie star has shown greater willingness to compromise with Democrats in the legislature. He has taken popular steps like working to fight global warming. Last Tuesday Mister Schwarzenegger easily defeated his Democratic opponent, state treasurer Phil Angelides. VOICE TWO: Voters in almost forty states decided more than two hundred ballot measures. Voters in seven states passed measures to ban same-sex marriage. But one state, Arizona, became the first to defeat such a measure. Voters in South Dakota defeated a ban on most abortions in that state. And voters in Missouri approved a measure to protect stem-cell research there. On an economic issue, six states passed measures to raise the minimum wage for workers in the lowest-paid jobs. The newly elected Democrats in Congress say they will work to raise the federal minimum wage. And in Michigan, voters agreed to bar the use of affirmative-action programs in public schools and government agencies. Critics say programs designed to help women and minorities are unfair to others. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Bush traveled extensively in the last days before the election to campaign for Republicans. Because of his low approval ratings, though, being connected with the president was not always seen as a good thing. Yet members of Congress, as a group, also faced low approval ratings. In the weeks before the election, for example, there was the news about Mark Foley, a Republican congressman from Florida. He wrote sexual messages to young men who formerly served as pages in Congress. Mister Foley resigned after the computer messages became public. A Democrat won his seat in the House. VOICE TWO: A Democrat also won the seat that had been held by Bob Ney . Last month, the Ohio Republican became the first member of Congress to admit selling his influence to Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist. Now the six-term congressman faces a prison term at sentencing in January. Jack Abramoff is already in prison. Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican, was sent to prison for taking money from defense companies. His seat went to a Republican in the election last week. But in Texas, a Democrat won the seat that had been held by Tom DeLay. Mister DeLay resigned as House majority leader earlier this year. He was charged with violating campaign-finance laws in Texas. He denied the charges but did not seek re-election to his seat from the Houston area. There were Democrats in Congress who were also accused of wrongdoing. But on Election Day, Americans said they were angry with Congress in general and, in many cases, President Bush as well. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and MP3 files of our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. --- Correction: Jack Abramoff was not in prison at the time of the election, as reported; on November 15 he?began a six-year term?in a case involving?a Florida casino deal. He still faces sentencing in a congressional corruption case in Washington. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Battle-Axe: Use at Your Own Risk
* Byline: This term for a fierce woman is widely considered sexist, but some people say it may not be so. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 I'm Susan Clark?with the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) Jane Smith is president of a large sales company in a city on the American West Coast. For years her company has made large profits. It has done well, even during bad economic times. Miss Smith pays her workers well. She gives them many holidays. And last year, she increased the company's payments for employees who could not work because of sickness. You probably think that Miss Smith's employees like her very much. But some do not. Some of her workers say she is a battle axe. They consider her a pushy, demanding woman. A battle is an armed fight. And an axe is a tool for cutting trees. Word expert Christine Ammer says the two words were joined in the early nineteen hundreds. During those days, people began to call a fierce-acting woman a battle-axe. Soon the saying became popular. In recent years, many women have protested the use of the word battle-axe. They say it is sexist. A comment or action that insults someone of the opposite sex is considered sexist. But some people say calling a woman a battle-axe may not be an insult. Almost two thousand years ago, the Goths used battle-axes. The axes were very strong and sharp. They could cut through the heavy metal armor that Romans wore to protect themselves. The battle-axe permitted the Goths to win battles against the Romans. The Romans, at the time, were feared fighters. So a woman who is a battle-axe may be a strong, sharp competitor in business. Many people praise men for being that way. Sometimes employees believe their company leaders receive too much of the company's earnings. The employees suspect both men and women bosses of wanting too much money. Yet the leaders also bear the brunt of concern for the business. What does this saying mean? Bear can mean to carry. And brunt means the major part. To bear the brunt is to carry the major part of the responsibility for something. The leaders of a company are responsible for how well the company does. Employees may work hard during the day. But most of them leave their work behind when they leave the office. The employer often works late and takes work home. The saying, bear the brunt, was used as long ago as the fifteenth century. At that time, armies almost always stood in lines to fight.Naturally, those in the front lines took the major force of the battle. They bore the brunt of the fighting. So, perhaps Miss Smith, our businesswoman in California, is doing a good job. She may be called a battle-axe. But she is bearing the brunt of the responsibility for keeping her company competitive. (MUSIC) This Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jeri Watson. This is Susan Clark. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-13-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Study Warns of Risk to Seafood Supplies in World's Oceans
* Byline: Researchers say all seafood species could be nearly gone from the wild by 2048 because of overfishing; others dispute that. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A study has warned that seafood supplies from the world's oceans could be almost gone by the middle of the century. The researchers say there has already been a collapse in wild populations of almost one-third of currently fished seafoods. The study says that means their catch has fallen by ninety percent from their highest levels. Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, led the international team that did the study. Professor Worm says species have recently been disappearing from oceans at increasing speed. At this rate, he says, all seafood species could collapse by two thousand forty-eight. Other studies have also warned about the dangers of overfishing and the effects on ocean environments. But not everyone thinks the oceans are likely to be empty in fifty years. Some scientists said parts of the world do have problems, but others are doing a good job of protecting fish populations. Government officials in several countries with large fishing industries also questioned the research. The study appeared earlier this month in Science magazine. The researchers say damage to oceans affects not only fish populations but also the productivity of ecosystems. These complex systems help control water quality. The scientists say the loss of different kinds of sea life appeared to increase the risk of fish kills and beach closures from harmful algae growth. The scientists examined the results of thirty-two experiments and observed forty-eight protected areas. They also looked at records of catches worldwide. They studied records from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization for nineteen fifty to two thousand three. And they examined archeological information and other historical records for twelve coastal areas. That research reached back over a thousand years. Boris Worm says the findings were, in his words, "beyond anything we suspected."? But he also said the situation is not too late to correct. He said that with good fisheries management, some species could completely recover in three to ten years. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can learn more about agriculture, and download transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, at voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-13-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Basics of First Aid: What to Do Until Medical Help Arrives
* Byline: How to deal with emergencies including a heart attack, choking, accidental poisoning and severe bleeding. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week -- get ready for a short medical education in first aid. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most accidental poisonings are the result of common things like medicines, insect chemicals and cleaning solutions. Victims are generally advised to drink milk or water as a first step. But experts say never try to give liquids to someone who is having a violent reaction to a poison. And never try to force liquids into someone who is unconscious. Seek professional medical help in case of a poisoning. Save the container of whatever caused it. And look on the container for information about anything that stops the effects of the poison. If the victim vomits, save material expelled from the mouth so doctors can examine it. In the past, in some cases, people were often advised to force vomiting in order to empty the stomach. But experts have questioned this treatment. They say there is a lack of evidence to support it. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer advises parents with young children to keep syrup of ipecac. That medicine forces vomiting. But the person could choke. And some poisons can cause additional damage coming back up. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Millions of people know about a way to save a person who is choking on food or some other object. It is commonly known as the Heimlich Maneuver. If the victim is sitting or standing, get directly behind the person. Put your arms around the victim's waist. Close one hand to form a ball and place it over the upper part of the stomach, below the ribs. Place the other hand on top and push forcefully inward and upward. Repeat these abdominal thrusts until the object is expelled from the mouth. ? VOICE ONE: The maneuver is named for the American doctor credited with developing it by the early nineteen seventies. Henry Heimlich won the Albert Lasker Public Service Award in nineteen eighty-four. Doctor Heimlich has described the maneuver as also an effective way to save people from drowning. He says the pushing action forces water out of the? lungs. The American Red Cross and the American Heart Association disagree. The heart association says there is evidence to suggest that the Heimlich Maneuver could do more harm than good to victims of a near-drowning. It says that at the very least, using the maneuver could delay other methods to start the victim breathing again. It says the maneuver should be used only in cases where the victim of a near-drowning is choking on an object. VOICE TWO: The American Red Cross has changed its advice for treating choking victims who are conscious. The group now says a rescuer should first hit the person on the back five times between the shoulder bones. These back blows may ease the choking. ? If not, the Red Cross says, then do five abdominal thrusts. It says to repeat these two steps until the victim is able to breathe or speak. One person who has criticized the new Red Cross guidelines is Henry Heimlich. He argues that back blows can make the choking worse. Doctor Heimlich is eighty-seven years old and lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. VOICE ONE: Something else: the American Red Cross has stopped using the name Heimlich Maneuver. It only uses the term abdominal thrusts. A spokeswoman for the American Heart Association says Heimlich Maneuver is a term that people remember and understand. But she says her organization only uses it sometimes. The question of what to call the maneuver may be the result of a family dispute that has become highly public. A son of Doctor Heimlich has been leading a campaign against his father's work. Peter Heimlich says most medical groups have discredited his father's work except the maneuver for choking. And he has been disputing that his father invented it by himself. He told the Cincinnati Business Courier newspaper last year that he considers his father's ideas dangerous. A spokesman for Henry Heimlich rejected what Peter Heimlich says. He called him an angry son. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It forces air into the lungs and pumps blood and oxygen to the brain. Experts say it greatly increases the chances that a heart attack victim will survive, with little or no brain damage. CPR is also used for victims of drowning and other situations, like accidents. ? The first step, after you call for medical help, is to point the victim's head back to open the air passages. Look to see if the person is breathing. If not, hold the person's nose closed and place your mouth over the victim's mouth. Give two breaths. Blow until you see the chest rise. Each breath should last about one second. VOICE ONE: If the victim has no heartbeat, the next step is to begin chest compressions. Place one hand over the other and press firmly on the center of the chest. Push down about five centimeters at a rate of about two times each second. Breathe two times into the victim's mouth for every thirty times you push down on the chest. ? After a minute, check again to see if the person has a heartbeat and is breathing. If there is a heartbeat but no breathing, continue with rescue breaths only. Give one breath every five seconds. If there is no heartbeat, then continue with rescue breaths and chest compressions until help arrives. Chest compressions can also be used on a choking victim who is unconscious. VOICE TWO: CPR training these days will likely include advice to use a protective barrier during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. There are special masks for this purpose that can help prevent the spread of disease. Some trainers say that even blowing through a piece of cloth like a shirt is better than no protection at all. But some tell people to perform mouth-to-mouth without a barrier mask only on a person they are sure is not infectious. ? VOICE ONE: CPR is not difficult to learn. Many organizations teach it. And most CPR training now includes how to use an automated external defibrillator, or A.E.D. These devices, which are increasingly found in public places, have a recorded voice to guide the user. Defibrillators use electric shocks to try to correct an irregular heartbeat that can lead to sudden death. ? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bacteria can enter the body through even the smallest cut in the skin. So medical experts advise people to treat all wounds. Clean the cut with soap and water and then cover it while it heals. If bleeding does not stop quickly, use direct pressure. Place a clean piece of cloth on the wound and hold it firmly in place until the bleeding stops or medical help arrives. ? A spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians says direct pressure should be kept on a wound for about twenty minutes. Doctor Richard O'Brien says victims may be able to do it themselves while others go for help. Do not remove the cloth if the blood soaks through it. Instead, put another cloth on top and continue pressure. Use more pressure if the bleeding has not stopped after twenty minutes. VOICE ONE: In the past, people were advised to use a tourniquet to stop severe bleeding. A tourniquet is made with a stick and a piece of cloth or a belt. The device is tied around an arm or leg to stop the flow of blood to the wound area. But Doctor O'Brien says medical experts no longer support the use of tourniquets in most cases. He warns that tourniquets are dangerous because they can crush major arteries and nerves. He says a tourniquet should be used only if the wound is so severe that it represents an immediate threat to the victim's life. And even then, he says, it should be used for only five minutes. ? VOICE TWO: ?If a wound seems infected, let the victim rest. Physical activity can spread the infection. Treat the wound with a mixture of salt and water until medical help arrives. Add nine and one-half milliliters of salt to each liter of boiled water. Place a clean cloth in the mixture and then put the cloth on the wound. But be sure not to burn the skin. VOICE ONE: To learn more about first aid, check with a hospital or a local organization like a Red Cross or Red Crescent society. There may be training classes offered in your area. And to learn more about science and health, go to voaspecialenglish.com. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History: When Gunfighters Ruled the Streets of the Wild West
* Byline: First of two parts about famous lawmen and outlaws of the 1800s. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we present the first of two programs about some of the most famous people who lived in the American West many years ago. We tell about lawmen, criminals and gunfighters. And we will try to tell as much truth as possible about this interesting time in American history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in eighteen eighty-three in Dodge City, Kansas. Dodge City was a railroad town. Huge herds of cattle were brought there from western states to be transported by railroad to markets in the eastern United States. A man named Luke Short owned a small store where he sold alcohol. People also took part in gambling -- games of chance -- in his store. Several people who owned similar businesses wanted Luke Short to leave Dodge City. They did not like the business competition. Luke Short was threatened several times. He knew his life was in danger. So he left Dodge City. VOICE TWO: Several weeks later, the people in Dodge City began to see something that frightened them. Strangers were entering the town. All of these men carried guns. The men said they were friends of Luke Short. They caused no trouble. A newspaper in Dodge City printed a story that identified the men. One of the first of these men to arrive was a former Dodge City lawman. His name was William Masterson. The newspaper said he was well known as an expert with guns and had killed several men. His friends called him “Bat.” Two other men arrived together. One was Wyatt Earp. He was a famous gunfighter from Tombstone, in the Arizona territory. ?He also was a former lawman who had killed men in gunfights. With him was his friend, a dentist, John Holliday, who also survived several shooting incidents. His friends called him “Doc.” About twelve other men also arrived in Dodge City to help Luke Short. They were not as famous as the three named in the newspaper. But they were also considered to be very dangerous. VOICE ONE: Luke Short returned to Dodge City wearing his guns. The chief lawman of the town quickly sent a telegram to the governor of the state asking for help. He was afraid a major civil war would begin in his town. The men who had forced Luke Short out of town decided to negotiate a settlement. They did not want to face his many dangerous friends. A few days after the settlement, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the other dangerous friends of Luke Short left Dodge City. No one ever fired a shot. No one was even threatened. All it took to force a negotiated settlement was for these dangerous men to show their faces in Dodge City. Just the fear of them settled the argument in favor of Luke Short. No one wanted to deal with men who were not afraid of a gunfight. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Who were these dangerous men?? Why did people fear them so much?? Why did they become so famous?? The story of these famous men began a little before the American Civil War of the eighteen sixties. This wild and lawless period in the West has been shown in hundreds of movies, television programs and books. It only lasted for about seventy years. The first shooting incident by a person who could be considered a professional gunman took place in Texas in eighteen fifty-four. Most of the shooting incidents between professional lawmen and outlaws took place during the eighteen seventies in Texas. VOICE ONE: The real movement into the American West began after the Civil War. Many families moved west to build new lives after the war. Land was almost free. Some people wanted to find gold or silver and become rich. Other families wanted to raise cows or horses or begin a farm and start a new life. But living in the American West was not easy. There were no laws, no courts and little or no government. There were few lawmen to keep order. The people who arrived in the West included many criminals. Many were escaping punishment from their crimes. They knew that an area with no law would provide them with safety. These professional criminals often used force to take what they wanted -- cows, horses or money. Often, there was little to stop them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Honest people who moved to the West carried weapons to protect themselves and their property. These settlers began to build small towns when they found areas they liked. They tried to improve their towns with churches, schools and the rule of law. But it was often difficult. To protect their towns, the settlers often had to employ people who were expert in the use of firearms. Several lawmen in the Old West had learned to use their weapons when they were criminals. Both the outlaws and the lawmen in the Old West had something else in common. They could do something many other people could not. They were willing to risk their lives to enforce the law or to commit a crime. And they were willing to do this with a gun. VOICE ONE: A good example was a man named William Matthew Tilghman. He was arrested two times and charged with stealing when he was a young man. However, he later became a deputy United States marshal, a law officer. On July fourth, eighteen eighty-eight, a man named Ed Prather began shooting his gun in the street in Farmer City, Kansas. People ran away in fear. Tilghman made him stop. Prather left the street angry and went into a drinking place. He began drinking alcohol and making threats. Later, Tilghman went into the drinking place looking for Prather. Prather put his hand on the gun he was carrying. Tilghman told him to move his hand away from the gun. When he did not obey, Bill Tilghman pulled out his gun and shot Ed Prather two times. He died immediately. VOICE TWO: That was only one of the many times Bill Tilghman used his gun as a law officer. He served in many other towns. Often, all he had to do was walk into a room to stop a fight. Outlaws feared and obeyed him. Most criminals stayed away from a town where Bill Tilghman was the marshal. Bill Tilghman was shot to death on November first, nineteen twenty-four. He was trying to arrest a man who had been drinking too much alcohol. He was seventy years old and still working as the marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma. His life had lasted exactly the seventy years of the American Wild West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The famous American gunman named Wyatt Earp has been the subject of at least four major motion pictures, one television series and many books. He served as a marshal in Tombstone, Arizona. He took part in one of the most famous gunfights in American history -- the gunfight at the OK Corral. Wyatt Earp was once asked how to win a gunfight. He said a good gunfighter took his time. He said he had to go into action as quickly as possible -- as fast as he could move. But then he should take his time with the shooting. He said a successful gunfighter could not let fear or anything else force him to shoot too soon and miss the target. Missing the target could get him killed. Wyatt Earp was very successful. He was only wounded once in a gunfight. He is one of the few successful gunfighters who lived to old age. He died in nineteen twenty-nine. He was eighty-one years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts on the American West often disagree about who were the most dangerous gunmen in that period of American history. Was it one of the famous lawmen?? Was it Bill Tilghman, or perhaps Wyatt Earp? Or was it one of the outlaws? Maybe it was the famous bank robber Jesse James or an extremely dangerous gunman named John Wesley Hardin. Those questions will never truly be answered. However, join us next week when we tell about two of the most dangerous gunfighters of the Old West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: In Study on Overweight Mice, Chemical Reduces Effects of Obesity
* Byline: Scientists also see possible anti-aging uses for resveratrol, a natural compound -- but much research remains to be done. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Resveratrol is a compound found naturally in foods including grape skins, wine and peanuts. And scientists say it may hold the secret to being fat and happy -- for a mouse, at least. A new study in Nature magazine says resveratrol helped mice live as long and as well on a high-fat diet as mice that ate healthier foods. Researchers in the United States studied three groups of one-year-old mice. That is middle aged for a mouse. The researchers fed one group a healthy diet of foods low in calories and fat. Another group ate high-fat, high-calorie foods. The third group also ate a high-fat diet -- but with resveratrol added to the food. At first these mice were as slow and unhealthy as the ones eating fatty foods without resveratrol. But in time, the researchers say, they began to show signs of good health comparable to the mice on the healthy diet. They also lived as long as those mice. And they lived at least fifteen percent longer than the mice on the high-fat diet without resveratrol. The mice that ate high-fat foods alone showed signs of diabetes and heart disease. In humans, these two diseases are often linked to aging. But being overweight can make them happen sooner. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, led the study. He studies ways to control aging, and the National Institute on Aging helped support the study. But he also says there is a serious need for something to help overweight people who are unable to lose weight. Several biotechnology companies are hoping to create a treatment that will act as the resveratrol did in the mice. Professor Sinclair says researchers are a long way from developing such a thing. But a company he helped start, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, is testing the safety of a resveratrol treatment in people with diabetes. Resveratrol has been shown to extend the lives of other organisms including yeast, roundworms and fruit flies. The mice in this new study received huge amounts of it -- many, many times more than a person would get from a glass of red wine. Red wine contains more resveratrol than white wine. Many health food stores sell resveratrol. But experts say no one knows if it will work the same in humans as it did in the mice. And they say no one knows if there are long-term dangers in taking large amounts. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-14-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Teaching English in Russia: Insights From Two Generations of Teachers
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: two more interviews with English teachers in Russia. I was there last month at the invitation of the English Language Office at the American Embassy in Moscow, to talk about VOA's Special English programs for English learners. I met Mikhail Nokhov and Erdem Dugarov?-- both of whom happen to be fans of Special English -- at conferences in Kursk and St. Petersburg. Mikhail Nokhov, who calls himself Michael, teaches thirteen and fourteen year olds at Gymnasia Number One in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, in the northern Caucasus. Two years ago, he was named an Honored Teacher of Russia. He says there are thirty-eight languages in Dagestan. And when you get into the classroom, he says, you see there are members of thirteen or fourteen different ethnic groups sitting there. MIKHAIL NOKHOV: "Laks, Dargins, Avars, Tabarsarans, Jews, Russians, Chechens, Ingush -- oh, God knows whom. It's very difficult to name all of them." Internet access is a recent addition to their school -- and as a result, his students now regularly communicate with students at an American high school. I asked Michael Nokhov how the Internet has changed English teaching for him. MIKHAIL NOKHOV: "Well, it changed greatly. Now the pupils can chat -- we are in a program, the Global Classroom, with a school from Maine, Belfast High School. And the pupils chat with them. They learn a lot of things without me, from their friends who are the same age, and I think it brings them closer to understand each other, to understand the problems of one nation and the problems of our republics. So I like taking part in this program." AA: "What advice do you have for new English teachers, maybe teachers who have been teaching for some years -- what advice do you give teachers?" MIKHAIL NOKHOV: "The only advice is that if you want to teach English, you should be a professional. The child mustn't be afraid of the textbook. He musn't be afraid of the lesson. My pupils, students, speak the lesson and I try to keep silent. I make them speak. That's why I use your programs, VOA programs, because there are a lot of idiomatic expressions, good expressions. Well, I make them make presentations, make them speak. The communicative approach to teaching of English -- just it's a very good one, I should say." AA: "And finally, the advice you might give a teacher who's looking for ways to use the communicative approach, who maybe isn't comfortable with it, but wants some guidance." MIKHAIL NOKHOV: "I advise them to use a lot of visual aids, to organize the lesson in such a way that the pupils should work -- not the teacher, but the pupils should work. There are lots of methods. If you want to teach, you can teach. You can be taught to teach." Mikhail Nokhov has taught English for thirty-eight years. Erdem Dugarov has taught it for seven years -- he is a professor at Eastern Siberia State University in the city of Ulan-Ude. He makes a point of using American English to model for his students the differences between the American and British versions of the language. ERDEM DUGAROV: "They ask me 'why do you pronounce this way' and I say 'guys, it is an American version and you have to pay attention to that.' But I do not say that you have to have this version -- you can say it just the way you were taught at school, for example." AA: "And what's your biggest challenge in teaching English?" ERDEM DUGAROV: "The biggest challenge, I believe it is to find some authentic material. If I teach, for example, American English, it sometimes is pretty complex to find an adequate book. And sometimes it's pretty complex to find much video materials, audio materials -- American, I mean -- because we live somewhere in Siberia, far from Vladivostok and far from the European part of Russia, that is why. "And besides, sometimes it's pretty hard to motivate our students to learn English because they live in a small city. And I say, you should travel -- even [if] you go to Moscow, you bring your mind and perhaps you will communicate with foreigners. And no matter with whom you may use your English. That is really important." That was Erdem Dugarov, an English professor in Ulan-Ude, Siberia. And you also heard from Mikhail Nokhov who teaches English in Dagestan. And that's Wordmaster for this week. For more English teaching ideas, check out voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-15-voa4.cfm
* Headline: English Tests: Comparing the TOEFL and the TOEIC
* Byline: US colleges and universities generally do not use the Test of English for International Communication as an entrance exam. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we continue our discussion of college entrance exams. So far we have talked about three tests that are widely accepted by American schools. These are the SAT, the ACT and the TOEFL. The TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Students preparing for the TOEFLNow we have a question from a student in France about another test. Cire Kaba plans to enter an American college or university. The question is: when applying to a school in the United States, can the TOEIC replace the TOEFL?? The TOEIC is the Test of English for International Communication. The short answer to the question is no. Admissions offices at American colleges and universities generally do not recognize TOEIC results. The same is true of scholarship and exchange programs as well. But some schools and English programs in the United States do use the test. So we thought this would be a good chance to explain the TOEIC. ETS, the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey, develops and administers both the TOEFL and the TOEIC. It says the TOEIC measures the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment. Non-native English speakers take the test to demonstrate their English language skills when applying for jobs. Organizations also use the TOEIC to measure progress in English training programs. And they use it to consider people for placement at the right level in language programs. Several thousand companies, English programs and government agencies use the TOEIC. The test is offered in about sixty countries. The TOEFL is based on English used in the classroom. The TOEIC is based on English used in the workplace. But the Educational Testing Service says the test does not require knowledge of special business words. It says the questions come from real situations like attending a company meeting. The TOEIC measures listening and reading skills -- and, beginning in December, ETS will offer speaking and writing tests. For a link to the Educational Testing Service Web site, where you can get more information about the TOEIC and the TOEFL, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also download MP3 files and transcripts of the earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series. And if you have a general question for us, send it to special@voanews.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm?Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-15-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Fighting World War Two: Powerful Germany Begins to Face Defeats
* Byline: Hitler decided early in the war to attack the Soviet Union.? It was a mistake that divided his troops and supplies. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 THE MAKING OF A NATION?-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) In December nineteen forty-one, the United States was at war. It declared war against Japan after Japanese planes destroyed American air and naval forces in Hawaii. And a few days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. President Franklin Roosevelt quickly decided that America could not fight major campaigns in the Pacific and in Europe at the same time. He and his advisors decided to fight first against the Germans and Italians. Then, when victory in Europe seemed sure, the United States could turn to fight the Japanese in Asia. VOICE TWO: This left the Japanese free to extend their power throughout Asia and the western Pacific. Soon after the attack at Hawaii, Japanese forces invaded Hong Kong, Malaya, and the Philippines. American land and air forces in the Philippines were destroyed or captured. And Manila fell to Japanese troops. In February, nineteen forty-two, Japan's forces won a great victory against the British in Singapore. Japanese forces marched into Burma. They attacked Ceylon and captured the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The Japanese military forces seemed too strong to stop. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt sent some forces to the Pacific. And he began to re-build the American naval forces destroyed at Pearl Harbor. But he sent most of America's military strength to Europe. The United States rushed troops and war equipment to help Britain survive against Hitler's Germany. American military leaders wanted to fight Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposed this. He and others feared such an invasion might fail. So, British and American forces attacked Italian and German occupation troops in North Africa. They defeated them, then crossed the Mediterranean Sea to attack enemy forces in Sicily. Within weeks, they pushed the Germans out of Sicily to the Italian mainland. The Allied invasion of Italy followed. VOICE TWO: Hitler could not strengthen his forces in North Africa and Italy, because Germany also was fighting hard in the Soviet Union. Hitler's decision early in the war to attack the Soviet Union was a serious mistake. It divided his men and materials. His plan was to defeat Soviet forces quickly with one strong attack. But he failed. And his failure cost him valuable troops and supplies that might have helped him win the battles for North Africa and Italy. Germany's attack on the Soviet Union began with great success. In the middle of nineteen forty-one, a German force of more than three million men invaded the Soviet Union. It captured the Ukraine, took control of Kiev, and marched deep into Russia. VOICE ONE: The situation changed the following year. Soviet forces under Marshal Zhukov won a terrible, fierce battle for the city of Stalingrad [Volgograd]. A great many German soldiers died from cold and hunger during the bitter winter months that followed. Zhukov's forces attacked the German troops and pushed back the invaders. Other Soviet troops forced Nazi soldiers away from the city of Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. By the middle of nineteen forty-four, Nazi forces throughout the Soviet Union were retreating. And Soviet forces were preparing to push them over the border and invade Germany themselves. VOICE TWO: The fighting by land forces was terrible. Huge numbers of soldiers and civilians were killed. Fighting also was fierce on the seas. The two sides had been fighting on the oceans from the first day of the war, when a German submarine sank a British ship. The main goal of the German navy during the war was to prevent the United States from sending ships to Britain with war materials, food, and troops. At first, the Germans were very successful. Some people in Britain were hungry in nineteen forty-one, because so few food-carrying ships could cross the ocean. German submarines were the greatest danger to ships crossing the Atlantic. They could hide below the surface and attack without warning. The submarine problem did not improve until new technology was developed in nineteen forty-three. Allied scientists improved sonar and radar systems that helped find submarines on the surface and underwater. More of the enemy submarines were found and destroyed. The Allies slowly gained control of the Atlantic. VOICE ONE: Surface warships of the two sides fought a number of traditional naval battles. But airplanes had a more important part than in the past. British planes and ships destroyed a powerful German battleship, the Bismarck. The most famous air battle of the war in Europe took place over the English Channel. Luftwaffe pilots from Germany tried to destroy the smaller British air force. But they failed to do so, mainly because of the skill of the British fliers. The British victory in the air helped prevent a German invasion of Britain. VOICE TWO: In May, nineteen forty-two, the British air force made an attack on Germany with one thousand bomber planes. It was just the first of many such attacks by United States and British planes. The planes bombed German military and industrial centers. They also bombed civilian targets in an effort to teach the German people the price of Germany's aggression. The German cities of cologne, Dresden, and Hamburg suffered terrible damage. The allied bombing attacks continued until the war's end in nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: Hitler's victories in the early months of the war had caused fear in the hearts of people throughout the world. Hitler and his allies had won battle after battle. They had captured western Europe, except for Britain, and had invaded the Soviet Union. They had seized North Africa. And their submarines controlled the Atlantic Ocean. Germany continued to seem strong during the first months after the United States entered the war in Europe. But the situation began to change. German strength and control were greatest in November nineteen forty-two. After then, the mighty German military machine began to slow down. VOICE TWO: Germany and its allies suffered serious losses in the first six months of nineteen forty-three. German losses were extremely heavy in the Soviet Union. One hundred sixty thousand German troops died at Stalingrad [Volgograd], and more than one hundred ten thousand others surrendered. Two hundred fifty thousand German and Italian troops were captured in North Africa. Many more thousands were killed or captured in Sicily and Italy. German submarines were being destroyed in the North Atlantic, allowing more allied troops and supplies to reach Britain. VOICE ONE: By the end of nineteen forty-three, Hitler and his armies no longer seemed so strong. But German forces continued to occupy France, Belgium, and much of the rest of western Europe. Now, the time had come for the Allies to invade German-held Europe from Britain. Allied forces planned the greatest military invasion in history to break the German control of Europe and win the war. That invasion, the famous D-Day battle of Normandy, will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. THE MAKING OF A NATION is written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Women on Wheels: Driving Change in Motorcycling
* Byline: The number of female motorcycle riders is growing. Also: a question about contemporary writers, and this year's Country Music Association award winners. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about American writers… Play some songs that won the latest Country Music Awards… And report about a group of female motorcycle riders. Lady Bikers HOST: Cookie, Badkat, Zoom and Legs. These are names of some female motorcycle riders. The sport has become increasingly popular among women. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: For many years, motorcycle riding was considered a male sport. Women usually rode on the seat behind the men operating the two-wheeled vehicle. Now more and more women are taking the front seat. The Motorcycle Industry Council says more than twenty million people in the United States ride motorcycles. The number of female motorcyclists has increased greatly over the past few years. More than ten percent of motorcycle owners in the United States are women. We spoke with Lisa Russell, Briggit Pope, Rayna Evans and Angela Meeks-Odom. They are on the executive committee of Lady Sport Riders motorcycle club in Largo, Maryland. They say they ride for more than fun. They say it gives women a sense of freedom and control. They also say safety is very important. The risk of injury is high. So they wear protective clothing and equipment at all times, especially for the head. In nineteen ninety-eight the number of female bikers rose sharply. Lady Sport Riders began in nineteen ninety-nine in the Washington, D.C. area. The women formed the organization to share their love of motorcycle riding. They say female motorcycle clubs permit women to share a strong sisterhood. Like other motorcycle clubs, the members of Lady Sport Riders also help their community. The group says it wanted to be more than just women who gathered to ride motorcycles. So it organizes events that help national health organizations and women’s shelters. And it gives financial awards to students. Female riders have helped change motorcycle culture. The Motorcycle Industry Council says more than five years ago manufacturers began making equipment that makes riding more pleasant for women. Some bikes now have smaller, softer seats and controls that are easier to reach. Modern clothes for riding look good and still provide protection. In the past, women rode motorcycles that traveled at a moderate speed. Now theirs are as powerful as the ones men ride. Lady Sport Riders believe women have earned their place in the sport of motorcycle riding. When speaking of male motorcyclists the members of the club say: “They Made the Game…We Came to Play!” (SOUND) Contemporary American Writers HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener who wants to know more about short stories by modern American writers. Edgar Allan PoeThe Special English program "American Stories" broadcasts stories by American writers every Saturday. The stories have been shortened and adapted into Special English by our writers. Most of the stories were written long ago but are still popular today. They include “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving and “Luck” by Mark Twain. The public is permitted to use these stories freely. We must get permission from the writer or the publisher to broadcast modern stories. In recent years we have added more stories by modern writers to our "American Stories" program. They include “Crazy Lady” by Jane Leslie, “Jacob Have I Loved” by Katherine Patterson and “Shiloh” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Each of these writers has won the Newbery Award. It is the highest honor for a writer of books for young people in the United States. "American Stories" also included a story by Joel Monture. He writes Native American stories for young people. Mister Monture writes about children and young adults who must deal with the cultures of Native American traditions and the modern world. Doreen Baingana is a short story writer who is also a Special English writer. She was born in Uganda. Miz Baingana has received many awards and honors for her book “Tropical Fish: Stories Out of Entebbe.”? Several of Miz Baingana’s stories have been broadcast in Special English. They include “Fallen Fruit” and “A Kind of Blue.”? You can hear another story written by Doreen Baingana Saturday on the Special English program "American Stories."? We will tell the story “Lost and Found in Los Angeles.”?? Also, you can visit our Web site at voaspecialenglish.com to read and hear some other "American Stories." CMA Awards HOST: The Country Music Association presented its fortieth yearly awards last week at a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee. The organization honors great country music performers. Katherine Cole tells us about some of the award winners this year. KATHERINE COLE: The Country Music Association Horizon Award goes to the best new country artist. The winner was Carrie Underwood. She also won the female singer of the year award. Here is the title song from her album, “Some Hearts.” (MUSIC) Another big Country Music Association Award winner was the group Brooks and Dunn. They received four awards. One award was for the best two-person singing group. They won three more awards for the song “Believe.”? It was named song of the year, single of the year and video of the year. Here they are to sing it: (MUSIC) Perhaps the most important award given by the Country Music Association is called the entertainer of the year. That award went to singer Kenny Chesney. We leave you now with Kenny Chesney singing his hit, “You Save Me.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Allowances: A Lesson in Personal Finance for Kids
* Byline: Children can learn important ideas about dealing with money. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly. The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance. In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money. At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance. The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics. Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life. Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works. Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it. Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future. Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance. A savings account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest. Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on. That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can learn more about economics, and download MP3 files and transcripts of our weekly reports, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Fixing Iraq by Facing Iran, Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
* Byline: Some of the week's Middle East news, including Blair's call for uniting moderate Arabs and Muslims to push for peace. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The Middle East was very much in the news this week. These were a few of the developments:? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country was ready to take the final step in its nuclear program. He did not say what that would be. But he said Iran would celebrate its right to nuclear technology by March, the end of the Iranian year. Iran says its uranium enrichment program is to make fuel for nuclear energy. But enriched uranium could also be used for bombs. Iran refused a demand by the United Nations Security Council to halt its enrichment activities by the end of August. But Russia and China have been rejecting restrictions proposed by the United States and its European allies to punish Iran. The Bush administration also accuses Iran of inciting violence in Iraq -- another charge that Iranian officials deny. In Washington, some Democratic lawmakers have called for talks with both Iran and Syria. They say it could help the situation in Iraq. The newly elected Democratic majority will take control of Congress in January. Already there have been proposals to urge the president to begin removing some troops from Iraq within six months. More than two thousand eight hundred American service members have been killed since the war began in two thousand three. On Monday, President Bush met with members of the Iraq Study Group. The group is led by former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican, and former Representative Lee Hamilton, a Democrat. The ten-member group is to give advice about what to do in Iraq. The members have talked to many people and made several trips to Iraq during eight months of research. The group is expected to present its ideas in December. President Bush says he is open to fresh ideas. But he has said he does not support pulling out troops without a victory. Victory is defined as an Iraq that can take care of itself and also be an ally in the war on terror. The president's closest ally on Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, appeared Tuesday before the Iraq Study Group by video link. Earlier, in a foreign policy speech, he proposed a "'whole Middle East' strategy" to unite moderate Arabs and Muslims in a push for peace. Efforts would start with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, followed by Lebanon and Iraq. The aim is to ease what he called the pressure points in the Middle East. Mister Blair accused Iran of using these pressure points to stop Middle East peace efforts. He has said for some time that the best way to end the violence in Iraq and Afghanistan is with help from nations such as Iran and Syria. Also this week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged an end to the recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. He met in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and diplomats from the so-called Middle East quartet. The four are the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Health of Africans and Women Top Concerns of Next WHO Chief
* Byline: Bird flu expert Margaret Chan will take office in January, becoming the first Chinese to head a major UN agency. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The next chief of the World Health Organization wants the performance of the W.H.O. to be judged by two measures. One is improvements in the health of the people of Africa. The other is improvements in the health of women. Margaret Chan says the W.H.O. must help all people, but especially those in greatest need. Doctor Chan will begin a five-year term as director-general in January. She will replace Lee Jong-wook of South Korea who died in May. She will be the first Chinese head of a major United Nations agency. China nominated her, but she says she considers her nationality secondary to the interests of the W.H.O. The Chinese government has been criticized for slow reporting of public health emergencies. W.H.O. officials say lack of cooperation has hurt the agency's ability to follow the spread of disease. Doctor Chan says she hopes her new job will give her more influence with government officials. Margaret Chan is a bird flu expert. The fifty-nine-year-old doctor completed her medical training at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She also studied public health at the National University of Singapore. She joined the Hong Kong Department of Health in nineteen seventy-eight. She became its director in nineteen ninety-four. Three years later she had to deal with an outbreak of the h-five-n-one virus that included the first known cases in humans. Doctor Chan ordered the killing of all poultry birds in the city to control the spread of the virus. She won international praise. She was also praised for her handling of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, in two thousand three. She joined the World Health Organization later that year. Most recently she served as assistant director-general for communicable diseases. She was also the representative of the director-general for pandemic influenza. Earlier this month, a series of votes by a nominating committee narrowed the list of candidates for director-general. On the final ballot, Margaret Chan defeated Mexican Health Minister Julio Frenk twenty-four to ten. Then the World Health Assembly approved her nomination at a special meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The assembly represents all one hundred ninety-three member nations in the W.H.O. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. For MP3 files and transcripts, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Stephen Foster, 1826-1864: America's First Popular Songwriter
* Byline: He wrote more than 200 songs during the 1840s and 1850s. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Stephen Foster, America's first popular professional songwriter. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may have heard the old traditional American songs "Oh! Susanna," "Camptown Races" and "My Old Kentucky Home. " But, do you know who wrote them? Stephen Foster. He wrote those and more than two hundred other songs during the eighteen forties and eighteen fifties. His best songs have become part of America's cultural history. They have become American folk songs. Many people in America learned to sing these songs when they were children. Most Americans can sing these songs today. VOICE TWO: Stephen Collins Foster was born on July fourth, eighteen twenty-six in what is now part of the city of Pittsburgh, in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. He was the ninth child of William and Eliza Foster. He did not have much musical training. But he had a great natural ability for music. He taught himself to play several musical instruments. He could play any music just by listening to it. Stephen Foster began writing songs when he was fourteen. In eighteen forty-seven, he wrote his first successful song, "Oh! Susanna. " Ken Emerson wrote a book about Stephen Foster. It is called “Doo-dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture. ” Mister Emerson says "Oh! Susanna" was the first internationally popular song written by an American that everyone can still recognize and sing today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Stephen Foster married Jane McDowell in eighteen fifty. He wrote many new songs. Some of them were about love. One of the best known is "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair. " He wrote it for his wife when they were separated. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Stephen Foster wrote almost thirty songs for minstrel shows. Minstrel shows became popular in the United States in the eighteen forties. White entertainers blackened their faces and performed as if they were black entertainers. Minstrel shows included music, dance and comedy. The shows were performed in almost every major American city, especially in the Northeast. One of Foster's songs written for minstrel shows is "Camptown Races. " Today, it is a popular song for children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Minstrel songs described the culture of black American slaves in the southern states. Yet Foster did not really know anything about this subject. He lived in Pittsburgh for most of his life. He visited the South only once. However, some experts say Foster's minstrel songs showed he did understand how black people in the South lived before the Civil War. The people in Foster's songs love their families and work hard. Now, however, some of his songs are judged insulting to African-Americans. So, music publishers have changed some of the words. And a few of his songs are no longer sung. VOICE TWO: In eighteen fifty, Foster made an agreement with the leader of a successful minstrel group, E. P. Christy. The agreement meant that Christy's Minstrels had the right to perform every new song Foster wrote. Foster also permitted Christy to name himself as the writer of the song "Old Folks at Home. " This became one of most successful songs written by Stephen Foster. It became the official song of the state of Florida in nineteen thirty-five. It also is known as "Way Down upon the Swanee River. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Stephen Foster wrote other songs about home and memories of times past. In his book, Ken Emerson says Foster wrote songs about home in part because he almost never lived in one home for long. His father lost all his money when Stephen was a boy. So Stephen was forced to live with many different family members. Although Foster lived in the North, some of his songs suggest a desire to be back home in the American South. VOICE TWO: "My Old Kentucky Home" is an example. Mister Emerson says Foster wrote the song in honor of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." "My Old Kentucky Home" expresses great sympathy for enslaved African-Americans. The black anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass praised the song. It later became the official song of the state of Kentucky. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Stephen Foster was America's first full-time professional songwriter. He was a good songwriter. But he was a poor businessman. He sold many of his most famous songs for very little money. He was not able to support his wife and daughter. In eighteen sixty, he moved to New York City. His songs were not as popular as they had been. His marriage had ended. He had no money. For most of his life, he drank large amounts of alcohol. He died on January thirteenth, eighteen sixty-four. He was only thirty-seven years old. VOICE TWO: Stephen Foster was honored in several ways after his death. He was the first musician to be nominated to the Hall of Fame for great Americans. And he was the first American composer whose complete works were published together. Each year, on the anniversary of his death, people in Pittsburgh gather to remember Stephen Foster. They go to the church he attended as a child. They attend a show that honors him. Then they visit his burial place. The end of Stephen Foster's life was sad. But his songs have brought happiness to many people. One of his last songs was one of the most beautiful. It is called "Beautiful Dreamer. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Thanksgiving Day: Filled With Family Traditions and, Oh Yes, Food
* Byline: Some families serve ham. But the traditional main dish is turkey.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Our subject this week is what the writer O. Henry called the one day that is purely American -- Thanksgiving. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. This is the one hundred forty-third official observance of the holiday. But the tradition is much older. Thanksgiving is an autumn harvest festival like those found in many cultures. Today the holiday is a time of family reunions, parades and watching football games on television. And, oh yes, food. For millions of Americans, Thanksgiving is a day spent cooking, eating and talking. VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving is what the social scientists call a civil holiday. It is not religious but it does have spiritual meaning. For some families, Thanksgiving may be the only time of year when everyone gets together. The government says the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for long-distance travel as people return from gatherings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Hillier leads the Theatre of Voices in a traditional Shaker song, "Give Good Gifts to One Another."? The recording is from the album "Home to Thanksgiving -- Songs of Thanks and Praise." Thanksgiving is also when thoughts start to turn to other kinds of gifts. The Friday after Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the shopping season for Christmas and the other winter holidays. VOICE TWO: And speaking of traditions, a popular Thanksgiving tradition is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Employees of the huge Macy's department store on Herald Square organized the first parade in nineteen twenty-four. Many of them wanted to hold a big parade like the ones in Old World Europe. So they dressed in costumes and borrowed some animals from the zoo. They also carried small balloons that floated just overhead. VOICE ONE: A few years later came big balloons, the kind that the parade is famous for. But they burst. The parade planners soon learned better ways to control the balloons. In nineteen thirty-four, a big Mickey Mouse balloon made of rubber appeared in the parade for the first time. Mickey Mouse remains a popular character in the parade. But for three years during World War Two, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade had to be cancelled. The military needed rubber for the war effort. VOICE TWO: Two and one-half million people are expected on the streets of Manhattan this Thursday to watch the parade. Millions more will see it on television. And, as always, there will be lots of things to see, including eight hundred performing clowns. But all eyes will be on the huge balloons that will rise almost fifteen meters above the streets. Many of the balloons are based on popular cartoon and game characters. Plans call for the balloons to be filled with helium gas on Wednesday. VOICE ONE:?????? Workers control the balloons with ropes, but that can be difficult. They have to make sure that winds do not blow the balloons into buildings or parade-watchers. But accidents can happen. There have been two in recent years. Last year, ropes from a big balloon caught on a streetlight. Two sisters were injured when pieces of the streetlight fell on them as they watched the parade. The accident was similar to what happened in nineteen ninety-seven. The victim was a woman on the street. She was injured so badly that she was in a coma for almost a month. But she survived. And just last month that same woman, Kathleen Caronna, had something else to be thankful for. She was not home when a small plane hit the Manhattan building where she lived. Her apartment was heavily damaged, and the crash killed both people on the plane. After the balloon incident last year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed a committee to improve the safety of the parade. This year, more steps will be taken to measure the wind and to report the information to the balloon controllers. VOICE TWO: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is marking its eightieth anniversary this year. The parade traditionally includes invited marching bands. But now, in addition, the parade will have its own marching band. Two hundred musicians and dancers will take part in what is called the Macy's Great American Marching Band. The young musicians will represent all fifty states and the District of Columbia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now we come to the part of the holiday that Thanksgiving memories are often made of -- the big Thanksgiving Day meal. Some families serve ham. Others serve a meatless dinner. But the traditional main dish is turkey. Most people cook the bird in an oven; some prepare the turkey other ways, like fried in oil. Turkey on Thanksgiving is usually served with a bread mixture inside. Some Americans call it stuffing; others call it dressing. Popular side dishes on Thanksgiving include cranberries, sweet potatoes and green beans. Then for a rich, sweet dessert there is often pumpkin pie or pecan pie. Many Thanksgiving tables also are heavy with other dishes, often brought by guests. And if the guests eat all that is served, they too will feel heavy. Some people like fruit soup, green salads and baked potatoes with their turkey. Others like baked squash, creamed onions, creamed spinach and corn pudding. Many people eat more at Thanksgiving than any other time of the year. VOICE TWO: For people who do not have much food, or a home to go to at Thanksgiving, charity groups play an important part. To help the needy, religious and service organizations across the country serve special Thanksgiving meals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tradition says the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in sixteen twenty-one. The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. First they went to the Netherlands, then left to establish a colony in North America. They ended up at what later became known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their trip across the Atlantic Ocean and their first months on land were difficult. About one hundred Pilgrims arrived just as autumn was turning to winter. About half of them died during the cold months that followed. VOICE TWO: As the story goes, when spring came the Pilgrims planted crops with the help of an American Indian named Squanto. By the end of summer there was a good harvest of corn and barley. There was enough food to last through the winter. The Pilgrims held a celebration of thanks for their harvest. A nearby Indian tribe, the Wampanoags, took part and the feast lasted three days. But modern Indians have noted that the friendship did not last for long. Other English settlers who arrived later did not need help from the Indians the way the Pilgrims did. The Indians and the settlers were at war within a few years. Many of the Wampanoag Indians died in battle or from diseases that arrived with the settlers. VOICE ONE: Over the years, as the American colonies grew, other communities held thanksgiving or harvest celebrations. Later, different states celebrated Thanksgiving on different days. But a nineteenth century writer and editor, Sarah Hale, believed that all Americans should give thanks on the same day. For years she campaigned for a national holiday. Her wish came true in October of eighteen sixty-three with a declaration from President Abraham Lincoln. He invited Americans to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to God. At the time, it might not have seemed that Americans had much to be thankful for. It was in the middle of the Civil War. The great Battle of Gettysburg had just taken place that summer in Pennsylvania. Yet the war that divided the nation also, in the end, united it. And, as the spirit of tradition guides millions of people to holiday gatherings this week, Thanksgiving remains that most American of days. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. To learn more about American life, and to download MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Circus: Some Agree It Is the 'Greatest Show on Earth'
* Byline: 

 Now, the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. (MUSIC) ?Circus is a word with a long, interesting history. It is a Latin word that means "ring" or "circle." ?One of the most famous places in ancient Rome was the Circus Maximus. It was a kind of round stadium with rows of seats all around the inside of it. Roman citizens gathered there to watch races, games and violent, bloody fights. ?The modern circus developed in the nineteenth century. It was a travelling show of animals and people working under a large tent, later known as the Big Top.Travelling circuses were popular in the United States and Britain before eighteen thirty. A circus moved from town to town, putting on shows with trained animals, acrobats doing difficult tricks, and funny, colorful clowns. ?Circuses still travel from place to place. And they still have trained animal acts, acrobats and clowns. ?Today's circuses usually have three rings. Something different takes place in each of the three rings at the same time. The heads of people watching a circus turn back and forth as they try to see every exciting act in each ring. ?The circus has been popular for so long that it is not surprising that words and expressions connected with it are part of everyday speech. For example, the word circus is used to describe any noisy place with a lot of activities going on. A teacher may use it when she walks into a room where the students are playing and talking, instead of studying. She might say, "This place is a circus. Calm down and get your work done." And if the room is really noisy, she may say it is a three ring circus. Clowns are a very special part of the circus. They look funny with their big red noses, painted faces and clothes that are much too large for them. Everyone at a circus loves to watch the clowns do tricks on each other.Clowns have a real purpose:? to make people laugh. They always succeed. We use the expression to clown around when we talk about someone playing tricks and making jokes. Usually, a person is clowning around if he is being funny when he should be serious. In that case, you may get angry and say, "Stop clowning around. This is a serious situation." The most celebrated American circus in the eighteen hundreds was P. T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth."? Barnum's circus had many new acts. He began finding and training unusual animals, not just dogs and horses. One of the most popular of Barnum's animals was a huge elephant named Jumbo. Jumbo was very large, much larger than other elephants. Soon, anything that was the largest of its kind was called jumbo. Today, there are jumbo drinks, jumbo boxes of soap, and jumbo sales of cars. ?(MUSIC) ?This Special English WORDS AND THEIR STORIES program?was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: At Thanksgiving, Turkeys Fly Out of Stores
* Byline: A look at America's fourth most popular meat. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. American turkey producers will raise close to two hundred seventy million of the big birds this year. That is the estimate of the National Turkey Federation, an industry group. Tens of millions will be the traditional star of Thanksgiving holiday meals this Thursday and next month at Christmas. Americans eat more turkey throughout the year, and more of it in general, than in the past. The federation says people ate an average of seven and one-half kilograms of turkey last year. But they ate three times as much pork, four times as much beef and five times as much chicken. Lamb was a distant fifth in popularity behind turkey. Turkeys produced more than three thousand million dollars in farm earnings last year. The five top producing states were Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri. The top five export markets for turkey meat from the United States were Mexico, China, Canada, Russia and Taiwan. Turkey is sold many ways -- frozen, fresh, whole, cut into parts, ground up like hamburger, thinly sliced, roasted, fried, smoked. People eat it in sandwiches, in soups, in salads, in sausages and more. But at Thanksgiving people generally buy a whole bird -- in some cases, all prepared and ready to serve. Modern turkeys are designed for industrial production and for a market where white meat is more popular than dark. The federation says a turkey usually has about seventy percent white meat. Turkey hens lay eighty to one hundred eggs in a season. Producers use artificial insemination to fertilize the eggs. The turkeys grow quickly. In fourteen weeks, a hen weighs seven kilograms and is ready for market. Males take eighteen weeks to reach fourteen kilograms. Most turkeys are raised what is known as the conventional way. But some higher-priced birds are raised outdoors, without antibiotic drugs and with a diet of feed grown without chemicals. Some small farms raise what are called heritage turkeys. These native birds are smaller and take longer to grow. But they mate naturally and have more of a balance of dark and white meat. Heritage turkeys have a stronger taste that some people like. But turkeys are sold by weight, and people often buy big ones for the holidays. So price may be the biggest consideration of all. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can learn more about Thanksgiving at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: How Autoimmune Diseases Sabotage the Body's Own Defenses
* Byline: An explanation of lupus and other disorders of the body's protections against disease. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week, we talk about a sickness called lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases affect the immune system – the body’s natural defense for fighting disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The immune system normally protects the body against foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria. Autoimmune diseases result from a failure of the body’s own defenses against disease. The immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign materials and its own cells. So, the body starts attacking its own organs and tissues. VOICE TWO: There are three kinds of lupus. Discoid lupus affects only the skin and can be identified by red marks on the face or neck. These marks on the skin can also be a sign of another form of lupus called systemic lupus. Systemic lupus can affect almost any organ or organ system in the body. When people talk about lupus, they usually mean the systemic form of the disease. Some kinds of medicines can cause what is called drug-induced lupus. This form of lupus usually goes away when the patient stops using the medicines. VOICE ONE: High body temperature and pain in the elbows or knees are common signs of lupus. Other signs are red marks on the skin, feelings of extreme tiredness and lack of iron in the body. At different times, the effects of lupus can be either mild or serious. The signs of the disease can come and go. This makes identifying the disease difficult. There is no one laboratory test to tell is someone has lupus. Many people with lupus also suffer from depression. Lupus can also lead to other health problems. Women with lupus are at greater risk of developing heart disease. And between thirty and fifty percent of lupus patients will develop lupus-related kidney disease, known as lupus nephritis. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts are not sure what causes lupus. Genetics or environmental influences seem to be involved. Lupus has been known to attack members of the same family. Yet, the genes responsible have yet to be identified. Also, many women with lupus give birth to healthy babies. Many scientists believe infections may cause lupus. So can extreme bodily or mental tension, commonly known as stress. Two other suspected causes are antibiotic drugs and hormones produced by the body. In fact, hormones might explain why lupus affects women far more often then men. The Lupus Foundation of America says ninety percent of the people with lupus are women. Persons of African American, American Indian or Asian ancestry become infected more often than white women. Scientists do not know why women are more at risk than men. They think it might have to do with female hormones, like estrogen. Another idea is that is could involve the foreign cells left in a woman’s body after a pregnancy. VOICE ONE: There is currently no cure for lupus. Yet doctors have developed ways of treating the disease. Treatments are based on the condition and needs of each patient. No two individuals have the exact same problems. A treatment could include a combination of stress-reduction methods and drugs such as painkillers and steroids. Anti-malaria drugs also have been effective. Recent research also suggests that supervised exercise training can improve the quality of life for lupus patients. It has been forty years since the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug especially for treating lupus. Several companies are working to make drugs that can help lupus patients. Organizations like the Lupus Foundation of America are working to increase public understanding of the disease. Early recognition of lupus and treatment can often prevent serious heath problems. Lupus can be life threatening if left untreated. Yet, many patients can lead a normal and healthy life if they follow their doctor’s advice. Patients must take their medicines and keep looking for side effects or new signs of the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lupus is not the only autoimmune disease. Doctors and scientists have identified at least eighty other such diseases in which the body attacks its own organs and cells. Some of the diseases attack just one area of the body, like the skin, eyes or muscles. Others affect an organ system or even the whole body. Some of the diseases are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes. Others are less well known and more difficult to identify. For example, celiac disease is difficult to identify because the signs of the disease are so common. Patients may have low iron levels and experience stomach pain. The uncontrolled release of bodily wastes is also a problem. Doctors might treat those signs and not know they are caused by celiac disease. Some people develop celiac disease after eating gluten, a protein found in all wheat products. It is not always clear that eating something as harmless as wheat can be bad for a person’s health. For some patients, it can be years before the problem is correctly identified. VOICE ONE: The United States National Institutes of Health says autoimmune diseases affect an estimated five to eight percent of the country’s population. That represents between fourteen million and twenty-two million Americans. The physical, emotional and financial cost of autoimmune diseases is huge. Most of those affected are women. While people of all ages are affected, women who are old enough to have children are especially at risk. Some autoimmune diseases like lupus and scleroderma are more common in African Americans. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes are more common among whites. Doctors do not yet know why this is true. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: New drugs are being tested to help treat autoimmune diseases. Some drugs can be a problem because they suppress the immune system. This means the body is less able to defend itself against infections. As a result, the side effects of the drugs can be as dangerous as the disease itself. Newer drugs attempt to suppress only one small part of the immune system, not all of it. For example, drugs like Enbrel and Remicade block tumor necrosis factor. This is a protein that causes inflammation, a physical reaction to infection, injury or other causes. These drugs have been useful in treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease. However, the drugs are very costly. The drugs have also been found to increase the risk of cancer. VOICE ONE: Scientists continue searching for other methods of treatment. For example, some scientists hope to use stem cells to replace tissues damaged by disease. Stem cells have the ability to grow other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. Medical experts also are working together to improve the way autoimmune diseases are identified and treated. A few years ago, the Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center was formed in the American state of Maryland. The aim of the center is to bring together experts to improve the study of autoimmune diseases. Private groups like the center show how important it is for scientists to share information about such diseases. Because each disease often affects different organs, many experts might be needed to treat the disorder. Experts need to know about the most recent medical research and technology. By sharing information about their patients, doctors also can learn from other cases. VOICE TWO: Government agencies also are working with to increase knowledge about autoimmune diseases. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health created an autoimmune disease research plan three years ago. The plan urges agencies from different areas to work together. Both private and government organizations are working to increase public understanding of such diseases. This can help individuals better understand what to do should they develop a health problem. At the same time, medical researchers continue working to help patients have a better quality of life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program written and produced by Brianna Blake. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Links Red Meat to Higher Risk of Breast Cancer
* Byline: Research finds younger women who ate the most red meat were twice as likely to get hormone-related cancers. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Exercise and keeping a healthy weight are two things that doctors say might help women lower their risk of breast cancer. Mothers may reduce their risk if they breastfeed for at least four months. For older women, hormone replacement therapy can lower the risk of some other diseases. But it has been found to increase the risk of breast cancer. So women should consider their choices carefully. The same may be said for diet. New findings show that younger women who eat a lot of red meat have higher rates of breast cancers called hormone-receptor positive. The growth is fed by the levels of estrogen or another hormone, progesterone, in the body. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, reported the findings as part of a health study of nurses. The researchers followed the health of more than ninety thousand women from nineteen ninety-one to two thousand three. Those who ate the most red meat ate more than one and one-half servings a day. A serving was defined as roughly eighty-four grams. Those who ate the least red meat ate less than three servings a week. This is what the study found about breast cancers that were hormone receptor-positive: The women who ate the most red meat were almost two times as likely to get them as the women who ate the least of it. Eunyoung Cho, the lead author of the report, says more research is needed to know the reason for the link. But in the past, researchers have suggested that three things may play a part. One is the way meat is cooked or processed. Another is the use of growth hormones in cows. And the third is the kind of iron in red meat. The study appears in the Archives of Internal Medicine. And now we have more to tell you about our subject last week -- resveratrol. We discussed a study in the United States that found that large amounts of this plant compound helped fat mice live longer. The mice were fed much more resveratrol than people could get from red wine, one of the foods that contains it. Now, scientists in France say resveratrol also improves muscle performance -- again, at least in mice. They were able to run two times as far in laboratory treadmill tests as mice normally could. The study at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology appeared in the journal Cell. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-21-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Among the Shooters of the Old West, Two of the Most Feared
* Byline: Jim Miller was an outlaw paid to kill people; John Slaughter was a lawman. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we present the second of two programs about the Old American West. Experts disagree about who were the most dangerous gunmen of the Wild West. However, we will tell you about two of them. One was an outlaw. One was a lawman. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There have been hundreds of movies and television programs about the wild and lawless American West. Thousands of books have been written about it. This famous time in American history only lasted about seventy years. The first recorded shooting incident by a person who was a professional gunman took place in Texas in eighteen fifty-four. This violent period ended in about nineteen twenty-four. Some people living in the West at this time became famous. These include men who worked as professional officers of the law, and others who were criminals. Their names were Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok and the brothers Jesse and Frank James. Books, movies and television programs have made these men more famous today than they were when they were alive. Some of the stories about them are true, but most are only stories. Here are two true stories of the Old West. Our first story begins with a very old photograph that was made in the little town of Pecos, Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Close your eyes for a few moments and imagine a very old photograph. The photograph was taken inside a saloon -- a place that served alcohol drinks. It was also where people played card games for money. The photograph clearly shows a group of men sitting in chairs around two tables. Other men are standing against the wall. It is easy to tell that it must be a cold day because several of the men are sitting near a wood stove for warmth. Most of the men are looking at the camera. Most wear boots and the large hats made famous by cowboys. One man wears a smaller, white hat. He is not looking at the camera. He is playing a card game called faro. No one is sitting near him. His left hand is on the table near the cards he will play in the game. His right hand is below the table -- not far from the gun he always carried. His face shows little emotion. VOICE ONE: This is one of the few photographs known to exist of a very dangerous man named James Miller. He was also known as “Killin’ Jim” or “Killer Miller”. History records show that he was responsible for the deaths of at least twelve people. Jim Miller often said he had killed more than fifty people. The real number of people he killed will never be known. Jim Miller killed people for money. He charged about one hundred fifty dollars to kill a person. He also killed anyone who caused him trouble. One man died a few days after he had spoken in court against Miller. There is no evidence to show who killed the man. However, people were sure Jim Miller was guilty of the crime. VOICE TWO: Miller was successful at what he did because there was little law enforcement in the areas of Texas and Oklahoma where he lived. And, people were afraid to say anything against Miller. They knew it would mean their lives. One law officer got into a shooting incident with Miller. The lawman shot Miller three times in the chest. Miller fell to the ground. The officer was sure he had killed the dangerous man. A few minutes later, Miller got to his feet. He had not been hurt. He was wearing a steel plate under his shirt. The bullets had hit the steel. The force of the bullets had knocked him down, but had not hurt him. Later, the law officer died from gun shot wounds. No one was sure who shot him. However most people knew Miller had killed again. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-nine, Miller made a mistake. He was paid money to kill a man in the little town of Ada, Oklahoma. He killed the man in the dark of night. Later, Miller was arrested for the crime. The citizens of Ada knew he had been arrested several times but had always been released for lack of evidence. Also, many people were afraid to speak in court against Miller. Many of the citizens of Ada thought Miller would escape justice again. On Sunday morning, April nineteenth, the citizens of Ada attacked the jail where Miller was being kept. They took him to a barn and hanged him. No one was ever arrested for the hanging of Jim Miller. Most people thought justice had been done. One man said, “He was just a killer. He was the worst man I ever knew.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Old American West had more than its share of bad people like "Killin’" Jim Miller. However, other people worked hard and found good lives in the West. One of these was a man named John Horton Slaughter. He was sometimes called “Texas” John Slaughter. He was born in Louisiana in eighteen forty-one. His family moved to Texas when he was only three months old. He grew up with little education. However, he learned to raise cattle. He learned to speak Spanish. And he learned much from the Native American Indians. He also fought against Indian raiders from the time he could ride a horse and carry a gun. He fought against both the Apache and the Comanche tribes. VOICE ONE: John Slaughter was not a very tall man. He was really very small. However, criminals became afraid just looking into his eyes. History records show that John Slaughter took part in at least eight gunfights. This does not include his time as a soldier in the Civil War or fighting against Indians. The records show that he was forced to kill at least four men and possibly two others. These recorded shooting incidents took place when he was an officer of the law. There may have been several more. People who knew John Slaughter said there was no doubt they were dealing with an extremely serious man -- a man who could be very dangerous. One friend of John Slaughter said Texas John was the meanest good man he ever met. VOICE TWO: John Slaughter worked all his life in the cattle business. He took part in some of the first movements of huge cattle herds from Texas to the railroads in the state of Kansas. He moved from Texas to New Mexico and then to Arizona. In Arizona, he bought a huge ranch to raise cattle. The ranch had more than twenty-six thousand hectares. Part of it was in Arizona, part in Mexico. In eighteen eighty-six, he was elected the lawman or sheriff of Douglas, Arizona, the town near his ranch. Several groups of criminals were working in the area at the time. Soon, many of these outlaws were in jail. Most refused to fight Texas John Slaughter. They surrendered instead. Those who would not immediately surrender faced Sheriff Slaughter’s guns. After two terms as the sheriff, John Slaughter helped the United States Army seek out the famous Apache warrior Geronimo. He helped start the bank in Douglas, Arizona. He later became a representative in the Territorial Government and worked to have Arizona admitted as a state. VOICE ONE: John Slaughter continued his work on his ranch. He became very wealthy. When he was not working, he was in a local hotel playing card games for large amounts of money. He would often play these games for more than twenty-four hours at a time. John Slaughter represented what was good about the American West. During his long life, Texas John Slaughter was a gunfighter, lawman, soldier, cattle rancher, Indian fighter, professional card player and a representative of the state of Arizona. He died in his sleep in February, nineteen twenty-two, at the age of eighty-one. Viola Slaughter, his wife of forty-one years, was by his side. VOICE TWO: The wild times in the American West ended at about the time of John Slaughter’s death. It was still the American West, but men like John Slaughter made sure it was no longer wild. They helped to bring law and order to the West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Greatest Military Invasion in History
* Byline: Allied forces cross the English Channel to invade German-occupied France. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Invasion at NormandyTHE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) On June fifth, nineteen forty-four, a huge Allied force waited for the order to invade German-occupied France. The invasion had been planned for the day before. But a storm forced a delay. At three-thirty in the morning, the Allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, was meeting with his assistants. The storm still blew outside the building. General Eisenhower and his generals were discussing whether they should attack the next day. VOICE TWO: A weatherman entered the room. He reported that the weather soon would improve. All eyes turned to Eisenhower. The decision was his. His face was serious. And for a long time he was silent. Finally he spoke. "OK," he said, "we will go." And so the greatest military invasion in the history of the world, D-Day, took place on June sixth, nineteen forty-four. VOICE ONE: The German leader, Adolph Hitler, had known the invasion was coming. But he did not know where the Allied force would strike. Most Germans expected the Allies would attack at Calais, in France. But they were wrong. Eisenhower planned to strike at the French coast of Normandy, across the English Channel. The Second World War was then almost five years old. The Germans had won the early battles and gained control of most of Europe. But in nineteen forty-two and forty-three, the Allies slowly began to gain back land from the Germans in northern Africa, Italy, and Russia. And now, finally, the British, American, Canadian, and other Allied forces felt strong enough to attack across the English Channel. VOICE TWO: General Dwight Eisenhower speaks to troops before D-Day invasion Eisenhower had one hundred fifty thousand men, twelve thousand airplanes and many supplies for the attack. But most important, he had surprise on his side. Even after the invasion began, General Erwin Rommel and other top German military experts could not believe that the Allies had really attacked at Normandy. But attack they did. On the night of June fifth, airplanes dropped thousands of Allied parachute soldiers behind German lines. Then Allied planes began dropping bombs on German defenses. And in the morning, thousands of ships approached the beaches, carrying men and supplies. VOICE ONE: The battle quickly became fierce and bloody. The Germans had strong defenses. They were better protected than the Allied troops on the beaches. But the Allied soldiers had greater numbers. Slowly they moved forward on one part of the beach, then another. VOICE TWO: The Allies continued to build up their forces in France. They brought nearly ninety thousand vehicles and six-hundred-thousand men into France within one week. And they pushed ahead. Hitler was furious. He screamed at his generals for not blocking the invasion. And he ordered his troops from nearby areas to join the fight and stop the Allied force. But the Allies would not be stopped. VOICE ONE: In late August, the Allied forces captured Paris. The French people cheered wildly as General Charles de Gaulle and free French forces marched into the center of the city. The Allies then moved east into Belgium. They captured the great Belgian port of Antwerp. This made it easier for them to send supplies and fuel to their troops. Only when Allied troops tried to move into the Netherlands did the Germans succeed in stopping them. American parachute soldiers won battles at Eindhoven and Njmegen. But German forces defeated British "Red Devil" troops in a terrible fight at Arnhem. Germany's brief victory stopped the Allied invasion for the moment. But in less than four months, General Eisenhower and the Allied forces had regained almost all of France. VOICE TWO: At the same time, in nineteen forty-four, the Soviets were attacking Germany from the east. Earlier, Soviet forces had succeeded in breaking German attacks at Stalingrad [Volgograd], Moscow, and Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. Soviet forces recaptured Russian cities and farms one by one. They entered Finland, Poland, and Romania. By the end of July, Soviet soldiers were just fifteen kilometers from the Polish capital, Warsaw. VOICE ONE: What happened next was one of the most terrible events of the war. Moscow radio called on the people of Poland to rise up against the German occupation forces. Nearly forty thousand men in the Polish underground army listened to the call. And they attacked the Germans. The citizens of Warsaw probably could have defeated the German occupation forces if the Soviet army had helped them. But Soviet leader Josef Stalin betrayed the Poles. He knew that many members of the Polish underground forces opposed communism as much as they opposed the Germans. He feared they would block his efforts to establish a new Polish government that was friendly to Moscow. For this reason, Stalin held his forces outside Warsaw. He waited while the Germans and Poles killed each other in great numbers. The Germans finally forced the citizens of Warsaw to surrender. The real winner of the battle, however, was the Soviet Union. Both the Germans and the Poles suffered terrible losses during the fighting. The Soviet Army had little trouble taking over the city with the help of Polish Communists. And after the war, the free Polish forces were too weak to oppose a Communist government loyal to Moscow. VOICE TWO: Adolf Hitler was in serious trouble. Allied forces were attacking from the west. Soviet troops were passing through Poland and moving in from the east. And at home, several German military officials tried to assassinate him. The German leader narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in a meeting room. But Hitler refused to surrender. Instead, he planned a surprise attack in December nineteen forty-four. He ordered his forces to move quietly through the Ardennes Forest and attack the center of the Allied line. He hoped to break through the line, separate the Allied forces, and regain control of the war. VOICE ONE: The Germans attacked American troops tired from recent fighting in another battle. It was winter. The weather was so bad that Allied planes could not drop bombs on the German forces. The Germans quickly broke through the American line. But the German success did not last long. Allied forces from nearby areas raced to the battle-front to help. And good weather allowed Allied planes to begin attacking the Germans. The battle ended by the middle of the following month in a great defeat for Hitler and the Germans. The German army lost more than one hundred thousand men and great amounts of supplies. VOICE TWO: The end of the war in Europe was now in sight. By late February, nineteen forty-five, the Germans were forced to retreat across the Rhine River. American forces led by General Patton drove deep into the German heartland. To the east, Soviet forces also were marching into Germany. It did not take long for the American and Soviet forces to meet in victory. The war in Europe was ended. VOICE ONE: Adolf Hitler waited until Russian troops were destroying Berlin. Bombs and shells were falling everywhere. Hitler took his own life by shooting himself in the head. One week later, the German army surrendered officially to Eisenhower and the allies. VOICE TWO: The defeat of Germany was cause for great celebration in Britain, the United States, and other Allied nations. But two facts made the celebrations less joyful than they might have been. One was the discovery by Allied troops of the terrible German death camps. Only at the end of the war did most of the world learn that the Nazis had murdered millions of innocent Jews and other people. The second fact was that the Pacific war had not ended. Japanese and American forces were still fighting bitterly. That war in the Pacific will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: GRE and MAT Spell Graduate School Entrance Exams
* Byline: Learn about the Graduate Record Examinations and the Miller Analogies Test in Week 12 our Foreign Student Series. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. For the past few weeks, we have been talking about some of the college entrance exams used in the United States. Well, we still have some more to talk about. A listener in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Noel Kouadio N’Guessan, wants to know about the GRE -- the Graduate Record Examinations. Many graduate programs in the United States require the GRE General Test. The exam takes almost four hours. And the cost to take it outside the United States is about one hundred sixty dollars. The Graduate Record Examination measures verbal and mathematical reasoning. It also measures critical thinking and writing skills. But the GRE is changing. The Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey, has redesigned it. The new version will be given starting in September of two thousand seven. The new GRE will continue to test the same areas as now. But Educational Testing Service officials say the new questions will better test the skills used in graduate school. They say the redesigned exam will provide colleges with better information about students. And they say it will improve security and make better use of technology. The GRE General Test will be administered on computer on about thirty test dates worldwide. And the number of Internet-based testing centers worldwide will be expanded. The exam is currently offered as either a computer test or a paper-and-pencil test. There are also GRE tests in different subject areas. Another entrance exam accepted by some American graduate schools is the Miller Analogies Test. The MAT measures knowledge of English and the ability to recognize relationships between ideas. It also tests knowledge of literature, history and science. You can find links to more information about the MAT and the GRE on the Special English Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find the earlier reports in our Foreign Student Series. Next week we will answer a question from Cambodia about the IELTS, the International English Language Testing System. If you have a general question about studying in the United States, send it to special@voanews.com. We might be able to answer it on the air. So please be sure to include your full name and your country. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Bob Doughty. --- Foreign Student Series: earlier reports 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: APEC Meeting Pushes for Continued Trade Negotiations
* Byline: Bush calls for an Asia-Pacific free trade area. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders ended without announcement of major policy changes among APEC members. However, the leaders did say they were ready to make changes in their negotiating positions to help restart world trade talks. They also said North Korea is a major concern, but stopped short of strong condemnation. This was the fourteenth official meeting of government leaders from economies in East Asia and nations around the Pacific Ocean. The two-day meeting was held in Vietnam, a nation recently admitted to the W.T.O. The meeting ended on November nineteenth. In a final statement, the leaders expressed a strong desire to continue the Doha series of W.T.O. talks on trade reform. The leaders said they would propose deeper cuts in government aid to farmers. Poor nations say such aid drives down the price of agricultural goods. The leaders stated they would cut import taxes on industrial goods. They offered to open their markets to more trade in agriculture and services, like banking. ?APEC urged other countries to join it in offering more trade reforms. APEC agreements do not have the force of law. President Bush pressed the other leaders on the issue of North Korea's nuclear program. Six-nation talks on the program have not moved forward since last year. The North Korean nuclear test last month has not helped the situation. Mister Bush urged APEC members to obey United Nations Security Council Resolution Seventeen-Eighteen. That resolution calls for action against North Korea, and urges it to return to the nuclear disarmament talks. All the nations involved in those talks are APEC members, except for North Korea. The president also proposed a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific as a long-term goal for the group. Mister Bush won a trade agreement with Central American and Caribbean nations last year. The APEC leaders' meeting was one of several meetings held in Hanoi. Earlier, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led the American team to the eighteenth APEC Joint Ministerial Meeting. Ministers agreed to push forward with trade reforms known as the Bogor Goals to be completed in five to ten years. They also agreed to cooperate in areas such as security and health. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-22-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Mall of America Mixes Shopping With Everything Else Under the Sun
* Byline: Also: A question from China about the TV show ''Prison Break,'' and music by winners of B.E.T.'s first hip-hop awards. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about a popular American television show … Play some award winning hip-hop music … And report about a great place to shop. Mall of America Thursday was Thanksgiving in the United States. Most Americans got together with family members and enjoyed a traditional meal. The day after Thanksgiving is an important day for business owners. It is the start of the holiday shopping season. One place that is very busy today is a large shopping center in Bloomington, Minnesota. In fact, it is one of the largest shopping and entertainment centers in the world. Faith Lapidus tells about the Mall of America. FAITH LAPIDUS: Imagine a place where you can buy a wedding dress and ring, get married, and have a wedding party all in a day?? The Mall of America offers all those goods and services. A ride called 'The Mighty Axe'The huge shopping and entertainment center is the largest mall in the United States. It covers thirty-one hectares. It cost six hundred fifty million dollars to build. The Mall of America has more than five hundred stores including four large department stores. It has sixty eating places. But, there is a lot more to do at Mall of America than shop and eat. Why not visit the mall’s aquarium?? The ninety one meter long, glass tunnel holds thousands of sea animals. They swim, crawl and float in about four million liters of water. You can walk alongside the aquarium and watch sharks eat or see a Caribbean reef up close. Young visitors to the Mall of America can also enjoy roller coasters, ferris wheels and other rides. It has the largest indoor amusement park in the United States. The mall also has a dinosaur museum, flight simulation center and fourteen movie theaters. And a place where people can get married. More than eleven thousand employees keep the operation running smoothly. During the summer and holidays, the mall employs thousands more people for temporary work. Mall spokesman Daniel Jasper says more than forty-five million people visit every year from all over the world. He says on any given day there are enough people at the Mall to make it the third largest city in Minnesota. The Mall of America will be fifteen years old next year. The owners are planning a year of celebrations. They are also planning a major expansion. It will include hotels, a business center, water park and performing arts center. In September, the Mall of America was recognized in an unusual way. It was made a property on a new version of the famous American board game Monopoly. 'Prison Break' HOST: Our listener question this week comes from China. Deng Yi wants to know about the television show "Prison Break" and two of the actors on the show. The Fox Broadcasting Company show "Prison Break" is in its second season in the United States. It is also popular around the world. There is no talk of canceling the show. The last episode of the autumn season will be shown in the United States on Monday. A Fox representative, Scott Grogin, says the company has not announced the date when the show will return? But he says it will be sometime in the spring. "Prison Break" is about a man who believes his brother has been sent to prison for a crime he did not do. The man gets himself sent to prison so he can help his brother escape. Michael Scofield is the character who tries to help his brother. The actor who plays him is Wentworth Miller. Miller was born in Britain but grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He is thirty-four years old and a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey. Wentworth Miller had first planned to work in the production side of television and movies. But in nineteen ninety-eight he appeared on the popular television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."? He found he enjoyed acting. Miller has also acted in films, including “The Human Stain,” with Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins. “Prison Break,” was Wentworth Miller’s big break in show business. He describes the show as “a great ride.” Actor Robert Knepper plays the character T-Bag on "Prison Break."? He was born in Ohio in nineteen fifty-nine. He became interested in acting as a result of his mother’s involvement in community theater. Knepper’s first acting job was in nineteen eighty-six on the show “The Paper Chase.”? He has worked on many other television shows, including, “Star Trek: Voyager” and “The West Wing.”? He has also worked in films, including a performance in last year’s hit movie “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Hip-Hop Awards Last week, the American television company B.E.T. broadcast its first hip-hop awards. Some of the brightest stars in the entertainment industry attended. Barbara Klein tells about the ceremony and plays music by some of the winners. BARBARA KLEIN: The ceremony honored rap music's “old school” artists and hip-hop’s exciting new performers. Among the winners was DJ Grandmaster Flash. He has been making music since the nineteen seventies. B.E.T. awarded Grandmaster Flash with the I Am Hip-Hop Icon award. Listen now as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five perform their song “Freedom.” (MUSIC) The ceremony was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The southern city is home to some of those honored, including rapper T.I. B.E.T. presented him with three awards, including one called M.V.P. or Most Valuable Player. Here, T.I. performs, “What You Know.” (MUSIC) The award for best new hip-hop performer was called Rookie of the Year. It went to the artist Chamillionaire [pronounced kha-mil-yen-air). The rapper from Houston, Texas has said that his aim is to prove that the southern United States can produce good rap song writers. You be the judge. Here is Chamillionaire performing, “Rain.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This?show was written and produced by Caty Weaver. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: International Day Aims to Bring Violence Against Women Out of Dark
* Byline: November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. For years, activists for the rights of women have marked November twenty-fifth as an important date. It is a day to recognize the goal of ending violence against women. November twenty-fifth was chosen to honor three sisters in the Dominican Republic. The Mirabel sisters -- Minerva, Patria and Maria Teresa -- were political activists. They were killed on November twenty-fifth, nineteen sixty-one, on orders from dictator Rafael Trujillo. Activists light candles Friday?in Mumbai, India, to protest violence against womenIn December of nineteen ninety-nine, the United Nations recognized the observance. The General Assembly declared November twenty-fifth the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The U.N. invited governments and international organizations to plan activities to increase public understanding of the problem. Women face different forms of violence: physical, sexual and psychological. Having their property taken away when they have a legal right to it is considered economic violence. It is difficult for researchers to understand the true extent of violence against women because the problem is often kept hidden. Many cases go unreported. The person responsible may be a stranger, but often it is a husband or someone else close to the victim. In addition to November twenty-fifth, December tenth is observed each year as International Human Rights Day. The days in between are known as the "Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence."? The idea is to make the statement that violence against women is a violation of human rights. One of the events planned this week is a march by women and girls in London as part of an observance Saturday called Reclaim the Night. In Senegal, organizers put together a four-day film festival in Dakar. Alia Nankoe is a program officer for the United Nations Population Fund in Senegal. She says the idea behind the film festival is to get people to face the issue of violence against women. She is also working to organize local support systems for victims. She says this means that the police, the justice system and the social and health services are all trained and work together for the long term. The images shown in the films may be difficult to watch. But the hope is that they will influence people to take action against a form of violence that many find difficult to talk about. Victims are sometimes told to be quiet about their most horrible experiences. The worry is that they will become victims again -- this time, of the dishonor that may be placed on them by their communities. The organizers of the film festival hope to make it a yearly event. After Senegal, the films will be translated into other languages and shown in other African countries. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. You can download MP3 files and transcripts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Henry Ford, 1863-1947: He Revolutionized the Automobile Industry
* Byline: Others made cars; he made better cars. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English on the VOICE of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person was important in the history of the United States. Today Steve Ember and Frank Oliver begin the story of industrialist Henry Ford. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile. But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until eighteen ninety-six. That was eleven years after two Germans -- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz -- developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the factory system that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many manufacturers used this system before Ford. What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better. Others made cars. Henry Ford made better cars. And he sold them for less money. Others built car factories. Henry Ford built the biggest factory of its time. And he made the whole factory a moving production line. Henry Ford had great skills in making machines work. He also had great skills as an organizer. His efforts produced a huge manufacturing company. But those same efforts almost ruined the company he built. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Henry Ford was born on a farm in the state of Michigan on July thirtieth, eighteen sixty-three. The farm was near the city of Detroit. Henry was always interested in machines. He was always experimenting with them. He enjoyed fixing clocks. And he helped repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left the family farm. He went to Detroit to learn more about machines. In eighteen seventy-nine, when Henry began work in Detroit, the city was a center of industrial development. Travelers could tell they were near Detroit by the cloud of smoke that hung over the city. Detroit was a center of iron and steel making. Nearby mines of lead and salt brought chemical companies to the city. And Detroit's copper and brass business was the largest in the world. ONE thing Henry Ford learned in Detroit was to have the right tool to do the job. It was something he would never forget. VOICE ONE : After three years in Detroit, Henry returned to his family farm. He remained on the farm until he was thirty years old. But he was not a real farmer. He was a machine man. A nearby farmer, for example, had bought a small steam engine to be used in farming. The machine did not work correctly. Henry agreed to try to fix it. At the end of just one day, Henry knew everything about the machine. And he made it work again. Henry remembered that time as the happiest in his life. He said: "I was paid three dollars a day, and had eighty-three days of steady work. I have never been better satisfied with myself. " Another thing that made those days happy was meeting a young woman. Her name was Clara Jane Bryant. Years later Henry said: "I knew in half an hour she was the one for me. " They were married in eighteen eighty-eight, on Clara's twenty-second birthday. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Henry and Clara lived on a farm near Detroit. But, still, Henry was not a real farmer. He grew some food in a small garden. And he kept a few animals. But he made money mostly by selling trees from his farm. And he continued to fix farm equipment. It was really machines that he loved. In eighteen ninety-one, Henry visited Detroit. There he saw a machine called the "silent otto. " It was a device powered by gasoline. It had been developed by a German, Nikolaus August Otto. He was one of the men who had worked with Gottlieb Daimler, who developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. The silent otto did not move. But Henry saw immediately that if the machine could be put on wheels, it would move by itself. He returned home to Clara with an idea to build such a machine. He was sure he could do it. But the machine would need electricity to make the engine work. And Henry had not learned enough about electricity. So he took a job with an electric power company in Detroit. Henry, his wife Clara, and his young son Edsel moved to the city. VOICE ONE: While Henry worked for the power company, he and a few other men developed a small engine. In June, eighteen ninety-six, Henry had his first automobile. He called it a "quadricycle. " It looked like two bicycles, side by side. It had thin tires like a bicycle. And it had a bicycle seat. In eighteen ninety-nine, Henry resigned from the power company to work on his automobile. He won the support of a small group of rich men who formed the Detroit automobile company. By the start of nineteen-oh-one, however, the company had failed. Another man might have decided that the automobile business was not the best business for him. He might have stopped. Henry Ford was just getting started. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early days of the automobile, almost every car-maker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car. Ford's most famous race was his first. It also was the last race in which he drove the car himself. The race was in nineteen-oh-one, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered. And all withdrew, except two. The Winton. And Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began. The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the champion. His name appeared in newspapers. His fame began to spread. VOICE ONE: Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. He left soon after, however, because he could not agree with the investors. He had no trouble finding new ones. Henry continued to build racing cars. His most famous cars of the time were the "Arrow" and the "Nine Ninety-Nine. " Both won races. And they helped make the name Henry Ford more famous. Henry used what he learned from racing to develop a better engine. In nineteen-oh-three, he was ready to start building cars for the public. On July fifteenth, nineteen-oh-three, a man named Doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. VOICE TWO: The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number of requests for Ford cars. By the end of March, nineteen-oh-four, almost six hundred Ford cars had been sold. The company had earned almost one hundred thousand dollars. Sales were so great that a new factory had to be found. At the start of nineteen-oh-five, the Ford Motor Company was producing twenty-five cars each day. It employed three hundred men. The company produced several kinds of cars. First there was the "Model A. " Then there were the "Model B," "Model C" and "Model F. " They were just a little different from the "Model A" -- one of Ford's most famous cars. Ford's "Model K" car was for wealthy buyers. One of the company's investors was sure the future of the automobile industry was in this costly car. Henry Ford did not agree. He was sure the future of the automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public. He said then, and many times after, "I want to make a car that anybody can buy. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: These conflicting beliefs led to a battle for control of the company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the investors who wanted to make costly cars. He was then free to make the low-cost car he believed in. The story shows the way Henry's mind worked. When he thought he was correct, he was willing to invest his efforts and his money. Earlier, he had walked away from the business of making cars when he could not control the business. Now he had the money to buy the stock of those who disagreed with him. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-seven, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one. " That was what Henry Ford wanted. To reach his goal, his life took many interesting turns. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-07-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Deep Six: It Is Well Hidden
* Byline: Sailors who never want to see something again will give it the deep-six. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Sailors seem -- to those of us on land -- to lead exciting, even mysterious lives. Many things are different at sea. Even the language is different. Simple words like "right" and "left" are not the same.On a ship, "right" is "starboard." And "left" is "port." Sailors also are responsible for many colorful English expressions. One of these is deep-six. It means to hide something or put it where it will not be found. You can also deep-six, or reject a proposal. One language expert says that deep six is the bottom of the ocean. "Deep," in this case, means deepest. The "six" in the expression comes from the six feet that make up a fathom -- which is a little less than two meters. Sailors measure the depth of the water in fathoms. Thus, the deep six is the deepest fathom...the final six feet at the bottom of the ocean. A sailor who never wants to see something again will give it the deep-six.He will drop it from the ship to the ocean bottom. You can deep-six something even if you are not a sailor. All you do is throw it away or put it where it will never be found. You might, for example, deep-six an unplesant letter from a former friend.Another expression linked to sailing?is batten down the hatches. That is what sailors do to prepare their ship for a storm at sea. Battens are thin pieces of wood. Hatches are the openings in the deck. Before a storm, sailors cover the hatches with waterproof material. Then they nail on battens to hold the hatch coverings firmly in place. This keeps rain and waves out of the ship. Now, people use the expression to mean to prepare for dealing with any kind of trouble. A news report, for example, might say that people in Washington were battening down the hatches for a big winter storm. Or a newspaper might report that "defense lawyers were 'battening down the hatches' for testimony by someone who observed?the crime." An old expression of the sailors that is still heard is to sail under false colors.Experts on language say the expression was born more than two hundred fifty years ago, when pirates sailed the seas, attacking and robbing trade ships. Pirate ships often flew the flag of a friendly country as they sailed toward the ship they planned to rob. They sailed under false colors until they were close enough to attack. Then the pirates pulled down the false flag, and showed their true colors. They raised the pirate flag -- with its picture of a skull and crossed bones. Today, a person, not a ship, is said to sail under false colors.Such a person appears to be something he is not. His purpose is to get something from you. If you are careful, you will soon see his true colors, and have nothing to do with him. (MUSIC)This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano. This is Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: More Americans Take on the Physical Test of Marathon Races
* Byline: There were 380,000 finishers last year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Many people enjoy running. But one kind of race, the marathon, has captured the imagination of people all over the world. The race has roots in ancient history. But there is nothing ancient about today’s modern sports and social events. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many Americans enjoy the experience of running a forty-two kilometer race. Three hundred fourteen marathons were held in the United States last year. An estimated three hundred eighty-two thousand runners completed these marathons. And that number is expected to increase this year. The biggest marathon in the nation is the New York City marathon. The runners pass famous landmarks in America’s most famous city. It also is a major sporting event with at least one hundred thousand dollars going to each winner. On November fifth, almost thirty-eight thousand people finished the race. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil was the men’s champion in just under two hours and ten minutes. Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia was the women’s champion for the second straight year. She finished in just over two hours and twenty-five minutes. The most famous person in the race, however, may have been bicyclist Lance Armstrong. The seven-time Tour de France champion made big news by running in this year’s race. Armstrong’s excellent physical condition helped him complete the marathon in just under three hours. Fewer than two percent of all marathon runners do that. But, after the race, Armstrong admitted that the race was "the hardest physical thing I have ever done." VOICE TWO: While the New York City marathon is the biggest, the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts is the oldest and equally famous. The Boston Athletic Association started the race in eighteen ninety-seven. That is less than one year after the first Olympic marathon in Athens, Greece. Boston is unlike most other big marathons because it is held in April. Boston is also famous for another first. Roberta Gibb became the first woman to unofficially run that marathon in nineteen sixty-six. At the time, male racing officials did not believe women could run marathons. It was not until nineteen seventy-two that women could officially compete in Boston. The Olympics did not hold a women’s marathon event until nineteen eighty-four in Los Angeles, California. ? VOICE ONE: Today’s marathons do not bar anyone because of sex or age. Many middle-aged people like to spend a weekend visiting a new city and running a marathon there. Time magazine has called the middle-aged people of today the "marathon generation."? Forty-three percent of marathon runners in the United States are forty years old or older. The sport has spread among people who are interested in health and fitness. The lifestyle of this age group has changed a lot since the nineteen seventies when many marathons started to be organized. Racing has expanded to average runners. They can take part in races from five to ten kilometers. Hundreds of these races are organized in the United States every year. They are often in connection with a cause like fighting disease or supporting local hospitals and schools. Marathons are a natural extension of the fitness movement. Many offer training programs, usually in cooperation with a local running club. These programs help runners, who never thought they could run forty-two kilometers, prepare for the big race. VOICE TWO: There are many organizations for marathoners. For example, there is a Fifty States Marathon Club. People who want to run marathons in all fifty states can join. For people who want to run farther, ultra-marathons take running to a different level. An ultra-marathon is any race longer than a marathon. One of the oldest is the Western States Endurance Run, held every June. Runners race from Squaw Valley, California, to the town of Auburn through a high mountain pass. The race is one hundred sixty kilometers long. This year, two hundred ten people finished the race. The winner, Graham Cooper, finished in eighteen hours and seventeen minutes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Washington, D.C., has its own major marathon. The Marine Corps Marathon is the fifth largest race in the country. This year almost twenty thousand runners completed the race. An estimated one hundred twenty thousand people watched the race. Our Special English writer Mario Ritter tells us about his experience running the Marine Corps Marathon October twenty-ninth. MARIO RITTER: First, I must say that my experience preparing for and running a marathon is my own. If you want to run a marathon, talk to your doctor. See if you are healthy enough to try this difficult event and set realistic goals. As we will see, too much exercise at one time can be dangerous. A marathon really starts several months before the race. I would run about five days every week to prepare for my marathon run. Most runs were for half an hour. I would try to run for an hour or more each Sunday. This is a very basic way for an average runner like myself to prepare. But running in a big marathon with thousands of other runners is an unforgettable experience that you really cannot prepare for. (SOUND) There is a lot of shouting at the start of the race. I think runners want to release some tension. They have three to five hours of hard running ahead of them. The hardest part of the first half of a marathon is avoiding other runners in narrow areas on the road. The field of runners remains crowded until about the twenty kilometer point in the race. People are also running their fastest. It is important to keep your balance and avoid tripping other runners or yourself. About fifteen kilometers into the race, the road turned in such a way that my group of runners could see the leader. He was Jared Nyamboki of Kenya. He looked to be running well on this cold windy morning. I guessed that he would be the winner because he had a big lead. I later found out that Mexican Ruben Garcia had passed Nyamboki at about the thirty-three kilometer mark. Nyamboki had started at a rate that would have given him the record for the event. But he slowed and later stopped. Garcia won the race in a time of two hours and twenty-one minutes. I was having my own problems at the time Garcia was crossing the finish line. At the twenty-fourth kilometer, my leg muscles started to become very tense. I could not stretch my legs out to take a normal step, or stride. Taking smaller strides, I was going slower and slower. (MUSIC) I had met my speed goal for the first half of the marathon. But now, I could see I would not reach my goal of three hours and forty-five minutes for the race. Running slower did offer me a chance to look around. A young man dressed like Superman passed me. He drew many cheers from the crowd and added to the holiday-like atmosphere. A marathon is in many ways a social event. There is also a sense of community. Observers are as much a part of the race as the runners. Almost every age group is present. The youngest competitor to finish was? fourteen years old. The oldest was eighty-two. And there is a lot of evidence of social change. When I started running in high school fewer women ran. In this marathon, forty percent of the competitors are women. In fact, women are running faster and longer distances. Laura Thompson won this year’s race in just over three hours. That puts her in the top two percent of all marathon runners. Paula Radcliff of Britain holds the women’s world record at two hours fifteen minutes and twenty-five seconds. In fewer than forty years of running, women have lowered their world record at a much faster rate than men have in one hundred ten years. The future of marathons may hold more female overall winners. The extreme physical demands of marathons can also be dangerous. This year, a fifty-six year-old man suffered a heart attack and later died. (MUSIC) I finished the marathon in four hours and three minutes. I had a lot of pain in my legs. And I had fallen short of my goal. But the experience was wonderful. I started planning my next marathon run that very afternoon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by our marathon runner Mario Ritter. Audio of the Marine Corps Marathon was provided by Hank Silverberg of WTOP news. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: For World AIDS Day, Leaders Are Urged to Keep Their Promises
* Byline: An American official says the Bush administration is on target to do just that. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. World AIDS Day is December first. The message that the World AIDS Campaign has chosen for the two thousand five through two thousand ten observances is "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise."? The promise is a goal world leaders set in two thousand to halt the spread of AIDS by two thousand fifteen. This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first recognized cases of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The United Nations reported last week that the AIDS epidemic continues to grow. It says there will be almost three million AIDS-related deaths this year and more than four million new infections. There were signs of reduced infection rates in some countries, but also evidence of renewed increases in others. Mark Dybul at a recent briefing for VOA reportersMark Dybul was sworn in last month to lead the Bush administration program known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Ambassador Dybul says the administration is on target for keeping its promises to fight AIDS. President Bush announced the five-year, fifteen-thousand-million-dollar plan during his State of the Union speech in two thousand three. Efforts have centered on fifteen nations in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. They represent about half of the world's estimated forty million H.I.V. infections. American officials say that last year, more than eighty percent of groups working with the United States against H.I.V./AIDS were local. U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul says these partnerships should not be considered donor-recipient relationships. He described them at a recent meeting with VOA reporters as a chance for unified equal involvement. He says the United States can help. But to win the war against H.I.V./AIDS, he says, each country must take ownership of its individual fight. The United States says it will spend about three hundred eighty million dollars this year on prevention programs in targeted countries. Officials say four hundred eighty million will go to care programs. And more than eight hundred sixty million will go to support treatment with antiretroviral drugs. Critics have accused the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief of being slow to provide money to support its programs. Mark Dybul says this criticism is baseless. President Bush has asked Congress for more than four thousand million dollars in AIDS spending for two thousand seven. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about AIDS and other issues facing developing countries at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-27-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Genetic Map Could Point Way to an Improved Honey Bee
* Byline: Researchers have sequenced the genes that make up this insect, which faces threats yet is so important to agriculture. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists now have a genetic map of the world's most important insect -- important to the food supply. The results showing the order, or sequence, of ninety-eight percent of the honey bee genome created a buzz of excitement. Understanding how a honey bee is designed should help scientists produce stronger bees. Honey bees are the world's major source of pollination for food, fiber and oilseed crops. Bees gather nectar from flowers; the liquid gives them food and material to make honey. As they land, their bodies pick up and drop off fine particles of pollen. Most flowering plants need pollination to reproduce. But Kevin Hackett, an official at the United States Department of Agriculture, noted that the world's honey bee population is decreasing. He called the sequencing of its genome a powerful tool for fighting back against the causes. One cause is the varroa mite which can kill young bees even before they leave their eggs. Another is the tracheal mite which nests in the breathing tube of adult bees. Some people think that insect poisons have also played a part in reducing bee populations. Experts say honey bees are responsible for as much as twenty thousand million dollars worth of food production in the United States alone. But scientists have estimated that the bee population in the United States fell by fifty percent over the past half-century. The main results of the Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Project Consortium appeared in the journal Nature. This international team is led by human-genome researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Related reports appeared in other publications. Like humans, bees have genes that give them a sense of day and night. Scientists believe this helps honey bees gather food. Bees find flowers by smell. Bees have more genes for a sense of smell than other insects whose genes have been mapped. But one of the project scientists noted they have fewer genes for taste. He thinks this might help them avoid pesticides and plant diseases to find food. The genetic research suggests that honey bees came from Africa. Their brains have similar genetic parts as the fruit fly. But fruit flies like to be alone. Scientists are interested in how, over millions of years, honey bees developed the complex social order in which they live. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-27-voa5.cfm
* Headline: So You Want to Make Your Mother Proud? Becoming a Doctor
* Byline: A look at medical education in the US, which has more than 120 medical colleges. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we look at how people become medical doctors in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States has more than one hundred twenty medical colleges. The American Association of Medical Colleges says these schools have about seventy thousand students. How hard is it to get into one of the top medical schools, like for example the one at Yale University in Connecticut?? Last year almost three thousand seven hundred students hoped to get accepted there. Only one hundred seventy-six -- or less than five percent -- were admitted. More and more of the students getting accepted to medical schools are women. In fact, at Yale, those one hundred seventy-six first-year students included more women than men. VOICE TWO: People who want to become medical doctors often study large amounts of biology, chemistry and other science. Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they try to get accepted to medical school. Most people apply to more than one school. Some apply to as many as ten. The Association of American Medical Colleges is changing the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT. Starting in January, the MCAT will be offered as a computerized exam only -- no more paper-and-pencil test. The exam is given throughout North America and also in countries around the world. The number of test dates will? increase from two a year to twenty-two. And beginning in two thousand seven, the number of questions on the MCAT will be reduced by about one-third. So will the permitted testing time. Students may take the MCAT exam up to three times a year. VOICE ONE: A medical education can be very costly, especially at a private school. One year at a private medical college can cost forty thousand dollars or more. The average at a public medical school is more than fifteen thousand dollars. Most students have to take out loans to pay for medical school. Many finish their education heavily in debt. Doctors are among the highest paid professionals in the United States. Specialists in big cities are generally the highest paid. But there are also doctors who earn considerably less, including those in poor communities. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Medical students spend their first two years in classroom study. They learn about the body and all of its systems. And they begin studying diseases -- how to recognize and treat them. Some students say the first year is the most difficult. They have to remember lots of information -- like the name of every bone in the body. By the third year, students -- guided by experienced doctors -- begin working with patients in hospitals. As the students watch and learn, they think about the kind of medicine they would like to practice as doctors. During the fourth year, students begin applying to hospital programs for the additional training they will need after medical school. Competition for a residency at a top hospital can be fierce. VOICE ONE: Medical residents treat patients under the supervision of professors and other experienced doctors. Most states require a person to complete at least one year of medical residency before taking examinations to work as a doctor. Doctors-in-training are usually called interns during their first year of residency. Medical residents get experience in different kinds of care. Interns, for example, may work with children one month. Then the next month they may be in the operating room. How long a residency lasts depends on the chosen area of medicine. There are many specialties. Some people become cardiologists and care for the heart. Others become oncologists and treat cancer patients. Still others become pediatricians and take care of children. And some doctors go into medical research, either at a university or a biotechnology company. But whatever they choose, first they need training. Some doctors spend up to ten years serving in hospitals before they are fully trained in a specialty. Surgeons, for example, spend many years performing operations as residents. VOICE TWO: A doctor in Chicago, Illinois, remembers that before his internship, he wanted to work in crisis medicine. But he lost that interest after he interned in a hospital emergency room. He saw many patients who needed help immediately -- like accident victims and victims of gunshot wounds. One of the things he likes about the specialty he chose, surgery, is that he usually has more time to decide how to help his patients. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Medical residents do not get paid very much and have traditionally been expected to work long hours without much sleep. A young family doctor in the state of Virginia says she learned a lot as a resident. But she says she might have learned even more if she had not been so tired. In nineteen ninety-nine, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies published a report on medical mistakes in American hospitals. The report said preventable errors resulted in at least forty-four thousand and perhaps as many as ninety-eight thousand deaths each year. In two thousand four, the New England Journal of Medicine published two government-financed studies of serious errors made by interns. The researchers found that the error rates in two intensive-care departments decreased when interns worked fewer hours. The interns made fewer mistakes when they had to prescribe medicines and identify conditions. VOICE TWO: Some residents, however, say they need extended time with patients to observe changes in their condition. And some say residents need to work as much as they can so they can become good doctors. But in two thousand three, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education reduced the hours that residents may work. The council supervises the training of residents. Some residents were spending one hundred or more hours a week at their hospitals. They were often on duty more than thirty-six hours at a time, with limited sleep. The new rules limit residents to thirty hours of duty at a time. And a hospital is not supposed to require more than eighty hours of duty in a week. In addition, interns and residents must have one day off in every seven. But some residents say the new rules are not being followed by all hospitals. VOICE ONE: Paul Rockey is a medical educator in Illinois who has worked for years with residents. He says residencies today are more difficult than before. Patients do not stay as long in the hospital as they once did. So Doctor Rockey says there is a lot of pressure on young doctors to learn quickly. He says the difficulties of a medical education may be great. But, he adds, people also get great satisfaction seeing themselves gain the knowledge and skills to become good doctors. VOICE TWO: We have talked about people who want to go to medical school in the United States. What about those who already have a medical education -- a foreign medical education -- and now want to work here as doctors?? Traditionally this has not been easy. States require foreign doctors to pass tests and finish an approved residency or other medical program in the United States. To be accepted for a residency, a person must meet the requirements of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. This certification process involves several tests before a person can receive a visa to stay in the United States for the training period. Foreign medical graduates may be required to return to their own country for at least two years after they complete the training. But because of doctor shortages or other needs, some have been able to get visas without the required two-year stay in their home country. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Bake. Internet users can find MP3 files and transcripts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Edwin Hubble Changed Our Ideas About the Universe and Its Birth
* Byline: Today the space telescope named for him helps astronomers carry on his work and make new discoveries. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER:?? EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC)?? Today, Richard Rael and Tony Riggs tell the story of American astronomer Edwin Hubble. He changed our ideas about the universe and how it developed. Edwin Hubble made his most important discoveries in the nineteen twenties. Today, other astronomers continue the work he began. Many of them are using the Hubble Space Telescope that is named after him. (MUSIC)?? VOICE TWO:?? Edwin Powell Hubble was born in eighteen eighty-nine in Marshfield, Missouri. He spent his early years in the state of Kentucky. Then he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago. He studied mathematics and astronomy. ?? Hubble was a good student. He was a good athlete, too. He was a member of the University of Chicago championship basketball team in nineteen-oh-nine. He also was an excellent boxer. Several people urged him to train for the world heavyweight boxing championship after college. Instead, he decided to continue his studies. He went to Queen's College at Oxford, England. At Oxford, Hubble studied law. He was interested in British Common Law, because his family had come to America from England many years before. He spent three years at Oxford. In nineteen thirteen, Hubble returned to the United States. He opened a law office in Louisville, Kentucky. After a short time, however, he decided he did not want to be a lawyer. He returned to the University of Chicago. There, once again, he studied astronomy. VOICE ONE:?? Hubble watched the night sky with instruments at the university's Yerkes Observatory. His research involved a major question astronomers could not answer: What are nebulae?? ? The astronomical term "nebulae," Hubble explained, had come down through the centuries. It was the name given to permanent, cloudy areas in the sky outside our solar system. Some astronomers thought nebulae were part of our Milky Way galaxy. Others thought they were island universes farther away in space. In his research paper, Hubble said the issue could be decided only by more powerful instruments. And those instruments had not yet been developed. VOICE TWO:? In nineteen seventeen, the United States was fighting in World War One in Europe. Edwin Hubble joined the American army and served in France. Earlier, astronomer George Ellery Hale had offered Hubble a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Southern California. When Hubble returned to the United States after World War One, he accepted Hale's offer. Hubble was thirty years old. He was just beginning the work that would make him famous. VOICE ONE:?? In his first observations from Mount Wilson, Hubble used a telescope with a mirror one hundred fifty-two centimeters across. He studied objects within our own galaxy. And he made an important discovery about nebulae. Hubble said the light that appeared to come from nebulae really came from stars near the nebulae. The nebulae, he said, were clouds of atoms and dust. They were not hot enough -- like stars -- to give off light. Soon after, Hubble began working with a larger and more powerful telescope at Mount Wilson. Its mirror was two hundred fifty centimeters across. It was the most powerful telescope in the world for twenty-five years. It had the power Hubble needed to make his major discoveries. VOICE TWO:?? From nineteen twenty-two on, Edwin Hubble began examining more and more distant objects. His first great discovery was made when he recognized a Cepheid variable star. It was in the outer area of the great nebula called Andromeda. Cepheid variable stars are stars whose brightness changes at regular periods. An astronomer at Harvard College, Henrietta Leavitt, had discovered that these periods of brightness could be used to measure the star's distance from Earth. Hubble made the measurements. They showed that the Andromeda nebula lay far outside our Milky Way Galaxy. Hubble's discovery ended a long dispute. He proved wrong those who believed nebulae lay inside the Milky Way. And he proved that nebulae were galaxies themselves. Astronomers now agree that far distant galaxies do exist. VOICE ONE:?? Hubble then began to observe more details about galaxies. He studied their shape and brightness. By nineteen twenty-five, he had made enough observations to say that the universe is organized into galaxies of many shapes and sizes. As stars differ from one another, he said, so do galaxies. Some are spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. They have a center, and arms of matter that seem to circle the center like a pinwheel. Others are shaped like baseballs or eggs. A few have no special shape. VOICE TWO:? Hubble proposed a system to describe galaxies by their shape. His system still is used today. He also showed that galaxies are similar in the kinds of bright objects they contain. All galaxies, he said, are related to each other, much as members of a family are related to each other. In the late nineteen twenties, Hubble studied the movement of galaxies through space. His investigation led to the most important astronomical discovery of the Twentieth century -- the expanding universe. VOICE ONE:?? Earlier observations about the movement of galaxies had been done by V. M. Silpher. He discovered that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds between three hundred kilometers a second and one thousand eight hundred kilometers a second. Hubble understood the importance of Silpher's findings. He developed a plan for measuring both the distance and speed of as many galaxies as possible. With his assistant at Mount Wilson, Milton Humason, Hubble measured the movement of galaxies. The two men did this by studying what Hubble called the "red shift." It also is known as the "Doppler effect."?? The Doppler effect explains changes in the length of light waves or sound waves as they move toward you or away from you. Light waves from an object speeding away from you will stretch into longer wavelengths. They appear red. Light waves from an object speeding toward you will have shorter wavelengths. They appear blue. VOICE TWO:?? Observations of forty-six galaxies showed Hubble that the galaxies were traveling away from Earth. The observations also showed that the speed was linked directly to the galaxies' distance from Earth. Hubble discovered that the farther away a galaxy is, the greater its speed. This scientific rule is called "Hubble's Law."?? Hubble's discovery meant a major change in our idea of the universe. The universe had not been quiet and unchanging since the beginning of time, as many people had thought. It was expanding. And that, Hubble said, meant it probably began with an explosion of unimaginable force. The explosion often is called "the big bang."?? VOICE ONE:?? Hubble's work did not end with this discovery. He continued to examine galaxies. He continued to gain new knowledge about them. Astronomers from all over the world went to study with him. Hubble left the Mount Wilson Observatory during World War Two. He did research for the United States War Department. He returned after the war. Then, he spent much of his time planning a new, much larger telescope in Southern California. The telescope was completed in nineteen forty-nine. It had a mirror five hundred centimeters across. It was named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. VOICE TWO:?? Edwin Hubble was the first person to use the Hale Telescope. He died in nineteen fifty-three while preparing to spend four nights looking through the telescope at the sky. Hubble's work led to new research on the birth of the universe. One astronomer said scientists have been filling in the details ever since. And, he said, there is a long way to go. (MUSIC)?? ANNOUNCER:?? This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Waltzing Pumps Up Heart Patients
* Byline: A study finds that dancing can be good for patients with heart failure. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Dancing is good exercise. Now a study shows it can improve the health and quality of life of people with mild to moderate heart failure. Heart failure is not the same as a heart attack or heart stoppage. It means the heart is weakened and cannot pump blood normally. As a result, blood and fluid collect in the lungs and fluid builds up in the feet and legs. This condition develops over time. In the United States, heart failure is a cause or the cause of about three hundred thousand deaths each year. So says the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. People with heart failure get tired and short of breath easily. Daily activities become difficult. But their doctors may want them to perform aerobic exercise at least three times a week. Aerobic exercise is activity that makes the heart and lungs work harder and increases oxygen use. Many patients, though, lose interest in traditional programs of exercise training. So researchers tested the effects of dancing. They chose waltz dancing because it is internationally known. They presented the study at a recent meeting of the American Heart Association. Doctor Romualdo Belardinelli at Lancisi Heart Institute in Ancona, Italy, led the study. It involved eighty-nine men and twenty-one women with mild to moderate heart failure. The average age was fifty-nine. One group of forty-four people took part in a supervised program of riding exercise bicycles and walking on treadmills three times a week. Forty-four others danced three times a week. Each time, they danced a combination of slow waltzes and fast waltzes for twenty-one minutes. A third group with twenty-two people did not exercise. All three groups were observed for eight weeks. The study found improved oxygen use in both the dance and exercise groups, so the people got tired less easily. The dancers showed an eighteen percent improvement. In the exercise group, it was sixteen percent. The group that did not exercise had no improvement. The researchers say the findings were the same as an earlier study of slow and fast waltzing. That study showed it was safe for patients with heart disease and a history of heart attacks. Doctor Belardinelli says doctors have to find something that may capture the interest of patients. He says exercise should be fun, so people will want to continue for a lifetime. And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Slang in the World of Hooky Bulls, Businessman's Events and Dirt Baths
* Byline: 

 Howdy. I'm Adam Phillips, sitting in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. For this week's Wordmaster, we go the rodeo. SPEAKER: "Welcome to the Montana rodeo on a Saturday night!" The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is holding its national championships this week?in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's the culmination of hundreds of county and state rodeo competitions, like this one at the Beaverhead, Montana, County Fair. (SOUND) It's a special kind of athletics on display at the rodeo, where riders show off their cattle-roping skills or struggle to stay aboard wildly bucking horses and bulls. And the rodeo air is always filled with the special words that bull riders, ropers, and steer wrestlers use to describe what they do. It's not always easy to understand what they're saying. Rodeo organizer Jack Bergeson explains, for example, that the rodeo term bulldogging has nothing to do with either bulls or dogs. Jack BergesonJACK BERGESON:?"It's another word for steer wrestling. You come out of the chute and you are going out full speed and you are jumping off a horse onto a steer and trying to throw it down. The steer would be the bull and dogging itwould be wrestling with it and throwing it down. It's a big man's event. They call timed events businessman's events?because [with those] you're not out there getting dirty like the ruffies." Ruffies are the rodeo cowboys who take the greatest risks. They ride wild horses called broncs, or they ride horses without saddles, or they take a timed ride on bulls hand-picked for their mean tempers. Animals like that are called rank. Breaking a horse?is one well-known cowboy term for taming or training a spirited horse so that it will accept a saddle and a rider. But one cowboy I talked to says that even horses that are ridden bareback -- that is, without saddles --?are fitted with what is called rigging. COWBOY: "It's a bareback rigging. It's small, little piece of leather, 10 or 12 inches wide, and that's what these guys hang on to with one hand. That's called a rigging. I don't know if that's so much slang but it's a unique term." A steer wrassler at the readyMany timed rodeo events based on ranching skills. For example, steer wrestling, or wrassling as it's usually pronounced on the rodeo circuit, is an event where a steer is cornered, roped, then wrestled to the ground and immobilized. And it is often necessary on the ranch to ride wild, untamed horses in order to train them. Riding wild bulls probably began as a wild entertainment. Whatever the animal chosen -- steer, wild horse or bull -- chances are excellent the cowboy will soon be hitting the ground himself. JACK BERGESON: "There is phrase we like to use. It's called the dirt bath.A dirt bath is when you fall off this horse or this bull, you are falling quite a ways. And when you hit the ground, you took yourself a dirt bath! Because you are hitting that dirt pretty hard." Rodeo work is dangerous work, and cowboys can get hurt or even killed. Bull riding -- where a cowboy jumps atop a wild bull weighing 800 kilograms or more, and tries to ride it for a full seven seconds before being thrown -- is especially risky. Once the rider is thrown -- and he always is -- he is protected by so-called rodeo clowns like Kevin Higley of Hooper, Utah, who jump into the ring to distract the animal and prevent the cowboy from being gored when the horned bull is feeling, as they say, hooky. KEVIN HIGLEY:?"Hooky?means he's gonna come after you and he's gonna fight. And look out, because he's gonna try to get you and hook you out of?there. If you get a guy punching his hand with his fist and saying?'this bull is gonna be hooky,' there is a pretty good chance he is going to?thump somebody before he gets out of the arena. It's just 'getting thumped.' 'You're gonna get thumped if you don't watch what's going on.' "Some other things we use is [the phrase] pull your skirt up. The romance of the Western scene is a little different than the professional athletes you see on the professional football games. We all have to keep ourselves in pretty good shape. But we don't have the professional trainers who follow us around and say 'Aw, its okay, you don't need to go out there today.' You got?to get out there and just go. So just life your skirt up?and get on with it. Get to the next one." And rodeo manager Jack Bergeson and his pals say there are plenty of phrases for the tourists and other non-rodeo types who come to the rodeo just to be entertained -- safely. JACK?BERGESON AND OTHERS: "Rookies, city slickers?-- you know ... you! [Laughter]" Maybe it's time for me to be skinnin' it -- that is, getting out of here -- before someone puts me on a horse. For Wordmaster, I'm Adam Phillips at the rodeo in Dillon, Montana. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Higher Education in US: Many Schools Accept the IELTS
* Byline: The International English Language Testing System measures true-to-life ability to communicate, its British developers say. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A few weeks ago, we talked about the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL. A listener in Cambodia named Thida asks if American colleges and universities also accept the IELTS exam. IELTS is the International English Language Testing System. It was developed by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations. Cambridge ESOL says the test measures true-to-life ability to communicate in English for education, immigration or employment. The IELTS tests listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. It uses a mixture of accents and spellings, including British English and American English. The test is used by government agencies, schools and professional organizations in one hundred twenty countries. And, yes, that includes the United States. The many American schools that accept the IELTS can be found on the Web at ielts.org. Some schools accept both the TOEFL and the IELTS. But the graduate school at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, for example, says it prefers the IELTS. The listening and speaking parts are the same for everyone who takes the IELTS. But people have a choice of reading and writing tests -- either academic or general training. The listening test takes thirty minutes. There are forty questions based on a recording. The reading test takes sixty minutes. Students answer forty questions based on three written passages. The writing test also takes sixty minutes. Students have to write two essays. One essay has to be at least one hundred fifty words long and the other at least two hundred fifty words. The shorter one is a description of something; the longer one has to support an argument. The speaking test takes less than fifteen minutes. The score is based on a recorded talk between the student and a test examiner. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. A link to the IELTS Web site can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find MP3 files and transcripts from our Foreign Student Series. Next week our subject will be the GMAT, a test for getting into graduate programs in business and management. If you have a general question for our series, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: World War Two in the Pacific Comes to a Fiercely Fought Close in 1945
* Byline: Japan surrenders after the US uses the atomic bomb. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) American military planners had to make an important decision when the United States entered the Second World War in late nineteen forty-one. They could not fight effectively at the same time in Asia and Europe. They decided to use most of their forces to defeat the German troops of Adolf Hitler. Only after victory was clear in Europe would they use all of America's strength to fight against Japan in Asia and the Pacific. This decision had important results. Japan was able to win many of the early battles of the war in Asia. Our program today is about the fighting in the Pacific. VOICE TWO: (SOUND)? Japanese planes. Out of the sky they came -- suddenly, secretly -- bombing the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a deadly attack The Japanese raid in December nineteen forty-one marked the beginning of several major victories for Tokyo. The Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor. They attacked American bases in the Philippines and destroyed those, too. Within days, Japan captured the American island of Guam. Japanese troops landed in Thailand, marched into Malaya, and seized Hong Kong. The Japanese moved into Indonesia and Burma. Even Hitler's troops in Europe had not moved so quickly or successfully. As one American historian wrote later, the Pacific Ocean looked like a Japanese lake. VOICE ONE: Washington tried to fight back. A group of American planes successfully bombed Tokyo in a surprise raid. However, Japan knew it was winning the war. Its leaders believed no army could stop them. So they expanded their goals and launched new campaigns. This was Japan's mistake. It stretched its forces too thin, too quickly. The military leaders in Tokyo believed that the United States could not resist because it was busy fighting the war in Europe. But not even Japan could extend its communications and fighting power over such a great distance and continue to win. VOICE TWO: The turning point came in June nineteen forty-two in the central Pacific in the great battle of Midway Island. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched the battle. He wanted to meet and destroy the remaining ships of the American fleet before Washington had time to rebuild them. Yamamoto had one hundred sixty-two ships. The American admiral, Chester Nimitz, had just seventy-six. But the United States had learned how to understand the secret messages of the Japanese forces. For this reason, Nimitz and the Americans knew exactly where the Japanese ships would sail. And they put their own ships in the best places to stop them. The fighting between the two sides was fierce. But when it ended, the Americans had won a great victory. Admiral Yamamoto was forced to call off his attack and sail home. For the first time, the Japanese Navy had been defeated. VOICE ONE: The next big battle was at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific. Guadalcanal's beaches were wide and flat. Japanese officers decided to build a military airbase there. The United States learned of this. It decided it had to prevent Japan from establishing such a base. American marines quickly landed on the island. They were joined by troops from Australia and New Zealand. But Japanese ships launched a surprise attack and destroyed many of the American ships in the harbor. Allied forces on the island were left without naval support and suffered terrible losses. For six months, the two sides fought for control of the island. Historian Samuel Eliot Morrison later described the action this way: VOICE TWO: "For us who were there," Morrison wrote, "Guadalcanal is not a name but an emotion. Remembering terrible fights in the air. Fierce naval battles. Bloody fighting in the jungle. Nights broken by screaming bombs and the loud explosions of naval guns." VOICE ONE: The fighting continued, seemingly forever. But finally, in February nineteen forty-three, the Japanese were forced to leave Guadalcanal. The battle was an important defeat for Japan. It opened the door for the American and other Allied forces to go on the attack after months of defensive fighting. VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthurAmerican military planners did not agree about the best way to launch such an attack. Admiral Nimitz of the Navy wanted to capture the small groups of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, then seize Taiwan, and finally attack Japan itself. But General Douglas MacArthur of the Army thought it best to attack through New Guinea and the Philippines. The American leadership finally decided to launch both attacks at once. Both Nimitz and MacArthur succeeded. Nimitz and his Navy forces moved quickly through the Marianas and other islands. General MacArthur attacked through New Guinea and into the Philippines. In the battle for Leyte Gulf, American ships completely destroyed Japanese naval power. Throughout the Pacific Ocean and eastern Asia, the fighting continued. Many of the fiercest battles were fought on tiny Pacific islands. Japanese troops captured the islands early in the war. And they quickly built strong defenses to prevent Allies from invading. Allied military leaders found a way to defeat the Japanese plan. They simply avoided the islands where the Japanese were strong and attacked other islands. But sometimes the Allies could not avoid battle. They had to land on some islands to seize airfields for American planes. VOICE ONE: The names of these islands became well-known to soldiers and families throughout the world. Tarawa in the Gilbert islands. Truk in the Marshall Islands. Saipan in the Marianas. And other islands, too, such as Guam and Tinian. The two sides fought fiercely in the battle of Iwo Jima. And Japanese forces on Okinawa resisted for eighty-three days before finally being defeated by Allied troops. VOICE TWO: After the defeat at Okinawa, many Japanese people understood that the war was lost, even if Japan had not yet surrendered. The emperor appointed a new prime minister and ordered him to explore the possibilities of peace. But both sides still expected the Allies to launch a final invasion into Japan itself. And everyone knew that the cost in human life would be terrible for both sides. But the final invasion never came. Hiroshima after an American plane dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city on August 6, 1945For years, American scientists had been developing a secret weapon, the atomic bomb. The United States dropped one of the bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki. More than one hundred thousand persons were killed. Tokyo surrendered within days. VOICE ONE: Suddenly, sooner than expected, the war was ended. More than twenty-five million soldiers and civilians had died during the six years of fighting. Germany and Japan were defeated. The Soviet Union was strong in much of eastern Europe. And the United States found it had become the world's strongest military, economic and political power. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Milton Friedman Saw Free Markets as a Tool for 'Human Freedom'
* Byline: The influential economist changed how policymakers looked at money. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Economists rarely shape policy to the extent that Milton Friedman did. He died on November sixteenth in San Francisco, California, at the age of ninety-four. Milton Friedman is best known for his work on the idea that governments can slow inflation by shrinking the money supply. He expanded on this theory, known as monetarism, by studying years of American monetary policy. He argued against the advice of John Maynard Keynes. The British economist was a major influence from the nineteen thirties to the sixties. His answer to recession and high unemployment was government spending on public works, and printing more money to pay for it. This increase in the money supply fed inflation. But policymakers at that time generally accepted that job growth meant high inflation rates. Milton Friedman showed that inflation hurt job growth. He argued that governments should control the money supply to keep prices from rising, or falling, too much. But he thought they should not intervene in markets or job creation. His ideas in the nineteen fifties and sixties were not popular at the time. But in the early seventies the United States had both high inflation and high unemployment. Policymakers started to listen. He won a Nobel Prize in economics in nineteen seventy-six. His advice to cut taxes and control inflation influenced the policies of President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He brought his ideas to the public by writing for magazines like Newsweek and appearing on television. But some critics blame his strong support of tax cuts for increased budget deficits in the United States. And he was criticized for dealing with the military government of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. That government overthrew a democratically elected president in nineteen seventy-three. But, as Milton Friedman noted, it was also willing to make economic reforms. Today, changes in financial markets have made it much harder to control money supplies the way he advised. But his belief in small government and free markets is still popular with economic conservatives and libertarians. He believed deeply in individual choice. Last year, he told public television's Charlie Rose that he wanted to be remembered as someone who helped increase human freedom. Survivors include his wife, Rose, an economist with whom he wrote many of his books. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-11/2006-11-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Nellie McKay's 'Pretty Little Head' | A Question From Vietnam About Murphy's Law | A Visit to the National Museum of the Marine Corps
* Byline: Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about a popular American expression … Play some music from Nellie McKay ... And report about a new museum near Washington, D.C. Marine Museum Last month, a new museum opened in Triangle, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. The National Museum of the Marine Corps was built to keep and protect the material history of the United States Marines. Barbara Klein takes us for a visit. BARBARA KLEIN: Iron Mike statue at National Museum of the Marine CorpsThe National Museum of the Marine Corps is divided into eight areas. The first is an open place just inside the entrance. In the center is a sixty-four meter long structure that rises to reach a glass roof. Hanging from the roof are airplanes used by Marines in conflicts around the world. These include Corsair fighter planes from World War Two and the Korean War. They also include a Curtiss “Jenny” plane from wars in Central America in the nineteen twenties. World War Two landing craftA landing vehicle used in World War Two and a Sikorsky helicopter from the Korean War are also in this area. Other areas of the museum show the Marine experience through pictures, paintings and models of Marines in historic situations. The World War Two area shows how Marines fought and died in the Pacific campaign against Japanese forces. The Marine war experience is also seen in areas about World War One, the Korean War, the war in Vietnam and the Global War on Terrorism. In the Vietnam War area, visitors experience the Battle of Khe Sanh. On the second floor, visitors can eat in a place that looks like the historic Tun Tavern where the Corps was founded in seventeen seventy-five. Or they can eat in a cafeteria that looks like a mess hall where Marines eat today. The Marine Band is the nation's oldest professional music group The second floor also holds temporary exhibits. One of these is about the Marine Band, the oldest professional music group in the United States. ?The exhibit tells the history of the band and its famous leader, John Philip Sousa. ?We leave our visit to the National Museum of the Marine Corps with music written by Sousa for the Marines. It is called “Semper Fidelis.” That is the Marine Corps official saying. It is Latin for “Always Faithful.” Murphy's Law HOST: Our VOA Listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Quang Khoi asks about Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law is an American expression whose meaning spread around the world. Murphy’s Law says: "Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong." Like many other popular sayings, it is difficult to find one explanation for it. Edward MurphyThose trying to explain Murphy’s Law agree that it began in the United States Air Force. The Air Force says the expression was named for officer Edward Murphy. He was an engineer working on a project in space flight research in nineteen forty-nine. One story says Captain Murphy was commenting about the failure of some equipment he was using in an experiment. He reportedly criticized the worker responsible by saying: “If there is a way to do it wrong, he will find it."? Another official heard this and called it Murphy’s Law. Another story is found in a book called “A History of Murphy’s Law” by Nick Spark. It says members of the research team working with Captain Murphy created a similar phrase: “If it can happen, it will happen”. They called this Murphy’s Law. But Mister Spark later said there is no way to really know who invented the expression. Still, many stories say the first use of the term Murphy’s Law was at a press conference several weeks later. John Paul Stapp was an Air Force captain at the time. He spoke to reporters about the tests completed by Captain Murphy and his team. Doctor Stapp said no one was injured during the tests because the Air Force considered "Murphy’s Law" before carrying out their experiments. He said this meant that they considered everything that could go wrong before a test and planned how to prevent those mistakes from happening. Today, you can find examples of Murphy's Law in everyday life. You might say that if you drop a slice of buttered bread on the floor, it will always land with the buttered side down. Or, the day you forget to bring your umbrella, it is sure to rain. Nellie McKay Nellie McKay?is a young singer and songwriter who works hard to protect her artistic independence. Her new album, “Pretty Little Head,” has twenty-three creative and unusual songs. Critics are praising McKay’s musical skill and ability to sing many kinds of music. Katharine Cole has more. (MUSIC) KATHARINE COLE: That is the energetic song “Columbia is Bleeding."? It is a protest song expressing Nellie McKay’s?interest in animal rights. McKay opposes the way animals have been treated in experiments at Columbia University in New York City. But not all the songs on “Pretty Little Head” are political. The album has songs with many different styles and meanings. Some are serious while others are playful and funny. Here is “We Had it Right.” Nellie McKay sings with the well-known musician K.D. Lang. (MUSIC) Nellie McKay made her first album with the major company Columbia Records. But she had her own ideas about her second album. She wanted “Pretty Little Head” to have twenty-three songs on two compact disks. Columbia Records wanted her to make a shorter album. So, McKay left Columbia Records and started her own record company, Hungry Mouse Records. She can now make her own decisions about her music. We leave you with the playful beat of “Pink Chandelier”. Nellie McKay sings in a gentle voice about dancing and strangers in the night. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. A listener from China recently sent us a question about Special English broadcasters. Jin Yan wants to learn more about them and see pictures of them. You can now learn about our broadcasters and see their pictures on our Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also read the text of this program and download audio. And be sure to send us a picture of yourself for our growing photo collection of Special English listeners on our Web site. This program was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Last month, a new museum opened in Triangle, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. The National Museum of the Marine Corps was built to keep and protect the material history of the United States Marines. Barbara Klein takes us for a visit. BARBARA KLEIN: Iron Mike statue at National Museum of the Marine CorpsThe National Museum of the Marine Corps is divided into eight areas. The first is an open place just inside the entrance. In the center is a sixty-four meter long structure that rises to reach a glass roof. Hanging from the roof are airplanes used by Marines in conflicts around the world. These include Corsair fighter planes from World War Two and the Korean War. They also include a Curtiss “Jenny” plane from wars in Central America in the nineteen twenties. World War Two landing craftA landing vehicle used in World War Two and a Sikorsky helicopter from the Korean War are also in this area. Other areas of the museum show the Marine experience through pictures, paintings and models of Marines in historic situations. The World War Two area shows how Marines fought and died in the Pacific campaign against Japanese forces. The Marine war experience is also seen in areas about World War One, the Korean War, the war in Vietnam and the Global War on Terrorism. In the Vietnam War area, visitors experience the Battle of Khe Sanh. On the second floor, visitors can eat in a place that looks like the historic Tun Tavern where the Corps was founded in seventeen seventy-five. Or they can eat in a cafeteria that looks like a mess hall where Marines eat today. The Marine Band is the nation's oldest professional music group The second floor also holds temporary exhibits. One of these is about the Marine Band, the oldest professional music group in the United States. ?The exhibit tells the history of the band and its famous leader, John Philip Sousa. ?We leave our visit to the National Museum of the Marine Corps with music written by Sousa for the Marines. It is called “Semper Fidelis.” That is the Marine Corps official saying. It is Latin for “Always Faithful.” Murphy's Law HOST: Our VOA Listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Quang Khoi asks about Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law is an American expression whose meaning spread around the world. Murphy’s Law says: "Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong." Like many other popular sayings, it is difficult to find one explanation for it. Edward MurphyThose trying to explain Murphy’s Law agree that it began in the United States Air Force. The Air Force says the expression was named for officer Edward Murphy. He was an engineer working on a project in space flight research in nineteen forty-nine. One story says Captain Murphy was commenting about the failure of some equipment he was using in an experiment. He reportedly criticized the worker responsible by saying: “If there is a way to do it wrong, he will find it."? Another official heard this and called it Murphy’s Law. Another story is found in a book called “A History of Murphy’s Law” by Nick Spark. It says members of the research team working with Captain Murphy created a similar phrase: “If it can happen, it will happen”. They called this Murphy’s Law. But Mister Spark later said there is no way to really know who invented the expression. Still, many stories say the first use of the term Murphy’s Law was at a press conference several weeks later. John Paul Stapp was an Air Force captain at the time. He spoke to reporters about the tests completed by Captain Murphy and his team. Doctor Stapp said no one was injured during the tests because the Air Force considered "Murphy’s Law" before carrying out their experiments. He said this meant that they considered everything that could go wrong before a test and planned how to prevent those mistakes from happening. Today, you can find examples of Murphy's Law in everyday life. You might say that if you drop a slice of buttered bread on the floor, it will always land with the buttered side down. Or, the day you forget to bring your umbrella, it is sure to rain. Nellie McKay Nellie McKay?is a young singer and songwriter who works hard to protect her artistic independence. Her new album, “Pretty Little Head,” has twenty-three creative and unusual songs. Critics are praising McKay’s musical skill and ability to sing many kinds of music. Katharine Cole has more. (MUSIC) KATHARINE COLE: That is the energetic song “Columbia is Bleeding."? It is a protest song expressing Nellie McKay’s?interest in animal rights. McKay opposes the way animals have been treated in experiments at Columbia University in New York City. But not all the songs on “Pretty Little Head” are political. The album has songs with many different styles and meanings. Some are serious while others are playful and funny. Here is “We Had it Right.” Nellie McKay sings with the well-known musician K.D. Lang. (MUSIC) Nellie McKay made her first album with the major company Columbia Records. But she had her own ideas about her second album. She wanted “Pretty Little Head” to have twenty-three songs on two compact disks. Columbia Records wanted her to make a shorter album. So, McKay left Columbia Records and started her own record company, Hungry Mouse Records. She can now make her own decisions about her music. We leave you with the playful beat of “Pink Chandelier”. Nellie McKay sings in a gentle voice about dancing and strangers in the night. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. A listener from China recently sent us a question about Special English broadcasters. Jin Yan wants to learn more about them and see pictures of them. You can now learn about our broadcasters and see their pictures on our Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also read the text of this program and download audio. And be sure to send us a picture of yourself for our growing photo collection of Special English listeners on our Web site. This program was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: US States Fight Back to Protect Rights of Property Owners
* Byline: Thirty-four of the 50 states have passed laws to limit the use of eminent domain by local governments. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Local governments in the United States have always had a constitutional right to seize private property, with fair payment. This right is called eminent domain. Eminent domain has traditionally been limited to the taking of land for public uses like roads, schools or bridges. But on June twenty-third of two thousand five, the Supreme Court decided the case of Kelo versus the City of New London, Connecticut. The decision gave local governments the right to take private property for the purpose of economic development. That means a homeowner or business owner could be forced to move not only for reasons of public use, but also for private use. Owners could have their property condemned if officials decide that another owner could make more money on that property. Five of the nine justices on the Supreme Court supported the decision. Four opposed it. Supporters say eminent domain is needed to improve economically depressed areas and create growth and new jobs. But all across the country, opinion studies showed that most people did not feel the decision was fair. The Castle Coalition is a nonprofit group that is part of the Institute for Justice, which fought the Kelo case before the Supreme Court. The coalition says the threatened use of eminent domain for private development has greatly increased over the past year. The group published a report in June, the anniversary of the Kelo decision. It said that in one year, local governments had threatened or condemned nearly six thousand properties for private development. That, it said, was equal to more than half the number for the five-year period between nineteen ninety-eight and two thousand two. But, while the number of threats increased sharply, officials rarely had to act on their threats. The report said local officials took steps to condemn three hundred fifty-four properties for private use in the year following the Kelo decision. The coalition says owners largely choose not to fight what they believe will be a hopeless battle. Under the ruling, no one's property is safe unless individual states pass their own laws to restrict eminent domain. And that is just what they have done. ?The Castle Coalition reported last month that thirty-four of the fifty states have passed laws that aim to restrict eminent domain. That includes nine states where voters passed ballot measures in the November seventh elections. Some state laws do more to protect the rights of property owners than others. Lisa Knepper of the Institute for Justice says it is still too soon to tell the effects of these new laws. But efforts are also being made to pass federal legislation to protect all property owners from eminent domain for private development. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. To learn more about subjects in the news, and to download MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Henry Ford Made the Automobile Industry an Important Part of the Nation's Economy
* Byline: Ford's Model T was the last of the early cars in the brave new world of auto development. Second of two parts. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Frank Oliver complete the story of industrialist Henry Ford. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-three, a doctor in Detroit, Michigan, bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. That sale was the beginning of Henry Ford's dream. He wanted to build good, low-priced cars for the general public. As he said many times: "I want to make a car that anybody can buy."? To keep prices low, Henry Ford decided that he would build just one kind of car. He called it the "Model T. " VOICE TWO: The "Model T" was ready for sale in October, nineteen-oh-eight. The "Model T" cost eight hundred fifty dollars. It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the "Model T. " So did farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the "Model T. " They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of "Model T's" were built in the first few years. The public wanted the car. And Henry Ford made more and more. VOICE ONE: To Make the "Model T,' Ford built the largest factory of its time. Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when they needed them. Other factories moved some parts to the workers. But Ford was the first to design his factory completely around this system. Production rose sharply. As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen sixteen, the price had dropped to three hundred forty-five dollars. The last step in Ford's production success was to raise his workers' pay. His workers had always earned about two dollars for ten hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at other factories. With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changed jobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He raised wages to five dollars a day. VOICE TWO: That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became popular with car buyers in nineteen thirteen when he gave back fifty dollars to each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford was demonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages, they became better buyers. And if manufactures sold more products, they could lower prices and still earn money. This system worked for Ford because people continued to demand his "Model T. " And they had the money to buy it. But what would happen when people no longer wanted the "Model T," or did not have the money? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with the other people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained complete control of the company. The investors did not do badly, however. An investment of ten thousand dollars when the company was first established produced a return of twenty-five million dollars. A few years later, another group of investors offered Ford one thousand million dollars for the company. But he was not interested in selling. He wanted complete control of the company that had his name. In a sense, Henry Ford was the company. VOICE TWO: Henry's son, Edsel, was named president of the company before nineteen twenty. No one truly believed that Edsel was running the company. Whatever Edsel said, people believed he was speaking for his father. In nineteen twenty-three, fifty-seven percent of the cars produced in America were "Model T" fords. About half the cars produced in the world were Fords. Taxicabs in Hong Kong. Most of the cars in South America. Never before -- or since -- has one car company so controlled world car production. VOICE ONE: The success of the Ford Motor Company permitted Henry Ford to work on other projects. He became a newspaper publisher. He bought a railway. He built airplanes. He helped build a hospital. He even ran for the United States Senate. Some of Henry's projects were almost unbelievable. For example, he tried to end World War One by sailing to Europe with a group of peace supporters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: While Henry Ford enjoyed his success, a dangerous situation was developing. Other companies began to sell what only Ford had been selling: good, low-priced cars. Ford's biggest competitor was the General Motors Company. General Motors produced the Chevrolet automobile. Ford's "Model T" was still a dependable car. But it had not changed in years. People said the "Model T" engine was too loud. They said it was too slow. The Chevrolet, however, had a different look every year. And you could pay for one over a long period of time. Ford demanded full payment at the time of sale. Ford's share of the car market began to fall. VOICE ONE: Everyone at Ford agreed that the "Model T" must go. Henry Ford disagreed. And it was his decision that mattered. Finally, in nineteen twenty-six, even Henry admitted that the age of the "Model T" was over. A new Ford was needed. A year later, the "Model T" was gone. Strangely enough, people mourned its end. They did not want to buy it anymore. But they recognized that the "Model T" was the last of the first cars in the brave new world of automobile development. The success of Ford's new cars did not last long. After nineteen-thirty, Ford would always be second to General Motors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-nine, the United States suffered a great economic recession. Many businesses failed. Millions of people lost their jobs. In nineteen thirty-one, the Ford Motor Company sold only half as many cars as it had the year before. It lost thirty-seven million dollars. Working conditions at Ford grew worse. In nineteen thirty-two, hungry, unemployed men marched near the Ford factory. Police, firefighters and Ford security guards tried to stop them with sticks, high-pressure water and guns. Four of the marchers died, and twenty were wounded. Newspapers all over the United States condemned the police, firefighters and security guards for attacking unarmed men. And to make a bad situation worse, Ford dismissed all workers who attended funeral services for the dead. VOICE ONE: More violence was to come. For several years, automobile workers had been attempting to form a labor union. Union leaders negotiated first with America's two other major automobile makers: the Chrysler Company and General Motors. Those companies quickly agreed to permit a union in their factories. That left Ford alone to fight against the union. And fight he did. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-seven, union organizers were passing out pamphlets to workers at the Ford factory. Company security guards struck. They were led by the chief of security, Harry Bennett. Harry Bennett knew nothing about cars. But he did know what Henry Ford wanted done. And he did it. Bennett's power came from Henry. The only person who might have had the power to stop Bennett was Henry's son, Edsel, who was president of the company. But Edsel himself was fighting Henry and his unwillingness to change. Bennett's power in the company continued to grow. His violence against the union of automobile workers also grew. The Ford Motor Company did not agree to negotiate with the union until nineteen forty-one. Henry Ford accepted an agreement. If he had not, his company would have lost millions of dollars in government business. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-three, Edsel Ford died. With Edsel gone, Henry again became president of the Ford Motor Company. It was difficult to know if Henry or Harry Bennett was running the company. America was at war. And Henry was eighty years old -- too old to deal with the problems of wartime production. And Bennett knew nothing at all about production. So Henry's grandson, also Henry Ford, was recalled from the Navy to run the company. Young Henry's first act was to dismiss Harry Bennett. VOICE TWO: Old Henry Ford retired from business. His thoughts were in the past. He died in his sleep in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of eighty-three. Henry Ford was not the first man whose name was given to an automobile. But his name -- more than any other -- was linked to that machine. And his dream changed the lives of millions of people. Some still wonder if Henry Ford was a simple man who seemed difficult? -- or a difficult man who seemed simple. No one, however, questions the fact that he made the automobile industry one of the great industries in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Press Freedom Still Out of Reach in Many Countries
* Byline: Nearly 60 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights gave all people the right to free expression without interference. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. On December tenth, nineteen forty-eight, the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article nineteen says everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to hold opinions without interference. Also included is the freedom to receive and share information and ideas through any media, including across national borders. So where does press freedom stand almost sixty years later?? Reporters Without Borders rated one hundred sixty-eight nations in its two thousand six Press Freedom Index. The Paris-based media rights group said North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea were the worst violators. Next came Cuba, Burma, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Nepal. The ten countries rated most repressive were the same as last year except for two. Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia moved into the bottom ten, while Libya and Vietnam moved up. Four countries shared the top rating: Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands. Last year, seven northern European nations were all number one, including Denmark. This year Denmark is in nineteenth place with Bosnia-Herzegovina, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago. The drop is related to the publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons in Denmark last year. Reporters Without Borders noted that journalists had to have police protection because of threats. And the group expressed concern about weakening of press freedom in France, the United States and Japan. France is down five places to thirty-fifth, along with Australia, Bulgaria and Mali. The United States fell nine places, to fifty-third, along with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. And Japan fell fourteen places to fifty-one on the list. This was the fifth year of the Press Freedom Index. Two countries moved into the top twenty for the first time: Bosnia and Bolivia. Bolivia, in sixteenth place, was rated highest among less-developed countries. Ghana took a big jump to thirty-fourth. But three African countries were rated higher: Benin, Namibia and Mauritius. One of the biggest improvements on the index was Mauritania, up sixty-one places in the past two years. Reporters Without Borders say a government overthrow in August of last year ended heavy restrictions on local media. The index is based on information from free-speech groups, reporters, researchers, judges and human rights activists. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-03-voa8.cfm
* Headline: Exploring the Wild and Wonderful of West Virginia
* Byline: If you like to hike, camp, climb rocks, raft in rivers, fish or hunt, then this is a state for you. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we tell you about a popular area for outdoor activities in the state of West Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The song "Country Roads" was very popular when John Denver first recorded it in nineteen seventy-one. It still is popular with people who live in West Virginia and visitors who have fallen in love with what is known as the Mountain State. VOICE TWO: West Virginia is a small state. But it has many different areas of interest to visitors who like to hike, camp, climb rocks, raft in rivers, fish and hunt. One area that offers many kinds of outdoor activities is called the Potomac Highlands. It is in the eastern part of the state, not far from the border with the state of Virginia. The Allegheny Mountains divide the area from north to south. Rivers on the east side of the Potomac Highlands flow into the Potomac River and continue on toward the Atlantic Ocean. Monongahela National Forest is in this area. It covers more than three hundred fifty thousand hectares of West Virginia, mostly in the Potomac Highlands. VOICE ONE: A good place to begin a visit to West Virginia is at Spruce Knob. It is about one thousand five hundred meters high, the highest mountain in the state. You can drive your car slowly up a rough road to the top. There are places to stop along the road to look at the fields and forests down below and far in the distance. At the top, you follow a short path to a stone-and-steel observation tower. On either side of the path are what look like river beds of big rocks. Wildflowers of different colors brighten the rocky land. From the tower, you see wilderness in all directions. VOICE TWO: Whispering Spruce Trail follows a circular path around the observation tower. The path leads past an open field covered with huge rocks, through a group of tall spruce trees, and past a field of blueberry bushes. Off in the distance you see a valley way below and lines of bluish gray mountains that seem to reach forever. Spruce Knob has more than one hundred kilometers of hiking trails. Some of them are paths made in the early nineteen hundreds by men who climbed the mountain to cut trees. It also has a lake for fishing and a campground where people can stay. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Near Spruce Knob is one of the best-known places in West Virginia -- Seneca Rocks. This rock formation is made of white-gray quartzite, a kind of sandstone. It is about three hundred meters above the river that flows below. When the sun shines on the almost straight-sided rocks, they look like bright shining wings rising out of a mountain of green trees. VOICE TWO: Experienced rock climbers love Seneca Rocks. The rocks are very difficult to climb. Not many people were known to have climbed them until the Second World War began. Then the Army used the rocks to train troops for action in the mountains of Europe. Now there are almost four hundred mapped ways to climb Seneca Rocks. Visitors who are not experienced rock climbers can follow a steep man-made path that takes them to the top. The path begins at Seneca Rocks Discovery Center at the base of the rocks. The Discovery Center has exhibits about the earliest American Indians who lived in the area. The center also has information about the wildlife and plants of the area. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: West Virginia is a state divided by mountains. But the area has also been divided in other ways during its history. In the early years of the United States, it was the western part of the state of Virginia. It was part of Virginia until eighteen sixty-one. Then, as the American Civil War began, the Virginia state government voted to rebel against the United States. Virginia joined other southern states in forming the Confederate States of America. But representatives from the western counties opposed the decision to leave the Union. So the area separated from Virginia. In June of eighteen sixty-three, West Virginia became the thirty-fifth state. VOICE TWO: Many Civil War battles were fought in West Virginia. Even though West Virginia had remained in the Union, about half of the people in the state supported the South. Many families were divided. Sometimes brothers fought on opposite sides. After the North won the war, divisions in the state slowly healed. Most of the people in the state were farmers in the eighteen hundreds. Then two natural resources -- coal and trees -- became important. Mining of coal and logging of the forests became major industries as transportation improved on the rivers and railroads were built. Coal and wood continue to be important to the state’s economy. Toward the end of the twentieth century, tourism became an important industry. The number of visitors to West Virginia continues to increase every year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Potomac Highlands area of West Virginia has a lot of sandstone. Sandstone is a soft rock. The action of wind and water can form cave openings like natural rooms within the rock. Two major caves are open to the public near Smoke Hole and Seneca Rocks. Seneca Caverns and Smoke Hole Caverns have been used through the ages. Native Americans used them to build fires to dry their food. During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides used them at different times to store weapons. Now these caves provide underground experiences for visitors. VOICE TWO: Guides lead groups on lighted paths down into the ground and through the caves. Visitors see wonderful formations hanging from the ceiling and growing up from the floor. It takes centuries for water dripping through the rock to make these beautiful formations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Breathtaking. Wonderful. A treasure. These are words that visitors use to describe Dolly Sods, a large wild area in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. About one hundred fifty years ago, a magazine described this same area as very dangerous. It said the forests and undergrowth were so dense, no one could get through them. Bears and panthers lived there but no people. In the eighteen hundreds, a German family named Dahle raised sheep on wet, grassy open places called sods. Local people changed the spelling of the name and the area became known as Dolly Sods. Dolly Sods once was covered with a dense ancient forest of red spruce and hemlock trees. By the late eighteen hundreds, railroads reached the area. Loggers cut down the huge trees and trains carried the wood to fast-growing cities in nearby states. ?????????????? ?????????????? VOICE TWO: For years, fires from lightening and logger's campfires burned through the areas where the forest had been cut down. The constant fires burned everything down to the bare rock base. In nineteen twenty, Congress created the Monongahela National Forest. The United States Forest Service soon had trees planted in some areas and a rough road system built. In nineteen seventy-five, much of the Dolly Sods area became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Forest Service is protecting the area from too much human activity so it will return to its natural wild condition. Native plants and animals are returning. Dolly Sods is up high, almost one thousand meters. So plants and animals there are more like those found in northern Canada than in the rest of West Virginia. VOICE ONE: The northern part of Dolly Sods is called the scenic area. You can walk among the large rocks known as Bear Rocks and pick blueberries and huckleberries from low-growing bushes. You can spend quiet time looking at the mountains off to the east. You are up high, so even in the summer the air usually is cool. VOICE TWO: People come to Dolly Sods to get away from the noise and crowds of city life. They camp in the wilderness far from other people. They pick wild blueberries growing on the rocky fields and red cranberries growing in wet bogs. They hunt deer, turkey and rabbits. They fish in rivers that flow through the area. And they walk on rough, rocky paths, many of which follow old railroad tracks and roads used by loggers long ago. VOICE ONE: Signs along roads entering the state welcome you to "wild, wonderful West Virginia."? Visitors to the Potomac Highlands have a chance to experience some of those wild, wonderful places. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and directed by Caty Weaver. To see pictures of West Virginia, and to download transcripts and MP3 files of our shows, go to voaspecialenglish. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: To Touch All Bases:? Baseball Rules!
* Byline: It is important to touch all four bases in the game of baseball.  Transcript of radio broacast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) American English is full of colorful expressions. One such expression is, to touch all bases. It comes from the sport of baseball. There are four bases in baseball -- first, second and third. The fourth is home plate. Together, the bases form a diamond shape. When a baseball player hits the ball, he must run to each base -- in order -- and touch it with his foot. It is the only way to score a point. If the player hits the ball and fails to touch all the bases, the point will not be counted. The importance of touching all the bases was shown at the start of the nineteen seventy-four baseball season. Hank Aaron was a player with the Atlanta Braves team. He was seeking the record for hitting the most home runs. A home run is a ball that is hit over the wall. Aaron needed just one home run to equal the record held by Babe Ruth, the greatest hitter in baseball history. Aaron got that home run the very first time he had a chance to hit the ball. He sent the ball over the wall that surrounded the playing field. That gave him seven hundred and fourteen home runs -- the same as Babe Ruth. After that day, baseball fans held their breath every time it was Hank Aaron's turn to hit. When would he hit home run number seven hundred and fifteen? The wait was not long. In the second week of the season, Aaron again hit the ball over the wall. He had beaten Babe Ruth's record. But first, he had to run around the four bases. The other players on his team watched carefully to make sure he touched each one. If he did not, the home run would not have counted. There would have been no new record. So, to touch all bases means to do what is necessary to complete an activity. The expression is used in business and politics. No business deal or political campaign is really complete until you discuss all the issues involved. Or, as it is said, until you touch all bases. Even professional diplomats use this expression, as well as others that come from baseball. A diplomat in reporting on negotiations with diplomats from different countries may say they "touched all bases" during many hours of talks. This means they explored all issues involved in the situation. Perhaps they did this after expressing hope that they could play ball with each other, meaning that they could learn to cooperate. Sports reporters write about fast-moving, lively events. They must develop a way of writing that goes straight to the point. Their duty is to give the reader a complete picture of the event in as few words as possible. They must touch all bases as quickly as they can. (MUSIC)This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Mike Pitts. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Tension, Migraine and Cluster: Getting to the Root of a Headache
* Byline: Learn about the different kinds of headaches, from the mildly unpleasant to the extremely painful, and some experimental treatments. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we tell about headaches, the head pain that strikes almost everyone at some time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Do you ever get a headache?? If your answer is yes, you are among thousands of millions of people worldwide who develop the condition. The National Headache Foundation says more than forty five million Americans suffer chronic headaches. At first, they experience severe pain in the head. The pain goes away, but returns later. The most common headache is a tension headache. Millions of people have a more painful headache, called a migraine. By comparison, not many people develop cluster headaches. The severity of cluster headaches usually requires treatment. VOICE TWO: The National Headache Foundation says about one-tenth of all Americans suffer from migraines. About seventy percent are women. Some people experience this kind of pain as often as two weeks every month. Some describe the pain as similar to a repeated beat like a heartbeat. Others say it is like someone driving a sharp object into the head. In addition to the suffering, there are economic results. Migraines cause Americans to miss more than one hundred fifty million workdays each year. A migraine can be mild. But it also can be so severe that a person cannot live a normal life. VOICE ONE: The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, provides information about migraines and other headaches. The Mayo Clinic says several foods are suspected of causing migraines. They include aged cheese and alcoholic drinks. Food additives like nitrates and monosodium glutamate also are suspected causes. So is caffeine, the substance in coffee that makes people feel more energetic. Interestingly, doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches. VOICE TWO: If you are developing a migraine headache, you may feel sick. You may feel very tired, hot or cold. You even may temporarily lose your sight. Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraines. Others use medicine to control pain that has already developed. Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans. Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine. Most people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people continue to suffer with migraines, although they may try different medicines. But the future may be better for these people. Two kinds of devices are being tested on patients. Both are based on the idea that electricity may stop or control migraine headaches. But experts say more testing is needed. One experimental treatment is called occipital nerve stimulation, or O.N.S. It involves placing electrical devices under the skin in the back of the head. Lead lines placed in the lower back send electrical signals to the patient's occipital nerves. Shocks sent through the lines are thought to block pain signals from the nerves. VOICE TWO: The United States Food and Drug Administration approved testing of O.N.S. at seven medical centers. Six are in the United States. The other is in Britain. One of the centers is the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. The Arizona center is an extension of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. In April, researchers at the Arizona center reported on their testing. They presented their findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. The researchers said the treatment appeared safe and effective. VOICE ONE: Another possible treatment is called transcranial magnetic stimulation, or T.M.S. It is meant only for patients whose migraines begin with an aura. They may see objects like bright stars and flashing lights. The goal is to stop the migraine before it takes hold. VOICE TWO: In T.M.S., a magnetic device is pressed against the back of the head. The device produces signals. They are thought to interfere with the brain activity that causes the pain. Hundreds of people are taking part in tests of the device. Doctor Yousef Mohammad works at the Ohio State University Medical Center. His team performed a small study during two thousand four and two thousand five. The results showed that most patients treated with the device had no headaches two hours after its use. Or their headache pain was less severe. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many more people suffer tension headaches than migraine headaches. But most tension headaches are not as powerful. Triggers are events or actions that can start a headache. Tension headache triggers may include emotional pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression. Other tension headaches start from something as tiredness or common changes in atmospheric conditions. The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as tightness in the part of your face over your eyes. Or, you may feel pressure around your head. Episodic tension headaches strike from time to time. Chronic tension headaches happen more often. A tension headache can last from a half hour to a whole week. VOICE TWO: The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day. Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the head. Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches. For years, researchers blamed muscle tension from contractions in the face, neck and the skin on top of the head. They believed emotional tension caused these tightening movements. But a test called an electromyogram has shown that muscle tension does not increase in people with a tension headache. The test records electrical currents caused by muscle activity. Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin. The changes may start sending pain messages to the brain. These changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain. VOICE ONE: Medicines for tension headache can be as simple as a painkiller like aspirin or similar medicines. But if your pain is too severe, you will need a doctor's advice. VOICE TWO: A Web site called familydoctor.org?provides information from?the American Academy of Family Physicians. The group suggests steps to ease or end a tension headache. VOICE ONE: For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can help. So can standing under hot water while you are getting washed. The group also advises exercising often. Another idea is taking a holiday from work. But you had better ask your employer first. (MUSIC) Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the pain is terrible. The Cleveland Clinic Headache Center in Ohio says the cluster headache can be many times more intense than a migraine. The pain of a cluster headache has sometimes been known to cause people to kill themselves. Cluster headaches usually strike young people. Smokers and persons who drink alcohol often get these headaches. Men are about six times more likely than women to have them. The Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men. Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of season. VOICE ONE: Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning or piercing. The pain is almost always felt on one side of the face. It can last for up to ninety minutes. Then it stops. But it often starts again later the same day. Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients have pain over a number of days to a whole year. Pain-free periods separate these periods. The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway. When the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches. The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red. Research has shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may come from a deeper part of the brain called the hypothalamus. VOICE TWO: The Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help. Many other drugs also could be used. For example, doctors say breathing oxygen can help. Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our pains in the head. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Experts Say 'Lost' Crops Can Fight Hunger in Africa
* Byline: The National Research Council in the US calls for wider research and development of 18 vegetables native to the continent.? Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists around the world are being urged to study and improve native vegetables in Africa. A report from the National Research Council in the United States says improving local crops could reduce hunger and poverty in Africa. The report lists eighteen promising crops that a committee of scientists chose out of hundreds of native plants. The scientists say plants like moringa, lablab and dika are not only good food resources. They can also grow in difficult climate and soil conditions. The report, called "Lost Crops of Africa," deals with vegetables. A similar study of grains was published in nineteen ninety-six. Soon to come is a report about fruits. The report just published by National Academies Press notes that many villagers grow native plants like amaranth, cowpea and egusi. Amaranth, for example, is rich in protein and other nutrients. But the scientists consider the crops lost because they have not been developed more widely. Calestous Juma of Harvard University says scientists and policymakers in other parts of the world generally show little interest in these plants. Colonial rulers in Africa imported crops like rice, wheat, corn and soy. But Professor Juma notes that some of these crops grow poorly in many areas of the continent. Moringa is a tree that produces pods, leaves, seeds and roots that can all be eaten. Another crop listed in the report is the bambara bean plant which is highly nutritious. And another one is the locust bean. This tree legume can grow as tall as twenty meters. The seeds become ripe in the dry seasons. The tree is valuable for leaf cover as well as food. Calestous Juma is co-chairman of an expert committee on modern biotechnology for the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development. Professor Juma says further research on these "lost crops" will help not just Africa. It would help prepare the world in the event of a food crisis in other areas. Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug led the committee that prepared the report. He won the nineteen seventy Nobel Peace Prize for a "green revolution" based on improved wheat he developed. Norman Borlaug was a Rockefeller Foundation scientist for many years. In September, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation announced a joint effort called the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa4.cfm
* Headline: More Than Two Centuries Later, Mozart's Music Remains Full of Life
* Byline: The Austrian composer wrote 600 works; he died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. This year, the world marked the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. There have been celebrations of the composer's work all year long. On December fifth, music houses around the world observed the anniversary of the composer's death. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That music is from Mozart's "Requiem," a work the composer did not complete before his death. A requiem is music written in honor of someone who has died. Many people consider the music and its subject matter to add to the mystery surrounding Mozart's death. Could it be that the composer sensed his approaching death from fever and wrote “Requiem” in his own honor?? There is no doubt, however, that the music of Mozart has more to do with life and happiness than with sadness or mystery. VOICE TWO: Mozart wrote and performed music in the second half of the eighteenth century. During this period, European musicians performed for kings, queens and other royalty. Musicians often depended on wealthy people called patrons to support them. Mozart, along with his friend Joseph Haydn, became the best example of the classical style -- the important performance music of his time. Today, people often use the word "classical" to describe other kinds of music written for and performed by an orchestra. Some music critics consider Symphony Twenty-Five in G Minor to be the first work showing Mozart's full ability. He was seventeen when he wrote it. See what you think of this young man's skills. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The word "effortless" is often used to describe the musical compositions of Mozart. Music came so naturally to the child born in Salzburg, Austria, in seventeen fifty-six. He was given the name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart shortly after his birth. But he liked to be called Amadeus, or Amad?, meaning "beloved of God." Wolfgang was the last of seven children born to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl. Five of the children died while babies. Only Wolfgang and his older sister, Maria Anna, survived. Both were extremely gifted musicians from a very young age. The children traveled with their parents and performed across Europe. Wolfgang's father was a well-known violin teacher. The year Wolfgang was born, Leopold published a popular book on violin playing. Soon Wolfgang started to show an unusual command of many instruments. By the age of eight, he played the piano -- sometimes with his eyes covered. He also played the organ and violin very well. He showed an understanding of music of a much older person. VOICE TWO: Travel enriched the education of the young Mozart. His father worked in many of the great cities of eighteenth century Europe. The family visited London, Munich, Vienna, Prague and Paris. Tragedy struck the family in seventeen seventy-eight while young Mozart was seeking work in Paris with his mother. His mother became sick and died. Far away in Salzburg, Leopold felt helpless. He blamed his son for his wife’s death. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mozart’s family kept a home in Salzburg during his early years. He would later be appointed concertmaster to the archbishop of the city. Mozart's job was to write new pieces of music for religious ceremonies and other events. He also played several instruments, including the organ. But Mozart fought with his employer who, he felt, mistreated him. He was released from service to the archbishop in seventeen eighty-one. Only after Mozart left Salzburg permanently and went to Vienna did his work reach its highest level. Vienna was the home of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph the Second. Musicians came from all over Europe to perform for him. VOICE TWO: Mozart married Constanze Weber in the Austrian capital in seventeen eighty-two. He described his wife as having “plenty of common sense and the kindest heart in the world.”? Constanze had six children but only two survived. They were happy together, although their life was sometimes difficult. In Vienna, Mozart wrote his greatest operas -- musical plays performed with an orchestra. His works were performed in other cities as well. His “Marriage of Figaro” was so popular in Prague that he was asked to write an opera especially for a music house there. The opera he composed was “Don Giovanni,” considered by many to be his best. The opera is based on the story of the lover and fighter, Don Juan, by the Spanish writer Tirso de Molina. In this scene, the spirit of a man Don Giovanni had killed long ago returns to the world of the living to seize him and drag him down to hell. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Events have been held all over Europe and in the United States to celebrate the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of Mozart's birth. Salzburg alone held about five hundred events to celebrate the famous composer. Vienna spent about sixty million dollars in public and private money for its Mozart celebration. In reality, there is an ongoing Mozart celebration all the time. Mozart’s music is performed around the world. And his music can be heard in more than three hundred films, from Jean Renoir’s “The Rules of the Game” to Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.” Peter Shaffer’s nineteen eighty-four film, “Amadeus,” was generally based on the life of the composer. The film won eight Academy Awards. But historians point out that the film is not correct in showing Italian composer Antonio Salieri as an evil force behind Mozart’s death. Salieri was a friend who taught Mozart’s son. VOICE TWO: Mozart died on December fifth, seventeen ninety-one. He was only thirty-five. He had composed more than six hundred pieces of music. Some experts consider Mozart the greatest composer of all time. Near the end of his life, Mozart composed the Forty-First Symphony. After his death, it came to be known as “Jupiter,” possibly in praise of its style and expression. Critics consider it one of Mozart’s truly great works and a beautiful expression of the classical style that he helped to define. Listen, and consider that what you have heard on our program represents just a few of Mozart’s best works. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa5.cfm
* Headline: At a Party, If All Else Fails, Throw Yourself on the Mercy of the Crowd
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: If mixing with people at parties leaves you at a loss for words, writer Jeanne Martinet offers some help in an updated edition of her popular book "The Art of Mingling." RS: "Give us some tips -- what works?" JEANNE MARTINET: "Well, what doesn't work is that you should never walk up to somebody and ask them right away what they do for a living. It's not only sort of rude, and it's sort of like 'who are you, are you worth my time?' But it's also bringing up a conversation that you don't know what you're bringing up. "There's an opening technique that I call the 'flattery entr?e,' which works very well if that person has an unusual pair of earrings or tie on. You can walk up to somebody and say 'Hey, I really like that pair of earrings' and you get into it that way. I think the mistake that people make is they think that the only way to talk to people is to ask them questions. And while that's good to do within a conversation, it's actually less threatening to open with something that's more of an observation. "One of the reasons that people, I think, are afraid to approach strangers at parties is they're really afraid of what happens if something bad does, you know, occur. And if you know that you can escape from anyone, it actually makes you much less afraid to talk to people in the first place. "So, you know, you'll try and talk to someone and it doesn't work very well, and maybe you get the idea they really would rather go back to the conversation they were having or something, in which case you can do one of many escape techniques that can help you save face -- or even get you away from someone that you discover that you don't want to talk to." AA: "For example?" JEANNE MARTINET: "Like, you know, the 'buffet bye-bye' -- what my cute name for 'well, I've really got to get a drink' or 'I'm starving -- that thing you're eating is making me even more hungry. I'll be back.' You can even say 'I'll be back' and never come back. At a party you're allowed to do that." AA: "Now let me ask you about -- I know in every culture certain subjects are maybe off-limits or you really shouldn't [talk about them] unless you know a person well. So, thinking about in American culture, three that come to mind are money, religion and politics -- " JEANNE MARTINET: "Yes!" AA: "What do you think about that." JEANNE MARTINET: "The two safe subjects used to be your health and the weather. Well, the weather now leads you to topics of global warming -- at least it does [for] me -- and your health, you can easily start talking about health insurance, and before you know it you are in the areas of politics. So I outline in the book ways to test for people who might be fanatics in certain areas, so you can really stay away, and also 'defuse' and 'escape' lines." RS: "What would be some of those -- you talked a little bit about escape lines, but you're in an argument or you find yourself close to an argument, how do you get out of it?" JEANNE MARTINET: "Well, most of them are sort of cute lines which are just tension-defusing lines like 'well, I guess we can't solve the world's problems in one day.' Or you say, if it's really gotten heated and you feel up to this particular kind of humor, you can say, 'Well, you know, if we talk about this anymore, we're going to have to step outside.'" RS: "All right, let's put a context here. We have a student, a foreign student, in the United States or elsewhere [who is] with a group of Americans and wants to mingle. What kind of advice would you give to this person [about] how to start and how to go through his day?" JEANNE MARTINET: "If you're talking about mingling at a gathering of a lot of people, I've often used this when I'm feeling particularly out of my element and I don't know anybody, I will go up to someone or a group of people and say: 'Hi, my name is Jeanne Martinet and I don't know a single soul at this party.' "That is really -- really, basically to throw yourself in a little bit asking for help from other people, is usually not a bad idea because it kind of endears you to the people and it usually gives you a warm response. People who are really shy can try using what I call the 'fade-in,' which is where you go up to the periphery of a group of people and listen carefully to what's being said, and then just adding in your two cents when it's appropriate. RS: "Jeanne, this takes courage." JEANNE MARTINET: "It doesn't; it takes practice. It's funny, because once you do it a couple of times, like if somebody who just listening to me saying this, would just use that approach that I said, where they walked up to somebody and said 'you know, I don't know a single person at this party,' when they get this response that they will get, -- nine times out of ten it will be a wonderful like 'oh, this is so-and-so and please let us show -- I'll introduce you to Joe over here.' And when that happens, and that happens a couple of times, you will start to lose your fear. "Everybody is just as afraid as they are. That's the other one of my mingling survival rules is that nobody is thinking about you, they're only thinking about themselves. So it's sort of helpful to remember this to become less self-conscious." AA: But Jeanne Martinet, the author of "The Art of Mingling," says you should also remember not to monopolize people at parties, or you could be seen as a "barnacle." In general, she says, spend five to fifteen minutes chatting, then move on. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can find lots more advice about communicating in our archives at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Dealing With Children's Bed-Wetting
* Byline: We begin a new series of reports for parents about raising kids. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many parents wish children were born with directions. Raising children is a complex job -- many would say the most complex there is. So, from time to time, we are going to present information for parents. We will deal with subjects like diet and common childhood sickness. We will also talk about behavioral problems and other issues. And we will ask for questions to answer on the air. Today we start with a common problem: bed-wetting. The American Academy of Pediatrics says about forty percent of preschool-age children urinate in their sleep. In most cases, children outgrow it. The academy says twenty percent of five-year-olds and ten percent of six-year-olds wet their bed. By the age of twelve, that number drops to three percent. The National Institutes of Health says experts are not sure what causes bed-wetting. The most likely causes, the experts say, include slower physical development and overproduction of urine at night. Smaller bladders fill more quickly. And some bodies take longer to develop the warning system between the brain and the bladder. Some children may not receive the message to wake up when they need to urinate. Urologic and kidney experts at the National Institutes of Health also say some children may not produce enough antidiuretic hormone. The body usually produces more of this hormone at night so less urine is produced during sleep. The bladders of children who produce lesser amounts of antidiuretic hormone are more likely to fill up while they sleep. Experts say feeling nervous and worried can sometimes lead children to wet the bed. Genetics may also play a part. Researchers say some family genes appear to be involved in bed-wetting. Children sometimes think they are bad because they wet the bed. Parents may get angry. Or they may feel guilty, like they have done something wrong. Doctors say it is important to know that how a parent reacts could affect a child's self-image. We will talk more about the subject of bed-wetting next week. We will talk about different ways that doctors suggest to deal with it. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can download MP3 files and transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And to send us questions, write to special@voanews.com. Please be sure to include your name and where you are writing from. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Taking the GMAT to Get Into Business School
* Byline: The Graduate Management Admission Test is exam of general skills and abilities gained over time. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. For several weeks now, our Foreign Student Series has dealt with college admissions tests. We have talked about the SAT, ACT, GRE and the MAT. We have also discussed the English tests known as the TOEFL and the IELTS. Now, a listener from Thailand has asked about a test used to get into graduate programs in business and management. Varongsri Saengbanchong asks about the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT. The Graduate Management Admission Council is the non-profit organization responsible for the GMAT. The council describes the exam as a test of general skills and abilities gained over time. The test is designed to show how well a student will do in programs leading to a master's of business administration and other degrees. But the council also says the test is not the only tool that should be used to measure future success in business school. Admissions officers also may consider college grades and other information, like work experience. The GMAT tests skills including reading, mathematics and writing. It does not measure knowledge of business or what a person learned in college. The test is divided into three main parts. The first is the writing test. You have to write two essays. In one, you take a position on an issue and support your position with arguments. In the other, you consider the reasoning behind a given argument and write about the strengths and weaknesses. Test-takers have thirty minutes to write each essay. The math part of the test takes seventy-five minutes. There are thirty-seven questions involving data and problem solving. The third part of the GMAT is also seventy-five minutes long. It measures understanding of written passages and the relationships among ideas. You have to show reasoning skills and the ability to follow the development of ideas. There are forty-one questions to answer. Graduate schools in the United States generally require some kind of admissions test. Medical schools, for example, require the MCAT -- the Medical College Admission Test. And law schools require the Law School Admission Test, known as the LSAT. Links to the Web sites of all the tests we have discussed in our Foreign Student Series can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: On the Home Front During World War Two
* Byline: Americans worked to help the war effort and support the troops. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The United States entered the Second World War late in nineteen forty-one after a surprise attack by Japanese forces on Hawaii. The time and the place of the attack was a surprise. But American military and political leaders had believed that the United States, sooner or later, would be pulled into the fighting. And they began to prepare for war. VOICE TWO: President Franklin Roosevelt had been assistant aecretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War One. He remembered how American troops were not ready for that war. Now that he was president, Roosevelt wanted to be sure that the United States would be ready when it had to fight. Throughout nineteen forty-one, Roosevelt urged American industries to produce more arms and military goods. And he established new government agencies to work with private industry to increase arms production. Some business leaders resisted Roosevelt's efforts. They felt there was no need to produce more arms while the United States was still at peace. But many others cooperated. And by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the American economy was producing millions of guns and other weapons. VOICE ONE: This still was not enough to fight a war. After the Japanese attack, Roosevelt increased his demands on American industry. He called for sixty thousand war planes, forty-five thousand tanks, and twenty thousand anti-aircraft guns. And he wanted all these within one year. One month after the Pearl Harbor raid, Roosevelt organized a special committee to direct this military production. He created another group to help companies find men and women for defense work. And he established a new office where the nation's best scientists and engineers could work together to design new weapons. These new government organizations faced several problems. Sometimes factories produced too much of one product and not enough of another. Sometimes tools broke. And some business owners refused to accept government orders. But the weapons were produced. American troops soon had the guns and supplies they needed. VOICE TWO: The federal government had to expand its own workforce rapidly to meet war needs. Federal spending increased from just six thousand?million dollars in nineteen forty to eighty-nine thousand million in nineteen forty-four. This was a fifteen hundred percent increase in just five years. In fact, total spending by the federal government during the war was twice as much as the government had spent since its beginning in seventeen eighty-seven. Roosevelt had to take strong steps to get the money for all this spending. He put limits on wages. He increased taxes to as high as ninety-four percent of pay. And he asked the American people to lend money to the federal government. The people answered with almost one hundred thousand million dollars. VOICE ONE: The great increase in public spending raised the threat of economic inflation. There was much more money in the economy just at the time that factories were producing fewer goods for people to buy. More money and fewer goods usually makes prices rise rapidly. Roosevelt was able to prevent this problem by using taxes and borrowing to reduce the amount of money that people had. But he also created a special office with the power to control prices. Many Americans agreed with the idea of price controls. But everyone wanted somebody else's prices controlled, not their own. Federal officials had to work hard to keep prices and supplies under control. They restricted how much meat and gasoline and other goods people could buy. The price control program generally worked. Its success kept the American economy strong to support the troops fighting in Europe and Asia. VOICE TWO: One reason these strong economic steps worked was because the American people fully supported the war effort. One can look at photographs of people of those times and see in their faces how strongly they felt. In one photograph from the state of North Carolina, a group of men are standing in front of old rubber tires collected from automobiles. They are planning to give the tires to the Army to be fixed and used for army vehicles. Another photo shows a woman visiting a hospital. She is singing a song to a soldier to lift his spirits. Still another photo shows a man who owns a small food store. He is placing special signs on his meats and cans of food to tell people how much they are allowed to buy. VOICE ONE: Radio cannot show the faces in the pictures. But you can get an idea about their feelings by the names of some of the popular songs of the period. One of the most famous was "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Another was "He Is One-Aye in the Army, and He's One-Aye in My Heart." And one of the most hopeful songs was "When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World." VOICE TWO: Not all Americans supported the war. A small number of persons refused to fight, because fighting violated their religious beliefs. And a few Americans supported the ideas of Hitler and other fascists. But almost everyone else supported the war effort. They wanted to win the war quickly and return to normal life. Japanese-Americans felt the same way. Many of them served with honor in the military forces. But many Americans were suspicious of anyone whose family had come from Japan. They refused to trust even Japanese-American families who lived in the United States for more than a century. Banks refused to lend money to Japanese-Americans. Stores would not sell to them. An American Army general, John Dewitt, spoke for many citizens when he said, "A Japanese is a Japanese. It makes no difference whether he is an American or not." The federal government ordered all Japanese-Americans to live in restricted areas for the rest of the war. Only after the war ended did it release them. Years later, people agreed that Japanese-Americans had been badly treated. VOICE ONE: Another American minority made progress during the war: black Americans. For years, black American citizens had been kept in low-paying jobs and poor living conditions. But black leaders spoke out to say it was unfair to fight a war for freedom in Europe while blacks at home were not as free as white citizens. In nineteen forty-one, black leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a giant march on Washington for black rights. President Roosevelt reacted by issuing an order that made it a crime to deny blacks a chance for jobs in defense industries. He also ordered the armed forces to change some of their rules for blacks. Blacks made progress in these government-controlled areas. But most private industries still refused to give them an equal chance. Major progress for blacks would come in the years after the war, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. VOICE TWO: Life was busy during the war years with all the changes in the economy, business, music, race relations, and other areas. But in many ways, life continued as it always does. Americans did what they could during the hard years of World War Two to keep life as normal as possible. But almost everyone understood that the first job was to support the troops overseas and win the war. This strength of purpose at home gave American soldiers the support they needed. And it also helped President Roosevelt as he negotiated with other world leaders during the fighting. Diplomacy and foreign relations were extremely complex during the war. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jim Tedder. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Millions Turn Fantasy Sports Leagues Into a Real Industry in US
* Byline: Also: A question from Germany about Silicon Valley, and the music of John Legend, whose songs are influenced by pop, rhythm and blues and jazz. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about a place not found on the map … Play some music from John Legend … And report about playing sports on a computer. Fantasy Leagues Fantasy sports leagues are becoming very popular in the United States. This activity gives people the power to "own" a professional sports team. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: A fantasy sport is a game in which each member of a group called a league acts as the owner of a team. Each owner creates a team of real-life professional players to compete against other teams in the league. The fantasy teams compete against each other using points earned by the real players of the professional sport. For example, each member of a fantasy baseball league chooses professional players from several different real-life teams. Fifteen teams compete against each other. As the baseball season progresses, each fantasy team is awarded points, based on the performance of its players in the real league. At the end of the season, the fantasy team whose players gained the most points would win the fantasy competition. Fantasy sports are also known as rotisserie or roto leagues. They started to gain more popularity in the mid-nineteen nineties, with widespread use of the Internet. Computers have made managing fantasy leagues easier with programs designed to keep score for teams. More than fifteen million American adults play fantasy sports. The industry earns more than one thousand million dollars each year on publications, memberships and other costs. However, research groups have estimated that fantasy sports also cost employers money in lost productivity when employees manage their fantasy teams at work. American football and baseball are the most popular fantasy sports. Basketball and NASCAR auto racing are also gaining popularity. Fantasy sports provide a more interactive way for people to enjoy sports beyond simply watching games. Fantasy players get a chance to make the same decisions professional owners and managers do. A common practice in fantasy leagues is to collect money from each player at the beginning of the season. The money will be given to the owners of the top teams at the end of the season. People play fantasy sports for money, but more importantly they play for fun, competition -- and as a way to spend time with their friends. Silicon Valley HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Munich, Germany. Vadym Ponomarenko asks about Silicon Valley. You will not find the name Silicon Valley on maps of the United States, although it is in the state of California. Silicon Valley is not an official place name. It describes an area south of the city of San Francisco, in Santa Clara County. It is one of the fastest growing areas of the state and includes the cities of Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Santa Clara and San Jose. The name comes from the silicon material used to produce tiny computer parts. Silicon Valley today is home to thousands of high technology companies. The story of how this area came to be known as Silicon Valley begins with Stanford University, in Palo Alto. The university was having financial problems following World War Two in the late nineteen forties. It also owned several thousand hectares of land that was not being used. Stanford professor Frederick Terman learned that the university could not legally sell the land. The Stanford family had made it legally impossible to sell any of the land they gave to the university. But Mister Terman discovered that nothing could prevent the university from permitting companies to use the land in exchange for payment. This idea led to the development of an area called Stanford Industrial Park in nineteen fifty-one. Several leading companies moved their offices there, including the new Hewlett-Packard electronics company. The success of businesses like Hewlett-Packard influenced other companies to move into and near the Stanford Industrial Park. In nineteen seventy-one, a reporter, Don Hoefler, first called the area "Silicon Valley" in a series of stories for the publication Electronic News. He used the term to describe the many electronics companies being built in Santa Clara County. Young computer engineers with little money started companies in the area. Many of these grew into large and famous international businesses. These include Apple Computer, Microsoft, Intel and Google. Today, Santa Clara County is working with the United States Department of the Interior to attract visitors. Santa Clara County uses the name Silicon Valley to describe its importance in the history and economy of the United States. John Legend Singer and songwriter John Legend is one of the most successful new artists in the United States. People around the world enjoy his music. Katherine Cole tells us more and plays some songs. KATHERINE COLE: John Legend became a popular name in the music industry in two thousand four. The twenty-seven-year-old singer and songwriter released his first album that year. “Get Lifted” won many honors including three Grammy Awards. His hit song “Ordinary People” is from that album. The song shows Legend’s musical skills as a piano player and singer. (MUSIC) John Legend recently released his second album. It is called “Once Again.”? He says he listened to different kinds of music while working on the album. The songs are influenced by pop, rhythm and blues and jazz. The love song "Save Room" shows some of those influences. (MUSIC) John Legend says he hopes to perform his music in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa in the coming year. He says one of the things he likes best about music is that it brings people closer together. He says music makes the world a better place. We leave you with another song by John Legend. It is called “Heaven.” (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Brianna Blake, Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American Competitiveness: Too Many Rules?
* Byline: A committee calls for changes to help the US compete internationally; critics say investor protections would suffer. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, a committee released proposals to make America's publicly traded companies more competitive. The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation says costly and complex rules hurt the position of the United States. The committee is a private group of twenty-two leaders from areas including business, finance, law and accounting. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson praised the committee when it was announced in September. Mister Paulson has recently warned of the danger to American competitiveness from, in his words, an "ever-expanding rulebook."? He says the costs of rules must be considered against the benefits. He is expected to hold a conference on this issue next year. Hal Scott of Harvard Law School is the committee director. He says the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of two thousand two has created needless costs, especially for smaller businesses. Congress wrote the law after accountants failed to uncover financial crimes at several big companies. Some, like Enron and WorldCom, went out of business. Investors lost millions. Sarbanes-Oxley created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The law also holds business leaders legally responsible for their company's financial statements. Among other things, the law requires public companies to report yearly on their financial reporting controls. The committee says this rule, in the first year, cost businesses an average of more than four million dollars. But some say proposals by the committee would weaken shareholder protections. For example, the report calls for limits on the amount of money that investors could recover from companies involved in wrongdoing. Former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers says the committee was too centered on the issue of competitiveness. And New York Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer says he will fight the proposals. Still, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox wants his agency to reconsider some rules based on their costs. The World Economic Forum this year rated the United States sixth in competitiveness, behind smaller countries like Finland and Switzerland. But it was first among the largest economies. Yet the committee says only five percent of the value of the world's newly offered stock last year was raised in the United States. In two thousand, it was fifty percent. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From Iraq Study Group, Bush Gets 79 Ideas for New 'Way Forward'
* Byline: Report says training the Iraqi Army should be the main job of US forces; it suggests that most combat troops could leave by early 2008. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The message was loud and clear: the situation in Iraq is bad and only getting worse. After nine months of work, the Iraq Study Group gave its report this week, calling for major changes in United States policy. The report says no one can guarantee that any action in Iraq at this point will stop the growing violence. But it gives seventy-nine suggestions for a new way forward in Iraq and the Middle East. Among them, it calls for an urgent new diplomatic plan that would include talks with Syria and Iran -- and more pressure on Iraqi leaders. The study group says the main job of United States forces in Iraq should be to support the Iraqi Army. The report calls for an increase in American military trainers from four thousand to about twenty thousand. And it says Iraqi forces need better equipment. But the report says most American fighting troops could be out of Iraq by early two thousand eight -- unless there are unexpected security developments. President Bush says all of the proposals will be considered. But he also said he did not think the study group meant for the administration to accept every one of them. The Bush administration is completing its own study of its Iraq policy. That review involves the State Department, National Security Council, Defense Department and other agencies. The president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, has said the plan is to have a new Iraq policy in place within weeks. The report also calls for a renewed effort by the United States for Arab-Israeli peace. But the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, rejected attempts to link the Iraq issue and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The five Democrats and five Republicans on the Iraq Study Group all supported the recommendations. The group led by former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton was created in March. It was launched at a meeting held by Senator John Warner of Virginia and attended by congressional leaders. Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi said many of the proposals are things her party has suggested for a long time. She will lead the House of Representatives when the new Democratic-controlled Congress opens in January. More than two thousand nine hundred Americans have died since the Iraq war began in March of two thousand three. The report says the United States has spent roughly four hundred thousand million dollars on the war. And it says estimates for the final cost of the United States involvement in Iraq run as high as two million million dollars. The report came out Wednesday, the same day the Senate confirmed Robert Gates as the next secretary of defense. He is to be sworn into office on December eighteenth, replacing Donald Rumsfeld who recently resigned. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. For more news about the Iraq Study Group Report, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Marilyn Monroe, 1926-1962: America's Most Famous Sex Symbol
* Byline: The beautiful movie star had an exciting but tragic life. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about movie star Marilyn Monroe. She died many years ago, yet still is one of the best known American women. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Her name at birth was Norma Jean Baker. Her life as a child was like a bad dream. She lived with a number of different people, and often was mistreated. At age sixteen Norma Jean married a sailor. But she soon ended that marriage. She changed her hair color from brown to shining gold. And she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. She wanted to be an actress. And she succeeded. She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies. Millions of people went to see them. By the time Norma Jean had reached the age of twenty-six, her beautiful face and body earned her a place as one of America's leading movie stars. But success and fame were not enough to make her happy. The troubles of her childhood days stayed with her. She drank too much alcohol. She took too many drugs. At the age of thirty-six, she took her own life. VOICE TWO: She has been dead since nineteen sixty-two. Still, her fame continues to grow. People born long after she died are watching her movies on television. Objects that belonged to her bring huge prices at public sales. The Warner Brothers museum in Hollywood has the white dress she wore in one of her movies, "The Prince and the Showgirl. " People continue to talk about what they feel is her strange death. Some people believe she was murdered. Two investigations showed that she died as the result of too many drugs. VOICE ONE: Why is the public still so interested in a woman who died so many years ago? A number of reasons. Her exciting but tragic life. Her connections with well-known people. And her image as an especially desirable woman. In the nineteen fifties, many Americans believed sex was a very private subject. People often severely judged those who were sexually appealing. Into this atmosphere burst Marilyn Monroe. As one critic said, her body was round in all the right places. She wore her clothes like skin. When she walked, she moved her lower body in a way that few other actresses had done. Her voice was soft and breathy. She soon became America's golden girl. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of Marilyn Monroe begins on June first, nineteen twenty-six. Norma Jean was born that day in the West Coast city of Los Angeles, California. Her birthplace was not far from the Hollywood movie studios where she would someday be a star. Her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered from mental problems. Often the mother had to be treated in a hospital for long periods of time. Her daughter was sent to live with a number of different people. The actress later would describe her stays with these foster families as sometimes very unhappy. During the worst experiences, she would go to a movie theater. There the young Norma Jean escaped into the make-believe world of movies. She would act all the movie parts after she went to a movie. She told this to a long time friend, actor Ted Jordan, who later wrote a book about her. VOICE ONE: By the time she was seventeen, Marilyn was trying very hard to be a movie actress. She finally was able to get an actors' agent to help her. He got Twentieth Century Fox Company to give Marilyn parts in some movies it produced. Marilyn continued to change the way she had looked as Norma Jean. She had an operation to improve the appearance of her nose. Her eyes were made to appear larger. She began using a great deal of bright red lipstick on her mouth. Marilyn may have worked more to improve her appearance than to improve her performance in acting classes. Some people at Twentieth Century Fox said she did not like to work at all. She appeared in only one movie. And she had only one line to speak in that. The Fox movie company dismissed her. Soon, however, her agent got her a job at Columbia Pictures. She appeared in a movie called "Ladies of the Chorus. " She sang two songs. Several critics praised her performance. But Columbia dismissed her. VOICE TWO: Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy." It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their better efforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie. The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me. " Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide. That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE ONE: Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle. " Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve." The movie, released in nineteen fifty, was about a movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- "a dumb blonde." In nineteen fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." This performance at last won her widespread fame. Marilyn Monroe was now a lead actress, a star. VOICE TWO: Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies: "How To Marry a Millionaire." "The Seven Year Itch." "Bus Stop." "Some Like it Hot." Her part in "Some Like it Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh. Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money. Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie. She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio school in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her. VOICE ONE: But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell." Few people thought of her as a serious actress. She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen fifty-four she married again. Her husband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe Di Maggio. They were together for only a few months. Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen sixty-one, after five years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs. She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming. By nineteen sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give.” She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her. VOICE ONE: On August fourth, nineteen sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death. Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and directed by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Coming to America: Writers and the Immigrant Story
* Byline: The lives and works of four writers influenced by their connections to the Mideast, Africa and Europe.  Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Our subject this week -- writers and the immigrant experience, revisited. Recently we talked about four writers and the influence of their ties to Latin America and the Caribbean. This time it is the Middle East, Africa and Europe. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elmaz AbinaderThe author and poet Elmaz Abinader grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, in the northeastern United States. Her parents came from Lebanon. Her family spoke mostly Arabic at home. At school, she says, other children insulted her for being different. She looked for some connection between her two lives. As she tells it, everything changed when she went to college. She took control of her identity. She began to cook Middle Eastern foods and to listen to Arabic music with her friends. She also began to write about her grandmother. In college in the nineteen seventies, Elmaz Abinader studied writing. But she says most of the American writers she studied had European roots. She felt that her culture was not welcome in American writing. VOICE TWO: At some point, she read a book that, in her words, "made the difference."? The book was "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts."?? It was written by the Chinese-American writer Maxine Hong Kingston. In it, she tells stories about her Chinese grandmother, and about children considered too American for their immigrant family. Reading "The Woman Warrior" led Elmaz Abinader to read works by others outside the center of American culture. These included African-American and Latino writers. She found a community of people like her. People learning to live in two cultures. VOICE ONE: Elmaz Abinader earned a doctorate in writing. Her first book, in nineteen ninety-one, was "Children of the Roojme: A Family's Journey From Lebanon."? The family she based it on was her own. She has also written a collection of poetry called "In the Country of My Dreams."? And Elmaz Abinader writes and performs plays. Her play "Country of Origin" is about the struggles of three Arab-American women. Music in the play mixes traditional Middle East sounds with present-day jazz. VOICE TWO: Elmaz Abinader says she began to understand years ago that as a writer, she was also an activist. Today she is a professor of creative writing at Mills College in Oakland, California. She says a beautiful story or a good poem can affect a reader more than any speech. Her aim, she says, is to make the story of Arab-Americans as important as that of any other group in the United States. (MUSIC)?? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? VOICE ONE: Many new immigrants to America are from Africa. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is from Nigeria. She has written short stories and a book, "Purple Hibiscus."? She won the two thousand four Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for a first work of fiction. This national award honors writers of African ancestry. "Purple Hibiscus" has also been nominated for international honors, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize. VOICE TWO: Chimamanda Adichie grew up in the university town of Nsukka. Her parents were professors. She came to the United States in nineteen ninety-six to go to college. She was nineteen years old. She says Nigeria will always be her home, but she needs distance to be able to write about the country better. In fact, she says that sometimes, when she is back in Nigeria, she writes about Nigerians in America. VOICE ONE: "Purple Hibiscus" is set in Nigeria. It is about a young woman growing up in a troubled family while the country faces political unrest. There are some similarities to real-life events. She says the stories of people who suffered must be told. "Purple Hibiscus" also deals with modern religion in Nigeria and explores the clash with African tradition. Another book about Nigeria by Chimamanda Adichie is "Half of a Yellow Sun."? This book is about the attempt to establish an independent republic of Biafra in Nigeria in the nineteen sixties. (MUSIC)?? VOICE TWO: Aleksandar Hemon In two thousand four, the writer Aleksandar Hemon received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. These are known as "genius grants."? They go to individuals who show great creativity in their work. MacArthur Fellows receive five hundred thousand dollars over five years to spend as they wish. Aleksandar Hemon is the author of "The Question of Bruno" and "Nowhere Man."? Both books are about young men born in Sarajevo. Their lives are changed by the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early nineteen nineties. VOICE ONE: Like the men in his books, Aleksandar Hemon grew up in Sarajevo. He became a reporter and writer. He came to the United States in nineteen ninety-two as part of a cultural exchange program. He was twenty-seven years old. After the Bosnian war started, he could not return home. So he stayed in America and settled in Chicago. He also writes about displaced people who do not feel part of any community. He says telling stories is one way to record the old life that is lost, perhaps in war. He says stories should be told about wars and genocide so that the official version of history is not the only one that exists. VOICE TWO: Aleksandar Hemon wrote his first book in English after three years in the United States. Book critics have praised his expert and beautiful use of the language. Yet he spoke only a little English when he arrived in the country. With his limited English, he could only get low-paying work. So he read books in English to improve his language skills. He has said that one of the most difficult things for him as a new immigrant was this: Recognizing the difference between what he wanted to say and what he was really saying. He says this changed the way he thought about the idea of self. And it changed his writing. He saw that a person was made up of many selves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Andrei Codrescu Andrei Codrescu has published many books of poetry. He has also written about his life and his travels. But he is best known for his commentaries on American culture on National Public Radio. He lives in New Orleans and is a professor of writing at Louisiana State University. He also heads the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse, now published on the Internet. Andrei Codrescu was born in Sibu, Romania, in nineteen forty-six. When he was nineteen years old, he and his mother left the country. At that time, Israel was buying freedom for Jews in communist Romania. The former West Germany was doing the same for ethnic Germans. But instead of going to Israel, Andrei Codrescu and his mother came to the United States. He says he now feels more American than anything else. He became an American citizen in nineteen eighty-one. VOICE TWO: Andrei Codrescu began to write poetry when he was sixteen. He says Romanians have a strong love for poetry, and a language that expresses images well. He also says writing poetry was a rebellious act because the communists banned a lot of writing. Years later, as an American, he recorded the end of communist rule in Romania. That happened in nineteen eighty-nine. He wrote a book called "The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile's Story of Return and Revolution."? VOICE ONE: Andrei Codrescu has also traveled around the United States and observed life. His film "Road Scholar" is about unusual communities. He wrote a book of the same name. He says his travels taught him that people with differences can live together. In two thousand six, Andrei Codrescu published a collection of essays about his adopted hometown in Louisiana -- New Orleans. He wrote it with love, laughter and longing for the city after the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in August of two thousand five. The book is called "New Orleans, Mon Amour."? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO Our program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. To find our earlier program about writers and the immigrant experience, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. --- Editor's Note: Doreen Baingana, a part-time writer in Special English, is an award-winning author from Uganda. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Seeing More Forest for the Trees: Brighter Future for Forests?
* Byline: A new way to measure resources finds the most gains in the last 15 years in China, US; forests in Nigeria, Philippines shrank the fastest. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A research team from Finland, the United States, China and Scotland is hopeful about the future of forests. Six experts in forestry science and economics say forest growth is on the rise in some countries and the number is increasing. Findings from the Forest Identity project appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. Pekka Kauppi of the University of Helsinki was the lead author of the study. Professor Kauppi says the findings suggest the world may be able to reach a turning point away from deforestation. Many experts have considered that impossible. But the researchers say it may be possible to expand the world's forests by ten percent, or an area the size of India, by two thousand fifty. They used information released last year by the Food and Agriculture Organization. The United Nations agency reported on changes in the world's forests between nineteen ninety and two thousand five. The new study looked just at the fifty nations with the most forest. The researchers used a new way to measure forest resources. They considered more than just the amount of land covered by trees. They also considered forest density, tree size, biomass and the amount of atmospheric carbon captured in forests. The biomass represents all plant and tree growth. The researchers say growing stock increased in twenty-two of the fifty countries. And, in about half of the fifty, biomass and carbon storage also increased. The researchers say forest area and biomass are still being lost in such important countries as Brazil and Indonesia. But they found gains in others, including the world's most populous nations. They say China and the United States had the greatest gains. And they say India has reached the right balance between forested and non-forested land. In percentage terms, though, the study says forest area expanded fastest in the last fifteen years in Vietnam, Spain and China. And it shrank fastest in Nigeria and the Philippines. Professor Kauppi says the main blocks to forest growth are fast-growing poor populations that burn wood for cooking fuel. Or sell it for quick money -- or clear forest for crops. But a number of scientists criticized the use of information that came from governments. They say some governments do not keep good records about their forests, or may not tell the truth. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Easy As Falling Off a Log: Not Much Effort Involved!
* Byline: It is easier to fall off a log than to stay on it. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Some of these expressions are easy to understand. The words create a picture in your mind. As easy as falling off a log is one such expression. It describes a job that does not take much effort. If you ever tried to walk on a fallen tree log, you understand what the expression means. It is easier to fall off the log than to stay on it. The expression is often used today. For example, you might hear a student say to her friend that her spelling test was as easy as falling off a log. There are several other expressions that mean the same thing. And their meaning is as easy to understand as falling off a log. One is, easy as pie. Nothing is easier than eating a piece of sweet, juicy pie. Unless it is a piece of cake. Piece of cake is another expression that means something is extremely easy to do. A friend might tell you that his new job was a piece of cake. Another expression is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to shoot fish in a barrel. But, clearly, fish in a barrel would be much easier to shoot than fish in a stream. In fact, it would be as easy as falling off a log. Sometimes, things that come to us easily, also leave us just as easily. In fact, there is an expression -- easy come, easy go -- that recognizes this. You may win a lot of money in a lottery, then spend it all in a few days. Easy come, easy go. When life itself is easy, when you have no cares or problems, you are on easy street. Everyone wants to live on that imaginary street. Another "easy" expression is to go easy on a person.It means to treat a person kindly or gently, especially in a situation where you might be expected to be angry with him. A wife might urge her husband to go easy on their son, because the boy did not mean to wreck the car. If it is necessary to borrow some money to fix the car, you should look for a friend who is an easy touch. An easy touch or a soft touch is someone who is kind and helpful. He would easily agree to lend you the money. And one last expression, one that means do not worry or work too hard. Try to keep away from difficult situations. Take it easy until we meet again. (MUSIC)You have been listening to the VOA?Special English program, Words and Their Stories.I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Aspirin: How Research Keeps Giving New Life to an Ancient Medicine
* Byline: Aspirin has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and some cancers. But stomach bleeding is still a risk from the drug itself. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week -- the story of aspirin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins with the willow tree. Since ancient times, people have known about its ability to reduce pain and high body temperature. More than two thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates advised his patients to chew on the bark and leaves of the willow. The tree contains a chemical called salicin. From salicin, researchers in the eighteen hundreds discovered how to make salicylic acid. And in eighteen ninety-seven, a chemist named Felix Hoffmann at Friedrich Bayer and Company in Germany created acetyl salicylic acid. Later it became the active substance in a new medicine that Bayer called aspirin. The "a" came from acetyl. The "spir" came from the spirea plant, which also produces salicin. And the "in"?? Well, that is a common way to end medicine names. VOICE TWO: In nineteen eighty-two, a British scientist shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. Sir John Vane found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and the expansion, or swelling, of damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the heart, kidneys and blood vessels work well. But there is a problem. Aspirin works against all prostaglandins, good and bad. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists learned how aspirin interferes with an enzyme. One form of this enzyme makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates a protective effect. So aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues. But it can also harm the inside of the stomach and small intestine. Today, aspirin competes with a lot of other medicines for headaches, muscle pain and fever. These include acetaminophen, the active substance in products like Tylenol. But many people take aspirin to reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke from blood clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or brain and cause a heart attack or stroke. Scientists say aspirin prevents blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form clots. A California doctor named Lawrence Craven first noted this effect more than fifty years ago. He observed unusual bleeding in children who chewed on an aspirin product to ease the pain after a common throat operation. VOICE TWO: Doctor Craven believed that the bleeding was because aspirin prevented blood from thickening. He thought that this effect might help prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots. He examined the medical records of eight thousand aspirin users and found no heart attacks in this group. He invited other scientists to test his ideas. But it was years before large studies took place. Charles Hennekens of Harvard Medical School led one of the studies. In nineteen eighty-three, he began to study more than twenty-two thousand healthy male doctors over forty years of age. Half took an aspirin every other day. The others took what they thought was aspirin. It was only a placebo, an inactive substance. Five years later, Doctor Hennekens reported that those who took aspirin reduced their risk of a heart attack. But they also had a higher risk of bleeding in the brain than the other doctors. VOICE ONE: More recently, a group of experts examined studies of aspirin at the request of federal health officials in the United States. The experts said people with an increased risk of a heart attack should take a low-strength aspirin every day. People who are most likely to suffer a heart attack include men over forty and women over fifty. People who are overweight or smoke are also at greater risk. So are people with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. VOICE TWO: In two thousand five, scientists reported the results of a major study that confirmed that aspirin also helps women. But the results were surprising. The study found that aspirin did not reduce the risk of a first heart attack in women. But women who took aspirin were seventeen percent less likely to have a stroke than women who took a placebo. And they were twenty-four percent less likely to have the most common form of stroke. The effects were greatest in women sixty-five years of age and older. The results were the opposite of what doctors see in men. The study lasted ten years. It involved forty thousand women age forty-five to eighty. The women who took aspirin were given one hundred milligrams every other day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aspirin may help someone who is having a heart attack caused by a blockage in an artery. Aspirin thins the blood, so it may be able to flow past the blockage. But heart experts say people should seek emergency help immediately. They say an aspirin is no substitute for treatment. And some people should not take aspirin. These include people who take other blood thinners or have bleeding disorders. Pregnant women are usually told to avoid aspirin. And children who take aspirin can suffer a disease called Reye's syndrome. Aspirin can also interfere with other medicines, although this is true of many drugs. A well-known risk of aspirin is stomach bleeding. Acid in the drug can damage the tissue of the stomach or intestines. Yet some studies have found that aspirin may help prevent cancers of the stomach, intestines and colon. VOICE TWO: A recent study found that aspirin blocks the formation of blood vessels that feed the growth of cancer. Researchers at Newcastle University in England explored a biological process that makes blood vessels grow. The researchers studied how aspirin affects the cells found on the inner surface of blood vessels. They found that a small amount of aspirin suppressed the way the cells form tubes. But lead researcher Helen Arthur says people with cancer should not take aspirin unless they are advised to do so by a doctor. She warns that large amounts of aspirin over a long period can cause severe stomach bleeding and death. VOICE ONE: Aspirin is one of a group of medicines known as NSAIDs [EN-sayds] -- non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Another example is ibuprofen. Several studies have found that men who take NSAIDS have a decreased risk of prostate cancer. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota wanted to see how NSAIDS might affect prostates that are enlarged but not cancerous. They followed the health of two thousand five hundred men for twelve years. One-third were taking NSAIDs daily when they entered the study. The scientists recently announced that these drugs may delay or prevent the development of an enlarged prostate. They said the risk of an enlarged prostate was fifty percent lower in the NSAID users than the other men. And the risk of bladder problems was thirty-five percent lower. The prostate gland is part of the male reproductive system and is just below the bladder. Growth of the prostate is common as men get older. It can mean repeated visits to the bathroom and other effects on a man's quality of life. But the scientists say that because of risks like stomach bleeding, they are not advising all men to take aspirin. If men are taking it already, they say, then the findings suggest another way it might help. The reasons are not clear, though, and the findings must be reproduced by other studies Most of the men were taking aspirin. But the study found that other kinds of NSAIDs appeared to have the same effect. And the amount taken did not seem to make much difference either. In any case, medical experts say people should not take aspirin for disease prevention without first talking to a doctor. There are risks, and researchers have reported that some people get little or no protection from aspirin. But medical research continues to give new life to one of the oldest and most widely used drugs in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and produced by Brianna Blake. For more science news, and MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. We hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tapping Into Vermont's Maple Syrup Industry
* Byline: Vermonters lead the nation in production, and it all starts with drilling a hole in a tree. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The northeastern state of Vermont is the leading producer of maple syrup in the United States. ?This sweet, sticky liquid is a favorite on pancakes and other foods generally eaten in the morning. The United States Department of Agriculture says Vermont produced more than one and one-half million liters of it this year. That was almost one-third of the nationwide amount and it was worth more than eleven million dollars. Other big producers include Maine and New York State. Paul Limberty selling his productPaul Limberty has been producing maple syrup in Vermont for ten years. The process is called sugaring. Each February, Mister Limberty and his wife, Jennifer Esser, drill holes into their sugar maple trees. They have more than one thousand sugar maples on their property in Huntington. They collect the sap that flows from the holes, through pipelines and into tanks. Sap can flow in two directions -- up from the tree's roots or down from its branches. The best time to collect sap is on a warm spring day after a cold night. During the spring, rising temperatures create pressure inside the tree. Sap flows out when the pressure inside the tree is greater than the atmospheric pressure. The next step is they boil the harvested sap in a wood-fired evaporator. They use wood that they collect throughout the year when they remove dead or overcrowded trees on their property. The boiling season generally lasts from March through April. Boiling steams away water in the sap. All that is left is maple syrup. Paul Limberty and Jennifer Esser produce four grades of it. Vermont Grade A Fancy has a light golden color and a light maple taste. It is often made at the beginning of the boiling season. Grade A Medium Amber is a popular choice for the table. Grade A Dark Amber has a deep golden color and a strong maple taste. Grade B is the darkest and strongest tasting of the four. It is often made during the last days of the boiling season. Grade B is considered best for use in cooking and baked goods. Paul Limberty and Jennifer Esser call their operation Dragonfly Sugarworks. They produced one thousand seventy-nine liters of maple syrup this year. And the price per liter is about the same for all grades -- about fourteen dollars. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jill Moss. At voaspecialenglish.com, you can see a picture of Paul Limberty selling his maple syrup. And to learn more about Vermont, listen next Monday at this time for THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A New List of Wonders, From the Maya Pyramids to the Net
* Byline: USA Today and TV's 'Good Morning America' had experts choose seven Wonders of the World, and asked the public to add one. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about some beautiful, interesting and unusual places in the world. We tell you why they were chosen as Wonders of the World. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The newspaper USA Today and the television program "Good Morning America" brought together a group of experts. The experts were to choose seven places that could be called Wonders of the World. The experts are marine biologist Sylvia Earl, writers Bruce Feiler and Pico Iyer, explorer Holly Morris and scientists Johan Reinhard and Neil deGrasse Tyson. They suggested and debated each possible choice, then agreed on seven places that could be considered Wonders of the World. We will tell about each of them. VOICE TWO: One of the group’s choices as a wonder of the world may seem unusual. It is not a real place or a building. Yet it is a place many people visit every day. It is the Internet computer system. The experts said the Internet is a place where people can connect to anywhere in the world. They chose the Internet for three reasons. They said the Internet is an example of excellent engineering. It shows how human beings are connected. And is the first step toward the goal of gathering all the knowledge in the world in one place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another wonder chosen by the group is the Serengeti Plain in East Africa, an area of almost fifteen thousand square kilometers. The name comes from the Maasai language meaning "an extended place." The Serengeti has the greatest number of plains animals in Africa. It is home to millions of animals, including the rhinoceros, lion, leopard, zebra, gazelle and elephant. And it is one of the most visited areas of the world. People travel there to watch wild animals in their natural home. The Serengeti may be best known for the yearly movement of thousands of wild animals across the plains. At the start of the dry season each summer, the animals travel about eight hundred kilometers across the park in search of food. The government of Tanzania established the Serengeti National Park in nineteen forty-one. It has been successful in its efforts to increase the number of protected animals, especially elephants. Bruce Feiler said the experts chose the Serengeti as a wonder because it shows that human beings are working to protect nature. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Kukulcan Pyramid at the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza, MexicoThe experts chose the remains of the ancient Maya civilization in what is now Central America as another Wonder of the World. The experts said they chose the Maya pyramids as a way to honor the Maya people. The Maya civilization existed for about one thousand five hundred years. The Maya increased knowledge about science and mathematics. They developed a calendar and used their pyramid structures to observe and map the stars in the sky. And they built great cities of stone in what were jungle areas. But the civilization collapsed around the tenth century. Experts believe the reasons could include an environmental threat or wars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A fourth Wonder of the World chosen by the experts is the Old City of Jerusalem. The city is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians. The experts said they chose the? because of its place in religious history and its part in the struggle for peace among people with different beliefs. Important events in the history of the three religions took place in this area of about one square kilometer. The Dome of the Rock is a beautiful Islamic structure that protects the rock where Muslims believe Mohammed left on his trip to heaven. And all three religions believe that the rock is also the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. Nearby, the ancient Western Wall of the destroyed Second Temple is a holy place for the Jewish people. Jews from all over the world travel to the Old City of Jerusalem to pray there. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a holy place for Christians. Christians believe that this is where Jesus was killed, buried and rose to heaven. The Old City of Jerusalem is considered to be among the holiest places in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The fifth newly named Wonder of the World is also a religious place. This one is in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It is really two places -- the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. The experts chose them because of their religious importance and because they are among the last surviving structures of old Tibet. The Potala Palace was built by the fifth Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious leader, in the seventeenth century. It contains the remains of several Dalai Lamas. It also has many works of art from Lamaism, Tibet’s development of Indian Buddhism. The last Dalai Lama to live in the palace fled in nineteen fifty-nine and has lived in exile in India ever since. The Jokhang Temple is not far from the Potala Palace. It is the holiest place in Tibet, built in the seventh century. Buddhists visit the Temple every day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument in the United States is another new Wonder of the World. President Bush signed a bill establishing the protected area in June of two thousand six. It is the largest protected area on Earth?-- more than three hundred sixty thousand square kilometers of ocean and islands. The area is home to about seven thousand kinds of sea life. Many are found nowhere else on Earth. The experts said they chose the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument because it is a model for protecting the natural areas of the planet. Marine biologist Sylvia Earl says she hopes the monument will influence other nations to protect parts of the ocean as they now protect the land. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The seventh Wonder of the World chosen by the group of experts is the ice areas of the North and South Poles. The North Pole is an ever-moving sheet of ice that is hundreds of kilometers wide. It floats on the Arctic Ocean. The South Pole is occupied by the large continent of Antarctica. It is almost completely covered by a giant field of ice. The experts say they chose these areas because they are important to for the future of life on Earth. Many scientists say this future is threatened by the increased temperature of the atmosphere that is melting the polar ice. One study suggests that sea levels in the world could rise by several meters by the end of this century. As a result,? low-lying areas of land could be under water. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: USA Today also wanted its readers to choose an eighth Wonder of the World to be added to the list. The paper suggested nine possibilities and asked readers to vote for one. The choices were the Panama Canal, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu in Peru; the Saturn Five rocket; the Taj Mahal in India; Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe; Venice in Italy and the Grand Canyon. The readers chose the Grand Canyon in the southwestern American state of Arizona. VOICE TWO: The Grand Canyon is one of America's most famous national parks. Officials say about five million people from all parts of the world visit each year to see the huge hole in the Earth that is like nothing else in the world. The Grand Canyon extends four hundred fifty kilometers. Walls of rock fall away sharply from the edge. Far below is a dark line that is the Colorado River. On the other side, the rock walls are red, orange and gold. The bright colors are the result of minerals in the rocks. Visitors experience the Grand Canyon in several ways. They walk along paths down into the canyon. They ride mules to the bottom and back. They see the Grand Canyon from a plane, or on a boat riding over the fast moving Colorado River. VOICE ONE: The places we have described today are just a few areas that could be considered Wonders of the World. They are examples of both natural conditions and human technology. They show the continued progress that people have made throughout history as well as their concern for the future of the Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. You can see pictures of some of these places on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Helping Students to 'Step Out of Apathy': A Lesson From the Holocaust
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: how an English teacher found an unexpected lesson in the Nazi "Final Solution" -- Hitler's effort to exterminate the Jewish people during World War Two. RS: The Holocaust was in the news this week when Iran's Foreign Ministry held a controversial two-day international conference. The gathering was condemned by world leaders as an effort to deny the murder of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps. But what does all this have to do with English teaching? AA: Karen Wink is a professor at the United States Coast Guard Academy where she teaches required courses in writing and literature to first-year cadets. A few years ago, she took a trip to Europe to study the Holocaust. She wrote about how the journey transformed her life and her teaching in a recent article in English Journal, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. KAREN WINK: "I became very interested in going because I had been teaching some Holocaust poetry and I had, prior to that, lived in Washington, D.C., and attended the Holocaust Museum several times. And I was very interested in learning more about the Holocaust and, I thought, what better way than to take a travel-study course for two weeks to Germany and Poland? And the trip had such a profound effect on me, it just seemed a natural that it would affect my teaching. And it did, in ways that I never expected." RS: "Why don't you talk about some of those ways? How did it change you personally and how did it change your personal teaching style?" KAREN WINK: "Well, when I was on the trip, it started to affect me because when I visited Sachsenhausen, the camp, as well as Auschwitz, I realized that evil exists. And I felt that Auschwitz was one of the most twisted and haunting places on the face of the earth. And what also struck me is that when I was there, I noticed that it had a militaristic basis. In other words, we visited the barracks, the commandant's house. We also noticed some photographs in which the victims were, in fact, marching. And it reminded me of a military academy, and I remember thinking: this has become real. And I think there's no better way to teach than to bring real experiences into the classroom. "And I noticed that when I would teach by bringing in photographs of my trip, by bringing in some of the writing I had done in a journal, by talking about the trip, I noticed students were -- had more rapt attention than they normally would. And I started to think: what is it about bringing place and disclosing feelings and being willing to stay in what I call the 'discomfort realm' that transforms learning?" AA: "And you entitled your article, 'A Lesson from the Holocaust: From Bystander to Advocate in the Classroom.' What do you mean by that, from bystander to advocate?" KAREN WINK: "One of the premises from which I teach is that students should not be 'witnesses' in a class; they should, in fact, be participants. And when I noticed students were not, in fact, participating in my classes before and after the trip -- and I'm talking about my experience here primarily in the first couple of years -- is I thought: wait a minute, what is it something maybe I need to do, to role-model, to disclose, to really become in a way that they, in turn, are willing to go from a bystander to an advocate?" RS: "And how has that affected the students, and what strategies do you use to engage the students so that they are more, as you say, advocates in the classroom?" KAREN WINK: "There are several ideas that I have implemented and also are still working with. For example, there are stories -- I think to tell students stories from your own life that may involve some transformation. For example, my experience in Germany. I think you can also encourage some debate. But let it be in a fair-minded way -- what Parker Palmer, the author of 'The Courage to Teach,' calls 'creative conflict.' "And sort of plan for those times, too, when you're talking about issues of, say, race or gender or ethnicity or the role of the military or our place in Iraq, and allow for that. And I think it's also important to share writing -- your writing. I noticed that is really powerful when I would read something that I wrote. First of all, you get their attention more because they also think, 'She writes? I thought she just taught.' And then they listen in. And I think they, in turn, are willing to risk a little more so that transformation can take place -- that is, like a step out of apathy." AA: English Professor Karen Wink is in her eighth year of teaching at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. For more advice about teaching and learning English, go to our Web site -- voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Childhood Bed-Wetting: Some Advice for Parents
* Byline: Second of two parts in a new series of reports on raising children. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. We continue the first in a new series of reports from time to time on raising children. Today we discuss some ways to help bed-wetters stay dry all night long. First of all, health experts say bed-wetting should be treated with understanding. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, says children do not wet the bed to upset their parents. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health say the young people who do it are usually physically and emotionally normal. They say the causes of bed-wetting are not known. But they think most cases probably result from a mix of things including slower physical development. Often there is a strong family history of bed-wetting. The good news is that most children grow out of it over time. So, until that happens, here are some steps that might help. First, consider a limit on the amount of liquid a child drinks before bedtime. Also, make sure children use the bathroom right before bed -- an empty bladder at bedtime should help. Some parents wake their children at night to use the bathroom. Others set a timer to sound, so children wake up on their own. The Mayo Clinic says even going to bed thirty minutes earlier can help some children stop wetting the bed. If children do have an accident at night, the experts at the clinic say parents should let them help clean up. For example, children could rinse out their wet nightclothes. The Mayo Clinic says taking responsibility may help the bed-wetter feel a sense of control over the situation. But the American Academy of Pediatrics has a warning about such advice. It says having to clean up may seem like punishment if other children in the family do not have similar duties. The academy advises families to establish a "no teasing" rule. Bed-wetters usually feel shame enough without having other children make fun of them. Some parents put a plastic cover on the bed, then a cloth sheet, followed by an additional set of plastic and cloth sheets. This way, it is easy to remove wet coverings and have a dry set ready. The American Academy of Pediatrics says the first thing a parent should do about bed-wetting is talk to their child's doctor. ?When nothing else works, doctors sometimes give medicines to reduce urine production, or antidepressant drugs or both. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. You can find the first part of our report on bed-wetting at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series: Your Questions About Admissions Tests
* Byline: In our continuing series on US higher education, we answer more e-mail about exams, and also about recommendation letters. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. And this is week fifteen of our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. Next week our subject will be the cost of attending an American college or university. But today we are going to stop and answer some more questions we have received. The first one has to do with our recent discussion of admissions tests, including the? Graduate Record Examination, or GRE. Bhargavi Pottam writes from the American state of Pennsylvania to ask the difference between the GRE general test and subject tests. The GRE subject tests measure how much you know in an area like biochemistry, literature or mathematics. Graduate schools will tell you if they require one of these subject tests, or just the general test. Marius Meledje from Ivory Coast wants to know if tests like the GRE and TOEFL must be taken before coming to the United States. In general the answer is yes. After all, the tests must be taken before applying to colleges. So, unless you will be in the United States before starting your applications, you should take the tests in your home country. Arnaud Kubwakristo from Rwanda asks how to begin applying to American graduate schools. And Bui Duc Kinh from Vietnam wants to know what kinds of tests they would require for a foreign student in environmental economics. To answer the first question, our advice is to ask local professors which American schools have good programs in the area you want to study. Then go to the Web sites for those schools to find their requirements -- including the tests needed to apply. Another listener from Vietnam, Loat Ngo, asks about recommendation letters -- why they are important and what they should contain. Letters written by teachers, employers and others can provide valuable information about you and your abilities and personality. Schools may provide forms for you to give to the people who have agreed to write your recommendations. You can get more information at sites like collegeboard.com or collegeview.com. Or just do an Internet search about letters of recommendation. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. For links to the Web sites for the GRE and other exams, and for the earlier reports in our series, go to voaspecialenglish.com. To send us a general question that we might be able to answer on the air, write to special@voanews.com. Please be sure to include your name and country. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: American History Series: Fighting World War Two Through Diplomacy
* Byline: Allied unity faded toward the end of the conflict, leading to the cold war. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) History is full of examples of leaders joining together to meet common goals. But rarely have two leaders worked together with such friendship and cooperation as American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The two men had much in common. They both were born to wealthy families and were active in politics for many years. Both men loved the sea and the navy, history and nature. Roosevelt and Churchill first met when they were lower-level officials in World War One. But neither man remembered much about that meeting. However, as they worked together during the Second World War, they came to like and trust each other. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged more than one thousand seven hundred letters and messages during five and a half years. They met many times, at large national gatherings and in private talks. But the closeness of their friendship might be seen best in a story told by one of Roosevelt's close advisors, Harry Hopkins. Hopkins remembered how Churchill was visiting Roosevelt at the White House one day. Roosevelt went into Churchill's room in the morning to say hello. But the president was shocked to see Churchill coming from the washing room with no clothes at all. Roosevelt immediately apologized to the British leader for seeing him naked. But Churchill reportedly said: "The prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the president of the United States." And then both men laughed. VOICE ONE: The United States and Great Britain were only two of several nations that joined together in the war to resist Hitler and his allies. In January, nineteen forty-two, twenty-six of these nations signed an agreement promising to fight for peace, religious freedom, human rights, and justice. The three major Allies, however, were the most important for the war effort: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Washington and London did not always agree. For example, they disagreed about when to attack Hitler in western Europe. And Churchill resisted Roosevelt's suggestions that Britain give up some of its colonies. But in general, the friendship between Roosevelt and Churchill, and between the United States and Britain, led the two nations to cooperate closely. VOICE TWO: This was not true with the Soviet Union. Moscow did not share the same history or political system as Washington or London. And it had its own interests to protect along its borders and in other areas. Relations between the Soviet Union and the western Allies were mixed. On the one hand, Hitler's invasion deep into the Soviet Union had forced Stalin and other Soviet leaders to make victory their top goal. On the other hand, shadows of future problems already could be seen. The Soviet Union was making clear its desire to keep political control over Poland. And it was supporting communist fighters in Yugoslavia and Greece. VOICE ONE: These differences were not discussed much as the foreign ministers of the three nations gathered in Moscow in nineteen forty-three. Instead, the ministers reached several general agreements, including a plan to establish a new organization called the United Nations. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the Russian Embassy in TehranFinally, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met together for the first time. They met in Tehran in late nineteen forty-three mainly to discuss the military situation. However, the three leaders also considered such political questions as the future of Germany, eastern Europe, east Asia, and future international organizations. Later, the Allies made further plans for the new United Nations organization. They arranged for new international economic organizations -- the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And the Allies agreed to divide Germany into different parts after the war for a temporary period. The Soviet Union would occupy the eastern part while Britain, France, and the United States would occupy the western part. VOICE TWO: Washington, London, and Moscow were united during the early years of the war because of military need. They knew they must fight together to defeat the common enemy. But this unity faded as Allied troops marched toward the German border. Roosevelt continued to call on the world to wait to plan the peace until the last bullet was fired. But Churchill, Stalin, and other leaders already were trying to shape the world that would follow the war. Now, differences between the Allies became more serious. VOICE ONE: The most important question was Poland. Hitler's attack on Poland back in nineteen thirty-nine had started the war. Roosevelt and Churchill believed strongly that the Polish people should have the right to choose their own leaders after victory was won. Churchill supported a group of Polish resistance leaders who had an office in London. But Stalin had other ideas. He demanded that Poland's border be changed to give more land to the Soviet Union. And he refused to help the Polish leaders in London. Instead, he supported a group of Polish communists and helped them establish a new government in Poland. VOICE TWO: Churchill visited Stalin late in nineteen forty-four. The two leaders joined with Roosevelt a few months later in Yalta. All agreed that free elections should be held quickly in Poland. And they traded ideas about the future of eastern Europe, China, and other areas of the world. Roosevelt was in good spirits when he reported to the Congress after his return. "I come home from the conference with a firm belief that we have made a good start on the road to a world of peace," he said. "The peace cannot be a completely perfect system, at first. But it can be a peace based on the idea of freedom." Churchill had the same high hopes. "Marshall Stalin and the Soviet leaders wish to live in honorable friendship," he told the British parliament after the conference. "I also know that their word is honest." VOICE ONE: Roosevelt and Churchill were wrong. In the months after the Yalta conference, relations between Moscow and the western democracies grew steadily worse. The Soviet Union moved to seize control of eastern Europe. Stalin began making strong speeches charging that Washington and London were holding secret peace negotiations with Germany. And the Soviet Union refused to discuss ways to bring democracy to Poland. "I have always held the brave Russian people in high honor," Churchill wrote later. "But their shadow darkened the picture after the war. Britain and America had gone to war not just to defend the smaller countries, but also to fight for individual rights and freedoms. "But," said Churchill, "the Soviet Union had other goals. Her hold tightened on eastern Europe after the Soviet Army gained control. After the long suffering and efforts of World War Two," Churchill said, "it seemed that half of Europe had just exchanged one dictator for another." VOICE TWO: Churchill and Roosevelt agreed in secret letters that they must try to oppose the Soviet effort. But before they could act, Roosevelt died. And the world would live through a new war -- the cold war -- in the years to follow. Roosevelt's death also ended the deep personal friendship between himself and Winston Churchill. The British leader wrote later about the day he heard the news of the death of his close friend in the White House. "I felt as if I had been struck with a physical blow," Churchill wrote. "My relations with this shining man had played so large a part in the long, terrible years we had worked together. Now they had come to an end. And I was overpowered by a sense of deep and permanent loss " VOICE ONE: The free world joined Churchill in mourning the loss of so strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt. But it could not weep for long. War was giving way to peace. A new world was forming. And as we will see in our future programs, it was a world that few people expected. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jim Tedder. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Monopoly Holiday: New Version of Popular Board Game Hits Stores
* Byline: Also: A question from Nepal about baby boomers, and music from the new Beatles album 'Love.' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We answer a question about the term baby boomers … Play some music from the Beatles … And report about changes to a traditional American board game. Monopoly It is the middle of the winter holiday shopping season in the United States. Stores are crowded with people buying gifts for family members and friends. One of the new gifts this year is an updated version of the board game Monopoly. Barbara Klein tells us about it. BARBARA KLEIN: The Parker Brothers company began selling Monopoly in nineteen thirty-five. Players move pieces around a board to buy and sell property. The first Monopoly game represented streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since then, more than two hundred fifty million copies of Monopoly have been sold in eighty countries around the world. It is the best selling board game in the world. The Hasbro company bought Parker Brothers in nineteen ninety-one. The company's Web site says more than two hundred different versions of Monopoly have been created over the years. They show streets in different American cities, places at universities and areas in national parks. Earlier this year, the Hasbro company announced a contest to create a new and different version of Monopoly. It would represent famous places in America. The company wanted help in choosing the properties that would appear on the board. So it asked Monopoly lovers to use their computers to vote for popular places in twenty-two cities. The votes also would decide where each place would appear on the board. The place with the largest number of votes would have the most important space on the board. Three million votes were counted to help develop the new game, called Monopoly Here and Now. These are some of the places in the new game: The White House in Washington, D.C. Wrigley Baseball Field in Chicago, Illinois. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas, Nevada. And, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. New York City's Times Square received the most votes, so it occupies the highest rent property space on the new board. Monopoly Here and Now also has new and improved pieces that the players move around the board to play the game. The old pieces included a top hat and an old shoe. Some of the new ones include a cell phone and a laptop computer. Baby Boomers HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Nepal. Amrit Rai wants to know the meaning of the term baby boomers. Baby boomers are Americans who were born between nineteen forty-six and nineteen sixty-four. World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. The number of babies born increased sharply after soldiers came home from the war. The "baby boom" describes the growth of American families and the economy during this period. Population experts say a law called the GI Bill helped create the baby boom. It gave soldiers who served in World War Two and the Korean War the financial support they needed to start families. It also provided education, training, loans, unemployment payments and other aid to former soldiers. Millions of them paid for their college educations or bought homes. Two members of the baby boom generation: George?W. Bush and Bill ClintonThe baby boomers were such a large group that they had a major influence on American culture. This year, the oldest members of the baby boom generation turned sixty. They include President George W. Bush and former president Bill Clinton. The two men were born within sixty days of each other in nineteen forty-six. They are the country's first and second baby boomer presidents. Some experts believe baby boomers will continue to have power in Washington for many years. For example, a great number of baby boomers will be serving in Congress. And another boomer may also be elected president. The two newest members of the Supreme Court are both baby boomers. Chief Justice John Roberts was born in nineteen fifty-five; Justice Samuel Alito, in nineteen fifty. In addition to politics, many of the cultural and business leaders in the United States are baby boomers. The population of the United States includes more than seventy-eight million baby boomers. That is more than one quarter of the American population. And this country continues to feel the social effects of the baby boom. For example, many companies make products or offer services that promise to make people look and feel younger. Right now, baby boomers are either planning for their retirement, taking care of their aging parents or worrying about their teenage children. The Beatles' Love HOST: The Beatles have released a new album, called "Love." It contains twenty-six Beatles songs that have been remixed and combined to produce something completely new. Katherine Cole has our story. KATHERINE COLE: The Beatles album "Love" began as the soundtrack for the Canadian Cirque Du Soleil show that opened a few months ago in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cirque Du Soleil means "Circus of the Sun."? The show combines acrobatics, dance, theater and music. The surviving Beatles and their families had asked the Beatles' producer, George Martin, to create the music for the show. Martin and his son, Giles, made the experimental mixes from the master tapes, recorded in the studio, that were used to make the Beatles' records. The famous Beatles songs on "Love" are edited together, taken apart and changed in new and creative ways. The album is part of a new musical method called a mash-up. This song on "Love" combines three Beatles songs. See if you can identify them. (MUSIC) Those songs were "Drive My Car," "The Word" and "What You're Doing."? In this song, "Because," the background instrumental music has been removed. What remains are the Beatles singing acapella. You can hear their voices combine beautifully with each other. (MUSIC) Paul McCartney, one of the two surviving Beatles, had this to say about "Love:" "This album puts the Beatles back together again, because suddenly there's John and George with me and Ringo. It's kind of magical." There is only one song on the album to which new music was added. George Martin added new music by stringed instruments to George Harrison's singing. We leave you with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."? (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: How a Famed Management Thinker Made His Mark
* Byline: Peter Drucker, who died last year, was a voice for change and new ways of thinking about social and business relations. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Peter Drucker, who died a year ago, was an expert on the ways of modern organizations. He was someone who truly earned the name of "management guru."? He liked to share his knowledge not by answering questions but by asking them. Peter Drucker once said business people must ask themselves not "what do we want to sell?" but "what do people want to buy?" He taught at the Claremont Graduate School of Management in California for more than thirty years. He also advised companies. And he wrote for the Wall Street Journal opinion page for twenty years, until nineteen ninety-five. He commented on many economic and management issues. ? Peter Drucker was born in Austria in nineteen-oh-nine. In the late nineteen twenties, he worked as a reporter in Frankfurt, Germany. He also studied international law. He fled Germany as Adolf Hitler came to power in nineteen thirty-three. Peter Drucker spent four years in Britain as an adviser to investment banks. He then came to the United States. He used his knowledge of international law to advise American businesses. He developed this advice into books on business methods and management. In the middle of the nineteen forties, Peter Drucker argued that the desire for profit was central to business efforts. He also warned that rising wages were harming American business. He was later invited to study General Motors. He wrote about his experiences in the book "The Concept of the Corporation."? In it, he said that workers at all levels should take part in decision-making, not just top managers. Peter Drucker was a voice for change and new ways of thinking about social and business relations. He used terms like "knowledge workers" and "management goals."? Many of his ideas have become highly valued in business training and politics. Some people said he often only presented information that supported his arguments. But even his critics praised his clear reasoning. Yet as times changed, so did his thinking. In nineteen ninety-three, he warned that a business that seeks too much profit helps its competitors. Peter Drucker lived a long life. He died on November eleventh of last year at his home in Claremont. He was ninety-five years old. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. To learn more about business thinking, and to download MP3 files and transcripts of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Shows Just How Unequally Divided the World's Wealth Is
* Byline: Report from UN University says two percent of the richest adults own more than half of the personal wealth. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. More than half of the world's wealth belongs to just two percent of adults. A new study also found that fifty percent of adults own just one percent of all the wealth. The findings were presented in Helsinki, London and New YorkThe report is from the World Institute for Development Economics Research, part of the United Nations University in Helsinki, Finland. The institute says the study of personal wealth was the first of its kind to include all countries and all major parts of household wealth. Researchers considered possessions, property -- all physical and financial assets. They also took debts into consideration. They used information from the year two thousand. And here is some of what they found: Adults worth at least two thousand two hundred dollars were in the top half of world wealth. The richest ten percent were those worth at least sixty-one thousand dollars. And the richest one percent had wealth of at least five hundred thousand dollars. Thirty-seven million people were in that top one percent. More than half lived in the United States or Japan. North America has only six percent of all adults but thirty-four percent of all household wealth. Together, people in North America, Europe and high-income countries in Asia and the Pacific hold almost ninety percent of world wealth. The study found that wealth is more unequally spread than income. Countries where people earn a lot generally have a bigger share of world wealth than of the value of world economic production. The opposite is generally true for countries where income is lower. The director of the institute, Anthony Shorrocks, offered a simple way to think of all these numbers. If the world had only ten people, he says, one person would have ninety-nine dollars. The other nine people would have to share one dollar. An issue related to world wealth is remittances. People who migrate to wealthier countries to find work commonly send part of their earnings to family members back home. These remittances are often an important part of the economy in the countries that receive them. In fact, remittances represent the largest amount of outside financing for many developing countries. The World Bank recently reported the latest estimates. Remittances are expected to reach one hundred ninety-nine thousand million dollars this year. This is a six percent increase from last year -- and more than twice the level in two thousand one. In dollar terms, Latin American and Caribbean countries receive more money through remittances than other areas. But as a share of their economies, recorded remittances are highest in the Middle East and North Africa. The United States is the largest source of remittances. But the World Bank notes that many developing countries that receive them also have large numbers of migrants in Europe. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. You can learn more about development issues, and download MP3 files and program transcripts, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Doctor Seuss, 1904-1991: A Children's Writer for All Ages
* Byline: Among his popular books are 'The Cat in the Hat,' 'Green Eggs and Ham' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas.' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today we tell about one of the most successful writers of children’s books. Sarah Long and Steve Ember tell about Doctor Seuss. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss was the name used by Theodor Seuss Geisel. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine humorous words, funny pictures, and social opinion. Mister Geisel also illustrated his books with pictures of funny creatures and plants. He did not receive training in art. Yet he created the pictures for most of his books. The Doctor Seuss books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words. And they like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, Thing Two, Little Cindy-Lou Who, and Sam-I-Am. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in nineteen-oh-four. He graduated from Dartmouth College in nineteen twenty-five. He spent a year studying literature at Oxford University in England. Mister Geisel returned to the United States in nineteen-twenty-seven. He hoped to become a writer of serious literature. During this time the United States was in an economic decline known as the Great Depression. This forced Mister Geisel to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. He found work as a creator of advertising campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew cartoons for popular magazines including Life and Vanity Fair. Cartoons are humorous pictures with words. VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss wrote his first book for children in nineteen thirty-seven. It is called "And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street."? A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years he wrote more than forty children's books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. By the middle nineteen fifties, Doctor Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. He had a strong desire to help children. In nineteen fifty-four, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used rhyming words, words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. In the book "Hop on Pop," he presented two words. Then he used them in simple sentences like this. Day. Play. ?We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-seven, Dr. Seuss wrote "The Cat in the Hat."? He used less than two hundred twenty-five words to write the book. This was an estimate of the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read. The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It is more like a human. It walks on two legs instead of four. It wears a tall, red and white hat. A big red bow is around its neck. And it talks. As the cat entertains the children it creates complete disorder in the house. The book was an immediate success. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best. Listen as Ray Freeman reads from "The Cat in the Hat." RAY FREEMAN: The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!" Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all. So all we could do was to Sit!? Sit!? Sit!? Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit. And then something went BUMP! How that bump made us jump! We looked! Then we saw him step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him!? The Cat in the Hat! And he said to us, "Why do you sit there like that? I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!" VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss was very concerned that some children were not learning to read. The success of the Cat in the Hat made him want to write more books for children. He started a series called Beginner Books. Beginner Books remain well liked among children today. The series includes such titles as "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories,"? "Fox in Socks" and "The Lorax." In nineteen sixty Doctor Seuss was urged? by a book publisher to write a book using less than fifty words. And he did. The book is called "Green Eggs and Ham."? It is one of Doctor Seuss's most popular books. In the book a creature named Sam-I-Am tries to get another creature to eat an unusual meal, green eggs and ham. Here is part of the story read by seven-year-old Miko Prescott. (SOUND)?? VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty, Doctor Seuss wrote the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."? It is about an extremely unkind man called the Grinch. He tries to stop Christmas from arriving in a village called Whoville. He steals all the Christmas gifts and food in the village while everyone is sleeping. Yet Christmas comes anyway. The people of Whoville are happy although they have no gifts. By the end of the story, the Grinch becomes a kind person. In this story Doctor Seuss gives the message that Christmas is about more than receiving gifts. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was later produced for television. It first was shown in nineteen sixty-six. It continues to be a very popular holiday program. Here is a song from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."? It is called "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-four, Mister Geisel won a Pulitzer Prize for children's literature. At that time he had been writing children's books for almost fifty years. He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents. In nineteen eighty-six, Doctor Seuss wrote "You're Only Old Once."? It was his first book written for adults. It talks about getting old. His last book was written in nineteen ninety. It was called "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" VOICE TWO: Theodor Seuss Geisel died in nineteen ninety-one. He was eighty-seven years old. Doctor Seuss's influence remains through the books he wrote and illustrated. Millions of copies of them have been sold worldwide. Experts say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said "I do not write for children. I write for people." People continue to honor Doctor Seuss. Theodore Seuss Geisel was born on March Second. Each year on that day the National Education Association calls for every child and every community in America to celebrate reading. This program is called "Read Across America." (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: White House Increases Support for Malaria Fight
* Byline: Bush adds eight African countries to five-year campaign, and $30 million will go to new program to support community projects. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Bush administration has announced a new program to support local efforts to control malaria in Africa. Laura Bush said thirty million dollars will go to African and American nongovernmental organizations, as well as civic and religious groups. The first lady announced the Malaria Communities Program at a White House conference last Thursday. The one-day White House Summit on Malaria was the first of its kind. It was organized to educate Americans about malaria and to give new life to a worldwide campaign to end the disease. The conference included nonprofit groups, international health experts and African civic leaders. Among other things, they discussed an effort to get millions of chemically treated mosquito nets to Africans. That campaign is led by a new group called Malaria No More. Also, President Bush will declare April twenty-fifth of next year Malaria Awareness Day, as observed by other nations. And he announced he will add eight countries to a year-old program, the President's Malaria Initiative. They include Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, along with Liberia, Madagascar, Mali and Zambia. The initiative calls for spending more than one thousand million dollars over five years on fifteen African countries. The goal is to cut their malaria-related deaths by fifty percent. President Bush says the plan has already helped six million people in Tanzania, Angola and Uganda. Other targeted countries are Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal. Malaria kills more than one million people a year, mostly young children in Africa. The World Bank last week announced one hundred eighty million dollars in interest-free loans to fight malaria in Nigeria. Africa's most populated nation has twenty percent of the world's cases. Earlier this month, a study in Science magazine showed how malaria and AIDS help each other to spread. University of Washington scientists say malaria temporarily increases virus levels in people with HIV. So they are more likely to infect others. And because the AIDS virus weakens the body's defenses, the victims are at higher risk from malaria. And last week, the United States National Institutes of Health announced another important finding about AIDS. Two studies in Africa showed that circumcision can reduce a man's risk of getting HIV through heterosexual sex by half. For more about this finding, and about malaria, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Traveling Through Vermont
* Byline: What the state lacks in size, it make up for in beauty. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m?Barbara Klein.This week on our program, we take you on a trip through the northeastern state of Vermont, part of the area known as New England. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each fall, people travel to Vermont to see the colorful autumn leaves. In winter, people come to ski and snowboard in the mountains. In the warmer months, they go on river-rafting trips and camp and enjoy other outdoor activities. Only about six hundred thousand people live in Vermont. That makes it the second least-populated state in the country after Wyoming. And the state is small not just in population. Vermont is forty-fifth out of the fifty states in territory. It has just twenty-four thousand square kilometers of land. In addition, it has almost nine hundred fifty square kilometers covered by water. VOICE TWO: What Vermont lacks in size, it makes up for in beauty. It is known as the Green Mountain State. The name comes from the Green Mountains, which divide the state up and down the center. In fact, the name Vermont comes from the French "verd mont," meaning green mountain. Along the northern border of Vermont is the Canadian province of Quebec. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts on the south, New Hampshire on the east and New York on the west. VOICE ONE: A century ago, forests covered less than one-third of Vermont. Trees were being cut down for farmland and forest products faster than they could be replaced. That has changed. Today forests cover more than three-fourths of the state. But Vermont is known not just for its natural resources. It is also known for a strong sense of independence. For example, one of its two United States senators, Jim Jeffords, is a rare Independent in Congress. During colonial times, Vermonters fought off territorial claims by bordering colonies. Ethan Allen led most of the fighting with help from his brother Ira and an armed group known as the Green Mountain Boys. Ethan Allen became a hero of the American Revolution. But Vermont was not among the thirteen colonies that declared their independence from England in seventeen seventy-six. Vermont did become the fourteenth state, however, when it joined the Union in seventy ninety-one. And it became the first state to declare slavery illegal. By seventeen seventy-seven, Vermonters had written their own constitution declaring themselves free and independent. Their constitution also made slavery illegal in Vermont. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The capital of Vermont is Montpelier, in the center of the state. But the largest city is Burlington, on the shores of Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain and the fertile Champlain Valley are in the northwestern part of Vermont. They are named for Samuel de Champlain. The French explorer arrived at the lake in sixteen-oh-nine. Burlington is busy and fast-growing. It is also home to one of the state’s oldest and largest schools: the University of Vermont. The university was established with a financial gift from Ira Allen in seventeen ninety-one. Vermont has strong roots in education. Emma Willard was teaching in Vermont when she became an activist for women’s rights in education. Martin Henry Freeman, the first black college president in the United States, was born in Rutland, Vermont. And the philosopher John Dewey was from Burlington and attended the University of Vermont. Dewey is considered the father of modern progressive education in the United States. VOICE ONE: Dairy farming is the main agricultural industry in Vermont. But the travel industry and manufacturing are also major employers. General Electric manufactures airplane engine parts in Rutland and North Clarendon, Vermont. IBM makes computer equipment at a factory in Essex Junction. And the computer software developer IDX Systems is based in Burlington. Food producers also help drive the Vermont economy. Local companies include Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The Cold Hollow Cider Mill is the largest producer of fresh apple cider in the northeastern United States. More than three hundred thousand people visit the mill each year to see how fresh apples get crushed into cider. Vermont is the leading producer in the United States of another liquid that many people enjoy: maple syrup. The sweet, golden syrup is made from the sap harvested in spring from Vermont's sugar maple trees. The four grades of Vermont maple syrup differ somewhat in color and taste. But they can all be enjoyed on a morning meal of pancakes and eggs. VOICE TWO: Community support for local farming is strong in Vermont. Burlington and its surrounding communities, for example, hold local farmers markets several times a week. Many people who sell goods at these markets are members of a cooperative farming program supported by the Intervale Center. This is a nonprofit group that helps develop land and farm-based businesses in and around the city of Burlington. One of its most successful operations is the farm incubator program. Through the program the Intervale Center provides low-cost land to new and established farmers. In addition, members share equipment, business services and technical assistance. Each incubator farm is required to use organic growing methods. VOICE ONE: Intervale does not support dairy framing, but Shelbourne Farms near Burlington does. This nonprofit working farm is one of the biggest and oldest cheese producers in Vermont. Its award-winning cheddar is made from the milk of Brown Swiss cows. Shelbourne Farms also supports community education programs. Each year more than one hundred thousand people visit the farm which overlooks Lake Champlain. Lila Vanderbilt Webb founded Shelbourne Farms in eighteen eighty-six. The Vanderbilts are an important family in American history. She was the granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built his wealth in shipping and railroads. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the best-known companies in Vermont is Ben and Jerry's. It sells ice cream around the country with names like Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey. The British-and-Dutch company Unilever bought Ben and Jerry's in two thousand. Ben and Jerry's even has a small graveyard with markers for flavors that have been retired. The graveyard is behind its factory in the small town of Waterbury. Also in Waterbury is a store operated by the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. Toy bears sold in the United States are commonly made in China. But the company says it hand-produces the only bear made in America and guaranteed for life. And it ships its products around the world. The bears can come specially dressed -- for example, for events like weddings, birthdays or holidays. VOICE ONE: No matter what road you take to the Ben and Jerry's factory or the Vermont Teddy Bear store, chances are you will cross a covered bridge. Bridges protected by structures that look like barns represent historic small-town America. There are just over one hundred covered bridges remaining in Vermont. Most were built in the eighteen hundreds. VOICE TWO: Our trip to Vermont would not be complete without a stop at Huntington Gorge. This is a deep, narrow cut in the earth. Water from the Huntington River flows fast through the gorge. Officials estimate that more than forty people have drowned over the years while swimming in Huntington Gorge. Dangerous as it is, Huntington Gorge is also perhaps the best example of water sculpture in Vermont. It is truly a natural work of art. A series of deep drops along the gorge end in pools of dark blue, green and clear water. Smooth white rock formations force the water through the path of the gorge. Rainbows of color fill the air along with the music of bubbles and rushing water. Huntington Gorge is another reminder to visitors that nature has made its mark on Vermont. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Jill Moss. To learn about other states, and to download MP3 files and transcripts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Green:? More Than Just a Color
* Byline: The word can mean many things, including jealousy. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is also the color of most growing plants. Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet ripe or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no expereince, who is new to a situation. ?In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today - a person who is new in a job. About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west. Old-timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities back east. The greenhorn lacked the skills he would need to live in the hard, rough country. Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundreds. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died. The Green Revolution is the name given?some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had?green thumbs. Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy. The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It is an expression used about four hundred years ago by British writer William?Shakespeare in his play "Othello." It describes the unplesant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the?green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not. In most places in the world, a green light is a signal to?move ahead. ?A green light on a traffic signal means your car can?continue on. ?In everyday speech, a green light means approval to continue with a project. We want you to know we have a green light to continue this series next week. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Christiano.I'm Warren Scheer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Christmas a Jolly Season for Tree Farmers
* Byline: Millions of Americans go out and buy a tree, but others wait for their tree to come to them: they order from the Internet or a catalog. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Tall or short. Fat or thin. Real or plastic, or metal. Whatever the choice, two thousand million dollars worth of Christmas trees were sold last year in the United States. Christmastime in the city brings forests of trees already cut and waiting to be sold. But some people like to drive to tree farms. Others wait for their tree to come to them. They order one from the pages of a catalog or on the Internet. Some say the easiest thing of all is to buy a manmade tree with Christmas lights already on it. No falling needles to have to clean up. The University of Illinois Extension service says in two thousand two, artificial trees outnumbered real ones in American homes more than two to one. One-third of homes had no tree. The National Christmas Tree Association says thirty-three million real trees were sold last year, compared to nine million artificial ones. Artificial trees generally cost more, but they can be re-used. Most natural trees are cut up and recycled, but some people buy trees that can be planted. Most Christmas trees are now grown on farms instead of in forests. Twenty-one thousand tree farmers in the United States grow Christmas trees on more than one hundred eighty thousand hectares. Oregon was the leading producer last year. The Illinois Extension says the trees take seven to ten years to grow. The most popular pines include Scotch, Virginia and white. Other big sellers are Fraser, balsam and Douglas firs. Twenty-two percent of people who bought real trees last year chose them at a farm. Two percent of those people cut the trees themselves. The next most popular places were big stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Groups like the Boy Scouts also sell Christmas trees. But some people pay nothing for theirs. They steal it. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has many pretty evergreens. Some years ago, a university employee found a way to keep them there. A month before Christmas, workers treated them with "pink ugly mix."? It contains water, hydrated lime, a tree protectant and red food color. The bright color starts to disappear after about a month. It can take longer, however. Cornell decided not to use the mix this year, but the idea has spread. Some places protect their trees another way. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln uses a mixture made with fox urine. The trees smell fine in the cold air, but not in a warm home. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Pfizer Halts Testing of New Cholesterol Drug Because of Dangers
* Byline: Also: Researchers say time may heal a herniated disk just as well as a back operation. And cities compete to be the greenest. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we report on two medical studies, including one for an experimental drug. We also tell how officials in some American cities are fighting climate change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, the drug company Pfizer?stopped tests of an experimental medicine because of possible health dangers. The medicine is called torcetrapib. It was developed as a way to prevent heart disease by changing cholesterol levels in the blood. Cholesterol is a fatty substance. The human body uses cholesterol to help build and operate cells. All the cholesterol a person needs is produced in one organ, the liver. This cholesterol goes into the blood so that cells can get some when they need it. VOICE TWO: Low density lipoproteins, also known as L.D.L., carry cholesterol into the blood. Cholesterol in the blood that cells has not been used is considered bad cholesterol. High density lipoproteins are called H.D.L. They gather up the unused cholesterol and take it back to the liver to be destroyed. High L.D.L. levels are evidence that the H.D.L. has been unable to remove some cholesterol from the blood. The extra cholesterol sticks to artery walls. This can block blood flow and cause a heart attack or stroke. High H.D.L. levels mean that the unneeded cholesterol is being moved out of the blood and back to the liver. This prevents cholesterol from sticking to the arteries. VOICE ONE: Torcetrapib was designed to increase the amount of good cholesterol in the blood. Pfizer was testing the drug on fifteen thousand heart patients when the study ended. The patients were divided into two groups of seventy-five hundred each. One group took torcetrapib and Lipitor -- a drug that reduces bad cholesterol. The other took Lipitor alone. A Pfizer official said the group taking the torcetrapib experienced too many heart problems and deaths for the study to continue. He said eighty-two people died in the group taking both drugs. Fifty-one people died in the group taking only Lipitor. VOICE TWO: Reports say torcetrapib was causing concerns among researchers because another study showed it could increase blood pressure in some persons. Still, it is not known why the patients taking the drug suffered unacceptable levels of health problems. Researchers say other drugs to increase good cholesterol are also being tested. But they say it is too early to tell if all such drugs are dangerous or if it was just something about torcetrapib that caused the problem. In fact, an already approved drug raises good cholesterol without causing serious health problems. That drug, Niaspan, is made by Kos Pharmaceuticals. VOICE ONE: A study done two years ago found that Niaspan taken with drugs to reduce bad cholesterol stopped blocked arteries from getting worse. The study also involved two groups of patients. One took only a drug that lowers bad cholesterol. The other took that drug and Niaspan. The study showed fewer health problems among those who took Niaspan. Today, Kos Pharmaceuticals and America's National Institutes of Health are carrying out a similar test. It involves more than three thousand patients at about sixty medical centers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another study is expected to change the way doctors treat people with severe back pain from a herniated disk. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons says disks are soft substances found between the bones of the back. These bones extend from the back of the head in a line down the body. In the center of this line of bones is a space that contains the spinal cord and other nerves. Disks help the back to move. They also protect the spinal cord and the nerves. VOICE ONE: Disks in the lower back have a thick, outer covering and a softer, gel-like substance on the inside. A disk is said to herniate when some of the gel-like substance pushes through the outer covering. This puts pressure on the nerves. The result is pain or weakness in one or both legs. Spinal disks reduce in size as people age. The spaces between them get smaller, and the disks are able to move less easily than before. So a fall or any sudden movement can damage them. The most common sign that this has happened is a sharp pain from the top of the back of the leg all the way down to the foot. Other signs include weakness or a lack of feeling in one or both legs. VOICE TWO: Normal medical treatment of a herniated disk is to operate and remove it. A study concerning this treatment was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study looked at patients who suffered a herniated disk in the lower back. It compared those who had the operation with those treated with a combination of rest, light exercise and pain medicine. Both groups reported improvement after three to six months. After two years, about seventy percent of the patients in both groups reported major improvement in their conditions. The researchers say the study showed that people with this kind of disk damage often recover, even when they do not have the operation. The study did find that operating soon after the injury appeared to ease the pain more quickly than waiting. But it found that using other methods to ease the pain did not cause any real damage to the body. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many cities in the United States are competing against each other to be the greenest. The cities are attempting to limit the industrial gases they release into Earth's atmosphere. Studies have shown that average temperatures are slowly rising worldwide. Many scientists believe industrial gases are to blame. But other scientists are unsure how such gases affect the climate. Industrial gases are also known as greenhouse gases. Greenhouses are clear glass or plastic buildings used to grow plants. The glass or plastic traps the heat of the sun. Earth's atmosphere acts like a greenhouse. Carbon dioxide, water vapor and other gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun. Some human activities have been shown to increase production of these gases. VOICE TWO: Recently, officials in cities like Seattle, Washington have been setting goals for carbon dioxide reduction. They are also urging people to use methods of transportation other than cars. The city of Chicago, Illinois, for example, is planting trees and creating grassy areas on building tops where plants and flowers can grow. And, the mayor of New York has announced plans to make his city the leader in reducing greenhouse gases. In all, mayors of more than three hundred American cities have said they will recognize the goals of the Kyoto Protocol. The treaty was reached nine years ago at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan. VOICE ONE: At the conference, major industrial nations agreed to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere. The reductions are to take place between two thousand eight and two thousand twelve. The United States Senate never approved the Kyoto Protocol. The main reason is because President Bush said the reductions would hurt the American economy. The Bush administration says it supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gases as long as they are done by choice, and not required by law. VOICE TWO: Yet some local governments are making changes. One of the biggest examples is in the state of California. Earlier this year, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring reductions in the state's release of greenhouse gases. The plan limits major industries, including coal-burning producers of electric power. Others include oil and gas processing centers and producers of building materials. Recently, the United States Conference of Mayors announced an agreement with the American Institute of Architects. They plan to cut in half the amount of oil, coal and gas used to build and operate buildings by two thousand ten. They then want to continue with reductions. By two thousand thirty, they want make buildings that will completely end their use of such fuels. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Brianna Blake, who also served as our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Exploring the Art of Printmaking Across History and the World
* Byline: And learning from a master printmaker: Lou Stovall in Washington. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., you can see a colorful and expressive print called "Revolt on the Amistad." The small sign next to the work says the artist’s name is Jacob Lawrence. And he did design the image. But who made the print? Today, we answer that question as we explore the world of printmaking. Then, we visit the expert printmaker who made this work of art. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To make a print, an artist creates an original image with a form made of wood, metal or plastic. The artist reproduces prints of this original image using liquid colors and paper. There are many methods of printmaking. Often prints are numbered to show how many were made in the edition or series. The oldest form of printmaking is the woodcut. Woodcut prints may have been used in the Middle East as early as the fifth century to make cloth designs. They were also used starting around the ninth century in China to print documents. VOICE TWO: As you might have guessed, woodcut prints are made out of wood. The printmaker first draws an image onto a smooth piece of wood. Then he or she cuts away pieces from the surface. When the wood has been cut, liquid color called ink is painted onto the surface. It is then pressed on a piece of paper. The areas the printmaker cut away will be lower on the surface of the wood. These parts do not get any ink. But the raised part of the wood does receive the color. A different piece of cut wood is used for every color in the final image. This is called an indirect method because the ink is put on the cut form before it goes on the paper. VOICE ONE: This method of printmaking became popular in Europe in the sixteenth century. Woodcuts were also a widely used artistic form in Japan from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Japanese prints from this period were called ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world." Many of these images showed natural scenes of the Japanese countryside. Others showed pictures of city life including popular actors, fat sumo wrestlers, and beautiful women. These prints were popular with the middle class people living in towns. Because the prints were mass-produced and not original works, they were not costly. People could own artwork for a reasonable price. These ukiyo-e prints had a great influence on many artists in Europe during the nineteenth century. Painters like Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh used the sharp lines and off-centered look of these prints in their paintings. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lithography is another form of printing. Lithos comes from the Greek word for stone. The artist draws an image with oily ink onto a piece of stone or other flat surface. Next, the stone is covered with a chemical mixture. This chemical will fix the painted image into the stone. When printing begins, the stone is kept wet and then covered with oily ink. The area where the original image was drawn will then attract the oily printer’s ink. But the blank areas will reject the ink and will instead attract water. This method works because oil and water do not mix. VOICE ONE: The lithographic process was invented in the late eighteenth century by the German writer Aloys Senefelder. Mister Senefelder wanted to find a low-cost way to reproduce his plays. But he soon realized the artistic possibilities of his lithographic printing method. French artists in the nineteenth century became very interested in using lithography. For example, the French artists Honore Daumier and later Henri Toulouse Lautrec were masters of this process. They would draw directly onthe stone and a printmaker would do the rest of the work. Lithography is used commercially as well. Picture books, newspapers and packaging all over the world are printed using this process. VOICE TWO: Etching is yet another printing process. With this method, the printmaker cuts or etches an image onto a piece of metal. The artist uses a fine sharp knife to cut through the metal. This metal form is chemically treated before being covered with ink and then pressed onto paper. Some artists like this process because they can draw on the metal as easily as if they were using a writing pen. Experts say the greatest artist ever to use this method was Rembrandt. This Dutch artist lived in the seventeenth century. The detailed perfection of his etchings of nature and religious stories is extraordinary. VOICE ONE: Finally, we come to a more modern form of printmaking called silkscreen printing. This method is based on the stencil. A stencil is a thin sheet of metal or plastic out of which a design has been cut. With silkscreen printing, a stencil is attached to a fine piece of stretched silk or nylon cloth. Under the cloth and stencil is a piece of paper. Liquid paint is passed over the cloth and stencil. The paint goes through the open areas of the stencil cut out onto the paper. For every color in the print, the printmaker makes a different stencil. Of all the printing forms we have described, silkscreen is the only direct method. This means the ink goes directly onto the paper. Andy Warhol was one artist who made silkscreen prints famous in the nineteen sixties. He made prints with subjects like movie stars and soup cans. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Workshop is on a quiet tree-filled street in Washington, D.C. This is where well-known master printmaker Lou Stovall makes his art. Let us go back to the "Revolt on the Amistad" print we told about at the beginning of this story. LOU STOVALL: “The artist is Jacob Lawrence and the silkscreen print maker is myself, Lou Stovall. The image depicts the revolt on the Spanish slave ship “La Amistad”, the action of the fight…you see the swaying ropes, the roiling water. It gives you a real sense of a fight, the drama that’s involved. And that’s one of the things Jacob was noted for. His level of expression is so profound that even with a few strokes, he can pick up the action and show it to you”. VOICE ONE: Lou Stovall makes prints for many artists. They come to him with an original image they have created. Then, Stovall uses his artistic skills to translate that work into a print version. It is important that he work to remain true to the spirit of the original work. He makes very careful decisions about color, shape and line so that he can make the best print possible. Some of his silkscreen prints are so detailed it is hard to believe they are not paintings. VOICE TWO: Lou Stovall’s studio is large and very organized. The walls are covered with prints, signs and photographs. One whole wall contains his music collection. A large silkscreen table sits in another area of the room. Nearby, many shelf surfaces hold recently made prints so that they can dry before other colors are added. Stovall has been working in this studio for more than thirty years. He has taught the silkscreen method to many other artists. VOICE ONE: Lou Stovall also makes his own artwork here. Sometimes he makes detailed drawings of flowers and nature. He says he likes the cleanliness of ink drawing on paper. He often makes his drawn images into a series of prints. One of his prints is called “For Ascending Larks.” It is a circular image with many layers of flying birds. His idea for the original drawing came from a piece of music by the English composer Ralph Vaughn-Williams. Listen as Lou Stovall tells about this music and the meaning of his picture. LOU STOVALL: "The name of the work was ‘The Lark Ascending,’ which I thought was probably one of the most beautiful pieces of music I had ever heard. It inspired me to make a drawing which was a flock of varied birds which represented mankind and humanity. So, it's every shape, size color description of bird that I could think of. I think there are roughly twelve birds in the entire image. I dedicated it to the hunger movement so that we would recognize world hunger and try to do something about it." VOICE TWO: Not all of Lou Stovall's art shows recognizable subjects. Some prints look like layers of colorful spills of paint. These "monoprints" are not planned out in the same way as his other works. He says it is exciting to make this kind of expressive print. VOICE ONE: Lou Stovall’s prints and artwork can be found in museums and private collections all over America. Some of his art is sold in galleries. Other times, collectors buy his art directly from him. But Lou Stovall says money is not the main reason he makes art. He says there is a magic that happens when creating art. And he says the most important reason artists make their work is to share it with the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Terms to Chew Over: 'Hansel and Gretel' Like You've Never Heard It
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: Rosanne Skirble and I serve up a feast of idioms related to health and gluttony, as we present the classic children's fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" -- retold by Slangman David Burke. MUSIC: "Hansel and Gretel: Dream Pantomime"/Boston Pops Orchestra DAVID BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl named Hansel and Gretel who were bored out of their minds, so they decided to take a walk in the forest and got lost. "Finally they saw a very unusual house. It was made of gingerbread and covered with cakes, and the windows were made of clear sugar. And they began to eat parts of the roof and windows. But then they suddenly heard an old woman's voice say, 'Who is eating my house?' 'Oh it's just the wind,' answered Hansel. Well, the woman was old but not totally out of it. 'Out of it' means not completely coherent, not really thinking rationally. "Well, suddenly the door opened and the old woman walked out. 'Oh, do come in and stay with me.' She took them both by the hand and she gave them lots and lots of food to eat. They kept eating until they could not eat anymore. "Well, Hansel was usually in tip-top shape -- which means great physical condition -- but after eating so much he felt sick as a dog and felt like he was running a fever. That means to have a fever. He was nervous that he was going to lose his cookies. Now that simply means to vomit. Why cookies, I don't know, but it's very common." RS: "And it's appropriate for this story." DAVID BURKE: "Well, he felt like he would never bounce back. Now that means to recover from being sick. He felt really blah. This is a great word. It's what we call an onomatopoeia, which simply is a word that sounds like what it means. So if you feel 'blah,' you have no energy, you just feel really terrible." AA: "Spelled b-l-a-h." DAVID BURKE: "Right. Oh, don't worry, his condition wasn't bad enough where he would have to go under the knife, which means to have surgery. The last thing he needed was to go see some kind of quack." RS: "And that's not a duck." DAVID BURKE: "That's not a duck, although that is the sound a duck makes. However, a 'quack' means a doctor that's not very good. In fact, a really terrible doctor is a quack. The feeling in his stomach would just have to run its course, which means just go through its natural progress of being bad, and then finally curing itself. "Well, Gretel felt a little under the weather too. 'Under the weather' simply means kind of sick. She thought she may even pass out. 'Pass out' simply means to faint. Hansel said, 'Gretel, just mellow out. Take a chill pill.' Because when you're really tense, you're hot, so 'take a chill pill,' relax. Well, early the next morning the old woman -- I mean, the witch -- quietly woke up Hansel and led him into a little room made of more candy. It was actually a cage! "Gretel heard him screaming and rushed downstairs, but the witch said to her, 'Go take this food to your brother so he will become even more fat, and then I'm going to eat him!' The witch gave Gretel the willies so she didn't dare disobey. Well, to give someone 'the willies' means to make them nervous." RS: "Or scared." DAVID BURKE: "Or scared. 'Gretel,' screamed the witch, 'go inside the oven and make sure the pilot light is on.' Well, Gretel wasn't born yesterday and said, 'You know, witch, I'm not myself this morning.' Now when you're 'not yourself,' that means you're not feeling very well, so she said to the witch, 'Can you show me how to light that pilot light?' "When the witch got in, Gretel gave her a push, shut the door and fastened the bolt. Gretel quickly ran to Hansel's cage and let him out and said, 'Hansel, the witch kicked the bucket. She croaked in the oven.' Now I don't really know why to 'kick the bucket' would mean to die. To 'croak,' that seems more normal, because when a frog croaks it makes that sound of [throat sound]. So if a frog dies, does the frog croak? Maybe not." AA: Slangman David Burke is the owner of Slangman Publishing, a company that specializes in materials on slang and idioms. Get the lowdown at slangman.com. And we have other classic stories retold by David at voanews.com/wordmaster -- click on the Slangman link at the bottom of the page. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster: Rosanne Skirble and I serve up a feast of idioms related to health and gluttony, as we present the classic children's fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" -- retold by Slangman David Burke. MUSIC: "Hansel and Gretel: Dream Pantomime"/Boston Pops Orchestra AUDIO: 4:30 DAVID BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl named Hansel and Gretel who were bored out of their minds, so they decided to take a walk in the forest and got lost. "Finally they saw a very unusual house. It was made of gingerbread and covered with cakes, and the windows were made of clear sugar. And they began to eat parts of the roof and windows. But then they suddenly heard an old woman's voice say, 'Who is eating my house?' 'Oh it's just the wind,' answered Hansel. Well, the woman was old but not totally out of it. 'Out of it' means not completely coherent, not really thinking rationally. "Well, suddenly the door opened and the old woman walked out. 'Oh, do come in and stay with me.' She took them both by the hand and she gave them lots and lots of food to eat. They kept eating until they could not eat anymore. "Well, Hansel was usually in tip-top shape -- which means great physical condition -- but after eating so much he felt sick as a dog and felt like he was running a fever. That means to have a fever. He was nervous that he was going to lose his cookies. Now that simply means to vomit. Why cookies, I don't know, but it's very common." RS: "And it's appropriate for this story." DAVID BURKE: "Well, he felt like he would never bounce back. Now that means to recover from being sick. He felt really blah. This is a great word. It's what we call an onomatopoeia, which simply is a word that sounds like what it means. So if you feel 'blah,' you have no energy, you just feel really terrible." AA: "Spelled b-l-a-h." DAVID BURKE: "Right. Oh, don't worry, his condition wasn't bad enough where he would have to go under the knife, which means to have surgery. The last thing he needed was to go see some kind of quack." RS: "And that's not a duck." DAVID BURKE: "That's not a duck, although that is the sound a duck makes. However, a 'quack' means a doctor that's not very good. In fact, a really terrible doctor is a quack. The feeling in his stomach would just have to run its course, which means just go through its natural progress of being bad, and then finally curing itself. "Well, Gretel felt a little under the weather too. 'Under the weather' simply means kind of sick. She thought she may even pass out. 'Pass out' simply means to faint. Hansel said, 'Gretel, just mellow out. Take a chill pill.' Because when you're really tense, you're hot, so 'take a chill pill,' relax. Well, early the next morning the old woman -- I mean, the witch -- quietly woke up Hansel and led him into a little room made of more candy. It was actually a cage! "Gretel heard him screaming and rushed downstairs, but the witch said to her, 'Go take this food to your brother so he will become even more fat, and then I'm going to eat him!' The witch gave Gretel the willies so she didn't dare disobey. Well, to give someone 'the willies' means to make them nervous." RS: "Or scared." DAVID BURKE: "Or scared. 'Gretel,' screamed the witch, 'go inside the oven and make sure the pilot light is on.' Well, Gretel wasn't born yesterday and said, 'You know, witch, I'm not myself this morning.' Now when you're 'not yourself,' that means you're not feeling very well, so she said to the witch, 'Can you show me how to light that pilot light?' "When the witch got in, Gretel gave her a push, shut the door and fastened the bolt. Gretel quickly ran to Hansel's cage and let him out and said, 'Hansel, the witch kicked the bucket. She croaked in the oven.' Now I don't really know why to 'kick the bucket' would mean to die. To 'croak,' that seems more normal, because when a frog croaks it makes that sound of [throat sound]. So if a frog dies, does the frog croak? Maybe not." AA: Slangman David Burke is the owner of Slangman Publishing, a company that specializes in materials on slang and idioms. Get the lowdown at slangman.com. And we have other classic stories retold by David at voanews.com/wordmaster -- click on the Slangman link at the bottom of the page. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. DAVID BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl named Hansel and Gretel who were bored out of their minds, so they decided to take a walk in the forest and got lost. "Finally they saw a very unusual house. It was made of gingerbread and covered with cakes, and the windows were made of clear sugar. And they began to eat parts of the roof and windows. But then they suddenly heard an old woman's voice say, 'Who is eating my house?' 'Oh it's just the wind,' answered Hansel. Well, the woman was old but not totally out of it. 'Out of it' means not completely coherent, not really thinking rationally. "Well, suddenly the door opened and the old woman walked out. 'Oh, do come in and stay with me.' She took them both by the hand and she gave them lots and lots of food to eat. They kept eating until they could not eat anymore. "Well, Hansel was usually in tip-top shape -- which means great physical condition -- but after eating so much he felt sick as a dog and felt like he was running a fever. That means to have a fever. He was nervous that he was going to lose his cookies. Now that simply means to vomit. Why cookies, I don't know, but it's very common." RS: "And it's appropriate for this story." DAVID BURKE: "Well, he felt like he would never bounce back. Now that means to recover from being sick. He felt really blah. This is a great word. It's what we call an onomatopoeia, which simply is a word that sounds like what it means. So if you feel 'blah,' you have no energy, you just feel really terrible." AA: "Spelled b-l-a-h." DAVID BURKE: "Right. Oh, don't worry, his condition wasn't bad enough where he would have to go under the knife, which means to have surgery. The last thing he needed was to go see some kind of quack." RS: "And that's not a duck." DAVID BURKE: "That's not a duck, although that is the sound a duck makes. However, a 'quack' means a doctor that's not very good. In fact, a really terrible doctor is a quack. The feeling in his stomach would just have to run its course, which means just go through its natural progress of being bad, and then finally curing itself. "Well, Gretel felt a little under the weather too. 'Under the weather' simply means kind of sick. She thought she may even pass out. 'Pass out' simply means to faint. Hansel said, 'Gretel, just mellow out. Take a chill pill.' Because when you're really tense, you're hot, so 'take a chill pill,' relax. Well, early the next morning the old woman -- I mean, the witch -- quietly woke up Hansel and led him into a little room made of more candy. It was actually a cage! "Gretel heard him screaming and rushed downstairs, but the witch said to her, 'Go take this food to your brother so he will become even more fat, and then I'm going to eat him!' The witch gave Gretel the willies so she didn't dare disobey. Well, to give someone 'the willies' means to make them nervous." RS: "Or scared." DAVID BURKE: "Or scared. 'Gretel,' screamed the witch, 'go inside the oven and make sure the pilot light is on.' Well, Gretel wasn't born yesterday and said, 'You know, witch, I'm not myself this morning.' Now when you're 'not yourself,' that means you're not feeling very well, so she said to the witch, 'Can you show me how to light that pilot light?' "When the witch got in, Gretel gave her a push, shut the door and fastened the bolt. Gretel quickly ran to Hansel's cage and let him out and said, 'Hansel, the witch kicked the bucket. She croaked in the oven.' Now I don't really know why to 'kick the bucket' would mean to die. To 'croak,' that seems more normal, because when a frog croaks it makes that sound of [throat sound]. So if a frog dies, does the frog croak? Maybe not." AA: Slangman David Burke is the owner of Slangman Publishing, a company that specializes in materials on slang and idioms. Get the lowdown at slangman.com. And we have other classic stories retold by David at voanews.com/wordmaster -- click on the Slangman link at the bottom of the page. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Strongest Evidence Yet That Circumcision Lowers Men's HIV Risk
* Byline: Two studies in Africa end early after showing a big drop in infections from heterosexual sex. But several issues must be considered.Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A boy with HIV at a children's home for AIDS orphans in Nairobi, KenyaAIDS researchers had important news last week. Two studies in Africa confirmed that men who are circumcised greatly reduce their risk of infection with HIV during sex with women. The United States National Institutes of Health announced an early end to the studies because the results were clear. In Kisumu, Kenya, it said, men who underwent circumcision were fifty-three percent less likely to become infected than uncircumcised men. The other study in Rakai, Uganda, showed a reduction of forty-eight percent. HIV rates are generally lower in areas of the world where the removal of the foreskin from the penis is common in babies or young boys. Many studies have suggested that male circumcision might help protect against infection with the AIDS virus. But Doctor Anthony Fauci noted that the new findings come from large, carefully controlled studies. Doctor Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He says adult male circumcision could also lead to fewer infections in women in areas where HIV is spread mainly through heterosexual sex. Experts say the findings offer hope especially for countries in Africa south of the Sahara. The United Nations estimates that sub-Saharan Africa had close to three million new HIV infections this year. That was about two-thirds of all new infections worldwide. Health experts involved in the studies say they hope circumcision will become one of the basic tools to fight HIV and AIDS. But they expect some barriers. It may be difficult to get men to have the operation, especially if it conflicts with cultural beliefs. Cost is another issue. And it may be difficult to find high-quality medical care so the operation is performed safely. Some people have also expressed concern that circumcision will be given too much weight in the fight against AIDS. They say men might think they can forget about other ways to prevent infection. The National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research paid for the studies. Five thousand men took part in Uganda and almost three thousand in Kenya. The studies were supposed to continue through the middle of next year. Instead, the researchers are now offering circumcisions to the men in the uncircumcised groups in those studies. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can learn more about AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series: Adding Up the Costs of Study in the US
* Byline: Students must show they can pay for each year of classes. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. This week in our Foreign Student Series: the cost of higher education in the United States. Students who want to attend an American college or university must explain how they will pay for their education. They have to show that they will be able to pay for each year of study. Students have to consider not only the tuition, the cost of classes, but also meals and a place to live, known as room-and-board. They also need money for books and supplies. And they need money to spend for social activities and other things. Educational advisers say foreign students should keep enough money in a local bank to pay for at least two months of spending. So how much will a year at an American school cost?? Generally speaking, the answer is: a lot. A leading state university in the Pacific Northwest will serve as our example. The University of Washington says foreign students are paying more than thirty-six thousand dollars this year. This major research university currently has two thousand six hundred foreign students from more than one hundred countries. There are many schools that cost less, but also others that cost more. Its Web site says the University of Washington does not offer financial assistance to international students. This is generally true of American schools, especially at the undergraduate level. The international application for the university includes a Statement of Financial Responsibility that must be signed. Students must also provide a bank letter or statement from within the past six months. And they have to name anyone who will help with payments. These people must send proof from a bank to show that they have the money. Your government or employer may be able to help you pay all or some college costs. A good idea is to ask at least eighteen months before you want to start classes in the United States. Our Foreign Student Series, including links to Web sites discussed in our reports, can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. To learn more about higher education in America, the State Department has a special Web site: educationusa dot state dot g-o-v. Next time we will discuss another cost that should be considered: health insurance. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Story of World War Two: Developing the First Atomic Bombs
* Byline: Truman's use of them on Japan ended the fighting, but signaled the start of the modern nuclear age -- and the growing importance of science. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) World War Two ended with one of the most important events in the history of warfare, science, and technology. A team of American scientists, working in secrecy, designed and built the first atomic bombs. President Harry Truman made the decision to use these weapons against Japan. America's use of atomic weapons brought to an end a terrible worldwide conflict. But it also marked the beginning of the modern nuclear period. And it showed the growing importance of science and technology in a modern economy and military system. VOICE TWO: The leaders of the United States have been interested in science since the early days of the nation. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were famous not only as great political leaders, but as inventors and scientists. President Abraham Lincoln and the Congress established the National Academy of Sciences during the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. And in the early nineteen hundreds, the nation created scientific offices to study and improve agriculture, public health, and air travel. By the start of World War One in nineteen fourteen, the federal government was using scientists in many ways. President Woodrow Wilson created the National Research Council to organize the work of scientists and engineers to win the war. However, government support for science before World War Two generally was quite limited. The government was willing to pay for research only to meet certain clear goals, such as better weapons or military transport systems. VOICE ONE: World War Two greatly changed the traditional, limited relationship between American scientists and the federal government in Washington. In the early years of the war, the German forces of Adolf Hitler showed the world the strength of their new tanks, guns, and other weapons. American President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the United States would need to develop modern weapons of its own if it entered the war. For this reason, Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in nineteen forty to support and organize research on weapons. The new committee included some of the top scientists in America. Among its members were the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Bell Laboratories. The committee did its work so well that Roosevelt later formed an even more powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development. VOICE TWO: The leader of both groups was a great scientist and organizer named Vannevar Bush. Bush had long experience as a professor of electrical engineering and as an inventor. Many scientists knew him. Bush put together a hard-working team. And in the years that followed, American scientists and engineers developed one invention after another to help the war effort. Scientists developed new devices to help the navy find German submarines. They improved methods for bomber planes to find their targets. And they developed more powerful rockets to protect American troops when they landed on foreign beaches. American scientists and doctors also made great progress in improving the methods of wartime medicine. World War Two may well have been the first war in history in which a wounded soldier was more likely to survive than to die. VOICE ONE: The most important scientific development by far, however, was the invention of the atomic bomb. In nineteen thirty-nine, scientist Albert Einstein wrote President Roosevelt a letter. Einstein told the president that it might soon be possible to build a weapon that would use the power of the atom to cause terrible destruction. And he urged Roosevelt to get American scientists to build the atomic bomb before German scientists could build one. Roosevelt agreed. He created a special team of scientists. Their work became known as the Manhattan Project. Roosevelt made sure that these scientists got all the money and supplies they needed. VOICE TWO: Roosevelt died before the scientists could complete their work. But in April, nineteen forty-five, the scientists told the new president, Harry Truman, that they were almost ready to test the atomic bomb. And just three months later, they exploded the world's first atomic weapon in a test in the southwestern state of New Mexico. Truman had to make a difficult decision. He knew the atomic weapon would cause major death and suffering if it was used on a Japanese city. But he was willing to do anything to avoid the need for American troops to invade Japan. Such an invasion surely would be a long, bloody struggle. A new prime minister and government in Japan were searching for a way to end the war. But Truman believed that the Japanese still were not ready to surrender. And he felt it was his duty to end the war as soon as possible. VOICE ONE: On August sixth, nineteen forty-five, the first bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. It killed nearly eighty thousand people and destroyed a great many buildings. Three days later, a second bomb fell on the city of Nagasaki. It, too, caused great destruction in human life and property. The bombs left Japan's rulers with no choice. In less than one week, they surrendered. Truman always defended his decision strongly. "I understand the tragic importance of the atomic bomb," he told the world by radio shortly after the two bombings. "We knew our enemies also were searching for this secret. And we know the disaster that would have come to this nation and to all peaceful nations if they had found it. "Having found the bomb," said Truman, "we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us. And we have used it to shorten the suffering of war, and to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans." VOICE TWO: American scientists and engineers proved that wars could be won with research as well as with bullets. And all Americans learned how much could be gained when government, scientists, and universities worked together for common goals. Roosevelt had understood this long before the war ended. He asked Vannevar Bush to study how the federal government could work with scientists and universities in peacetime. Bush studied the problem. And he offered a number of ideas to President Truman at the end of the war. Bush told the president that science was important to America's progress and safety. He called on the federal government to support scientific study and education. Professor Bush said that the nation's universities should be greatly strengthened. He called for the creation of a new government agency to provide money for useful science projects. VOICE ONE: Truman and the Congress agreed with Bush. And in the next few years, they helped the American scientific and research effort to grow to new size and strength. In nineteen forty-six, an Office of Naval Research was created to support basic science study in the universities. In the same year, the government created the Atomic Energy Commission to develop nuclear energy for military and peaceful uses. And in nineteen fifty, it created the powerful National Science Foundation to provide support to thousands of the nation's best scientists. VOICE TWO: In the years that followed, American science would grow beyond the wildest dreams of Vannevar Bush or the other scientists who worked during World War Two. Universities would add thousands of new students. They would build new laboratories, book collections, and study centers. By the middle of the nineteen sixties, the federal government would spend more than thirteen thousand million dollars each year for research and development. And five hundred new centers of higher learning would be created. This investment would help make the United States the world's leader in such fields as computer science, genetics, and space travel. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Not Celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Try Festivus
* Byline: Also: A question from Vietnam about why Christmas is celebrated on December 25th, and new holiday music from Sarah McLachlan, Brad Paisley and Bette Midler. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our special holiday show this week: We answer a question about why Christmas is celebrated on December twenty-fifth … Play some music from new holiday albums … And report about an unusual holiday. Festivus Every December, many Americans celebrate holidays. Christians have Christmas, Jews have Hanukkah and many African–Americans observe Kwanzaa. Some people also celebrate a holiday that began on a television show. Faith Lapidus explains “Festivus.” FAITH LAPIDUS: A man named Dan O'Keefe created Festivus and started celebrating it in the nineteen sixties. O'Keefe's son Daniel became a writer for the American television comedy show "Seinfeld."? He wrote a show about Festivus that was first broadcast on "Seinfeld" in December of nineteen ninety-seven. He also wrote a book about it. ”The Real Festivus” was published in two thousand five. On the television show, the character Frank Costanza invents "Festivus." He does so to protest that Christmas has lost meaning and has become nothing more than a time to shop. He celebrates "Festivus" on December twenty-third. He uses an aluminum pole instead of a Christmas tree. People gather at someone’s house and tell each other all the ways they have been disappointed in the past year. They eat a holiday dinner. Then two of them test their strength by fighting with each other. One of the main ideas of “Festivus” is that people of all religions can celebrate it. Frank Costanza explains on "Seinfeld:" (SOUND) The Washington Post newspaper recently listed some ways Americans are celebrating “Festivus” for real. For example, it says about four hundred people are expected to attend a Festivus party on Saturday in Springfield, Illinois. In New York City, the Pink Pony restaurant held a Festivus party earlier this month. The Grape Ranch in Okemah, Oklahoma, celebrated Festivus with a party on December sixteenth. The Grape Ranch also produces a Festivus wine. And shoppers in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, can attend a Festivus marketplace. They can give away gifts they have received that they do not like. December Twenty-Fifth HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dinh Cong Huy wants to know why Christmas is celebrated on December twenty-fifth. That is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, whom they believe was the son of God. But history and religious experts say there is no evidence that the man known as Jesus was born in December. In fact, the Christian Bible says nothing about when he was born or that his birth should be celebrated. Painting of a Saturnalia celebrationExperts say the reason for celebrating the birth of Jesus in December came from festivals in ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks honored their god Bacchus on or about December twenty-first each year. The Romans honored their god Saturn for seven days beginning December seventeenth. The Romans observed Saturnalia by closing businesses, attending parties and giving gifts. Another important part of the celebration was using light to frighten away dark spirits. History experts note that these holidays came at the same time of the year as the day with the shortest period of daylight. That day is called the winter solstice. The ancient calendar said it was December twenty-fifth. Experts say the winter solstice was an important part of all societies because the sun is at its lowest point. Ancient people believed that the gods must defeat evil forces for the sun’s light to return. People in the Roman Empire in the fourth century celebrated festivals honoring the sun on December twenty-fifth. Roman Emperor Constantine celebrated such a sun festival. He became a Christian shortly before he died more than one thousand six hundred years ago. The Christian Church within the Roman Empire took the date of the sun festival, December twenty-fifth, as the date for Christmas. Not all Christians did this, however. In areas using a different calendar, Christmas was celebrated in January. Some Christian churches today celebrate Christmas on January sixth. Experts say many Christmas traditions began as Christian attempts to gain religious followers. These early Christians accepted the traditions of other groups. For example, the Norsemen of Scandinavia celebrated a sun festival in which they burned fires and placed green plants in their homes. Many Christians today place evergreen trees in their homes as part of the holiday celebration. You can hear more about modern Christmas traditions and music on the Special English program?THIS IS AMERICA?on Monday. Holiday Music Popular singers and musicians release special holiday albums for the Christmas season. Barbara Klein tells us about some of the new albums this year. BARBARA KLEIN: Grammy award winning singer Sarah McLachlan released her first ever album of Christmas music, "Wintersong." It offers quiet and serious music for the holiday season. Here, Sarah McLachlan sings “Christmas Time is Here.”? Diana Krall is playing the piano. ?(MUSIC) Another new Christmas album is from country singer Brad Paisley. His album is called "Brad Paisley Christmas.” Critics say it is a good mix of new and traditional holiday songs. Here is Brad Paisley singing “Winter Wonderland.” (MUSIC) Still another new Christmas album is from Bette Midler. It is called "Cool Yule."? Her collection includes both serious and funny Christmas songs. She sings one song in the language of Hawaii -- the state where Midler was born. We leave you now with Bette Midler singing "Mele Kalikimaka.”? It means "Merry Christmas."? (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special holiday program today. It was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And all of us in Special English wish all of you a happy holiday! --- Correction: Sarah McLachlan's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this page. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Click, Click, Click. What's That? Another Online Sale
* Byline: Holiday spending at US sites is expected to reach almost $25 billion this year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. The winter gift-giving season is responsible for twenty percent of all retail spending at American businesses. But how and when people buy holiday gifts is changing. Record numbers of Americans are turning to the Internet. More than one hundred million people are expected to buy something online this holiday season. Traditionally, the biggest shopping day of the year was in late November on the day after Thanksgiving. People still call it "Black Friday."? The idea was that it could push businesses "into the black" -- the traditional color for recording profits. Red is for debts. But now the busiest days are right before Christmas. Many people wait for last-minute price reductions. With the rise of the Internet, the National Retail Federation came up with a new term. "Cyber Monday" is the Monday after Thanksgiving. The idea is that many people look in stores over the weekend. Then, to save time, they order online using the Internet at their jobs when they return to work. Cyber Monday is a big day online. But market researchers at comScore Networks reported Wednesday that the biggest day of the holiday season so far was December thirteenth. The company said people spent almost six hundred seventy million dollars at American sites that day. That did not include travel sites. Online spending during the holiday season was up a reported twenty-five percent over last year. ComScore estimates that online holiday spending will reach almost twenty-five billion dollars. Online selling makes it easier for businesses to react to changing conditions. It costs less to change the advertising on a Web site than in stores. Physical stores remain by far the most popular places to shop. But electronic commerce continues to grow, and not just at Christmastime. In the three-month period ending in September, it made up almost three percent of all retail sales in the United States. But wherever selling takes place, the holiday season means intense competition. For example, demand for flat-panel televisions has jumped recently. Competition has pushed down prices for these popular thin TVs. The Best Buy Company reported selling some at a loss to avoid losing market share to big competitors like Wal-Mart and Circuit City. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. You can download MP3 files and transcripts of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Increase in Violent Crime in US Brings Attention, Theories
* Byline: Latest report shows rise in robberies, murders. But the FBI says it is still too early to know if years of falling crime rates are coming to an end. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Crime rates in the United States have been dropping for a number of years. Rates of violent crime have fallen to their lowest levels since the nineteen seventies. President Bush noted this in his declaration in April for National Crime Victims' Rights Week. But this week, a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation offered new evidence that violent crime may be on the rise. Early numbers for the first half of the year show violent crime was up three and seven-tenths percent over the same period last year. The F.B.I. reported earlier that violent crime increased more than two percent in all of two thousand five. That was the largest increase in fifteen years. The new report says the number of robberies nationwide increased nine and seven-tenths percent between January and June of this year. And there were seven percent more arson fires compared to the first half of last year. The number of murders increased almost one and one-half percent. Other violent offenses were also up more than one percent. But the F.B.I. says the number of rapes decreased, though by less than one-tenth of one percent. The report shows that violent crime rose nationwide, especially in cities with populations between half a million and a million. But the largest increase was in the West. Violent crime in that part of the country rose almost five percent. Northeastern states had the smallest increase. It was three percent over the same period last year. While violent crime increased nationally, most property crimes fell in the first half of the year. In all, property crime decreased more than two and one-half percent The information in the F.B.I. report comes from more than eleven thousand law enforcement agencies. Researchers from the Justice Department are studying a number of cities to look for reasons why violent crime is up nationally. Experts suggest a number of possible reasons. These include too many illegal guns and not enough law enforcement officers on the streets of American cities. Also blamed are reductions in federal money for local law enforcement agencies over the past ten years. Yet local agencies have more duties since the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Now they are expected to fight terrorism in addition to traditional crime. At the federal level, the F.B.I. and other agencies that often help local officers investigate crimes have seen their duties change as well. But other researchers believe an increase in young males and other population changes have played a part in the rise in violent crime. And some point to increases in the spread of street gangs. In any case, the F.B.I. notes that in the years leading up to two thousand five, violent crime kept falling. So officials say it is still too early to say if new trends are developing. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Irving Berlin, 1888-1989: He Wrote Songs that Made America Sing
* Byline: "White Christmas" and "God Bless America" were two of the most popular songs in the U.S. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Irving Berlin. He wrote the words and music for some of the most popular songs of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Irving Berlin lived to be one hundred one years old. He died in nineteen eighty‑nine. During his long life, he wrote more than one thousand songs. Many of his songs have become timeless additions to America's popular culture. Irving Berlin's music helped spread that popular culture throughout the world. Berlin was born in Russia. But he captured the feeling, the people and the customs of his new country. And he put those ideas to music. Another composer, Jerome Kern, once said of Irving Berlin: "He has no place in American music. He is American music." VOICE TWO: Most American children grow up hearing and singing some of Irving Berlin's songs. Two of the best known are linked to Christian religious holidays. They are "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade." Many Americans think the perfect Christmas Day on December twenty‑fifth should be cold and snowy. Irving Berlin thought so, too. He wrote "White Christmas" in nineteen thirty‑nine. It was sung in the movie "Holiday Inn" in nineteen forty‑two. "White Christmas" became one of the best‑selling songs of all time. Here is Bing Crosby singing his famous version of "White Christmas." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? lrving Berlin's song for the Easter holiday captures another American tradition. "Easter Parade" is about a tradition in New York City. There, on Easter morning, people walk up and down Fifth Avenue after church services to enjoy the spring weather. Women wear new hats and dresses. Berlin wrote the song for a musical play in nineteen thirty‑three. It was the main song in the musical film "Easter Parade" in nineteen forty‑eight. Here is Judy Garland singing "Easter Parade." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in eighteen ?eighty‑eight in the Russian village of Temun. He was the youngest of eight children. His family was Jewish. They fled Russia because of religious oppression. The Baline family came to America in eighteen ninety‑three. They did not have much money. They moved into an area of New York City where many other poor Jewish immigrants had settled when they moved to the United States. Israel's father died when the boy was eight years old. The young boy left his home to find work. First, he got a job helping a blind street singer. Then he began earning money by singing on the streets of New York. Later, he got a job singing while serving people their food in a restaurant. Israel taught himself to play the piano. But he could play only the black keys. VOICE ONE: Soon Israel began writing his own songs. He never learned to read or write music. He wrote his songs by playing the notes with one finger on the piano. An assistant wrote down the notes on sheets of paper. When the songwriter's first song was published, his name was spelled wrong. Israel Baline had become I. Berlin. Israel thought the name sounded more American. So he re?named himself Irving Berlin. Between nineteen twelve and nineteen sixteen, Irving Berlin wrote more than one hundred eighty songs. By the time he was in his late twenties, his songs were famous around the world. VOICE TWO: Berlin became an American citizen in nineteen eighteen. A few months later, he was ordered into military service. The United States was fighting in World War One. Berlin was asked to write songs for a musical about life in the military. He called the show "Yip Yip Yaphank." All of the performers in the show were soldiers. Many of the songs became popular. After he served in the army, Berlin returned to New York. He formed his own music publishing company. He also established a theater for his musical shows near Broadway. VOICE ONE: Irving Berlin loved America for giving a poor immigrant a chance to succeed. He expressed his thanks for this success in his songs. One of these songs is "God Bless America." He wrote the song in nineteen eighteen. But it did not become popular until Kate Smith sang it in nineteen thirty‑nine. She sang the song to celebrate Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One. Many people feel "God Bless America" is the unofficial national song of the United States. Berlin gave all money he earned from "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. Here is Kate Smith singing "God Bless America." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States entered World War Two in nineteen forty‑one. Berlin agreed to write and produce a musical show called "This is the Army." It was a musical about life in the military. All the performers were soldiers. The show was performed in many cities across the United States. It helped increase support for America's part in the war. It earned ten? million dollars for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. "This is the Army" also was performed for the American troops at military bases around the world. Irving Berlin appeared in most of these performances. He sang the song he had written earlier. The song is about what he had hated most about being in the army. Here, Irving Berlin sings "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the war, Berlin continued to write songs for movies and plays. He wrote songs for more than fifteen movies from the nineteen thirties to the nineteen fifties. Many of the songs were used in movies starring the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Here is Fred Astaire singing a song that appeared in several movies, "Puttin’ on the Ritz." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Irving Berlin also wrote the music for seventeen Broadway plays from the nineteen twenties to nineteen fifty. His most successful Broadway musical was “Annie Get Your Gun” in nineteen forty-six. Irving Berlin retired in nineteen sixty-?two after his last Broadway musical, "Mister President," failed. He died in nineteen eighty-nine. But the songs that he gave America will be played and sung for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Santa Claus: Do You Believe?
* Byline: Santa Claus is coming to town. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Now, the Special English program, Words and Their Stories. (MUSIC) Our expression today is Santa Claus. Santa Claus is someone who will remain in the hearts of children forever. He?is the make-believe person who brings toys and other gifts to children at Christmas. To grown-ups, he is a special symbol?of goodwill and selfless giving. Santa Claus also has some other names: Saint Nicholas, St. Nick, Kris Kringle, Pelznickel. Two of his names -- Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas -- both come from the Dutch who settled in New York long ago. The Dutch believed Saint Nikolas gave gifts to children. They honored this kindly saint with a yearly festival on December sixth. The English-speaking people who lived nearby greatly enjoyed Dutch festivals. And they brought the saint and the custom of giving gifts into their own celebration at Christmas time. The Dutch spoke the name "Saint Nikolaas" very fast. It sounded like "sinterklaas." And so, when the English said this word, it sounded like Santa Claus. West of New York, in Pennsylvania, many German farmers had also?heard of Saint Nikolas. But they called him Pelznickel. This word came from "pelz," meaning fur, and "nickel" for Nicholas. And so, to the Germans of Pennsylvania, Saint Nicholas or Pelznickel was a man dressed in fur who came once a year with gifts for good children. Soon, people began to feel that the love and kindness Pelznickel brought should be part of a celebration honoring the Christkindl, as the Germans called the Christ child. After a time, this?became Kris Kringle. Later, Kris Kringle became another name for Santa Claus himself. Whatever he is called,?he is still the same short, fat, jolly old man with a long beard, wearing a red suit with white fur. The picture of?Santa Claus as we see him?came from Thomas Nast. He was an American painter born in Bavaria. He painted pictures for Christmas poems. Someone asked him to paint a picture of Santa Claus. Nast remembered when he was a little boy in southern Germany. Every Christmas, a fat old man gave toys and cakes to the children. So, when Nast painted the picture, his Santa Claus looked like the kindly old man of his childhood. And through the years, Nast's painting has remained as the most popular picture of Santa Claus. Santa can be seen almost everywhere in large American cities during the Christmas season. Some stand on street corners asking for money to buy food and gifts for the needy. Others are found in stores and shopping centers.It is easy to find them by the long lines of children waiting to tell Santa what they want for Chirstmas. If one took a vote among children to learn who their favorite person was, there is no question who would win -- Santa Claus. (MUSIC) This VOA Special English program, Words and Their Stores, was written by Marlilyn Christiano.I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Microbicides to Protect Women From AIDS Move Into Final Tests
* Byline: Studies of a product being tested in South Africa are expected to be completed in March. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Right now, the top story in AIDS research involves newly announced findings about adult male circumcision. Two studies in Africa found that circumcised men had half the risk of getting H.I.V. from sex with women as uncircumcised men had. Researchers declared an early end to the studies in Kenya and Uganda so all the men involved could be offered the operation. The findings are important. But so is news of progress on microbicides that could help protect women against the AIDS virus. The Global Campaign for Microbicides says more than sixty products or compounds are under development. Several have reached the last part of the testing process or will enter final testing soon. At this time, no effective microbicides are available. Women would use a microbicide cream or gel before sex. It might be designed, for example, to kill or inactivate the virus, or to create a physical barrier to guard the cell wall in the body. The Population Council, a nonprofit group in New York, has been working for seventeen years to develop a microbicide. Its leading candidate is a product called Carraguard. Carraguard is made from carrageenan -- the underwater plant material better known as seaweed. Final testing of Carraguard for safety and effectiveness is taking place in South Africa. The product is being tested in more than six thousand women for up to two years. The study closes in March. Results are expected within a year after that. If Carraguard passes the tests, the Population Council is expected to seek approval for it in South Africa and the United States. The group notes that the first microbicides are expected to be effective forty to seventy percent of the time. Still, many cases of H.I.V. could be prevented. In some cases, nonprofit groups have been developing microbicides with compounds produced by major drug companies. AIDS experts say microbicides could give women more control over their bodies. Women often lack the power to demand that their partner use a condom. Worldwide, almost half of adults with H.I.V. and AIDS are women. But the United Nations says women are victims of sixty percent of new infections. It estimates that more than four million people have become infected with the virus this year and three million people have died. And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about H.I.V. and AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Christmas in America: Music and Traditions of a Merry Season
* Byline: A look at holiday observances as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 Correction attached VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For millions of Americans, the most wonderful day of the year is December twenty-fifth -- Christmas. For one thing, it marks the end of the most busy time of year. Many people need a rest after weeks of buying gifts, going to parties, organizing travel and getting their homes ready for the holiday. VOICE TWO: With all this, it is often said that Christmas has lost its meaning as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Some churches in the United States have cancelled Christmas Day services, so people can spend the day with their families. This was even true last year when Christmas came on a Sunday, the traditional day of worship. These churches still offer Christmas Eve services, though. And many Christians still go to church on Christmas Day or the night before. They consider it an important part of celebrating the holiday. Another important part of the Christmas season is music. Among traditional carols, one of the most popular is "Silent Night." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most Americans identify themselves as Christian, even if they are not very religious. But the freedom to choose any religion, or no religion at all, is guaranteed by the Constitution. The Constitution separates religion and government. Yet each year brings disputes over holiday observances that some may see as too religious for public schools or other public places. Others say the real problem is too much political correctness; things like saying "Happy Holidays" when people mean "Merry Christmas."? They say people should not be so worried about the risk of offending a stranger. VOICE TWO: But not all Americans celebrate Christmas. And even those who do might not celebrate it as a religious holiday. This is true of Christians as well as non-Christians. Still, they treat it as a special day. And it is hard to think of anyone that Christmas is more special for than children. Of course, this has a lot to do with the tradition of a kindly old man with a big belly and a bright red suit. Children know Santa Claus as the one who leaves gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve. But only if they are good little children and go to sleep. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Stores crowded with holiday gift buyers may be good for the economy. But some people celebrate Christmas in less material ways. For example, they volunteer to serve meals at shelters for the homeless or visit old people in nursing homes. To them, this is honoring the true spirit of Christmas. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? Christmastime centers on home and family. Once people bring home a Christmas tree, they may struggle with setting it up so it does not fall over. But then they enjoy decorating it with colorful lights and ornaments. In some families, the tradition is to open gifts on Christmas Eve. In others, though, people wait until Christmas morning to open their presents. A big Christmas dinner is a tradition in many families. And so are special treats like Christmas cookies covered in powdered sugar. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people travel long distances to be home with their families at Christmas. But not everyone is able to be with loved ones. For some, Christmas can be a lonely time. Most businesses and public places are closed for the holiday. But some restaurants stay open and serve Christmas dinner. A retired man in Washington, D.C., says he enjoys his Christmas dinner at a local restaurant. In fact, he says that after spending several Christmases there, he has become friends with other people who spend their Christmases there, too. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Caroling is a Christmas tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Sometimes carolers walk along a street and the group stops at each house to sing a song. Other times they gather in a public place. Carolers may visit places like shopping centers, hospitals and nursing homes. School choruses are often invited to sing songs of the holiday season. And, of course, caroling can be found in churches. Listen as the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sings "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: December is usually also the time of the ancient Jewish holiday of Hanukkah; this year it began at sundown on December fifteenth. The eight-day Festival of Lights honors the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Maccabees defeated King Atiochus of Syria. Muslims will celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Adha in January. The Feast of Sacrifice marks the end of the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca. VOICE TWO: Most black Americans celebrate Christmas. But after Christmas, from December twenty-sixth to January first, many also celebrate Kwanzaa. This African-American holiday honors culture, community and family. The name comes from a Swahili term meaning "first fruits."? Kwanzaa started during the nineteen-sixties, an important period in the modern civil rights movement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For many children, a favorite Christmas tradition is watching a performance of the ballet "The Nutcracker."? The Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky wrote the music in eighteen ninety-one. "The Nutcracker" is a story told in dance about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her gifts is a wooden nutcracker shaped like a toy soldier. Clara is shown how to put a nut in the mouth to break the shell open with the head. But she dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. VOICE TWO: We leave you with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy performing "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker."? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. You can find archives of our programs on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. And we hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. --- Correction: This report?said Muslims would celebrate?Eid al-Adha in January. The?holiday, which lasts three or four days, depending on?the tradition,?began December thirtieth. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Time -- One of the Great Mysteries of Our Universe
* Byline: So does anyone really know what time it is? Not all scientists agree that time can only move forward. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week our program is about a mystery as old as time. Bob Doughty and Sarah Long tell about the mystery of time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing. For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe. VOICE TWO: One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes. VOICE ONE: In the real world -- the world with time -- changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness -- one day. VOICE TWO: People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun's highest position until it returned to that position. They counted three hundred sixty-five days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year. VOICE ONE: Early humans also noted changes in the moon. As it moved across the night sky, they must have wondered. Why did it look different every night?? Why did it disappear?? Where did it go?? Even before they learned the answers to these questions, they developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time. The moon was "full" when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same -- about twenty-nine suns. Twenty-nine suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes from place to place in search of food. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. They learned to use animals to help them work, and for food. They found they no longer needed to move from one place to another to survive. As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars. No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months. When people started farming, the wise men of the tribes became very important. They studied the sky. They gathered enough information so they could know when the seasons would change. They announced when it was time to plant crops. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia four thousand years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every three-hundred-sixty-five days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into twenty-four equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds. VOICE TWO: Humans have used many devices to measure time. The sundial was one of the earliest and simplest. A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes. The sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, other ways were invented to measure the passing of time. VOICE ONE: One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight --- wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true "hour" glass, it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour. By the eighteenth century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic. VOICE TWO: So, we have devices to mark the passing of time. But what time is it now?? Clocks in different parts of the world do not show the same time at the same time. This is because time on Earth is set by the sun's position in the sky above. We all have a twelve o'clock noon each day. Noon is the time the sun is highest in the sky. But when it is twelve o'clock noon where I am, it may be ten o'clock at night where you are. VOICE ONE: As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world. In eighteen eighty-four, an international conference divided the world into twenty-four time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east. The time at Greenwich -- as measured by the sun -- is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time. VOICE TWO: Some scientists say time is governed by the movement of matter in our universe. They say time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Some say it will stop expanding some day and will begin to move in the opposite direction, to grow smaller. Some believe time will also begin to flow in the opposite direction -- from the future to the past. Can time move backward?? Most people have no trouble agreeing that time moves forward. We see people born and then grow old. We remember the past, but we do not know the future. We know a film is moving forward if it shows a glass falling off a table and breaking into many pieces. If the film were moving backward, the pieces would re-join to form a glass and jump back up onto the table. No one has ever seen this happen. Except in a film. VOICE ONE: Some scientists believe there is one reason why time only moves forward. It is a well-known scientific law -- the second law of thermodynamics. That law says disorder increases with time. In fact, there are more conditions of disorder than of order. For example, there are many ways a glass can break into pieces. That is disorder. But there is only one way the broken pieces can be organized to make a glass. That is order. If time moved backward, the broken pieces could come together in a great many ways. Only one of these many ways, however, would re-form the glass. It is almost impossible to believe this would happen. VOICE TWO: Not all scientists believe time is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. They do not agree that time must always move forward. The debate will continue about the nature of time. And time will remain a mystery. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and read by Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Science in the News, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Biotech Foods Continue to Produce Mixed Feelings in US
* Byline: Safety is a concern of many, but opinion researchers also find the public not well informed on the subject. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Americans are still split in their opinions about genetically engineered foods. The finding is from one thousand adults questioned for the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. This is a project of the University of Richmond in Virginia supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Thirty-four percent said they believed genetically modified foods are safe. Twenty-nine percent thought they are unsafe. Support increased when people were told that most processed foods contain at least small amounts of genetically engineered organisms. After that, forty-five percent thought the foods were safe. But twenty-nine percent still believed they were unsafe. Only twenty-one percent said that five years ago when the project first measured public understanding and support for biotechnologies. Genetically engineered soybeans, corn and cotton have been available to American farmers for ten years. Much of the corn and soy is fed to animals. But many foods contain genetically modified soy lecithin, corn syrup and other products. Supporters say these foods are safe. They say genetic engineering improves crops. These versions are often designed to resist damage from insects or agricultural chemicals. But the Pew Initiative says public understanding of biotech foods remains low. Sixty percent said they believed they had never eaten them. The Food and Drug Administration does not require companies to identify biotech foods to the public. Forty-three percent of the people said they would feel better if the F.D.A. had more rules. Now, the agency only asks companies to consult with it about biotech foods they want to market. Some companies market products as being free of genetically modified organisms. This year the Pew research added questions about animal cloning. Only twenty-seven percent of those who said they had heard of it expressed comfort with the idea. Sixty-one percent said they were uncomfortable with it. The F.D.A. says it is moving closer to permitting the sale of milk and meat from animals that are genetic copies of other animals. For now, companies are being asked to cooperate with the agency and not market such products. Thirty-seven percent of the people said family and friends were their most trusted sources of information about biotech foods. Farmers were second, then scientists. Five years ago, the top answer was the F.D.A. Now it is fourth. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From Clay to Art: Exploring the World of Ceramics
* Byline: Meet ceramic artist William Wilhelmi Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: William Wilhelmi's porcelain cowboy boots And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. At the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. you might see two cowboy boots. They are painted with a design of clouds and stars. They look like boots that you could wear on your feet. But they are really made out of carefully formed clay material. The artist William Wilhelmi made these ceramic pieces. How did he make these colorful boots? Today, we answer that question as we explore the world of clay art. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Clay is one of the most universal materials known to humans. Throughout history and around the world, people have developed the art of forming clay to make ceramic objects, or pottery. Clay is made of water and earth. It is formed into different shapes. Then high levels of heat harden it to produce many kinds of ceramics. Different kinds of clay contain different minerals such as silicon or iron dioxide. The kinds of minerals in clay affect how soft or hard it is to work with. The mineral content of clay also affects the temperature level at which it hardens. VOICE TWO: Earthenware is one of the earliest kinds of clay used by humans. Earthenware hardens at a lower temperature than another clay called stoneware. Porcelain is yet another kind of clay. It is very fine and smooth. All these clays need to be fired at high temperatures. Early pottery was heated in the sun or by a fire. Later, potters developed heated devices called kilns to control the necessary firing conditions. VOICE ONE: The development of ceramics has had an important effect on human history. Ceramic objects permitted early cultures to make containers that could hold water. This means they could cook foods like vegetables and meats. Improving food production methods meant larger populations could survive. Pottery is an art form that grew out of the daily needs of life. Ceramics are also important for historians and archeologists. Pieces of ceramics found at archeological areas help tell about ancient cultures. These pieces can last for tens of thousands of years. They help answer questions about cultures we know little about. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are many different ways to form clay. The earliest methods involved shaping it by hand. People form containers by pressing a ball of clay into a given shape. Or, they place long thin rolls of clay on top of each other and then make them smooth. Another method is called slab-construction. A ceramist creates several flat pieces of clay that can be joined together to make the sides of the container. Later, ceramists developed the method of "throwing" clay on a wheel. A ball of clay is placed on a flat wheel device that turns quickly. The potter holds the clay firmly and guides it while the wheel and clay turn. Using different amounts of upward pressure the potter can build up the sides of a container. This method permits a potter to make similar pieces quickly. But it takes a great deal of skill to become an expert at wheel throwing. VOICE ONE: Slip casting is another method. A ceramist pours liquid clay into a hard form or mold. As the clay dries, it takes the shape of the form. This method is useful for making very detailed objects. It is also useful because the mold can be used over and over again to make exact copies of the ceramic form. There are also many ways to add decoration to ceramics. These methods can be as simple as scratching designs and images into the clay. Or, they can be more complex such as using liquid glazes to change the color or shininess of the clay surface. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Pottery provides important examples of cultural exchange. For example, native traditions of pottery in Mexico changed greatly in the fifteenth century. After the arrival of people from Spain, Mexican ceramists stopped making their own religious figures. They started making Christian religious forms instead. Also, the Spanish introduced materials and methods used in Europe, including the potter’s wheel. Trade exchanges spread ceramics all over the world. As early as the tenth century, the Chinese traded their ceramics throughout the Middle East and southeast Asia. Chinese ceramics later had a great influence on Europe. Europeans started to copy the fine traditions of Japanese and Chinese ceramics as early as the eighteenth century. VOICE ONE: Ceramics also demonstrate the depth of human creativity. This art shows the local needs and materials of a group of people. Pottery is often very different from country to country. But it can also be very different within areas of the same country. For example, in Mexico, every area has a different clay tradition. In one part of the state of Oaxaca, potters have been making black clay containers in the same way for centuries. In another area of this state, pottery for cooking is made with a shiny green coating. Nearby, artists make female figures out of orange clay. In the Mexican state of Michoac?n potters make white clay containers painted with line drawings of fish and other animals. In another part of this state, artists make green painted containers in the shape of the pineapple fruit. In the state of Mexico, artists make clay candle holders covered with clay animals, plants, and people. They are painted in bright colors. These traditions are just a few of the examples of Mexican ceramics. Imagine how many different kinds of clay traditions exist in other areas of the world. What kinds of ceramics are made where you live? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the United States, W Studio is on a quiet street in Corpus Christi, Texas. This is where the potter William Wilhelmi makes his art. Let us go back to the ceramic cowboy boots we talked about earlier. Listen as Wilhelmi describes why he made these special boots in porcelain: “I’m William Wilhelmi and I made the porcelain cowboy boots at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. That’s the only pair of porcelain boots. We use here a low temperature fired clay, which is very easy to work with. The reason the ones at the Smithsonian are porcelain is? they were having a show called “American Porcelain”. I was asked if I would enter a pair of boots in the show. They said, are they out of porcelain? And I said 'Why, sure!'” VOICE ONE: William Wilhelmi made these boots with the slip cast method. He took two real cowboy boots and made a hard form using their shape. Then, he poured liquid clay into the forms. Once the boot forms dried, he added clay details to the shoes to represent leather shoe material. Later, he painted a Texas night sky on the sides of the boots. And he made the points of the shoes a shiny gold. Wilhelmi is also known for his clay "monster" creatures. He adds these friendly little creatures to many of his ceramics forms. He says they add humor and a sense of activity. Another design Wilhelmi likes to use is the eucalyptus tree. He paints these trees in black on many of his clay dishes, bowls, and cups. VOICE TWO: William Wilhelmi says being a potter can be difficult. You do not always know if a clay object will survive being fired at high temperatures. You can spend a great deal of time making an object only for it to break in the kiln. But he says it is also very pleasant working with clay. And it permits him to use his sense of design, color and shape in many ways. William Wilhelmi’s work can be found in museums all over the United States. Many important people collect his work. For example, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, owns some of these clay boots. So does Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico. To see a large collection of the artist's work, you can visit the Wilhelmi/Holland Gallery next to W Studio. Here, people can buy Wilhelmi’s work as well as the work of other artists. Or, visitors can watch Wilhelmi at work in his studio. This large room is filled with interesting objects like photographs, art and books. There are many worktables covered with tools, color glazes and clay forms. In one area of the room there are three kilns as well as a potter’s wheel. VOICE ONE: William Wilhelmi finds new artistic ideas by traveling and reading books. He tells about how clay art is both universal and personal. “The thing about clay is every culture knows clay, because they use it. That is one of the advantages of working in clay. Everyone can relate to clay. It’s been part of our human evolution. And it goes from very basic to extremely baroque things. And also as one lives one's life, you take in all your experiences. Then when I sit down to work, these things come out. It is the experiences of life you reflect in your work.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can read this program and download audio on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Healthier Eating in New York Hard For Some to Swallow
* Byline: City health officials order restaurants to cut trans fats in their foods; an industry group sees 'misguided social engineering.' Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. New York City wants to fight fat. The Board of Health has passed a ban on trans fats in all restaurants. Eating places have until July to stop frying foods in oils high in trans-fatty acids. And they have until July of two thousand eight to reduce trans fat in other foods to less than one-half gram per serving. Trans fats are often called partially hydrogenated fats. They form when hydrogen is added to liquid oils and fats to make them solid. Trans fats make foods last longer. But they increase the level of low-density lipoprotein, known as bad cholesterol, in the blood. High levels of LDL can increase the risk for heart disease. The use of trans fats expanded because of worries about saturated fats. Saturated fat also raises bad cholesterol. So is one fat worse than the other?? James Cleeman is coordinator of the cholesterol education program at the National Institutes of Health. Doctor Cleeman says gram for gram, both raise LDL levels about the same. But he points out that American adults on average get more than four times as much saturated fat in their diet as trans fat. Trans fats, though, also lower the level of HDL, high-density lipoprotein -- so-called good cholesterol. Saturated fats do not. Doctor Cleeman says lower levels of good cholesterol have been linked to increased risk for heart disease in the population as a whole. But for an individual, he says, lowering good cholesterol by eating trans fat has not been shown to increase the risk. Other cities may also ban trans fats. A measure proposed in Chicago has been awaiting further action. The New York Board of Health also wants menus in fast-food places to now list the number of calories in foods. The idea is to help people make wiser choices. Public health officials say two out of three Americans are overweight. But the National Restaurant Association calls the actions in New York misguided social engineering. And it says the ban raises serious legal concerns. The group notes that many restaurants have recently announced they are moving away from using trans fat. And it says without much time to change, many will have no choice but to use oils high in saturated fats. Some people see the ban as an attack on freedom of choice. They say food inspectors should worry more about dangers like E. coli bacteria. And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Jill Moss. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: American History: Life in the US After World War Two
* Byline: The United States experienced major changes as many Americans had become dissatisfied with their way of life. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) World War Two ended finally in the summer of nineteen forty-five. Life in the United States began to return to normal. Soldiers began to come home and find peacetime jobs. Industry stopped producing war equipment and began to produce goods that made peacetime life pleasant. The American economy was stronger than ever. Some major changes began to take place in the American population. Many Americans were not satisfied with their old ways of life. They wanted something better. And many people were earning enough money to look for a better life. Millions of them moved out of cities and small towns to buy newly-built homes in the suburbs. Our program today will look at the growth of suburbs and other changes in the American population in the years after World War Two. VOICE TWO: The United States has always counted its population every ten years. The government needed to know how many people lived in each state so it would know how many congressmen each state should have. The first count was made two-hundred years ago. At that time, the country had about four million persons. One hundred years later, the population had increased to about sixty-three million persons. By nineteen fifty, there were more than one hundred fifty million persons in the United States. In the early years of America, the average mother had eight to ten children. Living conditions were hard. Many children died at an early age. Families needed a lot of help on the farm. So it was good to have many children. This changed in the years that followed. Families began to have fewer and fewer children. By nineteen hundred, the average woman only had three or four children and by nineteen thirty-six, during the great economic depression, the average American mother gave birth to only two children. VOICE ONE: This changed immediately after World War Two. Suddenly, it seemed, every family started having babies. Parents were hopeful about the future. There were lots of jobs. And people everywhere felt the need for a family and security after the long, difficult years of the war. So the birth rate increased suddenly. The number of children between the ages of five and fourteen increased by more than ten million between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty. VOICE TWO: Many of the new parents moved to homes in the new suburbs. The word suburb comes from the word urban, or having to do with cities. A suburb was sub, or something less than, a city. It usually was created on an empty piece of land just outside a city. A businessman would buy the land and build houses on it. Young families would buy the houses with money that they borrowed from local banks. Life was different in the suburbs. There were all sorts of group activities. VOICE ONE: There were boy scout groups for the boys. Girl scout groups for the girls. The parent-teachers association at the school. Barbecue parties where families gathered to cook and eat outside. Historian William Manchester described life in the suburbs in this way: "The new suburbs were free, open, and honestly friendly to anyone except black people, whose time had not yet come." Manchester wrote, "Families moving in found that their new friends were happy to help them get settled. Children in the suburbs exchanged toys and clothes almost as though they were group property. If little Bobby out-grew his clothes, his mother gave them to little Billy across the street. Front doors were not locked. Friends felt free to enter without knocking or asking permission." VOICE TWO: Parents did everything they could to make life good for their children. The number of boys playing on Little League baseball teams increased from less than one million to almost six million between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty. During the same period, the number of Girl Scouts increased by two-million. And twice as many bicycles were sold. Parents also tried to improve their children's education. In nineteen sixty, parents bought almost three times more educational books for children than ten years earlier. Parents also bought millions of dollars' worth of pianos, violins, and other musical instruments for their children. Families in the suburbs wanted a new life, a good life, for their children. VOICE ONE: It was true that the average number of children per family was increasing. But the total population of the United States did not increase as much during this period as one might have expected. The reason for this was that fewer immigrants were coming from foreign countries. In fact, the number of immigrants to the United States had been dropping for many years. In nineteen ten, eleven immigrants were coming to America for every thousand Americans already living here. By nineteen fifty, just one-and-a-half immigrants were coming for every thousand Americans. The kinds of immigrants were changing, too. In the past, most came from northern and western Europe. But now, growing numbers of people came to the United States from Latin America, Asia, and southern and eastern European countries. VOICE TWO: Many Americans moved to different parts of the country in the nineteen-fifties. Most Americans continued to live in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the country. But growing numbers moved to the western states. The population of the western states increased by almost forty percent during the nineteen-fifties. America's biggest city in nineteen fifty was New York, with almost eight-million persons. Second was Chicago, with more than three-and-a-half million. Then came Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Saint Louis. VOICE ONE: Another population change was in life expectancy. In the early nineteen-hundreds, the average newborn American could only expect to live about forty-seven years. But by the nineteen fifties, most American babies could expect to live well past their sixtieth birthday. This increase in life expectancy was due to improvements in living conditions and medical care. And it would continue to increase steadily in the years that followed. VOICE TWO: The United States was a changing country, a nation on the move. And political leaders battled each other for the right to lead it. We will look in our next program at political events during this period and look at the presidency of Harry Truman. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfledt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: College Costs in US: Tuition, Housing ... and Health Care
* Byline: Schools want to know that all of their students can pay for their medical needs. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We talked last week about the costs of higher education for students who want to study in the United States. Today, as our Foreign Student Series continues, we discuss a cost that students may not always consider: health insurance. Medical care can be very costly if a person has an accident or gets sick. Health insurance might pay for most or all of it. Students might already be covered under their parents' health plan. If not, many schools offer plans of their own. Most American colleges and universities have student health centers. Some have hospitals where students can go for more serious problems. Our example this week is the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It has more than four thousand six hundred international students this year. All University of Michigan students pay a health service fee. This fee is included in the cost of tuition at the school. It pays for some kinds of medical care and examinations through the University Health Service. It also pays for health education, physical therapy, X-rays and most laboratory tests. But the health service fee does not pay for everything. For example, it does not pay for medicines or eyeglasses or routine eye exams. It also does not pay for hospital care. University officials say international students are required to have health insurance. The University of Michigan offers its students a choice of plans. One is especially for international students. This plan is designed to pay for medical care in emergencies. It does not pay for things like dental care. And it generally does not pay for treatment of conditions that existed before the student arrived at school. Students can also buy private insurance policies from independent companies, but the university must first approve them. Whatever the plan, schools want to know that all of their students can pay for their health care needs. Our series on higher education in the United States continues next week with a report on financial aid. Our Foreign Student Series is available on the Internet -- with MP3 files and transcripts -- at voaspecialenglish.com. And foreign students can get information from the State Department at educationusa.state.gov. And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 2006: Expanding Ways to Communicate and Have Fun on the Net
* Byline: A look back at some fast-growing Internet activities. Also: musical trends, and remembering the "Godfather of Soul." Transcript of radio broadcast:

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. Two thousand six is almost over. On this special show, Shirley Griffith and I look back at some trends from the past year. VOICE ONE: The dictionary says a trend is a kind of movement or direction. People around the world used their computers to buy goods, communicate with others, listen to music, see pictures and learn about different places and ideas. In two thousand six, more people around the world used new ways to communicate and connect with each other through the Internet. We take a look at some kinds of technology that became more popular this year. HOST: The blog is one form of communication that increased in popularity. Blog is a short way of saying Web log. Through these personal Web sites, people can share their lives, ideas and opinions with anyone on the Internet. Millions of people throughout the world are creating and reading blogs. There are reportedly thirteen million blogs in the United States alone. People of all ages have their own blogs. For young people, they are a way to show their writings and other forms of self-expression. Blogs also connect people with other people who have the same interests. For example, teachers use blogs to share ideas, experiences and concerns about their work with other teachers. Many Web sites offer free services to create personal Web pages and fill them with writings and pictures. These sites include MySpace, used mainly by teenagers and young adults. MySpace is an online community that lets people share messages and pictures with an increasing number of friends. About one hundred twenty million people use MySpace. It is the most popular social networking site on the Web. VOICE ONE: YouTube is another Internet site that became more popular this year. This Web site lets anyone create, share and watch short videos. People can watch almost anything on YouTube: news, sports and entertainment events. Music videos. And videos made by people in their own homes. These include videos of people singing or dancing, or animals doing funny things. YouTube says that people watch at least one hundred million videos on the site every day. Three young men created YouTube almost two years ago as a personal video sharing service. They recently sold it to Google for more than one and one half billion dollars. HOST: Games and entertainment also became a larger part of the Internet this year. One Internet social site is called Second Life. It is an online world in which computer users create a new self and live a different life. They get married, build homes, operate businesses, buy and sell goods, work, play and attend school. About two million people take part in Second Life. People also take part in fantasy sports leagues with the help of the Internet. A fantasy sport is a game in which each member of a group acts as the owner of a team. Each owner creates a team of real-life professional players to compete against other teams in the league. Fantasy players get a chance to make the same decisions professional owners and managers do. The fantasy teams compete against each other using points earned by the real players of the professional sport. More than fifteen million American adults play fantasy sports. The industry earns more than one billion dollars each year on publications, memberships and other costs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There were also some new trends in music this year. Many singers expressed a serious side with performances and songs that had a clear political message. For example, during her international concert tour, Madonna showed her support for helping poor people in Africa. The country music group the Dixie Chicks wrote songs about standing strong for their political beliefs in their album “Taking the Long Way.” Some fans praised the album while others rejected it. Another example is this song from Bruce Springsteen, “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live.”?? He recorded it in honor of the people of New Orleans and their struggle after hurricane Katrina. (MUSIC) HOST: Music groups that are part of the "independent" or “indie” rock style remained very popular this year. These groups are called indie because they often choose smaller record companies over major ones in order to protect their artistic independence. Death Cab for Cutie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are two bands that received great praise this year. Another is My Morning Jacket. Here the band performs their song “ It Beats 4 U.” (MUSIC) Many bands were created this year as a result of new musical projects. For example, Jack White sings with the rock band called the White Stripes. He recently formed another band called the Raconteurs, which has become very popular. Another new group called Gnarls Barkley was formed by the producer Danger Mouse and the singer Cee-Lo Green. Their song "Crazy" has become one of the biggest hits of the year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Finally, some sad music news this year. James Brown, one of the most influential American singers during the past fifty years, died Monday at the age of seventy-three. James Brown was known as the “Godfather of Soul" and "the hardest working man in show business."? Experts say he turned rhythm and blues music into soul music. And he turned soul music into the music known as funk in the late nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies. Brown also influenced the development of disco and rap music. He sold millions of records. And he was known for his electrifying performances on stage. James Brown was among the first group of musicians welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen eighty-six. In nineteen ninety-two, he received a Grammy Award for his lifetime work. One of his most popular songs is "Say it Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud.)"? It was a statement of racial pride in nineteen sixty-eight. We leave you with the James Brown song "I Got You (I Feel Good.)" (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And Happy New Year from all of us in Special English! 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Housing Market Slows, Charity Gains and Economics Loses Two Great Thinkers
* Byline: The slow housing market has experts worried.? Warren Buffett gives billions away.? And two influential thinkers are gone. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week, we look back at a few of the year's biggest economic stories. In recent years, home building and buying have increased, helping expand the American economy. But this year, the housing market has cooled. New home building dropped by more than twenty-five percent since last November. Many experts blame the housing market for the slow economic growth of two percent in the three-month period ending in October. In response, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. Banks followed the Federal Reserve's decisions on interest rates. While housing declined, giving money to good causes increased. Businessman Warren Buffett announced a gift of about thirty-seven billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Mister Buffett, an investor, is chief of Berkshire Hathaway. He is the world's second richest man. Bill Gates is the richest. Mister Gates helped start and remains the top shareholder of Microsoft, the world's biggest computer software maker. He started his foundation with his wife in two thousand. It gives money to health and educational causes around the world. Mister Buffett's gift to the Gates Foundation was one and one half billion dollars this year. And finally, the United States lost two influential economic thinkers this year. They were on opposite sides of most economic arguments. John Kenneth Galbraith died in April at age ninety-seven. He not only influenced economists, but was a political force. He advised President John F. Kennedy in the nineteen sixties. And he opposed President Lyndon Johnson on the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. The Harvard professor considered economics to be moral as well as mathematical. He thought government must intervene in the economy to guarantee fairness in society. Milton Friedman did not trust government to solve problems of joblessness or high prices. But he did believe it should control the money supply to fight inflation. Mister Friedman advised President Richard Nixon and President Ronald Reagan in the nineteen seventies and eighties. He played a part in pulling the United States out of a period of high unemployment and inflation in the nineteen seventies. For his work, he received the Nobel Prize in Economics in nineteen seventy-six. He died in November at age ninety-four. And that's the VOA Special English ECONOMICS REPORT. I'm Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: War in Iraq Voted Top News Story of 2006
* Byline: US midterm elections are second on Associated Press list of top 10 stories of the year. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Each year, the editors and news directors of the Associated Press choose what they believe are the top ten news stories of the year. They chose the war in Iraq as the number one news story this year. Two thousand six was a difficult year in Iraq with increasing violence, clashes between religious groups and many civilian deaths. Thousands of Iraqis have been killed. Almost three thousand members of the American military have been killed since the war began in two thousand three. Iraq's elected officials struggled to keep control of the country. The midterm elections in the United States November seventh was next on the list of the AP's top news stories for this year. Many Americans voted to express their unhappiness with the situation in Iraq. The Democratic Party gained a majority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. As a result, Nancy Pelosi of California will become the first woman to serve as speaker of the House. These were the other top stories of the year. The United States and its allies worked unsuccessfully to halt nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran. North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in October. And Iran moved forward with plans to bring its first nuclear center into operation by the end of next year. In Washington, the United States Congress tried to deal with the problem of illegal immigration from Latin America. But deep divisions prevented Congress from approving legislation. Supporters of rights for immigrants held several demonstrations. Also in Washington, several congressmen from the Republican Party were involved in cases of wrongdoing. One was former House majority leader Tom DeLay who resigned after being charged with campaign finance crimes. Another was former representative Mark Foley. He resigned after he was found to have sent sexual messages to male students working for Congress. Another top story was former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein being found guilty of ordering the killing of one hundred forty eight Shi'ite Muslims. He was sentenced to death by hanging. In the Middle East, Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia fought a month-long war during the summer. More than nine hundred people were killed. Much of southern Lebanon was severely damaged. American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned one day after the nation's midterm elections. Robert Gates was approved as the new defense secretary. In August, officials in Britain said they prevented a terrorist plot to bomb several passenger airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean. This led to new restrictions on what passengers can carry on planes. And in Sudan, violence worsened in the country's Darfur area. Fighting between rebels and government forces has killed more than two hundred thousand people. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Brianna Blake. Our reports can be found on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Remembering Five Special People Who Died in 2006
* Byline: Hear about the lives of Robert Altman, Ann Richards, R.W. Apple, William Styron and Ruth Brown. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five special people who died during the past year. We start with the movie director Robert Altman. During his fifty-year career, he made some of the most influential movies of modern times. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Robert Altman’s films were different from the usual methods of Hollywood movie storytelling. He started his film career in the nineteen forties directing industrial movies in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Later, he moved to Hollywood, California, to make television shows. His first major film, "M*A*S*H", was released in nineteen seventy. It tells about a group of American medical workers in a temporary military hospital in Korea during the Korean War in the nineteen fifties. The movie was a great success. It questions the rules of the military establishment in a way that was sharply funny and intelligent. Robert Altman continued to make movies with strong political and social commentary. His next major movie, “Nashville,” came out in nineteen seventy-five. This movie provides a complex look at changes in the country music industry. VOICE TWO: Robert Altman's movies have a very special style. Often, his actors speak so naturally it is hard to believe they are performing. Altman liked his actors to be free to make up their own lines. He often layered different recordings of actors talking at once. Altman wanted to copy the way people talk and act in real life. And he was willing to fight with movie studio businessmen to make sure he had total creative control over his work. Even as an old man, Robert Altman continued to make movies. Many of his thirty-three films were nominated for Academy Awards, including “The Player” and “Gosford Park.” Robert Altman died in November in Los Angeles, California. He was eighty-one years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ann Richards was a famous Democratic party politician from the southern state of Texas. She served as the governor of Texas for four years. Richards was known for her big white hair, big smile, and sharply funny comments. She was also known for forming what she called a “New Texas” during her time as governor. She created a government in which women, Hispanics, and African-Americans played important roles. Ann Richards did not always have a career in public service. As a young woman, she worked as a teacher and raised four children. She and her husband were very involved in local politics. Richards began working hard to help Democratic Party candidates win seats in the Texas legislature. VOICE TWO: Then one day, she decided to run for office herself -- and she won. She served first as country commissioner, then as Texas state treasurer. In nineteen ninety she was elected governor. She fought for equal rights, environmental protection and laws to restrict guns. After losing a second term as governor to George W. Bush, Richards worked in public relations. She died in September at the age of seventy-three. At her funeral service, leaders from around the country gathered to celebrate her life. Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the service. He said Ann Richards helped create a world where young girls could be scientists, engineers and police officers. He said she was a great woman with a big heart and big dreams. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The journalist R.W. Apple, known as Johnny, wrote about many subjects, from politics and war to food and drink. During his forty-three years writing for the New York Times newspaper, he enjoyed a rich and eventful career. He was the paper’s chief reporter in cities like London, Moscow, Lagos and Nairobi. He covered events such as the Vietnam War, the Iranian revolution and the Gulf War. He reported on ten presidential elections. And, Johnny Apple’s opinions on fine food, travel and the world’s best restaurants were very influential. VOICE TWO: Raymond Walter Apple was born in nineteen thirty-four in Akron, Ohio. His father owned several food stores and wanted his son to take over the business. But the young man fell in love with journalism instead. He began as a reporter for his high school and then college newspaper. He later wrote news stories for the Wall Street journal and the NBC news television network. But it was his years at the New York Times that established him as one of the greatest political and cultural writers of his time. VOICE ONE: Johnny Apple died in October at the age of seventy-one. Earlier this month his friends and family gathered in Washington, D.C. for a large memorial service. Famous writers, politicians, and cooks told about his warm personality, sharp intelligence, and extraordinary energy. After the service, guests enjoyed fine foods provided by some of the best cooks in the area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Styron wrote intense books about tragic periods in history. His stories are filled with rich language and complex moral questions. Many of his books try to understand the evil actions of people. His first novel, “Lie Down in Darkness,” was published in nineteen fifty-one when he was only twenty-five. It is about a troubled young woman who kills herself. It established him as a great new voice in American literature. The book received the Rome Prize, which required him to live in Italy for a year. He soon became friends with many famous American writers including James Baldwin and Norman Mailer. VOICE ONE: William Styron was born and raised in Newport News, Virginia. He quit college to join the Marines during World War Two. He later continued his studies in English literature. After briefly working in publishing, he started to write. Styron wrote “The Confessions of Nat Turner” in nineteen sixty-eight. It told about a nineteenth century slave revolt in the southern state of Virginia. Critics praised the book and it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. But African American writers strongly criticized the story. VOICE TWO: Styron's book “Sophie’s Choice” won the American Book Award in nineteen eighty. It is a tragic story about a woman and her children who are sent to a Nazi death camp in Poland during World War Two. The book was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep. Later in life William Styron suffered from severe depression. After recovering, he wrote honestly and bravely about his experience in “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.”? He received great praise for educating people about the difficulties of mental illness. William Styron died in November at the age of eighty-one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Did you recognize that powerful voice? It is Ruth Brown singing “Lucky Lips.” Brown recorded many rhythm and blues hits in the nineteen fifties. Her popular songs helped build the Atlantic Records company. Ruth Brown was born in Portsmouth, Virginia in nineteen twenty-eight. She learned to sing traditional music at her Christian religious center. But she liked the popular jazz and rock music of the time even more. She left home at a young age to build a career in music. One night the jazz expert and broadcaster Willis Conover heard her perform in Washington, D.C. He helped her meet the owners of Atlantic Records. By nineteen forty-nine she was recording albums. Soon, she became known as “the girl with the tear in her voice” because of her emotional way of singing. VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen sixties Brown married and led a more private life. But by the nineteen seventies and eighties, she started singing again in musicals and performed on television and in movies. She also started to fight for musicians’ rights. Many musicians recorded hit songs that made their record companies very rich. But the musicians themselves rarely received fair payment later. Ruth Brown worked hard to make these companies change their policies. In nineteen eighty-eight, Atlantic Records agreed to pay her and thirty-five other musicians the money they owed them for using their songs for twenty years. Ruth Brown continued performing for the rest of her life. She died in October. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can read and listen to this report on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-12/2006-12-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Americans Ring in the New Year With 'Auld Lang Syne'
* Byline: The song tells about the need to remember old friends. Transcript of radio broadcast:

 ANNOUNCER: Now, VOA Special English presents a special program for New Year’s Eve. (MUSIC) That is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called “Auld Lang Syne.”? It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Auld Lang Syne is an old Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends. The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since.”? No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Burns was published in seventeen ninety-six. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later. The song is sung in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve. Here is Lou Rawls singing his version of it. (MUSIC) Another version is by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. As we end our program with “Auld Lang Syne,” I would like to wish all of our radio friends a very Happy New Year!? This is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Top News Stories of 2004
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. This week we tell about some of the biggest news stories of two thousand four. We start in Asia, with what is being described as one of the worst natural disasters ever. Last Sunday, huge waves moved across the Indian Ocean and flooded coastal areas across southern and southeast Asia to East Africa. The waves were caused by one of the most powerful earthquakes every recorded, measuring nine on the Richter Scale. The countries hardest hit were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. More than one hundred thousand people are reported dead. Millions of people have been left homeless. Two thousand four was also filled with news about the war in Iraq and daily reports of violence in the country. Militants increased their attacks against American soldiers, Iraqi police officers and civilians working with the United States. American-led forces battled militants in the cities of Fallujah and Najaf. In May, news organizations around the world reported about the mistreatment of Iraqis by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. More than one thousand American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began almost two years ago. And the number of Iraqis killed is reportedly many times higher. Terrorism was a top story in other parts of the world. In March, suspected Islamic militants exploded bombs on crowded passenger trains in Madrid, Spain. About two hundred people were killed. Days later, Spanish voters defeated the country’s conservative government, which had supported the American-led war in Iraq. In September, armed Chechen militants seized more than one thousand children, parents and teachers in a school in Beslan, Russia. The seizure ended in gunfire and explosions after days of negotiations. More than three hundred people were killed, most of them children. The African nation of Sudan was in the news because of a major humanitarian crisis in the Darfur area. Reports said government-supported Arab militants killed more than seventy thousand people in a two-year campaign of violence against black tribal farmers. More than one million people have been displaced from their homes. Two thousand four was also a year of historic political elections. In Afghanistan, voters elected Hamid Karzai in the country’s first presidential election. Voters in the United States re-elected George W. Bush after a hard fought presidential campaign against the Democratic party candidate, John Kerry. And a political crisis eased in Ukraine after the Supreme Court cancelled the election victory of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The court decided there had been widespread cheating and ordered a new presidential election. Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko won that election on Sunday and has promised democratic changes in Ukraine. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. This week we tell about some of the biggest news stories of two thousand four. We start in Asia, with what is being described as one of the worst natural disasters ever. Last Sunday, huge waves moved across the Indian Ocean and flooded coastal areas across southern and southeast Asia to East Africa. The waves were caused by one of the most powerful earthquakes every recorded, measuring nine on the Richter Scale. The countries hardest hit were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. More than one hundred thousand people are reported dead. Millions of people have been left homeless. Two thousand four was also filled with news about the war in Iraq and daily reports of violence in the country. Militants increased their attacks against American soldiers, Iraqi police officers and civilians working with the United States. American-led forces battled militants in the cities of Fallujah and Najaf. In May, news organizations around the world reported about the mistreatment of Iraqis by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. More than one thousand American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began almost two years ago. And the number of Iraqis killed is reportedly many times higher. Terrorism was a top story in other parts of the world. In March, suspected Islamic militants exploded bombs on crowded passenger trains in Madrid, Spain. About two hundred people were killed. Days later, Spanish voters defeated the country’s conservative government, which had supported the American-led war in Iraq. In September, armed Chechen militants seized more than one thousand children, parents and teachers in a school in Beslan, Russia. The seizure ended in gunfire and explosions after days of negotiations. More than three hundred people were killed, most of them children. The African nation of Sudan was in the news because of a major humanitarian crisis in the Darfur area. Reports said government-supported Arab militants killed more than seventy thousand people in a two-year campaign of violence against black tribal farmers. More than one million people have been displaced from their homes. Two thousand four was also a year of historic political elections. In Afghanistan, voters elected Hamid Karzai in the country’s first presidential election. Voters in the United States re-elected George W. Bush after a hard fought presidential campaign against the Democratic party candidate, John Kerry. And a political crisis eased in Ukraine after the Supreme Court cancelled the election victory of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The court decided there had been widespread cheating and ordered a new presidential election. Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko won that election on Sunday and has promised democratic changes in Ukraine. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Singer Nat King Cole
* Byline: Written by Yenni Grow

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most popular singers. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most popular singers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Coles. His father was a Christian minister. When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father’s church. VOICE TWO: Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In Nineteen Thirty-Seven, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano. By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records. The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand copies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed. Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems. VOICE ONE: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a year. Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story. In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children. VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old. He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Coles. His father was a Christian minister. When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father’s church. VOICE TWO: Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In Nineteen Thirty-Seven, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano. By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records. The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand copies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed. Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems. VOICE ONE: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a year. Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story. In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children. VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old. He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Canning Food
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. People have always had to find ways to keep food safe to eat. Methods to dry, smoke and salt food were invented thousands of years ago. The process of canning is much more recent. This storage method keeps food safe to eat for long periods of time. Today, canning is one of the most popular methods of storing food. Canning uses heat to kill bacteria and other micro-organisms that cause poisons to form in food. Canning also takes away the air that these organisms need to live. One popular method of canning uses a water bath. Clean fruits or vegetables are placed in glass bottles. The food can be put into the bottles either hot or cold. The cold method is used for soft fruits and vegetables that could lose their shape or taste. Firmer fruits and most vegetables are usually cooked. They take up less space in the bottles. After the food has been placed in glass bottles, boiling water is poured into the bottles to about three centimeters below the top. Then covers are placed on the bottles, but are not turned all the way. The bottles are placed in a large container filled with warm water that is then brought to a boil. The water must completely cover the bottles, from three to five centimeters over the top. When the water boils, any air in the bottles will be expelled. The boiling continues for several minutes. Then the bottles are allowed to cool. Finally, they are placed briefly into cold water. This makes a strong barrier to keep the air out. In other words, a vacuum is created. When the bottles are completely cool, notes can be placed on them to identify what is inside. The bottles can then be stored in a cool, dark place at a temperature of between four and twenty-one degrees Celsius. Canning allows your family to enjoy foods that might not come fresh throughout the year. It is also a good way to store food for six months to a year, or even several years, in case of an emergency. It does not cost much to continue canning every year once the equipment has been purchased. You can get more information about canning food from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Miles Davis and 'Kind of Blue'
* Byline: Written by Bob Brumfield

 (MUSIC) John Coltrane (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Gwen Outen. If one album had to explain jazz, a strong candidate would be “Kind of Blue,” by the trumpet player and bandleader Miles Davis. 'Satchmo' VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Gwen Outen. If one album had to explain jazz, a strong candidate would be “Kind of Blue,” by the trumpet player and bandleader Miles Davis. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Kind of Blue" has influenced musicians for more than forty years. It is also a favorite of listeners. The Recording Industry Association of America marked the sale of three million copies in the United States as of two thousand two. (MUSIC) Like many other albums, "Kind of Blue" was made in two recording sessions. These took place for Columbia Records in New York City in March and April of nineteen fifty-nine. VOICE TWO: Stories about the making of "Kind of Blue" say there was nothing unusual about the project. When the musicians arrived, Miles Davis gave them some short, simple descriptions of the music they would play. He is said to have written these notes just a few hours earlier. His piano player, Bill Evans, helped him write some of the music that would get the musicians started. Miles Davis did not want to tell them too much about what to play. He wanted the music to flow naturally. Such improvisation was nothing new for musicians. Yet the five songs on "Kind of Blue" represented a perfect mix of improvisational talent and musical experimentation. The first song is called “So What.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis played trumpet and led the group. Julian “Cannonball” Adderley played alto saxophone; John Coltrane played tenor saxophone. Paul Chambers was on the bass, and James Cobb played drums. (MUSIC) Miles Davis had a talent for bringing together great musicians. But it also meant that he had to form new bands again and again. Band members would become successful enough as individuals to form their own groups. The band that Miles Davis put together for “Kind of Blue” was no different. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This song is called “Freddie Freeloader.” On this song, Wynton Kelly plays the piano; he replaced Bill Evans. Listen to how the band works as a team, but also how the musicians play individually over the music. Listen especially to the competing saxophones of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis and his band were experimenting with a new kind of sound on “Kind of Blue.” This is the sound of a traditional jazz chord progression: (MUSIC) But Miles Davis designed the music on “Kind of Blue” around a modal form. This kind of system permitted the musicians more freedom. After “Kind of Blue,” jazz musicians used the modal form more and more. Here is another song from "Kind of Blue." This one is called "Blue in Green." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Miles Davis and his band were not the only artists testing new ways to do things. There was, for example, the painter Jackson Pollack. His experiments in form and color were playful but went against tradition, just like "Kind of Blue." Pianist Bill Evans himself saw similarities between the music and a form of Japanese art. Some compared the album to the ideas of Zen Buddhism. At that time, a lot of Americans were becoming interested in Asian spirituality. This song is called "All Blues." Listen how naturally the music appears to develop from one point in the song to the next. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis was born into a wealthy family in Illinois in nineteen twenty-six. He received a trumpet for his thirteenth birthday and began jazz lessons. In nineteen forty-four, he moved to New York. He entered the Julliard School of Music. But he left the school the next year to work with great musicians like Billy Eckstine and Charlie Parker. In nineteen forty-nine Miles Davis released "Birth of the Cool." This recording also had a big influence on jazz. At that time, listeners were used to the often forceful, fast-moving beats of Louis Armstrong and others. Cool jazz became especially popular on the West Coast. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the civil rights movement grew in the Untied States. Here was a tall, talented, good looking -- and very strong-willed - African American man. He wore Italian suits and drove European cars. There were many women in his life, although he was violent with women. Still, many people saw Miles Davis as someone who stood up to a system that often kept African Americans from economic success. VOICE ONE: Miles Davis died in nineteen ninety-one in California, at the age of sixty-five. He is remembered most as one of the best trumpet players ever. Miles Davis played more softly than many of those who came before him. He also did not work as hard to hit as many high notes or low notes. He found his unmistakable sound somewhere in the middle. There was also his sense of timing and the use of silence in his music. Miles Davis had a talent especially for sad love songs. This one is called “Flamenco Sketches,” the final song on “Kind of Blue.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Robert Brumfield. Caty Weaver was our producer. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. We go out on "Freddie Freeloader," which will become the new theme music for our program starting next week. We hope you join us again for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Kind of Blue" has influenced musicians for more than forty years. It is also a favorite of listeners. The Recording Industry Association of America marked the sale of three million copies in the United States as of two thousand two. (MUSIC) Like many other albums, "Kind of Blue" was made in two recording sessions. These took place for Columbia Records in New York City in March and April of nineteen fifty-nine. VOICE TWO: Stories about the making of "Kind of Blue" say there was nothing unusual about the project. When the musicians arrived, Miles Davis gave them some short, simple descriptions of the music they would play. He is said to have written these notes just a few hours earlier. His piano player, Bill Evans, helped him write some of the music that would get the musicians started. Miles Davis did not want to tell them too much about what to play. He wanted the music to flow naturally. Such improvisation was nothing new for musicians. Yet the five songs on "Kind of Blue" represented a perfect mix of improvisational talent and musical experimentation. The first song is called “So What.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis played trumpet and led the group. Julian “Cannonball” Adderley played alto saxophone; John Coltrane played tenor saxophone. Paul Chambers was on the bass, and James Cobb played drums. (MUSIC) Miles Davis had a talent for bringing together great musicians. But it also meant that he had to form new bands again and again. Band members would become successful enough as individuals to form their own groups. The band that Miles Davis put together for “Kind of Blue” was no different. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This song is called “Freddie Freeloader.” On this song, Wynton Kelly plays the piano; he replaced Bill Evans. Listen to how the band works as a team, but also how the musicians play individually over the music. Listen especially to the competing saxophones of John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis and his band were experimenting with a new kind of sound on “Kind of Blue.” This is the sound of a traditional jazz chord progression: (MUSIC) But Miles Davis designed the music on “Kind of Blue” around a modal form. This kind of system permitted the musicians more freedom. After “Kind of Blue,” jazz musicians used the modal form more and more. Here is another song from "Kind of Blue." This one is called "Blue in Green." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Miles Davis and his band were not the only artists testing new ways to do things. There was, for example, the painter Jackson Pollack. His experiments in form and color were playful but went against tradition, just like "Kind of Blue." Pianist Bill Evans himself saw similarities between the music and a form of Japanese art. Some compared the album to the ideas of Zen Buddhism. At that time, a lot of Americans were becoming interested in Asian spirituality. This song is called "All Blues." Listen how naturally the music appears to develop from one point in the song to the next. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miles Davis was born into a wealthy family in Illinois in nineteen twenty-six. He received a trumpet for his thirteenth birthday and began jazz lessons. In nineteen forty-four, he moved to New York. He entered the Julliard School of Music. But he left the school the next year to work with great musicians like Billy Eckstine and Charlie Parker. In nineteen forty-nine Miles Davis released "Birth of the Cool." This recording also had a big influence on jazz. At that time, listeners were used to the often forceful, fast-moving beats of Louis Armstrong and others. Cool jazz became especially popular on the West Coast. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the civil rights movement grew in the Untied States. Here was a tall, talented, good looking -- and very strong-willed - African American man. He wore Italian suits and drove European cars. There were many women in his life, although he was violent with women. Still, many people saw Miles Davis as someone who stood up to a system that often kept African Americans from economic success. VOICE ONE: Miles Davis died in nineteen ninety-one in California, at the age of sixty-five. He is remembered most as one of the best trumpet players ever. Miles Davis played more softly than many of those who came before him. He also did not work as hard to hit as many high notes or low notes. He found his unmistakable sound somewhere in the middle. There was also his sense of timing and the use of silence in his music. Miles Davis had a talent especially for sad love songs. This one is called “Flamenco Sketches,” the final song on “Kind of Blue.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Robert Brumfield. Caty Weaver was our producer. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. We go out on "Freddie Freeloader," which will become the new theme music for our program starting next week. We hope you join us again for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Caption for Photo 2
* Byline: 

 1. Alex Avory 2. Munawar 3. Ali Fahri 4. Steven 5. Heru 6. Harefa 7. Reinaldo 8. Tanto 9. Yohana 10. Tati 11. Sitompul 12. Rusmawar 13. Sipahutar 14. Rudol 15. Telaumbanua 16. Indra 17. Seruan 18. Valen 19. Partogi 20. Dabalok 21. Willy 22. Crismes 23. Ruth 24. Sinambela 25. Fransiska 26. Marito 27. Wita 28. Poppy 29. Febi 30. Johannes Sihotang 31. Jenni 2. Munawar 3. Ali Fahri 4. Steven 5. Heru 6. Harefa 7. Reinaldo 8. Tanto 9. Yohana 10. Tati 11. Sitompul 12. Rusmawar 13. Sipahutar 14. Rudol 15. Telaumbanua 16. Indra 17. Seruan 18. Valen 19. Partogi 20. Dabalok 21. Willy 22. Crismes 23. Ruth 24. Sinambela 25. Fransiska 26. Marito 27. Wita 28. Poppy 29. Febi 30. Johannes Sihotang 31. Jenni 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Caption for Photo 3
* Byline: 

 1. Soni 2. Reza 3. Siti 4. Lince 5. Mogaria 6. Sitompul 7. Enaresanti 8. Dora 9.Santi 10. Lilies 11. Monika 12. Juara Loren 13. Rambe 14. Silalahi 15. Juntak 16. Daeli 17. Yessi 18. Nahot 19. Girsang 20. Yacub 21. Yolanda 22. Fitri 23. Mora Prima 24. Johannes Sihotang 25. Horas 26. Sinaga 27 Putra 28. Bornok 29. Bonor 30. Antoni 31. Sunal 32. Gomes 33. Darius 2. Reza 3. Siti 4. Lince 5. Mogaria 6. Sitompul 7. Enaresanti 8. Dora 9.Santi 10. Lilies 11. Monika 12. Juara Loren 13. Rambe 14. Silalahi 15. Juntak 16. Daeli 17. Yessi 18. Nahot 19. Girsang 20. Yacub 21. Yolanda 22. Fitri 23. Mora Prima 24. Johannes Sihotang 25. Horas 26. Sinaga 27 Putra 28. Bornok 29. Bonor 30. Antoni 31. Sunal 32. Gomes 33. Darius 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: All About Snow
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow. VOICE ONE: Winter weather has returned to northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas. Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain. VOICE TWO: Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two and one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two and one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two and one-half centimeters of rain. VOICE ONE: Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced. Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther. VOICE TWO: Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance. Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four thousand nine hundred meters above sea level. VOICE TWO: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred snow storms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington. VOICE ONE: People in many other areas have little or no snowfall. In nineteen thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice. Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. A few years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States. It struck the Southeast in January, ninety ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast. The storm was blamed for more than one hundred deaths. It forced nine states to declare emergency measures. Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest. In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one meter high. Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles. Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two. A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast. In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down. Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations. VOICE ONE: People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack. It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies. VOICE TWO: Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat. People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow. VOICE ONE: Winter weather has returned to northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas. Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain. VOICE TWO: Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two and one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two and one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two and one-half centimeters of rain. VOICE ONE: Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced. Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther. VOICE TWO: Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance. Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four thousand nine hundred meters above sea level. VOICE TWO: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred snow storms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington. VOICE ONE: People in many other areas have little or no snowfall. In nineteen thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice. Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. A few years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States. It struck the Southeast in January, ninety ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast. The storm was blamed for more than one hundred deaths. It forced nine states to declare emergency measures. Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest. In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one meter high. Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles. Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two. A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast. In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down. Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations. VOICE ONE: People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack. It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies. VOICE TWO: Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat. People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: 2004 Good Year for U.S. Farmers
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Two thousand four was a good year for American farmers. Total farm earnings were estimated at seventy-four thousand million dollars for the year. That means the average farm income was about seventy-one thousand dollars, or a gain of about three percent from the year before. However, the growth in earnings depended on the size of the farm. Large farms had increased earnings of six and one-half percent. Smaller farms saw growth in earnings of less than three percent. Part of American farm income came from the federal government. The Department of Agriculture reports that about thirty-nine percent of farmers accepted some kind of aid, or subsidy, in two thousand three. An organization called the Commodity Credit Corporation supervises farm aid. The C.C.C. is part of the Agriculture Department’s Farm Services Agency. The C.C.C. seeks to keep crop prices at balanced levels. The agency uses loan programs, direct payments and even buys crops to support prices. It also supervises emergency farm aid and special programs like the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of two thousand four. That act ends price supports for tobacco farmers by offering them payments for up to ten years. Reports say the total amount of farm aid paid last year is estimated at fifteen thousand seven hundred million dollars. An organization called the Environmental Working Group keeps information on all farm subsidies paid by the government. The group examined subsidies between nineteen ninety-five and two thousand three. It says ten percent of farms received seventy-two percent of government subsidies during that nine-year period. The group says big farms that are organized as corporation or partnership businesses receive the most aid. It says the big farms receive more aid, even when they are more profitable than smaller family farms. Critics say farm subsidies are costly and wasteful. Critics also note that subsidies go only to growers of widely traded crops, like corn, cotton, wheat and soybean. But many farmers, including ones who only receive a few thousand dollars a year, support the subsidy programs. They say small farming communities in states like Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota would not survive without the aid. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-04-5-1.cfm
* Headline: Puppets Teaching Children Around the World
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 (MUSIC) Kids on the Block Logo (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS, in VOA Special English. Do you think it is possible to make children laugh and teach them about very serious problems at the same time? Two organizations in the United States and Britain say “YES!” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Brenda Dubrowski is eleven years old. Her parents do not live together anymore. Brenda sometimes has a hard time talking about that. Diane Delaney is also eleven years old. She has a very serious disease called cancer. Salimah Rahman came to the United States from Pakistan. She wants people to know that she is a Muslim, she is an American and she wants to work with computers when she grows up. VOICE TWO: Brenda and Diane and Salimah are just like real children in America. But they are not real. They are puppets. They are made of wood and cloth. Each puppet is about one meter tall. People called puppeteers stand behind each puppet and use sticks to make the puppet’s arms and legs move. The puppeteers also talk for the puppets. VOICE ONE: These puppets are part of an American organization called Kids on the Block. There are more than fifty puppets. They all have names and stories about where they live, what they enjoy doing and the other people in their family. Almost all of the puppets are working on a problem. Some have a disease or a disability. Some are not treated fairly at school or in their community. Some are treated badly at home. They talk about their problems in plays that are presented in schools all over the world. One thousand two hundred groups of Kids on the Block Puppets perform in the United States, Canada and thirty other countries. There are Kids on the Block puppets in Hong Kong and Japan, Kuwait and Brazil, New Zealand and Australia as well as many countries in Europe. VOICE TWO: Kids on the Block started in the United States almost thirty years ago. At that time, the puppets had physical or mental problems called disabilities. There were new laws in the United States that said children with disabilities should be educated in the same schools with other children. The puppets helped all children understand what it is like to live with a disability. Now it is very common to see children with all kinds of disabilities in American schools. VOICE ONE: Kids on the Block puppets now talk to children about forty-two different diseases, disabilities and social issues. There are plays about AIDS and cancer, learning disabilities, alcohol and tobacco use, pregnancy, and children who are treated badly. One very popular new play talks about bullies. Bullies are children who treat other children badly. They may hurt them physically or just say words that are harmful or unfriendly. VOICE TWO: A Kids on the Block group in the state of Kentucky decided to present the play about bullies because there have been too many shootings in schools in America. Davida Warren is the director of Kids on the Block in Kentucky. Mizz Warren says many shootings are caused by a child who was hurt by bullies. She says children feel safe around the puppets so they talk easily about places in school where they are afraid of bullies. School officials are then able to make those places more secure. Mizz Warren also says the puppets help children feel strong enough inside to say to a bully, “I am not going to let you do this to me anymore.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are also Kids on the Block puppet shows about children who are treated badly at home, often by a friend or family member. This is called child abuse. Sometimes it can be sexual abuse. Mizz Warren says one seven-year-old girl talked to a puppet after the play. She said the man who had married her mother was sexually abusing her and her five-year-old sister. Police were called to investigate and the man is now in prison. The little girl had never been able to tell her mother or anyone at school about the problem. However, she was able to talk to a puppet who had talked about having the same experience. VOICE TWO: A Kids on the Block group in the state of Florida presents plays about bullying and child abuse in about one hundred thirty schools every year. Trish Sandag is the director. She says that last year, twenty-nine children told a puppet they had been treated badly at home. Government officials or police always investigate a situation like this. Mizz Sandag receives many letters from children who see the puppets. One child wrote, “The puppets made me feel safe.” Another wrote, “They showed me how to say no.” Here are some of the other things children have said after they see Kids on the Block puppets: VOICE ONE: “Something lit up in my head when I saw the puppets. I act like a bully sometimes. I will not do that anymore.” VOICE TWO: “This is not just a funny puppet show. This is real.” VOICE ONE: “Thank you for letting me know I should not decide what I think about people just because of the color of their skin.” VOICE TWO: “These puppets make it easy to pay attention and learn.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A man from Ireland has also learned that puppets make it easier for children to learn about difficult problems. For many years, Johnie McGlade worked in emergency camps for refugees. One time he had a puppet called Seamus. He said children in Sudan and other countries loved the puppet. He said the children would remember the puppet’s name but not his name. VOICE TWO: One day, Mister McGlade met Kathryn Mullen and Michael Frith. They are a married couple from the United States who created puppets for television shows like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Together these three people started an organization called No Strings, based in Britain. They wanted to use puppets to give children information that could save their lives. First, they wanted to teach children in Afghanistan about landmines. Landmines are small bombs placed on the ground that have not yet exploded. They can be colorful and even look like toys. The British Red Cross says two thousand people are killed or hurt by these bombs every month. Many of them are children. VOICE ONE: The puppeteers wrote a story and created a puppet that children in Afghanistan would understand. A grandmother is very sad because her grandson was killed by a landmine. The grandmother makes a puppet named Chuchi. The puppet is made of a floor covering material called a carpet. People make many beautiful carpets in this part of the world. Chuchi learns about landmines. But when he is walking near his home, he forgets what he has learned. Bad men called jinn urge him do things he should not do. He loses both his legs when a landmine explodes. There is a happy ending, though. A five-meter tall puppet called a genie changes Chuchi into a real boy with two legs. The puppeteers tell the children that Chuchi had a second chance. But children only have one chance, so they need to know how to be safe. VOICE TWO: Mister McGlade says the puppet stories make the children laugh, but they are also very realistic. He says children will listen and talk to puppets even if they do not listen to adults. During the show, children shout directions at the Chuchi puppet, trying to make him stay away from the landmines. The puppeteers from No Strings went to Afghanistan in July, two thousand three and again in January, two thousand four. They were not able to go a third time because of security problems. Instead, they created a video which will be made in English, Urdu and Pashtun. Mister McGlade wants to take many copies of the video to Afghanistan. The organization is training people to be puppeteers and to make the puppets. Mister McGlade says he wants to have a group of puppets in every province in Afghanistan. Someday he wants to use puppets to help children with other problems including the disease AIDS. VOICE ONE: Why does Mister McGlade think puppets work so well to teach these difficult lessons? He says children are not afraid of puppets and they find it easy to talk about anything with a puppet. Puppets can also do or say things that people cannot. “A puppet is always right,” says Mister McGlade. “A puppet can make you laugh or cry or learn.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Karen Leggett. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can find more information about Kids on the Block on the Internet at www.kotb.com. The Web site for No Strings is www.nostrings.org.uk. Listen again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS, in VOA Special English. Do you think it is possible to make children laugh and teach them about very serious problems at the same time? Two organizations in the United States and Britain say “YES!” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Brenda Dubrowski is eleven years old. Her parents do not live together anymore. Brenda sometimes has a hard time talking about that. Diane Delaney is also eleven years old. She has a very serious disease called cancer. Salimah Rahman came to the United States from Pakistan. She wants people to know that she is a Muslim, she is an American and she wants to work with computers when she grows up. VOICE TWO: Brenda and Diane and Salimah are just like real children in America. But they are not real. They are puppets. They are made of wood and cloth. Each puppet is about one meter tall. People called puppeteers stand behind each puppet and use sticks to make the puppet’s arms and legs move. The puppeteers also talk for the puppets. VOICE ONE: These puppets are part of an American organization called Kids on the Block. There are more than fifty puppets. They all have names and stories about where they live, what they enjoy doing and the other people in their family. Almost all of the puppets are working on a problem. Some have a disease or a disability. Some are not treated fairly at school or in their community. Some are treated badly at home. They talk about their problems in plays that are presented in schools all over the world. One thousand two hundred groups of Kids on the Block Puppets perform in the United States, Canada and thirty other countries. There are Kids on the Block puppets in Hong Kong and Japan, Kuwait and Brazil, New Zealand and Australia as well as many countries in Europe. VOICE TWO: Kids on the Block started in the United States almost thirty years ago. At that time, the puppets had physical or mental problems called disabilities. There were new laws in the United States that said children with disabilities should be educated in the same schools with other children. The puppets helped all children understand what it is like to live with a disability. Now it is very common to see children with all kinds of disabilities in American schools. VOICE ONE: Kids on the Block puppets now talk to children about forty-two different diseases, disabilities and social issues. There are plays about AIDS and cancer, learning disabilities, alcohol and tobacco use, pregnancy, and children who are treated badly. One very popular new play talks about bullies. Bullies are children who treat other children badly. They may hurt them physically or just say words that are harmful or unfriendly. VOICE TWO: A Kids on the Block group in the state of Kentucky decided to present the play about bullies because there have been too many shootings in schools in America. Davida Warren is the director of Kids on the Block in Kentucky. Mizz Warren says many shootings are caused by a child who was hurt by bullies. She says children feel safe around the puppets so they talk easily about places in school where they are afraid of bullies. School officials are then able to make those places more secure. Mizz Warren also says the puppets help children feel strong enough inside to say to a bully, “I am not going to let you do this to me anymore.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are also Kids on the Block puppet shows about children who are treated badly at home, often by a friend or family member. This is called child abuse. Sometimes it can be sexual abuse. Mizz Warren says one seven-year-old girl talked to a puppet after the play. She said the man who had married her mother was sexually abusing her and her five-year-old sister. Police were called to investigate and the man is now in prison. The little girl had never been able to tell her mother or anyone at school about the problem. However, she was able to talk to a puppet who had talked about having the same experience. VOICE TWO: A Kids on the Block group in the state of Florida presents plays about bullying and child abuse in about one hundred thirty schools every year. Trish Sandag is the director. She says that last year, twenty-nine children told a puppet they had been treated badly at home. Government officials or police always investigate a situation like this. Mizz Sandag receives many letters from children who see the puppets. One child wrote, “The puppets made me feel safe.” Another wrote, “They showed me how to say no.” Here are some of the other things children have said after they see Kids on the Block puppets: VOICE ONE: “Something lit up in my head when I saw the puppets. I act like a bully sometimes. I will not do that anymore.” VOICE TWO: “This is not just a funny puppet show. This is real.” VOICE ONE: “Thank you for letting me know I should not decide what I think about people just because of the color of their skin.” VOICE TWO: “These puppets make it easy to pay attention and learn.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A man from Ireland has also learned that puppets make it easier for children to learn about difficult problems. For many years, Johnie McGlade worked in emergency camps for refugees. One time he had a puppet called Seamus. He said children in Sudan and other countries loved the puppet. He said the children would remember the puppet’s name but not his name. VOICE TWO: One day, Mister McGlade met Kathryn Mullen and Michael Frith. They are a married couple from the United States who created puppets for television shows like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. Together these three people started an organization called No Strings, based in Britain. They wanted to use puppets to give children information that could save their lives. First, they wanted to teach children in Afghanistan about landmines. Landmines are small bombs placed on the ground that have not yet exploded. They can be colorful and even look like toys. The British Red Cross says two thousand people are killed or hurt by these bombs every month. Many of them are children. VOICE ONE: The puppeteers wrote a story and created a puppet that children in Afghanistan would understand. A grandmother is very sad because her grandson was killed by a landmine. The grandmother makes a puppet named Chuchi. The puppet is made of a floor covering material called a carpet. People make many beautiful carpets in this part of the world. Chuchi learns about landmines. But when he is walking near his home, he forgets what he has learned. Bad men called jinn urge him do things he should not do. He loses both his legs when a landmine explodes. There is a happy ending, though. A five-meter tall puppet called a genie changes Chuchi into a real boy with two legs. The puppeteers tell the children that Chuchi had a second chance. But children only have one chance, so they need to know how to be safe. VOICE TWO: Mister McGlade says the puppet stories make the children laugh, but they are also very realistic. He says children will listen and talk to puppets even if they do not listen to adults. During the show, children shout directions at the Chuchi puppet, trying to make him stay away from the landmines. The puppeteers from No Strings went to Afghanistan in July, two thousand three and again in January, two thousand four. They were not able to go a third time because of security problems. Instead, they created a video which will be made in English, Urdu and Pashtun. Mister McGlade wants to take many copies of the video to Afghanistan. The organization is training people to be puppeteers and to make the puppets. Mister McGlade says he wants to have a group of puppets in every province in Afghanistan. Someday he wants to use puppets to help children with other problems including the disease AIDS. VOICE ONE: Why does Mister McGlade think puppets work so well to teach these difficult lessons? He says children are not afraid of puppets and they find it easy to talk about anything with a puppet. Puppets can also do or say things that people cannot. “A puppet is always right,” says Mister McGlade. “A puppet can make you laugh or cry or learn.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Karen Leggett. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. You can find more information about Kids on the Block on the Internet at www.kotb.com. The Web site for No Strings is www.nostrings.org.uk. Listen again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-04-6-1.cfm
* Headline: New Tuberculosis Drug
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Research scientists say they have discovered a new drug that will help the fight against the disease tuberculosis. The substance is called R-two-zero-seven-nine-one-zero. Experts say it has been shown in animal experiments to clear tuberculosis infections two times faster than other medicines. Scientists have just begun to test the experimental drug in people. The researchers described the drug in Science magazine. Tuberculosis infects at least eight million people each year. It also is the second leading cause of death around the world. The disease kills two million to three million people each year. Only Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome kills more. Eleven million people are infected with both tuberculosis and the virus that causes AIDS. Tuberculosis spreads easily through the air, by coughing, sneezing or even talking. But people infected with the tuberculosis mycobacterium will not necessarily become sick. The organism can live in the body for years before becoming active. Koen Andries led the effort to develop the new anti-tuberculosis drug. Doctor Andries is a researcher with the drug maker Johnson and Johnson in Belgium. He said the new drug is the first such medicine to be tested in people since rifampin was developed in nineteen-sixty-three. Today, rifampin is used in combination with two other medicines to treat tuberculosis. The drugs must be taken for up to nine months. But experts say the drug treatment is no longer effective against the disease in many parts of the world. They say this is because the mycobacterium has developed defenses against the treatment. Doctors say the resistance resulted from patients failing to follow directions for the medicines. The experimental drug is one of a new group of chemicals called diarylquinolines. Doctors say it works differently than other anti-tuberculosis drugs. Older drugs work by interfering with the manufacture of different systems in the mycobacterium. Doctor Andries says the new drug blocks the energy supply of the organism. He also says the drug appears to be most effective when given in combination with the older drugs. Limited human tests of the new drug have shown that it is safe. But some researchers warn that it may not work as well in people as it has in mice. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-04-5-2.cfm
* Headline: January 5, 2005 - 'Palindrome'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 5, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: some wordplay to start off 2005. Broadcast: January 5, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: some wordplay to start off 2005. Each New Year we play a production inspired by a 1950s television series about a gunfighter named "Paladin." Only the skit is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." A palindrome is something that reads the same backward or forward, like "a man, a plan, a canal: Panama." You might be wondering, what do palindromes have to do with the New Year? Well, January is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings. Janus is shown with two faces: one looking backward, the other looking forward. So a skit about palindromes seems a fitting way to mark the end of one year and the beginning of another. And so here now is the cowboy musical group Riders in the Sky, joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western, with "The Ballad of Palindrome." AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" Riders in the Sky and Johnny Western with "The Ballad of Palindrome." It's from the 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label. That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you all the best in 2005, I’m Avi Arditti. Each New Year we play a production inspired by a 1950s television series about a gunfighter named "Paladin." Only the skit is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." A palindrome is something that reads the same backward or forward, like "a man, a plan, a canal: Panama." You might be wondering, what do palindromes have to do with the New Year? Well, January is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings. Janus is shown with two faces: one looking backward, the other looking forward. So a skit about palindromes seems a fitting way to mark the end of one year and the beginning of another. And so here now is the cowboy musical group Riders in the Sky, joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western, with "The Ballad of Palindrome." AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" Riders in the Sky and Johnny Western with "The Ballad of Palindrome." It's from the 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label. That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you all the best in 2005, I’m Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 1
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) By February first, eighteen-sixty-one, seven southern states had withdrawn from the United States of America. They created their own independent nation, the Confederate States of America. The south seceded because a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, had been elected president. Southerners believed Lincoln would support a constitutional ban on slavery. They were afraid their way of life was about to end. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the beginning of Abraham Lincoln's administration. VOICE TWO: President-elect Lincoln traveled by train from his home in Illinois to Washington, D.C. Along the way, he stopped to make speeches. As he got closer to Washington, he was warned that a mob was planning to attack the train. He had to continue his trip in secret. Lincoln arrived in Washington nine days before his inauguration. It was a busy time. He talked with many people, including delegates to a peace convention. Every state was represented at the convention, except the states that had seceded. The delegates urged Lincoln to support slavery. They urged him not to go to war over the issue. Lincoln said only that he would faithfully execute the duties of President of all the United States. He said he would protect and defend the American Constitution. VOICE ONE: While Lincoln waited for inauguration day, he chose the members of his cabinet. He wanted men representing all opposing groups in the Republican Party. He hoped this would unite the party and give him support in the difficult years ahead. Lincoln chose William Seward as Secretary of State. Salmon Chase as Treasury Secretary. Gideon Welles as Navy Secretary. And Montgomery Blair as Postmaster General. Seward did not like Chase, Welles, or Blair. He told Lincoln that he could not serve in the cabinet with them. He said they would never be able to work together. Lincoln answered that he would be happy to make Seward Ambassador to Britain, instead of Secretary of State. Seward gave up the argument and agreed to join the cabinet. VOICE TWO: Inauguration day was the fourth of March. President-elect Lincoln rode to the ceremony with out-going President James Buchanan. Buchanan was ready to give up his power. He told Lincoln: "If you are as happy to get into the White House as I am to get out of it, you must be the happiest man alive!" The inaugural ceremony took place outside the Capitol building. Lincoln was to give his inaugural speech before being sworn-in. He had worked hard on the speech. He wanted to say clearly what his policy would be on slavery and secession. These were the issues which divided the country. These were the issues which were leading the country to civil war. This is what Lincoln said: VOICE ONE: "There seems to be some fear among the people of the southern states, that because a Republican administration is coming to power, their property and their peace and personal security are threatened. There has never been any reasonable cause for such fears. In fact, much evidence to the contrary has existed, open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all my published speeches. "In one of those speeches, I declared that I had no purpose -- directly or indirectly -- to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I said I believed I had no legal right to do so, and no wish to do so. "This statement is still true. I can only say that the property, peace, and security of no part of the country are to be in any way endangered by the incoming administration." VOICE TWO: Lincoln noted that seventy-two years had passed since the first president was inaugurated. Since then, he said, fifteen men had led the nation through many dangers, generally with great success. He went on: VOICE ONE: "I now begin the same job under great difficulty. The breaking up of the federal Union -- before, only threatened -- now, is attempted. I believe that under universal law and the Constitution, the Union of these states is permanent. This is shown by the history of the Union itself. "The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in seventeen-seventy-four. It was continued by the Declaration of Independence in seventeen-seventy-six. It grew further under the Articles of Confederation in seventeen-seventy-eight. And finally, in seventeen-eighty-seven, one of the declared reasons for establishing the Constitution of the United States was to form 'a more perfect Union'. "I therefore believe that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is not broken. I shall make sure, as the Constitution orders me to do, that the laws of the Union are obeyed in all the states. In doing this, there needs to be no bloodshed or violence. And there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national government. "The power given to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the taxes. But beyond what is necessary for these purposes, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere." VOICE TWO: Lincoln then repeated some statements he had made during his campaign for president. He used them to explain the differences between north and south. One part of the country, he said, believes slavery is right and should be extended. The other part believes slavery is wrong and should not be extended. This, he said, was the only important dispute. Lincoln admitted that, even if the dispute could be settled peacefully, there were those who wanted to see the Union destroyed. He said his words were not meant for them. They were meant only for those people who really loved the Union. He said: VOICE ONE: "Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go away from or out of the reach of each other. But the different parts of our country cannot do this. They must remain face to face. And relations -- friendly or hostile -- must continue between them. "Is it possible to make those relations better after separation than before. Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws. Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can be enforced among friends. "My countrymen -- one and all -- think calmly and well upon this subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen -- and not in mine -- is the great issue of civil war. The government will not attack you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though emotion may have damaged them, it must not break our ties of love." VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln then placed his hand on the Christian holy book, the Bible. The Chief Justice of the United States then spoke the presidential oath. Lincoln repeated the words. And the United States had a new president. Lincoln's first crisis came quickly. It was a problem left unsolved by the out-going president. Lincoln had to decide immediately what to do about the federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina: Fort Sumter. The fort was surrounded by southern artillery. Southern gunboats guarded the harbor. The federal troops inside Fort Sumter were getting dangerously low on food. But any attempt to send more men or supplies would be seen as an act of war...civil war. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) By February first, eighteen-sixty-one, seven southern states had withdrawn from the United States of America. They created their own independent nation, the Confederate States of America. The south seceded because a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, had been elected president. Southerners believed Lincoln would support a constitutional ban on slavery. They were afraid their way of life was about to end. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the beginning of Abraham Lincoln's administration. VOICE TWO: President-elect Lincoln traveled by train from his home in Illinois to Washington, D.C. Along the way, he stopped to make speeches. As he got closer to Washington, he was warned that a mob was planning to attack the train. He had to continue his trip in secret. Lincoln arrived in Washington nine days before his inauguration. It was a busy time. He talked with many people, including delegates to a peace convention. Every state was represented at the convention, except the states that had seceded. The delegates urged Lincoln to support slavery. They urged him not to go to war over the issue. Lincoln said only that he would faithfully execute the duties of President of all the United States. He said he would protect and defend the American Constitution. VOICE ONE: While Lincoln waited for inauguration day, he chose the members of his cabinet. He wanted men representing all opposing groups in the Republican Party. He hoped this would unite the party and give him support in the difficult years ahead. Lincoln chose William Seward as Secretary of State. Salmon Chase as Treasury Secretary. Gideon Welles as Navy Secretary. And Montgomery Blair as Postmaster General. Seward did not like Chase, Welles, or Blair. He told Lincoln that he could not serve in the cabinet with them. He said they would never be able to work together. Lincoln answered that he would be happy to make Seward Ambassador to Britain, instead of Secretary of State. Seward gave up the argument and agreed to join the cabinet. VOICE TWO: Inauguration day was the fourth of March. President-elect Lincoln rode to the ceremony with out-going President James Buchanan. Buchanan was ready to give up his power. He told Lincoln: "If you are as happy to get into the White House as I am to get out of it, you must be the happiest man alive!" The inaugural ceremony took place outside the Capitol building. Lincoln was to give his inaugural speech before being sworn-in. He had worked hard on the speech. He wanted to say clearly what his policy would be on slavery and secession. These were the issues which divided the country. These were the issues which were leading the country to civil war. This is what Lincoln said: VOICE ONE: "There seems to be some fear among the people of the southern states, that because a Republican administration is coming to power, their property and their peace and personal security are threatened. There has never been any reasonable cause for such fears. In fact, much evidence to the contrary has existed, open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all my published speeches. "In one of those speeches, I declared that I had no purpose -- directly or indirectly -- to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I said I believed I had no legal right to do so, and no wish to do so. "This statement is still true. I can only say that the property, peace, and security of no part of the country are to be in any way endangered by the incoming administration." VOICE TWO: Lincoln noted that seventy-two years had passed since the first president was inaugurated. Since then, he said, fifteen men had led the nation through many dangers, generally with great success. He went on: VOICE ONE: "I now begin the same job under great difficulty. The breaking up of the federal Union -- before, only threatened -- now, is attempted. I believe that under universal law and the Constitution, the Union of these states is permanent. This is shown by the history of the Union itself. "The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in seventeen-seventy-four. It was continued by the Declaration of Independence in seventeen-seventy-six. It grew further under the Articles of Confederation in seventeen-seventy-eight. And finally, in seventeen-eighty-seven, one of the declared reasons for establishing the Constitution of the United States was to form 'a more perfect Union'. "I therefore believe that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is not broken. I shall make sure, as the Constitution orders me to do, that the laws of the Union are obeyed in all the states. In doing this, there needs to be no bloodshed or violence. And there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national government. "The power given to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the taxes. But beyond what is necessary for these purposes, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere." VOICE TWO: Lincoln then repeated some statements he had made during his campaign for president. He used them to explain the differences between north and south. One part of the country, he said, believes slavery is right and should be extended. The other part believes slavery is wrong and should not be extended. This, he said, was the only important dispute. Lincoln admitted that, even if the dispute could be settled peacefully, there were those who wanted to see the Union destroyed. He said his words were not meant for them. They were meant only for those people who really loved the Union. He said: VOICE ONE: "Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go away from or out of the reach of each other. But the different parts of our country cannot do this. They must remain face to face. And relations -- friendly or hostile -- must continue between them. "Is it possible to make those relations better after separation than before. Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws. Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can be enforced among friends. "My countrymen -- one and all -- think calmly and well upon this subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen -- and not in mine -- is the great issue of civil war. The government will not attack you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though emotion may have damaged them, it must not break our ties of love." VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln then placed his hand on the Christian holy book, the Bible. The Chief Justice of the United States then spoke the presidential oath. Lincoln repeated the words. And the United States had a new president. Lincoln's first crisis came quickly. It was a problem left unsolved by the out-going president. Lincoln had to decide immediately what to do about the federal fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina: Fort Sumter. The fort was surrounded by southern artillery. Southern gunboats guarded the harbor. The federal troops inside Fort Sumter were getting dangerously low on food. But any attempt to send more men or supplies would be seen as an act of war...civil war. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series #19: Teaching Assistants
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our reports about foreign students at American colleges and universities. Today, we discuss one way students may earn money after they successfully complete an entry-level study program. Those wishing to continue their education could work as a teaching assistant, or T.A. A teaching assistant usually works about twenty hours each week. Teaching assistants are paid to help professors teach students in entry-level study programs. Generally, the professor gives a talk, or lecture, to a large group of students one or two times a week. The teaching assistant meets with smaller groups of students during the week. The T.A. gives tests and reads any homework or reports the students may be required to write. Teaching assistants also meet with students who seek help. They attend teaching meetings. And some working with science professors help to organize laboratory equipment. Most American colleges and universities must honor legal requirements when employing foreign students as teaching assistants. One of these is that the T.A. must speak English well. Many universities require one or two tests for all teaching assistants for whom English is not a native language. One of these is the Test of Spoken English, or T.S.E. The Educational Testing Service offers this test. Foreign students can take the T.S.E. before they arrive in the United States. The other test is the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit, also known as the SPEAK test. The college or university usually gives this test to make sure that students will be able to understand the teaching assistant. West Virginia University in Morgantown employs men and women from all around the world as teaching assistants. It requires good marks on either test before a foreign student is permitted to teach. The university suggests that such students give a short talk to a group of people to make sure they will be understood. Teaching assistants whose English is not good enough are given duties that do not require communication with students. They are expected to get help to improve their spoken English. They will lose the job as a T.A. if their English has not improved after one year. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/photo_gallery_audience1.cfm
* Headline: PHOTO GALLERY - Pictures of Our Listeners
* Byline: 

 We welcome you to add your picture. Please send it to special@voanews.com. We began our gallery to celebrate our 45th anniversary on Oct. 19, 2004. Thank you for making it such a success. Photos 1-100 | Photos 101-200 | Photos 300+ Below are photos 201-300: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: December 29, 2004 - Top 10 Words Looked Up Online in 2004
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 29, 2004 Adam Phillips looks back at the words that most intrigued users of Merriam-Webster's online dictionary over the past 12 months. AP: For years, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has been one of the most popular and authoritative dictionaries of the American language in use -- even when it was just in book form. Today, the company's online dictionary is visited hundreds of thousands of times each month over the Internet. Because its website records the words people want to know, Merriam-Webster is able to compile a ranking of what's hot and what's not in American speech. Peter Sokolowski is an editor there. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "The most commonly looked up words every day of the year are words that are often easily confused or have definition that are a little bit tricky - words like paradigm, which means the plan or a typical example of something, or serendipity, which means a fortunate or lucky event or moment. Or words that are easily confused with each other such as affect and effect, which are both nouns and verbs." Merriam-Webster has just announced 2004's ten most frequently looked-up words. Mr. Sokolowski says that, taken together, they offer a sense of what really mattered in the public sphere. The news from Iraq, for example, prompted many people to look up the word insurgent. It means "a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially a rebel not recognized as a belligerent." Insurgent ranked number four on the Merriam- Webster list. The editor notes that U.S. domestic news also played a big role in 2004. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "We have the word incumbent which means a person who holds an office -- a political office -- and the world electoral, which refers to the process of electing a public official. And those two words obviously were very popular this year because of the American presidential election." Words for natural phenomena were among the big winners this year. Peter Sokolowski points to cicada, which is the type of insect that infested eastern North America this past summer, and hurricane -- 2004's fifth most popular "look-up" word. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "That is a word that everyone knows the meaning of. It is a storm -- a very violent storm -- of a kind that is typically found in the Atlantic Ocean. And it affected America particularly this past year." Mr. Sokolowski offers two reasons why so many people might have looked up this quite familiar word. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "One is that it is spelled with two R's, and often, words that have two consonants next to each other are words that people are a little insecure about the spelling. Part of the problem with English is, of course, that we do not have an orthographic pronunciation, which is to say that words are not always pronounced the way they are spelled. That, right there, is a huge part of why people look up words. And also I think people like the definition of hurricane because it gives the actual wind speed that a hurricane requires, [which is] 119 kilometers an hour or greater. So that is an official definition, and I think that's one reason people look the word up." Peloton, a French word meaning the main body of riders in a bicycle race, clocked in at number seven on Merriam-Webster's list in 2004. Mr. Sokolowski says that's due to Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist who won the Tour de France race again this year. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "What is interesting about peloton is, it's the second time that word has come into English in 300 years. In the 1600s, the word platoon entered English - to mean a group of men, often soldiers. And that word is a very popular English word, especially in military circles. And now, peloton has come into English. They are really the same word but with different meanings." The number one most popular word on the Merriam Webster site was blog. It's one of a host of new Internet and computer-related words that are now officially mainstream. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And blog is the latest. In fact, it's the newest in the dictionary. Blog is short for Web log -- that is, Internet log. And we define it as 'a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.' "Blog really entered the language in 1999. That's the first time we found the word used in print. But then we had to wait and see if that word would become very generally accepted and understood, and this past year, especially with the Presidential election and the folks who wrote blogs for political commentary, they found themselves being reported in the mainstream press. That's when the word got into the dictionary. It's just going in now. It'll be in print in the spring." Other words that made the top ten list include partisan, meaning 'a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause or person," and sovereignty, meaning "supreme power, especially over a body politic" or "freedom from external control." The biggest surprise on the top ten list may be defenestration, which means "a throwing of a person or thing out of a window." Listeners are free to speculate for themselves about why that word was so popular in 2004. Editor Peter Sokolowski did not say. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from New York. Broadcast: December 29, 2004 Adam Phillips looks back at the words that most intrigued users of Merriam-Webster's online dictionary over the past 12 months. AP: For years, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary has been one of the most popular and authoritative dictionaries of the American language in use -- even when it was just in book form. Today, the company's online dictionary is visited hundreds of thousands of times each month over the Internet. Because its website records the words people want to know, Merriam-Webster is able to compile a ranking of what's hot and what's not in American speech. Peter Sokolowski is an editor there. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "The most commonly looked up words every day of the year are words that are often easily confused or have definition that are a little bit tricky - words like paradigm, which means the plan or a typical example of something, or serendipity, which means a fortunate or lucky event or moment. Or words that are easily confused with each other such as affect and effect, which are both nouns and verbs." Merriam-Webster has just announced 2004's ten most frequently looked-up words. Mr. Sokolowski says that, taken together, they offer a sense of what really mattered in the public sphere. The news from Iraq, for example, prompted many people to look up the word insurgent. It means "a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially a rebel not recognized as a belligerent." Insurgent ranked number four on the Merriam- Webster list. The editor notes that U.S. domestic news also played a big role in 2004. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "We have the word incumbent which means a person who holds an office -- a political office -- and the world electoral, which refers to the process of electing a public official. And those two words obviously were very popular this year because of the American presidential election." Words for natural phenomena were among the big winners this year. Peter Sokolowski points to cicada, which is the type of insect that infested eastern North America this past summer, and hurricane -- 2004's fifth most popular "look-up" word. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "That is a word that everyone knows the meaning of. It is a storm -- a very violent storm -- of a kind that is typically found in the Atlantic Ocean. And it affected America particularly this past year." Mr. Sokolowski offers two reasons why so many people might have looked up this quite familiar word. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "One is that it is spelled with two R's, and often, words that have two consonants next to each other are words that people are a little insecure about the spelling. Part of the problem with English is, of course, that we do not have an orthographic pronunciation, which is to say that words are not always pronounced the way they are spelled. That, right there, is a huge part of why people look up words. And also I think people like the definition of hurricane because it gives the actual wind speed that a hurricane requires, [which is] 119 kilometers an hour or greater. So that is an official definition, and I think that's one reason people look the word up." Peloton, a French word meaning the main body of riders in a bicycle race, clocked in at number seven on Merriam-Webster's list in 2004. Mr. Sokolowski says that's due to Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist who won the Tour de France race again this year. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "What is interesting about peloton is, it's the second time that word has come into English in 300 years. In the 1600s, the word platoon entered English - to mean a group of men, often soldiers. And that word is a very popular English word, especially in military circles. And now, peloton has come into English. They are really the same word but with different meanings." The number one most popular word on the Merriam Webster site was blog. It's one of a host of new Internet and computer-related words that are now officially mainstream. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And blog is the latest. In fact, it's the newest in the dictionary. Blog is short for Web log -- that is, Internet log. And we define it as 'a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.' "Blog really entered the language in 1999. That's the first time we found the word used in print. But then we had to wait and see if that word would become very generally accepted and understood, and this past year, especially with the Presidential election and the folks who wrote blogs for political commentary, they found themselves being reported in the mainstream press. That's when the word got into the dictionary. It's just going in now. It'll be in print in the spring." Other words that made the top ten list include partisan, meaning 'a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause or person," and sovereignty, meaning "supreme power, especially over a body politic" or "freedom from external control." The biggest surprise on the top ten list may be defenestration, which means "a throwing of a person or thing out of a window." Listeners are free to speculate for themselves about why that word was so popular in 2004. Editor Peter Sokolowski did not say. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Popular Books, Movies and Music in 2004
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. This is Doug Johnson. Two thousand five has arrived. On our show today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and songs of the past year. Top Books of 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. This is Doug Johnson. Two thousand five has arrived. On our show today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and songs of the past year. Top Books of 2004 The newspaper U.S.A. Today has released a list of the most popular books of two thousand four. U.S.A. Today creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Gwen Outen tells us about a few of them. GWEN OUTEN: The newspaper says the most popular book in the United States last year was “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. It was the third most popular book in two thousand three. “The Da Vinci Code” is an imaginary story about an art expert who attempts to solve a murder mystery. The mystery involves the Roman Catholic Church and questions some of its beliefs. The questions asked in the book involve clues to the murder. The painter and engineer Leonardo da Vinci reportedly left the clues in his artworks. The information provided in “The Da Vinci Code” has led some readers to question the teachings of their church. Religious leaders and history experts have both praised and criticized the book. They say Dan Brown has placed a new meaning on an old story that has not been proved. And they all say that it is important to remember that it is an invented story and not to be read as truth. U.S.A. Today says the second most popular book last year was “The South Beach Diet” by Arthur Agatston. Doctor Agatston has developed a way for people to lose weight and still eat the foods they enjoy. His book explains the need for people to change the way they eat. He suggests eating more high-fiber foods and healthy fats, while cutting bread, rice, and fruit. The book also includes directions for suggested meals. Dan Brown also wrote the third most popular book in the United States. That book is called “Angels and Demons.” It involves the same art critic who appears in “The Da Vinci Code.” This story involves a reported plot against the Roman Catholic Church by a centuries old secret organization known as the Illuminati. The art critic must solve a murder mystery and save the Vatican, too. Top Movies of 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The results are based on the number of tickets sold in theaters throughout the United States. The most popular movie of two thousand four in the United States was a funny animated movie for children and adults called “Shrek Two.” It earned more than four hundred thirty six million dollars. The movie is the second one about Shrek, a large green creature called an ogre. Shrek has rescued and married Princess Fiona. Her parents invite them to Fiona’s homeland, called Far, Far Away, to celebrate their marriage. But her parents do not know that the newlyweds are both ogres. The movie also involves characters from children’s storybooks. They include Puss in Boots, Prince Charming, Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man. The second most popular movie in the United States last year also starts where an earlier movie ended. This movie is “Spider-Man Two.” It earned at least three hundred seventy three million dollars last year. Spider-Man is a super hero who helps people in New York City. He is really a young man named Peter Parker who is in love with Mary Jane Watson. But Peter cannot tell her that he is Spider-Man. In “Spider-Man Two”, Peter fears losing her forever because she is engaged to marry an astronaut. Peter wants to stop being Spider-Man because he feels it is ruining his life. But he is forced to continue his two lives because the city is threatened by Doctor Octopus, a creature with four metal arms. The third most popular movie in the United States last year earned more than three hundred seventy million dollars. It is “The Passion of the Christ.” The movie is about the final twelve hours of the life of Jesus. Actor Mel Gibson directed and produced the movie. It used the Latin and Aramaic languages to tell its story. Critics said the film used extreme violence in showing the death of Jesus. But millions of people who saw the movie called it a religious experience. Top Recordings of 2004 Each December, Billboard magazine lists the most popular recordings and performers of the year. Faith Lapidus tells us about a few of them. FAITH LAPIDUS: Billboard magazine says the top selling record album of two thousand four was “Confessions” by Usher. It has sold more than seven million copies. The top single from that album is this song, “Yeah.” (MUSIC) “Billboard” magazine says the group OutKast produced the second biggest record album of the year. It is called “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” Here is OutKast performing their song, “Hey Ya.” (MUSIC) “Billboard” says the third most popular album in the United States last year came from American singer Josh Groban. The album is called “Closer.” We leave you now with Josh Groban performing, “You Raise Me Up.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. We are sad to report to you the death of VOA Special English announcer Richard Rael. He died earlier this week following a bicycle accident. We will miss our co-worker and friend. But you will be able to continue to hear his voice on some of our repeat broadcast features. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA.’s radio magazine in Special English. The newspaper U.S.A. Today has released a list of the most popular books of two thousand four. U.S.A. Today creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Gwen Outen tells us about a few of them. GWEN OUTEN: The newspaper says the most popular book in the United States last year was “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. It was the third most popular book in two thousand three. “The Da Vinci Code” is an imaginary story about an art expert who attempts to solve a murder mystery. The mystery involves the Roman Catholic Church and questions some of its beliefs. The questions asked in the book involve clues to the murder. The painter and engineer Leonardo da Vinci reportedly left the clues in his artworks. The information provided in “The Da Vinci Code” has led some readers to question the teachings of their church. Religious leaders and history experts have both praised and criticized the book. They say Dan Brown has placed a new meaning on an old story that has not been proved. And they all say that it is important to remember that it is an invented story and not to be read as truth. U.S.A. Today says the second most popular book last year was “The South Beach Diet” by Arthur Agatston. Doctor Agatston has developed a way for people to lose weight and still eat the foods they enjoy. His book explains the need for people to change the way they eat. He suggests eating more high-fiber foods and healthy fats, while cutting bread, rice, and fruit. The book also includes directions for suggested meals. Dan Brown also wrote the third most popular book in the United States. That book is called “Angels and Demons.” It involves the same art critic who appears in “The Da Vinci Code.” This story involves a reported plot against the Roman Catholic Church by a centuries old secret organization known as the Illuminati. The art critic must solve a murder mystery and save the Vatican, too. Top Movies of 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The results are based on the number of tickets sold in theaters throughout the United States. The most popular movie of two thousand four in the United States was a funny animated movie for children and adults called “Shrek Two.” It earned more than four hundred thirty six million dollars. The movie is the second one about Shrek, a large green creature called an ogre. Shrek has rescued and married Princess Fiona. Her parents invite them to Fiona’s homeland, called Far, Far Away, to celebrate their marriage. But her parents do not know that the newlyweds are both ogres. The movie also involves characters from children’s storybooks. They include Puss in Boots, Prince Charming, Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man. The second most popular movie in the United States last year also starts where an earlier movie ended. This movie is “Spider-Man Two.” It earned at least three hundred seventy three million dollars last year. Spider-Man is a super hero who helps people in New York City. He is really a young man named Peter Parker who is in love with Mary Jane Watson. But Peter cannot tell her that he is Spider-Man. In “Spider-Man Two”, Peter fears losing her forever because she is engaged to marry an astronaut. Peter wants to stop being Spider-Man because he feels it is ruining his life. But he is forced to continue his two lives because the city is threatened by Doctor Octopus, a creature with four metal arms. The third most popular movie in the United States last year earned more than three hundred seventy million dollars. It is “The Passion of the Christ.” The movie is about the final twelve hours of the life of Jesus. Actor Mel Gibson directed and produced the movie. It used the Latin and Aramaic languages to tell its story. Critics said the film used extreme violence in showing the death of Jesus. But millions of people who saw the movie called it a religious experience. Top Recordings of 2004 Each December, Billboard magazine lists the most popular recordings and performers of the year. Faith Lapidus tells us about a few of them. FAITH LAPIDUS: Billboard magazine says the top selling record album of two thousand four was “Confessions” by Usher. It has sold more than seven million copies. The top single from that album is this song, “Yeah.” (MUSIC) “Billboard” magazine says the group OutKast produced the second biggest record album of the year. It is called “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” Here is OutKast performing their song, “Hey Ya.” (MUSIC) “Billboard” says the third most popular album in the United States last year came from American singer Josh Groban. The album is called “Closer.” We leave you now with Josh Groban performing, “You Raise Me Up.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. We are sad to report to you the death of VOA Special English announcer Richard Rael. He died earlier this week following a bicycle accident. We will miss our co-worker and friend. But you will be able to continue to hear his voice on some of our repeat broadcast features. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA.’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Agency Moves to Take Over Pilots' Pension at United Airlines
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, a government agency in Washington announced that it wanted to take over a retirement plan for pilots at United Airlines. This pension plan is supposed to hold nearly six thousand million dollars. But it has about half that, and United is in financial trouble. Retired Americans get some money each month from Social Security. This is a federal program financed by employment taxes. But millions also depend on retirement plans offered by employers. One such plan is called a four-oh-one-k, named after part of the tax law. Both the employee and the employer pay into the plan. The money they put in is not taxed. It is invested in stocks and other products. How much a retired worker gets depends on how much the investments return. But a pension guarantees the amount that a person will receive. Pension plans are no longer very common. Federal law requires employers to keep enough money in pensions to meet expected payments in the future. In the nineteen nineties, many companies did not need to pay into their pensions. A strong economy meant that pension-plan investments were enough. But since then, employers have had to make big payments. Some have found this difficult. United Airlines says it can no longer pay into the pension for its pilots. The company also says it does not know if it can continue to pay into three pension plans for thousands of other employees. United is under bankruptcy protection from its creditors. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is a government agency. It has insurance programs paid for by employers. It also earns money from investments. This agency takes control of pension plans that fail or are in danger of failing. Its job is to make sure workers receive their money. Now the agency wants to block an agreement between United and its pilots union. That agreement would end the current pension plan. In return, the pilots would get an interest in the company once it leaves bankruptcy. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation says it is trying to protect United employees. The agency also wants to limit how much it might be responsible for if United cannot pay its pensions. Creditors of the airline support the move. But the pilots union opposes it. The pilots could lose one hundred forty million dollars if a court approves an immediate takeover of their pension. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Aid for Tsunami Victims
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Kofi Annan says helping survivors of the earthquake and killer waves in the Indian Ocean last week is a race against time. The United Nations secretary-general says countries that have offered aid must hurry and provide it. The offers add up to around four thousand million dollars. United Nations officials say one-fourth of that is needed during the next six months. The concern about offers of international aid is based on history. For example, the earthquake in Bam, Iran, in December of two thousand three killed more than twenty-six thousand people. Countries and groups offered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assistance. The United Nations says it has confirmed only about seventeen million dollars in aid received so far. Governments and organizations that offered help dispute that, however. On Thursday Mister Annan met with world leaders in Jakarta, Indonesia to discuss aid for victims of the tsunami. The leaders discussed and welcomed the idea of suspending some debt owed by affected nations. But the leaders did not say they would do so. Some said that making direct payments to survivors would be more helpful. The top U.N. aid official, Jan Egeland, has said the number of dead will be "much bigger" than one hundred fifty thousand. The World Health Organization says about a half-million people are injured. Millions more are homeless. The W.H.O. has called for clean water along with food and medicines needed to help prevent the spread of disease. Australia has offered eight hundred ten million dollars in aid. The European Union says it will provide four hundred sixty-six million dollars in aid. Germany, Japan and the United States follow in their amounts offered. American military forces are also providing services. Representatives of twenty-six countries and international organizations attended the meeting in Jakarta. Officials say they will cooperate to develop a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. A small group of countries including the United States began to direct aid efforts after the events of December twenty-sixth. Now American officials say the group is being suspended so the United Nations can start to take control. The earthquake measured nine on the Richter scale. The quake and resulting waves proved most deadly on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. More than one hundred thousand people are reported dead there. On Friday, American Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed shock at the destruction caused by the earthquake and waves. The same day, Kofi Annan flew by helicopter over western Sumatra and visited Meulaboh. About four thousand bodies were discovered in that town Friday. Mister Annan said he had never seen such destruction as he saw on Sumatra. In his words, "Where are the people?" In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: The Marx Brothers
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the Marx Brothers. They made many funny movies in the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties that are still popular today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There were five Marx Brothers. The most famous were Julius, Leonard and Adolph. They were born in New York City between eighteen eighty-six and eighteen-ninety. Their father made clothing. Their mother wanted them to become performers. Julius, Leonard and Adolph started performing when they were children. Along with their two brothers, they performed in stage shows called vaudeville in New York. They sang songs, danced and told jokes. Julius, Leonard and Adolph Marx began making funny movies in nineteen twenty-nine. They changed their first names. Julius became Groucho. Leonard became Chico. Adolph became Harpo. Another brother, Herbert, appeared in the first five Marx Brothers movies. He was called Zeppo. He did not play a funny man like the other three. He played a good-looking young man. VOICE TWO: Groucho Marx looked funny. He had large black eyebrows and a hairy mustache. But they were painted on his face. He spoke very quickly. And he walked in a funny way. He played people with funny names, like Rufus T. Firefly. Otis B. Driftwood. And Doctor Hugo Z. Hackenbush. Groucho was not a very nice person in the movies. He often insulted or made fun of rich or important people. He made fun of doctors, college officials, opera singers, diplomats and government officials. He even insulted his son, played in this example by Zeppo. (SOUND) ((ZEPPO: Dad, let me congratulate you. I’m proud to be your son. GROUCHO: My boy, you took the words right out of my mouth. I’m ashamed to be your father. I’d have horsewhipped you if I had a horse. You may go now. Leave your name and address for the girl outside and if anything turns up, we’ll get in touch with you. Where are you going? ZEPPO: Well, you just told me to go. GROUCHO: So that’s what they taught you in college. Just when I tell you to go, you leave me. You know you can’t leave a schoolroom without raising your hand, no matter where you’re going. ZEPPO: Anything further, father? GROUCHO: Anything further, father? That can’t be right. Isn’t it “anything father, further”? The idea! I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my disappointment when you arrived!)) VOICE ONE: Chico Marx talked as if he was born in Italy. He spoke English that was not correct. Many other funny men spoke as though they came from other countries. They were making fun of themselves and other immigrants who did not speak English well. Chico also made funny jokes about words and expressions that sound alike but have different meanings. For example, in one movie a woman sings with a very high falsetto voice. She says “I have a falsetto voice.” Chico then says, “Well, my last student had a false set of teeth.” Chico also was known for performing what was called the comedy of the absurd. He talked about things that were so untrue or unreasonable that they were funny. Here is an example. Chico is supposed to spy on someone called Rufus T. Firefly. Chico reports his progress to the man who asked him to spy on Firefly. To “shadow” someone is to secretly follow that person. (SOUND) ((CHICO: Well, you remember you gave us a picture of this man and said follow him? MAN: Oh, yes. CHICO: Well, we get on the job right away. And in one hour, even less than one hour, we lose the fix. That’s pretty good work, eh? MAN: I want a full, detailed report of your investigation. CHICO: All right. I tell you. Monday we watch Firefly’s house. But he no come out. He wasn’t home. Tuesday we go to the ballgame, but he fool us. He no show up. Wednesday, he go to the ballgame, but we fool him. We no show up. Thursday was a double-header, nobody show up. Friday it rained all day. There was no ballgame. So we stayed home. We listened to it over the radio. MAN: Then you didn’t shadow Firefly! CHICO: Oh, sure, we shadow Firefly. We shadow him all day. MAN: What day was that? CHICO: It was Shadowday (Saturday)! That’s some joke, eh, Boss!)) Chico also played the piano in a funny way. Chico did to music what he did to the English language. He made fun of it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Harpo Marx had curly yellow hair, but it was not really his hair. It was false hair, called a wig. He never said a word in any of the movies. Instead, he acted out what he wanted to say. He could make people laugh without saying a word. People always knew what he was thinking. He made funny sounds with horns and whistles to express his thoughts and feelings. In one movie, a kind policeman tries to give him some advice to stay away from bad people. As the policeman shakes Harpo’s hand, you can hear pieces of silver that Harpo has stolen fall out of his clothes. (SOUND) ((POLICEMAN: You better come with me, young fellow. GROUCHO: Don’t take him away, officer. POLICEMAN: All right. I’ll let him go this time. But I want to give you some advice. You’re running around with the wrong kind of people. Why don’t you go home? CHICO: He got no home. POLICEMAN: Go home for a few nights. Stay home. Don’t you know your poor old mother sits there, night after night, waiting to hear your steps on the stairs? CHICO: He got no stairs. POLICEMAN: I can see a little light burning in the window. GROUCHO: No you can’t. The gas company turned it off. POLICEMAN: Now, what I’m telling you is for your own good. And if you listen to me, you can’t go wrong.)) As you might have guessed from his name, Harpo Marx was famous for playing the musical instrument called the harp. He made beautiful music like this on the harp in several movies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The three Marx Brothers -- Groucho, Chico and Harpo -- made fourteen movies together. The movies made fun of officials in many areas of society, like colleges, hospitals, or the government. The Marx Brothers made most of their movies during the nineteen-thirties. This was during the great economic Depression. Many Americans had no jobs and not much hope. Many people went to the movies to try to forget their troubles. The Marx Brothers thought people might like to see funny things happen to rich and important people. VOICE TWO: The Marx Brothers’ first two movies were “The Cocoanuts” and “Animal Crackers.” These were based on earlier shows that they starred in on Broadway in New York City. Some of their most famous movies are “Horse Feathers,” “Duck Soup,” and “A Night at the Opera.” In “Horse Feathers,” the Marx Brothers make fun of colleges. Groucho is a professor and the president of Huxley College. He wants to improve the college by having a successful football team. Here, he talks to other college officials. (SOUND) ((GROUCHO: Now I say to you gentlemen that this college is a failure. The trouble is, we’re neglecting football for education. COLLEGE OFFICIALS: Exactly, the professor is right. GROUCHO: Oh, I’m right, am I? Well, I’m not right. I’m wrong. I just said that to test you. Now I know where I’m at. I’m dealing with a couple of snakes. What I meant to say was that there is too much football and not enough education. COLLEGE OFFICIALS: That’s what I think. GROUCHO: Oh you do, do you? Well, you’re wrong again. If there was a snake here, I’d apologize. Where would this college be without football? Have we got a stadium? COLLEGE OFFICIALS: Yes. GROUCHO: Have we got a college? COLLEGE OFFICIALS: Yes. GROUCHO: Well, we can’t support both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college. COLLEGE OFFICIALS: But, professor, where will the students sleep? GROUCHO: Where they always sleep – in the classroom!)) VOICE ONE: Some critics say “Duck Soup,” is one of the greatest comedies ever made. Groucho is the leader of a country called Freedonia. He declares war on a nearby country. The movie makes fun of war, diplomats and dictators. Other critics say “A Night at the Opera,” is their finest film. Groucho tries to get a rich woman to invest in an opera company. The movie has many funny parts. One of the most famous is when fifteen people are crowded into a very small room on a passenger ship. VOICE TWO: Experts say the Marx Brothers movies were extremely popular for several reasons. The brothers had been performing together since they were children. They shared a sense of what was funny. In addition, they all loved music. Most of their movies include music. When a song begins in their movies, everything else stops. When Harpo plays his harp, his face shows how much he loves what he is playing. Then, when the music is over, the Marx Brothers immediately start being funny again. The Marx Brothers’ movies were like vaudeville shows. They contained something for everyone. There was comedy, speeches, music and songs. Often Groucho sang a funny song. Here is an example, called “Hello, I Must be Going.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Marx Brothers performed together and then separately for more than seventy years until the last one died in the late Nineteen-Seventies. Their comedy influenced many other present day comedians including Woody Allen and Robin Williams. Critics have called the Marx Brothers the most influential comedy team of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the Marx Brothers. They made many funny movies in the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties that are still popular today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There were five Marx Brothers. The most famous were Julius, Leonard and Adolph. They were born in New York City between eighteen eighty-six and eighteen-ninety. Their father made clothing. Their mother wanted them to become performers. Julius, Leonard and Adolph started performing when they were children. Along with their two brothers, they performed in stage shows called vaudeville in New York. They sang songs, danced and told jokes. Julius, Leonard and Adolph Marx began making funny movies in nineteen twenty-nine. They changed their first names. Julius became Groucho. Leonard became Chico. Adolph became Harpo. Another brother, Herbert, appeared in the first five Marx Brothers movies. He was called Zeppo. He did not play a funny man like the other three. He played a good-looking young man. VOICE TWO: Groucho Marx looked funny. He had large black eyebrows and a hairy mustache. But they were painted on his face. He spoke very quickly. And he walked in a funny way. He played people with funny names, like Rufus T. Firefly. Otis B. Driftwood. And Doctor Hugo Z. Hackenbush. Groucho was not a very nice person in the movies. He often insulted or made fun of rich or important people. He made fun of doctors, college officials, opera singers, diplomats and government officials. He even insulted his son, played in this example by Zeppo. (SOUND) ((ZEPPO: Dad, let me congratulate you. I’m proud to be your son. GROUCHO: My boy, you took the words right out of my mouth. I’m ashamed to be your father. I’d have horsewhipped you if I had a horse. You may go now. Leave your name and address for the girl outside and if anything turns up, we’ll get in touch with you. Where are you going? ZEPPO: Well, you just told me to go. GROUCHO: So that’s what they taught you in college. Just when I tell you to go, you leave me. You know you can’t leave a schoolroom without raising your hand, no matter where you’re going. ZEPPO: Anything further, father? GROUCHO: Anything further, father? That can’t be right. Isn’t it “anything father, further”? The idea! I married your mother because I wanted children. Imagine my disappointment when you arrived!)) VOICE ONE: Chico Marx talked as if he was born in Italy. He spoke English that was not correct. Many other funny men spoke as though they came from other countries. They were making fun of themselves and other immigrants who did not speak English well. Chico also made funny jokes about words and expressions that sound alike but have different meanings. For example, in one movie a woman sings with a very high falsetto voice. She says “I have a falsetto voice.” Chico then says, “Well, my last student had a false set of teeth.” Chico also was known for performing what was called the comedy of the absurd. He talked about things that were so untrue or unreasonable that they were funny. Here is an example. Chico is supposed to spy on someone called Rufus T. Firefly. Chico reports his progress to the man who asked him to spy on Firefly. To “shadow” someone is to secretly follow that person. (SOUND) ((CHICO: Well, you remember you gave us a picture of this man and said follow him? MAN: Oh, yes. CHICO: Well, we get on the job right away. And in one hour, even less than one hour, we lose the fix. That’s pretty good work, eh? MAN: I want a full, detailed report of your investigation. CHICO: All right. I tell you. Monday we watch Firefly’s house. But he no come out. He wasn’t home. Tuesday we go to the ballgame, but he fool us. He no show up. Wednesday, he go to the ballgame, but we fool him. We no show up. Thursday was a double-header, nobody show up. Friday it rained all day. There was no ballgame. So we stayed home. We listened to it over the radio. MAN: Then you didn’t shadow Firefly! CHICO: Oh, sure, we shadow Firefly. We shadow him all day. MAN: What day was that? CHICO: It was Shadowday (Saturday)! That’s some joke, eh, Boss!)) Chico also played the piano in a funny way. Chico did to music what he did to the English language. He made fun of it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Harpo Marx had curly yellow hair, but it was not really his hair. It was false hair, called a wig. He never said a word in any of the movies. Instead, he acted out what he wanted to say. He could make people laugh without saying a word. People always knew what he was thinking. He made funny sounds with horns and whistles to express his thoughts and feelings. In one movie, a kind policeman tries to give him some advice to stay away from bad people. As the policeman shakes Harpo’s hand, you can hear pieces of silver that Harpo has stolen fall out of his clothes. (SOUND) ((POLICEMAN: You better come with me, young fellow. GROUCHO: Don’t take him away, officer. POLICEMAN: All right. I’ll let him go this time. But I want to give you some advice. You’re running around with the wrong kind of people. Why don’t you go home? CHICO: He got no home. POLICEMAN: Go home for a few nights. Stay home. Don’t you know your poor old mother sits there, night after night, waiting to hear your steps on the stairs? CHICO: He got no stairs. POLICEMAN: I can see a little light burning in the window. GROUCHO: No you can’t. The gas company turned it off. POLICEMAN: Now, what I’m telling you is for your own good. And if you listen to me, you can’t go wrong.)) As you might have guessed from his name, Harpo Marx was famous for playing the musical instrument called the harp. He made beautiful music like this on the harp in several movies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The three Marx Brothers -- Groucho, Chico and Harpo -- made fourteen movies together. The movies made fun of officials in many areas of society, like colleges, hospitals, or the government. The Marx Brothers made most of their movies during the nineteen-thirties. This was during the great economic Depression. Many Americans had no jobs and not much hope. Many people went to the movies to try to forget their troubles. The Marx Brothers thought people might like to see funny things happen to rich and important people. VOICE TWO: The Marx Brothers’ first two movies were “The Cocoanuts” and “Animal Crackers.” These were based on earlier shows that they starred in on Broadway in New York City. Some of their most famous movies are “Horse Feathers,” “Duck Soup,” and “A Night at the Opera.” In “Horse Feathers,” the Marx Brothers make fun of colleges. Groucho is a professor and the president of Huxley College. He wants to improve the college by having a successful football team. Here, he talks to other college officials. (SOUND) ((GROUCHO: Now I say to you gentlemen that this college is a failure. The trouble is, we’re neglecting football for education. COLLEGE OFFICIALS: Exactly, the professor is right. GROUCHO: Oh, I’m right, am I? Well, I’m not right. I’m wrong. I just said that to test you. Now I know where I’m at. I’m dealing with a couple of snakes. What I meant to say was that there is too much football and not enough education. COLLEGE OFFICIALS: That’s what I think. GROUCHO: Oh you do, do you? Well, you’re wrong again. If there was a snake here, I’d apologize. Where would this college be without football? Have we got a stadium? COLLEGE OFFICIALS: Yes. GROUCHO: Have we got a college? COLLEGE OFFICIALS: Yes. GROUCHO: Well, we can’t support both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college. COLLEGE OFFICIALS: But, professor, where will the students sleep? GROUCHO: Where they always sleep – in the classroom!)) VOICE ONE: Some critics say “Duck Soup,” is one of the greatest comedies ever made. Groucho is the leader of a country called Freedonia. He declares war on a nearby country. The movie makes fun of war, diplomats and dictators. Other critics say “A Night at the Opera,” is their finest film. Groucho tries to get a rich woman to invest in an opera company. The movie has many funny parts. One of the most famous is when fifteen people are crowded into a very small room on a passenger ship. VOICE TWO: Experts say the Marx Brothers movies were extremely popular for several reasons. The brothers had been performing together since they were children. They shared a sense of what was funny. In addition, they all loved music. Most of their movies include music. When a song begins in their movies, everything else stops. When Harpo plays his harp, his face shows how much he loves what he is playing. Then, when the music is over, the Marx Brothers immediately start being funny again. The Marx Brothers’ movies were like vaudeville shows. They contained something for everyone. There was comedy, speeches, music and songs. Often Groucho sang a funny song. Here is an example, called “Hello, I Must be Going.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Marx Brothers performed together and then separately for more than seventy years until the last one died in the late Nineteen-Seventies. Their comedy influenced many other present day comedians including Woody Allen and Robin Williams. Critics have called the Marx Brothers the most influential comedy team of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Presidential Exhibits at the National Archives
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we visit the National Archives for some presidential history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President George W. Bush will begin his second term on Inauguration Day, January twentieth. But Inauguration Day has not always taken place on this date in wintertime. George Washington gave the nation’s first presidential swearing-in speech in the spring. He spoke on April thirtieth, seventeen eighty-nine, in New York City. Part of Washington's handwritten speech will be shown at the National Archives, in the city named in his honor, this week through January twenty-fifth. Visitors can see the first and last pages of the speech. They can also see the Bible on which he placed his hand during the swearing-in ceremony. VOICE TWO: George Washington had led the American colonies to freedom from England in the Revolutionary War. Now he spoke of what he called the “difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me.” He also pointed out that as the first president of the United States, he had no example to follow. Years later, America’s thirty-third president, Harry Truman, recognized an example of what the job was like. Being president, Truman said, was like riding a tiger. Now he and others who rode that tiger are the subjects of a collection of presidential photographs at the National Archives. Some pictures in the exhibit show the pressures of America’s highest office. Others show the pleasures of political life. Still others record family times or lighthearted moments, like Ronald Reagan enjoying a laugh on the presidential plane, Air Force One. VOICE ONE: The exhibit is called "The American Presidency: Photographic Treasures of the National Archives." It is presented by U.S. News & World Report magazine. It is the first exhibit in the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery. The newly named space opened in December. Lawrence O’Brien was an adviser to presidents Kennedy and Johnson. The photographs demonstrate the development of camera art over the last one hundred fifty years. Most of the forty pictures are in black-and-white. VOICE TWO: A photo from eighteen fifty-seven shows James Buchanan during his first year as president. The photographer was Mathew Brady, one of the nation’s first great photographers of historical subjects. Buchanan sits in a chair next to a table covered by a cloth and topped by books. A feather pen sits in ink. The chair is turned half-sideways from the camera. Buchanan has one leg crossed over the other. The nation he led was divided over slavery and the rights of states. Four years later, America was at war with itself. The slave-holding South rebelled against the Union. VOICE ONE: Abraham Lincoln guided the nation through the Civil war. Another photo by Mathew Brady shows President Lincoln at a military camp in Antietam, Maryland, in eighteen sixty-two. Lincoln stands between two other officials. But their presence does not seem nearly as important compared to the very tall president with the very tall hat. The Civil War lasted from eighteen sixty-one until eighteen sixty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William McKinley was president from eighteen ninety-seven until his death in nineteen-oh-one, when an anarchist shot him. The National Archives exhibit shows McKinley during a visit to his hometown in Ohio. He reaches out to greet children. He looks happy and at ease. The image we see is really two pictures. These were made to be looked at side-by-side in a device called a stereoptican. This way pictures appeared to have depth. Theodore Roosevelt followed McKinley in office. One photograph shows Teddy Roosevelt in front of a huge tree. He loved the open air and he loved to hunt. But he also recognized the need to protect wildlife and nature. During his eight years in office, he created many national forests and other protected areas. VOICE ONE: A picture of Herbert Hoover shows him fishing in California. Another shows him speaking at a political meeting. Hoover was president from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three. During this time the stock market crashed. This led to a worldwide economic depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt followed Hoover in office. This Roosevelt was known as F.D.R. He was distantly related to Theodore. He helped raise the spirits of Americans during the worst of the Great Depression. In fact, he was elected four times. After that the Constitution was amended to set a limit of two terms. VOICE TWO: The great camera artist Edward Steichen captured Roosevelt's face from the side. The picture is an image of strength. Yet most Americans did not know that Roosevelt needed help to walk. He was disabled by a polio infection. Pictures of him in his wheelchair or wearing leg braces were rare. Franklin Roosevelt died unexpectedly in April of nineteen forty-five. Vice President Harry Truman became president. He led the United States through the final months of World War Two. President Truman often spoke from the back of a train as he campaigned for election in nineteen forty-eight. In one picture, he talks to a crowd at a train station in a small Southern town. Young people sit on the station roof as they listen. VOICE ONE: Dwight Eisenhower was commanding general of the Allied forces in Europe during World War Two. He was a military hero. In nineteen fifty-two, he was elected president. A photograph in the exhibit shows President Eisenhower and his wife Mamie at a celebration of their thirty-ninth wedding anniversary. He has his arm around her shoulder. She has a bright smile on her face. Photographer Paul Begley captured this image in the summer of nineteen fifty-five at the family's home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In September of that year, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. But he recovered and was re-elected in nineteen fifty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty Americans elected John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In one of the pictures at the Archives, J.F.K. watches his young daughter playing in his White House office. Caroline and her younger brother, John Junior, often provided light moments for photographers. Another photo shows L.B.J., Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson took office after the murder of President Kennedy in nineteen sixty-three. In the photo President Johnson holds his dog Yuki. Both have their faces turned upward. They look like they are singing together. Johnson’s little grandson looks on in surprise. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon is one of the few presidents pictured in color in the exhibit. He was elected in nineteen sixty-eight. A picture shows President Nixon with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai. The premier is showing the president how to eat with chopsticks. The photo was taken during the historic Nixon trip to China in nineteen seventy-two. That trip helped open relations between the two countries. On August eighth, nineteen seventy-four, Richard Nixon became the only American president ever to resign. In doing so, he avoided the possibility of removal from office over charges in Congress of political crimes. VOICE TWO: The pictures in the collection show presidents at work, at rest and at play. In three photos side-by-side, Jimmy Carter and his young daughter Amy run toward a helicopter at the White House. Another picture shows President George H.W. Bush walking on the White House grounds. The Washington Monument stands tall in the background. This photo is from January of nineteen ninety-one, five months after Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Mister Bush appears deep in thought. He had just approved a decision to go to war. "The American Presidency: Photographic Treasures of the National Archives" continues through February twenty-first, in Washington, D.C. Internet users can find out more at the Web site of the National Archives and Records Administration: nara.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Today we visit the National Archives for some presidential history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President George W. Bush will begin his second term on Inauguration Day, January twentieth. But Inauguration Day has not always taken place on this date in wintertime. George Washington gave the nation’s first presidential swearing-in speech in the spring. He spoke on April thirtieth, seventeen eighty-nine, in New York City. Part of Washington's handwritten speech will be shown at the National Archives, in the city named in his honor, this week through January twenty-fifth. Visitors can see the first and last pages of the speech. They can also see the Bible on which he placed his hand during the swearing-in ceremony. VOICE TWO: George Washington had led the American colonies to freedom from England in the Revolutionary War. Now he spoke of what he called the “difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me.” He also pointed out that as the first president of the United States, he had no example to follow. Years later, America’s thirty-third president, Harry Truman, recognized an example of what the job was like. Being president, Truman said, was like riding a tiger. Now he and others who rode that tiger are the subjects of a collection of presidential photographs at the National Archives. Some pictures in the exhibit show the pressures of America’s highest office. Others show the pleasures of political life. Still others record family times or lighthearted moments, like Ronald Reagan enjoying a laugh on the presidential plane, Air Force One. VOICE ONE: The exhibit is called "The American Presidency: Photographic Treasures of the National Archives." It is presented by U.S. News & World Report magazine. It is the first exhibit in the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery. The newly named space opened in December. Lawrence O’Brien was an adviser to presidents Kennedy and Johnson. The photographs demonstrate the development of camera art over the last one hundred fifty years. Most of the forty pictures are in black-and-white. VOICE TWO: A photo from eighteen fifty-seven shows James Buchanan during his first year as president. The photographer was Mathew Brady, one of the nation’s first great photographers of historical subjects. Buchanan sits in a chair next to a table covered by a cloth and topped by books. A feather pen sits in ink. The chair is turned half-sideways from the camera. Buchanan has one leg crossed over the other. The nation he led was divided over slavery and the rights of states. Four years later, America was at war with itself. The slave-holding South rebelled against the Union. VOICE ONE: Abraham Lincoln guided the nation through the Civil war. Another photo by Mathew Brady shows President Lincoln at a military camp in Antietam, Maryland, in eighteen sixty-two. Lincoln stands between two other officials. But their presence does not seem nearly as important compared to the very tall president with the very tall hat. The Civil War lasted from eighteen sixty-one until eighteen sixty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William McKinley was president from eighteen ninety-seven until his death in nineteen-oh-one, when an anarchist shot him. The National Archives exhibit shows McKinley during a visit to his hometown in Ohio. He reaches out to greet children. He looks happy and at ease. The image we see is really two pictures. These were made to be looked at side-by-side in a device called a stereoptican. This way pictures appeared to have depth. Theodore Roosevelt followed McKinley in office. One photograph shows Teddy Roosevelt in front of a huge tree. He loved the open air and he loved to hunt. But he also recognized the need to protect wildlife and nature. During his eight years in office, he created many national forests and other protected areas. VOICE ONE: A picture of Herbert Hoover shows him fishing in California. Another shows him speaking at a political meeting. Hoover was president from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three. During this time the stock market crashed. This led to a worldwide economic depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt followed Hoover in office. This Roosevelt was known as F.D.R. He was distantly related to Theodore. He helped raise the spirits of Americans during the worst of the Great Depression. In fact, he was elected four times. After that the Constitution was amended to set a limit of two terms. VOICE TWO: The great camera artist Edward Steichen captured Roosevelt's face from the side. The picture is an image of strength. Yet most Americans did not know that Roosevelt needed help to walk. He was disabled by a polio infection. Pictures of him in his wheelchair or wearing leg braces were rare. Franklin Roosevelt died unexpectedly in April of nineteen forty-five. Vice President Harry Truman became president. He led the United States through the final months of World War Two. President Truman often spoke from the back of a train as he campaigned for election in nineteen forty-eight. In one picture, he talks to a crowd at a train station in a small Southern town. Young people sit on the station roof as they listen. VOICE ONE: Dwight Eisenhower was commanding general of the Allied forces in Europe during World War Two. He was a military hero. In nineteen fifty-two, he was elected president. A photograph in the exhibit shows President Eisenhower and his wife Mamie at a celebration of their thirty-ninth wedding anniversary. He has his arm around her shoulder. She has a bright smile on her face. Photographer Paul Begley captured this image in the summer of nineteen fifty-five at the family's home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In September of that year, President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack. But he recovered and was re-elected in nineteen fifty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty Americans elected John Fitzgerald Kennedy. In one of the pictures at the Archives, J.F.K. watches his young daughter playing in his White House office. Caroline and her younger brother, John Junior, often provided light moments for photographers. Another photo shows L.B.J., Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson took office after the murder of President Kennedy in nineteen sixty-three. In the photo President Johnson holds his dog Yuki. Both have their faces turned upward. They look like they are singing together. Johnson’s little grandson looks on in surprise. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon is one of the few presidents pictured in color in the exhibit. He was elected in nineteen sixty-eight. A picture shows President Nixon with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai. The premier is showing the president how to eat with chopsticks. The photo was taken during the historic Nixon trip to China in nineteen seventy-two. That trip helped open relations between the two countries. On August eighth, nineteen seventy-four, Richard Nixon became the only American president ever to resign. In doing so, he avoided the possibility of removal from office over charges in Congress of political crimes. VOICE TWO: The pictures in the collection show presidents at work, at rest and at play. In three photos side-by-side, Jimmy Carter and his young daughter Amy run toward a helicopter at the White House. Another picture shows President George H.W. Bush walking on the White House grounds. The Washington Monument stands tall in the background. This photo is from January of nineteen ninety-one, five months after Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Mister Bush appears deep in thought. He had just approved a decision to go to war. "The American Presidency: Photographic Treasures of the National Archives" continues through February twenty-first, in Washington, D.C. Internet users can find out more at the Web site of the National Archives and Records Administration: nara.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Helping Children After the Tsunami
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Aid officials are working to help the youngest victims of the December twenty-sixth earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that one and one-half million children were affected in South Asia. UNICEF says many have lost their parents or been separated from their families. The agency has estimated that more than one-third of the dead were children. Last week UNICEF appealed for more than one hundred forty million dollars to assist what it calls the "tsunami generation." The request was part of a larger United Nations appeal made Thursday in Jakarta. UNICEF says money is needed for immunization campaigns to prevent disease. Clean drinking water and special feedings for children and pregnant women are also needed. Another aim is to repair schools, so children can return to classes as soon as possible. The head of UNICEF says children must also be protected from criminal groups. Carol Bellamy warned that children are at risk of being kidnapped for slavery in the sex trade or forced labor. She praised actions taken by the government of Indonesia in heavily damaged Aceh. Adoptions of children are now banned in that province. The government also has barred children under the age of sixteen from leaving Aceh except with their parents. UNICEF is setting up camps in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the other countries affected by the tsunami. Workers will try to reunite children with their parents, extended families and communities. The first step is to identify children who are alone. Some Western families have offered to adopt children whose parents died in the tsunami. But policies in the affected countries, as well as their own nations, may prevent that at least for now. The American State Department says any adoptions are probably many months away. It says adoption professionals believe children in a crisis should be kept as close to their family members and community as possible. The State Department deplored reports of sex crimes, kidnapping and trafficking in persons in the affected countries. A spokesman said there have been enough reports to see a real danger and the need for quick action. He said officials were “horrified that thousands of children orphaned by this disaster” are at risk from criminals “who seek to profit from their misery.” This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Millions Suffer From Asthma
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about the disease asthma. It affects as many as one hundred fifty million people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Asthma is a serious lung disease that causes breathing problems. These problems, called asthma attacks, can kill. Asthma can affect people of all age groups but often begins in childhood. It can be controlled but not cured. Sufferers must deal with the disease every day. Stavros Kontzias (cun-ZEE-ahs) is an eight-year-old boy living near Washington, D-C. He developed asthma when he was about two years old. His parents, Susie and Zack, say the breathing problems would appear whenever Stavros got sick with a cold or lung infection. His father remembers those experiences as very frightening. He says Stavros coughed a lot. The boy struggled to breathe. His breathing became very loud and had a strange sound. That kind of breathing is called wheezing. Mister Kontzias says his son never turned blue from a lack of oxygen. But, he says it was apparent that little air was getting into Stavros's lungs. VOICE TWO: The Kontziases made several emergency visits to the hospital when Stavros became sick. Once there, doctors gave the boy drugs called steroids. Mister Kontzias says the steroids worked very fast to open his son’s air passages. But, he says he began to worry about long-term effects of high amounts of steroids as the trips to the hospital increased. So, his parents took Stavros to a pulmonary pediatric specialist. That is a doctor who is an expert in diseases that affect children’s lungs. The doctor listened to the boy’s lungs. He also used measuring devices to test the child’s airflow limitations. The combination of the test results and Stavros’s medical history showed he had asthma. VOICE ONE: Stavros began a treatment of four medicines a day to control his asthma. The Kontziases also took other steps to control their son’s asthma. They removed all floor coverings in Stavros’s room and most of the house. They also changed the activities he was involved in. For example, the boy stopped playing European football, or soccer. The continuous running required to play the sport severely decreased his breathing ability. So Stavros began to play baseball instead. It gave him more time to rest and requires much less running. VOICE TWO: Stavros and his family saw improvement in the boy’s health over the next several years. His trips to the hospital emergency room grew increasingly rare. Also, Stavros’s doctor slowly reduced the amount of medicine the boy took. Recently, Zack and Suzie Kontzias reported good news. They say their son has not taken any steroid medicine since last summer. And they say he has not had an asthma attack. His parents also noted that those months included a season of American football, Stavros’s latest interest. The Kontziases now hope the asthma may completely disappear as their son gets older. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctors do not know the cause of asthma. Yet they have identified most of its triggers. For example, the common cold can cause an asthma attack in a person who has the disease. There also are several air pollutants that can lead to an asthma attack. Pollen is one such pollutant. Pollen is a fine dust that comes from plants that produce seeds. However, almost any kind of dust can cause an asthma attack if enough of it is in the air. This includes common dust found in houses. Air pollution from burning fuel also can cause an asthma attack. Tobacco smoke can do the same. Some kinds of animal hair are a trigger for asthma. And, even some insects in the home can lead to asthma attacks. VOICE TWO: Several things happen in the lungs when an asthma sufferer has an attack. Cells in the air passages begin to produce too much of a thick, sticky substance called mucous. The mucous creates blocked areas in the air passages. The tissue that lines the air passages begins to expand at the same time. And, the muscles in the passages tighten. All these changes cause the air passages to narrow. This reduces the amount of air that can flow in and out of the lungs. The sufferer can not get a good, deep, breath of air. The narrowed airways also cause coughing and a tight feeling in the chest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health experts say asthma cases are increasing around the world. The World Health Organization says asthma rates worldwide are increasing on average by fifty percent every ten years. W.H.O. officials say asthma cases in western Europe have increased by two times in ten years. They say the number of asthma sufferers has increased in the United States by about sixty percent in the past twenty years. American experts give an even higher number. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says the rise was seventy-five percent in about the same time period. It also says more than twenty million Americans report having the disease. The number of deaths from asthma also has risen in the United States. The W.H.O. says about five thousand Americans die from asthma attacks each year. In the early nineteen-eighties, the yearly death rate from asthma in the United States was about half that. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says asthma is not just a problem in industrial countries. It says the disease affects people in developing nations, too. However, the incidence of the disease differs greatly from area to area. W.H.O. officials say as many as twenty million people suffer from the disease in India. The officials say an estimated fifteen percent of Indian children suffer from the disease. They also say almost twenty percent of children in Kenya show signs of asthma. Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Uruguay also have a high rate of childhood asthma. The W.H.O. says as many as thirty percent of children in those countries show signs of asthma. VOICE ONE: Asthma kills about one hundred eighty thousand people a year. The W.H.O. says the disease also has huge economic costs. The costs linked to asthma are believed to be higher than those of tuberculosis and AIDS combined. The W.H.O. says the United States spends six thousand million dollars a year on health care and other economic costs of asthma. It says Britain spends almost a third of that on health care for the disease and lost productivity of workers.The World Health Organization says greater international action is needed to deal with asthma. It says asthma sufferers, healthcare providers and the general public must learn more about the disease and the problems linked to it. The W.H.O. says a worldwide system should be put into effect to observe and record asthma rates around the world. And, it says more research is needed to find the cause of asthma and develop new ways to treat it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Medical experts have suspected for some time that there was a genetic link to asthma. A child has a greater chance of developing asthma if his or her parent is asthmatic. British and American scientists say they may have found a gene involved in the disease. Three groups of researchers took part in the study. One group worked for Genome Therapeutics, a drug company in Waltham, Massachusetts. The other scientists were from the drug maker Schering-Plough and the University of Southampton in Britain. VOICE ONE: The gene is called ADAM thirty-three. The scientists identified it through genetic testing of more than four-hundred families in the United States and Britain whose members have the disease. The scientists say the gene alone does not cause asthma. But, they say its presence appears to increase a person’s chances of developing the disease. They say the gene may be involved in the main condition of asthma — the narrowing of airway passages. However, the scientists say it is too early to say what percentage of asthma sufferers may have an abnormal gene. Scientists say the finding could lead to new research about the causes of asthma and new drugs to treat the disease. It could also lead to methods to identify people most at risk for asthma and early treatment to help prevent the development of the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Jill Moss. Dwayne Collins was our engineer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about the disease asthma. It affects as many as one hundred fifty million people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Asthma is a serious lung disease that causes breathing problems. These problems, called asthma attacks, can kill. Asthma can affect people of all age groups but often begins in childhood. It can be controlled but not cured. Sufferers must deal with the disease every day. Stavros Kontzias (cun-ZEE-ahs) is an eight-year-old boy living near Washington, D-C. He developed asthma when he was about two years old. His parents, Susie and Zack, say the breathing problems would appear whenever Stavros got sick with a cold or lung infection. His father remembers those experiences as very frightening. He says Stavros coughed a lot. The boy struggled to breathe. His breathing became very loud and had a strange sound. That kind of breathing is called wheezing. Mister Kontzias says his son never turned blue from a lack of oxygen. But, he says it was apparent that little air was getting into Stavros's lungs. VOICE TWO: The Kontziases made several emergency visits to the hospital when Stavros became sick. Once there, doctors gave the boy drugs called steroids. Mister Kontzias says the steroids worked very fast to open his son’s air passages. But, he says he began to worry about long-term effects of high amounts of steroids as the trips to the hospital increased. So, his parents took Stavros to a pulmonary pediatric specialist. That is a doctor who is an expert in diseases that affect children’s lungs. The doctor listened to the boy’s lungs. He also used measuring devices to test the child’s airflow limitations. The combination of the test results and Stavros’s medical history showed he had asthma. VOICE ONE: Stavros began a treatment of four medicines a day to control his asthma. The Kontziases also took other steps to control their son’s asthma. They removed all floor coverings in Stavros’s room and most of the house. They also changed the activities he was involved in. For example, the boy stopped playing European football, or soccer. The continuous running required to play the sport severely decreased his breathing ability. So Stavros began to play baseball instead. It gave him more time to rest and requires much less running. VOICE TWO: Stavros and his family saw improvement in the boy’s health over the next several years. His trips to the hospital emergency room grew increasingly rare. Also, Stavros’s doctor slowly reduced the amount of medicine the boy took. Recently, Zack and Suzie Kontzias reported good news. They say their son has not taken any steroid medicine since last summer. And they say he has not had an asthma attack. His parents also noted that those months included a season of American football, Stavros’s latest interest. The Kontziases now hope the asthma may completely disappear as their son gets older. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctors do not know the cause of asthma. Yet they have identified most of its triggers. For example, the common cold can cause an asthma attack in a person who has the disease. There also are several air pollutants that can lead to an asthma attack. Pollen is one such pollutant. Pollen is a fine dust that comes from plants that produce seeds. However, almost any kind of dust can cause an asthma attack if enough of it is in the air. This includes common dust found in houses. Air pollution from burning fuel also can cause an asthma attack. Tobacco smoke can do the same. Some kinds of animal hair are a trigger for asthma. And, even some insects in the home can lead to asthma attacks. VOICE TWO: Several things happen in the lungs when an asthma sufferer has an attack. Cells in the air passages begin to produce too much of a thick, sticky substance called mucous. The mucous creates blocked areas in the air passages. The tissue that lines the air passages begins to expand at the same time. And, the muscles in the passages tighten. All these changes cause the air passages to narrow. This reduces the amount of air that can flow in and out of the lungs. The sufferer can not get a good, deep, breath of air. The narrowed airways also cause coughing and a tight feeling in the chest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health experts say asthma cases are increasing around the world. The World Health Organization says asthma rates worldwide are increasing on average by fifty percent every ten years. W.H.O. officials say asthma cases in western Europe have increased by two times in ten years. They say the number of asthma sufferers has increased in the United States by about sixty percent in the past twenty years. American experts give an even higher number. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says the rise was seventy-five percent in about the same time period. It also says more than twenty million Americans report having the disease. The number of deaths from asthma also has risen in the United States. The W.H.O. says about five thousand Americans die from asthma attacks each year. In the early nineteen-eighties, the yearly death rate from asthma in the United States was about half that. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says asthma is not just a problem in industrial countries. It says the disease affects people in developing nations, too. However, the incidence of the disease differs greatly from area to area. W.H.O. officials say as many as twenty million people suffer from the disease in India. The officials say an estimated fifteen percent of Indian children suffer from the disease. They also say almost twenty percent of children in Kenya show signs of asthma. Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Uruguay also have a high rate of childhood asthma. The W.H.O. says as many as thirty percent of children in those countries show signs of asthma. VOICE ONE: Asthma kills about one hundred eighty thousand people a year. The W.H.O. says the disease also has huge economic costs. The costs linked to asthma are believed to be higher than those of tuberculosis and AIDS combined. The W.H.O. says the United States spends six thousand million dollars a year on health care and other economic costs of asthma. It says Britain spends almost a third of that on health care for the disease and lost productivity of workers.The World Health Organization says greater international action is needed to deal with asthma. It says asthma sufferers, healthcare providers and the general public must learn more about the disease and the problems linked to it. The W.H.O. says a worldwide system should be put into effect to observe and record asthma rates around the world. And, it says more research is needed to find the cause of asthma and develop new ways to treat it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Medical experts have suspected for some time that there was a genetic link to asthma. A child has a greater chance of developing asthma if his or her parent is asthmatic. British and American scientists say they may have found a gene involved in the disease. Three groups of researchers took part in the study. One group worked for Genome Therapeutics, a drug company in Waltham, Massachusetts. The other scientists were from the drug maker Schering-Plough and the University of Southampton in Britain. VOICE ONE: The gene is called ADAM thirty-three. The scientists identified it through genetic testing of more than four-hundred families in the United States and Britain whose members have the disease. The scientists say the gene alone does not cause asthma. But, they say its presence appears to increase a person’s chances of developing the disease. They say the gene may be involved in the main condition of asthma — the narrowing of airway passages. However, the scientists say it is too early to say what percentage of asthma sufferers may have an abnormal gene. Scientists say the finding could lead to new research about the causes of asthma and new drugs to treat the disease. It could also lead to methods to identify people most at risk for asthma and early treatment to help prevent the development of the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Jill Moss. Dwayne Collins was our engineer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Growing Vegetables in the Shade
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers often feel they need a lot of sunshine to produce a good crop. The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania, however, says lots of vegetables grow well without much sun. The research center published a report about this subject some years ago in its magazine Organic Gardening. The report said many different kinds of foods from blueberries to beans can be grown in the shade. Some vegetables do need a lot of sun. A vegetable crop expert at the University of Maine advised putting these vegetables where they can get from eight to ten hours of sunlight a day. Tomatoes, melons, squash and peppers are among those that need the most sun. Plants that produce root crops, such as carrots and beets, need from six to eight hours of sunlight every day. But leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, need only six hours of sunlight a day. The Rodale Institute says a garden should be planned carefully especially if you grow different kinds of foods. For example, rows of vegetables should be planted in an east-west direction. That way, as the sun passes overhead, all the plants will receive an equal amount of light. This is especially important when the plants grow to different heights. Nut trees such as filbert, hazelnut and yellowhorn produce well with only sun in the morning. Some fruits also do well without a lot of sunlight. In the United States, blueberries, raspberries, and several kinds of pears need only a little sun each day. In Asia, the hardy kiwi grows well in the shade. Many herbs grow well without much sun. Mint plants, for example, grow well in the shade. So do sage, dill, oregano, borage, chamomile and several kinds of thyme. The owner of a garden seed company warned against removing shade trees. He cut down all his shade trees to provide more sun for his crops. But then he had to protect his summer lettuce from the heat of the sun by hanging a piece of cloth to provide shade. Instead of cutting trees, he suggested putting plants that need a lot of sunlight, such as tomatoes, in containers. That way they can be moved as the sun moves. Internet users can learn more about the Rodale Institute at rodaleinstitute.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Space Digest
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) Progress Space Module (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we report about the discovery of a number of very young galaxies in space. We tell about the American space agency’s plan to launch a space vehicle designed to crash into a comet. And we have news from the planet Saturn. But we begin with a report about some important gifts brought to the crew of the International Space Station. Artists picture of the Huygens probe separation VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we report about the discovery of a number of very young galaxies in space. We tell about the American space agency’s plan to launch a space vehicle designed to crash into a comet. And we have news from the planet Saturn. But we begin with a report about some important gifts brought to the crew of the International Space Station. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On December twenty-fifth, a Russian cargo rocket linked with the International Space Station. The cargo vehicle carried two and one-half tons of food, fuel, oxygen, water and other supplies. It also carried Christmas presents for the Space Station’s American Commander Leroy Chiao and Russian Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov. The Progress M-fifty-one cargo vehicle was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December twenty-third. VOICE TWO: The M-fifty-one cargo vehicle arrived just in time. American space agency officials had said the two crewmen on the Space Station had only enough food for two more weeks. They said the two would have had to return to Earth if the supply flight had not been a success. Russian Soyuz crew vehicles and the Progress cargo ships have been the only links to the Space Station since the Space Shuttle Columbia’s accident in February, two-thousand-three. VOICE ONE: American Space Agency officials hope to launch the Space Shuttle Discovery in May. NASA finished placing the three main engines in Discovery on December eighth. Discovery and its seven-person crew are to fly to the International Space Station. Discovery will carry cargo and science experiments to the station. It will also test new safety equipment and plans. The tests will include Space Shuttle inspection and repair methods. NASA says the flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery is the first step in plans to finish the International Space Station. It will also be the first step in future exploration goals. These include returning to the Moon and human flights to the planet Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On December twenty-fourth, the European Space Agency’s Huygens exploration vehicle successfully separated from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Huygens began a three-week trip to the planet Saturn’s moon, Titan. The Huygens vehicle had been linked to the Cassini spacecraft during the almost seven-year trip to Saturn. Huygens will be the first human-made object to explore Titan. Titan has an unusual environment. Many scientists believe it may be very similar to that of the Earth before life formed. The Huygens exploration vehicle will provide information that will tell scientists if this is true. VOICE ONE: David Southwood is the director of science for the European Space Agency. Mister Southwood said the release of Huygens is the start of an exciting period of exploration. He thanked NASA for the Huygens’s ride to Saturn. He said each spacecraft will now continue on its own. He added that Huygens will now attempt to provide the first information from a new world that scientists have dreamed of exploring for many years. The Huygens exploration vehicle is to enter Titan’s upper atmosphere on January fourteenth. Then it will begin to move down toward the surface. Huygens will test and report about the atmosphere of Titan as it moves lower. It will send information to the Cassini spacecraft, which will then send it back to Earth. After Huygens reaches the surface of Titan, it will deploy radio equipment and communicate with Earth. VOICE TWO: Gathering information about Titan is one of the most important goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moons and is larger than the planets Mercury or Pluto. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with an important atmosphere. Titan’s thick atmosphere hides the surface. However, scientists have guessed that Titan’s surface could have solid, liquid and muddy material. There could be lakes, seas, or rivers. But the extremely cold temperature of Titan would prevent the seas or rivers from having liquid water. Scientists say these rivers might be ice or made of some other chemicals. The Huygens exploration vehicle may soon answer some of these questions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Plans call for NASA to launch its Deep Impact spacecraft January twelfth from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Deep Impact spacecraft will take six months to fly four hundred thirty-one million kilometers into space. It will then fly into the path of the comet Tempel-One. A comet is a relatively small frozen mass that travels around the Sun. Deep Impact will release a special science experiment that will crash into the comet. The experiment weighs three hundred seventy-two kilograms. The great speed of the crash will create a huge hole in the comet. Huge amounts of material will be forced into space. Deep Impact will observe the event and collect information about the material from the comet. It will send information and pictures back to Earth. VOICE TWO: Deep Impact will not be the only instrument to observe this event. NASA’s Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will be observing from near-Earth space. On Earth, people will also be able to see the event with the aid of a telescope. NASA officials say even a small telescope will permit a person to see material from the comet fly into space. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the material inside the comet is very similar to material formed at the beginning of the solar system. Andy Dantzler is the director of the Solar System division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mister Dantzler says understanding conditions that led to the formation of planets is one of NASA’s exploration goals. He says Deep Impact will attempt to answer questions about the beginning of our solar system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A galaxy is a system of about one hundred thousand million stars. Our Sun is a member of the Milky Way Galaxy. There are thousands of millions of galaxies in the observable universe. Exactly when and how galaxies formed in the Universe is a subject of current research. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer space telescope has discovered what appear to be a number of very young galaxies. Chris Martin is a scientist with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He is also the leading investigator for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer at the university. Mister Martin says scientists knew that huge young galaxies existed thousands of millions of years ago. But scientists thought they had all grown much older, like our own Milky Way galaxy. He says the universe may still be giving birth to new galaxies if these newly discovered galaxies are very young. Mister Martin and other scientists in the project have discovered about thirty-six new galaxies using NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Scientists say the discovery means we can study young galaxies to see how they develop. Tim Heckman is a scientist with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He says the discovery is like finding a living animal that scientists believed had been dead for thousands of years. Mister Heckman said now we can study the ancestors to galaxies much like ours. He says the newly discovered galaxies are between one hundred million and one thousand million years old. Our Milky Way Galaxy is about ten thousand million years old. VOICE ONE: The Galaxy Evolution Explorer is an orbiting space telescope. It observes galaxies in ultraviolet light. It has been used to see light that first started moving toward earth more than ten thousand million years ago. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer was launched in April of two thousand-three. Its main goal is to produce a map of galaxies. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer will also identify objects in far space for further study. It will also create huge amounts of information and photographs that will be given to scientists and the public. Scientists hope this will lead to new information about how our own Milky Way Galaxy was formed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On December twenty-fifth, a Russian cargo rocket linked with the International Space Station. The cargo vehicle carried two and one-half tons of food, fuel, oxygen, water and other supplies. It also carried Christmas presents for the Space Station’s American Commander Leroy Chiao and Russian Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov. The Progress M-fifty-one cargo vehicle was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December twenty-third. VOICE TWO: The M-fifty-one cargo vehicle arrived just in time. American space agency officials had said the two crewmen on the Space Station had only enough food for two more weeks. They said the two would have had to return to Earth if the supply flight had not been a success. Russian Soyuz crew vehicles and the Progress cargo ships have been the only links to the Space Station since the Space Shuttle Columbia’s accident in February, two-thousand-three. VOICE ONE: American Space Agency officials hope to launch the Space Shuttle Discovery in May. NASA finished placing the three main engines in Discovery on December eighth. Discovery and its seven-person crew are to fly to the International Space Station. Discovery will carry cargo and science experiments to the station. It will also test new safety equipment and plans. The tests will include Space Shuttle inspection and repair methods. NASA says the flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery is the first step in plans to finish the International Space Station. It will also be the first step in future exploration goals. These include returning to the Moon and human flights to the planet Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On December twenty-fourth, the European Space Agency’s Huygens exploration vehicle successfully separated from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Huygens began a three-week trip to the planet Saturn’s moon, Titan. The Huygens vehicle had been linked to the Cassini spacecraft during the almost seven-year trip to Saturn. Huygens will be the first human-made object to explore Titan. Titan has an unusual environment. Many scientists believe it may be very similar to that of the Earth before life formed. The Huygens exploration vehicle will provide information that will tell scientists if this is true. VOICE ONE: David Southwood is the director of science for the European Space Agency. Mister Southwood said the release of Huygens is the start of an exciting period of exploration. He thanked NASA for the Huygens’s ride to Saturn. He said each spacecraft will now continue on its own. He added that Huygens will now attempt to provide the first information from a new world that scientists have dreamed of exploring for many years. The Huygens exploration vehicle is to enter Titan’s upper atmosphere on January fourteenth. Then it will begin to move down toward the surface. Huygens will test and report about the atmosphere of Titan as it moves lower. It will send information to the Cassini spacecraft, which will then send it back to Earth. After Huygens reaches the surface of Titan, it will deploy radio equipment and communicate with Earth. VOICE TWO: Gathering information about Titan is one of the most important goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moons and is larger than the planets Mercury or Pluto. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with an important atmosphere. Titan’s thick atmosphere hides the surface. However, scientists have guessed that Titan’s surface could have solid, liquid and muddy material. There could be lakes, seas, or rivers. But the extremely cold temperature of Titan would prevent the seas or rivers from having liquid water. Scientists say these rivers might be ice or made of some other chemicals. The Huygens exploration vehicle may soon answer some of these questions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Plans call for NASA to launch its Deep Impact spacecraft January twelfth from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Deep Impact spacecraft will take six months to fly four hundred thirty-one million kilometers into space. It will then fly into the path of the comet Tempel-One. A comet is a relatively small frozen mass that travels around the Sun. Deep Impact will release a special science experiment that will crash into the comet. The experiment weighs three hundred seventy-two kilograms. The great speed of the crash will create a huge hole in the comet. Huge amounts of material will be forced into space. Deep Impact will observe the event and collect information about the material from the comet. It will send information and pictures back to Earth. VOICE TWO: Deep Impact will not be the only instrument to observe this event. NASA’s Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will be observing from near-Earth space. On Earth, people will also be able to see the event with the aid of a telescope. NASA officials say even a small telescope will permit a person to see material from the comet fly into space. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the material inside the comet is very similar to material formed at the beginning of the solar system. Andy Dantzler is the director of the Solar System division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mister Dantzler says understanding conditions that led to the formation of planets is one of NASA’s exploration goals. He says Deep Impact will attempt to answer questions about the beginning of our solar system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A galaxy is a system of about one hundred thousand million stars. Our Sun is a member of the Milky Way Galaxy. There are thousands of millions of galaxies in the observable universe. Exactly when and how galaxies formed in the Universe is a subject of current research. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer space telescope has discovered what appear to be a number of very young galaxies. Chris Martin is a scientist with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He is also the leading investigator for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer at the university. Mister Martin says scientists knew that huge young galaxies existed thousands of millions of years ago. But scientists thought they had all grown much older, like our own Milky Way galaxy. He says the universe may still be giving birth to new galaxies if these newly discovered galaxies are very young. Mister Martin and other scientists in the project have discovered about thirty-six new galaxies using NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Scientists say the discovery means we can study young galaxies to see how they develop. Tim Heckman is a scientist with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He says the discovery is like finding a living animal that scientists believed had been dead for thousands of years. Mister Heckman said now we can study the ancestors to galaxies much like ours. He says the newly discovered galaxies are between one hundred million and one thousand million years old. Our Milky Way Galaxy is about ten thousand million years old. VOICE ONE: The Galaxy Evolution Explorer is an orbiting space telescope. It observes galaxies in ultraviolet light. It has been used to see light that first started moving toward earth more than ten thousand million years ago. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer was launched in April of two thousand-three. Its main goal is to produce a map of galaxies. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer will also identify objects in far space for further study. It will also create huge amounts of information and photographs that will be given to scientists and the public. Scientists hope this will lead to new information about how our own Milky Way Galaxy was formed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Caffeine Withdrawal
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Coffee, tea and soft drinks usually contain caffeine. Caffeine is also found in chocolate, in medicine for colds and in drugs that keep people awake. In the United States, adults who use products with caffeine get an average of about two hundred eighty milligrams a day. This equals the caffeine in about two large cups of coffee. A report this month in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association says adults drink nearly half the coffee they did fifty years ago. But they still get most of their caffeine from coffee. In general, the more people drink, the more severe the effects if they miss a day. Yet a recent report says people who drink as little as one cup of coffee a day can become dependent on caffeine. In fact, it says caffeine withdrawal should be listed as a mental disorder. Researchers examined more than sixty studies on caffeine withdrawal from the last one hundred seventy years. They identified several common effects, such as headaches and sleepiness. Some people have difficulty thinking. Others get angry easily or become very sad. The researchers found that half the people suffered headaches if they did not have caffeine. Thirteen percent had a more serious problem. They were unable to work or do other normal activities. These problems generally resulted twelve to twenty-four hours after stopping caffeine. Ronald Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, led the study. He noted that caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant in the world. A stimulant produces a temporary increase in energy. The good news is that people can free themselves of caffeine dependence. The researchers say people should slowly reduce the amount of caffeine in their diet. The report appeared in the journal Psychopharmacology. The report published by the dietetic association is based on a national continuing study of what Americans eat. Researchers from the University of Vermont and the University of Maryland say almost ninety percent of adults have caffeine in their diet. So do seventy-six percent of children, mostly from soft drinks. After coffee, tea used to provide the second most caffeine for men age eighteen to fifty-four and women eighteen to thirty-four. But tea is now third behind soft drinks. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-11-5-1.cfm
* Headline: January 12, 2005 - Interview with William Labov: Sound Change, Part 1
* Byline: 

 First broadcast: January 12, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the sounds of change. RS: If you want a good example of how language changes, just picture a "mouse." Are you thinking of a rodent -- or a device for moving the cursor on a computer screen? AA: Shifts in language also involve pronunciation. In fact, our friend Ali the English teacher in Iran suggested this topic, since regional dialects can be confusing for English learners. RS: Native speakers, too. If someone in Chicago offered us some "sacks," we might think it was for carrying our groceries, not for keeping our feet warm. "Sacks" is how Chicagoans pronounce what we call "socks." AA: The linguist William Labov at the University of Pennsylvania cites this example of a sound change in the United States called the "Northern Cities Shift." WILLIAM LABOV: "Now what happens here is the short-a becomes 'ai' [like in "yeah"] in every single word, so that people have, say, 'theaht' and 'feahct'. In the meantime, the short words spelled with short-o like 'socks' or 'block' or 'cot' move into the position that was formerly occupied by 'ah.' So the man's name [John becomes] 'Jahn' -- that's a man's name, 'Jahn.' And the girl's name [Jan] becomes 'Jain.' So this is like a game of musical chairs. We call it chain shifting, in which five or six vowels all change places." RS: William Labov and other researchers have been tracking sound changes for a big project, the Atlas of North American English, to be published in a few months. WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so. But unlike European countries, America has never finished a map of the United States, only the eastern United States is covered and a few spots here and there. So we included both Canada and the United States in a study we started in 1992. And in about six years we covered the entire continent using a telephone survey of all the urbanized areas, the big cities. So it covers about two-thirds of the population of North America, and it represents them with about 800 speakers. "And what's most remarkable is that the rapidly changing dialects of the United States form a very solid, clear picture. And instead of getting a pepper-and-salt effect, we find very clear and sharp divisions between the dialects of the United States, which are getting more different from each other as time goes on. The most important differences have developed in this huge area around the Great Lakes region which we call the Inland North, going from Buffalo, Syracuse, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee. Those great cities occupying about 35 million people are all moving in a very different direction from the rest of the United States." RS: "How do you go about describing how people talk? How do you put together an atlas -- you have to actually hear the people talk." WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, yes, our Web site is in construction now, is being created by people at the University of Marburg [in Germany], is going to be quite a remarkable innovation in dialectology because on this Web site you will see the maps, you will see all the cities. And when you click on any one point you will be able to hear maybe a minute or two of speech from each person in that area. And, furthermore, you can hear the same word pronounced in many, many different cities across North America. "The answer to your question about sounds is that we can measure sounds acoustically and the difference between 'mad,' 'maad' and 'maaad,' the difference between 'go' and 'gow' and 'gaow,' will show up very clearly in these measurements, which is one of our main businesses. So about 440 speakers of our 800 have been analyzed in that way." RS: "So these are all from telephone conversations?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Yep." AA: "And you give them a list of words to repeat?" WILLIAM LABOV: "We actually have mailed people word lists. We focus upon pairs of words very often which are the same in some areas and different in other areas. For about half the geographic area of North America, the words 'cot' and 'caught' are pronounced the same way, [and] 'Don' and 'Dawn.' So they will say 'Don Hock married Don Hock' whereas the people in New York might saw 'Dawn Hock married Don Hawk.'" RS: We continue our conversation with University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov next week on Wordmaster. AA: We will also have a link to where you can learn more about the forthcoming Atlas of North American English, at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. First broadcast: January 12, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the sounds of change. RS: If you want a good example of how language changes, just picture a "mouse." Are you thinking of a rodent -- or a device for moving the cursor on a computer screen? AA: Shifts in language also involve pronunciation. In fact, our friend Ali the English teacher in Iran suggested this topic, since regional dialects can be confusing for English learners. RS: Native speakers, too. If someone in Chicago offered us some "sacks," we might think it was for carrying our groceries, not for keeping our feet warm. "Sacks" is how Chicagoans pronounce what we call "socks." AA: The linguist William Labov at the University of Pennsylvania cites this example of a sound change in the United States called the "Northern Cities Shift." WILLIAM LABOV: "Now what happens here is the short-a becomes 'ai' [like in "yeah"] in every single word, so that people have, say, 'theaht' and 'feahct'. In the meantime, the short words spelled with short-o like 'socks' or 'block' or 'cot' move into the position that was formerly occupied by 'ah.' So the man's name [John becomes] 'Jahn' -- that's a man's name, 'Jahn.' And the girl's name [Jan] becomes 'Jain.' So this is like a game of musical chairs. We call it chain shifting, in which five or six vowels all change places." RS: William Labov and other researchers have been tracking sound changes for a big project, the Atlas of North American English, to be published in a few months. WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so. But unlike European countries, America has never finished a map of the United States, only the eastern United States is covered and a few spots here and there. So we included both Canada and the United States in a study we started in 1992. And in about six years we covered the entire continent using a telephone survey of all the urbanized areas, the big cities. So it covers about two-thirds of the population of North America, and it represents them with about 800 speakers. "And what's most remarkable is that the rapidly changing dialects of the United States form a very solid, clear picture. And instead of getting a pepper-and-salt effect, we find very clear and sharp divisions between the dialects of the United States, which are getting more different from each other as time goes on. The most important differences have developed in this huge area around the Great Lakes region which we call the Inland North, going from Buffalo, Syracuse, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee. Those great cities occupying about 35 million people are all moving in a very different direction from the rest of the United States." RS: "How do you go about describing how people talk? How do you put together an atlas -- you have to actually hear the people talk." WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, yes, our Web site is in construction now, is being created by people at the University of Marburg [in Germany], is going to be quite a remarkable innovation in dialectology because on this Web site you will see the maps, you will see all the cities. And when you click on any one point you will be able to hear maybe a minute or two of speech from each person in that area. And, furthermore, you can hear the same word pronounced in many, many different cities across North America. "The answer to your question about sounds is that we can measure sounds acoustically and the difference between 'mad,' 'maad' and 'maaad,' the difference between 'go' and 'gow' and 'gaow,' will show up very clearly in these measurements, which is one of our main businesses. So about 440 speakers of our 800 have been analyzed in that way." RS: "So these are all from telephone conversations?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Yep." AA: "And you give them a list of words to repeat?" WILLIAM LABOV: "We actually have mailed people word lists. We focus upon pairs of words very often which are the same in some areas and different in other areas. For about half the geographic area of North America, the words 'cot' and 'caught' are pronounced the same way, [and] 'Don' and 'Dawn.' So they will say 'Don Hock married Don Hock' whereas the people in New York might saw 'Dawn Hock married Don Hawk.'" RS: We continue our conversation with University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov next week on Wordmaster. AA: We will also have a link to where you can learn more about the forthcoming Atlas of North American English, at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) On a cold and cloudy day in March, eighteen-sixty-one, Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States. In his inaugural speech, the new president announced the policy he would follow toward the southern states that had left the Union. Lincoln said no state had a legal right to secede. He said the Union could not be broken. He said he would enforce federal laws in every state. And he promised not to surrender any federal property in the states that seceded. Lincoln said if force was necessary to protect the Union, then force would be used. His policy was soon tested. VOICE TWO: On his second day as President, Lincoln received some bad news from Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. Major Robert Anderson, the commander of the small United States force at Sumter, wrote that his food supplies were low. At most, said Anderson, there was enough food for forty days. Unless he and his men received more supplies, they would have to leave the fort. Lincoln wanted to keep Fort Sumter. It was one of the few United States forts in the south still held by federal forces. And he had promised not to give up any federal property in the states that seceded. VOICE ONE: But getting food to Fort Sumter would be a very difficult job. The fort was built on an island in Charleston Harbor. It was surrounded by southern artillery. Southern gunboats guarded the port. To get supplies to Anderson and his men, a ship would have to fight its way to Sumter. Such a battle was sure to begin a bitter civil war. There also was the danger that fighting would cause slave states still in the Union to secede and join the southern Confederacy. VOICE TWO: The Army Chief, General [Winfield] Scott, warned Lincoln that it was too late to get supplies to Fort Sumter. He said southern defenses around the fort were so strong that a major military effort would be necessary. He said it would take months to prepare the warships and soldiers for such an effort. Major Anderson and his men at Sumter, he said, could not wait that long. There was another plan, however, that might work. It was proposed to Lincoln by Captain Gustavus Fox of the Navy Department. Captain Fox said soldiers and supplies could be sent down to Charleston in ships. Outside the entrance to the harbor, on a dark night, they could be put into small boats and pulled by tugs to the fort. Fox said a few warships could be sent to prevent southern gunboats from interfering. VOICE ONE: Lincoln liked this plan. He asked his cabinet for advice. If it were possible to send supplies to Sumter, he asked, would it be wise to do so? Postmaster General [Montgomery] Blair was the only member of the cabinet to answer 'yes'. Treasury Secretary [Salmon] Chase was for the plan only if Lincoln was sure it would not mean war. Secretary of State [William] Seward and the others opposed it. They said it would be better to withdraw Major Anderson and his men. They felt that now was not the time to start a civil war. This opposition in the cabinet caused Lincoln to postpone action on the Fox plan. But he sent two men separately to Charleston to get him information on the situation there. One was Captain Fox. The other was a close friend, Ward Lamon. VOICE TWO: In Charleston, Fox met with Governor [Francis] Pickens. He explained that he wished to talk with Major Anderson, not to give him orders, but to find out what the situation really was. Governor Pickens agreed. A Confederate boat carried Fox to Sumter. Anderson told Fox that the last of the food would be gone on April fifteenth. Ward Lamon went to Charleston after Fox returned to Washington. He, too, met with Governor Pickens and Major Anderson. The South Carolina Governor asked Lamon to give Lincoln this message: "Nothing can prevent war except a decision by the President of the United States to accept the secession of the south. If an attempt is made to put more men in Fort Sumter, a war cry will be sounded from every hilltop and valley in the south." Lamon reported to Lincoln that the arrival of even a boat load of food at sumter would lead to fighting. VOICE ONE: At the end of March, Lincoln held another cabinet meeting and again asked what should be done about Fort Sumter. Should an attempt be made to get supplies to Major Anderson. This time, three members of the cabinet voted 'yes' and three voted 'no'. When the meeting ended, Lincoln wrote an order for the Secretary of War. He told him to prepare to move men and supplies by sea to Fort Sumter. He said they should be ready to sail as early as April sixth -- only one week away. VOICE TWO: On April fourth, Lincoln called Captain Fox to the White House. He told him that the government was ready to take supplies to Fort Sumter. He said Fox would lead the attempt. Later in the meeting, Toombs urged Davis not to attack the fort. "Mr. President," he said, "at this time it is suicide -- murder -- and will lose us every friend in the north. You will strike a hornets' nest which extends from mountains to oceans. Millions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is not necessary. It puts us in the wrong. It will kill us!" VOICE TWO: On April tenth, Jefferson Davis sent his decision to the Confederate commander at Charleston, General Pierre Beauregard. He told Beauregard to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. If Major Anderson refused, then the general was to destroy the fort. The surrender demand was carried to Sumter the next day by a group of Confederate officers. They said Anderson and his men must leave the fort. But they could take with them their weapons and property. And they were offered transportation to any United States port they named. VOICE ONE: Anderson rejected the demand. As he walked with the Confederate officers back to their boat, he asked if General Beauregard would open fire on Sumter immediately. No, they said, he would be told later when the shooting would start. Anderson then told the southerners, "If you do not shell us to pieces, hunger will force us out in a few days." General Beauregard informed the Confederate government in Montgomery that Anderson refused to surrender. He also reported the major's statement that Sumter had only enough food for a few more days. VOICE TWO: New orders were sent to Beauregard. Jefferson Davis said there was no need to attack the fort if hunger would soon force the United States soldiers to leave. But he said Anderson must say exactly when he and his men would leave. And he said Anderson must promise not to fire on Confederate forces. If anderson agreed to this, then Confederate guns would remain silent. This offer was carried to Fort Sumter a few minutes before midnight, April eleventh. Anderson discussed the offer with his officers and then wrote his answer. He would leave the fort on April fifteenth if the Confederates made no hostile act against Fort Sumter or against the United States flag. He would not leave, however, if before then he received new orders or supplies. VOICE ONE: This did not satisfy the three confederate officers who brought Beauregard's message. They handed Anderson a short note. It said: "We have the honor to inform you that General Beauregard will open fire on Fort Sumter in one hour -- at twenty minutes after four on the morning of April twelfth, eighteen-sixty-one." The major shook hands with Beauregard's representatives, and they left the fort. Anderson and his officers woke their men and told them to prepare for battle. At Fort Johnson, across the harbor, Confederate gunners also were getting ready. These men would fire the first shot at Sumter. That explosion would signal the other guns surrounding the fort to open fire. VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) On a cold and cloudy day in March, eighteen-sixty-one, Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States. In his inaugural speech, the new president announced the policy he would follow toward the southern states that had left the Union. Lincoln said no state had a legal right to secede. He said the Union could not be broken. He said he would enforce federal laws in every state. And he promised not to surrender any federal property in the states that seceded. Lincoln said if force was necessary to protect the Union, then force would be used. His policy was soon tested. VOICE TWO: On his second day as President, Lincoln received some bad news from Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. Major Robert Anderson, the commander of the small United States force at Sumter, wrote that his food supplies were low. At most, said Anderson, there was enough food for forty days. Unless he and his men received more supplies, they would have to leave the fort. Lincoln wanted to keep Fort Sumter. It was one of the few United States forts in the south still held by federal forces. And he had promised not to give up any federal property in the states that seceded. VOICE ONE: But getting food to Fort Sumter would be a very difficult job. The fort was built on an island in Charleston Harbor. It was surrounded by southern artillery. Southern gunboats guarded the port. To get supplies to Anderson and his men, a ship would have to fight its way to Sumter. Such a battle was sure to begin a bitter civil war. There also was the danger that fighting would cause slave states still in the Union to secede and join the southern Confederacy. VOICE TWO: The Army Chief, General [Winfield] Scott, warned Lincoln that it was too late to get supplies to Fort Sumter. He said southern defenses around the fort were so strong that a major military effort would be necessary. He said it would take months to prepare the warships and soldiers for such an effort. Major Anderson and his men at Sumter, he said, could not wait that long. There was another plan, however, that might work. It was proposed to Lincoln by Captain Gustavus Fox of the Navy Department. Captain Fox said soldiers and supplies could be sent down to Charleston in ships. Outside the entrance to the harbor, on a dark night, they could be put into small boats and pulled by tugs to the fort. Fox said a few warships could be sent to prevent southern gunboats from interfering. VOICE ONE: Lincoln liked this plan. He asked his cabinet for advice. If it were possible to send supplies to Sumter, he asked, would it be wise to do so? Postmaster General [Montgomery] Blair was the only member of the cabinet to answer 'yes'. Treasury Secretary [Salmon] Chase was for the plan only if Lincoln was sure it would not mean war. Secretary of State [William] Seward and the others opposed it. They said it would be better to withdraw Major Anderson and his men. They felt that now was not the time to start a civil war. This opposition in the cabinet caused Lincoln to postpone action on the Fox plan. But he sent two men separately to Charleston to get him information on the situation there. One was Captain Fox. The other was a close friend, Ward Lamon. VOICE TWO: In Charleston, Fox met with Governor [Francis] Pickens. He explained that he wished to talk with Major Anderson, not to give him orders, but to find out what the situation really was. Governor Pickens agreed. A Confederate boat carried Fox to Sumter. Anderson told Fox that the last of the food would be gone on April fifteenth. Ward Lamon went to Charleston after Fox returned to Washington. He, too, met with Governor Pickens and Major Anderson. The South Carolina Governor asked Lamon to give Lincoln this message: "Nothing can prevent war except a decision by the President of the United States to accept the secession of the south. If an attempt is made to put more men in Fort Sumter, a war cry will be sounded from every hilltop and valley in the south." Lamon reported to Lincoln that the arrival of even a boat load of food at sumter would lead to fighting. VOICE ONE: At the end of March, Lincoln held another cabinet meeting and again asked what should be done about Fort Sumter. Should an attempt be made to get supplies to Major Anderson. This time, three members of the cabinet voted 'yes' and three voted 'no'. When the meeting ended, Lincoln wrote an order for the Secretary of War. He told him to prepare to move men and supplies by sea to Fort Sumter. He said they should be ready to sail as early as April sixth -- only one week away. VOICE TWO: On April fourth, Lincoln called Captain Fox to the White House. He told him that the government was ready to take supplies to Fort Sumter. He said Fox would lead the attempt. Later in the meeting, Toombs urged Davis not to attack the fort. "Mr. President," he said, "at this time it is suicide -- murder -- and will lose us every friend in the north. You will strike a hornets' nest which extends from mountains to oceans. Millions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is not necessary. It puts us in the wrong. It will kill us!" VOICE TWO: On April tenth, Jefferson Davis sent his decision to the Confederate commander at Charleston, General Pierre Beauregard. He told Beauregard to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. If Major Anderson refused, then the general was to destroy the fort. The surrender demand was carried to Sumter the next day by a group of Confederate officers. They said Anderson and his men must leave the fort. But they could take with them their weapons and property. And they were offered transportation to any United States port they named. VOICE ONE: Anderson rejected the demand. As he walked with the Confederate officers back to their boat, he asked if General Beauregard would open fire on Sumter immediately. No, they said, he would be told later when the shooting would start. Anderson then told the southerners, "If you do not shell us to pieces, hunger will force us out in a few days." General Beauregard informed the Confederate government in Montgomery that Anderson refused to surrender. He also reported the major's statement that Sumter had only enough food for a few more days. VOICE TWO: New orders were sent to Beauregard. Jefferson Davis said there was no need to attack the fort if hunger would soon force the United States soldiers to leave. But he said Anderson must say exactly when he and his men would leave. And he said Anderson must promise not to fire on Confederate forces. If anderson agreed to this, then Confederate guns would remain silent. This offer was carried to Fort Sumter a few minutes before midnight, April eleventh. Anderson discussed the offer with his officers and then wrote his answer. He would leave the fort on April fifteenth if the Confederates made no hostile act against Fort Sumter or against the United States flag. He would not leave, however, if before then he received new orders or supplies. VOICE ONE: This did not satisfy the three confederate officers who brought Beauregard's message. They handed Anderson a short note. It said: "We have the honor to inform you that General Beauregard will open fire on Fort Sumter in one hour -- at twenty minutes after four on the morning of April twelfth, eighteen-sixty-one." The major shook hands with Beauregard's representatives, and they left the fort. Anderson and his officers woke their men and told them to prepare for battle. At Fort Johnson, across the harbor, Confederate gunners also were getting ready. These men would fire the first shot at Sumter. That explosion would signal the other guns surrounding the fort to open fire. VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series #20: Military Colleges
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Our Foreign Student Series continues this week with a report about military colleges in the United States. We will talk about two examples. One is the Virginia Military Institute, known as V.M.I. V.M.I. is a public, four-year military college in Lexington, Virginia. It accepts women as well as men. Its one thousand three hundred students are called cadets. New cadets learn some things from older ones. One thing the older cadets teach is the honor system. Cadets must not lie, cheat or steal -- and they must not accept lying, cheating or stealing by any other cadet. Cadets who violate the honor system are expelled. The school considers the learning of self-control to be an important part of a college education. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart MacInnis is associate director of communications and marketing at the Virginia Military Institute. He says V.M.I. has forty-five men and women from eighteen other countries this year. Their home countries include Canada, Kenya, Lithuania, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea. These cadets are mostly studying business and international relations. The cost for one year at V.M.I. for someone from outside Virginia is about twenty seven thousand dollars. Another public military college in the South is The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina. It also accepts both men and women for its four-year program. The Citadel has close to two thousand students. It says they receive a traditional military education. Graduates are not required to enter the armed forces. But about thirty-eight percent of them do enter the military after graduation. This year, The Citadel has fifty-six students from thirty-two countries outside the United States. They are studying mainly business, science, computer science, mathematics and engineering. The cost is about twenty-five thousand dollars for the first year. After that, it drops to about twenty-one thousand dollars. Internet users can learn more about the college at citadel, citadel.edu. The Web site for the Virginia Military Institute is vmi.edu. And all of the reports in our Foreign Student Series can be found online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Additional Frequencies and Times to Hear Special English in Iraq, Kuwait, Kabul and Moscow
* Byline: 

 0030-0100 Universal Time Iraq 102.4 105 Kuwait 96.9 0130-0200 Iraq 102.4 105 Kuwait 96.9 1330-1400 Iraq 102.4 105 Kuwait 96.9 Moscow 810 kHz 1730-1800 Moscow 810 kHz Kuwait 96.9 1930-2000 Kuwait 96.9 2030-2100 Iraq 102.4 105 Kuwait 96.9 Kabul 105 2130-2200 Kabul 105 Kuwait 96.9 2330-0000 Iraq 102.4 105 Kuwait 96.9 Kabul 105 </font face="Arial,Helvetica"></font size=-1> 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Green Day / Presidential Inaguration / Pale Male
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) President Bush delivers inaugural address (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Green Day ... A question about the upcoming presidential inauguration ... And an update on the adventures of a high-flying New Yorker. Protesters at the George W. Bush inauguration DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Green Day ... A question about the upcoming presidential inauguration ... And an update on the adventures of a high-flying New Yorker. Pale Male In August of two thousand three we had a story about Pale Male, a famous bird living in New York City. Recently, he and his mate Lola were in the news again. Maybe you heard about it. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Pale Male and Lola are red-tailed hawks, large hunting birds that eat small animals and other birds. Pale Male built a nest on the side of a tall building. This is a building where people live in apartments that cost millions and millions of dollars. It is across the street from Central Park, a nature area in the middle of the city. Pale Male arrived in nineteen ninety-three. Since then, he and his mates have raised more than twenty young hawks. Thousands of people have watched the activity. The hawks became movie stars. But recently, the people who own the building decided they no longer wanted the nest on the side of their property. They said they were tired of finding dropped remains of pigeons and other creatures near the front of the building. They ordered workers to take down the nest. They also ordered the workers to fix the building so the nest could not be rebuilt. Other New Yorkers immediately began to protest. Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the building along Fifth Avenue. The story of Pale Male made news far beyond New York. People around the world wrote letters of protest. Pale Male In August of two thousand three we had a story about Pale Male, a famous bird living in New York City. Recently, he and his mate Lola were in the news again. Maybe you heard about it. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Pale Male and Lola are red-tailed hawks, large hunting birds that eat small animals and other birds. Pale Male built a nest on the side of a tall building. This is a building where people live in apartments that cost millions and millions of dollars. It is across the street from Central Park, a nature area in the middle of the city. Pale Male arrived in nineteen ninety-three. Since then, he and his mates have raised more than twenty young hawks. Thousands of people have watched the activity. The hawks became movie stars. But recently, the people who own the building decided they no longer wanted the nest on the side of their property. They said they were tired of finding dropped remains of pigeons and other creatures near the front of the building. They ordered workers to take down the nest. They also ordered the workers to fix the building so the nest could not be rebuilt. Other New Yorkers immediately began to protest. Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the building along Fifth Avenue. The story of Pale Male made news far beyond New York. People around the world wrote letters of protest. We are happy to report that the building owners quickly changed their minds. They ordered workers to undo the changes to the building, so the hawks can rebuild their nest. Bird watchers say Pale Male and Lola continue to fly around the area. They have been seen several times where their nest used to be. However, the bird watchers say the two hawks have not yet begun to rebuild their home. So stay tuned. If we receive confirmed reports that Pale Male and Lola have begun to rebuild their nest, we will tell you. Hmmm … maybe someone will make another movie, about the continuing adventures of Lola and Pale Male. Presidential Inaugurations DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Iran. Monireh Farhangnia asks what the American president does on Inauguration Day. That day is next Thursday. In the morning, President Bush and his wife Laura will attend a church service across from the White House. Then, they will go to the Capitol building for the swearing-in ceremony. Every four years, workers build a special stand outside for that purpose. The chief justice of the United States traditionally swears in the vice president and then the president. However, Vice President Dick Cheney is to take the oath of office from Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Chief Justice William Rehnquist has thyroid cancer. But he is still planning to swear in President Bush. Newly inaugurated presidents give a speech, officially called an inaugural address. After the ceremony, the president and vice president and guests go inside the Capitol to have lunch. Later, they watch a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue with floats and marching bands from around the country. Pennsylvania Avenue is a wide street with the Capitol at one end and the White House at the other. Finally, in the evening, the leaders and groups of guests attend parties called inaugural balls. The first of these in Washington took place for President James Madison and his wife Dolly in eighteen oh nine. Eight inaugural balls organized by states will take place around the city next Thursday night. In addition, there will be a free celebration called the Commander-in-Chief Ball. This party is for troops back recently from Iraq and Afghanistan, or soon to be sent. Events related to the inauguration will take place for several days before and after the swearing-in. These activities cost a lot to organize. Some of the money is paid by taxpayers, and some by businesses, groups and individuals. By last Friday, the presidential inaugural committee had collected eighteen million dollars, around half the goal. People who give a lot of money reportedly get better seats at the inauguration and parade. They may even get to attend a meal with the president and vice president. The last inaugural took place in January of two thousand one. That was eight months before the terrorist attacks of September eleventh. This time, security measures will be the heaviest ever for a presidential inauguration. The twentieth amendment to the Constitution sets Inauguration Day on January twentieth. This has been the date since nineteen thirty-three. The presidential swearing-in ceremony formerly took place on March fourth. That was generally the last day of the congressional term. But why wait until four months after elections? Well, for one thing, it took a long time to count all the votes. Then it took more time for the newly elected leaders to travel to Washington. The final weeks of the congressional term were not very productive, though. And, by the nineteen thirties, modern transportation permitted a quicker trip to the capital. So Congress and the states decided to move Inauguration Day to January. Green Day The American music industry will present its Grammy Awards on February thirteenth in Los Angeles. One of the top nominees this year is Green Day for the album "American Idiot." Shep O’Neal has our story. SHEP O'NEAL: The three members of Green Day are singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bass player Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool. Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt started performing together as kids in California. Green Day released its first major album, “Dookie,” in nineteen ninety four. "Dookie" has sold more than ten million copies in the United States alone. It won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance. (MUSIC) In nineteen ninety-seven, Green Day came out with one of their best-known songs, on the album "Nimrod." Here is "Good Riddance," better known as "Time of Your Life." (MUSIC) Green Day’s newest work is nominated for seven Grammys. These include Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Rock Album and Best Rock Song, for the title piece. We leave you now with Green Day and the title song from “American Idiot.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who is also the producer. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Please join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA.’s radio magazine in Special English. We are happy to report that the building owners quickly changed their minds. They ordered workers to undo the changes to the building, so the hawks can rebuild their nest. Bird watchers say Pale Male and Lola continue to fly around the area. They have been seen several times where their nest used to be. However, the bird watchers say the two hawks have not yet begun to rebuild their home. So stay tuned. If we receive confirmed reports that Pale Male and Lola have begun to rebuild their nest, we will tell you. Hmmm … maybe someone will make another movie, about the continuing adventures of Lola and Pale Male. Presidential Inaugurations DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Iran. Monireh Farhangnia asks what the American president does on Inauguration Day. That day is next Thursday. In the morning, President Bush and his wife Laura will attend a church service across from the White House. Then, they will go to the Capitol building for the swearing-in ceremony. Every four years, workers build a special stand outside for that purpose. The chief justice of the United States traditionally swears in the vice president and then the president. However, Vice President Dick Cheney is to take the oath of office from Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Chief Justice William Rehnquist has thyroid cancer. But he is still planning to swear in President Bush. Newly inaugurated presidents give a speech, officially called an inaugural address. After the ceremony, the president and vice president and guests go inside the Capitol to have lunch. Later, they watch a parade along Pennsylvania Avenue with floats and marching bands from around the country. Pennsylvania Avenue is a wide street with the Capitol at one end and the White House at the other. Finally, in the evening, the leaders and groups of guests attend parties called inaugural balls. The first of these in Washington took place for President James Madison and his wife Dolly in eighteen oh nine. Eight inaugural balls organized by states will take place around the city next Thursday night. In addition, there will be a free celebration called the Commander-in-Chief Ball. This party is for troops back recently from Iraq and Afghanistan, or soon to be sent. Events related to the inauguration will take place for several days before and after the swearing-in. These activities cost a lot to organize. Some of the money is paid by taxpayers, and some by businesses, groups and individuals. By last Friday, the presidential inaugural committee had collected eighteen million dollars, around half the goal. People who give a lot of money reportedly get better seats at the inauguration and parade. They may even get to attend a meal with the president and vice president. The last inaugural took place in January of two thousand one. That was eight months before the terrorist attacks of September eleventh. This time, security measures will be the heaviest ever for a presidential inauguration. The twentieth amendment to the Constitution sets Inauguration Day on January twentieth. This has been the date since nineteen thirty-three. The presidential swearing-in ceremony formerly took place on March fourth. That was generally the last day of the congressional term. But why wait until four months after elections? Well, for one thing, it took a long time to count all the votes. Then it took more time for the newly elected leaders to travel to Washington. The final weeks of the congressional term were not very productive, though. And, by the nineteen thirties, modern transportation permitted a quicker trip to the capital. So Congress and the states decided to move Inauguration Day to January. Green Day The American music industry will present its Grammy Awards on February thirteenth in Los Angeles. One of the top nominees this year is Green Day for the album "American Idiot." Shep O’Neal has our story. SHEP O'NEAL: The three members of Green Day are singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bass player Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool. Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt started performing together as kids in California. Green Day released its first major album, “Dookie,” in nineteen ninety four. "Dookie" has sold more than ten million copies in the United States alone. It won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance. (MUSIC) In nineteen ninety-seven, Green Day came out with one of their best-known songs, on the album "Nimrod." Here is "Good Riddance," better known as "Time of Your Life." (MUSIC) Green Day’s newest work is nominated for seven Grammys. These include Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Rock Album and Best Rock Song, for the title piece. We leave you now with Green Day and the title song from “American Idiot.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who is also the producer. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Please join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA.’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Carbon Trading
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Carbon trading has its roots in the Kyoto Protocol. This is the international agreement to reduce levels of industrial gases believed to cause climate change. Many scientists link warmer temperatures to carbon dioxide and other pollutants. One way carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere is when oil and other carbon-based fuels are burned. Under the Kyoto Protocol, companies have an allowance. This is the amount of carbon dioxide they are permitted to release. Companies can go over their limit. But they must buy credits from companies that have more than they need. These are companies that have not used all of their allowance. Each credit permits the holder to release one ton of carbon into the atmosphere. Carbon credits have been traded unofficially since two thousand three. Since then, the price of a credit has risen by about forty percent. Now, the European Union will require factories and power stations in the twenty-five member countries to use the system. A program called the European Emissions Trading Scheme took effect on January first. Only companies in industries that produce large amounts of carbon dioxide must take part in the system. But anyone can buy carbon credits in financial markets. Nord Pool, the Nordic Power Exchange, has already begun to trade carbon credits. The European Climate Exchange, in the Netherlands, is to officially start trading in February. Euronext and the European Energy Exchange in Germany have also announced plans to trade carbon credits. Experts say the market could grow to nineteen thousand million dollars by two thousand ten. A group of companies created the Chicago Climate Exchange in two thousand three. But carbon trading in the United States is not based on legal limits, as in Europe. About one hundred thirty nations have signed the Kyoto Protocol. The United States has not approved it. This is largely because big developing countries like China and India are not required to make the same cuts as wealthier nations. But enough nations have approved the Kyoto Protocol for the treaty to take effect next month. It aims to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the world to below levels recorded in nineteen ninety. This is supposed to happen by two thousand twelve. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Middle East Peace Prospects
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. A Palestinian attack on Israelis at a border crossing has added to the pressures Mahmoud Abbas will face in his new job. The attack came two days before the swearing-in ceremony for the next president of the Palestinian Authority. A truck bomb exploded Thursday at the Karni crossing between Israel and Gaza. Then gunmen killed six Israeli civilians and seriously wounded five others. Three groups took responsibility: Hamas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees. Later, Israeli helicopters raided a target in Gaza linked to militants. Goods enter Gaza through the Karni crossing. After the militant attack, Israel closed all border crossings with Gaza. On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered that all communication with the Palestinian Authority be cut. He said communications would stop until the new Palestinian President controls militants and halts attacks. The announcement came hours before Mahmoud Abbas was to be sworn-in. Yasser Arafat was Palestinian Authority president until his death in November. Israel and the United States had refused to negotiate with him as attacks against Israel continued. The peace plan known as the road map calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take steps toward an independent Palestine. The plan is meant to end more than four years of most recent violence. World leaders say the election Sunday of Mister Abbas offers new possibilities for peace. He received sixty-two percent of the vote. He defeated independent candidate Mustafa Barghouti and five others. The Israeli Prime Minister congratulated Mister Abbas. Both sides expressed support for a meeting, but did not set a date. President Bush said he would welcome the new Palestinian leader to Washington if he wants to come. Israeli lawmakers this week narrowly approved a new government. Most cabinet members support the plan by Israel to withdraw from Gaza and part of the West Bank this year. Mister Abbas has said attacks against Israel make life harder for Palestinians. He also says he would not use force against militants, but would try to negotiate a truce. A Hamas official told the Associated Press that Egypt has renewed a proposal for a one-year suspension of attacks. Hamas boycotted the presidential election, but may join legislative elections in July. After the Karni attack, Reuters news agency reported that several thousand marchers celebrated in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. But the head of a Palestinian research group says the majority of people, especially in Gaza, support Mister Abbas. Mahdi Abdel Hadi says the people are tired of violence. In his words, “They are looking for this small window of fresh air and warm sun to come through the Palestinian election.” In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. A Palestinian attack on Israelis at a border crossing has added to the pressures Mahmoud Abbas will face in his new job. The attack came two days before the swearing-in ceremony for the next president of the Palestinian Authority. A truck bomb exploded Thursday at the Karni crossing between Israel and Gaza. Then gunmen killed six Israeli civilians and seriously wounded five others. Three groups took responsibility: Hamas, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees. Later, Israeli helicopters raided a target in Gaza linked to militants. Goods enter Gaza through the Karni crossing. After the militant attack, Israel closed all border crossings with Gaza. On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered that all communication with the Palestinian Authority be cut. He said communications would stop until the new Palestinian President controls militants and halts attacks. The announcement came hours before Mahmoud Abbas was to be sworn-in. Yasser Arafat was Palestinian Authority president until his death in November. Israel and the United States had refused to negotiate with him as attacks against Israel continued. The peace plan known as the road map calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take steps toward an independent Palestine. The plan is meant to end more than four years of most recent violence. World leaders say the election Sunday of Mister Abbas offers new possibilities for peace. He received sixty-two percent of the vote. He defeated independent candidate Mustafa Barghouti and five others. The Israeli Prime Minister congratulated Mister Abbas. Both sides expressed support for a meeting, but did not set a date. President Bush said he would welcome the new Palestinian leader to Washington if he wants to come. Israeli lawmakers this week narrowly approved a new government. Most cabinet members support the plan by Israel to withdraw from Gaza and part of the West Bank this year. Mister Abbas has said attacks against Israel make life harder for Palestinians. He also says he would not use force against militants, but would try to negotiate a truce. A Hamas official told the Associated Press that Egypt has renewed a proposal for a one-year suspension of attacks. Hamas boycotted the presidential election, but may join legislative elections in July. After the Karni attack, Reuters news agency reported that several thousand marchers celebrated in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. But the head of a Palestinian research group says the majority of people, especially in Gaza, support Mister Abbas. Mahdi Abdel Hadi says the people are tired of violence. In his words, “They are looking for this small window of fresh air and warm sun to come through the Palestinian election.” In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Martin Luther King Jr., Part 1
* Byline: Written by William Rodgers

 ANNCR: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Junior. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It all started on a bus. A black woman was returning home from work after a long hard day. She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt. But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama. And the year was nineteen fifty-five. In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus. So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat. But the woman refused, and she was arrested. Incidents like this had happened before. But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks. This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest. He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed. The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King.He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system. The protest became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement. VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He was born into a religious family. Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church. And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion. In nineteen twenty-nine, Atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States. Many black families came to the city in search of a better life. There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities. But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites. The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States. They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city. Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated. VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young. But as he grew older, he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally. One day Martin and his father went out to buy shoes. They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman. The businessman sold shoes to all people. But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store. He ordered Martin's father to obey the rule. Martin never forgot his father's angry answer: "If you do not sell shoes to black people at the front of the store, you will not sell shoes to us at all. " Such incidents, however, were rare during Martin's early life. Instead, he led the life of a normal boy. Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly. He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university. The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta. Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study. VOICE TWO: It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher. At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking. He soon was able to test his gifts. One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church. When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them. But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King. A church member once described him: "The boy seemed much older than his years. He understood life and its problems. " VOICE ONE: Martin seemed wise to others because of his studies at the university. He carefully read the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and thinker. Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice. Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws. He taught his followers never to use violence. Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs. As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people. The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau -- non-violence and civil disobedience -- could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans. Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right. He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau. Years later he said: "My university studies gave me the basic truths I now believe. I discovered the idea of humanity's oneness and the dignity and value of all human character. " VOICE TWO: Martin continued his studies in religion for almost ten years. When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston. It was in Boston that Martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife. Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown. His brother once said that Martin "never had one girlfriend for more than a year". VOICE ONE: But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different. The first time he saw her Martin said: "You have everything I have ever wanted in a wife. " Coretta was surprised at his words. But she felt that Martin was serious and honest. A short time later, they were married. Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree in religion. The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery. Their first child was born. Martin's work at the church was going well. He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor. And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher. Coretta remembered their life as simple and without worries. Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a Montgomery city bus. And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system. Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed -- more important even than his own life. But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign. He was only twenty-six years old. He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers. VOICE ONE: Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement. But he was faced with a serious problem. He asked: "How can I make my people militant enough to win our goals, while keeping peace within the movement. " The answer came to him from the teachings of Gandhi and Thoreau. In his first speech as a leader, Martin said: "We must seek to show we are right through peaceful, not violent means. Love must be the ideal guiding our actions. If we protest bravely, and yet with pride and Christian love, then future historians will say: "There lived a great people, a black people, who gave new hope to civilization. " With these words, a new movement was born. It was non-violent and peaceful. But victory was far from sure, and many difficult days of struggle lay ahead. (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by William Rodgers. Listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. (THEME) ANNCR: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Junior. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It all started on a bus. A black woman was returning home from work after a long hard day. She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt. But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama. And the year was nineteen fifty-five. In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus. So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat. But the woman refused, and she was arrested. Incidents like this had happened before. But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks. This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest. He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed. The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King.He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system. The protest became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement. VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He was born into a religious family. Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church. And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion. In nineteen twenty-nine, Atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States. Many black families came to the city in search of a better life. There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities. But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites. The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States. They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city. Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated. VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young. But as he grew older, he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally. One day Martin and his father went out to buy shoes. They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman. The businessman sold shoes to all people. But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store. He ordered Martin's father to obey the rule. Martin never forgot his father's angry answer: "If you do not sell shoes to black people at the front of the store, you will not sell shoes to us at all. " Such incidents, however, were rare during Martin's early life. Instead, he led the life of a normal boy. Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly. He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university. The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta. Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study. VOICE TWO: It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher. At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking. He soon was able to test his gifts. One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church. When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them. But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King. A church member once described him: "The boy seemed much older than his years. He understood life and its problems. " VOICE ONE: Martin seemed wise to others because of his studies at the university. He carefully read the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and thinker. Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau. Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice. Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws. He taught his followers never to use violence. Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs. As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people. The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau -- non-violence and civil disobedience -- could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans. Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right. He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau. Years later he said: "My university studies gave me the basic truths I now believe. I discovered the idea of humanity's oneness and the dignity and value of all human character. " VOICE TWO: Martin continued his studies in religion for almost ten years. When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston. It was in Boston that Martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife. Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown. His brother once said that Martin "never had one girlfriend for more than a year". VOICE ONE: But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different. The first time he saw her Martin said: "You have everything I have ever wanted in a wife. " Coretta was surprised at his words. But she felt that Martin was serious and honest. A short time later, they were married. Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree in religion. The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery. Their first child was born. Martin's work at the church was going well. He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor. And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher. Coretta remembered their life as simple and without worries. Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a Montgomery city bus. And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system. Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed -- more important even than his own life. But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign. He was only twenty-six years old. He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers. VOICE ONE: Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement. But he was faced with a serious problem. He asked: "How can I make my people militant enough to win our goals, while keeping peace within the movement. " The answer came to him from the teachings of Gandhi and Thoreau. In his first speech as a leader, Martin said: "We must seek to show we are right through peaceful, not violent means. Love must be the ideal guiding our actions. If we protest bravely, and yet with pride and Christian love, then future historians will say: "There lived a great people, a black people, who gave new hope to civilization. " With these words, a new movement was born. It was non-violent and peaceful. But victory was far from sure, and many difficult days of struggle lay ahead. (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by William Rodgers. Listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Writers and the Immigrant Experience: Middle East, Europe and Africa
* Byline: Written by Doreen Baingana

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we have the third and last part of our series about writers and the immigrant experience. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we have the third and last part of our series about writers and the immigrant experience. VOICE ONE: Last January we talked about Asian American writers. In December it was writers with ties to Central and South America and the Caribbean. VOICE TWO: Now, to complete our series, we look at four writers and the influence of their ancestry in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elmaz AbinaderElmaz Abinader was born to parents from Lebanon. The writer and poet grew up in a small town in the eastern American state of Pennsylvania. Her family spoke mostly Arabic at home. She says her family was very close, but at school other children insulted her for being different. She looked for some connection between her two lives. VOICE TWO: Elmaz Abinader says everything changed when she went to college. She took control of her identity. She began to cook Middle Eastern foods and to listen to Arabic music with her friends. She also began to write about her grandmother. Miz Abinader studied writing in college. But she says most of the American writers she studied had European roots. She felt that her culture was not welcome in American writing. This was in the nineteen seventies. At some point, she read a book that, in her words, “made the difference.” The book was “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.” It was written by the Chinese American writer Maxine Hong Kingston. In it, she tells stories about her Chinese grandmother, and about children considered too American for their immigrant family. This book led Elmaz Abinader to read works by others outside the center of American culture, such as African American and Latino writers. She found a community of people like her, learning to live in two cultures. VOICE ONE: Miz Abinader went on to earn a doctorate in writing. She called her first book, in nineteen ninety-one, “Children of the Roojme: A Family’s Journey from Lebanon.” It is about her family’s move over the years to the United States. She also writes poetry. And she writes and performs plays. Her play “Country of Origin” is about the struggles of three Arab American women. The play includes music that is a mix of old Middle Eastern sounds and present-day jazz. Elmaz Abinader says she began to understand years ago that as a writer, she was also an activist. Today she is a professor of creative writing at Mills College in Oakland, in Northern California. She says a beautiful story or a good poem can affect a reader more than any speech. Her aim, she says, is to make the story of Arab Americans as important as that of any other group in the United States. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Aleksandar HemonIn September of two thousand four, the writer Aleksandar Hemon received a MacArthur Foundation award. These are known as “genius awards.” They are given each year to individuals who show great creativity in their work. MacArthur Fellows are given five hundred thousand dollars over five years to spend as they wish. Aleksandar Hemon is the author of “The Question of Bruno” and “Nowhere Man.” Both books are about young men born in Sarajevo. Their lives are changed by the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early nineteen nineties. Like the men in his books, Mister Hemon grew up in Sarajevo. He became a reporter and writer. He came to the United States in nineteen ninety-two as part of a cultural program. He was twenty-seven years old. After the Bosnian war started, Mister Hemon could not return home. He stayed in America and settled in Chicago. VOICE ONE: Book critics have praised his expert and beautiful use of the English language. Yet Aleksandar Hemon spoke only a little English when he arrived in the United States. He got low-paying work. He improved his language skills very quickly by reading books in English. Mister Hemon wrote his first book in English after only three years in the United States. He has said that one of the most difficult things for him as a new immigrant was this: Recognizing the difference between what he wanted to say and what he was really saying. He says this changed the way he thought about the self. And it changed his writing. He saw that a person was made up of many selves. Aleksander Hemon also writes about displaced people who do not feel part of any community. He says telling stories is one way to record the old life that is lost, perhaps in war. He says stories should be told about wars and genocide so that the official version of history is not the only one that exists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Andrei Codrescu has published many books of poetry. He has also written about his life and his travels. But he is best known for his commentaries on American culture on National Public Radio. He lives in New Orleans and is a professor of writing at Louisiana State University. He also heads the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse, now published on the Internet. Andrei CodrescuAndrei Codrescu was born in Sibu, Romania, in nineteen forty-six. When he was nineteen years old, he left the country with his mother. Mister Codrescu says Israel paid two thousand dollars each to buy freedom for Jews in communist Romania. At that time, West Germany did the same for ethnic Germans in Romania. But instead of going to Israel, Mister Codrescu and his mother came to the United States. He says he now feels more American than anything else. He became an American citizen in nineteen eighty-one. VOICE ONE: Andrei Codrescu began to write poetry when he was sixteen years old. He says Romanians have a strong love for poetry, and a language that expresses images well. He also says writing poetry was a rebellious act because the communists banned a lot of writing. Years later, as an American, Mister Codrescu recorded the end of communist rule in Romania in nineteen eighty-nine. He wrote a book, “The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile’s Story of Return and Revolution.” Andrei Codrescu has also traveled around the United States and observed life. His film “Road Scholar” describes unusual communities. He wrote a book with the same name. He says he learned that people with differences can live together. VOICE TWO: Many new immigrants in America are from Africa. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is from Nigeria. She has published short stories and a book, "Purple Hibiscus." It has been nominated for international prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize. "Purple Hibiscus" won the two thousand four Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for a first work of fiction. These awards honor writers of African ancestry. Miz Adiche grew up in the university town of Nsukka. Her parents were professors. She came to the United States in nineteen ninety-six to go to college. She was nineteen years old. She says Nigeria will always be her home. But she says she needs distance to be able to write about that country better. In fact, Chimamanda Adichie says that sometimes, when she is back in Nigeria, she writes about Nigerians in America. VOICE ONE: "Purple Hibiscus" is set in Nigeria. It is about a young woman growing up in a troubled family while the country faces political unrest. There are some similarities to real-life events. Miz Adichie says the stories of people who suffered must be told. "Purple Hibiscus" also deals with the importance of modern religion in Nigeria today. At the same time, Chimamanda Adichie explores the clash between modern religion and African tradition. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our three programs over the past year about writers and the immigrant experience is online at voaspecialenglish.com. VOICE ONE: Our series was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Last January we talked about Asian American writers. In December it was writers with ties to Central and South America and the Caribbean. VOICE TWO: Now, to complete our series, we look at four writers and the influence of their ancestry in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elmaz AbinaderElmaz Abinader was born to parents from Lebanon. The writer and poet grew up in a small town in the eastern American state of Pennsylvania. Her family spoke mostly Arabic at home. She says her family was very close, but at school other children insulted her for being different. She looked for some connection between her two lives. VOICE TWO: Elmaz Abinader says everything changed when she went to college. She took control of her identity. She began to cook Middle Eastern foods and to listen to Arabic music with her friends. She also began to write about her grandmother. Miz Abinader studied writing in college. But she says most of the American writers she studied had European roots. She felt that her culture was not welcome in American writing. This was in the nineteen seventies. At some point, she read a book that, in her words, “made the difference.” The book was “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts.” It was written by the Chinese American writer Maxine Hong Kingston. In it, she tells stories about her Chinese grandmother, and about children considered too American for their immigrant family. This book led Elmaz Abinader to read works by others outside the center of American culture, such as African American and Latino writers. She found a community of people like her, learning to live in two cultures. VOICE ONE: Miz Abinader went on to earn a doctorate in writing. She called her first book, in nineteen ninety-one, “Children of the Roojme: A Family’s Journey from Lebanon.” It is about her family’s move over the years to the United States. She also writes poetry. And she writes and performs plays. Her play “Country of Origin” is about the struggles of three Arab American women. The play includes music that is a mix of old Middle Eastern sounds and present-day jazz. Elmaz Abinader says she began to understand years ago that as a writer, she was also an activist. Today she is a professor of creative writing at Mills College in Oakland, in Northern California. She says a beautiful story or a good poem can affect a reader more than any speech. Her aim, she says, is to make the story of Arab Americans as important as that of any other group in the United States. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Aleksandar HemonIn September of two thousand four, the writer Aleksandar Hemon received a MacArthur Foundation award. These are known as “genius awards.” They are given each year to individuals who show great creativity in their work. MacArthur Fellows are given five hundred thousand dollars over five years to spend as they wish. Aleksandar Hemon is the author of “The Question of Bruno” and “Nowhere Man.” Both books are about young men born in Sarajevo. Their lives are changed by the war in the former Yugoslavia in the early nineteen nineties. Like the men in his books, Mister Hemon grew up in Sarajevo. He became a reporter and writer. He came to the United States in nineteen ninety-two as part of a cultural program. He was twenty-seven years old. After the Bosnian war started, Mister Hemon could not return home. He stayed in America and settled in Chicago. VOICE ONE: Book critics have praised his expert and beautiful use of the English language. Yet Aleksandar Hemon spoke only a little English when he arrived in the United States. He got low-paying work. He improved his language skills very quickly by reading books in English. Mister Hemon wrote his first book in English after only three years in the United States. He has said that one of the most difficult things for him as a new immigrant was this: Recognizing the difference between what he wanted to say and what he was really saying. He says this changed the way he thought about the self. And it changed his writing. He saw that a person was made up of many selves. Aleksander Hemon also writes about displaced people who do not feel part of any community. He says telling stories is one way to record the old life that is lost, perhaps in war. He says stories should be told about wars and genocide so that the official version of history is not the only one that exists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Andrei Codrescu has published many books of poetry. He has also written about his life and his travels. But he is best known for his commentaries on American culture on National Public Radio. He lives in New Orleans and is a professor of writing at Louisiana State University. He also heads the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse, now published on the Internet. Andrei CodrescuAndrei Codrescu was born in Sibu, Romania, in nineteen forty-six. When he was nineteen years old, he left the country with his mother. Mister Codrescu says Israel paid two thousand dollars each to buy freedom for Jews in communist Romania. At that time, West Germany did the same for ethnic Germans in Romania. But instead of going to Israel, Mister Codrescu and his mother came to the United States. He says he now feels more American than anything else. He became an American citizen in nineteen eighty-one. VOICE ONE: Andrei Codrescu began to write poetry when he was sixteen years old. He says Romanians have a strong love for poetry, and a language that expresses images well. He also says writing poetry was a rebellious act because the communists banned a lot of writing. Years later, as an American, Mister Codrescu recorded the end of communist rule in Romania in nineteen eighty-nine. He wrote a book, “The Hole in the Flag: A Romanian Exile’s Story of Return and Revolution.” Andrei Codrescu has also traveled around the United States and observed life. His film “Road Scholar” describes unusual communities. He wrote a book with the same name. He says he learned that people with differences can live together. VOICE TWO: Many new immigrants in America are from Africa. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is from Nigeria. She has published short stories and a book, "Purple Hibiscus." It has been nominated for international prizes, including the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize. "Purple Hibiscus" won the two thousand four Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for a first work of fiction. These awards honor writers of African ancestry. Miz Adiche grew up in the university town of Nsukka. Her parents were professors. She came to the United States in nineteen ninety-six to go to college. She was nineteen years old. She says Nigeria will always be her home. But she says she needs distance to be able to write about that country better. In fact, Chimamanda Adichie says that sometimes, when she is back in Nigeria, she writes about Nigerians in America. VOICE ONE: "Purple Hibiscus" is set in Nigeria. It is about a young woman growing up in a troubled family while the country faces political unrest. There are some similarities to real-life events. Miz Adichie says the stories of people who suffered must be told. "Purple Hibiscus" also deals with the importance of modern religion in Nigeria today. At the same time, Chimamanda Adichie explores the clash between modern religion and African tradition. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our three programs over the past year about writers and the immigrant experience is online at voaspecialenglish.com. VOICE ONE: Our series was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Energy-Saving Way to Recycle Bottles into Drinking Glasses
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Recycling makes things like paper or glass or metal useful again. It means the resources that went into making them were not wasted. With glass, it is said that for every one thousand kilograms recycled, one thousand two hundred kilograms of raw materials are saved. Recycling also means that communities have to deal with less waste. The process of recycling can give things not only a new life but, in some cases, a different one. Glass bottles, for example, can become drinking glasses. First, the base is removed from the bottle. Then the bottle is turned upside down and the neck is attached to the base. The used bottle that would have been thrown away has now become a good looking drinking glass. It is not easy to make this happen, though. The biggest problem is how to attach the base to the neck of the bottle turned upside down. Two South African businessmen, Sean Penrith and Philip Tetley, looked for a large glass manufacturer that could do it. But they had no luck. So they experimented for eight months. Many broken bottles later, they found a way. Their company, called Green Glass, won a Business of the Year award in nineteen ninety-four. It was voted among the best new businesses in South Africa. The inventors received worldwide patent rights to own the process they developed. More recently, the Green Glass idea has expanded into markets in Europe and the United States. Green Glass U.K. says on its Web site that it now makes one hundred fifty thousand glasses per year. The factory in Cornwall, England, employs ten people. The company says it saves ninety percent of the energy normally used to make recycled glass. The energy is saved because the glass is not melted. The glass is heated, however, to strengthen it. The Green Glass process takes about three hours to make a bottle into a drinking glass. The bottle goes through seven machines, all designed and built by the company itself. Broken bottles cannot be used. So Green Glass U.K. says it must find bottles anywhere it can. Internet users can see how a drinking bottle becomes a drinking glass at tradinggreen.co.uk. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: World Conference on Disaster Reduction / The Fight Against Polio / Prostate Cancer
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: a progress report on efforts to stop the disease polio and we answer a listener’s question about a common kind of cancer. VOICE ONE: But first, scientists are examining ways of improving their ability to estimate the effects of underwater earthquakes. Today, we look one system already in use. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists did not expect the powerful earthquake that caused huge, destructive waves in the Indian Ocean last month. This is because technology for measuring motion has never been placed on the floor of Indian Ocean. Yet, experts have been watching for earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean for more than fifty years. An international warning system was established there in nineteen sixty-five. The system has its headquarters in the American state of Hawaii. Scientists there listen to sound waves directed at the ocean floor for possible earthquakes and underwater motion. They also watch water levels at more than one hundred water stations across the Pacific Ocean. If destructive waves are discovered, warning information is sent to more than one hundred places across the Pacific. Experts believe that establishment of similar warning systems in other areas could help to save many lives. VOICE TWO: Last month, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a series of events that killed more than one hundred sixty thousand people. The earthquake struck in waters near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December twenty-sixth. The earthquake was one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured. It had a rating of nine on the Richter scale, the leading measure for earthquake strength. The Indian Ocean earthquake created huge shock waves, or tsunami. The tsunami struck Sumatra and two groups of Indian islands in less than an hour. A short time later, the deadly waves reached Sri Lanka and Thailand. Several hours later, the waves reached coastal areas of eastern Africa. Officials say this was enough time to warn countries of possible danger. VOICE ONE: Scientists usually know within minutes after an underwater earthquake if it was large enough to create tsunami waves. Yet, warnings are worthless without a local civil defense system to receive and act on them. Affected areas may lack the communications systems needed to warn people quickly. A tsunami warning system for South Asia is one subject to be discussed this week at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan. Germany, Japan and the United States have each offered to create a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. The Bush Administration will present a plan to deploy scientific equipment throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Caribbean Sea. The equipment would send messages from the ocean floor to devices floating on top of the water. The information would then be sent by satellite to scientists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says the number of people infected with polio rose Child who has polio holds baby brother in arms (WHO photo)almost thirty percent last year. W.H.O. officials say there were one thousand one hundred seventy polio cases worldwide in two thousand four. That compares with seven hundred eighty-four infections in two thousand three. Ninety percent of the people infected last year live in three countries -- Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. In fact, Nigeria had sixty-five percent of all polio cases. Anti-polio campaigns were halted in northern Nigeria after Islamic leaders expressed concern about the safety of polio vaccines. Vaccines help the body's natural defenses recognize and fight disease. VOICE ONE: Polio is a disease that can make people unable to move their arms or legs. It also can kill people. The virus spreads very quickly among people who have not been given vaccines. Recently, a polio vaccination campaign re-started in Nigeria. However, there are already new cases of polio, both in and out of the country. W.H.O. officials say the virus has spread to nearby countries, including Benin, Chad, Ghana and Togo. W.H.O. officials say conflicts in Ivory Coast and Sudan also affected efforts to stop the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American performer Jerry Orbach died last month. He was sixty-nine years old. The cause of death was prostate cancer. A listener in Viet Nam wrote to ask us for information about prostate cancer. Than Nguyen wants to know what causes the disease and how it is treated. Only males have prostate glands so only males get prostate cancer. The gland is a part of the reproductive system. It is involved in the production and storage of semen, the male reproductive fluid. Semen is used to fertilize a female’s egg. A normal prostate is about the size of a small ball or walnut. A cancer can make the prostate larger. This can cause pressure on the bladder and restrict the release of liquid wastes. An enlarged prostate can affect a man’s ability to have sex. It also can cause pain in the lower back, hips and upper part of the legs. VOICE ONE: The American Cancer Society estimates that about one in six men in the United States will get prostate cancer. But, the group says only one man in thirty-two will die from it. Prostate cancer is common in older men. The National Cancer Institute says more than seventy percent of men with the disease are sixty-five years of age or older. However, most prostate cancer grows slowly. So, many patients die of other causes instead of the disease. Scientists do not know the exact cause of prostate cancer. But they have found things that can influence its development. The World Health Organization says the foods a man eats may affect his chances of developing the disease. Prostate cancer appears more common in communities where animal fat, red meats, and high-fat milk products are a major part of the diet. VOICE TWO: W-H-O officials say about two hundred fifty thousand people die each year from prostate cancer. They say the death rate is about ten times higher in Europe and North America than in Asia. The Prostate Cancer Foundation says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. The group also says it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among American men. The American Cancer Society reports that prostate cancer is more common among African-Americans than among white Americans. Also, African Americans are two times as likely as whites to die from it. The group says exercise might help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Also, men with fathers or brothers who have had the disease are more likely to get it than those without such a family history. VOICE ONE: There are many things to consider when choosing a treatment for prostate cancer. Some cancers grow so slowly they never cause any major problems in a lifetime. In these cases, a man’s doctor might suggest simply watching for changes in the growth. More rarely, a doctor may perform an operation to remove the prostate. This is a complex surgery that can last as long as four hours. A third kind of treatment is radiation. High energy x-rays can be used to kill cancer cells in the prostate. A doctor also may place small radioactive seeds in the prostate to kill the cancer. Doctors have greater control with this method so there is less risk of damage to healthy tissue. VOICE TWO: Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate gland may require a more aggressive treatment known as hormonal therapy. A doctor may operate to remove the man’s sex organs, or testicles. The testicles are the main producer of male hormones called androgens. The doctor may advise the patient to use drugs that can cut off the body’s androgen supply. Doctors say one of the most important ways for men to reduce their risk of death from prostate cancer is to find the disease early. There are two ways to discover the disease before any signs of it appear. A doctor will examine the prostate grand using his fingers. He will feel for any hardness or growth. A doctor also may test a man’s blood to measure levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen. An injured or disease prostate often expels P.S.A. The higher the P.S.A. level, the greater the chance that the patient has prostate cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: a progress report on efforts to stop the disease polio and we answer a listener’s question about a common kind of cancer. VOICE ONE: But first, scientists are examining ways of improving their ability to estimate the effects of underwater earthquakes. Today, we look one system already in use. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists did not expect the powerful earthquake that caused huge, destructive waves in the Indian Ocean last month. This is because technology for measuring motion has never been placed on the floor of Indian Ocean. Yet, experts have been watching for earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean for more than fifty years. An international warning system was established there in nineteen sixty-five. The system has its headquarters in the American state of Hawaii. Scientists there listen to sound waves directed at the ocean floor for possible earthquakes and underwater motion. They also watch water levels at more than one hundred water stations across the Pacific Ocean. If destructive waves are discovered, warning information is sent to more than one hundred places across the Pacific. Experts believe that establishment of similar warning systems in other areas could help to save many lives. VOICE TWO: Last month, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a series of events that killed more than one hundred sixty thousand people. The earthquake struck in waters near the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December twenty-sixth. The earthquake was one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured. It had a rating of nine on the Richter scale, the leading measure for earthquake strength. The Indian Ocean earthquake created huge shock waves, or tsunami. The tsunami struck Sumatra and two groups of Indian islands in less than an hour. A short time later, the deadly waves reached Sri Lanka and Thailand. Several hours later, the waves reached coastal areas of eastern Africa. Officials say this was enough time to warn countries of possible danger. VOICE ONE: Scientists usually know within minutes after an underwater earthquake if it was large enough to create tsunami waves. Yet, warnings are worthless without a local civil defense system to receive and act on them. Affected areas may lack the communications systems needed to warn people quickly. A tsunami warning system for South Asia is one subject to be discussed this week at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan. Germany, Japan and the United States have each offered to create a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. The Bush Administration will present a plan to deploy scientific equipment throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Caribbean Sea. The equipment would send messages from the ocean floor to devices floating on top of the water. The information would then be sent by satellite to scientists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says the number of people infected with polio rose Child who has polio holds baby brother in arms (WHO photo)almost thirty percent last year. W.H.O. officials say there were one thousand one hundred seventy polio cases worldwide in two thousand four. That compares with seven hundred eighty-four infections in two thousand three. Ninety percent of the people infected last year live in three countries -- Nigeria, India, and Pakistan. In fact, Nigeria had sixty-five percent of all polio cases. Anti-polio campaigns were halted in northern Nigeria after Islamic leaders expressed concern about the safety of polio vaccines. Vaccines help the body's natural defenses recognize and fight disease. VOICE ONE: Polio is a disease that can make people unable to move their arms or legs. It also can kill people. The virus spreads very quickly among people who have not been given vaccines. Recently, a polio vaccination campaign re-started in Nigeria. However, there are already new cases of polio, both in and out of the country. W.H.O. officials say the virus has spread to nearby countries, including Benin, Chad, Ghana and Togo. W.H.O. officials say conflicts in Ivory Coast and Sudan also affected efforts to stop the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American performer Jerry Orbach died last month. He was sixty-nine years old. The cause of death was prostate cancer. A listener in Viet Nam wrote to ask us for information about prostate cancer. Than Nguyen wants to know what causes the disease and how it is treated. Only males have prostate glands so only males get prostate cancer. The gland is a part of the reproductive system. It is involved in the production and storage of semen, the male reproductive fluid. Semen is used to fertilize a female’s egg. A normal prostate is about the size of a small ball or walnut. A cancer can make the prostate larger. This can cause pressure on the bladder and restrict the release of liquid wastes. An enlarged prostate can affect a man’s ability to have sex. It also can cause pain in the lower back, hips and upper part of the legs. VOICE ONE: The American Cancer Society estimates that about one in six men in the United States will get prostate cancer. But, the group says only one man in thirty-two will die from it. Prostate cancer is common in older men. The National Cancer Institute says more than seventy percent of men with the disease are sixty-five years of age or older. However, most prostate cancer grows slowly. So, many patients die of other causes instead of the disease. Scientists do not know the exact cause of prostate cancer. But they have found things that can influence its development. The World Health Organization says the foods a man eats may affect his chances of developing the disease. Prostate cancer appears more common in communities where animal fat, red meats, and high-fat milk products are a major part of the diet. VOICE TWO: W-H-O officials say about two hundred fifty thousand people die each year from prostate cancer. They say the death rate is about ten times higher in Europe and North America than in Asia. The Prostate Cancer Foundation says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. The group also says it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among American men. The American Cancer Society reports that prostate cancer is more common among African-Americans than among white Americans. Also, African Americans are two times as likely as whites to die from it. The group says exercise might help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Also, men with fathers or brothers who have had the disease are more likely to get it than those without such a family history. VOICE ONE: There are many things to consider when choosing a treatment for prostate cancer. Some cancers grow so slowly they never cause any major problems in a lifetime. In these cases, a man’s doctor might suggest simply watching for changes in the growth. More rarely, a doctor may perform an operation to remove the prostate. This is a complex surgery that can last as long as four hours. A third kind of treatment is radiation. High energy x-rays can be used to kill cancer cells in the prostate. A doctor also may place small radioactive seeds in the prostate to kill the cancer. Doctors have greater control with this method so there is less risk of damage to healthy tissue. VOICE TWO: Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate gland may require a more aggressive treatment known as hormonal therapy. A doctor may operate to remove the man’s sex organs, or testicles. The testicles are the main producer of male hormones called androgens. The doctor may advise the patient to use drugs that can cut off the body’s androgen supply. Doctors say one of the most important ways for men to reduce their risk of death from prostate cancer is to find the disease early. There are two ways to discover the disease before any signs of it appear. A doctor will examine the prostate grand using his fingers. He will feel for any hardness or growth. A doctor also may test a man’s blood to measure levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen. An injured or disease prostate often expels P.S.A. The higher the P.S.A. level, the greater the chance that the patient has prostate cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Tsunami's Effect on Agriculture
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Officials are seeking to ease fears in southern Asia about the safety of eating fish from the countries hit by tsunami waves. On Friday the Food and Agriculture Organization reported no evidence of an increase in seafood-related diseases in the affected areas. The F.A.O. advised against removing fish from the diet. Millions of people in those countries get most of their animal protein from fish. But the United Nations agency did warn of concern that damaged wastewater systems might leak into fishing grounds or fish farms. This would create a risk of intestinal infections. The F.A.O. says the best advice is to eat only healthy looking fish or seafood that is fully cleaned and well cooked. The agency also noted another risk from the huge undersea earthquake and waves on December twenty-sixth. Algae and heavy metals in the sea could increase to poisonous levels. Red tides or large numbers of dead fish would signal extreme cases. The Food and Agriculture Organization says fishing areas would need to be closed. But it says current seasonal conditions make such events unlikely. The F.A.O. has estimated that two million people in twelve countries in southern Asia and eastern Africa will need food aid. Yet the extent of damage to food supplies may not be known for weeks. Aceh and Northern Sumatra were the two Indonesian provinces most affected by the tsunami. They produce about ten percent of Indonesia’s rice. The F.A.O. says the rice crop for harvest beginning in March had just been planted. It is not known how the crop will be affected. Important rice growing areas of Sri Lanka were also hit hard by the waves. Planting for the main growing season had just been finished. The F.A.O. notes that Sri Lanka already had a limited food supply. There was no serious damage to rice production in Thailand or India. Thailand exports more rice than any other nation. In coastal areas of countries hit by the tsunami, many survivors are now out of work. The waves wrecked not only thousands of fishing boats, but also fish cages used in fish farming, a growing industry. In some places in Sri Lanka, eighty percent of the fishing boats were destroyed or damaged. The director general of fisheries development says the industry is back to the level of the nineteen fifties. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Officials are seeking to ease fears in southern Asia about the safety of eating fish from the countries hit by tsunami waves. On Friday the Food and Agriculture Organization reported no evidence of an increase in seafood-related diseases in the affected areas. The F.A.O. advised against removing fish from the diet. Millions of people in those countries get most of their animal protein from fish. But the United Nations agency did warn of concern that damaged wastewater systems might leak into fishing grounds or fish farms. This would create a risk of intestinal infections. The F.A.O. says the best advice is to eat only healthy looking fish or seafood that is fully cleaned and well cooked. The agency also noted another risk from the huge undersea earthquake and waves on December twenty-sixth. Algae and heavy metals in the sea could increase to poisonous levels. Red tides or large numbers of dead fish would signal extreme cases. The Food and Agriculture Organization says fishing areas would need to be closed. But it says current seasonal conditions make such events unlikely. The F.A.O. has estimated that two million people in twelve countries in southern Asia and eastern Africa will need food aid. Yet the extent of damage to food supplies may not be known for weeks. Aceh and Northern Sumatra were the two Indonesian provinces most affected by the tsunami. They produce about ten percent of Indonesia’s rice. The F.A.O. says the rice crop for harvest beginning in March had just been planted. It is not known how the crop will be affected. Important rice growing areas of Sri Lanka were also hit hard by the waves. Planting for the main growing season had just been finished. The F.A.O. notes that Sri Lanka already had a limited food supply. There was no serious damage to rice production in Thailand or India. Thailand exports more rice than any other nation. In coastal areas of countries hit by the tsunami, many survivors are now out of work. The waves wrecked not only thousands of fishing boats, but also fish cages used in fish farming, a growing industry. In some places in Sri Lanka, eighty percent of the fishing boats were destroyed or damaged. The director general of fisheries development says the industry is back to the level of the nineteen fifties. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-18-5-1.cfm
* Headline: The National Museum of Natural History
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Hall of Mammals NMNH (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The Hall of Mammals National Museum of Natural History VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "I'll meet you by the elephant." That comment is heard a lot in Washington, D.C. The elephant is in an unusual place. It is in the center of a large building on the grassy Mall area of the capital city. It is the first thing visitors see when they enter the National Museum of Natural History. The African elephant was fifty years old when it died in Angola in nineteen fifty-five. It weighed eight tons. It was so large the hunter decided to give its remains to the Smithsonian Institution. Scientists at the National Museum of Natural History used the bones and skin to rebuild the elephant. As you enter the museum, you see a huge elephant that appears to be walking across the grassy area where it once lived. Visitors of all ages stop to look up in wonder at its size. Then they walk around the elephant. They read facts about the animal, hear sounds of its natural environment and watch short films. This is what makes the Natural History museum so popular. Visitors learn about the natural world in many different ways. VOICE TWO: The National Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited museums the world. From six million to nine million people visit the building every year. More than one million of them are international visitors. The visitors come to the museum to see many interesting things: Examples of huge ancient dinosaurs. Beautiful rare diamonds and other jewels. Live insects. Remains of creatures that lived in ancient seas. Ancient and present day mammals. Objects from African, Asian and Pacific cultures. The museum has the largest collection of any natural history museum in the world. There are more than one hundred twenty-five million objects in its collection. Scientists have been collecting these specimens for almost two hundred years. The collection keeps growing as scientists working for the museum continue to explore and collect around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Museum of Natural History opened in nineteen ten. It was the third museum to be created as part of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a center for the study of humans and their natural surroundings through history. So the museum's collection includes specimens of animals, plants, rocks, ancient and present day organisms, and objects related to human development. Through the years, how the collection is shown to the public has changed. The newest exhibit is about the history of mammals in the world. The purpose of the new Hall of Mammals is to show how all mammals, including humans, are related. Almost three hundred mammals that look very life-like are shown in their different natural environments. While seeing realistic- looking animals found in Africa, visitors hear sounds of a violent rainstorm around them. Adults look up on the wall to see a video of a giraffe, zebras and a hippo around a water hole. At the same time, children look down at the floor to see a video of what small animals are doing under ground. VOICE TWO: Hans Sues is the associate director for Research and Collections. He is the chief scientist at the museum. Mister Sues says the specimens collected through the years help scientists find out how animals and plant life developed. The scientists learn by using new technologies such as DNA research on the specimens. Or they learn by just being able to study older specimens. For example, some fishermen and scientists were concerned about spots they found on sea animals called crabs. They wondered if human-made pollution caused the spots. So they looked at the museum's specimens of crabs collected almost one hundred years ago. Some of them had the same spots. This was evidence that the spots happened naturally. No one can observe the changes in our natural world during hundreds of years. So the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, and other natural history museums, are the only way for scientists to observe these changes over time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists working for the Natural History museum are doing research in fifty to one hundred countries at any time. Mister Sues says museum scientists have been almost every place on Earth. Through their research they continue to find new information about the natural world and its people, animals and plants. For example, in two thousand three, a team of scientists explored the little known islands of Kula Ring, near New Guinea. They found three new kinds of fish, five new kinds of insects called damselflies, and sixty new kinds of water bugs. Other museum scientists have made recent discoveries about the earliest history of the solar system, early man, and the continuing damage to coral reefs. Mister Sues says there are many more discoveries to be made. This is because there is so much to learn about the four thousand million years of this planet's history. Each year museum scientists report their research findings in more than seven hundred scientific publications. They report important discoveries to the public in newspapers, popular magazines and on television. Now, the huge worldwide expansion of the Internet is making it possible for people around the world to get this information. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Millions of people who are unable to visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington can see part of the museum's collection on computers. In the future, museum officials hope to make it possible for people to use computers to explore all of the museum. Robert Sullivan is associate director for Public Programs for the National Museum of Natural History. He says museum officials are excited about how the Internet is expanding the reach of the museum and what it can offer. Mister Sullivan says that for years museum officials have known that learning by doing is the best way to teach people. He says the new broadband computer technology will make that kind of learning possible. People will be able to take “virtual tours” of the museum. They will be able to use computers to walk through exhibits, move and measure objects, visit scientific laboratories and ask questions of scientists. Mister Sullivan says the new Internet technology will let museum officials create a space to explore, not just offer pictures and words. VOICE ONE: The Website of the National Museum of Natural History -- www.mnh.si.edu --offers a lot of information. For example, you can go to the museum Web site to find out about the Earth and how it changes. By typing in “The Dynamic Earth”, you can read about how rocks tell the history of the Earth. You can see the famous jewel called the Hope Diamond. Soon you will be able to learn about volcanoes. If you are interested in animals, you can go to the North American Mammals site. It is a guide to the living mammals of North America with detailed descriptions and images of more than four hundred animals. Or you can find out about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They explored the western part of the United States in the early nineteenth century. Computer users can follow the path the two explorers took and learn about the plants and animals they found. VOICE TWO: The museum Web site is very popular with computer users and will become more so as it expands. Yet the real museum building will not be forgotten. Museum officials say a visit to the National Museum of Natural History will continue to be a family education experience. They are developing new ways to make the exhibits provide a learning experience that works in many different ways. The next major change in the exhibit space is in progress now. Near the elephant, a large new exhibit is being built that will show why the ocean is important to understanding the natural world. Ocean Hall will open in two thousand eight. It will use the newest technology to help people of all ages learn about life in the ocean. It will be one more way millions of visitors can have fun learning from the National Museum of Natural History. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "I'll meet you by the elephant." That comment is heard a lot in Washington, D.C. The elephant is in an unusual place. It is in the center of a large building on the grassy Mall area of the capital city. It is the first thing visitors see when they enter the National Museum of Natural History. The African elephant was fifty years old when it died in Angola in nineteen fifty-five. It weighed eight tons. It was so large the hunter decided to give its remains to the Smithsonian Institution. Scientists at the National Museum of Natural History used the bones and skin to rebuild the elephant. As you enter the museum, you see a huge elephant that appears to be walking across the grassy area where it once lived. Visitors of all ages stop to look up in wonder at its size. Then they walk around the elephant. They read facts about the animal, hear sounds of its natural environment and watch short films. This is what makes the Natural History museum so popular. Visitors learn about the natural world in many different ways. VOICE TWO: The National Museum of Natural History is one of the most visited museums the world. From six million to nine million people visit the building every year. More than one million of them are international visitors. The visitors come to the museum to see many interesting things: Examples of huge ancient dinosaurs. Beautiful rare diamonds and other jewels. Live insects. Remains of creatures that lived in ancient seas. Ancient and present day mammals. Objects from African, Asian and Pacific cultures. The museum has the largest collection of any natural history museum in the world. There are more than one hundred twenty-five million objects in its collection. Scientists have been collecting these specimens for almost two hundred years. The collection keeps growing as scientists working for the museum continue to explore and collect around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Museum of Natural History opened in nineteen ten. It was the third museum to be created as part of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a center for the study of humans and their natural surroundings through history. So the museum's collection includes specimens of animals, plants, rocks, ancient and present day organisms, and objects related to human development. Through the years, how the collection is shown to the public has changed. The newest exhibit is about the history of mammals in the world. The purpose of the new Hall of Mammals is to show how all mammals, including humans, are related. Almost three hundred mammals that look very life-like are shown in their different natural environments. While seeing realistic- looking animals found in Africa, visitors hear sounds of a violent rainstorm around them. Adults look up on the wall to see a video of a giraffe, zebras and a hippo around a water hole. At the same time, children look down at the floor to see a video of what small animals are doing under ground. VOICE TWO: Hans Sues is the associate director for Research and Collections. He is the chief scientist at the museum. Mister Sues says the specimens collected through the years help scientists find out how animals and plant life developed. The scientists learn by using new technologies such as DNA research on the specimens. Or they learn by just being able to study older specimens. For example, some fishermen and scientists were concerned about spots they found on sea animals called crabs. They wondered if human-made pollution caused the spots. So they looked at the museum's specimens of crabs collected almost one hundred years ago. Some of them had the same spots. This was evidence that the spots happened naturally. No one can observe the changes in our natural world during hundreds of years. So the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, and other natural history museums, are the only way for scientists to observe these changes over time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists working for the Natural History museum are doing research in fifty to one hundred countries at any time. Mister Sues says museum scientists have been almost every place on Earth. Through their research they continue to find new information about the natural world and its people, animals and plants. For example, in two thousand three, a team of scientists explored the little known islands of Kula Ring, near New Guinea. They found three new kinds of fish, five new kinds of insects called damselflies, and sixty new kinds of water bugs. Other museum scientists have made recent discoveries about the earliest history of the solar system, early man, and the continuing damage to coral reefs. Mister Sues says there are many more discoveries to be made. This is because there is so much to learn about the four thousand million years of this planet's history. Each year museum scientists report their research findings in more than seven hundred scientific publications. They report important discoveries to the public in newspapers, popular magazines and on television. Now, the huge worldwide expansion of the Internet is making it possible for people around the world to get this information. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Millions of people who are unable to visit the National Museum of Natural History in Washington can see part of the museum's collection on computers. In the future, museum officials hope to make it possible for people to use computers to explore all of the museum. Robert Sullivan is associate director for Public Programs for the National Museum of Natural History. He says museum officials are excited about how the Internet is expanding the reach of the museum and what it can offer. Mister Sullivan says that for years museum officials have known that learning by doing is the best way to teach people. He says the new broadband computer technology will make that kind of learning possible. People will be able to take “virtual tours” of the museum. They will be able to use computers to walk through exhibits, move and measure objects, visit scientific laboratories and ask questions of scientists. Mister Sullivan says the new Internet technology will let museum officials create a space to explore, not just offer pictures and words. VOICE ONE: The Website of the National Museum of Natural History -- www.mnh.si.edu --offers a lot of information. For example, you can go to the museum Web site to find out about the Earth and how it changes. By typing in “The Dynamic Earth”, you can read about how rocks tell the history of the Earth. You can see the famous jewel called the Hope Diamond. Soon you will be able to learn about volcanoes. If you are interested in animals, you can go to the North American Mammals site. It is a guide to the living mammals of North America with detailed descriptions and images of more than four hundred animals. Or you can find out about Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They explored the western part of the United States in the early nineteenth century. Computer users can follow the path the two explorers took and learn about the plants and animals they found. VOICE TWO: The museum Web site is very popular with computer users and will become more so as it expands. Yet the real museum building will not be forgotten. Museum officials say a visit to the National Museum of Natural History will continue to be a family education experience. They are developing new ways to make the exhibits provide a learning experience that works in many different ways. The next major change in the exhibit space is in progress now. Near the elephant, a large new exhibit is being built that will show why the ocean is important to understanding the natural world. Ocean Hall will open in two thousand eight. It will use the newest technology to help people of all ages learn about life in the ocean. It will be one more way millions of visitors can have fun learning from the National Museum of Natural History. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-18-6-1.cfm
* Headline: Heart Disease and C-Reactive Protein
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers have found evidence that a blood protein linked to inflammation of the arteries is a cause of heart disease. Two independent studies found that lowering the amount of the protein in the blood is just as important as lowering bad cholesterol to prevent heart attacks. Until recently, doctors were concerned with lowering the amount of bad cholesterol and raising the amount of good cholesterol in the blood. But new research has shown that levels of C-reactive protein, or C.R.P, also must be reduced in order to prevent heart disease. Studies during the past ten years have found that a major problem in heart disease is inflammation. Inflammation cannot be easily measured. So doctors use blood tests for C.R.P. to measure it. C-reactive protein is a substance released by the liver. Some experts say the protein is directly linked to fatty plaque buildup in the arteries leading to the heart. They say the protein causes the plaque to break up and form blood clots in the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack. Two studies appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston led the main study. Patients in the study already had severe heart disease and were taking drugs called statins to reduce bad cholesterol levels. Statin drugs also lower levels of C-reactive protein. The researchers found that patients who already had lowered cholesterol levels could reduce their risk of another heart attack by lowering their C.R.P. levels. The studies showed that even when bad cholesterol levels were normal, people with lower levels of C.R.P. had slower progression of heart disease and fewer heart attacks and deaths. Doctors say statins are not the only way to lower C.R.P. They say exercise, a healthy diet and stopping smoking also reduce it. The new findings are only for people who already have heart disease. A separate study is being done to see if lowering C.R.P can reduce heart attacks in healthy people with normal cholesterol levels, but higher levels of C.R.P. Almost half of all heart attacks happen in people with normal cholesterol levels. Researchers are hopeful that the new information can lead to new medicines to prevent and treat heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: January 19, 2005 - Interview with William Labov: Sound Change, Part 2
* Byline: 

 First broadcast: January 19, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we talk about regional changes in American English with University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov [la-BOVE]. Imagine a situation like this: WILLIAM LABOV: "Someone says 'gee, I got to find a coffee shop,' and someone said 'but you already had your coffee.' The people who would normally expect that 'copy shop' would be different from 'coffee shop' are quite confused when they enter an area where both are pronounced with the same vowel." RS: "As were we right now." AA: "So copy -- there are some Americans who say 'coffee' and 'copy' the same?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, the vowel will be the same; the 'p' and 'f' differences are hardly worth noticing in rapid speech. But the vowels will be identical for the people who come from Pittsburgh or from Montreal. "People have a great tendency to think our language works better than it does. So when we ask people to keep track of the number of misunderstandings that occur in the course of a day, there are quite a few. But if you ask them to remember them, they don't." AA: Yet there may be more and more misunderstandings. Professor Labov says many local dialects are dying out and regional ones are growing stronger. WILLIAM LABOV: "We have plenty of real-time studies to show that these changes are moving on so that the dialects of the United States are more different from each other now than they were 100 years ago." RS: "That's so surprising, given that we travel so much." AA: "And given that we hear each other so much more now through radio and television." RS: "And even the Web." WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, one of the things that social psychology has told us, and many other branches of study, is that listening passively to the radio and television doesn't change your behavior. You're influenced by the people you speak with in daily interaction face-to-face." AA: "Now you've done a lot of research on the influence of women as a driving force in sound change, have you not?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Yes, the difference between men and women is really important, and it's an astonishingly powerful force in most of the changes that we've talked about. In about 90 percent of them, women are way ahead of men -- a full generation ahead." RS: "Now what is your explanation for -- you say it's who you interact with. But we are very mobile people. We go from coast to coast. We take a job in one city and then another. We're taking our language with us and interacting with people on business trips and such." WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, almost everybody will tell you, 'Oh, I'm a regular chameleon. I change my speech according to who I'm talking to.' That's a great exaggeration. The fundamental pattern that you learned as a child stays with you pretty much for the rest of your life." AA: "Now, Doctor Labov, I'm curious, let's take an example like Southern California or other parts of the country where there's a large number of immigrants, and so you've got different languages and different sounds and dialects all coming together. What effect are you seeing?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, people used to think that the American dialects are the result of all the immigrants coming in. And that turns out to be just the opposite. Gender has a big influence on the way you speak, your social class, what city you're living in. "But the language spoken by your parents has almost no influence in most areas, so that the people whose parents spoke Italian or Yiddish or German or Irish, now in the second or third generation will speak almost the same. That's the powerful assimilationist tendency in the United States. "There is one exception to that, and you mentioned Southern California. For the first time we are getting a native type of English which shows a certain amount of ethnic difference, and that's the people whose parents spoke Spanish and who may have grown up themselves speaking Spanish." AA: "Can you give us an example or two?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Let's take the pronunciation of a word like card, and old. Most Americans will sometimes drop the d in old, and you'll see this when you read a novel, 'good ol' Joe,' o-l apostrophe. But Americans never drop the d when it comes after an r, so you don't talk about a 'car game' for a 'card game.' Nobody will say 'I had a har time' for 'a hard time.' But Latino speakers will do this. "These are small differences. We still don't know what the future holds for us with the large Asian group that's coming in the United States. But in every community there are some groups who assimilate totally and become absolutely natural speakers of that local dialect, and others who become native speakers but not really local." AA: University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov is the project director for the forthcoming Atlas of North American English. You can learn more about this project from a link at our Web site. The address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. First broadcast: January 19, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we talk about regional changes in American English with University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov [la-BOVE]. Imagine a situation like this: WILLIAM LABOV: "Someone says 'gee, I got to find a coffee shop,' and someone said 'but you already had your coffee.' The people who would normally expect that 'copy shop' would be different from 'coffee shop' are quite confused when they enter an area where both are pronounced with the same vowel." RS: "As were we right now." AA: "So copy -- there are some Americans who say 'coffee' and 'copy' the same?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, the vowel will be the same; the 'p' and 'f' differences are hardly worth noticing in rapid speech. But the vowels will be identical for the people who come from Pittsburgh or from Montreal. "People have a great tendency to think our language works better than it does. So when we ask people to keep track of the number of misunderstandings that occur in the course of a day, there are quite a few. But if you ask them to remember them, they don't." AA: Yet there may be more and more misunderstandings. Professor Labov says many local dialects are dying out and regional ones are growing stronger. WILLIAM LABOV: "We have plenty of real-time studies to show that these changes are moving on so that the dialects of the United States are more different from each other now than they were 100 years ago." RS: "That's so surprising, given that we travel so much." AA: "And given that we hear each other so much more now through radio and television." RS: "And even the Web." WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, one of the things that social psychology has told us, and many other branches of study, is that listening passively to the radio and television doesn't change your behavior. You're influenced by the people you speak with in daily interaction face-to-face." AA: "Now you've done a lot of research on the influence of women as a driving force in sound change, have you not?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Yes, the difference between men and women is really important, and it's an astonishingly powerful force in most of the changes that we've talked about. In about 90 percent of them, women are way ahead of men -- a full generation ahead." RS: "Now what is your explanation for -- you say it's who you interact with. But we are very mobile people. We go from coast to coast. We take a job in one city and then another. We're taking our language with us and interacting with people on business trips and such." WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, almost everybody will tell you, 'Oh, I'm a regular chameleon. I change my speech according to who I'm talking to.' That's a great exaggeration. The fundamental pattern that you learned as a child stays with you pretty much for the rest of your life." AA: "Now, Doctor Labov, I'm curious, let's take an example like Southern California or other parts of the country where there's a large number of immigrants, and so you've got different languages and different sounds and dialects all coming together. What effect are you seeing?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Well, people used to think that the American dialects are the result of all the immigrants coming in. And that turns out to be just the opposite. Gender has a big influence on the way you speak, your social class, what city you're living in. "But the language spoken by your parents has almost no influence in most areas, so that the people whose parents spoke Italian or Yiddish or German or Irish, now in the second or third generation will speak almost the same. That's the powerful assimilationist tendency in the United States. "There is one exception to that, and you mentioned Southern California. For the first time we are getting a native type of English which shows a certain amount of ethnic difference, and that's the people whose parents spoke Spanish and who may have grown up themselves speaking Spanish." AA: "Can you give us an example or two?" WILLIAM LABOV: "Let's take the pronunciation of a word like card, and old. Most Americans will sometimes drop the d in old, and you'll see this when you read a novel, 'good ol' Joe,' o-l apostrophe. But Americans never drop the d when it comes after an r, so you don't talk about a 'car game' for a 'card game.' Nobody will say 'I had a har time' for 'a hard time.' But Latino speakers will do this. "These are small differences. We still don't know what the future holds for us with the large Asian group that's coming in the United States. But in every community there are some groups who assimilate totally and become absolutely natural speakers of that local dialect, and others who become native speakers but not really local." AA: University of Pennsylvania linguist William Labov is the project director for the forthcoming Atlas of North American English. You can learn more about this project from a link at our Web site. The address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Other pictures of Alex Wu
* Byline: 

   
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 3
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Just before sunrise on the morning of April twelfth, eighteen-sixty-one, the first shot was fired in the American Civil War. A heavy mortar roared, sending a shell high over the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. The shell dropped and exploded above Fort Sumter, a United States fort on an island in the harbor. The explosion was a signal for all southern guns surrounding the fort to open fire. Shell after shell smashed into the island fort. The booming of the cannons woke the people of Charleston. They rushed to the harbor and cheered as the bursting shells lighted the dark sky. VOICE TWO: Confederate leaders ordered the attack after President Abraham Lincoln refused to withdraw the small force of American soldiers at Sumter. Food supplies at the fort were very low. And southerners expected hunger would force the soldiers to leave. But Lincoln announced he was sending a ship to Fort Sumter with food. Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his commander in Charleston, General [Pierre] Beauregard, to destroy the fort before the food could arrive. VOICE ONE: The attack started from Fort Johnson across the harbor from Sumter. A Virginia Congressman, Roger Pryor, was visiting Fort Johnson when the order to fire was given. The fort's commander asked Pryor if he would like the honor of firing the mortar that would begin the attack. "No," answered Pryor, and his voice shook. "I cannot fire the first gun of the war." But others could. And the attack began. VOICE TWO: At Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson and his men waited three hours before firing back at the Confederate guns. Anderson could not use his most powerful cannons. They were in the open at the top of the fort, where there was no protection for the gunners. Too many of his small force would be lost if he tried to fire these guns. So Anderson had his men fire the smaller cannon from better-protected positions. These, however, did not do much damage to the Confederate guns. VOICE ONE: The shelling continued all day. A big cloud of smoke rose high in the air over Fort Sumter. The smoke was seen by United States navy ships a few miles outside Charleston Harbor. They had come with the ship bringing food for the men at Sumter. There were soldiers on these ships. But they could not reach the fort to help Major Anderson. Confederate boats blocked the entrance to the harbor. And confederate guns could destroy any ship that tried to enter. The commander of the naval force, Captain [Gustavus] Fox, had hoped to move the soldiers to Sumter in small boats. But the sea was so rough that the small boats could not be used. Fox could only watch and hope for calmer seas. VOICE TWO: Confederate shells continued to smash into Sumter throughout the night and into the morning of the second day. The fires at Fort Sumter burned higher. And smoke filled the rooms where soldiers still tried to fire their cannons. About noon, three men arrived at the fort in a small boat. One of them was Louis Wigfall, a former United States senator from Texas, now a Confederate officer. He asked to see Major Anderson. "I come from General Beauregard," he said. "It is time to put a stop to this, sir. The flames are raging all around you. And you have defended your flag bravely. Will you leave, sir?" Wigfall asked. VOICE ONE: Major Anderson was ready to stop fighting. His men had done all that could be expected of them. They had fought well against a much stronger enemy. Anderson said he would surrender, if he and his men could leave with honor. Wigfall agreed. He told Anderson to lower his flag and the firing would stop. Down came the United States flag. And up went the white flag of surrender. The battle of Fort Sumter was over. More than four-thousand shells had been fired during the thirty-three hours of fighting. But no one on either side was killed. One United States soldier, however, was killed the next day when a cannon exploded as Anderson's men prepared to leave the fort. VOICE TWO: The news of Anderson's surrender reached Washington late Saturday, April thirteenth. President Lincoln and his cabinet met the next day and wrote a declaration that the president would announce on Monday. In it, Lincoln said powerful forces had seized control in seven states of the south. He said these forces were too strong to be stopped by courts or policemen. Lincoln said troops were needed. He requested that the states send him seventy-five-thousand soldiers. He said these men would be used to get control of forts and other federal property seized from the Union. VOICE ONE: Lincoln knew he had the support of his own party. He also wanted northern Democrats to give him full support. So, Sunday evening, a Republican congressman visited the top Democrat of the north, Senator Stephen Douglas. The congressman urged Douglas to go to the White House and tell Lincoln that he would do all he could to help put down the rebellion in the south. At first, Douglas refused. He said Lincoln had removed Democrats -- friends of his -- from government jobs and had given the jobs to Republicans. Douglas said he didn't like this. Anyway, he said, Lincoln probably did not want his advice. The congressman, George Ashmun, urged Douglas to forget party politics. He said Lincoln and the country needed the Senator's help. Douglas finally agreed to talk with Lincoln. He and Ashmun went immediately to the White House. VOICE TWO: Lincoln welcomed his old political opponent. He explained his plans and read to Douglas the declaration he would announce the next day. Douglas said he agreed with every word of it except, he said, seventy-five-thousand soldiers would not be enough. Remembering his problems with southern extremists, he urged Lincoln to ask for two-hundred-thousand men. He told the president, "You do not know the dishonest purposes of those men as well as I do." Lincoln and Douglas talked for two hours. Then the Senator gave a statement for the newspapers. He said he still opposed the administration on political questions. But, he said, he completely supported Lincoln's efforts to protect the Union. Douglas was to live for only a few more months. He spent this time working for the Union. He traveled through the states of the northwest, making many speeches. Douglas urged Democrats everywhere to support the Republican government. He told them, "There can be no neutrals in this war -- only patriots or traitors." VOICE ONE: Throughout the north, thousands of men rushed to answer Lincoln's call for troops. Within two days, a military group from Boston left for Washington. Other groups formed quickly in northern cities and began training for war. Lincoln received a different answer, however, from the border states between north and south. Virginia's governor said he would not send troops to help the north get control of the south. North Carolina's governor said the request violated the Constitution. He would have no part of it. Tennessee said it would not send one man to help force southern states back into the Union. But it said it would send fifty-thousand troops to defend southern rights. Lincoln got the same answer from the governors of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri. For several days, it seemed that all these states would secede and join the southern confederacy. VOICE TWO: Lincoln worried most about Virginia, the powerful state just across the Potomac River from Washington. A secession convention already was meeting at the state capital. On April seventeenth, the convention voted to take Virginia out of the Union. Virginia's vote to secede forced an American army officer to make a most difficult decision. The officer was Colonel Robert E. Lee, a citizen of Virginia. The army's top commander, General Winfield Scott, had called Lee to Washington. Scott believed Lee was the best officer in the army. Lincoln agreed. He asked Lee to take General Scott's job, to become the army chief. Lee was offered the job on the same day that Virginia left the Union. He felt strong ties to his state. But he also loved the Union. His decision will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and Jack Moyles. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Just before sunrise on the morning of April twelfth, eighteen-sixty-one, the first shot was fired in the American Civil War. A heavy mortar roared, sending a shell high over the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina. The shell dropped and exploded above Fort Sumter, a United States fort on an island in the harbor. The explosion was a signal for all southern guns surrounding the fort to open fire. Shell after shell smashed into the island fort. The booming of the cannons woke the people of Charleston. They rushed to the harbor and cheered as the bursting shells lighted the dark sky. VOICE TWO: Confederate leaders ordered the attack after President Abraham Lincoln refused to withdraw the small force of American soldiers at Sumter. Food supplies at the fort were very low. And southerners expected hunger would force the soldiers to leave. But Lincoln announced he was sending a ship to Fort Sumter with food. Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his commander in Charleston, General [Pierre] Beauregard, to destroy the fort before the food could arrive. VOICE ONE: The attack started from Fort Johnson across the harbor from Sumter. A Virginia Congressman, Roger Pryor, was visiting Fort Johnson when the order to fire was given. The fort's commander asked Pryor if he would like the honor of firing the mortar that would begin the attack. "No," answered Pryor, and his voice shook. "I cannot fire the first gun of the war." But others could. And the attack began. VOICE TWO: At Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson and his men waited three hours before firing back at the Confederate guns. Anderson could not use his most powerful cannons. They were in the open at the top of the fort, where there was no protection for the gunners. Too many of his small force would be lost if he tried to fire these guns. So Anderson had his men fire the smaller cannon from better-protected positions. These, however, did not do much damage to the Confederate guns. VOICE ONE: The shelling continued all day. A big cloud of smoke rose high in the air over Fort Sumter. The smoke was seen by United States navy ships a few miles outside Charleston Harbor. They had come with the ship bringing food for the men at Sumter. There were soldiers on these ships. But they could not reach the fort to help Major Anderson. Confederate boats blocked the entrance to the harbor. And confederate guns could destroy any ship that tried to enter. The commander of the naval force, Captain [Gustavus] Fox, had hoped to move the soldiers to Sumter in small boats. But the sea was so rough that the small boats could not be used. Fox could only watch and hope for calmer seas. VOICE TWO: Confederate shells continued to smash into Sumter throughout the night and into the morning of the second day. The fires at Fort Sumter burned higher. And smoke filled the rooms where soldiers still tried to fire their cannons. About noon, three men arrived at the fort in a small boat. One of them was Louis Wigfall, a former United States senator from Texas, now a Confederate officer. He asked to see Major Anderson. "I come from General Beauregard," he said. "It is time to put a stop to this, sir. The flames are raging all around you. And you have defended your flag bravely. Will you leave, sir?" Wigfall asked. VOICE ONE: Major Anderson was ready to stop fighting. His men had done all that could be expected of them. They had fought well against a much stronger enemy. Anderson said he would surrender, if he and his men could leave with honor. Wigfall agreed. He told Anderson to lower his flag and the firing would stop. Down came the United States flag. And up went the white flag of surrender. The battle of Fort Sumter was over. More than four-thousand shells had been fired during the thirty-three hours of fighting. But no one on either side was killed. One United States soldier, however, was killed the next day when a cannon exploded as Anderson's men prepared to leave the fort. VOICE TWO: The news of Anderson's surrender reached Washington late Saturday, April thirteenth. President Lincoln and his cabinet met the next day and wrote a declaration that the president would announce on Monday. In it, Lincoln said powerful forces had seized control in seven states of the south. He said these forces were too strong to be stopped by courts or policemen. Lincoln said troops were needed. He requested that the states send him seventy-five-thousand soldiers. He said these men would be used to get control of forts and other federal property seized from the Union. VOICE ONE: Lincoln knew he had the support of his own party. He also wanted northern Democrats to give him full support. So, Sunday evening, a Republican congressman visited the top Democrat of the north, Senator Stephen Douglas. The congressman urged Douglas to go to the White House and tell Lincoln that he would do all he could to help put down the rebellion in the south. At first, Douglas refused. He said Lincoln had removed Democrats -- friends of his -- from government jobs and had given the jobs to Republicans. Douglas said he didn't like this. Anyway, he said, Lincoln probably did not want his advice. The congressman, George Ashmun, urged Douglas to forget party politics. He said Lincoln and the country needed the Senator's help. Douglas finally agreed to talk with Lincoln. He and Ashmun went immediately to the White House. VOICE TWO: Lincoln welcomed his old political opponent. He explained his plans and read to Douglas the declaration he would announce the next day. Douglas said he agreed with every word of it except, he said, seventy-five-thousand soldiers would not be enough. Remembering his problems with southern extremists, he urged Lincoln to ask for two-hundred-thousand men. He told the president, "You do not know the dishonest purposes of those men as well as I do." Lincoln and Douglas talked for two hours. Then the Senator gave a statement for the newspapers. He said he still opposed the administration on political questions. But, he said, he completely supported Lincoln's efforts to protect the Union. Douglas was to live for only a few more months. He spent this time working for the Union. He traveled through the states of the northwest, making many speeches. Douglas urged Democrats everywhere to support the Republican government. He told them, "There can be no neutrals in this war -- only patriots or traitors." VOICE ONE: Throughout the north, thousands of men rushed to answer Lincoln's call for troops. Within two days, a military group from Boston left for Washington. Other groups formed quickly in northern cities and began training for war. Lincoln received a different answer, however, from the border states between north and south. Virginia's governor said he would not send troops to help the north get control of the south. North Carolina's governor said the request violated the Constitution. He would have no part of it. Tennessee said it would not send one man to help force southern states back into the Union. But it said it would send fifty-thousand troops to defend southern rights. Lincoln got the same answer from the governors of Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri. For several days, it seemed that all these states would secede and join the southern confederacy. VOICE TWO: Lincoln worried most about Virginia, the powerful state just across the Potomac River from Washington. A secession convention already was meeting at the state capital. On April seventeenth, the convention voted to take Virginia out of the Union. Virginia's vote to secede forced an American army officer to make a most difficult decision. The officer was Colonel Robert E. Lee, a citizen of Virginia. The army's top commander, General Winfield Scott, had called Lee to Washington. Scott believed Lee was the best officer in the army. Lincoln agreed. He asked Lee to take General Scott's job, to become the army chief. Lee was offered the job on the same day that Virginia left the Union. He felt strong ties to his state. But he also loved the Union. His decision will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and Jack Moyles. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series #21: Agriculture Studies
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Phoebe Zimmermann?with the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States has more than two thousand four hundred colleges and universities. About one hundred of them began as public agricultural colleges, and continue to teach agriculture. These are called land grant schools. And they are the subject this week in our Foreign Student Series. Federal land grants supported the building of most of the major state universities in America. The idea of the land grant college goes back more than a century to a law called the Morrill Act. A congressman from Vermont named Justin Smith Morrill wrote legislation to create at least one such college in each state. The name land grant came from the kind of aid provided by the federal government. The government gave each Northern state thousands of hectares of land. The states were to sell the land and use the money to establish colleges. These colleges would teach agriculture and engineering, as well as military science. Congress passed the law in eighteen sixty-two. This was during the Civil War. Southern states had rebelled and left the Union. The federal government wanted Americans to learn better ways to farm. Another law created a center for experiments at each land grant college to help farmers solve problems. This helped agricultural colleges develop new scientific ideas. The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan was established in eighteen fifty-five, seven years before the Morrill Act. It later became the first college to officially agree to receive support under the act. And it grew into what is now Michigan State University. Today the university in East Lansing has more than forty thousand students. These include about three thousand foreign students from more than one hundred countries. The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State says it had about three hundred foreign students last year. Most were graduate students who were studying agricultural economics, packaging, and crop and soil sciences. This brings us to the end of the twentieth week of our Foreign Student Series. Our series is for students in other countries who would like to attend a college or university in the United States. All the programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Strengthening the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
* Byline: 

 I’m Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Bush administration is seeking changes to strengthen the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. This federal agency protects the retirement plans of millions of Americans. It takes over pension plans when employers can no longer guarantee payments. But some recent failures of pension plans have raised questions about its long-term financial health. Congress created the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in nineteen seventy-four. The agency protects plans that define the amount that workers will receive each month when they retire from a job. Such plans are required to have enough money to pay workers who have already retired and those who will retire in the future. The agency does not receive government money. Instead, employers pay the agency in the same way that insurance companies collect payments to protect against financial loss. Currently, big pensions that are supervised by many employers pay two dollars and sixty cents per worker per year. This program insures the pensions of ten million Americans. Plans offered by a single employer pay nineteen dollars. Almost thirty-five million people have their pensions insured by this program. When the corporation takes over a plan, it invests the money to meet future demands. On December thirtieth, for example, the agency announced that it was moving to take control of the pension for pilots at United Airlines. This will increase the amount of money the agency has, but also the amount it must pay out in the future. In November the agency reported that its deficit had reached twenty-three thousand million dollars. That was up from eleven thousand million dollars a year earlier. The agency said the number of people owed payments went over one million for the first time. There are limits on how much the agency can pay retirees, even if their employer guaranteed a higher amount. Some experts think the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will run out of money by two thousand twenty. The administration says the current system needs reform. It wants Congress to raise the insurance rates for the first time since nineteen ninety-one. Under the proposed changes, employers would pay thirty dollars per employee instead of nineteen. And financially troubled pension plans would pay more into the program than healthy ones. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Music from Los Lonely Boys / Question about Helen Keller / A new place for Cereal Lovers
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA. Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Los Lonely Boys ... A question about Helen Keller ... And a new place for cereal lovers. Cereal Bars HOST: Students at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have a new place to go to eat. It serves many different kinds of ... cereal. Bob Doughty explains. BOB DOUGHTY: The Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe is supposed to feel more like a home than a business. Servers are dressed in sleep clothes. Some students sit at a big table as they eat their cereal. They watch cartoons on a television, probably just like they did as children. Tired students lie on a couch. Still others read their computer mail. Cereal is what millions of people eat for breakfast. But at this place, it is eaten not just for the first meal of the day, but for any meal. Most of the popular cereals that Americans buy contain oats, corn, wheat or rice. Some contain lots of added sugars. This may help explain why many college kids are big cereal eaters. More than thirty kinds of cold cereal are served at the Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe. Students can choose from kinds like Cheerios, Corn Chex and Cap'n Crunch to Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms. Also on the menu are more than thirty kinds of toppings to put on the cereal, from nuts and fruit to candies. And there are several kinds of milk, including soy milk. People can also order hot cereals and, true to the name of the place, cereal bars. These you hold in your hand. The two businessmen who opened the cafe at the University of Pennsylvania tested the idea first at the University of Arizona in Tempe. Now they are looking at other cities and other kinds of places to offer people their favorite breakfast cereal any time of day. Helen Keller DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Kharkov, Ukraine. Sergey D. asks about the life of Helen Keller. Helen Keller was born in eighteen eighty in a small town in Alabama, in the American South. She developed an infection at the age of nineteen months. She lost her ability to see and hear. When Helen was seven years old, her parents hired a special teacher. The teacher was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind, but regained her sight. Anne Sullivan began teaching Helen the names of things. Miss Sullivan formed letters with her finger in Helen's hand to spell out words. Helen learned more and more words. She learned how to use her hands to speak for her. In addition to sign language, Helen also learned to use her voice. Later, she learned to read Latin, Greek, French and German. She read with her fingers using the braille system of raised dots. She also learned to use a typewriter. Anne Sullivan stayed with Helen Keller for many years. She helped her get ready for school and college. Helen Keller was sixteen years old when she started at Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. She completed her studies with honors in nineteen oh four. Helen Keller worked for many years for the American Foundation for the Blind. She met with presidents and traveled to many countries. She wrote books and articles. She showed other disabled people that they, too, could succeed. Helen Keller died in nineteen sixty-eight. Her life story has been told in books, plays and movies. "Life," she said, "is either a daring adventure or it is nothing." Los Lonely Boys HOST: A group called Los Lonely Boys is enjoying much success these days. Their first album has sold more than one million copies. And the band has four nominations at the Grammy Awards next month, including Best New Artist. Barbara Klein has our story. BARBARA KLEIN: Los Lonely Boys are three brothers. Henry Garza plays the guitar. JoJo Garza plays the bass. And Ringo Garza Junior plays the drums. They grew up in a small town in Texas. They performed with their father, a successful musician. Another Texas musician, Willie Nelson, calls Los Lonely Boys his favorite new band. The brothers performed with him on the album “Outlaws and Angels.” One of the songs is “Cisco Kid.” (MUSIC Los Lonely Boys recorded their first album at Willie Nelson’s studio in Austin, Texas. The title song is nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance Grammys. Here is ”Heaven.” (MUSIC Los Lonely Boys are not so lonely. They have been called one of the most exciting acts performing today. They mix the sounds of Mexican music with American rock and blues. We leave you with another song nominated for a Grammy, this one for best rock instrumental performance. Here are Los Lonely Boys with “Onda.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. The writers were Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, V.O.A. Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, V.O.A.’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA. Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Los Lonely Boys ... A question about Helen Keller ... And a new place for cereal lovers. Cereal Bars HOST: Students at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia have a new place to go to eat. It serves many different kinds of ... cereal. Bob Doughty explains. BOB DOUGHTY: The Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe is supposed to feel more like a home than a business. Servers are dressed in sleep clothes. Some students sit at a big table as they eat their cereal. They watch cartoons on a television, probably just like they did as children. Tired students lie on a couch. Still others read their computer mail. Cereal is what millions of people eat for breakfast. But at this place, it is eaten not just for the first meal of the day, but for any meal. Most of the popular cereals that Americans buy contain oats, corn, wheat or rice. Some contain lots of added sugars. This may help explain why many college kids are big cereal eaters. More than thirty kinds of cold cereal are served at the Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe. Students can choose from kinds like Cheerios, Corn Chex and Cap'n Crunch to Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms. Also on the menu are more than thirty kinds of toppings to put on the cereal, from nuts and fruit to candies. And there are several kinds of milk, including soy milk. People can also order hot cereals and, true to the name of the place, cereal bars. These you hold in your hand. The two businessmen who opened the cafe at the University of Pennsylvania tested the idea first at the University of Arizona in Tempe. Now they are looking at other cities and other kinds of places to offer people their favorite breakfast cereal any time of day. Helen Keller DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Kharkov, Ukraine. Sergey D. asks about the life of Helen Keller. Helen Keller was born in eighteen eighty in a small town in Alabama, in the American South. She developed an infection at the age of nineteen months. She lost her ability to see and hear. When Helen was seven years old, her parents hired a special teacher. The teacher was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind, but regained her sight. Anne Sullivan began teaching Helen the names of things. Miss Sullivan formed letters with her finger in Helen's hand to spell out words. Helen learned more and more words. She learned how to use her hands to speak for her. In addition to sign language, Helen also learned to use her voice. Later, she learned to read Latin, Greek, French and German. She read with her fingers using the braille system of raised dots. She also learned to use a typewriter. Anne Sullivan stayed with Helen Keller for many years. She helped her get ready for school and college. Helen Keller was sixteen years old when she started at Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. She completed her studies with honors in nineteen oh four. Helen Keller worked for many years for the American Foundation for the Blind. She met with presidents and traveled to many countries. She wrote books and articles. She showed other disabled people that they, too, could succeed. Helen Keller died in nineteen sixty-eight. Her life story has been told in books, plays and movies. "Life," she said, "is either a daring adventure or it is nothing." Los Lonely Boys HOST: A group called Los Lonely Boys is enjoying much success these days. Their first album has sold more than one million copies. And the band has four nominations at the Grammy Awards next month, including Best New Artist. Barbara Klein has our story. BARBARA KLEIN: Los Lonely Boys are three brothers. Henry Garza plays the guitar. JoJo Garza plays the bass. And Ringo Garza Junior plays the drums. They grew up in a small town in Texas. They performed with their father, a successful musician. Another Texas musician, Willie Nelson, calls Los Lonely Boys his favorite new band. The brothers performed with him on the album “Outlaws and Angels.” One of the songs is “Cisco Kid.” (MUSIC Los Lonely Boys recorded their first album at Willie Nelson’s studio in Austin, Texas. The title song is nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance Grammys. Here is ”Heaven.” (MUSIC Los Lonely Boys are not so lonely. They have been called one of the most exciting acts performing today. They mix the sounds of Mexican music with American rock and blues. We leave you with another song nominated for a Grammy, this one for best rock instrumental performance. Here are Los Lonely Boys with “Onda.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. The writers were Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, V.O.A. Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, V.O.A.’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Strengthening the U.S. Agency that Protects Pensions
* Byline: 

 I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Bush administration is seeking changes to strengthen the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. This federal agency protects the retirement plans of millions of Americans. It takes over pension plans when employers can no longer guarantee payments. But some recent failures of pension plans have raised questions about its long-term financial health. Congress created the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in nineteen seventy-four. The agency protects plans that define the amount that workers will receive each month when they retire from a job. Such plans are required to have enough money to pay workers who have already retired and those who will retire in the future. The agency does not receive government money. Instead, employers pay the agency in the same way that insurance companies collect payments to protect against financial loss. Currently, big pensions that are supervised by many employers pay two dollars and sixty cents per worker per year. This program insures the pensions of ten million Americans. Plans offered by a single employer pay nineteen dollars. Almost thirty-five million people have their pensions insured by this program. When the corporation takes over a plan, it invests the money to meet future demands. On December thirtieth, for example, the agency announced that it was moving to take control of the pension for pilots at United Airlines. This will increase the amount of money the agency has, but also the amount it must pay out in the future. In November the agency reported that its deficit had reached twenty-three thousand million dollars. That was up from eleven thousand million dollars a year earlier. The agency said the number of people owed payments went over one million for the first time. There are limits on how much the agency can pay retirees, even if their employer guaranteed a higher amount. Some experts think the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will run out of money by two thousand twenty. The administration says the current system needs reform. It wants Congress to raise the insurance rates for the first time since nineteen ninety-one. Under the proposed changes, employers would pay thirty dollars per employee instead of nineteen. And financially troubled pension plans would pay more into the program than healthy ones. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Describes Second Term Goals
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President George W. Bush says the survival of liberty in America "increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." AUDIO: “The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.” This was a major subject of his inaugural speech as Mister Bush began his second four years in office Thursday. The forty-third president of the United States said human freedom is the only force of history that can defeat hatred. For half a century, he said, America defended its freedom "by standing watch on distant borders." Then, years of quiet followed what he called "the shipwreck of communism." AUDIO: "And then there came a day of fire." ... the terrorist attacks on the United States in two thousand one. Mister Bush said the policy of the United States is to support democratic movements in every nation and culture. The goal, he said, is "ending tyranny in our world." He said oppression is always wrong, yet freedom must be chosen. America will not force its way of government on the unwilling, he said. Mister Bush said tens of millions have their freedom because, in his words, "we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation." He did not speak directly about the war in Iraq. But said the sacrifice of those who died for their country will always be honored. Snow was on the ground in Washington, temperatures were near-freezing, and security was extremely heavy. Still, hundreds of thousands gathered for the inaugural activities. The crowds included some protesters opposed to Mister Bush and the Iraq war. The president spoke of the unity that the nation felt after the September eleventh attacks. He said he would try to heal political divisions. He also said the United States "cannot carry the message of freedom" while there is still racism at home. Mister Bush spoke again of his desire to build what he calls an "ownership society." He promised to widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance. More details are expected in his State of the Union speech on February second. His second-term goals include changes in the Social Security system for retired workers, and also in tax laws and the civil legal system. There are also record trade deficits and the future in Iraq to deal with. Mister Bush defeated John Kerry with fifty-one percent of the popular vote in November. He led Republicans to bigger majorities over Democrats in Congress. Yet his approval rating is low compared to other recent presidents at the start of a second term. His rating averaged around fifty percent in several recent public opinion studies. Political scientists note that American presidents can find it more difficult to get congressional support in their second, and final, term. There have also been some second-term political crises. The last president re-elected, Bill Clinton, was charged in Congress with lying about his relationship with a White House worker. The Senate found him not guilty. In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Martin Luther King Jr., Part 2
* Byline: Written by William Rodgers

 ANNCR: ANNCR: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil right's leader, Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. (THEME) People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil right's leader, Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion. He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus. Doctor King became the leader of a protest against the city bus system. It was the first time that black southerners had united against the laws of racial separation. VOICE TWO: At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work. They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation. But the buses remained empty. Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest. They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders. One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement. Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk. But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued. VOICE ONE: Doctor King's wife Coretta described how she and her husband felt during the protest. She said:"We never knew what was going to happen next. We felt like actors in a play whose ending we did not know. Yet we felt a part of history. And we believed we were instruments of the will of God". The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest. They thought it would end if he was in prison or dead. Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges. His arrests made national news and he was released. But the threats against his life continued. VOICE TWO: The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred eighty-two days. Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system. Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle. The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible. They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights. VOICE ONE: Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over. He had become well-known all over the country and throughout the world. He often was asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence. Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings. Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation. The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it. The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Martin Luther King became its president. In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States. Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat. And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only. These protests became known as "freedom rides." Many of the freedom rides turned violent. Black activists were beaten and arrested. Some were even killed. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city. They demanded more jobs for blacks. And they demanded to send their children to white schools. The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands. The situation became tense. Many protestors were beaten and arrested. Even Doctor King was arrested. But he was not in prison for long. The Birmingham demonstrations made international news. Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them. Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham. It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham. It did not mean that racial separation had ended. Some still remains today. But he felt that the battle was almost won. And he wanted to call on the nation for its support. So doctor king organized a March on Washington, D. C. The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three. About two hundred fifty thousand persons gathered there. They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans. There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies. But this was the biggest up to that time. VOICE ONE: It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches. The speech is known as the "I Have a Dream Speech. " It expressed his ideas for the future. Doctor king said: (I have a dream) VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four. But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work. He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight. Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death. His life had been threatened wherever he went. And he often spoke to his wife about his fears. But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement. The night before he died he spoke to his supporters. He said: (Speech to supporters) (We Shall Overcome) (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. This Special English program was written by William Rodgers. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer. I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion. He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus. Doctor King became the leader of a protest against the city bus system. It was the first time that black southerners had united against the laws of racial separation. VOICE TWO: At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work. They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation. But the buses remained empty. Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest. They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders. One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement. Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk. But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued. VOICE ONE: Doctor King's wife Coretta described how she and her husband felt during the protest. She said:"We never knew what was going to happen next. We felt like actors in a play whose ending we did not know. Yet we felt a part of history. And we believed we were instruments of the will of God". The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest. They thought it would end if he was in prison or dead. Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges. His arrests made national news and he was released. But the threats against his life continued. VOICE TWO: The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred eighty-two days. Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system. Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle. The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible. They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights. VOICE ONE: Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over. He had become well-known all over the country and throughout the world. He often was asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence. Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings. Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation. The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it. The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Martin Luther King became its president. In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States. Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat. And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only. These protests became known as "freedom rides." Many of the freedom rides turned violent. Black activists were beaten and arrested. Some were even killed. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city. They demanded more jobs for blacks. And they demanded to send their children to white schools. The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands. The situation became tense. Many protestors were beaten and arrested. Even Doctor King was arrested. But he was not in prison for long. The Birmingham demonstrations made international news. Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them. Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham. It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham. It did not mean that racial separation had ended. Some still remains today. But he felt that the battle was almost won. And he wanted to call on the nation for its support. So doctor king organized a March on Washington, D. C. The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three. About two hundred fifty thousand persons gathered there. They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans. There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies. But this was the biggest up to that time. VOICE ONE: It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches. The speech is known as the "I Have a Dream Speech. " It expressed his ideas for the future. Doctor king said: (I have a dream) VOICE TWO: Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four. But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work. He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight. Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death. His life had been threatened wherever he went. And he often spoke to his wife about his fears. But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement. The night before he died he spoke to his supporters. He said: (Speech to supporters) (We Shall Overcome) (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. This Special English program was written by William Rodgers. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer. I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Ann Veneman, U.S. Agriculture Chief, Nominated to Lead UNICEF
* Byline: 

 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Development Report. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has nominated Ann Veneman to head UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. Miz Veneman is leaving office as United States agriculture secretary. UNICEF directors must confirm her to replace Carol Bellamy as executive director. Miz Bellamy leaves in April after two five-year terms. An American has always led the agency. The United States is the biggest financial supporter of UNICEF. But the Bush administration and the U.N. disagree about policies on reproductive health and sex education. Last week, at a news conference, reporters asked Ann Veneman about her position on these issues. She said she does not believe that these or any other "social issues," as she called them, are part of the job of UNICEF. She said her main concerns will be to help children especially in the areas of education and health, and to deal with hunger issues. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund was created in nineteen forty-six to help children survive after World War Two. Today, it leads human rights campaigns, educational programs and other efforts around the world. Ann Veneman is a lawyer who grew up on a farm. She is an expert on agriculture, international marketing and food aid. She resigned as agriculture secretary to President Bush after his re-election. Miz Veneman said she would try to help the U.N. work toward its Millennium Development Goals. Five years ago, U.N. members agreed to make an effort to reduce the number of hungry and extremely poor in the world by half. The goal is to do this by two thousand fifteen. Other goals are to stop the spread of AIDS and malaria, and to provide education to all children. But a new U.N. report says the Millennium Development Goals will not be reached without more money. More than two hundred experts prepared the report. They urge rich nations to increase their development aid by one hundred percent over the next ten years. The plan calls on twenty-two countries to give almost fifty thousand million dollars more for next year than currently promised. The United States would be asked to give about forty percent of that additional aid. World leaders will discuss the report at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Development Report. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has nominated Ann Veneman to head UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. Miz Veneman is leaving office as United States agriculture secretary. UNICEF directors must confirm her to replace Carol Bellamy as executive director. Miz Bellamy leaves in April after two five-year terms. An American has always led the agency. The United States is the biggest financial supporter of UNICEF. But the Bush administration and the U.N. disagree about policies on reproductive health and sex education. Last week, at a news conference, reporters asked Ann Veneman about her position on these issues. She said she does not believe that these or any other "social issues," as she called them, are part of the job of UNICEF. She said her main concerns will be to help children especially in the areas of education and health, and to deal with hunger issues. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund was created in nineteen forty-six to help children survive after World War Two. Today, it leads human rights campaigns, educational programs and other efforts around the world. Ann Veneman is a lawyer who grew up on a farm. She is an expert on agriculture, international marketing and food aid. She resigned as agriculture secretary to President Bush after his re-election. Miz Veneman said she would try to help the U.N. work toward its Millennium Development Goals. Five years ago, U.N. members agreed to make an effort to reduce the number of hungry and extremely poor in the world by half. The goal is to do this by two thousand fifteen. Other goals are to stop the spread of AIDS and malaria, and to provide education to all children. But a new U.N. report says the Millennium Development Goals will not be reached without more money. More than two hundred experts prepared the report. They urge rich nations to increase their development aid by one hundred percent over the next ten years. The plan calls on twenty-two countries to give almost fifty thousand million dollars more for next year than currently promised. The United States would be asked to give about forty percent of that additional aid. World leaders will discuss the report at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Music for Little People
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Songs for big people are easier to find than songs for little people. But the market in children’s music is growing. Today, Faith Lapidus and Steve Ember tell about one company that is helping to meet the increasing demand. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Songs for big people are easier to find than songs for little people. But the market in children’s music is growing. Today, Faith Lapidus and Steve Ember tell about one company that is helping to meet the increasing demand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That's BB King, the great blues musician, and his famous black guitar he calls Lucille. The song is “Rainy Day Blues.” Later in the song, he asks children to play a game called “BB Says.” It is a little like a game that a parent would play with a small child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Class starts with singingBabies learn about music from the simple songs that their mothers and fathers sing to them. When the children are older, their parents might teach them songs as part of a game. BB King's recording of “Rainy Day Blues” follows this tradition. Most of his fans, though, may not know about his recordings for children. They only know that he makes very popular blues recordings for adults. BB King recorded "Rainy Day Blues" for a company called Music for Little People. VOICE ONE: It all began when a man named Leib Ostrow was looking for music for his children. He searched in stores, looked through books and phoned toy companies. He could not find anything he really liked. So Mister Ostrow decided to begin a recording company of his own. He went to a bank and borrowed some money. He began the company in his home. He used the part of the house where most people keep their automobile. Soon he was recording music for children. Many parents thought it was a great idea. So did many recording artists. Larsen's Bay School children perform Aleut dance at graduation ceremonyPhoto by M. OsborneMusic for Little People is located in northern California. It started as a mail-order business in nineteen-eighty-five. Today it is one of the largest children’s musical and educational companies in the United States. It has released more than eighty-five recordings. And it has won many awards. VOICE TWO: BB King is only one of the performers on Music for Little People. Others include country music stars Faith Hill and Charlie Daniels. There are also recordings by Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt, and the rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Los Lobos. The members of Los Lobos are from Los Angeles and are of Mexican ancestry. Their songs on Music for Little People are in both Spanish and English. In one recording they had the help of Lalo Guerrero, a Mexican-American singer. Listen for a moment as Lalo Guerrero and Los Lobos perform “La Bamba,” a traditional Mexican song. You may have heard it before. It was a very famous song in the nineteen-fifties. "La Bamba for Little People" begins with Lalo Guerrero telling everyone -- not just children -- to dance! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leib Ostrow, the man who started Music for Little People, says he wants children to hear good music by great performers from around the world. The company sells many different kinds of music. If a parent thinks a child might like rock music, they have it. If a parent wants music in French, Spanish, Swedish or Zulu -- they have that, too. There are religious songs, dance songs, slow songs, fast songs, songs from movies -- just about anything a child might like. Taj Mahal is another artist well known to fans of blues music. Here, he and Linda Tillery sing “Shake a Tail Feather.” This song won several awards, and was a nineteen-ninety-eight nominee for a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Recording. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dan and Kiley McMichael have a two-year-old daughter named Fiona. Fiona likes music. And, like most little children, Fiona wants to hear the same recordings over and over again. Her mother does not mind. She says she likes the Music for Little People as much as Fiona does. Here is one of the songs that Fiona likes. It tells a story about the power of music to calm the fears of a little boy. The group singing is Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa. The song is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawali. Music For Little People can be found on the Internet at mflp.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. We leave you now with a song called "Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash." It's performed by Native American singer Joanne Shenandoah. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That's BB King, the great blues musician, and his famous black guitar he calls Lucille. The song is “Rainy Day Blues.” Later in the song, he asks children to play a game called “BB Says.” It is a little like a game that a parent would play with a small child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Class starts with singingBabies learn about music from the simple songs that their mothers and fathers sing to them. When the children are older, their parents might teach them songs as part of a game. BB King's recording of “Rainy Day Blues” follows this tradition. Most of his fans, though, may not know about his recordings for children. They only know that he makes very popular blues recordings for adults. BB King recorded "Rainy Day Blues" for a company called Music for Little People. VOICE ONE: It all began when a man named Leib Ostrow was looking for music for his children. He searched in stores, looked through books and phoned toy companies. He could not find anything he really liked. So Mister Ostrow decided to begin a recording company of his own. He went to a bank and borrowed some money. He began the company in his home. He used the part of the house where most people keep their automobile. Soon he was recording music for children. Many parents thought it was a great idea. So did many recording artists. Larsen's Bay School children perform Aleut dance at graduation ceremonyPhoto by M. OsborneMusic for Little People is located in northern California. It started as a mail-order business in nineteen-eighty-five. Today it is one of the largest children’s musical and educational companies in the United States. It has released more than eighty-five recordings. And it has won many awards. VOICE TWO: BB King is only one of the performers on Music for Little People. Others include country music stars Faith Hill and Charlie Daniels. There are also recordings by Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt, and the rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Los Lobos. The members of Los Lobos are from Los Angeles and are of Mexican ancestry. Their songs on Music for Little People are in both Spanish and English. In one recording they had the help of Lalo Guerrero, a Mexican-American singer. Listen for a moment as Lalo Guerrero and Los Lobos perform “La Bamba,” a traditional Mexican song. You may have heard it before. It was a very famous song in the nineteen-fifties. "La Bamba for Little People" begins with Lalo Guerrero telling everyone -- not just children -- to dance! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leib Ostrow, the man who started Music for Little People, says he wants children to hear good music by great performers from around the world. The company sells many different kinds of music. If a parent thinks a child might like rock music, they have it. If a parent wants music in French, Spanish, Swedish or Zulu -- they have that, too. There are religious songs, dance songs, slow songs, fast songs, songs from movies -- just about anything a child might like. Taj Mahal is another artist well known to fans of blues music. Here, he and Linda Tillery sing “Shake a Tail Feather.” This song won several awards, and was a nineteen-ninety-eight nominee for a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Recording. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dan and Kiley McMichael have a two-year-old daughter named Fiona. Fiona likes music. And, like most little children, Fiona wants to hear the same recordings over and over again. Her mother does not mind. She says she likes the Music for Little People as much as Fiona does. Here is one of the songs that Fiona likes. It tells a story about the power of music to calm the fears of a little boy. The group singing is Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa. The song is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawali. Music For Little People can be found on the Internet at mflp.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. We leave you now with a song called "Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash." It's performed by Native American singer Joanne Shenandoah. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Locust Swarms in North Africa Ease, but Mauritania Faces a Food Shortage
* Byline: 

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Food and Agriculture Organization says the locust situation in Northwest Africa is improving. The United Nations agency reported last week that Morocco had reduced its control operations by about fifty percent. Algeria, also invaded by desert locusts, reduced its treatments by twenty percent. The F.A.O. said locust control operations ended in Mauritania. But now that country faces a food shortage. The U.N. World Food Program says locusts invaded one hundred percent of the agricultural production area of Mauritania. The insects have destroyed not only cereal grains but also vegetables. Not enough rain last year has made the situation worse. Grasslands for cattle have also been damaged. The World Food Program appealed last week for thirty-one million dollars to provide food aid for Mauritania. Agency officials say four hundred thousand people are in urgent need of assistance through two thousand seven. Mauritania has a population of almost three million. The country is estimated to need one hundred eighty-seven thousand metric tons of food to feed its population. The worst damage is in southern Mauritania, home to one-fourth of the population. A U.N. study says sixty percent of families there will not have enough to eat in the coming year. The locust invasions in the Sahel area of West Africa have been described as the worst in fifteen years. Aircraft have spread poisons over millions of hectares of land to kill the insects. The Food and Agriculture Organization said last week that limited control operations continued in parts of Gambia and southern Senegal. Guinea Bissau and northwest Guinea were organizing operations to treat small groups of locusts too young to reproduce. Locust migrations begin when young locusts leave their native territory to search for new places to mate and lay eggs. One locust weighs only about two grams. But swarms can involve thousands of millions. One ton of locusts can eat about as much food as two thousand five hundred people. Experts say locust migrations last for several years. The current invasions began last June. By last week, the F.A.O. had received sixty-four million dollars to assist the countries affected. At least nine million dollars more is expected. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Diseases Spread by Mosquitoes
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about diseases spread by mosquitoes -- the most widely hated insects in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mosquitoes are very small insects. There are more than two thousand different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its long thin sucking tube to break the skin and find blood. The insect injects the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing. The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce eggs. One meal gives her enough blood to produce as many as two hundred fifty eggs. The mosquito lays them in any standing water. VOICE TWO: The eggs produce worm-like creatures in two days to a few months. However, some eggs can stay in water for years until conditions are right for development. The worm-like creatures feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas. The pupas rise to the surface of the water. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says mosquitoes cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. That is because mosquitoes can carry organisms that cause disease. However, the disease does not affect mosquitoes. W.H.O. officials expressed concern about the possible spread of disease after the major earthquake in the Indian Ocean last month. The earthquake produced huge waves that killed thousands of people. The waves destroyed many villages and left floodwaters in coastal areas. The officials have warned that the floodwaters could increase the risk of diseases spread by mosquitoes. VOICE TWO: The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria. More than three hundred million people become infected with malaria each year. At least one million die from it every year. The disease is found in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Malaria parasites enter a person’s blood through a mosquito bite. These organisms travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause the person’s body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells. VOICE ONE: Some drugs are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. The most commonly used malaria prevention drugs are chloroquine, mefloquine and doxycycline. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed. Health officials are increasing efforts to reduce the number of deaths from malaria. VOICE TWO: Dengue fever is another disease that is carried by mosquitoes. The insects can survive in new and different environments. They can spread diseases to new areas. For example, experts say only nine countries had dengue fever before Nineteen-Seventy. Since then, the disease has spread to more than one hundred countries around the world. The World Health Organization says about fifty million people suffer from dengue fever each year. There is no cure. Children may develop a kind of the disease that is not serious. They may have a high body temperature and some areas of skin may turn red. VOICE ONE: Older people suffer from dengue fever much more. They may develop reddish skin and lose their sense of taste. They also may have terrible pain in the head or behind their eyes. And they may experience pain in joints such as the elbow or knee. This kind of joint pain is the reason why dengue fever is sometimes known as breakbone fever. The most severe kind of the disease is called dengue hemorrhagic fever. People who have this disease bleed from the nose or other openings in the body. Dengue hemorrhagic fever kills about five percent of all people it infects. The only treatment involves controlling the bleeding and replacing lost body fluids. VOICE TWO: Yellow fever is another disease carried by mosquitoes. There are no effective drugs against yellow fever. Doctors can only hope that a person’s defense system is strong enough to fight the disease. The World Health Organization says there are an estimated two hundred thousand cases of yellow fever each year. It is found mainly in Africa, northern South America and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. A virus causes yellow fever. A few days after a mosquito bite, the victim experiences high body temperature and pain in the head or muscles. Victims also may expel food they ate. Most patients improve after three to four days. VOICE ONE: However, fifteen percent of patients develop a more serious condition. High body temperatures re-appear and the body turns yellow in color. The victim bleeds from the nose, mouth, eyes or stomach. Half the people with this condition die within ten to fourteen days. A vaccine can prevent yellow fever. The vaccine strengthens the body’s defense system against the disease. Medical experts say the vaccine is safe and very effective. The protection continues for at least ten years and possibly for life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mosquitoes also carry lymphatic filariasis, a disease commonly known as elephantiasis. The disease has already affected more than one hundred twenty million people. One third of those infected live in India. Another one third are in Africa. The others live in South Asia, the Pacific Ocean, or the western half of the world. Mosquito bites spread the worms that cause elephantiasis. People usually begin to develop the disease as children. Many children never experience signs of the disease. But it may cause hidden damage to the body’s lymphatic system and kidneys. The worst signs of elephantiasis appear in adults. The signs are more common in men than in women. These include damage to the arms, legs, and reproductive organs. Two drugs are effective in treating the disease. Experts say that keeping the affected areas clean can decrease the damage and reduce the number of times that it takes place. VOICE ONE: Still another disease carried by mosquitoes is encephalitis. It causes an infection or swelling of the brain. Many different viruses cause different kinds of the disease. One virus lives naturally in birds and horses. Mosquitoes spread it to people. Mosquitoes in several Asian countries spread a kind of encephalitis known as Japanese encephalitis. A vaccine can prevent this sickness. Other kinds include West Nile encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis and Eastern Equine encephalitis. Most healthy people infected with the virus show no signs. Or they become sick for only a day or two. But those with weak natural defenses may develop a severe infection. They may suffer from high body temperature, headache, shaking and even death. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts have learned many things about mosquitoes. For example, the insects can smell carbon dioxide in the breath of a person or animal from as far away as sixty meters. Mosquitoes often like the blood of animals better than the blood of people. Mosquitoes like dark colors. They do not bite women who are bleeding during their fertility period. But they do bite pregnant women. Many kinds of mosquitoes are most active in the early morning and early at night. They eat mostly at night. VOICE ONE: Experts say the best way to prevent the diseases carried by mosquitoes is not to be bitten by one. There are several ways to prevent mosquito bites. Do not keep standing water anywhere near your home. Remove all containers that could provide a place for mosquitoes to live. Stay in an enclosed area when mosquitoes are most active. Wear clothes that cover most of the body. Other ways to prevent mosquito bites are to put anti-insect chemicals on the skin, clothing and sleeping areas. Also, place special nets treated with insect poison on windows and over the bed at night. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. The engineer was Eva Nenicka. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about diseases spread by mosquitoes -- the most widely hated insects in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mosquitoes are very small insects. There are more than two thousand different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its long thin sucking tube to break the skin and find blood. The insect injects the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing. The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce eggs. One meal gives her enough blood to produce as many as two hundred fifty eggs. The mosquito lays them in any standing water. VOICE TWO: The eggs produce worm-like creatures in two days to a few months. However, some eggs can stay in water for years until conditions are right for development. The worm-like creatures feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas. The pupas rise to the surface of the water. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says mosquitoes cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. That is because mosquitoes can carry organisms that cause disease. However, the disease does not affect mosquitoes. W.H.O. officials expressed concern about the possible spread of disease after the major earthquake in the Indian Ocean last month. The earthquake produced huge waves that killed thousands of people. The waves destroyed many villages and left floodwaters in coastal areas. The officials have warned that the floodwaters could increase the risk of diseases spread by mosquitoes. VOICE TWO: The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria. More than three hundred million people become infected with malaria each year. At least one million die from it every year. The disease is found in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Malaria parasites enter a person’s blood through a mosquito bite. These organisms travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause the person’s body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells. VOICE ONE: Some drugs are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. The most commonly used malaria prevention drugs are chloroquine, mefloquine and doxycycline. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed. Health officials are increasing efforts to reduce the number of deaths from malaria. VOICE TWO: Dengue fever is another disease that is carried by mosquitoes. The insects can survive in new and different environments. They can spread diseases to new areas. For example, experts say only nine countries had dengue fever before Nineteen-Seventy. Since then, the disease has spread to more than one hundred countries around the world. The World Health Organization says about fifty million people suffer from dengue fever each year. There is no cure. Children may develop a kind of the disease that is not serious. They may have a high body temperature and some areas of skin may turn red. VOICE ONE: Older people suffer from dengue fever much more. They may develop reddish skin and lose their sense of taste. They also may have terrible pain in the head or behind their eyes. And they may experience pain in joints such as the elbow or knee. This kind of joint pain is the reason why dengue fever is sometimes known as breakbone fever. The most severe kind of the disease is called dengue hemorrhagic fever. People who have this disease bleed from the nose or other openings in the body. Dengue hemorrhagic fever kills about five percent of all people it infects. The only treatment involves controlling the bleeding and replacing lost body fluids. VOICE TWO: Yellow fever is another disease carried by mosquitoes. There are no effective drugs against yellow fever. Doctors can only hope that a person’s defense system is strong enough to fight the disease. The World Health Organization says there are an estimated two hundred thousand cases of yellow fever each year. It is found mainly in Africa, northern South America and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. A virus causes yellow fever. A few days after a mosquito bite, the victim experiences high body temperature and pain in the head or muscles. Victims also may expel food they ate. Most patients improve after three to four days. VOICE ONE: However, fifteen percent of patients develop a more serious condition. High body temperatures re-appear and the body turns yellow in color. The victim bleeds from the nose, mouth, eyes or stomach. Half the people with this condition die within ten to fourteen days. A vaccine can prevent yellow fever. The vaccine strengthens the body’s defense system against the disease. Medical experts say the vaccine is safe and very effective. The protection continues for at least ten years and possibly for life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mosquitoes also carry lymphatic filariasis, a disease commonly known as elephantiasis. The disease has already affected more than one hundred twenty million people. One third of those infected live in India. Another one third are in Africa. The others live in South Asia, the Pacific Ocean, or the western half of the world. Mosquito bites spread the worms that cause elephantiasis. People usually begin to develop the disease as children. Many children never experience signs of the disease. But it may cause hidden damage to the body’s lymphatic system and kidneys. The worst signs of elephantiasis appear in adults. The signs are more common in men than in women. These include damage to the arms, legs, and reproductive organs. Two drugs are effective in treating the disease. Experts say that keeping the affected areas clean can decrease the damage and reduce the number of times that it takes place. VOICE ONE: Still another disease carried by mosquitoes is encephalitis. It causes an infection or swelling of the brain. Many different viruses cause different kinds of the disease. One virus lives naturally in birds and horses. Mosquitoes spread it to people. Mosquitoes in several Asian countries spread a kind of encephalitis known as Japanese encephalitis. A vaccine can prevent this sickness. Other kinds include West Nile encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis and Eastern Equine encephalitis. Most healthy people infected with the virus show no signs. Or they become sick for only a day or two. But those with weak natural defenses may develop a severe infection. They may suffer from high body temperature, headache, shaking and even death. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts have learned many things about mosquitoes. For example, the insects can smell carbon dioxide in the breath of a person or animal from as far away as sixty meters. Mosquitoes often like the blood of animals better than the blood of people. Mosquitoes like dark colors. They do not bite women who are bleeding during their fertility period. But they do bite pregnant women. Many kinds of mosquitoes are most active in the early morning and early at night. They eat mostly at night. VOICE ONE: Experts say the best way to prevent the diseases carried by mosquitoes is not to be bitten by one. There are several ways to prevent mosquito bites. Do not keep standing water anywhere near your home. Remove all containers that could provide a place for mosquitoes to live. Stay in an enclosed area when mosquitoes are most active. Wear clothes that cover most of the body. Other ways to prevent mosquito bites are to put anti-insect chemicals on the skin, clothing and sleeping areas. Also, place special nets treated with insect poison on windows and over the bed at night. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. The engineer was Eva Nenicka. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Along the Mississippi River
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell about one of the biggest rivers in the United States, the Mississippi. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Mississippi flows from near the northern border of the United States south into the Gulf of Mexico. The river flows for more than three thousand seven hundred kilometers through the center of the country. It is the one of the longest rivers in the world. Only four rivers in the world are longer. They are the Nile in Africa, the Amazon in South America, the Yangtze in China and the Missouri in the United States. The name, Mississippi, came from the Chippewa Indians who lived in what is now the north central part of the United States. Their name for the river was “maesi-sipu”. In the Chippewa language this meant “river of many fishes”. The word was not easy for European explorers to say. So they began calling it the Mississippi instead. Today, it is often called “Old Man River” Modern maps show that Little Elk Lake in the north central state of Minnesota is the true beginning of the Mississippi River. Little Elk Lake is only about four kilometers long. VOICE TWO: At its beginning, the Mississippi does not look like much of a river. But it grows as it starts moving slowly north before turning west and then south. What is called the Upper Mississippi ends in southern Illinois, near a city with an Egyptian name – Cairo. However, in this middle western state it is called Kay-ro. At Cairo, another large river, the Ohio River, joins the expanding Mississippi. It is easy to see how the Upper Mississippi has flowed through the land. It has cut its way through mountains of rock, pushing and pushing its waters slowly south. VOICE ONE: The Lower Mississippi begins south of Cairo. It is often higher than the land along it. The land is protected by man-made levees, which are walls of earth. These levees prevent the river from flooding. Some of these levees are higher and longer than the Great Wall of China. If you stand behind some of the levees you look up at the river and boats sailing on it. While the levees control the river, the land is safe. But when heavy rains fall on the hundreds of big and little rivers that flow into the Mississippi, the land is threatened. If the levees break, the river can spread its fingers across the land, flooding towns and villages and destroying crops growing in fields. VOICE TWO: There are hundreds of big and little islands throughout the Mississippi River. These islands are formed by dirt carried along by the flow of the powerful river. Every year, the river carries five-hundred-million tons of dirt. Islands can form quickly, sometimes between the time a ship sails down the river and returns. United States government engineers work hard to keep the river safe. They destroy islands built by the river to keep it clear for ships and trade. They also work to keep the levees strong so that the river does not break through them. Still, Old Man River does not like to be controlled. Every few years the Mississippi River changes its path or floods many thousands of hectares. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the state of Minnesota, the two cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul face each other across the river. The cities are on the northernmost point on the river that is deep enough for trade boats to sail. The cities today form an important center for business and agriculture. About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. The city is just a few kilometers south of where the huge Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French trader first established a business there in Seventeen-Sixty-Four. A few years later settlers named their new town after the Thirteenth Century French King, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christian saint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point for settlers traveling to the American west. VOICE TWO: The most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river’s southern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. French explorers first settled there, naming the town after the French city of Orleans (Or-lay-onh). From its earliest days, New Orleans was an important center for national and international trade. During the War of Eighteen-Twelve a great battle was fought there against British forces. Today, New Orleans continues to be an important center for business and international trade. But the city is probably most famous for its culture, music, and food. Many cultures unite in New Orleans. The large black population of the city provides strong influences from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. French culture also has been very important since the time the city and large areas of North America belonged to France. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Indians had lived in the Mississippi Valley for a very long time when Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived around Fifteen-Forty. De Soto was looking for gold and cities of gold. He thought the Mississippi was just another river to cross before he would reach those cities, which the Spanish called El Dorado. Instead of the cities, he found hostile Indians, hunger and sickness. De Soto died on the edge of the river in Fifteen-Forty-Two. He was forty-two years old. After De Soto’s death, the natives attacked the soldiers he had brought with him and forced them off the land. The Indians saw no more Europeans in the part of the country for more than one-hundred – twenty years. VOICE TWO: In Sixteen-Eighty-Two, French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, reached the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the surrounding country for France. He named it Louisiana, after the King of France at that time, Louis the Fourteenth. La Salle failed to reach his goal of building forts and trading towns along the Mississippi from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, he was murdered by one of his soldiers. VOICE ONE: By the end of the Seventeenth Century, stories about Louisiana were spreading across France and other parts of Europe. Ships that were sailing to the new world were crowded with people. Many of them died of hunger and sickness. However French people kept coming. They began settling the Mississippi Valley. They established control along the river, from New Orleans to as far north as Illinois. In Seventeen-Eighty-One, Britain and the new United States of America signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War. The treaty gave the United States complete control of the land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. The Americans also gained the right to use the river. In Eighteen-Three, France sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. What became known as “The Louisiana Purchase” included more than two-million square kilometers. It was the largest land purchase in history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early Nineteenth Century, the steam engine was invented. Soon steamboats were moving goods and people on the Mississippi River. For about sixty years, steamboats were extremely important for trade in the Mississippi Valley and throughout most of the middle west. During this time, a boy living in a town next to the Mississippi fell in love with steamboats and the river. He grew up to become a captain on one of those boats. Then he began writing stories and books, using the name Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s most famous book is “Huckleberry Finn”. It tells the story of a boy who runs away with a slave and their adventures as they drift on a raft down the Mississippi. The American Civil War was fought between Eighteen-Sixty-One and Eighteen-Sixty-Five. During this time, nothing much was heard along the river but the sounds of war. After the war, trade along the river began again. VOICE ONE: The Mississippi has always had an important part in American history. Today, the river is still an important part of the American economy. Goods are carried up and down the river to get to other parts of the country and the world. Human activities on and along the Mississippi River have changed through history. But the great river just keeps flowing through the center of America. As the song “Old Man River” says: “It must know something. It don’t say nothing. It just keeps rolling along.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and directed by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell about one of the biggest rivers in the United States, the Mississippi. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Mississippi flows from near the northern border of the United States south into the Gulf of Mexico. The river flows for more than three thousand seven hundred kilometers through the center of the country. It is the one of the longest rivers in the world. Only four rivers in the world are longer. They are the Nile in Africa, the Amazon in South America, the Yangtze in China and the Missouri in the United States. The name, Mississippi, came from the Chippewa Indians who lived in what is now the north central part of the United States. Their name for the river was “maesi-sipu”. In the Chippewa language this meant “river of many fishes”. The word was not easy for European explorers to say. So they began calling it the Mississippi instead. Today, it is often called “Old Man River” Modern maps show that Little Elk Lake in the north central state of Minnesota is the true beginning of the Mississippi River. Little Elk Lake is only about four kilometers long. VOICE TWO: At its beginning, the Mississippi does not look like much of a river. But it grows as it starts moving slowly north before turning west and then south. What is called the Upper Mississippi ends in southern Illinois, near a city with an Egyptian name – Cairo. However, in this middle western state it is called Kay-ro. At Cairo, another large river, the Ohio River, joins the expanding Mississippi. It is easy to see how the Upper Mississippi has flowed through the land. It has cut its way through mountains of rock, pushing and pushing its waters slowly south. VOICE ONE: The Lower Mississippi begins south of Cairo. It is often higher than the land along it. The land is protected by man-made levees, which are walls of earth. These levees prevent the river from flooding. Some of these levees are higher and longer than the Great Wall of China. If you stand behind some of the levees you look up at the river and boats sailing on it. While the levees control the river, the land is safe. But when heavy rains fall on the hundreds of big and little rivers that flow into the Mississippi, the land is threatened. If the levees break, the river can spread its fingers across the land, flooding towns and villages and destroying crops growing in fields. VOICE TWO: There are hundreds of big and little islands throughout the Mississippi River. These islands are formed by dirt carried along by the flow of the powerful river. Every year, the river carries five-hundred-million tons of dirt. Islands can form quickly, sometimes between the time a ship sails down the river and returns. United States government engineers work hard to keep the river safe. They destroy islands built by the river to keep it clear for ships and trade. They also work to keep the levees strong so that the river does not break through them. Still, Old Man River does not like to be controlled. Every few years the Mississippi River changes its path or floods many thousands of hectares. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the state of Minnesota, the two cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul face each other across the river. The cities are on the northernmost point on the river that is deep enough for trade boats to sail. The cities today form an important center for business and agriculture. About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. The city is just a few kilometers south of where the huge Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French trader first established a business there in Seventeen-Sixty-Four. A few years later settlers named their new town after the Thirteenth Century French King, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christian saint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point for settlers traveling to the American west. VOICE TWO: The most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river’s southern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. French explorers first settled there, naming the town after the French city of Orleans (Or-lay-onh). From its earliest days, New Orleans was an important center for national and international trade. During the War of Eighteen-Twelve a great battle was fought there against British forces. Today, New Orleans continues to be an important center for business and international trade. But the city is probably most famous for its culture, music, and food. Many cultures unite in New Orleans. The large black population of the city provides strong influences from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. French culture also has been very important since the time the city and large areas of North America belonged to France. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Indians had lived in the Mississippi Valley for a very long time when Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived around Fifteen-Forty. De Soto was looking for gold and cities of gold. He thought the Mississippi was just another river to cross before he would reach those cities, which the Spanish called El Dorado. Instead of the cities, he found hostile Indians, hunger and sickness. De Soto died on the edge of the river in Fifteen-Forty-Two. He was forty-two years old. After De Soto’s death, the natives attacked the soldiers he had brought with him and forced them off the land. The Indians saw no more Europeans in the part of the country for more than one-hundred – twenty years. VOICE TWO: In Sixteen-Eighty-Two, French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, reached the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the surrounding country for France. He named it Louisiana, after the King of France at that time, Louis the Fourteenth. La Salle failed to reach his goal of building forts and trading towns along the Mississippi from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, he was murdered by one of his soldiers. VOICE ONE: By the end of the Seventeenth Century, stories about Louisiana were spreading across France and other parts of Europe. Ships that were sailing to the new world were crowded with people. Many of them died of hunger and sickness. However French people kept coming. They began settling the Mississippi Valley. They established control along the river, from New Orleans to as far north as Illinois. In Seventeen-Eighty-One, Britain and the new United States of America signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War. The treaty gave the United States complete control of the land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. The Americans also gained the right to use the river. In Eighteen-Three, France sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. What became known as “The Louisiana Purchase” included more than two-million square kilometers. It was the largest land purchase in history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early Nineteenth Century, the steam engine was invented. Soon steamboats were moving goods and people on the Mississippi River. For about sixty years, steamboats were extremely important for trade in the Mississippi Valley and throughout most of the middle west. During this time, a boy living in a town next to the Mississippi fell in love with steamboats and the river. He grew up to become a captain on one of those boats. Then he began writing stories and books, using the name Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s most famous book is “Huckleberry Finn”. It tells the story of a boy who runs away with a slave and their adventures as they drift on a raft down the Mississippi. The American Civil War was fought between Eighteen-Sixty-One and Eighteen-Sixty-Five. During this time, nothing much was heard along the river but the sounds of war. After the war, trade along the river began again. VOICE ONE: The Mississippi has always had an important part in American history. Today, the river is still an important part of the American economy. Goods are carried up and down the river to get to other parts of the country and the world. Human activities on and along the Mississippi River have changed through history. But the great river just keeps flowing through the center of America. As the song “Old Man River” says: “It must know something. It don’t say nothing. It just keeps rolling along.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and directed by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Cancer Survival Rates Up in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Health Report. The American Cancer Society says the United States is making progress against several of its deadliest and most common cancers. The group says death rates from colon, breast and prostate cancer continue to decrease. This is also true for lung cancer in men. Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death, but fewer Americans smoke these days. In women, the death rate from lung cancer has stayed about the same for the first time. This is good news after years of increase. Almost one-fourth of all deaths in the United States are from cancer. Cancer is the second leading cause of death after heart disease. Death rates for both diseases are falling. But researchers say the rate for heart disease is falling faster. As a result, an American Cancer Society report shows that cancer now kills more Americans under the age of eighty-five than any other cause. Some cancers can be prevented or treated, especially if found early. Cancer is the name for a group of diseases. All involve the uncontrolled growth and spread of cells that are not normal. Cell growth and division are controlled by genes. Some cancers are linked to family genetics. Pollution and chemicals can also raise a person's risk of cancer. The report shows that in recent years, cancer rates in the United States have dropped about one percent per year. Lung, colon, breast and prostate cancer make up more than half of all the cases. For men, prostate cancer is the most common. For women, it is breast cancer. Rates of both have continued to increase, but more slowly than in the past. Smoking causes about one-third of all cancer deaths. Poor diet and a lack of exercise are blamed for another third in the United States. The American Cancer Society says cancer deaths worldwide could increase nearly one hundred percent in the next twenty years. Yet most could be avoided. The report calls tobacco use "the number one cause of cancer and the number one cause of preventable death throughout the world." Hepatitis and other infections will cause an estimated seventeen percent of new cancers worldwide this year. Such cancers are especially common in developing countries, and many of these cases can also be prevented. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-25-5-1.cfm
* Headline: January 26, 2005 - Questions About Pronunciation and Style
* Byline: 

 First broadcast: January 26, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a couple of questions with help from English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. The first is from a listener who teaches physics at Hebei Normal University in China. Bill Zhao wants to know if all voiceless consonants should be pronounced as voiced consonants if they come right after the sound of "s." Voiced means the vocal chords vibrate. For example, in the word "sports," he hears people pronounce the "p" as a "b." Lida Baker has the explanation: LIDA BAKER: " It's not actually a 'b,' but it has certain characteristics of a 'b,' and I'll tell you why that is. "'S' is a voiceless sound and 'p' is a voiceless sound. The problem in a word like 'sport' is that the vowel after the 'p' is a voiced sound. All vowels are voiced sounds: oh, ah, ee, oo, right? So what happens when you have a voiceless sound like a 'p' next to a voiced sound like a vowel, to some people that 'p' is going to sound a little bit like a 'b.' And that's what Mr. Zhao is hearing. There's a little bit of crossover between the voiceless and the voiced sound because of the fact that they're neighbors in that word. "But if you look in any dictionary at the phonetic spelling of a word like sport or scout, that voiceless sound is written phonetically as a voiceless sound -- in other words, as a 'p' or a 't' or a 'k.' And dictionaries don't indicate that there is this kind of intermediate quality to the sound because native speakers don't hear that. O.K. The bottom line is, it is still a voiceless sound but it has qualities of a voiced sound because of the fact that the vowel comes after it. "Now there is one exception which I'm sure Mr. Zhao was also aware of, which is the case where you have what is written as a 't' occurring between two vowels in a word like pretty, p-r-e-t-t-y, which in British English is pronounced pri-tee. But in American English that 't' changes into a 'd' sound and we say ... " RS: "Pri-dee." LIDA BAKER: "That's right, and the reason for that is that you have this voiceless 't' sound between two vowels.' AA: "Wait, a voiceless 't' between two vowels, or is it -- " LIDA BAKER: "Well, don't think about the spelling. Think about the pronunciation: preh-tee. If I slow it down, I'm going to pronounce it as a 't.' But there's those two vowel sounds there -- eh, ee -- and the voiceless 'tuh' will change to a 'd' sound in American English because of the fact that the consonant is surrounded by two voiced sounds. "And the voiced sounds around it overwhelm, if you will, the voiceless quality of the consonant, and in this case it changes to a 'd.' But that's as far as I know only true in most dialects of North American English and it certainly isn't true in British English and in a lot of other varieties of English around the world." AA: The next question is from Atefeh in Iran. She's studying English literature at a university, and would like to know the difference between the abbreviation U.S.A. spelled with periods and U.S.A. spelled without periods. As Lida Baker explains, the only difference has to do with style. LIDA BAKER: "The meaning is the same, and whether you use the periods or not is something that your writing teacher is going to tell you that she prefers for you to write it this way or that way. Or if you're a professional writer and you're working for a newspaper or a magazine, generally different publications have their own style guidelines and they will tell you how they want you to write it. "I should point out for people who are in the university and writing papers that there are style manuals for different college fields. For example, there is the style manual of the American Psychological Association, the APA style manual ... Students who are majoring in psychology as well as other social sciences are required to follow the guidelines of that style manual when they write papers. In my writing classes, I don't care which way students do it, as long as they're consistent." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and writes textbooks for English learners. That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. First broadcast: January 26, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a couple of questions with help from English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. The first is from a listener who teaches physics at Hebei Normal University in China. Bill Zhao wants to know if all voiceless consonants should be pronounced as voiced consonants if they come right after the sound of "s." Voiced means the vocal chords vibrate. For example, in the word "sports," he hears people pronounce the "p" as a "b." Lida Baker has the explanation: LIDA BAKER: " It's not actually a 'b,' but it has certain characteristics of a 'b,' and I'll tell you why that is. "'S' is a voiceless sound and 'p' is a voiceless sound. The problem in a word like 'sport' is that the vowel after the 'p' is a voiced sound. All vowels are voiced sounds: oh, ah, ee, oo, right? So what happens when you have a voiceless sound like a 'p' next to a voiced sound like a vowel, to some people that 'p' is going to sound a little bit like a 'b.' And that's what Mr. Zhao is hearing. There's a little bit of crossover between the voiceless and the voiced sound because of the fact that they're neighbors in that word. "But if you look in any dictionary at the phonetic spelling of a word like sport or scout, that voiceless sound is written phonetically as a voiceless sound -- in other words, as a 'p' or a 't' or a 'k.' And dictionaries don't indicate that there is this kind of intermediate quality to the sound because native speakers don't hear that. O.K. The bottom line is, it is still a voiceless sound but it has qualities of a voiced sound because of the fact that the vowel comes after it. "Now there is one exception which I'm sure Mr. Zhao was also aware of, which is the case where you have what is written as a 't' occurring between two vowels in a word like pretty, p-r-e-t-t-y, which in British English is pronounced pri-tee. But in American English that 't' changes into a 'd' sound and we say ... " RS: "Pri-dee." LIDA BAKER: "That's right, and the reason for that is that you have this voiceless 't' sound between two vowels.' AA: "Wait, a voiceless 't' between two vowels, or is it -- " LIDA BAKER: "Well, don't think about the spelling. Think about the pronunciation: preh-tee. If I slow it down, I'm going to pronounce it as a 't.' But there's those two vowel sounds there -- eh, ee -- and the voiceless 'tuh' will change to a 'd' sound in American English because of the fact that the consonant is surrounded by two voiced sounds. "And the voiced sounds around it overwhelm, if you will, the voiceless quality of the consonant, and in this case it changes to a 'd.' But that's as far as I know only true in most dialects of North American English and it certainly isn't true in British English and in a lot of other varieties of English around the world." AA: The next question is from Atefeh in Iran. She's studying English literature at a university, and would like to know the difference between the abbreviation U.S.A. spelled with periods and U.S.A. spelled without periods. As Lida Baker explains, the only difference has to do with style. LIDA BAKER: "The meaning is the same, and whether you use the periods or not is something that your writing teacher is going to tell you that she prefers for you to write it this way or that way. Or if you're a professional writer and you're working for a newspaper or a magazine, generally different publications have their own style guidelines and they will tell you how they want you to write it. "I should point out for people who are in the university and writing papers that there are style manuals for different college fields. For example, there is the style manual of the American Psychological Association, the APA style manual ... Students who are majoring in psychology as well as other social sciences are required to follow the guidelines of that style manual when they write papers. In my writing classes, I don't care which way students do it, as long as they're consistent." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and writes textbooks for English learners. That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 4
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Hack boxes overlooking Harpers Ferry, WV Courtesy: Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In April, eighteen-sixty-one, the long dispute between America's north and south burst into civil war. Seven southern states had withdrawn or seceded from the Union. Southern soldiers of the New Confederate States of America shelled the United States fort in the Harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. After two days, they captured Fort Sumter. Abraham Lincoln VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In April, eighteen-sixty-one, the long dispute between America's north and south burst into civil war. Seven southern states had withdrawn or seceded from the Union. Southern soldiers of the New Confederate States of America shelled the United States fort in the Harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. After two days, they captured Fort Sumter. President Abraham Lincoln asked the states of the Union for seventy-five thousand soldiers to help end the southern rebellion. Northern states quickly formed military groups and sent them to Washington. But border states -- those between the north and south -- refused to send any. Some prepared to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I tell about the first days of America's Civil War. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first state to secede after the start of the Civil War was Virginia. It was an important state because of its location. It was just across the Potomac River from Washington. Virginia's decision to secede cost the Union a military commander of great ability. He was Robert E. Lee. Lee was a Virginian and had served in the United States army for more than thirty years. Lincoln asked him to be head of the army when General Winfield Scott retired. Lee said he could not accept the job. He said he opposed secession and loved the Union. But, he said, he could not make war on his home state. Lee resigned from the army. He did not really want to fight at all. But soon after his resignation, he agreed to command the forces of Virginia. VOICE ONE: Virginia's forces moved quickly after the state seceded. A group of one thousand soldiers went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia where the Union army had a gun factory and arsenal. It was the same town where Abolitionist John Brown had tried to start a slave rebellion a few years before. The United States force at Harpers Ferry was small. The soldiers could not defend the town against the Virginians, so they left. Before marching away, the soldiers set fire to the gun factory and arsenal. The fire did not destroy all the equipment at the gun factory. When the Virginians captured the town, they sent the equipment south, where it was used to make guns for Confederate soldiers. VOICE TWO: Virginia's forces also moved against the United States' biggest navy base, which was at Norfolk, Virginia. Once again, the Union force withdrew. Before leaving, it burned every building and sank every ship. President Lincoln was becoming increasingly worried about Virginia's military moves. He was afraid confederate forces in Virginia might try to capture Washington in the first days of the war. After all, the Confederate Secretary of War had declared that the Confederate flag would fly over the Capitol building before the first of May. Washington was not strongly defended. It did not have enough soldiers to stop any real attempt by Confederate forces to seize the city. It was extremely important to get more soldiers to Washington as quickly as possible. VOICE ONE: Thousands of men were on their way to Washington. But they could not get there quickly. Troop trains had to pass through the state of Maryland to get to Washington from the north. Many people in the state supported the Confederacy. The governor, however, did not. He refused to call a meeting of the state legislature. He was afraid it might vote to secede. He wanted to keep Maryland neutral. The first troop train from the north passed through Baltimore, Maryland, without incident. The second train was not so lucky. A mob blocked the rail line and threw stones at the train. Shots were fired. Four soldiers and twelve civilians were killed. State and city officials met to discuss the trouble. They agreed that there would be even more violence in the future. So they ordered railroad bridges outside Baltimore destroyed. No more trains from the north could reach Washington that way. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln told the officials of the great need to get more soldiers to the capital. He agreed that they did not have to pass through Baltimore. But he wanted them to be able to land safely at Annapolis, a city on the Chesapeake Bay. Landing at Annapolis would be easy. Getting to the capital would not. Supporters of the Confederacy had damaged trains, rail lines and bridges between the two cities. The first soldiers to land at Annapolis had to repair everything as they moved ahead. Still, with all these difficulties, ten-thousand troops made it to Washington in the first few weeks of the Civil War. The city and government were safe. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln worried about the presence of Confederate supporters in Maryland. He knew they would continue to be a threat to the movement of Union troops and supplies. Lincoln wanted to restrict the activities of the Confederate supporters. So he took an extremely unusual step for an American president. He put much of Maryland under military rule. He gave military officers the power to arrest civilians believed to be hostile to the Union. And he gave them the power to hold these suspects without trial. This order suspended two of the basic rights under the Constitution. One was the right to go free until officially charged. And the other was the right to a speedy trial. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote a letter to President Lincoln. He said the Constitution did not give the president the power to suspend the rights of citizens. Lincoln disagreed. He felt the situation facing the Union permitted him to take such strong measures. If he had not acted, he believed, Maryland would have seceded. VOICE TWO: Maryland did not withdraw. But North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas did. There were now eleven states in the Confederacy. There could be two more. No one knew how long Kentucky and Missouri would remain in the Union. Both supported the southern rebels. President Lincoln treated Kentucky carefully. He did not want the state to secede. Nor did he want it to remain neutral. Kentucky reached from the mountains of Virginia to the Mississippi River. As a neutral state, Kentucky could block northern troops from much of the south. Lincoln wanted it firmly on the side of the Union. The president did not use force in Kentucky, as he had done in Maryland. Instead, he sent people to Kentucky to organize support for the Union. Newspapers were urged to publish pro-union statements. Home guard forces were formed. They received their weapons and supplies from Lincoln's administration. Lincoln hoped that, in time, these efforts would win Kentucky's support for his war effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Missouri, the governor tried hard to take the state out of the Union. He called a convention to decide the question. A majority of the delegates refused to vote for secession. The governor organized state soldiers. The Lincoln administration organized home guard forces. The two sides clashed several times. Some civilians were killed. The United States army finally seized government buildings in the state capital. They forced state officials, including the governor, to flee. Missouri would remain in the Union. VOICE TWO: The capital of the Confederate states of America was located far south in Montgomery, Alabama. Within the first few weeks of the Civil War, the Confederate Congress voted to move the capital farther north to Richmond, Virginia. They believed Virginia would be an important battlefield in the war. They were right. Two days before Confederate President Jefferson Davis left for Richmond, Union troops invaded Virginia. They left Washington, crossed the Potomac River, and seized the towns of Arlington and Alexandria. No shots were fired. Confederate forces withdrew as Union troops moved forward. Within a month, thousands more Union soldiers were in Virginia. They were to prepare for a major battle at a place called Manassas Junction...or Bull Run. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. President Abraham Lincoln asked the states of the Union for seventy-five thousand soldiers to help end the southern rebellion. Northern states quickly formed military groups and sent them to Washington. But border states -- those between the north and south -- refused to send any. Some prepared to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I tell about the first days of America's Civil War. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first state to secede after the start of the Civil War was Virginia. It was an important state because of its location. It was just across the Potomac River from Washington. Virginia's decision to secede cost the Union a military commander of great ability. He was Robert E. Lee. Lee was a Virginian and had served in the United States army for more than thirty years. Lincoln asked him to be head of the army when General Winfield Scott retired. Lee said he could not accept the job. He said he opposed secession and loved the Union. But, he said, he could not make war on his home state. Lee resigned from the army. He did not really want to fight at all. But soon after his resignation, he agreed to command the forces of Virginia. VOICE ONE: Virginia's forces moved quickly after the state seceded. A group of one thousand soldiers went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia where the Union army had a gun factory and arsenal. It was the same town where Abolitionist John Brown had tried to start a slave rebellion a few years before. The United States force at Harpers Ferry was small. The soldiers could not defend the town against the Virginians, so they left. Before marching away, the soldiers set fire to the gun factory and arsenal. The fire did not destroy all the equipment at the gun factory. When the Virginians captured the town, they sent the equipment south, where it was used to make guns for Confederate soldiers. VOICE TWO: Virginia's forces also moved against the United States' biggest navy base, which was at Norfolk, Virginia. Once again, the Union force withdrew. Before leaving, it burned every building and sank every ship. President Lincoln was becoming increasingly worried about Virginia's military moves. He was afraid confederate forces in Virginia might try to capture Washington in the first days of the war. After all, the Confederate Secretary of War had declared that the Confederate flag would fly over the Capitol building before the first of May. Washington was not strongly defended. It did not have enough soldiers to stop any real attempt by Confederate forces to seize the city. It was extremely important to get more soldiers to Washington as quickly as possible. VOICE ONE: Thousands of men were on their way to Washington. But they could not get there quickly. Troop trains had to pass through the state of Maryland to get to Washington from the north. Many people in the state supported the Confederacy. The governor, however, did not. He refused to call a meeting of the state legislature. He was afraid it might vote to secede. He wanted to keep Maryland neutral. The first troop train from the north passed through Baltimore, Maryland, without incident. The second train was not so lucky. A mob blocked the rail line and threw stones at the train. Shots were fired. Four soldiers and twelve civilians were killed. State and city officials met to discuss the trouble. They agreed that there would be even more violence in the future. So they ordered railroad bridges outside Baltimore destroyed. No more trains from the north could reach Washington that way. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln told the officials of the great need to get more soldiers to the capital. He agreed that they did not have to pass through Baltimore. But he wanted them to be able to land safely at Annapolis, a city on the Chesapeake Bay. Landing at Annapolis would be easy. Getting to the capital would not. Supporters of the Confederacy had damaged trains, rail lines and bridges between the two cities. The first soldiers to land at Annapolis had to repair everything as they moved ahead. Still, with all these difficulties, ten-thousand troops made it to Washington in the first few weeks of the Civil War. The city and government were safe. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln worried about the presence of Confederate supporters in Maryland. He knew they would continue to be a threat to the movement of Union troops and supplies. Lincoln wanted to restrict the activities of the Confederate supporters. So he took an extremely unusual step for an American president. He put much of Maryland under military rule. He gave military officers the power to arrest civilians believed to be hostile to the Union. And he gave them the power to hold these suspects without trial. This order suspended two of the basic rights under the Constitution. One was the right to go free until officially charged. And the other was the right to a speedy trial. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote a letter to President Lincoln. He said the Constitution did not give the president the power to suspend the rights of citizens. Lincoln disagreed. He felt the situation facing the Union permitted him to take such strong measures. If he had not acted, he believed, Maryland would have seceded. VOICE TWO: Maryland did not withdraw. But North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas did. There were now eleven states in the Confederacy. There could be two more. No one knew how long Kentucky and Missouri would remain in the Union. Both supported the southern rebels. President Lincoln treated Kentucky carefully. He did not want the state to secede. Nor did he want it to remain neutral. Kentucky reached from the mountains of Virginia to the Mississippi River. As a neutral state, Kentucky could block northern troops from much of the south. Lincoln wanted it firmly on the side of the Union. The president did not use force in Kentucky, as he had done in Maryland. Instead, he sent people to Kentucky to organize support for the Union. Newspapers were urged to publish pro-union statements. Home guard forces were formed. They received their weapons and supplies from Lincoln's administration. Lincoln hoped that, in time, these efforts would win Kentucky's support for his war effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Missouri, the governor tried hard to take the state out of the Union. He called a convention to decide the question. A majority of the delegates refused to vote for secession. The governor organized state soldiers. The Lincoln administration organized home guard forces. The two sides clashed several times. Some civilians were killed. The United States army finally seized government buildings in the state capital. They forced state officials, including the governor, to flee. Missouri would remain in the Union. VOICE TWO: The capital of the Confederate states of America was located far south in Montgomery, Alabama. Within the first few weeks of the Civil War, the Confederate Congress voted to move the capital farther north to Richmond, Virginia. They believed Virginia would be an important battlefield in the war. They were right. Two days before Confederate President Jefferson Davis left for Richmond, Union troops invaded Virginia. They left Washington, crossed the Potomac River, and seized the towns of Arlington and Alexandria. No shots were fired. Confederate forces withdrew as Union troops moved forward. Within a month, thousands more Union soldiers were in Virginia. They were to prepare for a major battle at a place called Manassas Junction...or Bull Run. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/2005-01-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln The Legend
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In April, eighteen-sixty-one, the long dispute between America's north and south burst into civil war. Seven southern states had withdrawn or seceded from the Union. Southern soldiers of the New Confederate States of America shelled the United States fort in the Harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. After two days, they captured Fort Sumter. President Abraham Lincoln asked the states of the Union for seventy-five thousand soldiers to help end the southern rebellion. Northern states quickly formed military groups and sent them to Washington. But border states -- those between the north and south -- refused to send any. Some prepared to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I tell about the first days of America's Civil War. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first state to secede after the start of the Civil War was Virginia. It was an important state because of its location. It was just across the Potomac River from Washington. Robert E. Lee Virginia's decision to secede cost the Union a military commander of great ability. He was Robert E. Lee. Lee was a Virginian and had served in the United States army for more than thirty years. Lincoln asked him to be head of the army when General Winfield Scott retired. Lee said he could not accept the job. He said he opposed secession and loved the Union. But, he said, he could not make war on his home state. Lee resigned from the army. He did not really want to fight at all. But soon after his resignation, he agreed to command the forces of Virginia. VOICE ONE: Virginia's forces moved quickly after the state seceded. A group of one thousand soldiers went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia where the Union army had a gun factory and arsenal. It was the same town where Abolitionist John Brown had tried to start a slave rebellion a few years before. Hack boxes overlooking Harpers Ferry, WV Courtesy: Harpers Ferry National Historical Park The United States force at Harpers Ferry was small. The soldiers could not defend the town against the Virginians, so they left. Before marching away, the soldiers set fire to the gun factory and arsenal. The fire did not destroy all the equipment at the gun factory. When the Virginians captured the town, they sent the equipment south, where it was used to make guns for Confederate soldiers. VOICE TWO: Virginia's forces also moved against the United States' biggest navy base, which was at Norfolk, Virginia. Once again, the Union force withdrew. Before leaving, it burned every building and sank every ship. President Lincoln was becoming increasingly worried about Virginia's military moves. He was afraid confederate forces in Virginia might try to capture Washington in the first days of the war. After all, the Confederate Secretary of War had declared that the Confederate flag would fly over the Capitol building before the first of May. Washington was not strongly defended. It did not have enough soldiers to stop any real attempt by Confederate forces to seize the city. It was extremely important to get more soldiers to Washington as quickly as possible. VOICE ONE: Thousands of men were on their way to Washington. But they could not get there quickly. Troop trains had to pass through the state of Maryland to get to Washington from the north. Many people in the state supported the Confederacy. The governor, however, did not. He refused to call a meeting of the state legislature. He was afraid it might vote to secede. He wanted to keep Maryland neutral. The first troop train from the north passed through Baltimore, Maryland, without incident. The second train was not so lucky. A mob blocked the rail line and threw stones at the train. Shots were fired. Four soldiers and twelve civilians were killed. State and city officials met to discuss the trouble. They agreed that there would be even more violence in the future. So they ordered railroad bridges outside Baltimore destroyed. No more trains from the north could reach Washington that way. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln President Lincoln told the officials of the great need to get more soldiers to the capital. He agreed that they did not have to pass through Baltimore. But he wanted them to be able to land safely at Annapolis, a city on the Chesapeake Bay. Landing at Annapolis would be easy. Getting to the capital would not. Supporters of the Confederacy had damaged trains, rail lines and bridges between the two cities. The first soldiers to land at Annapolis had to repair everything as they moved ahead. Still, with all these difficulties, ten-thousand troops made it to Washington in the first few weeks of the Civil War. The city and government were safe. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln worried about the presence of Confederate supporters in Maryland. He knew they would continue to be a threat to the movement of Union troops and supplies. Lincoln wanted to restrict the activities of the Confederate supporters. So he took an extremely unusual step for an American president. He put much of Maryland under military rule. He gave military officers the power to arrest civilians believed to be hostile to the Union. And he gave them the power to hold these suspects without trial. This order suspended two of the basic rights under the Constitution. One was the right to go free until officially charged. And the other was the right to a speedy trial. The Chief Justice of the United States wrote a letter to President Lincoln. He said the Constitution did not give the president the power to suspend the rights of citizens. Lincoln disagreed. He felt the situation facing the Union permitted him to take such strong measures. If he had not acted, he believed, Maryland would have seceded. VOICE TWO: Maryland did not withdraw. But North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas did. There were now eleven states in the Confederacy. There could be two more. No one knew how long Kentucky and Missouri would remain in the Union. Both supported the southern rebels. President Lincoln treated Kentucky carefully. He did not want the state to secede. Nor did he want it to remain neutral. Kentucky reached from the mountains of Virginia to the Mississippi River. As a neutral state, Kentucky could block northern troops from much of the south. Lincoln wanted it firmly on the side of the Union. The president did not use force in Kentucky, as he had done in Maryland. Instead, he sent people to Kentucky to organize support for the Union. Newspapers were urged to publish pro-union statements. Home guard forces were formed. They received their weapons and supplies from Lincoln's administration. Lincoln hoped that, in time, these efforts would win Kentucky's support for his war effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Missouri, the governor tried hard to take the state out of the Union. He called a convention to decide the question. A majority of the delegates refused to vote for secession. The governor organized state soldiers. The Lincoln administration organized home guard forces. The two sides clashed several times. Some civilians were killed. The United States army finally seized government buildings in the state capital. They forced state officials, including the governor, to flee. Missouri would remain in the Union. VOICE TWO: The capital of the Confederate states of America was located far south in Montgomery, Alabama. Within the first few weeks of the Civil War, the Confederate Congress voted to move the capital farther north to Richmond, Virginia. They believed Virginia would be an important battlefield in the war. They were right. Two days before Confederate President Jefferson Davis left for Richmond, Union troops invaded Virginia. They left Washington, crossed the Potomac River, and seized the towns of Arlington and Alexandria. No shots were fired. Confederate forces withdrew as Union troops moved forward. Within a month, thousands more Union soldiers were in Virginia. They were to prepare for a major battle at a place called Manassas Junction...or Bull Run. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/2005-01-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series #22: MBA Programs in the U.S.
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series with a report this week about M.B.A. programs in the United States. An M.B.A. is a master's degree in business administration. Students learn to deal with all kinds of business situations. They develop skills needed by many different industries. M.B.A. programs teach about economics. They also teach about the structure of organizations, and about other subjects including finance and marketing. Students do more study in areas that interest them. It usually takes two years to get an M.B.A. if you attend school full time. People who have jobs might choose a part-time program that takes longer. There are also executive M.B.A. programs which might be completed in as little as eighteen months. Classes generally meet on weekends. Business is one of the most popular areas of study for students who come to the United States. To be admitted to an M.B.A. program, foreign students must have a bachelor’s degree. They must show a clear understanding of English by doing well on the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Most students also take the Graduate Management Admission Test. Most of the one thousand five hundred M.B.A. programs around the world use these test scores. The Graduate Management Admission Council has some advice for foreign students. It says they should investigate in detail what different schools could do to help them find a job. For example, ask how many companies that come to the school are willing to hire international students. Also ask if summer internships are possible. The council says even the best schools may have a lower average of job placement for international graduates than for others. One example of a school that offers a part-time M.B.A. program is the University of Maryland University College. Students have a choice. They can do all the work over the Internet. Or they can work online and also attend traditional classes. The Web site for more information is umuc.edu. Information about other M.B.A. programs can be found from the Graduate Management Admission Council at mba.com. And you can find all the reports so far in our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/2005-01-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Along the Mississippi River
* Byline: Written by Oliver Chanler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell about one of the biggest rivers in the United States, the Mississippi. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Mississippi River.(Picture - NPS) The Mississippi flows from near the northern border of the United States south into the Gulf of Mexico. The river flows for more than three thousand seven hundred kilometers through the center of the country. It is the one of the longest rivers in the world. Only four rivers in the world are longer. They are the Nile in Africa, the Amazon in South America, the Yangtze in China and the Missouri in the United States. The name, Mississippi, came from the Chippewa Indians who lived in what is now the north central part of the United States. Their name for the river was “maesi-sipu”. In the Chippewa language this meant “river of many fishes”. The word was not easy for European explorers to say. So they began calling it the Mississippi instead. Today, it is often called “Old Man River” Modern maps show that Little Elk Lake in the north central state of Minnesota is the true beginning of the Mississippi River. Little Elk Lake is only about four kilometers long. VOICE TWO: At its beginning, the Mississippi does not look like much of a river. But it grows as it starts moving slowly north before turning west and then south. What is called the Upper Mississippi ends in southern Illinois, near a city with an Egyptian name – Cairo. However, in this middle western state it is called Kay-ro. At Cairo, another large river, the Ohio River, joins the expanding Mississippi. It is easy to see how the Upper Mississippi has flowed through the land. It has cut its way through mountains of rock, pushing and pushing its waters slowly south. VOICE ONE: The Lower Mississippi begins south of Cairo. It is often higher than the land along it. The land is protected by man-made levees, which are walls of earth. These levees prevent the river from flooding. Some of these levees are higher and longer than the Great Wall of China. If you stand behind some of the levees you look up at the river and boats sailing on it. While the levees control the river, the land is safe. But when heavy rains fall on the hundreds of big and little rivers that flow into the Mississippi, the land is threatened. If the levees break, the river can spread its fingers across the land, flooding towns and villages and destroying crops growing in fields. VOICE TWO: There are hundreds of big and little islands throughout the Mississippi River. These islands are formed by dirt carried along by the flow of the powerful river. Every year, the river carries five-hundred-million tons of dirt. Islands can form quickly, sometimes between the time a ship sails down the river and returns. United States government engineers work hard to keep the river safe. They destroy islands built by the river to keep it clear for ships and trade. They also work to keep the levees strong so that the river does not break through them. Still, Old Man River does not like to be controlled. Every few years the Mississippi River changes its path or floods many thousands of hectares. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the state of Minnesota, the two cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul face each other across the river. The cities are on the northernmost point on the river that is deep enough for trade boats to sail. The cities today form an important center for business and agriculture. About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. The city is just a few kilometers south of where the huge Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French trader first established a business there in Seventeen-Sixty-Four. A few years later settlers named their new town after the Thirteenth Century French King, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christian saint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point for settlers traveling to the American west. VOICE TWO: The most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river’s southern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. French explorers first settled there, naming the town after the French city of Orleans (Or-lay-onh). From its earliest days, New Orleans was an important center for national and international trade. During the War of Eighteen-Twelve a great battle was fought there against British forces. The Mississippi is used for transportation and business. Today, New Orleans continues to be an important center for business and international trade. But the city is probably most famous for its culture, music, and food. Many cultures unite in New Orleans. The large black population of the city provides strong influences from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. French culture also has been very important since the time the city and large areas of North America belonged to France. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Indians had lived in the Mississippi Valley for a very long time when Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto arrived around Fifteen-Forty. De Soto was looking for gold and cities of gold. He thought the Mississippi was just another river to cross before he would reach those cities, which the Spanish called El Dorado. Instead of the cities, he found hostile Indians, hunger and sickness. De Soto died on the edge of the river in Fifteen-Forty-Two. He was forty-two years old. After De Soto’s death, the natives attacked the soldiers he had brought with him and forced them off the land. The Indians saw no more Europeans in the part of the country for more than one-hundred – twenty years. VOICE TWO: In Sixteen-Eighty-Two, French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, reached the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the surrounding country for France. He named it Louisiana, after the King of France at that time, Louis the Fourteenth. La Salle failed to reach his goal of building forts and trading towns along the Mississippi from Canada south to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, he was murdered by one of his soldiers. VOICE ONE: By the end of the Seventeenth Century, stories about Louisiana were spreading across France and other parts of Europe. Ships that were sailing to the new world were crowded with people. Many of them died of hunger and sickness. However French people kept coming. They began settling the Mississippi Valley. They established control along the river, from New Orleans to as far north as Illinois. In Seventeen-Eighty-One, Britain and the new United States of America signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War. The treaty gave the United States complete control of the land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. The Americans also gained the right to use the river. In Eighteen-Three, France sold the territory of Louisiana to the United States. What became known as “The Louisiana Purchase” included more than two-million square kilometers. It was the largest land purchase in history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early Nineteenth Century, the steam engine was invented. Soon steamboats were moving goods and people on the Mississippi River. For about sixty years, steamboats were extremely important for trade in the Mississippi Valley and throughout most of the middle west. During this time, a boy living in a town next to the Mississippi fell in love with steamboats and the river. He grew up to become a captain on one of those boats. Then he began writing stories and books, using the name Mark Twain. Mark Twain’s most famous book is “Huckleberry Finn”. It tells the story of a boy who runs away with a slave and their adventures as they drift on a raft down the Mississippi. The American Civil War was fought between Eighteen-Sixty-One and Eighteen-Sixty-Five. During this time, nothing much was heard along the river but the sounds of war. After the war, trade along the river began again. VOICE ONE: The Mississippi has always had an important part in American history. Today, the river is still an important part of the American economy. Goods are carried up and down the river to get to other parts of the country and the world. Human activities on and along the Mississippi River have changed through history. But the great river just keeps flowing through the center of America. As the song “Old Man River” says: “It must know something. It don’t say nothing. It just keeps rolling along.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and directed by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/2005-01-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Cancer Survival Rates Up in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Health Report. The American Cancer Society says the United States is making progress against several of its deadliest and most common cancers. The group says death rates from colon, breast and prostate cancer continue to decrease. This is also true for lung cancer in men. Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death, but fewer Americans smoke these days. In women, the death rate from lung cancer has stayed about the same for the first time. This is good news after years of increase. Almost one-fourth of all deaths in the United States are from cancer. Cancer is the second leading cause of death after heart disease. Death rates for both diseases are falling. But researchers say the rate for heart disease is falling faster. As a result, an American Cancer Society report shows that cancer now kills more Americans under the age of eighty-five than any other cause. Some cancers can be prevented or treated, especially if found early. Cancer is the name for a group of diseases. All involve the uncontrolled growth and spread of cells that are not normal. Cell growth and division are controlled by genes. Some cancers are linked to family genetics. Pollution and chemicals can also raise a person's risk of cancer. The report shows that in recent years, cancer rates in the United States have dropped about one percent per year. Lung, colon, breast and prostate cancer make up more than half of all the cases. For men, prostate cancer is the most common. For women, it is breast cancer. Rates of both have continued to increase, but more slowly than in the past. Smoking causes about one-third of all cancer deaths. Poor diet and a lack of exercise are blamed for another third in the United States. The American Cancer Society says cancer deaths worldwide could increase nearly one hundred percent in the next twenty years. Yet most could be avoided. The report calls tobacco use "the number one cause of cancer and the number one cause of preventable death throughout the world." Hepatitis and other infections will cause an estimated seventeen percent of new cancers worldwide this year. Such cancers are especially common in developing countries, and many of these cases can also be prevented. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/2005-01-28-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Diseases Spread by Mosquitos
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about diseases spread by mosquitoes -- the most widely hated insects in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mosquitoes are very small insects. There are more than two thousand different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its long thin sucking tube to break the skin and find blood. The insect injects the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing. The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce eggs. One meal gives her enough blood to produce as many as two hundred fifty eggs. The mosquito lays them in any standing water. VOICE TWO: The eggs produce worm-like creatures in two days to a few months. However, some eggs can stay in water for years until conditions are right for development. The worm-like creatures feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas. The pupas rise to the surface of the water. Adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says mosquitoes cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. That is because mosquitoes can carry organisms that cause disease. However, the disease does not affect mosquitoes. AP Two tsunami survivors cover their mouths as a South Korean worker treats a refugee camp in Aceh Besar, Indonesia, with chemicals against mosquitoes on January 22. W.H.O. officials expressed concern about the possible spread of disease after the major earthquake in the Indian Ocean last month. The earthquake produced huge waves that killed thousands of people. The waves destroyed many villages and left floodwaters in coastal areas. The officials have warned that the floodwaters could increase the risk of diseases spread by mosquitoes. VOICE TWO: The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria. More than three hundred million people become infected with malaria each year. At least one million die from it every year. The disease is found in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Malaria parasites enter a person’s blood through a mosquito bite. These organisms travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause the person’s body temperature to rise. They also may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or loss of red blood cells. VOICE ONE: Some drugs are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. The most commonly used malaria prevention drugs are chloroquine, mefloquine and doxycycline. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed. Health officials are increasing efforts to reduce the number of deaths from malaria. VOICE TWO: Dengue fever is another disease that is carried by mosquitoes. The insects can survive in new and different environments. They can spread diseases to new areas. For example, experts say only nine countries had dengue fever before Nineteen-Seventy. Since then, the disease has spread to more than one hundred countries around the world. The World Health Organization says about fifty million people suffer from dengue fever each year. There is no cure. Children may develop a kind of the disease that is not serious. They may have a high body temperature and some areas of skin may turn red. VOICE ONE: Older people suffer from dengue fever much more. They may develop reddish skin and lose their sense of taste. They also may have terrible pain in the head or behind their eyes. And they may experience pain in joints such as the elbow or knee. This kind of joint pain is the reason why dengue fever is sometimes known as breakbone fever. The most severe kind of the disease is called dengue hemorrhagic fever. People who have this disease bleed from the nose or other openings in the body. Dengue hemorrhagic fever kills about five percent of all people it infects. The only treatment involves controlling the bleeding and replacing lost body fluids. VOICE TWO: Yellow fever is another disease carried by mosquitoes. There are no effective drugs against yellow fever. Doctors can only hope that a person’s defense system is strong enough to fight the disease. The World Health Organization says there are an estimated two hundred thousand cases of yellow fever each year. It is found mainly in Africa, northern South America and the islands of the Caribbean Sea. A virus causes yellow fever. A few days after a mosquito bite, the victim experiences high body temperature and pain in the head or muscles. Victims also may expel food they ate. Most patients improve after three to four days. VOICE ONE: However, fifteen percent of patients develop a more serious condition. High body temperatures re-appear and the body turns yellow in color. The victim bleeds from the nose, mouth, eyes or stomach. Half the people with this condition die within ten to fourteen days. A vaccine can prevent yellow fever. The vaccine strengthens the body’s defense system against the disease. Medical experts say the vaccine is safe and very effective. The protection continues for at least ten years and possibly for life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mosquitoes also carry lymphatic filariasis, a disease commonly known as elephantiasis. The disease has already affected more than one hundred twenty million people. One third of those infected live in India. Another one third are in Africa. The others live in South Asia, the Pacific Ocean, or the western half of the world. Mosquito bites spread the worms that cause elephantiasis. People usually begin to develop the disease as children. Many children never experience signs of the disease. But it may cause hidden damage to the body’s lymphatic system and kidneys. The worst signs of elephantiasis appear in adults. The signs are more common in men than in women. These include damage to the arms, legs, and reproductive organs. Two drugs are effective in treating the disease. Experts say that keeping the affected areas clean can decrease the damage and reduce the number of times that it takes place. VOICE ONE: Still another disease carried by mosquitoes is encephalitis. It causes an infection or swelling of the brain. Many different viruses cause different kinds of the disease. One virus lives naturally in birds and horses. Mosquitoes spread it to people. Mosquitoes in several Asian countries spread a kind of encephalitis known as Japanese encephalitis. A vaccine can prevent this sickness. Other kinds include West Nile encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis and Eastern Equine encephalitis. Most healthy people infected with the virus show no signs. Or they become sick for only a day or two. But those with weak natural defenses may develop a severe infection. They may suffer from high body temperature, headache, shaking and even death. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts have learned many things about mosquitoes. For example, the insects can smell carbon dioxide in the breath of a person or animal from as far away as sixty meters. Mosquitoes often like the blood of animals better than the blood of people. Mosquitoes like dark colors. They do not bite women who are bleeding during their fertility period. But they do bite pregnant women. Many kinds of mosquitoes are most active in the early morning and early at night. They eat mostly at night. VOICE ONE: Experts say the best way to prevent the diseases carried by mosquitoes is not to be bitten by one. There are several ways to prevent mosquito bites. Do not keep standing water anywhere near your home. Remove all containers that could provide a place for mosquitoes to live. Stay in an enclosed area when mosquitoes are most active. Wear clothes that cover most of the body. Other ways to prevent mosquito bites are to put anti-insect chemicals on the skin, clothing and sleeping areas. Also, place special nets treated with insect poison on windows and over the bed at night. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. The engineer was Eva Nenicka. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: 'Freshman 15' Defined / Ray Charles' Last Album / Black History Month
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: The Grammy-nominated music of Ray Charles and some friends … A question about a weighty part of college life ... And a look at the upcoming observance of Black History Month. Black History Month Black History Month begins Tuesday in the United States. The idea for this yearly observance dates back to the work of an African American historian, Carter Woodson. Faith Lapidus has our story. FAITH LAPIDUS: Carter Woodson was born in Virginia in eighteen seventy-five. He was the son of former slaves. As a young man, Mister Woodson worked as a coal miner. Later, he studied at Harvard University and received a doctorate degree. Carter Woodson became an educator. He saw that not much was written about the involvement of black people in American history. And what was written was not always correct. So, in nineteen-fifteen Mister Woodson formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The goal was to organize and support research into black history. In nineteen twenty-six, one week in February was chosen to observe what was then called Negro History Week. In nineteen seventy-six, it became Black History Month. This year, Black History Month honors the Niagara Movement. That movement was formed in nineteen oh five by another educator and Harvard graduate, W.E.B. DuBois. The Niagara Movement rejected the ideas of Booker T. Washington, a leading black thinker of the time. He did not think black people should protest unfair treatment by the white majority. He thought they should accept it for a time. Booker T. Washington urged African Americans to try to improve their place in society through hard work. The Niagara Movement of W.E.B. DuBois called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. The Niagara Movement lasted only five years. But, it led to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The N-double-A-C-P is still active today in the fight to end racism and improve conditions for people of color in America. Freshman Fifteen DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Fumio Nishimoto teaches English at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. His students have heard about the “freshman fifteen.” They want to know what it means. It means fifteen pounds, or about seven kilograms. This is how much weight students might expect to gain in their first year of college. People used to talk about the “freshman ten.” Before that, it was the “freshman five.” Are freshman more inflated, or just the expression? The fact is, many young men and women do put on extra weight when they start college. Some schools have done research on the issue. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has found that freshmen gain an average of four pounds during their first twelve weeks. That is almost two kilograms. If weight gain continues at this rate, how long before they put on fifteen pounds? Let’s see [scribbling sounds] ... that's one pound every three weeks, times fifteen, equals ... The answer is forty-five weeks, or almost a year. The next question is, why do so many freshmen gain weight? The answers listed by experts are not so surprising. One is poor diet. College students often eat foods high in fat and sugar and starch. After all, there are no parents around to say no to junk food. Students may also miss meals. They could be in class or studying or just … busy. In any case, those who miss meals are more likely to overeat when they do have food. Also, freshmen often use food to put their mind at ease. They have college pressures to deal with. Not only that, many are living away from home for the first time. Another reason college students gain weight is that they often do not get enough exercise. Finally, there is something else that can add up to the "freshman five" or ten or fifteen. That is alcohol. Alcohol is high in calories. This is especially true of beer. And, no, freshmen are not supposed to be drinking. Not unless they are twenty-one, the legal drinking age in America. For many college students, the extra weight they put on in their freshman year can be as hard to escape as term papers and final exams. Genius Loves Company The American music industry will present its Grammy Awards on February thirteenth in Los Angeles, California. An album by Ray Charles has been nominated for ten Grammy Awards. Jim Tedder tells us about it. JIM TEDDER: The famous singer and musician Ray Charles died in June. "Genius Loves Company" is the last album he recorded. He performed songs with Natalie Cole, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and other famous artists. "Genius Loves Company" is nominated for Best Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and eight other Grammy Awards. This song, "Here We Go Again," is nominated for Record of the Year. Ray Charles sings it with Norah Jones. (MUSIC) "Genius Loves Company" was released in August. It has sold more than two million copies in the United States alone. This is more than any other record Ray Charles made during his sixty years of recording music. Another song on the album, "Heaven Help Us All," was nominated for Best Gospel Performance. Here are Ray Charles and Gladys Knight. (MUSIC) Ray Charles made two hundred fifty recordings. He received twelve Grammy Awards and many other honors. A popular new movie about his life, called "Ray," opened in October. Critics highly praised the movie. We leave you now with another Grammy-nominated song from "Genius Loves Company." It is "Sinner’s Prayer" with Ray Charles and B.B. King. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: The Grammy-nominated music of Ray Charles and some friends … A question about a weighty part of college life ... And a look at the upcoming observance of Black History Month. Black History Month Black History Month begins Tuesday in the United States. The idea for this yearly observance dates back to the work of an African American historian, Carter Woodson. Faith Lapidus has our story. FAITH LAPIDUS: Carter Woodson was born in Virginia in eighteen seventy-five. He was the son of former slaves. As a young man, Mister Woodson worked as a coal miner. Later, he studied at Harvard University and received a doctorate degree. Carter Woodson became an educator. He saw that not much was written about the involvement of black people in American history. And what was written was not always correct. So, in nineteen-fifteen Mister Woodson formed the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. The goal was to organize and support research into black history. In nineteen twenty-six, one week in February was chosen to observe what was then called Negro History Week. In nineteen seventy-six, it became Black History Month. This year, Black History Month honors the Niagara Movement. That movement was formed in nineteen oh five by another educator and Harvard graduate, W.E.B. DuBois. The Niagara Movement rejected the ideas of Booker T. Washington, a leading black thinker of the time. He did not think black people should protest unfair treatment by the white majority. He thought they should accept it for a time. Booker T. Washington urged African Americans to try to improve their place in society through hard work. The Niagara Movement of W.E.B. DuBois called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. The Niagara Movement lasted only five years. But, it led to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The N-double-A-C-P is still active today in the fight to end racism and improve conditions for people of color in America. Freshman Fifteen DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Fumio Nishimoto teaches English at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies. His students have heard about the “freshman fifteen.” They want to know what it means. It means fifteen pounds, or about seven kilograms. This is how much weight students might expect to gain in their first year of college. People used to talk about the “freshman ten.” Before that, it was the “freshman five.” Are freshman more inflated, or just the expression? The fact is, many young men and women do put on extra weight when they start college. Some schools have done research on the issue. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has found that freshmen gain an average of four pounds during their first twelve weeks. That is almost two kilograms. If weight gain continues at this rate, how long before they put on fifteen pounds? Let’s see [scribbling sounds] ... that's one pound every three weeks, times fifteen, equals ... The answer is forty-five weeks, or almost a year. The next question is, why do so many freshmen gain weight? The answers listed by experts are not so surprising. One is poor diet. College students often eat foods high in fat and sugar and starch. After all, there are no parents around to say no to junk food. Students may also miss meals. They could be in class or studying or just … busy. In any case, those who miss meals are more likely to overeat when they do have food. Also, freshmen often use food to put their mind at ease. They have college pressures to deal with. Not only that, many are living away from home for the first time. Another reason college students gain weight is that they often do not get enough exercise. Finally, there is something else that can add up to the "freshman five" or ten or fifteen. That is alcohol. Alcohol is high in calories. This is especially true of beer. And, no, freshmen are not supposed to be drinking. Not unless they are twenty-one, the legal drinking age in America. For many college students, the extra weight they put on in their freshman year can be as hard to escape as term papers and final exams. Genius Loves Company The American music industry will present its Grammy Awards on February thirteenth in Los Angeles, California. An album by Ray Charles has been nominated for ten Grammy Awards. Jim Tedder tells us about it. JIM TEDDER: The famous singer and musician Ray Charles died in June. "Genius Loves Company" is the last album he recorded. He performed songs with Natalie Cole, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and other famous artists. "Genius Loves Company" is nominated for Best Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album and eight other Grammy Awards. This song, "Here We Go Again," is nominated for Record of the Year. Ray Charles sings it with Norah Jones. (MUSIC) "Genius Loves Company" was released in August. It has sold more than two million copies in the United States alone. This is more than any other record Ray Charles made during his sixty years of recording music. Another song on the album, "Heaven Help Us All," was nominated for Best Gospel Performance. Here are Ray Charles and Gladys Knight. (MUSIC) Ray Charles made two hundred fifty recordings. He received twelve Grammy Awards and many other honors. A popular new movie about his life, called "Ray," opened in October. Critics highly praised the movie. We leave you now with another Grammy-nominated song from "Genius Loves Company." It is "Sinner’s Prayer" with Ray Charles and B.B. King. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Social Security, Part 1
* Byline: 

 I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Social Security system in the United States provides monthly payments to retired people and the disabled. Most of the money comes from a wage tax paid by workers and employers. For now, Social Security collects more money than it pays out. The surplus goes into a trust fund for workers who will retire in the future. But the future will have more retirees and fewer workers to support them. Last June, the Congressional Budget Office said Social Security is expected to have a deficit beginning in two thousand nineteen. President Bush says "now is the time to act." On Wednesday, at the first news conference of his second term, he said the program will be out of money in two thousand forty-two. Mister Bush wants Congress to make changes. But there is intense debate about how much fixing this popular program needs. Social Security was born out of the Great Depression. Poverty spread during this period from nineteen twenty-nine to the beginning of World War Two. Many leaders spoke of creating a system to guarantee payments to the disabled and the retired. Critics called it socialism. Some states created their own plans. President Franklin Roosevelt wanted a national system that could pay for itself. He proposed the Social Security Act in January of nineteen thirty-five. Congress passed the law that year. But payments did not start until nineteen forty. Until then, money gathered in the trust fund so the program could start with a surplus. At first, Social Security was meant to provide a small amount of money to retired industrial workers. In time, other jobs were added. The government also offered benefits to people who survived the death of someone on Social Security. In nineteen sixty-five, President Lyndon Johnson and Congress added two programs to offer medical benefits. Medicare, for older Americans, and Medicaid, for the poor, are no longer under the Social Security Administration. In nineteen eighty-three, Social Security faced a deficit. Congress agreed to increase the retirement age and Social Security taxes. Lawmakers also required all federal workers to be in the system. These changes were meant to fix the system for seventy-five years, until around two thousand sixty. Next week, we look at the current debate about the future of Social Security. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Iraqi Elections?
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. On Sunday, for the first time in almost fifty years, Iraq will hold parliamentary elections with more than one party competing. Some Iraqis have already been voting in other countries. Around fourteen million names are on voter lists in Iraq. Voters face threats of violence from groups like the one that calls itself al-Qaida in Iraq. On Friday, Iraqi officials announced the arrests of three top aides to its Jordanian-born leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Iraqi soldiers and police will guard voting centers. United States officials say American troops will be prepared to assist. The election is to choose two hundred seventy-five members for what is called a Transitional National Assembly. One of the duties of this temporary assembly will be to name a three-member presidency council. Another duty is to write a constitution. If Iraqis approve the constitution in October, then they will elect a new government at the end of the year. On Sunday, Iraqis will vote from a single national ballot. They will choose lists of candidates representing parties or coalitions. Seats will be divided in the National Assembly based on the share of votes that a list receives. A goal is to have women in at least one-fourth of the seats. Many political groups are competing. Commentators say the United Iraqi Alliance appears to have the strongest support. A Shiite Muslim leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, heads the candidate list. The alliance wants Iraq to be an Islamic state with a federal government. The alliance has the support of the highest religious leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Its candidate list is mainly Shiite. Iraq is about sixty percent Shiite. But the list also contains other religious and ethnic groups including Iraqi Kurds and ethnic Turkmens. Another group of candidates that may do well in the voting is called the Iraqi List. Its candidates are Shiite and Sunni. Iyad Allawi, now the temporary prime minister of Iraq, heads this list. About twenty percent of Iraqis are Sunni. Some Sunnis have called for a boycott of the voting. Their Iraqi Islamic Party withdrew its candidate list from the election. Members said the security situation was too threatening. President Bush has urged Iraqis to vote. So has the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. On Friday he urged Iraqis to follow the example of the Afghan people. Mister Karzai called the election a necessary risk to bring order to Iraq. And, in Washington, Condoleezza Rice was sworn in Friday as secretary of state. [She first took the oath of office in private on Wednesday; a public ceremony with President Bush took place Friday at the State Department.] She was national security adviser to the president. Miz Rice replaces Colin Powell who resigned. At her confirmation hearings, some Democratic senators condemned her handling of the war in Iraq. They said she used bad judgment and misled the public about the reasons for going to war. On Wednesday the Senate voted eighty-five to thirteen to confirm Miz Rice as secretary of state. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. On Sunday, for the first time in almost fifty years, Iraq will hold parliamentary elections with more than one party competing. Some Iraqis have already been voting in other countries. Around fourteen million names are on voter lists in Iraq. Voters face threats of violence from groups like the one that calls itself al-Qaida in Iraq. On Friday, Iraqi officials announced the arrests of three top aides to its Jordanian-born leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Iraqi soldiers and police will guard voting centers. United States officials say American troops will be prepared to assist. The election is to choose two hundred seventy-five members for what is called a Transitional National Assembly. One of the duties of this temporary assembly will be to name a three-member presidency council. Another duty is to write a constitution. If Iraqis approve the constitution in October, then they will elect a new government at the end of the year. On Sunday, Iraqis will vote from a single national ballot. They will choose lists of candidates representing parties or coalitions. Seats will be divided in the National Assembly based on the share of votes that a list receives. A goal is to have women in at least one-fourth of the seats. Many political groups are competing. Commentators say the United Iraqi Alliance appears to have the strongest support. A Shiite Muslim leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, heads the candidate list. The alliance wants Iraq to be an Islamic state with a federal government. The alliance has the support of the highest religious leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Its candidate list is mainly Shiite. Iraq is about sixty percent Shiite. But the list also contains other religious and ethnic groups including Iraqi Kurds and ethnic Turkmens. Another group of candidates that may do well in the voting is called the Iraqi List. Its candidates are Shiite and Sunni. Iyad Allawi, now the temporary prime minister of Iraq, heads this list. About twenty percent of Iraqis are Sunni. Some Sunnis have called for a boycott of the voting. Their Iraqi Islamic Party withdrew its candidate list from the election. Members said the security situation was too threatening. President Bush has urged Iraqis to vote. So has the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. On Friday he urged Iraqis to follow the example of the Afghan people. Mister Karzai called the election a necessary risk to bring order to Iraq. And, in Washington, Condoleezza Rice was sworn in Friday as secretary of state. [She first took the oath of office in private on Wednesday; a public ceremony with President Bush took place Friday at the State Department.] She was national security adviser to the president. Miz Rice replaces Colin Powell who resigned. At her confirmation hearings, some Democratic senators condemned her handling of the war in Iraq. They said she used bad judgment and misled the public about the reasons for going to war. On Wednesday the Senate voted eighty-five to thirteen to confirm Miz Rice as secretary of state. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Barbara Cooney
* Byline: Written by Avi Arditti

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. She died in March, two thousand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. She died in March, two thousand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. She wrote some. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. Her name appears on one hundred ten books in all. The last book was published six months before her death. It is called "Basket Moon." It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in "Basket Moon" as quiet and beautiful. It says they tie together "the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. One example is in her artwork for the book "Eleanor." It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Mizz Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details. Another example of her detailed work is in her retelling of "Chanticleer and the Fox." She took the story from the "Canterbury Tales" by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England. VOICE ONE: For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. She wrote some. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. Her name appears on one hundred ten books in all. The last book was published six months before her death. It is called "Basket Moon." It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in "Basket Moon" as quiet and beautiful. It says they tie together "the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. One example is in her artwork for the book "Eleanor." It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Mizz Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details. Another example of her detailed work is in her retelling of "Chanticleer and the Fox." She took the story from the "Canterbury Tales" by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England. VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. "How many children will know or care?" she said. "Maybe not a single one. Still I keep piling it on. Detail after detail. Whom am I pleasing -- besides myself? I don't know. Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later." Mizz Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the Nineteen Fifty-Nine Caldecott Medal for "Chanticleer and the Fox." The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book, "Ox-Cart Man." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen forties. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard. The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. Thick black ink is spread over the clay. The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. With each cut of the black ink, the white clay shows through. To finish the piece the artist may add different colors. Scratchboard is hard work, but this process can create fine detail. Later, Barbara Cooney began to use pen and ink, watercolor, oil paints, and other materials. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney was born in New York City in nineteen seventeen. Her mother was an artist and her father sold stocks on the stock market. Barbara graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts in nineteen thirty-eight with a major in art history. During World War Two Barbara Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps. She also got married, but her first marriage did not last long. Then she married a doctor, Charles Talbot Porter. They were married until her death. She had four children. VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney said that three of her books were as close to a story of her life as she would ever write. One is "Miss Rumphius," published in nineteen eighty-two. We will tell more about "Miss Rumphius" soon. The second book is called "Island Boy." The boy is named Matthias. He is the youngest of twelve children in a family on Tibbetts Island, Maine. Matthias grows up to sail around the world. But throughout his life he always returns to the island of his childhood. Barbara Cooney also traveled around the world, but in her later years always returned to live on the coast of Maine. VOICE ONE: The third book about Barbara Cooney’s life is called "Hattie and the Wild Waves." It is based on the childhood of her mother. The girl Hattie lives in a wealthy family in New York. One days she tells her family that she wants to be a painter when she grows up. The other children make fun of the idea of a girl wanting to paint houses. But, as the book explains, “Hattie was not thinking about houses. She was thinking about the moon in the sky and the wind in the trees and the wild waves of the ocean." Hattie tries different jobs as she grows up. At last, she follows her dream and decides to "paint her heart out." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Of all of Barbara Cooney's books, the one that seems to affect people the most is "Miss Rumphius." It won the American Book Award. It was first published in nineteen eighty-two by Viking-Penguin. "Miss Rumphius" is Alice Rumphius. A young storyteller in the book tells the story which begins with Alice as a young girl: VOICE THREE: "In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, 'When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.’ ‘That is all very well, little Alice,' said her grandfather, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' 'What is that?' asked Alice. ‘You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' said her grandfather. 'All right,' said Alice. But she did not know what that could be. In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework. And pretty soon she was grown up." VOICE ONE: Alice traveled the world. She climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. One day, however, she hurt her back getting off a camel. VOICE THREE: “'What a foolish thing to do,' said Miss Rumphius. 'Well, I have certainly seen faraway places. Maybe it is time to find my place by the sea.' And it was, and she did. Miss Rumphius was almost perfectly happy. 'But there is still one more thing I have to do,' she said. 'I have to do something to make the world more beautiful.' But what? 'The world is already pretty nice,' she thought, looking out over the ocean." VOICE TWO: The next spring Miss Rumphius' back was hurting again. She had to stay in bed most of the time. Through her bedroom window she could see the tall blue and purple and rose-colored lupine flowers she had planted the summer before. VOICE THREE: "'Lupines,' said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction. 'I have always loved lupines the best. I wish I could plant more seeds this summer so that I could have still more flowers next year.' But she was not able to." VOICE ONE: A hard winter came, then spring. Miss Rumphius was feeling better. She could take walks again. One day she came to a hill where she had not been in a long time. "'I don't believe my eyes,' she cried when she got to the top. For there on the other side of the hill was a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines!” VOICE THREE: "'It was the wind,' she said as she knelt in delight. ‘It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here! And the birds must have helped.' Then Miss Rumphius had a wonderful idea!" VOICE TWO: That idea was to buy lupine seed -- lots of it. All summer, wherever she went, Miss Rumphius would drop handfuls of seeds: over fields, along roads, around the schoolhouse, behind the church. Her back did not hurt her any more. But now some people called her "That Crazy Old Lady." The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius had done the most difficult thing of all. The young storyteller in the book continues: VOICE THREE: "My Great-aunt Alice, Miss Rumphius, is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there are more and more lupines. Now they call her the Lupine Lady. ... "'When I grow up,' I tell her, 'I too will go to faraway places and come home to live by the sea.' 'That is all very well, little Alice,' says my aunt, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' 'What is that?' I ask. "'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.'" VOICE ONE: Many readers, young and old, would agree that Barbara Cooney did just that. VOICE TWO: Many of Barbara Cooney's later books took place in the small northeastern state of Maine. She spent summers there when she was a child, then moved to Maine in her later years. She loved Maine. She gave her local library almost a million dollars. The state showed its love for her. In nineteen ninety-six, the governor of Maine declared Barbara Cooney a State Treasure. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Adrienne Arditti was the storyteller. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. "How many children will know or care?" she said. "Maybe not a single one. Still I keep piling it on. Detail after detail. Whom am I pleasing -- besides myself? I don't know. Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later." Mizz Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the Nineteen Fifty-Nine Caldecott Medal for "Chanticleer and the Fox." The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book, "Ox-Cart Man." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen forties. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard. The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. Thick black ink is spread over the clay. The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. With each cut of the black ink, the white clay shows through. To finish the piece the artist may add different colors. Scratchboard is hard work, but this process can create fine detail. Later, Barbara Cooney began to use pen and ink, watercolor, oil paints, and other materials. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney was born in New York City in nineteen seventeen. Her mother was an artist and her father sold stocks on the stock market. Barbara graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts in nineteen thirty-eight with a major in art history. During World War Two Barbara Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps. She also got married, but her first marriage did not last long. Then she married a doctor, Charles Talbot Porter. They were married until her death. She had four children. VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney said that three of her books were as close to a story of her life as she would ever write. One is "Miss Rumphius," published in nineteen eighty-two. We will tell more about "Miss Rumphius" soon. The second book is called "Island Boy." The boy is named Matthias. He is the youngest of twelve children in a family on Tibbetts Island, Maine. Matthias grows up to sail around the world. But throughout his life he always returns to the island of his childhood. Barbara Cooney also traveled around the world, but in her later years always returned to live on the coast of Maine. VOICE ONE: The third book about Barbara Cooney’s life is called "Hattie and the Wild Waves." It is based on the childhood of her mother. The girl Hattie lives in a wealthy family in New York. One days she tells her family that she wants to be a painter when she grows up. The other children make fun of the idea of a girl wanting to paint houses. But, as the book explains, “Hattie was not thinking about houses. She was thinking about the moon in the sky and the wind in the trees and the wild waves of the ocean." Hattie tries different jobs as she grows up. At last, she follows her dream and decides to "paint her heart out." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Of all of Barbara Cooney's books, the one that seems to affect people the most is "Miss Rumphius." It won the American Book Award. It was first published in nineteen eighty-two by Viking-Penguin. "Miss Rumphius" is Alice Rumphius. A young storyteller in the book tells the story which begins with Alice as a young girl: VOICE THREE: "In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, 'When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea.’ ‘That is all very well, little Alice,' said her grandfather, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' 'What is that?' asked Alice. ‘You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' said her grandfather. 'All right,' said Alice. But she did not know what that could be. In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework. And pretty soon she was grown up." VOICE ONE: Alice traveled the world. She climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. One day, however, she hurt her back getting off a camel. VOICE THREE: “'What a foolish thing to do,' said Miss Rumphius. 'Well, I have certainly seen faraway places. Maybe it is time to find my place by the sea.' And it was, and she did. Miss Rumphius was almost perfectly happy. 'But there is still one more thing I have to do,' she said. 'I have to do something to make the world more beautiful.' But what? 'The world is already pretty nice,' she thought, looking out over the ocean." VOICE TWO: The next spring Miss Rumphius' back was hurting again. She had to stay in bed most of the time. Through her bedroom window she could see the tall blue and purple and rose-colored lupine flowers she had planted the summer before. VOICE THREE: "'Lupines,' said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction. 'I have always loved lupines the best. I wish I could plant more seeds this summer so that I could have still more flowers next year.' But she was not able to." VOICE ONE: A hard winter came, then spring. Miss Rumphius was feeling better. She could take walks again. One day she came to a hill where she had not been in a long time. "'I don't believe my eyes,' she cried when she got to the top. For there on the other side of the hill was a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines!” VOICE THREE: "'It was the wind,' she said as she knelt in delight. ‘It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here! And the birds must have helped.' Then Miss Rumphius had a wonderful idea!" VOICE TWO: That idea was to buy lupine seed -- lots of it. All summer, wherever she went, Miss Rumphius would drop handfuls of seeds: over fields, along roads, around the schoolhouse, behind the church. Her back did not hurt her any more. But now some people called her "That Crazy Old Lady." The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius had done the most difficult thing of all. The young storyteller in the book continues: VOICE THREE: "My Great-aunt Alice, Miss Rumphius, is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there are more and more lupines. Now they call her the Lupine Lady. ... "'When I grow up,' I tell her, 'I too will go to faraway places and come home to live by the sea.' 'That is all very well, little Alice,' says my aunt, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' 'What is that?' I ask. "'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.'" VOICE ONE: Many readers, young and old, would agree that Barbara Cooney did just that. VOICE TWO: Many of Barbara Cooney's later books took place in the small northeastern state of Maine. She spent summers there when she was a child, then moved to Maine in her later years. She loved Maine. She gave her local library almost a million dollars. The state showed its love for her. In nineteen ninety-six, the governor of Maine declared Barbara Cooney a State Treasure. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Adrienne Arditti was the storyteller. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: California and Its People
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. People have been following a dream to California for more than one hundred fifty years. More than thirty-five million people live there now, more than in any other state. Today we tell about California and its people. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. People have been following a dream to California for more than one hundred fifty years. More than thirty-five million people live there now, more than in any other state. Today we tell about California and its people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over the years, many people have dreamed of going to California. At first, the dream was to find gold. In eighteen forty-eight, a man named James Marshall was working at a sawmill. It was on the American River, about one hundred kilometers northeast of San Francisco. He found a piece of bright metal where the river flowed through the sawmill. It was gold. People who rushed to California the following year, eighteen forty-nine, became known as "forty-niners.” A few found gold and became rich. The people who stayed made homes for themselves. They found work. Some started schools and religious centers. In eighteen fifty California became a state. VOICE TWO: Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast HighwayCalifornia became the dream of many people in the cold, crowded cities of the East and Middle West. Today, California is still a land of dreams. People want to live there because of the warm weather and sunshine. There are beautiful ocean beaches and mountains. There are jobs in the cities and on farms. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over the years, many people have dreamed of going to California. At first, the dream was to find gold. In eighteen forty-eight, a man named James Marshall was working at a sawmill. It was on the American River, about one hundred kilometers northeast of San Francisco. He found a piece of bright metal where the river flowed through the sawmill. It was gold. People who rushed to California the following year, eighteen forty-nine, became known as "forty-niners.” A few found gold and became rich. The people who stayed made homes for themselves. They found work. Some started schools and religious centers. In eighteen fifty California became a state. VOICE TWO: Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast HighwayCalifornia became the dream of many people in the cold, crowded cities of the East and Middle West. Today, California is still a land of dreams. People want to live there because of the warm weather and sunshine. There are beautiful ocean beaches and mountains. There are jobs in the cities and on farms. But the weather and the forces of nature in California are sometimes dangerous. For example, earlier this month there were many days of heavy rain in normally dry southern California. Mudslides that resulted killed at least ten people in the Pacific Coast town of La Conchita. VOICE ONE: Earthquakes are always a possible threat in California. In nineteen-oh-six an earthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco. It killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. More recently, a powerful earthquake in nineteen ninety-four shook Southern California. The quake killed about sixty people in the Los Angeles area. It caused twenty thousand million dollars in damage to buildings and roads. Scientists also say a huge and destructive tsunami wave is possible from the Pacific Ocean. Yet another problem is fire. Dry winds race across the desert into Southern California in the fall. Any fire can suddenly become a major wildfire. In October of two thousand three, major wildfires burned across areas of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. More than three thousand homes were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed. VOICE TWO: But danger from nature does not seem to keep people from moving to California or having children there. The estimated population grew almost five percent between two thousand and two thousand three. About half the population growth is from people who arrive from other states and countries. About eleven million people of Mexican ancestry live in California. Many others come from countries in Asia. San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. Some newcomers dream of Hollywood. They come to find a job in the movie capital of the world. But these young men and women are like the early settlers who searched for gold. Only a few ever become movie stars or successful writers, directors or producers. VOICE ONE: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Hollywood actor and champion bodybuilder, is finishing his first year as governor of California. He became the state’s top official in an unusual way. In October of two thousand three, citizens voted to remove their governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat. To take his place, they elected Mister Schwarzenegger, a Republican. Mister Schwarzenegger was born in Austria. Many Californians call him “Arnold.” Gov. Gray DavisGray Davis had been elected for a second term. But Republicans used a recall law passed almost one hundred years ago to call for a vote to remove him. Many Californians were angry at Mister Davis because he raised taxes. VOICE TWO: Many people were especially angry at a big increase in the vehicle tax. Governor Schwarzenegger cancelled that increase as his first official act. California currently has an eight thousand million dollar deficit. The governor is trying to avoid raising taxes. To do this, he is proposing budget cuts. But observers say he will have to compromise with the legislature to pass his legislation. Most legislators are members of the Democratic Party. VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, two state officials led a public demonstration. They were protesting against Governor Schwarzenegger for not proposing enough money for schools. His proposal calls for cutting two thousand million dollars in the education budget. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: To educate its young people, California has more state colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system has more than twenty colleges and universities. The University of California, another system, has schools in nine cities. California also has more than one hundred community colleges. These offer two-year study programs to any student who completes high school. VOICE ONE: Those governing California have a big responsibility for land as well as people. California is America’s third largest state in land area. California is more than one thousand kilometers long and four hundred kilometers wide. Mount Whitney, in the Sequoia National Park, is the highest mountain in the forty-eight connected states. It is more than four thousand four hundred meters high. California also has the lowest place in the United States. It is in Death Valley National Park, in the eastern desert near the border with Nevada. The place is called Badwater Basin. It is eighty-six meters below sea level. In fact, it is the lowest place anywhere in the Americas. VOICE TWO: The coastline of California begins at the border with Mexico. It extends one thousand three hundred fifty kilometers north, to the state of Oregon. The central and southern California coast has many beautiful, sandy beaches. The big waves of the Pacific make these areas great places to surf – to ride on the ocean waves on boards. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Europeans to see the California coast were explorers from Spain and Portugal, almost five centuries ago. The peninsula that extends into Mexico made them think it was an island. In fifteen thirty-nine a member of one sailing party recorded the name as "California." California was the name of an imaginary island in a book, a romance novel that was popular in Spain. Spain claimed the new land. Later it built religious settlements to spread Christianity among the native people. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the eighteen twenties. But Mexico lost California in a war with the United States about twenty-five years later. Then came the discovery of gold in California. The state is rich in natural resources. It has wide areas of farmland and large forests. And it has oil, natural gas and valuable minerals. VOICE TWO: America's largest city is New York. The second largest city in the nation is Los Angeles, with about four million people. San Diego, on the border with Mexico, is the second largest city in California. It has one million two hundred thousand people. San Jose and San Francisco are the third and fourth largest cities. San Jose is near the so-called Silicon Valley, home to many high- technology companies. Many famous Americans were born in California. Here are a few of them: Movie maker George Lucas. Former President Richard Nixon. Poet Robert Frost. Writers Jack London and John Steinbeck. Actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio. Tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. And golfer Tiger Woods. The state’s beautiful trees and flowers, ocean and mountains, make it very inviting to travelers. Last year, some of the people who came to visit decided to make their homes there. More than a century and a half has passed since the forty-niners dreamed of gold. But people still dream of life in California. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Frank Beardsley and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. But the weather and the forces of nature in California are sometimes dangerous. For example, earlier this month there were many days of heavy rain in normally dry southern California. Mudslides that resulted killed at least ten people in the Pacific Coast town of La Conchita. VOICE ONE: Earthquakes are always a possible threat in California. In nineteen-oh-six an earthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco. It killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. More recently, a powerful earthquake in nineteen ninety-four shook Southern California. The quake killed about sixty people in the Los Angeles area. It caused twenty thousand million dollars in damage to buildings and roads. Scientists also say a huge and destructive tsunami wave is possible from the Pacific Ocean. Yet another problem is fire. Dry winds race across the desert into Southern California in the fall. Any fire can suddenly become a major wildfire. In October of two thousand three, major wildfires burned across areas of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. More than three thousand homes were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed. VOICE TWO: But danger from nature does not seem to keep people from moving to California or having children there. The estimated population grew almost five percent between two thousand and two thousand three. About half the population growth is from people who arrive from other states and countries. About eleven million people of Mexican ancestry live in California. Many others come from countries in Asia. San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. Some newcomers dream of Hollywood. They come to find a job in the movie capital of the world. But these young men and women are like the early settlers who searched for gold. Only a few ever become movie stars or successful writers, directors or producers. VOICE ONE: Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former Hollywood actor and champion bodybuilder, is finishing his first year as governor of California. He became the state’s top official in an unusual way. In October of two thousand three, citizens voted to remove their governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat. To take his place, they elected Mister Schwarzenegger, a Republican. Mister Schwarzenegger was born in Austria. Many Californians call him “Arnold.” Gov. Gray DavisGray Davis had been elected for a second term. But Republicans used a recall law passed almost one hundred years ago to call for a vote to remove him. Many Californians were angry at Mister Davis because he raised taxes. VOICE TWO: Many people were especially angry at a big increase in the vehicle tax. Governor Schwarzenegger cancelled that increase as his first official act. California currently has an eight thousand million dollar deficit. The governor is trying to avoid raising taxes. To do this, he is proposing budget cuts. But observers say he will have to compromise with the legislature to pass his legislation. Most legislators are members of the Democratic Party. VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, two state officials led a public demonstration. They were protesting against Governor Schwarzenegger for not proposing enough money for schools. His proposal calls for cutting two thousand million dollars in the education budget. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: To educate its young people, California has more state colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system has more than twenty colleges and universities. The University of California, another system, has schools in nine cities. California also has more than one hundred community colleges. These offer two-year study programs to any student who completes high school. VOICE ONE: Those governing California have a big responsibility for land as well as people. California is America’s third largest state in land area. California is more than one thousand kilometers long and four hundred kilometers wide. Mount Whitney, in the Sequoia National Park, is the highest mountain in the forty-eight connected states. It is more than four thousand four hundred meters high. California also has the lowest place in the United States. It is in Death Valley National Park, in the eastern desert near the border with Nevada. The place is called Badwater Basin. It is eighty-six meters below sea level. In fact, it is the lowest place anywhere in the Americas. VOICE TWO: The coastline of California begins at the border with Mexico. It extends one thousand three hundred fifty kilometers north, to the state of Oregon. The central and southern California coast has many beautiful, sandy beaches. The big waves of the Pacific make these areas great places to surf – to ride on the ocean waves on boards. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Europeans to see the California coast were explorers from Spain and Portugal, almost five centuries ago. The peninsula that extends into Mexico made them think it was an island. In fifteen thirty-nine a member of one sailing party recorded the name as "California." California was the name of an imaginary island in a book, a romance novel that was popular in Spain. Spain claimed the new land. Later it built religious settlements to spread Christianity among the native people. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the eighteen twenties. But Mexico lost California in a war with the United States about twenty-five years later. Then came the discovery of gold in California. The state is rich in natural resources. It has wide areas of farmland and large forests. And it has oil, natural gas and valuable minerals. VOICE TWO: America's largest city is New York. The second largest city in the nation is Los Angeles, with about four million people. San Diego, on the border with Mexico, is the second largest city in California. It has one million two hundred thousand people. San Jose and San Francisco are the third and fourth largest cities. San Jose is near the so-called Silicon Valley, home to many high- technology companies. Many famous Americans were born in California. Here are a few of them: Movie maker George Lucas. Former President Richard Nixon. Poet Robert Frost. Writers Jack London and John Steinbeck. Actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio. Tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. And golfer Tiger Woods. The state’s beautiful trees and flowers, ocean and mountains, make it very inviting to travelers. Last year, some of the people who came to visit decided to make their homes there. More than a century and a half has passed since the forty-niners dreamed of gold. But people still dream of life in California. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Frank Beardsley and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Riecken Foundation Libraries in Central America
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Development Report. Andrew Carnegie became rich in the American steel industry. But he spent much of his life giving away his money. One of his main interests was developing libraries in small towns. Andrew Carnegie died in nineteen nineteen. Now a non-profit group in the United States has taken some of his ideas to Central America, especially Guatemala and Honduras. The Riecken Foundation has opened fifteen libraries in the past five years. Seven more are being built. The goal is to help people explore new worlds. Not just through books, but also through computers connected to the Internet. The hope is to build as many as one thousand libraries throughout Central America. The Riecken Foundation provides much of the cost of building the structures as well as paying for the books and computers. The group also trains committees to make the policies that govern how a library operates. Members of these library committees are not paid. They provide land for the building and pay for a full-time librarian. They also pay for water and electricity for the library. Some of the people who work for the Riecken Foundation are former members of the Peace Corps. This government program sends Americans to help communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They work for two years or more with very little pay. The foundation was created in two thousand by Allen Andersson, a businessman. He served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the nineteen sixties. The very first employee, Meredith Bellows, served in Guatemala several years ago. Now she is a director of the foundation. Miz Bellows worked in the small community of San Juan la Laguna. A story in G.W. Magazine in two thousand two described her work. Miz Bellows trained poor women who received small business loans. She told how she taught one woman to bake bread in ovens built from simple materials. The library in the town is extremely small. But things are about to change. Meredith Bellows tells us that this week a bigger library will be completed in San Juan la Laguna. Internet users can learn more about the Riecken Foundation at riecken.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: The Valley of the Golden Mummies
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about recent discoveries made by archeologists working in Egypt. The discoveries are said to provide important clues about people who lived thousands of years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Archeologists in Egypt uncovered the remains of twenty ancient people late last year. Some of the dead were family members who had been buried together. The archeologists say the twenty people lived thousands of years ago during what is called the Greco-Roman period. That is when Greece, and later Rome, ruled ancient Egypt. The human remains have lasted so long because they were specially treated before burial. Experts covered them with a substance called embalming resin. The treated remains are called mummies. VOICE TWO: The area where the twenty mummies were found is called the Valley of the Golden Mummies. Untold numbers of human remains are buried in the Valley. Its discoverers believe the area holds some of the most important archeological finds since King Tutankhamun. Last month, research scientists used a device called a C.T. scanner to examine the body of King Tut. The researchers want to learn what killed this young ruler of ancient Egypt. Scientists are using technology in the Valley of the Golden Mummies and other areas. They use radar to find burial areas and x-ray equipment to study bones. Experts also are performing experiments on the mummies and the objects found with them. VOICE ONE: The Valley of the Golden Mummies is near the Bahariya Oasis, about three hundred eighty kilometers southwest of Cairo, the Egyptian capital. The remains of Romans have been found in the Valley. The Romans lived there between two thousand and two thousand three hundred years ago. The oasis provided them with water in the desert. The most famous archeologist in Egypt believes that Greeks may have developed the burial place at an even earlier time. Zahi Hawass is head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. He directs archeological projects in places like the famous Pyramids at Giza. Mister Hawass has been directing archeology in the Valley and the nearby town of Bawiti for the past six years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Valley of the Golden Mummies was discovered accidentally in nineteen ninety-six. For this priceless find, science can thank an animal. One day, a donkey was carrying an Egyptian security guard across the desert. Then the donkey missed a step. Its foot slid into the top of a burial place covered with rock and sand. Researchers soon learned that many people are buried at the Bahariya Oasis. The Valley covers an area of at least ten square kilometers. At least ten thousand mummies are buried there. Some estimates place that number much higher. Mister Hawass says it is the largest ancient cemetery ever found. VOICE ONE: At first, officials kept secret the finding of the Valley of the Golden Mummies. The Egyptian government wanted to prevent ancient objects from being stolen. Three years after the discovery, Mister Hawas led a team that found more than one hundred mummies. They were removed from four structures for the dead, or tombs. Mister Hawass clearly remembers opening the first tomb. Gold shone brightly as the sunlight broke the darkness of thousands of years. Under the light, he saw the people of Bahariya. They lay in family tombs. Husbands and wives were buried together. Often their children were with them. Their remains were discovered inside painted containers, called coffins. Some had golden head coverings. Money, jewelry, and drink containers were buried with them. VOICE TWO: On a later dig, Mister Hawass and his team found more tombs. They also found wooden structures called stelae (STE-LE). Some were shaped like a religious center, or temple. These stelae had pictures of gods like Osiris and Anubis. They ruled the underworld and the dead. Such pictures were often seen in tombs. The archeologists unearthed three other tombs in two thousand one. In one place, they saw a uraeus ((you RAY’ us)) on the golden head-cover of a mummy. Mister Hawass identifies a uraeus as a spitting cobra. He says this creature represents a ruling family. He suggests that this probably shows the dead person’s desire to become a ruler after death. VOICE ONE: Mister Hawass led the research team that uncovered the mummies in the Valley of the Golden Mummies last year. The Discovery Channel and Britain’s Channel Five television broadcast programs of the work directly from the Valley. Television cameras showed twelve mummies lying together. One week earlier, researchers had found the remains in three separate burial areas. Pieces of money were found near the mummies. Experts say ancient Egyptians believed they needed the money to enter the After World. The archeologists also uncovered small wooden statues of the dead. They also found jewelry, containers for cooking, and objects called amulets. Amulets were worn to protect against evil. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not all the remains in the Valley of the Golden Mummies are under the ground. Many individual bones lie on top of the sand. Margaret Cox is a bone expert. Miz Cox says some of the bones already have provided interesting information. She talked about one head bone, or skull. She said damage to the nose shows that this person probably suffered from the disease leprosy. Teeth connected to the skull were in bad condition. Other physical evidence shows that the person probably died violently. The Valley of the Golden Mummies has many such secrets about the people who lived in Egypt under Roman rule. Mister Hawass says the burial area may have been used during the rule of Alexander the Great of Macedonia. That began about two thousand five hundred years ago. VOICE ONE: Mister Hawass and his team also dug in areas close to the Valley. In the town of Bawiti, they found a surprise under modern buildings. They found the burial place of a family that governed part of western Egypt in ancient times. The remains were discovered in a container, or sarcophagus, made of limestone. The stone had to be carried to Bahariya from one-hundred kilometers away. Mister Hawass said this showed that the family was rich. The sarcophagus holds the remains of Badi-Herkhib. The researchers say he was the older brother of a governor of Bahariya. The governor served during the period when the twenty-sixth family of rulers led ancient Egypt. Artwork is found on both sides of this sarcophagus. VOICE TWO: The artwork shows the sign of Maat. Mister Hawass said she was the goddess of justice and truth. Ancient writing also is found the outer cover of the sarcophagus. Mister Hawass said the writing means that the dead man had performed spiritual ceremonies. Perhaps he did so at the temple of Bes. Mister Hawass identifies Bes as the Egyptian god of pleasure and fun. Governing Bahariya seems to have been a family activity. Badi-Herkhib was the grandson of a former governor named Djed-Khunsu. Djed-Khunsu lived more than two thousand years ago. He served in the administration of Ahmose Second. Ahmose ruled Egypt in the twenty-sixth period of rulers. Djed-Khunsu’s own burial place was found two years ago in another area of Bahariya. VOICE ONE: Mister Hawas says the sarcophagus and its writings show the riches of the Bahariya Oasis during that period. Many of the people became wealthy in the wine trade. This was especially true because people wanted to take wine with them to the After Life. The wealth from wine products made the people of Bahariya rich enough to buy gold from mines in Nubia. He compared the Valley to the wine-growing area of Napa Valley, in the American state of California. Zahi Hawass says he has uncovered three hundred-fifty mummies during his working life. But he expresses special pleasure in his work in the Valley of the Golden Mummies and Bawiti. He says he has not just learned about the lives of ancient people. Mister Hawass says he has found the people who lived those lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program in V.O.A. Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-01/a-2005-01-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Red Tides
* Byline: 

 I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Different events can change the balance of sea life. Red tides are an example. These can happen in oceans, rivers or lakes anywhere in the world. What happens is that algae suddenly increase in numbers. Algae are single-celled organisms. They are a normal part of sea life. As they spread, or bloom, the water may turn red or brown. Sometimes the water does not change color at all. But deadly algae could still be present. Some kinds of algae produce a strong poison. This can build up in shellfish that eat the algae and make them poisonous, but not kill them. Other kinds of algae may kill sea life by reducing oxygen levels in the water. In some red tides, thousands of dead fish appear on beaches. Scientists do not know exactly why red tides happen. But they say a combination of conditions all play a part. These include water temperature, nutrients in the water and water flow. Pollution could also play a part. A number of different algae can cause red tides. A common form has the scientific name Karenia brevis. It is often linked with red tides in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean area. Algae poisons build up in the tissue of shellfish like clams, oysters and mussels. This makes them unsafe for several weeks after a red tide goes away. People are also advised not to eat the organs of fish or shellfish like shrimp, crab or lobster. Scientist Richard Pierce says the poison produced by K. brevis does enter the meat of these creatures. But he adds that there have been no reports of people getting sick from eating healthy fish during such a red tide. Mister Pierce is director of the Center for Eco-toxicology at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida. There are different kinds of shellfish poisoning, some more severe than others. Effects can include diarrhea, fever, stomach and muscle pain, and breathing problems. In severe cases people can die unless they receive treatment. Experts say older people are especially likely to experience severe effects from algae poisons. Some people who swim during a red tide report skin problems or shortness of breath. Scientists have more to learn about the possible risks of swimming in red tides or breathing algae poisons in the air. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Cassini-Huygens at Titan
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. On January fourteenth, a human-made object landed on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. For one hour and twelve minutes it sent back exciting information and photographs. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. On January fourteenth, a human-made object landed on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. For one hour and twelve minutes it sent back exciting information and photographs. Our program today is about the landing device named Huygens and the Cassini spacecraft that carried it through our solar system to land on that distant moon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On October fifteenth, nineteen ninety-seven, a huge rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. The rocket carried a spacecraft named Cassini. The Cassini spacecraft carried a deployment vehicle named Huygens. The launch of these two spacecraft was the beginning of a seven-year flight to the planet Saturn. The flight was the joint effort of America’s space agency, NASA; the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. VOICE TWO: On July first of last year, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn after traveling almost four thousand million kilometers. Scientists said they were able to guide it into a near-perfect orbit around Saturn. Cassini flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet. Cassini immediately began sending back photographs and information about Saturn and its huge moon, Titan. Titan from the Cassini spacecraft.The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Titan is very large -- even larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. Plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan. The photographs and information about the huge moon sent by Cassini only added to the excitement about the Huygens landing device. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On December twenty-fifth, Cassini released the Huygens lander. Cassini quickly moved away from Huygens to lessen the chance of an accident between the two vehicles. After twenty days of circling the huge moon, Huygens started to move into Titan’s thick atmosphere. Huygens entered Titan’s atmosphere moving at eighteen thousand kilometers an hour. It had to immediately slow its great speed to keep from burning up. Huygens slowed down by using three different parachutes. After its main parachute opened in the upper atmosphere, the vehicle slowed to a little more than fifty meters per second. This is about as fast as an automobile moves on a highway. As it moved lower into the atmosphere, Huygens slowed to about five meters per second. This permitted it to safely prepare to land on the surface. Martin Tomasko is the member of the team that guided the flight of the Huygens lander. He said the flight down to the surface of Titan was not as smooth as the team thought it would be. Mister Tomasko said the lander moved from side to side while hanging from the parachute. He said it often moved as much as twenty degrees from side to side. VOICE TWO: The scientific instruments on Huygens began measuring about one hundred sixty kilometers from the surface of Titan. This permitted the instruments to gather information about the atmosphere. The instruments included sound recording equipment. Huygens began sending back information and photographs to Cassini four minutes into its flight to the surface of Titan. Cassini immediately began to transmit this information back to Earth using its more powerful radio equipment. NASA’s Deep Space Communications Network received the information and photographs. Then NASA transmitted them to the European Space Operation Center in Darmstadt, Germany. VOICE ONE: Slowly and safely, the three hundred seventeen kilogram vehicle moved down through the atmosphere of Titan. It quickly transmitted information about a rich mix of nitrogen and methane in the upper atmosphere. Huygens’ instruments showed that the amounts of the gas methane increased as the lander moved closer to the surface of Titan. While scientific instruments were investigating the atmosphere, cameras were ready to begin taking photographs from high above the surface. The cameras were able to begin their work thirty kilometers above the surface of Titan. Thick clouds above thirty kilometers did not permit photography. VOICE TWO: The first photographs looked much like those taken here on Earth from an aircraft high in the sky. Part of one photograph shows a land area next to what might be a large area of liquid, similar to a lake. Some areas of the surface looked like islands. Chanels on Titan.There were photographs of areas of water ice. Some areas showed rivers created by liquid methane. Other photographs of the surface area seemed to show mountains and huge rocks. Still others showed deep lines in the surface that seem to have been cut by fast- moving liquid. The scientific instruments on Huygens showed the temperature of the atmosphere of Titan is extremely cold. The instruments recorded a temperature of minus one hundred eighty degrees Celsius. VOICE ONE: When Huygens was seven hundred meters above the surface, a special landing lamp was turned on. The lamp was used to light the surface of Titan to aid Huygens’ cameras and see where the vehicle was going to land. The lamp was designed to last for about fifteen minutes. It continued to light the immediate area for more than one hour after Huygens landed on the surface. Scientists believe the Huygens lander hit an area of Titan’s surface that may be mud or wet sand. The lander’s recording equipment transmitted a sound similar to a large object hitting a wet surface. Instruments on Huygens showed the surface landing area is mostly a mix of dirty water ice, hydrocarbon ice, sand and clay. This mix of water and chemicals makes the ground a dark color. The instruments on Huygens began to quickly send back large amounts of information about the surface. This information included air temperature, air pressure and wind speed. It also sent information about chemicals on the surface of Titan and in the air. Experts say Huygens sent back enough information and photographs to keep researchers very busy for several years. VOICE TWO: After it landed, Huygens immediately began transmitting photographs from the surface of Titan. The photographs are orange in color. Scientists say the surface of Titan is orange because of its huge distance from the sun. The large amounts of methane gas in the atmosphere also add to the orange color. Rocks on the Surface of Titan.These photographs show an area of rocks of many sizes. The rocks can be seen for as far as the camera can see. Experts say many of the rocks look as if they have been shaped by fast-moving liquid. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Huygens lander stopped transmitting information after one hour and twelve minutes. The fierce atmosphere of Titan and extremely low temperatures halted the vehicle’s ability to gather information. Yet it lasted longer than scientists had planned. Scientists will use the information gathered by the Huygens lander to learn a great deal about this unusual moon. One of the main reasons for sending Huygens to the surface is that Titan has a rich nitrogen atmosphere. It is also rich in methane gas. And its surface may have many of the same kinds of chemicals that existed on Earth millions of years ago. Titan may help scientists learn more about the very beginnings of our planet. David Southwood is the Director of the European Space Agency’s scientific program. Mister Southwood says Titan is a very interesting world. And scientists now have good information about this far away moon. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer that can link with the Internet communications system, you too can see the orange photographs taken on the surface of Titan. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has many links to both Huygens and Cassini. J-P-L can be found at www.jpl.nasa.gov. That address again is www.jpl.nasa.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Our program today is about the landing device named Huygens and the Cassini spacecraft that carried it through our solar system to land on that distant moon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On October fifteenth, nineteen ninety-seven, a huge rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. The rocket carried a spacecraft named Cassini. The Cassini spacecraft carried a deployment vehicle named Huygens. The launch of these two spacecraft was the beginning of a seven-year flight to the planet Saturn. The flight was the joint effort of America’s space agency, NASA; the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. VOICE TWO: On July first of last year, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn after traveling almost four thousand million kilometers. Scientists said they were able to guide it into a near-perfect orbit around Saturn. Cassini flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet. Cassini immediately began sending back photographs and information about Saturn and its huge moon, Titan. Titan from the Cassini spacecraft.The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Titan is very large -- even larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. Plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan. The photographs and information about the huge moon sent by Cassini only added to the excitement about the Huygens landing device. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On December twenty-fifth, Cassini released the Huygens lander. Cassini quickly moved away from Huygens to lessen the chance of an accident between the two vehicles. After twenty days of circling the huge moon, Huygens started to move into Titan’s thick atmosphere. Huygens entered Titan’s atmosphere moving at eighteen thousand kilometers an hour. It had to immediately slow its great speed to keep from burning up. Huygens slowed down by using three different parachutes. After its main parachute opened in the upper atmosphere, the vehicle slowed to a little more than fifty meters per second. This is about as fast as an automobile moves on a highway. As it moved lower into the atmosphere, Huygens slowed to about five meters per second. This permitted it to safely prepare to land on the surface. Martin Tomasko is the member of the team that guided the flight of the Huygens lander. He said the flight down to the surface of Titan was not as smooth as the team thought it would be. Mister Tomasko said the lander moved from side to side while hanging from the parachute. He said it often moved as much as twenty degrees from side to side. VOICE TWO: The scientific instruments on Huygens began measuring about one hundred sixty kilometers from the surface of Titan. This permitted the instruments to gather information about the atmosphere. The instruments included sound recording equipment. Huygens began sending back information and photographs to Cassini four minutes into its flight to the surface of Titan. Cassini immediately began to transmit this information back to Earth using its more powerful radio equipment. NASA’s Deep Space Communications Network received the information and photographs. Then NASA transmitted them to the European Space Operation Center in Darmstadt, Germany. VOICE ONE: Slowly and safely, the three hundred seventeen kilogram vehicle moved down through the atmosphere of Titan. It quickly transmitted information about a rich mix of nitrogen and methane in the upper atmosphere. Huygens’ instruments showed that the amounts of the gas methane increased as the lander moved closer to the surface of Titan. While scientific instruments were investigating the atmosphere, cameras were ready to begin taking photographs from high above the surface. The cameras were able to begin their work thirty kilometers above the surface of Titan. Thick clouds above thirty kilometers did not permit photography. VOICE TWO: The first photographs looked much like those taken here on Earth from an aircraft high in the sky. Part of one photograph shows a land area next to what might be a large area of liquid, similar to a lake. Some areas of the surface looked like islands. Chanels on Titan.There were photographs of areas of water ice. Some areas showed rivers created by liquid methane. Other photographs of the surface area seemed to show mountains and huge rocks. Still others showed deep lines in the surface that seem to have been cut by fast- moving liquid. The scientific instruments on Huygens showed the temperature of the atmosphere of Titan is extremely cold. The instruments recorded a temperature of minus one hundred eighty degrees Celsius. VOICE ONE: When Huygens was seven hundred meters above the surface, a special landing lamp was turned on. The lamp was used to light the surface of Titan to aid Huygens’ cameras and see where the vehicle was going to land. The lamp was designed to last for about fifteen minutes. It continued to light the immediate area for more than one hour after Huygens landed on the surface. Scientists believe the Huygens lander hit an area of Titan’s surface that may be mud or wet sand. The lander’s recording equipment transmitted a sound similar to a large object hitting a wet surface. Instruments on Huygens showed the surface landing area is mostly a mix of dirty water ice, hydrocarbon ice, sand and clay. This mix of water and chemicals makes the ground a dark color. The instruments on Huygens began to quickly send back large amounts of information about the surface. This information included air temperature, air pressure and wind speed. It also sent information about chemicals on the surface of Titan and in the air. Experts say Huygens sent back enough information and photographs to keep researchers very busy for several years. VOICE TWO: After it landed, Huygens immediately began transmitting photographs from the surface of Titan. The photographs are orange in color. Scientists say the surface of Titan is orange because of its huge distance from the sun. The large amounts of methane gas in the atmosphere also add to the orange color. Rocks on the Surface of Titan.These photographs show an area of rocks of many sizes. The rocks can be seen for as far as the camera can see. Experts say many of the rocks look as if they have been shaped by fast-moving liquid. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Huygens lander stopped transmitting information after one hour and twelve minutes. The fierce atmosphere of Titan and extremely low temperatures halted the vehicle’s ability to gather information. Yet it lasted longer than scientists had planned. Scientists will use the information gathered by the Huygens lander to learn a great deal about this unusual moon. One of the main reasons for sending Huygens to the surface is that Titan has a rich nitrogen atmosphere. It is also rich in methane gas. And its surface may have many of the same kinds of chemicals that existed on Earth millions of years ago. Titan may help scientists learn more about the very beginnings of our planet. David Southwood is the Director of the European Space Agency’s scientific program. Mister Southwood says Titan is a very interesting world. And scientists now have good information about this far away moon. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer that can link with the Internet communications system, you too can see the orange photographs taken on the surface of Titan. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California has many links to both Huygens and Cassini. J-P-L can be found at www.jpl.nasa.gov. That address again is www.jpl.nasa.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Study of Older Women Finds Moderate Alcohol Use May Help Mental Abilities
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study suggests that moderate use of alcohol might help reduce the loss of mental ability, at least in older women. The researchers define moderate as less than fifteen grams a day, or about one drink. The study compared the risk of cognitive impairment in women who used alcohol to women who did not. Cognitive impairment means a loss of thinking ability. Here is what the scientists reported in The New England Journal of Medicine: Women who drank less than fifteen grams of alcohol per day had about a twenty percent lower risk than those who drank none at all. Mental ability was measured for only a two-year period. Doctor Francine Grodstein of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, led the research. She says earlier studies showed that moderate amounts of alcohol may reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. But she says less research has been done on how it may affect mental skills. This is one of the largest studies done on the issue. The researchers used information from more than twelve thousand women in the Nurses’ Health Study, a major project. All the women were between the ages of seventy and eighty-one. Beginning in nineteen eighty the women answered questions every few years about their alcohol use. Then, starting in nineteen ninety-five, they answered questions by telephone to test their memory and reasoning skills. Some researchers think alcohol increases good cholesterol, which helps blood flow better to the brain. That may improve mental skills. The new study found similar results for all forms of alcoholic drinks. But the study found no additional reduction in risk from more than one glass a day. The researchers note that other studies of women as well as men have had similar findings about moderate alcohol use and mental ability. But they also say that care should be taken in advising even moderate use of alcohol. The scientists say more must be learned about the effect of moderate alcohol use. But they point out that the harmful effects of drinking too much are well established. Too much alcohol can ruin lives, and families. It can cause liver disease and harm the brain. It can also worsen other medical conditions, and may increase the risk of some kinds of cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 2, 2005 - Internet Terms
* Byline: 

 First broadcast: February 2, 2005 Personal computers and the Internet have become vital tools for everything from communications and research to entertainment and office work. Not surprisingly, new words connected with these technologies are becoming part of common speech. VOA's Adam Phillips reports: Internet users may be annoyed, amused or simply resigned to the number of new technical words that keep popping up in cyberspace, only to become so useful and familiar it is hard to imagine everyday American speech without them. But Peter Sokolowski, a dictionary editor at the Merriam-Webster company, reminds us that, even as recently as the mid 1990s, almost none of those technical computer and Internet terms existed. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And today, ten or eleven years later, there are hundreds of them. They come at us from print sources when they are talking about the Internet and then of course they come from the Internet itself." Many of the first common computer-related terms had to with word processing, and borrowed their terminology from the world of the traditional office. PETER SOKOLOWSKI:: "Words like folders, desktop, clipboard, bookmark and homepage. Those are words that are very comfortable to all of us. 'Homepage' was never a word before the Internet, but of course home and page separately were very common. But now it means the first Web page that you look at when you open up your computer." TEXT: One comfortable, even cozy, word that has acquired a new technical meaning is cookie. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Which, in Internet terms, means the piece of information that remains behind once you've visited a Web site. That word is obviously better known to most English speakers as being a little biscuit or something sweet to eat." Mr. Sokolowski says that some new terms combine the old and the new. Take, for example, the word Wi-Fi. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And it sort of combines two separate words. One is wireless, or technology that allows for wireless computing. So, for example, you can walk around within your house and go upstairs with your laptop and you would never have to plug it in. That's the first part of the word. And the second part, -fi, comes from hi-fi, which is the old high fidelity system of stereo components which were used from the 1950s forward. But of course in this digital age, we don't say 'high fidelity' anymore. So this word is sort of a throwback and a combination at the same time. TEXT: Even a single letter can transform the meaning of the word it precedes. The vowel e, for example, which stands for electronic, changes mail into e-mail, and e-commerce becomes the multi-billion phenomenon of Internet trade. Still, Mr. Sokolowski's favorite categories of Internet terms are new combinations of old words that mean completely new things. PETER SOKOLOWSKI:: "So you have a word like blog which came from Web log. A log is like a diary -- something where you record the events of your day or your thoughts and, in this case, on the Web. Another word like that is dot-com. We have derived it from the Internet address of so many businesses to describe the period and then the com, which means commercial, for the Internet address. Whether a word arises from the Internet or some other sphere of activity, the folks at Merriam-Webster always use the same criterion to determine when it has actually entered the language or can be dismissed as mere jargon or slang, known and used only to insiders. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And that is if the words are used without an explanation or any kind of definition in running prose in a major print source. And that means in American sources, a major newspaper such as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, a major magazine such as Time or Newsweek. "When a word such as blog appears in those magazines or newspapers, we know that the editors of those journals expect their readers to already know what the word means. So that's when the word is ready to go into the dictionary. Mr. Sokowloski is confident that next year's dictionary will include the word google. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Because it is a word that has entered the language very, very quickly, and is being used as a verb even though it is the name of a company and people often say, I'd like to 'google' some information, or I'll 'google' you to get information, and that means using a search engine, like Google, to get information very quickly off the Internet. I can see that becoming part of the dictionary in about a year's time because it is already part of the language." And it is part of some non-English languages as well, it seems. Even though the Internet is international, many new terms begin in English, and are then absorbed into foreign languages. So while the French, for example, have their own word for email, Mr. Sokolowski says his research indicates that French Internet users employ the original English term most of the time, and other languages often take English Internet terms and write them in their own alphabets. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from New York. First broadcast: February 2, 2005 Personal computers and the Internet have become vital tools for everything from communications and research to entertainment and office work. Not surprisingly, new words connected with these technologies are becoming part of common speech. VOA's Adam Phillips reports: Internet users may be annoyed, amused or simply resigned to the number of new technical words that keep popping up in cyberspace, only to become so useful and familiar it is hard to imagine everyday American speech without them. But Peter Sokolowski, a dictionary editor at the Merriam-Webster company, reminds us that, even as recently as the mid 1990s, almost none of those technical computer and Internet terms existed. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And today, ten or eleven years later, there are hundreds of them. They come at us from print sources when they are talking about the Internet and then of course they come from the Internet itself." Many of the first common computer-related terms had to with word processing, and borrowed their terminology from the world of the traditional office. PETER SOKOLOWSKI:: "Words like folders, desktop, clipboard, bookmark and homepage. Those are words that are very comfortable to all of us. 'Homepage' was never a word before the Internet, but of course home and page separately were very common. But now it means the first Web page that you look at when you open up your computer." TEXT: One comfortable, even cozy, word that has acquired a new technical meaning is cookie. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Which, in Internet terms, means the piece of information that remains behind once you've visited a Web site. That word is obviously better known to most English speakers as being a little biscuit or something sweet to eat." Mr. Sokolowski says that some new terms combine the old and the new. Take, for example, the word Wi-Fi. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And it sort of combines two separate words. One is wireless, or technology that allows for wireless computing. So, for example, you can walk around within your house and go upstairs with your laptop and you would never have to plug it in. That's the first part of the word. And the second part, -fi, comes from hi-fi, which is the old high fidelity system of stereo components which were used from the 1950s forward. But of course in this digital age, we don't say 'high fidelity' anymore. So this word is sort of a throwback and a combination at the same time. TEXT: Even a single letter can transform the meaning of the word it precedes. The vowel e, for example, which stands for electronic, changes mail into e-mail, and e-commerce becomes the multi-billion phenomenon of Internet trade. Still, Mr. Sokolowski's favorite categories of Internet terms are new combinations of old words that mean completely new things. PETER SOKOLOWSKI:: "So you have a word like blog which came from Web log. A log is like a diary -- something where you record the events of your day or your thoughts and, in this case, on the Web. Another word like that is dot-com. We have derived it from the Internet address of so many businesses to describe the period and then the com, which means commercial, for the Internet address. Whether a word arises from the Internet or some other sphere of activity, the folks at Merriam-Webster always use the same criterion to determine when it has actually entered the language or can be dismissed as mere jargon or slang, known and used only to insiders. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And that is if the words are used without an explanation or any kind of definition in running prose in a major print source. And that means in American sources, a major newspaper such as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, a major magazine such as Time or Newsweek. "When a word such as blog appears in those magazines or newspapers, we know that the editors of those journals expect their readers to already know what the word means. So that's when the word is ready to go into the dictionary. Mr. Sokowloski is confident that next year's dictionary will include the word google. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Because it is a word that has entered the language very, very quickly, and is being used as a verb even though it is the name of a company and people often say, I'd like to 'google' some information, or I'll 'google' you to get information, and that means using a search engine, like Google, to get information very quickly off the Internet. I can see that becoming part of the dictionary in about a year's time because it is already part of the language." And it is part of some non-English languages as well, it seems. Even though the Internet is international, many new terms begin in English, and are then absorbed into foreign languages. So while the French, for example, have their own word for email, Mr. Sokolowski says his research indicates that French Internet users employ the original English term most of the time, and other languages often take English Internet terms and write them in their own alphabets. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 5
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The storm of battle spread across the United States in the summer of eighteen-sixty-one. For several months, small fights had flashed like lightning around the edge of this great storm. Soldiers fought pro-southern rioters in the streets of Baltimore and Saint Louis. A Confederate supporter shot and killed a famous young officer from the north. Untrained soldiers of both sides fought in the mountains of western Virginia. So far, the fighting had not claimed many lives. But very soon, the storm would break in all its fury. VOICE TWO: The old general who commanded the Union forces, Winfield Scott, did not want to rush his men into battle. Scott believed it would be a long war. He planned to spend the first year of it getting ready to fight. He had an army of thousands of men, and it would get much larger in coming months. But this army was not trained. His soldiers were civilians who knew nothing about fighting a war. General Scott needed time to make soldiers of these men. He also needed time to organize a supply system to get to his forces the guns, bullets, food, and clothing they would need. Without supplies, his army could not fight very long. VOICE ONE: There were many in the north, however, who thought Scott was too careful. It was true, they said, that Union forces were untrained. But so were those of the south. And the Confederacy's supply problems were even greater than those of the Union. The south had much less industry and fewer railroads. It could not produce as much military equipment, and it could not transport supplies as easily as the north could. In the early months of the war, Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President, did not even have guns enough for the men in his army. Those who demanded immediate action expected a short war. They said Scott should take the army and March to Richmond. They were sure that if Union forces seized the Confederate capital, the southern rebellion would end. Northern newspapers took up the cry, "On to Richmond!" Political leaders began pressing for a quick northern victory. Public pressure forced the army to act. VOICE TWO: For more than a month, General Irvin NcDowell had been building a Union army in northern Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington. He had more than thirty-thousand men at bases in Arlington and Alexandria. Late in June, McSowell received orders: "March against the Confederate Army of General Pierre Beauregard. " Beauregard had twenty-thousand soldiers at Manassas Junction, a railroad village in Virginia less than fifty kilometers from Washington. McDowell planned to move on Manassas Junction July ninth, but was delayed for more than a week. He planned the attack carefully. McDowell was worried that another large Confederate force west of Manassas Junction might join Beauregard's army. This force, led by General Joe Johnston, was in the Shenandoah Valley near Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Across from Harpers Ferry, in Maryland, was a Union army almost twice the size of Johnston's. It was ordered to put pressure on Johnston's force to prevent it from helping Beauregard. VOICE ONE: General Beauregard received early warning from Confederate spies that McDowell would attack. Much of his information came from a woman, Misses Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Misses Greenhow, a widow, was an important woman in Washington. She knew almost all the top government officials. And she had friends in almost every department of the government. The beautiful Misses Greenhow also had some very special friends. One was Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. He was chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. Another special friend was Thomas Jordan, a Confederate colonel in Beauregard's army. VOICE TWO: Jordan asked Misses Greenhow, soon after the war started, to be a spy for the south. She agreed and sent much valuable information about Union military plans. Early in July, she sent word to Beauregard that he would be attacked soon. She also sent a map used by the Senate Military Affairs Committee showing how the Union army would reach Manassas Junction. Then, on the morning of July sixteenth, Misses Greenhow wrote a nine-word message. She gave it to a man to carry to Beauregard. The Confederate General received it that evening. It said: "Order given for McDowell to march upon Manassas tonight." VOICE ONE Beauregard sent a telegram to Richmond. He told the Confederate government that McDowell was on the way. He asked that Johnston's ten thousand-man force in the Shenandoah Valley join him for battle. He was told to expect Johnston's help. But Johnston's army was threatened by a large Union force that entered Virginia from Maryland. Led by General Robert Patterson, the Union troops moved toward the smaller Confederate force. They were not really interested in fighting Johnston. But they did want to prevent him from reaching Beauregard. Johnston knew he could not defeat Patterson. So he decided to trick him. While most of his army withdrew and prepared to join Beauregard, Johnston sent a small force to attack Patterson's army. Patterson believed Johnston was attacking with all his troops. He stopped moving forward and prepared to defend against what seemed to be a strong Confederate attack. By the time the trick was discovered, Johnston and most of his troops were at Manassas. VOICE TWO General McDowell's huge Union army left Arlington on the afternoon of July sixteenth. It was a hot day, and the road was dusty. The march was not well organized, and the men traveled slowly. They stopped at every stream to drink and wash the dust from their faces. Some of the soldiers left the road to pick fruits and berries from bushes along the way. To some of those who watched this army pass, the lines of soldiers in bright clothes looked like a long circus parade. Most of these men had not been soldiers long. Their bodies were soft, and they tired quickly. It took them four days to travel the forty-five kilometers to Centreville, the final town before Bull Run. The battle would start the next morning -- Sunday, July twenty-first. VOICE ONE The road from Washington was crowded early Sunday morning with horses and wagons bringing people to watch the great battle. Hundreds of men and women watched the fight from a hill near Centreville. Below them was Bull Run. But the battleground was covered so thickly with trees that the crowds saw little of the fighting. They could, however, see the smoke of battle. And they could hear the sounds of shots and exploding shells. From time to time, Union officers would ride up the hill to report what a great victory their troops were winning. VOICE TWO In the first few hours of the battle, Union forces were winning. McDowell had moved most of his men to the left side of Beauregard's army. They attacked with artillery and pushed the Confederate forces back. It seemed that the Confederate defense would break. Some of the southern soldiers began to run. But others stood and fought. One Confederate officer, trying to prevent his troops from moving back, pointed to a group led by General T. J. Jackson of Virginia. "Look!" He shouted. "There is Jackson...standing like a stone wall! Fight like the Virginians!" The Confederate troops refused to break. The fighting was fierce. The air was full of flying bullets. A newsman wrote that the whole valley was boiling with dust and smoke. A Confederate soldier told his friend, "Them Yankees are just marching up and being shot to hell." Neither side would give up. Then, a large group of Johnston's troops arrived by train and joined in the fight. Suddenly, Union soldiers stopped fighting and began pulling back. General McDowell and his officers tried to stop the retreat, but failed. Their men wanted no more fighting. VOICE ONE: The fleeing Union soldiers threw down their guns and equipment, thinking only of escape. Many did not stop until they reached Washington. It was a bitter defeat. But it made the north recognize the need for a real army -- one trained and equipped for war. President Abraham Lincoln gave the job of building such an army to General George McClellan. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The storm of battle spread across the United States in the summer of eighteen-sixty-one. For several months, small fights had flashed like lightning around the edge of this great storm. Soldiers fought pro-southern rioters in the streets of Baltimore and Saint Louis. A Confederate supporter shot and killed a famous young officer from the north. Untrained soldiers of both sides fought in the mountains of western Virginia. So far, the fighting had not claimed many lives. But very soon, the storm would break in all its fury. VOICE TWO: The old general who commanded the Union forces, Winfield Scott, did not want to rush his men into battle. Scott believed it would be a long war. He planned to spend the first year of it getting ready to fight. He had an army of thousands of men, and it would get much larger in coming months. But this army was not trained. His soldiers were civilians who knew nothing about fighting a war. General Scott needed time to make soldiers of these men. He also needed time to organize a supply system to get to his forces the guns, bullets, food, and clothing they would need. Without supplies, his army could not fight very long. VOICE ONE: There were many in the north, however, who thought Scott was too careful. It was true, they said, that Union forces were untrained. But so were those of the south. And the Confederacy's supply problems were even greater than those of the Union. The south had much less industry and fewer railroads. It could not produce as much military equipment, and it could not transport supplies as easily as the north could. In the early months of the war, Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President, did not even have guns enough for the men in his army. Those who demanded immediate action expected a short war. They said Scott should take the army and March to Richmond. They were sure that if Union forces seized the Confederate capital, the southern rebellion would end. Northern newspapers took up the cry, "On to Richmond!" Political leaders began pressing for a quick northern victory. Public pressure forced the army to act. VOICE TWO: For more than a month, General Irvin NcDowell had been building a Union army in northern Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington. He had more than thirty-thousand men at bases in Arlington and Alexandria. Late in June, McSowell received orders: "March against the Confederate Army of General Pierre Beauregard. " Beauregard had twenty-thousand soldiers at Manassas Junction, a railroad village in Virginia less than fifty kilometers from Washington. McDowell planned to move on Manassas Junction July ninth, but was delayed for more than a week. He planned the attack carefully. McDowell was worried that another large Confederate force west of Manassas Junction might join Beauregard's army. This force, led by General Joe Johnston, was in the Shenandoah Valley near Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Across from Harpers Ferry, in Maryland, was a Union army almost twice the size of Johnston's. It was ordered to put pressure on Johnston's force to prevent it from helping Beauregard. VOICE ONE: General Beauregard received early warning from Confederate spies that McDowell would attack. Much of his information came from a woman, Misses Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Misses Greenhow, a widow, was an important woman in Washington. She knew almost all the top government officials. And she had friends in almost every department of the government. The beautiful Misses Greenhow also had some very special friends. One was Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. He was chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs. Another special friend was Thomas Jordan, a Confederate colonel in Beauregard's army. VOICE TWO: Jordan asked Misses Greenhow, soon after the war started, to be a spy for the south. She agreed and sent much valuable information about Union military plans. Early in July, she sent word to Beauregard that he would be attacked soon. She also sent a map used by the Senate Military Affairs Committee showing how the Union army would reach Manassas Junction. Then, on the morning of July sixteenth, Misses Greenhow wrote a nine-word message. She gave it to a man to carry to Beauregard. The Confederate General received it that evening. It said: "Order given for McDowell to march upon Manassas tonight." VOICE ONE Beauregard sent a telegram to Richmond. He told the Confederate government that McDowell was on the way. He asked that Johnston's ten thousand-man force in the Shenandoah Valley join him for battle. He was told to expect Johnston's help. But Johnston's army was threatened by a large Union force that entered Virginia from Maryland. Led by General Robert Patterson, the Union troops moved toward the smaller Confederate force. They were not really interested in fighting Johnston. But they did want to prevent him from reaching Beauregard. Johnston knew he could not defeat Patterson. So he decided to trick him. While most of his army withdrew and prepared to join Beauregard, Johnston sent a small force to attack Patterson's army. Patterson believed Johnston was attacking with all his troops. He stopped moving forward and prepared to defend against what seemed to be a strong Confederate attack. By the time the trick was discovered, Johnston and most of his troops were at Manassas. VOICE TWO General McDowell's huge Union army left Arlington on the afternoon of July sixteenth. It was a hot day, and the road was dusty. The march was not well organized, and the men traveled slowly. They stopped at every stream to drink and wash the dust from their faces. Some of the soldiers left the road to pick fruits and berries from bushes along the way. To some of those who watched this army pass, the lines of soldiers in bright clothes looked like a long circus parade. Most of these men had not been soldiers long. Their bodies were soft, and they tired quickly. It took them four days to travel the forty-five kilometers to Centreville, the final town before Bull Run. The battle would start the next morning -- Sunday, July twenty-first. VOICE ONE The road from Washington was crowded early Sunday morning with horses and wagons bringing people to watch the great battle. Hundreds of men and women watched the fight from a hill near Centreville. Below them was Bull Run. But the battleground was covered so thickly with trees that the crowds saw little of the fighting. They could, however, see the smoke of battle. And they could hear the sounds of shots and exploding shells. From time to time, Union officers would ride up the hill to report what a great victory their troops were winning. VOICE TWO In the first few hours of the battle, Union forces were winning. McDowell had moved most of his men to the left side of Beauregard's army. They attacked with artillery and pushed the Confederate forces back. It seemed that the Confederate defense would break. Some of the southern soldiers began to run. But others stood and fought. One Confederate officer, trying to prevent his troops from moving back, pointed to a group led by General T. J. Jackson of Virginia. "Look!" He shouted. "There is Jackson...standing like a stone wall! Fight like the Virginians!" The Confederate troops refused to break. The fighting was fierce. The air was full of flying bullets. A newsman wrote that the whole valley was boiling with dust and smoke. A Confederate soldier told his friend, "Them Yankees are just marching up and being shot to hell." Neither side would give up. Then, a large group of Johnston's troops arrived by train and joined in the fight. Suddenly, Union soldiers stopped fighting and began pulling back. General McDowell and his officers tried to stop the retreat, but failed. Their men wanted no more fighting. VOICE ONE: The fleeing Union soldiers threw down their guns and equipment, thinking only of escape. Many did not stop until they reached Washington. It was a bitter defeat. But it made the north recognize the need for a real army -- one trained and equipped for war. President Abraham Lincoln gave the job of building such an army to General George McClellan. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series #23: Medical School
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, as we continue our Foreign Student Series, we answer two Chinese listeners. Jian Liu and Katie Cai both want to know about the possibilities for international study at an American medical school. One hundred twenty-five schools train future doctors in the United States. The American Medical Association says more than sixteen thousand people are in their first year of training. The current school year began in September. The Association of American Medical Colleges says more than one thousand foreign citizens applied to be part of that group. It says two hundred seventy were accepted. And, of those, two hundred nineteen have started their medical studies. The association also says foreign students at American medical schools normally have studied for several years at an American college. Foreign students who want to attend American medical schools must show that they can speak and write English. Foreign students also must be prepared to pay all the costs of their medical education. Much of the financial aid offered by American medical schools comes from the federal government. Students who receive the aid must be American citizens or live permanently in the United States. Officials say foreign students considering an American medical school have to know how they will pay for their education. They should be able to show detailed plans for paying their costs while in school. Students receive an M.D., medical degree, after they complete the traditional four years of training. But medical school is just the first step for new doctors. Then comes a medical residency, several years of working with patients in hospitals. Some medical specialties require years and years of additional training. Doctors must also meet the requirements of the state where they want to practice. The Association of American Medical Colleges has information about medical programs on its Web site. That address is aamc.org. The site also provides advice about how to apply to an American medical school. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. All the reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Social Security, Part 2
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. One out of six Americans receive money from the Social Security system. Monthly payments go to retired workers and disabled people and to their survivors. Two-thirds of Americans age sixty-five and older depend on Social Security for at least half the money they get. The system is financed mostly by a twelve-point-four percent wage tax shared by workers and employers. This year, close to fifty million people will receive more than five hundred thousand million dollars in benefits. But, in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, President Bush said: "With each passing year, fewer workers are paying ever-higher benefits to an ever-larger number of retirees." Thirteen years from now, he said, Social Security will be paying out more than it takes in. In his words: "We must pass reforms that solve the financial problems of Social Security once and for all." His proposals face resistance, not only from opposition Democrats but also some Republicans. It is often said that politicians risk political death if they touch Social Security. Experts say any changes will probably reduce future benefits. Yet no one can even know what the population will be like years from now. The president said the system will not change for Americans now age fifty-five or older. But he warned younger workers that Social Security would be out of money by two thousand forty-two. As he said that, Democrats in Congress shouted "no, no, no." Mister Bush said the only solutions would be higher taxes, new borrowing or "sudden and severe cuts." He said the best way to make the system better for younger workers is through voluntary personal retirement accounts. He said the plan would permit workers to set aside four percentage points of the money they pay in Social Security taxes. The money would be invested in what he called a "conservative mix of bonds and stock funds." He said there would be ways to protect investments from sudden changes in the market before a person is about to retire. But Democrats say younger workers could lose much of their retirement savings. A powerful group for older Americans, A.A.R.P., says it opposes any major changes. It says public opinion studies show that most Americans want Social Security to remain as it is. Internet users can learn more about Social Security at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: The Black Eyed Peas / Question about the American Flag / An Old Washington State Law
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Grammy-nominated music from the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas … Answers to questions about the American flag ... And a look at some unusual laws. Unusual Laws Most laws are meant to make life safer or better in some way. Lawmakers usually have a good reason for approving a law. Or, as Faith Lapidus tells us, maybe it only seemed like a good reason at the time. FAITH LAPIDUS: There are lots of Web sites with old laws that sound stupid, or at least they do today. But who knows which laws are real, so why repeat them here? All we will say is, if you ever want to take a lion to the movies in Maryland, better investigate the local laws. Really, who would want to take a lion to the movies? Now, here is one case you might have heard about. In nineteen ninety-nine, a man in Michigan was in a small boat that hit a rock. He fell into the water and became very angry. He said some words that we cannot repeat. The man was arrested for using offensive language in front of women and children. He was tried and found in violation of a law dating back to eighteen ninety-seven. His sentence was a seventy-five dollar fine and four days of doing community service. He appealed -- and won. In two thousand two, a higher court said the Michigan law violated the First Amendment. The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees free speech. Other states have done away with similar old laws protecting women, but not all such laws. In Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest, a person who makes false statements about a woman may be guilty of a crime. It is not illegal, though, if the woman is what this law calls a "common prostitute." The law is from nineteen oh nine. It has not been enforced for many years. But some people see no reason to keep it. State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles first proposed a bill two years ago to end the law. Her bill got nowhere. Now, she is more hopeful with a new Legislature. Jeanne Kohl-Welles teaches women's studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. She argues that the law is out of date in modern society. She says it raises constitutional issues of free speech and equal protection. Her new bill comes as the state faces a serious budget deficit. The Seattle Times called her "sense of fairness" understandable. But the newspaper questioned the urgency of the bill, given the problems facing the Legislature. It said the last record of an appeal related to this crime was ninety years ago. American Flag DOUG JOHNSON: Two listeners have sent us questions about the same thing: the American flag. Lawrence Akingbulugbe from Ondo, Nigeria, wants to know the meaning of the red, white and blue colors of the Stars and Stripes. And M.S. Haque in Bangladesh wants to know the history of the flag. The history goes back to the thirteen British colonies that became the first American states. Each colony had its own flag. But, during the Revolutionary War against Britain, all the colonies fought together under a common flag. It had red and white stripes, thirteen in all, one for each colony. And it had a blue square in the upper left corner. Red was for honor, white for innocence and blue for justice. Inside the blue square were the red cross and white stripes of the British flag. The American colonists declared their independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Then, on June fourteenth, seventeen seventy-seven, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag. Thirteen red and white stripes remained. But now thirteen white stars replaced the British Union Jack inside the blue area. The stars were meant to represent "a new constellation." Two more stripes were added when two more states joined the Union after the Revolutionary War. In eighteen eighteen, Congress passed a law to require that the flag return to thirteen stripes, to honor the first colonies. But the number of stars increased as new states joined the Union. Today there are fifty states, and fifty stars. A delegate to the Continental Congress, Francis Hopkinson, took credit for the flag design. And tradition says a committee led by George Washington asked a woman with expert sewing skills, Betsy Ross, to make the first flag. Betsy Ross lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are enjoying much success. That hip-hop group will perform just before the Super Bowl of the National Football League on February sixth. And they have four Grammy Award nominations. Shep O’Neal tells us about the Black Eyed Peas. SHEP O'NEAL: The four members call themselves Will I.Am, Apl.de.Ap, Taboo and Fergie. Their real names are William Adams, Allen Pineda, Jaime Gomez and Stacey Ferguson. Their newest album is called “Elephunk.” They say the name describes the sound inside. The music mixes traditional hip-hop with live instruments. This popular single is performed with Justin Timberlake: “Where Is the Love?” (MUSIC) One song on the “Elephunk” album is nominated for three Grammys: Record of the Year, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and Best Rap Song. The song is “Let’s Get It Started.” (MUSIC) The Black Eyed Peas are competing with themselves for the Best Rap Song Grammy. Another song on “Elephunk” is nominated in that category, too. We leave you with the Black Eyed Peas and “Hey Mama.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also the producer. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Grammy-nominated music from the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas … Answers to questions about the American flag ... And a look at some unusual laws. Unusual Laws Most laws are meant to make life safer or better in some way. Lawmakers usually have a good reason for approving a law. Or, as Faith Lapidus tells us, maybe it only seemed like a good reason at the time. FAITH LAPIDUS: There are lots of Web sites with old laws that sound stupid, or at least they do today. But who knows which laws are real, so why repeat them here? All we will say is, if you ever want to take a lion to the movies in Maryland, better investigate the local laws. Really, who would want to take a lion to the movies? Now, here is one case you might have heard about. In nineteen ninety-nine, a man in Michigan was in a small boat that hit a rock. He fell into the water and became very angry. He said some words that we cannot repeat. The man was arrested for using offensive language in front of women and children. He was tried and found in violation of a law dating back to eighteen ninety-seven. His sentence was a seventy-five dollar fine and four days of doing community service. He appealed -- and won. In two thousand two, a higher court said the Michigan law violated the First Amendment. The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees free speech. Other states have done away with similar old laws protecting women, but not all such laws. In Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest, a person who makes false statements about a woman may be guilty of a crime. It is not illegal, though, if the woman is what this law calls a "common prostitute." The law is from nineteen oh nine. It has not been enforced for many years. But some people see no reason to keep it. State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles first proposed a bill two years ago to end the law. Her bill got nowhere. Now, she is more hopeful with a new Legislature. Jeanne Kohl-Welles teaches women's studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. She argues that the law is out of date in modern society. She says it raises constitutional issues of free speech and equal protection. Her new bill comes as the state faces a serious budget deficit. The Seattle Times called her "sense of fairness" understandable. But the newspaper questioned the urgency of the bill, given the problems facing the Legislature. It said the last record of an appeal related to this crime was ninety years ago. American Flag DOUG JOHNSON: Two listeners have sent us questions about the same thing: the American flag. Lawrence Akingbulugbe from Ondo, Nigeria, wants to know the meaning of the red, white and blue colors of the Stars and Stripes. And M.S. Haque in Bangladesh wants to know the history of the flag. The history goes back to the thirteen British colonies that became the first American states. Each colony had its own flag. But, during the Revolutionary War against Britain, all the colonies fought together under a common flag. It had red and white stripes, thirteen in all, one for each colony. And it had a blue square in the upper left corner. Red was for honor, white for innocence and blue for justice. Inside the blue square were the red cross and white stripes of the British flag. The American colonists declared their independence on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Then, on June fourteenth, seventeen seventy-seven, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag. Thirteen red and white stripes remained. But now thirteen white stars replaced the British Union Jack inside the blue area. The stars were meant to represent "a new constellation." Two more stripes were added when two more states joined the Union after the Revolutionary War. In eighteen eighteen, Congress passed a law to require that the flag return to thirteen stripes, to honor the first colonies. But the number of stars increased as new states joined the Union. Today there are fifty states, and fifty stars. A delegate to the Continental Congress, Francis Hopkinson, took credit for the flag design. And tradition says a committee led by George Washington asked a woman with expert sewing skills, Betsy Ross, to make the first flag. Betsy Ross lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are enjoying much success. That hip-hop group will perform just before the Super Bowl of the National Football League on February sixth. And they have four Grammy Award nominations. Shep O’Neal tells us about the Black Eyed Peas. SHEP O'NEAL: The four members call themselves Will I.Am, Apl.de.Ap, Taboo and Fergie. Their real names are William Adams, Allen Pineda, Jaime Gomez and Stacey Ferguson. Their newest album is called “Elephunk.” They say the name describes the sound inside. The music mixes traditional hip-hop with live instruments. This popular single is performed with Justin Timberlake: “Where Is the Love?” (MUSIC) One song on the “Elephunk” album is nominated for three Grammys: Record of the Year, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, and Best Rap Song. The song is “Let’s Get It Started.” (MUSIC) The Black Eyed Peas are competing with themselves for the Best Rap Song Grammy. Another song on “Elephunk” is nominated in that category, too. We leave you with the Black Eyed Peas and “Hey Mama.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also the producer. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Discusses Middle East Policy in State of the Union Speech
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders before those leaders hold talks next week. Her trip is part of the Middle East peace efforts that President Bush discussed this week in his State of the Union speech. Miz Rice is to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem on Sunday. She visits Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, Mister Abbas and Mister Sharon are to meet in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. It will be the first time Israeli and Palestinian leaders have met in more than four years. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is holding the talks. King Abdullah of Jordan also is expected to take part. President Bush announced that he will ask Congress for three hundred fifty million dollars for the Palestinians. He said the money would go for political, security and other reforms. In his words: "The goal of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace is within reach – and America will help them achieve that goal." In his speech Wednesday night in Congress, Mister Bush also called for greater freedoms in other parts of the Middle East. He said reform is already taking hold from Morocco to Jordan to Bahrain. He called on Saudi Arabia to give its people more power to decide their future. And he spoke of Egypt, another American ally, which he called “a great and proud nation.” He said, "Egypt, which showed the way toward peace in the Middle East, can now show the way toward democracy in the Middle East." In much stronger language, Mister Bush said that Syria still permits its territory and parts of Lebanon to be used by terrorists. And he said Iran remains the world's main state supporter of terrorism. He said Iran is seeking nuclear weapons while denying its people freedom. The president had a message for Iranians. "As you stand for your own liberty," he said, "American stands with you." In London Friday, reporters asked Secretary Rice if the United States might ever attack Iran. In her words: "The question is simply not on the agenda at this point." She said diplomatic steps remain. Miz Rice is on her first trip as top American diplomat. London was the first stop among European capitals. In his State of the Union speech, the president praised the Iraqi people for voting in elections. He said terrorists are trying to destroy the hope that Iraqis expressed. Millions of people voted Sunday for a new Transitional National Assembly. Leaders of the opposition Democrats in Congress criticized Mister Bush for not saying when American troops will leave Iraq. The president introduced an Iraqi human rights activist whose father was killed by the Saddam Hussein government. Safia Taleb al-Souhail shared an emotional hug with another guest, Janet Norwood, the mother of a United States Marine killed in battle in Iraq. In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Artie Shaw
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: I’m Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell the story of a musician who led one of the most popular American bands during the nineteen thirties and forties. His name was Artie Shaw. Listen for a few minutes to one of his many hit songs. This one is called “Frenesi.” Artie Shaw plays the clarinet. (MUSIC) On December thirtieth, two thousand four, Artie Shaw died after a long sickness. He was ninety-four years old. He was the last great musician and bandleader of what has been called the “Big Band Era.” Some of the others were Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. In the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties Artie Shaw was one of the most popular musicians and bandleaders in the United States. Just a few notes from his clarinet could start people dancing. His music sold millions of records. It still is difficult to listen to an old Artie Shaw recording and not tap your foot in time with the music. Or want to dance. Or sing along with his great sound. Listen to Shaw on the clarinet and his band play part of a song recorded in Hollywood, California in nineteen forty. It is called “Summit Ridge Drive.” (MUSIC) Artie Shaw was born in New York City in nineteen ten. His name was Arthur Arshawsky. His parents were poor immigrants who had come to the United States from Eastern Europe. His family later moved to New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of fourteen, he began to play the saxophone and then the clarinet. From a very young age, Artie Shaw wanted to play his clarinet better than anyone. He wanted his sound and music to be perfect. He worked at this task much of his life. He began working as a professional musician when he was fifteen. He left home and began playing in bands across the United States. In nineteen twenty-seven, young Artie Shaw traveled to Chicago, Illinois to hear the great trumpet player, Louis Armstrong. He immediately understood that Armstrong’s great jazz sound was the beginning of something new and exciting. Artie left Chicago with a growing interest in jazz music. Soon after, he moved to New York City. He got work playing the clarinet for the Columbia Broadcast System radio network. In nineteen thirty-six, he was given a chance to form a small group and play at New York’s famous Imperial Theater on Broadway. His group was not the top band in the show. But the crowd loved his music. This proved to a major step in his career. Artie Shaw was always trying something new, something different. He heard a young black woman sing and hired her for his band. This was the first time that a black woman sang with white musicians. Racial separation was the rule in many states. Artie Shaw did not care. The young singer was Billie Holiday. She would become very famous within a few years. Listen as Billie Holiday sings with Artie Shaw’s band. This recording was made in nineteen thirty-eight. It is called “Any Old Time.” (MUSIC) That same year, Artie Shaw and his band recorded what would be one of their most popular songs. It sold millions of records. It still sells several thousand each year. Shaw was surprised that it became so popular. The song is “Begin the Beguine” written by Cole Porter. (MUSIC) Artie Shaw was well known before he recorded “Begin the Beguine.” But that record made him extremely famous. He and his band earned as much as sixty thousand dollars each week. That was a huge amount of money then. However, the fame caused problems for Shaw. He could not go anywhere without being recognized. He no longer had a private life. Artie Shaw was married eight times. Two of his wives were Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. They were the most famous and beautiful Hollywood movie actresses of that time. Those marriages increased his fame and made it even harder to have a private life. The fame may have helped lead to the failure of his marriages. His attempts to create better music also caused problems for Artie Shaw. Many years later, he said people always wanted to hear the old songs he had recorded. They did not want to hear new music he was writing. He did not like playing the same old songs again and again. Critics have always said his playing was very special. Sometimes Shaw did not follow the music. He would improvise. This means he would play the music as he felt it. He often took a song that everyone knew and changed it so it sounded very different. Listen to Artie Shaw improvise with a song called “Stardust.” It was recorded in nineteen forty. It was another major hit for Shaw and his band and sold millions of records. (MUSIC) Artie Shaw made his last public appearance as a musician in nineteen fifty-four. He said the struggle with fame and trying to produce a perfect sound was destroying him. He was only forty-four years old. He never played the clarinet again. Artie Shaw wrote several books in his later years. He wrote stories for magazines. He spoke about music at colleges and universities. But he had very little to do with the world of recording or music. During those years however, he received many awards and honors for his music. These included a Hall of Fame award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Music experts will tell you that Artie Shaw was one of the best of the big band leaders and musicians. Much of his work from so long ago is still fresh and exciting today. We leave you with one more Artie Shaw song. He recorded it in nineteen forty. It is called “Blues.” Listen as Artie Shaw makes his clarinet fly. (MUSIC) This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Bob Doughty was our engineer and I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another People In America program in VOA Special English. ANNOUNCER: I’m Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell the story of a musician who led one of the most popular American bands during the nineteen thirties and forties. His name was Artie Shaw. Listen for a few minutes to one of his many hit songs. This one is called “Frenesi.” Artie Shaw plays the clarinet. (MUSIC) On December thirtieth, two thousand four, Artie Shaw died after a long sickness. He was ninety-four years old. He was the last great musician and bandleader of what has been called the “Big Band Era.” Some of the others were Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. In the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties Artie Shaw was one of the most popular musicians and bandleaders in the United States. Just a few notes from his clarinet could start people dancing. His music sold millions of records. It still is difficult to listen to an old Artie Shaw recording and not tap your foot in time with the music. Or want to dance. Or sing along with his great sound. Listen to Shaw on the clarinet and his band play part of a song recorded in Hollywood, California in nineteen forty. It is called “Summit Ridge Drive.” (MUSIC) Artie Shaw was born in New York City in nineteen ten. His name was Arthur Arshawsky. His parents were poor immigrants who had come to the United States from Eastern Europe. His family later moved to New Haven, Connecticut. At the age of fourteen, he began to play the saxophone and then the clarinet. From a very young age, Artie Shaw wanted to play his clarinet better than anyone. He wanted his sound and music to be perfect. He worked at this task much of his life. He began working as a professional musician when he was fifteen. He left home and began playing in bands across the United States. In nineteen twenty-seven, young Artie Shaw traveled to Chicago, Illinois to hear the great trumpet player, Louis Armstrong. He immediately understood that Armstrong’s great jazz sound was the beginning of something new and exciting. Artie left Chicago with a growing interest in jazz music. Soon after, he moved to New York City. He got work playing the clarinet for the Columbia Broadcast System radio network. In nineteen thirty-six, he was given a chance to form a small group and play at New York’s famous Imperial Theater on Broadway. His group was not the top band in the show. But the crowd loved his music. This proved to a major step in his career. Artie Shaw was always trying something new, something different. He heard a young black woman sing and hired her for his band. This was the first time that a black woman sang with white musicians. Racial separation was the rule in many states. Artie Shaw did not care. The young singer was Billie Holiday. She would become very famous within a few years. Listen as Billie Holiday sings with Artie Shaw’s band. This recording was made in nineteen thirty-eight. It is called “Any Old Time.” (MUSIC) That same year, Artie Shaw and his band recorded what would be one of their most popular songs. It sold millions of records. It still sells several thousand each year. Shaw was surprised that it became so popular. The song is “Begin the Beguine” written by Cole Porter. (MUSIC) Artie Shaw was well known before he recorded “Begin the Beguine.” But that record made him extremely famous. He and his band earned as much as sixty thousand dollars each week. That was a huge amount of money then. However, the fame caused problems for Shaw. He could not go anywhere without being recognized. He no longer had a private life. Artie Shaw was married eight times. Two of his wives were Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. They were the most famous and beautiful Hollywood movie actresses of that time. Those marriages increased his fame and made it even harder to have a private life. The fame may have helped lead to the failure of his marriages. His attempts to create better music also caused problems for Artie Shaw. Many years later, he said people always wanted to hear the old songs he had recorded. They did not want to hear new music he was writing. He did not like playing the same old songs again and again. Critics have always said his playing was very special. Sometimes Shaw did not follow the music. He would improvise. This means he would play the music as he felt it. He often took a song that everyone knew and changed it so it sounded very different. Listen to Artie Shaw improvise with a song called “Stardust.” It was recorded in nineteen forty. It was another major hit for Shaw and his band and sold millions of records. (MUSIC) Artie Shaw made his last public appearance as a musician in nineteen fifty-four. He said the struggle with fame and trying to produce a perfect sound was destroying him. He was only forty-four years old. He never played the clarinet again. Artie Shaw wrote several books in his later years. He wrote stories for magazines. He spoke about music at colleges and universities. But he had very little to do with the world of recording or music. During those years however, he received many awards and honors for his music. These included a Hall of Fame award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Music experts will tell you that Artie Shaw was one of the best of the big band leaders and musicians. Much of his work from so long ago is still fresh and exciting today. We leave you with one more Artie Shaw song. He recorded it in nineteen forty. It is called “Blues.” Listen as Artie Shaw makes his clarinet fly. (MUSIC) This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Bob Doughty was our engineer and I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another People In America program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: New Orleans and Mardi Gras
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Our program this week is about Mardi Gras and New Orleans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wild celebrations of Mardi Gras come just before the start of Lent. Lent is the Christian observance leading up to the Easter holiday. It is a serious, spiritual time. The name "Mardi Gras" is French. It means "Fat Tuesday." This year Fat Tuesday falls on February eighth. During Mardi Gras, huge crowds fill the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the southeastern part of the United States. People come to eat, drink and dance. Police are in the crowds in case things get too wild. Many parties and parades have already taken place by the time Fat Tuesday arrives. VOICE TWO: Many social groups hold parades. Some of the huge floats carry up to two hundred fifty people. Riders on the parade floats wear colorful clothes. Bird feathers top hats that stand a meter tall. Beautiful, and sometimes strange, masks cover the faces of people on the floats. These people throw cups and necklaces to the crowds of people who watch the parades. This is a tradition. Another tradition is to eat “King Cake." This food, similar to a sweet bread, is served at Mardi Gras parties. Inside one piece is a small plastic baby. Whoever gets the baby must promise to hold the next party. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Before Europeans arrived, several tribes of American Indians lived in what is now New Orleans. The city was established in seventeen eighteen. The Louisiana Territory was a French colony then. The city was named for the Duke of Orleans, the ruler of France at that time. The city lies along the Mississippi River. The river flows past until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, one hundred sixty kilometers away. VOICE TWO: New OrleansFrench QuarterVOA photo - G. FlakusThe first area settled in New Orleans was the Vieux Carre. This is now commonly called the French Quarter. After the city was established, roads and simple houses were built quickly. Government buildings and a church were added around the Place D’Armes, now called Jackson Square. Ships brought people from Europe as well as Africa and the Caribbean. Wealthy businessmen were among the newcomers. So were exiles, criminals -- and slaves. The people found wetlands and difficult living conditions. There were clouds of mosquitoes. The insects bit people and spread yellow fever. VOICE ONE: Survival was a struggle. Settlers had to deal with floods, diseases and food shortages. But they stayed. And they developed a society that was almost a copy of French culture. In seventeen sixty-two, the people of New Orleans discovered that they no longer lived in a French colony. The French king had given Louisiana to his cousin, the king of Spain. Wealthy Spaniards continued the cultural life begun by the French. French and Spanish families became linked through marriage. The sons and daughters of these unions became known as Creoles. VOICE TWO: A fire in seventeen eighty-eight, and another fire six years later, left New Orleans in ashes. But the city was rebuilt. Much of it was rebuilt in the Spanish way. Earthen bricks were covered with a mixture of lime, sand and water. The new homes had flower gardens surrounded by walls. They had iron balconies on the upper level. In eighteen-hundred, France secretly regained control of the Louisiana Territory. Then, three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States. Most people living in New Orleans were not happy. They considered Americans to be people without culture. VOICE ONE: Americans were not welcome in the Vieux Carre. So they built their own New Orleans north of it. They put large, beautiful homes in what is now the Garden District. Over time the older groups began to need the money and business skills of the Americans. The Americans wanted the warmth and life of the old city. Both groups were forced to join in a continuing battle against windstorms, floods and diseases such as yellow fever. Soon they developed a spirit of unity. By eighteen forty, New Orleans was the fourth largest city in America. For a time, it was the richest city in the country. It was called the “Paris of America.” VOICE TWO: Rich cotton and sugarcane farmers built huge homes along the Mississippi River outside New Orleans. They also kept smaller homes in the city. They stayed there while attending the opera, the theater and festivals. The celebration of Mardi Gras became an important social event. Through the years it got bigger and better. But high-spirited living ended with the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. Louisiana and the other slave-holding states of the South lost the war. Federal troops from the North occupied New Orleans. VOICE ONE: By nineteen hundred, the city was growing again. People from Ireland, Germany and Italy had arrived. They added their culture, food and traditions to the already exciting mix. Engineers made the Mississippi River deeper so bigger ships could reach the city. New Orleans became a busy port. Engineers also pumped water out of wetlands. This action denied refuge to mosquitoes and helped end the threat of deadly yellow fever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By government estimates, four hundred sixty-nine thousand people lived in greater New Orleans as of two thousand three. In the last national population count, in two thousand, New Orleans was thirty-first among cities. It lost two-point-five percent of its population during the nineteen nineties, at a time when rates of some crimes increased. Officials say people continue to leave the city. People in New Orleans face a number of problems. There are not enough jobs. There is not enough money for schools and roads. The city must also deal with a history of racial divisions. Today two out of three people in New Orleans are black. VOICE ONE: Ray Nagin, an African American, was elected mayor in two thousand two. He started campaigns to reduce crime in the city and dishonesty in government. Recently Mister Nagin announced a plan to improve communities around the city. The plan is called Neighborhood One. A main aim is to improve seven neighborhoods where thousands of buildings are in bad condition. The Neighborhood One plan would replace them with single-family homes. The city government would carry out the plan together with private developers. Work would begin in small areas of three neighborhoods. VOICE TWO: New Orleans faces many of the modern problems common to big cities. At the same time, many of its citizens have fought hard to save the beauty of its past. The French Quarter is the oldest part of the city. It remains the heart of New Orleans. And the French Quarter is where some of the best food -- a mix of French and Caribbean influences -- can be found. The central business area has modern office buildings. It also has one of the biggest indoor sports centers in the world. Almost one hundred thousand people can watch events inside the Louisiana Superdome. And the city has a museum that honors the D-Day invasion in Europe by Allied forces during World War Two. VOICE ONE: In modern New Orleans, old paddle-wheel steamboats still travel the Mississippi River. And old electric streetcars travel along Saint Charles Street. They take visitors past the large homes of early American settlers. Nearby are the modern buildings of two universities: Tulane and Loyola. VOICE TWO In New Orleans, music spills into the streets not just at Mardi Gras, but throughout the year. New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz. But local sounds also include Cajun and zydeco music. On Bourbon Street, the music and the crowds seem like a huge celebration that never ends. The most traditional old-time jazz is played at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter. As they say in New Orleans, it is the kind of jazz that gets your blood moving. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Our program this week is about Mardi Gras and New Orleans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wild celebrations of Mardi Gras come just before the start of Lent. Lent is the Christian observance leading up to the Easter holiday. It is a serious, spiritual time. The name "Mardi Gras" is French. It means "Fat Tuesday." This year Fat Tuesday falls on February eighth. During Mardi Gras, huge crowds fill the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the southeastern part of the United States. People come to eat, drink and dance. Police are in the crowds in case things get too wild. Many parties and parades have already taken place by the time Fat Tuesday arrives. VOICE TWO: Many social groups hold parades. Some of the huge floats carry up to two hundred fifty people. Riders on the parade floats wear colorful clothes. Bird feathers top hats that stand a meter tall. Beautiful, and sometimes strange, masks cover the faces of people on the floats. These people throw cups and necklaces to the crowds of people who watch the parades. This is a tradition. Another tradition is to eat “King Cake." This food, similar to a sweet bread, is served at Mardi Gras parties. Inside one piece is a small plastic baby. Whoever gets the baby must promise to hold the next party. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Before Europeans arrived, several tribes of American Indians lived in what is now New Orleans. The city was established in seventeen eighteen. The Louisiana Territory was a French colony then. The city was named for the Duke of Orleans, the ruler of France at that time. The city lies along the Mississippi River. The river flows past until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, one hundred sixty kilometers away. VOICE TWO: New OrleansFrench QuarterVOA photo - G. FlakusThe first area settled in New Orleans was the Vieux Carre. This is now commonly called the French Quarter. After the city was established, roads and simple houses were built quickly. Government buildings and a church were added around the Place D’Armes, now called Jackson Square. Ships brought people from Europe as well as Africa and the Caribbean. Wealthy businessmen were among the newcomers. So were exiles, criminals -- and slaves. The people found wetlands and difficult living conditions. There were clouds of mosquitoes. The insects bit people and spread yellow fever. VOICE ONE: Survival was a struggle. Settlers had to deal with floods, diseases and food shortages. But they stayed. And they developed a society that was almost a copy of French culture. In seventeen sixty-two, the people of New Orleans discovered that they no longer lived in a French colony. The French king had given Louisiana to his cousin, the king of Spain. Wealthy Spaniards continued the cultural life begun by the French. French and Spanish families became linked through marriage. The sons and daughters of these unions became known as Creoles. VOICE TWO: A fire in seventeen eighty-eight, and another fire six years later, left New Orleans in ashes. But the city was rebuilt. Much of it was rebuilt in the Spanish way. Earthen bricks were covered with a mixture of lime, sand and water. The new homes had flower gardens surrounded by walls. They had iron balconies on the upper level. In eighteen-hundred, France secretly regained control of the Louisiana Territory. Then, three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States. Most people living in New Orleans were not happy. They considered Americans to be people without culture. VOICE ONE: Americans were not welcome in the Vieux Carre. So they built their own New Orleans north of it. They put large, beautiful homes in what is now the Garden District. Over time the older groups began to need the money and business skills of the Americans. The Americans wanted the warmth and life of the old city. Both groups were forced to join in a continuing battle against windstorms, floods and diseases such as yellow fever. Soon they developed a spirit of unity. By eighteen forty, New Orleans was the fourth largest city in America. For a time, it was the richest city in the country. It was called the “Paris of America.” VOICE TWO: Rich cotton and sugarcane farmers built huge homes along the Mississippi River outside New Orleans. They also kept smaller homes in the city. They stayed there while attending the opera, the theater and festivals. The celebration of Mardi Gras became an important social event. Through the years it got bigger and better. But high-spirited living ended with the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. Louisiana and the other slave-holding states of the South lost the war. Federal troops from the North occupied New Orleans. VOICE ONE: By nineteen hundred, the city was growing again. People from Ireland, Germany and Italy had arrived. They added their culture, food and traditions to the already exciting mix. Engineers made the Mississippi River deeper so bigger ships could reach the city. New Orleans became a busy port. Engineers also pumped water out of wetlands. This action denied refuge to mosquitoes and helped end the threat of deadly yellow fever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By government estimates, four hundred sixty-nine thousand people lived in greater New Orleans as of two thousand three. In the last national population count, in two thousand, New Orleans was thirty-first among cities. It lost two-point-five percent of its population during the nineteen nineties, at a time when rates of some crimes increased. Officials say people continue to leave the city. People in New Orleans face a number of problems. There are not enough jobs. There is not enough money for schools and roads. The city must also deal with a history of racial divisions. Today two out of three people in New Orleans are black. VOICE ONE: Ray Nagin, an African American, was elected mayor in two thousand two. He started campaigns to reduce crime in the city and dishonesty in government. Recently Mister Nagin announced a plan to improve communities around the city. The plan is called Neighborhood One. A main aim is to improve seven neighborhoods where thousands of buildings are in bad condition. The Neighborhood One plan would replace them with single-family homes. The city government would carry out the plan together with private developers. Work would begin in small areas of three neighborhoods. VOICE TWO: New Orleans faces many of the modern problems common to big cities. At the same time, many of its citizens have fought hard to save the beauty of its past. The French Quarter is the oldest part of the city. It remains the heart of New Orleans. And the French Quarter is where some of the best food -- a mix of French and Caribbean influences -- can be found. The central business area has modern office buildings. It also has one of the biggest indoor sports centers in the world. Almost one hundred thousand people can watch events inside the Louisiana Superdome. And the city has a museum that honors the D-Day invasion in Europe by Allied forces during World War Two. VOICE ONE: In modern New Orleans, old paddle-wheel steamboats still travel the Mississippi River. And old electric streetcars travel along Saint Charles Street. They take visitors past the large homes of early American settlers. Nearby are the modern buildings of two universities: Tulane and Loyola. VOICE TWO In New Orleans, music spills into the streets not just at Mardi Gras, but throughout the year. New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz. But local sounds also include Cajun and zydeco music. On Bourbon Street, the music and the crowds seem like a huge celebration that never ends. The most traditional old-time jazz is played at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter. As they say in New Orleans, it is the kind of jazz that gets your blood moving. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Gates Foundation Gives $750 Million to Vaccines Alliance; $43 Million Goes to Malaria Drug Project
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The world's richest man is giving away more of his money to fight diseases in the world's poorest countries. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a gift of seven hundred fifty million dollars. The money will go, over ten years, to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization through its Vaccine Fund. The gift will support national programs in seventy-two countries to protect children against several diseases. The Gates Foundation also gave seven hundred fifty million dollars to the Vaccine Fund in nineteen ninety-nine. These are the largest grants the foundation has made yet. Bill Gates is chairman of Microsoft, which makes the operating system on most personal computers. Another Gates Foundation gift announced last month will go to malaria research. Nearly forty-three million dollars will help support what is described as the first non-profit drug company in the United States. The company, OneWorld Health, will work with Professor Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley. He hopes to create a so-called bacteria factory at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to grow artemisinin. This is the medicine that the World Health Organization considers the most promising new drug to fight malaria. It is now made from a plant that grows in Asia. But the drug is in short supply. The goal is to grow artemisinin another way, in a laboratory, to provide a low-cost new cure for malaria. The gift happened to be announced a week before the death of the man considered the father of modern malaria research. William Trager, an American, was ninety-four years old. William Trager found a way to grow the most deadly form of malaria in a laboratory. Yet, almost thirty years later, scientists are still working on a vaccine to prevent the disease. The W.H.O. says mosquitoes spread malaria to about three million people per year. More than one million of them die. Most who die are young children in Africa. In Senegal, a two-day music event by African artists is being organized to support the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. That is an international effort to cut the number of malaria cases in the world in half by two thousand ten. The concert is planned for March twelfth and thirteenth in Dakar. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Parkinson's Disease
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and Oliver Chandler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system. VOICE ONE: Many people around the world live with Parkinson’s disease. In the United States, Parkinson’s affects about five hundred thousand people. There has been recent interest in the disease because of some of those affected are very well known. When Karol Wojtyla was elected pope in nineteen seventy-eight, he changed the image of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The new pope, John Paul the second, was known as a man who liked physical exercise. He swam and walked great distances. Muhammed Ali also showed great energy and power as he became the boxing champion of the world. He was probably one of the sport’s greatest competitors of the twentieth century. However, as both men grew older, they began to change. Their energy began to disappear. Their movements became slower. Their faces seemed to be made of stone. Age makes all people lose the energy they had when they were younger. However, it was not age that changed these men so much. Their physical changes were caused by a sickness known as Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system. It is a disease that makes its victims increasingly unable to move. It affects a small area of cells in the middle of the brain called the substantia nigra. The cells slowly lose their ability to produce a chemical called dopamine. The reduced levels of dopamine can result in one or more of the general signs or symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms include shaking of the arm or leg on one side of the body. Other symptoms are a general slowness of movement, or severe difficulty in moving the arms and legs. Another is difficulty walking and keeping balanced while standing or walking. Other signs observed in some people include restricted or decreased movement of the face. Also, victims of Parkinson’s disease can feel sad or worried. Victims may swallow less often than normal. And, they may have difficulty forming words while talking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Parkinson’s disease is named after James Parkinson. He was a British doctor who first described the disease in Eighteen-Seventeen. But Doctor Parkinson did not know what caused it. During the nineteen sixties, research scientists discovered chemical and other changes in the brains of people suffering from the disease. These discoveries led to medicines to treat Parkinson’s disease. However, the cause of the disease is still a mystery. VOICE TWO: Most people have what is called idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Idiopathic means that the cause is unknown. Patients who develop the disease attempt to link it to some cause they can identify. These can include an accident, a medical operation, or emotional problems. Most doctors, however, reject the idea of any direct link between these events or problems and Parkinson’s disease. The doctors note that other people with similar problems do not develop a movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease. However, doctors say such events or problems may cause signs of the disease to be seen earlier than normal. VOICE ONE: There are other forms of Parkinson’s disease. Some medicines for other problems can cause disorders similar to Parkinson’s disease. These include medicines used to treat older people who see things that do not exist. And they include drugs used to treat people suffering from extreme tension or stomach problems. The disease encephalitis also can cause movement problems and other disorders like those of Parkinson’s disease. In the early twentieth century, encephalitis spread to many parts of the world. Many victims of the disease had symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. This led to scientific investigations into the possibility that a virus caused Parkinson’s disease. However, no evidence was found to support this theory. One reason for rejecting the theory is that Parkinson’s disease cannot be passed from one person to another the way other viral diseases can. VOICE TWO: Another common theory is that people with Parkinson’s disease could pass it to their children. There are examples of many members of families having the disease. Last month, the publication Lancet reported additional genetic evidence. It said a change in just one gene may affect the risk of Parkinson’s disease. Researchers found that one in every sixty people with Parkinson’s have changes in the gene called L-R-R-K-two. The researchers said the genetic changes could be responsible for five percent of all cases in people with a family history of the disorder. They said it also could cause up to two percent of idiopathic Parkinson’s. VOICE ONE: Also, a small study suggested that chemical products used to kill insects could increase the risk of the disease. American researchers found that people who sprayed such products had two times the risk of developing Parkinson’s than other people. They found farmers also had an increased risk, although much smaller. Most of those suffering from the disease are older people. It reportedly affects one of every one-hundred people over sixty years old. However, fifteen percent of patients develop the disease before they are fifty years old. Also, it affects men a little more often than it affects women. And Parkinson’s disease can be found among people in all parts of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Parkinson’s disease does not cause death for those suffering from the condition. New treatments to ease symptoms of the disease make it possible for many patients to continue to live almost normally. Patients who have lost their ability to do many things may be able to regain some of their old abilities with treatment. Perhaps the drug most commonly used to treat the disease is levodopa. When it reaches the brain, levodopa is changed to dopamine. It replaces the dopamine lacking in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa helps deal with the signs of the disease. It does not, however, prevent more changes in the brain caused by the disease. Levodopa can produce bad effects in some people. These side effects include feeling extremely sick to the stomach. To prevent this from happening, other substances can be combined with levodopa. Most other drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease are designed to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. VOICE ONE: Another way of treating Parkinson’s disease is a medical operation. One such operation is called a pallidotomy. It was used often in the past to treat the disease. However, it was used less often after the discovery of levodopa. More recently, improved technology has increased the chances of successful pallidotomies. The operation involves placing electrical devices directly on the brain. These devices target cells in the area that cause unwanted movements of the body. The most serious risk from this treatment is the possibility of the patient suffering a stroke. VOICE TWO: The most recent development in treatment of Parkinson’s disease is brain tissue transplants. This involves replacing tissue in areas of the brain that cause symptoms of the disease. Early experiments involved brain tissue from unborn babies. Doctors said the method appeared to have successful results. However, the experiments became a subject of moral debates among persons opposed to the ending of unwanted pregnancies. Researchers have begun working with genetically changed cells and different animal cells that can be made to produce dopamine. Still, most doctors agree that such operations should be considered only after it is clear that drugs are not effective in dealing with the signs of Parkinson’s disease. VOICE ONE: There is no way to prevent or cure Parkinson’s disease. So, the victims of the disease need help in many ways. Throughout the world, there are groups that provide education and support services for patients and their families learning to live with the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler and Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Controlling Garden Insects with Spiders
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Spiders kill more insects than they can eat. And most spiders can eat up to two times their body weight in insects each day. So, if you want to keep harmful insects out of your garden, invite a few spiders to live there. That was the advice given some years ago in the magazine Organic Gardening, published by the Rodale Institute. Spiders do eat both good and bad insects. But Professor Susan Riechert at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville said spiders eat more harmful insects than helpful ones. Professor Riechert said spiders will remove from sixty to eighty percent of the insects from a garden. But, she added, if you want spiders to live in your garden, you must not use chemicals that can kill them. Here are short descriptions of nine different kinds of spiders that live in gardens. Orb weaver spiders make huge sticky webs between plants. When an insect enters the web and is trapped, the spider attacks. Sheet-web weavers make flat webs. The spiders stays under the web. When an insect lands on top of the web, the spider reaches up and pulls the insect through to the bottom. Mesh-web weavers make tiny webs inside small openings in a plant's skin. This spider eats mainly aphids. Combfooted spiders trap insects in their webs. Then they wrap their catch inside more web material. Funnel-web weavers build circular webs that are wide at the top and closed at the bottom. When an insect lands on the web, the spider jumps out, catches the insect and drags it back inside the funnel to eat it. Wolf spiders do not use webs to trap insects. They live on the ground among the leaves. They eat aphids, leafhoppers, flies, beetles and grasshoppers. Jumping spiders also do not make webs. Their meal might include a spotted cucumber beetle, a corn earworm, or a bottom bollweevil. Lynx spiders will spin some silk to seize an insect. But they, too, do not make a web. They like to eat fire ants. Crab spiders move sideways, just like crabs in the sea. Crab spiders do not make webs. They wait quietly for an insect to come near and then they capture it. Internet users can get more information about Organic Gardening magazine on the Web at organicgardening dot com. (organicgardening.com) This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Satellite Photos of Mayan Ruins
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 VOICE ONE: Satellite image of burning forests. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Scientists are using the most modern space satellites to solve one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. Our report today begins more than one thousand years ago. Travel with us back in time to learn about the Mayan civilization. Our trip begins in the year eight hundred twenty-five. We are in an area near the border between modern Mexico and Guatemala. Satellite image of the Mexico-Guatemala border. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Scientists are using the most modern space satellites to solve one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. Our report today begins more than one thousand years ago. Travel with us back in time to learn about the Mayan civilization. Our trip begins in the year eight hundred twenty-five. We are in an area near the border between modern Mexico and Guatemala. VOICE ONE: We are in the Mayan city of Tikal. The city has huge buildings made of stone. The morning sun makes the smooth, white stone shine brightly. One of the huge buildings is used for religious ceremonies. It is the temple to the Rain God Chac (chalk). The Rain God demands human blood or he will withhold the rain needed to grow crops. The Mayans kill captured enemies at the top of Chac’s temple to please this fierce god. Mayan scientists use another huge building to study the stars. They use this building and similar ones in other cities to make the Mayan calendar. This calendar correctly shows the seasons and the number of days in the year. Farmers use this calendar to plant crops during the best season for growing. Religious leaders use the calendar to help decide when to hold religious ceremonies. VOICE TWO: Thousands of people are in Tikal. Many farmers have come to the city to sell their crops. Many workers make pots or clothing. Others make buildings of stone. Religious leaders are walking toward a temple. A member of the Mayan royal family is being carried in a large chair. He is followed by large groups of fierce Mayan soldiers. They wear bird feathers and animal skins. They carry dangerous weapons. The city of Tikal is large. Its center is surrounded by many thousands of homes. The city stretches for several kilometers in many directions. The Mayan people who built Tikal had a very successful civilization. The people do not know that their civilization will disappear very soon. The people will be gone. The soldiers with their fierce weapons will be gone. The royal family will be gone. Nothing will remain but the huge stone buildings. In time, thick jungle will cover them, and they will become homes for birds and monkeys. The huge city will be empty. VOICE ONE: Many years before European explorers arrived in the western hemisphere, the Maya lived in the area that is now southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Explorers have discovered many of the great cities the Maya left behind. Tikal is one of the largest and most beautiful. But there are many others. Within these cities, scientists found evidence of a complex written language, advanced mathematics, astronomy and beautiful works of art. But they could never find good evidence about what happened to the Mayan civilization. What forced these people to leave their homes and their beautiful cities? Could it have been wars? A lack of food? Disease? Recently, part of the answer to this question has come from satellites in orbit around the Earth. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists Tom Sever (SEE-ver) and Dan Irwin are experts in the history of the Maya. Mister Sever and Mister Irwin have been working to understand the history of the Maya and their natural environment. They believe that history may hold important lessons for people living in the same areas today. Mister Sever, Mister Irwin and other scientists hope to help governments and people in the areas continue to live there. The scientists hope that by learning from the Maya, people today will not make the mistakes that caused the Mayan civilization to fail. VOICE ONE: Mister Sever has found that by the year nine hundred fifty the huge Mayan population was gone. He believes as many as ninety to ninety-five percent of the Maya population died. The archeologist is using NASA satellites and weather information to study the soil in the area and the ancient Mayan cities for evidence. He is trying to solve the mystery by studying pollen -- extremely small particles produced by seed plants. He says soil from deep in the earth shows no evidence of any pollen from trees during the time just before the Mayan civilization ended. He says this is one piece of evidence to show why the Maya failed. He says soil experts found only pollen from weeds and other small plants. Mister Sever says the Maya had always cut down huge amounts of forest. They used the wood for building. They burned it to cook food. They also burned large amounts of wood in extremely hot fires to work with a kind of stone. They used the stone to make floors. In time, the trees disappeared. VOICE TWO: The loss of many trees led to loss of soil. Fertile topsoil washed into areas that had once been lakes. Evidence shows that the loss of trees may also have caused an increase in the area’s temperature. The increase in heat caused water to disappear. Warmer temperatures also dried out the land. Rising temperatures also may have caused changes in rainfall. These actions all caused a decrease in the crops the Maya could harvest. A loss of food may have led to wars among the Mayan groups. VOICE ONE: The ancient city of Tikal is near an area of wetlands. About forty percent of the land used by the Maya were wetlands. Mayan cities were built on or very near these wetlands. Rain soaks the soil in these wetlands during the rainy season now, much as it did during the Mayan period. This land was extremely important to their environment and survival. The Maya learned to save huge amounts of water to be used during the growing season. Modern satellite photographs shows evidence that the Maya built a series of small waterways called canals. Mister Sever believes they may have done so to control, save and reuse rainwater so they could grow crops during the dry season. VOICE TWO: Archeologist Tom Sever says experts used to argue about what caused the Maya to fail. Was it wars, lack of food, disease or political problems? He says scientists now think that all of these things led to failure. But these problems were all the result of a severe lack of water. A natural period of less rain and the cutting of trees reduced their water supply. Trees began to grow again after the failure of the Mayan civilization. The trees and the jungle covered their huge ancient cities. VOICE ONE: Tom Sever studies the ancient Maya. What he has learned has caused great concern about what could happen to the population now living in the same area. This area includes southern Mexico, northern Guatemala and Belize. Farming in these areas is done by a method called slash and burn. Farmers cut down trees or burn them and then plant crops. The soil is very rich for the first year of planting. But the soil becomes less rich during the second year then becomes poor the next year. Farmers then move deeper into the forest and again cut down or burn the trees to make room for planting new crops. Mister Sever says modern equipment has made it much easier to cut down trees more quickly. VOICE TWO: Mister Sever has used satellites to show how slash and burn farming is affecting the Earth. For example, satellite images show part of the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Most political borders are invisible in satellite images. But these photographs show a sharp line between areas of rain forest and farmed areas. The rainforest still exists in Guatemala. But it stops at the Mexican border where the trees have been cut down for farming. Mister Sever says the governments of the nations involved must take steps to protect the environment or they will suffer problems in the future. He and other scientists are now working with the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture to find areas in the ancient Mayan wetlands with good soil. They also are considering planting test crops in those areas. They hope to bring water to the crops using the same method the Maya did – by building canals. Mister Sever says learning from the Maya is extremely important for the future of this area of the world. He says modern farmers should use those methods that worked well for the Maya and not make the same mistakes that caused the failure of their civilization. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: We are in the Mayan city of Tikal. The city has huge buildings made of stone. The morning sun makes the smooth, white stone shine brightly. One of the huge buildings is used for religious ceremonies. It is the temple to the Rain God Chac (chalk). The Rain God demands human blood or he will withhold the rain needed to grow crops. The Mayans kill captured enemies at the top of Chac’s temple to please this fierce god. Mayan scientists use another huge building to study the stars. They use this building and similar ones in other cities to make the Mayan calendar. This calendar correctly shows the seasons and the number of days in the year. Farmers use this calendar to plant crops during the best season for growing. Religious leaders use the calendar to help decide when to hold religious ceremonies. VOICE TWO: Thousands of people are in Tikal. Many farmers have come to the city to sell their crops. Many workers make pots or clothing. Others make buildings of stone. Religious leaders are walking toward a temple. A member of the Mayan royal family is being carried in a large chair. He is followed by large groups of fierce Mayan soldiers. They wear bird feathers and animal skins. They carry dangerous weapons. The city of Tikal is large. Its center is surrounded by many thousands of homes. The city stretches for several kilometers in many directions. The Mayan people who built Tikal had a very successful civilization. The people do not know that their civilization will disappear very soon. The people will be gone. The soldiers with their fierce weapons will be gone. The royal family will be gone. Nothing will remain but the huge stone buildings. In time, thick jungle will cover them, and they will become homes for birds and monkeys. The huge city will be empty. VOICE ONE: Many years before European explorers arrived in the western hemisphere, the Maya lived in the area that is now southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Explorers have discovered many of the great cities the Maya left behind. Tikal is one of the largest and most beautiful. But there are many others. Within these cities, scientists found evidence of a complex written language, advanced mathematics, astronomy and beautiful works of art. But they could never find good evidence about what happened to the Mayan civilization. What forced these people to leave their homes and their beautiful cities? Could it have been wars? A lack of food? Disease? Recently, part of the answer to this question has come from satellites in orbit around the Earth. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists Tom Sever (SEE-ver) and Dan Irwin are experts in the history of the Maya. Mister Sever and Mister Irwin have been working to understand the history of the Maya and their natural environment. They believe that history may hold important lessons for people living in the same areas today. Mister Sever, Mister Irwin and other scientists hope to help governments and people in the areas continue to live there. The scientists hope that by learning from the Maya, people today will not make the mistakes that caused the Mayan civilization to fail. VOICE ONE: Mister Sever has found that by the year nine hundred fifty the huge Mayan population was gone. He believes as many as ninety to ninety-five percent of the Maya population died. The archeologist is using NASA satellites and weather information to study the soil in the area and the ancient Mayan cities for evidence. He is trying to solve the mystery by studying pollen -- extremely small particles produced by seed plants. He says soil from deep in the earth shows no evidence of any pollen from trees during the time just before the Mayan civilization ended. He says this is one piece of evidence to show why the Maya failed. He says soil experts found only pollen from weeds and other small plants. Mister Sever says the Maya had always cut down huge amounts of forest. They used the wood for building. They burned it to cook food. They also burned large amounts of wood in extremely hot fires to work with a kind of stone. They used the stone to make floors. In time, the trees disappeared. VOICE TWO: The loss of many trees led to loss of soil. Fertile topsoil washed into areas that had once been lakes. Evidence shows that the loss of trees may also have caused an increase in the area’s temperature. The increase in heat caused water to disappear. Warmer temperatures also dried out the land. Rising temperatures also may have caused changes in rainfall. These actions all caused a decrease in the crops the Maya could harvest. A loss of food may have led to wars among the Mayan groups. VOICE ONE: The ancient city of Tikal is near an area of wetlands. About forty percent of the land used by the Maya were wetlands. Mayan cities were built on or very near these wetlands. Rain soaks the soil in these wetlands during the rainy season now, much as it did during the Mayan period. This land was extremely important to their environment and survival. The Maya learned to save huge amounts of water to be used during the growing season. Modern satellite photographs shows evidence that the Maya built a series of small waterways called canals. Mister Sever believes they may have done so to control, save and reuse rainwater so they could grow crops during the dry season. VOICE TWO: Archeologist Tom Sever says experts used to argue about what caused the Maya to fail. Was it wars, lack of food, disease or political problems? He says scientists now think that all of these things led to failure. But these problems were all the result of a severe lack of water. A natural period of less rain and the cutting of trees reduced their water supply. Trees began to grow again after the failure of the Mayan civilization. The trees and the jungle covered their huge ancient cities. VOICE ONE: Tom Sever studies the ancient Maya. What he has learned has caused great concern about what could happen to the population now living in the same area. This area includes southern Mexico, northern Guatemala and Belize. Farming in these areas is done by a method called slash and burn. Farmers cut down trees or burn them and then plant crops. The soil is very rich for the first year of planting. But the soil becomes less rich during the second year then becomes poor the next year. Farmers then move deeper into the forest and again cut down or burn the trees to make room for planting new crops. Mister Sever says modern equipment has made it much easier to cut down trees more quickly. VOICE TWO: Mister Sever has used satellites to show how slash and burn farming is affecting the Earth. For example, satellite images show part of the border between Guatemala and Mexico. Most political borders are invisible in satellite images. But these photographs show a sharp line between areas of rain forest and farmed areas. The rainforest still exists in Guatemala. But it stops at the Mexican border where the trees have been cut down for farming. Mister Sever says the governments of the nations involved must take steps to protect the environment or they will suffer problems in the future. He and other scientists are now working with the Guatemalan Ministry of Agriculture to find areas in the ancient Mayan wetlands with good soil. They also are considering planting test crops in those areas. They hope to bring water to the crops using the same method the Maya did – by building canals. Mister Sever says learning from the Maya is extremely important for the future of this area of the world. He says modern farmers should use those methods that worked well for the Maya and not make the same mistakes that caused the failure of their civilization. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-08-4-1.cfm
* Headline: New Warnings About Tobacco Smoke and Children
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study provides another warning of the dangers from cigarette smoke around children. This was one of the largest studies ever of the risks to people who breathe tobacco smoke in the air. Experts call this "passive smoking." Many studies have shown increased risks for lung cancer and other diseases. But few studies have involved people who seemed healthy when the research began. Doctor Paolo Vineis of Imperial College, London, led the new study. The British Medical Journal published the report. More than one hundred twenty thousand people provided information about their history of exposure to tobacco smoke. They might have worked with smokers, or had parents who smoked. The people were from ten countries in Europe. All said they had never smoked or had stopped for at least ten years. The study followed their health for an average of seven years. During that time, ninety-seven people developed lung cancer. Twenty developed upper-respiratory cancers. And fourteen died from the lung disease emphysema. The report compares lung cancer rates in people who had been around tobacco smoke as children. Those who had breathed it for many hours a day were three-and-a-half times more likely to get lung cancer than those who reported no exposure. Yet the risk was still one-and-a-half times higher in adults who had breathed tobacco smoke as children even a few times a week. The study also found that former smokers had a greater risk of lung cancer than people who never smoked. This link was limited to exposure at work. The report says former smokers may be more at risk from low levels of tobacco smoke. One possible explanation is that they already have damaged cells. Smoking causes many disorders. It is the main cause of lung cancer. Lung cancer is the world's leading cause of cancer deaths. Last March, Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in all workplaces. That includes eating and drinking establishments. Since then, other governments have also moved to limit smoking in public. Italy put measures into effect last month. And this week smoking became illegal in many public places in Cuba, known for its cigars. Smoking is banned in many public areas in the United States. Smoking in bars and restaurants is against the law in a few states and cities, including New York City. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-08-5-1.cfm
* Headline: February 9, 2005 - Pretentious Language
* Byline: 

 February 9, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more "junk English." RS: Back in 2001, we talked to writer Ken Smith about his book "Junk English." In his words, "Junk English is much more than sloppy grammar." " Most often it is a trick we play on ourselves," he says, "to make the unremarkable seem important." AA: Ken Smith is back with a sequel, "Junk English 2." I talked to him about some examples of what he considers pretentious language. Yet even he admits that sometimes, the best way to say something is not always what people want to hear. KEN SMITH: "If you speak precisely in idiomatic American English, it almost sounds pretentious, because idiomatic American English is very casual. So you've got the sort of pretentious variant, you've got the normal variant and then you've got sort of the junk English variant falling off to the other side. "So say you take a word like, I don't know, 'talk.' Now, if you wanted to say that with sort of a pretentious air, you'd say 'converse.' It's not necessarily wrong. But it has a sort of a snobbish air to it that's not really casual as American English is. But if you wanted to go over to the junk English side, you'd say 'you know, we need to dialogue.' "Using dialogue as a verb, that's definitely junk English. And the problem is that sometimes you have to understand what the purpose of the language is. Do you want to be correct? Do you want to be clear? Or do you want to fit in with your crowd? It's almost like there's three different languages at play here." AA: "Well, right -- take a word like 'succeed,' you could say 'I succeeded' or 'I did well.' What would be the junk ... " KEN SMITH: "Well, 'succeed.' Well, I don't know -- you might have been 'impactful.' That might be a junk English use. I think actually 'impactful' is more 'effective.' Like if you were effective, the pretentious English variant of that would be, you were 'efficacious.' But the junk English is, you were 'impactful.' "So there's a lot of examples like that. Well, like, 'new' is another good example -- 'new,' a simple word, but if you want to be pretentious you'd say 'oh, that's postmodern.' If you use it in art, that's fine, I mean it's an established sort of jargon in art. But I mean if you use it to describe something like 'oh, that's very postmodern,' if you're referring to a new car that you've got, I mean it's pretentious." AA: "And elsewhere in your book I came across a word that we do hear a good bit lately, is the word 'meme,' and I've always wanted to -- " KEN SMITH: "Oh meme, yeah." AA: " -- to do something about that. First of all, could you explain what exactly is a meme?" KEN SMITH: "Well, a meme is -- again, it's a term of philosophy. It's actually a term of science, meaning to sort of describe a thought or a belief or a behavior that can spread from one person to another within a culture. It's a very specific term. And again if you're using it in an academic sense, that's fine. But then the word has sort of spilled over, like so many terms do, into the general language. And that's just pretentious. 'I'm utterly enthralled with your new meme.' You know, it's an idea. You had an idea or a thought. That's what a meme is in general usage." AA: "And we should spell it: M-E-M-E. So it's not 'me-me', it's a meme [laughter]. And you say it's 'pretentious language for idea, slogan and so on.' Now but, as I've heard that term used, isn't it sort of like an idea that spreads like a virus?" KEN SMITH: "Well, but all -- I mean, you could say that of any idea. I mean, you could make that analogy. That's just a metaphor -- you know, 'that's viral marketing,' as they use in business terminology. So is that a meme? I don't know. I think they're just ideas." AA: "Now let me ask you, is there a term where you have to use the pretentious form of it?" KEN SMITH: "It's not necessarily pretentious. I mean, some words I don't like but I can't think of a better way of saying it -- for example, 'multitasking.' I don't like 'multitasking.' It just seems kind of long and grating. But I honestly can't think of a better, more efficient way to say 'doing several things at once' or 'doing a lot of things at the same time,' which is what multitasking means. So it's a useful word. Much as I dislike it, I have to admit that it serves a purpose." AA: "Now I'm looking at the cover of your book here. It's 'Junk English 2: the Inevitability of Sequelization.'" KEN SMITH: "Yes." AA: "Is that your idea of a joke?" KEN SMITH: "Yes, it is. [laughter] The clean way of saying that would be 'the inevitable sequel.' But the junk English way is to say the 'inevitability of sequelization.' One of the ways of recognizing junk English is, it's tacking a lot of extra syllables onto specific words. For example, we cited impact before. Well, that's now become 'impactfulness,' which makes a bad thing worse. That's a problem that we have here in America. I'm not sure that people in other countries speaking English do that. I hope they don't." AA: Ken Smith is a writer. His newest book is called "Junk English 2." RS: If you'd like to "impact" your English learning, visit our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. February 9, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more "junk English." RS: Back in 2001, we talked to writer Ken Smith about his book "Junk English." In his words, "Junk English is much more than sloppy grammar." " Most often it is a trick we play on ourselves," he says, "to make the unremarkable seem important." AA: Ken Smith is back with a sequel, "Junk English 2." I talked to him about some examples of what he considers pretentious language. Yet even he admits that sometimes, the best way to say something is not always what people want to hear. KEN SMITH: "If you speak precisely in idiomatic American English, it almost sounds pretentious, because idiomatic American English is very casual. So you've got the sort of pretentious variant, you've got the normal variant and then you've got sort of the junk English variant falling off to the other side. "So say you take a word like, I don't know, 'talk.' Now, if you wanted to say that with sort of a pretentious air, you'd say 'converse.' It's not necessarily wrong. But it has a sort of a snobbish air to it that's not really casual as American English is. But if you wanted to go over to the junk English side, you'd say 'you know, we need to dialogue.' "Using dialogue as a verb, that's definitely junk English. And the problem is that sometimes you have to understand what the purpose of the language is. Do you want to be correct? Do you want to be clear? Or do you want to fit in with your crowd? It's almost like there's three different languages at play here." AA: "Well, right -- take a word like 'succeed,' you could say 'I succeeded' or 'I did well.' What would be the junk ... " KEN SMITH: "Well, 'succeed.' Well, I don't know -- you might have been 'impactful.' That might be a junk English use. I think actually 'impactful' is more 'effective.' Like if you were effective, the pretentious English variant of that would be, you were 'efficacious.' But the junk English is, you were 'impactful.' "So there's a lot of examples like that. Well, like, 'new' is another good example -- 'new,' a simple word, but if you want to be pretentious you'd say 'oh, that's postmodern.' If you use it in art, that's fine, I mean it's an established sort of jargon in art. But I mean if you use it to describe something like 'oh, that's very postmodern,' if you're referring to a new car that you've got, I mean it's pretentious." AA: "And elsewhere in your book I came across a word that we do hear a good bit lately, is the word 'meme,' and I've always wanted to -- " KEN SMITH: "Oh meme, yeah." AA: " -- to do something about that. First of all, could you explain what exactly is a meme?" KEN SMITH: "Well, a meme is -- again, it's a term of philosophy. It's actually a term of science, meaning to sort of describe a thought or a belief or a behavior that can spread from one person to another within a culture. It's a very specific term. And again if you're using it in an academic sense, that's fine. But then the word has sort of spilled over, like so many terms do, into the general language. And that's just pretentious. 'I'm utterly enthralled with your new meme.' You know, it's an idea. You had an idea or a thought. That's what a meme is in general usage." AA: "And we should spell it: M-E-M-E. So it's not 'me-me', it's a meme [laughter]. And you say it's 'pretentious language for idea, slogan and so on.' Now but, as I've heard that term used, isn't it sort of like an idea that spreads like a virus?" KEN SMITH: "Well, but all -- I mean, you could say that of any idea. I mean, you could make that analogy. That's just a metaphor -- you know, 'that's viral marketing,' as they use in business terminology. So is that a meme? I don't know. I think they're just ideas." AA: "Now let me ask you, is there a term where you have to use the pretentious form of it?" KEN SMITH: "It's not necessarily pretentious. I mean, some words I don't like but I can't think of a better way of saying it -- for example, 'multitasking.' I don't like 'multitasking.' It just seems kind of long and grating. But I honestly can't think of a better, more efficient way to say 'doing several things at once' or 'doing a lot of things at the same time,' which is what multitasking means. So it's a useful word. Much as I dislike it, I have to admit that it serves a purpose." AA: "Now I'm looking at the cover of your book here. It's 'Junk English 2: the Inevitability of Sequelization.'" KEN SMITH: "Yes." AA: "Is that your idea of a joke?" KEN SMITH: "Yes, it is. [laughter] The clean way of saying that would be 'the inevitable sequel.' But the junk English way is to say the 'inevitability of sequelization.' One of the ways of recognizing junk English is, it's tacking a lot of extra syllables onto specific words. For example, we cited impact before. Well, that's now become 'impactfulness,' which makes a bad thing worse. That's a problem that we have here in America. I'm not sure that people in other countries speaking English do that. I hope they don't." AA: Ken Smith is a writer. His newest book is called "Junk English 2." RS: If you'd like to "impact" your English learning, visit our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 6
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Ulysses S. Grant (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In July, eighteen-sixty-one, Union soldiers of the north and Confederate soldiers of the south fought the first major battle in America's Civil War. They clashed at Manassas, or Bull Run, Virginia...less than fifty kilometers from Washington. The Union soldiers fought furiously. But two large Confederate forces broke the Union attack. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I will tell about some of the other early battles of the Civil War. VOICE TWO: Northerners had expected to win the battle of Bull Run. They believed the Confederacy would fall if the Union won a big military victory early in the war. Now, however, there was great fear that southern soldiers would seize Washington. The Union needed to build and train an army quickly. President Abraham Lincoln named General George McClellan to do this. McClellan was thirty-four years old. The young general had two important tasks. He must defend Washington from attack. And he must build an army to strike at enemy forces in Virginia. McClellan wasted no time. He put thousands of troops into position around the city. And he built forty-eight forts. After this rush of activity, however, little more happened for a long time. McClellan told his wife: "I shall take my own time to make an army that will be sure of success. As soon as I feel my army is well-organized and well-trained and strong enough, I will force the rebels to a battle." McClellan kept making excuses for why he would not move against the enemy. His excuses became a continuing source of trouble for President Lincoln. The public, the press, and politicians all demanded that McClellan do something. They wanted to win the war...and win it right away. VOICE ONE: McClellan commanded the biggest army in the Union, the Army of the Potomac. But it was not the only army. Others were battling Confederate forces in the west. The Confederates had moved up through Tennessee into the border state of Kentucky. They built forts and other defensive positions across the southern part of the state. They also blocked as many railroads and rivers as they could. Their job was to keep Union forces from invading the south through Kentucky. One of the Union Generals in the area was Ulysses Grant. Grant had served in the army for twenty years. He had fought in America's war against Mexico and had won honors for his bravery. When that war ended, he was sent to an army base far from his wife and children. He did not like being without them. And he did not like being an officer in peace time. Grant began to drink too much alcohol. He began to be a problem. In eighteen-fifty-four, he was asked to leave the army. When the Civil War started, Grant organized a group of unpaid soldiers in Illinois. With the help of a member of Congress, he was named a General. All of the other Union Generals knew Ulysses Grant. Few had any faith in his abilities. They were sure he would always fail. VOICE TWO: Grant, however, had faith in himself and his men. He believed he could force Confederate soldiers to withdraw from both Kentucky and Tennessee. Then he would be free to march directly into the deep south -- Mississippi. Two Confederate forts stood in Grant's way. They were in Tennessee, close to the Kentucky border. United States navy gunboats captured the first, Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River. That fort was easy to attack and not well-defended. The fighting was over by the time Grant and his men got there. The second, Fort Donelson, was nearby on the Cumberland River. It was stronger and defended by twenty thousand soldiers. Grant surrounded the fort and let the navy gunboats shell it. The fighting there lasted several days. VOICE ONE: At one point, the Confederates tried to break out of the fort and escape. They opened a hole in the Union line and began to retreat. Suddenly, however, their commanding officer decided it would be wrong to retreat. He ordered them back to the fort. After that, there was no choice. The Confederates would have to surrender. The commanding officer sent a message to General Grant. "What were the terms of surrender?" Grant's answer was simple. "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender." The Confederates gave up Fort Donelson. Grant took fourteen-thousand prisoners. It was the greatest Union victory since the start of the war. Ulysses Grant was a hero. Newspapers called him "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. VOICE TWO: After the Union victory at Fort Donelson, Confederate forces withdrew from Tennessee. They moved farther south and began to re-group at Corinth, Mississippi. Confederate Generals hoped to build one big army to stop Ulysses Grant. They would have to move fast. Grant was marching toward Corinth with forty thousand men. Another thirty-five thousand, under the command of Don Buell, were to meet him on the way. Grant arrived in the area first. He waited for Buell thirty kilometers from Corinth, near a small country meeting hall called Shiloh Church. Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston was waiting, too. He had more than forty thousand men, about the same as Grant. And he was expecting another twenty thousand. But when he learned that grant was nearby, he decided not to wait. He would attack immediately. VOICE ONE: Johnston did not know it, but his attack came as a surprise to the Union army. Union officers had refused to believe reports that Johnston was on the move. They said his army was not strong enough to attack. Union troops did not prepare defensive positions. They had no protection when the battle began. The fighting at Shiloh was the bitterest of the war. It was not one battle, but many. Groups of men fought each other all across the wide battlefield. From a distance, they shot at each other. Close up, they cut each other with knives. The earth became red with blood. The dead and wounded soon lay everywhere. At first, the Confederates pushed Grant's army back. They had only to break through one more line...and victory would be theirs. But in the thick of the struggle, General Johnston was shot in the leg. The bullet cut through an artery. Johnston bled to death before help arrived. Any hope for a southern victory at Shiloh died with him. By the time the fighting began again the next day, General Buell had arrived to help Grant. The Confederate army retreated. The Union army let it go. VOICE TWO: Shiloh. The word itself came to mean death and destruction. The battle of Shiloh had brought home to the American people -- both of the north and south -- the horror of war. It was the first time so many men -- one hundred thousand -- had fought against each other in the western world. It was the American people's first real taste of the bloodiness of modern warfare. As one soldier who fought there said: "It was too shocking, too horrible. I hope to God that I may never see such things again." The north won the battle of Shiloh. But it paid a very high price for victory. More than thirteen thousand union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. On the Confederate side, more than ten thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. The north celebrated the news of its victory. But joy quickly turned to anger when the public learned of the heavy losses. People blamed General Grant. They demanded that President Lincoln dismiss him. Lincoln thought of the two men who were now his top military commanders: McClellan and Grant. They were so different. McClellan organized an army....and then did nothing. Grant organized an army...and moved. Lincoln said of Grant: "I cannot do without this man. He fights." (PAUSE) We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In July, eighteen-sixty-one, Union soldiers of the north and Confederate soldiers of the south fought the first major battle in America's Civil War. They clashed at Manassas, or Bull Run, Virginia...less than fifty kilometers from Washington. The Union soldiers fought furiously. But two large Confederate forces broke the Union attack. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I will tell about some of the other early battles of the Civil War. VOICE TWO: Northerners had expected to win the battle of Bull Run. They believed the Confederacy would fall if the Union won a big military victory early in the war. Now, however, there was great fear that southern soldiers would seize Washington. The Union needed to build and train an army quickly. President Abraham Lincoln named General George McClellan to do this. McClellan was thirty-four years old. The young general had two important tasks. He must defend Washington from attack. And he must build an army to strike at enemy forces in Virginia. McClellan wasted no time. He put thousands of troops into position around the city. And he built forty-eight forts. After this rush of activity, however, little more happened for a long time. McClellan told his wife: "I shall take my own time to make an army that will be sure of success. As soon as I feel my army is well-organized and well-trained and strong enough, I will force the rebels to a battle." McClellan kept making excuses for why he would not move against the enemy. His excuses became a continuing source of trouble for President Lincoln. The public, the press, and politicians all demanded that McClellan do something. They wanted to win the war...and win it right away. VOICE ONE: McClellan commanded the biggest army in the Union, the Army of the Potomac. But it was not the only army. Others were battling Confederate forces in the west. The Confederates had moved up through Tennessee into the border state of Kentucky. They built forts and other defensive positions across the southern part of the state. They also blocked as many railroads and rivers as they could. Their job was to keep Union forces from invading the south through Kentucky. One of the Union Generals in the area was Ulysses Grant. Grant had served in the army for twenty years. He had fought in America's war against Mexico and had won honors for his bravery. When that war ended, he was sent to an army base far from his wife and children. He did not like being without them. And he did not like being an officer in peace time. Grant began to drink too much alcohol. He began to be a problem. In eighteen-fifty-four, he was asked to leave the army. When the Civil War started, Grant organized a group of unpaid soldiers in Illinois. With the help of a member of Congress, he was named a General. All of the other Union Generals knew Ulysses Grant. Few had any faith in his abilities. They were sure he would always fail. VOICE TWO: Grant, however, had faith in himself and his men. He believed he could force Confederate soldiers to withdraw from both Kentucky and Tennessee. Then he would be free to march directly into the deep south -- Mississippi. Two Confederate forts stood in Grant's way. They were in Tennessee, close to the Kentucky border. United States navy gunboats captured the first, Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River. That fort was easy to attack and not well-defended. The fighting was over by the time Grant and his men got there. The second, Fort Donelson, was nearby on the Cumberland River. It was stronger and defended by twenty thousand soldiers. Grant surrounded the fort and let the navy gunboats shell it. The fighting there lasted several days. VOICE ONE: At one point, the Confederates tried to break out of the fort and escape. They opened a hole in the Union line and began to retreat. Suddenly, however, their commanding officer decided it would be wrong to retreat. He ordered them back to the fort. After that, there was no choice. The Confederates would have to surrender. The commanding officer sent a message to General Grant. "What were the terms of surrender?" Grant's answer was simple. "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender." The Confederates gave up Fort Donelson. Grant took fourteen-thousand prisoners. It was the greatest Union victory since the start of the war. Ulysses Grant was a hero. Newspapers called him "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. VOICE TWO: After the Union victory at Fort Donelson, Confederate forces withdrew from Tennessee. They moved farther south and began to re-group at Corinth, Mississippi. Confederate Generals hoped to build one big army to stop Ulysses Grant. They would have to move fast. Grant was marching toward Corinth with forty thousand men. Another thirty-five thousand, under the command of Don Buell, were to meet him on the way. Grant arrived in the area first. He waited for Buell thirty kilometers from Corinth, near a small country meeting hall called Shiloh Church. Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston was waiting, too. He had more than forty thousand men, about the same as Grant. And he was expecting another twenty thousand. But when he learned that grant was nearby, he decided not to wait. He would attack immediately. VOICE ONE: Johnston did not know it, but his attack came as a surprise to the Union army. Union officers had refused to believe reports that Johnston was on the move. They said his army was not strong enough to attack. Union troops did not prepare defensive positions. They had no protection when the battle began. The fighting at Shiloh was the bitterest of the war. It was not one battle, but many. Groups of men fought each other all across the wide battlefield. From a distance, they shot at each other. Close up, they cut each other with knives. The earth became red with blood. The dead and wounded soon lay everywhere. At first, the Confederates pushed Grant's army back. They had only to break through one more line...and victory would be theirs. But in the thick of the struggle, General Johnston was shot in the leg. The bullet cut through an artery. Johnston bled to death before help arrived. Any hope for a southern victory at Shiloh died with him. By the time the fighting began again the next day, General Buell had arrived to help Grant. The Confederate army retreated. The Union army let it go. VOICE TWO: Shiloh. The word itself came to mean death and destruction. The battle of Shiloh had brought home to the American people -- both of the north and south -- the horror of war. It was the first time so many men -- one hundred thousand -- had fought against each other in the western world. It was the American people's first real taste of the bloodiness of modern warfare. As one soldier who fought there said: "It was too shocking, too horrible. I hope to God that I may never see such things again." The north won the battle of Shiloh. But it paid a very high price for victory. More than thirteen thousand union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. On the Confederate side, more than ten thousand soldiers were killed or wounded. The north celebrated the news of its victory. But joy quickly turned to anger when the public learned of the heavy losses. People blamed General Grant. They demanded that President Lincoln dismiss him. Lincoln thought of the two men who were now his top military commanders: McClellan and Grant. They were so different. McClellan organized an army....and then did nothing. Grant organized an army...and moved. Lincoln said of Grant: "I cannot do without this man. He fights." (PAUSE) We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series #24: Harvard University
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series with a report on the oldest school of higher learning in the United States: Harvard University. You might have heard that its president, Lawrence Summers, gave a speech last month at a conference on women and science. Mister Summers is an economist. He discussed possible reasons for the small number of women in top jobs in science and mathematics. He suggested that biological differences between men and women might play a part that should be studied further. He meant his comments to incite debate. It worked. Critics pointed to the history of unfair treatment of women in science and at top schools like Harvard. In the past, Harvard students were all white males. There is some dispute over what he said exactly; no recordings have been released. But Mister Summers has made apologies. In one message, he said: “I do not believe that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science.” Last week Harvard created the Task Force on Women Faculty. Another is called the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering. The university says both new committees will develop proposals to reduce barriers to success. Ideas are expected by May, so steps can begin in the next school year. Harvard also plans to appoint a top administrator who will try for more female professors. In the beginning, in sixteen thirty-six, Harvard had one teacher and nine students. The area around Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, was an English colony then. The school is named for a Puritan religious leader, John Harvard. He gave the college all his books and half his property when he died. Today Harvard has almost twenty thousand undergraduate and graduate students. More than three thousand are from outside the United States, mostly Asia and Europe. Foreign students also can receive financial aid. One year at Harvard costs more than thirty-seven thousand dollars. The university includes Harvard College and Radcliffe College, and ten graduate schools. Internet users can learn more about one of the top research universities in the world at harvard.edu. And our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. We continue our Foreign Student Series with a report on the oldest school of higher learning in the United States: Harvard University. You might have heard that its president, Lawrence Summers, gave a speech last month at a conference on women and science. Mister Summers is an economist. He discussed possible reasons for the small number of women in top jobs in science and mathematics. He suggested that biological differences between men and women might play a part that should be studied further. He meant his comments to incite debate. It worked. Critics pointed to the history of unfair treatment of women in science and at top schools like Harvard. In the past, Harvard students were all white males. There is some dispute over what he said exactly; no recordings have been released. But Mister Summers has made apologies. In one message, he said: “I do not believe that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science.” Last week Harvard created the Task Force on Women Faculty. Another is called the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering. The university says both new committees will develop proposals to reduce barriers to success. Ideas are expected by May, so steps can begin in the next school year. Harvard also plans to appoint a top administrator who will try for more female professors. In the beginning, in sixteen thirty-six, Harvard had one teacher and nine students. The area around Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, was an English colony then. The school is named for a Puritan religious leader, John Harvard. He gave the college all his books and half his property when he died. Today Harvard has almost twenty thousand undergraduate and graduate students. More than three thousand are from outside the United States, mostly Asia and Europe. Foreign students also can receive financial aid. One year at Harvard costs more than thirty-seven thousand dollars. The university includes Harvard College and Radcliffe College, and ten graduate schools. Internet users can learn more about one of the top research universities in the world at harvard.edu. And our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: The Killers / A Question about Valentine's Day / Chronicles, Volume One by Bob Dylan
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Grammy-nominated music from the group called the Killers ... A question about the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday ... And a look at a new book by a popular American musician. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Grammy-nominated music from the group called the Killers ... A question about the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday ... And a look at a new book by a popular American musician. Bob Dylan’s "Chronicles, Volume One" (MUSIC) Bob Dylan is one of the America’s greatest songwriters. Now he has written a book about his life that critics have praised. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. SHEP O'NEAL: Bob Dylan’s book, "Chronicles: Volume One," was published in October. It has been among the best-selling books in America. The New York Times newspaper named it one of the five best non-fiction, or true life, books of two thousand four. And recently, the National Book Critics Circle named it one of the five finalists for best biography or autobiography of last year. Bob Dylan grew up in the small town of Hibbing, Minnesota. As a young man, in nineteen sixty-one, he moved to New York City with his guitar. He wanted to become a folk singer and musician. In his book, he writes about his experiences playing and singing other people’s songs in clubs in the Greenwich Village area. He writes about the many artists, writers and musicians who influenced him. His main influence was the great folk singer Woody Guthrie. Guthrie was living in a hospital in New Jersey because he had a serious disease. Dylan visited him often and played Guthrie’s songs to him.Later, Dylan became extremely famous for the songs he wrote. The media called him the "voice of a generation." But he rejected this fame. He writes: "All I’d ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with, and knew even less about, a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of." Bob Dylan writes that his wife and five children were the most important part of his life. He describes trying to find privacy for his family at his home in Woodstock, a town in New York State. But people from all over the country came to visit him and destroyed his peace. Dylan also writes about spending time in New Orleans, Louisiana, while recording the album "Oh Mercy" in nineteen eighty-nine. He writes about the process of recording the album. And he writes about the interesting people he met in Louisiana. One was a store owner named Sun Pie, who gave Dylan a sign for his car that says "World’s Greatest Grandpa." Critics have compared Bob Dylan’s book "Chronicles" to one of his songs. They say it brings to life images, faces and places. They say the book forms layers of meaning through rich details. "A song is like a dream," Dylan writes, "and you try to make it come true." Valentine’s Day DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Nima Foroud asks about the holiday called Valentine’s Day. Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day each year on February fourteenth. It is a holiday for lovers. Valentine’s Day is a good day for a man to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It is also a good day for couples to get married. Other couples might go out for a special meal at a nice restaurant. The holiday is named for Saint Valentine. He was an early Christian churchman who reportedly helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one thousand seven hundred years ago. But the day that has his name is even older than that. The ancient Romans celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two thousand years ago. As part of the celebration, each girl wrote her name on a piece of paper and put it in a large container. Each boy reached into the container and pulled out the name of a girl. That girl became his girlfriend for a year. Lovers still put their names on pieces of paper on Valentine’s Day. They send each other cards that express their love. Sometimes they send other gifts, too, like jewelry… or flowers… or candy…or all three! Americans usually send cards through the mail system or in a computer message. But there is another way many Americans send messages of love on Valentine’s Day. They pay to have them printed in a newspaper. Some of these messages are simple and short: “Susan, I love you very much. From John.” Others say more, like this example: “David, roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you love me as much as I love you. Forever, Mary.” There is only one problem in sending a Valentine’s Day message this way. It will only reach the one you love if he or she reads the newspaper that day! The Killers Have you heard of the American rock group called the Killers? The group was popular in Britain before becoming well known in the United States. Now the group has been nominated for three Grammy awards. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The four members of the Killers are Brandon Flowers, David Keuning, Mark Stoermer and Ronnie Vanucci. They met a few years ago in their hometown, Las Vegas, Nevada. The first song that Flowers and Keuning wrote together is called “Mister Brightside.” Keuning says it is still the only song the group plays every time it performs. Let’s listen: (MUSIC) “Mister Brightside” is one of eleven songs on the Killers’ first album, “Hot Fuss.” The album has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album. Another popular song from the album is about a girl who is killed by her boyfriend. It is called “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.” (MUSIC) One song on “Hot Fuss” is nominated for two Grammys -- Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, and Best Rock Song. It was also the first hit single from the album. We leave you now with the Killers singing that song, “Somebody Told Me.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Bob Dylan’s "Chronicles, Volume One" (MUSIC) Bob Dylan is one of the America’s greatest songwriters. Now he has written a book about his life that critics have praised. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. SHEP O'NEAL: Bob Dylan’s book, "Chronicles: Volume One," was published in October. It has been among the best-selling books in America. The New York Times newspaper named it one of the five best non-fiction, or true life, books of two thousand four. And recently, the National Book Critics Circle named it one of the five finalists for best biography or autobiography of last year. Bob Dylan grew up in the small town of Hibbing, Minnesota. As a young man, in nineteen sixty-one, he moved to New York City with his guitar. He wanted to become a folk singer and musician. In his book, he writes about his experiences playing and singing other people’s songs in clubs in the Greenwich Village area. He writes about the many artists, writers and musicians who influenced him. His main influence was the great folk singer Woody Guthrie. Guthrie was living in a hospital in New Jersey because he had a serious disease. Dylan visited him often and played Guthrie’s songs to him.Later, Dylan became extremely famous for the songs he wrote. The media called him the "voice of a generation." But he rejected this fame. He writes: "All I’d ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with, and knew even less about, a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of." Bob Dylan writes that his wife and five children were the most important part of his life. He describes trying to find privacy for his family at his home in Woodstock, a town in New York State. But people from all over the country came to visit him and destroyed his peace. Dylan also writes about spending time in New Orleans, Louisiana, while recording the album "Oh Mercy" in nineteen eighty-nine. He writes about the process of recording the album. And he writes about the interesting people he met in Louisiana. One was a store owner named Sun Pie, who gave Dylan a sign for his car that says "World’s Greatest Grandpa." Critics have compared Bob Dylan’s book "Chronicles" to one of his songs. They say it brings to life images, faces and places. They say the book forms layers of meaning through rich details. "A song is like a dream," Dylan writes, "and you try to make it come true." Valentine’s Day DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Nima Foroud asks about the holiday called Valentine’s Day. Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day each year on February fourteenth. It is a holiday for lovers. Valentine’s Day is a good day for a man to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It is also a good day for couples to get married. Other couples might go out for a special meal at a nice restaurant. The holiday is named for Saint Valentine. He was an early Christian churchman who reportedly helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one thousand seven hundred years ago. But the day that has his name is even older than that. The ancient Romans celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two thousand years ago. As part of the celebration, each girl wrote her name on a piece of paper and put it in a large container. Each boy reached into the container and pulled out the name of a girl. That girl became his girlfriend for a year. Lovers still put their names on pieces of paper on Valentine’s Day. They send each other cards that express their love. Sometimes they send other gifts, too, like jewelry… or flowers… or candy…or all three! Americans usually send cards through the mail system or in a computer message. But there is another way many Americans send messages of love on Valentine’s Day. They pay to have them printed in a newspaper. Some of these messages are simple and short: “Susan, I love you very much. From John.” Others say more, like this example: “David, roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you love me as much as I love you. Forever, Mary.” There is only one problem in sending a Valentine’s Day message this way. It will only reach the one you love if he or she reads the newspaper that day! The Killers Have you heard of the American rock group called the Killers? The group was popular in Britain before becoming well known in the United States. Now the group has been nominated for three Grammy awards. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The four members of the Killers are Brandon Flowers, David Keuning, Mark Stoermer and Ronnie Vanucci. They met a few years ago in their hometown, Las Vegas, Nevada. The first song that Flowers and Keuning wrote together is called “Mister Brightside.” Keuning says it is still the only song the group plays every time it performs. Let’s listen: (MUSIC) “Mister Brightside” is one of eleven songs on the Killers’ first album, “Hot Fuss.” The album has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album. Another popular song from the album is about a girl who is killed by her boyfriend. It is called “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.” (MUSIC) One song on “Hot Fuss” is nominated for two Grammys -- Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, and Best Rock Song. It was also the first hit single from the album. We leave you now with the Killers singing that song, “Somebody Told Me.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Business Organizations
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual proprietorship. The proprietor owns all the property of the business and is responsible for it. This means the proprietor receives all profits -- but also must pay any debts. The law recognizes no difference between the owner and the business. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to state how much of the partnership each person controls. There are limited liability partnerships. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits. But their responsibilities are also limited. In the United States, the federal government does not tax partnerships. The partners are taxed, though, on the payments they receive. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share the profits and risks of doing business. A husband and wife can form a business partnership. Partnerships can end at any time. But partnerships and individual proprietorships exist only as long as the owners are alive. The most complex kind of business organization is the corporation. Corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. Stock is a share of ownership in a corporation. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company may pay shareholders in the form of what are called dividends. Or the company may reinvest its earnings into the business. If shares lose value, investors can lose all the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. A corporation is recognized as its own legal being, separate from its owners. A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation. Corporations may have a few major shareholders. Or ownership may be spread among the general public. Incorporating offers businesses a way to gain the investments they need to grow. But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. The American Red Cross is an example of a non-profit corporation. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Israeli-Palestinian Truce; Historic Elections in Saudi Arabia
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met in Egypt this week and declared a cease-fire. The meeting Tuesday was the first in more than four years between leaders of the two sides. The current violence between Palestinians and Israelis began in September of two thousand. Both men spoke of increased chances for peace. But violence resurfaced on Thursday. Members of Hamas fired shells and rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza, although no one was hurt. Mister Abbas had deployed a large security force in the area to prevent attacks on Israelis. After the shelling, he dismissed three top security officials. Israel praised the action. But cabinet members said Israel would have to act if the Palestinians cannot control the situation. Hamas said it was not trying to break the cease-fire. It said the attack was in answer to the killing of a Palestinian in Gaza on Wednesday. Israel has been urging Mister Abbas to disarm militant groups. On Friday he went to Gaza to demand that they observe the truce announced in Sharm el-Sheikh. Earlier he sent a representative to meet with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, where that group is based. Palestinian and Israeli officials have both accused Hezbollah of plotting to wreck the cease-fire. In return for Palestinian promises to control violence, Israel said it would free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners within weeks. Israeli also promised to withdraw troops from five West Bank towns. President Bush recently said he would ask Congress for three hundred fifty million dollars for the Palestinians. The money would be used to help them develop an independent state. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met separately with Mister Sharon and Mister Abbas this week. Secretary Rice said the United States would give the Palestinians forty million dollars immediately. In other news this week in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia held its first open elections. Candidates competed for half the seats on local councils in the Riyadh area. The national government will choose the other half. Close to two thousand men competed for one hundred twenty-seven seats. Women could not be candidates. They also could not vote. The government said it did not have enough time to set up separate voting stations for them. Still, many voters said the local elections marked the beginning of democratic reforms. The ruling family is under pressure to give Saudis more political power. About one hundred fifty thousand men in and around the capital signed up to vote. Up to six hundred thousand could have registered. Unofficial results were announced Friday. News agencies said Islamist candidates supported by clergy appeared to have won in Riyadh. Elections are set for March and April in other parts of the kingdom. In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met in Egypt this week and declared a cease-fire. The meeting Tuesday was the first in more than four years between leaders of the two sides. The current violence between Palestinians and Israelis began in September of two thousand. Both men spoke of increased chances for peace. But violence resurfaced on Thursday. Members of Hamas fired shells and rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza, although no one was hurt. Mister Abbas had deployed a large security force in the area to prevent attacks on Israelis. After the shelling, he dismissed three top security officials. Israel praised the action. But cabinet members said Israel would have to act if the Palestinians cannot control the situation. Hamas said it was not trying to break the cease-fire. It said the attack was in answer to the killing of a Palestinian in Gaza on Wednesday. Israel has been urging Mister Abbas to disarm militant groups. On Friday he went to Gaza to demand that they observe the truce announced in Sharm el-Sheikh. Earlier he sent a representative to meet with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, where that group is based. Palestinian and Israeli officials have both accused Hezbollah of plotting to wreck the cease-fire. In return for Palestinian promises to control violence, Israel said it would free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners within weeks. Israeli also promised to withdraw troops from five West Bank towns. President Bush recently said he would ask Congress for three hundred fifty million dollars for the Palestinians. The money would be used to help them develop an independent state. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met separately with Mister Sharon and Mister Abbas this week. Secretary Rice said the United States would give the Palestinians forty million dollars immediately. In other news this week in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia held its first open elections. Candidates competed for half the seats on local councils in the Riyadh area. The national government will choose the other half. Close to two thousand men competed for one hundred twenty-seven seats. Women could not be candidates. They also could not vote. The government said it did not have enough time to set up separate voting stations for them. Still, many voters said the local elections marked the beginning of democratic reforms. The ruling family is under pressure to give Saudis more political power. About one hundred fifty thousand men in and around the capital signed up to vote. Up to six hundred thousand could have registered. Unofficial results were announced Friday. News agencies said Islamist candidates supported by clergy appeared to have won in Riyadh. Elections are set for March and April in other parts of the kingdom. In the News in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Frank and Jesse James
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 VOICE ONE: VOICE ONE: People in America, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Two of the most famous outlaws of the old American west were brothers. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Maurice Joyce and I tell about Frank and Jesse James. We begin their story on a cold day in February, eighteensixty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Liberty, Missouri. Two o'clock in the afternoon. ((SFX)) Twelve men on horses ride slowly into town. Their hats are low on their faces. They stop in front of the Clay County Savings Bank. Two of the men get off their horses and enter the bank. The bank manager asks if he can help them. The two men pull out guns from under their heavy coats. They demand money. In less than two minutes, they return to the street. Now the gang is in a great hurry. All twelve men begin shooting. ((SFX)) Several people are wounded. A young college student is killed. ((SFX)) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: What happened on that day was the first bank robbery, during business hours, in peacetime, in the United States. History books say the two men who went into the bank were Frank James and his younger brother Jesse. But this was never proved. Frank and Jesse James told lawmen they were home that day. Several of their friends confirmed the story. True or not, during the next sixteen years, the James brothers did become two of the most famous outlaws in America. VOICE TWO: History experts say they robbed at least twelve banks, perhaps many more. They stopped seven trains, taking money from passengers and the United States Postal Service. They robbed as many as seven stagecoaches, the horse-pulled vehicles used back then as public transportation. They traveled from their home in Clay County, Missouri, to Minnesota in the North and to Texas in the West. Hundreds of lawmen hunted them. But the James Brothers were never caught. Much later, their story was told in songs. (MUSIC) Who were Frank and Jesse James? Why were they so famous? VOICE ONE: Frank and Jesse were the sons of Robert James, a religious minister who owned a farm in Clay County,Missouri. People who knew the family said the James boys were polite and friendly. At least until the time of America's Civil War. Many people in Missouri believed in the cause of the southern, or Confederate, states during the Civil War. However, Missouri was on the border between the North and the South. Almost as many people there supported the Union as the Confederacy. Terrible fighting took place in Missouri and in other border states. Guerrilla groups from both sides were responsible for the fighting. VOICE TWO: History experts say much of the violence in the American West was a result of the situation after the Civil War. Many former Confederate soldiers returned home, but did not put down their guns. They continued to fight what they saw as symbols of northern oppression. These included banks and railroads. Many local people agreed with the former soldiers and supported them. A lack of government control in the West also led to increased violence after the war. Records show that violent crime increased at that time by as much as fifty percent. VOICE ONE: Frank and Jesse James are perhaps the most famous examples of the soldier-turned-outlaw. During the Civil War, the James family suffered attacks by Union guerrillas. As a way of fighting back, Frank and Jesse became Confederate guerrillas. They rode with two of the most violent guerrilla groups. After the war, they continued their violent ways. The James brothers were extremely successful. Their gang rode for sixteen years. Hundreds of government lawmen tried to catch them. Agents of the private Pinkerton National Detective Agency tried, too. But no one did. Most lawmen did not even know what the two brothers looked like. VOICE TWO: Jesse James enjoyed being famous. He often wrote letters to newspapers denying that he was guilty of any crime. Once, he ate dinner with a well-known Pinkerton detective who was searching for him. The detective got a big surprise later when he opened a letter from Jesse James. Jesse said how much he enjoyed their dinner together. He also wished him 'good luck'! Stories like this were printed in newspapers all over the country. They helped Make the James brothers famous. People liked the stories. Those who had been robbed did not. Soon, large amounts of money were offered for the capture of Frank and Jesse James. The state of Missouri offered as much as ten housand dollars or the brothers. . . dead or alive. VOICE ONE: It was easy for the James brothers to hide in their home area. Yet most often they hid in large cities. Many years later, Frank James told reporters that it was easy to hide in a city, because everyone there looked like everybody else. When one place became too dangerous, the James brothers moved to another. That was one reason they decided to go to Minnesota. There they planned to rob the bank in the town of Northfield. Frank and Jesse rode to Northfield with six friends. Three of the friends were brothers: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. Like the James brothers, the Youngers were former Confederate guerrillas, now outlaws. VOICE TWO: From the beginning, their attempted robbery of the bank in Northfield was a failure. First, when Jesse demanded money from bank workers, they said the safe could not be opened. Next, the gang decided to get out of town fast. But the people of Northfield knew something was wrong. Many had gone to their homes or offices for their guns. Then the shooting began. Two members of the gang were killed in town. Another was killed later. And Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were captured. Only two men escaped -- Frank and Jesse James. Frank was wounded, but he stayed on his horse. Lawmen chased him and his brother for more than a week before they lost their trail. In the years that followed, the James brothers tried again to form another gang. They were never very successful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty-two, Jesse James was living in Saint Joseph, Missouri, with his wife and children. People knew him as Mister Howard. One day, another outlaw, Bob Ford, shot him in the back of the head. He killed Jesse James for the money that had been offered for his capture. Bob Ford never collected the money. He was tried for murder, instead. Several months later, Frank James surrendered to the governor of Missouri. He was charged with several crimes and tried two times. Both juries refused to find him guilty. VOICE TWO: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger spent many years in prison for their part in the Northfield, Minnesota, raid. After Cole was released from prison, he and Frank James earned money by speaking to groups. They told about their days as outlaws. . . and the evils of crime. Frank James lived to be seventy-two years old. He died in the same room in which he was born, on the James family farm in Clay County, Missouri. Today, that farmhouse is a museum that tells the story of the two most famous outlaws of the American West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. People in America, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Two of the most famous outlaws of the old American west were brothers. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Maurice Joyce and I tell about Frank and Jesse James. We begin their story on a cold day in February, eighteensixty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Liberty, Missouri. Two o'clock in the afternoon. ((SFX)) Twelve men on horses ride slowly into town. Their hats are low on their faces. They stop in front of the Clay County Savings Bank. Two of the men get off their horses and enter the bank. The bank manager asks if he can help them. The two men pull out guns from under their heavy coats. They demand money. In less than two minutes, they return to the street. Now the gang is in a great hurry. All twelve men begin shooting. ((SFX)) Several people are wounded. A young college student is killed. ((SFX)) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: What happened on that day was the first bank robbery, during business hours, in peacetime, in the United States. History books say the two men who went into the bank were Frank James and his younger brother Jesse. But this was never proved. Frank and Jesse James told lawmen they were home that day. Several of their friends confirmed the story. True or not, during the next sixteen years, the James brothers did become two of the most famous outlaws in America. VOICE TWO: History experts say they robbed at least twelve banks, perhaps many more. They stopped seven trains, taking money from passengers and the United States Postal Service. They robbed as many as seven stagecoaches, the horse-pulled vehicles used back then as public transportation. They traveled from their home in Clay County, Missouri, to Minnesota in the North and to Texas in the West. Hundreds of lawmen hunted them. But the James Brothers were never caught. Much later, their story was told in songs. (MUSIC) Who were Frank and Jesse James? Why were they so famous? VOICE ONE: Frank and Jesse were the sons of Robert James, a religious minister who owned a farm in Clay County,Missouri. People who knew the family said the James boys were polite and friendly. At least until the time of America's Civil War. Many people in Missouri believed in the cause of the southern, or Confederate, states during the Civil War. However, Missouri was on the border between the North and the South. Almost as many people there supported the Union as the Confederacy. Terrible fighting took place in Missouri and in other border states. Guerrilla groups from both sides were responsible for the fighting. VOICE TWO: History experts say much of the violence in the American West was a result of the situation after the Civil War. Many former Confederate soldiers returned home, but did not put down their guns. They continued to fight what they saw as symbols of northern oppression. These included banks and railroads. Many local people agreed with the former soldiers and supported them. A lack of government control in the West also led to increased violence after the war. Records show that violent crime increased at that time by as much as fifty percent. VOICE ONE: Frank and Jesse James are perhaps the most famous examples of the soldier-turned-outlaw. During the Civil War, the James family suffered attacks by Union guerrillas. As a way of fighting back, Frank and Jesse became Confederate guerrillas. They rode with two of the most violent guerrilla groups. After the war, they continued their violent ways. The James brothers were extremely successful. Their gang rode for sixteen years. Hundreds of government lawmen tried to catch them. Agents of the private Pinkerton National Detective Agency tried, too. But no one did. Most lawmen did not even know what the two brothers looked like. VOICE TWO: Jesse James enjoyed being famous. He often wrote letters to newspapers denying that he was guilty of any crime. Once, he ate dinner with a well-known Pinkerton detective who was searching for him. The detective got a big surprise later when he opened a letter from Jesse James. Jesse said how much he enjoyed their dinner together. He also wished him 'good luck'! Stories like this were printed in newspapers all over the country. They helped Make the James brothers famous. People liked the stories. Those who had been robbed did not. Soon, large amounts of money were offered for the capture of Frank and Jesse James. The state of Missouri offered as much as ten housand dollars or the brothers. . . dead or alive. VOICE ONE: It was easy for the James brothers to hide in their home area. Yet most often they hid in large cities. Many years later, Frank James told reporters that it was easy to hide in a city, because everyone there looked like everybody else. When one place became too dangerous, the James brothers moved to another. That was one reason they decided to go to Minnesota. There they planned to rob the bank in the town of Northfield. Frank and Jesse rode to Northfield with six friends. Three of the friends were brothers: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. Like the James brothers, the Youngers were former Confederate guerrillas, now outlaws. VOICE TWO: From the beginning, their attempted robbery of the bank in Northfield was a failure. First, when Jesse demanded money from bank workers, they said the safe could not be opened. Next, the gang decided to get out of town fast. But the people of Northfield knew something was wrong. Many had gone to their homes or offices for their guns. Then the shooting began. Two members of the gang were killed in town. Another was killed later. And Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were captured. Only two men escaped -- Frank and Jesse James. Frank was wounded, but he stayed on his horse. Lawmen chased him and his brother for more than a week before they lost their trail. In the years that followed, the James brothers tried again to form another gang. They were never very successful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen eighty-two, Jesse James was living in Saint Joseph, Missouri, with his wife and children. People knew him as Mister Howard. One day, another outlaw, Bob Ford, shot him in the back of the head. He killed Jesse James for the money that had been offered for his capture. Bob Ford never collected the money. He was tried for murder, instead. Several months later, Frank James surrendered to the governor of Missouri. He was charged with several crimes and tried two times. Both juries refused to find him guilty. VOICE TWO: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger spent many years in prison for their part in the Northfield, Minnesota, raid. After Cole was released from prison, he and Frank James earned money by speaking to groups. They told about their days as outlaws. . . and the evils of crime. Frank James lived to be seventy-two years old. He died in the same room in which he was born, on the James family farm in Clay County, Missouri. Today, that farmhouse is a museum that tells the story of the two most famous outlaws of the American West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Dating
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. February fourteenth is Valentine’s Day. So this is a good time to play some love songs as we explore the subject of dating. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. February fourteenth is Valentine’s Day. So this is a good time to play some love songs as we explore the subject of dating. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Valentine's Day is a special time for love. Millions of people will receive flowers, chocolate or some other gift. Others might get just a phone call or an electronic message from someone they care about. Still others would be happy just to have someone special in their life on Valentine's Day. Tradition tells us that Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman who performed marriages and died for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth. That was a day celebrated in ancient Rome in connection with love. VOICE TWO: (Photo courtesy Universal Pictures)Traditionally, young people in America lived with their parents until marriage. Some still do. But, in general, young people have grown more independent. They wait longer to get married. Even then, they still have to find the right person. There are many ways for people to meet. Some meet at work. Others meet by chance. Still others look for help from services that bring people together. VOICE ONE: Friends and family members might offer to help. They might plan a blind date. This is a meeting between two people who have never seen each other before. And, unless things go well, may never seen each other again. Some families follow their cultural traditions and plan the marriage of their child to a member of another family. The young people might not see each other much before they are married. Or they might see each other but never alone. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In movies, two people often fall in love after what Hollywood calls a "cute meet." They might be lawyers on opposite sides in a court case. Or one person gets a letter meant for the other. Or their dogs get into a fight on the street. Who knows how many people really do meet this way. In real life, finding a person and establishing a relationship is usually hard work. VOICE ONE: A lot of people try to improve their chances by looking in places where people with similar interests go. This might be a place of religion. Or a bookstore. Many bookstores in America offer special programs and social activities for single people. Singles may join health clubs or sports teams where men and women play together. If nothing else, at least they get some exercise. But sometimes none of these efforts succeed. So people might try to meet someone over the Internet. Here too there are no guarantees. VOICE TWO: Internet dating services had been growing sharply through the end of two thousand three. But the industry growth rate has slowed. What we are about to say may come as no shock, but people do not always tell the truth about themselves online. And if they do not exactly lie about their age, for example, then they might offer an old picture instead. Or a dating service might connect a person with someone who lives far away. Some companies are working to improve their services. And others say they have a very good record of bringing people together. VOICE ONE: There are companies with names like Match dot com (match.com) and eHarmony dot com (eharmony.com) and Americansingles dot com (americansingles.com). And there are services especially for different groups, including older people. Senior FriendFinder dot com (seniorfriendfinder.com) says that in one week, it placed more than two thousand pictures of older date-seekers online. VOICE TWO: People who meet through computer services may not have to give their full name or e-mail address at first. Relationships that begin over the Internet do sometimes lead to marriage. Yet there is a risk anytime strangers meet. It could be danger, or simply an unpleasant surprise. A young woman in Washington, D.C., was angry after seeing a date she met over the Internet. In his picture, he looked twenty-five or thirty years old. In reality, she said, he was old enough to be her father. VOICE ONE: Another example involves a woman in Chicago, Illinois. For several months, she exchanged e-mail with a man who sounded interesting. Then, when they met, he admitted he had a wife. He said he just wanted what he called "some harmless fun." The woman says she told him she was sorry she had wasted her time on a person who lies. Online dating companies do offer some safety advice to women and men who decide to meet. For example, they say you should drive yourself to the date. And get together in a public place with lots of people around. VOICE TWO: Another way to meet people is through a service like the one offered by a company called Brief Encounters USA. This company holds events for small groups of people in several states and Washington, D.C. Men and women meet and get only three to six minutes to introduce themselves. VOICE ONE: This is how it works: Two people sit across from each other at a table. They talk until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write down their reactions to the ones they met. At the end, they give the names of those they liked best to an employee of Brief Encounters. Within forty-eight hours, the people who took part receive the names and telephone numbers of the people who liked them. Religious organizations operate a number of dating services. A program called SpeedDating began in California with Jewish students in Los Angeles. Many young people gather in a room. They meet and talk with someone else for seven minutes before they move on to another person. VOICE TWO: Many American newspapers and magazines publish what are called personals. These are messages from people who want to meet others. For example, a message might say: "Nice looking woman, thirty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship." There are also telephone services. People call and record a message about themselves and the kind of person they hope to meet. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. There are also video dating services. People go on camera and record a message about themselves. Then they wait until someone likes what they see. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In some cafes, people hope to find more than just a good cup of coffee. A place called Drip opened in New York City in nineteen ninety-six. It began with the idea of having employees help set up dates between people who answer questions about themselves. The idea spread. Drip dot com (drip.com) offers an online dating service. VOICE TWO: However two people meet, once they have made a date, either alone or with friends, the question becomes where to go. People of all ages do many of the same things. They might go out to eat. They might go for a long walk. Or they might go dancing, or to a movie or a museum or a concert. Some couples play sports together. Others like to spend an evening just watching television. However they spend their time, the important thing -- Valentine's Day or not -- is that they are spending it together. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Valentine's Day is a special time for love. Millions of people will receive flowers, chocolate or some other gift. Others might get just a phone call or an electronic message from someone they care about. Still others would be happy just to have someone special in their life on Valentine's Day. Tradition tells us that Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman who performed marriages and died for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth. That was a day celebrated in ancient Rome in connection with love. VOICE TWO: (Photo courtesy Universal Pictures)Traditionally, young people in America lived with their parents until marriage. Some still do. But, in general, young people have grown more independent. They wait longer to get married. Even then, they still have to find the right person. There are many ways for people to meet. Some meet at work. Others meet by chance. Still others look for help from services that bring people together. VOICE ONE: Friends and family members might offer to help. They might plan a blind date. This is a meeting between two people who have never seen each other before. And, unless things go well, may never seen each other again. Some families follow their cultural traditions and plan the marriage of their child to a member of another family. The young people might not see each other much before they are married. Or they might see each other but never alone. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In movies, two people often fall in love after what Hollywood calls a "cute meet." They might be lawyers on opposite sides in a court case. Or one person gets a letter meant for the other. Or their dogs get into a fight on the street. Who knows how many people really do meet this way. In real life, finding a person and establishing a relationship is usually hard work. VOICE ONE: A lot of people try to improve their chances by looking in places where people with similar interests go. This might be a place of religion. Or a bookstore. Many bookstores in America offer special programs and social activities for single people. Singles may join health clubs or sports teams where men and women play together. If nothing else, at least they get some exercise. But sometimes none of these efforts succeed. So people might try to meet someone over the Internet. Here too there are no guarantees. VOICE TWO: Internet dating services had been growing sharply through the end of two thousand three. But the industry growth rate has slowed. What we are about to say may come as no shock, but people do not always tell the truth about themselves online. And if they do not exactly lie about their age, for example, then they might offer an old picture instead. Or a dating service might connect a person with someone who lives far away. Some companies are working to improve their services. And others say they have a very good record of bringing people together. VOICE ONE: There are companies with names like Match dot com (match.com) and eHarmony dot com (eharmony.com) and Americansingles dot com (americansingles.com). And there are services especially for different groups, including older people. Senior FriendFinder dot com (seniorfriendfinder.com) says that in one week, it placed more than two thousand pictures of older date-seekers online. VOICE TWO: People who meet through computer services may not have to give their full name or e-mail address at first. Relationships that begin over the Internet do sometimes lead to marriage. Yet there is a risk anytime strangers meet. It could be danger, or simply an unpleasant surprise. A young woman in Washington, D.C., was angry after seeing a date she met over the Internet. In his picture, he looked twenty-five or thirty years old. In reality, she said, he was old enough to be her father. VOICE ONE: Another example involves a woman in Chicago, Illinois. For several months, she exchanged e-mail with a man who sounded interesting. Then, when they met, he admitted he had a wife. He said he just wanted what he called "some harmless fun." The woman says she told him she was sorry she had wasted her time on a person who lies. Online dating companies do offer some safety advice to women and men who decide to meet. For example, they say you should drive yourself to the date. And get together in a public place with lots of people around. VOICE TWO: Another way to meet people is through a service like the one offered by a company called Brief Encounters USA. This company holds events for small groups of people in several states and Washington, D.C. Men and women meet and get only three to six minutes to introduce themselves. VOICE ONE: This is how it works: Two people sit across from each other at a table. They talk until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write down their reactions to the ones they met. At the end, they give the names of those they liked best to an employee of Brief Encounters. Within forty-eight hours, the people who took part receive the names and telephone numbers of the people who liked them. Religious organizations operate a number of dating services. A program called SpeedDating began in California with Jewish students in Los Angeles. Many young people gather in a room. They meet and talk with someone else for seven minutes before they move on to another person. VOICE TWO: Many American newspapers and magazines publish what are called personals. These are messages from people who want to meet others. For example, a message might say: "Nice looking woman, thirty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship." There are also telephone services. People call and record a message about themselves and the kind of person they hope to meet. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. There are also video dating services. People go on camera and record a message about themselves. Then they wait until someone likes what they see. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In some cafes, people hope to find more than just a good cup of coffee. A place called Drip opened in New York City in nineteen ninety-six. It began with the idea of having employees help set up dates between people who answer questions about themselves. The idea spread. Drip dot com (drip.com) offers an online dating service. VOICE TWO: However two people meet, once they have made a date, either alone or with friends, the question becomes where to go. People of all ages do many of the same things. They might go out to eat. They might go for a long walk. Or they might go dancing, or to a movie or a museum or a concert. Some couples play sports together. Others like to spend an evening just watching television. However they spend their time, the important thing -- Valentine's Day or not -- is that they are spending it together. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Cloth Filters Fight Cholera
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A few years ago, researchers discovered a simple answer to a big problem. They found that the bacteria that causes cholera can be removed from drinking water with simple cloth filters. Pouring water from rivers or lakes through several thicknesses of cloth can trap tiny organisms like the cholera bacteria. A three-year study took place in Bangladesh. American and Bangladeshi scientists went to sixty-five small villages in a country where cholera is a major health problem. They tested the use of saris as cloth filters. A sari is the traditional clothing worn by most women in Bangladesh. People in one group of villages used cloth from old saris, folded eight times, as a filter for their drinking water. People in another group of villages used modern nylon filters for their water. People in the other villages continued to gather water in traditional ways, without using filters. About forty-four thousand people were studied in each of the three groups of villages. Rita Colwell from the University of Maryland at College Park helped lead the study. She said the people in the villages using filters from old saris had the lowest number of cases of cholera. The researchers also found that almost ninety-nine percent of cholera bacteria could be filtered out with the sari cloth. Rita Colwell said cloth from old saris worked best because it has been washed repeatedly. She said the space between the threads of the material narrows when the cloth is washed, so it traps smaller particles. Cholera is an intestinal infection that can develop in the body in less than five days. It can quickly lead to severe loss of fluids through diarrhea and vomiting. Cholera can cause death if treatment is not given quickly. Children under age five are most at risk. People get the disease by drinking water or eating food that contains the bacteria. The disease is most often found in areas where there is unclean water and poor systems for treating human waste. The most recent yearly report on cholera on the Web site of the World Health Organization is for two thousand two. That year, fifty-two countries reported a total of one hundred forty-two thousand cases. These infections resulted in more than four thousand five hundred deaths. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Reforms at NIH / Tobacco Smoke a Danger to Children / A New Way to Add Iron to the Diet
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk and Jill Moss

 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about a treatment for lack of iron in the diet; the dangers of cigarette smoke for children; and reforms at the National Institutes of Health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. The W.H.O. estimates that as many as eighty percent of people may not be getting the iron they need. The body needs iron to manufacture hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to body tissues. The body also needs iron to produce several enzymes necessary for muscle, the brain and the body’s natural defenses to work correctly. Iron is stored in bone marrow and two organs -- the spleen and liver. Iron deficiency is the main cause of anemia. A person becomes anemic when iron levels are severely reduced. VOICE TWO: Children in developing countries are especially at risk of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia. Officials estimate that as many as seven hundred fifty million children have one or more of the conditions. Common signs of iron deficiency include a loss, or lightening, of skin color. Adults who do not get enough iron get tired more quickly. And, there are special risks for pregnant women. But risks for children can be much more serious, especially in the first two years of life. That is because iron deficiency can cause problems with physical and mental development. It also can result in reduced performance in school. In fact, some economists believe that iron deficiency can have a major effect on a nation’s economy. Iron deficiency and anemia often result in lower productivity. This, in turn, can affect economic development. VOICE ONE: Health experts say iron deficiency is the most common preventable nutritional problems. Meat, fish, chicken and other birds have plenty of iron. But some developing countries lack enough of the foods that provide iron. There have been efforts to deal with the problem. Some wealthy countries have led successful health campaigns. But traditional ways of getting more iron into children in developing countries have been largely unsuccessful. Foods supplied with iron are often too costly. And many children object to taking any iron supplements by mouth because of the taste. VOICE TWO: An expert in treating children, Stanley Zlotkin, says he has a solution. Doctor Zlotkin teaches at the University of Toronto in Canada. His solution is called sprinkles. Iron and other minerals necessary for good health are processed into very small particles. These particles are covered with a neutral food product to hide the taste. He says the mixture can be easily added to food and mixed in. The mixture comes in a small container called a sachet (sash-AY). Doctor Zlotkin says it provides the exact amount needed to meet a child’s daily need for iron at a cost of three cents or less a day. The sachets also include vitamin C, which helps the body process iron, and vitamin A, zinc, and folic acid. VOICE ONE: Recently, Doctor Zlotkin and other research scientists reported on successful tests of sprinkles in West Africa. The findings were reported in the publication of the Public Library of Science. Up until now, only the United Nation’s Children’s Fund and private groups have offered sprinkles to those in need. A few government programs in Pakistan and Bangladesh also have begun using this new intervention. Doctor Zlotkin says his goal is to expand the use of sprinkles in the nutrition policy of all developing countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new study serves as another warning of the dangers from cigarette smoke around children. This was one of the largest studies ever done on the risks to people who breathe tobacco smoke in the air. Experts call this "passive smoking." Many studies have shown increased risks for lung cancer and other diseases. But few studies have involved people who seemed healthy when the research began. Paolo Vineis of Imperial College, London, led the new study. The British Medical Journal published the report. VOICE ONE: More than one hundred twenty thousand people provided information about their history of exposure to tobacco smoke. They might have worked with smokers, or had parents who smoked. The people were from ten countries in Europe. All said they had never smoked or had stopped for at least ten years. The study followed their health for an average of seven years. During that time, ninety-seven people developed lung cancer. Twenty developed upper-respiratory cancers. And fourteen died from the lung disease emphysema. VOICE TWO: The report compares lung cancer rates among people who had been around tobacco smoke when they were children. Those who had breathed it many hours a day were three-and-one-half times more likely to get lung cancer than those who reported no exposure. Yet the risk was still one-and-one-half times higher in adults who had breathed tobacco smoke as children even a few times a week. The study also found that former smokers had a greater risk of lung cancer than people who never smoked. This link was limited to exposure at work. The report says former smokers may be more at risk from low levels of tobacco smoke in the environment. One possible explanation is that they already have damaged cells. Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer. And lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the world’s leading medical research centers has announced new ethics rules for its workers. The National Institutes of Health says the rules are meant to guide the moral, or ethical, actions of the workers. The N.I.H. is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The agency employs more than eighteen thousand people. Under the new rules, N.I.H. employees may no longer offer expert advice to, or accept money from, companies in the medical industry. This includes drug or biotechnology companies, makers of medical devices, healthcare providers and trade groups. It also includes universities, hospitals and research centers that receive money from the National Institutes of Health. VOICE TWO: The new rules require most N.I.H. scientists and all top officials to sell their investments in drug and biotech companies. The rules also affect other employees with the agency. They are limited to no more than fifteen thousand dollars in stock in any one drug or biotech company. Elias Zerhouni is the director of the National Institutes of Health. Doctor Zerhouni says his goal is to protect the public trust in N.I.H. and its research programs. He says there should be no conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict of interest. VOICE ONE: The reforms are meant to deal with concerns raised last year by a Congressional investigation and media reports. They showed that some N.I.H. scientists received money and stock offers from drug and biotech companies. Many of the companies had dealings with the agency. N.I.H. workers have reacted strongly to the new rules. Critics say the restrictions are not justified. They say that all N.I.H. employees will be punished for the actions of a few dishonest people. Doctor Zerhouni admits that most of the employees have served honorably. He says the reforms are meant to protect their image and the public’s trust. VOICE TWO: The National Institutes of Health also announced a policy on publication of research paid for by the federal government. The policy establishes what is called open access publishing. It will come into effect on May second. Under the new policy, scientists using federal money are to give their research papers to the National Library of Medicine after they are accepted for publication. The National Library of Medicine will then release the information on the Internet. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. If you have a general question about science that we can answer on this program, you can e-mail it to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Growing Unusual Vegetables
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers might think the idea of growing food for fun sounds strange. But there are some people who do it all the time. They grow some vegetables because their natural color or shape is pleasing to see. They grow others because scientists have developed new colors or different sizes for traditional vegetables. One example is the bell pepper. Seed companies sell seeds for several different kinds of bell peppers. One pepper is a weak yellow color when it begins to grow. Then its color changes to white. As it grows, it changes color two more times -- to orange, then red. If you are not interested in peppers that change colors as they grow, you can grow some that remain one color. You can try chocolate-colored peppers. Or purple. Or lavender ones. Each kind of pepper has its own special taste. For the best possible taste, however, peppers should be left on the vine for two or three weeks after they appear ready. This gives them full flavor and greatly increases the vitamins they contain. Another unusual plant is known as the yard-long bean, asparagus bean, dow ghok or snake bean. It grows up to one meter in length. It is an important part of the food supply in areas of Asia. American farmers like it because it is different, yet tastes very much like the green beans they traditionally grow. Each bean has from ten to twenty seeds. The outside or pod can be eaten. Some of the very long beans are green outside but have black-and-white or red seeds. Gourds are plants that people like to grow because of the many different shapes. They also have many uses. Some round gourds are dried, painted and made into containers. Others have long necks and big bodies. These are dried, cut and made into containers to pour drinking water. A kind of gourd called the luffa is used to make sponges. When it is fully grown, it is removed from the vine and permitted to dry for a few weeks. The gourd is placed in water for a few hours. The outer shell is then removed. The gourd is placed in the sun to dry. When it is fully dry, it is cut into pieces for use as sponges. Luffa sponges have a rough surface. They can be used to clean away dead skin cells, which makes them a popular skin-care product. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Update on Tsunami Survivors: Mental Health a Big Concern
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Many health officials warned about the possible spread of diseases after the tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December. So far, the World Health Organization reports no major outbreaks of disease in the countries affected. W.H.O. officials say international efforts to provide clean water have helped limit the spread of infections. So have shipments of medicine and mosquito-control supplies. But the W.H.O. says people are still at great risk of diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue fever. The agency noted earlier this month that the dengue season is just beginning. Dengue fever and malaria are spread by the bite of mosquitoes. Cholera is an intestinal infection spread through water polluted with bacteria. Another big concern involves the emotional condition of tsunami survivors. Experts say stress-related disorders such as fear or depression can continue for several years if people do not get help. Last month, Indonesia launched a mental health campaign to assist survivors. A Health Ministry official told Reuters news agency that six hundred fifty thousand refugees need help. If not, he said an estimated twenty to fifty percent could develop what he called "serious mental problems." The Indonesian official said the campaign would depend mostly on simple communication to help people deal with their situations. Experts note that many Asians reject Western forms of treatment, such as the use of anti-depression drugs. Some efforts to help tsunami survivors involve religion. In Thailand, the Associated Press reported that specially trained Buddhist monks have been talking to survivors. A Thai Health Ministry official said some people cannot sleep or look at the sea. Others cannot take their mind off waiting for the return of a missing loved one. The Associated Press said Thailand has sent hundreds of mental health experts to the affected areas. And an international group of experts met in Bangkok this month to discuss how to help people in all the affected countries. On December twenty-sixth, a powerful earthquake sent waves across southern Asia and eastern Africa. At least one hundred sixty thousand people in eleven countries were killed. Many more lost their homes. Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand suffered the most damage. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Space Digest
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we report about the progress of the American space agency’s Deep Impact spacecraft that will crash into a comet in July. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we report about the progress of the American space agency’s Deep Impact spacecraft that will crash into a comet in July. We tell about an unusual object found on the surface of Mars. We begin with plans for NASA’s return to space flight with the Space Shuttle Discovery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing to return to space flight in May or June. Crewmembers of the Space Shuttle Discovery are working on how to solve problems they might experience during their flight. Recently, Flight Commander Eileen Collins and other crewmembers worked in an exact copy of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The copy is used for training. The crewmembers, NASA flight controllers and other experts worked together to solve simple and complex problems. This training lasted for thirty-six hours. The training is called the “long sim.” This is a short way to say the long simulation. A simulation is a representation of a possible situation or problem. VOICE TWO: One problem was a cooling device that would not work in a space suit. The problem had to be repaired quickly because astronauts need protective suits to do work in space outside the Discovery vehicle. Another problem involved a laser device. The crew had to solve an electrical problem that would not permit the laser to do useful work. The laser device is used to inspect the outside of the shuttle for damage. It is extremely important to the crew of the Discovery. Some of the problems are easy to solve. Others are extremely difficult. The astronauts must work closely with NASA controllers on Earth. They also often work with the people who built or designed the Space Shuttle and its equipment. Very often the Discovery crew, the ground controllers and engineers are expected to solve several difficult problems at the same time. Nasa Shuttle TrainingCommander Collins said the crew of Discovery has now been training for the flight for one-and-one-half years. She said the long sim training was difficult. All the training prepared the crew to work together quickly as a team. The training also prepared the NASA controllers who remain the ground. They too must work as a part of the extended team that makes space flight possible. The seven astronauts for NASA’s return to space flight are Commander Collins, Pilot James Kelly, and Mission Specialists Charles Camarda, Wendy Lawrence, Soichi Noguchi, Stephen Robinson and Andrew Thomas. VOICE ONE: The training for the Discovery crew did not stop with the end of the thirty-six hour-long sim. The crew will complete another thirty-six hour training test followed by a forty-eight hour long sim. Other training will also take place. For example, Astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson will put on spacesuits and take part in a difficult training problem underwater. They will do this in NASA’s huge training pool. The two astronauts will train underwater because it is similar to the environment of space where this is little or no weight. They will do the same work underwater here on Earth that they will do in space during the flight of Discovery. During the flight, they are expected to leave the inside of the Space Shuttle and work in space. They will replace a device that helps control the flight of the International Space Station. That device failed in June of two thousand two. VOICE TWO: NASA officials give several good reasons for the long periods of difficult training. Plans for the flight include linking with the International Space Station and performing difficult work outside the Shuttle in space. NASA officials also say none of the Space Shuttles or the shuttle crews have been launched into space for more than two years. The space shuttle program was stopped after the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the death of its crew on February first, two thousand three. Commander Collins says the training is becoming more difficult, with more hard problems to solve. She says the training is creating a good crew that can complete any task. And she says all crewmembers are ready to fly in space again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Artists picture of the Deep Impact spacecraftNASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft is safely on its way to the comet Tempel-One. The Deep Impact vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January twelfth. It is to fly near the comet on July fourth. When it reached space, Deep Impact separated from the launch vehicle. It was then ordered to turn off all systems except the communications devices that are needed to receive commands from NASA. NASA recently reported that all Deep Impact systems are now working. It deployed the long wings it uses to collect sunlight. Deep Impact is now using these wings to successfully change sunlight to electric power. VOICE TWO: Deep Impact has two parts. One part of the vehicle will fly near the comet. A smaller part will be released into the comet’s path. That part will crash into the comet. The hole produced by the crash is expected to be about the size of the area used to play soccer football. The larger part of Deep Impact will be used to observe the effects of the crash. NASA’s Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes and other telescopes on Earth will also observe the event. NASA scientists say the Comet Tempel-One may hold clues about the formation and development of the Solar System. Comets are made of ice, gas and dust. They are made of particles from the farthest and coldest areas of the Solar System that formed more than four thousand million years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover vehicle Opportunity has found an iron meteorite on the surface of Mars. A meteorite is a stony or metallic object that has fallen from outer space. This is the first meteorite of any kind ever identified on another planet. The meteorite is about the size of a basketball. Scientific instruments on Opportunity show the meteorite is made of the metals iron and nickel. Only a small number of meteorites that have fallen on Earth have a similar amount of metal. Most are made of rock. VOICE TWO: Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, is the chief investigator for the science instruments on the rovers Opportunity and Spirit. Mister Squyres says finding the meteorite was a huge surprise. He said he never thought NASA scientists would be able to use Opportunity’s instruments to study a rock from someplace other than Mars. Mars Meteor Mister Squyres says an iron meteorite would have come from a planet that was destroyed or a huge space object that came apart. Scientists named the meteorite “Heat Shield Rock.” This is because it was found near parts of the heat shield that protected Opportunity when it entered the atmosphere of Mars. This area of Mars is called Meridiani Planum. It has been Opportunity’s home since the vehicle landed more than one year ago. NASA scientists are now discussing whether some rocks that Opportunity has seen on the ground are also rocky meteorites. Mister Squyres says many more rocky meteorites than iron meteorites should hit Mars. He says Opportunity has sent back photographs of many rocks in the area. Scientists may be investigating some of those in coming weeks. Mister Squyres says the important thing is not what they will learn about meteorites because there are many meteorites on Earth. He says the meteorite can help them discover information about the surface of Mars in Meridiani Planum. VOICE ONE: The two NASA exploration vehicles on the surface of Mars successfully completed the planned three months of work in April of two thousand four. NASA has extended their working life two times. This is because Spirit and Opportunity are still in good condition and can continue to explore the surface of Mars. The two vehicles have found good evidence of a wet environment in the history of Mars. Scientists believe this wet environment could have supported life. Opportunity has driven more than two kilometers across the surface of Mars. Sprit has driven more than four kilometers on the Martian surface. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. We tell about an unusual object found on the surface of Mars. We begin with plans for NASA’s return to space flight with the Space Shuttle Discovery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing to return to space flight in May or June. Crewmembers of the Space Shuttle Discovery are working on how to solve problems they might experience during their flight. Recently, Flight Commander Eileen Collins and other crewmembers worked in an exact copy of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The copy is used for training. The crewmembers, NASA flight controllers and other experts worked together to solve simple and complex problems. This training lasted for thirty-six hours. The training is called the “long sim.” This is a short way to say the long simulation. A simulation is a representation of a possible situation or problem. VOICE TWO: One problem was a cooling device that would not work in a space suit. The problem had to be repaired quickly because astronauts need protective suits to do work in space outside the Discovery vehicle. Another problem involved a laser device. The crew had to solve an electrical problem that would not permit the laser to do useful work. The laser device is used to inspect the outside of the shuttle for damage. It is extremely important to the crew of the Discovery. Some of the problems are easy to solve. Others are extremely difficult. The astronauts must work closely with NASA controllers on Earth. They also often work with the people who built or designed the Space Shuttle and its equipment. Very often the Discovery crew, the ground controllers and engineers are expected to solve several difficult problems at the same time. Nasa Shuttle TrainingCommander Collins said the crew of Discovery has now been training for the flight for one-and-one-half years. She said the long sim training was difficult. All the training prepared the crew to work together quickly as a team. The training also prepared the NASA controllers who remain the ground. They too must work as a part of the extended team that makes space flight possible. The seven astronauts for NASA’s return to space flight are Commander Collins, Pilot James Kelly, and Mission Specialists Charles Camarda, Wendy Lawrence, Soichi Noguchi, Stephen Robinson and Andrew Thomas. VOICE ONE: The training for the Discovery crew did not stop with the end of the thirty-six hour-long sim. The crew will complete another thirty-six hour training test followed by a forty-eight hour long sim. Other training will also take place. For example, Astronauts Soichi Noguchi and Steve Robinson will put on spacesuits and take part in a difficult training problem underwater. They will do this in NASA’s huge training pool. The two astronauts will train underwater because it is similar to the environment of space where this is little or no weight. They will do the same work underwater here on Earth that they will do in space during the flight of Discovery. During the flight, they are expected to leave the inside of the Space Shuttle and work in space. They will replace a device that helps control the flight of the International Space Station. That device failed in June of two thousand two. VOICE TWO: NASA officials give several good reasons for the long periods of difficult training. Plans for the flight include linking with the International Space Station and performing difficult work outside the Shuttle in space. NASA officials also say none of the Space Shuttles or the shuttle crews have been launched into space for more than two years. The space shuttle program was stopped after the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the death of its crew on February first, two thousand three. Commander Collins says the training is becoming more difficult, with more hard problems to solve. She says the training is creating a good crew that can complete any task. And she says all crewmembers are ready to fly in space again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Artists picture of the Deep Impact spacecraftNASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft is safely on its way to the comet Tempel-One. The Deep Impact vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January twelfth. It is to fly near the comet on July fourth. When it reached space, Deep Impact separated from the launch vehicle. It was then ordered to turn off all systems except the communications devices that are needed to receive commands from NASA. NASA recently reported that all Deep Impact systems are now working. It deployed the long wings it uses to collect sunlight. Deep Impact is now using these wings to successfully change sunlight to electric power. VOICE TWO: Deep Impact has two parts. One part of the vehicle will fly near the comet. A smaller part will be released into the comet’s path. That part will crash into the comet. The hole produced by the crash is expected to be about the size of the area used to play soccer football. The larger part of Deep Impact will be used to observe the effects of the crash. NASA’s Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes and other telescopes on Earth will also observe the event. NASA scientists say the Comet Tempel-One may hold clues about the formation and development of the Solar System. Comets are made of ice, gas and dust. They are made of particles from the farthest and coldest areas of the Solar System that formed more than four thousand million years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover vehicle Opportunity has found an iron meteorite on the surface of Mars. A meteorite is a stony or metallic object that has fallen from outer space. This is the first meteorite of any kind ever identified on another planet. The meteorite is about the size of a basketball. Scientific instruments on Opportunity show the meteorite is made of the metals iron and nickel. Only a small number of meteorites that have fallen on Earth have a similar amount of metal. Most are made of rock. VOICE TWO: Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, is the chief investigator for the science instruments on the rovers Opportunity and Spirit. Mister Squyres says finding the meteorite was a huge surprise. He said he never thought NASA scientists would be able to use Opportunity’s instruments to study a rock from someplace other than Mars. Mars Meteor Mister Squyres says an iron meteorite would have come from a planet that was destroyed or a huge space object that came apart. Scientists named the meteorite “Heat Shield Rock.” This is because it was found near parts of the heat shield that protected Opportunity when it entered the atmosphere of Mars. This area of Mars is called Meridiani Planum. It has been Opportunity’s home since the vehicle landed more than one year ago. NASA scientists are now discussing whether some rocks that Opportunity has seen on the ground are also rocky meteorites. Mister Squyres says many more rocky meteorites than iron meteorites should hit Mars. He says Opportunity has sent back photographs of many rocks in the area. Scientists may be investigating some of those in coming weeks. Mister Squyres says the important thing is not what they will learn about meteorites because there are many meteorites on Earth. He says the meteorite can help them discover information about the surface of Mars in Meridiani Planum. VOICE ONE: The two NASA exploration vehicles on the surface of Mars successfully completed the planned three months of work in April of two thousand four. NASA has extended their working life two times. This is because Spirit and Opportunity are still in good condition and can continue to explore the surface of Mars. The two vehicles have found good evidence of a wet environment in the history of Mars. Scientists believe this wet environment could have supported life. Opportunity has driven more than two kilometers across the surface of Mars. Sprit has driven more than four kilometers on the Martian surface. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: February 16, 2005 - Emotion Words
* Byline: 

 February 16, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: words that express emotion. RS: Suppose someone gave you two minutes to write down as many different emotions as you could think of -- for example: happy, sad, angry. You're also told to rate each emotion as "unpleasant," "neutral" or "pleasant." What would come to mind? AA: That's what groups of English speakers in Chicago, and Spanish speakers in Mexico City, had to do for a study led by Robert Schrauf, a linguistics professor at Penn State University. ROBERT SCHRAUF: "So that data was available to me, and I began to analyze it one day and found this rather curious difference. And that was that about 50 percent of the emotion words that people mentioned were negative, and about 30 percent positive and 20 percent neutral. And those proportions were consistent across all of these groups, from young Mexicans to older Mexicans in Mexico City and young to old English speakers in Chicago. For instance, here is the young Anglos', in order, the first five: happy, sad, angry, excited, afraid. "Now what's curious about that list is, happy is positive. That's one word. Then there's sad, angry, afraid -- that's three negative -- and excited, which generally comes across to people as a neutral word." RS: "What does this tell us, that 50 percent are negative, 30 percent are positive and 20 percent are neutral? What does this tell us about our emotions, or how we express ourselves?" ROBERT SCHRAUF: "Right, so that's the curious thing. So you could look at that list and entertain a number of hypotheses. You could say, 'well, you know, human beings just have more negative experiences than positive ones, and therefore ... ' Or you might think that people take dour views of things, I don't know. So what became interesting was how to explain this. And I went back to the literature and found that the theorizing about emotions is as follows: "We tend to think that there are positive and negative emotions on a kind of a continuum. But both the behavioral and the neurophysiological literature suggest that actually there are two channels [in the brain] for processing emotions -- one negative and one positive. "And what happens is, it seems to me -- or the explanation I'm taking from the literature -- is that we respond to negative emotions by thinking more carefully, in a more detailed manner, and we respond to positive emotions by thinking more schematically. We tend to process those more facilely. So my response to a happy emotion is to sort of think top-down, to think that things are moving as they should in the world or perhaps a bit better. "And that makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. I mean, if there's danger or threat, then I need to pay a great deal of careful attention to that. If things are going OK, then it's benign; I can sort of move ahead." RS: "I find it very interesting, the comparison across cultures in the studies that you reviewed." ROBERT SCHRAUF: "Right, right. So let's say there are five to seven basic emotions which we'll find with appropriate emotion words present in all languages and all cultures. I mean, we would have to do an empirical study to find that, but the evidence that we've gathered so far tends to suggest that that's true. What makes cultures unique are all of those non-basic emotions that once you get through joy, anger, fear, sadness -- those initial very pan-cultural words and pan-cultural emotions -- then there are long lists of emotion words in each language that make rather curious distinctions that are not translatable. "So an example in Spanish, for instance, is 'verguenza,' which we translate as 'shame.' But it's a far more powerful word than our word shame. Or for instance, in German, 'schadenfreude' is a word that implies a feeling of glee at someone else's misfortune, and we don't have an appropriate translation in English." AA: Professor Robert Schrauf, speaking to us from the studios of WPSX at Penn State University. His report, written with researcher Julia Sanchez, can be found in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. RS: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And Internet users can download our reports, back to 1998, at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. February 16, 2005 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: words that express emotion. RS: Suppose someone gave you two minutes to write down as many different emotions as you could think of -- for example: happy, sad, angry. You're also told to rate each emotion as "unpleasant," "neutral" or "pleasant." What would come to mind? AA: That's what groups of English speakers in Chicago, and Spanish speakers in Mexico City, had to do for a study led by Robert Schrauf, a linguistics professor at Penn State University. ROBERT SCHRAUF: "So that data was available to me, and I began to analyze it one day and found this rather curious difference. And that was that about 50 percent of the emotion words that people mentioned were negative, and about 30 percent positive and 20 percent neutral. And those proportions were consistent across all of these groups, from young Mexicans to older Mexicans in Mexico City and young to old English speakers in Chicago. For instance, here is the young Anglos', in order, the first five: happy, sad, angry, excited, afraid. "Now what's curious about that list is, happy is positive. That's one word. Then there's sad, angry, afraid -- that's three negative -- and excited, which generally comes across to people as a neutral word." RS: "What does this tell us, that 50 percent are negative, 30 percent are positive and 20 percent are neutral? What does this tell us about our emotions, or how we express ourselves?" ROBERT SCHRAUF: "Right, so that's the curious thing. So you could look at that list and entertain a number of hypotheses. You could say, 'well, you know, human beings just have more negative experiences than positive ones, and therefore ... ' Or you might think that people take dour views of things, I don't know. So what became interesting was how to explain this. And I went back to the literature and found that the theorizing about emotions is as follows: "We tend to think that there are positive and negative emotions on a kind of a continuum. But both the behavioral and the neurophysiological literature suggest that actually there are two channels [in the brain] for processing emotions -- one negative and one positive. "And what happens is, it seems to me -- or the explanation I'm taking from the literature -- is that we respond to negative emotions by thinking more carefully, in a more detailed manner, and we respond to positive emotions by thinking more schematically. We tend to process those more facilely. So my response to a happy emotion is to sort of think top-down, to think that things are moving as they should in the world or perhaps a bit better. "And that makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. I mean, if there's danger or threat, then I need to pay a great deal of careful attention to that. If things are going OK, then it's benign; I can sort of move ahead." RS: "I find it very interesting, the comparison across cultures in the studies that you reviewed." ROBERT SCHRAUF: "Right, right. So let's say there are five to seven basic emotions which we'll find with appropriate emotion words present in all languages and all cultures. I mean, we would have to do an empirical study to find that, but the evidence that we've gathered so far tends to suggest that that's true. What makes cultures unique are all of those non-basic emotions that once you get through joy, anger, fear, sadness -- those initial very pan-cultural words and pan-cultural emotions -- then there are long lists of emotion words in each language that make rather curious distinctions that are not translatable. "So an example in Spanish, for instance, is 'verguenza,' which we translate as 'shame.' But it's a far more powerful word than our word shame. Or for instance, in German, 'schadenfreude' is a word that implies a feeling of glee at someone else's misfortune, and we don't have an appropriate translation in English." AA: Professor Robert Schrauf, speaking to us from the studios of WPSX at Penn State University. His report, written with researcher Julia Sanchez, can be found in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. RS: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And Internet users can download our reports, back to 1998, at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Abraham Lincoln, Part 7
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley & Christine Johnson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) America's Civil War during the eighteen-sixties was fought not only on land. There was a great deal of fighting between the Union and Confederate navies. Many battles took place just off the American coast. Many others took place far away in international waters. This part of the war is often forgotten, but it was important. The Union victory might not have been possible without the successes of its navy. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the naval side of the Civil War. VOICE TWO: As soon as the war started, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to block the south's major ports. He wanted to prevent the south from shipping its agricultural products to other countries in exchange for industrial goods. Lincoln's plan was good. But it had one major weakness. The Union navy was too small for the job. The Confederate seacoast was long. It extended from Chesapeake Bay to Mexico, a distance of five-thousand six-hundred kilometers. There were not enough ships in the Union navy to blockade all of it. Many months would pass before the Union could build up an effective naval force. VOICE ONE: The Confederacy had no navy at the start of the Civil War. The Confederate government had little money to create one. And the south had no factories to build one. For a while, the Confederacy was able to get warships from Britain. Then the Union put diplomatic pressure on Britain to stop this support. For the most part, the Confederacy depended on privately-owned ships to get goods in and out of the south. About twenty of these private ships flew the Confederate flag. Most were very successful in the beginning. The Florida, for example, captured more than thirty ships before being captured itself off the coast of Brazil in eighteen-sixty-four. The Alabama captured more than sixty ships. It was finally sunk in a battle with the "Kearsarge" off the coast of France. The Shenandoah sailed in the Pacific Ocean. It captured forty ships. After the war ended, the "Shenandoah" tied up in Liverpool, England. VOICE TWO: In addition to these victories, the Confederacy claimed responsibility for several new naval technologies during the Civil War. One was the first modern submarine. This ship was ten meters long. It sank four times while being tested. It was raised each time and put back into service. One night, it fired its torpedoes at a much larger Union ship and sank it. But the explosion was so great that it tore apart the submarine. And it sank, too. The Confederacy also developed very effective underwater explosive devices for use in the harbors. VOICE ONE: Even with its victories and technologies, however, the Confederacy could not stop the Union navy. The Union navy was bigger to begin with and grew much faster. During the first two years of the Civil War, the Union captured several southern ports: Fort Hatteras and Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Port Royal, South Carolina. Pensacola, Florida. And -- perhaps most importantly -- New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans lay near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was the largest city in the south. It was the largest seaport. It had become a busy industrial center, producing war equipment for Confederate forces. If the Union could capture New Orleans, it would control the Mississippi River. President Lincoln appointed navy officer David Farragut to lead the attack on New Orleans. VOICE TWO: To reach the city, Farragut had to sail his ships past two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River. He shelled the forts for six days and nights. But the forts were so strong that the shells caused little damage. He decided not to wait any longer. One dark night, Farragut led seventeen Union warships up the river in a line. The Confederate forces heard them and began to fire. One ship was sunk. Three others were damaged so badly that they could not continue. But thirteen made it safely past the forts. When Farragut reached New Orleans, he found the city defenseless. Several thousand Confederate soldiers had fled. They knew they could not defend against the bigger Union force. Only civilians remained. Farragut captured New Orleans without a fight. The Confederate flag was lowered. And the United States flag was raised over the city. VOICE ONE: Several weeks before Farragut captured New Orleans, a new kind of navy battle was fought off Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was the first battle between iron ships. On the Confederate side was the Virginia. It had been built from what remained of a captured Union warship called the Merrimack. The "Virginia" was like no other warship ever seen in the world. It was eighty meters long. The part that showed above the water line was built of wood sixty centimeters thick. This part was covered with sheets of iron ten centimeters thick. Ten windows were cut into it. Behind each window was a cannon. In a battle, the windows would open, the cannons would fire, and the windows would close again. At the front was a sharp point of iron that could smash through the sides of wooden ships. The Virginia could not move fast. And it was difficult to control. It took almost thirty minutes to turn around. Still, there seemed to be no way to stop this iron monster. It already had destroyed two Union warships. And it was coming back for more. VOICE TWO: The Union ship chosen to fight the Virginia was the Monitor. It, too, was covered with iron. But it was much smaller than the "Virginia." And it carried only two cannons. These two cannons, however, were on a part of the ship that could turn in a complete circle. They could be aimed in any direction. The Monitor and the Virginia faced each other on the morning of March ninth, eighteen-sixty-two. They moved in close -- very close -- then began to fire. A Confederate cannon ball hit the iron side of the Monitor and bounced away. Union sailors cheered. The cannons of the Virginia could do no damage! But the Union sailors soon discovered that their cannons could do no damage, either. VOICE ONE: The men inside the two ships suffered from noise, heat, and smoke. The roar of their own cannons was extremely loud. Even louder was the crash of enemy cannon balls and explosive shells on the iron walls. Some of the men suffered burst eardrums. At least one man was struck unconscious from the force of a cannon ball against the iron. The men quickly learned to stay away from the walls. Smoke from the cannons filled the ships. Then it floated out over the water. At times, the two ships could not see each other. VOICE TWO: The Virginia and the Monitor fought for three hours. Neither ship scored an important hit. Neither suffered serious damage. Then the cannons of the Virginia fell silent. The Confederate ship had used up its gunpowder. It also had used up much of its fuel. It was lighter now and was floating higher in the water. A well-aimed cannon ball could hit below its iron covering and sink it. The Confederate captain decided to withdraw. The Union captain, too, was ready to break off the battle. He decided not to follow. Neither ship could claim victory. But the "Monitor" had kept the Virginia from destroying more of the Union's wooden warships. The Virginia itself was to live just two more months. Union forces seized the Confederate navy base at Norfolk, where the Virginia was kept. And the iron monster was sunk to keep it from falling into Union hands. VOICE ONE: The battle at Hampton Roads between the Virginia and the Monitor was undecisive. It did not have much effect on the final result of America's Civil War. But it was still an important battle. For it marked the beginning of the end of the world's wooden navies. We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and Christine Johnson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) America's Civil War during the eighteen-sixties was fought not only on land. There was a great deal of fighting between the Union and Confederate navies. Many battles took place just off the American coast. Many others took place far away in international waters. This part of the war is often forgotten, but it was important. The Union victory might not have been possible without the successes of its navy. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the naval side of the Civil War. VOICE TWO: As soon as the war started, President Abraham Lincoln wanted to block the south's major ports. He wanted to prevent the south from shipping its agricultural products to other countries in exchange for industrial goods. Lincoln's plan was good. But it had one major weakness. The Union navy was too small for the job. The Confederate seacoast was long. It extended from Chesapeake Bay to Mexico, a distance of five-thousand six-hundred kilometers. There were not enough ships in the Union navy to blockade all of it. Many months would pass before the Union could build up an effective naval force. VOICE ONE: The Confederacy had no navy at the start of the Civil War. The Confederate government had little money to create one. And the south had no factories to build one. For a while, the Confederacy was able to get warships from Britain. Then the Union put diplomatic pressure on Britain to stop this support. For the most part, the Confederacy depended on privately-owned ships to get goods in and out of the south. About twenty of these private ships flew the Confederate flag. Most were very successful in the beginning. The Florida, for example, captured more than thirty ships before being captured itself off the coast of Brazil in eighteen-sixty-four. The Alabama captured more than sixty ships. It was finally sunk in a battle with the "Kearsarge" off the coast of France. The Shenandoah sailed in the Pacific Ocean. It captured forty ships. After the war ended, the "Shenandoah" tied up in Liverpool, England. VOICE TWO: In addition to these victories, the Confederacy claimed responsibility for several new naval technologies during the Civil War. One was the first modern submarine. This ship was ten meters long. It sank four times while being tested. It was raised each time and put back into service. One night, it fired its torpedoes at a much larger Union ship and sank it. But the explosion was so great that it tore apart the submarine. And it sank, too. The Confederacy also developed very effective underwater explosive devices for use in the harbors. VOICE ONE: Even with its victories and technologies, however, the Confederacy could not stop the Union navy. The Union navy was bigger to begin with and grew much faster. During the first two years of the Civil War, the Union captured several southern ports: Fort Hatteras and Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Port Royal, South Carolina. Pensacola, Florida. And -- perhaps most importantly -- New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans lay near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was the largest city in the south. It was the largest seaport. It had become a busy industrial center, producing war equipment for Confederate forces. If the Union could capture New Orleans, it would control the Mississippi River. President Lincoln appointed navy officer David Farragut to lead the attack on New Orleans. VOICE TWO: To reach the city, Farragut had to sail his ships past two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River. He shelled the forts for six days and nights. But the forts were so strong that the shells caused little damage. He decided not to wait any longer. One dark night, Farragut led seventeen Union warships up the river in a line. The Confederate forces heard them and began to fire. One ship was sunk. Three others were damaged so badly that they could not continue. But thirteen made it safely past the forts. When Farragut reached New Orleans, he found the city defenseless. Several thousand Confederate soldiers had fled. They knew they could not defend against the bigger Union force. Only civilians remained. Farragut captured New Orleans without a fight. The Confederate flag was lowered. And the United States flag was raised over the city. VOICE ONE: Several weeks before Farragut captured New Orleans, a new kind of navy battle was fought off Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was the first battle between iron ships. On the Confederate side was the Virginia. It had been built from what remained of a captured Union warship called the Merrimack. The "Virginia" was like no other warship ever seen in the world. It was eighty meters long. The part that showed above the water line was built of wood sixty centimeters thick. This part was covered with sheets of iron ten centimeters thick. Ten windows were cut into it. Behind each window was a cannon. In a battle, the windows would open, the cannons would fire, and the windows would close again. At the front was a sharp point of iron that could smash through the sides of wooden ships. The Virginia could not move fast. And it was difficult to control. It took almost thirty minutes to turn around. Still, there seemed to be no way to stop this iron monster. It already had destroyed two Union warships. And it was coming back for more. VOICE TWO: The Union ship chosen to fight the Virginia was the Monitor. It, too, was covered with iron. But it was much smaller than the "Virginia." And it carried only two cannons. These two cannons, however, were on a part of the ship that could turn in a complete circle. They could be aimed in any direction. The Monitor and the Virginia faced each other on the morning of March ninth, eighteen-sixty-two. They moved in close -- very close -- then began to fire. A Confederate cannon ball hit the iron side of the Monitor and bounced away. Union sailors cheered. The cannons of the Virginia could do no damage! But the Union sailors soon discovered that their cannons could do no damage, either. VOICE ONE: The men inside the two ships suffered from noise, heat, and smoke. The roar of their own cannons was extremely loud. Even louder was the crash of enemy cannon balls and explosive shells on the iron walls. Some of the men suffered burst eardrums. At least one man was struck unconscious from the force of a cannon ball against the iron. The men quickly learned to stay away from the walls. Smoke from the cannons filled the ships. Then it floated out over the water. At times, the two ships could not see each other. VOICE TWO: The Virginia and the Monitor fought for three hours. Neither ship scored an important hit. Neither suffered serious damage. Then the cannons of the Virginia fell silent. The Confederate ship had used up its gunpowder. It also had used up much of its fuel. It was lighter now and was floating higher in the water. A well-aimed cannon ball could hit below its iron covering and sink it. The Confederate captain decided to withdraw. The Union captain, too, was ready to break off the battle. He decided not to follow. Neither ship could claim victory. But the "Monitor" had kept the Virginia from destroying more of the Union's wooden warships. The Virginia itself was to live just two more months. Union forces seized the Confederate navy base at Norfolk, where the Virginia was kept. And the iron monster was sunk to keep it from falling into Union hands. VOICE ONE: The battle at Hampton Roads between the Virginia and the Monitor was undecisive. It did not have much effect on the final result of America's Civil War. But it was still an important battle. For it marked the beginning of the end of the world's wooden navies. We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm?Phoebe Zimmermann?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we answer a question from Nigeria as part of our series for students interested in a college or university in the United States. Muhammad Aminu Idris in Zaria wants to know about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He asks what M.I.T. has done for computer development. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is in the northeastern United States. It is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. M.I.T. says its goal is to improve knowledge and educate students in areas that will best serve the world in the twenty-first century. The school is world famous for its scientific research through programs such as the Laboratory for Computer Science. Members of that laboratory helped develop the Internet as well as an earlier system called the Arpanet. They have also helped develop the Ethernet, the World Wide Web, digital computers and more. M.I.T. has more than ten thousand students and nine hundred professors. It is organized into schools of engineering and science, and the School of Architecture and Planning. Two others are the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, and the College of Health Sciences and Technology. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is also home to the Sloan School of Management. More than ten thousand students tried for a place in the undergraduate programs at M.I.T. in two thousand four. The school accepted about one thousand six hundred of them. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has almost three thousand foreign students. They come from more than one hundred countries around the world, but mostly from Asia. More than two thousand international students applied to M.I.T. last year. One hundred four were admitted. The cost of one year at M.I.T. is more than thirty thousand dollars. The university offers financial aid for all students, including those from other nations. Internet users can find detailed information about international student aid at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Web site (mit.edu). We began our Foreign Student Series in September. All the reports so far can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Einstein’s Year / Museums / Grammy Winners
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Some Grammy-winning music ... A question about American museums ... And a report about a scientific anniversary. Albert EinsteinEinstein’s Year One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein published several papers that caused a revolution in scientific thought. Now physicists and others are celebrating Einstein's "miracle year." Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics has declared two thousand five the World Year of Physics. The United Nations is honoring the International Year of Physics. And in Einstein’s birthplace, Germany, officials have declared this the Einstein Anniversary Year. In nineteen-oh-five, Albert Einstein began a scientific discussion that continues today. It involves the nature of the universe. Einstein presented ideas that went against hundreds of years of scientific thought. In his Special Theory of Relativity, he argued that time and space are conditional properties. They depend on the position of the observer. Observers moving at different speeds, for example, experience space and time differently. Einstein said only the speed of light and the laws of nature are unconditional. Albert Einstein was just twenty-six years old when he published this theory in nineteen-oh-five. Another of his papers from that year helped prove the existence of atoms. Still another argued that light acts as if made of particles, not waves as scientists thought. Einstein later won a Nobel Prize for that paper. His ideas about light led to the development of quantum theory. This describes how energy and matter act at the level of atoms and parts of atoms. Quantum theory guides most physics research today. Events to celebrate the anniversary include the usual, like scientific conferences and museum shows, but also the unusual. In Tokyo, dancers and actors will perform a play about Einstein in Noh, traditional Japanese theater. This year is also the fiftieth anniversary of Einstein's death. He died on April eighteenth, nineteen fifty-five, in Princeton, New Jersey, his home for many years. On the night of this April eighteenth, people in Princeton are supposed to turn off their lights. From the darkness, a light is to shine into the sky. This will signal the start of an event called “Physics Enlightens the World.” The goal is to create an unbroken signal around the world. Flashes of light will travel westward across the United States. Then a signal will go by cable under the Pacific Ocean to East Asia and Oceania. The light will continue to China, then divide into two paths. The northern path will include Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The southern path will go through India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. The two paths will join again in Austria and go through Switzerland to France. From there, a signal will be sent by cable under the Atlantic to Princeton. The plan is for the signal to arrive exactly twenty-four hours after the relay began. Organizers say anyone in any country can take part. The aim is to have stations close enough so that each one can see the light of the one before it. People are being urged to think of ways to send a signal with light while obeying local laws and avoiding light pollution. Internet users can learn more about this and other events during the World Year of Physics at w-y-p2005 dot o-r-g (wyp2005.org). And to learn more about Albert Einstein, listen Wednesday to the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Museums DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. M.H. Mamun Rashid asks about the number of museums in the United States and which one is the largest. Well, as far as the largest, we could not get an answer, not even from the American Association of Museums. In fact, that organization points out that there is not even a simple answer to the question, "what is a museum?" What museums all have in common, it says, is that they aid the public "by collecting, preserving and interpreting the things of this world." This definition covers many different kinds of places -- including zoos. The American Association of Museums says it knows of only two attempts to count all the museums in the country. One was in nineteen ninety-eight, the other in two thousand three. Both studies counted between fifteen thousand and sixteen thousand museums. Another study in two thousand three looked for the most popular kinds of museums in the United States. It found that zoos get the most visitors by far. Next come science and technology museums, followed by arboretums and botanical gardens. At the bottom of the list are history museums. Grammy Winners Did you see the Grammy Awards last Sunday? In case you missed the winners in Los Angeles, here is Faith Lapidus with some of the results. FAITH LAPIDUS: The most Grammys this year, eight, went to "Genius Loves Ray CharlesCompany," the final album by Ray Charles and friends. He died last June at the age of seventy-three. Honors for "Genius Loves Company" include album of the year and record of the year. The record of the year is this song performed by Ray Charles and Norah Jones, called “Here We Go Again.” (MUSIC) Among other nominees, Green Day won the Grammy for best rock album for "American Idiot." And members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave John Mayer song-of-the-year honors for "Daughters." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. And for the last time, Paul Thompson was the producer. He will be missed. Our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Please join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Hewlett-Packard Ousts 'Most Powerful Woman in Business'
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Women lead eight of the five hundred largest American companies. The number fell last week when the directors of Hewlett-Packard asked Carly Fiorina to resign. A day later, the Sara Lee Corporation named Brenda Barnes as its chief executive officer. Carly Fiorina was the first chief executive chosen from outside Hewlett-Packard. She was brought in to make changes at the technology company. Fortune magazine named her "the most powerful woman in business." Soon after she arrived at H-P, Miz Fiorina stated that "there is no glass ceiling." A lot of people thought she meant that women and minorities face no barriers to rising in companies. A research group, Catalyst, found that women held sixteen percent of top jobs at the largest American companies in two thousand two. Miz Fiorina said her point was that people who see possibilities do better over time than those who see limitations. Many chief executives keep their jobs just three or four years. Miz Fiorina stayed almost six. Business advisers Booz Allen Hamilton found the world average to be around eight years. Some people say Carly Fiorina received the same treatment that a man would have received. Critics said she kept too much power to herself. They said her actions harmed financial performance. H-P stock now sells for less than half its price when she arrived. Miz Fiorina entered into the culture of a company started in a one-car garage in California in nineteen thirty-nine. In two thousand one she announced a deal to combine Hewlett-Packard with Compaq Computer. Some shareholders resisted. Walter Hewlett, the son of one of the two men who started H-P, opposed the deal in court. But shareholders approved it in March of two thousand two. Results have been mixed. Since the merger with Compaq, H-P has increased its share of the world computer market to almost sixteen percent. But Dell has grown faster. That company now holds almost twenty percent of the highly competitive market. Still, H-P remains the leading maker of computer printers in the world. And it is now the eleventh largest company in the United States. The ouster of Carly Fiorina means the largest one led by a woman will be Sara Lee. Sara Lee, best known for food products, is one hundred fourth on the Fortune Five Hundred list of top American companies. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Shirley Chisholm
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Shirley Chisholm. She was an educator, activist and politician. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm is best known as the first black woman elected to United States Congress and the first black woman to run for president of the United States. However, her life was filled with much more than being the first black woman to do important things. She believed in being a person to fight for change. All her life, she worked to improve the lives of others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shirley Anita Saint Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen twenty-four. She was the oldest of four daughters. Her father was a factory worker from Guyana. He loved to read. Her mother was from the British West Indies island of Barbados. She made clothes and cleaned other people’s houses. Shirley’s parents had very little money. They wanted their daughters to get a good education and to have a better life. When Shirley was three years old her parents sent her and her sisters to live with their grandmother in Barbados. Shirley received a good education from the British school system. She enjoyed the years she lived with her grandmother. Her family in Barbados was a strong, organized group that believed in education. Shirley always remembered the words her grandmother spoke. (SOUND) “When I was reared in the British West Indies my grandmother used to always tell me, you may not be loved by certain forces in a society and you have to understand why. But always speak the truth.” VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-four Shirley moved back to Brooklyn. She was ten years old. She continued to do very well in school. She later graduated from Brooklyn College with honors. In nineteen forty-nine, she married Conrad Chisholm who worked as a private investigator. Together they took part in local politics. Their marriage ended almost thirty years later. As a young woman, Shirley decided to become a teacher. She believed she could improve society by helping children. She worked for seven years at a child-care center in the Harlem area of New York City. She attended Columbia University at night and received an advanced degree in early childhood education in nineteen fifty-two. She became known as an expert in children and early education. From nineteen fifty-nine to nineteen sixty-four Shirley Chisholm was an education official in the day care division of the city’s office of child welfare. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In ninety sixty-four Shirley Chisholm’s political career began. She was elected to the New York State Assembly. She served for four years. In nineteen sixty-eight she announced she would run for the United States Congress. She was elected from the newly created Twelfth District of New York City. She became the first black woman elected to Congress. She represented a poor area of Brooklyn called Bedford-Stuyvesant. In Congress, Miz Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. She protested this assignment. She felt it was not important to the poor people of the city that she represented. She was moved to the Veterans Affairs Committee. She later served on the Education and Labor Committee, the position she wanted. In nineteen seventy-seven she joined the important House Rules Committee. VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm was very different from other members of Congress. She looked different. Her hair was a big cloud of curls. She wore very large eyeglasses. And she had dark skin. She also spoke differently. She had developed a minor Caribbean accent while living with her grandmother in Barbados. Her voice was strong. She spoke with power. She said her greatest tool was her mouth. She was not afraid to say the things others would not say before Congress and the public. (SOUND) “But, my friends, I might be strong for some persons in this audience, but I believe in telling it like it is.” ((applause)) VOICE TWO: Shirley Chisholm spoke strongly for the poor and for women. She worked for civil rights for African Americans. She opposed the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-nine she helped form the Congressional Black Caucus. She also was a member of the National Organization for Women. Miz Chisholm was an activist for people of color, including Native Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants. She often spoke about cultural and social issues. (SOUND) “Increasing immigration to the United States suggests that we do face( -- and we better own up to – we do face) new social and cultural problems as these new Americans are integrated into our society. And because most of the new immigrants are people of color, cultural adjustments must be made by all groups in America if we are to learn to live together as one nation.” VOICE ONE: Miz Chisholm wrote a book about her life in nineteen seventy called “Unbought and Unbossed.” She refused to be defined by party politics or racial comparisons. Sometimes this worked against her. In nineteen seventy-two Shirley Chisholm announced that she would run for president of the United States. Many people thought it was a strange thing to do. Miz Chisholm said during her life in politics she faced more discrimination as a woman than as a black person. Shirley Chisholm became the first woman and the first black person to carry out a presidential campaign within one of the major parties. When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president this is what she said: “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.” Miz Chisholm did not win the Democratic primaries or the nomination. She said she did not run for president because she expected to win. She ran to make a point. In nineteen seventy-three Shirley Chisholm wrote another book, “The Good Fight.” In that book she told of her reasons for running for president even though she did not expect to win. She said: “The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to the highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shirley Chisholm left Congress in nineteen eighty-two after fourteen years. She said many voters did not understand her. She said her influence as a truthful, tough politician was decreasing in conservative times. Also, she wanted to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick. Miz Chisholm went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Years after leaving Congress, she continued to be invited to speak before many groups and organizations. A reporter once asked Miz Chisholm how she wanted to be remembered. She said she did not want to be remembered as the nation’s first black congresswoman. She wanted to be remembered as a brave person, a person who created change. VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm died January first, two thousand five. She suffered a series of strokes. She was eighty years old. Shirley Chisholm loved her country. She wanted to serve all America, not just African Americans and women. Her work for the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the state of New York and the nation continues through the changes she helped make in American society. (SOUND) “America is a wonderful land. It’s no question about it. That is why every group from across the waters tries to come to America. I am hopeful. Oh God am I hopeful that before I die that I will see that America will move toward a period of real enlightenment (not rhetorical enlightenment, real enlightenment) and that when we are finally faced with the choice of exclusion or inclusion we will choose inclusion because that’s what America is suppose to be all about.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Shirley Chisholm. She was an educator, activist and politician. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm is best known as the first black woman elected to United States Congress and the first black woman to run for president of the United States. However, her life was filled with much more than being the first black woman to do important things. She believed in being a person to fight for change. All her life, she worked to improve the lives of others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shirley Anita Saint Hill was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen twenty-four. She was the oldest of four daughters. Her father was a factory worker from Guyana. He loved to read. Her mother was from the British West Indies island of Barbados. She made clothes and cleaned other people’s houses. Shirley’s parents had very little money. They wanted their daughters to get a good education and to have a better life. When Shirley was three years old her parents sent her and her sisters to live with their grandmother in Barbados. Shirley received a good education from the British school system. She enjoyed the years she lived with her grandmother. Her family in Barbados was a strong, organized group that believed in education. Shirley always remembered the words her grandmother spoke. (SOUND) “When I was reared in the British West Indies my grandmother used to always tell me, you may not be loved by certain forces in a society and you have to understand why. But always speak the truth.” VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-four Shirley moved back to Brooklyn. She was ten years old. She continued to do very well in school. She later graduated from Brooklyn College with honors. In nineteen forty-nine, she married Conrad Chisholm who worked as a private investigator. Together they took part in local politics. Their marriage ended almost thirty years later. As a young woman, Shirley decided to become a teacher. She believed she could improve society by helping children. She worked for seven years at a child-care center in the Harlem area of New York City. She attended Columbia University at night and received an advanced degree in early childhood education in nineteen fifty-two. She became known as an expert in children and early education. From nineteen fifty-nine to nineteen sixty-four Shirley Chisholm was an education official in the day care division of the city’s office of child welfare. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In ninety sixty-four Shirley Chisholm’s political career began. She was elected to the New York State Assembly. She served for four years. In nineteen sixty-eight she announced she would run for the United States Congress. She was elected from the newly created Twelfth District of New York City. She became the first black woman elected to Congress. She represented a poor area of Brooklyn called Bedford-Stuyvesant. In Congress, Miz Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. She protested this assignment. She felt it was not important to the poor people of the city that she represented. She was moved to the Veterans Affairs Committee. She later served on the Education and Labor Committee, the position she wanted. In nineteen seventy-seven she joined the important House Rules Committee. VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm was very different from other members of Congress. She looked different. Her hair was a big cloud of curls. She wore very large eyeglasses. And she had dark skin. She also spoke differently. She had developed a minor Caribbean accent while living with her grandmother in Barbados. Her voice was strong. She spoke with power. She said her greatest tool was her mouth. She was not afraid to say the things others would not say before Congress and the public. (SOUND) “But, my friends, I might be strong for some persons in this audience, but I believe in telling it like it is.” ((applause)) VOICE TWO: Shirley Chisholm spoke strongly for the poor and for women. She worked for civil rights for African Americans. She opposed the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-nine she helped form the Congressional Black Caucus. She also was a member of the National Organization for Women. Miz Chisholm was an activist for people of color, including Native Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants. She often spoke about cultural and social issues. (SOUND) “Increasing immigration to the United States suggests that we do face( -- and we better own up to – we do face) new social and cultural problems as these new Americans are integrated into our society. And because most of the new immigrants are people of color, cultural adjustments must be made by all groups in America if we are to learn to live together as one nation.” VOICE ONE: Miz Chisholm wrote a book about her life in nineteen seventy called “Unbought and Unbossed.” She refused to be defined by party politics or racial comparisons. Sometimes this worked against her. In nineteen seventy-two Shirley Chisholm announced that she would run for president of the United States. Many people thought it was a strange thing to do. Miz Chisholm said during her life in politics she faced more discrimination as a woman than as a black person. Shirley Chisholm became the first woman and the first black person to carry out a presidential campaign within one of the major parties. When she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president this is what she said: “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. I am the candidate of the people.” Miz Chisholm did not win the Democratic primaries or the nomination. She said she did not run for president because she expected to win. She ran to make a point. In nineteen seventy-three Shirley Chisholm wrote another book, “The Good Fight.” In that book she told of her reasons for running for president even though she did not expect to win. She said: “The next time a woman runs, or a black, or a Jew or anyone from a group that the country is ‘not ready’ to elect to the highest office, I believe he or she will be taken seriously from the start.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shirley Chisholm left Congress in nineteen eighty-two after fourteen years. She said many voters did not understand her. She said her influence as a truthful, tough politician was decreasing in conservative times. Also, she wanted to spend more time with her second husband, Arthur Hardwick. Miz Chisholm went on to teach at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Years after leaving Congress, she continued to be invited to speak before many groups and organizations. A reporter once asked Miz Chisholm how she wanted to be remembered. She said she did not want to be remembered as the nation’s first black congresswoman. She wanted to be remembered as a brave person, a person who created change. VOICE ONE: Shirley Chisholm died January first, two thousand five. She suffered a series of strokes. She was eighty years old. Shirley Chisholm loved her country. She wanted to serve all America, not just African Americans and women. Her work for the community of Bedford-Stuyvesant, the state of New York and the nation continues through the changes she helped make in American society. (SOUND) “America is a wonderful land. It’s no question about it. That is why every group from across the waters tries to come to America. I am hopeful. Oh God am I hopeful that before I die that I will see that America will move toward a period of real enlightenment (not rhetorical enlightenment, real enlightenment) and that when we are finally faced with the choice of exclusion or inclusion we will choose inclusion because that’s what America is suppose to be all about.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Academy Awards
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Today, we tell about the seventy-seventh Academy Awards ceremony which takes place on Sunday in Los Angeles, California. It is an exciting event for people who make movies and for people around the world who watch them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-seventh, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood. It is the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Today, we tell about the seventy-seventh Academy Awards ceremony which takes place on Sunday in Los Angeles, California. It is an exciting event for people who make movies and for people around the world who watch them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-seventh, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood. It is the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as best foreign language film. They are “As It Is in Heaven” from Sweden, “Downfall” from Germany, “The Sea Inside” from Spain, “Yesterday” from South Africa and “The Chorus” from France. VOICE ONE: The five films nominated for best motion picture are all from the United States. “The Aviator” received eleven Academy Award nominations -- the most of any film this year. These include nominations for best motion picture, best director and best actor. “The Aviator” tells the story of a famous American, Howard Hughes, during the nineteen thirties and forties. Hughes directed Hollywood movies. He designed and flew airplanes. He later suffered from mental illness. Two other movies received seven Academy Award nominations each, including best motion picture. “Million Dollar Baby” tells about a young woman who becomes a successful boxer but later faces a tragedy. “Finding Neverland” tells the story of Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie. He created Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. A movie about musician Ray Charles, called “Ray,” was nominated for best picture and five other awards. And a comedy called “Sideways” was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture. It tells about two middle-aged men who travel to an area in California where wine is made. They taste different kinds of wine and meet two women. VOICE TWO: Director Clint Eastwood“The Aviator,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Ray” and “Sideways” also received nominations for best director. The directors are Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Taylor Hackford and Alexander Payne. British director Mike Leigh also was nominated for the film “Vera Drake” about a family in England during the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Jamie Foxx in scene from Collateral(Photo courtesy Dreamworks)Four men received nominations for best actor in a leading role for portraying real people. Leonardo diCaprio was nominated for his role as Howard Hughes in “The Aviator.” Johnny Depp portrayed J.M. Barrie in “Finding Neverland.” Jamie Foxx was Ray Charles in “Ray.” Foxx was also nominated as best actor in a supporting role for the movie “Collateral.” He is only the third man to be nominated for both awards in the same year. Don Cheadle was nominated for his role as Paul Rusesabagina in the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” He was the hotel manager who sheltered more than one thousand people during the mass killings in Rwanda in nineteen ninety-four. And Clint Eastwood was nominated for his role as the boxing trainer in “Million Dollar Baby.” VOICE TWO: Five women were nominated for best performance by an actress in a leading role. Hilary Swank was nominated for playing the boxer in “Million Dollar Baby.” Annette Bening portrayed a famous British actress in the nineteen thirties in “Being Julia.” Columbian actress Catalina Sandino Moreno starred in “Maria Full of Grace.” She played a young woman who brings drugs illegally into the United States. Imelda Staunton portrayed “Vera Drake,” a British woman who secretly performed illegal operations to end the pregnancies of poor young women. And Kate Winslet was nominated for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” She played a woman who tries to have memories of her boyfriend removed from her mind. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, in addition to acting and directing. The best documentary or true story will be honored. The people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects will receive awards. So will the people who wrote the best screenplay and did the best film and sound editing. Three movies are competing for the best animated feature film of last year. They are “The Incredibles,” “Shark Tale” and “Shrek Two.” “Shrek Two” was also the most popular American movie of last year. Oscars also are awarded for the best music in movies and the best song. Five songs are nominated as best original song. A song from “Shrek Two” is one of them. Here is “Accidentally in Love” by the group Counting Crows. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in nineteen twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy began presenting awards in nineteen twenty-nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. Some people said this is how the statue got its name: In nineteen fifty-one, a woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this version. She said she named the award Oscar in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE ONE: Members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences begin the process of choosing award winners. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. VOICE TWO: The awards are presented every spring. This is the second year that the ceremony is being held in February instead of March. It will be held in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the Academy Awards ceremony. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. The women wear beautiful dresses and costly jewelry given to them by famous designers. Camera lights flash. The actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the nominees and the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. VOICE ONE: Thousands of Americans in forty-six cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday. The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors and technicians. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as best foreign language film. They are “As It Is in Heaven” from Sweden, “Downfall” from Germany, “The Sea Inside” from Spain, “Yesterday” from South Africa and “The Chorus” from France. VOICE ONE: The five films nominated for best motion picture are all from the United States. “The Aviator” received eleven Academy Award nominations -- the most of any film this year. These include nominations for best motion picture, best director and best actor. “The Aviator” tells the story of a famous American, Howard Hughes, during the nineteen thirties and forties. Hughes directed Hollywood movies. He designed and flew airplanes. He later suffered from mental illness. Two other movies received seven Academy Award nominations each, including best motion picture. “Million Dollar Baby” tells about a young woman who becomes a successful boxer but later faces a tragedy. “Finding Neverland” tells the story of Scottish playwright J.M. Barrie. He created Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. A movie about musician Ray Charles, called “Ray,” was nominated for best picture and five other awards. And a comedy called “Sideways” was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture. It tells about two middle-aged men who travel to an area in California where wine is made. They taste different kinds of wine and meet two women. VOICE TWO: Director Clint Eastwood“The Aviator,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Ray” and “Sideways” also received nominations for best director. The directors are Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Taylor Hackford and Alexander Payne. British director Mike Leigh also was nominated for the film “Vera Drake” about a family in England during the nineteen fifties. VOICE ONE: Jamie Foxx in scene from Collateral(Photo courtesy Dreamworks)Four men received nominations for best actor in a leading role for portraying real people. Leonardo diCaprio was nominated for his role as Howard Hughes in “The Aviator.” Johnny Depp portrayed J.M. Barrie in “Finding Neverland.” Jamie Foxx was Ray Charles in “Ray.” Foxx was also nominated as best actor in a supporting role for the movie “Collateral.” He is only the third man to be nominated for both awards in the same year. Don Cheadle was nominated for his role as Paul Rusesabagina in the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” He was the hotel manager who sheltered more than one thousand people during the mass killings in Rwanda in nineteen ninety-four. And Clint Eastwood was nominated for his role as the boxing trainer in “Million Dollar Baby.” VOICE TWO: Five women were nominated for best performance by an actress in a leading role. Hilary Swank was nominated for playing the boxer in “Million Dollar Baby.” Annette Bening portrayed a famous British actress in the nineteen thirties in “Being Julia.” Columbian actress Catalina Sandino Moreno starred in “Maria Full of Grace.” She played a young woman who brings drugs illegally into the United States. Imelda Staunton portrayed “Vera Drake,” a British woman who secretly performed illegal operations to end the pregnancies of poor young women. And Kate Winslet was nominated for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” She played a woman who tries to have memories of her boyfriend removed from her mind. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, in addition to acting and directing. The best documentary or true story will be honored. The people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects will receive awards. So will the people who wrote the best screenplay and did the best film and sound editing. Three movies are competing for the best animated feature film of last year. They are “The Incredibles,” “Shark Tale” and “Shrek Two.” “Shrek Two” was also the most popular American movie of last year. Oscars also are awarded for the best music in movies and the best song. Five songs are nominated as best original song. A song from “Shrek Two” is one of them. Here is “Accidentally in Love” by the group Counting Crows. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in nineteen twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy began presenting awards in nineteen twenty-nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. Some people said this is how the statue got its name: In nineteen fifty-one, a woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this version. She said she named the award Oscar in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE ONE: Members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences begin the process of choosing award winners. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. VOICE TWO: The awards are presented every spring. This is the second year that the ceremony is being held in February instead of March. It will be held in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the Academy Awards ceremony. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. The women wear beautiful dresses and costly jewelry given to them by famous designers. Camera lights flash. The actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the nominees and the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. VOICE ONE: Thousands of Americans in forty-six cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday. The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors and technicians. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Approves Foreign-Made AIDS Treatment for Developing Nations
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has given early approval to a lower-cost AIDS treatment for developing nations. The manufacturer is Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa. This is the first time the Food and Drug Administration has approved foreign-made copies of drugs to treat H.I.V. infections. Different drugs are generally used together to suppress H.I.V., the virus the causes AIDS. The newly approved treatment involves two pills taken two times a day. It is a generic copy of one of the most widely used combinations of antiretroviral drugs. These drugs generally cost about six hundred dollars a year. But Aspen is expected to sell its copies for perhaps half the price. Final approval by the F.D.A. is still needed. But the agency says its action means that the drugs meets the same quality and safety requirements as medicines for the United States. And that means President Bush’s emergency AIDS plan could pay for them. Congress approved the five-year, fifteen thousand million dollar plan in two thousand three. But officials decided not to pay for drugs unless the F.D.A. had approved them. AIDS activists accused the United States of protecting drug makers from competition from lower-cost versions of their drugs. Such criticism led the F.D.A. last year to establish a faster approval process. Agency officials say they completed their work within two weeks after Aspen requested approval. The Bush administration says it hopes to provide AIDS treatment for two million people by two thousand eight. Most will be in Africa and the Caribbean. The number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment in developing countries has increased sharply. The World Health Organization reports that seven hundred thousand people were receiving treatment by the end of last year. That was up about seventy-five percent from a year earlier. And it met a target for two thousand four. W.H.O. Director General Lee Jong-wook praised the increase when he appeared last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. However, he warned that governments and the international community need to do more. The W.H.O. wants three million people living with AIDS to be receiving antiretroviral medicines by the end of two thousand five. This is known as the "three-by-five" campaign. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: A Warning About Wireless Internet / Broken Heart Syndrome / A Question About Science and Engineering
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. On our program this week: A medical condition called “broken heart syndrome. ” A warning about a new way to steal computer information. And an answer to a listener’s question about science and engineering. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A small, new study has found that sudden emotional stress can cause heart failure in mostly healthy older women. The condition is known as stress cardiomyopathy. Some people call it broken heart syndrome. That is because often the emotional stress is caused by sadness. But, it also can be the result of fear, anger or shock. Although stress cardiomyopathy is not a heart attack, experts say the condition can be mistaken for one. A heart attack happens when a blood clot or other blockage in the coronary arteries cuts off blood flow to the heart. This can kill heart muscle cells and cause heart muscle to die. Some signs of heart attack include crushing chest pain, shortness of breath, fluid in the lungs, and heart failure. VOICE TWO: A person with stress cardiomyopathy has similar symptoms. But the problem is caused by a weakening of the heart that decreases its ability to pump blood. It is a temporary condition. Unlike a heart attack, there is no lasting damage to the heart muscle after treatment. And most patients fully recover very quickly. A group of Japanese doctors first recognized broken heart syndrome in the nineteen-nineties. But this is the first time researchers have identified the condition in the United States. Ilan Wittstein led a team of researchers at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. VOICE ONE: The researchers studied nineteen people who had been treated at the hospital for signs of a heart attack between nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand three. All but one of the people were women. The average age of the patients was sixty-three. All of the patients had experienced a sudden stressful event just before suffering heart failure. These events included a car accident, robbery and the death of a loved one. All the patients survived the heart failure. But, the researchers say some would have died without treatment. VOICE TWO: Researchers say some people react to extreme emotional events by releasing very high levels of the stress-related hormone adrenaline and other chemicals. They say these chemicals weaken the heart muscle, making it temporarily unable to pump blood. The people in the study had adrenaline levels that were between seven and thirty-four times higher than normal. But when their level of stress eased, their hearts began pumping normally again. Doctor Wittstein says it is important that doctors be able to tell the difference between a heart attack and stress cardiomyopathy. He says as more doctors recognize the condition, they will learn how to treat it. He says this will help people avoid unnecessary medical operations and having to take heart medicines for long periods of time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The communications industry is warning computer users to guard against a new way to steal private information. They say this kind of theft is increasing. Thieves are linking their computers with other computers and stealing information that can cost honest computer users a great deal of money. They are doing this by using the most modern computer communications method -- wi-fi. Wi-fi is a short way of saying wireless fidelity. Wi-fi permits computer users to link with the Internet communications system without using wires and a telephone. Computer industry experts say wi-fi is the fastest growing part of the computer industry. The experts say there are about twenty thousand wi-fi Internet places in the United States. VOICE TWO: This is how wi-fi works. Most modern wireless laptop computers have special equipment that links them with the Internet. They use an extremely low power radio in the laptop to make the link. The laptop must be within several meters of a device called a router. Routers can be placed almost anywhere. The router is connected to another computer that is linked to the Internet. As a result, a person with a small laptop computer can use the machine to link with the Internet at any place that has a router. Router links have become very popular. They are in hotels, airports and in eating places called coffee shops. Computer users can do work, read electronic mail, buy or sell products and send and receive business information. They can do this while they are eating or waiting for an airplane. VOICE ONE: However, any information they send or receive with their computer can be stolen. One method used by thieves to steal such information is called the “evil twin.” For example, a computer user is sitting in a coffee shop and wants to link his computer with a local router and the Internet. Trying to link with the coffee shop’s router will not succeed if a thief’s computer is closer to the router. A nearby thief has made his computer copy the local router to make it a twin. The thief can then copy information from the other computer without that person knowing the information has been stolen. The honest person believes the connection is to a legal router and the Internet. There is no way of knowing the information in the computer is at risk. VOICE TWO: Security experts say another method used by thieves is to gather information by reading a computer screen. Thieves do this in a public place. They have even used video cameras to record the information they are trying to steal. Experts say it is easy to guard against this kind of theft. They say to make sure no one can read your computer screen while you are working in a pubic place. Other methods of protecting your information involve special computer programs. One of these is called a firewall. A firewall prevents anyone from electronically entering your computer to search for information. Some programs make your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet. Most also block any attempt to spy on your Internet activities. One expert says more than half the computers in the United States that are used for business lack protection and could be attacked. Information theft from wi-fi connections is a problem for computer users everywhere. Most experts agree that computer users should learn how to protect their computers and information from those who would spy or steal. Industry experts say only education and good security will stop information theft. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A listener from Nigeria has sent us a timely question. Abdulkadir Usman of Gombe State wants to know the difference between science and engineering. Since this is National Engineering Week, we feel we must answer! The VOA Special English Word Book defines science as the study of nature and the actions of natural things, and the knowledge gained about them. The Word Book does not define engineering. But, it says an engineer is a person who designs engines, machines, bridges, roads and railroads. VOICE TWO: Perhaps that definition is a little narrow. There are engineers who do not make any kind of engine or machine. For example, a chemical engineer may develop new drugs or plastic products. Other examples include biomedical engineers and environmental engineers. Engineering is linked to science. However, we did not note that connection in the Word Book. In fact, engineers are sometimes called applied scientists. This is because engineers use science in their work. For example, a structural engineer will use physics, mathematics, and material science to build bridges, underground passageways or other structures. So the simple answer is that scientists usually gather information in the field or laboratory. And, generally, engineers use that information to produce things. If you have a general question about science, we would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Or listeners can send e-mail to special@voanews.com. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Integrated Pest Management
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The use of pesticides was an important part of the "Green Revolution," the movement that changed modern agriculture. Poisons can kill crop-eating insects, unwanted plants and harmful fungi. But these chemicals can also spread into the environment and kill helpful organisms. Integrated pest management looks for a combination of methods to solve problems or prevent them. Controlling pests starts with identification. Some kinds of insects, for example, look very similar. It is important to find out exactly what kind of pest is causing the damage and how much it has developed. This first step can help farmers make other decisions. For example, no action may be needed if the problem is minor. Or, chemical treatments may not be needed if other methods can do the same job. The University of California has had a Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program since nineteen seventy-nine. Experts have created guidelines that can help farmers create crop protection plans. A good way to understand how these guidelines work is to look at a pest management program for a single crop. For example, alfalfa is an important food for farm animals, but also a target of many pests. Alfalfa fields can support many biological controls. These are helpful insects and organisms that attack pests. If pesticides are needed, they must be chosen carefully. Use of the wrong poison will destroy helpful organisms and permit other pests to move in. Birds can also serve as important biological controls. The way alfalfa is harvested can have a big effect, too. Harvesting parts of a field at different times can limit the spread of pests. Keeping a border of unharvested alfalfa by open water can also help. Developed nations are the largest users of pesticides. But the Food and Agriculture Organization says the pesticide market in those countries is slowing or shrinking. The United Nations agency says several countries have set up programs to reduce pesticide use because of environmental concerns. Today, many agriculture departments at universities teach integrated pest management methods. Internet users can learn more about the Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program at the University of California at ipm.ucdavis.edu. Or you can find a link at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Albert Einstein
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about a scientist who changed the way we understand the universe, Albert Einstein. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the year nineteen-oh-five, Albert Einstein published some important papers in a German scientific magazine. They included one of the most important scientific documents in history. It was filled with mathematics. It explained what came to be called his “Special Theory of Relativity.” Ten years later he expanded it to a “General Theory of Relativity.” Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity are about the basic ideas we use to describe natural happenings. They are about time, space, mass, movement, and gravity. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in eighteen seventy-nine. His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the religion’s rules. Albert was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction -- to the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things. VOICE ONE: Albert did not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison. One story says Albert told his Uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. “You are looking for someone,” he said, “but you do not know who. Call him X. Find him by using the mathematical tools of algebra and geometry.” VOICE TWO: Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus when all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with friends he thought about things such as: “What would happen if people could travel at the speed of light?” Albert decided that he wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He attended the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated with honors, but could not get a teaching job. So he began working for the Swiss government as an inspector of patents for new inventions. The job was not demanding. He had a lot of time to think about some of his scientific theories. VOICE ONE: From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called “thought experiments” to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By nineteen oh-five, he had formed his ideas into theories that he published. In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons. This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory. Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter. Gravity LensThe most important of Albert Einstein’s theories published that year became known as his “Special Theory of Relativity.” He said the speed of light is always the same -- almost three hundred thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change. And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in relation to an object or an event. VOICE TWO: Imagine two space vehicles with a scientist travelling in each one. One spaceship is red. One is blue. Except for color, both spaceships are exactly alike. They pass one another far out in space. Neither scientist feels that his ship is moving. To each, it seems that the other ship is moving, not his. As they pass at high speed, the scientist in each ship measures how long it takes a beam of light to travel from the floor to the top of his spaceship, hit a mirror and return to the floor. Each spaceship has a window that lets each scientist see the experiment of the other. VOICE ONE: They begin their experiments at exactly the same moment. The scientist in the blue ship sees his beam of light go straight up and come straight down. But he sees that the light beam in the red ship does not do this. The red ship is moving so fast that the beam does not appear to go straight up. It forms a path up and down that looks like an upside down “V”. The scientist in the red ship would see exactly the same thing as he watched the experiment by the other scientist. He could say that time passed more slowly in the other ship. Each scientist would be correct, because the passing of time is linked to the position of the observer. Each scientist also would see that the other spaceship was shorter than his own. The higher the speeds the spaceships were travelling, the shorter the other ship would appear. And although the other ship would seem shorter, its mass would increase. It would seem to get heavier. The ideas were difficult to accept. Yet other scientists did experiments to prove that Einstein’s theory was correct. VOICE TWO: Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work on another theory. It described what he called his “General Theory of Relativity.” It expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed. This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in nineteen oh-five. Albert Einstein Einstein said that an object loses mass when it gives off light, which is a kind of energy. He believed that matter and energy were different forms of the same thing. That was the basis of his famous mathematical statement E equals m-c squared (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). This statement or formula explained that a great amount of energy could come from a small piece of matter. It explained how the sun could give off heat and light for millions of years. This formula also led to the discovery of atomic energy. VOICE ONE: In his general theory of relativity, Einstein said that gravity, like time, is not always the same. Gravity changes as observers speed up or slow down. He also said that gravity from very large objects, such as stars, could turn the path of light waves that passed nearby. This seemed unbelievable. But in nineteen nineteen, British scientists confirmed his theory when the sun was completely blocked during a solar eclipse. Albert Einstein immediately became famous around the world. In nineteen twenty-one, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. This scientific law explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces. The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and television. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler came to power in nineteen thirty-three. He moved to the United States to continue his research. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein became a citizen of the United States in nineteen forty. VOICE ONE: Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand. Albert Einstein opposed wars. Yet he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-nine to advise him that the United States should develop an atomic bomb before Germany did. Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life working on what he called a “unified field theory.” He hoped to find a common mathematical statement that could tie together all the different parts of physics. He did not succeed. Albert Einstein died in nineteen fifty-five. He was seventy-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about a scientist who changed the way we understand the universe, Albert Einstein. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the year nineteen-oh-five, Albert Einstein published some important papers in a German scientific magazine. They included one of the most important scientific documents in history. It was filled with mathematics. It explained what came to be called his “Special Theory of Relativity.” Ten years later he expanded it to a “General Theory of Relativity.” Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity are about the basic ideas we use to describe natural happenings. They are about time, space, mass, movement, and gravity. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in eighteen seventy-nine. His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the religion’s rules. Albert was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction -- to the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things. VOICE ONE: Albert did not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison. One story says Albert told his Uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. “You are looking for someone,” he said, “but you do not know who. Call him X. Find him by using the mathematical tools of algebra and geometry.” VOICE TWO: Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus when all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with friends he thought about things such as: “What would happen if people could travel at the speed of light?” Albert decided that he wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He attended the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated with honors, but could not get a teaching job. So he began working for the Swiss government as an inspector of patents for new inventions. The job was not demanding. He had a lot of time to think about some of his scientific theories. VOICE ONE: From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called “thought experiments” to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By nineteen oh-five, he had formed his ideas into theories that he published. In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons. This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory. Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter. Gravity LensThe most important of Albert Einstein’s theories published that year became known as his “Special Theory of Relativity.” He said the speed of light is always the same -- almost three hundred thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change. And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in relation to an object or an event. VOICE TWO: Imagine two space vehicles with a scientist travelling in each one. One spaceship is red. One is blue. Except for color, both spaceships are exactly alike. They pass one another far out in space. Neither scientist feels that his ship is moving. To each, it seems that the other ship is moving, not his. As they pass at high speed, the scientist in each ship measures how long it takes a beam of light to travel from the floor to the top of his spaceship, hit a mirror and return to the floor. Each spaceship has a window that lets each scientist see the experiment of the other. VOICE ONE: They begin their experiments at exactly the same moment. The scientist in the blue ship sees his beam of light go straight up and come straight down. But he sees that the light beam in the red ship does not do this. The red ship is moving so fast that the beam does not appear to go straight up. It forms a path up and down that looks like an upside down “V”. The scientist in the red ship would see exactly the same thing as he watched the experiment by the other scientist. He could say that time passed more slowly in the other ship. Each scientist would be correct, because the passing of time is linked to the position of the observer. Each scientist also would see that the other spaceship was shorter than his own. The higher the speeds the spaceships were travelling, the shorter the other ship would appear. And although the other ship would seem shorter, its mass would increase. It would seem to get heavier. The ideas were difficult to accept. Yet other scientists did experiments to prove that Einstein’s theory was correct. VOICE TWO: Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work on another theory. It described what he called his “General Theory of Relativity.” It expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed. This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in nineteen oh-five. Albert Einstein Einstein said that an object loses mass when it gives off light, which is a kind of energy. He believed that matter and energy were different forms of the same thing. That was the basis of his famous mathematical statement E equals m-c squared (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). This statement or formula explained that a great amount of energy could come from a small piece of matter. It explained how the sun could give off heat and light for millions of years. This formula also led to the discovery of atomic energy. VOICE ONE: In his general theory of relativity, Einstein said that gravity, like time, is not always the same. Gravity changes as observers speed up or slow down. He also said that gravity from very large objects, such as stars, could turn the path of light waves that passed nearby. This seemed unbelievable. But in nineteen nineteen, British scientists confirmed his theory when the sun was completely blocked during a solar eclipse. Albert Einstein immediately became famous around the world. In nineteen twenty-one, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. This scientific law explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces. The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and television. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler came to power in nineteen thirty-three. He moved to the United States to continue his research. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein became a citizen of the United States in nineteen forty. VOICE ONE: Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand. Albert Einstein opposed wars. Yet he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-nine to advise him that the United States should develop an atomic bomb before Germany did. Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life working on what he called a “unified field theory.” He hoped to find a common mathematical statement that could tie together all the different parts of physics. He did not succeed. Albert Einstein died in nineteen fifty-five. He was seventy-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: India Begins AIDS Vaccine Study / Unusual AIDS Case in New York
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. India is carrying out its first testing in humans of a vaccine to prevent infection with the virus that causes AIDS. Thirty people will be injected with an experimental vaccine at the National AIDS Research Institute in the western city of Pune. This first part of the clinical trial will take about fifteen months. The purpose is mainly to test safety. India has at least five million people with H.I.V. That is the second largest number after South Africa. Human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V., suppresses the immune system. People become open to deadly infections as they develop AIDS. The United Nations says AIDS caused more than three million deaths last year. There are different forms of H.I.V., and different groupings within each subtype. The vaccine being tested is designed to fight subtype C. That is responsible for the most AIDS infections worldwide. Scientists say the biggest problem in developing a vaccine is that the virus continually changes. Researchers at Targeted Genetics in Seattle, Washington, and Columbus Children’s Research Institute in Ohio developed the vaccine. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative is involved as well. Testing is also being done in Germany and Belgium. An estimated forty million people are living with H.I.V. Experts say there are fourteen thousand new infections each day. The virus is carried in blood and other body fluids. People often do not know they have become infected. This is why, in the United States, some health experts recently suggested that almost all Americans get tested, not just those at high risk. They say this would lead to early treatment for more people and save money. H.I.V. takes an average of about ten years to develop into AIDS. Antiretroviral drugs usually can slow the progress. But health officials in New York City recently reported about a man believed to have been infected last October. By December he had AIDS. The virus resisted most treatments. Officials say the man had unprotected sex with other men. He also used crystal methamphetamine. Experts say this illegal drug may weaken the immune system. Some experts say the man's immunity or drug use could explain the aggressive spread of his infection. They say it is too early to know if this case involves a new kind of H.I.V. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: The Seven Days Campaign
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In any war, an important target is the enemy's capital city. To capture the enemy's capital usually means victory. In America's Civil War, the north hoped for a quick victory by capturing the southern capital at Richmond, Virginia. Northern forces were strong enough. There were about one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers in and around Washington. General George McClellan led this Army of the Potomac. His was the biggest, best-trained, and best-equipped of the Union armies. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I report on Mcclellan's move against Richmond. VOICE TWO: For the first year of the Civil War, the Army of the Potomac did not fight. General McClellan kept making excuses for his failure to act. He had a plan, he said. And he would not move until he was sure his men were ready. McClellan's plan was to put his army on boats in the Potomac River. They would sail down the river to where it emptied into the Chesapeake Bay. Then he would land the boats on the coast of Virginia, east of Richmond. Abraham LincolnPresident Abraham Lincoln wanted to capture the Confederate capital. But he did not like the idea of moving all of McClellan's men. That would leave the city of Washington without protection. McClellan tried to calm Lincoln's fears. He said that as soon as he marched toward Richmond, any Confederate soldiers near Washington would withdraw. They would be needed to defend their own capital. VOICE ONE: The Army of the Potomac began to move on March seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two. Within two weeks, more than fifty thousand had reached Fort Monroe, southeast of Richmond. They were equipped with one hundred big guns and tons of supplies. Day by day, the Union force at Fort Monroe grew larger. McClellan had planned to move quickly to Yorktown, then push on to Richmond. He would move along the finger of land between the York River and the James River. He soon learned, however, that he could not move as quickly as planned. Heavy spring rains had turned the dirt roads into rivers of mud. McClellan's men could push through. But there was no way they could bring their big guns. McClellan decided to wait. He did not want to attack Yorktown without artillery. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln was not pleased. He sent a message to McClellan. "You must strike a blow," Lincoln said. "You must act." But still McClellan delayed. By the time his artillery had arrived and was in place, Confederate troops had withdrawn. They moved to the woods outside Williamsburg. McClellan chased them. For the first time, his army went into battle. The fighting was strange. The woods were so thick that the two sides could not often see each other. Soldiers fired at the flash of gunpowder, at noises, anything that moved. Their aim was good enough. About four thousand soldiers were killed. VOICE ONE: In his reports to Washington, McClellan claimed great victories at Yorktown and Williamsburg. Yet he was worried. He believed the Confederate force around Richmond was much larger than his. He demanded more men. The Confederate force was, in fact, much smaller than the Union force. But it was deployed in a way to make it seem much larger. The trick fooled McClellan. By the middle of May, eighteen sixty-two, his army was only fifteen kilometers from Richmond. Still, he did not attack. He continued to wait for more men and equipment. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was worried. He knew the Confederate army was smaller than the Union army. Davis' military adviser, General Robert E. Lee, offered a plan. Lee proposed that General Stonewall Jackson lead his army up Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The north would see the move as a threat to Washington. Union troops would be kept near Washington, instead of being sent to Richmond. President Davis agreed. Orders were sent to Jackson. VOICE TWO: Stonewall Jackson was one of the south's best generals. He was a forceful leader. And he could make his men march until they dropped. He got the name "Stonewall" at the battle of Bull Run in the summer of eighteen sixty-one. Southern soldiers were withdrawing. A Confederate officer tried to stop them. He urged them to follow Jackson's example, to stand and fight. He shouted, "There stands Jackson -- like a stone wall." General Jackson faced three large Union forces in and around the Shenandoah Valley. Yet he struck hard and fast, and soon had control of the valley's main towns. His campaign is still studied at military schools around the world. It is considered an excellent example of how to move troops quickly to where they are most needed. VOICE ONE: Jackson's raids produced the exact effect Robert E. Lee had wanted. Everyone in Washington feared an immediate attack on the city. Soldiers were hurried to the capital from Baltimore and other nearby cities. And President Lincoln sent thousands of troops to chase Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, instead of helping McClellan at Richmond. The Union army outside Richmond was deployed on either side of the Chickahominy River. The Chickahominy was not a big river. It could be crossed easily at several places. While McClellan waited to attack the Confederate capital, heavy rains began to fall. The little river began to rise. The commander of Confederate forces in Richmond saw this as a chance to smash a large part of McClellan's army. VOICE TWO: The flooding river would soon cut the Union force completely in two. When that happened, the Confederates would attack. They expected to destroy at least half of McClellan's army. The plan seemed good. And after the first few hours of battle, the Confederates were close to victory. But one bridge remained over the Chickahominy River. Union soldiers were able to cross it. The Confederates were forced to withdraw to their earlier positions. No ground was gained. And more than eleven-thousand men were killed or wounded. Among the wounded was the commander of all Confederate forces, General Joe Johnston. General Robert E. Lee would take his place. VOICE ONE: Lee wasted no time. He wanted to push the Union army far away from Richmond. First, however, he wanted more information about his enemy. He sent a young officer -- Jeb Stuart -- to get it. Stuart set off with more than a thousand men on horseback. Theirs was a wild ride around the edge of the Union army. When they reported back three days later, General Lee knew exactly where he would attack. It would be the first in a series of battles known as the Seven Days Campaign. VOICE TWO: Lee took a big chance. He moved most of his men into position to attack what he now knew was the weak, right side of the Union line. He left only a few thousand men to defend Richmond. He hoped the Union commander, McClellan, would be fooled by this plan. For if McClellan discovered how few men were left behind, he could smash through easily and capture the city. With the help of Stonewall Jackson's army, Lee's plan worked. McClellan was fooled. And after a day of fierce fighting, he was forced to withdraw from the area. VOICE ONE: Lee chased McClellan for a while. They clashed at such places as Mechanicsville, White Oak Swamp, and finally Malvern Hill. The south won the Seven Days Campaign. The threat to Richmond was ended. The Confederacy was saved. But victory came at a terrible price. Twenty thousand Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. As both the north and south were learning quickly, the Civil War was becoming more costly than anyone had imagined. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. In any war, an important target is the enemy's capital city. To capture the enemy's capital usually means victory. In America's Civil War, the north hoped for a quick victory by capturing the southern capital at Richmond, Virginia. Northern forces were strong enough. There were about one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers in and around Washington. General George McClellan led this Army of the Potomac. His was the biggest, best-trained, and best-equipped of the Union armies. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I report on Mcclellan's move against Richmond. VOICE TWO: For the first year of the Civil War, the Army of the Potomac did not fight. General McClellan kept making excuses for his failure to act. He had a plan, he said. And he would not move until he was sure his men were ready. McClellan's plan was to put his army on boats in the Potomac River. They would sail down the river to where it emptied into the Chesapeake Bay. Then he would land the boats on the coast of Virginia, east of Richmond. Abraham LincolnPresident Abraham Lincoln wanted to capture the Confederate capital. But he did not like the idea of moving all of McClellan's men. That would leave the city of Washington without protection. McClellan tried to calm Lincoln's fears. He said that as soon as he marched toward Richmond, any Confederate soldiers near Washington would withdraw. They would be needed to defend their own capital. VOICE ONE: The Army of the Potomac began to move on March seventeenth, eighteen sixty-two. Within two weeks, more than fifty thousand had reached Fort Monroe, southeast of Richmond. They were equipped with one hundred big guns and tons of supplies. Day by day, the Union force at Fort Monroe grew larger. McClellan had planned to move quickly to Yorktown, then push on to Richmond. He would move along the finger of land between the York River and the James River. He soon learned, however, that he could not move as quickly as planned. Heavy spring rains had turned the dirt roads into rivers of mud. McClellan's men could push through. But there was no way they could bring their big guns. McClellan decided to wait. He did not want to attack Yorktown without artillery. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln was not pleased. He sent a message to McClellan. "You must strike a blow," Lincoln said. "You must act." But still McClellan delayed. By the time his artillery had arrived and was in place, Confederate troops had withdrawn. They moved to the woods outside Williamsburg. McClellan chased them. For the first time, his army went into battle. The fighting was strange. The woods were so thick that the two sides could not often see each other. Soldiers fired at the flash of gunpowder, at noises, anything that moved. Their aim was good enough. About four thousand soldiers were killed. VOICE ONE: In his reports to Washington, McClellan claimed great victories at Yorktown and Williamsburg. Yet he was worried. He believed the Confederate force around Richmond was much larger than his. He demanded more men. The Confederate force was, in fact, much smaller than the Union force. But it was deployed in a way to make it seem much larger. The trick fooled McClellan. By the middle of May, eighteen sixty-two, his army was only fifteen kilometers from Richmond. Still, he did not attack. He continued to wait for more men and equipment. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was worried. He knew the Confederate army was smaller than the Union army. Davis' military adviser, General Robert E. Lee, offered a plan. Lee proposed that General Stonewall Jackson lead his army up Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The north would see the move as a threat to Washington. Union troops would be kept near Washington, instead of being sent to Richmond. President Davis agreed. Orders were sent to Jackson. VOICE TWO: Stonewall Jackson was one of the south's best generals. He was a forceful leader. And he could make his men march until they dropped. He got the name "Stonewall" at the battle of Bull Run in the summer of eighteen sixty-one. Southern soldiers were withdrawing. A Confederate officer tried to stop them. He urged them to follow Jackson's example, to stand and fight. He shouted, "There stands Jackson -- like a stone wall." General Jackson faced three large Union forces in and around the Shenandoah Valley. Yet he struck hard and fast, and soon had control of the valley's main towns. His campaign is still studied at military schools around the world. It is considered an excellent example of how to move troops quickly to where they are most needed. VOICE ONE: Jackson's raids produced the exact effect Robert E. Lee had wanted. Everyone in Washington feared an immediate attack on the city. Soldiers were hurried to the capital from Baltimore and other nearby cities. And President Lincoln sent thousands of troops to chase Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, instead of helping McClellan at Richmond. The Union army outside Richmond was deployed on either side of the Chickahominy River. The Chickahominy was not a big river. It could be crossed easily at several places. While McClellan waited to attack the Confederate capital, heavy rains began to fall. The little river began to rise. The commander of Confederate forces in Richmond saw this as a chance to smash a large part of McClellan's army. VOICE TWO: The flooding river would soon cut the Union force completely in two. When that happened, the Confederates would attack. They expected to destroy at least half of McClellan's army. The plan seemed good. And after the first few hours of battle, the Confederates were close to victory. But one bridge remained over the Chickahominy River. Union soldiers were able to cross it. The Confederates were forced to withdraw to their earlier positions. No ground was gained. And more than eleven-thousand men were killed or wounded. Among the wounded was the commander of all Confederate forces, General Joe Johnston. General Robert E. Lee would take his place. VOICE ONE: Lee wasted no time. He wanted to push the Union army far away from Richmond. First, however, he wanted more information about his enemy. He sent a young officer -- Jeb Stuart -- to get it. Stuart set off with more than a thousand men on horseback. Theirs was a wild ride around the edge of the Union army. When they reported back three days later, General Lee knew exactly where he would attack. It would be the first in a series of battles known as the Seven Days Campaign. VOICE TWO: Lee took a big chance. He moved most of his men into position to attack what he now knew was the weak, right side of the Union line. He left only a few thousand men to defend Richmond. He hoped the Union commander, McClellan, would be fooled by this plan. For if McClellan discovered how few men were left behind, he could smash through easily and capture the city. With the help of Stonewall Jackson's army, Lee's plan worked. McClellan was fooled. And after a day of fierce fighting, he was forced to withdraw from the area. VOICE ONE: Lee chased McClellan for a while. They clashed at such places as Mechanicsville, White Oak Swamp, and finally Malvern Hill. The south won the Seven Days Campaign. The threat to Richmond was ended. The Confederacy was saved. But victory came at a terrible price. Twenty thousand Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. As both the north and south were learning quickly, the Civil War was becoming more costly than anyone had imagined. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Ohio State University Offers Intensive English Training to Foreign Students
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series for students who want to attend an American college or university. Today we tell about one of the largest public universities in the United States: Ohio State. It opened in eighteen seventy-three as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. It became the Ohio State University five years later, after expanding its programs. Ohio State now has twenty-five colleges. Among its better known programs are linguistics, business, education and engineering. The main campus is in Columbus, the state capital. The Ohio State university system has over fifty-eight thousand students. More than four thousand of them are from outside the United States. Of these, the International Student Office at Ohio State says almost three thousand are graduate students. Most of the international students come from Asia, especially China, South Korea, India, Taiwan and Indonesia. Most of the graduate students are studying engineering, mathematics or the physical and biological sciences. The undergraduate foreign students are mostly studying business or engineering. The cost of attending Ohio State is a little different for graduate and undergraduate students. Undergraduate foreign students pay about thirty thousand dollars a year. That includes books, health insurance and living expenses. The cost is about thirty-two thousand for graduate students. Graduate students can get financial aid by working as a teaching or research assistant. Aid money is also given to outstanding graduate students. The university generally does not give financial aid to foreign students at the undergraduate level. But officials say some aid can be found. University officials say they want international students to know that they do not have to take English tests to attend Ohio State. They do not even have to speak English when they arrive. The university offers intensive English training through its American Language Program. Information about this program and others at Ohio State can be found on the Web at osu.edu. Internet users can find other reports in our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish dot com. And, to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 22, 2005 - Greetings in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 22, 2005 I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we say hello again to English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles to talk about greetings in America. AA: "So now typically, if someone says 'how are you doing?' ... " RS: "Yeah, typically when you say 'hi, how are you?' what's the typical response there?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, 'fine.' And, in fact, that's something I have to teach students right at the beginning of the course, that when somebody says to you 'how are you?' they're not really asking about your health. It's just a different way of saying hello. Back in the days when people were more conscious of grammar, one of the traditional replies to the question 'how are you?' was 'I'm well.' But when's the last time you heard somebody say 'I'm well?'" RS: "I guess the last time we heard someone answer that same question 'I'm sick'! [laughter]" LIDA BAKER: "But you do hear people all the time saying 'I'm good.' At least here in California, that is extremely common. You know, and as a teacher, this kind of presents me with a dilemma: Do I teach students expressions that are grammatically incorrect but that everyone is using?" RS: "Yes." LIDA BAKER: "Well ... " RS: "Yes with a warning." LIDA BAKER: "Exactly! Yes, I like that -- yes with a warning, that this is what people say, but don't use it if you're in a formal situation or a situation where you're trying to make a very good impression." AA: "Like the expression 'how do you do,' that's a little formal, right?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, 'how do you do' is a really interesting expression. I don't know if you realize this, but on subsequent meetings, you don't use 'how do you do.' You can switch to 'how are you?' or 'hello.' But we only use 'how do you do?' the first time that we meet somebody." RS: "So, in other words, when you're introduced to someone, you say 'how do you do?'" LIDA BAKER: "That's right." AA: "Now what about a greeting like 'good morning'? Good morning, Rosanne." RS: "Hi, Avi." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, there are greetings I think that are time-bound. We have 'good morning,' 'good afternoon,' 'good evening' and 'good night.' But, again, there's something tricky about 'good night.'" RS: "You say it when you're going to sleep." LIDA BAKER: "That's right. And you also say it when you're leaving. Like at the end of the workday, people might say 'good night' to one another. But you can't say 'good night' as a greeting. On the other end of the spectrum, again out here in California, I don't know about the rest of the country, but it's very common to greet people by just saying 'hey.' Again, you wouldn't use it if you were in a job interview, if you were talking to your boss, if you were talking to maybe a religious leader. You would use something a little more elevated than that, like 'hello' or 'how are you?'" RS: "Hey, Lida. [laughter] I want to know how you would go about teaching this." LIDA BAKER: "Well, first of all, you want to provide students with information about the language. So on the blackboard I would make a list of greetings, and at the top of the list I would put the more formal ones, and at the bottom of the list I would put the least formal ones. And I would draw an arrow from the top of the list to the bottom of the list, to give students the visual notion that there's a range here. "And then we would move into the practice phase of the lesson, where there's one activity that I really like to do. And I'm afraid I can't remember where I first read this, because I'd like to give credit, but it's called the 'cocktail party waltz.' It's great to have students meeting each other at the beginning of the course. And what you do is, you put the students in two circles. One circle is inside the other circle, so the students are facing one another. "At a signal from the teacher, these people greet one another, and then they spend a couple of minutes in small talk, talking about the weather, about the event where you happen to be, about a person's background or what they like to do. Or their work -- that's always a good topic in the United States. "You let the students talk to one another for a couple of minutes, and then the teacher gives another signal, and the people who are on the outside circle move like, you know, one person to the right. So that's one really fun activity, and what's nice about it is that it works with people at all levels." AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and she's working on a reading comprehension textbook that might come out in about a year. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Pop Song '89"/R.E.M. Broadcast: February 22, 2005 I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we say hello again to English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles to talk about greetings in America. AA: "So now typically, if someone says 'how are you doing?' ... " RS: "Yeah, typically when you say 'hi, how are you?' what's the typical response there?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, 'fine.' And, in fact, that's something I have to teach students right at the beginning of the course, that when somebody says to you 'how are you?' they're not really asking about your health. It's just a different way of saying hello. Back in the days when people were more conscious of grammar, one of the traditional replies to the question 'how are you?' was 'I'm well.' But when's the last time you heard somebody say 'I'm well?'" RS: "I guess the last time we heard someone answer that same question 'I'm sick'! [laughter]" LIDA BAKER: "But you do hear people all the time saying 'I'm good.' At least here in California, that is extremely common. You know, and as a teacher, this kind of presents me with a dilemma: Do I teach students expressions that are grammatically incorrect but that everyone is using?" RS: "Yes." LIDA BAKER: "Well ... " RS: "Yes with a warning." LIDA BAKER: "Exactly! Yes, I like that -- yes with a warning, that this is what people say, but don't use it if you're in a formal situation or a situation where you're trying to make a very good impression." AA: "Like the expression 'how do you do,' that's a little formal, right?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, 'how do you do' is a really interesting expression. I don't know if you realize this, but on subsequent meetings, you don't use 'how do you do.' You can switch to 'how are you?' or 'hello.' But we only use 'how do you do?' the first time that we meet somebody." RS: "So, in other words, when you're introduced to someone, you say 'how do you do?'" LIDA BAKER: "That's right." AA: "Now what about a greeting like 'good morning'? Good morning, Rosanne." RS: "Hi, Avi." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, there are greetings I think that are time-bound. We have 'good morning,' 'good afternoon,' 'good evening' and 'good night.' But, again, there's something tricky about 'good night.'" RS: "You say it when you're going to sleep." LIDA BAKER: "That's right. And you also say it when you're leaving. Like at the end of the workday, people might say 'good night' to one another. But you can't say 'good night' as a greeting. On the other end of the spectrum, again out here in California, I don't know about the rest of the country, but it's very common to greet people by just saying 'hey.' Again, you wouldn't use it if you were in a job interview, if you were talking to your boss, if you were talking to maybe a religious leader. You would use something a little more elevated than that, like 'hello' or 'how are you?'" RS: "Hey, Lida. [laughter] I want to know how you would go about teaching this." LIDA BAKER: "Well, first of all, you want to provide students with information about the language. So on the blackboard I would make a list of greetings, and at the top of the list I would put the more formal ones, and at the bottom of the list I would put the least formal ones. And I would draw an arrow from the top of the list to the bottom of the list, to give students the visual notion that there's a range here. "And then we would move into the practice phase of the lesson, where there's one activity that I really like to do. And I'm afraid I can't remember where I first read this, because I'd like to give credit, but it's called the 'cocktail party waltz.' It's great to have students meeting each other at the beginning of the course. And what you do is, you put the students in two circles. One circle is inside the other circle, so the students are facing one another. "At a signal from the teacher, these people greet one another, and then they spend a couple of minutes in small talk, talking about the weather, about the event where you happen to be, about a person's background or what they like to do. Or their work -- that's always a good topic in the United States. "You let the students talk to one another for a couple of minutes, and then the teacher gives another signal, and the people who are on the outside circle move like, you know, one person to the right. So that's one really fun activity, and what's nice about it is that it works with people at all levels." AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and she's working on a reading comprehension textbook that might come out in about a year. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Pop Song '89"/R.E.M. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: When Companies (and Sometimes Individuals) Have to Give Back Money
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Financial news sometimes has words that seem out of place. Take a word like "disgorgement." It has a few different uses, but all describe much the same thing. For example, your stomach might disgorge some bad food you just ate. Trains disgorge passengers. In the business world, companies and individuals sometimes have to disgorge money. The insurance broker Marsh and McLennan recently agreed to give eight hundred fifty million dollars back to its customers. The New York state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, negotiated the deal. Mister Spitzer accused Marsh of directing buyers to insurance companies from which it had received payments. He said Marsh at times created the appearance of competition when there was none, so buyers ended up paying more for policies. As part of the deal, Marsh and McLennan apologized and agreed to change its way of doing business to avoid conflicts of interest. Another case brought by Mister Spitzer involves Richard Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Mister Grasso resigned in two thousand three over public criticism of his pay. Mister Spitzer wants the former chairman to return most of the one hundred forty million dollars he received. Mister Spitzer notes a report written for the exchange by a former government lawyer. That report became public this month. It says Mister Grasso had unfairly influenced and misled the officials who supervised his pay. And it says his pay was unreasonable. Mister Grasso disagrees. Another disgorgement case in the news involves a civil action by the government against major cigarette makers. The Justice Department brought the case in nineteen ninety-nine. The government says tobacco companies including Philip Morris, part of the Altria Group, cooperated for illegal gain. It says they tried to hide the dangers of their products, and marketed to children. The government is seeking two hundred eighty thousand million dollars. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled against the government. The court said the law used in this case does not require disgorgement of illegally received money. The cigarette makers now argue that other measures sought by the government are in conflict with that ruling. The government can appeal the ruling. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Thefacebook.com / History of VOA / Oscar-Nominated Songs
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Ed Stautberg

 (Audio note: We are temporarily having problems with our ability to offer MP3 versions of some of our programs. We apologize, and hope to have the trouble corrected shortly.) (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have some of the movie music nominated for an Academy Award this Sunday ... Also, a report about a Web site where some American college students get to know each other ... And, a listener asks about VOA's history. Thefacebook.com HOST: A few months ago we talked about social networks on the Internet. Web sites like Friendster help connect people with common interests. Now, Barbara Klein tells us about Thefacebook. BARBARA KLEIN: Five students from Harvard University launched Thefacebook in February of last year. One of them, Chris Hughes, says the site has one and one-half million members from three hundred thirty-five schools. He says there are no plans at this point to go outside of the United States and Canada. Thefacebook is a free service. It describes itself as an online directory that connects people through social networks at colleges and universities. It is supported by advertising. Paid announcements let students and local businesses provide links to people at the schools. When new users go to Thefacebook-dot-com, they create a profile. They provide information about such things as their favorite movies, books and sayings. Most also provide a picture. Professors and teachers can use Thefacebook, too. Members need an e-mail address at a school connected with the service. Many use Thefacebook to get in touch with old friends. Others try to make new friends. Students use it for entertainment, for dating, even for studying. The site makes it easy for students to see if anyone else in their classes has a profile listed. Who knows, they may even find that someone in their Geography class lives in their same building. Every member has a personal bulletin board where friends can place comments. The custom at the Thefacebook is to have information open to other members. But co-founder Chris Hughes says students have control over the information they provide. And members can restrict who is permitted to see their information. In his words: "Thefacebook is a resource for both information and communication, but at the same time, is fun to use." One first-year student in Washington, D.C., tells us that she has spent hours at the Thefacebook-dot-com. She checks her friends’ profiles, then their friends’ profiles. Then she wonders: What if other people are doing the same thing to her? History of VOA DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week is from Nigeria. Prince Onyebuchi in Aba Abia State notes that February twenty-fourth was the sixty-third anniversary of VOA. He asks about the history. The United States government established the Voice of America during World War Two. The first radio broadcast was in a language no longer heard on VOA. It was a fifteen-minute program in German. It aired on February twenty-fourth, nineteen forty-two. It told the German people that every day, VOA would broadcast news of America and the war. The announcer said The news may be good or bad, but we will tell you the truth. Today, VOA broadcasts more than one thousand hours of radio programs each week in forty-four languages. VOA also has television programs in English and a number of other languages. These include Albanian, Cantonese, French, Indonesian, Mandarin and Persian. And VOA uses more than fourteen thousand computer servers around the world to put information on the Internet. VOA has three main duties under a Charter signed into law in nineteen seventy-six. One is to report the news fairly. Another is to tell about America and its people. The third duty is to present the policies of the government as well as opinions about those policies. When VOA began, all broadcasts were on shortwave. Today many local radio stations around the world carry VOA programs. It is estimated that VOA reaches more than one hundred million people each week through radio, television and the Internet. More than ten million individuals visited the VOA Web site last year. We are happy to report that Special English is the third most popular page after the VOA home page and standard English. Visitors can get to us from the English learning link at voanews-dot-com. Some VOA language services also link to our site. Or visitors can go directly to voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Oscar-Nominated Songs The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the Oscars in Hollywood Sunday night. Gwen Outen tells us about the five nominees for the best song written for a movie from the past year. GWEN OUTEN: One of the songs is from the animated movie "Shrek Two." Here is the band Counting Crows with "Accidentally In Love." (MUSIC) A song from the movie "The Motorcycle Diaries," "Al Otro Lado Del Rio," is also nominated for an Oscar this year. So is this next song, from "The Polar Express." Josh Groban sings "Believe." (MUSIC) Also nominated for the Oscar this Sunday is "Look to Your Path," from the movie "The Chorus." And we leave you with the final nomination for the Academy Award for an original song. From "The Phantom of the Opera," here is Minnie Driver with "Learn to Be Lonely." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Ed Stautberg. Caty Weaver was our producer. The engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Julia Ward Howe
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (THEME) (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. (Photo - Library of Congress)Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marching soldiers ... no end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land. They came from the northern states fighting to keep the Union together. And they came from the southern states fighting for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers marched on. The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation. VOICE TWO: Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have told of the soldiers’ fear and terror. . .their great and heroic acts. . .how they suffered and died. . .and how they sang before and after battle. One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This is the story of the woman who wrote the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The place was Washington, D.C. The year was eighteen sixty-one. It was a wet winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia. A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on. VOICE ONE: The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer. She was born in New York City in eighteen nineteen. Her father was a wealthy banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five children. And she published several books of poetry. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery. They published an anti-slavery newspaper called the "Commonwealth." Missus Howe had met John Brown. Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist. She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves. Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery. In eighteen fifty-nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves. He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia. [Editor's note: That area did not become the state of West Virginia until 1863.] The town had a factory that made guns for the army. It also had a storage center for military equipment. The attack on Harper's Ferry failed. John Brown was put on trial for treason. He was found guilty and was executed. VOICE ONE: In the northern states, John Brown became a hero. His story was told through song. The song was most popular with soldiers. It became the unofficial marching song of the Union Army. Julia Ward Howe also liked to sing the song. She felt that the music was beautiful, but the words about John Brown were not. So she decided to write different words to the music. Those words came to her that night as she lay in her hotel room in Washington. She was awakened by her dreams of marching soldiers. VOICE TWO (WOMAN'S VOICE): "I found to my surprise that the words were forming themselves in my head. I lay still until the last line had completed itself in my thoughts. Then I quickly got out of bed. I thought I would forget the words if I did not write them immediately. I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Then I began to write the lines of a poem: 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.' I wrote until I was finished. Then I lay down again and fell asleep. I felt something important had happened to me." VOICE ONE: An American magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly," bought Missus Howe's poem. She was paid four dollars. The magazine published the poem in eighteen sixty-two. The poem became very popular. It had just the right words for the great marching music. The soldiers of the Union Army began to sing the words Julia Ward Howe had written. It soon became their official marching song -- "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe became famous. She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln. After dinner at the White House, the guests talked about the Civil War. They were sad. The Union army had suffered many defeats. Then someone began to sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Missus Howe and President Lincoln joined in the singing. There were tears in the President's eyes. Here is the last part of the song, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the North won the Civil War in eighteen sixty-five, Julia Ward Howe became involved in other social reform movements. She became a leader in the movement to gain equal rights for American women, including the right to vote. She helped establish the New England Woman's Club in eighteen sixty-eight. This organization worked for equal rights for women in education and business. She served as president of the group for more than thirty years. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe also became involved in the movement for peace. In eighteen seventy, she issued an "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World." This was a call for an international conference of women to support the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The next year she helped organize the American group of the Woman's International Peace Association. She became president of the group. Julia Ward Howe continued to write books and make speeches about the issues she felt were important. Through the years, thousands of people came to hear her recite her most famous poem. She died in nineteen ten. She was ninety-one years old. VOICE ONE: The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" still is one of America's great traditional songs. No one knows for sure who wrote the music. But the song lives on. And so does the name of the woman who made the music famous with her words: Julia Ward Howe. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. (Photo - Library of Congress)Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marching soldiers ... no end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land. They came from the northern states fighting to keep the Union together. And they came from the southern states fighting for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers marched on. The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation. VOICE TWO: Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have told of the soldiers’ fear and terror. . .their great and heroic acts. . .how they suffered and died. . .and how they sang before and after battle. One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This is the story of the woman who wrote the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The place was Washington, D.C. The year was eighteen sixty-one. It was a wet winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia. A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on. VOICE ONE: The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer. She was born in New York City in eighteen nineteen. Her father was a wealthy banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five children. And she published several books of poetry. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery. They published an anti-slavery newspaper called the "Commonwealth." Missus Howe had met John Brown. Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist. She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves. Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery. In eighteen fifty-nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves. He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia. [Editor's note: That area did not become the state of West Virginia until 1863.] The town had a factory that made guns for the army. It also had a storage center for military equipment. The attack on Harper's Ferry failed. John Brown was put on trial for treason. He was found guilty and was executed. VOICE ONE: In the northern states, John Brown became a hero. His story was told through song. The song was most popular with soldiers. It became the unofficial marching song of the Union Army. Julia Ward Howe also liked to sing the song. She felt that the music was beautiful, but the words about John Brown were not. So she decided to write different words to the music. Those words came to her that night as she lay in her hotel room in Washington. She was awakened by her dreams of marching soldiers. VOICE TWO (WOMAN'S VOICE): "I found to my surprise that the words were forming themselves in my head. I lay still until the last line had completed itself in my thoughts. Then I quickly got out of bed. I thought I would forget the words if I did not write them immediately. I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Then I began to write the lines of a poem: 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.' I wrote until I was finished. Then I lay down again and fell asleep. I felt something important had happened to me." VOICE ONE: An American magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly," bought Missus Howe's poem. She was paid four dollars. The magazine published the poem in eighteen sixty-two. The poem became very popular. It had just the right words for the great marching music. The soldiers of the Union Army began to sing the words Julia Ward Howe had written. It soon became their official marching song -- "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe became famous. She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln. After dinner at the White House, the guests talked about the Civil War. They were sad. The Union army had suffered many defeats. Then someone began to sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Missus Howe and President Lincoln joined in the singing. There were tears in the President's eyes. Here is the last part of the song, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the North won the Civil War in eighteen sixty-five, Julia Ward Howe became involved in other social reform movements. She became a leader in the movement to gain equal rights for American women, including the right to vote. She helped establish the New England Woman's Club in eighteen sixty-eight. This organization worked for equal rights for women in education and business. She served as president of the group for more than thirty years. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe also became involved in the movement for peace. In eighteen seventy, she issued an "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World." This was a call for an international conference of women to support the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The next year she helped organize the American group of the Woman's International Peace Association. She became president of the group. Julia Ward Howe continued to write books and make speeches about the issues she felt were important. Through the years, thousands of people came to hear her recite her most famous poem. She died in nineteen ten. She was ninety-one years old. VOICE ONE: The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" still is one of America's great traditional songs. No one knows for sure who wrote the music. But the song lives on. And so does the name of the woman who made the music famous with her words: Julia Ward Howe. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: National Zoo / Wild Animal Care in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The third Monday in February is a national holiday, Presidents' Day. That means most children get the day off from school. And that means last Monday a lot of parents probably heard this question: VOICE ONE: "Can we go to the zoo? Huh, can we? Can we please?!" VOICE TWO: Well, today WE go to the zoo, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for a look at the subject of wild-animal care in the United States. VOICE ONE: The population at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in the nation’s capital has grown recently. Four baby cheetahs are among the newcomers. Cheetahs are big African cats known for their speed. They have yellow fur and dark spots. These are the first cheetahs born in the one-hundred-fifteen-year history of the National Zoo. A four-year-old cheetah named Tumai gave birth to the cubs on November twenty-third. Their father, Amadi, died in December from kidney disease. VOICE TWO: The baby cheetahs are two males and two females. Each weighed less than two kilograms at birth. Their caretakers needed a way to be sure which cheetah is which. So they cut a small amount of fur from a different place on each one. The young cheetahs have begun eating meat. But they are also still nursing from their mother. When they are big enough, the cheetahs will join other big cats in the African Savanna at the National Zoo. The savanna is a grassy area designed to copy conditions in the wild. VOICE ONE: Sumatran tiger cubsPhoto: US National ZooThree Sumatran tigers were born at the zoo in May of two thousand four. These three males now weigh about forty-five kilograms each. Another young animal growing quickly at the National Zoo is a male elephant named Kandula. He weighed about one hundred forty-seven kilograms at birth. His mother is Shanthi. Shanthi is among the last zoo elephants born in the wild. The children of Sri Lanka gave her to the National Zoo as a gift almost thirty years ago. Kandula is a little more than three years old. He was born in November of two thousand one. VOICE TWO: Many people come to the National Zoo to see Kandula. Crowds also gather to see the two giant pandas from China. Tian Tian is the male and Mei Xiang is the female. These big, furry black-and-white creatures roll around in the grass. They play. They climb trees. They eat bamboo. All they watch the people watching them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Pandas Tian Tian and Mei Xiang at the National ZooUS National zoo photo The zoo is paying to have the pandas on loan from China for ten years. They arrived in two thousand to replace two pandas that died. Giant pandas come from the mountains of central China. They are very rare. A number of pandas have been born in China recently. If Tian Tian and Mei Xiang have a baby, it would also be an important addition. VOICE TWO: The National Zoo has about three thousand animals. They represent more than four hundred species. They live on sixty-six hectares of land in Washington, D.C. People do not have to pay to enter the National Zoo. Most of its money is from the federal government. Supporters known as "Friends of the National Zoo" also give money. Congress created the zoo in eighteen eighty-nine. The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian operates a large system of museums. VOICE ONE: Millions of people visit the National Zoo in Washington. Over the years, it has been praised as one of the best in the United States. But in two thousand three, Congress ordered an investigation of the zoo after several animals died. An independent committee from the National Academy of Sciences examined records at the zoo. The committee reported that most of the animals whose records it studied received satisfactory care. However, the committee also said that the zoo must improve its training of employees. In addition, it reported that aging equipment and structures must be repaired or replaced. Zoo director Lucy Spelman resigned in February of two thousand four. Last month, a report from the National Research Council noted some improvements at the National Zoo over the last year. But it said more work is needed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: America’s first zoo opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in eighteen fifty-nine. Each year about fifty million people visit zoos in the United States. In the past, zoos kept animals in small cages. There was nothing but the animal, its food and its waste. The Bronx Zoo in New York City led the way to better conditions. It designed exhibits to provide more freedom. The idea to create settings more like nature spread to other zoos. VOICE ONE: One of the leading American zoos is in San Diego, California. The San Diego Zoological Society operates the zoo. It also operates the San Diego Wild Animal Park. More than two thousand animals live on about eight hundred hectares at the Wild Animal Park. Visitors learn about efforts to save and protect rare animals like the California condor. This bird measures three meters across with its wings spread. In nineteen eighty-seven, researchers captured the last known California condors in the wild to put them into breeding programs. Today the population of California condors has grown to two hundred forty-five. That was the number as of last month. The San Diego Wild Animal Park raised almost half of them. Many of the condors have been released into the wild. They live not just in California but also in parts of Arizona and Mexico. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some people believe it is cruel to keep animals in zoos. They say most of the animals in zoos are not endangered. So they question the need for programs to breed these animals in captivity. Critics argue that animals can suffer in zoos. And, in some cases, zoos agree. A number of American zoos have stopped showing elephants. These huge animals need lots of space, a mild climate and other elephants to live with. VOICE ONE: US National Zoo photoWanda and Winky are two Asian elephants that have lived for years at the Detroit Zoo in Michigan. Wanda is about forty-five years old. She has arthritis. Her joints hurt when she moves. Winky is over fifty. She has foot problems. The zoo director, Ron Kagan, decided that half a hectare of living space was much too small for them. He also decided that winters in Detroit are too cold for elephants. So zoo officials prepared to move Wanda and Winky to a wild animal refuge in California. VOICE TWO: But problems developed with that plan. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association said the elephants would have go to the zoo in Columbus, Ohio. There would be less distance to travel. And the group said Wanda and Winky would receive excellent care at one of the largest elephant exhibits of any American zoo. But people in Detroit who care about Wanda and Winky protested. They argued that Columbus also has cold winters and that space at the zoo was also limited. In the end, an examination of Wanda settled the issue. Doctors found a virus. This virus does not harm Wanda, but it could have killed young elephants at the Columbus Zoo. So officials there said no to the move. VOICE ONE: Now the American Zoo and Aquarium Association says Wanda and Winky can move to California, as soon as the weather permits. Their retirement home will be a refuge east of San Francisco. The Performing Animal Welfare Society has more than forty hectares of land for elephants to do whatever they like to do. So it appears that the story of Wanda and Winky will have a happy ending, after all. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. And I’m Steve Ember. The third Monday in February is a national holiday, Presidents' Day. That means most children get the day off from school. And that means last Monday a lot of parents probably heard this question: VOICE ONE: "Can we go to the zoo? Huh, can we? Can we please?!" VOICE TWO: Well, today WE go to the zoo, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for a look at the subject of wild-animal care in the United States. VOICE ONE: The population at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in the nation’s capital has grown recently. Four baby cheetahs are among the newcomers. Cheetahs are big African cats known for their speed. They have yellow fur and dark spots. These are the first cheetahs born in the one-hundred-fifteen-year history of the National Zoo. A four-year-old cheetah named Tumai gave birth to the cubs on November twenty-third. Their father, Amadi, died in December from kidney disease. VOICE TWO: The baby cheetahs are two males and two females. Each weighed less than two kilograms at birth. Their caretakers needed a way to be sure which cheetah is which. So they cut a small amount of fur from a different place on each one. The young cheetahs have begun eating meat. But they are also still nursing from their mother. When they are big enough, the cheetahs will join other big cats in the African Savanna at the National Zoo. The savanna is a grassy area designed to copy conditions in the wild. VOICE ONE: Sumatran tiger cubsPhoto: US National ZooThree Sumatran tigers were born at the zoo in May of two thousand four. These three males now weigh about forty-five kilograms each. Another young animal growing quickly at the National Zoo is a male elephant named Kandula. He weighed about one hundred forty-seven kilograms at birth. His mother is Shanthi. Shanthi is among the last zoo elephants born in the wild. The children of Sri Lanka gave her to the National Zoo as a gift almost thirty years ago. Kandula is a little more than three years old. He was born in November of two thousand one. VOICE TWO: Many people come to the National Zoo to see Kandula. Crowds also gather to see the two giant pandas from China. Tian Tian is the male and Mei Xiang is the female. These big, furry black-and-white creatures roll around in the grass. They play. They climb trees. They eat bamboo. All they watch the people watching them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Pandas Tian Tian and Mei Xiang at the National ZooUS National zoo photo The zoo is paying to have the pandas on loan from China for ten years. They arrived in two thousand to replace two pandas that died. Giant pandas come from the mountains of central China. They are very rare. A number of pandas have been born in China recently. If Tian Tian and Mei Xiang have a baby, it would also be an important addition. VOICE TWO: The National Zoo has about three thousand animals. They represent more than four hundred species. They live on sixty-six hectares of land in Washington, D.C. People do not have to pay to enter the National Zoo. Most of its money is from the federal government. Supporters known as "Friends of the National Zoo" also give money. Congress created the zoo in eighteen eighty-nine. The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian operates a large system of museums. VOICE ONE: Millions of people visit the National Zoo in Washington. Over the years, it has been praised as one of the best in the United States. But in two thousand three, Congress ordered an investigation of the zoo after several animals died. An independent committee from the National Academy of Sciences examined records at the zoo. The committee reported that most of the animals whose records it studied received satisfactory care. However, the committee also said that the zoo must improve its training of employees. In addition, it reported that aging equipment and structures must be repaired or replaced. Zoo director Lucy Spelman resigned in February of two thousand four. Last month, a report from the National Research Council noted some improvements at the National Zoo over the last year. But it said more work is needed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: America’s first zoo opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in eighteen fifty-nine. Each year about fifty million people visit zoos in the United States. In the past, zoos kept animals in small cages. There was nothing but the animal, its food and its waste. The Bronx Zoo in New York City led the way to better conditions. It designed exhibits to provide more freedom. The idea to create settings more like nature spread to other zoos. VOICE ONE: One of the leading American zoos is in San Diego, California. The San Diego Zoological Society operates the zoo. It also operates the San Diego Wild Animal Park. More than two thousand animals live on about eight hundred hectares at the Wild Animal Park. Visitors learn about efforts to save and protect rare animals like the California condor. This bird measures three meters across with its wings spread. In nineteen eighty-seven, researchers captured the last known California condors in the wild to put them into breeding programs. Today the population of California condors has grown to two hundred forty-five. That was the number as of last month. The San Diego Wild Animal Park raised almost half of them. Many of the condors have been released into the wild. They live not just in California but also in parts of Arizona and Mexico. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some people believe it is cruel to keep animals in zoos. They say most of the animals in zoos are not endangered. So they question the need for programs to breed these animals in captivity. Critics argue that animals can suffer in zoos. And, in some cases, zoos agree. A number of American zoos have stopped showing elephants. These huge animals need lots of space, a mild climate and other elephants to live with. VOICE ONE: US National Zoo photoWanda and Winky are two Asian elephants that have lived for years at the Detroit Zoo in Michigan. Wanda is about forty-five years old. She has arthritis. Her joints hurt when she moves. Winky is over fifty. She has foot problems. The zoo director, Ron Kagan, decided that half a hectare of living space was much too small for them. He also decided that winters in Detroit are too cold for elephants. So zoo officials prepared to move Wanda and Winky to a wild animal refuge in California. VOICE TWO: But problems developed with that plan. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association said the elephants would have go to the zoo in Columbus, Ohio. There would be less distance to travel. And the group said Wanda and Winky would receive excellent care at one of the largest elephant exhibits of any American zoo. But people in Detroit who care about Wanda and Winky protested. They argued that Columbus also has cold winters and that space at the zoo was also limited. In the end, an examination of Wanda settled the issue. Doctors found a virus. This virus does not harm Wanda, but it could have killed young elephants at the Columbus Zoo. So officials there said no to the move. VOICE ONE: Now the American Zoo and Aquarium Association says Wanda and Winky can move to California, as soon as the weather permits. Their retirement home will be a refuge east of San Francisco. The Performing Animal Welfare Society has more than forty hectares of land for elephants to do whatever they like to do. So it appears that the story of Wanda and Winky will have a happy ending, after all. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-02/a-2005-02-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Annan Seeks New Head of U.N. Refugee Agency
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he will act quickly to seek a new U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Ruud Lubbers resigned last week. A woman said Mister Lubbers had touched her sexually. News reports identify her as an American U.N. employee in Geneva. On February eighteenth, the British newspaper The Independent published statements from four other women. They too accused him of sexual harassment, but did not make official cases. Mister Lubbers denies any wrongdoing. In his resignation letter, the former Dutch prime minister said he felt insulted. He suggested that media pressure and problems facing the U.N. had caused Mister Annan to see things differently now. The secretary-general had decided not to take action last summer after a U.N. investigation. He says he had received legal advice that the accusations could not be proven. Mister Annan now says the continuing dispute had "made the high commissioner's position impossible." But he says his acceptance of the resignation does not mean that Mister Lubbers is guilty. Mister Lubbers completed more than four years of a five-year term as head of the refugee agency. Mister Annan recently appointed Mark Malloch Brown as his top aide. Mister Malloch Brown headed the U.N. Development Program. The new chief of staff is seen as more aggressive than Mister Annan. U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press that he was the one who first informed Ruud Lubbers that Mister Annan wanted him to leave. The United Nations has struggled recently to improve its public image. The U.N. has been criticized for failing to supervise the oil-for-food program in Iraq. And U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of sex crimes against Congolese women and children. Last week, writing in the Wall Street Journal, the secretary-general argued that the U.N. remains important to humanity. He offered examples of efforts to help people around the world. One was the U.N. reaction to the tragedy from the tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December. World leaders are to consider reforms for the United Nations when they meet in New York in September. Mister Annan says he will have proposals for, in his words, "making the U.N. work better, and the world fairer and safer." This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: New Warnings About Avian Flu / U.S., Germany to Cooperate on Cleaner Energy Technologies / 60 Nations Agree to Link Earth Observation Systems
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Coming up: new warnings about bird flu ... VOICE ONE: An Earth observation system moves a step closer... VOICE TWO: And, President Bush says it is time to move forward after the dispute over the Kyoto Protocol. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health officials continue to warn people about the threat from avian influenza. One of the most recent warnings came from Doctor Shigeru Omi. He is the Western Pacific director of the World Health Organization. He spoke in Vietnam, where experts held an international conference last week on bird flu. Doctor Omi said the W.H.O. believes that the world is now in the greatest possible danger of a pandemic. A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a disease. Pandemics of influenza generally happen every twenty to thirty years. Doctor Omi noted that the world has gone almost forty years since the last one. VOICE TWO: World health officials are calling on governments to do more to control the spread of the bird flu virus in Asia. But the officials say it will be difficult to change old farming traditions. Chickens and ducks are permitted to move around freely and live close to people. This makes it easier for the virus to spread to humans. And there have already been limited reports of cases where the virus spread from one person to another. Doctor Omi said the virus h-five-n-one has become more deadly since it first appeared in Hong Kong in nineteen ninety-seven. He says the longer that the virus is in animals, the higher the risk of human cases. And that means the higher the risk of genetic changes in the virus to cause a pandemic. VOICE ONE: The director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had a similar warning last week. Doctor Julie Gerberding said her agency is preparing in case of a flu pandemic next year. She spoke in Washington, D.C., at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The bird flu virus has killed at least forty-five people in Asia in the past year. Doctor Gerberding says almost three out of four people known to have gotten sick have died. The virus is a member of a family of viruses called h-one. Doctor Gerberding said that each time a new kind of h-one virus has appeared, there has been a pandemic of influenza. The most recent h-one pandemic was in nineteen eighteen. The so-called Spanish flu killed an estimated twenty million to fifty million people. Doctor Gerberding says the situation now is probably similar to what happened before that outbreak. VOICE TWO: There are other warning signs. Scientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands reported in September that the bird flu virus can infect house cats. These animals were thought to be resistant to influenza. Yet during an experiment, the scientists say, the infected cats then spread the virus to other cats. The findings suggest that cats could possibly also spread the virus to humans. Science magazine published the report. And, last month, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report on the deaths of a young brother and sister in Vietnam. Both children had been very sick, but neither had a breathing infection. Such an infection is considered a usual sign of avian influenza. Yet researchers found the virus in the four-year-old boy. They believe his nine-year-old sister died of the same disease, although they could not do tests to confirm it. In the words of Doctor Jeremy Farrar at the Center for Tropical Medicine, part of Oxford University in England: "These cases suggest that the spread of avian influenza could have been underestimated." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. Last week President Bush visited Europe. One of the issues discussed was the Kyoto Protocol which took effect on February sixteenth. There is strong support in Europe for that treaty. It calls for thirty-five industrial nations to reduce the levels of six gases released into the air. These gases are produced by burning fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Scientists say carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" trap heat in the atmosphere. Most scientists believe that this is largely responsible for increased temperatures on Earth. VOICE TWO: One hundred forty-one countries have joined in the Kyoto Protocol. But developing nations will not have to meet the requirements. The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol in nineteen ninety-eight. The Senate never approved it. And President Bush rejected the treaty in March of two thousand one. He says it is unfair not to require big developing nations like India and China to also meet the requirements. And he says the treaty would not help the environment enough to balance the damage it would do to the United States economy. Mister Bush restated his opposition during a speech in Brussels on his first full day in Europe. But he also said that all sides have expressed their opinions on the Kyoto Protocol. "Now," he said, "we must work together on the way forward." Mister Bush suggested that new, cleaner technologies could support economic growth and be environmentally responsible. He noted hydrogen-powered cars as one example. VOICE ONE: President Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard SchroederIn Germany, the president met with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. They noted their differences over the Kyoto Protocol. But they promised to cooperate with what the German leader called "the reduction of problems in this area." Mister Schroeder said there is room for cooperation especially in the area of technology. Mister Bush said the two countries would also share their technology with developing countries like China and India. The United States and Germany released a five-point plan for joint actions on cleaner energy, development and climate change. It calls for increased efforts to improve energy security and reduce pollution and greenhouse gases, while supporting strong economic growth. VOICE TWO: The United States produces twenty-five percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Now, more than one hundred fifty American cities have joined an effort to reduce these gases. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives has organized this effort. Outreach director Susan Ode says the first step is to decide on a target level to reduce emissions. Then cities carry out projects to reach those goals. They might start, for example, with cleaner-burning fuels in city-owned vehicles. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost sixty countries and the European Commission have approved a plan to create the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. One major purpose is to get earlier warnings of severe weather and other natural events. International organizations are also supporting this American-led plan. Delegates agreed to it on February sixteenth in Brussels during the Third Earth Observation Summit. The United States, Japan, the European Union and South Africa organized the conference. VOICE TWO: Many systems on land, in space and in the ocean observe the environment. But most of them do not "talk" to each other. The plan is to link existing systems worldwide. This is expected to take ten years. Scientists say the "system of systems" will provide information about winter weather, for example, months before winter. It could also show where shortages of rain are most likely. Farmers could gain information about water resources. Scientists could better observe forest fires and air pollution. Experts say the system may increase understanding of climate change. It could also help identify areas where diseases like malaria are likely to spread. And it might give early warning of events like tsunami. VOICE ONE: The first Earth Observation Summit took place in Washington in two thousand three. Since then, more countries have joined the plan. Interest has grown since the earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. And I'm Bob Doughty. Coming up: new warnings about bird flu ... VOICE ONE: An Earth observation system moves a step closer... VOICE TWO: And, President Bush says it is time to move forward after the dispute over the Kyoto Protocol. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health officials continue to warn people about the threat from avian influenza. One of the most recent warnings came from Doctor Shigeru Omi. He is the Western Pacific director of the World Health Organization. He spoke in Vietnam, where experts held an international conference last week on bird flu. Doctor Omi said the W.H.O. believes that the world is now in the greatest possible danger of a pandemic. A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a disease. Pandemics of influenza generally happen every twenty to thirty years. Doctor Omi noted that the world has gone almost forty years since the last one. VOICE TWO: World health officials are calling on governments to do more to control the spread of the bird flu virus in Asia. But the officials say it will be difficult to change old farming traditions. Chickens and ducks are permitted to move around freely and live close to people. This makes it easier for the virus to spread to humans. And there have already been limited reports of cases where the virus spread from one person to another. Doctor Omi said the virus h-five-n-one has become more deadly since it first appeared in Hong Kong in nineteen ninety-seven. He says the longer that the virus is in animals, the higher the risk of human cases. And that means the higher the risk of genetic changes in the virus to cause a pandemic. VOICE ONE: The director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had a similar warning last week. Doctor Julie Gerberding said her agency is preparing in case of a flu pandemic next year. She spoke in Washington, D.C., at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The bird flu virus has killed at least forty-five people in Asia in the past year. Doctor Gerberding says almost three out of four people known to have gotten sick have died. The virus is a member of a family of viruses called h-one. Doctor Gerberding said that each time a new kind of h-one virus has appeared, there has been a pandemic of influenza. The most recent h-one pandemic was in nineteen eighteen. The so-called Spanish flu killed an estimated twenty million to fifty million people. Doctor Gerberding says the situation now is probably similar to what happened before that outbreak. VOICE TWO: There are other warning signs. Scientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands reported in September that the bird flu virus can infect house cats. These animals were thought to be resistant to influenza. Yet during an experiment, the scientists say, the infected cats then spread the virus to other cats. The findings suggest that cats could possibly also spread the virus to humans. Science magazine published the report. And, last month, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report on the deaths of a young brother and sister in Vietnam. Both children had been very sick, but neither had a breathing infection. Such an infection is considered a usual sign of avian influenza. Yet researchers found the virus in the four-year-old boy. They believe his nine-year-old sister died of the same disease, although they could not do tests to confirm it. In the words of Doctor Jeremy Farrar at the Center for Tropical Medicine, part of Oxford University in England: "These cases suggest that the spread of avian influenza could have been underestimated." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. Last week President Bush visited Europe. One of the issues discussed was the Kyoto Protocol which took effect on February sixteenth. There is strong support in Europe for that treaty. It calls for thirty-five industrial nations to reduce the levels of six gases released into the air. These gases are produced by burning fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. Scientists say carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" trap heat in the atmosphere. Most scientists believe that this is largely responsible for increased temperatures on Earth. VOICE TWO: One hundred forty-one countries have joined in the Kyoto Protocol. But developing nations will not have to meet the requirements. The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol in nineteen ninety-eight. The Senate never approved it. And President Bush rejected the treaty in March of two thousand one. He says it is unfair not to require big developing nations like India and China to also meet the requirements. And he says the treaty would not help the environment enough to balance the damage it would do to the United States economy. Mister Bush restated his opposition during a speech in Brussels on his first full day in Europe. But he also said that all sides have expressed their opinions on the Kyoto Protocol. "Now," he said, "we must work together on the way forward." Mister Bush suggested that new, cleaner technologies could support economic growth and be environmentally responsible. He noted hydrogen-powered cars as one example. VOICE ONE: President Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard SchroederIn Germany, the president met with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. They noted their differences over the Kyoto Protocol. But they promised to cooperate with what the German leader called "the reduction of problems in this area." Mister Schroeder said there is room for cooperation especially in the area of technology. Mister Bush said the two countries would also share their technology with developing countries like China and India. The United States and Germany released a five-point plan for joint actions on cleaner energy, development and climate change. It calls for increased efforts to improve energy security and reduce pollution and greenhouse gases, while supporting strong economic growth. VOICE TWO: The United States produces twenty-five percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Now, more than one hundred fifty American cities have joined an effort to reduce these gases. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives has organized this effort. Outreach director Susan Ode says the first step is to decide on a target level to reduce emissions. Then cities carry out projects to reach those goals. They might start, for example, with cleaner-burning fuels in city-owned vehicles. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost sixty countries and the European Commission have approved a plan to create the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. One major purpose is to get earlier warnings of severe weather and other natural events. International organizations are also supporting this American-led plan. Delegates agreed to it on February sixteenth in Brussels during the Third Earth Observation Summit. The United States, Japan, the European Union and South Africa organized the conference. VOICE TWO: Many systems on land, in space and in the ocean observe the environment. But most of them do not "talk" to each other. The plan is to link existing systems worldwide. This is expected to take ten years. Scientists say the "system of systems" will provide information about winter weather, for example, months before winter. It could also show where shortages of rain are most likely. Farmers could gain information about water resources. Scientists could better observe forest fires and air pollution. Experts say the system may increase understanding of climate change. It could also help identify areas where diseases like malaria are likely to spread. And it might give early warning of events like tsunami. VOICE ONE: The first Earth Observation Summit took place in Washington in two thousand three. Since then, more countries have joined the plan. Interest has grown since the earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Solar Food Dryers
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Drying food is a simple, low-cost way to keep food safe for eating. Drying removes water that small organisms use to break down food into other substances. Some of these substances may be poisonous to humans. A device that uses the sun is a good way to dry food. There are several kinds of solar dryers. The easiest to build is called the direct dryer. The sun shines directly on the food being dried. The direct dryer is a box with holes in it so that air can enter and leave the box. It has a cover made of clear glass or plastic. When the sun shines into the box, heat is produced. The heat is trapped inside the box and cannot escape back through the cover. The heat dries the food. The solar dryer works better if the sides of the box are black. This is because dark colors hold heat while light colors reflect it. One way to make the sides black is to use wood that has been blackened by fire. If you use black paint instead, be sure the paint contains no lead. Lead is poisonous to people, especially children. The box can be made of almost any material such as wood, concrete or sheet metal. The dryer should be two meters long, one meter wide and twenty-three to thirty centimeters deep. The sides and bottom should have additional material, called insulation, to keep the heat from escaping. The surface on which the food is placed should permit air to enter from below and pass through to the food. A surface made of wires with small square openings works very well. You should use wire with the largest openings or squares that do not allow the food to fall through. Air that comes in from below the wire surface will also carry away water evaporated from the food as it dries. A direct dryer will dry most vegetables in two-and-one-half to four hours at temperatures from forty-three to sixty-three degrees Celsius. Fruits take longer, from four to six hours at the same temperatures. Solar food drying is fast, safe and low-cost. It is also healthy because nutrients such as vitamin C are kept in the food. Solar dried food also tastes and looks good. You can get more information about solar food dryers from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. (vita.org.) This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 2, 2005 - Linguistic Profiling
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguistic profiling. WALT WOLFRAM: "What I mean by linguistic profiling is to hear a voice and on the basis of that voice make a judgment about that person which would sort of rate them or exclude them or in some sense not treat them fairly." RS: Linguist Walt Wolfram at North Carolina State University says this sort of thing happens all the time. For example, he notes that Americans tend to think of people from New York City and the South as sounding less educated than others. Unless you ask a New Yorker or a Southerner, that is. AA: Lately, Professor Wolfram has been working on a series of television documentaries. The aim is to help take some of the social stigma out of language differences in America. WALT WOLFRAM: "What's taught in terms of the English language is always going to be taught in some sort of dialect framework. So for example, where is there no dialect of English? The Midwest certainly has a dialect. I may not be as salient as Southern dialect, but it's still dialect. "So it's actually, although most learners of English as a second language aren't aware of this, it's virtually impossible to learn English without learning some dialect of English." AA: "Well, I'm curious what you think of this fairly recent development of American companies putting call centers in India, using Indian workers to answer technical questions, and computer support and so forth. And the workers are being taught American English, they're being shown American programs. In some cases they're supposed to tell customers that they're actually in the United States. And I guess there's been some anger at outsourcing or offshoring of jobs, but what do you think about this, and ... " WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, I mean that's a perfect example of linguistic profiling, in a sense. So, for example, if an American calls up and they hear an Indian accent, you know, even though the speaker may have been a native speaker of English, which is often the case, there's a certain kind of prejudice that they have. "What we're trying to do in our series of documentaries is to show the American public, and particularly in the state of North Carolina where most of them have aired, what we're trying to do is show them how linked language is with cultural background, how natural language differences are as a part of different cultural experiences, and how this is something that should be accepted -- and in fact embraced -- as a part of cultural heritage, rather than rejected as not standard English and therefore not worthy for mainstream uses. "So, for example, we've done documentaries on mountain speech; we've done documentaries on Outer Banks speech, you know, coastal speech; we've done documentaries of sort of the whole state of North Carolina, showing African American dialects and so forth. And the point of our documentaries is to counter some of the illegitimate feelings and reactions that people have to these varieties when they hear them." AA: "And what's been the reaction to programs that take that position?" WALT WOLFRAM: "So far the reaction has been very positive. I mean, we've gotten very few complaints that our programs are trying to simply encourage bad speech." RS: "Now, are these programs being used in the public schools?" WALT WOLFRAM: "Yes, actually we have an experimental program in middle schools where we use vignettes from these programs to educate students about language differences as a part of cultural differences." RS: "And how are the kids responding?" WALT WOLFRAM: "The kids love it. The fact of the matter is, people find language differences intriguing. They don't always view them fairly. But they sort of stop and listen and people speak differently. And if you can sort of take that plum and dangle it before kids and then run with it, they find it really an engaging activity." AA: Walt Wolfram is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the English Department at North Carolina State University. His accent, in case you're wondering, is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can download all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The English Language"/Winston Slade (Southern country singer) 1997 I've searched the dictionary, every page in my thesaurus Trying to find the words to fit into this chorus And I can say I love but I want to say so much more I don't think the English language has the words I'm looking for So I go oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee ooo-ee ooo-ee ooo Aa-aa baby, I've got it bad for you Oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee ooo-ee ooo-ee ooo And that's about as close as words can come AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguistic profiling. WALT WOLFRAM: "What I mean by linguistic profiling is to hear a voice and on the basis of that voice make a judgment about that person which would sort of rate them or exclude them or in some sense not treat them fairly." RS: Linguist Walt Wolfram at North Carolina State University says this sort of thing happens all the time. For example, he notes that Americans tend to think of people from New York City and the South as sounding less educated than others. Unless you ask a New Yorker or a Southerner, that is. AA: Lately, Professor Wolfram has been working on a series of television documentaries. The aim is to help take some of the social stigma out of language differences in America. WALT WOLFRAM: "What's taught in terms of the English language is always going to be taught in some sort of dialect framework. So for example, where is there no dialect of English? The Midwest certainly has a dialect. I may not be as salient as Southern dialect, but it's still dialect. "So it's actually, although most learners of English as a second language aren't aware of this, it's virtually impossible to learn English without learning some dialect of English." AA: "Well, I'm curious what you think of this fairly recent development of American companies putting call centers in India, using Indian workers to answer technical questions, and computer support and so forth. And the workers are being taught American English, they're being shown American programs. In some cases they're supposed to tell customers that they're actually in the United States. And I guess there's been some anger at outsourcing or offshoring of jobs, but what do you think about this, and ... " WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, I mean that's a perfect example of linguistic profiling, in a sense. So, for example, if an American calls up and they hear an Indian accent, you know, even though the speaker may have been a native speaker of English, which is often the case, there's a certain kind of prejudice that they have. "What we're trying to do in our series of documentaries is to show the American public, and particularly in the state of North Carolina where most of them have aired, what we're trying to do is show them how linked language is with cultural background, how natural language differences are as a part of different cultural experiences, and how this is something that should be accepted -- and in fact embraced -- as a part of cultural heritage, rather than rejected as not standard English and therefore not worthy for mainstream uses. "So, for example, we've done documentaries on mountain speech; we've done documentaries on Outer Banks speech, you know, coastal speech; we've done documentaries of sort of the whole state of North Carolina, showing African American dialects and so forth. And the point of our documentaries is to counter some of the illegitimate feelings and reactions that people have to these varieties when they hear them." AA: "And what's been the reaction to programs that take that position?" WALT WOLFRAM: "So far the reaction has been very positive. I mean, we've gotten very few complaints that our programs are trying to simply encourage bad speech." RS: "Now, are these programs being used in the public schools?" WALT WOLFRAM: "Yes, actually we have an experimental program in middle schools where we use vignettes from these programs to educate students about language differences as a part of cultural differences." RS: "And how are the kids responding?" WALT WOLFRAM: "The kids love it. The fact of the matter is, people find language differences intriguing. They don't always view them fairly. But they sort of stop and listen and people speak differently. And if you can sort of take that plum and dangle it before kids and then run with it, they find it really an engaging activity." AA: Walt Wolfram is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the English Department at North Carolina State University. His accent, in case you're wondering, is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can download all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The English Language"/Winston Slade (Southern country singer) 1997 I've searched the dictionary, every page in my thesaurus Trying to find the words to fit into this chorus And I can say I love but I want to say so much more I don't think the English language has the words I'm looking for So I go oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee ooo-ee ooo-ee ooo Aa-aa baby, I've got it bad for you Oh-ee oh-ee oh-ee ooo-ee ooo-ee ooo And that's about as close as words can come 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-01-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Putin Meets with Bush
* Byline: 

 TORONTO (AP) -- Internet sales of prescription drugs to U.S. consumers could be banned by Canada if a proposal being drafted by health officials is approved. The changes would essentially kill a $700 million industry that has become increasingly popular with underinsured patients in search of cheaper medicine. The issue has become touchy politically for President Bush, whose administration has argued that reimporting U.S.-made drugs from Canada would put consumers at risk because U.S. regulators could not guarantee their safety. The pharmaceutical industry, which donated heavily to Bush's re-election campaign, vehemently opposes reimporting drugs, a practice that undercuts their U.S. sales. Representatives of both the U.S. and Canadian governments say Bush discussed the issue with Prime Minister Paul Martin when he visited in the fall, sparking accusations Bush pressured Martin to change Canadian policy -- an accusation the White House denies. As part of its socialized medical system, the Canadian government sets drug prices substantially lower than those charged in the United States, though the savings from Canadian Internet purchases are eroding. For example, the price on 100 pills of 20 milligrams of Lipitor in Canada rose 26 percent to $201.01 last year. The U.S. price was essentially flat at $290.34. Under current practice, a prescription from a U.S. doctor is faxed to a Canadian doctor who reviews the patient's health history. The Canadian doctor then signs and faxes the prescription to a so-called Internet pharmacy, which ships the drug. Canadian officials say such sales endanger the Canadian drug supply, though they admit no shortages exist. The government also maintains it is unethical for doctors to sign prescriptions without examining patients. The three-pronged measure being considered by Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh would prevent Canadian doctors from co-signing prescriptions for U.S. patients without examining them in person, spokesman Ken Polk said by telephone from India. It also would prohibit prescriptions for foreigners who are not present in Canada and create a list banning certain drugs that are widely used by Canadians from being exported, Polk told The Associated Press. Existing Canadian law says Canadian doctors must "attend upon" a patient when co-signing a prescription. "We may need to make that language more explicit," Polk said. A proposal was expected to be presented to Martin's cabinet by the end of the month, Polk said, although Asian tsunami aid efforts were diverting government resources. New legislation, but not changes to existing regulations, would require support from opposition parties as well as Martin's minority government to pass. It was not clear if a ban on co-signing prescriptions could be accomplished by just changing regulations. Despite the Bush administration's support for a ban, importing cheaper drugs from Canada is popular with U.S. lawmakers. The House already has passed a bill allowing reimportation once, and lawmakers in both parties say it would pass the Senate if Republican leaders would allow it to come up for vote. If legislation allowing reimportation were approved by Congress, Bush could face a difficult decision over to whether to sign the bill. While reimporting drugs is technically illegal, laws are not enforced. Ten million illegal shipments of prescription drugs worth $1.4 billion entered the United States in 2003, about half of them from Canada. About 1.5 to 2 million prescriptions are filled in Canada each year using this method. The issue is particularly sensitive for lawmakers representing northern U.S. states, where consumers sometimes travel to Canada to purchase cheaper drugs. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Koshland Science Museum
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a new effort to help the public understand science. VOICE ONE: “New tools help us see deeper into the nature of things. New discoveries lie before us.” These words help explain the purpose of the new Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum is designed to help the public understand new scientific tools and discoveries. The museum is small and different. It is created for people aged thirteen and older. It uses modern technology to explain some complex science issues to the public. The exhibits explore the links between scientific research and everyday life. VOICE TWO: Koshland Science MuseumThe museum opened in April, two thousand four. It is part of the National Academy of Sciences, a private, non-profit organization. In eighteen sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln signed a congressional charter making the National Academy of Sciences an independent adviser to the federal government. Today it is one of four organizations that advise the nation on issues of science, engineering and medicine. They publish more than two hundred research studies each year for policy makers and citizens. The exhibits in the new science museum are based on these research reports. The museum is named for a female scientist, Marian Koshland, who had been a member of the National Academy of Sciences for many years. VOICE ONE: Erika Shugart (SHOE-gart) is deputy director of the Marian Koshland Science Museum. She says the idea of a new museum began with Daniel Koshland, a well-known biochemist. He wanted to honor his wife who died in nineteen ninety-seven. Marian Koshland was molecular biologist and immunologist who had made important discoveries. She also was known for wanting to get young people interested in science. And she felt it was important to increase public understanding of science. Miz Shugart says that about six years ago, Mister Koshland offered to give money to the National Academy of Sciences to support a project that would honor his wife. Many ideas were discussed. Mister Koshland liked the idea of creating a new science museum. He and other members of the National Academy of Sciences looked at a number of science museums. They decided there was a need for a museum to present the latest scientific theories that are related to daily life. VOICE TWO: Miz Shugart says four goals were important in planning the Marian Koshland Science Museum. One was that the exhibits in the museum be based on research reports released by the National Academies. The museum creators also felt that any science issue being presented should be important now and for the future. Another goal is that the subject of the exhibit be one that people disagree about in some way. And the museum planners wanted each exhibit to be based on scientific information that could be presented by modern technology in such a way that visitors have fun while learning. So the new museum contains a lot of factual information presented in a bright, interactive way. There are films, games and video displays that are fun to use. VOICE ONE: The museum space is divided into three areas. Visitors first see a film that explores the “Wonders of Science”. It shows some of the research that scientists are doing to unlock the mysteries of the universe. The film shows scientists using telescopes to look deep in the universe beyond our world. They use microscopes to look deep into the smallest particles in our world. These tools helped scientists discover that the same rules that govern the structure and movements of atoms and plants also govern the structure and movements of stars and galaxies. Nearby are areas where visitors can explore subjects in the film such as dark matter, dark energy and the shared properties of all things. Visitors can compare satellite images of the Earth’s lights taken at night in nineteen ninety-three and in two thousand. Many areas of the world are more brightly lit in the more recent images because of an increase in economic activity and energy use. There is also a difference in lights at night in North Korea and South Korea. And the lights increase in an area of the world such as Ukraine whose economy grew in the seven years after the first images were taken. VOICE TWO: The second exhibit area in the new science museum is “Global Warming Facts and Our Future.” Visitors can find out facts about climate change including its natural and human causes. They also can see the possible future effects of global warming. A large real-looking copy of a cow named Bessy is part of the exhibit. Cows eat a lot of grass and release a lot of methane gas. Scientists say methane is one of the biggest causes of the warming of the atmosphere. Nearby, a large wall display describes other causes of climate change. These include natural ones such as volcanoes and the activity of the sun. And there are human causes such as the burning of coal, gas and oil. VOICE ONE: One part of the exhibit shows changes in temperature around the world during the last century. A large map lets visitors find out how the temperature changed in any area of the world. They can examine the tools scientists use to find recent and prehistoric changes in climate – including samples from trees, dirt, ice and coral. Visitors can see how global warming affects different areas of the world. One possible result is a rise in sea levels because of melting ice. Scientists say it is possible that the sea level could rise from five centimeters to almost a meter in about one hundred years. The exhibit shows possible effects of the resulting flooding on agriculture, animals and plants, water supply, human health and traditional cultures. VOICE TWO: The third exhibit in the new Marian Koshland Science Museum is “Putting DNA to Work”. It shows ways that DNA, the genetic material of organisms, is being used today. Computer devices let visitors investigate how diseases are identified. These programs show how DNA research is helping protect public health by letting scientists quickly identify the virus responsible for a new disease. In two thousand three, scientists used a new scientific tool called a microarray to identify the virus family to which SARS belongs. They identified the virus family in just twenty-four hours. Visitors also can learn how DNA information is used in criminal cases. For example, law enforcement agents use a system named CODIS to solve crimes. CODIS is the Combined DNA Index System. It is used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. CODIS is based on the series of DNA markers in thirteen places in the human genome, the map of the gene system in humans. It is used to prove if a suspect in a crime is guilty or innocent. A visitor to the museum exhibit can compare DNA from three suspects of a crime to a DNA sample found where the crime took place. For two of the suspects, some of the series of DNA markers are the same as in the DNA sample found at the crime. For one suspect, the guilty one, all the DNA series are the same. Scientists say it is almost impossible that two different people would have the same DNA series in all thirteen places used in CODIS. VOICE ONE: The deputy director of the museum, Erika Shugart, says that visitors seem to have a rich experience even though the museum space is small. Many visitors praise the efforts of the Marian Koshland Science Museum to make science exciting and to show how science is related to daily life. The museum also offers a number of public programs. One popular program is a scientific wine tasting where a climate expert explains how climate affects the taste of different wines. The museum offers special visits for school groups of older students. Material on the museum’s Web site helps students prepare for their visit and to continue learning about the subjects in the exhibits. People who cannot visit the real museum can experience it on the Internet. The museum’s exhibits and links to other science Web sites can be found at koshlandscience.org. That is k-o-s-h-l-a-n-d-s-c-i-e-n-c-e dot o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and directed by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a new effort to help the public understand science. VOICE ONE: “New tools help us see deeper into the nature of things. New discoveries lie before us.” These words help explain the purpose of the new Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum is designed to help the public understand new scientific tools and discoveries. The museum is small and different. It is created for people aged thirteen and older. It uses modern technology to explain some complex science issues to the public. The exhibits explore the links between scientific research and everyday life. VOICE TWO: Koshland Science MuseumThe museum opened in April, two thousand four. It is part of the National Academy of Sciences, a private, non-profit organization. In eighteen sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln signed a congressional charter making the National Academy of Sciences an independent adviser to the federal government. Today it is one of four organizations that advise the nation on issues of science, engineering and medicine. They publish more than two hundred research studies each year for policy makers and citizens. The exhibits in the new science museum are based on these research reports. The museum is named for a female scientist, Marian Koshland, who had been a member of the National Academy of Sciences for many years. VOICE ONE: Erika Shugart (SHOE-gart) is deputy director of the Marian Koshland Science Museum. She says the idea of a new museum began with Daniel Koshland, a well-known biochemist. He wanted to honor his wife who died in nineteen ninety-seven. Marian Koshland was molecular biologist and immunologist who had made important discoveries. She also was known for wanting to get young people interested in science. And she felt it was important to increase public understanding of science. Miz Shugart says that about six years ago, Mister Koshland offered to give money to the National Academy of Sciences to support a project that would honor his wife. Many ideas were discussed. Mister Koshland liked the idea of creating a new science museum. He and other members of the National Academy of Sciences looked at a number of science museums. They decided there was a need for a museum to present the latest scientific theories that are related to daily life. VOICE TWO: Miz Shugart says four goals were important in planning the Marian Koshland Science Museum. One was that the exhibits in the museum be based on research reports released by the National Academies. The museum creators also felt that any science issue being presented should be important now and for the future. Another goal is that the subject of the exhibit be one that people disagree about in some way. And the museum planners wanted each exhibit to be based on scientific information that could be presented by modern technology in such a way that visitors have fun while learning. So the new museum contains a lot of factual information presented in a bright, interactive way. There are films, games and video displays that are fun to use. VOICE ONE: The museum space is divided into three areas. Visitors first see a film that explores the “Wonders of Science”. It shows some of the research that scientists are doing to unlock the mysteries of the universe. The film shows scientists using telescopes to look deep in the universe beyond our world. They use microscopes to look deep into the smallest particles in our world. These tools helped scientists discover that the same rules that govern the structure and movements of atoms and plants also govern the structure and movements of stars and galaxies. Nearby are areas where visitors can explore subjects in the film such as dark matter, dark energy and the shared properties of all things. Visitors can compare satellite images of the Earth’s lights taken at night in nineteen ninety-three and in two thousand. Many areas of the world are more brightly lit in the more recent images because of an increase in economic activity and energy use. There is also a difference in lights at night in North Korea and South Korea. And the lights increase in an area of the world such as Ukraine whose economy grew in the seven years after the first images were taken. VOICE TWO: The second exhibit area in the new science museum is “Global Warming Facts and Our Future.” Visitors can find out facts about climate change including its natural and human causes. They also can see the possible future effects of global warming. A large real-looking copy of a cow named Bessy is part of the exhibit. Cows eat a lot of grass and release a lot of methane gas. Scientists say methane is one of the biggest causes of the warming of the atmosphere. Nearby, a large wall display describes other causes of climate change. These include natural ones such as volcanoes and the activity of the sun. And there are human causes such as the burning of coal, gas and oil. VOICE ONE: One part of the exhibit shows changes in temperature around the world during the last century. A large map lets visitors find out how the temperature changed in any area of the world. They can examine the tools scientists use to find recent and prehistoric changes in climate – including samples from trees, dirt, ice and coral. Visitors can see how global warming affects different areas of the world. One possible result is a rise in sea levels because of melting ice. Scientists say it is possible that the sea level could rise from five centimeters to almost a meter in about one hundred years. The exhibit shows possible effects of the resulting flooding on agriculture, animals and plants, water supply, human health and traditional cultures. VOICE TWO: The third exhibit in the new Marian Koshland Science Museum is “Putting DNA to Work”. It shows ways that DNA, the genetic material of organisms, is being used today. Computer devices let visitors investigate how diseases are identified. These programs show how DNA research is helping protect public health by letting scientists quickly identify the virus responsible for a new disease. In two thousand three, scientists used a new scientific tool called a microarray to identify the virus family to which SARS belongs. They identified the virus family in just twenty-four hours. Visitors also can learn how DNA information is used in criminal cases. For example, law enforcement agents use a system named CODIS to solve crimes. CODIS is the Combined DNA Index System. It is used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. CODIS is based on the series of DNA markers in thirteen places in the human genome, the map of the gene system in humans. It is used to prove if a suspect in a crime is guilty or innocent. A visitor to the museum exhibit can compare DNA from three suspects of a crime to a DNA sample found where the crime took place. For two of the suspects, some of the series of DNA markers are the same as in the DNA sample found at the crime. For one suspect, the guilty one, all the DNA series are the same. Scientists say it is almost impossible that two different people would have the same DNA series in all thirteen places used in CODIS. VOICE ONE: The deputy director of the museum, Erika Shugart, says that visitors seem to have a rich experience even though the museum space is small. Many visitors praise the efforts of the Marian Koshland Science Museum to make science exciting and to show how science is related to daily life. The museum also offers a number of public programs. One popular program is a scientific wine tasting where a climate expert explains how climate affects the taste of different wines. The museum offers special visits for school groups of older students. Material on the museum’s Web site helps students prepare for their visit and to continue learning about the subjects in the exhibits. People who cannot visit the real museum can experience it on the Internet. The museum’s exhibits and links to other science Web sites can be found at koshlandscience.org. That is k-o-s-h-l-a-n-d-s-c-i-e-n-c-e dot o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and directed by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Plague Outbreak in Eastern Congo
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 Broadcast: March 2, 2005 I’m Gwen Outen the VOA Special English Health Report. Plague is an ancient disease that can be treated now with antibacterial medicines. In fact, the World Health Organization says people are usually cured if treated quickly. The W.H.O. had reports of more than two thousand cases of plague in nine countries in two thousand three. Almost all were in Africa. One hundred eighty-two people died. Recently, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there have been cases of a rare form of plague. Reports say at least sixty-one workers at a diamond mine in northeastern Congo have died of pneumonic plague. Other cases have been found in the area around the mine. The total number of cases is not known, but an outbreak of this size is described as unusual. It began in December. Officials say it took about two months to identify the disease. The mine employed seven thousand people in Zobia, in Oriental province. Miners left the town and fled into the forest. Medical teams have gone to look for victims of the outbreak. There are three forms of plague. Bubonic plague is the most common. Bubonic plague killed millions of Europeans in the Middle Ages. It is passed between animals and people by the bite of infected fleas or by handling an infected animal. It causes high body temperature and painful swelling of the lymph glands. Septicemic plague is when the infection spreads directly through the blood system. Pneumonic plague is the least common but most aggressive form. It mainly attacks the lungs. It can be spread by flea bites. But it can also spread through the air through such things as coughing or sneezing. Signs such as high temperature, chills, pain, weakness and vomiting usually appear within a week. Without treatment, death can happen quickly. Alain Decoux is head of operations in the D.R.C. for the international aid group Doctors Without Borders. He says there is a high level of insecurity around Zobia because it is a diamond producing area. He says recent clashes in the area caused the population to flee widely. Just last week, attackers killed nine United Nations peacekeepers from Bangladesh in Ituri province in eastern Congo. Congo had war from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand two. Even now the International Rescue Committee says one thousand people a day die from hunger and disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: The Second Battle at Bull Run
* Byline: 

  (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Abraham LincolnTwo summers had gone by since the start of the American Civil War, and the north had not yet won a major battle in Virginia. The Army of the Potomac -- the strongest of the Union armies -- had tried to seize Richmond, the Confederate capital. General George McClellan moved the army up to the very gates of the city. But then, General Robert E. Lee led his southern forces in a furious attack that smashed McClellan's army and drove him away from Richmond. VOICE TWO: President Abraham Lincoln and his new chief General, Henry Halleck, put together a new northern force. They called it the Army of Virginia. They gave command of it to General John Pope, a successful fighter in the west. Pope began to move south toward Richmond. Halleck ordered McClellan to bring his army up to join Pope. Together, they could smash through the Confederate defenses around Richmond. Lee decided to hit Pope before McClellan could join him. He left a few thousand troops to guard Richmond, then took the rest north. Lee moved up to the Rappahannock River, across from Pope's army. VOICE ONE: Lee sent Stonewall Jackson, with twenty-four-thousand men, on a quick march around the western end of Pope's lines. Jackson and his men marched more than eighty kilometers in two days. They got behind Pope and seized a huge northern supply center at Manassas. Pope moved to smash them. They burned the captured supplies. Then they moved a few kilometers away to a long, low hill just northwest of the Bull Run battleground, where southern forces defeated a northern army a year before. Jackson hid his troops in woods along the hill and waited for General Lee to arrive with the rest of the southern army. VOICE TWO: But before Lee could get there, Union troops -- thousands of them --marched down the road below Jackson. Jackson decided to attack, to hold them there until Lee arrived with help. The fighting was furious. Neither side broke. The fighting died down at the end of the day, and Jackson's men moved back to their positions on higher ground. They made their lines along a partly-built railroad on the side of the hill. VOICE ONE: From his headquarters on the hill, Jackson watched the northern forces prepare for battle. Many thousands of the enemy were marching into position. Pope brought up all his soldiers, and others were on the way from bases near Washington. Several thousand of McClellan's troops, commanded by General Porter, were arriving from the south. It was a mighty force, much larger than Jackson's army. Jackson was worried. He sent an officer back to find General Lee. He sent a message: Lee must hurry. Jackson faced a big army. VOICE TWO: Pope's army was large. But it was poorly organized. The men had been rushed into position. The order to attack was given before all the troops were ready. So, the attack began slowly. And Jackson was able to fight it off. But then, more and more northern soldiers joined the fight. The two sides struggled for hours in the hot summer sun. Jackson's men almost broke. Men prayed for the long day to end. The sun seemed to stand still. VOICE ONE: Finally, the sun went down, and the battlefield became dark. Jackson's men had held, but they paid a terrible price. Thousands were killed or wounded. Northern losses were even greater. Most of the Union troops had fought bravely. They had hit the Confederate lines time after time. But one large group of soldiers did not get into the battle at all that day. This was the group from McClellan's Army of the Potomac, led by Fitz John Porter. Pope had ordered Porter to strike at the right end of Jackson's lines. Porter took his troops several kilometers past Jackson's right...and stopped them. His soldiers remained there all day, out of the battle. Porter said later he believed the Confederate forces were too strong for his men. VOICE TWO: Other groups of McClellan's men were arriving in Alexandria, thirty kilometers to the east. Pope asked that they be sent to help him. McClellan was ordered to send them immediately. But he refused to do so. He said they were not in condition to fight, and he would not send them. General Pope still thought he was facing only Jackson's army. He refused to believe reports that Lee had arrived on the battlefield with thirty-thousand more southern soldiers. Pope thought Lee was still far to the west of Manassas. VOICE ONE: Pope knew that Jackson's army had taken a terrible beating in the two days of bloody fighting. nd he was sure that Jackson would try to withdraw the next day, to retreat to the west. Pope divided his forces that night. He left thousands in place in front of Jackson's lines. The others were moved back. They were ordered to get ready for a march west to block Jackson's retreat. Pope made a terrible mistake. Jackson was not planning to retreat. He was waiting with Lee to smash the northern army. And that is what happened the next day. VOICE TWO: Northern troops attacked Jackson's lines. The fighting was bitter. Pope's forces almost smashed through. But then Lee ordered his men to move forward to help Jackson. Confederate artillery broke up the northern attack. When the northern troops began to retreat, Lee and Jackson attacked with all their might. Many of Pope's men were not prepared for battle. They were standing together in groups, ready for marching. They could not stop the southern attack. The Confederates pushed Pope's army back across the Old Bull Run battlefield. VOICE ONE: Near the end of the day, northern forces succeeded in organizing a stronger defensive line. The southern attack slowed down, then stopped. Lee sent Jackson around the north end of Pope's line to try to stop the northern retreat. Lee did not want the defeated Union army to escape. He wanted to destroy it. But heavy rain held up Jackson's troops. They were discovered and attacked by a strong northern force. Jackson could move no farther. He could not stop Pope's retreat to Centreville and Washington. The northern army escaped. VOICE TWO: But it left behind thousands and thousands of dead and wounded. Confederate doctors treated their own men, then tried to help the wounded soldiers of the other side. General Lee permitted northern medical wagons to return to the battlefield. And they began to carry the wounded back to Centreville. Groups of McClellan's army, arriving from Alexandria, met Pope's men in Centreville. They laughed and shouted at the tired, beaten soldiers. Many said they were glad that Pope had lost. One of McClellan's Generals, Samuel Sturgis, greeted Pope at Centreville: "I always told you, Pope, that if they gave you enough rope, you would hang yourself." VOICE ONE: What happened at Bull Run created bitter anger among the people of the north -- anger against their military leaders. People felt that a year had been wasted...that thousands had died for no real purpose. The year before, southern troops sent a northern army fleeing from Bull Run. Now, it was happening again. The Army of the Potomac was back where it started. As the facts of the battle became known, cries of anger became even louder. The people demanded answers. Why did McClellan and his men move so slowly. Why did they refuse to go to Pope's aid. Why did Pope let Jackson get behind him. Why were fourteen-thousand soldiers lost. VOICE TWO: Most members of Lincoln's cabinet believed McClellan was responsible. Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase said McClellan should be shot. War Secretary Edwin Stanton said he should be dismissed immediately. He and three other cabinet members signed a note demanding that Lincoln remove McClellan as Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln agreed that what McClellan had done was shocking. He said it was clear that McClellan wanted Pope to fail. But Lincoln said he would not remove McClellan. He said he knew that McClellan was not an aggressive general. But he said McClellan was a good organizer who could build the defeated army into a strong force. VOICE ONE: General Robert E. Lee, however, would not wait while McClellan rebuilt the army. He decided to carry the war to the north. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Abraham LincolnTwo summers had gone by since the start of the American Civil War, and the north had not yet won a major battle in Virginia. The Army of the Potomac -- the strongest of the Union armies -- had tried to seize Richmond, the Confederate capital. General George McClellan moved the army up to the very gates of the city. But then, General Robert E. Lee led his southern forces in a furious attack that smashed McClellan's army and drove him away from Richmond. VOICE TWO: President Abraham Lincoln and his new chief General, Henry Halleck, put together a new northern force. They called it the Army of Virginia. They gave command of it to General John Pope, a successful fighter in the west. Pope began to move south toward Richmond. Halleck ordered McClellan to bring his army up to join Pope. Together, they could smash through the Confederate defenses around Richmond. Lee decided to hit Pope before McClellan could join him. He left a few thousand troops to guard Richmond, then took the rest north. Lee moved up to the Rappahannock River, across from Pope's army. VOICE ONE: Lee sent Stonewall Jackson, with twenty-four-thousand men, on a quick march around the western end of Pope's lines. Jackson and his men marched more than eighty kilometers in two days. They got behind Pope and seized a huge northern supply center at Manassas. Pope moved to smash them. They burned the captured supplies. Then they moved a few kilometers away to a long, low hill just northwest of the Bull Run battleground, where southern forces defeated a northern army a year before. Jackson hid his troops in woods along the hill and waited for General Lee to arrive with the rest of the southern army. VOICE TWO: But before Lee could get there, Union troops -- thousands of them --marched down the road below Jackson. Jackson decided to attack, to hold them there until Lee arrived with help. The fighting was furious. Neither side broke. The fighting died down at the end of the day, and Jackson's men moved back to their positions on higher ground. They made their lines along a partly-built railroad on the side of the hill. VOICE ONE: From his headquarters on the hill, Jackson watched the northern forces prepare for battle. Many thousands of the enemy were marching into position. Pope brought up all his soldiers, and others were on the way from bases near Washington. Several thousand of McClellan's troops, commanded by General Porter, were arriving from the south. It was a mighty force, much larger than Jackson's army. Jackson was worried. He sent an officer back to find General Lee. He sent a message: Lee must hurry. Jackson faced a big army. VOICE TWO: Pope's army was large. But it was poorly organized. The men had been rushed into position. The order to attack was given before all the troops were ready. So, the attack began slowly. And Jackson was able to fight it off. But then, more and more northern soldiers joined the fight. The two sides struggled for hours in the hot summer sun. Jackson's men almost broke. Men prayed for the long day to end. The sun seemed to stand still. VOICE ONE: Finally, the sun went down, and the battlefield became dark. Jackson's men had held, but they paid a terrible price. Thousands were killed or wounded. Northern losses were even greater. Most of the Union troops had fought bravely. They had hit the Confederate lines time after time. But one large group of soldiers did not get into the battle at all that day. This was the group from McClellan's Army of the Potomac, led by Fitz John Porter. Pope had ordered Porter to strike at the right end of Jackson's lines. Porter took his troops several kilometers past Jackson's right...and stopped them. His soldiers remained there all day, out of the battle. Porter said later he believed the Confederate forces were too strong for his men. VOICE TWO: Other groups of McClellan's men were arriving in Alexandria, thirty kilometers to the east. Pope asked that they be sent to help him. McClellan was ordered to send them immediately. But he refused to do so. He said they were not in condition to fight, and he would not send them. General Pope still thought he was facing only Jackson's army. He refused to believe reports that Lee had arrived on the battlefield with thirty-thousand more southern soldiers. Pope thought Lee was still far to the west of Manassas. VOICE ONE: Pope knew that Jackson's army had taken a terrible beating in the two days of bloody fighting. nd he was sure that Jackson would try to withdraw the next day, to retreat to the west. Pope divided his forces that night. He left thousands in place in front of Jackson's lines. The others were moved back. They were ordered to get ready for a march west to block Jackson's retreat. Pope made a terrible mistake. Jackson was not planning to retreat. He was waiting with Lee to smash the northern army. And that is what happened the next day. VOICE TWO: Northern troops attacked Jackson's lines. The fighting was bitter. Pope's forces almost smashed through. But then Lee ordered his men to move forward to help Jackson. Confederate artillery broke up the northern attack. When the northern troops began to retreat, Lee and Jackson attacked with all their might. Many of Pope's men were not prepared for battle. They were standing together in groups, ready for marching. They could not stop the southern attack. The Confederates pushed Pope's army back across the Old Bull Run battlefield. VOICE ONE: Near the end of the day, northern forces succeeded in organizing a stronger defensive line. The southern attack slowed down, then stopped. Lee sent Jackson around the north end of Pope's line to try to stop the northern retreat. Lee did not want the defeated Union army to escape. He wanted to destroy it. But heavy rain held up Jackson's troops. They were discovered and attacked by a strong northern force. Jackson could move no farther. He could not stop Pope's retreat to Centreville and Washington. The northern army escaped. VOICE TWO: But it left behind thousands and thousands of dead and wounded. Confederate doctors treated their own men, then tried to help the wounded soldiers of the other side. General Lee permitted northern medical wagons to return to the battlefield. And they began to carry the wounded back to Centreville. Groups of McClellan's army, arriving from Alexandria, met Pope's men in Centreville. They laughed and shouted at the tired, beaten soldiers. Many said they were glad that Pope had lost. One of McClellan's Generals, Samuel Sturgis, greeted Pope at Centreville: "I always told you, Pope, that if they gave you enough rope, you would hang yourself." VOICE ONE: What happened at Bull Run created bitter anger among the people of the north -- anger against their military leaders. People felt that a year had been wasted...that thousands had died for no real purpose. The year before, southern troops sent a northern army fleeing from Bull Run. Now, it was happening again. The Army of the Potomac was back where it started. As the facts of the battle became known, cries of anger became even louder. The people demanded answers. Why did McClellan and his men move so slowly. Why did they refuse to go to Pope's aid. Why did Pope let Jackson get behind him. Why were fourteen-thousand soldiers lost. VOICE TWO: Most members of Lincoln's cabinet believed McClellan was responsible. Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase said McClellan should be shot. War Secretary Edwin Stanton said he should be dismissed immediately. He and three other cabinet members signed a note demanding that Lincoln remove McClellan as Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln agreed that what McClellan had done was shocking. He said it was clear that McClellan wanted Pope to fail. But Lincoln said he would not remove McClellan. He said he knew that McClellan was not an aggressive general. But he said McClellan was a good organizer who could build the defeated army into a strong force. VOICE ONE: General Robert E. Lee, however, would not wait while McClellan rebuilt the army. He decided to carry the war to the north. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: What School Has the Most Foreign Students in U.S.? University of Southern California
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today, in part twenty-seven of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss the university with the most foreign students in America. It is in Los Angeles. Any guess which school it is? It is the University of Southern California. The Institute of International Education reported in November that U.S.C. was the leader for a third year. In the last school year, there were more than six thousand foreign students. The number was over twenty percent of the student population. Columbia University in New York City had the second largest number of students from outside the United States. And the Institute of International Education reported that Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, was third. Most of the foreign students at the University of Southern California have a bachelor's degree. That means they have already completed four years of college. The foreign students at U.S.C. mostly study engineering and science. The university has students this year from one hundred nations. The largest numbers are from India, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Canada. The cost for an undergraduate at the University of Southern California is about forty-two thousand dollars for one year. That includes classes, housing, food, books and insurance. Graduate students pay about forty-four thousand dollars. Financial aid for an international graduate student is normally in the form of a job as an assistant in research or teaching. Undergraduates generally cannot receive financial aid from the university. U.S.C. has offices in Hong Kong, Taipei, Jakarta, Tokyo and Mexico City. They hold meetings to help get local students interested in the university. The offices also help parents of U.S.C. students to communicate with the school. U.S.C. offers English language training and TOEFL test preparation classes at its Language Academy. Internet users can learn more about the University of Southern California at usc.edu. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. Since September, we have discussed many different subjects of interest for those who would like to attend an American college or university. Students can also get information from the State Department at educationusa.state.gov. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: A Listener Question / A Lost and Found Tree / Music by Eric Felton and his Jazz Orchestra
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Jazz from Eric Felten and his band ... A question about the most populous American state ... DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Jazz from Eric Felten and his band ... A question about the most populous American state ... And a report on a lost-and-found tree. 'Living Fossil' Scientists used to think that Wollemi pine trees only grew in ancient history. But now one of the places where visitors can see a living example is in Washington, D.C. Faith Lapidus takes us there. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Wollemi pine tree has thin leaves that look like needles growing close together, much like a fern plant. The other day, a young girl took a long look at the Wollemi pine at the United States Botanic Garden. Then she asked her mother where the dinosaurs were. The little girl recognized the tree from books and movies about prehistoric Earth. Wollemi pines can grow as tall as forty meters. But this one at the Botanic Garden is not much taller than forty centimeters. In fact, it is small enough to grow inside a glass container. Wollemi pines have been found in only one place in the wild. It is in a rainforest in the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, Australia, near Sydney. Fewer than one hundred have been found. Scientists thought the tree had disappeared from the Earth at least two million years ago. But in nineteen ninety-four, a park officer named David Noble made an accidental discovery. He saw huge fern-like trees in a deep canyon. But he did not recognize them. So he asked scientists. The experts looked at fossil prints of trees from ninety million years ago. They said the trees found by Mister Noble were closely related. They gave them the scientific name Wollemia nobilis. Wollemi pine is the common name. Scientists at the Mount Annan Botanic Garden in New South Wales have been growing Wollemi pines from seeds and cuttings. Australian officials say there has been worldwide demand for the pine as a garden plant. So, a home version of this rare "living fossil" is expected to go on sale beginning this year. Most Populous State? DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Amoy, China. Shaojian Xu really has two questions. What is the most beautiful city in the United States. And which state has the most people? Well, we would be in big trouble if we called one city the most beautiful. In fact, the staff in Special English could not even agree. Some said New York, with its tall buildings. One said Seattle, with its beautiful lakes and mountains. Another said Honolulu, with its lovely beaches. Three members of the staff said San Francisco, with its world-famous Golden Gate Bridge. You could make a good argument for any these -- and many other cities, too. The second question was easier. Which state has the largest population? The answer is California, on the West Coast. More than thirty-five million people live there, and the number continues to grow. The estimated population of California grew almost five percent between two thousand and two thousand three. About half the population growth comes from people who move from other states and countries. About eleven million people of Mexican ancestry live in California. Many others come from Asia. The city of San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. California has a lot to offer. Southern California is famous for its warm, sunny weather, although you may have heard about the unusual amount of rain recently. California also has more public colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system is the largest in the country, with twenty-three campuses. The University of California has campuses in ten cities including Berkeley in the north and Los Angeles in the south. The tenth campus is to open this September in Merced, in Central California. Merced is in the San Joaquin Valley, a major agricultural area. California also has many community colleges. People started moving to California in large numbers around eighteen forty-nine, the year after the discovery of gold. Most of these "forty-niners" did not find gold. But they did find other things to like, such as San Francisco. Don’t tell anyone, but that is my choice for the most beautiful city. Ahhh, but then again, San Antonio, Texas, is also beautiful. Miami, Florida is nice too. Chicago on a pretty day is very beautiful, but so is Bar Harbor, Maine, with its little fishing boats. And then again there's ... (fade) Eric Felten Jazz Orchestra (MUSIC: "You're Driving Me Crazy") You might have heard that voice before on VOA. Yet you might not recognize it as the voice of VOA announcer and host Eric Felten. Eric Felten is also a jazz musician with a new recording just released. Gwen Outen has our story. GWEN OUTEN: "Eric Felten Meets the Dek-tette" honors three famous albums from the singer Mel Torme and the Marty Paich Dek-tette. Eric Felten gathered some of the Dek-tette musicians for the new release. They include greats like saxophonist Med Flory. He is featured in the song "It’s Alright With Me," followed by Eric Felton playing a trombone solo. (MUSIC) Eric Felton was born into a family of jazz musicians. He first studied the trombone with his grandfather Lester Felten. His grandfather performed in bands when Swing jazz was first popular. Here Eric Felten and the Dek-tette perform “Pick Yourself Up,” a song from the Swing period. (MUSIC) Eric Felton formed his own band, the Jazz Orchestra, in nineteen ninety-one. Several years ago they appeared on national television with a concert called "The Big Band Sound of World War Two." We leave you now with the Eric Felton Jazz Orchestra performing the Cole Porter song "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Paul Thompson, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And a report on a lost-and-found tree. 'Living Fossil' Scientists used to think that Wollemi pine trees only grew in ancient history. But now one of the places where visitors can see a living example is in Washington, D.C. Faith Lapidus takes us there. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Wollemi pine tree has thin leaves that look like needles growing close together, much like a fern plant. The other day, a young girl took a long look at the Wollemi pine at the United States Botanic Garden. Then she asked her mother where the dinosaurs were. The little girl recognized the tree from books and movies about prehistoric Earth. Wollemi pines can grow as tall as forty meters. But this one at the Botanic Garden is not much taller than forty centimeters. In fact, it is small enough to grow inside a glass container. Wollemi pines have been found in only one place in the wild. It is in a rainforest in the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, Australia, near Sydney. Fewer than one hundred have been found. Scientists thought the tree had disappeared from the Earth at least two million years ago. But in nineteen ninety-four, a park officer named David Noble made an accidental discovery. He saw huge fern-like trees in a deep canyon. But he did not recognize them. So he asked scientists. The experts looked at fossil prints of trees from ninety million years ago. They said the trees found by Mister Noble were closely related. They gave them the scientific name Wollemia nobilis. Wollemi pine is the common name. Scientists at the Mount Annan Botanic Garden in New South Wales have been growing Wollemi pines from seeds and cuttings. Australian officials say there has been worldwide demand for the pine as a garden plant. So, a home version of this rare "living fossil" is expected to go on sale beginning this year. Most Populous State? DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Amoy, China. Shaojian Xu really has two questions. What is the most beautiful city in the United States. And which state has the most people? Well, we would be in big trouble if we called one city the most beautiful. In fact, the staff in Special English could not even agree. Some said New York, with its tall buildings. One said Seattle, with its beautiful lakes and mountains. Another said Honolulu, with its lovely beaches. Three members of the staff said San Francisco, with its world-famous Golden Gate Bridge. You could make a good argument for any these -- and many other cities, too. The second question was easier. Which state has the largest population? The answer is California, on the West Coast. More than thirty-five million people live there, and the number continues to grow. The estimated population of California grew almost five percent between two thousand and two thousand three. About half the population growth comes from people who move from other states and countries. About eleven million people of Mexican ancestry live in California. Many others come from Asia. The city of San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. California has a lot to offer. Southern California is famous for its warm, sunny weather, although you may have heard about the unusual amount of rain recently. California also has more public colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system is the largest in the country, with twenty-three campuses. The University of California has campuses in ten cities including Berkeley in the north and Los Angeles in the south. The tenth campus is to open this September in Merced, in Central California. Merced is in the San Joaquin Valley, a major agricultural area. California also has many community colleges. People started moving to California in large numbers around eighteen forty-nine, the year after the discovery of gold. Most of these "forty-niners" did not find gold. But they did find other things to like, such as San Francisco. Don’t tell anyone, but that is my choice for the most beautiful city. Ahhh, but then again, San Antonio, Texas, is also beautiful. Miami, Florida is nice too. Chicago on a pretty day is very beautiful, but so is Bar Harbor, Maine, with its little fishing boats. And then again there's ... (fade) Eric Felten Jazz Orchestra (MUSIC: "You're Driving Me Crazy") You might have heard that voice before on VOA. Yet you might not recognize it as the voice of VOA announcer and host Eric Felten. Eric Felten is also a jazz musician with a new recording just released. Gwen Outen has our story. GWEN OUTEN: "Eric Felten Meets the Dek-tette" honors three famous albums from the singer Mel Torme and the Marty Paich Dek-tette. Eric Felten gathered some of the Dek-tette musicians for the new release. They include greats like saxophonist Med Flory. He is featured in the song "It’s Alright With Me," followed by Eric Felton playing a trombone solo. (MUSIC) Eric Felton was born into a family of jazz musicians. He first studied the trombone with his grandfather Lester Felten. His grandfather performed in bands when Swing jazz was first popular. Here Eric Felten and the Dek-tette perform “Pick Yourself Up,” a song from the Swing period. (MUSIC) Eric Felton formed his own band, the Jazz Orchestra, in nineteen ninety-one. Several years ago they appeared on national television with a concert called "The Big Band Sound of World War Two." We leave you now with the Eric Felton Jazz Orchestra performing the Cole Porter song "You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Paul Thompson, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Identity Theft
* Byline: 

 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Identity theft has been a subject in the news recently. It is considered one of the top crimes in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that ten million Americans become victims of identity theft each year. Identity thieves steal personal information. They collect Social Security numbers, banking records and telephone numbers. They use this information to request loans or get credit cards in the name of the victim. Identity thieves spend a lot on goods or services without paying for them. F.T.C. officials estimate more than fifty-two thousand million dollars in goods and services were purchased last year through identity theft. Victims of identity theft can spend years attempting to re-establish their financial history and good name. Some have been denied jobs or arrested for crimes in which they were not involved. Identity thieves use several methods to get what they need. They may trick people into giving personal information over the telephone. They also may steal documents containing such information. Activist groups have called for new laws to protect the public from identity theft. Recently, a committee of the United States Senate said it would hold hearings on the issue. Two cases of identity theft helped the committee to call the hearings. Last month, Bank of America said it lost computer tapes containing personal information for more than one million federal employees. They include some Senators and members of the Defense Department. Bank of America says it deeply regrets the incident. Earlier, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that thieves stole about one hundred fifty thousand personal records from ChoicePoint Incorporated. The company sells Social Security numbers and credit information to other businesses. In two thousand two, a similar security violation reportedly affected about seven thousand people. American lawmakers will consider plans to increase supervision of companies that collect personal information. Several plans have been proposed to help individuals whose personal information was stolen. Another proposal would let Americans halt any investigation into their financial history without their permission. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/photo_gallery_audience3.cfm
* Headline: PHOTO GALLERY - Pictures of Our Audience
* Byline: 

 We began our gallery to celebrate our 45th anniversary last October. We thank the more than 300 people who have sent us their pictures so far. And we invite you to add your picture. Send it to special@voanews.com. (Note: pictures received after March 18 may not appear until early April.) Photos 1-100 | Photos 101-200 | Photos 201-300 | Photos 300+Here are Photos 201-300: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/photo_gallery_audience4.cfm
* Headline: PHOTO GALLERY - Pictures of Our Listeners
* Byline: 

 We invite you to add your picture. Send it to special@voanews.com. Please?tell us where you are and how long you have listened to VOA and Special English. We began our gallery to celebrate our 45th anniversary in October 2004. We thank all the people who have sent us their pictures so far. The higher the number (1-100, 101-200...) the more recent the postings: Photos 1-100 | Photos 101-200 | Photos 201-300 | Photos 300+Here are photos 300+ ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/photo_gallery_audience5.cfm
* Headline: PHOTO GALLERY - Pictures of Our Listeners
* Byline: 

 We invite you to add your picture. Send it to special@voanews.com. Please?tell us where you are and how long you have listened to VOA and Special English. We began our gallery to celebrate our 45th anniversary?on October 19, 2004. We thank all the people who have sent us their pictures. The higher the number (1-100, 101-200...) the more recent the postings: Photos 1-100 | Photos 101-200 | Photos 201-300 | Photos 301-400 Photos 400- 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. All week there was discussion about the future of Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa. Mister Tung, in comments Friday, defended the record of his seven years in office. Yet there were reports that he had already resigned. He was in Beijing for the yearly meeting of the legislature, the National People's Congress. Mister Tung has been unpopular. In two thousand three, a half-million people protested after he tried to establish a security law approved in Beijing. The demonstrators also were protesting the slow reaction to the spread of the lung infection SARS. Tung Chee-hwa is sixty-seven years old. He earned millions of dollars in the shipping business before he became chief executive of Hong Kong. He was the first leader chosen after British colonial rule ended in nineteen ninety-seven. Since then, China and Hong Kong have followed a policy known as "one country, two systems." The territory’s Electoral Committee appointed Mister Tung to a second five-year term in two thousand two. Hong Kong law says that if the chief executive leaves, the temporary replacement is the chief secretary. That job is held by Donald Tsang. Local media say Chinese officials may want the next chief executive to serve a full five-year term, instead of just the next two years. If that happens, reports say hopes of democratic reforms could be pushed back at least until two thousand ten. Pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong want changes before elections planned in two thousand seven. These politicians want all citizens to have the right to elect their representatives directly. In two thousand, business leaders and professionals chose members of the Hong Kong legislature. Almost seven million people live in Hong Kong. Only about one hundred sixty thousand of them were able to vote. In Washington this week, there was discussion of another issue involving China. American officials oppose efforts to end a European ban on weapons sales to that country. Some European Union nations have already begun to sell military supplies to China. The ban came after Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in nineteen eighty-nine. President Bush discussed American concerns during his recent visit to Europe. Reports said he made little progress on this issue with European leaders. The president says easing the ban could, in his words, "change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan." China sees Taiwan as a rebellious province. This week, the American State Department released its yearly report on human rights around the world. Again, it listed many efforts to suppress dissent in China. And again China reacted with its own report on what the Chinese condemned as United States offenses. These included the mistreatment of prisoners by American soldiers in Iraq. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. I’m Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. All week there was discussion about the future of Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa. Mister Tung, in comments Friday, defended the record of his seven years in office. Yet there were reports that he had already resigned. He was in Beijing for the yearly meeting of the legislature, the National People's Congress. Mister Tung has been unpopular. In two thousand three, a half-million people protested after he tried to establish a security law approved in Beijing. The demonstrators also were protesting the slow reaction to the spread of the lung infection SARS. Tung Chee-hwa is sixty-seven years old. He earned millions of dollars in the shipping business before he became chief executive of Hong Kong. He was the first leader chosen after British colonial rule ended in nineteen ninety-seven. Since then, China and Hong Kong have followed a policy known as "one country, two systems." The territory’s Electoral Committee appointed Mister Tung to a second five-year term in two thousand two. Hong Kong law says that if the chief executive leaves, the temporary replacement is the chief secretary. That job is held by Donald Tsang. Local media say Chinese officials may want the next chief executive to serve a full five-year term, instead of just the next two years. If that happens, reports say hopes of democratic reforms could be pushed back at least until two thousand ten. Pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong want changes before elections planned in two thousand seven. These politicians want all citizens to have the right to elect their representatives directly. In two thousand, business leaders and professionals chose members of the Hong Kong legislature. Almost seven million people live in Hong Kong. Only about one hundred sixty thousand of them were able to vote. In Washington this week, there was discussion of another issue involving China. American officials oppose efforts to end a European ban on weapons sales to that country. Some European Union nations have already begun to sell military supplies to China. The ban came after Chinese troops crushed pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in nineteen eighty-nine. President Bush discussed American concerns during his recent visit to Europe. Reports said he made little progress on this issue with European leaders. The president says easing the ban could, in his words, "change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan." China sees Taiwan as a rebellious province. This week, the American State Department released its yearly report on human rights around the world. Again, it listed many efforts to suppress dissent in China. And again China reacted with its own report on what the Chinese condemned as United States offenses. These included the mistreatment of prisoners by American soldiers in Iraq. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Arthur Miller
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Arthur Miller. Many theater critics believe he was one of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Arthur MillerSeveral plays by Arthur Miller will probably be performed for many years to come. That is because critics say Miller was able to dramatize the emotional pain that average people suffer in their daily lives. A critic once described Miller as an activist for the common man. He demonstrates this well in one of his most famous plays, “Death of a Salesman.” The main character is a man whose dreams of success in business have died. But Miller’s interest in the average man did not stop him from exploring major problems of society. In “The Crucible”, for example, he shows what happens when unreasonable dislike and fear cause people to accuse innocent people of horrible crimes. Some other of his best-known plays include “All My Sons”, “A View from the Bridge” and “After the Fall.” VOICE TWO: Arthur Miller was born in New York City in nineteen fifteen. He died in two thousand five at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. For sixty years, he created one dramatic work after another. Miller won many awards for his plays. Among them were a Pulitzer Prize, New York Drama Critics’ Circle prizes and Tony awards. In nineteen eighty-four, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. honored him for his lifetime work in drama. Miller also created stories for movies. For example, he wrote “The Misfits” for actress Marilyn Monroe. Miller’s television drama, “Playing for Time”, told of an orchestra of prisoners at the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, during World War Two. Miller was also a political activist for human rights. But it was drama performed in the theater that Miller loved most. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Arthur Miller grew up in New York. His father, Isidore Miller, manufactured clothing and operated a store. But the father lost his money in the great economic Depression in the nineteen thirties. The family had to move from a costly apartment in Manhattan to a small house in Brooklyn. During the Depression, Arthur worked at many jobs to earn money for college. In nineteen thirty-four, he began studying English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Miller won an award for writing plays while at school. VOICE TWO: Miller returned home to New York after completing his studies. He married his college girlfriend, Mary Slattery. They had two children before later ending their marriage. In nineteen forty-four, Arthur Miller’s first major play was performed on Broadway. It was called “The Man Who Had All the Luck.” However, the play did not bring him good luck. It had only four performances. But his second Broadway play, “All My Sons”, was a major success It won several awards in nineteen forty-seven. “All My Sons” tells of a manufacturer who produces faulty parts for airplanes used in World War Two. One of his sons dies as the result of the father’s crime. In the play, Miller examines the relationship between the pressure to succeed and personal responsibility. VOICE ONE: Miller’s great play, “Death of a Salesman”, opened on Broadway in nineteen forty-nine. He was thirty-three years old when he wrote it. “Death of a Salesman” questions the pressures in American society for people to gain financial success. The play also continues his exploration of the relationships between fathers and sons. The central character in “Death of a Salesman” is sixty-year-old Willy Loman. The action opens on the last day of Willy’s life. He has been dismissed from his job as a traveling salesman. He also recognizes that he has failed as a father. Willy thinks about killing himself. Willy’s wife Linda understands that he is deeply and dangerously sad. But their son Biff criticizes his father’s strange actions. She answers with some of the most famous words in the American theater: (SOUND) LINDA: “I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the papers. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person. You called him crazy…” BIFF:“I didn’t mean…” LINDA:“No, a lot of people think he’s lost his – balance. But you don’t have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted.” VOICE TWO: Linda knows that Willy is extremely tired. He is tired of living. He kills himself before the play is over. Linda talks to Willy at his burial place: (SOUND) “I search and search and I search, and I can’t understand it. Willy, I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home…” VOICE ONE: “Death of a Salesman” had a big influence on the American public. Many people saw their own lives in Willy Loman, the victim of broken dreams. Americans discussed the financial worries of businessmen who were getting old. But Americans were not the only ones who identified with the ideas in the play. It has been translated into about thirty languages and performed around the world. VOICE TWO: Arthur Miller’s criticisms of modern American life influenced another of his most important works. “The Crucible” was first produced in nineteen fifty-three. The nineteen fifties were a time of extreme fear of Communism in the United States. Sometimes this fear was unreasonable. Miller examined this difficult period in American history by setting his play at another difficult time. “The Crucible” takes place in the seventeenth century. He based his play on trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Young women in the play accuse people they dislike of being evil witches. The innocent victims are put on trial and executed. The story shows the tragic results of uncontrolled suspicion and fear. “The Crucible” has been produced more than any of Miller’s plays, both in America and around the world. VOICE ONE: Like the victims in “The Crucible,” the playwright himself became the object of suspicion. In nineteen fifty-six, a committee of the United States Congress ordered him to give evidence. In the nineteen forties, he had attended several meetings for writers organized by the Communist Party. The Congressional committee wanted the names of other people who attended Communist meetings. Arthur Miller said he was not a Communist. But he would not give the committee any names. He was found guilty of disobeying Congress. Later, however, a court canceled that judgment. Miller was lucky. Some people who would not answer questions before Congress served time in prison. VOICE TWO: Something else lucky happened to the playwright in nineteen fifty-six. Miller married the beautiful Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. But their marriage was troubled. Monroe had emotional problems. They had little privacy because the media followed the famous couple everywhere. Miller wrote the nineteen sixty-one movie “The Misfits” for his wife. The movie explored the modern Wild West through the lives of three troubled people. Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe ended their marriage soon after the movie was completed. A year later, Monroe died of a drug overdose. Miller wrote another play, “After the Fall,” in nineteen sixty-four. Critics said it was the play most about his own life. They criticized him for portraying the wife of the main character as a woman who is dependent on drugs and kills herself. They said the character was based on Marilyn Monroe. But Miller denied this. VOICE ONE: Miller married for a third time in nineteen sixty-two. He and his wife Inge Morath, a well-known photographer, had one daughter. Morath died in two thousand two. Miller once said that even after he and Inge had been married almost forty years, people still asked him about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE TWO: Arthur Miller also wrote short stories and a book about his life called “Timebends: A Life.” He once wrote that when he was young he imagined that with the possible exception of a doctor saving a life, “writing a worthy play was the most important thing a human being could do.” Theater owners on Broadway agreed. On the day after he died, the lights of Broadway theaters darkened for a minute in honor of Arthur Miller. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt were the characters from “Death of a Salesman.” Join us again for next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Arthur Miller. Many theater critics believe he was one of the greatest American playwrights of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Arthur MillerSeveral plays by Arthur Miller will probably be performed for many years to come. That is because critics say Miller was able to dramatize the emotional pain that average people suffer in their daily lives. A critic once described Miller as an activist for the common man. He demonstrates this well in one of his most famous plays, “Death of a Salesman.” The main character is a man whose dreams of success in business have died. But Miller’s interest in the average man did not stop him from exploring major problems of society. In “The Crucible”, for example, he shows what happens when unreasonable dislike and fear cause people to accuse innocent people of horrible crimes. Some other of his best-known plays include “All My Sons”, “A View from the Bridge” and “After the Fall.” VOICE TWO: Arthur Miller was born in New York City in nineteen fifteen. He died in two thousand five at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. For sixty years, he created one dramatic work after another. Miller won many awards for his plays. Among them were a Pulitzer Prize, New York Drama Critics’ Circle prizes and Tony awards. In nineteen eighty-four, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. honored him for his lifetime work in drama. Miller also created stories for movies. For example, he wrote “The Misfits” for actress Marilyn Monroe. Miller’s television drama, “Playing for Time”, told of an orchestra of prisoners at the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, during World War Two. Miller was also a political activist for human rights. But it was drama performed in the theater that Miller loved most. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Arthur Miller grew up in New York. His father, Isidore Miller, manufactured clothing and operated a store. But the father lost his money in the great economic Depression in the nineteen thirties. The family had to move from a costly apartment in Manhattan to a small house in Brooklyn. During the Depression, Arthur worked at many jobs to earn money for college. In nineteen thirty-four, he began studying English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Miller won an award for writing plays while at school. VOICE TWO: Miller returned home to New York after completing his studies. He married his college girlfriend, Mary Slattery. They had two children before later ending their marriage. In nineteen forty-four, Arthur Miller’s first major play was performed on Broadway. It was called “The Man Who Had All the Luck.” However, the play did not bring him good luck. It had only four performances. But his second Broadway play, “All My Sons”, was a major success It won several awards in nineteen forty-seven. “All My Sons” tells of a manufacturer who produces faulty parts for airplanes used in World War Two. One of his sons dies as the result of the father’s crime. In the play, Miller examines the relationship between the pressure to succeed and personal responsibility. VOICE ONE: Miller’s great play, “Death of a Salesman”, opened on Broadway in nineteen forty-nine. He was thirty-three years old when he wrote it. “Death of a Salesman” questions the pressures in American society for people to gain financial success. The play also continues his exploration of the relationships between fathers and sons. The central character in “Death of a Salesman” is sixty-year-old Willy Loman. The action opens on the last day of Willy’s life. He has been dismissed from his job as a traveling salesman. He also recognizes that he has failed as a father. Willy thinks about killing himself. Willy’s wife Linda understands that he is deeply and dangerously sad. But their son Biff criticizes his father’s strange actions. She answers with some of the most famous words in the American theater: (SOUND) LINDA: “I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the papers. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person. You called him crazy…” BIFF:“I didn’t mean…” LINDA:“No, a lot of people think he’s lost his – balance. But you don’t have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted.” VOICE TWO: Linda knows that Willy is extremely tired. He is tired of living. He kills himself before the play is over. Linda talks to Willy at his burial place: (SOUND) “I search and search and I search, and I can’t understand it. Willy, I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home…” VOICE ONE: “Death of a Salesman” had a big influence on the American public. Many people saw their own lives in Willy Loman, the victim of broken dreams. Americans discussed the financial worries of businessmen who were getting old. But Americans were not the only ones who identified with the ideas in the play. It has been translated into about thirty languages and performed around the world. VOICE TWO: Arthur Miller’s criticisms of modern American life influenced another of his most important works. “The Crucible” was first produced in nineteen fifty-three. The nineteen fifties were a time of extreme fear of Communism in the United States. Sometimes this fear was unreasonable. Miller examined this difficult period in American history by setting his play at another difficult time. “The Crucible” takes place in the seventeenth century. He based his play on trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Young women in the play accuse people they dislike of being evil witches. The innocent victims are put on trial and executed. The story shows the tragic results of uncontrolled suspicion and fear. “The Crucible” has been produced more than any of Miller’s plays, both in America and around the world. VOICE ONE: Like the victims in “The Crucible,” the playwright himself became the object of suspicion. In nineteen fifty-six, a committee of the United States Congress ordered him to give evidence. In the nineteen forties, he had attended several meetings for writers organized by the Communist Party. The Congressional committee wanted the names of other people who attended Communist meetings. Arthur Miller said he was not a Communist. But he would not give the committee any names. He was found guilty of disobeying Congress. Later, however, a court canceled that judgment. Miller was lucky. Some people who would not answer questions before Congress served time in prison. VOICE TWO: Something else lucky happened to the playwright in nineteen fifty-six. Miller married the beautiful Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. But their marriage was troubled. Monroe had emotional problems. They had little privacy because the media followed the famous couple everywhere. Miller wrote the nineteen sixty-one movie “The Misfits” for his wife. The movie explored the modern Wild West through the lives of three troubled people. Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe ended their marriage soon after the movie was completed. A year later, Monroe died of a drug overdose. Miller wrote another play, “After the Fall,” in nineteen sixty-four. Critics said it was the play most about his own life. They criticized him for portraying the wife of the main character as a woman who is dependent on drugs and kills herself. They said the character was based on Marilyn Monroe. But Miller denied this. VOICE ONE: Miller married for a third time in nineteen sixty-two. He and his wife Inge Morath, a well-known photographer, had one daughter. Morath died in two thousand two. Miller once said that even after he and Inge had been married almost forty years, people still asked him about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE TWO: Arthur Miller also wrote short stories and a book about his life called “Timebends: A Life.” He once wrote that when he was young he imagined that with the possible exception of a doctor saving a life, “writing a worthy play was the most important thing a human being could do.” Theater owners on Broadway agreed. On the day after he died, the lights of Broadway theaters darkened for a minute in honor of Arthur Miller. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt were the characters from “Death of a Salesman.” Join us again for next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Kennedy Center to Expand Arts Education
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (Audio note: We are temporarily having problems with our ability to offer MP3 versions of some of our programs.) (Audio note: We are temporarily having problems with our ability to offer MP3 versions of some of our programs.) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: Kennedy CenterWashington, DCAnd I’m Steve Ember. The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., serves as a national home for the performing arts. Now the center wants to do more to bring those arts to children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month the Kennedy Center announced plans to spend one hundred twenty-five million dollars on performing arts education. The program will be developed over a five-year period. The center will receive both government and private money for this effort. Plans include opening a new Family Theater at the Kennedy Center at the end of this year. Performances from there will be seen later in schools around America. VOICE TWO: The president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Michael Kaiser, announced the expanded education program. Mister Kaiser says the Kennedy Center has been working on developing its program with officials of more than one hundred schools. Mister Kaiser says that if people are trained in the arts while they are young, they will be interested as adults. A major research organization came out with a report last month about public policy toward the arts. The Rand Corporation says interest in the arts is of more than just economic value; it helps create better citizens. The report calls for placing greater importance on creating demand for the arts. It says the way to do that is to introduce more people, especially young people, to experiences with the arts. VOICE ONE: Educators say children who study the arts are more likely to do well in other subjects and to become student leaders. Yet in recent years many schools have reduced arts education. During the nineteen nineties, research found that less than half of middle school students in the United States studied the arts. And some of the programs they did have were not very good. In nineteen ninety-seven, an agency of the Department of Education studied thousands of eighth graders. The National Assessment of Education said the students were not as well trained in arts as they should have been. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center will develop shows to be presented to young people around the nation. Two organizations will finance that effort. They are Disney Theatrical Productions and Music Theater International. First, children will take part in musical shows. The shows will be presented in the Family Theater that the Kennedy Center plans to open this December. Then the productions will travel to schools around the United States. Local children, not theater professionals, will produce the shows. Educators will examine the effects of taking part in the productions on the learning skills of the performers. VOICE ONE: The government is to finance the new theater for ten million dollars. To create it, one hundred twenty seats will be added to an existing theater. There will be a new public waiting area and dressing rooms for performers. Some other new Kennedy Center projects are electronic. For example, a new Web site will offer jazz music and tell about its history. This site is to be ready in two years. Another new site on the Internet will present a history of performing arts. It will offer performances and stories about the performances. That site is to be ready in three years. VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center already presents many shows for children at the center and in schools. Its president, Michael Kaiser, says the additional programs will bring the Kennedy Center education budget to forty million dollars. Center officials say this will be the largest amount spent for education by any American arts organization. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center is a memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was the thirty-fifth President John F. Kennedypresident of the United States. It is also the official national performing arts center. Each year about two million people see music, dance, drama and other performances at the Kennedy Center. And three million people come just to see the big white building itself. In the Hall of States, for example, they pass beneath the flags of all the American states and territories. In the Hall of Nations are the flags of more than one hundred sixty countries. Visitors also see the works of art and other gifts that more than forty countries have given to the Kennedy Center. And people can learn about the life of President Kennedy and listen to some of his speeches. VOICE TWO: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oval Office, February 29, 1956Efforts to build a cultural center in Washington began before John Kennedy was elected president in nineteen sixty. In nineteen fifty-eight, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Cultural Center Act. He said the United States needed a place to show its artistic successes. One of the earliest problems was finding a place for the building. Directors of the center chose an area on the edge of the Potomac River called Foggy Bottom. Some people worried that the building would sink into the soft ground. It hasn't yet. VOICE ONE: Another problem was money. The cultural center needed to collect millions of dollars in private gifts. The government promised to give an amount equal to the money raised. After President Kennedy took office in nineteen sixty-one, he campaigned for the national cultural center. His wife, Jacqueline, helped raise money for the center. So did Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of the former president. On November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President Kennedy was shot to death as he rode in an open car in Dallas, Texas. Congress soon declared the cultural center a memorial to him. VOICE TWO: Still, it was not easy to get enough money for the Kennedy Center. Center officials had to have more than fifteen million dollars by June thirtieth, nineteen sixty-five. If that did not happen, then they would not receive money from the government. They would not be able to build the center. Most of June passed, and the campaign still had not reached its goal. Then on June twenty-ninth the people of Italy gave more than one million dollars worth of marble to build the center. Other countries also gave money. These gifts rescued the project. VOICE ONE: Building finally began on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in nineteen sixty-seven. Four years later, the completed Kennedy Center stood along the Potomac River. Architect Edward Durrell Stone had designed a simple and beautiful building. It cost about seventy million dollars. Opening night at the Kennedy Center was September eighth, nineteen seventy-one. Guests heard a new musical work composed and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. He wrote "Mass" to honor President Kennedy. Here, from Bernstein's "Mass," is "Gloria Tibi." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some of the world’s finest artists have appeared at the Kennedy Center over the years. Classical musicians like pianist Vladimir Horowitz and violinist Isaac Stern have played there. So have jazz performers like Benny Goodman and Sarah Vaughan. These days, Placido Domingo, one of the world's best known tenors, sometimes sings there. He is also the general director of the Washington National Opera, which performs at the Kennedy Center Opera House. VOICE ONE: Long before the Kennedy Center was built, President Eisenhower said America needed a place to show its artistry. Now the center wants to help build more interest in the arts into the lives of young America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Kennedy CenterWashington, DCAnd I’m Steve Ember. The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., serves as a national home for the performing arts. Now the center wants to do more to bring those arts to children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month the Kennedy Center announced plans to spend one hundred twenty-five million dollars on performing arts education. The program will be developed over a five-year period. The center will receive both government and private money for this effort. Plans include opening a new Family Theater at the Kennedy Center at the end of this year. Performances from there will be seen later in schools around America. VOICE TWO: The president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Michael Kaiser, announced the expanded education program. Mister Kaiser says the Kennedy Center has been working on developing its program with officials of more than one hundred schools. Mister Kaiser says that if people are trained in the arts while they are young, they will be interested as adults. A major research organization came out with a report last month about public policy toward the arts. The Rand Corporation says interest in the arts is of more than just economic value; it helps create better citizens. The report calls for placing greater importance on creating demand for the arts. It says the way to do that is to introduce more people, especially young people, to experiences with the arts. VOICE ONE: Educators say children who study the arts are more likely to do well in other subjects and to become student leaders. Yet in recent years many schools have reduced arts education. During the nineteen nineties, research found that less than half of middle school students in the United States studied the arts. And some of the programs they did have were not very good. In nineteen ninety-seven, an agency of the Department of Education studied thousands of eighth graders. The National Assessment of Education said the students were not as well trained in arts as they should have been. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center will develop shows to be presented to young people around the nation. Two organizations will finance that effort. They are Disney Theatrical Productions and Music Theater International. First, children will take part in musical shows. The shows will be presented in the Family Theater that the Kennedy Center plans to open this December. Then the productions will travel to schools around the United States. Local children, not theater professionals, will produce the shows. Educators will examine the effects of taking part in the productions on the learning skills of the performers. VOICE ONE: The government is to finance the new theater for ten million dollars. To create it, one hundred twenty seats will be added to an existing theater. There will be a new public waiting area and dressing rooms for performers. Some other new Kennedy Center projects are electronic. For example, a new Web site will offer jazz music and tell about its history. This site is to be ready in two years. Another new site on the Internet will present a history of performing arts. It will offer performances and stories about the performances. That site is to be ready in three years. VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center already presents many shows for children at the center and in schools. Its president, Michael Kaiser, says the additional programs will bring the Kennedy Center education budget to forty million dollars. Center officials say this will be the largest amount spent for education by any American arts organization. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center is a memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was the thirty-fifth President John F. Kennedypresident of the United States. It is also the official national performing arts center. Each year about two million people see music, dance, drama and other performances at the Kennedy Center. And three million people come just to see the big white building itself. In the Hall of States, for example, they pass beneath the flags of all the American states and territories. In the Hall of Nations are the flags of more than one hundred sixty countries. Visitors also see the works of art and other gifts that more than forty countries have given to the Kennedy Center. And people can learn about the life of President Kennedy and listen to some of his speeches. VOICE TWO: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oval Office, February 29, 1956Efforts to build a cultural center in Washington began before John Kennedy was elected president in nineteen sixty. In nineteen fifty-eight, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Cultural Center Act. He said the United States needed a place to show its artistic successes. One of the earliest problems was finding a place for the building. Directors of the center chose an area on the edge of the Potomac River called Foggy Bottom. Some people worried that the building would sink into the soft ground. It hasn't yet. VOICE ONE: Another problem was money. The cultural center needed to collect millions of dollars in private gifts. The government promised to give an amount equal to the money raised. After President Kennedy took office in nineteen sixty-one, he campaigned for the national cultural center. His wife, Jacqueline, helped raise money for the center. So did Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of the former president. On November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President Kennedy was shot to death as he rode in an open car in Dallas, Texas. Congress soon declared the cultural center a memorial to him. VOICE TWO: Still, it was not easy to get enough money for the Kennedy Center. Center officials had to have more than fifteen million dollars by June thirtieth, nineteen sixty-five. If that did not happen, then they would not receive money from the government. They would not be able to build the center. Most of June passed, and the campaign still had not reached its goal. Then on June twenty-ninth the people of Italy gave more than one million dollars worth of marble to build the center. Other countries also gave money. These gifts rescued the project. VOICE ONE: Building finally began on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in nineteen sixty-seven. Four years later, the completed Kennedy Center stood along the Potomac River. Architect Edward Durrell Stone had designed a simple and beautiful building. It cost about seventy million dollars. Opening night at the Kennedy Center was September eighth, nineteen seventy-one. Guests heard a new musical work composed and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. He wrote "Mass" to honor President Kennedy. Here, from Bernstein's "Mass," is "Gloria Tibi." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some of the world’s finest artists have appeared at the Kennedy Center over the years. Classical musicians like pianist Vladimir Horowitz and violinist Isaac Stern have played there. So have jazz performers like Benny Goodman and Sarah Vaughan. These days, Placido Domingo, one of the world's best known tenors, sometimes sings there. He is also the general director of the Washington National Opera, which performs at the Kennedy Center Opera House. VOICE ONE: Long before the Kennedy Center was built, President Eisenhower said America needed a place to show its artistry. Now the center wants to help build more interest in the arts into the lives of young America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: U.N. Issues New World Population Estimate
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A United Nations report says the number of people in the world is expected to reach six thousand five hundred million this July. By the middle of the century, the population could reach more than nine thousand million. That would be an increase of forty percent. These numbers are fresh estimates for a report on world population change from nineteen fifty to two thousand fifty. Hania Zlotnik is director of the U.N. Population Division. She says the world has added nearly five hundred million people in the last six years. But, in her words, "the good news is that new estimates show that it will take a little longer" to add the next five hundred million. Mizz Zlotnik says this will probably happen by two thousand thirteen. The U.N. report says most population growth by two thousand fifty will take place in less developed countries. Their population is expected to increase from five thousand million today to almost eight thousand million. The population of more developed nations is expected to stay about the same, at just over one thousand million. The report says nine countries will be responsible for about half the world population increase by twenty fifty. These include Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and India. The others are Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and the United States. Twelve countries are expected to have populations at least three times the size now. These include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and East Timor. The others are Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger and Uganda. The report says birth rates remain low in forty-four developed countries. Today, worldwide, there is an average of two-point-six children per woman. This number is expected to fall to just over two children per woman in two thousand fifty. But U.N. population experts note that they cannot be sure which way birth rates will go in the future. The U.N. report also notes that AIDS has increased death rates and slowed population growth in sixty countries. The area most affected by the disease is Southern Africa. There, how long people live has fallen from an average of sixty-two years in nineteen ninety-five to forty-eight now. Researchers believe life expectancy will fall to forty-three years by two thousand fifteen, then begin a slow recovery. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: International Treaty on Tobacco Control / Research Projects on Glaucoma
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson and Ed Stautberg

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up ... an international treaty on tobacco is now in effect, but some say it is not strong enough. VOICE ONE: Later, we have a report on some research projects to learn more about glaucoma, a leading cause of preventable blindness. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A treaty that just went into effect aims to reduce a major cause of death and disease. The treaty is called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is the first public health treaty negotiated by the World Health Organization. More than one hundred sixty countries have signed it. Countries that sign the treaty then must approve it within their government. So far, fewer than sixty countries have done that. But only forty countries needed to ratify the treaty to bring it into force. The treaty went into effect on February twenty-seventh. VOICE TWO: Nations that ratify the treaty must raise prices and taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products. They must fight illegal trade in tobacco products. And they must place controls on second-hand smoke, smoke from other people’s tobacco. The treaty also bans advertising and other marketing campaigns for tobacco. But this is true only if such a ban would not violate a national constitution. The treaty calls for tobacco companies to make public all the substances they use to make cigarettes. And health warnings could not include information that might lead people to believe that some cigarettes are less harmful than others. Experts say there is no such thing as a safe cigarette. Also, governments that approve the treaty must support programs to help people stop smoking. And there must be educations programs to urge people not to start. VOICE ONE: Countries that have yet to ratify the treaty include the United States. It says some parts violate the Constitution and others are unacceptable. China is another country that has not approved the treaty. Health officials say developing countries are the biggest growth area for tobacco, and tobacco-related diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that each year almost five million people worldwide die from the effects of smoking. At current rates of growth, experts say the number could reach ten million a year by two thousand twenty. Smoking causes or increases the risk of many diseases. These include cancer and heart disease. Pregnant women who smoke may damage their unborn child. Also, a recent study offered more evidence that breathing tobacco smoke as a child increases the risk of lung cancer later in life. VOICE TWO: Public health experts praise the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. But there is criticism that the treaty does not go far enough. Doctor Derek Yach (pronounced yahk) supervised the writing of the treaty while chief of anti-tobacco efforts at the W.H.O. He is now a professor at Yale University in the United States. Doctor Yach says the treaty is "toothless" without additional agreements known as protocols to strengthen it. He told The Associated Press that any work on protocols is over a year away from even being discussed. He said developing nations need financial help to carry out the treaty. He also called for clear guidance on what countries need to do. There are no targets for reducing demand for cigarettes. So, Doctor Yach says, there is no way to measure success. And there are no punishments for countries that fail to act. But they will have their records examined at United Nations conferences. The first one is set for next February. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization, a U.N. agency, estimates that more than one thousand million people smoke. It says more than eighty percent of smokers live in developing countries. And it says tobacco kills one-half of those who keep using it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. Glaucoma is the name for a group of eye diseases. Without treatment, it can cause people to go blind. In the United States alone, it is estimated that three million people have glaucoma. But the Glaucoma Research Foundation says half of them do not know even know it. Often there are no warning signs. Eye doctors can test for glaucoma. But they have more to learn about the causes. Medicines and operations can control but not cure glaucoma. VOICE ONE: Glaucoma prevents the clear fluid in the eye from flowing normally. This generally increases pressure within the eye. The raised pressure can damage the optic nerve, which carries images from the eye to the brain. The chance of developing glaucoma increases if a person has diabetes. The risk of glaucoma also increases with age and family history of the disease. There is greater risk as well in people who are nearsighted. That is, they must be close to an object to see it clearly. The Glaucoma Research Foundation in San Francisco, California, recently announced almost one million dollars in research grants. The group launched the second three years of a campaign it calls "Catalyst for a Cure." VOICE TWO: The foundation awarded money to researchers in laboratories at four universities in the United States. These are Johns Hopkins University, the University of Utah, the University of Washington and Vanderbilt University. Each laboratory will receive more than one hundred ninety thousand dollars. The foundation is also providing six pilot project grants of up to thirty-five thousand dollars. The Glaucoma Research Foundation says these awards are to help projects get started. After that, the scientists may be able to receive financial aid from companies or the government. VOICE ONE: David Friedman received one of the pilot project grants. He works at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He plans to collect medical records of African Americans with two or more brothers or sisters with glaucoma. Experts say black Americans have a greater risk of glaucoma than white people. Doctor Friedman will help researchers who want to study the genes responsible for glaucoma in these families. He will confirm that all the people have this disease. In the words of the foundation: "The greatest limitation to genetics research for glaucoma is the lack of well-described patient populations." VOICE TWO: Markus Kuehn of the University of Iowa in Iowa City also received a pilot project grant. He recently identified an unusual family of cats. All of the kittens born into this animal family develop glaucoma early in life. Markus Kuehn is trying to identify the gene responsible for glaucoma in these cats. The goal then would be to learn if this same gene is also responsible for glaucoma in children. Keith Martin of the Center for Brain Repair at Cambridge University in England is studying stem cells. He is investigating whether these cells can protect against damage caused by glaucoma. The goal is to help patients with severe glaucoma. VOICE ONE: Sayoko Moroi works at the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is studying how patients react to glaucoma medicines. Doctor Moroi uses a process called fluorophotometry [flur-oh-foh-TOM-eh-tree]. This process measures the change in fluid production of the eye in reaction to glaucoma drugs. Hemant Pawar also works at the Kellogg Eye Center. He is trying to find the gene that causes a kind of glaucoma that produces growths in the iris part of the eye. His work could lead to early interventions. The final grant winner is Robert Nickells at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Doctor Nickells is working to create a genetic test to identify people with an increased risk of glaucoma. With such a test, eye doctors might be able to take steps to prevent the disease. VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson and Ed Stautberg. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. If you have a question about science that we might be able to answer on the air, send it to special@voanews.com. Please join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Raising Sheep
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. If you have a few hectares of land, it might be a good place to raise sheep. Some years ago, the magazine Organic Gardening, from the Rodale Institute research center, offered several reasons to consider. Sheep can be raised for their meat. They produce milk which can be made into excellent cheese. Sheep have wool which can be made into weaving material. The wool is cut off once a year in the spring. Sheep eat grass. They are good, natural grass cutters. And, sheep provide a good supply of waste that can be used to fertilize the vegetable and flower garden. In fact, sheep manure contains more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium than horse or cow manure. The report in Organic Gardening offered some advice from a field crop expert in New York State named Carl Bannon. He said it is possible to raise as many as eighteen sheep on one hectare. And, he said it is not necessary that the land be completely covered with grass. A mixture of grass and trees will do. Mister Bannon said the sheep will keep the grass cut low. They will even eat weeds and the remains of crops harvested from your garden. The waste they leave behind will add nutrients to the soil. The manure can be collected and spread in the garden. Sheep manure is not like that of cows. It does not have a bad smell. It is like waste produced by rabbits, only there is more of it. You should not plan to become rich selling the wool of your sheep. But, you may be able to sell the wool to people in your area who weave clothes or other things. Or, you can send it to a company that will clean it and prepare it for you to use. There are many different kinds of sheep. Your choice of which kind to raise should depend on your plans for them. For example, Dorset sheep are good milk producers. Suffolk sheep are raised for their meat. Rambouillet sheep produce fine wool that is prized by cloth makers. If you decide to begin raising sheep, you need to choose the right kind for the weather in your area. But you do not need to provide much shelter from the weather for adult sheep. Just be sure to provide a secure fence to keep dogs from attacking the sheep. And there are other considerations before you go out and buy a sheep. For one thing, it might be a good idea to make sure that the local laws permit people in your area to have farm animals. This VOA Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. I'm Gwen Outen. I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. If you have a few hectares of land, it might be a good place to raise sheep. Some years ago, the magazine Organic Gardening, from the Rodale Institute research center, offered several reasons to consider. Sheep can be raised for their meat. They produce milk which can be made into excellent cheese. Sheep have wool which can be made into weaving material. The wool is cut off once a year in the spring. Sheep eat grass. They are good, natural grass cutters. And, sheep provide a good supply of waste that can be used to fertilize the vegetable and flower garden. In fact, sheep manure contains more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium than horse or cow manure. The report in Organic Gardening offered some advice from a field crop expert in New York State named Carl Bannon. He said it is possible to raise as many as eighteen sheep on one hectare. And, he said it is not necessary that the land be completely covered with grass. A mixture of grass and trees will do. Mister Bannon said the sheep will keep the grass cut low. They will even eat weeds and the remains of crops harvested from your garden. The waste they leave behind will add nutrients to the soil. The manure can be collected and spread in the garden. Sheep manure is not like that of cows. It does not have a bad smell. It is like waste produced by rabbits, only there is more of it. You should not plan to become rich selling the wool of your sheep. But, you may be able to sell the wool to people in your area who weave clothes or other things. Or, you can send it to a company that will clean it and prepare it for you to use. There are many different kinds of sheep. Your choice of which kind to raise should depend on your plans for them. For example, Dorset sheep are good milk producers. Suffolk sheep are raised for their meat. Rambouillet sheep produce fine wool that is prized by cloth makers. If you decide to begin raising sheep, you need to choose the right kind for the weather in your area. But you do not need to provide much shelter from the weather for adult sheep. Just be sure to provide a secure fence to keep dogs from attacking the sheep. And there are other considerations before you go out and buy a sheep. For one thing, it might be a good idea to make sure that the local laws permit people in your area to have farm animals. This VOA Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: The Columbia River
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Columbia River that flows through the American Northwest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Columbia River It is said by many that the Columbia River is the most beautiful river in North America. It flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United States through the northwestern state of Washington. It is the fourth largest river in North America, and the largest that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia begins its two-thousand kilometer trip to the Pacific Ocean in Canada at Columbia Lake. That is just west of the main part of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern British Columbia. It flows mainly south into the northwestern United States until it makes a big turn to begin flowing west. It is at this point that the Snake River enters the Columbia. As it flows west, the Columbia forms much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington before it reaches the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: The great river flows through deep valleys and narrow places called canyons. It passes through two large series of mountains – the Cascades and the Coast mountains -- and it crosses desert areas and flows through lands of great forests. The Columbia and the rivers that flow into it gather water from a huge area of more than six hundred seventy thousand square kilometers. That is about the size of France. VOICE ONE: Large ocean going ships can sail up the lower Columbia River, as far as Vancouver, Washington. Smaller ships can continue up the river about three hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. However, these ships must pass through devices known as locks. Locks can change the level of the water. In a lock, a ship can be raised or lowered to another level where it can sail on. Small boats can travel another two hundred twenty kilometers up the river. There are locks for river traffic along this part of the river too. These locks and the many dams on the river were built in the last century as part of development projects. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first white explorer to see the Columbia River was an American named Robert Gray. Seeking increased trade for the new United States, he sailed from the eastern city of Boston in seventeen eighty-seven to the Pacific Northwest. He found the river in Seventeen Ninety-Two. Robert Gray named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. On a second trip to the area, he explored the lower parts of the river. Gray’s exploration of the river helped the United States claim what became known later as the Oregon Territory. VOICE ONE: William ClarkIn eighteen oh-five, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Columbia River area by traveling across land from the east. They were the first explorers to do this. The two men had been sent to explore what was called the Louisiana Territory. The United States had purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in eighteen oh-three. President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the territory. He hoped that the explorers would find a river that could provide a direct waterway across the North American continent that could be used for trade and business. The two-year trip probably is the most famous story of American exploration. VOICE TWO: When Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in wighteen oh-five, Americans were already living there. Fur traders such as David Thompson had settled there earlier. Thompson was with a company dealing especially in animal skins used in making clothes in the eastern United States and in Europe. In eighteen eleven, members of the Pacific Fur Company arrived in the area to establish their business. The company was owned by John Jacob Astor. They established Fort Astoria on the edge of the Columbia River in what later became the state of Oregon. The fort became the modern town of Astoria. It is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: The Columbia River was at the center of the new American settlement in Pacific Northwestern territory, then known as the Oregon Territory. For many early settlers it was known as the Oregon River or the River of the West. However, the name given to the river in seventeen?ninety-two became its final name – the Columbia. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Native Americans had lived in the Columbia River area for an estimated ten thousand years. To them, the river represented the center of life for the surrounding land. The river provided these first Americans with their most important food, fish known as the Pacific Salmon. Salmon can grow to weigh as much as twenty-five kilograms. They spend most of their lives in the salt waters of the northern oceans. But they are born in the fresh waters of rivers. When the huge fish are ready to reproduce, they swim hundreds of kilometers from the ocean up the rivers to the places where they first knew life. After laying their eggs at the end of this long trip, the salmon die, their circle of life completed. No one knows how many thousands and thousands of years the salmon have been doing this. VOICE ONE: In eighteen sixty-six, the first salmon processing factory was built on the edge of the Columbia River. In less than twenty years about thirty similar factories were supplying world markets with salmon caught on the river in nets, traps, and wheels. In eighteen eighty-three, almost twenty million kilograms of salmon were caught on the river. By the nineteen siixties, only two million kilograms of Columbia River salmon was sent to markets. The salmon population has been severely reduced because humans have blocked the flow of the river. The salmon can no longer go back to the places of their birth on the Columbia and the other rivers that flow into it. VOICE TWO: In the Twentieth Century, huge dams were built on the Columbia. There are fourteen dams on the river. These dams serve at least three purposes. They provide electric power. They provide river water to grow crops. And they control flooding. The largest of the dams on the Columbia is the Grand Coulee Dam. It is about halfway between the beginning and the end of the river. It was completed in nineteen forty-one. Before then, about twenty-five thousand salmon swam up the Columbia River into Canada to lay their eggs. Thousands of them would swim all the way to Columbia Lake, where the river begins. When the dam was completed, the salmon could no longer swim up the river. VOICE ONE: All the fourteen dams on the Columbia are not like the Grand Coulee Dam. Some of them were built with what are called fish ladders. These ladders permit salmon to swim past the dams to go up the river. Many of the two hundred fifty dams on the rivers that flow into the Columbia also have such devices built into them. Yet the dams have changed the Columbia from a free flowing river to a series of lakes linked by the water that is permitted to flow through. The dams produce great amounts of electricity. The result is energy whose costs are lower for expanding development in the Pacific Northwest. The lakes that remain behind the dams provide water for agriculture along the river. This is especially true in what once were dry, desert areas in central Washington State. So, the Columbia River and the dams are extremely important to the economy of the Pacific Northwest. VOICE TWO: There are many people who believe that dams are not good. Biologists, environmentalists, Indian tribes, and fishermen argue that at least some of the dams should be removed or changed to permit water to flow as it once did. They say that there is no longer a natural balance of the river. Opponents of the dams say humans should make an effort to live together with other life forms on Earth. Supporters of the dams believe the river should be controlled for human use even though other life forms may be harmed. This argument is expected to last many years. VOICE ONE: Most of the great rivers of North America and the rest of the world have great cities on them. But not the Columbia River. The Hudson River has New York City. The Mississippi River has a number of great cities along it. The Seine has Paris. The Nile River has Cairo. Along the Columbia, however, the human population is spread more thinly. And, most of the people who live along the beautiful Columbia River would not want to live anywhere else. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Columbia River that flows through the American Northwest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Columbia River It is said by many that the Columbia River is the most beautiful river in North America. It flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United States through the northwestern state of Washington. It is the fourth largest river in North America, and the largest that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia begins its two-thousand kilometer trip to the Pacific Ocean in Canada at Columbia Lake. That is just west of the main part of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern British Columbia. It flows mainly south into the northwestern United States until it makes a big turn to begin flowing west. It is at this point that the Snake River enters the Columbia. As it flows west, the Columbia forms much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington before it reaches the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: The great river flows through deep valleys and narrow places called canyons. It passes through two large series of mountains – the Cascades and the Coast mountains -- and it crosses desert areas and flows through lands of great forests. The Columbia and the rivers that flow into it gather water from a huge area of more than six hundred seventy thousand square kilometers. That is about the size of France. VOICE ONE: Large ocean going ships can sail up the lower Columbia River, as far as Vancouver, Washington. Smaller ships can continue up the river about three hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. However, these ships must pass through devices known as locks. Locks can change the level of the water. In a lock, a ship can be raised or lowered to another level where it can sail on. Small boats can travel another two hundred twenty kilometers up the river. There are locks for river traffic along this part of the river too. These locks and the many dams on the river were built in the last century as part of development projects. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first white explorer to see the Columbia River was an American named Robert Gray. Seeking increased trade for the new United States, he sailed from the eastern city of Boston in seventeen eighty-seven to the Pacific Northwest. He found the river in Seventeen Ninety-Two. Robert Gray named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. On a second trip to the area, he explored the lower parts of the river. Gray’s exploration of the river helped the United States claim what became known later as the Oregon Territory. VOICE ONE: William ClarkIn eighteen oh-five, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Columbia River area by traveling across land from the east. They were the first explorers to do this. The two men had been sent to explore what was called the Louisiana Territory. The United States had purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in eighteen oh-three. President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the territory. He hoped that the explorers would find a river that could provide a direct waterway across the North American continent that could be used for trade and business. The two-year trip probably is the most famous story of American exploration. VOICE TWO: When Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in wighteen oh-five, Americans were already living there. Fur traders such as David Thompson had settled there earlier. Thompson was with a company dealing especially in animal skins used in making clothes in the eastern United States and in Europe. In eighteen eleven, members of the Pacific Fur Company arrived in the area to establish their business. The company was owned by John Jacob Astor. They established Fort Astoria on the edge of the Columbia River in what later became the state of Oregon. The fort became the modern town of Astoria. It is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: The Columbia River was at the center of the new American settlement in Pacific Northwestern territory, then known as the Oregon Territory. For many early settlers it was known as the Oregon River or the River of the West. However, the name given to the river in seventeen?ninety-two became its final name – the Columbia. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Native Americans had lived in the Columbia River area for an estimated ten thousand years. To them, the river represented the center of life for the surrounding land. The river provided these first Americans with their most important food, fish known as the Pacific Salmon. Salmon can grow to weigh as much as twenty-five kilograms. They spend most of their lives in the salt waters of the northern oceans. But they are born in the fresh waters of rivers. When the huge fish are ready to reproduce, they swim hundreds of kilometers from the ocean up the rivers to the places where they first knew life. After laying their eggs at the end of this long trip, the salmon die, their circle of life completed. No one knows how many thousands and thousands of years the salmon have been doing this. VOICE ONE: In eighteen sixty-six, the first salmon processing factory was built on the edge of the Columbia River. In less than twenty years about thirty similar factories were supplying world markets with salmon caught on the river in nets, traps, and wheels. In eighteen eighty-three, almost twenty million kilograms of salmon were caught on the river. By the nineteen siixties, only two million kilograms of Columbia River salmon was sent to markets. The salmon population has been severely reduced because humans have blocked the flow of the river. The salmon can no longer go back to the places of their birth on the Columbia and the other rivers that flow into it. VOICE TWO: In the Twentieth Century, huge dams were built on the Columbia. There are fourteen dams on the river. These dams serve at least three purposes. They provide electric power. They provide river water to grow crops. And they control flooding. The largest of the dams on the Columbia is the Grand Coulee Dam. It is about halfway between the beginning and the end of the river. It was completed in nineteen forty-one. Before then, about twenty-five thousand salmon swam up the Columbia River into Canada to lay their eggs. Thousands of them would swim all the way to Columbia Lake, where the river begins. When the dam was completed, the salmon could no longer swim up the river. VOICE ONE: All the fourteen dams on the Columbia are not like the Grand Coulee Dam. Some of them were built with what are called fish ladders. These ladders permit salmon to swim past the dams to go up the river. Many of the two hundred fifty dams on the rivers that flow into the Columbia also have such devices built into them. Yet the dams have changed the Columbia from a free flowing river to a series of lakes linked by the water that is permitted to flow through. The dams produce great amounts of electricity. The result is energy whose costs are lower for expanding development in the Pacific Northwest. The lakes that remain behind the dams provide water for agriculture along the river. This is especially true in what once were dry, desert areas in central Washington State. So, the Columbia River and the dams are extremely important to the economy of the Pacific Northwest. VOICE TWO: There are many people who believe that dams are not good. Biologists, environmentalists, Indian tribes, and fishermen argue that at least some of the dams should be removed or changed to permit water to flow as it once did. They say that there is no longer a natural balance of the river. Opponents of the dams say humans should make an effort to live together with other life forms on Earth. Supporters of the dams believe the river should be controlled for human use even though other life forms may be harmed. This argument is expected to last many years. VOICE ONE: Most of the great rivers of North America and the rest of the world have great cities on them. But not the Columbia River. The Hudson River has New York City. The Mississippi River has a number of great cities along it. The Seine has Paris. The Nile River has Cairo. Along the Columbia, however, the human population is spread more thinly. And, most of the people who live along the beautiful Columbia River would not want to live anywhere else. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-08-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Lead and Violence in Young People
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A researcher says lead in the environment could be a major cause of violence by young people. Doctor Herbert Needleman is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania. He presented his findings at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Doctor Needleman says the presence of lead in the brain changes the neurons that control actions. And he says that can cause a person to act in antisocial and criminal ways. Lead is a metal that is especially dangerous to babies and young children. They can get it into their bodies by breathing or swallowing lead dust, or by eating soil or pieces of lead paint. Children with high levels of lead can suffer brain and nervous system damage, learning disabilities, slow growth, headaches and hearing loss. In the nineteen seventies, Doctor Needleman found lower scores on intelligence tests even in children who did not have such signs of lead poisoning. After that, lead was removed from gasoline and paint in the United States. Yet many homes still have old lead paint. Lead was also used in older water pipes. In fact, officials just announced stronger testing and reporting requirements as of next year for lead in American drinking water. The newest research by Doctor Needleman shows that even very small amounts of lead in bones can affect brain development. A simple blood test can measure lead. But an X-ray process is needed to measure levels in bone. In two thousand two, such tests were done on one hundred ninety young people who were in jail. The findings showed that their average levels were higher than normal. And, in nineteen ninety-six, three hundred children were studied. Test scores showed higher levels of aggression and learning problems in those with increased levels of lead. Yet these levels were still considered safe by the government. Doctor Needleman and other experts say all this research shows that one way to reduce crime is to keep young children away from lead. That will not be easy. Just last week, the government warned Americans about charm jewelry with high levels of lead. These metal charms were made in China and sold in some arts and crafts stores in the United States. An American company is now trying to recall almost three million of them. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-08-5-1.cfm
* Headline: March 9, 2005 - Interview with an English Learner in Iran
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: an interview with one of our listeners in Iran. RS: Atefeh is a university student. She's studying English literature, so she reads a lot of classic books. But, like any young person, she's also tuned in to the latest slang. AA: How do we know? Well, when we began our conversation and asked her "what's up?" instead of saying "not much, just relaxing," this was her reply: ATEFEH: "Just chillin'." RS: "Just chilling -- is that what you just said?" [llaughter] ATEFEH: "I learned this from your program." RS: "Well, what do you like about studying English? What is it, is it a ... " ATEFEH: "Oh, no, actually I love the language. I love studying anything in English, actually any program on TV that is in English I watch it and I love it." RS: "And it's something that you are obviously very good at." ATEFEH: "Thank you. It's interesting to know that there is a big paper on my wall, and I write every new word that I learn every day. And I try to memorize them and memorize their usage, and then I highlight the words that I learn." AA: "What are a few new words you've added to that wall." ATEFEH: "Well, for example, 'bleak mood,' B-L-E-A-K M-O-O-D." RS: "Ah, bleak mood." AA: "What do you think that means." ATEFEH: "It means a cold and cheerless behavior, actually, a kind of [inaudible.]" RS: "That's right." AA: "That's a ... " RS: "That's a great expression. I mean, that's a very descriptive way of describing how somebody feels. If it's bleak, it's definitely not, it's definitely ... " AA: "Where did you hear bleak mood?" RS: "Or read." ATEFEH: "I read it in a book. The book was called 'Chicken Soup for the Soul.'" RS: "'Chicken Soup for the Soul' ... " AA: "That's a very popular series of books." ATEFEH: "Yes." AA: "So what's another word that's on your wall?" ATEFEH: "A beautiful word that was very funny to me was 'bunny.'" RS: "Bunny ... " ATEFEH: "B-U-N-N-Y." RS: "OK, like a rabbit." AA: "A rabbit." ATEFEH: "Yes, a rabbit for a child. Actually a child uses this word, I think." RS: "You know, another thing that you might be interested in is that sometimes, incorrectly, we say 'well, that's a bunny rabbit.' We use both of those words together -- that's incorrect in English because ... " AA: "It's redundant." RS: "... it's redundant. A bunny is a rabbit." AA: "Now is there another word or two from your wall that you ... " ATEFEH: "Yes, there's another expression: 'not to be on speaking terms.'" RS: "'Not to be on speaking terms.' Now what do you think that means?" ATEFEH: "Well, it means that we're not talking to each other anymore, we're not friends anymore." RS: "Right, and somebody might say, 'well, why didn't you say hello to him?' and you would say?" ATEFEH: "We're not on speaking terms." AA: "That's right." RS: "'We're not on speaking terms.' Exactly. Now, your English is quite good and you were telling us a little bit about how you are actually getting to a higher level. You have your wall where you write your expressions, and you also read a lot." ATEFEH: "Yes, you know, actually I'm studying English literature, and they have emphasis on the literature actually, the literary works, Shakespeare's works or other things. But the phonology is very difficult for me. But I think I have to improve my GE, I mean General English. That is quite -- it's not that difficult, because I love it." AA: "Oh, well that's good to hear." RS: "It's been delightful talking to you." AA: "Yes!" RS: "Keep going with that wall. It sounds like you could definitely paper your house with new English expressions." ATEFEH: "My Mom is always complaining about the wall. She says that 'you're just making the wall dirty, the room ugly,' such things." AA: "Wait, you don't write on the wall itself, do you? You're writing on a piece of paper, or ... " ATEFEH: "It's a paper." RS: "Well, tell your mother that Avi and I say that you should keep those papers up there because you'll learn English more fluently." ATEFEH: "OK, my Mom is hearing you!" [laughter] AA: An English literature student named Atefeh, on the phone with us from Iran. She says that once she graduates, she wants to go on for a master's degree and then a Ph.D. RS: We wish her luck. And we'd like to invite other listeners to tell us their strategies for learning English. We will share the responses in a future Wordmaster program. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And, if you'd like help learning English, you can download over three hundred of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: an interview with one of our listeners in Iran. RS: Atefeh is a university student. She's studying English literature, so she reads a lot of classic books. But, like any young person, she's also tuned in to the latest slang. AA: How do we know? Well, when we began our conversation and asked her "what's up?" instead of saying "not much, just relaxing," this was her reply: ATEFEH: "Just chillin'." RS: "Just chilling -- is that what you just said?" [llaughter] ATEFEH: "I learned this from your program." RS: "Well, what do you like about studying English? What is it, is it a ... " ATEFEH: "Oh, no, actually I love the language. I love studying anything in English, actually any program on TV that is in English I watch it and I love it." RS: "And it's something that you are obviously very good at." ATEFEH: "Thank you. It's interesting to know that there is a big paper on my wall, and I write every new word that I learn every day. And I try to memorize them and memorize their usage, and then I highlight the words that I learn." AA: "What are a few new words you've added to that wall." ATEFEH: "Well, for example, 'bleak mood,' B-L-E-A-K M-O-O-D." RS: "Ah, bleak mood." AA: "What do you think that means." ATEFEH: "It means a cold and cheerless behavior, actually, a kind of [inaudible.]" RS: "That's right." AA: "That's a ... " RS: "That's a great expression. I mean, that's a very descriptive way of describing how somebody feels. If it's bleak, it's definitely not, it's definitely ... " AA: "Where did you hear bleak mood?" RS: "Or read." ATEFEH: "I read it in a book. The book was called 'Chicken Soup for the Soul.'" RS: "'Chicken Soup for the Soul' ... " AA: "That's a very popular series of books." ATEFEH: "Yes." AA: "So what's another word that's on your wall?" ATEFEH: "A beautiful word that was very funny to me was 'bunny.'" RS: "Bunny ... " ATEFEH: "B-U-N-N-Y." RS: "OK, like a rabbit." AA: "A rabbit." ATEFEH: "Yes, a rabbit for a child. Actually a child uses this word, I think." RS: "You know, another thing that you might be interested in is that sometimes, incorrectly, we say 'well, that's a bunny rabbit.' We use both of those words together -- that's incorrect in English because ... " AA: "It's redundant." RS: "... it's redundant. A bunny is a rabbit." AA: "Now is there another word or two from your wall that you ... " ATEFEH: "Yes, there's another expression: 'not to be on speaking terms.'" RS: "'Not to be on speaking terms.' Now what do you think that means?" ATEFEH: "Well, it means that we're not talking to each other anymore, we're not friends anymore." RS: "Right, and somebody might say, 'well, why didn't you say hello to him?' and you would say?" ATEFEH: "We're not on speaking terms." AA: "That's right." RS: "'We're not on speaking terms.' Exactly. Now, your English is quite good and you were telling us a little bit about how you are actually getting to a higher level. You have your wall where you write your expressions, and you also read a lot." ATEFEH: "Yes, you know, actually I'm studying English literature, and they have emphasis on the literature actually, the literary works, Shakespeare's works or other things. But the phonology is very difficult for me. But I think I have to improve my GE, I mean General English. That is quite -- it's not that difficult, because I love it." AA: "Oh, well that's good to hear." RS: "It's been delightful talking to you." AA: "Yes!" RS: "Keep going with that wall. It sounds like you could definitely paper your house with new English expressions." ATEFEH: "My Mom is always complaining about the wall. She says that 'you're just making the wall dirty, the room ugly,' such things." AA: "Wait, you don't write on the wall itself, do you? You're writing on a piece of paper, or ... " ATEFEH: "It's a paper." RS: "Well, tell your mother that Avi and I say that you should keep those papers up there because you'll learn English more fluently." ATEFEH: "OK, my Mom is hearing you!" [laughter] AA: An English literature student named Atefeh, on the phone with us from Iran. She says that once she graduates, she wants to go on for a master's degree and then a Ph.D. RS: We wish her luck. And we'd like to invite other listeners to tell us their strategies for learning English. We will share the responses in a future Wordmaster program. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And, if you'd like help learning English, you can download over three hundred of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Announcer: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) By the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, the American Civil war had been going on for more than a year. The Union had won some battles. The Confederacy had won others. But neither side had gained enough military or civilian targets to win the war. President Abraham Lincoln needed a major victory. He was losing the support of both politicians and citizens. A major victory would confirm that his policies were correct. It also would make it easier for him to make an important announcement. For a number of months, he had been planning an announcement concerning Negroes who were held as slaves in the south. It would come to be known as the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell about Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: At the end of August, eighteen-sixty-two, Confederate troops under the command of Robert E. Lee defeated the main Union army at Manassas, Virginia. The battlefield was less than fifty kilometers from Washington. The year before, Confederate troops had sent the Union army fleeing from that same battlefield. Now they had done it again. With this latest victory, General Lee decided on a major move. He would carry the war into the northern states. Lee took his army of sixty-thousand men across the Potomac River into Maryland. He ordered some of his men to capture the Union position at Harpers Ferry. He moved the others to Sharpsburg, a town on the Potomac River. He put his men into position along Antietam Creek, just outside of town. His lines extended almost three kilometers. There, at Antietam, he would make his stand. He was still close enough to Virginia to withdraw, if the Union force following him proved too strong. VOICE TWO: The Union force arrived in the middle of September. It did not attack immediately. It spent one full day getting into position along Antietam Creek across from the Confederate army. It attacked the following day at sunrise. The Union general, George McClellan, planned to attack all along the Confederate line at the same time. But this did not happen. First, Union troops attacked one end of the line, which extended into a field full of tall corn plants. Then they attacked the center of the line, which was in an old, deeply sunken road that gave it good protection. Finally, they attacked at the other end of the line. For each northern attack, General Lee was able to move men to where they were needed. The northern troops got within twenty-five meters of the Confederate line. But they could not break through anywhere. VOICE ONE: On the first day of battle at Antietam, Lee lost twenty-five percent of his men. On the second day, the two armies faced each other without firing. They were too tired to fight. As they rested, however, fresh Union soldiers moved into position. Lee knew they would attack with full force the next day. He knew he could not win. Sadly, he ordered his men back to Virginia. It was now clear: Antietam was a northern victory. It was not a complete victory. The Union army could have chased the Confederate army and destroyed it. But General McClellan did not do this. He was satisfied that he had stopped the invasion. VOICE TWO: In Washington, President Lincoln welcomed the news. He had waited a long time for a northern victory. A few days after the battle, Lincoln held a special meeting with his cabinet. He talked about the declaration on slavery which he had prepared. It would free Negro slaves in the rebel states of the south. "As you remember," he said, "I put the declaration aside several weeks ago, until I could issue it supported by a military victory. The action of the army against the rebels has not been exactly what I should have liked. But the rebels have been driven out of Maryland. And Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion." President Lincoln said he thought the time was right to announce the Emancipation Proclamation. The cabinet made some minor changes in the document, and Lincoln signed it. VOICE ONE: Newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said: VOICE TWO: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free. "The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." VOICE ONE: President Lincoln had tried to keep the question of slavery out of the Civil War. To him, there was just one reason for fighting: to save the Union. Nothing meant more to him than preventing the nation from splitting up. Lincoln feared that the issue of slavery would weaken the northern war effort. Many men throughout the north would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves. Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that did not leave the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves. As Lincoln waited for a Union victory to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote a letter to the "New York Tribune" newspaper. The letter was to prepare the public for what was to come. This is what Lincoln said: VOICE TWO: "My chief object in this struggle is to save the Union. It is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. "What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union. This is how I see my official duty. It does not change my wish -- as a person -- that all men everywhere could be free." VOICE ONE: President Lincoln failed to keep the question of slavery out of the Civil War. As the war went on, month after long month, people in the north began to see it as more than a struggle for national unity. They began to see it as a struggle for human freedom. Abolitionists were active. In speeches and writings, they said over and over again that slavery was evil. As public opinion began to change, anti-slavery members of Congress gained more power. By the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, they had enough support to pass laws ending slavery in Washington, D.C. and United States territories. They also pushed through Congress a bill that would do much to end slavery in the states. VOICE TWO: The bill was called the "Confiscation Act. " It gave the federal government the power to confiscate, or seize, the property of all persons who supported the southern rebellion. Slaves were considered property. So any slaves seized under the act would become free immediately. Slaves who escaped from rebel slave owners also would be free. The bill would not affect slaves owned by persons who supported the Union. President Lincoln did not like the Confiscation Act. He thought it interfered with his wartime powers as Commander-in-Chief. VOICE ONE: However, Lincoln was under great pressure from Abolitionists. So he signed the new law. But he did not plan to enforce it. He still hoped for a plan that would free the slaves slowly, over time. He proposed such a plan, but only for the border states between north and south. Under his plan, the federal government would buy slaves in the border states and free them. Lawmakers from the border states rejected Lincoln's plan. And that is when he decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. We will tell about the effects of that decision next week. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. --- THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. (MUSIC) Announcer: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) By the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, the American Civil war had been going on for more than a year. The Union had won some battles. The Confederacy had won others. But neither side had gained enough military or civilian targets to win the war. President Abraham Lincoln needed a major victory. He was losing the support of both politicians and citizens. A major victory would confirm that his policies were correct. It also would make it easier for him to make an important announcement. For a number of months, he had been planning an announcement concerning Negroes who were held as slaves in the south. It would come to be known as the Emancipation Proclamation. Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell about Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: At the end of August, eighteen-sixty-two, Confederate troops under the command of Robert E. Lee defeated the main Union army at Manassas, Virginia. The battlefield was less than fifty kilometers from Washington. The year before, Confederate troops had sent the Union army fleeing from that same battlefield. Now they had done it again. With this latest victory, General Lee decided on a major move. He would carry the war into the northern states. Lee took his army of sixty-thousand men across the Potomac River into Maryland. He ordered some of his men to capture the Union position at Harpers Ferry. He moved the others to Sharpsburg, a town on the Potomac River. He put his men into position along Antietam Creek, just outside of town. His lines extended almost three kilometers. There, at Antietam, he would make his stand. He was still close enough to Virginia to withdraw, if the Union force following him proved too strong. VOICE TWO: The Union force arrived in the middle of September. It did not attack immediately. It spent one full day getting into position along Antietam Creek across from the Confederate army. It attacked the following day at sunrise. The Union general, George McClellan, planned to attack all along the Confederate line at the same time. But this did not happen. First, Union troops attacked one end of the line, which extended into a field full of tall corn plants. Then they attacked the center of the line, which was in an old, deeply sunken road that gave it good protection. Finally, they attacked at the other end of the line. For each northern attack, General Lee was able to move men to where they were needed. The northern troops got within twenty-five meters of the Confederate line. But they could not break through anywhere. VOICE ONE: On the first day of battle at Antietam, Lee lost twenty-five percent of his men. On the second day, the two armies faced each other without firing. They were too tired to fight. As they rested, however, fresh Union soldiers moved into position. Lee knew they would attack with full force the next day. He knew he could not win. Sadly, he ordered his men back to Virginia. It was now clear: Antietam was a northern victory. It was not a complete victory. The Union army could have chased the Confederate army and destroyed it. But General McClellan did not do this. He was satisfied that he had stopped the invasion. VOICE TWO: In Washington, President Lincoln welcomed the news. He had waited a long time for a northern victory. A few days after the battle, Lincoln held a special meeting with his cabinet. He talked about the declaration on slavery which he had prepared. It would free Negro slaves in the rebel states of the south. "As you remember," he said, "I put the declaration aside several weeks ago, until I could issue it supported by a military victory. The action of the army against the rebels has not been exactly what I should have liked. But the rebels have been driven out of Maryland. And Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion." President Lincoln said he thought the time was right to announce the Emancipation Proclamation. The cabinet made some minor changes in the document, and Lincoln signed it. VOICE ONE: Newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said: VOICE TWO: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free. "The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." VOICE ONE: President Lincoln had tried to keep the question of slavery out of the Civil War. To him, there was just one reason for fighting: to save the Union. Nothing meant more to him than preventing the nation from splitting up. Lincoln feared that the issue of slavery would weaken the northern war effort. Many men throughout the north would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves. Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that did not leave the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves. As Lincoln waited for a Union victory to announce his Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote a letter to the "New York Tribune" newspaper. The letter was to prepare the public for what was to come. This is what Lincoln said: VOICE TWO: "My chief object in this struggle is to save the Union. It is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. "What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union. This is how I see my official duty. It does not change my wish -- as a person -- that all men everywhere could be free." VOICE ONE: President Lincoln failed to keep the question of slavery out of the Civil War. As the war went on, month after long month, people in the north began to see it as more than a struggle for national unity. They began to see it as a struggle for human freedom. Abolitionists were active. In speeches and writings, they said over and over again that slavery was evil. As public opinion began to change, anti-slavery members of Congress gained more power. By the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, they had enough support to pass laws ending slavery in Washington, D.C. and United States territories. They also pushed through Congress a bill that would do much to end slavery in the states. VOICE TWO: The bill was called the "Confiscation Act. " It gave the federal government the power to confiscate, or seize, the property of all persons who supported the southern rebellion. Slaves were considered property. So any slaves seized under the act would become free immediately. Slaves who escaped from rebel slave owners also would be free. The bill would not affect slaves owned by persons who supported the Union. President Lincoln did not like the Confiscation Act. He thought it interfered with his wartime powers as Commander-in-Chief. VOICE ONE: However, Lincoln was under great pressure from Abolitionists. So he signed the new law. But he did not plan to enforce it. He still hoped for a plan that would free the slaves slowly, over time. He proposed such a plan, but only for the border states between north and south. Under his plan, the federal government would buy slaves in the border states and free them. Lawmakers from the border states rejected Lincoln's plan. And that is when he decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. We will tell about the effects of that decision next week. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. --- THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: New York University Has Strong Appeal Among Foreign Students
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series for students in other countries who want to study in the United States. Last week, we talked about the University of Southern California. Students at U.S.C. get to experience life in America's second-largest city, Los Angeles, on the West Coast. This week, we discuss another school with a large number of foreign students. It is all the way across the country, in New York City. New York University has forty-eight thousand students. More than four thousand of them are from outside the United States. N.Y.U. offers many different programs of study. Also, students get to experience life in America's largest city. In fact, Gail Szenes tells us that N.Y.U. is the coolest school in the United States. Her opinion may have something to do with her job: she is director of the International Student Office at N.Y.U. The foreign students at New York University come from more than one hundred forty countries. Most are from South Korea, India, Canada, China and Japan. Foreign students are studying in all fourteen schools within the university. These include arts and sciences, law, business and education. More than three thousand of the foreign students are in graduate and professional schools. About eight hundred are undergraduates. The cost of attending New York University for one year is about fifty thousand dollars for undergraduates. That includes housing and health insurance. The cost for graduate students is different in each of the schools. Bachelor’s degree students at N.Y.U. can borrow money from financial institutions to help pay for their studies. Foreign students in graduate school at N.Y.U. can get teaching or research jobs at the university. They can also get loans from financial institutions or the university. Gail Szenes say limits on university loans have increased this year. N.Y.U. also offers English language training at its American Language Institute. Internet users can learn all about New York University at nyu.edu. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. Our reports are all online at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Music by Maroon 5 / Round-the-world flyer Steve Fossett / Question from Ethiopia
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Maroon Five ... A question about a famous law enforcement agency ... And a report on Steve Fossett's latest trip around the world. Steve Fossett American pilot Steve Fossett flew around the world last week. He made the flight alone and without stopping for fuel. He spent sixty-seven hours and one minute in the air. Bob Doughty has our story. BOB DOUGHTY: Steve Fossett likes to set records. Before last week he held sixty-two international records for flying and sailing. His earlier best-known flight record was for traveling around the world, alone, in a balloon. The aircraft he used last week is called the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. This experimental aircraft has one jet engine and carries nine tons of fuel. Its wings are almost forty-four meters long. The GlobalFlyer cost one-and-one-half million dollars. The money came from Richard Branson, the British businessman who owns Virgin Atlantic airlines. The flight began in Salina Kansas, in the middle of the United States. Organizers of the flight chose that city because its airport has a very long runway. The experimental aircraft needed an extra long runway to take off because of the weight of its fuel. Steve Fossett took the aircraft to fourteen thousand meters. The sixty-year-old pilot used the strong winds at that height to gain speed and save fuel. Several hours into the flight, it appeared that the plane had a fuel shortage. But Mister Fossett and the ground controllers could not tell if the fuel was gone or if the instruments were wrong. Ground control told Mister Fossett that he would have to make a decision about continuing the flight when he reached Hawaii. As he neared the islands, the strong winds that helped carry the GlobalFlyer increased. Steve Fossett decided to continue his attempt. Those winds continued to help the GlobalFlyer on its return to Salina. Mister Fossett had little sleep during his sixty-seven-hour flight. He says he has more projects in the planning. As of last week, all he needed was recognition from the National Aeronautic Association. Then he could claim the record for the fastest non-stop, non-refueled trip ever made around the world. Texas Rangers DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Desta Terefe would like to know about the Texas Rangers. There is a team in baseball with that name. But our listener means the famous group of law enforcement officers. Over the years, those Texas Rangers have been the subject of books, movies and television programs. In the city of Dallas, at Love Field Airport, there is a large statue of a man. On his head is a cowboy hat. On his hip is a large pistol. His hand is not near the gun, but it is easy to tell that he could reach for it quickly. Near the bottom of the statue are the words "One Riot, One Ranger!" Texas Rangers MuseumThe Texas Rangers is one of the oldest law enforcement organizations in North America. The first group was organized in eighteen twenty-three. In the early history of the state, the Texas Rangers acted somewhere between a police force and a military force. Their main task was to protect settlers from Indian attacks. Today, the main job of the Texas Rangers is to investigate and capture wanted criminals. They do this by working with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. About one hundred eighteen officers work as Texas Rangers. They are divided into a headquarters group, six companies of Rangers and a special team that investigates unsolved crimes. Those who want to become a Texas Ranger must not only have police experience. They must also have at least eight years' experience dealing with major crimes. It is not unusual for two hundred police officers to apply for one or two openings in the Texas Rangers. Maroon Five Maroon FiveThe band Maroon Five won a Grammy award last month for best new artist. Yet members of this group have been performing together for years. Gwen Outen explains. GWEN OUTEN: Maroon Five is Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, Ryan Dusick and James Valentine. All but James Valentine went to high school together in Los Angeles. They formed a band, Kara’s Flowers. But Kara's Flowers never grew very popular. So they stopped performing and went to college. After that, the four got back together. By then their music had changed. And they added the fifth member of their group, James Valentine on guitar. They called themselves Maroon Five. Their first album is called "Songs About Jane." It was recorded while Adam Levine was ending a relationship with his girlfriend, Jane. This song is called "Harder to Breathe." (MUSIC) "Songs About Jane" was released in two thousand two. It has sold more than eight million copies. Here is a song called "This Love." (MUSIC) The album "Songs About Jane" by Maroon Five has been described as rock pop, influenced by funk and rhythm-and-blues. We leave you with "She Will Be Loved." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Maroon Five ... A question about a famous law enforcement agency ... And a report on Steve Fossett's latest trip around the world. Steve Fossett American pilot Steve Fossett flew around the world last week. He made the flight alone and without stopping for fuel. He spent sixty-seven hours and one minute in the air. Bob Doughty has our story. BOB DOUGHTY: Steve Fossett likes to set records. Before last week he held sixty-two international records for flying and sailing. His earlier best-known flight record was for traveling around the world, alone, in a balloon. The aircraft he used last week is called the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. This experimental aircraft has one jet engine and carries nine tons of fuel. Its wings are almost forty-four meters long. The GlobalFlyer cost one-and-one-half million dollars. The money came from Richard Branson, the British businessman who owns Virgin Atlantic airlines. The flight began in Salina Kansas, in the middle of the United States. Organizers of the flight chose that city because its airport has a very long runway. The experimental aircraft needed an extra long runway to take off because of the weight of its fuel. Steve Fossett took the aircraft to fourteen thousand meters. The sixty-year-old pilot used the strong winds at that height to gain speed and save fuel. Several hours into the flight, it appeared that the plane had a fuel shortage. But Mister Fossett and the ground controllers could not tell if the fuel was gone or if the instruments were wrong. Ground control told Mister Fossett that he would have to make a decision about continuing the flight when he reached Hawaii. As he neared the islands, the strong winds that helped carry the GlobalFlyer increased. Steve Fossett decided to continue his attempt. Those winds continued to help the GlobalFlyer on its return to Salina. Mister Fossett had little sleep during his sixty-seven-hour flight. He says he has more projects in the planning. As of last week, all he needed was recognition from the National Aeronautic Association. Then he could claim the record for the fastest non-stop, non-refueled trip ever made around the world. Texas Rangers DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Desta Terefe would like to know about the Texas Rangers. There is a team in baseball with that name. But our listener means the famous group of law enforcement officers. Over the years, those Texas Rangers have been the subject of books, movies and television programs. In the city of Dallas, at Love Field Airport, there is a large statue of a man. On his head is a cowboy hat. On his hip is a large pistol. His hand is not near the gun, but it is easy to tell that he could reach for it quickly. Near the bottom of the statue are the words "One Riot, One Ranger!" Texas Rangers MuseumThe Texas Rangers is one of the oldest law enforcement organizations in North America. The first group was organized in eighteen twenty-three. In the early history of the state, the Texas Rangers acted somewhere between a police force and a military force. Their main task was to protect settlers from Indian attacks. Today, the main job of the Texas Rangers is to investigate and capture wanted criminals. They do this by working with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. About one hundred eighteen officers work as Texas Rangers. They are divided into a headquarters group, six companies of Rangers and a special team that investigates unsolved crimes. Those who want to become a Texas Ranger must not only have police experience. They must also have at least eight years' experience dealing with major crimes. It is not unusual for two hundred police officers to apply for one or two openings in the Texas Rangers. Maroon Five Maroon FiveThe band Maroon Five won a Grammy award last month for best new artist. Yet members of this group have been performing together for years. Gwen Outen explains. GWEN OUTEN: Maroon Five is Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, Ryan Dusick and James Valentine. All but James Valentine went to high school together in Los Angeles. They formed a band, Kara’s Flowers. But Kara's Flowers never grew very popular. So they stopped performing and went to college. After that, the four got back together. By then their music had changed. And they added the fifth member of their group, James Valentine on guitar. They called themselves Maroon Five. Their first album is called "Songs About Jane." It was recorded while Adam Levine was ending a relationship with his girlfriend, Jane. This song is called "Harder to Breathe." (MUSIC) "Songs About Jane" was released in two thousand two. It has sold more than eight million copies. Here is a song called "This Love." (MUSIC) The album "Songs About Jane" by Maroon Five has been described as rock pop, influenced by funk and rhythm-and-blues. We leave you with "She Will Be Loved." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: What Is Insurance, Part 1
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Insurance is a guarantee against financial loss. Insurance policies can be bought for all sorts of things. The most common kinds of insurance include life, health and property. For example, an insurance company will pay to repair or replace the property if it is damaged or stolen. How much a company will pay in the event of a claim depends on how much insurance the policyholder has bought. The amount may also depend on the conditions that led to the damage. The Insurance Information Institute says Americans paid forty-nine thousand million dollars for homeowners insurance in two thousand three. The payments that policyholders make to an insurance company are called premiums. Premiums for car insurance totaled sixty-five thousand million. Insurance is an ancient idea. Early forms of insurance were used over three thousand years ago in Babylonia, the country that is now Iraq. Also, the Phoenician, Greek and Roman cultures had forms of insurance in case of loss or death. By the fourteen hundreds, the European shipping trade had developed its own system of insurance. There are two main kinds of insurance companies. Insurance carriers provide insurance to individuals, groups and businesses. Re-insurance companies help reduce the financial risk to carriers. These are insurance companies for insurance companies. Carriers usually sell their policies through insurance agencies or brokers. Brokers bring together buyers and sellers. Large businesses often use brokers when choosing products to insure their workers, property and interests against risk. Independent sales agents sell insurance from many companies. Others sales agents sell insurance from only one company. Over two million Americans work in the insurance industry. A government report shows that more than ninety percent of insurance-related businesses employ fewer than twenty workers. Yet, as of three years ago, just a few large companies employed almost forty percent of all the workers in the industry. Employment experts say job growth in the insurance industry is slower than in other industries. They say technology has increased productivity, which means fewer workers are needed to do the work. Listen next week for part two of our look at insurance. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: I.R.A. Ties Put Pressure on Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland Peace Efforts
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. This year is the one hundredth anniversary of Sinn Fein, the main political party for Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. But these days there is little to celebrate. Sinn Fein serves as the political organization of the Irish Republican Army. And the I.R.A. is being widely condemned over recent cases of robbery and murder. The Irish Republican Army began in nineteen nineteen. This week the American diplomat for Northern Ireland said it is time to "go out of business." On Thursday, the British House of Commons voted to take away the right of parliamentary pay for Sinn Fein members. The party holds four seats in the British Parliament. The European Parliament is considering similar action. Next Thursday is Saint Patrick's Day, an Irish celebration. Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, was not invited this year to join President Bush for the traditional observance at the White House. The heads of other political parties in Northern Ireland were not invited either. But White House officials have invited the five sisters of a truck driver killed in January by the I.R.A. In the Gaelic language, Sinn Fein means "we ourselves" or "ourselves alone." The group started in nineteen oh five as a loose coalition of labor organizations. At that time, Britain ruled all of Ireland. Sinn Fein supporters wanted at least some independence from the British. Today the territory is separated into the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Most Irish citizens are Roman Catholic. But Northern Ireland is a British province, and the population is mostly Protestant. Years of violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland began in nineteen sixty-nine. Bombings were common. In nineteen ninety-seven, the Irish Republican Army declared a ceasefire. Peace talks led to a power-sharing agreement in April of the following year, on the Christian observance of Good Friday. But political troubles continued. In October of two thousand two, British Prime Minister Tony Blair suspended the administration of Roman Catholics and Protestants. Sinn Fein wants a place in any renewed government. But political observers say its efforts are hurt by evidence against the Irish Republican Army. In December, robbers stole up to fifty million dollars from a Belfast bank. Hostages were taken. Investigators found the I.R.A. responsible, which the group denies. The I.R.A. was ordered to pay a large fine. Then, in January of this year, I.R.A. members killed a Roman Catholic truck driver. His name was Robert McCartney. It happened after a dispute at a drinking place in Belfast. In reaction, the I.R.A. expelled some of its members. It also offered to shoot the men who killed Robert McCartney. But his family wants the killers to face justice. In the words of a family member, "Only in a court will the truth come out." In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. This year is the one hundredth anniversary of Sinn Fein, the main political party for Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. But these days there is little to celebrate. Sinn Fein serves as the political organization of the Irish Republican Army. And the I.R.A. is being widely condemned over recent cases of robbery and murder. The Irish Republican Army began in nineteen nineteen. This week the American diplomat for Northern Ireland said it is time to "go out of business." On Thursday, the British House of Commons voted to take away the right of parliamentary pay for Sinn Fein members. The party holds four seats in the British Parliament. The European Parliament is considering similar action. Next Thursday is Saint Patrick's Day, an Irish celebration. Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, was not invited this year to join President Bush for the traditional observance at the White House. The heads of other political parties in Northern Ireland were not invited either. But White House officials have invited the five sisters of a truck driver killed in January by the I.R.A. In the Gaelic language, Sinn Fein means "we ourselves" or "ourselves alone." The group started in nineteen oh five as a loose coalition of labor organizations. At that time, Britain ruled all of Ireland. Sinn Fein supporters wanted at least some independence from the British. Today the territory is separated into the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. Most Irish citizens are Roman Catholic. But Northern Ireland is a British province, and the population is mostly Protestant. Years of violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland began in nineteen sixty-nine. Bombings were common. In nineteen ninety-seven, the Irish Republican Army declared a ceasefire. Peace talks led to a power-sharing agreement in April of the following year, on the Christian observance of Good Friday. But political troubles continued. In October of two thousand two, British Prime Minister Tony Blair suspended the administration of Roman Catholics and Protestants. Sinn Fein wants a place in any renewed government. But political observers say its efforts are hurt by evidence against the Irish Republican Army. In December, robbers stole up to fifty million dollars from a Belfast bank. Hostages were taken. Investigators found the I.R.A. responsible, which the group denies. The I.R.A. was ordered to pay a large fine. Then, in January of this year, I.R.A. members killed a Roman Catholic truck driver. His name was Robert McCartney. It happened after a dispute at a drinking place in Belfast. In reaction, the I.R.A. expelled some of its members. It also offered to shoot the men who killed Robert McCartney. But his family wants the killers to face justice. In the words of a family member, "Only in a court will the truth come out." In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Elvis Presley
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) ANNCR: Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in VOA Special English. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember tell about one of America’s most popular singers, Elvis Presley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: ANNCR: Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in VOA Special English. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember tell about one of America’s most popular singers, Elvis Presley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song, “Hound Dog,” was one of Elvis Presley’s most popular records. It sold five-million copies in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. Music industry experts say more than one-thousand-million of Elvis’s recordings have sold throughout the world. He was a success in many different kinds of music --popular, country, religious, and rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley won many awards from nations all over the world, yet he did not record in any language other than English. He never performed outside the United States, except for three shows in Canada. Yet, his recordings and films have been, and are still, enjoyed by people all over the world. VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley, on stage in Hawaii?EPE, www.elvis.comElvis Aaron Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi on January eighth, Nineteen-Thirty-Five. His family was extremely poor. During his childhood, he sang in church with his parents. He also listened to music that influenced his later singing, including country, rhythm and blues, and religious music. Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was thirteen. After high school, he had several jobs, including driving a truck. In Nineteen-Fifty-Three, he made his first recording, of this song, “My Happiness”: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley recorded the song at the Memphis Recording Service. The story is that he paid four dollars to make a recording for his mother. A woman who worked at the public recording studio had another job with a local independent record company called Sun Records. She made a second recording of Elvis’s songs because she thought the owner of Sun Records should hear him sing. VOICE TWO: Elvis - the early days?EPE, www.elvis.comThe owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, had been looking for a white performer who could sing black rhythm and blues. He suggested Elvis work with a guitar player and a bass player. Several months later Mister Phillips agreed to have the group make a record. It was released on July nineteenth, Nineteen-Fifty-Four. One of the songs was “That’s All Right”: (MUSIC) The record sold well in Memphis, and was a played a lot on local radio stations. To let others hear Elvis, Sam Phillips organized a series of performances at country fairs in the area. One of the people who heard Elvis perform at these shows was Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis signed an agreement that Colonel Parker would organize his appearances. One of Elvis’ first new recordings became a huge hit, and led to his many appearances on television. It was “Heartbreak Hotel”: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the middle of the Nineteen-Fifties, Elvis Presley was known around the world as the young man who moved his hips in a sexual way as he sang rock and roll music. Many adults said he and his music were bad influences on young people. Young women loved him. Huge crowds attended his performances. He made his first movie in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. It was “Love Me Tender.” The title song was a big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood for a number of years in the Nineteen-Fifties. He acted in thirty-one movies. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, just as he finished making the movie “King Creole,” Elvis received notice that he had to serve in the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany where he lived in a large house and dated a lot of beautiful women. One young girl he met in Germany was Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Army officer. She was fourteen years old. Later, after Elvis had finished his army service, she came to live with him in Memphis. They married in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, when she was twenty-one years old. He was thirty-two. They became parents nine months later of a baby girl, Lisa Marie. VOICE ONE: Colonel Parker made sure that songs Elvis had recorded earlier were released during the years he was in the army. So Elvis was just as popular after his military service as he was before it. Elvis Presley won the three of the music industry’s highest award, the Grammy. He received the first one in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. It was for “How Great Thou Art,” an album of religious music. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis returned to performing live shows in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He then traveled around the country performing before huge crowds. He began to take drugs to help him sleep. He gained a lot of weight so he took drugs to help control his weight. And he took extremely strong drugs to reduce pain Elvis also suffered from the emotional sickness, depression. It became worse after his marriage ended. Elvis never permitted Priscilla to stay with him in Las Vegas or travel with him around the country. He also did not want Priscilla to see other people when he was away from home. And he spent time with other women. Priscilla finally left him in Nineteen-Seventy-Two for another man. VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley released many recordings of his performances during the Nineteen-Seventies. He also enjoyed great success on television. His Nineteen-Seventy-Three television show from Hawaii was seen in forty countries by more than one-thousand-million people. His last record album was called “Moody Blue.” He recorded it in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. One of its hit songs was called “Way Down”: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley died on August sixteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. First reports said he had a heart attack, but later tests showed many drugs in his body. Experts agree that these drugs probably caused his death. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis every year. Fans continue to buy his music, making him the most popular recording artist ever. Elvis Presley remains the undisputed King of Rock and Roll. (MUSIC) ANNCR: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember were the narrators. The producer was Paul Thompson. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. That song, “Hound Dog,” was one of Elvis Presley’s most popular records. It sold five-million copies in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. Music industry experts say more than one-thousand-million of Elvis’s recordings have sold throughout the world. He was a success in many different kinds of music --popular, country, religious, and rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley won many awards from nations all over the world, yet he did not record in any language other than English. He never performed outside the United States, except for three shows in Canada. Yet, his recordings and films have been, and are still, enjoyed by people all over the world. VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley, on stage in Hawaii?EPE, www.elvis.comElvis Aaron Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi on January eighth, Nineteen-Thirty-Five. His family was extremely poor. During his childhood, he sang in church with his parents. He also listened to music that influenced his later singing, including country, rhythm and blues, and religious music. Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was thirteen. After high school, he had several jobs, including driving a truck. In Nineteen-Fifty-Three, he made his first recording, of this song, “My Happiness”: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley recorded the song at the Memphis Recording Service. The story is that he paid four dollars to make a recording for his mother. A woman who worked at the public recording studio had another job with a local independent record company called Sun Records. She made a second recording of Elvis’s songs because she thought the owner of Sun Records should hear him sing. VOICE TWO: Elvis - the early days?EPE, www.elvis.comThe owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, had been looking for a white performer who could sing black rhythm and blues. He suggested Elvis work with a guitar player and a bass player. Several months later Mister Phillips agreed to have the group make a record. It was released on July nineteenth, Nineteen-Fifty-Four. One of the songs was “That’s All Right”: (MUSIC) The record sold well in Memphis, and was a played a lot on local radio stations. To let others hear Elvis, Sam Phillips organized a series of performances at country fairs in the area. One of the people who heard Elvis perform at these shows was Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis signed an agreement that Colonel Parker would organize his appearances. One of Elvis’ first new recordings became a huge hit, and led to his many appearances on television. It was “Heartbreak Hotel”: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the middle of the Nineteen-Fifties, Elvis Presley was known around the world as the young man who moved his hips in a sexual way as he sang rock and roll music. Many adults said he and his music were bad influences on young people. Young women loved him. Huge crowds attended his performances. He made his first movie in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. It was “Love Me Tender.” The title song was a big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood for a number of years in the Nineteen-Fifties. He acted in thirty-one movies. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, just as he finished making the movie “King Creole,” Elvis received notice that he had to serve in the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany where he lived in a large house and dated a lot of beautiful women. One young girl he met in Germany was Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Army officer. She was fourteen years old. Later, after Elvis had finished his army service, she came to live with him in Memphis. They married in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, when she was twenty-one years old. He was thirty-two. They became parents nine months later of a baby girl, Lisa Marie. VOICE ONE: Colonel Parker made sure that songs Elvis had recorded earlier were released during the years he was in the army. So Elvis was just as popular after his military service as he was before it. Elvis Presley won the three of the music industry’s highest award, the Grammy. He received the first one in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. It was for “How Great Thou Art,” an album of religious music. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis returned to performing live shows in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He then traveled around the country performing before huge crowds. He began to take drugs to help him sleep. He gained a lot of weight so he took drugs to help control his weight. And he took extremely strong drugs to reduce pain Elvis also suffered from the emotional sickness, depression. It became worse after his marriage ended. Elvis never permitted Priscilla to stay with him in Las Vegas or travel with him around the country. He also did not want Priscilla to see other people when he was away from home. And he spent time with other women. Priscilla finally left him in Nineteen-Seventy-Two for another man. VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley released many recordings of his performances during the Nineteen-Seventies. He also enjoyed great success on television. His Nineteen-Seventy-Three television show from Hawaii was seen in forty countries by more than one-thousand-million people. His last record album was called “Moody Blue.” He recorded it in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. One of its hit songs was called “Way Down”: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley died on August sixteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. First reports said he had a heart attack, but later tests showed many drugs in his body. Experts agree that these drugs probably caused his death. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis every year. Fans continue to buy his music, making him the most popular recording artist ever. Elvis Presley remains the undisputed King of Rock and Roll. (MUSIC) ANNCR: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember were the narrators. The producer was Paul Thompson. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Classical Music With a Modern American Sound
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our subject this week is classical music with a modern American sound. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jazz and blues are American inventions. But most Americans were happy to get their classical music from Europe. After all, classical music is the name for European music from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. George GershwinThen came the twentieth century. Composers like George Gershwin combined jazz and other popular music with classical forms. (MUSIC) Gershwin was born in eighteen ninety-eight. He studied with traditional music teachers. But he wanted to write popular songs. VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-four, George Gershwin wrote one of the best known American compositions, "Rhapsody in Blue." Band leader Paul Whiteman called it "a jazz concerto." Gershwin wrote for the musical theater. His other works included the concert piece "An American in Paris." And he wrote "Porgy and Bess," a musical drama which many called an opera. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Porgy and Bess" was first presented in nineteen thirty-five. DuBose Heyward wrote the story. It tells of the love of an African American man and woman caught in a world of violence and poverty. People have called the story insulting to blacks. But very few criticize the music. Here is an early recording of Todd Duncan and Ann Brown, the first to star in "Porgy and Bess," as they sing "Bess, You Is My Woman Now." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many composers in the United States wrote classically influenced works in the early and middle nineteen hundreds. Among them were Roy Harris, William Schuman, Walter Piston and Elliot Carter. Others were Gian Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, Howard Hanson and Aaron Copland. Like George Gershwin, Aaron Copland was an influential composer. Among his works are "El Salon Mexico" for orchestra and dance music for "Rodeo" and "Billy the Kid." His ballet piece "Appalachian Spring" takes from American folk songs and religious music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aaron CoplandAnother popular work by Copland is from nineteen forty-two. Listen now as Leonard Bernstein leads the New York Philharmonic in "Fanfare for the Common Man." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland helped younger composers and musicians. One of them was Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was born in nineteen-eighteen. He attended Harvard University in Massachusetts. While still in school, he met Copland. They remained friends all their lives. Both men died in nineteen ninety. Bernstein helped make Copland’s work popular by performing it with orchestras. But he also composed works of his own. He wrote many of them during the nineteen forties and fifties. "The Age of Anxiety," his Symphony Number Two, captures Bernstein’s idea of the sounds of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1945.(Photo - Library of Congress)Leonard Bernstein also wrote the music for the ballet "Fancy Free," and for the Broadway play and movie "West Side Story." His compositions have been highly praised. But some critics say he borrowed too much from others. They say he never created a sound of his own. Such things are rarely said of Philip Glass, Joseph Schwantner and John Adams. All three of these composers are now in their sixties. VOICE TWO: The best known works by Joseph Schwantner are for orchestra, some with voices. One of his most popular is "New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom." Washington lawyer and civil rights activist Vernon Jordan reads the words. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The other two composers, Philip Glass and John Adams, have both written unusual operas. For example, John Adams wrote "Nixon in China," about the historic visit of President Richard Nixon to China in nineteen seventy-two. Much more recently, John Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for "On the Transmigration of Souls," a work for orchestra and voice. It honors the victims of the terrorists who attacked the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. VOICE TWO: Like many other composers, Philip Glass spent years working at other jobs besides music. He supported himself by repairing pipes and driving a taxi before his music was recognized. In nineteen seventy-six, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City performed his work "Einstein on the Beach." It broke all the traditional rules of opera -- and many people loved it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. And I’m Steve Ember. Our subject this week is classical music with a modern American sound. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jazz and blues are American inventions. But most Americans were happy to get their classical music from Europe. After all, classical music is the name for European music from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. George GershwinThen came the twentieth century. Composers like George Gershwin combined jazz and other popular music with classical forms. (MUSIC) Gershwin was born in eighteen ninety-eight. He studied with traditional music teachers. But he wanted to write popular songs. VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-four, George Gershwin wrote one of the best known American compositions, "Rhapsody in Blue." Band leader Paul Whiteman called it "a jazz concerto." Gershwin wrote for the musical theater. His other works included the concert piece "An American in Paris." And he wrote "Porgy and Bess," a musical drama which many called an opera. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Porgy and Bess" was first presented in nineteen thirty-five. DuBose Heyward wrote the story. It tells of the love of an African American man and woman caught in a world of violence and poverty. People have called the story insulting to blacks. But very few criticize the music. Here is an early recording of Todd Duncan and Ann Brown, the first to star in "Porgy and Bess," as they sing "Bess, You Is My Woman Now." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many composers in the United States wrote classically influenced works in the early and middle nineteen hundreds. Among them were Roy Harris, William Schuman, Walter Piston and Elliot Carter. Others were Gian Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, Howard Hanson and Aaron Copland. Like George Gershwin, Aaron Copland was an influential composer. Among his works are "El Salon Mexico" for orchestra and dance music for "Rodeo" and "Billy the Kid." His ballet piece "Appalachian Spring" takes from American folk songs and religious music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aaron CoplandAnother popular work by Copland is from nineteen forty-two. Listen now as Leonard Bernstein leads the New York Philharmonic in "Fanfare for the Common Man." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland helped younger composers and musicians. One of them was Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was born in nineteen-eighteen. He attended Harvard University in Massachusetts. While still in school, he met Copland. They remained friends all their lives. Both men died in nineteen ninety. Bernstein helped make Copland’s work popular by performing it with orchestras. But he also composed works of his own. He wrote many of them during the nineteen forties and fifties. "The Age of Anxiety," his Symphony Number Two, captures Bernstein’s idea of the sounds of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1945.(Photo - Library of Congress)Leonard Bernstein also wrote the music for the ballet "Fancy Free," and for the Broadway play and movie "West Side Story." His compositions have been highly praised. But some critics say he borrowed too much from others. They say he never created a sound of his own. Such things are rarely said of Philip Glass, Joseph Schwantner and John Adams. All three of these composers are now in their sixties. VOICE TWO: The best known works by Joseph Schwantner are for orchestra, some with voices. One of his most popular is "New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom." Washington lawyer and civil rights activist Vernon Jordan reads the words. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The other two composers, Philip Glass and John Adams, have both written unusual operas. For example, John Adams wrote "Nixon in China," about the historic visit of President Richard Nixon to China in nineteen seventy-two. Much more recently, John Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for "On the Transmigration of Souls," a work for orchestra and voice. It honors the victims of the terrorists who attacked the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. VOICE TWO: Like many other composers, Philip Glass spent years working at other jobs besides music. He supported himself by repairing pipes and driving a taxi before his music was recognized. In nineteen seventy-six, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City performed his work "Einstein on the Beach." It broke all the traditional rules of opera -- and many people loved it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: International Women's Day Celebrated Worldwide
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Events took place around the world last week to celebrate International Women’s Day. The March eighth observance came as thousands of delegates from one hundred thirty countries met at the United Nations in New York. They discussed progress on a plan of action for women's equality. The document was approved ten years ago at a conference in Beijing. It calls for improved health care for women, along with economic and political gains. It also calls for efforts to reduce human rights violations against women. In Asia last Tuesday, there were demonstrations against unfair treatment of women. Laura Bush(VOA photo - L. Lindberg)In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a Conference of Women Leaders. Laura Bush, the president's wife, spoke at the event which had representatives from fifteen Muslim nations. The first lady praised recent political gains for Muslim women. In Afghanistan, for example, President Hamid Karzai has appointed the first female governor of a province. In Iraq, women hold almost one-third of the seats in the newly elected National Assembly. And Missus Bush noted that nearly half the voters in the Palestinian presidential election were women. The first lady said the United States joins in protesting the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the democracy movement in Burma. Missus Bush added that women in China and Cuba still cannot freely express their political or religious beliefs. And she said human trafficking continues to make women slaves around the world. International Women’s Day began in nineteen ten in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was designed to build support for voting rights for women worldwide. Missus Bush noted that it took American women many years to be recognized as full citizens with the right to vote. Last week, just before International Women Day's, hundreds of women and men demonstrated in Kuwait to demand the right for women to vote. The government urged parliament to act quickly to debate such reforms. Also last Monday, Human Rights Watch released a report on sexual violence by soldiers and members of armed groups in eastern Congo. The New York-based group says tens of thousands of women and young girls have been raped and beaten. Yet it says almost all the crimes have gone without punishment. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Events took place around the world last week to celebrate International Women’s Day. The March eighth observance came as thousands of delegates from one hundred thirty countries met at the United Nations in New York. They discussed progress on a plan of action for women's equality. The document was approved ten years ago at a conference in Beijing. It calls for improved health care for women, along with economic and political gains. It also calls for efforts to reduce human rights violations against women. In Asia last Tuesday, there were demonstrations against unfair treatment of women. Laura Bush(VOA photo - L. Lindberg)In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a Conference of Women Leaders. Laura Bush, the president's wife, spoke at the event which had representatives from fifteen Muslim nations. The first lady praised recent political gains for Muslim women. In Afghanistan, for example, President Hamid Karzai has appointed the first female governor of a province. In Iraq, women hold almost one-third of the seats in the newly elected National Assembly. And Missus Bush noted that nearly half the voters in the Palestinian presidential election were women. The first lady said the United States joins in protesting the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the democracy movement in Burma. Missus Bush added that women in China and Cuba still cannot freely express their political or religious beliefs. And she said human trafficking continues to make women slaves around the world. International Women’s Day began in nineteen ten in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was designed to build support for voting rights for women worldwide. Missus Bush noted that it took American women many years to be recognized as full citizens with the right to vote. Last week, just before International Women Day's, hundreds of women and men demonstrated in Kuwait to demand the right for women to vote. The government urged parliament to act quickly to debate such reforms. Also last Monday, Human Rights Watch released a report on sexual violence by soldiers and members of armed groups in eastern Congo. The New York-based group says tens of thousands of women and young girls have been raped and beaten. Yet it says almost all the crimes have gone without punishment. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Evolution and Intelligent Design
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about a growing movement in the United States. It is called intelligent design. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mike Meyer is a teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia. Mister Meyer has taught biology at Herndon High School for four years. He tells his students about evolution, or biological development. Evolution is written into science education programs across the country. Yet, evolution is not always taught in all schools. Education officials and individual teachers often avoid the subject because it is so divisive. VOICE TWO: British naturalist Charles Darwin is called the father of evolutionary theory. Darwin argued that complex life forms have developed through changes over millions of years. He believed that most animals reproduce in larger numbers than their environment can support. Only those animals best able to live in the environment survive. They must change as the environment changes, or they die out. This is the idea commonly known as “natural selection.” Darwin first presented his theory of evolution in eighteen fifty-eight. Since then, progress in science has helped to improve it. The theory is widely accepted within the scientific community. It also has replaced other explanations about how human beings were formed -- most notably creationism. This is the belief that a more intelligent life form, such as a god, created the universe. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: For years, supporters of creationism have pushed to have the subject taught in American schools. They even banned the teaching of evolution in some areas. Perhaps the most famous example of this was a court case eighty years ago in the state of Tennessee. The court found that a high school teacher, John Scopes, was guilty of violating a state ban against the teaching of Darwin’s theory. In nineteen sixty-eight, the United States Supreme Court considered the legality of such a ban. The Supreme Court ruled against a ban on the teaching of evolution in schools in the state of Arkansas. The court said the ban violated the constitutionally protected separation of religion and the government. The first amendment of the United States Constitution bars establishment of an official religion. The fourteenth amendment prevents states from limiting the constitutional rights of American citizens. The Supreme Court considered another evolution case in nineteen eighty-seven. At that time, the Court rejected a law in Louisiana that required the teaching of both evolution and creation science. VOICE TWO: Today, the teaching of creationism in American public schools remains illegal. Yet, supporters of creationism have launched a new effort to include it in education programs. In two thousand-one, President Bush announced an education plan known as “No Child Left Behind.” The President signed the plan into law after Congress approved it. The federal law requires states to reconsider their rules for science education programs. That requirement has provided opponents of evolution a chance to reshape how the theory is taught in public schools. VOICE ONE: Some opponents want an idea called intelligent design taught with the theory of evolution. Intelligent design, or I.D. argues that an intelligent force has shaped the world. It is the idea that such a force or forces are responsible for the universe and all its life forms. Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe wrote a book called “Darwin’s Black Box.” In the book, Professor Behe describes I.D. at the cellular level. He uses the eye as an example. Professor Behe argues that all parts of the eye are necessary for the organ to fully operate. The eye’s complexity, he says, is evidence that an intelligent designer exists. The same argument, he says, can be used to explain all complex organisms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Intelligent Design movement is gaining strength across the United States. Last year, school officials in Dover, Pennsylvania, became the first in the country to require the teaching of I.D. in high school biology. In South Carolina and Mississippi, lawmakers are now considering proposals for science teachers to talk about theories in addition to evolution. And, a committee that supervises schools in Kansas is considering changes to that state’s science education program. The committee wants to weaken the teaching of evolution by including a more critical look at Darwin’s theory. A public policy research group called the Discovery Institute supports this idea. The Discovery Institute agrees with intelligent design. However, it is not calling for I.D. to be taught in schools. Instead, the group says it wants to discuss weaknesses in Darwin’s theory to help make the teaching of evolution more honest. VOICE ONE: The theory of evolution has not been fully proven since it was first proposed almost one hundred fifty years ago. Yet, Mike Meyer says this is the nature of scientific theory. The Virginia biology teacher argues that theories are not ideas with little or no evidence. Instead, a theory is a proven set of ideas or estimates tested over time. Mister Meyers says Darwin’s theory of evolution is supported by evidence from many areas of science. A theory becomes accepted as a scientific fact when so much evidence supports it. Still, supporters of intelligent Design see weaknesses in evolution as a way to introduce I.D. into science education programs. Earlier this year, a court in Cobb County, Georgia, told local school board officials to remove messages included with new biology books. The messages warn students that evolution was a theory, not a fact, and that it should be questioned with an open mind. The court said the messages were an invasion of religion into science education. The school board appealed the ruling, but lost. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mike Meyer questions if intelligent design belongs in any science program. Like other biology teachers, he does not believe I.D. is a true science. The National Center for Science Education agrees. This group argues that Intelligent Design is not a theory that makes testable claims. The center warns that school boards and individuals need to be informed that I.D. is not a recognized field of science. Instead, the center believes the I.D. movement is simply a new effort to teach creationism in schools. VOICE ONE: Many Americans already believe in the idea of creationism. Four years ago, the National Science Foundation reported that forty-five percent of Americans believe God created people in their present form within the past ten thousand years. The group also reported that fifty-three percent of Americans agreed with the idea of evolution. Two-thirds of those questioned believe that both creationism and evolution should be taught in public schools. Even the head of the Roman Catholic Church believes that evolution and creationism can exist together. In nineteen ninety-six, Pope John Paul changed the Vatican’s position and recognized evolution as more than just a theory. VOICE TWO: Mike Meyer believes that both subjects can be taught at his high school, but not within the same program. Mister Meyer says intelligent design should be discussed as part of a study of comparative religions, history or literature. He says he likes this idea because I.D. is not based on scientific discovery or established research. Evolution, he says, is a theory that belongs in every science education program. Mister Meyer also says he recognizes common qualities between evolution and intelligent design. In both cases, for example, the result is human beings able to make moral choices and consider life and death. Even if both subjects speak for themselves, Mister Meyer believes neither should replace the other. Time will tell if this remains the case, as American states continue to examine school education programs. VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Dwayne Collins provided technical assistance. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about a growing movement in the United States. It is called intelligent design. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mike Meyer is a teacher in Fairfax County, Virginia. Mister Meyer has taught biology at Herndon High School for four years. He tells his students about evolution, or biological development. Evolution is written into science education programs across the country. Yet, evolution is not always taught in all schools. Education officials and individual teachers often avoid the subject because it is so divisive. VOICE TWO: British naturalist Charles Darwin is called the father of evolutionary theory. Darwin argued that complex life forms have developed through changes over millions of years. He believed that most animals reproduce in larger numbers than their environment can support. Only those animals best able to live in the environment survive. They must change as the environment changes, or they die out. This is the idea commonly known as “natural selection.” Darwin first presented his theory of evolution in eighteen fifty-eight. Since then, progress in science has helped to improve it. The theory is widely accepted within the scientific community. It also has replaced other explanations about how human beings were formed -- most notably creationism. This is the belief that a more intelligent life form, such as a god, created the universe. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: For years, supporters of creationism have pushed to have the subject taught in American schools. They even banned the teaching of evolution in some areas. Perhaps the most famous example of this was a court case eighty years ago in the state of Tennessee. The court found that a high school teacher, John Scopes, was guilty of violating a state ban against the teaching of Darwin’s theory. In nineteen sixty-eight, the United States Supreme Court considered the legality of such a ban. The Supreme Court ruled against a ban on the teaching of evolution in schools in the state of Arkansas. The court said the ban violated the constitutionally protected separation of religion and the government. The first amendment of the United States Constitution bars establishment of an official religion. The fourteenth amendment prevents states from limiting the constitutional rights of American citizens. The Supreme Court considered another evolution case in nineteen eighty-seven. At that time, the Court rejected a law in Louisiana that required the teaching of both evolution and creation science. VOICE TWO: Today, the teaching of creationism in American public schools remains illegal. Yet, supporters of creationism have launched a new effort to include it in education programs. In two thousand-one, President Bush announced an education plan known as “No Child Left Behind.” The President signed the plan into law after Congress approved it. The federal law requires states to reconsider their rules for science education programs. That requirement has provided opponents of evolution a chance to reshape how the theory is taught in public schools. VOICE ONE: Some opponents want an idea called intelligent design taught with the theory of evolution. Intelligent design, or I.D. argues that an intelligent force has shaped the world. It is the idea that such a force or forces are responsible for the universe and all its life forms. Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe wrote a book called “Darwin’s Black Box.” In the book, Professor Behe describes I.D. at the cellular level. He uses the eye as an example. Professor Behe argues that all parts of the eye are necessary for the organ to fully operate. The eye’s complexity, he says, is evidence that an intelligent designer exists. The same argument, he says, can be used to explain all complex organisms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Intelligent Design movement is gaining strength across the United States. Last year, school officials in Dover, Pennsylvania, became the first in the country to require the teaching of I.D. in high school biology. In South Carolina and Mississippi, lawmakers are now considering proposals for science teachers to talk about theories in addition to evolution. And, a committee that supervises schools in Kansas is considering changes to that state’s science education program. The committee wants to weaken the teaching of evolution by including a more critical look at Darwin’s theory. A public policy research group called the Discovery Institute supports this idea. The Discovery Institute agrees with intelligent design. However, it is not calling for I.D. to be taught in schools. Instead, the group says it wants to discuss weaknesses in Darwin’s theory to help make the teaching of evolution more honest. VOICE ONE: The theory of evolution has not been fully proven since it was first proposed almost one hundred fifty years ago. Yet, Mike Meyer says this is the nature of scientific theory. The Virginia biology teacher argues that theories are not ideas with little or no evidence. Instead, a theory is a proven set of ideas or estimates tested over time. Mister Meyers says Darwin’s theory of evolution is supported by evidence from many areas of science. A theory becomes accepted as a scientific fact when so much evidence supports it. Still, supporters of intelligent Design see weaknesses in evolution as a way to introduce I.D. into science education programs. Earlier this year, a court in Cobb County, Georgia, told local school board officials to remove messages included with new biology books. The messages warn students that evolution was a theory, not a fact, and that it should be questioned with an open mind. The court said the messages were an invasion of religion into science education. The school board appealed the ruling, but lost. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mike Meyer questions if intelligent design belongs in any science program. Like other biology teachers, he does not believe I.D. is a true science. The National Center for Science Education agrees. This group argues that Intelligent Design is not a theory that makes testable claims. The center warns that school boards and individuals need to be informed that I.D. is not a recognized field of science. Instead, the center believes the I.D. movement is simply a new effort to teach creationism in schools. VOICE ONE: Many Americans already believe in the idea of creationism. Four years ago, the National Science Foundation reported that forty-five percent of Americans believe God created people in their present form within the past ten thousand years. The group also reported that fifty-three percent of Americans agreed with the idea of evolution. Two-thirds of those questioned believe that both creationism and evolution should be taught in public schools. Even the head of the Roman Catholic Church believes that evolution and creationism can exist together. In nineteen ninety-six, Pope John Paul changed the Vatican’s position and recognized evolution as more than just a theory. VOICE TWO: Mike Meyer believes that both subjects can be taught at his high school, but not within the same program. Mister Meyer says intelligent design should be discussed as part of a study of comparative religions, history or literature. He says he likes this idea because I.D. is not based on scientific discovery or established research. Evolution, he says, is a theory that belongs in every science education program. Mister Meyer also says he recognizes common qualities between evolution and intelligent design. In both cases, for example, the result is human beings able to make moral choices and consider life and death. Even if both subjects speak for themselves, Mister Meyer believes neither should replace the other. Time will tell if this remains the case, as American states continue to examine school education programs. VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Dwayne Collins provided technical assistance. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Avian Flu Could Force Changes for Asian Poultry Farmers
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Avian influenza could force changes in the way farm birds are raised in Asia. The disease has already hurt the industry. The F.A.O., the Food and Agriculture Organization, says about one hundred forty million farm birds have died or been destroyed. Oxford Economic Forecasting estimates poultry farm losses in Asia last year at more than ten thousand million dollars. Top animal health officials from twenty-eight nations met for three days late last month in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The officials agreed on the need for changes in traditional ways of poultry farming in many Asian cultures. For example, they said mixing different kinds of birds on farms can speed up the spread of the disease. They also agreed that chickens, ducks and other farm animals such as pigs should be kept separate. And they said human contact with animals should be limited. A lack of supervision by animal doctors was another problem noted. The F.A.O. says more than one hundred million dollars would be urgently needed to improve animal health services and laboratories. It says several hundred million dollars would be needed for farmers who have lost animals to disease control efforts. Samuel Jutzi is director of the Animal Production and Health Division of the F.A.O, a United Nations agency. He says wild birds, especially ducks, often carry the virus yet show no signs of sickness. But Mister Jutzi says wild birds should not be destroyed in an effort to protect farm birds. Evidence suggests that other problems aid the spread of bird flu much more. Mister Jutzi says these include trade in live farm birds and mixing different kinds of live birds at markets. Poor farming methods also help the spread of the disease. The group that met in Vietnam said vaccines can be an important tool to fight bird flu. The officials said the possibility of vaccinating ducks should be considered. Experts have mixed opinions about using these preventive medicines on birds. Some are concerned that protecting against one virus may lead to other, more aggressive viruses. On March eleventh the World Health Organization reported sixty-nine confirmed human cases of avian flu since January of last year. These cases in Vietnam, Thailand and, in one case, Cambodia resulted in forty-six deaths. Health officials worry that the virus could gain the ability to spread easily among people. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Space Digest
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about information sent to Earth from the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. We report about the two Voyager spacecraft that are now leaving the influence of our solar system. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about information sent to Earth from the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. We report about the two Voyager spacecraft that are now leaving the influence of our solar system. We tell about the training of the next crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. And we begin with a report about a newly discovered living organism that had been frozen for many thousands of years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American space agency scientists have found a new kind of living organism that had been frozen for more than thirty thousand years. NASA scientist Richard Hoover discovered the one-celled bacterium in ice underground near the town of Fox, Alaska. He found the bacterium in an area called the permafrost. Permafrost is a mix of permanently frozen water ice, rock and soil. Permafrost stays at a temperature of about minus four degrees Celsius all the time. Mister Hoover said he and his team cut into ice that was there during the Pleistocene Age or about thirty thousand years ago. VOICE TWO: Carnobacterium PleistoceniumMister Hoover said they found the living bacterium deep inside ice that was about a half meter thick. They removed a piece of the ice and examined it under a microscope. As soon as the ice melted, Mister Hoover says he saw the bacterium begin to swim in the water. Scientists named the bacterium Carnobacterium Pleistocenium. It is very unusual. It does not need oxygen to survive. Mister Hoover and his team said the new bacterium was unknown to science before it was taken from the ice five years ago. It is the first fully described and confirmed kind of organism ever found alive in ancient ice. VOICE ONE: The announcement of the discovery of the new bacterium came almost at the same time as a team of European researchers said they found huge blocks of water ice near the surface of Mars. The European scientists said the Martian ice was between two and five million years old. Mister Hoover says the bacteria he found in the Alaskan ice might be able to survive for many millions of years. And he said this might be true for similar organisms on Mars. Mister Hoover says scientists now know it is possible for life to exist in extremely difficult conditions. He says studying these kinds of organisms helps us understand the many different kinds of life in the universe. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the summer of nineteen seventy-seven, two Voyager spacecraft were launched two weeks apart. Both are now leaving the solar system. However, they continue to make history. In January, the NASA Voyager team observed an anniversary of ten thousand days since the launch of the two spacecraft. NASA scientists say both spacecraft are working and returning valuable information. Both spacecraft are expected to continue to work and send information back to Earth until at least the year twenty twenty. VOICE ONE: Voyager OneNASA scientists say the Voyagers have sent back new information about the effects of the Sun in the far reaches of space. These include effects caused by the movement of atoms through space called solar winds. Explosions on the surface of the Sun cause solar winds. These explosions release huge amounts of gas into space. An example of information sent back by the Voyager spacecraft includes observations of a huge explosion that took place in April, two thousand three. The effects of that explosion reached Voyager Two in April, two thousand four. VOICE TWO: At the beginning of the flights, three hundred NASA scientists were working on the Voyager program. Today, only ten people are working on the program full time. Two members of this team have worked on the program since the launch of the Voyagers. Several college students working with the program had not yet been born when the two spacecraft were launched. During their flight through space, Voyager One and Two flew past Jupiter and Saturn. They provided information that greatly expanded our knowledge of these planets. Voyager Two went on to fly past Uranus and Neptune. Voyager Two is still the only spacecraft to visit these distant planets. The two spacecraft sent back to Earth almost eighty thousand photographs and huge amounts of information about these planets. After traveling through space for more than twenty-seven years, Voyager One is now more than fourteen thousand million kilometers from the Sun. Voyager One is the most distant human-made object in the universe. Voyager Two is eleven thousand million kilometers from the Sun. Both spacecraft are now beginning to leave the solar system. They are studying the area of space called terminal shock. It is where the Sun’s influence ends and the dark areas of space begin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An image of Enceladus by CassiniNASA’s Cassini spacecraft continues to orbit Saturn. It is making exciting discoveries almost daily. Cassini has found and photographed a giant hole made by a space object that crashed into the surface of Saturn’s moon, Titan. NASA scientists say the hole is four hundred forty kilometers wide. The scientists say either a comet or an asteroid hit the surface of Titan and created the crater. They say the object that made the crater was from five to ten kilometers in size. The Cassini instruments also made images of another crater. This one was about sixty kilometers wide. Cassini flew within one thousand five hundred kilometers of Titan’s surface. This is the third closest flight Cassini has made near the surface of Titan. VOICE TWO: Just one day after the flight near Titan, Cassini few past Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. Cassini sent back the first close images ever seen of this small moon that has the brightest surface in the solar system. NASA’s Voyager spacecraft had flown by Enceladus in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty-one. Since that time scientists have been waiting for better images of the moon’s unusual surface. Cassini returned images of an icy moon. Some areas of the ice are cracked and broken. Other areas of ice are smooth as glass. The images show few holes left by the crash of space rocks. Scientists say this usually means an object without such holes is very young. They also say the broken areas of ice might mean Enceladus has some volcanic activity. VOICE ONE: Carolyn Porco is the image team leader for the Cassini project. Miz Porco says Cassini has now observed the surfaces of Titan and Enceladus and the rings of Saturn. She says Cassini has returned images that are ten times better than those produced by the Voyager flights more than twenty years ago. She says the information sent by Cassini is very exciting. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For the past several months, a crew of astronauts has been training for the next flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. They have done most of the training at the Johnson Space Flight Center in Texas. Recently, the crew flew to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They did so to take part in training in the shuttle Discovery on the equipment they will use during their flight.The Discovery flight commander is Eileen Collins. She says the training is extremely important. She says the crew has been training on an exact copy of the Discovery. However, working on the shuttle Discovery itself is even more important. Experts say training on Discovery is a little like a final test in school before graduation. In this case, graduation is the launch of the Discovery. VOICE ONE: The Shuttle crewmembers already know all the equipment they will use during the flight. But NASA officials say they do not want crewmembers to see the Shuttle Discovery for the first time on the day of the launch. They want them to be at ease with the vehicle. However, it is not possible for the crew to spend a great deal of time on Discovery. So the test is carefully designed to provide them with the most important requirements. A large group of experts decide what the crew will do during this final test. It takes a great deal of planning. Flight Commander Eileen Collins says it is time for the United States to get back into space. The Space Shuttle Discovery is expected to be launched into space May fifteenth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. We tell about the training of the next crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery. And we begin with a report about a newly discovered living organism that had been frozen for many thousands of years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American space agency scientists have found a new kind of living organism that had been frozen for more than thirty thousand years. NASA scientist Richard Hoover discovered the one-celled bacterium in ice underground near the town of Fox, Alaska. He found the bacterium in an area called the permafrost. Permafrost is a mix of permanently frozen water ice, rock and soil. Permafrost stays at a temperature of about minus four degrees Celsius all the time. Mister Hoover said he and his team cut into ice that was there during the Pleistocene Age or about thirty thousand years ago. VOICE TWO: Carnobacterium PleistoceniumMister Hoover said they found the living bacterium deep inside ice that was about a half meter thick. They removed a piece of the ice and examined it under a microscope. As soon as the ice melted, Mister Hoover says he saw the bacterium begin to swim in the water. Scientists named the bacterium Carnobacterium Pleistocenium. It is very unusual. It does not need oxygen to survive. Mister Hoover and his team said the new bacterium was unknown to science before it was taken from the ice five years ago. It is the first fully described and confirmed kind of organism ever found alive in ancient ice. VOICE ONE: The announcement of the discovery of the new bacterium came almost at the same time as a team of European researchers said they found huge blocks of water ice near the surface of Mars. The European scientists said the Martian ice was between two and five million years old. Mister Hoover says the bacteria he found in the Alaskan ice might be able to survive for many millions of years. And he said this might be true for similar organisms on Mars. Mister Hoover says scientists now know it is possible for life to exist in extremely difficult conditions. He says studying these kinds of organisms helps us understand the many different kinds of life in the universe. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the summer of nineteen seventy-seven, two Voyager spacecraft were launched two weeks apart. Both are now leaving the solar system. However, they continue to make history. In January, the NASA Voyager team observed an anniversary of ten thousand days since the launch of the two spacecraft. NASA scientists say both spacecraft are working and returning valuable information. Both spacecraft are expected to continue to work and send information back to Earth until at least the year twenty twenty. VOICE ONE: Voyager OneNASA scientists say the Voyagers have sent back new information about the effects of the Sun in the far reaches of space. These include effects caused by the movement of atoms through space called solar winds. Explosions on the surface of the Sun cause solar winds. These explosions release huge amounts of gas into space. An example of information sent back by the Voyager spacecraft includes observations of a huge explosion that took place in April, two thousand three. The effects of that explosion reached Voyager Two in April, two thousand four. VOICE TWO: At the beginning of the flights, three hundred NASA scientists were working on the Voyager program. Today, only ten people are working on the program full time. Two members of this team have worked on the program since the launch of the Voyagers. Several college students working with the program had not yet been born when the two spacecraft were launched. During their flight through space, Voyager One and Two flew past Jupiter and Saturn. They provided information that greatly expanded our knowledge of these planets. Voyager Two went on to fly past Uranus and Neptune. Voyager Two is still the only spacecraft to visit these distant planets. The two spacecraft sent back to Earth almost eighty thousand photographs and huge amounts of information about these planets. After traveling through space for more than twenty-seven years, Voyager One is now more than fourteen thousand million kilometers from the Sun. Voyager One is the most distant human-made object in the universe. Voyager Two is eleven thousand million kilometers from the Sun. Both spacecraft are now beginning to leave the solar system. They are studying the area of space called terminal shock. It is where the Sun’s influence ends and the dark areas of space begin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An image of Enceladus by CassiniNASA’s Cassini spacecraft continues to orbit Saturn. It is making exciting discoveries almost daily. Cassini has found and photographed a giant hole made by a space object that crashed into the surface of Saturn’s moon, Titan. NASA scientists say the hole is four hundred forty kilometers wide. The scientists say either a comet or an asteroid hit the surface of Titan and created the crater. They say the object that made the crater was from five to ten kilometers in size. The Cassini instruments also made images of another crater. This one was about sixty kilometers wide. Cassini flew within one thousand five hundred kilometers of Titan’s surface. This is the third closest flight Cassini has made near the surface of Titan. VOICE TWO: Just one day after the flight near Titan, Cassini few past Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. Cassini sent back the first close images ever seen of this small moon that has the brightest surface in the solar system. NASA’s Voyager spacecraft had flown by Enceladus in nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty-one. Since that time scientists have been waiting for better images of the moon’s unusual surface. Cassini returned images of an icy moon. Some areas of the ice are cracked and broken. Other areas of ice are smooth as glass. The images show few holes left by the crash of space rocks. Scientists say this usually means an object without such holes is very young. They also say the broken areas of ice might mean Enceladus has some volcanic activity. VOICE ONE: Carolyn Porco is the image team leader for the Cassini project. Miz Porco says Cassini has now observed the surfaces of Titan and Enceladus and the rings of Saturn. She says Cassini has returned images that are ten times better than those produced by the Voyager flights more than twenty years ago. She says the information sent by Cassini is very exciting. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For the past several months, a crew of astronauts has been training for the next flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. They have done most of the training at the Johnson Space Flight Center in Texas. Recently, the crew flew to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They did so to take part in training in the shuttle Discovery on the equipment they will use during their flight.The Discovery flight commander is Eileen Collins. She says the training is extremely important. She says the crew has been training on an exact copy of the Discovery. However, working on the shuttle Discovery itself is even more important. Experts say training on Discovery is a little like a final test in school before graduation. In this case, graduation is the launch of the Discovery. VOICE ONE: The Shuttle crewmembers already know all the equipment they will use during the flight. But NASA officials say they do not want crewmembers to see the Shuttle Discovery for the first time on the day of the launch. They want them to be at ease with the vehicle. However, it is not possible for the crew to spend a great deal of time on Discovery. So the test is carefully designed to provide them with the most important requirements. A large group of experts decide what the crew will do during this final test. It takes a great deal of planning. Flight Commander Eileen Collins says it is time for the United States to get back into space. The Space Shuttle Discovery is expected to be launched into space May fifteenth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Aspirin Found to Help Men and Women Differently
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A lot of older people take low-strength aspirin on the advice of their doctor to help reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. Doctors have based such advice mostly on studies of men. Now, a major study confirms that aspirin can help women as well. But experts say the drug helps women differently. The findings appeared this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctor Julie Buring at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, led the study. Doctor Buring says that among apparently healthy people, aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack for men. But for women it appears to reduce the risk of stroke. The study involved forty thousand women age forty-five and older. Those who received aspirin took one hundred milligrams every other day. The others took a placebo, an inactive pill. The study lasted ten years. The researchers found that the women who took aspirin were seventeen percent less likely to have a stroke than the other group. The aspirin group also had a twenty-four percent lower risk for the most common form of stroke. This is caused by a clot in the blood supply to the brain. Blood clots can cause both strokes and heart attacks. Aspirin thins the blood, so clots are less likely to form. The researchers found that aspirin had an even greater effect in women age sixty-five and older. Those who took aspirin were thirty percent less likely to have a stroke caused by a blood clot. They were also less likely to suffer a heart attack than those given a placebo. However, the study found that aspirin did not lower the risk of heart attack in younger women. And there were more cases of stomach bleeding in the women who took aspirin than in those who did not. Experts say this shows that, in general, the risks from aspirin use in younger women could be greater than the good it might do. Aspirin can cause bleeding, especially in the stomach. It can also cause a bad reaction with other medicines. People who want to begin aspirin treatment are advised to talk to their doctor first. Experts are not sure why men and women react differently to aspirin treatment. But Doctor Buring notes at least one similarity. She says aspirin has been clearly shown to improve the survival chances for anyone who has already had a heart attack or stroke. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: March 16, 2005 - Memory Improvement
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: "We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place." RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches memory skills. One technique she uses she calls the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve. ELDH: "That is, you have to say, what is the piece of information I want to learn, and you record that. Then you have to figure out where you're going to put it. I don't just throw it in my brain. Am I going to put it with car information, will I put it with insurance information. So you actually get disciplined enough to organize the information you retain in some kind of filing system. And then when you're ready to retrieve it, you know where to get it, just like filing information in a filing cabinet." RS: "But this is your head." [laughter] ELDH: "Exactly." AA: "Is your brain set up that way?" ELDH: "Sometimes. It takes a lot of work. And I would say that in addition to the epiphany of learning that until you learn it you can't forget it, I think the other thing to realize about memory is that it takes a tremendous amount of discipline." RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that?" ELDH: "Well, there are many different memory techniques. I would say that the majority of them have to do with using very intense visual images. The more elaborate, the more bright, the more it draws on all your senses, the better you'll remember. Let's say somebody's name is Campbell. How are you going to remember Campbell? Well, break it up -- camp bell. You want to see that person at a campsite. He's got a huge bell in his hand and he's ringing it. And you see that in your mind, and you hear the bell ringing, very loudly, and you smell the pine needles. Now, you're never going to forget Mister Campbell." AA: "So you file that, what file do you put that under?" ELDH: "I'm going to put that under names, and I would probably file it -- depending on the scenario -- under a workplace name. Now that is a danger, though, because then we have what is called 'queue dependency." RS: "Aren't you at risk of forgetting your cue?" [laughter] ELDH: "You definitely are, and in fact that is one of the ways that we forget. We forget from decay. If you've studied another language, you know that if you don't use it, you lose it. And we've all heard that. Another is depression. When we have either a mental or a physical illness, our ability to remember and retain information goes down dramatically." RS: "How would you apply these techniques that you've been talking about, the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve -- to learning a foreign language?" ELDH: "I think that I would use a lot of the pneumonic devices where you make associations with words. I would also use the device that we use where you use the first letter of each of the words that you have to memorize. I'll give you an example: In America, we have what are known as the Great Lakes. Of course, we all know that. How do we remember the Great Lakes. Can either one of you remember how you ... " AA: "Let's see, Huron, Michigan, Superior -- what are the other two?" [laughter] RS: "Erie." AA: "Erie, right, of course." ELDH: "Now, I'll tell you an easier way to memorize this. You take the H for Huron, the O for Ontario, the M for Michigan, the E for Erie and the S for Superior and you make the word homes. Now you don't stop there -- and this is what I really want people to get from this information, that you don't just stop at homes, you don't just stop at an acronym, you take it further. You see homes -- it can be floating homes, on the lake, and you see people talking about their homes on the lake, and they're saying 'aren't these lakes beautiful that we float around on in our homes.' And so you can see you deepen the image that you have." RS: "At one point in my life, I really, really wanted to be good at telling jokes. I never told many jokes and I thought it would be really fun to do that. And so what I did is -- but I could never remember the punch lines of the jokes that I'd hear. So I would write the punch lines down or a word or two, and all of a sudden I had a repertoire of jokes. So I think that writing down reinforces in some ways the things you're trying to remember." AA: "Assuming you can remember where you put the paper. You know that situation ... " ELDH: "Absolutely." AA: "You write something down and you can't -- is there a simple way to remember where you put the paper?" ELDH: "Ahhh ... " RS: Memory and communications trainer Wendi Eldh. Now let's see if you can remember some addresses. AA: The first address is our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. Next, our e-mail address. That's word@voanews.com. And, finally, our postal address. It's VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Thanks for the Memory"/Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, from the film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" --- First broadcast: September 29, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: "We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place." RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches memory skills. One technique she uses she calls the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve. ELDH: "That is, you have to say, what is the piece of information I want to learn, and you record that. Then you have to figure out where you're going to put it. I don't just throw it in my brain. Am I going to put it with car information, will I put it with insurance information. So you actually get disciplined enough to organize the information you retain in some kind of filing system. And then when you're ready to retrieve it, you know where to get it, just like filing information in a filing cabinet." RS: "But this is your head." [laughter] ELDH: "Exactly." AA: "Is your brain set up that way?" ELDH: "Sometimes. It takes a lot of work. And I would say that in addition to the epiphany of learning that until you learn it you can't forget it, I think the other thing to realize about memory is that it takes a tremendous amount of discipline." RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that?" ELDH: "Well, there are many different memory techniques. I would say that the majority of them have to do with using very intense visual images. The more elaborate, the more bright, the more it draws on all your senses, the better you'll remember. Let's say somebody's name is Campbell. How are you going to remember Campbell? Well, break it up -- camp bell. You want to see that person at a campsite. He's got a huge bell in his hand and he's ringing it. And you see that in your mind, and you hear the bell ringing, very loudly, and you smell the pine needles. Now, you're never going to forget Mister Campbell." AA: "So you file that, what file do you put that under?" ELDH: "I'm going to put that under names, and I would probably file it -- depending on the scenario -- under a workplace name. Now that is a danger, though, because then we have what is called 'queue dependency." RS: "Aren't you at risk of forgetting your cue?" [laughter] ELDH: "You definitely are, and in fact that is one of the ways that we forget. We forget from decay. If you've studied another language, you know that if you don't use it, you lose it. And we've all heard that. Another is depression. When we have either a mental or a physical illness, our ability to remember and retain information goes down dramatically." RS: "How would you apply these techniques that you've been talking about, the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve -- to learning a foreign language?" ELDH: "I think that I would use a lot of the pneumonic devices where you make associations with words. I would also use the device that we use where you use the first letter of each of the words that you have to memorize. I'll give you an example: In America, we have what are known as the Great Lakes. Of course, we all know that. How do we remember the Great Lakes. Can either one of you remember how you ... " AA: "Let's see, Huron, Michigan, Superior -- what are the other two?" [laughter] RS: "Erie." AA: "Erie, right, of course." ELDH: "Now, I'll tell you an easier way to memorize this. You take the H for Huron, the O for Ontario, the M for Michigan, the E for Erie and the S for Superior and you make the word homes. Now you don't stop there -- and this is what I really want people to get from this information, that you don't just stop at homes, you don't just stop at an acronym, you take it further. You see homes -- it can be floating homes, on the lake, and you see people talking about their homes on the lake, and they're saying 'aren't these lakes beautiful that we float around on in our homes.' And so you can see you deepen the image that you have." RS: "At one point in my life, I really, really wanted to be good at telling jokes. I never told many jokes and I thought it would be really fun to do that. And so what I did is -- but I could never remember the punch lines of the jokes that I'd hear. So I would write the punch lines down or a word or two, and all of a sudden I had a repertoire of jokes. So I think that writing down reinforces in some ways the things you're trying to remember." AA: "Assuming you can remember where you put the paper. You know that situation ... " ELDH: "Absolutely." AA: "You write something down and you can't -- is there a simple way to remember where you put the paper?" ELDH: "Ahhh ... " RS: Memory and communications trainer Wendi Eldh. Now let's see if you can remember some addresses. AA: The first address is our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. Next, our e-mail address. That's word@voanews.com. And, finally, our postal address. It's VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Thanks for the Memory"/Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, from the film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" --- First broadcast: September 29, 2002 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War:? Reaction to President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Abraham LincolnAmerica's Civil War of the eighteen-sixties began as a struggle over a state's right to leave the Union. President Abraham Lincoln firmly believed that a state did not have that right. And he declared war on the southern states that did leave. Lincoln had one and only one reason to fight: to save the Union. In time, however, there was another reason to fight: to free the Negro slaves. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the story of how president Lincoln dealt with this issue. VOICE TWO: Lincoln had tried to keep the issue of slavery out of the war. He feared it would weaken the northern war effort. Many men throughout the north would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves. Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that had not left the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves. Lincoln was able to follow this policy, at first. But the war to save the Union was going badly. The north had not won a decisive victory in Virginia, the heart of the Confederacy. To guarantee continued support for the war, Lincoln was forced to recognize that the issue of slavery was, in fact, a major issue. And on September twenty-second, eighteen-sixty-two, he announced a new policy on slavery in the rebel southern states. His announcement became known as the Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: American newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free. "The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." For political reasons, the proclamation did not free slaves in the states that supported the Union. Nor did it free slaves in the areas around Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. VOICE TWO: Most anti-slavery leaders praised the Emancipation Proclamation. They had waited a long time for such a document. But some did not like it. They said it did not go far enough. It did not free all of the slaves in the United States...only those held by the rebels. Lincoln answered that the Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure. He said he made it under his wartime powers as Commander-in-Chief. As such, it was legal only in enemy territory. Lincoln agreed that all slaves should be freed. It was his personal opinion. But he did not believe that the Constitution gave him the power to free all the slaves. He hoped that could be done slowly, during peacetime. VOICE ONE: Lincoln's new policy on slavery was welcomed warmly by the people of Europe. It won special praise in Britain. The British people were deeply concerned about the Civil War in America. The United States navy had blocked southern exports of cotton. The British textile industry -- which depended on this cotton -- was almost dead. Factories were closed. Hundreds of thousands of people were out of work. The British government watched and worried as the war continued month after month. Finally, late in the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, British leaders said the time had come for them to intervene. They would try to help settle the American dispute. Britain would propose a peace agreement based on northern recognition of southern rights. If the north rejected the agreement, Britain would recognize the Confederacy. VOICE TWO: Then came the news that President Lincoln was freeing the slaves of the south. Suddenly, the Civil War was a different war. No longer was it a struggle over southern rights. Now it was a struggle for human freedom. The British people strongly opposed slavery. When they heard that the slaves would be freed, they gave their support immediately to President Lincoln and the north. Britain's peace proposals were never offered. The Emancipation Proclamation had cost the south the recognition of Britain and France. VOICE ONE: The south was furious over the proclamation. Southern newspapers attacked Lincoln. They accused him of trying to create a slave rebellion in states he could not occupy with troops. They also said the proclamation was an invitation for Negroes to murder whites. The Confederate Congress debated several resolutions to fight Lincoln's proclamation. One resolution would make slaves of all Negro soldiers captured from the Union army. Another called for the execution of white officers who led black troops. Some southern lawmakers even proposed the death sentence for anyone who spoke against slavery. VOICE TWO: In the north, most people cheered the new policy on slaves. Some, however, opposed it. They said the policy would cause the slave states of the Union to secede. Those states would join the Confederacy. Or, they said, it would cause freed slaves to move north and take away jobs from whites. There also was another reason. Eighteen-sixty-two was a congressional election year. The Democratic Party was the opposition party at that time. Party leaders believed their candidates would have a better chance of winning if they opposed the policy. Democrats said the policy was proof that anti-slavery extremists were in control of the government. VOICE ONE: As we said, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September twenty-second, eighteen-sixty-two. But Lincoln said he would not sign the proclamation until the first day of eighteen-sixty-three. That gave the southern states one-hundred days to end their rebellion...or face the destruction of slavery. VOICE TWO: Some people thought Lincoln would withdraw the proclamation at the last minute. They did not believe he would sign a measure that was so extreme. They said the new policy would only make the south fight harder. And, as a result, the Civil War would last longer. Others charged that the proclamation was illegal. They said the Constitution did not give the president the power to violate the property rights of citizens. VOICE ONE: Lincoln answered the charges. He said: "I think the Constitution gives the Commander-in-Chief special powers under the laws of war. The most that can be said -- if so much -- is that slaves are property. Is there any question that, by the laws of war, property -- both of enemies and friends -- may be taken when needed." VOICE TWO: Just before the first of the year, a congressman asked the president if he still planned to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: "My mind is made up," Lincoln answered. "It must be done. I am driven to it. There is no other way out of our troubles. But although my duty is clear, it is in some way painful. I hope that the people will understand that I act not in anger. . . But in expectation of a greater good." VOICE TWO: The morning of New Year's Day was a busy time for Lincoln. It was a tradition to open the White House on that day so the president could wish visitors a happy new year. After the last visitor had gone, Lincoln went to his office. He started to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Then he stopped. He said: VOICE ONE: "I never, in all my life, felt more sure that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. But I have been shaking hands all day, until my arm is tired. When people examine this document, they will say, 'he was not sure about that'. But anyway, it is going to be done." VOICE TWO: With those words, he wrote his name at the bottom of the paper. He had issued one of the greatest documents in American history. We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. --- THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Abraham LincolnAmerica's Civil War of the eighteen-sixties began as a struggle over a state's right to leave the Union. President Abraham Lincoln firmly believed that a state did not have that right. And he declared war on the southern states that did leave. Lincoln had one and only one reason to fight: to save the Union. In time, however, there was another reason to fight: to free the Negro slaves. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the story of how president Lincoln dealt with this issue. VOICE TWO: Lincoln had tried to keep the issue of slavery out of the war. He feared it would weaken the northern war effort. Many men throughout the north would fight to save the Union. They would not fight to free the slaves. Lincoln also needed the support of the four slave states that had not left the Union: Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. He could not be sure of their support if he declared that the purpose of the war was to free the slaves. Lincoln was able to follow this policy, at first. But the war to save the Union was going badly. The north had not won a decisive victory in Virginia, the heart of the Confederacy. To guarantee continued support for the war, Lincoln was forced to recognize that the issue of slavery was, in fact, a major issue. And on September twenty-second, eighteen-sixty-two, he announced a new policy on slavery in the rebel southern states. His announcement became known as the Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: American newspapers printed the proclamation. This is what it said: "I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, do hereby declare that on the first day of January, eighteen-sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state then in rebellion against the United States, shall then become and be forever free. "The government of the United States, including the military and naval forces, will recognize and protect the freedom of such persons, and will interfere in no way with any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." For political reasons, the proclamation did not free slaves in the states that supported the Union. Nor did it free slaves in the areas around Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. VOICE TWO: Most anti-slavery leaders praised the Emancipation Proclamation. They had waited a long time for such a document. But some did not like it. They said it did not go far enough. It did not free all of the slaves in the United States...only those held by the rebels. Lincoln answered that the Emancipation Proclamation was a military measure. He said he made it under his wartime powers as Commander-in-Chief. As such, it was legal only in enemy territory. Lincoln agreed that all slaves should be freed. It was his personal opinion. But he did not believe that the Constitution gave him the power to free all the slaves. He hoped that could be done slowly, during peacetime. VOICE ONE: Lincoln's new policy on slavery was welcomed warmly by the people of Europe. It won special praise in Britain. The British people were deeply concerned about the Civil War in America. The United States navy had blocked southern exports of cotton. The British textile industry -- which depended on this cotton -- was almost dead. Factories were closed. Hundreds of thousands of people were out of work. The British government watched and worried as the war continued month after month. Finally, late in the summer of eighteen-sixty-two, British leaders said the time had come for them to intervene. They would try to help settle the American dispute. Britain would propose a peace agreement based on northern recognition of southern rights. If the north rejected the agreement, Britain would recognize the Confederacy. VOICE TWO: Then came the news that President Lincoln was freeing the slaves of the south. Suddenly, the Civil War was a different war. No longer was it a struggle over southern rights. Now it was a struggle for human freedom. The British people strongly opposed slavery. When they heard that the slaves would be freed, they gave their support immediately to President Lincoln and the north. Britain's peace proposals were never offered. The Emancipation Proclamation had cost the south the recognition of Britain and France. VOICE ONE: The south was furious over the proclamation. Southern newspapers attacked Lincoln. They accused him of trying to create a slave rebellion in states he could not occupy with troops. They also said the proclamation was an invitation for Negroes to murder whites. The Confederate Congress debated several resolutions to fight Lincoln's proclamation. One resolution would make slaves of all Negro soldiers captured from the Union army. Another called for the execution of white officers who led black troops. Some southern lawmakers even proposed the death sentence for anyone who spoke against slavery. VOICE TWO: In the north, most people cheered the new policy on slaves. Some, however, opposed it. They said the policy would cause the slave states of the Union to secede. Those states would join the Confederacy. Or, they said, it would cause freed slaves to move north and take away jobs from whites. There also was another reason. Eighteen-sixty-two was a congressional election year. The Democratic Party was the opposition party at that time. Party leaders believed their candidates would have a better chance of winning if they opposed the policy. Democrats said the policy was proof that anti-slavery extremists were in control of the government. VOICE ONE: As we said, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation on September twenty-second, eighteen-sixty-two. But Lincoln said he would not sign the proclamation until the first day of eighteen-sixty-three. That gave the southern states one-hundred days to end their rebellion...or face the destruction of slavery. VOICE TWO: Some people thought Lincoln would withdraw the proclamation at the last minute. They did not believe he would sign a measure that was so extreme. They said the new policy would only make the south fight harder. And, as a result, the Civil War would last longer. Others charged that the proclamation was illegal. They said the Constitution did not give the president the power to violate the property rights of citizens. VOICE ONE: Lincoln answered the charges. He said: "I think the Constitution gives the Commander-in-Chief special powers under the laws of war. The most that can be said -- if so much -- is that slaves are property. Is there any question that, by the laws of war, property -- both of enemies and friends -- may be taken when needed." VOICE TWO: Just before the first of the year, a congressman asked the president if he still planned to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. VOICE ONE: "My mind is made up," Lincoln answered. "It must be done. I am driven to it. There is no other way out of our troubles. But although my duty is clear, it is in some way painful. I hope that the people will understand that I act not in anger. . . But in expectation of a greater good." VOICE TWO: The morning of New Year's Day was a busy time for Lincoln. It was a tradition to open the White House on that day so the president could wish visitors a happy new year. After the last visitor had gone, Lincoln went to his office. He started to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. Then he stopped. He said: VOICE ONE: "I never, in all my life, felt more sure that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. But I have been shaking hands all day, until my arm is tired. When people examine this document, they will say, 'he was not sure about that'. But anyway, it is going to be done." VOICE TWO: With those words, he wrote his name at the bottom of the paper. He had issued one of the greatest documents in American history. We will continue our story of the Civil War next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. --- THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Students Study Technology and Business at Carnegie Mellon University
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. This week in our Foreign Student Series we discuss Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is well known for its programs in computer science, engineering and business. Andrew Carnegie used some of the wealth he built in the steel industry to start schools for children of workers in Pittsburgh. The Carnegie Technical Schools opened in nineteen hundred. Twelve years later they became the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In nineteen sixty-seven, that institute joined with the Mellon Institute of Research. Today Carnegie Mellon University has more than eight thousand students. About two thousand of them are international students. They come from more than ninety countries. Most are graduate students from India, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. And most of the graduate students are studying engineering, business, computer science and information systems. About five hundred fifty international students at Carnegie Mellon this year are undergraduates. Most are from South Korea, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada. They are mostly studying engineering, computer science, business and social sciences. University officials say the cost this year for an international undergraduate student is about forty-four thousand dollars. No financial aid is given to foreign undergraduates at Carnegie Mellon. But the Office of International Education there says the situation is different at the graduate level. Graduate students can get financial help in the form of a job as a teaching or research assistant. Admission requirements and costs are different in each of the seven colleges at the university. Carnegie Mellon has just opened a campus in Qatar, in the Middle East. Undergraduates can study computer science or business. The university says students can receive the same education as they would at the main campus in Pittsburgh. The university also has links with institutions in Britain, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Switzerland. And it has a campus in Northern California. Internet users can learn more about Carnegie Mellon University at cmu.edu. And our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Jessi Alexander's First Album / Weather in America / Top High School Scientists
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 ?(MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Jessi Alexander … A question from a listener about the weather in America ... And a report on some top scientists who are still in high school. Intel Science Talent Search Earlier this week, the Intel company announced the winners of its yearly Science Talent Search. Each winner receives a new computer and money for a college education. The top winner this year was David Bauer from New York City. His project concerned finding poisonous agents that affect the nervous system. Faith Lapidus tells us about the competition. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Science Talent Search is the oldest such program for high school students in the United States. An organization called Science Service created the competition in nineteen forty-two. The aim was to increase the number of young Americans choosing to work in science. Since then, the competition has provided more than two thousand young people with awards and money for college. Past winners have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes, the National Medal of Science, MacArthur Foundation fellowships and other top honors. The Westinghouse Company led the competition until nineteen ninety-eight. Then Intel became the organizer. Each year, about one thousand six hundred American high school students enter scientific research projects for the competition. The projects involve nearly every area of science. They include chemistry, physics, medicine, mathematics, engineering, computer science and social science. The top three hundred projects are named semi-finalists. Then the list is reduced to forty finalists. These students travel to Washington, D.C., for a week-long competition. A group of well-known scientists judge them on their research abilities, critical thinking skills and creativity. The judges ask the students questions before deciding on the winners. The entries this year included projects on developing new energy technologies, improving cancer treatments and creating new tissue to heal wounds. Organizers of the Intel Science Talent Search say the young scientists also have other interests. Eighty percent of the finalists this year play a musical instrument. And forty-seven percent can speak a language other than English. The group this year also included an award-winning poet, a competitive ballroom dancer and a table tennis winner in the Junior Olympics. U.S. Climate DOUG JOHNSON: Time to answer a question. A listener in Moscow named Daut asks about the weather in the United States. The United States is one of the biggest countries in the world. It has all sorts of geography, from deserts to beaches, mountains to flatlands. These conditions help create all sorts of weather: mild, moderate and extreme. Sometimes all in one day! In the summer, some areas get very hot and the air is very wet. But others have dry air, so the heat does not feel so bad. In the winter, parts of the country get cold and snowy while others stay warm and sunny. This is the difference between, for example, New York City on the East Coast and Los Angeles on the West Coast. Yet even the East Coast has its warm places in winter, like Florida. The oceans affect weather along the coasts. The Pacific coast has smaller temperature changes, and calmer conditions, than along the Atlantic. Alaska and Hawaii are the only states not connected to the forty-eight mainland states. Alaska is in the Arctic area, so it gets very cold. Hawaii, out in the Pacific, is warm all year long. Weather in the central and northeastern parts of the country is affected by cold air from Canada and warm air from the Caribbean. Conditions can change quickly. Hurricanes are ocean storms that strike mainly in the Southeast. The hurricane season is, officially, June through November. Tornadoes are a risk across the country. These are locally severe windstorms. They generally happen in the spring and summer. In fact, March eighteenth happens to be the eightieth anniversary of the most deadly tornado in United States history. The nineteen twenty-five "Tri-State Tornado" hit parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. The National Weather Service says almost seven hundred people were killed. The weather service says the United States gets more severe weather than any other country. In the Midwest, the state of Michigan next week will observe Severe Weather Awareness Week. You know, we do not mean to scare you with all this talk about bad weather. The country also has lots of really nice weather. If you ever plan a trip to the United States, just be sure to read the local weather reports. That way you can come prepared for whatever the weather may bring. Jessi Alexander Singer Jessi Alexander has just released her first album. Barbara Klein has the details. BARBARA KLEIN: Jessi Alexander was born in the Southern state of Tennessee. Her parents ended their marriage when she was young. She spent her summers in Memphis with her father, a part-time musician. She loved country music from the South, but also folk and rock from the West Coast. Jessi was a teenager when she learned to play guitar. She left college and moved to Nashville. She began to write songs with local musicians. The result is the album "Honeysuckle Sweet." One of the songs was written the day after the shootings by two students at Columbine High School in Colorado in nineteen ninety-nine. The song is called "This World Is Crazy." (MUSIC) Another song on "Honeysuckle Sweet" is called "Reasons to Run." Jessi Alexander says this is the closest she has ever gotten to a "happy" love song. (MUSIC) Jessi Alexander says she named the album with the two words she could find to describe her summers as a child on the Tennessee River. We leave you with the title song from "Honeysuckle Sweet." (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. And our engineer was Kevin Raiman. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Wolfowitz Nominated to Lead World Bank
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush this week nominated Paul Wolfowitz to become president of the World Bank. The current head of the bank, James Wolfensohn, has held that position for ten years. His second term ends May thirty-first. Mister Wolfensohn announced in January that he would not seek a third term as leader of the development bank. It provides loans, policy advice and other assistance to help countries reduce poverty. Paul Wolfowitz has served in both the State Department and the Defense Department. For the last four years he has been deputy defense secretary under Donald Rumsfeld. Mister Wolfowitz was a major planner of the invasion of Iraq two years ago. He is often called the "architect" of the war. Some aid groups and others criticized the choice of an official so closely linked to the Iraq war to lead the World Bank. European reaction was mixed. Japan welcomed the nomination. Mister Wolfowitz recently traveled to South Asia to see the damage from the earthquake and tsunami waves in December. He helped plan American military assistance to the area. His nomination must be approved by the twenty-four directors of the World Bank. They represent one hundred eighty-four member countries. Traditionally, an American leads the World Bank while a European heads the International Monetary Fund. Paul Wolfowitz has taught at Yale and Johns Hopkins universities. During the late nineteen eighties, he served as ambassador to Indonesia. He won praise as a diplomat. Later, Mister Wolfowitz served as undersecretary of defense for policy under the first President Bush. As such, he developed policy during the Persian Gulf War after Iraq invaded Kuwait in nineteen ninety. In two thousand one he was a leading supporter of military strikes against al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. That was after the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Each year, the World Bank provides thousands of millions of dollars to developing countries. Education and health programs often receive money. But critics of the World Bank say programs for the poor are often cut as a result of financial reforms required to get loans. They say rich countries get richer, while poor countries struggle to repay. Mister Bush described Paul Wolfowitz as a "proven leader and experienced diplomat who will guide the World Bank effectively and honorably." In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Gwendolyn Brooks
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of award-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She had more than twenty books published. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America. Gwendolyn BrooksGwendolyn Brooks wrote many poems about being black during the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her material looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment house in Chicago, Illinois. In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago. The South Side of Chicago is where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection. Here she is reading from her Nineteen-Forty-Five collection, “A Street in Bronzeville.” ((GWENDOLYN BROOKS)) “My father, it is surely a blue place and straight. Right, regular, where I shall find no need for scholarly nonchalance or looks a little to the left or guards upon the heart.” VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen.” “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Mizz Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life. Her next work was a novel written in Nineteen-Fifty-Three called “Maud Martha.” “Maud Martha” received little notice when it first was published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote poems about the black experience in America. She described the anger many blacks had about racial injustice and the feeling of being different. She used poetry to criticize those who did not show respect for the poor. Yet for all the anger in her writing, Gwendolyn Brooks was considered by many to be a gentle spirit and a very giving person. By the early Nineteen-Sixties, Mizz Brooks had reached a high point in her writing career. She was considered one of America’s leading black writers. She was a popular teacher. She was praised for her use of language and the way people identified with her writing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in Nineteen-Seventeen. But she grew up in Chicago. She began writing when she was eleven years old. She mailed several poems to a community newspaper in Chicago to surprise her family. In a radio broadcast in Nineteen-Sixty-One, Mizz Brooks said her mother urged her to develop her poetic skills: (GWENDOLYN BROOKS) “My mother took me to the library when I was about four or five. I enjoyed reading poetry and I tried to write it when I was about seven, at the time that I first tried to put rhymes together. And I have loved it ever since.” VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks married Henry L. Blakely in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. Henry Blakely was a young writer who later published his own poetry. They lived in Chicago for the next thirty years, divorced in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, but re-united in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. They had two children, Nora Brooks Blakely and Henry Blakely. Throughout her life, Mizz Brooks supported herself through speaking appearances, poetry readings and part time teaching in colleges. She also received money from organizations that offered grants designed to support the arts. VOICE ONE: One of Gwendolyn Brooks most famous poems is called “We Real Cool”. It is a short poem that talks about young people feeling hopeless: We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon. VOICE TWO: By the end of the Nineteen-Sixties, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues. She won praise for her sharper, real-life poetic style. Gwendolyn Brooks was affected by the civil rights struggles and social changes taking place in America. She began to question her relations with whites. She said she felt that black poets should write for black people. That became evident in her next collection of poetry in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight called “In the Mecca.” Critics suggested Mizz Brooks had become too political and seemed to be writing only for black people. Her new poems received little notice in the press. VOICE ONE: In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks’ described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, “Corners on the Curving Sky”: Our earth is round, and, among other things That means that you and I can hold completely different Points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, While mine, at the same moment, Spreads beautiful to darkness. Still, we must choose how we separately corner The circling universe of our experience Once chosen, our cornering will determine The message of any star and darkness we encounter. VOICE TWO: Although her poetry did not receive much notice in the press, Gwendolyn Brooks continued to receive honors. She was chosen poet laureate of the state of Illinois in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she became the first black woman to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. And she was named the Nineteen-Ninety-Four Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That is the highest honor given by the federal government for work in the humanities. Mizz Brooks once said that of all the awards she received, there was only one that meant a lot to her. It was given to her at a workshop in an old theater in Chicago. She said: “I was given an award for just being me, and that’s what poetry is to me – just being me.” VOICE ONE: Although she was well-known, Gwendolyn Brooks lived a quiet life. She said her greatest interest was being involved with young people. She spent time giving readings at schools, prisons and hospitals. She also attended yearly poetry competitions for Chicago children. She often paid for the awards given to the winners. Haki Madhubuti directs the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Creative Writing and Black Literature at Chicago State University. He said Mizz Brooks felt children would help lead the way toward healing the wounds of the United States civil rights movement of the Nineteen-Sixties. One young student talked about how Mizz Brooks’ poetry affected her. She said that Gwendolyn Brooks’ writings influenced her to write down how she truly feel deep inside. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks influenced many African-American writers. Friends say her prize-winning works also helped other black Americans to develop their own sense of identity and culture. Doctors discovered Mizz Brooks had cancer in November, Two-Thousand. She died December Third at her home in Chicago. She was eighty-three. The funeral service was held on the South Side, the same area of the city that had been a window for much of Mizz Brooks’s poetry. The service was at times filled with laughter. There were warm remembrances of a woman whose life and words had touched people forever. African drums sounded and dancers leaped. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of award-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She had more than twenty books published. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America. Gwendolyn BrooksGwendolyn Brooks wrote many poems about being black during the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her material looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment house in Chicago, Illinois. In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago. The South Side of Chicago is where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection. Here she is reading from her Nineteen-Forty-Five collection, “A Street in Bronzeville.” ((GWENDOLYN BROOKS)) “My father, it is surely a blue place and straight. Right, regular, where I shall find no need for scholarly nonchalance or looks a little to the left or guards upon the heart.” VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen.” “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Mizz Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life. Her next work was a novel written in Nineteen-Fifty-Three called “Maud Martha.” “Maud Martha” received little notice when it first was published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote poems about the black experience in America. She described the anger many blacks had about racial injustice and the feeling of being different. She used poetry to criticize those who did not show respect for the poor. Yet for all the anger in her writing, Gwendolyn Brooks was considered by many to be a gentle spirit and a very giving person. By the early Nineteen-Sixties, Mizz Brooks had reached a high point in her writing career. She was considered one of America’s leading black writers. She was a popular teacher. She was praised for her use of language and the way people identified with her writing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in Nineteen-Seventeen. But she grew up in Chicago. She began writing when she was eleven years old. She mailed several poems to a community newspaper in Chicago to surprise her family. In a radio broadcast in Nineteen-Sixty-One, Mizz Brooks said her mother urged her to develop her poetic skills: (GWENDOLYN BROOKS) “My mother took me to the library when I was about four or five. I enjoyed reading poetry and I tried to write it when I was about seven, at the time that I first tried to put rhymes together. And I have loved it ever since.” VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks married Henry L. Blakely in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. Henry Blakely was a young writer who later published his own poetry. They lived in Chicago for the next thirty years, divorced in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, but re-united in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. They had two children, Nora Brooks Blakely and Henry Blakely. Throughout her life, Mizz Brooks supported herself through speaking appearances, poetry readings and part time teaching in colleges. She also received money from organizations that offered grants designed to support the arts. VOICE ONE: One of Gwendolyn Brooks most famous poems is called “We Real Cool”. It is a short poem that talks about young people feeling hopeless: We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon. VOICE TWO: By the end of the Nineteen-Sixties, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues. She won praise for her sharper, real-life poetic style. Gwendolyn Brooks was affected by the civil rights struggles and social changes taking place in America. She began to question her relations with whites. She said she felt that black poets should write for black people. That became evident in her next collection of poetry in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight called “In the Mecca.” Critics suggested Mizz Brooks had become too political and seemed to be writing only for black people. Her new poems received little notice in the press. VOICE ONE: In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks’ described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, “Corners on the Curving Sky”: Our earth is round, and, among other things That means that you and I can hold completely different Points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, While mine, at the same moment, Spreads beautiful to darkness. Still, we must choose how we separately corner The circling universe of our experience Once chosen, our cornering will determine The message of any star and darkness we encounter. VOICE TWO: Although her poetry did not receive much notice in the press, Gwendolyn Brooks continued to receive honors. She was chosen poet laureate of the state of Illinois in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she became the first black woman to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. And she was named the Nineteen-Ninety-Four Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That is the highest honor given by the federal government for work in the humanities. Mizz Brooks once said that of all the awards she received, there was only one that meant a lot to her. It was given to her at a workshop in an old theater in Chicago. She said: “I was given an award for just being me, and that’s what poetry is to me – just being me.” VOICE ONE: Although she was well-known, Gwendolyn Brooks lived a quiet life. She said her greatest interest was being involved with young people. She spent time giving readings at schools, prisons and hospitals. She also attended yearly poetry competitions for Chicago children. She often paid for the awards given to the winners. Haki Madhubuti directs the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Creative Writing and Black Literature at Chicago State University. He said Mizz Brooks felt children would help lead the way toward healing the wounds of the United States civil rights movement of the Nineteen-Sixties. One young student talked about how Mizz Brooks’ poetry affected her. She said that Gwendolyn Brooks’ writings influenced her to write down how she truly feel deep inside. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks influenced many African-American writers. Friends say her prize-winning works also helped other black Americans to develop their own sense of identity and culture. Doctors discovered Mizz Brooks had cancer in November, Two-Thousand. She died December Third at her home in Chicago. She was eighty-three. The funeral service was held on the South Side, the same area of the city that had been a window for much of Mizz Brooks’s poetry. The service was at times filled with laughter. There were warm remembrances of a woman whose life and words had touched people forever. African drums sounded and dancers leaped. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/a-2005-03-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: What is Insurance, Part 2
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. As we discussed last week, insurance provides financial protection. Property was the first thing that people insured. Insurance can limit the cost to replace property that is damaged or destroyed. Now what if someone is injured on someone else's property, but the property is O.K. The owner may have to pay the medical costs. In that case, there is liability insurance to help pay for such claims. A person’s life can be insured too. One traditional form of life insurance is term life. It pays only if the policyholder dies before a set age. A term life policy can be renewed, but at a higher price. Whole life insurance costs more. It also pays if a person dies. But whole life policies gain value as savings over time. The policyholder can borrow against this value in the form of a loan. When people buy life insurance, the insurer invests the payments in bonds, stocks and other financial products. The Insurance Information Institute in New York says traditional life insurance is still an important part of the industry. But it says the main business now is in annuities. Annuities are contract agreements that guarantee payments in the future, generally when a person retires. These payments may be fixed. Or the amount may change with the value of investments. Besides life insurance, there is health insurance which pays for medical costs if a person is sick or injured. The Insurance Information Institute says private insurers pay for about forty percent of all health care costs in the United States. Medicare is federal health insurance for people age sixty-five and older. Medicaid is federal and state health insurance for the poor. Workers in the United States who are injured on the job can receive workers compensation. States require employers to pay into this form of insurance. And workers who lose their jobs may collect unemployment insurance, for up to twenty-six weeks. Modern insurance started in England in the late sixteen hundreds. Businesses shared the risks of international shipping. The insurance industry uses actuaries. These workers try to estimate the probability that some event will happen that will lead to a claim. Almost anything can be insured, so long as some insurer is willing to take the risk to insure it. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Biltmore Estate: A Visit to the Historic Home in North Carolina
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. This week, Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith are your guides as we take you to the Biltmore Estate. This huge home was built more than a century ago near the mountains of North Carolina. VOICE ONE: An estate is a property, usually large, owned by one person or a family. The man who owned the Biltmore estate in North Carolina was George Vanderbilt. He was born in eighteen-sixty-two and died in nineteen-fourteen. His father and grandfather were two of the richest and most powerful businessmen in America. They made their money in shipping and railroads. When his father died, George Vanderbilt received millions of dollars. He chose to spend a good deal of that money building his home in North Carolina. More than one-thousand people began the work on it in eighteen-eighty-nine. The structure was ready six years later in December eighteen-ninety-five. Biltmore is now open to the public. It is well worth a visit. So, close your eyes and imagine you are going there. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our car has just turned off one of the main roads in the city of Asheville, North Carolina. We have entered a private road that leads to the main house on the Biltmore Estate. The sides of the road are lined with trees. When we leave the car, we walk through a wooded area. The air is clean. It smells of flowers. The trees are dark and very large. They block us from seeing anything. At last we come to an open area and turn to the right. The main house is several hundred meters in front of us. VOICE ONE: Biltmore is huge. It looks like a king's palace. It measures two-hundred-thirty-eight meters from side to side. It is the color of milk, with maybe just a little chocolate added to make it light brown. As we walk closer, it seems to grow bigger and bigger. It has hundreds of windows. Strange stone creatures look down from the top. They seem to be guarding the house. Two big stone lions guard the front door. Biltmore really has two front doors. The first is made of glass and black iron. We pass through it to a second door. This one is made of rich dark wood. Both doors are several meters high. The opening is big enough for perhaps six people to walk through, side-by-side. VOICE TWO: A book has been written about the Biltmore estate. It includes many pictures of the house, other buildings, gardens and the Vanderbilt family. The book says the house has two-hundred-fifty rooms. We cannot see and count them all. Only sixty-five are open to the public. One room that can be seen looks like a garden. It is alive with flowers. In the center is a statue with water running from it. When we look up, we see the sky through hundreds of windows. Eight big lights hang from the top. Then we come to a room in which dinner can be served to many guests. The table is large enough for more than sixty people. The top of this room is more than twenty-one meters high. The walls are covered with cloth pictures, flags, and the heads of wild animals. VOICE ONE: Each room at Biltmore is more beautiful than the last. Many include paintings by famous artists, like French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American artist John Singer Sargent. The chairs, beds, and other furniture were made by artists who worked in wood, leather, glass, marble, and cloth. One room was designed for reading. It contains more than twenty-three-thousand books in eight languages. Stairs on the side of the room permit visitors to reach books that are kept near the top. The paintings in this reading room are beautiful, too. VOICE TWO: Later, we visit rooms below ground level. The people who worked for the Vanderbilt family lived in this lower part. The Vanderbilts employed about eighty people to take care of the house. This included cooks, bakers, and house cleaners. Other workers took care of the many horses the Vanderbilts owned. Many of these workers lived in the main house, but some lived in the nearby town. One of the biggest rooms below ground level is the kitchen. And there are separate rooms for keeping food fresh and cold, and for washing the Vanderbilt's clothes. Past these rooms we find an indoor swimming pool. This area has several separate small rooms where guests could change into swimming clothes. VOICE ONE: We finally come back to the front door of the house. Yet there is still much to see at the Biltmore estate. To the left of the front door, about fifty meters away, is where the Vanderbilt family kept its horses. It is no longer used for horses, however. It now has several small stores that sell gifts to visitors. Visitors can also enjoy a meal or buy cold drinks and ice cream. VOICE TWO: In addition to seeing the main house at Biltmore, you can walk through the gardens. Hundreds of different flowers grow there. A big stone and glass building holds young plants before they are placed in the ground outside. Past the gardens is the dark, green forest. Trees seem to grow everywhere. The place seems wild. At the same time, there is a feeling of calm order. There was once a dairy farm on the Biltmore estate. It is gone now. The milk cows were sold. Some of the land was planted with grapes. And the cow barn was turned into a building for making wine. VOICE ONE: As we continue to walk, we come to an unusual house in the forest. The road on which we are walking passes through the house. The house was used many years ago by the gate keeper. Visitors traveled from this gate house to the main house. The distance between the two is almost five kilometers. The trees surrounding Biltmore look like a natural forest. Yet all of the area was planned, built, and planted by the men who designed the estate. None of it is natural. Now you may have begun to wonder about the history of Biltmore. Who designed it? How did they plan it? How and why was it built? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Biltmore estate was the idea of George Vanderbilt. The buildings were designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Mr. Hunt was one of the most famous building designers of his day. He designed and helped build several other big homes in the United States. Several of them were for other members of the Vanderbilt family. Mr. Hunt also designed the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. VOICE ONE: Another famous man of the time designed the gardens at Biltmore. He was Frederick Law Olmsted. He is most famous for designing central park in New York City and the grounds around the capitol building in Washington, D.C. One of Mr. Olmsted's first projects at Biltmore was to plant and grow the millions of flowers that would be used for the gardens there. VOICE TWO: Another man named Gifford Pinchot was also part of the team that designed Biltmore. While there, he started the first scientifically managed forest in the United States. He cut diseased or dead trees and planted new ones. He improved the growth of many kinds of trees. It is because of his work that the wild forest at Biltmore has an ordered and peaceful look. Gifford Pinchot left Biltmore to start the school of forestry at Yale University. Later he helped to establish the United States Forest Service. Biltmore is surrounded by more than one-thousand eight-hundred hectares of forest. The forest provides a wood crop that helps pay the costs of operating the estate. It was the work begun by Gifford Pinchot that makes this possible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, Biltmore belongs to the grandchildren of George Vanderbilt. However, it is no longer used as a private home. Many years ago, the family decided to open it to the public. Visitors help pay the cost of caring for and operating it. Biltmore employs more than six-hundred-fifty people who work in the house and gardens. The family says George Vanderbilt liked to have guests at Biltmore. They say he enjoyed showing it to others. Now, each year, about seven-hundred fifty-thousand people visit the Vanderbilt home in Asheville, North Carolina. The family says their grandfather would have liked that. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and read by Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Our program was written by Paul Thompson and read by Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-05-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Purdue University Known for Its Engineering and Business Programs
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports for students who want to come to the United States to attend a college or university. Recently we have talked about some individual schools. This week our subject is Purdue University, in the Midwest. It is known for its engineering and business programs, among others. Purdue University is in West Lafayette, Indiana. It was established in eighteen sixty-nine to teach about agriculture and the mechanical arts. A local business leader named John Purdue gave one hundred fifty thousand dollars to get started. At first there were six teachers and thirty-nine students. Today, Purdue University offers more than five hundred areas of study. It has many different colleges. In addition to agriculture and engineering, these include business, education, technology and veterinary medicine. Purdue University has more than thirty-eight thousand students at its main campus. This year nearly five thousand of these students are from outside the United States. They are from one hundred twenty-seven countries in all. The largest number of foreign students, almost one thousand, are from India. Next is China, with more than seven hundred students. Other nations with more than one hundred students at Purdue this year are South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Turkey, Malaysia and Canada. Almost three thousand foreign students at Purdue this year are in graduate programs. Most are studying engineering, science and business. Graduate students pay about the same as undergraduates to attend Purdue. The cost is about twenty-nine thousand dollars for one year. That includes classes, housing, food, books and transportation. This year, the university began offering financial aid to more students, including students from other countries. The Web site of the international student office at Purdue has information about financial aid and other programs. The address is iss.purdue.edu. Purdue is spelled P-U-R-D-U-E. This was week number thirty in our Foreign Student Series. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish dot com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/Penobscot-Indians-Revisited.cfm
* Headline: Penobscot Indians in Maine See New Hope for Economic Future
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. In two thousand three we did a program on the Penobscot Indians in Maine. Today we revisit the tribe to report on some new possibilities for their economic future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Penobscot Indian Nation is among hundreds of Native American tribes recognized by the federal government. These tribes have treaties with the government. Those treaties establish special rights for America’s remaining Indians as nations within a nation. The Penobscot Nation has about three thousand members. Five hundred or so live on Indian Island in the Penobscot River in Maine. Most others live in different parts of that small state in the Northeast. Cross the bridge from the mainland to Indian Island, and you enter the heart of the Penobscot Indian Nation. Homes stand along with trees of all kinds. The island is not far from the Great North Woods. During the warmer months, Indian Island is very green. In winter, there is snow. Temperatures can drop far below freezing. VOICE TWO: Many years ago, the Penobscot Indians began to lose their traditional ways to support themselves. Dams went up along the Penobscot River where they fished. As manufacturing arrived, some fish and animals along the river disappeared. Many of the Indians could find work only in low-paying industries. Others could not find jobs at all. Poverty has been a common problem for years for American Indian tribes. Now, many have found a way to earn money and reduce their dependence on federal aid. They operate casinos on, and in some cases off, tribal lands. These operations collected eighteen-and-a-half thousand million dollars last year. That is the estimate of the National Indian Gaming Association. It was a ten percent increase from the year before. The group says Indian casinos have created more than half a million jobs, three out of four held by non-Indians. But in two thousand three, voters in Maine rejected a proposed casino that the Penobscot Nation and another tribe wanted to operate. That casino would have been off what is officially recognized as tribal land. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Penobscot Indians have tried other ways to earn money. One idea has been to sell traditional Indian canoes made by hand. But a tribal official says each small boat takes several people four hundred hours. Now, the Penobscot may get more chances for factory work. The Maine Technology Institute has awarded two hundred thousand dollars to the Penobscot and four other tribes in the state. An agreement among state officials, the tribes and a Maine manufacturing group made this award possible. The director of the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership says the Defense Department might provide the Indians with factory work. VOICE TWO: And there are other economic hopes. The Penobscot may open a non-traditional kind of drug store to sell medicines imported from Canada. Maine is on the border with Canada. Medicines, even American-made drugs, often cost far less in Canada than in the United States. The Penobscot would order prescription drugs from Canada under a plan announced by Maine Governor John Baldacci. So far, drug safety officials in the United States government have rejected similar plans by other states. But some states and cities are not honoring the government’s wishes. They are suggesting that their citizens buy medicines over the Internet from Canada. VOICE ONE: Technically, it is illegal for Americans to go to Canada to bring back medicine. Yet many older people do just that. Maine Senator Olympia Snowe and senators from other states have proposed a measure in Congress. It would permit the purchase of medicines from Canada and other nations. The United States government has said it could not guarantee the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs. But the drugs would be inspected under this proposed legislation. VOICE TWO: The proposed mail-order business in Maine is part of an effort by that state to reduce the cost of prescription medicines. Maine says it will campaign to get poor people to use the service once the Penobscot store is ready. The poor receive government help with medical costs. The state health department says the plan, if successful, could save millions of dollars during the next two years. VOICE ONE: The Penobscot would sell the medicines to individuals and drug stores in Maine. Under the governor's plan, those stores would sell the drugs at reduced prices. Drug stores argue that this plan would rob them of profits. The Penobscot would operate the store on Indian Island. An old storage building is being improved for this purpose. The nearby community of Old Town, Maine, will ask the state for four hundred thousand dollars for the restoration. Penobscot Chief Jim Sappier says the tribe will not make a lot of money. But he says the plan will create jobs. Forty Penobscot could be working in the drug store within a year. VOICE TWO: The possibility of a new industry is not the only good news. There is a plan to re-connect the Penobscot River with the Atlantic Ocean. This connection had always provided the Indians with excellent fishing and hunting. Then came development and manufacturing. Last June the Penobscot River Restoration Project received almost one million dollars in federal money. The goal is to improve more than eight hundred kilometers of river and the area into which it drains. Removing dams will let Atlantic salmon back into the river along with ten other kinds of fish. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For now, members of the Penobscot Indian Nation go on with their lives much as usual. Children go to the elementary school on Indian Island. Young people attend events at the Boys and Girls Club. Not long ago, some local volunteers collected more than three thousand dollars for the club. To raise the money, they jumped into a pool of water in temperatures of minus twenty-one degrees Celsius. VOICE TWO: If you visit Indian Island, one of the first buildings you see is the Penobscot Nation Museum. As you step through the door, you feel as though you have entered the past. A world of traditional culture surrounds you. You pass walking sticks and ceremonial clubs. There are also snow sticks. People use these to play a game in the snow. Tribal artists have carved beautiful designs into the objects in the exhibits. VOICE ONE: You see baskets made of sweet grass and from trees that grow on the Penobscot land. There are drums and jewelry -- necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings. And there are moccasin shoes made of animal skin and trimmed with beads. The objects in the museum describe a way of life that began thousands of years before European explorers arrived. Much of the Penobscot homeland once extended north to what is now Canada. Today many Penobscot Indians live in the same area where their ancestors lived. In earlier spring times, the Penobscot followed the river to the Atlantic coast. They caught salmon and other fish. And they caught shellfish. When fall came, they hunted elk, moose, deer and smaller animals along the river. VOICE TWO: Members of Indian nations are United States citizens. They have most of the same duties and responsibilities as other Americans. But they also make rules for themselves. A tribal council governs the Penobscot reservation and provides local services. A chief, called a sagama, heads this group. The word Penobscot is usually defined in English as "a rocky place."? There is a traditional story that the people tell about their creation. VOICE ONE: Long ago, a group of people lived along a stream. Then a huge frog came and drank most of the water in the stream. The people began to suffer. But after a while, a hero with great power made himself into a giant. This man pulled up a big pine tree and struck the frog. The frog exploded. The water inside fell into the hole left by the pine tree. It became a river. This river had a place where the water ran over big white rocks. The people took their name from that place. They were the Penobscot Nation. VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Internet users can learn more about the Penobscot at penobscotnation.org. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. To find us online, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/Solar-Cookers.cfm
* Headline: Solar Cookers in Developing Countries
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day. It is often difficult to find wood for the fire. People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel. However, there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun. Solar cookers, or ovens, have been used for centuries. A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in seventeen sixty-seven. Today, people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world. People use solar ovens to cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms. There are three kinds of solar ovens. The first is a box cooker. It is designed with a special wall that shines or reflects sunlight into the box. Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top of the cooker. A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food. The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker. It includes several flat walls, or panels, that directly reflect the sun’s light onto the food. The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat energy. People can build panel cookers quickly and with very few supplies. They do not cost much. In Kenya, for example, panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars. The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic cooker. It has rounded walls that aim sunlight directly into the bottom of the oven. Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens. However, these cookers are hard to make. They must be re-aimed often to follow the sun. Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and eye injuries if they are not used correctly. You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper. They will not catch fire. Paper burns at two hundred thirty-two degrees Celsius. A solar cooker never gets that hot. Solar ovens cook food at low temperatures over long periods of time. This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other things. To learn more about solar cooking, you can write to Solar Cookers International. The address is nineteen nineteen Twenty-First Street, Sacramento, California, nine-five-eight-one-four, USA. Or you can visit the group’s Internet Web site. The address is www.solarcooking.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/Lucille-Ball.cfm
* Headline: 'I Love Lucy': Lucille Ball and the Early TV Situation Comedy
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the much-loved performer Lucille Ball. Her famous television series, “I Love Lucy,” was first broadcast in nineteen-fifty-one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lucille BallThe “I Love Lucy” show was a huge success. It was the most popular television show of the Nineteen-fifties. The kind of television program Mizz Ball helped develop is called a situation comedy. Some television experts give her credit for inventing this kind of series. Today, some of the most popular television programs in America are situation comedies. VOICE TWO: One reason for the great popularity of “I Love Lucy” may have been its real-life connection with Miz Ball’s family. On the show, she was Lucy, the wife of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban musician. Ricky was played by band leader Desi Arnaz, who was Lucille Ball’s husband in real life. The show combined issues common to the life of married people living in the city with musical performances and comic theater. Often, a show would include a part with Mister Arnaz acting seriously while Miz Ball added a funny element. In the following piece, Mister Arnaz tries to sing normally and Miz Ball adds the comedy. (MUSIC)???????????????????? VOICE ONE: Also on the “I Love Lucy” show were Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Miz Vance played Ethel Mertz and Mister Frawley played Ethel’s husband, Fred Mertz. On the show, the Mertzes were friends of the Ricardos and owned the building in which they all lived. Fred Mertz loved baseball, which was America’s most popular sport at the time. “I Love Lucy,” often showed Fred Mertz intensely watching baseball or some other sport like boxing while Ethel added her own funny comments: (SOUND) VOICE TWO: A well-known story about the “I Love Lucy Show” concerns the birth of the Arnaz’s son, Desi Junior. Officials of the broadcasting company wondered what to do when Miz Ball became pregnant in nineteen-fifty-two. Miz Ball explains that her husband, Desi, came up with a solution: (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Miz Ball’s pregnancy was made part of the show. In fact, critics say the show in which Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky that she is pregnant is one of the best. In it, Lucy goes to the entertainment place where Ricky’s band is playing to tell him that they are going to have a baby. Ricky suddenly understands that he is going to be a father after Lucy secretly requests the song, “We’re having a Baby:” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miz Ball gave birth to her second child on the same day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth. In fact, Desi Junior’s birth date was planned to happen on the same day as the broadcast. The show in which Lucy gave birth was one of the most popular television programs ever broadcast in America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The success of the “I Love Lucy” show did not come early in Lucille Ball’s life, or easily. Instead, it was the result of years of hard work. Miz Ball was born near Jamestown, New York, in nineteen-eleven. She tried to get into show business at an early age. Early on, she went to the same acting school as the famous actress Bette Davis. However, she left when she was told that she did not have enough acting ability. In the early Nineteen-Thirties, she moved to Hollywood. She appeared in a number of movies, but was not well known. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty, she met the leader of a musical group who had been born in Cuba. His full name was Desiderio Alberto Arnaz de Acha the Third. They worked together in a movie and married soon after they met. For the next ten years, she appeared in movies and on radio. He travelled a lot with his band. In Nineteen-Fifty, the broadcasting company, CBS, decided to make a television program based on the radio show, “My Favorite Husband.”? Lucille Ball was the star of the radio show. She wanted Mister Arnaz to play the part of her husband on the television show. CBS rejected the idea. But, she refused to give up. She and Desi travelled around the country performing in a show together to prove that they would do well on television. Their show was a success. CBS offered them both jobs. VOICE TWO: Miz Ball had another demand. She wanted her show to be a production of the best quality. Early television pictures were not of good quality. Miz Ball wanted her program to be filmed, which would improve the picture, and then broadcast later. Yet she wanted people to watch the program as it was being filmed so the sound of their reactions could be captured. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Miz Ball also wanted to film the shows in Hollywood. CBS did not want the extra costs. So, Miz Ball and Mister Arnaz agreed to work for less pay. In exchange, CBS let them own the program. That agreement made them owners of what would become one of the most successful programs on television. VOICE ONE: During the fifties, Miz Ball won almost every honor there was for television actors including several Emmy Awards. Yet, even the most popular performers could not escape the political realities of the time. Conservative lawmakers accused Lucille Ball of being a communist. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a secret record of information about her, just as it did about many Hollywood actors at that time. VOICE TWO: Mister Arnaz supervised their company, Desilu Productions. The company produced sixteen different television programs and ran three production centers, called studios. In Nineteen-Sixty, Lucille Ball and Mister Arnaz legally ended their marriage. Mister Arnaz sold his part of the company to his ex-wife. Miz Ball became the first woman to head a major production company. It was one of the biggest in Hollywood. Miz Ball also was the star of several other shows of her own. “The Lucy Show” was broadcast from nineteen-sixty-two to nineteen-sixty-eight. “Here’s Lucy” followed until nineteen-seventy-four. Miz Ball later sold her production company to Paramount Studios. VOICE ONE: “I Love Lucy” showed Miz Ball at her best. Mister Arnaz added something that was unusual for American television at the time. Many of the songs on the show were in Spanish. One song, “Babalu,” is popularly connected with “I Love Lucy”. Its words are Spanish and its sound is Latin American. It is this mixture along with the excellent performances that made the show special: (SOUND ) VOICE TWO: Miz Ball died in nineteen-eighty-nine after a heart operation. Yet, she still makes people laugh. Her programs are rebroadcast on television and there are hundreds of Internet sites about her. After all these years, everyone still loves Lucy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: From A to Zinc: The Story of Vitamins
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week, a special report all about vitamins. We tell about some of the common ones needed for good health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many jobs must be done with two people. One person takes the lead. The other helps. It is this cooperation that brings success. So it is with the human body. Much of our good health depends on the cooperation between substances. When they work together, chemical reactions take place smoothly. Body systems are kept in balance. Some of the most important helpers in the job of good health are the substances we call vitamins. VOICE TWO: The word “vitamin” dates back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk in nineteen-twelve. He was studying a substance in the hull that covers rice. This substance was believed to cure the nervous system disorder beriberi. Funk believed the substance belonged to a group of chemicals known as amines [uh-MEENS]. He added the Latin "vita" meaning life. So he called the substance a “vitamine” [vita-MEEN] -- an amine necessary for life. Funk was not able to separate the anti-berberi substance from the rice hulls; it turned out to be thiamine. And later research showed that not all vitamines were amines after all. So the name was shortened to vitamin. But Funk was correct in recognizing the importance. VOICE ONE: Scientists have discovered fourteen kinds of vitamins. They are known as vitamins A, the B group, C, D, E and K. Scientists say vitamins act like enzymes. They help carry out chemical changes within cells. If we do not get enough of the vitamins we need in our food, we are likely to develop a number of diseases. This brings us back to Polish scientist Casimir Funk and his studies of rice. His experiments were part of a long search for foods that could cure disease. VOICE TWO: One of the first people involved in that search was James Lind of Scotland. In the seventeen-forties, Lind was a doctor for the British Navy. He was trying to solve a problem the Navy had been suffering for hundreds of years. The problem was the disease scurvy. So many British sailors had scurvy that the Navy’s fighting strength was very low. The sailors were weak from continuous bleeding inside their bodies. Their teeth fell out. Even the smallest wound would not heal. Doctor Lind thought the sailors were getting sick because they were unable to eat some kinds of foods when they were at sea for many months. Doctor Lind divided twelve sailors suffering from scurvy into two groups. He gave each group different foods to eat. One group got oranges and lemons. The other did not. The men who ate the fruit began to improve within seven days. The other men got weaker and weaker. Doctor Lind was correct. Eating citrus fruits prevents scurvy. VOICE ONE: Other doctors searched for foods that would cure rickets and pellagra. They did not yet understand that they were seeing the problem backwards. That is, it is better to eat vitamin-rich foods to prevent disease instead of eating them to cure disease after it has developed. Just how do vitamins keep us healthy?? Which foods are the best source for different ones?? Let us look at some important vitamins for these answers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Vitamin A is needed to produce a light-sensitive substance in the eyes. And it helps prevent skin and other tissues from drying out. People who do not get enough vitamin A cannot see well in the dark. They also may develop a condition that dries the eyes, called xerophthalmia [zir-af-THAL-mea]. It can result in infections and lead to blindness. The best source of vitamin A is fish liver oil. It also is found in the yellow part of eggs. In addition, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and other darkly colored fruits and vegetables contain substances that the body can change into vitamin A. VOICE ONE: Vitamin B-one is also called thiamine. It changes starchy foods into energy. It also helps the heart and nervous system work smoothly. Without it, we would be weak and would not grow. We also might develop beriberi. Thiamine is found not just in whole grains like brown rice, but also in other foods. These include beans and peas, nuts, and meat and fish. Another B-vitamin is niacin. It helps cells use food energy. It also prevents pellagra, a disease that causes weakness, red skin and stomach problems. Good sources of niacin are meat, fish and green vegetables. Vitamin B-twelve is needed so folic acid can do its work. Together, they help produce red blood cells. Without them, a person suffers from anemia. Vitamin B-twelve is found naturally in foods such as eggs, meat, fish and milk products. Folic acid has been shown to prevent birth defects when taken by women of child-bearing age. It is found in green leafy vegetables and other foods including legumes and citrus fruits. It is also added to enriched breads and other products. The first vitamin discovery in the twenty-first century was made by Japanese researchers in April of two-thousand-three. They identified a new member of the B-vitamin group. It is a substance known since nineteen-seventy-nine: pyrroloquinoline quinone [pi-RO-lo-QUI-no-leen qui-NOHN], or PDQ. The researchers found that it plays an important part in the reproductive and defense systems in mice. They said the substance is similarly important for people. PDQ is found in fermented soybeans and also in parsley, green tea, green peppers and kiwi fruit. VOICE TWO: Vitamin C is necessary for strong bones and teeth, and for healthy blood vessels. It also helps wounds heal quickly. The body stores very little vitamin C. So we must get it every day in foods such as citrus fruits, tomatoes and uncooked cabbage. Vitamin D increases the amount of calcium in the blood. Calcium is needed for nerve and muscle cells to work normally. It also is needed to build strong bones. Vitamin D prevents a children’s bone disease called rickets. Ultraviolet rays from the sun change a form of cholesterol in the skin into vitamin D. Another source is fish liver oil. In some countries, milk producers add vitamin D to milk, especially so children will get enough. Vitamin K is needed for healthy blood. It thickens the blood around a cut to stop bleeding. Bacteria in the intestines normally produce vitamin K. It can also be found in pork and liver and in vegetables like cabbage, kale and spinach. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: So, how do we know how much of each vitamin we need every day?? Public health agencies publish lists of suggested amounts. But some people take pills each day that contain larger amounts of vitamins. They think the extra vitamins will improve their health and protect against disease. Some doctors agree. But many do not. For one thing, they point out that too much of some vitamins can be harmful to healthy people. For example, too much vitamin A can lead to the bone weakening condition osteoporosis. Too much vitamin B-six can damage the nervous system, causing a loss of feeling in the arms and legs. Too much vitamin E can increase the chances of developing a heart attack or stroke. VOICE TWO: Doctors say only people who know that they lack a vitamin should take extra amounts in pills. Some older people, for example, may not have enough vitamin B-twelve. That is because, as people get older, the body loses its ability to take it from foods. Also, people who do not go outdoors much may need extra vitamin D since the skin makes this vitamin from sunlight. And, women who may become pregnant need to make sure they get enough folic acid to protect the baby from possible birth defects. VOICE ONE: Vitamins are important to our health. But different vitamins are found in different foods -- grains, vegetables and fruits, fish and meat, eggs and milk products. And even foods that contain the same vitamins may have them in different amounts. Nutrition experts say this is why it is important, where possible, to eat a mixture of foods every day, to try to get enough of the vitamins our bodies need. ?(MUSIC) SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-28-voa7.cfm
* Headline: TV's 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' / New Rock and Roll Hall of Famers / We Answer a Question About Disney World
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week:? Music by musicians honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame …A question about Disney World... And a report about a popular television show that builds houses for people in need. Extreme Makeover Home Edition HOST: Reality television programs are very popular in the United States. Many of these shows involve fierce competition among people who want to win a prize. The competitors often will do anything to win. However, one reality show does good things for people. Sarah Long has this report on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” ANNCR: The popular television show is in its second season on the ABC network. It was developed from another successful ABC reality show, “Extreme Makeover.”? That show provides medical operations, weight loss programs and other beauty help to people who want to look better. “Extreme Makover: Home Edition” also helps people by improving their homes. The show finds a needy family and sends them away on a holiday. While they are away, the “Home Edition” team tears down and re-builds the family’s house. These building projects would normally take months to complete. But, the show requires the work be done is just one week. Ty Pennington leads the show’s ten-member team. They include experts in planning, design and building. Pennington is a carpenter. He first gained fame building furniture on the popular home design television show, “Trading Spaces.”?????? “Home Edition” chooses families who are needy for different reasons. On one program the team made a house bigger for a husband and wife who were expecting three babies. On another episode the designers re-built a house for eight children whose parents had died. On an upcoming show, the team re-designs a house for a man who was blinded by a gun shot. The final show of last season provided a single mother with a new home. Brook Imbriani had a busy life in California working to support her children and her disabled mother. She also saved the life of a very sick baby by providing her own bone marrow for an operation. The little girl is now four. Her parents nominated Brooke Imbriani for “Home Edition” to say thank you. The American television industry honored the show last year. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program. Now the show is one of the ten most popular shows on American television. Disney World HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about Walt Disney World. ??? Walt DisneyDisney World is the work of American movie producer Walt Disney. He first produced animated movies known as cartoons. A cartoon is a series of drawings on film. In a finished movie, cartoon people and animals appear to move. They speak with voices recorded by actors. Walt Disney’s cartoons were a huge success. He created imaginary creatures that are still popular today. They include Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Dumbo and Bambi. Later, he produced live action films and television shows. In nineteen fifty-five, Walt Disney opened the Disneyland entertainment park near Los Angeles, California. It re-created places from Disney movies. It also showed places as Walt Disney imagined them, like a town in the old American West and a world of the future. Disneyland was so successful that Walt Disney planned a second park, Walt Disney World. It opened near Orlando, Florida in nineteen seventy-one, five years after Walt Disney died. It is larger than Disneyland and has more activities. It includes an amusement park, hotels, campgrounds, golf courses and shopping villages. Later, Disney World added more theme parks, such as the Animal Kingdom and EPCOT, the Experimental Community of Tomorrow. EPCOT Center opened in nineteen eighty-two. It includes places that represent the cultures of eleven countries around the world. For example, the area called Britain includes a drinking place, a park and shops that sell British products. At night, people gather around a lake at Epcot Center and watch a fireworks show. EPCOT also includes examples of technology today and in the future. Its newest ride, called Mission Space, re-creates a space launch. Today, Walt Disney World is considered the most popular vacation place in the world. The Disney Company also operates similar parks in Europe and Asia. This year, the Disney Company is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Disneyland. The company says every Disney park around the world will celebrate with new attractions and shows. New Members of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame HOST: Several famous recording artists were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week during a ceremony in New York City. The Hall of Fame honors recording artists for their importance and influence in rock and roll. Musicians can become members twenty-five years after their first recordings. Faith Lapidus tells us about the new members this year. ANNCR: Chrissie HyndeThe group called the Pretenders became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. American singer?Chrissie Hynde?formed the band in England. Many of its other members have since died. Here is one of the Pretenders’ rock and roll hit songs, “Back on the Chain Gang.” (MUSIC) Two other groups were chosen for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One is U2. The other is the O’Jays. Soul singer and songwriter Percy Sledge also became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. Music experts say he will be forever known for this song, “When A Man Loves A Woman.” (MUSIC) Blues musician Buddy Guy also became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Critics have called him blues music’s most electrifying guitar player. They say he has moved the blues forward without losing sight of where it came from. We leave you now with the recording that won a Grammy award for Buddy Guy in nineteen ninety-one. It is “Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Welcome to Our New Web Site. (So How Do You Like It?)
* Byline: 

 Dear Visitors: ? We hope you will take a few minutes to look around our new site. Then, we hope you will let us know what you think. ? Tell us what you like. And tell us what you do not like. Your suggestions and comments will guide additional improvements in the coming days and weeks. Please send your ideas to special@voanews.com. ? Think of this as a test drive in a new car. Ready? Now start your mouse! ? Many thanks, 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Farmers Can Control Insects By Mixing Plants
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we discussed how farmers can control harmful insects by mixing different kinds of plants with the main crop. But there are also other ways to use plants to protect crops without chemicals. Some plants provide food and protection for insects that help control harmful insects. Organic Gardening magazine, published by the Rodale Institute, once described some examples, such as ladybugs. Ladybugs are beetles that like crimson clover and hairy vetch. They find food, water and a resting place in the clover and vetch. Ladybug larvae eat harmful aphids. Aphids are tiny insects that feed on many different kinds of crop plants. Plants also help each other through their root systems. For example, scientists say the roots of the marigold flower reduce harmful nematode populations in the soil. ?Nematodes are tiny worms. There are more than ten-thousand different kinds of nematodes. And some of them feed on corn. Wild mustard is another plant that releases a poison through its roots. This poison kills nematodes. It also kills some kinds of fungi. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the wild mustard should be cut close to the ground after the first fifteen days. After that, it should be cut once a month. If left to grow freely, wild mustard will compete with the corn for nutrients in the soil. Canadian researchers discovered that the dandelion weed can protect tomato plants from fusarium disease. Fusarium attacks the plant roots. It reduces the number of tomatoes that the plant produces. Dandelion roots produce cichoric acid. This acid prevents the disease from getting iron from the soil. Fusarium needs iron to survive. There are, however, plants that should never be grown together. The roots of the black walnut tree, for example, produce a poison that kills potatoes, peas, tomatoes and peppers. Dying parts of the brassica family of plants produce a poison that prevents the seeds of some plants from growing. Brassica plants include broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Plants with small seeds, such as lettuce, are especially affected by the brassica poison. A professor at the University of Connecticut said brassica plants should be removed from the soil after they have produced their crop. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. Internet users can find the first part of our report at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-29-voa6.cfm
* Headline: The Internet: Linking People in a Way Once Thought Impossible
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. (Picture - NIH)Today we present the second part of our series about communications. We tell how computers are linking many millions of people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week we told about the history of the communication of information. We described how the telegraph was the first important device that could move information quickly from one place to another. And we discussed the beginning of satellite communications. About six years after the first communications satellite was placed in orbit, the American Department of Defense began developing a new project. It began linking major research universities across the United States. The project began in the early Nineteen-Seventies. VOICE TWO: Professors at many American universities do research work for the United States Government. The Department of Defense wanted to link the universities together to help the professors cooperate in their work. Department of Defense officials decided to try to link these universities by computer. The officials believed the computer would make it easier for researchers to send large amounts of information from research center to research center. They believed they could link computers at these universities by telephone. VOICE ONE: They were right. It became very easy to pass information from one university to another. University researchers working on the same project could share large amounts of information very quickly. They no longer had to wait several days for the mail to bring a copy of the research reports. VOICE TWO: This is how the system works. The computer is linked to a telephone by a device called a modem. The modem changes computer information into electronic messages that are sounds. These messages pass through the telephone equipment to the modem at the other end of the telephone line. This receiving modem changes the sound messages back into information the computer can use. The first modern electronic communication device, the telegraph, sent only one letter of the alphabet at a time. A computer can send thousands of words in a very few seconds. ?VOICE ONE: The link between universities quickly grew to include most research centers and colleges in the United States. These links became a major network. Two or more computers that are linked together form a small network. They may be linked by a wire from one computer to another, or by telephone. A network can grow to almost any size. For example, let us start with two computers in the same room at a university. They are linked to each other by a wire. In another part of the university, two other computers also are linked using the same method. Then the four are connected with modems and a telephone line used only by the computers. This represents a small local network of four computers. Now, suppose this local network is linked by its modem through telephone lines to another university that has four computers. Then you have a network of eight computers. The other university can be anywhere, even thousands of kilometers away. These computers now can send any kind of information that can be received by a computer - messages, reports, drawings, pictures, sound recordings. And, the information is exchanged immediately. VOICE TWO: Some experts have said it is easier to understand this network of computers if you think of streets in a city. The streets make it possible to travel from one place in the city to another. Major streets called highways connect cities. They make it possible to travel from one city to another. Computers communicate information in much the same way. Local networks are like the city streets. And communication links between distant local networks are like the major highways. These highways make communication possible between networks in different areas of the world. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-One this communication system linked only two-hundred-thirteen computers. Only nine years later, it linked more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand computers. Today experts say there are hundreds of millions of computers connected to networks that provide links with computers around the world. The experts say it is no longer possible to tell how many computers are linked to the information highway. The experts also say the system of computer networks is continuing to grow. VOICE TWO: This system of computer networks has had several different names since it began. It is now called the "Internet."? Almost every major university in the world is part of the Internet. So are smaller colleges and many public and private schools. Magazines, newspapers, libraries, businesses, government agencies, and people in their homes also are part of the Internet. VOICE ONE: Computer experts began to greatly expand the Internet system in the last years of the nineteen-eighties. This expansion was called the World Wide Web. It permits computer users to find and exchange written material and pictures much quicker than the older Internet system. How fast is the World Wide Web part of the Internet system?? Here is an example. A computer user in London, England is seeking information about the volcanoes in the American state of Hawaii. She types in the words “Hawaii” and “volcano” in a World Wide Web search program. Within seconds the computer produces a list. She chooses to examine information from the National Park Service’s headquarters at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Park Service computer in Hawaii provides information about the huge volcanoes there, and how they were formed. It also has other useful information. The researcher in London looks at the information. Then she has her computer print a copy of it. Within seconds she has a paper copy of the National Park information including pictures. It has taken her less than five minutes to complete this research. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Internet and the World Wide Web have become vehicles for speedy information exchange for most people who can use a computer. Much of the information on the Internet is very valuable. As a research tool, the Internet has no equal. Suppose you want a copy of this Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. You can find the information by looking for the Voice of America and Special English on the World Wide Web. The electronic address is www dot voa special english dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) You can find written copies of most of our programs and print them for your own use. Almost any kind of information can be found through the Internet. There are electronic magazines for poetry or children’s stories. There are areas within this electronic world where you can play games or discuss politics or science. You can find valuable medical information, read history, learn about new farming methods or just about anything that interests you. You can look at and collect the beautiful color pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can watch musicians perform their latest songs. You can even join a group that meets electronically to discuss the music of their favorite rock and roll music group. VOICE ONE: Who pays for the Internet?? That is not easy to explain. Each network, small or large, pays for itself. Networks decide how much their members will pay for their part of the cost of the local service connecting time. Then all of the large networks decide how much each will pay to be part of the larger network that covers a major area of the country. The area network in turn pays the national network for the service it needs. Each person who has a computer at home pays a company that lets the computer connect to the Internet. These companies are called Internet service providers. Most charge less than twenty dollars a month for this service. VOICE TWO: Next week the EXPLORATIONS program will examine the future of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We will tell about modern technology that lets networks link with telephones that do not need wires. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week to the Voice of America for the last part of this series about the Information Age. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-29-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Prostate Cancer: What It Is and How Doctors Treat It
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A listener in Vietnam recently asked what causes prostate cancer and how this disease is treated. Prostate CellsThe prostate gland is part of the reproductive system in males. Scientists are not sure what causes cancer of the prostate. But they have found things that can influence the development. Men with fathers or brothers who have had prostate cancer are more likely to get the disease. Also, the World Health Organization says diet may affect a man's chances. Prostate cancer appears more common in groups that eat a lot of animal fat, such as red meats and high-fat milk products. The W.H.O. says about two hundred fifty thousand men each year die from prostate cancer. The death rate is about ten times higher in Europe and North America than in Asia. In the United States, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. The first is lung cancer from smoking. The American Cancer Society says exercise might help reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is common in older men. The National Cancer Institute says more than seventy percent of men with the disease are age sixty-five or older. Most prostate cancers grow slowly. Some never cause any major problems. In these cases, a doctor might suggest simply watching for changes. In other cases, doctors may want to remove the prostate. This is a complex operation. A third kind of treatment involves the use of high energy X-rays to kill the cancer cells. Or a doctor may place small radioactive seeds in the prostate. Doctors have greater control with this method, so there is less risk of damage to healthy tissue. Cancer that has spread beyond the prostate gland may require more aggressive treatment. An enlarged prostate can be a sign of cancer. But the prostate normally increases in size as men get older. This can put pressure on the bladder and restrict the flow of waste. It can also affect sexual ability. And it can cause pain in the lower back and upper part of the legs. Doctors say one of the most important ways to reduce the risk of death from prostate cancer is to find the disease early. A doctor can feel the prostate for any hardness or growth. There is also a blood test to measure levels of a protein that might signal the presence of cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Caty Weaver. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: An Anti-War Movement Begins in the North
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Two years of war -- a bitter, bloody civil war -- began to show their effects on both the confederate states of the South and the Union states of the North. That was the story of the American Civil War in the early summer of eighteen-sixty-three. Both the North and the South began to feel the pinch, the pressure of the costly struggle. The south, however, felt the pressure more severely, because it was weaker in manpower and industrial strength. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-sixty-three, the Confederate states were becoming short of supplies. Food and guns were difficult to find to keep the Confederate armies in the field. Men were also needed. ?More and more men. here seemed to be no end to the demand for men to fill the places left empty by dead and wounded soldiers. Many in the south were heavy of heart. And the hope among them slowly started to sink. The war was tiring. Its suffering was more than they could bear. And the situation in the west made matters worse. Union Armies were on the move in the states of Mississippi and Tennessee. Their successes were becoming a serious threat. They might soon win control of the whole Mississippi river. This would split the states of the Confederacy and might end itsvery existence. Something was needed to raise up the spirits of the south to break the pressure of Union armies. VOICE ONE: General Robert E. Lee believed he had the answer: an invasion of the north. This, he felt, would throw fear into the people of the north and weaken the Union war effort. Lee had organized an army of seventy-five-thousand men at Fredericksburg, Virginia, halfway between Washington and Richmond. Lee began moving his men June third. They marched northwest into the Shenandoah Valley. The valley led north to the Potomac River. Across the river was the narrow neck of western Maryland, then Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was the target. Its rich farmland produced plenty of food...enough to feed Lee's hungry army for the summer. VOICE TWO: Standing in the way of Lee's army was a small Union force at Winchester, in northern Virginia. There were only seven-thousand Union soldiers. And they had no idea that the Confederate army was nearby. The Confederates easily defeated them. More than half of the Union troops were captured. The others fled. Now there was nothing to stop Lee from marching into Pennsylvania. The huge Army of the Potomac was behind him, near Washington. The Union commander, General Hooker, had to keep his army between Lee and Washington to prevent the Confederates from seizing the national capital. VOICE ONE: Lee's army crossed western Maryland and entered Pennsylvania. His soldiers found the Pennsylvania countryside very different from Virginia's. Virginia had been a battleground for two years, and the land showed it. Many of its farms had beendestroyed. Its stores were empty. Pennsylvania had not been touched by the war. Its big farms were rich. Its towns and villages were full of food and goods of all kinds. The hungry, poorly-clothed soldiers could not believe their eyes. ?This was the land of the enemy, they cried, and they could take whatever they wished. But General Lee said "No." ?He said supplies could be taken only by Confederate supply officers. ?And he said they must pay -- in Confederate money -- for everything they took. VOICE TWO: Lee did not want to anger these people in Pennsylvania. Many of them did not support the Union war effort. Some of the rich farmers said openly that they did not care who won the war. They said they only wanted to be left alone. Lee was sure that many in the north felt the same way. There had been signs that people were growing tired of the war. Coal miners in eastern Pennsylvania had shown their feelings toward the war a few months earlier. They rose up against a new law drafting men into the Union army. The miners did not want to fight. They refused to join the army. They rioted and attacked officials who tried to take them. Soldiers were sent to the mining areas to put down the riots. VOICE ONE: Farmers in nearby Ohio also rebelled against the draft law. ?They refused to be drafted. Instead, they took guns and battled soldiers who came to arrest them. Feelings against the war were growing stronger, not only in Pennsylvania and Ohio, but also in several other farm states of the north. ?These areas saw a growing support for a peace party -- a political party opposed to the war. Leaders of this movement were Democrats called "Copperheads."? They got this name because they wore on their coats a copper penny with the head of an Indian. VOICE TWO: The chief Copperhead was a former Ohio congressman. His name was Clement Vallandigham. As a member of Congress, Vallandigham criticized the war and the Republicans. He told them: "The war for the Union is, in your hands, a most bloody and costly failure. War for the Union was abandoned. And war for the Negro was openly begun with stronger effort than before. With what success."? ?Vallandigham asked. "Let the dead atFredericksburg and Vicksburg answer." Vallandigham said he wanted peace...and he wanted it immediately. ?He offered a simple program: stop the fighting. Make a ceasefire. And let some friendly foreign nation negotiate peace between north and south. VOICE ONE: After he lost his seat in Congress, Vallandigham opened a campaign to become governor of Ohio. He traveled all across the state speaking out against the war. ?He said Republicans did not want peace. He said they wanted to fight until every blackman was free. The Union military commander for Ohio was General Ambrose Burnside, a former commander of the Army of the Potomac. After losing the battle of Fredericksburg, Lincoln removed burnside as army commander and sent him to Ohio. Burnside was worried. Too many people in Ohio opposed the war. He believed that much of what was being said and done in Ohio was close to the crime of treason. VOICE TWO: Burnside announced several new measures to quiet the opponents of the war. One of these orders limited the right of citizens to criticize government military policy. Another declared that statements of support for the enemy would be punished as treason. Abraham LincolnVallandigham refused to recognize Burnside's right to give such orders to civilians. On May first, he made a campaign speech to a big crowd at Mount Vernon, Ohio. He denounced Burnside's orders and spoke of the President as "King Lincoln. " Vallandigham claimed that Lincoln was using the war to become a dictator. He said Lincoln did not want peace, that the president had rejected peace offers from the south. Once again, he said the war was not a struggle for the Union, but a fight to free the slaves of the south. ?And he said men of Ohio who let themselves be drafted into the Union army were no better than slaves themselves. VOICE ONE: Burnside had sent several army officers to listen to the speech. When they reported what Vallandigham said, Burnside ordered his arrest. Without question, the man had violated the General's orders. Late the next night, soldiers went to?Vallandigham's home in Dayton. They knocked on the door and said they had come to arrest him. Vallandigham called for help and refused to let the soldiers enter. They broke down the door, seized him and took him to a military prison in Cincinnati. A few days later, Vallandigham went on trial before a military court in Cincinnati. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Choosing a U.S. College: Two Schools for Students with Hearing Disorders
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our reports for students around the world who want to attend a college or university in the United States. This week, we tell about two schools for students who cannot hear. One is the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York. It is one of eight colleges within the Rochester Institute of Technology. And it is the world’s first and largest technical college for the deaf or hard of hearing. The Rochester Institute of Technology has about fifteen thousand students. Almost one hundred of these are international deaf or hard of hearing students. They are from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. It costs about twenty-five thousand dollars a year for an international undergraduate student to attend the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. International graduate students pay about eighteen thousand dollars a year. Both undergraduate and graduate students can receive financial aid and take part in the university’s student employment program. This program makes it possible for students to work at the university. More information about the school and its programs can be found on its website at www.ntid.rit.edu Another American college for the deaf is Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. It is the only university in the world where all programs and services are designed for deaf and hard of hearing students. About two thousand students attend Gallaudet. The cost for international students is about sixteen thousand dollars a year. Financial aid comes in the form of scholarships only. Most scholarship aid goes to students in financial need who perform extremely well in school. One scholarship for international students is designed to help deaf students from developing countries. TOEFL scores are not required for admission. Gallaudet University also offers an English Language Institute that teaches English as a second language. But taking part in the program does not guarantee acceptance at the university. Information about these and other programs can be found on the university’s web site at www.gallaudet.edu. This was week thirty-one of our Foreign Student Series. You can find the other programs on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Kofi Annan Proposes United Nations Reforms
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has presented a major plan to reform the U.N. Mister Annan presented his plan Monday in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. His report is called “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All.” It proposes expanding the Security Council and changing the Human Rights Commission. It also includes ideas for defining and fighting terrorism and establishing new rules on when to use military force. Secretary General Kofi AnnanMister Annan said his plan gives equal importance to the three great purposes of the U.N. -- development, security and human rights. The secretary general’s report is based on two earlier studies. One was done by a committee he appointed last year to propose U.N. reforms. The second study was about how to meet goals set five years ago for reducing world poverty in half by twenty fifteen. ?Mister Annan’s plan has four main parts. The first three parts list the most important goals in development, security and human rights. The fourth part proposes changing the U.N. into what Mister Annan calls a more effective instrument for carrying out those goals. The secretary general said expanding and strengthening the Security Council was at the top of his list of reforms. He urged the U.N. to make the Security Council more representative of the international community. Two proposals under consideration would increase the Security Council from fifteen to twenty-four members. He also proposed replacing the Human Rights Commission with a smaller council whose members would be chosen by the General Assembly. Mister Annan said that the present commission has members whose purpose is not to strengthen human rights. Mister Annan urged rich countries to increase financial aid and debt forgiveness to poor countries that govern responsibly. The secretary general also urged the U.N. to approve agreements against terrorism and to halt the spread of materials needed to make nuclear weapons. He said terrorism is not an acceptable or effective way to support causes. Mister Annan also urged the Security Council to guarantee that there would be no more disputes like the one that divided members over whether to go to war in Iraq. He said the Council should establish rules for deciding whether to use force. Mister Annan urged world leaders to accept all of his plan and not just some parts of it. However, reports said the United States and other countries have criticized parts of the proposal. U.N. officials say the proposal is a starting point for an international debate on how to make the organization more important in the twenty-first century. The proposal will be the subject of a gathering of government leaders at the U.N. in September. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Shelley Gollust. I’m Steve Ember. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Walt Disney Company Names New Chief
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Walt Disney Company is the second largest media company in the United States, after Time-Warner. It is worth fifty-seven thousand million dollars. Walt Disney and his brother Roy started the company by making short animated films called cartoons. In nineteen twenty-eight, the brothers produced “Steamboat Willie,” a cartoon starring Mickey Mouse. The Disney brothers then made several very successful full-length animated cartoon movies. They also began selling products linked to the characters in their movies. Walt Disney wanted to expand into other forms of entertainment. In nineteen fifty-five, he opened the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, California. In nineteen seventy-one, Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida. It is the post popular holiday area in the United States. There are also Disney parks in Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France. Disneyland in Hong Kong is expected to open in September. Michael EisnerWalt Disney died in nineteen sixty-six. But the company continued to grow. In nineteen eighty-three, Disney started its own cable television channel. The next year, Michael Eisner became chairman and chief executive. During the nineteen nineties, Disney grew into a total media company. It bought movie production companies, newspapers and cable television companies. In nineteen ninety-six, Disney bought the American Broadcasting Company, including the cable sports network ESPN. Mister Eisner remained the company’s top executive. But last year, about forty-five percent of Disney shareholders voted against him. The Disney board of directors removed Mister Eisner from the position of chairman. It replaced him with former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. Recently, Disney made an agreement with Pixar Animation Studios to make five animated movies. The deal produced the extremely popular films “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles.”? But, in January of last year, talks to extend the agreement failed. Some shareholders blamed Mister Eisner. In March, the Walt Disney Company announced that Robert Iger would replace Mister Eisner as chief executive. Robert Iger has been president and chief operating officer of the company for the past five years. Mister Iger will begin the top job at Disney on September thirtieth. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-03/2005-03-31-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Are You Into Podcasting? / Music by Bobby Short / A Listener Asks About April Fool's Day
* Byline: Written by Ed Stautberg and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:? Music by Bobby Short ... A question from a listener about April Fool’s Day ... And a report on something called podcasting. Podcasting Here is something new: people are listening to the radio without using a radio. They are also producing radio shows to broadcast on the Internet. It is called podcasting. Phoebe Zimmermann explains. PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: Podcasting is also called personal radio. A person who has a computer and a special microphone can record a radio show about anything. This technology is new because listeners can put the recording onto portable electronic devices and listen to them away from the computer. Apple iPodThe name podcasting came from one of these portable electronic devices, the iPod made by the Apple computer company. An iPod is small. It can copy, save and play music and written material. You do not have to have an iPod to listen to the broadcasts; many people also listen to them on a computer with Internet connection. The new broadcasters enjoy sharing information with their listeners. Many say podcasting is a new form of the Internet Web log or blog. It is another way for a person to offer his or her ideas to anyone who is interested. People broadcast about many subjects, including religion, their everyday lives or hobbies such as fishing or drinking wine. Right now, a very popular podcast is called “The Dawn and Drew Show”. Dawn and Drew are a young wife and husband who live in the state of Wisconsin. Their show is meant to be funny. In it, they talk about their lives and whatever interests them at that moment. They bring guests to their show, including their parents and other family members. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????????????????? ?? Not much competition exists right now among the different podcasts. Many people speak on more than one. They are usually friendly. One Web site has a list of the ten most popular podcasts based on votes by listeners. It is called podcast alley dot com. It also lists interesting new podcasts. Thousands of podcasts are being created all over the world. If you are interested in finding out about them, go to podcastalley.com. That is spelled p-o-d-c-a-s-t-a-l-l-e-y dot com. You can find a podcast that interests you. Or you might try to create your own. April Fool’s Day Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Myle asks about the history of April Fool’s Day on April first. Today is April Fool’s Day in the United States. It is not an important American holiday like the Fourth of July or Labor Day. It is not observed by schools or the government. It is just a day when people play tricks on each other. History experts say people have been doing this for a long time. They also say it is difficult to know how it began. Some believe the tradition comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago. Others say the day for fooling began in France in fifteen sixty-four when King Charles changed the yearly calendar. He moved New Year’s Day from April first to January first. Many people did not know about the change because of the communications problems in those days. ?Others knew about the change, but refused to accept it. So some people continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April first. Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them. The French called them “poissons d’avril” or “April Fish” because young fish are easily caught. This tradition later spread to other countries like Britain. The early settlers from Britain brought April fooling to the American colonies. Americans today still play tricks on each other on April Fool’s Day. Children might put signs on the backs of their friends that say “kick me” or “hit me.”? They might tell their friends that school has been cancelled. Or they might go to a house, ring the doorbell, run away, then yell “April Fool’s!” when the homeowner comes to the door. We found a Web site that claims to list the top one hundred April Fool’s Day jokes of all time. Maybe you remember this one. It took place on April first, nineteen ninety-six. The Taco Bell fast food company made an announcement in newspaper advertisements. It said it was buying the famous Liberty Bell from the federal government to help reduce the national debt. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of America’s most historic treasures. The company said it was re-naming it the “Taco Liberty Bell.”? Many people did not realize it was a joke. Hundreds of angry people called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia to protest the action. A few hours later, Taco Bell admitted its April Fool’s joke! Bobby Short DOUG JOHNSON: American singer Bobby Short died last week in New York City of the blood disease leukemia. Bobby Short was eighty years old. Gwen Outen tells us about him. GWEN OUTEN: Bobby Short performed all over the world. He entertained American presidents and European royalty. He was well known for singing the great American songs written by Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in two thousand for his album “You’re the Top: The Love Songs of Cole Porter.” Listen as he sings the title song. (MUSIC) Bobby Short was born in Danville, Illinois. He was the ninth of ten children. As a child, he sang and played the piano to earn money for his family during the great economic Depression in the nineteen thirties. Later, he performed around the United States and in Europe. For more than thirty-five years, Bobby Short performed six nights a week at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Here is a song from another Grammy-nominated album, “Late Night at the Cafe Carlyle.” ?(MUSIC) Bobby Short wrote two books about his life. He also performed his music and appeared in movies and on television. But he will always be remembered for his sweet, smooth voice. We leave you now with another song from Bobby Short – “Every Time We Say Goodbye.” ?(MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Ed Stautberg and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-03-31-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Mixing Crops With Other Plants Can Cut Chemical Use
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we discussed how farmers can control harmful insects by mixing different kinds of plants with the main crop. But there are also other ways to use plants to protect crops without chemicals. Some plants provide food and protection for insects that help control harmful insects. Organic Gardening magazine, published by the Rodale Institute, once described some examples, such as ladybugs. Ladybugs are beetles that like crimson clover and hairy vetch. They find food, water and a resting place in the clover and vetch. Ladybug larvae eat harmful aphids. Aphids are tiny insects that feed on many different kinds of crop plants. Plants also help each other through their root systems. For example, scientists say the roots of the marigold flower reduce harmful nematode populations in the soil. Nematodes are tiny worms. There are more than ten-thousand different kinds of nematodes. And some of them feed on corn. Wild mustard is another plant that releases a poison through its roots. This poison kills nematodes. It also kills some kinds of fungi. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said the wild mustard should be cut close to the ground after the first fifteen days. After that, it should be cut once a month. If left to grow freely, wild mustard will compete with the corn for nutrients in the soil. Canadian researchers discovered that the dandelion weed can protect tomato plants from fusarium disease. Fusarium attacks the plant roots. It reduces the number of tomatoes that the plant produces. Dandelion roots produce cichoric acid. This acid prevents the disease from getting iron from the soil. Fusarium needs iron to survive. There are, however, plants that should never be grown together. The roots of the black walnut tree, for example, produce a poison that kills potatoes, peas, tomatoes and peppers. Dying parts of the brassica family of plants produce a poison that prevents the seeds of some plants from growing. Brassica plants include broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. Plants with small seeds, such as lettuce, are especially affected by the brassica poison. A professor at the University of Connecticut said brassica plants should be removed from the soil after they have produced their crop. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Death of Brain-Damaged Florida Woman Fuels Debate About End-of-Life Issues
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Americans are debating many questions related to the death of Terri Schiavo. Treatment of the severely brain-damaged woman has raised important questions about hopelessly sick and injured patients. Missus Schiavo was the center of a major medical and legal battle that even involved Congress and President Bush. Missus Schiavo died Thursday in the state of Florida. She was forty-one years old. Her death came thirteen days after her feeding tube was disconnected. The tube was keeping her alive. Terri Schiavo was among at least ten thousand Americans with conditions their doctors say are beyond hope. Examinations showed that important parts of Missus Schiavo’s brain had been destroyed. Fifteen years ago, Terri Schiavo suffered a heart attack at age twenty-six. Lack of oxygen damaged her brain. She was kept alive by a feeding tube. Since nineteen ninety, some doctors described Missus Schiavo as being in a persistent vegetative state. Patients in this condition cannot communicate, react, think or control their bodies. Some doctors said she had no chance of recovering. ? Terri Schiavo’s husband took legal control of her care. In nineteen ninety-eight, Michael Schiavo took legal action to have her feeding tube removed. Mister Schiavo said his wife would not want to be kept alive in her condition. Missus Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, disagreed. They believed she wanted to live. Other doctors told them their daughter could be helped. For the past seven years, Terri Schiavo’s husband and parents have argued in courts about whether to remove her feeding tube and permit her to die. State and federal courts repeatedly agreed with Michael Schiavo. Florida lawmakers agreed with the parents. On March twenty-first, the United States Congress passed a measure to permit a federal court to re-consider the issue. President Bush cut short his vacation to return to Washington to sign the measure. But finally, a judge ordered the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. Terri Schiavo’s case has produced a huge amount of coverage in the media. It raises questions about the role of government in private family decisions. Many people opposed the involvement of Congress and the president in the case. Americans are deeply divided about such intense personal issues as when to end medical care. The case has caused Americans to consider questions about their own care at the end of life. Many people supported efforts to keep Terri Schiavo alive. However, other Americans feel strongly that they do not want to be kept alive if there is no chance for them to recover. Reports say many Americans are taking steps to let their families and doctors know what treatments they would or would not want at the end of life. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Life Story of Jackie Robinson, the First Black Player in Major League Baseball
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about a man who changed professional baseball in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was the first black man to play in modern major league baseball. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, many Americans still believed that people of different races should not mix. In some parts of the country, blacks and whites lived in separate areas and went to separate schools. Blacks who tried to change the system risked being beaten or killed. Blacks were not permitted to play on professional baseball teams or in any other major league sport. No black man had played for a major league baseball team since Eighteen-Eighty-Four. In that year, American baseball organizations agreed to bar blacks. That began changing when Jackie Robinson played his first game for New York's Brooklyn Dodgers on April Fifteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Jackie Robinson grew up in a family of five children in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles. His father had left. His mother did not earn much money, so Jackie Robinson learned to make his own way in life. It was in California that Jackie Robinson first learned the ugliness of racial hatred. White families who did not want to live near them repeatedly tried to force them to move away. Jackie Robinson Jackie Robinson established himself early as an athlete. He was a star player while attending the University of California at Los Angeles. Jackie won honors in baseball, basketball, football and track. He was named to the All-American football team. He was considered the best athlete on America's west coast. Jackie Robinson left college early because of financial problems. He joined the United States Army in Nineteen-Forty-One, during the second World War. He became a lieutenant after boxing champion Joe Louis pushed for Robinson to be trained as an officer. However, after three years, Robinson was dismissed from the army because he objected to a racial order. He refused to move to the back of a bus. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Five, there were not many jobs open to a black man, even someone who had attended college. Robinson wanted to play professional baseball. Blacks, however, were not permitted to play in the major leagues. So, he decided to play with the Negro Baseball League. The Negro League teams were started in the Nineteen-Twenties to give black people a place to play baseball. Many of the best baseball players in the United States played in the Negro Leagues before white professional teams began accepting black players. The skills and records of black ball players were as good as major league white players. It was a hard life for Negro League players. They took long trips by bus. They changed clothes in farmhouses and shared bath water with teammates. Many eating places did not serve food to blacks. They had to eat outside or on the road. And they were not permitted to sleep at hotels for whites. Many players slept on the bus. VOICE TWO:? Jackie Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs. It was one of the most famous baseball teams in the Negro League. But, he was unhappy in the Negro League because of the difficult life there. In a statement from the book “The History of Baseball, Nineteen-Oh-Seven,” actor Ossie Davis expresses hope for change in the sport. OSSIE DAVIS:?"Baseball should be taken seriously by the colored player -- and in this effort of his great ability will open the avenue in the near future wherein he may walk hand in hand with the opposite race in the greatest of all American games -- baseball." (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Five, Jackie Robinson signed an agreement with Branch Rickey to play for the Dodgers. Rickey was president of the team. He wanted to find a black player who could deal with the insults and racial pressure he would face in the league. He wanted a black player who would show restraint at all times. Rickey thought Jackie Robinson was good enough as a player and strong enough as a person to succeed. He made Robinson promise that he would never show his anger on the baseball field. Jackie Robinson accepted that condition. He said:? JACKIE ROBINSON: "I knew that I was going to be somewhat out front and perhaps, I would have to take a lot of abuse. I knew that this was bigger than any one individual and I would have to do whatever I possibly could to control myself." VOICE TWO:? Some observers said that Jackie Robinson was not the best player in the Negro Leagues. Others said that he was chosen for his communications skills and educational level and because he was an established sports star. VOICE TWO:? David Faulkner wrote a book about Robinson's life. It is called “Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham.”? In it, he talks about the end of racial divisions in baseball. DAVID FAULKNER:?"For many years, there had been an active campaign against segregated baseball led by Negro newspaper editors and, strangely enough, by the Communist party, which from the middle Nineteen-Thirties on, had actively campaigned against segregated baseball. There were a number of pending bills in different legislatures challenging fair employment practices. By Nineteen-Forty-Five, there was a lot of heat in a lot of different areas -- professional baseball was certainly feeling that. Robinson in a sense was the right person at the right time."? VOICE ONE:? Shortly after Jackie Robinson signed the agreement with the Dodgers, he married Rachel Isum. They had three children. It was important to Branch Rickey that Jackie Robinson be married. He thought that the public would accept Robinson more quickly if he was married. He thought that it would lessen the fears of white men that white women would find Robinson desirable. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO:? In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers' minor league Canadian team, the Montreal Royals. During that time, Branch Rickey tested Robinson's ability to deal with racial pressure he would face in the major league. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Jackie Robinson became the first black to play modern major league baseball. He played for the Dodger's major league team, New York's Brooklyn Dodgers. In doing so, the pressure increased. He received death threats on and off the field. During games, pitchers threw the ball at his head. Several teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. And, some of his own team members tried to have him banned from the team. It was not easy for Robinson on road trips, either. He was never permitted to stay at the same hotels or eat in the same places as his white team members. VOICE ONE: Jackie Robinson had difficulty on and off the baseball field, but he did not let that interfere with his game. He was a great player and leader, winning the National League's Most Valuable Player award in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. He also led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six league championships and to baseball's World Series Championship in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. Jackie Robinson helped show that blacks and whites could live, work and play together. He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint. Robinson's success opened the door for other black athletes to play on all-white professional teams. Soon, other blacks began to appear on major-league teams. By the end of the Nineteen-Fifties, every major league team had black and Hispanic players. VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in Nineteen-Fifty-Six at the age of thirty-seven. He became a businessman, a political activist and a strong supporter of civil rights. In Nineteen-Sixty-Two, Jackie Robinson was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, an honor given only to baseball's best players. He died in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He was fifty-three years old. (MUSIC)? ANNOUNCER:? This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Some Companies Provide After-School Programs for Children of Employees
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about companies that provide after-school programs for the children of their employees. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many American companies believe it is very important to keep their best workers. It can cost a lot of money for companies to hire new employees and train them. When an employee leaves after working at one company for many years, that company loses the value of the employee’s knowledge and experience. So American companies are trying many different ways to keep their top employees. Companies compete to offer special services or benefits to their employees. This helps companies keep good workers and gain new ones. Some companies offer employee services that are creative and different. For example, one company offers classes during the work day in exercise, golf, yoga and foreign languages. Other companies have special programs to help their employees pay less for services like travel, buying clothes and even buying a house. VOICE TWO: Many companies are trying to help employees take care of their children or older family members. There are programs to give new mothers more time at home before they must return to work. Some employers allow people to work special hours or even to work by computer from offices in their homes. Working from a home office is called “telecommuting” or “working virtually”. People who do this want to be at home with their children. Or they may not like driving a long distance to work when there are many cars on the road. VOICE ONE: Sometimes companies offer special programs to take care of children. More than three million American children between the ages of six and twelve are home everyday after school without adult supervision. Many older children also are home alone after school. A report from the National Institute on Out-of-School Time says that only half of the sixteen and seventeen year olds in the United States have useful activities after school. Many experts believe that young people have too many chances to get in trouble if they do not have useful activities after school. These experts say good after-school programs for older children can help them become better leaders, better communicators and better problem-solvers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bright Horizons is a company that provides child care services to big American companies. Bright Horizons talked to employees at thirty-three different companies around the United States. More than two-thirds of these employees said their most important problem is finding good child care that they are able to pay for. Bright Horizons now provides many different kinds of child care services to companies. It has three times as many programs now as it did two years ago. VOICE ONE: Many American companies are offering their own programs for the older children of their employees. A large American company called Abbott Laboratories is in Abbott Park, Illinois. In two thousand one,? Abbott spent ten million dollars to build one of the largest centers in the United States to care for children. A special room called “The Lodge” offers programs for school-age children. Whenever these children are not in school, they may come to the center. It is in the same area where at least one of their parents works. The older children learn about nature, do science experiments, play games and take special trips. Abbott Laboratories also created a program called “Summer of Service”. This program is for teenagers who are too young to work but too old for traditional summer camps. The teenagers work on projects that are fun but also provide a service to their community. VOICE TWO: Abbott Vice President Sharon Larkin also says over the next ten years, eighty-five percent of the employees in the United States will be working parents. Right now, she says ten million workers are single parents. Miz Larkin says it is important for companies to be friendly to families and children. She says communities must invest in learning and development for young people today so they will be successful in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American business leaders say there are many good reasons to provide child care services for their employees. They say it is easier to hire new employees when the company offers child care services. The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported that employees who do not have to worry about their children work harder. And they do not miss work as often. One researcher reported about the cost of employees not being able to go to work because of problems with child care. The cost to American businesses is three thousand million dollars every year. Bright Horizons says ninety-eight percent of the employees who use one of its child-care programs would have taken time off from work if the child care program did not exist. Many parents also come late to work or leave early because of problems caring for their children. When employers offer services to care for children, absences are reduced by twenty to thirty percent. VOICE TWO: Ford Motor Company is one of the biggest American companies that provides services to families. Ford and its labor union, the United Auto Workers, created Family Service and Learning Centers in two thousand one. The centers have classes for parents. They also have programs for teenagers and older children before and after school. Many automobile factories operate twenty-four hours a day. So child care services are offered twenty-four hours a day in some cities. Ford Chairman William Ford says, “Social issues are business issues. Businesses will only be as successful as the communities and the world they live in.” VOICE ONE: David Terrell works at a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan. He says his fifteen-year-old daughter Sheena wants to be a news reporter. Mister Terrell hopes his daughter will be able to work on a community newspaper for teenagers at the Ford Family Service and Learning Center in Dearborn. Another Ford employee in Dearborn says the young people and adults will be able to work together at the new Center to solve neighborhood problems like too many illegal drugs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another big American company has a different way of helping employees. The computer company, IBM, helps to pay for camps during the summer when schools are not open. These camps are offered for several weeks at the beginning and end of the summer. The camps offer many different activities for children who are eight to twelve years old. Children may attend for a week or only a few days. The cost to parents is low because IBM pays some of the cost. VOICE ONE: A banking company called PNC Financial Services also provides programs for the children of its employees. PNC provides something called “back-up” care for young people up to age fourteen. Parents may use this service for twenty days a year when schools are not open and they do not have other child care services. PNC has centers for older children in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These centers have computer areas, places where young people may eat or play games and kitchens where they may cook. There also is? a stage where children can create video and theater presentations. PNC Vice President Kathy D’Appolonia says the only problem is that parents and children want to use the centers for more than twenty days each year. VOICE TWO: PNC also has people who will talk to parents on the telephone about problems they may be having with their children. Miz D’Appolonia says the problems are sometimes simple and sometimes very serious. ?But she says employees work harder for the company if the company works hard to serve the needs of the employees. American businesses are finding that if they invest in their employees, they are also investing in the success of their companies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. To find us online, go to voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for This is America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Recycling Waste Metal Provides Work for Many in Developing Countries
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. People have been recycling metals for hundreds of years. Today, re-using metal waste or scrap provides work for many people, especially in developing countries. Three kinds of metals are recycled. They are ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and precious metals. Ferrous metals contain iron. They are low in cost and recycled in huge amounts. Metallic iron called pig iron is produced when iron is heated in a hot industrial stove. This kind of stove is called a blast furnace. Pig iron also contains another element, carbon. Pig iron is useful because it can be formed into solid, heavy objects or objects with unusual shapes. Another kind of iron is steel, which is iron without the carbon. Making steel is simply removing the carbon by burning it away. This makes the steel stronger and easier to cut than iron. Both pig iron and steel waste or scrap are useful because they can be melted to make new products. In countries where there is a shortage of steel scrap, old tin cans are sometimes used and melted. Tin cans are mostly steel. If the scrap is heated before the temperature gets to the melting point, the blast furnace can be more simply designed and less costly. These simpler furnaces are called foundries. Products are made in foundries all over the world, but especially in Asia. Non-ferrous metals include copper and aluminum. Copper is the perfect material for recycling. It is valuable, easy to identify and easy to clean. People who operate foundries around the world buy copper wire and cable to recycle. Aluminum is another very popular non-ferrous scrap metal. It is cheap to produce and very easy to work with. In developing countries, small foundries produce aluminum bars, sheets and wire. Precious metals like silver also are recycled. Silver can be found in pictures made with old cameras. And it can be found in X-rays after they have been developed. X-ray film is very valuable for recycling silver, because both sides of the film are usually developed. You can learn more about recycling metals from Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: No-Till Farming Gains Ground Around the World
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Since ancient times, farmers in many cultures have prepared the land for growing crops. They used plows to turn the soil in their fields. This is called tilling. Now, a method called no-till farming is gaining popularity all over the world on big and small farms. Plows cut into the soil and lift up the remains of last season’s crops and unwanted plants. The process brings air into the soil so dead plant material breaks down quickly to form natural fertilizer. But plowing can cause severe damage to topsoil by removing the plants that protect the soil from being blown or washed away. Plowing also can reduce the amount of water in soil. Over the last several years, farmers have sought ways to protect soil by avoiding unneeded tilling. This has been called conservation tillage, low-till farming or no-till farming. Soybeans, wheat, corn, and cotton are crops often farmed without tilling. But many other crops can be grown this way. No-till farming is already used in many countries. Pioneer Hi-Bred International and the Conservation Technology Information Center did a study on no-till farming. The study said the United States leads the world in the number of hectares of no-till farming. About twenty-six million hectares of land are not tilled in the United States. There are about ninety million no-till hectares around the world. In South America, no-till farming is growing quickly, especially in Brazil and Argentina. The agriculture magazine, Farm Journal, says South American farmers have a good reason to use no-till farming. The magazine says there are fewer government programs supporting common tilling methods. No-till farming is less costly and improves the soil over time. It saves money because farmers do not operate farm machines to plow soil. This saves fuel, time and labor. No-till farmers in some climates use cover crops, like alfalfa. Cover crops protect the soil when crops are not being grown. Farm Journal says that farmers using no-till methods must understand the risks. No-till farming can result in a smaller crop some years. But over time, crops will increase because soil quality improves. The United States Department of Agriculture supports a Web site that contains links to no-till information. You can find it at w-w-w dot n-o-hyphen-hyphen-t-i-l-l dot com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How the Internet Grew from a Simple Idea
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we finish our three-part series about the history of communications. We tell about the Internet system called the World Wide Web. And we tell about the future of communications. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In our first two programs we discussed the history and importance of communicating information. We told how the invention of the telegraph increased the speed at which information could be sent. We told how satellites in space greatly increased the speed of communications. In our second program, we told about the development of the computer and the linking of computers into major systems called networks. These networks led to the high-speed sharing of information among major universities and research centers around the world. The largest of these systems, the Internet, has made it possible for almost anyone with a computer and a telephone to share in what is called the Information Age. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In July, Nineteen-Forty-Five, the Atlantic Monthly Magazine printed a long report written by an important scientist. His name was Vannevar Bush. Mister Bush explained that researchers around the world were producing new ideas and useful information every day. He said the information was being produced faster than anyone could read it, remember it, or even know where to find it. He explained that the technology of Nineteen-Forty-Five permitted information to be kept only in books or pictures. He said some new device must be invented that would make it possible to search for, find and use new information much more quickly. VOICE ONE: Mister Bush explained that research information is most valuable when it is new. One small piece of information could help a researcher finish an extremely important project. Mister Bush wrote that he hoped a device would be invented that could store information. He said people should be able to easily link with this device to search for and gather useful information. Such a device would greatly speed gathering information and would greatly aid research. VOICE TWO: The device that Mister Bush dreamed about in Nineteen-Forty-Five is now very real. It is the modern computer, linked with other computers. The link is through the Internet and the World Wide Web communications system. The computer and the Internet now make it possible to find and gather information about any subject within a few minutes. Here is a good example. Oncology is the study of the disease cancer. There are many hundreds of medical research centers that are working to cure cancer. The Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is one of many publications that prints important cancer research information. The research papers tell about the results of treatment for many different kinds of cancer. The information in this journal is written for medical experts. VOICE ONE: The editors of this cancer research journal place valuable cancer research information on the World Wide Web. This makes it possible for health care professionals and researchers all over the world to use the information for educational or research purposes.By using the Internet, a researcher anywhere in the world is able to find information from the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology and print a copy in just a few minutes. To find the journal, a researcher would only have to type three words into an Internet search system on a computer. The three words are oncology, research and journal. Within seconds, the World Wide Web provides a list of several possible research papers from several countries. The study in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is only one of many valuable research papers that are on the World Wide Web. Not every search is easy. Sometimes it can take a while before the right combination of words produces the needed result. However, the World Wide Web and the Internet will almost always provide the researcher with a way to find the needed information. The computer provides a quick link to the new information that scientists like Vannaver Bush said was badly needed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eric Benhamou is the head of a computer company called Three-Com Corporation. Mister Benhamou says people are using the computer and the Internet to communicate for work and to exchange information with their families and friends. He says people also use the Internet to learn new things and visit different places. Today almost one-hundred-fifty-million people use the Internet in the United States. A recent study showed they use the Internet for communication and for research. The study also showed that much of the research that is done leads to buying products with the aid of a computer and the Internet. The study also showed that more people than ever are now using the computer to buy products. VOICE ONE: Governments, private groups and individuals have criticized the Internet. Some governments do not trust the Internet because they say it is extremely difficult to control the information that is placed there. Some government officials say extremist groups place harmful information on the Internet. They say dangerous political information should be banned. Other groups say it is difficult to protect children from sexual information and pictures placed on the Internet. They say this kind of information should be banned. VOICE TWO: Other critics say that it is becoming extremely difficult to know if you can trust the information that is found on the Internet. They wonder if the information is true. Did the person who placed it on the Internet make any mistakes?? Still other critics say the Internet is no longer a free exchange of information and ideas. They say it has become a big business that sells products, services and information. They want the Internet to be used only for research and education. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-five, scientist Vannevar Bush said researchers needed some device that would make information easier to find, use and store. The modern computer and the Internet now provide this and much more. They are an important method of communicating and doing business and will continue to be in the future. In the United States, many businesses expect their workers to know how to use computers. Children now begin learning to use computers in their first years of school. Many universities in the United States now require all new students to have their own computer. Most colleges provide special rooms that have computers for the use of all students. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What is the future of communications and the Internet?? Experts do not really know. Computers continue to grow smaller and more powerful with each passing year. Computers that were thought to be very powerful ten years ago are now considered extremely weak and slow. It is now possible to connect a computer with a wireless telephone that can link with communications satellites. A person with a small computer that can be easily carried can now link with other computers from anywhere in the world. A person can use a computer that receives its electric power from batteries and is linked with a satellite telephone. This person can communicate from anywhere in the world. VOICE ONE: Some experts say that in the future people will not use large computers on their desks. They will use only small computer devices that link to the Internet. These devices will be easily carried from place to place. All the information people use for business or for fun will be on their own area of the World Wide Web. This has already happened. Many people already have their own private area on the World Wide Web. Businesses have their own special areas. A husband and a wife with a new baby place photographs of the baby in a special area so relatives can see the new addition to the family. People now communicate, listen to radio or watch television. They do business buy or sell goods, write a letter or send a picture from anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night. And they will communicate around the world at almost the speed of light. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. ? ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: World Health Day Recognizes the Health of Mothers and Children
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Thursday, April seventh, is World Health Day. The World Health Organization recognizes World Health Day each year to increase interest about a health issue it considers of special concern. This year, World Health Day examines the health of mothers and children in developing countries. The health of mothers and children is this year's World Health Day issue.The WHO says more than half a million women die every year from problems related to pregnancy and childbirth. Millions more women survive, but suffer disabilities. About eleven million children also die each year, many within the first month of life. A million or more children are left without mothers each year as a result of women dying from pregnancy-related problems. Experts say these children are three to ten times more likely to die within two years than children who live with both parents. Most deaths of mothers happen among poor people in developing countries. The highest maternal death rates around the world are in southern African countries, followed by central Asia. Women are most at risk during childbirth in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan. Experts say one out of six women in those countries will die from problems related to pregnancy and childbirth. WHO officials say most of the deaths result from lack of skilled care during pregnancy and childbirth and lack of clean conditions. Many babies would survive with safe birthing methods, good nutrition, vaccines against disease and good care at home. The disease AIDS is also an increasing threat to both mothers and their children. Experts say almost half of all adults living with AIDS and the virus that causes it are women. And there is increased risk that an infected mother will pass the virus to her baby. Experts say many deaths could be prevented by using medicines during childbirth that prevent mothers from passing the AIDS virus to their babies. The WHO says governments and the international community need to make the health of women and children a more important issue. Last year, nations approved Millennium Development Goals for the year two thousand fifteen. They agreed to work to reduce the number of women dying in childbirth by three-quarters. They also promised to reduce the number of child deaths by two-thirds. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Drug Used to Treat a Bleeding Disorder May Also Aid Victims of the Deadliest Form of Stroke
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And, I’m Steve Ember. On our program this week: a new map may help show why women are so different from men. And we answer a listener’s question about the bleeding disorder hemophilia. VOICE ONE: But first, a drug already used to treat persons with hemophilia offers hope for stroke victims. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American doctors believe they may have found a new way to treat the most deadly form of stroke. The condition is called an acute intracerebral hemorrhage or bleeding stroke. Strokes happen when blood stops flowing into the brain. Bleeding strokes are the least treatable form of stroke. They affect about fifteen percent of all stroke patients. Bleeding strokes happen when high blood pressure causes a blood vessel in the brain to burst. The most common form of stroke is called an Ischemic? stroke. It happens when the flow of blood in the brain or neck is blocked. VOICE TWO: Experts say bleeding strokes are much more serious. They say more than one-third of all persons who have a bleeding stroke die within a month. And only twenty-percent of those suffering a bleeding stroke regain full independence. Doctors have long sought effective ways to improve survival rates. They say current medical treatments are only supportive. And, there have been no drugs to help stop the bleeding, which causes brain cells to die. However, a new study suggests that a drug used to treat persons with hemophilia may be effective in treating bleeding strokes. Hemophiliacs lack a chemical in the blood called a clotting factor. This chemical helps to stop bleeding from everyday falls or cuts. VOICE ONE: The new study was carried out at seventy-three hospitals in twenty countries. The New England Journal of Medicine reported the results. The study involved three hundred ninety-nine patients. Research scientists tested a drug called recombinant activated factor seven, or rFVIIa. It helps blood to thicken, or clot. In the United States, the drug has been approved to treat hemophiliacs since nineteen ninety-nine. Most patients in the study received rFVIIa. The others took a harmless substance, or placebo. Researchers say the drug reduced bleeding by fifty percent. Patient survival rates rose about forty percent. VOICE TWO: The researchers said the drug worked best when the patient was treated within three hours of the stroke. They said patients had a two to three times greater chance of complete recovery. After three months, twenty-nine percent of the patients who took the placebo had died. Only eighteen percent of those who took the hemophilia drug were dead. There were risks, however. Seven percent of patients who received the drug suffered a heart attack or stroke. The researchers said most of them recovered. VOICE ONE: Doctor Stephan Mayer of New York-Presbyterian Hospital was the lead investigator in the study. He said it will be at least two years before the United States Food and Drug Administration approves r-F-Seven-a for bleeding strokes. If approved, the drug would become only the second emergency treatment for stroke in more than thirty years. The first was tissue plasminogen?activator, or TPA. TPA. can break up blockages which cause most heart attacks and strokes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A short time ago, we spoke briefly about hemophilia. A listener in Vietnam, Nguyen Van Phuc, would like to learn more about this bleeding disorder. When a person gets cut, they bleed. Usually, a protein in the blood, called a clotting factor, stops the bleeding. People with hemophilia do not have this chemical. They may bleed longer than other people after an accident or injury. Losing too much blood can be life threatening. VOICE ONE: People with hemophilia can pass it to their children. Generally, the disorder affects only men and boys. It affects about one in every five thousand males. Women who carry the hemophilia gene are called carriers. Each son of a carrier has a fifty percent of having the disorder. Each daughter has a fifty percent chance of being a carrier. About thirty percent of hemophilia cases involve someone with no family history of the disorder. Scientists believe these cases result from changes, or defects, in genetic material. VOICE TWO: Blood tests can help to show if someone has hemophilia. Signs are first observed when the person is a baby or child. There may be bleeding into muscles or joints, resulting in damaged areas of skin. Or the person may bleed longer than expected after an injury, accident or dental work. Hemophilia is a life-long condition. There is no cure. Yet there is an effective treatment for hemophiliacs. Doctors can give clotting factor to patients in blood products. Experts urge patients to see a doctor or health care worker who has experience with treating the disorder. Experts also advise patients to stay active and exercise. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A team of more than two hundred fifty researchers says it has completed a map of the X chromosome. The researchers carried out their work at six scientific centers in Britain, Germany and the United States. They reported the results in the British publication Nature. The work was done as part of the Human Genome Project. The goal of the project is to create a detailed map of all human genes. The researchers said the new map should help scientists better understand the more than three hundred disorders linked to the X chromosome. They include hemophilia, colorblindness, and Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. VOICE TWO: A human fetus develops into either a boy or a girl because of the presence of genes found in chromosomes. Females have two X chromosomes. Males have one X and one Y. Males are more likely than females to develop diseases carried by an unusual, or defective, X chromosome. Females who carry a defective X chromosome are protected because they have a second X chromosome. However, they can pass the defective chromosome to their sons. The researchers say other chromosomes probably carry just as many diseases as the X. However, such chromosomes are more difficult to study. VOICE ONE: The researchers studied how the sex chromosomes have changed over time. To do this, they examined the X chromosomes of animals such as dogs, rats, and chickens. They found the same gene order in human beings and dogs. Their findings show that the purpose of the Y chromosome has changed and now is limited to establishing male organs. This supports an idea that the X and Y chromosomes in mammals developed millions of years ago from the same group of chromosomes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last year, we told you about the United States having limited supplies of a vaccine to protect against the disease influenza. A biotechnology company, Chiron, was unable to produce as many flu vaccines as planned. In the past, it provided about half the supply used in the United States. Chiron makes its flu vaccine at a factory in Liverpool, England. The vaccine helps the body’s natural defenses recognize and fight the disease. Chiron reported last September that some of its flu vaccine failed inspections for purity. Also, British officials suspended the factory’s production permit. They barred the company from sending almost fifty million vaccines to the United States. So, medical officials urged healthy Americans to delay getting the vaccine or not get one at all. VOICE ONE: Recently, officials announced that about seventeen million Americans chose not to get the flu vaccine last winter. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this permitted persons most in need of the vaccine to get it. It also said that about as many sick persons, older adults and health care workers were protected as much as in past years. Also, British officials announced that Chiron had improved conditions at the Liverpool factory. They also said it could restart production of flu vaccines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Ed Stautberg, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk.I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/a-2005-04-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 6, 2005 - Conversational Styles and Sports
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the sport of conversation. FIRST ANNOUNCER: "Not going to stop him!" SECOND ANNOUNCER: "I tell you, you get him out on the run, Felton's quick, but he's not faster than Brown. Felton may be quicker with the ball, but Brown's faster with the feet ... [crowd cheering]" RS: From C.B.S. television Monday night, coverage of the national championship game in college basketball. Final score: North Carolina 75, Illinois 70. AA: What's this got to do with our topic? Well, our guest this week is an English teacher who sees basketball as a great analogy to describe the conversational style of Americans. SUSAN STEINBACH: "If you're playing basketball, your goal is to get your hands on the ball, to steal it from another person, to dribble -- which would be the equivalent of hesitating, 'well, let me see now, the thing I really wanted to tell you was ... oh and by the way' -- and then once you steal the ball, make your point, and then other person is expected to steal it back." AA: Susan Steinbach works in the Intensive English Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. It's not just Americans who play the game of conversation this way, she says, but also people in Canada, Britain and Australia. RS: Susan Steinbach says a lot of her work is based on two concepts by the linguist Deborah Tannen, who uses the terms "high considerate" and "high involvement" to describe different conversational styles. Susan Steinbach takes these ideas further and applies some sports analogies to help people understand those differences. AA: For example, she contrasts the "basketball style" with the "bowling style." SUSAN STEINBACH: "Bowling is 'high considerate,' by Deborah Tannen's terms, which means that a speaker from a country using that style would perhaps take turns. And it would be based on a hierarchical system. The more seniority or the higher the age of the person, that person is likely to speak first, whereas a junior person would hold back." AA: "And the bowling style tends to be used where?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "Japan, particularly in the older generation or in the corporate world, where hierarchy is very important. Korea. Northern China. And Thailand, to some regards. Not so much Taiwan. Taiwan is a little different." AA: "So now we've talked about the bowling style and we've talked about the basketball style. Are there other styles?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "Yes, the third style is rugby. And this is basically based around Deborah Tannen's term 'high involvement.' And in this style you are expected to interrupt other people, and you expect to be interrupted. There's a rapid change of topic, a rapid change of speakers and a concept called overlapping, where one person starts speaking and another speaker speaks on top of that." AA: "So where do you find the rugby style of conversation?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "Rugby style is very much a Russian style, a Greek style. It tends to be associated with warmer climates, southern European, African cultures, Latino cultures, where many voices are going at once. It's like a cacophony of sound. It would be unusual for them to pause and listen to another speaker until they finished." AA: "That must be interesting as a teacher yourself, to see that. I mean, does that tire you out trying to act as a referee when you've got two or three different 'games' going on in one classroom?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "It's actually very helpful to talk about it, because the students will start to make judgments on personality based on someone's conversational style. So if we talk about it at the beginning of a semester and kind of explain the different backgrounds that the students are coming from, then they start to make jokes with each other and say 'oh, you're just playing rugby today.' And, you know, instead of 'oh, you're mean and you're rude and you're inconsiderate,' they can actually understand it's a style difference based on culture." RS: Susan Steinbach directs the multimedia lab in the Intensive English Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. She also produces instructional videos for English learners through a company called the Seabright Group. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the sport of conversation. FIRST ANNOUNCER: "Not going to stop him!" SECOND ANNOUNCER: "I tell you, you get him out on the run, Felton's quick, but he's not faster than Brown. Felton may be quicker with the ball, but Brown's faster with the feet ... [crowd cheering]" RS: From C.B.S. television Monday night, coverage of the national championship game in college basketball. Final score: North Carolina 75, Illinois 70. AA: What's this got to do with our topic? Well, our guest this week is an English teacher who sees basketball as a great analogy to describe the conversational style of Americans. SUSAN STEINBACH: "If you're playing basketball, your goal is to get your hands on the ball, to steal it from another person, to dribble -- which would be the equivalent of hesitating, 'well, let me see now, the thing I really wanted to tell you was ... oh and by the way' -- and then once you steal the ball, make your point, and then other person is expected to steal it back." AA: Susan Steinbach works in the Intensive English Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. It's not just Americans who play the game of conversation this way, she says, but also people in Canada, Britain and Australia. RS: Susan Steinbach says a lot of her work is based on two concepts by the linguist Deborah Tannen, who uses the terms "high considerate" and "high involvement" to describe different conversational styles. Susan Steinbach takes these ideas further and applies some sports analogies to help people understand those differences. AA: For example, she contrasts the "basketball style" with the "bowling style." SUSAN STEINBACH: "Bowling is 'high considerate,' by Deborah Tannen's terms, which means that a speaker from a country using that style would perhaps take turns. And it would be based on a hierarchical system. The more seniority or the higher the age of the person, that person is likely to speak first, whereas a junior person would hold back." AA: "And the bowling style tends to be used where?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "Japan, particularly in the older generation or in the corporate world, where hierarchy is very important. Korea. Northern China. And Thailand, to some regards. Not so much Taiwan. Taiwan is a little different." AA: "So now we've talked about the bowling style and we've talked about the basketball style. Are there other styles?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "Yes, the third style is rugby. And this is basically based around Deborah Tannen's term 'high involvement.' And in this style you are expected to interrupt other people, and you expect to be interrupted. There's a rapid change of topic, a rapid change of speakers and a concept called overlapping, where one person starts speaking and another speaker speaks on top of that." AA: "So where do you find the rugby style of conversation?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "Rugby style is very much a Russian style, a Greek style. It tends to be associated with warmer climates, southern European, African cultures, Latino cultures, where many voices are going at once. It's like a cacophony of sound. It would be unusual for them to pause and listen to another speaker until they finished." AA: "That must be interesting as a teacher yourself, to see that. I mean, does that tire you out trying to act as a referee when you've got two or three different 'games' going on in one classroom?" SUSAN STEINBACH: "It's actually very helpful to talk about it, because the students will start to make judgments on personality based on someone's conversational style. So if we talk about it at the beginning of a semester and kind of explain the different backgrounds that the students are coming from, then they start to make jokes with each other and say 'oh, you're just playing rugby today.' And, you know, instead of 'oh, you're mean and you're rude and you're inconsiderate,' they can actually understand it's a style difference based on culture." RS: Susan Steinbach directs the multimedia lab in the Intensive English Program at the University of California, Davis Extension. She also produces instructional videos for English learners through a company called the Seabright Group. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: An Anti-War Movement in the North Turns Violent
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) By eighteen-sixty-three, America's northern states and southern states had been fighting a bitter, bloody civil war for two years. Both sides felt the pressure of the costly struggle. The south was beginning to suffer from a lack of supplies and men for its armies. The north was beginning to suffer from a lack of fighting spirit. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell more about the growing anti-war movement. VOICE TWO: Many Americans in northern states did not support the war policies of Union President Abraham Lincoln. Some said openly that they did not care who won the war. They just wanted to be left alone. Coal miners in Pennsylvania protested against a law drafting men into the Union army. They rioted and attacked officials who tried to take them. Soldiers were sent to Pennsylvania to put down the riots. Farmers in Ohio also protested. They refused to be drafted. They attacked soldiers who were sent to arrest them. The worst anti-war riots, however, took place in New York City. VOICE ONE: On July thirteenth, eighteen-sixty-three, a crowd formed outside a New York draft office. Inside, army officials were choosing the names of men who would be taken into the army. Each name was written on a separate piece of paper. The papers were mixed together in a big box. The officials then began to remove the papers one at a time. They made a list of the names. These were the men of New York who must go off to fight. On that day, however, the list was never completed. The crowd outside the draft office became louder. There were shouts of protest against the draft and against the Civil War. VOICE TWO: Anti-war protest in New York City. Anti-war protest in New York City. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Students at U.S. Colleges Have Several Ways to Get Financial Aid
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our reports for students around the world who want to attend a college or university in the United States. This week, we answer questions from two listeners. Richard Lin from China wants to know how to get a scholarship to an American college. Amarkhuu Ayulguisaikhan of Mongolia wants to know the differences among different kinds of financial aid. They are assistantships, grants, scholarships and fellowships. An assistantship is a job a student does. In exchange, the student receives money or attends classes for free. Graduate students usually get assistantships. The student works about twenty hours a week helping a professor. The student may teach classes, help grade papers and tests, or do research in a laboratory. A grant is a gift of money to pay for some or all of the costs of college. Unlike loans, grants do not have to be re-paid. Private groups or organizations generally give grants to students who need the money. Scholarships and fellowships also do not have to be re-paid. A scholarship is financial aid to undergraduate students; a fellowship is the same kind of aid for graduate students. Generally, scholarships and fellowships go to students with special abilities or athletic skills. Some scholarships are based on financial need. Others go to students who live in a certain area. For example, the University of Missouri in Columbia has two financial aid programs for international students only. The Global Tiger Scholarship is supported by the group representing former university students. In return for scholarship money, the international student agrees to help the group during the school year. The other international scholarship or fellowship at the University of Missouri is called the grant-in-aid program. It provides money to students who need the help, get good grades and take part in university activities. To get these scholarships, students must complete forms found on the university’s Web site. The address is missouri.edu. Information about scholarships from other colleges and universities is listed on their own Web sites. For general information about how to get financial aid, go to a Web site called FinAid. The address is finaid.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. --- Part 32 of our Foreign Student Series ? ? ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Will Smith's New Album, 'Lost and Found' ... A Maryland Girl Helps Other Children Deal with Difficulty ... Learn About a Popular State Park in Michigan
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Will Smith … A question about a waterfall in the American Middle West ... And a report about a fourteen-year-old girl who leads an organization that helps other children. Children to Children Makenzie Snyder is a teenager who leads an organization that helps displaced children in the United States. Faith Lapidus tells us about Makenzie and the organization she started. FAITH LAPIDUS: Makenzie Snyder lives in Bowie, Maryland. She was seven years old when she started Children to Children. The organization helps children in foster care. Foster care is the name of a system used when parents are no longer able to take care of their children. The children are placed in the homes of people who have agreed to care for them. More than five hundred thirty thousand children in the United States are now in foster care. Makenzie met two children in foster care in nineteen ninety-eight. They had moved from home to home. Makenzie learned that many foster children have nothing in which to carry their clothes and other personal objects. They are given plastic bags made for carrying waste or trash. Makenzie says she thought it was wrong for children to have to treat their belongings as if they were trash. With help from her parents, she started an Internet Web site and the organization Children to Children. Children to Children helps children in the foster care system to feel better about themselves during times when their families are in crisis. The organization provides high quality travel bags for the children’s clothes. The children also receive a soft toy animal. Makenzie says this gives them something to hug and to love. She says the toy helps the children to not feel alone. She also writes a note to each child. She tells them that they should never lose hope and that she loves them. Makenzie Snyder is now fourteen years old. She continues her work with Children to Children after seven years. She says her goal is to help all children in foster care in the United States. Children to Children has provided about thirty thousand bags to children in need. The experts who work with the children say Makenzie is doing a good job. They say the children are happy to receive her gifts. Makenzie Snyder has won many awards for her work. She says she would like to meet the children she helps. But she is not permitted to do so. American laws protect the names of children in foster care. Tahquamenon Falls State Park DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Gombe State, Nigeria. Abdulkadir Usman asks about a waterfall in the state of Michigan. It is called Tahquamenon (tah-QUA-meh-non) Falls. Hundreds of years ago, the northern part of what is now Michigan was home to native Americans known as the Chippewa or Ojibwe Indians. They lived along what is now called the Tahquamenon River. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a long poem about them. It is called “The Song of Hiawatha.”? Here is Barbara Klein reciting the part of the poem about the river: BARBARA KLEIN: Thus aloud cried Hiawatha In the solitary forest, By the rushing Taquamenaw (tah-qua-MEE-naw), When the birds were singing gaily, In the Moon of Leaves were singing, And the sun, from sleep awaking, Started up and said, “Behold me "Gheezis (GHEE-zis), the great Sun, behold me.” DOUG JOHNSON: Today, the falls and the river are part of the Tahquamenon Falls State Park. Park officials say they are not sure where the name came from. Whatever the meaning of the name, Tahquamenon Falls State Park today means outdoor fun for many people. The park extends over sixteen thousand hectares of mostly undeveloped forestland. Most of the area has no roads, buildings or electric power. The river and its waterfalls are in the center of the park. The Upper Falls is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River. It is more than sixty meters across. The water drops almost fifteen meters. Park officials say they have recorded its largest flow at more than eighteen thousand liters of water per second. About five hundred thousand people visit the park each year. They walk through the forest to the bottom of the Upper Falls where the water crashes into the Tahquamenon River. In another part of the park, visitors can see five smaller waterfalls from an area near the river or from a nearby island. Visitors can rent boats to reach the island and watch the falling water. The park also includes four campgrounds and forty kilometers of walking paths. Some visitors go to Tahquamenon Falls State Park to watch the many birds and other animals who make the park their home. These include cranes, woodpeckers, bald eagles, moose, bears, coyotes, and mink. Will Smith: 'Lost and Found' Actor and rapper Will Smith stars in a new movie, “Hitch,” that was released in February. On March twenty-ninth, he released his first new album in three years. Gwen Outen tells about the busy entertainer and plays songs from his new record. GWEN OUTEN: It is called “Lost and Found.”? On a number of songs Will Smith tries to answer critics of his hip-hop style. Some critics say it is too “clean.” ?In the song, “Wish I Made That,” Will Smith says radio stations that play rap music will not play his music. He says they do not think he is “black enough.”? Then he offers a few ideas on what rap stations might want from artists: (MUSIC) Will Smith invited several popular performers to help create this album. Here he is with singer Mary J. Blige. The song expresses the difficulty of explaining life’s tragedies to children. It is called “Tell Me Why.” (MUSIC) Will Smith made his past three albums with Columbia Records. He won two Grammy Awards and several American Music Awards with that label. “Lost and Found” is his first work with Interscope Records. We leave you now with the title song from the new album. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach, Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A.I.G., Biggest U.S. Insurance Company, Plans to Restate Earnings
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. What does it mean when a company restates its earnings?? American companies whose stock is traded by the public provide a yearly statement of their financial health. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission requires this financial statement. It is called Form ten-k. It provides the government and the public with a company’s earnings and important financial information. In late March, the country’s largest insurance company, American International Group, said it would delay releasing its financial statement possibly until April thirtieth. The S.E.C. and the attorney general of New York State have been investing A.I.G. The company may have to change financial statements going back to nineteen ninety-one. A.I.G. has admitted it incorrectly reported two financial deals with an insurance company called General Re a few years ago. A.I.G. reported earnings of five hundred million dollars on the deals, but it appears no business was done. A.I.G. now says the deals should not have been reported as earnings. Investigators are expected to ask former A.I.G. chief Maurice Greenberg about the deals. They are also expected to question Warren Buffett, whose company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns General Re. A.I.G. also has admitted it may have incorrectly reported its business with a company in Barbados. Union Excess Reinsurance Company is not directly owned by A.I.G. But another business, Starr International Company, holds a major interest in it. Starr International also owns twelve percent of all A.I.G. common stock. Many top A.I.G. officials have positions with Starr. A.I.G. says it may be required to include Union Excess as part of its own business. A.I.G. says it may have to restate its finances by a total of more than one thousand seven hundred million dollars.Experts say this does not harm the company’s financial health. A.I.G. is valued at almost eighty-three thousand million dollars. But the company’s stock price has dropped by about twenty percent. The board of directors replaced longtime chief executive Maurice Greenberg and its chief financial officer on March fourteenth. Mister Greenberg retired as board chairman two weeks later. The board named Martin Sullivan as president and chief executive. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. ? I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. What does it mean when a company restates its earnings?? American companies whose stock is traded by the public provide a yearly statement of their financial health. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission requires this financial statement. It is called Form ten-k. It provides the government and the public with a company’s earnings and important financial information. In late March, the country’s largest insurance company, American International Group, said it would delay releasing its financial statement possibly until April thirtieth. The S.E.C. and the attorney general of New York State have been investing A.I.G. The company may have to change financial statements going back to nineteen ninety-one. A.I.G. has admitted it incorrectly reported two financial deals with an insurance company called General Re a few years ago. A.I.G. reported earnings of five hundred million dollars on the deals, but it appears no business was done. A.I.G. now says the deals should not have been reported as earnings. Investigators are expected to ask former A.I.G. chief Maurice Greenberg about the deals. They are also expected to question Warren Buffett, whose company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns General Re. A.I.G. also has admitted it may have incorrectly reported its business with a company in Barbados. Union Excess Reinsurance Company is not directly owned by A.I.G. But another business, Starr International Company, holds a major interest in it. Starr International also owns twelve percent of all A.I.G. common stock. Many top A.I.G. officials have positions with Starr. A.I.G. says it may be required to include Union Excess as part of its own business. A.I.G. says it may have to restate its finances by a total of more than one thousand seven hundred million dollars.Experts say this does not harm the company’s financial health. A.I.G. is valued at almost eighty-three thousand million dollars. But the company’s stock price has dropped by about twenty percent. The board of directors replaced longtime chief executive Maurice Greenberg and its chief financial officer on March fourteenth. Mister Greenberg retired as board chairman two weeks later. The board named Martin Sullivan as president and chief executive. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: With Millions Gathered, Pope John Paul II Is Laid to Rest
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. (SOUND: Religious singing in Latin) ... from the funeral in Vatican City on Friday for Pope John Paul the Second. Political and religious leaders from around the world joined mourners at the services in Saint Peter's Square. The leader of the world's more than one thousand million Roman Catholics died last Saturday at the age of eighty-four. Now the church must choose a new leader to take the place of the man whose influence helped end communism in Eastern Europe. The College of Cardinals will begin meeting on April eighteenth. Cardinals are top officials in the church. They are known by their red hats. One hundred seventeen cardinals will elect the next pope. [On April 9 the Vatican announced that two cardinals were in poor health and would not attend.] The cardinals will meet in the Sistine Chapel to hold what is called a conclave. From Latin, that means "with key."? The process is meant to involve great secrecy. Except to sleep, the cardinals must stay in the chapel until they have chosen a pope. Church law requires that they hold at least one vote on the first day. But Vatican observers say it is not likely that a new pope will be elected that quickly. Traditionally two-thirds of the cardinals, plus one, must agree. But the rules permit a simple majority if the cardinals cannot decide after repeated votes. The cardinals burn unsuccessful ballots, sending up black smoke for people to see. White smoke signals a decision. If that happens, an official announces "habemus papem" -- we have a pope. Then a special ceremony takes place to confirm the new leader. The last time that happened was in nineteen seventy-eight, when Karol Wojtyla became John Paul the Second. He was fifty-eight, young for a pope. And he was a surprise choice. The Polish priest became the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries. Over the years, he became known for other firsts. For example, John Paul expressed sorrow for the past treatment of Jews and Muslims by the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first pope to visit Jewish and Islamic religious centers. John Paul also was the first pope to travel widely around the world. He was like a magnet with crowds, often especially with the young. Many people considered him a very modern pope. Still, his defense of the traditional teachings of the church brought criticism. John Paul rejected appeals to let Catholics end unwanted pregnancies or use modern birth control. He firmly opposed same-sex relationships. And he defended the stand against women in the clergy. Still, as many as four million people gathered in Rome as Pope John Paul the Second was laid to rest. The crowds shouted "santo subito," calling for immediate sainthood for the man known as the "people's pope." IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Langston Hughes: An American Writer
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Langston Hughes, who has been called the poet voice of African Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet. But he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children’s books, and the words to operas. He also translated into English the works of foreign poets. Hughes was one of the first black writers who could support himself by his writings. He is praised for his ability to say what was important to millions of black people. Hughes produced a huge amount of work during his lifetime. He also has influenced the work of many other writers. He wrote for almost fifty years. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes was famous for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. His work is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages. Hughes’s poetry had serious messages. He often wrote about racial issues, describing his people in a realistic way. Although his story was not often pleasant, he told it with understanding and with hope. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in Nineteen-Oh-Two. His parents were separated. He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. She told him stories about their family and their fight to end slavery. Her storytelling filled him with pride in himself and his race. He first began to write poetry when he was living with her. When he was fourteen, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with his mother and her new husband. He attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Langston was named Class Poet one year. He published his first short stories while he was still in high school. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes struggled with a feeling of loneliness caused by his parent’s divorce. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with the lack of time his parents spent with him. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. He wanted to reproduce the powerful effect other writers had made upon him. Among the early influences on his writing were poets Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After graduating from high school in Nineteen-Twenty, Langston moved to Mexico City to live with his father for one year. His father had moved there to escape racism in America. His father did not offer much warmth to his son. Yet, Langston turned the pain caused by his family problems into one of his most famous poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”? In this poem, he speaks of the strength and pride of black people in ancient African civilizations and in America. (READING) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes learned a lot about race, and about social and economic conditions while he was in Mexico. His ability to speak Spanish and his brown skin often made it easy for him to appear to be a native. Many of his works, including a play for children, deal with his days in Mexico. During the time he stayed with his father in Mexico, Langston wrote many poems because he was always unhappy. He once said that he usually created his best work when he was really not happy. Langston had a troubled relationship with his father from which he never recovered fully. His father did not think he could earn a living as a writer. His mother, however, recognized his need to be a poet. VOICE TWO: Langston’s father agreed to pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City, if he studied engineering. Langston arrived in New York when he was nineteen years old. At the end of that first year at Columbia, he left school, broke with his father, and began traveling. Traveling was a lifelong love that would take him throughout the world before he died. In Nineteen-Twenty-Two, Hughes took a job on a ship and sailed to Africa. He would later sail to France, Russia, Spain and Italy. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. His experiences while traveling greatly influenced his work. He sent a few of his writings back home. They were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. Financial problems ended Hughes’s travels. He tried to find work on a ship so he could return to the United States. But in Italy, he had problems finding work on a ship because he was black. In the poem, “I, Too”, he noted that the American color line even reached all the way over there. (READING) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Twenty-Four, Langston Hughes returned to the United States to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. The poet Vachel Lindsay ate in a hotel where Hughes was working. Hughes put some poems he had written next to Lindsay’s dinner plate. Lindsay gave a poetry reading later that night. He read some of Hughes’s poetry, too. Newspapers across the country wrote about Lindsay’s poetry reading. Hughes became known as a new black poet. A year later, Hughes returned to New York. Through the years he lived in many places, but always came back to New York’s Harlem area. Harlem was the center of black life in New York City. Hughes’s creativity was influenced by his life in Harlem. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes returned to New York during a period called the Harlem Renaissance. It took place during the Nineteen-Twenties and Thirties. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic creativity among black people. For the first time, black artistic expression was being widely recognized. Hughes became friends with other great black writers of the time, such as Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston. They hoped that great art could change the racist ideas in America about African Americans. Hughes was considered one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. He was the first poet to use the rhythms of black music. He often wrote about the everyday experiences of black working people. And he helped bring the movement of jazz and the sound of black speech into poetry. VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes experimented with his writing. Other Harlem Renaissance writers wrote traditional poems like those of English classic poets, such as William Shakespeare. Hughes broke free with his writing and helped change literature forever. Hughes became firmly established as a successful writer in Nineteen-Twenty-Six with the publication of a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.”? Hughes wrote the poems in a place in Harlem where blues music was played. He loved to write while sitting in clubs listening to blues and jazz. The title poem, “The Weary Blues,” was written to be played with musical instruments. The poem perfectly expressed the desire of Langston Hughes to combine black music and speech in his poetry. VOICE THREE: ?“I got the Weary Blues and I can’t be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues and can’t be satisfied. I ain’t happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died.” ?“And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed – while the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.” VOICE TWO: Poems in “The Weary Blues” are warm and full of color. They have a sense of freedom, like that of jazz music. Langston Hughes was excited about the new form of poetry he had discovered for himself. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Caty Weaver. The poetry was read by Langston Hughes and Shep O’Neal. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA when we finish the story of the life of Langston Hughes. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Baseball Season Opens as Congress Investigates Steroid Use by Players
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. The two thousand five season of Major League Baseball opened on April fourth. But not all the action is on the playing field. VOICE ONE: We start with details of the investigation in Congress into the illegal use of drugs by players to improve performance. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: On April third, one day before the opening games of the season, a player on the Tampa Bay team in Florida was suspended. Baseball officials say Alex Sanchez violated a new Major League policy on steroids. He was suspended for ten days. Alex Sanchez became the first player publicly identified under the new drug policy. It took effect last month, as Congress launched an investigation into the use of steroids in baseball. VOICE ONE: Several current and former players appeared before a congressional committee in Washington on March seventeenth. Representative Tom Davis of Virginia heads the House Government Reform Committee. Congressman Davis says he ordered the investigation for two reasons. First, he says he is concerned about the trustworthiness of the game. Second, he fears that steroids are a growing public-health problem among young athletes. Mister Davis says too many college athletes believe they have to consider steroids if they want to go on to professional sports. High school athletes, in turn, think steroids might help them get scholarships or financial aid from colleges and universities. VOICE TWO: Anabolic steroids are copies of the male hormone testosterone. They increase the size and strength of muscles. Adult males normally produce about ten milligrams or less of testosterone per day. Steroid users may take more than one hundred milligrams a day. There is a big danger. Steroids can cause heart problems, liver damage, stroke and high cholesterol in the blood. They can increase aggression. And they can harm the reproductive system. Steroids can also affect the bones and limit height in young people. In the United States, anabolic steroids are banned without an order from a doctor for medical use. But people find ways to buy these drugs illegally. Some get them over the Internet. Others go to Mexico to find them. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Baseball has been criticized for having a weaker drug-testing program than the National Football League or the National Basketball Association. Now Major League Baseball has just strengthened its policy. A player found using steroids will be suspended for ten days for the first offense. A second violation means a thirty-day suspension. A third violation brings a suspension of sixty days. Players found a fourth time using steroids will be suspended for one year. All suspensions are without pay. The new rules also require every player to be tested for steroids at least one time during the playing season. There is no limit to the number of unannounced tests that a player may have to take. Players could also be tested in the off-season. VOICE TWO: Yet critics say the new policy does not go far enough. They say baseball should have the same testing policies as the International Olympic Committee. Olympic athletes are tested regularly for the use of performance drugs. They are barred from competition for up to two years for a first violation. After a second violation, they are barred for life. A lot of baseball fans also believe that star players should not remain in the record books if they used steroids. The House Committee on Government Reform is considering the issues, and not just in baseball. Two weeks after its hearing, the committee requested information from professional football, basketball, hockey and soccer. The committee asked for details of their steroid policies and results of testing programs. The lawmakers also requested information from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the U.S.A. Track and Field organization. The House committee says it will hold more hearings at a later date. The committee may propose a single steroid policy for all sports in the United States, from professional down to the high school level. But some people believe Congress has little power to influence the rules of professional sports. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Concern about steroid use in baseball grew during the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. In nineteen ninety-eight both players broke the record for the most home runs in one season. Babe RuthBabe Ruth had set the record at sixty home runs in nineteen twenty-seven. His record stood for more than thirty years, until Roger Maris hit sixty-one. Sammy Sosa finished the nineteen ninety-eight season with sixty-six home runs. Mark McGwire had seventy. VOICE TWO: Both men appeared last month before the House Committee on Government Reform. Sammy Sosa denied using steroids. Mark McGwire refused to say. He retired in two thousand one. Another former baseball star, Jose Canseco, also appeared before the committee. He has admitted using steroids. In his new book, "Juiced," Jose Canseco also accuses other players of using steroids. These include Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Members of Congress are not the only ones investigating steroid use in sports. In two thousand three, in California, federal investigators raided the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, known as Balco. A federal grand jury is now investigating this company in connection with illegal sales of drugs to professional athletes. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: These days there is lots of talk about baseball in Washington, and not just because of the investigations. The city has a new Major League team, the Washington Nationals. The "Nats" formerly played as the Montreal Expos in Canada. The Expos were in financial trouble. Owners of other Major League teams bought the Expos in two thousand two. The owners looked for a new home for the team. Washington competed against five other cities. A financial disagreement almost wrecked the deal. The first regular-season game in Washington is this Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Nationals will play in R.F.K. Stadium until a new ballpark is finished. It is expected to be ready in two thousand eight. The team colors for the Nationals are -- you guessed it -- red, white and blue. VOICE TWO: The last Major League team in the District of Columbia, the Washington Senators, moved away in nineteen seventy-one. They became the Texas Rangers. Since then, baseball fans in Washington have had to travel sixty kilometers to Baltimore to watch the Orioles play. The Orioles play in the American League; the Nats are in the National League. Together the two leagues have thirty teams. The Orioles and the Nationals will not play each other until two thousand six. VOICE ONE: Baseball has been played for more than a century. The sport known as America's national pastime remains very popular. The New York Times reported that forty-nine million early tickets for this season had been sold through March thirty-first. Advance ticket sales were up more than six percent from last year, even with all the talk about steroids. Last week, there were findings from a public opinion study for the Associated Press and the Internet provider America Online. A thousand adults were asked by telephone what they considered the biggest problem in baseball. Twenty-seven percent listed steroids. But thirty-three percent said a bigger problem is that players are paid too much. The average Major League player earned over two million dollars last year. Still, two-thirds of those questioned agreed that players found to have used steroids should not be honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame. And most people approved of the intervention by Congress. In fact, forty percent said lawmakers should do more. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. If you would like to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And our programs are online at voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Tests Support Vaccine to Prevent the Main Cause of Cervical Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Research scientists have developed an experimental treatment to protect women against cervical cancer. A new study found the treatment kept almost everyone tested safe from infections that lead to the disease. The medical publication Lancet Oncology reported on the study. Experts say more than two hundred thousand women die from cervical cancer every year. These deaths are most common in developing countries. The main cause of cervical cancer is the human papilloma virus, or H.P.V. This is a common virus that people can give each other through sexual activity. H.P.V. usually is harmless and disappears in healthy women. But, if it remains in the body, the virus greatly increases the chances of cervical cancer. The cervix is part of the female reproductive system. It is the opening at the end of the uterus. H.P.V. infections are responsible for genital warts. These growths on reproductive organs can lead to cervical cancer. ??????? Cervical cancers develop slowly, usually over a period of ten or twenty years. There are tests that can find the disease early enough to save a woman’s life. A common test is called a Pap smear. Laboratory workers examine cells under a microscope. Luisa Villa of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brazil organized the new study. It involved five hundred fifty-two women from Brazil, Europe and the United States. About half of them were given repeated injections of the treatment, or vaccine. The other half received a harmless substance, or placebo. Researchers observed the two groups for three years. During that period, the women received repeated Pap smears. H.P.V. tests also were performed. The researchers say the vaccine was effective in preventing infection from four forms of H.P.V. Doctor Villa and her team found the vaccine was ninety percent effective in preventing the majority of viral infections. They also say it was one hundred percent effective in preventing genital warts and cervical lesions, which can lead to cancer. More studies will be done to test the effectiveness of the vaccine. One drug-maker, Merck, is expected to ask the United States Food and Drug Administration to approve the vaccine later this year. If approved, it may be offered as early as next year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Where Nature Writes the Laws: A Visit to the National Arboretum in Washington
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: we tell about the United States National Arboretum. The National Arboretum is a peaceful natural area in Washington, D.C. Yet it also is an active center for both scientific research and public education. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people who come to Washington are surprised when they first visit the United States National Arboretum. The Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. However, visitors often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. The National Arboretum covers one-hundred-eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. The area is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. About nine thousand different kinds of plants and trees grow there. VOICE TWO: An arboretum is a place where trees and plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. ?The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in nineteen twenty-seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service operates the Arboretum. The goal of the Arboretum is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. The goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public. VOICE ONE: The National Arboretum is a popular stop for visitors to Washington. The grounds are open every day of the year except December twenty-fifth, the Christmas holiday. It does not cost money to visit the Arboretum. As many as six hundred thousand people visit the Arboretum grounds each year. Hundreds of thousands also visit with the help of computers. They use the Arboretum’s Internet web site to learn about how to care for plants and current research programs. Director Thomas Elias says Arboretum officials would like to see even more visitors. He says they believe that many people do not know it exists. VOICE TWO: Part of the problem may result from the fact that the Arboretum is about five kilometers from the closest train station. Many famous places in Washington are a short walk from Metrorail, the city’s local train system. The Arboretum is easy to reach by automobile or bus, however. About fifteen kilometers of roads have been built on the property. The roads connect to major collections and seasonal flowers. The Arboretum also welcomes people on bicycles. Disabled people or those who want to walk only short distances may visit four beautiful areas that are close to each other. People who like longer walks will enjoy the many pathways on the property. The Arboretum has a small gift store that sells books and other things. Currently, there is no place where you can buy food to eat on the grounds. But, visitors often bring food and enjoy a meal there. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year, the Department of Agriculture announced plans for an addition to the Arboretum. American and Chinese officials have agreed to build a traditional Chinese garden on the property. It will cover an area of almost five hectares. Former Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the project would increase the American people’s understanding of Chinese garden culture. She said it also would give American scientists a new way to study plants and flowers from China. A joint team from the two countries is designing the project. Part of the garden will include a small area of fresh water and traditional Chinese buildings. The buildings will have wooden objects similar to those from the Ching and Ming periods of China’s history. Examples of traditional handwriting and artwork will be shown there. Chinese officials say the garden is a gift from the Chinese people to the American people. VOICE TWO: Scientists at the Arboretum have developed many of the trees and flowers now found in the United States and other countries. Over the years, the Arboretum and the Agricultural Research Service have released almost seven-hundred different plants. Each year, they offer several new plants. Scientists there also have developed virus-resistant plants with processes of genetic engineering. The Sun Valley red maple is one such example. It was developed as part of a project to study the genetic qualities of leaf color and insect resistance. The tree produces leaves that remain bright red late into autumn. It was tested in the state of Maryland. The Sun Valley maple kept its colorful leaves for about two weeks before they fell to the ground. The tree also resisted the potato leafhopper, an insect that feeds on the leaves of trees. VOICE ONE: Arboretum scientists have another important goal: to develop cleaner and safer methods to protect and support plant growth. Environmental laws and public opinion against the use of chemical products for killing insects has increased. Arboretum scientists have worked with chemical companies to create products that use natural substances to deal with insects. They call such substances, biopesticides. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Agricultural Research Service operates a number of centers and laboratories across the United States. The National Arboretum is best known for its beauty. Visitors can always find flowering plants. You can start looking for flowers in the Arboretum’s Asian Collections, Friendship Garden and National Boxwood Collection. There also are some very useful plants at the Arboretum. Next month, the Arboretum will celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of its Herb Garden. Officials say it is the largest designed herb garden in the world. Herbs can be used in many kinds of food and drinks, but others are medicinal. Herbs also can change the way things smell or add color to cloth. Every plant in the Herb Garden, even the trees, is an herb. The garden contains one hundred different kinds of peppers alone. VOICE ONE: The Arboretum has another big event at the end of May. The fifth World Bonsai Convention will be held there. Bonsai is the art of growing small plants or trees in a container. It is an ancient Asian tradition. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the Arboretum has one of the largest collections of these plants in North America. Bonsai is a Japanese word. Penjing is Chinese. Arboretum employees have been preparing for the Bonsai meeting for the past three years. Events include talks by Bonsai experts, examples of bonsai and penjing trees and educational programs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, the Arboretum offers a number of educational programs and special events. This Saturday, for example, it will present a talk by a woman who wrote a book about the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington. The yearly event celebrates the flowering of cherry trees. The Arboretum also has a show of botanical art that will continue through the end of June. The show is presenting beautiful and scientifically correct paintings of endangered Japanese plants. VOICE ONE: Officials say it would be difficult for the Arboretum to operate as well as it does without the support of private organizations. The Arboretum has about one-hundred employees. Yet it depends on many other people who offer their time and effort without payment. For example, the Friends of the National Arboretum is a non-profit group that provides financial support. The money is used for Arboretum training programs, the gardens and collections and special projects. The group also reports to Congress about the Arboretum’s special needs. Another support organization is the National Capital Area Foundation of Garden Clubs. The group has its headquarters at the Arboretum. Its members offer their time to help with the Arboretum’s plant collection. They also serve as guides for visitors. They help thousands of people enjoy the National Arboretum, this beautiful natural area in the nation’s capital. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Question from Vietnam: How Can Food Companies Control Pests Safely?
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Our subject this week involves food safety. We have a question from a listener in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Thanh asks how can food companies control problems like rats and insects without harming the food?? Experts say poisons should never be used where they may enter food. They say the first line of defense against pests is to clean places where food is handled or stored. Floors, food preparation surfaces and tools can be disinfected with chemicals like chlorine, iodine or bromine. A five-and-one-quarter percent chlorine solution is commonly used. Mix nineteen milliliters of the chlorine solution with five liters of water for use in cleaning. Food containers should be stored about one-half a meter off the ground. They should also be kept about one-half a meter away from walls. Storage areas should be kept dry and clean. Good drainage means that floors do not have areas where water can collect. Waste containers inside and outside the building should be kept closed. And they should be kept clean. Clear any waste from the grounds around a building. Small stones can be used to cover the ground and block the growth of plants. Keep areas of grass cut to deny pests a place to live. Doors and windows must close completely. Also, any holes that might permit pests to enter a building should be filled. Rats can enter through a hole thirteen millimeters in size. A mouse can pass through a hole half that size. Supervisors should make a list of pest-control measures to be taken by employees. This will aid the efforts and also help prepare for any inspections. In the United States, businesses where food is stored, prepared or sold must follow federal, state and local health laws. The Food and Drug Administration enforces federal rules. So does the Food Safety and Inspection Service, part of the Department of Agriculture. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for rules about the use of pesticides. The United States government has a Web site with information all about food safety. The address is foodsafety-dot-gov, f-o-o-d-s-a-f-e-t-y dot g-o-v. If you have a question for us about agriculture or related subjects, write to special@voanews.com. Or visit us online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Our subject this week involves food safety. We have a question from a listener in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Thanh asks how can food companies control problems like rats and insects without harming the food?? Experts say poisons should never be used where they may enter food. They say the first line of defense against pests is to clean places where food is handled or stored. Floors, food preparation surfaces and tools can be disinfected with chemicals like chlorine, iodine or bromine. A five-and-one-quarter percent chlorine solution is commonly used. Mix nineteen milliliters of the chlorine solution with five liters of water for use in cleaning. Food containers should be stored about one-half a meter off the ground. They should also be kept about one-half a meter away from walls. Storage areas should be kept dry and clean. Good drainage means that floors do not have areas where water can collect. Waste containers inside and outside the building should be kept closed. And they should be kept clean. Clear any waste from the grounds around a building. Small stones can be used to cover the ground and block the growth of plants. Keep areas of grass cut to deny pests a place to live. Doors and windows must close completely. Also, any holes that might permit pests to enter a building should be filled. Rats can enter through a hole thirteen millimeters in size. A mouse can pass through a hole half that size. Supervisors should make a list of pest-control measures to be taken by employees. This will aid the efforts and also help prepare for any inspections. In the United States, businesses where food is stored, prepared or sold must follow federal, state and local health laws. The Food and Drug Administration enforces federal rules. So does the Food Safety and Inspection Service, part of the Department of Agriculture. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for rules about the use of pesticides. The United States government has a Web site with information all about food safety. The address is foodsafety-dot-gov, f-o-o-d-s-a-f-e-t-y dot g-o-v. If you have a question for us about agriculture or related subjects, write to special@voanews.com. Or visit us online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Red Cross: Helping Victims of War and Natural Disasters
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we report on the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement around the world. The movement helps victims of wars and terrible natural events. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In late December of last year, a severe earthquake in the Indian Ocean produced huge waves that washed over coastlines and deep onto land. The tsunami killed as many as two hundred eighty thousand people and made millions of people homeless in eleven countries. As many as forty thousand people in Sri Lanka died in the disaster. The water destroyed or heavily damaged almost everything around Galle, Sri Lanka. Valuable coastline washed away. Hotels and entertainment businesses were wrecked. VOICE TWO: The top official of the American Red Cross took part in aid work in Galle. Marsha Evans also traveled to other cities hit hardest by the tsunami. The Red Cross and Red Crescent movement have been active in the area since soon after the tsunami struck. Representatives of four American and Asian companies traveled with Miz Evans. Money given by their companies helped make aid work possible. Just outside Galle, schoolchildren at the Gintota?School welcomed the visitors with smiles and friendly questions. The visitors gave them backpacks for carrying books and other school supplies. Most of their school buildings had been destroyed. But the American Red Cross had built the children a classroom. VOICE ONE: The visitors also observed aid workers feeding tsunami survivors at a community center in Galle. The American Red Cross and the World Food Program made it possible for the workers to provide food. In the town of Matara, young people welcomed the visitors with traditional dance and instrumental music. The Sri Lanka Red Crescent Society had filled a storage center in Matara with supplies for thousands of people. VOICE TWO: Miz Evans and the other visitors met one hundred twenty families displaced by the tsunami. The Red Cross president and the donors gave the families sleeping mats and nets to protect against insects. They also gave out cooking supplies and water containers. During a single week in March, the American Red Cross provided needed supplies to more than fourteen thousand families in Galle. Fifteen thousand families in Matara also received the goods. So did more than eleven thousand families in Hambantota (HUM-bun-toh-tah), also in southern Sri Lanka. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People throughout the world welcome the flags and signs of the Red Cross movement during natural disasters and war. The Red Cross flag shows two red lines crossing against a white background. The Red Crescent serves mainly Muslim countries. Its flag shows a red crescent. These flags on buildings, vehicles and aid workers’ clothing mean “Do not attack.”???????????????????????????????? VOICE TWO: Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations help survivors of natural disasters besides earthquakes and tsunamis. They also serve at floods, fires, landslides, wind and ocean storms and volcanic explosions. When thousands of people flee their homes, Red Cross and Red Crescent teams go to work. The teams study the situation and conditions. They observe if the people are moving from country to country or inside their homeland. Are the people running from oppression and war?? Are they moving because of natural disasters or economic reasons?? The answers help decide how the aid effort will be organized. VOICE ONE: During fighting, Red Cross and Red Crescent operations react to needs in order of importance. Safe water supply and personal health conditions are most important. So are emergency health care and temporary shelter. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the lead agency within the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. In conflict areas, national societies support the movement. ??The agencies help people rebuild their lives after war. VOICE TWO: A coalition makes possible the work of the Red Cross movement. It has more than one hundred eighty national aid societies. The societies belong to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The American Red Cross is one such national organization. Money given by American citizens mainly supports this private organization. Most of its work is done by people who offer their services without pay. ?The American Red Cross trains millions of people in life-saving skills. It provides health care for more than two million people. VOICE ONE: The American Red Cross carries out many activities in the United States. It supplies more than half the nation’s blood products. The American Red Cross aids people in the armed services. It helps them communicate with their families. Thousands of families each year receive emergency information about service members in faraway places. Many years after World War Two, the Red Cross has re-united survivors of German Nazi prison camps with family members. The Red Cross has taught millions of people to swim. They are among many Americans who learned safety and health measures in Red Cross classes last year. Red Cross community programs provide food for poor people. Volunteers take meals to people unable to prepare their own food. Other volunteers visit patients in hospitals and nursing homes. VOICE TWO: The American Red Cross sends help to thousands of areas in the United States each year. For example, Red Cross volunteers helped after tragedy recently struck an American Indian reservation. The North Star Red Cross group of Bemidji, Minnesota served food to two hundred fifty people in Red Lake, Minnesota. The volunteers held the dinner after a young man shot nine people to death in Red Lake. He also wounded fourteen others before killing himself. Mental health workers from a Red Cross group in Duluth, Minnesota provided emotional support for affected families. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The national Red Cross organizations cooperate through the headquarters of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Federation headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. The International Committee of the Red Cross also has headquarters in Geneva. This group acts as a neutral negotiator among warring nations to protect human rights. It tries to guarantee that the Geneva Conventions are obeyed. These international rules provide for humane treatment of soldiers and civilians. For example, prisoners of war may not be tortured to get military information from them. And, poison gas is banned as a weapon. VOICE TWO: The International Red Cross Conference meets every four years to discuss the Geneva Conventions. The meeting in two thousand three centered on the protection of human rights. The Red Cross and Red Crescent movement believes nations must take more responsibility for reducing violence and unfair treatment. The movement urges improved conditions for people suffering from war and disaster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The proposal that led to the Red Cross movement was made more than one hundred forty years ago. A Swiss citizen named Jean Henri Dunant proposed that every country establish permanent aid organizations. Mister Dunant said these groups should be politically neutral. He wanted the organizations to help sick and wounded soldiers. Mister Dunant had seen the terrible suffering of soldiers injured in war. He established a field hospital in the battle area for the wounded soldiers of both sides after a conflict in Italy. That was in eighteen fifty-nine, during the Austro-Sardinian War. VOICE TWO: Mister Dunant wrote about his experiences in a book, “A Memory of Solferino.”? His book helped many people understand the need for a worldwide aid agency. The influence of Jean Henri Dunant helped create the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was established at a meeting in Geneva in eighteen sixty-three. Today, the organization that developed from his proposal continues to help people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And? I’m Faith Lapidus? Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-12-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Vaccine Shows Promise Against a Big Killer of Babies in the Developing World
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Children under the age of two and old people are at the greatest risk from infections caused by pneumococcal bacteria. The World Health Organization estimates that each year more than one and one-half million lives are lost as a result. Most of the young victims are in developing countries. In fact, researchers say pneumococcal infections kill more children even than malaria. Now a study in Gambia, West Africa, has added to hopes about a prevention that could become widely used. If that happens, researchers say the vaccine could save hundreds of thousands of children each year. The most serious infections caused by pneumococcal bacteria are meningitis, sepsis and pneumonia. Pneumonia is a lung disease. Sepsis poisons the blood. Meningitis infects the brain and spinal cord. Experts say up to seventy percent of children in developing countries who get pneumococcal meningitis die or become disabled. Experts say pneumococcal infections are getting more and more difficult to treat. The bacteria are becoming resistant to commonly used antibiotics. That is because these medicines have been used too commonly. There are vaccines that can be given to babies to prevent pneumococcal disease. In the United States, such a vaccine has been used since two thousand. The one tested in Gambia had already been shown to work in cities in South Africa. Researchers wanted to know if this vaccine could also be effective in less developed communities, away from cities. Felicity Cutts of the Medical Research Council in Britain says the results demonstrate that it could. Professor Cutts led the four-year study. The researchers chose Gambia because of its high death rates among babies and limited health care. They vaccinated more than seventeen thousand babies. The study found sixteen percent fewer deaths among those who received the vaccine than among those who did not. Also, reduced numbers of children became sick enough to need hospital care. In all, there were seventy-seven percent fewer infections caused by the groups of organisms targeted by the vaccine. As a result, the study says there were thirty-seven percent fewer cases of pneumonia. The governments of Gambia, Britain and the United States supported the study. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals provided the test vaccine. The Lancet published the findings. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/a-2005-04-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 13, 2005 - Meet Two Young English Teachers
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: meet two young English teachers. One is from the United States, the other from Uzbekistan. RS: The American is a native English speaker who also speaks Arabic. He teaches a conversational English class. But right now he's focused on finishing a graduate degree. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: meet two young English teachers. One is from the United States, the other from Uzbekistan. RS: The American is a native English speaker who also speaks Arabic. He teaches a conversational English class. But right now he's focused on finishing a graduate degree. RS: Only it has nothing to do with English teaching. SAM AHMAD: "My name is Sam Ahmad. I'm a law student at Louisiana State University, graduating hopefully in a month or so and will starting a new career in teaching English as a foreign language." AA: "Then why did you go to law school?" SAM AHMAD: "You know, my parents ask me that question quite often. But I figured it's better to get that advanced degree now than later, when I might not get a chance to. Teaching is always something that I knew I would end up doing, and teaching English as a foreign language is great because it gives me the opportunity to travel as well as learn other languages." AA: "Has your interest in English teaching helped you in legal writing?" SAM AHMAD: "I think that my legal background has helped me to teach better, because I'm better able to organize and prepare for my class in the same way I would organize and prepare an argument before a judge, as well as the structure of my class is tailored in a conversation debate format, where I bring up issues that have two sides and get the students to engage in a structured debate using their English language skills in a conversational, debate-style format." AA: "What's a typical lesson in your class, what do you do?" SAM AHMAD: "Well, the structure, for the most part, it starts off by having three or four New York Times articles assigned to the students, that they will read on their own. And then, the following class, we will discuss those articles, relatively about 15 minutes per article I'll set aside and I'll organize the class into two sides, one for and one against a particular issue, and have them each take turns arguing their position. And I think that using current events is the best way to learn conversational English, because that's what conversations are all about." AA: Sam Ahmad plans to visit Spain and Argentina later this year for training to become certified as an English teacher. RS: Now meet Niso Mamatkulova from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She's been teaching English for the past seven years. For the past four years, she's been training other teachers. AA: I asked her what she thinks are some of the best ways to teach English. NISO MAMATKULOVA: "The best strategy I found, it's to interact with students using communicative teaching methods, and to give them more freedom." RS: And the worst strategies? NISO MAMATKULOVA: "To correct them always. To threaten them, or to reward them maybe very often. Not to give them time to improve. And ... the least effective? Students think it's to give them much homework to do!" AA: Finally, I asked if there was an anecdote she would like to tell about her teaching experience. NISO MAMATKULOVA : "It happened twice, maybe three times. A student was giving advice to me on different topics, and I liked that. And I said, 'OK, I'm going to follow your advice.' See? Students like when we are friendly to them, when we are open to them, and I like that." RS: Niso Mamatkulova from Uzbekistan and Sam Ahmad from the United States, both interviewed earlier this month in San Antonio, Texas. AA: I met them at the annual convention of the international group known as TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "An English Teacher"/Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera (1960 Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie") RS: Only it has nothing to do with English teaching. SAM AHMAD: "My name is Sam Ahmad. I'm a law student at Louisiana State University, graduating hopefully in a month or so and will starting a new career in teaching English as a foreign language." AA: "Then why did you go to law school?" SAM AHMAD: "You know, my parents ask me that question quite often. But I figured it's better to get that advanced degree now than later, when I might not get a chance to. Teaching is always something that I knew I would end up doing, and teaching English as a foreign language is great because it gives me the opportunity to travel as well as learn other languages." AA: "Has your interest in English teaching helped you in legal writing?" SAM AHMAD: "I think that my legal background has helped me to teach better, because I'm better able to organize and prepare for my class in the same way I would organize and prepare an argument before a judge, as well as the structure of my class is tailored in a conversation debate format, where I bring up issues that have two sides and get the students to engage in a structured debate using their English language skills in a conversational, debate-style format." AA: "What's a typical lesson in your class, what do you do?" SAM AHMAD: "Well, the structure, for the most part, it starts off by having three or four New York Times articles assigned to the students, that they will read on their own. And then, the following class, we will discuss those articles, relatively about 15 minutes per article I'll set aside and I'll organize the class into two sides, one for and one against a particular issue, and have them each take turns arguing their position. And I think that using current events is the best way to learn conversational English, because that's what conversations are all about." AA: Sam Ahmad plans to visit Spain and Argentina later this year for training to become certified as an English teacher. RS: Now meet Niso Mamatkulova from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She's been teaching English for the past seven years. For the past four years, she's been training other teachers. AA: I asked her what she thinks are some of the best ways to teach English. NISO MAMATKULOVA: "The best strategy I found, it's to interact with students using communicative teaching methods, and to give them more freedom." RS: And the worst strategies? NISO MAMATKULOVA: "To correct them always. To threaten them, or to reward them maybe very often. Not to give them time to improve. And ... the least effective? Students think it's to give them much homework to do!" AA: Finally, I asked if there was an anecdote she would like to tell about her teaching experience. NISO MAMATKULOVA : "It happened twice, maybe three times. A student was giving advice to me on different topics, and I liked that. And I said, 'OK, I'm going to follow your advice.' See? Students like when we are friendly to them, when we are open to them, and I like that." RS: Niso Mamatkulova from Uzbekistan and Sam Ahmad from the United States, both interviewed earlier this month in San Antonio, Texas. AA: I met them at the annual convention of the international group known as TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "An English Teacher"/Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera (1960 Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie") 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Battle of Gettysburg Aids the Union, but at a Cost
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) America's civil war in the eighteen-sixties did not have the full support of the people. Many said they did not care who won -- north or south. They just wanted to be left alone. In the north, many young men refused to be drafted into the Union Army. Some of their protests turned violent. Southern leaders were pleased with the anti-war movement in the north. Confederate General Robert E. Lee saw it as a sign of weakness in the northern war effort. He also saw it as an opening for a military victory. Lee hoped for a final, decisive blow that would bring the bloody war to an end. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about General Lee's campaign north...to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. VOICE TWO: Gettysburg was a small town. Many roads came together there. Robert E. Lee needed those roads to pull his army together quickly. He had seventy-thousand men in all. But they were spread over a wide area of southern Pennsylvania. Some were at York, to the east. Some were at Carlisle, to the north. And most were at Chambersburg, to the west. All of them were ordered to move against the Union force at Gettysburg. General Robert E. Lee had not planned to go to Gettysburg. ?He had planned to capture Harrisburg, the state capital, and then Philadelphia. If successful, he would turn south to seize Baltimore and Washington. Lee had not worried about the large Union Army of the Potomac. He believed it was far behind him, in Virginia. But Lee was wrong. The Union Army had followed him. And it had reached Gettysburg first. VOICE ONE: The first group of northern soldiers formed a thin line of defense outside Gettysburg. The first group of southern soldiers attacked this line. It was the morning of July first, eighteen-sixty-three. When the guns began to roar, both sides hurried more men to the front. After hours of fighting, the Confederates had pushed the Union soldiers back through the town. The Union soldiers formed a new line along a place called Cemetery Hill. General Robert E. Lee decided not to attack the hill immediately. He would wait for more men. But as he waited, more and more Union soldiers arrived.By sunrise the next day, Lee's seventy-thousand men faced a Union army of ninety-thousand men. VOICE TWO: The Confederates attacked both sides of the Union line. They moved the Union soldiers a little. But then the Union soldiers came back again. The Confederates could not hold the line. The fighting stopped at sunset. Union commander George Meade met with his generals. He said he was sure General Lee would attack again the next day. The next attack, Meade said, would be against the center of the Union line. Meade was right. Lee planned to send fifteen-thousand men against the Union center. They would be under the command of General George Pickett. VOICE ONE: When the sun rose on July third, the Union troops were ready. They watched as the Confederate troops set up their cannon. More than one-hundred-thirty of these big guns were aimed at the center of the Union line. The morning passed. The day grew hotter. A little past one o'clock in the afternoon, a Confederate gun fired, once. Then again. That was the signal to attack. All at once, the Confederate artillery thundered with a deafening roar. The cannon sent iron and smoke into the Union soldiers on Cemetery Hill. Within minutes, hundreds lay dead or dying. Union artillery on the hill answered the Confederate cannon. Men lay flat on the ground. They prayed for the shelling to stop. Finally, it did. And the smoke of battle began to clear. VOICE TWO: Now the Union soldiers could see across the valley. They watched as the Confederate soldiers formed a long line. It was a sight to take your breath away. Facing Cemetery Hill, the Confederates stood shoulder to shoulder in a line almost two kilometers long. Sunlight shone from their guns. Their battle flags waved. Slowly, the line began to move. It seemed more like a parade than an attack. Shouts went up and down the Union line. "Here they come!? Here come the rebels!" VOICE ONE: Thousands of Confederate soldiers moved across the valley outside Gettysburg. Union artillery opened fire. The guns tore open big holes in the Confederate battle line. But the southerners kept moving forward up the hill. Union soldiers rose up from behind stone walls and fallen trees. They poured even more gunfire into the Confederate line. More and more bodies fell to the ground.Still, the line moved forward. A few Confederates reached the Union line, but not enough to seize it. They were shot down. Suddenly, the Confederates began racing down the hill. Many raised their hands in surrender. Fifteen-thousand began the attack. Only half returned. The battle of Gettysburg was over. The Union commander, General Meade, was told that the Confederate attack had been broken. ?He said, simply: "Thank God."? The Confederate commander, General Lee, said: "This has been a sad day for us, a sad day." VOICE TWO: Lee's invasion of the north had failed. There was only one thing he could do now: retreat. He must get his army back to Virginia. He could only hope that the Union Army was hurt too badly to chase him. The line of wagons carrying wounded soldiers was twenty-five kilometers long. Many of the wounded needed treatment. But the wagons were not permitted to stop for any reason. Suffering was terrible. An officer who led the wagon train said he learned more about the horrors of war on that one trip than he had learned in all of his battles. Twenty-thousand Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded, or listed as missing in the battle of Gettysburg. Twenty-three-thousand Union soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. VOICE ONE: General Meade lost so many men that he was in no hurry to chase General Lee. He believed it might be best to let Lee escape than to take a chance on losing what remained of the Army of the Potomac. Meade waited for a week until his army was stronger. But by then, Lee and his men had crossed safely back into Virginia. President Abraham LincolnPresident Abraham Lincoln was angry. He had told General Meade that driving the Confederates out of the north was not enough. The southern army must be destroyed. "We had them," Lincoln said. "We had only to stretch out our hands and take them. And nothing I could do or say could make the army move." VOICE TWO: President Lincoln believed that General Meade had made a mistake. But he felt that the general had ability. Lincoln was thankful for what Meade had done at Gettysburg. He said Meade would continue to command the Army of the Potomac. In November of eighteen-sixty-three, President Lincoln went to Gettysburg. He attended the opening of a new burial place for the Union soldiers who had died in the great battle there. VOICE ONE: The governor of Pennsylvania had asked the president to say a few words at the ceremony. Lincoln agreed. He felt it was his duty to go to honor the brave men who lost their lives to save the Union. Lincoln hoped his words might help lift the spirit ofthe nation. Lincoln did not have much time to prepare his speech. He wrote it down the night before the ceremony. Lincoln was sure the speech was not a good one. But it came to be one of the most famous speeches in American history. We will tell the story of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Graduates of West Point Become Army Officers ... But Not Always in the U.S. Army
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, we answer a question from China as part of our series for students who want to study at an American college. Song Bin in Guizhou Province would like to know about the United States Military Academy at West Point. West Point is the four-year school in New York State that educates future Army officers. The students are called cadets. They do not have to pay for their education. But they do have to agree to serve on active duty in the Army for at least five years after they graduate. A young man or woman must be nominated to the academy, usually by a federal or state lawmaker. Nominees also must satisfy the entrance requirements. These include excellent physical condition and high marks in school. About four thousand American cadets are at West Point this year. In addition, there are forty-four cadets who were sent by other countries for a military education. International students are nominated by their home government. They also must satisfy the physical and educational requirements. In addition, they must do well on the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Home governments may have to pay up to fifty thousand dollars a year per student at West Point. Among those with cadets at the academy this year are Bulgaria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Taiwan and Tunisia. Each year, the United States Defense Department invites countries to nominate students to West Point and other military academies. Last year, one hundred fifty-five countries were invited to do so. Not all countries take part in the program. We spoke to Captain Robert Romans, head of the international cadet program at West Point. He says up to sixty foreign cadets at any one time can attend the academy. He says students who are interested should seek information at their local American Embassy. The embassy should know where in the home government to go to learn how to be nominated. The West Point Web site does not have much information about the international program. But it does have a lot of other information. The address is?usma.edu. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish dot com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Tax Day, Cherry Trees and an Unusual Guitar: What Do They All Have in Common?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Ed Stautberg

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Robert Randolph … A question about American taxes ... And a report about the cherry trees in Washington, D.C. Cherry Trees The United States Congress recently named the oak as the official national tree. Oaks are found in every American state. But another kind of tree is also very popular with Americans, especially in the spring. It is the cherry tree in the nation’s capital. More than seven hundred thousand people visit Washington each year in March or April. They enjoy the beauty of the cherry trees’ pink and white flowers. Shep O’Neal tells us more about the famous Washington cherry blossoms. SHEP O'NEAL: Japan gave the United States three thousand Yoshino cherry trees in nineteen twelve. The gift was meant as an act of friendship between the two countries. In return, the United States gave the people of Japan a gift of flowering dogwood trees. The first cherry blossom festival was organized in nineteen thirty-five by local citizens groups in Washington, D.C. The two nations continued to share trees and help each other care for them. In nineteen sixty-five, Japan gave the United States almost four thousand more cherry trees. In nineteen eighty-one, Japanese plant experts came to the United States to take cuttings from the trees. The cuttings were needed in Japan to replace some cherry trees that had been destroyed in a flood. And in nineteen ninety-nine, new cuttings from Japan were planted in Washington. They came from a famous Japanese cherry tree in Gifu province thought to be more than one thousand five hundred years old. The United States National Park Service is responsible for the cherry trees. Park Service officials now say the trees are in danger again. They say the large numbers of people visiting the area each year are slowly killing the trees by walking under their branches. Only about one hundred twenty-five of the original three thousand cherry trees are left. Officials say the older trees are in places not affected by the visitors. But people who walk under the younger trees push the soil down. This harms the tree by robbing the roots of air and food. Some officials recently said the problem could be solved if they could build barriers between the trees and the visitors. But they do not want to do this. They want the visitors to be able to enjoy the beauty and smell of the cherry blossoms. So officials say they will continue to replace the trees that die. United States Tax System HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Edward asks about the United States tax system. Today is the right time to answer this question because April fifteenth is tax day in the United States. It is the last day Americans can send the federal government their personal tax report from the year before. This tax report goes to the Internal Revenue Service, also known as the I-R-S. ?Most Americans who earned money last year are expected to pay the I-R-S part of what they earned. Only those who earned very little are not required to make such a payment. They still must send a tax report to the government. Most American workers already have paid all or most of their federal income taxes. This is because part of the tax goes to the I.R.S. each time a worker is paid. The government returns some of the money if too much was withheld. People who work for themselves usually must send a tax payment to the I.R.S. every three months. The federal tax rate is not the same for everyone. People who earn a lot of money pay taxes at a higher rate than those who earn less. But even people who earn the same amount do not always pay the same amount of tax. That is because of the many tax laws written by Congress. These laws were created for social or economic purposes. For example, people who borrow money to buy a house may pay less in taxes than people who rent a home. Homeowners can subtract the interest on the loan from their taxable income. Americans also can help reduce their taxable income by subtracting the value of money given to organizations that help the needy. Personal income tax is not the only tax that the federal government collects. It taxes property or money left when someone dies. And it taxes earnings from the sale of some investments, such as a house. Americans also pay a federal social security tax that is used to pay retired workers. Americans pay many other taxes, too. Most pay taxes to the state in which they live. Most states also collect sales tax. That is an amount added to the cost of goods bought in stores. And local city and county governments collect tax on property its citizens own. Many Americans say they pay too many taxes and their taxes are too high. Others say they are willing to pay taxes to receive services from their local, state and federal governments. Robert Randolph Robert Randolph is a songwriter and performer who plays a special kind of guitar. It has foot pedals like a piano. His music is influenced by gospel church music, rock and roll and bluegrass. Phoebe Zimmeremann tells us more. PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: Robert Randolph is twenty-seven. He was born in Irvington, New Jersey. Both his parents worked at a Christian religious center. He started playing the drums for the church band as a child, then changed to the pedal guitar as a teenager. The pedal steel guitar has a sound that is all its own. Listen to this recording of “I Need More Love.”? It is from the album “Unclassified” by Robert Randolph and the Family Band. (MUSIC) The pedal guitar is usually only played in country music or Hawaiian music. During the nineteen thirties, some African American churches started using foot pedal guitars instead of organs because they were less costly. Randolph learned to play in the church, but his music is not only gospel. Listen to this song called? “Nobody.” (MUSIC) Unlike many singers today, Robert Randolph plays family music with positive messages. We leave you now with Robert Randolph and the Family band playing “Going in the Right Direction.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program this week. Our show was written by Ed Stautberg and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: April 15th: An Important Day for Americans, but Not Exactly a Holiday
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. April fifteenth is tax day for Americans. It is the last day to pay federal income taxes for the year before. Most taxpayers have enough income tax collected all year long through their employer. So they do not owe any more. In fact, most get some money back. There are different ways for people to reduce their income taxes. Homeowners, for example, can deduct the interest they pay on a home loan. And there are tax credits, including credits for children. Income tax rates increase as income increases. People who earned more than three hundred nineteen thousand dollars last year had the highest rate, thirty-five percent. The Constitution gives Congress the power to establish federal taxes. State and local governments can also tax. But the idea of national taxes took time. In seventeen ninety-one Congress approved a tax on whiskey and other alcoholic drink. Farmers in western Pennsylvania who produced alcohol refused to pay. They attacked officials and burned the home of a tax collector. George Washington, America's first president, gathered troops. The soldiers defeated the so-called Whiskey Rebellion of seventeen ninety-four. It was one of the first times the government used its powers to enforce a federal law within a state. At first, the United States government collected most of its money through tariffs. These are taxes on trade. Then, in the late eighteen hundreds, Congress began to tax the money that people earned in their jobs. The Supreme Court rejected the personal income tax as unconstitutional. So the states changed the Constitution. In nineteen-thirteen they passed the Sixteenth Amendment. It gives Congress the power to collect taxes on income. In two thousand three, personal income tax provided the government with thirty-seven percent of its money. Income tax on businesses provided six percent. Other taxes provided an additional forty percent of the budget. And the remaining seventeen percent of federal income was money borrowed to cover the deficit. American tax laws are very complex. The Internal Revenue Service collects federal taxes. The I.R.S. estimates that taxpayers need an average of thirteen hours and thirty-five minutes in preparation time. And that is just to complete the basic tax form. Which is why a lot of people use tax preparers to do it for them. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/Tensions-Between-China-and-Japan.cfm
* Headline: Tensions Between China and Japan
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I'm Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Tensions deepened this week between China and Japan. Japan announced that it will begin to consider proposals to explore for natural gas in the East China Sea. China also claims exploration rights in the area. The Chinese government condemned the Japanese plans. On Friday a spokesman for the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company said the two sides should seek cooperation. But competition for energy resources is not the only problem. China and Japan have grown into major trading partners. Yet Japan's history as an aggressor in Asia continues to put pressure on relations. There is again a dispute over a history book for Japanese students. The Chinese say the book does not tell the truth about Japanese actions during World War Two. Japan invaded China in the nineteen thirties. The Chinese suffered greatly. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says Japan must, in his words, "face up to history." Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura is expected in Beijing on Sunday for talks on a number of issues. Last Saturday and Sunday there were anti-Japanese protests in Beijing and other cities. Protesters threw rocks at Japanese diplomatic offices and attacked Japanese-owned businesses. Activists have spread messages calling for more protests in the coming days in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. Such unrest is rare in China. The government usually suppresses demonstrations. The Chinese have dismissed suggestions that the government supported the actions. Chinese officials took steps on Friday to prevent another weekend of anti-Japanese protests. Police warned against unapproved demonstrations and said violators could be punished. A police statement on the Internet urged people to put their trust in the Communist Party to act in the best interests of China. Some observers say the real reason for the Chinese anger is the attempt by Japan to get a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. More than twenty million Chinese are reported to have signed an Internet petition to oppose such action. The United Nations is currently considering a re-organization. Proposals include adding members to the Security Council. There are currently five permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Only they have the individual power to veto council actions. Secretary General Kofi Annan says the current Security Council represents the world of nineteen forty-five. He says the council needs to better represent the international community today. Mister Annan also says countries that support the United Nations financially should be more involved in making decisions. Japan is a top provider to the U.N. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-17-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Langston Hughes: 'Poet Voice' of African Americans
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we finish telling about the life of Langston Hughes, known as the poet voice of African Americans. He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Langston HughesLangston Hughes was born in nineteen oh-two. His parents separated when he was little. Langston grew up with his grandmother who told him stories about their family’s fight against racial injustice. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with loneliness and a feeling of rejection from his parents. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. As a young man, Langston traveled to Europe and Africa working on ships. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. A few of the writings he sent home were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. VOICE TWO: By nineteen twenty-five, Langston Hughes had returned to the United States and was living in Harlem in New York City. This was during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived there. Hughes discovered a new way of writing poetry, using the rhythms of jazz and blues to support his words. His first collection of poetry, called the “Weary Blues,” was published in nineteen twenty-six. Hughes wrote poetry about the common experiences of black people. People said they could see themselves in the words of his poetry. VOICE ONE: Hughes had worked many different jobs, but wished to make a living as a writer. Wealthy white supporters of the Harlem Renaissance helped Hughes until he could support himself. Critic Carl Van Vechten had helped to get the “The Weary Blues” published. Van Vechten was one of the first to recognize the new styles of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and their importance in African American literature. Another supporter of the arts, Amy Spingarn, gave Hughes money to complete his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Missus Charlotte Mason began supporting Hughes in nineteen twenty-seven. In nineteen thirty, he published a novel, “Not Without Laughter,” that made him very famous. His relationship with Missus Mason ended about the time the book appeared. After that, Hughes sank into a period of intense personal unhappiness. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen thirties, Langston Hughes traveled to Cuba and Haiti. He later traveled across the southern United States, doing poetry readings and trying to sell his books. Hughes was likeable and gained many readers during his visit to the South. He also began to write many different short stories that were published in magazines. In these, he was able to discuss ideas related to black pride, racism and other issues of black life. In nineteen thirty-two, Hughes traveled to the Soviet Union. He became an active supporter of communism. He believed communism was fairer to minorities. During this time, his writing also became more militant. Several of his poems expressed support for social and political protests. Later, his writings began to examine the unfairness of life in America. He wrote about people whose lives were affected by racism and sexual conflicts, violence in the southern United States, Harlem street life, poverty, racism, hunger and hopelessness. VOICE ONE: Hughes wrote one of his most important works in nineteen twenty-six, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”? It spoke of black writers and poets who want to be considered as poets, not black poets. Hughes thought this meant they wanted to write like white poets. He argued there was a need for race pride and artistic independence: (SOUND) “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too…If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how. And we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.” VOICE TWO: As his success as a writer grew, Langston Hughes began to explore other ways to spread his message. He wrote children’s stories and several plays. By nineteen forty, he had opened black theater groups in Harlem, Chicago and Los Angeles. While writing for a black newspaper, Hughes created someone called “Jesse B. Semple.” The name “Jesse B. Semple” represented Hughes’s writing style: Just Be Simple. Semple was a common man of the people who “tells it like it is.”? His experiences help other people understand the world in a clearer light. Hughes spoke through his character: (SOUND) Here is more of “Jesse B. Semple” read by Langston Hughes. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was known to be very supportive of young writers and poets. Some said his willingness to help young writers was a result of his unhappy childhood. Wherever he went, from the Caribbean to Africa to Russia, he connected with writers and gave them support. He also translated some of their writings into English and included them in collections he produced. Not everyone praised Hughes’ work. Some critics said his writings were too simple and lacked depth. Some blacks condemned his informal writing style and honest descriptions of black life. They also criticized his use of blues and jazz in his poetry and his expressions of sympathy for working people. However, his supporters praised his straightforward writing style. They said he demonstrated that writing does not have to be complex to be great. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-one, Hughes wrote one of his most successful collections of jazz poetry called, “Montage of a Dream Deferred.”? The poems are expressions of everyday life in Harlem. They take the reader through one complete day and night in Harlem. In some of the poems, Hughes uses a new kind of jazz played in Harlem at the time, called “Be-Bop.”? The poems deal with the problem of being black in America. In “Harlem,” the most famous poem in the collection, he asks: (SOUND) VOICE ONE: There were difficult times for Langston Hughes. Conservatives in the United States were suspicious of his ties to extremist movements, his activism, and his support of the Soviet Union for its treatment of minorities. In nineteen fifty-three, he was forced to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee on subversive activities to explain his interest in communism. Under pressure during the nineteen fifties, Hughes softened the voice of his poems and rejected his militant past. He was criticized later by some black activists for not being militant enough. Hughes continued to write and publish throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties. And he won several important awards during that time. He also taught at Atlanta University and the University of Chicago. VOICE TWO: Hughes died of cancer in nineteen sixty-seven in Harlem, New York. His home on one hundred twenty-seventh sreet has been made a national landmark. Experts say Langston Hughes helped to change the sound of American literature. They say he wrote poems the world will always know. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-17-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Investigative Reporting Earns Several Pulitzer Prizes
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Pulitzer Prize is a top honor for American newspapers, books and the arts. Today we have a report on the winners announced earlier this month. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: First, the story of the Pulitzer Prize and the man who established it. Joseph PulitzerJoseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary in eighteen forty-seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. Then he became a publisher. In eighteen eighty-three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. It became the best-selling newspaper in the country. VOICE TWO: Joseph Pulitzer died in nineteen eleven. He left two million dollars to Columbia University in New York City. Part of this money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. Pulitzer also wanted to create a prize to honor the best in American writing. Columbia University has awarded the Pulitzer Prize since nineteen seventeen. Each year, judges from around the country choose the best in journalism, books, drama, poetry and music. Almost all the prizes come with ten thousand dollars. This year's winners were honored for work from two thousand four. They will receive their awards on May twenty-third. VOICE ONE: Now for the winners ... The Pulitzer judges chose the Los Angeles Times for the public service award. They praised the research that led to stories about serious problems at a public hospital in Los Angeles. The Martin Luther King Junior/Drew Medical Center is under investigation by public officials. Charles Ornstein, Tracy Weber, Steve Hymon and Mitchell Landsberg were honored for their reporting for the five-part series. Rob Gauthier was the photographer. VOICE TWO: Kim Murphy of the Los Angeles Times was one of two winners of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Miz Murphy heads the Los Angeles Times office in Moscow. The judges praised her reporting about Russian economic and social struggles. She reported on the attack by Chechen separatists at a school in Beslan last September. Kim Murphy shared the award with Dele Olojede of Newsday, in Long Island, New York. Mister Olojede went to Rwanda to write a four-part series on the effects of the killings in nineteen ninety-four. Ethnic Hutus murdered as many eight hundred thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus. VOICE ONE: Wall Street Journal writers Amy Dockser Marcus and Joe Morgenstern also won Pulitzer prizes. Miz Marcus was honored for specialty reporting. She wrote about the struggles of cancer survivors and their families. Mister Morgenstern won for film criticism. He has been a film critic for forty years. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Writers and editors at the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, won the Pulitzer Prize in the area of breaking news reporting. The news was the resignation of the governor of New Jersey. James McGreevey, who has a wife and children, announced that he had been in a relationship with another man. The Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting went to Nigel Jaquiss at the Willamette Week, a small newspaper in Portland, Oregon. He reported on a former state governor who, years earlier, had a relationship with a fourteen-year-old girl. At that time, the official was mayor of the city of Portland. After the newspaper investigation, he resigned from a position on the Oregon Board of Higher Education. VOICE ONE: Walt Bogdanitch of the New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. He investigated efforts by railroad companies to hide responsibility for deadly accidents at train crossings. Gareth Cook of the Boston Globe won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing. The judges praised Mister Cook for his writing about stem cell research. They said he wrote clearly and with humanity about this complex subject. And Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. She described in great detail what happened during the ten seconds when a tornado struck the town of Utica, Illinois. Eight people died in the powerful windstorm. Mizz Keller wrote about how the event affected the lives of survivors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Connie Schultz of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. The judges said her commentaries provided a voice for the less powerful in society. Another prize for opinion writing went to Tom Philp of the Sacramento Bee in California. Mister Philp won the Pulitzer for editorial writing. The judges said his deeply researched editorials about a dam in Yosemite National Park produced action. Mister Philp, and others, argue that the old dam should be removed from the Hetch Hetchy Valley. They say the flooded land should be reclaimed. Nick Anderson of the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. The judges said his artwork produced extremely “thoughtful and powerful messages.” VOICE ONE: The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Prize for news photography for images of a year of fighting inside Iraqi cities. Eleven photographers for the news agency, five of them Iraqi, took the winning pictures. In the area of feature photography, the prize went to Deanne Fitzmaurice of the San Francisco Chronicle. She photographed an Iraqi boy who had been nearly killed by an explosion. The images followed the efforts of a hospital in Oakland, California, to help the boy recover. VOICE TWO: Marilynne Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Her book "Gilead" is the story of an old clergyman nearing the end of his life. He writes a letter for his young son to read when he grows up. The story is set in the Midwestern town of Gilead, Iowa, in nineteen fifty-six. Marilynne Robinson's novel deals with issues of life and death, and religion. VOICE ONE: David Hackett Fischer won the Pulitzer Prize for history for his book, "Washington’s Crossing."? Mister Fischer describes the difficulties that faced colonial troops during the Revolutionary War for American independence from Britain. General George Washington commanded the troops. Later he became the first president of the United States. Steve Coll of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction for his book about terrorism and intelligence gathering. The book is called "Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September tenth, two thousand one."? Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan won the Pulitzer for biography for "de Kooning: an American Master."? Their book tells the life story of the artist Willem de Kooning. He was born in Holland. He became best known for his works in the abstract expressionism style of painting. VOICE TWO: Playwright John Patrick Shanley won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for "Doubt, a Parable."? This play is about a Roman Catholic nun and priest. Sister Aloysius believes that Father Flynn? may be sexually abusing a boy at the school she heads. The play does not answer the question about his guilt or innocence. It leaves the audience to decide. VOICE ONE: Steven Stucky won the Pulitzer Prize for music for "Second Concerto for Orchestra."? Last month, the Los Angeles Philharmonic gave the work its first performance. (MUSIC "Second Concerto for Orchestra" ) VOICE TWO: And there is one more Pulitzer Prize winner to tell you about. Ted Kooser won the award for poetry for his collection "Delights & Shadows." Mister Kooser is poet laureate of the United States. In fact, the librarian of Congress, James Billington, just appointed him to a second one-year term. We asked Mister Kooser to read one of his works for our listeners. Here he with his poem, "A Happy Birthday." (SOUND) “This evening, I sat by an open window and read till the light was gone and the book was no more than a part of the darkness. I could easily have switched on a lamp, but I wanted to ride this day down into night, to sit alone and smooth the unreadable page with the pale gray ghost of my hand.” VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish-dot-com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ? ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-17-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Fear Incites Resistance to Efforts to Stop Marburg Virus in Angola
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Marburg virus has killed more than two hundred people in northern Angola. The rare virus has been deadly in nine out of ten cases. Tests confirmed the virus as Marburg in late March. But the outbreak may have started in October in Uige, the area most severely affected. Cases have also been found in several other provinces. Marburg virus is spread through blood and other bodily fluids. Victims develop high temperature, diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding from the body. The virus is most infectious near the time of death or soon after. Many people have become infected from washing the bodies of dead family members, a traditional burial custom in Angola. Health workers have also died. The World Health Organization says this is the largest known outbreak of Marburg. Officials say the virus has spread much faster than it did in the last outbreak. That was in the Democratic Republic of Congo from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand. More than one hundred twenty people died. Marburg virus is named after the German city where it was first discovered in nineteen sixty-seven. The virus is in the same family as Ebola. In fact, experts say the two are almost impossible to tell apart. There are no cures or preventions for either Marburg or Ebola. And the cause is a mystery. Teams of international medical workers are in Angola. An area has been set up to care for Marburg patients at the four-hundred bed hospital in Uige. The goal is to keep anyone suspected of being infected away from others. Experts say isolation is one of the most important ways to control the outbreak. Yet the W.H.O. reported late last week that the isolation ward was empty. The agency said local people were unwilling to report suspected cases. Some have even turned fear and anger toward medical workers. It does not help that the workers must dress in protective wear that makes it difficult to see their face. This past Friday, the W.H.O. reported progress after meetings with traditional community leaders in the city of Uige. It said the governor of the province agreed to have the leaders join medical teams for seven days to search for cases and collect bodies. The W.H.O. called the decision an important step toward community acceptance of the measures needed to control the Marburg outbreak. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: The Battle of Chancellorsville
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Abraham LincolnThe early weeks of eighteen-sixty-three gave the American Civil War a new political direction. President Abraham Lincoln had announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That measure freed Negro slaves in the rebel states of the south. No longer was the Civil War a struggle just to save the Union. It had become a struggle for human freedom. There was a change on the military side of the war, too. President Lincoln named a new commander for the Union's Army of the Potomac.This was the force that would try again to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I report on events during the spring of eighteen-sixty-three. VOICE TWO: General Joe Hooker was the new commander of the Army of the Potomac. He replaced General Ambrose Burnside, when Burnside suffered a terrible defeat at Fredericksburg, Virginia, at the end of eighteen-sixty-two. Burnside had replaced General George McClellan, when McClellan kept refusing to obey President Lincoln's orders. Hooker had one hundred thirty thousand men. They were well-trained and well-supplied. The Confederate force opposing Hooker's was under the command of General Robert E. Lee. Lee had only about sixty thousand men. They did not have good equipment. And their supplies were low. But their fighting spirit was high. They had defeated the Union army before. They were sure they could do it again. VOICE ONE: Lee's army still held strong defensive positions along high ground south of Fredericksburg. This was almost halfway between the capitals of the opposing sides: Washington and Richmond. General Hooker did not plan to make the same mistake which General Burnside made at Fredericksburg. Burnside had thrown his army against Lee's defensive positions six times. Each time, the Confederates pushed them back easily. In one day of fighting, more than twelve thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. General hooker had re-built the Army of the Potomac. Now he was ready to carry out his plan against General Lee. Hooker left half his men at Fredericksburg, in front of Lee's army. He would move the other half into position behind Lee's army. If Lee turned to meet him, the troops at Fredericksburg would attack. The Confederate army would be caught between two powerful forces. ?Lee would have to withdraw...or lose his army. VOICE TWO: Hooker moved around past the end of Lee's line. Then he turned and started marching back behind it. It was a hard march through thick woods, and across rough hills and valleys. The country was so wild that it was called the wilderness. On the last day of April, eighteen sixty-three, the Union force reached Chancellorsville. Chancellorsville was a crossroads near the edge of the wilderness. The next day, the soldiers would be in open country. There, General Hooker could make the best use of his men. Hooker was extremely pleased.Everything was going as he had planned. He told his officers: "I have Lee in one hand and Richmond in the other." The next day, Union soldiers began moving out of Chancellorsville and the wilderness. They did not get far. They ran into several thousand Confederate soldiers. Lee had sent them to slow the Union force. VOICE ONE: The Confederate force was weak. General Hooker's officers believed they could smash through it without difficulty. They did not get a chance to try. Hooker sent new orders: break off the fight. Return to Chancellorsville. Put up defensive positions. Hooker's officers were shocked. They protested. Hooker stood firm. He said, "Lee must fight me on my own ground." Robert E. Lee could not understand why the Union force had returned to Chancellorsville. But he was happy it did. Now he had time to prepare his men for battle. VOICE TWO: Lee met that night with his top general, Stonewall Jackson. They discussed the best way to attack the Union force. The center of the Union line was strong. The right side was not. ?Jackson was sure he could get around behind it. Lee asked Jackson how many men he would take. "All of them," Jackson answered. "Twenty-eight thousand." This meant Lee would have only fourteen thousand men to face General Hooker. If the Union force attacked before Stonewall Jackson got into position, Lee could not possibly hold it back. Lee was taking a huge chance. He thought about it for a moment. Then he told Jackson to get started. VOICE ONE: Jackson's men began to leave the next morning. Union soldiers watched as they marched away. General Hooker thought Lee was withdrawing. It took Jackson only half a day to get behind the Union force. He spent a few more hours putting his troops into position. Then he attacked. ?It was six o'clock in the evening. The right end of the Union force was not prepared for an attack. The soldiers could not believe their eyes when they saw Confederate troops running out of the woods behind them. Many Union soldiers were killed or wounded. Thousands fled. The sun went down. The fighting continued under a bright moon. The Confederate troops kept moving forward. The Union troops kept falling back. ?One northern soldier wrote later: "Darkness was upon us. Jackson was upon us. And fear was uponus." VOICE TWO: Jackson seemed to be everywhere. He rode his horse among his men, urging them forward. He would not let the Union force escape. As jackson and some of his officers rode into a cleared area of the woods, shots rang out. The bullets came from Confederate guns. The Confederate soldiers thought they were firing on Union officers. Jackson fell from his horse. Two bullets had smashed his left arm. Another bullet had hit his right hand. He was hurried to the back of the line. ?A doctor quickly cut off his left arm and stopped the heavy bleeding. Jackson seemed to get better. Then he developed pneumonia. He was unconscious most of the time. He seemed to dream of battle, and shouted commands to his officers. Then he grew quiet. He opened his eyes and said, "Let us pass over the river andrest in the shade of the trees." The great Confederate General, Stonewall Jackson, was dead. VOICE ONE: While Jackson lay dying, the battle of Chancellorsville continued. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army was much smaller than Joe Hooker's Union army. But for five days, Lee kept part of his army moving between Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. Wherever the Union army attacked, Lee quickly added more men to hislines. The Union army could not break through. The fighting was taking place on the south side of the Rappahannock River. The Union army's supply lines were on the north side. Spring rains were beginning to make the Rappahannock rise. General Hooker did not want to get trapped without food and ammunition. So he ordered his men back across the river. VOICE TWO: The south had won the battle of Chancellorsville. Robert E. Lee was sure of that. Once again, he had forced back the Army of the Potomac. ?But the Union army was not hurt seriously. ?New soldiers would soon take the place of those lost in battle. Lee, however, would find it more difficult to replace his soldiers. The south was running out of manpower. Every Confederate army needed men -- more and more men. Yet fewer and fewer southern boys were willing to become soldiers. Anti-war movements were, in fact, active in both the north and south. There were a number of protests against the military draft. ?Some turned violent. In the north, a political party was created to oppose the Civil War. Leaders of this peace party were called Copperheads. They got the name because they wore a copper penny showing the head of an Indian. That will be our story in our next program on the Civil War. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. --- THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from? voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Study Measures Environmental Damage from Human Activities
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Edward Stautberg

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Millions of people around the world will celebrate Earth Day on Friday. On our program this week, a report on the health of the world’s coral reefs. And we tell about plants that can change their own genes. VOICE ONE: But first, a study that shows how people have affected Earth’s environment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts have released a report that measures damage to the environment from human activities. The report measures the damage to the services that nature provides for people. The report was released last month. It is part of a project called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed the project five years ago. More than one thousand three hundred ecologists and other scientists from ninety-five countries prepared the report. They studied the ability of ecosystems to perform activities like providing food and making water pure. An ecosystem is a group of living things and the environment in which they live. VOICE TWO: The report says people have changed ecosystems to meet growing demands for food, fresh water, and energy. These changes have helped improve the lives of thousands of millions of people. But they have weakened the ability of nature to provide important services for people. The report identified several problems. They include reduced numbers of fish in the world’s oceans and dangers to people living in dry areas. Another problem is a growing threat to ecosystems from climate change and pollution. VOICE ONE: The study found that sixty percent of the world’s ecosystems are being harmed by human actions. These include fishing too much and clearing land to grow crops. The study considered many kinds of services that an ecosystem provides. These include things like a forest’s ability to store water and cool the air. ?It also includes cultural services, like providing a place for recreation. And, it includes life-support services like soil formation and the process by which plants make food. VOICE TWO: The scientists say many of the areas where the environment is most quickly being damaged are among the world’s poorest areas. As a result, they said, damaged environments are likely to harm efforts to help poor people and reduce disease in developing countries. The report said rich countries also were responsible for some problems. One of them is the increased use of chemical fertilizers. The fertilizers are washed into rivers and coastal waters. Nitrogen in the fertilizers creates areas in the water where nothing can live. VOICE ONE: Many earlier studies examined loss of forests and other wild places on land and in the oceans. The new report also deals with losses in dry-land ecosystems. The scientists say this is where human populations are growing fastest and depend most heavily on natural systems. One example is Africa south of the Sahara Desert. That is where they say dry conditions and growing demands for water have added to social problems. VOICE TWO: The report says action is needed to prevent additional damage to the environment. The scientists who led the project released a statement. It says: “We must learn to recognize the true value of nature – both in an economic sense and in the richness it provides to our lives.”? The statement also said protecting the environment should no longer be seen as something a country considers after more important concerns are dealt with. It said measures to protect natural resources are more likely to be successful if local communities are involved in decisions and share the gains. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another report says the world’s coral reefs are in trouble. It warns that more than two-thirds of the reefs are threatened or have been destroyed. Two hundred forty scientists from more than ninety countries studied the condition of corals worldwide. Corals are groups of small organisms, called polyps. They live within a skeleton made of a substance called limestone. Corals are found in warm water. Millions of corals grow together to form coral reefs. The reefs support many kinds of sea life. Reefs protect coastal communities in storms. They also can be important to local and national economies. VOICE TWO: The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network produced the report. Clive Wilkinson is coordinator of the group. He says the problems are everywhere. In the Persian Gulf, for example, sixty-five percent of the coral reefs have been destroyed. South and Southeast Asia have lost nearly half their reef cover. The report names several threats to coral reefs. They include pollution, coastal development, poor land use, and destructive fishing activities. Rising ocean temperatures are another problem. This causes a damaging condition called bleaching, or whitening. ? Higher than normal water temperatures cause corals to expel the small plants they feed on. If the water stays too warm, the corals die. Mister Wilkinson says extreme weather severely damaged coral reefs seven years ago. Some of the reefs are recovering. Yet, Mister Wilkinson says many reefs show little signs of renewal. VOICE ONE: The report urges governments, lending organizations, international agencies, and environmental groups to work together to protect coral reefs. Mister Wilkinson says Australia has taken the lead by expanding protected areas around the Great Barrier Reef. This reef extends more than two thousand kilometers along Australia's northeast coast. Scientists believe the Great Barrier Reef is about thirty million years old. It is the largest group of coral reefs in the world. VOICE TWO: Last year, the Australian government declared one-third of the reef a “no-take zone.”? The government barred fishing there. People also are barred from collecting live fish or coral in the area. The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network supports protected no-take zones. The group also called for a reduction in pollution and a ban of destructive fishing activities. Clive Wilkinson says the coral reefs can recover. But he believes more government involvement is needed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American scientists have discovered that some plants are able to correct mistakes in their own genetic material. They say the plants do this by using other genes passed to them from plant ancestors. The scientists reported their work in the publication Nature. They say that understanding how this gene correction takes place will make it possible to develop new kinds of crops. They also say scientists could learn how to use the process to control the genetic mistakes that lead to disease. VOICE TWO: The discovery appears to dispute the scientific laws of heredity first described by Gregor Mendel in the nineteenth century. Mendel observed how some qualities in plants were passed down from their immediate ancestors, but others were not. He proposed the laws of heredity to explain this. His theory says plants get their qualities from their ancestors. Now, scientists at Purdue University in Indiana say his work may need to be re-examined. The Purdue scientists studied one kind of plant called Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis is self-reproducing. This means it does not need anything from another plant to reproduce. Some of the plants had a changed gene that caused its flowers to grow together instead of separately. VOICE ONE: Mendel’s laws would lead scientists to believe the resulting plants of reproduction also should have the changed gene. The scientists found, however, that ten percent of the resulting plants had no copy of the changed gene. The scientists studied Arabidopsis for more than a year before they found the plant was fixing itself. They believe that the plant had been storing much more genetic information than anyone had ever thought. Some of the information came from ancestors that were already dead. The scientists say this other information is affecting the plant so that it does not have the changed gene. The American scientists still do not understand how this is happening. The scientists say they want to investigate a possible similar genetic situation in animals. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelly Gollust, Jill Moss and Edward Stautberg. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How Robert Goddard Helped Lead America Into Space
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we report on some of the early research in the development of rockets. We tell the story of American physicist and rocket scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard once said that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. It was his scientific work that gave hope to many of our dreams about space...and then turned them into reality. Robert Goddard's many studies and tests in the early Nineteen-Hundreds led to the first modern rocket. Then he developed rockets with more than one engine. Each engine pushed the rocket higher and higher out of Earth's atmosphere. His ideas are still used today. So, in a way, every rocket that flies today is a Goddard rocket. VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard was far ahead of his time. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in Nineteen-Oh-Three. Other scientists and inventors after that experimented with planes. But Robert Goddard wanted to make a machine that flew in a different way from a plane. He called his first two designs, "rocket apparatus." Goddard developed and flew many rockets that got their power from solid fuels -- chemicals made hard. Then, in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he made and tested the first rocket engine using a soft chemical fuel. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, he successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket. Many historians consider that rocket flight as important as the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers. Goddard's work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in Worcester, in the state of Massachusetts, in Eighteen-Eighty-Two. His father knew a lot about machines. When Robert was a child, his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. There his father became a part owner of a business that made knives for different machines. Robert was the only child. His mother suffered from the lung disease tuberculosis. She was sick and weak, because at that time, there were no medicines to treat tuberculosis successfully. Robert, too, was often sick. He could not keep up with his school work. His family moved back to Worcester when he was seventeen. He was almost too old to remain in high school. Yet he was behind other children his age. He was not a good student. He hated mathematics. This subject, of course, was what would help make him famous later. VOICE TWO: One beautiful autumn day, Robert was sitting in a tree in the back of his house. He was reading a book by British author H. G. Wells. The book was called “War of the Worlds.”? Something strange happened to him. He later thought that perhaps Wells's book had something to do with it. "As I looked toward the fields in the east," he said, "I imagined how wonderful it would be to make something that could rise to the planet Mars. I imagined how this thing, in a small size, would look if sent up from the ground at my feet. I was a different boy when I came down from that tree. For, at last, my life seemed to have some purpose." VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard never talked much about what happened to him up in the tree on that day, October Nineteenth. But he celebrated October Nineteenth as a holiday for the rest of his life. On that day, he had formed the idea of making something that would go higher than anything had ever gone before. He felt this was the whole purpose of his life. He was not troubled that many people thought he was foolish. He was sure he could do it. "I know," he said, "the first thing I must do is to get an education, especially in mathematics. Yes, I must become an expert in mathematics, even if I hate it." VOICE TWO: Two years passed before Robert was healthy enough to go back to school. He entered South High School in Worcester. He worked and worked until he no longer hated mathematics. Robert's father spent all his money to care for his sick wife. He did not have enough to pay for Robert's education after high school. Robert got financial help from others so he could go to a technical school in Worcester. There he had very good teachers. They helped him become an expert in mathematics and physics. VOICE ONE: Robert completed his studies at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and became a teacher of physics there. He also continued his studies at Clark University. He began to develop the idea of multiple-stage rockets. These were rockets with more than one engine. Each engine would push the rocket higher and higher. The power for the rockets would come from burning two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. After one year at Clark University, Robert went to Princeton College in New Jersey to do more studies on rockets. VOICE TWO: "Often," he said, "I worked all through the night. At last I learned how to send a rocket higher than anything had ever gone before. But the work was too much for me. I was feeling sick again. I had to stop my work and go to a doctor. "X-rays showed that, like my mother, I was very sick with tuberculosis. The doctor said I had just two weeks to live. He put me in bed for a long rest. But I meant to live. I told myself I could not die. I had work to do." VOICE ONE: At the end of two weeks, Robert Goddard was still alive. In time, he started to work again. In October, Nineteen-Thirteen, Goddard completed plans for his first rocket. In May of the next year, he completed plans for another rocket. These two plans are the first ever made for a rocket that would carry people into space. In Nineteen-Fourteen, he received two patents from the United States government to protect his rights to his inventions. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard received money from the Smithsonian Institution to help him continue his work. In Nineteen-Nineteen, the Smithsonian published several of his reports explaining his research. The publication was called "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes."? It told about his search for methods of raising weather-recording instruments higher than balloons could go. It told about how he developed the mathematical theories of rockets. In the report, Goddard also noted the possibility of a rocket reaching the moon. There was a big dispute in the press about the possibility of this. Many people thought he was foolish for suggesting such an impossible thing. VOICE ONE: Goddard continued to need money to continue his research. The world famous pilot Charles Lindbergh helped him get money from the Guggenheim Foundation. Goddard quickly began to work on plans for bigger rockets. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he tested his rockets at a research center in Roswell, New Mexico. He tested the first rocket controlled by electricity. The control equipment was three-hundred meters from the place of launching. He also tested the first rocket controlled by a gyroscope. Gyroscopes help keep rockets aimed in the right direction. VOICE TWO: Goddard did all his work in the United States, yet his work became known around the world. Scientists in Germany used his ideas to help build the V-Two rocket that was used in World War Two. During World War Two, Goddard helped the United States Navy develop some rocket motors and ways to launch jet planes. He continued work he had begun at the end of World War One that led to the bazooka, a weapon that fires small rockets. VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard died in Ninety-Forty-Five of cancer. He was sixty-three years old. He had been sick most of his life, but he died a happy man. He received many honors for his work. He believed his life had been a full one. He felt lucky that the great dream that came to him, out of nowhere when he was only seventeen years old, had become real. VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard received a special honor many years after his death. In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the United States established the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. It was the government's first major scientific laboratory used completely for space science. The Goddard Space Flight Center honors the man whose work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Laboratories Destroy Deadly Flu Virus Shipped by Mistake
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Health officials are investigating how several thousand laboratories worldwide received a deadly influenza virus by mistake. The laboratories normally receive small amounts of viruses to test their equipment. But the virus they received this time killed between one million and four million people in nineteen fifty-seven and fifty-eight. The virus was sent in testing supplies to four thousand seven hundred laboratories in nineteen countries. The World Health Organization reported that as of Monday most of the shipments had been destroyed. Eighteen countries had confirmed the destruction of the virus, with the United States expected to join them shortly. Laboratories in the United States had received most of the supplies. The virus is named h-two-n-two. This so-called Asian flu disappeared in nineteen sixty-eight when new viruses began to spread. Health officials say anyone born since then would have little or no protection against the h-two-n-two virus. W.H.O. officials say there is a risk that the virus could spread again worldwide if it escaped from a laboratory. But they said the danger of anyone getting sick was low if laboratory workers handled the virus carefully. There were no immediate reports of any cases of infection. An American company shipped the virus starting last October. The last shipments were in February. The samples were sent as part of a testing process that measures how well laboratories can correctly identify viruses. The Meridian Biosciences company in Ohio shipped the tests for the College of American Pathologists. Officials of the College of American Pathologists say they did not know that the h-two-n-two virus had been sent out. They say they will be more careful in the future to state exactly which viruses to send to laboratories. Health officials in Canada informed the W.H.O. on March twenty-sixth that a local laboratory had discovered the deadly flu virus. The United Nations health agency then directed all the laboratories involved to destroy the samples as quickly as possible. Federal officials in the United States are investigating the incident. And the World Health Organization will propose new safety rules for the handling of this kind of virus in laboratories. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-19-voa4.cfm
* Headline: A Liquid Crop: Looking for a Way to Harvest Rainwater?
* Byline: 

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. When we think of harvests, we usually think of plants. But can you also harvest a liquid?? Sure. Just think of rainwater. Best of all, it is free, except for the cost of a way to collect it. One way to harvest rainwater is with some technol ogy developed by International Development Enterprises. This is a non-governmental organization. It is based in the American state of Colorado. It created the technology as a way for people in developing countries to avoid having to drink polluted ground water. The rainwater harvesting system created by International Development Enterprises uses pipes to collect water from the roofs of buildings. The pipes stretch from the buildings to a two-meter tall storage tank. This tank is made of metal. At the top of the tank is a so-called "first-flush" device made of wire screen. This acts as a barrier. It prevents dirt and leaves in the water from falling inside the tank. A fitted cover sits over the first-flush device. It protects the water inside the tank from evaporating. The cover also prevents mosquitoes from flying into the water and laying eggs. Inside the tank is a low-cost plastic bag that collects the water. The bag sits inside another plastic bag similar to those used to hold grain. The two bags are supported inside the metal tank. In all, the water storage system can hold up to three thousand five hundred liters of water. International Development Enterprises says the inner bags may need to be replaced every two to three years. However, if the bags are not damaged by sunlight, they could last even longer. International Development Enterprises says the rainwater harvesting system should be built on a raised structure. Doing so will prevent insects from eating into it from the bottom. The developers say one tank can provide a family of five with enough rainwater to go through a five-month dry season. Internet users can get more information about International Development Enterprises at its Web site: i-d-e-o-r-g-dot-o-r-g (ideorg.org). Again, the spelling is i-d-e-o-r-g dot o-r-g. We'll have a link on our Web site, where you can read and listen to our programs. That address is voaspecialenglish dot com. And, if you have a question or comment, write to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. When we think of harvests, we usually think of plants. But can you also harvest a liquid?? Sure. Just think of rainwater. Best of all, it is free, except for the cost of a way to collect it. One way to harvest rainwater is with some technol ogy developed by International Development Enterprises. This is a non-governmental organization. It is based in the American state of Colorado. It created the technology as a way for people in developing countries to avoid having to drink polluted ground water. The rainwater harvesting system created by International Development Enterprises uses pipes to collect water from the roofs of buildings. The pipes stretch from the buildings to a two-meter tall storage tank. This tank is made of metal. At the top of the tank is a so-called "first-flush" device made of wire screen. This acts as a barrier. It prevents dirt and leaves in the water from falling inside the tank. A fitted cover sits over the first-flush device. It protects the water inside the tank from evaporating. The cover also prevents mosquitoes from flying into the water and laying eggs. Inside the tank is a low-cost plastic bag that collects the water. The bag sits inside another plastic bag similar to those used to hold grain. The two bags are supported inside the metal tank. In all, the water storage system can hold up to three thousand five hundred liters of water. International Development Enterprises says the inner bags may need to be replaced every two to three years. However, if the bags are not damaged by sunlight, they could last even longer. International Development Enterprises says the rainwater harvesting system should be built on a raised structure. Doing so will prevent insects from eating into it from the bottom. The developers say one tank can provide a family of five with enough rainwater to go through a five-month dry season. Internet users can get more information about International Development Enterprises at its Web site: i-d-e-o-r-g-dot-o-r-g (ideorg.org). Again, the spelling is i-d-e-o-r-g dot o-r-g. We'll have a link on our Web site, where you can read and listen to our programs. That address is voaspecialenglish dot com. And, if you have a question or comment, write to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/a-2005-04-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 20, 2005 - Pronunciation of North American English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti; Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: pronunciation the North American way. Our guest is Colleen Meyers. She teaches English to international teaching assistants at the University of Minnesota. She's also a co-author of a program for non-native English speakers called "Pronunciation for Success." And success in pronunciation, Colleen Meyers says, includes learning how North Americans position their mouth when they speak. COLLEEN MEYERS: "It sounds silly, but one technique that I have my students do is to take a pen or a pencil and put it in their mouth, so that they need to hold the pen or pencil between their teeth, and then to speak English. And this will open up their jaw just enough to help them be more understandable to people from Canada or the United States." AA: "Right, you're holding a pen in your hand, and so when you talk about putting it in your mouth, obviously you mean putting it in lengthwise -- COLLEEN MEYERS: "Right. When you're talking, it forces you to keep your jaw open. And also it forces you to use your lips more actively. So, for instance, some speakers of other languages don't use as much lip movement as we do. So, for instance, Koreans tend to move their lips very little. And so, as a result, their sounds maybe aren't as clear as they need to be for speakers of North American English. "And also there's just the whole way that they're perceived in terms of somebody looking at them. We have a saying in English: 'Read my lips.' So sometimes you can say something, and the person doesn't even need to hear what you're saying, but they can just look at the movement of your mouth and they can understand what you're getting at." AA: "Recently we received a question from a young woman in Iran. She's curious how she can go about learning pronunciation, and one of the things she asked is should she look at herself in the mirror?" COLLEEN MEYERS: "I think that that's a great idea, to use the mirror. In fact, with the students that I work with, we pull out the mirrors right away, because using a mirror is one of the ways in which non-native speakers of English can really get the sense of whether or not they're speaking like people from North America. So you could look at somebody in a movie and see the way that they're moving their jaw, and how they're moving their lips, and then try to imitate that by using a mirror. "Another thing that I've heard, and that I sometimes tell my students to do, is to smile when they're speaking English. Because smiling -- when you smile, you're happy, and that can sometimes help with the music of English. So, for instance, if I pick up the phone and don't smile, then I might say something like 'hello' [flat tone]. But if I'm smiling, I would more likely say something like 'HEH-low.' And so to a North American listener, I sound like I'm much happier, and sound like I'm much more interested in talking to them." AA: "Now you've talked about using movies as a way to see how actors and actresses move their mouths when they're speaking English. Are there any other ways that people can, let's say at home or in school, improve their pronunciation?" COLLEEN MEYERS: "Well, some other ways that they might be able to do that would be, for instance, if they have access to American music. Of course, it depends on the music. You don't want to choose something that you have a hard time understanding. But some examples of music that I use with my students are, for instance, the theme from the movie 'Titanic,' by Celine Dion. In fact, a lot of people don't realize it, but Celine Dion is a non-native speaker of English herself." AA: "She's French Canadian." COLLEEN MEYERS: "Right, she's French Canadian. And the song that she sings in that movie is excellent, because she sings it slowly, she articulates very clearly, and not only that, but for a lot of students, they don't mind singing it over and over and over again." MUSIC: "My Heart Will Go On" AA: Colleen Meyers teaches English in the international teaching assistant program at the University of Minnesota. And she's one of the co-authors of a multimedia program called "Pronunciation for Success," from Aspen Productions. That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti; Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: pronunciation the North American way. Our guest is Colleen Meyers. She teaches English to international teaching assistants at the University of Minnesota. She's also a co-author of a program for non-native English speakers called "Pronunciation for Success." And success in pronunciation, Colleen Meyers says, includes learning how North Americans position their mouth when they speak. COLLEEN MEYERS: "It sounds silly, but one technique that I have my students do is to take a pen or a pencil and put it in their mouth, so that they need to hold the pen or pencil between their teeth, and then to speak English. And this will open up their jaw just enough to help them be more understandable to people from Canada or the United States." AA: "Right, you're holding a pen in your hand, and so when you talk about putting it in your mouth, obviously you mean putting it in lengthwise -- COLLEEN MEYERS: "Right. When you're talking, it forces you to keep your jaw open. And also it forces you to use your lips more actively. So, for instance, some speakers of other languages don't use as much lip movement as we do. So, for instance, Koreans tend to move their lips very little. And so, as a result, their sounds maybe aren't as clear as they need to be for speakers of North American English. "And also there's just the whole way that they're perceived in terms of somebody looking at them. We have a saying in English: 'Read my lips.' So sometimes you can say something, and the person doesn't even need to hear what you're saying, but they can just look at the movement of your mouth and they can understand what you're getting at." AA: "Recently we received a question from a young woman in Iran. She's curious how she can go about learning pronunciation, and one of the things she asked is should she look at herself in the mirror?" COLLEEN MEYERS: "I think that that's a great idea, to use the mirror. In fact, with the students that I work with, we pull out the mirrors right away, because using a mirror is one of the ways in which non-native speakers of English can really get the sense of whether or not they're speaking like people from North America. So you could look at somebody in a movie and see the way that they're moving their jaw, and how they're moving their lips, and then try to imitate that by using a mirror. "Another thing that I've heard, and that I sometimes tell my students to do, is to smile when they're speaking English. Because smiling -- when you smile, you're happy, and that can sometimes help with the music of English. So, for instance, if I pick up the phone and don't smile, then I might say something like 'hello' [flat tone]. But if I'm smiling, I would more likely say something like 'HEH-low.' And so to a North American listener, I sound like I'm much happier, and sound like I'm much more interested in talking to them." AA: "Now you've talked about using movies as a way to see how actors and actresses move their mouths when they're speaking English. Are there any other ways that people can, let's say at home or in school, improve their pronunciation?" COLLEEN MEYERS: "Well, some other ways that they might be able to do that would be, for instance, if they have access to American music. Of course, it depends on the music. You don't want to choose something that you have a hard time understanding. But some examples of music that I use with my students are, for instance, the theme from the movie 'Titanic,' by Celine Dion. In fact, a lot of people don't realize it, but Celine Dion is a non-native speaker of English herself." AA: "She's French Canadian." COLLEEN MEYERS: "Right, she's French Canadian. And the song that she sings in that movie is excellent, because she sings it slowly, she articulates very clearly, and not only that, but for a lot of students, they don't mind singing it over and over and over again." MUSIC: "My Heart Will Go On" AA: Colleen Meyers teaches English in the international teaching assistant program at the University of Minnesota. And she's one of the co-authors of a multimedia program called "Pronunciation for Success," from Aspen Productions. That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In November, eighteen-sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was to make a speech opening a military cemetery there. Five months earlier, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had marched his army up from Virginia to invade the north. The Union Army of the Potomac went after him. They met at Gettysburg in the bloodiest battle of America's Civil War. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell the story of Abraham Lincoln's speech. . . his Gettysburg Address. VOICE TWO: The battle of Gettysburg lasted three days. General Lee threw his men against the Union Army. The northern soldiers refused to break. Lee, at last, had to stop fighting. Badly hurt, his army went back to Virginia. Lee left behind a battlefield covered with Confederate dead. More than three thousand Confederate soldiers had been killed. Union losses were almost as heavy. Two thousand five hundred Union soldiers had been killed. The terrible job of clearing the battlefield fell to the Union soldiers who had won the battle. Many thousands on both sides had been wounded.The wounded were moved to medical centers for treatment. The dead were buried. Most of the bodies were buried where they fell. The Confederate dead generally were buried together in large, shallow graves. Union troops who fell were buried in separate graves all over the battlefield. VOICE ONE: A few weeks after the battle, the governor of Pennsylvania visited Gettysburg. As he walked over the battlefield, he saw where rains had washed away the earth covering many of the fallen soldiers. He said men who died so bravely should have a better resting place than that. The governor said a new cemetery should be built for the bodies of the Union soldiers. He asked the governors of other northern states to help raise money for the cemetery. Within a month, there was money enough to buy a large area of the battlefield for a military cemetery. Work began almost immediately. The human remains were moved from other places on the battlefield and put into graves in the new cemetery. VOICE TWO: The governor planned a ceremony in November, eighteen sixty-three, to dedicate the Gettysburg cemetery. He invited governors and congressmen from each state in the Union. He asked a former senator and governor of Massachusetts, Edward Everett, to give the dedication speech. An invitation was sent to the White House, too. The governor asked President Lincoln to come to the ceremony. He asked Lincoln to say a few words. Lincoln agreed to do so. He felt it was his duty to go. He wanted to honor the brave men who had died at Gettysburg. Lincoln hoped his words might ease the sorrow over the loss of these men and lift the spirit of the nation. VOICE ONE: Lincoln was advised to talk about democracy. He recently had received a letter from a man in Massachusetts. The man had just returned from a visit to Europe. The man told Lincoln that Europeans saw the war more clearly than Americans, who were in the middle of it.He said they saw it as a war between the people and an aristocracy. The south, he said, was ruled by a small group of aristocrats. He said once the people understood that it was a war for democracy, they would win it quickly. The man urged Lincoln to explain to the common people that the war was not the north against the south...But democracy against the enemies of democracy. VOICE TWO: Lincoln was busy during the two weeks before the ceremony at Gettysburg. He did not have much time to work on his speech. He decided what to say. But he did not choose the exact words he would use. Lincoln left Washington November eighteenth for the train ride to Gettysburg. The train stopped in Baltimore. A crowd waited to see him. An old man came up and shook Lincoln's hand. He told the president that he had lost a son in the fighting at Gettysburg. Lincoln said he understood the man's sorrow. Lincoln said to the old man: "When I think of the sacrifices of life still to be offered, and the hearts and homes to be made lonely before this terrible war is over, my heart is like lead. I feel at times like hiding in a deep darkness." VOICE ONE: Lincoln arrived at Gettysburg at sundown. He had dinner. Then he went to his room to complete the speech he would give the next day. He worked for several hours. Finally, it was done. The next morning, Lincoln -- on horseback -- led a slow parade to the new cemetery. A huge crowd waited before the place where Lincoln and the other important visitors would sit. Military bands played. Soldiers saluted. VOICE TWO: The ceremonies began with a prayer. Then Edward Everett rose to speak. Everett stood silent for a moment. He looked out across the battlefield and the crowds that now covered it. He began to talk about the Civil War and what had caused it.He spoke about Lee's invasion of the north. He told how northern cities would have fallen had Lee not been stopped at Gettysburg. He praised the men who had given their lives in the great battle. Everett spoke for almost two hours. He closed his speech with the hope that the nation would come out of the war with greater unity than ever before. Then Lincoln stood up. He looked out over the valley, then down at the papers in his hand. He began to read: VOICE THREE: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. "Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - ?we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work for which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." VOICE ONE: The crowd applauded for several minutes. Then the people began to leave. Lincoln turned to a friend.He said he feared his speech had been a failure. He said he should have prepared it more carefully. Edward Everett did not agree with Lincoln. He said the president's speech was perfect. He said the president had said more in two minutes than he, Everett, had said in two hours. Newspapers and other publications praised Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Said one: "The few words of the president were from the heart, to the heart. They cannot be read without emotion." Abraham Lincoln went back to Washington that night. He was very tired. Within a week, his secretary announced that the president was sick. He was suffering from smallpox. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Kay Gallant. The Gettysburg Address was read by Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Lecturer... What's the Difference?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. A listener at Hefei University of Technology in Anhui Province, China, has a question for our Foreign Student Series. The question involves the system of job names in American higher education. Zhang Xiang wants to know the difference between positions like professor, associate professor and lecturer. In the United States, a person who wants to do research and teach at a college or university usually has a doctorate, the highest degree. But sometimes a school may offer positions to people who have not yet finished their doctorate. Such a person would be called an instructor until the degree has been completed. After that, the instructor could become an assistant professor. Assistant professors do not have tenure. A person with tenure cannot be easily dismissed. Such appointments are permanent. University teachers and researchers who are hired with the understanding that they will seek tenure are said to be on a tenure track. Assistant professor is the first job on this path. Assistant professors generally have five to seven years to gain tenure. During this time, other faculty members study the person's work. If tenure is denied, then the assistant professor usually has a year to find another job. An assistant professor who receives tenure becomes an associate professor. An associate professor may later be appointed a full professor. Assistant, associate and full professors at American universities perform many duties. They teach classes. They advise students. And they carry out research that is published. They also serve on university committees and take part in other activities. Other faculty members at American universities are not expected to do all those jobs. They are not on a tenure track. Instead, they might be in adjunct or visiting positions. A visiting professor has a job at one school but works at another for a period of time. An adjunct professor is also a limited or part-time position, to do research or teach classes. Adjunct professors have a doctorate. Another position is that of lecturer. Lecturers teach classes, but they may or may not have a doctorate. If you have a general question about the American education system, send it to special@voanews.com. And if you would like to find the other reports in our Foreign Student Series, go to voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wal-Mart Tops the Fortune 500 List for the Fourth Year
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Each year the business magazine Fortune publishes a list of the five hundred largest American companies. The new Fortune five hundred list has come out. And, for the fourth year, Wal-Mart is at the top. Wal-Mart stores sell general goods at low prices. The company had sales of almost two hundred ninety thousand million dollars last year. Wal-Mart is first on the Fortune five hundred list by revenue, or the total amount of money received. The oil company Exxon Mobil is second. But, for the second year, Exxon Mobil is first in profits among American companies. Wal-Mart is listed eighth in profits. Exxon Mobil recorded a profit of more than twenty-five thousand million dollars last year. That was an increase of almost eighteen percent over the year before. General Motors is third on the Fortune list of top companies by revenue, followed by Ford Motor Company and General Electric. Two other oil companies are sixth and seventh on the list. Like Exxon Mobil, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips both gained from high oil prices. Citigroup is eighth on the Fortune five hundred list by revenue. As in two thousand three, the financial services company was second in profits last year, behind Exxon Mobil. Ninth on the list by revenue is the insurance company American International Group. A.I.G. is followed by I.B.M., International Business Machines. In two thousand three I.B.M. was ninth and A.I.G. was tenth. The yearly Fortune lists contain only? companies that release their financial information to the public. So far we have talked about leaders in revenues and profits. But Fortune also lists companies by assets. Assets are anything of value that a company or individual owns, including property, savings and investments. The top three companies by assets are all banks. Citigroup tops the list of American asset holders. It has assets of about one and one-half million million dollars. J.P. Morgan Chase & Company and Bank of America are the next two on the list. Just as in two thousand three, the largest American companies had record sales last year. The oil and mining industries did very well. But the airline industry suffered big losses because of high fuel prices and strong competition. Price competition also meant heavy losses for some telecommunications companies. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Beyond History Books: New Museum Tells Lincoln's Story
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month … A question from listeners about Abraham Lincoln ... And a report about Earth Day. Earth Day and Goldman Prize Happy birthday, Earth Day!? This April twenty-second is the thirty-fifth anniversary of Earth Day. Former United States Senator Gaylord Nelson started the observance. Earth Day is a time for individuals to get involved in the health of the planet. One person might decide to clean up a local park. Another might plant a tree. Someone else might organize a community environmental project. These kinds of activities are known as grassroots efforts. Each year around Earth Day, an organization in California honors grassroots environmental activists around the world. Gwen Outen reports on this year’s winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. GWEN OUTEN: The winner from Europe is Stephanie Danielle Roth, a citizen of both France and Switzerland. Miz Roth is being honored for leading an international effort to stop the building of a gold and silver mine in Romania. She has organized large demonstrations. She has also created a coalition of non-governmental organizations, scientists and others to take part in the fight. The winner of the Goldman Prize for South and Central America is Father Jose Andres Tamayo Cortez. The Roman Catholic clergyman has organized protests in an effort to save trees from illegal destruction in central Honduras. The Goldman winner from North America is also active against illegal logging. Isidro Baldenegro Lopez of Mexico organized protests to save old growth forests in the Sierra Madre Mountains. He was jailed for fifteen months. But the Goldman Foundation says he continues to work for environmental justice and land rights for the Tarahumara people. Corneille Ewango from the Democratic Republic of Congo is the Goldman Prize winner for Africa. Mister Ewango is a plant scientist. He risked his own safety to protect animals and plants in a rainforest during years of civil war. He is now a graduate student in the United States. The Goldman winner for island nations is Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of Haiti. He has taught environmentally responsible farming methods for thirty years. The Goldman Foundation says he and his students have planted more than twenty million trees in Haiti. Finally, the Goldman Environmental Prize for Asia was awarded to a biologist from Kazakhstan. Kaisha Atakhanova led a successful fight against legislation to permit the import and storage of radioactive waste in her country. Rhonda and Richard Goldman established the prize in nineteen ninety. They wanted to honor individuals who work to protect the environment. Each winner receives one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars. Abraham Lincoln HOST: Time for our weekly question from listeners. Ezekiel Adeniran and Martins Ojoiso in Nigeria both ask about the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Before we talk about his life, we want to tell you about the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois. The museum officially opened this week with a ceremony attended by President Bush and his wife, Laura. There is also an Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library which opened last October. Abraham Lincoln was born in eighteen oh nine in Kentucky, but he grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education. But Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. He was elected president in eighteen sixty. President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War. He sent Northern forces to battle the slave-holding Southern states to keep them from leaving the Union. Lincoln freed the slaves and helped keep the nation together. In the end, it cost him his life. On April fourteenth, eighty sixty-five, a Southern sympathizer shot Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater in Washington. It happened five days after the South surrendered and the Civil War ended. Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most important words in American history. In eighteen sixty-three, he gave what became his best known speech. The Union army had won a major battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held there to honor the dead at a burial place on the battlefield. President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. Written copies of his speech differ; without a recording, no one can be sure exactly what he said. But his speech has never been forgotten. Here is Harry Monroe with the last few lines of the version that can be found on a wall of Lincoln Memorial: HARRY MONROE: It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Jazz Appreciation Month April is "Jazz Appreciation Month" in the United States. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.. began this observance. The aim is to get everyone to take part in jazz in some way: study it, play it or just listen to it. Other countries are also celebrating jazz this month. These include Argentina, Britain, Canada, Germany Japan and Sweden. Shep O’Neal has our report. SHEP O'NEAL: Jazz is often called America's greatest gift to the arts. It came to life full of the emotions of a people who first arrived as slaves from Africa. Here is a famous early jazz recording, King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band playing "Chimes Blues." (MUSIC) Today, jazz musicians play all kinds of music. It can sound like swing or bebop, rock and roll or country-western. Or it can sound traditional. One of the most popular jazz singers in the world today is Cassandra Wilson. Here she is with the Bob Dylan song, "Lay Lady Lay." (MUSIC) Jazz performers sometimes create new music as they play. They add their own notes to already existing music. The same song can sound fresh and new each time a jazz musician plays it. Miles Davis was one great jazz musician known for his improvisation. We leave you with the Miles Davis Sextet playing "So What." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'A Simple, Humble Worker': Pope Benedict XVI
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. This Sunday, a special ceremony will take place for the new leader of the world's Roman Catholics, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth. The event is called the Ceremony of Investiture. Five hundred thousand people are expected to crowd Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City to celebrate Mass with the new pope. They will include political and religious leaders from many countries. More than one thousand million people are Catholic, one-sixth of the world population. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became the two hundred sixty-fifth pope on Tuesday. He is the first German pope in nearly a thousand years. He called himself "a simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord."? Popes are elected for life. Benedict is seventy-eight years old. John Paul the Second was eighty-four when he died on April second. The new pope was a top advisor and close friend to John Paul. Cardinal Ratzinger chose a name last held by a pope more than eighty years ago. Benedict the Fifteenth led the church during World One. He is remembered as a man of peace. As Benedict the Sixteenth began his duties, he said he would continue church efforts to increase ties with other Christians and other religions. On Thursday, he re-appointed Cardinal Angelo Sodano as Vatican secretary of state. Other Vatican leaders also kept their jobs. Joseph Ratzinger was born in Bavaria in nineteen twenty-seven. He was required to join the Hitler Youth and the German Army during World War Two. He fled the military, but was held for a time by American forces as a prisoner of war. In nineteen sixty-five, as a priest, Joseph Ratzinger served as an advisor at the Second Vatican Council. There, he supported efforts to make the church more open. He later began to express more traditional opinions. For example, he opposes the use of birth control devices. He is against marriage for priests, or women as priests. And he opposes homosexuality. In nineteen seventy-seven, three months after he became Bishop of Munich, Pope Paul the Sixth made him a cardinal. Cardinal Ratzinger served for more than twenty years as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. That office enforces the teachings of the church. Until less than a century ago, it was called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition. In two thousand, Cardinal Ratzinger signed a declaration that is again in the news because of his election. It said that followers of other religions are in a "gravely deficient situation" compared to those in the church. Cardinal Ratzinger became dean of the College of Cardinals in two thousand two. While some Catholics said they had wished for a less conservative pope, others had wished for a modern pope from the developing world. Today two-thirds of Catholics live in Latin America, Africa and Asia. But this week the electors at the Vatican agreed quickly on their choice. On the second day of meetings, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict the Sixteenth. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mary Kay: One of America's Most Influential Women
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. This week, we tell about one of the most successful American businesswomen. Mary Kay started a company in nineteen sixty-three with a five thousand dollar investment. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in nineteen eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children. Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited peoples’ homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework. One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors praised her work. But they never increased her earnings. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had. Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister Heath’s skin care products and started her own company. She paid five hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products. VOICE ONE: The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in nineteen sixty-three. Mary Kay’s twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products. The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones. Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Two years later, in nineteen sixty-five, the company was selling almost one million dollars worth of products. Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older! Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is the largest direct seller of skin care products in the United States. It develops and tests many skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in nineteen sixty-three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than one thousand million dollars. It has more than eight hundred thousand sales representatives in thirty-seven countries around the world. You can find Mary Kay products and company sales representatives in Argentina, Brunei, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Singapore. VOICE ONE: Every year since nineteen sixty-five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two hundred people and served it on paper plates. As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three-day conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform. The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles. In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By nineteen ninety-four, seven thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales. She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win. So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year. Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in nineteen eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women. In two thousand one, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women. Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America’s Twenty-Five Most Influential Women in nineteen eighty-five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in nineteen ninety-six. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, “Mary Kay,” told the story of her life. More than one million copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on People Management.”? Her third book was released in nineteen ninety-five. It is called “Mary Kay--You Can Have It All.”? The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer. Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in nineteen ninety-six. She died in November, two thousand one. Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families. VOICE ONE: One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money. She paid less than one hundred dollars for her supplies. After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years. Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: America’s ‘House of Rock’: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Turns 10
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, is observing its tenth anniversary this year. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us today for the story of what is often called America’s “House of Rock.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: World-famous architect I.M. Pei said he created the building for the Rock and Roll Museum to show the energy of this music. It seems that he succeeded. Some visitors have joked that they can see the building moving. The glass-and-steel museum honors some of the greatest names in rock and roll. For example, Chuck Berry was one of the first stars of this kind of music. Here is Chuck Berry singing “School Days.” ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Museum exhibits include movies, videos, photographs and radio programs. They tell the story of rock and roll from its early days to the present. Visitors can listen to songs that helped shape this kind of music. They can use a computer to get information about the most famous rock and roll musicians. And they can see thousands of personal objects from famous performers. For example, there are report cards from the school days of the Everly Brothers. VOICE ONE: Buddy Holly was another popular rock and roll songwriter and performer. He had many hit songs in just a few years. He died in an airplane crash in nineteen fifty-nine at the age of twenty-two. Here is one of Buddy Holly’s greatest hits, “Peggy Sue.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many visitors to the Rock and Roll Museum are the people who were teenagers in the nineteen fifties when rock and roll was born. The top part of the museum is the Hall of Fame. The names of the most important people in the history of rock and roll are written on black glass walls. There are now many members of the Hall of Fame. The idea for building the museum began more than twenty years ago. A group in America’s music industry wanted to honor the men and women who influenced rock and roll music. The group looked for the right place for a museum and hall of fame. It chose the Midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. VOICE ONE: Each year, a committee of music experts nominates people for the Hall of Fame. The experts choose performers and other people who have influenced rock and roll. A person must have played an active part in rock and roll music for at least twenty-five years to be considered. An international group of music experts votes on the nominations. Experts chose the first group for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen eighty-six. Their list included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke; also, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly. Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard were chosen too. Oh yes. And Elvis Presley. VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley is often called “the King of Rock and Roll.”? One of his many hit songs was “Jailhouse Rock.”? It was from a movie, also called “Jailhouse Rock,” released in nineteen fifty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Just recently the Hall of Fame welcomed musicians Buddy Guy, Percy Sledge, the O’Jays, U2 and the Pretenders. Singer and guitar player Chrissie Hynde got the Pretenders together in London in the late nineteen seventies. Here are the Pretenders singing “Brass in Pocket.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people wondered why Cleveland was chosen for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Well, the city worked hard to get it. Citizens and officials organized a campaign. Six hundred sixty thousand people signed a statement urging that the museum be built there. VOICE ONE:?????????????? It seemed right for Cleveland to become the home of the museum. A man named Alan Freed had a radio show in Cleveland in the early nineteen fifties. He heard the music of black artists like Fats Domino and Chuck Berry, and he liked the expression “rock and roll.”? He was one of the first to play this music on his radio show. That was in nineteen fifty-one. Here, Chuck Berry sings “Maybellene.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Music experts do not agree on which song was the very first rock and roll song. However, some of them do agree on the first song that made rock and roll popular. Bill Haley and his Comets recorded the song in nineteen fifty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: U2It was not popular at first. Then it was used in a movie about teenagers called “Blackboard Jungle.”? The movie made “Rock Around the Clock” a huge hit. We leave you now with another rock classic. This one is by the Irish group U2, “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-05-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Plumpy'nut Aids Fight Against Hunger
* Byline: 

 Children eating Plumpy'nut.Nutriset is a food company in France that makes all its products for humanitarian aid programs. One of the most popular products for use in emergencies is a sweet spread. It is made with peanuts, sugar, fats, minerals and vitamins. It is called Plumpy’nut. The American group Save the Children is using it to help fight hunger among refugees from the violence in the Darfur area of Sudan. The Wall Street Journal reported that so far, workers have given out more than three hundred metric tons of Plumpy'nut? Aid officials told the newspaper that the product has helped cut malnutrition rates in western Sudan in half. Plumpy'nut can be given to families without the need to go to feeding centers. It comes ready to eat. It does not have to be mixed with water, the way dry milk does. Clean drinking water is often in short supply in crisis situations. The French product is also being used to treat children in Malawi, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And Plumpy’nut was used to help feed victims of the tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December. Nutriset says Plumpy'nut can stay fresh for two years. Individual servings are ninety-two grams. The company says Plumpy'nut is similar in nutritional value to the treatment known as therapeutic milk f-one-hundred. Normally, some children get a bad reaction to peanuts or other foods. But research noted on the Nutriset Web site says allergic reactions may be suppressed in undernourished children. Michel Lescanne started Nutriset in nineteen eighty-six to make food for humanitarian aid. The company has a small factory in Malaunay, France. Nutriset also makes products like dry milk that are traditionally used to fight hunger. In times of crisis, the company will set up emergency operations twenty-four hours a day. Nutriset says it reinvests its profits into research and development. The company works directly with United Nations agencies and other organizations. Its products are not marketed through businesses. But Nutriset does want to organize a system of independent local production of Plumpy'nut. The company is on the Web at nutriset.org. That's n-u-t-r-i-s-e-t dot o-r-g. And Internet users can learn more about development news at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/a-2005-04-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 27, 2005 - Compounding in English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away, but joining me from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain our topic on Wordmaster this week. It's a feature of the language called compounding. LIDA BAKER: "Compounding is when we take two words in English and we put them together to make a brand-new word. For example, you can take the word race and the word car and you can put it together and you have a race car. But interestingly you can also combine those two words together in the opposite order, car plus race. And then you have ... " AA: "Car race." LIDA BAKER: "Car race, which is a kind of ... " AA: "Race." LIDA BAKER: "Isn't that interesting? So a race car is a kind of car and a car race is a kind of race. One of the rules, I guess, of the meaning of compounds in English is that the core meaning is the word on the right." AA: "So what are some other examples?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, there are all kinds of compounds in English. The most common ones are when we combine two nouns -- so race car, housekeeper. One of the things that's confusing about compounds is the spelling, because sometimes it's written as two words; for example, race car. Sometimes it's written as one word; for example, housekeeper. And sometimes it's written with a hyphen. I actually would have to check this myself, but I think the word baby-sitter is written with a hyphen. "Now the point is, even native speakers of English don't always know how to spell compounds and they have to consult a dictionary. So I would give my students exactly the same advice. "Now let's move away from the written language and talk about the spoken language. There is a unique feature of compounds which is that the first word is normally the one -- well, always the one that is stressed. So notice, for example, that we say RACE car, HOUSE keeper, BLACK bird, MAKE up, BABY sitter. You see how the first -- we've talked on this program about word stress before. In a compound the first word is the one that gets stressed, and that's one of the things that actually identities it as a compound. What if you have, for example -- well, where does the president of the United States live?" AA: "In the White House." LIDA BAKER: "In the WHITE House, and it's stressed on the first word. But I live in a white HOUSE. So there's a difference between a compound which is a unit that has a meaning of its own, like White House, which is the residence of the president of the United States, as opposed to a house that happens to be white. Another famous example of that is blackbird, which is a specific type of bird, and a black bird as opposed to a blue bird or a red bird, you see? AA: "Uh-huh." LIDA BAKER: "So what we have to do in the classroom -- first of all, explain to students what I just explained to you, and then do what we call ear training. I can propose a couple of activities that teachers can do that can help students to learn compounds. One of them is a simple matching activity where you have two columns. And what the students have to do is take a word from the first column and match it with a word in the second column and create the compound and then practice saying it correctly. So, a simple matching activity. "But there's another activity that is really fun, and that is to take these -- you know how we were talking about the difference between 'White House' and 'white house' or 'blackbird' and 'black bird'? You take those phrases and you try to create -- this is kind of for advanced students -- but try to make one sentence that contains both of those. So as an example: 'I saw a white house on my way to the White House?' Can you hear the difference?" AA: "Uh-huh." LIDA BAKER: "Or I saw a black bird, but I'm not sure if it's a blackbird.' I've done this and it's a lot of fun. You see students, you know, they're pounding on the desk trying to figure out where the stressed word is and so on." AA: Lida Baker is working on a new listening book for English learners, and she teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And all of our segments can be found online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Blackbird"/Beatles AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away, but joining me from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain our topic on Wordmaster this week. It's a feature of the language called compounding. LIDA BAKER: "Compounding is when we take two words in English and we put them together to make a brand-new word. For example, you can take the word race and the word car and you can put it together and you have a race car. But interestingly you can also combine those two words together in the opposite order, car plus race. And then you have ... " AA: "Car race." LIDA BAKER: "Car race, which is a kind of ... " AA: "Race." LIDA BAKER: "Isn't that interesting? So a race car is a kind of car and a car race is a kind of race. One of the rules, I guess, of the meaning of compounds in English is that the core meaning is the word on the right." AA: "So what are some other examples?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, there are all kinds of compounds in English. The most common ones are when we combine two nouns -- so race car, housekeeper. One of the things that's confusing about compounds is the spelling, because sometimes it's written as two words; for example, race car. Sometimes it's written as one word; for example, housekeeper. And sometimes it's written with a hyphen. I actually would have to check this myself, but I think the word baby-sitter is written with a hyphen. "Now the point is, even native speakers of English don't always know how to spell compounds and they have to consult a dictionary. So I would give my students exactly the same advice. "Now let's move away from the written language and talk about the spoken language. There is a unique feature of compounds which is that the first word is normally the one -- well, always the one that is stressed. So notice, for example, that we say RACE car, HOUSE keeper, BLACK bird, MAKE up, BABY sitter. You see how the first -- we've talked on this program about word stress before. In a compound the first word is the one that gets stressed, and that's one of the things that actually identities it as a compound. What if you have, for example -- well, where does the president of the United States live?" AA: "In the White House." LIDA BAKER: "In the WHITE House, and it's stressed on the first word. But I live in a white HOUSE. So there's a difference between a compound which is a unit that has a meaning of its own, like White House, which is the residence of the president of the United States, as opposed to a house that happens to be white. Another famous example of that is blackbird, which is a specific type of bird, and a black bird as opposed to a blue bird or a red bird, you see? AA: "Uh-huh." LIDA BAKER: "So what we have to do in the classroom -- first of all, explain to students what I just explained to you, and then do what we call ear training. I can propose a couple of activities that teachers can do that can help students to learn compounds. One of them is a simple matching activity where you have two columns. And what the students have to do is take a word from the first column and match it with a word in the second column and create the compound and then practice saying it correctly. So, a simple matching activity. "But there's another activity that is really fun, and that is to take these -- you know how we were talking about the difference between 'White House' and 'white house' or 'blackbird' and 'black bird'? You take those phrases and you try to create -- this is kind of for advanced students -- but try to make one sentence that contains both of those. So as an example: 'I saw a white house on my way to the White House?' Can you hear the difference?" AA: "Uh-huh." LIDA BAKER: "Or I saw a black bird, but I'm not sure if it's a blackbird.' I've done this and it's a lot of fun. You see students, you know, they're pounding on the desk trying to figure out where the stressed word is and so on." AA: Lida Baker is working on a new listening book for English learners, and she teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And all of our segments can be found online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Blackbird"/Beatles 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Polio: How an Ancient Disease Met a Modern Prevention
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we remember the discovery of the first effective protection against the disease polio. We also talk about the scientists who made it possible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fifty years ago, American media reported a major and welcome announcement. They said scientists had created a medicine to protect people against polio. The medicine was described as safe, powerful and effective. The announcement was made on April twelfth, nineteen fifty-five. The date is now fixed in medical history. Today, international efforts have greatly reduced cases of polio around the world. The World Health Organization supports a campaign to end the health threat from the disease by this year. A worldwide effort called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is working toward this goal. VOICE TWO: About three hundred fifty thousand polio cases were reported in one hundred twenty-five countries in nineteen eighty-eight. Since then, the number of cases has been cut by ninety-nine percent. But some nations have not stopped the spread of the disease. The W-H-O says heavily populated countries like India and Nigeria still report cases. Polio remains a problem in other countries like Afghanistan, Egypt, Niger and Pakistan. Doctors say most patients suffer only signs of a cold or mild intestinal problem. Yet polio has been one of the most frightening diseases in history. People with the most severe cases died, sometimes quickly. Others were left unable to walk or breathe on their own. There was no cure or truly effective treatment. In recent years, some people who were infected long ago have developed new pain and weakness. The problem is called post-polio syndrome. VOICE ONE: Polio was first recorded in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. A virus causes the disease. It attacks the muscles and nervous system. The sickness spreads from person to person. It is carried in food, water and human waste. Scientists first identified the virus in nineteen oh-eight. But they could not stop the sickness from spreading. For example, polio killed six thousand people in the United States in nineteen sixteen. Twenty-seven thousand other Americans suffered permanent damage. For years, polio remained a health threat. Many victims were children and young adults. Families attempted all kinds of methods to protect their children. But still the sickness kept spreading. This was especially true during hot summers. In the summer of nineteen fifty-two, more than fifty-seven thousand Americans were infected. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Antibiotic medicines do not destroy viruses. Only bacteria can be killed that way. Medicines that kill viruses also kill healthy cells. That is why it was necessary for scientists to prevent a viral infection instead of attempting to treat it. Only three vaccines were used for viral sicknesses until the nineteen forties. A vaccine works by placing a small amount of weakened virus in the body. This helped the body develop substances in the blood that can destroy the disease if it appears. These substances are called antibodies. VOICE ONE: Several research scientists were working to develop a treatment for polio after World War Two. But Jonas Salk wanted to create a protective medicine. He believed a vaccine made from a killed virus could kill the polio virus. However, other researchers said his method would never succeed. Doctor Salk did not listen. He gathered a team of experts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the state of Pennsylvania. They worked to produce a substance that could kill a live poliovirus. VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans provided money for the research. Adults and children would give their money to the Infantile Paralysis Foundation. Today, the group is called the March of Dimes. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped start the Foundation in the late nineteen thirties. Mister Roosevelt became sick with polio when he was thirty-nine years old. He never walked again without help. The money from Americans helped Doctor Salk’s team create antibodies that would kill the virus. In nineteen fifty-two, the team identified three major kinds of polio virus. That meant creating a vaccine that would kill all three. The team also had to discover how to grow the viruses. VOICE ONE: In the nineteen thirties, scientists used tissue from the backbones of monkeys to grow the virus. The tissue was called neural tissue. However, vaccines with the virus grown in neural tissue gave people the disease. A young man named Julius Youngner worked with Doctor Salk to develop a way to grow the virus in non-neural tissue. Professor Youngner decided to use tissue from the kidneys of monkeys. He did so by cutting up the outer cover of this organ. At first, it was hard for him to grow the cells. They became thick in test tubes. But then he added a substance called trypsin. The trypsin made the tissue break into separate cells. Julius Youngner developed ways to grow enough of the virus needed to produce a vaccine. Other scientists say he invented modern cell cultures. But Professor Youngner says the real heroes were the monkeys. Today, he is the only survivor of Doctor Salk’s main research team. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Other researchers did not agree that the killed virus made the most effective vaccine. One of them was Albert Sabin. He disagreed with the way Doctor Salk’s team was building antibodies to fight polio. Doctor Sabin wanted to use a weakened live polio virus to build disease antibodies. Doctor Sabin attempted to prevent the test of the Salk polio vaccine. But the attempt failed. A large trial of the Salk vaccine began in nineteen fifty-four. The results showed that polio rates decreased greatly in people who had been vaccinated. The next April, the medicine was declared safe and effective. VOICE ONE: The Salk polio vaccine was given with a needle, through the skin. Americans often call such an injection a shot. American parents hurried to get their children protected. Hundreds of thousands of Europeans also got shots. That caused people to say that the Salk vaccine was the shot felt ‘round the world. Now it was time for Doctor Sabin to gain fame in the struggle against polio. In nineteen fifty-seven, he developed a vaccine containing live poliovirus. People could take his oral polio vaccine by mouth. It was easier to protect great numbers of people with the Sabin vaccine than with the Salk vaccine. VOICE TWO: One hundred million children in Europe received the Sabin oral polio vaccine in nineteen-sixty. His vaccine was given to one hundred million Americans of all ages from nineteen sixty-two through nineteen sixty-four. Today, the United States Department of Health and Human Services no longer advises the oral polio vaccine. Instead, officials strongly advise that shots be given to babies and young children. Most adult Americans do not need the vaccine. This month, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has organized a show called “Whatever Happened to Polio?”? The name offers evidence that the disease is rare in much of the world. VOICE ONE: Yet polio keeps returning. For example, it disappeared in the western half of the world by the end of the twentieth century. Then, in two thousand one, tests confirmed that several children in the Dominican Republic and Haiti had become infected. Strong danger from polio still exists in parts of Africa. This month, a coalition of health agencies is working to protect millions of children there. Earlier in the year, United Nations agencies and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative reached up to ninety five million children with the polio vaccine. VOICE TWO: An American doctor remembers seeing many children infected with polio at a hospital during the nineteen fifties. Their whole bodies except their heads were inside tanks called iron lungs. The devices helped them to breathe. Some never left the iron lungs. In the words of the doctor, controlling polio is more than worth the effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Audience Mail: A Maize Mystery for AGRICULTURE REPORT
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Out with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A listener in Vietnam has a question about corn breeding. Ho Lan Phuong has read about "pure-line development" and "broad-line development."? She wants to know the difference. Since ancient times, farmers have chosen the best examples from each crop to provide seed for the next year. This method is called mass selection. It may be what our listener has seen described as broad-line development. Mass selection produces plants with similar genetic qualities over time. The pure-line method of breeding is similar. But it is more systematic. In pure-line breeding, the best plants are chosen from a crop that has many different genetic qualities. The seeds from these plants are grown. Then the best plants are chosen from the new crop. This process can go on for many years, until the seeds produce plants with measurable similarities and desirable qualities. Seed companies may use this method to produce seed for some crops. But the pure-line method is not often used with widely traded crops. Today major crops like corn or wheat are developed as hybrids. About one hundred years ago, a scientist in the United States, G.H. Shull, made important discoveries about corn hybrids. He mated corn with itself. Corn does not normally fertilize itself in nature. If corn is inbred, the seeds will produce a plant that clearly shows the qualities of the parent. But this inbreeding does not produce a strong plant. Shull found that if he mated two inbred corn plants, they would produce a strong line with the good qualities of the parent plants. This is called crossbreeding. Researchers soon recognized that they could crossbreed four inbred lines of corn. This "double cross" results in stronger corn with the best qualities of the parent plants. This is the way most hybrid corn is developed. Modern hybrid corn produces much more grain than its ancestors. But success can create its own problems. For example, there is very little genetic difference in the corn grown across the United States. Experts estimate that current hybrids use less than five percent of the genetic diversity that exists. There is a project called Germplasm Enhancement of Maize, or GEM. It is a cooperative effort to increase the genetic diversity in corn. The project involves the Department of Agriculture, sixteen universities and twenty international companies. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-26-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Indiana Dunes: Beautiful Sand Hills and Wildlife in the Midwest
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit the Indiana Dunes. These hills of sand are near Chicago, Illinois. They rise on the shores of Lake Michigan, one of America’s five Great Lakes. ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than two million people visit the sand hills in the middle western state of Indiana each year. The winds along Lake Michigan created some of these dunes in ancient times. Other dunes may be building right now. The winds create dunes when they drop loose sand onto land. Some dunes look partly round. Others take the form of long, narrow hills. Visitors from all over the world explore the area near the Indiana Dunes. They swim and sail on the lake. They watch birds in the wetlands. They study plant life in the rich forests of oak and maple trees. The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make a clear musical sound when people walk on them. Some of these sounds can be heard ten meters away. Visitors often say that the sand dunes “sing.” VOICE TWO: The Indiana state government and the federal government control more than six thousand hectares of land along the lake. They operate parks with visitors’ areas and scientific research stations. Supervision by these agencies guarantees that the land will always belong to the public. Laws protect the plants, animals, and natural and historical points of interest. During the twentieth century, many people worked hard to save the dunes from development for industrial and port uses. This was not easy. The land along that area of Lake Michigan is extremely valuable. Some of the land provides important lake ports. Industries and Indiana’s natural-gas company also operate along the lake. VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen fifties, some companies were removing five tons of sand each day from the dunes. Scientists of the Indiana Geological Survey investigated the sand supply in nineteen fifty-two. They said that the dunes would be gone in fifty to one hundred years if companies continued to remove sand at that rate. The wind and waves of Lake Michigan created the dunes over thousands of years. Yet people could destroy the dunes in a lifetime. ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The federal government established the National Park Service in nineteen sixteen. A Chicago businessman named Stephen Mather was its first director. Mister Mather created many national parks. He wanted the Indiana dunes to be a national park, too. However, the United States had entered World War One in nineteen seventeen. Congress was not thinking about creating parks. It was thinking about soldiers and military supplies. Public support for a protected dunes park continued to grow, however. In nineteen twenty-three, Indiana passed a bill providing tax money to buy property along the lake from its private owners. In nineteen twenty-six, the Indiana Dunes State Park opened. It contained more than eight hundred hectares of land. VOICE ONE: Area citizens, scientists and visitors were pleased with the state park. But they did not feel satisfied. They wanted much more land along the lake protected from being used for more factories and industrial ports. Activist Dorothy Buell led the campaign for a national park in the dunes. She formed the Save the Dunes Council in nineteen fifty-two. Indiana’s representatives in the United States Senate opposed the proposed park. They said ports on the lake would provide more jobs for local workers than a national park. Yet the Save the Dunes Council found a powerful friend in United States Senator Paul Douglas. He represented the nearby state of Illinois. Senator Douglas loved the dunes. Every year he would introduce a bill to create an Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. But every year the bill failed to pass. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-six, people who wanted more development finally reached a compromise with people who wanted a national park. Congress first passed a bill to develop more ports. It also created the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. More land was added to the park in later legislation. Today more than six thousand hectares of the federal Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore also include the Indiana Dunes State Park. VOICE ONE: The Save the Dunes Council has been involved in many other battles. It has successfully fought a number of threats. These include the use of vehicles in the park. Sand-mining. An airport on the lake. And a nuclear power center near the park. The council has also pressed for stronger enforcement of air and water pollution control laws in the industrial areas near the park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A modern federal road follows a walking path in the dunes called the Beach Trail. Long ago, this trail was a path between two forts. Settlers built the forts to provide protection against attacks by native Indian tribes. These forts became Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan. In eighteen twenty-two, a trader from the state of Michigan settled in the Indiana Dunes. This man, Joseph Bailly, opened a store and raised a family near Lake Michigan. He exchanged warm blankets and guns for the animal furs supplied by Indians and travelers. At first, Mister Bailly and his family lived in a small wood home. The trader was building a bigger house when he died. The National Park Service has repaired the outside of this large white home. VOICE ONE: Later, a student from the University of Chicago brought scientific knowledge to the dunes. Henry Chandler Cowles received money from the university to study landforms and plant fossils from the time when ice covered much of the world. In eighteen ninety-six, Mister Cowles decided the Indiana dunes would be an excellent place for his research. Mister Cowles’ studies showed how plant communities could make important changes in land. His work demonstrated how groups of plants could create conditions for a sand dune to become a living forest. He became a well-known professor and researcher. The work of Henry Chandler Cowles in the Indiana Dunes helped spread the science of ecology throughout the world. ?VOICE TWO:? Other scientists have explained how the sand hills formed. They say a huge thick river of ice helped create the Indiana dunes. Thousands of years ago this glacier moved over what is now central Indiana. As the glacier moved, heavy ice crushed rocks into very small pieces. Over time, part of the glacier became a body of water called Lake Chicago, an early version of Lake Michigan. The melting glacier dropped the sand it had created around the lake. The sands of the present-day Lake Michigan are always moving. The winds and waves of the lake carry sand to the surrounding land. Strong winds lift the sand and drop it on the land below. This process starts building new dunes. VOICE ONE: Over time, plant life develops on these sand hills. For example, the cottonwood tree is usually first to grow on a new dune. Then the winds dig a hole in the sand. The winds use loose sand from the hole to create a large dune that moves. Such a dune can damage or destroy anything in its way. But cottonwood trees can help. The trees grow roots along their trunks as sand buries them. ?The cottonwood roots help hold the dune in place. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A dune called Mount Baldy guards the northern end of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Beautiful trees encircle its lower parts. Thousands of people climb the thirty-eight meters to the top of Mount Baldy each year. But getting there can be difficult. Climbers discover that their footsteps up the tall hill of sand often cause them to fall back again. Local people tell about a mysterious woman who once lived in a small house not far from Mount Baldy. Alice Marble Gray moved to the Dunes from Chicago at age thirty-five. Alice shocked people by swimming in Lake Michigan without a swimming suit. Fishermen compared her to the Roman goddess Diana. ?So began the traditional story of Diana of the Dunes. VOICE ONE: This legend says Diana fell in love with a man who treated her badly. She died in nineteen twenty-five. Health officials said her body showed evidence of beatings. As the years passed, people have claimed that they sometimes see her swimming in the lake. They say that in the moonlight, you can still see Diana running along the sands of the Indiana Dunes. ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-26-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Countries in the Americas Observe Vaccination Week
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. This is Vaccination Week in the Americas. The Pan American Health Organization and officials from the United States, Mexico and Canada launched the campaign Monday. Public health officials say they hope to reach forty-four million children and adults throughout North, Central and South America. The children will be vaccinated against measles, polio, rubella and other diseases that can be prevented. Some countries will make special efforts to vaccinate native populations and people in border areas with limited health care. Many countries are vaccinating women who may become pregnant. And some countries also hope to vaccinate older people. Each country sets its own goals. Vaccination Week is the largest such campaign in the Americas. It began in the Andean area of South America two years ago. Later, health ministers of all the other countries in the Americas agreed to join the effort. Last year, Pan American health officials say, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean vaccinated almost forty-four million people, mostly children. The United States and Canada helped by informing people about the importance of vaccinations. Officials say vaccines have greatly reduced child deaths and disability caused by preventable diseases in the Americas. This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Salk vaccine against polio. Today the Americas have been declared polio-free. Smallpox has been ended worldwide. And there has been progress against measles. Health officials in the Americas are also working to end another disease, rubella, through vaccination. As part of Vaccination Week, the United States is observing National Infants Immunization Week. Health officials are urging parents to get their babies vaccinated. Eleven thousand babies are born each day in the United States. Public health officials say children should be vaccinated against twelve diseases before age two. But they say more than twenty percent of two-year-olds in the United States are not fully protected against these preventable diseases. All thirty-five countries in North, Central and South America are members of the Pan American Health Organization. It is based in Washington. It was established in nineteen oh two and represents the Americas in the World Health Organization. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Battle of Vicksburg Splits the Southern Confederacy
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the story of America's Civil War and the man who led the Union during the war, Abraham Lincoln. VOICE TWO: In November, eighteen-sixty-three, President Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He spoke at the opening of a military cemetery. He felt very tired by the time he got back to Washington. Doctors thought he had a cold. Later, they said he had a weak form of smallpox. The president remained in bed. Few visitors could see him. There was a danger the smallpox could spread. Lincoln got better after a few weeks. He began working on his yearly message to Congress. After two-and-a-half years of war, he had good news to report. Union armies had gained two important victories at about the same time. VOICE ONE: One was the battle of Gettysburg. Union forces led by GeneralGeorge meade had defeated Confederate forces led by General Robert E. Lee. They pushed Lee back into Virginia. It was the last Confederate invasion of the North. The day after the battle of Gettysburg, Union forces defeated Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi. This victory gave them control of the Mississippi River. And it split the states of the Confederacy. VOICE TWO: Ulysses S. GrantUnion General Ulysses Grant had been trying to seize Vicksburg for several months. It was not easy.Vicksburg lay on the east side of the Mississippi River. It was built high above the water on a rocky cliff. As the river flowed past Vicksburg, it turned in sharply at the base of the cliff and then continued on to the gulf of Mexico. The Confederates had placed cannon all along the sharp turn in the river. Enemy boats sailing past made easy targets. VOICE ONE: General Grant began the campaign for Vicksburg in late eighteen-sixty-two. His army was west of the Mississippi River. He needed to get to the other side to attack the city. First, Grant planned to cross the river into northern Mississippi state. Then he would March south to Vicksburg. He crossed the river. But Confederate forces destroyed his transportation and supply lines. He withdrew. Early in eighteen-sixty-three, he tried again. VOICE TWO: This time, he planned to sail his men past Vicksburg. They would cross the river a little downstream, turn and attack. Grant moved forty-thousand men to a point ten kilometers from Vicksburg. He told the men to put down their guns and take up digging tools. They would build a canal to carry them past the turn in the river, past the Confederate cannon. VOICE ONE: For weeks, the Union soldiers worked on the canal. They dug through mud and wet clay. Many died of disease. After more than a month of digging, engineers decided that the canal would not work. Grant ordered the men to build another canal. Then another. They did not work, either. By this time, the Union soldiers had become experts at digging canals. One of them said: "As soon as the canals at Vicksburg are finished, we are going to cut a canal across the upper part of Florida. We will cut that state off from the Confederacy, and give it to the alligators!" VOICE TWO: Finally, in April, eighteen-sixty-three, Grant gave up all ideas of getting past Vicksburg without a fight. He decided to March most of his men down the west side of the river to a steamboat landing thirty kilometers below Vicksburg. He would send his navy boats past the city at night and hope for the best. It took three weeks for Grant's men to reach the steamboat landing. The roads were very rough. In many places, they were covered with water. Engineers had to cut trees and cover the muddy roads with logs so wagons would not sink. They had to build bridges over the many streams. VOICE ONE: On the night of April sixteenth, the Union navy made its run past Vicksburg. Eight gunboats and three empty troop boats floated down the dark river. Their engines were silent. The Confederates, however, had built fires along the river. They saw the Union boats and began to shoot. They hit most of the boats, but destroyed only one. The damaged boats reached safety below the city. On the last day of April, the Union troop boats began carrying soldiers to the east side of the river. About twenty-three-thousand men crossed. Right away, they faced a force of eight-thousand Confederate soldiers. They drove the Confederates back. VOICE TWO: Grant then ordered the rest of his army to cross to the east side of the river. Some of his officers protested. They said it would be impossible to get supplies to a large army east of the river. Grant was not worried about supplies. He said the men should bring only coffee, hard bread, and salt. Anything else could be taken from the farmers of Mississippi. Their homes, he said, were full of food. VOICE ONE: Grant decided not to throw his men against the strong defenses around Vicksburg immediately. Instead, he marched them east toward Jackson, the state capital. Jackson was the supply base for the Confederate army defending Vicksburg. Grant wanted to cut the supply lines between the two cities. He also wanted to prevent the soldiers in Jackson from joining the soldiers in Vicksburg. Grant captured Jackson easily. He left some troops to destroy enemy supplies. He took the remaining troops and turned back toward Vicksburg. VOICE TWO: Grant attacked Vicksburg several times. Each time, his troops were thrown back. The city's defenses were too strong. Grant then decided to surround the city and wait until its food was gone. That, he thought, would make the Confederates surrender. Grant closed in with men and artillery. As one soldier wrote: "The circle of Union forces around the city was so tight that a cat could not have crept out without being discovered. " Nothing could get out. Nothing could get in. Weeks passed. The Union army shelled the city. The Confederate army answered from time to time. Food supplies dropped. There was little to eat except corn bread and the meat of mules. Some people caught rats and ate them. VOICE ONE: Finally, the Confederate commander, General John Pemberton, decided the situation was hopeless. He sent word to Grant that he was ready to discuss surrender. The two commanders met under a white flag of truce. Grant demanded unconditional surrender. Pemberton rejected the demand. Pemberton's men were to be prisoners. That was a fact. But Pemberton wanted them released immediately on parole. He told Grant that his men would promise to stay out of the war if permitted to return to their homes. If not, he said, they would continue to fight. VOICE TWO: Grant agreed to let the Confederate soldiers go home. He and Pemberton signed the surrender agreement on July fourth. The siege of Vicksburg had lasted forty-seven days. Never had a Union army won such a victory. Grant had taken thirty-thousand Confederate soldiers out of the war. He had captured sixty-thousand guns and one-hundred-seventy cannon. These were serious losses for the Confederacy. It already was low on manpower and weapons. But an even greater loss was the control of the Mississippi River. With Vicksburg in Union hands, the North could control the whole length of the river. And the confederacy was split badly. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: For Blind Students, College Means Learning to Help Themselves
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our reports for students around the world who want to attend college in the United States. This week, we answer a question from Pakistan. Sajid Iqbal wants to know if any American colleges or universities accept blind students or those with vision problems. He also wants to know if any financial aid is provided. The World Health Organization says almost forty million people around the world are blind. There are about one million blind people in the United States. The largest and most influential organization of blind people in this country is the National Federation of the Blind. N.F.B. officials say the nation does not have any colleges or universities that serve only blind students. They say the reason for this is that blind people must learn to live among people who can see. American colleges and universities do accept blind and visually impaired students. And they provide services to help these students succeed. For example, colleges find people who write down what the professors say in class. And they provide technology that can help blind students with their work. However, experts say colleges can best help blind students by making it clear that the students should learn to help themselves. One blind American student recently made news because he graduated from medical school at the University of Wisconsin. Tim Cordes (pronounced COR-diss) says technology was one of the reasons he succeeded. He used a computer that read into his earpiece what he was typing. ?He also used a small printer that permitted him to write notes about his patients in the hospital. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. National Federation of the Blind officials say blind students from other nations do come to the United States to attend college. Some can even get financial aid. The N.F.B. awards about thirty scholarships each year that have no citizenship requirement. The applications for scholarships are closed for next year. However, information about such aid and other services can be found at its web site, nfb.org. N.F.B. officials say blind students interested in attending college in the United States should communicate with the schools they want to attend. College officials will provide them with the information they need. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. --- Part 35 of our Foreign Student Series 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/listen_online.cfm
* Headline: Listen to a 30 Minute Broadcast
* Byline: 

 ? Download ?RealAudio Stream ?RealAudio Download ?RealAudio We update our audio several times a day, every day. If you ever hear an old program,?the problem may be with the settings on your Internet?browser. Computers often store Web pages in cache memory to speed up opening them again later. Make sure your browser is?set to?look for new versions of pages every time you visit a site. For users of Internet Explorer: For users of Netscape Communicator: If you have any questions or comments, write to special@voanews.com 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: May Day in America: Mostly a Time to Celebrate Nature's Labor
* Byline: Written by Ed Stautberg, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by The Shins … A question from a listener about May Day ... And a report about the recent anniversary of a famous fast-food company. McDonald’s Anniversary Recognizable in any language: a McDonald's in Riyadh,?Saudi Arabia.(VOA Photo - Laurie Kassman)What business that began with one eating place in the American Midwest now has thirty thousand fast-food restaurants all over the world? The answer is McDonald’s, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary earlier this month. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois, near Chicago, on April fifteenth, nineteen fifty-five. Before starting McDonald’s, Mister Kroc sold machines that mixed milk and ice cream to make a popular drink called a milkshake. The new restaurant sold hamburgers and fried potatoes called French fries also. McDonald’s workers prepared this food very quickly. People waited only a few minutes for their food. That first McDonald’s was torn down in nineteen eighty-four. The company built a copy of it in the same place to serve as a McDonald’s Museum. It contains the equipment used to prepare food during the restaurant’s first days of operation. On the bottom floor of the museum, visitors can see early advertisements, other McDonald’s objects and a short movie about the company. The museum does not sell food, however. Visitors can go across the street to eat at a modern McDonald’s. Today, thirty thousand McDonald’s restaurants in more than one hundred countries serve food to almost fifty million people each day. But McDonald’s has many critics. They say the company pays its workers too little. They also say the restaurants serve food that is not healthy because it contains too much fat and sugar. Last year, an American filmmaker ate nothing but McDonald’s food for one month. He made a movie about his experience called “Super Size Me”. Doctors who examined the young man found that eating McDonald’s food had damaged his health. The food caused weight gain, increased blood pressure and cholesterol and damage to his liver. After the movie’s release, McDonald’s announced that it would stop selling extremely large meals. During its fifty years, McDonald’s has added more kinds of foods. It still sells milkshakes, French fries and hamburgers. But it has added salads, chicken sandwiches, yogurt, and breakfast food. May Day HOST: Now it is time for a listener question. Ngoc Toan of Vietnam asks about the meaning of May Day in the United States. This Sunday, May first, is May Day. Many countries honor workers and the labor movement on May Day. But the United States celebrates Labor Day on the first Monday in September. May Day events in America are mostly a celebration of nature. May Day is one of the oldest holidays around the world. Experts say many ancient peoples chose May first to celebrate the re-birth of nature in springtime. The Romans held a festival of flowers on the first day of May. Their celebrations became tradition in Britain, Ireland and Scotland. May Day celebrated the beauty of spring after a long, cold winter. In Ireland and Scotland, May Day was one of the most important holidays of the year. On May first, people gathered flowers before sunrise. They sang and danced as they returned home. Then they decorated their houses with the flowers. In England, villagers picked flowers and then gathered in the center of town. They chose a young woman as May Queen. She sat in a special area surrounded by flowers. The people performed for her. They sang, held competitions, sports events and parades. They placed flowers on a tall piece of wood called a Maypole. They placed the pole in the ground and danced around it. In early America, Puritan settlers from England did not approve of such activities. So they did not celebrate May Day. But settlers from other countries in Europe brought May Day traditions to America. In some parts of the country, children still dance around a Maypole. They collect flowers and give them to friends and family members. Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania has been holding May Day celebrations since nineteen hundred. Students at the all-female college gather flowers early in the morning. They attach long colorful pieces of cloth to the top of a Maypole. They dance around the Maypole holding the ribbons. Later in the day, the students hold a more modern event to celebrate freedom and equality for women. They release thousands of flower petals into the air. The Shins An American band called The Shins has created its own kind of pop rock music influenced by the songs of the nineteen sixties. The four young men in the group are from the state of New Mexico. They have been together since nineteen ninety-seven. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Shins have had two successful record albums. This song is from their album “Chutes Too Narrow.”?? It is called “So Says I.” (MUSIC) The band mixes independent rock with popular music to make its own kind of sound. This song mixes country music and modern pop. It is called “Gone for Good”. (MUSIC) The members of the group now live in Portland, Oregon. They are performing around the United States through most of this year. The Shins became more popular after their music was in a recent movie called “Garden State.”? In the movie, two of the characters listen to the band’s music in a hospital waiting room. We leave you now with that song, “Caring is Creepy”. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Ed Stautberg, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. The audio engineer was Carl Starling. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Stocks: Proposed Deal Aims to Ready N.Y.S.E. for Electronic Future
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In an age of electronic trading, most activity on the world's biggest stock market still takes place on a noisy trading floor. The New York Stock Exchange uses a system of traders called specialists to bring together buyers and sellers. The exchange has used this system for over two centuries. John Thain is the chief executive officer. He says the exchange must do more to compete in what he calls a "high-speed electronically connected world." Last week Mister Thain announced an agreement to combine the New York Exchange with Archipelago Holdings. Archipelago was one of the first companies to create an electronic trading system. Today, Archipelago carries out one-fourth of the trades on the NASDAQ, the second largest stock exchange in the United States. Under the proposed deal, the New York Stock Exchange would use two systems: one based on people, the other on computers. Archipelago shareholders would own thirty percent of a combined company called the N.Y.S.E. Group. The N.Y.S.E. Group would be a publicly traded company. Currently, the New York Stock Exchange operates as a non-profit corporation. Members of the exchange would own seventy percent of the new company. Members are individuals or companies that own seats on the exchange. The deal requires approval by these members and by shareholders in Archipelago. The Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington must also agree. Not everyone likes the proposal. Investor Kenneth Langone served on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange. He has criticized the continued use of specialists. But he says the plan does not provide enough value for exchange members. Mister Langone has organized a group to consider moves such as a competing offer. Only a few years ago, the current trading system seemed unlikely to change. At that time, Richard Grasso headed the exchange. He supported the use of specialists. But Mister Grasso was forced out of his job in September of two thousand three in a dispute over his pay. His replacement, John Thain, came to the Big Board from the Goldman Sachs Group. That investment bank has been advising both the exchange and Archipelago in their merger negotiations. Goldman is also a member of the exchange and a shareholder in Archipelago. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-04/2005-04-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bush Proposes Measures to Reduce Energy Costs
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. PRESIDENT BUSH: "Millions of American families and small businesses are hurting because of higher gasoline prices. My administration is doing everything we can to make gasoline more affordable." President Bush, at his news conference at the White House Thursday night, reacting to concerns about energy prices. For now the United States will continue to ask oil-producing countries to produce more. But Mister Bush says Americans must also make better use of existing energy resources and develop new ones. The president urged help for other nations to improve technology that could reduce worldwide demand for fossil fuels. And he urged Congress to pass his energy plan so he could sign it by summer. Earlier in the week, Mister Bush proposed ways to reduce the long-term need for imported oil. In his words: "Our dependence on foreign energy is like a foreign tax on the American people."? Gasoline currently averages more than two dollars and twenty cents per gallon, or fifty-eight cents a liter. Mister Bush proposes more refineries to process oil into fuel, and more nuclear power stations. He noted that no new refineries have been built in the United States since the nineteen seventies. There have been no new orders for nuclear power stations either since then. Mister Bush says former military bases could be used to build oil refineries. He also proposed that the government provide risk insurance for nuclear power operators in case of trouble. Another proposal would increase federal power to approve new centers for liquefied natural gas. The president also supports a tax credit for buyers of vehicles that use diesel fuel. And he supports oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Opponents worry about harm to the environment. The Bush administration proposed an energy plan to Congress almost four years ago. The House of Representatives approved legislation on April twenty-first. This week the president called for the Senate to begin work soon on its version of the bill. Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited President Bush this week at his home in Crawford, Texas. The crown prince discussed a Saudi plan to increase oil production. But Saudi foreign affairs adviser Adel al-Jubeir noted that American refineries cannot process much more oil. On Friday oil prices closed below fifty dollars a barrel for the first time in more than two months. Increased supplies have helped bring down prices from a high of more than fifty-eight dollars a barrel. A report this week added to concerns about the effects of high energy prices on economic growth. The government says the United States economy expanded at a yearly rate of just over three percent from January through March. The increase was the smallest in two years. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World Bank Announces Plan to Improve Anti-Malaria Efforts
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank has announced a new plan to help fight malaria. The international lender says the fight against the disease has been too slow and uneven. The goal is to expand access to anti-malarial drugs and preventions such as bed nets treated with chemicals that kill mosquitoes. Those insects spread the organism that causes an estimated five hundred million cases of malaria each year. Most are in southern Africa. The disease is getting more difficult to fight as the organism develops resistance to traditional treatments. The new Global Strategy and Booster Program announced by the World Bank will include a special committee. Its job will be to make sure that anti-malaria efforts are part of lending programs. World Bank officials estimate that five hundred million to one thousand million dollars in spending is possible over the next five years. The announcement took place on April twenty-fourth, Africa Malaria Day. The World Health Organization says malaria kills more than one million people a year. Most of the victims are children under the age of five. Pregnant women are also at greater risk from the disease. Africa pays a huge economic price for malaria. The W.H.O says the disease costs Africa about twelve thousand million dollars a year in lost productivity. The health agency says malaria has slowed development on the continent. The new program announced by the World Bank also will increase help to other areas affected by malaria. Southeast Asia has the second highest death rate from the disease. About eight percent of malaria deaths happen in that part of the world. Jean-Louis Sarbib is a top official at the World Bank. He calls the new plan "good for reducing human suffering and good for economic growth."? When adults get sick, they have to stop working. Mister Sarbib points out that when children and teachers become infected, education also suffers as a result of malaria. World Bank officials say they are building on lessons learned from malaria control programs in Brazil, Eritrea, India and Vietnam. Mister Sarbib says much progress has been in some places, but efforts have been slower and more limited than expected. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce deaths among children and pregnant women. Malaria control is one way to do that. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Aaron Copland: His Music Taught Americans About Themselves
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Aaron Copland, one of America’s best modern music composers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aaron Copland wrote many kinds of music. He wrote music for the orchestra, piano, and voice. He wrote music for plays, movies and dance. Copland also was a conductor, pianist, speaker, teacher and author. Aaron CoplandMusic critics say Copland taught Americans about themselves through his music. He used parts of many old traditional American folk songs in his work. He was influenced to do this after studying music in France. He said that composers there had a very French way of writing music. He said Americans had nothing like that in this country. So he decided to compose music that was truly American. VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland was born in nineteen hundred in Brooklyn, New York. He was the youngest of five children. His parents had come to the United States from eastern Europe. They owned a store in Brooklyn. Aaron began playing the piano when he was a young child. He wrote his first song for his mother when he was eight years old. His dreams of becoming a composer began when he was young. When he was sixteen, he urged his parents to let him study composing with Rubin Goldmark. Goldmark had taught the composer George Gershwin. VOICE ONE: When he was in his early twenties, Copland went to Paris where he studied music with Nadia Boulanger. She was one of the most important music teachers of the time. He returned to New York in nineteen twenty-four. The famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, learned about Copland's music. Koussevitzky led the orchestra for the first performance of Copland's early work, "Music for the Theater," in nineteen twenty-five. Koussevitzky also conducted Copland's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" in nineteen twenty-seven. This work was unusual because Copland used ideas from jazz music in his concerto. VOICE TWO: Copland later wrote the music for two ballets about the American West. One was about the life of a famous gunfighter called Billy the Kid. Copland used music from American cowboy songs in this work. This piece from "Billy the Kid: Ballet Suite" is called "Street in a Frontier Town. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-two, the conductor Andre Kostelanetz asked Copland to write music about a great American, Abraham Lincoln. Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor America's sixteenth president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the American Civil War. He added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters. "Lincoln Portrait" has been performed many times in America. Many famous people have done the speaking part. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was one of them. Here, actor James Earl Jones performs in Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Also in nineteen forty-two, the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked eighteen composers to write music expressing love for America. For the competition, Copland composed "Fanfare for the Common Man. " This music is played in America during many national events, including some presidential inaugurations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say "Fanfare for the Common Man" was an example of Copland's change in direction during the nineteen-forties. He began writing music that was more easily understood and more popular. Copland wrote about this in nineteen forty-one in his book, “Our New Music.”? He wrote that a whole new public for music had developed as a result of the popularity of the radio and record player. He said that there was no reason to continue writing music as if these devices did not exist. So he decided to write music in a simpler way. VOICE TWO: Copland spread his ideas about music in other ways. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the many awards he received was the Pulitzer Prize. He won it in nineteen forty-five for his famous music for a ballet called "Appalachian Spring." It is one of his most popular works. The last part of the ballet is based on a traditional song, "A Gift to be Simple." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Copland also wrote music for several major motion pictures. He won an Academy Award in nineteen-fifty for composing the music for the film, "The Heiress." Then, he began experimenting with what is called a twelve-tone system of composing. His music no longer was as easy to understand, or as popular. Copland stopped composing at the end of the nineteen-sixties. Yet he continued to be active as a conductor and speaker. In nineteen eighty-two, Queens College of the City University of New York established the Aaron Copland School of Music. VOICE TWO: Copland was a strong supporter of liberal ideas. In the early nineteen-fifties, he and other famous writers, actors and intellectuals were accused of supporting communism. Public opinion changed, though. In nineteen sixty-four, President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is America's highest award to civilians. Aaron Copland died in nineteen ninety at the age of ninety. But his music lives on. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Living a Simple Life: the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Come with us today as we visit some people who lead a simple life: the Amish in Pennsylvania. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A visit to parts of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is like a trip back in time. People live in simple farmhouses. Family members, including small children, all work in the fields. Crops are planted and harvested without modern farm technology. Most Amish people are easy to recognize. The women make their own long, dark-colored dresses. They cover their hair with white cloth hats, called prayer caps. They do not wear jewelry. The men grow long beards. They wear black clothing and dark hats. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? About sixteen thousand to eighteen thousand Old Order Amish live in Lancaster County. This area is also known as Pennsylvania Dutch Country. "Dutch" is a name for people from the Netherlands. Many of the Amish, however, came from Germany. It is often said that they were called "Dutch" because English colonists could not say the correct word, Deutsch. But language experts note that people in England often used the term "Dutch" as another word for "German."? VOICE ONE: The Amish live much like their ancestors did. Modern things like electricity, central heating and indoor water pipes are not considered necessary. The Amish do not drive cars. Instead, they travel in buggies pulled by horses. A group of Old Order Amish recently won a legal battle against the state over safety markings on these wooden vehicles. Pennsylvania requires buggies to carry a red warning sign that can be easily seen in car lights. But the Old Order Amish do not have to observe that law. The group is called the Swartzentrubers. They hang a light from the driver’s side door of their buggies. In any case, even a red sign might not have helped ten Amish people injured in Somerset County recently. A car that may have been speeding struck their buggy -- during daylight. VOICE TWO: You meet many Amish people in Lancaster County. It is a popular place for visitors. Between now and November, even more are coming. Lancaster County is marking the twentieth anniversary of a famous American film, "Witness."? Many people learned about the Amish and their ways from this movie by director Peter Weir. Some Amish, however, said the story misrepresented them. Harrison Ford plays a city policeman. He stays with an Amish family as part of an investigation. A tour shows where the different parts of "Witness" were filmed. The Lancaster Cultural History Museum also has an exhibit about the movie. (SOUND) “You have no right to keep us here. Uh…yes I do. Your son’s a material witness to a homicide. You don’t understand. We want nothing to do with your laws. Doesn’t surprise me. Lot of people I meet are like that.” VOICE ONE: One of the scenes in the movie shows a barn-raising in which men from the community put up a farm building. (SOUND) “Hurry up now…we have a barn to raise and a day to do it.” VOICE ONE: The barn-raising in the film looks real -- because it was. Local workers played the parts of the Amish in the movie and built a barn. But the filmmakers brought in heavy equipment so they could speed up the work. VOICE TWO: Fifty years ago, a musical play about the Amish life was first seen on Broadway. "Plain and Fancy" is still being performed today. The musical is now being performed in the Midwestern town of Nappanee, Indiana. "Plain and Fancy" is the story of what happens when two people from New York go to Pennsylvania to sell a farm to an Amish man. Throughout the play, the audience sees the differences between the city people and the Amish. (MUSIC)???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? VOICE ONE: The Amish heat their houses with wood stoves. And they get their water from wells. Many Amish people do not use the telephone. They do not want to be connected to the outside world. But some earn money by cooking lunch or dinner for visitors. Visitors can join a family for a meal that includes meat, potatoes and vegetables grown on their farms. If the guests have any room left in their stomach after all that, they can have a sweet, rich dessert. VOICE TWO: The Amish and other groups in Lancaster County, including Mennonites, are known as the Plain People. Many came to the United States from Germany and Switzerland in the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds. They were expelled or chose to leave because of religious oppression. Most of them settled in Pennsylvania, where they were promised religious freedom. Lancaster County officials say about fifty thousand Plain People currently live there. That is about ten percent of the population. But not all Amish people live in Pennsylvania. There are settlements of Amish in twenty-two American states and in Ontario, Canada. VOICE ONE: Some people have expressed concern about the growing number of businesses in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The people worry that this will interfere with the Amish way of life. Sometimes, visitors stop near an Amish family and take their picture -- an act that angers the Amish. VOICE TWO: As you tour Amish country, you will see small, well-kept farms of about twenty hectares. The Amish are known for their success at farming. Amish farmers produce as much corn, peanuts, tobacco and other crops on each hectare as other farmers. But they always have been more concerned with protecting the land than with producing huge crops. The Amish also raise farm animals such as cows, pigs, horses and chickens. Each family takes care of its own farm. But the community works together to do big jobs. People also gather for religious services. The services are in German. At home, the Amish speak a form of German. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Amish believe that hard work is important and enjoyable. They do not believe in depending on the world outside their community. Almost every Amish man can build a house, make furniture, and raise crops and animals. Almost every Amish woman can preserve food, make clothing and covers for beds called quilts. Quilt-makers all over the world recognize the beauty and complexity of Amish quilts. Young Amish women make the dresses they wear for their marriage ceremonies. These dresses are blue, instead of the white that is traditional for many other Americans. After their weddings, the women wear these dresses to church. And when they die, tradition calls for them to be buried in their wedding dresses. Most Amish families have seven or eight children. Traditionally the children do not leave home until they marry. ??????? VOICE TWO: The Amish live by rules they believe are explained in the Bible, the Christian holy book. For example, they believe that Christians must always treat other people with love and gentleness. They believe it is wrong to fight wars. They do not become soldiers or police officers. These religious beliefs sometimes have brought the Amish into conflict with American law. For example, Amish men refuse military service during wartime. Instead, they are permitted to perform some other kind of public service. VOICE ONE: Many Amish refuse to send their children to public schools. Instead, they have their own community schools. The Amish pay taxes, but they do not usually vote in elections. They refuse help from the federal government. The Amish permit few differences among their own people. They are different from most other Americans, and happy to be that way. And their way of life is what brings visitors to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, year after year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?? Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Future of the Central American Free Trade Agreement Unclear in Washington
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. President Bush is urging Congress to pass the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. Under CAFTA the United States would join the Dominican Republic and five Central American countries. The five are Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. The agreement deals with agriculture and all other trade. It requires the nations to reduce or end import taxes on most products. It also requires them to enforce their own labor and environmental laws. Support among lawmakers in Washington is mixed. Democrats mostly oppose the agreement. So do a number of Republicans, who control Congress. But the president says Congress needs to pass the agreement to create jobs and strengthen democracy in the Americas. The Bush administration says the United States has about thirty-two thousand million dollars a year in trade with CAFTA nations. The Office of the Trade Representative in Washington says United States farmers will gain new markets for their goods. And it says many Central American agricultural products like coffee and tropical fruit do not compete with American products. In two thousand three, CAFTA nations imported about forty-one percent of their agricultural products from the United States. But that was down from fifty-four percent ten years ago. CAFTA will immediately remove import taxes on grapefruit, apples, almonds and many other fruits and nuts. Other tariffs will be reduced over five, ten or fifteen years. But CAFTA will not remove all tariffs. Sugar will remain protected in the United States. The agreement establishes sugar export limits for each country. The Trade Representative’s Office says the new limits represent less than two percent of United States sugar production. The United States sugar industry opposes CAFTA. Other opponents include textile industry groups that worry about the risk of job losses. Labor groups say the free trade agreement does not protect American jobs or labor rights. And environmental groups say the agreement is weak on protecting the environment. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns praises CAFTA as good for American farmers. He says CAFTA nations can now place high tariffs on goods from the United States, yet escape duties on most of their own products. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: When Nothing Goes to Waste: the Mystery of Obsessive Hoarding
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about a mental disorder called Compulsive hoarding syndrome. It is more than a health disorder. It also is a public safety issue. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of people in the United States are enjoying the return of spring. During this season, many Americans do what is known as “spring cleaning.”?? They open the windows of their homes to let in fresh air. They use cleaning products that make their homes smell nice. And, they organize their belongings. Some Americans have developed a strong interest in cleaning up their homes. This also can be called removing clutter. Clutter is a disorganized collection of things. To remove clutter means to throw away the things you do not want. Then, organize the things you have decided to keep. VOICE TWO: In recent years, it has become easy to find information on how to attack clutter. There are books, magazines and even television programs on the subject. Specialty stores sell containers, boxes and shelves for storing things around the house. Some Americans pay people to come to their home to remove clutter. Such people provide advice on what to keep and what to throw away. They also help with organizing things. However, their services can be costly. The services of a professional organizer can cost between forty dollars and two hundred dollars an hour. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people have serious problems with clutter. They suffer a mental disorder called compulsive hoarding syndrome. Hoarding is the gathering of objects and not being able to throw them away. Most people would say the objects are useless or worthless. However, the hoarder considers them things that could be useful some day. He or she may develop an emotional connection to such things. Hoarders are afraid to throw away things. Yet, they continue to bring more and more objects into their homes. They may save things such as newspapers, clothing, old food and even animals. VOICE TWO: Hoarders live among so much clutter it may endanger their physical health. Dirt, insects, and bacteria that form over a period of time can cause sickness. Safety experts say the homes of hoarders often are unsafe. A room filled with newspapers, for example, can cause floor supports to break down. In many cases, a room is filled from top to bottom with useless things. There is only a small space to walk from one end of the room to the other. VOICE ONE: One of the most famous hoarding cases involved two brothers in New York City. Homer and Langley Collyer were found dead in their home in nineteen forty-seven. Langley Collyer was buried under what appeared to be a mountain of old newspapers. The weight of the newspapers crushed him. Langley was Homer’s caretaker. Medical experts believed Langley had been dead for several days before his brother Homer died of starvation. Police found the home was filled with thousands of unused books, pieces of wood, and skins from large fruits and vegetables. The two brothers also saved pipes and very large automobile parts. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In recent years, mental health experts have studied compulsive hoarding syndrome. Yet, the disorder is still difficult for most people to understand. Hoarding can have a severe effect on the family of a hoarder. Family members who share a home with the hoarder cannot understand why their loved one keeps so many useless things. They say the hoarder should make a greater effort to keep the home clean and organized. VOICE ONE: However, it is not that simple. Hoarding is most commonly connected to obsessive-compulsive disorder, or O.C.D. O.C.D. causes someone to have ideas that interfere with his or her daily activities. Such persons act on these ideas, even when they know the resulting actions are senseless. For example, fear of being dirty may cause people with O.C.D. to wash their hands again and again. They may inspect things repeatedly, like making sure all electrical devices are turned off. Hoarders save things because they are afraid to throw something away that might be important. VOICE TWO: Sanjaya Saxena is a research scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine. He says hoarders have high levels of uneasiness, depression and a need to be perfect. Recently, Professor Saxena led a study at the U.C.L.A. Neuropsychiatric Institute. The study involved sixty-two adults. Twelve of them had obsessive-compulsive disorder with hoarding actions. Thirty-three others had O.C.D. with mild or no evidence of hoarding. Seventeen others had no signs of the disorder. The researchers used images from a process called Positron Emission Tomography to measure brain activity. They compared images of the brains of hoarders to those from the other persons with O.C.D. The hoarders had lower activity in an area of the brain called the anterior cingulated gyrus. This area helps to control decision-making and the ability to solve problems. The study found that different medicines could possibly improve the success of treatment. The American Journal of Psychiatry published the findings. More studies are planned. VOICE ONE: Randy Frost is a psychologist at Smith College in Massachusetts. He also has studied hoarding. Professor Smith says it is more than a mental disorder. He says hoarding is a public health problem. Collecting waste, food or materials that can cause fires creates serious health risks. In the United States, hoarding violates laws that were created to protect public safety and property. Some cities have formed groups to deal with the problems caused by hoarding. Each group usually has representatives from one or more government agencies. Agency officials say they often hear about hoarders from citizens who live near someone affected with the disorder. The citizens no longer want to see broken household equipment or old clothing lying on property near their homes. VOICE TWO: There also are hoarders who collect cats, dogs or other animals. Most animal hoarders believe they are rescuing the animals with the purpose of caring for them. However, hoarders do not realize when they have too many animals. The hoarders are really doing more harm than good. They may not be able to provide medical care for the animals. Some animals may not be washed or fed. Officials have been shocked at the condition of the homes of animal hoarders. Floors were covered with animal wastes. Infectious diseases were a problem. Some animals were found starving, while others had died. VOICE ONE: Gary Patronek works at the Center for Animals and Public Policy at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts. Doctor Patronek says there are several things that help to describe animal hoarding. They include having large numbers of animals and the poor conditions they live in. He also said the hoarder often denies there is a problem. An animal hoarder usually collects other things, such as clothing or magazines. Experts suspect that many hoarders have had uncaring parents or disorderly lives as children. The animals serve as a way for hoarders to get the love they always wanted. Animal hoarders often claim to love the animals. They cannot deal with the thought that something might happen to the animal. VOICE TWO: Compulsive hoarding syndrome can be treated. However, it is very difficult. The treatment may involve medicines and working with a mental health expert. The expert helps hoarders to understand their actions of saving useless things. Patients are taught to develop a plan for organizing. They learn how to decide what to throw away. They learn to resist the urge to bring home more things. Experts suggest taking a picture of the area to be organized before and after the work is completed. They say this will provide the patient with a feeling of progress. They also say the treatment program, changes in the way of thinking, and improved decision-making skills will help the patient in other areas of their life for a long time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Lawan Davis. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Wade Davis: Scientist, Explorer and Writer
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about scientist, explorer and writer Wade Davis. He is working to try to save cultures throughout the world that are in danger of disappearing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wade Davis has been exploring the mostly unknown areas of the world for more than twenty-five years. He has traveled from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of North Africa … from the Canadian Arctic to the rain forests of Borneo. “Light at the Edge of the World” is his latest book. It is published by the National Geographic Society, where he is an Explorer-in-Residence. The book includes pictures Mister Davis has taken of these hidden places of the world, places which face many threats. The pictures are beautiful and unusual. Some of the images remain in your memory long after you close the book. One picture shows a guard leaning out a window in a bright orange wall of a Buddhist religious center in Tibet. In another, the yellow light of the sun is just beginning to appear over the morning fog in the forests of the Waorani people in Ecuador. Another picture shows a caribou walking along a huge expanse of white snow in British Columbia, Canada. In another, an Ariaal woman of Karare in Kenya, wearing many bright red necklaces, carries a large load of firewood on her back. VOICE TWO: Other pictures show evidence of a disappearing way of life. For example, one picture is of fallen trees by a river that flows through the forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. A large yellow machine rests on the cleared land. A young woman tries to wash in the now polluted river. It is evidence of what is happening to the home of the Penan people in Borneo. They lived by hunting and gathering food as they moved through the forests. However, Mister Davis says the Malaysian government is permitting companies to cut the trees on more than seventy percent of the Penan territory. As a result, the traditional way of life of the Penan is gone. And all their history, which is part of the forest, is lost. VOICE ONE: In “Light at the Edge of the World,” Wade Davis writes about what native groups could teach about different ways of living and thinking. He describes their daily lives, and the threats to their traditional ways. He explains their strong relationship to the land they live on, and the ceremonies that tie them to each other and to nature. For these groups, the land is alive. Mountains, rivers and forests are not just thought of as supports for human life. Wade Davis’s hope is that through this book and other projects he can help people understand the value of what he calls the ethnosphere. He created the word ethnosphere, he says, because words have power. The word describes the total of all thoughts, beliefs and stories of the different cultures alive in the world today. He wants to get people to see that there is a link of cultural, spiritual, intellectual and social life that goes around the planet. He says, “The ethnosphere represents all we are and all we have created as humans.” VOICE TWO: Mister Davis says the ethnosphere is being damaged more rapidly and severely than the biosphere – the plants, animals and insects of the world. The sign of this, he says, is in the loss of languages. He explains it this way. Throughout all of human history, about ten-thousand languages have existed. Today, about six-thousand are still spoken. Yet half of these are not being taught to children, which means they will be lost as soon as the older speakers die. Each language contains the history of a culture. It represents the intellectual and spiritual knowledge that comes from ancestors down through the years. Languages express the belief systems, traditions and ways of understanding the world that are different for each group of people. Wade Davis says that each way of looking at the world helps us all understand the complex human experience. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Wade Davis was born in British Columbia, in northwest Canada. He has degrees in anthropology -- the study of humans, and botany -- the study of plants. He received his doctorate in ethnobotany from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ethnobotony is the study of how plants are used in a culture. One of the most important influences on his life was a professor at Harvard, Richard Schultes. He was known as the world’s leading expert on plants that are used as medicines and plants that affect the mind. Professor Schultes had left Harvard in the early Nineteen Forties to spend six months in South America along the Amazon River. He ended up spending twelve years there making maps of rivers. He lived with more than twenty native groups. In that time, he collected more than twenty-seven-thousand examples of plant life, including two-thousand medicinal plants. VOICE TWO: Wade Davis was a student at Harvard when he met Professor Schultes in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. He told the professor that he too would like to go collect plants in the Amazon. Two weeks later Wade was on his way. He spent fifteen months there during that first trip exploring the Amazon River and Andes Mountains of South America. Through the years, he lived with fifteen native groups in eight Latin American countries and collected six-thousand plants. After his first trip to the Amazon area, he went to Haiti to investigate plant mixtures thought to create a zombie, a live person who appears to be dead. He wrote about the experience in the book, “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” an international bestseller published in Nineteen-Eighty-Six. VOICE ONE: Wade Davis has spent years traveling in South America along the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River. His book, “One River, Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest,” tells about his experiences there. He explored many other places, including Tibet, the Arctic and Malaysia. He has experienced daily life that is very different from modern western life. He tells the story of how this way of life is disappearing as forests are cut, rivers are polluted, and native homelands are seized. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Wade Davis says his worldwide travels have been driven by a simple desire for knowledge, for understanding how other people live. But, he says, what also was pushing him into his explorations was the need for excitement. One of the pleasures of travel, he says, is the chance to live among those who have not lost the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind. He says he does not learn a lot about the nature of being alive from people who live in modern western ways. The joy of learning about what it means to be human comes from those who live in other ways. Mister Davis says he goes up into the Andes Mountains and spends a month in a village where an older member of the group tells the future by throwing coca leaves. “I see his people use traditional ceremonies to re-establish their sense of belonging to the Earth. It is here I see a window open wide to a place beyond my imaginings.” VOICE ONE: In his books and in public speeches, Wade Davis mourns the way ancient peoples throughout the world are being torn from their past and pushed into the future. “Change is not the problem,” he says. “All through history, cultures have changed to meet the pressures of more modern times. We are not talking about how we stop history, or change. The real question is how do we direct the flow of change so it does not do harm to living cultures.”? He says traditional cultures should be permitted to change at their own speed and in their own ways. It is very possible, he says, to use both blowguns and computers. It should not be a choice of either one or the other. For example, offering modern medicine to native groups should not mean the death of shamanism, the ancient method of healing. The two traditions can support each other. VOICE TWO: Wade Davis points out that the physical destruction of groups of people is condemned worldwide. But the destruction of ethnic traditions is considered in many places to be good policy. He thinks that governments and individuals can be educated to realize this is wrong. Wade Davis says that every culture that disappears reduces human knowledge about the natural world, ways to react to common problems, and even the meaning of existence. In his book, “Light at the Edge of the World,” and through National Geographic Society programs, he tells the stories of the many cultures of the world. He hopes to use his explorations and storytelling about what he finds to try to awaken everyone to the wonder of the ethnosphere. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-03-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Look Behind the Disease: Meningitis
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Meningitis is an infection of the fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. Most cases are caused by a virus or bacteria. Medical experts say people with viral meningitis generally get better within about ten days. Bacterial meningitis is rare and more serious. It may cause brain damage, hearing loss or, in some cases, death. Tests on a small amount of fluid taken from the spinal cord can show if the infection is viral or bacterial. Bacterial meningitis can be treated with antibiotic drugs. Experts say it is important to begin treatment as early as possible. Common signs of meningitis include high body temperature, headache and neck pain. Also, people may be sleepy and not able to think clearly. Newborn babies with meningitis may not eat; they may have little energy or cry continually. Meningitis can also cause vomiting and seizures in both children and adults. Meningitis can spread when a person coughs or sneezes. And it can spread through kissing. Crowded living conditions may also increase the spread of meningitis. Signs of the disease usually appear within two to ten days of infection. Around the world, different kinds of bacteria cause different forms of meningitis. The highest infection rates are in southern Africa in countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia and Niger. These countries are part of what is known as the "African meningitis belt," from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. The last major outbreak of meningitis in Africa was in nineteen ninety-six and ninety-seven. ?The World Health Organization had reports of more than two hundred fifty thousand cases. More than twenty thousand people died. Reports last month said a meningitis outbreak in Ethiopia had killed at least forty people and infected more than four hundred. Health officials organized a campaign to vaccinate people against the disease. Vaccines can protect against some of the most common bacteria that cause meningitis. In two thousand three, researchers developed a vaccine against a new strain. This form of meningitis killed at least one thousand five hundred people in Burkina Faso in two thousand two. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/a-2005-05-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 4, 2005 - Meet Two More English Teachers
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: meet two more English teachers. RS: Qu Gang teaches in the world's biggest country, China. He is a member of the National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association. Doug Kelly teaches in one of the world's smallest countries, the Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: meet two more English teachers. RS: Qu Gang teaches in the world's biggest country, China. He is a member of the National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association. Doug Kelly teaches in one of the world's smallest countries, the Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM. AA: What do these two have in common? Both happened to stop by the VOA booth at the recent TESOL international English-teachers convention in Texas. QU GANG: "There are many, many Chinese people who want to learn English, but most of the contents of the textbook are out of date, and so they don't the resources to 'feel' the fresh English. Another thing is that even with the very limited resources of the English, they don't know the background information of the English. So they know they are listening to the English, but they can't learn it because they don't know the background information. So they need more things to help them to learn English. The market is very huge, very huge." AA: "Do you have any advice for anyone in China who might be listening -- a suggestion, an example, something that is a good way to learn English?" QU GANG: "I feel learning English should be divided into two steps. The second part is listening, the practice, listen, speaking, and writing and reading. But before that part there is a very important part. This is the basic abilities to master a language. For example, how to speak in a standard American voice, the pronunciation, is hard for them to do this. And for native speakers, it is also hard for you to explain to us why do you speak like this? Why do you make this voice? "So I hope more native speakers could explain the reason or the principles of the language to us. Then give us the materials to listen to it. We know so many, many English words. Chinese people are very hard-working students. They remember thousands and thousands of English vocabularies, but they don't know how to make a sentence." DOUG KELLY: "Hi, I'm Doug Kelly and I'm an assistant professor and coordinator of the Media Studies Program at the College of Micronesia-FSM. I teach media studies including radio broadcasting and I'm the station manager for our station, V6CR COM-FM." AA: "Tell me about your radio station." DOUG KELLY: "Our radio station is a community radio station covering about a third of the island of Pohnpei, which is a Pacific island about six degrees north of the equator at about one-fifty-eight east latitude. We reach maybe a few thousand people, but that includes the national government at Palikir, on Pohnpei. When the broadcasting class is in session, it's run by students. When it's not, I take over it. We're on the air from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. And we try to keep it on 365 days a year." AA: "What's your programming consist of?" DOUG KELLY: "If it were up to the students, it would be a jukebox, but I do insist on a little more content. What we usually have is a mix of music, what the students prefer, a little bit of a broader selection of music -- and at least five minutes an hour of news and three times a day, 6 a.m. and noon and 6 p.m., we run VOA Special English." AA: "So how much does this all cost?" DOUG KELLY: "Well, the goal of the broadcasting class -- we're trying to develop a free and independent media in the FSM, that's the whole reason for the media studies program. So one of the goals I set for the program was to say, let's look at what financial resources a person could come up with. You can buy a used car on Pohnpei for about $2000. And so I said, 'OK, can we do this for under $2000?' And I did quite a bit of research, and we got the equipment together and we're on the air, the entire outlay for this 40 watt, FM broadcast commercial station is about $1850." AA: "So for less than $2000, you created a radio station and you operate it 365 days a year?" DOUG KELLY: "That's correct. The only thing we pay for is the electricity. And for about another $1500, you could go completely independent. Our equipment is all designed to run off 12 volts. So if you've got a solar panel and a set of car batteries, you can stay on the air essentially for free." AA: "And what about the software you use. Did you have to buy that, or did you find some free stuff?" DOUG KELLY: "That's all freeware. We're using WinAmp to run our playlist. For recording and editing software, we use Audacity which is another freeware program. And for scheduling which playlist starts when, we use the task scheduler which is built into the Windows operating system. So it's all free. And if you're interested in more information or to learn more about the college, our Web site is www.comfsm.fm." RS: Doug Kelly from the College of Micronesia-FSM and Qu Gang from the National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association in China. AA: And that's Wordmaster this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: What do these two have in common? Both happened to stop by the VOA booth at the recent TESOL international English-teachers convention in Texas. QU GANG: "There are many, many Chinese people who want to learn English, but most of the contents of the textbook are out of date, and so they don't the resources to 'feel' the fresh English. Another thing is that even with the very limited resources of the English, they don't know the background information of the English. So they know they are listening to the English, but they can't learn it because they don't know the background information. So they need more things to help them to learn English. The market is very huge, very huge." AA: "Do you have any advice for anyone in China who might be listening -- a suggestion, an example, something that is a good way to learn English?" QU GANG: "I feel learning English should be divided into two steps. The second part is listening, the practice, listen, speaking, and writing and reading. But before that part there is a very important part. This is the basic abilities to master a language. For example, how to speak in a standard American voice, the pronunciation, is hard for them to do this. And for native speakers, it is also hard for you to explain to us why do you speak like this? Why do you make this voice? "So I hope more native speakers could explain the reason or the principles of the language to us. Then give us the materials to listen to it. We know so many, many English words. Chinese people are very hard-working students. They remember thousands and thousands of English vocabularies, but they don't know how to make a sentence." DOUG KELLY: "Hi, I'm Doug Kelly and I'm an assistant professor and coordinator of the Media Studies Program at the College of Micronesia-FSM. I teach media studies including radio broadcasting and I'm the station manager for our station, V6CR COM-FM." AA: "Tell me about your radio station." DOUG KELLY: "Our radio station is a community radio station covering about a third of the island of Pohnpei, which is a Pacific island about six degrees north of the equator at about one-fifty-eight east latitude. We reach maybe a few thousand people, but that includes the national government at Palikir, on Pohnpei. When the broadcasting class is in session, it's run by students. When it's not, I take over it. We're on the air from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. And we try to keep it on 365 days a year." AA: "What's your programming consist of?" DOUG KELLY: "If it were up to the students, it would be a jukebox, but I do insist on a little more content. What we usually have is a mix of music, what the students prefer, a little bit of a broader selection of music -- and at least five minutes an hour of news and three times a day, 6 a.m. and noon and 6 p.m., we run VOA Special English." AA: "So how much does this all cost?" DOUG KELLY: "Well, the goal of the broadcasting class -- we're trying to develop a free and independent media in the FSM, that's the whole reason for the media studies program. So one of the goals I set for the program was to say, let's look at what financial resources a person could come up with. You can buy a used car on Pohnpei for about $2000. And so I said, 'OK, can we do this for under $2000?' And I did quite a bit of research, and we got the equipment together and we're on the air, the entire outlay for this 40 watt, FM broadcast commercial station is about $1850." AA: "So for less than $2000, you created a radio station and you operate it 365 days a year?" DOUG KELLY: "That's correct. The only thing we pay for is the electricity. And for about another $1500, you could go completely independent. Our equipment is all designed to run off 12 volts. So if you've got a solar panel and a set of car batteries, you can stay on the air essentially for free." AA: "And what about the software you use. Did you have to buy that, or did you find some free stuff?" DOUG KELLY: "That's all freeware. We're using WinAmp to run our playlist. For recording and editing software, we use Audacity which is another freeware program. And for scheduling which playlist starts when, we use the task scheduler which is built into the Windows operating system. So it's all free. And if you're interested in more information or to learn more about the college, our Web site is www.comfsm.fm." RS: Doug Kelly from the College of Micronesia-FSM and Qu Gang from the National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association in China. AA: And that's Wordmaster this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Closing in on Richmond, the Confederate Capital
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Larry West. Today, Maurice Joyce and I continue the story of the American Civil War. VOICE TWO: On July fourth, eighteen-sixty-three, a huge Confederate army surrendered at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union forces had surrounded the city for forty-seven days. Food was gone. The situation was hopeless. The Confederate commander gave up. The terms of surrender were simple. The Confederate soldiers promised not to fight anymore.In return for this promise, they were released on parole and sent home to their families. Never had a Union army won such a victory. Thirty thousand Confederate soldiers were now out of the war. Sixty thousand guns and one hundred seventy cannon were now in Union hands. The Mississippi River was now under Union control. VOICE ONE: Ulysses GrantThe victory at Vicksburg went to General Ulysses Grant. He was named commander of all Union armies in the west. Then he was sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Union army there had just been defeated in a battle along a little river called the Chickamauga. Now the Union soldiers were resting and re-organizing in Chattanooga. The Confederate line stretched halfway around the city. The Confederates had artillery on Lookout Mountain. They controlled every road into the city except a rough one through the mountains. They had blocked the Tennessee River above and below the city. And they had cut the railroad. The Confederate general said he would let hunger force the Union Army to surrender. VOICE TWO: Grant arrived in Chattanooga late in October.The city was full of hungry Union soldiers. They had been without supplies for almost a month. Grant wasted no time. He quickly sent troops to fight the Confederate force blocking the Tennessee River. He sent others to fight the Confederates blocking the road to the nearest Union supply center. Within one week, supply wagons were rolling into Chattanooga. Within a few weeks, the defeated Union army was ready to fight again. VOICE ONE: General grant sent his men against the middle and ends of the Confederate line at the same time. There were few Confederate soldiers at Lookout Mountain. That end of the line fell easily. The center of the line was along a low hill called Missionary Ridge. It held for a while. Then Union soldiers -- acting without orders -- forced their way to the top of the hill. The Confederate line broke. Southern soldiers threw down their guns and ran for their lives. The Confederate Army withdrew south into the state of Georgia. Tennessee was completely in Union hands. The way was now open for the armies of the north to march into the heart of the Confederacy. VOICE TWO: It was clear that the south could not win the war. Too many Confederate soldiers had fallen in battle. None were left to take their place. Supplies were very low. There was not enough food to eat, no shoes to wear, and little left to fight with. No one held any hope of getting supplies from outside the Confederacy. The south was circled by Union troops and warships. All seemed lost. Yet Confederate soldiers refused to stop fighting. They would not surrender. The war would not end until the Confederate Armies were defeated by military force. VOICE ONE: There was no question that the north had the military strength. Supplies were no problem. Factories were producing more than ever before. Manpower was no problem. Men continued to join the Union army. Fewer than before, but still enough to make it a powerful force. Abraham LincolnThe problem with the Union Army was its generals. Some were too careful. Some were unwilling to fight. Some did not know how to fight. The only general who seemed able to win victories was Ulysses Grant. That is why President Abraham Lincoln named Grant Commander of all Union Armies. Lincoln depended on him to end the Civil War. VOICE TWO: Grant went east in March, eighteen-sixty-four, five months after the battle at Chattanooga. He decided to make his headquarters in the field with the Army of the Potomac. He said he would not command from an office in? Washington. But he went to the city to explain his plans to President Lincoln. Grant noted that, in the past, the separate Union Armies had moved and fought independently. He said they were like a poorly-trained team of horses. No two of them ever pulled at the same time in the same direction. Under his command, Grant said, the Union Armies would pull together. They would hit the Confederates with so much strength in so many places that the rebels could not stop them. Grant said all the armies would attack at the same time. VOICE ONE: Grant spent the month of April preparing for the big campaign. The main target, once again, was the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. The Army of the Potomac had one hundre twenty thousand men. It would move against Richmond from the north. General Ben Butler had fifty thousand men. He would move against Richmond from the east. General Franz Sigel would bring thousands more through the Shenandoah Valley to the northwest. These forces were three times the size of Robert E. Lee's army near Richmond. In the west, William Sherman had three armies with more than one hundred thousand men. His opponent, Joe Johnston, had just sixty thousand. VOICE TWO: General Grant kept details of the campaign as secret as possible. Reporters asked President Lincoln when Grant would move. The president answered, "Ask General Grant. " "General Grant will not tell us," said the reporters. Said Lincoln, "He will not tell me, either. " The final Union campaign of the Civil War began on May third, eighteen sixty-four. After two days of marching, the Army of the Potomac reached the wilderness. It was a thickly-wooded area west of Fredericksburg, Virginia.That was where the Union army had lost a battle to the Confederates one year before. That was where the two armies would fight again. VOICE ONE: The battle quickly became a blind struggle. The woods were thick. The smoke was heavy. The soldiers could not see each other until they were very close. Shells set the trees on fire. The wounded could not escape the flames. Their screams filledthe air. After two days, General Grant decided that the wilderness was not the place to fight Robert E. Lee. He wanted to get around the end of Lee's army. He wanted to fight in the open, where he could use his artillery. So he began to march his men towarda place called Spotsylvania Court House. VOICE TWO: Lee moved his men as fast as Grant. When the Union Army got to Spotsylvania, the Confederates were waiting behind walls of earth and stone. For several more days, the two armies fought. At times, they were so close they had no time to load and fire their guns. So they used their guns to hit each other. The Confederate line bent. But it never broke. Once again, Lee had stopped the Union Army. Grant refused to accept defeat. He said he would fight to the finish, if it took all summer. Once again, he ordered his men to march around the end of Lee's line. Lee quickly pulled his men back to a place called Cold Harbor, not far from Richmond.There they waited. VOICE ONE: As he had done in the wilderness and at Spotsylvania, Grant ordered his men to attack hard. It was a slaughter. In less than an hour, seven thousand Union soldiers fell dead or wounded. Grant finally stopped the attack. The Union soldiers returned to their lines. They left behind hundreds of wounded men. For four days, the wounded lay on the battlefield crying for help, for water. Men who tried to rescue them were shot down. Finally, Grant and Lee agreed on a ceasefire to take care of the wounded and bury the dead. It was too late for most of the wounded. They had died. VOICE TWO: The battle at Cold Harbor ended one month of fighting for the Army of the Potomac. The campaign had brought it almost to the edge of Richmond, the Confederate capital. But Grant had paid a terrible price: more than fifty thousand dead and wounded. Confederate losses were much lighter: about twenty thousand. General Grant was beginning to learn an important lesson of the war. The methods of defense had improved much more than the methods of attack. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. College Admissions: Each School Sets Its Own Requirements
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series for students around the world who want to attend college in the United States. This week, we answer a question from Nigeria. Segun Badagry wants to know the general admission requirements needed to study sociology at an American university. Each university has its own requirements for students to be admitted. But we will use as an example the University of Oregon in Eugene. The University of Oregon requires an international student to send copies of all school records after the eighth grade, including translations if necessary. A financial statement and a bank letter showing the student’s ability to pay are also required. The student must also send the results of the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or other English language test. The University of Oregon says its minimum acceptable TOEFL score on the paper test is five hundred. On the computer test, it is one hundred seventy-three. Some international students must take another English test after arriving at the university. A low score on this test will require additional English training. Students with high TOEFL scores do not have to take this test. The University of Oregon says it may conditionally accept students who do not meet its English language requirement. These students must take classes at the university’s American English Institute before taking regular classes later. The University of Oregon does not require S.A.T. or A.C.T. test results for admission, except from students who plan to study architecture. Its Web site provides more information about admissions, costs, and financial aid. The address is www.uoregon.edu?. Click on Admissions, then International. Similar information should also be found on Web sites of other universities. The sociology department is usually a part of the university called the College of Liberal Arts or College of Arts and Sciences. Such a department requires that a student successfully pass classes taken in the first two years of university study. After that, the student officially asks to be admitted to the department as a sociology major. This report and the others in the series can be found on our Web site: voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. --- Part 36 of our Foreign Student Series ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Declaring Personal Bankruptcy Will Become Harder in the U.S.
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Bankruptcy is a legal process for people and businesses that are in debt. It is designed to help them get a new start. It is also designed to help their creditors get paid at least some of what they are owed. In the United States, the credit industry says bankruptcy laws have made it too easy for people to escape their debts. On April twentieth, President Bush signed a bill passed by Congress to make changes in those laws. The new law is called the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of two thousand five. The president stated: "Bankruptcy should be a last choice. If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them.” Last year, there were almost one million six hundred thousand requests for personal bankruptcy protection. The number has grown since the last big changes in the bankruptcy laws in nineteen seventy-eight. Two kinds of bankruptcy are most common for individuals. These are called chapter seven and chapter thirteen. They are named after the parts of the United States Code that define them. Chapter thirteen bankruptcy requires people to have a plan to repay their creditors. They make payments for three to five years until most of their debt is paid off. In chapter seven bankruptcy, people must give up some of their property. The property is then sold to pay their creditors. But the people are able to keep the money they earn after they bring their bankruptcy case. Under chapter seven they are also able to keep most of the property they buy after that time. The new law will make it more difficult for people to declare chapter seven bankruptcy. Those with above-average earnings in their state may have to file under chapter thirteen instead. The law also requires all people to get professional credit advice before they seek bankruptcy protection. And it puts limits on property that can be protected from creditors. Critics say the new law will hurt people whose financial troubles were caused by situations like a job loss or high medical costs. Critics also say bankruptcy will become more costly for average people. Most of the changes will go into effect in October. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are all on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Bankruptcy is a legal process for people and businesses that are in debt. It is designed to help them get a new start. It is also designed to help their creditors get paid at least some of what they are owed. In the United States, the credit industry says bankruptcy laws have made it too easy for people to escape their debts. On April twentieth, President Bush signed a bill passed by Congress to make changes in those laws. The new law is called the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of two thousand five. The president stated: "Bankruptcy should be a last choice. If someone does not pay his or her debts, the rest of society ends up paying them.” Last year, there were almost one million six hundred thousand requests for personal bankruptcy protection. The number has grown since the last big changes in the bankruptcy laws in nineteen seventy-eight. Two kinds of bankruptcy are most common for individuals. These are called chapter seven and chapter thirteen. They are named after the parts of the United States Code that define them. Chapter thirteen bankruptcy requires people to have a plan to repay their creditors. They make payments for three to five years until most of their debt is paid off. In chapter seven bankruptcy, people must give up some of their property. The property is then sold to pay their creditors. But the people are able to keep the money they earn after they bring their bankruptcy case. Under chapter seven they are also able to keep most of the property they buy after that time. The new law will make it more difficult for people to declare chapter seven bankruptcy. Those with above-average earnings in their state may have to file under chapter thirteen instead. The law also requires all people to get professional credit advice before they seek bankruptcy protection. And it puts limits on property that can be protected from creditors. Critics say the new law will hurt people whose financial troubles were caused by situations like a job loss or high medical costs. Critics also say bankruptcy will become more costly for average people. Most of the changes will go into effect in October. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are all on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Betty Rules': Is It Punk? Pop? Alternative? Decide for Yourself
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Betty… A question from a listener about the movie “Gone With The Wind” And a report about Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother's Day Sunday, May eighth, is Mother’s Day in the United States. It is a special day when Americans honor their mothers. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: Writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace. For several years, she held a yearly Mother’s Day meeting in June in Boston, Massachusetts. Mother’s Day as it is celebrated now began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. ?She started a campaign for a national observance in the early nineteen hundreds. She wrote thousands of letters to public officials. She urged that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day. In nineteen fourteen, President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed. After that, the second Sunday in May became a day to express love for mothers throughout the country. On Mother’s Day, children of all ages give their mothers special gifts. Popular gifts include flowers, jewelry or candy. Children also do nice things so their mother will not have to do any work on her special day. They might bring her breakfast in bed or clean the house. Children who no longer live at home may travel to visit their mother on Mother’s Day. The whole family may go to a restaurant for a holiday meal. Children who cannot be with their mother on the holiday send a special card with a message of love. They also call their mother on the telephone to wish her a happy day. ?Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for telephone use in the United States. So, you may ask, do Americans have a special day to honor their fathers?? The answer is yes. Father’s Day is in June, but that is a story for another time! 'Gone With the Wind' HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Bangkok, Thailand. Apiradee Treerutkuarkul asks about the famous American movie “Gone with The Wind” and its stars. “Gone With the Wind” was released in nineteen thirty-nine. Experts still consider it one of the best American movies of all time. It was one of the longest films ever made, at three and one-half hours. It was also one of the most costly at the time. It cost more than four million dollars to make. The movie is based on a book by Margaret Mitchell published in nineteen thirty-six. Producer David O. Selznick bought the film rights to the book soon after. The book and movie told about people living in the South during and after the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. The characters must deal with war, survival, love, disloyalty and changes to their way of life. “Gone with the Wind” broke records for Academy Awards. It won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. Actress Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be nominated for an Oscar. She won for her performance in a supporting role. The movie was not made easily, however. It had several different directors, although only Victor Fleming won the Oscar. Fifty actors had speaking parts. Thousands of other people were used for crowd and battle scenes. Vivien Leigh won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Scartlett O’Hara. She had been chosen for the part over many other actresses. But Vivien Leigh was no southern belle. In fact, she was not even American. She was a British citizen born in India. Vivien Leigh was only twenty-six when she became Scarlett O’Hara. Clark Gable played Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind.”? Gable was born in Ohio in nineteen-oh-one. He became one of America’s most popular actors in the nineteen thirties and forties. Clark Gable was tall and very good-looking. He did both comedy and drama well. Some people were surprised when Clark Gable did not win the Best Actor Oscar for “Gone With the Wind.”? But, then he already had one. The industry had honored him in nineteen thirty-four for his performance in the movie “It Happened One Night.” 'Betty Rules' Betty is the name of a musical group led by three women: Alyson Palmer and sisters Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff. They have been singing together since nineteen eighty-five. They also wrote and perform in a rock musical play about themselves and their band called “Betty Rules.” Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Betty has been described as a punk-pop-alternative-rock group. The band has released six albums. The latest is the recording of the songs in their musical play, “Betty Rules.”? It opened in New York City in two thousand two and was a great success. The group has performed the play in other cities. It recently played in Washington, D.C. Listen to “Kissing You” from “Betty Rules.” (MUSIC) Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff are from the Washington area. The group added two male musicians -- a guitarist and a drummer -- in nineteen ninety-five. Here is another song from their play, “Betty Rules.”? It is called “Slap Bang.” (MUSIC) The members of Betty and their songs have appeared in many television programs and films. The group has also performed at large gatherings for women’s rights and the empowerment of women and girls. They have helped raise millions of dollars for causes such as finding cures for breast cancer and AIDS. We leave you now with another song from “Betty Rules.”? It is called “It Girl.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Our audio engineer was Bob O'Brien. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Betty… A question from a listener about the movie “Gone With The Wind” And a report about Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother's Day Sunday, May eighth, is Mother’s Day in the United States. It is a special day when Americans honor their mothers. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: Writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace. For several years, she held a yearly Mother’s Day meeting in June in Boston, Massachusetts. Mother’s Day as it is celebrated now began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. ?She started a campaign for a national observance in the early nineteen hundreds. She wrote thousands of letters to public officials. She urged that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day. In nineteen fourteen, President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed. After that, the second Sunday in May became a day to express love for mothers throughout the country. On Mother’s Day, children of all ages give their mothers special gifts. Popular gifts include flowers, jewelry or candy. Children also do nice things so their mother will not have to do any work on her special day. They might bring her breakfast in bed or clean the house. Children who no longer live at home may travel to visit their mother on Mother’s Day. The whole family may go to a restaurant for a holiday meal. Children who cannot be with their mother on the holiday send a special card with a message of love. They also call their mother on the telephone to wish her a happy day. ?Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for telephone use in the United States. So, you may ask, do Americans have a special day to honor their fathers?? The answer is yes. Father’s Day is in June, but that is a story for another time! 'Gone With the Wind' HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Bangkok, Thailand. Apiradee Treerutkuarkul asks about the famous American movie “Gone with The Wind” and its stars. “Gone With the Wind” was released in nineteen thirty-nine. Experts still consider it one of the best American movies of all time. It was one of the longest films ever made, at three and one-half hours. It was also one of the most costly at the time. It cost more than four million dollars to make. The movie is based on a book by Margaret Mitchell published in nineteen thirty-six. Producer David O. Selznick bought the film rights to the book soon after. The book and movie told about people living in the South during and after the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. The characters must deal with war, survival, love, disloyalty and changes to their way of life. “Gone with the Wind” broke records for Academy Awards. It won eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress. Actress Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to be nominated for an Oscar. She won for her performance in a supporting role. The movie was not made easily, however. It had several different directors, although only Victor Fleming won the Oscar. Fifty actors had speaking parts. Thousands of other people were used for crowd and battle scenes. Vivien Leigh won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Scartlett O’Hara. She had been chosen for the part over many other actresses. But Vivien Leigh was no southern belle. In fact, she was not even American. She was a British citizen born in India. Vivien Leigh was only twenty-six when she became Scarlett O’Hara. Clark Gable played Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind.”? Gable was born in Ohio in nineteen-oh-one. He became one of America’s most popular actors in the nineteen thirties and forties. Clark Gable was tall and very good-looking. He did both comedy and drama well. Some people were surprised when Clark Gable did not win the Best Actor Oscar for “Gone With the Wind.”? But, then he already had one. The industry had honored him in nineteen thirty-four for his performance in the movie “It Happened One Night.” 'Betty Rules' Betty is the name of a musical group led by three women: Alyson Palmer and sisters Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff. They have been singing together since nineteen eighty-five. They also wrote and perform in a rock musical play about themselves and their band called “Betty Rules.” Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Betty has been described as a punk-pop-alternative-rock group. The band has released six albums. The latest is the recording of the songs in their musical play, “Betty Rules.”? It opened in New York City in two thousand two and was a great success. The group has performed the play in other cities. It recently played in Washington, D.C. Listen to “Kissing You” from “Betty Rules.” (MUSIC) Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff are from the Washington area. The group added two male musicians -- a guitarist and a drummer -- in nineteen ninety-five. Here is another song from their play, “Betty Rules.”? It is called “Slap Bang.” (MUSIC) The members of Betty and their songs have appeared in many television programs and films. The group has also performed at large gatherings for women’s rights and the empowerment of women and girls. They have helped raise millions of dollars for causes such as finding cures for breast cancer and AIDS. We leave you now with another song from “Betty Rules.”? It is called “It Girl.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Our audio engineer was Bob O'Brien. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-06-voa4.cfm
* Headline: New Iraqi Government Faces Increase in Violence
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 ? A democratically elected government was sworn into office Tuesday in Iraq. The new prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, was sworn in first. He placed his hand on a Koran and promised to protect the independence of Iraq. The ceremony took place at a building inside the Green Zone. That area of Baghdad is heavily guarded by American troops. Violence has increased since Mister Jaafari announced his government on April twenty-eighth. Among the attacks Friday, a bomber set off a car full of explosives next to a small police bus in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein. There was also a deadly bombing at a market in the town of Suwayrah, south of Baghdad. And police recovered at least twelve bodies that were buried at a waste center at the northeastern edge of the capital. Also Friday, Al-Jazeera television said kidnappers are demanding that Australia begin to remove its troops from Iraq within seventy-two hours. The Arab television station showed an Australian hostage being held at gunpoint. Al-Jazeera also reported the kidnapping of six Jordanian workers in Iraq. The new Iraqi cabinet has thirty-seven members. Those sworn-in Tuesday included sixteen Shiite Arabs and nine Kurds. They also included four Sunnis and one Christian. Mister Jaafari still had seven members to name, including leaders for the oil and defense ministries. The prime minister, a Shiite, said he wanted to fill the defense position with a Sunni Arab in an effort to reach out to that minority group. Sunni Muslims ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein. They boycotted the national elections in January. And they are believed to be leading the resistance movement. Mister Jafaari blamed the delay in naming the cabinet on disputes among the Sunnis. The top Sunni member in the cabinet, Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer, was among lawmakers who did not attend the Tuesday ceremony. The new government will lead Iraq while the temporary national assembly writes a constitution. Lawmakers are supposed to finish by the middle of August, and then put the proposed document to a national vote. Approval of the constitution would lead the way to new elections in December. In other political news this week in the Middle East, women in Kuwait lost a chance to vote in elections on June second. Conservatives in parliament delayed consideration of a proposed election law. ?The measure would have permitted women to vote in elections for the Kuwaiti municipal council. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are the only Arab countries that bar women from elections. Kuwaiti activists say they hope women will be able to vote in elections in two thousand nine. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Woman Behind 'Little Women': Author and Activist Louisa May Alcott
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Louisa May Alcott. She wrote one of America's best loved children's books. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen sixty-eight, an American publisher asked a struggling young writer to write a book for girls. At first, the writer, Louisa May Alcott, was not sure she wanted to do it. She said she never liked girls. And she never knew many, except her sisters. She thought her family's activities and experiences might be interesting to others. But, she said, probably not. VOICE TWO: Alcott decided to write the book anyway. She told about her experiences growing up in the northeastern United States during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her book proved to be more than interesting. “Little Women” became one of the most popular children's books in American literature. It has been published in more than fifty languages. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louisa May Alcott was born in Pennsylvania in eighteen thirty-two. She was the second of four daughters. She had one older sister, Anna. And two younger sisters, Elizabeth, called Beth, and May. Her parents were Bronson and Abigail Alcott. Her father was an educator and social reformer. The Alcotts later settled in concord, Massachusetts. Several great American writers were friends of the family. They included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Mister Alcott provided the girls' education. He taught them many subjects. He also made them write about their personal thoughts and experiences. The Alcotts did not have much money. Louisa worked to help support her family. She tried teaching, sewing, and taking care of children. She did not like any of these Jobs. Louisa thought of herself as a writer. At the age of sixteen, she wrote her first book. It was called “Flower Fables.” She decided to sell what she wrote. She wrote many kinds of poems, stories, and plays. Her stories were exciting, but unrealistic. She sold them to newspapers and magazines for small amounts of money. VOICE ONE: In eighteen sixty-two, during the American Civil War, Louisa May Alcott went to Washington, D.C. She served as a nurse in a military hospital. She cared for sick and wounded soldiers. She wrote letters to her family about her experiences. She included these letters in a book that was published the next year. Critics praised it but it did not bring her much money. And working in the hospital damaged her health. VOICE TWO: In eighteen sixty-five she visited Europe as a helper to an older woman. Alcott hoped to re-gain her health. She spent a long time away from her family. Her health did not improve. But she thought about her writing. When she returned, she agreed to her publisher's request that she write a book for girls based on the life she knew. “Little Women” was published in eighteen sixty-eight. The book was immediately popular with people of all ages. It brought Alcott fame and a lot of money. She continued writing other popular books for young people. These included “An Old-Fashioned Girl,” “Little Men, and “Eight Cousins.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louisa May Alcott wrote books for adults, as well as children. She published these under another name -- A. M. Barnard. These books were published before “Little Women” made her famous. They were very different from her children's stories. They were about love, power, and unhappiness. They have been published again in the United States. One book is called “Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott.” The book includes four mystery stories. Another is called “The Lost Stories of Louisa May Alcott.” These stories are about love, betrayal, and illegal drugs. VOICE TWO: Alcott wrote a story called “A Long Fatal Love Chase.” It is about an independent young woman. She marries an older man who already has a wife. She flees from him. He follows her throughout Europe. The book tells of insanity, violence, and death. Louisa May Alcott tried to get the book published in eighteen sixty-six. The publisher rejected it. He said it was too shocking. A man who collected Alcott materials found the unpublished story in a bookstore in New York City. He bought it for about fifty thousand dollars a few years ago. He reportedly sold it to a maJor American publisher for about one million dollars. VOICE ONE: Louisa May Alcott wrote many exciting stories about love. Yet she never married. She continued to support her family during the last years of her life. In fact, she cared for the young daughter of her sister, May, who died in eighteen seventy-nine. Alcott was involved in the movements to end slavery and to gain voting rights for women. She wrote that "I ... take more pride in the very small help we Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote. " Louisa May Alcott died in eighteen eighty-eight. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Louisa May Alcott's most famous book, “Little Women”, tells the story of the March family of Concord, Massachusetts. The story begins during the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties. Mister March is away from home. He is with the troops of the Union Army. He is a religious worker. Missus March is raising her four daughters by herself. The March family is very close. They do many things together. They do not have much money. They suffer shortages caused by the war. Yet they share what they have with people who are in need. VOICE ONE: The four daughters are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They are strong, brave, and loving. Jo is the most important person in the book. She is smart. She has a good imagination. She writes stories. And she creates plays that the sisters perform together. Jo also is independent. She chooses a non-traditional life. She goes to New York to become a writer. There she meets an older man, a professor. She returns home to care for her parents. She writes stories that become very popular. Later, Jo marries the professor. Together, they establish a school. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The March family in “Little Women” is very much like Louisa May Alcott's family. Her sisters are like the sisters in the book. And the leading person, Jo, is like Louisa. Jo must work to support her family, just as Louisa had to do. One of Jo's Jobs is to help a family member, an old woman called Aunt March. Jo does not really like Aunt March. But she loves the old woman's house, especially the large library with hundreds of books. This is how Alcott writes about this place: VOICE ONE: "The dim, dusty room ... the cozy chairs, the globes, and, best of all, the wilderness of books in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her. The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet space, and, curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures, like a regular bookworm. " All of these wonderful books put great ideas into Jo's head. Jo wanted to do something very wonderful, Alcott writes: "What it was she had no idea as yet, but left it for time to tell her. " VOICE TWO: Jo's beloved sister Beth dies young, as Alcott's own sister Beth did. Jo is very unhappy. Her mother tells her to write because that always made her happy. Jo writes a story "that went straight to the hearts of those who read it. " Jo cannot understand how her simple little story became so popular. Her father explains, "There is truth in it, Jo, that's the secret; . . . You have found your style at last. You wrote with no thought of fame or money, and put your heart into it ...; You have had the bitter, now comes the sweet. " VOICE ONE: Louisa May Alcott's book, “Little Women”, is still extremely popular. Women who read the book when they were young often give it to their daughters. Some famous American women even claim they decided to become writers after reading how Jo March became a writer in “Little Women.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Death Sentences in U.S. at Their Lowest Level Since 1976
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is capital punishment in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirty-eight of the fifty American states permit execution for murder and other capital crimes. These are the most serious offense. Some federal crimes are also punishable by death. The Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., notes that executions have decreased. The center says fifty-nine prisoners were executed last year. That was down from ninety-eight executions in nineteen ninety-nine. Because of legal appeals, executions are usually carried out long after a prisoner is sentenced to death. The N-double-A-C-P Legal Defense Fund reported last month on the number of death sentences in two thousand four. The group says there were one hundred twenty-five death sentences, the lowest number since nineteen seventy-six. Nineteen seventy-six was the year when the United States Supreme Court renewed the right of states to use capital punishment. VOICE TWO: There are some new restrictions, though. In March the Supreme Court ruled against death sentences for young offenders. Five of the nine justices agreed that the death penalty for people under the age of eighteen violates the Constitution. The majority said the same is true for people whose crimes took place when they were under that age. VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court said capital punishment for young offenders violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment bars cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority. Justice Kennedy said it would be "morally misguided" to equate the failings of a young person with those of an adult. He said a young person has a better chance of reform. VOICE TWO: United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.In two thousand two the Supreme Court ruled that execution of the mentally disabled is unconstitutional. ? And, later this year, the court will consider still another case about the death penalty. This one involves a man in the state of Oregon named Randy Lee Guzek. He was put on trial and found guilty in two murders. At the time of his sentencing, he tried to show new evidence that he said would prove his innocence. The trial court refused to accept it. On appeal, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the lower court was wrong to exclude the evidence. State officials in Oregon disagree with the state Supreme Court ruling. They are now appealing the decision to the United States Supreme Court. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people would like the United States Supreme Court to ban all executions. Opponents of the death penalty say capital punishment can be administered unfairly. For example, they say blacks are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites for similar crimes. Opponents say economics play a part. Courts provide a lawyer if a suspect does not have enough money. But the opponents say avoiding a death sentence may depend on the ability to get a good lawyer. It may also depend on where a crime happens. Since nineteen seventy-six, more than nine hundred people have been executed in the United States. More than eighty percent of these executions have happened in ten states. The highest rates are in the South, the lowest are in the Northeast. Texas has executed more than one-third of those put to death. Last year Texas courts condemned twenty-three more people. But that was down from forty-three death sentences in nineteen ninety-four. Ten of the thirty-eight states with capital punishment had no death sentences last year. Opponents say capital punishment costs more than imprisoning a person for life. The appeals process often continues for years. Opponents also note the risk that innocent people will be put to death by mistake. And they argue that fear of a death sentence does not stop criminals. VOICE TWO: The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, California, supports capital punishment. The organization says its represents the interests of victims and citizens who obey the law. It says murderers sentenced to life in prison might escape. Or they might kill others while in prison. The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation says the families of victims need to know that the killer of their loved one will also die. And the organization notes that the majority of Americans support capital punishment. About two out of three people questioned for a Gallup Poll in two thousand four approved of execution for murderers. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported similar results in two thousand three. But it noted a drop in support compared to the level in nineteen ninety-six. At that time, seventy-eight percent supported the death penalty. VOICE ONE:? Another Gallup study showed that a growing number of Americans support another kind of punishment for murderers. That is, life in prison without the possibility of freedom. But the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation argues that such sentences are undependable. It its words: "Distrust of future courts, governors and legislatures is one of the reasons for support of the death penalty."? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Table for execution by poison injectionMost executions in the United States take place by poison injection or in the electric chair. The area of prison cells where the condemned are kept is called death row. Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, have studied death row prisoners. They say at least one hundred fifteen men and women have been released from death rows in the United States since nineteen seventy three. New evidence saved their lives. These days, new evidence may come from scientific developments such as the use of genetic material collected at crime scenes. Or it may come from simple hard work guided by a strong belief in someone's innocence. VOICE? ONE: In nineteen ninety-eight, Northwestern University journalism students and their professor investigated the case of a condemned prisoner. Anthony Porter had spent sixteen years in prison. He was found guilty of killing two people in Chicago. A person who saw the crime identified him as the killer. But the students and their professor discovered that Anthony Porter could not possibly have been responsible. The condemned man was released from death row. VOICE TWO: For many people, the debate over capital punishment involves religious issues. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has started a campaign to end the death penalty. Earlier this year, a study by Zogby International showed that forty-eight percent of American Roman Catholics support capital punishment. This compares with sixty-eight percent in other research in two thousand one. Pope John Paul the Second criticized capital punishment. John Paul said it should be used only in rare cases when society could not be defended in any other way. But United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who is Catholic, argues that the Bible supports capital punishment. VOICE ONE: The use of capital punishment began in the earliest days of American history. But in nineteen seventy-two a ruling by the Supreme Court effectively banned executions. The justices said capital punishment was cruel and unusual the way the states enforced it. But the decision left open the possibility that the Supreme Court might rule on the issue again in the future. Four years later, that is what the high court did. The court approved the right of states to make new laws permitting death sentences. Many states enacted such laws. Their measures satisfied the Supreme Court requirements. VOICE TWO: Currently, twelve states and the District of Columbia do not have capital punishment. Massachusetts, for example, has not executed anyone since nineteen forty-seven. But Governor Mitt Romney has proposed to renew the death penalty for some crimes. These include terrorism and murders involving torture or more than one victim. Governor Romney has proposed rules designed to prevent innocent people from being sentenced to death. His proposal would permit execution only in cases where there is no possible question of guilt. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our recording engineer was Kelvin Fowler. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Report: Sweden Is the Best Place for Mothers
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Gwen Outen the VOA Special English Development Report. Sunday was Mother’s Day in the United States. People are supposed to do something special to honor their mom. But a yearly list of the best and worst places to be a mother and child rates the United States eleventh, behind Britain. Scandinavian countries are at the top. Sweden is number one. Denmark is second. Finland is third. Save the Children, an American-based humanitarian organization, compared conditions in one hundred ten countries. The report came out last week. At the bottom of the list, Mali and Burkina Faso share last place. Just above them are Ethiopia, Chad, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritania. Gambia and Eritrea are also in the bottom ten, along with two Asian countries: Nepal and Cambodia. Cambodia is tied with Eritrea in one hundredth place. Save the Children based its report on six conditions related to the health and security of women. These include the risk of early death, and the rate of use of modern birth-control methods. Another measure was the percentage of births with the aid of trained medical workers. Still another was the percentage of pregnant women with a shortage of iron in the blood. The study also examined reading levels among women and the involvement of women in national government. Four other conditions related to the health and education of children. Save the Children has published a report on the "State of the World's Mothers" for six years now. This year the group included a progress report on education for girls. Researchers examined progress made over the past ten years in seventy-one developing countries. The report says Bolivia, Kenya, Cameroon and Bangladesh have made the most progress in girls' education. Listed at the bottom are Rwanda, Iraq, Malawi and Eritrea. Worldwide, the report says, fifty-eight million girls are out of school. Charles MacCormack is head of Save the Children. He says many children in the world are lucky just to survive the first five years of life. But Mister MacCormack calls the situation far from hopeless. ?He notes that world leaders have agreed on eight goals to reduce poverty, save lives and increase security by two thousand fifteen. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Study Says Genetically Engineered Rice Cuts Use of Insecticides
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A study in China suggests that two kinds of genetically engineered rice can reduce the costs, and dangers, of poison chemicals. One kind of rice includes a gene found in the bacterium known as Bt. Bt lives in soil and on plants; it is a natural insecticide. It is poisonous to some kinds of insects. Bt maize is commonly planted in the United States. The other kind of rice was engineered to resist insects with a gene from the cowpea plant. The two-year study involved tests of Bt rice in Hubei province and cowpea rice in Fujian. Scientists collected information from small farms already testing insect-resistant rice without technical aid. Some farmers are growing both insect-resistant and traditional rice. The scientists found that the Bt rice produced six to nine percent more grain than other kinds of rice. The cowpea rice, based on fewer observations, did not appear to increase productivity. Still, the findings show that resistance to insects improved for both kinds of rice. The study says farmers used eighty percent less insecticide than usual. Science magazine published the findings. Jikun Huang led the study. He is director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study notes that no country has yet released a major food grain crop that has been genetically changed. Engineered crops are now used mostly for animal feed and products like cotton. The Chinese farmers in the study made their own decisions about when to use insecticides. Those with traditional rice crops used chemicals almost four times per growing season on average. But farmers with the insect-resistant rice used insecticides an average of less than once per season. Less insecticide meant fewer sick farmers. The study says the farmers growing insect-resistant rice did not report any health problems from the use of poisons. China has not approved genetically engineered rice for market. But a report from Hubei last month said insect-resistant rice appears to have been sold illegally for the last two years. That report came from the environmental group Greenpeace, which oppose genetic engineering. China says it is investigating the Greenpeace report. Some countries will not import genetically engineered foods. Not everyone is sure that such products are safe for people or the environment. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-09-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Ever Wonder Where Your Ancient Ancestors Lived?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we report on a new program to help fight the disease malaria. But first, we talk about an effort to find genetic similarities among people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anyone with a computer, a credit card and one hundred dollars can now learn where their ancestors lived thousands of years ago. The National Geographic Society and International Business Machines have created a five-year project to identify the movements of ancient peoples. A group called the Waitt Family Foundation is providing money for the Genographic Project. Many scientists believe that human beings first developed in what is now East Africa. Recent studies suggest that modern humans all came from a single African who lived about sixty thousand years ago. The Genographic Project is an attempt to follow the path that led from this individual to everyone alive today. Project scientists will attempt to follow the ancient humans who moved away from East Africa. They say one way to do this is to study genetic material from people living today. VOICE TWO: The National Geographic Society is offering testing materials for the Project. Computer users with an Internet connection can order the materials from the group’s Web site (www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic). A credit card number is required. The cost is about one hundred dollars. The testing materials include two plastic containers and two sticks covered with cotton. Use the sticks to rub the inside of your mouth. Place the sticks in the containers and send them back. Scientists in the American state of Arizona will test the genetic material on the sticks. The findings will be compared to those of ancient human groups with similar genes. The results will be placed on the web site. Some of the money earned from the project will pay for other studies and aid native peoples around the world. VOICE ONE: The tests will show what genes you share with people in other parts of the world. The results will give you an idea of where your ancestors lived and how they changed over time. Project scientists will use the results to create a map of the genetic connections that have been found. They expect this to show how human beings have developed since some of them left Africa sixty thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each parent provides one half of a child’s deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. This mix creates a new genetic plan. However, a piece of DNA called the Y chromosome is passed from father to son without changing. Only males have the Y chromosome. And, the Y chromosome never changes through time. Women pass what is called mitochondrial DNA to both sons and daughters. Mitochondrial DNA also does not change over time. Some changes in DNA may take place naturally. Genetic experts call such changes markers. Geneticists can go back in time and follow a marker to when it first appeared. In this way, they are able to tell when and where a group of people developed. VOICE ONE: Markers make it possible for geneticists to follow the movements of human beings. The same markers often are found in people living in one area of the world. Project scientists say that such native groups are being lost as more people leave their traditional homelands. Geneticists from ten countries will collect and study blood from native peoples with the clearest lines of unchanged DNA. Such groups include the native peoples of Tanzania, Mongolia and the United States. Project scientists say they expect to collect DNA from one hundred thousand people. They hope to create the largest gene bank in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some geneticists have problems with the Genographic Project. They question its plan to keep the blood of the native peoples as untreated DNA. Because of this, the genetic material cannot be shared with other scientists. It is possible to treat cells so they will last forever. Project scientists say it will cost too much to do this. They also say that some native peoples object to the idea of their cells remaining alive after they die. VOICE ONE: Experts on privacy laws worry about what could happen to the genetic material collected by the project. They say people taking part in the project trust the National Geographic Society to keep their genetic information safe and private. They also say the people who provide blood need to be warned about businesses that could use the genetic information for other purposes. Medical insurance companies, for example, might request such information. Project officials say they have taken steps to protect the privacy of those taking part. They say there is no way anyone will be able to link DNA in the study to any one person. They say their scientists will use only a small part of the genetic material to get the needed information. And, they say the project will not collect any information about an individual’s health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Spencer Wells is a geneticist who works for the National Geographic Society, in Washington, D.C. Mister Wells is leading the Genographic Project. He says the Project is a way to show that all the people in the world are linked genetically. Mister Wells says he sees three main results for the project. The first is to answer questions about ancient human movement and explain differences among peoples living today. Another is to demonstrate the problems faced by native peoples around the world and perhaps stop the loss of their cultures. The third is to educate people about the sciences of genetics and anthropology. He says the idea that we all share some of the same ancestors may help change some people’s ideas about different racial groups. Many scientists say the Genographic Project is an exciting step in the effort to discover and understand the past. Project officials say they consider the work to an investigation of the similarities shared by us all. (MUISC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein with Bob Doughty?in Washington. The World Bank has announced a program to help fight malaria. The international lender says the fight against the disease has been too slow and uneven. The goal is to expand access to anti-malarial drugs and preventions such as bed nets treated with chemicals that kill mosquitoes. Those insects spread the organism that causes an estimated five hundred million cases of malaria each year. Most are in southern Africa. The disease is getting more difficult to fight as the organism develops resistance to traditional treatments. The new Global Strategy and Booster Program will include a special committee. Its job will be to make sure that anti-malaria efforts are part of lending programs. VOICE TWO: World Bank officials estimate that five hundred million to one thousand million dollars in spending is possible over the next five years. The World Health Organization says malaria kills more than one million people a year. Most of the victims are children under the age of five. Pregnant women are also at greater risk from the disease. Africa pays a huge economic price for malaria. The W.H.O. says the disease costs Africa about twelve thousand million dollars a year in lost productivity. The health agency says malaria has slowed development on the continent. The new World Bank program also will increase help to other areas affected by malaria. Southeast Asia has the second highest death rate from the disease. About eight percent of malaria deaths happen in that part of the world. VOICE ONE: Jean-Louis Sarbib is an official at the World Bank. He says the plan is good for reducing human suffering and good for economic growth. When adults get sick, they have to stop working. Mister Sarbib notes that when children and teachers become infected, education also suffers as a result of malaria. World Bank officials say they are building on lessons learned from malaria control programs in Brazil, Eritrea, India and Vietnam. Mister Sarbib says much progress has been in some places, but efforts have been slower and more limited than expected. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week at this time for another SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Mystery Has Always Been Part of the Galapagos Islands
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in? VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the unusual creatures that live there. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Love is not easy to find when you are the last male of your kind. At least that is how it seems for the Galapagos Islands tortoise that scientists call Lonesome George. He is just one of the many animals and plants that live on the famous group of Pacific Ocean islands. The islands were named for the large land turtles that live on them. At one time, the islands were home to about fifteen different kinds of land turtles. The largest island, Isabela, has five different kinds of tortoises. But, Lonesome George is not one of them. He comes from a smaller island called Pinta. Scientists found George in nineteen seventy-one. Humans and non-native animals had caused much damage to the environment on his island. Some animals and plants had disappeared. Lonesome George was the only tortoise found on Pinta. VOICE TWO: Scientists took the turtle to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. They wanted to help him find a female tortoise for mating to produce baby tortoises. The scientists had been successful in similar efforts for thousands of other tortoises. The researchers placed George in the same living area as females from the nearby island of Isabela. Scientists thought George would be more closely related to the females from Isabela than to other Galapagos tortoises. However, George has not been able to mate successfully with the female tortoises. No eggs have been produced. Scientists say this might be because of the genetic differences between George and the tortoises on Isabela Island. VOICE ONE: Scientist Edward Lewis has studied the genetic material of tortoises around the world. But he has not found one with DNA like George’s. Scientists are also investigating George’s diet to make sure a lack of nutrients is not causing his failure to reproduce. He eats papaya fruit, grass and a special balanced diet. He weighs eighty-eight kilograms. Scientists also say there is a possibility that other tortoises might exist on George’s native island of Pinta. Scientists did not discover any other young tortoises when they removed George from the island more than thirty years ago. However, young tortoises are very small and like to hide. Any other tortoises on the island would now be adults and might be easier to find. However, one major problem is that Pinta is thickly covered with plants. Scientists are planning to search the island for a possible mate for Lonesome George. If no babies are produced, the Pinta Island tortoises will disappear when George dies. He is between seventy and eighty years old. But some tortoises live longer than one hundred fifty years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mystery always has been part of the Galapagos. In fifteen thirty-five, a ship carrying the Roman Catholic Bishop of Panama came upon the Galapagos accidentally. Tomas de Berlanga named the Galapagos group the Enchanted Isles. He was surprised to see land turtles that weighed more than two hundred kilograms and were more a meter long. He said they were so large each could carry a man on its back. Bishop Berlanga also noted the unusual soil of the islands. He suggested that one island was so stony it seemed like stones had rained from the sky. VOICE ONE: The British nature scientist Charles Darwin is mainly responsible for the fame of the Galapagos Islands. He visited the islands in eighteen thirty-five. He collected plants and animals from several islands. After many years of research, he wrote the book “The Origin of Species.”? He developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through the process of natural selection. The book changed the way people think about how living things developed and became different over time. Darwin said the Galapagos brought people near “to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on earth”. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than one hundred twenty-five landmasses make up the Galapagos. Only nineteen are large enough to be considered islands. The Galapagos are a province of Ecuador. The island group lies across the equator about one thousand kilometers west of the coast of South America. Scientists have been wondering for years about the position of the Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used to think that the islands were connected to the South American mainland and floated out to sea slowly. Today, most scientists think the islands were always where they are now. But they think the islands once were a single landmass under water. Volcanic activity broke the large island into pieces that came to the surface of the sea over time. VOICE ONE: But scientists wonder how animals arrived on Galapagos if the islands were always so far from the mainland. Scientists think most Galapagos plants and animals floated to the islands. When rivers flood in South America, small pieces of land flow into the ocean. These rafts can hold trees and bushes. The rafts also can hold small mammals and reptiles. The adult Galapagos tortoise clearly is too big for a trip hundreds of kilometers across the ocean. But, turtle eggs or baby turtles would be small enough to float to the islands. VOICE TWO: The islands are home to many unusual birds, reptiles and small mammals. Some of the animals live nowhere else on Earth. The tortoise is the most famous Galapagos reptile. But the marine iguana is also unusual. It is the only iguana in the world that goes into the ocean. The marine iguana eats seaweed. It can dive at least fifteen meters below the ocean surface. And it can stay down there for more than thirty minutes. Several strange birds also live on the Galapagos. One of them is the only penguin that lives on the equator. Another is the frigate bird. It has loose skin on its throat that it can blow up into a huge red balloon-like structure. It does this to attract females who make observation flights over large groups of males. VOICE ONE: The Galapagos also are noted for a bird that likes water better than land or air. The cormorant is able to fly in all the other places it lives around the world. But the Galapagos cormorant has extremely short wings. They cannot support flight. But they work well for swimming. The Galapagos Islands also have a large collection of small birds called Darwin’s finches. Charles Darwin studied the finches carefully when he visited the Galapagos in eighteen thirty-five. He separated the birds by the shapes of their beaks. Finches that lived in different places and ate different foods had different shaped beaks. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists continue to study life on the Galapagos Islands. They have also studied the deepest parts of the ocean that surrounds the islands. A few years ago, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. sent marine biologist Carole Baldwin to the Galapagos. Miz Baldwin traveled nine hundred meters down to the bottom of the ocean near the islands. She did so in a clear plastic bubble watercraft called the Johnson Sea-Link Two. The Sea-Link had powerful lights to battle the extreme darkness of the deep. The watercraft also had several long robotic arms. They collected sealife. The trips to the bottom of the sea resulted in the discovery of more than ten new kinds of sea life. Some of the discoveries were captured on film. A movie called ?“Galapagos: The Enchanted Voyage ” was made in nineteen ninety-nine. VOICE ONE: The movie was filmed using the Imax Three-D technique. It was shown on a huge screen at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington for several years. Later, the movie was released on DVD for people to buy and watch in their own homes. The movie provides an experience similar to a forty-minute visit to the interesting and unusual Galapagos Islands. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: More Distance on the Road to Ending Polio
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. In most of the world, the campaign to stop polio by the end of this year has already succeeded. Fewer than one thousand three hundred new cases of the disease were reported last year. But problems continue. Last week, Indonesia reported its first new cases of polio since nineteen ninety-five. And Yemen has its first cases since nineteen ninety-six. Medical investigators believe that the virus in both countries came from Nigeria. In two thousand three, many parents in northern Nigeria decided not to have their children vaccinated against polio. Muslim religious leaders had told them that the Western-made vaccine was harmful. Vaccination campaigns have started again in Nigeria. But, as people traveled, the virus spread to countries that were polio-free. Polio attacks the nervous system. It can affect the muscles in the legs, arms and lungs. The virus is spread by human waste. Some victims die. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative began in nineteen eighty-eight. At that time, the virus was found in one hundred twenty-five countries. By two thousand three, there were only six: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. Now, experts say the spread of polio is re-established in six other countries, all in Africa. And cases have been found in several more. The Indonesian government plans to vaccinate more than five million children under age five. Health workers have already been going house-to-house in West Java, where the polio cases were discovered. The World Health Organization says genetic tests linked the virus to West Africa. It says the virus is similar to viruses recently found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. World health officials say that, nationally, more than ninety percent of Indonesian babies are vaccinated against polio. But they also note that some areas of the country have much lower levels of protection. In Yemen, sixty-nine percent of children are vaccinated. More than twenty cases of polio have been found. The virus spreads most quickly in Africa during the rainy season that starts in July. Health workers are trying to vaccinate as many children as possible by then. Some experts still believe it is possible to stop polio in two thousand five. But the job has gotten more difficult. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Just How Many Universities Are There in the U.S.?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Two listeners have the same question for our Foreign Student Series on American higher education. The listeners are Prashant Devidas in Bangalore, India, and Zegeye Mulu in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They want to know the number of universities in the United States. It seems like universities are generally counted together with colleges. So here is the answer from the Association of American Colleges and Universities. It says there are two thousand six hundred eighteen accredited four-year colleges and universities. Most operate privately or as part of state governments. Now we have a question of our own. Just what exactly does it mean if a school is accredited?? Accreditation is a process designed to guarantee that the education provided by a school meets accepted levels of quality. In the United States, this process involves both government agencies and private groups called accrediting agencies. The United States Department of Education does not accredit schools. But the law requires the secretary of education to publish a list of accrediting agencies recognized as dependable. Accrediting agencies develop educational goals. Then they examine schools to make sure those goals are met. The first step in the process is for a college or university to request accreditation. Then the school does a study of itself to measure its performance against the requirements. The accrediting agency sends a team of experts to decide if the school meets the standards. The agency will observe an accredited college or university every few years. Schools must be accredited for students to receive government financial aid. Accreditation also makes it easier for students to move credits from one school to another. Going to an accredited school can also make it easier for students to get a good job. There is a group called the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. It has a Web site where students can learn if a school or program is accredited by a recognized United States organization. The address is?chea.org. Again, c-h-e-a dot org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Kay Gallant. Today,Harry Monroe and I continue the story of America's Civil War. VOICE TWO: By the autumn of eighteen-sixty-four, it appeared that the North would defeat the South in the war between the states. The southern army needed men and supplies. There was little hope of getting enough of either to win. The northern army was stronger and better-equipped. But it, too, had suffered. Much of the death and destruction was the result of new military technology. VOICE ONE: A new kind of bullet had been invented. It was called the minie ball. It made the gun a much more deadly weapon. Before the minie ball, few soldiers could hit a target more than thirty meters away. With the new bullet, they could hit targets more than one hundred fifty meters away. Soldiers with such weapons could be put into position behind stone or earth walls. Then it was almost impossible to defeat them. VOICE TWO: Most American generals, however, seemed unable to accept this. They continued to use the old methods of attack that had worked before the minie ball was invented. Hundreds or thousands of men were put in long lines across the front of the enemy position. A signal was given. The men began to march forward. When they got close, they fired their guns. Then they ran at the enemy and struck with their knives or hands. The idea was to shock the enemy, frighten him, and make him run away. As generals on both sides learned, this method no longer worked. The attackers were shot down before they could get close enough to hurt the defenders. VOICE ONE: After three-and-a-half years of fighting, hundreds of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers had been killed or wounded. Still the war continued. In the East, Union armies were slowly pushing forward toward their main target. That was the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. ?In the West, Union armies were slowly pushing deeper into Confederate territory. The western armies were led by General William Sherman. VOICE TWO: Sherman had two goals. One was to capture the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta was one of the few remaining industrial cities of the Confederacy. The other goal was to destroy the Confederate Army led by General Joe Johnston. Sherman's army was stronger than Johnston's army. But the Confederates usually got into better defensive positions. Sherman refused to attack in such situations. It was easier to march around the Confederates and force them to withdraw. This happened again and again. VOICE ONE: Confederate President Jefferson Davis began to believe that General Johnston was afraid to fight. He replaced him with another general. Within two days, that general attacked the Union Army. The attack began without enough planning. It was based on false information. It was a disaster. In eleven days of fighting, one-third of the Confederate Army in Georgia was destroyed. The remaining force was too weak to defend Atlanta. The city fell. VOICE TWO: After capturing Atlanta, General Sherman fought a series of small battles with a Confederate force across northern Georgia. Then he decided to march to Savannah, a city on the Atlantic coast. Before leaving, his men set fire to the city. Almost all of Atlanta was destroyed. Sherman's army would continue to do this all the way to Savannah, Georgia, three hundred fifty kilometers away. It cut a path of destruction more than one hundred kilometers wide. This campaign would be known as Sherman's "March to the Sea." VOICE ONE: Sherman said he wanted to make the people of Georgia suffer. He said he wanted to show the people of the Confederacy that their government could not protect them. Union soldiers stopped at every farm and village. They took food and clothing. They took horses, cows, and other farm animals. What they could not take, or did not want, they destroyed. They set fire to houses and farm buildings. They burned crops. They destroyed stores and factories. They burned bridges and pulled up railroad tracks. Day by day, the Union Army of General William Sherman cut and burned its way across Georgia. VOICE TWO: The army faced little opposition. Small groups of Confederate horse soldiers struck at the edges of the army. But they did little damage. On December twenty-second, eighteen sixty-four, Sherman reached Savannah. He sent a message to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington. He said: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas holiday gift, the city of Savannah." Sherman's campaign had cut a great wound in the heart of the Confederacy. All that remained were the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. His "March to the Sea" had a great, destructive effect on the spirit of the south. VOICE ONE: General Ulysses GrantSherman's army rested in Savannah for a month. ?Then, on February first, eighteen-sixty-five, it began to move north. The goal was to join General Ulysses Grant outside the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. As Sherman's army moved across South Carolina, it destroyed almost everything in sight. The soldiers remembered that South Carolina had been the first state to rebel and leave the Union. They remembered that South Carolina had fired the first shots of the war. This time -- against orders -- they destroyed the land they left behind. Confederate forces could not stop them. VOICE TWO: The same thing happened in the Shenandoah River Valley northwest of Richmond. In the early years of the war, Confederate forces had moved through the valley to strike northern territory. They had invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, and had threatened Washington, from there. General Grant decided that the Confederates had used the Shenandoah Valley long enough. He sent some of his men into the valley. He ordered them to destroy everything that might be of use to the enemy. "Eat up Virginia," he said, "clear and clean as far as you can go." Farms were burned. Crops were destroyed. Farm animals were taken away or killed. Nothing was left that could feed a man or animal. Nothing but blackened earth. VOICE ONE: Then General Grant sent General Philip Sheridan into the Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan's army battled its way through the valley in the autumn of eighteen sixty-four. It gained victory after victory against a smaller, weaker Confederate force. By the end of the year, Union troops had complete control of the valley. The only Confederate power that remained was the army of General Robert E. Lee. VOICE TWO: With the Shenandoah Valley closed to the Confederates, food supplies fell very low. There was almost nothing to feed the soldiers in Lee's army. Wagons would go out each day in search of food. They returned almost empty. More and more Confederate soldiers were running away. Some returned to their homes. Others surrendered to Union forces. Confederate leaders no longer could find soldiers to take the places of those who left. Men would not answer the army's call. There was, however, a huge labor force in the south that the army had not called. Slaves. VOICE ONE: Slaves had been used to do non-military work for the army. They had built roads and bridges. They had driven wagons. But they had not served as soldiers. In the north, thousands of free Negroes served in the Union army. But they received less paythan white soldiers. Confederate lawmakers finally began to discuss the idea of using slaves as soldiers. A bill was proposed that would free any slave who joined the army to fight. Many southern leaders opposed the bill, even if it would save the Confederacy. Said one: "Do not arm the slaves. The day you make them soldiers is the beginning of the end of the revolution. If slaves make good soldiers, our whole idea of slavery iswrong." VOICE TWO: General Robert E. Lee did not agree. He believed slaves could be made into good soldiers if they believed they had an interest in Confederate victory. He proposed giving immediate freedom to any slave who joined the army. The Confederate Congress passed a bill in March of eighteen sixty-five to accept Negroes as soldiers. The bill did not promise to free them. ?By then, however, it was too late.An army of freed slaves could not be trained in time to save the Confederacy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and Christine Johnson. (MUSIC) --- Editor's note:?On an?earlier version of this page, a picture that was supposed to show General William Sherman in fact was a picture of General Phillip Sheridan. --- THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/a-2005-05-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 11, 2005 - Audience Mail
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer some of your mail. RS: Listener Benny Kusman is from Indonesia, but tells us he is staying in Malaysia. Here is the first of his two questions: AA: "If I have two books, I should say 'Which one do you want?' and if I have three books, I should say 'Which ones do you like?' Am I right?" RS: You're right. Because what you're really saying is "Which one (of the two books) do you want?" and "Which ones (of the three books) do you like?" But, as happens so often with grammar, there are some exceptions. AA" Let's look at the logic. When you have three books and you say "Which ones do you want?" what are you indicating? RS: You're saying that the person can choose one, two or all three. AA: Yes, but what if you want the person to choose only one of the books? Then it would be correct to say "Which one do you like?" RS: On now to Benny's other question: "What's the meaning of 'my alarm went off at 6' -- does it mean yesterday my alarm stopped ringing at 6?" AA: When we say "the alarm went off," what we really mean is that it "went on" -- it started to ring at 6. "Went off" is idiomatic; it's used in limited circumstances, like with clocks. RS: It's one of those pesky verb phrases that can keep a person tossing and turning all night. MUSIC: "Tossin' and Turnin'"/Bobby Lewis (1961) ... a-tossin' and turnin' all night Jumped out of bed Turned on the light I pulled down the shade Went to the kitchen for a bite Rolled up the shade Turned off the light I jumped back into bed It was the middle of the night ... AA: Next, an e-mail from another Indonesian listener, Darwin, from Central Sumatra. "I have questions for you (or Lida Baker) about words which are separated by" -- and here he puts a dash mark -- "i.e. hand-made, world-class, computer-based, well-attended, etc. What is it? Are there any specific rules how to form these words?" RS: We forwarded Darwin's question to our friend Lida Baker the English teacher in Los Angeles. She was recently with us to discuss compounding. Here's the e-mail she sent back: AA: "The little line is called a "hyphen." It's used in *some* compound structures. There are many rules for using hyphens. In fact, there are so many rules that the only people who know them are professional writers and editors. If you want to learn the rules, you need a book called a style manual, such as the Chicago Manual of Style. However, once again, these books are used mainly by professionals. If you're not a professional writer, you should look in a dictionary whenever you want to write a compound. You can also do an Internet search for 'rules for using hyphens.' RS: And, Lida says, to narrow your search, you can put quotation marks around the phrase "rules for using hyphens." Lida says she found several sites with useful information. AA: Next, we heard from a former listener of ours, an American named Dianne Gray. She's back from Moscow where she lived for several years, and found her language skills in demand, even without training as an English teacher. DIANNE GRAY: "There were different circumstances that actually led me to it, but I remember probably the first one was a friend had called me and asked if she could bring someone over to practice his English, and that he was going to be -- needed to pass an oral examination for a doctor degree or something. And I actually, at that time, I said 'well, what will I say to him?' But she wanted him to meet a real American. So anyway we did that, and it was kind of fun." RS: "And tell us a little bit about the situations where you taught and what you taught." DIANNE GRAY: "It was basically on a one-to-one basis. Most people, they already knew English and they'd studied it, usually in a university or somehow or other they knew it. In fact, some of my, if you want to say my students, were actually English teachers themselves. And I thought to myself at first, well, how could I possibly help an English teacher? They're the certified one, they've had like, how many years of education to teach it, and some were actually teaching it. And I guess that they just needed maybe some confidence, the fact that they could do it." AA: Former listener Dianne Gray, who found our programs useful in Moscow and is now back in the States, living in Los Angeles. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Friday the 13th: So What's the Big Deal?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Gwen Outen. On our show this week: Musical memories of rap ... A question from Nigeria about presidential aircraft … And a look at the calendar. Friday the Thirteenth Do you suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia?? Do you even know what that means? Bob Doughty has the explanation. BOB DOUGHTY: It means fear of Friday the thirteenth. The word is paraskevidekatriaphobia (pair-uh-skee-vee-dek-uh-tree-uh-FOH-bee-uh). Fear of just the number thirteen is called triskaidekaphobia (tris-ki-de-ke-FO-be-uh). Modern thinkers may not believe as much in such things. And how these fears began is unclear. Yet popular culture still considers Friday the thirteenth an unlucky day. Here are just a few recent newspaper stories that we found with Google, the Internet search engine:? In Massachusetts, the North Adams Transcript announced a talk to be given Friday night. It said the speaker will discuss "the power of superstition and its roots in nature."? That is, if anyone feels safe enough to leave home. Sorry, a little joke; the story did not say that. But in New York state, the Independent in the Hamptons did say this about military base closings by the Defense Department: "Perhaps Friday the thirteenth will be lucky for the Air National Guard One Hundred Sixth Rescue Wing. That’s the day officials expect to learn if the base located at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach will remain open." In Texas, the Daily News in Galveston County wrote about a sports event to raise money for medical research. The story said: "This Friday the thirteenth promises to bring nothing but good luck to those participating in the first Serving to Ace Leukemia Tennis Tournament."? Our last example involves a graduation ceremony at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. A report in the News and Record told about three Bosnian Muslim immigrants graduating together. Sanela Kalender, her husband Almir and his brother Armin had fled the Bosnian war in the nineteen nineties. They settled in North Carolina in two thousand. In the words of the story: "The commencement ceremony falls on what's supposed to be one of the unluckiest days of the year, but which has turned out to be the luckiest for the Kalenders. They arrived in America on a Friday the thirteenth. They will graduate on a Friday the thirteenth." Presidential Aircraft HOST: Our question this week comes from Kwara State, Nigeria. Obalugemo Folorunsho wants to know why aircraft that fly the American president are called Air Force One and Marine One. Air Force One and Marine One are radio call signs. An Air Force Web site says the call sign "Air Force One" was first used in the nineteen fifties. The name "Air Force One" is used for any Air Force plane carrying the president. "Marine One" is used for any Marine Corps helicopter that the president is on. The Air Force has two specially designed Boeing seven-forty-sevens for presidential travel. These huge planes can fly halfway around the world without re-fueling. They can carry more than one hundred passengers and crew. The planes carry high-technology communications and other electronics. There are private areas for the president and his family, as well as a conference room and office. Separate spaces are provided for Secret Service bodyguards and the news media. There are two kitchens. And the planes also carry medical equipment. The planes are kept near Washington at Andrews Air Force Base, home to the Presidential Airlift Group. Marine Helicopter Squadron One also serves the president. For years, the main helicopter used has been the Sikorsky V-H-three-D. But the Lockheed Martin company in January won a competition to produce the next presidential helicopter. The one chosen is called the U-S-one-oh-one. Sugarhill Gang (MUSIC) "Hate It or Love It."? That's the name of the song. "Hate It or Love It" is from the hip-hop artist known as The Game, with Fifty Cent. You can hear it on "The Documentary," The Game's first album, and one of the top rap albums in America right now. The other day, our producer, Caty Weaver, was listening to the radio on her drive to work. She heard a song that made her think about what hip-hop music sounded like in its early days. Steve Ember has our story. (MUSIC) STEVE EMBER: This is not the song Caty heard. This is "Good Times" by the group Chic. "Good Times" became a disco hit in nineteen seventy-nine. But it also played a part in a song released later that year by another group. They called themselves the Sugarhill Gang: Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank and Master Gee. And they called their song "Rapper's Delight."? (MUSIC) "Rapper's Delight" earned a place in pop music history. It became the first rap song to appear on the list of the Billboard Top Forty hits in popular music. Here is another song from the Sugarhill Gang. This one is called "Apache." (MUSIC) Today, the form of hip-hop that the Sugarhill Gang became famous for is known as old school. It still has a following. And the gang is still performing, twenty-six years after "Rapper's Delight." We leave you with Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank and Master Gee, and their song called "Eighth Wonder." (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Gwen Outen. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach, Ed Stautberg and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Please join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hoping for a Smoother Ride at General Motors
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Lately the road has been a little rough for General Motors, the world's biggest automaker for more than seventy years. However, there was some good news last week for shareholders of the Detroit, Michigan, company. Investor Kirk Kerkorian offered to increase his holdings to almost nine percent. Mister Kerkorian’s investment company, Tracinda, proposes to buy twenty-eight million shares. The offer, at thirty-one dollars a share, is valued at eight hundred sixty-eight million dollars. The price of G.M. stock climbed eighteen percent on news of the offer. But the next day, General Motors got some bad news. The credit rating company Standard & Poor’s cut the ratings of both G.M. and Ford Motor Company. Standard & Poor’s advises investors on the credit risk of companies. Credit is given on the belief that a company or person will pay a debt. The word "credit" has Latin roots meaning to believe or trust. G.M. and Ford both had a Standard & Poor's rating of triple-B-minus. Triple-A is the highest grade; D is the lowest. Triple-B-minus it still considered "investment grade," or very secure in terms of risk. Now, Standard & Poor's has downgraded G.M. to a credit rating of double-B. That is considered below investment grade. Ford is rated a little higher, double-B-plus, but still below investment quality. Low-quality credit is known in the financial world as "junk."? These new ratings, however, do not mean financial experts think G.M. and Ford cannot pay their debts. But the two companies will have to pay higher interest rates on future borrowing. Another effect is to lower the value of bonds currently held by investors if they try to sell them now. Standard & Poor’s says it lowered the ratings because G.M. and Ford depend too much on profits from sport-utility vehicles. Sales of these big vehicles are down. There is also increased foreign competition, especially from Toyota, the second-biggest carmaker in the world. And costs from employee retirement and health care programs are growing. Moody's, the other major credit-rating service, reduced its rating for General Motors on April fifth. But Moody's continues to rate G.M. as investment grade. Next week, we will talk more about credit. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: South American and Arab Leaders Discuss Shared Interests
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Heads of state and other officials from thirty-four nations met this week for the first-ever Summit of South American and Arab Countries. The officials attended the two-day conference in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. They represented countries with a population of more than six hundred million people. The goal of the conference was to improve economic relations between South America and the Middle East. But politics also played a big part in the meeting. South American officials mostly discussed ways to increase trade with Arab nations. Arab officials discussed American and Israeli policies in the Middle East. The representatives to the conference announced a final declaration on Wednesday. The Brasilia Declaration calls for closer cooperation between South American and Arab nations on their common goals for economic and social development. The officials said developing nations should resist the power of rich nations and should trade among themselves. The declaration supports a separate state for the Palestinians that would exist peacefully next to Israel. It said Israel should withdraw from all territories it has occupied since nineteen sixty-seven, including settlements in East Jerusalem. Israeli groups criticized the statement. Representatives also supported the new Iraqi government. Its leader, Jalal Talabani,? attended the meeting. The declaration honored the unity, self-government and independence of Iraq. The conference condemned terrorism and called for a world meeting to define terrorism. The officials called for a ban on nuclear arms and chemical and biological weapons. The statement declared the rights of people to resist foreign occupation. Israel expressed concern about the statement. It said this could mean support for militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. The declaration also criticized the United States for restrictions against Syria. A United States request to send an observer to the conference had been rejected. The officials wanted the next head of the World Trade Organization to be from a developing nation. They supported economist Carlos Perez del Castillo of Uruguay. However, on Friday, he withdrew his candidacy. So former European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy of France became head of the WTO. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged developing countries to work for freer trade rules. He said more liberal rules would aid struggling nations instead of helping only rich countries and international companies. South American and Arab nations exchanged about ten thousand million dollars of goods last year. Brazil and the Arab countries were responsible for about eight thousand million dollars of that trade. Brazilian officials said they would like to increase the amount to fifteen thousand million dollars in three years. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Carl Rowan: The Life Story of an Influential Newsman
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the life of writer and reporter, Carl Rowan. He was one of the most honored reporters in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was known for the powerful stories that he wrote for major newspapers. His columns were published in more than one hundred newspapers across the United States. He was the first black newspaper columnist to have his work appear in major newspapers. Carl Rowan called himself a newspaperman. Yet, he was also a writer of best-selling books. He wrote about the lives of African American civil rights leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and United States Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Carl Rowan also was a radio broadcaster and a popular public speaker. For thirty years, he appeared on a weekly television show about American politics. VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan won praise over the years for his reports about race relations in America. He provided a public voice for poor people and minorities in America. He influenced people in positions of power. Mister Rowan opened many doors for African Americans. He was the first black deputy Secretary of State in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. And he was the first black director of the United States Information Agency which at the time supervised the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was born in nineteen?twenty-five in the southern city of Ravenscroft, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression, one of the worst economic times in the United States. His family was very poor. His father stacked wood used for building, when he had work. His mother worked cleaning the homes of white people when she could. The Rowan family had no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no radio. Carl said he would sometimes steal food or drink warm milk from the cows on nearby farms. The Rowans did not even have a clock. As a boy, Carl said he knew if it was time to go to school by the sound of a train. He said if the train was late, he was late. VOICE TWO: Growing up, Carl had very little hope for any change. There were not many jobs for blacks in the South. The schools were not good. Racial tensions were high. Laws were enforced to keep blacks and whites separate. It was a teacher who urged Carl to make something of himself. Bessie Taylor Gwynn taught him to believe he could be a poet or a writer. She urged him to write as much as possible. She would even get books for him because blacks were banned from public libraries. Bessie Taylor Gwynn made sure that Carl finished high school. And he did. He graduated at the top of his class. VOICE ONE: Carl entered Tennessee State College in nineteen forty-two. He almost had to leave college after the first few months because he did not have enough money. But on the way to catch a bus, his luck changed. He found the twenty dollars he needed to stay in college. Carl Rowan did so well in college that he was chosen by the United States Navy to become one of the first fifteen black Navy officers. He said that experience changed his life. Carl served on ships during World War Two. Afterward, he returned to college and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He went on to receive his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-eight, Carl Rowan became a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in Minnesota. He was one of the first black reporters to write for a major daily newspaper. As a young reporter, he covered racial tensions in the South during the civil rights movement. In nineteen fifty-six, he traveled to the Middle East to cover the war over the Suez Canal. He also reported from Europe, India and other parts of Asia. He won several major reporting awards. VOICE ONE: Mister Rowan’s reports on race relations in the South interested President John F. Kennedy. In nineteen sixty-one, President Kennedy appointed Mister Rowan deputy assistant Secretary of State. He served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban missile crisis in nineteen sixty-two. Mister Rowan later was appointed ambassador to Finland. During his years in President Kennedy’s administration, Carl Rowan got to know Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became president after President Kennedy was assassinated in nineteen sixty-three. In nineteen sixty-four, President Johnson named Carl Rowan director of the United States Information Agency. The position made him the highest level African American in the United States government. Mister Rowan said being chosen to head the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America was one of the great honors of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-five, Carl Rowan left the government and started writing for newspapers. He wrote a column that told his opinions about important social, economic and political issues. It appeared several times a week in a number of newspapers. Radio and television jobs followed. Mister Rowan often wrote intensely about race relations. Yet, he wrote with more feeling about one subject than any other: that education and hard work will help young African Americans move forward. Carl Rowan was angered by the ideas of some young blacks. He said they believed that to study hard and perform well in school was “acting white.”? He deplored the idea that excellence is for whites only. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-seven, Mister Rowan created a program called “Project Excellence.”? The program rewards black students who do well in school. Over the years, the program has provided millions of dollars to help African American students get money for college. VOICE ONE(cont): Throughout his life, Carl Rowan was a strong voice for racial justice in America. Yet, he also demanded excellence from other black Americans. He wrote about wrongdoing within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP fights for the civil rights of African Americans. Mister Rowan’s columns led to the resignation of its chairman and helped speed the organization’s financial recovery. VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan lived with his wife, Vivien Murphy, in a large house in Washington, D.C. They had three children and four grandchildren. He had been a strong supporter of gun control laws. But in nineteen eighty-eight, he was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. He shot and wounded a teenager who was on his property illegally. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family. The jury failed to reach a decision in the case. In nineteen ninety-one, Carl Rowan wrote a book about his life called “Breaking Barriers.”? Several years later, he wrote a book called “The Coming Race War in America.”? The book describes the exploding anger between blacks and whites and the possibility of a future race war. Some people praised the book. Others thought it was harmful and irresponsible. VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was the first black president of an organization of top reporters in Washington called the Gridiron Club. The group does a show every year that makes fun of the American political process. Mister Rowan often performed by singing or leading a comedy act. Carl Rowan used simple words when he spoke, yet he was very direct. He was criticized sometimes for that. Some people thought that his ideas were too liberal. Others thought he was too moderate. But most people thought his stories generally were very fair. Mister Rowan talks about his life in his book, “Breaking Barriers”: (SOUND) VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan died September Twenty-Third, Two-Thousand, in Washington, D.C. He was seventy-five years old. During the last years of his life, he suffered from diabetes and heart problems. But he never failed to write his newspaper column. He never let bad things slow him down. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Remembering the Cold War: A Bomb Shelter Fit For Congress
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, we go inside what used to be one of America’s best-kept secrets. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in the town of White Sulphur Springs, in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. Many people come to bathe in the mineral waters at White Sulphur Springs. These waters are on the property of a historic place, the Greenbrier Hotel. Other guests come to the hotel to swim or play golf, or just to have a quiet time away from busy city life. But at the end of the nineteen fifties, some people came to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, for a very different reason. These people had a job to do. VOICE TWO: Trucks brought tons of concrete and other building materials. Workers with heavy machinery dug a huge hole next to the Greenbrier Hotel. Walls were built underground. But these were not average walls. These were thick and lined with steel. Steels doors hung at each entrance. The Greenbrier Hotel built an addition over the mysterious hole in the ground. The hotel called the addition the West Virginia Wing. It was a good explanation when people asked about all the activity. It was better than telling them the truth: that the addition was built to hide a bomb shelter for members of Congress. The government had its own name for the building project: "Project Greek Island."? Today, it is difficult to find anyone who remembers why that name was chosen. VOICE ONE: The government ordered "Project Greek Island" during a time of great tensions and fear. Both the United States and the Soviet Union were busy producing nuclear weapons. This was war -- the Cold War. (SOUND) PRESIDENT DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "The Soviet Union has informed us that, over recent years, it has devoted extensive resources to atomic weapons. During this period the Soviet Union has exploded a series of atomic devices, including at least one involving thermo-nuclear reactions. If at one time the Unites States possessed what might have been called a monopoly of atomic power, that monopoly ceased to exist several years ago." VOICE ONE: President Dwight Eisenhower, from his "Atoms for Peace" speech to the United Nations General Assembly on December eighth, nineteen fifty-three. He said the United States did not wish simply "to present strength but also the desire and hope for peace." But the threat of nuclear war remained. American schoolchildren were taught to "duck and cover."? They learned to hide under their desks and cover their heads with their hands if the Soviets ever attacked. Some American families built bomb shelters and loaded them with food for a long stay. These families thought their shelters would protect them from the radiation of a nuclear strike. VOICE TWO: The government also needed places to keep its leaders safe if America were attacked. Officials chose the White Sulphur Springs area to build a refuge for members of Congress. There were several reasons. The town was a little more than four hundred kilometers from Washington, D.C., but away from other big cities. There would be fewer people to notice the building project. A railroad passed near the Greenbrier Hotel. And there was an airport nearby. VOICE? ONE: In addition, the Greenbrier Hotel had a long history of meeting other needs besides those of its usual guests. In the eighteen sixties, both sides in the American Civil War occupied the hotel. At different points in the fighting, both the Union and the Confederacy established hospitals or headquarters on the property. The hotel closed again during World War Two. The State Department kept diplomats from Germany, Japan and Italy in the Greenbrier. After seven months, these diplomats were exchanged for American diplomats held overseas. The United States Army bought the Greenbrier in nineteen forty-two. The military made the hotel into a hospital with two thousand beds. Doctors treated more than twenty thousand soldiers. VOICE TWO: The Greenbrier re-opened to guests in nineteen forty-eight. Then, in nineteen fifty-nine, the bomb shelter was built. It remained secret to most people for more than thirty years. Then, in nineteen ninety-two, a story appeared in the Washington Post Magazine. The story told all about the bomb shelter under the West Virginia Wing of the Greenbrier. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy, a man named Paul Bugas took a new job. Mister Bugas, known as Fritz, had served twenty years in the military. He went to work for an organization called Forsythe Associates. This company was responsible for television services for guests at the Greenbrier Hotel. But that was not all Forsythe did. Fritz Bugas directed a team of government agents who kept food and medical supplies in the shelter fresh. And they kept communications equipment in working order, including television and radio studios. VOICE TWO: The studios were built so members of Congress could speak to the outside world from the bunker. The television studio even had big pictures of the Capitol building, where Congress normally meets. The idea was to show that while America might have suffered an enemy attack, there would not be anarchy. Lawmakers could still carry on their responsibilities. Had an attack taken place, the legislators would have been behind solid barriers. Doors weighing twenty-five tons protected against nuclear explosions. Signs on doors leading from the hotel warned of a danger from electrical equipment inside. These signs were meant to scare away all but the people for whom the shelter was built. VOICE ONE: On arrival in White Sulphur Springs, members of Congress would have entered the bunker through a long passageway. They would have had to quickly remove their clothes and pass through a high-pressure water system to wash off any radioactive materials. Then they would have put on clean clothes and begun life underground. VOICE TWO: Come with us now as we step back in time to look inside the bunker. There are dormitory areas for hundreds of lawmakers and their aides to sleep. Beds are built one on top of another. The Senate majority leader has a private bedroom along with private meeting rooms. The cafeteria is big enough to serve food to up to four hundred people at one time. And there is a fourteen-bed medical center. It has an X-ray machine, laboratory, intensive-care area and nurses’ call station. There are examining rooms, a drugstore and an operating room. A dental chair sits empty, awaiting a patient with a bad tooth. VOICE ONE: Other areas of the shelter include telephone rooms and a room for processing messages. A power plant occupies three levels of the bunker. Water tanks are on the lowest level. A defense system against radiation would operate from the power plant in case of a nuclear strike. VOICE TWO: Guests of the Greenbrier Hotel sometimes entered part of the shelter without knowing it. People held business conferences and watched movies in the meetings rooms built for emergency use by Congress. After the Washington Post described the bunker, officials removed all secret materials. In the middle of the nineteen nineties, the shelter was opened for hotel guests to visit. Restoration is currently in progress. The shelter is temporarily closed. But in the spring of two thousand six, the public again will be able to step into this place built for a terrible event that never happened. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Top Aid Official at U.N. Says World Is Failing Africa
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has made fourteen appeals for aid to Africa so far this year. Yet eight of those appeals have received less than twenty percent of the amount requested. And only one, a small appeal for Angola, has received more than forty percent. Jan EgelandThese numbers are from the U.N. official who supervises emergency aid. Jan Egeland, from Norway, says that in general there is too little investment in the area of the world with the greatest need. Mister Egeland spoke last week to reporters and the U.N. Security Council about the humanitarian crises in Africa. Later, the council released a statement of deep concern about the situation. The U.N. appeals included a request for more than twenty-three million dollars for the Central African Republic. Only six percent of that has been received, and only eight percent of a requested one hundred sixty-four million dollars for Somalia. Mister Egeland says too many people are dying because of too little money or because it arrives too late. And he says Africa has new crises faster than the U.N. can solve old ones. The recent political conflict in Togo, for example, has created thousands of refugees. And Mister Egeland spoke of recent killings in northern Uganda by rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army. Almost two million people have been displaced by years of civil war in northern Uganda. Mister Egeland said more aid is needed to prevent a break in the food supply in June. He warned about food shortages in several countries in southern Africa as well as Ethiopia and Eritrea in the east. The U.N. official spoke of the combined threat of AIDS, food shortages and weak government in Zimbabwe and other countries. Also, he says promises of aid are not being met fast enough to help the refugees from Darfur, in western Sudan. About two hundred thousand people have entered Chad to escape two years of violence in Darfur. Mister Egeland said there is "an inbuilt discrimination" against Africa. In his words: "If we all agree that a human life has the same value wherever he or she is born, there should be the same attention to northern Uganda as to northern Iraq, the same attention to the Congo as there was to Kosovo. "And that," he added, "is not the case today."? This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Stress: What It Can Do to Us, What We Can Do About It
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we talk about an emotional or mental influence commonly called stress. We also tell about the effects of stress on people’s health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people in the United States suffered emotional or mental problems after the terrorist attacks on September eleventh, two thousand one. Terrorism creates fear and fear often leads to severe stress. Studies suggest that stress can reduce the body’s ability to fight disease and can lead to serious health problems. Stress affects everybody every day. It is your body’s reaction to physical, chemical, emotional or environmental influences. Some stress is unavoidable and may even be good for us. Stress can keep our bodies and minds strong. It gives us the push we need to react to an urgent situation. Some people say it makes them more productive at work and gives them more energy. VOICE TWO: Too much stress, however, can be harmful. It may make an existing health problem worse. Or it can lead to other illnesses or disease if a person is at risk for the condition. For example, your body reacts to stressful situations by raising your blood pressure and making your heart work harder. This is especially dangerous if you already have heart disease or high blood pressure. Stress is more likely to be harmful if you feel helpless to deal with the problem or situation that causes the stress. VOICE ONE: Anything you see as a problem can cause stress. It can be caused by everyday situations or by major problems. Stress results when something causes your body to act as if it were under attack. Causes of stress can be physical, such as injury or illness. Or they can be mental, such as problems with your family, job, health or finances. Many visits to doctors are for conditions connected with stress. The tension of stress can interfere with sleep or cause uncontrollable anger or sadness. A person may become more forgetful or find it harder to think clearly. Losing one’s sense of humor is another sign of an unhealthy amount of stress. Stress can lead to other health problems if people try to ease it by smoking, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or by eating more or less than normal. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: Chronic stress lasts a long time or happens often. Chronic stress causes the body to produce too much of the hormones cortisol and adrenalin. Cortisol is called the “worry” hormone. It is produced when we are afraid. Adrenalin is known as the “fight or flight” hormone. It prepares the body to react physically to a threat. Persons under chronic stress produce too much of these hormones for long periods. Too much cortisol and adrenalin can result in physical problems and even changes that lead to stress-linked illnesses. Cortisol provides high levels of energy during important periods. However, scientists have become concerned about the hormone’s long-term effects on our health. Evidence shows that extended periods of cortisol in the body weakens bones, damages nerve cells in the brain. It also can weaken the body’s defense system against disease. This makes it easier to get viral and bacterial infections. VOICE ONE: Chronic stress has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. Studies suggest that people who are easily stressed develop blockages in blood passageways faster than people who are calm. A few years ago, a study of women was carried out in Japan. It found that women who reported high levels of stress were more than two times as likely to die from stroke and heart disease as other women. High stress levels have been found to cause asthma attacks that make it difficult to breathe. Stress also is linked to mental conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders. Studies also have shown that chronic stress reduces the levels of the hormone estrogen in women. This might put some women at greater risk for heart disease or the bone-thinning disease, osteoporosis. Experts say long-term stress also can weaken your resistance to infections such as colds and influenza, as well as your ability to recover from these diseases. Extended periods of stress are also linked to headaches, difficulty sleeping, stomach problems and skin problems. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mental and health experts believe personality is an important part in how we experience stress. Personality is the way a person acts, feels and thinks. Many things influence the development of a person’s personality, including genetics and experience. Some people, for example, are aggressive and always in a hurry. They often become angry when things do not happen the way they planned. They are called “Type A” personalities. Studies suggest that these people often get stress-related illnesses. The “Type B” personality is a much more calm person. These people are able to deal with all kinds of situations more easily. As a result, they are less affected by stress. VOICE ONE: Studies show that men and women deal with stress differently. Women usually have stronger social support systems to help them in times of trouble. ?These social supports may help explain why many women seem to be better able to deal with stress than men are. However, experts say women are three times more likely to develop depression in reaction to the stress in their lives. VOICE TWO: Chronic stress is most common among people in the workplace, especially among women. Scientists studying stress in the workplace say many women are under severe stress because of the pressures of work, marriage and children. Some experts say that pressure can cause a chemical imbalance in the brain that can lead to depression. More than thirty million American women suffer from depression. These problems are linked to their stress-filled lives and constant hurrying. VOICE ONE: People who care for family members who are old or sick also suffer from high levels of stress. Most caregivers in the United States are women. Several studies have been done on people who care for family members with Alzheimer’s disease. The studies showed that the caregivers had high cortisol levels in their bodies. This greatly weakened their natural defenses against disease. For example, one study in the United States found that women who cared for family members with Alzheimer’s took an average of nine days longer to heal a small wound. It also showed the blood cells from the caregivers produced lower amounts of substances that are important for healing and for fighting disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several ways to deal with stress. They include deep breathing and a method of guided thought called meditation. They also include exercise, eating healthy foods, getting enough rest and balancing the time spent working and playing. Doctors say people should limit the amounts of alcohol and caffeine in their diets. People who have many drinks with caffeine, like coffee, experience more stress and produce more stress hormones. Experts say exercise is one of the most effective stress-reduction measures. Running, walking or playing sports causes physical changes that make you feel better. Exercise also improves the body’s defenses against disease. And a recent study found that it helps protect against a decrease in mental ability. Doctors say deep, slow breathing also is helpful. And many medical studies have shown that clearing the mind through quiet meditation helps you become calm. This causes lower blood pressure, reduced muscle tension and decreased heart rate. VOICE ONE: Experts say keeping stress to yourself can make problems worse. Researchers have linked the inability to identify and express emotions to many health conditions. These include eating disorders, fear disorders and high blood pressure. They say expressing emotions to friends or family members or writing down your feelings can help reduce stress. Experts say people should try to accept or change stressful situations whenever possible. Reducing stress may help you feel better and live longer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-16-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Identification System Proposed for U.S. Farm Animals
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States Department of Agriculture wants to develop a system to follow the movements of cows, chickens and pigs in the country. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced plans for the National Animal Identification System earlier this month. A detailed program or set of rules has yet to be approved. Mister Johanns said the Bush administration is now proposing ideas for the system. He also said the Agriculture Department is seeking comments from the agricultural community. The administration would like the meat industry and farmers to start keeping records of animals on their own. Then, in two thousand nine, complete records of each animal’s movement would be required. Mister Johanns said the goal of the system is to identify within two days any animals or places that may be linked to disease. The system would require that records be kept for three kinds of information. Farms and animal holding areas would need to be identified. Individual animals or groups of animals also would be identified. So would the movements of animals from place to place. State and federal officials would be able to use this information to help guard against or control animal disease. Mister Johanns says a National Animal Identification System would be a tool to fight threats, even before they happen. However, some farmers and industry representatives have expressed concern that the information will be made public. The Agriculture Secretary has said the information will remain private. But, it is unclear how freedom of information laws will affect the system. The Department of Agriculture says the system could cost at least eighty million dollars a year. But that does not include equipment that farmers will need to record and store information. It is not clear how all animals will be identified in the system because the rules have yet to be written. Reports say each cow will have its own number. Pigs and chickens will probably be identified in groups. Other animals like fish also are being considered. The proposed system would represent a new way to guard against animal diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B.S.E. Japan says concerns about B.S.E. are one of the reasons it continues to ban American beef. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Amelia Earhart: She Showed That Women, Too, Could Set Flight Records
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about Amelia Earhart. She was one of America’s first female pilots. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart was born in eighteen ninety-seven in the middle western state of Kansas. She was not a child of her times. Most American girls at the beginning of the twentieth century were taught to sit quietly and speak softly. They were not permitted to play ball or climb trees. Those activities were considered fun for boys. They were considered wrong for girls. Amelia and her younger sister Muriel were lucky. Their parents believed all children needed physical activity to grow healthy and strong. So Amelia and Muriel were very active girls. They rode horses. They played baseball and basketball. They went fishing with their father. Other parents would not let their daughters play with Amelia and Muriel. VOICE TWO: The Earharts lived in a number of places in America’s middle west when the girls were growing up. The family was living in Chicago, Illinois when Amelia completed high school in nineteen-sixteen. Amelia then prepared to enter a university. During a holiday, she visited her sister in Toronto, Canada. World War One had begun by then. And Amelia was shocked by the number of wounded soldiers sent home from the fighting in France. She decided she would be more useful as a nurse than as a student. So she joined the Red Cross. VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart first became interested in flying while living in Toronto. She talked with many pilots who were treated at the soldiers’ hospital. She also spent time watching planes at a nearby military airfield. Flying seemed exciting. But the machinery – the plane itself – was exciting, too. After World War One ended, Amelia spent a year recovering from the disease pneumonia. She read poetry and went on long walks. She learned to play the banjo. And she went to school to learn about engines. When she was healthy again, she entered Columbia University in New York City. She studied medicine. After a year she went to California to visit her parents. During that trip, she took her first ride in an airplane. And when the plane landed, Amelia? Earhart had a new goal in life. She would learn to fly. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the world’s first female pilots, Neta Snook, taught Amelia to fly. It did not take long for Amelia to make her first flight by herself. She received her official pilot’s license in nineteen-twenty. Then she wanted a plane of her own. She earned most of the money to buy it by working for a telephone company. Her first plane had two sets of wings, a bi-plane. On June seventeenth, nineteen twenty-eight, the plane left the eastern province of Newfoundland, Canada. The pilot and engine expert were men. The passenger was Amelia Earhart. The planed landed in Wales twenty hours and forty minutes later. For the first time, a woman had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air. VOICE ONE: Amelia did not feel very important, because she had not flown the plane. Yet the public did not care. People on both sides of the Atlantic were excited by the tall brave girl with short hair and gray eyes. They organized parties and parades in her honor. Suddenly, she was famous. Amelia Earhart had become the first lady of the air. She wrote a book about the flight. She made speeches about flying. And she continued to fly by herself across the United States and back. VOICE TWO: Flying was a new and exciting activity in the early nineteen-twenties. Pilots tested and demonstrated their skills in air shows. Amelia soon began taking part in these shows. She crashed one time in a field of cabbage plants. The accident did not stop her from flying. But she said it did decrease her desire to eat cabbages! Flying was fun, but costly. Amelia could not continue. She sold her bi-plane, bought a car and left California. She moved across the country to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. She taught English to immigrants and then became a social worker. VOICE ONE: In the last years of the nineteen-twenties, hundreds of record flights were made. A few were made by women. But no woman had flown across the Atlantic Ocean. A wealthy American woman, Amy Guest, bought a plane to do this. However, her family opposed the idea. So she looked for another woman to take her place. Friends proposed Amelia Earhart. VOICE TWO: American publisher George Putnam had helped organize the Atlantic Ocean flight that made Amelia famous. Afterwards, he continued to support her flying activities. In nineteen thirty-one, George and Amelia were married. He helped provide financial support for her record flights. On May twentieth, nineteen thirty-two, Amelia took off from Newfoundland. She headed east in a small red and gold plane. Amelia had problems with ice on the wings, fog from the ocean and instruments that failed. At one point, her plane dropped suddenly nine hundred meters. She regained control. And after fifteen hours she landed in Ireland. She had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, alone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the next few years, Amelia Earhart set more records and received more honors. She was the first to fly from Hawaii to California, alone. She was the first to fly from Mexico City to New York City, without stopping. Amelia hoped her flights would prove that flying was safe for everyone. She hoped women would have jobs at every level of the industry when flying became a common form of transportation. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-five, the president of Purdue University in Indiana asked Amelia to do some work there. He wanted her to be an adviser on aircraft design and navigation. He also wanted her to be a special adviser to female students. Purdue University provided Amelia with a new all-metal, two-engine plane. It had so many instruments she called it the “Flying Laboratory.”? It was the best airplane in the world at that time. Amelia decided to use this plane to fly around the world. She wanted to go around the equator. It was a distance of forty-three thousand kilometers. No one had attempted to fly that way before. VOICE ONE: Amelia’s trip was planned carefully. The goal was not to set a speed record. The goal was to gather information. Crew members would study the effects of height and temperature on themselves and the plane. They would gather small amounts of air from the upper atmosphere. And they would examine the condition of airfields throughout the world. Amelia knew the trip would be dangerous. A few days before she left, she gave a small American flag to her friend Jacqueline Cochran, another female pilot. Amelia had carried the flag on all her major flights. Jacqueline did not want to take it until Amelia returned from her flight around the world. “No,” Amelia told her, “you had better take it now.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Amelia and three male crew members were to make the flight. However, a minor accident and weather conditions forced a change in plans. So on June first, nineteen thirty-seven, a silver Lockheed Electra plane left Miami, Florida. It carried pilot Amelia Earhart and just one male crew member, navigator Fred Noonan. Amelia and Fred headed south toward the equator. They stopped in Puerto Rico, Surinam and Brazil. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where they stopped in Senegal, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Then they continued on to India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. VOICE ONE: When they reached New Guinea, they were about to begin the most difficult part of the trip. They would fly four thousand kilometers to tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Three hours after leaving New Guinea, Amelia sent back a radio message. She said she was on a direct path to Howland Island. Later, Amelia’s radio signals were received by a United States Coast Guard ship near the island. The messages began to warn of trouble. Fuel was getting low. They could not find Howland Island. They could not see any land at all. VOICE TWO: The radio signals got weaker and weaker. A message on the morning of July second was incomplete. Then there was silence. American Navy ships and planes searched the area for fifteen days. They found nothing. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were officially declared “lost at sea.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study: Sunshine and Vitamin D May Improve Lung Cancer Survival
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Too much sun can cause skin cancer. Too much vitamin D can also make you sick. Yet a study suggests that sunlight and vitamin D may help some people with lung cancer live longer. Vitamin D helps build strong teeth and bones. Foods such as oily fish and egg yolks are high in vitamin D. But not many foods naturally are. So extra vitamin D is often added to milk products. Some people get more with vitamin products. Another way is with the sun. Vitamin D is known as the "sunshine vitamin."? The body produces it through the skin from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. Researchers from Harvard University led a study of four hundred fifty-six people. These men and women had been treated for lung cancer in Boston, Massachusetts. The cancers had been found early. Doctors operated to remove them. The average age of the patients was sixty-nine. Forty percent were smokers. Researchers asked the people what they ate, what vitamins they took and what time of year their operations had taken place. Some had high levels of vitamin D intake and had their operations during summertime, when there is lots of sun. Others had low levels, and were operated on in winter. The researchers found that thirty percent of the people in this second group were alive five years after their operation. Forty-six percent were disease-free. But patients with the highest vitamin D intake and summer operations had higher survival rates. Seventy-two percent were still alive after five years. And eighty-three percent were disease-free. The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Other studies are needed to confirm them. Harvard researcher Wei Zhou says studies on animals have shown that vitamin D may be able to act against some cancers. He says the new study does not suggest that people should try to time their cancer surgery for a particular season. But he says increasing the use of vitamin D before such treatment could help. Lung cancer is the most common cancer around the world, with more than one million new cases each year. And it kills more people than any other cancer. About sixty percent of those who get lung cancer die within a year. The major preventable cause is the use of tobacco. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/a-2005-05-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 18, 2005 - 'Do You Speak American?'
* Byline: 

 I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: "Do You Speak American?" That's the name of a new book by journalist Robert MacNeil. Mr. MacNeil -- who was born and raised in Canada -- explores how immigration, technology and other factors have changed the way Americans speak English. The former television newscaster likes to use everyday experiences to illustrate the changes taking place. For instance, he says that when he and his wife -- both in their mid-70s -- go to New York City restaurants, they're often greeted by a waiter as "you guys," as in: "What'll you guys have?" Yet to be spoken to so casually might offend some people. Robert MacNeil spoke with VOA's Keming Kuo about the challenges that English presents to its users worldwide. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The English language, to anybody who is trying to learn it from the outside and not from birth, is a devil of a language, with all sorts of nuances. For instance, a hotel in Egypt which put up a sign saying: "Clients need have no anxiety about the water; it has all been passed by the management.' You see, to an American or a native English speaker, that is hilarious because it suggests that it's passed through the body of the manager. No native speaker of English would make that mistake. Otherwise, it was a perfectly grammatical sign." Robert MacNeil says one reason American English became such a nuanced, and sometimes difficult, language is that it was shaped by the country's rapidly changing demographics. ROBERT MacNEIL: "So much of the English vocabulary comes from immigration, first of all to Britain going back 1500 years, but then, in the last couple centuries, to the United States. And much of our American vocabulary comes from German or Yiddish or Italian or Dutch or Irish or Scandinavian -- all those sources of immigration. And certainly an awful lots of words from Spanish, because the Mexicans owned and lived in what is now a large part of Southwestern United States." Mr. MacNeil points out that the United States is a restless, mobile society, with about one-seventh of its residents moving every year. He says those moves from rural to suburban and urban areas created peer pressure for many young people to adopt "inner city lingo" as part of their speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "Partly it's explained by one sociolinguist in our book as a way for young, white males, teenage males, in the suburbs -- where they grow up feeling kind of safe and everything -- to borrow some of the overt masculinity of blacks living in the inner cities, where they at least appear to know how to look after themselves, they know how to deal with women, they're familiar with weapons and all that sort of thing. And that has a huge appeal to adolescent white Americans." In his new book, "Do You Speak American?", Robert MacNeil addresses those who bemoan what they consider the decline of English in America. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The desire of some people, going back to the 17th century in Britain, to police the language because they want to control it, and they think it's getting messy. People like Daniel Defoe, the author of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and Jonathan Swift, the author of 'Gulliver's Travels,' were among those who thought that the language had gotten out of hand during Shakespeare's time and needed to be guarded from too much innovation. Daniel Defoe, believe it or not, wanted it to be as serious a crime to coin your own new word as it would be to counterfeit money." Mr. MacNeil says schools are criticized for abandoning strict grammatical discipline, and the media are criticized for using so much informal or non-standard speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "This is not as strict a country, as strict to observe certain standards, as it used to be. And the language reflects all that. It's also become a society which partly through the force of law -- laws against racism and so on -- has become a good deal more tolerant of races, of other people, of different people. And more tolerant of people who are fat, who are tall, who are disabled in some way. And the language reflects that." Twenty years ago, Robert MacNeil first explored changes in the English language in his book "The Story of English." Looking toward the next 20 years, he says there will be additional changes to English in America, with technology playing a major role. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: "Do You Speak American?" That's the name of a new book by journalist Robert MacNeil. Mr. MacNeil -- who was born and raised in Canada -- explores how immigration, technology and other factors have changed the way Americans speak English. The former television newscaster likes to use everyday experiences to illustrate the changes taking place. For instance, he says that when he and his wife -- both in their mid-70s -- go to New York City restaurants, they're often greeted by a waiter as "you guys," as in: "What'll you guys have?" Yet to be spoken to so casually might offend some people. Robert MacNeil spoke with VOA's Keming Kuo about the challenges that English presents to its users worldwide. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The English language, to anybody who is trying to learn it from the outside and not from birth, is a devil of a language, with all sorts of nuances. For instance, a hotel in Egypt which put up a sign saying: "Clients need have no anxiety about the water; it has all been passed by the management.' You see, to an American or a native English speaker, that is hilarious because it suggests that it's passed through the body of the manager. No native speaker of English would make that mistake. Otherwise, it was a perfectly grammatical sign." Robert MacNeil says one reason American English became such a nuanced, and sometimes difficult, language is that it was shaped by the country's rapidly changing demographics. ROBERT MacNEIL: "So much of the English vocabulary comes from immigration, first of all to Britain going back 1500 years, but then, in the last couple centuries, to the United States. And much of our American vocabulary comes from German or Yiddish or Italian or Dutch or Irish or Scandinavian -- all those sources of immigration. And certainly an awful lots of words from Spanish, because the Mexicans owned and lived in what is now a large part of Southwestern United States." Mr. MacNeil points out that the United States is a restless, mobile society, with about one-seventh of its residents moving every year. He says those moves from rural to suburban and urban areas created peer pressure for many young people to adopt "inner city lingo" as part of their speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "Partly it's explained by one sociolinguist in our book as a way for young, white males, teenage males, in the suburbs -- where they grow up feeling kind of safe and everything -- to borrow some of the overt masculinity of blacks living in the inner cities, where they at least appear to know how to look after themselves, they know how to deal with women, they're familiar with weapons and all that sort of thing. And that has a huge appeal to adolescent white Americans." In his new book, "Do You Speak American?", Robert MacNeil addresses those who bemoan what they consider the decline of English in America. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The desire of some people, going back to the 17th century in Britain, to police the language because they want to control it, and they think it's getting messy. People like Daniel Defoe, the author of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and Jonathan Swift, the author of 'Gulliver's Travels,' were among those who thought that the language had gotten out of hand during Shakespeare's time and needed to be guarded from too much innovation. Daniel Defoe, believe it or not, wanted it to be as serious a crime to coin your own new word as it would be to counterfeit money." Mr. MacNeil says schools are criticized for abandoning strict grammatical discipline, and the media are criticized for using so much informal or non-standard speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "This is not as strict a country, as strict to observe certain standards, as it used to be. And the language reflects all that. It's also become a society which partly through the force of law -- laws against racism and so on -- has become a good deal more tolerant of races, of other people, of different people. And more tolerant of people who are fat, who are tall, who are disabled in some way. And the language reflects that." Twenty years ago, Robert MacNeil first explored changes in the English language in his book "The Story of English." Looking toward the next 20 years, he says there will be additional changes to English in America, with technology playing a major role. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/a-2005-05-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: May 18, 2005 - 'Do You Speak American?'
* Byline: 

 I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: "Do You Speak American?" That's the name of a new book by journalist Robert MacNeil. Mr. MacNeil -- who was born and raised in Canada -- explores how immigration, technology and other factors have changed the way Americans speak English. The former television newscaster likes to use everyday experiences to illustrate the changes taking place. For instance, he says that when he and his wife -- both in their mid-70s -- go to New York City restaurants, they're often greeted by a waiter as "you guys," as in: "What'll you guys have?" Yet to be spoken to so casually might offend some people. Robert MacNeil spoke with VOA's Keming Kuo about the challenges that English presents to its users worldwide. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The English language, to anybody who is trying to learn it from the outside and not from birth, is a devil of a language, with all sorts of nuances. For instance, a hotel in Egypt which put up a sign saying: "Clients need have no anxiety about the water; it has all been passed by the management.' You see, to an American or a native English speaker, that is hilarious because it suggests that it's passed through the body of the manager. No native speaker of English would make that mistake. Otherwise, it was a perfectly grammatical sign." Robert MacNeil says one reason American English became such a nuanced, and sometimes difficult, language is that it was shaped by the country's rapidly changing demographics. ROBERT MacNEIL: "So much of the English vocabulary comes from immigration, first of all to Britain going back 1500 years, but then, in the last couple centuries, to the United States. And much of our American vocabulary comes from German or Yiddish or Italian or Dutch or Irish or Scandinavian -- all those sources of immigration. And certainly an awful lots of words from Spanish, because the Mexicans owned and lived in what is now a large part of Southwestern United States." Mr. MacNeil points out that the United States is a restless, mobile society, with about one-seventh of its residents moving every year. He says those moves from rural to suburban and urban areas created peer pressure for many young people to adopt "inner city lingo" as part of their speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "Partly it's explained by one sociolinguist in our book as a way for young, white males, teenage males, in the suburbs -- where they grow up feeling kind of safe and everything -- to borrow some of the overt masculinity of blacks living in the inner cities, where they at least appear to know how to look after themselves, they know how to deal with women, they're familiar with weapons and all that sort of thing. And that has a huge appeal to adolescent white Americans." In his new book, "Do You Speak American?", Robert MacNeil addresses those who bemoan what they consider the decline of English in America. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The desire of some people, going back to the 17th century in Britain, to police the language because they want to control it, and they think it's getting messy. People like Daniel Defoe, the author of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and Jonathan Swift, the author of 'Gulliver's Travels,' were among those who thought that the language had gotten out of hand during Shakespeare's time and needed to be guarded from too much innovation. Daniel Defoe, believe it or not, wanted it to be as serious a crime to coin your own new word as it would be to counterfeit money." Mr. MacNeil says schools are criticized for abandoning strict grammatical discipline, and the media are criticized for using so much informal or non-standard speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "This is not as strict a country, as strict to observe certain standards, as it used to be. And the language reflects all that. It's also become a society which partly through the force of law -- laws against racism and so on -- has become a good deal more tolerant of races, of other people, of different people. And more tolerant of people who are fat, who are tall, who are disabled in some way. And the language reflects that." Twenty years ago, Robert MacNeil first explored changes in the English language in his book "The Story of English." Looking toward the next 20 years, he says there will be additional changes to English in America, with technology playing a major role. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster: "Do You Speak American?" That's the name of a new book by journalist Robert MacNeil. Mr. MacNeil -- who was born and raised in Canada -- explores how immigration, technology and other factors have changed the way Americans speak English. The former television newscaster likes to use everyday experiences to illustrate the changes taking place. For instance, he says that when he and his wife -- both in their mid-70s -- go to New York City restaurants, they're often greeted by a waiter as "you guys," as in: "What'll you guys have?" Yet to be spoken to so casually might offend some people. Robert MacNeil spoke with VOA's Keming Kuo about the challenges that English presents to its users worldwide. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The English language, to anybody who is trying to learn it from the outside and not from birth, is a devil of a language, with all sorts of nuances. For instance, a hotel in Egypt which put up a sign saying: "Clients need have no anxiety about the water; it has all been passed by the management.' You see, to an American or a native English speaker, that is hilarious because it suggests that it's passed through the body of the manager. No native speaker of English would make that mistake. Otherwise, it was a perfectly grammatical sign." Robert MacNeil says one reason American English became such a nuanced, and sometimes difficult, language is that it was shaped by the country's rapidly changing demographics. ROBERT MacNEIL: "So much of the English vocabulary comes from immigration, first of all to Britain going back 1500 years, but then, in the last couple centuries, to the United States. And much of our American vocabulary comes from German or Yiddish or Italian or Dutch or Irish or Scandinavian -- all those sources of immigration. And certainly an awful lots of words from Spanish, because the Mexicans owned and lived in what is now a large part of Southwestern United States." Mr. MacNeil points out that the United States is a restless, mobile society, with about one-seventh of its residents moving every year. He says those moves from rural to suburban and urban areas created peer pressure for many young people to adopt "inner city lingo" as part of their speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "Partly it's explained by one sociolinguist in our book as a way for young, white males, teenage males, in the suburbs -- where they grow up feeling kind of safe and everything -- to borrow some of the overt masculinity of blacks living in the inner cities, where they at least appear to know how to look after themselves, they know how to deal with women, they're familiar with weapons and all that sort of thing. And that has a huge appeal to adolescent white Americans." In his new book, "Do You Speak American?", Robert MacNeil addresses those who bemoan what they consider the decline of English in America. ROBERT MacNEIL: "The desire of some people, going back to the 17th century in Britain, to police the language because they want to control it, and they think it's getting messy. People like Daniel Defoe, the author of 'Robinson Crusoe,' and Jonathan Swift, the author of 'Gulliver's Travels,' were among those who thought that the language had gotten out of hand during Shakespeare's time and needed to be guarded from too much innovation. Daniel Defoe, believe it or not, wanted it to be as serious a crime to coin your own new word as it would be to counterfeit money." Mr. MacNeil says schools are criticized for abandoning strict grammatical discipline, and the media are criticized for using so much informal or non-standard speech. ROBERT MacNEIL: "This is not as strict a country, as strict to observe certain standards, as it used to be. And the language reflects all that. It's also become a society which partly through the force of law -- laws against racism and so on -- has become a good deal more tolerant of races, of other people, of different people. And more tolerant of people who are fat, who are tall, who are disabled in some way. And the language reflects that." Twenty years ago, Robert MacNeil first explored changes in the English language in his book "The Story of English." Looking toward the next 20 years, he says there will be additional changes to English in America, with technology playing a major role. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: It's College Graduation Season in the United States
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We started our Foreign Student Series on American higher education in September, at the start of the new school year. Now that year is ending, and so is our series. But not yet. We still have a few more subjects. For example, listener Zegeye Mulu in Ethiopia asks about graduation ceremonies. May and June are the months when most American colleges and universities hold their commencements. These ceremonies are a time for family and friends to gather and celebrate a student’s completion of an academic degree. Most ceremonies are traditional. The students wear caps and gowns over their clothing. One by one, their names are called. They go to the front, shake hands with school officials and receive a document of some kind. But first they must they sit and listen to speeches. Colleges and universities often invite famous guests or former students who have become successful. Schools often want speakers to comment on world events. This Saturday, for example, President Bush is to speak at the graduation ceremony at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Another speaker that day, at another school, is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. She will speak at the commencement at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. News people are often invited to speak at graduations. So are entertainers. Actor John Lithgow, a nineteen sixty-seven graduate of Harvard, will speak at the university on June ninth. Then there are speakers like Jon Stewart. He entertains by making fun of the news.The popular program, "The Daily Show," appears on Comedy Central on cable television. Last year, Jon Stewart spoke at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He graduated from there in nineteen eighty-four. ?He did offer some serious advice. He said: "College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it ... Love what you do. ?Get good at it."? Well, that is not all Jon Stewart said. You can find his full speech on the William and Mary Web site: www.wm.edu. And our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Election of 1864
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) America was at war in eighteen sixty-four. The Union of northern states was fighting the Confederacy of southern states. ?Each had its own constitution. Under the Union constitution, a national president was to be elected every four years. Eighteen sixty-four was such an election year. And even though a great civil war was being fought, citizens of the north prepared to choose a leader. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Shep O'Neal and I tell the story of that election. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was completing his first term as president. He hoped to lead the nation for another four years. He wanted to win the war between the states. He wanted to re-build the Union. Lincoln's Republican Party was divided. Moderate Republicans wanted to re-build the Union as soon as the war ended. They believed southern states should be welcomed back with full rights. Radical Republicans disagreed strongly. They demanded severe punishment for the southern rebels. VOICE ONE: For many months, President Lincoln worked to build a political majority. He formed a new group called the National Union Party. It included moderate Republicans and some Democrats. Lincoln succeeded in gaining the support of state and local political leaders. It soon became clear that Lincoln would be the party's presidential candidate in the election. VOICE TWO: Several hundred radical Republicans held their own convention in Cleveland, Ohio. They formed a new political party called the Radical Democracy. They nominated explorer John Fremont as their candidate for the national election. Fremont had been the Republican presidential candidate eight years earlier. Most of the radical Republicans in Congress did not take part in the convention in Cleveland. They refused to support Fremont. They felt he had no chance to win the election. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln's new National Union Party held its convention in Baltimore, Maryland. Convention delegates quickly approved a party statement. The statement supported the Union and the war. It opposed slavery. Delegates then were ready to nominate their candidates for president and vice president. On the first ballot, they chose Lincoln to run again. And they chose Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to run as vice president. VOICE TWO: During the campaign, Lincoln was advised to begin peace talks with the south. End the war, he was told. Bring southern states back into the Union. Settle the question of slavery later. Lincoln, however, believed his policies were right for the nation. He would not surrender them, even if they meant his defeat in the election. Lincoln hated the war. But he would not end it until military victory ended slavery and guaranteed political union. VOICE ONE: In August, eighteen sixty-four, Lincoln wrote: "For some days past, it seems that this administration probably will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to cooperate with the president-elect to save the Union. We must do this between election day and inauguration day. For he will have been elected on such ground that he cannot possibly save the Union afterwards." VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party held its nominating convention in Chicago, Illinois.Peace Democrats were in firm control. Peace Democrats demanded an immediate end to the Civil War. They did not care if the north and south remained apart permanently. The party's statement contained these words: "After four years of failure to restore the Union by war. . . justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made to end the fighting. Let us look to a convention of states -- or other peaceable means -- to restore the Union." VOICE ONE: The democratic statement did not discuss slavery. It did say, however, that any state wishing to return to the Union could do so without losing any of its constitutional rights. This was believed to include the right to own slaves. Convention delegates approved the statement. Then they nominated General George McClellan as their candidate for president. VOICE TWO: Three days after the Democratic Party convention closed, the Union won an important military victory. Union troops captured Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta was one of the last remaining industrial cities of the south. Its loss seriously hurt the Confederacy. Now the people of the north could understand their side was winning the war. Public opinion began to change. The Peace Democrats lost popular support. President Lincoln and his National Union Party gained popular support. Even some supporters of Radical Republican candidate John Fremont turned to Lincoln. Fremont withdrew from the race. VOICE ONE: When the people voted in November, their choice was between Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan. A vote for Lincoln meant a vote for continuing the Civil War until it was won. Until the Union was saved. A vote for McClellan meant a vote for stopping the war. Stopping short of victory. By midnight of election day, it was clear that Lincoln had won. He got only about a half-million more popular votes than McClellan. But when electoral votes were counted, he got two hundred twelve to McClellan's twenty-one. VOICE TWO: Before Lincoln's second inaugural, he agreed to hold peace talks with representatives of the Confederacy. The talks would be held at a Union fort on the Chesapeake Bay. Lincoln was very firm in one demand. The talks, he said, must discuss peace for "our one common country."? There could be no talk, he said, of Confederate independence. The Confederate representatives said they could not accept those terms. The peace talks ended in failure. VOICE ONE: Lincoln returned to Washington. He prepared a message that he wished to send to Congress. It contained a program he felt could end the war within a few weeks. Lincoln proposed four hundred million dollars in economic aid to the southern states. The money could be used to pay slave owners for freeing their slaves. Half the money would be paid if the southern states gave up their struggle by April first. The other half would be paid if they approved -- by July first -- a constitutional amendment ending slavery. As part of the program, Lincoln would pardon all political crimes resulting from the southern rebellion. He also would return all property seized by Union forces. VOICE TWO: Lincoln's cabinet officers rejected the program. They urged him not to send it to Congress. They said it would be seen as a sign of weakness. Lincoln was surprised by the reaction. He thought his cabinet would gladly end the war...a war that was costing the government three million dollars a day and the lives of the nation's young men. But he accepted the cabinet's advice. He did not send his message to Congress. VOICE ONE: On March fourth, eighteen sixty-five, Abraham Lincoln was sworn-in as president for a second term. This is part of what he said: "On this occasion four years ago, all thoughts were directed to a coming Civil War. All feared it. All tried to prevent it. Both parties opposed war. But one of them would make war rather than let the nation live. And the other would accept war, rather than let it die. And the war came. "We hope -- and we pray -- that this terrible war may pass away quickly. But God may wish it otherwise. He may have it continue until the riches earned from two hundred fifty years of slavery are gone. It may continue until every drop of blood made by the slaveowner's whip is paid for by another made by the soldier's sword. "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right -- as God gives us to see the right -- let us strive on to finish the work we are in. Let us heal the nation's wounds. Let us do all possible to get and keep a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." VOICE TWO: That night, the White House was open to the public. Thousands of people went to see the?President. Poet Walt Whitman gave this description: "I saw Mr. Lincoln, dressed all in black. He was shaking hands...looking very sad...as if he would give anything to be somewhere else." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC)? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lower Bond Prices Can Mean a Higher Return, but Also Risk
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Governments and big companies often need to borrow more money than a single bank can offer. So they depend, instead, on credit markets. Sales of bonds or similar securities help finance governments and businesses, while investors earn interest. Bonds are loans. They must be repaid at the end of an established period, when the bond reaches maturity. During that period, the bond seller, called the issuer, must make interest payments to the bondholders. The return on investment is called the yield. A one thousand dollar bond with a yield of five percent would pay interest of fifty dollars per year. Some bonds are considered free of most worry for investors. United States Treasury bonds, for example, are supported by "the full faith and credit" of the government. But, in credit markets, how does an investor know if a company can pay its debts?? Credit rating agencies help. These companies advise investors how likely they are to receive the principal with interest. The principal is the amount of the bond at maturity. Such advice helps markets to set the price of credit. We talked last week about credit rating agencies. The two biggest in America are Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service. We described how they recently lowered the credit rating of General Motors and Ford Motor Company. ? A change in the credit rating of a bond issuer can affect the price of its bonds. Standard and Poor’s gave G.M. a rating of double-B and Ford a rating of double-B-plus. Those ratings are known as junk status, or below investment grade. The lower the rating for a company, the less secure its debt is considered for investors. Credit markets reacted; the price of G.M. and Ford bonds fell. This week, the price for a G.M. bond maturing in two thousand thirty-three was a little over seven hundred ten dollars. Bonds are usually sold in the amount of one thousand dollars. So buyers who paid full price would get back only about three-fourths of the principal if they sold that bond now. But, as bond prices fall, the yield increases. This is because the interest stays the same -- so long as the bond issuer continues to pay. Risky bonds appeal to some investors because of the lower cost and higher yield. The risk, however, is that the investors could lose their money. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Governments and big companies often need to borrow more money than a single bank can offer. So they depend, instead, on credit markets. Sales of bonds or similar securities help finance governments and businesses, while investors earn interest. Bonds are loans. They must be repaid at the end of an established period, when the bond reaches maturity. During that period, the bond seller, called the issuer, must make interest payments to the bondholders. The return on investment is called the yield. A one thousand dollar bond with a yield of five percent would pay interest of fifty dollars per year. Some bonds are considered free of most worry for investors. United States Treasury bonds, for example, are supported by "the full faith and credit" of the government. But, in credit markets, how does an investor know if a company can pay its debts?? Credit rating agencies help. These companies advise investors how likely they are to receive the principal with interest. The principal is the amount of the bond at maturity. Such advice helps markets to set the price of credit. We talked last week about credit rating agencies. The two biggest in America are Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service. We described how they recently lowered the credit rating of General Motors and Ford Motor Company. ? A change in the credit rating of a bond issuer can affect the price of its bonds. Standard and Poor’s gave G.M. a rating of double-B and Ford a rating of double-B-plus. Those ratings are known as junk status, or below investment grade. The lower the rating for a company, the less secure its debt is considered for investors. Credit markets reacted; the price of G.M. and Ford bonds fell. This week, the price for a G.M. bond maturing in two thousand thirty-three was a little over seven hundred ten dollars. Bonds are usually sold in the amount of one thousand dollars. So buyers who paid full price would get back only about three-fourths of the principal if they sold that bond now. But, as bond prices fall, the yield increases. This is because the interest stays the same -- so long as the bond issuer continues to pay. Risky bonds appeal to some investors because of the lower cost and higher yield. The risk, however, is that the investors could lose their money. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Senators Aim to Avoid Delays Over Bush's Court Nominees?
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 ???????????????????? I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." ? JAMES STEWART: "You think I'm licked. You all think I'm licked!? Well I'm not licked. And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room gets filled with lies like these; and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me." In the nineteen thirty-nine film "Mister Smith Goes to Washington," a senator faces the threat of expulsion. So he begins a filibuster. The senator, played by James Stewart, talks and talks. He talks for hours, until he is too weak to continue. A filibuster is the use of methods such as long speeches and readings to delay legislative action. United States senators have a long tradition of filibusters. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set the record in the Senate for the longest. In nineteen fifty-seven, he spoke against a civil rights bill. He filibustered for twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes. Currently the Senate is dealing with the issue of seven judges nominated by President Bush for federal appeals court positions. Many Democrats say the nominees are too conservative. But Democrats are a minority in the one-hundred-member Senate. A filibuster, however, would let them block action. Republicans want to confirm the nominees. Under current rules, sixty senators would have to agree to end a filibuster. But Republicans have a majority of just fifty-five seats. So they would need Democratic support. Another possibility is to change Senate rules so that a simple majority could vote to end filibusters. Democrats have threatened to slow all action in the Senate if the rules are changed. They say the filibuster protects minority rights. There has even been talk of an extreme step, a so-called "nuclear option." Republicans could bar filibusters on court nominees. President Bush has been calling for an "up-or-down" vote on his nominees -- in other words, a fair vote, a simple yes or no. Many Americans, both liberal and conservative, say they are concerned about the idea of limiting filibusters. They wonder what effect it could have on future decisions, such as appointments to the Supreme Court. Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He says both parties have increasingly used filibusters on judicial nominees. The possibility of a bitter fight in the coming days has led a number of moderate senators to seek a compromise. So, why the name "filibuster"?? We looked in the Merriam-Webster and American Heritage online dictionaries. A filibuster was someone involved in private military actions in foreign countries -- also known as a pirate. In Dutch the term for pirate meant freebooter. And a freebooter became a "filibustero" in Spanish. So when senators took control of the Senate floor, that was seen as acting like a filibuster. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. --- Sound from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" is from www.americanrhetoric.com. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Funnyman Jack Benny Won Hearts Mainly by Making Fun of Himself
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Jack Benny. He was one of America’s best-loved funnymen during the Twentieth Century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jack Benny was one of the most famous names in show business for more than fifty years. He started as a serious musician, before he discovered he could make people laugh. Jack Benny (left) Jack Benny became famous nationwide in the Nineteen Thirties as a result of his weekly radio program. His programs were among the most popular on American radio, and later on television. Jack Benny won the hearts of Americans by making fun of himself. He was known not as someone who said funny things, but as someone who said things in a funny way. ? VOICE TWO: Jack Benny was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February fourteenth, Eighteen Ninety-Four. His parents, Meyer and Emma Kubelsky, were religious Jews. They had moved to the United States from eastern Europe. They named their first child Benjamin. ? Benjamin Kubelsky and his family lived in Waukeegan , Illinois. Benjamin was a quiet boy. For much of the time, his parents were busy working in his father’s store. As a child, Benjamin, or Benny as his friends called him, learned to play the violin. Benny was such a good violin player that, for a time, he wanted to become a musician. VOICE ONE: While in school, Benny got a job as a violin player with the Barrison Theater, the local vaudeville house. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early Nineteen Hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who made people laugh and other acts. Benny worked at the Barrison Theater -- sometimes during school hours. He left high school before completing his studies. The piano player for the theater was a former vaudeville performer named Cora Salisbury. For a short time, she and Benny formed their own performing act. Later, he and another piano player had their own act. ? At first, Benny changed his name to Ben K. Benny. However, that name was similar to another actor who played a violin. So, he chose the name Jack Benny. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States entered World War One in Nineteen Seventeen. Benny joined the Navy and reported to the Great Lakes Naval Station. He continued using his violin to perform for sailors at the naval station. In one show, he was chosen more for his funny jokes than for his skill with the violin. That experience made him believe that his future job was as a comedian, not in music. VOICE ONE: After leaving the Navy, Benny returned to vaudeville. His performances won him considerable popularity during the Nineteen Twenties. He traveled across the country with other well-known performers, including the Marx Brothers. In Nineteen Twenty-Seven, Benny married Sadie Marks, a sales girl from the May Company store in Los Angeles. Missus Benny soon became part of the traveling show. She used the name Mary Livingstone. Jack Benny appeared in a few Hollywood films, but then left California and moved to New York. He had a leading part in the Broadway show, “Vanities.” VOICE TWO: Benny made his first appearance on radio in Nineteen Thirty-Two. He was invited to appear on a radio show presented by newspaper reporter Ed Sullivan. Benny opened with this announcement: ?“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a short break while you say, who cares?”? However, many listeners did care. Within a short period, Benny had his own radio show. It continued for twenty-three years. (JACK BENNY OPEN) ANNCR:“The Jack Benny Program…” (MUSIC) “…starring Jack Benny, with Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Rochester, Dennis Day, and yours truly, Don Wilson…” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jack Benny developed a show business personality that had all the qualities people dislike. He was known for being so stingy he refused to spend any of his money, unless forced to do so. He always was concerned about money. For example, he would put on a jeweler’s glass to examine the diamond on a wealthy woman he had just met. In another example, a robber points a gun at Benny. (JACK BENNY PROGRAM) ROBBER: “This is a stick-up.” BENNY: “Mister, put down that gun.” ROBBER: “Shut up. I said this is a stick-up. Now, come on. Your money or your life.” ((laughter)) ROBBER: “Look, bud. ?I said, your money or your life!” BENNY: “I’m thinking it over.” ((laughter/music)) VOICE TWO: On his shows, Jack Benny often spoke of his appearance, especially his baby blue eyes. As he grew older, he always claimed to be thirty-nine years old. Benny was known as a comedian with great timing. He seemed to know the perfect time to tell a joke and when to remain silent. The way he looked at other actors and his use of body movements were world famous. He also was skilled at using his violin to make people laugh. VOICE ONE: Jack Benny was one of the first comedians who was willing to let other people share some of the laughs. He rarely made jokes that hurt other people. Instead, he would let the other actors on the show tell jokes about him. Many of the actors in Benny’s show became almost as famous as he was. They would criticize Benny’s refusal to replace his ancient automobile. They made fun of the pay telephone that he added to his house. This is a telephone discussion between Benny and his trusted employee, Rochester. (JACK BENNY PROGRAM) BENNY: “Hello…” ROCHESTER:? “Hello, Mister Benny. This is Rochester…” ((applause)) BENNY: “Rochester, I’m in the middle of the program.” ROCHESTER: “I know, boss, but this is very important. The man from the life insurance company was here about that policy you’re taking out and he asked me a lot of questions.” BENNY: “Well, I hope you answered them right.”? ROCHESTER: “Oh, I did. When he asked me your height, I said five-foot-ten.” BENNY:? “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “Your weight, one-hundred-sixty-four.” BENNY:? “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “Your age, thirty-nine.” BENNY:? “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “We had quite a roundtable discussion on that one.” ((laughter)) (JACK BENNY PROGRAM) BENNY: “Wait a minute, Rochester. Why should there be any question about my age?” ROCHESTER: “Oh, it wasn’t a question. It was the answer we had trouble with.” ((laughter)) VOICE TWO: Jack Benny said: “The show itself is the important thing. As long as people think the show is funny, it does not matter who tells the jokes.”? He also made fun of the paid announcements broadcast during his radio show that were designed to sell products. They often provided some of the funniest moments in the show. Most performers never would make fun of the businesses that helped pay for the show. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Jack Benny did well financially. In Nineteen Forty-Eight, he moved his show from the National Broadcasting Company to the Columbia Broadcasting System. As part of the agreement, CBS paid more than two million dollars to a company in which Benny had a controlling interest. Much later, the Music Corporation of America bought Benny’s production company. Benny received almost three million dollars in MCA stock shares. ?In real life, he was the opposite of the person he played in his show. He was known to be very giving and someone people liked having as their employer. He also could play the violin very well. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny entered the new medium of television in Nineteen Fifty. Five years later, he dropped his radio program to spend more time developing his television show. At first, his appearances on television were rare. By Nineteen Sixty, the Benny show was a weekly television program. It continued until Nineteen-Sixty-Five. Benny appeared in about twenty films during his life. A few became popular. But most were not. In Nineteen Sixty-Three, Benny returned to Broadway for the first time since Nineteen Thirty-One. He performed to large crowds. VOICE ONE: Jack Benny received many awards during his lifetime. The publication “Motion Picture Daily” voted him the country’s best radio comedian four times. In Nineteen Fifty-Seven, he won a special award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the best continuing performance. He also won the Academy’s television award for the best comedy series in Nineteen Fifty-Nine. Perhaps the one honor that pleased him most was that his hometown of Waukeegan named a school for him. This is was special honor for a man who had never finished high school. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny continued to perform and to do a few television specials after his weekly series ended. He died of cancer on December twenty-sixth, Nineteen Seventy-Four. His friend, comedian Bob Hope, spoke at the funeral about the loss felt by Benny’s friends and fans. He said: “Jack Benny was stingy to the end. He gave us only eighty years.”? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by and produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Keeping New Orleans Jazz Alive
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Preservation Hall????????????????????? (Image: www.preservationhall.com) Preservation Hall????????????????????? (Image: www.preservationhall.com) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: 'Paper Architect' Pens Creative Solutions for Refugee Housing
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Shigeru Ban is called the "paper architect."? Mister Ban is an architect in Tokyo known for his designs of temporary shelters made of paper. Many of his designs, such as the "Paper Log House," are built with used cardboard tubes. Mister Ban designed such houses for people in Kobe, Japan, after the nineteen ninety-five earthquake there. He also designed a community gathering place. More recently, his paper houses provided shelter for people in Turkey and India after earthquakes hit those countries. Shigeru Ban also has worked with the United Nations to create housing for refugees in Rwanda. And he has established a non-governmental organization called the Volunteer Architects’ Network. Members design buildings for free to help deal with housing shortages and poor living conditions around the world. In April, the University of Virginia honored Mister Ban. He received the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture. The school recognized him for his humanitarian efforts, environmental concerns and creative use of building materials. Shigeru Ban does not just work with paper. He also works with bamboo, wood and other materials. His next project is in Sri Lanka. The plan is to build one hundred houses for people who lost their homes in the tsunami waves last December. The houses will be built with locally made blocks formed from earth. Mister Ban does not just design houses. One of his works is a temporary space with walls formed from one hundred forty-eighty shipping containers. These steel containers are normally used to transport goods. Huge paper tubes support a roof over the structure. Shigeru Ban designed the space as a museum for a traveling art show by New York photographer Gregory Colbert. Mister Colbert wanted an unusual place to show his collection of large pictures of animals interacting with humans and nature. The show is called "Ashes and Snow"; the structure is the Nomadic Museum. The Nomadic Museum is at Pier fifty-four in New York City until June sixth. Next stop is the Santa Monica Pier in Southern California. As the show travels, the shipping containers for the walls will be found locally. Organizers say additional stops are planned in the United States, Europe and Asia. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Stevie Wonder Releases Special Video For Blind People
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach

 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Stevie Wonder…A question from a listener about the cartoon Peanuts…And a report about a new way to buy stamps in the United States. Personal Postage Stamps HOST: Mailing a letter in the United States requires a postage stamp issued by the federal government. Now, Americans can create their own postage stamps on their computers. Phoebe Zimmermann explains. ANNCR: A company called Stamps dot com has just started a year of testing to see if Americans want to create their own Photo Stamps. Last year, the company invited people to send family pictures that would be turned into legal postage stamps. The service seemed popular. The company received eighty-three thousand pictures. People bought almost three million stamps from Stamps.com. But a problem developed. The company had to reject some of the pictures because of ownership questions. Some people tried to play tricks. They sent orders for stamps showing the pictures of well-known criminals. As a result, sales were suspended. Recently, Postal Service officials approved another testing period for Photo Stamps. This time, the company has restricted what kinds of pictures it will accept. For example, it will not accept pictures that are objectionable or insulting. Also, it will not accept pictures of famous people. These include actors, politicians, world leaders or convicted criminals. Company workers are now trained to recognize such pictures from history and news events. They are also looking for any pictures protected by copyright, such as works of art. So, now, anyone in the United States can get a picture of their baby, wedding, family holiday or pet on a real postage stamp and use it to mail a letter. The stamps include a postal service mark and one that protects it against criminals who would try to make illegal copies. Stamps ordered from Stamps dot com cost more than two times the amount of those bought from the post office. But Postal Service officials believe that Photo Stamps may get more Americans to send letters through the mail instead of using Internet e-mail. Peanuts HOST: Our question this week is about the famous American comic strip called “Peanuts.”?? Erfan Arabfakhri of Iran wants to know more about its creator Charles Schulz and “Peanuts” characters Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty. Charles SchulzCharles Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in nineteen twenty-two. He drew “Peanuts” for almost fifty years. It first appeared in American newspapers in nineteen fifty. The comic strip was about children and animals. It still is. Adults are never seen. By nineteen ninety-nine, “Peanuts” appeared every day in more than two thousand six hundred newspapers around the world. People love the “Peanuts” characters because they show the failings and strengths of all human beings. For example, Charlie Brown makes many mistakes. In fact, he rarely gets anything right. But he never stops trying. Charlie Brown continues to trust people even when they fail him repeatedly. His relationship with his friend Lucy is a good example. Lucy promises Charlie Brown that she will hold a football for him so that he can kick it. But as he quickly runs toward her and extends his foot, she pulls the ball away. Charlie Brown flies up in the air and lands flat on his back. Lucy does this every time. She never gives Charlie Brown a chance to kick the ball. Charlie Brown leads a baseball team that always loses. And he loves a little red-headed girl who does not appear to feel the same way about him. But he remains hopeful. Peppermint Patty is another member of the “Peanuts Gang.”? She loves sports and Charlie Brown. She is the only one who calls him “Chuck.”? Peppermint Patty does not do well in school. She tries to find the easy way to pass tests. She is often caught sleeping in class. But this does not seem to affect her strong belief in herself. Charles Schulz was similar to both characters. Like Peppermint Patty he had difficulty with his school work. Like Charlie Brown he was not very good at sports. And, as a young man Schulz experienced the unreturned love of a red-headed woman. Charles Schulz was married two times and had five children. He announced his retirement in nineteen ninety-nine because of poor health. His final daily comic strip appeared in newspapers on January third, two thousand. He died a month later at the age of seventy-seven. The Peanuts Gang can still be seen in newspapers around the world. It is now called “Classic Peanuts.”? No new strips have been created since Charles Schulz stopped working. Mister Schulz did not want anyone else to draw “Peanuts.” Stevie Wonder Video HOST: Stevie Wonder released a music video last week designed especially for blind people. The song is called “ So What the Fuss.”? Gwen Outen tells about the project and plays some of Stevie Wonder’s music. ANNCR: The music video itself is not unusual. It shows scenes of city life. Teenagers sit and laugh on the front steps of a house. Young people dance at a party in an apartment nearby. People push a broken car out of the street. And, of course, Stevie Wonder plays the piano as he sings. But, there is also the voice of rapper Busta Rhymes. He describes the action in the video. (MUSIC AND SOUND) This special sound over video recording is called video description technology. Experts at a public television station in Boston, Massachusetts developed the idea in nineteen ninety. They wrote the narration for the new music video. Stevie Wonder is blind. He says ten million blind or low vision Americans are not able to enjoy watching music videos. Now he says all his fans will be able to enjoy his video. Prince plays guitar on “So What the Fuss.” The group En Vogue sings back up. (MUSIC) The song will be on Wonder’s new album, “A Time To Love,” to be released next month. It joins thirty-five other Stevie Wonder records. Here is one of his early hits songs, “Up-tight (Everything’s Alright).” (MUSIC) In nineteen seventy-six Stevie Wonder released one of his best-loved albums, “Songs in the Key of Life.”? We leave you now with a popular song from that recording, “Sir Duke.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Stevie Wonder…A question from a listener about the cartoon Peanuts…And a report about a new way to buy stamps in the United States. Personal Postage Stamps HOST: Mailing a letter in the United States requires a postage stamp issued by the federal government. Now, Americans can create their own postage stamps on their computers. Phoebe Zimmermann explains. ANNCR: A company called Stamps dot com has just started a year of testing to see if Americans want to create their own Photo Stamps. Last year, the company invited people to send family pictures that would be turned into legal postage stamps. The service seemed popular. The company received eighty-three thousand pictures. People bought almost three million stamps from Stamps.com. But a problem developed. The company had to reject some of the pictures because of ownership questions. Some people tried to play tricks. They sent orders for stamps showing the pictures of well-known criminals. As a result, sales were suspended. Recently, Postal Service officials approved another testing period for Photo Stamps. This time, the company has restricted what kinds of pictures it will accept. For example, it will not accept pictures that are objectionable or insulting. Also, it will not accept pictures of famous people. These include actors, politicians, world leaders or convicted criminals. Company workers are now trained to recognize such pictures from history and news events. They are also looking for any pictures protected by copyright, such as works of art. So, now, anyone in the United States can get a picture of their baby, wedding, family holiday or pet on a real postage stamp and use it to mail a letter. The stamps include a postal service mark and one that protects it against criminals who would try to make illegal copies. Stamps ordered from Stamps dot com cost more than two times the amount of those bought from the post office. But Postal Service officials believe that Photo Stamps may get more Americans to send letters through the mail instead of using Internet e-mail. Peanuts HOST: Our question this week is about the famous American comic strip called “Peanuts.”?? Erfan Arabfakhri of Iran wants to know more about its creator Charles Schulz and “Peanuts” characters Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty. Charles SchulzCharles Schulz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in nineteen twenty-two. He drew “Peanuts” for almost fifty years. It first appeared in American newspapers in nineteen fifty. The comic strip was about children and animals. It still is. Adults are never seen. By nineteen ninety-nine, “Peanuts” appeared every day in more than two thousand six hundred newspapers around the world. People love the “Peanuts” characters because they show the failings and strengths of all human beings. For example, Charlie Brown makes many mistakes. In fact, he rarely gets anything right. But he never stops trying. Charlie Brown continues to trust people even when they fail him repeatedly. His relationship with his friend Lucy is a good example. Lucy promises Charlie Brown that she will hold a football for him so that he can kick it. But as he quickly runs toward her and extends his foot, she pulls the ball away. Charlie Brown flies up in the air and lands flat on his back. Lucy does this every time. She never gives Charlie Brown a chance to kick the ball. Charlie Brown leads a baseball team that always loses. And he loves a little red-headed girl who does not appear to feel the same way about him. But he remains hopeful. Peppermint Patty is another member of the “Peanuts Gang.”? She loves sports and Charlie Brown. She is the only one who calls him “Chuck.”? Peppermint Patty does not do well in school. She tries to find the easy way to pass tests. She is often caught sleeping in class. But this does not seem to affect her strong belief in herself. Charles Schulz was similar to both characters. Like Peppermint Patty he had difficulty with his school work. Like Charlie Brown he was not very good at sports. And, as a young man Schulz experienced the unreturned love of a red-headed woman. Charles Schulz was married two times and had five children. He announced his retirement in nineteen ninety-nine because of poor health. His final daily comic strip appeared in newspapers on January third, two thousand. He died a month later at the age of seventy-seven. The Peanuts Gang can still be seen in newspapers around the world. It is now called “Classic Peanuts.”? No new strips have been created since Charles Schulz stopped working. Mister Schulz did not want anyone else to draw “Peanuts.” Stevie Wonder Video HOST: Stevie Wonder released a music video last week designed especially for blind people. The song is called “ So What the Fuss.”? Gwen Outen tells about the project and plays some of Stevie Wonder’s music. ANNCR: The music video itself is not unusual. It shows scenes of city life. Teenagers sit and laugh on the front steps of a house. Young people dance at a party in an apartment nearby. People push a broken car out of the street. And, of course, Stevie Wonder plays the piano as he sings. But, there is also the voice of rapper Busta Rhymes. He describes the action in the video. (MUSIC AND SOUND) This special sound over video recording is called video description technology. Experts at a public television station in Boston, Massachusetts developed the idea in nineteen ninety. They wrote the narration for the new music video. Stevie Wonder is blind. He says ten million blind or low vision Americans are not able to enjoy watching music videos. Now he says all his fans will be able to enjoy his video. Prince plays guitar on “So What the Fuss.” The group En Vogue sings back up. (MUSIC) The song will be on Wonder’s new album, “A Time To Love,” to be released next month. It joins thirty-five other Stevie Wonder records. Here is one of his early hits songs, “Up-tight (Everything’s Alright).” (MUSIC) In nineteen seventy-six Stevie Wonder released one of his best-loved albums, “Songs in the Key of Life.”? We leave you now with a popular song from that recording, “Sir Duke.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cover Crops Are Good for the Soil (and the Farmer)
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 Note correction following the report --- I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Cover crops are an ancient way to help farmers improve their soil, increase their harvests and, these days, save money on chemicals. Scientists like Aref Abdul-Baki search for new and better cover crops. Mister Abdul-Baki is with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. He works at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. Mister Abdul-Baki has found some cover crops to resist groundworms that attack the roots of tomatoes. Sunn hemp, cowpea and velvet bean are good for warm, humid areas. The soil is plowed to plant the cover crops during the summer months. In the fall, the cover crops are turned over in the soil, then the tomatoes are planted. In states with moderate climates, like Maryland and Virginia, the cover crops are planted in the fall to grow during early spring. Mister Abdul-Baki tells us that good cover crops are hairy vetch and rye. To avoid soil loss, the seeds are planted without the use of plowing. In May, the cover crops are cut and the remains are left on the surface. The same method can be used for other summer crops like peppers, sweet corn, green beans and some melons. After the cover crop is cut, the result is a layer of organic material. This will help the new crop grow and suppress unwanted plants. The cover crop provides extra nutrients to the soil. It also keeps the soil from drying out, and helps prevent the loss of soil. In hot, dry areas, like in Southern California, cover crops help reduce soil temperatures. They also reduce water loss and erosion. Lana vetch is a good cover crop. It is planted in the fall and breaks down without any assistance. It releases its seeds back into the soil. Mister Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops no longer need to treat their soil with methyl bromide before they plant tomatoes. Methyl bromide kills many kinds of organisms. But Mister Abdul-Baki notes that the poison also damages the environment and is a health danger. The government restricts the use of methyl bromide. And countries have agreed to a treaty to ban it. Aref Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops produce as many, or more, tomatoes per hectare as compared to no use of cover crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. --- We received the following letter: I would like to express my appreciation for the report released on 23 May 2005 entitled “Cover Crops Are Good for the Soil (and the Farmer)”. I am the Research Leader for the USDA-ARS Sustainable Agricultural Systems Lab in Beltsville, Maryland. Dr. Aref Abdul-Baki is a member of our laboratory and has been conducting a world-renowned research program on cover crops for many years. We are pleased to see this research reported to a worldwide audience whenever possible. I would like to suggest changes to two sentences in the ninth paragraph that would improve the accuracy of this report. The sentence “Mister Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops no longer need to treat their soil with methyl bromide before they plant tomatoes” may not be true under many conditions in subtropical climates where parasitic nematodes and fungal pathogens are prevalent; this system has not been adequately tested under these conditions. It would be better to say “Mister Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops may not need methyl bromide before they plant tomatoes if they have low levels of nematodes and pathogens, but the cover crop system needs further testing under high disease pressure.” In addition, the sentence “But Mister Abdul-Baki notes that the poison also damages the environment and is a health danger” does not represent his opinion. It would be more accurate to delete that sentence and merge the following two sentences to read, "Mister Abdul-Baki notes that world governments have agreed to a treaty to ban methyl bromide because it can contribute to global climate change." I thank you for reporting on the important research that our lab has performed and that you will continue to highlight ARS research when the opportunity arises. JOHN R. TEASDALEBeltsville, MarylandMay 25, 2005 Note correction following the report --- I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Cover crops are an ancient way to help farmers improve their soil, increase their harvests and, these days, save money on chemicals. Scientists like Aref Abdul-Baki search for new and better cover crops. Mister Abdul-Baki is with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. He works at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. Mister Abdul-Baki has found some cover crops to resist groundworms that attack the roots of tomatoes. Sunn hemp, cowpea and velvet bean are good for warm, humid areas. The soil is plowed to plant the cover crops during the summer months. In the fall, the cover crops are turned over in the soil, then the tomatoes are planted. In states with moderate climates, like Maryland and Virginia, the cover crops are planted in the fall to grow during early spring. Mister Abdul-Baki tells us that good cover crops are hairy vetch and rye. To avoid soil loss, the seeds are planted without the use of plowing. In May, the cover crops are cut and the remains are left on the surface. The same method can be used for other summer crops like peppers, sweet corn, green beans and some melons. After the cover crop is cut, the result is a layer of organic material. This will help the new crop grow and suppress unwanted plants. The cover crop provides extra nutrients to the soil. It also keeps the soil from drying out, and helps prevent the loss of soil. In hot, dry areas, like in Southern California, cover crops help reduce soil temperatures. They also reduce water loss and erosion. Lana vetch is a good cover crop. It is planted in the fall and breaks down without any assistance. It releases its seeds back into the soil. Mister Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops no longer need to treat their soil with methyl bromide before they plant tomatoes. Methyl bromide kills many kinds of organisms. But Mister Abdul-Baki notes that the poison also damages the environment and is a health danger. The government restricts the use of methyl bromide. And countries have agreed to a treaty to ban it. Aref Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops produce as many, or more, tomatoes per hectare as compared to no use of cover crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. --- We received the following letter: I would like to express my appreciation for the report released on 23 May 2005 entitled “Cover Crops Are Good for the Soil (and the Farmer)”. I am the Research Leader for the USDA-ARS Sustainable Agricultural Systems Lab in Beltsville, Maryland. Dr. Aref Abdul-Baki is a member of our laboratory and has been conducting a world-renowned research program on cover crops for many years. We are pleased to see this research reported to a worldwide audience whenever possible. I would like to suggest changes to two sentences in the ninth paragraph that would improve the accuracy of this report. The sentence “Mister Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops no longer need to treat their soil with methyl bromide before they plant tomatoes” may not be true under many conditions in subtropical climates where parasitic nematodes and fungal pathogens are prevalent; this system has not been adequately tested under these conditions. It would be better to say “Mister Abdul-Baki says farmers who use cover crops may not need methyl bromide before they plant tomatoes if they have low levels of nematodes and pathogens, but the cover crop system needs further testing under high disease pressure.” In addition, the sentence “But Mister Abdul-Baki notes that the poison also damages the environment and is a health danger” does not represent his opinion. It would be more accurate to delete that sentence and merge the following two sentences to read, "Mister Abdul-Baki notes that world governments have agreed to a treaty to ban methyl bromide because it can contribute to global climate change." I thank you for reporting on the important research that our lab has performed and that you will continue to highlight ARS research when the opportunity arises. JOHN R. TEASDALEBeltsville, MarylandMay 25, 2005 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Learning From a Volcano, 25 Years After Mount St. Helens Exploded
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Twenty-five years ago this month, a volcano exploded in the American state of Washington. On our program today, we tell about the explosion at Mount Saint Helens and how scientists have improved their knowledge of volcanic activity. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: May eighteenth, nineteen eighty, was a beautiful Sunday morning in the small town of Ellensburg, Washington. Fifteen-year-old Scott Johnson was reading a book near his home. His twelve-year-old sister Leslie was playing with a basketball. As Scott read, he looked up to see a huge, black cloud far away to the west. It might rain, he thought. Soon, he heard what sounded like a big gun. The sound seemed to grow louder. He looked up again. This time, he saw a huge cloud moving quickly across the sky. The two children watched as the sky grew darker. The cloud began to block light from the sun. Scott again looked at his book. He noticed something unusual on the book. It looked like very fine dust. How strange, he thought. It is raining dust! Scott and Leslie ran into the house and told their parents about what they saw. They turned on the television. They saw the first reports about the explosion of Mount Saint Helens. The cloud beginning to cover the sky was ash from the volcano. It had quickly reached Ellensburg from the volcano more than three hundred kilometers away. VOICE TWO: The cloud had now almost covered the sky. Scott watched the last small part of blue sky slowly disappear. Within moments, it was as black as night. A strong chemical smell was in the air. Ash fell very quickly and in huge amounts. Scott, Leslie and their parents continued to watch television reports. Experts said they did not know what would happen. Scott looked outside the house again. The ash now covered the ground. It was a frightening experience. He wondered, “Will the ash bury us?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The ash that fell on Scott and Leslie Johnson in Ellensburg began flying through the air at eight thirty two in the morning, local time. Washington State’s beautiful Mount Saint Helens had exploded. The explosion was about three hundred fifty times more powerful than the explosions of the first nuclear bombs. Fire, rock and volcanic gas flew out of the volcano with a force of four hundred eighty kilometers an hour. A cloud of ash went straight up more than twenty kilometers into the air in less than fifteen minutes. Within fifteen days, ash from the volcano traveled around the Earth in the upper atmosphere. The explosion caused a landslide on the side of the mountain that became one of the largest such events in recorded history. More than four hundred meters of the top of the mountain disappeared. People near the volcano died immediately. Thousands of animals, birds and fish also were killed. In just a short period, thirty-five thousand hectares of forest timber was destroyed. The heat was so fierce it killed every living thing in the immediate area, even bacteria. VOICE TWO: The Native American Indians in Washington State still call Mount Saint Helens by its Indian name: Loowit. It means “Lady of Fire.”? On the morning of May eighteenth, nineteen eighty, the mountain again became a “Lady of Fire.” The volcano had been giving warnings for three months. These warnings were in the form of many small earthquakes. On March twenty-seventh, a small explosion blew away the ice and snow at the very top of the mountain. Steam burst from the top of the volcano. By May seventeenth, more than ten thousand earthquakes had been measured. These earthquakes had caused the north face of the mountain to push out more one hundred forty meters. Volcano experts say this was strong evidence that hot liquid rock had risen high into the volcano. It was the day before the major explosion. VOICE ONE: Several weeks earlier, government officials had declared an emergency. They barred people from entering the Mount Saint Helens area. A special permit was needed to travel near the mountain. Officials also forced people who lived near the mountain to leave their homes. Many were angry, and demanded permission to return. Some people violated government rules and visited the Mount Saint Helens area. They did not think the volcano represented a real danger. Workers who planted trees near the mountain were given documents that permitted them to continue their work. Scientists also were at the mountain, studying the volcano. Many of these people were killed when the volcano exploded. Fifty-seven people died as a result of the explosion. VOICE TWO: The volcano exploded for more than eight hours. Then the explosions slowly began to decrease in force. But Mount Saint Helens was not finished. Five smaller explosions followed during the summer and autumn of nineteen eighty. Each explosion produced ash that rose twelve to fourteen kilometers into the sky. In the twenty-five years since then, small explosions, earthquakes and other volcanic events were reported at the mountain. The most recent began in October of last year. But none of the events is comparable to the May eighteenth explosion. Still, experts say Mount Saint Helens will explode again sometime in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States Congress created the Mount Saint Helens Monument in nineteen eighty-two. The monument covers a total of forty-four thousand five hundred hectares of the Mount Saint Helens area. It includes the mountain and much of the land around it. The United States Forest Service supervises the area. But nature controls it. Trees, animals, fish, flowers and plants were left to a natural recovery process. Humans were not permitted to help. The natural area around Mount Saint Helens that was almost completely destroyed is being rebuilt by nature. Many scientists have studied what happened in this natural laboratory. They found that nature is very quick to heal the wounds caused by the huge explosion. VOICE TWO: Scientists have learned much about volcanic activity since Mount Saint Helens exploded twenty-five years ago. More than twenty smaller explosions were observed at the volcano between nineteen eighty and nineteen eighty-six. Scientists also have been watching recent activity there. One thing they have learned is that a volcano can come very close to exploding without giving any warning. They also learned that volcanic activity can continue for years without any explosions taking place. The United States Geological Survey is responsible for providing warnings of possible volcanic explosions. It operates five volcano observation centers with the help of government agencies and universities. VOICE ONE: Late last month, scientists with the Geological Survey released a report on the nation’s one hundred sixty-nine active volcanoes. The report rates the most dangerous volcanoes in the United States. It also discusses problems with current methods of estimating future volcanic activity. The scientists proposed a plan to improve volcano observations and provide better information about volcanic activity. They said the system could help prevent unnecessary and costly safety measures when such activity will not result in an explosion. They said it also would help warn airplanes of the possibility of dangerous ash in the atmosphere. Volcanic ash has caused millions of dollars in damage to planes and other aircraft in the past. (MUSIC) Earlier, we told how Scott Johnson was concerned twenty-five years ago that the ash from Mount Saint Helens might cover his home. That did not happen, although the ash was deep in some parts of town. It had to be removed from streets and from tops of houses. Travel was almost impossible for several days. Today, Scott Johnson is an engineer in Seattle, Washington. Leslie Johnson is a medical doctor in Portland, Oregon. Both say the Mount Saint Helens explosion was an experience they never will forget. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Guitar: an Instrument for Any Kind of Music
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a very popular musical instrument. Listen and see if you can guess what it is. (MUSIC: "LITTLE MARTHA" BY THE ALLMAN BROTHERS) VOICE ONE: If you guessed it was a guitar, you are correct. Probably no other musical instrument is as popular around the world as the guitar. Musicians use the guitar for almost every kind of music. Country and western music would not be the same without a guitar. The traditional Spanish folk music called Flamenco could not exist without a guitar. The sound of American blues music would not be the same without the sad cry of the guitar. And rock and roll music would almost be impossible without this instrument. VOICE TWO: Music experts do not agree about where the guitar first was played. Most agree it is ancient. Some experts say an instrument very much like a guitar was played in Egypt more than one thousand years ago. Some other experts say that the ancestor of the modern guitar was brought to Spain from Persia sometime in the twelfth century. The guitar continued to develop in Spain. In the seventeen hundreds it became similar to the instrument we know today. Many famous musicians played the instrument. The famous Italian violinist Niccolo Paganinni played and wrote music for the guitar in the early eighteen hundreds. Franz Schubert used the guitar to write some of his famous works. In modern times Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia helped make the instrument extremely popular. One kind of music for the guitar developed in the southern area of Spain called Adalusia. It will always be strongly linked with the Spanish guitar. It is called Flamenco. Carlos Montoya was a Spanish Gypsy. Listen as he plays a Flamenco song called “Jerez.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen thirties, Les Paul began experimenting with ways to make an electric guitar. He invented the solid body electric guitar in nineteen forty-six. The Gibson Guitar Company began producing its famous Les Paul Guitar in nineteen fifty-two. It became a powerful influence in popular music. The instrument has the same shape and the same six strings as the traditional guitar, but it sounds very different. Les Paul produced a series of extremely popular recordings that introduced the public to his music. They included Paul playing as many as six musical parts at the same time. Listen to this Les Paul recording. It was the fifth most popular song in the United States in nineteen fifty-two. It is called “Meet Mister Callaghan.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The guitar has always been important to blues music. The electric guitar Les Paul helped develop made modern blues music possible. There have been many great blues guitarists. Yet, music experts say all blues guitar players are measured against one man and his famous guitar. That man is B.B. King. Every blues fan knows that years ago B.B. King named his guitar Lucille. Here B.B. King plays Lucille on his famous recording of “The Thrill Is Gone”. (MUSIC) Lucille, B. B. King’s large, beautiful black guitar, is important to American music. Visitors can see King’s very first guitar at the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The museum is the only permanent exhibit organized by the Smithsonian Institution outside Washington, D.C. and New York City. VOICE ONE: Another famous guitar in American music also has a name. It belongs to country music star Willie Nelson. His guitar is as famous in country music as Lucille is in blues music. Its name is Trigger. Trigger is really a very ugly guitar. It looks like an old, broken instrument someone threw away. Several famous people have written their names on it. A huge hole was torn in the front of it a long time ago. It looks severely damaged. But the huge hole, the names and other marks seem to add to its sound. Listen while Willie Nelson plays? “Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many rock and roll performers are very good with a guitar. One of the best is Chuck Berry. Berry’s method of playing the guitar very fast was extremely popular when rock music began. He still is an important influence on rock and roll music. ??Listen as Chuck Berry plays and sings one of his hit songs. He recorded it in nineteen fifty-seven. The song is about a guitar player named? “Johnny B. Goode.”? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are almost as many different kinds of guitar music as there are musicians. We cannot play them all in one program. So we leave you with one guitar player who often mixes several kinds of music. His name is Jose Feliciano. Here he plays a song that is based on traditional Spanish guitar music. He mixes this with a little jazz and a little blues and adds a Latin sound. Here is “Bamboleo.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Suggests Laughter Is Good for the Heart
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Have you heard the old saying that laughter is the best medicine?? Then listen to this. Seriously, research has already shown that mental stress can restrict blood flow to the heart. But now a study has linked laughter to increased blood flow. Laughter appears to cause the tissue inside blood vessels to expand. As a result, laughing may be important to reduce the risk of heart disease. So says Doctor Michael Miller of the University of Maryland Medical Center. He led a study of twenty men and women, all healthy. To get them to laugh, they watched part of the movie “Kingpin,” a nineteen ninety-six comedy. To create the opposite emotions, they watched the opening battle in the nineteen ninety-eight war movie “Saving Private Ryan.”?? The researchers used ultrasound technology to measure changes in blood flow through an artery in the arm. Blood flow increased in nineteen of the twenty people after they watched "Kingpin."? The increase was an average of twenty-two percent. Doctor Miller says that is similar to the effects of aerobic exercise. Blood flow decreased in fourteen of the twenty people after they watched "Saving Private Ryan."? The decrease was an average of thirty-five percent. Studies have shown that stress can reduce the body’s ability to fight disease. When the body is under stress, it produces hormones such as adrenalin and cortisol. Cortisol is related to fear; adrenalin prepares the body to react. But too much of these hormones can be harmful. Doctor Miller noted that the study could not explain how laughter is responsible for the effects observed. Do the effects come from the movement of muscles, or from a chemical release? The researchers say laughter may cause the body to release pleasure chemicals, just as when a person exercises. Doctor Miller says these endorphins may block the effect of stress hormones and cause the blood vessels to expand. Laughter may also influence the release of nitric oxide, which too expands blood passages. The results were presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology. Doctor Miller does not advise people to replace exercise with laughter. But, based on the results, he does suggest fifteen minutes of laughter each day. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/a-2005-05-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 25, 2005 - U.S. Academic Writing Style, Part 1
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we talk about the American style of academic writing, and the challenges to foreign students. JANE DUNPHY: "Grad students often come here without ever having had to write a document. Never in English, often in their own language, they haven't had to really write anything." Jane Dunphy directs the English Language Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. JANE DUNPHY: "I suppose when they're training for the TOEFL [Test of English as a Foreign Language] or something, they'll practice writing essays for the TOEFL with the many practice books that are out there that really produce these useless, canned essays that don't have anything to do with anything. But they haven't had to write up research. They haven't had to write up critical analysis of a text or of a program or of a piece of equipment. So they're really behind conceptually. Even if English wasn't a problem, that would be a problem." RS: "So where do you start?" JANE DUNPHY: "That's a good question [laughs]. I start culturally. I talk about how English cultures in general are reading cultures. I talk a lot about that kind of thing, the role of text, because I think it's something that's not necessarily -- well, I know it's not universal. I just know it's not." AA: "Could you describe the American academic style of writing?" JANE DUNPHY: "Typically the American academic style, or what most people think of it as, the American academic style, I think comes out of the humanities more than anything else. We were all trained starting in elementary school to say what we're going to say, say it and say what we said, in a five-paragraph essay. That's sort of the classic model." AA: "Which is good or bad or what?" JANE DUNPHY: "Oh, I think the five-paragraph model has a place somewhere. In school, maybe? I think if you look at extended essays in journals like The Atlantic Monthly, you do see at the core the same idea. It's not five paragraphs, of course, but you do see the same kind of idea where you introduce your topic, you develop your topic and then you summarize your topic. That's really not the way any kind of professional writing works at all. "The whole style in professional or academic writing outside the humanities is a very direct approach. You say exactly what your main point is. You don't make anybody wait. When you think about scientific and technical subjects, there's an abstract that provides the key message, and in the introduction often you provide the results of your experiment. So you're constantly hammering home the key message. It's not about the pleasure of the text the way essays are typically seen in a humanistic context. The writer should be invisible in other areas of academic writing. The goal is to make it as easy to possible for your reader to get your key message." RS: "How do you do this in context in your classes? Do you use the information for the classes that the students are attending?" JANE DUNPHY: "In a typical class I have between 12 and 18 students. The majority of them are grad students, though I usually have one or two undergrads in the same workshop. So the only way that we can sort of have any kind of quality control is by having them bring a published article from a prestigious journal in their field. And that is each individual student's basis of comparison. "So everything we talk about, they go back and look at that. When we're talking about grammar, like verb forms, they go back and look at that. When we're talking about relative clause use, we use that as the basis for everything we talk about. Tone, informal/formal, we use those as the bases. I've collected over the years also a ton of examples from students, samples from before-and-after and different formats, from writing for a general audience -- which is how we start, typically -- to writing for a specialist audience and the difference in tone and the difference in length and where you find the key message and all that kind of thing." RS: "So they can relate it to their own work." JANE DUNPHY: "So they can relate it to their own field on the one hand and to their own lives on the other, because it's useful for them to see work written by their peers." AA: More with Jane Dunphy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next week on Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we talk about the American style of academic writing, and the challenges to foreign students. JANE DUNPHY: "Grad students often come here without ever having had to write a document. Never in English, often in their own language, they haven't had to really write anything." Jane Dunphy directs the English Language Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. JANE DUNPHY: "I suppose when they're training for the TOEFL [Test of English as a Foreign Language] or something, they'll practice writing essays for the TOEFL with the many practice books that are out there that really produce these useless, canned essays that don't have anything to do with anything. But they haven't had to write up research. They haven't had to write up critical analysis of a text or of a program or of a piece of equipment. So they're really behind conceptually. Even if English wasn't a problem, that would be a problem." RS: "So where do you start?" JANE DUNPHY: "That's a good question [laughs]. I start culturally. I talk about how English cultures in general are reading cultures. I talk a lot about that kind of thing, the role of text, because I think it's something that's not necessarily -- well, I know it's not universal. I just know it's not." AA: "Could you describe the American academic style of writing?" JANE DUNPHY: "Typically the American academic style, or what most people think of it as, the American academic style, I think comes out of the humanities more than anything else. We were all trained starting in elementary school to say what we're going to say, say it and say what we said, in a five-paragraph essay. That's sort of the classic model." AA: "Which is good or bad or what?" JANE DUNPHY: "Oh, I think the five-paragraph model has a place somewhere. In school, maybe? I think if you look at extended essays in journals like The Atlantic Monthly, you do see at the core the same idea. It's not five paragraphs, of course, but you do see the same kind of idea where you introduce your topic, you develop your topic and then you summarize your topic. That's really not the way any kind of professional writing works at all. "The whole style in professional or academic writing outside the humanities is a very direct approach. You say exactly what your main point is. You don't make anybody wait. When you think about scientific and technical subjects, there's an abstract that provides the key message, and in the introduction often you provide the results of your experiment. So you're constantly hammering home the key message. It's not about the pleasure of the text the way essays are typically seen in a humanistic context. The writer should be invisible in other areas of academic writing. The goal is to make it as easy to possible for your reader to get your key message." RS: "How do you do this in context in your classes? Do you use the information for the classes that the students are attending?" JANE DUNPHY: "In a typical class I have between 12 and 18 students. The majority of them are grad students, though I usually have one or two undergrads in the same workshop. So the only way that we can sort of have any kind of quality control is by having them bring a published article from a prestigious journal in their field. And that is each individual student's basis of comparison. "So everything we talk about, they go back and look at that. When we're talking about grammar, like verb forms, they go back and look at that. When we're talking about relative clause use, we use that as the basis for everything we talk about. Tone, informal/formal, we use those as the bases. I've collected over the years also a ton of examples from students, samples from before-and-after and different formats, from writing for a general audience -- which is how we start, typically -- to writing for a specialist audience and the difference in tone and the difference in length and where you find the key message and all that kind of thing." RS: "So they can relate it to their own work." JANE DUNPHY: "So they can relate it to their own field on the one hand and to their own lives on the other, because it's useful for them to see work written by their peers." AA: More with Jane Dunphy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next week on Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: We Talk to Foreign Students in the United States
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We are getting close to the end of our Foreign Student Series on American higher education. This week, we report comments from foreign students in the United States who have experienced the process we have been describing. We talked to four students attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Two are undergraduates -- Ometere Omoluabi from Nigeria and Chilwin Tanamal from Indonesia. The others are graduate students -- Rogerio Mazali from Brazil and a young woman from China who does not want her name broadcast. All four agreed that it is important to know what you want to study before you begin applying. Chilwin says you should start the application process early and do a lot of research about different colleges. Rogerio feels that the most important thing is to find a school that best fits your personality and interests. Most of the students said they chose the University of Wisconsin because it offered the best education in their subject. Also, they had met people in their home countries who had attended the school. We asked the students about differences between their lives at home and in the United States. Most commented on the weather. They said the extremely cold winters in Madison were difficult because they were used to a much warmer climate. The students also talked about the large size of the University of Wisconsin. Ometere says to decide early if you will be happy at a large or small school. She also says to be sure to attend to details on your applications. Relations between professors and students was another change for the students. Chilwin said students in the United States must make more of an effort to talk with teachers than in Indonesia. Rogerio said college life moves much faster in the United States than in Brazil. The young woman from China discussed the lack of interaction among people of different cultures. She finds it sad that many foreign students stay together in their own social groups. However, Ometere says she has met people from many cultures and that experience is the reason to come to the United States to study. All the students say they are enjoying their time in the United States and hope others will have good experiences. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Victory Is Close for the Union
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the story of America's Civil War. VOICE TWO: Abraham LincolnOn March fourth, eighteen sixty-five, Abraham Lincoln was sworn-in as President for a second term. The election had taken place in the Union of northern states. It still followed the American Constitution. The Confederacy of southern states had left the Union. It had its own Constitution. On the evening of Inauguration Day, the White House was opened to the public. Thousands of people went to see President Lincoln. Near midnight, the party ended. The doors of the White House were closed. VOICE ONE: Lincoln was glad the celebrations were over. Now he could get back to the urgent problems that faced him. He hoped that during his second four-year term he could end the Civil War. He hoped he could ease the bitterness and hatred the war had brought. Lincoln hoped for an easy peace. He wanted no hangings or other brutal acts against the losers. He wanted to see Confederate soldiers go back to their homes to become peaceful citizens of a united country. Lincoln wanted the nation to grow together again. VOICE TWO: The war could not last much longer. The south already was defeated. But Confederate leaders refused to accept defeat. General Robert E. Lee's army still held the area around Richmond, Virginia. Richmond was the Confederate capital. Lee did not believe, however, that he could hold the city much longer. His once mighty army now had less than fifty thousand men. These men were tired and hungry. And they had to defend a line almost sixty kilometers long, from Richmond to the city of Petersburg. There just were not enough Confederate soldiers left to fight. VOICE ONE: Lee decided that his only hope was to give up the two cities. He would march south and join General Joe Johnston's army in North Carolina. ?Perhaps the two armies could defeat Union forces moving up through the state. Then they could turn to meet the army of General Ulysses Grant. This plan had little chance of success. But it would keep the Confederate armies active for a few more weeks or months. Lee soon discovered that it would not be easy to break out of the trap that Richmond and Petersburg had become. Grant's army seemed to be everywhere. Lee put eleven thousand of his men into position near Grant's line. They waited for the enemy to attack. At first, the Confederates received some help from the weather. Heavy rains fell for more than a day. Many roads and fields were flooded. The Union army could not move forward. When it did, the Confederates were ready. They pushed back the attackers. VOICE TWO: The victory did not last long. There were five times more Union soldiers than Confederate soldiers. The Confederates fought hard, but could not stop them. They were forced to withdraw. The Confederates moved slowly, then more quickly as Union troops chased them. They began to flee wildly. About half of them were captured. Grant ordered an immediate attack all along Lee's line. He was sure the line was weak. He was sure he could break it. A Union army doctor watched the battle from a distance. He said he could see the flash of light from Confederate guns along a line a kilometer long. After a while, part of the line went dark. Then another part. And another. Flashes of gunfire became fewer. Finally, all of the line was dark. The doctor said he knew then that the Confederate line had fallen. VOICE ONE: General Grant had been trying to break General Lee's line for almost a year. Now he had done it. His troops raced forward to seize the railroad. ?Lee no longer had a way to supply his troops in Petersburg. He no longer had a quick way to move his army south. He would have to move west first, then turn south. This meant he would have to give up Richmond. The government of the Confederacy would have to go with him or be captured. Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave the order to go. VOICE TWO: Southern soldiers began to burn military supplies they could not take from Richmond. Huge amounts of shells and gunpowder were exploded. The fires got out of control. Many buildings burned to the ground. The streets were filled with refugees trying to escape the burning city. ?Mobs broke into stores looking for food. Union troops quickly moved into Richmond. Then they raised the United States flag over the once proud capital of the Confederacy. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln visited Richmond on April fourth. He visited the Confederate state house where the rebel Congress had met. He had lunch in the Confederate White House where Confederate President Jefferson Davis had lived. Everywhere Lincoln went, hundreds of people crowded around him. Blacks, especially, wanted to get near him. They wanted to touch the man who had made them free. ?At no time was any kind of hostile act made against the president. VOICE TWO: In the next few days, Lincoln followed carefully Grant's campaign against Lee's withdrawing army. By telegraph and messenger, he was informed of every move. Lee's men marched without food. They did not have time to search for it. They could not stop. The Union army was only a day behind them. On and on they marched. ?Many of them -- weak from hunger and tired beyond belief -- could go no farther. They left the road to sleep. Most never got back. Others continued to March. But many threw down their guns and equipment. Union forces attacked the moving line when they could. There were battles at such places as Amelia Court House, Sayler's Creek, High Bridge, and Farmville. Lee's army fought off each attack. ?But it was slowly bleeding and starving to death. VOICE ONE: Lee asked one of his officers to report on the situation. "There is no situation," the officer said. "Nothing remains, General Lee, but to put your poor soldiers on their poor horses and send them home in time to plant the spring crops." Lee answered: "What would the country think of me, if I did that." "Country." the officer cried. "There is no country. You are the country to these men. They have fought for you. Without pay or food. There are still thousands of us who will die for you." VOICE TWO: On April seventh, General Grant sent a message to General Lee. He said it was hopeless to continue the struggle. He asked for the surrender of Lee's army. Lee did not agree that the situation was hopeless. He believed there was still one small chance to escape. He wanted to reach a place called Appomattox Station. There his men could get food. Then they could march to Lynchburg where a railroad would carry them south to safety. But the Union Army reached Appomattox Station first. Lee and his officers decided to make a final effort to break out of the circle of Union forces. If their plan failed, Lee would have no other choice. He would have to surrender. VOICE ONE: Lee rose early on the appointed day. He put on a new grey coat and a bright red sash. He looked as if he were going to a parade. His officers wondered. Then Lee explained: "I probably will be General Grant's prisoner. I thought I should look my best." At sunrise, Lee arrived on a hill outside the town of Appomattox Court House. He looked down on what was to be his final battlefield. His men fought hard and well. But they could not break through the Union line. Finally, Lee said: "There is nothing left me but to go see General Grant. And I would rather die a thousand deaths." Lee was sure Grant would not demand unconditional surrender. He said: "Grant will give us good terms -- as good as we have the right to demand. I can surrender this army on the condition that its members will never fight again." Lee turned his horse toward the enemy lines behind his army. He sent a message to General Grant. It said: "I now request to meet with you at such time and place as you may name to discuss the terms of the surrender of this army." VOICE TWO: The place would be a home in a town called Appomattox Court House. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC)? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In a Galaxy Far, Far Away, 'Star Wars' Comes to an End
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Award winning country music … A question from a listener about our Special English announcers … And a report about the opening of the last Star Wars movie. Last 'Star Wars' Movie “Star Wars: Episode Three?-- Revenge of the Sith” opened last week around the world. In the United States, it earned more money in its first twenty-four hours than any other movie in history. It sold fifty million dollars worth of tickets in one day. The film also earned more money in the United States in its first four days than any other movie – more than one hundred fifty eight million dollars. It also earned more than one hundred forty-four million dollars in other countries. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: “Revenge of the Sith” is the last in the series of six “Star Wars” movies. American film director George Lucas produced the first “Star Wars” movie in nineteen seventy-seven. The first three movies in the series told the story of wars among planets that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Those three movies were “Star Wars”, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi”. The main characters were Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the evil Darth Vader. But George Lucas wanted to tell more stories about what happened in the years before the first “Star Wars” movies take place. He wanted to explain more about Darth Vader and his connections to the other characters. Lucas waited for years to make those movies until motion picture technology developed the special effects he wanted. “Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace” opened in nineteen ninety-nine. It is about Anakin Skywalker, the boy who would grow up to become Darth Vader. Three years later, “Attack of the Clones” continued the story of Anakin Skywalker. It ended with his secret marriage to Padme Amidala. The new movie, “Revenge of the Sith,” tells how Anakin Skywalker turns away from the good Jedi knights and becomes their enemy, Darth Vader. It explains why his children, Luke and Leia, were separated at birth. Critics generally said “Revenge of the Sith” is one of the best of the six movies. Some said it is the best one. They especially praised the action in the film and the special effects. However, they said it is more violent than the other “Star Wars” films and is not for young children. So what will George Lucas do now that the “Star Wars” series is finished?? He told Time Magazine recently that he is planning to produce a film about African-American fighter pilots in World War Two. And he wants to make another movie about the action hero he created, Indiana Jones. Special English Announcers Our question this week comes from a listener in Kabul, Afghanistan. Inamullah Mohmand asks about the announcers for Special English programs. He wonders if all of them are from the United States. And he asks which American state accent is considered the standard for English pronunciation in the United States and on the program. These questions are complex!? We decided to find out more from our announcers. Gwen Outen is one of the newest voices in Special English. She was happy to tell us a little about her background. Gwen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But she was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. That is the traditional home of country music at the Grand Ole Opry. Gwen is the first to admit that she has a Southern, country accent. But Gwen tries not to speak with an accent when she is on the radio. She likes to present a more neutral sound on air. However, this does not mean that different accents are unacceptable. Former Special English announcer Mary Tillotson has a clear southern accent. And, Shirley Griffith has a very apparent northern accent that comes all the way from Canada where she was born. Shirley has lived in the United States most of her adult life. But, you can still hear the Canadian accent in words like “house” and “about.” And, now, a little about me, one of the oldest --- or, let us say, more experienced -- Special English announcers. I come from Milford, Delaware. My accent is referred to as “Eastern Shore.”? They call people from my area “hitiders” or “high tiders.”? We come from “Delware” or Delaware. Like Gwen, I try to keep my sound neutral when I broadcast. But, my accent slips in sometimes. There are just some words I do not know how to say any other way, even on air. But, I am not going to tell you those words. I do not want you to notice in the future! Country Music Awards The Academy of Country Music Awards celebrated its fortieth birthday last week. The Academy presented its yearly awards in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gwen Outen tells us about some of the winners. GWEN OUTEN: Each year, the Academy of Country Music honors the biggest and newest stars in country music. This year, the Academy honored singer Tim McGraw for his hit record, “Live Like You Were Dying.”? It was named top single record and best song. (MUSIC) Gretchen Wilson won two Academy of Country Music Awards -- for top new artist and best female singer. Her first album was “Redneck Woman.”? Here is the title song. (MUSIC) The Academy of Country Music’s top award is entertainer of the year. The winner this year was singer Kenny Chesney. We leave you with a song from his latest album, “When The Sun Goes Down.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Award winning country music … A question from a listener about our Special English announcers … And a report about the opening of the last Star Wars movie. “Star Wars: Episode Three?-- Revenge of the Sith” opened last week around the world. In the United States, it earned more money in its first twenty-four hours than any other movie in history. It sold fifty million dollars worth of tickets in one day. The film also earned more money in the United States in its first four days than any other movie – more than one hundred fifty eight million dollars. It also earned more than one hundred forty-four million dollars in other countries. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: “Revenge of the Sith” is the last in the series of six “Star Wars” movies. American film director George Lucas produced the first “Star Wars” movie in nineteen seventy-seven. The first three movies in the series told the story of wars among planets that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Those three movies were “Star Wars”, “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi”. The main characters were Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi and the evil Darth Vader. But George Lucas wanted to tell more stories about what happened in the years before the first “Star Wars” movies take place. He wanted to explain more about Darth Vader and his connections to the other characters. Lucas waited for years to make those movies until motion picture technology developed the special effects he wanted. “Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace” opened in nineteen ninety-nine. It is about Anakin Skywalker, the boy who would grow up to become Darth Vader. Three years later, “Attack of the Clones” continued the story of Anakin Skywalker. It ended with his secret marriage to Padme Amidala. The new movie, “Revenge of the Sith,” tells how Anakin Skywalker turns away from the good Jedi knights and becomes their enemy, Darth Vader. It explains why his children, Luke and Leia, were separated at birth. Critics generally said “Revenge of the Sith” is one of the best of the six movies. Some said it is the best one. They especially praised the action in the film and the special effects. However, they said it is more violent than the other “Star Wars” films and is not for young children. So what will George Lucas do now that the “Star Wars” series is finished?? He told Time Magazine recently that he is planning to produce a film about African-American fighter pilots in World War Two. And he wants to make another movie about the action hero he created, Indiana Jones. Special English Announcers Our question this week comes from a listener in Kabul, Afghanistan. Inamullah Mohmand asks about the announcers for Special English programs. He wonders if all of them are from the United States. And he asks which American state accent is considered the standard for English pronunciation in the United States and on the program. These questions are complex!? We decided to find out more from our announcers. Gwen Outen is one of the newest voices in Special English. She was happy to tell us a little about her background. Gwen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But she was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. That is the traditional home of country music at the Grand Ole Opry. Gwen is the first to admit that she has a Southern, country accent. But Gwen tries not to speak with an accent when she is on the radio. She likes to present a more neutral sound on air. However, this does not mean that different accents are unacceptable. Former Special English announcer Mary Tillotson has a clear southern accent. And, Shirley Griffith has a very apparent northern accent that comes all the way from Canada where she was born. Shirley has lived in the United States most of her adult life. But, you can still hear the Canadian accent in words like “house” and “about.” And, now, a little about me, one of the oldest --- or, let us say, more experienced -- Special English announcers. I come from Milford, Delaware. My accent is referred to as “Eastern Shore.”? They call people from my area “hitiders” or “high tiders.”? We come from “Delware” or Delaware. Like Gwen, I try to keep my sound neutral when I broadcast. But, my accent slips in sometimes. There are just some words I do not know how to say any other way, even on air. But, I am not going to tell you those words. I do not want you to notice in the future! Country Music Awards The Academy of Country Music Awards celebrated its fortieth birthday last week. The Academy presented its yearly awards in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gwen Outen tells us about some of the winners. GWEN OUTEN: Each year, the Academy of Country Music honors the biggest and newest stars in country music. This year, the Academy honored singer Tim McGraw for his hit record, “Live Like You Were Dying.”? It was named top single record and best song. (MUSIC) Gretchen Wilson won two Academy of Country Music Awards -- for top new artist and best female singer. Her first album was “Redneck Woman.”? Here is the title song. (MUSIC) The Academy of Country Music’s top award is entertainer of the year. The winner this year was singer Kenny Chesney. We leave you with a song from his latest album, “When The Sun Goes Down.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Moves to Limit Chinese Clothing Imports
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. For the past ten years, a trade agreement permitted countries to limit imports of textiles and clothing. That agreement ended January first. Now the general rules of the World Trade Organization take its place. The end of the quota system has meant a big increase in exports of clothing and textile products from China. Some countries say Chinese exports have grown too fast. The United States has acted to place new import limits. Such actions are the job of a group of government agencies called the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements. On May thirteenth, the committee announced import limits on three products made of cotton and man-made fibers. Later, the group added four more to the list. Other cases remain. The plan is to limit the growth of imports for the restricted products to seven and one-half percent through the end of this year. The limits take effect on the day that the committee officially asks for talks with the Chinese government. The first request came on Monday. Terms for Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization permit any W.T.O member to take such action against China. This right to "safeguard" markets is to remain in effect through two thousand eight. The Chinese Commerce Ministry expressed what it called "firm opposition and strong displeasure" with the American action. But last Friday the Xinhua news agency said China would move to restrict clothing exports. The report said the government would increase export taxes on more than seventy products, most by four hundred percent. Last year, China had a trade surplus with the United States of one hundred sixty-two thousand million dollars. The new import limits pleased American clothing makers. The National Council of Textile Organizations says the measures will save thousands of jobs. The group says almost seventeen thousand jobs have been lost already. Clothing sellers, however, are not pleased. The National Retail Federation says the new limits will mean higher prices at stores. The trade group also says that suppliers will find other low-cost foreign makers. And it argues that the trade measures will do nothing to save American jobs. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Palestinian, Indonesian and Afghan Leaders Visit President Bush
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The leaders of Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Palestinian Authority met with President Bush in Washington this week. Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited the White House on Monday. He and Mister Bush signed a cooperation agreement that promises continued American support for Afghanistan. But Mister Karzai failed to gain a promise of greater control over United States military operations in his country. Under current policy, American military officials must only inform Afghan officials about planned operations. Mister Karzai also asked for control over Afghan citizens suspected of terrorism. He called reports of mistreatment of Afghans held by the American military “displeasing.”? But Mister Bush questioned the ability of the Afghan government to house and guard the prisoners. ?Also in the United States, Mister Karzai defended his record in fighting the illegal drug trade in his country. He says he hopes Afghanistan will be free of opium poppies in five or six years. On Wednesday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with President Bush. They discussed economic ties and military cooperation. Later, the United States said it plans to give Indonesia about four hundred million dollars in tsunami aid. That is almost half what the United States has promised to countries struck by the huge earthquake and waves in the Indian Ocean in December. The waves tore across large parts of the Indonesian province of Aceh. The two presidents also agreed to continue to work to renew normal military relations. In nineteen ninety-nine, Congress ended military aid to Indonesia over human rights concerns. But Indonesia is now involved again in a program that lets Indonesian soldiers study and train in the United States. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Mister Bush on Thursday. The Bush administration offered the Palestinian Authority fifty million dollars in direct aid. The money is to help rebuild housing, roads and bridges. President Bush had never invited the former Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, to the White House. In recent weeks, Afghanistan, Indonesia and the Middle East have all had protests over a report that appeared in Newsweek magazine. It said Americans had mistreated Korans at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Newsweek later apologized and withdrew the report. On Thursday, the Defense Department announced findings from a continuing investigation. Defense officials said investigators had found five incidents of "mishandling" of the Islamic holy book. They said some appeared accidental. The officials did not give details of the five cases. But they said there was no proof for the Newsweek report that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet. On Friday more protests took place in a number of Muslim countries. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Barbara McClintock, 1902-1992, Was a Mover in Genetic Research
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Barbara McClintock. She was one of the most important scientists of the twentieth century. She made important discoveries about genes and chromosomes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Barbara McClintock was born in nineteen-oh-two in Hartford, Connecticut. Barbara was the third of four children. Her family moved to the Brooklyn area of New York City in nineteen-oh-eight. Barbara was an active child with interests in sports and music. She also developed an interest in science. She studied science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Barbara was among a small number of undergraduate students to receive training in genetics in nineteen twenty-one. Years later, she noted that few college students wanted to study genetics. VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-twenties, genetics had not received widespread acceptance as a subject. Only twenty years had passed since scientists re-discovered the theories of heredity. Gregor Mendel proposed these ideas after completing a series of experiments with plants. His experiments helped scientists better understand how genes operate. They showed how genetic qualities are passed to living things from their ancestors. VOICE ONE: Barbara McClintock decided to study botany, the scientific study of plants, at Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies in nineteen twenty-three. McClintock decided to continue her education at Cornell. She completed a master’s degree in nineteen twenty-five. Two years later, she finished all her requirements for a doctorate degree. In the late nineteen-twenties, McClintock joined several other students in a group that studied genetics. The students included a future winner of the Nobel Prize, George Beadle. Another was Marcus Rhoades. Years later, he would become a leading expert in genetics. McClintock said both men recognized the importance of exploring the connection between genes and chromosomes. McClintock stayed at Cornell after she completed her education. She taught students botany. She also supervised genetic studies of the corn plant, or maize. She studied chromosomes, which are lines of genes. She made several discoveries about genes and chromosomes. VOICE TWO: The nineteen thirties were not a good time to be a young scientist in the United States. The country was in the middle of the great economic depression. Millions of Americans were unemployed. Male scientists were offered jobs. But female geneticists were not much in demand. McClintock received two offers to travel and carry out research projects. The first came from America’s National Research Council. She worked at several places, including Cornell and the University of Missouri in Columbia. Later, a group called the Guggenheim Foundation provided financial aid for her to study in Germany. McClintock went to Berlin, but returned to Cornell the following year. Her skills and work were widely praised. But she still was unable to find a permanent job. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For years, scientists had been using x-rays to study genetic material in plants and other organisms. They found that x-rays caused genes to change. Sometimes, the x-rays physically broke the chromosome. Genetic researchers looked for changes in the organism. Then they used this information to produce a map linking the changes to a single area of the chromosome. McClintock became interested in the way genes reacted to unusual events. She formed a successful working relationship with Lewis Stadler of the University of Missouri. He had demonstrated the effects of x-rays on corn. Stadler sent maize treated with radiation to McClintock. She identified unusual areas she called ring chromosomes. She believed they were chromosomes broken by radiation. The broken ends sometimes joined together and formed a circle, or ring. This led her to believe that a structure at the end of the chromosome prevents chromosomes from changing. She called this structure the telomere. VOICE TWO: Stadler got the University of Missouri to offer a permanent position to McClintock in nineteen thirty-six. She became an assistant professor. During her time at the university, she worked with plants treated with x-rays. She also discovered plants with chromosomes that broke without help of radiation. She described this activity as the breakage-fusion-bridge cycle. University officials and professors recognized the importance of McClintock’s research. Yet she believed that she was not able to make progress in her position. So she decided to leave the University of Missouri. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An old friend from Cornell, Marcus Rhoades, invited McClincock to spend the summer of nineteen forty-one working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is a research center on Long Island, near New York City. McClintock started in a temporary job with the genetics department. A short time later, she accepted a permanent position with the laboratory. This gave her the freedom to continue her research without having to teach or repeatedly ask for financial aid. At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, McClintock continued her work with the breakage-fusion-bridge cycle. She found that some corn plant genes acted in an unusual way. They appeared to move from cell to cell during development of corn particles, or kernels. She discovered that the genes moved on and between chromosomes. VOICE TWO: McClintock confirmed her discovery and extended her observations for six years. The changes could not be explained by any known theory. So, she developed her own theory. She believed the moveable genes were not genes at all, but genetic controllers or controlling elements. She said they influenced the actions of other genes. During this period, McClintock was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She was the third woman ever so honored. She also was named president of the Genetics Society of America. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-one, McClintock was asked to present her findings at a conference held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Her report described the movement of genes from one part of a chromosome to another. She used the presentation to discuss her ideas of controlling elements in genes. The other scientists reacted to her ideas with a mixture of criticism and silence. Most scientists believed that genes did not move. Few people seemed to accept her findings. Yet others argued that her experiments were complex and difficult to explain, even to other scientists. They said she would not have been invited to speak unless conference organizers understood some of the importance of her work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For years, many scientists dismissed McClintock’s findings. During this period, she continued doing her own work and reaching her own findings. Beginning in the late nineteen-fifties, she went to Central and South America to study different kinds of maize plants. She examined the development of agricultural maize by native peoples. She also assisted younger scientists and students in genetics. Her work at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was recognized in nineteen seventy. She was given the American government’s highest science award – the National Medal of Science. VOICE ONE: By the nineteen-seventies, newly developed methods of molecular biology confirmed what McClintock had learned through observation. Her discoveries have had an effect on everything from genetic engineering to cancer research. McClintock won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in nineteen eighty-three for her discovery of the ability of genes to change positions on chromosomes. She was the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize. Barbara McClintock remained at Cold Spring Harbor for the rest of her life. She died in nineteen ninety-two. She was ninety years old. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Memorial Day: Honoring America's War Dead
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Memorial Day is a national holiday observed on the last Monday in May. Memorial Day honors the men and women who have died in military service to the United States. VOICE ONE: This week on our program, we describe several military memorials that people often visit when they come to the nation's capital. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Part of the tradition of an American military funeral is the playing of a bugle call known as taps. On Memorial Day, taps is played at military burial grounds throughout the country. Many cities and towns hold Memorial Day parades in which soldiers march. These parades also include high school marching bands and local leaders. Many events will honor members of the armed forces now in Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, observances in San Francisco, California, and other places will also honor those killed in World War Two. This year is the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the war. And, for San Francisco, this is the one hundred thirty-seventh Memorial Day observance. VOICE ONE: Memorial Day honors those who died in all of America's wars. But the holiday began as a way to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between the North and the South. On May thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. Today, more than two hundred sixty thousand men and women are buried there. Some fought in the Revolutionary War in the seventeen hundreds. The eighty-hectare cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Up and down rolling hills, lines of simple white headstones mark the graves. Others buried at Arlington National Cemetery include government officials and Supreme Court justices. Presidents John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft are buried there. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of a former soldier named Jan Scruggs. He fought in the Vietnam War. The war ended in nineteen seventy-five. Many soldiers came home only to face the anger of Americans who opposed the war. So Jan Scruggs organized an effort to remember those who never returned. In nineteen eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a competition to design a memorial. The winner, Maya Lin, was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen eighty-two. VOICE ONE: The black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They meet to form a wide V. Cut into the walls are the names of more than fifty eight-thousand Americans killed or missing-in-action. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They are looking in the direction of the names. Another statue honors the service of women in the war. Now there are plans for an underground educational center. It will inform the public about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam War. VOICE TWO: Each year about one-and-a-half million people visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is one of the most-visited places in Washington. Almost any time of day, you can see people looking for the name of a family member or friend who died in Vietnam. Once they find it, many rub a pencil on paper over the letters to copy the name. VOICE ONE: After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Congress approved a memorial to veterans of the Korean War. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in July of nineteen ninety-five near the Vietnam memorial. The Korean War lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty-three. The memorial honors those who died, as well as those who survived. VOICE TWO: The memorial includes a group of nineteen statues of soldiers. These soldiers appear to be walking up a hill, toward an American flag. The Korean War has been called "the last foot soldier's war."? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters tall. People who drive along a road near the memorial sometimes think the statues are real. On one side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial is a stone walkway. It lists the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to Korea under United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. Sandblasted into the wall are images from photographs of more than two thousand five hundred support troops. VOICE ONE:?????? The last part of the memorial is the Pool of Remembrance. This round pool shows the numbers of American and United Nations forces killed, wounded, captured or missing. The total is more than two million. Cut into the wall above the pool is a message: "Freedom is not free." ????? ??????? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? One of the least known memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is often called "The Temple."? It is a round stone structure, partly hidden behind trees. It honors troops from the District of Columbia who died in World War One. It was completed in nineteen thirty-one. John Philip Sousa led the band at opening ceremonies for the memorial. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to honor women in the military. Since nineteen ninety-seven, a memorial near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia has done just that. It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's wars. More than two million women have served or currently serve in the armed forces. VOICE TWO: Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall shaped in a half-circle. In front, two-hundred jets of water meet in a pool. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. Information can also be found by computer. There are names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two hundred fifty-thousand military women. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Washington, the newest major memorial is the World War Two Memorial. It rises between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall. America entered the war after Japan bombed the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh, ninety forty-one. Sixteen million men and women served in the American military between nineteen forty-one and nineteen forty-five. More than four hundred thousand died. VOICE TWO: The World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. ?It is built of bronze and granite. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. Except in very cold weather, water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. When the sun is just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent each of the American states and territories, plus the District of Columbia, at the time of the war. On two tall arches appear the names of where it all took place. One says Atlantic; the other says Pacific. Many older men and women who served during World War Two visit the memorial. One visitor, a former Navy man, once said: "The only good thing about my fighting in the war was that I was too young to be terrified." VOICE? ONE: In nineteen eighty-six, Congress approved the idea for another memorial on the National Mall. This one is to be called the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Memorial. The purpose is to honor about five thousand slaves and free black people who fought for American independence. The Black Patriots Foundation has been collecting money to build the memorial. Its Web site says nine-and-a-half million dollars is needed by September fifteenth, or the group will lose control over the land. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: New Head of U.N. Refugee Agency Chosen
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Antonio Guterres, chosen as the new head of the United Nations refugee agency, is a former prime minister of Portugal. Mister Guterres served from nineteen ninety-six to two thousand two. He resigned after heavy losses by his Socialist Party in local elections. Angonio Guterres?????????????????? (Image: www.un.org) Since nineteen ninety-nine, Mister Guterres has been president of the Socialist International. That is an organization of one hundred sixty-six social democratic, socialist and labor parties around the world. Since two thousand three, Mister Guterres has also advised the board of directors of one of the largest banks in Portugal. Last week, Secretary General Kofi Annan nominated him to become the tenth U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Approval is required by the General Assembly in New York. Mister Guterres is to begin a three-year term on June fifteenth. Antonio Guterres is fifty-six years old. He served in the Portuguese parliament from nineteen seventy-six to nineteen eighty-three. Two years later he returned to parliament and served for ten more years. During that time he started the Portuguese Refugee Council. Former Dutch prime minister Ruud Lubbers resigned in February as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Several women had accused him of sexual harassment. Mister Lubbers denied any wrongdoing. In his resignation letter, he said he had felt insulted by the way he was treated. He suggested that media pressure on Mister Annan had played a part. Wendy Chamberlin has been the acting head of the U.N. refugee agency. She calls Mister Guterres a "highly respected international statesman with a wealth of experience."? The agency is called the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or U.N.H.C.R. The General Assembly passed a resolution in December of nineteen fifty to establish the office. The main purpose is to protect the rights and security of refugees. Today, U.N. officials estimate that there are seventeen million refugees and others of concern to the agency, such as asylum seekers. The U.N.H.C.R. has six thousand employees in one hundred fifteen countries. The agency has won two Nobel Peace Prizes. And it estimates it has helped more than fifty million people. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: This Week on AGRICULTURE REPORT, the Buzz About Bees
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. More than ninety kinds of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seed crops depend on bees for reproduction. Bees pollinate thousands of millions of dollars worth of crops. The insects gather nectar liquid from flowers. As they do this, pollen sticks to the bees. Pollen is the reproductive material of flowers. As a bee travels from plant to plant, so does the pollen. Beekeepers transport their colonies by truck to farms where crops need pollination. Pennsylvania State University estimates that the United States has about one hundred fifty thousand beekeepers. Bees are good pollinators. But most people know them as producers of honey and wax. In the United States, the Agriculture Department says more than two and one-half million colonies produced honey last year. Production increased one percent, though the number of colonies decreased two percent from two thousand three. Honey can be stored, so producers can wait to sell when prices are up. But then prices fall as producers flood the market. That happened last year. Prices fell twenty-two percent after a good production year in two thousand three. Between two and four colonies are needed to pollinate one hectare of most crops. Bees pollinate almost all almond and apple trees. Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, celery and onions require bee pollination. Experts say even crops that do not require bee pollination can be increased with the help of bees. The quality of many crops depends on the amount of pollination they receive. Crops like apples can grow unevenly if bees do not provide enough pollen for good reproduction. Honeybees can be killed by chemical poisons. But they also have a lot of natural enemies. In North and South America, Asia and Europe, mites can destroy hives. These tiny creatures suck the blood of bees. Varroa mites are a serious threat to honeybees. Tracheal mites are also a big problem; they live in the breathing tubes of bees. Wax moths are insects that eat wax in the hive. Bacterial diseases also affect colonies. The bacteria that cause European and American foulbrood attack and destroy young bees. Raising bees can be difficult. But many people like to keep bees as a business or simply for pleasure. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Progress Made in Stem Cell Research
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Jerilyn Watson and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we talk about a way to help lung cancer patients. We also report on a treatment that may return sight to damaged eyes. VOICE ONE: But first, we tell about a method to produce stem cells that could be used for disease research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists in South Korea have reported major progress in their efforts to copy human embryos. The scientists say they have used the method to produce embryonic stem cells. Stem cells have the ability to grow into other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. So they might offer new ways to treat injury and disease. The Korean scientists say their recent work resulted in eleven stem cell groups or lines. Each stem cell line is an exact genetic copy of a human patient involved in the experiments. VOICE TWO: Hwang Woo-suk and Moon Shin-yong led the research effort at Seoul National University. Maybe you recognize those names. We reported on the two men last year. At that time, they were the first scientists to report success in producing a stem cell line from a human embryo they had copied, or cloned. Cloning is reproduction by one parent in which an exact genetic copy is created. A similar process happens in nature. It is called asexual reproduction. In the laboratory, such a process begins with egg cells. Scientists remove the nucleus from each cell. The nucleus contains the complete genetic plan for an organism. The last step is to place the nucleus of an adult cell into the egg. VOICE ONE: The South Korean study last year involved eggs from sixteen women. The same women also provided the adult cells to be placed into each of their eggs. Recently, the scientists used eggs from eighteen women. But, the skin cells they placed into the eggs came from eleven other people. Nine of them have spinal cord injuries. Another has the disease diabetes. And the eleventh has a genetic disorder. The group included men, women and a child as young as two years old. VOICE TWO: The scientists developed new methods for their experiments. For example, this time they did not use a needle to pull the nucleus from the egg. Instead, they reportedly made a small cut in the egg and pressed the genetic material out through the opening. They used the same hole to place the skin cell into the egg. The result was eleven stem cell lines from the nine of the people who provided skin cells. Scientists have never before produced stem cells that are genetic copies of people with diseases or injuries. Scientists hope stem cells will be helpful in the treatment of diseases and injuries because they can grow into any kind of cell. VOICE ONE: Gerald Schatten is a reproductive biologist at the University of Pittsburgh. He advised the Korean scientists and helped to prepare the English language version of their report. He says the study brings science much closer to use of stem cells in medical treatments. He says the scientists showed that stems cell lines can be established through the use of people of different ages, sexes and health conditions. Not everyone is as happy about the study. There are many political and moral questions about experiments involving cloning. Lawmakers in many areas are not sure how to supervise such science. Last week, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill that would ease restrictions on government aid for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill. He says an embryo is human life and should not be destroyed. VOICE TWO: Some people have expressed fear that cloning could one day be used to produce babies. Some scientists have already created animals this way. But, most scientists, politicians and clergy say the idea of reproductive cloning of humans is un-acceptable. Doctor Hwang says the goal of his experiments is limited to finding cures for disease and injury. He says it must continue for this reason only. He says his team has no plan of using the new method for making babies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An American research center has reported studies that may some day help return sight to damaged eyes. Scientists at the Schepens Eye Research Institute say they have repaired a damaged optic nerve connection in mice. Dong Feng Chen reported on the study. She teaches at Harvard Medical School in the state of Massachusetts. The study was published in the magazine, Journal of Cell Science. The optic nerve connection links the eye to the brain. It makes sight possible. The optic nerve contains millions of nerve cells. When healthy, the cells carry sight messages from the eye to the brain. The brain makes it possible for a person or animal to see the image sent by the eye. The eye and the optic nerve are part of the central nervous system. Many body parts are able to repair themselves after injury. But this is not true for nerve cells in the central nervous system. VOICE TWO: Doctor Chen and her team want to know why tissue from the central nervous system stops repairing itself. A scientist in Doctor Chen’s laboratory tested two ways to re-start the process in the optic nerve. One way involved a gene called BCL-two. BCL-two normally is not active. The scientists thought this lack of activity was blocking nerve restoration. So they developed a mouse in which the gene is always active. The scientists also believed scar tissue on the brain helped stop a damaged nerve from repairing itself. The scar was created from a healed wound soon after birth. Specialized cells called glial cells create the scar. VOICE ONE: The scientists found that the animals with the active BCL-two gene could quickly repair damaged optic-nerve tissue. But this could happen only when the mice were very young. It could happen only before their glial scars developed. Then the scientists carried out another experiment with mice. They again used animals with active BCL-two genes. But they added a process to the experiment. They reduced the ability to develop a glial scar in these mice. The optic nerves were restored in the mice, even when they were older. Doctor Chen said the scientists observed that at least forty percent of the optic nerve in the animals had been repaired. But she said a higher percentage probably was repaired than they could observe. They will now attempt to learn if the restored nerves can operate like undamaged nerves. Doctor Chen says she believes their methods might repair optic nerves and other tissue of the nervous system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new study suggests that sunlight and vitamin D may help some people with lung cancer live longer. Lung cancer is the most common cancer around the world, with more than one million new cases each year. It kills more people than any other cancer. About sixty percent of those who get lung cancer die within a year. The major preventable cause is the use of tobacco. Vitamin D helps build strong teeth and bones. Foods such as oily fish and egg yolks are high in vitamin D. But not many foods naturally have high amounts of the vitamin. So extra vitamin D is often added to milk products. Some people take vitamin D pills. Another way to get vitamin D is from sunshine. The body produces it through the skin from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. VOICE ONE: Scientists from Harvard University led a study of more than four hundred fifty people. These men and women had been treated for lung cancer in Massachusetts. Doctors operated to remove their tumors. Scientists asked the people what they ate, what vitamins they took and what time of year their operations had taken place. Some took high levels of vitamin D and had their operations during the summer, when there is lots of sunshine. Others had low levels of the vitamin, and were operated on in winter. VOICE TWO: The scientists found that thirty percent of the people in this second group were alive five years after their operation. Forty-six percent were disease-free. But patients with the highest vitamin D intake and summer operations had higher survival rates. Seventy-two percent were still alive after five years. And eighty-three percent were disease-free. The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Other studies are needed to confirm them. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-31-voa14.cfm
* Headline: The Story of Radio
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. You are listening to our program today on a radio. Almost no communication would exist in the world without the electromagnetic waves that make radio possible. Today we explain the history of radio and tell how it works. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in Britain in eighteen seventy-three. A scientist named James Maxwell wrote a mathematical theory about a kind of energy. He called this energy electromagnetic waves. His theory said this kind of energy could pass unseen through the air. Mister Maxwell was not able to prove his idea. Other scientists could not prove it either until German scientist Heinrich Hertz tried an experiment in eighteen eighty-seven. VOICE TWO: Mister Hertz’s experiment sounds very simple. He used two pieces of metal placed close together. He used electricity to make a spark jump between the two pieces of metal. He also built a simple receiver made of wire that was turned many times in a circle or looped. At the ends of the loop were small pieces of metal separated by a tiny amount of space. This receiver was placed several meters from the other device. Mister Hertz proved that Mister Maxwell’s idea was correct. Electromagnetic waves or energy passed through the air from one device to the other. VOICE ONE: Later, Mister Hertz demonstrated the experiment to his students in a classroom. One of the students asked what use might be made of this discovery. But Mister Hertz thought his discovery was of no use. He said it was interesting but had no value. He was wrong. His experiment was the very beginning of every kind of electronic communications we use today. In recognition of his work, the unit of frequency of a radio wave, one cycle per second, is named the hertz. VOICE TWO: Radio waves became known to scientists as Hertzian Waves. But the experiment was still of no use until Guglielmo Marconi improved on the device that created Hertzian Waves. He began his experiments in Italy in eighteen ninety-four. Mister Marconi was soon able to transmit sound across a distance of several kilometers. He tried to interest Italian government officials in his discovery, but they were not interested. Mister Marconi traveled to Britain. His invention was well received there. In eighteen ninety-seven, he established the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company. The company opened the world’s first radio factory in Chelmsford, England in eighteen ninety-eight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Very quickly, people began sending and receiving radio messages across long distances using equipment made by Mister Marconi’s company. Ships at sea needed the device. Before Mister Marconi’s invention, they had no communication until they arrived in port. With radio, ships could call for help if they had trouble. They could send and receive information. All of Mister Marconi’s radios communicated using Morse code. It sounds like this. What you will hear are three letters. V---O---A. We will repeat, or send, each group of three letters two times. (MORSE CODE:? V-O-A…V-O-A) An expert with Morse code could send and receive thirty or forty words a minute. Mister Marconi’s radio greatly increased the speed of communications. VOICE TWO: On December twenty-fourth, nineteen-oh-six, radio operators on ships in the Atlantic Ocean near the American coast began hearing strange things. At first it was violin music. Then they heard a human voice. The voice said “Have a Merry Christmas.” That voice belonged to a man named. He hadbeen working on producing a device that could transmit the human voice or music using radio. He decided to try it for the first time on December twenty-fourth. It was the first time a human voice had been heard on radio. VOICE ONE: Improvements in radio technology now came more quickly. Large companies became interested. Broadcasting equipment and radio receivers were improved. Fourteen years after Mister Fessenden’s voice was heard by radio operators at sea, the first real radio broadcast was transmitted. It came from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The radio program was transmitted on radio station KDKA on the evening of November second, nineteen twenty. The man speaking on the radio was Leo Rosenberg. He was announcing the early results of the presidential election between James Cox and Warren Harding. Within a year, the little radio station employed the world’s first full-time radio announcer. His name was Harold Arlin. KDKA in Pittsburgh is still a successful radio station today. Oh…and Mister Harding won the presidential election! (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Those first KDKA broadcasts led to the success of the radio industry. People began buying the first radios. Other companies decided radio could make a profit. Only four years after the first KDKA broadcast, there were six hundred radio stations in the United States. Radio stations also began to broadcast in other countries. Radio stations began selling “air time” as a way to pay their workers and to pay for needed equipment. A few minutes of air time were sold to different companies so they could tell about their products to the radio station’s listeners. This method of supporting radio and later television is still used today. VOICE ONE: Radio changed the way people thought and lived. It permitted almost everyone to hear news about important events at the same time. Political candidates could be heard by millions of listeners. The same songs were heard across the country. The work by British scientist James Maxwell and German scientist Heinrich Hertz led to the development of modern communications technology. This includes television broadcasts, satellite use, cellular telephones, radio-controlled toys, and much more. ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we will explain electromagnetic waves. We will begin with Mister Hertz’s experiment. You can also try this experiment. It is very easy to do. First, move the controls on your radio to an area where no station is being received. Now, you will need a common nine-volt battery and a metal piece of money. Hold the battery near the radio and hit the top of the battery with the coin. You should hear a clicking noise on the radio. Your coin and battery are a very simple radio transmitter. This radio will not transmit very far. However, if you know a little of Morse code, you could communicate with this device. VOICE ONE: Electromagnetic energy travels almost like an ocean wave – up and down, up and down. It also travels at the speed of light – two hundred ninety-nine million seven hundred ninety-two thousand four hundred fifty-eight meters each second. Scientists have learned how to separate radio waves into different lengths called frequencies. This permits many radio stations to broadcast at the same time and not interfere with each other. Most radio frequencies around the world are named after Heinrich Hertz. For example, one popular radio station in Washington, D.C. broadcasts on six hundred thirty kilohertz. This is called a medium wave. The kilo means thousand. The hertz means cycles or waves per second. VOICE TWO: You may be hearing our broadcast on what is called short wave. These are frequencies between three thousand and thirty thousand kilohertz. They are often called megahertz. Mega means a million. One megahertz is the same as one thousand kilohertz. Short wave is good for broadcasting very long distances. The short wave signals bounce off the ionosphere that surrounds the Earth, back to the ground and then back to the ionosphere. Short wave can be heard for very long distances, but sometimes the signal is not clear. However, radio technology continues to improve. Today, VOA broadcasts to satellites in space that send the signal back to stations on the ground that transmit programs with a clear signal. It is even possible today to use a computer to link with thousands of radio stations around the world. We think Mister Hertz would be very proud of the little device he thought would never be of any use. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/2005-05-31-voa15.cfm
* Headline: Study Says Breast-Cancer Treatments Increase Survival Rates
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. More than one million new cases of breast cancer are reported every year around the world. But survival rates have increased in recent years in the United States, Britain and some other countries. A new report says drug treatments have played a major part. Researchers at Oxford University in England led a team that gathered results from nearly two hundred studies. These involved one hundred forty-five thousand women with early breast cancer. When breast cancer is found early, before it has spread, doctors can operate to remove any disease they find. But some cells may remain that can become cancerous later in life. So additional treatments aim to prevent breast cancer from coming back. In some cases, the new study found that drugs could reduce by half the risk of death from breast cancer within fifteen years. That is, from the time the cancer is found. This effect was shown in middle-aged women with the most common breast cancer. They began with six months of a combination of chemotherapy drugs. Then came five years of the drug tamoxifen. Tamoxifen helps block the effects of estrogen. Estrogen is the hormone linked to the most common kind of breast cancer. The researchers found that survival rates were higher fifteen years after treatment than they were after five years. They note that further improvements in long-term survival could result from newer drugs, or from better use of older one. The report also says the risk of dying from the drugs was small. The report appeared in May in the British medical journal The Lancet. Two unrelated studies were also in the news. Researchers at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles did one of them. They found some evidence that a low-fat diet can reduce the chances that breast cancer will return within five years. The second study dealt with exercise among three thousand women with breast cancer. Doctor Michelle Holmes at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston led the study. She says almost any amount of physical activity was linked with a lower risk of death from breast cancer. She says women who walked three to five hours per week gained the most improvement. They were half as likely to die from the disease as inactive women with breast cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-05/a-2005-05-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: June 1, 2005 - U.S. Academic Writing Style, Part 2
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion with Jane Dunphy, director of the English Language Studies Program at M.I.T., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. RS: Our subject is the American style of academic writing, including the traditional five-paragraph essay, and the challenges of academic writing for non-native English speakers. JANE DUNPHY: "Some cultures graduate students from undergraduate schools without having written basically at all. They have huge classrooms with one authoritative teacher -- and authoritarian both. And they work on translation or they -- they really do learn how to do multiple-choice testing very well, that kind of thing. But they haven't been writing regularly for a real purpose." RS: "What tips do you have for English language learners who may be listening to this broadcast and want to improve their writing?" JANE DUNPHY: "Read. I think reading is really essential for acquiring the knowledge to write a language. I think that you develop instincts that are very hard to learn if you sit down and try to memorize or try to learn them through translation. "For students who are interested in studying, in English, a scientific or technical or business field, I think it's useful to look at publications in those areas. And look at the language, not just look at the content, but really look at the way things are structured, where the main message comes, how paragraphs work, with topic sentences. I think awareness is 90 percent of success." AA: "Well, let me ask you, I mean, how do you know what constitutes a well-written research article?" JANE DUNPHY: "Well, the most prestigious journals typically attract the best writing. So any journal that's the hardest to get published in your field is the place to go." RS: "And perhaps study groups, working with a friend, or bringing these journals into their English language classroom." JANE DUNPHY: "Yep. I think peer review is a really good idea. It's a lot easier to review someone else's inadequate writing or confusing writing than it is your own after you've spent a lot of time writing." AA: "And finally, just to get back to the five-paragraph essay again ... " JANE DUNPHY: [laughs] AA: "Any final thoughts about that? I mean, that is the model that is taught. What are the pluses or minuses of that model, and is there another alternative that you like to suggest?" JANE DUNPHY: "I think it's necessary to know how to do it for any kind of standardized test. I think that students that are studying in an American system, in lower grades, not higher education, have to know how to do it. "I think the best thing they can do when they get out of those situations is unlearn it, because I just don't think it's adequate for almost anything that we do. The whole idea of five paragraphs is based on three main topics you want to develop. Well, that's a silly way to go about writing about something if you automatically have to limit yourself or expand your point to include three main topics." RS: "Although it is a place to start. It's a way in which to organize your thoughts." JANE DUNPHY: "Yep, I agree. It does force you to use paragraphs and topic sentences, which are not a universal either." RS: "And forces you to think, as I'm trying to help my son, who's in ninth grade. [Laughter]" JANE DUNPHY: "Maybe I'll eventually get your son at M.I.T. and I'll be saying forget everything you ever learned -- " RS and AA: "From your mother!" JANE DUNPHY: "About analyzing literature or anything else!" RS: "Oh, maybe you will." AA: "Let me ask you, how do you know when to end one paragraph and to begin the next?" JANE DUNPHY: "Well, you can either do it by content or you can do it by length or you can do it by both. Generally we have unspoken rules in English that we don't have ten paragraphs on a page. That would be quite unusual to see." RS: "You need the page breaks." JANE DUNPHY: "There's another unspoken rule that we don't have one [paragraph filling a page]. That would be unusual. "So you do need a break, for ease of reading. And that's basically what paragraphs are about. They're about ease of reading. We indent them in most areas to make it easy for the reader to find. Often writers go back and put a topic sentence on a paragraph to make it easy to read. They haven't naturally developed a paragraph from topic sentence down, but they go backwards and do it. "It relates, I think, to the way we read too. Now that could be circular. I don't know if we read because of that, or we write ... I don't know how that works." RS: Jane Dunphy is director of the English Language Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. AA: You can find the first part of our interview on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion with Jane Dunphy, director of the English Language Studies Program at M.I.T., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. RS: Our subject is the American style of academic writing, including the traditional five-paragraph essay, and the challenges of academic writing for non-native English speakers. JANE DUNPHY: "Some cultures graduate students from undergraduate schools without having written basically at all. They have huge classrooms with one authoritative teacher -- and authoritarian both. And they work on translation or they -- they really do learn how to do multiple-choice testing very well, that kind of thing. But they haven't been writing regularly for a real purpose." RS: "What tips do you have for English language learners who may be listening to this broadcast and want to improve their writing?" JANE DUNPHY: "Read. I think reading is really essential for acquiring the knowledge to write a language. I think that you develop instincts that are very hard to learn if you sit down and try to memorize or try to learn them through translation. "For students who are interested in studying, in English, a scientific or technical or business field, I think it's useful to look at publications in those areas. And look at the language, not just look at the content, but really look at the way things are structured, where the main message comes, how paragraphs work, with topic sentences. I think awareness is 90 percent of success." AA: "Well, let me ask you, I mean, how do you know what constitutes a well-written research article?" JANE DUNPHY: "Well, the most prestigious journals typically attract the best writing. So any journal that's the hardest to get published in your field is the place to go." RS: "And perhaps study groups, working with a friend, or bringing these journals into their English language classroom." JANE DUNPHY: "Yep. I think peer review is a really good idea. It's a lot easier to review someone else's inadequate writing or confusing writing than it is your own after you've spent a lot of time writing." AA: "And finally, just to get back to the five-paragraph essay again ... " JANE DUNPHY: [laughs] AA: "Any final thoughts about that? I mean, that is the model that is taught. What are the pluses or minuses of that model, and is there another alternative that you like to suggest?" JANE DUNPHY: "I think it's necessary to know how to do it for any kind of standardized test. I think that students that are studying in an American system, in lower grades, not higher education, have to know how to do it. "I think the best thing they can do when they get out of those situations is unlearn it, because I just don't think it's adequate for almost anything that we do. The whole idea of five paragraphs is based on three main topics you want to develop. Well, that's a silly way to go about writing about something if you automatically have to limit yourself or expand your point to include three main topics." RS: "Although it is a place to start. It's a way in which to organize your thoughts." JANE DUNPHY: "Yep, I agree. It does force you to use paragraphs and topic sentences, which are not a universal either." RS: "And forces you to think, as I'm trying to help my son, who's in ninth grade. [Laughter]" JANE DUNPHY: "Maybe I'll eventually get your son at M.I.T. and I'll be saying forget everything you ever learned -- " RS and AA: "From your mother!" JANE DUNPHY: "About analyzing literature or anything else!" RS: "Oh, maybe you will." AA: "Let me ask you, how do you know when to end one paragraph and to begin the next?" JANE DUNPHY: "Well, you can either do it by content or you can do it by length or you can do it by both. Generally we have unspoken rules in English that we don't have ten paragraphs on a page. That would be quite unusual to see." RS: "You need the page breaks." JANE DUNPHY: "There's another unspoken rule that we don't have one [paragraph filling a page]. That would be unusual. "So you do need a break, for ease of reading. And that's basically what paragraphs are about. They're about ease of reading. We indent them in most areas to make it easy for the reader to find. Often writers go back and put a topic sentence on a paragraph to make it easy to read. They haven't naturally developed a paragraph from topic sentence down, but they go backwards and do it. "It relates, I think, to the way we read too. Now that could be circular. I don't know if we read because of that, or we write ... I don't know how that works." RS: Jane Dunphy is director of the English Language Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. AA: You can find the first part of our interview on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: As We Look to the Future... Our Foreign Student Series Comes to an End
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We have the fortieth and final part of our Foreign Student Series. We hope our series has helped students who want to come to the United States to study at a college or university. All the reports are on our Web site; we will give the address later. We discussed the admissions process, and the costs of higher education. We also discussed ways to seek financial aid. Other reports discussed the documents needed before a student can enter the United States. We told about changes in government rules after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. We also discussed ways for students to receive an American education without the need to leave their home country. We told about programs offered by computer and through local classes. Other reports told about schools with many foreign students, like the University of Southern California and Purdue University. We also told about schools that are not as well known, and about programs for the disabled. Other reports discussed medical schools, agricultural colleges, military colleges, and master of business administration programs. And we discussed student life, such as housing, social activities and the job of a teaching assistant. We talked about the need for things like health insurance. And we talked about the need to begin to prepare for all this at least two years before you want to start classes in America. Lastly, we talked with some foreign students at the University of Wisconsin to ask them for their advice. All forty of the reports in our series can be found on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. The easiest way to find them is to enter "Foreign Student" in quotation marks in the search box. Another site you might want to visit is educationusa.state.gov. EducationUSA is the State Department guide to higher education. Again, the address is educationusa.state.gov. Also, there are more than four hundred American educational advising centers worldwide where you can get more information. We thank everyone who sent us questions for our Foreign Student Series. And we hope you continue to listen in the weeks to come to learn more in general about the American education system. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Surrender at Appomattox
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The end had finally come for the great soldier, General Robert E. Lee, and for the Confederacy which he served with such brilliant military leadership. It was mostly his military genius that kept the south in the field so long. But even his brilliant generalship could not save the south from the industrial power of the north and its mighty armies -- armies that were well-fed and equipped. VOICE TWO: The last chapter of the bitter four-year struggle came in April, eighteen sixty-five. General Grant had pushed Lee's army away from richmond and nearby Petersburg, Virginia. His Union forces had kept after the Confederates for almost a week. Lee fled westward across Virginia. ?His tired, hungry soldiers tried to turn south, to reach safety in the Carolinas. But always, the Union army blocked the way. Finally on Saturday, April eighth, Lee's army found it could flee no farther. A Union force at Appomattox Station blocked any further movement to the west. Early the next morning, Lee tried to break through the ring of Union soldiers that surrounded his army. But he failed. Nothing was left. Nothing but surrender. VOICE ONE: Lee sent a note to General Grant asking to meet with him to discuss surrender terms. ?A few hours later, General Grant rode into the crossroads village of Appomattox Court House. General Lee was waiting for him at the home of a man named Wilmer McLean. Lee rose as Grant walked into the house. Ulysses GrantGrant did not look like a great military leader,? the chief of all Union armies. He was dressed simply. ?His clothes were the same as those worn by the lowest soldiers in his army. ?His boots and pants were covered with mud. His blue coat was dirty and wrinkled. But on its shoulders were the three gold stars of the Union's highest general. VOICE TWO: Lee was dressed in his finest clothing. He wore a beautiful grey coat with a red sash tied around it. At his side, he carried an ivory and silver sword. The two generals greeted each other and shook hands. Grant said: "I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico. I have always remembered your appearance. I think I would have recognized you anywhere." Lee said: "Yes, I know I met you then. And I have often tried to remember how you looked. But I have never been able to remember a single feature." VOICE ONE: Grant continued to talk of their service in the Mexican War. He said later that he did so because he was finding it difficult to bring up the question of surrender. Lee took part in the light talk for several minutes. Finally, he said: "I suppose, General Grant, that the purpose of our meeting is fully understood. I asked to see you to learn upon what terms you would receive the surrender of my army." Grant answered: "The terms I propose are those I offered in my earlier note to you. That is, the officers and men surrendered will not take up arms again. And all your weapons and supplies will become captured property." VOICE TWO: Lee said those were the conditions he had expected. He asked Grant to put the terms in writing so he could sign them. "Very well," said Grant. "I will write them out." It took him several minutes to write the surrender agreement. Only once did he look up. He had just written the sentence: 'The arms, artillery, and public property will be given over to the Union Army.' Grant stopped writing and looked over at the sword the old general wore. He decided there was no need to hurt Lee's pride by taking away his sword. So he added: 'This will not include the side arms of the officers nor their horses or other private property. Each officer and man shall be allowed to return to his home. ?He will not be disturbed by United States authorities as long as he honors this agreement and obeys the laws where he lives.' VOICE ONE: Grant gave the paper to Lee. Lee read it slowly. When he finished, Grant asked if the Confederate General wished to propose any changes. Lee was silent for a moment. "There is one thing," he said. "The cavalrymen and artillerymen in our army own their own horses. I would like to understand if these men will be allowed to keep their horses." "You will find," Grant said, "that the terms as written do not allow it. Only the officers are permitted to take their private property." "You are correct," said Lee. "I see the terms do not allow it. That is clear." VOICE TWO: Until now, Lee's face had shown no emotion. But for a moment, his self-control weakened. Grant could see how badly Lee wanted this. "Well," said Grant, "I did not know that any private soldiers owned their horses. ?But I think that this will be the last battle of the war. I sincerely hope so. I think that the surrender of this army will be followed soon by that of all the others. "I take it that most of your soldiers are small farmers and will need the horses to put in a crop that will carry themselves and their families through the next winter. I will not change the terms as they are written. But I will tell my officers to let all the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the animals home with them to work their little farms." VOICE ONE: Lee was pleased with this. He told Grant: "This will have the best possible effect upon the men. It will be very gratifying and will do much to help our people." While waiting for the surrender papers to be copied, Grant presented Lee to the other Union officers in the room. Lee had known some of them before the war. After a few minutes, Lee turned to Grant. He told him that his army held about one thousand Union soldiers as war prisoners. He said that for the past few days, he had no food but cracked corn to give them. He said he had nothing to give his own men to eat. Grant called in his supply officer and ordered him to feed the Confederate Army. He told him to send to Lee's army enough food for twenty-five thousand men. VOICE TWO: Finally, the surrender papers were ready. Grant and Lee signed them. Lee shook hands with Grant and walked out of the house. Lee got on his horse and rode slowly back to his army. As he entered Confederate lines, men began to cheer. But the cheering died when the soldiers saw the pain and sorrow in Lee's face. Tears filled the old man's eyes. He could not speak. Soldiersremoved their hats and watched silently as Lee rode past. Many wept. VOICE ONE: A crowd of soldiers waited at Lee's headquarters. They pushed close around him trying to touch him, trying to shake his hand. Lee began to speak. "Boys, I have done the best I could for you. Go home now. And if you make as good citizens as you have soldiers, you will do well. I shall always be proud of you. Goodbye. And God bless you all." From the crowd came a loud cry. "Farewell, General Lee! I wish for your sake and mine that every damned Yankee on earth was sunk ten miles in hell!" VOICE TWO: On the other side of the lines, Union soldiers began to celebrate. Artillerymen fired their guns to salute the victory over Lee. Grant heard the artillery booming and sent orders that it should stop. "The rebels are our countrymen again,"? he said. "We can best show our joy by refusing to celebrate their downfall." VOICE ONE: General Grant left Appomattox Court House to return to his headquarters a few kilometers away. Suddenly, he stopped his horse. He had forgotten to tell President Lincoln or War Secretary Stanton that Lee had surrendered. He sat down at the side of the road and wrote a telegram to Secretary Stanton. News of the surrender reached Washington late on Sunday. ?Most citizens in the capital did not learn of it until early the next morning. Then cannons began to boom out over the city. Crowds rushed to the white house to cheer the president. They askedLincoln to make a victory speech. Lincoln said he had not prepared a statement. He wished to wait until the next night. He asked the people to come back then and he would have something to say. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Leo Scully and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC)? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Next World Trade Chief to Face Pressure on Doha Round of Talks
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Pascal Lamy?of France is set to become?WTO chief on September 1.Pascal Lamy of France is expected to start as director-general of the World Trade Organization on September first. Mister Lamy became the choice of the organization last week after the last of three other candidates withdrew. Carlos Perez del Castillo of Uruguay was the last to withdraw. Jaya Krishna Cuttaree of Mauritius and Luiz Felipe Seixas Correa of Brazil also withdrew from consideration. Unlike many groups, the World Trade Organization seeks consensus among its members on issues and appointments. That means one hundred forty-eight governments all have to agree. Pascal Lamy is a former trade commissioner for the European Union. He will be the fifth director-general since the World Trade Organization was established in nineteen ninety-five. His four-year appointment can be renewed. He follows Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand who is completing a special three-year term. Mister Supachai will become secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Mister Lamy will be under pressure to complete the Doha Round, the current series of world trade negotiations. The Doha Round began in Qatar in November of two thousand one. The goal was to finish by January of this year. Reforms in agricultural trade are among the most strongly argued issues. Developing countries want industrial nations to limit or end financial assistance to farmers. France is among the industrial nations that want to continue support programs. Mister Lamy says he will work hard to place the interests of developing nations at the center of the world trading system. And he says the W.T.O. ministerial meeting in Hong Kong will be, in his words, "an important stepping stone towards this goal."? That meeting is planned for December. In another development, Iran will join thirty other nations that have begun the process of entering the World Trade Organization. Iran had first sought to begin membership talks in nineteen ninety-six. But the United States repeatedly objected. The United States withdrew its objections after Iran reached an agreement in May with Britain, France and Germany. Iran agreed to suspend enrichment of uranium in its nuclear program at least until the end of July. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sunday Is World Environment Day
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our program this week: Music from Tony-nominated Broadway shows… A question from a listener about American highways… And a report about World Environment Day. World Environment Day Every year on June fifth many countries celebrate World Environment Day. The United Nations established this special day in nineteen seventy-two to get people to think about taking care of the planet. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Public events for World Environment Day are taking place from June first through June fifth. The events and conferences help teach world leaders and citizens how to protect the environment. Every year World Environment Day is celebrated in a different city. This year it is being held in San Francisco, California. This is the first time since the beginning of World Environment Day that the conference is being held in the United States. The main message of World Environment Day this year is “Plan for the Planet.”? The events and conferences will show how to have “Green Cities.” This means that people will talk about ways that cities can have healthy environments. Most people in the world live in cities. This makes them especially important areas of environmental concern. Cities use more than seventy-five percent of the world’s natural resources such as water and gasoline. World Environment Day will center on how people in cities can work together to help save the planet. San Francisco is holding public talks to discuss pollution reduction, clean energy sources and the importance of healthy parks and gardens. Special experts are among the speakers. For example, former vice-president Al Gore will talk about climate change. There also are fun events such as music concerts, movies, art shows, parades, bicycle rides and tree plantings. Local farmers and restaurant owners will serve food that has been naturally grown. The Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, invited city leaders from all over the world to attend this conference and share ideas. Representatives from many environmental organizations also are attending. The United Nations hopes to create an international agreement that countries and citizens will follow to help improve the Earth’s environment. Highways and Freeways A highway in Chicago.HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Russia. Andrey Borzenko asks the difference between a highway and a freeway in the United States. A highway is a main public road, especially one that connects cities and towns. A freeway is a broad highway designed for high-speed traffic. A freeway is also called an expressway, motorway, pike, state highway or superhighway. In the United States it is possible to drive more than four thousand kilometers from the east coast on the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast on the Pacific Ocean. You can also drive more than two thousand kilometers from near the Canadian border south to the Mexican border. You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic signals or stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at all. This is possible because of the Interstate Highway system. This system has almost seventy thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Interstate Highway system is usually two roads, one in each direction, separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one hundred and one hundred twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway system has been an important part of the nation’s economic growth during the past forty years. Experts believe that trucks using the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold. Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy Interstate Highways all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places, gasoline stations and shopping centers. The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly from one part of the country to another. Tony-Nominated Musicals HOST: Who will win top honors for Broadway plays this year?? Producers, actors and others in the industry will find out at the Tony Awards ceremony Sunday night in New York City. The rest of America can watch it on television. Steve Ember tells about the nominees for Best Musical Play. STEVE EMBER: Four plays are competing for the Tony Award for Best Musical Play. “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is based on a funny movie of the same title. The play is about two men who trick women out of their money. One man makes women fall in love with him. The other makes women feel sorry for him. Listen as the two men sing “Dirty, Rotten Number.” (MUSIC) “Monty Python’s Spamalot” is another comedy competing for Best Musical. It is based on the funny movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”? It tells about King Arthur and his knights. The play received fourteen Tony nominations, the most of any play this year. Several cast members sing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” (MUSIC) “The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” is about students who take part in a spelling competition. William Finn wrote the songs in the show. Critics say the songs are both funny and emotional. Here the spellers sing “Why We Like Spelling.” (MUSIC) The final nominee is “The Light in the Piazza.”? It is based on a book and a movie. The story tells about an Italian man and an American woman who fall in love. But the woman’s mother tries to keep them apart. We leave you now with the lovers singing “ Say It Somehow.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: After French and Dutch Reject E.U. Constitution, What Now?
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. French President Jacques Chirac could not gain enough support to approve the EU Constitution.Leaders of the European Union are trying to rescue the proposed E.U. constitution. Voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it earlier this week. However, the parliament of Latvia approved it. Ten countries now have accepted the constitution. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder says all twenty-five should have a chance to say "yes" or "no."? Mister Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac set up a meeting Saturday in Berlin to discuss the situation. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw is expected to discuss the issue Monday in Parliament. The government of Prime Minister Tony Blair has not said if it will hold a national vote. All member nations must approve the constitution. But leaders could decide to re-negotiate the document. They will consider what to do when they meet June sixteenth and seventeenth in Brussels. The constitution took two years to negotiate. It would replace several treaties. Versions in different languages are several hundred pages. The goal is to increase the influence of the European Union with its more than four hundred fifty million people. But fifty-five percent of French voters, and sixty-two percent of Dutch voters, said "no."? France and the Netherlands hold important places in European Union history. In nineteen fifty-one they were among six nations that established the European Steel and Coal Community. That led to the European Economic Community and, in nineteen ninety-three, the European Union. Last year the union admitted ten more countries to reach twenty-five. Bulgaria and Romania hope to join next year. Turkey is to begin membership talks in October. French opponents of the constitution argued that France would lose power and influence if a central E.U. government gained strength. Economic problems for the French, and popularity problems for Jacques Chirac, may have also influenced voters. Mister Chirac says the rejection means France will have trouble defending its interests in Europe. The president had campaigned for the constitution. So had the prime minister. This week, Mister Chirac dismissed Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The new prime minister is Dominique de Villepin. The Dutch government also campaigned for the constitution. But some voters said the E.U. administration in Brussels was getting too big and powerful. Observers say concerns about the Dutch economy and E.U. immigration policies only added to the opposition. The constitutional crisis has affected the euro. Twelve E.U. nations created a single money system in nineteen ninety-nine. In recent days the euro fell to eight-month lows against the dollar. Besides Latvia, the nations that have ratified the constitution include Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Greece. The others are Austria, Slovakia, Spain and Germany. Of the ten, only Spain held a national vote; the others approved it in their parliaments. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: George Gershwin: The Life and Music of One of America's Great Songwriters
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and music of one of America's greatest composers, George Gershwin. (MUSIC: "RHAPSODY IN BLUE") VOICE ONE: That was the opening of "Rhapsody in Blue," composed by George Gershwin. Gershwin lived only thirty-nine years. Yet, in that short time, he wrote hundreds of unforgettable popular songs. He wrote some concert works, such as "Rhapsody in Blue," that are still performed today. And he wrote what many consider to be the most beautiful American opera, "Porgy and Bess. " VOICE TWO: George Gershwin was born in New York City in eighteen ninety-eight. His parents were Russian Jews who had immigrated to the United States. George and his two brothers and sister had a close, happy family life. George liked playing games on the streets of New York. He liked exploring the city. He did not like school or studying. While exploring the city, George heard jazz and blues music spilling out of public drinking places. However, he did not become seriously interested in music until he heard another boy playing the violin in a concert at his school. George began to take piano lessons. His teacher was a fine classical musician. He immediately recognized George's unusual ability. The teacher wrote about him to a friend: "I have a student who will make his mark in music, if anybody will. The boy is a genius, without doubt. " VOICE ONE: George studied classical piano. But his strongest interest continued to be jazz and popular music. At the age of fifteen, he left school and went to work in the music business. The New York City street where most music publishers had their offices was called "Tin Pan Alley." The phonograph and radio had been invented in the late eighteen hundreds. But it would be many years before there were musical recordings or regular radio broadcasts. Tin Pan Alley publishers needed another way to sell new songs. So, they employed people to play the piano to do this. VOICE TWO: The piano players played the songs all day long to interested singers and other performers. George Gershwin was one of the youngest piano players in Tin Pan Alley. Soon, he was considered one of the finest there. He was already writing his own songs. He succeeded in getting one published when he was only eighteen years old. It had a long title: "When You Want 'Em, You Can't Get ‘Em, When You've Got 'Em, You Don't Want 'Em. " VOICE ONE: George Gershwin was now a real composer. The rest of his life was an unbroken record of success. He wrote song after song. His ideas were so endless that he was not even troubled when he once lost some music he had been writing. "There is plenty more where that came from," he said. George Gershwin had his first big hit in nineteen nineteen, when he was twenty-one years old. It was a song called "Swanee." A popular entertainer, Al Jolson, sang the song. "Swanee" was made into one of the first musical recordings. George Gershwin was suddenly famous. Here is Al Jolson singing what became his trademark song, "Swanee." (MUSIC: SWANEE) VOICE TWO: Music critics note that "Swanee" is not like most of George Gershwin's music. Later, he wrote true love songs. Some were light and funny. Some were full of intense feeling. Many of these songs were written for the popular musical theater. One of his most emotional love songs never became part of a musical play, however. It is called "The Man I love. " Here is a modern recording by Maureen McGovern. (MUSIC: THE MAN I LOVE) VOICE ONE: George Gershwin's older brother, Ira, wrote the words to that song. As George became famous, Ira wrote the words to more and more of his songs. The two brothers were very different. Ira, the writer, was quiet and serious. George, the musician, was outgoing -- the life of any party. But George wrote better songs with Ira than with anyone else. It is impossible to imagine many of George's songs without Ira's perfectly chosen, often surprising words. One of many examples is the song "They Can't Take That Away From Me."? The Gershwins wrote the song for dancer and actor Fred Astaire for the film "Shall We Dance." That was George and Ira Gershwin's first movie musical. Here is Fred Astaire, followed by a later version sung by Ella Fitzgerald. (MUSIC: "THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME") VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week as we continue the story of the music of George Gershwin on People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC: "THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME" JAZZ INSTRUMENTAL BY DIZZY GILLESPIE) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-06-voa5.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part One
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER:?Now, the Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Today, we begin a new series from a book by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. The book is called “A Princess of Mars.”? It is the first book in a series that Mister Burroughs wrote about a man who travels to Mars during the last years of the eighteen hundreds.There, the man meets strange beings and sees strange sights.At first he is a captive, then a warrior, and after many battles, a prince of a royal family. Shep O’Neal begins the story of “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? I am a very old man. How old I do not know. It is possible I am a hundred, maybe more. I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men do. So far as I can remember, I have always been a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty years ago. Yet, I feel that I cannot go on living forever. Someday I will die the real death from which there is no escape. I do not know why I should fear death. I who have died two times and am still alive. I have never told this story.I know the human mind will not believe what it cannot understand. I cannot explain what happened to me. I can only tell of the ten years my dead body lay undiscovered in an Arizona cave. (SOUND) My name is John Carter. I am from the state of Virginia. At the close of the Civil War I found myself without a home, without money and without work. I decided the best plan was to search for gold in the great deserts of the American Southwest. I spent almost a year searching for gold with another former soldier, Captain James Powell, also of Virginia. We were extremely lucky. In the winter of eighteen sixty-five we found rocks that held gold. Powell was trained as a mining engineer. He said we had uncovered over a million dollars worth of gold in only three months. But the work was slow with only two men and not much equipment. So we decided Powell should go to the nearest settlement to seek equipment and men to help us with the work. On March third, eighteen sixty-six, Powell said good-bye. He rode his horse down the mountain toward the valley. I followed his progress for several hours. The morning Powell left was like all mornings in the deserts of the great Southwest -- clear and beautiful. Not much later I looked across the valley. I was surprised to see three riders in the same place where I had last seen my friend. After watching for some time, I decided the three riders must be hostile Indians. Powell, I knew, was well armed and an experienced soldier. But I knew he would need my aid. I found my weapons, placed a saddle on my horse and started as fast as possible down the trail taken by Powell. I followed as quickly as I could until dark. About nine o’clock the moon became very bright. I had no difficulty following Powell’s trail. I soon found the trail left by the three riders following Powell. I knew they were Indians. I was sure they wanted to capture Powell. (SOUND) Suddenly I heard shots far ahead of me. I hurried ahead as fast as I could. Soon I came to a small camp. Several hundred Apache Indians were in the center of the camp. I could see Powell on the ground. I did not even think about what to do, I just acted. I pulled out my guns and began shooting. (SOUND) The Apaches were surprised and fled. I forced my horse into the camp and toward Powell. I reached down and pulled him up on the horse by his belt. I urged the horse to greater speed. The Apaches by now realized that I was alone and quickly began to follow. We were soon in very rough country. The trail I chose began to rise sharply. It went up and up. I followed the trail for several hundred meters more until I came to the mouth of a large cave. It was almost morning now. I got off my horse and laid Powell on the ground. I tried to give him water. But it was no use. Powell was dead. I laid his body down and continued to the cave. I began to explore the cave. I was looking for a safe place to defend myself, or perhaps for a way out. But I became very sleepy. It was a pleasant feeling. My body became extremely heavy. I had trouble moving. Soon I had to lay down against the side of the cave. For some reason I could not move my arms or legs. I lay facing the opening of the cave. I could see part of the trail that had led me here. And now I could see the Apaches. They had found me. But I could do nothing. Within a minute one of them came into the cave. He looked at me, but he came no closer. His eyes grew wide. His mouth opened. He had a look of terror on his face. He looked behind me for moment and then fled. Suddenly I heard a low noise behind me. (SOUND) So could the rest of the Apaches. They all turned and fled. The sound became louder. But still I could not move. I could not turn my head to see what was behind me. All day I lay like this. I tried again to rise, and again, but still I could not move. Then I heard a sharp sound. It was like a steel wire breaking. I quickly stood up. My back was against the cave wall. I looked down. There before me lay my body. (MUSIC) For a few moments, I stood looking at my body. I could not bring myself to touch it. I was very frightened. The sounds of the cave and the sight of my body forced me away. I slowly backed to the opening of the cave. I turned to look at the Arizona night. I could see a thousand stars. As I stood there I turned my eyes to a large red star. I could not stop looking at it. It was Mars…the red planet…the red god of war. It seemed to pull me near. Then, for a moment, I closed my eyes. There was an instant of extreme cold and total darkness. Suddenly I was in deep, dreamless, peaceful sleep. (MUSIC) I opened my eyes upon a very strange land. I immediately knew then I was on Mars. Not once did I question this fact. My mind told me I was on Mars as your mind tells you that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact, nor did I. I found myself lying on a bed of yellow colored grass that covered the land for kilometers. The time was near the middle of the day and the sun was shining full upon me. It was warm. I decided to do a little exploring. Springing to my feet, I received my first Martian surprise. The effort to stand carried me into the Martian air to the height of about one meter. I landed softly upon the ground, however, without incident. I found that I must learn to walk all over again. My muscles were used to the gravity of Earth. Mars has less gravity. My attempts to walk resulted in jumps and hops, which took me into the air. I once landed on my face. I soon learned that it took much less effort for me to move on Mars than it did on Earth. Near me was a small, low wall. Carefully, I made my way to the wall and looked over. It was filled with eggs, some already broken open. Small, green creatures were in them. They looked at me with huge red eyes. As I watched the fierce-looking creatures, I failed to hear twenty full-grown Martians coming from behind me. They had come without warning. As I turned, I saw them. One was coming at me with a huge spear, with its sharp tip pointed at my heart! (SOUND AND MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This is Bob Doughty. You have been listening to American Stories and our version of “A Princess of Mars.”? The voice of John Carter was Shep O’Neal. Our program was written for radio, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for the next part of the Edgar Rice Burroughs story, “A Princess of Mars,”? on the Special English program, American Stories, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Iron Sprinkles Seen as a Way to Aid Poor Children's Health
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. The W.H.O. estimates that as many as eighty percent of people may not be getting enough iron in their diet. Iron deficiency and anemia are especially common among children in developing countries. The body needs iron to manufacture hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to body tissues. The body also needs iron to produce several enzymes necessary for muscle, the brain and the body’s defenses to work correctly. Iron is stored in bone marrow and two organs, the spleen and liver. Iron deficiency is the main cause of anemia. A person becomes anemic when iron levels are severely reduced. Adults who do not get enough iron get tired more quickly. And there are special risks for pregnant women. But risks for children can be much more serious, especially in the first two years of life. Iron deficiency can harm physical and mental development. Health experts say iron deficiency is the most common nutritional problem that is preventable. But foods with a lot of iron, such as meats, are often too costly for poor families. And many children do not like the taste of iron supplements. A Canadian scientist, Doctor Stanley Zlotkin, says he has a solution. Iron and other minerals necessary for good health can be processed into very small particles. These sprinkles are covered with a neutral food product to hide the taste. Doctor Zlotkin says the mixture can be easily added to food and mixed together. He says the sprinkles come in the amount needed to meet a child’s daily need for iron at a cost of three cents or less a day. There is also vitamin C, which helps the body process iron, and vitamin A, zinc, and folic acid. Sprinkles are already in limited use. Doctor Zlotkin says his goal is to expand the use of sprinkles in the nutrition policy of all developing countries. Earlier this year, Doctor Zlotkin and other scientists reported on successful tests in West Africa. The Public Library of Science published the findings. Internet users can read the report free of charge at publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Memphis, a City of Music and More
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, learn about a city in the South that helped give the world rock and roll and blues music. Come with us to Memphis, Tennessee. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Andrew JacksonA future president of the United States helped build Memphis. Andrew Jackson and two other men started the city as a settlement in eighteen nineteen. They chose the place where the Wolf River flowed into the Mississippi River. Jackson named the community after the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis along the Nile. The Memphis of modern America is the biggest city in the state of Tennessee. More than one million people live in the Memphis area. Six hundred fifty thousand of them live in the city. Memphis is a center of business, industry and transportation. Memphis grew when a railroad bridge was completed across the Mississippi River in eighteen ninety-two. The bridge increased trade between states in the East and the Southwest. By nineteen hundred, Memphis was the world’s largest market for cotton and wood products. VOICE TWO: W.C. HandyIn the southern part of the city is one of the most famous streets in America, Beale Street. W.C. Handy worked there as a musician in the early nineteen hundreds. The African American composer is known as the “Father of the Blues.”? W.C. Handy In nineteen sixteen, W.C. Handy wrote a song about the famous street. Here is Louis Armstrong singing “Beale Street Blues.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At music festivals or many other places in Memphis, you are almost sure to hear another song written by W.C. Handy. In fact, you have already heard it. The song is called "Memphis Blues."? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Martin Luther KingMore than sixty percent of the people in the city of Memphis are black. Memphis is home to the National Civil Rights Museum. Visitors learn about the history of the American civil rights movement. The museum is next to the place where Martin Luther King Junior was murdered. On April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, a white man named James Earl Ray shot the civil rights leader. Martin Luther King was in Memphis to support waste collection workers on strike against the city. Most of the workers were black. In nineteen ninety-one, voters in Memphis elected the first black mayor of the city. The National Civil Rights Museum opened that same year. VOICE ONE: Also in nineteen ninety-one, the famed blues singer and guitarist B.B. King opened his own blues club on Beale Street. B.B. King is known for songs like this one, called "Caldonia." ? (MUSIC) People who come to Tennessee can also see a huge bronze statue of B.B. King at the Tennessee Welcome Center. But blues music is not the only kind of music connected with Memphis. Many experts say rock and roll began there. And a man named Sam Phillips played a big part. VOICE TWO: Sam Phillips was a white record producer in Memphis in the nineteen fifties. He started the Memphis Recording Service and the Sun Record Company. He produced records by local black musicians. Sam Phillips also produced early recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. One day, an eighteen-year-old truck driver came to the studio to record a song to give to his mother. That young man was Elvis Presley. Sam Phillips produced Elvis Presley’s first real record on July fifth, nineteen fifty-four. It was called “That’s All Right.”? It helped launch rock 'n' roll into international popularity. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: GracelandToday, people from around the United States and around the world visit Memphis. Tourism is a major industry. The most popular place to visit in Memphis is Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. He lived there for twenty years until his death on August sixteenth, nineteen seventy-seven. The man known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll is buried on the grounds of Graceland, along with his parents. Memphis also celebrates Elvis Presley with an Elvis Week. Elvis Week two thousand five is August eighth through the sixteenth. Events planned at Graceland and other places in the city include parties, dancing and music. Other activities are the Official Elvis Collectors Club Conference and the Elvis Presley International Five-Kilometer Run and Fun Walk. VOICE TWO: Something else to see in Memphis is the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum. Several years ago the Smithsonian Institution created a collection for that museum. It was the Smithsonian’s first permanent exhibition outside Washington and New York. The museum is now operated under the city government. The Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum explores the music and culture of the city. It shows how blues, country, and soul music came together in Memphis. VOICE ONE: There is a large and beautiful hotel in Memphis called the Peabody. It was built in eighteen sixty-nine. Many famous people have stayed at the Peabody. But it is also known for some birds that live in a special place on top of the hotel. Every morning, the Peabody Marching Ducks ride an elevator down to the first floor. Five mallards march across the main room of the hotel to a small pool of water where they spend the day. Every afternoon, the ducks leave their pool and march back across the room. They ride the elevator back up to their home. People gather to watch the Peabody Marching Ducks. VOICE TWO: Many people visit Memphis for special events held each year. These include the month-long Memphis in May International Festival. The events at the festival celebrate the traditions of the city. One of those traditions, of course, is music. Part of Memphis in May is the Beale Street Music Festival. It is one of the largest music festivals in the country. One of the performers at the Beale Street Music Festival this year was Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis. Here is a song from "Now What," her new album. The song is called "Thanx." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another Memphis tradition is food, including spicy pork slow-cooked over a smoky fire. In fact, the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest just took place. Other traditional foods in Memphis are fried chicken, catfish, fried green tomatoes and pecan pie. (MUSIC: "Graceland"/Paul Simon) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our programs can be found on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-06-voa6.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Scientists Examine Weather Conditions in Africa
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss and Amanda Scott

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: we tell about the recent discovery of a bird once thought to no longer exist. We also report on the discovery of animals formerly unknown to science. VOICE ONE: But first, American scientists estimate future weather conditions in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new American study examines the past and future climate of Africa. The study found the Sahel area of North Africa will experience rainy, wet weather in coming years. At the same time, the study shows dry weather will continue in southern Africa. James Hurrell and Martin Hoerling led the study. Professor Hurrell is a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Professor Hoerling works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Boulder. The study compared sixty possible examples of climate change. The examples came from five computer programs developed by scientific centers around the world. VOICE TWO: Professor Hurrell says changes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans are affecting weather conditions in Africa. Studies show the temperature of the Indian Ocean has risen more than one degree Celsius since nineteen fifty. Professor Hurrell suspects the cause is an increase in industrial gases trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. Many scientists believe that such gases are causing temperatures to rise. Professor Hurrell says he expects a continued warming of the Indian Ocean. This warming, he says, causes changes in the atmosphere. More warm air is rising over the water and developing into storms. At the same time, parts of southern Africa are drying out. Severely affected countries include Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Professor Hurrell says he expects the dry weather there to continue for many years. VOICE ONE: Professor Hurrell believes a different process is taking place in the Sahel area of Africa. The area is just south of the Sahara Desert. The Sahel experienced a severe lack of rainfall in the nineteen seventies. Nearly two hundred thousand people died from a lack of food. However, since nineteen ninety, ocean surface temperatures have been rising more quickly in the North Atlantic than in the Southern Atlantic. This is causing heavy rains from northern Africa to move into the Sahel area. Professor Hurrell believes an increase in industrial gasses may have caused the change from dry to wet weather in the Sahel. He expects this wet climate to continue for many years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A bird once thought to no longer exist has been discovered in the southeastern United States. Bird experts say they recently observed the ivory-billed woodpecker in the state of Arkansas. Experts had thought the ivory bill disappeared sixty years ago. The bird was last seen in nineteen forty-four. Experts, wildlife groups and government officials kept the discovery a secret for more than a year. They waited to both confirm a sighting made in February of last year and also to protect the bird’s home. John Fitzpatrick led the efforts to confirm the existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker. He is the director of the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University. Professor Fitzpatrick described the sighting of the ivory bill as one of the best discoveries ever made. He added that Americans might have another chance to protect the future of the bird and the forests in which it lives. VOICE ONE: The ivory bill is the largest woodpecker in North America. It is fifty centimeters tall and has sharp white and black feathers. The male ivory bill has bright red markings at the top of the head. There were large numbers of ivory bills one hundred fifty years ago. They lived in the woods that covered much of the southeastern United States. The desire for wood and wood products began to increase after the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty-five. Many of the trees where the birds lived were cut down. The destruction of these forests continued throughout the nineteen forties. By then, the ivory-billed woodpecker had almost disappeared. Many bird experts continued to look for ivory bills. Until now, there was no evidence that the birds still existed. VOICE TWO: Since the rediscovery, many people have offered to work together to save the bird’s wooded home. American government agencies have offered ten million dollars to protect the forest where the ivory bill was found. Up to now, all sightings have been of a single male bird flying alone. Some people are beginning to wonder if they have found the last living ivory-billed woodpecker. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker was joyous news to many bird lovers. Equally exciting for plant scientists was a discovery reported last month. A wildflower called the Mount Diablo buckwheat was found in the American state of California. A student at the University of California at Berkley made the discovery. Michael Park was studying plants at a state park about fifty kilometers east of San Francisco. Mister Park says he was shocked when he found the Mount Diablo buckwheat. There had not been a confirmed sighting of the wildflower since nineteen thirty-six. Plant scientists thought it had permanently disappeared. The Mount Diablo buckwheat has small pink flowers and grows to a height of about fifteen centimeters. Scientists and park officials are not telling the public exactly where the plant is right away. They believe keeping the information secret will help protect it. VOICE TWO: Wildlife experts also have discovered animals formerly unknown to science. Two research teams working independently in Tanzania say they recently found a new member of the monkey family. The new monkey is called the highland mangabey. Researchers say it lives high in the mountains of two Tanzanian forests. They say the animal has long hair and is less than a meter tall. They say the monkey’s life in the trees and its black face probably means it is similar to the baboon. The researchers also said the highland mangabey makes a strange noise. They describe its call as a honk-bark. VOICE ONE: Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society first discovered the monkeys. Later, researchers from the University of Georgia and Conservation International observed the animals. Tim Davenport led the researchers who first saw the highland mangabey two years ago. They had heard stories about an unusual monkey near the Mount Rungwe volcano and Livingstone Forest in southern Tanzania. The other researchers made their discovery about three hundred fifty kilometers away from Mount Rungwe. They were in the Udzunga Mountains. Trevor Jones and his team were looking for an endangered monkey species. But, they found the new monkey instead. In all, the two teams found just thirteen groups of highland mangabeys. It is the first new species of African monkey found in more than twenty years. Tim Davenport says the discovery proves that there is still much to learn about Africa. VOICE TWO: We have one more discovery to tell you about. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups say they discovered a new kind of rodent in Laos. Their findings were reported in the magazine Systematics and Biodiversity. The report says the new rodent has long whiskers, short legs and thick hair. The researchers say it is most like a guinea pig or chinchilla. However, the report says the animal is so different that it represents a new family of animals. VOICE ONE: Robert Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society first saw the rodent for sale at a market in central Laos. He says he knew immediately that he had never seen such an animal before. The report says bone and genetic tests suggest the animal must have developed from other rodents millions of years ago. Laotians call the rodent Kha-Nyou. The report says the animal appears to live mostly in areas of limestone and forest. It also said the Kha-Nyou sleeps during the day and does not eat meat. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss and Amanda Scott. Jill Moss was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: we tell about the recent discovery of a bird once thought to no longer exist. We also report on the discovery of animals formerly unknown to science. VOICE ONE: But first, American scientists estimate future weather conditions in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new American study examines the past and future climate of Africa. The study found the Sahel area of North Africa will experience rainy, wet weather in coming years. At the same time, the study shows dry weather will continue in southern Africa. James Hurrell and Martin Hoerling led the study. Professor Hurrell is a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. Professor Hoerling works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Boulder. The study compared sixty possible examples of climate change. The examples came from five computer programs developed by scientific centers around the world. VOICE TWO: Professor Hurrell says changes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans are affecting weather conditions in Africa. Studies show the temperature of the Indian Ocean has risen more than one degree Celsius since nineteen fifty. Professor Hurrell suspects the cause is an increase in industrial gases trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. Many scientists believe that such gases are causing temperatures to rise. Professor Hurrell says he expects a continued warming of the Indian Ocean. This warming, he says, causes changes in the atmosphere. More warm air is rising over the water and developing into storms. At the same time, parts of southern Africa are drying out. Severely affected countries include Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Professor Hurrell says he expects the dry weather there to continue for many years. VOICE ONE: Professor Hurrell believes a different process is taking place in the Sahel area of Africa. The area is just south of the Sahara Desert. The Sahel experienced a severe lack of rainfall in the nineteen seventies. Nearly two hundred thousand people died from a lack of food. However, since nineteen ninety, ocean surface temperatures have been rising more quickly in the North Atlantic than in the Southern Atlantic. This is causing heavy rains from northern Africa to move into the Sahel area. Professor Hurrell believes an increase in industrial gasses may have caused the change from dry to wet weather in the Sahel. He expects this wet climate to continue for many years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A bird once thought to no longer exist has been discovered in the southeastern United States. Bird experts say they recently observed the ivory-billed woodpecker in the state of Arkansas. Experts had thought the ivory bill disappeared sixty years ago. The bird was last seen in nineteen forty-four. Experts, wildlife groups and government officials kept the discovery a secret for more than a year. They waited to both confirm a sighting made in February of last year and also to protect the bird’s home. John Fitzpatrick led the efforts to confirm the existence of the ivory-billed woodpecker. He is the director of the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University. Professor Fitzpatrick described the sighting of the ivory bill as one of the best discoveries ever made. He added that Americans might have another chance to protect the future of the bird and the forests in which it lives. VOICE ONE: The ivory bill is the largest woodpecker in North America. It is fifty centimeters tall and has sharp white and black feathers. The male ivory bill has bright red markings at the top of the head. There were large numbers of ivory bills one hundred fifty years ago. They lived in the woods that covered much of the southeastern United States. The desire for wood and wood products began to increase after the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty-five. Many of the trees where the birds lived were cut down. The destruction of these forests continued throughout the nineteen forties. By then, the ivory-billed woodpecker had almost disappeared. Many bird experts continued to look for ivory bills. Until now, there was no evidence that the birds still existed. VOICE TWO: Since the rediscovery, many people have offered to work together to save the bird’s wooded home. American government agencies have offered ten million dollars to protect the forest where the ivory bill was found. Up to now, all sightings have been of a single male bird flying alone. Some people are beginning to wonder if they have found the last living ivory-billed woodpecker. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The discovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker was joyous news to many bird lovers. Equally exciting for plant scientists was a discovery reported last month. A wildflower called the Mount Diablo buckwheat was found in the American state of California. A student at the University of California at Berkley made the discovery. Michael Park was studying plants at a state park about fifty kilometers east of San Francisco. Mister Park says he was shocked when he found the Mount Diablo buckwheat. There had not been a confirmed sighting of the wildflower since nineteen thirty-six. Plant scientists thought it had permanently disappeared. The Mount Diablo buckwheat has small pink flowers and grows to a height of about fifteen centimeters. Scientists and park officials are not telling the public exactly where the plant is right away. They believe keeping the information secret will help protect it. VOICE TWO: Wildlife experts also have discovered animals formerly unknown to science. Two research teams working independently in Tanzania say they recently found a new member of the monkey family. The new monkey is called the highland mangabey. Researchers say it lives high in the mountains of two Tanzanian forests. They say the animal has long hair and is less than a meter tall. They say the monkey’s life in the trees and its black face probably means it is similar to the baboon. The researchers also said the highland mangabey makes a strange noise. They describe its call as a honk-bark. VOICE ONE: Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society first discovered the monkeys. Later, researchers from the University of Georgia and Conservation International observed the animals. Tim Davenport led the researchers who first saw the highland mangabey two years ago. They had heard stories about an unusual monkey near the Mount Rungwe volcano and Livingstone Forest in southern Tanzania. The other researchers made their discovery about three hundred fifty kilometers away from Mount Rungwe. They were in the Udzunga Mountains. Trevor Jones and his team were looking for an endangered monkey species. But, they found the new monkey instead. In all, the two teams found just thirteen groups of highland mangabeys. It is the first new species of African monkey found in more than twenty years. Tim Davenport says the discovery proves that there is still much to learn about Africa. VOICE TWO: We have one more discovery to tell you about. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups say they discovered a new kind of rodent in Laos. Their findings were reported in the magazine Systematics and Biodiversity. The report says the new rodent has long whiskers, short legs and thick hair. The researchers say it is most like a guinea pig or chinchilla. However, the report says the animal is so different that it represents a new family of animals. VOICE ONE: Robert Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society first saw the rodent for sale at a market in central Laos. He says he knew immediately that he had never seen such an animal before. The report says bone and genetic tests suggest the animal must have developed from other rodents millions of years ago. Laotians call the rodent Kha-Nyou. The report says the animal appears to live mostly in areas of limestone and forest. It also said the Kha-Nyou sleeps during the day and does not eat meat. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss and Amanda Scott. Jill Moss was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-06-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Officials Suspect Exotic Newcastle Disease Killed Chickens in Brazil
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Exotic Newcastle disease is a viral infection that spreads easily among birds. The disease causes breathing problems in birds and often leads to death. Other effects could include loss of muscle control, digestive problems or a drop in egg production. The disease is not known to harm people. Experts say the only way to fight exotic Newcastle disease is to destroy infected birds. Infected birds must also be kept away from any other birds. Quarantine measures are needed around affected areas in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. In two thousand three, parts of California, New Mexico and Texas faced quarantines for exotic Newcastle disease. Currently no such quarantines are in place in the United States. In late May, in Brazil, about five thousand chickens died from a disease on a farm in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The Associated Press reported that officials in Brazil did not make the news public for several days. The news agency said Brazilian health officials ordered the destruction of seventeen thousand chickens. They also ordered roadblocks around the farm, which is near the town of Jaraguari. Officials were concerned about the possibility of bird influenza. The h-five-n-one form of bird flu has killed more than fifty people in Asia, including thirty-eight in Vietnam. East Asian countries have had to destroy large numbers of chickens and other farm birds. On June first, however, a Brazilian official told the Associated Press that the virus is not bird flu. He said testing continued but officials suspect that it may be exotic Newcastle disease. That disease can come from tropical birds like Amazon parrots. Infected Amazon parrots can carry the virus for up to four hundred days without showing signs of sickness. The possibility of the spread of disease means it is important to keep farm birds separated from wild birds and pet birds. But, at the same time, officials also say that wild birds should not be destroyed in an effort to protect farm birds. On May twenty-first, China informed the World Organization for Animal Health about the deaths of five hundred wild birds in Qinghai Province. Chinese officials said the h-five-n-one virus was responsible. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Four Companies Working for the Common Good Instead of Profit
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about four organizations that work for the common good instead of for profit. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There is an expression in the business world today:? “Money makes the world go around.”? The cost of doing business and the profits that result are two main concerns for most companies. But, not all companies share these concerns. Some companies are working for the common good. They are trying to help poor people around the world. They care about people who suffer from health problems or live without electricity. Among these companies are Nutriset, the Institute for One World Health, the Smile Train and the Solar Electric Light Fund. VOICE TWO: Nutriset is a food company in France that makes all its products for humanitarian aid programs. One of its most popular products used in emergency situations is made with peanuts, sugar, fats, minerals and vitamins. It is called Plumpy’nut. The American group Save the Children is using Plumpy’nut to help fight hunger among refugees in the Darfur area of Sudan. The French product is also being used to feed children in Malawi, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And, Plumpy’nut was used to help feed victims of tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December, two thousand four. VOICE ONE: The substance can be given to families without the need to go to feeding centers. It comes ready to eat. It does not have to be mixed with water, the way dry milk does. Clean drinking water is often in short supply in crisis situations. Nutriset says Plumpy'nut can stay fresh for two years. Individual servings are ninety-two grams. Michel Lescanne started Nutriset in nineteen eighty-six to make food for humanitarian aid. The company has a small factory in Malaunay, France. It says it reinvests its profits into research and development. Nutriset also makes products like dry milk that are traditionally used to fight hunger. In times of crisis, the company will set up emergency operations twenty-four hours a day. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Institute for One World Health is the first not-for-profit drug company in the United States. It is working to improve the health of the world’s poorest people. Victoria Hale started the company in two thousand. The institute develops safe and low-cost medicines for people with infectious diseases in the developing world. The Institute for One World Health identifies possible new drugs that have been developed but not fully tested. Often, drug companies will research and develop medicines to treat diseases that affect poor people. However, such projects often end because of a lack of money. VOICE ONE: This is when Doctor Hale’s company steps in. The institute gains the rights to promising drugs and develops them into safe, effective medicines. The institute works with local organizations to manufacture and provide the drugs after they receive government approval. One of the company’s biggest successes was the drug paromomycin. It is used to treat infections caused by organisms called parasites. The Institute for One World Health believes paromomycin can effectively treat the most dangerous form of leishmaniasis. This disease is spread by the bite of a sand fly insect. Visceral leishmaniasis is the worst form of the disease. One and one-half million people around the world are infected with the disease. Victims will die if they are not treated. Most victims of visceral leishmaniasis are in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization started testing paromomycin as a treatment for visceral leishmaniasis in two thousand one. Small studies proved the drug was safe and effective. However, larger tests comparing the drug with existing treatments were suspended because of a lack of money. The Institute for One World Health then took action. The company gained legal rights to paromomycin. It completed a full scientific study of the drug in India. It did so with financial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Tests proved that paromomycin works as well as a more costly drug currently used against visceral leishmaniasis. The institute plans to seek approval for paromomycin in India. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of children around the world suffer from an easily corrected medical condition called cleft lip. A cleft is a separation in the lip of the mouth. Children can also suffer from cleft palate. That is a separation in the top of the mouth or the soft tissue in the back of the mouth. Cleft lip or palate normally develops in the early weeks of pregnancy. Researchers believe that genetic material passed on to children from their parents may cause cleft lip or palate. Environmental influences like sickness, drugs, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy may also cause the condition. VOICE TWO: A simple operation performed on children between nine and eighteen months old can repair this condition. Doctors say that without the operation children in developing countries are more likely to suffer a life of poor nutrition. They also may suffer condemnation and separation from their communities. The Smile Train is an American organization working to end this problem. It provides local doctors in developing countries with training and equipment needed to perform cleft operations. The Smile Train has services and programs in more than fifty countries. VOICE ONE: Pakistan is one example. The Smile Train has provided money, equipment and training to the Allied Hospital at the Punjab Medical College. The organization has also provided equipment and training to Malaysia’s medical community. And in Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Smile Train has given the University Clinic Center in Sarajevo aid to improve its cleft care for poor children. The organization was started in nineteen ninety-nine. Every year since then, it has provided free cleft operations to more than thirty-five thousand children around the world. Local doctors do the operations, which take as little as forty-five minutes. The Smile Train pays for the operations with money it collects. It says the average cost for the operation is about two hundred fifty dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some places in the world still do not have electric power. In fact, a group called SELF estimates that about two thousand million people, or one in three, do not have electricity. This American organization is working to change the situation. SELF is short for the Solar Electric Light Fund. It provides communities and governments with solar electric systems. These systems use what is called photovoltaic technology to change sunlight into electricity. The group says solar electric systems can be set up quickly in any village anywhere in the world. And they are safe for the environment. VOICE ONE: A small solar electric system can provide a home, school or health center with several hours of electricity each day. Collectors placed on top of a building take in heat from the sun. This energy is then sent to a storage battery used to power equipment. A special charge controller is also needed to help direct the flow of electricity. SELF has solar electric programs in many developing countries. In South Africa, two schools along the country’s east coast use solar electric systems for lighting, televisions and computer centers. And in Brazil, scientists working in the Amazon rainforest use a solar electric system to power satellite communications equipment. Researchers communicate with other teams working in the rainforest. VOICE TWO: SELF says energy from the sun is the only dependable way to meet the electricity needs of poor villages. Many communities still use candles, batteries and fuel-powered lights at night. Health centers do not have power to keep medicines cold. Schools have no electricity for copy machines or computers. The group says solar energy, combined with wireless communications technology, can help bring less developed parts of the world into the twenty-first century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-07-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Work-Related Accidents Increasing in Some Developing Countries
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Work can be harmful to your health. Each year, more than two million people die from work-related accidents or diseases. Labor-related deaths represent four percent of all deaths around the world. And here are some other estimates in a recent report from the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency: About two hundred seventy million workplace accidents happen each year. In addition, there are about one hundred sixty million cases of work-related sicknesses. The most common include cancers, muscle and bone diseases, lung diseases, hearing loss and blood-flow disorders. Dangerous substances are blamed for more than four hundred thousand deaths each year. Asbestos alone is responsible for an estimated one hundred thousand deaths. Asbestos is a material that can lead to lung cancer and other diseases. Diseases cause most of the deaths among workers. But deadly accidents at work also appear to be increasing in some developing countries as their economies expand quickly. This is true especially in Latin America and Asia. About seventeen percent of all deadly workplace accidents happen in the building industry. Each year at least sixty thousand people die in such accidents. Many workers come from poor areas. They have little experience with heavy machinery and little training in safety. The farming industry employs half of all workers in the world. In most developing countries, farming is the biggest employer. The risks from agricultural work include the use of pesticides. These chemicals cause an estimated seventy thousand poisoning deaths each year. In addition, the most recent estimates show that at least seven million people get very sick but survive. When workers suffer, so might their employers. The I.L.O. estimates that about four percent of world economic production is lost to job accidents. Higher rates of job accidents are found among workers age fifteen to twenty-four and those age fifty-five and older. More people in those two age groups are expected to enter the workforce. So the International Labor Organization is calling for special programs to help younger and older workers stay safe on the job. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Three States, Teachers Union Act Against Federal Education Law
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. School governing organizations in three states and the nation’s largest teachers’ union recently brought legal action against the federal government. Nine school districts and the National Education Association criticize a federal education reform law. They say the Department of Education has failed to provide enough money for schools to carry out the law called No Child Left Behind. They accuse the Department of Education of violating a part of the law that says states cannot be forced to spend their own money to meet the federal requirements. They say fully obeying the law would cost the states thousands of millions of dollars to test students. ?????????????? The state of Utah also criticized the law. State lawmakers voted to place top importance on Utah’s own school performance system when it conflicts with the federal government. Utah and several other states say they want to use their own educational reform plans. The No Child Left Behind law forms the main part of the Bush Administration’s education policy. It calls for every student in every school to meet reading and mathematics requirements by two thousand fourteen. United States Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says the law’s main goal is to improve education for minority students. She says No Child Left Behind does not harm states financially. Secretary Spellings notes that the federal government has increased educational spending by forty percent over the past three years. She says this pays for testing and other expenses under the law. Miz Spellings has promised to work with states to carry out the law. She says schools must show progress in tests by special groups including low-income and minority students. The idea of reporting their test scores is to keep schools from hiding the scores of poorly performing students. That can happen when schools average low test scores with those of students with higher scores. Under No Child Left Behind, a school can receive a poor rating and be punished if some groups of students score poorly. If bad performance continues, struggling students get free after-school help. And, parents can send their children to a better school. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: After the Civil War: Death of Lincoln Helps Unite a Divided Nation
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) On April ninth, eighteen sixty-five, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses Grant. Within weeks, America's Civil War would be over. When people in Washington learned of Lee's surrender, they hurried to the White House. They wanted to hear from President Abraham Lincoln. The crowd did not know that it would be one of his last speeches. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell the story of that tragic spring. VOICE TWO: Abraham LincolnPresident Lincoln spoke several days after General Lee's surrender. The people expected a victory speech. But Lincoln gave them something else. Already, he was moving forward from victory to the difficult times ahead. The southern rebellion was over. Now, he faced the task of re-building the Union. Lincoln did not want to punish the south. He wanted to re-join the ties that the Civil War had broken. So, when the people of the north expected a speech of victory, he gave them a speech of reconstruction, instead. On the night of April eleventh, Lincoln appeared before a crowd outside the White House. He held a candle in one hand and his speech in the other. VOICE ONE: "Fellow citizens," Lincoln said. "We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The surrender of the main army of the Confederacy gives hope of a righteous and speedy peace. The joy cannot be held back. By these recent successes, we have had pressed more closely upon us the question of reconstruction. "We all agree," Lincoln continued, "that the so-called seceded states are out of their correct relation with the Union. We also agree that what the government is trying to do is get these states back into their correct relation. "I believe it is not only possible, but in fact easier to do this without deciding the legal question of whether these states have ever been out of the Union. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be of no importance whether they had ever been away." VOICE TWO: There was cheering and applause when Pesident Lincoln finished, but less than when he began. The speech had been too long and too detailed to please the crowd. Lincoln, however, believed it a success. He hoped he had made the country understand one thing: the great need to forget hatred and bitterness in the difficult time of re-building that would follow the war. The president continued to discuss his ideas on reconstruction over the next few days. On Friday, April fourteenth, he agreed to put this work aside for a while. In the afternoon, he took his wife mary for a long drive away from the city. In the evening, they would go to the theater. VOICE ONE: Ford's TheaterOne of the popular plays of the time, called "Our American Cousin," was being performed at Ford's Theater, not far from the White House. The Secretary of War did not want the Lincolns to go alone. He ordered an army officer to go with them. The President and Misses Lincoln sat in special seats at Ford's Theater. The presidential box was above and to one side of the stage. A guard always stood outside the door to the box. On this night, however, the guard did not remain. He left the box unprotected. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln settled down in his seat to enjoy the play.As he did so, a man came to the door of the box. He carried a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. The man entered the presidential box quietly. He slowly raised the gun. He aimed it at the back of Lincoln's head. He fired. Then the man jumped from the box to the stage three meters below. Many in the theater recognized him. He was an actor: John?Wilkes Booth. Booth broke his leg when he hit the stage floor. But he pulled himself up, shouted "Sic semper tyrannis!" -- 'Thus ever to tyrants!' -- and ran out the door. He got on a horse....and was gone. VOICE ONE: The attack was so quick that the audience did not know what had happened. Then a woman shouted, "The president has been shot!" Lincoln had fallen forward in his seat, unconscious. Someone asked if it was possible to move him to the White House. A young army doctor said no. The president's wound was terrible. He would die long before reaching the White House. So Lincoln was moved to a house across the street from Ford's Theater. A doctor tried to remove the bullet from the president's head. He could not. Nothing could be done, except wait. The end was only hours away. VOICE TWO: Cabinet members began to arrive, while wild reports spread through the city: the Confederates had declared war again!? There was fighting in the streets! An official of the War Department described the situation. "The extent of the plot was unknown. From so horrible a beginning, what might come next. How far would the bloody work go. The safety of Washington must be looked after. The people must be told. The assassin and his helpers must be captured." VOICE ONE: Early the next morning, April fifteenth, Abraham Lincoln died. A prayer was said over his body. His eyes were closed. The news went out by telegraph to cities and towns across the country. People read the words, but could not believe them. To millions of Americans, Abraham Lincoln's death was a personal loss. They had come to think of him as more than the President of the United States. He was a trusted friend. People hung black cloth on their doors in sorrow. Even the south mourned for Lincoln, its former enemy. Southern General Joe Johnston said: "Mr. Lincoln was the best friend we had. His death is the worst thing that could happen for the south." VOICE TWO: Messages of regret came from around the world. British labor groups said they could never forget the things Lincoln had said about working people. Things such as: "The strongest tie of human sympathy should be one uniting all working people of all nations and tongues." A group representing hundreds of French students sent this message: "In President Lincoln we mourn a fellow citizen. There are no longer any countries shut up in narrow frontiers. Our country is everywhere where there are neither masters nor slaves. Wherever people live in liberty or fight for it. We look to the other side of theocean to learn how a people which has known how to make itself free...knows how to preserve its freedom." Walt WhitmanThe assassination of Abraham Lincoln touched the imagination of America's writers. Many tried to put their feelings into words. Walt Whitman wrote several poems of mourning. Here is part of one of them, "O Captain! My Captain!" Announcer: Here captain! Dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead. My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My?father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will. The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult o shores, and ring o bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in the spring. That is the time of year when lilac plants burst into flower throughout much of the United States. One of Walt Whitman's most beautiful poems in honor of Lincoln is called, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed."? Here is part of that poem. Announcer: When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night, I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I love. . . Coffin that passes through lanes and streets, Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land. . . With the countless torches lit, Wiith the silent sea of faces and the unbared heads. . . With the tolling, tolling bells' perpetual clang, here, coffin that slowly passes, I give you my sprig of lilac. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. The poems were read by Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by Harold Berman and Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'A Thousand Roads': Exploring the Lives of Native Peoples of the Americas
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Dana Demange and Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our program this week: Music from Al Green… A question from a listener about food safety in America… And a report on a new film at the National Museum of the American Indian. 'A Thousand Roads' FILM: "Whatever our trials, we're never alone. From each other, even our ancestors, we draw the strength we need to carry on." HOST: The Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., is showing a new movie called “A Thousand Roads.” FILM: "Indian country is really all of us. Wherever we are in this world, we're traveling together on this journey down a thousand roads, all leading home." Visitors can travel to four areas in North and South America to experience the living traditions of Native American people and communities. Barbara Klein tells us about it. FILM: “Good morning Indian Country! Breathe in the day and breathe out a few thank yous for all the gifts this day will bring. Greet the day. It’s a great day to be alive” This is the voice that guides visitors on an exploration into the lives of four American Indians. The movie begins in New York City. We meet a young business woman. She is having trouble dealing with the demands of her job. But she feels better after she talks with a member of her Mohawk tribe. Next, we travel to the cold mountains of Alaska where a young girl of the Inupiat (in-NEW-pee-at) tribe goes to live with family members she has never met before. She feels lonely at first. But her family’s love and cultural traditions make her feel welcome. Our journey continues to the desert land of New Mexico. Here, a young man of the Navajo tribe struggles to find a balance in his life. He feels divided between a need to be like his wild city friends and a need to be part of his family and culture. Last, we travel south to the mountains of South America. In this beautiful place, a Quechuan (KETCH-u-an) healer uses traditional medicines to help a sick boy. He cannot heal the boy and struggles with his sadness over losing a child. These four stories might seem very separate, but they have a common idea. The director of the film, Chris Eyre, wanted to show the living cultures of today’s Native Americans. These stories demonstrate how American Indians may come from different tribes, but they are linked by a shared culture. They may be in different parts of the continent, but they face similar problems. “A Thousand Roads” is special for another reason. It is the first public showing in the United States of a movie produced under the guidelines of the Digital Cinema Initiative. This means that the technology of the theater and the movie is very advanced. The picture and sound are extremely clear. This movie is also beautifully filmed. And the music adds to the richness of the experience. Food Safety in America HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener in Argentina. Raul Colquehuanca wants to know how Americans are protected from the food industry and unsafe food. The Food and Drug Administration is the main government agency responsible for food safety in the United States. It is involved in food inspection from start to finish. Investigators supervise the manufacture, import, transport, storage and sale of thousands of millions of dollars worth of food products. The agency makes rules for almost ninety-five thousand businesses in the United States. The agency has about nine thousand employees. Investigators are among them. F.D.A investigators inspect thousands of food manufacturers and farms each year. The investigators make sure that food products are made correctly. And they make sure that the information labels on the products are truthful. They often collect products for label inspections or testing by F.D.A scientists. The F.D.A also supervises the food and drugs that farmers give to cows and other animals that provide meat that is sold to the public. The Food and Drug Administration has several choices if a business is found violating any of the laws the agency enforces. F.D.A. officials can urge the business to correct the problem. Or, they can legally remove, or recall, bad food products from the marketplace. About three thousand products are recalled in the United States each year. In addition, F.D.A. investigators will seize products if they appear to be unfit for public use. About thirty thousand shipments of imported goods are seized at American ports every year. The federal government has not always been responsible for the quality of food and drugs in the United States. In the nineteenth century, American states were generally responsible for the safety of locally-made food and drugs. In nineteen-oh-six, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act into law. It banned the transport and sale of unclean or falsely labeled foods, drinks and drugs. In nineteen twenty-seven, the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration was established. Later, its name was changed to the Food and Drug Administration. Today, the F.D.A. is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Al Green's New Album HOST: The Reverend Al Green has not recorded real soul music since the middle nineteen-seventies. Now he has a new album called “Everything’s OK." Shirley Griffith tells us about it. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Al Green became famous as a soul music singer thirty years ago. He says a personal tragedy in nineteen seventy-four was a sign from God that he should turn to religion. So he bought a church and became a clergyman. He began releasing albums of gospel church music in nineteen seventy-nine. His new album, “Everything’s OK”, reminds people of the Reverend Al Green of the past. The album is filled with joyful love songs. He wrote all of the twelve songs except this one. Critics say his version of “You Are So Beautiful” is one of the best. (MUSIC) The album includes work by several musicians who also performed on Green’s hit albums of the nineteen seventies. Here is another song, called “Build Me Up.” (MUSIC) The Reverend Al Green is fifty-eight. He is known around the world for his unusual voice and recognizable sound. Since nineteen seventy-nine he has led the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, Tennessee. “Everything’s OK” is not a gospel album. It is a combination of rhythm and blues and pop. The songs tell about love relationships and life lessons. We leave you now with the title song from the album, “Everything’s OK.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A New Chief for the Securities and Exchange Commission
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington was created in nineteen thirty-four to protect investors. The S.E.C. enforces laws and rules that govern financial markets. Last week, its chairman, William Donaldson, announced that he will resign at the end of June. President Bush quickly named a replacement for approval by the Senate. He nominated California Representative Christopher Cox. The president calls him "a champion of the free-enterprise system."? He also says Mister Cox "knows that a free economy is built on trust."? Mister Cox has strong support from business groups. He supported legislation, for example, to make it more difficult for investors to bring legal actions against companies. Mister Cox was first elected to Congress in nineteen eighty-eight. December 10, 2002: President Bush announces his nomination of William Donaldson to head the SEC.William Donaldson is a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. He became chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission in February of two thousand three. At that time, public trust in the markets had been weakened. Big companies like the energy trader Enron had cheated investors. The commission had to develop rules to meet new requirements from Congress. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of two thousand two. The law added responsibilities for top officials of companies that sell stock publicly. Now, chief executives and chief financial officers must confirm financial results. Companies must have controls to protect against mistakes and wrongdoing. Another rule requires investors to receive the best stock price possible. The agency has also increased rules on mutual funds and hedge funds. Mutual funds make many different investments. Mutual funds often pay other companies to supervise their investments. The agency acted to require that most top officials of such funds be independent of the management company. Hedge funds are similar to mutual funds, but are designed for big investors. Advisers to large hedge funds will now have to be known to the S.E.C. The five-member commission has two Democrats and three Republicans, including Mister Donaldson. Critics of the chairman said his actions were often too restrictive on business. Yet Mister Donaldson says the last two and one-half years may well be remembered as the most productive period in the agency's history. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: G-8 Nations Move to Cancel Debt of Poorest Countries
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Hopes grew all week for a plan to cancel the debt of some of the world's poorest countries. On Friday, Britain's finance minister said he expected the Group of Eight nations to reach an agreement. Gordon Brown said the debt cancellation plan would be the largest ever. But Mister Brown also said much remains to be discussed. The treasury chief commented as Group of Eight finance ministers gathered in London for two days of talks. G-Eight leaders will meet July sixth through the eighth in Scotland. Two major issues to discuss are Africa and climate change. British officials said the plan would cancel the debt of eighteen countries at first. Officials say the plan could help close to forty countries in all. The Group of Eight countries are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia. They have disagreed about how best to deal with the huge debts owed by poor countries. Some G-Eight members have proposed not to cancel debts, but to suspend repayments. Another issue is how to pay for debt cancellation. British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with President Bush in Washington this week. They said Britain and the United States were close to agreement on a proposal for the G-Eight. Mister Bush said it would cancel one hundred percent of the debt of "highly indebted developing countries that are on the path to reform."? He said additional resources provided would protect the financial security of the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Mister Bush said American aid to Africa south of the Sahara is three times higher than it was four years ago. He said America now provides nearly one-fourth of all aid to that area, and wants to do more in the future. The president announced more than six hundred seventy million dollars in aid for Africa. The extra assistance is to help feed an estimated fourteen million people at risk of starving in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Somalia and Djibouti are also expected to receive extra aid. But Mister Bush said no developed nation wants to give money to dishonest governments that do not take an interest in their people. Nor is there interest, he says, in supporting governments that do not have open economies and open markets. Mister Bush said aid helps. But, in his words, "many African nations have come to discover that through trade, they can develop a more hopeful society." Tony Blair wants wealthy countries to increase aid to Africa by one hundred percent over the next five years. Britain is president of the Group of Eight this year. The prime minister has made fighting disease and poverty in Africa major goals. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: George Gershwin: More of the Life and Music of One of America's Great Songwriters
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we continue our report about the life and music of one of America's greatest composers, George Gershwin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As we reported last week, George Gershwin published his first song when he was just eighteen years old. During the next twenty years, until his death, he wrote more than five hundred more songs. He also wrote an opera, and music for piano and orchestra. Many of George Gershwin's songs were first written for musical plays performed in theaters in New York City. These comedies, with plenty of songs, were a popular form of entertainment in the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties. One of Gershwin's musical plays, "Girl Crazy," introduced a young singer named Ethel Merman. She became one of the most celebrated performers in America. In the play, Ethel Merman sang a song George Gershwin wrote just for her. It was called "I Got Rhythm. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many songs that George Gershwin wrote for musical plays and movies have remained as popular as ever. Over the years, they have been sung and played in every possible way -- from jazz to country. ? One example is the song, "Someone to Watch Over Me."? It was written for the nineteen twenty-six musical "Oh, Kay!"? Here is a modern version of the song, sung by Willie Nelson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen twenties, there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In nineteen twenty-four, jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. George Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized how little time he had to do it. The concert was just a few weeks away. Gershwin got busy. And, in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra. He called it "Rhapsody in Blue." VOICE TWO: Gershwin himself played the piano part of "Rhapsody in Blue" at the concert. The audience included some of the greatest classical musicians of the time. When they heard his music, they were electrified. It seemed to capture, for the first time, the true voice of modern American culture. Today, we can still hear Gershwin playing "Rhapsody in Blue." An old mechanical piano recording has been reproduced exactly on this recording. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Rhapsody in Blue" made George Gershwin famous all over the world. Several hundred thousand copies of the printed music sold immediately. Gershwin was satisfied that he had shown that jazz music could be both serious and popular. Gershwin also wrote an opera, "Porgy and Bess. " It was based on a book by DuBose Heyward. It is a tragic love story about black Americans along the coast of South Carolina. "Porgy And Bess" opened in Boston, Massachusetts, in nineteen thirty-five. Audiences loved it. But most critics did not know what to think of it. It was not like any other opera or musical play they had ever seen. Gershwin was not affected by the critics' opinions. He believed some of his greatest music had gone into the opera. He said he had created a new musical form -- an opera based on popular culture. Here is the song "Summertime" from a later production of “Porgy and Bess” in nineteen fifty-two. Leontyne Price, who played Bess, sings the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another well-known Gershwin piece is "An American in Paris. " It is a long tone poem for orchestra. Its first public performance was by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in nineteen twenty-eight. Here is a modern recording from “An American in Paris.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Once again, opinion was mixed. Most people loved "An American in Paris," as they loved all of Gershwin's music. Some critics liked it, too. They called it happy and full of life. Others hated it. They called it silly and long-winded. Still, it remains one of his most popular works. VOICE TWO: George Gershwin died in nineteen thirty-seven, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. Everyone mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have written. George Gershwin is still considered one of America's greatest composers. His works still are performed by many singers and groups. They are probably performed more often than any other serious American composer. VOICE ONE: Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg was one of the people who praised George Gershwin. Schoenberg said Gershwin was a man who lived in music and expressed everything through music, because music was his native language. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Report Criticizes 14 Countries on Human Trafficking
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. For the fifth year, the State Department in Washington has released its Trafficking in Persons Report. The report rates the efforts of countries to fight modern-day slavery. Fourteen countries get the lowest ratings this year. Among them are Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica and Kuwait. The others are North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Congress requires the yearly report under a law called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of Two Thousand. The reports are based on information from American diplomats as well as non-governmental organizations and other groups. One hundred fifty nations are examined in the report this year. Countries are divided into three groups, or tiers. Tier One means that a country fully meets the requirements of the law. Tier Two countries do not meet the standards fully, but are working to improve. Guyana and Bangladesh are two nations this year that moved up to Tier Two. Tier Three countries face possible restrictions in American aid or other measures. That could happen to the fourteen countries if they do not make changes by the end of September. John Miller heads the anti-trafficking office at the State Department. Ambassador Miller says only a small number of countries have faced action. He says the goal of the report is not to punish, but to get nations to improve. The report says the United States provided ninety-six million dollars in foreign aid last year to deal with the problem. In fact, Mister Miller said one country, Ecuador, has already taken steps since the report was put together. Lawmakers approved changes in Ecuador's criminal laws. The United States is not rated in the study. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States is dealing with its own trafficking problem. Mister Miller estimates that each year almost fifteen thousand people are brought to the United States. The report estimates that as many as eight hundred thousand people are trafficked across international borders each year. Millions of others are moved within countries. Trafficking victims are often forced into labor or the sex trade. Experts say about half of all victims are children. Many are sold by their own families. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Life for Many Grandparents Not All Fun and Games
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. A grandmother wants to show a friend some pictures of her one-year-old grandson. The friend is happy to look. She looks at pictures of the little boy playing. She looks at pictures of him sleeping, smiling, laughing, crying, putting food in his hair. After fifteen minutes of this, the friend does not look so happy anymore. VOICE ONE: But who can get angry at a proud grandparent?? In fact, our program this week is all about grandparents. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some children get to see their grandparents all year. The grandparents live close enough to come watch the children play sports or perform in a school play. For other children, the only chance they might get to spend much time with their grandparents is during summer, when school is out. Many Americans live far away from their grandparents. Suzy Karpel, a school mental-health specialist, deplores this fact of modern life. Miz Karpel says she often sees families that could use the advice and support of grandparents. She says this is true especially when problems develop. Then parents might wish most that they had a helpful grandparent nearby. VOICE ONE: Grandparents have already gone through the daily cares and worries of raising children. Now those children have grown up and have their own kids to worry about. Yet many grandparents in the United States have to take a major part in caring for their grandchildren. The research organization RAND says that at any one time, ten percent of grandparents live only with a grandchild. RAND says four million children in the United States live with their grandparents. But two-and-one-half-million of them also have at least one of their parents in the same home. These children represent around four percent of all grandchildren. RAND researchers say this percentage has not changed much in recent years. But the numbers have grown with increases in the number of young people in the United States. VOICE TWO: Nearly one-and-one-half million children live with their grandparents only. This is two percent of all grandchildren. The Rand researchers say this rate has increased in recent years, but not by much. It had been decreasing from nineteen forty through the nineteen eighties. RAND says African American children are more likely than others to live with their grandparents. The researchers report that about eight percent of black children live with their parents and grandparents. Almost six percent live only with their grandparents. The researchers say black grandmothers historically have played a more important part in child raising than white grandmothers. The researchers add that higher poverty rates among minority families may also help explain these numbers. VOICE ONE: Some grandparents who care for their grandchildren have legal custody. This means that they are legally responsible for raising the children. Other grandparents take care of their grandchildren full time, but do not have legal control. In some cases, one or both parents also stay in the grandparents' home but are unable to care for their children. There are different reasons that grandparents may become caretakers for their grandchildren. In some cases, the parents are dead, or on drugs, or in jail. Or they mistreated their children. Some grandparents take care of their grandchildren only during the day. This is so one or both of the parents can work or attend school. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mental health specialists say there is no way to know how children will feel living with their grandparents. Some feel happy and secure. Others mourn the loss of the family situation they had before. They might not want to listen to their grandparents or do what the grandparents tell them. VOICE ONE: Grandparents can also face other problems. In some cases, even if they receive public aid, they may struggle to support their grandchildren. Grandparents with jobs may have to find additional child care. And there are other considerations. Grandparents who are responsible for young children might not have the energy to take care of them. Health is an issue. What if the grandparents die?? Then who would take care of the children? VOICE TWO: Social workers say many grandparents who care for their children’s children feel lonely. They may not have anyone to talk to about the children’s health or schoolwork or the normal problems of growing up. A program in Dorchester, Massachusetts, helps caretaker grandparents deal with situations like these. The program is called GrandFamilies House. Grandparents and their grandchildren live together in apartments. Most of the grandparents are women. VOICE ONE: A place like GrandFamilies House helps keep families together. A GrandFamilies official says the grandparents are glad to be able to keep their grandchildren out of foster care. Foster care is a system in which government agencies place children in temporary homes or emergency shelters. The idea behind GrandFamilies is spreading. In New York, public and private organizations have developed a similar housing program. It is called Presbyterian Senior Services Grandparent Family Apartments. There are fifty such apartments in a new building. It was built just for this purpose. The building is in one of the poorest areas of the city, the Morrisania community in the South Bronx. New York City has eighty-five thousand households in which grandparents are the main caretakers of children. More than seventeen thousand of them are in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs in America's largest city. Services at the Grandparent Family Apartments include after-school help with studies and Internet use for young and old alike. VOICE TWO: Some grandparents in the United States never see their grandchildren. Sometimes this happens after a mother and father are no longer married, or one parent dies. Or there may have been a conflict between the parents and the grandparents. Courts in some states have decided that grandparents have no legal right to visit their grandchildren without permission. Other states make it possible to ask a court for visitation rights. But a group called the Grandparents Rights Organization says even then it is not easy for grandparents to win. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day. There is also a Grandparents Day. It was established in nineteen seventy-eight. Grandparents Day is observed in September. Some families gather for a special meal. Others telephone or send gifts or cards or an e-mail to grandparents far away. VOICE TWO: AARP, the organization formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons, has an area for grandparents on its Web site. The resources include some suggested books on grandparenting. These are books with names like "The Grandparent Guide: The Definitive Guide to Coping with the Challenges of Modern Grandparenting."? And, "The Don't Sweat Guide for Grandparents: Making the Most of Your Time with Your Grandchildren."? Still another is called "The Nanas and the Papas: A Boomers' Guide to Grandparenting."? Boomers are Americans who were born during the big population increase -- the baby boom -- in the years after World War Two. As they grew up, they listened to the music of groups like the Mamas and the Papas. Now, many are mamas and papas with children old enough to have babies of their own. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Kelvin Fowler. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Our e-mail address is special at voanews.com Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: When the Sun Is No Fun, How to Beat the Heat
* Byline: Written by Oliver Chanler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some health problems linked to extreme heat. And we tell about what you can do to prevent and treat these problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Floods, storms and other terrible natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. Health experts say that since the year nineteen hundred, extremely hot weather has killed more people in the United States than any other natural event. One year -- the unusually hot summer of nineteen eighty -- heat caused about one thousand seven hundred deaths in the United States. In nineteen ninety-five, more than six hundred people died in a similar heat wave in one city -- Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: To measure extreme heat, government weather experts have developed the Mean Heat Index. It measures the average of how hot it felt all day on an extremely hot day. Experts say it is the total heat of a hot day or several hot days that can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become deadly when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes intense stress on the human body. Doctors say there are many things people can do to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. They say to stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink large amounts of cool water. Wear loose clothes made of light-colored, natural materials. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. There are many causes for heat stress. These include hard work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is much more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE TWO: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors say severe heat also increases problems for very small children, older people and people suffering the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood circulation, nervousness or depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. It is a process during which the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. The person’s ability to work and think becomes sharply limited. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a fast heartbeat, breathing problems, headache, chest pain and a general feeling of sickness. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious. Doctors say that if the body temperature goes higher than forty-two degrees Celsius, the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say treatment should begin immediately or the person could die before medical help arrives. VOICE TWO: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Then, take off the person’s clothes. Pour water over the victim’s body. And put pieces of ice in areas where blood vessels are close to the skin. These areas include the neck and under the arms. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water also is needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water each day to replace all the body water lost in urine and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cold liquids is best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. However, researchers say that sweet drinks are not good to drink in hot weather. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through urine. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking lots of cool water, doctors say there are other things to do to protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, light-weight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. And when possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. If possible, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Health experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some health problems linked to extreme heat. And we tell about what you can do to prevent and treat these problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Floods, storms and other terrible natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. Health experts say that since the year nineteen hundred, extremely hot weather has killed more people in the United States than any other natural event. One year -- the unusually hot summer of nineteen eighty -- heat caused about one thousand seven hundred deaths in the United States. In nineteen ninety-five, more than six hundred people died in a similar heat wave in one city -- Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: To measure extreme heat, government weather experts have developed the Mean Heat Index. It measures the average of how hot it felt all day on an extremely hot day. Experts say it is the total heat of a hot day or several hot days that can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become deadly when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes intense stress on the human body. Doctors say there are many things people can do to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. They say to stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink large amounts of cool water. Wear loose clothes made of light-colored, natural materials. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. There are many causes for heat stress. These include hard work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is much more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE TWO: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors say severe heat also increases problems for very small children, older people and people suffering the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood circulation, nervousness or depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. It is a process during which the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. The person’s ability to work and think becomes sharply limited. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a fast heartbeat, breathing problems, headache, chest pain and a general feeling of sickness. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious. Doctors say that if the body temperature goes higher than forty-two degrees Celsius, the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say treatment should begin immediately or the person could die before medical help arrives. VOICE TWO: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Then, take off the person’s clothes. Pour water over the victim’s body. And put pieces of ice in areas where blood vessels are close to the skin. These areas include the neck and under the arms. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water also is needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water each day to replace all the body water lost in urine and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cold liquids is best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. However, researchers say that sweet drinks are not good to drink in hot weather. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through urine. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking lots of cool water, doctors say there are other things to do to protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, light-weight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. And when possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. If possible, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Health experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/a-2005-06-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: June 8, 2005 - Hawaiian Language, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Today on Wordmaster, Rosanne Skirble travels a long distance in the United States for a lesson in an endangered language. RS: Hawaii is far from home: A 12-hour plane ride from Washington, D.C., to Honolulu across six time zones. I was greeted at the airport with the Hawaiian word aloha and given a special flower garland called a lei. Today on Wordmaster, Rosanne Skirble travels a long distance in the United States for a lesson in an endangered language. RS: Hawaii is far from home: A 12-hour plane ride from Washington, D.C., to Honolulu across six time zones. I was greeted at the airport with the Hawaiian word aloha and given a special flower garland called a lei. It took a lot longer for the islands’ original settlers to get here. Those Polynesian mariners sailed their double-hulled canoes from the South Pacific to these ancient volcanic islands hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived. Hawaiian was strictly an oral language when Captain James Cook landed here in 1778. Subsequent waves of missionaries brought the printing press and wrote down the language. Native monarchs ruled Hawaii until it was annexed by the United States in 1898. Afterward, English named the official language for school and government. Today scarcely 1 percent of Hawaiians, or approximately 1,000 people, speak Hawaiian as their first language. But a cultural renaissance which began in the 1970s has promoted change. Public schools, community colleges and the university now teach Hawaiian. Leilani Basham is the coordinator of the Hawaiian language program at the University of Hawaii, where nearly 1,400 students are taking Hawaiian language courses. (Photos - Rosanne Skirble) It took a lot longer for the islands’ original settlers to get here. Those Polynesian mariners sailed their double-hulled canoes from the South Pacific to these ancient volcanic islands hundreds of years before the Europeans arrived. Hawaiian was strictly an oral language when Captain James Cook landed here in 1778. Subsequent waves of missionaries brought the printing press and wrote down the language. Native monarchs ruled Hawaii until it was annexed by the United States in 1898. Afterward, English named the official language for school and government. Today scarcely 1 percent of Hawaiians, or approximately 1,000 people, speak Hawaiian as their first language. But a cultural renaissance which began in the 1970s has promoted change. Public schools, community colleges and the university now teach Hawaiian. Leilani Basham is the coordinator of the Hawaiian language program at the University of Hawaii, where nearly 1,400 students are taking Hawaiian language courses. Ms. Basham, for whom Hawaiian is a second language, points out that Hawaiian has a really tiny alphabet, just 12 letters: five vowels, seven consonants and a backwards apostrophe called an okina that works as a consonant. I asked her why the words are so long. LEILANI BASHAM: “Actually they are not that long, but what you find is that there is a combination of several words, which make a long word. I am sure driving around, street names, that’s a very obvious one. For instance, when I gave you directions to come here, the street name Kapiolani is long. How many -– 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 letters, I think, if you include the okina, which often doesn’t get included in there. But it is really comprised of three words: ka meaning ‘the,’ and a ‘pio’ is an arching symbol, the arch of a rainbow, and ‘lani’ means heaven and it is also a reference to royalty. Kapiolani is the name of one of our queens." Leilani Basham says English as spoken in Hawaii has adopted many native words. The most common is aloha. LEILANI BASHAM: “Actually the word aloha is a description of affection, love, respect for another person. But when I first see someone for the day, and I say aloha, I am saying I have love, respect and affection for you. It’s not the equivalent of the English word hello.” What are some other words I need to get along in Hawaiian? LEILANI BASHAM: "Another one is mahalo. Mahalo means thank you, but it is actually an expression of admiration for someone. So there is aloha, mahalo and then pau. And pau means that something's finished, that you're done with it.” SKIRBLE: “How do you spell it?” LEILANI BASHAM: “P-A-U, pau." SKIRBLE: “In the context of?” LEILANI BASHAM: “Are you pau? Are you finished eating? Are we pau with this interview? Are you pau with your homework? Are you pau with your telephone conversation?” Leilani Basham says Hawaiian courses are gaining enrollment. But I ask - with just 1,000 native speakers – and most of them elderly – what can she reasonably expect from her students? LEILANI BASHAM: “My real hope would be able to live in my native homeland, in Hawaii, and go to different places -- any place really -- and have people there who speak Hawaiian – enough of a percentage (that) you can go to a restaurant and there are people there who speak Hawaiian. When I first started taking Hawaiian (lessons), people used to ask me -- in Hawaii -- what language I was speaking, which is an indication that people don’t hear Hawaiian spoken and don’t recognize it. It’s not like a normal part of their day. I haven’t been asked that question in quite a bit of time." SKIRBLE: “So today, what value do people place on the Hawaiian language?” LEILANI BASHAM: “It's essential for our life and the life of our people, and we recognize that this generation -- my generation and younger generations -- that language and knowledge of language is a core factor. It is not just about living in the past. It is about creating these things and bringing them into our present and our future. That body of knowledge is still there, and we need to try to reclaim it and revive it and make it live again.” Leilani Basham coordinates the Hawaiian Language Program in the Department of Pacific Languages and Literature at the University of Hawaii. Next week on Wordmaster we visit a school where children are immersed in the language and culture of Hawaii. Until then, you can brush up on your American English by logging on to the Wordmaster archive at www.voanews.com/wordmaster, or jot us an e-mail to Wordmaster@voanews.com. “Mahalo,” thanks for listening. I'm Rosanne Skirble. Ms. Basham, for whom Hawaiian is a second language, points out that Hawaiian has a really tiny alphabet, just 12 letters: five vowels, seven consonants and a backwards apostrophe called an okina that works as a consonant. I asked her why the words are so long. LEILANI BASHAM: “Actually they are not that long, but what you find is that there is a combination of several words, which make a long word. I am sure driving around, street names, that’s a very obvious one. For instance, when I gave you directions to come here, the street name Kapiolani is long. How many -– 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 letters, I think, if you include the okina, which often doesn’t get included in there. But it is really comprised of three words: ka meaning ‘the,’ and a ‘pio’ is an arching symbol, the arch of a rainbow, and ‘lani’ means heaven and it is also a reference to royalty. Kapiolani is the name of one of our queens." Leilani Basham says English as spoken in Hawaii has adopted many native words. The most common is aloha. LEILANI BASHAM: “Actually the word aloha is a description of affection, love, respect for another person. But when I first see someone for the day, and I say aloha, I am saying I have love, respect and affection for you. It’s not the equivalent of the English word hello.” What are some other words I need to get along in Hawaiian? LEILANI BASHAM: "Another one is mahalo. Mahalo means thank you, but it is actually an expression of admiration for someone. So there is aloha, mahalo and then pau. And pau means that something's finished, that you're done with it.” SKIRBLE: “How do you spell it?” LEILANI BASHAM: “P-A-U, pau." SKIRBLE: “In the context of?” LEILANI BASHAM: “Are you pau? Are you finished eating? Are we pau with this interview? Are you pau with your homework? Are you pau with your telephone conversation?” Leilani Basham says Hawaiian courses are gaining enrollment. But I ask - with just 1,000 native speakers – and most of them elderly – what can she reasonably expect from her students? LEILANI BASHAM: “My real hope would be able to live in my native homeland, in Hawaii, and go to different places -- any place really -- and have people there who speak Hawaiian – enough of a percentage (that) you can go to a restaurant and there are people there who speak Hawaiian. When I first started taking Hawaiian (lessons), people used to ask me -- in Hawaii -- what language I was speaking, which is an indication that people don’t hear Hawaiian spoken and don’t recognize it. It’s not like a normal part of their day. I haven’t been asked that question in quite a bit of time." SKIRBLE: “So today, what value do people place on the Hawaiian language?” LEILANI BASHAM: “It's essential for our life and the life of our people, and we recognize that this generation -- my generation and younger generations -- that language and knowledge of language is a core factor. It is not just about living in the past. It is about creating these things and bringing them into our present and our future. That body of knowledge is still there, and we need to try to reclaim it and revive it and make it live again.” Leilani Basham coordinates the Hawaiian Language Program in the Department of Pacific Languages and Literature at the University of Hawaii. Next week on Wordmaster we visit a school where children are immersed in the language and culture of Hawaii. Until then, you can brush up on your American English by logging on to the Wordmaster archive at www.voanews.com/wordmaster, or jot us an e-mail to Wordmaster@voanews.com. “Mahalo,” thanks for listening. I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/a-2005-06-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: June 15, 2005 - Hawaiian Language, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Today on Wordmaster, Rosanne Skirble takes us to a school in America’s Pacific island state, Hawaii, where students are immersed in the Hawaiian language and culture. RS: Students at Anuenue (ah-new-new) Hawaiian Immersion School in Honolulu straddle two worlds. At home they speak English. In school, from gym class to the science lab, they speak Hawaiian. They also learn Hawaiian chants and the ancient Hawaiian art of conflict resolution. Baba Yim Today on Wordmaster, Rosanne Skirble takes us to a school in America’s Pacific island state, Hawaii, where students are immersed in the Hawaiian language and culture. RS: Students at Anuenue (ah-new-new) Hawaiian Immersion School in Honolulu straddle two worlds. At home they speak English. In school, from gym class to the science lab, they speak Hawaiian. They also learn Hawaiian chants and the ancient Hawaiian art of conflict resolution. On this day we find a class of sixth graders outdoors in the taro field. Taro - the root crop brought here long ago by migrating Polynesians - is a staple in Hawaii. They believed it was the plant form of the great god Kane - the giver of life. The teacher for this agrarian lesson is Baba Yim, who learned Hawaiian as a second language in college. BABA YIM: “Every week we take part of our morning on Wednesday – about two hours or so – and take care of the taro patch down here and just clean up the leaves that fall and we make sure that the water is running. We take water from the river up there and we return it to the stream down here. They can see the importance of taking care of the whole stream because we take water from a stream that comes from somewhere else. But when we return it back to the stream it is actually cleaner than when we got it.” RS: “What do you like about working with the students in Hawaiian in the taro patch?” Kanani On this day we find a class of sixth graders outdoors in the taro field. Taro - the root crop brought here long ago by migrating Polynesians - is a staple in Hawaii. They believed it was the plant form of the great god Kane - the giver of life. The teacher for this agrarian lesson is Baba Yim, who learned Hawaiian as a second language in college. BABA YIM: “Every week we take part of our morning on Wednesday – about two hours or so – and take care of the taro patch down here and just clean up the leaves that fall and we make sure that the water is running. We take water from the river up there and we return it to the stream down here. They can see the importance of taking care of the whole stream because we take water from a stream that comes from somewhere else. But when we return it back to the stream it is actually cleaner than when we got it.” RS: “What do you like about working with the students in Hawaiian in the taro patch?” BABA YIM: “For me it is more like family. It is more of a life than a job. It is not just one child “kiki” who goes here. (We have) brothers, sisters and cousins – big extended families throughout our school.” Students in this 6th grade English class feel the same way. Thirteen year-old Kanani says the corridors of her school are like her home. KANANI: “I came to this school because I wanted to learn more about who I really am and how I became a Hawaiian and my family and stuff and who are my ancestors.” RS: “And, are you getting some answers to those questions.” KANANI: “Yes, I am. I’ve learned that my people stick up for themselves. They have a lot of (ethical) rules that all Hawaiians follow and it is like we are all a family.” RS: "How about you? What do you think that you are learning in this school?” Charles Naumu BABA YIM: “For me it is more like family. It is more of a life than a job. It is not just one child “kiki” who goes here. (We have) brothers, sisters and cousins – big extended families throughout our school.” Students in this 6th grade English class feel the same way. Thirteen year-old Kanani says the corridors of her school are like her home. KANANI: “I came to this school because I wanted to learn more about who I really am and how I became a Hawaiian and my family and stuff and who are my ancestors.” RS: “And, are you getting some answers to those questions.” KANANI: “Yes, I am. I’ve learned that my people stick up for themselves. They have a lot of (ethical) rules that all Hawaiians follow and it is like we are all a family.” RS: "How about you? What do you think that you are learning in this school?” SECOND STUDENT: “I’m learning that there are different chiefs in the Hawaiian nation and they teach us things they mostly don’t know at other schools.” KANANI: “Other schools, they only talk about English (non-native) people. They don’t talk about Hawaiian people.” RS: “How do you think this language and culture is going to make a difference for you as you grow up?” KANANI: “At least when we grow up we will know who we really are, not like some people who forget who they really are.” Only one thousand native Hawaiians -- or less than 1 percent of the population -- speak Hawaiian as their first language. Native monarchs ruled Hawaii until it was annexed by the United States in 1898. At that time English was named the official language for school and government and Hawaiian was abandoned. The immersion school is part of a cultural renaissance, which began in the 1970s to revitalize Hawaiian traditions. Today, fourteen hundred students are enrolled in 22 public school immersion programs in Hawaii. Some, like the Anuenue program, are conducted school-wide, while others operate as an intensive course within the school curriculum. Anuenue Principal Charles Naumu says English is not taught as a separate subject in the immersion school until grade five. CHARLES NAUMU: “And we are held to the same standards as a student who has had English for five years in a regular school setting.” RS: “How are you doing in a general sense with students who have graduated from this program? CHARLES NAUMU: “We feel that our students do as well as or better in test results as students in a comparable public school.” RS: “So what, at the end of the day, are your expectations for students who go through this school?” CHARLES NAUMU: “We are preparing them to remember who they are, to have a positive self-image and to be a contributing member of the society, whether it be here in Hawaii or any place else throughout the world.” Kalehua Grug from the University of Hawaii prepares new teachers to work in immersion programs. Watching the basketball game from a grassy hill overlooking the school playground, he says these students – unlike those in Spanish or French immersion programs – are helping to revive their own language. KALEHUA GRUG: “And so the kids, without even knowing it, are giving back to our entire “lahuii,” our entire race of people.” Kalehua Grug hopes that their success builds bridges between cultures at home and elsewhere around the globe. For more about Anuenue School you can log on to the Wordmaster website at www.voanews.com/Wordmaster. Or write to us at word@voanews.com. I'm Rosanne Skirble. SECOND STUDENT: “I’m learning that there are different chiefs in the Hawaiian nation and they teach us things they mostly don’t know at other schools.” KANANI: “Other schools, they only talk about English (non-native) people. They don’t talk about Hawaiian people.” RS: “How do you think this language and culture is going to make a difference for you as you grow up?” KANANI: “At least when we grow up we will know who we really are, not like some people who forget who they really are.” Only one thousand native Hawaiians -- or less than 1 percent of the population -- speak Hawaiian as their first language. Native monarchs ruled Hawaii until it was annexed by the United States in 1898. At that time English was named the official language for school and government and Hawaiian was abandoned. The immersion school is part of a cultural renaissance, which began in the 1970s to revitalize Hawaiian traditions. Today, fourteen hundred students are enrolled in 22 public school immersion programs in Hawaii. Some, like the Anuenue program, are conducted school-wide, while others operate as an intensive course within the school curriculum. Anuenue Principal Charles Naumu says English is not taught as a separate subject in the immersion school until grade five. CHARLES NAUMU: “And we are held to the same standards as a student who has had English for five years in a regular school setting.” RS: “How are you doing in a general sense with students who have graduated from this program? CHARLES NAUMU: “We feel that our students do as well as or better in test results as students in a comparable public school.” RS: “So what, at the end of the day, are your expectations for students who go through this school?” CHARLES NAUMU: “We are preparing them to remember who they are, to have a positive self-image and to be a contributing member of the society, whether it be here in Hawaii or any place else throughout the world.” Kalehua Grug from the University of Hawaii prepares new teachers to work in immersion programs. Watching the basketball game from a grassy hill overlooking the school playground, he says these students – unlike those in Spanish or French immersion programs – are helping to revive their own language. KALEHUA GRUG: “And so the kids, without even knowing it, are giving back to our entire “lahuii,” our entire race of people.” Kalehua Grug hopes that their success builds bridges between cultures at home and elsewhere around the globe. For more about Anuenue School you can log on to the Wordmaster website at www.voanews.com/Wordmaster. Or write to us at word@voanews.com. I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Seeks to Increase Ocean Fish Farming
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Most fish farming involves freshwater fish. Eighty-five percent of aquaculture in the United States is done in rivers and lakes. Production at sea mostly involves shellfish harvested close to shore. But a proposed American law could greatly increase ocean aquaculture. It would permit fish farming up to three hundred twenty kilometers from shore. The bill is called the National Offshore Aquaculture Act of two thousand five. The administration of President Bush sent the measure to Congress on June seventh. Fishing laws limit the size and time of year of harvests. The proposed changes would define aquaculture harvesting as something other than fishing. The secretary of commerce would gain the power to sell ten-year permits to operate ocean farms. Production would take place within waters called the Exclusive Economic Zone. Foreign companies could buy the permits if they have an American business agent. The secretary could also establish environmental requirements if existing ones are not enough. Some experts say more fish farming could help wild populations recover from over-fishing. But critics say strong rules are needed so fish farms do not threaten the environment or wild fish populations. Fishermen's groups worry about possible effects on traditional fisheries. Pollution is a concern. Also, farmed fish can escape into wild populations. And farmed fish are fed wild-caught fish. Conrad Lautenbacher heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Commerce Department. He says the goal is to balance the needs of fishermen, coastal areas, seafood consumers, the environment and the aquaculture industry. Demand for seafood is increasing. There are strong economic reasons for the United States to increase its aquaculture operations. The nation imports about seventy percent of its seafood, much of it farm-raised. The National Marine Fisheries Service says the seafood trade deficit is eight thousand million dollars. Internationally, the ocean aquaculture industry is growing. Fish such as cod, flounder and even tuna are being raised. These fish bring higher prices than more commonly farmed seafood. The most commonly farmed fish is the carp. And the world's biggest aquaculture producer is China. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part Two
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER:? Now, the VOA Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Last week we brought you the first of four programs called? “A Princess of Mars.”?? Our story is from a series of books by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. They are science fiction stories, a mix of imagination and science. Last week, we met John Carter who begins the story. He enters a cave deep in the desert in the state of? Arizona. There something happens. He does not know how, but he has been transported to the Red Planet, Mars. He quickly learns that gravity on Mars is much less than on Earth. The lack of gravity makes him very strong. He can even jump very high without trying. He finds a low wall that surrounds a group of eggs. The eggs are opening. Out come small, fierce-looking green creatures. When we left John Carter, a green adult creature carrying a long sharp spear was coming toward him. And now, the second program in our series,? “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? The creature with the spear was huge. There were many other similar creatures. They had ridden behind me on the backs of large animals. Each of them carried a collection of strange-looking weapons. The one with the large spear got down from the back of his animal and began walking toward me. He was almost five meters tall and a dark green color. Huge teeth stuck out of his face, and his expression showed much hate and violence. I immediately knew I was facing a terrible warrior. He began moving quickly toward me with the spear. I was completely unarmed. I could not fight. My only chance was to escape. I used all my strength to jump away from him. I was able to jump almost thirty meters. The green Martian stopped and watched my effort. I would learn later that the look on his face showed complete surprise. The creatures gathered and talked among themselves. While they talked, I thought about running away. However, I noticed several of them carried devices that looked very much like rifles. I could not run. Soon, all but one of the creatures moved away. The one who had threatened me stayed. He slowly took off a metal band from his arm and held it out to me. He spoke in a strange language. (SOUND) JOHN CARTER:? Slowly, he laid down his weapons. I thought this would have been a sign of peace anywhere on Earth…why not on Mars, too?? I walked toward him and in a normal voice announced my name and said I had come in peace. I knew he did not understand, but like me, he took it to mean that I meant no harm. Slowly, we came together. He gave me the large metal band that had been around his arm. He turned and made signs with his hands that I should follow him. Soon we arrived at the large animal he had been riding. He again made a sign with his hands that I should ride on the same animal behind him. The group turned and began riding across the land. We moved quickly toward mountains in the distance. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? The large animals we rode moved quickly across the land. I could tell from the surrounding mountains that we were on the bottom of a long dead sea. In time we came to a huge city. At first I thought the city was empty. The buildings all were empty and in poor repair. But soon I saw hundreds of the green warriors. I also saw green women and children. I soon learned about many cities like this. The cities were built hundreds of years ago by a people that no longer existed. The green Martians used the cities. They moved from one empty city to another, never stopping for more than a day or two. We got down from our animals and walked into a large building. We entered a room that was filled with fierce green warriors. (SOUND) It was not difficult to tell that these were the leaders of the green Martians. One of them took hold of my arm. He shook me and lifted me off the ground. He laughed when he did so. I was to learn that green Martians only laugh at the pain or suffering of others. This huge warrior threw me to the ground and then took hold of my arm again to pick me up. I did the only thing I could do. I hit him with my closed fist as hard as I could. (SOUND) The green warrior fell to the floor and did not move. The others in the room grew silent. I had knocked down one of their warriors with only my hand. I moved away from him and prepared to defend myself as best I could. But they did not move. The green Martian that had captured me walked toward me. He said in a clear voice: TARS TARKAS:? "TARS TARKAS -- TARS TARKAS.” JOHN CARTER:? As he spoke, he pointed to his own chest. He was telling me his name!? I pointed to my chest and said my name, “John Carter.”? He turned and said the word, “Sola.”? Immediately, a green Martian woman came close. He spoke to her. She led me to another building and into a large room. The room was filled with equipment carried by the green Martians. She prepared something for me to eat. I was very hungry. I pointed to her and said the word “Sola.”? She pointed at me and said my name. It was a beginning. Sola was my guard. She also became my teacher. In time she would become a close and valued friend. As I ate my meal, my lessons in the language of the green Martians continued. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? Two days later, Tars Tarkas came to my room. He carried the weapons and the metal armbands the green warriors wear. He put them on the ground near my feet. Sola told him I now understood some of their language. He turned to me and spoke slowly. TARS TARKAS:? The warrior you hit is dead. His weapons and the metal of his rank are yours, John Carter. He was a leader of one small group among our people. Because you have killed him, you now are a leader. You are still a captive and not free to leave. However you will be treated with the respect you have earned. You are now a warrior among our people. JOHN CARTER:? Tars Tarkas turned and spoke softly. From beyond the door a strange creature entered the room. It was bigger than a large dog and very ugly. It had rows of long teeth and ten very short legs. Tars Tarkas spoke to the creature and pointed at me. He left. The creature looked at me, watching closely. Then Sola spoke about the creature. SOLA:? His name is Woola. The men of our tribe use them in hunting and war. He has been told to guard and protect you. He has also been told to prevent your escape. There is no faster creature in our world. And in a fight they can kill very quickly. Do not try to escape, John Carter. Woola will tear you to small pieces. JOHN CARTER:? I continued to watch the creature named Woola. I had already seen how the green Martians treated other animals. They were very cruel. I thought, perhaps this beast can be taught to be my friend…much like a dog on Earth. I walked close to the creature and began speaking in much the same way I would speak to a dog or other animal on Earth. I sat down next to him while I talked softly. At first he seemed confused. I believe the creature Woola had never heard a kind word. For the next several days I gained the trust and friendship of Woola. In a few short days Woola was my friend and fierce protector. He would remain my loyal friend as long as I was on Mars. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? Several days later, Sola came to me with a look of great concern. SOLA:? John Carter…come with me. A great battle is about to take place. An enemy is coming near this city. We must prepare to fight and we must be ready to flee. JOHN CARTER:? Sola, what enemy is this?? SOLA:? A race of red men who travel our world in flying machines. A great number of their machines have come over the far mountain. Take your weapons with you and hurry. JOHN CARTER:? I collected my sword and a spear. I hurried out of the building and joined a group of warriors moving toward the end of the city. Far in the distance I could see the air ships. They were firing large guns at the green warriors. I heard huge explosions. The green warriors were firing back with their deadly rifles. The air was filled with the sound of violent battle. (SOUND) Suddenly a huge air ship exploded. It came down, crashing near me. Red Martians were falling from the side of the huge ship. And then it exploded! (SOUND AND MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories. This has been the second part of the story “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burrows. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. And Barbara Klein was Sola. Join us again next week at this time as we continue “A Princess of Mars” in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: One of the World’s Natural Wonders: the Grand Canyon
* Byline: Written by Oliver Chanler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a famous natural place, the Grand Canyon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In late September, fifteen forty, a group of Spanish explorers led by Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to a stop. For weeks they had walked north across the great southwestern American desert. The land was dry. The sun was hot. They were searching for seven golden cities that they had been told about. There was not much to see on this land, just the far-away line where the sky meets the ground. Suddenly, they came to the edge of what seemed to be a huge cut in the Earth. There seemed to be no way to walk around this deep canyon. It stretched below them into the distance, to their left and right, as far as they could see. Below them and across from where they stood were strange shapes of yellow, red, brown and black rocks and stone. VOICE TWO: A small, muddy river appeared to be flowing at the bottom. Captain Cardenas ordered three of his soldiers to climb down the side of the canyon to see if they could find a way to cross to the other side. The three climbed about one-third of the way down. They found that the canyon was much deeper than they thought, so they climbed back up. Captain Cardenas and his group turned back to the south. Today, history recognizes them as the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River. They had reached a place that today is considered one of the most beautiful, strange, and interesting places in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: European explorers did not return to the Grand Canyon for more than two centuries. Instead, native peoples continued to live there, as they had for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. In seventeen seventy-six, two Spanish clergymen were seeking a way to travel from Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, to Monterey, California on the west coast of North America. Father Francisco Escalante and another clergyman were unsuccessful in their search. However, they re-discovered the Grand Canyon. VOICE TWO: During the nineteenth century, the population of the United States was expanding rapidly to the west. The Grand Canyon was considered a barrier to travelers. Only two places had been found where the river is low enough to cross. As settlers moved west, the United States government wanted more information about western territories. Much of the Grand Canyon was unknown. The words “Unknown Territory” were written on maps that showed the area. VOICE ONE: In May, eighteen sixty-nine, Major John Wesley Powell and nine others began the first full exploration of the Colorado River. They put four wooden boats into the water at Green River Station in Wyoming. They began their trip to where the Green River joined the Colorado River. Major Powell wrote in his book that they were beginning “the trip down the Great Unknown”. Major Powell had served in the Union army during the American Civil War. He lost his right arm in a battle during the war. After the war he became a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University. He also studied paleontology, the science of life existing in different periods of Earth’s history. And he became expert in ethnology, the study of different cultures. He was the right person to explore the Grand Canyon. He was someone who could describe the geology of the area, as well as learn about the American Indians who had begun living in the canyon as many as nine thousand years ago. Several of those tribes still consider the Grand Canyon their home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The geology of the Grand Canyon is like a history of the formation of the Earth. During millions of years, water, ice, and wind formed the canyon. Although the Grand Canyon is in the middle of a desert, water plays an important part in the way the land looks. The sun shines bright and hot almost every day. It makes the soil hard. When rain does come, it cannot sink into the soil. Instead it flows to the Colorado River. Often, heavy rains cause violent floods along small rivers and streams that flow into the Colorado. These floods move huge amounts of soil and sometimes stones as big as houses. All of this material falls into the river and then is pushed along by the rapidly flowing river. This way the river slowly digs itself deeper into the rock surface of the Earth. The Colorado has been doing this for millions of years. You can see in the sides of the Grand Canyon different kinds of rock at different levels. Each of the eighteen levels was formed during a different period of Earth’s history. VOICE ONE: The ancestor of the Colorado River began flowing about seventy million years ago. After it began flowing, volcano explosions and other natural events changed the river’s path many times. About seventeen million years ago, pressures deep in the Earth pushed up the land through which the river flowed. The river continued to flow through the area, cutting deeper into the rock. The Grand Canyon is twenty-nine kilometers across at the widest place, and more than one and one-half kilometers deep. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where the river flows today, the rock is almost two thousand million years old. VOICE TWO: In eighteen sixty-nine, not many people expected John Wesley Powell and his team of explorers to survive the trip through the Grand Canyon. No one had ever done it before. There are many dangers on the fast-moving river. Rocks hidden under the water can smash small boats. In places where the river is narrow, the water becomes violent as it rushes between high rock walls. Also, there are rapids of fast moving water in places where the river drops to a lower level. In some places, strong currents can push a boat into rocks in the water, or against the walls of the canyon. Major Powell knew the trip would be dangerous. When the boats came near a rapid, he and his crew would stop. Sometimes they decided to go through by rowing the boats with their oars, as they did in calm water. At other times they carried the boats and all their equipment around dangerous rapids. Major Powell wrote every day in a book about what they did and saw. This is how he described the difficulties of one day: VOICE THREE: “We carried the boats around rapids two times this morning... During the afternoon we ran a narrow part of the river, more than half a mile in length, narrow and rapid. We float on water that is flowing down a gliding plane. At the bottom of the narrow part of the river, the river turns sharply to the right, and the water rolls up against a rock that seems to be in the middle of the stream. We pull with all our power to the right, but it seems impossible to avoid being carried against the cliff, and we are carried up high on the waves – not against the rocks, for the water strikes us and we are pushed back and pass on with safety...” VOICE ONE: More than three months after starting, Major Powell and his group reached the end of the Grand Canyon. Three men had left the group earlier and were never seen again. Two of the men in the group continued down the river to the sea, becoming the first people known to have traveled the entire length of the Colorado River. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, the Grand Canyon is in a national park. About five million people visit it each year. They stop at its edge and look in wonder at a place that can create great emotions in those seeing it. Others walk down the many paths into the canyon. Some ride rubber boats down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. River guides are experts at taking the boats through the most violent rapids. This activity, called white-water rafting, is very popular. VOICE ONE: Generally, the trip takes about two weeks in boats that carry three or four people. Bigger boats with motors that carry about twenty people can make the trip in several days. As people float down the river, they see the many wonderful and strange shapes created by the forces of nature. They may see animals, such as bighorn sheep, and coyotes. They experience the excitement of traveling through white-water rapids, and sleeping under the stars. The sound of the river is always present, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. After several days traveling on and sleeping near the river as it flows through the Grand Canyon, many visitors say they feel their cares and worries leave them. Their concerns are replaced by a feeling of wonder about the canyon and the powers of nature. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Number of Americans Living with H.I.V. Estimated Above 1 Million
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. There are new estimates of the number of Americans with the virus that causes AIDS. Government researchers say more than one million were living with H.I.V. at the end of two thousand three. Health officials gave a report on June thirteenth at the National H.I.V. Prevention Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set a goal in two thousand one to cut the rate of new infections in half. That goal has not been met. But a C.D.C. official, Doctor Ronald Valdiserri, said researchers do think they are making progress. Doctor Carlos del Rio of Emory University in Atlanta, however, suggested that prevention efforts have failed. He says there may be as many as sixty thousand new cases per year. In recent years, the number has been estimated at forty thousand. Almost half of those infected are believed to be men who have sex with other men. And, researchers say, almost half are black. People who are infected with H.I.V. often do not know it. There are no cures. But drug treatments can delay the progress of H.I.V. into AIDS. AIDS leaves a person defenseless against disease. One of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations is to halt the spread of H.I.V. by two thousand fifteen. Earlier this year, Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted progress by some countries. But he also noted that there were more new infections and more AIDS-related deaths last year than ever before. Mister Annan said treatment and prevention efforts were "nowhere near enough."? He said only twelve percent of the people in need of treatments in low- and middle-income countries were receiving them. Researchers estimate that about forty million people worldwide are living with H.I.V. They estimate that every day more than eight thousand people die from AIDS-related conditions. About half of all people living with H.I.V. are women. And about half of new infections are in young adults. Southern Africa is the area hardest hit by H.I.V. and AIDS. The United States says it continues to support treatment for more people than any other giver in the world. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief supports treatment programs in fifteen countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. The goal is to help two million people by the end of two thousand eight. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 13% Rise Expected in U.S. Jobs for New College Graduates
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. More than one million college students are graduating this year in the United States. A listener in Vietnam heard our recent report about graduation ceremonies. Ha Lien asks about the job situation these new graduates now face. We found the answer at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. N.A.C.E. researches the job market for new college graduates. The report for the Class of Two Thousand Five offers the best news in four years. Compared to last year, employers expect to hire thirteen percent more new graduates. Sixty-one percent of the employers in the report said they expect to hire more new graduates than they hired last year. Last year that number was just over fifty percent. The best chances for jobs may be at manufacturing companies. The report says manufacturers expect to increase their jobs for young people fresh out of college by thirteen percent. Service providers expect a twelve percent increase. The middle of the country appears to be the area with the most demand. Companies in the Midwest say they expect to increase their number of new college graduates this year by twenty-six percent. The report says increases of fifteen percent are expected in both the West and the Northeast, and six percent in the South. The National Association of Colleges and Employers says pay offers are up this year in a number of jobs. The highest paying jobs are in computer software design and development. The average offer of starting pay is almost fifty-four thousand dollars. The lowest pay is for teachers, at just under thirty thousand dollars. Other top jobs for graduates this year include accountant, management trainee, sales, financial analyst, construction engineer and registered nurse. A good way to increase the chances of a job offer at graduation time is to join an internship program. That way students get work experience while they are still in school. N.A.C.E. says that historically, about forty-five percent of American college students have jobs when they graduate. Seventy-five percent are employed within about seven months. Some new graduates do not have that kind of pressure. About twenty percent enter graduate school or other additional education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. More than one million college students are graduating this year in the United States. A listener in Vietnam heard our recent report about graduation ceremonies. Ha Lien asks about the job situation these new graduates now face. We found the answer at the National Association of Colleges and Employers. N.A.C.E. researches the job market for new college graduates. The report for the Class of Two Thousand Five offers the best news in four years. Compared to last year, employers expect to hire thirteen percent more new graduates. Sixty-one percent of the employers in the report said they expect to hire more new graduates than they hired last year. Last year that number was just over fifty percent. The best chances for jobs may be at manufacturing companies. The report says manufacturers expect to increase their jobs for young people fresh out of college by thirteen percent. Service providers expect a twelve percent increase. The middle of the country appears to be the area with the most demand. Companies in the Midwest say they expect to increase their number of new college graduates this year by twenty-six percent. The report says increases of fifteen percent are expected in both the West and the Northeast, and six percent in the South. The National Association of Colleges and Employers says pay offers are up this year in a number of jobs. The highest paying jobs are in computer software design and development. The average offer of starting pay is almost fifty-four thousand dollars. The lowest pay is for teachers, at just under thirty thousand dollars. Other top jobs for graduates this year include accountant, management trainee, sales, financial analyst, construction engineer and registered nurse. A good way to increase the chances of a job offer at graduation time is to join an internship program. That way students get work experience while they are still in school. N.A.C.E. says that historically, about forty-five percent of American college students have jobs when they graduate. Seventy-five percent are employed within about seven months. Some new graduates do not have that kind of pressure. About twenty percent enter graduate school or other additional education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: After the Civil War: Searching for the Man Who Shot Lincoln
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in the spring of eighteen sixty-five. For four years, he had led the Union of northern states in America's Civil War. He did not live to see the end of the war. He did not live to see the nation re-united. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Shep O'Neal and I tell what happened after Lincoln died. VOICE TWO: Almost immediately, officials began planning details of the president's funeral. They asked Misses Lincoln where she wanted her husband buried. At first, she said Chicago. That was where the Lincolns were going to live after they left the White House. Then she said the Capitol building in Washington. A tomb had been built there for America's first President, George Washington. But it had never been used. Finally, she remembered a country cemetery they had visited. At the time, her husband had said: "When I am gone, lay my remains in some quiet place like this." So Misses Lincoln decided that the president's final resting place would be in the quiet, beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery outside their home town of Springfield, Illinois. VOICE ONE: For several days after Lincoln's assassination, his body lay in the east room of the White House. The room was open to the public all day. Next, the body was taken to the Capitol building. Again, the public could come to say goodbye. Then the body was put on a special train for the trip back to Illinois. Four years earlier, President-elect Lincoln had traveled by train from Illinois to Washington. He stopped to make speeches in cities along the way. Now, on this sad return trip, the train stopped at those same cities: Baltimore. Philadelphia. New York.Cleveland. Indianapolis. Chicago. VOICE TWO: In every town, people lined the railroad. They stood silently, with tears in their eyes, as the train moved slowly past. Farmers working in the fields saw the train and dropped to their knees in prayer. For the wise man who had led the Union through four years of bloody civil war -- Father Abraham -- was dead. Churches throughout the country held memorial services. Ministers told their people that God had taken Lincoln because the president had completed the job God had given him. He had brought peace to the Union...and freedom to all men. VOICE ONE: The final service was at the cemetery outside Springfield. It ended with the words from Lincoln's second inaugural speech. "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right -- as God gives us to see the right -- let us strive on to finish the work we are in. Let us heal the nation's wounds. Let us do all possible to get and keep a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." VOICE TWO: While the nation mourned Lincoln's death, federal officials investigated his assassination. The man who had shot Lincoln in Ford's Theater was an actor, John Wilkes Booth. He had fled the theater after the murder. The government offered a reward of one hundred thousand dollars to anyone who captured Booth and his helpers. The investigation produced the names of several people who were friends of Booth. One was John Surratt. Like Booth, he supported the southern Confederacy during the Civil War. Another was David Herold, a young man who worked in a store in Washington. Others were George Atzerodt, Lewis Paine, Sam Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlin. Most of these men had stayed at a house owned by John Surratt's mother, Mary. VOICE ONE: One by one, in the days following Lincoln's death, these people were arrested. Anyone else who might have had a part in the plot was seized. Soon, hundreds of suspects were being held in jails in and around Washington. At the end of a week, only two of the plotters were still free: David Herold and John Wilkes Booth. Booth broke his leg when he jumped from the presidential box to the stage at Ford's Theater. A few hours later, he and Herold stopped at the home of a Doctor Samuel Mudd. They reportedly gave the doctor false names. They asked him to fix Booth's broken leg. Doctor Mudd agreed. And he let the two men sleep at his home. Federal troops chasing the assassins arrested the doctor. They accused him of being part of the plot. VOICE TWO: John Wilkes Booth and David Herold ran and hid for six days. They crossed the Potomac River from Maryland into Virginia. Finally, twelve days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, soldiers found the two men. They were hiding in a tobacco barn near the town of Port Royal. Herold agreed to surrender. He came out of the barn with his hands in the air. He shouted again and again that he was innocent. Booth refused to come out. The soldiers set fire to the barn. VOICE ONE: The fire forced Booth to move close to the door. The soldiers could see him now. He was aiming a gun at them. The soldiers had been ordered to capture Booth alive. But one of them raised his gun and shot booth in the neck. The actor fell. Some of the soldiers ran to the burning barn and pulled him out. They carried him to a nearby house. He died two hours later. VOICE TWO: John Wilkes Booth carried a notebook.He wrote in it every day. On the day Lincoln was killed, he wrote: "For six months we had worked to kidnap Lincoln. But with the Confederacy being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. I struck boldly." Booth described how and why he had shot the president. "Our country," Booth wrote, "owed all her troubles to him. And God simply made me the instrument of his punishment." Booth's body was returned to Washington. Men who knew him confirmed that it was the body of John Wilkes Booth. The body was buried under the stone floor of the Washington prison. A few years later, his family received permission to move the body to a cemetery in the city of Baltimore. VOICE ONE: Evidence showed that only a few people were actually involved in the plot against the president. Most had agreed to work with Booth because they believed he planned to kidnap Lincoln...not kill him. Of the hundreds of persons arrested, only eight were brought to trial. The Secretary of War decided that they would be tried by a military court. He argued that Lincoln had been Commander-In-Chief of all military forces and had been murdered during wartime. VOICE TWO: The trial began almost two months after the assassination. The prisoners seemed in poor condition. All wore heavy chains on their arms and legs. And the men had been forced to wear thick cloths over their heads. Officials said the cloths were necessary to prevent them from talking to each other. The Secretary of War announced that the prisoners could not meet privately with their defense lawyers. They could meet only in the courtroom. Guards could hear everything they said. One of the defense lawyers recognized that the job was hopeless. He said the trial was a contest between the defense lawyers and the whole United States. There was no question, he said, what the military court's decision would be. VOICE ONE: The government tried to prove that Lincoln's assassination was a Confederate plot. Witnesses told how Confederate supporters reportedly planned to cause trouble in the north. But none could prove that Confederate President Jefferson Davis -- or any other southern leader -- played a part in booth's plot to kill Lincoln. Four hundred witnesses appeared. Many of the important ones had been arrested as suspects. They agreed to give evidence if the government dropped the charges against them. For six weeks, the court heard evidence against the eight prisoners. The prisoners themselves could say nothing. They could only listen. VOICE TWO: In late June, eighteen sixty-five, the trial of Abraham Lincoln's assassins ended. The military officers serving as judges met secretly for two days. Then they announced their decision. All eight prisoners were found guilty. One received a prison sentence of six years. Three were sentenced to life in prison. Four were sentenced to die. Defense lawyers appealed for mercy. The appeal was rejected. On July seventh, David Herold, Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were hanged for the murder of Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O'Neal.Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Greenspan Says 'Bubble' in Home Prices for U.S. Appears Unlikely
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. America's top banker, Alan Greenspan, says the condition of the economy is generally good. The Federal Reserve chairman gave a report to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on June ninth. Mister Greenspan suggested that the Federal Reserve, the United States central bank, would continue to increase interest rates slowly. One of the tools of the Federal Reserve is the federal funds rate. This is the interest rate that banks pay other banks for overnight loans through the Federal Reserve System. Such loans are usually repaid within a day. Currently the federal funds rate is three percent. The Federal Open Market Committee has raised the rate at its last eight meetings since June of two thousand four. Each time the committee has raised the rate by one-fourth of one percent. Usually, when the Federal Reserve raises its rates, that causes other interest rates to rise as well. But Alan Greenspan says market forces have kept long-term interest rates unusually low. When the government needs to borrow money, it sells Treasury securities, such as the ten-year note. The return on ten-year Treasury notes is now at about four percent. That is only one percentage point higher than the federal funds rate. Alan Greenspan says similar conditions have not existed before in recent times. Low long-term interest rates are good for home buyers. Rates for thirty-year home loans are near record lows. Americans have been buying, selling, building and rebuilding homes at a strong rate. Some people fear a housing bubble. They worry that home prices have become too inflated. When a financial bubble bursts, prices can drop quickly. Alan Greenspan said a bubble in home prices nationwide "does not appear likely."? However, he did add that home prices may be too high in some parts of the country. The Federal Reserve chairman says economic growth has been strong enough to deal with changes in homes prices. But Mister Greenspan expressed concern about the increasing use of interest-only loans. These permit home buyers to reduce their monthly payments for a time by paying only the interest owed. But some people may buy a home that is priced too high for them. To that extent, Alan Greenspan says, "the use of such financing is beginning to add to the pressures in the marketplace." This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Watergate, Nixon, 'Deep Throat': What Was That All About?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our program this week: A first!? We answer three listener questions in one show… Who was President Roosevelt? What was Watergate? And, when is Father's Day?? Also, some songs to celebrate it! (MUSIC) Franklin Roosevelt Our first question comes from a listener in Vietnam. Phung Thehai asks for information about former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, especially during World War Two. Steve Ember tells about F.D.R., one of the most influential American leaders. STEVE EMBER: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president four times. He served more than twelve years, longer than any other president. He led the nation through its worst economic crisis, the period known as the Great Depression. He also led the nation though one of its worst wars. And, he dealt with a personal crisis. He lost the use of his legs from the disease polio. He became known by the first letters of his full name - F.D.R. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in eighteen eighty-two to a rich and important family in New York State. He married Eleanor Roosevelt in nineteen-oh-five. They were distant relations. They had six children. Mister Roosevelt was a member of the Democratic Party. He entered politics in nineteen ten as a member of the New York state legislature. In nineteen thirty-two he was elected president. The United States was in a severe economic depression. Roosevelt promised to put Americans back to work. He created a program of reform that included job creation. It was called "The New Deal."? But, in the late nineteen thirties, another crisis was growing more serious every day. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party in Germany threatened central Europe. Japanese forces carried out new aggression in Asia and the Pacific area. World War Two began in nineteen thirty-nine when Germany invaded Poland. Americans hoped Britain, France and other allies would defeat Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Yet Congress passed a law declaring the United States would remain neutral. But on December seventh, nineteen forty-one, Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. F.D.R. was serving his third term as president. The United States was forced to enter the war. President Roosevelt worked closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the war effort. F.D.R. was re-elected president in November, nineteen forty-four. But he did not live to see the victory of the Allies and the end of World War Two. He died a few months later, on April twelfth, nineteen forty-five.You can hear more about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's life and work on the Special English program People in America on Sunday. Watergate HOST: Another question this week involves historical events that have been in the news recently. Abdullah El-Fakhri of Libya wants to know about Watergate. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Watergate scandal is the name given to illegal activities designed to help President Nixon win re-election in nineteen seventy-two. These included stealing, violating campaign finance laws and attempting to use government agencies to harm political opponents. They also included trying to keep these actions secret. About forty people were charged with crimes linked to Watergate. Some were high-level government officials. Most were found guilty in court or admitted their guilt. President Richard Nixon and his supporters were members of the Republican Party. These activities became known as Watergate because the first illegal act took place in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C. Police arrested five men for breaking into the national offices of the Democratic Party on June seventeenth, nineteen seventy-two. One of the men was the security chief of the Committee to Re-Elect the President. A spokesman for President Nixon denied that anyone who worked for the president was involved. But two reporters found evidence that presidential assistants helped pay for sabotage and spying against candidates for the nineteen seventy-two Democratic Party presidential nomination. Other evidence was discovered later. It included a voice recording that proved President Nixon ordered his assistants to hide evidence of illegal activities by his re-election committee. Congress began steps to remove the president from office for hiding evidence and using presidential power illegally. President Nixon resigned on August ninth, nineteen seventy-four. Two young reporters from the Washington Post newspaper started the investigation that led to the president's resignation. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein became famous for these reports about Watergate. They wrote a book about their investigation called "All The President's Men". In the book, they told about a secret source who provided them with important information. They called him "Deep Throat."? And they promised to keep his name a secret until after he died. Three weeks ago, a man named Mark Felt told the world that he was "Deep Throat."? In the early nineteen seventies, Mister Felt was the assistant chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He said that he secretly helped the reporters because other high level government officials were trying to hide information about Watergate, not bring it out into the open. ? Father's Day Our final question today comes from a student in China. Si Zheng heard our program about Mother's Day in May. He wants to know when Father's Day began and how we celebrate it in the United States. Americans honor their fathers on the third Sunday in June. So Father's day is Sunday. Many children will give their fathers gifts they made at school. Others might help prepare a special meal. Some fathers may even receive a gift of clothes, tools, electronic devices or something else purchased at a store. Two years ago, the famous American singer Luther Vandross remembered his dad with a song. Here is "Dance With My Father." (MUSIC) A woman named Sonora Dodd came up with the idea of Father's Day in nineteen-oh-nine. She was listening to a speech in church about Mother's Day. Missus Dodd thought about her father. He had fought in the American Civil War. Later, he had raised six children after his wife died during childbirth. Sonora Dodd wanted a special day to honor men like her father. He was born in June. So she decided to hold the first Father's Day celebration in June of nineteen ten in Spokane, Washington. Sonora Dodd loved her father. Listen now to a song by Paul Simon that celebrates such a relationship. Here is "Father and Daughter." (MUSIC) In nineteen twenty-four President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the idea of Father's Day as an official holiday. But Congress did not approve it until almost fifty years later. President Nixon signed a law to establish Father's Day in nineteen seventy-two. I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.Our show was written Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Trial by Jury and What It Meant in the Michael Jackson Case
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. People are not always happy when called to serve on a jury. But jury duty is a responsibility for Americans. A jury decides the facts in a civil or criminal case. Trials often last just a day or two. Yet every so often a case goes on and on, and brings reporters from around the world. That is what just happened in a courtroom in Santa Maria, California. This week, twelve jurors found Michael Jackson not guilty of the charges against him. Now, many people wonder what the future holds for the singer listed in Guinness World Records for best-selling album ever. His nineteen eighty-two album "Thriller" has sold more than fifty million copies worldwide. More recently, he has had a hard time again producing hit songs like "Beat It": (MUSIC) The case involved a young cancer survivor who was thirteen when he first met Michael Jackson. The ten charges said the singer gave the boy alcohol and sexually molested him at the Jackson home, the Neverland Ranch. The charges said he also plotted to hold the boy and his family at Neverland to get them to record a video defending the singer. At the time, two years ago, Michael Jackson was facing public anger over a British television program. In it, the singer had said he shared his bed, innocently, with children. Eight women and four men served on the jury. The jurors were between the ages of twenty and seventy-nine. Half said they were fans of Michael Jackson's music. Some of his supporters had protested that there were no black jurors. The jurors heard fourteen weeks of evidence. Then they met for about thirty hours over seven days. Jurors are told to base their verdicts on the facts of the case, not their beliefs. A person is considered innocent until proven guilty. The judge gave the jury ninety-eight pages of directions to follow. Jury instructions are traditionally full of legal language. This is so a higher court will not find anything wrong with them if the case is appealed. That is the reasoning, at least. But California and other states are developing clearer instructions. Since it was a criminal trial, the case had to be proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" in the minds of the jury. Michael Jackson could have faced up to eighteen years in prison. In comments to reporters, some jurors said they believed he may have been guilty with other boys in the past, but not in this case. Some said they did not trust the accuser's mother, who also gave evidence. Jackson lawyers argued that the family brought the case for financial gain. In the nineteen nineties, the singer reportedly paid millions of dollars in two settlements with families of young boys. The family of the accuser could still bring a civil action to ask for money. A jury in a civil case has to decide only by a majority of the evidence. Not all the jurors even have to agree. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Happy Days Are Here Again': FDR, One of America's Greatest Presidents
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the greatest American presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: ?Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the most influential presidents in American history. He was elected president four times. He served more than twelve years, longer than any other president. He led the nation through its worst economic crisis, and through one of its worst wars. ?Franklin Roosevelt was first elected president in nineteen thirty-two. As the Democratic candidate, he defeated President Herbert Hoover. Americans were suffering through a terrible economic depression. About twenty-five percent of American workers had lost their jobs. They had no money. They had no hope. They waited in long lines to receive free food. Americans did not know if the new president could end the economic crisis. ?VOICE TWO: ?The new president, Franklin Roosevelt, was fifty-one years old. His family name was well known to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt, a distant relation, had been president of the United States thirty years before. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in eighteen eighty-two to a rich and important family in Hyde Park, New York. He was the only child of James and Sara Roosevelt. His mother tried to control Franklin's life as long as she lived. His father made sure his son had the best of everything. But he also taught Franklin that being rich brought with it the responsibility of helping people who were not so lucky. ?VOICE ONE: ?Franklin married Eleanor Roosevelt in nineteen-oh-five. They were distant relations. In the next eleven years, they had six children. ?In nineteen ten, Mister Roosevelt was elected to the New York state legislature. He showed he had great political skills as a state senator. His next job was in the federal government as assistant secretary of the navy under President Woodrow Wilson. Then in nineteen twenty, he was the Democratic Party's unsuccessful candidate for vice president. ?VOICE TWO: ?In nineteen twenty-one, Franklin Roosevelt suffered a personal tragedy. He was with his family at their summer home. He began feeling very tired. Then he felt severe pain in his back and legs. He could not move. For weeks, he was forced to lie on his back. ?His doctors discovered that he was a victim of the disabling disease polio. He lost the use of his legs. Franklin Roosevelt was thirty-nine years old. He had always been an active man who loved sports. But now he would never walk again without help. ?VOICE ONE: Many Americans thought the sickness would end Franklin Roosevelt's political dreams. But they were wrong. He showed an inner strength that people respected. He was elected governor of New York state in nineteen twenty-eight and re-elected two years later. ?Franklin Roosevelt always appeared strong and friendly in public. He loved to laugh and enjoy life. But his friendly face hid a strong will. Throughout his life, Mister Roosevelt worked hard to improve life for the common man. He believed government had the power and responsibility to improve the lives of its citizens. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: ?That music, "Happy Days Are Here Again," was played during Franklin Roosevelt's presidential campaign in nineteen thirty-two. A large majority of voters decided that maybe he could make that song come true. On Inauguration Day in nineteen thirty-three, the nation waited to hear what the new president would say about the economic future of their country. This is what he said: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT:?“This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”?VOICE ONE: ?President Roosevelt promised to end the Depression. He promised to put Americans back to work. He said the federal government would take an active part in creating jobs. During the next three months, he led Congress in passing more major new programs than the nation had seen for many years. President Roosevelt called his reform program "The New Deal." These are some of the programs created during this time:? A National Recovery Administration allowed companies to cooperate to increase production. A Works Progress Administration provided jobs for unemployed workers. A Civilian Conservation Corps put young men to work protecting the nation's natural resources. The Tennessee Valley Authority built dams, cleared rivers, expanded forests and provided electricity in the southeastern part of the country.VOICE TWO: ?In nineteen thirty-five, Congress passed two laws that would change the lives of working Americans for years to come. The National Labor Relations Act strengthened the rights of workers and gave more power to labor unions. The Social Security Act created a federal system to provide money for workers after they retired. ?Franklin Roosevelt became one of the most loved and most hated presidents in the history of the country. The majority of Americans believed he was trying to save the country and protect common people. Opponents charged he was giving the federal government too much power and destroying private businesses. VOICE ONE: ?Franklin Roosevelt tried to establish a close relationship with the American people. He became known by the first letters of his full name -- FDR. He talked to the American people by radio to explain what actions were being taken and what he planned for the future. These radio broadcasts helped him gain widespread support for his programs. ?President Roosevelt ran for re-election in nineteen thirty-six. He defeated the Republican candidate Alfred Landon by one of the largest majorities in the nation's history.(MUSIC) ?VOICE TWO: ?In the late nineteen thirties, another crisis was growing more serious every day. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party in Germany threatened central Europe. Japanese forces carried out new aggression in Asia and the Pacific area. FDR warned Americans that a victory by these forces would threaten democracy everywhere in the world. ?World War Two began in nineteen thirty-nine when Germany invaded Poland. Americans hoped Britain, France and the other Allied powers would defeat Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Yet Congress passed a law declaring the United States would remain neutral. ?VOICE ONE:?? FDR was re-elected in nineteen forty. He was the only president to win a third term in the White House. On December seventh, nineteen forty-one, Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States was forced to enter the war. President Roosevelt cooperated closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the war effort. He discussed war efforts with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. ?VOICE TWO: ?FDR was re-elected president for the fourth time in nineteen forty-four. Most Americans believed the country should not change its leader in the middle of a war. When he was sworn in, President Roosevelt's speech lasted only six minutes. He declared that America had learned "that we cannot live alone at peace, that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of nations far away." ?President Roosevelt did not live to see the victory of the Allies and the end of World War Two. He died less than three months later, on April twelfth, nineteen forty-five, in Warm Springs, Georgia. ?VOICE ONE: Winston Churchill wrote about the day he heard the news of the death of his close friend: "I felt as if I had been struck with a physical blow. My relations with this shining man had played so large a part in the long, terrible years we had worked together. Now that had come to an end. And I was overpowered by a sense of deep and permanent loss."? Millions of people around the world joined Winston Churchill in mourning the death of America's thirty-second president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (MUSIC) ?VOICE TWO:?This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week when we tell about Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, on People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ebola and Marburg Vaccines Protect Monkeys, Maybe Also People
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Medical researchers have developed vaccines that appear to protect monkeys from the Ebola and Marburg viruses. The researchers say a single injection proved one hundred percent effective. Scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada developed the vaccines. They had assistance from researchers at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The study appeared in Nature Medicine. The researchers say the study with twelve macaque monkeys suggests that the vaccines might also be able to protect people. Ebola and Marburg are always deadly to monkeys and other non-human primates. In humans, the viruses can kill eighty to ninety percent of those who become infected. A recent outbreak of Marburg in Angola has killed more then three hundred fifty people. Vaccines could help prevent outbreaks. They could also be used in case of biological terrorism. The researchers took one gene from the Ebola or Marburg virus and placed it into another virus to use in the experimental vaccines. They say the vaccine itself cannot cause disease. But it does cause the body to react in a way that would protect people if they ever really became infected with Ebola or Marburg. Ebola and Marburg are spread through bodily fluids. Both diseases cause high temperatures, organ failure and severe bleeding. There are no cures. Both viruses spread from time to time in central Africa. Scientists recorded the first Ebola outbreak in nineteen seventy-six in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Laboratories in Europe first recognized Marburg virus in monkeys in nineteen sixty-seven. The vaccines must go through several years of testing before they can be approved for human use. If so, they could be included one day in a program to vaccinate millions of people against deadly diseases. Members of the World Health Organization approved a Global Immunization Strategy at a meeting in Geneva in May. The aim is to expand vaccination programs. Vaccine-preventable diseases kill more than two million people per year, mostly children. One goal of the new policy is to reach at least eighty percent vaccination coverage in every area of a country by two thousand ten. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Latinos Grow in Influence; Say 'Hola' to America's Largest Minority Now
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we have the first of two programs about Hispanic life in the United States. We begin with some population numbers, and a look at issues involving immigration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Group identity starts with a name. Or two. Historically, the term "Hispanic" has meant people of Spanish ancestry. Many people, however, think "Latino" is a more inclusive term for those with roots in Spanish-speaking countries. Still others use either term. Hispanics, or Latinos, can be any race. They come from different cultures. They may not even speak Spanish. Whatever the case, in two thousand three the government officially estimated them to be the largest minority group in the United States. The Census Bureau is the agency that counts the population. It now says the Hispanic population reached more than forty-one million as of July of two thousand four. That was fourteen percent of the nation. VOICE TWO: Latinos were responsible for about one-half of the national population growth from July of two thousand three to July of two thousand four. The Census Bureau says their growth rate was more than three and one-half percent, compared to one percent nationally. Half the Latinos in the United States are under the age of twenty-seven. This is a result of high birth rates combined with high immigration levels. Each year, hundreds of thousands of Latinos enter the country legally. But the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group, says that in recent years greater numbers have arrived illegally. VOICE ONE: African-Americans are now the second largest minority group in the United States. In the most recent estimates, the black population grew a little more than one percent, to just over thirty-nine million. Asians, however, are the second fastest-growing minority after Latinos. The Census Bureau estimates the Asian population at fourteen million. VOICE TWO: People of Mexican ancestry represent more than sixty percent of the Hispanic population. People from the United States territory of Puerto Rico are about ten percent. Other groups are from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and other nations in Central America and the Caribbean. South Americans and Cubans add to the mix. Cuban Americans have enjoyed considerable success in business and politics in Florida. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over time, many Latinos have gained financial security and a better life in the United States. But many others arrive poor. They lack the skills or education to get good jobs. The Pew Hispanic Center says Latinos held almost half the new jobs produced in the economy in two thousand four. But it says Latinos are the only major group of workers to have had a decrease in pay for two years. The center says they now earn five percent less than they did before. Several economists suggest that the newest arrivals may be competing with each other for jobs, pushing down wages. VOICE TWO: Some public officials and commentators say Latinos place too much demand on health care systems, schools and other social services. There are calls for immigration reform and more border controls. Yet a number of studies have suggested that the economy gains far more from illegal immigrants than they take. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that more than ten million immigrants were in the United States illegally as of March two thousand four. A new report says more than eighty percent were from Latin America, and more than half of them from Mexico. Asians represented nine percent; other illegal immigrants came from Europe, Canada and Africa. Traditionally most illegal immigrants have settled in California, Texas and a few other states. California and Texas used to belong to Mexico. But the report says many now settle in other states in the Southeast and the Midwest. VOICE ONE: It is against the law to employ illegal immigrants, but many businesses do so. Undocumented workers can be found in many industries, including the building trades and service jobs. Many farmers depend on them to pick fruits and vegetables. A life of hard labor rarely pays much. Working conditions can be dangerous, even life-threatening. President Bush has proposed a guest worker plan. He says it would help both workers and their employers. Under his proposal, guest workers would not be punished for entering the country or working illegally. Their temporary work permits would be good for three years and could be renewed. In the end, workers would be expected to return home unless they had been approved for citizenship under the normal process. Critics say the plan would, in effect, serve as an amnesty since people who entered the country illegally would not be punished. The president says he does not support the idea of amnesty. VOICE TWO: Mister Bush proposed his plan in January of two thousand four. Congress has not yet acted on it. Recently, Mister Bush discussed his legislative program with members of Congress. Tom DeLay is the Republican majority leader in the House. He said the president admitted that he had not been very clear about his immigration plan, and would try to do better. VOICE ONE: Language is an issue when it comes to schooling for the children of Latino immigrants. There is national debate about how best to teach English and other subjects to Spanish-speaking children. Studies show that Latinos finish high school at sharply lower rates than non-Hispanic whites. In two thousand four the Pew Hispanic Center published a study about higher education. The study said that only about half as many Latinos finish four years of college as do non-Hispanic white students. Many Latinos, however, attend two-year colleges. Many also attend school only part-time. Some work two or three jobs to try to earn a living for themselves and their families. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Marketers recognize the growing importance of selling to what is now America's largest minority group. Spanish-language programming is increasing on radio and television. Latinos are gaining influence in cultural and political life. On July first, Antonio Villaraigosa (pronounced vee-yah-ry-GOH-sah) will take office as mayor of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. He is the first Latino elected to lead Los Angeles since the eighteen seventies. His father came to the United States from Mexico. Mister Villaraigosa defeated James Hahn, an unpopular one-term mayor who had defeated him four years ago. Both men are Democrats. This time, Mister Villaraigosa won with strong support from a coalition of white liberals, African Americans and Latinos. VOICE ONE: The United States now has a Latino attorney general. Alberto Gonzales formerly served as the top legal adviser to President Bush. Mister Bush chose him for the nation's top law enforcement official in November of two thousand four. Mister Gonzales is often discussed as a possible future justice on the Supreme Court. And another Hispanic official, Bill Richardson, is often discussed as a possible Democratic candidate for president. He is governor of New Mexico. Hispanic groups argue that Latinos are not very well represented in movies and television shows. But Latino singers like Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and Ricky Martin enjoy popular success in the United States. VOICE TWO: Before we go, we want to tell you about a new record, called "Chavez Ravine." The songs tell stories about life for Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles in the nineteen forties and fifties. Chavez Ravine is an area of the city where homes were torn down, supposedly to build new housing for the poor. Instead, the land became the home of where the Los Angeles Dodgers play baseball. The record is by the guitar great Ry Cooder, joined by Latino musicians including the singer Little Willie G. We leave you with a song called "Onda Callejera." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, with additional reporting by Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week, when we continue our report about Latinos in the United States on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From Horses to Tractors, Changes in U.S. Agriculture
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Over the years, new technologies have changed farming. Change in a general direction is a trend. Yet people often recognize trends only when they consider the past. Today, we look back at some trends in American agriculture. We begin with the change from animal power to mechanical power. Our information comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, part of the Agriculture Department. In nineteen twenty, America had more than twenty-five million horses and mules. Most were used for farm work. Around the same time, a competitor began to appear in large numbers. Tractors could turn soil, pull loads and speed harvests -- and they could do it better. More tractors meant fewer horses and mules. By the nineteen sixties, the numbers of these work animals settled to where they remain today. That is about one-tenth the levels in nineteen twenty. Yet even the demand for tractors had its limits. Tractors reached their highest numbers around nineteen eighty-two. Their numbers have been slowly decreasing. Experts say farmers can do more with less now because of new technologies. So, tractors replaced horses and mules. As a result, farmers no longer needed to raise crops to feed work animals. Oats have long been food for horses and mules. In nineteen fifty-four, American farmers planted over sixteen million hectares of oats. By two thousand, that was down to less than one million hectares. So what did the farmers do with the extra land? More and more farmers began to plant a new crop around the same time that the tractor became popular. It was the soybean. The soybean is one of the oldest plants harvested. Yet it was not planted widely in the United States until the nineteen twenties. By the year two thousand, close to thirty million hectares were planted with soybeans. It is the nation's most important crop for high-protein animal feed and for vegetable oil. In fact, soybeans are the second most valuable crop grown by American farmers after corn. Much of the soybean production goes to exports. Next week, learn about other trends that have affected productivity on American farms. And we will discuss future directions for change. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Autoimmune Diseases: When the Body Starts to Attack Its Own Cells
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we talk about a sickness called lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases affect the immune system – the body’s natural defenses for fighting disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The immune system normally protects the body against foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria. Autoimmune diseases result from a failure of the body’s own defenses against disease. The immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign materials and its own cells. So, the body starts attacking its own organs and tissues. VOICE TWO: There are three kinds of lupus. Discoid lupus affects only the skin and can be identified by red marks on the face or neck. These marks on the skin can be a sign of another form of lupus called systemic lupus. Systemic lupus can affect almost any organ or organ system of the body. When people talk about lupus, they usually mean the systemic form of the disease. Some kinds of medicines can cause what is called drug-induced lupus. This form of lupus usually goes away when the patient stops using the medicines. VOICE ONE: High body temperature and pain in the elbows or knees are common signs of lupus. Other signs are red marks on the skin, feelings of extreme tiredness and a lack of iron in the body. At different times, the effects of lupus can be either mild or serious. The signs of the disease can come and go. This makes identifying the disease difficult. Many people with lupus also suffer from depression. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts are not sure what causes lupus. Genetics or environmental influences seem to be involved. Lupus has been known to attack members of the same family. Yet, the genes responsible have yet to be identified. Also, many women with lupus give birth to healthy babies. Many scientists believe infections may cause lupus. So can extreme bodily or mental tension, commonly known as stress. Two other suspected causes are antibiotic drugs and hormones produced by the body. In fact, hormones might explain why lupus affects women far more often than men. The Lupus Foundation of America says ninety percent of the people with lupus are women. Also, persons of African American, American Indian or Asian ancestry get infected more often than white women. Scientists do not know why women are more at risk than men. They think it might have to do with female hormones, like estrogen. Another idea is that it could involve the foreign cells left in a woman’s body after a pregnancy. VOICE ONE: There is currently no cure for lupus. Yet doctors have developed ways of treating the disease. Treatments are based on the condition and needs of each patient. No two individuals have the exact same problems. A treatment could include a combination of exercise, stress-reduction and drugs such as painkillers or steroids. Anti-malaria drugs also have been effective. It has been thirty years since the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug especially for treating lupus. Several companies are working to make drugs that can help lupus patients. Organizations like the Lupus Foundation of America are working to increase public understanding of the disease. Lupus can be life threatening if left untreated. Yet, many patients can lead a normal and healthy life if they follow their doctor’s advice. Patients must take their medicines and keep looking for side effects or any new signs of the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lupus is not the only autoimmune disease. Doctors and scientists have identified at least eighty other such diseases in which the body attacks its own organs and cells. Some of the diseases attack just one area of the body, like the skin, eye or muscles. Others affect an organ system or even the whole body. Some of the diseases are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes. Others are less well known and more difficult to identify. For example, celiac disease is difficult to identify because the signs of the disease are so common. Patients may have low iron levels and experience stomach pain. The uncontrolled expulsion of bodily wastes also is a problem. Doctors might treat those signs and not know they are caused by celiac disease. Some people develop celiac disease after eating gluten, a protein found in all wheat products. It is not always clear that eating something as harmless as wheat can be bad for a person’s health. For some patients, it can be years before the problem is correctly identified. VOICE ONE: The United States National Institutes of Health says autoimmune diseases affect an estimated five to eight percent of the country’s population. That represents between fourteen million and twenty-two million Americans. The physical, emotional, and financial cost of autoimmune diseases is huge. Most of those affected are women. While people of all ages are affected, women who are old enough to have children are especially at risk. This can have an effect on birth rates. Also, some autoimmune diseases like lupus and scleroderma are more common in African Americans. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes are more common among whites. Doctors do not yet know why this is true. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: New drugs are being tested to help treat autoimmune diseases. Some drugs can be a problem because they suppress the immune system. This means the body is less able to defend itself against infections. The side effects of the drugs can end up being as dangerous as the disease itself. Newer drugs attempt to suppress only one small part of the immune system, not all of it. For example, drugs like Enbrel and Remicade block tumor necrosis factor. This is a protein that causes inflammation, a physical reaction to infection, injury or other causes. These drugs have been useful in treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease. However, the drugs are very costly. Some cost more than ten thousand dollars a year. The drugs also have also been found to increase the risk of cancer. One such drug, called Tysabri, was used to treat multiple sclerosis. But the drug was removed from the market after it was linked to brain infections. VOICE ONE: Scientists continue searching for other methods of treatment. For example, some scientists hope to use stem cells to replace tissues damaged by disease. Stem cells have the ability to grow into other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. Some medical experts are working together to improve the way autoimmune diseases are identified and treated. A few years ago, the Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center was formed in the American state of Maryland. The aim of the Center is to bring together experts to improve the study of autoimmune diseases. Private groups like the Center show how important it is for scientists to share information about such diseases. Because each disease often affects different organs, many experts might be needed to treat the disorder. Experts need to know about the most recent medical research and technology. By sharing information about their patients, doctors also can learn from other cases. VOICE TWO: Government organizations also are working to increase knowledge about autoimmune diseases. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health created an autoimmune disease research plan two years ago. The plan urges agencies from different areas to work together. American lawmakers have approved four hundred and fifty million dollars for the project. It is the first national effort to study the causes and treatments of autoimmune diseases. Both private and government organizations are working to increase public understanding of such diseases. This can help individuals better understand what to do should they develop a health problem. At the same time, medical researchers continue working to help patients have a better quality of life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Dana Demange. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: As Long as It Remains Profitable, Child Trafficking Will Continue
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about child trafficking and efforts to stop this crime. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Child trafficking is the transportation of children for forced labor or sex or other illegal activities. It is internationally recognized as a crime. Political leaders and human rights activists everywhere condemn it. Yet, trafficking in children has become a huge industry affecting every part of the world. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates as many as one million children are being trafficked every year. The exact number is hard to find, however, because trafficking is done in secret. VOICE TWO: Many VOA reporters around the world have written about this issue recently. In Washington, the State Department released its yearly report on human trafficking earlier this month. The report named fourteen countries for failing to take acceptable steps to fight the problem. They are Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica and Kuwait. Also on the list are North Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Togo, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. These countries could face possible restrictions on American aid if they do not take action by the end of September. State Department officials say the goal of the report is not to punish governments. It is to get them to take action to put the traffickers in jail and free the victims. VOICE ONE: The State Department says the largest numbers of child trafficking victims are from Asia. Activists, non-governmental organizations, aid groups and world leaders recognize that child trafficking is a widespread problem. But fighting it has been difficult. Organized criminal groups and individual traffickers use many methods to get children. UNICEF officials in the Philippines told VOA reporter Nancy-Amelia Collins that traffickers often trick parents into selling their children into forced sex or slavery. Children are taken from villages across the country with promises of high-paying jobs in and around the nation’s capital, Manila. But once there, most girls end up in prostitution -- providing sex for money. Boys often end up working as slaves on farms and in fish markets. VOICE TWO: Cecilia Flores Oebande heads a private organization in the Philippines called the Visayan Forum Foundation. The group works with the Philippine government and the country’s largest shipping company to help rescue trafficked children. Most victims come to Manila by boat. Visayan Forum has operations in four main ports in the capital. The group says it rescues between twenty and sixty children a week. However, officials believe thousands more are never found. Miz Oebande said that child trafficking is the most profitable industry in the Philippines after the illegal drug and arms trade. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of children in Africa face similar problems. In Ethiopia, for example, officials estimate tens of thousands of poor children are trafficked each year. Yitna Getachew heads the International Organization for Migration in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. He told VOA reporter Alisha Ryu that Ethiopia is different from other countries.He says organized crime or criminal groups support child trafficking activities in many nations. But in Ethiopia, children are trafficked by individuals. VOICE TWO: Mister Getachew says people promise village children an education and a better life in a bigger city. The children are taken from their families and transported to Addis Ababa. But for some, the trip does not stop there. Officials believe thousands of Ethiopian girls are sent out of the country each year to countries like Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Traffickers can earn as much as eight hundred dollars for each victim. VOICE ONE: The International Organization for Migration says most of the child trafficking takes place inside Ethiopia. Many boys are forced to work in Addis Ababa making clothing for more than ten hours a day. They are given little food. If they cannot perform their jobs, they are left to live on the streets. Young girls usually become slaves for families living in the capital. They are often beaten or sexually attacked by the children of their employers. The Ethiopian government has established a national committee to protect children and arrest traffickers. Non-governmental organizations in Addis Ababa have also joined local police to find young victims and reunite them with their families. VOICE TWO: West African nations are also dealing with the problem. Officials in Sierra Leone estimate more than one thousand five hundred children live on the streets of the capital, Freetown. The children’s parents were killed in the civil war. Or the children left home because their families are too poor to care for them. These street children face the dangers of trafficking, prostitution and illegal drugs. In Ivory Coast, soldiers have been accused of sexually attacking girls working as prostitutes. And in Liberia, Eastern European girls have been brought to the country for foreigners who want European prostitutes. In these countries, some of the sex workers are girls as young as ten years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Boys are also victims of human trafficking. Each year, thousands of boys are taken from Pakistan and other poor Muslim countries in Asia and sent to the Middle East. There they are forced to race large animals called camels. They become camel jockeys. Human rights activists say the boys are treated like slaves. They are beaten, starved, often permanently injured and left to live on the streets. Ansar Burney heads a human rights organization in Pakistan. He told VOA reporter Benjamin Sand that many boys in Pakistan are kidnapped from their parents and secretly transported out of the country. An estimated forty thousand child jockeys ride in camel races in countries like Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. VOICE TWO: For years, international aid groups have urged Middle Eastern governments to end the use of children in camel races. Most Persian Gulf countries have laws banning child jockeys. However, activists say the rules are not followed at private race grounds. They say there is no real effort to charge violators under existing laws because many influential, powerful people enjoy the sport. UNICEF estimates there are about four thousand child jockeys in the United Arab Emirates alone. However, the United Arab Emirates has recently signed an agreement with the United Nations to take action against child traffickers. The government has promised to enforce an existing ban on children in camel races. It also has agreed to create two treatment centers for former child jockeys. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new program aims to fight child trafficking in Russia. A non-governmental organization based in Switzerland started the program. The group is called Terre D’Homme. Natalia Chuard [pronounced chew-AHRD] is the head. The program is designed to stop the illegal flow of children into Russia from other former Soviet republics. The program will start by helping one hundred children from Moldova who are working for criminal groups in Moscow. The children are forced to ask strangers for money on the streets of Moscow. Miz Chuard told VOA reporter Lisa McAdams that the program will send the children back to their country and guarantee that they will not become victims again. VOICE TWO: Efforts to stop child trafficking have grown as more people learn of the problem. The United Nations, World Trade Organization and private groups operate campaigns to fight this crime. Many people believe these campaigns are starting to have an effect. The United States government says at least thirty-two countries now permit their citizens to be tried in court for traveling to other countries to have sex with children. Also, more than fifty international travel companies have signed a promise to urge travelers not to take part in such activities. Still, human rights activists believe the problem will never be solved until buying and selling children is no longer profitable. Human trafficking is an estimated ten thousand million dollar a year industry. Activists argue that it is because people are making money that more pressure, more laws and more public education are needed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. ----- Correction: An earlier version of this page referred incorrectly to?an official of?the International Organization for Migration. Yitna Getachew?is a man. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part Three
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) Last week we broadcast the second of our programs called “A Princess of Mars.”? The story is from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Last week we told how John Carter was captured by a group of warriors on the planet Mars. Later, he became one of them by defeating a huge warrior in a fight. He is still a captive, but he is treated with honor because he is a skilled fighter. We left John Carter at the beginning of a fierce battle between the green warriors and their main enemy. The enemy came close to the green Martians in huge air ships. The green Martians attacked. John Carter continues to tell about what happens to him in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s story, “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? Another of the large air ships exploded high in the air.Members of the crew fell to the ground. The huge ship lost control and began turning again and again. Soon it was close to the ground. The warriors climbed aboard the ship and began fighting the members of the crew who were still alive. Soon the fighting stopped. The warriors began taking everything from the ship. At last, they brought a captive from deep within the ship. Two of the warriors had their captive by each arm. I wanted to see what new and strange form of life this creature would be. As they came near, I saw that it was a woman. She looked like a woman from Earth. She was young. Her skin was a light red, almost a copper color. I saw at once that she was extremely beautiful. She had a fine face with large dark eyes and long, black hair. As her guards led her away, she saw me for a moment. She seemed very surprised. Her face looked hopeful. But when I made no attempt to speak to her, her face grew sad and she looked very small and frightened. As I watched her disappear into a building, I realized that Sola was near me. SOLA:?John Carter, that woman will be saved for the great games that are held by our people. The games are long and cruel and end in death for those captured in battle. Her death will be slow and painful. She will die for the enjoyment of all. JOHN CARTER: Sola’s face seemed sad when she said this. I could tell by the way she spoke that she did not like the games and did not want to see the young woman die. She was very different from the rest of her people. Sola, do you not like the games? SOLA:?No, John Carter. My mother died in the games. That is a secret you must not tell anyone. The wall where Tars Tarkas found you held eggs that produce our young. All the children belong to the tribe. A mother never knows which child is hers when they come out of the egg. My mother hid the egg that carried me. It was not placed within the walled area. She kept her secret until after I was born. But others discovered her secret and she was condemned to die in the games. She hid me among other children before she was captured. If this secret were learned, I too would die in the games. Before she left me, my mother told me the name of my father. I alone keep that secret. It would mean death for him as well as me. My people are violent and cruel. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER:? The next day I entered the great room where the green Martians held meetings. The red woman prisoner was there too. Soon, the leader of the green Martians came into the room. His name was Lorquas Ptomel. He began speaking to the prisoner. LORQUAS PTOMEL:? Who are you and what is your name? DEJAH THORIS: I am the Princess Dejah Thoris, daughter of Mors Kajak, the ruler of Helium. Our air ship was on a scientific flight. We were to study the air and atmosphere. Without our work the air on our planet would grow thin and we would all die. Why would you attack us?? JOHN CARTER:?As she talked, a warrior ran to her and hit her in the face, knocking her to the ground. He placed a foot on her small body and began laughing. (LAUGHTER) I reached for the small sword I carried and rushed to attack the huge warrior. (FIGHTING SOUNDS) JOHN CARTER: He was a strong opponent. But again, because of the low gravity on Mars, my strength was far greater than his. In a few short minutes, the green warrior was dead. I helped the young woman to her feet. DEJAH THORIS: Who are you?? Why did you risk your life to help me?? You look almost the same as my people, but you wear the weapons of a green warrior. Who… or what.. are you?? JOHN CARTER: My name is John Carter. I am from the planet Earth. How I got here is a long story. I attacked that warrior because, where I come from, men do not attack women. I will offer you my protection as long as I can. However, I must tell you that I, too, am a captive. SOLA: Come, John Carter, and bring the red woman with you. Let us leave this room quickly before some warrior attempts to stops us. JOHN CARTER: The three of us quickly returned to the building where I had spent the last several days. Sola then left to prepare food. Woola sat in the corner and looked at the both of us. The young woman was afraid of poor, ugly Woola. I told her not to fear him. You must tell no one, but Woola is not only my guard. He is my friend. I have treated him with kindness that he has never known. As each day passes, he trusts me more. I now think he would follow any command I give. Sola has told me that all captives are held until they can die in the great games held by the green Martians. Our only chance to survive is to escape. But we must have Sola’s help for our plan to succeed. DEJAH THORIS: Yes. If we stay with the green warriors, we will both die. If we are to escape, we will need several of the animals to ride. It would be our only chance. JOHN CARTER: I have several of the animals. They were given to me when I became a warrior. Sola came back later with food for the two of us. Dejah Thoris and I asked for her help. The three of us talked long into the night. At last Sola gave us her answer. SOLA: Your best chance for escape will be in the next two days. We will leave this city tomorrow and begin a long trip to the home of our tribe. I will help you escape. But I must come with you. I will be killed if you escape. DEJAH THORIS: Sola, of course you must come with us!? You are not cruel or violent as many of your people are. Help us and I can promise you a much better life. You will be treated with respect as an honored guest. JOHN CARTER: The next morning we rode away from the city on our animals. More than a thousand animals were carrying the huge tribe of green Martians. Also in the group were one American, one Princess of the Royal House of Helium, our guard, Sola, and poor ugly Woola. Late that night we left the camp. One animal carried me. Another Sola and Princess Dejah Thoris. Woola followed close behind. We rode quickly through the Martian night. I looked into the sky and saw Earth across the great distance of space. Since I had met the Princess Dejah Thoris, I had not thought once of Earth or home. I knew then that I would never willingly leave her. The next morning, I could see that we were being followed by several hundred of the green warriors. Our animals were very tired. I knew we must stop. I told Sola and the Princess to take the stronger of the two animals and ride away. I will hold back the green warriors as long as I can. Woola!? Go with them and guard them with your life. DEJAH THORIS: We can’t leave you alone. It would be certain death if you are captured again. ?You must come with us! JOHN CARTER: Sola took the princess by the arm and lifted her on top of the animal she had chosen. Quickly she began riding away. For a moment, Woola looked at me, then turned and ran after them. I took out my rifle from its case. I began firing to slow the green warriors. (SHOTS)? I was able to slow them for more than an hour. But then I had no more ammunition. Soon I was surrounded. A green warrior got off his animal and came toward me. He pulled out his long, thin sword. I reached for mine. As we neared each other I saw it was Tars Tarkas. He stopped and spoke to me very slowly. TARS TARKAS: You will die here… today… John Carter. It is I who must kill you. ?Know that I will take no pleasure in your death. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:?You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories. This has been the third program in our series “A Princess of Mars,” by Edgar Rice Burrows. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter.Steve Ember?was Tars Tarkas. Barbara Klein was Sola. And??Gwen Outen?was the Princess Dejah Thoris. Join us again next week as we continue “A Princess of Mars,” in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Swedish Study Finds That Placebos Can Help Calm Emotions
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. "Placebo” is a Latin word. It means “I shall please.”? And, sometimes, it just might. When scientists want to test a new drug, they usually divide a large number of people into two groups. One group takes the medicine. The other takes a substance known as a placebo. It may contain nothing more than sugar. The people do not know which pill they are taking -- the active one or the inactive one. In this kind of experiment, the medicine must perform better than the placebo to prove it is effective. Yet people who take a placebo sometimes experience improvements in their health. This is known as the “placebo effect," the effect of something that is not supposed to have any effect. Some doctors even use the placebo effect in their treatments. They might tell patients that a new drug will stop their pain. The patient does not know that the pills are inactive. The patient takes the pills and later tells the doctor that the pain is gone. Now, research in Sweden suggests that placebo treatments can also reduce the emotional effects of unpleasant experiences. The effects in the brain were similar to those seen when placebos have been used to ease pain. The researchers say that in both cases, expectations of improvement are a major influence on the effectiveness of placebos. The new study involved a group of people who looked at unpleasant pictures, such as images of dead bodies. Predrag Petrovic of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm led the study. The findings appeared in the publication Neuron. An influential study on placebos appeared in nineteen fifty-five. It said treatment with a placebo made patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. But in two thousand-one, Danish researchers reported that they had examined more than one hundred studies. They found little evidence of healing as a result of placebos. Some researchers think a good relationship between a doctor and patient can increase the effectiveness of real medicines. In any case, some medical researchers are against the use of placebos. They think it is wrong to give some people inactive substances when testing new medicines. They say it would be better to compare new drugs to existing drugs. That way, a study would show if the new drug is more effective. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign High School Students Get a Free Lesson in American Life
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Hundreds of high school students from countries with large Muslim populations have learned for themselves about American society. They spent ten months, one school year, studying in the United States through a State Department program. More than four hundred fifty students just took part in the second year of the program. They attended high schools and lived with American families in twenty states. The program is called Partnerships for Learning -- Youth Exchange and Study, or YES. It seeks to improve international understanding and security, and to teach about the rule of law. Countries involved this year include Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon. Others on the list are Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen. Students from the West Bank, Gaza and Arab communities in Israel also took part. President Bush met with some of the students at the White House on June thirteenth. He urged them and their friends to think about going to an American university. In a speech, the president described experiences of students over the past year. He noted that some got involved in political work related to the presidential election last November. One student from Morocco, for example, helped voters in Oregon get rides to voting places. The president thanked the students for sharing their cultures with Americans. He read comments written by a student from Syria named Abdul Rahman. In one of his classes, Abdul found signs everywhere wishing him a happy Ramadan on the first day of the holy month. Abdul had taken time to explain Ramadan to the other students. He says some students even tried to join him in not eating that day. One hundred sixty high school students took part in the program in the first year. State Department officials say they expect six hundred fifty students for the next school year in the fall. More countries added to the program include India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Once students are back home, they are supposed to form groups to work on service projects in their own countries. More information about the program can be found on the Internet at exchanges.state.g-o-v. Again, exchanges.state.gov. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The American Civil War: Final Surrender of the Confederate Army
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last few programs, President Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the final surrender of the armies of the Confederacy. However, before he was murdered on April fourteenth, eighteen-sixty-five, the war was really over. The surrender of Robert E. Lee, early in April, brought an end to four years of bloody fighting. Several other Confederate armies were still in the field. But they were too small and too weak to continue the fight. VOICE TWO: One army was in North Carolina, commanded by General Joe Johnston. Five days after Lee's surrender, Johnston asked for a meeting with General William Sherman, the Commander of Union forces in North Carolina. Sherman met with Johnston a few days later. He offered him the same surrender terms that General Lee had accepted. He said the Confederates must give up their weapons and promise to fight no more. Then they would be free to return to their homes. Johnston said he could not accept these terms. Johnston said he had the power to surrender all the Confederate armies everywhere in the south he said he would do so if Sherman agreed on a political settlement. VOICE ONE: The two generals met again the next day. Sherman listened as Johnston explained his demands. Most of them, Sherman accepted. He believed that President Lincoln wanted to help the south as much as possible. He had heard Lincoln say that he wanted to make it easy for the southern states to return to the Union. When the agreement was completed, Sherman sent it immediately to Washington for approval by the new president, Andrew?Johnson.The agreement seemed to give the south everything it wanted. VOICE TWO: Instead of surrendering to Sherman, the Confederate Armies would break up. The soldiers would return to their homes, taking their weapons with them. They would sign a promise not to fight again and to obey state and federal laws. In exchange for this, Sherman said the president would recognize state governments in the south which promised to support the Constitution. He said federal courts would be established in the south again. And he said the president -- as well as he could -- would protect the political rights promised to all people by the Constitution of the United States and the state constitutions. And Sherman said the United States government would not interfere with any of the southern people, if they remained peaceful and obeyed the laws. VOICE ONE: President Johnson held a cabinet meeting to discuss the agreement Sherman had signed. War Secretary Stanton and the other members of the cabinet were violently opposed to it. They said Sherman had no power to make any kind of political settlement. President Johnson rejected the agreement. He said Johnston's army must surrender within forty-eight hours...or be destroyed. He said the surrender terms could be no better than those given General Lee. VOICE TWO: Johnston decided to surrender. On April twenty-sixth, his army laid down its weapons. One by one, the remaining armies surrendered. The soldiers began returning home. Many of them were bitter. They wanted to continue to fight. They spoke of guerrilla war against the Yankees. But most of the Confederate commanders opposed this. Many, like cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, urged their men to accept defeat. Said Forrest in a farewell speech to his men: "It is a clear fact that we are beaten. We would be foolish to try to fight further. The government which we tried to establish is at an end. Civil War -- such as you have just passed through -- naturally causes feelings of bitterness and hatred. We must put these feelings aside. Whatever your responsibilities may be, meet them like men. You have been good soldiers. You can be good citizens." VOICE ONE: Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled south after the fall of his government. He hoped to get across the Mississippi River. He believed that he could form a new Confederate army. If this failed, he planned to escape to Mexico. President Lincoln had hoped that Davis would escape. He felt that punishing Davis would only create more bitterness and make reconstruction -- the rebuilding of the south -- more difficult. But President Johnson did not share Lincoln's feelings. He believed Davis had a part in the plot to kill Lincoln. He said Davis must be captured. On May tenth, Union forces found the Confederate president's camp in southern Georgia. They seized him and took him to Fort Monroe, Virginia. He remained there for many months under close guard. His trial was never held. And finally, in eighteen sixty-seven, he was freed. VOICE TWO: Late in May, one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers, representing every one of the Union armies, came to Washington. They came to take part in a big parade -- a victory march through the city. For two days, the soldiers marched past the White House. Many of the marching men had fought at Bull Run, at Fredericksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Sherman's western army was there from battles at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Atlanta. The soldiers marched proudly past the president and other government leaders. VOICE ONE: All along the way, from the Capitol building to the White House, were huge crowds of cheering people. Hour after hour, the soldiers passed. Never had the city seen such a celebration. Each group of soldiers had its band and carried its own battle flags. Some proudly carried flags that had been torn in fierce fighting. Finally, late on the second day, the final group of soldiers passed the White House. The grand parade was over. The battle flags were put away, and the marching bands fell silent. The war was ended. Now, men could look about them and count the cost of the war. VOICE TWO: Four years of bloody fighting had saved the Union of states. The northern victory had settled for all time the question of whether states could leave the Union. And it had put to rest the great problem of slavery, which had troubled the nation for so many years. But the costs were great. More than six hundred thousand men of the north and south lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded. Many had lost their arms or legs. VOICE ONE: The war cost the north almost three-and-one-half thousand million dollars. It was almost as costly to the Confederates. Most of the war was fought in the southern states. And most of the war damage was there. Hundreds of cities and towns suffered damage. Some -- like Atlanta -- were completely destroyed by Union forces. The damage outside the populated areas was almost as great. Union armies had marched across the south leaving behind them widespread destruction. Farm houses and buildings had been burned; animals and crops seized or destroyed. VOICE TWO: Transport in the south was especially hard hit. Union soldiers had destroyed most of the railroads. The few Confederate trains that escaped capture were worn out from heavy use. River boats had been destroyed. And roads and bridges were in terrible condition. The south had no money to rebuild. Businessmen and rich landowners had put their money in Confederate bonds...now completely worthless. Confederate war debts would never be paid. There was also the question of the four million former slaves. They were free now. But few could take care of themselves. They needed jobs and training. VOICE ONE: The people of the south faced a difficult future. They had been defeated in battle. Their economy was destroyed. In many areas, there was little food and the people were hungry. Farmers could not plant crops, because they had no seed and no animals to break the ground. There was no money for rebuilding. To add to all these problems, radical Republicans in Washington were demanding severe punishment for the south. Instead of offering aid, they demanded that the government sell the property of southerners to pay Union war debts. VOICE TWO: President Andrew Johnson, himself a southerner from Tennessee, oppposed the radical plans. He had his own program of reconstruction for the south. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Leo Scully and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Where Do Martians Go When They're in Seattle?
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Les Paul … A question from a listener about where Americans spend their holiday … And a report about the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Science Fiction Hall of Fame and Museum Most museums present information about the past. One museum takes visitors into the future. Well, at least people’s ideas about the future. The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, combines the real and imaginary of science. Gwen Outen tells us more. GWEN OUTEN: Could space creatures be real? Will visitors from another planet come to Earth? A visit to the Science Fiction Museum offers a chance to explore theories about the future. The museum also explains the influence science fiction has had on our modern beliefs about the world. The museum shows that while science fiction was unpopular eighty years ago, it is now at the center of our culture. The museum’s exhibits include rare science fiction books and interesting objects from films. The collection is organized into different areas such as weapons, space creatures, and the future. Visitors can see objects from famous science fiction films and television shows. These include guns from the popular television show “Star Trek.”?? Clothes worn by actors in the nineteen eighty-two film, “Blade Runner” share an exhibit with clothes worn by real astronauts. The exhibit called “The Changing Face of Mars” examines the past, present and future of the "Martians” and their Red Planet. In a separate area, the Science Fiction Hall of Fame honors the lives and work of science fiction’s greatest creators. Four new members were added this year. They include American filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Ray Harryhausen. Mister Spielberg is well known for his films including “E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial,” “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” and “Jurassic Park.”? Mister Harryhausen created memorable films including “The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,” and “Clash of the Titans.” Among other Hall of Fame members is Mary Shelley, who wrote the book “Frankenstein” in the year eighteen eighteen. In past years, only writers had been honored in the Hall of Fame. This year, the awards were expanded to include other professions. There are now forty members in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Each member is honored with his or her image on a wall, personal objects and professional works. Americans on the Move HOST: In their free time, Americans love to travel. A middle school student in China asks where Americans like to go when they travel. Although the cost of travel is rising, Americans will be traveling in record numbers this summer. Studies show that Americans’ holiday travel will increase two percent this summer, compared to last summer. The Travel Industry Association of America completed the recent study. Three out of four Americans plan to visit friends and family this summer. Seventy percent will go to a beach or lake. And sixty-four percent will visit small towns or farming areas. Others will visit big cities, national or state parks or historic areas. Still others will go camping or fishing or visit museums or amusement parks. Public opinion studies found that travelers would most like to visit the states of Florida, California, Nevada and New York this summer. ? One study said these are the top ten places Americans would like to visit: The Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone National Park and the White House and monuments in Washington, D.C. Other places on the list are Niagara Falls, the Hawaiian Islands, Mount Rushmore, the Redwood Forest, the Glaciers and the Fjords of Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. All of the top ten places show the natural beauty or history of the United States. When Americans travel, they often like to see something new, or get away from their usual surroundings. This year, three hundred twenty-eight million Americans are expected to travel more than eighty kilometers from their home. Of those who will travel on holiday this year, about two-thirds said they will leave their state. About twenty percent will leave the country. Travel spending by people in the United States also continues to rise. American travel spending is expected to reach more than five hundred fifty thousand million dollars. ? However, high prices will be a consideration for travelers. Many will look for places to stay that do not cost as much, while others will take shorter trips. Les Paul? HOST: What would rock and roll music sound like if you could not hear the guitar? For Les Paul, the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, this was an important concern. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. FAITH LAPIDUS: Les Paul was a young musician in the late nineteen twenties. He decided that the acoustic guitar was not loud enough for playing outside or in front of large groups of people. After years of experimenting, Les Paul created a guitar that could be powered by electricity and produce a much louder sound. This invention helped change the history of popular music. The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio recently added Les Paul to its list of important American inventors. Les Paul did not only create the solid-body electric guitar. He also invented new methods of recording music. He was one of the first musicians to combine several different recordings into one song. In some of his music, he had as many as six recordings of himself playing different musical instruments. Here is an example of such a song. It is called “Brazil”. (MUSIC) Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford made many records together. Les Paul wrote the songs and played the guitar while Mary Ford sang. Here is one of their hits from nineteen fifty-one called “How High the Moon”. (MUSIC) Les Paul is now ninety years old and still playing his guitar! We leave you with another number one hit by Les Paul and Mary Ford called “Vaya Con Dios”. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Brianna Blake and Dana Demange. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: General Motors and Ford Cut Jobs and Costs
* Byline: 

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are traditionally known as the "Big Three" carmakers in North America. But the industry has been going through a lot of changes. Recently both G.M. and Ford have had their debt ratings cut. Agencies that advise investors on risk said that both companies depend too much on sales of big sports-utility vehicles. Higher fuel prices have cut into sales of S.U.V.'s. G.M. and Ford have been criticized for not developing more hybrid vehicles. These use both electrical and gasoline power. Ford and G.M. also face growing long-term costs connected with their retirement programs. General Motors says it will cut twenty-five thousand jobs in North America in the next three years. G.M. announced a loss of more than one thousand million dollars in the first three months of this year. Ford, too, has announced job and spending cuts. It plans to cut two thousand seven hundred jobs this year. Ford also said it would suspend payments into one of its employee retirement plans. And it plans to sell stock in its Hertz car-rental business to raise money. Foreign competition has made its mark on the American auto industry. In nineteen ninety-eight, Chrysler joined with Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler. Headquarters are in Michigan and Germany. But this third member of the Big Three is no longer listed as an American company. And, last year, Toyota of Japan sold more cars than Ford to become the second largest car company in the world. General Motors is the largest. But industry observers are not sure how much longer that will be true. As foreign carmakers have expanded in the United States, they have built factories here. Similarly, the Big Three have joined with foreign carmakers to sell cars all over the world. For example, Ford owns Volvo and Jaguar, among others. It also controls the Japanese carmaker Mazda. G.M.'s holdings include Saab. General Motors has factories in thirty-two countries and sells cars in two hundred countries. G.M. has invested heavily in China. It has joint investments with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. America's "Big Two," General Motors and Ford, must deal with some problems. But they remain the third and fourth largest companies in the country. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/a-2005-06-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: June 22, 2005 - Emotion in Words
* Byline: 

 Today on Wordmaster with Rosanne Skirble, the emotions behind the words we say. RS: Think of how many emotions our voices are able to convey. English teacher and Wordmaster contributor Lida Baker says meaning changes by modifying the tone of voice in subtle ways. Take this simple sentence: LIDA BAKER: "The words are: 'you cut your hair.' Now I am going to quiz you, Rosanne. I am going to say those four words in certain ways and you tell me what the emotion is that I am trying to convey. Ready?" RS: "OK. Ready." LIDA BAKER: "OK here we go: "You cut your hair! RS: "Surprise!" LIDA BAKER: "Yes! How about this one: 'You cut your hair?'" RS: "You don't sound like you are too happy with me. You don't like my haircut." LIDA BAKER: "Right. Or what about this one? 'YOU CUT YOUR HAIR!' I'm sorry for shouting. Let me give you another example. The words are: 'I got 75 percent on a test.' All right, here we go again: (HAPPY TONE) 'I got 75 percent on a test.'" RS: "You sound like the happiest (person) in town. LIDA BAKER: "That's right. This is a student who has to work really hard to get average grades. So this student is quite pleased about the 75 percent, or else it was just a very hard test and nobody did very well and the person is just happy to have passed it." RS: "Right because 75 percent isn't the greatest grade." LIDA BAKER: "No. How about this one? [SURPRISED TONE] 'I got 75 percent on a test?'" RS: "You should have gotten 100 percent, which means that you should be surprised, at least in that sentence it sounds like it." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. That's what I intended! Or, [SAD, DISAPPOINTED TONE] 'I got 75 percent on a test.'" RS: "You are not happy. You are disappointed with your results. LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. OK so, you are able to read me very well, even though you can't see my face and there is no story surrounding any one of those sentences. So it is quite amazing that you knew exactly what I was trying to convey without any other clues." So how can a student of English as a foreign language learn these clues? Lida Baker says you can use visual cues - like facial expressions and gestures - or audio cues like pitch, volume and intonation. LIDA BAKER: "I was thinking for example about disappointment, and I noticed that when I said 'you cut your hair' the intonation tends to be flat throughout that slightly glides down at the end. 'You cut your hair.' And confusion can often be expressed in the form of a question, don't you think?" RS: "You cut your hair?" LIDA BAKER: "Or, I got 75 percent on a test? -- go ahead." RS: "I was just going to ask you, you know we have pitch and volume and intonation -- three cues that we can watch for -- but as you said it is very subtle and very hard for English learners to get. How can teachers help out?" LIDA BAKER: "The first thing the teacher really needs to do is to teach students to look at context clues that can help students derive meaning from a situation such as people's facial expressions. I think knowing the relationship between speakers is helpful, and of course listening to what the people have been talking about prior to the utterance." RS: "What I hear you saying, though, is that context is so important and might be the key (to understanding) here." LIDA BAKER: "Yes it is." RS: "Now, when you don't have a context, like when you are talking on the telephone, what are you to do?" LIDA BAKER: "A valuable teaching aid is to bring in video clips, just little segments and have students look at them and try to analyze the emotional content of this little small segment. First use only the audio and try to figure out what the speakers mean, and then add the visual and see what additional cues are provided when they have the visual available to them and are trying to figure out logically what the speakers could be feeling. And it just takes an enormous amount of practice." RS: "Practice, practice and more practice." LIDA BAKER: "Right, and I am always advocating role playing. Put the students in pairs and give them the same script. But one pair of students, give them the instruction that they are to express disappointment or sadness." RS: "And the other (pair) approval." LIDA BAKER: "Exactly. That's great. And then have the other students in the class guess what is going on. So then it becomes very interactive." RS: "That's great!" LIDA BAKER: "And not to forget, (use) compensation strategies. Where all else fails, ask the person, 'What do you mean?'" Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is featured in the Wordmaster archives at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. Avi Arditti will be back next week. I'm Rosanne Skirble. Today on Wordmaster with Rosanne Skirble, the emotions behind the words we say. RS: Think of how many emotions our voices are able to convey. English teacher and Wordmaster contributor Lida Baker says meaning changes by modifying the tone of voice in subtle ways. Take this simple sentence: LIDA BAKER: "The words are: 'you cut your hair.' Now I am going to quiz you, Rosanne. I am going to say those four words in certain ways and you tell me what the emotion is that I am trying to convey. Ready?" RS: "OK. Ready." LIDA BAKER: "OK here we go: "You cut your hair! RS: "Surprise!" LIDA BAKER: "Yes! How about this one: 'You cut your hair?'" RS: "You don't sound like you are too happy with me. You don't like my haircut." LIDA BAKER: "Right. Or what about this one? 'YOU CUT YOUR HAIR!' I'm sorry for shouting. Let me give you another example. The words are: 'I got 75 percent on a test.' All right, here we go again: (HAPPY TONE) 'I got 75 percent on a test.'" RS: "You sound like the happiest (person) in town. LIDA BAKER: "That's right. This is a student who has to work really hard to get average grades. So this student is quite pleased about the 75 percent, or else it was just a very hard test and nobody did very well and the person is just happy to have passed it." RS: "Right because 75 percent isn't the greatest grade." LIDA BAKER: "No. How about this one? [SURPRISED TONE] 'I got 75 percent on a test?'" RS: "You should have gotten 100 percent, which means that you should be surprised, at least in that sentence it sounds like it." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. That's what I intended! Or, [SAD, DISAPPOINTED TONE] 'I got 75 percent on a test.'" RS: "You are not happy. You are disappointed with your results. LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. OK so, you are able to read me very well, even though you can't see my face and there is no story surrounding any one of those sentences. So it is quite amazing that you knew exactly what I was trying to convey without any other clues." So how can a student of English as a foreign language learn these clues? Lida Baker says you can use visual cues - like facial expressions and gestures - or audio cues like pitch, volume and intonation. LIDA BAKER: "I was thinking for example about disappointment, and I noticed that when I said 'you cut your hair' the intonation tends to be flat throughout that slightly glides down at the end. 'You cut your hair.' And confusion can often be expressed in the form of a question, don't you think?" RS: "You cut your hair?" LIDA BAKER: "Or, I got 75 percent on a test? -- go ahead." RS: "I was just going to ask you, you know we have pitch and volume and intonation -- three cues that we can watch for -- but as you said it is very subtle and very hard for English learners to get. How can teachers help out?" LIDA BAKER: "The first thing the teacher really needs to do is to teach students to look at context clues that can help students derive meaning from a situation such as people's facial expressions. I think knowing the relationship between speakers is helpful, and of course listening to what the people have been talking about prior to the utterance." RS: "What I hear you saying, though, is that context is so important and might be the key (to understanding) here." LIDA BAKER: "Yes it is." RS: "Now, when you don't have a context, like when you are talking on the telephone, what are you to do?" LIDA BAKER: "A valuable teaching aid is to bring in video clips, just little segments and have students look at them and try to analyze the emotional content of this little small segment. First use only the audio and try to figure out what the speakers mean, and then add the visual and see what additional cues are provided when they have the visual available to them and are trying to figure out logically what the speakers could be feeling. And it just takes an enormous amount of practice." RS: "Practice, practice and more practice." LIDA BAKER: "Right, and I am always advocating role playing. Put the students in pairs and give them the same script. But one pair of students, give them the instruction that they are to express disappointment or sadness." RS: "And the other (pair) approval." LIDA BAKER: "Exactly. That's great. And then have the other students in the class guess what is going on. So then it becomes very interactive." RS: "That's great!" LIDA BAKER: "And not to forget, (use) compensation strategies. Where all else fails, ask the person, 'What do you mean?'" Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is featured in the Wordmaster archives at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. Avi Arditti will be back next week. I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Six Months After the Tsunami: A Progress Report
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Sunday will be six months since the earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean. The undersea quake produced a series of ocean waves as high as ten meters. Extensive damage spread across twelve countries in Asia and Africa, from Indonesia to Somalia. On Friday, officials from the United Nations and the European Union met to discuss progress in the aid efforts. Jan Egeland is the top U.N. official for emergency aid. It took, in his words, "five to ten seconds to wipe away two hundred twenty-five thousand people."? And, Mister Egeland added, "it will take five to ten years to rebuild all that was lost." Perhaps two million people were displaced from their homes. Many still live in emergency shelters. The World Health Organization says many survivors now suffer mental health problems. Indonesia this week said the discovery of more bodies increased the confirmed number of dead there to one hundred thirty-one thousand. Mister Egeland says the world has reacted as never before to the events of December twenty-sixth. He says the amount spent or promised for assistance and rebuilding is around eleven thousand million dollars. The United Nations has created a Web site to follow where aid is going. And, it has appointed Bill Clinton to assist the tsunami recovery efforts. The former president says it is going to take time for governments to provide the money they have offered. Government aid from the United States includes about five hundred twenty-five million dollars now being released for rebuilding. The money is for projects like roads and schools. An expert on aid financing says governments can provide help only after they receive a country’s rebuilding plan. Sri Lanka and Indonesia provided those plans in May. Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Tamil Tiger rebels signed an agreement Friday. It calls for the government to share international aid with the rebels. The deal is expected to speed up aid to heavily damaged areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers. There are hopes, too, that it will help restart peace talks in Sri Lanka. But some groups oppose the agreement. They say it will help the Tamil Tigers gain international recognition. A Marxist group left the government last week in protest. On Friday, police fired tear gas as hundreds of protesters marched in Colombo. Six months after the tsunami, scientists and governments are working to save lives in the future. Experts are meeting in Paris to discuss details of a tsunami early-warning system for the Indian Ocean. Some temporary measures are now in place. The goal is to have the new system in operation by July of two thousand six. Scientists said the earthquake had a magnitude strength of nine. Now, they say it was nine-point-one-five. The quake was strong enough to shake the planet for months. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Immigration Issues Shape the Experience of U.S. Latinos??
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: A store in Chicago, a city with a large Polish population, has signs in Polish and Spanish, reflecting changes in the area?And I’m Bob Doughty. About one out of seven people in the United States is Hispanic, or of Spanish-speaking ancestry. This week, we present the second part of our report about Hispanic life in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? We start in California. This Friday, Antonio Villaraigosa [vee-yah-ry-GOH-sah] will begin his duties as mayor of Los Angeles. Around half the four million people in the city are Latino, mostly of Mexican ancestry. Yet the place that Spanish settlers named "City of the Angels" has not had a Latino mayor since eighteen seventy-two. Mister Villaraigosa is from Los Angeles. He was born Antonio Villar. When he married his wife, Corina Raigosa, he made his name Villaraigosa. He grew up poor. ?His father, a Mexican immigrant, left the family. In high school, young Antonio suffered a growth on his spine and lost some of his ability to move. But he recovered after an operation. The future mayor once had a tattoo on his arm that read "Born to Raise Hell."? He was expelled from one high school and left another. But he completed his schooling. He went to college, then law school. Mister Villaraigosa became a labor lawyer and a state legislator. He served as speaker of the California Assembly from nineteen ninety-eight to two thousand. VOICE TWO: Now, Mister Villaraigosa will lead the second largest city in America. He won with strong support, and says he wants to be mayor of all the people. The mayor in Los Angeles has limited powers, though. And many problems await the new mayor. These include troubled schools and racial and ethnic tensions. L.A. is famous not just for Hollywood, but also for its traffic. And there are the violent gangs of young people, mainly Latino or black. Mister Villaraigosa has done a lot in his fifty-two years. Now a lot more is about to be expected of the man seen as one of the new stars in the Democratic Party. VOICE ONE: The United States has a growing number of Latino public officials. Yet many Latinos believe Hollywood and other media often misrepresent the Hispanic population. They say films and television programs mostly show Latinos as housekeepers, gardeners or gang members. There has been some improvement, though, as more Latinos enter the public eye through popular culture. In sports, professional soccer has only a limited following in the United States. But Latin American players are well known in baseball. In fact, Major League Baseball says they represent almost one-fourth of all the players. The largest numbers come from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the United States territory of Puerto Rico. Spanish-language media in the United States are expanding. So are marketing campaigns aimed at Latinos, both in Spanish and English. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Immigration is a major part of the Latino experience in America. A research group estimates that more than ten million immigrants were in the United States illegally as of March of two thousand four. The Pew Hispanic Center says most came from Latin America; more than half came from Mexico. Traditionally, illegal immigrants went to states like California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois or New Jersey. Now many are going to other parts of the country. By two thousand four, almost four million had gone to states other than the six most traditionally popular. The researchers say illegal immigrants almost always work, and most live with families. Some family members are citizens, others are not. Children born in the United States become American citizens by birth. The researchers estimate that parents who came here illegally have about three million children with American citizenship. VOICE ONE:?????? For some illegal immigrants, trying to reach the United States can be deadly. Many Cubans and Haitians have drowned attempting to reach Florida. Part of the border area between Mexico and the state of Arizona is also an especially dangerous crossing. Some illegal immigrants die in the heat of the desert; others die in the cold of the mountains. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? Border Patrol officials call the period of hot weather between May and late September "the season of death."? Criminals known as “coyotes” [koh-YOH-tehs] also play a part. Immigrants pay these people to help them enter the United States illegally. In two thousand three, the Border Patrol found the bodies of nineteen people in Victoria, Texas. A "coyote" had left them trapped without water or enough air in the back of a truck. Some illegal immigrants who are caught by the Border Patrol try again and again. In April, a civilian group offered to help guard the border area between Arizona and Mexico. The civilians carried weapons and reported sightings to the Border Patrol. At that time, the group called itself the Minuteman Project. Now it is known as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. VOICE ONE: Some in the public denounced the Minutemen as “migrant hunters.”? President Bush criticized the group. But members say they were responsible for the arrests of several hundred people. They are planning more operations. Another group, the New Mexico Minutemen, has also been established. Its members say they do not carry weapons. They say they provide food, water and medical help to people who are caught. Some churches and other community groups provide humanitarian aid to illegal immigrants but do not report them. There are calls for immigration reform. President Bush has proposed a guest worker plan. Temporary work permits would let illegal immigrants in the country stay for at least three years without fear of expulsion. After that, they would have to return home unless they had been approved for the process of citizenship. Critics say such a plan will only increase illegal immigration. VOICE TWO: The terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one, have increased efforts to strengthen border security. They have also led to measures such as a new federal law called the REAL ID Act of Two Thousand Five. Among other things, the law aims to increase security requirements for states to give someone a permit to drive. That is because Americans commonly use their driver's license for identification. The new law sets requirements for licenses to be accepted for federal purposes, such as to get on a plane. If states choose to give a license to an illegal immigrant, they are supposed to mark it with a special design or color. Opponents protested the legislation as anti-immigrant. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is illegal to hire undocumented workers. But some employers depend on them. They say illegal immigrants are willing to take jobs that Americans do not want. Work conditions are often dangerous, and jobs usually do not provide a health plan. In some communities, laborers gather on streets, often near home improvement stores, waiting and hoping to get a day's work. VOICE TWO:?????? Many people are sympathetic to the struggles of immigrants in search of a better life. But communities must also find ways to deal with the costs of education, medical care and other services for the poor. English language classes for adults are often full. Cities need more Spanish-speaking teachers, police officers and others. Immigration has always been an issue of debate in America. Some say people who enter the country illegally have no right to free services and should be punished for breaking the law. Others argue that illegal immigrants are more important to the economy than many people recognize. VOICE ONE: Traditionally, blacks were the largest minority group in the United States. Now there are more than forty-one million Latinos, fourteen percent of the population. Their numbers are growing through high birth rates and immigration. Latino leaders hope that as the numbers continue to grow, so will the social and political influence of Hispanic America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, with additional reporting by Brianna Blake. Caty Weaver produced both parts of our series. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our programs can be found on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Eleanor Roosevelt Was the Most Influential Wife of Any American President
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the woman who was the most influential wife of any American president, Eleanor Roosevelt. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of America's thirty-second president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She helped her husband in many ways during his long political life. She also became one of the most influential people in America. She fought for equal rights for all people -- workers, women, poor people, black people. And she sought peace among nations. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born in New York City in Eighteen eighty-four. Eleanor's family had great wealth and influence. But Eleanor did not have a happy childhood. Her mother was sick and nervous. Her father did not work. He drank too much alcohol. He was not like his older brother, Theodore Roosevelt, who was later elected president. When Eleanor was eight years old, her mother died. Two years later, her father died. Eleanor's grandmother raised the Roosevelt children. Eleanor remembered that as a child, her greatest happiness came from helping others. VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen hundreds, many people were concerned about the problems of poor people who came to America in search of a better life. Eleanor Roosevelt could not understand how people lived in such poor conditions while she and others had so much wealth. After she finished school, Eleanor began teaching children to read in one of the poorest areas of New York City, called "Hell's Kitchen." She investigated factories where workers were said to be badly treated. She saw little children of four and five-years-old working until they dropped to the floor. She became involved with other women who shared the same ideas about improving social conditions. Franklin Roosevelt began visiting Eleanor. Franklin belonged to another part of the Roosevelt family. Franklin and Eleanor were married in nineteen-oh-five. In the next eleven years, they had six children. VOICE ONE: Franklin Roosevelt began his life in politics in New York. He was elected to be a state legislator. Later, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him to be assistant secretary of the Navy. The Roosevelts moved to Washington in nineteen thirteen. It was there, after thirteen years of marriage, that Eleanor Roosevelt went through one of the hardest periods of her life. She discovered that her husband had fallen in love with another woman. She wanted to end the marriage. But her husband urged her to remain his wife. She did. Yet her relationship with her husband changed. She decided she would no longer play the part of a politician's wife. Instead, she began to build a life with interests of her own. In nineteen twenty-one, Franklin Roosevelt was struck by the terrible disease polio. He would never walk again without help. His political life seemed over, but his wife helped him return to politics. He was elected governor of New York two times. VOICE TWO: Eleanor Roosevelt learned about politics and became involved in issues and groups that interested her. In nineteen twenty-two, she became part of the Women's Trade Union League. She also joined the debate about ways to stop war. In those years after World War One, she argued that America must be involved in the world to prevent another war. "Peace is the question of the hour," she once told a group of women. "Women must work for peace to keep from losing their loved ones." The question of war and peace was forgotten as the United States entered a severe economic depression in nineteen twenty-nine. Prices suddenly dropped on the New York stock market. Banks lost their money. People lost their jobs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in nineteen thirty-two. He promised to end the Depression and put Americans back to work. Missus Roosevelt helped her husband by spreading information about his new economic program. It was called the New Deal. She traveled around the country giving speeches and visiting areas that needed economic aid. Missus Roosevelt was different from the wives of earlier presidents. She was the first to become active in political and social issues. While her husband was president, Missus Roosevelt held more than three hundred news conferences for female reporters. She wrote a daily newspaper commentary. She wrote for many magazines. These activities helped spread her ideas to all Americans and showed that women had important things to say. VOICE TWO: One issue Missus Roosevelt became involved in was equal rights for black Americans. She met publicly with black leaders to hear their problems. Few American politicians did this during the nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. One incident involving Missus Roosevelt became international news. In nineteen thirty-nine, an American singer, Marian Anderson, planned a performance at Constitution Hall in Washington. But a conservative women's group refused to permit her to sing there because she was black. VOICE ONE: Missus Roosevelt was a member of that organization, the Daughters of the American Revolution. She publicly resigned her membership to protest the action of the group. An opinion study showed that most Americans thought she was right. Eleanor Roosevelt helped the performance to be held outdoors, around the Lincoln Memorial. More than seventy thousand people heard Marian Anderson sing. Missus Roosevelt was always considered one of its strongest supporters of the civil rights movement. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States was forced to enter World War Two when Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in nineteen forty-one. Missus Roosevelt made many speeches over the radio praising the soldiers she saw on her travels. She called on people to urge their government to work for peace after the war was over. Franklin Roosevelt died in nineteen forty-five, soon after he was elected to a fourth term as president. When his wife heard the news she said, "I am more sorry for the people of this country than I am for myself." VOICE ONE: Harry Truman became president after Franklin Roosevelt died. World War Two ended a few months later. The leaders of the world recognized the need for peace So they joined together to form the United Nations. President Truman appointed Missus Roosevelt as a delegate to the first meeting of the UN. A newspaper wrote at the time: "Missus Roosevelt, better than any other person, can best represent the little people of America, or even the world." Later, Missus Roosevelt was elected chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission. She helped write a resolution called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That declaration became an accepted part of international law. VOICE TWO: Missus Roosevelt spent the last years of her life visiting foreign countries. She became America's unofficial ambassador. She returned home troubled by what she saw. She recognized that the needs of the developing world were great. She called on Americans to help the people in developing countries. A few years before she died, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke about what she believed in life. This is what she said: ELEANOR ROOSEVELT: “This life always seems to me to be a continuing process of education and development. What we are preparing for, none of us can be sure. But, that we must do our best while we are here and develop all our capacities is absolutely certain. We face whatever we have to face in this life. And if we do it bravely and sincerely, we’re probably accomplishing that growth which we were put here to accomplish.” VOICE ONE: Eleanor Roosevelt gave the best she had all through her life. People around the world recognized their loss when she died in nineteen sixty-two. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Calls for Change Mark 60th Anniversary of United Nations
* Byline: 

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations was created on June twenty-sixth, nineteen forty-five. Representatives from fifty countries signed charter documents in San Francisco, California. Four months later, the U.N. officially came to exist, after a majority of those countries approved the charter. The United Nations Association of San Francisco organized events to mark the sixtieth anniversary. Organizers invited many former world leaders. They also invited President Bush or a high-level representative. The administration chose Sichan Siv, the American representative on the U.N. Economic and Social Council. The anniversary comes as the United Nations faces calls for reforms. The organization is criticized for its supervision of the Iraq oil-for-food program, for sex crimes by U.N. peacekeepers and for other reasons. On June twenty-second the United States proposed a reform plan to the U.N. General Assembly. The plan includes more seats for the Security Council. The United States says it supports "two or so" new permanent members, including Japan, and two or three more non-permanent seats. Japan, Brazil, India and Germany have jointly proposed their own expansion plan. It would include them as permanent members, along with two African nations. China rejects a permanent seat for Japan. Other reform proposals being discussed include replacing the U.N. human rights commission with a smaller council. It would exclude countries with poor human rights records. In March, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan offered his own reform plan. He proposed expanding the Security Council and creating a new human rights council. His plan also includes ideas for defining terrorism, and new rules on when to use military force. World leaders are to consider the proposals in New York in September. In Washington, Senate Democrats have delayed a vote on President Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador. They say John Bolton is wrong for the job. He has strongly criticized the United Nations. In the House of Representatives, lawmakers recently passed a Republican bill to pressure the United Nations. The bill calls for the United States to make only half its U.N. payments unless there are reforms by two thousand seven. The Bush administration opposes that bill. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-27-voa4.cfm
* Headline: More From Less: America’s Highly Productive Farms
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. At one time, the United States was a nation of farmers. In nineteen hundred, about thirty-nine percent of Americans or thirty million people lived on farms. A similar percentage of the labor force earned a living by working on farms. By nineteen ninety, fewer than two percent of the population lived or worked on farms. There were also fewer farms. In nineteen forty, there were more than six million farms in America. Today there are fewer than two million. While the number of farms decreased, the size of the remaining farms increased. The average farm today is about two hundred hectares. In nineteen hundred, it was sixty. As the United States became an industrial nation, its farms changed not only in size, but in their business plans. In the past, farmers raised many different crops or animals. For example, in nineteen hundred, almost all farms raised chickens. More than seventy-five percent of farms raised pigs and milk cows. In nineteen ninety-seven, however, only about six percent of farms raised these animals. The trend in American farming has been to specialize. Farmers put their efforts into intensively raising only a few things. New technology has helped create specialized systems that produce more using less labor. Two examples of this are milk and corn. Since nineteen twenty-four, American milk production has grown almost one hundred percent. But the number of milk cows has decreased by half. Cows today produce more than four times more milk than their ancestors eighty years ago. The same is true for corn. Improved kinds of corn produce about four point seven times more corn per hectare than one hundred years ago. Economists call producing more with less an increase in productivity. The Department of Agriculture uses a measure called an index to show how productivity changes. It says America’s agricultural productivity increased by more than one hundred percent between nineteen fifty and nineteen ninety-six. Over the same period, prices of agricultural goods fell by more than fifty percent. So, the trend toward increased productivity has meant lower prices. Many farmers have answered by increasing the size of their specialized operations. Information in this report comes from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-27-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Find Most Earth-Like Planet Yet Discovered
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we talk about a natural substance that makes people more likely to trust each other. We also answer a question about stuttering and describe treatments for the speech disorder. But first, space scientists report the discovery of what they call the most Earth-like planet ever found. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American scientists say they have discovered the smallest Earth-like planet ever observed outside our solar system. They announced their findings earlier this month at the National Science Foundation, near Washington, D.C. The scientists made the discovery with one of the huge telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Each telescope stands eight levels tall and weighs more than three hundred metric tons. The scientists describe the newly-discovered planet as a ball of rock made of the same materials as Earth. They also said the planet could have an atmosphere. VOICE TWO: The scientists said the planet is more similar to Earth than anything ever observed. Yet it is very different. It is more than seven times the size of Earth and unable to support life. That is because the planet is extremely hot. Its surface temperature is between two hundred and four hundred degrees Celsius. The scientists told reporters the planet orbits a star called Gliese Eight-Seven-Six. It is fifteen light years away from Earth in the group of stars known as Aquarius. The planet moves around the star once every two days. Gliese Eight-Seven-Six has two larger planets. They are closer in size to Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. VOICE ONE: The scientists say the newly-discovered planet may be the first rocky planet ever found orbiting a star similar to our Sun. Three other rocky planets have been reported in other solar systems. But they orbit the remains of an exploded star, not a normal one. The scientists said they do not know where the planet came from. But it is as small as can be found with current instruments. They also said improved instruments are planned in the next ten years. And they said the discovery suggests that more Earth-like planets will be found in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Do you have trouble trusting people?? Maybe your body needs more oxytocin. That is a hormone that some scientists say makes people more likely to trust each other. Research scientists at universities in Switzerland and the United States recently tested the effects of oxytocin on a group of students. About one hundred eighty male students from the University of Zurich took part. The researchers set up an investment game as part of the study. Some of the students were investors in the money game. Others were called trustees. VOICE ONE: Investors and trustees were not permitted to communicate. Investors were given money. They were told any investment they made would be immediately worth three times more. But, they had to work with a trustee on each investment. And, the trustee had complete control of the money after the investment was made. So, a trustee could keep it all. Or give some back to the investor. To make it even trickier, an investor could work with each trustee only once. So an investor had no experience of a trustee before working with him. VOICE TWO: Before the games began some students were given oxytocin through their noses. Others breathed in a harmless substance, or placebo. The researchers found that persons who received the hormone invested seventeen percent more than those who got the placebo. Forty-five percent of those in the oxytocin group invested all their money. That compared with twenty-one percent of the investors in the placebo group. The researchers also reported that oxytocin only affected investors when they working with human trustees. The researchers say the effects of the hormone disappeared when the investors worked with computers as trustees. Ernest Fehr of the University of Zurich led the study. He says increasing trust may be useful for people with social fears and the brain disorder autism. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are new estimates of the number of Americans with the virus that causes AIDS. Government scientists say more than one million were living with the human immunodeficiency virus, or H.I.V. at the end of two thousand three. Health officials gave a report this month at the National H.I.V. Prevention Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set a goal in two thousand one to cut the rate of new infections in half. That goal has not been met. But a C.D.C. official, Doctor Ronald Valdiserri, said researchers do think they are making progress. VOICE TWO: Doctor Carlos del Rio of Emory University in Atlanta, however, suggested that prevention efforts have failed. He says there may be as many as sixty thousand new cases per year. In recent years, the number has been estimated at forty thousand. Almost half of those infected are believed to be men who have sex with other men. And, experts say, almost half are black. People who are infected with H.I.V. often do not know it. There are no cures. But drug treatments can delay the progress of H.I.V. into AIDS. AIDS leaves a person defenseless against disease. Researchers estimate that about forty million people worldwide are living with H.I.V. They estimate that every day more than eight thousand people die from conditions linked to AIDS. About half of all people living with H.I.V. are women. And about half of new infections are in young adults. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen To Hieu would like to learn more about stuttering. Stuttering is speech disorder. It also may be called stammering in some countries. Stuttering happens when the normal flow of speech is broken up. The speaker may repeat sounds or words. Or the speaker may have problems starting a word. Some situations may cause people to stutter. For example, talking in front of a group might cause stuttering. Yet singing or speaking alone might not. VOICE TWO: Experts estimate that more than three million Americans stutter. Stuttering affects people of all ages. But it is most common in children between the ages of two and six years. This kind of stuttering is called developmental stuttering. Children might stutter as they develop language skills, but they usually learn to speak normally once they are older. Adults who stutter might have a form of stuttering called neurogenic. This means there are signal problems between the brain and the muscles and nerves that control speech. Another kind of stuttering is called psychogenic. It is linked to the mental activities of thought and reasoning. This kind of stuttering is rare and can be found in individuals who have a mental illness or who experienced extreme mental pressure. VOICE ONE: Medical experts do not know exactly why people stutter. They do know that stuttering may be common among members of the same family. Yet, the gene that is responsible has yet to be found. Several treatments for stuttering do exist. Speech-language pathologists can provide help. They are trained to test and treat persons with voice, speech and language disorders. They can help people who stutter learn ways to improve their speech through special training. Speech-language pathologists also can help patients deal with the feelings that often come with such a disorder. When asked to speak, some people who stutter become easily frightened or shy. VOICE TWO: Experts say it helps to be patient when talking with someone who stutters. When that person speaks, listen quietly. ?Also, it is important for parents of children who stutter to provide an easy home environment. Parents should be supportive of their children and not punish them for stuttering. Many Americans who stuttered have become successful in work that requires public speaking. They include the actress Marilyn Monroe, actors Bruce Willis and James Earl Jones, and singer Carly Simon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Dana Demange, Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Princess of Mars, Part Four
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, American Stories. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the fourth and last part of our program, “A Princess of Mars.”? The story is from a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Last week, we told how John Carter observed a fierce battle between the green Martians and a race of red, human-like creatures. He also saw the beautiful Princess Dejah Thoris being captured after the battle. A short time later, John Carter, the Princess and their friend, the green Martian woman Sola, attempt to escape rather than face death. The Princess and Sola must flee while John Carter tries to slow the green warriors who are chasing them. John Carter continues to tell what happens in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ story, “A Princess of Mars.” (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER: The huge green warrior Tars Tarkas came slowly toward me with his thin sword. I backed away. I did not want to fight him. I did not wish his death. He had been as kind to me as a green Martian can be. As I stood watching him, a rifle fired in the distance, then another and another. Tars Tarkas and his warriors were under attack from another tribe of green warriors. (SOUND EFFECTS) Within seconds, a terrible battle raged. As I watched, three of the attackers fell on Tars Tarkas. He killed one and was fighting with the other two when he slipped and fell. I ran to his aid, swinging my sword. He was on his feet. Shoulder-to-shoulder, we fought against the attackers. They finally withdrew after an hour of fierce fighting. TARS TARKAS: John Carter, I think I understand the meaning of the word “friend.”? You saved my life when I was about to take yours. From this day, you are no longer a captive among our people, but a leader and great warrior among us. JOHN CARTER: There was a smile on his face. Once again, he took off a metal band from his arm and gave it to me. TARS TARKAS: I have a question for you John Carter. I understand why you took the red woman with you. But why did Sola leave her people and go with you? JOHN CARTER: She did not want to see me or the Princess harmed. She does not like the great games held by your people where captives are led to die. She knows if she is caught, she too will die in the games. She told me she hates the games because her mother died there. TARS TARKAS: What?? How could she know her mother?? JOHN CARTER: She told me her mother was killed in the games because she had hidden the egg that produced her. Her mother hid Sola among other children before she was captured. Sola said she was a kind woman, not like others of your tribe. Tars Tarkas grew angry as I was speaking. But I could see past his anger. I could see pain in his eyes. I immediately knew Sola’s great secret. ?I have a question for you, Tars Tarkas. Did you know Sola’s mother? TARS TARKAS: Yes… and if I could have, I would have prevented her death. I know this story to be true. I have always known the woman who died in those games had a child. I never knew the child. I do now. Sola is also my child. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER: For three days, we followed the trail left by the Princess Dejah Thoris, Sola and poor ugly Woola. At last, we could see them in the distance. Their animal could no longer be ridden. They were talking. When we came near, Woola turned to fight us. I slowly walked to him with my hand out. Sola was standing nearby. She was armed and prepared to fight. The princess was lying next to her feet. Sola, what is wrong with the princess? SOLA:? She has been crying much these past few days, John Carter. We believed you died so we could escape. The thought of your death was very heavy on this woman…my friend Dejah Thoris. Come and tell her you are among the living. Perhaps that will stop her crying. JOHN CARTER: I walked to where the Princess Dejah Thoris was lying on the ground. She looked at me with eyes that were red from crying. Princess, you are no longer in danger. Tars Tarkas has come with me as a friend. He and his warriors will help to see you safely home. And..Sola!? I would have you greet your father -- Tars Tarkas -- a great leader among your people. Your secret no longer means death to anyone. He already knows you are his daughter. The two of you have nothing to fear. Sola turned and looked at Tars Tarkas. She held out her hand. He took it. It was a new beginning for them. DEJAH THORIS: I know our world has never before seen anyone like you, John Carter. Can it be that all Earthmen are like you?? I was alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened. Yet you would freely give your life to save me. You come to me now with a tribe of green warriors who offer their friendship. You are no longer a captive but wear the metal of great rank among their people. No man has ever done this. JOHN CARTER: Princess, I have done many strange things in my life, many things much smarter men would not have done. And now, before my courage fails, I would ask you, to be mine in marriage. She smiled at me for a moment and then her dark eyes flashed in the evening light. DEJAH THORIS: You have no need of your courage, John Carter, because you already knew the answer before you asked the question. JOHN CARTER: And so Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, a daughter of the Red Planet Mars, promised herself in marriage to John Carter, a gentleman of Virginia. (MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS) JOHN CARTER: Several days later, we reached the city of Helium. At first, the red men of Helium thought we were an attacking army. But they soon saw their Princess. We were greeted with great joy. Tars Tarkas and his green warriors caused the greatest excitement. This huge group of green warriors entered the city as friends and allies. I soon met Tardos Mors, the grandfather of Dejah Thoris. He tried several times to thank me for saving the life of the Princess. But tears filled his eyes and he could not speak. (MUSIC) JOHN CARTER: For nine years, I served in the government and fought in the armies of Helium as a Prince of the royal family. It was a happy time. The Princess Dejah Thoris and I were expecting a child. Then, one day, a soldier returned from a long flight. When he landed he hurried to the great meeting room. Tardos Mors met with the soldier and reported that every creature on the planet had but three days to live. He said the great machines that produced the atmosphere on the planet had stopped producing oxygen. He said no one knew why this had happened, but there was nothing that could be done. The air grew thin within a day. Many people could do nothing but sleep. I watched as my Princess was slowly dying. I had to try something. I could still move with great difficulty. I went to our airport and chose a fast aircraft. I flew as fast as I could to the building that produced the atmosphere of the planet. Workers were trying to enter. I tried to help. With a great effort I opened a hole. I grew very weak. I asked one of the workers if he could start the engines. He said he would try. I fell asleep on the ground. (MUSIC) It was dark when I opened my eyes again. My clothing felt stiff and strange. I sat up. I could see light from an opening. I walked outside. The land looked strange to me. I looked up to the sky and saw the Red Planet Mars. I was once again on Earth in the desert of Arizona. I cried out with deep emotion. Did the worker reach the machines to renew the atmosphere?? Did the air reach the people of that planet in time to save them?? Was my Princess Dejah Thoris alive or did she lie cold in death?? For ten years now, I have watched the night sky, looking for an answer. I believe she and our child are waiting there for me. Something tells me that I shall soon know. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program, American Stories. Shep O’Neal was the voice of John Carter. Steve Ember was Tars Tarkas. Barbara Klein was Sola. And Gwen Outen was Princess Dejah Thoris. This story was adapted for Special English by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Paul Thompson and Mario Ritter. Listen again next week for another American Story in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Visit to Two National Parks: Mount Rainier in Washington State and Valley Forge in Pennsylvania
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about two areas that are popular with visitors to the United States. One is a place of fierce beauty. It is Mount Rainier National Park in the northwestern state of Washington. The other is one of the most important places in the history of the American Revolution. It is Valley Forge National Historical Park, in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American Indians who lived in the northwest called the great mountain “Takhoma.”? One tribe said it was a female monster that would eat people. Other old stories among the Indians said the mountain could produce huge amounts of fire. In seventeen ninety-two, British explorer George Vancouver became the first European to see the huge mountain. He named it after a navy friend, Captain Peter Rainier. Today the people who live in the northwestern city of Seattle call it “The Mountain.”? Mount Rainier is almost one hundred kilometers from Seattle. Yet it can be seen from almost any place in the city. The beautiful, snow covered mountain seems to offer the city its protection. VOICE TWO: The mountain’s offer of protection is false. Mount Rainier is not just a mountain. It is a sleeping volcano. Steam and heat often rise from the very top of the huge mountain, causing snow to melt. Mount Rainier is four thousand three hundred ninety-two meters tall. Its top is covered in snow all year. More than twenty-five thick rivers of ice called glaciers cover a lot of the mountain. In some areas, these glaciers are more than one hundred meters thick. VOICE ONE: Mount Rainier always has been a popular place to visit. Many people go to enjoy the beautiful forests that surround the mountain. Others go to climb the mountain. Hazard Stevens and Philemon VanTrump became the first people known to reach the top of Mount Rainier. They reached the top in August of eighteen seventy after a ten-hour climb through the snow. In eighteen ninety, a young schoolteacher became the first woman to reach the top. Her name was Fay Fuller. For many years after her successful climb, she wrote newspaper stories asking the federal government to make Mount Rainier a national park. Many people who visited the mountain also wanted it to be protected forever by the government. On March Second, eighteen ninety-nine, President William McKinley signed a law that made Mount Rainier a national park. It was the fifth national park established in the United States. VOICE TWO: Today, National Park Service experts say about ten thousand people climb the huge mountain each year. But only about half of the climbers reach the top. The mountain can be extremely difficult to climb. Severe weather is possible at almost any time. Snow and ice cover parts of the mountain all year.More than fifty people have died trying to climb Mount Rainier. Mountain climbing experts often use it as a difficult test for people who want to climb some of the world’s highest mountains. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You do not have to climb the huge mountain to enjoy Mount Rainier National Park. More than one million people visit the park each year. Many walk on the hundreds of kilometers of paths. The paths lead through flat meadows filled with wild flowers and up through forests of large old trees. Other visitors drive around the park to experience its natural beauty. They often see black tailed deer, elk, and mountain goats. The park is large. It is almost one hundred thousand hectares. Many lakes, rivers, roads, two hotels and six camping areas are inside the borders of the park. VOICE TWO: Experts agree that Mount Rainier will become a very active volcano at sometime in the future. They say the real problem is that they do not know when. They also agree that the great heat produced by an explosion of the volcano would melt the ice rivers that are part of the mountain. This could happen in only a few minutes. They say the melting ice would produce flowing rivers of mud and rock. People who live in the southern part of Seattle and in the city of Tacoma, Washington would be in danger. Experts carefully study the great mountain. They hope to be able to warn of any dangerous change. But for now, the great mountain provides a safe and beautiful place to visit in the Northwest area of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A very different kind of national park is in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. It is called Valley Forge National Historical Park. It is near the city of Philadelphia. Valley Forge also is a beautiful place. Within the park are many different kinds of trees and flowers. Huge areas of green grass. And a beautiful, slow moving river. You can see many deer. Often you can come very near them. Deer do not run away because they are used to seeing people in the park. It is not the natural beauty that made Valley Forge a National Historic Park. It is what happened there. Many other places were important in the American War for Independence, but no other place is so filled with suffering. No battle was fought at Valley Forge. Yet, more than two thousand soldiers of the small American army died there. They died of hunger, disease and the fierce cold in the winters of seventeen seventy-seven and seventeen seventy-eight. It was also at Valley Forge that the men of this small army learned to be real soldiers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What happened at Valley Forge began in August of seventeen seventy-seven. A British force threatened to capture the American capital at Philadelphia. The American commander, General George Washington, moved the army to defend the city. A battle was fought at a place called Brandywine and another at Germantown. The British forces won those battles and occupied Philadelphia. By the month of December, General Washington needed to find a place his small army could easily defend. He chose Valley Forge. More than fifteen centimeters of snow fell only a few days after the army arrived. Ice covered the rivers. The soldiers began building very small wooden houses called log cabins. They built more than one thousand of these small houses. VOICE ONE: The fierce winter was only one of the many problems the American army faced. Many of the soldiers had no shoes. Most had no winter clothing. All suffered from a severe lack of food. Then, several diseases struck. Typhus, typhoid, dysentery and pneumonia were among the diseases that spread through the army. Most of the soldiers became sick. Many died. General Washington wrote letters to Congress asking for help. He asked for money to buy food and clothing. But Congress had no money to give him. Several things happened to change the small army during that long and terrible winter. General Washington knew the army had been defeated in the past because of a lack of real training. A man named Baron Friedrich von Steuben had recently come from Europe. He was an expert at training soldiers. So, each day during the terrible winter, Baron von Steuben taught the men of the American army to be soldiers. He also taught them something very important. He taught them to believe in themselves. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As the winter passed, the army slowly changed. New troops arrived. New equipment arrived. An alliance with France brought guarantees of military support. The men who survived that terrible winter were no longer a group of armed citizens. They were well-trained soldiers who no longer feared the enemy. When the American army left Valley Forge on June nineteenth, seventeen seventy-eight, the soldiers took with them the spirit that had helped them to survive. The War for Independence would continue for another five years. Terrible battles were yet to be fought. However, the men who had survived the winter in Valley Forge knew they could win. They did. VOICE ONE: Today, you can visit the area where Baron von Steuben trained the soldiers of the American Revolution. You can watch a movie about the American soldiers’ struggle to survive that long ago winter. You can see examples of the small log cabins the soldiers built. You can walk on paths along the remains of the defense system and the officers’ headquarters. And you can feel the spirit of Valley Forge. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: W.H.O. Seeks Worldwide Campaign Against Cancer
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 ?I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health OrganizationThe World Health Organization has established an international committee of cancer experts. The experts will develop a plan to fight what the W.H.O. calls “the global epidemic of cancer.”? They held their first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month. The advisory committee is expected to develop the W.H.O. Global Cancer Control Strategy by early next year. The goal is to reduce cancer rates and improve quality of life for cancer patients and their families. The W.H.O. is the United Nations health agency. Delegates at the World Health Assembly meeting last month approved a resolution on cancer prevention and control. They agreed on the need to do more to fight increases in cancer deaths. The committee is a first step. The World Health Organization says more than twenty million people are living with cancer. The disease is a leading cause of death. Cancer kills almost seven million people a year. By comparison, AIDS-related conditions kill three million people a year. The W.H.O. expects the number of cancer deaths to increase fifty percent within fifteen years. The agency says cancer rates are on the rise in both developing and developed countries. It says the increase is linked to such things as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise. Infections and cancer-producing chemicals are also responsible. Medical experts say at least one-third of all cancers can be prevented. In some developing countries, people are living longer because of better treatments for infectious diseases. But cancer risk increases with age. As a result, aging populations play a part in the increase in cancer rates. Worldwide, the most common cancers in men are in the lungs and stomach. In women, the most common are breast and cervical cancer. The W.H.O. notes that some of the most common forms of cancer are curable with operations, drugs or radiation treatment. Many countries have national cancer policies and programs. However, health officials say more action is needed. The World Health Assembly resolution calls on all member states to develop national cancer programs. These would include prevention measures, early cancer testing, and improved treatment and care for those living with cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/a-2005-06-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Speaking of Alabama, Part 1
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a lesson in regional English in the American South. RS: And to give you that lesson is a woman who wrote to us from Alabama named Donna Akins. Donna Akins is not an English teacher, not a linguist, not an author. She heads a non-profit organization for adults with developmental disabilities. AA: But when she's not busy at work, Donna Akins takes a strong interest in language. And she's proud of her Southern linguistic roots -- roots which she worries may be withering. DONNA AKINS: "I think we have a real neat dialect and I hear it dying, especially when you visit the larger towns. We're very close to Huntsville, Alabama, and we're not too far from Atlanta or Birmingham, and when you visit those places a lot of the locals you can't even tell are Southerners anymore. And that's sad to me. But then, as I used in the example to you in an e-mail, you'll hear those people who are very proud of their Southern heritage and don't hesitate to use it. "I heard one woman say, she was asking about someone's family, and said, 'How's your mom and them? Well, tell 'em I said how-do.' And that's just such a neat expression to me." RS: "And that phrase again is." DONNA AKINS: "Well, what she said was 'how's your mom and them?' which means 'how is your family?' -- it's 'your momma and them' -- and 'tell 'em I said how-do,' which is howdy-do or how are you, hello, I'm thinking about you. Just a good, all-purpose phrase that means several different things." AA: "How do you reply to a statement like that?" DONNA AKINS: "Well, you would say, 'Well, thank you for asking, and I'll let them know that you asked about them." RS: "Well, that I can understand." DONNA AKINS: "Yeah!" AA: "Now, what are some other expressions, terms you might toss into your conversation?" DONNA AKINS: "Well, I was talking with Pat this morning, my friend. She has kidded me unmercifully since I told her I was doing this with y'all, that I better not get on the radio and embarrass us. But she said 'you just let them know that we do own pickup trucks and we can come whup 'em if they embarrass us.' You know, that was just a big joke between us. "But, you know, I still hear friends that will use that expression about 'if he steps out of line, I'm going to whup him.' That's not an uncommon thing to say. "We laugh about when things are a distance away, it's 'fur and snakey." AA & RS: "It's what?" DONNA AKINS: "Fur and snakey." RS: "You mean 'far and ... " DONNA AKINS: "Snakey just means it's rural, it's a long way off." RS: "Like there might be snakes there." DONNA AKINS: "Exactly! You're catching on. And I remember as a child just certain words that would be used. I can remember my elderly aunt who would say 'we'll do that directly.'" RS: "You mean like 'right now.'" DONNA AKINS: "Well, it wasn't right now, it was more 'it won't be too long before we do that.' And I remember my father would use the word 'hope' instead of 'help.'" RS: "Could you spell that word please?" DONNA AKINS: "H-O-P-E." AA: "But he meant help. I mean, he was pronouncing it hope." DONNA AKINS: "That's right. He would say 'I stopped and hoped him.' I always found that somewhat embarrassing. I thought it sounded so old. "And then I can remember one of my high school English teachers asking, did any of our parents say that? And she told us that of course that was the old English form of the word 'help' and that you still heard that some as a carryover in the South. I don't hear that anymore. I haven't heard that probably since my father passed away a number of years ago." RS: "Well, one of the things you always hear in Southern speech is the expression 'y'all.' Why don't you go through that for us." DONNA AKINS: "Well, y'all, I hear that a little bit of everywhere now. I'm hearing it on TV, I'm hearing it when I travel. It doesn't seem to be as much a Southern word anymore as it used to be. I think of it as one word because we would never consider saying 'you all,' which is what you're implying. " AA: "You don't use that for one person, [but] when you're talking to a group or a couple of people." DONNA AKINS: "That's right. And I've heard that on TV where they'll be trying to use the word and they'll refer to a singular person as y'all. And that would never be done here. Y'all is a group." RS: And we hope y'all -- y-apostrophe-a-l-l -- will listen again next week. We will have more of our conversation about Southern dialects with Donna Akins, a resident of the mussel shoals area of Alabama. AA: Our English teaching segments are all on our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Sweet Home Alabama"/Lynyrd Skynyrd (the Swampers, referred to in the lyrics, are a music group in the Mussel Shoals area of the state) AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a lesson in regional English in the American South. RS: And to give you that lesson is a woman who wrote to us from Alabama named Donna Akins. Donna Akins is not an English teacher, not a linguist, not an author. She heads a non-profit organization for adults with developmental disabilities. AA: But when she's not busy at work, Donna Akins takes a strong interest in language. And she's proud of her Southern linguistic roots -- roots which she worries may be withering. DONNA AKINS: "I think we have a real neat dialect and I hear it dying, especially when you visit the larger towns. We're very close to Huntsville, Alabama, and we're not too far from Atlanta or Birmingham, and when you visit those places a lot of the locals you can't even tell are Southerners anymore. And that's sad to me. But then, as I used in the example to you in an e-mail, you'll hear those people who are very proud of their Southern heritage and don't hesitate to use it. "I heard one woman say, she was asking about someone's family, and said, 'How's your mom and them? Well, tell 'em I said how-do.' And that's just such a neat expression to me." RS: "And that phrase again is." DONNA AKINS: "Well, what she said was 'how's your mom and them?' which means 'how is your family?' -- it's 'your momma and them' -- and 'tell 'em I said how-do,' which is howdy-do or how are you, hello, I'm thinking about you. Just a good, all-purpose phrase that means several different things." AA: "How do you reply to a statement like that?" DONNA AKINS: "Well, you would say, 'Well, thank you for asking, and I'll let them know that you asked about them." RS: "Well, that I can understand." DONNA AKINS: "Yeah!" AA: "Now, what are some other expressions, terms you might toss into your conversation?" DONNA AKINS: "Well, I was talking with Pat this morning, my friend. She has kidded me unmercifully since I told her I was doing this with y'all, that I better not get on the radio and embarrass us. But she said 'you just let them know that we do own pickup trucks and we can come whup 'em if they embarrass us.' You know, that was just a big joke between us. "But, you know, I still hear friends that will use that expression about 'if he steps out of line, I'm going to whup him.' That's not an uncommon thing to say. "We laugh about when things are a distance away, it's 'fur and snakey." AA & RS: "It's what?" DONNA AKINS: "Fur and snakey." RS: "You mean 'far and ... " DONNA AKINS: "Snakey just means it's rural, it's a long way off." RS: "Like there might be snakes there." DONNA AKINS: "Exactly! You're catching on. And I remember as a child just certain words that would be used. I can remember my elderly aunt who would say 'we'll do that directly.'" RS: "You mean like 'right now.'" DONNA AKINS: "Well, it wasn't right now, it was more 'it won't be too long before we do that.' And I remember my father would use the word 'hope' instead of 'help.'" RS: "Could you spell that word please?" DONNA AKINS: "H-O-P-E." AA: "But he meant help. I mean, he was pronouncing it hope." DONNA AKINS: "That's right. He would say 'I stopped and hoped him.' I always found that somewhat embarrassing. I thought it sounded so old. "And then I can remember one of my high school English teachers asking, did any of our parents say that? And she told us that of course that was the old English form of the word 'help' and that you still heard that some as a carryover in the South. I don't hear that anymore. I haven't heard that probably since my father passed away a number of years ago." RS: "Well, one of the things you always hear in Southern speech is the expression 'y'all.' Why don't you go through that for us." DONNA AKINS: "Well, y'all, I hear that a little bit of everywhere now. I'm hearing it on TV, I'm hearing it when I travel. It doesn't seem to be as much a Southern word anymore as it used to be. I think of it as one word because we would never consider saying 'you all,' which is what you're implying. " AA: "You don't use that for one person, [but] when you're talking to a group or a couple of people." DONNA AKINS: "That's right. And I've heard that on TV where they'll be trying to use the word and they'll refer to a singular person as y'all. And that would never be done here. Y'all is a group." RS: And we hope y'all -- y-apostrophe-a-l-l -- will listen again next week. We will have more of our conversation about Southern dialects with Donna Akins, a resident of the mussel shoals area of Alabama. AA: Our English teaching segments are all on our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Sweet Home Alabama"/Lynyrd Skynyrd (the Swampers, referred to in the lyrics, are a music group in the Mussel Shoals area of the state) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Book Compares Education Systems Around the World
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new book by two professors at Pennsylvania State University compares public education systems around the world. The book is called “National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling.” David Baker and Gerald LeTendre led a group of researchers who gathered information on about fifty countries. Some findings came from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. That study took place in nineteen ninety-four and again five years later. The professors say education is increasingly shaped by what they call "transnational forces."? Officials in many countries are concerned about how their students compare with students in other countries. Each part of the book develops a different subject researched in schools around the world. One of the subjects is violence among students. The professors say countries with the most school violence include Hungary, Romania and the Philippines. They say the United States is somewhere in the middle, above nations like New Zealand, Canada, South Korea, Spain and Australia. The findings are based on reports from students. Professor Baker says inequalities in educational systems act as an influence. He says schools that are sharply divided between "winners and losers" in math have higher levels of violence. "This does not mean that nations should stop trying to raise scores," he says. "But they should be careful to raise the performance among all students." Also, the researchers often found no connection between national performance and the average amount of homework given in a nation. Teachers generally give little homework in countries with the highest average test scores, such as Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark. But the professors say teachers in countries with low average test scores like Thailand, Greece and Iran often give lots of homework. Yet the authors say most teachers worldwide could learn to make better use of homework. Children are mostly given material to remember. But conditions at home, especially in poorer families, may not support the kind of environment needed to do such work. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-06/2005-06-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Andrew Johnson: The Story of America's Seventeenth President
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In the spring of eighteen sixty five, America's Civil War was over. The man who had led the Union during the war, Abraham Lincoln, was dead. He had been assassinated before the final surrender of Confederate forces. Now, the re-united nation had a new president, Andrew Johnson. He had been Lincoln's vice president. The chief justice of the United States swore-in Johnson a few hours after Lincoln's death. Most of Lincoln's cabinet was there, together with leading members of Congress. They looked to the new president with a mixture of shock and hope. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Shep O'Neal and I begin the story of America's seventeenth president. VOICE TWO: Andrew Johnson was -- like Abraham Lincoln -- a man of the people. He was born in North Carolina. His family was poor. There was no money, or time, for young Andrew to go to school. When he was fourteen years old, his mother sent him to work for a tailor to learn to Make clothes. Andrew worked hard. He opened his own tailoring business in the eastern part of the state of Tennessee. When he was eighteen, he married. His wife, Eliza, taught him to read and write. VOICE ONE: Andrew became active in politics. At the age of twenty-one, he was elected to the town council. Two years later, he became mayor of the town. At thirty-five, he won a seat in Congress, in Washington. Next, he became governor of Tennessee. Then the state made him one of its two senators. The poor tailor boy was a success. VOICE TWO: Andrew Johnson was a member of the Democratic Party. In the presidential election of eighteen-sixty, he supported his party's candidate, not the candidate of the Republican Party: Abraham Lincoln. But Lincoln won the election. And, as a result, southern states carried out their earlier threat. They began leaving the Union to form their own nation. Johnson opposed this secession. He believed the South should remain part of the United States. He decided he had no choice but to support the Republican president. Most of the other citizens in Tennessee disagreed with him. They decided to leave the Union. Andrew Johnson had to flee his home to save his life. He returned only after Union forces took control of Tennessee and made him military governor. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln noticed the man from Tennessee who supported the Union over the opposition of others. In eighteen sixty-four, Lincoln decided to run for re-election. He chose Johnson to be his vice presidential candidate. Lincoln hoped Johnson would win the support of Union-loving Democrats. He hoped Johnson would help heal the wounds between North and South. Now, Lincoln was dead. And Johnson was president. It was up to this little-known former tailor to make the decisions on reconstruction -- on rebuilding the Union. Johnson, not Lincoln, would decide if reconstruction would be easy or hard. Johnson would choose if the North would punish the defeated rebel states or be merciful to them. VOICE TWO: The radicals of Lincoln's Republican Party wanted severe reconstruction. They said the South was a defeated enemy. They demanded strong punishment for all southerners who took part in the rebellion. These radicals had disliked Lincoln's plans for reconstruction. They felt he was too weak. Now, they hoped Johnson would share their ideas. They urged him to call a special session of Congress to pass strong legislation against the South. The radicals had reason to believe the new president agreed with them. He had called the rebels traitors. He had demanded strong action against them when the war ended. "The time has come," Johnson had said, "when the American people should understand what crime is. And that it should be punished." VOICE ONE: But Andrew Johnson surprised the radicals. He did not call the special session of Congress. Instead, he announced his own program for the southern states. Johnson declared a pardon for all former confederates who promised to support the Union and obey laws against slavery. Then, he permitted former officials of the confederacy to run for office in their states' new elections. Many of these former rebels were elected. The radical Republicans were angry. They saw these elections as proof that the South had not really changed. They accused Johnson of being too soft. They urged him to punish the rebels. One radical newspaper wrote: "There is only one sure and safe policy for the immediate future. The North must remain the dictator of the republic until the spirit of the North shall become the spirit of the whole country. The South's treason is still unpunished. Southerners cannot be trusted. " VOICE TWO: The radicals also worried about what would happen to the recently freed slaves. They said the new state governments of the south would not treat blacks as free and equal citizens. As proof, they pointed to new laws the southern legislatures passed. For example, the state legislature in Mississippi said no black person could rent farmland. It said a black person needed special permission to work at any job except farming. Mississippi also passed a law saying a black person could be forced to work for a white man -- usually his former owner -- if he had no other job. Another way the state governments in the South acted against blacks was by refusing to give them the right to vote. VOICE ONE: The radical Republicans decided that President Johnson's reconstruction program must be stopped. They began working to get control of Congress to pass their own program. Only by gaining political power could they punish the South and guarantee full political rights to former slaves. The radicals tried to take control in two ways. First, they refused to let many of the recently elected southern congressmen take their seats when Congress opened. Then they formed their own joint committee on reconstruction. This committee -- not the Senate or the House of Representatives -- would make many of the decisions about reconstruction. VOICE TWO: Radical lawmakers took other steps to seize control of reconstruction efforts in the South. Congress had established a government agency to take care of black refugees in the South. The agency gave food and clothing to former slaves who had no food, money, or jobs. It began to teach them to read and write. Republicans in Congress moved to extend the life of the agency and increase its powers. They passed a bill and sent it to the White House for the president's approval. President Johnson vetoed the bill. He said it would create false hopes among former slaves. He also said it was unconstitutional. The radicals tried to overturn Johnson's veto. However, they failed to get the necessary votes. VOICE ONE: Congress passed several other bills giving the federal government power to protect the rights of blacks in the southern states. President Johnson vetoed these bills, too. He said they interfered with the rights of the states. These defeats made the radicals even more angry. Their newspapers began a steady attack against the president and his policy toward the South. Some even accused him of treason. VOICE TWO: Many Americans agreed with this criticism of President Johnson. They gave the radicals a big victory in congressional elections of eighteen sixty-six. Radical leaders gained the power to pass any bill they wished, even over the president's veto. And they wasted no time doing just that. Time after time, they voted to overturn Andrew Johnson's vetoes. The atmosphere in Washington became very tense. Relations between Congress and the White House sank to their lowest level in history. The political skies darkened. Soon, the storm broke. The radicals tried something that had never been tried before. They tried to remove the president from office. The conflict between the radicals and Andrew Johnson would provide some of the most historic and intense moments in American history. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by David Jarmul and Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Taste of America, and Beyond, at the Folklife Festival
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from performers at special concerts called Live Eight… A question from a listener about the Presidential home known as Camp David…??? And a report about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. Folklife Festival HOST: Every summer since nineteen sixty-seven the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., holds a special outdoor event. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival celebrates American and international cultures and traditions. This year, one of the subjects is “Food Culture USA.” Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The United States has experienced changes in the past forty years in the way food is grown and enjoyed. Visitors to “Food Culture USA” learn how American food is influenced by different cultures and traditions. Americans can choose many kinds of foods in stores and eating places because of the presence of immigrants from all over the world. Professional cooks in the United States use these food traditions to create new ones. Americans have also become more interested in buying specially made foods. For example, many farmers grow fresh fruits and vegetables without using chemicals. Some producers make only one kind of food, such as cheese or olives. Even large companies are becoming more interested in selling healthier products. Visitors to the Food Culture area of the Folklife Festival can see many exhibits that explain current food movements in America. In one area, famous professional cooks talk about their experience with food. Another area explains the history of spices, chocolate, and coffee. These products come from all over the world and are important to the food traditions of many countries. There is also a special garden where you can learn how to grow fresh food. Visitors can also eat tasty food from different parts of the world. For example, one food seller makes meat and vegetables from Peru. Another seller cooks the traditional meat, bread and rice from the Arab nation of Oman. You can even try American food such as buffalo burgers. This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival is not just about food, however. Visitors can experience other cultural traditions from Oman, hear music of Latino culture and learn about the United States Forest Service. Camp David HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Akingbulugbe Lawrence asks about a place known as Camp David. Camp David is the official place where the President of the United States goes to get away from Washington, D.C. It is in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland, about one hundred kilometers from the nation’s capital. The President goes there to enjoy a quiet time with his family and friends. American presidents also meet with foreign leaders at Camp David. In recent years, President Bush’s guests at Camp David have included Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He has also met there with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and King Abdullah of Jordan. Camp David has an office for the president and living areas for his family and guests. It includes a swimming pool and areas to play golf and other sports. No one is permitted to enter Camp David except people invited by the president. Armed guards from the United States Marine Corps provide security. President Franklin Roosevelt established the camp in nineteen forty-two. He wanted a place where he could go to escape the summer heat of Washington. He chose an area in the mountains because it was cool in the summer. He called it Shangri-La”, the name of a perfect mountain kingdom in a popular book. President Harry Truman made the camp the official presidential holiday home in nineteen forty-five. Eight years later, President Dwight Eisenhower changed its name to Camp David, for his grandson, David Eisenhower. Important meetings have taken place at Camp David in the past. President Roosevelt met there with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during World War Two. President Eisenhower met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in nineteen fifty-nine. And President Jimmy Carter used Camp David for peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in nineteen seventy-eight. Israel and Egypt made peace at those talks. Their agreement is called the Camp David Accords. Live Eight HOST: Twenty years ago Irish musician Bob Geldof helped organize huge concerts to raise money for people starving in Ethiopia. The concerts, called Live Aid, were held on the same day around the world. Many famous musicians performed. Bob GeldofBob Geldof is doing it again. On Saturday, many famous musicians will perform in concerts around the world. They include the Dave Matthews Band, opera singer Andrea Bocelli and Latin singer Shakira. This event is called Live Eight. Its purpose is to raise concern about the economic and social crises in? Africa. Gwen Outen has our report. GWEN OUTEN: American singer Madonna was a new star when she performed at Live Aid in nineteen eighty-five. She will perform this time too, at the show in London. Here she is with an early hit, “Lucky Star.” (MUSIC) Bob Geldof says Live Eight is not Live Aid Two. He says the concerts are free because he is not trying to raise money. He just wants people around the world to think more about the problems of developing countries. He named the event Live Eight because leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations will meet the following week in Scotland. He wants to put pressure on the world’s richest nations to cancel the debt and increase aid for the world’s poorest nations. But he says the public must demand such action. Bono of U2 agrees. At a recent concert in Scotland he asked fans to help “Make Poverty History.”? U2 will also perform in London. Here is the band with their song, “One.” (MUSIC)?? ?????????????? The concerts will be held in other European cities and in the United States, Japan, South Africa and Canada. Millions of people around the world are expected to watch live broadcasts of the concerts on television. Singer Sara McLachlan will be among the performers at the concert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We leave you now with her song, “Angel.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Mario Ritter was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237 U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Supreme Court News: Sandra Day O'Connor to Retire ... Big Ruling on Property Rights
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. On June twenty-third, the Supreme Court decided an important case about property rights in the United States. The ruling will permit local governments to take private property for economic development. This is how the case developed: In nineteen ninety-eight, officials in New London, Connecticut, announced plans to redevelop an area of the city. Soon, the drug company Pfizer decided to place a research center in New London. This was good news for a city with years of economic difficulties. In two thousand, officials expanded the economic development plan to include property along a river. They said the project would create more than one thousand jobs. But the project needed land. The city of New London was able to buy about one hundred properties in the development area. However, nine people who owned fifteen properties refused to sell. The city said it would take the properties under eminent domain. Eminent domain is a power that governments have to seize property in some cases. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution permits governments to take private property for "public use," if there is fair payment. State courts in Connecticut ruled that the city could take the homes. The owners appealed to the United States Supreme Court. They argued that the project did not represent a "public use."? Private companies would develop the office space and other buildings proposed. The case divided the court. Four justices supported the owners. However, the other five supported the city. The majority ruled that the city could use eminent domain to take the properties after paying a fair price. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion. He noted that governments may take land for public projects like roads. Justice Stevens said projects that help a community grow economically also serve a public purpose. However, he said that states could restrict the use of eminent domain if they choose. In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor argued that governments now could take land simply by claiming it for economic development. She said any private property could be given to another private owner, so long as it might be improved. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Bush Says War in Iraq Is Worth the Sacrifice
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 ? I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush spoke to the American people on Tuesday about the war in Iraq. Mister Bush did not announce any policy changes. He spoke on the first anniversary of the change of power from the American-led coalition to an Iraqi government. He made the speech from the Army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The president called Iraq the "latest battlefield" in a war against terrorists who hate freedom and want to control the Middle East. He said the war reached American shores with the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Mister Bush talked about images of the violence in Iraq. He said, "I know Americans ask the question: Is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it, and it is vital to the future security of our country." The president said Iraq has taken steps toward a democratic government through the elections held in January. He noted that the Iraqis are in the process of writing a constitution. Mister Bush also discussed American training for members of the Iraqi security forces. In his words: "Today, Iraq has more than one hundred sixty thousand security forces trained and equipped for a variety of missions." Mister Bush said it would be a "serious mistake" to set a time limit for withdrawing American forces. He said Iraqis "need to know that America will not leave before the job is done."? And he said the enemy would know that all they have to do is wait. The president says he is willing to send more troops, but that commanders tell him they have the number they need. Some critics of the war say few Iraqi troops are able to operate independently. They say it will take at least two more years to build an effective Iraqi army. President Bush talked about an increase in international assistance for Iraq in the past year. But critics noted that a number of countries have withdrawn troops or announced plans to leave, or have not yet given money promised. More than one thousand seven hundred American service members have been killed in Iraq. Critics have long accused the president of falsely linking Iraq and the September eleventh attacks as a reason for war. However, many now agree that the number of foreign terrorists in Iraq has increased as a result of the war. They say American troops must defeat them. Still, public opinion research has shown an increase in the numbers of Americans who question the president's policy on the war. Fifty-three percent of those in one study done before the speech said it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Music History: Charlie Parker Took Jazz in a New Direction
* Byline: Written by Vivian Bournazian

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of America's greatest jazz musicians, Charlie Parker. He influenced the direction of jazz music during his short lifetime. His influence continues today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Charlie Parker forever changed the performance and writing of jazz music. He developed a new style of jazz called bebop. It was different from the dance, or swing, style that was popular for years. Charlie Parker Performers of bebop left the traditional musical melody and played a song freely, with the music and rhythm that was felt at the time. So, the same song could be played in a different way each time it was performed. Charlie Parker said: "Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.” VOICE TWO: Charlie Parker was born August, twenty-ninth, nineteen twenty, in the middle western state of Kansas. He had his first music lessons in the local public schools. His mother bought him a saxophone in nineteen thirty-three. Two years later, he decided to leave school and become a professional musician. For the next four years, he worked mainly in Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz music had become popular. Charlie developed as a musician by playing with different groups in public eating and drinking places called nightclubs. He also learned by listening to older local jazz musicians. During this time, Charlie developed serious problems that were to affect him the rest of his life. He became dependent on alcohol and the illegal drug, heroin. VOICE ONE: One night in nineteen thirty-six, the young musician decided to take part in a "jam session. " Musicians from all over Kansas City would play for fun during these unplanned performances. These jam sessions often became musical battles. The better, the faster, the stronger, the more creative musician would win. Charlie began to play the saxophone that night. He played well for a while. But he then became lost in the music. The drummer threw down his instrument and brought Charlie to a halt. Charlie later said: "I went home and cried and didn't play again for three months. " The incident, however, made Charlie work even harder to improve his playing. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-nine, Charlie went to New York City. He stayed for almost one year. He was able to get a few paying jobs playing the saxophone. Most of his time, though, was spent playing in unpaid jam sessions. It was during this time that he began to develop his own style of jazz. He said later that this was when he made a big discovery. He was unhappy playing songs the same way all the time. He thought there had to be another way to play. He said: "I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.” He began working on the song "Cherokee. " He used the higher notes of a chord as a melody line and made other changes. He now could play the things he had been hearing. It was in December, nineteen thirty-nine, that Charlie Parker made this discovery. He later said that with it, he "came alive. " Here he is playing "Cherokee": (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Charlie Parker's name first appeared in the press reports about music in nineteen forty. During the next five years, he joined different bands. He played with the Earl Hines orchestra and the Billy Eckstine orchestra. He also played with other young jazz musicians who helped make the new sound known.Trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and pianists Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell were some of them. CharlieParker and Dizzy Gillespie CharlieParker and Dizzy Gillespie Parker was considered the greatest of the bebop jazz musicians. This song, "Now's the Time," is one of his hits during this time: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Parker's continuing drug habit was affecting him. He often was late for performances. Or he missed them. He had decided he did not like the music of the big bands. He apparently did not feel at ease playing with a big band, even one that followed his own musical ideas. In nineteen forty-five, he returned to New York City. He had the idea of starting a small jazz group. In New York, he joined Dizzy Gillespie. Their work together was among the greatest in American music history. They enjoyed the support of younger musicians. Yet, they had to fight the criticism of those opposed to any new development in jazz. That year, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie took the new jazz sound to California. Charlie continued to record and perform in Los Angeles, even after Dizzy returned to New York. It was during this time that Parker recorded "Ornithology:" (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-six, Charlie Parker suffered a nervous breakdown. His dependence on heroin and alcohol led to this severe mental condition. He was sent to a hospital and stayed there for six months. He returned to New York City in nineteen forty-seven. The following four years are considered his most successful. He formed his own small bands and played with other groups. He visited Europe three times, where he recorded about half of the albums he ever made. In July, nineteen fifty-one, New York City officials took away his right to play in nightclubs because he used illegal drugs. His debts greatly increased. His physical and mental health began to fail. VOICE TWO: Charlie Parker was given a permit to play in New York again two years later. Jobs, though, were difficult to find. He finally got a chance to play for two nights in March, nineteen fifty-five. It was at Birdland, the most famous jazz nightclub in New York City. Birdland had opened in nineteen forty-nine. It was named after "Bird," as Charlie Parker's followers called him. Parker knew those performances might be his last chance to re-claim the success he had gained only a few years earlier. His last public appearance was on March fifth, nineteen fifty-five, at Birdland. It was not a success. He died seven days later of a heart attack. He was thirty-four. VOICE ONE: Charlie Parker's influence on modern jazz music continues to live. He led many artists to "play what they hear." Jazz musicians continue to perform his music, often copying his sound and style. But, experts say, no one has ever played the same as "Bird". (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Battle Against Polio Continues
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Some countries are reporting progress in ending the disease polio, but polio is still spreading to other countries. Polio spreads through water and human waste. People with polio are not able to move their arms or legs. Sometimes polio is deadly. But the disease can be prevented with a vaccine medicine that is given to babies and young children. Children under five years old should receive at least four doses of the polio vaccine to be protected. Polio had ended completely in Yemen and Indonesia. But experts believe the disease has now spread there from Nigeria. Vaccinations stopped for one year in Nigeria when some people worried about whether the vaccine was safe. Vaccination campaigns have started again in Nigeria. The number of polio cases in that country has been reduced by fifty percent. But now there are at least sixty-five cases of the disease reported in Indonesia and more than two hundred forty in Yemen. Yemen has almost half of all the new cases of polio in the world this year. There are also new cases in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Niger. India and Pakistan have never been free of polio, but world health officials say more children in India are protected against polio than ever before. For example, polio immunization campaigns are being held every six weeks in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Also in India, seventy-five percent of the groups that give the vaccinations include a person who is well known in the local community. Health officials say this means that many more children receive the polio vaccine. They also say that the support of local governments in Pakistan has been very important. Health officials say big vaccination campaigns are planned this year in all the countries where polio is spreading. For example, there will be six national immunization campaigns in more than twenty countries in west and central Africa. When children receive the polio vaccine, they will also receive a dose of Vitamin A to help their bodies fight other diseases. World health officials are still hopeful that they can stop the spread of polio all over the world by the end of this year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. Some countries are reporting progress in ending the disease polio, but polio is still spreading to other countries. Polio spreads through water and human waste. People with polio are not able to move their arms or legs. Sometimes polio is deadly. But the disease can be prevented with a vaccine medicine that is given to babies and young children. Children under five years old should receive at least four doses of the polio vaccine to be protected. Polio had ended completely in Yemen and Indonesia. But experts believe the disease has now spread there from Nigeria. Vaccinations stopped for one year in Nigeria when some people worried about whether the vaccine was safe. Vaccination campaigns have started again in Nigeria. The number of polio cases in that country has been reduced by fifty percent. But now there are at least sixty-five cases of the disease reported in Indonesia and more than two hundred forty in Yemen. Yemen has almost half of all the new cases of polio in the world this year. There are also new cases in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Niger. India and Pakistan have never been free of polio, but world health officials say more children in India are protected against polio than ever before. For example, polio immunization campaigns are being held every six weeks in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Also in India, seventy-five percent of the groups that give the vaccinations include a person who is well known in the local community. Health officials say this means that many more children receive the polio vaccine. They also say that the support of local governments in Pakistan has been very important. Health officials say big vaccination campaigns are planned this year in all the countries where polio is spreading. For example, there will be six national immunization campaigns in more than twenty countries in west and central Africa. When children receive the polio vaccine, they will also receive a dose of Vitamin A to help their bodies fight other diseases. World health officials are still hopeful that they can stop the spread of polio all over the world by the end of this year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ooh! Ahh! Sis-Boom-Bah! Music to Go With the Fourth of July Fireworks
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC)? ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. America's Declaration of Independence from Britain was signed on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember bring you an Independence Day program of songs that celebrate America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Francis Scott KeyAmericans celebrate the Fourth of July with family gatherings, parades, speeches and fireworks. They also celebrate with patriotic music.The official song of the United States is "The Star-Spangled Banner."??Francis Scott Key?wrote the words in eighteen-fourteen. At that time, America and Britain were at war. Francis Scott Key watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the smoke and fire, he could see a huge American flag flying over the army base. VOICE TWO: The next morning, after the battle, he looked to see which flag flew over Fort McHenry. It would tell which side had won. Key saw that the American flag still flew. He wrote a poem re-creating the event. Soon after, music was added to his words. The United States Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national song in nineteen thirty-one. Americans sing it at the beginning of many public meetings and sports events. Here is America’s national song, performed by Faith Hill. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people say "The Star-Spangled Banner" is difficult to sing. Others do not like the words. Some people have suggested that the United States change its national song. They say many other songs that celebrate America would be better. VOICE TWO: One of these is called "America."? It is also known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee."? Samuel Smith wrote it in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. The music is the same as the British national song, "God Save the Queen."?? The Southwestern Christian College Chorus sings “America.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles Some people think "America the Beautiful" is one of the best songs that celebrates America. Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words in eighteen-ninety-three. Samuel Ward wrote the music. Many singers and groups have recorded "America the Beautiful." Ray Charles sings his version. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people think "God Bless America" is the best song that celebrates America. Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen-seventeen. It became popular twenty years later when Kate Smith sang it on a national radio broadcast. Listen now to the young voices of the American Boychoir as they perform “God Bless America.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other people would like America's national song to be "This Land is Your Land."? Woody Guthrie wrote the words in nineteen forty. It became one of the most popular folk songs in America. Pete Seeger and the Weavers sing "This Land is Your Land." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Years ago, Lee Greenwood recorded a song called “God Bless the U.S.A.”? This song has gained new meaning and popularity since the terrorist attacks on the United States, September eleventh, two thousand one. Listen as Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Compost: an Organic Way to Better Soil and Crops
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 Correction attached I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many farmers improve their soil, and their crops, with compost. Composting is the mixing of plant or animal wastes so they break down and produce simpler substances that make the soil rich. Compost is an example of a natural fertilizer. Farmers add compost to their soil instead of burning the plant and animal wastes or throwing them away. During the growing season, plants take gases from the air such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They combine these gases with minerals from the soil. After the growing season ends, many parts of the plant die. Farmers gather a large amount of dead plant materials into compost piles. They may add animal wastes. They must add water so the materials will break down, or decay. Soon the plants are attacked by insects and organisms including worms and bacteria. Oxygen helps the organisms change the plant materials more rapidly. The plants decay into a mixture that can be spread on the farmland where the crops are growing. The compost returns nutrients to the soil. Some rules need to be followed to produce the best quality compost. Good compost piles need water to speed the process of decay. Yet the piles should not be too wet or the plant material will be ruined. The temperature of the compost pile should not be too high or too low. The best temperature for a compost pile is about thirty to thirty-seven degrees Celsius. You can turn the pile over and over to help cool down the material. Turning the compost pile over adds more oxygen to the mixture which helps it decay. Sometimes small animals such as rats and mice like to eat the composting materials. This can be prevented if you add a thin amount of soil to the top of the compost pile. Internet users can find more information about composting from Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. VITA is an organization based in the United States. It helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. The address of its Web site is vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. --- Correction: Compost must reach a temperature of fifty to sixty degrees. At these temperatures, harmful organisms are killed and material is correctly broken down. It takes three to seven months to produce ready-to-use compost from raw compost material. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: All About Sharks
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. On our program this week, we tell about sharks. They are among the oldest animals on Earth. Sharks are famous for attacking other sea creatures and even people. Yet they also have been threatened by human activities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists say sharks have lived in the world’s oceans for millions of years. Today, sharks live the same way they did more than two hundred million years ago, before dinosaurs existed on the Earth. Scientists say there are more than three hundred fifty different kinds of sharks. Most sharks are about two meters long. The dogfish shark, however, is less than twenty centimeters in length. And, the biggest whale shark can grow to a length of twenty meters. Sharks do not have bones. The skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage. Human noses and ears are also made of cartilage. VOICE TWO: A shark has an extremely good sense of smell. It can find small amounts of substances in the water, such as blood, body liquids and chemicals produced by animals. Sharks also sense electrical and magnetic power linked to nerves and muscles of living animals. These powerful senses help them find their food. Sharks eat fish, other sharks, and plants that live in the ocean. Some sharks will eat just about anything. Many unusual things have been found in the stomachs of some tiger sharks. They include shoes, dogs, a cow’s foot and metal protective clothing. VOICE ONE: Sharks grow slowly. Some kinds of sharks are not able to reproduce until they are twenty years old. Most reproduce only every two years. And they give birth to fewer than ten young sharks. About forty percent of the different kinds of sharks lay eggs. The others give birth to live young. Some sharks carry their young inside their bodies, with a cord connecting the fetus to the mother, like humans do. Scientists are beginning to understand the importance of sharks to humans. Medical researchers want to learn more about the shark’s body defense system against disease. They know that sharks recover quickly from injuries. Sharks appear never to suffer infections, cancer or heart diseases. Many people believe that shark cartilage can help prevent cancer. Scientists have questioned this idea. Yet they still study the shark in hopes of finding a way to fight human disease. VOICE TWO: Most sharks live in warm waters, but some can be found in very cold areas. Most sharks live in the oceans. However, the bull shark leaves ocean waters to enter freshwater rivers and lakes. They have been found in the Zambezi River in Africa, the Mississippi River in the United States, and Lake Nicaragua in southwestern Nicaragua. Sharks are important for the health of the world’s oceans. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting activities mean that the numbers of other fish in the ocean do not become too great. This protects the plants and other forms of life that exist in the oceans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have long feared sharks because of their sharp teeth, aggressive actions and fame as fierce hunters. “Jaws” was the name of a popular book published in nineteen seventy-four. It told about people in an American coastal town who sought protection from a great white shark that killed swimmers in the ocean. Thirty years ago last month, the film version of the book was released. “Jaws” became one of the most popular American movies in history. The movie was extremely frightening. However, experts say not all sharks are like the one shown in “Jaws.”? Still, sharks attacked sixty-one people around the world last year. Twenty-seven of those attacks took place in North American waters. Twelve were in waters near the southeastern state of Florida. VOICE TWO: The International Shark Attack File keeps records of all reported shark attacks. The list has been in existence since nineteen fifty-eight. The world attack totals last year were similar to those of the most recent years. Yet the number of attacks has risen during the past century. However, the number of deaths from shark attacks each year around the world remains very small. Experts say sharks killed only seven people last year. Shark experts say bees, snakes and elephants kill more people each year than sharks do. They say there is no great need to protect people from sharks. VOICE ONE: Many people disagree with that idea. That is because of media reports about shark attacks and resulting deaths. On June twenty-fifth, a shark attacked a fourteen-year-old girl as she swam near the coast of northwestern Florida. The girl was swimming with a friend in the Gulf of Mexico. They were more than ninety meters from the coast when a shark bit one of the girl’s legs. A man surfing in nearby waters brought her back to land. But medical workers were unable to save the girl. She died of her wounds. Two days later, there was another attack about one hundred kilometers east of where the girl died. A sixteen-year-old boy was attacked while standing and fishing in waters near an area called Cape San Blas. He survived the attack, but doctors were forced to remove one of his legs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shark experts are attempting to discover why many shark attacks take place within the same general area. They say warm weather conditions may influence both fish and shark activity. The warmer waters moving close to the coast carry many fish to that area. Experts say sharks may have followed the fish into the same area where many people were swimming. Experts say most sharks bite people by mistake. For unknown reasons, they think that a person is a large sea animal, like a seal or sea lion. That is why people should not go swimming in the ocean at the times of the day when the sun goes down or comes up. Those are the times when sharks are looking for food. Experts also say that people should not wear bright colors or shiny metal jewelry. These may cause sharks to attack. VOICE ONE: The experts say shark attacks only seem to be increasing because more people are swimming in the oceans than ever before. They say the number of sharks in the world has decreased in recent years. Scientists say people are killing sharks faster than the sharks can reproduce. People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and their skin. Experts say the international market for some kinds of sharks has increased greatly because many parts of a shark are valuable. For example, shark meat is good to eat. In Asia, people enjoy a special kind of soup made from shark fins. Experts say a fisherman can earn about fifty dollars a kilogram for shark fins. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jaws of a shark. Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A. Some people believe that a shark’s cartilage and liver can improve people’s health. The skin of a shark can be used like leather. VOICE TWO: People also kill sharks because of fear. Many sharks are killed by mistake. Each year, thousands die in traps set out to catch other kinds of fish. If too many sharks in one area are killed, that group of sharks may never return to normal population levels. Such hunting activities also have made some kinds of sharks in danger of disappearing from Earth. Many scientists say the number of sharks worldwide has dropped by fifty percent over the past fifteen years. Among some kinds of sharks, the number may have decreased by more than seventy percent. For example, the number of dusky sharks and sandbar sharks off the eastern United States decreased by more than eighty percent. This happened between nineteen eighty-five and nineteen ninety-five. The sand tiger shark and the great white shark are threatened around the world. Many nations have approved laws to protect the great white shark. These nations include Australia, South Africa, and the United States. Last October, the great white shark gained international protection for the first time. The recognition came at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. Delegates at the meeting approved a plan to require a permit for selling the jaws, teeth and fins of great white sharks. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Igor Sikorsky: Aircraft and Helicopter Designer
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Igor Sikorsky. He was a leader in designing and building new kinds of aircraft. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Igor Sikorsky was born in the city of Kiev, Russia, on May twenty-fifth, eighteen eighty-nine. His mother was a doctor. His father was a professor of psychology. Igor became interested in science when he was very young. He was especially interested in the possibilities of human flight. As a ten-year-old boy, he started building toy flying machines out of paper and bamboo. One was a helicopter. Igor turned the blades and held them in place with a thin piece of rubber. When he let go of the rubber, the blades turned in the opposite direction. And the little helicopter flew around the room. VOICE TWO: Igor dreamed of building a real helicopter. But he had little hope. Later he said:? "I had read with great interest the stories of French writer Jules Verne. In some of the stories, Verne described a helicopter. Many intelligent people, however, said such a machine would never fly. So I decided my dream would remain just that." Sikorsky entered the naval college in St. Petersburg. Then he studied engineering at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev. He did not know that,a few years earlier, Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright had succeeded in flying. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-eight, Sikorsky traveled to Germany with his father. He saw a picture in a newspaper of Orville Wright and his airplane. "Within twenty-four hours," he said, "I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation." The next year, Sikorsky went to Paris. At that time, Paris was the center of aviation in Europe. Sikorsky met several French pilots, including Louis Bleriot, the first person to fly across the English Channel. The pilots gave him advice about building successful airplanes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sikorsky returned home to Kiev after learning all he could in Paris. He decided to build a helicopter, even though many experts said it was not possible. He tested his first helicopter in nineteen-oh-nine. It weighed too much and had too little power. It could not get off the ground. He tested his second helicopter a year later. That one could lift itself off the ground. But it was not powerful enough to lift a pilot, too. After these failures, Sikorsky decided to work on airplanes, instead. VOICE ONE: His technique was unusual. First, he drew pictures of a plane. Then he built it. Finally, he trained himself to fly it. In this way, he quickly discovered any problems in the design and was able to correct them. The first plane Sikorsky designed and built was called the S-Two. He tested it in the summer of Nineteen-Ten. Just two years later, another Sikorsky plane -- the S-Six -- won the highest prize at an aviation show in Moscow. VOICE TWO: Sikorsky's success helped win him a job as head of the airplane division of the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works. That is where he developed his first major new airplane design. Planes at that time had only one engine. Sometimes, a plane's propeller pulled masses of flying insects into the engine. The engine stopped, and the plane crashed. Sikorsky thought planes would be safer if they had more than one engine. So he designed a plane with four engines. He called it "The Grand." VOICE ONE: Sikorsky's plane was revolutionary. It was the first to have more than one engine. It was the first to have a closed area for the pilot and passengers. And it was the first to have a toilet. After designing "The Grand," Sikorsky designed an even bigger airplane. He called it the "Ilia Mourometz," the name of a famous Russian who lived in the tenth century. He made a military version of this plane. It became the most successful bomber used in World War One. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Igor Sikorsky left Russia at the start of the revolution in nineteen seventeen. He stayed for a while in Britain and France. Then he went to the United States. He arrived with little money and no real chances for work. America's aviation industry was new and very small. There were no jobs. In nineteen twenty-three, however, he got help from a group of Russian exiles in the United States. They gave him enough money to start his own aviation company, Sikorsky Aero Engineering. It was on Long Island, east of New York City. VOICE ONE: Sikorsky's greatest success during this period was designing seaplanes. These planes could land on ground or on water. They could fly long distances. The Pan American airline company used them to fly from North America to Central and South America. In nineteen twenty-nine, the Sikorsky company became part of the United Aircraft Corporation. The re-organized company produced a series of large planes known as flying boats. These planes were big enough and powerful enough to fly across oceans. They made it possible to move people and goods quickly from the United States to Europe and Asia. Passengers on flying boats rested in soft seats. They ate hot meals. Air travel had become fun, as well as safe. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen thirty-eight, Igor Sikorsky decided to experiment with helicopters again. It had been thirty years since his first unsuccessful attempts. Through those years, he had written down ideas for possible new designs. The first helicopter Sikorsky built in America was the V-S-Three-Hundred. It was a skeleton of steel tubes. In its first test flight, it rose about a meter off the ground. Sikorsky then tested nineteen more designs. VOICE ONE: The final design had one main rotator, or rotor. The rotor was connected to three long blades on top. These blades turned around like an album on a record player. They lifted the helicopter into the air. A smaller rotor, with shorter blades, was at the back end. Those blades turned around like the wheel of a car. They kept the body of the helicopter pointed forward. This remained the basic design of all Sikorsky helicopters. VOICE TWO: By nineteen forty-one, the V-S-Three-Hundred had set all world records for helicopter flight. Military versions were made and some were used in the last years of World War Two. Most people, however, still did not accept the new flying machine. They said the helicopter had to prove its worth. It did that during the war in Korea in the early nineteen fifties. Helicopters take off straight into the air. They can land just about anywhere. They do not need long airport runways like planes. During the Korean War, helicopters flew into battle areas to rescue wounded soldiers. They flew the men quickly to medical centers set up away from the fighting. This greatly improved the men's chances of survival. VOICE ONE: Igor Sikorsky, the man most responsible for successfully designing and building helicopters, thought helicopters would be a common form of transportation. People, he said, would use them instead of automobiles. They would fly into a city, land on top of a building, go to work, then fly home again. This has not happened. Privately-owned helicopters are not common. Yet helicopters have proved their value in other ways. Companies use them to transport heavy equipment to hard-to-reach places. Farmers use them to put insect poisons on their crops. And emergency teams use them to rescue people from fires and floods. VOICE TWO: Igor Sikorsky continued as an engineering adviser to his aircraft company until he died in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He was one of the best-known and most respected leaders in international aviation. He received more than ninety major awards and honors from many countries and organizations. He always said, however, that his greatest satisfaction did not come from receiving honors. It did not come from being the first person to design new kinds of aircraft. Igor Sikorsky said his greatest satisfaction came from knowing that his helicopters were responsible for saving lives. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sometimes What Feels Like an Infection May Be an Allergy
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. An allergy is an unusually strong reaction to a substance. Many different things can cause allergies. The most common cause is pollen. Trees and many other kinds of plants release pollen into the air to reproduce successfully. Different kinds of plants produce pollen at different times of the year. For example, trees usually produce pollen in the spring. Grasses pollinate in the summer. Weeds produce pollen in the autumn. Many other things can cause allergies. They include organisms such as dust mites and molds, dead skin particles on dogs and cats, chemicals, plants, medicines and some common foods. Insect bites also can cause allergic reactions. There are several kinds of allergic reactions. The most common reaction is watery, itchy eyes and a blocked or watery nose. Other reactions include red, painful, itchy skin. Some allergic reactions can be life-threatening. For example, allergic reactions that block breathing tubes are very dangerous. Doctors say there are several ways to treat allergies. They say people should try to avoid the substances that cause allergic reactions. Medicines called antihistamines are used to treat allergies. Another treatment is called immunotherapy. This involves injecting a patient with small amounts of the allergy-causing substance. Larger and larger amounts are given. Over time, the patient develops a resistance to the allergy-causing substance. This treatment is usually effective against allergies to small particles in the air, like pollen or dust, and insect bites. However, this treatment is generally not used for allergies to foods. In some cases, there can be life-threatening reactions. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says four percent of Americans have severe food allergies. On June twenty-fourth, the institute announced a new food allergy research group. Plans call for twenty-two million dollars to be spent over five years. Scientists will look for new ways to treat and prevent food allergies. Studies will take place at five research centers. The first project will involve testing experimental new treatments for allergies to peanuts. The second project will involve a study of four hundred babies with allergies to milk or eggs. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/a-2005-07-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Speaking of Alabama, Part 2
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of language in the American South. RS: We're talking with a woman in Alabama named Donna Akins. All she wanted was an answer to a grammar question. But we also gave her an invitation to talk about Southern speech, and the reactions elsewhere to this distinctive "brand" of American English. DONNA AKINS: "So often I think the Southern language is automatically considered that if you hear that dialect, that it's an uneducated person, and I think that may be part of the reason that so many of our people are getting away from the expressions that are truly Southern. But it's just like any regional dialect; if you listen long enough, you'll figure it out. Or by all means ask us. We're more than happy to tell you what a certain phrase or expression means." AA: "Interestingly there's a growing popularity now of what they call the redneck humor. Now that's nothing new, but I guess there's now a touring group of stand-up comedians." DONNA AKINS: "Yeah! They're true Southerners, and I think they're hilarious. I love to watch their shows." RS: And so do a lot of people all around the country. Here is Jeff Foxworthy, one of the four members of the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour.” JEFF FOXWORTHY: "People hear me talk, they automatically want to deduct a hundred I.Q. points. Because apparently the Southern accent is not the world's most intelligent sounding accent. You know, and to be honest, none of us would want to hear our brain surgeon say, 'Aw right, now what we're going to do is, saw the top of your head off, root around in there with a stick and see if we can't find that dadburn clot.' It'd be like, 'No thanks, I'll just die, O.K. [laughter]" DONNA AKINS: "It's just like family. It's O.K. if we say anything about our Aunt Gertrude or our Uncle Sam. We just don't want anybody else doing it." RS: "Can you give us some more examples or words or phrases that are used now?" DONNA AKINS: "One that I think is a real neat word that I'm hearing dying out too is 'yonder': 'We're going over yonder' or 'Just take me over yonder.' I had someone tell me that they'd said that a younger person the other day, and they were like 'Where is yonder?'" AA: "And that means?" RS: "Over there?" AA: "Just over there." DONNA AKINS: "Right over there. You'd probably be saying it as you were pointing." AA: "Now what about the word ‘reckon’, which is still used in British English, but you don't hear it much in the United States anymore." DONNA AKINS: "Yeah, we still use that in the South. 'I reckon I'll do that.' It may be used when you're just not quite sure that you're going to do it, or you're not quite sure about an answer. 'I reckon that's true,' or 'I reckon I'll go.' So that would mean I haven't quite made up my mind yet. "There are new terms. Of course, as we watch television and see programs our children are picking up words that are used on MTV and the different programs, just like the rest of the country picks up. And I get a big kick out of my 15-year-old son. He's always coming home saying things that are funny that I don't think are necessarily Southern, but things like, 'I'm not down wi' dat [with that]." RS: "Like my 15-year-old son is saying." DONNA AKINS: "Yes, that's right! That's right! I don't think that's Southern at all. I think that that's just ... " AA: "That's urban slang." DONNA AKINS: "Exactly. And I hear that a lot in the little town that I live in. We have about a 40 percent minority population, and you hear the cultures melding a lot, African-American and white American. You hear a lot of melding of the cultures of the kids who spend a lot of time together and pick up on each other's phrases and use them interchangeably." RS: "You know, I note a little sadness in your voice in the fact that the Southern American dialect is really losing ground." DONNA AKINS: "It is sad to me. But it's amazing, you can travel to just little communities outside the area where I live, and I don't live in a very large area at all, but more rural areas, and you'll hear -- it's just like stepping back in time. You know, we can play, my son's high school basketball team can play a team in one of those smaller areas and it's just like stepping back in time when you hear the other parents there talking, and I think it's really neat. "I think that a lot of the losing of the language is out of embarrassment, the fear of feeling like or sounding like you're less intelligent." RS: Helping us figure out the language down South ... Donna Akins in Sheffield, Alabama. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can find the first part of our interview with Donna Akins on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Stars Fell on Alabama"/Jack Teagarden AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of language in the American South. RS: We're talking with a woman in Alabama named Donna Akins. All she wanted was an answer to a grammar question. But we also gave her an invitation to talk about Southern speech, and the reactions elsewhere to this distinctive "brand" of American English. DONNA AKINS: "So often I think the Southern language is automatically considered that if you hear that dialect, that it's an uneducated person, and I think that may be part of the reason that so many of our people are getting away from the expressions that are truly Southern. But it's just like any regional dialect; if you listen long enough, you'll figure it out. Or by all means ask us. We're more than happy to tell you what a certain phrase or expression means." AA: "Interestingly there's a growing popularity now of what they call the redneck humor. Now that's nothing new, but I guess there's now a touring group of stand-up comedians." DONNA AKINS: "Yeah! They're true Southerners, and I think they're hilarious. I love to watch their shows." RS: And so do a lot of people all around the country. Here is Jeff Foxworthy, one of the four members of the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour.” JEFF FOXWORTHY: "People hear me talk, they automatically want to deduct a hundred I.Q. points. Because apparently the Southern accent is not the world's most intelligent sounding accent. You know, and to be honest, none of us would want to hear our brain surgeon say, 'Aw right, now what we're going to do is, saw the top of your head off, root around in there with a stick and see if we can't find that dadburn clot.' It'd be like, 'No thanks, I'll just die, O.K. [laughter]" DONNA AKINS: "It's just like family. It's O.K. if we say anything about our Aunt Gertrude or our Uncle Sam. We just don't want anybody else doing it." RS: "Can you give us some more examples or words or phrases that are used now?" DONNA AKINS: "One that I think is a real neat word that I'm hearing dying out too is 'yonder': 'We're going over yonder' or 'Just take me over yonder.' I had someone tell me that they'd said that a younger person the other day, and they were like 'Where is yonder?'" AA: "And that means?" RS: "Over there?" AA: "Just over there." DONNA AKINS: "Right over there. You'd probably be saying it as you were pointing." AA: "Now what about the word ‘reckon’, which is still used in British English, but you don't hear it much in the United States anymore." DONNA AKINS: "Yeah, we still use that in the South. 'I reckon I'll do that.' It may be used when you're just not quite sure that you're going to do it, or you're not quite sure about an answer. 'I reckon that's true,' or 'I reckon I'll go.' So that would mean I haven't quite made up my mind yet. "There are new terms. Of course, as we watch television and see programs our children are picking up words that are used on MTV and the different programs, just like the rest of the country picks up. And I get a big kick out of my 15-year-old son. He's always coming home saying things that are funny that I don't think are necessarily Southern, but things like, 'I'm not down wi' dat [with that]." RS: "Like my 15-year-old son is saying." DONNA AKINS: "Yes, that's right! That's right! I don't think that's Southern at all. I think that that's just ... " AA: "That's urban slang." DONNA AKINS: "Exactly. And I hear that a lot in the little town that I live in. We have about a 40 percent minority population, and you hear the cultures melding a lot, African-American and white American. You hear a lot of melding of the cultures of the kids who spend a lot of time together and pick up on each other's phrases and use them interchangeably." RS: "You know, I note a little sadness in your voice in the fact that the Southern American dialect is really losing ground." DONNA AKINS: "It is sad to me. But it's amazing, you can travel to just little communities outside the area where I live, and I don't live in a very large area at all, but more rural areas, and you'll hear -- it's just like stepping back in time. You know, we can play, my son's high school basketball team can play a team in one of those smaller areas and it's just like stepping back in time when you hear the other parents there talking, and I think it's really neat. "I think that a lot of the losing of the language is out of embarrassment, the fear of feeling like or sounding like you're less intelligent." RS: Helping us figure out the language down South ... Donna Akins in Sheffield, Alabama. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can find the first part of our interview with Donna Akins on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Stars Fell on Alabama"/Jack Teagarden 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Teachers or Tutors? For Some Kids, They Are One and the Same
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Gwen Outen?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Teams of teachers and school administrators from at least fourteen American cities are at a conference in Washington. The meeting through Sunday is a place to share ideas and discuss programs that could be copied. The American Federation of Teachers, a labor union, holds the Quest conference every two years. This year, one of the subjects is a tutoring program that provides extra help to students in Rochester, New York. The Rochester City School District was one of five in the nation recognized by the Bush administration for their tutoring programs. Tutoring is big business in the United States these days. There are private learning centers where parents can take their children after school. Test preparation companies are also doing well. One reason for all this tutoring is the growing competition for places at top universities. Another influence is the Bush administration's federal education law, called No Child Left Behind. The law requires services like free tutoring for poor students at schools that fail to meet educational goals for three years. In some cases, tutoring may also be provided after two years of a lack of school progress. There is federal money to pay the tutors. But the No Child Left Behind law does not say who must do the tutoring. It can be a private company or local teachers. The law does say, however, that the provider must have shown a record of effectiveness in helping students learn. In Rochester, the tutoring is provided by a teachers union, the Rochester Teachers Association. The program began in the spring of two thousand three with forty-seven students and fifteen tutors. This year, eight hundred students received help from two hundred tutors. Each tutor works with only four students. The program is supervised at each school by a lead teacher who designs programs to meet student needs. The tutors are well paid. And the program uses teachers from the schools that need to improve. Critics in the private tutoring business question if that is such a good idea. But the teachers say they know the students best. And they say the difference is that each tutor works with only a few students, instead of big classes. Now, members of the Rochester Teachers Association are tutoring educators from other cities to help them design similar programs. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Great Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) After America's Civil War ended in eighteen sixty-five, tensions grew between Congress and the President. Radical members of the Republican Party controlled Congress. They wanted strong policies to punish the southern states who left the Union and were defeated. Standing in their way was President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat. Johnson opposed radical efforts to force solutions on the south. He vetoed a number of radical programs. He thought they interfered with rights given to the states by the Constitution. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the story of President Andrew Johnson. VOICE TWO: In the congressional elections of eighteen sixty-six, radicals won firm control of both houses of Congress. They were able to pass a number of bills over the president's veto. But Johnson refused to stand aside in the face of radical attempts to seize all powers of government. This conflict between Johnson and the Congress caused much bitterness. Finally, the radicals decided to get him out of the way. For the first time in American history, Congress would try to remove the President from office. Under the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives has the power to bring charges against the president. The Senate acts as the jury to decide if the President is guilty of the charges. The Chief Justice of the United States serves as judge. If two-thirds of the Senators find the President guilty, he can be removed from office. VOICE ONE: Radicals in the House of Representatives brought eleven charges against President Johnson. Most of the charges were based on Johnson's removal from office of his Secretary of War. Radicals charged that this violated a new law. The law said the President could not remove a cabinet officer without approval by the Senate. Johnson refused to recognize the law. ?He said it was not constitutional. Radicals in the House of Representatives also charged Johnson with criticizing Congress. They said his statements dishonored Congress and the presidency. VOICE TWO: The great impeachment trial began on March fifth, eighteen sixty-eight. The President refused to attend. But his lawyers were there to defend him. One by one, the Senators swore an oath to be just. They promised to make a fair and honest decision on the guilt or innocence of Andrew Johnson. A Congressman from Massachusetts opened the case for the radicals. He told the Senators not to think of themselves as members of any court. He said the Senate was a political body that was being asked to settle a political question. Was Johnson the right man for the White House. He said it was clear that Johnson wanted to overthrow Congress. Other radical Republicans then joined him in condemning Johnson. They made many charges. But they offered little evidence to support the charges. VOICE ONE: Johnson's lawyers called for facts, instead of emotion. They said the Constitution required the radicals to prove that the president had committed serious crimes. Andrew Johnson had committed no crime, they said. This was purely a political trial. They warned of serious damage to the American form of government if the resident was removed for political reasons. No future president would be safe, they said, if opposed by a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate. VOICE TWO: The trial went on day after day. The decision would be close. Fifty-four Senators would be voting.Thirty-six votes of "guilty" were needed to remove the President from office. It soon became clear that the radicals had thirty-five of these votes. Only seven Senators remained undecided. If one of the seven voted guilty, Johnson would be removed. Radicals put great pressure on the seven men. They tried to buy their votes. Party leaders threatened them. Supporters in the Senators' home states were told to write hundreds of letters demanding that Johnson be found guilty. VOICE ONE: A Senator from Maine was one who felt the pressure. But he refused to let it force him to do what others wished. He answered one letter this way: "Sir, I wish you and all my other friends to know that I, not they, am sitting in judgment upon the President. I, not they, have sworn to do impartial justice. I, not they, am responsible to God and man for my action and its results." A Senator from Kansas was another who refused to let pressure decide his vote. He said, "I trust that I shall have the courage to vote as I judge best." VOICE TWO: In the final days before the vote, six of the seven remaining Republican Senators let it be known that they would vote "not guilty."? But the Senator from Kansas still refused to say what his vote would be. His was the only vote still in question. His vote would decide the issue. Now, the pressure on him increased. His brother was offered twenty thousand dollars for information about how the Senator would vote. Everywhere he turned, he found someone demanding that he vote "guilty." The vote took place on May sixteenth. Every seat in the big Senate room was filled. The Chief Justice began to call on the Senators. One by one, they answered "guilty" or "not guilty." Finally, he called the name of the Senator from Kansas. VOICE ONE: The senator stood up. He looked about him. Every voice was still. Every eye was upon him. "It was like looking down into an open grave," he said later. "Friendship, position, wealth -- everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man -- were about to be swept away by my answer." He spoke softly. Many could not hear him. The Chief Justice asked him to repeat his vote. This time, the answer was clearly heard across the room: "not guilty." VOICE TWO: The trial was all but done. Remaining Senators voted as expected. The Chief justice announced the result. On the first charge, thirty-five Senators voted that President Johnson was guilty. Nineteen voted that he was not guilty. The radicals had failed byone vote. When the Senate voted on the other charges, the result was the same. The radicals could not get the two-thirds majority they needed. President Johnson was declared "not guilty." VOICE ONE: Radical leaders and newspapers bitterly denounced the small group of Republican Senators who refused to vote guilty. They called them traitors. Friends and supporters condemned them. None was re-elected to the Senate or to any other governmentoffice. It was a heavy price to pay. And yet, they were sure they had done the right thing. The Senator from Kansas told his wife, "The millions of men cursing me today will bless me tomorrow for having saved the country from the greatest threat it ever faced." VOICE TWO: He was right. The trial of Andrew Johnson was an important turning-point in the making of the American nation. His removal from office would have established the idea that the President could serve only with the approval of Congress. The President would have become, in effect, a Prime Minister. He would have to depend on the support of Congress to remainin office. ?Johnson's victory kept alive the idea of an independent presidency. However, the vote did not end the conflict between Congress and the White House over the future of the south. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul and Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC) ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Where Players Know When to Hold 'em: World Series of Poker
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Lawan Davis

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Amerie … A question from a listener about jury trials in the United States …? And a report about a popular card game called poker. (MUSIC) World Series of Poker HOST: The World Series of Poker is taking place in the gambling capital of America: Las Vegas, Nevada. Pat Bodner tells us more about this popular card game. PAT BODNER: Experts say poker was first played in the United States almost two hundred years ago. Gamblers on riverboats that sailed on the Mississippi River played the game. They bet money on who had the best cards. Today, poker is the most popular card game in the United States. People play poker with friends in their homes. They watch professional poker players and famous people play the game on television. One popular show is called “Celebrity Poker Showdown.”? Famous actors, athletes and musicians try to win money that they give to non-profit organizations. Thousands of people around the world play poker on the Internet. There are several kinds of poker. The most popular one today is called Texas hold ’em. If you guessed that this game was first played by cowboys in the state of Texas, you would be right. Here is how you play: Each player gets two cards face down. Then the dealer places five cards face up in the middle of the table. Each player tries to make the best five-card hand by combining his or her two cards with the five cards on the table. The players bet money four times during the game. The player who has the best hand of cards -- or who makes the other players THINK he or she has the best cards -- wins all the money. Sometimes a player acts like he or she has the best cards but really does not and wins anyway. This is called “bluffing.” ???? This year’s World Series of Poker began June second. Last week, actress Jennifer Tilly won the Ladies No-Limit Texas Hold ’em event. She beat six hundred players, including some of the top female professional card players in the world. She won more than one hundred fifty thousand dollars. In the past, other women, non-professional card players and players from other countries have won major events. The main event of the World Series of Poker is the No-Limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship. It is being held July seventh to the fifteenth. More than six thousand players are competing. They had to pay ten thousand dollars to enter the competition. They are playing for more than sixty million dollars in prize money. ?????? Trial by Jury HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bauchi State, Nigeria. Adamu Shaibu Onakpa asks what juries, judges and lawyers do in an American court. A jury is a group of six to twelve people who listen to evidence in a trial. The right to have a jury hear evidence in court is guaranteed in the United States Constitution. The purpose of a jury is to decide the answer to the question, "What really happened?”? But an accused person may not want a jury to make that decision. Such people are said to waive a jury trial. A judge makes the decision instead. Any American citizen can be called for jury duty. The court gets names of local citizens from lists of voters, drivers and taxpayers. Court officials write to the people on the list telling them to come to the courthouse to serve on a jury. At the courthouse, the lawyers representing each side ask proposed jurors what they think or how they feel about the case to be tried. The judge also can ask questions. The government or defense lawyer can dismiss a proposed juror if he or she believes that the person cannot decide the case fairly. For example, if a proposed juror says he read all about the crime in the newspaper and believes the accused is guilty, he cannot be a member of the jury. After the jury is chosen, the lawyers present evidence to support their positions. The government lawyer tries to show that the person accused of a crime is guilty. The defense lawyer tries to show that the accused person may not have done what he is charged with. The judge at a jury trial decides what evidence is legal and can be presented to the jury. Under American law, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. The defense does not have to prove that the accused person is innocent. Instead, the government must show that the person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. When both sides are finished presenting their case, the judge explains to the jury the laws they must follow in deciding the case. The jury members privately discuss the evidence and make a decision. Usually, all the jury members must agree before a person can be found guilty or not guilty. In some American courts, the jury also decides the punishment if it finds the defendant guilty. In other states, the judge decides the sentence. Amerie??? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ?????? HOST: The singer known as Amerie is twenty-five years old. She has just released her second album. Gwen Outen tells us about her. GWEN OUTEN: Amerie Rogers traveled a lot when she was a child. Her father served in the United States military. The family lived at several military bases in Germany, South Korea, the state of Alaska and Washington, D.C. Amerie’s mother is Korean. Her father is African-American. Amerie developed a love for classical arts through her mother. She learned about rhythm and blues music from her father. She studied dance and performed in talent competitions throughout her childhood. Amerie attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and began to develop a career in singing. In two thousand two, she recorded her first album, “All I Have.”? Here she sings “Why Don’t We Fall in Love.” (MUSIC) Recently, Amerie recorded a second album. It is called “Touch.”? In this next song, she uses the influences of Go-Go music. Go-Go is a kind of music that is strong in percussive instruments, especially drums. The song is called “One Thing”. (MUSIC) Amerie wrote the songs and helped produce her album “Touch.”? She also helped design the picture on the CD. We leave you with another song by Amerie from the album “Touch.”? Here is “Falling.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Changes in the Credit Card Industry
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Doug Johnson?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The credit card was a revolutionary idea. Today, a small plastic card lets people charge purchases in millions of places. The sellers get paid through an electronic system of banks. The buyers get a monthly statement to pay off. They can buy now and pay later. The credit card industry is changing all the time. On June thirtieth, Bank of America announced it would buy MBNA, the nation's biggest independent provider of credit cards. Bank of America will have twenty percent of the credit card market in the United States. The deal was valued at about thirty-five thousand million dollars. Bank of America is the second-biggest bank in the country after Citigroup. Bank of America will cut six thousand jobs to reduce costs. ? MBNA had negotiated with another bank, Wachovia. In fact, on June seventeenth, a helicopter carrying top MBNA officials from secret talks in New York crashed in the East River. All survived, but not hopes for a deal. Wachovia lost interest. The first widely used credit cards did not use the bank system most commonly used today. Diners Club started in nineteen fifty. American Express issued its first charge card in nineteen fifty-eight. That same year, Bank of America offered BankAmericards to sixty thousand people in Fresno, California. BankAmericard grew into the huge system known today as Visa. Most American families have at least one credit card. The Federal Reserve, the central bank, says Americans have more than seven hundred thousand million dollars in credit card debt. They pay an average interest rate per year of about twelve to fourteen percent. Some card users pay all their charges each month, so they do not owe interest. Others make only the small payment required. If they owe thousands of dollars, the debt can take years to pay off. And that is not the only danger. Information security and identity theft are major issues these days. Recently there have been several incidents in which many people had financial information either lost or stolen. Someone stole records from the computers of CardSystems Solutions, a payment processing company. That incident put forty million Visa, MasterCard and other card numbers at risk of misuse. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Reporter Jailed for Not Telling Who Identified C.I.A. Officer
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail this week after she refused to say who told her the name of a C.I.A. officer. A federal judge said Miz Miller was violating the law, although she is not charged with a crime. Miz Miller told the judge that if reporters cannot be trusted to protect the names of sources, then a free press does not exist. In two thousand three, a number of reporters were told that a woman named Valerie Plame worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. She is married to a former ambassador, Joseph Wilson. One of those given the information, Robert Novak, wrote about Miz Plame. His story appeared eight days after The New York Times published an opinion article written by Mister Wilson. In it, he accused the Bush administration of giving false reasons to go to war in Iraq. Joseph Wilson suggests that his wife’s name was leaked to the media to punish him. It is a crime to knowingly identify a secret agent. No one has yet been charged. Investigators studied government telephone records to learn which reporters had spoken to officials in the Bush administration. Among them were Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. But they refused to say who provided the information. Last week, the Supreme Court refused to consider appeals by the two reporters. After that, Time surrendered Mister Cooper's notes and e-mail messages, over his objections. But Mister Cooper is not going to jail. On Wednesday he said the person he promised to protect had spoken to him again and released him from that promise. The New York Times says naming sources may make it difficult to get information about illegal activities in government or business. Federal officials say no reporter is above the law. The idea that government should not restrict the media is based on a few words in the First Amendment to the Constitution. It says: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."? Other reporters over the years have refused to cooperate with investigators and have gone to jail. Today almost all states, but not the federal government, have what are called shield laws. Reporters can keep some information secret in the interest of public trust. Yet, these days, public opinion research shows that the public does not seem to trust the media very much. Matt Cooper says it a sad day when reporters are threatened with jail for just doing their jobs. Unlike Mister Cooper, Judith Miller never wrote a story about the information she received. She is to remain in jail until she cooperates or until October. That is when the term of the grand jury investigating the case ends. It is unclear why Robert Novak is not in the same situation. He will not say if he has spoken to investigators. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Great Writers: Flannery O’Connor Told of Small-Town Life in the South
* Byline: Written by Richard Thorman

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell about writer Flannery O’Connor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Late in her life someone asked the American writer Flannery O’Connor why she wrote. She said, "Because I am good at it. " She was good. Yet, she was not always as good a writer as she became. She improved because she listened to others. She changed her stories. She re-wrote them, then re-wrote them again, always working to improve what she was creating. Flannery had always wanted to be a writer. After she graduated from Georgia State College for women, she asked to be accepted at a writing program at the State University of Iowa. The head of the school found it difficult to understand her southern speech. He asked her to write what she wanted. Then he asked to see some examples of her work. He saw immediately that the writing was full of imagination and bright with knowledge, like Flannery O’Connor herself. VOICE TWO: Mary Flannery O’Connor was born March twenty-fifth, nineteen twenty-five, in the southern city of Savannah, Georgia. The year she was born, her father developed a rare disease called lupus. He died of the disease in nineteen forty-one. By that time the family was living in the small southern town of Milledgeville, Georgia, in a house owned by Flannery's mother. Life in a small town in the American South was what O’Connor knew best. Yet she said, "If you know who you are, you can go anywhere. " VOICE ONE: Many people in the town of Milledgeville thought she was different from other girls. She was kind to everyone, but she seemed to stand to one side of what was happening, as if she wanted to see it better. Her mother was her example. Her mother said, "I was brought up to be nice to everyone and not to tell my business to anyone. " Flannery also did not talk about herself. But in her writing a silent and distant anger explodes from the quiet surface of her stories. Some see her as a Roman Catholic religious writer. They see her anger as the search to save her moral being through her belief in Jesus Christ. Others do not deny her Roman Catholic religious beliefs. Yet they see her not writing about things, but presenting the things themselves. VOICE TWO: When she left the writing program at Iowa State University she was invited to join a group of writers at the Yaddo writers' colony. Yaddo is at Saratoga Springs in New York state. It provides a small group of writers with a home and a place to work for a short time. The following year, nineteen forty-nine, she moved to New York City. She soon left the city and lived with her friend Robert Fitzgerald and his family in the northeastern state of Connecticut. Fitzgerald says O’Connor needed to be alone to work during the day. And she needed her friends to talk to when her work was done. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: While writing her first novel, “Wise Blood”, she was stricken with the disease, lupus, that had killed her father. The treatment for lupus weakened her. She moved back to Georgia and lived the rest of her life with her mother on a farm outside Milledgeville. O’Connor was still able to write, travel, and give speeches. “Wise Blood” appeared in nineteen fifty-two. Both it and O’Connor's second novel, “The Violent Bear it Away,” are about a young man growing up. In both books the young men are unwilling to accept the work they were most fit to do. Like all of Flannery O’Connor's writing, the book is filled with humor, even when her meaning is serious. It shows the mix of a traditional world with a modern world. It also shows a battle of ideas expressed in the simple, country talk that O’Connor knew very well. VOICE TWO: In “Wise Blood”, a young man, Hazel Motes, leaves the Army but finds his home town empty. He flees to a city, looking for "a place to be.” On the train, he announces that he does not believe in Jesus Christ. He says, "I wouldn't even if he existed. Even if he was on this train. " His moving to the city is an attempt to move away from the natural world and become a thing, a machine. He decides that all he can know is what he can touch and see. In the end, however, he destroys his physical sight so that he may truly see, because he says that when he had eyes he was blind. Critics say his action seems to show that he is no longer willing to deny the existence of Jesus but now is willing to follow him into the dark. The novel received high praise from critics. It did not become popular with the public, however. VOICE ONE: O’Connor's second novel, “The Violent Bear it Away,” was published in nineteen sixty. Like “Wise Blood,” it is a story about a young man learning to deal with life. The book opens with the young man, Francis Marion Tarwater, refusing to do the two things his grandfather had ordered him to do. These are to bury the old man deep in the ground, and to bring religion to his uncle's mentally sick child. Instead, Tarwater burns the house where his grandfather died and lets the mentally sick child drown during a religious ceremony. VOICE TWO: Critics say Tarwater's violence comes from his attempt to find truth by denying religion. In the end, however, he accepts that he has been touched by a deeper force, the force of the word of God, and he must accept that word. Both of O’Connor's novels explore the long moment of fear when a young man must choose between the difficulties of growing up and the safe world of a child. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Flannery O’Connor is at least as well known for her stories as for her novels. Her first book of stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” appeared in nineteen fifty-five. In it she deals with many of the ideas she wrote about in “Wise Blood,” such as the search for Jesus Christ. In many of the stories there is a conflict between the world of the spirit and the world of the body. In the story, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," a traveling workman with only one arm comes to a farm. He claims to be more concerned with things of the spirit than with objects. VOICE TWO: The woman who owns the farm offers to let him marry her deaf daughter. He finally agrees when the mother gives him the farm, her car, and seventeen dollars for the wedding trip. He says, "Lady, a man is divided into two parts, body and spirit. . . The body, lady, is like a house: it don't go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like a automobile, always on the move. . . " He marries the daughter and drives off with her. When they stop to eat, the man leaves her and drives off toward the city. On the way he stops and gives a ride to a wandering boy. We learn that when the one-armed man was a child, his mother left him. Critics say that when he helps the boy, he is helping himself. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-four, O’Connor was operated on for a stomach disease. One result of this operation was the return of lupus, the disease that killed her father. On August third, nineteen sixty-four, Flannery O’Connor died. She was thirty-nine years old. Near the end of her life she said, "I'm a born Catholic, and death has always been brother to my imagination." VOICE TWO: The next year, in nineteen sixty-five, her final collection of stories, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” appeared. In it she speaks of the cruelty of disease and the deeper cruelty that exists between parents and children. In these stories, grown children are in a struggle with parents they neither love nor leave. Many of the children feel guilty about hating the mothers who, the children feel, have destroyed them through love. The children want to rebel violently, but they fear losing their mothers' protection. In nineteen seventy-one, O’Connor's “Collected Stories” was published. The book contains most of what she wrote. It has all the stories of her earlier collections. It also has early versions of both novels that were first published as stories. And it has parts of an uncompleted novel and an unpublished story. In nineteen seventy-two this last book won the American book industry's highest prize, The National Book Award. As one critic noted, Flannery O’Connor did not live long, but she lived deeply, and wrote beautifully. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Fungus Seen as Possible New Weapon Against Malaria
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Some kinds of fungus are used as a natural treatment in agriculture. Farmers use the organisms to control insects that eat crops. Now, scientists report that these same fungus can also kill mosquitoes that spread malaria. Science magazine published two studies on this subject in June. In one of the studies, a British team tested a fungus called Beauveria bassiana. They treated surfaces with a liquid that contained the fungus. Then they let mosquitoes rest on the surfaces after a meal of blood. Mosquitoes normally rest for several hours after a blood meal. The scientists were searching for a substance that would infect the mosquitoes during this period. Matt Thomas of Imperial College London led the study. He says the Beauveria bassiana fungus entered the mosquitoes quickly. It took seven days for the mosquitoes to get sick. After that, they reduced their feeding. Ninety percent of them died within fourteen days. That was good news. Professor Thomas says mosquitoes normally go one to two weeks between feedings. When they bite, they inject the parasite that causes malaria. Researchers from the Netherlands and Tanzania did the second study. They treated material with a fungus used to kill locusts. The name of that fungus is Metarhizium anisopliae. The treated material was hung in several homes in Tanzania. The scientists reported a moderate reduction in the number of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. However, they say the results would still be enough to sharply reduce the spread of malaria. Malaria is getting more difficult to fight as mosquitoes develop resistance to traditional treatments. Scientists say the fungus could possibly be used instead of chemical poisons to kill mosquitoes. But more research is needed to test how long the fungus can survive in hot environments. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria kills more than one million people a year, mostly in Africa. Most of the victims are children under the age of five. Pregnant women are also at greater risk from the disease. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce deaths among children and pregnant women. Malaria control is one way to do that. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are all on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-10-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Seeking to Protect the 'Most Endangered Historic Places' in America
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is endangered places. These are historic places threatened by age, disrepair or development. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a private, non-profit organization. An act of Congress established the National Trust in nineteen forty-nine. Two hundred seventy thousand members and thousands of community groups support its work. Each year since nineteen eighty-eight, the National Trust has released a list. The list is called America's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places. The hope is that informing the public about the risks to these sites will lead to their rescue. This year, the list includes a small college in the Midwest that is now a museum. A system of millions of hectares of land in the West is also on the list. So is a house in Cuba. The house is where Ernest Hemingway wrote such classics as "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "The Old Man and the Sea."? This is the first time the National Trust has listed a place outside the United States. VOICE TWO: Another place on the endangered list this year is Camp Security in York County, Pennsylvania. It is described as the last remaining site of a prison camp from the Revolutionary War in the late seventeen hundreds. Camp Security held captured British soldiers and their families. Farmers have used the land ever since. National Trust officials say they believe objects from the camp are still buried there. Local officials in York County rejected a request by a developer to build homes on the land where Camp Security stood. But the developer brought legal action. That resulted in a court order to approve the development. The National Trust says it hopes a group interested in preservation will buy the land and save this part of American history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Trust lists the home and family farm of Daniel Webster as another endangered place. ?The property is in Franklin, New Hampshire. Daniel Webster, born in seventeen eighty-two, was a famous statesman. He was an important speaker for the powers of the federal government. Lines from his speeches helped fuel the spirit of Union soldiers during the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. The public can visit the Webster Farm. The government has declared it a national historic landmark. But the National Trust says that without a new plan to protect it, the land may be cleared for a development. VOICE TWO: The Union won the Civil War. Slavery ended in the South. But even before that, a tiny college in the Midwest was educating blacks and women. Eleutherian College in Madison, Indiana, was one of the first in the nation to offer such equality. Many of its leaders and students helped shelter runaway slaves. The school opened in eighteen forty-eight. Today Eleutherian College is a museum. It stands as a monument to education and equality. But the National Trust for Historic Preservation says the college needs money for restoration. VOICE ONE: An area of land in three states also is on the endangered list this year. It is called the Journey through Hallowed Ground Corridor. It includes six homes of American presidents and a large number of Civil War battlefields. There are places of special meaning to blacks and Native Americans. The area extends from Pennsylvania to Maryland to Virginia. The National Trust says the corridor has lost thousands of hectares to development since the nineteen eighties. Public and private agencies have launched an effort to permit balanced growth but also to protect history. The National Trust says "four hundred years of American heritage may be lost" if the effort fails. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Belleview Biltmore Hotel in Belleair, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico, is often called "the White Queen of the Gulf."? The hotel opened in eighteen ninety-seven. Presidents, kings and queens, business leaders, movie stars and other important guests have stayed there. During World War Two, the Belleview Biltmore Hotel provided housing for the United States Army. The hotel is still popular. But its owners want to destroy it. The National Trust says developers can get more money with homes on the land. The historic preservation group hopes someone will save the White Queen of the Gulf. VOICE ONE: In California, the National Trust notes the sad condition of the Ennis-Brown House in Los Angeles. One of America’s most imaginative architects designed the house. Frank Lloyd Wright used concrete blocks decorated with designs. He finished the home in nineteen twenty-four. The Ennis-Brown House was popular with visitors. Today it is unsafe and needs major repairs. VOICE TWO: The National Trust for Historic Preservation says it is also concerned about preserving the history of Detroit, Michigan. Detroit is known as the traditional capital of American car manufacturing. But for years now, the city has suffered from unemployment and poverty. Many buildings are empty and in poor condition. The city plans to destroy more than one hundred such buildings in downtown Detroit. But the National Trust says: "Detroit’s leaders need to work with developers and preservationists to breathe new life into old buildings." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Greater Boston, Massachusetts, is divided into more than three hundred fifty Roman Catholic parishes. Last year, church officials began to sell properties owned by the church in some of those areas. The Catholic Church in Boston needs millions of dollars to settle cases of sexual wrongdoing by clergymen. Some church buildings may be redeveloped. Some may be destroyed. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has urged all parties involved to cooperate to find new uses for the buildings. VOICE TWO: The National Trust also names King Island, Alaska, on its two thousand five list of endangered historic places. The island is in the Bering Strait west of Nome, Alaska. Inupiat Eskimos lived there for centuries. But in nineteen fifty-nine, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs closed the school on King Island. Families moved to Nome and Anchorage. Now the surviving Inupiats want to return to their island for the warmer seasons. But some structures are in poor condition and could be washed into the sea. The president of the National Trust, Richard Moe, says the remaining buildings must be preserved. If not, he says, the traditional homeland of the Inupiats will be lost forever. VOICE ONE: The National Trust also placed the National Landscape Conservation System on its endangered list this year. The system is made up of land in twelve Western states. The land includes the Missouri River and the Oregon National Historic Trail to the Pacific coast. The Bureau of Land Management protects this huge area. But the National Trust says the federal agency does not have enough money or people to care for it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The great American writer Ernest Hemingway lived in Cuba between nineteen thirty-nine and nineteen sixty. His home, called Finca Vigia, is on a hill overlooking the village of San Francisco de Paula. The house is in poor condition. Most visitors can see only the outside. But people who have been inside say they could easily imagine the writer welcoming them with a drink. Thousands of books remain in his library. His small typewriter looks as though he might have just used it. Ernest HemingwayHemingway was forced to leave Finca Vigia after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in nineteen fifty-nine. The writer killed himself in July of nineteen sixty-one. His wife gave the home to the Cuban people. VOICE ONE: The National Trust and another group have received permission to send experts to Cuba to work on preservation plan. But the plan will need a lot of money, and Cuba is under economic restrictions by the United States. The National Trust for Historic Preservation says it hopes the much-loved home of Ernest Hemingway can be saved. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs can be found on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: First Aid: How to Help When Someone Is Sick or Injured
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. On our program this week, we tell about some emergency medical treatments known commonly as first aid. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: First aid is the kind of medical care given to a victim of an accident or sudden injury before trained medial help can arrive. First aid treatments are generally easy to carry out. They can be taught to people of all ages. Learning them is important. Knowing how to treat someone in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death. VOICE TWO: Each year, thousands of people die after eating or drinking poisonous substances. Experts say most accidental poisonings take place in or near the home. Most poisonings result from substances commonly used at home. They include medicines, insect poisons or cleaning liquids. Signs of poisoning include a sudden feeling of pain or sickness, burns in or near the mouth, or an unusual smell coming from the mouth. Health experts generally advise poison victims to drink water or milk. They say, however, to never give liquids to someone who is not awake or to those having a violent reaction to the poison. Next, seek help from a medical expert. Save material expelled from the mouth for doctors to examine. Save the container of the suspected poison to answer questions doctors may have. The container may also describe the substance that halts the effects of the poison. Use this substance without delay. VOICE ONE: In the past, medical experts told people to get the poison victim to expel all the material from the stomach, or vomit. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggested the use of a substance called ipecac syrup to do this. But the experts changed their advice in two thousand three because of a lack of evidence that vomiting helps people who eat or drink a poisonous substance. They now say do not use ipecac or anything else to get the victim to vomit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many emergency medical methods are simple and easy to carry out. For example, several years ago, a five-year old boy in the American state of Massachusetts was playing with a young friend. Suddenly the friend stopped breathing. A piece of candy was stuck in her throat. The boy remembered a television program where the same thing had happened. He also remembered what people did on the program to help the person who had stopped breathing. The boy quickly used the same method on his friend. The candy flew out of the girl’s throat. She was breathing again. The young boy had saved his friend’s life. VOICE ONE: The five-year-old boy used a simple method called the Heimlich maneuver. An American doctor, Henry Heimlich, developed the method. The Heimlich maneuver can be done in several ways. If a choking victim is sitting or standing, you should stand directly behind him or her. Put your arms around the victim’s waist. Make one of your hands into the shape of a ball, and place it over the top part of the stomach, below the ribs. Next, place the other hand on top of it and push in and upward sharply. Repeat the motion until the object is expelled. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A first aid method called cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can save the victims of heart attacks, drowning or shock. These people are suffering from what is called cardiac arrest. Their hearts have stopped beating. CPR is designed to increase the natural working of a person’s heart and lungs. Expert say it greatly increases the chances that a heart attack victim will survive. If you see a victim of cardiac arrest, first position the victim’s head and neck so that the air passages are open and not blocked. If the person is not breathing, start a method called mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Restrict the flow of air through the victim’s nose as you place your mouth over the victim’s mouth. Blow into the victim’s lungs. The first two such breaths should continue for about one and a half seconds each. VOICE ONE: If there is no heartbeat, attempt to restart the victim’s heart by pushing down on the person’s chest. Place one hand over the other, and push firmly on the victim’s breastbone. Push down about five centimeters at a rate of about eighty to one hundred times each minute. If you are working alone, you must do both jobs. Breathe two times into the victim’s mouth for every fifteen times you push down on the chest. The American Medical Association says that only people trained to perform CPR should do it. Experts say it is important for people to get this training from local hospitals or the International Red Cross. In the United States, CPR training includes the use of a protective cloth, or mask, over the mouth. This helps to prevent disease from spreading during mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Several trainers tell people not to perform mouth-to-mouth on some victims. They say do it only if you are sure the person is not suffering from AIDS or a disease such as hepatitis or tuberculosis. They also may say only perform mouth-to-mouth on a stranger if you have a CPR mask with you. VOICE TWO: Another emergency treatment for a heart problem is a computer-like device called an automatic external defibrillator. Defibrillators treat an irregular heartbeat that can cause sudden cardiac death. These devices usually provide directions for their use, and now can be found in many airports or public places. Defibrillators should be used only on people more than eight years old. Most CPR training now includes guidance in the use of the devices. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Medical experts say even the smallest cut in the skin permits bacteria to enter the body. So they urge correct treatment for all wounds. If the bleeding is not serious, the wound should be cleaned with soap and water. Then, cover the wound with a clean cloth, gauze or other kind of material. If the bleeding does not stop quickly or the wound is large, put pressure directly on it. Place a clean cloth on the wound and hold it firmly in place. A hand may be used if a cloth cannot immediately be found. If the bleeding still does not stop, push the supplying blood vessel against a nearby bone. This still may not stop all the bleeding. So, also put pressure directly on the wound. Two places on each side of the body often are useful in this kind of situation. These places are called pressure points. If an arm or hand is bleeding, the pressure point is on the inner part of the upper arm, between the elbow and the shoulder. Bleeding from a leg wound can be slowed by pressure to the blood vessel at the front, inner part of the upper leg. VOICE TWO: If an arm or leg is seriously damaged, a device called a tourniquet may be used to stop the bleeding. It should be used only when bleeding threatens the victim’s life. A tourniquet can be made with any flat material about fifty millimeters wide. It could be a piece of cloth or a belt. However, a rope or wire should never be used because they can damage the skin. Place the material around the arm or leg, between the wound and the body, and tie the ends together. Place a stick in the tied knot. Turn the stick slowly until the flow of blood stops. The stick can be held in place by another piece of cloth. A tourniquet can be left in place for one to two hours without causing damage. VOICE ONE: If the wound is thought to be infected, let the victim rest. Physical activity can spread the infection. Treat the wound with a mixture of salt and water until medical help arrives. Add nine and one half milliliters of salt to each liter of boiled water. Place a clean cloth in the mixture. Then, remove the extra water from the cloth and put it on the wound. Be careful not to burn the skin. People with no medical education can perform the first aid methods described in this program. But experts say some training is desirable. This will help make sure the methods are performed safely and effectively. Groups such as the Red Cross or the Red Crescent teach First Aid skills in many parts of the world. To learn more, talk with health experts in your area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Second Mad-Cow Case Found in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States has its second confirmed case of mad cow disease. The first case was found in December of two thousand three in Washington state. But it involved an animal imported from Canada. This time, officials say it was a twelve-year-old cow born and raised in Texas. It was born before nineteen ninety-seven, when the government banned feeding the remains of cattle to other cattle. The disease can spread that way. But Agriculture Department officials now say genetic tests on cows from the same group as the infected one have found no other cases. Officials noted that the cow in Texas did not enter the food supply. It was brought dead last November to a pet food company. Employees took brain tissue and sent it to a state laboratory. The test results proved nothing. So tests took place at the Agriculture Department laboratory in Ames, Iowa. These showed that the cow was not infected. Then, in the middle of June, the inspector general of the department ordered a third test. The results led officials to send the tissue for more study at a top laboratory in Weybridge, England. On June twenty-fourth Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced the finding of mad cow disease. His department has tested four hundred thousand cattle since June of last year. He says one case out of that many shows an "extremely, extremely low" presence of the disease in the United States. Still, Mister Johanns ordered officials to develop new rules for the testing process. Critics point to mistakes which delayed confirmation of the disease. After the first case in two thousand three, major importers placed restrictions on American beef. As of the end of June, sixty-four countries had complete or partial bans. Top importer Japan as well as South Korea, China and Taiwan continue to ban all American beef. Canada and Mexico have partial bans. The United States Meat Export Federation, a trade group, says exports fell eighty-six percent last year. The scientific name for mad cow disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B.S.E. A form of this brain-wasting disease can infect people. Most of the cases have been reported in Britain. Scientists there blame the disease for at least one hundred fifty deaths in the last ten years. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/a-2005-07-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Language of Showbiz
* Byline: 

 The show business trade paper Variety turns 100 this year, and it continues to vex and amuse its readers with a language all its own. In this slanguage, as Variety staffers have dubbed it, media giant Disney is known as the Mouse, a reference to its mascot, Mickey Mouse. And a buzz can give a movie legs -- that is, if the right people are talking about a film, so it keeps drawing crowds. Reporter Gloria Hillard, filling in this week for our Wordmasters, has more: GH: They litter almost every studio and agent's office in Hollywood… issues of the instantly recognized Hollywood trade paper Variety, its bright green banner and bold headlines heralding opening box office receipts, movie deals, acquisitions, everything on the big and small screen to behind the scenes. In the competitive world of show business, Variety is almost required reading. For the newcomer, the reading requires a certain knowledge of showbiz shorthand. Scanning the headlines at this Los Angeles newsstand, this one caught my eye: MOUSE HEADS TO COURT FOR CEO SEARCH. Now if you didn't know right away this was a story about the Walt Disney Company, don't feel bad. TIM GRAY: "If you don't read Variety every day, it's like learning a foreign language." As executive editor of Variety, Tim Gray is a walking dictionary of showbiz speak, or Variety slanguage. TIM GRAY: "There is a certain amount of silly fun in slanguage because show business people take themselves so seriously." So on the pages of Variety, it's not an award show, it's a kudocast. A director is a helmer. BevHills is short for Beverly Hills. H'w'd [pronounced H-wood], Hollywood. Girlfriend is just GF. The letters NSG stand for not so good, and so on. There are even words that have been developed to be H-wood politically sensitive. For instance, no one is ever fired in Hollywood, especially if you're a helmer's GF. That would be NSG! So instead, as Tim Gray explains, one is simply ankled. TIM GRAY: "Somebody ankles their job because the last thing you see when they walk out the door is their ankle. It's kind of neutral because, especially in Hollywood, you don't want to say someone is fired because they'll call and say 'No no I quit, they didn't fire me.' And so they [the former employers] will say 'He was fired, who was he kidding?' So that kind of thing we use every day. Personally, boffo is my favorite word." GH: "Which means?" TIM GRAY: "Terrific. Whammo is the absolute best it can be. The sixth 'Star Wars' movie is going to be whammo at the box office." Somehow it's hard to imagine that, even in Hollywood, grown men and women might be using the word boffo in conversation. Still, says Mr. Gray: TIM GRAY: "The Oxford English Dictionary has 20 words it attributes to Variety and that's kind of impressive. Words like striptease and payola and soap opera that Variety coined and they've become part of the daily language." Some other words you may recognize are punch line ... and showbiz. (RESTAURANT SOUNDS) But does contributing to a couple of dozen words to the everyday language really make slanguage understandable? Well, maybe we should do a field test. A couple of Variety's casually tucked under my arm serve as my passport at an industry insider lunch spot. Michael Kassan is an executive in the entertainment industry. Still, this headline might stump him: KILLER TURNED FOR HUNT. MICHAEL KASSAN: "Hmmm, Killer turned for Hunt. Killer Films is a production company and [actress] Helen Hunt is going to do a film for them." OK, let's try one more: PILOTS READY FOR TAKE-OFF. MICHAEL KASSAN: "It's a story about TV shows. And TV shows prepared for series are called pilots." Clearly this crowd speaks the language. OK, heading east on Sunset, let's try the Variety headline test at the famed tourist spot Grauman's Chinese Theater. These three women are from Orlando Florida. WOMEN: "Pilots ready for takeoff -- a movie? I have no idea." OK, here's another: MOUSE MEN SET SAIL. WOMEN: "Mouse men set sail. Let me see ... no, no, nope. [laughter]" It was a story about two actors who signed on to a Disney film, probably a sea-going adventure. These tourists said they didn't think they'd subscribe to Variety any time soon. But it's still possible to sound like an industry insider. For those who want to learn how to speak the language of showbiz, the Hollywood Dictionary, a glossary of some 200 terms, will be published this fall. For Wordmaster, I'm Gloria Hillard in Hollywood. MUSIC: "Variety Speak"/Animaniacs The show business trade paper Variety turns 100 this year, and it continues to vex and amuse its readers with a language all its own. In this slanguage, as Variety staffers have dubbed it, media giant Disney is known as the Mouse, a reference to its mascot, Mickey Mouse. And a buzz can give a movie legs -- that is, if the right people are talking about a film, so it keeps drawing crowds. Reporter Gloria Hillard, filling in this week for our Wordmasters, has more: GH: They litter almost every studio and agent's office in Hollywood… issues of the instantly recognized Hollywood trade paper Variety, its bright green banner and bold headlines heralding opening box office receipts, movie deals, acquisitions, everything on the big and small screen to behind the scenes. In the competitive world of show business, Variety is almost required reading. For the newcomer, the reading requires a certain knowledge of showbiz shorthand. Scanning the headlines at this Los Angeles newsstand, this one caught my eye: MOUSE HEADS TO COURT FOR CEO SEARCH. Now if you didn't know right away this was a story about the Walt Disney Company, don't feel bad. TIM GRAY: "If you don't read Variety every day, it's like learning a foreign language." As executive editor of Variety, Tim Gray is a walking dictionary of showbiz speak, or Variety slanguage. TIM GRAY: "There is a certain amount of silly fun in slanguage because show business people take themselves so seriously." So on the pages of Variety, it's not an award show, it's a kudocast. A director is a helmer. BevHills is short for Beverly Hills. H'w'd [pronounced H-wood], Hollywood. Girlfriend is just GF. The letters NSG stand for not so good, and so on. There are even words that have been developed to be H-wood politically sensitive. For instance, no one is ever fired in Hollywood, especially if you're a helmer's GF. That would be NSG! So instead, as Tim Gray explains, one is simply ankled. TIM GRAY: "Somebody ankles their job because the last thing you see when they walk out the door is their ankle. It's kind of neutral because, especially in Hollywood, you don't want to say someone is fired because they'll call and say 'No no I quit, they didn't fire me.' And so they [the former employers] will say 'He was fired, who was he kidding?' So that kind of thing we use every day. Personally, boffo is my favorite word." GH: "Which means?" TIM GRAY: "Terrific. Whammo is the absolute best it can be. The sixth 'Star Wars' movie is going to be whammo at the box office." Somehow it's hard to imagine that, even in Hollywood, grown men and women might be using the word boffo in conversation. Still, says Mr. Gray: TIM GRAY: "The Oxford English Dictionary has 20 words it attributes to Variety and that's kind of impressive. Words like striptease and payola and soap opera that Variety coined and they've become part of the daily language." Some other words you may recognize are punch line ... and showbiz. (RESTAURANT SOUNDS) But does contributing to a couple of dozen words to the everyday language really make slanguage understandable? Well, maybe we should do a field test. A couple of Variety's casually tucked under my arm serve as my passport at an industry insider lunch spot. Michael Kassan is an executive in the entertainment industry. Still, this headline might stump him: KILLER TURNED FOR HUNT. MICHAEL KASSAN: "Hmmm, Killer turned for Hunt. Killer Films is a production company and [actress] Helen Hunt is going to do a film for them." OK, let's try one more: PILOTS READY FOR TAKE-OFF. MICHAEL KASSAN: "It's a story about TV shows. And TV shows prepared for series are called pilots." Clearly this crowd speaks the language. OK, heading east on Sunset, let's try the Variety headline test at the famed tourist spot Grauman's Chinese Theater. These three women are from Orlando Florida. WOMEN: "Pilots ready for takeoff -- a movie? I have no idea." OK, here's another: MOUSE MEN SET SAIL. WOMEN: "Mouse men set sail. Let me see ... no, no, nope. [laughter]" It was a story about two actors who signed on to a Disney film, probably a sea-going adventure. These tourists said they didn't think they'd subscribe to Variety any time soon. But it's still possible to sound like an industry insider. For those who want to learn how to speak the language of showbiz, the Hollywood Dictionary, a glossary of some 200 terms, will be published this fall. For Wordmaster, I'm Gloria Hillard in Hollywood. MUSIC: "Variety Speak"/Animaniacs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Lower East Side Tenement Museum Recreates Life in New York City for Immigrants 100 Years Ago
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum?is one of the smaller museums in New York City. It lets visitors experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was built in eighteen sixty-three. It was one of the first tenements in New York City. The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.”? A tenement building holds many rooms where different families lived. The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the eighteen hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived. Later, many immigrant families improved their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them apartment buildings instead. VOICE TWO: History experts say more than half the people in New York City lived in tenements in eighteen sixty-three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one hundred square meters of living space, often divided into three rooms. The building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of spaces where families lived. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. The apartment had no running water, no bathroom, toilet or shower. There were six places where people left their body wastes in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of disease. Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the eighteen nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in nineteen-oh-five, and electric power in nineteen twenty-four. Then they refused to make any more improvements. They closed the building in nineteen thirty-five. In nineteen ninety-eight, the federal government declared the building a protected National Historic Place. VOICE ONE: Museum officials researched the history of the building and its twenty apartments. They found more than one thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, money and pieces of cloth. They also learned the histories of many of the seven thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they spoke with and recorded memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children. Museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during different time periods in the building’s history. These apartments are what people see when they visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. First we climb several flights of worn stairs. It is a very hot day and we feel the heat in the dark, narrow hallway. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we enter the apartment of the Gumpertz (GUM-perts) family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the eighteen seventies. On October seventh, eighteen seventy-four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left his wife Nathalie and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making clothing in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school. The Gumpertz apartment has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her workspace. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing. VOICE ONE: The next apartment we visit belonged to the Baldizzi family. They came from Italy and were Catholic. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria and their two children moved to Orchard Street in nineteen twenty-eight. They became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. Every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the start of the Jewish holy day and no work was permitted. Josephine Baldizzi remembered those long ago days. Here is a recording of her. She tells how she felt each week after when she saw Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning for her to come and turn on the lights: JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI:?“It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we visit the apartment that belonged to the Rogarshevsky family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street between nineteen-oh-seven and nineteen ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. We can see some of the things used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in nineteen eighteen. On the table we see the kinds of foods that family and friends would have eaten after Abraham’s funeral. They include hard-boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death. Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem as Nathalie Gumpertz. What could she do to support her family and continue to live in the apartment?? She got the building owner to let her clean apartments and do other work in exchange for rent. VOICE ONE: Now we enter the apartment of the Levine family. They were Jews from Poland. Jennie and Harris Levine moved into the building in the early eighteen-nineties. They lived there for more than ten years. During that time, Jennie gave birth to four children. Her husband and his workers produced clothing in the front room. We see Jennie in the bedroom awaiting the birth of her third child. We also see the clothing shop as it looked after the workers had gone home at the end of the day. We hear stories about the many immigrants who have worked in the clothing industry in New York City. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Still another apartment is an example of living history. We can visit it on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino (Con-FEE-no) family in nineteen sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino came to New York from Turkey. They were Sephardic Jews, people whose ancestors had been born in Spain, North Africa or Middle Eastern countries. An actress who plays thirteen-year-old Victoria Confino welcomes us. She tells about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song: VICTORIA CONFINO: “Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish...we call it Judeo Espagnol...and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew...a lot of languages mixed up all together.” VOICE ONE: Officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to use history to explore modern social issues. For example, what kinds of problems do recent immigrants face while trying to build new lives in America? The Lower East Side Tenement Museum cooperates with other international historic places around the world. These places are part of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience. They include the District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum in Russia, and Project To Remember in Argentina. Others are the Terezin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Workhouse in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Studies Shows Chemotherapy Improves Lung Cancer Survival
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Lung cancer is the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths around the world. There are more than one million new cases of lung cancer each year. And more than one million people die of lung cancer around the world every year. Smoking tobacco is the main cause of all lung cancer deaths. When cancer is discovered in its early stages, traditional treatment includes removing the cancerous tumor. Patients with colon, breast and ovarian cancer also usually take chemotherapy drugs to improve their chances for survival. But earlier studies had shown that chemotherapy drugs did little to improve survival rates for lung cancer patients. And the drugs often have side effects, such as nausea, extreme tiredness and diarrhea. Now, the results of three studies show that chemotherapy helped improve five-year survival rates in people with early-stage lung cancer. Doctor Timothy Winton of the University of Alberta in Canada led one of the studies The study began in nineteen ninety-four. The ten-year study involved more than four hundred eighty patients with early stage lung cancer. The patients lived in Canada and the United States. Those governments paid for the study, along with the drug company GlaxoSmithKline. All of the patients had their lung cancer tumors removed. After their operations, some of the patients were given two chemotherapy drugs. They took the drugs once a week for sixteen weeks. The others were not given chemotherapy. In patients who did not have chemotherapy, fifty-four percent survived for five years. But sixty-nine percent of the patients who had chemotherapy were still alive after five years. The study was published in June in the New England Journal of Medicine. Two other studies had similar findings. Doctor Winton said chemotherapy drugs have improved over the years. He also said there are now better treatments for the side effects. Doctors say the studies have already begun to change care for patients in the early stages of lung cancer. Experts are now advising doctors that chemotherapy should be given after surgery for some patients with early-stage lung cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our features are online at specialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: IPod Experiment at Duke University Plays Out With Mixed Results
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Bob?Doughty?with the VOA Special English Education Report. A year ago, we told you about an experiment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The university gave each first-year student an iPod from Apple Computer. More than one thousand six hundred students received one last August. Apple iPods are small digital players most commonly used for music. But the ones at Duke also came with a voice recorder. University officials wanted to know how students and professors would put iPods to educational use. Now, Duke researchers from the Center for Instructional Technology have reported the results of the experiment. In all, about fifty classes with a total of more than one thousand two hundred students used iPod technology. The classes included not only foreign languages and music, as expected, but also economics, education and engineering. Seventy-five percent of the first-year students questioned reported having used their iPod for at least one purpose in their studies. The most popular use was to record such things as classroom lectures or field notes. Sixty percent of students said they used the recording ability for educational purposes. The iPods could also be used to store files, to move them from one computer to another. Yet many users said they did not know that. The report says the extent to which recorded lectures improve student performance remains unknown. Many students and faculty expressed concerns that class attendance could suffer. One student commented: "It gives the message that coming to lecture or paying attention is not important because everything will be online later anyway."? The report says students were more likely to use content if it came already loaded on their iPod. But some professors found only limited uses for the technology. The recording quality was not very good in all situations. Not only that, some publishers refused to permit students to record copyrighted material. There were also some technical difficulties. Yet the report says even several faculty members who had never used educational technology before had success in the project. In any case, Duke University does not plan to give iPods to all first-year students this fall, just those in classes that used them the most. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-13-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Reconstruction: After the Civil War, the American South Rebuilds
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In March, eighteen sixty-eight, Congress tried to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. At that time, Congress was controlled by radical members of the Republican Party. They opposed Johnson, a Democrat. Congress failed to remove Johnson. But it did succeed in getting control of efforts to re-build the South following America's Civil War. Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South for starting the war. They also wanted to be sure new governments in the southern states would support the Republican Party. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about this reconstruction. VOICE TWO: One way radical Republicans gained support was by helping give blacks the right to vote. They knew former slaves would vote for the party which had freed them. Another way Republicans kept control in the South was by preventing whites from voting there. They passed a law saying no southerner could vote if he had taken part in the rebellion against the Union. This prevented the majority of southern whites from voting for Democrats and against Republicans. VOICE ONE: Congress also made strong rules about what southern states had to do to re-enter the Union. It said each of the states needed a new constitution that protected the voting rights of all black men. And it said each southern state must approve an amendment to the United States Constitution that gave citizenship to blacks. The radicals did not rest with changes in the law. They also sent their supporters south to organize blacks for the Republican Party. Many southern whites hated these men from the North. They had a special name for them: carpetbaggers. The name arose because many of the northerners who went south arrived with all their possessions in a carpet handbag. Southerners also had a name for their own people who cooperated with the carpetbaggers. They called them scalawags. Neither name was friendly. VOICE TWO: Southern whites had a reason to be bitter. They had lost the Civil War. Now much of their power was gone, and they were suffering. But there was another side to the story, as well. Southern whites had held black people in slavery for many years. Now, the former slaves were getting to enjoy a small taste of freedom. Also, the South had started the Civil War which had caused so much death and destruction. It was not surprising that the North showed little sympathy when the fighting stopped and the South lay in ruins. Southern states organized conventions to form new governments. Soon, all but three southern states had new legislatures. Not surprisingly, radical Republicans held firm control in every one of the new governments. Many of the new governors and state officials were carpetbaggers from outside the state. Others were southern scalawags. VOICE ONE: Many of these new state officials were dishonest. They began using their power to become rich. In South Carolina, for example, the new governor was a former army officer from the state of Ohio. He gave government jobs to many dishonest men, including some who were wanted for crimes in other states. The same situation existed in other state governments in the South. In Louisiana, for example, the governor was a carpetbagger from the state of Illinois. He left office after four years with one million dollars. His official pay during that time was only thirty-two thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: The South was not the only place where public officials were dishonest. The period after the Civil War in the United States was marked by several famous incidents involving violations of the public trust. Some of these incidents took place in the North, even in the White House. They were among the worst examples of dishonesty and poor government ever to take place in American history. It also is important to note that not everyone in the south was dishonest. The new state governments did many good things. They built roads and bridges, schools and hospitals. They improved transportation and education. They loaned money to companies to build railroads. Most important, they helped give hope to former slaves. These people were struggling to create a new life in the land of their former owners. VOICE ONE: So, the record of reconstruction in the South was mixed. Many southerners believe, even today, that reconstruction was a bitter time of defeat. But others now say this period after the Civil War was a necessary step in creating a different kind of South from the one which had existed before. Historians do agree that reconstruction changed the United States in several important ways. One of the most important changes was in the Constitution. Congress passed three historic amendments to the Constitution during this period. VOICE TWO: The first was the Thirteenth Amendment. It ended slavery in the United States. The next was the Fourteenth Amendment. ?It said all persons born or naturalized in the United States were citizens of the United States and of the state in which they lived. It said no state could limit the rights of these citizens. Finally, there was the Fifteenth Amendment. It said a citizen of the United States could not be prevented from voting because of his color. The Thirteenth Amendment freed all Negro slaves. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were supposed to protect their rights. These laws alone, however, did not succeed in doing this. It would take another century -- until Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders -- to make these rights a reality. Yet the passage of these three amendments to the Constitution was still a historic step in making blacks full and equal citizens. VOICE ONE: These same laws and other actions of the radical Republicans changed the South in other --?less desirable, ways. They helped cause angry whites to form the Ku Klux Klan and other groups that terrorized blacks for years to come. The laws also increased bitterness between the north and south that lasted many years. Reconstruction changed the economy of the South, too. White land-owners broke up their big farms into smaller pieces of land. They rented these to black farmers. With the land came seed, tools, and enough supplies for a year. In exchange for this, the owner would get a large share of the crop raised by the tenant farmer. This system, called share-cropping, spread through the South. It lasted for almost one hundred years. Share-cropping made it possible for blacks to work the land for themselves for the first time in their lives.But it also made it difficult for them to earn enough money to improve their condition. As a result, the majority of southern blacks remained in poverty. The system helped cause the South to be the poorest part of the United States for many years. VOICE TWO: The reconstruction period changed the face of the South and of the United States. The events of reconstruction also were central to one of the nation's most interesting presidential elections. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by David Jarmul.______ THE MAKING OF A NATION is an American history series written with English learners in mind. Developed as a radio show, each weekly program is 15 minutes long. The series begins in prehistoric times and currently ends with the presidential election of 2000. Both the text and sound of each week's program can be downloaded from voaspecialenglish.com. Past shows can also be found on the site. There are more than 200 programs in the complete series, which starts over again every five years. Most of the shows were produced a long time ago. This explains why a few words here and there may sound a little dated. In fact, the series has even outlived some of the announcers. But we know from our audience that THE MAKING OF A NATION is the most popular of the feature programs in VOA Special English. VOA Special English is a radio, TV and Internet service of the Voice of America. Programs are written with a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower speed. The purpose is to help people improve their American English as they learn about news and other subjects. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sixty Years of Capturing the World's Most Famous Faces
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Luther Vandross … A question from a listener about First Lady Laura Bush … And a report about a new photography show in Washington, D.C. Irving Penn Today we visit a museum in Washington, D.C. to learn about the famous American photographer Irving Penn? Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: A new exhibition of Irving Penn’s work opened recently at the National Gallery of Art. Mister Penn gave more than one hundred of his photos to this museum. The collection represents some of this photographer’s most important work in his more than sixty years of taking pictures. Mister Penn is most famous for his photos of fashion and women’s clothing. He worked for years as the photographer for a fashion publication called Vogue magazine. One of his favorite subjects was his beautiful wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, who was both a model and a sculptor. Irving Penn has also photographed many of the world’s most famous people. This exhibit shows that he is a master of portrait photography. This kind of photography captures he image of a person in a way that shows his or her true personality. For example, the exhibit includes a very special portrait of the famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. It was taken in nineteen fifty-seven. In this picture, Picasso is staring at the camera in a very honest way. He looks as if he were about to start talking to you. Irving Penn traveled around the world to photograph many other subjects. There are several pictures of workers who Mister Penn met on the streets of London and Paris. There are also photographs of native peoples, such as the Asaro Mud Men from New Guinea. They look like statues in their tribal clothing and masks that cover their faces. Irving Penn photographed these people in his studio because he wanted to show them in a neutral place. This way, the subjects in the picture are more important than their environment. Mister Penn even made photographs of carefully placed objects. This kind of picture is called a still life. One such picture done in nineteen seventy-nine shows a piece of fruit, a bottle, a sewing machine and human bones. These simple objects become very beautiful when they are artfully placed together. Irving Penn’s photographs are important from a technical level as well. He worked very hard to develop a photographic method using platinum and a metallic element called palladium. Using these two metals, he found a way to create photographs that are rich in light and dark details. Laura Bush HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. A college student named Jane wants information about President Bush’s wife Laura Bush. Laura Welch Bush was born in nineteen forty-six in Midland, Texas. After high school, Laura earned a degree in education at Southern Methodist University. She taught in the public schools in Dallas and Houston, Texas. Later, she earned another degree in library science at the University of Texas and worked in public libraries. She met and married George Bush in nineteen seventy-seven. They have twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who are twenty-three years old. Missus Bush has continued her interest in education and libraries as America’s First Lady. She has joined with the Library of Congress to create the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. And she works with national organizations that urge people to become teachers. In two thousand one, she created the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries. The organization provides money to buy reading materials for school libraries across the country. This year, the Foundation is providing more than seven hundred thousand dollars to one hundred sixty school libraries across the United States. The Foundation has so far provided more than two million dollars to American schools. Missus Bush also travels around the world as an unofficial American ambassador. In March, she visited Afghanistan. She met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and visited the Teacher Training Institute in Kabul. In May, she traveled to the Middle East in an effort to help improve opinions about the United States in the Arab world. This week, Laura Bush has been on an official visit to Africa to show concern for the continent’s problems. She visited Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda. Missus Bush spoke in support of the importance of education, women’s rights and the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS. Luther Vandross (MUSIC) HOST: That beautiful voice belonged to Luther Vandross, one of the most successful rhythm and blues singers. He died July first at the age of fifty-four. Steve Ember plays his music and tells about his life and work. STEVE EMBER: Luther Vandross did more than just sing. He was also a songwriter and a music producer. At the age of twenty-one, he wrote a song for a Broadway musical called “The Wiz.”? Two years later, he sang backup for David Bowie on the British singer’s album, “Young Americans.”? Vandross also helped write one of the songs. He later sang backup for other famous performers. In nineteen eighty-one, Vandross released his first major album, “Never Too Much.”? It climbed to the top of the Rhythm and Blues chart. Listen to the title song. (MUSIC) Luther Vandross was born in New York City in nineteen fifty-one and grew up in the Bronx area of the city. He started singing in high school. He later became one of America’s most popular performers. Vandross sold more than twenty-five million records worldwide. He won eight Grammy awards, including Best Male Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance four times. Vandross mostly sang about love. One of his songs, “Here and Now,” is often played at wedding celebrations. (MUSIC) Vandross suffered from weight problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. He had a serious stroke in two thousand three. The following year, his album “Dance With My Father” won several Grammy Awards. He won his last Grammy this year for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance by a Duo. We leave you now with Luther Vandross and Beyonce Knowles singing “The Closer I Get To You.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. The audio engineer was Bob O’Brien. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Officials Study Chinese Offer for American Oil Company Unocal
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is small but important. Twelve government officials serve on the committee, known as CFIUS (SIH-fee-us). They investigate business deals that could affect national security. A current issue involves an offer by a Chinese oil company to buy an American one, Unocal. In April, another American oil company, Chevron, offered Unocal shareholders a deal worth almost seventeen thousand million dollars. In June, however, CNOOC (SEE-nook) Limited of Hong Kong offered eighteen and one-half thousand million dollars. And an agreement to increase that offer has just been reported. Unocal is based in California. But the Chinese company notes that about seventy percent of Unocal's currently proven oil and gas supplies are in Asia and the Caspian area. In its words: "CNOOC Limited believes that the combined company would have a leading position in the Asian energy market."? But CNOOC Limited is seventy percent owned by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which is owned by the Chinese government. Congress is investigating the proposed merger with Unocal. The House of Representatives calls it a threat to national security. On July first, CNOOC Limited requested approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The secretary of the Treasury leads the committee. Included are officials from government agencies, along with presidential advisers on economic policy and national security. President Gerald Ford established the committee in nineteen seventy-five. Its job was mainly just to study the effects of foreign investments. But, as a result of changes in law in nineteen eighty-eight, its duties expanded to include national security issues. The committee reports to the president, who then must inform Congress of a decision. By law, the process must all take place within ninety days. Since nineteen eighty-eight, only one foreign deal has been blocked completely. That year, a Chinese aircraft company had to sell its interest in an American maker of airplane parts. Unocal shareholders are to vote on Chevron's offer on August tenth. But Chevron has given Unocal officials permission to talk with CNOOC Limited. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Egyptian Man Questioned About London Bombings
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. In Cairo Friday, officials confirmed the arrest of an Egyptian man sought in connection with the London bombings last week. Egypt's Interior Ministry says he denies any involvement. Magdy Elnashar is thirty-three years old. He studied in the United States at North Carolina State University. He received a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Leeds in northern England in May. Mister Elnashar told Egyptian officials that he came for the university vacation time and planned to return to Britain. Reports say he arrived in Egypt before the attacks in London on July seventh. The attacks killed more than fifty people and injured seven hundred. Bombs exploded on a bus and three Underground trains. On Thursday, one week later, the European Union remembered the victims with two minutes of silence. Four British men have been named as the suspected bombers. Police say all four are dead. Images from security cameras show the men at King’s Cross station about thirty minutes before the train explosions. Police say the four had arrived in London that morning by train. Three lived in Leeds. They were born in Britain to families from Pakistan. Police say they found evidence of explosives during searches of homes in the city. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair says the search for supporters of the plot continues. On Friday, he described the four men as "foot soldiers."? He says officials expect to find a link to the al-Qaida group. And he says part of the investigation involves Pakistan where at least one man went for religious education. The attacks in London last week, and the train bombings in Madrid last year, have many worried about what may happen next. European Union officials met in Brussels last year after the bombings in Spain. Those attacks killed almost two hundred people and injured almost two thousand. The officials developed a list of more than one hundred fifty measures to prevent more attacks. But not all have been put into effect. European Union officials met again last week in Brussels to discuss security. They agreed to speed up the anti-terrorism measures approved last year. These include blocking money that could go to terrorist groups and increasing cooperation among European intelligence services. Twenty-five nations are in the European Union. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke says living without fear of terrorism should be recognized as a human right. Yet human rights groups say they fear that the European Union could go too far and restrict civil liberties. Prime Minister Tony Blair proposes his own anti-terrorism plan. It includes calls for studying stronger ways for Britain to keep out or expel anyone who incites hatred. Mister Blair has also called for talks with British Muslim leaders. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Charles Schulz Wrote the Popular Comic Strip “Peanuts” for 50 Years
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Charles M. Schulz who wrote and drew the newspaper comic strip "Peanuts” for half a century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of people around the world who loved the comic strip "Peanuts" were sad when Charles Schulz died in February, two thousand. He was seventy-seven years old. The artist who created Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy had retired a month earlier because of poor health. The last new daily “Peanuts” appeared January third in two thousand six hundred newspapers in seventy-five countries. Charles Schulz drew "Peanuts" for fifty years. The comic strip first appeared in seven American newspapers in nineteen fifty. At that time, the subjects were all children and animals. They still are. People love these characters because they demonstrate the failings and strengths of all human beings. For example, Charlie Brown usually cannot get things right. But he tries his best. And he never stops trying. VOICE TWO: Charles Schulz would not permit anyone else to draw "Peanuts."? However, the stories about Charlie Brown and his friends did not completely disappear when their creator died. Newspapers are publishing earlier “Peanuts” comic strips, called “Classic Peanuts.”? Special programs based on stories about the "Peanuts" group are still shown on television and performed as musical plays. VOICE ONE: For example, the animated cartoon, "A Charlie Brown Christmas," has appeared on television since nineteen sixty-five. In it, Charlie Brown has to choose a Christmas tree for a special Christmas program. He gets a small ugly tree because he feels sorry for it. But the other children laugh at it. They say Charlie Brown has failed again to do something right. Then in preparing for the show, one of the children tells about the true meaning of Christmas. The other children decide that maybe they can make Charlie Brown’s tree look beautiful. Here is some jazz music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio from the television show, "A Charlie Brown Christmas." ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Other children often criticize Charlie Brown. He suffers many losses and rejections -- just as people sometimes do in real life. His baseball team always loses. He keeps trying to kick a football, but never succeeds. His friend Lucy keeps pulling the ball away. But he continues to believe that some day she will let him kick the ball. VOICE ONE: Charlie Brown has a dog named Snoopy who may be even more popular than Charlie. Snoopy is a funny character. He sleeps on top of his dog house. Snoopy is always trying to write the great American novel. But he cannot get beyond the first line of his book. He writes: "It was a dark and stormy night" again and again. Snoopy dreams of himself as a pilot searching for the Red Baron, a famous German fighter pilot in World War One. VOICE TWO: There are other memorable characters in the “Peanuts” comic strip. Lucy mistrusts everyone. She often seems angry. Schroeder plays a small toy piano. Every year he celebrates the birthday of composer Ludwig von Beethoven. Linus always carries a blanket to feel secure. Peppermint Patty is good at sports. She likes Charlie Brown very much and is the only one who calls him “Chuck.” Charles Schulz said he saw himself in some of his characters. He recognized himself in Charlie Brown's continued failures. In Snoopy's humor. In Lucy's moments of anger. And in the insecure feelings of Linus. Some of the situations in "Peanuts" seem to have developed from Mister Schulz's own life experiences. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-seven, the “Peanuts” characters starred in a musical play. "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" was first performed in New York City. It later became the most produced musical in America. A new production opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen ninety-nine. The actors in the Broadway version of the musical sing a song called "Happiness." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Charles Schulz brought happiness to millions of people. He was born in nineteen twenty-two in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was a barber who cut men’s hair. When Charles was five, his teacher told him: “Some day, Charles, you are going to be an artist.”? But he sometimes had trouble with his school work. In high school, he was poor at sports. He was afraid to ask a girl to go out with him. His high school publication rejected some of his drawings he hoped it would publish. At age seventeen, Charles began studying art. He took a class by mail from a Minnesota art school. This was the only art education he ever had. VOICE ONE: Then came World War Two. Mister Schulz served in the United States Army. During this period he very much enjoyed a comic strip about soldiers called “Willie and Joe.”? Cartoonist Bill Mauldin drew this strip. Charles Schulz had Snoopy remember Bill Mauldin every year on the American holiday that honors former soldiers. VOICE TWO: After the war, Mister Schulz taught at an art school. He fell in love with another employee. She was a young woman with red hair. However, this red-haired woman married someone else. Mister Schulz said he thought she chose another man because her mother believed Charles Schulz would never succeed in life. This woman's rejection must have been painful for Mister Schulz. Yet in later years he developed the failed romance into an interesting situation for "Peanuts." The red-haired woman became the little red-haired girl Charlie Brown likes so much. True to history, this girl does not care much for Charlie Brown. But he never stops thinking she is wonderful. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-seven, a newspaper in Saint Paul, Minnesota, began publishing a comic written and drawn by Charles Schulz. It was called “L’il Folks.”? It showed a little boy with a round face named Charlie Brown. The newspaper published the single drawing once each week. But it refused to use it every day, as Mister Schulz had hoped. So he began creating a comic strip of several drawings for a media company, United Feature Syndicate. It sold the strip to newspapers around the country to be published every day. The media company changed the name of the strip to "Peanuts." VOICE TWO: Over the years Mister Schulz drew about eighteen thousand comic strips. He did it without any help. This is very unusual for a comic strip artist. Most have people who help them draw the strips. Charles Shultz also wrote the stories for the television and film productions of "Peanuts." There have been more than fifty animated television shows based on “Peanuts.” Charles Shultz’s comic strip created a whole industry. There are "Peanuts" toys, videos, clothes and greeting cards. A number of parks in the United States and in Asia use "Peanuts" characters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In two thousand two, a new museum opened in Santa Rosa, California. It celebrates the life and work of the creator of “Peanuts.”? Charles Schulz agreed to the idea of a museum before he died. It provides a place where people can see the first drawings of all his comic strips and learn about his work. The museum also shows works by other artists that honor “Peanuts”. VOICE TWO: The museum was built very near the place where Charles Schulz wrote and drew “Peanuts.”? One area of the museum re-creates the room where Charles Schulz drew his cartoons. Another area shows things from his childhood and awards he received. His wife Jean said she wanted the museum to show not only his work, but also how he lived. Missus Schulz said she wants visitors to feel as if they are taking part in his daily life. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Aid Plan for Africa Called Progress, If Only Limited
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Development Report. There is praise mixed with criticism for the Africa aid plan announced by leaders from the Group of Eight. The announcement came July eighth at the end of their meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland. The eight nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The G-Eight leaders agreed to increase their yearly development aid to fifty thousand million dollars within five years. The current level is twenty-five thousand million. The leaders also agreed to cancel forty thousand million dollars in debt owed by eighteen nations, mostly in Africa. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the G-Eight president this year. As he announced the plan, he noted, "We speak today in the shadow of terrorism."? Bombs exploded on three London trains and a bus on July seventh, opening day of the meeting. Mister Blair described the aid measures as a strong first step. “It isn’t the end of poverty in Africa,” he said. “But, it is the hope that it can be ended.”? Many development experts, though, say the aid falls short. The group Action Aid estimates that less than half of the additional money promised to Africa is truly new. It says most is simply a reorganization of existing aid budgets. Action Aid also says more than forty other poor nations should have debts cancelled, too. At the same time, experts say many countries lack measures to make sure aid money is not stolen. And money can come too quickly. Robert Bunyi is Africa economist for Standard Bank. He says large amounts of aid can lead to stronger currency values which make countries less appealing to foreign investors. Still, he says, "Any increase in aid is going to be good for Africa." As head of the G-Eight, Tony Blair has promised to make the fight against poverty one of his main concerns. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals aim to cut world poverty in half by two thousand fifteen. The United Nations wants rich countries to agree to spend seven-tenths of one percent of their national earnings on aid. The European Union has promised to reach that level by two thousand fifteen. But other nations such as the United States, Canada and Japan have not. Prime Minister Blair noted the limits of the measures agreed to in Scotland. “It isn’t all everyone wanted,” he said. “But it is progress.” This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Americans Wait to See Next Face of the Supreme Court
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week, our subject is the Supreme Court. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans are waiting to see who will be the newest member, or members, of the Supreme Court. President Bush already has one opening to fill on the nine-member court. And there has been much talk about possible other retirements, such as Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who has cancer. The opening was created July first by the announced retirement of Sandra Day . She is seventy-five years old. Justice O’Connor was the first woman ever named to the Supreme Court. She has served twenty-four terms. She says she will stay until the Senate confirms her replacement. President Bush says he hopes that will happen in time for the new Supreme Court term. By tradition, the court meets on the first Monday in October. Republicans and opposition Democrats have prepared for a major confirmation battle. Activist groups have been campaigning in the media and by mail for and against different possible nominees. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Currently the newest member of the court is Stephen Breyer. Justice Breyer is sixty-six years old. President Bill Clinton nominated him eleven years ago. A year before that, in nineteen ninety-three, President Clinton chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the court. Justice Ginsburg is seventy-two years old. Two other justices, Clarence Thomas and David Souter, were nominated by President Bush's father when he was president. Justice Thomas is the youngest of the nine members. He is fifty-seven. VOICE ONE: The oldest is John Paul Stevens. He is eighty-five. He was nominated by President Gerald Ford and joined the court in nineteen seventy-five. Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor were all nominated by Ronald Reagan. President Reagan also nominated William Rehnquist as chief justice. Mister Rehnquist had joined the court in nineteen seventy-two as an associate justice named by President Richard Nixon. Mister Rehnquist became chief justice in nineteen eighty-six. Now, he is eighty years old, and weakened by thyroid cancer. Mister Rehnquist is among the more conservative members of the court. The most conservative are Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. The more liberal justices are John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy have been more conservative in some of their votes and more liberal in others. VOICE TWO: President Reagan chose Sandra Day O'Connor for the Supreme Court in nineteen eighty-one. At the time she was a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals. Many legal observers expected her to side with the conservatives on the high court. But she often surprised people. On social issues, legal experts consider her a moderate. Justice O’Connor has been a swing vote on the court. Her vote made the difference in a number of important cases decided by votes of five-to-four. Her vote, for example, helped give the presidency to George Bush after the disputed election of two thousand. The court ruled that Florida could stop a recount of votes in that state. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? The Supreme Court was organized in seventeen ninety. It is the highest court in the land. Among its duties, the court decides if laws made by Congress and the states are constitutional. President Bush says he wants judges who will stay true to the Constitution and not try to make their own laws. Presidents usually try to name justices who share their political beliefs. Some presidents regret their choices. A famous example involves the chief justice from nineteen fifty-three to nineteen sixty-nine, Earl Warren. Republican President Dwight Eisenhower appointed him. The Warren court took many liberal positions. Eisenhower is said to have called the appointment "the biggest damfool mistake I ever made." VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy, another Republican president, Richard Nixon, appointed Harry Blackmun as a justice. For three years, Blackmun allied himself with other conservative members appointed by Nixon. But in nineteen seventy-three, Harry Blackmun wrote the majority opinion in the case known as Roe versus Wade. That ruling said women have a right to end unwanted pregnancies. The decision to make abortion on demand legal shook American society. Today abortion remains one of the most divisive social issues in the country. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now, we look at some of the cases that the Supreme Court decided in its term that ended in June. Two decisions pleased opponents of death sentences. In one, the court ruled against executing people whose crimes took place before they were eighteen years old. The justices ruled that doing so is cruel and unusual punishment. The Constitution bars such punishments. Another ruling rejected a death sentence in the state of Pennsylvania. The majority ruled that the lawyer for the accused had failed to provide a satisfactory defense. The court said the lawyer did not present evidence that might have saved the man from being condemned to die. ? VOICE TWO: In two other cases, the court ruled on religious displays in public places. These cases involved displays of the Ten Commandments in Texas and Kentucky. Each case ended in a five-to-four vote. But it was a mixed judgment. The court ruled that a monument outdoors on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was constitutional. However, a display on walls inside two Kentucky courthouses was ruled unconstitutional. The court seemed to say that the Ten Commandments may appear on public property, but not if the goal is to gain support for religion. VOICE? ONE: Another case involved the medical use of marijuana as permitted by some states. The court decided that the government can arrest patients who use the illegal drug to ease pain. The ruling was in a California case. The ruling was seen as a declaration of federal power over the powers of the states. In another case, however, the justices rejected federal sentencing guidelines passed by Congress in nineteen eighty-four. Those guidelines limited the ability of federal judges to decide the sentence that a criminal should receive. The Supreme Court found the system of required sentences unconstitutional. VOICE TWO: In its term just ended, the Supreme Court also dealt with technology issues. The court decided a case involving peer-to-peer networks on the Internet. These services let people share electronic files. The court ruled that peer-to-peer networks can face legal action if they create a climate for the illegal copying of music or movies. A lower court had decided differently. VOICE ONE: Another big case involved eminent domain. This is the right of governments to take private property for public use. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution permits governments to take private property for "public use," if there is fair payment. But the question in this case was whether eminent domain was constitutional if used for private economic development. The court considered a plan to redevelop a waterfront area in New London, Connecticut. Opponents said it was unfair to force people to sell their homes against their will. But the court ruled that eminent domain can be used for private economic development if the goal is to improve a community. This case divided the court five-to-four. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court represents one of the three branches of the federal government. Conservatives presently control the other two: the presidency and Congress. Now, Americans are waiting to see what direction the Supreme Court will take. Justices serve as long as they wish. This means that the presidents who appoint them may leave a long-lasting influence on the court, and on American life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: How to Strike Oil (From Seeds, That Is)
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I'm Jim Tedder with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. From the beginning of human history, people have used oils from seeds and nuts. Most of the time these oils are used as food, especially in cooking. But sometimes they have other uses. For example, oils are found in paint and in cleaning products, like soap. Oil is separated from seeds by using pressure. A machine called a press is often used. Sometimes it is surprising to learn how much oil the seeds contain. Sesame, cotton and sunflower seeds, for example, all contain at least fifty percent oil. Soybean is an important seed around the world, but it is only twenty percent oil. So chemicals are needed to release oil from soybeans. The first step in pressing the oil from seeds is to crush the seeds between two stones. A cloth container or bag is filled with the crushed seeds. Then the bag is hung up. Some of the oil will flow out of the bag and can be collected. But some oil will remain in the crushed seeds inside the bag. The easiest way to get the rest of the oil out is to place heavy rocks on the crushed material. Another method is to place several cloth bags on top of each other in a box. Then a long wooden stick is used to slowly push a heavy cover down on the bags. Great pressure is produced in this way. Much greater pressure can be produced by using a machine, a hydraulic jack. The greater the pressure, the more oil will be produced. Oil can also be collected with small, hand-operated machines. Small presses are important in areas where electricity or gasoline cannot be used. They are also a good way to test if a local market for oil exists. Small batch presses can be made of local materials. Their cost is low. They are not difficult to operate. And they are easy to repair. The small presses produce good quality oil. But the work is hard. And getting all the oil from the seeds can be difficult. A system can be set up to press together an amount of seeds at different times of the day. But if there is a large supply of seeds, then large, powered presses that can operate all day are needed. You can get more information about collecting oil from seeds from the group VITA, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at?vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. Our reports can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Successes Against Tuberculosis, But Not Everywhere
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. Tuberculosis can be deadly if not treated the right way. It is a serous health problem around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says one-third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacteria. Between five and ten percent of those infected become sick with tuberculosis at some time during their life. Almost nine million people become sick with the disease each year. More than one million seven hundred thousand people die of the disease each year. In March, the W.H.O. reported that the war against TB is being successfully fought in many areas. It said the number of TB cases worldwide has dropped twenty percent since nineteen ninety. It also said infection rates are now falling or unchanged in five of six areas around the world. The exception is Africa. The W.H.O. said TB rates in Africa are still rising at a rate of three to four percent each year. TB rates there have risen two hundred percent since nineteen ninety in areas where many people have the virus that causes AIDS. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Most people infected with the bacteria never develop active TB. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. TB can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious sickness. The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated TB bacteria in their throat or lungs. The bacteria are spread into the air when people with the disease talk, cough or sneeze or expel air suddenly. People who breathe infected air from a TB victim can become infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, most people with active tuberculosis do not expel very many TB bacteria. So, the spread of the disease usually does not happen unless a person spends a great deal of time with a TB victim. Those most at risk are family members, friends and people who work closely with a TB victim. If a person becomes infected with the TB bacteria, it does not mean he or she has the disease. Having the infection means that the bacteria are in the body, but they may be neutral, or inactive. VOICE ONE: After the TB bacteria enter the body, the body’s defense system against disease usually acts to surround the bacteria and prevent them from spreading. The immune system does this by building a wall around the bacteria similar to the way blood hardens around a cut on the skin. The bacteria can stay alive in an inactive condition inside these walls for many years. When TB bacteria are inactive, they cannot damage the body. And they cannot spread to other people. People with the inactive bacteria are infected, but they are not sick. They probably do not know that they are infected. Millions of people have the TB infection. For most of them, the bacteria will always be inactive. They will never suffer signs of tuberculosis. VOICE TWO: If the body’s immune system is weak, however, a person can get tuberculosis soon after the TB bacteria enter the body. Also, inactive TB bacteria may become active if the immune system becomes weak. When this happens, the bacteria can break through the protective walls. Then, they begin reproducing and damaging the lungs or other organs. When TB bacteria become active, they can cause serious sickness. The inactive TB bacteria can become active under several conditions. When a person becomes old, the immune system may become too weak to protect against the bacteria. A serious sickness can weaken the immune system enough to free the TB bacteria. H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, can cause TB bacteria to become active. Also, doctors warn that people who drink too much alcohol or use illegal drugs have a higher risk of becoming sick from the tuberculosis bacteria. VOICE ONE: TB can attack any part of the body. However, the lungs are the most common targets of the bacteria. People with the disease show several signs. They expel air from the lungs suddenly with an explosive noise, or cough. This cough continues for a long period of time. People with a more severe case of tuberculosis also may cough up blood. People with the disease often have high body temperatures. They suffer what are called night sweats, during which their bodies give off large amounts of water through the skin. TB victims also are tired all the time. They are not interested in eating. So they lose weight. One thing that is especially dangerous about TB is that people with moderate signs of the disease may not know they have it. They may spread the disease to others without even knowing it. So, it is very important for people to get tested for tuberculosis. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are several ways to test for TB. The first is the TB skin test. It also is known as the Mantoux (MAN-two) skin test. The test can identify most people infected with tuberculosis six to eight weeks after the bacteria entered their bodies. A substance called purified protein derivative is injected under the skin of the arm. The place of the injection is examined two to three days later. If a raised red area forms, the person may have been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, this does not always mean the disease is active. VOICE ONE: If the skin test shows that TB bacteria have entered the body, doctors can use other methods to discover if the person has active T-B. However, this sometimes can be difficult because tuberculosis may appear similar to other diseases. Doctors must consider other physical signs. Also, they must decide if a person’s history shows that he or she has been in situations where tuberculosis was present. Doctors also use an X-ray examination to show if there is evidence of TB infection, such as damage to the lungs. Another way to test for the presence of active tuberculosis is to examine the fluids from a person’s body, especially those taken from the mouth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is very important for doctors to identify which kind of TB bacteria are present so they can decide which drugs to use to treat the disease. More than ninety percent of TB cases can be cured with medicines. However, the death rate for untreated patients is reported to be about fifty percent. Successful treatment of TB requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Patients must take medicine for six to twelve months to destroy all signs of the bacteria. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the TB bacteria becoming resistant to drugs and growing stronger, more dangerous and more difficult to treat. Because of this, many doctors and other health care workers directly observe and supervise treatment of the disease in their patients. VOICE ONE: Experts say TB is a preventable disease. In the United States, the goal of health organizations is to quickly identify infected people – especially those who have the highest risk of developing the disease. There are several drugs that can prevent tuberculosis in people who are at risk of becoming infected. These people include those who live or work closely with people who have TB. Others at risk are people who are infected with tuberculosis bacteria but do not have the active disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to limit the spread of tuberculosis. All TB patients must learn to cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze. It also is important to keep air flowing through rooms so that the TB bacteria cannot gather and infect people. Also, ultraviolet light and other devices can be used to clean infectious bacteria from the air in closed rooms. Experts say tuberculosis can be cured if it is discovered early and if patients take their medicine correctly. And, like other diseases, education and understanding are extremely important in preventing and treating TB. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: South Asia Continues to Recover After Tsunami
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. More than six months ago, huge tsunami waves struck twelve nations in the Indian Ocean. We report on efforts by some affected nations to rebuild. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early morning hours of December twenty-sixth, two thousand four, a huge earthquake near the Indonesian island of Sumatra tore apart the sea floor. This created a series of huge ocean waves, called a tsunami. It crashed into coasts across the Indian Ocean without warning. One hundred seventy-six thousand people were killed, most of them in Indonesia. About fifty thousand people are still missing and believed dead. Indonesia was hit the worst. The huge waves also destroyed coastal areas in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Burma, the Maldives and Malaysia. Several hours later, the waves hit the East African countries of Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. The tsunami was truly an international disaster with victims from all over the world. At least two thousand of those killed were holiday travelers from Europe and North America. VOICE TWO: Governments, aid groups, private individuals and the international business community acted quickly. Thousands of international aid workers arrived in South Asia and eastern Africa. They provided shelter for almost two million people left without homes. They built centers for people to identify and bury their loved ones. They gave out food, water, clothes and medical aid. And, they helped prevent the spread of diseases among survivors. A huge amount of financial aid was also given for relief efforts. Governments, aid groups and private individuals immediately promised more than six thousand million dollars. Individuals were responsible for about one-sixth of that amount. VOICE ONE: Recently, the Voice of America marked the sixth month anniversary of the deadly tsunami with a series of stories. Reporters examined rebuilding efforts by affected nations. VOA also examined the humanitarian assistance and financial aid that was promised victims. Today, it remains unclear how much of that aid money will be given for long-term rebuilding or how much of it will reach those who need it most. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The destruction caused by the tsunami created the world’s largest financial and humanitarian reaction to a natural disaster. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said the response set a new level of cooperation for the world community. Yet, only about half of the aid promised has been provided. The U-N has created an Internet Web site to show where the aid is going. Former American President Bill Clinton was appointed a U.N. representative for recovery efforts. Mister Clinton said it will take time for governments to provide the money they have offered. This is because governments and aid donors can provide help only after they receive a country’s rebuilding plan. VOICE ONE: Roberta Cohen is an expert on aid financing at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She told VOA reporter Mike Bowman that donor groups want to guarantee that communities can grow over time and that no money is wasted. Miz Cohen said that many affected nations, including Indonesia and Sri Lanka, did not have official rebuilding plans until May. Concerns about offers of international aid are based on past disasters. Miz Cohen noted that much of the money promised after the earthquake in Bam, Iran in December, two thousand three was not given. Countries and aid groups offered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assistance. The United Nations says it has confirmed only about seventeen million dollars in aid received so far. Donors dispute that, however. VOICE TWO: Part of the aid promised after the December tsunami will be used to build disaster-warning systems in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Several countries have agreed to work together to establish the system. It will likely be modeled after an international tsunami warning system for the Pacific Ocean. That system has its headquarters in the American state of Hawaii. Scientists there listen to sound waves directed at the ocean floor for possible earthquakes and underwater motion. They also watch water levels at more than one hundred water stations across the Pacific Ocean. Warning information is sent to more than one hundred places across the Pacific if destructive waves are discovered. VOICE ONE: Paul Whitmore is a scientist at the Tsunami Warning Center in the American state of Alaska. That center provides information to the Hawaii headquarters. Mister Whitmore said the Pacific center can send out tsunami warnings within ten minutes of an underwater earthquake. Such a warning last December would have saved thousands of lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tsunami aid will also be spent on long-term aid projects, such as rebuilding national agriculture and fishing industries. Villages and homes will also be developed. In Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and the Indonesian province of Aceh, thousands of families still live in temporary shelters and camps. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto leads the Indonesian government’s tsunami relief agency. He told VOA reporter Nancy-Amelia Collins that the government does not want permanent housing built until the needs of all villagers are considered. He said this takes time because so many people are involved. VOICE ONE: Michael Elmquist is the spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid. He said that more than two hundred fifty private agencies are working in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. He said the biggest problem during the next six months will be coordinating reconstruction efforts among the agencies. VOICE TWO: Daily life for many tsunami victims remains difficult for several reasons. One major problem is a lack of jobs. In Phuket, southern Thailand, for example, workers are trying to fix local fishing boats. Yet, many boats are still in need of repair. VOA reporter Scott Bobb spoke to villagers in Nam Khem. They said the Thai government and donor groups have provided loans to help get the fishing industry operating again. But many fishermen say they have seen very little money. And without boats, there is no work. Phuket also had a strong travel industry before the tsunami. Since December, however, much of the local economy has been destroyed. Kitti Patanachinda is the vice president of the local tourism association in Phuket. He said hotels are less than thirty percent full. Eating places are empty, and more than forty percent of local businesses have dismissed workers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The tsunami not only destroyed fishing and travel industries, but also farming communities. In southern India, for example, many villages were damaged when seawater spread inland to cover huge areas of farmland. M. Revathi is a farm activist in India. She told VOA reporter Anjana Pasricha that hundreds of coastal villages have no hope of planting a crop in the coming rainy season. She said the soil has been destroyed and there is still too much wreckage. VOICE TWO: Politics also has slowed relief efforts. In Sri Lanka, some minority parties have withdrawn support for the government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga. This is because she was working toward an agreement with Tamil rebels on sharing tsunami recovery aid. A political crisis in Somalia has limited recovery as well. The country has been without a central government since leader Siad Barre was ousted in nineteen ninety-one. Armed groups loyal to local leaders have been fighting for control over parts of the country. VOICE ONE: Maulid Warfa works for the World Food Program in Somalia. He told VOA reporter Cathy Majtenyi that recovery efforts are much slower there compared to other areas because of the lack of an effective government. He said the U.N. food agency cannot feed Somalia’s tsunami victims forever. He said the government will have to help the people get back to work so they can feed themselves. VOICE TWO: To mark the six-month anniversary of the tsunami, officials from the United Nations and the European Union met to discuss progress in the aid effort. Jan Egeland is the top U-N official for emergency aid. He estimates it will take five to ten years to rebuild all that was lost in the tsunami. But for many victims, recovery could take a lifetime. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m? Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Studies Show Healthy Living May Lower Risk of Alzheimer's Disease
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 An image of a brain suffering from Alzheimer's diseaseI’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Alzheimer’s disease slowly destroys memory, thinking and reasoning skills. The risk of developing this brain-wasting condition increases with age. It is usually found in older people, but those with a family history may develop it earlier. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, a progressive loss of brain cells and mental abilities. The Alzheimer's Association says the disease can last from three to twenty years, but the average person dies after eight years. A new Swedish study estimated the direct costs of Alzheimer's disease and dementia care worldwide in two thousand three. The estimate is one hundred fifty-six thousand million dollars. That was based on an estimate that almost twenty-eight million people have dementia. An estimated four and one-half million people have Alzheimer's disease in the United States. As the population ages, the Alzheimer’s Association says there may be as many as sixteen million cases by two thousand fifty. No cure exists, and the causes are still being studied. In June, in Washington, D.C., the Alzheimer’s Association held its first International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia. Researchers suggest that healthy ways of living, started early, could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's or delay it. They say it is important to stay socially and mentally active to keep brain cells healthy. Physical exercise and weight control could help, too. A study found that people with higher levels of education were at lower risk than others. Even good care of the teeth and gums could have an effect, because of a possible link between gum disease and higher risk of Alzheimer's. Researchers say technologies such as PET scans and magnetic resonance imaging may be useful in discovering Alzheimer’s early. There are several drug treatments being developed. And scientists are exploring other possibilities. A study reported last week involved some mice genetically engineered to develop dementia. Researchers then shut off the genes that caused it. The mice regained memory, as shown in their ability to guide their way around. University of Minnesota researcher Karen Ashe says the results came as a surprise. The findings appear in Science magazine. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/a-2005-07-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Gerunds vs. Infinitives, Part 1
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: to be or not to be, or should there be an -ing? That is the question as we look at gerunds and infinitives. RS: To be, to run, to eat: the "to" indicates the infinitive form of the verb. But if you were to use these verbs as gerunds, they would take an –ing as in being, running and eating. AA: Juan, a listener in Chile, is not always sure when to use an infinitive and when to use a gerund. He sent us four sentences and asks if they're right: RS: Here they are: To swim is a good exercise. To work ten years in the mine is enough. Sleeping is a luxury. Being able to read is important. AA: A good question for English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles: LIDA BAKER: "The very simple answer to Juan's question is: yes, that the gerund and infinitive are more or less interchangeable when they are in subject position. Which is the way the sentences that he offered as examples -- notice that the gerund and infinitive are at the beginning of the sentence, they are the subject. And I think we should probably, for those who might not remember, just point out that a gerund is the -ing form of a verb but used as a noun. So, 'swimming is good exercise.'" AA: "But the way he says here, 'to swim is a good exercise,' now to my ear it didn't sound like native English to say, 'To swim is a good exercise.' I probably would have said 'swimming is a good exercise,' 'working ten years in the mine is enough.' Not 'to work ten years,' 'to swim is a good exercise.'" RS: "It's a little bit more formal to use the 'to' plus the verb, the infinitive." AA: "Yeah." LIDA BAKER: "But what about the sentence, 'To be able to read is important'? To my ear, that's absolutely correct." AA: "I agree with you." LIDA BAKER: "When we talk about infinitives and gerunds in subject position, at the beginning of a sentence, a person who's learning English probably needs to know that the meaning is more or less the same." RS: "What's the difference in other positions between the gerund or the infinitive." LIDA BAKER: "Gerunds or infinitives can occur in all the positions that nouns normally occur. So we've already seen Juan's example in the subject position. They can also occur after the 'be' verb. So you have a sentence like, 'Her dream is to become an opera singer.' Or, 'My hobby is playing the piano.' They can occur in what's called an appositive. An appositive is a noun that comes after another noun where the second nouns explains the first noun. So in a sentence like 'I appreciate your offer to take me to the airport,' we have the noun 'offer.' And what is the offer?" RS: "To take me to the airport." LIDA BAKER: "Right, so there are two noun structures there, one of which defines the other one. So that's a way that we use infinitives and gerunds. The appositive structure, we always use an infinitive. So, 'I appreciate your offer to take me to the airport.' We would never say, 'I appreciate your offer taking me to the airport.' Right?" AA: "Right." LIDA BAKER: "That's absolutely wrong." AA: "Well, you said -- wait a second, you said an appositive is a noun that follows another noun." LIDA BAKER: "Uh-huh." AA: "So 'to take' in that case, even though it's an infinitive form of a verb, it's being used as a noun?" LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, infinitives and gerunds are almost always used as nouns. That's part of the definition." AA: "OK, I knew that as a gerund, but I didn't realize that was true with an infinitive." LIDA BAKER: "Not in every case, but in almost every case. Do you want to hear a couple of other?" AA: "Please!" LIDA BAKER: "Object of the preposition, and these are always gerunds. So, 'Thanks for helping me.' The preposition 'for,' and the word 'helping' is the object of the preposition. In that case, we always use a gerund. "And finally, the one I want to mention is the infinitive or gerund used as a direct object. That is to say, the object of a verb. And the reason I mention this last is that this is the one that is the biggest challenge for people who are learning English. So are you ready?" RS: Not quite. We're short on time, so we'll finish the discussion with English teacher Lida Baker next week. AA: But we will tell you about a free Grammar and Writing Guide on a Web site she found. It's sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation, a non-profit organization in Connecticut. RS: It's a long address, so to make it easy to find we'll post a link on our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: to be or not to be, or should there be an -ing? That is the question as we look at gerunds and infinitives. RS: To be, to run, to eat: the "to" indicates the infinitive form of the verb. But if you were to use these verbs as gerunds, they would take an –ing as in being, running and eating. AA: Juan, a listener in Chile, is not always sure when to use an infinitive and when to use a gerund. He sent us four sentences and asks if they're right: RS: Here they are: To swim is a good exercise. To work ten years in the mine is enough. Sleeping is a luxury. Being able to read is important. AA: A good question for English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles: LIDA BAKER: "The very simple answer to Juan's question is: yes, that the gerund and infinitive are more or less interchangeable when they are in subject position. Which is the way the sentences that he offered as examples -- notice that the gerund and infinitive are at the beginning of the sentence, they are the subject. And I think we should probably, for those who might not remember, just point out that a gerund is the -ing form of a verb but used as a noun. So, 'swimming is good exercise.'" AA: "But the way he says here, 'to swim is a good exercise,' now to my ear it didn't sound like native English to say, 'To swim is a good exercise.' I probably would have said 'swimming is a good exercise,' 'working ten years in the mine is enough.' Not 'to work ten years,' 'to swim is a good exercise.'" RS: "It's a little bit more formal to use the 'to' plus the verb, the infinitive." AA: "Yeah." LIDA BAKER: "But what about the sentence, 'To be able to read is important'? To my ear, that's absolutely correct." AA: "I agree with you." LIDA BAKER: "When we talk about infinitives and gerunds in subject position, at the beginning of a sentence, a person who's learning English probably needs to know that the meaning is more or less the same." RS: "What's the difference in other positions between the gerund or the infinitive." LIDA BAKER: "Gerunds or infinitives can occur in all the positions that nouns normally occur. So we've already seen Juan's example in the subject position. They can also occur after the 'be' verb. So you have a sentence like, 'Her dream is to become an opera singer.' Or, 'My hobby is playing the piano.' They can occur in what's called an appositive. An appositive is a noun that comes after another noun where the second nouns explains the first noun. So in a sentence like 'I appreciate your offer to take me to the airport,' we have the noun 'offer.' And what is the offer?" RS: "To take me to the airport." LIDA BAKER: "Right, so there are two noun structures there, one of which defines the other one. So that's a way that we use infinitives and gerunds. The appositive structure, we always use an infinitive. So, 'I appreciate your offer to take me to the airport.' We would never say, 'I appreciate your offer taking me to the airport.' Right?" AA: "Right." LIDA BAKER: "That's absolutely wrong." AA: "Well, you said -- wait a second, you said an appositive is a noun that follows another noun." LIDA BAKER: "Uh-huh." AA: "So 'to take' in that case, even though it's an infinitive form of a verb, it's being used as a noun?" LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, infinitives and gerunds are almost always used as nouns. That's part of the definition." AA: "OK, I knew that as a gerund, but I didn't realize that was true with an infinitive." LIDA BAKER: "Not in every case, but in almost every case. Do you want to hear a couple of other?" AA: "Please!" LIDA BAKER: "Object of the preposition, and these are always gerunds. So, 'Thanks for helping me.' The preposition 'for,' and the word 'helping' is the object of the preposition. In that case, we always use a gerund. "And finally, the one I want to mention is the infinitive or gerund used as a direct object. That is to say, the object of a verb. And the reason I mention this last is that this is the one that is the biggest challenge for people who are learning English. So are you ready?" RS: Not quite. We're short on time, so we'll finish the discussion with English teacher Lida Baker next week. AA: But we will tell you about a free Grammar and Writing Guide on a Web site she found. It's sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation, a non-profit organization in Connecticut. RS: It's a long address, so to make it easy to find we'll post a link on our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Out of the Classroom: Summer School Goes Online
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Education Report. In the United States, the traditional school year is September to June. Summer school used to be seen mainly as a place for high school students to a repeat classes they failed. But summer programs have expanded. Students often go to summer school so they can ease their class load during the school year. Or it might give them more freedom to choose the classes they want during the regular term. Summer school students do the same amount of work as if they took the class during the school year. But they do it in a much shorter time -- just one to two months. They generally attend school for three to four hours every morning, five days a week. Another choice for many students is to take classes online. Students work by computer at home or wherever they have an Internet connection. They could even be traveling with their families. However, some online classes require students to come to a classroom to take tests. Students may also have to take part in group discussions with the teacher online. And there may be a required number of hours to spend logged on each day. Yet there may also be freedom to do the work anytime, day or night. Teachers say students who have failed a class may find working by computer easier than taking the class again in school. For example, they may feel more willing to ask questions of the teacher through e-mail. But teachers also say that students must be able to work independently to succeed at an online class. And a student must also be a good reader if all the material is presented in writing. Students take classes through their local school system or they can find a private, online school. Families must make sure that the school is legally recognized as an educational provider. If not, then their local school might not give credit for the work. More than three hundred schools are members of Virtual High School, a non-profit organization based in Massachusetts. It includes twenty-five schools outside the United States. Virtual High School says it has more than two hundred classes and six thousand students. The Web site for this online school is govhs.org. Again, it's go v-h-s dot org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Election of 1868: Famous War Hero Becomes President
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The years just after America's Civil War were difficult ones for the President, Andrew Johnson. He came to power suddenly in April, eighteen sixty-five, when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. And he soon found himself in a bitter struggle with Congress. Radical members of the Republican Party held a trial in the Senate in an attempt to remove Johnson from office. But they could not prove their charges. Their effort failed. When the incident was over, Johnson had less than a year left in the White House. By then, the two political parties were preparing for the presidential election of eighteen sixty-eight. This is Shep O'Neal. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of that election. VOICE TWO: There was no question about the Republican choice for president. Party leaders wanted General Ulysses Grant. Grant had been head of the Union army during the last part of the Civil War. Under his leadership, the Union had won. And now, he was the best-liked man in the country. Ulysses GrantWherever Grant went, former soldiers waited to shake the hand of the man who had led them to victory against the Confederacy. The Democratic Party had a much more difficult time choosing a candidate for president in eighteen sixty-eight. Forty-seven men wanted the nomination. After several votes during its convention, the party failed to choose one above the others. Finally, party leaders looked for a compromise candidate. They chose Horatio Seymour, a former governor of New York state. He won the nomination on the twenty-second ballot. Seymour, at first, said he could not accept the honor. He said he did not want to be president. But finally, after much urging from other party leaders, he agreed to run against Grant. VOICE ONE: The presidential campaign was a strange one. Neither Grant nor Seymour campaigned very hard. Grant told his advisers he would take no part in the election campaign. Seymour spent much of the time working on his farm. The real campaigning was done by party supporters. Republicans urged Union men to "vote as you shot" for Ulysses Grant -- the man who won the Civil War. They warned that Horatio Seymour and the Democrats were all secret rebels in their hearts. Seymour's supporters spent most of their time answering Republican charges. They struck back by accusing Grant of being a liar. They said he was controlled by extremists. They said he would rule from the White House like a dictator. VOICE TWO: The democratic attacks failed. Grant got more popular votes and electoral votes than Seymour. He won the election. It was a great victory for the military hero. Yet it also was the start of an administration that would suffer many problems. Ulysses Grant would prove to be much less successful in politics than in war. As Andrew Johnson prepared to leave the White House a few months after Grant's election, he would look back on some successes during his time as president. True, he had lost the political fight to control the re-building, or recontruction, of the defeated southern states. But he had won the equally important fight to keep the presidency independent from Congress. Johnson also could look back on some successes in foreign relations. During his administration, he got Napolean the third of France to withdraw French forces from Mexico. And he got more territory for the United States. VOICE ONE: In the spring of eighteen sixty-seven, the Russian minister in Washington made a surprise offer. He said his country was willing to sell some of its territory in North America. Secretary of State William? Seward quickly prepared a treaty accepting the offer. Russia wanted ten million dollars for the land. Seward said the United States would pay only seven million dollars. Russia accepted, and the treaty was signed. The United States flag was raised over Alaska. Many Americans protested the purchase of Alaska. They thought seven million dollars was too much to pay for a worthless piece of frozen land. They said the deal was foolish. They called it "Seward's Folly." In time, of course, these critics were proved wrong. Alaska's wealth in oil, natural gas, trees, fish and animal skins makes its purchase one of the greatest deals any country ever made for territory. VOICE TWO: On March fourth, eighteen sixty-nine, Ulysses Grant traveled to Washington for his inauguration as the eighteenth president of the United States. Out-going president Andrew Johnson refused to take part in the ceremony. Before Grant arrived, Johnson left the White House. ?As he walked out, he told a friend, "I think I can already smell the fresh mountain air of my home in Tennessee." Americans had high hopes for their new president. They saw Gant as a strong and silent soldier -- a great leader who had won a long and bitter war. But there was another side to Grant which most people did not see. During the Civil War, the general had been a great hero. ?For many years before that, however, he had been considered a failure. VOICE ONE: As a young man, Grant entered West Point, the nation's school for army officers. He did poorly in his studies. He did not like responsibility. Somehow he completed his studies and become an army officer. He fought in America's war against Mexico. After the war, Grant got into trouble. He drank too much whisky, too often. The army forced him to resign. For the next eight years, he tried one thing after another. He failed at each one. He tried farming, for example, and failed. He tried selling land, and failed at that, too. At last, Grant appealed to his father for a job in a store. He held this low-paying job until the Civil War started.Then he finally got back into the army. He got his chance to succeed. VOICE TWO: Still, the years of poverty and failure affected Ulysses Grant. They made him lack trust in his own judgment and abilities. This feeling showed itself when Grant reached the White House. The new president had little knowledge of politics or government. And he refused to ask for advice from experts. To do so, he felt, would show a lack of intelligence. For advice, he depended on close friends.These were the men with whom he had served during the Civil War. Grant had never been able to make much money. He liked and had great respect for men who had. He became friends with some of these wealthy men. He accepted gifts from them. This weakness for money and power became clear when he announced his choices for his cabinet. VOICE ONE: Grant named a rich businessman to be Treasury Secretary. The Senate rejected him. Grant named another rich businessman for Navy Secretary. This nomination was approved, even though the man had never been on a ship. Grant named several other rich people and old military friends to the cabinet. Many lacked political experience. Some critics attacked the appointments. One critic said: "Never was an administration begun with more hope. . . and less ability." VOICE TWO: The best adviser grant named was John Rawlins as Secretary of War. Rawlins was a good judge of men. And he was wiser than most of Grant's other friends. He alone, of all those around the president, would argue with Grant when he believed him to be wrong. Rawlins, however, was in poor health. His condition grew worse during the summer of eighteen sixty-nine. Early in autumn, he died. Rawlins' death hurt President Grant deeply. But the lack of honest, wise advice in the White House would hurt the country even more. That will be our story next week, in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by David Jarmul and Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Michelle Shocked: So Much to Sing, It Takes Three Records
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Michelle Shocked … A question from a listener about the Reverend Billy Graham … And a report about a new owner of a professional basketball team. New Mystics Owner HOST: The Women’s National Basketball Association is in its ninth season. One team is excited about a new member of its organization. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Sheila Johnson recently became the first African-American woman to own a Women’s National Basketball Association team. She shares in the ownership of the Washington Mystics. Miz Johnson joined an ownership group that bought the team. She also shares in the ownership of two other professional sports teams in Washington, D.C. -- the Washington Wizards men’s basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team. Miz Johnson is believed to be the only black woman to have ownership of three professional sports teams. Sheila Johnson will serve as the Mystics president and managing partner. She also will represent the Mystics at board of governor meetings. The Washington Mystics joined the Women’s National Basketball Association in nineteen ninety-seven. ?Abe and Irene Pollin founded the team. Mister Pollin also is majority owner of the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards. Mister Pollin has known Sheila Johnson for twenty years. He chose her to share in ownership of the team. Mister Pollin says she is the best person to guide the team. Sheila Johnson is also a very successful businesswoman. She and her former husband, Bob Johnson, started Black Entertainment Television in nineteen eighty. It was the first cable television network aimed at African-American viewers. They sold the company in nineteen ninety-seven. Miz Johnson is also president of the Washington International Horse Show. She has given millions of dollars to many aid organizations, including schools and programs to support children’s art education. Sheila Johnson says she is excited to work with the women of the Washington Mystics. She praised their abilities as athletes and as women. Billy Graham HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mannur, India. C.V.S. Prasad wants to know about the Reverend Billy Graham. Billy Graham is probably the most famous religious leader in America. He is an Evangelistic Christian. He considers the Christian holy book, the Bible, as exact truth and the word of God. Billy Graham was born in nineteen eighteen. He was raised on a farm in North Carolina. Graham says he was sixteen when he decided that he would surrender his life to Jesus Christ. He studied to be a Christian church leader at Florida Bible Institute, graduating in nineteen forty. He began giving religious talks on the streets and in small churches before he even became a minister. Graham also got a degree from Wheaton College in Illinois in nineteen forty-three. That same year he married Ruth Bell, another Wheaton student. Billy Graham says his one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God. He says he believes this comes through knowing Christ. This was his purpose when he launched his first major Christian event in Los Angeles, California in nineteen forty-nine. He called it an Evangelistic Crusade. It brought fame to Mister Graham and to his Christian campaign. Similar events followed the next year in London and New York City. Tens of thousands of people attended to hear Mister Graham speak. Over the years, Billy Graham has spoken to an estimated two hundred million people around the world. He has gained many awards and honors. Presidents and other important officials have sought his advice. He has appeared at national events, like presidential inaugurations, to lead prayers. Mister Graham also has used television and radio in his evangelical effort. And, he has written books and made movies to spread his message. Ruth and Billy Graham have five children. One of them, Franklin, is following in his father’s steps as a national Christian leader. Billy Graham is now eighty-six. He has Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer. In June, he held another three-day Evangelistic Crusade in a park in New York City. More than seventy thousand people attended each day. He said it would be his last event in the United States. He said he knew he was coming to the end of his ministry and his life. Michelle Shocked Not every musician releases three albums at the same time. Singer Michelle Shocked has done just that with her new album set called “Threesome.” Barbara Klein tells us more about this special performer. BARBARA KLEIN: Michelle Shocked is not your average musician. She plays many kinds of songs, from blues and rock to gospel and country music. She not only sings these songs, but also writes them and plays the guitar. Shocked is also very politically active. She likes to express her beliefs about women’s rights and spirituality. She believes that the power of music can change the world. Michelle Shocked often tells about herself in her music. In one of the three new albums, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” she sings about the pleasures and pains of love. This song is called “How You Play the Game.” (MUSIC) Another of the new albums is called “Mexican Standoff.” Here, Shocked mixes musical traditions. She combines the sounds of her native state of Texas with the sounds of Latino music. She even sings in Spanish. Here is one example, “La Cantina el Gato Negro.” (MUSIC) The third album is called “Got No Strings.”? Shocked takes several well known songs from Walt Disney movies and performs them with a country music sound. We leave you now as Michelle Shocked performs “A Dream?Is a Wish.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. This show was written by Dana Demange, Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Savings Are a Starting Point on the Road to Riches
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Saving money is a first step toward wealth. Putting money away for the future also supports the banking system. Banks need a supply of savings to provide money for loans. In the United States, people who want to start a savings have many choices. Banks, savings-and-loans and credit unions are traditional places to open an account. Credit unions are cooperatives for people who are linked in some way. For example, the members may work for a university or a government agency. Most credit unions are non-profit organizations. Savings are protected up to a limit if a federally guaranteed bank, savings association or credit union ever fails. Savers have their money guaranteed up to one hundred thousand dollars. Banks and other financial organizations pay interest on savings accounts. But the interest rates are low. Certificates of deposit are another way to save. They pay higher interest rates. With a certificate of deposit, a person agrees not to withdraw an amount of money for a period of time. The term could be three months, or it could be several years. Longer terms, and larger amounts, pay higher interest. People can withdraw their money early but at a cost. Another way to save is through a money market fund. This is a kind of mutual fund. Mutual funds invest money from many people. Money market funds pay higher interest than savings accounts. The money is usually placed in short-term government securities. Money market funds, however, may not be federally guaranteed like other kinds of savings. In a number of countries, including the United States, people have been saving less and less. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a group of thirty industrial countries. A report from the O.E.C.D. shows that in nineteen ninety Americans had a household savings rate of seven percent. This year, it is expected to be one-half of one percent. That is below the other members except Australia, Denmark and New Zealand. Next year, though, Americans are expected to save more than one percent of unspent earnings. In Japan, the second largest economy, the savings rate in nineteen ninety was fourteen percent. The estimate for this year and next is five percent. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Senate Prepares to Consider Supreme Court Nomination
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. President Bush this week nominated a federal judge to become the one hundred ninth justice of the United States Supreme Court. John Roberts is fifty years old. He grew up in the Midwestern state of Indiana and attended college and law school at Harvard. He worked as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. He also worked in the administrations of two presidents: the first George Bush and Ronald Reagan. Mister Roberts represented the government in thirty-nine cases before the Supreme Court. He has been a judge for two years. He serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court is often called the second most powerful after the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin confirmation hearings by early September. Supreme Court nominees have often been unwilling to answer questions about their legal positions. The American Bar Association advises nominees not to discuss how they might vote on issues likely to come before them. There are ten Republicans and eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. Unless they reject a nominee, the next step is a vote by the full Senate. President Bush noted that the Senate approved Judge Roberts for his current job without any opposition. The president says his nominee would not "legislate" from the court, but would "strictly apply the Constitution and laws." Conservative groups generally support the nomination of John Roberts. Liberal groups say they are concerned about some of his positions on civil liberties. These include the right of women to end unwanted pregnancies. He has questioned the Supreme Court decision in nineteen seventy-three that made abortion legal. But more recently he has called the ruling "settled law." Right now, interest groups are examining his record of legal writings to look for his positions on different issues. President Bush says he wants Judge Roberts on the court when it begins its next term in October. Since seventeen eighty-nine, the Senate has considered more than one hundred forty Supreme Court nominees. The Senate Historical Office says twenty-seven have been rejected. No one seems to question the ability of Judge Roberts to do the job. Most concerns being expressed involve the balance of the nine-member court. The current Supreme Court, unchanged for eleven years, has often been conservative in its rulings. But Judge Roberts would replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She is retiring after twenty-four terms. She often took moderate positions that made the difference in cases decided by votes of five-to-four. Justice O'Connor was the first woman on the court. Her retirement will leave the only other woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A White House spokesman says the president considered a number of qualified women but believes he chose "the best person to fill this position." IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Douglas MacArthur: Born to Be a Soldier
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) ANNCR:? Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about one of the most unusual and successful American military leaders, General Douglas MacArthur. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: General Douglas MacArthur was a most unusual man. He was extremely intelligent and very demanding. He expected his orders to be followed exactly. Yet he had problems all his life following the orders of those who were his commanders. Douglas MacArthur was very intelligent and could remember things that others would easily forget. He could design battle plans that left the enemy no choice other than surrender and defeat. His battle plans defeated the enemy and saved as many of his own men as possible. At other times, he would make simple mistakes that made him appear stupid. He often said things that showed he felt important. Many people made jokes about him. Some of his soldiers sang songs that made fun of him. Others believed he was the best general ever to serve in the United States military. General Douglas MacArthur was extremely brave in battle, sometimes almost foolish. It often seemed as if he believed he could not be killed. He won every medal and honor the United States can give a soldier. However, at the end of his life, he rejected war and warned American political leaders to stay away from armed conflict. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthur was born to be a soldier. His father, Arthur MacArthur, was a hero of the American Civil War and continued to serve in the army after the war ended in eighteen sixty-five. He became the top officer of the army in nineteen-oh-six. Douglas was born on an Army base near the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas in January, eighteen eighty. He grew up on army bases where his father served. He said the first sounds he could remember as a child were those of the Army: the sounds of horns, drums and soldiers marching. VOICE ONE: There was never any question about what Douglas MacArthur would do with his life. He would join the army. He wanted to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The Academy is a university that trains officers for the United States Army. School officials rejected him two times before he was accepted. He finished his four years at West Point as the best student in his class. VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthur began his service in the Army by traveling to several Asian countries including Japan, and to the Philippines, then an American territory. He also served at several small bases in the United States. He became a colonel when World War One began. He led troops on very dangerous attacks against the enemy. He won many honors for his bravery and leadership. After that war, he served as head of the West Point Military Academy. He became a general. During the nineteen thirties, President Herbert Hoover appointed him Chief of Staff of the Army, one of the most important jobs in the American military. In nineteen-thirty-five, General MacArthur was appointed military advisor to the Philippines. He was to help the government build an army for defense purposes as the Philippines began planning for independence. He had retired from the army. He was the chief military advisor to the Philippine military forces when the United States entered World War Two in December, nineteen forty-one. VOICE ONE: Japanese aggression in the Pacific developed very quickly. Japanese troops began arriving in the Philippines on December eleventh, nineteen forty-one. The fighting was extremely fierce. President RooseveltThe Japanese were defeating the Philippine and American forces. General MacArthur had been recalled to active duty by President . President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines to command American forces in the South Pacific. General MacArthur finally agreed to leave for Australia before the Philippines surrendered to Japan. But he made a promise to the Philippine people. He said, "I shall return." VOICE TWO: Military history experts continue to study General MacArthur's decisions during World War Two. He won battle after battle in the South Pacific area. Often, he would pass islands with strong enemy forces, cut off their supplies and leave them with no chance to fight. In nineteen forty-four, he returned to the Philippines with an army that defeated the Japanese. VOICE ONE: MacArthur was chosen to accept the Japanese surrender in September, nineteen forty-five. He was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the leader of the occupation forces that would rule Japan. As an American soldier, he had to follow the orders of the government in Washington. But in Japan, General MacArthur ruled like a dictator. VOICE TWO: The Japanese expected severe punishment. They saw MacArthur as a very conservative ruler who would make Japan suffer. MacArthur did charge some Japanese leaders with war crimes. But he did not try to punish the Japanese people. General MacArthur told the Japanese they must change, both politically and socially. He began with education. Before the war, female children in Japan received little if any education. MacArthur said education would be for everyone, including girls and women. He said women must have the right to vote in elections, and be permitted to hold political office. He said Japanese women would now have the same legal rights as men. And he said that every person had the same legal protection under the law. VOICE ONE: General MacArthur told the Japanese people they were now free to form political parties. And he ended the idea of an official government religion. Religion would be a matter of individual choice. He also said the Japanese government would no longer be controlled by a few powerful people. MacArthur told Japan it would now be ruled by a parliament that was freely elected by the people. He helped the people of Japan write a new constitution for a democratic form of government. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On June twenty-fifth, nineteen fifty, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Within two days, the United States decided to send armed forces to aid South Korea. Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of the United Nations forces in South Korea. As the weeks passed, the North Korean army forced the South Korean Army and its allies to retreat to the southern city of Pusan. Many military experts said South Korea was lost. General MacArthur did not agree. He wanted to attack from the sea, deep behind the enemy troops at the city of Inchon. MacArthur said the enemy would not be prepared. Most other military leaders believed this would be extremely dangerous. American Marines did attack Inchon September fifteenth. It was a complete success. MacArthur had been right. VOICE ONE: General MacArthur often disagreed with political leaders. President Truman warned him several times not to disagree with government policy. General MacArthur continued to disagree and told reporters when he did. He often gave orders that were not approved by the president. President TrumanMacArthur called for a total victory in Korea. He wanted to defeat communism in East Asia. He wanted to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and block Chinese ports. President Truman and his military advisers were concerned World War Three would start. In April, nineteen fifty-one, President Truman replaced MacArthur as head of the U.N. forces in Korea. Douglas MacArthur went home to the United States. It was the first time he had been there in more than fifteen years. He was honored as a returning hero. He was invited to speak before Congress. There was a huge parade to honor him in New York City. VOICE TWO: General MacArthur retired again. Some political leaders wanted him to compete for some political office, perhaps for president. Instead, he lived a quiet life with his wife and son. He died at the age of eighty-four on April fifth, nineteen sixty-four. Today, many Americans have forgotten Douglas MacArthur. However, the people of the Philippines built a statue to honor him for keeping his promise to return. And, many Japanese visitors go to General MacArthur's burial place in Norfolk, Virginia to remember what he did for Japan. (MUSIC) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Gains in Aid for Poor Nations Fuel Talk of 'Dutch Disease'
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Earlier this month, leaders at the Group of Eight meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, agreed to increase their foreign aid. They promised to double aid for Africa by two thousand ten. Last year, official development assistance worldwide came to a total of seventy-nine thousand million dollars. In five years, the amount should be around fifty thousand million dollars higher. These numbers are all estimates from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Richard Manning of the O.E.C.D. says Africa is expected to receive an additional twenty-five thousand million dollars. That will bring the level of aid to the continent to around fifty thousand million dollars in two thousand ten. But there is a danger when nations receive too much money, too fast. There is even a name for it: "Dutch disease."? Finance and Development, a magazine of the International Monetary Fund, defined the term as "too much wealth managed unwisely." Dutch disease was first observed in the Netherlands in the nineteen sixties. At that time, large amounts of natural gas were discovered under the North Sea. Profits from oil exports flowed into the Dutch economy. This is good, right?? Not necessarily. The foreign exchange value of the Dutch guilder unexpectedly became stronger. As a result, exports other than oil became less competitive. Manufacturing suffered. The causes of Dutch disease are complex to explain. Simply put, it describes harmful effects when money enters an economy faster than the economy can swallow it. Economists say Dutch disease can also happen with increases in economic aid. I.M.F. economists Raghu Rajan and Arvind Subramanian released two studies shortly before the Group of Eight conference. The economists say it is difficult to find a relationship, good or bad, between aid and economic growth. They say that for aid to be more effective in the future, policymakers must deal more seriously with important questions. These involve how the aid is given as well as the competitiveness of the economy. Mister Subramanian says the findings support current efforts "at national and international levels to improve aid effectiveness." This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-24-voa4.cfm
* Headline: A New 'Old' Look for Historic Montpelier
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: James MadisonAnd I’m Faith Lapidus. Ever hear of Montpelier?? It was the Virginia home of James Madison, the fourth president and the man known as the "Father of the Constitution."? He wrote the first plan for unifying the newly established United States. Also, Madison was the one mainly responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights. VOICE ONE: Now a campaign aims to give new life to Montpelier so more people will want to see the historic home. This week on our show, learn about James Madison and Montpelier. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Montpelier is about one hundred thirty kilometers south of Washington, D.C. It covers more than one thousand hectares in the middle of farm country in Virginia. Montpelier is a short drive from the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is only about forty-five kilometers from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. VOICE ONE: In late two thousand four, a public campaign opened to establish Montpelier as a national monument to James Madison. The Montpelier Foundation is working to raise sixty million dollars for projects. These include restoration of the Madison home and property. The money will also be used to open a study center at Montpelier, the Center for the Constitution. Work on the home is in progress. It is expected to be completed in two thousand seven. The home will be reduced from fifty-five rooms to the twenty-two rooms that existed in the eighteen twenties. It will look as it did when James Madison and his wife Dolley lived there. Madison was president from eighteen-oh-nine to eighteen seventeen. Visitors can take a special "restoration tour" of the home while the work goes on. They can also take guided walks through the surrounding lands. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia, on March sixteenth, seventeen fifty-one. He grew up in Orange County, at his family home at Montpelier. James Madison’s grandfather, Ambrose Madison, first settled the land in seventeen twenty-three. James spent the first nine years of his life in a house built by his grandfather. His father built the main house at Montpelier in about seventeen sixty. The family moved there a short time later. James Madison was the oldest of twelve children. He was educated at home and at schools in Virginia until he was eighteen years old. Then he attended the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University. He completed his college education in just two years. He stayed in New Jersey one more year for independent studies. James Madison returned to Montpelier in seventeen seventy-two. He was not sure what he would do for his future. He thought about becoming a lawyer, a clergyman or a businessman. But he decided against all those jobs. VOICE ONE: As Madison thought about his future, Britain and its American colonies were increasingly angry with each other. This period, the early seventeen seventies, was about the time James Madison began his political activism. He served in local government. Then he was elected to Virginia’s first House of Delegates. There he helped to write a new state constitution. Madison represented Virginia at the Second Continental Congress during the War of Independence. After the war, he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in seventeen eighty-seven. Madison thought the United States should have a strong central government. He led efforts in Virginia and other states to approve the proposal. He helped write The Federalist, a series of reports that explained the proposed Constitution. VOICE TWO: The Constitution was approved. Madison continued as a leading member of the new federal government. He was elected to the first Congress. He led the fight to approve the first ten amendments to the Constitution -- the Bill of Rights. A few years later, he and Thomas Jefferson formed a political party. It is known today as the Democratic Party. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: While in Congress, James Madison met a young woman,? Dolley Payne Todd. Her husband had died of yellow fever the year before. Madison proposed marriage a short time after they met. They were married on September fifteenth, seventeen ninety-four. James Madison was a small, quiet man. Dolley Madison liked to organize big parties. They were married forty-one years, until his death. They had no children together. But they raised her son by her first husband. James Madison left Congress in seventeen ninety-seven. He and Dolley retired to Montpelier. ?But the retirement did not last long. Thomas Jefferson became president in eighteen-oh-one. Jefferson appointed his friend Madison as secretary of state. Madison served as America’s top diplomat for eight years. VOICE TWO: The Jefferson presidency was a period of growth for the new nation. In eighteen-oh-three, the United States agreed to pay France about fifteen million dollars for a huge piece of land. This agreement was called the Louisiana Purchase. It increased the area of the United States by one hundred percent. There were, however, some problems. Secretary of State Madison could not get France and Britain to honor the rights of Americans on the high seas. James Madison became president in eighteen-oh-nine. Trade relations with the French and British became his government’s biggest problem. President Madison served two terms, eight years in all. He led the United States through the War of Eighteen Twelve. British troops invaded the country and burned Washington. The United States won the war in eighteen fifteen. VOICE ONE: Two years later, Madison left office at the end of his second term. He and Dolley returned to Montpelier. The former president remained active and interested in politics. Madison had many slaves at Montpelier. Now, he founded a group that sought to free the slaves in the United States and return them to Africa. He also took part in Virginia’s constitutional convention in eighteen twenty-nine. James Madison died at Montpelier on June twenty-eighth, eighteen thirty-six. He was eighty-five years old. Dolley Madison died thirteen years later. They are buried on the property. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The main building at Montpelier started with eight rooms. It had four rooms on the first floor and four on the second. James Madison made two major additions to the building, which his father had built. He also made other changes. He built private areas for family use. He combined existing rooms to create larger, public spaces for dinners and parties. VOICE ONE: Dolley Madison sold Montpelier to a friend in eighteen forty-four, eight years after her husband died. The property had five other owners before William and Annie duPont bought the land in nineteen-oh-one. The duPonts enlarged the main building. Their daughter, Marion duPont Scott, added two large tracks for horse racing. The home remained in the duPont family until nineteen eighty-three. Then it was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Montpelier opened to the public in nineteen eighty-seven. The Montpelier Foundation accepted responsibility for the property. VOICE TWO: Not everything will change at James Madison’s Montpelier. There will still be many buildings, a large flower garden and farmland. Some trees on the grounds were there when Madison was alive. The James Madison Landmark Forest includes wooded land near the back of the property. It is recognized as the best example of an old-growth forest in central Virginia. We leave you with music recorded in recent years at Montpelier. One of the instruments, the crystal flute, belonged to President Madison. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by George Grow and Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: True or False: Kids + Too Much TV = Less Ability to Learn?
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we tell about proposed changes to an important environmental law. We tell about the first look inside a comet in space. We also present some interesting questions about science. But first, does watching television harm a child’s ability to learn? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: All parents want their child to perform well in school. However, three new studies suggest this may not happen if the child watches too much television. The studies were published this month in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Researchers at Stanford University in California and Johns Hopkins University in Maryland carried out one study. They examined the test scores of three hundred fifty students who were about eight years old.More than seventy percent of these students reported having a television in the room where they sleep. These students performed between seven and nine points lower on math, reading and language tests than students without televisions in their rooms. VOICE TWO: Scientists at the University of Washington carried out the second study. They examined information on about one thousand eight hundred students. The researchers found that too much television before age three was linked to lower reading skills by age six. The study also found that six and seven-year-old children had poorer short-term memory if they had watched a lot of television in their earliest years. However, children who watched TV after age three seemed to be better able to sound out and say words. VOICE ONE: Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand did the third study. They followed more than one thousand people born around nineteen seventy-two. They found that those who watched the most television between the ages five and fifteen were the least likely to finish high school and college by age twenty-six. A report critical of the three studies also appeared in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Deborah Linebarger of the University of Pennsylvania helped write it. She said the studies measured only the time children spent watching television and not what programs they watched. Her research has shown that quality educational programs can help children learn. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A committee of the United States Congress is considering changes to a law meant to protect plants and animals from disappearing from Earth. Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in nineteen seventy-three. The law provides protection for more than one thousand kinds of plants and animals that are threatened with dying out. Some groups say it is the strongest and most important wildlife protective legislation in the world. But a number of interest groups say the Endangered Species Act slows progress and economic growth. VOICE ONE: Reports say the proposed changes call for stronger requirements for defining species as endangered. The change in description would limit the measures taken to protect them. Another change reportedly being considered would narrow the definition of protected living areas. These areas would be limited to places where a plant or animal now grows or lives. The law currently includes places where the plant or animal could live if its population grew. VOICE TWO: Landowners, developers and builders are urging changes in the law. These critics say government and environmental groups unfairly restrict people’s control over their own land. They say the landowner does not receive anything in return for limitations placed to protect wildlife. Opponents also say the current law has not helped rescue many species. They charge that only one percent of protected species have been removed from the list of endangered wildlife. The rescued species include the Florida manatee, the Florida panther and the American bald eagle. Some environmental activists agree that the law needs changing. But they say they fear its purpose may be lost in the rewritten legislation. They worry that changes could cause some animals and plants to die out forever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American space agency scientists are getting their first look inside a comet. Earlier this month, NASA crashed its Deep Impact spacecraft into a comet called Tempel One. The crash took place more than one hundred thirty million kilometers from Earth. NASA scientists say the Comet Tempel One may provide information about the development of the Solar System. Comets are made of ice, gas and dust. They are made of particles from the farthest and coldest areas of the Solar System that formed more than four thousand million years old. NASA is studying the ancient matter inside the comet where material from the formation of the solar system remains generally unchanged. Scientists are studying the photographs taken before, during and after the crash. They say a huge cloud of fine powdery material was released when the spacecraft crashed into the comet. The cloud shows that the comet is covered with the powdery material. VOICE TWO: Deep Impact was launched into space in January. It traveled more than four hundred thirty million kilometers. The spacecraft was made of two parts. The larger part of the spacecraft was called the “flyby”. It flew near the comet and took pictures of the crash. The smaller part of the spacecraft was called the “impactor”. ??It separated from the spacecraft and crashed into the comet while traveling at about ten kilometers per second. The crash caused a great explosion of heat and light. The impactor was destroyed deep below the comet’s surface when it crashed. The spacecraft’s three cameras took more than four thousand images. It will take experts some time to study all of the photographs and information gathered by the spacecraft. Who knows what secrets about the universe this comet will reveal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American inventor Thomas Edison started Science magazine one hundred twenty-five years ago. Today, many important researchers publish their findings in Science. The magazine recently asked more than one hundred scientists what they thought were the most important unanswered questions facing science today. The magazine published a list of one hundred twenty-five questions in honor of its one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary. VOICE TWO: The magazine chose the top twenty-five questions on the list. Some of these questions have interested people for years, such as: “How and where did life on Earth arise?” And “Are we alone in the universe?”? Many scientists believe that we are not alone and that they may have an answer to this question in about twenty-five years. Other questions on the list are:? “Why do humans have so few genes?”? And “What genetic changes made us human?”? Another important question is: “How much can human lifespan be extended?”? Some scientists believe people in the future will live more than one hundred years. Others say a person’s lifespan is more limited. The Population Council says human lifespan has increased by more than fifty percent during the past one hundred years. VOICE ONE: The scientists said they chose the top twenty-five questions for several reasons. They chose some questions because of the major effect the answers would have on society. These questions include: “Is an effective vaccine against H.I.V. possible?”? “How hot will the world become because of greenhouse gases?” And “What can replace cheap oil – and when?”? You can learn more about the project at Science magazine’s Internet web site. The address is www.sciencemag.org. Click on the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary issue. VOICE TWO: Now it is your turn to ask a question about science. If you have a question that we can answer, send an e-mail to special@voanews.com. Please tell us your name and where you live. Or you can mail a question to VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson, Dana Demange and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. And I’m Barbara Klein . Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Simple Ways to Protect Water Quality
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers are the biggest users of freshwater resources. The Food and Agriculture Organization says agriculture uses seventy percent of all surface water supplies. That is the world average. Without the right measures, agriculture can be a major cause of water pollution. But solutions do not have to cost much. There are simple methods for farms of any size to reduce or prevent pollution of water supplies. We are going to talk about a few of them. The first deals with fertilizers and poisons. One way such chemicals can enter the environment is when they are not stored correctly. Stored chemicals can slowly leak into the soil and get into groundwater. To help avoid such problems, chemicals should be kept in structures with a floor made of cement. Farm animals can also pollute water supplies. Animals like cattle, pigs, sheep and goats are often left to feed on grass in open fields bordered by streams or rivers. Large animals loosen dirt and rocks as they walk along waterways to drink. Animal waste also enters water supplies. Experts say it is important to keep large farm animals away from water supplies with the use of a fence or barrier. Instead of leading animals to water, bring the water to them. It does not have to be transported long distances. Farmers can send water through pipes to a watering area for their animals with a pump powered by electricity or fuel. Human-powered treadle pumps are another solution. Trees, bushes and smaller plants can act as natural barriers along streams and rivers. Bushes provide excellent ground cover when grown near waterways or along the borders of fields. Animals avoid bushes with sharp thorns. Tree roots provide natural support for soil. Trees planted near waterways help stop soil loss from heavy rains. They also help keep the sun from drying out soil. Other plants and grasses also help protect water quality. They hold soil in place during rains and ease the water flow. These methods will not solve all water quality problems. But they are good first steps. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. You can even learn how to make a treadle pump. Just enter the word treadle, t-r-e-a-d-l-e, in the search box. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Story of Longitude
* Byline: Written by Oliver Chanler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how people learned an important piece of information necessary for safely sailing on the oceans. It is called longitude. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On a foggy October night in Seventeen-Oh-Seven, four English navy ships hit rocks in the Atlantic Ocean and sank. Two thousand men drowned. The ships had been sailing in the thick fog for twelve days. There was no sure way to know where they were. The commander of the ships had been worried that they could hit rocks if they were not careful. He asked his navigators for their opinion on their location in the ocean. The navigators did not really know. They told the commander they thought they were west of a small island near the coast of northwestern France. They were wrong. Instead, they sailed onto rocks near a small group of islands southwest of England's Atlantic coast. The navigators' lack of knowledge led to the loss of four ships and two-thousand lives. VOICE TWO: When people began sailing out of sight of land, sailors did not know how to tell where they were on the open sea. Land travelers can look at a mountain, or a river, or an object that shows them where they are in relation to where they came from. On the ocean, however, there is no sign to tell a sailor where he is. The most important device for knowing directions on the ocean is a compass. A compass is a device containing a metal object that points toward the magnetic north pole. This shows navigators the direction of north, and therefore also south, east, and west. But sailors need more information to sail safely on the open sea. VOICE ONE: Most maps of the world show lines that are not on the Earth's surface. One line is the equator. It is an imaginary line around the widest part of the Earth. There are similar lines both north and south of the equator. These circles become smaller and smaller toward the north pole and the south pole. These lines, or circles, are parallel - meaning that they are equally distant from each other at any point around the world. These lines show what is called latitude. A navigator can know the latitude of his ship by observing the location of stars, where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, and what time of year it is. With this information he knows where his ship is in relation to the north or south pole and the equator. VOICE TWO: Still, there is one more important piece of information necessary for safely sailing the oceans. For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude. The lines of longitude go the other way from latitude lines. They stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole, and back again in great circles of the same size. All of the lines of longitude meet at the top and bottom of the world. In her book, “Longitude,” writer Dava Sobel tells the story about longitude and how the problem of knowing it was solved. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For centuries, the great scientists of the world struggled to develop a way to learn longitude. To learn longitude at any place requires knowledge about time. A navigator needs to know what time it is on his ship and also the time at another place of known longitude - at the very same moment. The Earth takes twenty-four hours to complete one full turn or revolution of three-hundred-sixty degrees. One hour marks one twenty-fourth of a turn, or fifteen degrees. So each hour's time difference between the ship and the starting point marks a ship's progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. Those fifteen degrees of longitude mark a distance traveled. At the equator, where the Earth is widest, fifteen degrees stretches about one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers. North or south of that line, however, the distance value of each degree decreases. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time all around the world. But in measuring distance, one degree shrinks from about one-hundred-nine kilometers at the Equator to nothing at the North and South poles. VOICE TWO: For many centuries, navigators hoped they could find longitude by observing the movement of stars at night. During the day, the sun provided information about the time on a ship, and its direction. However, it did not provide necessary information about the time somewhere else. In the sixteenth century, one astronomer suggested that navigators could observe the moon as it passed in front of different known stars to tell longitude. But, there was not enough information about the stars to use this method effectively. Astronomers could not tell exactly where the moon would be from one night or day to the next. Yet it seemed to those seeking to solve the longitude problem that the only solution was in the moon and stars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the Seventeenth Century, English astronomers began a major effort to map the stars and their relationship to the moon as it passed across the sky. Royal Astronomer John Flamsteed worked at this task for forty years. The next Royal Astronomer, Edmund Halley, spent another forty years gathering information about the moon's orbit. After many years of gathering the necessary information, it became possible to learn longitude by observing the stars and the moon. In Seventeen-Sixty-Six, Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne published the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris. It contained all the necessary information about the moon and stars that sailors would need to help them learn their longitude. This new method was not simple. ?A navigator had to use complex observing instruments to note the position of the moon and stars. Then he had to seek the correct information in the Nautical Almanac about the moon and stars at that time of night or day. The final step in the process was to take the mathematical information from the book, link it to the current information and solve the resulting problem. This took an average of four hours to do. VOICE TWO: While scientists were studying the stars and moon to solve the longitude problem, a man named John Harrison was working on another project. He was trying to build a clock that would help sailors learn longitude. His task also was difficult and complex. Mister Harrison had to develop a clock that was not affected by the movement of a ship on the ocean or changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure. He began developing his clock in Seventeen-Thirty. It took five years to complete. The complex device weighed thirty-four kilograms. Several years later, Mister Harrison built a second clock. It was smaller, but weighed more than the first. Mister Harrison was not satisfied and began working on yet another device. Twenty years later, he completed a device that was smaller than the first two, and weighed less. But, still Mister Harrison was not satisfied. Two years later, in Seventeen-Fifty-Seven, he produced a small clock that he could hold in his hand. The clock could tell the correct time in two places, meeting the requirements for learning longitude on the sea. VOICE ONE: For many years after Mister Harrison's work was completed, the idea of using a clock to learn longitude was rejected. However, that opinion changed when manufacturers learned how to make better and less costly versions of Mister Harrison's clocks. The clocks became known as chronometers. By Eighteen-Fifteen, five-thousand chronometers were in use on ships sailing the world's oceans. The complex documents and mathematical work were no longer necessary. Almost any sailor could tell what his longitude was by simply looking at a clock. The world had changed. VOICE TWO: John Harrison's clocks can be seen today at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The first three are still operating, showing the correct time. To look at them is to see the simple solution to a problem that worried people for many centuries. Today, the solution to the problem is so common that it is difficult to understand that there was a problem at all. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Alaby. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. ? ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: SARS Virus No Longer Such a Mystery
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. SARS is a viral diseaseThere is progress toward a possible treatment for lung diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome. Researchers have learned more about how the SARS virus works. It interferes with a system in the body that uses enzymes to control blood pressure and fluid balance. The scientists say the virus attaches to an enzyme known as ACE-two. The virus blocks the enzyme, permitting fluid to enter the lungs. So the researchers put large amounts of the ACE-two enzyme into the lungs of laboratory mice. The scientists say the ACE-two attached to the virus and prevented it from linking to normal cells. The enzyme helped to protect against lung failure. A team from Europe and Asia reported the findings in Nature Medicine. Doctor Josef Penninger of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in the Austrian Academy of Sciences was the lead writer of the report. The discovery could lead to new ways to treat not just SARS but also other diseases that can cause lung failure. These include avian flu and influenza in humans. First, however, more study is needed to know if the enzyme will have the same effect in people as in mice. The first cases of SARS were discovered in Guangdong province, in southern China, in November of two thousand two. Chinese officials were criticized for delaying or hiding information about the problem. SARS was not recognized as a worldwide threat until March of two thousand three. The disease spread to twenty-six countries, most of them in the Asia-Pacific area. An estimated eight thousand people had SARS. More then seven hundred seventy of them died, or about ten percent, a relatively high rate. The World Health Organization warned people not to travel to affected areas. The crisis hurt international travel and business. The W.H.O. says the disease stopped spreading by July of two thousand three. As a result of SARS, the health agency got new powers to act before a government officially announces a crisis. SARS is a newly discovered member of the coronavirus family. Some coronaviruses are mild by comparison, like those that cause the common cold. But coronaviruses in animals can be more severe. SARS is believed to have crossed from animals to people. Many questions remain about how the virus first appeared and when it might appear again. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-27-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Gerunds vs. Infinitives, Part 2
* Byline: 

 AA:?I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of gerunds and infinitives with English teacher Lida Baker. RS:?A gerund, remember, is a verb ending in -ing but used as a noun. An infinitive is a verb with the preposition "to" as in to go, to swim, to walk. AA:?Huy Doan in Vietnam asks about the verb "regret." He wants to know if the verb that follows it should be a gerund or an infinitive, and what's the difference? We asked Lida. LIDA BAKER: "If we have a sentence like 'I regret to inform you that you have not been accepted to the university of your choice,' that's a correct sentence. In contrast to that, if we say something like 'I regret buying that car,' that's also a correct sentence. So what's the difference? OK, with this verb, and with a few other verbs, the choice of infinitive or gerund has to do with which event happened first. If I say 'I regret buying that car,' what happened first?" AA: "You bought the car." LIDA BAKER: "I bought the car. And later I regretted it. Now let me give you a clearer example of that: 'I stopped smoking' versus 'I stopped to smoke.'" RS: "Alright ... " AA: "Ohhh." RS: "Right, 'I stopped smoking' means 'I don't smoke anymore' and 'I stopped to smoke' means I stopped ... " AA: "To go smoke a cigarette out on the street." RS: "It's very tricky." LIDA BAKER: "That's very tricky and very, very -- a pitfall for students. Let's see if we can form some kind of a generalization from this, OK? Basically some verbs must have a gerund after them. Some verbs must have an infinitive after them. And some verbs can have both. "Of the verbs that can have both a gerund and an infinitive after them, sometimes there is no difference in meaning. But sometimes there is a big difference in meaning, as we just saw in the example of 'I stopped smoking/I stopped to smoke.' So those are the four classes of uses of infinitives and gerunds in object position, alright?" AA: "How do you learn them?" LIDA BAKER: "The learner first of all has to know that there is such a thing as a gerund, there is such a thing as an infinitive, that they can occur in subject position, that they can occur following the verb in a variety of positions. So the learner first of all needs consciousness-raising. You know, what are the options?" RS: "So should a student, once he has that overview, get out a list of words and start memorizing?" LIDA BAKER: "No, that is not the best way to learn infinitives and gerunds -- although, interestingly, when I started teaching many, many, many years ago, typically what textbooks would have would be a list of verbs in alphabetical order. You know, you'd have a list of verbs that are followed by gerunds and a list of verbs that are followed by infinitives. The student would have no choice but just to memorize them. "Since then, what linguists have learned, or have figured out, is that infinitives and gerunds very often fall into meaning categories. For example, there are a whole bunch of verbs that are generally used with the meaning of communicating something that are all followed by gerunds. I'll give you a couple of examples. To recommend: 'My best friend recommended seeing a doctor.' Or the verb suggest: 'He suggested leaving early in order to avoid the traffic.' "So, many textbooks nowadays present the verbs which are followed by gerunds versus the verbs that are followed by infinitives in terms of meaning categories, OK? Then there is a category of verbs of choice or intention, that have that meaning, so verbs like choose or decide or refuse. They're followed directly by the infinitive. So: 'He decided to go,' 'He expected to receive a letter from his mother.' The point is that infinitives and gerunds can be learned alphabetically, like you mentioned, but they can also be learned in categories." AA:?Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. We have the first part of this topic,? and all of her previous segments, on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS:?And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-27-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Everybody's Business: Summer Camps for Future C.E.O.'s
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many young people in America attend camps when they are out of school during the summer. Summer camps can last one week or several weeks. They can be close to home or across the country. They offer a chance to explore different things: nature, sports, music, technology -- even business and economics. One such program for high school students in the Pacific Northwest is called Washington Business Week. It is organized by the Foundation for Private Enterprise Education, in Olympia, Washington. The program began in nineteen seventy-five. Officials say forty-five thousand people have attended Washington Business Week. Other states now have similar camps. Washington Business Week describes itself as a way to learn more about how to plan for the future in an ever-changing economy. Students form an executive management team. They lead an imaginary company to financial success. At least that is where they are supposed to lead the company. The camp is held at three colleges in Washington State. The high school students live in the college housing. The cost of the camp is almost three hundred dollars, but families can receive financial assistance. Some business camps are free. These are for students from poor areas. The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship is an organization based in New York City that supports such camps. It has programs around the United States and its Web site lists international partners in China, Tanzania and a few other countries. N.F.T.E. says it has served more than one hundred thousand young people since nineteen eighty-seven. Among other business camps is Camp C.E.O. C.E.O. is chief executive officer. And this camp is for girls only. Camp C.E.O. is supported by the Girl Scouts of America and takes place for one week each summer. The camp took place last month in Tennessee. The girls worked with successful businesswomen from different industries. The girls learned how to build a business and develop an idea into a product. And, we imagine, they also had some fun. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. And more information about the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship can be found at nfte.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-27-voa7.cfm
* Headline: President Grant: Civil War Hero Faces Battles of Politics
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Ulysses GrantUlysses Grant was elected president of the United States in eighteen sixty-eight. Grant was the military hero of America's Civil War. He led Union troops of the North to victory over Confederate troops of the South. Grant was extremely popular. But he was a much better general than politician. As president, it was not long before he got into trouble in the battles of politics and government. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Larry West and I report on the first administration of Ulysses Grant. VOICE TWO: Grant resigned from the army to run for president. However, he ran on his record as a winning general. "Let us have peace," he often said. And the people believed he would guarantee peace. In fact, Grant guaranteed nothing. As a presidential candidate, he offered no new national programs. So, as president, he had no new policies to carry out. He had few struggles with Congress, because he rarely asked Congress to do anything. Many events took place during Grant's two administrations. But he usually was not involved directly. He had problems only because he was linked indirectly to the men who were responsible. VOICE ONE: One of President Grant's first problems was caused by two of his friends. They tried to take control of the gold market. The men were Jay Gould and James Fisk. Both were extremely rich. Gould and Fisk developed a plan to buy a large part of the nation's gold supply when the price was low. They would hold the gold until demand greatly increased the price. Then they would sell it and make a lot of money. To be successful, they had to prevent the government from selling gold on the market. Government sales of gold would keep the price down. So, Gould and Fisk urged President Grant to stop the Treasury Department from sellinggold. Grant refused to give them a firm promise. VOICE TWO: The two men brought one of Grant's relatives into their plan. They paid him to write a letter to the president. It asked the president to halt government sales of gold. A messenger took the letter to the White House. ?He then sent a telegram to James Fisk saying the letter had been delivered. The telegram said: "Letter delivered, all right."? Fisk thought this meant that President Grant had agreed to halt government sales of gold. So he began buying gold in huge amounts. Fisk was wrong. The words "all right" meant only that the letter had been delivered. They did not mean that Grant had agreed to the plan. In fact, Grant did not agree. He ordered the Treasury Department to sell gold to block the attempt by Gould and Fisk to control the gold market. VOICE ONE: The result was that James Fisk and Jay Gould lost a great amount of money. So did other businessmen and bankers. Many Americans blamed President Grant for not acting quickly enough to stop the activity of his two friends. Concern about Grant grew after another incident was reported at the New York customs office. Two of Grant's friends there became involved in a plan to get money from importers. They used their official positions to earn hugeamounts of money. VOICE TWO: Grant also was criticized for one of his few independent actions as president. He tried to buy the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. The island nation was ruled by a dictator, Buenaventura Baez. Baez was so dishonest that the people of the Dominican Republic were ready to overthrow him. Before this could happen, he offered to sell his country to the United States. When Grant received the offer, he sent a White House official to negotiate with Baez. The official returned with a treaty giving the Dominican Republic to the United States for one-and-one-half-million dollars. Grant immediatelysent American warships to the Dominican Republic. He wanted to keep Baez in power until the treaty was completed. Grant asked the Senate to approve the treaty. Many senators opposed it. They said taking control of the Dominican Republic would cost too much money. They also said it was a bad idea for the United States to take control of any nation in the caribbean. President Grant went to the Capitol building himself to urge senators to approve the treaty. His efforts failed. The treaty was defeated. VOICE ONE: Grant's biggest national problem was the political situation in the former rebel states of the south. After the Civil War, most southern states were governed by radical members of the Republican Party. Radicals supported citizenship rights and voting rights for blacks. In the late eighteen sixties, the radicals began to losepower. Many failed to be re-elected to state office. They were being defeated by candidates of the Democratic Party. Democrats did not want blacks to have any rights at all. VOICE TWO: The first radical Republicans to lose power were those in Virginia. The change there was made peacefully. Not so in other southern states. In Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, Democrats used threats and violence to winelections. Their campaigns often were led by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was a secret organization of white men. Members believed white people were greater than black people. Wearing cloths over their faces, klansmen broke up radical Republican political meetings. They threatened, beat, and killed blacks to keep them out of politics. They did the same thing to whites who tried to organize or help blacks. VOICE ONE: Before long, Ku Klux Klan groups were formed in every southern state. By eighteen seventy-one, radical Republican congressmen were demanding a new law to destroy the Ku Klux Klan. A committee headed by radicals was named to investigate klan activities in the south. The committee heard reports of the klan's brutal acts. It helped prepare a bill to control the klan. After much debate, Congress passed the bill. The new law gave the president power to declare military rule in the south. Democrats charged that the real purpose of the law was to keep radical Republican state governments in power. President Grant did not wait long to use his powers under the new law. He declared military rule in a large area of South Carolina. Thousands of people there were arrested. They were tried in federal courts. Juries were made upmainly of blacks and radical whites. VOICE TWO: This kind of justice made southerners feel even more bitterness toward the north. It also angered a number of moderate members of the Republican Party. They said the federal government should not help radical Republicansstay in power in the south. Some of these moderate Republicans broke away from President Grant and the radicals. They called themselves Liberal Republicans and formed a new political party. They held their own presidential nominating convention for theelection of eighteen seventy-two. They nominated Horace Greeley as their candidate. Greeley published the "New York Tribune" newspaper. VOICE ONE: Democrats believed their only chance to win the election was to support the new Liberal Republicans. So they, too, chose Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate. As expected, the radicals who controlled the main Republican Party nominated Grant for a second term. The campaign between Grant and Greeley was very strange. Grant made no speeches. He spent the summer at a holiday town on the Atlantic Ocean coast. His supporters, however, were not silent. They called Greeley a fool and a traitor. They refused to treat him as a serious candidate. Unlike Grant, Greeley did campaign hard. But he had little financial help. He also was hurt by a poorly-organized campaign. VOICE TWO: On election day in eighteen seventy-two, Ulysses Grant won a big victory. He got the votes of thirty-one of the thirty-seven states. Horace Greeley died three weeks after the election. The new Liberal Republican Party died with him. Ulysses Grant and the radical Republicans would govern for another four years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the?V.O.A. Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. We invite you to listen to this program again next week at this same time. We will continue the story of Ulysses Grant -- the military hero of America's Civil War and president from eighteen sixty-nine to eighteen seventy-seven. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Traditional Music? Heck No, It's Techno
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some techno music… Answer a question from a listener about American states called commonwealths … And report about a theater festival in the state of West Virginia. Contemporary American Theater Festival Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia. Every summer, it presents the newest American plays during the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: Historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near the Potomac River. The first Europeans arrived in the early seventeen hundreds. Shepherd College was established in eighteen seventy-one to teach languages and science. The Contemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at the college every summer since nineteen ninety-one. Four new plays are being performed this month. Three of them are based on the September eleventh terrorist attacks on America or the war in Iraq. One of the plays is by the famous playwright Sam Shepard. It is called “The God of Hell.”? A mysterious stranger arrives at a quiet farm in the state of Wisconsin. He questions the farmer’s wife. He is looking for a man who is hiding in the house. The stranger is a government agent and the man he is looking for once worked on a secret project. This man later becomes the victim of torture. Visitors at the festival also saw a play called “Sonia Flew” by Melinda Lopez. An American family is celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah in two thousand one. But the recent attack on America is causing tension. The college graduate son, Zak, announces that he is joining the armed forces. But his mother, Sonia, opposes this action. Sonia relives her past as a teenager in Cuba forty years earlier when Fidel Castro came to power. Her parents sent her to America against her wishes. She never saw them again. “American Tet” by Lydia Stryk (pronounced strike) is about a family living on a military base. Elaine is the wife of a retired American military officer who fought in the Vietnam war more than thirty years earlier. She teaches the husbands and wives of soldiers in Iraq how to deal with Army life. Her own son Danny is a soldier guarding prisoners of war in Iraq. He returns home on leave for a few weeks. But he does not want to return to the war. The last play in the theater festival is “Father Joy,” by Sheri Wilner. Abigail, a young female sculptor, is struggling to create work that is meaningful. Her former art professor is a famous environmental sculptor. They fall in love. At the same time, Abigail’s father is slowly “disappearing.”? This play is not about war. It is about the value of art, the power of time and the nature of love. Commonwealth or State HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Van Kien wants to know why the state of Kentucky calls itself a commonwealth. Four states in the United States call themselves commonwealths. They are Kentucky, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. These four are no different from the other forty-six states in the country. The structure of government in a commonwealth is the same as in other states. They are called commonwealths because this is the official name used in their state constitutions. To understand why Kentucky is called a commonwealth, we need to consider United States history after the American Revolution. Thirteen American colonies had just won their independence from Britain. Representatives from each of the colonies came together to write a federal Constitution in seventeen eighty-seven. Similar constitutions were being written in each state. The term commonwealth was popular during this period in history. It described a state or nation where the people come together for the common good. The term dates back to Oliver Cromwell of Britain. Cromwell helped lead a series of civil wars against King Charles the First during the sixteen-forties. The wars led to the trial and execution of the king. The defeat of King Charles the First briefly ended the royal system of government in Britain. It was replaced for several years with a commonwealth ruled by Cromwell. Lawmakers in the United States used the word years later to describe their states. Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were former colonies. They wrote constitutions after the American Revolutionary War. Kentucky became a state a few years later. It was created out of Virginia in seventeen ninety-two. It is possible the term commonwealth carried over when the Kentucky constitution was written. Techno Music Today we present a kind of dance music that we have never talked about before. Electronic music is very popular in the United States as well as around the world. It is also known as “techno." Pat Bodner tells us more. PAT BODNER: Techno is not produced by traditional musical instruments. It is made using machines like the turntable, drum machine, and bassline sequencer. The people who make techno music are usually called DJ's. They use these machines to make noises that sound like the drum instrument. To this drum beat they can add repeated sounds. Sometimes DJ's include voice recordings. Techno developed in many different ways around the world. Music experts often say the German group Kraftwerk made some of the first techno music. Here is their song “The Robots.” (MUSIC) Experts say techno then developed in the American city of Detroit, Michigan. It soon spread all over the world. There are many kinds of techno. Each kind has different influences. Here is an example of “breakbeat” by an American DJ named DJ Abstract. (MUSIC) Another kind of techno is called “trance”. This example is by the German?DJ ATB. (MUSIC) To listen to more techno, visit Ishkur’s Guide on the Internet. The address is www.ishkur.com/music. We leave you now with an example of “fusion” techno. This is several kinds of traditions mixed together. Here, the DJ Talvin Singh combines Indian music with the techno sounds of “drum and bass.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana DeMange, Shelley Gollust and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Savings Plans Help Ease Pain of College Costs
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A college education is an investment in the future. But it can be a costly investment. The College Board estimates that the costs at a four-year public college in the United States increased ten percent this past school year. That was less than the thirteen percent increase the year before, but still much higher than the inflation rate. Public colleges and universities still cost a lot less than private ones. Financial aid often helps. But financial advisers tell parents to start college savings plans when their child is still very young. All fifty states and the District of Columbia offer what are called five-twenty-nine plans. These plans are named after the part of the federal tax law that created them in nineteen ninety-six. States use private investment companies to operate most programs. Every state has its own rules governing five-twenty-nine plans. Some of the plans are free of state taxes. And all are free of federal taxes. However, the government could start to tax withdrawals in two thousand eleven if Congress does not change the law. Five-twenty-nine plans include investment accounts that increase or decrease in value with the investments they contain. Families must decide how aggressively they want to put money into stocks, bonds or other investments. Another kind of five-twenty-nine plan lets parents begin to pay for their child’s education long before their child starts college. This kind of savings program is called a prepaid tuition plan. The money goes into an account to pay for an education at a public college or university in the family's home state. What if a student decides to go to college in another state ... or not go to college at all?? Any unused money in a college savings plan can be put into an account for the education of another family member. Or the parents can withdraw the money, but they will lose at least ten percent of the earnings in taxes. Families that invest in the five-twenty-nine plan of another state may also have to pay taxes. Many plans are open to families outside the state. There are limits to how much money families can put into five-twenty-nine plans. But there are other ways to save for college while also saving on taxes. One way is for parents to put money into what is called a custodial account for their child until the child becomes an adult. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-29-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Major Labor Unions Leave the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Organized labor in America split apart this week. On Monday, two major unions announced that they are cutting ties with the nation's biggest labor group, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The two unions are the Service Employees International and the Teamsters. This was supposed to be a week to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. at its convention in Chicago. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. is the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Its president, John Sweeney, says a divided labor movement hurts the hopes of working families for a better life. On Friday Mister Sweeney got more bad news, this time from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Its leaders said they are taking their more than one million members out of the federation. Until Monday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O represented fifty-six unions with thirteen million members. It will lose more than four million of them with the loss of the three unions. Others could follow. The Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters are part of a group called the Change to Win Coalition. This is a group of seven unions. Labor experts say the coalition has brought more than half the new members into the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in the past ten years. Andrew Stern is president of the service employees union. Mister Stern says the American economy has changed but the labor movement has not. To survive, he says, unions must expand efforts to organize workers in areas like health care. Mister Stern says the Change to Win Coalition can appeal to more workers than the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Officials of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. say the dissident unions are trying to seize power. The dissidents say the federation spends too much on political campaigns. They say it does not spend enough on efforts to stop losses in union membership. They want John Sweeney to retire. But on Thursday [correction: Wednesday] Mister Sweeney won a fourth term as president. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. this week also approved reform measures including more than twenty million dollars for local organizing efforts. Fifty years ago, one-third of privately employed workers were in a union. By nineteen eighty-three, it was down to twenty percent. Now it is around half that. Unions were strongest when there were plenty of manufacturing jobs. Service-related jobs are now the big target for labor organizers. But organized labor has lost much of its political power, traditionally tied to the Democratic Party. Unions have lost one battle after another. They failed to stop the North American Free Trade Agreement. And, just this week, Congress gave final passage to the Central American Free Trade Agreement, though by only two votes. CAFTA will lower trade barriers for American exports to six countries. Unions expressed concern for American jobs and for Central American labor protections. To learn more about the labor movement, listen to THIS IS AMERICA on September fifth -- Labor Day in the United States. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Susan B. Anthony: She Fought for U.S. Women's Right to Vote
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. In the eighteen-fifties, women in the United States began to try to gain the same rights as men. One woman was a leader in the campaign to gain women the right to vote. I'm Stan Busby. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today we tell about a fighter for rights for women, Susan B. Anthony. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In seventeen seventy-six, a new nation declared its freedom from Britain. The Declaration of Independence was the document written to express the reasons for seeking that freedom. It stated that all men were created equal. It said that all men had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. VOICE TWO: Not every citizen of the new United States of America had one important right, however. That was the right to vote. At first, the only people permitted to vote in the United States were white men who owned property and could read. By eighteen sixty, most white male citizens over the age of twenty-one had the right to vote. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the Constitution gave black male citizens the right to vote. These amendments were passed in eighteen sixty-eight and eighteen seventy. VOICE ONE: Women were not really full citizens in America in the eighteen hundreds. They had no economic independence. For example, everything a woman owned when she got married belonged to her husband. If a married woman worked, the money she made belonged to her husband. In addition, women had no political power. They did not have the right to vote. In the eighteen fifties, women organized in an effort to gain voting rights. Their campaign was called the women's suffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote. American women sought to gain that right for more than seventy years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the leaders of the movement was Susan B. Anthony of Massachusetts. Miss Anthony was a teacher. She believed that women needed economic and personal independence. She also believed that there was no hope for social improvement in the United States until women were given the same rights as men. The rights included the right to vote in public elections. VOICE ONE: Susan B. Anthony was born in eighteen twenty. Her parents were members of the Quaker religion. She became one too. The Quakers believed that the rights of women should be honored. They were the first religious group where women shared the leadership with men. VOICE TWO: As a young woman, Susan had strong beliefs about justice and equality for women and for black people. And she was quick to speak out against what she believed was not just. Many young men wanted to marry her. But she could not consider marrying a man who was not as intelligent as she. She once said: "I can never understand why intelligent girls should want to marry fools just to get married. Many are willing to do so. But I am not. " She did meet some young men who were intelligent. But it always seemed that they expected women to be their servants, not their equals. ?VOICE ONE: ?Susan B. Anthony became a school teacher in New York state. She realized that women could never become full citizens without some political power. They could never get such power until they got the right to vote. She went from town to town in New York state trying to get women interested in their right to vote. But they did not seem interested. Miss Anthony felt this was because women were not able to do anything for themselves. They had no money, or property of their own. The struggle seemed long and hard. She said: VOICE TWO: "As I went from town to town, I understood more and more the evil we must fight. The evil is that women cannot change anything as long as they must depend on men for their very lives. Women cannot change anything until they themselves are independent. They cannot be free until they have the legal right to own property and to keep the money they make by working. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miss Anthony went to every city, town and village in New York state. She organized meetings in schools, churches, and public places. Everywhere she went, she carried pamphlets urging rights for women. She urged the lawmakers of New York to change the state law and give women the right to own property. Her campaign in New York failed at that time. But elsewhere the struggle for women's rights was making progress. VOICE TWO: ?In eighteen fifty-one, Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Missus Stanton also supported equal rights for women. Missus Stanton had many children. She needed to remain at home to raise her large family. Miss Anthony, however, was not married. She was free to travel, to speak, and to organize for the women's rights movement. The two women cooperated in leading the fight to gain rights for women in the United States. Their first important success came in eighteen sixty when New York finally approved a married woman's law. For the first time in New York, a married woman could own property. And, she had a right to the money she was paid for work she did. At last, Miss Anthony's campaign was beginning to show results. The campaign spread to other states. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The end of the American Civil War in eighteen sixty-five freed Negroes from slavery. Susan B. Anthony felt that there was still much to be done to get full freedom -- for Negroes and also for women. She began to campaign for the right for Negroes and women to vote. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was approved in eighteen sixty-eight. It gave Negro men the right to vote. But it did not give women the right to vote. VOICE TWO: Susan B. Anthony led efforts to have voting rights for women included in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Her efforts were not successful. Then Miss Anthony decided to test the legal basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. She did this during the presidential election of eighteen seventy-two. On election day, Miss Anthony led a group of women to vote in Rochester, New York. Two weeks later, Miss Anthony was arrested. She was charged with voting although she had no legal right to do so. VOICE ONE: Before her trial, Susan B. Anthony traveled around New York state. She spoke to many groups about the injustice of denying women the right to vote. She said: VOICE TWO: "Our democratic, republican government is based on the idea that every person shall have a voice and a vote in making the laws and putting them to work. It is we, the people -- all the people -- not just white men or men only, who formed this nation. We formed it to get liberty not just for half of us -- not just for half of our children -- but for all, for women as well as men. "Is the right to vote a necessary right of citizens? To my mind, it is a most important right. Without it, all other rights are nothing. " VOICE ONE: Susan B. Anthony was tried and found guilty of violating the law. She was ordered to pay one hundred dollars as a punishment. She said the law was wrong. She refused to pay. Miss Anthony then led efforts to gain voting rights for women through a new amendment to the Constitution. She traveled across the country to campaign for such an amendment until she was seventy-five years old. In nineteen-oh-four, she spoke to a committee of the United States Senate for the last time. The committee was discussing the proposal for an amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew it would not come while she was alive. VOICE TWO: Susan B. Anthony died in nineteen-oh-six at the age of eighty-six. Thirteen years later, in nineteen nineteen, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment stated that the right to vote shall not be denied because of a person's sex. The amendment had to be approved by three-fourths of the states. It won final approval on August twenty-sixth, nineteen twenty. It was called the Anthony Amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony. (MUSIC) ?VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Stan Busby. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Aid Operation Bringing Food for the Hungry in Niger
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Thousands of tons of emergency food aid is on its way to Niger. That country faces the greatest need in what the World Food Program calls a severe "hungry season" in West Africa. The crisis is the result of a combination of dry weather, civil conflict and the worst invasion of locusts in fifteen years. The World Food Program says two and one-half million people in Niger need help. Last week, the United Nations agency announced flights out of Italy and Ivory Coast to bring tons of food to Niamey, the capital. Also, food is arriving by ship in ports in Togo, Ghana and Benin, and being sent to Niger by truck. Niger is one of the world's poorest countries. About eighty percent of its people depend on farming and raising cattle. But only fifteen percent of the land is good for farming. Now the insect invasion has destroyed crops and cattle grasslands. The World Food Program has expanded its feeding operation in Niger to more than one million people, three times the number as before. The agency says it warned as early as last November about the growing need for aid. But it says such warnings failed to bring an international reaction until recently. Recent findings show that about three percent of children under age five in Niger and Mali suffer from severe malnutrition. In some areas the rate is six percent. The World Food Program says it urgently needs millions of dollars to prevent starvation in West Africa. The agency has appealed for sixteen million dollars in aid for Niger. On July twenty-sixth the United States announced almost seven million dollars in additional emergency food aid for Niger. The Agency for International Development says about one million of it will go to feed mothers and children in the worst affected areas. Locusts and a lack of rain have also ruined crops in Mali and Mauritania. The World Food Program says locusts invaded all of Mauritania's agricultural lands. In Chad, the agency is feeding almost two hundred thousand refugees from the violence in Darfur, in western Sudan. Civil war in Ivory Coast and a political crisis in Togo have also created hungry refugees. And people are struggling to overcome the effects of conflict in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-07/2005-07-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Finding Nature in America's National Park System?
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO:????????????? And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week on our show, we explore America's national parks. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Park Service began in nineteen sixteen. That year, three hundred fifty-eight thousand people went to national parks. In two thousand four, the National Park System had two hundred seventy-six million visitors. Visitors have a wide choice of places. The National Park System has about four hundred protected areas. These include parks, monuments, historic places, rivers, trails, seashores and lakeshores. They cover about thirty four-million hectares. VOICE TWO: Yellowstone National ParkYellowstone was the first national park in the world. Most of it is in the state of Wyoming, in the West. Yellowstone was established in eighteen seventy-two. But the idea of protecting areas from development was proposed years earlier. American painter George Catlin offered the idea during the eighteen thirties. Once Yellowstone opened, it became a place where animals and other natural resources could be protected. Today millions of people visit Yellowstone National Park, most of them during summer. VOICE? ONE: A businessman from Chicago, Illinois, became the first director of the National Park Service in nineteen sixteen. Stephen Mather was very important to the success of the agency. He retired in nineteen twenty nine. At that time, national parks covered more than two times as much land as they had when the park service began. Other major expansions took place in the nineteen thirties and around the middle of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Park Service is part of the United States Department of the Interior. The park service has two main jobs. One is to protect America’s national parks. The other is to help visitors enjoy them. Some people think these two jobs conflict. They say some of the problems of the parks are the result of too many people visiting them. For example, the many vehicles in national parks cause pollution and road damage. VOICE ONE: Some national parks cost money to enter, but not very much. Parks that charge entry fees must share the money with parks that do not. That means they cannot keep all the money for things like repairs and improvements. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ??????? Private groups help support the National Park System. So do individuals and businesses that give money to the parks through the National Park Foundation. Congress established this organization in nineteen sixty-seven. The job of the foundation is to gather private support for America's national parks. There is also the National Parks Conservation Association. This private group wants Congress to provide millions more dollars to improve conditions in parks. The association also tries to protect parks from what it sees as threats. For example, its electronic newsletter recently warned against a proposal for exploratory drilling for oil and gas. VOICE ONE: The proposed drilling would take place in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona and Utah. The newsletter said the drilling would harm the red rocks of the Glen Canyon area and could harm its bighorn sheep. The newsletter suggested that people study the issue and offer comments to officials about the proposal. Great Smoky Mountains National ParkAnother concern is dirty air in some parks, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. That park is on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. The association points out that sixty percent of people say they do not want to visit parks with air pollution. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? The National Park System includes beautiful areas of nature. Visitors also can see monuments and historic areas like battlefields. They can take part in open-air sports and other activities at the parks. Now, let us take you to a few of America's national parks. We begin at some islands in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin. VOICE ONE: Your tour boat takes you over the waves of Lake Superior to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. The islands are known for their rocky coastlines and, especially, for their lighthouses. The Apostle Islands were named a national lakeshore in nineteen seventy. The Ojibwe Indians believe they were the first settlers of this area. Some still live there. Over the years they fished, killed game and worked the land. Later, white settlers also fished and farmed on the islands. And they dug and processed stone from the earth. In the middle and late eighteen hundreds, lighthouses began guiding sailors on the dangerous waters of Lake Superior. Lighthouse keepers operated the signals. Today, three of the lighthouses still guide and warn sailors. But machines do the signaling. VOICE TWO: You might like to sail in a small kayak while visiting the Apostle Islands. Swimming and fishing are other activities. Or you might want to explore the thick forests of pine and other trees on the islands. There is a lot of wildlife to see. You might even get a look at a black bear. It probably should be a quick look, though. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From the Midwest we travel to the middle of the Atlantic coast to a big home in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, is near Washington, D.C. General Lee commanded the armies of the South against the Union during the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. Arlington House is on a hill overlooking the national burial grounds at Arlington Cemetery. Walking through Arlington House, you can see the room where Lee wrote his letter of resignation from the United States Army. After joining the cause of the South, Lee took command of its armies. After the South lost the war, Robert E. Lee tried to help heal the bitterness felt by both sides. VOICE TWO: The portico of the huge home looks like a Greek temple. Tall columns of brick mark the entrance. If you stand on the portico and look east, you can get a fine look at the Potomac River and the Washington skyline. VOICE ONE: Now we travel to a very different kind of protected land. In nineteen seventy-two, the government created a new kind of recreation area. It is not a wilderness area. Nor is it a single place. Instead, the Gateway National Recreation Area covers a huge area of New York City and northern New Jersey. The Gateway National Recreation Area contains more than ten thousand hectares. It offers many activities for people to enjoy in their free time. VOICE TWO:?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? You can watch professional sports teams or attend music concerts and plays in busy cities in the Gateway area. Or you can spend peaceful hours on the shores of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Its beaches on the Atlantic Ocean are a thirty-minute boat ride from Manhattan island. Sandy Hook is a good place to watch birds. The New Jersey Audubon Society established a bird observation center there in two thousand one. Hundreds of different kinds of birds and butterflies have been recorded from the Sandy Hook Bird Observatory. VOICE ONE: Grand CanyonFor our last stop, we return to the West to see the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It extends four hundred forty-six kilometers along the Colorado River. You can stand at the top of the Grand Canyon and look over the edge. The huge opening in the earth is more than one and one-half kilometers deep. People walk down or ride a mule into the canyon. If you like action, consider a rafting trip on the fast-moving waters of the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon also has wildlife to enjoy. It is a world in itself. American composer Ferde Grofe captured this world in the "Grand Canyon Suite."? We leave you with "Cloud Burst." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: ????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? And I’m Doug Johnson. Please join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Space Shuttle in Orbit but Future Flights Suspended
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Jeri Watson and Jill Moss

 ?For updates on the shuttle flight,?go to VOA News (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about a new panda baby born in Washington, D.C. and one of the world’s greatest athletes. But first, America’s space shuttle Discovery returns to space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American space shuttle returned to the skies on July twenty-sixth. Discovery and its seven-member crew were launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to fly to the International Space Station. The launch was supposed to have taken place on July thirteenth. But, space agency officials called it off just a few hours before the launch because one of Discovery’s fuel tank sensors failed a test. NASA officials investigated the system for several days but they never learned the cause. They decided to set up another launch for last Tuesday. Discovery is now connected to the space station, orbiting hundreds of kilometers above the Earth. VOICE TWO: This is the first space shuttle flight in two and one-half years. NASA suspended the flights following the deadly explosion of the shuttle Columbia in two thousand three. All seven crewmembers were killed. A team of investigators found that the explosion was the result of damage done to the shuttle during the launch. A piece of lightweight protective material fell off of the shuttle’s external fuel container. The object hit the shuttle at a high rate of speed and made a hole in one of the wings. This permitted extremely hot gases to enter the shuttle and destroy the spacecraft as it returned to Earth. VOICE ONE: During the launch of Discovery on Tuesday, a large piece of protective material again broke off the external fuel tank. The object apparently did not hit the space shuttle. But program manager William Parsons decided to suspend future shuttle flights until NASA experts fix the problem. He said: “Until we fix this, we’re not ready to fly again.” He said he did not know how long it would take. After the destruction of Columbia, the investigators advised NASA to carry out fifteen steps to increase safety before flying another shuttle. One of the major changes involved the fuel tank. NASA engineers thought they had reduced the risk that its protective material would break off during launch. NASA experts also increased the number of cameras at the launch area. And they designed a new warning system to inform crewmembers on Discovery and ground control of any problems. VOICE TWO: Discovery’s cameras recorded pictures of material flying off the shuttle as it launched last Tuesday. Investigators inspected the pictures closely. On Wednesday, Discovery’s crew used a special device to examine all areas of the spacecraft for signs of damage. They found no serious damage. Discovery’s commander is retired Air Force Colonel Eileen Collins. She was the first woman to fly a space shuttle and is the first female shuttle commander. The Discovery pilot is James Kelly. Other crewmembers include a rock and roll guitar player, astronauts from Japan and Australia and another female astronaut. VOICE ONE: Discovery will be in space for thirteen days. Its crew is very busy. They transported supplies and equipment to the space station. And, astronauts Steve Robinson and Soichi Noguchi are performing space walks outside the space shuttle. They are testing possible new ways to make repairs to the orbiting space station. On the final space walk they are to remove and replace a broken piece of equipment on the outside of the station. The also will place a television camera and light system on the outside of the station. NASA has said this flight is a test of new safety measures on the space shuttle. But now it is not known if the next shuttle, Atlantis, will be able to fly in September. You can learn more about America’s return to space at NASA’s Web site. The address is www.nasa.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The giant pandas in Washington, D.C., recently produced the first panda baby born at the National Zoo in sixteen years. Male panda Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN) and his mate Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) became parents July ninth. Panda cubs born in earlier years to the zoo’s first pandas survived only a few days. The birth of the new baby was the result of artificial insemination. Reproductive material from Tian Tian was placed in Mei Xiang’s body March eleventh. The process was completed during the two or three days a female panda can become pregnant each year. This short fertile period is one reason why giant pandas are in danger of disappearing from Earth. VOICE ONE: At birth, the new cub appeared healthy. It was extremely small. It weighed only about one hundred grams. Experts at the zoo have praised Mei Xiang’s skills as a mother. They say the cub is gaining weight from its mother’s milk. It is active and is making noise. The cub was pink in color and had no hair at birth. But the skin around its eyes is getting darker now. The animal’s back legs and ears also are darkening. These places will develop into black fur. The rest of its body will have mainly white fur. These markings give giant pandas their special appearance. Baby pandas sometimes do not survive in zoos. So Mei Xiang and the cub are being kept by themselves to prevent infection. Zoo workers watch them through cameras that are connected to the Internet so people around the world can watch them, too. VOICE TWO: The cub will be sent to China at age two. China loaned the two adult giant pandas to the National Zoo for ten years. They arrived five years ago. China has also loaned pandas to three other American zoos. China receives a great deal of money in return. The money helps support programs to save giant pandas in the wild. Experts hope that the giant pandas at other zoos in the United States will also produce babies this year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On July twenty-fourth, Lance Armstrong of the United States won the Tour de France bicycle competition for the seventh straight year. His victory sets a new world record. Armstrong said he will not race again next year. The three-week competition is considered the most difficult cycling race in the world. Racers must ride almost three thousand six hundred kilometers. They must ride uphill through the Alps and Pyrenees Mountains. And they must race at high speeds over flat land. Winning requires great athletic ability. VOICE TWO: Lance Armstrong is thirty-three years old. He is one of the best athletes in the world. Scientists say his body operates better than the average person. For example, his heart can beat more than two hundred times a minute. It pumps an extremely large amount of blood and oxygen to his legs. Scientists say only about one hundred other people in the world have this ability. A scientist at the University of Texas at Austin studied the cyclist from the age of twenty-one to twenty-eight while Armstrong was in training. The Journal of Applied Physiology published his study in June. VOICE ONE: Edward Coyle is the head of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Texas in Austin. He tested Armstrong five times from nineteen ninety-two until nineteen ninety-nine. Each time, the cyclist rode a fixed bike for twenty-five minutes with the work rate increasing every five minutes. Scientists measured Armstrong’s performance against the amount of oxygen he breathed. Doctor Coyle discovered an eight percent increase in Armstrong’s muscle power. Doctor Coyle suspects Armstrong may have developed more of a certain kind of muscle during his seven years of training. Doctor Coyle also discovered that Armstrong was able to reduce his body weight and body fat before his Tour de France victories. This enabled him to increase his power in relation to his body weight by eighteen percent. Doctor Coyle says the results of the study show that long-term training has more of an effect on athletes than scientists thought. VOICE TWO: Lance Armstrong is special in another way. In nineteen ninety-six, when he was twenty-five, he discovered he had cancer of the testicles. The cancer had spread to his lungs and brain. Armstrong received chemotherapy treatment and several operations on his brain. After he recovered from the treatment, he began training again in nineteen ninety-eight. The next year he won his first Tour de France race. Many people believe he is a hero to other people who have survived and are living with cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver, Jerilyn Watson, and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-02-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Farming on the Edge: Getting the Most Out of Marginal Lands
* Byline: 

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. To call something "marginal" means it is not very good. Farmers have their own way to define marginal land: It is the last to be planted under good conditions, and the first to be avoided under poor conditions. Low quality soil is not the only reason land could be considered marginal. It might be in an area where rainfall is limited. Or a hillside might rise too steeply. There are uses for marginal land, however. Most often it is used as grassland. Grasses provide excellent feed for grazing animals like cattle, sheep and goats. Grass seed can be bought from a supplier. Or native grasses can be used. But it is important to establish good ground cover to avoid soil loss through erosion. Forage crops like clover and alfalfa can be planted. These members of the legume family provide high protein food for grazing animals. They also improve the quality of the soil. Most plants use up nitrogen. But legumes put nitrogen back into the soil. Forage crops also help limit erosion. However, using marginal land for grazing is not a simple issue. There is a risk of overgrazing. Cattle can damage forage crops by eating down to the roots. Also, the weight of the animals crushes the soil and can make it too hard for growing. A way to reduce the harm is to move animals from one field to another. This method is known as rotational grazing. Experts say rotational grazing is extremely important for marginal land. Another use for marginal land is for tree crops. Studies have shown that the white pine and loblolly pine are two kinds of trees that grow well on such land. They grow fast and provide good quality wood. Another tree is the poplar, found in many parts of the world. Slower-growing trees like the black walnut also provide a nut crop. Trees support the soil. They reduce the effects of wind and rain. And they help block the sun. Failure to take the care needed to protect marginal lands can make a bad situation worse. But good planning can turn a marginal resource into a highly productive one. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question about agriculture, send it to special@voanews.com. We might answer it on our program. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-02-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Talking to Teens (and Getting a Reply)
* Byline: 

 AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: advice about talking to teenagers. RS: Our friend Ali the English teacher in Iran told us about a book called "Raising Children with Character."? AA: He suggested we talk to the author, Dr. Elizabeth Berger, a child psychiatrist in Pennsylvania. So we took his advice. RS: "Now how is it different, the interaction between two teenagers and the teenager and his or her parents? ELIZABETH BERGER: "I think what makes it different is not the words, per se, but that teenagers are extremely sensitive to feeling that they have a hostile audience or a judgmental audience. And parents often are conveying that they're exasperated, and that has a tendency to shut down communication from kids who are really craving the parents' good graces as much as they may not seem to be." AA: "Now I know expressions like, for a parent to begin a sentence with, 'What I'm hearing is' and 'What I'm feeling is,' things like that -- you see that in the popular literature sometimes -- I mean that, to me personally, that kind of gives me the creeps [feel uneasy]. But, on the other hand, are those the sorts of ways to broach a conversation with a teenager? I mean, what advice do you give?" ELIZABETH BERGER: "I have to say I share your 'creeps' there, because it's a little too politically correct or psychobabble -- therap-ese. I think that parents need to be honest with themselves first about recognizing that often they want to control and badger and nag and preach at and scold and sort of beat the kid into line. And in order to have a respectful conversation you have to lay that aside." RS: "So what's the best approach?" ELIZABETH BERGER: "I think the best approach is to be a good listener." RS: "So how do you start a conversation?" AA: "Yeah, you can't listen till they actually are saying something! [laughter]" ELIZABETH BERGER: "Well, first maybe you have to have a physical setup in which there are expectations on both sides that they are going to be communicating with one another. Car rides are good places for this in our automobile-dominated society, oftentimes the one place that people really have a chance for an intimate exchange." RS: "Also, for me what works is right before bed, I don't know why -- or right after exercise or sports. There seems to be a little bit of ... " ELIZABETH BERGER: "I think the bed thing is very telling because little children, especially, become very inspired and chatty at bedtime. It's often transparent that they don't want the grownup to go. They're lonely. You're all alone in that bed." AA: "What about for older kids, for teenagers? ELIZABETH BERGER: "Well, even there, it's an opportunity to say, 'Well, what's going on with you, catch me up, what is going through your mind lately?' You know, to put it in a neutral way, in a curious way, in an appreciative spirit works better, of course, with anyone." AA: "Now how should you not approach a conversation with, let's say, a 14-year-old?" ELIZABETH BERGER: "Well, I think American parents are unfortunately highly brainwashed by the idiom of the personnel department, the head nurse, the math teacher. These are great approaches for keeping a disorganized group together. Right? The sort of military, you know, 'we got a task, we're going to do the task and you got to fly right because we're organized around a task.' You can't teach math class without that premise, or have everybody sing on key in a glee club or whatever the group activity is. But intimate relationships are not like that. "Parents sometimes feel fearful of their teenager, so they hang on to what they learned when they got their M.B.A. They hang on to a whole administrative set of rules and consequences. But a child is not a corporation. It just does not work that way." RS:?? Child psychiatrist Elizabeth Berger is author of the book "Raising Children With Character: Parents, Trust, and the Development of Personal Integrity." AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can find our segments on American English, dating back to 1998, on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-02-voa8.cfm
* Headline: The Vatican Museums Hold Some of the World’s Greatest Art Treasures
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 VOICE ONE: I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. The Vatican in Rome, Italy is the world headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. But the Vatican is more than a religious center. Over the centuries, church leaders gathered priceless objects including cloth textiles, books, documents, paintings and sculptures. Come with us now as we join the millions of people every year who explore the Vatican Museums. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As you enter the Vatican Museums, you pass through large sculptured doors. When the light shines just the right way, bronze squares in the doors seem to catch fire. The artist Cecco Bonanotte created the doors in nineteen ninety-nine. He produced them for the opening celebration of the new entrance to the Vatican Museums in two thousand. But other works here are much older. There are containers with beautiful artwork created more than two thousand years ago. Statues and paintings show heroes of ancient Troy and Athens. Paintings and cloth textiles reproduce the world of the sixteenth century. Sometimes experts remove objects to repair and restore them. And some objects may be loaned to other museums. But there are always many interesting and beautiful objects to see at the Vatican Museums. ?VOICE TWO: It is almost impossible to visit all the Vatican collections in one day. There are more than twenty museums and public art centers. Today we tell about a few of the most interesting works of art. The Gallery of the Maps is a good place to start. Forty wall areas contain maps of the world as Italians believed it looked like in the sixteenth century. Ignazio Danti of Perugia painted the maps in the fifteen hundreds. VOICE ONE: Another museum, the Gallery of the Tapestries tells picture stories in wall hangings. These tapestries are made of the materials silk and wool. They were designed from drawings by the artist Raphael and possibly his students. Works by Raphael deeply influenced painters of the Italian Renaissance. The period represented a rebirth of artistic development. There are more works by Raphael in other Vatican areas. ??? But at this moment, a border tapestry by Flemish artist Pieter van Aelst picturing the four seasons captures your interest. The artist represents spring with two young people in love. A woman holding wheat is summer. Van Aelst sees fall as small boys climbing grape vines. The image of a seated person almost fully hidden by clothing captures the cold and loneliness of winter. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Roman Catholic Church leaders established several of the Vatican Museums during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For example, Pope Gregory the Sixteenth established the Vatican Egyptian Museum in eighteen thirty-nine. Objects created long ago fill its nine rooms. The artworks were found in and around Rome. They had been brought from Egypt. The first room in the Egyptian museum welcomes visitors to the world of the pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt. You see a statue of Ramses the Second. He sits on a throne, a king’s chair. He looks very much like a powerful ruler. A very tall statue of the mother of Ramses looks over another room in the Egyptian museum. VOICE ONE: The Vatican Museums also exhibit objects from an ancient land called Etruria. This area is now in northern Italy. Most historians believe that Etruscan society reached its height more than two thousand five hundred years ago. The Etruscans created fine art with terra cotta, or baked clay. Pope Gregory the Sixteenth established the Etruscan Museum in eighteen thirty- seven. The collection includes containers called vases and objects of bronze and gold. It also includes statues of full human bodies and sculptures of heads. In addition, you can see objects that added beauty to the Etruscan religious centers, called temples. For example, a horse with wings once guarded a temple. The horse still shows some of the colors the artist created so long ago: red, black and yellow. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Next we visit the Chiaramonti Museum, established by Pope Pius the Seventh Chiaramonti. This museum contains almost one thousand ancient works of art, including statues of Roman gods. We see a statue called “Augustus of Prima Porta.” The Roman ruler holds his right arm high in the air. Art experts say the Emperor Augustus was making a victory sign. Or, the statue may have once held a weapon. The statue was found in eighteen sixty-three in the ancient home of Livia, the wife of Augustus. VOICE ONE: Now we are in the Pio-Clementine Museum, founded by Pope Clement the Fourteenth in seventeen seventy. It is filled with Greek and Roman sculptures. One interesting statue is the Laocoon. The subject of the statue is from the “Aeneid” by Virgil, the most famous poet of ancient Rome. The poem is about the ancient war between Greece and Troy. The sculpture shows the Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons being crushed to death by sea snakes. The artists have made the terrible pain of the dying man and boys look very real. VOICE TWO: Some visitors believe the works of Raphael are the most beautiful in the Vatican Museums. In fifteen-oh-eight, Pope Julius the Second asked Raphael to cover the walls and ceiling of some of the Pope’s private living areas. One of Raphael’s most famous paintings is “The School of Athens.”? It shows famous Greek thinkers and scientists. Raphael painted these people teaching and learning around the philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Some experts say Raphael painted the image of the artist Michelangelo into this work. That may be true. Michelangelo was clearly in Raphael’s thoughts at times. In a way, the two men competed. Pope Julius probably understood that the competition incited each man to the height of his greatness. Julius so liked the work of Raphael that he told the artist to remove earlier paintings in the Pope’s living areas. But Raphael understood the value of the work of others. He saved the work of great artists including Perugino. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We have saved the best for last. We enter the official private church of the popes, called the Sistine Chapel. It is the most famous part of the Vatican Museums. Pope Sixtus the Fourth had it built in the fourteen seventies. Major events involving Roman Catholic Church leaders take place in the Sistine Chapel. For example, in April of two thousand five, top church officials held a historic meeting in this center for prayer. They chose a new pope, Benedict the Sixteenth. But the chapel also is home to some of the finest paintings ever created. VOICE TWO: ?On the side walls are paintings by the greatest Italian artists. But when we enter the Sistine Chapel, we look up to see the most beautiful ceiling in the world. In fifteen-oh-eight, Pope Julius the Second asked Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The result was a series of paintings called “The Creation of the Universe” and the “History of Humanity.”? The ceiling is an artistic wonder. Michelangelo made more than fifty paintings that show more than three hundred people. The paintings show God creating Adam, the first man. They also show stories from the Christian holy book, the Bible. It took Michelangelo four years to paint the ceiling. He painted it while lying on his back. VOICE ONE: Almost twenty-five years later, Pope Paul the Third asked Michelangelo to paint the wall of the Sistine Chapel above the altar. This is the structure where religious ceremonies are carried out. Between fifteen thirty-six and fifteen forty-one, he painted “The Last Judgment.”? This huge painting includes three hundred people. Christ is shown as the supreme judge of good and evil. The painting shows some good people rising to heaven. But bad people are condemned. They are shown falling or being dragged by ugly creatures into hell where they are tortured forever. Some people find this work beautiful. Others find it frightening. But many people believe that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the “Last Judgment” are the most famous works of art ever created. VOICE TWO: Now it is time to come back to the world of the twenty-first century. There are many other wonderful works in the Vatican Museums. But they will still be there on another day, and many days to come. (MUSIC VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-02-voa14.cfm
* Headline: AIDS Scientists Meet in Brazil
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I'm?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists from more than one hundred countries met in Brazil last week for a conference of the International AIDS Society. Three days of meetings took place in Rio de Janeiro to discuss recent findings. There was a lot of interest in a study of the relationship between male circumcision and H.I.V. H.I.V. is the virus that causes AIDS. The study supports the idea that removing the loose skin covering the tip of the penis might help protect men from the virus. The study took place in South Africa with French support. Experts say H.I.V. rates in Africa and Southeast Asia are lower in populations where males are traditionally circumcised. But the United Nations AIDS program notes that cultural and social influences, not just biology, could play a part. It says more study is needed. Two American-supported studies are taking place in Uganda and Kenya. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The body loses its defenses against deadly infections. Researchers say there were around five million new cases and three million deaths last year. An estimated forty million people are infected with H.I.V. The virus is spread through bodily fluids. There is no cure, but medicines can slow the effects. The U.N. AIDS program says Brazil is the first developing country to guarantee free treatment for H.I.V. The government supplies costly H.I.V. drugs as well as lower-cost versions made by public and private manufacturers. Experts say Brazil's efforts are helping AIDS patients to live longer. Brazil is also considered a leader in H.I.V. testing campaigns and research into a vaccine to prevent infection. The infection rate in Brazil is estimated at seven-tenths of one percent of adults. Southern Africa has the highest H.I.V. rates. Caribbean nations have the second highest. But East and Central Asia and Central Europe have had the biggest increases in the past ten years. The U.N. AIDS program says only about fifteen percent of people in developing countries are on AIDS medicines. Conference organizers praised Brazil as an example for developing countries. The World Bank expected Brazil to have one million two hundred thousand people with H.I.V. by the year two thousand. Yet, with aggressive prevention and treatment efforts, Brazil says it has only half that many cases. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-03-voa1.cfm
* Headline: After 50 Years, Use of School Vouchers Is Still Limited
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Some American children get a private education paid for with public money. School choice programs let parents move their child out of a failing public school. The parents can choose a private school and pay for it with a government payment voucher. It was fifty years ago when the economist Milton Friedman proposed a voucher system to improve American education. His work, "The Role of Government in Education," appeared in the nineteen fifty-five book Economics and the Public Interest. Today, about thirty-six thousand students are served by vouchers. The programs are in the city of Washington, D.C., and three of the fifty states: Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin. The number of students will grow with fourteen thousand new vouchers just approved by lawmakers in Ohio. And Utah will offer a voucher program for disabled students. A few states offer tax credits or other forms of support to help parents pay for private schools. One objection to vouchers has to do with the fact that most private schools are religious. The Constitution separates government and religion. Voucher critics argue that the use of public money for religious schools is unconstitutional. The United States Supreme Court has rejected this argument. In two thousand two, it ruled that a voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio, was neutral toward religion. The court said any tax money that went to religious schools was the result of individual decisions. Also, the vouchers let parents choose other kinds of schools. The Florida Supreme Court is now considering a similar case in that state. Opponents of vouchers say public schools should get more money so all children can attend good schools near their home. Yet some people think all families should be offered vouchers, not just poor ones. Milton Friedman and his wife started the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation to work for school choice. It says the goal is to improve, through competition, the quality of education for all. Milton Friedman had his ninety-third birthday on Sunday. The Nobel Prize-winning economist has been talking to reporters about the fiftieth anniversary of his proposal. Mister Friedman told Education Week that he thinks fifty years from now, all students will be served by school vouchers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are all on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-03-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Questions of Wrongdoing Trouble President Grant's Second Term
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Ulysses Grant won America's presidential election of eighteen seventy-two. It would be his second term in office. Ulysses S. GrantGrant was the military hero of the Civil War of the eighteen sixties. He led the Union army of the north to victory over the Confederate army of the south. Grant easily won the first presidential election after the war ended. Now, he would spend four more years in the White House. VOICE TWO: Grant's first administration was marked by dishonesty and shameful events. The situation grew much worse after he won a second term. Grant himself was not involved directly. But his administration suffered because of his ties to those who were involved. Soon after Grant's re-election, for example, there was a serious incident that involved many of his supporters in Congress. The Union Pacific Railroad Company had helped build a railroad across the American west to California. The cost of building the railroad was very high. The company got large amounts of aid from the government. Not all this aid came honestly. An investigation showed that leading members of Congress, and even the vice president, received shares of ownership in the company for free, or at low cost. In exchange, they voted to use federal money to help build the railroad. VOICE ONE: A few months later, members of Congress voted a pay raise for themselves and the executive branch of government. The pay raise would be retroactive. This meant the extra money would be paid for the two years already past. Newspapers and citizens raised a storm of protest. Some lawmakers were afraid they would not be re-elected. So they refused to accept the pay raise. Within six months, another shameful incident was uncovered. This one involved Jay Cooke, one of the richest bankers in the country. He also was a good friend of President Grant. In eighteen sixty-nine, Cooke began raising money to build another railroad across America's west. He planned to sell one hundred million dollars' worth of railroad bonds. Many people invested all the money they had in Cooke's railroad. But Cooke was unable to sell as many bonds as he expected. Soon, his banks had no money left. They could return no money to the thousands of people who had bought railroad bonds. VOICE TWO: People hurried to other banks to withdraw their savings. Within hours, many of these other banks had to close. They, too, were out of money. Within a month, more than five thousand banks across the country failed and closed their doors. This created an economic crisis. The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days. ?Factories closed. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Investigations showed that many of the banks that failed had violated banking laws. The laws often were not enforced, because so manybankers had given money to the ruling Republican Party. VOICE ONE: Other incidents followed. One of the biggest was called the Whiskey Ring. It involved a group of whiskey producers and some high officials who were friends of President Grant. Together, they found a way not to pay taxes on their whiskey. One of Grant's close advisers was at the center of the incident. A grand jury found him not guilty of any crime. However, it charged several hundred whiskey producers and government officials with illegal activities. President Grant had done nothing illegal. But the Whiskey Ring incident increased public feeling that there was no honesty in the White House. The feeling grew that Grant was a failure. VOICE TWO: These incidents took place during a time of intense social and political change in the United States. The period after the Civil War was a time of industrial revolution and business growth. Most of this growth was taking place in the north. Before the Civil War, most businesses were small. Now there were many companies with large numbers of workers. The companies also had large numbers of owners. They sold shares of ownership to anyone with enough money to buy. VOICE ONE: A few men rose to positions of great power in business. In the steel industry, for example, there was Andrew Carnegie. He came to the United States as a boy from Scotland. He took a low-paying job in a factory that produced cotton cloth. Heworked hard. In time, he earned enough money to take control of an iron factory. Carnegie soon built another factory. This one produced steel with a new technology. The system worked well. Soon, he was earning more than one million dollars a year. He competed fiercely with other steel companies. He pressured railroads to transport his steel for lower prices than his competitors. And he cut his prices to force other steel-makers out of the business. Before long, Andrew Carnegie was the unquestioned leader of America's steel industry. His position gave him great power over the economy of the whole country. VOICE TWO: What Carnegie did for the steel industry, John D. Rockefeller did for the oil industry. Oil became a useful product only in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. Rockefeller was part of a group of businessmen who built an oil processing center in Ohio. It was so successful that Rockefeller gave up his other business interests. He put all his money into oil production. He formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. John D. Rockefeller's new company used the same aggressive business methods as Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller bought control of other oil processing companies. He started price wars that forced his competitors out of business. Most important, Rockefeller made a secret deal with the railroads. The deal greatly reduced his transportation costs. This permitted him to crush his competition. Before long, he controlled ninety-five percent of the oil processing industry in the United States. VOICE ONE: As with steel and oil, America's railroads were an extremely important business in the eighteen-hundreds. In fact, they were the nation's biggest business. They were as important as automobiles and airplanes are to the American economy today. Before the Civil War, most railroads were east of the Mississippi River. Most were small lines. In the years after the war, four major railroads got control of almost all the lines in the east. And they began building new lines in the west. VOICE TWO: The first rail line to cross the nation was completed in eighteen sixty-nine. It was built by two companies. One companystarted from the east and went west. The other went in the opposite direction. Finally, after six years of back-breaking labor, the two work teams met in northern Utah. They connected the rail lines with a golden spike. It was a great moment in the nation's history. Now, at last, the two coasts of the United States were united by a single line of metal rail. It was like the day -- a hundred years later -- when the first American walked on the moon. VOICE ONE: Like the steel and oil industries, the railroad industry also had its stories of intense business competition. In this case, the most influential man was Cornelius Vnderbilt. Vanderbilt already was rich from the shipping industry. Now he formed the New York Central Railroad. It was the largest railroad in the east. Cornelius Vanderbilt tried to take over the railroad industry. He was not as successful as Andrew Carnegie with steel or John D. Rockefeller with oil. A group of other rich railroad owners blocked his plans. But Vanderbilt did succeed in winning a great amount of power and influence. VOICE TWO: Vanderbilt and the other new leaders of industry were powerful. And they let others know it. They sometimes made statements about how they did not have to obey the law. Other powerful men thought the same way. Some were officials elected or appointed to serve in the federal government. Political power blinded them to their responsibility to be honest and fair to the public. As a result, the Republican Party lost public support. The blame was placed on Ulysses Grant. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: E-Commerce@Ten; CNOOC of Hong Kong Withdraws Unocal Offer
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Economics Report. On July sixteenth, nineteen ninety-five, a new book store opened in the American city of Seattle. No one steps inside to buy anything. Yet the store, if you could call it that, had sales last year of seven thousand million dollars. Ten years ago, few people bought things over the Internet. Few thought it was safe. Amazon-dot-com changed many people's minds. Ten years later, an estimated seven out of ten American adults have used a computer to buy something. Market researchers at comScore Networks estimate online spending last year at one hundred seventeen thousand million dollars. That was for goods and travel services. The person who started Amazon, Jeffrey Bezos, remains its leader. In the nineteen nineties he urged employees to help Amazon "get big fast."? Yet Amazon invested in many similar businesses that failed. Amazon lost plenty of money. It did not make a profit until two thousand three. Its most recent profit and earnings report, released last week, was better than many market watchers had expected. Today people can buy not just books and music but also many other products through Amazon. It competes with eBay, which celebrates its tenth birthday in September. EBay calls itself "the world's online marketplace."? It does not sell anything. Instead, it provides a way for others to sell goods and services. People who want to buy something make competing offers through online auctions. EBay has grown to include several other businesses. These include PayPal, a company that processes online payments. As online sellers grew, traditional stores saw the future. Today, stores from the smallest to the biggest sell on the Internet. These include the biggest of all, Wal-Mart. Finally, we reported on the offer for the American oil company Unocal from CNOOC (see-nook) Limited of Hong Kong. This week, CNOOC withdrew its offer because of what it called the "political environment" in the United States. Opponents raised national security concerns. The Chinese government owns seventy percent of CNOOC. CNOOC had offered eighteen thousand five hundred million dollars for Unocal. Now, Unocal shareholders will vote Wednesday on an earlier offer from Chevron. The American company has offered to buy Unocal in a deal worth about seventeen thousand million dollars. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. UPDATE:?As the trading week ended?on August fifth,?Chevron's offer for Unocal?was?worth over?seventeen and one-half thousand?million dollars. (Chevron increased its offer on July nineteenth. Sixty percent?is?stock, and share prices change daily.)?For more information, see the?earlier story at the top of?the?right column. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ladies Sing the Blues: Women in Blues and Jazz in the 20th Century
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some female blues and jazz artists … Answer a question from a listener about American states … And report about a huge sale taking place outdoors in the American South. 'World’s Longest Yardsale' Anyone can hold a yard sale. Just collect some things you no longer want and put them outside your home. You can sell just about anything. Clothing. Cooking equipment. Old toys, tools, books and chairs. Even objects you consider to be extremely ugly or useless. Chances are, someone will buy them. Faith Lapidus tells us about one special yard sale taking place this weekend in the American South. FAITH LAPIDUS: They call it the world’s longest yard sale. It extends for seven hundred twenty kilometers, through four states, from Covington, Kentucky to Gadsden, Alabama. Thousands of people who want to sell things have placed their objects along the side of the road. People drive along the road in search of things to buy. Some people drive the whole length of the sale. Many are collectors, searching for special old or unusual objects. Reports say more than sixty thousand people from every part of the United States visit the world’s longest yard sale. A local government official started the sale nineteen years ago. He was trying to develop a way to bring visitors to the less traveled roads of Tennessee and Kentucky. It worked! The event has grown every year. Last year, organizers extended it from four to nine days. But many people thought that was too long. So this year it is taking place from August fourth through the seventh. Many sellers provide food and cold drinks to travelers on the road. It can get extremely hot in the South during this time of the year. Still, organizers tell people to bring plenty of water with them, and plan to walk a lot. They also advise people to start planning their trip to the area in January, especially if they need a place to stay. Most hotels are reserved well in advance. Organizers of the world’s longest yard sale say people who live far away also enjoy visiting the beautiful areas nearby. For example, they may spend some time at the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. It has more than forty-eight thousand hectares of land for camping, hiking, fishing, hunting and horseback riding. Also nearby is the Sergeant Alvin York Grist Mill and Homeplace. That is the home and museum honoring American World War One hero Alvin York. But we think most people who attend the world’s longest yard sale want to take home some unusual objects. And to have fun at the same time. How Many States? HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Sri Lanka. Rajah Vanthana asks about the number of American states. She says she learned in college that there are fifty but some of her friends tell her there are fifty-two! Well, maybe Miss Vanthana should trust her teachers more than her friends!?? There are fifty states in the United States. They are Alabama… Alaska… Arizona… just kidding!? We are not going to name all of them. Some people might mistakenly believe that the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is a state. It has been a United States possession since eighteen ninety-eight. It became a commonwealth in nineteen fifty-two. Some Puerto Ricans want the island to become an American state. Others there want full independence. But most want to remain a commonwealth. The commonwealth of Puerto Rico is called a United States “insular area.”? People on the island are United States citizens and must obey the laws of that country. But, Puerto Rico governs itself. The people of Puerto Rico do not pay federal tax. They cannot vote in national elections. Their congressional delegation in Washington does not have voting power either. But, Puerto Ricans can serve in the United States military. The United States has other insular areas. They include Guam, American Samoa and the American Virgin Islands. The relationship between the United States government and each of its insular areas is different. The United States capital, Washington, D.C., is not a state either. The District of Columbia, or Washington, is a federal area. Lawmakers established it in two congressional acts of the late seventeen hundreds. It was created from land owned by the states of Virginia and Maryland. People who live in Washington, D.C. pay taxes, serve in the military and serve on juries. They can vote in national elections. Citizens elect a delegate to the House of Representatives. But, the delegate does not have full voting rights in Congress. Citizens also elect local officials. But the officials do not have total control over the city’s budget and laws. The Congress makes the final decision concerning such issues. Many people who live in Washington consider this situation unfair. Some are demanding full voting rights. If you visit Washington, you might see a special message on some of the cars in the city. Some citizens have license plates that read “taxation without representation.” Women in Jazz and Blues Today we visit a museum in Washington, D.C. with a special show about women and the part they played in twentieth century music. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN:?A new exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts tells about the importance of women in blues and jazz music. It explains the development of this music using photographs of the many female musicians. It also includes short movies showing some of the most famous singers such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday. This exhibit also tells the story of less well-known female musicians, both African-American and white. They also had very important roles in the music industry during the first part of the twentieth century. One of the few female country blues singers was known as Memphis Minnie. She was one of the first performers to use an electric guitar. She wanted to be sure people could hear her. Here she is singing “Bumble Bee Blues.” (MUSIC) Mildred Bailey was another important singer. She was one of the first female singers to lead a major national dance band. Here she is in a nineteen thirty-two recording called “Rocking Chair.” (MUSIC) Ruth Brown is often thought to be the first Rhythm and Blues singer. She was extremely popular in the nineteen fifties. And she is still singing today! We leave you now with Ruth Brown singing “Lucky Lips.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. It was produced by Dana Demange. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Two New Leaders Take Office in the Middle East
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The Middle East has two new leaders, in Iran and Saudi Arabia. The new president of Iran is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The conservative former mayor of Tehran will be fifty years old next year. Iranians elected him in June by a wide majority. On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei confirmed him in office. Mister Ahmadinejad said he will serve the nation honestly and work to help poor people. And he called for an end to the threat from chemical and biological weapons in the hands of major world powers. The United States and the European Union want Iran to permanently halt nuclear work that could be used for bombs. Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful use for energy. Mister Ahmadinejad has said that relations with the United States will not cure Iran's problems. The new president is seen as likely to seek new ties with nations such as China, India and South Korea. Iran is the second largest producer in OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The largest is Saudi Arabia. There, Crown Prince Abdullah on Monday became the sixth king since nineteen thirty-two. That followed the death of his half-brother, King Fahd. Abdullah had led the daily operations of the government since nineteen ninety-five, when King Fahd suffered a stroke. The new king is not expected to make any big changes in foreign policy. President Bush says the United States looks forward to continuing what he called the "close partnership" with Saudi Arabia. But tensions have grown since the attacks on America on September eleventh, two thousand one. Fifteen of the nineteen al-Qaida hijackers were Saudi. Two years ago, Abdullah ordered action against Islamic militants after attacks inside Saudi Arabia. There has also been tension over Saudi support for religious schools that teach what critics consider an extreme form of Islam. There are demands within Saudi Arabia for democratic reform. Earlier this year, Abdullah called for limited direct elections for local councils. Some people think he may call for an elected national assembly and permit women to vote. For several years, low oil prices and heavy spending led to Saudi budget deficits. With oil prices are high, there is more money to deal with economic problems. The unemployment rate was unofficially estimated last year at twenty-five percent. The new king has already chosen his half-brother Prince Sultan as crown prince. Abdullah is in his early eighties; the future king is close to eighty. But some diplomats say the next change in power in the royal family might not happen as smoothly as the one this week. Also this week, there were deadly riots in Khartoum following the death of Sudanese Vice President John Garang in a helicopter crash. He was a former rebel leader in the south. In January he signed a peace agreement with the government after a long civil war. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-07-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Birth of Jazz: How an American Musical Form Came Into the World
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. In two thousand one, public television aired a series that told the story of jazz. Filmmaker and writer Ken Burns and writer Geoffrey Ward told how this music developed over the years. They showed how African-Americans created new sounds from their memories of slavery in the South. The filmmakers told how black, Creole and white Americans created a new musical form. Today on THIS IS AMERICA, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember present the first of two reports about the history of jazz. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? "Jazz" can mean different kinds of music: swing, bebop or fusion. Jazz can make the listener feel sad or joyful, quiet or full of energy. It can sound hot -- or very cool. Performers of jazz create some of the music as they play. They add their own notes to music that is written down. Each time a jazz musician plays a piece, it can sound fresh and new. Jazz musicians surprise listeners by breaking up traditional rhythms. And, they give greater intensity to unexpected parts of the music. VOICE? ONE:?????? ??????? Jazz probably had its roots in the nineteenth century. In the late eighteen-eighties, African-Americans began to develop new forms of music. They created blues music from the gospel music and sad songs of their years in slavery. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Ragtime also influenced the creation of jazz. This music first gained popularity in the eighteen-nineties in the South. African-American piano player Scott Joplin wrote many ragtime songs. Listen now as Joshua Rifkin plays Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? African-American and Creole musicians in New Orleans, Louisiana probably developed the first true jazz music. This happened during the early nineteen-hundreds.Musicians performing in memorial and holiday parades added their own music to written music. This New Orleans music is often called classic, traditional or Dixieland jazz. From New Orleans, musicians such as Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and King Oliver helped spread jazz to other places. King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band plays "Chimes Blues." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? Louis ArmstrongJazz continued to gain popularity as the years passed. During the nineteen-twenties, Louis Armstrong became famous for his performances on the trumpet and jazz cornet. Later his unusual voice became just as famous. Listen as Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five play "West End Blues." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Historians often call the nineteen-twenties the Jazz Age, or the Golden Age of American Jazz. Young people from the Middle West created a new musical form during this time. People called this Chicago-style jazz. These musicians included great performers like Gene Krupa and Benny Goodman. During this Golden Age, Bix Beiderbecke played cornet solos with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. He also played piano and wrote music. Here he plays "There Ain't No Sweet Man" with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE? ONE: Duke EllingtonAs time passed, a jazz form called "swing" became very popular in America. People danced to swing music until after World War Two. This musical form got its name from a song by Duke Ellington. Listen as Duke Ellington and his orchestra play "Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing"). (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? Benny Goodman led one of America's most successful swing bands. People called Goodman "The King of Swing." Critics also praised his playing of the clarinet. He was the first jazz clarinetist to play with symphony orchestras. Goodman also presented black and white jazz musicians playing together for the first time. He introduced great African-American jazz artists like Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson. Other big bands of the time were led by Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey, Earl Hines, Artie Shaw, Stan Kenton and Glenn Miller. Fine jazz singers performed with these bands. They included Nat "King" Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Billie Holiday. Listen now as Billie Holiday sings "Solitude." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, a new kind of music replaced swing as the most popular jazz. Next week, we will tell you about this kind of music called bebop. Until then, we leave you with the Glenn Miller Orchestra playing "String of Pearls." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the second part of our report about the history of jazz on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-07-voa7.cfm
* Headline: Keep Fruits and Vegetables Cold, But Not Too Cold
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Development Report. Cold storage can keep foods in good condition for months after the growing season. But foods can be damaged if they are kept too cold. So this week we offer some advice about cold storage. It comes from Practical Action, an anti-poverty group in Britain. Practical Action is the new name for the Intermediate Technology Development Group. The experts say the best way is to prepare foods for storage while still in the field. For best results, harvest fruits and vegetables at the correct harvesting time. And try not to damage them. Use a sharp knife. Place the harvested items on a clean surface or directly into storage containers. Do not place them on the ground. Dirt can lead to bugs or fungus growth in cold storage. Use clean water to remove dirt, and keep the water clean. But it is usually better not to remove outer leaves from fruits and vegetables before storage. Without the leaves, food can become dry. Fruits and vegetables must be cool from field heat before they are put into storage. If they are placed in cool water, however, it can spread fungus throughout the food. A better idea is to harvest foods either early or late in the day, then leave them to cool naturally. The experts at Practical Action say all fruits and vegetables have a "critical temperature" for storage. Damage may happen if they get any colder. With potatoes, for example, the cell structure can break down. Some fruits and vegetables must be stored at zero to four degrees Celsius. Others need four to eight degrees. And still others must be stored above eight degrees. Wet the fruits and vegetables so they do not become too dry during storage. The best time to do this is before storage. Cover the items in plastic once they reach the correct storage temperature. Most fruits and vegetables need the relative humidity in storage to be kept between eighty-five and ninety-five percent. Finally, airflow must not be restricted. Leave space between the food containers and the walls of the storage area. Keep the space clean and, lastly, try not to open the doors too often. Internet users can get more information about cold storage at itdg.org. Again, the address is itdg.org. We will have a link at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Barbara Klein. ? Suggested link: http://www.itdg.org/?id=technical_briefs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Leonard Bernstein: Composer, Conductor, Pianist and Teacher
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English.Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about the life and work of one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century -- Leonard Bernstein. (MUSIC) This music was written by Leonard Bernstein. He composed it for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in nineteen seventy-one. ?VOICE TWO:? Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein lived from nineteen-eighteen until nineteen-ninety. During his seventy-two years he was one of America's most hard-working musicians. He was a composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. ?He wrote both serious classical music and light popular music. He was musical director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for more than ten years. He often played the piano while leading?an orchestra at the same time. He taught many other musicians. And, he appeared on television programs and wrote books to help?people -- especially children -- learn about music. ?VOICE ONE: ?Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August twenty-fifth, nineteen-eighteen. His parents were Jews from Russia. They met and married in the United States. Leonard demonstrated early in life that he had special abilities in music. His father, however, did not believe his son could support himself as a musician. The older Bernstein continually advised against it. ?Luckily, his son rejected this advice. Leonard studied music at Harvard University and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent summers at a famous music center in Massachusetts called?Tanglewood. There he studied conducting with two major musicians of our time -- Serge Koussevitsky and Fritz Reiner. Later Leonard Bernstein would return to Tanglewood to teach almost every summer of his life. ?VOICE TWO: ?In nineteen forty-three, Leonard Bernstein became assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In November of that year, New York Philharmonic conductor Bruno Walter?became sick could not conduct an important concert. ?Mister Bernstein was called to lead the orchestra very soon before the event. He had little time to prepare. Still, he did?so well that the New York Times newspaper published a story praising his effort. The story appeared on the front page the day after the concert. ?After that, Leonard Bernstein was invited to conduct concerts of almost every major American orchestra. In nineteen fifty-eight, he became musical director of the New York Philharmonic. He was the first American to hold that position. Critics said the well-known orchestra became even better under his leadership. He was the main conductor of the Philharmonic until he resigned in nineteen-sixty-seven. ?VOICE ONE:??Leonard Bernstein became involved in many more projects after leaving the New York Philharmonic. People said he was like a powerful ocean storm. He seemed to live his whole life in a hurry. ?Mister Bernstein traveled around the world to act as guest conductor of many orchestras. He wrote music and taught music. At home, he and his wife, Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, were raising their three children. Their home was a gathering place for some of the most influential artists, musicians and writers in the United States. ?VOICE TWO:?? Aaron Copland As the years passed, Leonard Bernstein's many musical skills made him known around the world. He won high praise as a pianist. Listen now as he plays "Piano Sonata" by his friend Aaron Copland. ?(MUSIC)?VOICE ONE: ?Critics say Bernstein wrote some of his best work in his early years. He wrote "Symphony Number Two, the Age of Anxiety" in nineteen forty-nine when he was about thirty. Musical experts say the piece captures the sounds of America. ?(MUSIC)?VOICE TWO: ?That piece was among several large works Leonard Bernstein wrote for symphony orchestras over the years. He composed several symphonies that demonstrate his deep interest in his Jewish religion. ?Mister Bernstein wrote other major classical works through the years for a large group of singers and an orchestra. He also composed operas and ballet music. ?Many people think these classical works are not as great as some of his musical plays for Broadway such as "On the Town," "Wonderful Town" and "Candide."? Some music critics say "Candide" is the best music Leonard Bernstein ever wrote.(MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? Stephen Sondheim with Leonard BernsteinThe musical, "West Side Story," is considered Leonard Bernstein's most famous work. It opened on Broadway in New York City in nineteen fifty-seven. It still is being performed all over the world. The show tells a story similar to "Romeo and Juliet," the famous play by William Shakespeare. Stephen Sondheim wrote the words to the Bernstein music. ?"West Side Story" guaranteed Leonard Bernstein a special place in American musical theater. Here tenor Larry Kert sings "Maria," one of the most beautiful songs from "West Side Story." ?(MUSIC)??VOICE TWO: ?Leonard Bernstein worked for three years on "Mass, A Theater Piece for Singers Players and Dancers" to be performed at the Kennedy Center opening. Two-hundred people are in this huge work. Its name comes from the religious service of the Roman Catholic Church. The story tells of a young man who loses his belief in God. "Mass" is the closest Mister Bernstein ever came to joining the styles of Broadway and classical music. It contains rock music, blues music, and religious music. ?VOICE ONE: ?Throughout his life, Leonard Bernstein was involved with social issues as well as music. He supported the civil rights movement and opposed the Vietnam War. He conducted concerts to raise money for AIDS research. ?In his later years, he wanted to write something that he knew would be remembered always. But he was in poor health. Still, he kept composing, directing and speaking. He gave his last performance in August, nineteen ninety, at Tanglewood. Less than two months later, he died in his New York home. He will be remembered always for his many musical gifts to the world.(MUSIC)?ANNCR:? This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I'm Barbara Klein. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Gifts of Life: Organ Transplants Reach Record Levels in U.S.
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

  (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about medical transplant operations. Doctors perform transplant operations to replace tissue or organs in a person who is sick or injured. Organ transplants help save thousands of lives each year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first successful transplant of a human organ. An American medical team performed the first successful organ transplant on December twenty-third, nineteen fifty-four. The operation took place at what is now Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The patient, Richard Herrick, was dying from a kidney infection. Doctor Joseph Murray led the team that gave Richard a kidney from his twin brother, Ronald. Ronald had the same genes as Richard, but was in excellent health. Richard survived for eight more years with the kidney. In nineteen-ninety, Doctor Murray was given the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work. VOICE TWO: Experts say the first transplant operation was carried out in eighteen twenty-three. A German doctor placed skin from a woman's leg on her nose. By eighteen sixty-three, a French scientist showed that the body rejects tissue transplants from one person to another. Forty years later, a German scientist found that this rejection was carried out by the body's defense system attacking the foreign tissue. Rejection continued to be a problem well into the twentieth century. In nineteen fifty-eight, French doctor Jean Dausset discovered a system for tissue matching. This is a way to make sure that the tissue to be transplanted is as similar as possible to the patient's own tissue. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-two, Swiss scientist Jean Borel discovered that the drug cyclosporine could stop the body from rejecting the new organ or tissue. Cyclosporine is a natural product made from a fungus found in soil. Cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States in nineteen eighty-three. Experts say the use of this drug is the most important reason for the success of transplant operations today. Doctors around the world now can save thousands of lives with transplant operations. American officials say a record number of organ transplants were performed in the United States last year. Nearly twenty-seven thousand people received one or more organs. These people can be expected to survive for many years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than twenty different organs and tissues can be transplanted from one person to another. The organ most commonly transplanted is the kidney. The success rate of kidney transplants is very high. Some kidney transplant patients have survived for more than forty years. Another commonly transplanted organ is the liver. It is the only organ in the body that can grow to normal size from a small piece. Doctors can remove part of a liver from a person and place it into a patient who has liver failure. After the operation, both livers will grow to full size. VOICE ONE: The South African doctor Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant in nineteen sixty-seven. Many more heart transplants have been done since cyclosporine was approved for use. Experts say the number of heart transplants decreased last year. They say the demand for heart transplants has slowed because of improvements in medical processes and better treatments for heart disease. Sometimes, lung disease damages the heart. So doctors must replace both the heart and the lungs. The pancreas and the intestines are two other organs that can be transplanted. VOICE TWO: Doctors also perform tissue transplants. The most common is a blood transfusion. People may receive blood after an operation or accident. Blood is considered a tissue. Other tissue transplants involve skin, bone marrow, blood vessels and corneas. Corneal transplants improve the sight of people whose eyes have been damaged by injury or infection. Such operations have a success rate of more than ninety percent. VOICE ONE: Skin transplants reduce the chance of infection in severely burned areas of skin. These transplants remain on the body for several weeks. This is done until skin from another part of the patient's body can be used for a permanent transplant. Bone marrow transplants are for people who have diseases such as leukemia, a cancer of the blood. Doctors remove marrow from the hip bone of a healthy person. Then they place it into the sick person where the marrow begins to produce healthy blood cells. Bones can be transplanted, too. In some countries, doctors have even transplanted arms and hands. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A transplant operation is successful only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the foreign organ or tissue. This is done with drugs like cyclosporine. The patient also must receive tissue that is similar to his or her own. The person providing the tissue or organ is known as the donor. The one receiving it is the recipient. Both the donor and recipient must have similar blood. For some transplants, they also must have some of the same proteins called H.L.A. antigens. H.L.A. antigens are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H.L.A. antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed. VOICE ONE: Family members are often the best choice for a donor when a person needs a transplant. However, most transplanted organs come from people who have died or been declared brain dead. People who are brain dead usually suffered a head injury. After brain activity ends, doctors can use machines to keep the other organs working. This continues until a transplant recipient is found. In the United States, a private group keeps a national list of persons who need a transplant. It is called the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. It says the number of persons waiting for organ transplants has risen sharply in the past fifteen years. At the time, there were about twenty thousand people on the waiting list. There are about eighty nine thousand now. Each year, more than six thousand Americans die before the organ they need is found. VOICE TWO: Efforts to increase the number of organ donors have helped to reduce the waiting time. UNOS says transplant operations in the United States last year used almost as many organs from living donors as from people who had died. Kidneys can come from a living donor because a person can live with only one. Living donors can also give part of their liver, pancreas, intestine or a piece of a lung. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Organ and tissue shortages are a worldwide problem. The shortage of organs has led health officials to begin easing rules about who can give an organ. Some doctors have started accepting organs once considered unusable. Not surprisingly, some people see a chance for profit. Each year, hundreds of poor people illegally sell their kidneys for later use in transplant operations. VOICE TWO: Some animal organs have been experimentally transplanted into people. Doctors began to perform such operations because of the lack of human organs. Those who continue the experiments say they believe there will never be enough human organs to meet the need. Many scientists say pigs are the best animals for transplants. Heart valves from pigs are being used to replace diseased or damaged heart valves in people. Scientists say animal tissue could also be useful in countries where human-to-human transplants are not permitted. VOICE ONE: Health care workers around the world say organ and tissue transplants save thousands of lives. Some officials call organ donation the gift of life. They urge people to consider giving permission to use their organs for transplant operations if they should die unexpectedly. In the United States, people who wish to donate their organs if they die in an accident can state so on their driving permit. A medical organization will then do a computer search for people who need organs and have similar tissue. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Who Needs Seeds? The Secret of Seedless Fruits
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. We often think of agriculture as planting seeds and harvesting crops. But many crops do not come from seeds. Many kinds of trees and plants are grown from pieces cut from existing trees and plants. This is called grafting. Farmers cut branches or young growths, called buds, from one plant and place them on a related kind of plant. The branch or bud that is grafted is called a scion (pronounced SY-uhn). The plant that accepts the graft is called the root stock. Over time, the parts from the two plants grow together. The grafted plant begins to produce the leaves and fruit of the scion, not the root stock. A graft can be cut in several ways. A cleft graft, for example, requires a scion with several buds on it. The bottom of the scion is cut in the shape of the letter V. A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion. The scion is then securely placed into the cut on the root stock. Material called a growth medium is put on the joint to keep it wet and help the growth. Grafting can join scions with desirable qualities to root stock that is strong and resists disease and insects. Smaller trees can be grafted with older scions. The American Environmental Protection Agency says grafting can reduce the need to use pesticides on crops. The E.P.A. found that grafting stronger plants cost less than using chemicals. Also, poisons can be dangerous to people and the environment. Agriculture could not exist as we know it without grafting. Many fruits and nuts have been improved through this method. Some common fruit trees such as sweet cherries and McIntosh apples have to be grafted. Bing cherries, for example, are one of the most popular kinds of cherries. But a Bing cherry tree is not grown from seed. Branches that produce Bing cherries must be grafted onto root stock. All sweet cherries on the market are grown this way. And then there are seedless fruits like navel oranges and seedless watermelons. Have you ever wondered how farmers grow them? The answer is: through grafting. The grapefruit tree is another plant that depends on grafting to reproduce. Grapes, apples, pears and also flowers can be improved through grafting. In an age of high-technology agriculture, grafting is a low-technology method that remains extremely important. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Does It Matter if Stocks 'Climb' Rather Than 'Bounce Back'?
* Byline: 

 AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: metaphors and the mind. RS:?? Avi,?if I say "bulls and bears," what comes to mind? AA:?? The zoo? RS:?? Well yes, but I could also be talking about the stock market. In a bull market, stock prices rise; in a bear market, they fall. Metaphors are great; a word or two can say a mouthful. But not all metaphors are alike. AA:?? Some are known as agent metaphors. These are words that describe living things. Others are called object metaphors. They tend to be used for non-living things. RS:?? So what? Well, once upon a time, we had to be able to think pretty fast if something was alive or not. Researchers believe that our brains are wired to respond to the path on which an object moves. MICHAEL MORRIS: "If it's moving downhill, well, it could be a rock rolling, [or] it could be an animal. But at least in the environment where we evolved, if something was moving uphill, that's a pretty good cue that it's alive." AA:?? Professor Michael Morris is a psychologist in the business school at Columbia University in New York. He is interested in the metaphors used in the media to describe movements in stock prices. He says the choice of words can influence investor expectations. RS:?? Recently Professor Morris led a study of three groups of college students. Each group received graphs of stock market activity along with one of three versions of a commentary. One version described the price trends with agent metaphors -- words like "jumped" or "climbed." AA:?? Another used object metaphors, which made it seem that the movements were the result of external forces. Prices might have "dropped off a cliff" or "bounced back." RS:?? Professor Morris says the third version was free of metaphors. Instead, it used plain words like "the market increased" or "the market decreased." MICHAEL MORRIS: "What we found was that participants who had been exposed to the agent metaphors were more likely to forecast, or predict, that the market trend they had observed one day would continue on the following day." AA: "Whether it was prices going up or prices going down." MICHAEL MORRIS: "That's right. So that was one thing that we wanted to establish: basically, that the content of commentary does affect the judgments that investors make. But then there was this other point that we were trying to establish that I think makes the first point more dramatic or consequential." RS:?? That is, when do commentators choose so-called "agentic" metaphors as opposed to others, or none at all? Professor Morris and his team analyzed the language on a cable television stock-market program. MICHAEL MORRIS: "When there's an uptrend, stock commentators are more likely to explain that uptrend in agentic language, and thereby may lead investors to think of that trend as a signal about tomorrow, as an uptrend that indicates uptrends will continue tomorrow. Whereas when there is a downtrend, commentators are less likely to describe it in this agentic language that would make investors think that the downtrend is going to continue. "What's interesting about this finding is that journalists are not intentionally -- they're not aware that their choice of metaphor may have this impact. But we know from politics, for example, that there are think tanks that do nothing but try to construct simple frames or metaphors that will persuade people to believe in a certain policy position." AA: "So your advice to the average investor?" MICHAEL MORRIS: "Be very careful about (avoiding) the mistake of buying right after the stock market has gone up. It's much better, all things equal, to make your purchases on a day when the market has just gone downward, so that you're buying low instead of making your purchase after a day when the market has just gone upwards and you're buying high." AA: "And let me ask you one more question: What advice do you have [for] stock market commentators?" MICHAEL MORRIS: "Well, I sympathize with them greatly because they can't do what a classical economist would recommend, which is to simply say 'There was another random walk on the market today.'" RS:?? Columbia University Professor Michael Morris spoke to us from Hawaii, where he just presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management. AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our segments are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: metaphors and the mind. RS:?? Avi,?if I say "bulls and bears," what comes to mind? AA:?? The zoo? RS:?? Well yes, but I could also be talking about the stock market. In a bull market, stock prices rise; in a bear market, they fall. Metaphors are great; a word or two can say a mouthful. But not all metaphors are alike. AA:?? Some are known as agent metaphors. These are words that describe living things. Others are called object metaphors. They tend to be used for non-living things. RS:?? So what? Well, once upon a time, we had to be able to think pretty fast if something was alive or not. Researchers believe that our brains are wired to respond to the path on which an object moves. MICHAEL MORRIS: "If it's moving downhill, well, it could be a rock rolling, [or] it could be an animal. But at least in the environment where we evolved, if something was moving uphill, that's a pretty good cue that it's alive." AA:?? Professor Michael Morris is a psychologist in the business school at Columbia University in New York. He is interested in the metaphors used in the media to describe movements in stock prices. He says the choice of words can influence investor expectations. RS:?? Recently Professor Morris led a study of three groups of college students. Each group received graphs of stock market activity along with one of three versions of a commentary. One version described the price trends with agent metaphors -- words like "jumped" or "climbed." AA:?? Another used object metaphors, which made it seem that the movements were the result of external forces. Prices might have "dropped off a cliff" or "bounced back." RS:?? Professor Morris says the third version was free of metaphors. Instead, it used plain words like "the market increased" or "the market decreased." MICHAEL MORRIS: "What we found was that participants who had been exposed to the agent metaphors were more likely to forecast, or predict, that the market trend they had observed one day would continue on the following day." AA: "Whether it was prices going up or prices going down." MICHAEL MORRIS: "That's right. So that was one thing that we wanted to establish: basically, that the content of commentary does affect the judgments that investors make. But then there was this other point that we were trying to establish that I think makes the first point more dramatic or consequential." RS:?? That is, when do commentators choose so-called "agentic" metaphors as opposed to others, or none at all? Professor Morris and his team analyzed the language on a cable television stock-market program. MICHAEL MORRIS: "When there's an uptrend, stock commentators are more likely to explain that uptrend in agentic language, and thereby may lead investors to think of that trend as a signal about tomorrow, as an uptrend that indicates uptrends will continue tomorrow. Whereas when there is a downtrend, commentators are less likely to describe it in this agentic language that would make investors think that the downtrend is going to continue. "What's interesting about this finding is that journalists are not intentionally -- they're not aware that their choice of metaphor may have this impact. But we know from politics, for example, that there are think tanks that do nothing but try to construct simple frames or metaphors that will persuade people to believe in a certain policy position." AA: "So your advice to the average investor?" MICHAEL MORRIS: "Be very careful about (avoiding) the mistake of buying right after the stock market has gone up. It's much better, all things equal, to make your purchases on a day when the market has just gone downward, so that you're buying low instead of making your purchase after a day when the market has just gone upwards and you're buying high." AA: "And let me ask you one more question: What advice do you have [for] stock market commentators?" MICHAEL MORRIS: "Well, I sympathize with them greatly because they can't do what a classical economist would recommend, which is to simply say 'There was another random walk on the market today.'" RS:?? Columbia University Professor Michael Morris spoke to us from Hawaii, where he just presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management. AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our segments are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Along the 'Big Muddy,' the Longest River in the United States
* Byline: Written by Oliver Chanler

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about another important American river, the Missouri. It is the longest river in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first American Indians to live along the Missouri River called the river the Mine Sose. It means the muddy river. Even today, the Missouri is called "the Big Muddy" by many people. This is because it carries huge amounts of dirt from the land through which it flows. The dirt makes the river a brown color for much of its length. The Missouri begins in the Rocky Mountains of North America. It is formed by three rivers that come together in what is the north central state of Montana. The three rivers are the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. They become the Missouri River in the southwestern part of Montana, more than one thousand two hundred meters above sea level. The river is clear and flows rapidly as it begins its travels east and south. It moves more slowly as it flows down to the waters of the Mississippi River, about ten kilometers north of the modern-day city of Saint Louis. The Missouri travels four-thousand kilometers from the high mountains in the north to the low lands of the south. It flows along the borders of seven states: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and finally Missouri. VOICE TWO: The first Europeans who reported seeing the river were at the mouth of the Missouri where it empties into the Mississippi. They were French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet. In Sixteen-Seventy-Three, they were traveling down the Mississippi in a small wooden boat when they heard a great noise of water moving at great speed. Father Marquette wrote that he felt great fear. He saw large trees floating into the Mississippi River. They were carried in violently moving muddy water. The muddy water was the Missouri River which emptied into the western side of the Mississippi. The Missouri was a violent river, making travel along it difficult. Yet explorers and settlers used it as a way to move west. In the early Seventeen-hundreds, French fur traders began to travel along the Missouri to the lands of the great American west. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first non-natives to explore the river, from its mouth to its beginnings, did so in Eighteen-Oh-Five and Eighteen-Oh-Six. President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the area. The United States government had bought from France a large area of land called the Louisiana Territory. This land extended from the Gulf of Mexico northwest to the Pacific coast. The story of Lewis and Clark's travels up the Missouri River and on to the Pacific Northwest is one of the great stories of American exploration. President Jefferson sent the two men to explore the little-known river to learn all about the land on both sides of it. Lewis and Clark completed the trip in two years. The explorers were the first Americans to cross the Missouri lands to the Pacific Northwest. VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark brought back to Washington a detailed report about the plants, trees, animals, climate they found on their travels. Many different scientists have long studied these facts. The two men also returned with a lot of information about the different Indian nations of the West. Since then, the Indian names have become well known through the many stories and books written about them. The Mandans, the Nez Perce, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, the Chickasaws, the Pawnees and the Crows were some of these nations. Most of the Indians Lewis and Clark met along the way were a great help to them. One of the most famous was a woman named Sacagawea. She was a Shoshone Indian who had been captured by the Mandan tribe. The two explorers knew that the Shoshone Indians who lived near the Rocky Mountains had good horses. Since the two explorers began their trip, they had been traveling up the Missouri River by boat. They knew that they would need horses to help them in the next part of their exploration over land. So, Lewis and Clark took Sacagawea with them. She could help them deal with the Shoshone tribe when they left the river and crossed over the tall, rough mountains. Today, the image of Sacagawea is on the American dollar coin. It honors her part in helping Lewis and Clark explore what became the western United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Soon after Lewis and Clark explored the territory, settlers began moving west along the Missouri River. They began their western travels on boats that took them from Saint Louis to either Kansas City or Saint Joseph in western Missouri. Then they took wagons to Oregon and California on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It was the Missouri River that started them on their way to new homes in new lands. A large part of the river became the border between two kinds of land, and two ways of life. On the east side were beautiful woodlands and lakes. On the west side were great open plains, stretching all the way to the high western Rocky Mountains. VOICE TWO: The two sides of the river were different when the first European explorers traveled the Missouri. On the east side of the river, the explorers found Indian woodsmen living in tents hidden among trees. These tribes hunted deer. They fought their enemies by surprise attacks from hidden places. On the west side of the river, the explorers found strong Indian buffalo hunters and fighters on horses. These Indians attacked out in the open and wanted no cover to protect themselves? only the backs of racing horses. There are similar differences today. On the eastern side of the Missouri are farms and tall corn. On the western side are horses and cows and cowboys. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is said that you need to look in the middle of the Missouri River to find where the American West begins. The state of Missouri is in the center of the United States. It is named after the great river that flows from west to east through its center. The city of Independence is in the western part of the state. It is considered the geographical center of the continental United States. One of the city's most famous citizens was Harry Truman, who was the Thirty-Third President of the United States. He was president from Nineteen Forty-Five until Nineteen-Fifty-Three. When he left office, Truman returned to his home in Independence, on the shores of the Missouri River. VOICE TWO: For many years after Lewis and Clark's exploration, only fur traders used the river to carry the goods they wanted to sell. They carried their furs in small boats that were light on the water and did not hit the bottom. Beginning in eighteen thirty, the American Fur Company began to use steam boats to carry goods up and down the Missouri. This trade began to disappear in eighteen fifty-nine. It was then that a railroad was completed between Hannibal, on the Mississippi River in the east, and Saint Joseph, on the Missouri River in the western part of the state of Missouri. It was easier to move goods and people by train. VOICE ONE: After World War Two ended, the United States government approved a major plan to develop the areas along the Missouri River. The plan included flood control and development along the river. Now a series of six huge dams in the middle area of the river control the flow of the Missouri. More than one-hundred smaller dams are on smaller rivers that flow into the Missouri. The dams contain the water from the melting snows in the north. They reduce the flooding that once happened down river almost every spring. Today, the once wild river is controlled. Boats continue to carry goods and people up and down the Missouri River as they have for centuries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-09-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Drugs for Parkinson’s Disease Linked to Urges to Gamble
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Parkinson disease is a brain disorder. It usually develops after the age of sixty-five. Among the signs are shaking, slowed movement and muscle stiffness. Others include depression and reduced mental ability. With Parkinson's disease, nerve cells die in an area called the substantia nigra. This area is in the middle of the brain. The name is Latin for "black substance."? The nerve cells that die are neurons. They produce the chemical dopamine. Dopamine carries signals to the part of the brain that controls movement and balance. Dopamine is also linked to pleasure and reward centers in the brain. There is no cure for Parkinson's disease. Mostly it is treated with drugs to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. The drugs are called dopamine agonists. They are designed to control the movement problems. Yet scientists have found that a new group of Parkinson’s drugs can have strange effects. Some people develop uncontrollable urges to gamble. These include people with little or no history of interest in games of chance. Others have had an increased desire for sex, food and alcohol. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, did a study of eleven people on dopamine agonists. All eleven patients said they developed gambling urges within three years of when they started treatment. They began to gamble between two thousand two and two thousand four. One person reportedly lost as much as two hundred thousand dollars. Nine of the patients took a drug called pramipexole, also known as Mirapex. The other two took ropinirole, sold under the trade name Requip. Researchers say the gambling urge appeared to stop when the medicine was discontinued. Doctor Maryellen Dodd led the study. She says fourteen other Mayo Clinic patients have since been found with the same problem. Still, experts say the drugs are effective treatments. They say the unusual effects are uncommon. The study is to appear in the Archives of Neurology in September. Several new medicines are being studied that may slow the progression of Parkinson's. The National Parkinson Foundation estimates that one and one-half million Americans have the disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Exchange Is a Cost-Saving Way to Spend a Year at a U.S. College
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Over the past year we offered advice to foreign students who want to attend an American college or university. Today we tell about a way to study in the United States for less time and less money. The International Student Exchange Program was started in nineteen seventy-nine. ISEP is a group of colleges and universities around the world. They cooperate to provide international educational experiences for their students. Two hundred sixty schools in the United States and thirty-five other countries are members of the program. More than twenty-four thousand students have taken part. Students can study for up to one year in the United States or any of the other countries involved. Students do not have to go through the usual application process to get into a school. And they pay only what they would have to pay for a term at their own school at home. To take part in the ISEP program, students must attend a member college or university. Each school has an ISEP coordinator. This person helps students apply to the ISEP office in Washington, D.C. To be accepted, students must have good grades. They must also provide TOEFL scores. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Students are asked to list up to ten choices of American schools they would like to attend. Officials at the ISEP office then place students in the openings offered in colleges and universities. ISEP officials say students who want to study in a foreign country generally do so during their third or fourth year of college. Students are advised to begin preparations at least one year before they want to experience the program. Applications must be sent to Washington by February of each year. The students accepted can then begin their year in the United States in September. ISEP officials also have advice for high school students who think they would like to take part in the program during college. Be sure to attend a college or university that offers the International Student Exchange Program. Internet users can get complete information about ISEP at its Web site: wwww.isep.org. We will have a link at voaspecialenglish.com, where you can find all of our reports. To find our Foreign Student Series, enter the words "Foreign Student" in quotation marks in the search box. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Election of 1876: One of the Closest in American History
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Ulysses GrantThe two administrations of President Ulysses Grant were noted for their dishonesty. The president himself was not involved directly in any shameful incidents. But he was linked to the trouble, because he was friends with dishonest members of Congress and the cabinet. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Jack Weitzel and I tell how grant's problems affected his Republican Party in the presidential election of eighteen seventy-six. VOICE TWO: The American people were very disappointed with President Grant. He was the military hero of the Civil War. He had led the Union army of the North to victory over the Confederate army of the South. His popularity dropped, however, during his presidency. Grant was not an effective political leader. Nor was he able to control the men around him. The American people also were worried about the nation's economic situation. A serious depression had begun during Grant's second term. Many people were out of work. They blamed the ruling Republican Party. VOICE ONE: The state and congressional elections of eighteen seventy-four were an important turning point. Republicans were shocked by the results. For the first time in eighteen years, the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives. They won one hundred sixty-nine seats. The Republicans won one hundred-nine. Democrats also won control of twenty-three of the thirty-five state governments. These included several northern states, where people were tired of Republican rule. VOICE TWO: Important changes also were made in the south. Democrats won control of southern state governments from radical Republicans. One of these states was Mississippi. White Democrats there began organizing groups called White Leagues. These groups wanted to prevent blacks from voting for radical Republicans. They started riots in which many blacks were killed. They also used economic power against blacks. These efforts succeeded. Most blacks were too afraid to vote. The Democrats took control of both the Mississippi legislature and the governor's office. Similar actions, with similar results, took place in other southern states. VOICE ONE: As Grant's second term came to an end, he began to talk about the possibility of another four years in the White House. Republican politicians were firmly opposed. They blamed Grant for the party's defeats in state and congressional elections. Grant had to give up any hope of a third term. Congressman James Blaine seemed to have the best chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination in eighteen seventy-six. Blaine had been Speaker of the House of Representatives when the Republicans controlled Congress. He was powerful, and he had many supporters. Some Republican leaders, however, questioned his honesty. Blaine fought this criticism with an emotional speech in Congress. VOICE TWO: When the Republican Party convention opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, Blaine was the leading candidate for the presidential nomination. He expected to win the first day. There was a wild demonstration of support when his name was put before the convention. But before the voting could begin, the lights went out. Some delegates believed Blaine's opponents were responsible. These opponents worked all night to get other delegates to change their support from Blaine to another candidate. When the delegates voted the nextmorning, Blaine did not have enough votes to win the nomination. VOICE ONE: However, after six ballots, Blaine appeared ready to win. To stop him, his opponents needed to unite behind another candidate. One of these candidates was Rutherford Hayes, the governor of Ohio. Hayes had fewer enemies than the other candidates. So he became the compromise candidate for delegates hoping to stop Blaine. On the seventh ballot of the convention, Rutherford Hayes captured the Republican nomination. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party met in St. Louis, Missouri. Delegates nominated Samuel Tilden, the governor of New York. Tilden had led the fight to end dishonesty in government in New York state. He had ousted a group called the Tweed Ring, which controlled New York City politics for years.Democrats said he was the man to end dishonesty in government in Washington. Republicans campaigned by denouncing the Democratic Party. They called it the party of southern rebellion and treason. Instead, they said, vote for the Republican Party...The party that had saved the Union! Democrats campaigned by attacking Republican dishonesty. They blamed Republicans for the nation's economic problems. And they promised better times for everyone if their candidate was elected. VOICE ONE: The presidential election of eighteen seventy-six was very close.By midnight of Election Day, the results seemed to show that Democrat Samuel Tilden was the winner. Republican Rutherford Hayes went to bed believing he had lost. However, the Republicans quickly saw that the electoral votes of three southern states could decide the winner. In the American presidential system, whoever wins the most popular votes in a state usually gets all the electoral votes of that state. In eighteen seventy-six, the electoral votes of three states -- Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina -- were enough to give the White House to one candidate or the other. VOICE TWO: Each party claimed victory in these three states. Each accused the other of stealing votes and counting ballots unfairly. Finally, the two parties agreed to form an electoral committee to decide who had won the disputed votes. The committee was supposed to include seven Republicans, seven Democrats, and one Independent. But before it could meet, the Independent member resigned. A Republican took his place. The Republicans had a majority. VOICE ONE: The committee first debated the disputed votes of Florida. After much discussion, the eight Republicans on the committee voted to accept the votes of Florida's Republican electors. They rejected a proposal to investigate the way the votes were counted in the state. They said there was not enough time for a full investigation. The same thing happened with the disputed votes of Louisiana and South Carolina. The Republicans on the committee voted to count the Republican electors. The Democrats voted to count the democratic electors. In each case, the Republicans won, by a vote of eight to seven. VOICE TWO: As a result, Rutherford Hayes gained the electoral votes of all three states. This gave him enough to win the election. Democrats were furious. Democrats in many states began organizing party militia groups. They said they would fight, if necessary, to prevent the Republicans from stealing the presidency. The situation seemed very tense and dangerous. Many feared the start of another civil war. Negotiations finally provided a peaceful solution. VOICE ONE: Representatives of the two parties met secretly to work out a compromise. The Democrats agreed to permit Republican Rutherford Hayes to be sworn-in as President. In return, Hayes agreed to end federal support of radical Republican governments in the south. He promised to name southerners to his cabinet and other important jobs. And he said he would provide more federal aid for schools and railroads in the south. As part of the agreement, Hayes promised not to act aggressively to support the civil rights of black southerners. VOICE TWO: Hayes' opponent, Democrat Samuel Tilden, did not oppose the agreement. Tilden was an old man. His health was poor. He agreed that four years of Rutherford Hayes would be better than four years of civil war. So it was that Rutherford Hayes became the nineteenth president of the United States. He would surprise a lot of people after he reached the White House. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Madeleine Peyroux: A Young Singer With a Voice From the Past
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music from Madeleine Peyroux … Answer a question from a listener about Reader’s Digest … And report about a program for children called the Fresh Air Fund. Fresh Air Fund An organization in New York City helps children enjoy a very special summer holiday. Faith Lapidus tells us more about the Fresh Air Fund. FAITH LAPIDUS: Three summers ago, a young boy named Robert found a special second home. Robert is from the Harlem area of New York City. He traveled away from the city to live with the Lober family in New York State. He spent the summer playing with other children, swimming and sailing a boat. Robert continues to visit the Lobers. They consider him to be a part of their family. This special visit was made possible by an organization called the Fresh Air Fund. It was started in eighteen seventy-seven. At that time, New York City was having a problem with the disease tuberculosis. Many children lived in crowded apartments, which made the disease spread faster. Getting these children “fresh air” in the country was seen as a solution for this problem. Today, the Fresh Air Fund still helps children from low-income communities in New York experience life in the country with a host family. These children enjoy a free holiday and take part in activities they would not normally experience in the city. More than sixty-five percent of children who visit a host family are invited back the next year. The children and families often make lasting friendships. The Fresh Air Fund has other programs as well. It has several summer camps north of New York City. At these camps, children can enjoy outdoor activities, art and computer programs. Some camps are for boys and others are for girls. One camp is for children with special needs. Here, kids who are sick or have physical problems can experience fun activities. Another program helps prepare young adults for their educational and professional future. Since it began, the Fresh Air Fund has provided free summer holidays to more than one million seven hundred thousand children from low-income communities. More than ten thousand New York City children enjoy Fresh Air Fund programs every year. Reader’s Digest HOST: Our VOA listener question comes from Myanmar, also known as Burma. Ko Maw Gyi asks about the magazine, Reader’s Digest. Reader’s Digest was the idea of an American, Dewitt Wallace. He never finished college, but he loved to read. He believed the right kind of publication could satisfy peoples’ desire for knowledge. He and his wife, Lila, produced the first Reader’s Digest magazine in February, nineteen twenty-two. Reader’s Digest was different from other publications of the time. It was small in size. It did not contain fictional stories or pictures. It had helpful reports about life. It included true stories Dewitt Wallace found in other publications. Often the stories were about how a person succeeded in a difficult situation. One goal of the magazine was to help new immigrants learn how to become American citizens. Mister Wallace shortened the stories because he realized people did not have a great deal of time for reading. In September, nineteen twenty-two, the Wallaces moved to Pleasantville, New York. They continued publishing the magazine. By the end of the first year, they were sending the magazine to seven thousand people. The number of people buying the magazine every month increased each year. Today, forty-one million copies of the Reader’s Digest are sold around the world each month. The magazine reaches forty-eight countries and is published in nineteen languages. Last month, there was a big party in New York City to celebrate the one thousandth issue of Reader’s Digest. The magazine has changed some since its first issues. Now, most stories are new and some are much longer. The magazine has added a team of investigative reporters. They report about serious subjects including abortion and the right to die. Dewitt and Lila Wallace died in the nineteen eighties. The publication they created is the best selling magazine in the world. And, its headquarters are still at their former home in Pleasantville, New York. You can see the one thousandth issue of Reader’s Digest at its Web site www.rd.com. Madeleine Peyroux American singer Madeleine Peyroux (pronounced?peru) performs popular old jazz, blues and country music songs. Barbara Klein tells us more about this special singer. BARBARA KLEIN: Madeleine Peyroux’s voice sounds like it belongs to another time period. Her rich and emotion-filled voice is similar to that of famous blues singer Billie Holliday. Peyroux sings many famous jazz and blues songs from the nineteen thirties and forties. She also brings a blues sound to old country songs. And she wrote some of the songs on her two albums. Here she sings a song from her first album, “Dreamland”. The song is called “Getting Some Fun Out of Life.” It was first made famous by Billie Holliday in nineteen thirty-seven. (MUSIC) Madeleine Peyroux also sings more modern songs. Here is “Dance Me to the End of Love” from her second album called “Careless Love.” This song was written and recorded by Leonard Cohen in the nineteen eighties. Peyroux’s version is very different. (MUSIC) Madeleine Peyroux even sings some songs in French. She is American, but spent part of her childhood in Paris. As an adult, she spent a lot of time playing music in the streets of that city. Here she sings a song made famous by the American singer Josephine Baker during World War Two. We leave you now with the song “J’ai Deux Amours,” or “I Have Two Loves.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This show was written by Lawan Davis and Dana Demange. Caty Weaver and Dana Demange were our producers. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bush Signs Major Energy and Transportation Bills
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. President Bush has signed into law the first energy policy act in more than ten years. He says problems like the high cost of fuel and the rising dependence on foreign oil will take years to solve. But he says the new law is a major step. It offers tax savings to energy companies including those that develop sun and wind power, and also nuclear power. Tax breaks total fourteen and one-half thousand million dollars. The new law requires federal buildings to cut energy use by twenty percent within ten years. And there are tax credits for buyers of solar-power systems and hybrid vehicles. These cars use electric power to save fuel. The law does not set new requirements for carmakers to build vehicles that use less fuel. But it does require more ethanol production. Ethanol is fuel made with grain. The Energy Policy Act of two thousand five simplifies rules for the oil and gas industries to build new processing centers. It expands the Strategic Oil Reserve. And it permits greater use of federal land for energy exploration. The new law provides money for research on cleaner-burning coal and on hydrogen fuel. Also, it establishes a partnership with India, China, Australia, Japan and South Korea to develop clean energy. But critics point out that the law does not place limits on some forms of pollution like carbon dioxide. The administration worked for an energy bill in Congress since two thousand one. Some early proposals were not included in the final bill. For example, Congress did not permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Lawmakers also denied legal protection to fuel makers from claims over the chemical M.T.B.E. It is widely added to gasoline to reduce pollution. But it has also leaked into drinking water supplies. Its use will be banned in ten years. Americans will see one effect of the new energy policy in two thousand seven: more daylight in the spring and fall. The government will add a month to Daylight Saving Time. Timing devices programmed with the current dates will have to be reset. President Bush signed the energy bill on Monday in New Mexico. On Wednesday, in Illinois, he signed a transportation bill that was popular in Congress. It provides two hundred eighty-six thousand million dollars over six years for roads, bridges and other projects. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. ----- CHEVRON OFFER FOR UNOCAL APPROVED?Shareholders in the American?energy company Unocal?voted on August tenth?to accept a nearly eighteen thousand million dollar takeover by Chevron. The Chinese company CNOOC recently withdrew a higher offer for Unocal because of political resistance.See earlier stories?at the top of the right column. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-12-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Israel Withdrawing From Gaza After 38 Years
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Gaza is a small area on the Mediterranean coast. It is long but narrow. Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the nineteen sixty-seven war. It also captured the West Bank from Jordan. The war lasted six days. It began when Arab countries attacked Israel. More than one million Palestinians live in Gaza. So do around eight thousand five hundred Jewish settlers. Next week, the Israeli government wants them to leave their twenty-one settlements. Thousands of Israeli troops and police will help the settlers move out. After Wednesday, the troops will use force to remove any who stay. Soldiers will destroy all of the houses. The Palestinians want to build their own. However, on Friday, an Israeli economic cooperation group announced a deal. Officials say the settlers agreed to sell most of the structures in which they grew plants on their farms. American special representative James Wolfensohn collected about fourteen million dollars to buy the greenhouses for the Palestinians. He is the former president of the World Bank. [On Saturday, in the?New York Times, Mister Wolfensohn said?most of the money came from six wealthy Americans. He did not identify them.He?also gave five hundred thousand dollars of his own money.] Conservative and religious political parties in Israel oppose the withdrawal from Gaza. Opponents say Israel will not be any safer from attacks. Earlier this month, Benjamin Netanyahu resigned as finance minister in protest. Opponents say the land is part of what they call Greater Israel. They say God promised it to the Jews. Yet public opinion research shows that sixty percent of the people in Israel support the withdrawal. Under the plan, the Palestinian National Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas will govern the territory. A special force trained by Egypt is to keep order. Officials say the biggest change will be the end to the travel restrictions in occupied Gaza. But Israel will continue to control the border, coast and air space. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced the withdrawal plan in December of two thousand three. He said it would strengthen Israeli security, ease the responsibilities of the Israeli Defense Forces and reduce tensions with the Palestinians. But Israelis says real peace negotiations can begin only when Palestinian officials disarm groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Palestinians hope for an independent nation with Jerusalem as the capital. Yet many see the Gaza withdrawal only as a way for Israel to increase control of the West Bank. The West Bank has two hundred forty thousand Israeli settlers and more than two million Arabs. Four small settlements in the West Bank are to be removed under the withdrawal plan. Prime Minister Sharon says the major ones will stay. But he suggested in comments reported Friday that more settlers could leave in the future. In Gaza City on Friday, Palestinian officials held a big celebration of the withdrawal just days away. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: From London to Broadway to Hollywood: Jessica Tandy
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell the story of Jessica Tandy who died in nineteen ninety-four. She won many awards for her acting during the almost seventy years she performed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jessica Tandy probably is best known for winning an Academy Award in nineteen eighty-nine for the movie "Driving Miss Daisy. " She was the oldest person to have won the award. But for many years, she had received praise for her great performances. Tandy appeared in more than one hundred stage shows, twenty-five movies and on many television programs during her sixty-seven years of acting. Most of her performances were in the United States, although she did not become an American citizen until nineteen fifty-four. VOICE TWO: Jessica Tandy was born in London, England, in nineteen-oh-nine. Her father died when she was twelve years old. Her mother taught and took other jobs at night to make extra money for her three children. Jessica's older brothers showed an interest in the theater. They would put on shows in their London home. Jessica said later that she was terrible in all of them. But she said taking part in those plays as a child created a desire in her to be someone else. VOICE ONE: Jessica loved going to the theater. And she loved British writer William Shakespeare. Years later, she acted in many of Shakespeare's plays, with great actors like John Gielgud and Lawrence Olivier. This love of the theater led her to attend an acting school in nineteen twenty-four. When she was eighteen years old, she performed in her first play. It was called "The Manderson Girls. " She did not earn enough money to pay for the five different dresses she had to wear in the play. She solved the problem by sewing them herself. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jessica Tandy always thought she was plain-looking. So did most theater professionals. She said people in the theater knew she was a good actress, but did not believe she was pretty enough to be a success. She noted that they said, "She is plain but on the stage she looks all right." Pictures of Jessica Tandy do not suggest that this is true. She just looked different from the leading women actors of the day. Later, she said that it was good that she was not considered pretty. She said she got more interesting parts that way. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-two, critics in London recognized her great acting skill in her performance in the play "Children in Uniform." That part gave her what she said was one of the moments she loved most in the theater. She said at one performance, people watching were so moved they continued to sit quietly when the play ended. That same year, she married actor Jack Hawkins. They had a daughter, Susan. Tandy continued to work in the theater in London. By nineteen forty, her marriage was ending. So she took her daughter and moved to the United States to escape World War Two. In New York City, she met a young actor named Hume Cronyn. Two years later they married and moved to Hollywood. By nineteen forty-five, they had two children. VOICE TWO: In California, Hume Cronyn was getting good parts in movies. But Tandy was not. She got only small parts, when she got them at all. She said the producers in Hollywood did not take her seriously as an actress. She began to feel like a failure. Jessica Tandy was considering not acting anymore. But then her husband did something that changed her life. He gave her the lead part in a play he was directing in Los Angeles. It was "Portrait of a Madonna" by Tennessee Williams. She played a lonely woman. Critics praised her. Tennessee Williams came to Los Angeles from New York just to see her in the show. He said later that he knew he had found the actress to play the lead in his new play, "A Streetcar Named Desire." That play opened in New York in nineteen forty-seven. Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter were the stars. It won a Pulitzer Prize and many other awards. Tandy won the first of her four Tony awards for best actress in a play. One director said that she was full of surprises. He said that she always did things better than expected. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-fifties, Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn began working together in theaters in New York City. Their first appearance together in a major Broadway theater was the hit play "The Fourposter. " Through the years, they appeared together in nine other plays on Broadway, including "A Delicate Balance," "The Gin Game" and "Foxfire. " Their last Broadway appearance together was in "The Petition" in nineteen eighty-six. Tandy also worked with her husband in local theaters across the United States. They liked doing it because they had a chance to play parts in the older well-known plays. In nineteen sixty-three, for example, Miss Tandy played Gertrude in Shakespeare's “Hamlet,” Olga in Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," and the wife of Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's “Death of a Salesman.” She also acted in plays in the Shakespeare festivals in Stratford, Connecticut and in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. VOICE TWO: Jessica Tandy said she hated seeing herself in the movies. She said she never was as satisfied making movies as she was working in the theater. But she thought it was important to accept the acting jobs that were offered. It helped pay expenses when she performed in small theaters for less pay. Tandy played Hume Cronyn's wife in four movies during the nineteen-eighties, including "Cocoon" and "Batteries not Included." In nineteen ninety-two, she played an old woman in the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes. " But she never really thought of herself as a movie actress. Perhaps that was because of her experience earlier when she was not accepted in Hollywood. Even after her success in the play "A Streetcar Named Desire," Hollywood producers did not choose her to be in the movie. Vivien Leigh replaced her in the part of Blanche Dubois. Tandy said she was surprised when she won the academy award for "Driving Miss Daisy. " She said then that the wonderful part she had made up for her lack of experience in movies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn were married for fifty-two years. During their years of acting together, they won almost every cultural award possible. In nineteen eighty-six, they won the Kennedy Center lifetime achievement award. In nineteen ninety, President George Bush presented the National Medal of Art to them. A few months before she died, Tandy and Cronyn were honored with a special Tony Award for their work in the Broadway theater. Reporters always were asking them how they were able to work so closely together for so long. Tandy said they never discussed their work at home. She said they always honored each other's ideas if they did not agree about something. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jessica Tandy suffered from stage fright that became worse as she grew older. It made her feel sick before a performance. Yet her husband said she was at her best when she was working. She was in great demand as she grew older. Tandy took good parts and bad ones. She always said a person is richer for doing things. If you wait for the greatest part , you will wait a long time and your skills will decrease, she said. You cannot be an actor without acting. Tandy was an actor until the end. She had problems with her eyes and her heart. Yet they did not slow her down. In nineteen eighty-eight, she won an Emmy Award for a television movie of the play "Foxfire. " Three years later, Jessica Tandy had a cancer operation. But she continued working. She did not let her pain lessen the effectiveness of her performance. She appeared in more television movies in the years before her death. And she made several movies that were released after she died September eleventh, nineteen ninety-four. She was eighty-five. VOICE ONE: Jessica Tandy said as an actor her job was getting the best out of what the writer expressed in the play or movie. The critics said she did. They said she always was able to show deep meaning in the people she played. One critic wrote that she was such a good actor that only poets, not critics, should be permitted to write about her. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bringing Color to Life With Natural Dyes
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Dye can bring a little color to life. Most clothing is colored with dyes. Modern, manufactured dyes can be costly. Natural dyes from plant and animal products have been used since ancient times. So this week, we describe a natural way to dye wool. The advice comes from information written by Jenny Dean of the Intermediate Technology Development Group. This anti-poverty group in Britain has a new name, Practical Action. There are several methods to put dye onto material. The vat method, for example, can be used to dye wool with onionskins. For this example, use one hundred grams of natural wool. The wool must be clean. Leave it overnight in water and liquid soap. Then wash it with clean water that is a little warm. Gently squeeze out the extra water. A solution called a mordant is used in the dying process. A mordant helps fix the dye to the material. Traditionally, mordants were found in nature. Wood ash is one example. But chemical mordants such as alum are popular today. Alum is sold in many stores. It is often mixed with cream of tartar, a fine powder commonly used in cooking. Mix eight grams of alum with seven grams of cream of tartar in a small amount of hot water. Add the solution to a metal pan of cool water. Next, add the wool and place the mixture over heat. Slowly bring the liquid to eighty-two degrees Celsius. Heat the mixture for forty-five minutes. After it cools, remove the wool and wash it. To prepare the dye solution, cover thirty grams of onionskins with water. Use only the dry, brown outer skins. Boil the liquid until the onionskins lose their color, about forty-five minutes,. Remove the skins after the dye cools. Now it is time to dye the wool. Place the wool into the dye and heat the mixture. Bring it to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to eighty-two degrees. Now heat the dye for about forty-five minutes or until the wool is the desired color. Wool looks darker when it is wet. Once the dye cools, remove the wool and wash it. Now the wool is orange or yellow. Or at least it should be. Internet users can get the full details at the Web site of the group Practical Action. The address is itdg-org. Again, it's itdg.org. We will have a link with this report at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Barbara Klein. ? Source link: http://www.itdg.org/?id=technical_briefs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Late 20th-Century Jazz: New Beats for a Changed World
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we have the second of two reports about the history of jazz. Last week, we talked about how this kind of music began. As the years passed, jazz changed and grew in many directions. Today, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith talk about American jazz since World War Two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, swing jazz became less popular. Americans began to listen to different sounds. One was bebop, also called bop. Young musicians had created this music earlier in the nineteen forties. They included trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, alto saxophone player Charlie Parker and piano players Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. Bebop gained popularity slowly. The music had unexpected breaks and many notes. But many people learned to like it. Listen now as Dizzy Gillespie and His All Star Quintet play "Salt Peanuts." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen fifties, hard bebop gained popularity. This music borrowed from traditional jazz sounds like blues and religious music. Drum player Art Blakey and piano player Horace Silver became especially famous for hard bebop. Blakey led a group called Jazz Messengers for thirty-five years. Some of the greatest jazz players performed with this group. Here is Horace Silver playing "Doodlin' " with the Jazz Messengers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cool jazz also became popular in the?nineteen fifties. Saxophone player Lester Young and guitar player Charlie Christian helped create this music years earlier. Cool jazz instruments sound softer than in bebop. And the rhythm is more even. Dave BrubeckStan Getz, Woody Herman and Gerry Mulligan earned fame for this music. People loved cool jazz played by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Listen as the Dave Brubeck group plays "Take Five." (MUSIC)?????????????? VOICE TWO:?????? Jazz gained many new listeners in the nineteen fifties. People went to jazz clubs and bought jazz recordings. The introduction of the long-playing record also helped the music become more popular. People could listen to a long piece or a number of short pieces without changing the record. The first big American jazz event was held at Newport, Rhode Island, in nineteen fifty-four. Now jazz musicians celebrate these festivals around the world. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ??????? Jazz developed in several directions during the nineteen fifties. Classical musician Gunther Schuller wrote new orchestra pieces with jazz expert John Lewis. This music combined modern jazz and classical concert music. In this same period, Miles Davis recorded new sounds in written music and music created during performances. Famous jazz artists like saxophone players John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley performed in the Miles Davis Sextet. Here is the group playing "So What."? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? In nineteen sixty, the great saxophone player Ornette Coleman recorded a collection called "Free Jazz.”? Coleman and his group played unstructured music. John Coltrane also developed new music during the nineteen sixties. For example, he played jazz influenced by the music of India. Other musicians began playing jazz with unusual timing. But a new kind of music--rock and roll -- also grew very popular in the nineteen sixties. People throughout the world listened to the rock music of Elvis Presley and groups like the Beatles. The new music cut deeply into the popularity of jazz. VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-seventies, some jazz musicians began playing jazz that sounded like rock. This fusion jazz added rock instruments and rhythm to traditional themes and creative inventions of jazz. Electronic music also helped develop fusion jazz. Here is guitar player George Benson playing his version of "Come Together." Two members of the Beatles wrote this song. (MUSIC) VOICE? TWO:?????? ??????? Minimalism in jazz became popular in the nineteen eighties. This music repeats simple groups of notes over a long period. Musicians like trombone player George Lewis experimented with mixing several kinds of jazz. Also in the nineteen eighties, trumpet player Wynton Marsalis helped lead a return to more traditional jazz. This mainstream jazz borrows sounds from swing, bebop and cool jazz. Marsalis also played other kinds of jazz. And he performed classical music with symphony orchestras. He is one of the most praised musicians. Listen to Wynton Marsalis play? "Deep Creek." ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, jazz musicians play all kinds of music. Their jazz can sound like swing or bebop. It can sound like rock and roll. It can sound like American Western music. It can sound like the music of several nations and ethnic groups. Or, it can sound?traditional. We leave you now with a traditional song, "My Foolish Heart," played by the Oscar Peterson jazz group. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ??????? And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Drug to Protect Against Bird Flu Succeeds in First Tests
* Byline: Written by Rochelle Gollust and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. In our program this week, we will talk about the successful effort to produce an exact copy of a dog. Also, scientists say the world’s oceans have fewer kinds of fish than they did fifty years ago. We will tell you about the findings. VOICE ONE: But first, we will report on human tests of a new protective medicine, or vaccine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American government scientists say they have successfully tested a vaccine that protects people against avian influenza, or bird flu. The scientists say they believe the vaccine can protect against the bird flu virus that is spreading in Asia and Russia. This virus is known as h-five-n-one. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health announced the test results. He is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Doctor Fauci said the new vaccine could be used in an emergency. But he noted that additional tests and government approval are needed before the vaccine could be offered to the public. He also said one important issue is if the medical industry can make enough vaccine to meet the possible demand. VOICE TWO: The new vaccine is meant to protect people against infection, not to treat those who are sick. The vaccine cannot cause bird flu because it is made from killed viruses. Doctor Fauci said the first tests showed the medicine produced strong protection among the small group of healthy adults who received it. He said more tests would be done on other people, older adults, and children during the next several months. Doctor Fauci said he believed the planned tests would confirm the success of the first tests. More tests would also answer remaining questions such as how much of the vaccine is needed for protection. VOICE ONE: American government scientists and others developed the vaccine. It was tested at three medical centers in the United States. The vaccine is produced by Sanofi-Pasteur, a French company that is part of the European drug manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis. Health officials have been working quickly to develop a vaccine against bird flu. They are concerned that the bird flu virus in Asia and Russia might change and combine with a human influenza virus to create a new virus. They say this new virus could spread quickly around the world. VOICE TWO: Millions of birds in Asia have died from the h-five-n-one virus or were killed to prevent its spread. The virus has infected more than one hundred people. More than fifty of them have died. The infected people live in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. American health officials said the existence of a vaccine alone would not prevent the possible worldwide spread of the disease. The officials said countries need to quickly organize ways to give vaccine injections when they are provided. They said this would take cooperation, money and more scientific work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new report says the world’s oceans have fewer kinds of fish than they did fifty years ago. The report said some kinds, or species, of fish have decreased by as much as fifty percent. It blames too much fishing, destruction of areas where fish live and climate change for the decrease. Two scientists from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, wrote the report. Three other scientists took part in the study. They are from the Leibniz Institute for Marine Science in Germany. The publication Science reported their findings. VOICE TWO: The scientists used information from Japanese long-line fisheries going back to the nineteen fifties. They compared the information with information gathered by scientific observers from Australia and the United States. The study is the first worldwide mapping of species of large fish that eat other fish. The study found the total catch for tuna and billfish has increased as much as ten times during the past fifty years. The scientists found that tuna and billfish are disappearing in many areas. They say the problem is especially bad in waters near northwest Australia. In addition, other fish are accidentally caught when large fish are caught. This has caused the number of species to fall. VOICE ONE: The report said changes in temperature can also affect the number of fish species. It found that the kinds of fish expanded when the weather conditions known as El Nino caused warmer surface waters in the Pacific Ocean. But the number of species decreased when temperatures dropped. The study identified five important areas in the world that have many different kinds of fish. They include areas off the east coast of Florida and south of Hawaii in the United States. Other areas are near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, near Sri Lanka and in the southern Pacific Ocean, mainly north of Easter Island. The scientists said it is important to protect these areas now. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists in South Korea say they have successfully produced an exact genetic copy of a dog. The scientists said they used the same methods that produced a sheep named Dolly nine years ago. A number of other animals have been copied, or cloned. They include cows, pigs, rabbits, mice and even a cat. A team led by Woo-Suk Hwang of Seoul National University created an Afghan hound called Snuppy. Snuppy is a genetic copy of an adult dog. Last year, the team cloned human embryos and produced stem cells. Snuppy is now more than three months old. The announcement of his birth was reported this month in the publication Nature. VOICE ONE: About fifteen people needed thirty months to complete the experiment. Earlier attempts to clone a dog failed because of the difficulty of collecting dog eggs that are fully developed, or mature. The South Korean team found a way to harvest mature dog eggs in a laboratory. The team used a special liquid to force the egg down a tube, or oviduct, from the female reproductive organs. Next, members of the team removed the nucleus of the egg. Then the nucleus was replaced with the nucleus of the animal to be cloned. Those cells were taken from the ear of the adult Afghan hound. One thousand ninety five cloned embryos resulted. The embryos were placed into one hundred twenty three female dogs. Only three of them became pregnant. One lost the puppy before it was born. The team used a medical operation called a Cesarean Section to remove the two other puppies. One became sick and died after only twenty-two days. The surviving animal, Snuppy, was taken from a yellow Labrador retriever. The dog raised the puppy as if she were his natural mother. VOICE TWO: Snuppy looks exactly like the dog that provided his genetic material. Professor Hwang says it is too early to know if the puppy will have a personality like the older dog. He said the experiment should help demonstrate how genes and environment affect creation of different kinds of dogs. Professor Hwang also said the study is a step toward creating dogs that could be given human sicknesses and then studied. He said his team’s experiment is not meant to produce dogs for owners whose animals have died. In March, the United Nations declared a ban on all kinds of cloning. But governments in many nations have disobeyed the ban. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? Finally, we told you about a giant panda born last month at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Today we have more news of that baby panda. It’s a boy!? Animal experts who have examined him said he is in good health and getting bigger. We also have panda news from the San Diego Zoo in the American state of California. A giant panda was born there on August second. Its mother, Bai Yun, had her baby after three hours of labor. VOICE TWO: The arrival of the baby brought the giant panda population in the San Diego Zoo to four. The zoo has more of these animals than any other area except their native China. The sex of the panda born in San Diego was not immediately known. Animal experts who gathered to watch television pictures of the birth said they could not see the baby. But they could hear it make loud noises. The baby is reported to have made happy sounds when its mother began to feed it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Complete a Genetic Map of Rice
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists now know a lot more about a grain that people have eaten for ten thousand years. Research teams around the world have completed a map of the genes of rice. Such a map is called a genome. The findings appeared last week in the magazine Nature. The map represents ninety-five percent of the rice genome. And the information is considered ninety-nine point nine-nine percent correct. The aim is to speed up the improvement of rice. The scientists warn that the kinds of rice plants used now have reached the limit of their productivity. Yet world rice production must grow by an estimated thirty percent in the next twenty years to meet demand. In their paper, the researchers say rice is an excellent choice for genetic mapping and engineering. Rice genes have only about three hundred ninety million chemical bases. That might sound like a lot. But other major food grains have thousands of millions. The new map could better explain not just rice. Rice shares a common ancestor with other crops in the grass family. These include corn and wheat. Also, rice shares more than seventy percent of its genes with Arabidopsis. This plant is in the mustard family. Its genome was completed in two thousand. Genes produce proteins which guide the building of organisms. Genes are placed along chromosomes. Rice has twelve chromosomes. The scientists found almost thirty-eight thousand genes. By comparison, studies have found only about twenty-five thousand genes in humans. The International Rice Genome Sequencing Project in Tsukuba, Japan, led the research. The effort started in nineteen ninety-eight. The Rice Genome Research Program in Japan supervised the mapping of about half of the genome. American researchers were responsible for three chromosomes. Chinese and Taiwanese researchers mapped one each. A French group mapped one and part of another. Researchers in Brazil, Britain France, India, South Korea and Thailand also took part. The project was expected to take ten years. But the work was finished in six because many of the groups shared information and technology. Two companies, Monsanto of the United States and Syngenta of Switzerland, also shared their research. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How a Secret-But-Not-So-Secret Code Let Women in China Share Hardships
* Byline: 

 AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a secret language of women. RS:?? There's a new American novel called "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." This work of historical fiction is set in a remote part of 19th-century China. It describes the difficult life women endured, starting in childhood. Their feet were tightly bound to keep them small, a traditional Chinese notion of beauty. A young woman could expect an arranged marriage at 17. AA:?? The novel describes a real-life secret code that women developed perhaps a thousand years ago. Author Lisa See recently discussed nu shu, or "women's writing," with VOA's Doug Bernard on Talk to America. LISA SEE: "These were women who lived in almost total seclusion from the time that they had their feet bound until they died. And so their only, or their principal means of communication to each other, was through this secret writing. But, in fact, it was a kind of open secret, in the sense that women incorporated nu shu into their embroidery, into their weaving. "Sometimes men even wore it, but they didn't know what it meant. Interestingly enough, the men in this area tended to be illiterate themselves. So the fact that the women had their own written language, it didn't really bother them that much. They saw it as something beneath them. It was something that just women did." DOUG BERNARD: "What were these women saying to each other in nu shu?" LISA SEE: "They wrote letters, autobiographies, songs, stories. There are a few histories that still exist. But mainly these women wrote about the hardship of their lives, the difficulties of moving out into their husbands' homes, sight unseen, and being parted from their natal families and the loneliness and homesickness they felt being separated from their families and not being able to see them again. The difficulties they had with their mothers-in-law, that was a very standard kind of writing that almost had a formalized language to it." DOUG BERNARD: "How was the code to nu shu broken? How and when was it broken?" LISA SEE: "An old woman fainted in a rural Chinese train station in China in the mid-1960's, and the police went through her belongings and found these pieces of paper with what looked to be a secret code written on them. And because it was, at that time, the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, she was detained on suspicion of being a spy. And the authorities brought in various scholars and cryptographers and linguists to break the code, which of course they did eventually. "Again, this was during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and so those scholars who had come in and broken the code and had discovered the language were promptly arrested and sent to labor camps and farm camps. And they didn't really re-emerge until the mid-1980's, which is when they once again started up their study of nu shu, and the knowledge of the language began to filter through China and eventually out to the rest of the world." DOUG BERNARD: "Last question for you, Miss See: Is it still spoken, and who speaks it, where's nu shu spoken?" LISA SEE: "Well, it's a phonetic version of the local dialect, so it's really just a written language. If you read it out loud, whoever was in the room would understand it, because it is the local dialect. It comes from Jiangyong County which is in southwestern Hunan province. And the language had just about died out especially after the Cultural Revolution because those women who did practice the language were publicly humiliated, punished. "Now the Chinese government has reversed its position. They aren't recognizing it as a national ethnic language. However, they do want to preserve it as a cultural treasure. And so when I was there a couple of years ago, the Chinese government was building a large school complex where young women and girls can come to learn the language, the writing system. "But today they're learning it in the way that you would learn how to make a basket or you would learn how to do a folk dance. It will no longer have that same impact on their lives. Because now if they want to talk to someone, they can go out on the street and talk to their friends, or they can make a call on their cell phone." AA:?? Lisa See is author of the novel "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS:?? Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a secret language of women. RS:?? There's a new American novel called "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." This work of historical fiction is set in a remote part of 19th-century China. It describes the difficult life women endured, starting in childhood. Their feet were tightly bound to keep them small, a traditional Chinese notion of beauty. A young woman could expect an arranged marriage at 17. AA:?? The novel describes a real-life secret code that women developed perhaps a thousand years ago. Author Lisa See recently discussed nu shu, or "women's writing," with VOA's Doug Bernard on Talk to America. LISA SEE: "These were women who lived in almost total seclusion from the time that they had their feet bound until they died. And so their only, or their principal means of communication to each other, was through this secret writing. But, in fact, it was a kind of open secret, in the sense that women incorporated nu shu into their embroidery, into their weaving. "Sometimes men even wore it, but they didn't know what it meant. Interestingly enough, the men in this area tended to be illiterate themselves. So the fact that the women had their own written language, it didn't really bother them that much. They saw it as something beneath them. It was something that just women did." DOUG BERNARD: "What were these women saying to each other in nu shu?" LISA SEE: "They wrote letters, autobiographies, songs, stories. There are a few histories that still exist. But mainly these women wrote about the hardship of their lives, the difficulties of moving out into their husbands' homes, sight unseen, and being parted from their natal families and the loneliness and homesickness they felt being separated from their families and not being able to see them again. The difficulties they had with their mothers-in-law, that was a very standard kind of writing that almost had a formalized language to it." DOUG BERNARD: "How was the code to nu shu broken? How and when was it broken?" LISA SEE: "An old woman fainted in a rural Chinese train station in China in the mid-1960's, and the police went through her belongings and found these pieces of paper with what looked to be a secret code written on them. And because it was, at that time, the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, she was detained on suspicion of being a spy. And the authorities brought in various scholars and cryptographers and linguists to break the code, which of course they did eventually. "Again, this was during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and so those scholars who had come in and broken the code and had discovered the language were promptly arrested and sent to labor camps and farm camps. And they didn't really re-emerge until the mid-1980's, which is when they once again started up their study of nu shu, and the knowledge of the language began to filter through China and eventually out to the rest of the world." DOUG BERNARD: "Last question for you, Miss See: Is it still spoken, and who speaks it, where's nu shu spoken?" LISA SEE: "Well, it's a phonetic version of the local dialect, so it's really just a written language. If you read it out loud, whoever was in the room would understand it, because it is the local dialect. It comes from Jiangyong County which is in southwestern Hunan province. And the language had just about died out especially after the Cultural Revolution because those women who did practice the language were publicly humiliated, punished. "Now the Chinese government has reversed its position. They aren't recognizing it as a national ethnic language. However, they do want to preserve it as a cultural treasure. And so when I was there a couple of years ago, the Chinese government was building a large school complex where young women and girls can come to learn the language, the writing system. "But today they're learning it in the way that you would learn how to make a basket or you would learn how to do a folk dance. It will no longer have that same impact on their lives. Because now if they want to talk to someone, they can go out on the street and talk to their friends, or they can make a call on their cell phone." AA:?? Lisa See is author of the novel "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan." And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS:?? Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-16-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Camping in America’s National and State Parks
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Millions of people in the United States like to spend their holidays enjoying nature. They carry everything they will need with them. Today we tell about this popular activity called backpacking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We are high in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the state of North Carolina. It is very early in the morning. We have been walking in the mountains for almost one week. Each night we sleep in a small cloth shelter called a tent. We carry the tent, sleeping bags, clothes, food and water with us in our backpacks. The air this morning is fresh and clear. It smells like green trees and wild flowers. Our surroundings are dark green. We have been deep in the forest for many kilometers. Little light reaches here. It is so thick with trees we cannot see the sky. VOICE TWO: At last we come to a clear area. We can see the sky and the land around us. When we look across to other mountains it is easy to see why they were named the “Blue Ridge Mountains.”?? The early morning air in the distance looks like thick smoke. It makes the color of the mountains a deep ocean blue. This color is caused by the amount of water in the air. It is almost like fog. When the sun rises higher, some of the water in the air will be burned away. Then the mountains will slowly turn dark green. VOICE ONE: It is beautiful here. We can see many kilometers down and across the valley floor. Two deer are nearby. They are eating grass. No hunting is permitted here. The deer are used to seeing people walk through this area, so they have little fear of humans. They watch us with their huge dark eyes. For several minutes we look at the deer and the deer look at us. Then, the large animals lose interest and slowly move away. VOICE TWO: We have stopped to eat a late morning meal. A friend has begun to cook our food over a small fire. The smell of fresh coffee soon mixes with the smell of burning wood. The clear mountain air and our long walk this morning have made us extremely hungry. We eat a meal of eggs, fruit and bread and drink some very good coffee. After eating, we wash the equipment in hot water and put it inside the large bags we carry on our backs. We put the fire out with water. We fill the small hole we dug for the fire with dirt. We carefully clean the area when we are done. When we leave, there is nothing to show that we have been there. We try very hard to leave the area as we found it -- the way nature made it. VOICE ONE: Today we will try to walk at least thirty kilometers. It should not be difficult. The path here is not steep. We will spend two more days and nights high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. By then we will have eaten all the food we brought. Then it will be time to leave the mountains. It will be difficult to re-enter the world of cars, roads, buildings, stores, computers, television and crowds of people. We will take many things from the mountains when we leave. Memories of the great beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The joy of watching the beautiful deer early in the morning. And an increased respect for our natural world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have tried to describe what it is like to travel a path up high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The area we visited is called the Blue Ridge Parkway. The United States government’s National Park Service protects this beautiful area so that the public can always enjoy it. About eighteen million people visit the Blue Ridge Parkway each year. Most drive there in their cars. However, about two hundred thousand people sleep in the park for at least one night. VOICE ONE: The National Park Service keeps records to show how many people visit all of the national parks. Each year about fourteen million people sleep in America’s national parks for at least one night. About one million seven hundred thousand people visit what is called the “backcountry.”? The backcountry is far away from human activity. In some parks, vehicles are not permitted in the backcountry. You often must walk for several days to get to the backcountry of some national parks. People who enjoy backpacking visit backcountry. They carry everything they will need for a day or two or perhaps a week or more. VOICE TWO: Backpacking is a popular activity in the United States. Many different companies produce goods and equipment for people who enjoy living for a while in nature. Several companies sell special foods. Some of these foods have been produced using a method that removes the water. This method is called freeze-drying. These meals include different foods such as meat, vegetables and rice or perhaps a mixture of several foods. Hot water is added to the dried material to replace the missing water. This produces a meal that is ready to eat. Backpackers use this method to carry food for two reasons. The food is easy to carry because it weighs a lot less without the water. And food that has been freeze-dried remains safe to eat for a long time. VOICE ONE: Many companies produce special clothing for people who enjoy backpacking. Some companies make strong shoes made for walking and hiking. Others make small stoves for cooking food. Other companies make small lightweight cloth tents that campers can carry anywhere. A few companies sell equipment that makes water safe to drink. And a number of companies make the backpacks that campers use to carry all this equipment. Each of these companies tries to make the best possible product that is very lightweight. A backpack filled with food, water and equipment needed for a week weighs about twenty kilograms. Many experienced backpackers carry far less and travel faster. Others take more equipment because they want more of the comforts of home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many state and national parks permit backpacking. In some parks you must pay a small amount of money for each day. Others cost nothing. Some national parks provide hundreds of kilometers of paths or trails to follow. Mount Rainier National Park in the northwestern state of Washington is a good example of a park that provides many different trails. Some take only a day to follow. Others can take a week or more. The oldest and perhaps the most famous backpacking trail in the United States is called the Appalachian Trail. It begins in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southern state of Georgia. Those who follow the trail from beginning to end will walk or hike about three thousand five hundred kilometers. Some of the Appalachian Trail is easy. Some parts of it are extremely difficult. Myron Avery helped create the famous trail. He also was the first man to walk the whole trail. He did it in nineteen thirty-six. Since then, more than eight thousand people have hiked all of the Appalachian Trail. Some did it all at one time. Others did parts of the trail each year for several years until they finished it. About three million people walk part of the trail each year. VOICE ONE: People have come from all over the world to hike the Appalachian Trail. Perhaps one of the most unusual was a woman named Emma Gatewood from the state of Ohio. She walked all of the trail -- three times. She was almost seventy years old the last time she completed the trail. The Appalachian Trail is easy to follow. Hundreds of people in many different states help keep it clear and in good repair. Backpackers can find shelters along the trail to sleep in at night. These too are kept and repaired by people who love the Appalachian Trail. VOICE TWO: We have told you about only three of the many areas where people can backpack in the United States. Another famous one is the Pacific Crest Trail. You can walk this trail from the American border with Canada to the American border with Mexico. It goes through the western states of Washington, Oregon and California. Hundreds of national and state parks offer the backpacker a chance to see, hear and feel the natural world. It is an experience that provides a lifetime of memories. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-16-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Lung Cancer: Tobacco Is Usually the Cause, but Not Always
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Shep O’Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week, a man who was a nightly presence in millions of American homes died of lung cancer. Peter Jennings read the news for ABC television for more than twenty years. He also reported from around the world. Mister Jennings was sixty-seven years old. Since his death, many people have questions about lung cancer and how to prevent it. Most lung cancer deaths are caused by tobacco use. Peter Jennings smoked cigarettes for many years. But smokers are not the only ones at risk. So are people who breathe tobacco smoke in the air. Radon gas in the environment, particles of the fire-resistant material asbestos and air pollution also increase the risk. More people die of lung cancer than any other form of cancer. Each year, more than one million die of the disease. Once it is found, more than ninety percent of patients are dead within two years. People often do not show signs until the cancer has spread to the brain, liver or bones. Then it is usually too late to cure. Signs of lung cancer include a cough that gets worse and pain in the chest area. People may cough up blood and lose their normal voice. Weight loss and feeling tired are two other signs. The American Cancer Society says lung cancer is most often found when people reach their seventies. It is generally rare in people under the age of forty. There are two major kinds: small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancers are the most common. These usually spread at a slower rate to other parts of the body. Doctors can usually remove a lung cancer if it is found early. Other treatments involve radiation or chemotherapy drugs, or both. Lung cancer is most common among smokers. Non-smokers, however, are more likely to have a kind of lung cancer that is linked to genetics. Experts say new drugs offer better treatment for this form of lung cancer. Two days after Peter Jennings died, Dana Reeve announced that she has lung cancer. Her husband was Christopher Reeve, the actor who was thrown from a horse and broke his neck. Dana Reeve took care of him for nine years until his death last year. She did not give details of her condition. But a spokeswoman said the forty-four-year-old actress is not a smoker. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O’Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Rutherford Hayes Wins Disputed 1876 Presidential Election
* Byline: Written by David Jarmul

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In early eighteen seventy-seven, Rutherford Hayes was sworn-in as the nineteenth president of the United States. He became president after a disputed election. I'm Richard Rael. Today, Steve Ember and I tell the story of this American president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rutherford Hayes was born in Ohio in eighteen twenty-two. He was a good student at Kenyon College and at Harvard Law School. He opened a law office in Cincinnati. When he was thirty years old, he married Lucy Webb. Later, he served as an officer in the Union army during America's Civil War. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He also served as governor of Ohio. In this job, he helped establish the college thatbecame Ohio State University. VOICE ONE: Hayes was a Republican. In eighteen seventy-six, he was the party's compromise candidate for president. His opponent in the national election was Democrat Samuel Tilden. Tilden won more popular votes than Hayes. In the American political system, whoever wins the most popular votes in a state usually gets all the electoral votes of that state. In eighteen seventy-six, both the Republicans and Democrats claimed the electoral votes of three southern states: Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. So it was not clear at first who had won the presidential election. VOICE TWO: Congress appointed a committee to decide the issue. The committee had a? Republican majority. It gave the disputed electoral votes to Hayes. He won the election by just one electoral vote. The results came just a few days before the inauguration. Democrats protested that the Republicans had stolen the election. Yet they agreed to accept Hayes as president. In exchange, Hayes and the Republicans agreed to accept Democratic Party policies on several issues. Hayes's administration would deal mainly with national -- not international -- problems. VOICE ONE: At first, people wondered: would President Hayes keep the promises that were made to help him win the election. Most thought he would not. Hayes surprised everyone. In his inaugural speech, he promised to put the country ahead of the party. He said, "he serves his party best who serves his country best." Party leaders told Hayes which men to appoint to his cabinet. He refused and made his own choices. He ordered federal troops to withdraw from South Carolina and Louisiana. The troops had been there since the end of the Civil War. He also helped southern Democrats establish new governments in their states. VOICE TWO: Republican Party leaders criticized President Hayes. Anti-slavery groups also criticized him. They said former black slaves in the south had gained a lot under Republican rule. Now, they said, these black Americans would lose everything. Hayes did not agree. He had received promises that the new democratic state governments would protect the rights of black Americans. It was not to be. White Democrats kept political control in some southern states for many years. They often denied civil rights to black citizens. Only with the rise of the civil rights movement in the nineteen fifties would the situation begin to change. VOICE ONE: After becoming president, Rutherford Hayes announced that he would serve just one term. He wanted to make serious reforms in the federal government. This would be easier to do if he did not have to worry about getting re-elected. Hayes started by changing the system that employed people in government jobs. Party leaders usually had great power to fill government jobs. They used the jobs to reward loyal party workers and to increase their own political strength. President Hayes demanded that federal jobs be given to people because of their abilities, not because they supported a politician. VOICE TWO: At that time, the best jobs were with the customs service of the Treasury Department. The people who collected customs -- taxes on imports -- could keep part of the money they collected. President Hayes took action against the customs service office in New York City. One of the men removed from the job there was James Garfield. Garfield would later become president of the United States. Hayes also banned all federal workers from taking part in political organizations, conventions, and campaigns. And he said politicians no longer could demand campaign money from federal workers. VOICE ONE: Rutherford Hayes showed more political strength during a nationwide railroad strike. The strike began during his first summer as president. For several years, the nation had suffered from a serious economic depression. Three million people were out of work. Factories and businesses reduced the pay of those who still had jobs. Workers with the Baltimore and Ohio railroad protested. They took control of many areas along the railroad. They refused to let the trains move. The strike spread to other railroads. In some places, the strikes turned into riots, and the riots became violent. Some governors ordered their state armed forces to intervene. The state forces were not strong enough, however. So the governors asked President Hayes for help. He immediately sent federal troops to troubled cities. The troops stopped the riots and ended the strikes. VOICE TWO: Another issue during Hayes's administration involved a railroad in the western United States. It was both a labor problem and an immigration problem thousands of Chinese workers had been brought to America to help build the Central Pacific Railroad. After the railroad was built, many of them remained. Most settled in California. Others came from China to join them. These immigrants competed with white workers for jobs. Whites protested, because the Chinese agreed to work for less money. They said this kept wages down for all workers. VOICE ONE: The white workers asked Congress for a law to stop Chinese workers from coming to the United States. Members of Congress from both parties wanted the support of these voters. So they quickly passed a bill that made it much more difficult for Chinese citizens to come to live in the United States. The bill said the president must cancel part of a treaty between the United States and China. That part of the treaty permitted citizens of each country to settle in the other country. VOICE TWO: President Hayes vetoed the bill. He said the United States had proposed the treaty. So, he said, the United States could not change it without agreement from China. Hayes did agree, however, that some action was necessary. So he opened negotiations with the Chinese government. He won an agreement to limit the number of Chinese who could enter the United States. VOICE ONE: During the administrations of Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant, Congress had weakened many powers of the president. Congress had become the strongest of the three branches of the American government. Throughout his administration, Rutherford Hayes worked hard to strengthen presidential powers. For example, the United States Constitution gives the president power to veto bills passed by Congress. In the eighteen hundreds, Congress tried to prevent presidential vetoes. It used a method of attaching "riders" to legislative proposals. This is how the method works: VOICE TWO: Congress considers a bill the president believes is necessary. Then it joins that bill to a measure the president would veto if passed separately. The extra measure is called a "rider" to the first bill. To get the bill he wants, the president must accept the "rider," too. President Hayes refused to sign any bills with riders. So the Congress during his administration stopped using the method. Congresses since then have used it? successfully. VOICE ONE: Rutherford Hayes kept his promise to serve only four years. He did not regret his decision. After leaving office in eighteen eighty-one, he said he was satisfied with what he had done. He looked back on his administration and wrote: "I left this great country prosperous and happy. I left the party of my choice strong, victorious, and united. In serving the country, I served my party. " He died in eighteen ninety-three. VOICE TWO: Hayes was right in saying that the United States was strong and prosperous. The late eighteen-hundreds were a time of growth for the nation. They also were a time of expansion into new territory. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Steve Ember. Our program was written by David Jarmul. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Recess Appointments, Willie Nelson and the Appeal of NASCAR
* Byline: Written by Dave Maiocco, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We hear some music from Willie Nelson… Answer a question from a listener about a recess appointment … And report about a hugely popular American sport known as NASCAR. NASCAR Most people outside of the United States probably think football, basketball and baseball are the most popular sports in the country. They would only be partly right. Barbara Klein explains. (RACING SOUND) BARBARA KLEIN: More people watch stock car racing on television than either basketball or baseball. Only the National Football League has higher television ratings than NASCAR. NASCAR is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It was formed in nineteen forty-eight. A stock car looks similar to an average car from the stock at any dealer. But this kind of vehicle is much better made for a racetrack than for trips to the market. Drivers race around speedways for up to eight hundred kilometers or more. Top speeds are above three hundred kilometers an hour. NASCAR first gained popularity in the Southeast. States such as North Carolina, Virginia and Florida have held big races for many years. But, in recent years, the sport has grown beyond local appeal. There are new speedways in areas like Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles. NASCAR tradition has paid a price. Some old races are no longer held. But NASCAR has helped its television ratings with a new system of points developed last year. Drivers get points based on the order of finish in each race. There are thirty-six races in the top NASCAR series, known as the Nextel Series. The last ten races are called the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Many drivers will compete. But the idea is that only the top ten drivers from the series will compete for the season championship. The season began in February. The chase for the cup will take place from the middle of September through November. The point system has helped to increase interest in races during the middle of the season. And greater appeal means more sales of goods with the NASCAR name. NASCAR had more than two thousand million dollars in sales of products last year. Only the National Football League sells more. A report by Nielsen Media Research says up to forty-two percent of NASCAR fans are women. The growth of NASCAR has a lot to do with how well it appeals to women. But NASCAR also wants to appeal not just to Americans. This season it experimented with international expansion. The NASCAR Busch Series held its first official race outside the United States. The event took place in March in Mexico City. Recess Appointments HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Yemen. Belal Abdo asks about something called the “recess appointment” that has been in the news recently. A recess appointment is a power given to the President of the United States by the Constitution. It concerns the naming or appointing of citizens to government jobs that usually require the approval of the Senate. The Constitution says the president can appoint citizens to such jobs without Senate approval when Congress is not meeting or is in recess. Recess appointments are only temporary, however. The person can stay in the job only until the end of the following one-year meeting of Congress unless the Senate approves the appointment. Earlier this month, President Bush used the recess appointment to name John Bolton as the new United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Congress is on its yearly recess for the month of August. Mister Bush made the appointment because he said the job of U.N. ambassador was too important to be unfilled any longer. The yearly meeting of the U.N. General Assembly begins in the middle of September. Mister Bush had nominated Mister Bolton as U.N. ambassador in March. But Senate Democrats and some Republicans opposed the nomination. Senate Democrats had refused to vote on the nomination until they received more documents about Mister Bolton. He will serve as U.N. ambassador only through the end of the next one-year session of Congress unless he is confirmed by the Senate before then. History experts say presidents used the recess appointment often in the early years of the nation. In those early years, Congress sometimes met for as little as three or six months during the year. American presidents have made good use of the recess appointment in recent times as well. President Bush has already used recess appointments more than one hundred times. President Clinton made one hundred forty recess appointments during his eight years in office. Willie Nelson’s New Album American country musician Willie Nelson has a new album. This famous singer has recorded many country albums. But this time his songs are not only rooted in country music. Nelson has added a new sound-- the beat of reggae music. Faith Lapidus has more. FAITH LAPIDUS: In his new album, “Countryman,” Willie Nelson mixes musical traditions. He takes the country sounds of his voice and guitar and combines them with the music of reggae. Reggae music first started in the country of Jamaica. It is defined by the beating sounds of the drum instrument. Willie Nelson works closely with other musicians in this album. In one song, he sings with the famous reggae performer Toots Hibbert. Here they sing a song that was written in the nineteen seventies by another famous country singer, Johnny Cash. It is called “I’m A Worried Man.” (MUSIC)???????????? Willie Nelson wrote other songs on the album. He created new reggae versions of some of his old songs. Here he sings a song he wrote in the nineteen sixties called “One in a Row.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with Willie Nelson singing a very famous reggae song written by Jimmy Cliff. It is called “The Harder They Come.”? (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dave Maiocco, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Many Americans Are Watching Their Credit Reports
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Economics Report. More and more Americans are reading their own credit report. Credit reports are used by lenders to decide how risky it would be to offer a loan or credit to an individual. The report holds information about a person's current loans and credit-card debt. It records late payments of bills and any unpaid loans. It all adds up to a credit history. These days, though, lenders often welcome people with bad credit histories. They are charged higher interest rates and other loan costs. Some Americans want to read their credit report to know if they have been a victim of identity theft. They can see if any loans or credit cards have been opened in their name with stolen personal information. Another reason is that credit reports are not always correct. They might contain wrong information or old information. Before nineteen seventy-one, Americans could not see any of this information. Then Congress passed a law to give citizens the right to see and dispute their credit reports. Over the years, new rights have been added to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. One change, in two thousand one, permits people to see their FICO [FYE-coh] score. FICO is short for the Fair Isaac Corporation. That company developed a way to represent credit risk with a number. The number is based on information gathered by credit reporting agencies. Fair Isaac says many lenders not just in the United States but around the world use its technology to create credit scores. But lenders are not the only ones interested in these numbers. As of May, the company says it sold ten million credit scores to individuals. People with high scores can expect lower interest rates for loans. The idea is that the higher the score, the lower the risk. Paying bills on time and paying off credit-card debt improves credit scores. There are three main credit reporting agencies. Two companies are Equifax, in Atlanta, Georgia, and TransUnion in Chicago, Illinois. The third, Experian, is owned by a British company. These agencies will sell people a copy of their credit report. But Congress last year again amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act. As of this September first, all Americans can receive one free credit report per year from each of the three agencies. ? This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: An Up-and-Down Week for Peace in Four Conflicts
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. From East Asia to West Asia, it was a busy week in efforts for peace. On Monday, the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement signed a peace agreement in Helsinki, Finland. The treaty officially ends the conflict in Aceh province. Thousands of people have been killed in nearly thirty years of violence. Under the agreement, the rebels will no longer demand independence. Instead, they have accepted limited self-rule and the withdrawal of Indonesian troops. The government has agreed to pardon the rebels, free political prisoners and let Aceh have political parties. On Wednesday, Indonesia freed more than four hundred rebels. That happened as the nation celebrated sixty years of independence from the Netherlands. Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said up to two thousand people still in jail will be freed by the end of the month. The agreement also calls for land, jobs and other measures for people in Aceh. The earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean in December heavily damaged the province. Officials say the peace treaty will help efforts to rebuild. Recovery from tsunami damage also led to hopes for an official end to the Tamil rebellion in Sri Lanka. But some ethnic Tamil leaders charge that the government has kept millions of dollars in aid away from Tamil areas. And now there are fears of new conflict after the killing of Sri Lanka's foreign minister. Lakshman Kadirgamar was shot on August twelfth. The government accuses the Tamil Tiger rebels. The rebels deny the accusations. On Thursday, Parliament approved a one-month extension of emergency laws ordered by the government after the killing. More than sixty thousand people died in the civil war between nineteen eighty-three and two thousand two. The Tamil Tigers fought for a independent homeland in the north and east. They accepted self-rule. Violent incidents have increased recently. But the rebels say they will not return to war. Norway helped negotiate a cease-fire that has been in effect for three-and-a-half years. The Sri Lankan government and the rebels have not held official meetings in more than two years. However, on Friday, Norwegian officials said the two sides have agreed to meet to discuss their cease-fire. Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga asked Norway to organize the talks. In West Asia this week, Iraqi leaders failed to meet an August fifteenth time limit to agree on a constitution. The Parliament in Iraq gave the negotiators an extra week. The situation was the opposite for Palestinians in Gaza. The end to thirty-eighty years of Israeli occupation has gone much faster than expected. On Wednesday, unarmed Israeli soldiers and police began to remove groups of settlers who refused to leave. There has been resistance, but the operation could be completed next week. Four out of one hundred twenty settlements in the West Bank will also be removed. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Louis Khan Helped Define Modern Architecture
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell about Louis Kahn. He is considered one of the most important American building designers of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louis Kahn helped define modern architecture. Architecture is the art and science of designing and building structures such as houses, museums, and office buildings. Kahn’s architecture has several defining qualities. For example, Kahn was very interested in the look and feel of the materials he used. He used brick and concrete in new and special ways. Kahn also paid careful attention to the use of sunlight. He liked natural light to enter his buildings through interesting kinds of windows and openings. Kahn’s work can also be identified by his creative use of geometric shapes. Many of his buildings use squares, circles and three sided shapes called triangles. VOICE TWO: Louis Kahn was born in Estonia in nineteen-oh-one. When he was five years old his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even as a child, Louis Kahn showed excellence as an artist. When he was in school his pictures won several competitions organized by the city. In high school, Kahn studied architecture briefly. He later went to the University of Pennsylvania and studied architecture full time. He graduated in nineteen twenty-four. Louis Kahn’s buildings have many influences. Some experts say his trip to Rome, Italy in nineteen fifty-one influenced him the most. Kahn spent a few months as an architect with the American Academy in Rome. He also traveled through other parts of Italy, Greece and Egypt. There, he saw the ancient Greek and Roman ruins that also would influence his works. He was very affected by the size and design of these ruins. They helped influence him to develop an architecture that combines both modern and ancient designs. Other experts believe Kahn was also influenced by the part of Philadelphia where he grew up. There were many factory buildings with large windows. These brick structures were very solid. This industrial design is apparent in several of Kahn’s early works. VOICE ONE: Kahn’s first projects involved building housing in Philadelphia. He later received government jobs to design housing during World War Two. In nineteen forty-two, he became a head architect of the Public Building Administration. Kahn’s first important project was the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut in the early nineteen fifties. The outside of the building is very simple. The surface is made of brick and limestone. The inside of the gallery shows Kahn’s great artistic sense. For example, he created a triangle-shaped walkway of steps that sits inside a rounded concrete shell. This building was very popular. Its completion represented an important step in Kahn’s professional life. He was now a famous architect. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of Kahn’s other important buildings is the Salk Institute, a research center in La Jolla, California. It was built in the nineteen sixties. This structure further shows how Kahn was able to unite form and function. This means his buildings were beautiful and also useful. The Salk Institute has two structures that surround a marble garden area or courtyard. This outdoor marble area is almost completely bare. The only detail is a small stream of water running through the middle of the square towards the Pacific Ocean. This simple design is very striking. Inside the building are many rooms for laboratories. Kahn was very careful to make sure they all received natural light and a view of the ocean. He linked the indoor and outdoor spaces in a very beautiful way. VOICE ONE: The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas is another famous building by Louis Kahn. Some say it is his best. Kahn built this museum in the early nineteen seventies. This large museum has long rooms with curved or vaulted ceilings. Inside, all of the walls can be moved to best fit the art collection. Kahn was able to make the concrete material of the building look both solid and airy. He used sunlight and bodies of water to create a truly special building. Kahn once said this about the Kimbell Art Museum: “The building feels…that I had nothing to do with it…that some other hand did it.”? The architect seems to say that he was helped by some higher influence. Many people feel that his architecture has a very spiritual and timeless quality. Kahn mostly created public buildings such as museums and libraries. However, he also designed a few houses. His most famous home is the Fisher house near Philadelphia. It is made of several box- shaped buildings. The house is made out of glass, wood and stone. Many windows provide a view of the nearby trees. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Louis Kahn also designed buildings in other countries, including India and Bangladesh. His largest project was a series of buildings that would become the government center of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This structure includes the parliament, meeting rooms, offices, eating places and even a religious center. This series of buildings looks like an ancient home for kings. Huge rounded and box-like buildings have windows in the shape of circles and triangles. The structure is surrounded by water. From a distance, it appears to float on a lake. Khan spent the last twelve years of his life on the project. It was completed in nineteen eighty-three, nine years after his death. Because of Kahn, experts say, one of the poorest countries in the world has one of the most beautiful public buildings on Earth. All of Kahn’s buildings share a common solidity and heaviness. Experts say they are very different from the works of other famous architects of the period. These architects preferred light and airy buildings. Their weightless-looking structures were mostly made of glass and metal. Kahn used stone and concrete to make monumental buildings. Many of his structures look more ancient than modern. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louis Kahn was an artist who created beautiful works. But he was not a very good businessman. He would change his designs many times. This would make each project take a great deal of time and cost more money. The majority of the projects he designed were never built. Also, he did not like to compromise his design ideas to satisfy a buyer’s wishes. For this reason and others, Kahn did not make many buildings. His design company did not always have many jobs or much money. In fact, when Kahn died, he was in great debt. This is especially unusual since he was considered one of the most important architects in the world. VOICE TWO: In two thousand four, Mister Kahn’s son, Nathaniel Kahn, made a film about his father’s life. The film is called “My Architect”. It is interesting for many reasons. “My Architect” gives a history of Kahn’s life. The film presents the architect and his buildings. You can see Kahn working at his desk and talking with his builders. You can also see him teaching university students. You can tell that he had great energy. The film also shows a great deal about Kahn’s private life. Kahn had a wife and daughter. But he also had two other families. Kahn had a child with each of two other women that he was not married to. In the film, Nathaniel Kahn describes visits from his father. He says that as a child he did not understand why his father did not live with him and his mother all of the time. VOICE ONE: In “My Architect,” Nathaniel Kahn meets his father’s other children. They talk about what it was like to have such a famous and hard-working father. They also discuss what it was like having a father with so many family secrets. Many questions are left unanswered about Kahn. Yet, the film helps tell a very interesting story about a very important man. Louis Khan died in nineteen seventy-four. Yet his influence lives on. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, he trained many future builders. Some students have become important architects. And Kahn’s architecture has remained fresh and timeless. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Dana Demange. It was produced by Dana Demange and Lawan Davis. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Indonesia Sets National Days to Protect Children From Polio
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 I'm?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Most of the world has stopped the spread of the polio virus. But the disease is now increasing in some places. The World Health Organization says it may not be able to meet its goal to end polio in two thousand five. The W.H.O. says more than one thousand children have been infected this year. That is more than two times the number as compared to the same period in two thousand four. Polio began to spread in two thousand three when immunization campaigns were stopped for a year in northern Nigeria. As a result, the virus returned to a number of African countries that were free of polio. There are several hundred new cases in Yemen. The virus has also spread to parts of Indonesia. Health officials say they are concerned that polio could reach China, Malaysia or the Philippines. Children under age three suffer more than half of all cases of polio. The virus is spread through water and human waste. The virus enters the mouth and invades the nervous system. The W.H.O. says most people who are infected never show signs of polio. But they can spread the virus for several weeks. The W.H.O. says one out of two hundred infections leads to paralysis that never goes away. Usually the victims lose the ability to move their legs. Some lose control of their breathing muscles and die. People who recover from polio can suffer additional muscle weakness and other disorders years later. Doctors call it post-polio syndrome. There are no cures for polio, but it can be prevented. Indonesia has plans for national immunization campaigns on August thirtieth and September twenty-seventh. The goal is to vaccinate more than twenty-four million children under age five. Health workers say it is important to vaccinate all children in a community. The World Health Organization says the polio vaccine is safe even if a child is sick and has a high body temperature. National immunization days have been highly effective in India. In nineteen ninety-six, India had seventy-five thousand new cases of polio. Last year, health officials reported just one hundred thirty-six. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Internet users can also learn more about the campaign against polio at, one word, polioeradication.org. We will have a link on our site. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A 'Band of Sisters' Who Fight Fires, and Try to Break Through Barriers
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our program this week is all about women in the fire service. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: What you just heard is from newly released emergency radio calls in New York on September eleventh, two thousand one. Islamic terrorists flew hijacked passenger planes into the World Trade Center. (SOUND) Firefighters and other rescuers ran into the Twin Towers, hundreds to their deaths. Within two hours, two of the world's tallest buildings were mountains of ruin. At the Pentagon, emergency crews struggled to rescue people from the nation's military headquarters, where a third plane hit. A fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers rebelled. The attacks killed nearly three thousand people. Firemen, like soldiers, are often called a "band of brothers."? But men were not the only ones who risked their lives on September eleventh. VOICE TWO: Many women were among the rescue workers injured that day, and three were killed. There is a book called "Women at Ground Zero: Stories of Courage and Compassion."? It is a collection of stories told by women firefighters, police officers and others who were there. Brenda Berkman is a captain in the New York City Fire Department command. She was home when she heard about the attacks. She was supposed to be off duty on Nine-Eleven. For the next two months, she worked in the wreckage of the World Trade Center. She also provided support to families who lost loved ones. More than six thousand women in the United States are professional firefighters. Does that sound like a lot?? It compares with almost one and one-half million men. Many other firefighters work part time without pay. About forty thousand women are volunteer firefighters. VOICE ONE: Brenda Berkman was responsible for women being hired by the New York City Fire Department. She was an immigration lawyer. She wanted to be a firefighter. Women could join the department since nineteen seventy-seven. But the physical test kept them out. It demanded great strength. To Brenda Berkman, the test was unfair. She said it did not really test the skills that firefighters need. A federal court agreed. The test changed. And Brenda Berkman got her wish. She joined the department in nineteen eighty-two. VOICE TWO: Today, America's largest city employs about thirty women among almost eleven thousand firefighters. The department has been criticized over low numbers of women and minorities. Officials say they have expanded efforts to increase those numbers. Requirements for fire service differ across the country. But all candidates must be able to do things like raise and climb a ladder. They must be able to pull heavy fire hoses and the weight of an injured person. These days, there are fewer fires to fight, and more calls for medical rescue. The demands of the job have changed. And now there are new demands in a world that has also changed since September eleventh. But tradition is still important in the fire service. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Women in the Fire Service, Incorporated, is a group that helps women gain support from one another. In nineteen eighty, a firefighter in Ohio named Terese Floren was asked to present a class on women in the fire and rescue service. Nobody was sure how many there were, or where they worked. Terese Floren collected about two hundred names. She wrote to the women. Sixty answered. Over time, Terese Floren and another firefighter, Linda Willing, added to a list of names. Women in the Fire Service was established in nineteen eighty-two. Three years later, it held its first national conference in Boulder, Colorado. The group meets every two years. Firefighters, including men, travel from a number of countries to attend. VOICE TWO: Women in the Fire Service says the first known woman firefighter in America was Molly Williams. She was a slave held by a member of Oceanus Engine Company Number Eleven in New York City. In eighteen eighteen, during a severe snowstorm, Molly Williams helped pull a water pumper with ropes through deep snow. Slavery was legal in New York State at that time. In the eighteen twenties, a French-Indian woman named Marina Betts joined bucket brigades in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brigade members formed a line to pass along buckets of water to firemen. If men gathered to watch, but not to help, Marina Betts threw cold water on their heads. VOICE ONE: In California, there is a famous story in San Francisco about a wealthy woman named Lillie Hitchcock Coit. This is how it goes: She was saved from a fire as a child in the eighteen fifties. Later, when she was fifteen, there was a fire on Telegraph Hill. Lillie saw that Knickerbocker Engine Company Number Five did not have enough men to pull their fire engine up the hill. So she helped, and called to others on the street. The engine was the first to arrive. After that, the young woman went to many other fires. The men of Engine Company Number Five made her an honorary member. All her life she wore a gold fireman's badge that read "Number Five." In nineteen thirty-three, the Coit Memorial Tower was built on Telegraph Hill with money she left to the city. People have always thought that the design was meant to honor not just her, but also the firefighters of San Francisco. The building is tall and round and looks like part of a fire hose. It seems the designers, however, denied a connection. VOICE TWO: One night in eighteen seventy-five, there was a big fire in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A young woman joined the volunteers from the only fire department in town. Adelheid von Buckow helped pump water on the fire all night. Some years later, after she married a member of the department, the men voted her a member as well. Over the years, women have formed their own fire departments in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? In nineteen forty-one, American troops entered World War Two. Women had to fill many jobs left by men, including volunteer firefighters. Judith Livers is credited as the first woman in a paid job as a modern American firefighter. She joined the Arlington County Fire Department in Virginia in nineteen seventy-four. She was married to a fireman. She got interested in the job when he studied fire science. Judith Livers rose to battalion chief. She commanded a group of firefighters. She retired in nineteen ninety-nine. VOICE TWO: The road to a job as a professional firefighter is still not easy. Nor does a job guarantee acceptance. Women may face hostility in traditionally male firehouses. Legal actions for unfair treatment are not uncommon. But, slowly, women have moved into higher-level jobs as firefighters. The United States has more than thirty thousand fire departments. As of January, at least twenty-five had women as top-level chiefs. A woman just took command of the Fire Department in Monterey Park, California. It is the third city where Cathy Orchard has worked as a firefighter. In the nineteen eighties, Debra Pryor was the first woman hired by the Fire Department in Berkeley, California. Now she is in her first year as chief. VOICE ONE: The states with the most female firefighters are California, Florida, Texas, Maryland and Virginia. At the local level, sixteen percent of the firefighters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, are women. Close behind are Madison, Wisconsin; San Francisco; Boulder; and Miami-Dade County, Florida. Several other departments are about ten percent women. These numbers all come from the Web site of Women in the Fire Service, Incorporated. The address is wfsi.org. VOICE TWO: Another group is the Women Chief Fire Officers Association, at womenfireofficers dot org. It was established in two thousand two for women who are supervisors in emergency services. The president is Lorrie Kalos, assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco Fire Department. She told us there are now close to one hundred members. The goal is to develop more women as leaders in the fire service. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: High Hopes Travel with Newest Flight to Explore Mars
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson, Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. On our program this week, we will tell about the man who first confirmed a link between smoking and lung cancer. ?We also will talk about a large study of vaccines – those medicines used to protect against disease. VOICE ONE: But first, we report on a flight to the planet Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An American spacecraft is traveling to Mars to collect information about the red planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter left Cape Canaveral in Florida on August twelfth. An Atlas V?launch rocket sent the orbiter on its trip to Mars. The space vehicle is expected to arrive in March of next year. It is to orbit the planet for at least four years. The orbiter was designed to tell scientists about the weather, climate and surface of Mars. The American space agency hopes to get as much information from it as from all earlier trips to Mars combined. VOICE TWO: Space agency scientists praised the launch. The huge rocket that lifted the orbiter from Earth dropped into the Atlantic Ocean after about four minutes. Less than an hour after the launch, the orbiter separated from the upper rocket, as planned. Then the vehicle quickly established radio communication with its controllers. The launch came two days after the space shuttle Discovery returned safely to Earth. Space agency officials had planned to launch the orbiter on August tenth. But technical problems caused delays. VOICE ONE: The orbiter’s operations are costing more than seven million dollars. The space vehicle will do two main kinds of work. Each will last about two years. Its first job is to study ice on Mars. Scientists say they believe that long ago, the planet was warm and wet. As such, Mars might have supported living things. Now it is dry and cold. There are large areas of frozen water at the opposite ends of Mars. Scientists hope to learn if people could survive conditions there. Instruments on the orbiter are to examine the atmosphere, surface and below-surface areas of the planet. Two cameras will show images and provide maps of Martian weather. A device called a spectrometer will identify minerals on the ground. Another device, a radiometer, is to measure dust in the atmosphere. Radar that can show areas under the surface of ice and rocks also will be used. The Italian Space Agency supplied the radar. VOICE TWO: The orbiter’s second job is to communicate messages between Earth and mechanical devices on Mars. The American space agency has two robotic explorers operating on the planet. The robots Spirit and Opportunity were launched in two thousand three. They can send information to Earth and also receive messages. They do this with the help of satellites placed in orbit around the planet. Information from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is expected to help the space agency decide where to land two more robot-explorers. A device called the Phoenix Mars Scout will search for organic chemicals. It will be launched in two thousand seven. The Mars Science Laboratory is to be launched two years later. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Researchers in Denmark say a large study of Danish children shows that vaccines do not weaken a child’s natural defense system against disease. Doctor Anders Hviid of the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen led the study. The scientists examined medical histories of more than eight hundred thousand children. The boys and girls were born in Denmark between nineteen ninety and two thousand one. They all took part in a national vaccination program to prevent common childhood diseases. The program provides children with protective medicines every few months for their first eighteen months of life. Then they receive additional vaccines each year until they are five. VOICE TWO: Some health experts had questioned whether the large number of vaccinations could damage the body’s natural defense system. There was special concern about combination vaccinations, like the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. These are three vaccines mixed together in one injection. Some people have been concerned that the vaccinations might make the immune system work too hard and weaken it. They thought this could leave a child more at risk for diseases not targeted by the vaccines. VOICE ONE: The Danish researchers looked at the children’s rates of hospital admissions for treatment of infectious diseases not targeted by the vaccines. Such diseases included diarrhea and the lung infection, pneumonia. The researchers say they found no increased risk for hospitalizations in the weeks following vaccinations. They found that none of the six kinds of vaccines the children received increased the risk for seven other major infectious diseases. Some children’s health experts say the study provides more evidence that vaccines are safe. They say the results should make parents feel sure about getting their children vaccinated. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Many studies have linked smoking to lung cancer. One of the British scientists who first confirmed the link died last month. Richard Doll was ninety-two years old. Officials at Oxford University say he died after a brief sickness. Professor Doll has been praised as one of the most important medical scientists of the twentieth century. His work has been recognized around the world. His studies into the health effects of smoking are said to have saved the lives of millions of people. The United Nations World Health Organization estimates that one thousand three hundred million people worldwide use tobacco products. Officials estimate that tobacco use is responsible for about five million deaths a year. VOICE ONE: William Richard Shaboe Doll was born in nineteen twelve in Hampton, England. He began studying medicine after failing a mathematics test. He studied at Saint Thomas’s Hospital Medical School in London. Richard Doll served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War Two. After the war, he started work at Britain’s Medical Research Council. While there, he was asked to investigate why a growing number of people had developed lung cancer. At first, Professor Doll thought that gasses released from automobiles was the cause. He and other research scientists questioned hundreds of lung cancer patients to find a common link. They found that the only thing the patients had in common was smoking. VOICE TWO: Professor Doll worked with Austin Bradford Hill of the Medical Research Council. They showed that smoking is a major cause of lung cancer. They also showed the risk of developing lung cancer was directly linked to the number of cigarettes smoked. Their findings were announced in nineteen fifty-one and confirmed in a study published three years later. In nineteen fifty-seven, the Medical Research Council officially accepted the direct causal connection between smoking and lung cancer. VOICE ONE: Professor Doll said he himself stopped smoking because of the findings. He would later produce more evidence of the direct link. He also showed that smoking could cause many other kinds of cancer and diseases. He investigated evidence linking alcoholic drinking with breast cancer. He studied the harmful effects of radiation. He also wrote papers on electric power lines and peptic ulcers. Professor Doll was named the top professor of medicine at Oxford University in nineteen sixty-nine. Ten years later, he helped to create Green College, a college for the study of medicine. VOICE TWO: Professor Doll received many awards throughout his life. The World Health Organization honored him for his work. In nineteen seventy-one, Queen Elizabeth made him a knight, one of Britain’s highest honors. Last year, Sir Richard Doll released a follow up study to the one published more than half a century earlier. The study showed that as many as two thirds of people who begin smoking when they are young will later die as a result of the activity. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Food for Crops: How to Get the Most From Organic Fertilizer
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There are many different products that farmers can use to add nutrients to soil. Organic fertilizers usually come from animal waste, plant material or treated wastewater. Farmers who raise animals have a ready-made fertilizer to mix into the soil. However, animal waste must be treated in order to make good fertilizer. Composting is a natural method. It uses the action of bacteria and other organisms to break down the manure into fertilizer. The manure must be mixed with a material that provides carbon, such as wood cuttings. The carbon supports the growth of the organisms. It is important to mix in enough carbon-supplying material. If there is too little, nitrogen in the waste will release ammonia gas and smell terrible. Composting also requires the right amount of water and air. The compost material should be loose and easy to turn with hand tools. The compost should be about fifty to sixty percent water. Too much water will mean that air cannot reach all the material. This will cool the compost. It will slow the organic activity and cause a bad smell. Too little water will also stop the activity. The process of composting produces heat. If conditions are good, the compost material should reach about fifty to sixty degrees Celsius. This heat kills dangerous organisms in the animal waste. Experts say all of them will be killed if the material stays at fifty-five degrees for fourteen days. It takes three to seven months for compost to become ready to use as fertilizer. After this time, the material will have lost twenty to sixty percent of its mass. Waste products provide one fertilizer resource. Some crops supply limited amounts of nutrients to the soil. Beans release nitrogen. Crops like alfalfa can be left to break down. There are many different kinds of manufactured fertilizers. The most commonly used mineral fertilizers are nitrogen-based. Nitrogen from the air is mixed with hydrogen from natural gas. This process produces ammonia gas. Other elements are then added to the ammonia. Different crops demand different mixtures of nutrients. Many farmers invest in special fertilizers designed just for the kinds of crops they grow. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. We will also have links to more information about composting. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: If You Could Care Less About Common Errors in English ...
* Byline: 

 AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: "Common Errors in English," from a professor who wrote the book. RS:?? Paul Brians began with a Web site. It got so popular, it led to a book called "Common Errors in English Usage." Now there's a calendar of errors for every day of the year, for 2006. AA:?? This week he started his 38th year of teaching at Washington State University, in the Pacific Northwest. We asked Professor Brians to name some of the errors he expects to hear on campus. PAUL BRIANS: "One that is extremely common now, and it is so common now that I could be fighting a losing battle, is the expression 'could care less.' People say 'I could care less' when they mean 'I couldn't care less.' And the original expression is highly ironic. It's a sarcastic saying. 'You know what? I care so little about this, I could not possibly care any less than I do.' "But people who don't understand what's being said think, 'Oh, I mean this ironically, so I'm going to say I could care less.' And, doing so, they think they're making something neutral into something ironic. But really they're making them sound like they don't know the original expression." RS: "So how do you react when your son or daughter or student says 'I could care less about that'?" PAUL BRIANS: "I don't usually say anything. I don't go around correcting people unless they ask me to. I think my job is not to tell people this is absolutely right or this is absolutely wrong, but [to tell them] some people will disapprove or think less of you if you say it this way. And that's just information, and then you do with the information what you want. If you still feel more comfortable saying 'could care less,' then go ahead." AA: "Then you could -- couldn't care less if they continue to say 'could care less.' So what's another really common error in English." PAUL BRIANS: "Well, here's another sort of parallel one that's turned up a lot in speech lately. Young people particularly have begun to say 'at all' in very inappropriate ways. You hear it most often from grocery-store checkout clerks. They'll say 'Do you want any help out with that at all?' Well, 'at all' has been traditionally used to offer minimal help, to stress that you don't need much, you're not really offering very much." RS: "So use it in a sentence -- " AA: "Correctly." RS: " -- correctly." PAUL BRIANS: "Usually it would be something like 'Can't you give me any help at all?" But when you use 'at all' when you're offering help, it makes you sound stingy or lazy. And so it's right up there with saying 'no problem' instead of 'you're welcome' when somebody thanks you for something. That's not an error, but it's not traditional and sounds less polite to people who aren't used to it." RS: "Isn't this more a question -- let me rephrase that, is this a question of the language evolving?" PAUL BRIANS: "Yes, but the problem is that as it evolves, you get caught as a user between people who are going with the new pattern and those who know the old pattern and are comfortable with it. And those people are often interviewers for jobs. They're often ... " AA: "The professor." PAUL BRIANS: "The professor who's going to grade your paper. There may be a date that you want to impress. So it's good to know that there are people that are bothered by some of these things. Another one that's become very popular is 'build off of.' And this one is used by very well-educated people, too. "The traditional expression is to 'build on': 'Let's build on our strengths and do something ... ' 'Build off of' doesn't have the same metaphor of creating a tall structure. Instead, it's sort of a ramshackle adding-on to the side of it. Another one similar is 'center around.' Now there are some of the -- " AA: "Oh yeah! Which one is it , center around?" PAUL BRIANS: "It's center on! AA: "Center on, right!" PAUL BRIANS: "If you center on something, if it's centered, you're on it. You revolve around something." RS: "You can't center around something." PAUL BRIANS: "So people are mixing up the two expressions and they've mashed the two together into 'center around.' Now that one has become so common that some usage guides are now saying they accept it. But, again, if you're working with an editor or a teacher or somebody who really cares about language, they're going to raise their eyebrows at it." AA:?? So now let's center on what Paul Brians calls the single most common error. PAUL BRIANS: "I-t-apostrophe-s and i-t-s. 'It is' is abbreviated as it's, and that's the only time there should be an apostrophe in its." AA:? That, and when you want to abbreviate "it has" -- it's also i-t-apostrophe-s. Paul Brians is an English professor at Washington State University in Pullman, and author of "Common Errors in English Usage." He has a free version online at wsu.edu. You can click on a direct link at voanews.com/wordmaster.And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- Correction: An earlier version of this page said that only "it is" is shortened to "it's." So is "it has." AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: "Common Errors in English," from a professor who wrote the book. RS:?? Paul Brians began with a Web site. It got so popular, it led to a book called "Common Errors in English Usage." Now there's a calendar of errors for every day of the year, for 2006. AA:?? This week he started his 38th year of teaching at Washington State University, in the Pacific Northwest. We asked Professor Brians to name some of the errors he expects to hear on campus. PAUL BRIANS: "One that is extremely common now, and it is so common now that I could be fighting a losing battle, is the expression 'could care less.' People say 'I could care less' when they mean 'I couldn't care less.' And the original expression is highly ironic. It's a sarcastic saying. 'You know what? I care so little about this, I could not possibly care any less than I do.' "But people who don't understand what's being said think, 'Oh, I mean this ironically, so I'm going to say I could care less.' And, doing so, they think they're making something neutral into something ironic. But really they're making them sound like they don't know the original expression." RS: "So how do you react when your son or daughter or student says 'I could care less about that'?" PAUL BRIANS: "I don't usually say anything. I don't go around correcting people unless they ask me to. I think my job is not to tell people this is absolutely right or this is absolutely wrong, but [to tell them] some people will disapprove or think less of you if you say it this way. And that's just information, and then you do with the information what you want. If you still feel more comfortable saying 'could care less,' then go ahead." AA: "Then you could -- couldn't care less if they continue to say 'could care less.' So what's another really common error in English." PAUL BRIANS: "Well, here's another sort of parallel one that's turned up a lot in speech lately. Young people particularly have begun to say 'at all' in very inappropriate ways. You hear it most often from grocery-store checkout clerks. They'll say 'Do you want any help out with that at all?' Well, 'at all' has been traditionally used to offer minimal help, to stress that you don't need much, you're not really offering very much." RS: "So use it in a sentence -- " AA: "Correctly." RS: " -- correctly." PAUL BRIANS: "Usually it would be something like 'Can't you give me any help at all?" But when you use 'at all' when you're offering help, it makes you sound stingy or lazy. And so it's right up there with saying 'no problem' instead of 'you're welcome' when somebody thanks you for something. That's not an error, but it's not traditional and sounds less polite to people who aren't used to it." RS: "Isn't this more a question -- let me rephrase that, is this a question of the language evolving?" PAUL BRIANS: "Yes, but the problem is that as it evolves, you get caught as a user between people who are going with the new pattern and those who know the old pattern and are comfortable with it. And those people are often interviewers for jobs. They're often ... " AA: "The professor." PAUL BRIANS: "The professor who's going to grade your paper. There may be a date that you want to impress. So it's good to know that there are people that are bothered by some of these things. Another one that's become very popular is 'build off of.' And this one is used by very well-educated people, too. "The traditional expression is to 'build on': 'Let's build on our strengths and do something ... ' 'Build off of' doesn't have the same metaphor of creating a tall structure. Instead, it's sort of a ramshackle adding-on to the side of it. Another one similar is 'center around.' Now there are some of the -- " AA: "Oh yeah! Which one is it , center around?" PAUL BRIANS: "It's center on! AA: "Center on, right!" PAUL BRIANS: "If you center on something, if it's centered, you're on it. You revolve around something." RS: "You can't center around something." PAUL BRIANS: "So people are mixing up the two expressions and they've mashed the two together into 'center around.' Now that one has become so common that some usage guides are now saying they accept it. But, again, if you're working with an editor or a teacher or somebody who really cares about language, they're going to raise their eyebrows at it." AA:?? So now let's center on what Paul Brians calls the single most common error. PAUL BRIANS: "I-t-apostrophe-s and i-t-s. 'It is' is abbreviated as it's, and that's the only time there should be an apostrophe in its." AA:? That, and when you want to abbreviate "it has" -- it's also i-t-apostrophe-s. Paul Brians is an English professor at Washington State University in Pullman, and author of "Common Errors in English Usage." He has a free version online at wsu.edu. You can click on a direct link at voanews.com/wordmaster.And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- Correction: An earlier version of this page said that only "it is" is shortened to "it's." So is "it has." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Lessons Learned From the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Sixty years ago, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today we tell about those two events that ended World War Two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, tens of thousands of people in Japan and around the world marked the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the southern Japanese city of Hiroshima on August sixth, nineteen forty-five. More than seventy thousand people died as a result of the world’s first use of an atomic weapon. Three days later, a second bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki killed an estimated eighty thousand civilians. Tens of thousands of Japanese died later from radiation poisoning and other atomic-related diseases. VOICE TWO: To honor victims of the attacks, more than fifty thousand people gathered in Hiroshima on August sixth. Japanese officials and foreign diplomats also attended the early morning ceremony. All mourners lowered their heads for a moment of silence at the exact moment of the Hiroshima bombing. The mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, called on the United Nations to take steps to put an end to nuclear weapons. He criticized the countries with such weapons as threatening human survival. A similar ceremony was held in Nagasaki on August ninth. At both events, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised to keep Japan free of nuclear weapons. VOICE ONE: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the end of World War Two. Japan informed the Allied Powers that it would surrender on August fourteenth, nineteen forty-five. One day later, Emperor Hirohito officially announced the surrender on Japanese national radio. Sixty years after the atomic bombings, historians are still debating if they were necessary to end the war. At the time, fierce fighting in the Pacific continued and United States President Harry Truman was considering an invasion of Japan. VOICE TWO: Some historians argue that millions of Japanese and American troops would have died in such an invasion. Retired history professor Robert James Maddox wrote the book “Weapons for Victory: The Hiroshima Decision.”? He says America’s use of the atomic bomb was never in question. Instead, President Truman had to decide when the bomb would be dropped. VOICE ONE: Other historians, however, question the morality of the decision. Kai Bird wrote a book about American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who is considered the father of the atomic bomb. He says even Mister Oppenheimer questioned the morality of the decision to use the bomb. Some critics believe that Japan was about to surrender when President Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They say the real reason for the bombings was to send a message about America’s military strength to the Soviet Union. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Historians say war survivors in Asia remain angry over Japan’s fierce occupation during World War Two. For almost four years, Japanese forces occupied much of Asia, from China to the Pacific islands. Experts say Japanese soldiers killed many Asians unnecessarily. Soldiers also sexually attacked many Asian women or used others as sex slaves. Japan argued that its occupation was necessary to regain control of Asia from European and American governments. VOICE ONE: Brian Farrell is a historian at the National University of Singapore. He told VOA reporter Heda Bayron that many survivors are still angry at Japan. In addition, Mister Farrell says Japan’s apparent lack of caring about its past cruelty has hurt its relations with other Asian nations. On August second, the Japanese parliament passed a resolution expressing deep regret for the suffering that Japan caused during the war. Prime Minister Koizumi released a similar statement on August fifteenth, the official day of Japan’s surrender. The statement said Japan caused great damage and pain to the people of Asia through its colonization and aggression. The statement expressed deep sadness and heartfelt apology. VOICE TWO: Other recent issues have harmed Japanese ties with Asian nations. Earlier this year, Japan approved new schoolbooks for history classes. Critics say the books do not correctly describe the nation’s actions during World War Two. Tensions have also increased over visits by Japanese officials to the Yasukuni memorial in Tokyo. The memorial honors Japanese soldiers who died during military service. Critics say the memorial includes convicted war criminals. VOICE ONE: After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in nineteen forty-five, Japan became a strong anti-nuclear nation. The attacks created a common feeling of opposition against atomic weapons. Since nineteen fifty-six, it has been national policy not to have, manufacture or permit nuclear weapons in Japan. However, the country has a successful nuclear energy industry. And lawmakers are starting to question whether Japan should create a nuclear defense system. Kazuhiro Haraguchi is a Parliament member from the opposition Democratic Party. He told VOA reporter Steve Herman that North Korea’s nuclear ability may soon force Japan to create its own nuclear weapons. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The world came very close to a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in nineteen sixty-two. For several days, the United States Navy blocked Cuba after discovering the Soviet Union had been shipping nuclear missiles to the country. The crisis led to the nineteen sixty-eight Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Today, about one hundred ninety countries have signed the international agreement. In exchange for giving up nuclear weapons, they have promised to work toward nuclear disarmament. They also have agreed not to pass nuclear weapons to countries that do not have them. And they have agreed to share nuclear technology for peaceful energy purposes only. VOICE ONE: Today, seven nations in the world are known to have nuclear weapons -- Russia, China, India, Pakistan, France, Britain and the United States. Most experts believe that Israel and North Korea also have nuclear weapons. Many of these nations have reduced their nuclear weapons. They include the United States, Russia, Britain and France. China is working to modernize its weapons program. Libya has ended its program to develop nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency has taken apart Iraq’s program. VOICE TWO: But some experts question whether the world is any safer. In two thousand two, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. It has since admitted that it has a small number of nuclear weapons. Talks among six nations urging North Korea to end its nuclear program have produced little progress. The situation in Iran is also tense. Earlier this month, Iran refused to honor international demands that it halt its nuclear program. Iran restarted uranium-processing activities at its Isfahan nuclear center. The International Atomic Energy Agency has called on Iran to suspend its nuclear activities. If it fails to do so, the IAEA could report Iran to the United Nations Security Council, which could order restrictions against the country. Western nations suspect Iran is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons. But Iran says it wants nuclear technology only to produce electricity. VOICE ONE: Some experts say the most frightening situation does not involve nations with nuclear weapons. They say it involves terrorists with nuclear material. Experts say terrorists could create a so-called “dirty bomb” with small amounts of radioactive and explosive material. A more dangerous situation would involve a terrorist bomb fueled with a small amount of plutonium or highly enriched uranium. This kind of weapon loaded into a small truck or boat could destroy a city and kill large numbers of people. Such an event could be like a second Hiroshima or Nagasaki. These two Japanese cities have been largely rebuilt today. But the lessons learned from their destruction sixty years ago remain. J. Robert Oppenheimer may have described atomic weapons best. He called them a great danger, but also the world’s greatest hope for lasting peace. Only time will tell if he was right. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Work on a 'Smart Bomb' Against Cancer
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists have developed a new cancer drug. So far, they have tested it only in laboratory animals. The drug is designed to invade and kill cancer cells but not healthy cells. First, the drug enters the cancer and destroys the supply of blood. Then it releases poison to destroy the cancer cells. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge carried out the study. The results appeared in Nature magazine. A school news release called the drug an "anti-cancer smart bomb."? Ram Sasisekharan is a professor at M.I.T. He says his team had to solve three problems. They had to find a way to destroy the blood vessels, then to prevent the growth of new ones. But they also needed the blood vessels to supply chemicals to destroy the cancer. So, the researchers designed a two-part "nanocell."? The cell is measured in nanometers, or one thousand-millionth of a meter. The particle used was two hundred nanometers -- much, much smaller than a human hair. The scientists say it was small enough to pass through the blood vessels of the cancer. But it was too big to enter normal blood vessels. The surface of the nanocells also helped them to avoid natural defenses. The scientists designed the cell as a balloon inside a balloon. They loaded the outer part with a drug that caused the blood vessels to fall in on themselves. That cut off the blood supply and trapped the nanocell inside the cancer. Then, the nanocell slowly released chemotherapy drugs to kill the cancer cells. The team says the treatment shrank the cancer and avoided healthy cells better than other treatments. Untreated mice with cancer survived for twenty days. The scientists say mice with the best current treatments lived thirty days. But they say eighty percent of the mice treated with the nanocells lived more than sixty-five days. The study involved two different forms of cancer. The team says the treatment worked better against melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, than against lung cancer. However, more studies are needed before the new drug can be tested in humans. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Study of a Charter School Project Finds Big Gains on Tests
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Education Report. Charter schools are independent public schools. They are publicly financed but privately operated. Education reform efforts led to charter schools in the United States in the early nineteen nineties. Now there are more than three thousand five hundred such schools and more than one million students. These numbers are small, however, compared to traditional schools. But charter schools have more freedom. They generally do not have to deal with teachers unions. And the local school system cannot tell them how to teach. But charter schools must prove their students are learning. A recent study examined test scores in the fifth grade last year at a group of charter schools. The researchers say the gains were greater than what is considered normal. The results, in their words,? "suggest that these schools are doing something right." The study by a private group, the Educational Policy Institute, involved KIPP charter schools. KIPP is the Knowledge Is Power Project. Two teachers began this program in nineteen ninety-four to help students from poor families. It has expanded to thirty-eight schools. As many as ten more are expected to open this fall. Almost all KIPP students are black or Hispanic. The schools start in the fifth grade. Students are in school for more than nine hours a day Monday through Friday, and a half-day on Saturday. They also attend classes for three weeks in the summer. But the first thing they learn is how to act responsibly. Each week, students get what is called a "paycheck."? They can use it to buy things in the school store. Teachers reduce the amount if a student does not finish work or violates rules. Students with high paychecks get to take part in fun activities like trips at the end of the year. The KIPP Foundation trains its own teachers. The teachers tell students to call them on the phone if there is ever a problem. But what if schools have a problem?? Another new study shows that charter schools often receive a lot less money than other public schools, especially in big cities. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Progress Analytics Institute released the study this week. The New York Times published reaction from the American Federation of Teachers. A spokesman for the union noted that traditional public schools often have to provide a lot more services. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Gold! How the Search for Riches Drove Development After the U.S. Civil War
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Soon after the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty-five, thousands of land-hungry Americans began to move west. The great movement of settlers continued for almost forty years. The great empty west, in time, became completely settled. The discovery of gold had already started a great movement to California. VOICE TWO: Men had rushed to the gold fields with hopes of becoming rich. A few found gold. The others found only hard work and high prices. When their money was gone, they gave up the search for gold. But they stayed in California to become farmers or businessmen or laborers. Some never gave up the search for riches. They moved back toward the east, searching for gold and silver in the wild country between California and the Mississippi river. Men found gold and silver in Nevada, and then in the Idaho and Montana territories. Other gold strikes were made in the Arizona territory, in Colorado and in the Dakota territory. VOICE ONE: Each new gold rush brought more people from the east. Mining camps quickly grew into towns with stores, hotels, even newspapers. Most of these towns, however, lived only as long as gold was easy to find. Then they began to die. In some of the gold centers, big mining companies bought up all the land from those who first claimed it. These companies brought in mining machines that could dig out the gold from deep underground and separate it from the rock that held it. These companies needed equipment and other supplies. Transportation companies were formed. They carried supplies to the mining camps in huge wagon trains pulled by slow-moving oxen. Roads were built, and in some places, railroads. VOICE TWO: The great wealth taken from the gold and silver mines was usually invested in other businesses: shipping, railroads, factories, stores, land companies. More jobs were created in the west. And living conditions got better. More and more people decided to leave the crowded east for a new life in the west. But the big eastern cities continued to grow. New factories and industrial centers were built. People moved from the farms to find work in the cities. VOICE ONE: The growth of these industrial centers created a big demand for food, especially meat. Chicago quickly became the heart of the meat industry. Railroads brought animals to Chicago, where packing companies killed them and prepared the meat for eastern markets. Special railroad cars kept the meat cold, so it would remain fresh until sold. As the meat industry grew, the demand for fresh meat increased. More and more cattle were needed. VOICE TWO: There were millions of cattle in Texas, but no way to get them to the eastern markets. The closest point on the railroad was Sedalia, Missouri, more than one thousand kilometers away. Some cattlemen believed it might be possible to walk cattle to the railroad, letting them feed on the open grassland along the way. Early in eighteen sixty-six, a group of Texas cattlemen decided to try this. They put together a huge herd of more than two hundred sixty-thousand cattle and set out for Sedalia. VOICE ONE: There were many problems on that first cattle drive. The country was rough; grass and water sometimes hard to find. Bandits and Indians followed the herd trying to steal cattle. Farmers had put up fences in some areas, blocking the way. Most of the great herd was lost along the way. But the cattlemen believed they had proved that cattle could be walked long distances to the railroad. They believed a better way to the railroad could be found, with plenty of grass and water. VOICE TWO: The cattlemen got the Kansas Pacific Railroad to extend its line west to Abilene, Kansas. There was a good trail from Texas to Abilene. Cattlemen began moving their herds up this trail across the Oklahoma territory and into Kansas. At Abilene, the cattle were put on trains and carried to Chicago. In the next four years, more than one-and-a-half-million cattle were moved north over the Chisholm trail to Kansas. Other trails were found as the railroad moved farther west. VOICE ONE: Trail drives usually began with the spring "round-up."? Cattlemen would send out cowboys to search the open grasslands for their animals. As the cattle were brought in, the young animals were branded -- marked to show who owned them. Then they were released with their mothers to spend another year in the open country. The other cattle were put together for the long drive to Kansas. Usually, they were moved in groups of twenty-five hundred to five thousand animals. Twelve to twenty cowboys took them up the trail. VOICE TWO: The cowboys worked hard on a trail drive. They had to keep the herd together day and night and protect it from bad men and Indians. They had to keep the cattle from moving too fast or running away. If they moved too fast, they would lose weight, and their owner would not get as much money for them. The cowboys would walk the cattle only twenty to thirty kilometers a day. The cattle could feed all night and part of the morning before starting each day. If the grass was good, and the herd moved slowly, the cattle would get heavier and bring more money. VOICE ONE: In the early eighteen eighties, the price of cattle rose to fifty dollars each, and many cattlemen became rich. Business was so good that a five thousand dollar investment in the cattle industry could make forty-five thousand dollars in four years. More and more people began raising cattle. And early cattlemen greatly increased the size of their herds. Within a few years, there was not enough grass for all the cattle, especially along the trails. There was so much meat that the price began to fall. VOICE TWO: There were two severe winters that killed hundreds of thousands of cattle. An extremely?dry summer killed the grass, and thousands more died of hunger. The cattle industry itself almost died. Cattlemen also had problems with farmers and sheepmen. Farmers coming west would claim grassland used by the cattle growers. They would put up fences and plow up the land to plant crops. Other settlers brought huge herds of sheep to compete with cattle for the grass, and the sheep always won. Cattle would not eat grass where sheep had eaten. Violence broke out. Cattle growers fought the farmers and sheepmen for control of the land. The cattlemen finally had to settle land of their own, putting up fences and cutting the size of their herds. They no longer could let their cattle run free on public lands. VOICE ONE: By the late eighteen hundreds, the years of the cowboys were ending. But the story of the cowboy and his difficult life would not be forgotten. Even today, the cowboy lives in movies, on television, and in books. When one thinks of the "wild west" of America, he does not think of the miners who opened the way to the west. Nor does he think of the men who struggled to build the first railroads across the wild land. And one does not think of the farmers who pushed slowly westward to fence, plow, and plant the land. VOICE TWO: The words "wild west" bring to mind just one character: the cowboy. His difficult fight to protect his cattle on the long trail was an exciting story. It has been told by many writers. Perhaps the best-known was a young easterner, Owen Wister. He worked as a cattleman for several years, then wrote about the heroic life of the cowboy in a book called "The Virginian." Another easterner who came west to learn about the cowboy was the artist Frederick Remington. Remington was a cowboy for only two years. But he spent the rest of his life painting pictures of the west and writing about it. His exciting works made the west and the cowboy come to life for millions who never saw a real cowboy. VOICE ONE: The cowboy has also lived in music. He had his own kind of songs that told of his problems, his hopes, and his feelings. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Professor Wanted to Learn About Students, So She Became One
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 'FRESHMAN' PROFESSOR IDENTIFIED?Rebekah Nathan is really?Cathy Small, an anthropology professor at?Northern Arizona University.Professor Small confirmed her identity in a story in USA Today on August twenty-third. She did so after another newspaper,?the New York Sun, suggested that she wrote "My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student.”??A reporter said he identified her from details in the book.A Special English report from August eighteenth follows: See correction I’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new book is sure to be discussed, and debated, at colleges this fall. The book is called “My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student.”? The writer is Rebekah Nathan. That is not her real name. She is in her fifties. She is a professor of anthropology at a university in the United States. Her name for it is "AnyU." The professor wanted to know why many of her students did not complete their work or ask for help. She decided to do a research project. She got the approval of the university ethics committee. Such groups consider moral and legal issues in studies. In the spring of two thousand two, she applied to her own university under the name "Rebekah Nathan" and was admitted. [Correction: she applied under her own name.] She lived in student housing. She took five classes during her first term and two in the second semester. She did pretty well, although she got one C, a mark of average. She also played sports. In "My Freshman Year," she does not identify any students by name. But she does discuss what they told her about their lives. Rebekah Nathan writes that students do not have enough time to be interested in their classes. They are busy with activities and jobs. They try to learn only as much as they have to. But she says they will read the material if it is directly linked to what is being discussed in class. The professor says her year as a student changed the way she teaches. She gives less reading now. She asks questions designed to get students to speak more. She offers help. And she says she is no longer offended if a student falls asleep. Other professors and research experts, however, criticize the experiment. They say she was spying. They say she could have gotten the same information without dishonesty. There have been a lot of angry comments on the Internet. But some people say she tells the real story of student life. Rebekah Nathan says she did not interview any students without written permission on a statement. It said she was doing research that would be published, but it did not say she was a professor. She says she decided to tell the truth if someone asked. But very few young people asked her about herself. She heard that students avoided the subject because they thought there might be trouble in her life. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hidden Treasures: Russian and French Art, at Home in Washington
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We hear music from a young singer named Teairra Mari ... Answer a question from a listener about how Americans get their jobs … And report about a museum in Washington D.C. that contains a private collection of fine art. Hillwood Museum Hidden from the traffic and noise of Washington, D.C., the Hillwood Museum is a special treasure. This beautiful home contains one of the finest private collections of Russian and French art in the world. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: Hillwood Museum was once the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post. She lived from eighteen eighty-seven until nineteen seventy-three. Missus Post was a wealthy businesswoman. She owned one of the largest food companies in the United States. She also was very interested in collecting beautiful French art and furniture. She lived in Russia in the nineteen thirties when her third husband, Joseph Davies, was the American ambassador in Moscow. Marjorie Merriweather Post developed a love for Russian art as well. She bought the home in Washington in nineteen fifty-five with the plan of making it into a museum after her death. Many art experts helped Missus Post create its fine collection. Hillwood has many rooms filled with her treasures. Visitors can see finely made music boxes from the eighteenth century and colorful paintings of European princesses. Experts say the ancient wood and gold furniture from France is some of the finest ever made. Visitors can even look at Missus Post’s jewels and clothes. In her bedroom area they can see photographs of her with her family and friends. Marjorie Merriweather Post knew many important people including world leaders and great thinkers. She invited them to her home for parties. The museum property also includes several beautiful gardens. One is designed like the gardens in Japan. It has a bridge and carefully arranged rocks. Visitors can watch flowers floating in the garden’s water pond. They can also enjoy the carefully designed garden full of beautiful flowers called roses. Flowers are also grown all year in a special glass building or greenhouse. These flowers are placed in the house throughout the year. The colors and smells of these gardens provide a true celebration for the senses. After a walk around this large property, visitors can rest at a nearby eating place. They can also buy objects to remember this special museum at its gift store. How Americans Get Jobs HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Pham Thanh Si wants to know how Americans find jobs. The Internet is a good source for gathering information about a lot of subjects. Finding a job is one of them. Richard Bolles wrote a book about finding a job called “What Color is Your Parachute?”? He says there are three things you should do first to find a job. You should write a resume. A resume tells about your education, skills and work experience. Next, Mister Bolles says you should publish your resume on an Internet Web site called a job bank. The Web site also should have job announcements from employers. Usually, job listings will be sent to you by e-mail. If the list includes a job you like, the third step is to call or e-mail the company. The employer may ask you to meet to talk about the job. Major national Web sites such as monster.com or hotjobs.com are very popular. Experts say you should also use Web sites for the cities where you would like to work. You can search for jobs by industry, location or job title. Also, you can apply for positions online. Some experts suggest using several different ways to search for a job. These may include attending job fairs, searching newspapers and magazines for job listings and networking. Job fairs are organized events for employers and people who are looking for jobs. In different areas of a large room, representatives provide information about their companies. You can go to each area to ask questions about the companies. And you can leave a copy of your resume with each one. You can also go to your local community library. You can find information about companies and job listings by using computers, newspapers and magazines. Experts say networking is one of the best ways to find a job. Networking is talking to people about your job search. You can talk to people you work with now or worked with in the past. You can also talk to friends and family members. Experts say networking should be a part of your daily job search. Someone you know may have information about a job that would be perfect for you. There is an American expression that says, “Sometimes it is not just what you know, but who you know.” Teairra Mari Last week we played new music from Willie Nelson, one of the most established stars in the music industry. Today, we tell about a new voice in the business. Here is Faith Lapidus with music from singer Teairra Mari. FAITH LAPIDUS: Teairra Maria Thomas was born seventeen years ago in Detroit, Michigan. Music was a part of her family history. Her grandmother was a back-up singer for Aretha Franklin. Mari clearly has that Motown sound. Her first single quickly went to the top ten of the popular music ratings by Billboard Magazine. Here is “Make Her Feel Good.” (MUSIC) Mari’s album “Roc-a-Fella Presents Teairra Mari” was released August second. The singer helped write some of the songs. One of them is about growing up without a father. Here is “No Daddy.” (MUSIC) A year ago, Teairra Mari signed with Roc-a-Fella Records. Successful hip-hop artist and producer Jay-Z is the company’s president and chief executive officer. He apparently has high hopes for the young singer. He has named her “Princess of the Roc.”? We leave you now with Teairra Mari singing “Act Right.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week: We hear music from a young singer named Teairra Mari ... Answer a question from a listener about how Americans get their jobs … And report about a museum in Washington D.C. that contains a private collection of fine art. Hillwood Museum Hidden from the traffic and noise of Washington, D.C., the Hillwood Museum is a special treasure. This beautiful home contains one of the finest private collections of Russian and French art in the world. Barbara Klein tells us more. BARBARA KLEIN: Hillwood Museum was once the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post. She lived from eighteen eighty-seven until nineteen seventy-three. Missus Post was a wealthy businesswoman. She owned one of the largest food companies in the United States. She also was very interested in collecting beautiful French art and furniture. She lived in Russia in the nineteen thirties when her third husband, Joseph Davies, was the American ambassador in Moscow. Marjorie Merriweather Post developed a love for Russian art as well. She bought the home in Washington in nineteen fifty-five with the plan of making it into a museum after her death. Many art experts helped Missus Post create its fine collection. Hillwood has many rooms filled with her treasures. Visitors can see finely made music boxes from the eighteenth century and colorful paintings of European princesses. Experts say the ancient wood and gold furniture from France is some of the finest ever made. Visitors can even look at Missus Post’s jewels and clothes. In her bedroom area they can see photographs of her with her family and friends. Marjorie Merriweather Post knew many important people including world leaders and great thinkers. She invited them to her home for parties. The museum property also includes several beautiful gardens. One is designed like the gardens in Japan. It has a bridge and carefully arranged rocks. Visitors can watch flowers floating in the garden’s water pond. They can also enjoy the carefully designed garden full of beautiful flowers called roses. Flowers are also grown all year in a special glass building or greenhouse. These flowers are placed in the house throughout the year. The colors and smells of these gardens provide a true celebration for the senses. After a walk around this large property, visitors can rest at a nearby eating place. They can also buy objects to remember this special museum at its gift store. How Americans Get Jobs HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Pham Thanh Si wants to know how Americans find jobs. The Internet is a good source for gathering information about a lot of subjects. Finding a job is one of them. Richard Bolles wrote a book about finding a job called “What Color is Your Parachute?”? He says there are three things you should do first to find a job. You should write a resume. A resume tells about your education, skills and work experience. Next, Mister Bolles says you should publish your resume on an Internet Web site called a job bank. The Web site also should have job announcements from employers. Usually, job listings will be sent to you by e-mail. If the list includes a job you like, the third step is to call or e-mail the company. The employer may ask you to meet to talk about the job. Major national Web sites such as monster.com or hotjobs.com are very popular. Experts say you should also use Web sites for the cities where you would like to work. You can search for jobs by industry, location or job title. Also, you can apply for positions online. Some experts suggest using several different ways to search for a job. These may include attending job fairs, searching newspapers and magazines for job listings and networking. Job fairs are organized events for employers and people who are looking for jobs. In different areas of a large room, representatives provide information about their companies. You can go to each area to ask questions about the companies. And you can leave a copy of your resume with each one. You can also go to your local community library. You can find information about companies and job listings by using computers, newspapers and magazines. Experts say networking is one of the best ways to find a job. Networking is talking to people about your job search. You can talk to people you work with now or worked with in the past. You can also talk to friends and family members. Experts say networking should be a part of your daily job search. Someone you know may have information about a job that would be perfect for you. There is an American expression that says, “Sometimes it is not just what you know, but who you know.” Teairra Mari Last week we played new music from Willie Nelson, one of the most established stars in the music industry. Today, we tell about a new voice in the business. Here is Faith Lapidus with music from singer Teairra Mari. FAITH LAPIDUS: Teairra Maria Thomas was born seventeen years ago in Detroit, Michigan. Music was a part of her family history. Her grandmother was a back-up singer for Aretha Franklin. Mari clearly has that Motown sound. Her first single quickly went to the top ten of the popular music ratings by Billboard Magazine. Here is “Make Her Feel Good.” (MUSIC) Mari’s album “Roc-a-Fella Presents Teairra Mari” was released August second. The singer helped write some of the songs. One of them is about growing up without a father. Here is “No Daddy.” (MUSIC) A year ago, Teairra Mari signed with Roc-a-Fella Records. Successful hip-hop artist and producer Jay-Z is the company’s president and chief executive officer. He apparently has high hopes for the young singer. He has named her “Princess of the Roc.”? We leave you now with Teairra Mari singing “Act Right.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Development Banks: Lenders with Interest in Progress
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Development banks are international lending groups. They lend money to developing countries to help fuel economic growth and social progress. They are not part of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations. The money comes from member countries and borrowing on world markets. Development banks provide long-term loans at market rates. They provide even longer-term loans at below market interest rates. These banks also provide technical assistance and advice. There are four main ones. The oldest is the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. It began in nineteen fifty-nine. President Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil had proposed a bank to aid economic growth in the Americas. The Organization of American States agreed. Today the bank is worth over one hundred thousand million dollars. It holds only four percent of that. The other money is guaranteed by its members. Forty-seven countries around the world own the bank. The United States owns thirty percent as the largest shareholder. Twenty-six countries in Latin America and the Caribbean borrow from the bank. The African Development Bank has its roots in an agreement signed in Sudan in nineteen sixty-three. It is based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. There are twenty-four members in the Americas, Europe and Asia in addition to the fifty-three in Africa. The country with the most votes in the bank is Nigeria, followed as of July by the United States, Japan and Egypt. The Asian Development Bank started in nineteen sixty-six. It is based in Manila, in the Philippines. There are sixty-three members, mostly in Asia. Like all development banks, it is supervised by a Board of Governors. Traditionally the bank president is Japanese. Japan and the United States were equally the top shareholders at the end of last year, followed by China, India and Australia. The bank says Indonesia has borrowed the most, but China, Pakistan and India have also been major borrowers in recent years. The newest of the four main development banks is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It opened in nineteen ninety-one as the Soviet Union broke apart. The main office is in London. The United States is the largest shareholder. The bank was formed to support economic growth and democracy in Central Europe. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: High Oil Prices and the World Economy
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Shep O'Neal with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, crude oil traded briefly at a record sixty-eight dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up about fifty percent from last year. With inflation considered, prices are still below what they were in the early nineteen eighties. Then, crude oil sold for well above eighty dollars a barrel. But, in dollar terms, this is the most that the world's largest economy has ever had to pay. In some areas, prices at fuel stations are almost as high as Americans have ever paid, even with inflation. The Energy Department said this week that crude oil prices remain very high even though supplies in the United States are growing. Oil supplies generally decrease at this time of year because of seasonal demand. Officials say the recent buildup should keep prices from being as high this winter as they might be without it. On Friday, central bank chairman Alan Greenspan had praise for the way the economy has dealt with high energy costs. So far, he says, it has handled the sharp rise in prices for oil and natural gas over the past two years "reasonably well." But economists at the International Monetary Fund in Washington have voiced concerns about the world economy. On Thursday, the managing director warned about the risk to economic growth in Asia. Rodrigo de Rato urged Asian central banks to use monetary policies to fight inflationary pressures caused by high oil prices. He directed his comments especially to Indonesia and the Philippines. The high cost of oil has slowed Indonesia's economic growth. Many issues can affect oil prices. For example, on Friday, Nigerian officials ordered increases in the price of fuel. There were fears of general strikes. Nigeria is the world's eighth larger exporter of oil. Terrorism is another concern for oil traders. But even the weather can sabotage the industry. This week, there were concerns about the possible risk to oil production in the Gulf of Mexico from the ocean storm Katrina. However, industry experts say the biggest concern is the growing world demand for oil. The United States and China are the top two users. A report this week said China imported fifteen percent more crude in July than a year ago. Crude oil becomes fuel and other products. There are questions about the ability of oil-producing nations to meet growing demand. Some experts believe that Saudi Arabia's oil fields may have reached peak production. This is when more than half of the recoverable crude has already been pumped out. Saudi Arabia denies that. Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund called for more openness to confirm the supplies of the world's top oil producer. Currently Saudi Arabia produces more than ten million barrels of crude a day. It says it expects to produce more than twelve million barrels daily by two thousand nine. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Activist for Women’s Rights Was Known for Her Strong Opinions, and Large Hats
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) ?VOICE ONE: I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Bella Abzug. She was a member of the United States Congress in the nineteen seventies. She also was a well-known activist for civil rights and women's rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bella Abzug was well known for many reasons. She was a lawyer and activist. She represented New York City in Congress. She spoke in a loud voice. And she always wore large hats. Mizz Abzug supported women's rights and civil rights. She had strong opinions on many issues. She opposed the American involvement in the war in Vietnam. She made public her opinions on most important issues. In fact, she was called one of the most outspoken members of Congress. Bella Abzug also acted on her beliefs. She wrote legislation to prevent unfair treatment of women. She presented the first bill for equal rights for homosexuals. She often denounced the majority of the members of Congress who were white males. She said they did not know about the lives and problems of most people in America. VOICE TWO: Bella Abzug did know about the lives of common Americans. She was born Bella Savitsky in the Bronx area of New York City in nineteen twenty. Her parents had come to the United States from Russia. Her father operated a food store called The Live and Let Live Meat Market. Bella said she knew from the age of eleven that she wanted to be a lawyer. At the age of twelve, she gave her first public speech. It was in an underground train station in New York. VOICE ONE: Bella attended Hunter College and Columbia Law School in New York City. She married Martin Abzug in nineteen forty-four. He was a stockbroker and writer. He had no interest in politics. But he was his wife's best friend and supporter. They had two daughters. Bella Abzug became a lawyer in the nineteen forties. She represented labor union workers. She also represented people involved in civil rights cases. She often worked for no payment in these cases. In the nineteen fifties, she represented people accused of subversive activities by Senator Joseph McCarthy. VOICE TWO: Bella Abzug began wearing large hats when she was a young lawyer. There were very few women lawyers in America then. She told this story about why she began wearing hats: "Working women wore hats. It was the only way they would take you seriously. After a while I starting liking them. When I got to Congress, they made a big thing of it. They did not want me to wear a hat. So I did. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen sixties, Bella Abzug became an anti-war activist. She organized a group of anti-war women, called Women Strike for Peace. She opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam. And she opposed testing of nuclear weapons. She led demonstrations in Washington against the war and in support of a ban against nuclear weapons. She became a leader of the movement against President Johnson because of his involvement in the war. In the early nineteen seventies, Mizz Abzug also became a leader of the growing women's rights movement that was spreading across the country. She helped form the National Women's Political Caucus. In speaking to the group in nineteen seventy-one, she demanded equal rights for women in all areas of American life. (ABZUG SPEECH) VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy, Bella Abzug was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat from New York City. She was fifty years old. She was the first Jewish woman elected to Congress. Her campaign statement was: "This woman belongs in the House." She did not mean her house. She meant the House of Representatives. At the time, there were only ten female members in the House of Representatives. During her first day as a member of Congress, Mizz Abzug introduced a resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. The resolution was defeated. Later in her term, she tried other ways to reach that goal. She forced the administration of President Nixon to surrender documents about the Vietnam War that were known as the Pentagon Papers. She also was the first member of Congress to call for an impeachment investigation of President Nixon. VOICE ONE: Mizz Abzug supported many programs to help American families. For example, she wanted national insurance to help pay for health care for all Americans. And, she wanted the government to establish centers to care for young children while their mothers worked. She wanted these programs paid for with money cut from the budget of the Defense Department. She did not succeed in getting this legislation passed in Congress. Yet she kept trying. VOICE TWO: Representative Abzug was known for her forceful way of expressing her opinions. Yet House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill chose her as one of his assistants. She helped write the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts. These laws restricted the right of the Federal Bureau of Information to withhold information. Mizz Abzug served in the House of Representatives for six years. In nineteen seventy-six, she gave up her seat in the House to campaign for the Democratic nomination for senator from the state of New York. She lost the election. She ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York City. She also lost two more elections that would have returned her to the House of Representatives. VOICE ONE: For twenty more years, Bella Abzug continued to work for women's rights. In nineteen seventy-nine, President Carter appointed her the head of a National Advisory Committee on Women, a non-paying job. Later, President Carter dismissed her when she criticized his decision to cut money for women's programs. In nineteen ninety, she started the Women's Environmental and Development Organization which works with international agencies. Mizz Abzug was one of the leaders of an international conference of women. Thousands of women attended that conference in Beijing, China, in nineteen ninety-five. They discussed ways for women around the world to gain equal rights. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bella Abzug wrote two books. The first is called “Bella! Mizz Abzug Goes to Washington.” It is about her first year in Congress. Her second book was published in nineteen eighty-four. It is called “Gender Gap: Bella Abzug's Guide to Political Power for American Women.” In her later years, she continued to serve as a delegate to Democratic national conventions. She was leader of the New York City Commission on the Status of Women. And she directed the National Parity Campaign to increase the number of women elected to political office. VOICE ONE: Mizz Abzug once said that equal rights for women was at the top of the list of the many issues she supported. She was one of the first leaders of the feminist movement. She defined the word feminist this way: A person who believes that there should be social, economic and political equality for women. She thought that the majority of Americans believed this. Many women supported Mizz Abzug because of her efforts to gain equality for women. She helped make it easier for other women to be elected to public office. VOICE TWO: Yet, Bella Abzug had enemies. Many people did not like her. They thought she was too loud, too aggressive, too independent, too liberal. However, most political experts agree that Bella Abzug should be included on any list of the most influential women in American politics in the twentieth century. Bella Abzug died in nineteen ninety-eight following a heart operation. She had been in poor health for several years. She was seventy-seven. Many of her friends in the women's movement continue to miss her spirit, her voice, and her hats. (MUSIC) ANNCR: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. The announcers were Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. I'm Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Study Links Custom of Female Cutting to Infertility
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. New research suggests that the custom in parts of Africa and Asia to cut the sex organs of girls can cause infertility. The study shows that girls who are cut have an increased risk that they will not be able to get pregnant later in life. Researchers believe this is the result of infections that spread to the reproductive organs. The findings are published in the Lancet. Doctor Lars Almroth?of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden led the study. It involved ninety-nine infertile women in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The researchers made sure the infertility was not because of age, sexual diseases, a past medical operation or an infertile husband. They say the women were five to six times more likely to have had the most severe form of cutting than women in another group. The study also included one hundred eighty women who were pregnant for the first time. The researchers linked the risk of infertility to the extent of the cutting. They say the findings should not be used as an argument to support less extensive forms, even if done by a doctor. They say any damage could lead to changes that harm reproductive health. Infections are not the only risk. Bleeding can lead to shock and death. The World Health Organization estimates that more than one hundred thirty million females have experienced some form of cutting. Part or all of the genitals are removed. It is done in more than thirty countries. The most severe forms are found most often in northeastern Africa. The United Nations Children’s Fund has called for an end to female genital mutilation by two thousand ten. Each year, an estimated two million girls reach the age where it might be done. The age differs from culture to culture. It is usually between four and twelve. The reasons for this tradition also differ, but generally it is seen as a way to make a girl a better wife and mother in the future. Yet the new study shows that it could, in fact, make her infertile. The Lancet also published a commentary by Layla Shaaban and Sarah Harbison of the United States Agency for International Development. They say there has been a slow reduction in cutting in a number of countries. They say the new study could provide a powerful, additional argument to end this ancient custom. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Megachurches in America: Where Bigger Is Better
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Big, and growing bigger. That describes our subject this week: megachurches in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-one, five families near Washington, D.C., formed a Protestant church in McLean, Virginia. Over time, the church grew, especially after nineteen eighty. That was when a clergyman named Lon Solomon became the new minister. As he brought in more and more families, the church needed more and more space. Today, as many as twelve thousand people attend services each week. The McLean Bible Church is not just big. It is a megachurch. VOICE TWO: Scott Thumma works in the Institute for Religion Research at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. He has started a new project on megachurches with Dave Travis and Warren Bird of the Leadership Network. The researchers define a megachurch as a church where more than two thousand people attend services each week. The men already have found at least one thousand two hundred megachurches in the United States, higher than earlier estimates. They say up to twelve million people could be members of these churches. The research has identified huge Protestant churches in forty-five of the fifty states. Most are in Texas, California and Georgia. The Texas cities of Dallas and Houston together have fifty-six megachurches. VOICE ONE: Western Christianity is divided mainly between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Megachurches in America are usually Protestant. Many of these are connected with the Southern Baptists. But many others are independent or nondenominational. Scott Thumma says the United States has about three hundred twenty thousand Protestant churches. Most are far smaller than the less than one-half of one percent identified as megachurches. Research a few years ago found that less than ten percent of American churches averaged one thousand people at their services. Only fifty or one hundred adults are active in some churches. VOICE TWO: Even the smallest church can serve its people well. Yet some lack enough members to provide money for programs. Many small churches are mainline churches. "Mainline" suggests moderate. But many people are no longer satisfied with the established ways. In the last forty years, most mainline churches have failed to grow or have lost members. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said its membership last year was less than five million. The church said this was the first time in more than twenty years that membership was that low. VOICE ONE: The government does not count people by religion, so there are no official numbers. But estimates show that just over one-half of Americans are Protestant. About one-fourth are Roman Catholic. Catholics, however, are the largest single religious group in America. That is because Protestants are divided into many denominations. A two thousand two estimate found that two percent of Americans were Mormon, one percent Jewish and one percent Muslim. Ten percent were members of other religions, and another ten percent belonged to no religion. VOICE TWO: Researchers have found that the largest percentage of megachurches identify their congregations as evangelical. Evangelicals say they are guided by the life and teachings of Jesus and his followers, especially as contained in the Gospels. The Gospels are four books of the New Testament in the Christian Bible. Greg Laurie is an evangelical minister based in California. He travels around and holds huge prayer gatherings called Harvest Crusades. These events try to get more people to become Christians. VOICE ONE: Politically, some evangelicals identify themselves as liberal or progressive. But many other evangelicals share the beliefs of what people call the Christian right -- right of the political center. This movement is strongly conservative on social values and other issues. Religious conservatives helped elect President Bush in two thousand and again last year. They support his positions against same-sex marriage and the freedom to end unwanted pregnancies. His position against stem-cell research when it destroys embryos is also popular among evangelicals. And so is the president's nomination of Judge John Roberts to the Supreme Court. Rod Parsley leads a megachurch in Ohio. Reverend Parsley also leads an organization called the Center for Moral Clarity. Its Web site says Judge Roberts will judge laws, not make them. It urges people to sign an electronic petition to support him in his Senate confirmation hearings next month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In two thousand one, researchers announced findings of a study called the Faith Communities Today Project, or FACT. The study took place in nineteen ninety-nine. It showed that attendance at megachurches had increased by an average of ninety percent over twenty years. The researchers received information from one hundred fifty-three of six hundred places identified as megachurches. The study found that most megachurches are in communities around large cities. People of different races join megachurches. The majority are neither rich nor poor. Many did not belong to any other church before they joined. Services in megachurches generally use less of the religious language traditionally found in mainline churches. Lon Solomon at the McLean Bible Church in Virginia buys time on local radio. He calls his one-minute messages "Not a Sermon, Just a Thought." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now, we look inside one of America’s largest churches. Lakewood Church in Texas holds services where the Houston Rockets used to play basketball. The church spent ninety-five million dollars to redesign a sports center. It can hold sixteen thousand people. Around the building are Internet computer stations and places to play religious video games. The Lakewood Church started in an empty feed store in nineteen fifty-nine. When the man who started it died, he left the leadership of the church to his son. Joel Osteen is not schooled in religious studies. In fact, Reverend Osteen left college after one year. People sometimes say he avoids major questions like why good people suffer and what is God like. But he clearly appeals to thousands. People call him a rock star. VOICE TWO: Members of some megachurches do not even have to all sit in the same building. Satellite television and the Internet let them watch and pray from other gathering places, from their home or from wherever they are. Like in any big organization, individuals in a megachurch could feel lost in a crowd. So the churches do what they can. The Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, is a good example. It has two thousand six hundred small groups for people who share common interests. These groups offer a chance to make new friends. There are also chances to help the needy in the community. VOICE ONE: Rick Warren leads the Saddleback Church. He also writes books. He has sold millions of copies of “The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?” This book became even better known earlier this year after a series of events in Atlanta, Georgia. This is what officials say happened: A prisoner armed with a gun fled a courthouse. He killed a judge and three other people. Later, he seized a young woman named Ashley Smith and held her hostage in her home. She had read “The Purpose-Driven Life.”? She shared thoughts from the book with the man. He let her leave, unharmed. Ashley Smith called the police and the suspect surrendered. VOICE TWO: We talked to a clergyman in Maryland who is concerned about the lack of growth in his mainline church. This is what he told us: "Our people do not want the church to be extremely large. But megachurches offer people a warm welcome and a feeling of belonging. Mainline churches could borrow some of their methods."? Other countries also have megachurches. And they are not a new idea in America. Some existed here more than sixty years ago. Megachurches are not for everyone. Some say they are too big, too political and too untraditional. But, for others, the appeal today is clearly growing. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Please join us next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Scientists Find a Way to Create Embryonic Stem Cells With Adult Skin Cells
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in V.O.A. Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. This week, we tell how blood from crocodiles could help people. We also will describe an experimental treatment for burn victims. VOICE ONE: But first, we tell how American scientists turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, scientists at Harvard University in Massachusetts reported progress in embryonic stem cell research. The scientists said they joined an embryonic stem cell with a normal skin cell to create a new embryonic stem cell. They said their method could provide a way to make embryonic stem cells without having to destroy fertilized human eggs called embryos. The destruction of human embryos is hotly debated in a number of countries, including the United States. Many people object to experiments using human embryos for religious or moral reasons. American law restricts the use of federal money for research involving embryos. VOICE TWO: Stem cells are able to develop into any other kind of cell or tissue. Those taken from embryos are considered the most useful. Researchers believe they could use embryonic stem cells to treat some diseases and even injuries. The Harvard University said they joined, or fused, a skin cell with an embryonic stem cell. They said the fusing process caused the stem cell to reset the genes in the skin cell. In simple terms, the skin cell was changed into an embryonic stem cell. Chad Cowan took part in the Harvard study. He says it should be possible to develop replacement cells or even grow organs from the newly created stem cells. But, he and other members of the Harvard team say such possible uses are many years away. VOICE ONE: The scientists said they grew embryos from human eggs they received from a private organization. They also said they got similar results in experiments when they used embryonic stem cells federally approved for research. Mister Cowan said he believes most people will find this way of producing embryonic stem cells morally acceptable. The scientists still face a major problem. The cell contains two groups, or sets, of genetic information. One set is from the skin cell. The other is from the starter embryonic stem cell. For any medical purpose, doctors would only want the genetic material of the patient to remain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists in Switzerland say they have used skin cells grown from a fetus to treat burns in children. The scientists say their method can produce a quicker and more complete recovery than current treatments. The British medical publication, The Lancet, reported the findings. The burn patients were eight children between the ages of fourteen months and nine years. All eight had either burns of the highest severity or what experts call deep partial-thickness burns. The fetal cells came from a woman whose pregnancy was ended at fourteen weeks. The woman gave the scientists permission to use four centimeters of skin from her fetus. VOICE ONE: The scientists let the fetal cells divide in a laboratory. Then they mixed the cells with the protein collagen. Collagen is a substance that enables skin to stretch. The scientists say this process can provide many small pieces of skin tissue. The scientists placed some of the pieces on top of the wounds of the children. As the tissue cells weakened, they were replaced with other pieces of tissue every three to four days. The scientists say the process was not difficult. They simply covered the wound with a piece of cloth. VOICE TWO: Usually, doctors use skin from other parts of a patient’s body to repair damage from burns. However, those skin cells reproduce slowly and sometimes painfully. And, the new skin often looks strange. That process is called grafting. Patrick Hohlfeld of the University Hospital of Lausanne led the study. He said his team expected the fetal tissue to work much the same way. But, he said they were surprised by how much better it treated the wounds. VOICE ONE: The report says the wounds on the young burn patients healed in about fifteen days. Most graft treatments take six times longer. And, the scientists say the repairs were complete. Most patients recovered full use of their damaged body parts. Their progress was observed for up to two years after being treated. Other researchers say the results of the Swiss experiment still need to be compared to current medical treatments for burns. They noted that no one knows if the burns on the children would have healed on their own without the fetal cell treatment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists in northern Australia hope to use blood from crocodiles to develop new medicines for people. The scientists have been collecting blood from live crocodiles after capturing them and tying their mouths closed. They put a small instrument in the back of the animal’s neck to get the blood. The scientists hope to separate antibodies from the blood and develop drugs for human use. Antibodies are proteins that attack diseases inside the body. The scientists say they hope their work leads to development of antibiotic pills and liquids that you could put on wounds. VOICE ONE: Earlier studies found that several proteins in crocodile blood killed bacteria that resist the drug penicillin. Recent tests have shown that the proteins also can kill the virus that causes AIDS. The scientists say a crocodile’s defense system against disease is much more powerful than that of the human body’s defense system. They say the defense system of the crocodile attacks bacteria immediately when the body is infected. The defense system reportedly joins with the bacteria and tears it apart. VOICE TWO: Scientist Adam Britton has been collecting blood from both salt-water and freshwater crocodiles. He says scientists might need years to create any medicine for people because the animal’s defense system is so powerful. However, other scientists say the human defense system will recognize the crocodile antibodies as foreign and attack them. They say this could cause serious health problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists say they have developed a new cancer drug. They have tested it in only in laboratory animals. The drug is designed to invade and kill cancer cells but not healthy cells. First, the drug enters the cancer and destroys the supply of blood. Then it releases poison to destroy the cancer cells. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge carried out the study. The results appeared in Nature magazine. VOICE TWO: Ram Sasisekharan is a professor at M.I.T. He says his team had to solve three problems. They had to find a way to destroy the blood passages, then to prevent the growth of new ones. But they also needed the blood passages to supply chemicals to destroy the cancer. ?So, the researchers designed a two-part "nanocell."? The cell is measured in nanometers, or one thousand-millionth of a meter. The particle used was two hundred nanometers -- much, much smaller than a human hair. The researchers say it was small enough to pass through the blood vessels of the cancer. But it was too big to enter normal blood vessels. The surface of the nanocells also helped them to avoid natural defenses. VOICE ONE: The scientists designed the cell as a balloon inside a balloon. They loaded the outer part with a drug that caused the blood vessels to fall in on themselves. That cut off the blood supply and trapped the nanocell inside the cancer. Then, the nanocell slowly released chemotherapy drugs to kill the cancer cells. The team says the treatment reduced the size of the cancer and avoided healthy cells better than other treatments. The scientists say mice with the best current treatments lived thirty days. But they say eighty percent of the mice treated with the nanocells lived more than sixty-five days. ?The study involved two different forms of cancer. The team says the treatment worked better against melanoma, a deadly skin cancer, than against lung cancer. However, more studies are needed before the new drug can be tested in humans. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach, and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week at this time for more news about science on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Improving on an Ancient Way to Harvest Rainwater
* Byline: 

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A few months ago, we talked about a system to harvest rainwater. The water travels from the roofs of buildings through pipes into a storage tank. Now we describe another system to collect rainwater, this time between mountains. Earth dams capture the water for fields planted on a valley floor. It is an ancient idea, known as a jessour. But scientists and farmers have developed ways to improve on tradition. A jessour starts with an earth dam high up in the valley. The dam captures rain, and the water pours over a spillway into a field below. Farther down the valley, another earth dam separates the first field from the next. This system of fields, bordered by dams, continues all the way down the valley. Heavy rains, however, can damage the dams. Also, rocks and soil washed downhill can fill spillways and cause the fields to flood. Farmers in Tunisia have used jessours since ancient times. The average rainfall in most of the country is less than two hundred millimeters per year. UNESCO has supported studies of efforts to improve jessours in Tunisia. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It says a solution to weak dams made of earth is to build dams out of concrete for greater strength. Another measure to improve jessours is known as a "buried stone pocket."? This is what some farmers do: First, they dig a planting area. They lay stones in a small circle about forty centimeters below the surface. They leave an opening in the center. The farmers then stand a plastic pipe between the stones and cover the stones with soil. Next, they plant a young tree in the center. They give the tree water through the pipe. That way, the water goes directly to the roots. Farmers in Tunisia have traditionally used jessours to grow olive, fig and palm trees. But some farmers have started to grow other kinds of fruits and vegetables. Demand has increased from cities and popular holiday areas. UNESCO says some farmers now have more than ten kinds of fruit trees in their fields. Farmers have found creative ways to grow apples, pears, peaches, almonds and other crops in jessours. These new ideas have helped make this labor-intensive method of farming more worth the effort. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Language From the Sea, and Still Fresh After All These Years
* Byline: 

 SOUND: Seagulls, ship horn AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the catch of the day, terms from the sea. Lots of nautical expressions have washed ashore into everyday English. Alan Hartley researches them for the Oxford English Dictionary -- that is, when he's not supervising the loading of grain onto foreign ships in the Great Lakes. We called him at his office in Minnesota, and immediately made headway. HARTLEY: "When you make 'headway,' you're making progress forward. 'Way' is usually the forward motion of a ship. It could also be rearward motion, and that was called 'sternway.' But there are a lot of analogous terms in English that never made it into the general vocabulary. 'Headway' and 'sternway' are a good example of a pair, one of which made it and the other didn't.'" AA: Maritime metaphors lend themselves to all kinds of situations on land. Let's say you're making headway on that big project at work, going "full steam ahead." It's all "smooth sailing" toward that big promotion. Or so it seems. All of a sudden you're "weathering a storm." You reach the "end of your rope" (anchor rope, that is). You look for "safe harbor." You "go overboard" to make things better. The last thing you want is to "scuttle" your career and wind up "on the rocks," all because you've "run afoul" of the boss. HARTLEY: "If you encountered another ship accidentally, you got too close to it, maybe you got tangled in its anchor cable, in that case you have 'run afoul' of the other ship and had an accident, essentially." AA: "And today we might talk about to 'run afoul of the law.'" HARTLEY: "Sure, exactly. It's a very typical case of the extension into everyday English. And it shows that, you know, the word would be kicking around in nautical use for a few decades and gradually it would be picked up in general use." RS: "Some of these words I find interesting because I didn't even know that they were maritime words." HARTLEY: "Same for me. 'High and dry,' for instance, is something you say all the time. A ship got stuck on the mud flats or on a reef, the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry." RS: "Well, here's an expression I never associated with the seas, usually associated with my doctor. When I go to the doctor I really like to come out with a 'clean bill of health.'" HARTLEY: "Everybody does. And the crew of an old sailing ship would have felt the same way. It didn't mean quite the same thing then, but a ship on arriving at a port would have to be cleared by the local port authorities as having no communicable disease on board. And once they were cleared they got a 'clean bill of health.' Sometimes that took a long time. They would be in quarantine, which was a forty-day period. That's where the 'quarant' comes from." RS: "Do you have a favorite maritime expression?" HARTLEY: "The one that's maybe most striking to me is that phrase we use nowadays, the phrase 'to be taken aback.' A person is taken aback if he is surprised in a negative way, and that derives from an old sailing term in which if the ship were headed too close to the direction of the wind, the wind would strike the sails on the forward surface instead of the after -- or rear -- surface. "So if the wind got around too much toward the bow, toward the front of the ship, it could stop you in your tracks. But also, if you were taken aback hard enough, you could break the entire mast that the sail was suspended from. So it was a very dangerous and startling situation." AA: Nowadays, don't look to the sea for many new expressions. Alan Hartley points out that we're still using mostly terms from the days of sailing ships. HARTLEY: "A lot of the vocabulary that's developed since then is very technical, very specific to modern ships. It has very little application in everyday life." AA: Alan Hartley is a ship-loading superintendent in Minnesota and a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary. He's put together a list of nautical language for our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com Time to set sail! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Across the Sea"/Bobby Darin [This segment was first broadcast on August 8, 2002.] SOUND: Seagulls, ship horn AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the catch of the day, terms from the sea. Lots of nautical expressions have washed ashore into everyday English. Alan Hartley researches them for the Oxford English Dictionary -- that is, when he's not supervising the loading of grain onto foreign ships in the Great Lakes. We called him at his office in Minnesota, and immediately made headway. HARTLEY: "When you make 'headway,' you're making progress forward. 'Way' is usually the forward motion of a ship. It could also be rearward motion, and that was called 'sternway.' But there are a lot of analogous terms in English that never made it into the general vocabulary. 'Headway' and 'sternway' are a good example of a pair, one of which made it and the other didn't.'" AA: Maritime metaphors lend themselves to all kinds of situations on land. Let's say you're making headway on that big project at work, going "full steam ahead." It's all "smooth sailing" toward that big promotion. Or so it seems. All of a sudden you're "weathering a storm." You reach the "end of your rope" (anchor rope, that is). You look for "safe harbor." You "go overboard" to make things better. The last thing you want is to "scuttle" your career and wind up "on the rocks," all because you've "run afoul" of the boss. HARTLEY: "If you encountered another ship accidentally, you got too close to it, maybe you got tangled in its anchor cable, in that case you have 'run afoul' of the other ship and had an accident, essentially." AA: "And today we might talk about to 'run afoul of the law.'" HARTLEY: "Sure, exactly. It's a very typical case of the extension into everyday English. And it shows that, you know, the word would be kicking around in nautical use for a few decades and gradually it would be picked up in general use." RS: "Some of these words I find interesting because I didn't even know that they were maritime words." HARTLEY: "Same for me. 'High and dry,' for instance, is something you say all the time. A ship got stuck on the mud flats or on a reef, the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry." RS: "Well, here's an expression I never associated with the seas, usually associated with my doctor. When I go to the doctor I really like to come out with a 'clean bill of health.'" HARTLEY: "Everybody does. And the crew of an old sailing ship would have felt the same way. It didn't mean quite the same thing then, but a ship on arriving at a port would have to be cleared by the local port authorities as having no communicable disease on board. And once they were cleared they got a 'clean bill of health.' Sometimes that took a long time. They would be in quarantine, which was a forty-day period. That's where the 'quarant' comes from." RS: "Do you have a favorite maritime expression?" HARTLEY: "The one that's maybe most striking to me is that phrase we use nowadays, the phrase 'to be taken aback.' A person is taken aback if he is surprised in a negative way, and that derives from an old sailing term in which if the ship were headed too close to the direction of the wind, the wind would strike the sails on the forward surface instead of the after -- or rear -- surface. "So if the wind got around too much toward the bow, toward the front of the ship, it could stop you in your tracks. But also, if you were taken aback hard enough, you could break the entire mast that the sail was suspended from. So it was a very dangerous and startling situation." AA: Nowadays, don't look to the sea for many new expressions. Alan Hartley points out that we're still using mostly terms from the days of sailing ships. HARTLEY: "A lot of the vocabulary that's developed since then is very technical, very specific to modern ships. It has very little application in everyday life." AA: Alan Hartley is a ship-loading superintendent in Minnesota and a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary. He's put together a list of nautical language for our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com Time to set sail! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Across the Sea"/Bobby Darin [This segment was first broadcast on August 8, 2002.] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-30-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Emperor Penguins Survive in World’s Most Extreme Climate
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a very special bird called the emperor penguin. This bird struggles to survive in one of the most extreme climates in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are seventeen kinds of penguins in the world. All of them live in the southern hemisphere. Only a few species live on the continent of Antarctica at the bottom of the world. The emperor penguins are the largest. They are about one hundred centimeters tall and weigh about thirty kilograms. Their special method of mating makes them different from all other penguins. For thousands of years the emperor penguins have lived on the freezing continent of Antarctica. These black and white birds live in large groups or colonies. There are about forty emperor penguin colonies on Antarctica. In total, there are about four hundred thousand birds. VOICE TWO: These birds spend the summer swimming in the ocean in search of food such as fish and squid. Penguins are not able to fly, but they are excellent swimmers. They can dive as deep as four hundred and sixty meters and hold their breath for up to twenty minutes. But when summer ends, so does this easy time spent by the water. The penguins jump out of the water and onto the ice. They know it is time to find a mate and reproduce. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In order to mate, the penguins must travel many kilometers inland from the ocean. They do this to find a safe area to spend the many months needed to produce and develop an egg. They must find an area with some shelter from the freezing winds. Hundreds of penguins walk in a single line for up to seventy kilometers to find a mating place. This trip is a long and cold one. Winter is beginning. The days are getting shorter and temperatures are quickly dropping. The trip takes many days. The birds must walk carefully on their short legs through icy areas. When their feet get tired, they slide themselves on their stomachs across the ice. VOICE TWO: Once they arrive at the right place, the mating process begins. Males and females walk around and make singing noises as they decide on a mate. They must also memorize their mate’s special song. Penguins are unusual because they stay with the same mate for the entire period of producing a baby penguin or chick. After the female produces an egg, she must carefully slide it onto her feet. Then she must pass it to her mate. This can be a very difficult act. If the birds are not careful, the egg will fall on the freezing ice. If the egg touches the ice or breaks, the chick will die. All of their hard work will have been wasted. Once the female passes the egg to the male, he places it on his feet and protects it with his body. Both male and female penguins have a special place on their body to protect their young. A piece of skin under their stomachs forms a pocket or pouch where an egg or chick is protected from the cold. The male penguin incubates the egg for about two months. This means that he keeps it warm while the baby penguin inside the egg develops. VOICE ONE: During this time, the mothers must leave the colony and walk many kilometers back to the sea. The females are tired from mating and producing an egg. They are also starving from more than one month without food. During this period, female penguins can lose up to one-third of their body weight. Many do not survive the long walk back to the sea. The ones that do survive dive into the ocean to catch fish. They eat for several months to gain weight. They must also get food for their chicks. While the mothers are feeding, the hundreds of male penguins work together to survive. They stand very close to one another to form a tight group. This helps them keep warm. They continuously change places. The colder penguins on the outside of the group move to the warmer places on the inside of the group. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Winters in Antarctica are difficult for the penguins. There are only a few hours of sunlight a day. Temperatures can drop to minus fifty degrees Celsius. Air masses called catabatic winds blow over the continent at speeds of up to two hundred kilometers per hour. The penguins have developed special bodies to survive such freezing temperatures. They can control their body temperature with a special system of blood exchange. The centers of their bodies keep warm, while the outer parts of their bodies stay almost as cold as the outside temperatures. Another way they survive the cold is by releasing a special oil from their skin. This oil helps waterproof the feathers that cover their bodies. A layer of air between their skin and the oil provides protection from the cold. Also, they have a thick layer of body fat that further protects them from the cold. VOICE ONE: Two months later, the females return to the colony and must find their mates. Many of the chicks have hatched and come out of their eggs. The family is united for the first time. However, the father must leave immediately to go feed in the ocean. He has not eaten for more than three months and has lost a great deal of weight. Before he leaves, though, he must learn the voice of his chick. The chick also memorizes his father’s voice. When the father returns, he must be able to identify his chick in order to bring it food. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The male and female penguins continue to take turns caring for their chick and bringing back food from the sea. When the chicks are about one month old, they start to spend time outside their parents’ pouch. When they get bigger, the chicks stay together in large groups. Their parents still bring them food. But when they are about five months old, the chicks must feed themselves. They make their first trip to the ocean. However, not all the chicks survive this long. About twenty-five percent die due to starvation or cold. Some chicks are hunted and killed by large birds called giant petrels. However, if the chicks survive their first year, they generally live through adulthood. When they reach the age of five years, it is time for the young penguins to mate. A new generation begins this special mating process of travel and survival. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In two thousand five, a French filmmaker named Luc Jacquet released a film about these special birds. The film is called “March of the Penguins.”? It beautifully shows how the birds survive in the extreme environment of Antarctica. This rare look at their lives is truly special. You can see the penguins walking across the white ice of Antarctica. Diving deep into the ocean waters. Moving their egg carefully from the mother’s feet to the father’s feet. Crowding together to keep warm in a snowstorm. Kissing their newly hatched chicks. VOICE TWO: “March of the Penguins” is the first full-length film to show the life of the emperor penguin. The crew chose to film a colony of penguins that was near a scientific research center. This way, the filmmakers had a base where they could live. They were also able to cooperate with the nearby Institute for Polar Research. Producing this film was very difficult. The movie crew had to survive the extreme cold for a whole year of filming. If the weather was too bad, they could not go outside and film. Also, trying to film the birds from very close up was not easy. The filmmakers had to be very careful not to harm the penguins. They made special devices that helped them get close to the penguins without interfering with them. Luc Jacquet even hired a specialist to film the underwater scenes. VOICE ONE: “March of the Penguins” was difficult to make for other technical reasons. The crew had to have special cameras made that could work in extremely cold temperatures. Also, they could not watch what they had filmed. This is because they did not have the equipment to develop the film. So, they had to remember the details of every picture they took and hope they turned out well. When they finished filming, they had more than one hundred twenty hours of film. Director Luc Jacquet says his film crew had to treat the penguins with care and consideration. He says his movie is a story of bravery and excitement. He also calls his movie about the emperor penguins one of the most beautiful love stories on Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-30-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Drug for Other Diseases May Have Use Against AIDS
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 Researchers have?tested Valproic acid as a treatment for AIDSI’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists say they were able to decrease levels of the AIDS virus with a drug designed for other conditions. AIDS suppresses the immune system so the body cannot fight deadly infections. Currently, medicines can reduce the virus to levels low enough to keep people alive. But these drugs are not a cure. Very small amounts of virus hide in what scientists call resting cells in the immune system. If an infected cell reawakens, the virus becomes active. It begins to copy itself again. So people must continue to take antiretroviral drugs. The new study involved four patients. They had already taken combinations of AIDS drugs for more than two years. The researchers intensified the effect of the drugs. Then they added one more, valproic acid. Valproic acid is used to control seizures in the treatment of epilepsy. Some people with depression take the drug for bipolar disorder. But valproic acid has also been shown to block an enzyme that helps H.I.V., the AIDS virus, to hide. The patients took the medicine two times a day for three months. The researchers say the number of infected cells decreased by an average of seventy-five percent in three of the four people. But the numbers returned to earlier levels when the treatment ended. Doctor David Margolis led the study at the University of Texas. He just took a new job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The team reported the results in the Lancet medical journal. Valproic acid has some serious risks, including to pregnant women. Doctor Margolis says more study is needed into its use against AIDS. But the scientists do say that their early finding suggests that new methods "will allow the cure of H.I.V. in the future."? Some other scientists, however, say it is too early to talk of a cure for a virus that is so difficult to destroy. They say a cure would have to get every last infected cell. And the virus might not hide only in the immune system. Still, in a related commentary, AIDS researcher Jean-Pierre Routy says the early results call for "further urgent study." H.I.V. is spread through bodily fluids. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Last year, more than three million people died and an estimated five million more became infected. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Colleges Face Limits on Native-American Team Names
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Most American students are back in school by early September and, if they play fall sports, back in action. This Saturday, for example, the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh will open their football season -- American football. They will play the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. The Panthers have someone dressed like a big cat to help lead the crowds. At Notre Dame, the mascot is a little creature of Irish imagination, a leprechaun. Team names and mascots play a part in school spirit. But a committee of the national organization that governs college sports recently approved a new policy. It bars the use of hostile nicknames, mascots and images related to racial or ethnic groups during the championship season. More than one thousand schools are in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The decision affected eighteen schools with nicknames or mascots representing American Indians. The N.C.A.A. president says the schools found that some people could be offended. Several teams are the Indians or Braves. Carthage College in Wisconsin has the Redmen. Southeastern Oklahoma State University has the Savages. Also on the list are the Seminoles of Florida State University. The university president argued that the name honors the Seminole Indians of Florida. He noted that the tribe has supported the name for years. The new policy goes into effect in February. Florida State, however, will not have to follow it. Last week the university won an appeal. Appeals by other schools will be considered case-by-case. The University of North Dakota is home of the Fighting Sioux. Its president also says the name is meant to honor, not insult, Native Americans. He questions why the Fighting Irish are not on the list. An official of the N.C.A.A. says, "This is not an exercise in political correctness."? She says over four years of study went into the new policy. She says the aim is to make sure championship events are free of images and names that different groups see as hurtful. Yet no one can agree how many Native Americans are offended. Findings conflict. Some mental health experts, however, say such names and images harm Native American children. Similar disputes face professional teams, like football's Washington Redskins. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-08/2005-08-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Early Country Music: Cowboys Told About Their Lives in Song
* Byline: Written by Harold Braverman

 (MUSIC) Announcer:? THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Here is Kay Gallant with our program. Narrator:? Last week, we talked about the growth of the cattle industry. This industry started in Texas during the eighteen seventies. With its growth came a new kind of worker -- the man who watched and took care of the cattle. These men who watched the cows and rode with them as they moved across the wild lands were often young. Just boys. And so they were called "cowboys. " People all over the world have seen all sorts of films about the cowboy. And he is often shown in television shows. But the real life of the cowboy is not often shown. His work has been hard, and his life lonely and full of danger. The cowboy has told his own story in many songs and ballads. Hundreds of these have come from cowboys whose names are not known. They just sang these songs as they rode on the saddles of their horses across the cattle lands. Or, as they sat at their campfires at night. They sang about the things that were close to them. Horses and cows and danger and death. Often, they sang about the long ride to the cattle markets where the cows were sold for beef, as in this song called, "Git Along Ltle Dogie." Dogie is another name for a young cow, especially one which wanders away from the herd. The song tells how the young cowboy keeps driving the dogies forward. He feels sorry for them, because they will soon be sold for meat. But that's their hard luck, not his. And he keeps pushing them on while he sings. (MUSIC) One of the most famous of cowboy ballads is this one, called "The Chisholm Trail." (MUSIC) Day and night, the horse was at the cowboy's side. A cowboy was as proud of his horse as he was of his skill in riding him. There is this feeling in the song "I Ride An Old Paint."? A paint, or pinto, is a horse of three or more different colors. (MUSIC) The cattle herds were driven a very long way to the cattle markets and had to be kept and watched on the open trail for many weeks. And the trail took the cowboys over rough country in all kinds of weather. The wild prairie lands were not friendly to men or animals. It was a lonely land. And the howling of wolves and winds at night made it more so. Across this strange land, no man in the early days of the west knew just where death was waiting for him. A listener hears the mournful feeling cowboys had for the prairie in this song called, "The Dying Cowboy." He does not want to be buried out in these wild lands -- in the lone prairie -- as the song says. Still, the dying cowboy does not get his wish. There is no choice. He can be buried only in the lone prairie in a narrow grave six by three. . . Six feet deep and three feet wide. (MUSIC) Announcer:? You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrator was Kay Gallant. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Big Music From the American Heartland
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach, Lawan Davis and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear music from groups taking part in concerts called “Big Noise From Springfield, Missouri”… Answer a question from a listener about the Voice of America’s broadcasts … And report about the upcoming Labor Day holiday. Labor Day Monday, September fifth, is Labor Day in the United States. In most nations, Labor Day is celebrated in May. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: The first day in May has been the traditional day to celebrate spring since ancient times. It also is the day to honor workers in almost every industrial country in the world except the United States and Canada. The first link between honoring workers and the ancient May Day celebration was made in eighteen thirty-three. The British social reformer Robert Owen chose that day as the date for the beginning of a period of joy and hope for the world. In eighteen eighty-nine, the first Paris workers convention declared a great international workers demonstration on May first. Since then, the International Labor Day has been celebrated on the first or May. The United States chose another day for its labor celebration. New York labor leader Peter McGuire is said to have suggested that the first Monday in September be a holiday to honor labor. He said it was a nice time of the year for a celebration. He proposed public parades to show the strength of labor organizations. And he urged that people end the day with outdoor parties. The first American Labor Day celebration was held in New York City on September fifth, eighteen eighty-two. About ten thousand workers marched through the streets. Then everybody went to a nearby park to eat a meal and hear speeches and a concert. The idea quickly spread throughout the country. In eighteen ninety-four, Congress approved a bill declaring Labor Day a national holiday. For many years, the first Monday in September was a day when American workers demonstrated for better working conditions and pay. Over the years, however, the condition of American workers improved. Such demonstrations are no longer common. Now, Labor Day weekend for Americans is a time to celebrate the last days of summer. Many towns still hold special events. People throughout the country enjoy outdoor activities. And for many American students, Labor Day means it is time for school to begin again. You can learn more about the history of the labor movement in the United States Monday on the Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOA Broadcasts HOST: We have two listener questions this week about the same subject. Nguyen Ngoc Lanh of Vietnam wants to know if Special English programs can be heard in the United States. Frank Liu who is studying in Portugal wants to know about an American law called the Smith-Mundt Act and how it affects VOA. The Voice of America broadcasts more than one thousand hours of news, information, educational and cultural programs every week. Programs are sent by shortwave, AM and FM radio, satellite radio and television and the Internet. VOA broadcasts to more than one hundred million people around the world. Voice of America programs are meant for listeners outside the United States. ?In nineteen forty-eight, the United States Congress passed the Smith-Mundt Act. The main purpose of the law was to create a permanent oversees cultural and information program of the United States government. It was meant to provide information about the United States to people in other countries. The Smith-Mundt Act bars information produced by VOA from being broadcast or given out in the United States. At that time, American news media expressed concern to Congress about having to compete with government news agencies, including the Voice of America. By the time the Smith-Mundt Act was passed, VOA had been broadcasting for six years. People in the United States with short wave radios could listen to the programs. They still can. The Smith-Mundt Act is still in effect. So VOA and Special English do not broadcast their radio or television programs in the United States. But what about our programs on the Internet?? The law bans VOA and Special English from sharing information with listeners inside the United States. But it does not tell listeners what they may or may not do to receive our programs. After the Internet was created, VOA began using it to reach more listeners around the world. That technology made it possible for almost anyone with a computer to log on, listen, read or watch Special English programs. Even people in the United States. Big Noise From Springfield Four groups of musicians from the state of Missouri are performing?around the United States. This traveling show is called “Big Noise from Springfield, MO.”? These four music groups perform the rock, country and blues sounds that are deeply rooted in their area of Missouri. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: The area around Springfield, Missouri, is rich in musical traditions. In the nineteen fifties it was an important city for country music. Today, many musicians from all traditions still play in the area. Four of these musical groups or bands are performing in cities across America until the beginning of October. They are the Morells, the Bel Airs, the Domino Kings and a musician named Brian Capps. The Morells are well known in the music life of Springfield. They have been recording music and playing there since nineteen eighty-two. Here is a song from their latest rock album called “Think About It.”? It is called “Nadine.” (MUSIC) The Domino Kings have a more country sound. Here is the song “Pain in My Past” from their album called “Some Kind of Sign.” (MUSIC) The Bel Airs have been playing together for more than twenty years. They mix country sounds with those of the blues. We leave you with a song from their last album, “Got Love”. It is called “The Blues Is Walkin’.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Mario Ritter was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: What’s in a Name: Standard and Poor’s
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index is one of the most important measures of the stock marketRecently, a listener from China asked why the financial company Standard and Poor’s has a name that includes the word “poor.”? In Chinese culture, businesses have names that suggest success and wealth. In Western countries, however, businesses often carry the names of the people who started them. And that is partly the case with Standard and Poor’s. It was formed when two companies joined together. One was Poor’s Publishing Company. Henry Varnum Poor started the company in the eighteen sixties. He published a number of books on railroads, money and business. He also published financial information about companies for investors. In nineteen-oh-six, the Standard Statistics Bureau was formed to provide financial information about American companies. It recorded numerical information, or statistics, about businesses. In nineteen sixteen, the Standard Statistics Bureau started offering credit ratings for companies. Ratings are designed to give investors an idea of how likely it is that a business will pay its debts. Soon after, the company offered credit ratings for nations. It later offered the same service for local governments. Poor’s Publishing Company joined with the Standard Statistics Bureau in nineteen forty-one to form Standard and Poor’s. In nineteen sixty-six, the publishing company McGraw-Hill bought Standard and Poor’s. Since then, it has grown as an important provider of information on credit and business statistics. Standard and Poor’s also developed an important measure of the stock market. The S and P Five Hundred Index is a list of five hundred companies. The price of ownership shares of these companies is combined with other information. Mathematic operations are used to create a single number that shows if all stocks on the list have gained or lost value. Standard and Poor’s says the S and P Five Hundred Index is the best, single measure of the United States stock market. Only American companies are on it. They must be financially strong and have a total stock value of more than four thousand million dollars. The companies are also chosen to represent the importance of industries to the economy. Standard and Poor’s remains one of the world’s two leading credit rating agencies. The other is Moody’s. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In Southeastern U.S., Storm Leaves Many People Homeless, Helpless, Angry
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Building after building under water. Refugees in shelters. Thousands of others unsure where to go. Appeals for help. Anarchy. Bodies in streets. This is what one of America's historic cities was reduced to this week by a powerful storm, Katrina. Officials want everyone still left in New Orleans, Louisiana, to leave for now. The mayor of New Orleans says thousands may be dead. Hurricane Katrina also caused death and destruction in parts of Mississippi and Alabama along the Gulf of Mexico. Federal officials reported Friday that more than one million five hundred thousand homes and businesses remained without electric power. New Orleans is famous for its wild Mardi Gras celebrations and night life in the French Quarter. Yet the city of nearly five hundred thousand people was built below sea level. New Orleans has depended on levees, dams made of earth, to control floods from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Katrina struck on Monday. New Orleans avoided a direct hit. But two of the levees failed the next day. Most of the city was flooded. Helicopters dropped huge sandbags to fill the breaks. But the water had no place to go. Pumping stations had no power. America faces one of the worst natural events in its history. President Bush says the recovery will take years. Congress returned from a summer holiday to approve a request for ten thousand five hundred million dollars in emergency spending. The Bush administration is expected to ask for more in the weeks to come. People were told to leave the path of the storm. But some would not or could not. Many of those worst affected by Katrina are poor and black. African-American leaders and others were angry that government aid did not arrive faster. President Bush visited some of the damaged areas on Friday. He said the way officials reacted to the crisis was unacceptable. The economic effects of Katrina are being felt across the United States. About one-fourth of the oil produced nationwide comes from the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans is also a major port for foreign oil and other shipping trade. Energy officials say the storm has cut oil production by ninety percent and natural gas production by almost eighty percent. Some oil and gas operations have restarted in the Gulf. But the full amount of the damage has not yet been reported. The president approved a release of oil from emergency supplies. But the storm also closed processing centers that make oil into fuel. The Energy Department says the nation has lost about ten percent of its gasoline supply. Some fuel stations have no more gasoline. American drivers have been urged to use less fuel. Oil and gasoline prices were already high before the storm. Now many people are angry at what they see as attempts to profit from Katrina. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cesar Chavez Organized First Successful U.S. Farm Workers Union
* Byline: Written by Robert Brumfield

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Nicole Nichols. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about one of the great labor activists, Cesar Chavez. He organized the first successful farm workers union in American history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez was born on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona in nineteen twenty-seven. In the late nineteenth century, Cesario Chavez, Cesar’s grandfather, had started the Chavez family farm after escaping slavery on a Mexican farm. Cesar Chavez spent his earliest years on this farm. When he was ten years old, however, the economic conditions of the Great Depression forced his parents to give up the family farm. He then became a migrant farm worker along with the rest of his family. The Chavez family joined thousands of other farm workers who traveled around the state of California to harvest crops for farm owners. They traveled from place to place to harvest grapes, lettuce, beets and many other crops. They worked very hard and received little pay. These migrant workers had no permanent homes. They lived in dirty, crowded camps. They had no bathrooms, electricity or running water. Like the Chavez family, most of them came from Mexico. VOICE TWO: Because his family traveled from place to place, Cesar Chavez attended more than thirty schools as a child. He learned to read and write from his grandmother. Mama Tella also taught him about the Catholic religion. Religion later became an important tool for Mister Chavez. He used religion to organize Mexican farm workers who were Catholic. Cesar’s mother, Juana, taught him much about the importance of leading a non-violent life. His mother was one of the greatest influences on his use of non-violent methods to organize farm workers. His other influences were the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. Mister Chavez said his real education began when he met the Catholic leader Father Donald McDonnell. Cesar Chavez learned about the economics of farm workers from the priest. He also learned about Gandhi’s nonviolent political actions as well as those of other great nonviolent leaders throughout history. VOICE ONE: In nineteen forty-eight, Mister Chavez married Helena Fabela whom he met while working in the grape fields in central California. They settled in Sal Si Puedes. Later, while Mister Chavez worked for little or no money to organize farm workers, his wife harvested crops. In order to support their eight children, she worked under the same bad conditions that Mister Chavez was fighting against. There were other important influences in his life. In nineteen fifty-two, Mister Chavez met Fred Ross, an organizer with a workers’ rights group called the Community Service Organization. Mister Chavez called Mister Ross the best organizer he ever met. Mister Ross explained how poor people could build power. Mister Chavez agreed to work for the Community Service Organization. VOICE TWO: Mister Chavez worked for the organization for about ten years. During that time, he helped more than five hundred thousand Latino citizens to vote. He also gained old-age retirement money for fifty thousand Mexican immigrants. He served as the organization’s national director. However, in nineteen sixty-two, he left the organization. He wanted to do more to help farm workers receive higher pay and better working conditions. He left his well paid job to start organizing farm workers into a union. Mister Chavez’s work affected many people. For example, the father of Mexican-American musician Zack de la Rocha spent time working as an art director for Mister Chavez. Much of the political music of de la Rocha’s group, Rage Against the Machine, was about workers’ rights, like this song, “Bomb Track.”? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It took Mister Chavez and Delores Huerta, another former CSO organizer, three years of hard work to build the National Farm Workers Association. Mister Chavez traveled from town to town to bring in new members. He held small meetings at workers’ houses to build support. The California-based organization held its first strike in nineteen sixty-five. The National Farm Workers Association became nationally known when it supported a strike against grape growers. The group joined a strike organized by Filipino workers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. Mister Chavez knew that those who acted non-violently against violent action would gain popular support. Mister Chavez asked that the strikers remain non-violent even though the farm owners and their supporters sometimes used violence. VOICE TWO: One month after the strike began, the group began to boycott grapes. They decided to direct their action against one company, the Schenley Corporation. The union followed grape trucks and demonstrated wherever the grapes were taken. Later, union members and Filipino workers began a twenty-five day march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to gain support for the boycott. Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm Workers Association. It was the first such agreement between farm workers and growers in the United States. VOICE ONE: The union then began demonstrating against the Di Giorgio Corporation. It was one of the largest grape growers in California. Di Giorgio held a vote and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was chosen to represent the farm workers. But an investigation proved that the company and the Teamsters had cheated in the election. Another vote was held. Cesar Chavez agreed to combine his union with another and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was formed. The farm workers elected Mister Chavez’s union to represent them. Di Giorgio soon signed a labor agreement with the union. VOICE TWO: Mister Chavez often went for long periods without food to protest the conditions under which the farm workers were forced to do their jobs. Mister Chavez went on his first hunger strike, or fast, in nineteen sixty-eight. He did not eat for twenty-five days. He was called a hero for taking this kind of personal action to support the farm workers. The union then took action against Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, the largest producer of table grapes in the United States. It organized a boycott against the company’s products. The boycott extended to all California table grapes. By nineteen seventy, the company agreed to sign contracts. A number of other growers did as well. By this time the grape strike had lasted for five years. It was the longest strike and boycott in United States labor history. Cesar Chavez had built a nationwide coalition of support among unions, church groups, students, minorities and other Americans. VOICE ONE: By nineteen seventy-three, the union had changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America. It called for another national boycott against grape growers as relations again became tense. By nineteen seventy-five, a reported seventeen million Americans were refusing to buy non-union grapes. The union’s hard work helped in getting the Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in California, under Governor Jerry Brown. It was the first law in the nation that protected the rights of farm workers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? By the nineteen eighties, the UFW had helped tens of thousands of farm workers gain higher pay, medical care, retirement benefits and better working and living conditions. But relations between workers and growers in California worsened under a new state government. Boycotts were again organized against the grape industry. In nineteen eighty-eight, at the age of sixty-one, Mister Chavez began another hunger strike. That fast lasted for thirty-six days and almost killed him. The fast was to protest the poisoning of grape workers and their children by the dangerous chemicals growers used to kill insects. VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez died in nineteen ninety-three at the age of sixty-six. More than fortythousand people attended his funeral. A year later, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. The United Farm Workers Union still fights for the rights of farm workers throughout the United States. Many schools, streets, parks, libraries and other public buildings have been named after Cesar Chavez. The great labor leader always believed in the words “Si se puede.”? “It can be done.”????????????? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? This Special English Program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE:? And I’m Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another People in America Program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Simple Ways to Keep Food Cool
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Bacteria can make foods go bad. This is true of cooked foods as well as fresh foods. The problem is especially dangerous when the air around food is warm. High heat kills bacteria. But warm, wet conditions help bacteria grow. So, the best way to protect food is to keep it in a cool place. There are several ways to keep food cool without the need for electricity. Some refrigerators, for example, are powered by gasoline motors. There are less costly ways than refrigeration to keep food cool. An ice box is a simple device. It is made mostly of wood. The inside walls are covered with metal. A big piece of ice is placed in the bottom. Millions of homes had ice boxes until refrigerators became common in the nineteen forties. An ice box will keep food from spoiling for several days if the outside temperature is not too warm. If the box is kept out of sunlight, the ice will last longer. Probably the best method to keep food cool without electricity is a device called the evaporative cooler. Evaporation is the natural change of water from liquid to gas as the water mixes back into the atmosphere. An evaporative cooler is easy to make. And it does not need ice. One common evaporative cooler is built as a tall box. Food is kept on several shelves inside. The shelves are made from pieces of metal with many small holes. All four sides of the box are covered with thick cloth. A container of water is placed at the bottom. Another container of water is placed at the top. The top and bottom of each piece of cloth is placed in the water. This keeps the cloth wet. Put the cooler out in the open air, but not in the sun. Air will pass through the wet cloth. This keeps the inside of the box several degrees cooler than the outside air temperature. And this is often just cool enough to keep foods fresh. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Bob Bowen. Our reports can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. Many of our reports about simple technologies are based on information from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. Earlier this year, VITA joined with another non-profit group, EnterpriseWorks Worldwide. The combined organization is called EnterpriseWorks/VITA. The Internet address is enterpriseworks.org. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The American Labor Movement: Past, Present and Wal-Mart
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Most of the world observes Labor Day on May first. In the United States, the holiday to honor workers is on the first Monday in September. For this Labor Day, our subject is the past, present and future of the American labor movement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The main labor coalition in the United States is the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is fifty years old. Its president, John Sweeney, won a fourth term at its convention in July in Chicago. That same week, however, the Teamsters union announced that it would leave the A.F.L.-C.I.O. So did the Service Employees International and the United Food and Commercial Workers. The announcements meant the loss of more than four million of the thirteen million members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. VOICE TWO: Andrew Stern is president of the Service Employees International Union. He? says change was necessary. Mister Stern says the A.F.L.-C.I.O. cannot appeal to workers today the way another coalition can. His union is one of seven members of the Change to Win Coalition. Mister Stern says the labor movement needs bigger unions to deal with huge international companies. And he says unions have to try harder to organize workers in service jobs. These include low-wage jobs in areas like health care, food service, cleaning, child care and private security. Such jobs often are held by recent immigrants. VOICE ONE: Unions were strongest when jobs in manufacturing drove the American economy. Fifty years ago, about one out of three privately employed workers was in a union. Today, it is about one out of ten. Dissidents in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. say it has not done enough to stop the losses. They say the federation spends too much to try to influence political campaigns. Unions have traditionally supported Democrats, but now Republicans control Congress and the White House. In nineteen sixty-two, President John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, agreed to let federal employees organize. He said they could negotiate collectively, but not go on strike. State governments followed. A few even gave public employees the right to strike. During the nineteen seventies, there were strikes by police, teachers and others. VOICE TWO: These days, not many workers in the United States go on strike. A strike can be very costly for all sides involved. There is not even a guarantee that if one union strikes, others will show support. On August twentieth, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association went on strike against Northwest Airlines. The financially troubled airline wants to cut pay and two thousand jobs. The mechanics found little sympathy from other unions. And Northwest was able to limit flight delays. The company quickly replaced many of the strikers with other mechanics. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? Andrew Stern at the service employees union says he still sees a bright future for the American labor movement. He says most workers who are not supervisors would join a union if they could. Yet some workers say they fear that if they did, their jobs might be outsourced to countries with lower wages. Unions failed to stop the North American Free Trade Agreement, or the new Central American Free Trade Agreement. Other workers say they do not need a union because their employers treat them well. In cases like that, unions might be considered victims of their own success. VOICE TWO: Then there is the issue of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart Stores sell thousands of things at low prices. Wal-Mart is the largest seller of general goods in the world. It is also the largest private employer, with more than one and one-half million workers. There are no unions at Wal-Mart Stores in the United States. The company notes that workers have rejected chances to join. A spokesman says Wal-Mart tries to have "as direct a relationship as possible" with its employees. The spokesman told The Associated Press, "we try to run our business in a way that causes no real desire to have a union." VOICE ONE: An international alliance of about nine hundred unions discussed Wal-Mart at a meeting in late August. Union Network International held its Second World Congress in Chicago; the group is based in Switzerland. It says it will intensify its campaign to change what it calls Wal-Mart's low-wage and anti-union policies in North America. Another target is Wal-Mart's growing international operations. The first stop is South Korea. The group announced plans to send a delegation there this month. The goal is to help launch an organizing campaign among about three-thousand Wal-Mart employees. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The labor union movement in the United States began about two hundred years ago. Skilled workers organized into local groups. Some of these groups developed into national organizations. But most did not last. In eighteen sixty-nine, the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was established. The Knights tried to end child labor and the ten-hour workday. Membership grew to seven hundred thousand in the eighteen eighties. But then the Knights lost a strike against a railroad company. By nineteen hundred the union had almost disappeared. VOICE ONE: Samuel GompersIn eighteen eighty-one, a group that later became the American Federation of Labor began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Samuel Gompers was the first president. Gompers believed that labor should negotiate with employers. He campaigned for better working conditions for women and children. Another important union grew in the early nineteen hundreds. The Industrial Workers of the World became known as the Wobblies. They held many demonstrations and violent strikes. By the late nineteen twenties, however, the Wobblies were no longer important. African-American activist Philip Randolph believed that unions provided the best chance for black people to earn money. In nineteen twenty-five, Randolph formed a union for workers in railroad sleeping cars. They became the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. VOICE? TWO: In nineteen thirty-five, several unions in the American Federation of Labor created the Committee for Industrial Organization. The purpose was to organize skilled factory workers. But committee leaders also wanted to include unskilled workers. The federation suspended unions that took part in this kind of organizing. Then, in nineteen thirty-eight, the A.F.L. expelled the unions that formed the Committee for Industrial Organization. Those unions formed another group. This time they called it the Congress of Industrial Organizations. VOICE ONE: A number of unions went on strike after World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. The strikes led to the Taft-Hartley Act. This law placed strong new controls on unions. Labor leaders compared it to slavery. The Taft-Hartley Act led the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations to come together. The A.F.L.-C.I.O was born in nineteen fifty-five. George Meany became its president. Two years later, the Senate investigated unions for links to organized crime and other wrongdoing. The A.F.L.-C.I.O? expelled three unions. VOICE TWO: Cesar ChavezOne of the heroes of organized labor in the nineteen sixties and seventies was Cesar Chavez. His family came from Mexico. Through nonviolent protests, he campaigned for a better life for farm workers in the United States. He had been one himself. Cesar Chavez helped establish the United Farm Workers of America. And, on September seventeenth, the union will mark the fortieth anniversary of the event that led to its creation. The Delano grape strike and boycott involved Mexican-American and Filipino farm workers in California. In nineteen sixty-five, they went on strike against grape growers to protest low pay. Cesar Chavez urged people not to buy grapes. The boycott lasted five years. It produced historic labor agreements between growers and the people employed in their fields. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our Labor Day program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Jill Moss. And it can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Non-Profit Exchange Helps Gardeners Save Seeds of Rare Plants
* Byline: Written by Staff

 I'm?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In nineteen seventy-five, a young husband and wife in the United States began an organization to save seeds from rare plants. Diane and Kent Whealy established the Seed Savers Exchange. They still work there, though they are no longer married. The Seed Savers Exchange operates Heritage Farm in Decorah Iowa, in the Midwest. The farm has grown to three hundred fifty-six hectares. Before Diane Whealy's grandfather died, he gave her a few seeds from three plants he loved. The plants had been brought from northern Germany in the late eighteen hundreds. One grew pink tomatoes that tasted sweet. Another was a climbing bean. The third grew a morning glory flower with a red star. When immigrants left Europe for America, many brought their best seeds with them. Many of those seeds were lost now. The seeds from Diane Whealy's grandfather gave the Whealys the idea to start the Seed Savers Exchange. The organization describes its farm as a living museum of heirloom plants. ?It defines heirlooms as any garden plant passed down over time within a family, just like a piece of jewelry. More than twenty-four thousand kinds of rare vegetables are in the permanent collection at Heritage Farm. These include four thousand traditional kinds from Eastern Europe and Russia. About ten percent of each crop is grown every summer, to produce fresh seeds. Also, there are thousands of vegetables, fruits, grains, flowers and herbs that members of the exchange can buy from each other. These are listed each year in a yearbook. People who are not members can order from seed catalogs also published by the organization. Big seed companies sell mostly hybrid seeds that cannot reproduce themselves. So people must buy new seeds each year. Seed Savers calls itself an organized link for gardeners who want to protect the food supply through biodiversity. The idea is to grow many kinds of plants so one disease cannot harm them all. The group says current best sellers include German extra hardy garlic and the Mexican sour gherkin cucumber. They also include Russian giant garlic and Georgian crystal garlic. In fact, there are lots of kinds of garlic, because the exchange ships garlic in September and October. The non-profit organization is on the Web at seedsavers.org. And Internet users can find our Agriculture Report programs each week at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sticking Power: Geckos Face Some Competition
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week on our show -- a study dismisses homeopathic medicine. VOICE ONE: Research links the ancient custom of female genital cutting to infertility. VOICE TWO: New findings might help explain why cocaine users have a higher risk of heart attacks. VOICE ONE: And some lizards famous for their sticking power have some new competition in the laboratory. (MUSIC) Geckos are small lizards that live in warm climates. These lizards can stick to any surface. For example, geckos can climb up walls and across the top of a room. Scientists have studied the little creatures for hundreds of years to learn the secret of how they stick to things. They hoped the findings would help them develop powerful materials that hold things together. A few years ago, American scientists solved the mystery. They found that geckos have five hundred thousand very small hairs on the bottoms of their feet. The end of each hair splits into hundreds of smaller hairs. So the geckos’ feet have hundreds of millions of tiny hairs that touch a surface and hold the feet in place. VOICE TWO: America’s National Science Foundation gave money to scientists at the University of Akron in Ohio and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The scientists worked to make material like the hairs on geckos’ feet. The team recently reported that it had produced hairs that have two hundred times the sticking power of natural gecko hairs. ?VOICE ONE: The scientists have tested only small amounts of the material. But they estimate that an amount of the material the size of a small piece of money could hold up to about ten kilograms.The hairs made by the scientists are only one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair. They are made of extremely small movable carbon tubes, called nanotubes, placed in a plastic base. Ali Dhinojwala is one of the scientists at the University of Akron. He says the tubes are strong and generally unbreakable. He says the team will continue testing larger amounts of the material. The study was published in Chemical Communications. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) A new report disputes the medical value of homeopathic treatments. It says such treatments have the same effect as a placebo. A placebo looks like medicine but contains no active substance. Yet it can sometimes have an effect on people if they do not know it is only a placebo. Matthias Egger of the University of Berne in Switzerland led a team. His group compared studies of homeopathic treatments with studies of medical drugs. They compared one hundred ten studies of each. The findings are published in The Lancet. The scientists say there was not enough evidence to show that homeopathy worked better than a placebo in studies with both. Still, they noted the limits of science to disprove something. In their words, "We acknowledge that to prove a negative is impossible." VOICE ONE: The word homeopathy has roots in two Greek words. Homoio means similar. Pathos is suffering or disease. A German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, developed homeopathic medicine in the seventeen nineties. He believed that some substances could cure diseases if they produced effects similar to those of the disease itself. He believed that these substances -- from plants, minerals or animals -- helped the body’s own defense system to fight the sickness. Homeopaths say traditional doctors too often use medicines without considering all the possible causes of a disorder. They say they carefully consider both the physical and emotional health of a person. They say their goal is to strengthen the body’s natural ability to cure itself. Treatments might involve deadly substances like snake poison or arsenic. But they are given in very small amounts. The idea is that they are too weak to cause harm. VOICE TWO: Even critics of homeopathy agree that it sometimes works. But they say this is only because a patient thinks it will work. In other words, a placebo effect. Professor Egger says homeopathic treatments are likely to show effects in smaller, low quality studies. However, his group found that the effect disappears in larger, more careful studies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: New findings might help explain why users have a higher risk of heart attacks. Researchers found that users of the illegal drug increase the risk of aneurysms in their coronary arteries. Coronary arteries carry blood with oxygen to the heart. Aneurisms are weak areas in the walls of blood vessels. The area becomes filled with blood like a balloon. Aneurysms happen more often in the brain and the aorta, which carries blood away from the heart. If they burst, they can cause brain damage and sudden death. The researchers say aneurysms in the coronary arteries rarely burst but may lead to a heart attack, at least in cocaine users. The study is described as the first to document a link between cocaine and coronary aneurysms. Cocaine users in their early forties had four times the risk as non-users in the same age group. VOICE TWO: The researchers examined the records of people who had been tested for known or suspected heart problems. The study found signs of coronary aneurysms in almost eight percent of those who did not use cocaine. In those who did, the finding was thirty percent. Doctor Timothy Henry was the lead writer of the study. He directs research at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation. The study appeared in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association. VOICE ONE: Tobacco adds to the risk of aneurisms and heart attacks. Almost all of the cocaine users smoked cigarettes. The researchers knew from the medical records how often about half of them took cocaine. Two-thirds reported they used it at least once a week. The study suggests two possible ways that cocaine might lead to an aneurism. One is through damage to the cells inside the arteries. The other is through sharp increases in blood pressure. Then, once an aneurysm forms, it may lead to a blockage in the flow of blood and cause a heart attack. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: New research suggests that the custom in parts of Africa and Asia to cut the sex organs of girls can cause infertility later in life. Researchers believe this is the result of infections that spread to the reproductive organs. The Swedish-led study took place in Sudan. The findings appeared in The Lancet. The researchers linked the risk of infertility to the extent of the cutting. Infertile women were five to six times more likely to have had the most severe cutting than women who were able to get pregnant. But the researchers say any damage could lead to changes that harm reproductive health. Each year, an estimated two million more girls reach the age where they might be cut. But experts have found a reduction in this custom in a number of countries. The United Nations Children’s Fund seeks an end to female genital mutilation by two thousand ten. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by George Grow, Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And please join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World Summit in New York Will Mark 60th Anniversary of the United Nations
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:????????????????????????? Nineteen forty-five was a time of hope. World War Two was ending. Many nations wanted to create a new international organization. This organization would not attempt to govern the world. But it would create a center for discussion, negotiation and decision about international problems. Fifty-one nations signed a charter for the United Nations in June of nineteen forty-five in San Francisco, California. This document was based on a desire for security, human rights and a better life for all people. The purpose of the United Nations is to bring all nations together to work for peace and development. The U.N. came into existence on October twenty-fourth, nineteen forty-five. United Nations Day is celebrated on that day each year. (MUSIC)?????? VOICE TWO: The United Nations will observe its sixtieth anniversary with a World Summit in New York City next week. The conference will take place from September fourteenth through sixteenth at U.N. headquarters. More than one hundred seventy heads of state and governments are expected to attend, including President Bush. World Summit delegates are expected to announce an international agreement as part of the sixtieth anniversary. The document will tell how the U.N. will deal with major issues like development, nuclear weapons, anti-terrorism, human rights and U.N. reform. In March, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan made proposals on such issues. VOICE ONE: Mister Annan's report contained suggestions for improving the U.N. The report is called "In Larger Freedom:? Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All."? Representatives have negotiated an agreement to be signed next week. The document shows how the world organization can reform itself. It states U.N. plans to meet world problems. But recently the United States has raised objections to the proposed document. The United States has asked for many changes, including a stronger statement against terrorism. Other nations also object to parts of the agreement. Much of the document is based on goals for this century that the U.N. announced five years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:??????? The U.N. has many organizations and employees to carry out its work. Almost three thousand diplomats meet in General Assembly working groups and committees. The General Assembly is the main U.N. group that meets to debate world issues. It includes representatives of all one hundred ninety-one member nations. Each country has one vote. These votes are meant to influence world opinion and action. They do not carry legal force. VOICE ONE:??????? The Security Council is a small group that has more power than the General Assembly. It has fifteen members. The Security Council has the main responsibility for keeping international peace and security. Its members present resolutions involving threats to peace. Security Council resolutions can suggest methods for peaceful settlement of conflicts. They can call for economic restrictions against countries. And they can call for military intervention. Thousands of U.N. peacekeeping troops may be deployed. Five nations are permanent Security Council members. They are the United States, Britain, the Russian Federation, France and China. Any one of them can veto a resolution. Member nations elect the other ten Security Council members for two-year terms. At least nine member nations must approve a resolution for it to pass. Secretary General Annan has proposed that the Security Council add members. He wants the Council to better represent nations of the world. Several countries are competing to join the Security Council. VOICE TWO: Another important part of the U.N. is the Economic and Social Council. It makes resolutions affecting economics, culture, education, health, and social welfare. The council also links the U.N. with more than two thousand five hundred non-governmental agencies. These private agencies provide technical help. The U.N. operates several courts and a Commission on Human Rights. Secretary General Annan has proposed replacing the commission with a smaller council. The General Assembly would choose the members. He says the current commission includes countries that oppose human rights. VOICE ONE: The U.N. Secretary General oversees diplomacy and policy-making. Mister Annan, of Ghana, was re-appointed to a second five-year term in two thousand one. Many countries have praised his leadership. Mister Annan and the United Nations won the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand one. But recently he has been accused of poor management. He also has been accused of links to financial wrongdoing. Kofi Annan says he is innocent. VOICE TWO: The U.N. has several other important agencies. For example, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is currently aiding victims of fighting in Sudan and many other places. Other major U.N. agencies include the Development Program and the Children's Fund, called UNICEF. Still others are the World Food Program, the Population Fund and the Environment Program. The United Nations has important offices in Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. But its headquarters is in four main buildings along the East River of New York City. The land and buildings are international territory. (MUSIC)?? VOICE ONE: Now we will visit the United Nations headquarters in New York. The first building you see is very tall and is made mainly of glass. The glass catches the sunlight. This structure reaches high into the sky. The other three U.N. buildings have different interesting shapes. You expect to see the flags of the one hundred ninety-one members in front of U.N. headquarters. But the flags are not flying today. Work crews are making much-needed repairs to U.N. buildings and property. VOICE TWO: Inside, you pay for a guided visit through the U.N. A guide from Japan takes you and ten others on a tour while she discusses U.N. history and international issues. Members of your group are from China, Japan, Mexico, the United States and Britain. Your guide gives information in English. But tours also are provided in at least fifteen other languages. The official U.N. languages besides English are French, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. The guide explains that each U.N. member nation pays for part of the yearly budget. The share depends on the financial condition of the nation. The United States and Japan pay the largest amount. VOICE ONE: You enter the huge General Assembly Hall, the largest room in the United Nations. During a meeting, this room holds more than one thousand eight hundred people. You immediately note the central art object in the room. It is an artistic map placed on metal that shines like gold. The map shows the world as seen from the top, at the North Pole. Branches of olive trees that traditionally represent peace are on either side of the circular map. People around the world recognize this logo as representing the United Nations. It shows the world held in the olive branches of peace. VOICE TWO: Now you enter the room where the Security Council meets. Artist Per Krogh of Norway created the large wall painting. It shows a phoenix bird rising from its ashes. The picture represents the world rebuilding itself after World War Two. As you stand in this room, your guide lists places where U.N peacekeepers have launched successful operations. Places like Cambodia, East Timor and Mozambique. She notes U.N. activity in two thousand two. The world organization had deployed more than forty-five thousand troops and civilians for peacekeeping and other duties around the world. VOICE ONE: A visitor from California comments that she is old enough to clearly remember World War Two. She does not want to experience that again. She says that whatever its problems, she hopes the United Nations will gain all of its goals for peace in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Study Shows No Link Between Cell Phones and Rare Tumor
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Health Report. New research has found no link between the use of cellular telephones and tumors in the head. The study is one of the largest ever done on the possible links between brain cancer and cell phone radiation. British researchers looked for a possible link between cell phone use and a rare tumor called acoustic neuroma. Acoustic neuromas develop on the nerve linking the brain and the inner ear. Researchers also investigated links between cell phones and other kinds of cancers. But they say acoustic neuromas would be the most likely because they grow close to where people hold cell phones. Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London gathered information from studies done in Britain, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Cell phones have been widely used in those countries for more than ten years. The researchers questioned more than four thousand people. Six hundred seventy-eight of them had developed acoustic neuromas. The researchers then compared their cell phone use over a ten-year period. The results were published in the British Journal of Cancer. Anthony Swerdlow led the study. He said the results suggest there is no major risk of acoustic neuromas in the first ten years of using cell phones. But he said the technology is still too new to know about long-term effects. He also warned that young children who use cell phones could be at higher risk. The results of a recent Swedish study also found no link between cell phone use and brain tumors. In two thousand, a British study found no serious health effects from the use of cell phones. However, it warned that children should use them only in emergencies. Some investigations have found a cancer risk. A study by the World Health Organization last year found that people who have used cell phones for at least ten years may be at greater risk for a rare brain tumor. Other studies have suggested radiation from cellular phones can cause heating in the brain, headaches and stomach problems. Some scientists suggest that the increased number of cases of brain cancer is likely linked to the use of cell phones. Almost two thousand million people use cell phones around the world. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Schools Offer Help for Students Displaced by Hurricane Katrina
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Education Report. Students from areas hit by Hurricane Katrina have received offers of help from education officials across the United States. The storm caused severe damage in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama when it smashed into the Gulf Coast last week. Displaced families are spread around the South and around the country at the start of a new school year. Some are in temporary shelters such as hotels. Some are with family members. Others remain in the affected areas but local schools may not even exist anymore. In the city of New Orleans, two major universities are closed for the fall semester. Tulane University says it expects to re-open in the spring of two thousand six. Until then, the Tulane sports teams will play at five universities in Texas and Louisiana. Loyola University New Orleans says it will reopen in January. Its twenty-seven Jesuit sister schools have agreed to accept its students for the fall semester. Many colleges and universities across the country have offered to accept students from areas hit by Katrina. Some including Harvard and Duke have offered free classes and places to live. Harvard, in Massachusetts, says it will admit twenty-five college students. Up to twenty-five law students from Tulane and Loyola-New Orleans could also attend Harvard Law School. Duke University in North Carolina has offered to accept up to seventy-five students into its continuing education division. They must be from North or South Carolina, or related to someone at the university. And Duke said they must begin classes by September twelfth. Some schools say they will collect payments, but will hold the money for the schools that the students normally attend. The United States Department of Education announced rules to make it easier for displaced students to get financial aid. There is a cooperative effort among universities to develop online classes for students to take for free over the Internet. The project involves the Southern Regional Education Board and the Sloan Consortium. Katrina also displaced a great number of schoolchildren. Schools around the country quickly began to accept young refugees from the storm. At the same time, other children around the country have launched their own efforts to help. To learn more, listen Friday for a report on AMERICAN MOSAIC. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Barbara Klein. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Native Americans Went to War to Protect Their Lands
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The American nation began to expand west during the middle eighteen hundreds. People settled in the great open areas of the Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming, and California. The movement forced the nation to deal with great tribes of native American Indians. The Indians had lived in the western territories for hundreds of years. Settlers and cattle ranchers pushed the Indians out of their homelands. The result was a series of wars between the tribes and the federal government. I'm Sarah Long. Today, Steve Ember and I tell this story. VOICE TWO: At first, the United States government had just one policy to deal with the Indians. It was brutal. Whenever white men wanted Indian land, the tribes were pushed farther west. If the Indians protested, or tried to defend their land, they were destroyed with crushing force. By the middle eighteen-hundreds, almost all the eastern Indians had been moved west of the Mississippi River. They were given land in Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. The government described these Indians as "civilized."? This meant they were too weak to cause more trouble. Many agreed to follow the ways of the white men. VOICE ONE: The Indians of the western grasslands were different. They refused to give up their way of life. These plains Indians were always on the move, because they hunted buffalo -- the American bison. They followed great groups of the animals across the grassy plains. At that time, there were millions of these animals in the American west. The Indians of the plains depended on the buffalo for almost everything they needed. Many of them were fierce fighters. The plains Indians did not want white men crossing their hunting lands. They often tried to destroy the wagon trains carrying settlers to California and Oregon. VOICE TWO: The United States army was given the job of keeping peace. Soldiers were sent to build roads and forts in the western plains. They tried to protect the wagon trains from Indian attacks. They tried to keep white settlers from invading Indian lands. There were many fights between the soldiers and the plains Indians. The soldiers had more powerful weapons. They usually won. VOICE ONE: Some plains Indians tried to live peacefully with the white men. One such group was part of the Sioux tribe, called Santee Sioux. It was the largest and most powerful group in the west. The Santee Sioux lived along the northeastern edge of the great plains in what is now the state of Minnesota. They signed treaties with the government giving up ninety percent of their land. The Santee agreed to live in a small area. In exchange, the United States agreed to make yearly payments to the tribe. This made it possible for the Indians to buy food and other things from white traders. VOICE TWO: Trouble started, however, in the summer of eighteen sixty-two. The government was late giving the Indians their yearly payment. As a result, the Indians lacked the money to buy food. The white traders refused to give the Indians credit to buy food. One trader said: "If they are hungry, let them eat grass." The Indians were hungry. Soon, their hunger turned to anger. Finally, the local Indian chief called his men together. He gave the orders for war. Early the next morning, the tribe attacked the trading stores. Most of the traders were killed, including the man who had insulted the Indians. ?He was found with his mouth filled with grass. The governor of Minnesota sent a force of state soldiers to stop the Indian revolt. The soldiers had artillery. They killed several hundred Indians in battle. They hanged several others. Soon, the revolt was over. VOICE ONE: Trouble came next to parts of Colorado and Wyoming. This is where the Sioux Indians and the Cheyenne Indians lived. The chief of the Lakota Sioux tribe was named Red Cloud. The Indians fought bitterly to keep white men out of their hunting grounds. After two years of fighting, with many deaths on both sides, the government decided the struggle was too costly. It asked for peace. The Sioux and the Cheyenne agreed. They were given a large area of land north of Wyoming in the Dakota territory. They also were given the right to use their old hunting lands farther north. The government agreed to close a road used by whites to cross the hunting grounds. And all soldiers were withdrawn from Sioux country. VOICE TWO: The war ended and peace came to the Sioux and the Cheyenne. ?With peace came a new United States policy toward other Indians of the west. The government decided to put aside an area of land for each tribe. The land was called a "reservation."? Each tribe would live on its own reservation. Most of the reservations were in Indian territory in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Other reservations were in Dakota near the land of the Sioux. VOICE ONE: The government believed it would cost less money and fewer lives to keep Indians on reservations. The Indians would be away from possible trouble with white settlers. Instead of moving freely over the plains to hunt buffalo, the Indians would live in one place. They would receive food and money from the government. Officials came from Washington to explain this new policy to the Indians. A big meeting was held. Chiefs representing many tribes attended. The chiefs spoke, one after? another, to the government officials. VOICE TWO: All of the chiefs said they, too, wished to live in peace with the white men. But many questioned the decision to move to reservations. One who did so was Chief Ten Bears of the Comanche tribe. He said: "There are things which you have said to me that I do not like. You said you wanted to put us on a reservation. You said you would build houses for us. I do not want your houses. I was born on the plains where the wind blows free, and there is nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where everything breathed a free breath. I want to die there. . .not within walls." VOICE ONE: So the government and the Indians reached a compromise. The tribes were given reservations in Indian territory. But they were also given permission to hunt buffalo in a wide area south of the reservations. The Indians agreed to give up all their old lands. They agreed to live in peace on the reservations. In exchange, the United States promised to give the Indians all the food, clothing, and other things they needed. It also promised to give them schools and medical care. VOICE TWO: The Indians were not happy with this agreement. They did not want to give up their old ways of living. However, they saw they had no choice. The government was too strong. They waited weeks, then months, for help to move to the new reservations. They could not understand the delay in carrying out the agreement. The delay was in Washington, D.C. Congress could not agree on how much money to spend on the Indians. So the lawmakers refused to approve the agreement. They left the situation unsettled. Again, Indians were forced to watch angrily as white settlers began moving onto lands they had agreed to give up. As the whites moved in, the buffalo and other animals left. The Indians had difficulty finding food. VOICE ONE: Soldiers shared their food with the Indians. It was not enough. Western officials sent urgent messages to Washington asking for supplies for the Indians. No supplies could be sent until Congress approved the money to buy them. As before, some of the Indians became angry and refused to wait any longer. Their anger led to new fighting. In the end, it was a fight that failed to win back their land. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time for another report about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Kids Helping Kids Survive the Effects of Katrina
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear music made by a Moog?Synthesizer … Answer a question from a listener about Americans who are too fat … And report about children around the country helping other children who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina. Aid to Hurricane Victims The American Red Cross says Hurricane Katrina has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Many other Americans, especially children, want to help these people. Barbara Klein tells us about some of their efforts. BARBARA KLEIN:?Children in many parts of the United States have organized projects to help children who lost their homes in the hurricane. In Glen Rock, New Jersey, children organized a three-day bake sale. They sold cakes, cookies and lemon drinks. They earned more than three thousand dollars. One local businessman gave the same amount of money as the children earned. So they have more than six thousand dollars to send to the hurricane victims. Children sold baked goods and lemonade in other areas of the country, too. Students in the state of Indiana also washed people’s cars to earn money for hurricane victims. Older children in the area are organizing dance competitions. The dancers ask their families and friends to promise money. The money will go to hurricane victims. Students in Palm Bay, Florida are sewing cloth bear toys for children affected by the storm. The children say they hope the teddy bears will make the hurricane victims feel better. Teachers say the children who are making the bears feel good because they know the stuffed animals will be held in the hands of other children. Another group of children is filling special cloth bags for hurricane victims. Three sisters in Bethesda, Maryland got the idea for Project Backpack. They are asking other children to fill backpacks with things hurricane victims might like. These include books, crayons, games, toys, stuffed animals, dolls, balls and school supplies. They are asking for things that will help the children have some fun. The girls say on their Web site that they hope to get one thousand backpacks to send to the hurricane victims in the South. Other efforts are more individual. One boy in New Jersey celebrated his tenth birthday with a party. He asked his guests to bring money for the hurricane victims instead of birthday presents for him. Obesity in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ankara, Turkey. Doctor Ahmet Korkmaz asks about the weight situation among Americans. The short answer to that question is that a majority of Americans are too fat. Some Americans are overweight and others are severely overweight, or obese. Last month, an organization called Trust for America’s Health released the results of a study about obesity in the United States. The report is called “F as in Fat:? How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, Two Thousand Five.” The report said more than sixty-four percent of adult Americans are either overweight or obese. That is about one hundred twenty million people. More than twenty-four percent of American adults are obese. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has set a goal of reducing the number of obese adults to fifteen percent or less by two thousand ten. The report said the number of obese people continued to increase in every American state except Oregon. It said more than twenty-five percent of adults in ten states are obese. Seven of these states are in the Southeast. Mississippi had the highest percentage of obese people, followed by Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Tennessee. The group Trust for America’s Health said the government should help solve the problem. It said obesity leads to heart disease, diabetes and many other health problems. And the cost of health care to treat such problems is huge. Critics say it is extremely difficult to get people to change what they eat or how they prepare their food. And they say it is not clear that the government knows how to influence people to make healthier decisions for themselves and their families. Still, the report suggests some actions that federal, state and local policy makers could take. One is to design communities to increase people’s physical activity. Another is to make schools serve healthier foods and require more physical education classes. Still another is to include exercise programs as part of government medical insurance. And a fourth is to provide the public with more information about the importance of healthy foods. Moog Music American inventor Robert Moog (rhymes with vogue) died last month. He was seventy-one years old. Mister Moog invented a device that changed the music industry. Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Robert Moog was born in New York City in nineteen thirty-four. He studied science at school and earned advanced degrees in engineering and physics. He combined his two main interests: science and music. Robert Moog built his first electronic instrument when he was fourteen years old. Later, he began designing and producing devices that play sounds without the use of musical instruments. In the nineteen sixties, he developed what has always been known as the Moog Synthesizer. It was the first successful electronic music synthesizer. Musician Walter Carlos used the synthesizer to record the album “Switched-On Bach” in nineteen sixty-eight. It became a huge hit. Here is one of the songs on that classical electronic album, “Sinfonia To Cantata Number Twenty-Nine.” (MUSIC) The success of “Switched-On Bach” led popular recording artists to use the Moog Synthesizer. Critics say you can hear its value at the end of the song “Lucky Man” recorded by the group Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Let’s listen: (MUSIC) Robert Moog received honors for his inventions, including a Grammy Award for technical achievement. Last year, a documentary film was made about his life. We leave you now with another example of the Moog Synthesizer. It is the title music from the nineteen seventy-one movie “A Clockwork Orange.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Katrina: Adding Up the Economic Damage
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Hurricane Katrina caused damage on a level never before seen in America when it struck the Gulf Coast area last week. A picture from the air showing the damage to New Orleans After KatrinaThe most costly natural event in American history has been Hurricane Andrew. It struck south Florida in nineteen ninety-two. The National Climate Data Center says Andrew caused almost thirty-six thousand million dollars in damage, with inflation considered. With Katrina, there are damage estimates of one hundred thousand million dollars or more. Early estimates suggest that private insurance companies could pay at least thirty thousand million dollars in claims. But many people in the affected areas had no insurance. Based on current estimates, experts say claims should not threaten the financial health of the insurance industry. The estimates do not include government flood insurance offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The National Flood Insurance Program has more than three hundred thousand policies in Louisiana alone. The storm also caused severe damage in parts of Mississippi and Alabama. Congress approved ten and one-half thousand million dollars in storm aid last week. This week President Bush requested fifty-two thousand million dollars more. So far the evidence suggests that Katrina will affect the national economy but not enough to cause a recession. That was the message this week from the Congressional Budget Office. It says the storm could reduce growth for the rest of the year by up to one percentage point. Economists had generally expected economic growth of three to four percent during the second half of the year. The budget office says progress in restarting Gulf Coast oil operations and pipelines make larger economic effects less likely. And it says higher fuel prices should be temporary. Still, Katrina could reduce employment through the end of this year by about four hundred thousand jobs. But the budget office says employment should increase during the first half of next year as rebuilding gains speed. Of course, the economic effects are much worse in the areas hit by Katrina. New Orleans is a transportation center and port. The railroad company CSX says it is able to send trains around the affected areas. And workers have been busy getting the port of New Orleans ready to reopen. But, for now, employment in the city is just about zero: everyone who lives there has been ordered out. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Leader of Storm Recovery Efforts Replaced on Gulf Coast
* Byline: 

 Correction attached I’m Doug Johnson with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The Bush administration has named a new leader for the federal recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen will command the operations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He takes the place of Michael Brown, director of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that he has directed Mister Brown "to return to administering FEMA nationally." Critics of Mister Brown have called for his resignation or dismissal. Reports say he waited until Katrina hit land last week before he requested a large deployment of federal workers to the Gulf Coast. Louisiana officials have ordered twenty-five thousand body bags to hold remains in case the number of victims is that high. But a New Orleans official said the first major search for bodies in the flooded city found many fewer than expected. He called the number "relatively minor" compared to warnings of ten thousand dead. Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Katrina are now in shelters all over the country. This week, Congress approved fifty-two thousand million dollars more in aid for the affected areas. That was in addition to ten and one-half thousand million approved earlier. The storm has opened up discussion and debate about racial and economic divisions in society. Many of those affected are poor and black. Accusations of racism add fuel to anger over the speed at which help arrived. President Bush called the early federal efforts unacceptable. But critics say the president himself showed a lack of leadership. For Democrats, the storm hit at a time when his approval ratings were already down because of the war in Iraq. Mister Bush was at his home in Texas when Katrina struck. The president and Republican leaders in Congress have announced investigations into what went wrong. But minority Democrats want an independent investigation. President Bush on Friday thanked more than one hundred countries that have offered assistance to the victims of Katrina. White House officials said he will make another visit to the Gulf Coast on Sunday and will stay overnight. Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Before then, FEMA was independent. Now is it part of Homeland Security, a department created after Nine-Eleven. Michael BrownMichael Brown joined FEMA in February of two thousand one as its top lawyer. The president nominated him as deputy director soon after the attacks, then later as director. The Senate confirmed him both times. His former employer was the International Arabian Horse Association. Secretary Chertoff says Katrina is the largest natural disaster in American history. But he notes that hurricane season continues. And he says his department also has to be ready for other events, "natural or man-made." But, after Katrina, many critics say the department has to do a better job to balance its responsibilities. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Doug Johnson. --- Correction: The Senate did not confirm Michael Brown at FEMA two times, as reported.Senators confirmed him as deputy director?in August 2002.His appointment as director would have required confirmation as well, but not at the time the Department of Homeland Security was created. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Dorothy West: The Last Writer of the Harlem Renaissance
* Byline: Written by Doreen Baingana

 (MUSIC) ? VOICE ONE: ? I'm Shirley Griffith. ? VOICE TWO: ? And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell about a person who played an important part in the history and culture of the United States. Today, we tell about the writer Dorothy West. ? (MUSIC) ? VOICE ONE: ? Dorothy West's first long book was published when she was more than forty years old. Her second book was published when she was in her late eighties. ? Yet African-American poet Langston Hughes called her "The Kid." This means a child. Dorothy West had been one of the youngest members of the group of writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This was a creative period for African-Americans during the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties. ? VOICE TWO: ? During and after World War One, thousands of southern blacks moved to northern cities in the United States. They were seeking jobs and better lives. Many settled in an area of New York City known as Harlem. Many were musicians, writers, artists and performers. Harlem became the largest African-American community in the United States. ? The mass movement from south to north led African-Americans to examine their lives:? Who were they?? What were their rights as Americans?? The artistic expression of this collective examination became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Renaissance means rebirth. The Harlem Renaissance represented a re-birth of black people as an effective part of American life. ? Dorothy West helped influence the direction and form of African-American writing during this time. ? (MUSIC) ? VOICE ONE: ? Dorothy West was born in nineteen-oh-seven in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Both her parents were born in the southern United States, and moved north. Her father was a former slave. He became the first African-American to own a food-selling company in Boston. ? The family became part of the black upper middle class social group of Boston. Dorothy West had private teachers, dancing classes, and holidays on Martha's Vineyard -- an island off the coast of Massachusetts. She studied at Boston University and the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York. Later, she would use her own experiences and observations to write about social class in the black community. ? VOICE TWO: ? Dorothy West started writing stories at age seven. When she was fourteen, she published her first story in the "Boston Post."? After that, she wrote often for that newspaper. In nineteen twenty-six, she won second place in a short story contest by "Opportunity" magazine. Her story was called "The Typewriter." ?It describes an African-American man who hates his real life. He creates a better life for himself -- in his imagination -- in order to help his daughter improve her typing skills. ? VOICE ONE: ? Dorothy West won second place in the competition with Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston was another famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance. West moved to Harlem, too. She was considered a little sister by Hurston and other writers and poets such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Wallace Thurman. ? Members of the Harlem Renaissance group were very serious about their art. West once told a reporter that they all thought they were going to be the greatest writers in the world. ? VOICE TWO: ? During this time, Dorothy West wrote a number of short stories. They were published in magazines in and around New York. One story was called "Funeral."? Another was called "The Black Dress." ? She once said the writer whose work she liked most was the Russian Fyodor Dstoevsky. Experts say some of her work is similar to his. Like Dostoevsky, she wrote about the idea of being saved by suffering. She wrote about unsatisfied people who feel trapped by their environment, or by racism, or because they are female or male. ? VOICE ONE: ? In nineteen thirty-two, Dorothy West went to Russia with a group of black intellectuals and artists. They went to make a film about racism in the United States. The film, "Black and White," was never completed. West remained in Russia for about a year. It appears she did not stay for political reasons, however. She said she went to Russia with Langston Hughes and the others because she liked them. She returned to the United States when her father died. ? VOICE TWO: ? By the middle of the nineteen thirties, the Harlem Renaissance was dying out. Dorothy West wanted to re-capture the creativity of the period. So she created a magazine called, "Challenge." ? She edited and published the works of new, young African-American writers. The magazine lasted only three years. West did not have enough money to continue producing it. She also said she did not receive enough writing of a high quality. ? The magazine was criticized by a group of black writers. They included Richard Wright, author of the book “Native Son,” and Margaret Walker. They said the magazine was too concerned with artistic values. They felt it should deal with political issues. ? VOICE ONE: ? In nineteen thirty-seven, Dorothy West created another magazine called "New Challenge."? She asked Richard Wright to help her, even though he had criticized her earlier magazine. ? The two writers disagreed on a number of issues, however. Also, West again had financial difficulties producing the magazine. So "New Challenge" was published only once. Yet that one publication was very important. It included a document by Wright called "Blueprint for Negro Writing."? That was a statement about what he believed African-Americans should write about. "New Challenge" was the first publication to bring together black art and politics. Other magazines would follow its example. ? (MUSIC) ? VOICE TWO: ? In the late nineteen forties, Dorothy West left New York. She moved to her family's holiday house on Martha's Vineyard island. She lived there for the rest of her life. ? In nineteen forty-eight, she published her first book, “The Living Is Easy.”? It is partly based on her life and on her mother. It is about a light-skinned black woman named Cleo Johnson. She wishes that her dark-skinned daughter were more like her. She treats her husband badly because he is from a lower social class. The book describes black middle class values in Boston. Many critics liked the book and its message about racism against blacks and within the black community. ? VOICE ONE: ? “The Living is Easy” was published again by the Feminist Press in nineteen eighty-two. Critics at that time described the book as important because it showed the position of women in the family and in life. The book also is valued for its description of the complex relationship between a mother and a daughter. “The Living Is Easy” is now recognized as having an important influence on the writing tradition of African-American women. ? VOICE TWO: ? After her first novel, Dorothy West continued writing stories and short pieces containing her ideas on different subjects. Her second novel was published forty-seven years later, in nineteen ninety-five. It is called “The Wedding.” ? The story takes place in the black community of Martha's Vineyard during the nineteen-fifties. It is about a rich young black woman who is to marry a white jazz musician. It deals with class and color issues between blacks, and racial issues between blacks and whites. West believed that different races should not be separated from each other. She also believed in love. ? VOICE ONE: ? She began the book in the Nineteen-Sixties. But she stopped writing it when the Black Power political movement grew strong. She thought members of the group would denounce it. She was not?active in the civil rights movement to guarantee fair treatment for black Americans. ? In Nineteen-Ninety-Two, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis began to visit Dorothy West to help her finish “The Wedding.”? Missus Onassis was married to American President John Kennedy when he was killed in nineteen sixty-three. Later, she worked for a publishing company. She died just before “The Wedding” was published. Dorothy West noted that the two women looked very different but had worked together perfectly. ? The book was so popular that its publishers produced another one by Dorothy West. “The Richer, The Poorer” is a collection of stories and other writings she made throughout her life. ? VOICE TWO: ? Dorothy West was the last living member of the Harlem Renaissance. She died in August, nineteen ninety-eight. She was ninety-one years old. Not long before she died, she was honored at a special ceremony. Many different people praised her work. They described her influence on American culture over so many years. One said, simply, that Dorothy West was a "national gift." ? (MUSIC) ? VOICE ONE: ? This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana. I'm Shirley Griffith. ? VOICE TWO: ? And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.N. Report Warns of Risk to Goal to Cut Poverty by 2015
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has released its two thousand five Human Development Report. The report shows that eighteen countries have moved down the list in terms of conditions for their people. Twelve are in central and southern Africa. The others are former Soviet republics. But the U.N. report says many other nations have made progress. ?It says people in developing countries are generally healthier, wealthier and better educated than they were fifteen years ago. And they are also more likely to live in a democratic system. The report says one hundred thirty million people escaped extreme poverty during the nineteen nineties. And more than one thousand million gained access to clean water. But the study says two and one-half thousand million people still live on less than two dollars a day. And around half as many still do not have safe water. The U.N. Development Program has published the yearly report since nineteen ninety. This year’s came out last week. Later this week is the World Summit in New York. Leaders will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations. They also will discuss progress over the past five years toward the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals. One goal is to cut the number of people living in extreme poverty by fifty percent by two thousand fifteen. Other goals are to reduce child deaths by two-thirds and to provide basic education for all children in the next ten years. The new Human Development Report warns that the goals are at risk. It says that without more money for development, there will be millions of deaths that could have been prevented. And, it says, more than eight hundred million people will still be living in extreme poverty. The number is almost four hundred million higher than the target for two thousand fifteen. The U.N. report says developing nations must seek investment and fight dishonesty. But it says economic growth alone will not help most countries reach the goal to reduce poverty. It says they must also fight social inequalities and respect human rights. Finally, the report calls for major changes to international policies on aid, trade and security. It says the world has the resources to end poverty, but must also have the political will. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Recovering From a Storm Now Headed for the History Books
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Shep O’Neal. On August twenty-ninth, Hurricane Katrina struck hard in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Winds, rains and floodwaters tore into the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. No one knows yet how many people died in all. New Orleans Mayor Ray? estimated that his city alone may have lost ten thousand of its almost five hundred thousand people. However, officials have just reported that the first organized search for bodies in the city found many fewer than expected. Now, Bob Doughty and Faith Lapidus continue our report on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and across America. VOICE TWO: At least thirty states have accepted refugees from Hurricane Katrina. Texas took in almost two hundred fifty thousand. Some people who fled the storm found temporary housing with family or friends. Thousands found refuge in hotels. Or schools. Or sports centers, like the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Katrina damaged the Superdome, the main sports center in New Orleans. But it became a temporary shelter for thousands. Many stayed there for days; they had no place else to go. It was hot, crowded and dirty. Conditions became deplorable. There were deaths but the bodies were not removed. Finally, buses came. They took the people to the Astrodome and other shelters. Survivors of Katrina are in shelters operated by the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other organizations. Religious groups have opened their doors to the homeless. So have private citizens. Hospitals and nursing homes in faraway states have offered to accept some of the sick and injured. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: First came Katrina, now comes the political storm. The federal government faces intense criticism and anger over the way it reacted to the hurricane. A major target is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Critics say FEMA waited too long to send help. Helicopters rescued many people from the floodwaters. But reports told of others who died as they waited for someone to save them. Many people went without food or water in the summer heat. People had been warned to leave their homes before the hurricane hit land. Some stayed because they had survived other storms. Some were too sick or too old to leave, or had to take care of others. Some did not own automobiles; many of the victims lived in poverty. And some simply would not go. President Bush called the early efforts by the government unacceptable. He says he will lead an investigation into what went wrong. Congress plans it own investigation. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine said "governments at all levels failed." President Bush last week asked Congress for fifty-two thousand million dollars more for storm aid. That was in addition to the ten and one-half thousand million dollars already approved. VOICE TWO: There are charges of racism. Many of the victims were black. In New Orleans, two out of three people are African-American. Some critics say the federal government did not act faster because it did not care about the victims. Officials say the high water slowed the arrival of help. Yet that was not the only danger for rescue workers. In New Orleans, when flood controls failed, so did law and order. People entered stores to find food, drinking water and diapers for babies. But people also stole things like televisions and guns. Anarchy spread in the streets. Armed troops helped police suppress the lawlessness. Some of the soldiers compared the situation to what they had experienced in Iraq. VOICE ONE: Tens of thousands of National Guard and other military service members are involved in the rescue and recovery efforts. Repair crews have worked hard in their efforts to return electric power to homes and businesses on the Gulf Coast. Workers have also restarted oil and natural-gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico. American drivers quickly saw the effects of Katrina on fuel prices, which were already high. Now, there are worries about prices for home heating fuel this winter. The storm could reduce American economic growth by as much as a full percentage point for the remainder of the year. That was the estimate last week by the Congressional Budget Office. Economists there say four hundred thousand jobs may be lost. But they say the economic damage should not cause a recession. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Games of chance were lucky for people in Biloxi, Mississippi. The local economy depends on them. Now, because of the storm, Biloxi has lost most of its casinos. The workers are out of jobs, though some other businesses in the city are open again. The community of Bayou Le Batre, in Alabama, has about two thousand five hundred people. They depend heavily on the seafood industry. But a lot of boats were blown onto land. Some of the owners do not have enough money for repairs. They might have to join other fishermen along the Gulf Coast who have declared the season a loss. VOICE ONE: After Katrina hit, there was no lack of heroes. Helicopter crews from the Coast Guard made rescue after rescue in dangerous conditions. They pulled people out of floodwaters and off rooftops. There were stories of emergency workers who stayed on the job even as they worried about their own families. And the list goes on. There are efforts across the nation to collect money for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Two former presidents, the first George Bush and Bill Clinton, will lead a private campaign. They led a similar effort after the earthquake and tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean last December. Countries that received American aid are now among the nations that have offered assistance. VOICE TWO:?????? The Internet has served as a way for people to give money. But it has also helped meet other important needs. Web sites have reunited people separated by the storm. And the Internet has also provided a way for many storm refugees to stay informed of local news. The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans had to suspend printing, but it could still publish on its Web site. Which made sense, because most of its readers also had to flee the city. (MUSIC)? VOICE ONE: People in New Orleans always knew something like this could happen. The city was built below sea level. The waters of Lake Pontchartrain are to the north. The Mississippi River is to the south. A flood control system around the city includes pumping stations and dams made of earth and concrete. Katrina turned and did not even hit New Orleans with its most powerful winds and rain. Still, it caused two levees to break the next day. Most of the city was flooded. Last week, engineers began to pump floodwaters out of the city. The long process got off to a slow start. Public health officials warned that the water is a poisonous mix of chemicals, waste and bacteria. Fires and natural-gas leaks only added to the dangers. ? By the middle of last week, as many as ten thousand people were believed to remain in New Orleans. Mayor Ray Nagin ordered them to leave or be removed by force, if necessary. VOICE TWO: The city of New Orleans was established in seventeen eighteen. It began as a French colony. It survived fires and disease. It survived hurricanes and floods, to become one of America’s most interesting cities. In seventeen sixty-two, the king of France gave the Louisiana Territory to his cousin, the king of Spain. But in eighteen hundred France secretly regained control. Three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States. VOICE? ONE: Over the years, New Orleans became well known for its celebrations of? in the spring. The city is also famous for its music. New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz. Places like Preservation Hall in the French Quarter have helped keep the traditions alive. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The French Quarter suffered wind damage from Katrina, but the ground was high enough to escape the flooding. People in New Orleans know that their city could suffer storms even worse than Hurricane Katrina. Some say they want to make a new life elsewhere. But others want to rebuild and start again. Similar decisions will have to be made in many other places, as the Gulf Coast deals with a storm now headed for the history books. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our shows are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And we hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Aspirin: One of the Most Widely Used Drugs in the World
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program today, we tell about aspirin. It is one of the most widely used medicines in the world. We also tell about some recent studies involving aspirin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than two thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates advised his patients about a way to ease pain. He told them to bite, or chew, on the bark of the willow tree. The outer covering of the tree contains a chemical called salicylic acid. By the seventeen hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce high body temperatures. In eighteen ninety-seven, a research scientist at the Bayer Company in Germany? created acetyl salicylic acid. The company called the product aspirin, from the spirea plant, which also contains the chemical. VOICE TWO: Aspirin has been sold for more than a century as a treatment for high body temperatures, headaches and muscle pain. In nineteen eighty-two, a British scientist shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. Sir John Vane found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and the expansion, or swelling, of damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the heart, kidneys, and blood vessels work well. But there is a problem. Aspirin works against all prostaglandins, good and bad. VOICE ONE: Scientists learned how aspirin interferes with an enzyme. One form of this enzyme makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates the protective effect. So aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues. But it can also harm the inside of the stomach and small intestine. Today, aspirin competes with a lot of other pain medicines. Many people like to take acetaminophen instead. This is the active substance in products like Tylenol. Still, experts say aspirin does some things that the others cannot. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people take aspirin to reduce the risk of a heart attack. Scientists say aspirin prevents blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. This can cause heart attacks or strokes. The use of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart disease has grown in recent years. One doctor first noted this effect in the nineteen-fifties. VOICE ONE: The doctor was Lawrence Craven. He observed unusual bleeding among children who chewed on aspirin gum to ease pain after a throat operation. Doctor Craven believed they were bleeding because aspirin prevented the blood from thickening. He decided that aspirin might help prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots. So Doctor Craven examined medical records of about eight thousand people. He found no heart attacks or strokes among those who often used aspirin. Doctor Craven invited other scientists to test his ideas. But it was many years before large studies took place. VOICE TWO: Charles Hennekens of the Harvard Medical School led one of the studies. In nineteen eighty-three, he began to study more than twenty-two thousand healthy male doctors over forty years of age. Half the doctors in the study took an aspirin every other day. The other half took what they thought was aspirin, but was just a harmless substance, or placebo. Five years later, Doctor Hennekens reported that the men who took aspirin reduced their chances of a heart attack. However, the men who took aspirin also had a higher risk of bleeding in the brain. VOICE ONE: In recent years, a group of American medical experts examined studies on aspirin for the Department of Health and Human Services. The experts said people who have an increased risk of a heart attack should take a small amount of aspirin every day. People who are most likely to suffer a heart attack include men over the age of forty and women over the age of fifty. People who weigh too much or smoke cigarettes also are at greater risk. So are people with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol in the blood. VOICE TWO: A major study in two thousand five confirmed that aspirin can also help women. Julie Buring of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, led the study. She said that among apparently health people, aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack in men. But for women it appears to reduce the risk of stroke. The New England Journal of Medicine reported the findings. The study lasted ten years. It involved forty thousand women age forty-five and older. Those who received aspirin took one hundred milligrams every other day. The others took a placebo. The study found that the women who took aspirin were seventeen percent less likely to have a stroke than the other women. The aspirin group also had a twenty-four percent lower risk for the most common form of stroke. This is caused by a clot in a blood vessel that carries blood to the brain. The study found that aspirin had an even greater effect in women sixty-five years of age and older. Those who took aspirin were thirty percent less likely to have a stroke caused by a blood clot. They were also less likely to suffer a heart attack than those given a placebo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aspirin may help someone who is having a heart attack caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the heart. Aspirin thins the blood. This can permit blood to flow past the blockage in the artery. But heart experts say people should seek emergency help immediately. They say an aspirin is no substitute for treatment. Some people should not take aspirin. These include people who take other blood thinners or have bleeding disorders. VOICE TWO: Like other medicines, aspirin can cause problems, especially if taken in large amounts. Acid in the drug may damage the tissue of the stomach or intestines. Aspirin can also interfere with the healing of cells. Some people develop severe bleeding. Yet other studies have found that aspirin may help prevent cancers of the stomach, intestines and colon. Studies in the past twenty years showed that people who take aspirin have unusually low rates of such cancers. For example, a study published in two thousand five showed that long-term use of aspirin helps reduce the risk of colon cancer. However, the amount of aspirin required for this protective effect also could cause serious bleeding in the stomach or intestines. VOICE ONE: Another recent report about aspirin involves the most common form of breast cancer. In two thousand four, researchers announced findings from a study of almost three thousand women in New York City. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. The study compared women who took aspirin several times a week to women who did not. Scientists from Columbia University said the aspirin users had a twenty-five percent lower rate of breast cancer. One doctor involved in the study said aspirin appeared to reduce the production of the female hormone estrogen. Estrogen is linked to up to seventy percent of all cases of breast cancer. But the scientists said they were not ready to advise women to take aspirin in hopes of protection against breast cancer. VOICE TWO: Doctors often do advise aspirin for patients at risk of diseases that result from blood clots, such as a heart attack. However, in two thousand four, a Harvard Medical School publication said that some people get little or no protection from aspirin. In any case, medical experts say no one should take aspirin for disease prevention without first asking a doctor. Aspirin is sold in different strengths. It can interfere with other drugs. It also is not safe for everyone. Most pregnant women are told to avoid aspirin. Children who take aspirin can suffer from a disease called Reye’s syndrome. Yet even with its problems, aspirin, remains one of the oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Katrina: Counting the Damage to Agriculture
* Byline: 

 I’m Barbara Klein with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. New Orleans has always been a busy center for ships and trains. The city is close to the mouth of the longest river system in North America. Normally, thousands of barges travel down the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and other rivers to New Orleans. They carry grain and other crops for export. These flat boats can hold as many as fifteen railroad cars or sixty trucks. More than sixty percent of American corn and soybean exports go through New Orleans. All that activity stopped when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August twenty-ninth. Traffic on the lower Mississippi River came to a halt. It is slowly returning to normal. And the port of New Orleans set a goal to restart limited operations for trade ships by September fourteenth. The American Farm Bureau estimated that the storm caused at least one thousand million dollars in damage to crops and farm animals. Most of the losses are in the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. However, the Farm Bureau says higher transportation and energy costs could add another thousand million to the price of Katrina. Last week, the Agriculture Department offered emergency aid for producers affected by the storm. The more than one hundred seventy million dollars in assistance is mostly in the form of loans. A spokesman says more aid will come later. The Farm Bureau says final estimates of the damage could take weeks or longer. But it said strong harvests of soybeans, corn and cotton in other states should limit any national effects of Katrina. It said the biggest effect might be on the price of sugar from sugar cane because of a limited supply. At the same time, prices fell for corn and soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade. But market experts say that could change as the port of New Orleans returns to normal shipping levels. The storm hit shortly before committees in Congress were expected to consider proposed cuts in agricultural aid. The chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said he now expects a delay. The Agriculture Department says farm earnings in the United States last year reached a record eighty-two and one-half thousand million dollars. But many farmers could earn less this year. That is because of high fuel prices, as well as high temperatures and dry conditions in the central states. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 'We're Americans, We're Not Refugees'
* Byline: 

 AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: What to call the homeless of Hurricane Katrina? RS:?? Some have called them "refugees." We asked Oxford English Dictionary consultant Ben Zimmer for a history of this word. BEN ZIMMER: "It comes out of religious persecution in the 17th century, when the Catholic government of France persecuted the French Huguenots, the Protestants of the time. And they were forced to flee to other countries and also to the British colonies in what is now the United States. And so this term 'refugee' was used to describe them. After that point, it became applied to various other groups who were fleeing persecution or various political problems. And it eventually became used to refer to any displaced persons driven from home, by a war for instance." AA: "So now over the years, though, has the term refugee been applied more and more broadly -- for example, to natural events like storms?" BEN ZIMMER: "It has. Perhaps the most well-known example of this was in the 1930s, when the Dust Bowl -- the term that was used for the terrible dust storms that affected the central part of the United States -- this caused many poor farmers to flee, many of them going to California. And these poor farmers were called 'Dust Bowl refugees.' And there was a well-known song by Woody Guthrie ... " MUSIC: "Dust Bowl Refugees" BEN ZIMMER: "But it's interesting to note that even back then, the term was problematic. Woody Guthrie's biographer Joe Klein said that Woody Guthrie hated the term refugee, but he used it in the song as a way of, again, identifying with the plight of the people who were affected." RS: "Is that the recent example of the use ... " BEN ZIMMER: "More recently if you look at the coverage of various other disasters that have happened -- for example, the forest fires that started outside of Oakland, California, in 1991 -- 'refugees' was also used. It really is only with the coverage of Hurricane Katrina that it's become such a controversial term." RS: "And why?" BEN ZIMMER: "Well, we first started hearing objections on Friday morning, Sept. 2. That was when the Congressional Black Caucus had a press conference where they objected to the term. And that was really -- that was really the first serious objection, although there were some news reports. Actually just the previous night, Fox News reported from a shelter in Baton Rouge, a person at the shelter was quoted by Fox saying: 'We're American citizens. We've had a tragedy, yes, and we're out of our homes. We are not refugees.' "And this point that 'we're Americans, we're not refugees' was one that was picked up by the Congressional Black Caucus and other African-American leaders. The Rev. Jesse Jackson went so far as to say that it was racist to call American citizens refugees. So there was a kind of a consensus that seemed to arise involving people directly affected by the storm, but also commentators and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum that it was potentially offensive to use this term." RS: "So what you're saying here is that public perception did have an impact on what the media wrote, and what people are saying and the language of discourse now?" BEN ZIMMER: "It did have a tremendous effect. But those who said that refugee was an acceptable word to use sometimes objected to the word 'evacuee.' They said it was too clinical or too tame or perhaps euphemistic, and that refugee would be a word that really gets across the power of what happened and also was a kind of indictment of government officials whose neglect might have had something to do with the plight of the people. "Another point that was made, by Lavinia Limon, who's the head of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, she was saddened, she was disappointed that people were treating the word refugee as such a pejorative term. On the other hand, she understood that this was perhaps not the most appropriate term to use. She said that, legally, refugees are people who suffer from persecution based on race, ethnicity and religion and so forth. She said that it would be better to call them 'displaced Americans,' because they are not people without a country." ROBERTA COHEN: "If you acknowledge that these people are internally displaced persons, then you also can turn to international standards written specifically for these people." AA:?? That’s Roberta Cohen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Ms. Cohen helped organize those standards for the United Nations. ROBERTA COHEN: "If you want to call them 'evacuees,' you won't turn to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. You know, the U.S. may look at I.D.P.'s as people uprooted by a civil war or ethnic cleansing in a country. But, according to the U.N. guidelines, they also apply to natural disasters." RS:?? Roberta Cohen of the Brookings Institution, speaking to us from?Geneva. Ben Zimmer is a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary. He spoke to us from New Jersey. AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: What to call the homeless of Hurricane Katrina? RS:?? Some have called them "refugees." We asked Oxford English Dictionary consultant Ben Zimmer for a history of this word. BEN ZIMMER: "It comes out of religious persecution in the 17th century, when the Catholic government of France persecuted the French Huguenots, the Protestants of the time. And they were forced to flee to other countries and also to the British colonies in what is now the United States. And so this term 'refugee' was used to describe them. After that point, it became applied to various other groups who were fleeing persecution or various political problems. And it eventually became used to refer to any displaced persons driven from home, by a war for instance." AA: "So now over the years, though, has the term refugee been applied more and more broadly -- for example, to natural events like storms?" BEN ZIMMER: "It has. Perhaps the most well-known example of this was in the 1930s, when the Dust Bowl -- the term that was used for the terrible dust storms that affected the central part of the United States -- this caused many poor farmers to flee, many of them going to California. And these poor farmers were called 'Dust Bowl refugees.' And there was a well-known song by Woody Guthrie ... " MUSIC: "Dust Bowl Refugees" BEN ZIMMER: "But it's interesting to note that even back then, the term was problematic. Woody Guthrie's biographer Joe Klein said that Woody Guthrie hated the term refugee, but he used it in the song as a way of, again, identifying with the plight of the people who were affected." RS: "Is that the recent example of the use ... " BEN ZIMMER: "More recently if you look at the coverage of various other disasters that have happened -- for example, the forest fires that started outside of Oakland, California, in 1991 -- 'refugees' was also used. It really is only with the coverage of Hurricane Katrina that it's become such a controversial term." RS: "And why?" BEN ZIMMER: "Well, we first started hearing objections on Friday morning, Sept. 2. That was when the Congressional Black Caucus had a press conference where they objected to the term. And that was really -- that was really the first serious objection, although there were some news reports. Actually just the previous night, Fox News reported from a shelter in Baton Rouge, a person at the shelter was quoted by Fox saying: 'We're American citizens. We've had a tragedy, yes, and we're out of our homes. We are not refugees.' "And this point that 'we're Americans, we're not refugees' was one that was picked up by the Congressional Black Caucus and other African-American leaders. The Rev. Jesse Jackson went so far as to say that it was racist to call American citizens refugees. So there was a kind of a consensus that seemed to arise involving people directly affected by the storm, but also commentators and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum that it was potentially offensive to use this term." RS: "So what you're saying here is that public perception did have an impact on what the media wrote, and what people are saying and the language of discourse now?" BEN ZIMMER: "It did have a tremendous effect. But those who said that refugee was an acceptable word to use sometimes objected to the word 'evacuee.' They said it was too clinical or too tame or perhaps euphemistic, and that refugee would be a word that really gets across the power of what happened and also was a kind of indictment of government officials whose neglect might have had something to do with the plight of the people. "Another point that was made, by Lavinia Limon, who's the head of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, she was saddened, she was disappointed that people were treating the word refugee as such a pejorative term. On the other hand, she understood that this was perhaps not the most appropriate term to use. She said that, legally, refugees are people who suffer from persecution based on race, ethnicity and religion and so forth. She said that it would be better to call them 'displaced Americans,' because they are not people without a country." ROBERTA COHEN: "If you acknowledge that these people are internally displaced persons, then you also can turn to international standards written specifically for these people." AA:?? That’s Roberta Cohen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Ms. Cohen helped organize those standards for the United Nations. ROBERTA COHEN: "If you want to call them 'evacuees,' you won't turn to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. You know, the U.S. may look at I.D.P.'s as people uprooted by a civil war or ethnic cleansing in a country. But, according to the U.N. guidelines, they also apply to natural disasters." RS:?? Roberta Cohen of the Brookings Institution, speaking to us from?Geneva. Ben Zimmer is a consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary. He spoke to us from New Jersey. AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wiley Post: The First Pilot to Fly Around the World Alone
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 ANNOUNCER: Now the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson tell about pilot Wiley Post. He set new records when he flew his own airplane around the world in nineteen thirty-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It was nineteen thirty-three. Only six years earlier Charles Lindburgh became famous around the world as the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a young pilot was trying to fly across Russia. He had left Moscow several hours before. All he heard was the sound of the one engine that powered his plane. Hour after hour the same sound. Now the weather was bad. He could not see much ahead, only the fog. Flying in fog is very dangerous. Yet the sound of the engine made everything seem warm and safe. Then, out of the fog he saw a mountain. He had only seconds to bring the airplane up. It was a narrow escape, one of many he would have during his long flight. VOICE TWO: The young pilot was Wiley Post. He was trying to fly around the world by himself. He made the trip in less than eight days. He stopped eleven times for fuel, food and a little sleep. Wiley Post made his famous flight in July, nineteen thirty-three. Not many flight instruments existed that could help him find his way. He was alone, fighting against sleep. If he fell asleep he would die. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nothing in Wiley Post's early years suggests that he would become a famous pilot. He was born in Grand Ssaline, Texas, in eighteen ninety-eight. His family were farmers. In nineteen thirteen, Wiley saw something that forever changed his life -- an airplane. After watching the plane fly, young Wiley waited until most people had left the area. He then began inspecting and studying the plane. He measured different parts of the plane with his hands. Many years later, Wiley Post would say that first airplane was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. VOICE TWO: Wiley Post began to study everything he could find about flying. He began to educate himself about subjects such as mathematics, radio and machinery. His self-education would continue the rest of his life. Post finally rode in an airplane in nineteen nineteen. At the time, many people believed all pilots were special people. They believed it took special skills and courage to fly an airplane. But after his first ride, Wiley Post knew that flying was something he could learn to do. VOICE ONE: Wiley Post began his career in flying, not as a pilot, but as a performer who jumps from airplanes using a parachute. He did this with a group that performed flying tricks to earn money. He jumped ninety-nine times in two years with the flying show. When he was not jumping with a parachute, he was being taught how to fly by pilots in the air show. But he could not fly as often as he liked. VOICE TWO: Wiley Post then decided the only way to become a good pilot was to buy an airplane of his own. He needed more money than he earned in the flying show. He went to work in the oil producing areas of Texas. But he damaged his left eye in an accident. Doctors had to remove his eye. At first, Post thought his days as a pilot were ended. A pilot needs to be able to judge distance. Judging distance is difficult without two eyes. It seems impossible to tell how big objects are and how far away. Wiley Post began teaching himself to judge distance with only one eye. He worked hard at training his eye and brain to tell the correct distance. It took a long time, but he succeeded. He continued to fly and soon became a very good pilot. VOICE ONE: In nineteen twenty-eight, he got a job flying the plane that belonged to a rich oil producer from Oklahoma. The man's name was F.C. Hall. He bought a new airplane for Post to fly. Mister Hall named the airplane the "Winnie Mae" after one of his daughters. F.C. Hall told Post he could use the plane to enter flight competitions. Post did. In nineteen thirty, he entered the National Air Races. The race called for flying without stopping from Los Angeles in the western state of California, to the city of Chicago, in the middle western state of Illinois. Post won the race. He defeated several well?known pilots. It was the first time the public heard the name Wiley Post. VOICE TWO: Post was not really interested in racing airplanes. He wanted to be the first person to fly around the world. Many pilots had talked about trying to make such a flight. But no one had done it. Post believed he would need someone to help him in the effort. He chose an Australian man, Harold Gatty, to do the mathematics that decided the plane's direction. Post would fly the plane. On June twenty-third, nineteen thirty-one, Post and Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field in New York. They returned to Roosevelt Field eight days, fifteen hours and fifty-one minutes later. They had flown around the world. VOICE ONE: At first every one was very happy. Wiley Post and Harold Gatty were heroes. Then many people began to say that Post was nothing more than an airplane driver because he had no real education. They said Gatty was the real hero. He had guided the flight. Both men knew they had made the flight as a team. Others did not recognize this. This hurt Post. Wiley Post began to plan another flight around the world. This time he would go alone. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Wiley Post knew that any effort has a good chance of success if the person planning the task is well prepared. So he worked hard to prepare well. He used the most modern equipment possible. He made sure the engine on the "Winnie Mae" was perfect. And to prepare himself, he went without sleep for long periods of time. On July fifteenth, nineteen thirty-three, Post took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York. His first stop would be Berlin, Germany. He landed in Berlin twenty-six hours later. He became the first person to fly from New York to Berlin without stopping. VOICE ONE: After a little food for himself and fuel for the "Winnie Mae," Post was once again in the air. This time he was headed for Russia. For long hours he flew, listening only to the sound of his engine. Often, the weather was so bad he could not see where he was. At one point he came so close to running out of gas he considered using his parachute. But at the last minute he found a place to land and get gas. The flight across the huge width of Russia was difficult. He made several stops for gas and a few hours rest before flying across the Bering Sea to Alaska. VOICE TWO: By now, he was very tired. To keep himself awake as he flew east during the long night, Post tied a piece of string to one finger. The other end of the string was tied to a heavy aircraft tool. He held the tool in his hand. If he started to fall asleep, the tool would fall from his hand. The string would pull his finger and wake him. From Fairbanks, Alaska, he flew to Edmonton, Canada and then on toward New York. More than fifty thousand people waited at Floyd Bennett Field. Wiley Post gently landed the "Winnie Mae" long after dark. He had flown around the world in seven days, eighteen hours and forty-nine minutes. Thousands of excited people rushed toward the plane. Wiley Post was a hero. He had become the most famous pilot in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty-five, only two years after his around the world record flight, Wiley Post was killed in a flying accident in Alaska. Before Post's death, the government of the United States had bought the "Winnie Mae. " It is owned by the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. VOICE TWO: Many pilots have flown around the world since Wiley Post made his flight. His record was first broken only a few years after his death. Since that time many records for the trip have been made and broken. Yet what Wiley Post did can never really be done again. No pilot today would try to make the flight in an airplane like the Winnie Mae. No one would try it with the flight instruments he used. And, no one would want to copy his flight around the world, alone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: India, Nepal Fight Outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Jim Tedder with the VOA Special English Health Report. Japanese encephalitis is a disease that can cause brain damage and, in some cases, death. But it can also be prevented with a vaccine. Japanese encephalitis is caused by a virus that infects the central nervous system. The virus is spread by infected mosquitoes, usually in rice-growing and pig-farming areas of Asia. Mosquitoes pick up the virus when they bite infected pigs and wild birds. Then the insects pass the virus to people and animals. Experts say the virus is not passed between people. Most people who are infected with the virus develop mild effects or none at all. But it can progress to an infection of the brain. Signs include a high body temperature, head pain, seizures and vomiting. Victims may also not be able to think clearly. A recent outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has killed more than six hundred people in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Most of the victims were children. The disease has spread to areas including the state capital, Lucknow. Vaccinations can protect people against Japanese encephalitis. Uttar Pradesh officials say they do not have enough money for the medicine. They have appealed for help from the federal government and the World Health Organization. The Associated Press reported Monday that India's health minister said more than twenty million children will be vaccinated. The disease has also spread across the border to Nepal. The Associated Press said Nepal has had more than one hundred seventy deaths. The World Health Organization says about fifty thousand cases of Japanese encephalitis are reported each year. These result in about fifteen thousand deaths. Other victims are left with serious brain damage, including loss of movement. Experts say most of those infected with Japanese encephalitis are children up to fifteen years old. Doctors identify the disease through blood tests and test of fluid from the spinal cord. There is no cure. Antibiotics do not work against viruses. And no effective anti-viral drugs have been discovered against Japanese encephalitis. United States health officials say major outbreaks in the past have hit China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and other areas. Cambodia, India, Nepal, Malaysia and Vietnam are among countries that still have outbreaks from time to time. ? This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can find our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-14-voa4.cfm
* Headline: International Education Program Aims for Worldly Students
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Young people in more than one hundred countries can attend schools that offer International Baccalaureate programs. The International Baccalaureate Organization in Switzerland was started in nineteen sixty-eight. It says the goal is to "create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect."? The non-profit organization says about two hundred thousand students are in I.B. programs. The first is the primary years program. This is for children ages three to twelve. They begin to learn about the ideas of people in other parts of the world. The middle years program is for students between the ages of eleven and sixteen. They study languages, mathematics and science as well as arts, technology and physical education. This program is designed to help students make connections between the different areas of study. They are also urged to take part in local activities so they can be good citizens. The diploma program is for sixteen to eighteen year olds. It is two years of study to prepare for college or university. They study languages, a social science, an experimental science, mathematics and the arts. They must pass six examinations to complete the program. Students who pass receive a special International Baccalaureate certificate. It is accepted by universities around the world. I.B. students also satisfy the requirements of their local and national educational systems. The International Baccalaureate Organization says about thirty universities offer financial aid to graduates of its programs. More than one thousand five hundred schools offer I.B. programs. The number continues to grow. Last month, a school in Croatia began to offer the middle years program. And a school in the Philippines started to teach the diploma program. Other nations that offer I.B. programs include Bangladesh, Britain, China, India, Indonesia, Mozambique, Vietnam and Spain. In the United States, there are more than four hundred I.B. diploma programs. Also, there are forty-nine middle school programs and thirty primary school programs. More details about I.B. programs can be found on the Internet at www.ibo.org. And our weekly reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-14-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Native Americans Fight Two Wars Over Land Rights
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) During the eighteen hundreds, the federal government forced native American Indians to live in special areas. These were called reservations. The Indians no longer could move freely over the Great Plains to hunt buffalo. White men were settling there. The situation resulted in violence. I'm Harry Monroe. Today,Kay Gallant and I continue the story of these western wars. VOICE TWO: The government sent soldiers to force the Indians to move to reservations. But the soldiers could not keep them there. Groups of Indians would leave the reservations in the spring. They followed the buffalo across the plains. Some raided the homes of White settlers. They stole horses and cattle. At the end of the summer, the Indians would return to the reservations. And the government would give them food for the winter. VOICE ONE: As years passed, fewer Indians left the reservations to live the old life on the plains. It became difficult to find buffalo. The plains were becoming empty. Only a few years before, millions of buffalo lived on the Great Plains. Then railroads were built across the country. White men came to claim the grasslands. They put up fences. Cowboys came up from Texas with huge groups of cattle. They forced the buffalo away or killed them. The Indians tried to prevent this killing. Angry groups of Indians often attacked White buffalo hunters. But the army was too strong. Soldiers killed or captured many Indians. Finally, most Indians gave up the struggle. They surrendered their guns and horses. They went back to the reservations and became farmers. VOICE TWO: All this was taking place in what is now the south-central part of the United States. Far to the north, another struggle was taking place involving the great Sioux Indian tribe. The Sioux had signed a treaty with the government in eighteen sixty-eight. The treaty gave them a large reservation in what is now Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The Black Hills in Dakota were part of the reservation. These hills were important to the Sioux. In their religion, the Black Hills were a holy place. They were the center of their world, where the gods lived. They were the place where Indian fighters went to speak with the great spirit. VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-three, the Black Hills suddenly became important to White men, too. Gold was discovered there. Treaties and religion meant nothing to the White miners who rushed to the Black Hills to search for gold. At first, the Indians killed some of the miners. They chased others away. But more miners came. The Sioux tribe asked the government to enforce the treaty. Tribal leaders asked the government to keep White men away from the reservation. The army sent soldiers to remove the miners. The soldiers ordered the miners to leave. But they made no effort to enforce the order. Again the Indians protested. This time, the government sent officials to negotiate a new treaty. It asked the Sioux Indians to give up the Black Hills. Some of the Indian leaders refused to negotiate. One who rejected the invitation was Sitting Bull. "I do not want to sell any land to the government," Chief Sitting Bull said. He held a little dust between his fingers. "Not even this much." VOICE TWO: This resistance did not stop government efforts to get the Black Hills for the miners. The War Department sent General George Crook to punish the Indians and force them back to their reservation. Crook led a large force into Sioux country. He surprised an Indian village, capturing hundreds of horses. There was another clash a few months later. This time, the result was very different. The Indians gave the army its worst defeat in almost a century. VOICE ONE: The battle took place near the Little Bighorn River. General George Custer led two hundred twelve soldiers in search of the Indian leader, Crazy Horse. As General Custer moved through the river valley, he sent men ahead to explore the area. His men returned with reports that thousands of Indians were waiting to attack. Custer refused to listen. He pushed forward. Soon, his forces were surrounded by Indians. In less than an hour, the Indians killed the general and every one of his men. The White soldiers lay dead at Little Bighorn. And Custer's name would go down in history as a symbol of foolish pride in battle. The battle at Little Bighorn was a serious defeat for the United States Army. But the Indians' victory did not last long. Within a year, the army forced most of the Sioux to surrender. ?It took the Black Hills for the miners. It moved the Indians to a new reservation. VOICE TWO: In the next few years, the same thing happened to other Indian tribes throughout the west. Under great pressure from White settlers, the government took land from the Indians and opened it to settlement. The size of Indian reservations was reduced again and again. One by one, the Indian tribes of the west changed. Their fierce fighters became farmers who needed government help. They were weak and broken in spirit. One Indian leader named Black Elk described the situation best. He was a survivor of a battle at a place called Wounded Knee. Many Indian women and children had died there. Years later, Black Elk said: "I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the dead lying all over the ground. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried. A people's dream died there." VOICE ONE: Some Indians turned to religion during this difficult time. An Indian religious leader named Wavoka gained influence. Wavoka declared that the great spirit had chosen him to prepare the Indians for a new world. He said the new world would arrive soon. And it would be a wonderful world. There would be no White men, he said. And all dead Indians would come back to life. Wavoka warned that new soil would rise up and cover the world like a flood. He said Indians could escape destruction by dancing a special dance. It was called the Ghost Dance. Wavoka said the Ghost Dance would make Indians powerful. He said it would even protect them from bullets fired by the White men's guns. VOICE TWO: Thousands of Indians in the American west listened to Wavoka's message. They believed him. And they began to dance for long hours every day. On the Sioux reservations, all other activities stopped. Children no longer went to school. No one did anything but dance. All this frightened White officials. They tried to arrest some Indian leaders to stop the dancing. The arrests led to fighting. And the fighting led to a final battle in which the army defeated the Indians completely. The Indian wars were over. Wavoka himself told his followers: "Our trails are covered with grass and sand. We cannot find them. Today I call upon you to travel a new trail. It is the only trail now open -- the White man's road." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC)? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: In Corning, New York: A House of Glass
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach, Dana Demange and Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:? We hear some Latin pop music … Answer a question from a listener about local and state governments … And report about a museum of glass. Corning Museum of Glass Did you know that glass is both a liquid and a solid? Or that glass is one of the oldest substances made by humans? These are some of the many interesting facts that visitors can learn at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Corning Museum of Glass has one of the largest and most important glass collections in the world. Visitors can see many beautiful objects. These include three thousand year old glass animals from Egypt. Finely made European drinking glasses. And works by modern glass artists from all over the world. In the entrance to the museum there is a sculpture by a famous American glass artist named Dale Chihuly. This artwork is more than three meters tall and made of five hundred pieces of wildly-shaped green glass. The sculpture looks more like a living sea creature than a glass object! However, the Corning Museum of Glass is not just for pieces of art. There are also many exhibits that explain the science of glass. For example, you can learn about an important glass discovery that was made more than ninety years ago. In nineteen thirteen, a scientist discovered that putting the chemical boric oxide into glass made it able to resist high temperatures. With the help of his wife, this scientist invented Pyrex, special glass containers made for cooking. In fact, Pyrex used to be manufactured in the Corning factory near the current Museum of Glass. The technology of glass is very important in other ways that you might not think about. For example, glass is necessary to make fiber optic cables, devices that make Internet connections possible. Glass is even used to make LCD’s, or liquid crystal displays. These technologies are used for manufacturing television and computer screens. Visitors to the museum can also take part in glass activities. Every few hours an expert gives a glass-blowing demonstration. Using a steel pole, the expert forms hot liquid glass into a cup or vase. There is even a special area where visitors can make their own glass objects. If visitors are tired after a day of learning about glass, they can enjoy a meal in the museum’s garden. This outside area gives people a chance to enjoy the modern architecture of the building. Can you guess what the building is made of? Glass! Differences Between a Mayor and a?Governor HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mersyn, Turkey. Mehmet Yasyn asks about the difference between a mayor and a governor in the United States. State governments are similar to the United States federal government as described in the United States Constitution. It calls for three branches of federal government: the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The Executive Branch is the president who carries out the laws created by the Legislative Branch, or Congress. The system of courts makes up the Judicial Branch, which supports federal laws. The president and lawmakers in Congress are elected by the people. The Constitution says that any powers not given to the federal government are the responsibility of each state. The details of a state’s government are found in the state constitution. Each of the fifty states has its own constitution. They are all similar to the United States Constitution. Each state government has three branches: the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The governor heads the Executive Branch. The governor carries out the laws approved by the legislative branch. The governor also can propose new laws. The Legislative Branch is made up of the State House of Representatives and Senate. They make the laws of the state. The Judicial Branch includes the courts that hear cases concerning state law. The governor and state lawmakers are elected by the people of the state. Each state also has local governments. These are city and county governments. These local governments are responsible for police and fire services, public health and building and repairing roads. Local governments also supervise the school system, collect local and state taxes and supervise elections. Local governments have different forms. Some have mayors as their leaders. Others have city councils or county councils. These officials are elected by the people. Mayors and governors try to work together for the good of the people in the city and state. One recent example is New Orleans, Louisiana. The mayor of New Orleans ordered everyone to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana’s governor declared emergency rules in the state and controlled the National Guard troops that helped rescue hurricane victims. Yerba Buena The group of seven musicians called Yerba Buena has released its second album of Latin pop music. The new album is called “Island Life.”? We think this music will make you want to dance. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: “Island Life” is about people from different cultures living the immigrant music experience on the island of Manhattan in New York City. Producer and musician Andres Levin leads the band. He was born in Venezuela. Other members of the band are Cuban, European, Chinese and African-American. They sing in English, Spanish and a mixture of Spanish and English called Spanglish. Some songs are sung in the Nigerian language Yoruba. The singer in this song wants a woman who can speak both English and Spanish. It is called “Bilingual Girl.” (MUSIC)????????????????????? The music of Yerba Buena is not only from Latin America. “Island Life” also includes flamenco music from Spain, Gypsy music from the Balkans and Afrobeat from Nigeria. Here the band performs a song called “La Vida La Life.” (MUSIC) Many guest musicians also perform on “Island Life.”? They include rap artists from the United States, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. A flamenco singer from Spain. Two Afro-French singers. A Gypsy punk band. And a drum group from Brazil. In one song, Yerba Buena sings in Spanish, “I am a citizen of the world.” We leave you now with Yerba Buena performing “Fever.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: NASDAQ: An Electronic Marketplace
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A listener in China asks about the history of the world's largest electronic stock market, NASDAQ. Many companies want to sell stock so they can get money to expand their business. Stock is shares of ownership. Shares can be bought and sold on the trading floor of a stock exchange. Or they can be traded through an over-the-counter market. Such a market links dealers directly by a computer or telephone system. By nineteen sixty-one, Congress became concerned that the over-the-counter market was disorganized. So the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed that dealers use an electronic system to organize their sales. The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations system began in nineteen seventy-one. Today it is known as the NASDAQ Stock Market or just NASDAQ. Traditionally, it has offered a home to smaller companies. It accepts stocks that are lower in market value and traded less often than shares on the New York Stock Exchange. But NASDAQ also trades big, active stocks. Among them is Microsoft, maker of the operating system on most personal computers. NASDAQ provides price information for over-the-counter stocks as well as many companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The prices are published in newspapers. On NASDAQ, each stock has a number of dealers called "market makers."? They buy and sell shares for themselves and investors. Market makers use their own money as needed. NASDAQ lists about three thousand three hundred companies. It points out that it lists more companies and trades more shares per day, on average, than any other market in the country. But the world's largest stock market is the New York Stock Exchange. Major activity still takes place on a trading floor. Each stock is handled by one "specialist" who acts as a market maker and has other duties. Specialists are expected to keep a "fair and orderly market." Many people want a modern system of electronic trading. The exchange took a big step in April. It announced plans to combine with an electronic market, Archipelago. Two days later, competition grew when NASDAQ announced an agreement to buy Instinet, another electronic trading system. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Nomination of Chief Justice Heads to Committee Vote
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I'm Doug Johnson with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week in Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Judge John Roberts. President Bush has nominated him as the seventeenth chief justice of the United States. Federal judges serve for life. The committee is expected to vote on Thursday. Ten Republicans serve with eight opposition Democrats. The full Senate plans to open debate on the nomination on September twenty-sixth. The Supreme Court begins its new term on October third. Judge Roberts must have the votes of at least fifty-one senators to be confirmed. Most observers say that should not be difficult. Fifty-five senators are Republican. But he would need sixty votes should opponents try to delay. Judge Roberts is widely recognized as a legal expert. But some people call him too conservative. They say he could lead the court to weaken or cancel earlier rulings on civil rights. John Roberts told the committee, "I will be my own man on the Supreme Court."? He said he is not an "ideologue" -- someone who only follows one set of ideas. He said he would honor the legal tradition known by the Latin term stare decisis. This is a belief in the importance of earlier decisions on issues. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee tried to get Judge Roberts to fully detail his positions on several major issues. These include a woman's right to end a pregnancy and also the rights of the dying. Judge Roberts did say that he believes the Constitution supports a right to privacy. Such a belief has led to rulings that protect the use of birth control by married couples and a woman's right to abortion. But Judge Roberts did not say in what way such a right could affect future cases. He said it would be wrong to comment on subjects that he might have to consider on the court. Other questions involved growing tension between Congress and the Supreme Court over congressional actions ruled unconstitutional. As a lawyer, John Roberts argued thirty-nine cases before the court. He currently serves as a appeals court judge. President Bush nominated him in July to become an associate justice after Sandra Day O’Connor announced her resignation. But on September third, Chief Justice William Rehnquist died of cancer. So the president chose Judge Roberts for that position. Mister Bush says he will nominate someone else later on to take Miz O’Connor’s place. The Judiciary Committee advises the Senate to confirm or reject nominations. It can also report a nomination without any advice. Or it can decide not to report a nomination at all. This would block a vote in the one-hundred-member Senate. But the tradition for many years has been to let all senators vote on nominees. In the case of John Roberts, it appears the only question now is how many Democrats will vote for him. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Arthur Ashe: Tennis Champion and Civil Rights Activist
* Byline: Written by Vivian Chakarian

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America, in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life of tennis champion Arthur Ashe. He was an athlete and a social activist who died before he was fifty. He was honored for his bravery and honesty as well as his strong support of just causes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-five, Arthur Ashe played against Ilie Nastase in the Masters tennis games in Stockholm, Sweden. Nastase was out of control. He delayed the game. He called Ashe bad names. Finally, Arthur Ashe put down his tennis racket and walked off the tennis court. He said, "I've had enough. I'm at the point where I'm afraid I'll lose control. " The officials were shocked; Ashe was winning the game. One official told him he would lose if he walked out of the game. Ashe said, "I don't care. I'd rather lose that than my self-respect. " The next day, the Masters committee met. They knew that if they gave the game to Nastase, they would be supporting his kind of actions. They felt it was how you played the game that really counted. So, the officials decided it was Nastase who must lose the game. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Arthur Ashe was born in nineteen forty-three in the southern city of Richmond, Virginia. His parents were Mattie Cunningham Ashe and Arthur Ashe, Senior. In those days, black people and white people lived separately in the South. By law, African-Americans could not attend the same schools or the same churches as white people. Arthur learned to live with racial separation. He attended an all-black school. He played in the areas kept separate for blacks. And when he traveled to his grandmother's house, he sat in the back of the bus behind a white line. Only white people could sit in the front part of the bus. Tennis was a sport traditionally played by white people. Arthur's experience was different from most other tennis players. He grew up under poorer conditions. His father worked several jobs at the same time. And his mother died when he was six. VOICE ONE: Mister Ashe taught his son the importance of leading an honorable life. He said a person does not get anywhere in life by making enemies. He explained that a person gains by helping others. Arthur Ashe, Senior taught his son the importance of his friends, his family and his history. He said that without his good name, he would be nothing. By example, Arthur's father taught the importance of hard work. His job was to drive people where they wanted to go. And he did other kinds of jobs for several wealthy families. VOICE TWO: When Arthur was four, his father was given responsibility for a public play area called Brook Field. It was the largest play area for black people in the city of Richmond. Mister Ashe continued to work at his other jobs as well. The family moved into a five-room house in the middle of the park. Arthur could use the swimming pool, basketball courts, baseball fields and tennis courts in the park. He liked sports. He was not very big, but he was fast. Arthur began playing tennis when he was seven years old. He was very small. The racket he used to hit the tennis ball seemed bigger than he was. But by the time he was thirteen years old, he was winning against players two times his size and age. Arthur had great energy and sense of purpose. He would hit five hundred tennis balls each summer day early in the morning. He would stop to eat his morning meal. Then he would hit five hundred more tennis balls. VOICE ONE: When Arthur was ten years old, he met Robert Walter Johnson. Doctor Johnson established a tennis camp for black children who were not permitted to play on tennis courts for whites. Doctor Johnson helped Arthur learn to be calm while playing tennis. He taught him to use restraint. He said that anger at an opponent was a waste of energy. By nineteen sixty, Arthur had won the National Junior Indoor Championship. And, the University of California at Los Angeles offered him a college education if he played for the UCLA tennis team. In nineteen sixty-five, Arthur Ashe led the team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. He completed his education the next year with a degree in business administration. VOICE TWO: Arthur Ashe then became a professional tennis player. In nineteen sixty-eight, he won the United States Open. It was the first time an African-American man had won one of the four major competitions in tennis. In nineteen seventy, he won the Australian Open. The next year, he won the French Open Doubles Championship with Marty Riessen. And, in nineteen seventy-five, he won the Wimbledon Singles Championship in England. Two times he was named the number one tennis player in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Throughout his life, Arthur Ashe fought against social injustice. He supported racial equality and tried to bring blacks and whites together. In nineteen seventy-three, Ashe was the first black player to be invited to compete in the South African Open. At the time, South African laws separated people by race. Ashe knew why he was invited. He knew that the South African government was trying to change its image so it could take part in the Olympic Games. He agreed to go, but on his own terms. He played before a racially mixed group. And, he went wherever he pleased and said what he wanted. VOICE TWO: Arthur Ashe went back to South Africa many times. He went not only to fight against the system of racial separation. He went to show the oppressed children of the country that he was a successful black man. Former South African President Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison. After his release, the first person Mandela asked to see during his visit to the United States was Arthur Ashe. VOICE ONE: Ashe used his fame to help increase public knowledge of racism in America. He told reporters how the color of his skin kept him out of tennis games as a boy in Richmond. He spoke against black separatism. He wanted to unite the races, not separate them. During his travels with the United States Davis Cup team, he said, "People in other countries read a lot about race troubles in the United States. But when they see two guys from the South like Cliff Richey and me, one white and one colored, both sharing a room and being close friends, it must do a little good.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy-seven, Arthur Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy. They shared a deep concern for others. Ashe always urged people to do their best -- even his opponents. To help others, he started an organization, the Safe Passage Foundation. It helped poor children develop the skills to learn. And it taught them how to play tennis and golf. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-nine, Ashe felt severe pain in his chest. He had suffered his first heart attack, even though he seemed in excellent physical condition. His days of playing tennis were over. Doctors operated on him later that year to try to improve the flow of blood from his heart. But his physical activity was very limited. Four years later, he had to have another operation. VOICE TWO: Now that he could not be active in sports, he took on new responsibilities. He helped the American Heart Association educate the public about heart disease. He wrote books. And, in nineteen eighty-six, he became a father when his wife Jeanne gave birth to their daughter, Camera. Two years later, Arthur Ashe faced his final struggle. He discovered he had the virus that causes the disease AIDS. He and his doctors believed he had gotten it when he received infected blood after his second heart operation. He kept the bad news a secret for more than three years. He did not want his daughter to know. But reporters found out about his condition in nineteen ninety-two. He decided to tell the public. VOICE ONE: Ashe continued to work even though he was weak from the disease. During his last ten months of life, he continued to help children. He also demonstrated to support Haitian refugees, continued to fight racial injustice and battled AIDS. He said, ". . . Living with AIDS is not the greatest burden I've had in my life. Being black is." He gave his last speech the week he died. He said, "AIDS killed my body, but racism is harder to bear. It kills the soul." Arthur Ashe died in nineteen ninety-three. He was forty-nine years old. He had told a friend, "You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Vivian Chakarian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.N. Says Lack of Money Forces Cuts in Food Aid for African Refugees
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. Two United Nations agencies have appealed for more money to supply food to refugee camps in Africa. They say they have had to cut food aid to hundreds of thousands of people. Most are in West Africa and the Great Lakes area. The World Food Program says it needs more than two hundred million dollars for its operations through the end of this year. The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says it will need at least one hundred eighty million. The two agencies say the cuts have created suffering among those affected. Special feeding programs for young children, pregnant women and new mothers have also been reduced. Forty-four thousand Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone have received less food since May. Four hundred thousand refugees in Tanzania have been affected for almost a year. They have received only two-thirds of their daily needs. The U.N. agencies say the situation there has improved a little now, but more money is needed to prevent future cuts. In southern Chad, refugees from the Central African Republic have also had their shipments limited. In Sudan, the World Food Program reported a separate problem: a shortage of airplane fuel at the worst time of year. Aid workers call it the hunger season. The agency says it had to cut in half its emergency food shipments in August to more than one million people in the south. The fuel shortage also affected efforts in the Darfur area in western Sudan. Also in Africa, there were more warnings last week about the food crisis in Niger. It follows rain shortages and a locust invasion last year. Doctors Without Borders says recent international aid has yet to help some areas that need it most. The medical aid group says tens of thousands of children still require immediate assistance. The group found that one in five children suffered from malnutrition in the Zinder area in August. It says death rates were higher than when the crisis began in January. Last week, the World Food Program reported "good progress" in its work in Niger. The aim is to supply food to more than three and one-half million people. But the U.N. agency says its operation remains only fifty-eight percent financed. The next harvest in most of Niger is several weeks away. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: White Sands National Monument: A Wonder of Nature, in New Mexico
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA IN VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. One of the world’s great natural wonders is in the state of New Mexico, in the American Southwest. Nature has created huge moving hills of pure white sand. These sand dunes cover more than seventy-thousand hectares of desert. Now, Steve Ember and Mary Tillotson are your guides as we explore White Sands National Monument. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is one of the largest sand dune fields in the United States. The bright white sand dunes are always changing, always moving, like waves on the ocean. Driven by strong winds, the sand moves and covers everything in its path. It is like a huge sea of sand. VOICE TWO: The sand dunes have created an extreme environment. Plants and animals struggle to survive. A few kinds of plants grow quickly to survive burial by the moving sand dunes. Several kinds of small animals have become white in color in order to hide in the sand. White Sands National Monument protects a large part of this dune field. It also protects the plants and animals that live there. More than five hundred thousand people visit White Sands National Monument each year. They climb on the dunes and observe the moving sea of sand. VOICE ONE: You may wonder how all this sand arrived in the area. To understand that, you would have to travel back in time two hundred fifty million years. An inland ocean once covered the area. The minerals calcium and sulfur were at the bottom of the ocean. Over time, the water slowly disappeared. The calcium and sulfur remained. The minerals formed gypsum rock. Then, seventy million years ago, the Earth’s surface, or crust, pushed upward. The rocks formed two groups of mountains. Later, the crust pulled apart. The area between the mountains broke and fell down. It formed a half-circle shape of a bowl. This bowl of rock is known as the Tularosa Basin. VOICE TWO: About twenty four thousand years ago, it rained a great deal in the area. The rain filled the Tularosa Basin and formed Lake Otero. The rain and snow that washed down the mountains into Lake Otero carried gypsum with it. Later, Lake Otero almost completely dried up. Gypsum remained. A strong wind moved into the area. It blew across the land for thousands of years. Pieces of gypsum broke off. The wind wore them away to a size small enough to pick up and carry for short distances. Wherever the wind dropped sand, dunes formed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The sand dunes at White Sands National Monument are unusual because they are made of gypsum. Gypsum sand is different from common sand. Most sand is made of quartz, a hard silicon crystal. Gypsum sand is made of softer calcium sulfate. It dissolves easily in water. So it is rarely found in the form of sand dunes. Most gypsum would be carried away by rivers to the sea. But the Tularosa Basin is enclosed. No rivers flow out of it. So water with dissolved gypsum has nowhere to go. Gypsum sand is being made all the time. The dunes continue to form and move under the influence of water and wind. Water continues to wash down from the mountains carrying dissolved gypsum into the Tularosa Basin. Wind continues to blow across the Basin carrying the gypsum. The gypsum sand grains crash into each other. The crash creates tiny lines or scratches on the surface of the sand. These scratches change the way light shines off the surface. This makes the sand appear white. The sand dunes look like great masses of bright white snow. But they are not cold and wet. It only rains about eighteen centimeters each year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are four kinds of sand dunes at White Sands National Monument. Some of the dunes are small and fast-moving. They are called dome dunes because they are shaped like a half-circle. Few if any plants grow on them. These dunes move the fastest, up to twelve meters a year. Other dunes are called transverse dunes. They form in long lines across the dune field. They can grow to be one-hundred-twenty meters thick and eighteen meters high. Another kind of dunes are barchan dunes. They form in areas with strong winds but a limited supply of sand. These dunes have sand in three parts, like a body in the center and two arms on the sides. The sand in the two arms moves faster than the sand in the center. Parabolic dunes are the opposite of barchan dunes. They form when plants hold sand in the outer parts of the dune but the center of the dune continues to move. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may wonder how anything can live in this extreme environment of a white sand desert. There is not much rain. The heat in summer is intense. The sand lacks nutrients. Yet almost four hundred kinds of animals live in White Sands National Monument. Many of them are birds or insects. There are also twenty-six kinds of reptiles, including rattlesnakes and lizards. And there are more than forty kinds of mammals. They include rabbits, foxes and coyotes. Scientists know that plants and animals often change to be able to live in extreme environments. For example, they change color to protect themselves from enemies. Many of the animals that live in the sand dunes have become white. So it is difficult to see the animals in the sand. There is another reason why you may not be able to see the animals. Many of them remain underground during the day when it is very hot. They come out at night when it is cooler. You may be able to see their footprints. VOICE TWO: Plants do grow in the White Sands dune field. But even plants that grow in most deserts have trouble surviving. A major reason is that the dunes bury any plants in their way as they move across the desert. Yet, a few plants have developed techniques to avoid being buried by moving sand. For example, some plants grow taller and their roots grow deeper into the sand. The soaptree yucca plant can make its stem grow longer to keep its leaves above the sand. The plant grows up to thirty centimeters a year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is about twenty four kilometers southeast of the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the visitor center at the entrance of the park, you can find out about special activities and guided walks. From the visitor center, you can drive about thirteen kilometers into the center of the dunes. It is like driving on a lonely white planet. Along the way there is information that tells about the natural history of the white sands. You can also explore the dunes on foot. There are four marked trails. Signs along the trail tell about the plants growing in the sand. You can see some unusual and beautiful plants and flowers growing in the sand dunes. But you may not remove or destroy any plants or animals at White Sands. You can even camp there overnight. But you must be careful. It is easy to get lost in the waves of moving sand especially during sandstorms. There is no water to drink. The temperature can rise to thirty-eight degrees Celsius in summer. There is no shelter from the sun’s rays. VOICE TWO: There is another reason to be careful at White Sands National Monument. The White Sands Missile Range completely surrounds the park. It covers one million hectares. The missile range was first used as a military weapons testing area after World War Two. It was used to test rockets that were captured from the German armed forces. The missile range continues to be an important testing area for experimental weapons and space technology. These tests take place about two times a week. For safety reasons, both the park and the road from it south to Las Cruces, New Mexico may be closed for an hour or two while tests are taking place. VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is part of America’s National Parks System. The park system includes more than three hundred seventy protected areas. White Sands National Monument is just one of the more unusual examples of America’s natural and cultural treasures. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER:? Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and read by Steve Ember and Mary Tillotson. I'm?Faith?Lapidus. Internet users can find our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Risk to a Popular Banana Shows Need to Grow Other Kinds
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In recent years, some concerns have been raised about the health of the world’s banana plants. A number of media reports have said that bananas may completely disappear. Some claimed that this could happen in as little as ten years. Such fears are disputed, however. Bananas are one of the world’s most important food crops. They are also one of the most valuable exports. Bananas do not grow from seeds. Instead, they grow from existing plants. Bananas are threatened by disease because all the plants on a farm are copies of each other. They all share the same genetic weaknesses. For example, the Cavendish banana is most popular in North American and European markets. However, some kinds of fungus organisms easily infect the Cavendish. Black Sigatoka disease affects the leaves of Cavendish banana plants. The disease is controlled on large farms by putting chemicals on the plant’s leaves. Farmers put anti-fungal chemicals on their crops up to once a week. Another fungal disease is more serious. Panama disease attacks the roots of the banana plant. There is no chemical treatment for this disease. Infected plants must be destroyed. Panama disease has affected crops in Southeast Asia, Australia and South Africa. There is concern that it may spread to bananas grown in the Americas. This could threaten an important export product for Central and South America. The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain supports research on bananas. The group has headquarters in France and other offices in the major banana-growing areas of the world. The group says that more research must be done to develop improved kinds of bananas. The group says that fungal diseases mainly affect only one kind of banana. In fact, there are five hundred different kinds of bananas. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said that the Cavendish banana represents only ten percent of world production. The U.N. agency says farmers should grow different kinds of bananas. This protects against diseases that affect only one kind. Experts warn that disease may cause the Cavendish banana to disappear. This happened earlier to another popular banana because of its genetic weakness against disease. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Genetic Map of Chimps May Show What Makes Us Human
* Byline: Written by George Grow, Cynthia Kirk and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about a possible new use for American alligators. We also will tell how some American scientists have reacted to a report critical of homeopathic treatments. VOICE ONE: But first, a genetic map of an animal may show what makes us human beings. (MUSIC) Scientists say people and chimpanzees developed separately since they split from a common ancestor about six million years ago. But studies have shown that chimpanzee genes are very similar to those of human beings. Recently, an international team of scientists said it has prepared a partial genetic map of a chimp. They found that ninety-six percent of the chimp genes are exactly the same as human genes. Scientists say the remaining four percent may help to explain what makes humans different from chimps. They also say knowing the genetic differences may prove useful in medical research. VOICE TWO: Studies of D.N.A. make it possible to understand the genetic relationships of all life on Earth. The letters D.N.A. represent deoxyribonucleic acid. Every cell of every living thing contains D.N.A. Scientists call it the chemical of life. All of the D.N.A. in cells is called the genome. D.N.A. is made up of genes. Genes, like letters in words, carry a huge amount of information. These messages tell cells how to make all the materials for life. Genes are carried on chromosomes. Almost all human cells have forty-six chromosomes. There are hundreds of genes on each chromosome. The chemicals that make up D.N.A. are nucleic acids. There are four kinds of nucleic acid: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. These chemicals are called bases. They are represented by the letters A, T, G and C. VOICE ONE: Robert Waterston is the head of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington. He directed the Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium Project. America’s National Human Genome Research Institute provided assistance for the study. The findings were reported in the two publications, Nature and Science. Professor Waterston and his team studied the D.N.A. of a chimpanzee named Clint. Clint lived at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, until he died of heart failure last year. VOICE TWO: The team of scientists made a map of the position of every one of Clint’s genes. It then compared the chimp genes to the human genome. Human chromosomes have about three thousand million D.N.A. base pairs. Chimpanzees have about the same number. The scientists found that only forty million base pairs differ between human and chimp. They say this means a generally small number of genetic differences are responsible for differences between people and chimpanzees. They also say the number of genetic differences between human and chimp is about ten times more than between any two persons. ? VOICE ONE: Professor Waterston and his team compared genes that control the activity of other genes. They found that the genes had changed quickly in human beings, but not in chimps. ?Professor Waterston says the study strongly confirms the theories of the British nature scientist Charles Darwin. Darwin developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through a process he called natural selection. ?A separate study published in Science examined gene activity in chimpanzees and humans. That study found that genes common to both appeared to have become more active in the brains of humans. But the activity of shared genes in the heart and other organs remained the same. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A large animal that lives in America’s southern wetlands may provide a valuable substance with medical uses. American scientists are exploring ways to help people with collagen removed from dead alligators. Jack Losso and Mark Schexnayder work for the agriculture center at Louisiana State University. They are the lead investigators on the alligator collagen project. Collagen is the most important protein in connective tissue. It holds cells together. It helps form bone and cartilage, the material that protects the ends of bones. VOICE ONE: The scientists say collagen from alligators could form replacement skin for burn victims. They say the collagen helps to heal wounds and stop bleeding. Doctors could also use it to treat some cancers, high blood pressure and the uncontrolled release of body wastes. The scientists say alligator collagen could also provide material for beauty products or foods. Currently, collagen from cows and pigs is used in beauty products and for cooking. Mister Losso says scientists now are looking for other ways to get collagen because of concerns about mad cow disease. He and Mister Schexnayder say the protein also can be taken from sea creatures, including sharks. VOICE TWO: About two years ago, the Louisiana State University team started removing collagen from black drum and sheepshead fish. Masahiro Osawa of Japan designed the chemical process that enabled the removal. The team has asked the United States federal government for intellectual property protection for the process. The team also compared alligator collagen and collagen from shark cartilage -- tissue that protects the ends of bones. The shark collagen is used in wound coverings, replacement for human skin or bone, and other material for medical operations. Mister Losso said the alligator and shark material are scientifically similar. VOICE ONE: In the United States, some alligators are killed for their meat. Their skin has considerable value for leather clothing, shoes and handbags. The state of Louisiana does not consider alligators endangered. State law permits limited harvesting of the animals. The alligator parts that contain collagen are now usually thrown away. Louisiana alligators are responsible for more than four hundred fifty metric tons of unwanted parts each year. Destruction of this waste is costly. Several years ago, Mister Schexnayder was asked to invent a purpose for this waste that would bring a profit. So he and Mister Losso went to work and came up with the idea of removing collagen from the dead animals. The United States Department of Commerce provided money for the experiments. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Two weeks ago, we told you about a report critical of the medical value of homeopathic treatments. The report was published last month in The Lancet. It said that homeopathic treatments have the same effect as a placebo. A placebo looks like medicine but contains no active substance. A German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, developed homeopathic medicine in the seventeen nineties. He believed that some substances could cure diseases if they produced effects similar to those of the disease itself. He believed that these substances -- from plants, minerals or animals -- helped the body’s own defense system to fight the sickness. VOICE ONE: The National Center for Homeopathy provides information about homeopathy to people in the United States. Recently, the group reported that several American scientists have rejected the Lancet report. One of them is Joyce Frye of the University of Pennsylvania. She also is president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. This group represents the country’s homeopaths. Professor Frye says the study was strongly influenced by the opinions of the researchers. She said the researchers seemed to begin their work with a strong personal judgment, or bias. VOICE TWO: Professor Frye said the study cleared showed effects of homeopathic treatments, but the researchers found ways to avoid them. She also said the main findings depended on a comparison of only a few studies: eight tests of homeopathy and six tests of traditional medicine. Iris Bell of the University of Arizona is another homeopath. She criticized the study for its methods of comparison. The researchers compared studies of homeopathic treatments with studies of medical drugs. Professor Bell says their methods are acceptable for studying traditional medicines, but not in comparing homeopathic treatments. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow, Cynthia Kirk and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Jill Moss. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week at this time for another SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Literary Voice, Part 1: Some Writers Like to Be Invisible, Others Just the Opposite
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: giving writing a voice. RS: English Professor Ben Yagoda at the University of Delaware defines "voice" this way: BEN YAGODA: "Apart from subject matter, what makes that writer's work identifiable when you don't know who the author is. And sometimes that's easy if it's a Hemingway or Gertrude Stein or maybe Faulkner. Sometimes it's a little more difficult. Some shout out their own names as you read their work, and others are a little more invisible." AA: Ben Yagoda calls that type of writing the "middle style." He points out that it is advocated in one of the most influential books on writing, "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. RS: Now Ben Yagoda has written his own book that explores writing with, one might say, more of an attitude. The book is called "The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing." BEN YAGODA: "It's a hard subject to talk about, to write about, and in seeking to write about it, I decided I would go out and go to the source. So I did about 45 interviews with writers who have what I think of a strong personal style. And, in doing those interviews, one of the things I found out was, to a surprising extent, they don't think about this and/or aren't aware of their own style. So it's one of those things that comes out fairly naturally. If you really set about trying to create a style, it's a little forced and artificial. "A parallel of comparison is a jazz soloist, an instrumentalist. When you think of John Coltrane or Charlie Parker or Lester Young or any saxophone player, jazz aficionados, once they hear one or at the most two notes from any of those folks, can instantly identify it. But I don't that John Coltrane sat around saying 'How am I going to come up with a style that's distinctive?'" RS: "Well, how about for the rest of us who are not natural jazz players or perhaps not ever going to be a distinctive writer -- " AA: "A brand-name writer." BEN YAGODA: "Right. Well, you know, I have an answer for the rest of us, and I put myself in that category as well. I think that it's a sort of never-ending process, becoming aware of one's own style, voice, tics, habits, whatever you might want to call it. It's not something that shouts out like Hemingway, but it's little subtle things that maybe you yourself are the only person who's aware of them. "The example that I give for myself is using parentheses. My first drafts of whatever I write are usually filled with dozens and dozens of parentheses for every eight or nine pages. And I like using parentheses because it reflects the way I see the world. I like to pursue digressions and see both sides of things, and that really reflects my way of thinking and seeing. And that's a cool thing about style. "On the other hand, I know that if I leave them all in on the first draft, it can become tedious and overbearing. So when I rewrite and revise, I often take out about half the parentheses. So there are still more of them in one of my pieces of writing than average. But you know what? I may be the only person who's aware of it." RS: "How do you even become aware?" AA: "Well, right, I mean, are you writing for yourself or are you writing for the reader?" BEN YAGODA: "Well, you know, the thing I've described about your style, I've described that as writing for yourself. On the other hand, depending on what you're writing, whether it's an essay or a short story, certainly if you don't communicate to a reader, it's pretty much worthless." RS: Next week, we'll continue our conversation with Ben Yagoda, an English professor at the University of Delaware and author of "The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing." AA: You can find earlier interviews we've done with Ben Yagoda on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Blue Train"/Title song from John Coltrane's 1957 album 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: In an Age of Modern Science and Medicine, Infectious Diseases Remain the World’s Leading Killer
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about efforts in the fight against some of the major health threats in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An AIDS treatment center in Burundi. 40 million people are believed to be infected with?HIV around the worldThe World Health Organization says infectious diseases remain the world’s leading killer. These diseases cause one out of every four deaths. The spread of AIDS has been especially serious. Forty million people are now infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Africa is the hardest hit continent. The disease killed more than two million people in Southern Africa alone last year. The disease also is spreading quickly through parts of Asia and Europe. VOICE TWO: The W.H.O. reports more than eight hundred sixty thousand people are infected with H.I.V. or AIDS in Russia. About eighty percent of the officially reported cases are among people who inject drugs. Most of them are under age thirty and are living in cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A similar situation exists in Ukraine. The number of newly reported cases of H.I.V. and AIDS there has almost doubled in each of the first three years of this century. Experts say the five republics of Central Asia could face similar problems soon if no immediate action is taken. The Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia currently have low numbers of AIDS victims, but infections there are increasing quickly. VOICE ONE: Robyn Montgomery works for AIDS Foundation East-West. This independent group is trying to stop the spread of AIDS in the former Soviet Union. Miz Montgomery told VOA reporter Lisa McAdams that governments have been slow to react there. In addition, she says unjust treatment against AIDS victims has worsened the situation. In March, AIDS Foundation East-West launched an H.I.V. and AIDS prevention project in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The goal is to train medical workers and others. It is the first of its kind in Central Asia. The group hopes the program will serve as a model for governments across the former Soviet Union. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The disease known as bird flu is also spreading through Russia and parts of Farm birds are destroyed in Vietnam to stop the spread of avian influenzathe former Soviet Union. But, the problem is worse in Southeast Asia. A deadly form, or strain, of this influenza has killed more than sixty people in Southeast Asia over the past two years. Most of the victims were in Vietnam. In addition, about one hundred million birds around the world have either died of the virus or been killed to prevent bird flu from spreading. The H-five, N-one strain of bird flu is deadly for chickens and some other birds, but it has rarely infected humans. Health officials, however, fear the strain could change into a form that passes easily from person to person. If this happens, bird flu could spread around the world and kill millions of people. VOICE ONE: American scientists say they have successfully tested a human vaccine against the H-five, N-one bird flu virus. But, they say it could be months before it is approved for manufacture and public use. Until then, governments are pressing ahead with other measures. For example, health officials in Vietnam have started to vaccinate more than two hundred million chickens and ducks against the disease. Van Dang Ky works for the Ministry of Agriculture. He told VOA reporter Kay Johnson that if the program is completed by November, the number of human flu patients would likely be reduced this winter. VOICE TWO: Asia is also concerned about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS first appeared in southern China in two thousand two. It apparently spread to humans from animals. The disease quickly spread around the world. In less than one year, more than eight thousand people in twenty-nine countries were infected. The disease killed almost eight hundred people, most of them in China. Roy Wadia works for the World Health Organization in Beijing. He told VOA reporter Benjamin Sand that SARS showed that what happens in one country can affect the whole world. SARS threatened to become an international public health crisis. Many people caught the disease after they sat near an infected passenger on an airplane. VOICE ONE: SARS has largely disappeared today, although doctors do not know why. Yet, they are using lessons learned from the outbreak to develop treatments for future emergencies. Health officials say international cooperation is necessary to fight diseases. When SARS first appeared, China denied reports of the outbreak, and then refused to cooperate with international health workers. As a result, scientists say it took much longer than necessary to find the cause of the disease and to identify treatments. China has since worked more closely with international researchers. Chinese doctors are now trying to develop a vaccine for SARS. VOICE TWO: SARS was a new disease. But, the Ebola and Marburg viruses have been know to modern science for many years. In less than forty years, the diseases have killed about two thousand people, mostly in Africa. Although this seems like a small number of victims, both viruses have the ability to kill millions. The World Health Organization describes them as among the most deadly organisms known to infect humans. Scientists say it is difficult to research these viruses because they often appear in areas that are hard to reach. Doctor Robert Swanepoel works with South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. He spoke to VOA reporter Delia Robertson. Doctor Swanepoel says carrying out research during an outbreak of disease is hard because the people in affected areas are frightened. He says that until a vaccine or cure is developed, the best hope of preventing the spread of Ebola or Marburg is early discovery and containment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization is one of several groups that supervise the world’s infectious disease situation. The W.H.O. depends on a Canadian-based early warning system called the Global Health Intelligence Network. Network officials collect and share media reports of possible disease outbreaks, including possible biological weapons attacks by terrorists. The network operates in seven languages, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The United States government also operates laboratories in this country and in several other nations. Joseph Malone heads the Defense Department’s Global Emerging Infections System. He told VOA reporter Amy Katz that the system plays a supportive role when outbreaks happen in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Both the Global Health Intelligence Network and the Global Emerging Infections System respond to natural public health threats. But some officials believe a poisonous chemical or biological agent could cause a more frightening health crisis. They believe it would not be difficult for terrorists to release a deadly chemical, virus or bacteria into the food supply or the air. William Raub supervises America’s public health emergency preparedness for the Centers for Disease Control. He says the government considers the anthrax organism and the smallpox virus the two leading biological weapons that terrorists could use in an attack. So the government is developing new vaccines against the diseases. The disease smallpox was ended in the nineteen seventies. Only small amounts of the virus remain under high security in the United States and Russia. VOICE ONE: Doctor Anthony Fauchi heads infectious disease research at the National Institutes of Health. He told VOA reporter David McAlary that money spent preparing for a biological attack is not money wasted. But, he warned that no country can ever be completely ready for such an attack. Doctor Fauchi said there is a need for drug companies to develop vaccines against a disease outbreak or a bio-terrorist attack that may never be used. Last year, the Bush administration approved a five thousand million dollar program that provides drug companies with economic reasons to manufacture such vaccines. Still, the rate of progress remains troubling for some medical experts. They fear there might be a major health crisis in the future for which no treatment exists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-20-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Fetal Skin Cells May Treat Burns
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 I'm?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. A method tested in Switzerland may offer a new way to treat burns. Researchers used skin cells grown from a fetus to treat serious burns in eight children. Some of the burns were the most severe kind. The skin cells came from a pregnancy that ended when the mother had an abortion at fourteen weeks. She gave the scientists permission to use four centimeters of skin from her fetus. The cells divided in a laboratory. Then the scientists mixed the cells with collagen. Collagen is a protein that enables skin to stretch. The researchers say this process can provide many small pieces of skin tissue. They placed some of the pieces on top of the wounds of the children. The pieces of tissue were replaced with fresh ones every three to four days. The scientists say the process was not at all difficult. The children were between the ages of fourteen months and nine years old. Usually, doctors use skin from other parts of a patient’s body to repair damage from burns. The process is called grafting. However, those skin cells reproduce slowly and sometimes painfully. And the new skin often does not look good. Patrick Hohlfeld of the University Hospital of Lausanne led the study. He says members of his team were surprised at the results. He says they expected the fetal tissue to work much the same as the skin grafts. The British medical magazine The Lancet reported the findings. The report says the wounds on the young burn patients healed in about fifteen days. Most graft treatments take six times longer. And the scientists say the repairs were complete. Most of the children recovered full use of the damaged areas. The researchers followed the progress for up to two years. Other researchers say the results of the Swiss experiment still need to be compared to current burn treatments. They noted that no one knows if the burns on the children would have healed without the fetal cell treatment. And questions have been raised about the morality in the use of tissue from an aborted fetus. The Washington Post published a letter from a policy expert at the Christian Medical Association. He says mistreatment of early human life can easily progress to other groups in society. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: O.E.C.D. Says Adult Schooling Should Not Be Limited to Highly Skilled
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many countries need to do more to offer education and training for people of all ages. So says a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in Paris. "Education at a Glance Two Thousand Five" looks at the thirty member countries of the O.E.C.D. The report says the number of people being educated continues to increase. But it says there is still a shortage of training for adults who need it the most. These include people in low-skilled jobs or no job at all. And the difference in earnings continues to grow between those who are better educated and those who are not. The O.E.C.D. report notes great improvement in school performance in some countries. For example, ninety-seven percent of South Koreans born in the nineteen seventies have completed upper secondary education. This compares to thirty-two percent of those born in the nineteen forties. In O.E.C.D. countries, fifty-seven percent of the university graduates now are women. But the report says the share of women among mathematicians, computer scientists or engineers is thirty percent or less. And university-educated women in many countries earn less than similarly qualified men. The report says O.E.C.D. countries spend an average of seven thousand dollars per student per year. Switzerland and the United States spend the most on education, more than eleven thousand dollars. They also are among the countries that pay their teachers the most. But higher spending is no guarantee of a higher quality education. The report says Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and New Zealand spend moderately. Yet their fifteen-year-olds are among the top students of any of the countries compared in the report. The Bush administration says its federal education law, called No Child Left Behind, is improving student performance. The O.E.C.D. says the test results used in the report are not recent enough to show any possible effects. But it praises the attempt to deal with problems in schools. It also says the strength of the American education system may be in its higher education system, which is highly competitive. The report says almost thirty percent of foreign students choose to study in the United States. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: How the Western United States Was Settled
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In the late eighteen hundreds, white Americans expanded their settlements in the western part of the country. They claimed land traditionally used by native Indians. The Indians were hunters. And they struggled to keep control of their hunting lands. Both the settlers and the Indians were guilty of violence. The federal government supported the settlers' claims. It fought, and won, several wars with Indian tribes. It forced the Indians to live on government-controlled reservations. I'm Steve Ember. Today Larry West and I tell about the people who settled on the old Indian lands after the wars. VOICE TWO: After the Indians were defeated, thousands of settlers hurried west. Some hoped to find new, rich farmland. The soil they left behind was thin and overworked. Their crops were poor. Some simply hoped to buy any kind of farmland. They did not have enough money to buy farmland in the east. Others came from other countries and hoped to build new lives in the United States. All the settlers found it easy to get land in the west. In eighteen sixty-two, Congress had passed the Homestead Act. This law gave every citizen, and every foreigner who asked for citizenship, the right to claim government land. The law said each man could have sixty-five hectares. If he built a home on the land, and farmed it for five years, it would be his. He paid just ten dollars to record the deal. VOICE ONE: Claiming land on the Great Plains was easy. Building a farm there and working it was not so easy. The wide flat grasslands seemed strange to men who had lived among the hills and forests of the east. Here there were few hills or trees. Without trees, settlers had no wood to build houses. Some built houses partly underground. Others built houses from blocks of earth cut out of the grassland. These houses were dark and dirty. They leaked and became muddy when it rained. There were no fences on the great plains. So it was hard to keep animals away from crops. VOICE TWO: Settlers in the American west also had a problem faced by many people in the world today. They had little fuel for heating and cooking. With few trees to cut for fuel, they collected whatever they could find. Small woody plants. Dried grass. Cattle and buffalo wastes. Water was hard to find, too. And although the land seemed rich, it was difficult to prepare for planting. The grass roots were thick and strong. They did not break apart easily. The weather also was a problem. Sometimes months would pass without rain, and the crops would die. Winters were bitterly cold. VOICE ONE: Most of the settlers, however, were strong people. They did not expect an easy life. And as time passed, they found solutions to most of the problems of farming on the great plains. Railroads were built across the west. They brought wood for homes. Wood and coal for fuel. Technology solved many of the problems. New equipment was invented for digging deep wells. Better pumps were built to raise the water to the surface. Some of the pumps used windmills for power. VOICE TWO: The fence problem was solved in eighteen seventy-four. That was the year "barbed wire" was invented. The sharp metal barbs tore the skin of the men who stretched it along fence tops. But they prevented cattle from pushing over the fencesand destroying crops. New farm equipment was invented. This included a plow that could break up the grassland of the plains. And farmerslearned techniques for farming in?dry weather. VOICE ONE: Most of the problems on the plains could be solved. But solving them cost money. A farmer could get wood to build his house. But he had to buy the wood and pay the railroad to bring it west. To farm the plains, he needed barbed wire for fences, and plows and other new equipment. All these things cost money. So a plains farmer had to grow crops that were in big demand. He usually put all his efforts into producing just one or two crops. VOICE TWO: The farmers of the plains did well at first. There was enough rain. Huge crops of wheat and corn were produced. Much of the grain was sold in Europe and farmers got good prices. The farmers, however, were not satisfied. They were angry about several things. One was the high cost of sending their crops to market. The only way to transport their grain was by railroad. And railroad prices were very high for farm products. Higher than for anything else. The railroads also owned the big buildings where grain was stored. Farmers had to pay to keep their grain there until it was sold. They said storage costs were too high. VOICE ONE: The farmers were angry about the high cost of borrowing money, too. They opposed the import taxes -- tariffs -- they had to pay on foreign products. Some of the tariffs were as high as sixty percent. Congress had set the levels high to protect American industry from foreign competition. But farmers said they were the victims of this policy, because it increased their costs. Farmers as individuals could do nothing to change the situation. But if they united in a group, they thought, perhaps they could influence government policy. VOICE TWO: Farmers began to unite in local social and cultural groups called "granges." As more and more farmers joined granges, the groups began to act on economic problems. Farmers organized cooperatives to buy equipment and supplies in large amounts directly from factories. The cost of goods was lower when bought in large amounts. The granges also began to organize for political action. Local granges became part of the national grange movement. Grange supporters won control of state legislatures in a number of middle western states. They passed laws to limit the cost of railroad transportation and crop storage. Railroads refused to obey these laws. They fought the measures in the courts. They did not win. Finally, they appealed to the United States Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: The railroads said the laws were not constitutional, because they interfered with the right of Congress to control trade between the states. The railroads said states could not control transportation costs. To do so would reduce profits for the railroad. And that would be the same as taking property from the railroad without legal approval. The Supreme Court rejected this argument. In a decision in eighteen seventy-six, the Supreme Court said states had a legal right to control costs of railroad transportation. It said owners of property in which the public has an interest must accept public control for the common good. The farmers seemed to have won. But the powerful railroad companies continued to struggle against controls. They reduced some transportation costs, but only after long court fights. VOICE TWO: The granges tried to get Congress to pass laws giving the federal government power to control the railroads. Congress refused to act. Many farmers lost hope that the granges could force the railroads to make any real cuts in their costs. They began to leave the organization. Others left because the economy had improved. They no longer felt a need to protest. Within a few years, the national grange had lost most of its members. Some local groups continued to meet. But they took no part in politics. New protests groups would be formed in a few years when farmers once again faced hard times. But for now -- in the late eighteen seventies -- times were good. Most people were satisfied. We will continue this story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this time for another history program about THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: High Fuel Prices Fail to Spread Inflation, at Least Not Yet
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. While oil prices have climbed sharply, other costs have not followed. Inflation still appears to be under control. Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation in the United States rose by one-half of one percent in August. Energy costs, however, rose by five percent in the same month. But some prices have dropped. Clothing prices, for example, have fallen over the last year. Yet fuel prices can affect the economy in different ways. The Energy Department says fuel prices reached their highest level during the week of September fifth. Americans paid an average of three dollars and seven cents a gallon, or almost four liters. That is not costly at all for drivers in many European countries and Japan. But Americans have never seen such prices for gasoline. Oil prices were already high before Hurricane Katrina. Then, on August twenty-ninth, the storm hit states responsible for almost half of the nation’s oil processing. Several oil refining centers in Louisiana and Mississippi remain closed. And now Hurricane Rita threatens Texas, the biggest oil refining state. Diesel prices, too, have reached new highs. That means higher fuel costs for trucks, trains and farm equipment. When oil prices rise, farmers also have to pay more for chemicals made with petroleum products. High fuel prices also hit the air travel industry. Last week, two major airlines, Delta and Northwest, sought protection from their creditors on the same day. Both companies said increased fuel costs played a part in their decisions to seek protection in bankruptcy court. In the past, airlines would simply charge more for travel when fuel prices rose. But today, airlines with different business plans like Southwest and JetBlue keep their prices low. That makes it difficult for other airlines to raise their prices. The United States central bank has its own ways to fight inflation. Since June of last year, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. That raises the cost to borrow money. This week, the Federal Open Market Committee made its eleventh increase, to the highest level in four years. The committee said strong growth in productivity has helped contain inflation. And it said the economic effects of Hurricane Katrina should be temporary. But the policy makers also said that "higher energy and other costs" could add to inflation pressures. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What to Call a Storm? How Scientists Name Hurricanes
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music by a rock group with an unusual name … Answer a question about the naming of hurricanes … And report about some popular American writers. National Book Festival On Saturday, September twenty-fourth, the Library of Congress will hold its fifth yearly National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. More than eighty writers, artists and poets will be on the National Mall to talk about their work. Faith Lapidus tells us about three of them. FAITH LAPIDUS: One of the writers at the National Book Festival this year is R.L. Stine. He writes books for children. Mister Stine is well known around the world for his series of books called “Goosebumps.”? The books have been translated into thirty-two languages. They are frightening and also fun. Titles of Goosebumps books include “Welcome To Camp Nightmare,” and “A Night in Terror Tower.” R.L. Stine has been writing since he was a child. He wrote his first successful horror book in nineteen eighty-six. Goosebumps began in nineteen ninety-two. Today, he is working on three different book series. They are called “Mostly Ghostly,”? “Rotten School” and “Fear Street.”? Another American writer at the Book Festival this year is popular around the world as well. Karin Slaughter’s work is published in twenty-three different languages. Her books are about imaginary crimes that take place in a small town in the American South. The latest book in the series is called “Faithless.” Critics praise Karin Slaughter’s books for developing characters that readers recognize as real. And they say the violence she describes clearly shows her anger at crimes against women and children. A third writer at the Book Festival is David McCullough. He writes about real people in American history. Mister McCullough has won many writing awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. His new book is called “Seventeen Seventy-Six.”? It is about what he calls the most important year in the most important struggle in American history. It is the year that American colonial leaders approved the Declaration of Independence and demanded freedom from British rule. David McCullough says he tried to describe that year in the words of the people who lived through it. He used writings of soldiers in the colonial army to help tell the story. Critics say David McCullough’s work helps readers experience historical events. Hurricane Names HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from listeners in India and Vietnam. Anandkumar Bussi and Hoa Nguyen ask about the meaning of hurricane and Katrina. A hurricane is a violent ocean storm near the equator in the eastern Pacific or Atlantic oceans in late summer or early autumn. The same kind of storm is also known by other names. Scientists call them cyclones when they happen just north or south of the equator and in the Indian Ocean. They are called typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean or the China Sea. Weather scientists call hurricanes by names to make clear just which storm they are talking about, especially when two or more take place at the same time. They say using short names is especially important when exchanging storm information among weather stations and ships at sea. An Australian weather scientist began giving women’s names to storms before the end of the nineteenth century. Weather scientists used the names of their girlfriends or wives for storms during World War Two. The United States weather service started officially using women’s names for storms in nineteen fifty-three. In nineteen seventy-eight, it began including men’s names as well. Today, scientists make up lists of names years in advance. They agree on them at meetings of the World Meteorological Organization. The lists include both American and international names. The United States National Hurricane Center near Miami, Florida, watches for the development of storms. It gives a name to each one that reaches a wind speed of sixty-two kilometers an hour. A different list of names is used each year. The first name begins with the letter “A”. The second begins with “B” and so on. The same list will not be used again for at least six years. Names of storms used so far this year include Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Dennis, Emily and Franklin and the recent ones: Katrina and Ophelia. The names of storms that have caused extremely severe damage may be retired at the request of the country that was affected. That name will not be used again for at least ten years. This is done to avoid legal problems or confusion. It may be reasonable to believe that the United States soon will ask that the name Katrina be retired. You can learn more about hurricanes on the Special English program Science in the News on Tuesday, September twenty-seventh. Death Cab For Cutie A popular rock band has an unusual name: Death Cab for Cutie. The four young men in the group are from the western state of Washington. They took the unusual name from a song written by a British group from the nineteen sixties. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: Death Cab For Cutie is considered an “indie” or independent rock group. It is part of a movement of musicians who like to protect their artistic freedom. One way they do this is by remaining independent from major production companies. Death Cab for Cutie recorded its first albums with a small record company. Its latest album was released by the large company, Atlantic Records. The musicians hope to show that a group can be successful and also keep total artistic control. The new album is called “Plans.”? Its songs express the many qualities of love. Some songs are about the end of love. Others describe the way love survives through everything, even death. This song celebrates the joy of being in love. Here is “Marching Bands of Manhattan”. (MUSIC) Ben Gibbard wrote and sings most of the songs on “Plans.” He says this is an album about growing up and understanding loss. Here he sings? “Someday You Will be Loved”. (MUSIC) Death Cab for Cutie will be traveling throughout the United States and Canada this fall to play their latest music. We leave you now with a song that expresses love and undying loyalty. It is “I Will Follow You into the Dark”. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. This show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: North Korean Nuclear Deal Called Into Question??
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On Monday, six nations signed an agreement in Beijing that would end North Korea’s nuclear arms program. But North Korea almost immediately demanded a civilian nuclear power station before it would destroy its nuclear weapons. The agreement was reached after two years of negotiations among North Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The agreement says North Korea will end its nuclear arms program in exchange for economic aid and security guarantees. North Korea agreed to return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and again permit international inspectors to make sure its nuclear arms program has ended. North Korea also received recognition of its desire to keep a civilian nuclear program for electric power production. This will involve building what is called a light-water reactor. And the agreement says the nations will discuss building light-water reactors at the right time. But it does not say when that will be. One day later, on Tuesday, North Korea announced that it will not end its nuclear arms program until it gets light-water reactors from the United States. The Bush administration has rejected this kind of negotiating. The American State Department reacted by saying that North Korea should carefully think about the agreement that it signed. Japan called North Korea’s demand unacceptable. China said it expects all the nations involved to carry out their responsibilities in a serious way. South Korea said it would support North Korea’s desire for peaceful nuclear energy on two conditions. One is that the country must first rejoin the non-proliferation treaty. The other is that it must bring back United Nations inspectors. American diplomats have praised the agreement because it shows that the five countries other than North Korea can agree on a plan. They say the importance of the agreement includes promises by North and South Korea to improve ties. It also includes promises from Japan and the United States to move closer to normal relations with North Korea. And they say it shows the great influence of China as North Korea’s main ally. China also supplies most of North Korea’s food and fuel. Yet experts also criticized the agreement because it does not go into detail or provide time limits. One expert said North Korea apparently thinks the right time to discuss the civilian power question is before it takes any steps to end its nuclear arms program. The United States says the right time is after North Korea ends its nuclear arms program or takes the first steps toward disarming. Some experts say the North Korean demand is a sign that its government is not serious about ending its nuclear arms program. However, representatives of the six nations are to meet again in November to continue discussions. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Willis Conover Brought Jazz, 'the Music of Freedom,' to the World
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Willis Conover. His voice is one of the most famous in the world. Conover’s Voice of America radio program on jazz was one of the most popular and influential shows in broadcasting history. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Willis Conover was not a jazz musician. However, many people believe that he did more to spread the sound of jazz than any person in music history. For more than forty years Conover brought jazz to people around world on his VOA music programs. An estimated one hundred million people heard his programs. He helped make jazz music an international language. VOICE TWO: Willis Conover was born in Buffalo, New York, in nineteen twenty. Because his father was in the military, his family moved around a great deal. When Willis was in high school, he played the part of a radio announcer in a school play. People told him that he sounded like a real radio announcer. Later, he competed in a spelling competition that was broadcast on radio. The radio announcer told Willis that he should work in radio. Willis had a deep and rich voice that was perfect for broadcasting. VOICE ONE: At first, Conover worked for small radio stations in the state of Maryland. He served in the military during World War Two. Because of his experience talking to people on radio, Conover was not sent away to fight. He was needed to interview new soldiers at Fort Meade, Maryland. After the war, he continued to work for commercial radio stations. Willis Conover heard a lot of jazz music during the nineteen forties in Washington, D.C. This city was the center of a very important jazz movement. Willis Conover knew many of the jazz musicians in both Washington and New York City. He helped organize many concerts. He also helped stop racial separation in the places where music was played at night. At this time, mainly white people went to music clubs even though many of the musicians were black. Conover created musical events where people of all races were welcome. VOICE TWO: Willis Conover wanted to be able to play more of the jazz music that he loved on his radio show. He did not like the restrictions of commercial radio. When he heard that the Voice of America wanted to start a jazz music program, Conover knew that he had found a perfect job. He had full freedom to play all kinds of jazz music on his show which began in nineteen fifty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Willis Conover once said that jazz is the music of freedom. He said that with jazz people can express their lives through music. And that the music helps people to stand up a little straighter. Many people think that Willis Conover had great political influence during the period after World War Two known as the Cold War. This was a time of increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. During the nineteen sixties and seventies, listening to the VOA was not allowed in many Eastern European countries. Also, the governments of these countries thought jazz was dangerous and subversive. But the people in these countries loved jazz. Many people became jazz musicians themselves. They first learned how to play this music by listening to Willis Conover’s “Music USA” program. VOICE TWO: During the many of years his program was broadcast, Conover presented his expert knowledge about jazz. He interviewed great jazz musicians such as Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. He played the best music from the most current musicians. Here is a recording of Conover talking about the way jazz music changes over time. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Willis Conover not only talked about jazz music on his program. He sometimes wrote the music and the words to jazz songs. He usually wrote sad love songs. His many musician friends put the words to music. Here he is voicing the words to a song he wrote in the nineteen sixties. The music is written and played by the great jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd. (SOUND) VOICE TWO:????????? Very few Americans knew about Willis Conover’s program. Voice of America programs are not permitted to be broadcast in the United States. But, he was very famous in the rest of the world. Audiences loved his program. When he traveled to Poland in nineteen fifty-nine, he saw hundreds of people gathered near his plane. People held cameras and flowers. They were cheering and smiling. Conover thought that they were waiting for a famous person to arrive. Then, he saw a large sign that said, “Welcome to Poland, Mister Conover”. The crowds were there to see him. Willis Conover also worked to spread jazz in the United States. He was the announcer for many famous jazz festivals and concerts in America. He presented more than thirty concerts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He even produced the White House concert in celebration of jazz musician Duke Ellington’s seventieth birthday in nineteen sixty-nine. VOICE ONE: Willis Conover once said that Louis Armstrong was the heart of jazz, Duke Ellington was the soul and Count Basie was its happy dancing feet. Here is part of a nineteen seventy-three interview by Willis Conover with the great Duke Ellington. This was one of the last times Conover talked to him. Duke Ellington died the next year. In this interview, these great men express their thanks to one another. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: In his jazz programs Willis Conover played many kinds of jazz. He played songs he liked and songs he did not like. However, he liked to play the musicians he liked best, such as Duke Ellington, often. Here is the song “Chelsea Bridge” from his favorite saxophonist musician Ben Webster. Conover once said that nothing could quite match this song. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Willis Conover died in nineteen ninety-six after a long struggle with cancer. He was seventy-five. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. Though his programs are no longer broadcast, his influence is very much alive. Jazz music owes a great deal to this special man. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Clinton Global Initiative Launched by Former President
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Development Report. World leaders gathered in New York earlier this month for the sixtieth anniversary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. At the same time, another big meeting also took place in the city. It was the first meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. Former President Bill Clinton organized the conference with goals in four areas. One is to reduce poverty. Another is to use religion as a force for understanding and conflict resolution. The third is to use business and technology to fight climate change. And the fourth is to strengthen governments. More than one thousand people attended the three-day meeting. They included current and former leaders from different countries. They also included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Business leaders, educators and representatives of non-profit groups also attended. Each person was asked to take action in the coming year in one of the four areas of the Clinton Global Initiative. By the close of the meeting, there were promises of more than one thousand million dollars in support. Among the projects announced were two power stations in the Dominican Republic to produce energy from wind. They are expected to cost one hundred thirty million dollars. Also, an international effort was launched to finance projects around the world that use energy from the sun. To fight poverty, the former chief of the African wireless-telephone company Celtel announced an investment program for Africa. Mohamed Ibrahim said he would launch the African Enterprise Private Investment Fund with a gift of one hundred million dollars. Money will be directed at small and medium-size businesses. Another project brings together the Christian aid group World Vision and the Global Business Coalition. The plan calls for them to spend tens of millions of dollars in the next five years to help fight H.I.V. and AIDS. The work is to be done through small-business development. Mister Clinton himself plans to work with Scottish businessman Tom Hunter to launch new development programs. Mister Hunter agreed to give one hundred million dollars to spend over the next ten years. The project will be launched in Africa. Mister Clinton says he plans to hold a global initiative conference every year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Finding Child Care Is No Easy Job for U.S. Parents
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about an issue facing America’s working parents. If both a mother and a father are employed, who will care for their young children?? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A half-century ago, most mothers of young children in the United States did not work outside the home. But life has changed. The United States Census Bureau said that in two thousand two, sixty-four percent of mothers with a child under age six were in the workforce. If the father also works, the need for child care is clear. The same is true if a parent is single. VOICE TWO: Sometimes grandparents or other family members watch over children. But most working parents must pay for care. And they often have to pay a lot. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says child-care costs for a full day begin at about four thousand dollars yearly. Many families pay ten thousand dollars yearly per child – and more. The Urban Institute is an economic and social-policy research organization. It reported in two thousand one about working families in America. The institute said nearly half of families with a child under thirteen spent about nine percent of their monthly earnings on child care. The poorest families spent twenty-three percent. VOICE ONE: Some parents employ a person to supervise children in the parents’ home. This person is often called a baby sitter or a nanny. Sometimes this care provider lives with the family. Au pairs are foreign care providers. They live with families while supervising the families’ children. Some care providers open their own homes to one or more children. These, and other, children’s centers must meet the requirements of local and state governments. For example, a care provider can supervise only a limited number of children. The number depends on the children’s ages. Care centers must show that they are protected against fires and other dangers. Yet once parents find a place, they cannot be sure they will stay. The care might not be as good as they hoped. Or the cost might increase. Or the parents might even be asked to take their son or daughter elsewhere if the child often bites or hits other children. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Child-care companies and religious organizations operate some of the daycare centers and preschools in the United States. Organizations like the Y.M.C.A, the Young Men’s Christian Association, provide daytime child care in many cities across the country. These programs serve children from the earliest years to as old as students in middle school. Care for school-age children is also provided at public and private schools before and after normal school hours. VOICE ONE: Other organizations mix daytime activities for older adults with daytime care for children. One such organization is called ONEgeneration. This nonprofit community group is in Van Nuys, California. It serves older adults and young children in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. A ONEgeneration center for older adults is next to its daycare center. Older people who volunteer visit the daycare children in the afternoon. They sit and hold the babies and rock them back and forth, as they might do with their own grandchildren. VOICE TWO: Private companies and government agencies also offer childcare. This lets a working mother or father be near their sons and daughters during the day. For example, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, looks after employees’ children at several centers. These places accept children ages six weeks to three years. The N.I.H. centers are operated by a child-care company in cooperation with the children’s parents. The parents of children in the full-day program must help in the centers for three hours a month. If they cannot do so, they must pay an additional amount for their child to attend. Help from parents in such cooperative centers helps keep costs down. VOICE? ONE: The General Services Administration has more than one hundred ten child care centers in federal buildings. These centers are in thirty-one states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. At least half the children in the centers must have parents employed by the government. Any places not filled this way go to the general public. VOICE TWO:?????? Young children in good preschool programs learn to identify common objects. They study letters and pictures to help prepare for reading. They learn songs. They play games that use numbers and maps. Many children’s programs include activities to help them get to know the wider world. For example, children visit zoos, museums and fire and police stations. At age five, most American children attend free kindergarten in public schools. Many American kindergartens now require skills taught in early education programs. VOICE ONE: Jan Forbes of Rockville, Maryland, works in two centers for young children. Missus Forbes is paid for teaching music in one center. She gives her time to the other center, which serves more poor children. The teacher says good child care and preschool centers are important to prepare children for their school years. She notes that kindergarten classes once placed major importance mostly on social development for school. But today most kindergartens teach basic educational skills. Missus Forbes says early education helps children develop good relationships with adults. At the same time, children learn to cooperate with other children. She praises the activities of preschool life as helping develop responsible and happy children. VOICE TWO: Head Start is the national preschool program for poor children. The goal is to prepare them for the educational system – and life in general. But these programs cannot serve all needy children. Getting good child care that provides early education can be very difficult for poor families. The Census Bureau says there were thirty-seven million people in poverty in two thousand four. The poverty rate was twelve and seventh-tenths percent, up two-tenths of one percent from the year before. Now there are worries that money needed to rebuild areas hit by Hurricane Katrina could take away from early education and child care. VOICE ONE: Parents often criticize the price of child care. But daycare operators say many parents do not understand all the costs involved. These include food, drinks, toys, videos, games and crafts. They also include wages, taxes, insurance, transportation and things like cleaning supplies. One person said on a child-care Web site, "we providers are in this line of work for love of kids -- not money!" VOICE TWO: Low pay is a major reason the industry has to replace many workers each year. Currently, the lowest pay in the United States permitted under federal law is six dollars and seventy-five cents an hour. ? The government says half of daycare workers earned less than seven dollars and eighteen cents an hour in two thousand two. Those employed in schools had median earnings of nine dollars and four cents per hour. Pay depends on education. A caregiver who attended college earns more than a person who only finished high school. But the best pay is still not very high. VOICE ONE: Getting the best child care can be difficult for even the wealthiest parents. The best centers may have long waiting lists. Parents often have to request a place long before their child is born. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we will visit a group of three-year-olds at a preschool in Fairfax, Virginia. The children begin their day by forming a circle. They talk a little to each other and their teacher. She leads them in song. After that, the children go to “stations,” places in the center where they can choose activities. The boys and girls get a chance to paint or work at a computer. They can look at books or play with trains or trucks or dollhouses. They can build tall structures with building sets. Then they have a little something to eat and drink. If the weather is good, the children play outside under supervision. Those staying a full day in the preschool have a meal. Later they sleep for part of the afternoon. Then their mothers or fathers arrive. The children’s time in the care of others is over. It is time to go home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Severe Ocean Storms: Behind Nature's Power
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. Our subject this week is the science of severe ocean storms. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Violent ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late summer or autumn near the equator. Scientists call them cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean. When they happen over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, the storms are called typhoons. And, in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean, they are called hurricanes. Ocean storms develop when the air temperature in one area is different from the temperature nearby. Warmer air rises, while cooler air drops. These movements create a difference in the pressure of the atmosphere. If the pressure changes over a large area, it can cause winds to blow in a huge circle. Thick clouds form and heavy rains fall as the storm gains speed and moves over the ocean waters. VOICE TWO: The strongest winds happen in the area known as the eyewall. It surrounds the center, or eye, of the storm. The eye itself is calm by comparison, with light winds and clear skies. Winds in severe ocean storms can reach speeds of more than two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Up to fifty centimeters of rain can fall. Some storms have produced more than one hundred fifty centimeters of rain. These storms also cause high waves and ocean surges. A surge is a continuous movement of water that may reach as high as six meters or more. The water smashes across low coastal areas. Surges are commonly responsible for about ninety percent of all deaths from ocean storms. VOICE ONE: The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, keeps watch on severe storms. It works closely with public officials and with radio and television stations to keep people informed. Experts believe this early warning system has helped reduce the number of deaths from ocean storms in recent years. But sometimes people cannot or will not flee the path of a storm, as Hurricane Katrina showed tragically. The storm struck the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on August twenty-ninth. More than one thousand bodies have been found, most of them in Louisiana. In the past week, coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana had to prepare for Hurricane Rita. Three million people fled to higher ground. Rita caused widespread property damage, but not as much as had been feared. The Atlantic hurricane season continues officially until November thirtieth. VOICE TWO: Weather scientists use computers to create models that show where a storm might go. Models combine information such as temperatures, wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the amount of water in the atmosphere. Scientists collect the information with satellites, weather balloons and devices floating in the world's oceans. They also collect information from ships and passenger flights and from government planes. These planes fly into and around storms. The crews drop instruments on parachutes. The instruments report temperature, pressure, wind speed and other details. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Scientists use the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale to measure the intensity of storms based on wind speed. The scale is divided into categories. A category one storm has winds of about one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. It can damage trees and lightweight structures. Wind speeds in a category two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often powerful enough to break windows or blow the roof off a house. Winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour represent categories three and four. Anything even more powerful is a category five hurricane. VOICE TWO: Katrina was a category four when it hit land. It struck the Gulf Coast with a wind speed of about two hundred thirty kilometers an hour. But government scientists say other forces helped make Katrina the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the United States. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say Katrina’s air pressure was very low. The lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm. And Katrina was an unusually wide storm. The edges reached from Texas to Florida. VOICE ONE: Katrina’s most damaging power, however, came from the water it brought. The storm surge was estimated at more than six meters, and may have been as high as nine. The storm also brought heavy rainfall. All this water poured into Lake Pontchartrain on the north side of New Orleans. It also flooded into the Mississippi River to the south. New Orleans was built below sea level. The city is surrounded by levees made of earth and walls made of concrete. The water and wind pressure from Katrina broke through the flood dams. The surge washed away large areas of the coastal cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. There was also heavy damage in Alabama. Studies have warned for years of the risk in continued development along the Gulf Coast. Scientists have said that more hurricane barriers are needed to protect areas where people live. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Center for Atmospheric Research recently did a study of hurricanes. They say the number of the most powerful storms has increased by almost one hundred percent in the past thirty-five years. The researchers noted that ocean surface temperatures have also increased during the same period. The study appeared in Science magazine. Peter Webster of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech was one of the leaders of the research. He says the world had an average of about ten category four and five hurricanes per year in the nineteen seventies. But Professor Webster says the average has increased to eighteen per year since nineteen ninety. VOICE ONE: The researchers say that about thirty-five percent of all hurricanes in the past ten years were category four or five. That was up from around twenty percent in the nineteen seventies. The largest increases took place in the North Pacific and Southwest Pacific, and the North and South Indian oceans. The increase was a little smaller in the North Atlantic. But the study says North Atlantic hurricanes have increased in total number. Also, they last longer than they did before nineteen ninety-five. Kerry Emanuel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently did a study of North Atlantic and North Pacific hurricanes. His findings appeared in Nature magazine. He used a different measure of power. But he, too, found a sharp increase in the last thirty years in the intensity of hurricanes and the time they last. VOICE TWO: Peter Webster says it is not clear if the changes are the result of global warming caused by human activity. He says researchers need a longer record of hurricane information to see if such activity is natural over time. And the professor says they also need to understand more about the part that hurricanes play in Earth's climate. As he describes it, hurricanes help cool the oceans and control the heat balance in the atmosphere. They evaporate water and then spread the tropical heat of the oceans up into the sky. The new studies provide more evidence of a relationship between increases in ocean surface temperatures and the intensity of hurricanes. But Professor Webster says "it is not a simple relationship," and it is difficult to understand. He says the total number of hurricanes has decreased in the past ten years. The average time they last has decreased also. Yet sea surface temperatures reportedly have increased the most of any period back to the nineteen seventies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. Jill Moss was our producer. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. To send e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Making Cheese the Traditional Way
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 Correction attached I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The ancient way to store milk for long periods of time is to make it into cheese. Industrial methods create huge amounts of dairy products used by a large and growing population. But many people still enjoy foods made in traditional ways. And a growing number of people are using and sharing traditional ways to make foods like cheese. Jonathan White and his wife, Nina, teach about, make and sell cheese made in traditional ways. They own Bobolink Dairy in the state of New Jersey. The Whites raise cows fed on grass. This is already different from industrial production, where milk cows are fed grain. Mister White is not interested in selling fresh milk. He says he gets more money making his milk into cheese. He sells his products for about forty-four dollars per kilogram. Most mornings, Mister White and his assistants move the cows from fields to a large shelter, or barn. The cows are milked by machine, with a device that attaches to their udders. The milk travels through a pipe to a large container, or vat, that holds the milk for cheese making. The vat is made of stainless steel. It has a motorized arm that moves in a circle, which mixes the milk. The vat is temperature-controlled. Mister White usually keeps the milk at about thirty-two degrees Celsius. The cheese making process begins as soon as the milk leaves the cows and enters the vat. Bacteria in the milk start to change the milk sugars into lactic acid through the process of fermentation. The acid suppresses harmful bacteria. To help the process, a small amount of milk product from yesterday’s cheese making is put into today’s fermenting milk. Mister White estimates that there are about fifteen important organisms -- bacteria, molds and yeasts -- that ferment his milk. That combination makes the taste of the cheese one-of-a-kind. The combination of the kinds of cows used and the grasses they eat would have to be copied exactly. Cheese could be made by the fermentation process alone. But most cheese needs something else to make it solid before it is pressed into its well-known forms. The story of how cheese changes from a fermenting liquid to a solid is our subject next week. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Internet users can read and hear this report at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Doug Johnson. --- Correction: Jonathan White says that while about fifteen organisms help form the skin of?his cheese, about one hundred organisms ferment the cheese itself. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Literary Voice: Don't Parrot Cliches, but Do Read, Read, Read
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: We continue our discussion with University of Delaware English Professor Ben Yagoda about his recent book called "The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing." RS: He based the book on interviews he had with more than 40 writers who he considers to have a strong personal style. And Ben Yagoda says a distinctive voice begins with originality in what the writer has to say. BEN YAGODA: "The worst possible thing is to use the phrases that everyone else is using because then you just sound like everyone else. So trying to become aware of the cliches in the language and the ones you use yourself. Being aware of vocabulary so that, at the very least, you're using the word that you intend to use and not something else. So really it's like a clearing away of the underbrush that I think is the first step. "Reading your work out loud, I think, is probably the best single piece of advice. We talk about 'voice' and 'hearing your writing.' Those are all metaphors. But if you can make that literal by reading aloud, that can certainly help." AA: "That actually raises a good question that a lot of people have, which is: Are you writing for the ear, or are you writing it for the eye? Should there be a conscious difference between the two?" BEN YAGODA: "That's a great question, and in fact one of my conclusions in this book, and looking at all different kinds of writers who are distinctive, is that, of the different things that differentiate writers' styles, probably the one I'd think of as most important is the extent to which that writer is more of a spoken writer or a written writer. I mean, on the one hand, you have Elmore Leonard -- spoken, detective writer. Or Hemingway. On the other hand, (there is the writer) Henry James, and everywhere in between. "And pretty much everybody has a mix, and either one can work. Certainly, if you're writing a hard-boiled detective novel you don't want to sound like Henry James, and if you're writing a dissertation for tenure, you don't want to sound like Elmore Leonard. So the kind of thing you're writing necessitates part of it. But even within any genre or form of writing, there's a lot of room for stylistic differentiation." RS: "What can students of English as a foreign language learn from reading -- " BEN YAGODA: "Oh God ... " RS: " -- different styles in English?" BEN YAGODA: "They can learn everything, and certainly that's -- my students, who are mostly native speakers, usually quite bright and interested and all that, but the biggest problem in their writing stems from the fact they haven't read enough. So reading as much, as you can and as many different kinds of writing as you can, is the single best thing for improving your own writing, whether you're a native speaker or learning English as a second language." RS: "So that promotes what in the learning process?" BEN YAGODA: "It promotes awareness of the way different writers work, of vocabulary, of different rhetorical effects like irony and metaphor. And some of it is conscious: you say, 'Oh I see the way Kurt Vonnegut uses irony.' But more of it is unconscious or subliminal. "When you read these things carefully, you absorb it. And then, when you're sitting looking at your blank piece of paper or your computer screen, the things that you've read suddenly become part of your array of options in your own writing. And then it gets bigger and bigger, and richer and richer." RS: "One last question, has your style changed after writing this book?" BEN YAGODA: "I would say I'm more aware of my style. I was looking at a piece I wrote 15 or 18 years ago, and it sounded too fancy. There were too many big words. I'm a fan of big words when they serve a purpose. But it seemed like it was a little too literary for not necessary reasons. So I think whether it's because of this book or maturity or whatever, my style has become a little bit simpler over time." AA: University of Delaware English Professor Ben Yagoda is author of the book "The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing." We asked him to recommend a few other books noteworthy for their style and voice. RS: He suggested works like "Cat's Cradle" and "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, "The White Album" and "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" by Joan Didion, and "The Right Stuff" and "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. All of our segments can be found online at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-27-voa2.cfm
* Headline: National Cryptologic Museum Tells Top Secrets of the Past
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit a small museum in the state of Maryland. It is called the National Cryptologic Museum. It is filled with information that was once very secret. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The little National Cryptologic Museum is on the Fort George G. Meade military base near Washington, D.C. It tells the story of cryptology and the men and women who have worked in this unusual profession. The word cryptology comes from the Greek “kryptos logos.”? It means “hidden word.”? Cryptology is writing or communicating using secret methods to hide the meaning of your words. VOICE TWO: The museum shows many pieces of equipment that were once used to make information secret. It also has equipment that was used in an effort to read secret information. One unusual example is a kind of bed covering called a quilt. Quilts are made by hand. They usually have a colorful design sewn on them. One special kind of quilt was used to pass on secret information. In the early history of the United States, black people from Africa were used as slaves in the southern states. Slaves sewed quilts that had very unusual designs. These quilts really told stories. The quilts were made with designs that told slaves how to escape to freedom in the northern states. The museum has an example that shows a design that represents the North Star. Slaves knew they had to travel from the South to the North to escape to freedom. The quilt tells a slave to follow the North Star. Other designs in the quilt represent roads and a small house. History experts say about sixty thousand slaves escaped to freedom during the period of slavery. The experts do not know how much the quilts really helped, but they did provide needed information for those trying to escape. VOICE ONE: The Cryptologic Museum has several examples that show the importance of creating secret information, or trying to read secret information written by foreign nations. Secret information is also called code. One of the most important displays at the museum shows American attempts to read Japanese military information codes during World War Two. The Japanese Navy used special machines to change their written information into secret codes. This coded information was then transmitted by radio to ships and bases. Much of this information contained secret military plans and orders. The leaders of the Japanese Navy believed no one could read or understand the secret codes. They were wrong. An American Naval officer named Joseph Rochefort worked very hard to break the Japanese code. He did this in an effort to learn what the Japanese Navy was planning. Mister Rochefort did his work in a small building on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was early in nineteen forty-two. The American naval commander in the Pacific Ocean was Admiral Chester Nimitz. His forces were much smaller than the Japanese Naval forces. And the Japanese had been winning many victories. (SOUND: HIGH SPEED MORSE CODE) VOICE TWO: Joseph Rochefort had worked for several months to read the secret Japanese Naval code called J-N-Twenty-Five. If he could read enough of the code, Mister Rochefort would be able to provide Admiral Nimitz with very valuable information. Admiral Nimitz could use this information to make the necessary decisions to plan for battle. By the early part of the year, Mister Rochefort and the men who worked with him could read a little less than twenty percent of the Japanese J-N-Twenty-Five code. VOICE ONE: From the beginning of nineteen forty-two, the Japanese code carried information that discussed a place called? “A-F.”? Mister Rochefort felt the Japanese were planning an important battle aimed at “A-F.” But where was “A-F”??? After several weeks, Mister Rochefort and other naval experts told Admiral Nimitz that their best idea was that the “A-F” in the Japanese code was the American-held island of Midway. Admiral Nimitz said he could not plan an attack or a defense based on only an idea. He needed more information. VOICE TWO: The Navy experts decided to try a trick. They told the American military force on Midway to broadcast a false message. The message would say the island was having problems with its water-processing equipment. The message asked that fresh water be sent immediately to the island. This message was not sent in code. Several days later,? a Japanese radio broadcast in the J-N-Twenty-Five code said that?? “A-F” had little water. Mister Rochefort had the evidence he needed. “A-F” was now known to be the island of Midway. He also told Admiral Nimitz the Japanese would attack Midway on June Third. Admiral Nimitz used this information to secretly move his small force to an area near Midway and wait for the Japanese Navy. ?The battle that followed was a huge American victory. History experts now say the Battle of Midway was the beginning of the American victory in the Pacific. That victory was possible because Joseph Rochefort learned to read enough of the Japanese code to discover the meaning of the two letters “A-F.” (SOUND: HIGH SPEED MORSE CODE) VOICE ONE: One American code has never been broken. Perhaps it never will. It was used in the Pacific during World War Two. For many years the government would not discuss this secret code. Listen for a moment to this very unusual code. Then you may understand why the Japanese military forces were never able to understand any of it. (SOUND—NAVAJO SONG) You may have guessed that the code is in the voice of a Native American. The man you just heard is singing a simple song in the Navajo language. Very few people outside the Navajo nation are able to speak any of their very difficult language. At the beginning of World War Two, the United States Marine Corps asked members of the Navajo tribe to train as Code Talkers. VOICE ONE: The Cryptologic Museum says about four hundred Navajos served as Marine Corps Code Talkers during the war. They could take a sentence in English and change it into their language in about twenty seconds. A code machine at that time took about thirty minutes to do the same work. The Navajo Code Talkers took part in every battle the Marines entered in the Pacific during World War Two. The Japanese were very skilled at breaking codes. But they were never able to understand any of what they called “The Marine Code.”? For many years after the war, the American public did not know about the valuable work done by the Marine Navajo Code Talkers. The United States government kept their work a secret and their language continued to be a valuable method of passing secret information. VOICE TWO: The Cryptologic Museum has many pieces of mechanical and electric equipment used to change words into code. It also has almost as many examples of machines used to try to change code back into useful words. Perhaps the most famous is a World War Two German code machine called the Enigma. The word “enigma” means a puzzle or a problem that is difficult to solve. The German Enigma machine was used by the German military to pass orders and plans. The United States, Britain, and the government of Poland were all successful in learning to read information transmitted by the Enigma. It took thousands of people and cost millions of dollars to read the Enigma information. However, the time, effort and money resulted in a quicker end to the war against Nazi Germany. VOICE ONE: The National Cryptologic Museum belongs to the United States National Security Agency. The agency is usually called the N.S.A. One of the N.S.A.’s many jobs is cryptography for the United States government. The work of the N.S.A. is not open to the public. However, the National Cryptologic Museum tells the story of the men and women who work at the N.S.A. long after their work is no longer secret. Each part of the museum shows the value of this secret, difficult and demanding work. Visitors say it is really fun to see equipment and read documents that were once very important and very, very secret. ?(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Starting Young to Build a Healthy Heart
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 I’m?Barbara Klein?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Sunday was World Heart Day. The World Heart Federation and its member groups in more than one hundred countries organized the celebrations. The World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies provided support for the event. World Heart Day was first observed six years ago. Organizers proposed the event as a way to help reduce the spread of heart disease. The World Heart Federation says heart disease kills seventeen million people each year. The group urges people to be active and have a good, healthy diet. It also warns against activities known to increase a person’s risk of heart attack or stroke. Some of the warnings are directed at children. The World Heart Federation says about twenty-two million boys and girls under the age of five are obese -- severely overweight. Children are normally energetic and active. However, two thirds of all children are not active enough. Such children greatly increase their risk of becoming obese. They also increase their risk of developing heart disease or other disorders. One message of World Heart Day is to eat right. Children should eat a healthy and balanced diet. Also, limit sugary drinks, sweets and eating between meals. The World Heart Federation urges parents to keep their children active. It says physical exercise helps to decrease the risk of obesity and keeps a child healthy. Obese children often become obese adults. If you believe your child is too heavy, talk with a health care provider. The World Heart Federation also is concerned about the effects of tobacco on young people. It says the younger someone begins to smoke, the greater the chance of a health problem tied to smoking. Half of the young people who continue to smoke are likely to die later in life from a smoking-related disease. The group says almost half of all children live with a smoker. It says children who live with a smoker can breathe an amount of tobacco equal to more than two thousand cigarettes. And that is by the time they are five years old. The World Heart Federation also says parents should warn children not to be influenced by tobacco companies. And it says parents who smoke should try to stop. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by George Grow. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Foundations Expand Support for African Universities
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Six organizations in the United States say they will provide two hundred million dollars for higher education in Africa. The money is to be spent over the next five years to support universities in seven African countries. The organizations include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation. The others are the MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The universities are in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Kofi Annan speaks at announcement of $200 million commitment to strengthen higher education in seven African countries United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan joined leaders of the six foundations in the announcement. He said African universities are important to the continent's future development, governance and peace. The new investment includes more than five million dollars to provide faster computer links to the Internet at a reduced cost. The foundations entered into an agreement with the satellite operator Intelsat to provide the service. Four of the foundations involved in the new project began to work together to support African universities in two thousand. The Carnegie Corporation and the Ford, MacArthur and Rockefeller foundations joined to create the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa. The partnership says it has provided more than one hundred fifty million dollars so far. The money has gone for universities in Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Kenya joined this year. Foundation officials report much progress over the past five years. Examples include the creation of the Journal of Higher Education in Africa. This publication is a place for experts to share ideas and discuss issues facing African higher education. The partnership also has provided more than ten million dollars to help almost one thousand women attend African universities. And in Uganda, it has made possible a university program that aims to increase the number and quality of trained public workers. Foundation officials say the partnership will help Africa’s young people get the education they need to prepare them to lead their nations into the future. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports can be found on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com.This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: James Garfield: Gunfire Ends a Presidency After Only Six Months
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In eighteen eighty, President Rutherford Hayes completed four successful years in the White House. He did not want to serve another term. Hayes was a Republican. His party had great hopes of electing another Republican in the election of eighteen eighty. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I report on that election. VOICE TWO: Many Republicans wanted to nominate former President Ulysses Grant. Grant had been out of office four years. People seemed to have forgotten the political problems that shook his administration. Other Republicans supported the powerful party leader, Senator James Blaine. A third candidate was John Sherman, the Secretary of the Treasury. The Republicans had great difficulty choosing among Grant, Blaine, and Sherman. At their national convention, Republican delegates voted again and again. None of the three men received a majority. VOICE ONE: The delegates voted ten times, twenty times, thirty times. Finally, on the thirty-fourth ballot, seventeen of the delegates voted for a compromise candidate. He was James Garfield, a Republican leader in Congress. Soon, both Sherman and Blaine asked all of their delegates to vote for Garfield. The compromise candidate won the nomination. James Garfield offered the vice presidential nomination to Chester Arthur of New York. Arthur's honesty had been questioned when President Hayes removed him as Collector of Taxes for the port of New York. But a powerful party leader there supported him. So delegates gave Arthur the vice presidential nomination to strengthen party unity. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party chose for its presidential candidate a hero of the Civil War -- General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania. The election campaign of eighteen eighty was not exciting. Democrats charged that Republicans were dishonest. Republicans charged that a Democrat in the White House would make the south too powerful. Many people at that time still hated the south for starting the Civil War. They wanted to keep southern states weak. Nine million people voted in the election. James Garfield won. He got only ten thousand more popular votes than Winfield Scott Hancock. But he got a majority of votes in the electoral college. Garfield won two hundred fourteenelectoral votes. Hancock got one hundred fifty-five. VOICE ONE: The new president was forty-nine years old. He had served in the House of Representatives for seventeen years. He had been a teacher, a college president, and a general in the Union army during the Civil War. James Garfield became president of the United States on March fourth, eighteen eighty-one. His choices for a cabinet immediately re-opened the conflicts that had appeared during the party convention. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party had two powerful leaders. One was Senator Roscoe Conkling. The other was Senator James Blaine. Garfield won Blaine's support by naming him Secretary of State. He lost Conkling's support by refusing to name one of Conkling's supporters Secretary of the Treasury. Garfield denied he had promised anything to Conkling. Then he made Conkling even angrier by appointing one of Conkling's political enemies Collector of Taxes for the port of New York. That was the most important federal job in Conkling's home state. Conkling refused to accept the appointment. He began a struggle in the Senate to block it. VOICE ONE: Conkling charged that President Garfield had failed to observe the policy of "Senatorial Courtesy. " Traditionally, the president does not fill federal jobs in a state until he discusses them with the senators from that state. This long-time policy gave senators firm control over local federal jobs. They were quick to attack any changes in the method. But many senators were angry at Conkling. They did not like the way he gave orders to everyone. They did not like the way he threatened his opponents. They did not want to support him on this issue. VOICE TWO: After several weeks, it became clear that the Senate would approve President Garfield's choice for the tax collector's job. Conkling decided to resign in protest. He would ask the New York legislature to show its support by electing him again to the Senate. Before this could happen, something very unexpected took place. It happened in the train station in Washington, D-C, on July second, eighteen-eighty-one. A man ran up to President Garfield, pulled out a gun, and fired twice. One bullet cut Garfield's arm. The other went into his back. VOICE ONE: The assassin was Charles Guiteau. When he fired the gun, he shouted that he supported Roscoe Conkling's political machine. Charles Guiteau was insane. He believed God had ordered him to kill the president. But the words he shouted caused many people to wonder if others might be involved. After all, the vice president -- Chester Arthur -- supported Roscoe Conkling, too. If James Garfield died, Chester Arthur would become president. History has provided no evidence that Roscoe Conkling, Chester Arthur, or any other political leader had a part in the shooting. Guiteau is believed to have acted on his own. Yet the situation did cause a great deal of tension while the nation waited to see if Garfield would survive. VOICE TWO: The president was carried to the White House. A doctor tried to remove the bullet from his back. He could not find it. Days passed. The president's condition changed from day to day. Doctors pushed their instruments into the wound as they continued to look for the bullet. The wound became infected. Garfield grew worse. Then he grew better. He asked to be taken to the sea shore. Two months later, the doctors warned the cabinet and Vice President Arthur that Garfield was dying. The end finally came on September nineteenth, eighteen eighty-one. The president's body was taken back to Washington. Memorial services were held there. And then the body was taken to his home state of Ohio for burial. VOICE ONE: Not until after Garfield's death did doctors find the bullet that killed him. It lay only a few centimeters from the wound. Tissue had grown around it. The bullet itself would not have killed the president. What killed him was the effort made by doctors to find the bullet. Their instruments had spread infection throughout his body. James Garfield had been president for six months. He was the second American President to be assassinated. The first -- Abraham Lincoln -- had been shot just sixteen years before. VOICE TWO: The man who shot James Garfield -- Charles Guiteau -- was tried by a court in Washington. He was found guilty of murder. Like those found guilty of plotting to kill Abraham Lincoln, he was hanged. Vice President Chester Arthur was in New York when he received news of President Garfield's death. He quickly sent for a judge to give him the oath of office as President. Arthur was in his early fifties. He would serve one term as leader of the United States. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION is a series of programs that tells the history of the United States. It is broadcast in Special English every Thursday. The Voice of America invites you to listen to this program again next week at this same time. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Lost' Is Found on Millions of Televisions Worldwide
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music by two sisters known as Mary Mary … Answer a question about the International Spy Museum … And report about an award-winning and popular television show. 'Lost' (MUSIC FROM SHOW) Last week, the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented its Emmy Awards for the best television programs of last season. The program “Lost” won the award for best dramatic series. “Lost” is one of the most popular television shows in the world. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: “Lost” follows more than forty survivors of an airplane crash on what appears to be an island in the Pacific Ocean. The strangers must work together to stay alive and find help to rescue them. Every week, the program shows more information about each survivor before the crash. And every week, they form new relationships. The survivors include an American doctor named Jack and a criminal named Kate. Others include a Korean husband and wife, a former Iraqi soldier and a British rock musician. Critics say “Lost” is popular because of the mysteries the survivors find on the island. For example, last season, a huge unknown animal killed the pilot of the plane and continued to terrorize the survivors. A strange French woman who lives alone on the island stole the newborn baby of one of the survivors. The survivors discover another group of people on the island who they call “The Others.” And one of the survivors who could not move his legs before the plane crash is able to walk normally on the island. That man’s name on the show is John Locke. He and the doctor at times appear to be competing for leadership. In the first show of the new season last week, John decides to take action and explore a strange covered hole in the ground. The doctor questions his decision: JACK: "John, what are you doing?" JOHN: "I’m getting some cable." JACK: "What for?" JOHN: "It’s for the hatch. I’m going in." JACK: "Do you think that’s the smartest thing to do right now, John?" JOHN: "I doubt it. In fact, you’re right. The safest thing is to stay here, wait for morning. Wait for these others to see if they ever show up. Wait for the brave folks on the raft to bring help. But me?? I’m tired of waiting." In May, fans of “Lost” criticized the show for withholding the secret of that hole until the beginning of the second season. People watching the show in the United States now know what is down there and if it will help or hurt the survivors. But we are not going to tell because some of you may not have seen that story yet. To find out, you will just have to watch “Lost.” International Spy Museum HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mister Kamruzzamamn asks about the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. The International Spy Museum opened in two thousand two. It presents information about the men and women who worked as spies for countries around the world. The museum has the largest permanent collection of international spy material on public display. This includes photographs of many spies and hundreds of pieces of equipment that they used. For example, visitors can see different kinds of radios that spies used to send and receive information during World War Two. They can see special cameras used to take secret photographs. One of these cameras looks like a package of cigarettes. The museum also has a collection of weapons used by spies. One gun looks like a man’s leather glove that fits over the hand. The museum also shows the many kinds of technology used by spies, from planes to satellites. The museum teaches about the history of spying, too. One example is called “The Sisterhood of Spies.”? It tells about some female spies from the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties through the beginning of the twentieth century. The museum explains that a spy may be considered guilty of treason in one country and a hero in another country. The museum also shows that spying is a very dangerous job. It tells what happened to some spies who were caught. One of these was a woman known as Mata Hari. She was found guilty of spying for the German government and executed during World War Two. A new exhibit is opening at the spy museum next week, and will continue until the spring of next year. “Spy Treasures of Hollywood” will include thirty-five of the most famous objects from movies and television shows about spies. These include the gun used by the movie character James Bond in the series of spy movies. Hollywood filmmaker Danny Biederman lent the museum objects from his private collection. Mister Biederman owns the world’s largest collection of movie and TV spy material – four thousand objects. Museum Director Peter Earnest says the objects are a perfect addition to the real spy devices at the International Spy Museum. Mary Mary The gospel singing group Mary Mary is made up of two women. They are sisters, but neither is named Mary. Pat Bodner explains. PAT BODNER: The group Mary Mary is Erica and Tina Campbell. They come from a family of religious singers. Erica and Tina chose the name Mary Mary for their group in honor of two women in the Christian Bible. They are Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. In two thousand, Mary Mary released its first album, “Thankful.”? It won a Grammy Award. The song “Shackles” was a hit on gospel, soul and pop radio stations. (MUSIC) Mary Mary is known for combining hip-hop and soul with gospel music. Music critics say the group’s success extends beyond gospel listeners. They say songs such as “Biggest, Greatest Thing” show the sisters’ ability to sing different kinds of music. “Biggest, Greatest Thing” sounds like a swing song from the nineteen thirties. (MUSIC) The sisters have written songs for their own albums and for other singers. The group released its third album recently, called “Mary Mary.”? Some of the songs on the album are about experiences from the women’s own lives. In the song “Believer”, Erica Campbell sings about how her family’s home caught fire but no one was hurt. Tina Campbell sings about her involvement in a serious car accident. We leave you with that song by “Mary Mary,” “Believer.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music by two sisters known as Mary Mary … Answer a question about the International Spy Museum … And report about an award-winning and popular television show. 'Lost' (MUSIC FROM SHOW) Last week, the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presented its Emmy Awards for the best television programs of last season. The program “Lost” won the award for best dramatic series. “Lost” is one of the most popular television shows in the world. Barbara Klein has more. BARBARA KLEIN: “Lost” follows more than forty survivors of an airplane crash on what appears to be an island in the Pacific Ocean. The strangers must work together to stay alive and find help to rescue them. Every week, the program shows more information about each survivor before the crash. And every week, they form new relationships. The survivors include an American doctor named Jack and a criminal named Kate. Others include a Korean husband and wife, a former Iraqi soldier and a British rock musician. Critics say “Lost” is popular because of the mysteries the survivors find on the island. For example, last season, a huge unknown animal killed the pilot of the plane and continued to terrorize the survivors. A strange French woman who lives alone on the island stole the newborn baby of one of the survivors. The survivors discover another group of people on the island who they call “The Others.” And one of the survivors who could not move his legs before the plane crash is able to walk normally on the island. That man’s name on the show is John Locke. He and the doctor at times appear to be competing for leadership. In the first show of the new season last week, John decides to take action and explore a strange covered hole in the ground. The doctor questions his decision: JACK: "John, what are you doing?" JOHN: "I’m getting some cable." JACK: "What for?" JOHN: "It’s for the hatch. I’m going in." JACK: "Do you think that’s the smartest thing to do right now, John?" JOHN: "I doubt it. In fact, you’re right. The safest thing is to stay here, wait for morning. Wait for these others to see if they ever show up. Wait for the brave folks on the raft to bring help. But me?? I’m tired of waiting." In May, fans of “Lost” criticized the show for withholding the secret of that hole until the beginning of the second season. People watching the show in the United States now know what is down there and if it will help or hurt the survivors. But we are not going to tell because some of you may not have seen that story yet. To find out, you will just have to watch “Lost.” International Spy Museum HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mister Kamruzzamamn asks about the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. The International Spy Museum opened in two thousand two. It presents information about the men and women who worked as spies for countries around the world. The museum has the largest permanent collection of international spy material on public display. This includes photographs of many spies and hundreds of pieces of equipment that they used. For example, visitors can see different kinds of radios that spies used to send and receive information during World War Two. They can see special cameras used to take secret photographs. One of these cameras looks like a package of cigarettes. The museum also has a collection of weapons used by spies. One gun looks like a man’s leather glove that fits over the hand. The museum also shows the many kinds of technology used by spies, from planes to satellites. The museum teaches about the history of spying, too. One example is called “The Sisterhood of Spies.”? It tells about some female spies from the American Civil War in the eighteen sixties through the beginning of the twentieth century. The museum explains that a spy may be considered guilty of treason in one country and a hero in another country. The museum also shows that spying is a very dangerous job. It tells what happened to some spies who were caught. One of these was a woman known as Mata Hari. She was found guilty of spying for the German government and executed during World War Two. A new exhibit is opening at the spy museum next week, and will continue until the spring of next year. “Spy Treasures of Hollywood” will include thirty-five of the most famous objects from movies and television shows about spies. These include the gun used by the movie character James Bond in the series of spy movies. Hollywood filmmaker Danny Biederman lent the museum objects from his private collection. Mister Biederman owns the world’s largest collection of movie and TV spy material – four thousand objects. Museum Director Peter Earnest says the objects are a perfect addition to the real spy devices at the International Spy Museum. Mary Mary The gospel singing group Mary Mary is made up of two women. They are sisters, but neither is named Mary. Pat Bodner explains. PAT BODNER: The group Mary Mary is Erica and Tina Campbell. They come from a family of religious singers. Erica and Tina chose the name Mary Mary for their group in honor of two women in the Christian Bible. They are Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene. In two thousand, Mary Mary released its first album, “Thankful.”? It won a Grammy Award. The song “Shackles” was a hit on gospel, soul and pop radio stations. (MUSIC) Mary Mary is known for combining hip-hop and soul with gospel music. Music critics say the group’s success extends beyond gospel listeners. They say songs such as “Biggest, Greatest Thing” show the sisters’ ability to sing different kinds of music. “Biggest, Greatest Thing” sounds like a swing song from the nineteen thirties. (MUSIC) The sisters have written songs for their own albums and for other singers. The group released its third album recently, called “Mary Mary.”? Some of the songs on the album are about experiences from the women’s own lives. In the song “Believer”, Erica Campbell sings about how her family’s home caught fire but no one was hurt. Tina Campbell sings about her involvement in a serious car accident. We leave you with that song by “Mary Mary,” “Believer.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-09/2005-09-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Farm Workers Union Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Grape Strike
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I'm Jim Tedder with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The United Farm Workers of America union recently observed the fortieth anniversary of a historic strike. About five hundred people attended the observance at a former union headquarters near Delano (duh-LAY-no), California. The strike by Filipino and Mexican-American field workers led to a nationwide boycott of table grapes. In nineteen sixty-five, union organizer Cesar Chavez led a march from Delano to the state capital, Sacramento. The march helped awaken the public to the low pay and poor treatment of the workers. The boycott followed. It lasted five years. Finally, in nineteen seventy, most of the grape growers in the area agreed to recognize the union. Union membership was about eighty thousand during the nineteen seventies. Today it is reported at twenty-seven thousand. The United Farm Workers recently held what the union called its first major nationwide boycott in more than twenty years. The three-month action targeted the winemaker Gallo. It ended with a new labor agreement for three hundred ten workers in Sonoma County. Earlier, though, workers at the Giumarra Vineyards near Bakersfield appeared to reject the union. The union has disputed enough ballots to delay final results temporarily. Yet it had expected a big victory. Union officials say supervisors threatened the loss of jobs and company housing if workers voted to join the union. Giumarra’s vice president dismissed the accusations. Twelve years after the death of Cesar Chavez, life remains a struggle for many farm workers. The fact that many arrive illegally from Mexico does not help the situation. But California has taken some steps to make life at least a little easier. In August, state officials approved emergency rules to prevent heat illness. Temperatures in the Central Valley often rise above thirty-eight Celsius. The heat may have led to the deaths of several farm workers in the past year. The new rules require employers to provide about one liter of drinking water per worker per hour. Employers must also provide an area where workers can go for at least five minutes to recover from the heat. State legislators will consider more extensive measures. Along with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta organized farm workers. She is seventy-five years old now. Dolores Huerta no longer works with the United Farm Workers union, but she is still an activist. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Powerful U.S. Lawmaker Accused of Election Law Violation in Texas
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. On Wednesday, a grand jury in Texas brought a charge against the Republican leader of the United States House of Representatives. Texas Representative Tom DeLay has temporarily surrendered his position as majority leader, as required by rules. But he keeps his seat in Congress. He is charged with a violation of Texas election law. It bans using money from businesses to support the election or defeat of political candidates. The case involves a political action committee he helped set up in Texas. The charge says the group illegally passed money from companies to campaigns in the state through the Republican National Committee. In two thousand two, the Texas group sent one hundred ninety thousand dollars to the committee in Washington. The charge says the national committee also got a list of seven Texas candidates to receive, in total, that same amount. The charge says the money was part of an effort to help Republicans win control of the Texas House of Representatives. They did win in two thousand two, for the first time in one hundred thirty years. Later, Texas lawmakers drew a new map of voting areas. As a result, the House of Representatives in Washington received five more Republicans from Texas. Mister DeLay is accused of criminal conspiracy. He could face up to two years in prison if found guilty. A judge set a court appearance for October twenty-first. Two other men also face charges. Mister DeLay says he is innocent. He says he had nothing to do with the day-to-day operation of the Texas committee. He says Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in Austin, the state capital, charged him for political reasons. Mister Earle is a Democrat who notes that he has also brought charges against Democrats in the past. Republicans in Congress have chosen Missouri Representative Roy Blunt to act as majority leader temporarily. But a Republican spokesman said Mister DeLay will remain what he called a "very powerful adviser" to the party leadership. Tom DeLay has often been called the most powerful Republican in Congress. He is known on Capitol Hill as “The Hammer” for his ability to pass legislation and enforce policies. All four hundred thirty-five members of the House are elected every two years. Republicans have a twenty-nine-seat majority. The next election is in November of two thousand six. The House Ethics Committee criticized Mister DeLay three times last year for violations of House rules. Political experts say the situation now gives Democrats more ammunition to charge wrongdoing and poor leadership by Republicans. Adding to the problems is a federal investigation of the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist. It involves the sale of his stock in a company started by his family. Senator Frist says he did nothing wrong. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-01-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Country and Western Singer Roger Miller Had Many Hit Songs
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about music writer and performer Roger Miller. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The name of that song is “Dang Me.” It was written and recorded by Roger Miller in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. It was not the first song he had written, but it was his first huge hit record. In fact, the recording of “Dang Me” helped Roger Miller win five of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Awards. One of those awards was the Grammy for best new country and western artist. Before “Dang Me” became a hit record, few people outside the music business knew the name Roger Miller. Yet he had been working his way to the top of the music business since he was a boy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Roger Dean Miller was born January Second, Nineteen-Thirty-Six in the western city of Fort Worth, Texas. His father died when Roger was only one year old. His mother became sick soon after. Roger was sent to live with his uncle in Erick, Oklahoma. Roger Miller had a difficult childhood. Most of his days were spent working on his uncle’s farm, picking cotton. He was a lonely and unhappy child. Roger began writing songs because he loved the music he heard on the radio. He also learned to play the guitar and the violin, sometimes called a fiddle. Much later, he learned to play the drums. Music helped the young Roger escape the hard work on his uncle’s cotton farm. VOICE ONE: Roger left the farm when he was still very young. He traveled from town to town in the west. He worked at any job he could find during the day. At night, he went to music clubs and drinking places where country and western bands played. These places provided him with a music education. Roger Miller entered the United States Army at the age of seventeen. He was sent to an army base near Atlanta, Georgia. In Atlanta, he played with a music group called “The Circle “A” Wranglers.” When he left the Army, Roger moved to the home of country music in Nashville, Tennessee. At first, he worked in a hotel. Stories say he would sing there for anyone who would listen. He soon got several jobs playing his violin. And he began writing songs for other singers. VOICE TWO: Roger liked writing songs. He also wanted to perform his own songs on the stage. He recorded several records, but they were not popular and did not sell many copies. In Nineteen-Sixty, Roger recorded a song called “You Don’t Want My Love.” Today, the song is better known as “In the Summer Time.” It is the first song he wrote and sang that became popular. (MUSIC) “In the Summer Time” sold many copies. It showed record company officials that Roger Miller was a good performer. VOICE ONE: On January Tenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Four Roger Miller agreed to record sixteen songs. One of those songs was “Dang Me.” It became his first number one selling record. It was a hit with country music fans and with popular music fans too. It sold millions of copies. Another funny song recorded at the same time also became a major hit. It is called “Chug-a-lug”. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Roger Miller became extremely popular as the result of the success of “Dang Me” and “Chug-A-Lug”. He began appearing on television. His records sold by the millions. But it was another record that made him extremely famous. Roger often told the story about how he wrote his most famous song. He was driving late at night near the middle western city of Chicago. He saw a sign near the road. Written on the sign were the words, “Trailers for Sale or Rent.” The words stayed in his head and would not go away. Later, he used those words as the opening of his most famous song, “King of the Road.” Like many of his other songs it was popular with country fans and with popular music fans as well. It is played often on radio stations throughout the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rocco Landesman once taught at the School of Drama at Yale University. He really liked Roger Miller’s music. Mister Landesman wrote several letters asking if Roger could write the music for a play that would appear on Broadway in New York. The story would be taken from Mark Twain’s famous book, ”Huckleberry Finn.” Roger agreed to write the music for the show called “Big River.” It opened on Broadway in April of Nineteen-Eighty-Five. It was a big hit. “Big River” received seven Tony Awards. Roger Miller won two for the music he wrote. The most popular song from the show is called “River in the Rain.” The song is about the Mississippi River. Roger sings it here. (MUSIC) Roger Miller died of lung cancer Nineteen-Ninety-Two. People who knew him say his songs expressed the way he felt about life…full of pure excitement and joy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: World Bank and I.M.F. Approve Debt Relief for Poor Nations
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm?Jim Tedder?with the VOA Special English Development Report. Finance ministers of one hundred eighty-four countries have accepted a plan to cancel the debts of some of the world's poorest nations. The plan forgives one hundred percent of debts owed to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank. The policymaking committees of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund approved the plan during meetings in Washington. Leaders of the industrial nations in the Group of Eight agreed on the plan when they met in July in Scotland. The United States is joined in the G-Eight by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. The leaders agreed to cancel about forty thousand million dollars in debt owed by eighteen nations. Most are in Africa. Four are in Latin America. Up to twenty more countries could also be approved for debt forgiveness if they, too, meet conditions. If so, this would increase the total amount of debt cancellation to fifty-five thousand million dollars. The boards of directors of the World Bank and I.M.F. are expected to act quickly on final approval of the plan. The two lenders first proposed in nineteen ninety-six to cancel the debts of highly indebted poor countries. The plan will save the eighteen countries about one thousand million dollars a year in debt repayments. Officials want the countries to use the money for education and health care and to fight poverty. Anti-poverty groups praised the agreement. But some countries said it might leave the World Bank with limited resources to provide new aid for developing nations. To answer these concerns, G-Eight finance ministers sent a letter to World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz before the meetings. The ministers promised more money in the future to "cover the full cost" of the lost repayments. G-Eight leaders, when they met in July, promised big increases in their development aid in the next five years. Mister Wolfowitz says the next step now is to complete a world trade agreement that helps developing countries. Ministers of the World Trade Organization will try again to finish their negotiations when they meet in Hong Kong in December. Talks on a new trade agreement began in Qatar in two thousand one. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hong Kong Gets a Disneyland Park
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein. The Walt Disney Company opened its first amusement park in the United States fifty years ago. In September, it opened a similar park in Hong Kong. Today we tell about the company and its creator. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The weather was hot. But the heat did not prevent thousands of people from visiting the new Hong Kong Disneyland. They came to try the rides, the shows and all the other things to do at the newest theme park of the Walt Disney Company. Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Disney officials held the opening ceremonies. The park is the eleventh that the Disney company has built in the United States and overseas since nineteen fifty-five. The Hong Kong park cost about three and one-half thousand million dollars. Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Cinderella paraded at the event. And the park has traditional Disney park rides like the Mad Hatter Tea Cups, Dumbo and Space Mountain. But there was also a good measure of local culture. The Hong Kong Children’s Choir sang. Dancers representing lions and dragons appeared. Fireworks lit the sky. Soon after the opening, Disney official George Mitchell said the company plans to build a second park next to the new one. VOICE TWO: Hong Kong Disneyland is the second Disney theme park in Asia. Tokyo got the first one in nineteen eighty-three. There is also Disneyland Park in Paris. Disneyland in Anaheim, California, came first, fifty years ago. Visitors to the new Hong Kong park see a Sleeping Beauty Castle building copied after the one in Disneyland in Anaheim. The Walt Disney Company controls forty-three percent of the new park. Hong Kong holds fifty-seven percent of the project. The park and two Disney hotels are on Lantau Island, surrounded by mountains. Getting to the park by underground train from the center of the city takes about a half-hour. VOICE ONE: Experts in Chinese traditional feng shui helped design the Hong Kong park. Feng shui says that if objects are correctly placed, good energy and a good future follow. Signs in the park are in both English and Chinese. Its eating places serve a number of kinds of food. For example, some offer hamburgers and American soft drinks. But hungry visitors can also find Asian food like sweet and sour pork and chicken curry. In addition to food and rides, the new park has live shows. One of these,? “Festival of the Lion King,” was created especially for Hong Kong Disneyland. Another show, “The Golden Mickeys,” is presented like an awards program in Hollywood. It tells Disney stories with song, dance and special effects. VOICE TWO: Some visitors noted that Hong Kong Disneyland has fewer rides and other things to do than other Disneyland parks. About five thousand local citizens work at the park. Labor union activists have urged them to organize. The activists say the employees? are working long hours in sometimes difficult conditions. Disney says it would be better for employees and the company to "work and communicate directly with each other." Other activists successfully demanded that a park eating place cancel plans to serve a food containing a threatened fish. People spoke against the treatment of wild dogs that live on Lantau Island. Still other activists demanded that fireworks that are shown not damage the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, the Walt Disney Company is worth about fifty-seven thousand million dollars. It has come a long way since the nineteen twenties. At that time, Walt Disney and his brother Roy produced their first cartoon film, “Steamboat Willie.”?? Walt Disney’s cartoons were a series of drawings on film. Each drawing is a little different from the one before it. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see a film of hand-drawn cartoons, the cartoon people and animals appear to move. They speak with voices recorded by actors. The public loved to watch the Disney creatures move and act. Walt Disney, however, was not satisfied with just making cartoons. He wanted to do more. Later in life he opened that first Disneyland in California. VOICE TWO: Walt Disney died in nineteen sixty-six. But his company continued. For twenty important years, Michael Eisner served as top leader of the Walt Disney Company. Mister Eisner had joined it in nineteen eighty-four as chairman and chief executive officer. In the nineteen nineties, the company grew into a total media business. It bought movie production companies, newspapers and cable television companies. Michael Eisner and Pixar Animation Studios agreed to make five animated movies. This produced the extremely popular films “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles.”? But in January of two thousand four, talks to extend the agreement failed. Some shareholders in the company blamed Mister Eisner. Michael Eisner remained top leader of the company until two thousand four. At that time, the Disney board of directors removed him as chairman. VOICE ONE: In March of two thousand five, the Walt Disney Company announced that Robert Iger would replace Mister Eisner as the company’s top official. Mister? had been president and chief operating officer of the company for the past five years. He and the chief of Pixar Animation Studios have held meetings. But the future of the relationship between the two is unclear. Pixar uses computers to produce cartoons. Michael Eisner left Disney on Friday. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we will tell you more about the man who started the huge Disney creative and business world. As a young man, Walt Disney believed that cartoon movies could be just as popular as movies made with real people. So he created Mickey Mouse. Disney’s cartoon mouse had big eyes and ears. He stood on two legs like a human. He wore white gloves on his hands. Disney’s first short cartoon films starring Mickey Mouse made both the mouse and his creator famous. VOICE ONE: Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons over the years. He became known throughout the world. Other cartoon creatures soon joined Mickey. One was the female mouse called Minnie. Another was the duck named Donald, with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto. Disney’s first full-length cartoon movie was completed in nineteen thirty-seven. It was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”? “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” became one of Hollywood’s most successful movies. VOICE TWO:???????????????????? Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached a high point in nineteen forty with the movie "Pinocchio."? The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy. Disney's artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make "Pinocchio."? Disney made other extremely popular cartoon films during the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties. They include “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” “Dumbo” and “Bambi.”? Disney’s skills in this animation process made him one of the world’s most successful movie artists. VOICE ONE: In the middle of the last century, Disney also started producing live-action films with actors. Live action or animated, Disney stories had similar ideas. In most of them, evil forces threatened innocence, loyalty and family love. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. In nineteen sixty-four, Disney made a popular film called “Mary Poppins.”? It told about a woman who cares for other people’s children. Human actors shared the action with cartoon characters. “Mary Poppins” was one of Walt Disney’s last productions. He died two years later. VOICE TWO: Over time, Disney won thirty-two Academy awards for his movies and for technical inventions in filmmaking. People still praise his work. That work included Disneyland parks. Disney once said Disneyland would never be complete as long as there was imagination left in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m?Barbara Klein. ?Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: As Butterflies Head South to Mexico, Humans Fly Along
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Jill Moss and George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: new findings about the laboratory storage life of stem cells. VOICE ONE: Up close with monarch butterflies on their yearly migration in North America. VOICE TWO: And children are urged to get an early start on good heart health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new report says human embryonic stem cells kept for long periods of time develop changes in their genetic material. It says such changes may make the cells unusable for medical purposes. Earlier studies had suggested that major genetic changes in stem cells were rare. But an international team of research scientists found this to be false. The publication Nature Genetics reported the findings. The researchers used special tools to compare genetic changes in each of nine human embryonic stem cell lines. The stem cells were kept in a special liquid filled with nutrients. The researchers found that the more the cells divided, the more likely they were to develop the changes, or mutations. Some of these mutations are known to cause cells to become cancerous. However, stem cells that divided for only a short period of time were found to show no signs of mutation. VOICE TWO: Aravinda Chakravarti of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, was a leader of the research team. Professor Chakravarti said additional experiments are needed to confirm the results. But he said it appears that stem cell lines may include harmful cells over time. As a result, he says, the life of stem cells and their usefulness for medical purposes may be limited. For years, human embryonic stem cell research has remained in laboratories. Scientists have been studying what the cells can do and how they can be controlled. In time, however, they hope that stem cells can be used to replace or repair tissue damaged by disease or injury. VOICE ONE: Stem cells taken from human embryos that are just days old have the ability to grow into other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. Scientists hope to use collections of these specialized cells for medical treatments. The cells could then be put into patients suffering from heart disease or cancer, for example. This latest study could strengthen calls for President Bush to permit the use of federal money for new stem cell lines. American law restricts federal aid for experiments involving human embryos. This is because an embryo must be destroyed so that stem cells can be collected. Opponents of stem cell research say this destroys human life. Some members of the United States Congress are seeking to ease the restrictions on federal aid. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Each year, millions of monarch butterflies travel from Canada to Mexico and back again. The monarch is one of the few butterfly species that make a migratory trip. Every fall, monarchs gather in areas of Canada and the United States and fly to Mexico. This year, the migration is a little unusual. A group of humans will travel alongside the insects to record their trip. The project is called Papalotzin. The word means "little butterfly" in the native Nahuatal language of central Mexico. Project director Francisco Gutierrez launched Papalotzin in an effort to help protect the butterflies for the future. The international wildlife-protection group WWF is providing support to the project. Mister Gutierrez also is the pilot of what is called an ultralight airplane. It uses a very small engine and can only hold two people. There is no roof on the plane. The pilot and passenger are exposed to the weather in much the same way as the butterflies. Also, this ultralight has black-and-gold wings, just as the monarchs do. VOICE ONE: Mister Gutierrez spoke to VOA during a stop in Washington, D.C. He noted that the weather is a big question in the use of an ultralight. He said when the butterflies do not fly, the ultralight does not fly. Mister Gutierrez and his crew launched the ultralight in late August from the northeastern Canadian city of Montreal. The crew is from Canada, the United States and Mexico. Mister Gutierrez and his team will make a movie about the butterflies. The team members will record the migration. They also will make stops along the way to hold news conferences and other events. Monarch butterfly experts and environmentalists will take part. VOICE TWO: Monarch butterflies weigh less than one gram. They fly to different warmer homes in the winter depending on where they come from. A smaller group of monarchs that live west of the Rocky Mountains fly to trees along the coast of Southern California. The larger group of monarchs live east of the Rockies. They travel even farther south. They spend their winters in the high mountain forests of central Mexico. The Papalotzin project is traveling with this group. The butterflies’ final stop will be about four thousand five hundred kilometers from their starting point. The trip takes about three months to complete. The butterflies stay in Mexico from November through March. VOICE ONE: The Mexican government has taken steps to protect the area that is the insects’ winter home. Mexico created the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in nineteen eighty-six. The main purpose is to protect the forests. They are important to the environment and local communities. But the cutting down of trees continued. So the government agreed to create a larger reserve. WWF supported the effort. In two thousand the Mexican government expanded the protected area by more than three hundred percent. The reserve now covers more than fifty-six thousand hectares. The declaration of a bigger reserve cancelled logging permits held by local communities. But with the expanded area came a financial plan to provide economic support to the communities. Now, WWF says, people are paid for their conservation efforts. But an official of the group says illegal logging continues to be a problem in the forests. VOICE TWO: Most monarch butterflies never get a chance to migrate. Most live only about a month. But once a year the species produces a special group. In late summer, longer-living monarchs are born. They live about seven months. These butterflies make the trip to Mexico and spend the winter there. They give birth to their young on the way back north. Their young have the usual shorter lives. The trip home to the northern United States and to Canada is really a flight of several generations. Butterflies are born, give birth and die along the way. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Heart Federation says two thirds of all children are not active enough. The group says about twenty-two million boys and girls under the age of five are severely overweight. Obese children often become obese adults. And obesity increases the risk of heart disease and other disorders. The World Heart Federation says heart disease kills seventeen million people each year. Sunday, September twenty-fifth, was the yearly observance of World Heart Day. Heart experts urged parents to make sure their children get exercise and eat right. That means to eat a healthy and balanced diet, and to limit sugary drinks, sweets and eating between meals. VOICE TWO:? Tobacco also increases the risk of heart disease, cancer and many other conditions. The World Heart Federation says the younger someone begins to smoke, the greater the risk. Half of the young people who continue to smoke as adults are likely to die from a smoking-related disease. The group also says that almost half of all children live with a smoker. It says these children can breathe as much tobacco as in more than two thousand cigarettes. And that is just by the age of five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow, Caty Weaver? and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Internet users can find our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. We hope you join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Making Cheese the Traditional Way, Part Two
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Jim Tedder with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we heard how cheese maker Jonathan White in New Jersey uses traditional methods to make his products. An important part of the process is natural fermentation of milk. The fermentation is caused by bacteria and other organisms. But the chemical changes of fermentation are not enough to make most cheeses. About two thousand five hundred years ago, sheep farmers made a discovery. They found that a part of the stomach of a young sheep or cow could turn milk into a solid, called curd. Later, cheese makers found that they could place the stomach in salt water to separate the substance responsible for curdling milk. It is called rennet. Rennet can also be made from plants. The discovery of rennet has been called the first effort in biotechnology. Jonathan White explains that rennet solidifies milk quickly. This keeps fermentation from producing too much acid and saves milk sugars. He usually puts the rennet into the milk around the time of his mid-day meal. By the time his meal is done, the rennet has separated the solid curd from the remaining milk liquid, called whey. Some whey is always saved to put in the next day’s cheese-making. The curd is cut in pieces to speed the curdling process. When the curd has hardened enough, Mister White removes it from the vat and puts it in containers that form the cheese. After this, the cheese must air-dry and settle. Mister White carefully controls fermentation. He does so by controlling the amount of salt, the amount of acid produced by fermentation and the amount of water in the cheese. These three things, with the addition of time, all influence the taste of the cheese. Mister White does not pasteurize his milk. He says this permits him to control fermentation better. Pasteurization is a heat treatment. Milk is usually heated to about seventy-two degrees Celsius for at least fifteen seconds, then cooled. Pasteurization does not kill all organisms, but reduces their number. Jonathan White says cheese made with unpasteurized milk must be aged at least sixty days. He and his wife, Nina, say they enjoy sharing their knowledge with people interested in cheese-making and farming. Their Bobolink Dairy is on the Web at cowsoutside.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Medical Award Honors Two Scientists Who Found Stem Cells
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report. Two scientists in Canada have won a major award for their discovery of stem cells. They received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research at ceremonies in New York City. Stem cells are able to develop into other kinds of cells or tissue. Scientists are examining adult and embryonic stem cells in hopes of treating different diseases. The winners are Ernest McCulloch and James Till of the Ontario Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto. They first identified a stem cell in the blood-forming system. They showed that a single kind of bone marrow stem cell could create the three main kinds of blood cells. Their work also explained the effects of treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers. The two professors started as scientists at the Ontario Cancer Institute nearly fifty years ago. They will share fifty thousand dollars in prize money with their award. Two British scientists won the Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research. It honors Sir Edwin Southern of Oxford University and Sir Alec Jeffreys of the University of Leicester for their work in genetics. Professor Southern invented a process that lets scientists identify a single gene in a genetic map, or genome. Professor Jeffreys used this process to develop a way to identify genetic differences between individuals. This is known as genetic fingerprinting. The two scientists also will share fifty thousand dollars. The winner this year of the Lasker Public Service Award is Nancy Brinker. She is not a scientist. She started the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She did it to keep a promise to her sister, Susan Komen, who died of breast cancer. Since nineteen eighty-two, the group has raised seven hundred fifty million dollars for research and other efforts to end breast cancer. Nancy Brinker has had the disease also. The Lasker Public Service Award comes without money. This is the sixtieth year of the Lasker Awards. They are known as America’s Nobel Prizes. In fact, seventy winners have later received a Nobel. The Laskers were a wealthy husband and wife. Albert died in nineteen fifty-three; Mary died in nineteen ninety-four. She led efforts for many years to expand support for medical science. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by George Grow. Internet users can find our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-04-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Mauna Kea in Hawaii: Astronomy on the World’s Highest Island Mountain
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about astronomy on Mauna Kea Observatory in the American state of Hawaii. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Four thousand years ago, a volcano exploded in a far away area of the Pacific Ocean. Today, the Mauna Kea volcano is inactive. It is on the Big Island in the state of Hawaii. It is the highest mountain on any island in the world. It is also the highest mountain in the Pacific Ocean. And it is one of the best places in the world to study the heavens. This is because the air is clear, dry and generally free from pollution. Astronomers from around the world come to the Mauna Kea observatory to explore the universe. VOICE TWO: Astronomers must compete for observation time on Mauna Kea. But visitors are welcome anytime. They must either walk up more than four thousand kilometers to the top of the mountain. Or they can join a guided vehicle tour that leaves from the Mauna Kea Visitors Center, about two-thirds of the way up the mountain. Erik West is our guide for the trip up the mountain. Mister West says visitors who want to drive up the mountain must have a special kind of four-wheel-drive vehicle. He also explains some health and safety issues because of the height of the mountain. Being at such a high elevation can affect people’s health. Visitors must not have any heart or breathing problems. They must not have dived deep underwater in the Past twenty-four hours. And visitors must be over the age of sixteen. VOICE ONE: Now we are ready to drive our vehicles up the mountain. ?One behind the other, the cars follow a steep road during the forty-five minute drive. They drive over lava rock created by the volcano when it was active. When we reach the top of the mountain, we get out of our vehicles. We see a group of domed observatories that look like a garden of giant mushrooms. The air up here is cool. Mister West warns that the air can make people sick because it has forty percent less oxygen than at sea level. He says it has different effects on people. Some people feel light-headed, dizzy or sick to their stomachs. If any people get so sick that they need oxygen, they must leave and go back down the mountain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first large telescope was built on Mauna Kea in nineteen seventy. Now there are thirteen groups of observatories. One of them is called SMA, or Submillimeter Array. It includes eight different telescopes that operate together. Eleven countries and several universities are involved with the telescopes. The biggest telescopes are the ten-meter Keck telescopes. Mister West says telescopes keep getting bigger because astronomers want to be able to collect as much light as possible. VOICE ONE: The Keck One and Keck Two are world’s largest optical and infrared telescopes. Their mirrors are divided into thirty-six hexagonal parts. They work together as one piece of reflective glass. During the day, Keck One is a sleeping giant of steel devices closed inside a protective covering. The dome covering weighs about seven hundred tons. It is about thirty meters to the top of the dome. The whole mirror structure is about twenty-four meters tall. The real action begins at sundown. The dome opens and starts rotating to where the astronomers need it. The mirror rotates to the place where they will be observing. Throughout the night, the mirror moves to follow an object as it crosses the sky. But the astronomers are not near the telescopes. They are in the control room keeping warm. VOICE TWO: Rolf Kudritzki works in the control room. He is the director of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy that operates the Mauna Kea Observatory. Mister Kudritzki says astronomers control each movement and device guiding these huge telescopes. Astronomers study the information not by looking through the eyepiece of the telescope but from a desktop computer. Over the years, astronomers have made many important discoveries here. They have discovered new moons around Jupiter. They have taken pictures that help measure the expansion of the universe. They have observed hundreds of small objects orbiting the Sun past the orbit of the planet Neptune. Mister Kudritzki says astronomers also look for signs of life in the universe beyond our solar system. He noted that Mauna Kea telescopes recently discovered some of the planets orbiting distant stars. VOICE ONE: Space telescopes, such as the Hubble, are different from land-based telescopes. The Hubble works outside the earth’s atmosphere to capture finely detailed views of the universe. But the small size of space telescopes limits their light-collecting power. Mister Kudritzki says land-based observatories can often provide more details about objects in the universe. These include the distance, size, mass and the chemicals that make up an object in space. ?He says that land-based observatories, like those on Mauna Kea, are in some ways better than space telescopes. These observatories provide astronomers with less costly observing time and many different kinds of tools for observing objects in space. He says the Mauna Kea observatories will continue to be a valuable addition to earth-orbiting telescopes for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mauna Kea is important to astronomers who study the universe. But for Native Hawaiians, the mountain is a religious place. Mauna Kea is home to their most important gods. And it is the burial place of their ancestors. Kealoha Pisciotta comes to Mauna Kea to worship her ancestors. She leaves her car on the side of a road that leads to the top of the mountain. Her friend, Paul Neves, blows a note from a conch shell to announce their arrival. They ask permission from the mountain spirit to enter this holy place. VOICE ONE: Kealoha Pisciotta looks at the setting sun. She walks off the road to gather some stones. She and Paul Neves begin placing the stones on top of each other to create a family shrine, a place where Hawaiians honor their ancestors. She says all of their families connect here. It is the place where Hawaiians mark their beginning. VOICE TWO: The Hawaiian tradition says Mauna Kea is the mountain of the gods. Tradition says Wakea, the sky father, and Papa, his wife, gave birth to the Hawaiian Islands on Mauna Kea. Miz Pisciotta says building on top of the mountain has harmed the land, polluted the water, and cut into the volcanic rock. She says it also has violated the holiness of ancient burial grounds. She says her historical family shrine was taken away and has never been recovered. VOICE ONE: The Office of Mauna Kea Management was started in two thousand. It helps the University of Hawaii supervise the mountain as a science center and cultural center. Bill Stormont is director of the office. He says it seeks to balance the interests of astronomers, native Hawaiians and environmentalists. He says that it is important that the native Hawaiians have a voice in the future development of Mauna Kea. VOICE TWO: Kealoha Pisciotta is among a group of Native Hawaiian activists who have taken legal action to halt a plan to build four to six small telescopes on the mountain. The American space agency, NASA, supports the project. ?It says it will do little harm to the environment. Miz Pisciotta does not dismiss the value of astronomy. She is a former telescope operator herself. But she wants greater control over protecting her culture and traditions in the future. She says she supports the idea that astronomy is necessary to search for life in the universe. But she also believes that good science would want to protect traditions that are thousands of years old. Rolf Kudritzki says science and culture can exist together on Mauna Kea. He says both sides must be willing to discuss the issues. Kealoha Pisciotta hopes that she has a voice in deciding a future that protects the past. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Rosanne Skirble and adapted by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-04-voa5.cfm
* Headline: American Students Get Help With Schoolwork From Far Away
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 ? I’m?Faith?Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Education Report. ? Some American students get help with their schoolwork from online companies whose teachers may be in another country. ? One example is Career Launcher India Limited. It provides mathematics help through online tutoring companies. The student in the United States and teacher in India talk to each other as they work out math problems. The teachers can explain ideas by drawing on the screen so the student can see how the answer develops. Career Launcher also tutors students in India and the Middle East. The service costs about twenty to thirty dollars an hour. ? Another online tutoring company is Tutor-dot-com. Its tutors are in North America. They provide help in math, science, social studies and English to students from the fourth to the twelfth grades. Officials say the company helps about three thousand students each day. ? Growing Stars is another company offering online tutoring. It works with children from grades three through twelve. It helps with math, English, science, physics, chemistry and biology. The company tutors are in India. ? It charges American students about twenty dollars an hour. Growing Stars is expanding into Canada, Britain and Australia. It gives each student a test to find out what he or she knows and does not know. Then an academic director creates a personal learning program for each student. And the company e-mails progress reports to the children’s parents. ? SmarThinking in Washington, D.C., has tutors in the United States, South Africa, the Philippines, India and Chile. But it only permits those in the United States to provide help with English. ? Some education experts are concerned about people in India helping American children with American English. They also have concerns about the quality of other instruction offered by such programs. The companies say their teachers are professionals who know the differences between British and American English. The companies say they could not operate if students and their parents were not satisfied with the service. ? To learn more about tutoring online, use a search engine and type in "online tutoring programs." ? This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: TOEFL Goes Online, Adds Speaking Section to Test Ability to Communicate
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the new TOEFL. RS: TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. It's required by many colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere as a measure of a student's proficiency in English. There are sections in reading, writing, listening and, from now on,?speaking. AA: The Educational Testing Service, or E.T.S., just debuted its new Internet-based TOEFL test in the United States. Over the next year the computer version will replace the paper exam in testing centers around the world. At the test site students are given a headset with built-in microphone to record their answers, which are then sent to graders via the Internet. RS: As students who take the free practice test on the ets.org Web site will see, some of the questions require students to integrate their language skills. For example, a student has to read some material and then listen to a speaker before answering. Eileen Tyson, associate director of the TOEFL program at the Educational Testing Service, gives us this example: EILEEN TYSON: "In one of the integrated questions you'll see on the Web site, the students read a short academic passage about domestication of animals. And it lists what factors make it easier or more difficult to domesticate animals. Then students listen to a short lecture from a professor where he takes those two principles that are defined in the reading and applies them to horses and antelope." PROFESSOR: "So we've been discussing the suitability of animals for domestication,?particularly animals that live together in herds. Now, if we take horses, for example, in the wild, horses live in herds that consist of one male and several females and their young. When a herd moves, the dominant male leads, with the dominant female and her young immediately behind him. The dominant female and her young are then followed immediately by the second most important female and her young, and so on. ..." EILEEN TYSON: "And then the students are asked to describe how these factors affect horses and antelope, and the response must be based on what they've read and what they heard." AA: "How long do they have to answer?" EILEEN TYSON: "They have a minute. Now, they're allowed to take notes throughout this, so as they're listening or they're doing their reading, they can take notes. And then we give them 15 seconds or 30 seconds, depending on the question, to gather their thoughts and then they have a minute to respond to the question." RS: "How was the test tested? How did it come out when it was tested? Did the students feel comfortable with it?" EILEEN TYSON: "We did field testing of the test in 2003 and 2004. We tested 3000 students in 30 different countries, so we could be sure that we were getting a good sample that's typical of the TOEFL population. In fact, many of the students told us that it was actually fun. Now we all know that standardized testing, and high-stakes testing in general, is not typically a fun experience. But what they found was that it really tapped their abilities in a way that they had never had before. "So the responses we got were on the whole positive. But what people did say was, you know, we're not going to be able to just know a lot of vocabulary and do well on this test. We're really going to have to know how to use English, which is the purpose of this new test. It focuses the ability to communicate in English and not just on knowledge of English." RS: "Well, what impact is this going to have on teaching?" AA: "Especially in the countries where spoken English is not emphasized so much in the classroom." EILEEN TYSON: "Now that TOEFL is requiring students to use English for communication, teachers will want to include communicative English in their curriculum. We have teacher professional-development workshops to help teachers think about ways to include communication and using English in their curriculum. So we think that this is going to have a very positive impact in language education. And, in fact, E.S.L. teachers around the world have been telling us that this is something that they're looking forward to." RS: Be sure to listen next week, when Eileen Tyson from the Educational Testing Service will talk more about the new Internet-based TOEFL and how to prepare for it. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-05-voa4.cfm
* Headline: 1881: Vice President Chester Arthur Replaces Murdered Leader
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) President James Garfield was shot and seriously wounded in the summer of eighteen eighty-one. The man who shot him said he supported the political group that supported Vice President Chester Arthur. The gunman was found to be insane. But some people were ready to believe the worst about Vice President Arthur. They knew that many of the vice president's political allies disliked President Garfield. They thought the vice president might have helped the gunman in some way. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell what happened after President Garfield was shot. VOICE TWO: For a time, it seemed the President might get better. But the bullet wound became infected. He died of the infection two months after he was shot. Vice President Arthur took the oath of office a few hours after the president's death. Chester Arthur had been a successful lawyer. He had worked in politics for a number of years. But he had never before held an elected office. Many Americans questioned his ability to serve in the White House. One person put it this way: "Chet Arthur -- president of the United States. Good God!" VOICE ONE: Almost everyone feared Arthur would be a tool of a Republican Party leader in New York, Roscoe Conkling. They were sure Conkling would be the real power in Arthur's administration. They were wrong. Chester Arthur surprised everyone. He broke all his ties with the Conkling political machine. He remained independent of any party group. Arthur asked Garfield's cabinet to resign. He chose new men for all but one department. VOICE TWO: In his first message to Congress, President Arthur asked for changes in the way government jobs were filled. He proposed a new civil service system that would let ability -- not politics -- decide who got government jobs. Republican Party leaders opposed these proposals. The civil service system would stop them from giving federal jobs to their supporters. It would destroy much of their power. These Republican leaders controlled Congress. They refused to act on the civil service proposals. VOICE ONE: Civil service reform, however, was an important issue. President Garfield had been assassinated by a man who believed he should have gotten a government job because of his politics.Also, new cases of dishonesty had been discovered in the Post Office department. The public began to demand laws to clean up the civil service. In eighteen eighty-two, a new Congress was elected. The new Congress was controlled by the Democratic Party. President Arthur again appealed for civil service reform. This time, he got results. The new Congress passed a civil service bill that required ten percent of all federal jobs to be filled through competitive examinations. This ten percent included half the officials in the Post Office Department. It included most workers at federal customs houses. The bill also said it was illegal for politicians to ask government employees for campaign money. And it set up a civil service committee to enforce the new law. VOICE TWO: President Arthur also found himself faced with an unusual problem. The government was earning more money than it needed. Most of the money came from tariffs -- taxes on imports. Each year, tariffs brought in one hundred million dollars more than the government needed. The import taxes had been set high to protect American industries from foreign competition. President Arthur wanted to reduce the tariffs. Congress wanted to keep them high. Industrial leaders wanted to keep them high, too. They did not want to compete with low-priced foreign products. VOICE ONE: Congress saw no problem with the extra money brought in by high tariffs. It found many ways to spend it. For example, Congress raised payments to soldiers who had fought in the Civil War during the eighteen sixties. It also approved money to build roads, bridges, and waterways throughout the country. Many of these things were not needed. They were approved for political purposes. They put government money into the home areas of powerful congressmen. In eighteen eighty-two, Congress passed the "Rivers and Harbors bill. " The bill would cost almost nineteen million dollars. President Arthur vetoed the bill. He said it would waste too much money. But Congress passed the bill into law over his veto. VOICE TWO: Next, President Arthur urged Congress to form a committee to find a way to reduce tariffs. Congress formed the committee. The committee proposed that tariffs be reduced by twenty percent. But Congress did not consider theproposal when it began debating a new tariff bill. President Arthur was more successful in getting Congress to reduce the public debt. During his term, the debt was cut by more than four hundred million dollars. VOICE ONE: Chester Arthur's efforts for honest government and lower taxes won him much support among the people. But he could not win the support of his Republican Party. Arthur wanted to serve another four years in the White House. His name was put before the Republican nominating convention in eighteen eighty-four. The name of Senator James Blaine of Maine also was put before the convention. On the first ballot, Blaine received three hundred thirty-four votes. Arthur got only two hundred seventy-eight. Three ballots later, Blaine won the presidential nomination. However, many Republicans refused to support Blaine. They accused him of being dishonest. They said he was controlled by powerful politicians. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party chose New York Governor Grover Cleveland as its presidential candidate. Like Chester Arthur at the national level, Grover Cleveland was known for fighting dishonesty in government at the local level. He began as mayor of the city of Buffalo, New York. He cleaned up the city government and saved the taxpayers much money. Next, he was elected governor of New York state. There, too, he helped end dishonesty in government. Cleveland refused to give jobs to Democrats because of their political ties. Instead, he filled state jobs with men of ability. This early success helped him win the Democratic presidential nomination. VOICE ONE: The campaign of eighteen eighty-four between Republican Blaine and Democrat Cleveland was one of the most bitter in American political history. A group of Republicans who opposed Blaine published letters to prove he was dishonest. Blaine had written the letters several years earlier during a shameful incident concerning the sale of railroad stock. Now, he was forced to defendhimself against those old charges. VOICE TWO: Blaine's supporters fought back by discovering a scandal in Cleveland's past. Grover Cleveland had never married. But more than ten years earlier, he had been involved with a young woman. The woman gave birth to a boy. Cleveland was not sure the boy was his son. But he accepted responsibility for the child. He sent money to help care for him. A Republican newspaper published the story. Soon, Republican crowds were shouting a joke about it. "Ma! Ma! Where's my pa. Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!" VOICE ONE: Both candidates campaigned hard. It was clear to everyone that the vote would be close. Election day was cold and rainy. Early results showed the two candidates with almost the same number of electoral votes. The winner would be the one who captured a majority of the popular votes in New York state. That candidate would then get all of New York's electoral votes. It was not until three days after the voting that election officials announced Cleveland had won. His victory set off wild celebrations among Democrats across the country. Grover Cleveland really was going to the White House -- ha ha ha! His election would bring some important changes to the country. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2006-11-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The Test of English as a Foreign Language Gets a Makeover
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the new TOEFL. RS: TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. It's required by many colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere as a measure of a student's proficiency in English. There are sections in reading, writing, listening and, from now on… speaking. AA: The Educational Testing Service or ETS, just debuted its new Internet-based TOEFL test in the United States. Over the next year the computer version will replace the paper exam in testing centers around the world. At the test site students are given a headset with built-in microphone to record their answers, which are then sent to graders via the Internet. RS: As students who take the free practice test on the ets.org Web site will see, some of the questions require students to integrate their language skills. For example, a student has to read some material and then listen to a speaker before answering. Eileen Tyson, associate director of the TOEFL program at the Educational Testing Service, gives us this example: AUDIO: INTERVIEW SEGMENT EILEEN TYSON: "In one of the integrated questions you'll see on the Web site, the students read a short academic passage about domestication of animals. And it lists what factors make it easier or more difficult to domesticate animals. Then students listen to a short lecture from a professor where he takes those two principles that are defined in the reading and applies them to horses and antelope." PROFESSOR: "So we've been discussing the suitability of animals for domestication... particularly animals that live together in herds. Now, if we take horses, for example... in the wild, horses live in herds that consist of one male and several females and their young. When a herd moves, the dominant male leads, with the dominant female and her young immediately behind him. The dominant female and her young are then followed immediately by the second most important female and her young, and so on. This is why domesticated horses can be harnessed one after the other in a row. They're "programmed" to follow the lead of another horse. On top of that, you often find different herds of horses in the wild occupying overlapping areas-they don't fight off other herds that enter the same territory. "But it's exactly the opposite with an animal like the antelope... which... well, antelopes are herd animals too. But unlike horses, a male antelope will fight fiercely to prevent another male from entering its territory during the breeding season, ok-very different from the behavior of horses. Try keeping a couple of male antelopes together in a small space and see what happens. Also, antelopes don't have a social hierarchy-they don't instinctively follow any leader. That makes it harder for humans to control their behavior." EILEEN TYSON: "And then the students are asked to describe how these factors affect horses and antelope, and the response must be based on what they've read and what they heard." AA: "How long do they have to answer?" EILEEN TYSON: "They have a minute. Now, they're allowed to take notes throughout this, so as they're listening or they're doing their reading, they can take notes. And then we give them 15 seconds or 30 seconds, depending on the question, to gather their thoughts and then they have a minute to respond to the question." RS: "How was the test tested? How did it come out when it was tested? Did the students feel comfortable with it?" EILEEN TYSON: "We did field testing of the test in 2003 and 2004. We tested 3000 students in 30 different countries, so we could be sure that we were getting a good sample that's typical of the TOEFL population. In fact, many of the students told us that it was actually fun. Now we all know that standardized testing, and high-stakes testing in general, is not typically a fun experience. But what they found was that it really tapped their abilities in a way that they had never had before. "So the responses we got were on the whole positive. But what people did say was, you know, we're not going to be able to just know a lot of vocabulary and do well on this test. We're really going to have to know how to use English, which is the purpose of this new test. It focuses the ability to communicate in English and not just on knowledge of English." RS: "Well, what impact is this going to have on teaching?" EILEEN TYSON: "Um-huh." AA: "Especially in the countries where spoken English is not emphasized so much in the classroom." EILEEN TYSON: "Now that TOEFL is requiring students to use English for communication, teachers will want to include communicative English in their curriculum. We have teacher professional-development workshops to help teachers think about ways to include communication and using English in their curriculum. So we think that this is going to have a very positive impact in language education. And, in fact, E.S.L. teachers around the world have been telling us that this is something that they're looking forward to." RS: Be sure to listen next week, when Eileen Tyson from the Educational Testing Service will talk more about the new Internet-based TOEFL and how to prepare for it. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Allowance Helps Teach Children Early About Money
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. Parents often give their children an amount of money that they may spend as they wish. The purpose is to let the children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly. A child may receive an allowance each week or each month. The amount is not so important. But parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money. At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents should not offer more money until the next allowance is to be paid. Older children may be responsible enough to budget larger costs like those for clothing. The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Many people who have written on the subject say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life. Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works. Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to organizations. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it. Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future. Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer free savings accounts for young people with small amounts of money. A bank account is an excellent way to show children the power of compound interest. Compounding works by paying interest on interest. For example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents. That may not seem like a lot. But an investment that earns eight percent compounded yearly will increase one hundred percent in value in about nine years. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Up, Up and Away ... to a Balloon Museum in Albuquerque
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach

  (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music from Bow Wow… Answer a question about Spanish speakers in the United States… And report about a new museum in the American Southwest. Balloon Museum Every October for more than thirty years, the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico welcomes visitors to a colorful celebration. The visitors spend much of their time looking up at the sky. That is because they are attending the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. More than seven hundred colorful hot air balloons fill the sky. This year, there is also a new ballooning museum. Pat Bodner has more. PAT BODNER: The Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum opened October first. It celebrates the art and science of ballooning. The name honors two men from Albuquerque who were important in the history of balloon flight. They are Ben Abruzzo and Maxie Anderson. Along with Larry Newman, they completed the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by gas balloon in nineteen seventy-eight. The new museum building looks like a balloon lying on its side ready to launch. Outside is a real balloon ready to take visitors for a ride. The museum has a library about ballooning and air flight, films and pictures of ballooning throughout history and educational classrooms. The museum aims to answer questions many people ask about balloons and those who fly them: How are balloons built?? How do they get up into the air? Why do people fly them at all?? The museum also shows how balloons have been used for fun, for war and for scientific purposes. Visitors can see objects important in the history of ballooning. One is a handwritten letter by Frenchman LeSuer Phillipe. He watched what is believed to be the first balloon flight in the world in seventeen eighty-three. Visitors also can see the first two balloons flown in Albuquerque in eighteen eighty-two and nineteen oh-seven. One exciting part of the museum is called the New Mexico Adventure. It is a virtual reality balloon ride through the state of New Mexico. The experience shows the beautiful areas of the state that visitors can only see from the air. Officials say they hope foreign visitors as well as Americans will visit the museum. That is because it also includes objects about ballooning in other countries. These include parts of a bomb-dropping device used by Germany during World War Two. And the clothing worn by a Japanese balloonist in nineteen ninety-four. HOST: Our question this week comes from China. A student at Nankai University wants to know why Spanish is the most popular foreign language spoken in the United States. Spanish has been spoken in the United States since eighteen-oh-three. That is the year the United States bought a huge area of land called the Louisiana Purchase. Spanish settlers in the area became part of the new nation. Today, Spanish is the second most common language used in the United States, after English. Experts say the reason is because many Spanish-speaking people have moved to the United States to live. Americans describe people of Spanish ancestry as Hispanic. Latino is another word used to describe people with roots in Spanish-speaking countries. In two thousand three, the government officially estimated Hispanics to be the largest minority group in the United States. The number of Hispanics in the United States increased by almost six million since the last official government count in two thousand. The government now says the Hispanic population reached more than forty-one million people as of July of two thousand four. That is fourteen percent of the population. One important issue is how to improve education for the children of Latino immigrants. A national debate continues about how best to teach English and other subjects to Spanish-speaking children. Studies show that Hispanics in the United States complete high school and college at lower rates than other ethnic groups. The popularity of Spanish is having a lasting influence on English speakers in the United States. Many non-Hispanic children and adults are learning and speaking Spanish. It is one of the most popular foreign languages that students study in school. It is being used increasingly in business, and in both national and international politics. And business leaders are recognizing the growing importance of selling to what is now America's largest minority group. The number of Spanish-language programs are increasing on radio and television. And, Latinos are gaining influence in cultural and political life in the United States. Bow Wow Shad Moss began performing rap music when he was six years old. Shad appeared with popular rapper Snoop Dogg on a television show. The public liked Shad immediately. Snoop began calling him “Lil’ Bow Wow.”?? Bob Doughty has more. BOB DOUGHTY: At age thirteen, Lil’ Bow Wow became the world’s youngest rapper to have a number one hit song. That earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The song was “Bounce With Me.”? It is from his first album “Beware of Dog.”? The album was released in two thousand. (MUSIC) Lil’ Bow Wow has gained much success as a rapper. He also has performed as an actor in movies. He was in ”Like Mike” and “The Johnson Family Vacation”. His most recent movie, “Roll Bounce,” was released last month. In two thousand two, Lil’ Bow Wow dropped the “little” from his name. He became known as “Bow Wow.”? He was fifteen years old. He wanted to be recognized as a young adult instead of a child performer. He had just recorded his third album, “Unleashed.”? In this song, he tells about the things he wants to do when he becomes eighteen. It is called “Eighteen”. (MUSIC) Now Bow Wow is eighteen. This year he released his fourth album, “Wanted.”? We leave you with a song from that album. Bow Wow performs “Like You” with hip-hop singer Ciara (see-AIR-a). (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. This show was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Conservatives, Liberals Criticize Bush's Choice for Court
* Byline: 

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has been visiting senators this week to press her case for confirmation. On Monday, President Bush nominated Miz Miers to the court to fill a place created by the resignation of Sandra Day O’Connor. The president says Miz Miers is the best person for the job. She is serving now as his lawyer, the White House counsel. Some liberals and conservatives have criticized President Bush for nominating her. They note that she has never served as a judge. For this reason, there are no rulings to show what her opinions might be on issues. Some say this could make her a poor choice for the job. For example, Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas has said that he does not have enough information about her. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee will vote on her nomination before sending it to the full Senate for a final vote. Some conservatives say she does not seem conservative enough to change the direction of the court, as President Bush had promised. Some liberals say they fear she will vote what they consider the wrong way on issues such as a woman's right to end a pregnancy. Miz Miers is sixty years old. She is from Texas. She received her bachelor’s and law degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Miz Miers has received high praise as a lawyer. She was the first woman president of the Dallas Bar Association. Later she became the first woman president of the Texas State Bar Association. The National Law Journal has named her among the one hundred most powerful lawyers in the nation, and the top fifty women lawyers. Dallas voters elected her to a two-year term on the City Council. Some critics say her loyalty to the president could present a conflict of interest on future court decisions. Harriet Miers worked for Mister Bush when he was elected governor of Texas. She joined the White House in two thousand one as an assistant to the president. She has served as his personal lawyer since February. The Supreme Court opened its term on Monday. That happened just one hour after John Roberts was sworn in as chief justice of the United States. Mister Roberts follows William Rehnquist who died of cancer in September. John Roberts was the president’s first choice for the Supreme Court seat left open when Miz O’Connor resigned. But when Mister Rehnquist died, President Bush nominated Mister Roberts for chief justice. This week, the court heard arguments about cases including one about the rights of the dying. The Bush administration wants to punish doctors in the state of Oregon who help patients end their lives. This assistance is currently legal under state law. Miz O’Connor heard the case argued. She has offered to stay on the court until her replacement is confirmed. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Writer Willa Cather Celebrated Europeans Who Settled in the American Midwest
* Byline: Written by Richard Thorman

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Tony Riggs with People in America. Today we tell? about writer Willa Cather. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The second half of the nineteeth century brought major changes to the United States. From its earliest days, America had been an agricultural society. But after the end of the Civil War in eighteen sixty-five, the country became increasingly industrial. And as the population grew, America became less unified. After railroads linked the Atlantic coast with the Pacific coast, the huge Middle West of the country was open to settlement. The people who came were almost all from Europe. There were Swedes and Norwegians, Poles and Russians, Bohemians and Germans. Many of them failed in their new home. Some fled back to their old homeland. But those who suffered through the freezing winters and the burning summers and the failed crops became the new pioneers. They were the men and women celebrated by the American writer Willa Cather. VOICE TWO: Cather's best stories are about these pioneers. She told what they sought and what they gained. She wrote of their difficult relations with those who followed. And she developed a way of writing, both beautiful and simple, that made her a pioneer too. For many women in the nineteenth century, writing novels was just one of the things they did. For Willa Cather, writing was her life. VOICE ONE: Willa Cather was born in the southern state of Virginia in eighteen seventy-three. At the age of eight, her family moved to the new state of Nebraska in the Middle West. She and Nebraska grew up together. Willa lived in the small town of Red Cloud. As a child she showed writing ability. And, she was helped by good teachers, who were uncommon in the new frontier states. Few women of her time went to a university. Willa Cather, however, went to the University of Nebraska. She wrote for the university literary magazine, among her other activities. She graduated from the university in eighteen ninety-five. VOICE TWO: Most American writers of her time looked to the eastern United States as the cultural center of the country. It was a place where exciting things were possible. It was an escape from the flatness of the land and culture of the Middle West. From eighteen ninety-six to nineteen-oh-one Cather worked for the Pittsburgh Daily Leader newspaper. It was in Pennsylvania, not New York, but it was farther east than Nebraska. Cather began to publish stories and poems in nineteen hundred. And she became an English teacher in nineteen-oh-one. For five years, she taught English at Pittsburgh Central High School and at nearby Allegheny High School. She published her first book in nineteen-oh-three. It was a book of poetry. Two years later she published a book of stories called “The Troll Garden.” VOICE ONE: The owner of a New York magazine, S.S. McLure, read her stories. He asked her to come to New York City and work as an editor at McLure's Magazine. She was finally in the cultural capital of the country. She stayed with the magazine from nineteen-oh-six to nineteen twelve. One of the people who influenced her to leave the magazine was the American woman writer, Sarah Orne Jewett. Jewett advised Cather to write only fiction and to deal with the places and characters she knew best. Jewett said it was the only way to write anything that would last. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen twelve Willa Cather published her first novel, “Alexander's Bridge.”? By that time, Cather had enough faith in herself to leave magazine work and use all her time to write fiction. She remembered Jewett's advice and turned to the land and people she knew best, the farmers of the Middle West. In Red Cloud she had lived among Bohemians, French-Canadians, Germans, Scandinavians, and other immigrants. She saw that the mixture of all these new Americans produced a new society. "There was nothing but land," she wrote. "Not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made."? It was this material she used to create her books. VOICE ONE: Like all good writers, she wanted her novels to show the world she described, not just tell about it. Later in her life, she described the way she wrote. She called it "novels without furniture."? What she meant was that she removed from her novels everything that was not necessary to tell the story. Fiction in the nineteenth century was filled with social detail. It had pages of description and comments by the author. Cather did not write this way. She looked to the past for her ideas, but she drew from the present for her art. A year after “Alexander's Bridge,” Cather published her second novel. It was the first of her books to take place in the Middle West. It is called “O Pioneers.”?? It established her as one of the best writers of her time. “O Pioneers” tells the story of the first small groups of Bohemians, Czechs, French, Russians, and Swedes who set about to conquer the land. Cather said they acted as if they were a natural force, as strong or stronger than Nature. She said they were people who owned the land for a little while because they loved it. "Spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring," Cather wrote. "Always the same field...trees...lives." VOICE TWO: Cather's heroes are pioneers, settlers of unknown or unclaimed land. They also are pioneers of the human spirit. They are, Cather said, the people who would dream great railroads across the continent. Yet she saw something more in them. It was something permanent within a world of continuous change. A sense of order in what appeared to be disorder. In Cather's mind, her writings about the Middle West, her prairie years, became a way to show approval of the victory of traditional values against countless difficulties. The fight to remain human and in love with life in spite of everything gives the people in her stories purpose and calm. VOICE ONE: Willa Cather continued to write about these new pioneers in “The Song of the Lark” in nineteen fifteen. She followed that with the novel that many consider her best, “My Antonia.” By the nineteen twenties, however, her stories began to change. She saw more defeats, fewer victories. She began to write -- not about great dreams -- but about the smallness of man's vision. She mourned for the loss of values others would never miss. Willa Cather never married. She began living with another woman from Nebraska in nineteen-oh-eight. They lived together until Cather died. In nineteen twenty-two, Cather suffered a nervous breakdown. A number of things caused her condition. Her health was not good. She was unhappy with her publisher. And, she was angry about the changes in society brought by new technology. In nineteen twenty-three, Cather wrote the last of her Nebraska novels, “A Lost Lady.”? Two years later she produced another novel, “The Professor's House.”?? It was clear by then that she was moving in a different direction. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Her next two novels, “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” and “Shadows in the Rock,” take place in the distant past. They are stories about heroic failure. “Death Comes for the Archbishop” takes place in the American Southwest in the sixteenth century. It describes the experiences of two priests who are sent to what became New Mexico. The action is in the past. But the place is one that Cather felt always would remain the same -- the deserts of the American Southwest. Where her earlier books described a person's search for solid ground, these books describe the solid ground itself. They came from a deep unhappiness with modern life. VOICE ONE: Although Cather turned away from modern life, she was very much a modern writer. Her writing became increasingly important to a new group of writers -- Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Near the end of her life she wrote: "Nothing really matters but living. Get all you can out of it. I am an old woman, and I know. Sometimes people disappoint us. And sometimes we disappoint ourselves. But the thing is to go right on living." Willa Cather went right on living until the age of seventy-four. She died in nineteen forty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Tony Riggs. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: World Bank Offers Money for Development Ideas
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank is offering money for new ideas to improve life in developing nations. People could receive as much as two hundred thousand dollars for creative projects to ease the effects of poverty. About every eighteen months, the World Bank holds a competition called the Development Marketplace. Finalists chosen in different countries gather in Washington, D.C. The competitors explain their ideas to groups that can provide financial and technical support. The winners chosen in Washington are given start-up money to carry out their plans within one year. This year, the World Bank says the Development Marketplace has four million dollars to give away to entrepreneurs. They must find new, low-cost ways to bring water, waste control and energy to people who lack these services. Anyone can compete in the Development Marketplace. Ideas must be designed to improve the lives of the poor. Also, other people must be able to copy the idea in other communities. The World Bank says the competition looks for ideas that others may dismiss as too unusual or too small to consider seriously. Judges from the World Bank and other organizations choose the winners. At the last Development Marketplace in two thousand three, researchers from Tanzania won money for training rats to identify tuberculosis. Another winner was a Vietnamese professor, Tran Triet. He proposed to teach farmers how to harvest grass from a wetland area without harming the environment. Another winning proposal came from Zimbabwe. It involved the production of chili peppers in the Zambezi Valley as a way to protect farmers from invasions of their land by elephants. Proposals must be received by twenty-three hours Universal Time on November thirtieth. The winners will be announced on May ninth, two thousand six. The World Bank says all proposals must be made through the Development Marketplace Web site. Go to developmentmarketplace, all one word, dot o-r-g for the details. Information is provided in English as well as Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. We will have a link to the site with this report at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-09-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Charities in the United States Came to the Rescue After Two Hurricanes
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodner. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Charities collect money for purposes such as to help the sick and needy, and to support the arts. Americans gave record-high gifts to charities in two thousand four. But these organizations themselves face unusual need after two major hurricanes struck states along the Gulf of Mexico. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Charities in America help provide money for everything from disease research to homeless animals. They raise money for everything from opera companies to summer camps for children. This work is called philanthropy. The word comes from the Greek and Latin. It means love of humankind, especially as shown through an act like giving to charity. The United States has about one million two hundred thousand of these philanthropic organizations, including religious groups. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? A research report called Giving U.S.A. examined charity in the United States in two thousand four. Giving U.S.A. says American donors, or people who gave, provided charities with nearly an estimated two hundred forty-nine thousand million dollars last year. That was an increase of five percent from the year before. Fifty-five percent of all the charities it studied received larger gifts than the year before. Experts in money-raising praise the ability to make gifts electronically on the Internet computer system. They say it may be partly responsible for the increases. It would seem that American charitable organizations are doing well. But two powerful hurricanes recently struck the United States. At least one thousand one hundred people lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Property damage from Katrina alone may be one hundred seventy thousand million dollars. VOICE ONE: Red Cross volunteers comforting a Hurricane Katrina evacueeAmericans have given more than one thousand million dollars in aid for Hurricane Katrina. The American Red Cross received about eighty percent of these contributions, or gifts. But still, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other charities are feeling pressured. They helped people in a time of need. And now many of these organizations themselves are in need. The Red Cross and other groups also served after four major hurricanes last year. The organizations are appealing to the public to help them recover financially. The charities also face other hard questions about money after the recent storms. For example, should religious organizations receive government money for helping survivors??? Can money given for aid after one storm be used for another?? And, what is the future for smaller, local charities not involved with hurricane aid?? Will they be able to continue serving their communities?? Or will people give them less money this year? VOICE TWO: The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, says it will repay religious organizations for sheltering and feeding survivors after the hurricanes. FEMA says it will do this with taxpayer money. Critics immediately denounced FEMA’s announcement. For example, the organization called Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, D.C., says the Constitution bans such repayment. Some religious groups also disliked the idea. But other groups say they must take the money to continue operating. VOICE ONE: The American Red Cross supports FEMA’s offer of assistance to religious groups. FEMA also helps the Red Cross. FEMA will give the organization one hundred million dollars as repayment for shelter services. The Red Cross says the money will pay the temporary housing expenses of survivors. Some are expected to stay in hotels until the end of this month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, and areas of Mississippi and Alabama on August twenty-ninth. New Orleans suffered severe flooding. The storm damaged barriers meant to keep out the water of Lake Pontchartrain. Charity workers often arrived to help people much faster than government aid workers. Local religious groups aided Katrina victims when Red Cross and government workers could not enter affected areas. Religious groups reportedly sheltered and fed a half-million people. The religious charities also are doing this for people who fled Hurricane Rita. Rita struck September twenty-fourth. The storm caused widespread damage in parts of Texas and Louisiana. It hit some areas struck earlier by Hurricane Katrina. VOICE ONE: After Katrina struck, many people gave to charities to help after that hurricane. But soon afterward, aid was also needed for Rita survivors and rebuilding. This left charities questioning how to use donor money. Laws governing charitable gifts can mean that charities must spend money as the donor wishes. The Red Cross says it will honor donor requests. So does a special campaign led by two former United States presidents. A statement by George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton makes clear that money already collected for Hurricane Katrina will go to Katrina aid. Some groups are asking donors to let them choose how to use the money. VOICE TWO: After Americans have given so much to hurricane aid, some local charities worry that their usual donors will have little money left for them. For example, the Denver Rescue Mission in Colorado is a human services agency. Experts say such agencies are among the most financially threatened. The organization shelters many thousands of people in a year. It serves three meals every day. It has apartments for families who have lost their homes. Most are single mothers. The Denver Rescue Mission helps the sick and people physically dependent on alcohol and illegal drugs. Mission official Greta Ritchey says she is happy that people have reacted so well to appeals for hurricane aid. Still, she also worries that the agency will not get enough contributions to support its nineteen-million-dollar budget. VOICE ONE: But an expert in charitable contributions says gifts will return to normal after a while. Hank Goldstein is chairman of the Giving U.S.A. Foundation. Mister Goldstein said some gift reduction is normal after a terrible event. He noted that the amount received for Katrina aid is less than one percent of the total received by charities in America last year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The organization Giving U.S.A. has reported on charity donations for fifty years. Eugene Tempel heads the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, where the Giving U.S.A. report is produced. Mister Tempel said religious organizations received the largest contributions in two thousand four. People gave these groups more than eighty-eight thousand million dollars. Educational centers received the next largest gifts last year. Donors gave them thirty-four thousand million dollars. VOICE ONE: Giving U.S.A. says gifts from individuals provided the most money to charity in two thousand four. It says about seventy to eighty percent of Americans contribute to at least one charity each year. Some people give to a cooperative charity campaign at their workplaces. For example, the Combined Federal Campaign in the government helps many philanthropic agencies. C. Ray Clements is head of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel. Mister Clements said people who left directions for gifts before they died provided the second largest contributions. These gifts are known as bequests. Next came charitable organizations called foundations. Businesses held fourth place. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some Americans take part in philanthropy by performing service to others. For example, many people not connected with charities or the government took supplies to storm survivors. Historian Douglas Brinkley and actor Sean Penn helped search for survivors in the flooded streets of New Orleans. American writer John Grisham and his wife Renee established an organization to help rebuild homes destroyed by the storms. Their foundation is called Rebuild the Coast. VOICE ONE:?????? Children helped, too. Young people in many places in America collected gifts and supplies for students made homeless by the storms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodner. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Getting Ready for the Speaking Section on the New TOEFL
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster: more about the redesigned Test of English as a Foreign Language from the Educational Testing Service. Over the coming year, the new "TOEFL iBT" -- or Internet-based test -- will replace the existing computer and paper versions at testing centers around the world. RS: The four-hour test now includes a speaking section, in addition to reading, writing and listening. Eileen Tyson at the Educational Testing Service says E.T.S. has trained a large group of English language professors and teachers to grade the speaking section. EILEEN TYSON: "Those speaking responses come back to E.T.S. via the Internet, and then they're broken apart and they're sent out through our online scoring network. And they're sent to different raters, so that each student will have input from between three to six raters for their speaking responses." RS: "Do you expect that this test is going to be easier for some students than others?" EILEEN TYSON: "Well, I think that students who have been taught English in a way that emphasizes using English, this will not be a surprise to them. But for students who have thought of English only in terms of sentence structure, nouns and verbs and grammar, well all those aspects are important, but the reason one learns English is to use it for communication. So this test will represent a change, and it will measure that aspect of English." RS: "So it's a change in philosophy, really." EILEEN TYSON: "It really is. We've spent about 10 years developing the test, and we've changed the theoretical underpinning of the test itself." AA: "So now on the test day, they listen to some material, and then they have about 30 seconds or so to gather their thoughts, and then they have one minute to present their thoughts, that's kind of frightening actually even for a native speaker. I mean, are some students going to be at a disadvantage?" EILEEN TYSON: "Well, I think universities know that the addition of speaking is brand-new. And I think during this first year or two years, universities are going to know that students are unfamiliar with speaking. And I think they're going to be giving that sort of leeway initially in speaking." RS: "How would you suggest students prepare for this test?" EILEEN TYSON: "The first step a student should take is go to our Web site. And students can take, free of charge, a practice test and receive a score for the reading, writing and listening sections. And what they'll see is exactly the same thing as the test. They'll see the same kind of integrated skills, the same kinds of questions." RS: "But now there's a spoken component. How can they prepare for that?" EILEEN TYSON: "We have a publication called 'TOEFL iBT Tips' and it's really got lots and lots of tips. It's on our Web site. It gives lots of suggestions on how to improve and how to become familiar with the test." RS: "Could you just highlight some of the top tips?" EILEEN TYSON: "Well, for example, students, for the integrated speaking, if they can find reading and listening materials on the same topic -- for example, if they can listen to something on a news program, and then take notes on the material, and then find something in reading (say, in a newspaper) on the same topic, and then take notes on that as well, and then orally combine the information in the reading and listening materials and explain how they relate to each other. "It's especially helpful if one source takes an opposite point of view. For example, one of the types of questions we have involves taking a stance, and in one particular case, the reading says 'working with groups is great,' and it lists lot of reasons why working in groups is terrific. Then the professor's lecture says 'You know, despite what the reading says, there are problems with working with groups.' And then they describe a different a different point of view. So comparing different points of view from different source materials is very helpful. It's very good training. "Two of the six questions in the speaking section ask a student something related to their opinion or their experience. For example: 'Some universities allow students to live off campus in their first year. Do you think this is a good idea?' So, for practice, students can make a list of topics that are familiar and then state an opinion and provide clear reasons that can support their view." AA: Eileen Tyson is associate director of the TOEFL program at the Educational Testing Service. The TOEFL Web site is ets.org/toefl ... T-O-E-F-L. We'll post a link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster, where you can also find the first part of our interview with Eileen Tyson. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: 2005 Nobel Prizes: Medicine Honor Goes to Discovery That Many Dismissed
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, Lawan Davis & Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week on our show: A report on the Nobel Prize winners for two thousand five in medicine, chemistry and physics. VOICE ONE:? Then, a study finds that restricted blood flow to the brain may lead to dementia in older people. VOICE TWO: And scientists finally have pictures of a giant squid in the wild. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced winners of the Nobel Prizes in science last week. This year, two Australians will share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered the main cause of gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. They showed that these stomach problems are usually the result of an infection caused by a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, or H. pylori. This discovery meant that ulcers could be cured by treatment with antibiotic medicine instead of operations. VOICE TWO: The men reported their findings in nineteen eighty-two. However, Doctor Marshall says it was almost ten years before the medical community widely accepted their explanation. Doctors thought that tension and an unhealthy way of life were the major causes of ulcers. The Nobel Assembly praised Doctor Marshall for what he did as part of his research. Doctor Marshall himself drank some of the bacteria. Several days later he had a severe case of gastritis. Doctor Marshall is a researcher at the University of Western Australia. Doctor Warren was a pathologist at Royal Perth Hospital until nineteen ninety-nine. Barry Marshall and Robin Warren will share more than one million dollars in prize money when they receive their award in December. VOICE ONE: The Nobel Assembly chose three scientists to share the prize in physics. Roy Glauber of Harvard University in Cambridge,? Massachusetts, will receive one-half of the prize money. Mister Glauber was honored for his theoretical description of how particles of light act. His research helped explain how light can spread around a large area or form a narrow line of intense light, as from a laser. The other two scientists honored are American John Hall and German Theodor Haensch. Mister Hall is a government physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. He also works at the University of Colorado. Mister Haensch is a physicist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany. He also teaches at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. The Nobel Assembly says Mister Hall and Mister Hansch greatly improved the scientific measurement of light. It says their work has led to better lasers, clocks and global positioning technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. The Swedish academy chose scientists from France and the United States as winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Yves Chauvin is a chemist at the Institut Francais du Petrole. His work from nineteen seventy-one explained the activity of metathesis [meh-TAA-theh-sis] reactions. These are when bonds between carbon atoms are broken and formed in ways that cause atom groups to change places. Such reactions have become an important way for chemists to produce new molecules. VOICE ONE: Mister Chauvin explained what kinds of metal compounds would act as a catalyst to cause metathesis to happen. American Richard Schrock later produced a metal compound that worked well as a catalyst. For his work, the Nobel Assembly named Mister Schrock also as a winner of the two thousand five chemistry prize. He works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The other American to win the chemistry honor is Robert Grubbs of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He developed an even better metal catalyst for metathesis. Mister Grubbs made his discovery in nineteen ninety-two. Metathesis reactions are used mostly in the production of medicines and plastics. In the words of the Nobel committee: "Imagination will soon be the only limit to what molecules can be built." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new study suggests that loss of blood flow to the brain may lead to dementia in older adults. Researchers from the Netherlands said the decreased blood flow might be partly to blame for the brain damage linked to dementia. Their report appeared in the publication Radiology. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability. It can be caused by many kinds of disorders that affect the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause. Memory loss is a common sign of dementia. However, memory loss alone does not mean that a person has dementia. VOICE ONE:? The decreased flow of blood can have a number of possible causes. High blood pressure can lead to hardening and narrowing of the blood passages, or arteries. Low blood pressure can be an issue if the body is not able to deal with the problem. Heart failure also can be a cause. In the Dutch study, researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging tests on the brains of seventeen persons. All seventeen had dementia and were more than seventy-five years old. Researchers compared the results with those of sixteen older adults who had normal brain activity and fifteen young, healthy adults. The imaging tests showed the individuals with dementia had more brain damage than those who did not have dementia. The researchers also found that those with dementia had a much lower blood flow rate than members of the other two groups. The researchers said their findings suggest that doctors may be able to reduce a patient’s risk of developing dementia. They said doctors should measure blood pressure in older adults and provide treatment if there is a problem. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists from Japan have captured images of one of the world’s most mysterious deep-sea animals. It was the first time scientists took pictures of a giant squid in the wild. The pictures may help scientists to better understand the giant squid. Little is known about these creatures. They are excellent at hiding and often live in deep waters. The equipment needed to search for giant squid is very costly. Scientists cannot always gather the financial support necessary for such a search. In the past, scientists found only dead or dying squid. They were never able to observe or take a picture of a living example. Two Japanese scientists had some good luck on September thirtieth of last year. Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori used sperm whales to guide them to where giant squids live. Sperm whales hunt squid for food. So the animals can provide valuable information as to where giant squids might be found. VOICE ONE: The Japanese scientists set up a squid trap in the Pacific Ocean, about eight hundred kilometers south of Tokyo. The scientists tied some food to the trap. After an eight-meter long squid attacked the trap, a digital camera started taking pictures of the event. This happened at a depth of nine hundred meters. The camera took more than five hundred pictures over several hours as the squid explored the trap, got caught, then struggled to free itself. The squid finally broke free, but in doing so it tore off one of its arms. The tentacle measured over five meters in length. It was still active when the scientists pulled the trap in. VOICE TWO: Recently, the scientists released a report explaining their experiences. The pictures they took help to explain a lot about the way the giant squid acts. For example, the pictures show that squids are a much more active when attacking than many scientists had thought. After they attack, squids appear to place their long tentacles around their target, holding it like a ball. While these images provide much information, there is still much more to learn about these secretive creatures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Lawan Davis and Dana Demange. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-11-voa4.cfm
* Headline: America’s Interstate Highway System Has Almost 70,000 Kilometers of Roads
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Several years ago a first time visitor to the United States was asked what he liked best about the country. He immediately said, “I love your roads. You can drive a car very quickly anywhere.”? Today we tell about the history of the American national road system. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States it is possible to drive more than four thousand kilometers from the east coast on the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast on the Pacific Ocean. You can also drive more than two thousand kilometers from near the Canadian border south to the Mexican border. You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic signals and no stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at all. This is possible because of the Interstate Highway system. This system has almost seventy thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Interstate Highway system is usually two roads, one in each direction, separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one hundred and one hundred twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway system is only a small part of the huge system of roads in the United States. VOICE TWO: To understand the Interstate Highway system, it is helpful to understand the history of roads. Roads in most countries were first built to permit armies to travel from one part of the country to another to fight against an invader. The ancient Romans build roads over most of Europe to permit their armies to move quickly from one place to another. People who traded goods began using these roads for business. Good roads helped them to move their goods faster from one area to another. No roads existed when early settlers arrived in the area of North America that would become the United States. Most settlers built their homes near the ocean or along major rivers. This made transportation easy. A few early roads were built near some cities. Travel on land was often difficult because there was no road system in most areas. VOICE ONE: In seventeen eighty-five, farmers in the Ohio River Valley used rivers to take cut trees to the southern city of New Orleans. It was easier to walk or ride a horse home than to try to go by boat up the river. One of the first roads was built to help these farmers return home after they sold their wood. It began as nothing more than a path used by Native Americans. American soldiers helped make this path into an early road. The new road extended from the city of Nashville, in Tennessee to the city of Natchez in the southern state of Louisiana. It was called the Natchez Trace. You can still follow about seven hundred kilometers of the Natchez Trace. Today, the road is a beautiful National Park. It takes the traveler though forests that look much the same as they did two hundred years ago. You can still see a few of the buildings in which early travelers slept overnight. VOICE TWO: The Natchez Trace was called a road. Yet it was not what we understand a road to be. It was just a cleared path through the forest. It was used by people walking, or riding a horse or in a wagon pulled by horses. In eighteen-oh-six, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that approved money for building a road to make it easier to travel west. Work began on the first part of the road in Cumberland in the eastern state of Maryland. When finished, the road reached all the way to the city of Saint Louis in what would become the middle western state of Missouri. It was named the National Road. The National Road was similar to the Natchez Trace. It followed a path made by American Indians. Work began in eighteen eleven. It was not finished until about eighteen thirty-three. The National Road was used by thousands of people who moved toward the west. These people paid money to use the road. This money was used to repair the road. Now, the old National Road is part of United States Highway Forty. By the nineteen twenties, Highway Forty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. You can still see signs that say "National Road" along the side of parts of it. Several statues were placed along this road to honor the women who moved west over the National Road in the eighteen hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen hundred, it still was difficult to travel by road. Nothing extended from the eastern United States to the extreme western part of the country. Several people wanted to see a road built all the way across the country. Carl Fisher was a man who had ideas and knew how to act on them. Mister Fisher built the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway where car races still take place. In nineteen twelve, Carl Fisher began working on his idea to build a coast-to-coast highway using crushed rocks. He called this dream the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. VOICE TWO: Carl Fisher asked many people to give money for the project. One of these men was Henry Joy, the president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Mister Joy agreed, but suggested another name for the highway. He said the road should be named after President Abraham Lincoln. He said it should be called the “Lincoln Highway.” Everyone involved with the project agreed to the new name. The Lincoln Highway began in the east in New York City’s famous Times Square. It ended in the west in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway was completed in about nineteen thirty-three. VOICE ONE: Later, the federal government decided to assign each highway in the country its own number. Numbers were easier to remember than names. The Lincoln Highway became Highway Thirty for most of its length. Today, you can still follow much of the Lincoln Highway. It passes through small towns and large cities. This makes it a slow but interesting way to travel. Highway Thirty still begins in New York and ends near San Francisco. And it is still remembered as the first coast-to-coast highway. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen nineteen, a young army officer named Dwight Eisenhower took part in the first crossing of the United States by army vehicles. The vehicles left Washington, D.C. and drove to San Francisco. It was not a good trip. The vehicles had problems with thick mud, ice and mechanical difficulties. It took the American army vehicles sixty-two days to reach San Francisco. Dwight Eisenhower believed the United States needed a highway that would aid in the defense of the country. He believed the nation needed a road system that would permit military vehicles to travel quickly from one coast to the other. In nineteen fifty-six, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States. He signed the legislation that created the Federal Interstate Highway system. Work was begun almost immediately. VOICE ONE: Building such an interstate highway system was a major task. Many problems had to be solved. The highway passed through different areas that were wetlands, mountains and deserts. It was very difficult to build the system. Yet lessons learned while building it influenced the building of highways around the world. Today, the interstate system links every major city in the United States. It also links the United States with Canada and Mexico. The Interstate Highway system has been an important part of the nation’s economic growth during the past forty years. Experts believe that trucks using the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold. Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy Interstate Highways all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places, gasoline stations and shopping centers. The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly from one part of the country to another. The United States government re-named the Interstate Highway system at the end of the Twentieth Century. Large signs now can be seen along the side of the highway that say “Eisenhower Interstate System.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-11-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Making a Dairy Farm Work with Grass-fed Cows
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 Correction attached I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Raising cows for milk is not an easy way to farm. The costs and labor involved make it difficult for a small farm to be profitable. Bobolink Dairy in New Jersey raises milk cows that feed only on grass and hay all year. Jonathan and Nina White own the farm. This year, they have thirty-four cows and twenty-four calves. The Whites make high-quality cheese from the milk their cows produce. The Whites have several kinds, or breeds, of dairy cows. They have brought together smaller breeds that do well outside in fields. Many of the breeds are common on dairy farms all over the country. The Whites raise Ayrshire, Guernsey and Jersey cows. They also have Holstein cows, and even an unusual British White. But the prize animals at Bobolink Dairy belong to the Kerry breed. These cattle are mostly or all black. They are an ancient breed from Ireland. Although small in size for dairy cattle, they are strong and healthy milk producers. The farm’s main male, or bull, is one of only about fifty Kerry cattle in the United States. Mister White knows each of his animals by name and knows the way they act. The bull’s mother is Sarah. She is fourteen years old. That is very old for a productive milk cow. The Holstein breed, for example, has an average productive life of three to four years. These big cattle can produce up to forty-five kilograms of milk a day. Industrial dairy farmers often give their cows the chemical bovine somatotropin, or bST. They use a man-made version of a hormone in cattle that is involved in growth and milk production. Federal agencies say it is safe. Jonathan White does not sell milk and does not give his cattle bST. He can get about thirteen and one-half kilograms of milk a day from his cows. He turns that into five kilograms of cheese priced at forty-four dollars a kilogram. The Whites started the Grasslands Cheese Consortium to show how small dairy farms can be successful. Mister White says his business starts with sunlight and rain. He pays almost nothing for cattle feed. Land and cattle are his capital. He says small farms raising grass-fed cows can produce profitable products and be economically independent. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. I'm Steve Ember. Correction:?Jonathan White tells us that thirteen?and one half?kilograms of milk will?usually produce about one?and one half?kilograms of cheese. He says?about eleven percent of the weight of the milk is turned into cheese. But, this can change with the seasons. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-11-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Nations Are Urged to Do More Against Risk of Avian Flu
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Emergency hospital during 1918 influenza epidemic, Camp Funston, Kansas (National Museum of Health & Medicine photo)The World Health Organization says avian influenza could become a worldwide threat unless governments act now to stop it. Officials at the United Nations agency warn that bird flu could kill as many as seven million people. They say the number of deaths would depend on the severity of the virus once it entered the general population. So far, avian influenza has mostly infected people who have been around infected birds and their waste. The W.H.O. said at the end of September that it had reports of sixty deaths. These were among one hundred sixteen confirmed cases since December of two thousand three. The deaths were mostly in Vietnam, but also in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. The virus has also been found in birds in other countries in Asia. Experts say migrating wild birds have helped spread the virus. Fifteen flu viruses infect birds. Officials are most concerned about the h-five-n-one virus. It could spread easily from person to person if it mixes with human flu virus. That might happen if a person or an animal, such as a pig, becomes infected with both human and avian flu. The body has no defenses against bird flu. The first cases of h-five-n-one in people were reported in Hong Kong eight years ago. Six people died. Workers quickly killed one and one-half million chickens and other birds to stop the spread of the virus. Millions of farm birds have been destroyed in an effort to halt the current outbreak. Anti-viral medicine has been used with some success to treat bird flu. Scientists have a vaccine that might protect against the virus. But officials say there is not enough to deal with a major outbreak. President Bush has called for ways to expand vaccine production. He has also suggested the use of the military to try to contain any possible outbreak in the United States. The State Department last week held an international meeting to discuss the threat from bird flu. Also last week, scientists in the United States announced that they have remade the so-called Spanish flu virus. An outbreak in nineteen eighteen killed as many as fifty million people worldwide. The scientists say they found that the Spanish flu came from birds. They hope the recreated virus will help them to better understand what makes the current bird flu so deadly. They also hope to find ways to protect against any big outbreak. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-11-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Getting Ready for the Speaking Section on the New TOEFL
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster: more about the redesigned Test of English as a Foreign Language from the Educational Testing Service. Over the coming year, the new "TOEFL iBT" -- or Internet-based test -- will replace the existing computer and paper versions at testing centers around the world. RS: The four-hour test now includes a speaking section, in addition to reading, writing and listening. Eileen Tyson at the Educational Testing Service says E.T.S. has trained a large group of English language professors and teachers to grade the speaking section. EILEEN TYSON: "Those speaking responses come back to E.T.S. via the Internet, and then they're broken apart and they're sent out through our online scoring network. And they're sent to different raters, so that each student will have input from between three to six raters for their speaking responses." RS: "Do you expect that this test is going to be easier for some students than others?" EILEEN TYSON: "Well, I think that students who have been taught English in a way that emphasizes using English, this will not be a surprise to them. But for students who have thought of English only in terms of sentence structure, nouns and verbs and grammar, well all those aspects are important, but the reason one learns English is to use it for communication. So this test will represent a change, and it will measure that aspect of English." RS: "So it's a change in philosophy, really." EILEEN TYSON: "It really is. We've spent about 10 years developing the test, and we've changed the theoretical underpinning of the test itself." AA: "So now on the test day, they listen to some material, and then they have about 30 seconds or so to gather their thoughts, and then they have one minute to present their thoughts, that's kind of frightening actually even for a native speaker. I mean, are some students going to be at a disadvantage?" EILEEN TYSON: "Well, I think universities know that the addition of speaking is brand-new. And I think during this first year or two years, universities are going to know that students are unfamiliar with speaking. And I think they're going to be giving that sort of leeway initially in speaking." RS: "How would you suggest students prepare for this test?" EILEEN TYSON: "The first step a student should take is go to our Web site. And students can take, free of charge, a practice test and receive a score for the reading, writing and listening sections. And what they'll see is exactly the same thing as the test. They'll see the same kind of integrated skills, the same kinds of questions." RS: "But now there's a spoken component. How can they prepare for that?" EILEEN TYSON: "We have a publication called 'TOEFL iBT Tips' and it's really got lots and lots of tips. It's on our Web site. It gives lots of suggestions on how to improve and how to become familiar with the test." RS: "Could you just highlight some of the top tips?" EILEEN TYSON: "Well, for example, students, for the integrated speaking, if they can find reading and listening materials on the same topic -- for example, if they can listen to something on a news program, and then take notes on the material, and then find something in reading (say, in a newspaper) on the same topic, and then take notes on that as well, and then orally combine the information in the reading and listening materials and explain how they relate to each other. "It's especially helpful if one source takes an opposite point of view. For example, one of the types of questions we have involves taking a stance, and in one particular case, the reading says 'working with groups is great,' and it lists lot of reasons why working in groups is terrific. Then the professor's lecture says 'You know, despite what the reading says, there are problems with working with groups.' And then they describe a different a different point of view. So comparing different points of view from different source materials is very helpful. It's very good training. "Two of the six questions in the speaking section ask a student something related to their opinion or their experience. For example: 'Some universities allow students to live off campus in their first year. Do you think this is a good idea?' So, for practice, students can make a list of topics that are familiar and then state an opinion and provide clear reasons that can support their view." AA: Eileen Tyson is associate director of the TOEFL program at the Educational Testing Service. The TOEFL Web site is ets.org/toefl ... T-O-E-F-L. We'll post a link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster, where you can also find the first part of our interview with Eileen Tyson. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Educational Testing Service Begins New TOEFL Test
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last month, the Educational Testing Service began using a new TOEFL. TOEFL is the widely used Test of English as a Foreign Language. It already measured the ability to read, write and understand English. The new test does more to bring these skills together, and also measures speaking ability. The TOEFL examination is used by more than five thousand colleges and universities around the world. About seven hundred fifty thousand people took the test last year. American schools generally require it of foreign students seeking admission. E.T.S. officials say the new test better measures how well students are able to communicate in English. Skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking are tested in combination. There are questions where test takers must read, listen and then speak their answer. Or just listen and speak. Or read, listen and then write their answer to the question. The students speak into a microphone. Three to six examiners will listen to the recorded answers. Experts have long said that one of the major required abilities for attending college in the United States is speaking English well. Many times, foreign students have earned high scores on the TOEFL but have had problems at school because they could not speak in class. The new test is called TOEFL "iBT," for Internet-based test. E.T.S. officials say it is the first major test of English to be given over the Internet. Students have already taken the new TOEFL at testing centers in the United States. It will be given on October twenty-second in Canada, France, Germany and Italy. It will come into use in testing centers in other parts of the world next year. E.T.S. officials say they expect the new test to change how English is taught around the world. News reports say many Asian students are worried about the new test. Their English teachers prepare them mainly to read and write, not speak. Companies are already offering preparation materials for the new Internet-based TOEFL. Educational Testing Service offers a free practice test on its TOEFL Web site. The address is ets.org/toefl. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Grover Cleveland: A Democrat Wins the White House in 1884
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States in eighteen eighty-four. He was the first Democratic Party candidate to win the White House in almost twenty-eight years. Grover Cleveland defeated Senator James Blaine of the Republican Party. The election was very close. Many Republicans did not vote for their own candidate. They voted for Cleveland, instead. They believed he was honest...and Blaine was not. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about President Grover Cleveland. VOICE TWO: Cleveland began his administration by announcing that he would reduce waste in the government. He would make government more like business. He said he would support reforms to let ability -- not politics -- decide who would get government jobs. Democratic Party leaders were quick to protest. They explained to Cleveland that the party owed jobs to those who had worked for his victory. Cleveland had to compromise. He permitted about eighty thousand government jobs to be taken from Republicans and given to Democrats. This left twelve thousand jobs. These would be given to people who did the best on government examinations. Cleveland's decision angered Republican reformers who had voted for him. They accused him of surrendering to the leaders of the Democratic Party. VOICE ONE: On other issues, however, Cleveland refused to compromise. He opposed government economic aid to any industrial group. He vetoed a bill giving aid to farmers whose crops had failed. And he vetoed another bill giving more money to men who had served as soldiers during America's civil war of the eighteen sixties. The president also showed his independence by investigating gifts of public land that the government had made to the railroad,wood, and cattle industries. He found that many of these land grants were made illegally. He got back much of the land. He opened it to settlers. VOICE TWO: President Cleveland signed into law two bills he believed would improve government. One was the Electoral Count Act. It set new rules for counting the electoral votes of the states. It would prevent future disputes over presidential elections, like the one in eighteen seventy-six. The other bill changed the list of officials who could become President, if the President and Vice President died or were removed from office. First on the list -- after the Vice President -- was the Secretary of State. Congress changed this law again in nineteen forty-seven. And there have been four amendments since then. Today, the Speaker of the House of Representatives would succeed the Vice President as President. Then would come the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. And then the Secretary of State. VOICE ONE: Grover Cleveland approved a bill giving the government control over the cost of railroad transportation. The bill was called the Interstate Commerce Act. It limited the amount of money railroads could demand from people who? needed to travel or transport their goods. The law established the idea that the government could control industries, when necessary, for the public good. President Cleveland also was concerned about a growing number of labor disputes that took place in the United States in the late eighteen hundreds. He proposed that Congress create a labor committee to help settle the disputes. VOICE TWO: Samuel GompersCongress failed to act on this proposal. But its lack of action did not stop the rise of a labor organization that had been formed a few years earlier. The group soon would become the most important labor union in the United States. It was the American Federation of Labor, or A-F-L. Led by Samuel Gompers, the A-F-L was different from earlier labor groups. It did not try to put all workers into one union. Instead, it tied together a number of different unions and gave them general leadership. VOICE ONE: The A-F-L was different in other ways. It did not oppose the economic system of capitalism. It said only that labor should get more of the earnings of capitalism. The A-F-L also opposed extremists who used labor protests to change the social system. What the A-F-L called for were things workers wanted immediately. Higher wages. A shorter work day. Better working conditions. One of its first demands was an eight-hour work day. This demand led to a number of strikes and protests throughout the country. VOICE TWO: The most serious incident took place in Chicago's Haymarket Square. More than one thousand union supporters went to a meeting there organized by an extremist. They stood calmly and listened to speeches. Just before the meeting ended, someone threw a bomb into a group of policemen. The bomb exploded with a blinding flash. Seven policemen were killed. The other policemen began shooting at the crowd. Some people in the crowd fired back. When it was all over, ten persons had been shot to death. Fifty others were hurt. The incident set off a wave of fear and anger across the country. The public demanded action against union extremists. The Haymarket Square violence slowed the growth of organized labor in the United States for many years. It would be some time before labor became a powerful force in national events. President Cleveland's WeddingVOICE ONE: In the spring of eighteen eighty-six, President Cleveland announced that he was to be married. The ceremony took place in the White House. A few months later, President Cleveland and the First Lady went to New York City for the official ceremony welcoming the Statue of Liberty. The statue was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. It represented the alliance between their two countries during America's war for independence from Britain. The statue was the creation of French artist Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. He decided to make a statue that would represent freedom -- a Statue of Liberty. He said it should stand on an island in New York harbor. There, he said, it would welcome all who came to America through that gateway. Frederic-Auguste BartholdiVOICE TWO: Bartholdi decided to make a copper statue in the image of a woman -- lady liberty. High above her head, she would hold a torch of freedom to light the world. The statue's face was the face of Bartholdi's mother. The artist asked French engineer Gustave Eiffel to build a steel support to hold the heavy statue. Eiffel was the man who later built the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The statue was built in France. Then the pieces were sent across the Atlantic Ocean. It was rebuilt in New York. VOICE ONE: Grover Cleveland and his wife were not the only Americans to attend the Statue of Liberty ceremonies in eighteen eighty-six. Thousands of people crowded onto ships in the harbor to watch the great event. Thousands of others crowded the shorelinesaround the harbor. Everyone cheered wildly when a signal was given and a huge cloth fell from the statue. Statue of LibertyLady liberty stood holding her torch high for freedom. Under her feet were the broken chains of tyranny. Below the statue was a poem. It called to the poor and oppressed people of the world. It told them to come to America to find a land of hope and freedom. VOICE TWO: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. VOICE ONE: The Statue of Liberty was a great success. It was one of the great engineering wonders of its time. And it filled Americans with pride in their tradition of freedom and openness to people from all lands. We will continue our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen to this program againnext week at this same time. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Daydreams (and Dragons) Lead Young Writer Paolini to Success
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music from The Rolling Stones … Answer a question about the name of his program … And report about a popular young American writer. Christopher Paolini Christopher Paolini has never attended high school. But he says that he has visited more high schools than anyone else. He made the visits to talk about an extremely popular book that he began writing at the age of fifteen. Pat Bodnar has more. PAT BODNAR:??Christopher Paolini lives in the state of Montana. His parents taught him at home, so he did not go to school. He finished his studies at the age of fifteen. But his family decided he was too young to attend college. So he started writing. His effort became the book called “Eragon”. It is for children ages twelve and older. It is about a poor farm boy named Eragon who finds a strange blue stone that is really an egg. The egg becomes an imaginary creature called a dragon. The dragon’s name is Saphira. She is beautiful, blue and powerful. Eragon cares for her and she becomes his best friend. Eragon and Saphira have many adventures as they struggle against an evil king. They also develop a mind link: they know what each other is thinking. Christopher’s parents published “Eragon” themselves. It became so popular that a major publishing company bought the rights to it. The book has sold more than two million copies so far. The company also agreed to publish the two other books Christopher planned to write about Eragon the Sephira. The second book has now been published. It is called “Eldest.”? It continues the story of Eragon and Saphira and their struggle to save their world from the evil king. And Christopher is traveling around the country talking about how and why he wrote the books. Christopher Paolini is twenty-one years old now. He has no plans to go to college. He says he has the best job in the world because he gets to write down his daydreams. ?He is now working on the third book that will complete the adventures of Eragon and Saphira in their imaginary land. Soon, people all over the world will be able to enjoy “Eragon” in another way. A movie of the book is being filmed in Hungary. It will be released next year. Meaning of 'Mosaic' HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Eric asks about the meaning of this program’s name, American Mosaic. We will answer that question as a way to help celebrate the anniversary of Special English. Special English began on October nineteenth, nineteen fifty-nine. Voice of America officials wanted a program to communicate with people learning English. They wanted a way for people to get to know the language and at the same time learn about the United States and world news. Special English writing is limited as much as possible to about one thousand five hundred words. Special English uses short sentences. And it is read at a slower speed than normal English. The program “American Mosaic” began in nineteen eighty-five. We wanted to broadcast a show that young people would like. We wanted to tell about American culture, answer questions from listeners and play popular music. But we could not agree about what to call the program. We began with the name “The Friday Program.”? And we announced a contest for listeners to send in suggestions for better names. Two people won the contest. Listeners from China and Egypt both suggested the same name: American Mosaic. Mosaic is spelled m-o-s-a-i-c. The dictionary says that the English word “mosaic” means a picture or design that is made by placing small colored pieces together. You can see colorful mosaics in art and in designs on buildings. We chose the name “American Mosaic” because the purpose of the show is to create a picture of life in this country through many small stories. Each story is different, like the different pieces of a mosaic. But together, they form a complete picture. We hope that our radio mosaic provides a complete and interesting picture of life in the United States. You can learn more about Special English on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Rolling Stones (MUSIC) Mick JaggerThe Rolling Stones are not American. But, the band is probably as popular in the United States as anywhere else in the world. Right now, the group is performing around the country in huge sports centers. Faith Lapidus tells about the Rolling Stones and plays some of their songs -- old and new. FAITH LAPIDUS: The Rolling Stones started as a band forty-four years ago. Their first shows in the United States were in the nineteen-sixties. Many critics compared the band with the Beatles. Both groups were British, played rock and roll and became major music stars quickly. But, unlike the Beatles, the Rolling Stones were seen as bad boys. Their hair was longer, their clothes were tighter and they acted wilder. In nineteen seventy-two, the Rolling Stones released the album,? “Exile on Main Street.”?? Some critics consider it their best. The song “Rip This Joint” is an example of the band’s bad boy sound. (MUSIC) Singer Mick Jagger and lead guitarist Keith Richards write the songs. The band’s drummer is Charlie Watts. Guitarist Ron Wood is the fourth member. He joined the Rolling Stones in nineteen seventy-five. The album “Some Girls” was released a few years later. A song about New York City, “Shattered,” became one of its biggest hits. (MUSIC) Last month, the Rolling Stones released their latest album, “A Bigger Bang.”? It includes a political song, which is unusual for the band. We leave you with “Sweet Neo-Con.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Work on 'Game Theory' Wins Nobel Prize for Two Economists
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Thomas Schelling and Robert Aumann will share the Nobel Prize in economics this year. The two men are being honored for their work in developing an economic idea. It is called game theory. Game theory began as the study of decision-making in competitive situations, like games. John von Neumann [pronounced NOI-mahn] and Oskar Morgenstern linked the theory of games with economic activity more than sixty years ago. In the nineteen fifties, John Nash developed an idea known as the “Nash equilibrium.”? The Nash equilibrium is the point where all sides in a competitive situation believe they have been given the best offer they will ever get. He proved this with mathematical methods. Mister Nash won the Nobel Prize in economics with two other men in nineteen ninety-four. Mister Schelling used the ideas of game theory to study real-life problems, such as the arms competition between the United States and the Soviet Union forty years ago. He was interested in what influenced negotiating groups. He showed how one side might decide to harm its interests for a short period of time to make gains over a longer period. Mister Schelling also used game theory to show how people become divided by race. He found that divided societies can result even among persons mostly willing to live near people of another race. Mister Aumann developed game theory mathematically so that it can be useful for different areas of study. He showed that peaceful cooperation can provide good results for all competitors in a game over a long period. This is true even among competitors with a temporary conflict of interest. Mister Aumann also considered how reasonable decisions are made among groups. He showed that knowing what competitors know is important to decision-making. The work of both men has influenced areas of study other than economics. International negotiators, military planners, business leaders and biologists use methods developed by Misters Schelling and Aumann. Mister Schelling, an American, is a retired professor of the University of Maryland. Mister Aumann is a citizen of both the United States and Israel. He is a retired professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Germany Awaits a New Leader, and a New Day
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 I’m Doug Johnson with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The major political parties in Germany are working to complete negotiations for a new government. When they finish, Parliament is expected to elect Angela Merkel as the new chancellor. She is a conservative who would be the first woman to lead Germany. Angela Merkel would also be the first leader from the former East Germany. Her party, the Christian Democratic Union, narrowly won elections last month for the Bundestag, the German parliament. But it did not receive enough votes for a majority. The Christian Democrats and the Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed Monday to form a coalition. The next chancellor will face a national unemployment rate of more than eleven percent. The German economy is the largest in Europe. But economic growth has slowed. Mister Schroeder said this week that he would not take part in the new government. He has been chancellor since nineteen ninety-eight. Under the coalition agreement, the ministries led by Social Democrats would include the Foreign Ministry. Miz Merkel’s party and the allied Christian Social Union would get leadership of the defense and economy ministries, among others. Political experts say sharing power with her opponents almost surely will limit the ability of Angela Merkel to make changes. For example, she wants to ease laws that protect jobs and help keep labor costs high in Germany. But unions support the protections. Miz Merkel also says she wants to improve relations with the United States. Mister Schroeder refused to support American plans for the invasion of Iraq in two thousand three. However, Germans do not expect Miz Merkel to want to send troops to Iraq either. Germany does wants a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The United States has not shown support for that idea. Angela Merkel is fifty-one years old. She was born Angela Kasner in Hamburg, West Germany. Her father was a Lutheran clergyman. He was sent to lead a small church in East Germany while Angela was a baby. So she grew up under Communist rule. There, she received a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Leipzig in nineteen eighty-six. Later she did research in East Berlin. She is married to a chemistry professor, Joachim Sauer. They have no children. She became active in the democracy movement in East Germany in nineteen eighty-nine. She joined the Christian Democratic Union about the time East and West Germany re-united in nineteen ninety. Voters elected her to Parliament the following year. She soon became minister for women and young people, in the cabinet of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Angela Merkel has chaired the Christian Democratic Union since two thousand. She has led its delegation in Parliament since two thousand two. Her forceful personality often leads to comparisons with the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Jackson Pollock Invented a New Kind of Painting That Changed the Way People Looked at Art
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the famous artist Jackson Pollock who helped redefine modern art in the United States. Pollock invented a new kind of painting that changed the way the world looked at art.(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Until the twentieth century, most paintings were representational. This means that artists "represented" their subjects in a way that was realistic and recognizable. However, during the first half of the twentieth century, artists like Jackson Pollock started to explore other methods of representation.When he first began painting, Jackson Pollock painted representational objects such as people and animals. However, he is famous for helping to create a whole new art movement called Abstract Expressionism. An "abstract" image is one where the subject is not represented realistically. Instead, the artist uses color and shapes to suggest the most general qualities of the subject. "Expressionism" is a kind of art that expresses feelings and thoughts. Abstract Expressionism is art that shows emotions and ideas through non-representational forms. VOICE TWO: In Pollock's most famous works, there is no recognizable subject. His art works are large surfaces of canvas completely covered in different colors of paint. However, Pollock did not start out as a revolutionary painter. He developed the artistic process he became famous for over many years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:???????????? ?Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming in nineteen twelve. He grew up in the states of Arizona and California. Pollock later said that the wide-open land of these western areas greatly influenced his expansive artwork. In nineteen thirty he moved east to New York City where he studied at the Art Students League. There, Pollock spent a few years studying with the artist Thomas Hart Benton who painted images of every day American life. Pollock's early works are similar to his teacher's kind of painting. However, Pollock slowly left this traditional art education behind. VOICE TWO: Pollock's work had many other influences. For example, he liked a group of Mexican painters who made murals. Murals are large images that the artists paint directly onto a wall. Some of these painters were working in New York City in the nineteen thirties, so Pollock was able to see them work. Pollock borrowed several methods and ideas from these artists. They included the use of large canvases, the method of freely applying paint and honoring old and new traditions. VOICE ONE: Pollock was also influenced by the Spanish artist Miro. Miro was part of a movement of surrealist painters. Surrealist artists thought that true art comes from a part of the mind called the unconscious. The unconscious controls the area of the mind that produces dreams. Pollock agreed with these artists that the unconscious mind was an important force in creating art.Also, when he was in his late twenties, Pollock suffered a mental breakdown. It was caused in part by depression and dependence on alcohol. As a result, he was treated by a Jungian psychoanalyst. This is a special kind of expert in emotional health who works to understand the unconscious mind, dreams, and emotions. Pollock was influenced by this kind of investigation of human relations and emotions. This "inside world" would become the subject of his paintings.VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-four, Pollock married Lee Krasner who was also a skilled Abstract Expressionist painter. The next year they moved to East Hampton, a small town on Long Island in the state of New York. The couple wanted to get away from the busy life of New York City. In this country environment they could enjoy nature and have more time to work on their art. Next to their house Pollock set up a studio building where he could create his artwork. In this large studio Pollock created the paintings that would make him famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During these years Jackson Pollock started to paint in a completely new way. He created art that was very physical. In fact, his method is sometimes called "action painting". Most artists painted on a surface that stood upright or vertical. But Pollock put his large canvases on the floor so that he could move around all four sides of his work. He also used very liquid paints so that he could easily drop the paint onto his canvases. This "dripping" method allowed him to make energetic works. ?His paintings are explosions of curving lines, shapes and colors. In his art you can see every movement that his arm made. You can see how he had to move his body around the canvas. Videos of Pollock painting show this process, which looks like a painterly dance. VOICE TWO: Unlike other artists, Jackson Pollock did not plan the way he wanted his paintings to look. Many artists plan their works by making small drawings before painting. Pollock developed what he called a "direct method," applying the paint directly onto an empty canvas. He painted by following his immediate thoughts and emotions. Pollock combined careful movement with exact color and line. Though his paintings appear accidental, they required careful control.Here is a recording of Pollock describing his way of painting. It was taken from a movie the British Broadcasting Corporation made about the artist in nineteen ninety-nine. (POLLOCK) VOICE ONE: As Pollock said, he wanted to create art that was a visual representation of the motion and energy of his "inside world." He was once asked why he did not paint pictures of objects people could identify. He answered that if you wanted to see a flower, you could go look at a real one. He said that what interested him was not outside objects. Pollock's works were both praised and criticized. His paintings were in several shows in galleries in the middle nineteen forties. However, Pollock did not produce his fully abstract "drip" paintings until later. In nineteen-fifty, the public saw these works at Betty Parson's Gallery in New York. Some art critics said this was one of the best shows of the year and that Pollock was one of the greatest painters in America. Others did not understand his work. One critic said that Pollock's art showed chaos -- complete disorder without any method. VOICE TWO: Today, Pollock's works sell for millions of dollars. But only one painting sold at this show. It was a famous work called "Lavender Mist". This painting now hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. "Lavender Mist" represents perfectly what was so interesting about Pollock's work. The canvas is more than two meters tall and almost three meters long. The entire surface is covered in small rivers of white, black, grey, yellow, brown and pink paint. These colors and lines create a painting that is full of visual energy.VOICE ONE: Interestingly, there is no lavender, or light purple, color paint in this work. One of Pollock's friends suggested the name because the many other colors of paint created an atmospheric effect that looked like lavender mist. Usually, Pollock would simply name his paintings with a number and a date. He did not want the titles to explain to viewers what to see when they looked at his work.With paintings like "Lavender Mist" Jackson Pollock helped introduce the world to a whole new way of painting and thinking about art. But he did not live very long. He died in a car accident in nineteen fifty-six at the age of forty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The home in East Hampton, New York where Jackson Pollock lived with his wife Lee Krasner is now a museum. At this special place you can see the rooms where these artists lived. Most importantly, you can see the studio where Pollock and Krasner created their work. On the floor of the studio is the evidence of years and years of Pollock's thrown paint. The floor looks just like one of Pollock's paintings.Experts say this museum is a cultural treasure. It is the place where Jackson Pollock helped introduce the world to Abstract Expressionism. Pollock helped break the traditional rules of representation and established America as an important center for modern art.(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.(MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Aid Group Designs System to Make Dirty Water Safe to Drink
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year more than two million people die from diseases caused by drinking dirty water. That is the estimate of the World Health Organization. Dirty water is a leading killer in developing countries. Most of the victims are children. Diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and infectious hepatitis are all spread through unclean water by bacteria or viruses. Malaria, river blindness and dengue fever are spread by insects that lay their eggs in drinking water or live around water resources. There are systems designed to make dirty water safe to drink. A group called Potters for Peace has developed a low-cost system for use by families. Potters for Peace is a non-governmental organization based in the United States and active in Central America. The system this group developed is called the Ceramic Water Purifier. The purifier is a round container with a filter inside made of porous clay. Clay is hard earth. A process called firing strengthens it with intense heat. Porous means it still lets water flow through. But the clay acts as a filter. It traps harmful organisms. Also, the clay filter is painted with a substance called colloidal silver. Colloidal silver kills bacteria. It is used in water purification systems in many aircraft. The purifier sits inside a larger container that catches and stores water as it flows through the filter. This larger container also protects the purifier from damage. The filter is supposed to be cleaned about once a month to make sure water is still able to flow through. Potters for Peace suggests that users replace the filter after?a year. Ceramic water purifiers are being used in developing countries around the world. They first became popular in Ecuador and Guatemala. Today they are being used throughout Central and South America, and in parts of Africa and Asia. Ceramic water purifiers can help communities meet their water needs. But Potters for Peace says they can also help communities earn money. With a little training, local artists can produce and sell the containers that hold the purifier. You can find out more about the Ceramic Water Purifier at the Potters for Peace Web site. That address is wwww.potpaz.org. Again, potpaz.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Hot Dogs and Apple Pie: Just Some of America's Favorite Foods
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about some of the foods that Americans like best – America’s favorites. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may have heard that Americans like hot dogs and hamburgers best of all foods. Well, farmers and owners of public eating places might happily agree. So might the nation’s Meat Institute and the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council. But people whose favorites are pizza and apple pie would give the meat-lovers a spirited argument! Naming the favorite foods of Americans depends a lot on whom you ask. But one thing is sure. The ancestors of most Americans came from other countries. The United States owes many favorite dishes, or the ideas for these foods, to the rest of the world. For example, that traditional American favorite, the hot dog or wiener, had its modern beginning in Germany. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates that Americans eat about seven thousand million of these sausages during a summer. VOICE TWO: A hot dog is usually made from pork, the meat of a pig. Or it is made from beef, the meat of a cow. Another version is made from turkey. A vegetarian version of a hot dog has no meat at all. It often contains tofu, made from soy plants. The hot dog is shaped like a tube. Many people say it looks like a Dachshund dog. It is served between two shaped pieces of bread called a bun. Americans often say they especially like hot dogs cooked over a hot fire in the open air. People at sports events buy plenty of hot dogs. VOICE ONE: For many people, it is not just the meat that tastes so good. These people enjoy colorful and tasty additions. For example, they include a yellow or yellow-brown thickened liquid called mustard. They may also put red catsup and pieces of a white or red, strong-smelling vegetable called onion on their hot dogs. Hot dog eaters often add pickle, a salty green vegetable. Some people place barbecue sauce on top of all this. Or they use a spice called horseradish. It gives the hot dog a pleasant bite. A hot dog is also known as a frankfurter or frank. That is because the city of Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany is often said to be the birthplace of this sausage. But the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says there are other ideas about where the hot dog began. VOICE TWO: One version of hot dog history says a butcher, or meat cutter, from the German city of Coburg was responsible. It says he invented the hot dog in the late sixteen hundreds. Vienna, Austria, also claims that it created the food. The council says butchers from several countries probably brought common European sausages to America. A street salesman sold hot dogs to people in New York City in the eighteen sixties. And, in eighteen seventy one, a hot dog stand opened at the Coney Island amusement park in New York City. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans also eat lots of hamburgers. This ground meat comes from beef. It can be cooked in many ways. Like hot dogs, hamburgers are a favorite picnic food. Many public eating places in the United States say hamburgers are their most popular foods. People often eat them in places that serve quickly prepared, moderately priced food. ????? Like hot dog experts, hamburger historians disagree about how their subject got started. The Egyptians and Romans apparently ate ancient versions of hamburgers. In more modern days, people in Hamburg, Germany, made something like a hamburger from pork and beef. VOICE TWO: The small town of Seymour, Wisconsin, is among several American towns that claim to have created the first modern hamburger in the United States. In Seymour, a man named Charlie Nagreen tried to sell meatballs at a local fair in eighteen eighty-five. But as people walked around, it was hard for them to handle the round pieces of meat. So Nagreen flattened the ball of meat. Then he placed this meat patty between two pieces of bread. In two thousand one, people in Seymour cooked a hamburger that weighed more than three thousand kilograms. This creation reportedly fed thirteen thousand people. ?VOICE ONE: ????? ?????????????? Like hot dogs, Americans like their hamburgers with additions. Things like mustard, catsup, horseradish, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and perhaps a pickle. A hamburger with cheese melted on it is called a cheeseburger. Cooks make a “Sloppy Joe” by combining hamburger meat with tomato sauce. Many people eat the Sloppy Joe mixture on a bun. Without a bun, they may get more of the loose meat on them than inside them. For many people, eating both hot dogs and hamburgers does not seem right without potatoes. They eat French fries and potato chips with these meats. French fries are strips, or pieces, of potato cooked in oil. Potato chips are extremely thin, cooled pieces of potato. They usually are also cooked in oil. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans also buy or make large amounts of pizza. A basic pizza contains tomato sauce or cheese, or both, on a bread-like material. Food writer Linda Stradley tells about the history of pizza on her computer Web site, “What’s Cooking America.”? Miz Stradley says it could have been the Phoenicians, Greeks or Romans who invented pizza. Or, it could have been anyone who mixed flour with water and cooked it on a hot stone. ? VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? Italians probably brought pizza to the United States in the second half of the nineteenth century. In nineteen-oh-five, Gennaro Lombardi reportedly opened the first pizza store in New York City. In the nineteen thirties, he added tables to his pizza place. Lombardi also began serving spaghetti. Spaghetti is a traditional Italian favorite that also has become an American favorite. It is made from flour and water and sometimes eggs. This dough is pulled into lengths and boiled. VOICE TWO: Al kinds of foods can be added to both pizza and spaghetti to add to their taste. For example, people like these foods with different meats on top. Or they like toppings of small fish called anchovies, or vegetables called mushrooms. Some people like all the additions at once. Another favorite food, macaroni, is similar to spaghetti. Many Americans remember that their mothers made macaroni cooked with cheese on cold winter days. People sometimes call this dish “comfort food,” because it makes them feel better. VOICE ONE: Others praise hot soups prepared in their childhood homes. Some people say chicken soup -- chicken pieces in liquid -- can cure anything. Still others say New England clam chowder helps them think. This soup contains the shellfish clams floating in a milky liquid. Another version of clam chowder has tomato sauce. It looks red. To end a meal, or between meals, Americans often eat chocolate in some form. They eat millions and millions of kilograms of chocolate a year. Chocolate is produced from cocoa beans. It is used in sweet foods like candy, pies, puddings and cakes. Many people say chocolate makes them feel happier. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? ?????? ?????????????? ??????? People have praised chocolate for its taste for many years. Some studies have shown that it can help chase away mild feelings of sadness. But chocolate often has a large amount of fat. However, some experts now say a moderate amount of chocolate can be healthful. For example, the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center in Ohio notes that chocolate contains substances called antioxidants. Antioxidants are thought to help the body fight damage caused by natural processes and harmful substances in the environment. The Heart Center suggests choosing dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. And it warns that people should restrict themselves to a moderate amount. VOICE ONE: Like people in many parts of the world, Americans love pie. These sweet dishes have fruit, nuts or some other filling in a crust. Some people say pies are the best comfort food ever. That can be debated. Pie can be the most inviting food ever. A red strawberry pie or a yellow Key lime pie can defeat the strongest resolution of people trying to lose weight. But apple pie may be a top American favorite. Over time, this dish has come to be strongly linked to the United States. When someone or something seems especially American, people say it is “as American as apple pie.”?? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? And I’m Steve Ember. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Killer Virus Brought Back From Past, in Hopes to Avoid a Future One
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week on our show: A vaccine to prevent cervical cancer could be a step closer to market ... VOICE ONE:? Scientists reproduce the nineteen eighteen flu virus at a time of worry about a future outbreak of influenza ... VOICE TWO: And, the World Bank has some money to give away for projects to help the poor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists have found similarities between the Asian bird flu known as h-five-n-one and the influenza of nineteen eighteen. Recently, scientists recreated the so-called Spanish flu in a laboratory in the United States. They wanted to learn how the virus killed so many people. An estimated twenty million to fifty million people worldwide died of the flu. Most were under sixty-five years old. What scientists learn about the virus could lead to new vaccines and treatments for future outbreaks of influenza. VOICE TWO: A worldwide outbreak of disease is a pandemic. Public health officials worry that the h-five-n-one virus could cause the next flu pandemic. The World Health Organization reported one hundred seventeen confirmed cases by October tenth. These were in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. Sixty of the people died, forty-one of them in Vietnam. Experts say wild birds have spread the virus as they migrate from one area to another. The current outbreak began in two thousand three. It has spread across Asia to the edge of Europe. VOICE ONE:? So far, most of the victims had been around infected birds. But the virus could mix with human flu if a person or an animal, such as a pig, gets infected with both. There is concern that the bird flu will change into a form that spreads easily from person to person. The W.H.O. says millions could die within months. Experts say there are currently not enough supplies of anti-viral medicines and vaccines to deal with a severe outbreak. Public health officials worry that they are in a race against time to prepare. No one can be sure when a flu pandemic will strike, or how severe it will be. A pandemic develops when people have little or no natural resistance to a new virus. The last pandemic involved the Hong Kong flu in nineteen sixty-eight. One million people died. Influenza is normally most dangerous to the elderly and to young children. Yet many of those who died from the nineteen eighteen virus had been healthy people age fifteen to thirty-four. VOICE TWO: The scientists who reproduced the nineteen eighteen virus say their findings confirm that it started in birds. Bird flu usually mixes with human flu before it begins to spread from person to person. However, the one in nineteen eighteen apparently defeated the body’s defense system and jumped directly to humans. A research team spent ten years studying the genetics of the virus. They used pieces of tissue from three people who died of the flu between nineteen eighteen and nineteen nineteen. Two were American soldiers. The third was an Inuit woman whose frozen body was found in Alaska in nineteen ninety-seven. VOICE ONE: The scientists collected enough genetic information to identify the eight genes in the virus. They used a process called reverse genetics to combine the genes and recreate the virus. They tested the virus on chicken embryos, mice and human lung cells. Tests showed that the Spanish flu virus was much more aggressive than other flu viruses. It killed the mice and the chicken embryos. It also grew very quickly in the human lung cells. Human flu viruses generally kill only humans. And they normally grow much slower in lung cells. The scientists noted that the current bird flu virus has made some of the same changes as the nineteen eighteen virus did. Experts say watching for such changes may help scientists learn how to prevent a major outbreak. The researchers also discovered that removing a gene in the remade virus weakened it. This gene could be a target for new drugs or vaccine development. VOICE TWO: Reports about the work appeared this month in the publications Nature and Science. Scientists recreated the virus in August at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The team included researchers from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. It also included scientists from the United States Department of Agriculture. Some people are concerned about the public health risk of recreating such a deadly virus. But health officials argue that the risk is low. They say the knowledge to be gained outweighs the risk of accidental release or possible misuse. They say people now have some natural defenses against the virus. And they note that doctors now have anti-viral drugs that did not exist in nineteen eighteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Health experts say almost three hundred thousand women die from cervical cancer each year, mostly in developing countries. The cervix is part of the female reproductive system. It is the opening at the end of the uterus. The most common causes of cervical cancer are two forms of human papilloma virus. H.P.V. is spread through sexual activity. The two forms linked to an estimated seventy percent of cervical cancers are called H.P.V. sixteen and H.P.V eighteen. They are responsible for growths that can lead to cervical cancer. Now, the drug company Merck is reporting highly successful results in tests of a vaccine to protect against these two forms. VOICE TWO: Merck calls its experimental vaccine Gardasil. The results just reported came from tests with twelve thousand females in thirteen countries. They were between the ages of sixteen and twenty-six. They were not infected with H.P.V. sixteen or eighteen when they joined the study. Half received three injections of Gardasil over six months. The other half received an inactive substance -- a placebo. The study subjects did not know which they received, the vaccine or the placebo. They were then observed for an average of seventeen months. VOICE ONE: Merck says there were no cases of cancer linked to H.P.V. sixteen and eighteen in the group that received the vaccine. This compared to twenty-one cases in the placebo group. The researchers say even one treatment with the vaccine provided protection. Merck reported a ninety-seven percent protection rate among women after just one injection of Gardasil. The findings were reported in San Francisco, California, at the yearly meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The researchers did note that they are not sure how long the vaccine would provide protection. Cervical cancer develops slowly, usually over a period of ten or twenty years. It is one of the most common cancers in women. Young, sexually active women are especially at risk of the disease. Cervical cancer can be treated with success, especially if found early. It can also be prevented if a Pap test finds pre-cancerous conditions. VOICE TWO: Merck says it will seek approval for Gardasil from the United States Food and Drug Administration before the end of the year. Merck says it hopes to have the product on the market sometime next year. Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has been testing a competing vaccine for cervical cancer. Gardasil, if approved, could be good news financially for Merck. The company faces about five thousand civil cases over its painkiller Vioxx. Merck withdrew Vioxx from sale last year. Tests showed that the drug for arthritis pain could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Bank is offering as much as two hundred thousand dollars for projects to improve the lives of the poor. The projects must involve creative ways to bring water, waste control or energy services to areas in developing countries. The World Bank says it has four million dollars to give away to entrepreneurs through its Development Marketplace competition. Proposals must be made through the Internet at? developmentmarketplace, all one word, dot o-r-g. The last day for proposals is November thirtieth. Winners will be announced in Washington in May. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Jill Moss and Cynthia Kirk who was also our producer. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Our programs are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Growing 'Love Apples,' Better Known These Days as Tomatoes
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Plant scientists consider them fruit. Most other people think of them as vegetables. Whatever you call tomatoes, there are many different kinds of this popular and healthy food. Each plant can produce about four to seven kilograms of fruit. Growers can harvest a big crop with little space. Full plants with fruit take about eighty days to grow from seed. Cold weather can damage young plants, so they are often grown inside for four to six weeks. A tomato plant can grow several thick stems from its base. Only two or three stems should be kept. From the stems come smaller growths called suckers. New suckers that grow between the stems should be removed. There should be a full meter between plants with three stems, a little less for plants with two stems. There are two general groups of plants. Small tomato plants grow to about one meter. They can be planted rather close together. Some short kinds do not require special care and are often harvested by machines. Large tomato plants can grow over two meters tall. They also provide larger fruit. These plants need support. One method uses wires run along both sides of a row of plants. The wires help hold the suckers and fruit. The wiring is secured to strong posts on either side of the row. The wires are raised as the plants and fruit grow. People who grow only a few plants can place wire cages around each one. The cage can be made of wire fence material. The cage helps the plant grow taller and to produce a bigger crop. Tomatoes often need extra calcium or the fruit may be ruined. Adding lime to the soil can prevent this problem. Dry conditions may also ruin fruit. Tomatoes need water regularly. The soil should never dry out completely. Dried grass or leaves placed around the plant can help hold water in the soil and control the growth of unwanted plants. Tomatoes are native to South America. The tomato is a member of the potato family. The leaves of the plant are poisonous, like the leaves of its relatives. Before the middle of the eighteen hundreds, people grew tomatoes only as pretty plants. They called the bright red fruit a "love apple," but would not eat it. The Web site of the Cooperative Extension Service at North Carolina State University has more information about growing tomatoes. The address is c-e-s dot n-c-s-u dot e-d-u (ces.ncsu.edu). This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Isaac Newton: One of History’s Greatest Scientists
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about one of the world's greatest scientists, Isaac Newton. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Much of today's science of physics is based on Newton's discovery of the three laws of motion and his theory of gravity. Newton also developed one of the most powerful tools of mathematics. It is the method we call calculus. Late in his life, Newton said of his work: "If I saw further than other men, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants. " VOICE TWO: One of those giants was the great Italian scientist, Galileo. Galileo died the same year Newton was born. Another of the giants was the Polish scientist Nicholas Copernicus. He lived a hundred years before Newton. Copernicus had begun a scientific revolution. It led to a completely new understanding of how the universe worked. Galileo continued and expanded the work of Copernicus. Isaac Newton built on the ideas of these two scientists and others. He found and proved the answers for which they searched. (Music)? VOICE ONE: Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England, on December twenty-fifth, sixteen forty-two. He was born early. He was a small baby and very weak. No one expected him to survive. But he surprised everyone. He had one of the most powerful minds in history. And he lived until he was eighty-four. Newton's father died before he was born. His mother married again a few years later. She left Isaac with his grandmother. The boy was not a good student. Yet he liked to make things, such as kites and clocks and simple machines. VOICE TWO: Newton also enjoyed finding new ways to answer questions or solve problems. As a boy, for example, he decided to find a way to measure the speed of the wind. On a windy day, he measured how far he could jump with the wind at his back. Then he measured how far he could jump with the wind in his face. From the difference between the two jumps, he made his own measure of the strength of the wind. Strangely, Newton became a much better student after a boy kicked him in the stomach. The boy was one of the best students in the school. Newton decided to get even by getting higher marks than the boy who kicked him. In a short time, Newton became the top student at the school. VOICE ONE: Newton left school to help on the family farm. It soon became clear, however, that the boy was not a good farmer. He spent his time solving mathematical problems, instead of taking care of the crops. He spent hours visiting a bookstore in town, instead of selling his vegetables in the market. An uncle decided that Newton would do better as a student than as a farmer. So he helped the young man enter Cambridge University to study mathematics. Newton completed his university studies five years later, in sixteen sixty-five. He was twenty-two years old. (Music) VOICE TWO: At that time, a deadly plague was spreading across England. To escape the disease, Newton returned to the family farm. He did more thinking than farming. In doing so, he found the answers to some of the greatest mysteries of science. Newton used his great skill in mathematics to form a better understanding of the world and the universe. He used methods he had learned as a boy in making things. He experimented. Then he studied the results and used what he had learned to design new experiments. Newton's work led him to create a new method in mathematics for measuring areas curved in shape. He also used it to find how much material was contained in solid objects. The method he created became known as integral calculus. VOICE ONE: One day, sitting in the garden, Newton watched an apple fall from a tree. He began to wonder if the same force that pulled the apple down also kept the moon circling the earth. Newton believed it was. And he believed it could be measured. He called the force "gravity. " He began to examine it carefully. He decided that the strength of the force keeping a planet in orbit around the sun depended on two things. One was the amount of mass in the planet and the sun. The other was how far apart they were. VOICE TWO: Newton was able to find the exact relationship between distance and gravity. He multiplied the mass of one space object by the mass of the other. Then he divided that number by the square of their distance apart. The result was the strength of the gravity force that tied them to each other. Newton proved his idea by measuring how much gravity force would be needed to keep the moon orbiting the Earth. Then he measured the mass of the Earth and the moon, and the distance between them. He found that his measurement of the gravity force produced was not the same as the force needed. But the numbers were close. Newton did not tell anyone about his discovery. He put it aside to work on other ideas. Later, with correct measurements of the size of the Earth, he found that the numbers were exactly the same. VOICE ONE: Newton spent time studying light and colors. He used a three-sided piece of glass called a prism. He sent a beam of sunlight through the prism. It fell on a white surface. The prism separated the beam of sunlight into the colors of a rainbow. Newton believed that all these colors -- mixed together in light -- produced the color white. He proved this by letting the beam of rainbow-colored light pass through another prism. This changed the colored light back to white light. VOICE TWO: Newton's study of light led him to learn why faraway objects seen through a telescope do not seem sharp and clear. The curved glass lenses at each end of the telescope acted like prisms. They produced a circle of colored light around an object. This created an unclear picture. A few years later, Newton built a different kind of telescope. It used a curved mirror to make faraway objects seem larger. Light reflected from the surface of the mirror, instead of passing through a curved glass lens. Newton's reflecting telescope produced much clearer pictures than the old kind of telescope. (Music) VOICE ONE: Years later, the British astronomer Edmund Halley visited Newton. He said he wanted Newton's help in finding an answer to a problem no one had been able to solve. The question was this: What is the path of a planet going around the sun? Newton immediately gave Haley the answer: an egg-shaped path called an ellipse. Halley was surprised. He asked for Newton's proof. Newton no longer had the papers from his earlier work. He was able to recreate them, however. He showed them to Halley. He also showed Halley all his other scientific work. VOICE TWO: Halley said Newton's scientific discoveries were the greatest ever made. He urged Newton to share them with the world. Newton began to write a book that explained what he had done. It was published in sixteen eighty-seven. Newton called his book “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy.” The book is considered the greatest scientific work ever written. VOICE ONE: In his book, Newton explains the three natural laws of motion. The first law is that an object not moving remains still. And one that is moving continues to move at an unchanging speed, so long as no outside force influences it. Objects in space continue to move, because nothing exists in space to stop them. Newton's second law of motion describes force. It says force equals the mass of an object, multiplied by the change in speed it produces in an object. His third law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. VOICE TWO: From these three laws, Newton was able to show how the universe worked. He proved it with easily understood mathematics. Scientists everywhere accepted Newton's ideas. The leading English poet of Newton's time, Alexander Pope, honored the scientist with these words: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, --'Let Newton be!' - and all was light. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-18-voa4.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Drug Agency Urged to Approve Inhaled Insulin for Diabetics
* Byline: 

 I’m?Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. There may be an easier way for many people with diabetes to take insulin to control their blood sugar levels. Diabetics who now need daily injections may one day be able to take their insulin by mouth. They would breathe it as a powder into their lungs, through a mouthpiece device. The inhaled insulin is called Exubera. The drug companies Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and Nektar Therapeutics developed it. They say it is generally as effective as the injected form in controlling blood sugar levels. But they say it should not always be used in place of longer-lasting injections of insulin. Last month, an advisory committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration urged the agency to approve Exubera. The committee voted seven-to-two to support approval for both type one and type two diabetes. The F.D.A. generally follows the advice of its committees, but does not have to. Some members of the committee expressed concern about possible safety risks, especially to people with lung disease. Smokers would probably not be able to use the inhaled insulin. But there are questions about the safety for people who breathe a lot of tobacco smoke in the air. The drug makers have proposed to study the long-term effects until two thousand nineteen. Insulin is a hormone. The body needs it to change food into energy. With diabetes, the body produces no insulin or makes poor use of the limited amounts that are produced. Diabetes can lead to heart disease, stroke and blindness. Feet or legs may lose blood flow and have to be removed. Diabetics must be careful to control the sugar levels in their blood. But many people do not know they have diabetes. And no one knows what causes it. The most common form is called type two diabetes. It was formerly called adult-onset diabetes. The body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Being overweight and not getting exercise increase the risk of type two diabetes. Some cases can be treated with pills. But millions of diabetics need several daily injections of insulin. Less than ten percent of diabetics have type one diabetes. This is caused by the destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. It was formerly called juvenile diabetes, but it can happen at any age. Pregnant women may develop gestational diabetes, which can be temporary. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-18-voa5.cfm
* Headline: In Oregon, 'Heritage Speakers' of Farsi Get to Learn From a Young Native
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, Musa Nushi, a 27-year-old Iranian with a master's degree in English teaching from Tehran University. MUSA NUSHI: "English is in high demand in Iran because lots of people are going on the Net and business is kind of booming, so they need English lots." RS: But right now, Musa Nushi is in America, thanks to the I.I.E., the New York-based Institute of International Education. He arrived in September to spend ten months in the Persian Studies program at Portland State University in Oregon, on the West Coast. MUSA NUSHI: "I'm a T.A. here, a teaching assistant. I'm teaching Farsi to heritage speakers of Farsi. You know, 'heritage speaker' refers to a person who knows the language through his parents but does not necessarily read or write. So I've got this class, it's a multilevel class, and I have to cater to everybody's needs. But I just love it." RS: "Is it forcing you in one way or another to take a deeper or closer look at your own culture?" MUSA NUSHI: "It does. You see, I've picked lots of positive points that I'm going to take back to my country. One of them is just being friendly towards your students. In Iran, authority counts a lot. You have to be very respectful and at the same time fearful of your authority. "But this is not the case here. By just being a little bit more friendly, you can just encourage your students to do more activities. But the authority thing is a big thing in Iran. So I will like to be a little more friendly towards my students -- and it works." RS: "So was this something that surprised you when you came into the American university system?" MUSA NUSHI: "God, I just came here wearing a suit. I was wearing a tie. I was dressed to nine. I thought that ... [laughter]" AA: "Dressed to the nines, meaning very formally dressed." MUSA NUSHI: "Yes, and then I went on and I saw that I don't have to be so formal. And I've got to take some courses too. So I'm sitting in class, and the prof came in, I just automatically got up, you see? And I looked at the other guys, they're just sitting, and I wondered. And then I understood that you don't have to get up for your prof. Of course, respect is good but the point is ... " AA: "The professor probably wondered why is that man standing?" MUSA NUSHI: "Yes. Actually, then I came to know that it's not necessary to get up all the time when the prof comes in." RS: "Tell us some other things that you've noticed in this first month in the United States." AA: "And especially even about the language. What have you been learning on campus?" MUSA NUSHI: "I don't have problems with vocabulary and things like that. I'm just getting the good phrases and writing them down. For example, 'google' something. For example, you google a name, you google an article, you google a place." RS: "That's turning the Internet Google search engine into a verb." MUSA NUSHI: "Yes. Another thing that I learned, 'look see' -- for example, to 'have a look see' at something. Look see means to look, or have a quick look actually, at something. So you can say, for example, 'I had a look see at the document and there was nothing wrong with it.' "I heard the expression, 'He's sleeping with fishes.'" RS: "He's what?" AA: "Sleeping with fishes." MUSA NUSHI: "Yes, it means he's dead, I guess." AA: "I think that's sort of like Mafia slang, you know. They throw someone in the water, right? And he's sleeping with fishes." MUSA NUSHI: "Exactly. And I got it from a movie. [laughter]" RS: Speaking of movies, Musa Nushi says violent American films gave him the wrong impression of American life. He says he wasn't prepared for how nicely people have treated him since he arrived last month. MUSA NUSHI: "They are helpful and help you as much as they can, and sometimes more than you expect. I mean, it's something that really surprises me. In Iran, when I was there, I couldn't ask many questions because asking too many questions means how weak you are, or that you need others. But here you can easily pose your questions, your problems, and these the good things I'm seeing." AA: "Now can I ask you one last question?" MUSA NUSHI: "Go ahead." AA: "Have there been any expressions or idioms or slang that you learned, let's say from a dictionary or a book, that feel flat when you used it, meaning the person just looked at you and sort of didn't understand?" MUSA NUSHI: "Yes. For example, the other day I used the word 'rents' for my parents. And they got ... " RS: "'Rents instead of parents." MUSA NUSHI: "I said, 'Well, my rents are ... ' and the guy just thought I'm talking about renting a place. [laughter]" AA: When, in fact, he was referring to his pa-rents. Musa Nushi from Iran is spending the school year at Portland State University, through the Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program of the Institute of International Education. RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Some American School Systems Prepare to Cut Middle Schools
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of American children between the ages of ten and fifteen attend middle schools. Middle school is the level between elementary and high school. Different middle schools have different numbers of grade levels. The first middle school opened in nineteen sixty. The National Middle School Association is a group that advises and represents schools. One issues that concerns the group today is public school systems that are preparing to stop educating students in middle schools. Recent reports put the number at about twelve. New York City is to close up to seventy-five percent of its middle schools. It plans to place those middle school students in either elementary schools or high schools. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has already started to reduce its number of middle schools. Officials say the number will go from forty-six to eight by two thousand eight. They say students will learn more in their new schools than in the middle schools. They say studies show that sixth graders in an elementary school perform better on tests than do sixth graders in a middle school. They also note research showing that by the sixth grade, students show signs that they will or will not finish high school. These signs are low attendance, bad behavior, failing in mathematics and failing in English. The officials say that placing sixth grade students in a middle school is not good for their learning or their future development. Other education experts do not agree. They say a middle school can help students get used to the many changes between elementary school and high school. They also say middle schools can offer more classes and greater teacher attention than can larger schools with more students. National Middle School Association official Sue Swaim says successful education is a result of what is done in a classroom, not what kind of building it is in. She says research has shown what is needed to effectively teach young people. This includes active learning, interesting subjects, teacher planning time, professional development and strong links with families. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-19-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Immigrants: America's Industrial Growth Depended on Them
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Statue of LibertyIn our last program, we told the story of the Statue of Liberty, given to the United States by the people of France. The "Lady of Liberty" holds a bright torch high over the harbor of New York City. Her torch of freedom was a welcome signal to millions of immigrants arriving to begin a new life in America. VOICE TWO: American life was changing. And it was changing quickly. Before eighteen sixty, the United States had an agricultural economy. After eighteen sixty, the country began to change from an agricultural to an industrial economy. In eighteen sixty, American shops and factories produced less than two thousand million dollars' worth of goods. Thirty years later, in eighteen ninety, American factories produced ten thousand million dollars' worth. By then, more than five million persons were working in factories and mines. Another three million had jobs in the building industries and transportation. VOICE ONE: Year after year, production continued to increase. And the size of the industrial labor force continued to grow. A great many of the new industrial workers came from American farms. Farm work was hard, and the pay was low. Young men left the family farms as soon as they could. They went to towns and cities to look for an easier and better way of life. Many of them found it in the factories. A young man who worked hard and learned new skills could rise quickly to better and better jobs. This was not only true for farmers, but also for immigrants who came to the United States from foreign countries. They came from many different lands and for many different reasons. But all came with the same hope for a better life in a new world. VOICE TWO: In the eighteen fifties, America's industrial revolution was just beginning. Factories needed skilled workers -- men who knew how to do all the necessary jobs. Factory owners offered high pay to workers who had these skills. British workers had them. Many had spent years in British factories. Pay was poor in Britain, and these skilled workers could get much more money in America. So, many of them came. Hundreds of thousands. Some factories -- even some industries -- seemed completely British. VOICE ONE: Cloth factories in Fall River, Massachusetts, were filled with young men from Lancashire, England.Most of the workers in the shipyards of San Francisco were from Scotland. Many of the coal miners in America were men from the British mines in Wales. Many were farmers who came to America because they could get land for nothing. They could build new farms for themselves in the rich land of the American west. VOICE TWO: One of the best-liked songs in Britain then was a song about the better life in America. Its name: "To The West. " Its words helped many men decide to Make the move to America. "To The west, to the west, to the land of the free where mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea; where a man is a man if he's willing to toil. And the poorest may harvest the fruits of the soil. Where the young may exult and the aged may rest, away, far away, to the land of the west." VOICE ONE: To another group of immigrants, America was the last hope. Ireland in the eighteen forties suffered one crop failure after another. Hungry men had to leave. In eighteen fifty alone, more than one hundred seventeen thousand people came to the United States from Ireland. Most had no money and little education. To those men and women, America was a magic name. VOICE TWO: Throughout Europe, when times were hard, people talked of going to America. In some countries, organizations were formed to help people emigrate to the United States. A Polish farmer wrote to such an organization in Warsaw: "I want to go to America. But I have no money. I have nothing but the ten fingers of my hands, a wife, and nine children. I have no work at all, although I am strong and healthy and only forty-five years old. I have been to many towns and cities in Poland, wherever I could go. Nowhere could I earn much money. I wish to work. But what can I do. I will not steal, and I have no work. So, I beg you to accept me for a journey to America." VOICE ONE: As the years passed, fewer people were moving to America for a better job. Most were coming now for any job at all. Work was hard to find in any of the cities in Europe. A British lawmaker told parliament in eighteen seventy that Englishmen were leaving their country, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. They could not find work at home. He said that even as he spoke, hundreds were dying of hunger in London and other British cities. They were victims of the new revolution in agriculture and industry. Small family farms were disappearing. In their places rose large modern farms that could produce much more. New machines took the place of men. And millions of farmers had to look for other work. Some found it in the factories. Industry was growing quickly...but not quickly enough to give jobs to all the farmers out of work. VOICE TWO: In the next ten years, millions of people made the move from Britain, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. But then, as industry in those countries grew larger, and more jobs opened, the flood of immigration began to slow. The immigrants now were coming from southern and eastern Europe. Anti-Jewish feeling swept Russia and Poland. Violence against Jews caused many of them to move to America. In the late eighteen eighties, cholera spread through much of southern Italy. Fear of the disease led many families to leave for the United States. Others left when their governments began building up strong armies. Young men who did not want to be soldiers often escaped by moving to America. Big armies were costly, and many people left because they did not want to pay the high taxes. Whatever the reason, people continued to immigrate to the United States. VOICE ONE: These new immigrants were not like those who came earlier. These new immigrants had no skills. Most were unable to read or write. Factory owners found that these eastern and southern Europeans were hard workers. They did not protest because the work was hard and the pay was low. They did not demand better working conditions. They did not join unions or strike. Factory owners began to replace higher-paid American and British workers with the new immigrants. Business leaders wanted more of the new workers. They urged the immigrants to write letters to their friends and relatives in the old country. "Tell themto come to America, that there are plenty of jobs." VOICE TWO: Letters from America brought many more immigrants. The big steamship companies also helped industry to get more of the new workers. They paid thousands of agents throughout Europe to sell tickets for the trip to America. Their efforts meant thatsteamships bringing grain to Europe could return to America filled with immigrants. They came by the hundreds of thousands. People of all religions, from all across Europe. Many remained in New York and other eastern cities. But many others moved westward. They took jobs in the steel factories of Pennsylvania and the coal minesof West Virginia. They worked in the lumber camps of Michigan and in the stockyards and meat-packing plants of Chicago. VOICE ONE: Within a few years, foreign-born workers held most of the unskilled jobs in many American industries. American workers began to protest. They demanded an end to the flood of immigration. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Leo Scully and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Souls Alike': Bonnie Raitt's 18th Album Is First She Produced Herself
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music from Bonnie Raitt … Answer a question about Muslims in the United States … And report about the death of a famous American writer. August Wilson African-American writer August Wilson died of liver cancer earlier this month. He was sixty years old. August Wilson won many awards for writing stage plays about the African-American experience in this country. Faith Lapidus has more about him and his work. FAITH LAPIDUS: August Wilson was born in nineteen forty-five in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Almost all of the plays he wrote take place in the area of Pittsburgh where most of its black people lived. August Wilson showed his skill at writing as a teenager. When he was fifteen years old, a teacher accused him of turning in a paper written by someone else. She told him that no black child could write that well. So he left school and instead went to the local public library every day. There, he read great writers and began writing poetry and plays. August Wilson later said that he dropped out of school but not out of life. Others have called that moment a historic one in the history of American theater. It started Wilson on a path that led to winning two Pulitzer Prizes, a Tony award and many others. August Wilson decided to write ten plays about the African-American experience in the United States. Each play takes place in a different part of the twentieth century. The first play produced on Broadway in New York City was “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. It is about African-American blues music entertainers during the nineteen twenties. In the play, the musicians discuss the problems of being black in America. One character offers his own idea about African-Americans. Shep O’Neal reads the words in the play: SHEP O'NEAL: “Everybody come from different places in Africa, right? Come from different tribes and things. Soonawhile they began to make one big stew. You had the carrots, the peas, and potatoes and whatnot over here. And over there you had the meat, the nuts, the okra, corn…and then you mix it up and let it cook right through to get the flavors flowing together…? then you got one thing. You got a stew.” FAITH LAPIDUS: August Wilson’s other plays include “Fences”, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”, “The Piano Lesson” and “Two Trains Running”. The last play in the series is called “Radio Golf”. It will be produced in New York next year. Last month, theater officials announced that a Broadway theater would be named for August Wilson. At the time of the announcement, Mister Wilson knew he was dying. Sadly, he did not live to attend the theater-naming ceremony last Sunday, October sixteenth. Theater experts say the August Wilson Theater will permanently recognize one of the greatest American playwrights. Muslim Girls in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Monire Farhangnia asks about Muslim girls in the United States. She wants to know if they are free to wear head coverings. It is easy to tell which girls in American schools are Muslim. That is because a hijab cloth covers their hair. Some girls say it is easier to follow Muslim rules about boys and girls when they wear the hijab. These rules limit social relationships between girls and boys. The girls say the scarf lets boys know that they do not go on dates. In some schools, religious rules about dress can sometimes conflict with administrative rules. An eleven-year old Muslim girl faced this kind of rule a few years ago at her school in the state of Oklahoma. She was told not to wear her scarf because schools in her city ban all head coverings for boys and girls. Her family brought legal action in court. They said the school was treating her unfairly because of her religion. The court agreed. Now school officials must permit students to wear religious head coverings. One modern Muslim woman says she wears hijab only when she prays at a mosque. Asma Gull Hasan is thirty years old. She works as a lawyer in the state of California. Her parents are from Pakistan, but she grew up in the state of Colorado. She has written two books, “American Muslim” and “Why I Am A Muslim”. Asma Hasan believes Muslim women and girls should wear clothes that do not show too much skin. But she agrees that it can be difficult to resist popular culture. She has a Web site where Muslim girls can ask questions. Some ask about problems they may be having. Others ask about personal relationships or how to deal with their parents. Older Muslim women answer the questions. They often tell young people to try to understand the differences between growing up in the United States and growing up in their parents’ countries. The Web site is asmahasan.com. To ask a question, click on “Ask The Aunties.” Bonnie Raitt’s New Album Bonnie Raitt recently released her eighteenth record album. It is called “Souls Alike.” It has some of the same New Orleans rock and blues sounds of her earlier records. But it also has some new sounds and represents a “first” for this famous singer. Pat Bodnar tells us more. PAT BODNAR: Bonnie Raitt’s new album is a celebration of both American songwriting and the abilities of her musicians. Miz Raitt spends a great deal of time listening to current music in order to find new songs. She says she connected very deeply with the songwriters she discovered for this album. Miz Raitt recorded these songs with the band she has been playing with for many years. They know each other so well that they were able to record many of the songs on the first or second try. Miz Raitt says that using the first recording can help keep the music fresh and alive. The song “Crooked Crown” was recorded on the first attempt. (MUSIC) “Souls Alike” is also the first album that Bonnie Raitt produced herself. Being a producer as well as the lead singer allowed Miz Raitt to push herself in new directions. She sings about holding on to love in the song “I Don’t Want Anything to Change”. (MUSIC) Bonnie Raitt faced several family crises at the time she was recording the album. Both of her parents died within a few months of one another. And her brother became very sick. We close with a song from the album that expresses how she faced such difficult and sad situations. It is called “I Will Not Be Broken.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Supermarkets Face Growing Competition
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Supermarkets are big stores that provide a wide choice of foods and other products. In the United States, traditional supermarkets are facing competition from even bigger stores. They are also facing competition from stores with more choices of fresh, natural foods. The first supermarkets opened in the nineteen thirties. New technologies for freezing and processing foods helped create goods that could be stored for a long time. Long-distance shipping meant that many different groceries could be kept in one big center. Many supermarkets are chains, stores owned by one company. Price competition is fierce in the grocery industry. Most Americans still spend the most money at supermarkets. But traditional supermarkets have lost some of their business. Many people are changing where they buy groceries. They are also changing the kinds of groceries they want. New competitors are winning business because they are even larger than supermarkets. And they have lower prices. Wal-Mart Supercenters sell groceries as well as clothes, tools, electronic equipment and everything else. Costco membership stores are also known for low prices. Discount stores like Wal-Mart and Costco buy their goods in huge amounts and sell at prices that supermarkets usually cannot equal. Competition has also come from stores, like Whole Foods Market, that sell natural foods. Prices for these goods are higher. Americans are concerned about prices. But many will pay more for organic foods. Organic producers must show that their products are free of added chemicals or drugs. The market for organic foods is small but growing quickly. At the same time, traditional supermarkets have slowing growth. Some have had to cut jobs. One large chain in the Southeast, Winn-Dixie, sought protection from its creditors in February. Yet supermarkets are changing too. Many have cut prices. And many are offering more fine foods and organic products. Since two thousand, Americans have bought more organic food from supermarkets than from any other kind of store. Also, supermarkets are able to offer greater choices of similar products than might be found at their discount competitors. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-21-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Millions More Movement Aims to Help Minorities and the Poor
* Byline: 

 Louis FarrakhanI'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Last Saturday, thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C., to observe the tenth anniversary of the Million Man March. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan organized the event, known as the Millions More Movement. It came ten years after the Million Man March of nineteen ninety five. The Million Man March called on black men to take responsibility for improving their families and their communities. Organizers said the Millions More Movement aims to build on the ideas and goals of the march ten years ago. The movement is also a call for change locally and nationally. Only black men were invited to attend the march ten years ago. But all were welcome this time. The program took place on the steps of the United States Capitol. The crowd heard speeches and music from the young and old, artists and entertainers, educators and politicians. They called for unity, political power and economic development. Among the most notable were civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, former presidential candidate Al Sharpton and hip-hop music businessman Russell Simmons. Minister Farrakhan spoke at the end of the event. He said he believed a national movement of black people is being built: LOUIS FARRAKHAN: “We have seen an unprecedented number of black leaders or organizations coming together to speak to America and the world with one voice. This has never happened before in our history.” Minister Farrakhan presented ways to strengthen the black community. He gave possible solutions to some of the issues discussed by those before him. He warned that the real work begins after the day’s event. He called for the black community to join forces with other groups across the country and around the world, such as Native Americans, Hispanics, Africans and Americans who have similar life conditions. Some of the strongest comments were made about the victims of hurricane Katrina that hit the southern Gulf Coast in August. The Bush administration has been widely criticized for what many say was a slow reaction after the disaster. Speaker after speaker denounced the federal government’s delayed action. They also criticized the way the media reported about the survivors, many of them African-American. Mister Farrakhan said the response after the hurricane showed that blacks and the poor cannot depend on the government. He presented an action plan to begin the process of solving many of the problems facing the black and poor communities. The plan included the development of new ministries of health and human services, education, information and trade, among others. Mister Farrakhan also denounced the economic and foreign policies of President Bush, and the Iraq war. He also criticized the Democratic Party for what he described as using and mistreating African-Americans. He suggested forming a new political party that would include the nation’s black, brown and poor people. The minister closed by stating: LOUIS FARRAKHAN: "United we can solve our problems and divided we have nothing." Some critics have said blacks gained little after the first march and may even be worse off today. But others note that change is not easy and does not happen in a day. They say a movement offers an important opportunity to unite and work for change. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bessie Coleman Was the First African-American Female Pilot
* Byline: Written by Vivian Chakarian

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman pilot. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in the eighteen ninety-two. Her mother was African American. Her father was part African American and part American Indian. Her family was poor. Bessie had to walk more than six kilometers to go to school. When she was nine years old, her father left the family to search in Oklahoma for the territory of his Indian ancestors. ? ? In Texas then, as in most areas of the American South, black people were treated unfairly. They lived separately from white people and established their own religious, business and social traditions. Bessie was proud of her race. She learned that from her hard-working and religious mother. VOICE TWO: Bessie had to pick cotton and wash clothes to help earn money for her family. She was able to save a little money and went to college in the state of Oklahoma. She was in college only one year. She had to leave because she did not have enough money to complete her studies. But during that year, she learned about flying. She read about the first flight of the Wright Brothers and the first American female pilot, Harriet Quimby. Bessie often thought about what it would feel like to fly like a bird. VOICE ONE: When she was twenty-three, Bessie Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with two of her older brothers. There, she worked at several jobs. But she wanted to do something more important. She heard stories from pilots who were returning from World War One. She decided she was going to learn how to fly airplanes. She soon found this to be almost impossible. What flight school would admit a black woman?? She found that apparently there were none in the United States. Bessie learned that she would have a better chance in Europe. She began to study French at a language school in Chicago. She also took a higher-paying job supervising a public eating place so she could save money. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Soon after the end of World War One, Bessie Coleman left for France. She attended the famous flight school, Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, in the town of Le Crotoy in northern France. She learned to fly in a plane that had two sets of wings, one over the other. She completed seven months of flight training. Coleman earned her international permit to fly in nineteen twenty-one from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She became the first black woman ever to earn an international pilot's license. VOICE ONE: Coleman returned to Chicago. She was the only black female pilot in the United States. So her story became popular in African American newspapers. She was asked by the Dallas Express newspaper in Texas why she wanted to fly. She said that women and blacks must have pilots if they are to keep up with the times. She added: "Do you know you have never lived until you have flown. " Coleman soon learned that it was difficult for anyone to earn enough money as a pilot to live. She knew she would have to improve her flying skills and learn to do more tricks in the air if she wanted to succeed. There still was no one willing to teach her in Chicago. So, she returned to Europe in nineteen twenty-two. She completed about four more months of flight training with French and German pilots. VOICE TWO: Coleman returned to New York where she gave her first public flying performance in the United States. A large crowd of people gathered to watch her. She rolled the plane. And she stopped the engine and then started it again just before the plane landed. The crowd loved her performance. So did other crowds as she performed in towns and cities across the country. Bessie Coleman had proved she could fly. Yet she wanted to do more. She hoped to establish a school for black pilots in the United States. She knew she needed a plane of her own. She traveled to Los Angeles, California, where she sought the support of a company that sold tires. The company helped her buy a Curtiss JN-Four airplane, commonly called a Jenny. In return, she was to represent the company at public events. VOICE ONE: Bessie Coleman organized an air show in Los Angeles. But the Jenny's engine stopped soon after take-off, and the plane crashed to the ground. Coleman suffered a broken leg and other injuries. She regretted the accident and felt she had disappointed her supporters. She sent a message: "Tell them all that as soon as I can walk I'm going to fly!" Coleman returned to Chicago where she continued her plan to open a flying school. She had very little money, no job and no plane, yet she opened an office in Chicago. She soon found it was impossible to keep the office open without more financial support. So she decided to return to flying. VOICE TWO: In nineteen twenty-five, Bessie Coleman traveled to her home state of Texas. The ormer cotton picker and beauty technician now was the only licensed black woman pilot in the world. She could speak French. And she was an international traveler. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To earn money, Bessie Coleman gave speeches and showed films of her flights. She did this in churches, theaters and at local all-black public schools. She organized more air shows. She soon had enough money to pay for some of the cost of a plane of her own, another old Curtiss Jenny. She continued her speeches and air shows in the state of Georgia, then in Florida. She hoped to earn enough money to open her school. In Florida, Coleman met Edwin Beeman, whose father was the head of a huge chewing gum company. Mister Beeman gave her the money to make the final payment on her plane in Dallas. Coleman made plans to have it flown to her in Jacksonville, Florida. A young white pilot, William Wills, made the trip. But the old Jenny had problems. Wills had to make two stops during the short flight to repair the plane. Local pilots who examined the plane were surprised he had been able to fly it so far. VOICE TWO: On April thirtieth, nineteen twenty-six, Coleman was preparing for an air show in which she would star. She agreed to make the flight with William Wills. He flew the plane so she could clearly see the field she would fly over. She did not use any safety devices, such as a seat belt or parachute. They would have prevented her from leaning over to see all of the field. During the flight, the plane's controls became stuck. The plane turned over in the air. Nothing was holding Coleman in. She fell more than a kilometer to her death. Wills had worn a seat belt. But he also died when the plane crashed. Officials later found the cause of the accident. A tool had slid into the controls of the plane. Experts said that the accident would not have happened if Wills and Coleman had been flying a newer and safer plane. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Throughout her life, Bessie Coleman had resisted society's restrictions against blacks and women. She believed that the air is the only place where everyone is free. She wanted to teach other black people about that special environment. It took some time until her wish was fulfilled. It was not until nineteen thirty-nine that black students were permitted to enter civilian flight schools in the United States. It was not until the Second World War that black male pilots were sent into battle. And, it was not until nineteen eighty that the first black women completed military pilot training in the United States. VOICE TWO: Bessie Coleman did not live to establish her own flying school. But she had said that if she could create the minimum of her plans and desires, she would have no regrets. She had accepted the dangers of her job because she loved flying. Her influence continues today. In nineteen ninety-two, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution praising her. It said: "Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands, even millions of young persons with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude and her determination to succeed. " In nineteen thirty-four, Lieutenant William Powell wrote a book called “Black Wings.”? He wrote:? "Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was much worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream. "? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Vivian Chakarian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Vaccine Aids Fight to End Polio
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new kind of vaccine is being used to stop the spread of polio. World health officials say the vaccine is an important tool for the final part of the campaign to end the disease. Experts met in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month to discuss the progress. They say polio could be gone within six months everywhere except Nigeria, which has the most new cases. The experts say at least another year of work is needed there. Doctor Steven Cochi?is with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He says, “There is no reason why polio should continue to exist anywhere in the world after next year.”? Until now, the vaccine used to prevent polio has combined three different medicines. That is because there are three different polio viruses. But only two of them still exist: type one and type three. Type three exists in parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and India. Type one is more common. The recently developed vaccine is known as monovalent oral polio vaccine. It protects only against the type one virus. World health officials say it appears to work faster than existing vaccines. They say it should now be used worldwide. These officials say the new vaccine appears to have stopped the spread of polio in Egypt and most parts of India. Children in Yemen received the vaccine three times this year after a new outbreak there. Health officials say the number of new cases is dropping quickly now. In a separate development, several children in an Amish community in the American state of Minnesota have polio. The Amish are a small religious group that does not believe in vaccinations. Now some parents have decided to vaccinate their children. These are the first known polio cases in the United States in five years. State health officials said the infected children did not show signs of paralytic polio. They say the general public is not at risk because most children have been vaccinated. Polio affects mostly children under five years old. It spreads through human waste. The virus attacks nerve cells. About one out of two hundred cases leads to permanent paralysis. Usually the victims cannot move their legs. But some of them die. There is no cure for polio. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: PETA at 25: Animal Rights Activists Are Defended, Deplored
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our subject this week is activism for animals. VOICE ONE: Pet animals live in millions of American homes. People keep cats, dogs, birds, fish, gerbils, guinea pigs, mice -- even snakes. People spend thousands of millions of dollars every year on animal food, health care, equipment and toys. Some Americans care so deeply for their pets that they brave hurricanes and floods to stay with these animals. Animal welfare organizations operate throughout the nation. They provide services for all kinds of creatures, both owned and wild. But some people believe that improvements are needed in the treatment of animals. For this reason, two activists named Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco decided in nineteen eighty to establish an animal rights organization. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, usually called PETA, has headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. It marks its twenty-fifth anniversary this year. VOICE TWO: Some animal lovers praise PETA. They say its work has saved and improved the lives of millions of animals. But the group angers other people. It performs secret investigations and targets individuals for sometimes shocking demonstrations. These actions have caused strong criticism and even legal action. Still, PETA has survived and grown. Today, it claims more than eight hundred fifty thousand members internationally. PETA says it is the largest animal rights group in the world. VOICE ONE: The group became the subject of dispute soon after its formation. In the early nineteen eighties, PETA secretly placed an investigator in a Silver Spring, Maryland, research laboratory. Mister Pacheco offered to work without pay in the laboratory of scientist Edward Taub. He did not tell Mister Taub his reason. The scientist’s research involved cutting nerves in one forepaw, or arm, of monkeys. The short-term goal was to see if the monkeys could be taught to re-use the arm without feeling. The long-term goal was to help human patients unable to move parts of their bodies. Mister Taub wanted to find out if people could learn to re-use these areas after brain injuries or other damage. While the scientist was away, Mister Pacheco took pictures in the laboratory. It looked dirty. Some of the monkeys seemed to be suffering. VOICE TWO: Police raided the laboratory when Mister Taub returned from a vacation, and he was arrested. He was found guilty of cruelty to animals. The media made public the pictures. They were shown in Congress. The federal government suspended financing of Mister Taub’s research. He denied any wrongdoing. He accused PETA of planning the pictures and police raid to gain public notice. He said that while he was away, Mister Pacheco purposely let the laboratory get dirty. All judgments of guilt against Edward Taub later were canceled on appeal. In recent years, he has won several highly valued scientific awards. He won honors for the research he was working on in Maryland. It has resulted in development of a method now being tested by some victims of strokes. VOICE ONE: The incident involving Mister Taub’s laboratory became known as the “Silver Spring Monkey Case.”? It made PETA well known. Many Americans who had never thought about treatment of laboratory animals began to do so. ??? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: PETA disapproves of the use of animals for medical research. But many research scientists say this position could prevent development of treatments and cures for serious and deadly diseases. Wesley Smith is a lawyer allied with the Discovery Institute, a nonprofit educational group. He has written extensively about science and ethics. Mister Smith points to the Silver Spring Monkey Case as an example of harmful policy. Last year, he wrote on the subject for the online publication of the National Review. His article was called “A Monkey for Your Grandmother.”? He noted the suffering of victims of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease strikes mainly older people. It steals their ability to think and care for themselves. Animals are often used in research on such brain diseases. VOICE ONE: The American Veterinary Medical Association is an organization of doctors who care for animals. The A.V.M.A. agrees with some positions taken by animal rights groups. But the association also says it cannot accept policies that conflict with what it calls responsible animal use for human purposes. It says this includes using animals for research on both human and animal disease. But the A.V.M.A. says conditions and care for laboratory animals must be humane. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: PETA also concerns itself with other issues besides animals in medical research. It also disapproves of using animals for experiments for beauty and personal care products. It opposes hunting, fishing, trapping and what is calls harmful uses of animals in sports. For example, it criticizes the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Dog teams pull sleds about one thousand eight hundred kilometers in this yearly race in Alaska. PETA criticizes the use of animals for entertainment, as in the circus. And it wants to stop the killing or causing of pain to animals for their skin or fur. PETA has organized demonstrations against the wool-growing industry in Australia over the treatment of sheep. Some of PETA's best-known campaigns involve protesters in almost no clothes. The campaign against the fur industry is known as "I'd rather go naked than wear fur." VOICE ONE:?????? Years ago, model Elle Macpherson promised not to be photographed in sales messages for fur clothing. But in July, the marketers of Blackglama furs announced that Miz Macpherson had agreed to appear in an advertising campaign. She changed her plans again after she received a letter from a PETA official. It is not clear at this time if Elle MacPherson has succeeded in canceling her agreement with Blackglama. But she is trying. VOICE TWO: The letter said Miz MacPherson was making herself a top target of PETA and animal activists around the world. It asked her to think about what has happened to actress and singer. Jennifer Lopez has a clothing company called Sweetface. Some Sweetface designs use fur. PETA members have demonstrated at the openings of Miz Lopez’s films and other public events. In March, protestors demonstrated outside an eating place that she owns in California. They showed pictures of animals being skinned alive. People often react strongly to PETA statements and actions. A group official has stated that eating meat is murder. Some people say animals are the equals of humans. Others disagree. And they deplore the actions that groups like PETA have taken against industry and scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In addition to activist groups like PETA, the United States also has many traditional animal welfare organizations. These groups provide shelters, health care and other animal services. The Humane Society of the United States seems a combination of both kinds of groups. The society calls itself America’s largest animal protection agency. It performs traditional animal care. And it also takes positions on issues. Humane Society workers operate a center in Dallas, Texas. Animals there are neutered so they cannot reproduce. Humane Society veterinary doctors, students and other workers also provide a traveling health service for animals in poor areas away from cities. They serve in places from the American state of Kentucky to the countryside of Bolivia. VOICE TWO:?????? The Humane Society also is supporting legislation in Congress proposed by Representative Tom Lantos of California. The measure would require a plan for removing animals as well as people from endangered areas. Supporters point to the fact that many people chose to stay in New Orleans, Louisiana, during the recent Hurricane Katrina. They say that some remained behind because there was no government plan to rescue pet animals. The storm killed some of these people. The society estimates that tens of thousand of animals were left behind in New Orleans. But under very difficult conditions, the Humane Society of the United States rescued about six thousand animals. ?????????????? (MUSIC) VOICE? ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Horseman in the Sky
* Byline: 

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called, "A Horseman in the Sky."? It was written by Ambrose Bierce. Here is Roy Depew with the story. (MUSIC) Narrator: Carter Druse was born in Virginia. He loved his parents, his home and the south. But he loved his country, too. And in the autumn of eighteen sixty-one, when the United States was divided by a terrible civil war, Carter Druse, a southerner, decided to join the Union Army of the north. He told his father about his decision one morning at breakfast. The older man looked at his only son for a moment, too shocked to speak. Then he said, "As of this moment you are a traitor to the south. Please don't tell your mother about your decision. She is sick, and we both know she has only a few weeks to live." Carter's father paused, again looking deep into his son's eyes. "Carter," he said, "No matter what happens -- be sure you always do what you think is your duty." Both Carter Druse and his father left the table that morning with broken hearts. And Carter soon left his home, and everyone he loved to wear the blue uniform of the Union soldier. One sunny afternoon, a few weeks later, Carter Druse lay with his face in the dirt by the side of a road. He was on his stomach, his arms still holding his gun. Carter would not receive a medal for his actions. In fact, if his commanding officer were to see him, he would order Carter shot immediately. For Carter was not dead or wounded. He was sleeping while on duty. Fortunately, no one could see him. He was hidden by some bushes, growing by the side of the road. The road Carter Druse had been sent to guard was only a few miles from his father's house. It began in a forest, down in the valley, and climbed up the side of a huge rock. Anyone standing on the top of this high rock would be able to see down into the valley. And that person would feel very dizzy, looking down. If he dropped a stone from the edge of this cliff, it would fall for six hundred meters before disappearing into the forest in the valley below. Giant cliffs, like the one Carter lay on, surrounded the valley. Hidden in the valley's forest were five union regiments -- thousands of Carter's fellow soldiers. They had marched for thirty-six hours. Now they were resting. But at midnight they would climb that road up the rocky cliff. Their plan was to attack by surprise an army of southerners, camped on the other side of the cliff. But if their enemy learned about the Union Army hiding in the forest, the soldiers would find themselves in a trap with no escape. That was why Carter Druse had been sent to guard the road. It was his duty to be sure that no enemy soldier, dressed in gray, spied on the valley, where the union army was hiding. But Carter Druse had fallen asleep. Suddenly, as if a messenger of fate came to touch him on the shoulder, the young man opened his eyes. As he lifted his head, he saw a man on horseback standing on the huge rocky cliff that looked down into the valley. The rider and his horse stood so still that they seemed made of stone. The man's gray uniform blended with the blue sky and the white clouds behind him. He held a gun in his right hand, and the horse's reins in the other. Carter could not see the man's face, because the rider was looking down into the valley. But the man and his horse seemed to be of heroic, almost gigantic size, standing there motionless against the sky. Carter discovered he was very much afraid, even though he knew the enemy soldier could not see him hiding in the bushes. Suddenly the horse moved, pulling back its head from the edge of the cliff. Carter was completely awake now. He raised his gun, pushing its barrel through the bushes. And he aimed for the horseman's heart. A small squeeze of the trigger, and Carter Druse would have done his duty. At that instant, the horseman turned his head and looked in Carter's direction. He seemed to look at Carter's face, into his eyes, and deep into his brave, generous heart. Carter's face became very white. His entire body began shaking. His mind began to race, and in his fantasy, the horse and rider became black figures, rising and falling in slow circles against a fiery red sky. Carter did not pull the trigger. Instead, he let go of his gun and slowly dropped his face until it rested again in the dirt. Brave and strong as he was, Carter almost fainted from the shock of what he had seen. Is it so terrible to kill an enemy who might kill you and your friends? Carter knew that this man must be shot from ambush -- without warning. This man must die without a moment to prepare his soul; without even the chance to say a silent prayer. Slowly, a hope began to form in Carter Druse's mind. Perhaps the southern soldier had not seen the northern troops. Perhaps he was only admiring the view. Perhaps he would now turn and ride carelessly away. Then Carter looked down into the valley so far below. He saw a line of men in blue uniforms and their horses, slowly leaving the protection of the forest. A foolish Union officer had permitted his soldiers to bring their horses to drink at a small stream near the forest. And there they were -- in plain sight! Carter Druse looked back to the man and horse standing there against the sky. Again he took aim. But this time he pointed his gun at the horse. Words rang in his head -- the last words his father ever spoke to him: "No matter what happens, be sure you always do what you think is your duty." Carter Druse was calm as he pulled the trigger of his gun. At that moment, a Union officer happened to look up from his hiding place near the edge of the forest. His eyes climbed to the top of the cliff that looked over the valley. Just looking at the top of the gigantic rock, so far above him, made the soldier feel dizzy. And then the officer saw something that filled his heart with horror. A man on a horse was riding down into the valley through the air! The rider sat straight in his saddle. His hair streamed back, waving in the wind. His left hand held his horse's reins while his right hand was hidden in the cloud of the horse's mane. The horse looked as if it were galloping across the earth. Its body was proud and noble. As the frightened Union officer watched this horseman in the sky, he almost believed he was witnessing a messenger from heaven. A messenger who had come to announce the end of the world. The officer's legs grew weak, and he fell. At almost the same instant, he heard a crashing sound in the trees. The sound died without an echo. And all was silent. The officer got to his feet, still shaking. He went back to his camp. But he didn't tell anyone what he had seen. He knew no one would ever believe him. Soon after firing his gun, Carter Druse was joined by a Union sergeant. Carter did not turn his head as the sergeant kneeled beside him. "Did you fire?" The sergeant whispered. "Yes." "At what?" "A horse. It was on that rock. It's not there now. It went over the cliff." Carter's face was white. But he showed no other sign of emotion. The sergeant did not understand. "See here, Druse," he said, after a moment's silence. "Why are you making this into a mystery. I order you to report. Was there anyone on the horse?" "Yes." "Who? " "My father." (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard the story called, "A Horseman in the Sky." It was written by Ambrose Bierce, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Roy Depew. For VOA Special English, this is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa3.cfm
* Headline: An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge
* Byline: 

 Announcer: An American short story in Special English. (MUSIC) Today's story is called, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. " It was written by Ambrose Bierce. The occurrence, or event, in our story takes place during the war of the eighteen-sixties between the American states of the north and the states of the south. A group of soldiers is hanging a southern farm owner for trying to stop northern military movements across the Owl Creek Bridge. In the last moments of his life, the southern prisoner dreams he has escaped. And everything that happens in the story is really only the images in the prisoner's brain just before he dies. Here is Shep O’Neal with our story. Narrator:? A man stood on a railroad bridge in Alabama looking down into the swift waters of the Owl Creek River below. The man's hands were tied behind his back. There was a rope around his neck. The rope was tied to part of the bridge above him. Three soldiers of the northern army stood near the prisoner, waiting for their captain's orders to hang him. Everybody was ready. The prisoner stood quietly. His eyes were not covered. He looked down and saw the water under the bridge. Now, he closed his eyes. He wanted his last thoughts to be of his wife and children. But, as he tried to think of them, he heard sounds -- again and again. The sounds were soft. But they got louder and louder and started to hurt his ears. The pain was strong. He wanted to shout. But the sounds he heard were just those of the river running swiftly under the bridge. The prisoner quickly opened his eyes and looked at the water. "If I could only free my hands," he thought. "Then I could get the rope off my neck and jump into the river. I could swim under the water and escape the fire of their guns. I could reach the other side of the river and get home through the forest. My house is outside of their military area, and my wife and children are safe there. I would be, too…" While these thoughts raced through the prisoner's mind, the captain gave the soldiers the order to hang him. A soldier quickly obeyed. He made the rope firm around the prisoner's neck. Then he dropped him through a hole in the bridge. As the prisoner fell, everything seemed black and empty. But then he felt a sharp pain in his neck and could not breathe. There were terrible pains running from his neck down through his body, his arms and his legs. He could not think. He could only feel, a feeling of living in a world of pain. Then, suddenly, he heard a noise…something falling into the water. There was a big sound in his ears. Everything around him was cold and dark. Now he could think. He believed the rope had broken and that he was in the river. But the rope was still around his neck, and his hands were tied. He thought: "How funny. How funny to die of hanging at the bottom of a river!" Then he felt his body moving up to the top of the water. The prisoner did not know what he was doing. But his hands reached the rope on his neck and tore it off. Now he felt the most violent pain he had ever known. He wanted to put the rope back on his neck. He tried but could not. His hands beat the water and pushed him up to the top. His head came out of the water. The light of the sun hurt his eyes. His mouth opened, and he swallowed air. It was too much for his lungs. He blew out the air with a scream. Now the prisoner could think more clearly. All his senses had returned. They were even sharper than before. He heard sounds he never heard before -- that no man's ears ever heard -- the flying wings of small insects, the movement of a fish. His eyes saw more than just the trees along the river. They saw every leaf on the trees. And they saw the thin lines in the leaves. And he saw the bridge, with the wall at one end. He saw the soldiers and the captain on the bridge. They shouted, and they pointed at him. They looked like giant monsters. As he looked, he heard gunfire. Something hit the water near his head. Now there was a second shot. He saw one soldier shooting at him. He knew he had to get to the forest and escape. He heard an officer call to the other soldiers to shoot. The prisoner went down into the river, deep, as far as he could. The water made a great noise in his ears, but he heard the shots. As he came up to the top again, he saw the bullets hit the water. Some of them touched his face and hands. One even fell into the top of his shirt. He felt the heat of the bullet on his back. When his head came out of the water for air, he saw that he was farther away from the soldiers. And he began swimming strongly. As he swam, the soldiers fired their rifles. Then they fired their cannon at him. But nothing hit him. Then, suddenly, he could not swim. He was caught in a whirlpool which kept turning him around and around. This was the end, he thought. Then, just as suddenly as it had caught him, the whirlpool lifted him and threw him out of the river. He was on land! He kissed the ground. He looked around him. There was a pink light in the air. The wind seemed to make music as it blew through the trees. He wanted to stay there. But the cannon fired again, and he heard the bullets above his head. He got up and ran into the forest. At last, he found a road toward his house. It was a wide, straight road. Yet it looked like a road that never had any travelers on it. No farms. No houses on its sides, only tall black trees. In the tall black trees, the prisoner heard strange voices. Some of them spoke in words that he could not understand. His neck began to hurt. When he touched it, it felt very large. His eyes hurt so much that he could not close them. His feet moved, but he could not feel the road. As he walked, he was in a kind of sleep. Now, half-awake, half asleep, he found himself at the door of his house. His lovely wife ran to him. Ah, at last. He put his arms about his beautiful wife. And just then, he felt a terrible pain in the back of his neck. All around him there was a great white light and the sound of a cannon. And then…then…darkness and silence. The prisoner was dead. His neck was broken. His body hung at the end of a rope. It kept swinging from side to side. Swinging gently under a hole in Owl Creek Bridge. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have been listening to an American short story in Special English. The name of our story is "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It was written by Ambrose Bierce. Your narrator was Shep O’Neal. The Voice of America invites you to listen to another American short story in Special English next week at this same time. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa5.cfm
* Headline: The Return of a Private
* Byline: 

 Announcer:? And now, the weekly Special English program of AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called, "The Return of a Private. " It was written by Hamlin Garland. Here is Harry Monroe with our story. (MUSIC) Narrator: The soldiers cheered as the train crossed the border into the state of Wisconsin. It had been a long trip from the south back to their homes in the north. One of the men had a large red scar across his forehead. Another had an injured leg that made it painful for him to walk. The third had unnaturally large and bright eyes, because he had been sick with malaria. The three soldiers spread their blankets on the train seats and tried to sleep. It was a cold evening even though it was summertime. Private Smith, the soldier with the fever, shivered in the night air. His joy in coming home was mixed with fear and worry. He knew he was sick and weak. How could he take care of his family? Where would he find the strength to do the heavy work all farmers have to do? He had given three years of his life to his country. And now he had very little money and strength left for his family. Morning came slowly with a pale yellow light. The train was slowing down as it came into the town of La Crosse where the three soldiers would get off the train. The station was empty because it was Sunday. "I'll get home in time for dinner," Smith thought. "She usually has dinner about one o'clock on Sunday afternoon,” and he smiled. Smith and the other two soldiers jumped off the train together. "Well, boys," Smith began, "here's where we say good-bye. We've marched together for many miles. Now, I suppose, we are done." The three men found it hard to look at each other. "We ought to go home with you," one of the soldiers said to Smith. "You'll never be able to walk all those miles with that heavy pack on your back." "Oh, I'm all right," Smith said, putting on his army cap. "Every step takes me closer to home." They all shook hands. "Good-bye!" "Good luck!" "Same to you!" "Good-bye!" Smith turned and walked away quickly. After a few minutes, he turned again and waved his cap. His two friends did the same. Then they marched away with their long steady soldier's step. Smith walked for a while thinking of his friends. He remembered the many days they had been together during the war. He thought of his friend, Billy Tripp, too. Poor Billy! A bullet came out of the sky one day and tore a great hole in Billy's chest. Smith knew he would have to tell the sad story to Billy's mother and young wife. But there was little to tell. The sound of a bullet cutting through the air. Billy crying out, then falling with his face in the dirt. The fighting he had done since then had not made him forget the horror of that moment when Billy died. Soon, the fields and houses became familiar. Smith knew he was close to home. The sun was burning hot as he began climbing the last hill. Finally, he reached the top and looked down at his farm in the beautiful valley. He was almost home. Misses Smith was alone on the farm with her three children. Mary was nine years old. Tommy was six and little Teddy had just turned four. Misses Smith had been dreaming about her husband, when the chickens awakened her that Sunday morning. She got out of bed, got dressed and went out to feed the chickens. Then she saw the broken fence near the chicken house. She had tried to fix it again and again. Misses Smith sat down and cried. The farmer who had promised to take care of the farm while her husband was away had been lazy and dishonest. The first year he shared the wheat with Misses Smith. But the next year, he took almost all of it for himself. She had sent him away. Now, the fields were full of wheat. But there was no man on the farm to cut it down and sell it. Six weeks before, her husband told her in a letter that he would be coming home soon. Other soldiers were returning home, but her husband had not come. Every day, she watched the road leading down the hill. This Sunday morning she could no longer stand being alone. She jumped up, ran into the house and quickly dressed the children. She carefully locked the door and started walking down the road to the farmhouse of her neighbor, Misses Gray. Mary Gray was a widow with a large family of strong sons and pretty daughters. She was poor. But she never said 'no' to a hungry person who came to her farm and asked for food. She worked hard, laughed often and was always in a cheerful mood. When she saw Misses Smith and the children coming down the road, Misses Gray went out to meet them. "Please come right in, Misses Smith. We were just getting ready to have dinner." Misses Smith went into the noisy house. Misses Gray's children were laughing and talking all at the same time. Soon she was laughing and singing with the rest of them. The long table in the kitchen was piled with food. There were potatoes, fresh corn, apple pies, hot bread, sweet pickles, bread and butter and honey. They all ate until they could eat no more. Then the men and children left the table. The women stayed to drink their tea. "Mamma," said one of Misses Gray's daughters. “Please read our fortunes in the tea leaves! Tell us about our futures!" Misses Gray picked up her daughter's cup and stirred it first to the left, then to the right. Then she looked into it with a serious expression. "I see a handsome man with a red beard in your future," she said. Her daughter screamed with laughter. Misses Smith trembled with excitement when it was her turn. "Somebody is coming home to you," Misses Gray said slowly. "He's carrying a rifle on his back and he's almost there." Misses Smith felt as if she could hardly breathe. "And there he is!" Misses Gray cried, pointing to the road. They all rushed to the door to look. A man in a blue coat, with a gun on his back, was walking down the road toward the Smith farm. His face was hidden by a large pack on his back. Laughing and crying, Misses Smith grabbed her hat and her children and ran out of the house. She hurried down the road after him, calling his name and pulling her children along with her. But the soldier was too far away for her voice to reach him. When she got back to their farm, she saw the man standing by the fence. He was looking at the little house and the field of yellow wheat. The sun was almost touching the hills in the west. The cowbells rang softly as the animals moved toward the barn. "How peaceful it all is," Private Smith thought. "How far away from the battles, the hospitals, the wounded and the dead. My little farm in Wisconsin. How could I have left it for those years of killing and suffering?” Trembling and weak with emotion, Misses Smith hurried up to her husband. Her feet made no sound on the grass, but he turned suddenly to face her. For the rest of his life, he would never forget her face at that moment. "Emma!" he cried. The children stood back watching their mother kissing this strange man. He saw them, and kneeling down he pulled from his pack three huge, red apples. In a moment, all three children were in their father's arms. Together, the family entered the little unpainted farmhouse. Later that evening, after supper, Smith and his wife went outside. The moon was bright, above the eastern hills. Sweet, peaceful stars filled the sky as the night birds sang softly, and tiny insects buzzed in the soft air. His farm needed work. His children needed clothing. He was no longer young and strong. But he began to plan for next year. With the same courage he had faced the war, Private Smith faced his difficult future. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The Return of a Private." It was written by Hamlin Garland, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Harry Monroe. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time to another AMERICAN STORY. This is Susan Clark. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa6.cfm
* Headline: Rappaccini's Daughter, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We will tell the story in two parts. Here is Kay Gallant with the first part of our story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Many years ago, a young man named Giovanni Guasconti left his home in Naples to study in northern Italy. He rented a small room on the top floor of a dark and ancient palace. Long ago, the building had belonged to a noble family. Now, an old woman, Signora Lisabetta, rented its rooms to students at the University of Padua. Giovanni’s room had a small window. From it he could see a large garden that had many plants and flowers. “Does the garden belong to you?” he asked Signora Lisabetta one day. “Oh no!” she said quickly. “That garden belongs to the famous doctor, Giacomo Rappaccini. People say he uses those plants to make strange kinds of medicine. He lives in that small brown house in the garden with his daughter, Beatrice.” Giovanni often sat by his window to look at the garden. He had never seen so many different kinds of plants. They all had enormous green leaves and magnificent flowers in every color of the rainbow. Giovanni’s favorite plant was in a white marble vase near the house. It was covered with big purple flowers. One day, while Giovani was looking out his window, he saw an old man in a black cape walking in the garden. The old man was tall and thin. His face was an unhealthy yellow color. His black eyes were very cold. The old man wore thick gloves on his hands and a mask over his mouth and nose. He walked carefully among the plants, as if he were walking among wild animals or poisonous snakes. Although he looked at the flowers very closely, he did not touch or smell any of them. When the old man arrived at the plant with the big purple flowers, he stopped. He took off his mask and called loudly, “Beatrice! Come help me!” “I am coming, Father. What do you want?” answered a warm young voice from inside the house. A young woman came into the garden. Her thick, dark hair fell around her shoulders in curls. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were large and black. She seemed full of life, health and energy as she walked among the plants. Giovanni thought she was as beautiful as the purple flowers in the marble vase. The old man said something to her. She nodded her head as she touched and smelled the flowers that her father had been so careful to avoid. Several weeks later, Giovanni went to visit Pietro Baglioni, a friend of his father’s. Professor Baglioni taught medicine at the university. During the visit, Giovanni asked about Doctor Rappaccini. “He is a great scientist,” Professor Baglioni replied. “But he is also a dangerous man.” “Why?” asked Giovanni. The older man shook his head slowly. “Because Rappaccini cares more about science than he does about people. He has created many terrible poisons from the plants in his garden. He thinks he can cure sickness with these poisons. It is true that several times he has cured a very sick person that everyone thought would die. But Rappaccini’s medicine has also killed many people. I think he would sacrifice any life, even his own, for one of his experiments.” “But what about his daughter?” Giovanni said. “I’m sure he loves her.” The old professor smiled at the young man. “So,” he said, “You have heard about Beatrice Rappaccini. People say she is very beautiful. But few men in Padua have ever seen her. She never leaves here father’s garden.” Giovanni left professor Baglione’s house as the sun was setting. On his way home, he stopped at a flower shop where he bought some fresh flowers. He returned to his room and sat by the window. Very little sunlight was left. The garden was quiet. The purple flowers on Giovanni’s favorite plant seemed to glow in the evening’s fading light. Then someone came out of the doorway of the little brown house. It was Beatrice. She entered the garden and walked among the plants. She bent to touch the leaves of a plant or to smell a flower. Rappaccini’s daughter seemed to grow more beautiful with each step. When she reached the purple plant, she buried her face in its flowers. Giovanni heard her say “Give me your breath, my sister. The ordinary air makes me weak. And give me one of your beautiful flowers.” Beatrice gently broke off one of the largest flowers. As she lifted it to put it in her dark hair, a few drops of liquid from the flower fell to the ground. One of the drops landed on the head of a tiny lizard crawling near the feet of Beatrice. For a moment the small animal twisted violently. Then it moved no more. Beatrice did not seem surprised. She sighed and placed the flower in her hair. Giovanni leaned out of the window so he could see her better. At this moment, a beautiful butterfly flew over the garden wall. It seemed to be attracted by Beatrice and flew once around her head. Then, the insect’s bright wings stopped and it fell to the ground dead. Beatrice shook her head sadly. Suddenly, she looked up at Giovanni’s window. She saw the young man looking at her. Giovanni picked up the flowers he had bought and threw them down to her. “Young lady,” he said, “Wear these flowers as a gift from Giovanni Guasconti.” “Thank you,” Beatrice answered. She picked up the flowers from the ground and quickly ran to the house. She stopped at the door for a moment to wave shyly to Giovanni. It seemed to him that his flowers were beginning to turn brown in her hands. For many days, the young man stayed away from the window that looked out on Rappaccini’s garden. He wished he had not talked to Beatrice because now he felt under the power of her beauty. He was a little afraid of her, too. He could not forget how the little lizard and the butterfly had died. One day, while he was returning home from his classes, he met Professor Baglioni on the street. “Well, Giovanni,” the old man said, “have you forgotten me?” Then he looked closely at the young man. “What is wrong, my friend? Your appearance has changed since the last time we met.” It was true. Giovanni had become very thin. His face was white, and his eyes seemed to burn with fever. As they stood talking, a man dressed in a long black cape came down the street. He moved slowly, like a person in poor health. His face was yellow, but his eyes were sharp and black. It was the man Giovanni had seen in the garden. As he passed them, the old man nodded coldly to Professor Baglioni. But he looked at Giovanni with a great deal of interest. “It’s Doctor Rappaccini!” Professor Baglioni whispered after the old man had passed them. “Has he ever seen your face before?” Giovanni shook his head. “No,” he answered, “I don’t think so.” Professor Baglioni looked worried. “I think he has seen you before. I know that cold look of his! He looks the same way when he examines an animal he has killed in one of his experiments. Giovanni, I will bet my life on it. You are the subject of one of Rappaccini’s experiments!” Giovanni stepped away from the old man. “You are joking,” he said. “No, I am serious.” The professor took Giovanni’s arm. “Be careful, my young friend. You are in great danger.” Giovanni pulled his arm away. “I must be going,” he said, “Good night.” As Giovanni hurried to his room, he felt confused and a little frightened. Signora Lisabetta was waiting for him outside his door. She knew he was interested in Beatrice. “I have good news for you,” she said. “I know where there is a secret entrance into Rappaccini’s garden.” Giovanni could not believe his ears. “Where is it?” he asked. “Show me the way.” (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard part one of the story called "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant. Listen next week for the final part of our story. This is Shep O’Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa7.cfm
* Headline: U.N. Report Disputes Link Between Forests and Floods
* Byline: Written by George Grow and Katherine Gypson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Do forests prevent major floods?? A United Nations report says no. VOICE ONE: Building houses powered by the sun ... but what happens when it rains? VOICE TWO: And, later, we tell about a possible new way for many people with diabetes to take their daily insulin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A deadly landslide after Hurricane Stan hit GuatemalaPeople often blame the destruction of forests when rains lead to severe flooding. Such blame followed recent floods in Central America and East Asia, for example. But a new report disputes this idea. It says there is no scientific evidence to link severe floods to the loss of forests. The report is the work of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Center for International Forestry Research. Patrick Durst is a forestry official for the F.A.O. office in Bangkok. He says government officials, aid groups and the media are often quick to blame flooding on deforestation caused by small farmers and tree cutters. He says such ideas have, in the past, led some governments to force poor farmers from their lands and away from forests. Mister Durst calls such actions misguided. VOICE TWO: The new report says forests can help to reduce the flow of rainwater, or runoff, that causes floods in local areas. However, it says there is no evidence that the loss of trees is a major cause of severe widespread flooding. The report came out this month in the same week as major flooding caused by a powerful storm in Central America. The report says the flood-reducing effects of forests depend heavily on the structure and depth of the soil. The amount of water in the soil is another influence. Even at the local level, the report says, the effects do not depend just on the presence of trees. David Kaimowitz is director-general of the Center for International Forestry Research. He says planting trees and protecting forests can be good for the environment in many ways. But, he adds, preventing large floods is not one of them. Mister Kaimowitz notes that thick forests were more plentiful a century ago. But he says the rate of what he calls "major flooding events" has remained the same over the past one hundred twenty years. VOICE ONE: Economic and human losses from floods have increased over the years, however. The report says that is mainly because more people live and work in areas where floods are common. Pal Singh of the World Agroforestry Center says people need to stop blaming floods on those who live and work in and around forests. He says people should instead consider the effects of many different land-use issues. In some cases, he says, these issues can include poor methods of tree removal. The report says people have believed since the nineteenth century that forests prevent floods by capturing heavy rainfalls. But it says major floods blamed on deforestation almost always happen after many days of rains. The water then has nowhere to go but into rivers, which flood quickly. VOICE TWO: Here are some other things said in the new report from the United Nations: There can be a political interest not to dispute the traditional beliefs about forests and flooding. Governments can act to ban the removal of trees. Such policies give the appearance of strong action. But the effect is to force poor farmers from their lands and leave many people unemployed. International agencies might also have an interest because the traditional beliefs lead to aid for reforestation projects. David Kaimowitz at the Center for International Forestry Research says: "Politicians and policymakers should stop chasing quick fixes for flood-related problems." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The United States Department of Energy held the Solar Decathlon earlier this month. The event is a chance to see which team from a college or university can build the best solar-powered house. Eighteen houses powered by energy from the sun formed a "solar village" on the National Mall here in Washington. Hundreds of students traveled from around the country as well as Puerto Rico, Canada and Spain. They built their houses on the grassy open space between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. VOICE TWO: The teams were made up of students who want to be engineers, scientists and architects. Some of them spent almost two years working on their projects. Each house had to collect as much energy as a family of four would need to heat their home, cook, wash clothes and do other tasks. The houses had to be energy-efficient. The systems had to waste as little energy as possible. The teams also designed their homes so that they would be pleasant to live in. Many of the houses in the solar village had gardens or walls that could move to create outdoor living spaces. Each team competed in ten different competitions to decide the winner. VOICE ONE: For most of the eight-day competition, the students faced an additional challenge. Clouds covered the sun, and rain fell on the specially designed roofs of their houses. On a sunny day, these roofs take in the heat of the sun and change it into electrical energy. Tiles on the floors of the houses store additional heat for use when the weather becomes cold. The more solar panels each house had on its roof and walls, the more energy the house could collect during breaks in the rain. Batteries stored the energy for later use. The team from the University of Madrid was able to collect enough energy to power a computer and to heat several gallons of water. A gallon is almost four liters. But the students had trouble with another one of the ten events. They could not collect enough energy to win a race of cars powered by solar batteries. VOICE TWO: At the end of the week, the rain had not stopped. But it was time to take down the houses. Some of the teams said that they would ship the homes back to their schools and use them for educational purposes. Other teams said they planned to give their houses to victims of Hurricane Katrina. The team from the University of Colorado won the first Solar Decathlon in two thousand two. And they did it again this time. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, finished second. California Polytechnic State University finished third. The Energy Department plans to hold the Solar Decathlon every two years from now on. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There may be an easier way for many people with diabetes to take insulin to control their blood sugar levels. Diabetics who now need daily injections may one day be able to take their insulin by mouth. They would breathe it as a powder into their lungs, through a mouthpiece device. The inhaled insulin is called Exubera. The drug companies Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and Nektar Therapeutics developed it. They say it is generally as effective as the injected form in controlling blood sugar levels. But they say it should not always be used in place of longer-lasting injections of insulin. VOICE TWO: Last month, an advisory committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration urged the agency to approve Exubera. The committee voted seven-to-two to support approval for both type one and type two diabetes. The F.D.A. generally follows the advice of its committees, but does not have to. Some members of the committee expressed concern about possible safety risks, especially to people with lung disease. Smokers would probably not be able to use the inhaled insulin. But there are questions about the safety for people who breathe a lot of tobacco smoke in the air. The drug makers have proposed to study the long-term effects until two thousand nineteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Katherine Gypson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. If you have a science question that we might be able to answer on our program, send it to special@voanews.com. And listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa8.cfm
* Headline: It's Apple Season in America
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Apples are the second most valuable fruit crop in the United States, after oranges. Autumn is a time when fresh apples are everywhere. They are not native to the country. Research shows that apples came from Central Asia. But they are believed to have been grown in America since the early sixteen hundreds. Washington State, in the Pacific Northwest, produces the country’s biggest apple crop. New York and Michigan are also big producers. Among nations, China is the biggest grower followed by the United States and Turkey. This year, American growers expect to harvest nearly four thousand five hundred million kilograms of apples. That is a little less than last year’s record harvest. Apples are a member of the rose family. Apples come in reds, greens and yellows. About two thousand five hundred kinds grow in the United States. Three times that number are grown around the world. The University of Illinois Extension service says one hundred varieties are grown most commonly in the United States. The most popular are the Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith. In the United States, three fourths of apples are eaten fresh. Some are made into sweet foods like apple pie. The rest are processed to make products such as apple juice, apple cider, apple sauce and vinegar. A popular saying goes: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."? Apples are a healthy food. For one thing, they are high in fiber, mainly in the skin. Apple trees flower in late spring. Late blossoming avoids freezing weather. So farmers can grow apples farther north than most other fruits. In North America, apples can be gown in all fifty states and Canada. Johnny Appleseed was born in Massachusetts in seventeen seventy-four. He grew apple trees on land he owned in Ohio and Indiana. He traveled with settlers as they moved West. He supplied them with apple seeds and young trees and, it is said, religion. Johnny Appleseed was an early American hero. His real name was John Chapman. Americans might not know the story of John Chapman, but almost everyone has heard of Johnny Appleseed. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa9.cfm
* Headline: Rappaccini's Daughter, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Today, we complete the story "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Kay Gallant with the second and final part of “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Many years ago, a young man named Giovanni Guasconti left his home in Naples to study in northern Italy. He took a room in an old house next to a magnificent garden filled with strange flowers and other plants. The garden belonged to a doctor, Giacomo Rappaccini. He lived with his daughter, Beatrice, in a small brown house in the garden. From a window of his room, Giovanni had seen that Rappaccini’s daughter was very beautiful. But everyone in Padua was afraid of her father. Pietro Baglioni, a professor at the university, warned Giovanni about the mysterious Doctor Rappaccini. “He is a great scientist,” Professor Baglioni told the young man. “But he is also dangerous. Rappaccini cares more about science than he does about people. He has created many terrible poisons from the plants in his garden.” One day, Giovanni found a secret entrance to Rappaccini’s garden. He went in. The plants all seemed wild and unnatural. Giovanni realized that Rappaccini must have created these strange and terrible flowers through his experiments. Suddenly, Rappaccini’s daughter came into the garden. She moved quickly among the flowers until she reached him. Giovanni apologized for coming into the garden without an invitation. But Beatrice smiled at him and made him feel welcome. “I see you love flowers,” she said. “And so you have come to take a closer look at my father’s rare collection.” While she spoke, Giovanni noticed a perfume in the air around her. He wasn’t sure if this wonderful smell came from the flowers or from her breath. She asked him about his home and his family. She told him she had spent her life in this garden. Giovanni felt as if he were talking to a very small child. Her spirit sparkled like clear water. They walked slowly though the garden as they talked. At last they reached a beautiful plant that was covered with large purple flowers. He realized that the perfume from those flowers was like the perfume of Beatrice’s breath, but much stronger. The young man reached out to break off one of the purple flowers. But Beatrice gave a scream that went through his heart like a knife. She caught his hand and pulled it away from the plant with all her strength. “Don’t ever touch those flowers!” she cried. “They will take your life!” Hiding her face, she ran into the house. Then, Giovanni saw Doctor Rappaccini standing in the garden. That night, Giovanni could not stop thinking about how sweet and beautiful Beatrice was. Finally, he fell asleep. But when the morning came, he woke up in great pain. He felt as if one of his hands was on fire. It was the hand that Beatrice had grabbed in hers when he reached for one of the purple flowers. Giovanni looked down at his hand. There was a purple mark on it that looked like four small fingers and a little thumb. But because his heart was full of Beatrice, Giovanni forgot about the pain in his hand. He began to meet her in the garden every day. At last, she told him that she loved him. But she would never let him kiss her or even hold her hand. One morning, several weeks later, Professor Baglioni visited Giovanni. “I was worried about you,” the older man said. “You have not come to your classes at the university for more than a month. Is something wrong?” Giovanni was not pleased to see his old friend. “No, nothing is wrong. I am fine, thank you.” He wanted Professor Baglioni to leave. But the old man took off his hat and sat down. “My dear Giovanni,” he said. “You must stay away from Rappaccini and his daughter. Her father has given her poison from the time she was a baby. The poison is in her blood and on her breath. If Rappaccini did this to his own daughter, what is he planning to do to you?” Giovanni covered his face with his hands. “Oh my God!” he cried. “Don’t worry, the old man continued. “It is not too late to save you. And we may succeed in helping Beatrice, too. Do you see this little silver bottle? It holds a medicine that will destroy even the most powerful poison. Give it to your Beatrice to drink.” Professor Baglioni put the little bottle on the table and left Giovanni’s room. The young man wanted to believe that Beatrice was a sweet and innocent girl. And yet, Professor Baglioni’s words had put doubts in his heart. It was nearly time for his daily meeting with Beatrice. As Giovanni combed his hair, he looked at himself in a mirror near his bed. He could not help noticing how handsome he was. His eyes looked particularly bright. And his face had a healthy warm glow. He said to himself, “At least her poison has not gotten into my body yet.” As he spoke he happened to look at some flowers he had just bought that morning. A shock of horror went through his body. The flowers were turning brown! Giovanni’s face became very white as he stared at himself in the mirror. Then he noticed a spider crawling near his window. He bent over the insect and blew a breath of air at it. The spider trembled, and fell dead. “I am cursed,” Giovanni whispered to himself. “My own breath is poison.” At that moment, a rich, sweet voice came floating up from the garden. “Giovanni! You are late. Come down.” “You are a monster!” Giovanni shouted as soon as he reached her. “And with your poison you have made me into a monster, too. I am a prisoner of this garden.” “Giovanni!” Beatrice cried, looking at him with her large bright eyes. “Why are you saying these terrible things? It is true that I can never leave this garden. But you are free to go wherever you wish.” Giovanni looked at her with hate in his eyes. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know what you have done to me.” A group of insects had flown into the garden. They came toward Giovanni and flew around his head. He blew his breath at them. The insects fell to the ground, dead. Beatrice screamed. “I see it! I see it! My father’s science has done this to us. Believe me, Giovanni, I did not ask him to do this to you. I only wanted to love you.” Giovanni’s anger changed to sadness. Then, he remembered the medicine that Professor Baglioni had given him. Perhaps the medicine would destroy the poison in their bodies and help them to become normal again. “Dear Beatrice,” he said, “our fate is not so terrible.” He showed her the little silver bottle and told her what the medicine inside it might do. “I will drink first,” she said. “You must wait to see what happens to me before you drink it.” She put Baglioni’s medicine to her lips and took a small sip. At the same moment, Rappaccini came out of his house and walked slowly toward the two young people. He spread his hands out to them as if he were giving them a blessing. “My daughter,” he said, “you are no longer alone in the world. Give Giovanni one of the purple flowers from your favorite plant. It will not hurt him now. My science and your love have made him different from ordinary men.” “My father,” Beatrice said weakly, “why did you do this terrible thing to your own child?” Rappaccini looked surprised. “What do you mean, my daughter?” he asked. “You have power no other woman has. You can defeat your strongest enemy with only your breath. Would you rather be a weak woman?” “I want to be loved, not feared,” Beatrice replied. “But now, it does not matter. I am leaving you, father. I am going where the poison you have given me will do no harm. Good bye to you, Giovanni.” Beatrice dropped to the ground. She died at the feet of her father and Giovanni. The poison had been too much a part of the young woman. The medicine that destroyed the poison, destroyed her, as well. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "Rappaccini’s Daughter."? It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant. This is Shep O’Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa10.cfm
* Headline: The Ambitious Guest
* Byline: 

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES.(MUSIC) Our story today is called, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Harry Monroe with our story. (MUSIC) Narrator:? One December night, a long, long time ago, a family sat around the fireplace in their home. A golden light from the fire filled the room. The mother and father laughed at something their oldest daughter had just said. The girl was seventeen, much older than her little brother and sister, who were only five and six years old. A very old woman, the family's grandmother, sat knitting in the warmest corner of the room. And a baby, the youngest child, smiled at the fire's light from its tiny bed. This family had found happiness in the worst place in all of New England. They had built their home high up in the White Mountains, where the wind blows violently all year long.The family lived in an especially cold and dangerous spot. Stones from the top of the mountain above their house would often roll down the mountainside and wake them in the middle of the night. No other family lived near them on the mountain. But this family was never lonely. They enjoyed each other's company, and often had visitors. Their house was built near an important road that connected the White Mountains to the Saint Lawrence River. People traveling through the mountains in wagons always stopped at the family's door for a drink of water and a friendly word. Lonely travelers, crossing the mountains on foot, would step into the house to share a hot meal. Sometimes, the wind became so wild and cold that these strangers would spend the night with the family. The family offered every traveler who stopped at their home a kindness that money could not buy. On that December evening, the wind came rushing down the mountain. It seemed to stop at their house to knock at the door before it roared down into the valley. The family fell silent for a moment. But then they realized that someone really was knocking at their door. The oldest girl opened the door and found a young man standing in the dark. The old grandmother put a chair near the fireplace for him. The oldest daughter gave him a warm, shy smile. And the baby held up its little arms to him. "This fire is just what I needed," the young man said. "The wind has been blowing in my face for the last two hours." The father took the young man's travel bag. "Are you going to Vermont?" the older man asked. "Yes, to Burlington," the traveler replied. "I wanted to reach the valley tonight. But when I saw the light in your window, I decided to stop. I would like to sit and enjoy your fire and your company for a while."?As the young man took his place by the fire, something like heavy footsteps was heard outside. It sounded as if someone was running down the side of the mountain, taking enormous steps. The father looked out one of the windows. "That old mountain has thrown another stone at us again. He must have been afraid we would forget him. He sometimes shakes his head and makes us think he will come down on top of us," the father explained to the young man."But we are old neighbors," he smiled. "And we manage to get along together pretty well. Besides, I have made a safe hiding place outside to protect us in case a slide brings the mountain down on our heads."?As the father spoke, the mother prepared a hot meal for their guest. While he ate, he talked freely to the family, as if it were his own. This young man did not trust people easily. Yet on this evening, something made him share his deepest secret with these simple mountain people. The young man's secret was that he was ambitious. He did not know what he wanted to do with his life, yet. But he did know that he did not want to be forgotten after he had died. He believed that sometime during his life, he would become famous and be admired by thousands of people. "So far," the young man said, "I have done nothing. If I disappeared tomorrow from the face of the earth, no one would know anything about me. No one would ask 'Who was he. Where did he go?' But I cannot die until I have reached my destiny. Then let death come! I will have built my monument!" The young man's powerful emotions touched the family. They smiled. "You laugh at me," the young man said, taking the oldest daughter's hand. "You think my ambition is silly."?She was very shy, and her face became pink with embarrassment. "It is better to sit here by the fire," she whispered, "and be happy, even if nobody thinks of us."?Her father stared into the fire. "I think there is something natural in what the young man says. And his words have made me think about our own lives here. "It would have been nice if we had had a little farm down in the valley. Some place where we could see our mountains without being afraid they would fall on our heads. I would have been respected by all our neighbors. And, when I had grown old, I would die happy in my bed. You would put a stone over my grave so everyone would know I lived an honest life."?"You see!" the young man cried out. "It is in our nature to want a monument. Some want only a stone on their grave. Others want to be a part of everyone's memory. But we all want to be remembered after we die!" The young man threw some more wood on the fire to chase away the darkness.The firelight fell on the little group around the fireplace: the father's strong arms and the mother's gentle smile. It touched the young man's proud face, and the daughter's shy one. It warmed the old grandmother, still knitting in the corner. She looked up from her knitting and, with her fingers still moving the needles, she said, "Old people have their secrets, just as young people do."?The old woman said she had made her funeral clothes some years earlier. They were the finest clothes she had made since her wedding dress. She said her secret was a fear that she would not be buried in her best clothes. The young man stared into the fire. "Old and young," he said. "We dream of graves and monuments. I wonder how sailors feel when their ship is sinking, and they know they will be buried in the wide and nameless grave that is the ocean?" A sound, rising like the roar of the ocean, shook the house. Young and old exchanged one wild look. Then the same words burst from all their lips. "The slide! The slide!" They rushed away from the house, into the darkness, to the secret spot the father had built to protect them from the mountain slide. The whole side of the mountain came rushing toward the house like a waterfall of destruction. But just before it reached the little house, the wave of earth divided in two and went around the family's home. Everyone and everything in the path of the terrible slide was destroyed, except the little house. The next morning, smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the house on the mountain. Inside, the fire was still burning. The chairs were still drawn up in a half circle around the fireplace. It looked as if the family had just gone out for a walk. Some people thought that a stranger had been with the family on that terrible night. But no one ever discovered who the stranger was. His name and way of life remain a mystery. His body was never found. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa11.cfm
* Headline: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
* Byline: 

 Announcer: The Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Today's story is called "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It is about something strange that happed long ago in a valley called "Sleepy Hollow". It was written by Washington Irving. The story is told by Doug Johnson. (MUSIC) Narrator: The valley known as Sleepy Hollow hides from the world in the high hills of New York state. There are many stories told about the quiet valley. But the story that people believe most is about a man who rides a horse at night. The story says the man died many years ago during the American revolutionary war. His head was shot off. Every night he rises from his burial place, jumps on his horse and rides through the valley looking for his lost head. Near Sleepy Hollow is a village called Tarry Town. It was settled many years ago by people from Holland. The village had a small school. And one teacher, named Ichabod Crane. Ichabod Crane was a good name for him, because he looked like a tall bird, a crane. He was tall and thin like a crane. His shoulders were small, joined two long arms. His head was small, too, and flat on top. He had big ears, large glassy green eyes and a long nose. Ichabod did not make much money as a teacher. And although he was tall and thin, he ate like a fat man. To help him pay for his food he earned extra money teaching young people to sing. Every Sunday after church Ichabod taught singing. Among the ladies Ichabod taught was one Katrina Van Tassel. She was the only daughter of a rich Dutch farmer. She was a girl in bloom…much like a round red, rosy apple. Ichabod had a soft and foolish heart for the ladies, and soon found himself interested in Miss Van Tassel. Ichabod's eyes opened wide when he saw the riches of Katrina's farm: the miles of apple trees and wheat fields, and hundreds of fat farm animals. He saw himself as master of the Van Tassel farm with Katrina as his wife. But there were many problems blocking the road to Katrina's heart. One was a strong young man named Brom Van Brunt. Brom was a hero to all the young ladies. His shoulders were big. His back was wide. And his hair was short and curly. He always won the horse races in Tarry Town and earned many prizes. Brom was never seen without a horse. Sometimes late at night Brom and his friends would rush through town shouting loudly from the backs of their horses. Tired old ladies would awaken from their sleep and say: "Why, there goes Brom Van Brunt leading his wild group again!" Such was the enemy Ichabod had to defeat for Katrina's heart. Stronger and wiser men would not have tried. But Ichabod had a plan. He could not fight his enemy in the open. So he did it silently and secretly. He made many visits to Katrina's farm and made her think he was helping her to sing better. Time passed, and the town people thought Ichabod was winning. Brom's horse was never seen at Katrina's house on Sunday nights anymore. One day in autumn Ichabod was asked to come to a big party at the Van Tassel home. He dressed in his best clothes. A farmer loaned him an old horse for the long trip to the party. The house was filled with farmers and their wives, red-faced daughters and clean, washed sons. The tables were filled with different things to eat. Wine filled many glasses. Brom Van Brunt rode to the party on his fastest horse called Daredevil. All the young ladies smiled happily when they saw him. Soon music filled the rooms and everyone began to dance and sing. Ichabod was happy dancing with Katrina as Brom looked at them with a jealous heart. The night passed. The music stopped, and the young people sat together to tell stories about the revolutionary war. Soon stories about Sleepy Hollow were told. The most feared story was about the rider looking for his lost head. One farmer told how he raced the headless man on a horse. The farmer ran his horse faster and faster. The horseman followed over bush and stone until they came to the end of the valley. There the headless horseman suddenly stopped. Gone were his clothes and his skin. All that was left was a man with white bones shining in the moonlight. The stories ended and time came to leave the party. Ichabod seemed very happy until he said goodnight to Katrina. Was she ending their romance? He left feeling very sad. Had Katrina been seeing Ichabod just to make Brom Van Brunt jealous so he would marry her? Well, Ichabod began his long ride home on the hills that surround Tarry Town. He had never felt so lonely in his life. He began to whistle as he came close to the tree where a man had been killed years ago by rebels. He thought he saw something white move in the tree. But no, it was only the moonlight shining and moving on the tree. Then he heard a noise. His body shook. He kicked his horse faster. The old horse tried to run, but almost fell in the river, instead. Ichabod hit the horse again. The horse ran fast and then suddenly stopped, almost throwing Ichabod forward to the ground. There, in the dark woods on the side of the river where the bushes grow low, stood an ugly thing. Big and black. It did not move, but seemed ready to jump like a giant monster. Ichabod's hair stood straight up. It was too late to run, and in his fear, he did the only thing he could. His shaking voice broke the silent valley. "Who are you?" The thing did not answer. Ichabod asked again. Still no answer. Ichabod's old horse began to move forward. The black thing began to move along the side of Ichabod's horse in the dark. Ichabod made his horse run faster. The black thing moved with them. Side by side they moved, slowly at first. And not a word was said. Ichabod felt his heart sink. Up a hill they moved above the shadow of the trees. For a moment the moon shown down and to Ichabod's horror he saw it was a horse. And it had a rider. But the rider's head was not on his body. It was in front of the rider, resting on the horse. Ichabod kicked and hit his old horse with all his power. Away they rushed through bushes and trees across the valley of Sleepy Hollow. Up ahead was the old church bridge where the headless horseman stops and returns to his burial place. "If only I can get there first, I am safe," thought Ichabod. He kicked his horse again. The horse jumped on to the bridge and raced over it like the sound of thunder. Ichabod looked back to see if the headless man had stopped. He saw the man pick up his head and throw it with a powerful force. The head hit Ichabod in the face and knocked him off his horse to the dirt below. They found Ichabod's horse the next day peacefully eating grass. They could not find Ichabod. They walked all across the valley. They saw the foot marks of Ichabod's horse as it had raced through the valley. They even found Ichabod's old hat in the dust near the bridge. But they did not find Ichabod. The only other thing they found was lying near Ichabod's hat. It was the broken pieces of a round orange pumpkin. The town people talked about Ichabod for many weeks. They remembered the frightening stories of the valley. And finally they came to believe that the headless horseman had carried Ichabod away. Much later an old farmer returned from a visit to New York City. He said he was sure he saw Ichabod there. He thought Ichabod silently left Sleepy Hollow because he had lost Katrina. As for Katrina, her mother and father gave her a big wedding when she married Brom Van Brunt. Many people who went to the wedding saw that Brom smiled whenever Ichabod's name was spoken. And they wondered why he laughed out loud when anyone talked about the broken orange pumpkin found lying near Ichabod's old dusty hat. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" written by Washington Irving. It was first published in eighteen twenty. Listen next week to the Voice of America for another AMERICAN STORY in Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa12.cfm
* Headline: The Devil and Tom Walker
* Byline: 

 Announcer:? Now, an American short story in Special English.(MUSIC) Our story today is, "The Devil and Tom Walker. " It was written by Washington Irving. Here is Shep O'Neal with our story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Before we begin our story, let us go back three hundred years to the late sixteen hundreds. In those years, one of the most famous men in the world was Captain William Kidd. Captain Kidd was a pirate. He sailed the seas, capturing any ships he found. He and his men took money from these ships. Captain Kidd hid this money in different places.Captain Kidd was captured by the English in Boston, Massachusetts and executed in the year seventeen-oh-one. From that time on, people all over the world searched in many places for Captain Kidd's stolen money. The people who lived in Massachusetts in the seventeen hundreds believed Captain Kidd buried some of his treasure near Boston. Not far from Boston was a small river which ran into the Atlantic Ocean. An old story said that Captain Kidd had come up this river from the ocean. Then he buried his gold and silver and jewels under a big tree. The story said that this treasure was protected by the devil himself, who was a good friend of Captain Kidd. In the year seventeen twenty-seven, a man named Tom Walker lived near this place. Tom Walker was not a pleasant man. He loved only one thing -- money. There was only one person worse than Tom. That was his wife. She also loved money. These two were so hungry for money that they even stole things from each other. One day, Tom Walker was returning home through a dark forest. He walked slowly and carefully, so that he would not fall into a pool of mud. At last, he reached a piece of dry ground. Tom sat down on a tree that had fallen. As he rested, he dug into the earth with a stick. He knew the story that Indians had killed prisoners here as sacrifices to the Devil. But this did not trouble him. The only devil Tom was afraid of was his wife. Tom's stick hit something hard. He dug it out of the earth. It was a human skull. In the skull was an Indian ax. Suddenly, Tom Walker heard an angry voice: "Don't touch that skull!" Tom looked up. He saw a giant sitting on a broken tree. Tom had never seen such a man. He wore the clothes of an Indian. His skin was almost black and covered with ashes. His eyes were big and red. His black hair stood up from his head. He carried a large ax. The giant asked, "What are you doing on my land?" But Tom Walker was not afraid. He answered, "What do you mean? This land belongs to Mister Peabody." The strange man laughed and pointed to the tall trees. Tom saw that one of the trees had been cut by an ax. He looked more closely and saw that the name Peabody had been cut into the tree. Mr. Peabody was a man who got rich by stealing from Indians. Tom looked at the other trees. Every one had the name of some rich, important man from Massachusetts. Tom looked at the tree on which he was sitting. It also had a name cut into it -- the name of Absalom Crowninshield. Tom remembered that Mister Crowninshield was a very rich man. People said he got his money as Captain Kidd did -- by stealing ships. Suddenly, the giant shouted: "Crowninshield is ready to be burned! I'm going to burn many trees this winter!" Tom told the man that he had no right to cut Mister Peabody's trees. The stranger laughed and said, "I have every right to cut these trees. This land belonged to me a long time before Englishmen came to Massachusetts. The Indians were here. Then you Englishmen killed the Indians. Now I show Englishmen how to buy and sell slaves. And I teach their women how to be witches."?Tom Walker now knew that the giant was the Devil himself. But Tom Walker was still not afraid. The giant said Captain Kidd had buried great treasures under the trees, but nobody could have them unless the giant permitted it. He said Tom could have these treasures. But Tom had to agree to give the giant what he demanded. Tom Walker loved money as much as he loved life. But he asked for time to think. Tom went home. He told his wife what had happened. She wanted Captain Kidd's treasure. She urged him to give the Devil what he wanted. Tom said no. At last, Misses Walker decided to do what Tom refused to do. She put all her silver in a large piece of cloth and went to see the dark giant. Two days passed. She did not return home. She was never seen again. People said later that Tom went to the place where he had met the giant. He saw his wife's cloth hanging in a tree. He was happy, because he wanted to get her silver. But when he opened the cloth, there was no silver in it -- only a human heart. Tom was sorry he lost the silver, but not sorry he lost his wife. He wanted to thank the giant for this. And so, every day he looked for the giant. Tom finally decided that he would give the giant what he wanted in exchange for Captain Kidd's treasure. One night, Tom Walker met the giant and offered his soul in exchange for Captain Kidd's treasure. The Devil now wanted more than that. He said that Tom would have to use the treasure to do the Devil's work. He wanted Tom to buy a ship and bring slaves to America. As we have said, Tom Walker was a hard man who loved nothing but money. But even he could not agree to buy and sell human beings as slaves. He refused to do this. The Devil then said that his second most important work was lending money. The men who did this work for the Devil forced poor people who borrowed money to pay back much more than they had received. Tom said he would like this kind of work. So the Devil gave him Captain Kidd's treasure. A few days later, Tom Walker was a lender of money in Boston. Everyone who needed help -- and there were many who did -- came to him. Tom Walker became the richest man in Boston. When people were not able to pay him, he took away their farms, their horses, and their houses. As he got older and richer, Tom began to worry. What would happen when he died?? He had promised his soul to the Devil. Maybe. . .maybe. . . he could break that promise. Tom then became very religious. He went to church every week. He thought that if he prayed enough, he could escape from the Devil. One day, Tom took the land of a man who had borrowed money. The poor man asked for more time to pay. "Please do not destroy me!" he said. "You have already taken all my money!" Tom got angry and started to shout, "Let the Devil take me if I have taken any money from you!"?That was the end of Tom Walker. For just then, he heard a noise. He opened the door. There was the black giant, holding a black horse. The giant said, "Tom, I have come for you." He picked up Tom and put him on the horse. Then he hit the horse, which ran off, carrying Tom. Nobody ever saw Tom Walker again. A farmer said that he saw the black horse, with a man on it, running wildly into the forest.After Tom Walker disappeared, the government decided to take Tom's property. But there was nothing to take. All the papers which showed that Tom owned land and houses were burned to ashes. His boxes of gold and silver had nothing in them but small pieces of wood. The wood came from newly cut trees. Tom's horses died, and his house suddenly burned to ashes. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard the story, "The Devil and Tom Walker." It was written by Washington Irving. Our storyteller was Shep O'Neal. Listen again next week at this same time for another AMERICAN STORY told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa13.cfm
* Headline: The God of His Fathers
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story this week is called "The God of His Fathers."? It was written by Jack London in the year nineteen-oh-one. Here is Shep O'Neal with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Silently the wolves circled the herd of caribou deer. Gray bellies close to the ground, the wolves in the pack surrounded a pregnant deer. They pulled her down and tore out her throat. The rest of the caribou herd raced off in a hundred directions. The wolves began to feed. Once again the Alaska territory was the scene of silent death. Here, in its ancient forests, the strong had killed the weak for thousands and thousands of years. Small groups of Indians also lived in this land at the rainbow's end. But their Stone Age life was ending. Strange men with blond hair and blue eyes had discovered the lands of the North. The Indian chiefs ordered their warriors to fight them. Stone arrow met steel bullet. The Indians could not stop the strangers. The White men conquered the icy rivers in light canoes. They broke through the dark forests and climbed the rocky mountains. One of these men sat in front of a tent, near a river. His name was Hay Stockard. Over the smoke and flames of his fire, he watched an Indian village not far from his own camp. From inside his tent came the cry of a sick child, and the gentle answering song of its mother. But the man was not concerned now with them. He was thinking of Baptiste the Red, the chief of the Indian village, who had just left him. "We do not want you here," Baptiste had told him. "If we permit you to sit by our fires, after you will come your church, your priests and your God."? Baptiste the Red hated the White man's God. His father had been an Englishman; his mother, the daughter of an Indian chief. Baptiste had been raised among White men. When Baptiste was a young man he fell in love with a Frenchman's daughter, but her father opposed the marriage. A Christian priest refused to marry them. So Baptiste took the girl into the forests. They went to live among his mother's people. A year later, the girl died while giving birth to her first child. Baptiste took the baby back to live among the White people. For many years he lived in peace with them, as his daughter grew up -- tall and beautiful. One night, while Baptiste was away, a White man broke into their home and killed the girl. When Baptiste asked for justice, he was told the White man's God forgives all sins. So Baptiste killed his daughter's murderer with his own hands, and returned forever to his mother's people. "I have sworn to make any White man who comes to my village deny his God if he wants to live," he told Hay Stockard. "But since you are the first, I will not do this if you go and go quickly." "And if I stay?" Hay Stockard had asked quietly as he filled his pipe. "Then soon you will meet your God, your bad God, the God of the White man!"? The Indian chief rose to his feet and left Hay Stockard's camp to return to his village. The next morning Hay Stockard watched with angry eyes as three men in a long canoe came to the river bank. Two of the men were Indian. The third, a White man, wore a bright red cloth around his head. Hay Stockard reached for his gun, and then changed his mind. As soon as the canoe landed, the White man jumped out and ran up to Stockard. "So we meet again, Hay Stockard!? Peace be with you. I know you are a sinner, but I, Sturges Owen, am God's own servant. I will bring you back to our church. "Listen to me," Stockard warned, "if you stay here you'll bring trouble to yourself and your men. You'll all be killed and so will my wife, my child, and myself!" Owen looked up to the sky. "The man who carries God in his heart and the Bible in his hand is protected." Later that morning, the Indian chief Baptiste came back to Stockard's camp. "Give me the priest," Baptiste demanded, "and I will let you go in peace. If you do not, you die." Sturges Owen grabbed his Bible. "I am not afraid," he said. "God will protect me and hold me in his right hand. I am ready to go with Baptiste to his village. I will save his soul for God." Hay Stockard shook his head. "Listen to me, Baptiste. I did not bring this priest here, but now that he is here, I can't let you kill him. Many of your people will die if we fight each other." Baptiste looked into Stockard's eyes. "But those who live," he said, "will not have the words of a strange God in their ears." After a moment of silence, Baptiste the Red turned and went back to his own camp. Sturges Owen called his two men to him and the three of them kneeled to pray. Stockard and his wife began to prepare the camp for battle. As they worked they heard the sound of war-drums in the village. As Sturges Owen waited and prayed, he began to feel his religious fever cooling. Fear replaced hope in his heart. The love of life took the place of the love of God in his mind. The love of life!? He could not stop himself from feeling it. Owen knew that Stockard also loved his life. But Stockard would choose death rather than shame. The war-drums boomed loudly. Suddenly they stopped. A flood of dark feet raced toward Stockard's camp. Arrows whistled through the air. A spear went through the body of Stockard's wife. Stockard's bullets answered back. Wave after wave of Indians warriors broke over the barrier. Sturges Owen ran into his tent. His two men died quickly. Hay Stockard alone remained on his feet, knocking the attacking Indians aside. Stockard held an ax in one hand and his gun in the other. Behind him, a hand grabbed Stockard's baby by its tiny leg and pulled it from under his mother's body. The Indian whipped the child through the air, smashing its head against a log. Stockard turned, and cut off the Indian's head with his ax. The circle of angry faces closed on Stockard. Two times they pushed up to him, but each time he beat them back. They fell under his feet as the ground became wet with blood. Finally, Baptiste called his men to him. "Stockard," he shouted. "You are a brave man. Deny your God and I will let you live!" Two Indians dragged Sturges Owen out of the tent. He was not hurt, but his eyes were wild with fear. He felt anger at God for making him so weak. Why had God given him faith without strength? Owen stood shaking before Baptiste the Red. "Where is your God now? " demanded the Indian chief. "I do not know," Owen whispered. "Do you have a God?" "I had." "And now?" "No." "Very good," Baptiste said. "See that this man goes free. Let nothing happen to him. And send him back to his own people so he can tell his priests about Baptiste the Red's land where there is no God." Baptiste turned to Hay Stockard. "There is no God," Baptiste said. Stockard laughed. One of the young Indian warriors lifted the war spear. "Do you have a God?" Baptiste shouted. Stockard took a deep breath. "Yes, he said, "the God of my fathers." The spear flew through the air and went deep into Stockard's chest. Sturges Owen saw Stockard fall slowly to the ground. Then the Indians put Owen in a canoe. Sturges Owen went down the river to carry the message of Baptiste the Red, in whose country there was no God. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The God of His Fathers."? It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Shep O'Neal. I'm Susan Clark. Listen again next week for another AMERICAN STORY in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa14.cfm
* Headline: To Build a Fire
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "To Build a Fire."? It was written by Jack London. Here is Harry Monroe with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: The man walked down the trail on a cold, gray day. Pure white snow and ice covered the Earth for as far as he could see. This was his first winter in Alaska. He was wearing heavy clothes and fur boots. But he still felt cold and uncomfortable. The man was on his way to a camp near Henderson Creek. His friends were already there. He expected to reach Henderson Creek by six o'clock that evening. It would be dark by then. His friends would have a fire and hot food ready for him. A dog walked behind the man. It was a big gray animal, half dog and half wolf. The dog did not like the extreme cold. It knew the weather was too cold to travel. The man continued to walk down the trail. He came to a frozen stream called Indian Creek. He began to walk on the snow-covered ice. It was a trail that would lead him straight to Henderson Creek and his friends. As he walked, he looked carefully at the ice in front of him. Once, he stopped suddenly, and then walked around a part of the frozen stream. He saw that an underground spring flowed under the ice at that spot. It made the ice thin. If he stepped there, he might break through the ice into a pool of water. To get his boots wet in such cold weather might kill him. His feet would turn to ice quickly. He could freeze to death. At about twelve o'clock, the man decided to stop to eat his lunch. He took off the glove on his right hand. He opened his jacket and shirt, and pulled out his bread and meat. This took less than twenty seconds. Yet, his fingers began to freeze. He hit his hand against his leg several times until he felt a sharp pain. Then he quickly put his glove on his hand. He made a fire, beginning with small pieces of wood and adding larger ones. He sat on a snow-covered log and ate his lunch. He enjoyed the warm fire for a few minutes. Then he stood up and started walking on the frozen stream again. A half hour later, it happened. At a place where the snow seemed very solid, the ice broke. The man's feet sank into the water. It was not deep, but his legs got wet to the knees. The man was angry. The accident would delay his arrival at the camp. He would have to build a fire now to dry his clothes and boots. He walked over to some small trees. They were covered with snow. In their branches were pieces of dry grass and wood left by flood waters earlier in the year. He put several large pieces of wood on the snow, under one of the trees. On top of the wood, he put some grass and dry branches. He pulled off his gloves, took out his matches, and lighted the fire. He fed the young flame with more wood. As the fire grew stronger, he gave it larger pieces of wood. He worked slowly and carefully. At sixty degrees below zero, a man with wet feet must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. While he was walking, his blood had kept all parts of his body warm. Now that he had stopped, cold was forcing his blood to withdraw deeper into his body. His wet feet had frozen. He could not feel his fingers. His nose was frozen, too. The skin all over his body felt cold. Now, however, his fire was beginning to burn more strongly. He was safe. He sat under the tree and thought of the old men in Fairbanks. The old men had told him that no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero. Yet here he was. He had had an accident. He was alone. And he had saved himself. He had built a fire. Those old men were weak, he thought. A real man could travel alone. If a man stayed calm, he would be all right. The man's boots were covered with ice. The strings on his boots were as hard as steel. He would have to cut them with his knife. He leaned back against the tree to take out his knife. Suddenly, without warning, a heavy mass of snow dropped down. His movement had shaken the young tree only a tiny bit. But it was enough to cause the branches of the tree to drop their heavy load. The man was shocked. He sat and looked at the place where the fire had been. The old men had been right, he thought. If he had another man with him, he would not be in any danger now. The other man could build the fire. Well, it was up to him to build the fire again. This time, he must not fail. The man collected more wood. He reached into his pocket for the matches. But his fingers were frozen. He could not hold them. He began to hit his hands with all his force against his legs. After a while, feeling came back to his fingers. The man reached again into his pocket for the matches. But the tremendous cold quickly drove the life out of his fingers. All the matches fell onto the snow. He tried to pick one up, but failed. The man pulled on his glove and again beat his hand against his leg. Then he took the gloves off both hands and picked up all the matches. He gathered them together. Holding them with both hands, he scratched the matches along his leg. They immediately caught fire. He held the blazing matches to a piece of wood. After a while, he became aware that he could smell his hands burning. Then he began to feel the pain. He opened his hands, and the blazing matches fell on to the snow. The flame went out in a puff of gray smoke. The man looked up. The dog was still watching him. The man got an idea. He would kill the dog and bury his hands inside its warm body. When the feeling came back to his fingers, he could build another fire. He called to the dog. The dog heard danger in the man's voice. It backed away. The man called again. This time the dog came closer. The man reached for his knife. But he had forgotten that he could not bend his fingers. He could not kill the dog, because he could not hold his knife. The fear of death came over the man. He jumped up and began to run. The running began to make him feel better. Maybe running would make his feet warm. If he ran far enough, he would reach his friends at Henderson Creek. They would take care of him. It felt strange to run and not feel his feet when they hit the ground. He fell several times. He decided to rest a while. As he lay in the snow, he noticed that he was not shaking. He could not feel his nose or fingers or feet. Yet, he was feeling quite warm and comfortable. He realized he was going to die. Well, he decided, he might as well take it like a man. There were worse ways to die. The man closed his eyes and floated into the most comfortable sleep he had ever known. The dog sat facing him, waiting. Finally, the dog moved closer to the man and caught the smell of death. The animal threw back its head. It let out a long, soft cry to the cold stars in the black sky. And then it tuned and ran toward Henderson Creek…where it knew there was food and a fire. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the AMERICAN STORY called "To Build a Fire."? It was written by Jack London and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Harry Monroe. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O'Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-24-voa15.cfm
* Headline: Keesh
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story this week is "Keesh."? It was written by Jack London. Here is Shep O’Neal to tell you the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller: Keesh lived at the edge of the polar sea. He had seen thirteen suns in the Eskimo way of keeping time. Among the Eskimos, the sun each winter leaves the land in darkness. And the next year, a new sun returns, so it might be warm again. The father of Keesh had been a brave man. But he had died hunting for food. Keesh was his only son. Keesh lived along with his mother, Ikeega. One night, the village council met in the big igloo of Klosh-kwan, the chief. Keesh was there with the others. He listened, then waited for silence. He said, “It is true that you give us some meat. But it is often old and tough meat, and has many bones.” The hunters were surprised. This was a child speaking against them. A child talking like a grown man! Keesh said, “My father, Bok, was a great hunter. It is said that Bok brought home more meat than any of the two best hunters. And that he divided the meat so that all got an equal share.” “Naah! Naah!” the hunters cried. “Put the child out! Send him to bed. He should not talk to gray-beards this way!” Keesh waited until the noise stopped. “You have a wife, Ugh-gluk,” he said. “And you speak for her. My mother has no one but me. So I speak. As I say, Bok hunted greatly, but is now dead. It is only fair then that my mother, who was his wife, and I, his son, should have meat when the tribe has meat. I, Keesh, son of Bok, have spoken.” Again, there was a great noise in the igloo. The council ordered Keesh to bed. It even talked of giving him no food. Keesh jumped to his feet. “Hear me!” he cried. “Never shall I speak in the council igloo again. I shall go hunt meat like my father, Bok.” There was much laughter when Keesh spoke of hunting. The laughter followed Keesh as he left the council meeting. The next day, Keesh started out for the shore, where the land meets the ice. Those who watched saw that he carried his bow and many arrows. Across his shoulder was his father’s big hunting spear. Again there was laughter. One day passed, then a second. On the third day, a great wind blew. There was no sign of Keesh. His mother, Ikeega, put burned seal oil on her face to show her sorrow. The women shouted at their men for letting the little boy go. The men made no answer, but got ready to search for the body of Keesh. Early next morning, Keesh walked into the village. Across his shoulders was fresh meat. “Go you men, with dogs and sleds. Follow my footsteps. Travel for a day,” he said. “There is much meat on the ice. A she-bear and her two cubs.” His mother was very happy. Keesh, trying to be a man, said to her, “Come, Ikeega, let us eat. And after that, I shall sleep. For I am tired.” There was much talk after Keesh went to his igloo. The killing of a bear was dangerous. But it was three times more dangerous to kill a mother bear with cubs. The men did not believe Keesh had done so. But the women pointed to the fresh meat. At last, the men agreed to go for the meat that was left. But they were not very happy. One said that even if Keesh had killed the bear, he probably had not cut the meat into pieces. But when the men arrived, they found that Keesh had not only killed the bear, but had also cut it into pieces, just like a grown hunter. So began the mystery of Keesh. On his next trip, he killed a young bear…and on the following trip, a large male bear and its mate. Then there was talk of magic and witchcraft in the village. “He hunts with evil spirits,” said one. “Maybe his father’s spirit hunts with him,” said another. Keesh continued to bring meat to the village. Some people thought he was a great hunter. There was talk of making him chief, after old Klosh-kwan. They waited, hoping he would come to council meetings. But he never came. “I would like to build an igloo.” Keesh said one day, “but I have no time. My job is hunting. So it would be just if the men and women of the village who eat my meat, build my igloo.” And the igloo was built. It was even bigger than the igloo of the Chief Klosh-kwan. One day, Ugh-gluk talked to Keesh. “It is said that you hunt with evil spirits, and they help you kill the bear.” “Is not the meat good?” Keesh answered. “Has anyone in the village yet become sick after eating it? How do you know evil spirits are with me? Or do you say it because I am a good hunter?” Ugh-gluk had no answer. The council sat up late talking about Keesh and the meat. They decided to spy on him. On Keesh’s next trip, two young hunters, Bim and Bawn, followed him. After five days, they returned. The council met to hear their story. “Brothers,” Bim said, “we followed Keesh, and he did not see us. The first day he came to a great bear. Keesh shouted at the bear, loudly. The bear saw him and became angry. It rose high on its legs and growled. But Keesh walked up to it.” “We saw it,” Bawn, the other hunter, said. “The bear began to run toward Keesh. Keesh ran away. But as he ran, he dropped a little round ball on the ice. The bear stopped and smelled the ball, then ate it. Keesh continued to run, dropping more balls on the ice. The bear followed and ate the balls.” The council members listened to every word. Bim continued the story. “The bear suddenly stood up straight and began to shout in pain. “Evil spirits,” said Ugh-gluk. I do not know,” said Bawn. “I can tell only what my eyes saw. The bear grew weak. Then it sat down and pulled at its own fur with its sharp claws. Keesh watched the bear that whole day.” “For three more days, Keesh continued to watch the bear. It was getting weaker and weaker. Keesh moved carefully up to the bear and pushed his father’s spear into it.” “And then?” asked Klosh-kwan. “And then we left.” That afternoon, the council talked and talked. When Keesh arrived in the village, the council sent a messenger to ask him to come to the meeting. But Keesh said he was tired and hungry. He said his igloo was big and could hold many people, if the council wanted a meeting. Klosh-kwan led the council to the igloo of Keesh. Keesh was eating, but he welcomed them. Klosh-kwan told Keesh that two hunters had seen him kill a bear. And then, in a serious voice to Keesh, he said, “We want to know how you did it.” Did you use magic and witchcraft?” Keesh looked up and smiled. “No, Klosh-kwan. I am a boy. I know nothing of magic or witchcraft. But I have found an easy way to kill the ice-bear. It is head-craft, not witchcraft.” “And will you tell us, O Keesh?” Klosh-kwan asked in a shaking voice. “I will tell you. It is very simple. Watch.” Keesh picked up a thin piece of whalebone. The ends were pointed and sharp as a knife. Keesh bent the bone into a circle. Suddenly he let the bone go, and it became straight with a sharp snap. He picked up a piece of seal meat. “So,” he said, “first make a circle with a sharp, thin piece of whale bone. Put the circle of bone inside some seal meat. Put it in the snow to freeze. The bear eats the ball of meat with the circle of bone inside. When the meat gets inside the bear, the meat gets warm, and the bone goes snap! The sharp points make the bear sick. It is easy to kill then. It is simple.” Ugh-gluk said, “Ohhh!” Klosh-kwan said “Ahh!”? Each said something in his own way. And all understood. That is the story of Keesh, who lived long ago on the edge of the polar sea. Because he used head-craft, instead of witchcraft, he rose from the poorest igloo to be the chief in the village. And for all the years that followed, his people were happy. No one cried at night with pains of hunger. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "Keesh."? It was written by Jack London. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More Than Half of All Languages in the World Are in Danger of Disappearing
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the loss of languages and attempts to save them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: About six thousand languages are spoken in the world today. But experts estimate that more than half of them are in danger of disappearing. The endangered languages are spoken by some older members of native groups, but not used for everyday life by younger members. As the old people die, the language dies with them. VOICE TWO: Until recently, most people were not worried about the loss of languages. There was much more concern about the loss of different kinds of plants and animals. Now, scientists, cultural experts and many other people are concerned about protecting the different languages in the world. They know that when a language is lost, the culture and much of the knowledge of the native community may be lost with it. Languages are the means by which people seek to explain the world they live in. Information about the natural world, such as plants that can be used to heal, often is lost when the language dies. Some experts say the death of any language is a loss for everyone, not just for the native people who once spoke it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the last century, government suppression of native languages was common around the world, including the United States. In eighteen sixty-eight, President President Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant appointed a federal committee to try to make peace with American Indian tribes. The tribes were fighting to protect their lands. The committee decided that language differences were the problem. It said that all people in the United States should speak the same language so they would think the same way. It said American Indian children should be taken from their homes and sent to live in government boarding schools where they would speak only English. The federal government established its first boarding school for American Indian children in eighteen seventy-nine. Children were punished if they spoke their native languages. For fifty years, thousands of Native American children were sent to these schools to live, work and be educated in English. By the late nineteen thirties, many of the schools had closed. But their effects on American Indian languages continued. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen sixties, interest in saving native cultures and languages grew. Government policies changed. By nineteen sixty-eight, the American government helped start some of the first tribal language programs in the public school system. In nineteen ninety, a Native American organization reported to Congress about the importance of saving and using tribal languages. It said information about the past and about spiritual, ceremonial and natural worlds is passed on through spoken language. Without the language, the group said, a culture can be damaged beyond repair. That year the United States Congress passed the Native American Languages Act. It established a federal policy aimed at saving the languages of American Indian tribes. But the years of government attempts to force American Indians to speak English meant many tribal languages were in danger or dead. VOICE ONE: Government suppression is not the only reason languages are lost around the world. Younger people leave their native communities to get jobs in cities where they use only the language of the majority. Wars, floods, lack of rain, or loss of land to development can force members of a community to leave their traditional homelands. They flee to other countries to live with speakers of other languages. And in recent years, television, movies and the Internet have made English a worldwide language of communication. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization is trying to solve this problem. It has been taking steps to develop international policies to support native cultures and save endangered languages. In two thousand one, Unesco passed the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. It has several goals: To protect all languages. To support the use and teaching of native languages at all levels of education. And to help provide other languages on the Internet. VOICE ONE: Unesco has a new project to help save languages. It is called the Register of Good Practices in Language Preservation. It is collecting reports of successful experiences of communities in creating new speakers of their languages. These include developing school programs, training teachers, creating pride in a community and developing computer programs in a native language. The information gathered will be shared through the Internet. VOICE TWO: The Indigenous Language Institute is a center in the United States for efforts to save native languages. It began in nineteen ninety-two. The headquarters of the institute is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Inee Slaughter is the director of the organization. Miz Slaughter says the guiding principle of the institute is to help create speakers of native languages. Miz Slaughter says a language is not a living language unless it is spoken. She says the Indigenous Language Institute must act quickly because within ten years it may be impossible to save many of the languages. Speakers of native languages are dying faster than new speakers are learning the language. VOICE ONE: The Indigenous Language Institute has worked with about one hundred tribes to help them find ways to keep their languages alive. Miz Slaughter says the institute is reaching out to all tribes through its Internet Web site, www.indigenous-language.org. On the Web site, there are examples of successful language programs, reports about conferences and links to other organizations working to save languages. VOICE TWO: One of the Indigenous Language Institute’s projects is the publication of a series of books called “Awakening Our Languages.”? A team of tribal language experts visited fifty-four tribes in the United States. The team wanted to find out how many members of the tribe spoke the native language and what was being done to increase the number of speakers. Information about successful programs and methods of teaching languages are included in the series. Another project is the Language Materials Development Center. Experts are developing and testing language materials as models for communities to use. The institute is also providing technical training so Native language speakers can use computers as tools for teaching languages. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts are trying many methods to increase speakers of endangered languages. Some projects are small. For example, a language speaker and a learner meet every day for an hour to talk. Other projects are large, such as schools where students are taught only in their native language. Miz Slaughter says that one success story is in the American state of Hawaii. In nineteen eighty-three Native Hawaiians began to teach their own language to very young children. They started creating an immersion school where only the Hawaiian language would be used. The idea was based on a school established by the Maori people in New Zealand. VOICE TWO: Hawaii’s Punana Leo or “language nest” project began with a group of young children in pre-school. Now there are eleven pre-schools in the Punana Leo project. And there are several schools where students from ages three to eighteen are taught all subjects in Hawaiian. When the project began, fewer than fifty children in Hawaii spoke Hawaiian. Today, almost two thousand children are able to speak their native language. Parents of the students are very involved in the Punana Leo schools. Some of them are learning the language along with their children so they can speak Hawaiian at home. Miz Slaughter says family involvement is important so the language is used outside of the school walls. A language needs to be used and spoken in all activities of everyday life to be alive in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bartleby
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story this week is called “Bartleby."? It was written by Herman Melville, one of America’s best-known writers. Here is Shep O’Neal to tell you the story in Special English. (MUSIC) Storyteller: I am an old lawyer, and I have three men working for me. My business continued to grow and so I decided to get one more man to help write legal papers. I have met a great many people in my days, but the man who answered my advertisement was the strangest person I have ever heard of or met. He stood outside my office and waited for me to speak. He was a small man, quiet and dressed in a clean but old suit of clothes. I asked him his name. It was Bartleby. At first Bartleby almost worked himself too hard writing the legal papers I gave him. He worked through the day by sunlight, and into the night by candlelight. I was happy with his work, but not happy with the way he worked. He was too quiet. But, he worked well…like a machine, never looking or speaking. One day, I asked Bartleby to come to my office to study a legal paper with me. Without moving from his chair, Bartleby said: “I do not want to.” I sat for a short time, too surprised to move. Then I became excited. “You do not want to. What do you mean, are you sick? I want you to help me with this paper.” “I do not want to.” His face was calm. His eyes showed no emotion. He was not angry. This is strange, I thought. What should I do? But, the telephone rang, and I forgot the problem for the time being. A few days later, four long documents came into the office. They needed careful study, and I decided to give one document to each of my men. I called and all came to my office. But not Bartleby. “Bartleby, quick, I am waiting.” He came, and stood in front of me for a moment. “I don’t want to,” he said then turned and went back to his desk. I was so surprised, I could not move. There was something about Bartleby that froze me, yet, at the same time, made me feel sorry for him. As time passed, I saw that Bartleby never went out to eat dinner. Indeed, he never went anywhere. At eleven o’clock each morning, one of the men would bring Bartleby some ginger cakes. “Umm. He lives on them,” I thought. “Poor fellow!” He is a little foolish at times, but he is useful to me. “Bartleby,” I said one afternoon. “Please go to the post office and bring my mail.” “I do not want to.” I walked back to my office too shocked to think. Let’s see, the problem here is…one of my workers named Bartleby will not do some of the things I ask him to do. One important thing about him though, he is always in his office. One Sunday I walked to my office to do some work. When I placed the key in the door, I couldn’t open it. I stood a little surprised, then called, thinking someone might be inside. There was. Bartleby. He came from his office and told me he did not want to let me in. The idea of Bartleby living in my law office had a strange effect on me. I slunk away much like a dog does when it has been shouted at…with its tail between its legs. Was anything wrong? I did not for a moment believe Bartleby would keep a woman in my office. But for some time he must have eaten, dressed and slept there. How lonely and friendless Bartleby must be. I decided to help him. The next morning I called him to my office. “Bartleby, will you tell me anything about yourself?” “I do not want to.” I sat down with him and said, “You do not have to tell me about your personal history, but when you finish writing that document… “I have decided not to write anymore,” he said. And left my office. What was I to do? Bartleby would not work at all. Then why should he stay on his job? I decided to tell him to go. I gave him six days to leave the office and told him I would give him some extra money. If he would not work, he must leave. On the sixth day, somewhat hopefully, I looked into the office Bartleby used. He was still there. The next morning, I went to the office early. All was still. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Bartleby’s voice came from inside. I stood as if hit by lightening. I walked the streets thinking. “Well, Bartleby, if you will not leave me, I shall leave you.” I paid some men to move all the office furniture to another place. Bartleby just stood there as the men took his chair away. “Goodbye Bartleby, I am going. Goodbye and God be with you. Here take this money.”? I placed it in his hands. It dropped to the floor; and then, strange to say, I had difficulty leaving the person I wanted to leave me. A few days later, a stranger visited me in my new office. “You are responsible for the man you left in your last office,” he said. The owner of the building has given me a court order which says you must take him away. We tried to make him leave, but he returned and troubles the others there. I went back to my old office and found Bartleby sitting on the empty floor. “Bartleby, one of two things must happen. I will get you a different job, or you can go to work for some other lawyer.” He said he did not like either choice. “Bartleby, will you come home with me and stay there until we decide what you will do?” He answered softly, “No, I do not want to make any changes.” I answered nothing more. I fled. I rode around the city and visited places of historic interest, anything to get Bartleby off my mind. When I entered my office later, I found a message for me. Bartleby had been taken to prison. I found him there, and when he saw me he said: “I know you, and I have nothing to say to you.” “But I didn’t put you here, Bartleby.” I was deeply hurt. I told him I gave the prison guard money to buy him a good dinner. “I do not want to eat today, he said. I never eat dinner.” Days passed, and I went to see Bartleby again. I was told he was sleeping in the prison yard outside. Sleeping?? The thin Bartleby was lying on the cold stones. I stooped to look at the small man lying on his side with his knees against his chest. I walked closer and looked down at him. His eyes were open. He seemed to be in a deep sleep. “Won’t he eat today, either, or does he live without eating?” the guard asked. “Lives without eating,” I answered…and closed his eyes. “Uh…he is asleep isn’t he?” the guard said. “With kings and lawyers,” I answered. One little story came to me some days after Bartleby died. I learned he had worked for many years in the post office. He was in a special office that opened all the nation’s letters that never reach the person they were written to. It is called the dead letter office. The letters are not written clearly, so the mailmen cannot read the addresses. Well, poor Bartleby had to read the letters, to see if anyone’s name was written clearly so they could be sent. Think of it. From one letter a wedding ring fell, the finger it was bought for perhaps lies rotting in the grave. Another letter has money to help someone long since dead. Letters filled with hope for those who died without hope. Poor Bartleby! He himself had lost all hope. His job had killed something inside him. Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity! (MUSIC) Announcer: You have heard an AMERICAN STORY called "Bartleby."? It was written by Herman Melville. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Studies Support Wider Use of a Drug for Some Breast Cancers
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report. Three studies show that a drug used to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer after it has spread also can treat it earlier. Results of the studies involving the drug Herceptin have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. They show that in some cases it cut by about fifty percent the chance that the cancer would reappear. The drug targets the kind of breast cancer known as H.E.R. two, or HER-two, positive. Women who produce too much of the HER-two protein have a cancer that is especially fast-growing. Researchers say about fifteen to twenty-five percent of women with breast cancer have this kind. Doctors can remove the cancer, but it is more likely than others to return. More than eight thousand women took part in the studies in Europe and North America. All had early HER-two positive breast cancer. The European study followed the progress of women for up to two years. The researchers say the cancer returned in twenty-three percent of those not receiving Herceptin. Only fourteen percent of the women who received the drug experienced a return of the cancer. The other two studies involved women who were treated with an operation, chemotherapy drugs and, in some cases, Herceptin. Thirty-three percent of the women who did not receive Herceptin had their cancer return within four years. This happened to only fifteen percent of those treated with Herceptin. Herceptin is an antibody that attaches itself to the HER-two gene on cancerous growths. It slows or stops the cancer from growing. Treatment must continue for one year. It costs about forty-eight thousand dollars. The studies showed possible heart-related risks. About four percent of the women who took Herceptin along with other drugs suffered serious heart problems. The rate was only about half of one percent when patients took Herceptin within one year of completing other drug treatment. The researchers are not sure why these heart problems appeared. They say more and longer studies are needed to answer this and other questions about the drug. American doctors are being urged to treat early HER-two breast cancer with Herceptin. But some say it will take years to prove that these results can be repeated with all HER-two breast cancer patients. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa4.cfm
* Headline: The Diamond Lens, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "The Diamond Lens. " It was written by Fitz-James O'Brien. We will tell the story in two parts. Now, here is Maurice Joyce with part one of "The Diamond Lens." (MUSIC) Storyteller:? When I was ten years old, one of my older cousins gave me a microscope. The first time I looked through its magic lens, the clouds that surrounded my daily life rolled away. I saw a universe of tine living creatures in a drop of water. Day after day, night after nigh, I studied life under my microscope. The fungus that spoiled my mother’s jam was, for me, a land of magic gardens. I would put one of those spots of green mold under my microscope and see beautiful forests, where strange silver and golden fruit hung from the branches of tiny trees. I felt as if I had discovered another Garden of Eden. Although I didn’t tell anyone about my secret world, I decided to spend my life studying the microscope. My parents had other plans for me. When I was nearly twenty years old, they insisted that I learn a profession even though we were a rich family, and I really didn’t have to work at all. I decided to study medicine in New York. This city was far away from my family, so I could spend my time as I pleased. As long as I paid my medical school fees every year, my family would never know I wasn’t attending any classes. In New York, I would be able to buy excellent microscopes and meet scientists from all over the world. I would have plenty of money and plenty of time to spend on my dream. I left home with high hopes. Two days after I arrived in New York, I found a place to live. It was large enough for me to use one of the rooms as my laboratory. I filled this room with expensive scientific equipment that I did not know how to use. But by the end of my first year in the city, I had become an expert with the microscope. I also had become more and more unhappy. The lens in my expensive microscope was still not strong enough to answer my questions about life. I imagined there were still secrets in Nature that the limited power of my equipment prevented me from knowing. I lay awake nights, wishing to find the perfect lens – an instrument of great magnifying power. Such a lens would permit me to see life in the smallest parts of its development. I was sure that a powerful lens like that could be built. And I spent my second year in New York trying to create it. I experimented with every kind of material. I tried simple glass, crystal and even precious stones. But I always found myself back where I started. My parents were angry at the lack of progress in my medical studies. I had not gone to one class since arriving in New York. Also, I had spent a lot of money on my experiments. One day, while I was working in my laboratory, Jules Simon knocked at my door. He lived in the apartment just above mine. I knew he loved jewelry, expensive clothing and good living. There was something mysterious about him, too. He always had something to sell: a painting, a rare stature, an expensive pair of lamps. I never understood why Simon did this. He didn’t seem to need the money. He had many friends among the best families of New York. Simon was very excited as he came into my laboratory. “O my deer fellow!” he gasped. “I have just seen the most amazing thing in the world!” He told me he had gone to visit a woman who had strange, magical powers. She could speak to the dead and read the minds of the living. To test her, Simon had written some questions about himself on a piece of paper. The woman, Madame Vulpes, had answered all of the questions correctly. Hearing about the woman gave me an idea. Perhaps she would be able to help me discover the secret of the perfect lens. Two days later, I went to her house. Madame Vulpes was an ugly woman with sharp, cruel eyes. She didn’t say a word to me when she opened the door, but took me right into her living room. We sat down at a large round table, and she spoke. “What do you want from me?” “I want to speak to a person who died many years before I was born.” “Put your hands on the table.” We sat there for several minutes. The room grew darker and darker. But Madame Vulpes did not turn on any lights. I began to feel a little silly. Then I felt a series of violent knocks. They shook the table, the back of my chair, the floor under my feet and even the windows. Madam Vulpes smiled. “They are very strong tonight. You are lucky. They want you to write down the name of the spirit you wish to talk to.” I tore a piece of paper out of my notebook and wrote down a name. I didn’t show it to Madame Vulpes. After a moment, Madame Vulpes’ hand began to shake so hard the table move. She said the spirit was now holding her hand and would write me a message. I gave her paper and a pencil. She wrote something and gave the paper to me. The message read: “I am her. Question me.” I was signed “Leeuwenhoek.” I couldn’t believe my eyes. The name was the same one I had written on my piece of paper. I was sure that an ignorant woman like Madame Vulpes would not know who Leeuwenhoek was. Why would she know the name of the man who invented the microscope? Quickly, I wrote a question on another piece of paper. “How can I create the perfect lens?” Leeuwenhoek wrote back: “Find a diamond of one hundred and forty carats. Give it a strong electrical charge. The electricity will change the diamond’s atoms. From that stone you can form the perfect lens.” I left Madame Vulpes’ house in a state of painful excitement. Where would I find a diamond that large? All my family’s money could not buy a diamond like that. And even if I had enough money, I knew that such diamonds are very difficult to find. When I came home, I saw a light in Simon’s window. I climbed the stairs to his apartment and went in without knocking. Simon’s back was toward me as he bent over a lamp. He looked as if he were carefully studying a small object in his hands. As soon as he heard me enter, he put the object in his pocket. His face became red, and he seemed very nervous. “What are you looking at?” I asked. Simon didn’t answer me. Instead, he laughed nervously and told me to sit down. I couldn’t wait to tell him my news. “Simon, I have just come from Madame Vulpes. She gave me some important information that will help me find the perfect lens. If only I could find a diamond that weighs one hundred forty carats!” My words seemed to change Simon into a wild animal. He rushed to a small table and grabbed a long, thin knife. “No!” he shouted. “You won’t get my treasure! I’ll die before I give it to you!” “My dear Simon,” I said, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I went to Madame Vulpes to ask her for help with a scientific problem. She told me I needed an enormous diamond. You could not possible own a diamond that large. If you did, you would be very rich. And you wouldn’t be living here.” He stared at me for a second. Then he laughed and apologized. “Simon,” I suggested, “let us drink some wine and forget all this. I have two bottles downstairs in my apartment. What do you think?” “I like your idea,” he said. I brought the wine to his apartment, and we began to drink. By the time we had finished the first bottle, Simon was very sleepy and very drunk. I felt as calm as ever…for I believed that I knew Simon’s secret. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard part one of the "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien. It was adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Maurice Joyce. Listen again next week for the final part of our story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa5.cfm
* Headline: The Diamond Lens, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Announcer:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story is called "The Diamond Lens. " It was written by Fitz-James O'Brien. Today we will hear the second and final part of the story. Here is Maurice Joyce with part two of "The Diamond Lens." (MUSIC) Storyteller: When I was a child, someone gave me a microscope. I spent hours looking through that microscope, exploring Nature's tiny secrets. As I grew up, I became more interested in my microscope than in people. When I was twenty years old, my parents sent me to New York City to study medicine. I never went to any of my classes. Instead, I spent all my time, and a lot of my money, trying to build the perfect microscope. I wanted to make a powerful lens that would let me see even the smallest parts of life. But all my experiments failed. Then one day, I met a young man, who lived in the apartment above mine. Jules Simon told me about a woman who could speak to the dead. When I visited Madame Vulpes, she let me speak to the spirit of the man who invented the microscope. The spirit of Anton Leeuwenhoek told me how to make a perfect lens from a diamond of one hundred forty carats. But where could I find a diamond that big? When I returned home, I went to Simon's apartment. He was surprised to see me and tried to hide a small object in his pocket. I wanted to discover what it was, so I brought two bottles of wine to his apartment. We began to drink. By the time we had finished the first bottle, Simon was very drunk. "Simon, I know you have a secret. Why don't you tell me about it?" Something in my voice must have made him feel safe. He made me promise to keep his secret. Then he took a small box from his pocket. When he opened it, I saw a large diamond shaped like a rose. A pure white light seemed to come from deep inside the diamond. Simon told me he had stolen the diamond from a man in South America. He said it weighed exactly one hundred forty carats. Excitement shook my body. I could not believe my luck. On the same evening that the spirit of Leeuwenhoek tells me the secret of the perfect lens, I find the diamond I need to create it. I decided to steal Simon's treasure. I sat across the table from him as he drank another glass of wine. I knew I could not simply steal the diamond. Simon would call the police. There was only one way to get the diamond. I had to kill Simon. Everything I needed to murder Simon was right there in his apartment. A bottle full of sleeping powder was on a table near his bed. A long thin knife lay on the table. Simon was so busy looking at his diamond that I was able to put the drug in his glass quite easily. He fell asleep in fifteen minutes. I put his diamond in my pocket and carried Simon to the bed. I wanted to make the police think Simon had killed himself. I picked up Simon's long thin knife and stared down at him. I tried to imagine exactly how the knife would enter Simon's heart if he were holding the knife himself. I pushed the knife deep into his heart. I heard a sound come from his throat, like the bursting of a large bubble. His body moved and his right hand grabbed the handle of the knife. He must have died immediately. I washed our glasses and took the two wine bottles away with me. I left the lights on, closed the door and went back to my apartment. Simon's death was not discovered until three o'clock the next day. One of the neighbors knocked at his door and when there was no answer, she called the police. They discovered Simon's body on the bed. The police questioned everyone. But they did not learn the truth. The police finally decided Jules Simon had killed himself, and soon everyone forgot about him. I had committed the perfect crime. For three months after Simon's death, I worked day and night on my diamond lens. At last the lens was done. My hands shook as I put a drop of water on a piece of glass. Carefully, I added some oil to the water to prevent it from drying. I turned on a strong light under the glass and looked through the diamond lens. For a moment, I saw nothing in that drop of water. And then I saw a pure white light. Carefully, I moved the lens of my microscope closer to the drop of water. Slowly, the white light began to change. It began to form shapes. I could see clouds and wonderful trees and flowers. These plants were the most unusual colors: bright reds, greens, purples, as well as silver and gold. The branches of these trees moved slowly in a soft wind. Everywhere I looked, I could see fruits and flowers of a thousand different colors. "How strange," I thought, "that this beautiful place has no animal life in it." Then, I saw something moving slowly among the brightly-colored trees and bushes. The branches of a purple and silver bush were gently pushed aside. And, there, before my eye, stood the most beautiful woman I had ever seen! She was perfect: pink skin, large blue eyes and long golden hair that fell over her shoulders to her knees. She stepped away from the rainbow-colored trees. Like a flower floating on water, she drifted through the air. Watching her move was like listening to the sound of tiny bells ringing in the wind. She went to the rainbow-colored trees and looked up at one of them. The tree moved one of its branches that was full of fruit. It lowered the branch to her, and she took one of the fruits. She turned it in her tiny hands and began to eat. How I wished I had the power to enter that bright light and float with her through those beautiful forests. Suddenly, I realized I had fallen in love with this tiny creature! I loved someone who would never love me back. Someone who is a prisoner in a drop of water. I ran out of the room, threw myself on my bed and cried until I fell asleep. Day after day, I returned to my microscope to watch her. I never left my apartment. I rarely even ate or slept. One day, as usual, I went to my microscope, ready to watch my love. She was there, but a terrible change had taken place. Her face had become thin, and she could hardly walk. The wonderful light in her golden hair and blues eyes was gone. At that moment, I would have given my soul to become as small as she and enter her world to help her. What was causing her to be so sick? She seemed in great pain. I watched her for hours, helpless and alone with my breaking heart. She grew weaker and weaker. The forest also was changing. The trees were losing their wonderful colors. Suddenly, I realized I had not looked at the drop of water for several days. I had looked into it with the microscope, but not at it. As soon as I looked at the glass under the microscope, I understood the horrible truth. I had forgotten to add more oil to the drop of water to stop it from drying. The drop of water had disappeared. I rushed again to look through the lens. The rainbow forests were all gone. My love lay in a spot of weak light. Her pink body was dried and wrinkled. Her eyes were black as dust. Slowly she disappeared forever. I fainted and woke many hours later on pieces of my microscope. I had fallen on it when I fainted. My mind was as broken as the diamond lens. I crawled to my bed and withdrew from the world. I finally got better, months later. But all my money was gone. People now say I am crazy. They call me "Linley, the mad scientist." No one believes I spoke to the spirit of Leeuwenhoek. They laugh when I tell them how I killed Jules Simon and stole his diamond to make the perfect lens. They think I never saw that beautiful world in a drop of water. But I know the truth of the diamond lens. And now, so do you. (MUSIC) Announcer:? You have just heard "The Diamond Lens" by Fitz-James O'Brien. It was adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Maurice Joyce. Listen again next week for another AMERICAN STORY told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa6.cfm
* Headline: The Cask of Amontillado
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "The Cask of Amontillado." It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Here is Larry West with the story.(MUSIC) Storyteller:? Fortunato and I both were members of very old and important Italian families. We used to play together when we were children. Fortunato was bigger, richer and more handsome than I was. And he enjoyed making me look like a fool. He hurt my feelings a thousand times during the years of my childhood. I never showed my anger, however. So, he thought we were good friends. But I promised myself that one day I would punish Fortunato for his insults to me. Many years passed. Fortunato married a rich and beautiful woman who gave him sons. Deep in my heart I hated him, but I never said or did anything that showed him how I really felt. When I smiled at him, he thought it was because we were friends. He did not know it was the thought of his death that made me smile. Everyone in our town respected Fortunato. Some men were afraid of him because he was so rich and powerful. He had a weak spot, however. He thought he was an excellent judge of wine. I also was an expert on wine. I spent a lot of money buying rare and costly wines. I stored the wines in the dark rooms under my family's palace. Our palace was one of the oldest buildings in the town. The Montresor family had lived in it for hundreds of years. We had buried our dead in the rooms under the palace. These tombs were quiet, dark places that no one but myself ever visited. Late one evening during carnival season, I happened to meet Fortunato on the street. He was going home alone from a party. Fortunato was beautiful in his silk suit made of many colors: yellow, green, purple and red. On his head he wore an orange cap, covered with little silver bells. I could see he had been drinking too much wine. He threw his arms around me. He said he was glad to see me. I said I was glad to see him, too because I had a little problem."What is it?" he asked, putting his large hand on my shoulder. "My dear Fortunato," I said, "I'm afraid I have been very stupid. The man who sells me wine said he had a rare barrel of Amontillado wine. I believed him and I bought it from him. But now, I am not so sure that the wine is really Amontillado."?"What!" he said, "A cask of Amontillado at this time of year. An entire barrel? Impossible!" "Yes, I was very stupid. I paid the wine man the full price he wanted without asking you to taste the wine first. But I couldn't find you and I was afraid he would sell the cask of Amontillado to someone else. So I bought it." "A cask of Amontillado!" Fortunato repeated. "Where is it?" I pretended I didn't hear his question. Instead I told him I was going to visit our friend Lucresi. "He will be able to tell me if the wine is really Amontillado," I said. Fortunato laughed in my face. "Lucresi cannot tell Amontillado from vinegar."?I smiled to myself and said "But some people say that he is as good a judge of wine as you are."?Fortunato grabbed my arm. "Take me to it," he said. "I'll taste the Amontillado for you."?"But my friend," I protested, "it is late. The wine is in my wine cellar, underneath the palace. Those rooms are very damp and cold and the walls drip with water."?"I don't care," he said. "I am the only person who can tell you if your wine man has cheated you. Lucresi cannot!" Fortunato turned, and still holding me by the arm, pulled me down the street to my home. The building was empty. My servants were enjoying carnival. I knew they would be gone all night. I took two large candles, lit them and gave one to Fortunato. I started down the dark, twisting stairway with Fortunato close behind me. At the bottom of the stairs, the damp air wrapped itself around our bodies."Where are we?" Fortunato asked. "I thought you said the cask of Amontillado was in your wine cellar." "It is," I said. "The wine cellar is just beyond these tombs where the dead of my family are kept. Surely, you are not afraid of walking through the tombs. He turned and looked into my eyes. "Tombs?" he said. He began to cough. The silver bells on his cap jingled. "My poor friend," I said, "how long have you had that cough?"?"It's nothing," he said, but he couldn't stop coughing."Come," I said firmly, "we will go back upstairs. Your health is important.You are rich, respected, admired, and loved. You have a wife and children. Many people would miss you if you died. We will go back before you get seriously ill. I can go to Lucresi for help with the wine." "No!" he cried. "This cough is nothing. It will not kill me. I won't die from a cough."?"That is true," I said, "but you must be careful." He took my arm and we began to walk through the cold, dark rooms. We went deeper and deeper into the cellar.Finally, we arrived in a small room. Bones were pushed high against one wall. A doorway in another wall opened to an even smaller room, about one meter wide and two meters high. Its walls were solid rock. "Here we are," I said. "I hid the cask of Amontillado in there." I pointed to the smaller room. Fortunato lifted his candle and stepped into the tiny room. I immediately followed him. He stood stupidly staring at two iron handcuffs chained to a wall of the tiny room. I grabbed his arms and locked them into the metal handcuffs. It took only a moment. He was too surprised to fight me. I stepped outside the small room. "Where is the Amontillado?" he cried. "Ah yes," I said, "the cask of Amontillado." I leaned over and began pushing aside the pile of bones against the wall. Under the bones was a basket of stone blocks, some cement and a small shovel. I had hidden the materials there earlier. I began to fill the doorway of the tiny room with stones and cement. By the time I laid the first row of stones Fortunato was no longer drunk. I heard him moaning inside the tiny room for ten minutes. Then there was a long silence.I finished the second and third rows of stone blocks. As I began the fourth row, I heard Fortunato begin to shake the chains that held him to the wall. He was trying to pull them out of the granite wall. I smiled to myself and stopped working so that I could better enjoy listening to the noise. After a few minutes, he stopped. I finished the fifth, the sixth and the seventh rows of stones. The wall I was building in the doorway was now almost up to my shoulders.Suddenly, loud screams burst from the throat of the chained man. For a moment I worried. What if someone heard him? Then I placed my hand on the solid rock of the walls and felt safe. I looked into the tiny room, where he was still screaming. And I began to scream, too. My screams grew louder than his and he stopped. It was now almost midnight. I finished the eighth, the ninth and the tenth rows. All that was left was a stone for the last hole in the wall. I was about to push it in when I heard a low laugh from behind the stones.The laugh made the hair on my head stand up. Then Fortunato spoke, in a sad voice that no longer sounded like him. He said, "Well, you have played a good joke on me. We will laugh about it soon over a glass of that Amontillado. But isn't it getting late. My wife and my friends will be waiting for us. Let us go." "Yes," I replied, "let us go." I waited for him to say something else. I heard only my own breathing. "Fortunato!" I called. No answer. I called again. "Fortunato!"? Still no answer. I hurried to put the last stone into the wall and put the cement around it. Then I pushed the pile of bones in front of the new wall I had built. That was fifty years ago. For half a century now, no one has touched those bones. "May he rest in peace!" (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "The Cask of Amontillado. " It was written by Edgar Allan Poe and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Larry West. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O'Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa8.cfm
* Headline: Luck
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "Luck."? It was written by Mark Twain. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? I was at a dinner in London given in honor of one of the most celebrated English military men of his time. I do not want to tell you his real name and titles. I will just call him Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby. I cannot describe my excitement when I saw this great and famous man. There he sat, the man himself, in person, all covered with medals. I could not take my eyes off him. He seemed to show the true mark of greatness. His fame had no effect on him. The hundreds of eyes watching him, the worship of so many people did not seem to make any difference to him. Next to me sat a clergyman, who was an old friend of mine. He was not always a clergyman. During the first half of his life he was a teacher in the military school at Woolwich. There was a strange look in his eye as he leaned toward me and whispered – “Privately – he is a complete fool.” He meant, of course, the hero of our dinner. This came as a shock to me. I looked hard at him. I could not have been more surprised if he has said the same thing about Nepoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon. But I was sure of two things about the clergyman. He always spoke the truth. And, his judgment of men was good. Therefore, I wanted to find out more about our hero as soon as I could. Some days later I got a chance to talk with the clergyman, and he told me more. These are his exact words: About forty years ago, I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich, when young Scoresby was given his first examination. I felt extremely sorry for him. Everybody answered the questions well, intelligently, while he – why, dear me – he did not know anything, so to speak. He was a nice, pleasant young man. It was painful to see him stand there and give answers that were miracles of stupidity. I knew of course that when examined again he would fail and be thrown out. So, I said to myself, it would be a simple, harmless act to help him as much as I could. I took him aside and found he knew a little about Julius Ceasar’s history. But, he did not know anything else. So, I went to work and tested him and worked him like a slave. I made him work, over and over again, on a few questions about Ceasar, which I knew he would be asked. If you will believe me, he came through very well on the day of the examination. He got high praise too, while others who knew a thousand times more than he were sharply criticized. By some strange, lucky accident, he was asked no questions but those I made him study. Such an accident does not happen more than once in a hundred years. Well, all through his studies, I stood by him, with the feeling a mother has for a disabled child. And he always saved himself by some miracle. I thought that what in the end would destroy him would be the mathematics examination. I decided to make his end as painless as possible. So, I pushed facts into his stupid head for hours. Finally, I let him go to the examination to experience what I was sure would be his dismissal from school. Well, sir, try to imagine the result. I was shocked out of my mind. He took first prize! And he got the highest praise. I felt guilty day and night – what I was doing was not right. But I only wanted to make his dismissal a little less painful for him. I never dreamed it would lead to such strange, laughable results. I thought that sooner or later one thing was sure to happen: The first real test once he was through school would ruin him. Then, the Crimean War broke out. I felt that sad for him that there had to be a war. Peace would have given this donkey a chance to escape from ever being found out as being so stupid. Nervously, I waited for the worst to happen. It did. He was appointed an officer. A captain, of all things! Who could have dreamed that they would place such a responsibility on such weak shoulders as his. I said to myself that I was responsible to the country for this. I must go with him and protect the nation against him as far as I could. So, I joined up with him. And anyway we went to the field. And there – oh dear, it was terrible. Mistakes, fearful mistakes – why, he never did anything that was right – nothing but mistakes. But, you see, nobody knew the secret of how stupid he really was. Everybody misunderstood his actions. They saw his stupid mistakes as works of great intelligence. They did, honestly! His smallest mistakes made a man in his right mind cry, and shout and scream too – to himself, of course. And what kept me in a continual fear was the fact that every mistake he made increased his glory and fame. I kept saying to myself that when at last they found out about him, it will be like the sun falling out of the sky. He continued to climb up, over the dead bodies of his superiors. Then, in the hottest moment of one battle down went our colonel. My heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby was the next in line to take his place. Now, we are in for it, I said… The battle grew hotter. The English and their allies were steadily retreating all over the field. Our regiment occupied a position that was extremely important. One mistake now would bring total disaster. And what did Scoresby do this time – he just mistook his left hand for his right hand…that was all. An order came for him to fall back and support our right. Instead, he moved forward and went over the hill to the left. We were over the hill before this insane movement could be discovered and stopped. And what did we find? A large and unsuspected Russian army waiting! And what happened – were we all killed? That is exactly what would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. But no – those surprised Russians thought that no one regiment by itself would come around there at such a time. It must be the whole British army, they thought. They turned tail, away they went over the hill and down into the field in wild disorder, and we after them. In no time, there was the greatest turn around you ever saw. The allies turned defeat into a sweeping and shining victory. The allied commander looked on, his head spinning with wonder, surprise and joy. He sent right off for Scoresby, and put his arms around him and hugged him on the field in front of all the armies. Scoresby became famous that day as a great military leader – honored throughout the world. That honor will never disappear while history books last. He is just as nice and pleasant as ever, but he still does not know enough to come in out of the rain. He is the stupidest man in the universe. Until now, nobody knew it but Scoresby and myself. He has been followed, day by day, year by year, by a strange luck. He has been a shining soldier in all our wars for years. He has filled his whole military life with mistakes. Every one of them brought him another honorary title. Look at his chest, flooded with British and foreign medals. Well, sir, every one of them is the record of some great stupidity or other. They are proof that the best thing that can happen to a man is to be born lucky. I say again, as I did at the dinner, Scoresby’s a complete fool. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "Luck."? It was written by Mark Twain and adapted for Special English by Harold Berman. Your narrator was Shep O’Neal. Listen again next week at this same time for another American Story told in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Susan Clark. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa9.cfm
* Headline: The Californian's Tale
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called “The Californian’s Tale."? It was written by Mark Twain. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? When I was young, I went looking for gold in California. I never found enough to make me rich. But I did discover a beautiful part of the country. It was called “the Stanislau.” The Stanislau was like Heaven on Earth. It had bright green hills and deep forests where soft winds touched the trees. Other men, also looking for gold, had reached the Stanislau hills of California many years before I did. They had built a town in the valley with sidewalks and stores, banks and schools. They had also built pretty little houses for their families. At first, they found a lot of gold in the Stanislau hills. But their good luck did not last. After a few years, the gold disappeared. By the time I reached the Stanislau, all the people were gone, too. Grass now grew in the streets. And the little houses were covered by wild rose bushes. Only the sound of insects filled the air as I walked through the empty town that summer day so long ago. Then, I realized I was not alone after all. A man was smiling at me as he stood in front of one of the little houses. This house was not covered by wild rose bushes. A nice little garden in front of the house was full of blue and yellow flowers. White curtains hung from the windows and floated in the soft summer wind. Still smiling, the man opened the door of his house and motioned to me. I went inside and could not believe my eyes. I had been living for weeks in rough mining camps with other gold miners. We slept on the hard ground, ate canned beans from cold metal plates and spent our days in the difficult search for gold. Here in this little house, my spirit seemed to come to life again. I saw a bright rug on the shining wooden floor. Pictures hung all around the room. And on little tables there were seashells, books and china vases full of flowers. A woman had made this house into a home. The pleasure I felt in my heart must have shown on my face. The man read my thoughts. “Yes,” he smiled, “it is all her work. Everything in this room has felt the touch of her hand.” One of the pictures on the wall was not hanging straight. He noticed it and went to fix it. He stepped back several times to make sure the picture was really straight. Then he gave it a gentle touch with his hand. “She always does that,” he explained to me. “It is like the finishing pat a mother gives her child’s hair after she has brushed it. I have seen her fix all these things so often that I can do it just the way she does. I don’t know why I do it. I just do it.” As he talked, I realized there was something in this room that he wanted me to discover. I looked around. When my eyes reached a corner of the room near the fireplace, he broke into a happy laugh and rubbed his hands together. “That’s it!” he cried out. “You have found it! I knew you would. It is her picture. I went to a little black shelf that held a small picture of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. There was a sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression that I had never seen before. The man took the picture from my hands and stared at it. “She was nineteen on her last birthday. That was the day we were married. When you see her…oh, just wait until you meet her!” “Where is she now?” I asked. “Oh, she is away,” the man sighed, putting the picture back on the little black shelf. “She went to visit her parents. They live forty or fifty miles from here. She has been gone two weeks today.” “When will she be back?” I asked. “Well, this is Wednesday,” he said slowly. “She will be back on Saturday, in the evening.” I felt a sharp sense of regret. “I am sorry, because I will be gone by then,” I said. “Gone?? No!? Why should you go? Don’t go. She will be so sorry. You see, she likes to have people come and stay with us.” “No, I really must leave,” I said firmly. He picked up her picture and held it before my eyes. “Here,” he said. “Now you tell her to her face that you could have stayed to meet her and you would not.” Something made me change my mind as I looked at the picture for a second time. I decided to stay. The man told me his name was Henry. That night, Henry and I talked about many different things, but mainly about her. The next day passed quietly. Thursday evening we had a visitor. He was a big, grey-haired miner named Tom. “I just came for a few minutes to ask when she is coming home,” he explained. “Is there any news?” “Oh yes,” the man replied. “I got a letter. Would you like to hear it? He took a yellowed letter out of his shirt pocket and read it to us. It was full of loving messages to him and to other people – their close friends and neighbors. When the man finished reading it, he looked at his friend. “Oh no, you are doing it again, Tom! You always cry when I read a letter from her. I’m going to tell her this time!” “No, you must not do that, Henry,” the grey-haired miner said. “I am getting old. And any little sorrow makes me cry. I really was hoping she would be here tonight.” The next day, Friday, another old miner came to visit. He asked to hear the letter. The message in it made him cry, too. “We all miss her so much,” he said. Saturday finally came. I found I was looking at my watch very often. Henry noticed this. “You don’t think something has happened to her, do you?” he asked me. I smiled and said that I was sure she was just fine. But he did not seem satisfied. I was glad to see his two friends, Tom and Joe, coming down the road as the sun began to set. The old miners were carrying guitars. They also brought flowers and a bottle of whiskey. They put the flowers in vases and began to play some fast and lively songs on their guitars. Henry’s friends kept giving him glasses of whiskey, which they made him drink. When I reached for one of the two glasses left on the table, Tom stopped my arm. “Drop that glass and take the other one!” he whispered. He gave the remaining glass of whiskey to Henry just as the clock began to strike midnight. Henry emptied the glass. His face grew whiter and whiter. “Boys,” he said, “I am feeling sick. I want to lie down.” Henry was asleep almost before the words were out of his mouth. In a moment, his two friends had picked him up and carried him into the bedroom. They closed the door and came back. They seemed to be getting ready to leave. So I said, “Please don’t go gentlemen. She will not know me. I am a stranger to her.” They looked at each other. “His wife has been dead for nineteen years,” Tom said. “Dead?” I whispered. “Dead or worse,” he said. “She went to see her parents about six months after she got married. On her way back, on a Saturday evening in June, when she was almost here, the Indians captured her. No one ever saw her again. Henry lost his mind. He thinks she is still alive. When June comes, he thinks she has gone on her trip to see her parents. Then he begins to wait for her to come back. He gets out that old letter. And we come around to visit so he can read it to us. “On the Saturday night she is supposed to come home, we come here to be with him. We put a sleeping drug in his drink so he will sleep through the night. Then he is all right for another year.” Joe picked up his hat and his guitar. “We have done this every June for nineteen years,” he said. “The first year there were twenty-seven of us. Now just the two of us are left.” He opened the door of the pretty little house. And the two old men disappeared into the darkness of the Stanislau. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story "The Californian’s Tale."? It was written by Mark Twain and adapted for Special English by Donna de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. For VOA Special English, this is Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-25-voa10.cfm
* Headline: The Line of Least Resistance
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called "The Line of Least Resistance.”? It was written by Edith Wharton. Here is Larry West with the story. (MUSIC) Storyteller:? Mister Mindon returned home for lunch. His wife Millicent was not at home. The servants did not know where she was. Mister Mindon sat alone at the table in the garden. He ate a small piece of meat and drank some mineral water. Mister Mindon always ate simple meals, because he had problems with his stomach. Why then did he keep a cook among his servants?? Because his wife Millicent liked to invite her friends to big dinners and serve them rare and expensive food and wine. Mister Mindon did not enjoy his wife's parties. Millicent complained that he did not know how to enjoy life. She did a lot of things that he did not like. Millicent wasted Mister Mindon's money and was unpleasant to him. But he never got angry with his wife. After eating, Mister Mindon took a walk through his house. He did not stay long in the living room. It reminded him of all the hours he had spent there at his wife's parties. The sight of the formal dining room made him feel even more uncomfortable. He remembered the long dinners where he had to talk to his wife's friends for hours. They never seemed very interested in what he was saying. Mister Mindon walked quickly past the ballroom where his wife danced with her friends. He would go to bed after dinner. But he could hear the orchestra playing until three in the morning. Mister Mindon walked into the library. No one in the house ever read any of the books. But Mister Mindon was proud to be rich enough to have a perfectly useless room in his house. He went into the sunny little room where his wife planned her busy days and evenings. Her writing table was covered with notes and cards from all her friends. Her wastepaper basket was full of empty envelopes that had carried invitations to lunches, dinners, and theater parties. Mister Mindon saw a letter crushed into a small ball on the floor. He bent to pick it up. Just as he was about to throw it into the wastepaper basket, he noticed that the letter was signed by his business partner, Thomas Antrim. But Antrim's letter to Mister Mindon's wife was not about business. As Mister Mindon read it, he felt as if his mind was spinning out of control. He sat down heavily in the chair near his wife's little writing table. Now the room looked cold and unfamiliar. "Who are you?" the walls seemed to say. "Who am I?" Mister Mindon said in a loud voice. "I'll tell you who I am! I am the man who paid for every piece of furniture in this room. If it were not for me and my money, this room would be empty!"? Suddenly, Mister Mindon felt taller. He marched across his wife's room. It belonged to him, didn't it? The house belonged to him, too. He felt powerful. He sat at the table and wrote a letter to Millicent. One of the servants came into the room. "Did you call, sir?" he asked. "No," Mister Mindon replied. "But since you are here, please telephone for a taxi cab at once." The taxi took him to a hotel near his bank. A clerk showed him to his room. It smelled of cheap soap. The window in the room was open and hot noises came up from the street. Mister Mindon looked at his watch. Four o'clock. He wondered if Millicent had come home yet and read his letter. His head began to ache, and Mister Mindon lay down on the bed. When he woke up, it was dark. He looked at his watch. Eight o'clock. Millicent must be dressing for dinner. They were supposed to go to Missus Targe's house for dinner tonight. Well, Mister Mindon thought, Millicent would have to go alone. Maybe she would ask Thomas Antrim to take her to the party! Mister Mindon realized he was hungry. He left his room and walked down the stairs to the hotel dining room. The air -- smelling of coffee and fried food -- wrapped itself around his head. Mister Mindon could not eat much of the food that the hotel waiter brought him. He went back to his room, feeling sick. He also felt hot and dirty in the clothing he had worn all day. He had never realized how much he loved his home! Someone knocked at his door. Mister Mindon jumped to his feet. "Mindon?" a voice asked. "Are you there?"? Mister Mindon recognized that voice. It belonged to Laurence Meysy. Thirty years ago, Meysy had been very popular with women -- especially with other men's wives. As a young man he had interfered in many marriages. Now, in his old age, Laurence Meysy had become a kind of "marriage doctor.”? He helped husbands and wives save their marriages. Mister Mindon began to feel better as soon as Laurence Meysy walked into his hotel room. Two men followed him. One was Mister Mindon's rich uncle, Ezra Brownrigg. The other was the Reverend Doctor Bonifant, the minister of Saint Luke's church where Mister Mindon and his family prayed every Sunday. Mister Mindon looked at the three men and felt very proud that they had come to help him. For the first time in his married life, Mister Mindon felt as important as his wife Millicent. Laurence Meysy sat on the edge of the bed and lit a cigarette. "Misses Mindon sent for me," he said. Mister Mindon could not help feeling proud of Millicent. She had done the right thing. Meysy continued. "She showed me your letter. She asks you for mercy." Meysy paused, and then said: "The poor woman is very unhappy. And we have come here to ask you what you plan to do." Now Mister Mindon began to feel uncomfortable. "To do?" he asked. "To do? Well…I, I plan to…to leave her." Meysy stopped smoking his cigarette. "Do you want to divorce her?" he asked. "Why, yes! Yes!" Mister Mindon replied. Meysy knocked the ashes from his cigarette. "Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?" he asked. Mister Mindon nodded his head. "I plan to divorce her," he said loudly. Mister Mindon began to feel very excited. It was the first time he had ever had so many people sitting and listening to him. He told his audience everything, beginning with his discovery of his wife's love affair with his business partner, and ending with his complaints about her expensive dinner parties. His uncle looked at his watch. Doctor Bonifant began to stare out of the hotel window. Meysy stood up. "Do you plan to dishonor yourself then?" he asked. "No one knows what has happened. You are the only one who can reveal the secret. You will make yourself look foolish.” Mister Mindon tried to rise. But he fell back weakly. The three men picked up their hats. In another moment, they would be gone. When they left, Mister Mindon would lose his audience, and his belief in himself and his decision. "I won't leave for New York until tomorrow," he whispered. Laurence Meysy smiled. "Tomorrow will be too late," he said. "Tomorrow everyone will know you are here." Meysy opened the hotel room door. Mister Brownrigg and Doctor Bonifant walked out of the room. Meysy turned to follow them, when he felt Mister Mindon's hand grab his arm. "I…I will come with you," Mister Mindon sighed. "It's…it's…for the children." Laurence Meysy nodded as Mister Mindon walked out of the room. He closed the door gently. (MUSIC) Announcer:? You have just heard the story "The Line of Least Resistance.”? It was written by Edith Wharton and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Larry West. For VOA Special English, this is Shep O’Neal. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Two U.S. Businesses Aim to Help Students Prepare for Science Jobs
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States Department of Labor says jobs requiring science and technology training will increase fifty-one percent through two thousand eight. It says this could lead to six million future jobs for those with skills in science. Now, two companies have announced plans to help American students prepare for this future. The General Electric Company announced it will invest one hundred million dollars to increase the number of students who go to college. The move is an expansion of its education program known as College Bound. The College Bound program aims to increase the number of students going to college from more than twenty high schools around the country. The latest school district to receive this help is in the state of Kentucky. The Jefferson County Public Schools and up to four other districts will receive the money over the next five years. The money will pay for creating new ways to teach math and science, professional development for teachers and a study of the project. Also, company officials will help carry out the project goals in the schools. Jefferson County school officials praised General Electric for its program. Officials say the gift will help support the schools to prepare students for the increasingly technical jobs of the future. Earlier in September, the I.B.M. company announced a program to increase the number of mathematics and science teachers in the United States. I.B.M. said the program will make it possible for some of its workers to become teachers after they leave the company. Company officials say many workers who are experts in science and math have expressed the desire to teach after they retire from I.B.M. So the company developed the program called Transition to Teaching. The program will pay each worker up to fifteen thousand dollars while they learn to teach. About one hundred I.B.M. workers across the country will be the first to take part in the program. I.B.M. says that if they are successful, the program will expand to other areas and maybe even to other companies as well. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Do you have a question about the American education system? We might be able to answer it on our program. Send it to special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-26-voa3.cfm
* Headline: American Lawmakers React to Flood of Immigrants in Late 1800s
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) View from Ellis Island in New York Harbor View from Ellis Island in New York Harbor 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Sacred Harp: One of America's Oldest and Purest Musical Traditions
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music known as Sacred Harp… Answer a question about daylight saving time. And report about the upcoming holiday of Halloween. (MUSIC) Monday, October thirty-first, is Halloween in the United States. On that night, many people will dress in clothes to make them look like frightening creatures like monsters or ghosts. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: The traditions of Halloween grew out of Celtic beliefs in ancient Britain. The Celts thought spirits of the dead would return to their homes on October thirty-first, the day of the autumn feast. The Celts built huge fires to frighten away evil spirits released with the dead on that night. People from Scotland and Ireland brought these ideas with them to America. Some people still believed that spirits played tricks on people on the last night of October. History experts say many of the Halloween traditions today developed from those of ancient times. For example, they say that burning a candle inside a hollow pumpkin recalls the fires set many years ago in Britain. And they say that wearing a mask to hide a person’s face is similar to the way ancient villagers covered their faces to force evil spirits away. On Halloween night, American children dress in special clothing and??? go from house to house shouting “trick or treat!”?? If the people in the houses do not give them candy, the children might play a trick on them. Americans spend a great deal of money buying Halloween costumes to wear. They also buy pumpkins and frightening objects to place outside their homes. Adults enjoy Halloween, too. Many go to parties dressed as monsters or famous people. We know of two people who got married on Halloween and had their wedding guests dress in such costumes. The National Retail Federation did a study on what people will wear on Halloween. The group released a list of the most popular Halloween costumes this year. It says the most popular choices for children are princess, witch, monster and characters from popular movies. And it says adults want to dress as a witch, vampire, monster or famous actor. Daylight Saving Time HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from France. Sylvain Restelli asks about the system of time in the United States. Standard time is a worldwide system of time areas. It is based on longitude. Longitude is the distance on the Earth that measures east or west of the first longitude line at Greenwich, England. Each time area is fifteen degrees longitude wide. Under standard time, the time kept in each area is that of its central longitude line. These lines are fifteen degrees, thirty degrees and so on east or west of the first line in England. The difference in time between each nearby area is exactly one hour. The continental United States is divided into four time areas. The most eastern area uses eastern time. The next time area to the west is central time. The next area is mountain time and the farthest west is pacific time. For example, when it is ten o’clock in New York City, it is nine o’clock in Chicago, Illinois.It is eight o’clock in Denver, Colorado and seven o’clock in San Francisco, California. In the summertime, most Americans move their clocks ahead one hour for daylight saving time. But some states do not. They are Hawaii, Arizona and parts of Indiana. The use of daylight saving time saves energy by providing an additional hour of daylight in the early evening. Many countries first used daylight saving time during wartime. After World War Two, American states established some kind of daylight saving time. But this was confusing. So, in nineteen sixty-six, Congress established it for the nation. It began the last Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday in October. Congress extended the time period in the nineteen seventies when a reduction in Arab oil exports caused a fuel shortage. In nineteen eighty-six, legislation changed the start of daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April. Earlier this year, Congress again passed a law extending daylight saving time. Starting in two thousand seven, daylight saving time will begin the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. Until then, daylight saving time begins the first Sunday in April and ends the last Sunday in October. That is why most Americans will set their clocks back one hour this Saturday night. Sacred Harp Sacred Harp singing is one of the oldest and purest musical traditions in America. Yet, it has nothing to do with the musical instrument called the harp. These performers use only their voices to sing both religious and non-religious traditional songs Pat Bodnar tells us more. PAT BODNAR: Sacred Harp singing has existed in America since the eighteenth century. ?It started when singing teachers traveled around the country to improve the quality of church music. Here is an example. An African-American group, called the Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers, performs a song written in the late seventeen hundreds. It is called “Coronation.”? (MUSIC) The term “Sacred Harp ” refers to a book published in the eighteen forties. It contains more than five hundred songs that are important to the history of Sacred Harp singing. The book is still being published today. This song was written in eighteen-oh-three. It is based on a Christian Bible story in the Book of Luke. The Alabama Sacred Harp Convention performs the song called “Sherburne.” (MUSIC) Sacred Harp singers get together at day-long events called “sings”. Groups of men, women and children come together to celebrate in song. The people arrange their chairs in a square and face one another. Then they divide into four groups based on their singing voice. Each group makes up one side of the square. Every person takes a turn choosing a song and leading the group. We leave you now with a song performed by a professional group of singers called the Word of Mouth Chorus. This song was written in nineteen fifty. “Peace and Joy” is a more modern example of the Sacred Harp tradition. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. This show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Dana Demange who was also our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bush Nominates Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve Chairman
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Economics Report. President Bush this week nominated economist Ben Bernanke [ber-NAN-key] to become the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Senate is expected to confirm Mister Bernanke to replace Alan Greenspan. Mister Greenspan has held the position at the central bank for eighteen years. He is expected to leave at the end of January. Mister Bernanke currently serves as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. President Bush appointed him in June. Mister Bernanke served as a governor of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank from August of two thousand two until this year. But, Mister Bernanke has mainly been a university professor for much of his working life. He headed the Economics Department at Princeton University in New Jersey before he was confirmed as a Federal Reserve governor. Mister Bernanke says he does not plan big changes for the central bank. He says his first job will be to continue what he called "the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years." However, Mister Bernanke has supported the idea of the Federal Reserve announcing a target rate for inflation. Some nations, mainly in Europe, already do this. Alan Greenspan started announcing target interest rates for money controlled by the central bank. But he has not supported the idea of stated targets for inflation. Mister Greenspan is seventy-nine years old. He has won praise for his guidance of the world's largest economy. He became Federal Reserve chairman in August of nineteen eighty-seven. Two months later, the stock market faced the worst day in its history. The Dow Jones industrial average lost almost one-fourth of its value. Since then, Mister Greenspan has led the central bank through two recessions, but also a long period of economic expansion. Mister Bernanke was born in Augusta, Georgia, and is fifty-one years old. He studied at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. If confirmed, Mister Bernanke will be the fourteenth chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. And, unlike the current one, the president noted that Mister Bernanke has been praised for giving speeches in "clear, simple language." This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-29-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Wilma Adds to the Damage of a Record Hurricane Season
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. People in the American state of Florida are trying to recover from the twenty-first powerful storm to develop in the Atlantic Ocean this year. The hurricane called Wilma hit the southeastern state on Monday. At least twenty-seven people died. Officials say Wilma also caused at least twelve deaths in Haiti, four in Mexico and one in Jamaica. About six million people in South Florida lost electric power as a result of the storm. Many remain without electricity. Officials say it could take at least until late November to get the power situation back to normal. More than four thousand people in the southern part of the state have not been able to return to their homes. Experts say the storm damage to Florida could total about ten thousand million dollars. That would make it one of the ten most costly storms in United States history. But Wilma was only the latest in a series of damaging storms to hit the American South in the past few months. Hurricane Katrina in August was one of the worst natural disasters in American history. It killed more than one thousand people. Government officials estimate that it caused at least one hundred twenty-five thousand million dollars in damage. Floodwalls around the city of New Orleans failed. The flooding that resulted caused destruction. Officials in the city are now trying to get people who left to return. Mayor Ray Nagin says the city’s population will be reduced to nearly half its number from before the storm. As many as two hundred fifty thousand houses still cannot be lived in, and many areas still lack basic services. Some businesses in the city have re-opened. But city officials say they have had to travel outside Louisiana to urge many people to return. They say their biggest problem is providing places for people to live. In September, Hurricane Rita damaged the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. The loss of life and damage estimates were much lower than for earlier storms. Officials say that was because people learned from what had happened to New Orleans and left the area before the storm hit. But the hurricane season is not yet over. The official period continues until the end of November. The National Hurricane Center says this is the busiest Atlantic season on record. After Wilma, weather experts did not have any more storm names left for the season. So they named the next two tropical storms with letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha and Beta. Weather experts say the number of storms began to rise in about nineteen ninety-five. They say the increase in the number of hurricanes is a result of an increase in water temperatures. The director of the hurricane center told Congress earlier this year that this increased storm activity could continue for another ten years. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Halloween Is a Good Time to Celebrate the Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Edgar Allan Poe, a nineteenth century American writer. His stories and poems were some of the most frightening and strange ever written. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Halloween on October thirty-first. It is mostly a holiday for children, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observe Halloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe think Poe is most famous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery and terror. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore, Maryland in eighteen forty-nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes place every Halloween. In the dark of night, visitors go to the grounds of Westminster Presbyterian Church where Poe is buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe!? No, it is just an actor, reading Poe's work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Poe created many of these "short stories.”? They appeared in different publications. Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing. Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story. Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries about crimes, such as murder. An investigator called a detective solves the mysteries. The detective is able to find important, hidden meanings in facts. The horror and detective stories Poe created remain popular in books and movies. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read. His language is difficult to understand today. And most of his writing describes very unpleasant situations and events. His story "The Pit and the Pendulum," for example, is about the mental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himself from death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him. Another story is "The Masque of the Red Death."? In it, a terrible disease -- the Red Death -- has killed half the population of a country. The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. He and his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by having parties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edgar Poe was born in eighteen-oh-nine in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were actors. At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman, John Allan. He then received his new name -- Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he came to dislike him strongly. Edgar attended schools in England and in Richmond, Virginia. As a young man, he attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He was a good student. He was a member of the Jefferson Literary Society. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did not have. John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. He also refused to let Edgar continue at the university. So, Edgar went to Boston and began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines. He also served in the army for two years. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. He published three books of poetry. He also began writing stories. Five of his stories were printed in a publication in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in eighteen thirty-two. Yet he was not well paid. His life was difficult. He was poor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind. Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drank alcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect on him. VOICE ONE: In eighteen thirty-five, Poe began editing the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia. The following year, at the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She was the daughter of his father's sister. She was only thirteen years old. Poe and his wife moved often as he found work at magazines and newspapers in Philadelphia and New York. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. But his wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died in eighteen forty-seven. After his wife’s death, Poe’s problems with alcohol increased. He died two years later, at the age of forty. He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories, poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yet he did not become famous until eighteen forty-five. That was when his poem "The Raven" was published. There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems. One critic said Poe's spirit was torn. He said Poe's stories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in his stories showed a different side of the writer. There is a question, however, about Poe's importance. Some critics said he was one of America's best writers. Others disagreed. VOICE ONE: One critic said Poe discovered a new artistic universe -- a universe of dreams. It was a place where the line between reality and unreality is extremely thin. Even those who praised Poe agreed that there are many difficulties in his work. These difficulties place Poe's writing outside the main body of American literature. Most American writing is realistic. Poe's interests and way of writing were not realistic at all. Poe's work has been praised most in France. He had a great influence on many French writers. VOICE TWO: Poe's best-known poem is "The Raven."? Some people love it. They say it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced and unnatural -- like bad music. "The Raven" is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died. She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness is gone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window. Here is the beginning of the poem: READER: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping -- rapping at my chamber door. "’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -- Only this and nothing more." VOICE TWO: The man looks out the window and sees only blackness. READER: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" Merely this and nothing more. VOICE TWO: But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird -- a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death and hopelessness. It sits on a small statue above the door. The raven can speak just one word:? “nevermore” -- meaning “never again”. READER: But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered -- Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before – On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore." VOICE TWO: The man becomes frightened. He does not know if the raven is just a bird or an evil spirit. We know the raven will never leave the man's room. READER: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting -- still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a Demon that is dreaming, And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted – nevermore! [Pause] (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our poetry reader was Richard Rael. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: International Migration Reduces Poverty, but at a Price
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm Steve Emberwith the VOA Special English Development Report. A new World Bank study says international migration helps reduce poverty in developing nations. At the same time, however, many countries that are small and poor lose highly skilled workers. Migrants are people who move from place to place in search of work. The study shows that families with migrant workers in other countries have higher earnings than those without migrants. Economists at the World Bank studied the effects of the money that migrant workers send to their families back home. Economist Maurice Schiff says the findings show that remittances reduce poverty and increase spending on education, health and investment. The findings are based on information from families in three countries: Guatemala, Mexico and the Philippines. Mister Schiff says further studies are being done in other countries. The World Bank estimates that two hundred million people are migrants living outside their native country. It also estimates that about two hundred twenty-five thousand million dollars will be paid in remittances this year. In many countries, remittances supply more foreign exchange than anything else. The study also found that migrant workers are more likely to move to a rich nation near their home country. Most migrants in Europe come from Africa and the Middle East. In the United States, migrant workers are generally from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. But international migration also means the problem of "brain drain."? Many of the skilled workers needed to bring their countries out of poverty move to wealthier ones instead. The study examined research from member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The economists found, for example, that eight out of ten Haitians and Jamaicans with college educations live outside their countries. In southern Africa, skilled workers are just four percent of the workforce. Yet they are forty percent of the migrants from the area. The World Bank study says developing countries should try harder to get skilled workers to stay. It also suggests cooperation between sending and receiving nations. The study is called “International Migration, Remittances and the Brain Drain." This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Grand Ole Opry Celebrates Its 80th Anniversary on Radio
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell you about a program that Americans have been hearing on radio since nineteen twenty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Grand Ole Opry is celebrating its eightieth anniversary on the radio this year. Americans have heard this program longer than any other radio show. The Grand Ole Opry broadcasts country music live on Friday and Saturday nights from Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is famous as America’s country-music capital. The Opry has aired more than four thousand one hundred shows. The Saturday night show still comes from the medium-wave station, WSM, that began broadcasting it. But now, two million people each week listen to the program on satellite radio, cable television and the Internet as well as WSM. VOICE TWO: The first programs were broadcast from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Many years later, shows came from the program’s own Grand Ole Opry theater. Some current listeners are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the first listeners. VOICE ONE: ????? ?????????????? At first, the show was called "The WSM Barn Dance."? A newspaper writer, George Hay, established the program and was its first director. Hay later changed the name to the Grand Ole Opry. The new name was meant to show that the program was a kind of country opera. The earliest days of the Opry presented “hillbilly music” played by local musicians. Hay hired eighty-year-old Uncle Jimmy Thompson to play this folk music of the American South on his fiddle, or violin. People loved the show. (MUSIC) SOUND: “Presenting the Grand Ole Opry. Let her go, boys!" VOICE TWO: People kept listening to the Grand Ole Opry through the Jazz Age in the nineteen twenties. Then came the great economic depression of nineteen twenty-nine and the nineteen thirties. People still kept listening to the Grand Ole Opry. They also listened as the darkness of World War Two fell on the world. By the nineteen forties, the Grand Ole Opry had become the most important country-music radio show in America. Comedian Minnie Pearl made people laugh. And Roy Acuff was perhaps the most popular Opry artist of that time. Here are Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys with “Wabash Cannonball.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? Rock star Elvis Presley sang on the Grand Ole Opry in nineteen fifty-four. He performed his own version of a song by Bill Monroe, who was present. The show’s historian says Elvis was nervous about the reaction, but Bill Monroe told him he liked it. Yet Elvis never came back. Johnny Cash started on the program during the nineteen fifties. Cash met his future wife, June Carter, at the Grand Ole Opry. Singer Patsy Cline joined the show in nineteen sixty. Here is Patsy Cline with “Walkin’ After Midnight.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? As the years passed, more great stars appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. Ceremonies were held in nineteen seventy-four for its new performance center. The Grand Ole Opry House theater opened on the edge of Nashville. President Richard Nixon played “God Bless America” on the piano at the event. The new center gave many entertainers a chance to develop their fame. They included people like John Conlee, Lorrie Morgan, the Gatlins, Ronnie Milsap and Barbara Mandrell. Here, John Conlee sings “Rose Colored Glasses.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Grand Ole Opry of today takes place much as it did eighty years ago. Performers march across the stage. They sing and play a song or two. Then they leave, and the next performers play. At least thirty entertainers usually appear in a single show. Some of the most famous stars of country music appear at the Grand Ole Opry. People like Marty Stuart, Tim McGraw and Martina McBride. Listen as Martina McBride sings “Wrong Again.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Other members or guests of the Grand Ole Opry include famous names like Alan Jackson, Charley Pride, Ricky Scaggs, Dolly Parton, Brad Paisley and Chely Wright. The list goes on. Here are Brad Paisley and Chely Wright with a song about the life of a married traveling singer. The song is called “Hard to Be a Husband, Hard to Be a Wife.”?? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Grand Ole Opry has been celebrating its eightieth year with a number of special events. Diamond Rio, Ralph Stanley and Travis Tritt performed during a long celebration weekend earlier in October. Garth Brooks appeared although he is retired from performing. Listen now as Diamond Rio performs “Meet in the Middle.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Grand Ole Opry will present a special show at Carnegie Hall on November fourteenth. Opry members set to take part in that performance and celebration include Bill Anderson, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, and Alison Krauss and her group Union Station. We sign off now with Alison Krauss and Union Station as they present a Grand Ole Opry favorite, “Oh Atlanta.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Is the Human Brain Still Evolving? Some Scientists Think So
* Byline: Written by Katherine Gypson, George Grow and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week -- new thinking about the brain ... VOICE ONE: Good news for coffee drinkers ... VOICE TWO: And the secret of water-climbing insects. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two studies suggest that the human brain continues to change through the process of evolution. The findings conflict with a common belief that the brain has evolved about as much as it ever will. Scientists say modern humans developed about two hundred thousand years ago. Bruce Lahn of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Chicago led the studies. The findings appeared in Science magazine. VOICE TWO: Scientists looked at changes in two genes related to the size of the brain. These two genes do not work right in people with microcephaly. Microcephaly is a rare condition in which people are born with a brain that is much smaller than normal. Some scientists believe this is what the brain of early humans might have looked like. In the new studies, the scientists looked at different versions of the two genes. They studied genetic material from people of different ethnic groups. They found that one version of each gene appeared again and again. The scientists say the changes appear to have spread because they improved the brain in some way. They say the new versions are so common, they cannot be considered an accident. VOICE ONE: Instead, the scientists suggest there was pressure to spread through natural selection. Natural selection is a process in which genetic changes that are helpful to a species survive and spread quickly. The scientists found that the new versions of the two genes evolved much faster in apes than in mice and rats. They decided that these changes might have had an important part in human evolution. The scientists studied how often the changes appeared in the genes of many different populations. VOICE TWO: They found that a version of the gene called Microcephalin formed only about thirty-seven thousand years ago. This version appears today in about seventy percent of humans. The scientists say it is more common outside of southern Africa. The second gene is called ASPM. The studies showed that a version of this gene developed just about six thousand years ago. Today it is found in about thirty percent of all people. It is more common in people from Europe and areas including North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. VOICE ONE: Different populations make use of different genetic changes. Genes must react to the pressures of many environments and threats such as disease. The scientists who did the studies now want to see if the two genes only act on brain size or also perform other duties. They point out that the genetic changes took place around the same time as important cultural changes. These include the development of things like art and religion and, more recently, civilizations. Scientists do not know, however, if the two genes are connected to intelligence or problem-solving abilities. Such questions about the mind produce debate. Some scientists are concerned that the new findings might be used to claim that not all groups are created equal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some insects can climb what seem like walls of water without moving their legs. They might do this to leave their eggs on land or to avoid attackers. Now, researchers in the United States have found how the insects are able to use this special skill. John Bush and David Hu are mathematicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Mister Bush is a professor; Mister Hu is a graduate student. For the past four years, they have been studying how small insects travel on the surface of lakes and other areas of water. The two men used a video camera to make high-speed images of three kinds of insects. Nature magazine reported the results of their study. VOICE ONE: They describe how the insects are able to climb areas where the water meets land or another surface, such as a plant. Such areas are called menisci [meh-NIH-sky]. Menisci are common in the environment. They can even be found in a glass of water, where the edge of the water rises to meet the side of the glass. Mister Hu says most people do not recognize them because menisci are only a few millimeters high. But to small insects, he says, they are like mountains. The two men found that the insects were unable to climb menisci with their usual movements. The insects climbed halfway up after a running start, but then slid back down. So the insects changed their body position to create forces that helped to pull them up. VOICE TWO: Two kinds of water treaders have claws at the end of their legs that can pull back, or retract. This helps the insects hold onto the surface of the water and pull it up and out of shape. As a result, the insects are able to ride on small areas in the water that can support their body weight. Professor Bush says the insects produce extremely small menisci with their front and back legs. One meniscus creates a pulling force on another. The combined effect with the meniscus of the water pulls the insect up and over the edge of the surface. Another insect deals with the problem another way. The larva of the waterlily leaf beetle forms a rounded shape with its back. ?This action creates menisci at each end, and produces the same effect as with the other insects. The two researchers also found that the insects climbed up menisci at speeds of up to thirty body lengths a second. The fastest human runners can move about five body lengths a second. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists are finding that coffee does more than help you stay awake. Researchers in the American state of Pennsylvania say coffee has high levels of antioxidants. Antioxidants have been shown to help prevent cancer, heart disease and other conditions. Joe Vinson is a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton. He says Americans get more antioxidants from coffee than any other food or drink. He reported the findings at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society. The body produces chemical substances that cause oxidation. Atoms and molecules called free radicals are involved. Oxidation damages cells and tissues. Experts say this damage causes many of the health problems common in older people. VOICE TWO: Antioxidants reduce or prevent oxidation. In recent years, other studies have shown the health value of drinking red wine and tea. Both are known to be high in antioxidants. Professor Vinson said he and his team compared the antioxidant levels of more than one hundred different foods. They examined everything from fruits and vegetables to oils and popular drinks. Next, the team compared its findings with information from the United States Department of Agriculture. This information showed what Americans eat and drink and in what amounts. The researchers found that coffee won in both comparisons. Americans drink large amounts of coffee. And, coffee rated among the very best in antioxidants. One kind of fruit, the date, is actually higher in antioxidants in each serving. However, in the United States, drinking coffee is more popular than eating dates. VOICE ONE: Professor Vinson warned that having a diet high in antioxidants is not always a good idea. This is because the body cannot always use these compounds. Scientists do not yet fully understand how the body takes in and uses the substances. Also, too much caffeine may cause nervousness and other problems. Professor Vinson said that one to two servings of coffee a day is fine. He also suggested that people eat more fruits and vegetables. They contain not only antioxidants but also high levels of substances such as minerals and fiber. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Katherine Gypson, George Grow and Dana Demange. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-10/2005-10-31-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Pumpkins: Not Just for Halloween
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many Americans celebrated Halloween on Monday by placing pumpkins outside their homes. A Halloween tradition is to cut a face into the big, round squash. Pumpkins are also an important part of the Thanksgiving holiday in late November. Tradition says early settlers ate pumpkin pie, or something similar to it, with the Native Americans during the first celebration. Pumpkins are members of the gourd family. They are related to melons, cucumbers and squashes. They are, like all of their relatives, fruit, not vegetables. Pumpkins have firm flesh, seeds in the center and a shell that is usually orange. And they contain more vitamin A than almost any other fruit. Pumpkins have been grown for thousands of years in North and Central America. They have been grown for so long, in fact, it is unclear what wild relative the plant has. Pumpkins grow on vines or bushes. Most pumpkins weigh a few kilograms, but some have reached well over four hundred fifty kilograms. Pumpkin flowers are usually fertilized by bees. The insects carry reproductive material called pollen from the male to the female flowers. No fruit will grow if the female flower is not pollinated at the right time. Closely related squashes and gourds can also fertilize pumpkins. This cross-pollination will show itself not in the current year’s pumpkins, but in seeds grown the following year. Pumpkin is used in pies, breads, cakes and other baked goods. Baked pumpkin seeds are also a popular food. Pumpkin filling for pies is produced industrially. Pumpkins are very low in acid, unlike many fruits. This makes canned pumpkin a place where the bacteria that causes botulism food poisoning can grow. For this reason, experts say it is not a good idea to can crushed pumpkin at home. Whole pumpkins, however, store well in cool, dark places for weeks. Less than one percent of the American pumpkin supply is imported or exported. Most pumpkins are used in the states where they are grown. Prices can be very different from place to place. American farmers grew over four hundred fifty million kilograms of pumpkins last year. The crop was valued at about one hundred million dollars. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: A Silent Killer
* Byline: Written by Marilyn Christiano

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. The winter season is arriving soon in the northern part of the world. Winter brings cold weather and with it a danger as old as man’s knowledge of fire. The danger is death or injury by carbon monoxide poisoning. Today, we tell about this ancient and continuing danger. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Several years ago, a family in the western state of California was enjoying a holiday near the Pacific Ocean. The family included a father and mother and five children. The oldest child was twelve years old. The youngest was three. The family was spending the weekend in a camper. A camper is a small shelter carried in the back of a truck. People can sleep in it for a few days. The weather turned cold the second night the family stayed at the beach. The camper did not have any heating equipment to warm the inside area while family members slept. Someone decided to heat the space by placing a cooking device called a charcoal grill inside the camper. The grill burned a wood product called charcoal. The fire immediately warmed the members of the family. They all went to sleep. The next day, other people visiting the beach found the family. The parents and their five children had died in their sleep. They died because they did not know that burning wood products creates a deadly gas. The deadly gas is carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide poisoning is known as a silent killer. The California family went to sleep in their warm camper and never woke up. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Carbon monoxide poisoning causes death and injuries throughout the world. The poison gas has been a problem since humans first began burning fuels to cook food or to create heat during cold weather. More people die from carbon monoxide poisoning in the United States each year than from any other kind of poisoning. American health records show that this poison gas kills about two hundred twenty people each year. More than five thousand are taken to medical center emergency rooms for treatment. This dangerous gas is a problem in all areas of the world that experience cold weather. Carbon monoxide gas is called the silent killer because people do not realize it is in the air. Carbon monoxide has no color. It has no taste. It has no smell. It does not cause burning eyes. And it does not cause people to cough. Yet, carbon monoxide gas is very deadly. It is a thief. It steals the body’s ability to use oxygen. VOICE ONE: Carbon monoxide decreases the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to body tissues. It does this by linking with the blood. When carbon monoxide links with the blood, the blood is no longer able to carry oxygen to the tissues that need it. Damage to the body can begin very quickly from large amounts of this deadly gas. ?? How quickly this can happen depends on the length of time a person is breathing the gas and the amount of the gas he or she breathes in. VOICE TWO: There are warning signs of carbon monoxide. ?But people have to be awake to recognize them. Small amounts of carbon monoxide will cause a person’s head to hurt. He or she may begin to feel tired. The victim’s stomach may feel sick. The room may appear to be turning around. The person may have trouble thinking clearly. People develop severe head pains as the amount of gas continues to enter their blood. They will begin to feel very sleepy and very tired. They may have terrible stomach pains. VOICE ONE: Carbon monoxide is measured in parts per million in a normal atmosphere. Breathing in only two hundred parts per million of carbon monoxide will cause the first signs of poisoning. This will happen after a two to three hour period of breathing in this small amount of gas. Twelve thousand parts per million of carbon monoxide will cause death in one to three minutes. Medical experts say the gas will affect people very differently. For example, a small child will experience health problems or die much quicker than an adult will. The general health of the person or his or her age can also be important. An older person with health problems may suffer the effects of carbon monoxide more quickly than a younger person with no health problems. People with heart disease may suffer chest pains. They may begin to have trouble breathing. VOICE TWO:? Carbon monoxide does not always cause death. But it can cause many medical problems. Being exposed to low amounts of carbon monoxide gas for long periods of time can lead to permanent heart, lung or brain damage. Medical experts say small amounts of carbon monoxide over a long period of time can greatly harm an unborn baby. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: What causes carbon monoxide gas?? Any device that burns fuels such as coal, oil or wood can create the gas. Water heaters that burn natural gas create carbon monoxide. Fireplaces and stoves that burn wood create the gas. Natural gas stoves and gas dryers or charcoal grills also create carbon monoxide. Automobiles create it. Any device that burns the fossil fuels such as coal, oil, wood, gasoline, kerosene or propane will produce carbon monoxide. Experts agree that the leading cause of carbon monoxide poisoning is damaged equipment that burns these fuels. They say many people also die or are injured by the gas because they do not use these devices correctly. Experts say any device used to heat a home should be inspected to make sure it is working correctly. And, no cooking equipment such as a charcoal grill should ever be used to heat an inside area. VOICE TWO: Carbon monoxide gas is created by fuel burning devices because not all of the fuel is burned. Most devices used for home heating have a method of expelling the gas to the outside. For an example, a fireplace has a chimney. Natural gas stoves or gas water heaters are usually connected to a device called a vent to expel the gas safely to the outside. An automobile has a system for expelling unburned gasoline under and behind the vehicle. Anyone who uses a device that burns fossil fuel must inspect the equipment carefully to decrease the chances carbon monoxide gas will escape. Companies that produce the devices usually provide directions about using the device correctly. These directions should be read and understood before using any equipment that burns fuel inside a home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You can do a number of things to lessen the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. First, immediately leave the area if you recognize the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning in yourself or others. You should seek emergency medical services once you are away from the area where you suspect the gas might be. Usually the treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning involves breathing in large amounts of oxygen. However, a doctor will know the best method to treat the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide does not quickly leave the body even after treatment has begun. It can take several hours before the gas disappears. Medical experts say it can take about five hours for half of this poison gas to completely leave the blood. VOICE TWO: If you suspect carbon monoxide gas is a problem in your home, you might try calling your local fire department. Many fire departments have the necessary equipment to find or detect carbon monoxide. In many countries, it is possible to buy and use a special device that will warn when harmful amounts of carbon monoxide are in the area. These devices can be linked to a home’s electric system. Others work with electric batteries. Experts say these devices should be placed near sleeping areas in the home. VOICE ONE: The most important weapon against carbon monoxide poisoning is the safe use of materials to heat any enclosed area. Safety directions that come with any heating equipment must be followed. Older fossil fuel burning heating equipment should be inspected to make sure it is safe every year. Knowledge about the dangers of this deadly gas could be the most important information you ever learn. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was suggested by a listener in China. It was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Small Talk: Think of It as an 'Appetizer' for a Full Meal of Conversation
* Byline: 

  AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a conversation about small talk. RS:?? Our guest is Debra Fine, author of a new book called "The Fine Art of Small Talk." DEBRA FINE: "It is not the business conversation, not the business discussion, but it is that appetizer that helps develop into something more connected. So sometimes here in the United States you can start a conversation with someone strictly business. But if you intend to grow that into a business friendship, you need to develop that relationship, and the only way to do that is with small talk. And that's what makes it so important here in the United States." RS: "So what is small talk -- how would you define that?" DEBRA FINE: "I would define it, Rosanne, as a picture frame around every business conversation. For business that's how I would define it." RS: "OK, that's business, but it could be more ... " AA: "Right, I mean, I'm looking at your book here, you say starting with a statement like 'What a beautiful day. What's your favorite season of the year?' Or 'I was truly touched by that movie. How did you like it?' Or, let's see, 'What a great conference! Tell me about the sessions you attended.'" DEBRA FINE: "Right." AA: "What are some other examples of small talk?" DEBRA FINE: "Well, the examples you just cited are showing an interest in other people, taking the risk of being the first to speak, the first to say hello, and then showing an interest. And all those examples you just cited use open-ended questions: tell me, describe for me, what was that like for you, what do you know about this, how did you come up with that idea? "I might say to someone from a different country than myself or a different culture: 'Tell me about a favorite tradition' or 'Tell me what you enjoy most about visiting here in the Washington, D.C., area?' So the key is to use open-ended questions and to show an interest in others. "If you are unwilling to talk to me, there is no perfect way to start a conversation because you will reject me no matter what. And that's what we all need to learn is that it is up to us to take the risk of starting a conversation, but to not take it personally if someone just gives us a one-word answer or doesn't help us along in the conversation. It may mean that they have other things on their mind or they're there to meet someone else. Move on to another individual in your party or at this event or at the meeting or conference." RS: "So you're establishing a connection, a relationship." DEBRA FINE: "That's the goal." RS: "Moving on, we've started this conversation even though we didn't think we had anything to say, and now we're to a point where there's like some awkwardness in it. How do you get beyond that, or maybe what we would call a pregnant pause, which is a long pause in the conversation?" DEBRA FINE: "First and foremost, always be prepared. Before I walk into a situation where I don't know people intimately, I come up with two to three things to talk about. It may be related to the event: 'What got you involved with this charity?' It may be related to current events: 'What do you think of this new Supreme Court nominee?' "Now, I am prepared that people don't all read the newspapers or listen to the radio, so I will say: 'Have you heard about this new Supreme Court nominee of President Bush's?' 'No, I don't even know what you're talking about, Debra.' 'Well let me fill you in ...' and then ask what their thoughts are about that. "But be prepared with two to three things to talk about. And if you've ever met with this person before, review in your mind what you know about them before you enter the restaurant, before you go to the party, before you attend the conference, so that when there is that awkward moment, pregnant pause, the worst time to think of something to talk about is when there is absolutely nothing to talk about." AA: "Now let's talk a little bit more about in American society, what are some lines of small talk to just, you know, completely avoid?" DEBRA FINE: "Well, I number one don't think it's appropriate to ever say to someone 'are you married?' Because if they say no, where is this conversation headed? Don't ask someone 'do you have any kids?' because, once again, what if they say no? "I think it is OK when you're waiting for the check, when you're on a date, to say 'tell me about your family.' That's a big question. People can respond any way they like. 'I have a brother in Cincinnati and my folks still live in Ohio as well.' It wasn't pinning them down to 'are you married?' "Also, don't ask someone 'how's your job at Boeing?' or 'how's your job at I.B.M.' because what if they lost their job? A better question is 'what's been going on with work?' [or] 'what's been happening with work since the last time I saw you?' So those are some ways to make sure you don't put someone else in an awkward spot." RS:?? Debra Fine is a former engineer in Colorado who became interested in small talk as a way to overcome her own social awkwardness. Now she is a motivational speaker and trainer, and has written a book, "The Fine Art of Small Talk." AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all posted online at voanews.com/wordmaster. AA:?? I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a conversation about small talk. RS:?? Our guest is Debra Fine, author of a new book called "The Fine Art of Small Talk." DEBRA FINE: "It is not the business conversation, not the business discussion, but it is that appetizer that helps develop into something more connected. So sometimes here in the United States you can start a conversation with someone strictly business. But if you intend to grow that into a business friendship, you need to develop that relationship, and the only way to do that is with small talk. And that's what makes it so important here in the United States." RS: "So what is small talk -- how would you define that?" DEBRA FINE: "I would define it, Rosanne, as a picture frame around every business conversation. For business that's how I would define it." RS: "OK, that's business, but it could be more ... " AA: "Right, I mean, I'm looking at your book here, you say starting with a statement like 'What a beautiful day. What's your favorite season of the year?' Or 'I was truly touched by that movie. How did you like it?' Or, let's see, 'What a great conference! Tell me about the sessions you attended.'" DEBRA FINE: "Right." AA: "What are some other examples of small talk?" DEBRA FINE: "Well, the examples you just cited are showing an interest in other people, taking the risk of being the first to speak, the first to say hello, and then showing an interest. And all those examples you just cited use open-ended questions: tell me, describe for me, what was that like for you, what do you know about this, how did you come up with that idea? "I might say to someone from a different country than myself or a different culture: 'Tell me about a favorite tradition' or 'Tell me what you enjoy most about visiting here in the Washington, D.C., area?' So the key is to use open-ended questions and to show an interest in others. "If you are unwilling to talk to me, there is no perfect way to start a conversation because you will reject me no matter what. And that's what we all need to learn is that it is up to us to take the risk of starting a conversation, but to not take it personally if someone just gives us a one-word answer or doesn't help us along in the conversation. It may mean that they have other things on their mind or they're there to meet someone else. Move on to another individual in your party or at this event or at the meeting or conference." RS: "So you're establishing a connection, a relationship." DEBRA FINE: "That's the goal." RS: "Moving on, we've started this conversation even though we didn't think we had anything to say, and now we're to a point where there's like some awkwardness in it. How do you get beyond that, or maybe what we would call a pregnant pause, which is a long pause in the conversation?" DEBRA FINE: "First and foremost, always be prepared. Before I walk into a situation where I don't know people intimately, I come up with two to three things to talk about. It may be related to the event: 'What got you involved with this charity?' It may be related to current events: 'What do you think of this new Supreme Court nominee?' "Now, I am prepared that people don't all read the newspapers or listen to the radio, so I will say: 'Have you heard about this new Supreme Court nominee of President Bush's?' 'No, I don't even know what you're talking about, Debra.' 'Well let me fill you in ...' and then ask what their thoughts are about that. "But be prepared with two to three things to talk about. And if you've ever met with this person before, review in your mind what you know about them before you enter the restaurant, before you go to the party, before you attend the conference, so that when there is that awkward moment, pregnant pause, the worst time to think of something to talk about is when there is absolutely nothing to talk about." AA: "Now let's talk a little bit more about in American society, what are some lines of small talk to just, you know, completely avoid?" DEBRA FINE: "Well, I number one don't think it's appropriate to ever say to someone 'are you married?' Because if they say no, where is this conversation headed? Don't ask someone 'do you have any kids?' because, once again, what if they say no? "I think it is OK when you're waiting for the check, when you're on a date, to say 'tell me about your family.' That's a big question. People can respond any way they like. 'I have a brother in Cincinnati and my folks still live in Ohio as well.' It wasn't pinning them down to 'are you married?' "Also, don't ask someone 'how's your job at Boeing?' or 'how's your job at I.B.M.' because what if they lost their job? A better question is 'what's been going on with work?' [or] 'what's been happening with work since the last time I saw you?' So those are some ways to make sure you don't put someone else in an awkward spot." RS:?? Debra Fine is a former engineer in Colorado who became interested in small talk as a way to overcome her own social awkwardness. Now she is a motivational speaker and trainer, and has written a book, "The Fine Art of Small Talk." AA:?? And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are all posted online at voanews.com/wordmaster. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-01-voa3.cfm
* Headline: United Nations Launches Children’s AIDS Campaign
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Shep O'Neal?with the VOA Special English Health Report. The United Nations has launched a campaign to get countries to do more for children affected by H.I.V. and AIDS. The U.N. Children’s Fund and the U.N. AIDS program call their campaign, "Unite for Children. United Against AIDS."? AIDS resulted in three million deaths in two thousand four. One in six victims was under the age of fifteen. But UNICEF says millions of children are affected by AIDS even if they are not infected with the virus that causes it. Many lose parents or brothers and sisters. In some cases, they are even denied schooling and health care just because of their family situation. U.N. officials say about fifteen million children have lost at least one parent because of AIDS. Yet, they say, less than ten percent of these children receive any public support or services. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says many children are being left to grow up alone, grow up too soon or not grow up at all. Southern Africa is home to almost ninety percent of children infected with H.I.V. But the virus is increasingly spreading among young people in Asia and eastern Europe. About half of all new H.I.V. infections worldwide are among people age fifteen to twenty-four. UNICEF aims to reduce new infections among young people by twenty-five percent within the next five years. Less than five percent of children with H.I.V. receive treatment now. UNICEF wants to increase that number, and also services for pregnant women to prevent infection of their babies. UNICEF says children must be put first in the fight against AIDS. It says children are too often excluded from government policy discussions on the disease. The campaign aims to reach eighty percent of children most in need of services by two thousand ten. The U.N. AIDS program says at least fifty-five thousand million dollars will be needed over the next three years to fight AIDS. U.N. officials say much of that money should be provided for children. Kofi Annan, UNICEF chief Ann Veneman and the head of UNAIDS, Doctor Peter Piot, announced the campaign last week in New York. Miz Veneman noted that in the past twenty-five years, AIDS has not only claimed more than twenty million lives. In some countries it has also lowered the average life expectancy by as much as thirty years. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Washington University in St. Louis Forms Program With Asian Schools
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Education Report. Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, has announced a new international education and research effort. It involves fifteen Asian universities along with international companies. Officials made the announcement of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy last month. They said the academy will link professors, researchers and business and government leaders around the world. Support for the effort comes from international companies, foundations and individuals. University officials say the McDonnell Academy is being created to improve progress toward solving world problems. Areas to be studied include the environment, energy, disease, international conflict and poverty. Students at the McDonnell Academy will take part in a special program of meetings. Officials say famous researchers and political leaders will lead discussions about major issues. Examples might include the future of higher education, or American political issues. Those who are accepted to the McDonnell Academy will receive money to pay for classes and living costs. They will also receive support for travel to Saint Louis and for a yearly one-week trip to their home university. Each student also will work with a Washington University professor throughout his or her studies. The professor will serve as an "ambassador" to the student’s home university and will travel there with the student each year. The professor will find areas to expand cooperation in education and research. Those taking part in the academy program must attend graduate school at Washington University. Interested students must also apply to the McDonnell Academy. The universities whose students are invited to apply are in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Officials say that they hope in the future to include universities in Europe, Australia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The first of more than twenty academy scholars will begin their work at Washington University in the fall of two thousand six. For more information about the McDonnell Academy, go to the Web site at mcdonnell dot w-u-s-t-l dot e-d-u. McDonnell is spelled m-c-d-o-n-n-e-l-l. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. ?Our reports can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-02-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Election of 1888: Voters Cared Most About Import Taxes
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Ray Freeman and I tell the story of the American presidential election of eighteen eighty-eight. VOICE TWO: One political issue played a major part in the election of eighteen eighty-eight. That issue was tariffs -- taxes on imports. At that time, tariffs were high on many products. The high tariffs protected American goods from competing with lower-priced foreign products. They protected millions of jobs in American industry. Not everyone, however, supported high tariffs. The President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, did not. VOICE ONE: President Cleveland believed that high tariffs hurt more Americans than they protected. High tariffs, he said, led to high prices on all products. He also opposed high tariffs because they brought in more money than the government needed. The extra money was kept in the public treasury. And this, Cleveland believed, slowed the American economy. The president's Democratic Party united to support his policy of lowering tariffs. When the party held its presidential nominating convention in eighteen eighty-eight, delegates quickly re-nominated Cleveland. VOICE TWO: At the Republican Party convention, delegates were expected to nominate Senator James Blaine. Blaine had been the party's candidate four years earlier. He had lost to Cleveland in a very close election. Senator Blaine publicly criticized the president's policy on tariffs. He said he looked forward to a full debate on the issue. Republicans thought this meant that Blaine wanted to be nominated for president again. They told him he was sure to win. They said it would be such an easy victory that he would not have to campaign. VOICE ONE: In fact, Blaine did not want the nomination. He asked that his name not be put before the convention. He met with reporters to talk about his decision. He said: "A man who has once been the candidate of his party -- and defeated -- owes it to his party not to be a candidate again." Many Republicans refused to accept Blaine's decision. They felt that if Blaine were nominated, he would run. Blaine replied: "If the presidential nomination is offered to me, I could not and would not accept it." That was final. Blaine's supporters had to find someone else to nominate for president. vOICE TWO: Fourteen men declared themselves to be candidates for the Republican nomination. A leading candidate was Senator John Sherman of Ohio. Another was former Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. Convention delegates voted several times. No man received enough votes to win the nomination. Then a message came from James Blaine. It said: "Nominate Harrison." On the eighth vote, the delegates did. Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of the ninth President of the United States, William Henry Harrison. Benjamin was a lawyer. He had been a General in the Union Army during America's Civil War of the eighteen sixties. VOICE ONE: After nominating Harrison, the Republicans approved a strong policy statement on the tariff question. The statement said: "We fully support the American system of protection. President Cleveland and his party serve the interests of Europe. We would support the interests of America. We would see all other taxes ended before we surrender any part of the protective tariff system." VOICE TWO: Benjamin Harrison's campaign was well-organized. His campaign workers went to businessmen who had become rich because of high protective tariffs. They asked for support, and the businessmen gave millions of dollars to the campaign. The businessmen also put pressure on the people who worked for them. They warned workers that if Cleveland were re-elected, there might be no more jobs. Republican Party leaders took an active part in the campaign of eighteen eighty-eight. They made speeches and led parades across the country. The party also printed millions of pamphlets that warned against what it called "Cleveland's free trade policies." VOICE ONE: Grover Cleveland's campaign was not well-organized. It started slowly. It did not raise much money. No effort was made to answer Republican attacks on the tariff issue. And the president himself refused to campaign. He said he had more important things to do. The Democrats also failed to stop the Republicans from buying votes on election day. In Indiana, for example, men were paid fifteen dollars to vote for the Republican candidate. The Democrats bought votes, too. But they had less money to spend than the Republicans. When the popular votes were counted, Cleveland had about one hundred thousand more than Harrison. But Harrison had more electoral votes. He won the election. VOICE TWO: Grover Cleveland had mixed feelings about his defeat. He wanted to win, because he believed his policies were best for the country. He said he was not sorry that he had made tariffs the major issue in the campaign. "I do not regret it," he said. "It is better to be defeated battling for an honest idea, than to win by a cowardly trick." When President Cleveland and his wife left the White House, Missus Cleveland said goodbye to the servants. She told one of them: "I want you to take good care of all the furniture and other things in the house. I want to find everything the same when we come back...four years from now." VOICE ONE: The new president, Benjamin Harrison, had big political debts to re-pay. He understood this when he began organizing his administration. "When I came to power," Harrison said, "I found that my party's leaders had taken all the power for themselves. I could not name my own cabinet. They had sold every cabinet position to pay for the election." VOICE TWO: The position of Secretary of State went to James Blaine, who had refused his party's requests to run for president. Blaine had served as Secretary of State under Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur. The position of Postmaster General went to John Wanamaker. Wanamaker had raised most of the money for Harrison's campaign. He had given fifty thousand dollars of his own money. He planned to re-pay party supporters with jobs in the post office department. VOICE ONE: During the campaign, Harrison had promised to enforce the civil service law that protected the job rights of government workers. He promised that workers would be removed only in the interests of better government. Wanamaker and other party leaders criticized Harrison. They said they could not build a strong party organization without promising government jobs to voters. So, President Harrison suspended the civil service laws that protected postal workers. Within a year, thirty thousand Democrats were removed from the department. Their jobs went to Republicans. The president then announced that the post office would, once again, be protected by the civil service laws. VOICE TWO: Former President Cleveland had been troubled by the extra money in the federal treasury. This was tax money the government collected, but did not use. Most of the extra money came from high protective tariffs on imported products. Cleveland wanted to reduce the surplus by reducing the tariffs. President Harrison decided to reduce the surplus, too. But he would do it by increasing government spending...not by cutting taxes. Congress agreed. It became the first Congress to spend one thousand million dollars. VOICE ONE: Much of the money was spent on payments to men who had fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. These payments cost the government more than one hundred million dollars a year. Congress also approved millions of dollars for government projects in the home states of important congressmen. This was called "pork barrel" spending. It paid for new roads, bridges, and government buildings -- for almost anything the congressmen wanted. Congress reduced the surplus even more by approving money to build coastal defenses and to buy warships for the Navy. VOICE TWO: The American Congress passed several historic pieces of legislation during Benjamin Harrison's administration: The Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act. And the McKinley Tariff. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Intrade: a Market That Trades on Future Events
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Intrade is a kind of exchange where people trade, not in stock, but in political, financial and current events. It is in the news because results on Intrade's trading system have strongly suggested the outcome of events like elections and nominations. Intrade provides an Internet system where people can trade in agreements or contracts. These are based on the possibility that an event will take place. Intrade currently makes four cents on each contract traded. This is how the system works: The possibility that an event will happen is expressed in points. Each contract is worth one hundred points if the event takes place. The contract is worth nothing if the event does not take place in the agreed-upon period of time. Each point is worth ten cents. One example is the recent legal situation of I. Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. People began trading contracts on Mister Libby on October fourteenth. These stated that criminal charges would be brought against him on or before December thirty-first of this year. Intrade's Web site shows that traders began selling contracts at about fifty points, or five dollars. That price soon jumped to almost ninety points before sharply dropping to a little more than sixty-five points on October seventeenth. Ten days later, the contract passed eighty points. On October twenty-eighth, a special government lawyer announced criminal charges against Mister Libby for lying to government officials. [On Thursday, Mister Libby appeared before?a judge and said?he is not guilty.] So all the contracts were worth one hundred points, or ten dollars. People who bought contracts at eighty points, or eight dollars, received two dollars in profit. Those who sold contracts at eighty points were betting that Mister Libby would not be charged. They lost two dollars. Although they made eight dollars on their sale, they still paid the ten dollar value of the contract to the buyer. Intrade is not the only market that has tried to trade on what people believe will happen. In July, two thousand three, the United States Defense Department developed a system called FutureMAP. It was a market that traded on the possibility of threats like terrorist attacks. That program was quickly cancelled. Next week, we will learn more about Intrade and how futures markets work. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Shirley Horn Remembered | Baseball: Story of White Sox Victory
* Byline: Written by Katherine Gypson and Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music by Shirley Horn ... Answer two questions about American political parties. And report about the professional baseball team that recently won the World Series. Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox major league baseball team won their first World Series since nineteen seventeen last week. Faith Lapidus tells us the story of the White Sox' long road to victory. FAITH LAPIDUS: The White Sox play baseball in one of the largest cities in America -- Chicago, Illinois. The team is an important part of the city's proud history. A team called the White Sox has played baseball in Chicago since the year nineteen hundred. The team is called the White Sox because the players wear long white stockings as part of their playing clothes. The team is part of major league baseball's American League. The city has another professional baseball team -- the Chicago Cubs of the National League. Every summer, baseball fans in Chicago look forward to the games when the Cubs play against the White Sox. Every autumn, the best baseball teams of the American League and National League play championship games called the World Series. The teams compete for the North American baseball championship. The White Sox had not won a World Series championship since nineteen seventeen. Only very old people can remember a time when the White Sox were the best team in baseball. The White Sox had a chance to win the World Series again in nineteen nineteen. Some men who bet money on baseball games gave money to eight White Sox players. They wanted the players to lose the game on purpose so that the gamblers could win money on their bets. The White Sox lost the World Series that year. The plot was discovered and the eight players who took part were never permitted to play baseball again. That year, the team became known as the Black Sox. Several American movies have been made about this event. The White Sox played in the World Series again, in nineteen fifty-nine. They lost. Some White Sox fans believed their team would always lose because of the cheating Black Sox players. But last week, the bad luck ended. The dreams of the fans who have loved their team for so many years came true. The Chicago White Sox won the World Series. They became the best team in baseball again. Political Differences HOST: Our listener questions this week come from Turkey and China. Raci asks about the differences between the Democratic and Republican political parties. Ma Wei asks about other American political parties. This is a good time to answer these questions because Americans are preparing to vote in state and local elections on Tuesday. The Republicans and Democrats are the two major political parties. Republicans generally are conservative. Democrats usually hold more liberal or progressive beliefs. Thomas Jefferson started the Democratic Party in seventeen ninety-two. In eighteen hundred, he was the first member of the party to be elected president. It was first called the Democratic-Republican Party, but became the Democratic party in eighteen forty-four. The Republican Party began in the early eighteen fifties as a result of efforts by anti-slavery activists and others. Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican Party president in eighteen sixty. Today, Republicans generally support free trade and open markets, low taxes, a strong military, smaller government and few restrictions on business. They believe people should create their own success and not depend on public aid. Most Republicans support the rights of Americans to own guns. They oppose operations that end pregnancies. The Democratic Party generally supports the idea that government should provide programs to help people in need. Party members believe men and women should be paid equally for the same work. Democrats support controls on gun ownership. Most Democrats believe a woman should have the right to end her pregnancy. There are more than thirty other political parties in the United States. They are known as third parties. Some of them support candidates in local, state or presidential elections. Each has its own political policy. For example, the Green Party is linked to the environmental Green movement around the world. It supports environmental protection. And the Libertarian Party wants more freedom, lower taxes and less government. Shirley Horn Jazz performer Shirley Horn died last month at the age of seventy- one. Pat Bodnar tells us about the woman and her music. PAT BODNAR: Shirley Horn lived all her life in and around Washington, D.C. She was considered one of the great jazz singers of the nineteen fifties and sixties. She was often compared to the famous singers Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. Shirley Horn began learning how to play the piano at age four. She studied classical music as a teenager. She began to sing jazz in clubs and started her own jazz group in nineteen fifty-four. Here she sings the famous Cole Porter song "Love for Sale." (MUSIC) Shirley Horn recorded her first album in nineteen sixty. The famous jazz musician Miles Davis heard the album. He liked it so much that he invited Miz Horn to play music with him in New York City. Shirley Horn went on to record several successful albums. She won a Grammy Award in nineteen ninety-eight for the album "I Remember Miles."?Here she sings and Miles Davis plays the trumpet on the song "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin'." (MUSIC) Experts say Shirley Horn was one of the slowest singers in jazz. She liked to put stress on some words and let others slip away. Critics say that she will be remembered as one of the best singers in a great period of American jazz. We leave you now with Shirley Horn playing the piano and singing "I Just Found Out About Love." (MUSIC) HOST:?? HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. This show was written by Katherine Gypson and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-05-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Senate Preparing to Question Latest Supreme Court Nominee
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Shep O'Neal?with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Democrats and Republicans in the United States Senate are preparing to question President Bush’s latest nominee for the Supreme Court. On Monday, Mister Bush named Samuel Alito to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The president did so after his earlier nominee, Harriet Miers, withdrew from consideration because of opposition by conservatives. The nomination of Mister Alito requires confirmation by the Senate. Democrats and Republicans agree that Judge Alito is highly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale University Law School. And he has fifteen years of experience as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. However, many people express concern about the future balance of the nine-member Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor often took moderate positions that made the difference in cases decided by votes of five-to-four. Some critics say Mister Alito would change the direction of the Supreme Court and make it more conservative. The Senate will consider how a Supreme Court nominee might affect the Court’s decisions. Senators will study rulings and opinions written by the nominee. They want to find out what he thinks about issues that could come before the Court in the future. One of the most divisive of these issues is a woman’s right to have an operation to end her pregnancy. In nineteen seventy-three, the Supreme Court declared such abortions legal in a case known as Roe versus Wade. Many experts say that Judge Alito’s earlier court rulings lead them to believe that he would vote to change that decision. They note a decision he made in nineteen ninety-one. Judge Alito was the only one of a three-judge group to support a Pennsylvania law that required women to tell their husbands before having an abortion. The Supreme Court rejected Judge Alito’s opinion one year later. It found the Pennsylvania law to be unconstitutional. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor took the lead in that case and helped develop the ruling that confirmed the Roe versus Wade decision. Senators may also question Judge Alito about several other past decisions. These include racial preference in jobs and education, civil rights and the separation of church and government. Since seventeen eighty-nine, the Senate has considered more than one hundred fifty Supreme Court nominees. The Senate Historical Office says it has rejected only twelve. Some experts say that interest groups are already trying to influence senators to vote for or against Judge Alito. They expect a huge dispute between conservatives and liberal senators when the hearings begin. President Bush said he wants a vote on the Alito nomination by the end of the year. However, on Thursday, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said the hearings will not begin until January. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-05-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Ann Landers Gave Advice to Newspaper Readers Across America
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about advice writer Ann Landers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many newspapers in the United States have writers who give advice. Some are experts about issues like gardening, food, health or money. People will write to the expert about a problem and he or she will try to solve it. VOICE ONE (CONT) There also are advice writers who deal with the more personal issues in life. They answer questions about all kinds of things—love, children, mental health problems, morals. This was the kind of advice column that Esther Lederer wrote. She wrote it under the name of Ann Landers. Ann Landers VOICE TWO: Miz Lederer did not study to become a newspaper writer. In fact, she did not finish her university studies at Morningside College, in Sioux City, Iowa. She was born in Sioux City on July fourth, nineteen eighteen. Her parents named her Esther Pauline Friedman. Esther’s younger sister was born a few minutes later. She was given the same two first names in opposite order--Pauline Esther. The twins, Eppie and Popo as they were called, had two older sisters. Their father, Abraham Friedman, had come to the United States from Russia. He sold chickens when he first arrived. Soon, he became a successful businessman who owned movie theaters in several states. Eppie said she owed a lot to her parents and her childhood in the Middle West. She says both provided her with morals and values that helped her a lot in life. VOICE ONE: Eppie Friedman was in college when she met Jules Lederer. She left school to marry him in nineteen thirty-nine. Mister Lederer was a businessman. He helped establish a car service called Budget Rent-A-Car. It became very successful. Mister and Missus Lederer had their first and only child, Margo, in nineteen forty. For years Eppie Lederer was happy to stay home and raise her child while her husband’s business grew. They lived in Wisconsin at first. Missus Lederer became politically active in the Democratic Party there. In nineteen fifty-five, the Lederers moved to Chicago, Illinois. That same year, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper held a competition among its employees. The paper wanted to find a replacement for its advice columnist who wrote under the name Ann Landers. Eppie Lederer heard about the competition from a friend at the paper and decided to enter. She was one of thirty people who sought the job. The competition was simple. Competitors were given several letters from people requesting help on different issues. The person who wrote the answers the newspaper officials liked best would win the job. VOICE TWO: Missus Lederer used the help of powerful friends to decide the best advice. For example, one letter writer asked about a tree that dropped nuts on her property. The tree grew on land owned by someone else. The letter writer wanted to know what she could do with the nuts. ? Eppie Lederer decided that this was really a legal question so she sought help from a friend who knew about the law. That friend just happened to be a judge on the United States Supreme Court! Another letter was about a Roman Catholic Church issue. So Eppie Lederer talked to the president of a famous Catholic university, Notre Dame. The Chicago Sun Times reportedly called Missus Lederer a few days after the competition ended. When she answered the telephone a newspaper official said “Good Morning, Ann Landers.”? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new Ann Landers discovered the job was not easy. She reportedly was deeply affected by many of the sad letters she received from troubled people. Missus Lederer later said that one Sun-Times editor helped her harden herself to those stories. He said she must separate herself from her readers and their problems. She said she would not have been successful in her work if it were not for that advice. Ann Landers’ popularity grew quickly. She immediately established herself as different from advice writers of the past. She became known for her easy writing style and her often funny answers. She related to her readers as if they were old friends. She seemed to say exactly what she thought, even when doing so might hurt the feelings of those seeking help. Most people considered Ann Landers’ advice to be good, common sense. For example, early in her work a young person wrote to ask Ann Landers’ opinion of sexual activity among teenagers. She explained her objection to such activity by saying, “a lemon squeezed too many times is considered garbage.” VOICE TWO: As Ann Landers gained fame so did many of her words. People began to repeat some her short, pointed sentences. One of the most famous of these was when she told readers to “wake up and smell the coffee.”? She would use this comment when advice seekers seemed to be denying situations that made them unhappy or uncomfortable. Another well known Ann Landers saying was “forty lashes with a wet noodle.”? She would say this if she believed someone had done something mean, dishonest or just stupid. Ann Landers did not protect herself from such criticism, however. She often published letters from readers who argued against advice she had given. When she agreed with their criticism, she sometimes ordered the forty lashes for herself! Ann Landers took a lot of risks in her column. She spoke out about many issues that some people considered offensive or socially unacceptable. She discussed homosexuality, alcoholism, drug dependency and mistreatment of children by parents, to list a few. VOICE ONE: Ann Landers also spoke out on political issues. She expressed her strong opposition to American involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. She was a major supporter of gun control and the right of a woman to choose to end a pregnancy. She also supported using animals in medical research. These opinions made her an enemy of several groups, including the National Rifle Association, abortion opponents, and animal protection organizations. But, their pressure did not appear to worry Ann Landers. In fact, she once said she felt proud that these groups hated her. Her political activism was sometimes powerful. She expressed her support of legislation for cancer research in her column in nineteen seventy-one. President Richard Nixon received hundreds of thousands of copies of the column from Ann Landers readers. He soon signed the one hundred million dollar National Cancer Act. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy-five, Eppie Lederer’s life changed. Her husband, Jules, told her he was involved with another woman. That relationship had been going on for several years. Mister and Missus Lederer separated. This experience affected Ann Landers’ advice about seriously troubled marriages. She had always advised couples to stay together to avoid hurting their children. After her separation from her husband she wrote a column about her decision to end her marriage. She received tens of thousands of letters from her readers offering their support and sympathy. Ann Landers continued to suggest that a husband and wife in a troubled marriage seek counseling. But she was now more willing to consider that a marriage might be beyond repair. VOICE ONE: Eppie Lederer’s sister Popo also became an advice columnist. Her column was called “Dear Abby.”? Like Ann Landers, Dear Abby was published in thousands of newspapers. Some reports say the competition between the two advice columns led to a dispute between the twin sisters. They reportedly did not speak for five years. Eppie Lederer’s daughter, Margo Howard, is an advice columnist as well. But, neither her daughter or her sister won the kind of fame and following that Ann Landers did. Her column appeared in The Chicago Tribune and about one thousand two hundred other newspapers around the world. Her advice reached tens of millions of people every day. That was her goal. She said having many readers was more important to her than winning a famous prize. VOICE TWO: In January, two thousand two, doctors discovered that Eppie Lederer had multiple myeloma. It is a very serious form of cancer of the bone marrow. Her death came just six months later, on June twenty-second. She was eighty-three. ?Eppie Lederer owned the rights to the Ann Landers name and did not want it to be used after she died. So millions of people around the world have received the last words of advice from Ann Landers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: A Soldier's Life: Women in the U.S. Military
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: U.S. servicewomen?in Al Kut, IraqAnd I’m Faith Lapidus. November eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. The holiday honors people who served in the military. And that brings us to our subject this week: women in the military. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In two thousand four, Martha McSally became the first woman to command a fighter squadron in the United States Air Force. Lieutenant Colonel McSally commands twenty-seven aircraft and more than sixty crew members. The A-Ten fighter planes provide close support for ground troops. They also perform search-and-rescue operations in areas of combat. The squadron has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Colonel McSally is one of more than two hundred thousand women in the United States military. They are in all of the services: Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard. VOICE TWO: For many years, women in the military served mostly as nurses. Today, they do many other kinds of work as well. Women have reached some of the highest positions in the military. But they are still barred from taking part in ground combat. Yet more than forty women have been killed in the war in Iraq. Hundreds of others have been wounded. The war began in March of two thousand three. In all, more than two thousand American service members have died. VOICE ONE: The dead include Pamela Osbourne. Last month, two rockets hit the camp in Baghdad where she served as an Army supply sergeant. She was taking supplies to another soldier when she was killed. Sergeant Osbourne was born in Jamaica thirty-eight years ago. She was married and the mother of three children. She joined the Army in two thousand one. She was sent to Iraq about seven months ago. Pamela Osbourne had recently met one of her major goals in life. She had become an American citizen. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen seventy-three, the United States withdrew its troops from Vietnam. The Vietnam War ended. So did the American draft. Without a draft, the military could no longer require young men to serve. The services needed volunteers. More jobs opened in the military for women, and many joined. Military service offered a chance to learn a trade or profession and, in some cases, to see the world. VOICE ONE: The women volunteers were following a historic tradition of service to the nation. The American Revolution for freedom from Britain began in seventeen seventy-five. Civilian women volunteered as nurses. Women did so again in the eighteen sixties during the Civil War. Women also acted as spies during those wars. The United States entered World War One in nineteen seventeen. About thirty thousand American women joined the military. Most were nurses. But some had administrative jobs as female yeomen, so-called yeomanettes, in the Naval Reserve and Coast Guard. A history of women in the Coast Guard says a few apparently served at the headquarters building in Washington. Nineteen-year-old sisters Genevieve and Lucille Baker are said to have been the first women to wear the uniform of the Coast Guard. VOICE? TWO: In the nineteen forties, the military greatly increased the number of servicewomen and the jobs they could hold during World War Two. At first, many people opposed the idea. But as the war continued, it became clear that the nation needed women to perform more jobs so more men could fight in combat. The armed forces accepted almost four hundred thousand women. In nineteen forty-three, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was renamed the Women’s Army Corps. Its members served overseas. Later, women in the Navy and Coast Guard also went overseas. Some women in the services were taken prisoner during World War Two. Others were killed. Women received military honors and the praise of their commanders. Even those who had opposed women in military service joined in that praise. VOICE ONE: Women continued to serve in a number of non-combat positions. Eight women died in military service in Vietnam. Over the years, women have gotten closer and closer to the fighting. In nineteen eighty-nine, almost eight hundred servicewomen provided support for the American operation in Panama. Some piloted Blackhawk helicopters that came under fire. Women piloted airplanes in the Persian Gulf War in nineteen ninety-one. And they did so again in a military action over Iraq in nineteen ninety-eight. Women also served in the operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. And now they are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there are still limits on the jobs they are permitted to do. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A strengthened economy and a time of war have meant a harder time finding young men to join the military. This has meant that servicewomen have been given more kinds of jobs. Some of these can bring them into danger. For example, both men and women have been transporting supplies and providing medical aid to fighting troops in Iraq. These jobs cannot be done far away from the fighting. Lawmakers in Congress have been trying to further limit how and where women can serve in areas of conflict. Such efforts do not please women who say they want to take the same risks as men. VOICE? ONE: Retired Air Force officer Karen Johnson is an official of the National Organization for Women, the activist group called NOW. She says serving in the military is a right of American citizenship. When this right is limited, she says, a woman’s citizenship is limited. But Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness opposes placing women in dangerous military jobs. The center is a policy organization. Miz Donnelly points to studies that say women have physical limitations that should prevent their serving in combat. She says women soldiers do not have an equal chance to survive – or to help other soldiers survive. VOICE TWO: Two recently published books tell two different stories of women who served in Iraq. One is by Janis Karpinski. She was the Army general who commanded military police at prisons in Iraq. These included the Army Reserve soldiers who guarded the Abu Ghraib Prison near Baghdad. Some have received prison sentences for mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Miz Karpinski became the highest-level officer to be punished in connection with the case. She left the service in July after being reduced from a brigadier general to a colonel. VOICE ONE: Her book is called "One Woman’s Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story."? Miz Karpinski says she was unfairly blamed for conditions beyond her control. She also tells of her difficulties as a rising woman officer in the Army. VOICE TWO: Another former member of the Army, Kayla Williams, wrote a book called "Love My Rifle More Than You."? The name is taken from a marching song. Miz Williams was an Arabic translator in Iraq. She says her book describes what it is like to be young and female in the Army. One reviewer called it "a frank, shocking and honest look at life in the military."? VOICE ONE: Lori Piestewa was a private first class in the Army. In two thousand three, she became the first American woman to die in Iraq. She also became the first Native American woman known to have been killed in a foreign war. Lori Piestewa was a single mother from Arizona with two young children. Her father and grandfather had also served in the Army. She was killed after a group of supply trucks took a wrong turn and came under attack near the Iraqi city of Nasariyah. Her friend Private Jessica Lynch was taken prisoner, but later rescued from a hospital. Jessica Lynch became famous when the military presented her as a hero. Later, she said the truth was that her gun would not even fire. But she said Lori Piestewa did fight back, and died trying to protect the other soldiers. Now, there is a mountain in Phoenix, Arizona, that has been named Piestewa Peak in her honor. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for another THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Do-It-Yourself: Preparing Fish for Drying or Smoking
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Most of the time, fishermen catch more fish than they need for their immediate use. The extra fish do not have to be thrown away. The fish can be prepared so they can be eaten at a later time. Fish can be dried or smoked. First, however, the fish must be cleaned and salted. Begin with fish that are just out of the water. They must be treated immediately after they are caught. If the fish are small, do not remove their heads. If the fish are bigger than twenty centimeters long or weigh more than one hundred fifteen grams, then remove their heads. Remove the scales on the outside of the fish. Cut the stomach open. Remove everything inside. Wash the fish in clean water. Then rub salt into the fish. Now, you are ready to treat them for future use. Put the fish in a mixture of three hundred grams of salt and one liter of water. This will remove all of the blood from the fish meat. Keep them there for about thirty minutes. Then remove all the fish and wash them in clean water. Now, put them in a mixture that has more salt in the water. The mixture should be strong enough so that the fish float to the top. If the fish sink to the bottom, add more salt to the water in the container. Cover the container with a clean piece of wood. Hold the wood down with a heavy stone. Leave the fish there for about six hours. Then, remove them from the salt water and lay them on a clean place. Cover them with a clean piece of white cloth. Let them dry. Another method of salting fish is called dry salting. Wooden boxes or baskets are used for dry salting. After cleaning the fish, put a few of them on the bottom of the box or basket. Cover them with salt. Put more fish on top. Cover them with salt too. Continue putting fish and salt in the container until it is full. Do not use too much salt when using the dry salt method. You should use one part salt to three parts fish. For example, if you have three kilograms of fish, you should use one kilogram of salt. Remove the fish after a week or ten days. Wash them in a mixture of water and a small amount of salt. Let them dry. With all this talk about salt, remember that doctors advise people to limit the sodium in their diet. It can raise blood pressure, and some people have a greater reaction than others. Next week, we will discuss drying and smoking fish. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Bob Bowen. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-07-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Mars Once Had Moving Plates Like Earth Has Now
* Byline: Written by Katherine Gypson, Cynthia Kirk and Karen Leggett

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week -- new findings about Mars ... VOICE ONE: A possible cause of prostate cancer ... VOICE TWO: A new campaign to save children from AIDS, and a new kind of vaccine against polio. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American scientists have found evidence that the surface of the planet Mars once moved like that of present-day Earth. The evidence comes from a new map of magnetic forces on Mars. The map was put together from observations by an American space vehicle, the Mars Global Surveyor. The American space agency sent the Mars Global Surveyor into orbit around Mars in nineteen ninety-seven. The spacecraft spent nearly four years studying the planet, its atmosphere and what lies under its surface. The spacecraft is now on an extended trip to gather more information. VOICE TWO: The space agency says the new magnetic field map of Mars is the first of its kind. The map provides images of the full surface of the planet. Scientists say the map shows that the surface of Mars was created in much the same way as Earth’s. On both planets, the outer surface is broken up into large pieces, or plates. These plates are moving over areas of hot liquid rock, called the mantle. As the mantle rises up and breaks through the surface of the planet, the plates push apart. The mantle reaches the surface and cools into hard rock. The magnetic field on the planet pulls the rock in one direction. More material pushes from under the planet’s surface, building a new rock surface on top of the old. Sometimes different levels of rock will be pulled in different directions. This happens when the magnetic field changes several times every million years. VOICE ONE: The planet Mars also has a series of mountains called the Tharsis volcanoes. They lie in a straight line. Volcanoes on Mars are ten to a hundred times larger than those on Earth. Scientists have wondered why this is so. With the help of the map, scientists can now see that the mountains were formed in a very hot area between two plates. On Earth, this kind of volcanic activity formed the Hawaiian Islands. The Mars Global Surveyor also examined an extremely deep hole. It is called the Valley Marineris. It is six times as long and eight times as deep as the Grand Canyon in the western United States. The spacecraft also found that the magnetic field on Mars did not cover the planet. Magnetic fields protect planets from some kinds of radiation from space. Scientists think the presence of even a partial magnetic field around Mars may mean that living organisms were able to exist on the planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Medical researchers may have found a cause of prostate cancer. They say the finding could lead to more effective treatments and a possible cure for the disease. The researchers said they identified a way of organizing chromosomes that causes two genes to combine, or fuse. This unusual gene activity is found only in prostate cancer. The researchers said they found the gene activity in most of the prostate cancer tissue they studied. The genes did not combine in prostate tissue free of the disease. Arul Chinnaiyan of the University of Michigan Medical School led the study. The research team included scientists from the United States and Germany. Science magazine reported their findings. America’s National Cancer Institute provided support for the study. The two genes involved are called ETV-One and ERG. They are normally separate. But each fused with another gene, known as TMPRSS-Two. This gene is directly linked to the prostate gland in men. VOICE ONE: The researchers developed a step-by-step process for identifying genes commonly linked to cancer. The process searches for unusual genetic activity in prostate cancer tissues. Laboratories at the University of Michigan tested twenty-two pieces of prostate cancer tissue. The process found the unusual gene activity in ninety-one percent of the tissue studied. No one knows what caused the genes to fuse. Researchers say similar gene fusions are likely to be seen in most prostate cancers. But they say other unknown gene combinations may be the cause for the other prostate cancers. The presence of these gene combinations may one day be used to test for prostate cancer. Doctors now test men for levels of prostate-specific antigen, or P.S.A. P.S.A. is found in the blood or liquid wastes. But experts say P.S.A. tests are not always dependable. Doctors often need tissue to confirm prostate cancer. Experts say better tests would reduce the need for such invasive methods. VOICE TWO: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for men in the United States. The American Cancer Society says more than two hundred thousand new cases will be reported this year. The group says more than thirty thousand people will die from it. Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-linked deaths among men. Men over fifty years old are at greater risk, as are those with a family history of the disease. Most prostate cancers grow very slowly and never appear to spread. But some can grow and spread quickly. Treatments include removal of part or all of the prostate, radiation and hormone therapy. The National Cancer Institute says more tissue studies are needed before new testing methods or treatments can be developed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United Nations has launched a campaign to get countries to do more for children affected by H.I.V. and AIDS. The U.N. Children’s Fund and the U.N. AIDS program call their campaign, "Unite for Children. United Against AIDS."? AIDS resulted in three million deaths in two thousand four. One in six victims was under the age of fifteen. But UNICEF says millions of children are affected by AIDS even if they are not infected with the virus that causes it. Many lose parents or brothers and sisters. In some cases, they are even denied schooling and health care just because of their family situation. U.N. officials say about fifteen million children have lost at least one parent because of AIDS. Yet, they say, less than ten percent of these children receive any public support or services. Southern Africa is home to almost ninety percent of children infected with H.I.V. But the virus is increasingly spreading among young people in Asia and eastern Europe. VOICE TWO: About half of all new H.I.V. infections worldwide are among people age fifteen to twenty-four. UNICEF aims to reduce new infections among young people by twenty-five percent within the next five years. Less than five percent of children with H.I.V. receive treatment now. UNICEF wants to increase that number, and also services for pregnant women to prevent infection of their babies. The campaign aims to reach eighty percent of children most in need of services by two thousand ten. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new kind of vaccine is being used to stop the spread of polio. World health officials say the vaccine is an important tool for the final part of the campaign to end the disease. Experts recently met in Geneva to discuss the progress. They say polio could be gone within six months everywhere except Nigeria, which has the most new cases. The experts say at least another year of work is needed there. Doctor Steven Cochi [KAH-chee] is with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He says, “There is no reason why polio should continue to exist anywhere in the world after next year.”? Until now, the vaccine used to prevent polio has combined three different medicines. That is because there are three different polio viruses. But only two of them still exist: type one and type three. Type three exists in parts of Nigeria, Afghanistan and India. Type one is more common. The recently developed vaccine is known as monovalent oral polio vaccine. It protects only against the type one virus. World health officials say it appears to work faster than existing vaccines. They say it should now be used worldwide. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Katherine Gypson, Karen Leggett and Cynthia Kirk who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-07-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Sweet Deal: How Plants Invite Helpful Insects to Dine on Harmful Ones
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I’m Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Students are taught at an early age about how insects help plants reproduce. Schoolchildren learn that plants release sweet juices, or nectar, through small openings inside the flower. These small openings are called nectaries. The sweet-smelling nectar appeals to bees and other insects so they go to the plant. While the bee is drinking the sweet nectar, the hairs on its legs become covered with pollen. The bee flies to another flower and drops some of the pollen there. During a flight, the bee usually visits several male and several female flowers. In this way, flowers are able to reproduce. Many plants, however, release nectar for another purpose. Scientists have known about it for more than one hundred years. The second way plants release nectar does not involve flowers. The nectar is contained in extrafloral nectaries. They are found on the tops of leaves, where the leaf and stem come together. Trees that have extrafloral nectaries include the peach, poplar, viburnum, black locust and wild cherry. Extrafloral nectaries are often smaller than a grain of salt. Researchers say the sweet juices released in them are not used to help the plant reproduce. Instead, they are used to get some insects to come to the plant to help control harmful insects. Scientists have known for many years that tiny ants feed on the sweet juices released by the extrafloral nectaries. But only in more recent years did they make discoveries involving other insects. Back in nineteen ninety-four there was a report about extrafloral nectaries in Agricultural Research magazine. The magazine is published by the United States Agriculture Department. It said two government scientists, Robert Pemberton and Jang-hoon Lee, had studied extrafloral nectaries for two years. They looked for ways to control gypsy moths. They did their research in forests near the South Korean capital, Seoul. During their research, they discovered that two helpful insects liked the extrafloral nectaries. In fact, the insects killed two times more gypsy moths on trees that had the extrafloral nectaries than on those that did not. The insects are the Cotesia melanoscelus wasp and the Parasetigena silvestris fly. A third insect, the Blepharipa schineri fly, also improved its control of gypsy moths on trees with extrafloral nectaries. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Shadow Wolves Find and Arrest People Trying to Bring Illegal Drugs Into the U.S.
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit the desert of the American Southwest to learn about a group of people called the Shadow Wolves. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A Shadow Wolf is hunting. He is not looking for animals. He is hunting people. The Shadow Wolf walks slowly across the hot desert sand. His eyes move slowly over the ground. Most people would only see sand, dirt, rocks and some small plants. The Shadow Wolf sees a story. He looks closely at the ground. He can tell that five men passed this way. Four of them carried heavy loads. He can also tell they are moving quickly. They are not yet running, but they are moving as fast as their heavy loads permit. One man is not carrying a heavy load. The Shadow Wolf knows this person is the group’s leader. The Shadow Wolf increases his own speed across the dry, hot desert. Soon, he can tell that the five men are running. They know he is following them. Minutes later, in the far distance, a group of birds suddenly flies away from the ground. The five men have frightened the birds. The Shadow Wolf slowly pulls out his radio and calls for help. The five men are captured within an hour. They are arrested for trying to bring illegal drugs into the United States. Once again, the Shadow Wolf hunters have been successful. VOICE TWO: For thousands of years, people were hunter-gatherers. They survived by hunting wild animals and gathering food that was not easily found. Their hunting skills were extremely important. The ancient hunter-gatherers of the world learned to follow the signs or marks left on the ground as animals moved along a path. This skill is called tracking. A good tracker would often spend days following the signs of a group of animals until he could make a successful kill for food. VOICE ONE: These skills have disappeared in most of the modern world. Yet, the Shadow Wolves use them to find and arrest people who try to sell illegal drugs. The Shadow Wolves are all Native Americans. They are special employees of the United States Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. There are about twenty Shadow Wolves. They belong to the Tohono O’odham Tribe and more than ten other Native American tribes. The Shadow Wolves live by a saying that tells a lot about them and their work. The saying is: “In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, for I am the Shadow Wolf.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves have been doing their special work since nineteen seventy-two when they worked for what was then called the Customs Service. They work on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. It is the second largest area of American Indian land in the United States. It is a few kilometers west of the city of Tucson, in the southwestern state of Arizona. The huge reservation shares a one hundred twenty kilometer border with Mexico. People who want to sell illegal drugs in the United States carry the drugs on their backs across the desert land of the Tohono O’odham Reservation. They try to move from the border to the nearest road, about forty kilometers away. Usually about three or four people carry the drugs through the reservation at night. Their shoes leave marks in the dirt. The Shadow Wolves follow these shoe marks to find the drug dealers and arrest them. The Shadow Wolves have been very successful in their work. VOICE ONE: The Congress of the United States approved the idea of the Shadow Wolves for several reasons. Police agencies in Arizona and the United States Customs Service had all the modern technology needed to help catch people who tried to sell illegal drugs. But they lacked the skills of the ancient hunter-gatherers who could follow the signs left by people as they passed through the desert. Customs Service officials knew drug dealers were coming across the border and into the Tohono O’odham Reservation. The government asked Indians who lived on the reservation to help in the fight against the drug dealers. The first members of the Shadow Wolves were members of the Tohono O’odham tribe. A few years ago, the first members of this unusual group began to retire. The group asked if skilled trackers from other tribes wanted to become Shadow Wolves. The answer was yes. VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves do not use only their ancient tracking skills. They also use modern devices that help them see in the dark. They use modern radios to communicate. They use airplanes, helicopters and other methods of transportation in their work. And they carry weapons as well as water, survival devices and flashlights. The Shadow Wolves have a very good record. In one recent year they seized forty-six thousand kilograms of illegal drugs. This was almost half of all the drugs seized by the Customs Service in the state of Arizona. In one day alone they seized more than three hundred fifty kilograms of the illegal drug marijuana. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Shadow Wolves’ main task is finding and stopping illegal drug dealers. However, sometimes they are asked to help rescue people who become lost in the desert. For example, in two thousand one, three Shadow Wolves saved the life of a little boy who had become lost in the desert. The child and his dog left their home and walked into the desert. No one could find them. Special search aircraft were used. Experts with dogs were called on to help. The aircraft and the dog experts searched but could not find the little boy. Three Shadow Wolves then joined the search. They found very little evidence of the boy in the desert. But they found just enough for them to begin tracking the child. They continued to follow the marks left by the little boy until they found him and his dog. They returned them safely to their home. VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves also share their skills with law enforcement agencies in other countries. They have traveled to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. They have helped train police, border guards and customs officials. They have taught them skills to help them find people who may be transporting chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The police and border guards in those countries were often surprised when the Shadow Wolves began teaching them ancient methods of tracking. The Shadow Wolves say the police and guards expected to learn how to use some kind of modern electronic equipment. Instead they were taught ancient hunting skills. VOICE ONE: Bryan Nez is from the Navajo tribe. He has worked with the Shadow Wolves group for about fifteen years. He learned to track as a child. Mister Nez says he learned more by finding lost children and people on holiday who became lost in the desert. Other Customs and Border Protection officers say it is interesting to watch him work. Most people would not see anything unusual in an area. Yet, Mister Nez sees a lot of evidence of people passing through. He says anyone can be followed because they leave signs on the ground. He says he can follow them even at night, or over rocks. Sometimes, he says, the evidence he needs is something that he sees. Other times the evidence is something that he does not see. Sometimes it is just a feeling that he has. VOICE TWO: The work of the Shadow Wolves is dangerous. Sometimes the illegal drug dealers carry weapons. Shots have been fired more than once. One of the Shadow Wolves, Glen Miles, was shot and killed by an illegal drug dealer in nineteen eighty-six. Two other Shadow Wolves tracked the killer all the way to the Mexican border. The signs he left on the ground crossed the Mexican border nine kilometers from where the shooting took place. VOICE ONE: Each month, the Shadow Wolves find hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and arrest those carrying the drugs. The group knows it will never catch all the criminals who try to move illegal drugs through their area. However, the Shadow Wolves will continue to prove that ancient skills can be used to solve modern crimes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Guide to Writing, Now Illustrated: Stylish New Look for 'Elements of Style'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: some new elements in "The Elements of Style." RS: "The Elements of Style" is a little book that for decades has served countless writers and editors. The two authors have long since passed away, but another edition of their work has just come out: "The Elements of Style Illustrated." AA: The artist Maira Kalman based colorful and often whimsical illustrations on examples used in the book. She also worked with the young composer Nico Muhly to turn the examples into songs. The songs were performed recently in the Main Reading Room of the New York Public Library. RS: We'll play some of the music later. But first we talk to Jack Hart, who calls himself "an old journalism school professor."?He's the writing coach at the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. And he is a big fan of "The Elements of Style." JACK HART: "It originated at Cornell University. It was originally produced by a professor named William Strunk in 1919. It was a handout in his classes and, as I recall, was only about forty-three pages long. And it was some basic principles that he wanted to pass along to his students in his writing courses. "It really reflected the way American English had evolved through the second half of the nineteenth century and captured the sense that -- for the first time, I think really -- English was being regarded as a way to express rather than to impress. We were moving away from the really flowery Victorian English to a much more clear, direct way of expressing ourselves. "One of the students in his courses at Cornell was a young man named E.B. White. [He] went on, became one of the best-known writers at the New Yorker magazine, maybe best known in this country for some of his children's books like 'Charlotte's Web.' "And in the fifties, White was asked to dust off Professor Strunk's handout and expand on it a little bit, and that became the first published version of 'The Elements of Style' in this country. And it was really embraced by newspaper journalists, print journalists in general. And that made it especially influential as a model for how American English should be written." AA: "Well, just the other day I was trying to figure out should we use lie or lay in a particular sentence. How do you remember it, or do you keep going back to your 'Elements of Style'?" JACK HART: "Actually I'm at a hospital today for a medical procedure and the nurses keep telling me to 'Lay down on the table.' And I keep saying 'No, no, no! It should be lie down on the table,' because I remember my Strunk and White. "But I think more important here are the principles of clarity and gracefulness in writing that White, who was an especially clear and witty and graceful writer himself, added in the Chapter Five of 'Elements of Style,' that he added in the published version." RS: "And what does that entail?" JACK HART: "Well, first of all, to write direct sentences, to not back into sentences, to start with a subject and then follow up with a verb, a predicate, and an object. To avoid passive voice, to use active verbs, to write 'Jack hit the ball' rather than 'The ball was hit by Jack.' This is a way of expressing yourself that really has become standard throughout the English-speaking world. "I think 'The Elements of Style,' the book, has probably been more influential than any other source when it comes to influencing the way we write. There are ten million copies of this book in print. It gathers dust on millions of bookshelves, but is actively used by millions of people as well. Another quarter-million are produced every year. We're now moving into the fifth edition of the book, this new illustrated edition, so it's everywhere." RS: "Does it change with every edition?" JACK HART: "You know, really not much. When it was produced by Professor Strunk at Cornell, the students referred to it as 'The Little Book,' and I think one of the secrets of its success is that it's short and it really does cut to the heart of the matter. And it's still a relatively short, direct book of just a hundred and some pages. So it's been updated a little bit. You know, it's a little more politically correct, there are examples drawn more from the modern world. So yeah, it's been buffed up a little bit, but it's still the same old 'Elements of Style.'" AA: Jack Hart is a managing editor and the writing coach at the Oregonian newspaper in Portland. He's also the author of a book due out next summer called "A Writer's Coach." RS: Now here is a little of that musical adaptation of "The Elements of Style." (MUSIC) AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- Illustrations provided by Penguin Press; copyright Maira Kalman, 2005 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-08-voa3.cfm
* Headline: AIDS Drugs in a Gel May Help Protect Women From H.I.V.
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Two major drug companies have agreed to work with a non-profit group to develop new products to protect women from H.I.V. H.I.V. is the virus that causes AIDS. The companies are Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb. They have signed separate agreements with the International Partnership for Microbicides. That group is based in Silver Spring, Maryland. The aim is to create products for women from new compounds developed by the two companies. The products could include microbicide gels. The thick liquid would be placed into the vagina to reduce the spread of H.I.V. during sex. The agreements will give the non-profit group the right to develop, manufacture and deliver the products to poor countries. The group says even a partially effective microbicide could prevent an estimated two and a half million H.I.V. infections over a period of three years. The compounds are part of a new group of drugs known as H.I.V. entry inhibitors. They are designed to prevent human immunodeficiency virus from entering a cell. A study in Nature magazine last month involved experimental gels made from entry inhibitor drugs. Researchers tested them on a group of monkeys. The monkeys received either one drug or a combination of drugs. The researchers say the single drug protected most of the monkeys from a virus similar to H.I.V. But they say a combination of three drugs was effective in all three monkeys that they tested it on. Scientists from Cornell University and the Tulane National Primate Research Center led the study. Worldwide, about half of adults with H.I.V. and AIDS are women. But the United Nations says women are victims of sixty percent of new infections. In southern Africa, seventy-five percent of the infected young people are women and girls. The number of women and girls infected with H.I.V. has increased in every part of the world. Most of the infections are caused by sex between men and women. Many women do not have the power to demand that their partners use a condom. The International Partnership for Microbicides says a vaginal gel could give women more control over their bodies. But researchers say it is still at least five years away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-09-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Reports Look at Education for Hispanics in the U.S.
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States government says Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the country. Hispanics are people of Spanish ancestry. Latino is another name for those with roots in Spanish-speaking countries. The Hispanic population in the United States has increased by almost six million since the last national population count in two thousand. More than forty-one million Latinos live in the United States. That is fourteen percent of the population. One important concern among American educators is improving the school performance of Latinos. One organization that carries out research on such issues is the Pew Hispanic Center. On November first, the Pew Hispanic Center released three reports about Hispanics and the United States education system. In the first study, the organization found great differences among the educational environments of Latinos, blacks and whites. It says Hispanic teenagers are more likely than others to attend public schools with the most students, the most low-income students and the fewest teachers. The study says fifty-five percent of Latinos attend the nation’s largest high schools. And it notes that studies have shown that large schools are linked to low student performance and higher dropout rates. The second report examines the importance of schooling outside the United States. It says eight percent of the nation’s teenagers are foreign-born. But foreign-born teens make up nearly twenty-five percent of those who never finish high school. And nearly forty percent of foreign-born teens are recent arrivals who did not finish their educations before they came to the United States. The report says young people in this situation are not likely to finish their educations once they come to the United States. The third report found that an increasing number of young Hispanics in the United States are going to college. But it also found an increasing difference between the numbers of Hispanics and whites in colleges around the nation. Internet users can get more information about the reports from the Pew Hispanic Center at its Web site, pewhispanic dot o-r-g. Pew is spelled P-E-W. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a general question about the American education system, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer questions privately, but we might answer them on our program. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-09-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Competition Drives Industrial Growth in the Late 1800s
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-10-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Marine Corps Celebrates Its 230th Birthday
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach and Katharine Gypson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our special Veterans Day show:? We hear some American military music … Answer a question about the expression “G.I.”? And report about one branch of the United States military force. Marine Corps Birthday Today is Veterans Day in the United States. It is the day to honor those who have served their country in the military forces. The smallest part of the United States military celebrates its birthday the day before Veterans Day. Bob Doughty?has more. BOB DOUGHTY: United States Marines gathered on Thursday to celebrate the Marine Corps’ two hundred thirtieth birthday. The Continental Congress created the Marine Corps on November tenth, seventeen seventy-five as a small military force to serve on ships. The Marines were to provide security for the ship and to shoot at the enemy in time of battle. Marines also attacked enemy land bases from these ships. They did this for the first time against the British in the Bahamas during the American Revolution in seventeen seventy-six. The Marines fought the Barbary pirates in Tripoli in eighteen-oh-five. They occupied Mexico City during the Mexican War in eighteen forty-seven. They fought one of their greatest battles at Belleau Wood in France during World War One. Marines were among the first Americans to take part in that war against Germany and its allies. German troops did not like fighting the Marines. They began calling them “Devil Dogs.”? The name was meant as an insult. However, the Marines liked the name. They still use it. During World War Two, Marines landed on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was the first American offensive of the war. Marines also served in the wars in Korea and Vietnam and are serving in Iraq. Today, Marines serve as troops on the ground. Others work in tanks or with artillery. Some Marines fly airplanes or helicopters. Still others perform the traditional duty of providing security on ships. All these groups make up a combat team that is linked. Marines like to say they serve on land, on the sea and in the air. Marines also provide security for American Embassies around the world. Marines are carefully selected for this duty and must attend a special school. They consider this work important because they know that the first American seen at an American Embassy is a United States Marine. Question About 'G.I.' HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Ngoc Lien Nguyen asks about words used to describe Americans, especially the letters G.I. Calling an American a “G.I.” means that the person is serving or has served in the military. Stories say that soldiers themselves began using the term during World War Two. They say the term may have begun in a cartoon by Corporal Dave Breger called “G.I. Joe.” These stories do not agree about what the letters represent. They were a short way to say either General Issue or Government Issue. Both terms mean equipment that the government provided for soldiers. One story says the words General Issue meant a list that told commanders what equipment and how many soldiers each military group should have. If a group did not have the required number of troops, the commander asked for more Government Issue. So the use of G.I. began as a joke to mean that the government was producing soldiers from a factory. Soon these soldiers began calling themselves G.I.s. Later, others did too. Even government legislation used the term. The G.I. bill of rights was approved in nineteen forty-two. It provided free educations and other aid to those who had served in the military forces. Some experts on military words have another explanation. They say G.I. came from the words “galvanized iron.”? The American soldier was said to be like galvanized iron, a material produced for its special strength. The Dictionary of Soldier Talk says G.I. was used for the words galvanized iron in a publication about the vehicles of the early twentieth century. Before World War Two, civilians described soldiers as “doughboys”. A writer had used that word to describe Civil War soldiers. A doughboy was a sweet food served to Navy men on ships. It was also a name for large buttons on soldiers’ clothes. Some experts say the buttons were called doughboys because they looked like the food. Over time, the name came to mean the soldiers themselves. Today, Americans think of doughboys as the soldiers who fought for the Allies in World War One. Other names have been used to refer to military fighting men over the years. These include “leatherneck” and “grunt”. But those stories will have to wait for another day. Military Anthems (MUSIC) HOST: That was the Marines’ Hymn, the official song of the United States Marine Corps. Pat Bodnar tells us about other songs of the American military. PAT BODNAR: Each part, or branch, of the American military has its own song. These songs are played at official events. The Marines’ Hymn is the oldest of the official songs of the American military. A Marine wrote the words were written during the war against Mexico in the eighteen forties. The tune comes from an opera by French composer Jacques Offenbach. The official song of the United States Navy is called “Anchors Aweigh.”? It was written in nineteen-oh-six.The word “aweigh” is an old way of saying “pulled from the bottom,” like an anchor of a ship raised from the bottom of the ocean. Here is “Anchors Aweigh.” (MUSIC) An officer serving in the Philippines wrote the official song of the United States Army in nineteen-oh-eight. In nineteen seventeen, the famous band leader John Phillip Sousa added music and the song became very popular. In nineteen fifty-two, it was named “The Army Goes Rolling Along” and became the official song of the Army. ?(MUSIC) The official song of the United States Coast Guard was written by Captain Francis Saltus Van Boskerck in nineteen twenty-seven. Later, some of the words were changed. Here is “Semper Paratus” which means Always Ready. (MUSIC) In nineteen thirty-eight, the United States Air Force had a contest to see who could write the best official Air Force song. More than seven hundred songs were written for the contest. A group of wives of Air Force officers chose the winner. We leave you now with “The Air Force Song.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Katharine Gypson. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-11-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Using the 'Wisdom of Crowds' to Tell the Future
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Intrade is a trading exchange for politics, current events and all sorts of other future happenings. It is similar in some ways to a futures market. But its contracts are only for small amounts. And they do not offer price protection. Instead, Intrade can be seen as a place to test the wisdom of crowds. "The Wisdom of Crowds" is the name of a two thousand four book by James Surowiecki. He argues that large groups often make better decisions than a few experts. Intrade is credited, for example, with correctly choosing how all fifty states would vote in the American presidential election last year. Still, the Irish company that owns Intrade and two other Web sites recently got into trouble in the United States. On October fourth, a federal agency settled a case with the Trade Exchange Network Limited. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that the company had offered some kinds of contracts banned by the agency. The company did not admit or deny it, but agreed to pay a fine of one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Commodity futures involve widely traded goods like oil, grain, energy and gold. Futures trading requires two kinds of traders. One wants to protect against price changes, the other wants to profit from them. It can be highly complex. But imagine a farmer is worried about soybean prices. The farmer thinks prices will rise in the future -- but has a crop to sell now. Say the current price is five dollars a bushel. The farmer can purchase a contract to buy (yes, buy) fifty thousand bushels of soybeans at the current price, but not for three months. In three months, the market price is six dollars. The farmer can now use the contract to buy the soybeans at five dollars a bushel. The farmer does not get the fifty thousand bushels. Instead, the farmer gets fifty thousand dollars -- the difference between the market price and the contract price. How?? Well, the seller of the contract thought soybean prices would go down. When the price went up, the seller was responsible for the full market value. Had prices dropped, the farmer would have lost only the money to buy the contract, a small part of the full value. All buying and selling on an futures exchange takes place through a single organization, a clearinghouse. Real goods are rarely exchanged, only money. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-12-voa1.cfm
* Headline: French Officials Act to End Two Weeks of Riots?
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Rioters in France have been attacking cars, businesses and public buildings for more than two weeks. French officials now say violence levels have begun to decrease. Speaking?about the rioters, French President Jacques Chirac said "The last word must be from the law."The violence is the country’s worst since a series of student protests in Paris in nineteen sixty-eight. Efforts to halt the protests led to a nationwide strike that threatened the French government. The current unrest began last month after two young people were accidentally killed at an electric power station. They were apparently hiding from police. The two were of North African ancestry. Their deaths incited riots in communities with large African and Arab populations. The violence intensified and spread from Paris to other parts of France on the eleventh night. Riots were reported in many areas, including Toulouse, Cannes, Nice, and Strasbourg -- the headquarters of the European Parliament. More than five thousand vehicles have been burned since the unrest began. One man beaten by rioters has died. Police have arrested more than two thousand people. The French government has been criticized for reacting slowly to the violence. Ministers have held emergency meetings to discuss affected areas. On Sunday, President Jacques Chirac met with top security officials. Mister Chirac said that those involved in the violence must be punished. "The last word," he said, "must be from the law." Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has been working with leaders of poor communities to discuss their concerns. He has ordered extra police to help the officers already deployed in the affected areas. He also re-established a law permitting local governments to order curfews. The law has not been in effect since the Algerian war of independence more than forty years ago. Other European countries are nervously watching the situation. They fear the riots could spread throughout the European Union. France has about five million Muslims. They represent about ten percent of the French population. Belgium, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain also have Muslim minority populations. These nations worry that criminals or militants may seek out angry young Arabs for acts of violence. Many of the rioters in France are the children or grandchildren of North Africans who settled there in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. They are angry about disputes with police, their treatment in French society and unemployment. The national unemployment rate in France is about ten percent. Many of those without jobs are young Muslims. Anger over social and cultural policies may be fueling the riots. The terrorist attacks against the United States four years ago led to new laws in European countries. The French government has taken steps against suspected Islamic extremists. It also has banned Muslim head coverings and other religious objects from public schools. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Jill Moss. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-12-voa2.cfm
* Headline: James Rouse: A Developer of Shopping Malls and a Planned City
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember.VOICE TWO:? And I'm Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about James Rouse. He was a developer who found new ways to improve American cities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It was a gray day in nineteen seventy-three. James Wilson Rouse got off a train in Boston, Massachusetts. He had come to see a very old building that was almost empty. Mister Rouse owned a company that developed property. Another official of the company was on that trip. The official remembered that the building looked terrible. Part of it was burned out. It was filled with holes where rats lived. Yet, the official said, "Jim was very happy. He said it was going to be great. The man could see things no one else could see." VOICE TWO:????? The damaged building James Rouse was inspecting became the beginning of Boston's famous Faneuil Hall. Repaired and rebuilt, it is an important part of a historic cultural center for stores, ethnic foods and street performers. The center is designed to show life as it was in the seventeen hundreds. Millions of people from all over the world have visited Faneuil Hall. Faneuil Hall is just one of many "festival marketplaces" that James Rouse created in the centers of older cities. Festival marketplaces are large centers for shopping, eating and other pleasant activities. He built other major centers in New York City; Baltimore, Maryland and Miami, Florida. VOICE ONE: Harborplace in Baltimore is a good example of James Rouse's festival marketplaces. In the seventeen hundreds, the land on which the Harborplace development was built served as a trade center for Baltimore. Many ships sailed to and from this area of the eastern American port city. Over the years, however, this busy, successful waterfront area changed. By the middle of the twentieth century, businesses were failing. Many buildings were empty and in need of major repair. The Baltimore city government decided to establish a plan to re-build the area. The plan called for a waterfront development that would combine business and pleasure. VOICE TWO: James Rouse's company won the right to develop part of the area. The project was to be called Harborplace. The first part of Harborplace opened in nineteen eighty. Later in the nineteen eighties, the Rouse Company developed another area called The Gallery at Harborplace. Today, millions of people each year visit Harborplace and The Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland. They shop and eat in many stores and restaurants. They watch music, dancing and plays performed near the water. And they enjoy the mix of people and activities that brings new life to the center of that old city. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Rouse was born in nineteen fourteen. His family lived in a farming area on the eastern shore of Maryland. His father and mother died within a few months of each other in nineteen thirty. They left their five children without much money. The parents owed a bank a lot of money for their house. So the bank was forced to take away the family home. James was able to find a job to pay for his college education. He later graduated from the University of Maryland Law School in nineteen thirty-six. He began working for a bank in Baltimore. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-nine, James Rouse and a banker, Hunter Moss, borrowed twenty-five thousand dollars. They formed a company that lent money to people who wanted to buy homes. During World War Two, Mister Rouse served as an officer in the Navy in the Pacific area. After the war, he returned to Baltimore. His business grew. It represented banks and provided loans to people returning from the war who wanted to buy homes. James Rouse became a rich man. During the early nineteen-fifties, he also became known for social action as well as property development. He tried to improve a poor, undeveloped area in east Baltimore. The mayor of the city said he would not offer complete support for a plan to rebuild the poor area. So Mister Rouse resigned from a citizens' committee that was supporting the plan. VOICE ONE: Also in the nineteen fifties, Mister Rouse began a project that brought him national fame. He began building some of the first enclosed shopping centers in America. He built a lot of these shopping malls in Maryland and other states. Each mall had stores and businesses inside a large building. They were built outside cities, in the growing housing areas called suburbs. James Rouse wanted to develop land for the good of society and the environment, not just for profit. In the nineteen sixties, he dreamed of building a complete new city between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. His company bought ten percent of the property in Howard County, Maryland. The company bought more than fifty-seven square kilometers of land from one hundred forty separate owners. VOICE TWO: In nineteen sixty-three, James Rouse announced that his company would help build a new planned community. By creating separate villages within the community, it was to seem like a small town. Each village would have a shopping center, open spaces and homes. The new community of Columbia, Maryland began in nineteen sixty-seven. Today, more than ninety-four thousand people live in the city. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-two, three members of a Washington, D.C. church came to visit James Rouse. The three belonged to the Church of the Saviour, where James and Patricia Rouse had been married. The women asked Mister Rouse for advice about creating housing for poor people in the Adams Morgan area of Washington. But Mister Rouse thought people who knew nothing about development, money or building could not possibly create low-income housing. VOICE TWO: The women did not give up their goal. Instead, they invested money to buy two apartment house buildings in Adams Morgan. The buildings were in terrible condition. Mister Rouse helped them get six hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to complete the deal. He also helped them get one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars to repair the buildings. Their project was huge. People worked for no pay for fifty thousand hours to repair the buildings. Workers cleaned out garbage and rats. People also gave additional financial help for the restoration. More than nine hundred housing violations were corrected. The completed project provided ninety apartment homes for poor people. They were called Jubilee Housing. VOICE ONE: James and Patricia Rouse served as advisors for Jubilee Housing. Mister Rouse retired as head of his development company. Then, in nineteen eighty-two, they took a further step toward helping poor and middle-income people. They established a new organization, the Enterprise Foundation. They used profits from Mister Rouse's company to start the foundation. Its goal is to give poor people in America a chance to live in clean, pleasant places. Since then, the Enterprise Foundation has worked with thousands of community groups and other organizations. Each year it provides thousands of new or re-built homes for poor and middle-income families. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many experts say that James Rouse helped shape the look of the United States for years to come.In nineteen ninety-five, President Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest award a civilian can receive. He was honored for his work restoring the central areas of cities. President Clinton said that James Rouse's life was based on a strong belief in the American spirit. James Rouse died in nineteen ninety-six. But the work of the Enterprise Foundation continues with help from family members. One of these is the Rouses' grandson, Edward Norton, a movie actor. He developed a project to help poor people heat their homes. It is a joint project with the organization his grandparents established. The influence of James Rouse continues today in other ways. Developers continue to re-build and improve poor areas of cities. And millions of people visit historic centers like Faneuil Hall and Harborplace every year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Lawan Davis was our producer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Do-It-Yourself: How to Dry or Smoke Fish, Part 2
* Byline: Written by Bob Bowen

 I'm Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. Last week, we described how to save fish for future use by cleaning and salting them. Today, we will discuss the next steps in keeping fish -- drying or smoking. To dry fish, you will need either a drying table or a place to hang them. If a table is used, it should have a top made of wire screen or thin pieces of wood with a space between each piece. Lay the cleaned, wet salted fish on top of the table. Do not let them touch each other. Be sure the air can reach the fish from all sides, including the top and bottom. Build a small smoky fire under the drying table for the first day to keep the flies away. After that, you can keep the flies away by covering the fish with a thin cloth. Do not let the cloth touch the fish. Fish taste better if they dry out of the bright sunlight. Put your drying table under a tree for best results. Turn your fish over every other day. Small fish will dry in about three days if the air is dry. Large fish will take a week or ten days to dry. After the fish have dried, place them in a basket to hold them. Cover them with clean paper or large leaves. Then put them in a cool, dry place, not on the ground. To smoke the fish, you must first remove as much of the saltwater as possible. The smoking can be done in a large round metal container. Remove the top. Cut a small opening on one side at the bottom. Cover the top of the container with a strong metal wire screen. This is where you put the fish. Build a small fire in the container by reaching in through the opening at the bottom. Wood from fruit trees makes good fuel for your fire. Such wood will give your smoked fish good color and taste. Hardwoods such as hickory, oak and ash also burn well. It is important to keep the fire small so it does not burn the fish. You want a lot of smoke, but very little flame. One way to get a lot of smoke is to use green wood, not dried wood. You should smoke the fish for five days or longer if you plan to keep them for a long time. Remove the fish after you finish smoking them. Let them cool. Then wrap them in clean paper. Put the fish in baskets and keep them in a cool, dry place off the ground. Dried fish must be kept completely dry until they are eaten. This VOA Special English Development report was written by Bob Bowen. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Southern Friendliness Meets American History in Charleston
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. This week, come along to one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the United States – Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War began at its waterfront. Charleston is on a piece of land in the southeastern United States that points like a finger to the Atlantic Ocean. Rivers flow by either side of the city. They are the Ashley and the Cooper rivers. The people of Charleston will smile and tell you the Ashley and the Cooper rivers join to form the Atlantic Ocean. They know this is not true, but they like to tell the story anyway. It shows how proud the people of Charleston are of their city. (MUSIC) Charleston has a very rich history. It is the only city in the United States that can claim to have defended itself from American Indians, fierce pirates, Spanish ships, French soldiers, and British forces. It was first in many things. Charleston had the first continual train service in the United States. It built the first museum and the first public flower garden in America. And the first battle of the American Civil War took place on a very small but important island in its port. Charleston has some of the most beautiful and unusual homes in America. One critic has called Charleston the most friendly city in the United States. Charleston is all of these things and much more. VOICE TWO:? Plan your visit to Charleston for early spring, late autumn or the winter months. The citizens of Charleston will tell you their lovely city is not fun in the summer. It is extremely hot. The summer heat is important to the history of Charleston. Early settlers owned huge farms called plantations. In the seventeen hundreds, these farms produced a plant called indigo which is used to make cloth the color blue. Many plantation owners forced slaves to do the work needed to grow indigo in the extreme heat. Slavery became important to the economy of Charleston. The plantations, indigo and slavery are part of the history of the city. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?? At least three Indian tribes were living in the area that became Charleston when Spanish explorers arrived in fifteen twenty one. The Spanish explorers, and later, French explorers tried to establish settlements near that area but none lasted. English settlers first came to the area in sixteen seventy. They established a town. They called it Charles Town in honor of the English King, Charles the Second. The people of the city changed its name to Charleston in seventeen eighty-three. VOICE TWO:? Many people came to live in Charleston because it produced indigo and had a good port. The people who settled the area were hard working and independent. They considered themselves citizens of England. Still, they did not like some of the laws declared by the English government. The colonists successfully defended their city many times in the early seventeen hundreds. They defended it against both French and Spanish forces, and against raids by Yamasee Indians and by pirates. In seventeen nineteen, the citizens of Charleston rebelled against the group of English men who controlled their colony. They wanted more self-government. Britain's King George agreed. This change gave the people of Charleston a feeling of independence. VOICE ONE:? Charleston is still proud of its part in the war for independence. The city provided several political and military leaders during the American Revolution. British forces attacked it two times, but were defeated by the people of Charleston. The third time, the British captured the city and held it for more than a year. Charleston continued to grow after the American colonists had won their independence from England. The new federal government knew that the city was important. Workers began building a strong base to guard Charleston in eighteen twenty-eight. This base was on a small island in Charleston Harbor. It was named Fort Sumter. It was designed to guard the city from any future enemy. VOICE TWO:? There were no thoughts of war or future enemies while Fort Sumter was being built. The plantations near Charleston had begun to plant new crops like rice and cotton. With the help of slave labor, cotton became extremely important to the economy of Charleston and much of the South. Many people in the northern United States began to think that slavery was very wrong, however. Slave owners in the South wanted things to remain as they had always been. They believed the federal government had no right to tell them what they could or could not do. VOICE ONE:? A national crisis began when Abraham Lincoln was elected president in eighteen sixty. The people of South Carolina believed he would try to end slavery by force. They voted to leave the United States. They were quickly followed by other southern states. These southern states soon created the government of the Confederate States of America. Federal troops controlled Fort Sumter when South Carolina voted to leave the Union. The people of Charleston demanded the federal troops leave. The Union commander refused. On the morning of April twelfth, eighteen sixty-one, a cannon was fired at Fort Sumter. It was the first shot of America's long Civil War. (MUSIC)? VOICE TWO:? Charleston suffered a lot of damage during the Civil War. Several major battles were fought there. Late in the war another battle for control of Fort Sumter continued for almost two years. Much of Charleston had been destroyed by the time the war ended. Rebuilding the city was a long and slow process. The people of Charleston tried to save the historic buildings from the seventeen hundreds. They wanted to keep those buildings they felt were an important part of their city. The huge plantations near Charleston were also in need of rebuilding. Many owners failed in their efforts because they could no longer use slave labor. Their farms became much smaller. VOICE ONE: The historic buildings of Charleston were affected by weather as well as wars. Through the years, ocean storms have severely damaged the city. A major storm struck Charleston in September nineteen-eighty-nine. It killed eighteen people and caused more than three-thousand-million dollars in damage. The huge storm had winds of more than two hundred seventeen kilometers an hour. It caused high waves that severely flooded city streets. VOICE TWO:? The federal, state and city governments and individual citizens have spent millions of dollars to rebuild and repair historic areas. So in some places, Charleston looks a lot like it has for several hundred years. In the center of the city are stores in small one-hundred year old buildings. The same family has owned one of the stores for almost one hundred fifty years. Fine eating places throughout the city serve southern food. The people of Charleston will tell you they have some of the best eating places in the United States. Many visitors agree. VOICE ONE:? Beautiful, old buildings are a major reason thousands of people visit Charleston each year. One of the famous buildings is the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. It was built in the early seventeen hundreds. It was a jail that held the famous English pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew before they were hanged. Several of the old plantation farms near Charleston also are open to visitors. One is called Boone Hall Plantation. It is still a working farm. Boone Hall Plantation looks much like it did before the American Civil War. It has been used as the setting for a number of movies and television programs about the American South and the Civil War. VOICE TWO:? From almost anywhere along the waterfront in Charleston, you can see a large American flag flying over the small island that still holds Fort Sumter. Most visitors go to the historic fort during their time in Charleston. Several companies provide boat rides to the fort. Much of the fort was destroyed during the Civil War. But what remains of Fort Sumter is protected by the National Park Service. Park workers meet each boat and explain about the battles that took place. VOICE ONE:? Charleston has many interesting places to visit. However the people who live in the city really make it special. They are extremely friendly in a way that is part of the culture of the American south. The people of Charleston continue to keep their city beautiful using modern technology to protect their historic past. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Lawan Davis. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. With Shirley Griffith, I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: New Genetic Map Called a Powerful Tool for Medical Science
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week -- news about a genetic map that is being called a powerful new tool for medical research ... VOICE ONE: Then, a report on an ancient Christian church found under an Israeli prison ... VOICE TWO: And Angola says a recent outbreak of Marburg virus is over. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Small genetic differences make one person different from another. Now medical researchers have a new map to help them find these differences. More than two hundred scientists from six nations developed the HapMap. The name comes from the word haplotype. A haplotype is a group of differences that are likely to collect close together, in a block. These blocks appear to pass from parent to child. The HapMap scientists hope to identify up to six million DNA differences before they finish. VOICE TWO: The scientists say the findings may lead to identifying genes that cause common diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Linking diseases to genes could lead to new treatments. People could also learn if they have an increased risk of a disease because of their genes. In some cases, such knowledge might lead to preventive action. For example, people whose genes show a possibility of developing diabetes could take steps like trying to control their weight. But for a condition like Alzheimer’s disease, nothing known today could prevent it. The scientists have published their work in Nature magazine and on the Internet at hapmap dot o-r-g (hapmap.org). An organization called the International HapMap Consortium organized the study. The work involves researchers from Britain, Canada, China, Japan, Nigeria and the United States. VOICE ONE: The new map is based on DNA from two hundred sixty-nine people. They represent four ethnic groups: European, Japanese, Chinese and Yoruba. Project leader David Altshuler works at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He also directs medical and population genetics at the Broad Institute in Massachusetts. Another project director, Peter Donnelly, is from Oxford University in England. Doctor Altshuler calls the HapMap a powerful new tool to explore the root causes of common diseases. It is more difficult for scientists to find genes linked to common diseases than to rare ones. For example, one single gene may be responsible for a rare genetic disease within the same family over the years. But several genes may cause a person to be more likely than others to get some kinds of cancer. VOICE TWO: The HapMap Project developed from information provided by the Human Genome Project. That project was completed in two thousand three. It identified all the chemical pieces in DNA, the genetic material in cells. DNA has more than three thousand million building blocks. A series of these building blocks forms a gene. For any two people, the building blocks are almost all the same. But extremely small differences can mean that one person has a higher risk of disease. One kind of difference is called a SNP [pronounced snip]. There are millions of places where SNPs can happen. The HapMap Project is identifying common places where they are found. VOICE ONE: Studying haplotype blocks will make it easier to find the genes suspected of causing a disease. The researchers may be able to investigate which blocks of DNA are common among people with the same disease. The process would be much faster than examining every piece of DNA. Stacey Gabriel of the Broad Institute says mapping just one SNP used to cost almost a dollar per patient. Today, she says, it often costs less than one cent. In the past, it was possible to test only one hundred genotypes in a day. But now, she says, it is possible to perform millions of tests in a day. In the past, some scientists have questioned whether using haplotypes is the best way to find genetic information. Some still express concerns about the effectiveness of this method. But several studies already have been published using the new information. For example, scientists at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, used the HapMap to connect a gene to macular degeneration. That is a leading cause of blindness in older people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Israeli prisoners Ramil Razilo, top, and Meimon Biton clean a part of a Christian mosaic floor at the Megiddo prison in northern IsraelPalestinians in a prison in Israel have found the ruins of an ancient Christian place of worship. Some archaeologists say it could be the oldest church ever found in the homeland of Jesus. But other experts say it is unlikely the church is as old as suggested. The prison is in Megiddo. Israeli officials had ordered a dig to search for ancient objects before a planned addition to the prison. The government often orders such digs before building in historically important areas. Megiddo is where the battle of Armageddon takes place in the Bible. VOICE ONE: The Israeli Antiquities Authority began the dig months ago with about sixty prisoners for labor. On October thirtieth, one of them discovered the floor of the ancient building. Archeologist Yotam Tepper, the leader of the dig, called it "the find of a lifetime." The floor is about six meters by nine meters. It is formed by two mosaics made from stones of different colors and shapes. One of the mosaics represents a traditional Christian symbol, a fish. The mosaic also includes several messages. The Israeli Antiquities Authority says one appears to be from a Roman soldier. The message says he paid for the mosaic to seek honor. It also names the maker of the mosaic. Researchers say another message lists the names of four women as a remembrance. VOICE TWO: Archeologists say they also found what may have served as a base for a structure from which to lead religious services. Nearby is a third message, believed to say: "The God-loving Aketous has offered this table to the God Jesus Christ, as a memorial.”? Pieces of cooking tools and containers for wine were also found on the floor of the structure. Mister Tepper says the pottery dates to the third century. He says the kind of Greek writing used in the messages also represents that time period. And Mister Tepper says the design of the structure is simpler than those of churches that came after the third century. VOICE ONE: Experts in the history of Christianity generally believe that churches did not exist until the fourth century. Christianity was banned until Emperor Constantine of Rome made the religion legal in the year three-thirteen. Experts argue that it was too dangerous before then for Christians to worship in public, so they did so in secret. As a result, one expert questions if a Roman soldier in the third century would have taken the risk to place a message on a mosaic in a church. He says such a violation of law, if discovered, would have meant the end of the man’s service. It might have meant the end of the soldier, too. One theory is that the church may have been established later than the Roman building that housed it. The mystery of the ancient church should be settled in time. Archeologists say only about ten percent of the area has been uncovered so far. Israeli officials now have to decide how to deal with a valuable archeological site on the grounds of a prison. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The government of Angola says the recent outbreak of Marburg fever there has ended. Health Minister Sebastao Veloso said last week that there have been no recorded cases of the disease since July. The Marburg virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids. It can cause high body temperature, organ failure and severe bleeding. There is no cure. The outbreak in Angola began last year in the northern province of Uige. The health minister says there were two hundred fifty-two cases. He says only twenty-five people, or ten percent, survived. The World Health Organization had earlier estimates of more than three hundred deaths. Still, this was the worst outbreak recorded since laboratories first identified the Marburg virus in nineteen sixty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Protecting the Nation’s Forests
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Forest Service is responsible for the forests on public lands in the United States. It supervises almost seventy-eight million hectares of forests, grasslands, rivers and lakes. It is an agency of the Department of Agriculture. Forest Service officials say there are four major threats to forests and wild lands in America. The first is the threat of fire and fuel. This year, forest fires have burned more than three million hectares of land. That is almost two times as much as the ten-year average. Fires are a natural part of forest growth, but they can also threaten lives and property. Fuel is dead plant material and small plants that grow under tall trees. As much as forty-nine metric tons of fuel can build up on every hectare of forest floor. The Forest Service estimates that up to one-fourth of the forests it supervises have dangerous levels of fuel. Sometimes foresters set controlled fires to remove the fuel. Other times the fuel must be cleared by hand. Another threat to forests is from invasive species. These are non-native plants and animals that push out native kinds. They can cause a lot of economic damage. Some invaders are insects like the Asian longhorn beetle. Some are diseases like white pine blister rust. Others are plants like the fast-growing kudzu vine. The Forest Service has hundreds of experts who try to develop ways to deal with invasive species. The agency says another threat to the health of wild lands is the loss of open space. It says over one hectare of forest or grassland is lost to development every minute. Development also leads to the division of large natural areas into smaller ones. Many animals need wide open spaces. Also, building near wild lands increases the risk to homes from forest fires. The fourth threat to public lands is what the Forest Service calls unmanaged recreation. People can hunt, fish and camp in many national forests. But careless use of motor vehicles and other actions can be destructive. On November second, the Forest Service released a new rule on the use of motor vehicles on public lands. The rule requires each national forest to identify roads and paths that are open to motor vehicles. Vehicles will be banned from other areas. The ban, however, will not affect snowmobiles. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-15-voa1.cfm
* Headline: What Does It Say About You if Your Doppelganger Is Facinorous?
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Anu Garg, creator of the A.Word.A.Day Web site and author of a new book called "Another Word A Day: An All-New Romp Through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English." RS: Some of those words are facinorous (fa-SIN-uhr-uhs) which means extremely wicked. There are some facinorous people, too. ANU GARG: "F-a-c-i-n-o-r-o-u-s, facinorous." AA: "If you said that to someone, they might look at you funny." ANU GARG: "That's the idea. You insulted somebody and then of course they don't even know what it means." RS: "What kind of context would you find that word in?" ANU GARG: "Well, William Shakespeare used that word in 'All's Well That Ends Well.' The character is saying, 'and he is of a most facinorous spirit.'" AA: "What are some other words for an opponent?" ANU GARG: "One that I like is ventripotent. Ventri is a belly and potent is powerful. So you can say this fellow has a large belly, or he's a gluttonous person." RS: "Could you spell that word too? I didn't quite get it." ANU GARG: "V-e-n-t-r-i-p-o-t-e-n-t." AA: One way to become ventripotent is to eat too much candy. No, you won't find a common word like candy in his new book. But Anu Garg mentioned it because he likes to talk about words borrowed from other languages. ANU GARG: "This Halloween my daughter, she went trick-or-treating. So she collected lots of candy. And then she came back, she said 'Daddy, where did we get the word candy from?'" So I said 'Well, let's find out.' It turns out we got it from Sanskrit. "In Sanskrit the word khanda, it means a piece. And of course the word khanda has a more specific sense also. It means a kind of raw sugar. So even today you can go into any grocery store in India and you can ask for khanda and they will give you this powdered brown sugar kind of thing." AA: "Well, one of the words you use in your book is doppelganger, and it's interesting because that's a term I've been hearing for it seems like a few years. It seems like it's getting more popular. And recently one of our listeners in Iran used that term to describe a friend of his, and it's a great word -- and then, lo and behold, I see it in your book. Can you explain doppelganger, and maybe start by spelling it." ANU GARG: "The word is spelled as d-o-p-p-e-l-g-a-n-g-e-r. So we borrowed this word from German and it literally means a double goer. It's used to describe a ghostly double of a living person. You can as well use it metaphorically. "So let's say you have interest in words and radio broadcasting, and you attended a party and you met a woman and it turns out she also has a deep interest in words and languages, and she also had a radio show. So you might say 'Oh, I met my doppelganger' -- somebody who is, in a way, double of you." RS: "You talk about words borrowed from other languages. Do you have any idea how many languages we've borrowed words from?" ANU GARG: "If you speak English, you speak at least a part of more than a hundred languages. So we all know in English we have words from French, Latin, German, Spanish. But we have words from even these obscure languages like Tongan." AA: "Which has given us the word ... " ANU GARG: "Taboo." RS: "Which is something that we use all the time." AA: "Something forbidden." RS: "So you're saying that that came from -- you say there are not many words from that language. So there must have been some sort of contact, had to have been some sort of contact, to get the word into the language." ANU GARG: "Exactly. I'm looking in the Oxford English Dictionary and it shows me a grand total of eleven words that came from Tongan." RS: Anu Garg operates the free A.Word.A.Day e-mail service, with more than six hundred thousand subscribers, and the Web site wordsmith.org. His first book was called "A Word A Day," and now he has written "Another Word A Day." AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-15-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery Map a Nation
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC)? ANNOUNCER: This is Mary Tillotson with the VOA Special English program Explorations. A celebration has begun in the United States that will continue until September of two thousand six. The celebration honors the two-hundredth anniversary of the most famous exploration in American history. Today, and for the next two weeks, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell the story of a group of explorers. They left their families and friends to enter unexplored areas of the American Northwest. These explorers faced heat, cold, lack of food, dangerous rivers and fierce Indian tribes. They traveled almost thirteen thousand kilometers across areas that would later become the northwestern United States. Their trip is still known by the names of the two men who led the group -- Lewis and Clark. ? ? (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The story of the Lewis and Clark exploration begins back in time on June twentieth, eighteen-oh-three. A young man, Meriwether Lewis, has just received a letter from the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Meriwether Lewis is a captain in the Meriwether Lewis was a captain in the United States ArmyUnited States army. He also serves as President Jefferson's private secretary. He is twenty-eight years old. The letter from President Jefferson says Captain Lewis will lead a group of men to explore the area from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson's letter is long. It tells Captain Lewis to draw maps of the areas in which he travels. It tells him to record a day-by-day history of his trip. And it tells him to collect plants and animals he finds. President Jefferson says Mister Lewis is to write about the different tribes of Indians he meets. Lewis is to report about their languages, their clothing and their culture. The letter asks Lewis to return with as much information as possible about this unknown land. VOICE ONE: In the early eighteen hundreds, much of the land that would later become the United States was unexplored. Many people believed that ancient animals like huge dinosaurs could still live in the far West. Other stories told of strange and terrible people in these unexplored areas. President Jefferson wanted Lewis to confirm or prove false as many of these stories as possible. The president also wanted him to find the best and fastest way to travel across the far western lands. President Jefferson wanted many other questions answered. Lewis was to learn if it was possible to send trade goods by land to the Pacific coast. He was to learn if it were possible to take a boat west across the country to the Pacific Ocean. Many people believed this was possible. This idea was called the Northwest Passage. People thought the Northwest Passage would be a river or several rivers that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Explorers just had to find it. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson knew that any trip to the far West would be extremely dangerous. Those taking part could expect years of hard work. They would lack food and water. They would face dangerous Indians and have little medical help. There would be severe weather. It was possible that such a group of explorers would never return. President Jefferson chose Lewis to lead the trip because he was sure Lewis would succeed. Meriwether Lewis and President Jefferson had spent a lot of time together. President Jefferson had great respect for Lewis. He knew Captain Lewis was a strong man who had a good education. Lewis was also a successful army officer and a good leader. And, probably most important, he was a skilled hunter who was used to living outdoors for long periods of time. VOICE ONE: William ClarkLewis knew that such a trip would be extremely difficult and? dangerous. He knew that he needed another person who could lead the group if he became injured or died. He requested President Jefferson's permission to ask a friend to help him. Lewis's friend was William Clark. Clark was an excellent leader, and was good at making maps. Lewis wrote a letter to Clark and offered him the job. Clark accepted. The two men decided to share the responsibility of command. They decided to be equal in all things. Lewis and Clark had known each other for several years. They had served in the army together. Each trusted the other's abilities. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson then sent Lewis to the city of Philadelphia. There, scientists began to teach him about modern scientific methods. He learned about plants. He learned how to tell where he was on the planet by using the stars and the sun. He learned about the different kinds of animals. He also studied with a doctor, Benjamin Rush, who taught him about emergency care of the sick or wounded and about different kinds of medicine. Doctor Rush helped Lewis gather the medical supplies that would be needed for the trip. VOICE ONE: William Clark began to choose the men they would lead across the country to the Pacific Ocean. He made sure the men understood the dangers they would face. Clark and Lewis agreed that they needed men who could add some skill to the group. They agreed they wanted men who had lived much of their lives outdoors. They wanted some good hunters. They needed others who knew how to use small boats. They also needed some men who could work with wood, and others who could work with metals. They needed a few who could repair weapons and some who could cook. Most importantly, they looked for men who could best survive the hard days ahead. Most of the men Clark chose were soldiers. Each man prepared for the trip with five months of training. In the winter of eighteen-oh-three, the group came together at a place they called Camp Wood. Camp Wood was north of a small village named Saint Louis in what would later become the state of Missouri. They began buying the last of the supplies they would need. And they began preparing the three boats they would use on the first part of their trip. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark called their group of thirty-two men the Corps of Discovery. Their exploration began May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four. Another group of soldiers would join the Corps of Discovery for the first part of their trip. The soldiers would return after the first winter with reports for President Jefferson about what the explorers had discovered. They left Fort Wood and traveled north on the Missouri River. It was extremely hard work from the very beginning. Their three boats were not traveling with the flow of the river, but against it. At times, they passed ropes to the shore and the men pulled the boats. Several times the ropes broke. It was difficult and dangerous work. The largest of their three boats was almost seventeen meters long. This boat was called the Discovery. It carried most of their supplies, including medicine, food, scientific instruments, weapons and gifts of friendship for the Indian tribes the explorers hoped to meet. VOICE ONE: Lewis and Clark and the men with them immediately saw the great beauty of the land. This great natural beauty was something they would write about time and again each day during their travels. Slowly, the explorers made their way north up the Missouri River. They passed the area that in the future would be Kansas City. They continued north and passed the area that would become the city of Omaha, in the future state of Nebraska. As each day passed, both Lewis and Clark wrote about what they saw. Clark made maps of the land and the river. VOICE TWO: Near the present city of Sioux City, in the state of Iowa, Sergeant Charles Floyd became sick and within a few days died. The members of the Corps of Discovery buried him not far from the river. Today, a monument stands where he was buried. The Corps of Discovery again continued north in their boats on the Missouri River. They passed through what would become the state of South Dakota. Here, for the first time they met members of the Lakota called the Teton Sioux. The Teton Sioux were very fierce and war like. They demanded Lewis and Clark give them one of the boats. The two leaders refused. The Sioux threatened to kill all of the group. The Corps of Discovery prepared for a fight. But it never came. The Sioux changed their minds. Clark wrote of the Teton Sioux that they were tall and nice- looking people. He said their clothing was beautifully made with many colors and designs. He said the men were proud and fierce. VOICE ONE: Soon, the Corps of Discovery passed into what would become the state of North Dakota. It was now growing late in the year. The weather was becoming colder. At a place they named Fort Mandan they quickly cut trees and made temporary homes for the winter. The Missouri River began to turn to ice. Some days it was too cold to hunt animals for food. On the seventeenth of December, eighteen-oh-four, William Clark wrote in his book, "At night the temperature fell to seventy-four degrees below freezing." The Corps of Discovery would stay in Fort Mandan for five months. During the winter the explorers planned for their trip to the Pacific. That will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week when we continue our story of Lewis and Clark on the Explorations program, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-15-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Measles Campaign Reduces Deaths in African Children
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Jim Tedder?with the VOA Special English Health Report. An international group says cases of measles in Africa have dropped by sixty percent since nineteen ninety-nine. The group is known as the Measles Initiative. It says almost two hundred million children have been vaccinated against the disease in the past six years. The World Health Organization says vaccination campaigns in more than forty countries in Africa have saved one million children. Measles is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable death in children. Vaccination campaigns have controlled the disease in Western countries. But it still leads to more than four hundred thousand deaths each year. Most of the victims are under five years old. Almost every child got measles before a vaccine was discovered in nineteen sixty-two. About five percent died. Measles itself does not kill children. Instead, it weakens their systems so they can die from other infections. Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known. It spreads through the air. Signs include high body temperature, skin peeling, cough and difficulty breathing. Measles can cause diarrhea, pneumonia, blindness and other disorders. Health officials say the Measles Initiative has led to other improvements for children in southern Africa. Through the campaign, children receive bed nets treated with insecticide to kill mosquitoes that spread malaria. They receive vitamin A to prevent blindness. And they receive treatment for stomach worms. Representatives of the Measles Initiative announced the progress at a Global Health Summit in New York earlier this month. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Time magazine and other organizations provided support for the meeting. The Measles Initiative has raised more than one hundred forty million dollars since two thousand one. The alliance includes the American Red Cross and United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It also includes UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Foundation, a private group led by businessman Ted Turner. Health officials say ninety-five percent of all cases of measles are in Africa. But UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman says Asia has the greatest number of children who die. She says the success of the Measles Initiative must now be copied in Asia. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-16-voa7.cfm
* Headline: American Schools Celebrate International Education Week
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. It is International Education Week in the United States, a time to think about and celebrate international education and exchange. The special week is a project of the State Department and the Department of Education. Officials of these agencies say Americans need to learn more about the world outside their own country. They say people everywhere need to understand the similarities and differences among nations, peoples and cultures. They say this is true especially in a world where information and news travel quickly twenty-four hours a day. Schools and colleges across the country are holding special events this week to support international education. The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville is showing pictures that are part of a Study Abroad Photo Contest. It is holding International Education Night, an evening of food, cultural performances and activities from around the world. The university will also host a naturalization ceremony for people becoming American citizens. The University of Buffalo in the state of New York is also offering events this week. These include speakers, an Anatolian marketplace and programs about ways students can study in a foreign country. One organization that has worked for years to improve world understanding through exchanges is AFS. This private group began in nineteen fourteen as the American Field Service. Its job was to transport wounded French soldiers during World War One. Today more than fifty countries take part in AFS education exchanges. Nearly eleven thousand students and adults take part in the program each year. Students in an AFS exchange program must be between fifteen and eighteen years old. They stay in another country for three months, six months or eleven months. They live with a family that has agreed to treat the visitor as a full member. ? AFS also has programs for adults to help meet community needs in more than twenty countries. More than three hundred fifty thousand people have taken part in AFS programs through the years. More information about the group can be found at its Web site, a-f-s dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-16-voa8.cfm
* Headline: Grover Cleveland Returns to the White House in 1892
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Eighteen ninety-two was a presidential election year in the United States. In that year, most parts of the American economy were expanding. But one part was not doing well: agriculture. The result was the birth of a new political party. It was called the People's Party. Its members were called Populists. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Stan Busby and I tell about the Populists, and how they campaigned against the Republicans and Democrats in the election. VOICE TWO: In the late eighteen eighties, a North Carolina farming publication described America's economy this way: "There is something radically wrong in our industrial system. The railroads are making much money. Yet agriculture is failing. The banks are doing great business. Yet agriculture is failing. Towns and cities grow. Yet agriculture is failing. Wages were never so high. Yet agriculture is failing." Historians give four major reasons why agriculture was failing in the late eighteen eighties. One was the high cost of transportation. Second was high taxes. Third was falling prices for agricultural products. And fourth was the high cost of borrowing money. VOICE ONE: Farmers began to organize to discuss their problems. They formed local groups called "Alliances. " An Alliance member described the result of these discussions: "People began to think, who had never thought before. People talked, who had never spoken much. Little by little, they began to study their condition. They discussed taxes on income. Government ownership of property. The unity of labor. And a thousand other opposing ideas." VOICE TWO: Local Alliances formed larger groups. The larger groups included many persons who were not farmers, but who lived and worked in agricultural areas. These included teachers, doctors, repairmen, reporters, and church leaders. In eighteen eighty-nine, the major Alliances held separate conventions in Saint Louis, Missouri. They refused to form one big Alliance. They were divided on several important issues. VOICE ONE: The chief issue was political. Leaders of the Northern Alliance had decided that agricultural interests could expect little help from either the Republican or Democratic parties. They believed the answer to their problems was a third national political party. Leaders of the Southern Alliance disagreed. They belonged to the Democratic Party. And, at that time, Democrats faced little opposition in the south. A new party would weaken their political power. So they wanted to work for change within the existing Democratic Party. VOICE TWO: Another issue dividing the Northern and Southern Alliances was racial. How would a united Alliance deal with black farmers. The Southern Alliance did not permit black members. And it did not want blacks in a united Alliance. The Northern Alliance said blacks could join. The two groups could not settle their differences before the state and congressional elections of eighteen ninety. So, they did not campaign as one party. But they campaigned for one idea: help for America's farmers. Throughout the south and middle west, they succeeded in electing agricultural candidates as governors, state legislators, Senators, and members of the House of Representatives. VOICE ONE: Farm leaders everywhere were surprised by their election victories in eighteen ninety. They had not expected to win so much, so quickly. Leaders of the Northern Alliance decided the time was right to form one party to represent all farmers. They felt sure of success. For now, enough leaders of the Southern Alliance were willing to support the idea. These southern leaders had succeeded within the Democratic Party. But they quickly learned that they held political power only at the local level. They held almost no power at the national level. So, a few months before the presidential election of eighteen ninety-two, America's agricultural Alliances held a joint convention in Omaha, Nebraska. They formed a new party. They called it the People's Party. They called themselves Populists. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the convention approved a policy statement for the new party. The statement said the national government should own the country's railroads, telegraph, and telephone systems. It said the government -- not banks -- should supply paper money. And it said no limits should be put on government production of silver money. The Populists called for a tax on earnings. Fewer working hours for labor. Controls on immigration. To help farmers, the Populists demanded what they called the "Sub-Treasury Plan." Under this plan, farmers could put their crops in government storehouses. Then they could wait to sell the crops until prices rose. While they waited, they could borrow money from the government at low cost. They would pay back the loans when they sold their crops. VOICE ONE: The new People's Party also proposed ways to make government more democratic. It said secret ballots should be used in all elections. It said Senators should be elected by the people...not chosen by state legislatures. Most Americans considered Populist proposals extreme. They felt the proposals were too close to socialism or communism. The Populists considered their proposals just. They felt their movement was a struggle for more equal control of the nation. On one side of the struggle were producers. These included farmers, laborers, and small businessmen. They were led by the new People's Party. On the other side were what Populists called non-producers. These included wealthy bankers and leaders of industry. They were led by the Republican and Democratic parties. Populists wanted producers to have some of the political power traditionally held by non-producers. They wanted producers to get a fairer share of the nation's increasing wealth. VOICE TWO: The People's Party chose James Weaver as its candidate in the presidential election of eighteen ninety-two. Weaver had been an officer in the Union Army during America's Civil War. He had served in the House of Representatives. And he had been the candidate of a minor party in the presidential election of eighteen eighty. The Republican Party re-nominated president Benjamin Harrison. And the Democratic Party nominated former president Grover Cleveland. VOICE 1: The campaign began quietly. But a few months before the election, a labor dispute exploded into an important campaign issue. Several thousand steelworkers went on strike at a factory owned by the carnegie steel company in homestead, Pennsylvania. The steelworkers union called the strike after failing to reach a wage agreement with company officials. After months of growing tension, the head of the company sent three hundred private security officers to break up the strike and protect non-union workers. The security officers and many of the strikers carried guns. Shots were fired. Ten men were killed. The governor of Pennsylvania immediately sent state soldiers to the steel factory. After a few more attempts to continue the strike, the union admitted defeat. Its power was crushed. It would be more than forty years before America's steelworkers were organized again. VOICE TWO: A short time later, state soldiers were used to break up a strike by railroad workers in New York. And federal soldiers were used against striking silver miners in Idaho. This use of government troops to end strikes caused many citizens to vote against the ruling Republican Party. They voted for the opposition Democratic or People's Parties, instead. In the election of eighteen ninety-two, Republican President Benjamin Harrison was defeated. Democrat Grover Cleveland -- who had lost to Harrison four years earlier -- would be president again. The People's Party candidate, James Weaver, won one million popular votes and twenty-two electoral votes. VOICE 1: Grover Cleveland returned to the White House, just as his wife had said he would. But his second administration would be much more difficult than his first. Within two months of Cleveland's inauguration, the United States entered into one of the worst economic depressions in its history. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stan Busby. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Central Banker Alan Greenspan Prepares to Retire
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The chairman of the United States central bank, Alan Greenspan, plans to retire at the end of January. Mister Greenspan is seventy-nine years old. He replaced Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board on August eleventh, nineteen eighty-seven. Less than one month later, Mister Greenspan announced an increase in an important interest rate. The discount rate is what the Federal Reserve charges banks to borrow money. The increase showed that Mister Greenspan wanted to move quickly to fight inflation. Two months into his term, however, there was a shock: Black Monday. On October nineteenth, nineteen eighty-seven, the stock market had the worst day in its history. The Dow Jones industrial average lost almost one-fourth of its value. Mister Greenspan earned praise for the way he dealt with the crisis. Stock prices climbed again. In nineteen ninety-six, Alan Greenspan warned that prices were too high. He spoke of the risks of what he called "irrational exuberance."? Yet after that, he surprised everyone when the central bank raised interest rates only once until June of nineteen ninety-nine. Economists had worried that low unemployment and low interest rates would cause inflation. But Mister Greenspan thought inflation could remain low because of increased productivity. He was right. The economy had one of its longest expansions ever in peacetime. Today, stock prices are down from their record highs in two thousand. The United States suffered a moderate recession, made worse by the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. And since June of two thousand four the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates in a series of steps against inflation. Rates went up this month for the twelfth time, to the highest level in more than four years. Recently Alan Greenspan has warned about high home prices, trade barriers and budget deficits. But what has marked his eighteen years as chairman is trust in the ability of the economy to recover from shocks. President Bush chose his top economic adviser, Ben Bernanke, to replace Alan Greenspan. On Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee approved the nomination for a vote in the full Senate. Mister Bernanke says he will seek to continue the policies established during the Greenspan years. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Abigail Washburn: American Bluegrass Music, by Way of China
* Byline: Written by Katharine Gypson and Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some music from Abigail Washburn … Answer a question about the Kyoto Protocol … And report about a newly elected mayor who is only eighteen years old. Eighteen-Year Old Mayor Michael Sessions will soon have more than just schoolwork to keep him busy. This high school student from Hillsdale, Michigan ran for mayor. And he won! Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Eighteen-year-old Michael Sessions is a teenager with a very adult job. He will be the youngest mayor in the history of Hillsdale, Michigan. Last week he defeated the current mayor, fifty-one year old Doug Ingles. Hillsdale has a population of about eight thousand people. Michael Sessions says that not much is happening in the town. He says the community is losing jobs and all the local college graduates are leaving town. To change this, Mister Sessions decided to run for mayor. He said he wanted to bring new ideas to his troubled town. His campaign was not easy. When Michael Sessions first tried to get on the ballot last year, he learned that he was too young. He could not get on the ballot until he turned eighteen in September. By that time, election day was only seven weeks away. So the young man started a write-in campaign. He spent all the money he earned during the summer to pay for signs to spread his campaign message. Every day after school Mister Sessions did his homework and then visited people in their homes. He urged voters to write his name on the ballot in order to vote for him. At first, the people of Hillsdale were surprised by the young age of this candidate. Then they realized that Michael Sessions had energy and good ideas. He promised to work hard to make Hillsdale a better place. When Mister Sessions won the election last week, many reporters with television cameras came to his school to interview him. But he was not the only teenager elected to office last week. Eighteen-year-old Christopher Seeley from Linesville, Pennsylvania was also elected mayor. Michael Sessions will begin his new job Monday. He plans to set up an advisory team to work with the city manager who runs the town’s day-to-day operations. Being mayor is a part-time position. So Michael Sessions can still continue his studies. But the job does not provide an office. So where will he work?? In his bedroom, after he finishes his homework, of course. Kyoto Protocol HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ankara, Turkey. Yusuf Deniz Ynan asks for information about the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a plan created by the United Nations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The plan aims to reduce the amount of pollution released into the environment. Some scientists say carbon dioxide and other industrial gases are to blame for climate change around the world. The scientists say such gases build up in the atmosphere and trap heat below. They say this results in increasing temperatures and rising sea levels. The plan is called the Kyoto Protocol because it was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in nineteen ninety-seven. The goal of the agreement is to reduce the amount of emissions -- industrial gases released -- to below the levels of nineteen ninety. Nations responsible for at least fifty-five percent of the world’s industrial carbon dioxide emissions had to approve the agreement before it could go into effect. The European Union and many other industrial nations quickly approved the Kyoto Protocol. They receive credit for their own emissions if they invest in cleaner technologies in developing nations. Developing nations do not have to meet the emissions requirements of the agreement. The United States produced thirty-six percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions in nineteen ninety. But the United States refused to approve the Kyoto Protocol. Before the Protocol was negotiated, the United States Senate voted that any treaty harmful to the economy of the United States could not be signed. President Bush has said that he supports the general idea of the treaty but will not send the treaty to the Senate for approval. Mister Bush said that the agreement sets unfair differences between industrial and developing nations. He also said that the treaty could cause some Americans to lose their jobs. After the United States rejected the Kyoto Protocol, approval by Russia was necessary for the agreement to come into force. Russia approved the Protocol in November, two thousand four. The Kyoto Protocol went into effect on February sixteenth, two thousand five. One hundred fifty-seven countries have approved the agreement. Abigail Washburn (MUSIC) Today we introduce an American singer and banjo player named Abigail Washburn. Miz Washburn is not your average musician influenced by bluegrass music. She learned to love traditional American music by first living in China. Pat Bodnar tells us more. PAT BODNAR: Abigail Washburn was born in the state of Illinois. In nineteen ninety-six, during her first year at Colorado College, she joined a summer program trip to China. Living in China had a great influence on her. Studying Chinese and learning about Chinese culture made her want to explore her own country’s traditional music. When she returned home, Miz Washburn bought a banjo. She soon became influenced by bluegrass and old-time Appalachian mountain music. (MUSIC) That was “Coffee’s Cold” from Miz Washburn’s new album called “Song of the Traveling Daughter.”? She made this album after playing with other musicians. She wrote most of the songs on the album, including “Eve Stole the Apple.” This song is influenced by the music of two early American bluegrass performers. (MUSIC) Miz Washburn has not forgotten her love of Chinese culture. She has traveled to China several times. In fact, she is performing in Beijing now and will be performing in Shanghai at the end of the month. To find out about these performances, you can visit her Web site at www.abigailwashburn.com. Miz Washburn says she is caught between two cultures, but she likes being a bridge. We leave you now with “The Lost Lamb” which Abigail Washburn wrote and performs in Mandarin. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Katherine Gypson and Dana Demange. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: More Women Become National Leaders; When Will the U.S. Follow?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. More women are becoming national leaders. The newest include Angela Merkel. She is expected to become the first female chancellor of Germany on Tuesday. Germany has the biggest economy in Europe. And, in Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has claimed victory as the first woman elected president of an African nation. She had almost sixty percent of the final ballot count after the vote on November eighth. Her opponent, former soccer star George Weah, disputes the results. But international observers say the election was generally free and fair. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf studied at Harvard University in the United States and was an economist at the World Bank. Around the world, in the past one hundred years, fewer than fifty women have served as heads of state. A young Danish man named Martin Christensen has put together an extensive Web site called guide2womenleaders dot com. That's g-u-i-d-e-the number two-womenleaders. It says Sirivamo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the first female prime minister in modern times in nineteen sixty. Isabel Peron of Argentina became the first woman president in nineteen seventy-four. But, in Mongolia, Suhbaataryn Yanjmaa had served as acting head of state from nineteen fifty-three to nineteen fifty-four. And Song Qingling was acting head of state in China from nineteen sixty-eight to 'seventy-two. Other national leaders in the twentieth century included Indira Gandhi of India, Golda Meir of Israel and Margaret Thatcher of Britain. Michael Genovese is editor of the book "Women as National Leaders."? He says almost thirty women have become heads of state since nineteen ninety. They include presidents Mary McAleese of Ireland, Vaira Vike-Freiberga of Latvia and Tarja Halonen of Finland. They also include President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines, and prime ministers Helen Clark of New Zealand and Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh. American women have been politically active for many years, but they hold only about fifteen percent of government positions. Geraldine Ferraro was a Democratic candidate for vice president in nineteen eighty-four. But the United States has never had a woman president or vice president. Many political scientists think Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has a good chance to become president in the near future. The wife of former president Bill Clinton is a Democrat. Other people think Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would make a good Republican president or vice president. Some national leaders are not elected but are born into royal families. This week, one member of a royal family, Princess Sayako of Japan, lost her place when she married a commoner. Japanese law does not permit a female emperor. But things could change. Crown Prince Naruhito has only one child, a little girl. Princess Aiko will be four years old on December first. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Rosa Parks: Mother of the American Civil Rights Movement
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Rosa Parks, who has been called the mother of the American civil rights movement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Until the nineteen sixties, black people in many parts of the United States did not have the same civil rights as white people. Laws in the American South kept the two races separate. These laws forced black people to attend separate schools, live in separate areas of a city and sit in separate areas on a bus. On December first, nineteen fifty-five, in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, a forty-two year old black woman got on a city bus. The law at that time required black people seated in one area of the bus to give up their seats to white people who wanted them. The woman refused to do this and was arrested. This act of peaceful disobedience started protests in Montgomery that led to legal changes in minority rights in the United States. The woman who started it was Rosa Parks. Today, we tell her story. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in nineteen-thirteen in Tuskegee, Alabama. She attended local schools until she was eleven years old. Then she was sent to school in Montgomery. She left high school early to care for her sick grandmother, then to care for her mother. She did not finish high school until she was twenty-one. Rosa married Raymond Parks in nineteen thirty-two. He was a barber who cut men’s hair. He was also a civil rights activist. Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In nineteen forty-three, Missus Parks became an officer in the group and later its youth leader. Rosa Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery. She worked sewing clothes from the nineteen thirties until nineteen fifty-five. Then she became a representation of freedom for millions of African-Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In much of the American South in the nineteen fifties, the first rows of seats on city buses were for white people only. Black people sat in the back of the bus. Both groups could sit in a middle area. However, black people sitting in that part of the bus were expected to leave their seats if a white person wanted to sit there. Rosa Parks and three other black people were seated in the middle area of the bus when a white person got on the bus and wanted a seat. The bus driver demanded that all four black people leave their seats so the white person would not have to sit next to any of them. The three other blacks got up, but Missus Parks refused. She was arrested. Some popular stories about that incident include the statement that Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat because her feet were tired. But she herself said in later years that this was false. What she was really tired of, she said, was accepting unequal treatment. She explained later that this seemed to be the place for her to stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights she had, if any. VOICE TWO: A group of black activist women in Montgomery was known as the Women’s Political Council. The group was working to oppose the mistreatment of black bus passengers. Blacks had been arrested and even killed for violating orders from bus drivers. Rosa Parks was not the first black person to refuse to give up a seat on the bus for a white person. But black groups in Montgomery considered her to be the right citizen around whom to build a protest because she was one of the finest citizens of the city. The women’s group immediately called for all blacks in the city to refuse to ride on city buses on the day of Missus Parks’s trial, Monday, December fifth. The result was that forty thousand people walked and used other transportation on that day. That night, at meetings throughout the city, blacks in Montgomery agreed to continue to boycott the city buses until their mistreatment stopped. They also demanded that the city hire black bus drivers and that anyone be permitted to sit in the middle of the bus and not have to get up for anyone else. VOICE ONE: Martin Luther KingThe Montgomery bus boycott continued for three hundred eighty-one days. It was led by local black leader E.D. Nixon and a young black minister, Martin Luther King, Junior. Similar protests were held in other southern cities. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Missus Parks’s case. It made racial separation illegal on city buses. That decision came on November thirteenth, nineteen fifty-six, almost a year after Missus Parks’s arrest. The boycott in Montgomery ended the day after the court order arrived, December twentieth. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Junior had started a movement of non-violent protest in the South. That movement changed civil rights in the United States forever. Martin Luther King became its famous spokesman, but he did not live to see many of the results of his work. Rosa Parks did. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John ConyersLife became increasingly difficult for Rosa Parks and her family after the bus boycott. She was dismissed from her job and could not find another. So the Parks family left Montgomery. They moved first to Virginia, then to Detroit, Michigan. Missus Parks worked as a seamstress until nineteen sixty-five. Then, Michigan Representative John Conyers gave her a job working in his congressional office in Detroit. She retired from that job in nineteen eighty-eight. Through the years, Rosa Parks continued to work for the NAACP and appeared at civil rights events. She was a quiet woman and often seemed uneasy with her fame. But she said that she wanted to help people, especially young people, to make useful lives for themselves and to help others. In nineteen eighty-seven, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to improve the lives of black children. Rosa Parks received two of the nation’s highest honors for her civil rights activism. In nineteen ninety-six, President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And in nineteen ninety-nine, she received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? In her later years, Rosa Parks was often asked how much relations between the races had improved since the civil rights laws were passed in the nineteen sixties. She thought there was still a long way to go. Yet she remained the face of the movement for racial equality in the United States. Rosa Parks died on October twenty-fourth, two thousand five. She was ninety-two years old. Her body lay in honor in the United States Capitol building in Washington. She was the first American woman to be so honored. Thirty thousand people walked silently past her body to show their respect. Representative Conyers spoke about what this woman of quiet strength meant to the nation. He said: “There are very few people who can say their actions and conduct changed the face of the nation. Rosa Parks is one of those individuals.” VOICE TWO: Rosa Parks meant a lot to many Americans. Four thousand people attended her funeral in Detroit, Michigan. Among them were former President Bill Clinton, his wife Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. President Clinton spoke about remembering the separation of the races on buses in the South when he was a boy. He said that Rosa Parks helped to set all Americans free. He said the world knows of her because of a single act of bravery that struck a deadly blow to racial hatred. Earlier, the religious official of the United States Senate spoke about her at a memorial service in Washington. He said Rosa Parks’s bravery serves as an example of the power of small acts. And the Reverend Jesse Jackson commented in a statement about what her small act of bravery meant for African-American people. He said that on that bus in nineteen fifty-five, “She sat down in order that we might stand up… and she opened the doors on the long journey to freedom.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. ?????????????? ?????????????? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Report Examines Forces Changing the World
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Future Society has published a special report about forces changing the world. The report is by Marvin Cetron, president of Forecasting International in Virginia, and Owen Davies, a writer. It is called "Fifty-three Trends Now Shaping the Future."? One of them is population growth. The report says the world is expected to have more than nine thousand million people by the middle of this century. Areas likely to experience the largest increases include the Palestinian territories, Niger, Yemen and Angola. Population growth in many industrial nations, however, is expected to drop. But medical progress helps their people to live longer lives. International migration is also shaping the future. The report says there is some resistance, but also growing acceptance of cultural differences. Migration is mixing different peoples and, in its words, "forcing them to find ways to co-exist peacefully and productively."? This is said to be true especially among younger people. The world economy is also becoming more integrated. The report notes, for example, that companies in high-wage nations are increasingly sending jobs and services to low-wage countries. At the same time, the Internet lets businesses search worldwide for materials at the lowest cost. In some cases, the Internet can even help small companies compete against big ones. On another issue, the report warns that militant Islam will spread and gain more power. It notes that extremists are angered by the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. As a result, it says future revolutions may be more likely instead of less likely. On the issue of energy, the use of oil is expected to reach one hundred ten million barrels a day by two thousand twenty. That is up from more than eighty million now. The report dismisses a popular belief that the world is about to run out of oil. It notes estimates by OPEC that the eleven member nations still have about eighty years of oil left. And it says production can still expand in other countries such as China, Russia and Kazakhstan. The World Future Society describes itself as a scientific and educational organization with about twenty-five thousand members. It is based in the American state of Maryland. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. ?Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-20-voa5.cfm
* Headline: Behind the Turkey: The Story of Thanksgiving
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of the Thanksgiving holiday is our report this week. (MUSIC)?? VOICE ONE:?????? This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The month of November is in autumn, the main season for harvesting crops. The writer O. Henry called Thanksgiving the one holiday that is purely American. It is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning. Some Americans travel long distances to be with their families. They eat a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration. For many people, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion. VOICE TWO: Alma Scott-Buczak gathers her family for Thanksgiving dinner every year. She welcomes about thirty people to her home in northern New Jersey, near New York City. Guests sit at several tables. Children eat together at their own table. Most people who are invited are relatives. But anyone can bring a friend. Miz Scott-Buczak serves the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. But she adds a few special foods that are especially popular in some African-American homes, dishes like sweet potato pie and corn pudding. Before the meal begins, the people all say a few words about what they are most thankful for. VOICE ONE: The family of Ismaila Sanghua of Silver Spring, Maryland, also eats a large Thanksgiving dinner. It comes just weeks after their big dinner that celebrated the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the observance of Ramadan. Mister Sanghua was born in Sierra Leone. He says the family began a Thanksgiving tradition because the children, ages nine through sixteen, wanted to celebrate an American holiday. ? VOA producer, writer and editor Subhash Vohra was born in India. Mister Vohra has been a journalist there and in Britain and Germany. He says he is pleased to take part in the traditions of places where he lives. He says he, his wife and two daughters have been enjoying an American Thanksgiving holiday meal in this country for many years. VOICE TWO: More than twenty Korean young people will eat their first Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday in Washington, D.C. The celebration is for first-year international students at the Wesley Theological Seminary, a graduate school for religious studies. Several students said they are looking forward to learning about this American custom. Listen now as the Paul Hillier Singers present an early-American song of thanks, “Give Good Gifts One to Another.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Joan and Sandy Horwitt of Arlington, Virginia, have been holding a Thanksgiving dinner for almost thirty years. All the guests bring food to share. The Horwitts started this tradition when they moved to Virginia from the Midwest. They regretted not being able to be with all their family members. But they soon met new friends. So they started a holiday dinner for others who were also unable to travel to family homes for the holiday. At first, many people brought their babies and young children. Now some of the first guests are grandparents. Mister and Missus Horwitt serve a turkey as the center of the meal. So do many other Americans. Most people serve it with a cooked bread mixture inside. VOICE TWO: This year, some Americans asked poultry companies if it all right to eat turkey. These people feared bird flu, a disease that has struck birds in Asia and Europe. But public officials say no turkeys in the United States have been infected with the deadly kind of avian influenza. Other traditional Thanksgiving foods served with turkey are potatoes, a cooked fruit called cranberries and pumpkin pie. Many people eat more at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. Some families serve other meats besides turkey. And some American homes have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners. This means no meat is served. VOICE ONE:?????? Many Americans also help others who might not have had a chance for Thanksgiving dinner. All across America, thousands of religious and service organizations provide holiday meals for old people, the homeless and the poor. Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and college football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television. Many people also like to watch Thanksgiving Day parades on television. Big stores in several cities organize these parades. For example, Macy’s has a very famous Thanksgiving Day parade in New York. VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving began with the first European settlers in America. They gathered their crops, celebrated and gave thanks for the food. Tradition says Pilgrim settlers from England celebrated the first thanksgiving in sixteen twenty-one. There is evidence that settlers in other parts of America held earlier thanksgiving celebrations. But the Pilgrims’ thanksgiving story is the most popular. The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. They went first to the Netherlands. Then they left that country to establish a colony in North America. The Pilgrims landed in sixteen twenty in what later became known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was difficult. Their first months in America were difficult, too. About one hundred Pilgrims landed just as autumn was turning to winter. During the cold months that followed, about half of them died. VOICE ONE: When spring came, the pilgrims began to plant crops. An American Indian named Squanto helped them. When summer ended, the Pilgrims had a good harvest of corn and barley. There was enough food to last through the winter. The Pilgrims decided to hold a celebration to give thanks for their harvest. Writings from that time say Pilgrim leader William Bradford set a date late in the year. He invited members of a nearby Indian tribe to take part. There were many kinds of food to eat. The meal included wild birds such as ducks, geese and turkeys. That thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. Listen as Paul Hillier leads his singers in “The Apple Tree.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? As the American colonies grew, many towns and settlements held thanksgiving or harvest celebrations. Yet it took two hundred fifty years before a national observance was declared. In the eighteen twenties, a writer named Sarah Josepha Hale began a campaign for an official holiday. Support for her idea grew slowly. Finally, in eighteen sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. Later, Congress declared that the holiday would be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November. VOICE ONE:?????? As in the past, many Americans will gather on Thursday with family and friends. We will share what we have. And we will give thanks for the good things of the past year. VOICE? TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, on THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you now as the Boston Pops Orchestra and chorus perform “Prayer of Thanksgiving.” (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: China Says It Will Vaccinate All Farm Birds Against Bird Flu
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. China says it will give all of its farm birds a vaccine to protect them against avian influenza. The chief medical officer for animals first announced the development of the vaccine in late October. Jia Youling said the vaccine against the h-five-n-one bird flu virus is easy to use and not costly. Last week the Chinese Agriculture Ministry announced that all farm birds would be vaccinated. It did not give details, but it said the government would pay for the program. China also announced plans to send vaccine to Vietnam to deal with outbreaks there. China has about five thousand million farm birds at any one time. But the yearly number of birds that will need to be vaccinated is much higher. This is because chickens, ducks and other poultry can be sent to market after only a few months. Reports say China uses about fourteen thousand million farm birds every year. China has reported a number of recent outbreaks of bird flu. In early November, the World Organization for Animal Health received a report of a large outbreak in Liaoning Province. Workers destroyed two million five hundred thousand farm birds. Officials say nearly two million birds in the area were vaccinated. Only healthy birds can be vaccinated. People who work with farm birds are advised to keep clothing and shoes free of material and waste that could spread infection. Experts say clothes worn on a farm should stay on the farm. Farmers should also keep equipment, containers and tools clean. Soap left on a surface for ten minutes can work as a disinfectant. Also, farmers must watch their birds for possible signs of the disease. Birds that appear weak or that drink an unusual amount of water could be sick. Bird flu can also cause sudden death. Wild birds have carried the virus across Asia and into Europe. Once farm birds become infected, the disease spreads quickly. Health officials worry that the virus could begin to spread easily from person to person. The World Health Organization says one hundred thirty cases were confirmed in humans as of November seventeenth. Sixty-seven of the people died. Vietnam has had the most cases. There have also been cases in Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and China. China last week reported its first two human cases of avian influenza. One of those people died. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Meet in Cameroon to Discuss Malaria
* Byline: Written by Oliver Chanler and Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in V.O.A. Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Hundreds of scientists, health care experts and policy makers met in Cameroon last week to talk about the deadly disease malaria. Today, we tell about that conference. We also explain the causes of and treatments for malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A group called the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria organized the conference in Yaounde, Cameroon. Sixty-five countries were represented at the six days of meetings. The representatives met in the continent most troubled by malaria. Each year, the disease kills more than one million people. Most of those killed are children in Africa. Health experts say malaria kills one African child every thirty seconds. VOICE TWO: A common insect, the mosquito, is responsible for the spread of malaria. The Anopheles mosquito carries the parasite that causes the disease. Very small parasites develop in the stomach of the mosquito. Parasites are organisms that live on or in another animal and get their food from that animal. The general name for the malaria parasite is Plasmodium. Mosquitoes pass the parasites to people when they drink blood through the skin. However, only the female Anopheles mosquitoes drink blood. The males feed only on plant juices. VOICE ONE: The female Anopheles mosquito drinks blood from people and animals by breaking through the skin with its long, tube-like feeding device. The parasites enter the blood of the victim. The blood carries the parasites to the victim's liver. From there they invade cells and reproduce. After nine to sixteen days, the parasites return to the blood and enter the red blood cells. Then they reproduce again. As they do this, they destroy the blood cells. In a short time, the victim develops a high body temperature. The victim becomes weak and is unable to carry out normal activities. Other signs of malaria include pain in the muscles or head and shaking. Patients with severe malaria may develop liver and kidney failure, seizures and become unable to communicate. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? These signs of malaria have been observed since the beginning of history. Scientists examining bodies of ancient Egyptians have found evidence of the disease in people who lived at least three thousand years ago. And scientists have found mosquitoes in fossil remains millions of years old. At one time, it was believed that malaria was caused by bad air. People believed this bad air came from areas of water that were not deep and did not move. It seemed that malaria was most common near these swamps. Ancient people suspected that mosquitoes were linked to malaria. The Greek historian Herodotus lived about two thousand four hundred years ago. He noted that in swampy areas of Egypt, some people slept in tall structures where mosquitoes could not go. Or they slept under special material called nets that mosquitoes could not go through. VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-six, British scientist Patrick Manson discovered that mosquitoes were responsible for passing the disease to human beings. More exactly, he found that insects carry the parasites and pass them to humans. In eighteen eighty, a French doctor, Alphonse Laveran, discovered that the Plasmodium parasite causes the disease. In eighteen ninety-seven, a British scientist, Ronald Ross, found the malaria parasite in the Anopheles mosquito. For his discovery of the cause of malaria and other work, Doctor Laveran received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in nineteen-oh-seven. Mister Ross received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in nineteen-oh-two for his work on malaria. The discoveries of the three scientists soon led to efforts to control malaria. Then, the discovery of the insect poison D-D-T led to efforts to end the disease completely. VOICE TWO: Between nineteen fifty-five and nineteen sixty-nine, the World Health Organization organized a series of campaigns against the disease. The goal was to use chemicals to kill mosquitoes inside homes around the world. The effort was successful in large areas of North America, southern Europe, the former Soviet Union and some parts of Asia and South America. The spread of the disease in these areas was halted. However, the disease remained in Central America, parts of South America, and some Asian countries. The W-H-O program never was attempted in Africa. This is because it was too difficult and costly for most African countries. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-eight, malaria suddenly spread among people in Sri Lanka, where it was believed the disease no longer existed. The disease also spread in Central America, in Southeast Asian nations, and in parts of Africa. Efforts to end malaria throughout the world were suspended in nineteen sixty-nine. Today, the W-H-O says that malaria control programs must be developed for local areas. It says such programs must involve everyone in each community -- citizens, health experts and people involved in development. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are four different kinds of malaria. They are caused by four different kinds of parasites. Three of them cause victims to suffer high body temperatures, or fevers, every few days. But they do not cause death. However, the most common malaria parasite also is the most dangerous. This parasite causes infections that can lead to death. The best way to prevent malaria is to avoid the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasites. The female Anopheles mosquito takes blood from its victims mainly at night. So, people can place special nets treated with insect poison over their beds at night while they sleep. People can also put anti-insect chemicals on their skin, on clothing and in sleeping areas. They also can wear clothes that cover most of the body. VOICE ONE: If the mosquitoes get past barriers used to block them, drugs are necessary for treatment. Drugs can destroy the malaria parasite as soon as it enters the human body. This prevents the parasites from entering the red blood cells and dividing. Some drugs can prevent the parasite from establishing itself in the liver. However, malaria must be treated early for the treatment to be effective. Before the fifteenth century, people in what is now Peru knew that the covering or bark from the cinchona tree was effective in treating the signs of malaria. In eighteen-twenty, two French scientists identified the substance in the bark as quinine. Until the twentieth century, quinine was the chief drug used to prevent and cure some forms of malaria. Today, manufactured drugs are mostly effective in treating the disease. These drugs are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body and causing malaria. VOICE TWO: The most commonly used malaria prevention drug is chloroquine. It is suggested for use in Mexico, Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Middle East. Another drug, called mefloquine, is used in all other areas where malaria is a threat. Both drugs must be taken once a week on the same day each week. Another commonly used anti-malaria drug is doxycycline. It must be taken every day. Scientists are currently testing a medicine to protect humans from malaria. In Cameroon, scientists said the medicine has protected children from the disease for as long eighteen months. One thousand four hundred children in Mozambique were involved in the study. The boys and girls were given the protective medicine, or vaccine, in two thousand three. They were then observed for a year and a half. Doctors say the vaccine reduced the total number of malaria cases by thirty-five percent. They also said life threatening cases of malaria were cut by almost fifty percent. The drug company GlaxoSmithKline is developing the vaccine. VOICE ONE: Conference delegates discussed other ideas for malaria prevention and treatment. But they said much more work is needed. Aid groups have offered to help in those efforts. Bill & Melinda GatesThe largest amount of new money for the fight against malaria was announced before the conference. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it would provide more than one hundred million dollars for continued research on the Glaxo-Smith-Kline vaccine. The rest will go to other malaria research and prevention methods. Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. He told reporters that malaria can be defeated. And, he said it would be fought harder if the children dying from it were in rich countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and Caty Weaver. She also was the producer. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Makers of the Oxford English Dictionary Present ... American English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Erin McKean, editor-in-chief of American dictionaries for Oxford University Press -- which, she says, is trying to promote the use of American English worldwide. RS: But wait, isn't the Oxford University Press a British company? ERIN McKEAN: "It's a little counterintuitive that Oxford has a very strong American dictionary component. But people have a choice in what kind of English they want to speak. There are many different Englishes all around the world, and for some uses American English can be more appropriate. So we find that people who are learning American English are often more concerned about business, they are often studying science and technology. And American English is the English for those purposes." AA: "Well, you know I want to ask you one thing. I've noticed -- and other people have noticed this, too -- in recent years we're hearing terms like dead-on and spot-on and one-off." ERIN McKEAN: "I blame BBC television. No, it's just -- " RS: "Are Americans sounding more British?" ERIN McKEAN: "I don't know if Americans are sounding more British. I think that in America, Britishisms have always been seen as upper class, refined, more aristocratic -- even things in Britain that would not be considered aristocratic uses." RS: "Like what?" ERIN McKEAN: "I'm thinking that in New York the last couple of times I've been there, the people who are fashionable know what a chav is." AA: "What's a chav?" RS: "And spell it." ERIN McKEAN: "A chav -- c-h-a-v. They're supposed to be distinguished by wearing Burberry and antisocial behavior and gaudy displays of wealth." AA: "Are chavs dodgy? [laughter] Because that's a term I hear now, dodgy." ERIN McKEAN: "I believe that they can be. The problem, of course, is that some people self-identify as chav and use it as a term of pride, and some people use it as a term of denigration." AA: "And dodgy, can you explain it?" ERIN McKEAN: "Sure. In fact, I could probably even give you a definition. I have the whole dictionary right here on my cell phone." AA: "Wow." ERIN McKEAN: "Yes, I love this thing so much. [laughter] We label it as British, informal, [meaning] dishonest or unreliable: 'a dodgy second-hand car salesman.' Or something that's potentially dangerous: 'Activities like these could be dodgy for your heart.' Or, of low quality." RS: "Now how can an American dictionary, such as the one you edit, help students of English as a foreign language learn American English?" ERIN McKEAN: "Well, our perspective is always American, so that the first use, the core use of the word that you see in the dictionary will always be the American use. And usages from other varieties of English will be a little further down in the entry, although I have to say that one of the most important things you can do when you're looking up a word in the dictionary is read to the end of the entry, because especially in a dictionary like the New Oxford American Dictionary, we arrange the entries in a different way than most dictionaries. "We start from the core sense, which is the sense that we think is the most central, the most general meaning of the word. And then we have sub-senses which are extensions of the word that can be figurative. So you have to read all the way to the end to make sure that you get the whole story." AA: "Well, you know this is interesting, because dictionaries use to be prescriptive, where they would tell you what this word -- how it should be used and what it should mean. And now, I know some people complain about dictionaries are more descriptive. They sort of just describe how people use the language. So how do you know whether this definition is correct or whether this word is being used correctly?" ERIN McKEAN: "We are highly descriptive. And by that I mean we describe what's going on, but we tell you everything about it. And that means whether or not other people like that use." RS: "Give us an example." AA: "Yeah, get on your cell phone there." ERIN McKEAN: "I will -- so, irregardless is a word that people love to hate. Irregardless is just regardless. The -ir part doesn't really mean anything. And we give a usage note that says 'irregardless with its illogical negative prefix is widely heard perhaps arising under the influence of such perfectly correct forms as irrespective. Irregardless is avoided by careful speakers of English. Use regardless to mean without regard or consideration for or nevertheless.' "So if someone heard the word irregardless and looked it up and didn't find it, they would probably be more likely to go ahead and use it, thinking it was just too new. But here we put it in and we say lots of people really are annoyed by this word." RS: Listen next week for more with Erin McKean, editor-in-chief of American dictionaries for Oxford University Press. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Send e-mail to word@voanews.com, and visit us at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Opening the American West: Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we continue our story of Lewis and Clark. Their exploration in the early eighteen hundreds led to the opening of the American West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week we told how President Thomas Jefferson suggested the trip to his private secretary Meriwether Lewis. The president said Lewis and a group of men should travel northwest up the Missouri River as far as possible and then continue west to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers were to report about the land, people, animals and plants they found. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to join the group. Clark accepted and the two men agreed to act as equal leaders of the group they named the Corps of Discovery. Their trip began on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It was one hundred sixty-four days into the trip. Lewis and Clark had traveled about two thousand four hundred twenty kilometers when they were stopped by the cold winter weather. They named their winter home Fort Mandan. Mandan was the name of an Indian tribe that lived nearby. VOICE ONE: At Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French Canadian hunter Toussaint Charbonneau. He was living with the Indians. He asked to join the Corps of Discovery. He also asked if his Indian wife could come too. Her name was Sacagawea. She was pregnant. Lewis and Clark agreed to let them join their group for two reasons. The first was that Charbonneau spoke several Indian languages. The second concerned Sacagawea. She came from the Shoshoni tribe that lived near the Rocky Mountains in the far West. She had been captured as a young girl by another Indian tribe. Lewis and Clark knew that no Indian war group ever traveled with women. They knew that Sacagawea's presence with them would show Indians that the Corps of Discovery did not want to fight. Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February eleventh, eighteen-oh-five. The baby, too, would make the long trip to the Pacific Ocean. He was the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery. VOICE TWO: In early April, the Corps of Discovery prepared to travel west. The smaller group of soldiers that had aided them during their trip to Fort Mandan prepared to return south to Saint Louis. The soldiers took the larger of the three boats the group had used to follow the Missouri River. They also took Lewis and Clark's first maps, animals, plants and reports to President Jefferson. These reports provided much detail about the land and what was on it. For example, Lewis used more than one thousand words to tell about one bird. Today, visitors to President Jefferson's home in the southeastern state of Virginia can see many things collected by Lewis and Clark. Animal heads and weapons made by the Mandan Indian tribe are among them. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery again moved up the Missouri River as soon as the warm weather of spring began to return. Lewis wrote of seeing thousands of animals: American bison, deer, huge elk and very fast antelope. Lewis saw thousands of animals all feeding together. VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark soon decided to leave behind important information, plants and things collected from Indians. They were having problems carrying everything they were gathering. They also decided to leave extra food behind. They did this by digging a deep hole and burying everything to protect it from animals. They would do this again and again on their way west. They would collect everything on their return trip. VOICE ONE: The explorers soon reached an area where a series of waterfalls blocked passage on the river. This area is near the modern city of Great Falls, Montana. Here, the Corps of Discovery pulled the boats from the water and took them over land to the river. They carried the boats almost thirty kilometers. To make the trip easier, they made wooden wheels for their boats. Later they buried the wheels with more food and things they had collected. VOICE TWO: On July twenty-fifth, eighteen-oh five, Meriwether Lewis and two other men saw a small river that was flowing to the west. All rivers before had flowed east or southeast. Lewis correctly guessed he had reached the line that divides the North American continent. Rain falling to the west of the imaginary line becomes rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean. Rain that falls to the east of the line forms rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Meriwether Lewis became the first American to cross this continental line. At that point, Lewis could tell from the huge mountains he saw ahead that they would find no waterway across the continent. A lot of the trip would have to be over land. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis met two Shoshoni Indian women in this same area. About sixty men from the tribe quickly arrived riding horses. They were dressed and painted for war. It was something that few white men ever saw -- a Shoshoni war party prepared to fight. Lewis made peace signs. There was no trouble. VOICE TWO: Two days later, Clark arrived with the main group. The Corps of Discovery met with the Indians. At the meeting, Sacagawea began to cry as she looked at the Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait. Cameahwait was her brother. She had not seen him since she was kidnapped many years before. Lewis and Clark could communicate with the Shoshoni Indians. But it was not easy. Sacagawea would listen to the Shoshoni. She would then speak to her husband, Charbonneau, in the Hidatsa language. He would speak in French to a soldier in the group, Francis Labiche, who then spoke in English to Lewis. It took a long time, but it worked. The Corps of Discovery decided to leave the boats and continue west on horses. Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark trade for horses. She also helped them find an Indian guide to lead them. His name was Toby. It was already the month of September when they reached the high mountains. It was also extremely cold. The explorers began to suffer from a severe lack of food. They were forced to kill and eat several of their horses. VOICE ONE: In October they found the huge Columbia River. High winds and rain slowed the group's progress. On November seventh, they reached the Pacific Ocean. Clark recorded that five hundred fifty-four days had passed since they left their camp at Wood River near Saint Louis. They had traveled six thousand six hundred forty-eight kilometers. VOICE TWO: For several days the Corps of Discovery camped in an area that is now the extreme southern part of the state of Washington. But the hunting was poor. Indians told them the hunting would be better across the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark decided to hold a vote and let the Corps of Discovery decide. The Corps of Discovery voted to move south across the river into what is now the state of Oregon. William Clark's black slave York and the Indian guide Sacagawea were included in the vote. History experts say this was the first free, democratic election west of the Rocky Mountains. And they say it was the first time in American history that a black slave and a woman voted in a free election. VOICE ONE: The explorers quickly built a camp of wooden buildings on the Columbia River. They would stay there during the winter months between eighteen-oh-five and eighteen-oh-six. They named the buildings Fort Clatsop. "Clatsop" was the name of a nearby group of friendly Indians. The area of Fort Clatsop is very near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors to that area today can walk through a copy of Fort Clatsop that was built in nineteen fifty-five. VOICE TWO: The group stayed at Fort Clatsop for four months. It rained all but twelve days. During the long winter months, the explorers hunted and preserved food. They used animal skins to make new clothes and shoes. They also studied the Indians, fish, animals and lands near the area of the fort. Clark made extremely good maps of the area. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were prepared for their return trip to Saint Louis. That will be our story next time. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, Explorations. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Our program today was written and? produced by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week on the Voice of America as we finish our story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored. ? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Cases of "Katrina Cough" Reported in Cities Hit by Storm
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Recovery efforts continue in the southern American states hit by Hurricane Katrina in August. But health officials are investigating reports of what is being called "Katrina cough."? It is believed to be caused by reactions to the mold and dust left after the storm. The effects are said to be similar to those of a cold, but with a dry cough that will not go away. Health officials say they do not yet know how widespread the problem is. But since Katrina, doctors in the hardest-hit areas say they have seen a twenty-five percent increase in some kinds of problems. These include sinus headaches, runny noses and sore throats. The city of New Orleans, in Louisiana, appears to have the most cases. It had the worst damage from Katrina. More than one thousand people died in Louisiana. Officials say the biggest public health concern there now is mold. Mold is a fungus. It is everywhere in nature. Mold can grow almost anywhere, indoors or outdoors. It grows best in warm, wet environments. New Orleans has higher-than-normal levels of mold because of its climate. But homes that flooded in the storm are now covered in mold. Mold can be a health risk especially for people with conditions such as asthma, allergies or weakened immune systems. Mold spreads and reproduces by making spores. It can affect people who breathe it, swallow it or get it on their skin. Some molds can cause skin disorders or lung infections. Public health officials have advised people to wear gloves and face coverings if they decide to return to their homes in New Orleans. But some officials have urged people with conditions such as asthma or weakened defenses not to return to the city. Government officials have said repeatedly that the air quality in areas affected by Katrina is safe. Some people, however, say there has not been enough testing for levels of mold carried in the air. Officials from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are studying the issue. They are working with state health officials in Louisiana and Mississippi to see how widespread the so-called Katrina cough is. The agency says it is observing health care centers to learn if there is an unusual increase in sick people. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Number of Americans Studying Abroad Continues to Rise
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I’m?Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week, in the United States, the Institute of International Education released its yearly report. "Open Doors Two Thousand Five" shows continued record growth in the number of American students who study in a foreign country. The I.I.E. report says the number increased by almost ten percent in the two thousand three-two thousand four school year. This brought the number of Americans studying in another country to more than one hundred ninety-one thousand. The increase the year before was eight and one-half percent. Interest in foreign study has increased for years. But I.I.E. officials say it has taken on greater importance since the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. The newest report says sixty-one percent of the students went to Europe. But study in China increased by ninety percent from the year before. And study in India increased by sixty-five percent. Study in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, including Cuba, also increased. The report says that while more Americans are studying abroad, they are staying for shorter periods of time. Six percent went for a full school year. Thirty-eight percent went for half a year. And fifty-six percent went for a shorter term. The report says New York University has the largest number of students abroad. Michigan State University is second this year, followed by the University of California, Los Angeles. Ten smaller schools each sent more than forty percent of their students abroad last year. The list includes Carleton College in Minnesota, Elon University in North Carolina and Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. Recently, Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, announced that it will require all of its students to study abroad. Goucher will be one of the first American colleges to require at least three weeks of study in another country. Goucher says it will provide every student with one thousand two hundred dollars in travel money to help pay the costs. The president of Goucher is Sandy Ungar, a former VOA director. Mister Ungar says American colleges must help students expand the ways they see the world. And, he says, colleges must help change the way other nations see Americans. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Listen next week for a report about foreign students studying in the United States. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Nation Is in Economic Trouble as President Cleveland Takes Office
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Frank Oliver and I begin the story of Grover Cleveland's second presidency. VOICE TWO: In March, eighteen eighty-nine, President Grover Cleveland left the White House after four years as President. He had been defeated by Benjamin Harrison. As the President and his wife left, Misses Cleveland spoke with a member of the White House staff. She said: "I want you to take good care of everything. I want to find it the same when we come back. And we will be back...in four years." Misses Cleveland was right. She and her husband moved back into the White House after he became president again in eighteen ninety-three. Grover Cleveland is the only man to serve two terms separated by the administration of a different president. VOICE ONE: Cleveland did not want to be president again. But he was worried about the future of the United States. He did not think President Harrison could solve the serious economic problems the country faced. President Harrison had approved very high taxes on imports. He also had approved an increase in the supply of silver money. Grover Cleveland said both actions had hurt the economy. He also feared that Harrison was not strong enough to oppose the demands of special interest groups in the Republican Party. Cleveland believed he was the only Democrat who could defeat Harrison. He won his party's nomination. And he was easily elected to a second presidency. VOICE TWO: Grover Cleveland immediately turned to the nation's economic problems. The country seemed headed for a serious depression. Only a few days before Cleveland's second inauguration in eighteen ninety-three, a major railroad failed. Then another big company declared failure. This set off a selling panic on the stock market. In the next few months, almost eight thousand businesses failed in the United States. Four hundred banks closed. One million workers lost their jobs. The prices of farm products fell lower than ever before. And thousands of farmers -- unable to pay their debts -- had to give up their farms. VOICE ONE: Experts offered a number of different reasons for the depression. Some said it was a plot by members of the stock market to ruin farmers and seize their land. Some said it happened because American factories were producing more goods than people could use. Still others said the problem was caused by the government's money policy. For many years, the United States and other nations used both gold and silver as money. Paper money was used to represent a nation's gold and silver holdings. The value of silver was tied to the value of gold. In the United States in the early eighteen hundreds, fifteen ounces of silver had the same value as one ounce of gold. This value did not change until after eighteen sixty. That was when mines in the western United States began to produce large amounts of silver. The extra silver caused the price of the metal to fall. VOICE TWO: In eighteen seventy-one, Germany declared that it would no longer support its paper money with silver. Instead, it would use only gold. Other European countries quickly did the same thing. The United States did, too. In eighteen seventy-three, Congress passed a law that stopped the government from using silver as money. Western silver producers protested. They put great pressure on lawmakers to change the law. Five years later, Congress passed a compromise bill. The compromise bill said the government could issue limited amounts of silver money. It said the government must buy two million dollars' worth of silver each month for that purpose. VOICE ONE: Twelve years later, during President Benjamin Harrison's administration, Congress passed a new silver purchase bill. It said the government must buy four-and-one-half million ounces of silver each month. The Treasury Department would buy the silver with new paper money that could be exchanged for silver or gold. The new law increased the amount of silver money used in the United States. The country soon became sharply divided on the issue of silver money. Wealthy businessmen and bankers did not want to use silver money at all. They wanted the country's economy to be based only on gold. This was what was known as the "gold standard." They believed the gold standard would keep the value of the dollar high. Using silver, they said, made the dollar less valuable. VOICE TWO: Farmers, laborers and others wanted to use silver money. And they wanted an unlimited supply of it. Without silver, they said, the country's money supply would be too small. Gold would increase in value. People who had borrowed money would be hurt. They would have to pay back loans with dollars that were more valuable than those they had borrowed. President Cleveland supported the gold standard. He opposed any use of silver for money. He said the United States should use only gold, as other nations did. VOICE ONE: President Cleveland was sure the silver purchase law of eighteen ninety had caused the economic depression. He explained the situation in this way: The law had caused businessmen and investors to lose faith in the government's money policy. They were afraid their money would drop in value, as more silver money was put into use. Investors began to withdraw their money from businesses. Banks began demanding early payment of loans. Everyone wanted gold. They took their paper money and their silver to the government and exchanged them for gold. In eighteen ninety, when the Silver Purchase Act was passed, the government held almost two hundred ninety million dollars in gold. After two years, withdrawals had cut that amount to one hundred million dollars. VOICE TWO: President Cleveland and other administration officials began to worry. It was possible that gold holdings might fall so low the government could not support the dollar. Cleveland decided the only answer was to get Congress to kill the silver purchase law. Then the government could stop buying silver. It could return to the gold standard. The Congress was not in session, however. It would not meet again for several months. President Cleveland did not want to wait. He believed the problem was too serious. So, he called a special session of Congress. The president did not expect an easy time with the Congress. Many congressmen supported silver money -- especially those congressmen from silver-producing states in the west. VOICE ONE: President Cleveland believed he could get Congress to kill the silver purchase law. But if he showed any weakness, the fight would be lost. Then, just before the congressional debate, he learned he would need an operation. He felt a rough spot in the top of his mouth. It got bigger and more painful. Doctors examined the spot. It was a cancer. President Cleveland asked how long he could wait to have the cancer removed. "If it were in my mouth," one of the doctors said, "I would have it removed immediately." VOICE TWO: Cleveland agreed. But he said the operation would have to be kept secret. News from the White House often affected short-term activity on the stock market. News that the president's life was in danger could cause the nation's economic crisis to become worse. Cleveland decided to have the operation on a friend's boat in New York Harbor. Newsmen were told he was going sailing with his friend. Doctors made final preparations. They were not afraid of the operation. But they were afraid of what would happen if news of the operation were leaked to the press. One of them spoke with the boat's captain. "If you hit an underwater rock," he said, "hit it good and hard, so we will all go to the bottom." VOICE ONE: As the boat moved slowly up the East River in New York, the doctors put President Cleveland to sleep with an anesthetic drug. Then they began the operation. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Country Music: Lee Ann Womack Is the Big Winner at CMA Awards
* Byline: Written by Lawan Davis, Katherine Gypson and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Lee Ann Womack We hear some award-winning country music … Answer a question about rescue and recovery teams … And report about the building of new houses on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Habitat for Humanity Last week, Habitat for Humanity International carried out a project in Washington, D.C., called “America Builds on the National Mall. Faith Lapidus tells us about this effort to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. FAITH LAPIDUS: In August, Hurricane Katrina destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses in the Southern United States. The storm left more than one million people without permanent shelter. Last week, volunteers built the walls for new houses for fifty-one of these homeless families. They did so in a very special place – near the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington. The volunteers were from Habitat for Humanity, an independent organization. It has been building homes for poor families in the United States and around the world for the past twenty-nine years. Habitat for Humanity has built more than two hundred thousand houses in almost one hundred countries. Volunteers are people who give their time and skills to build these houses. For this special project, Habitat for Humanity groups in each state were chosen to come to Washington to build a house. Each day, groups of volunteers from four states built the frames for four houses. At the end of the week, the fifty-one houses represented each of the United States and the District of Columbia. The houses were carefully packed for shipping and placed on large trucks. The trucks took the houses to communities along the Gulf Coast area of the United States. Kelle Shultz is the director of one of the busiest Habitat for Humanity groups in the state of Tennessee. She traveled to Washington with twenty volunteers from her office. Miz Shultz first became interested in Habitat for Humanity when a friend invited her along on a trip to build houses in Nicaragua. When she got back to the United States, Miz Shultz applied to become the director of her hometown Habitat for Humanity office. She says the trip was a life-changing experience for her. Miz Shultz hopes that the “America Builds on the National Mall” project will also be a life-changing experience for the fifty-one families who will receive the houses. However, it will be a very long time until all of the families displaced by Hurricane Katrina will have homes. Rescue and Recovery Teams HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener in Vietnam. Pham Hong Hai wants to know about urban rescue and recovery teams. American rescue and recovery teams assist after explosions, earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters in many parts of the world. The Fire and Rescue Department of Fairfax County, Virginia is one of two groups the United States government sends to help in disasters in other countries. It is also one of twenty-eight organizations deployed in disasters across the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. One recent example is their work following powerful storms that struck the Gulf Coast area of the United States in August. Severe flooding destroyed parts of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Urban rescue and recovery workers treated injuries, rescued survivors, and provided food and water to people who had to leave their homes. In October, a huge earthquake struck northern Pakistan. A small team from Fairfax County was sent to coordinate rescue efforts. Fairfax County, Virginia and the Metro-Dade County Fire Department in Miami, Florida first formed urban rescue and recovery teams in the nineteen eighties. These teams were trained especially for rescue work in fallen buildings. Commanders plan the operations. Technical and structural experts work to make rescue attempts safe for the rescue workers. Searchers look for victims, alive or dead. Rescuers try to pull the victims from the wreckage. Medical workers treat the injured. Dogs do an important part of the work of urban search and rescue teams. Dogs can move into areas that are too small or too dangerous for people. They use their sharp sense of smell to find victims. Then they signal their success to their handlers. Some dogs are taught to bark when they make a discovery. Others lie down. Urban rescue and recovery teams continue to provide assistance to communities after disasters. The teams provide security to the area. They also help people to rebuild their communities. CMA Awards The American Country Music Association presented its yearly awards last week in New York City. This was the first time the awards ceremony was held outside Nashville, Tennessee, the home of country music. Pat Bodnar has some of the award-winning music. PAT BODNAR: The biggest winner of Country Music Association Awards this year was Lee Ann Womack. She won three awards for musical event with George Strait, album of the year and single of the year. The single was on Womack’s award-winning album, “There’s More Where That Came From.”? It is called “I May Hate Myself In The Morning.” (MUSIC) Another big winner this year was Australian singer Keith Urban. He won two awards — male singer of the year and entertainer of the year. Here he sings from his latest album, “Be Here.”? The song is called “Days Go By”. (MUSIC) Jerry Douglas was another Country Music Association Award winner this year. He was named musician of the year. Douglas plays an unusual stringed instrument called a dobro with the group Union Station. We leave you now with Jerry Douglas playing the song “When Papa Played The Dobro.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Lawan Davis, Katherine Gypson and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-23-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Peter Drucker, 1909-2005: A Thinker for Business Leaders
* Byline: 

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Peter Drucker was a voice for change and new ways of thinking about social and business relations. He died in Claremont, California, on November eleventh at the age of ninety-five. Peter Drucker was born in Austria in nineteen-oh-nine. In the late nineteen twenties, he worked as a reporter in Frankfurt, Germany. He also studied international law. He fled Germany as Adolf Hitler came to power in nineteen thirty-three. Peter Drucker spent four years in Britain as an adviser to investment banks. He then came to the United States. Mister Drucker used his knowledge of international law to advise American businesses. He developed this advice into books on business methods and management. In the middle of the nineteen forties, Peter Drucker argued that the desire for profit was central to business efforts. He also warned that rising wages were harming American business. Mister Drucker was later invited to study General Motors. He wrote about his experiences in the book “The Concept of the Corporation.”? In it, he said that workers at all levels should take part in decision-making, not just top managers. Critics of Peter Drucker have said that he often included only information that supported his arguments. But even his critics praised his clear reasoning and simple writing. He was called a management guru. Peter Drucker changed his thinking as times changed. In nineteen ninety-three, he warned that seeking too much profit helped a business’ competitors. That was almost fifty years after he had argued the importance of profits. Mister Drucker taught at the Claremont Graduate School of Management for more than thirty years. He also advised companies. And he wrote for the Wall Street Journal opinion page for twenty years, until nineteen ninety-five. He commented on many economic and management issues. Peter Drucker may be most famous not for answering questions but for asking them. He once said that business people must ask themselves not “what do we want to sell?” but “what do people want to buy?” Mister Drucker used terms like “knowledge workers” and “management goals.”? Many of his ideas have grown to be highly valued in business training and politics. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: General Motors Announces Plan to Reduce Jobs and Factories
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm?Steve Ember?with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. This week, General Motors announced a three-year plan to lower its costs. The plan calls for G.M. to reduce its number of workers in North America by thirty thousand. That is a cut of seventeen percent. The company says it will close all or part of twelve factories in the United States and Canada. Its chief executive officer, Rick Wagoner, says the cuts are necessary for the company to compete. General Motors has lost more than four thousand million dollars this year. And that is not its only problem. In October its largest supplier, Delphi, sought protection in bankruptcy court after heavy losses. General Motors is the largest automobile maker in the world. But the company has struggled against foreign competitors, especially the Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda. Forty years ago, General Motors controlled half the market in the United States. Now it controls one-fourth of it. G.M. will reduce production to better meet demand. It plans to produce just over four million cars and trucks a year in North America by the end of two thousand eight. That is thirty percent fewer than it built in two thousand two. Industry experts blame the situation in part on poor decisions and vehicle designs that have not been very creative. Other reasons, they say, include costly health care and retirement payments. The new cuts, and measures announced earlier, are expected to lower costs by about seven thousand million dollars next year. The number of jobs to be lost, thirty thousand, is five thousand higher than Mister Wagoner had announced earlier this year. G.M. officials say they want to reduce employee numbers mainly through retirements. Still, the United Auto Workers union calls the cuts unfair. The labor union says it will do everything in its power to enforce job security programs. Union officials reject the idea that the problems at General Motors are because of high labor costs. Yet, they say, workers and their communities will be the ones who suffer because of the actions announced this week. The current labor agreement requires General Motors to continue to pay workers even when factories close. And the company cannot permanently close factories without union approval. So the factories cannot officially close until the two sides reach an agreement in the next contract talks. Those will take place in two thousand seven. Some industry experts say the union might not have much choice but to accept the job cuts and factory closings. They say the union has to be careful not to go too far. Too much pressure could send the company into bankruptcy court to seek protection from its creditors. Then all agreements with the union would have to be renegotiated. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com? I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: George Abbott Was Known as 'Mister Broadway'
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program. People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the man known as "Mister Broadway," George Abbott. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say probably no one in the history of the American theater influenced it more than George Abbott. He lived to be one hundred-seven years old. He remained active until he died, January thirty-first, nineteen ninety-five. You can tell the history of the Broadway theater area in New York City by telling the story of George Abbott's life. He wrote plays. He directed them. He produced plays. And he acted in them. He was involved in more than one hundred twenty productions. Some of his most popular shows were musicals. They include "Jumbo," "Pal Joey," "Call Me Madam," "Pajama Game," "Fiorello!" and "Damn Yankees. " In some years, he had three hit shows at the same time. VOICE TWO: "Damn Yankees" opened in New York in nineteen fifty-five. George Abbott helped write the musical play. And he directed it. It won eight of the Tony awards given each year for the best theater productions on Broadway. In nineteen ninety-four, another performance of "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway. George Abbott helped with the production. He was one hundred six years old. "Damn Yankees" is about a baseball player on the Washington Senators baseball team. He sells his soul to the devil so the senators will win the championship. A major person in the play is a beautiful woman who works for the devil. Her name is Lola. One of the best known songs from that show is "Whatever Lola Wants": (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Francis Abbott was born in eighteen eighty-seven in New York State. His family moved to the western state of Wyoming when he was eleven years old. George worked as a cowboy during summers before the family moved back to New York State, near the city of Buffalo. He attended the University of Rochester, where he played football and took part in the acting club. He then studied play writing at Harvard University. In nineteen twelve, he won one hundred dollars for a play he wrote called "The Man in the Manhole. " George Abbott moved to New York City in nineteen thirteen. But he had a slow start in the theater. He did not get many acting jobs. Two years later, he became an assistant to a theater producer. Soon he was deeply involved with re-writing plays and producing them. He had his first hit show in nineteen twenty-six. It was called "Broadway. " VOICE TWO: George Abbott worked in Hollywood, too. He was involved in producing eleven movies between nineteen twenty-eight and nineteen fifty-eight. "All Quiet on the Western Front" was one of the most praised. He also produced films of the musical plays "Damn Yankees," "Where's Charley. " And "The Pajama Game". A few weeks before his death, Mister Abbott reportedly was working on a new version of "The Pajama Game. " The musical play is about workers in a pajama factory. The clothing workers are planning to strike for more pay. How much more?? Seven and a half cents. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Beginning in nineteen twenty, George Abbott had at least one play on Broadway each year. Sometimes there were as many as five. Mister Abbott liked working with young, unknown actors. He once said a producer was better off if he did not have a star in his show. He said working without a star saves money and damage to the nerves. That is why George Abbott gave acting jobs to actors who were unknown at the time. Many became very famous. Helen Hayes, Gene Kelley, Eddie Albert, Shirley MacLaine, and Carol Burnett are just a few. He also helped unknown song writers, dancers and producers like Harold Prince, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins. George Abbott changed the American theater in many ways. He was the first to produce musical shows that were serious dramas, not just light love stories. And he was the first producer to use ballet dancers in a musical show. He worked with the ballet expert George Balanchine. That was in nineteen thirty-six. The play was "On Your Toes. " The music was "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: George Abbott won just about every award a person can win in the theater. He received a special Tony award for his lifetime of work. He also received the Kennedy Center lifetime achievement award in nineteen eighty-two. And he won Tony awards for four of his musical shows including "Fiorello!" "Fiorello!" also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama after it opened in nineteen fifty-nine. It is about the life of Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York City during the nineteen forties. Many critics said the song "Little Tin Box" was the best in the show. It makes fun of the way politicians try to explain their actions when they are accused of spending public money for their own use. Here is "Little Tin Box" from "Fiorello!": (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Abbott earned millions of dollars in the theater. But he did not spend his money freely. He always helped the poor, however. And he quietly provided money to produce shows that no one else would support. Mister Abbott was married three times. He had a daughter who also worked in the theater. She died in nineteen eighty-four. VOICE TWO: George Abbott was always involved in new projects, usually several at one time. But he always took care of his health. He said it was important to eat three meals a day and get enough sleep each night. He always wore a suit and tie. And he always said what was necessary, not a word more. For Mister Abbott, the play was the most important thing, and nothing was permitted to interfere. Actors and people who went to his plays loved him for it. When George Abbott celebrated his one hundredth birthday in nineteen eighty-seven, theater actors honored him with a big party. They also performed for him. They ended their show with a song George Abbott especially liked. So we thought we would end with it too. It is called "Heart", from George Abbott's show, "Damn Yankees. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-27-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Effort Aims for Low-Cost Computers for Poor Children
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m?Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Computer scientists in the United States are working on a low-cost computer for young people in developing countries. The dream is for every child to own one. The project is led by Nicholas Negroponte, chief of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mister Negroponte first announced the idea of a one hundred dollar laptop computer in January. He just presented an early version of the computer at the World Summit on the Information Society. The three-day meeting took place earlier this month in Tunisia. The United Nations organized the conference to discuss Internet growth in developing nations. To save money, the computers are expected to use the free operating system Linux instead of a product like Microsoft Windows. Users without electric power will be able to turn a wind-up handle to recharge the battery. A special full-color display will have the ability to change to a black-and-white image. That way, users could see it even in bright sunlight. And the computers will be able to connect wirelessly to each other and to the Internet. The machines will not be able to store huge amounts of information. But they will be made to survive rough conditions. Also, the lime-green color should make them more appealing to children -- and less appealing to robbers. M.I.T. has set up a non-profit organization called One Laptop per Child to develop the computer. Five companies, including Google and News Corporation, have each given two million dollars to finance the group. The plan is to sell the computers to education ministries that order at least one million of them. The laptop is still not fully developed. And there are other issues, like how to get Internet service to poor villages. But officials say they should have computers ready for shipment by the end of next year or early two thousand seven. Countries that have expressed an interest include Brazil, China, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Thailand. The computers may cost more than one hundred dollars to manufacture in the beginning. But Nicholas Negroponte says he wants to cut the price even more. A two hundred dollar version may be sold to the public. In Massachusetts, Governor Mitt Romney has proposed to buy a low-cost computer for every middle and high school student in his state. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-27-voa3.cfm
* Headline: A Small Farm Offers Cheese, Bread and Food for Thought
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. This week, learn how a small farm using traditional methods is growing a profitable agricultural business. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The day begins early in the morning. Jonathan and Nina White help prepare their three children for school. After Paula, Tobias and Jacob are on their way, the two take a short morning meal with their assistant Hannah Beiler. Then it is time to go to bring the cows to the barn. Mister White and Miz Beiler walk down to one of several fields on the farm. That is where the cows spent the night. They drive the cows from the field to the barn where they will be milked. (SOUND: Cows Moving to Barn) VOICE TWO: The cows have been eating grass in the field for some time now. Most dairy cows on industrial farms eat grain in a barn. Here the cows eat grass and hay from his fields. Jonathan White knows the names of each of his thirty-six cattle. There are several different kinds, or breeds, of dairy cattle. There are Ayrshire, Guernsey and Jersey cows. The Whites also have Holstein and a British White. But Bobolink Dairy’s most interesting breed is from Ireland, the Kerry. Jonathan White has one of about fifty Kerry cattle in the United States. The Kerry is a small but strong dairy breed that is a good milk producer. The main male among the cattle is named John. Mister White breeds cattle to be able to live outside all year. His cattle are smaller animals that do well in open fields. The daily process of driving cows from the field to the barn is one that could have taken place in many cultures hundreds of years ago. But Bobolink Dairy in New Jersey depends on modern ideas and some modern equipment, too. VOICE ONE: Jonathan White communicates with his wife and several assistants by cellular telephone. He has learned to use the phone to limit trips from one end of the farm to the other. Following him, it is easy to realize that every trip from one part of the farm to the other needs to have a purpose. A wasted trip is wasted time, and time is something a farmer can never have enough of. VOICE TWO: The Whites take the best of modern tools and put them to work. One time-saving device is the milking machine. It takes milk from the cows and sends it through a pipe to the dairy. This is what it sounds like …??? (SOUND: Milking machine) VOICE ONE: The milking machines pump milk directly to a large stainless steel container, or vat. The vat holds milk for making cheese. It is attached to a heating device that controls the temperature of the milk exactly. Here, the modern meets the traditional. The vat warms the milk to about thirty-two degrees Celsius. This is a little cooler than milk is in the udder of the cow. Jonathan White does not pasteurize the milk. Pasteurization is a process of heating food to kill most of the organisms in it. Pasteurization would only cause Mister White to have to buy and add bacteria or mold to the milk. Instead, the natural organisms that enter the milk in the cow’s udder cause the process known as fermentation. A little bit of milk from the previous day’s cheese making is all that is needed to speed the process of turning milk into cheese. VOICE TWO: It takes a few hours for the milk to start fermenting. In this process, bacteria start to change milk sugars into lactic acid. The milk starts to become a little sour. When he judges the time is right, Jonathan White adds a substance that will cause the milk to become solid, or curdle. The rennet he adds contains a chemical substance found in the stomachs of young cows and sheep. It helps them digest milk. When rennet is put in fermenting milk, it forms soft but solid curds. The remaining liquid is called whey. The whey is a waste product of cheese making. The Whites also have another use for whey. (SOUND: Pigs) VOICE ONE: Jonathan White explains that many dairy producing areas have traditionally produced pig meat, too. This is the case in Parma, Italy, which is famous for Parmesan cheese and for Parma hams. The Whites fatten their pigs on whey. When the animals reach about ninety kilograms, they are ready to be sold for meat. After the day’s cheese making is done, the pigs at Bobolink dairy get a special meal of whey, which they eat hungrily. (SOUND: Pigs) (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:? Cheese making is an art. Many different kinds of cheese can be made from the same curd. After the curds are solid enough, they are put into forms, air-dried, salted and aged. Jonathan White estimates that about fifteen organisms, bacteria and molds, form the skin of his cheese. He says about one hundred kinds of bacteria ferment the cheese itself. Since ancient times, people have recognized that fermentation changes food so it can be stored for long periods. Wine, vinegar, pickles and cheese are all examples of fermented foods. VOICE ONE: The Whites added bread to their products last year. That, too, depends on fermentation. Yeast, a kind of mold, causes bread to rise and develop its structure. The Whites built a bread oven that burns wood. The big oven reaches about three hundred seventy degrees Celsius. After the oven reaches the right temperature, the wood is removed and bread is put inside to bake. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The kind of farming done by the Whites is the opposite of industrial agriculture. Big farming is good at producing products all of equal quality in huge amounts. The Whites serve a different, and growing, market: people who are looking for unusual or one-of-a-kind food products. These goods have higher prices and can be more profitable for small farms than other kinds of farmed goods. (SOUND: Ballet music) VOICE ONE: Nina White is a trained dancer. She still teaches dancing locally, but has taken on many of the duties of doing business with the public. She travels with assistants to local markets selling the farm’s cheese and bread. She also supervises the farm’s Internet site. The information and pictures she provides inform people about Bobolink Dairy. People can buy cheese and bread electronically. Nina White can send Bobolink products almost anywhere in the country. VOICE TWO: Jonathan White's cheese has been described in several magazines. He also supplied cheese to the White House when Walter Scheib supervised the kitchen as presidential chief. Some local restaurants in New York and New Jersey offer Bobolink cheese. However, the Whites do not accept large buyers. Instead, they run a successful Internet business and serve people visiting the farm. VOICE ONE: The Whites consider selling their own farm products as one way that farmers can be economically independent. Bobolink is among a growing number of farms that sell their products directly to the public. The Whites have chosen to farm using few extra materials beyond what is on their land. They milk and breed several kinds of cattle to create a group, or herd, that is genetically diverse. VOICE TWO: Jonathan White says he considers independent farming important not only to agriculture, but to the development of the country: JONATHAN WHITE: “The reason people poured into this country was because they could actually own land, and owning and tilling the land didn’t exist anywhere else in the world. You either owned it or you worked it. "That’s basically the root of American democracy. Individuals owning land and farming it and being able to profit from it gave them the independent mind and spirit, which enabled them to elect a free government. "When agriculture becomes so centralized, either through very large farms or small farms selling to very large manufacturing plants, we lose that.” VOICE ONE: Nina White explains that making farm products from start to end is an experience of independence and satisfaction: NINA WHITE: “What we’re doing here is freeing ourselves by making the product from beginning to end in one location. We can start with the best inputs: sunlight to grass to cow to cheese.” The Whites enjoy sharing their knowledge of cheese and bread making. You can visit their farm online at cowsoutside.com. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Acne, Eczema and More: Scratching the Surface in the Life of Skin
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today, we talk about some disorders of the skin, and ways to treat them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Skin. It is the largest organ of the body. The first barrier to the outside. It keeps out many harmful bacteria and other things. Of course, it also keeps in all the things we need inside our bodies. The skin helps control body temperature. Glands on the skin release fluid to cool the body when it gets too hot. When a person gets too cold, blood vessels in the skin narrow. This helps to trap heat inside the body. VOICE TWO: Yet, like other organs of the body, the skin can have problems. Almost any teenager can tell you the most common disorder: acne. Acne is connected to hormones and how they affect the oil glands of the skin. The skin gets its oil, called sebum, from the sebaceous glands. Each gland connects to a passage of extremely small hairs. The sebum travels through these passages. The oil reaches the surface of the skin through little holes, called pores. Sometimes, the sebum, hair and cells of the pores block these openings. This is how acne starts. Bacteria can grow in a blocked pore. The bacteria produce chemicals and enzymes. White blood cells -- infection fighters -- travel to the area. All this leads to a growth on the skin, a pimple. This becomes red, hot and often painful. VOICE ONE: Some people think eating chocolate or oily foods causes acne. Others blame dirty skin or nervous tension. Yet researchers tell us none of these cause acne. So what does?? Doctors are not sure. But they have some ideas. For one thing, they know that hormones called androgens play a part. Androgens cause the sebaceous glands to grow and make more oil. Young people will not be happy about this next fact. Androgens increase when boys and girls enter their teenage years. VOICE TWO: There are several treatments for acne. Mild cases are generally treated with medicines for use directly on the skin. These often contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. People with more serious acne may be given antibiotics to take by mouth. Or they might use a combination of pills and creams. One of the drugs used to treat the most severe forms of acne is called isotretinoin. It is normally taken for about five months. Isotretinoin has been shown to cure acne in ninety percent of people who use it. However, isotretinoin and another acne medicine called Accutane can cause serious problems in some cases. If used during pregnancy, for example, they can harm the fetus. VOICE ONE: Skin experts say there are simple ways to help prevent acne outbreaks. One is to touch your face as little as possible, so as not to add oils or put pressure on the skin. Another good idea is to avoid the urge to burst pimples. This can leave permanent marks on the skin. Doctors also say to avoid strong soaps, and to be gentle as you wash and dry your skin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are other skin problems far more serious than acne. There are several kinds of skin cancer, for example.Skin cancer is often the result of time spent in the sun. Light and heat from the sun can change the chemicals in the skin. The sun produces ultraviolet radiation that causes the skin to burn and, over time, develop cancer. The most serious skin cancer is melanoma. It begins in the cells that produce skin color. Melanomas can develop anywhere, but are usually found on the back and the shoulders. Most melanomas are black or brown. They can look like other kinds of growths. But they are the deadliest form of skin cancer. So it is important to watch for signs that can help identify melanoma. Treating it early can make the difference between life and death. People should see a doctor immediately if they find a growth of a? strange shape, with uneven sides or edges that are not straight. Or a growth of different colors. Or a growth larger than six millimeters. VOICE ONE: The usual treatment for melanoma is an operation to remove the growth. The surgery is often followed by drugs to kill any cancer cells that remain. Doctors may also order radiation treatment. Radiation kills cancer cells and shrinks cancerous growths.There are experimental treatments for melanoma, as well. Researchers are working on ways to genetically change white blood cells. The goal is to help the body increase its own efforts to destroy the cancer. Researchers are also working on a possible melanoma vaccine. It would not prevent the disease like traditional vaccines. Instead, it would help the body fight the cancer in a way similar to the genetic treatment. However, the best thing is to reduce the chances that you might ever get melanoma. Doctors tell people to limit the amount of time they spend in sunlight. They also suggest wearing hats and other protective clothes. And, they urge people to use products that help protect the skin from the sun. VOICE TWO: Yet there are times when doctors use ultraviolet light to treat some skin problems -- like psoriasis, for example. Psoriasis creates raised areas of skin that are dry and itchy. They are found most often on the elbows, knees and head. But psoriasis can spread to cover larger areas. It usually begins before age twenty or after fifty. The newest research shows that psoriasis is most likely a disorder that causes the body’s defense system to produce too many skin cells. There is no cure, but there are treatments that can improve the condition. One involves the use of ultraviolet light in the doctor's office to reduce swelling and slow skin cell production. This is sometimes used in combination with a drug called psoralen. Psoriasis seems to pass down from parent to child. Scientists are searching for a possible gene linked to this condition. VOICE ONE: Another skin disorder is atopic dermatitis, commonly called eczema. It creates areas of skin that itch and become rough like leather. Eczema is most common in babies. At least half of those cases clear up within a few years. But, in adults, this painful condition generally never goes away completely. People with eczema often also suffer from allergic conditions like asthma and seasonal hay fever. Like psoriasis, there is no cure for eczema. But there are treatments with steroid drugs and also some newly developed kinds without steroids. Environmental conditions can also play a part. That is why doctors often advise people with eczema not to use cleaners that contain soap, which can make skin dry. Even water can cause dry skin, which can make eczema worse. So can temperature changes and stress. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some skin disorders do not cause any physical pain. But, they can cause emotional pain by how they affect the appearance of the skin. Vitiligo [vit-i-LIE-go], for example, is the destruction of the pigment cells. This disease causes areas of the skin to lose all color. Even the hairs turn white. For some people, the white spots of vitiligo appear only in one or two areas. Others find pigment loss on just one side of their bodies. Most people, however, develop many such areas all over their skin. Around the world, as many as fifty-million people have vitiligo. It affects all races and both sexes. Doctors do not know the cause. However, as with some other skin disorders, they suspect that the body’s immune system is involved. VOICE ONE: To treat vitiligo, some patients receive psoralen and ultraviolet light. A number of steroid drugs can also help, especially when started early in the disease. Doctors may also wish to operate to treat severe cases of vitiligo. However, these are considered experimental treatments. The newest kind of operation involves the removal of a very small piece of healthy skin from the patient. The skin is placed in a substance that helps it grow more pigment cells. These new cells are then placed in the areas where the patient needs pigment. Vitiligo can cause extreme changes in a person’s appearance. That is why there are mental health professionals and also support groups that can help people who have this disease of the skin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English Program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Goats: Friendly Animals That Can Be Cared for by Children
* Byline: Written by Gary Garriott

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Goats have provided meat and milk for people longer than sheep or cows have. There are several hundred million goats in the world. Each year they provide millions of tons of meat and milk. Also, the hair from goats can be made into wool for clothing and blankets. More people use milk products from goats than from cows. Goats’ milk improves the diet of many families around the world. Cheese made from goats’ milk is very tasty. In addition, goats are friendly animals. They can be cared for by children. There are several ways to help goats produce more and better milk. One way is to give the animals high-protein plants like alfalfa, groundnut grasses and vegetable leaves to eat. The covering from rice is also high in protein. Providing a special diet for goats is better than letting the animals find their own food all the time. Goats with horns seem to survive better in the heat than goats without horns. But all goats should have covered shelters where they can escape the rain and extremely hot or cold weather. If the goat shelter has a metal roof, it should be painted white to reflect heat from the sun. There should be plenty of fresh air inside the shelter. Goats enjoy exercise and need to move around. When goats are inside a shelter, each adult animal should have at least two-and-a-half square meters of space. When they are outside, a fenced-off area should allow about forty square meters for each animal. Fences should be about one-and-a-half meters to two meters high. Some wire fences can be dangerous for young goats. Their horns can become trapped. So make sure the wire fence is the right height for young goats. Many of the same methods used to keep cows healthy can also be used with goats. In fact, sometimes young cows cannot drink a lot of their mother's milk because they get sick. Instead, they are given goat's milk to drink. You can get more information about raising milk-producing goats from a publication offered for sale on the Web. It is listed at enterpriseworks.org. Click on the link for VITA publications. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a general question about agriculture, send it to special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-29-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sleep Apnea Linked to Increased Stroke Risk
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. Sleep apnea is a common disorder. Experts say it affects about eighteen million Americans. People with sleep apnea stop breathing for brief periods while they sleep. They may awaken for a few seconds as they struggle to breathe. The next day, the sleeper may not remember what happened. Signs of the disorder include sleepiness during the day and restless sleep. Some people make rough sounds while they sleep. More men have sleep apnea than women do. It is also common in older adults and in persons who are heavy. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form. It happens when soft tissue in the back of the throat blocks the flow of air. Another form is called central sleep apnea. This results from problems with the brain’s normal signals to breathe. Left untreated, sleep apnea can be life threatening. People may get sleepy while at work or driving. Many people do not know they have it until they are tested in a sleep laboratory and treated. Studies have linked sleep apnea to more severe problems. A recent study at the Yale University School of Medicine showed that people with obstructive sleep apnea are two times more likely to die from strokes. The risk is linked to the severity of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is also linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attack, and the disease diabetes. Doctors are not sure why. But they suggest that oxygen levels in the blood fall when a person stops breathing. The reduced oxygen increases levels of the hormone adrenaline in the body. This causes the heart to beat faster and raises blood pressure. Most treatments for sleep apnea begin with simple changes, such as avoiding alcoholic drinks, losing weight and stopping smoking. Others may require an operation to remove tissue and widen the airway. For more severe cases, doctors use continuous positive airway pressure, also known as CPAP (C-PAP). CPAP is a device worn over the nose that connects to a tube. The tube is connected to a small machine that controls air pressure. Some studies have shown CPAP can improve sleep, reduce sleepiness during daytime hours and lower blood pressure. But a Canadian study found the devices did not improve survival rates among people with central sleep apnea. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-29-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Lewis and Clark Exploration: One of the Most Important Events in American History
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program Explorations. Today we finish the story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored in the American Northwest. We also tell about plans to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of their exploration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We have told how Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of men and one woman across the American Northwest. The group was known as the Corps of Discovery. They began their trip on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four, in Saint Louis, near the central part of the country. It was more than one year before they reached the Pacific coast near the Columbia River. They had traveled by river, horse and foot more than six thousand six hundred kilometers. William Clark VOICE TWO: President Thomas Jefferson asked Lewis to lead an exploration of the northwestern part of the country. He wanted Lewis to learn as much about the land, people, animals and plants as he could. Jefferson asked that Lewis write about the progress of his group each day. Lewis and Clark kept very careful records. Often, Lewis would use more than one thousand words to tell about an animal or a bird. Both men drew maps and pictures of what they saw. VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. The group suffered a lot during that winter. It was not very cold, but it was always wet. It rained almost every day during the winter months between eighteen-oh-five and eighteen-oh-six. Lewis wrote that everything got wet and stayed wet. Many of the men became sick. The men had little to do except hunt for food. They also made new clothing from animal skins for the return home. VOICE TWO: William Clark organized most of the hunting during the long winter months. At the same time, he worked on his second map. The map showed where the group had been since it left the area that now is the north central state of North Dakota. It showed their travels all the way from there to Fort Clatsop on the West Coast. Clark drew a correct picture of the American West for the first time. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis Meriwether Lewis stayed inside Fort Clatsop and wrote, day after day, of the things they found. He wrote information about one hundred different animals they had seen. Of these, eleven birds, two fish, and eleven mammals had not been recorded before. He also wrote about plants and trees. He had never seen many of these before. Neither had modern science known about them. He tried to make his reports scientific. Modern scientists say his information is still good. They say he was extremely careful and provided valuable information for the time. Experts say Lewis wrote more like a scientist of today than one of his own century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On March twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six, the explorers left Fort Clatsop and started back up the Columbia River. Progress was slow as the Corps of Discovery climbed higher toward the mountains. They traded with Indians for horses. In the month of May they stayed with a tribe called the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce said it would not be possible for the explorers to cross the mountains then. The snow was still too deep. Lewis did not agree. The group went forward. They found the Nez Perce were right. The snow was several meters deep. They were forced to stop and return down the mountain. The Nez Perce agreed to provide guides to take them through the mountains. The Corps of Discovery finally crossed the mountains in the last days of June. VOICE ONE: Lewis divided the Corps of Discovery when they left the mountains. He wanted three different groups to go three different ways to learn more about the land. Lewis and his group soon found Indians. They were members of the Piegan tribe, part of the Blackfeet, a war-like group. At first the Indians were friendly. Then, one tried to take a gun from one of the men. A fight began. Two Indians were killed. It was the only time during the trip that any fighting took place between native Americans and the Corps of Discovery. The fight forced Lewis's group to leave the area very quickly. VOICE TWO: The three groups met again in August of eighteen-oh-six. Traveling on the rivers was easier that in the beginning of their trip. The explorers now were going in the same direction as the current. They were in a hurry to get home. They had been away for two years and five months. Each minute they traveled brought them closer to their homes, their families and friends. On September third, they saw several men traveling on the river. They learned that President Jefferson had been re-elected and was still president of the United States. VOICE ONE: A few days later, one member of the group asked Lewis and Clark if he could remain behind. He wanted to go with a group of fur traders that was returning to the area of the Yellowstone River. His name was John Colter. Colter returned up the river and into the wild land. Later Colter became the first American to see the Yellowstone Valley, which became the first national park, Yellowstone. He also became famous as one of the first mountain men in American history to open the way to the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery reached Saint Louis on September twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six. They had very little food or supplies left, but they were back. Large celebrations were held in the small town. Lewis and Clark learned that most people believed they were dead. Lewis immediately wrote a long report to President Jefferson and placed it in the mail. A few days later President Jefferson knew they had arrived home safely and their trip had been a great success. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts today say the Lewis and Clark trip was one of the most important events in American history. They also agree that no two men could have done a better job or been more successful. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark added greatly to the knowledge of the American Northwest. Clark's maps provided information about huge areas that had been unknown. Lewis discovered and told about one hundred seventy-eight new plants, most of them from the far West. He also found one hundred twenty-two different kinds of animals that had been recorded. There was also one great failure, however. Lewis and Clark were not able to find a way to reach the Pacific Ocean using rivers. There was no northwest passage that could be used by boats. VOICE ONE: The Lewis and Clark expedition was also a political success. It helped the United States make a legal claim to a huge amount of land that had been bought by President Jefferson from France. The United States bought the land just as the Corps of Discovery began its trip. This land is now the middle part of the United States. It was called the Louisiana Territory. President Jefferson wanted the future United States to include this land, and all other land between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now it is two hundred years since the Corps of Discovery made its historic trip. The United States has many plans to celebrate. Some celebrations will continue until the year two thousand six. Committees in the cities, towns and states that Lewis and Clark passed through are planning the anniversary celebrations. The National Park Service is also preparing special events. New books have been published, newspaper stories written and television programs produced about Lewis and Clark. And the public is once again discovering the writings of the two men who led the Corps of Discovery. Critics say the word pictures that Lewis created are as clear today as when they were written. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were the first educated white Americans to travel across the land that would become the United States. They wrote about things the American public had never seen before. They saw Native Americans before the Indians were influenced by other cultures. Their success had a lasting influence. They showed Americans it was possible to travel across the country and settle in the far West. Lewis and Clark's exploration was the beginning of the American campaign to settle that far away, wild land. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another Explorations program, in Special English, here on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-30-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Front Matter Matters: How to Start a Relationship With Your Dictionary
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the second part of our conversation with Erin McKean, editor-in-chief of American dictionaries for Oxford University Press. RS: We start by talking about the proper way to get to know a new dictionary. ERIN McKEAN: "I wish that everyone who bought a dictionary, that the first thing that they did was sit down and read the front matter. Lexicographers spend a lot of time and effort writing the introduction to the dictionary. And the introduction to the dictionary is the users manual. And a lot of people, when they buy a new piece of electronics, they never read the users manual, and then they're frustrated by the remote control, they can't figure out how to make it work. Same thing happens with the dictionary." AA: "Yeah, because I just bought a dictionary and I'll be honest with you, I haven't looked at the ... " ERIN McKEAN: "I know, no one reads the front matter." RS: "And you're saying it's really important." ERIN McKEAN: "It tells you what the kind of habits of the dictionary are. For instance, the New Oxford American Dictionary, as I said before, arranges entries by core sense and then sub-sense. But other dictionaries put their definitions in chronological order, so the oldest one comes first. And other dictionaries put it in frequency order, so the most frequent one comes first." RS: "How can understanding your dictionary help you to be a better writer?" ERIN McKEAN: "Well, if you think of words as the tools of writers, the more you work with the words as your tools, the better you'll be with them. I feel that most writers need not just a good dictionary but a good thesaurus, and that they should always be used together. It's like you can't have a hammer without a nail. "So if you have a thesaurus, that gives you kind of a constellation of words that [are] all grouped together. You should then go to your dictionary and sort out exactly what the two or three likely candidates that you want to use mean. One sign of a very poor writer is someone who goes straight to the thesaurus to replace what they consider to be an ordinary word with something fancy and shiny and sparkly, who chooses a word that is completely wrong for the context." RS: "How does the Oxford American Dictionary address grammar?" ERIN McKEAN: "We do try and give as much information as possible about how words work -- what kind of complements they take, in what context you find them. Are they mostly used as adjectives? If they're nouns, are they mostly used as adjective modifiers? If they're verbs, do they take an object, do they not take an object? "Unfortunately because our core user, our target user, is a native speaker, we don't give as much information as a learner's dictionary does. And that's the real tradeoff. A learner's dictionary [is] the training wheels on your bike, to get you to the point where you can use a dictionary that's intended for a native speaker." AA: "Now the Internet makes it easy to look up frequency of use, right? To be able to see how often new words are being used in publications and so forth. Can you give us a hint of what's coming up on the radar -- are there terms you'd like to see in the next edition, or something you tried to get into this one but got overruled?" ERIN McKEAN: "The Internet is actually very, very frustrating. It gives us glimpses of words that are coming up, but we can't get any exact numbers. I'm trying to think what some of the newer words are. Actually I keep a running memo on my cell phone of words that we want to add. I'm looking at the word 'pathosphere,' which is kind of the realm of pathogens, things that make you sick. "I know that I want to include the word 'turducken.'" AA: "Spell that please." ERIN McKEAN: "T-U-R-D-U-C-K-E-N." RS: "And what does it mean?" ERIN McKEAN: "It's this crazy New Orleans Creole delicacy that is served at Thanksgiving. It is a turkey, deboned, stuffed with a chicken, deboned, stuffed with a duck, deboned, and then there's bread stuffing all around all the different layers." AA: "Sounds good for Thanksgiving." ERIN McKEAN: "It is good for Thanksgiving." RS: "Well, what's it going to take to get it into the dictionary?" ERIN McKEAN: "I need to make sure that it's as widespread as I think it is. I was actually surprised that it wasn't in at this point, because I've heard it for years. It was featured in a Wall Street Journal article, but it just slipped by. Sometimes words sound like they've been around forever." RS: Erin McKean is editor-in-chief of American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. You can look up the first part of our interview on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And, to send e-mail to Rosanne and me, write to word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-11/2005-11-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Drop in Foreign Students in U.S. Slows
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report. We talked last week about the number of Americans studying in foreign countries. This week, our subject is foreign students in the United States. More than five hundred sixty-five thousand attended American colleges and universities during the last school year. The Institute of International Education, based in New York, recently published its yearly report, "Open Doors Two Thousand Five."? The report says the number of foreign students decreased by about one percent during the school year that began last fall. That was less of a decrease than the year before, when the number fell by almost two and one-half percent. India sent the most students, more than eighty thousand. That was a one percent increase from the year before. China sent the next highest number, more than sixty-two thousand. That was also a one percent increase. South Korea was third, with more than fifty-three thousand students, up two percent. Japan was fourth, with more than forty-two thousand students, an increase of three percent. The report says one hundred forty-five American colleges and universities had one thousand or more international students last year. The school with the largest number was the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. It had almost seven thousand international students. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was second with more than five thousand five hundred. The recent decrease in the number of international students is seen as a result of several things. These include difficulties getting a student visa, especially in scientific and technical areas. They also include higher costs as well as competition from schools in other English-speaking countries and in students' home countries. Assistant Secretary of State Dina Habib Powell says international students are welcome in the United States. In her words, "The United States remains the best place in the world" to seek higher education. You can read more of the report on the Web site of the Institute of International Education: i-i-e dot o-r-g. And you can get information about how to study in the United States from our Foreign Student Series. Go to voaspecialenglish dot com. Enter the words "foreign student" with quotation marks in the search box, then click on Archive. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: President Cleveland Uses Federal Troops to Stop Railroad Strike
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Maurice Joyce. Today,Frank Oliver and I continue the story of American President Grover Cleveland. VOICE TWO: Grover Cleveland began his second presidency in eighteen ninety-three. His two terms were separated by the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland took office again just as the United States was entering an economic depression. Businesses failed. Banks closed their doors. Workers lost their jobs. And farmers lost their farms. President Cleveland believed the depression was caused by the government's money policy. At that time, both gold and silver were used to support the value of the American dollar. In Europe, however, only gold was used. American investors and bankers were afraid their money would drop in value because of the use of silver. They began exchanging their money for gold. President Cleveland wanted to return to the gold standard, too. To do this, he had to urge Congress to kill a law which forced the government to buy silver. Before Congress began its debate, the president discovered a cancer in his mouth. The cancer needed to be removed immediately. But the operation had to be kept secret. News that the president's life was in danger could have an effect on the debate. It could Make the nation's economic crisis worse. VOICE ONE: So, the operation was done on a private boat in New York harbor. Doctors removed some of President Cleveland's teeth and much of his upper left jaw. Then they removed the cancer. The operation took only a half hour. After a few weeks, doctors made Cleveland a new jaw out of hard rubber. He wore it without difficulty. A newspaper printed a story about the operation. But administration officials denied it. The facts did not become public for many years. VOICE TWO: When President Cleveland returned to Washington, he sent a message to members of Congress. He urged them to kill the law which forced the government to buy silver. He noted how people throughout the nation had been exchanging their paper money and silver for gold. He said he was afraid the federal treasury would soon run out of gold. Then it would have only silver to support the dollar. If that happened, he said, the United States no longer could claim to be a major nation. President Cleveland said: "The people of the United States have a right to a money recognized as such on every exchange and in every market of the world. Their government has no right to injure them by financial experiments that are opposed to the policies of other nations." VOICE ONE: After the president's message was read, the House of Representatives began its debate. A young congressman from Nebraska spoke in opposition to the president's position. His part in the debate made him famous throughout the nation. His name was William Jennings Bryan. Bryan said the United States should continue to make and use both gold and silver money. Using only gold, he said, increased the value of the dollar. And that made life difficult for America's farmers and workers. They had to pay more to borrow money. And, for farmers, a more valuable dollar meant lower prices for crops. Bryan described the situation this way: "On one side of the debate stand the business interests of the United States. On the other side stand the unnumbered masses. Work-worn and covered with dust, they make their appeal. But too often their cry for help has sounded hopelessly against the outer walls, while others -- less deserving -- find easy entrance to the halls of Congress. "The president is wrong to act on the demand of the business interests. He can no more judge the wishes of the great mass of our people by the words of these middlemen than he can measure the ocean's silent depths by the foam upon its waves." VOICE TWO: No other congressman spoke as well as William Jennings Bryan. Yet his words could not save the silver purchase law. The House of Representatives approved President Cleveland's proposal to kill the law. The Senate did, too. The United States was firmly on the gold standard. Everyone -- especially President Cleveland -- waited for the economy to improve. It did not. VOICE ONE: More businesses failed. More workers lost their jobs. Tens of thousands of men left their homes to look for work. Some of these men began to unite in protest groups they called "industrial armies." One industrial army was organized by a man named Jacob Coxey. Coxey proposed that the federal government should hire unemployed men to build roads. He said the government could borrow enough money to pay each man a dollar and a half a day. Coxey decided to take his proposal to Washington. He also decided to take his industrial army with him. VOICE TWO: Coxey's army marched many kilometers from Ohio to Washington. Hundreds of unemployed men joined in along the way. But by the time the army reached the capital, only three hundred men remained. City officials barred Coxey's army from meeting on public property. They barred them from asking people for food or money. Jacob Coxey was ready for the worst. He said: "If my men starve in the streets of Washington, the smell of their bodies will force Congress to act." Coxey tried to read a protest statement at the Capitol building. Police stopped him. The protestors then pushed forward in what police later called a riot. Several of the men -- including Coxey -- were arrested. A judge found Coxey guilty of violating public property. He sent him to jail for twenty days. Without Coxey's leadership, his army broke up. Its members went home. Yet the economic and social pressures which created Coxey's army did not ease. Protests and strikes continued throughout the nation. VOICE ONE: The biggest strike started in Chicago against the Pullman Company, which made railroad cars. The man who owned the company, George Pullman, also owned the town where his workers lived. He owned the stores, the houses, the schools, and the library. When the economic depression began in eighteen ninety-three, George Pullman cut the size of his work force. Those still working received less pay. Yet pullman did not reduce the cost of rent for his houses. Anyone who protested, lost his job. VOICE TWO: In the spring of eighteen ninety-four, a labor union organizer went to George Pullman's town. He was Eugene Debs, leader of the American Railway Union. Pullman did not want his workers to belong to a union. But he did not stop them at first. More than four thousand workers joined. Immediately, the new union members voted to go on strike against the Pullman company. Other members of the union supported them. They agreed not to work on trains that included pullman cars. Within a few days, sixty thousand railway workers were on strike. Twenty railroads were closed down. Union leader Eugene Debs attempted to keep the strike peaceful. But he could not control strikers all over the country. So, railroad companies asked the federal government for troops to break the strike. VOICE ONE: The request involved a legal point. America's constitution says federal troops cannot be sent to a state unless the state government asks for them. And no state government had asked for them. President Cleveland met with his cabinet to discuss the railroad companies' request. They finally agreed to send federal troops to Chicago -- where the strike had started -- to enforce federal postal laws. The troops would protect trains carrying mail. The arrival of the troops led to more violence. Eugene Debs and other leaders of the American Railway Union were arrested. The Pullman strike ended. VOICE TWO: President Cleveland faced increasing political problems. Organized labor denounced him for using federal troops to break up the Pullman strike. Farmers and westerners attacked him for opposing the use of silver money. And everyone blamed him for not doing more to end the depression. These political problems would have a great effect on the next presidential election. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-02-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Women's Hall of Fame Adds New Members, Including Hillary Clinton
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear music by Neil Young … Answer a question about open-source software … And report about new members of the National Women’s Hall of Fame. National Women's Hall of Fame The National Women’s Hall of Fame is the oldest organization that recognizes and honors important American women. The non-profit educational organization was established in nineteen sixty-nine with headquarters in Seneca Falls, New York. That is the town where the first Women’s Rights Convention was held in eighteen forty-eight. The National Women’s Hall of Fame recently honored ten more outstanding American women. Pat Bodnar tells us about them. PAT BODNAR: A national committee of judges chose the honorees from the arts, science, government, education and other areas. They join two hundred seven other women honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame since nineteen seventy-three. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the newest Hall of Fame members. The wife of former President Bill Clinton is the first female United States senator from New York State. She is also the first former First Lady elected to the Senate. The other living honorees are peace and health activist Betty Bumpers, architect Maya Lin and scientist Rita Rossi Colwell. Betty Bumpers helped establish the first national campaign to give children medicine to prevent disease. ?Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., at the age of twenty-one. ?Rita Rossi Colwell was the first woman and the first biologist to head the National Science Foundation. The National Women’s Hall of Fame also honored six women who are no longer living. Blanche Stuart Scott was a pilot in the early days of the airplane. Mother Marianne Cope was a Roman Catholic religious worker who cared for patients with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. Patricia Locke worked to keep Native American languages from being forgotten. Mary Burnett Talbert was active in the struggle for voting rights for women and civil rights for African-Americans. Ruth Fulton Benedict studied social sciences. She wrote the book “Patterns of Culture” in nineteen thirty-four. That same year, Hall of Fame honoree Florence Ellinwood Allen became the first female judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. Open-Source Software HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Semako Fasinu asks about open-source software. Open-source software is a way in which businesses and individuals can offer the source code of a computer program to the general public. If a person has enough knowledge about computers and computer programming, he or she can change the program’s source code. The source code is like a set of directions that show the program how to operate. People change the codes so that the program will operate in a way that will meet their needs. Sometimes changing the code will make the program run faster. Or it will take problems out of the program. These problems are called “bugs” and can cause a computer program to shut down. People who change the source code of a computer program share these programs with each other on the Internet. Programmers enjoy being able to improve computer programs on their own. They enjoy being able to ask other people on the Internet for help with their programs. Working together, people can improve computer programs for the good of the group. However, some computer software companies worry about open-source software. They think that if people are able to create and change their own software, they will not want to buy the companies’ products. Many people say that open-source software is bad because the programs do not include security measures. They say that any person who is smart enough can change the programs in bad ways. The people who support open-source software say that all computer programs should be free and ideas should be open to the public. The Open-Source Initiative is a group that supports software sharing. The group says is it is hard to count the number of people who use open-source software because there are no sales of it. Linux is one of the most popular open-source operating systems. The Open-Source Initiative says Linux has between four million and twenty-seven million users. The group says everyone who sends e-mail or uses the Web is using open-source software. Internet mail transports, Web servers, FTP servers and our own VOA mail system all use open-source software. Neil Young Neil Young has been writing and performing his music since the nineteen sixties. He formed two famous rock bands: Buffalo Springfield and, later, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. More recently, Young has been performing on his own. His latest album is called “Prairie Wind.” Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: Neil Young was preparing to record songs for his new album in March. Then his doctor told him he had an aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel in his brain. He wrote and recorded all the songs for the album during the week before he had an operation to fix the problem. The songs on “Prairie Wind” are influenced by country music. They are about change and the passage of time. Young sings about family, home, nature, religion and his childhood in Canada. Four of the ten songs contain the word “prairie.”? A prairie is an extensive area of flat grassland, like in the middle of North America. This song is called “Far From Home.” (MUSIC) Neil Young has performed many kinds of rock and blues music. He says country music has been his most successful communication with a lot of people. And he says his songs speak for themselves. Here is another song from “Prairie Wind.”? It is called “Here for You.” (MUSIC) Some experts say Neil Young is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. They say his songs last through time. We leave you now with the title song from “Prairie Wind.” (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. And our audio engineer was Darryl Smith. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-02-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Holiday Shopping on the Job? Call It 'Cyber Monday'
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. For Americans, the traditional season to buy winter holiday gifts begins on the last Friday in November. "Black Friday" is the name for the day just after Thanksgiving Day. But lately there is a term for another popular shopping day that follows Black Friday: "Cyber Monday."? The term Cyber Monday comes from an observation made by people who study the holiday buying season. That is, lots of people may have gone into stores over the Thanksgiving weekend to look for gifts. But many wait until they return to work on Monday to buy online. Many people have faster Internet connections on the computers at their jobs than at home. An Internet research company, comScore Networks, says Americans spent more than nine hundred million dollars online from Thanksgiving through Sunday. Then they bought four hundred eighty-five million dollars in goods over the Internet on Monday. The company says both amounts were twenty-six percent higher than last year. What were the most popular sites for online shoppers?? EBay is said to have had almost twelve million visitors on Monday. EBay is a site on which people sell goods to each other. Next were the Web sites of Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores. Consumer spending represents two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States. And about one-fourth of all personal spending takes place during the holiday season. There are gifts to buy for Christmas, Hanukkah and the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa. The day after Thanksgiving got the name Black Friday from the tradition of recording profits in black ink and losses in red ink. Black Friday may be a profitable time for sellers, but it is no longer the biggest shopping day of the year. Now the busiest day usually falls just before Christmas on December twenty-fifth. Still, the National Retail Federation says more than sixty million people visited stores last Friday, eight percent more than a year ago. The industry group says its expects holiday sales to increase by six percent over last year. There are concerns that high energy prices could cut into holiday spending, but those prices are down from their recent highs. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Internet users -- when they're not shopping -- can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-02-voa4.cfm
* Headline: On World AIDS Day, Governments Are Urged to Keep Their Promises
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. World AIDS Day is observed each December first. World health ministers started the campaign eighteen years ago. This year, the message was “Keeping the Promise.”? The idea was to urge governments to do more to stop AIDS. The United Nations AIDS program and the World Health Organization recently presented their yearly AIDS report. It says more than forty million people live with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, or with AIDS itself. There were five million new cases this year. More than half were in southern Africa. And more than half were among young people and women. The report says about three million people will have died this year of AIDS-related causes. AIDS has killed more than twenty million people since it was first discovered twenty-five years ago. In some countries, it has lowered the average life expectancy by as much as thirty years. Countries in southern Africa continue to be the worst affected, with more than twenty-five million cases. Millions of children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Many are raising themselves, or are being raised by grandparents, without public assistance. And economies are suffering as a result of lost productivity. Experts say H.I.V. rates in Asia are low by comparison. But they say AIDS is spreading in every part of the continent. India has the second highest number of infections after South Africa; both nations have more than five million cases. AIDS is also a growing problem in Indonesia, China and Russia. This week, the W.H.O. warned that unless Asian governments do more, ten million people could be infected by two thousand ten. The Chinese government says it will spend one hundred million dollars this year on AIDS prevention and treatment. The United States is leading efforts to expand treatment and prevention programs in developing countries. But critics note that the W.H.O.’s “Three-by-Five” plan to provide treatment to three million people by two thousand five has fallen short. Still, the director of the U.N. AIDS program, Peter Piot, says there are signs of progress in the fight against AIDS. He says adult infection rates are down in several nations, including Kenya, Zimbabwe and some Caribbean countries. He says this improvement is largely because of increased use of condoms. In general, many lives have also been saved with anti-viral drugs. But there is still no AIDS vaccine and no cure. And health officials say drugs are not reaching enough people fast enough to save lives, especially in Africa. In South Africa on World AIDS Day, the opposition criticized the health minister for mixed messages about the value of anti-viral drugs. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-01-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Bartleby
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story this week is called “Bartleby."? It was written by Herman Melville, one of America’s best-known writers. Here is Shep O’Neal to tell you the story in Special English. STORYTELLER: I am an old lawyer, and I have three men working for me. My business continued to grow and so I decided to get one more man to help write legal papers. I have met a great many people in my days, but the man who answered my advertisement was the strangest person I have ever heard of or met. He stood outside my office and waited for me to speak. He was a small man, quiet and dressed in a clean but old suit of clothes. I asked him his name. It was Bartleby. At first Bartleby almost worked himself too hard writing the legal papers I gave him. He worked through the day by sunlight, and into the night by candlelight. I was happy with his work, but not happy with the way he worked. He was too quiet. But, he worked well…like a machine, never looking or speaking. One day, I asked Bartleby to come to my office to study a legal paper with me. Without moving from his chair, Bartleby said: “I do not want to.” I sat for a short time, too surprised to move. Then I became excited. “You do not want to. What do you mean, are you sick? I want you to help me with this paper.” “I do not want to.” His face was calm. His eyes showed no emotion. He was not angry. This is strange, I thought. What should I do? But, the telephone rang, and I forgot the problem for the time being. A few days later, four long documents came into the office. They needed careful study, and I decided to give one document to each of my men. I called and all came to my office. But not Bartleby. “Bartleby, quick, I am waiting.” He came, and stood in front of me for a moment. “I don’t want to,” he said then turned and went back to his desk. I was so surprised, I could not move. There was something about Bartleby that froze me, yet, at the same time, made me feel sorry for him. As time passed, I saw that Bartleby never went out to eat dinner. Indeed, he never went anywhere. At eleven o’clock each morning, one of the men would bring Bartleby some ginger cakes. “Umm. He lives on them,” I thought. “Poor fellow!” He is a little foolish at times, but he is useful to me. “Bartleby,” I said one afternoon. “Please go to the post office and bring my mail.” “I do not want to.” I walked back to my office too shocked to think. Let’s see, the problem here is…one of my workers named Bartleby will not do some of the things I ask him to do. One important thing about him though, he is always in his office. One Sunday I walked to my office to do some work. When I placed the key in the door, I couldn’t open it. I stood a little surprised, then called, thinking someone might be inside. There was. Bartleby. He came from his office and told me he did not want to let me in. The idea of Bartleby living in my law office had a strange effect on me. I slunk away much like a dog does when it has been shouted at…with its tail between its legs. Was anything wrong? I did not for a moment believe Bartleby would keep a woman in my office. But for some time he must have eaten, dressed and slept there. How lonely and friendless Bartleby must be. I decided to help him. The next morning I called him to my office. “Bartleby, will you tell me anything about yourself?” “I do not want to.” I sat down with him and said, “You do not have to tell me about your personal history, but when you finish writing that document… “I have decided not to write anymore,” he said. And left my office. What was I to do? Bartleby would not work at all. Then why should he stay on his job? I decided to tell him to go. I gave him six days to leave the office and told him I would give him some extra money. If he would not work, he must leave. On the sixth day, somewhat hopefully, I looked into the office Bartleby used. He was still there. The next morning, I went to the office early. All was still. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Bartleby’s voice came from inside. I stood as if hit by lightening. I walked the streets thinking. “Well, Bartleby, if you will not leave me, I shall leave you.” I paid some men to move all the office furniture to another place. Bartleby just stood there as the men took his chair away. “Goodbye Bartleby, I am going. Goodbye and God be with you. Here take this money.”? I placed it in his hands. It dropped to the floor; and then, strange to say, I had difficulty leaving the person I wanted to leave me. A few days later, a stranger visited me in my new office. “You are responsible for the man you left in your last office,” he said. The owner of the building has given me a court order which says you must take him away. We tried to make him leave, but he returned and troubles the others there. I went back to my old office and found Bartleby sitting on the empty floor. “Bartleby, one of two things must happen. I will get you a different job, or you can go to work for some other lawyer.” He said he did not like either choice. “Bartleby, will you come home with me and stay there until we decide what you will do?” He answered softly, “No, I do not want to make any changes.” I answered nothing more. I fled. I rode around the city and visited places of historic interest, anything to get Bartleby off my mind. When I entered my office later, I found a message for me. Bartleby had been taken to prison. I found him there, and when he saw me he said: “I know you, and I have nothing to say to you.” “But I didn’t put you here, Bartleby.” I was deeply hurt. I told him I gave the prison guard money to buy him a good dinner. “I do not want to eat today, he said. I never eat dinner.” Days passed, and I went to see Bartleby again. I was told he was sleeping in the prison yard outside. Sleeping?? The thin Bartleby was lying on the cold stones. I stooped to look at the small man lying on his side with his knees against his chest. I walked closer and looked down at him. His eyes were open. He seemed to be in a deep sleep. “Won’t he eat today, either, or does he live without eating?” the guard asked. “Lives without eating,” I answered…and closed his eyes. “Uh…he is asleep isn’t he?” the guard said. “With kings and lawyers,” I answered. One little story came to me some days after Bartleby died. I learned he had worked for many years in the post office. He was in a special office that opened all the nation’s letters that never reach the person they were written to. It is called the dead letter office. The letters are not written clearly, so the mailmen cannot read the addresses. Well, poor Bartleby had to read the letters, to see if anyone’s name was written clearly so they could be sent. Think of it. From one letter a wedding ring fell, the finger it was bought for perhaps lies rotting in the grave. Another letter has money to help someone long since dead. Letters filled with hope for those who died without hope. Poor Bartleby! He himself had lost all hope. His job had killed something inside him. Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity! (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have heard an AMERICAN STORY called "Bartleby."? It was written by Herman Melville. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. This is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-04-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Janis Joplin: One of the Most Famous Voices in American Rock Music
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Janis Joplin. She was one of the greatest white blues-influenced rock singers of her time. Her intense and emotional voice has become one of the most famous in American popular music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song is called “Ball and Chain.”? It was performed by Janis Joplin and her first band, Big Brother and the Holding Company. Some experts say that this performance is among the greatest in rock history. It was recorded live on June eighteenth nineteen sixty-seven at the Monterey International Pop Festival. This was an important event in San Francisco, California. Many famous rock musicians of the nineteen sixties gathered there for three days of performances. Before this concert, Janis Joplin and her band were only known on the West Coast of the United States. Once she performed at this festival, however, Janis Joplin became a star. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Janis Joplin did not start out in the world of rock music. She was born in Port Arthur, Texas in nineteen forty-three. Even as a child, Janis showed an interest in music and the arts. She sang in the local church music group and soon became very interested in blues music. For example, she was influenced by the blues music of Bessie Smith and the soul sound of Otis Redding. When she was seventeen years old, Janis started performing in small towns around Texas. She would copy the blues sounds of the musicians she liked best. After some time singing in New York City and San Francisco, Janis returned to Texas to attend university. She also needed to recover from her use of illegal drugs and dependence on alcohol. This struggle with drugs and alcohol would continue throughout Joplin’s life. VOICE ONE: In nineteen sixty-six, Joplin learned that a group of rock musicians she knew in San Francisco was looking for a female singer. This band was called Big Brother and the Holding Company. Joplin once said:? “All of a sudden, someone threw me in front of this rock and roll band. And I decided then and there that this was it. I never wanted to do anything else”. Janis Joplin recorded two albums with Big Brother. Here is a famous song she made with the band during their two years together. It is called “Piece of My Heart”. This song is an excellent example of Joplin’s explosive and emotional voice. (MUSIC) Janis Joplin did not stay with this band for long. In nineteen sixty-eight, she and the band’s guitarist, Sam Andrew, formed a new group. Joplin wanted to play music that had more of a rhythm and blues sound. VOICE TWO: The late nineteen sixties were a complex period in America. Many political and cultural movements were going on at the same time. These included the fight for equal treatment for black people, the women’s rights movement and the movement protesting America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam. In some ways, the rock bands of this period expressed the conflicts many young people were feeling. Janis Joplin represented the culture of some young people during this period. She dressed in very unusual clothing. She let her long wavy hair fly about as she sang. She drank alcohol and used illegal drugs. Once she became famous, she even drove around San Francisco in a special sports car. This was not your average car. It was painted many colors with images of Joplin and her band. To many people, Janis Joplin’s voice and actions represented freedom and social rebellion. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Janis Joplin and her new band performed around the United States. They received both good and bad comments from critics in America. However, when they performed in Europe, they were a big success. In nineteen sixty-nine, they released an album called “I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again, Mama!”? Here is a song from that album. It is called “Kozmic Blues,” a title that became the name of the band. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Janis Joplin soon formed yet another band called Full Tilt Boogie. Many people say this was the best band she ever played with. The Full Tilt Boogie Band first played together in May of nineteen seventy. A few months later, they started to record the album “Pearl.” ?It would become Janis Joplin’s most successful album. One song on that album is called “Mercedes Benz”. Here, Janis Joplin sings a cappella, without any musical instruments. The words of the song are funny. But they also comment about the desire for costly things. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Janis Joplin did not live to see this album completed and released. In October, nineteen seventy, Joplin died of an accidental heroin drug overdose in Los Angeles, California. She was twenty-seven years old. Janis Joplin once said this about her singing: “When I am there, I am not here. I can’t talk about my singing. I’m inside it. How can you describe something you are inside of?” This statement expresses how serious Janis Joplin was about her music. She was an intense singer who lived during an intense time in American history. While she did not have a long career, Joplin became one of the most important voices of her time. We close with Janis Joplin’s most popular song. It was written for her by a friend, the famous singer and songwriter Kris Kristofferson. Here is “Me and Bobby McGee”. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Pat Bodnar. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-04-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Health Study Says Poor Countries Most Affected by Climate Change
* Byline: 

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Health and climate scientists have mapped how climate change affects different parts of the world in different ways. The scientists point to evidence that changes in the past thirty years may already be affecting human health. Possible effects include more deaths from extreme heat or cold, from storms and from dry periods that lead to crop failures. Temperature changes may also influence the spread of disease. For example, warmer weather speeds the growth of organisms that cause diseases like malaria and dengue fever. The work by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the World Health Organization appeared in the journal Nature. The W.H.O. is a United Nations agency. The agency recently estimated that climate changes caused by human activity lead to more than one hundred fifty thousand deaths each year. Cases of sickness are estimated at five million. And the W.H.O. says the numbers could rise sharply by two thousand thirty. Jonathan Patz of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at Wisconsin led the study. Professor Patz notes that climate scientists linked global warming to the heat that killed thousands in Europe in August of two thousand three. But he says poor countries least responsible for the warming are most at risk from the health effects of higher temperatures. Professor Patz says areas at greatest risk include southern and eastern Africa and coastlines along the Pacific and Indian oceans. Also, large cities experience what scientists call a “heat island” effect that can intensify conditions. Professor Patz says average temperatures worldwide have increased about one-third of a degree Celsius in the last thirty years. But he tells us even that can make a difference with a disease like malaria. The report says average temperatures could increase as much as six degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Professor Patz says the world faces an important moral test. Representatives from about two hundred nations have been meeting in Montreal, Canada, to discuss climate change. The ten-day conference ends December ninth. It is the first such United Nations meeting since the Kyoto Protocol took effect earlier this year. The treaty seeks to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases released as pollution into the air. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-04-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Not Just Child's Play: The World of Video and Computer Games
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week our subject is video and computer games in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of Americans play video and computer games. The reasons are no mystery. The games can provide fun, action and, in some cases, education. Players can lead their favorite sports team to victory. They can imagine they are secret agents like James Bond. They can form a nation and lead it through thousands of years of war and peace. They can develop their skills at card games like poker. Game players may improve their reaction time and thinking skills. They may improve their ability to direct their thoughts, or learn word and number skills. VOICE TWO:?????? Some experts worry about the possible harm to children who play video games that contain a lot of sex and violence. Yet some young people now study electronic games in college. In Los Angeles, for example, the University of Southern California has classes in game design. Other students there can learn about games as part of modern culture. Industry officials say the United States had more than seven thousand million dollars in sales of video and computer games last year. It was an increase of four percent from the year before. VOICE ONE: Electronic games will be a popular gift during the winter holidays this month. One recent night, some people lined up at stores at midnight. They waited to buy the new Xbox Three-Sixty game system by Microsoft. The Xbox Three-Sixty can play digital video discs and music. It can even handle conference calls. Some players have returned the new system because of technical problems. But Microsoft said the rate of return was below the three to five percent that is normal with electronic products. Sony leads the industry in worldwide sales of game systems. Microsoft is second, followed by Nintendo. But Microsoft is the first to release its next-generation game system. Sony announced in May that it was preparing to launch its PlayStation Three in the spring of two thousand six. Next year is also when Nintendo plans to release its new system, called Revolution. VOICE TWO: Children are not the only ones who play electronic games. The Entertainment Software Association says almost one-fifth of Americans over the age of fifty played video games last year. In fact, it says the average player is thirty years old. The players who buy the most games are an average age of thirty-seven. The group also reports that forty-three percent of players are women. VOICE ONE: Some people play games on a personal computer. They use the keyboard to play. Or they connect a guiding device called a joystick. Other people play on a video game system called a console which they connect to their television. Still others like to play games on small, handheld devices. Or they go to arcades to play on free-standing game machines. ??????? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO:????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? The world of video games combines special effects, music, language and images. The best games have clear, colorful graphics. The images move at high speed with a depth similar to real life. Some have first-person perspective. This means you experience the action as though living it yourself. Some people play games online. They might compete over the Internet against players on the other side of the world. Some people play electronic games for money. More than seven hundred international gamers recently took part in the final competition of the World Cyber Games in Singapore. They played for a share of the four hundred thirty-five thousand dollars in prize money. VOICE ONE: Many players like games based on sports. The Madden series, for example, is very popular. These are named for television football commentator John Madden, a former coach. And players have been known to spend hours playing games developed from spy films like the James Bond movies. People who like frightening movies may also like a game series called “Resident Evil.”? Players say the games make them feel like they are living inside their own horror film. In fact, two films have already been based on the series. "Resident Evil" became popular with a storyline about a company that makes a virus. Victims infected with the virus turn into the undead and eat other people. VOICE TWO: Many gamers are buying the newly released “Peter Jackson’s King Kong."? In this game, the huge gorilla terrorizes humans just as he will in the new "King Kong" movie directed by Peter Jackson. It opens nationwide on December fourteenth. A popular shooting-game series called “Doom” led to an action film that opened in November. The movie "Doom" stars Dwayne Johnson, the professional wrestler and actor known as “The Rock.”? But the video game that sold best in two thousand four was “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”? It was strongly criticized, however, because of hidden sexual images. Stores temporarily removed the game from sale. Now only adults can buy the version that still has those images, but not many stores are selling it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? The National Institute on Media and the Family is a private research group. Several years ago, it found that almost eighty percent of American children played video games. Research last year found that girls played video games an average of about five hours weekly. Boys played an average of thirteen hours. Another group, Children Now, says almost half of video games contain serious violence. And it says about half the violence shown in the games would injure or kill people in real life. VOICE TWO:?????? Many doctors, educators and policy makers express concern about the effects of violent games. They point to studies that show that playing games with repeated violence is often linked to increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings and actions. Where are the parents?? The Entertainment Software Association says parents are present ninety-two percent of the time when games are bought or rented. Even so, the group just announced that the Sony PlayStation Three will include parental controls. These controls let parents limit the kinds of games their children can play. The PlayStation Portable system released earlier this year already has that technology. So does the new Xbox Three-Sixty from Microsoft. And Nintendo recently announced that its new system will also include parental controls. The technology is based on ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. This group has rated games for families since nineteen ninety-four. The industry says eighty-three percent of all games sold last year were rated "E" for Everyone or "T" for Teen. But some critics argue that self-rating by the industry is far from satisfactory. VOICE ONE: Some states want to stop sales of violent games to people seventeen and younger. On November ninth, a federal judge in Detroit blocked an attempt by the state of Michigan, at least temporarily. The judge acted on a request by the Entertainment Software Association. Opponents of sales restrictions say the measures violate free speech rights guaranteed by the Constitution. All this action and debate shows how important electronic games have become. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some games developed from traditional board games like backgammon or chess. Others grew from word games or from card games like solitaire and bridge. In eighteen eighty-nine, a playing-card company opened in Japan. The company led to Nintendo. In nineteen fifty-eight, a scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State developed a game he called "Tennis for Two."? William Higinbotham played it on a scientific device called an oscilloscope. The scientist did not see that such a game could become widely popular. But others did. By the early nineteen seventies, people were playing a video game called “Pong.”? Two people would sit at a game machine and control a paddle to hit an electronic ball back and forth. Soon millions of people were playing "Pong."? Many other games followed. VOICE ONE: Today, as computers keep improving, people keep designing new games. And the public keeps buying them. As games become more and more realistic, we can only imagine what the future will look like in this electronic world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-05-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Dogs May Be Just What the Doctor Ordered for Worried Heart Patients
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week, we bring you news of singing mice ... VOICE ONE: Heart-healthy dogs ... VOICE TWO: And a partying tortoise. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new study finds that the animal known as man’s best friend can also be a good friend to the heart. Researchers in California say they have found that even just a short visit with a dog helped ease the worries of heart patients. Kathie Cole led the study. She is a nurse at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center. The researchers studied seventy-six patients with heart failure. The study divided the patients into three groups. In one group, a dog and a person visited each patient for twelve minutes. Patients in another group received just a human visitor for twelve minutes. And members of the third group received no visitor, human or canine. The dogs would lie on the hospital bed so the heart patients could touch them. Kathie Cole says some patients immediately smiled and talked to the dog and the human visitor. Dogs, in her words, "make people happier, calmer and feel more loved." VOICE TWO: The researchers examined the patients before, during and after the visits. They measured stress levels based on blood flow and heart activity. They used a measurement system called hemodynamics to rate the level of anxiety in the patients. The researchers say they found a twenty-four percent decrease in the group visited by both a dog and a person. They reported a ten percent decrease in the group visited by a person only. There was no change in the patients without any visit. These patients, however, did have an increase in their production of the hormone epinephrine. The body produces epinephrine during times of stress. The increase was an average of seven percent. But the study found that patients who spent time with a dog had a seventeen percent drop in their levels of epinephrine. Patients visited by a human but not a dog also had a decrease, but only two percent. Another finding involved heart pressure. Heart pressure dropped by ten percent among patients visited by both a dog and a human. Patients with a human visitor only, however, had a three percent increase in heart pressure. And the study says there was a five percent increase in patients who received no visit. VOICE ONE: Kathie Cole presented the research in Dallas, Texas, last month at the yearly meeting of the American Heart Association. The experiment involved twelve different kinds of dogs. All were specially trained for what is known as animal-assisted therapy. A non-profit group, the Pet Care Trust Foundation, paid for the study. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Scientists know that male laboratory mice make unusual noises in the presence of female mice. This fact is not apparent to the human ear; the sound waves move too fast to hear without special equipment. So it has been difficult to carefully study the noises. Recently, however, scientists in the United States have established that these noises are songs. Timothy Holy led the study. He is an assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. VOICE ONE: A song can be defined many different ways. But Professor Holy says there are usually two main qualities. A song should have a series of recognizably different musical sounds. And, he says, it should have some sounds that are repeated from time to time. Other creatures that sing in the presence of the opposite sex include songbirds, whales and some insects. Professor Holy worked with Zhongsheng Guo, a computer programmer in his laboratory. They were studying how the brain of male mice reacts to pheromones produced by female mice. Pheromones are chemicals that act as signals often linked to mating. Many different creatures, including humans, produce pheromones. VOICE TWO: Professor Holy said the mouse songs are unusually difficult to record and examine. The scientists had to use computers to slow the noises down to the point where humans could make sense of them. (SOUND) It sounds almost birdlike. The scientists say they were surprised by the complexity of the songs. They also found that individual male mice sing different songs. Professor Holy wonders if the mice learn to sing from a more experienced mouse, as birds do from other birds. The findings appear in Public Library of Science Biology. This scientific publication and others can all be read free of charge at the Public Library of Science Web site. The address is p-l-o-s dot o-r-g (plos.org). (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Australia Zoo has held a birthday party in honor of a Galapagos land tortoise named Harriet. Her keepers believe she is one hundred seventy-five years old. To celebrate, they gave her a birthday cake made of hibiscus flowers. Harriet weighs about one hundred fifty kilograms. The shell on her back measures about one square meter. Scientists say she is the oldest living animal known. No one knows exactly when Harriet was born. But genetic tests suggest that she was born in about eighteen thirty. A few years later, the British naturalist Charles Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands, near the coast of Ecuador. Discoveries made during the visit led Darwin to his beliefs about how human beings developed over many centuries. VOICE TWO: Darwin collected three small, young tortoises from the islands and took them to England. Darwin noted in his writings that one of the creatures was a Santiago tortoise. Harriet fits that description, and some people think she is the one Darwin captured. But news reports about the birthday party noted that there is no proof. In fact, no one can even be sure of her real birthday. The zoo chose November fifteenth because November is when the tortoise eggs usually hatch. Back to the story. It is said that a former naval officer named John Wickham later took the tortoise with him from England to Australia. Wickham left it in the Brisbane Botanical and Zoological Gardens in eighteen forty-two. The tortoise was thought to be a male. Darwin had named it Harry. Children took rides on the back of the tortoise. Some people even cut their names into the shell. That must have hurt. The shell has feelings. The top part of it is called a carapace. The carapace is an extension of the rib bones. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifty-two, Harry was moved to a wildlife center on the Gold Coast of Australia. There, an animal expert from Hawaii made a surprising discovery. Harry the land tortoise was really a female. So Harry became Harriet. After other moves, she has been living at the Australia Zoo since nineteen eighty-eight. Zoo owner Steve Irwin is known for his television program “Crocodile Hunter.”? VOICE TWO: Harriet produces eggs each year. But she has not been near another of her kind for at least one hundred fifty years. They are not easy to find. Only about fifteen thousand Galapagos giant tortoises live in the islands today. In Darwin’s time, there were an estimated two hundred fifty thousand. Hunting, fishing and other animals have decreased a population thought to have lived in the islands for millions of year. In the eighteen hundreds, sailors often captured the tortoises for food. VOICE ONE: At one time, there were fifteen kinds of the Galapagos giant tortoises. Today there are eleven. Experts say the animals are not in immediate danger, but are threatened. Scientists are doing their part to help the population grow. Old as she is, Harriet does not hold the record for the longest living creature. The Guinness Book of Records says a tortoise that died forty years ago holds that record. That tortoise was at least one hundred eighty-eight years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-06-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Cranberries: A Little Fruit With Growing Appeal
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Cranberries are a little red fruit native to North America. They are raised on more than sixteen thousand hectares across the northern United States and Canada. And they supply a growing market. Over two hundred eighty million kilograms of cranberries are grown in the United States each year. Wisconsin is the biggest producer, followed by Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey and Washington State. The hard berries are boiled with sugar to make cranberry sauce, a traditional part of Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. They are also eaten dried, made into spreads, baked into treats, mixed with other flavors and pressed into juice. In fact, that juice represents more than sixty percent of purchases of cranberry products at markets. Cranberries are one of only a few fruit native to the United States and Canada. The Cranberry Institute says a Revolutionary War veteran named Henry Hall started to grow them for sale in Massachusetts in eighteen sixteen. Cranberries are harvested in September and October. They can be picked by a machine that strikes the plant to loosen the berries. These are usually sold fresh. But cranberries are more commonly picked from their low-growing vines in a way that saves a lot of labor. This method is possible because cranberries naturally grow in wetlands. Many farmers grow the vines in areas that are lower than the surrounding land. At harvest time, the beds are flooded. A machine strikes the vines. The berries break free and float on the water. Then they are moved to one end of the flooded beds and gathered by machine. These berries are usually processed. Cranberries have a long history. The Cranberry Institute notes that Native Americans used them in ceremonies and as food and medicine. Today marketers point to research findings that suggest that cranberries can help prevent some kinds of infections. But cranberry growing has raised some environmental concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency says wetlands are being destroyed in some cases to expand production. Other concerns involve the use of farming chemicals that could enter water systems. Yet even critics agree that cranberries are better than some other kinds of development. Farmers usually protect their cranberry beds with surrounding forestland. And that means a place for wildlife to live. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-06-voa2.cfm
* Headline: T Is for Trouble: Consonants Lead to Dissonance for an English Learner
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a pronunciation question from Quebec, Canada. RS: Nam-Thien Khuu writes by e-mail, "I have heard [that the letter 't' is silent when it comes after a stressed syllable]. Am I right? Or have I just heard incorrectly." AA: He gives three examples: important, mountain and cosmetic. For the answer, we turn to English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. LIDA BAKER: "Your listener is partly right. The words important and mountain, what your listener is referring to is the fact -- it's not that the t is silent in those words, it's that it's unreleased. Now what does that mean. If you say a word like -- say pop." AA: "Pop." LIDA BAKER: "OK, now what did you feel at the end of the word, what were your lips doing -- were they together, or were they apart?" AA: "Let me try that again. Pop. Well, they end apart." LIDA BAKER: "That's right. Now say cat." AA: "Cat." LIDA BAKER: "When you pronounce that t, did you feel that your tongue was touching the top or behind your teeth and then it was released?" AA: "Cat. Yeah! It touches the top, then it releases." LIDA BAKER: "One of the things that happens to a lot of consonants in English is that the consonants get released, which is to say the tongue touches some part of the mouth, and then it releases. OK? Now what happens in some dialects of English, and there are a lot of North American dialects where this happens -- what happens is that the t doesn't get released. "So let's take the word -- and this happens generally after a stressed syllable. So if we take a word like important, what's happening there? Try saying it. What I want you to do is say -- after the second syllable, I want you to freeze. So we're going to go impor -- " RS: "Impor -- " LIDA BAKER: "'ant. Now don't release the t. In other words, when your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, or wherever it is that your tongue touches when you say a t, don't release it. And instead, you just say nnn -- you know, that nasal sound? So it's impor'ant." AA: "Impor'ant." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah." RS: "Important." LIDA BAKER: "Now journalists -- " RS: "Uh-oh, I said a t. I know I said a t." LIDA BAKER: "Because -- OK, because journalists. you're in the habit of speaking, articulating things very clearly. So this is something that the person who asked the question needs to know, that this is not a standard feature of English pronunciation. It's something that some people do some of the time, particularly in casual conversation. "And it's the same thing with the word mountain. Now 'cosmetic' is a different rule. What's happening in the word cosmetic, the t in that case is being pronounced as -- it's almost like a 'd.' And that happens in North American English when you have a t between two vowels." AA: "Cosmetic -- yeah, it does, it sounds more like a d than a T." LIDA BAKER: "That's not an unreleased t. That's an adjustment that happens because that t happens to be sitting between two vowels. And that also is something that we do in North America that is not a feature of British English." RS: "Give us another example of that." LIDA BAKER: "Here's an example: I mean, any verb that ends in a t and then you say it in the past tense, that's going to happen -- like wanted, rented, right? So that's an example." AA: "What about a word like water? I mean, that's like a d sound." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, sure. You know, I was asking myself on the way over here, why did he include the word cosmetic together with important and mountain. And you know, it really is a tribute to this listener's good listening skills that he's picking up on these modifications that are happening to the t in North American English. "Noticing is actually something that -- there's a lot of literature that has come out in my field in recent years about noticing. We're being told, we teachers are being told that we should incorporate noticing exercises into our lesson plans. So that for instance, at the beginning, when you're presenting a new language feature, we should design some kind of an activity where we're not immediately expecting the students to produce the language, but rather we're giving them the opportunity to notice it first." RS: Lida Baker teaches English and writes textbooks in Los Angeles, California. Her new English as a Second Language listening and speaking series, "Real Talk," published by Longman, will be out early next year. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-06-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Internet and Its Future
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Internet computer information system and its progress and problems. The Internet links people to information and businesses. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month, thousands of government representatives and information experts met in Tunis, Tunisia to discuss the future of the Internet. The United Nations organized the World Summit on the Information Society to discuss Internet growth in developing nations. But the three-day meetings also developed into a struggle over who controls the Internet. The Internet grew out of research paid for by the United States Defense Department in the nineteen sixties and seventies. As a result, the United States government still has some control over it. In nineteen ninety-eight, the Commerce Department set up a non-profit organization to supervise the domain name system of the Internet’s World Wide Web. The Web is a major service on the Internet. The group, based in California, is called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. VOICE TWO: A domain name is a series of words separated by dots. It identifies an Internet Web site. ICANN also operates a list of Web site owners and approves new endings for Web addresses, such as dot-com, dot-net or dot-gov. The group guarantees that Internet users around the world do not visit different Websites using the same Web address. For example, thanks to ICANN, a person in Cuba will see the same voaspecialenglish.com Website as someone in Belarus. ICANN also has some Internet policy powers. It can remove Web sites from the Internet. It also decides who can sell and list domain names. VOICE ONE: The European Union, China, Brazil, India and other countries want the United States to release at least some control over the World Wide Web. They believe that the Internet is an international resource that should be supervised by the United Nations or some other independent organization. The Bush Administration disagrees. It says that ICANN is the best way to guarantee an open, secure and dependable online environment. Heavy governmental controls, it says, would suppress Internet growth and development. VOICE TWO: Hours before the start of the Tunis conference, negotiators agreed to leave day-to-day supervision of the Internet with ICANN. The compromise proposal from the European Union calls for the creation next year of an international governance committee. Governments, businesses and organizations will be able to discuss public policy issues, including Internet crime, junk mail and viruses. The committee, however, will not have powers to make rules. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Future Society estimated last year that about nine hundred fifty million people around the world were using the Internet. That number is expected to rise to more than one thousand million people within the next two years. Most Internet communication is business-to-business, instead of personal electronic mail. Buying and selling goods and services over the Internet is growing around the world. The World Future Society estimates that two-point-seven million million dollars was earned through Internet commerce last year. But, there are risks involved with this e-commerce. VOICE TWO: For example, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that more than fifty-two thousand million dollars in goods and services were purchased last year through identity theft. Identity thieves steal personal information from Americans. They collect Social Security numbers, banking records and telephone numbers. They use this information to request loans, or to get credit cards in the name of the victim. Identity thieves often use computer viruses to collect a victim’s personal information. They may also use spyware. These are programs that are loaded onto a computer without the owner’s knowledge. Spyware follows the computer user’s online activities. Identity thieves also use another method called Internet “phishing.” These e-mail messages attempt to collect an Internet user’s personal information, such as credit card numbers, by acting like a real business. VOICE ONE: People can protect themselves from identity theft in several ways. Anti-virus and anti-spyware computer programs can help. So can firewalls. These are programs or devices that limit information coming through an Internet connection. Banks and individuals can also use Fob technology. A fob is a small device connected to a computer. Every sixty seconds it creates a special series of numbers, or a code. A computer user must type the code created at the exact minute that the user she wants to see his or her online financial information or bank records. VOICE TWO: Advertisers interested in selling products over the Internet may use adware to identify possible buyers. Adware is a software program sent with free files or programs to a computer. Once loaded onto a computer, adware can collect information about a person’s interests. Adware can use this information to provide targeted sales messages to the computer user. These unwanted sales messages are sent through a person’s e-mail. They can also be a problem for people using an Internet browser to find information. In this case, pop-up blockers can help. A pop-up blocker is a computer program that prevents unwanted sales messages from opening. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular kinds of communication on the Internet is through personal Web sites called blogs. Blog is a shortened name for a Web log. Anyone can create his or her own blog. A blog may contain stories, pictures, links to other Web sites and comments from visitors. Some people add information to their blogs every day. Blogs offer a way to present news and political or personal information. Blogs have become a place for public expression on many subjects. The Blog Herald estimates that there are more than sixty million blogs around the world. People who have blogs are called bloggers. In the United States, many well known people have blogs. So do many other Americans, including teenagers and college students. VOICE TWO: Even United States soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are blogging. Troops are using their milblogs to share opinions, emotions and memories of lost soldiers. The United States military restricts troops from writing personal information about other soldiers. It also restricts operational security information from being published in a blog. You can find blogs about a subject by using a special search engine created by Google. The Web address is blogsearch.google.com. That is b-l-o-g-s-e-a-r-c-h-dot-g-o-o-g-l-e-dot-com. Google is one of the most popular “search engines” for the Internet. People use a search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Web. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are many ways to link computers with other forms of communication. For example, mobile telephones can send voice messages, color photographs and written information called text messages. They can even receive electronic mail. Small hand-held computer devices can store and read electronic books. Starting next year, the world’s largest software company -- Microsoft -- will offer one hundred thousand books from the British Library’s collection. People will be able to search and read the literature on the Internet for free. Amazon.com -- the largest online bookstore -- plans to sell individual pages or parts of books over the Internet. VOICE TWO: Google has started its own project. The company has put thousands of library books and documents on the Internet. Last month, Google gave three million dollars to help the United States Library of Congress create a World Digital Library on the Web. This will be a collection of rare books, documents, maps and other materials from America’s library and other national libraries. The head of the Library of Congress says people will be able to learn about other cultures without traveling farther than the nearest computer. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-06-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Heart Attacks: Simpler Rules for CPR Announced
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Steve?Ember?with the VOA Special English Health Report. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, can save the life of a heart attack victim. When the heart is in cardiac arrest, it stops pumping blood. Breathing stops. The victim falls and does not react. Without lifesaving measures, the brain starts to die within four to six minutes. CPR combines rescue breaths and repeated pressure on the chest. It keeps blood and oxygen flowing to the heart and brain. The American Heart Association has new guidelines for the public about how to do CPR. They appeared last month in its journal Circulation. The heart association says the steps are simpler than before and easy to follow. The biggest change is in the number of chest compressions. The earlier guidelines called for fifteen chest compressions for every two breaths. The new ones call for thirty compressions for every two breaths -- in adults as well as children. The steps are repeated over and over until medical help arrives. To do compressions, an individual places one hand on top of the other and presses down into the chest. The idea is to push hard and push fast, at a rate of one hundred compressions per minute. With a newborn baby, two fingers should be used. Studies found that continuous compressions increase blood flow through the body. This would give the victim more time until a defibrillator can be found or the heart can begin to pump again on its own. A defibrillator is a device that sends electric shocks to the heart in an effort to return normal pumping. Heart experts say CPR is important not only before defibrillation but also immediately after. The heart association says one shock generally helps to return a normal heartbeat. Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States and Canada. The heart association says most cases happen at home or someplace else other than a hospital. Victims usually die before they can be brought to a hospital, because most members of the public do not know what to do. The American Heart Association says CPR given immediately after cardiac arrest can sharply increase the chance of survival. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. The new CPR guidelines can be read on the Web at heart dot o-r-g (heart.org). And Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-07-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Homecoming: A Way to Relive School Days of the Past
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report. A listener in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Hua Khanh Co, asks us about the tradition of “homecoming.” ?He explains that his girlfriend attended homecoming events this year at the University of Oklahoma. Homecoming is a tradition at American colleges, universities and also high schools. Schools usually hold a weekend for this purpose each fall. Homecoming weekend is a time when former students return to get together with current students and with old friends. The weekend usually centers on a football game and a homecoming dance. Many schools also hold a parade. And some burn a ceremonial fire to show support for their team. The University of Illinois has claimed for many years to have held the first college homecoming weekend in nineteen ten. The planners of that celebration saw it as a chance for students and former students to get to know each other. They said it would create more loyalty to the university. And they said it would lead other universities to follow. We found a research paper on the Web site of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was completed this year by members of the university archives program. It seems they found that Baylor University in Texas held an event called "Home-Coming" one year earlier, in nineteen-oh-nine. It was organized as a time to meet former student friends, recall old memories and "catch the Baylor spirit again."? Events of that weekend included a concert, a parade and a football game. And Northern Illinois University has records to show it held a homecoming weekend even earlier, in nineteen-oh-six. It was also a gathering of former students with organized social events built around a football game. Today most American colleges hold a homecoming weekend. Things can get a little wild. But some students say the weekend is fun only when their football team has a winning season. Still, whoever started it, homecoming weekend remains an important social event at many schools in the United States. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-07-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Election of 1896: It Came Down to a Question of Money
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) In the eighteen nineties, the American people were deeply divided over the nation's money system. Should the United States support its money with gold, or with gold and silver. The question became the chief issue in the presidential election of eighteen ninety-six. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about that election. VOICE TWO: Many Americans wanted a gold standard. They said the United States should support its money only with gold. A gold standard, they said, would keep the value of the dollar high. These people were called "gold bugs. " Most were businessmen, bankers, and investors. Many other Americans wanted the United States to support its money with both gold and silver. They thought the value of the dollar was too high. A high dollar, they said, drove down prices for agricultural products. A silver standard would lower the value of the dollar. These people were called "silverites."?Most were farmers, laborers, and owners of small businesses. VOICE TWO: The debate over gold and silver was especially important because of an economic depression that began in the United States in eighteen ninety-three. Thousands of banks and businesses closed. Millions of men lost their jobs. Foreign investors withdrew their money from America. Americans who had money were afraid to invest it. Many people believed the depression would end if the government issued more paper money backed by silver. President Grover Cleveland disagreed. And he opposed any legislation that might threaten the gold standard. He noted that every major nation supported its paper money with gold. The United States would be foolish, he said, not to do the same. It could not stand apart from the world's other money systems. VOICE TWO: President Cleveland belonged to the Democratic Party. By eighteen ninety-six, many Democrats had become silverites. Theygained control of party organizations in several western and southern states. They called Cleveland a traitor to his party and to the American people. They did not want him to be the party's candidate in that year's election. The Republican Party also was divided over the issue of gold and silver. Some members from silver-mining states in the west left the party. Others remained in the party, but gave support secretly to silverite Democrats. Republicans had done well in the congressional elections of eighteen ninety-four. They won control of both the Senate and House of Representatives. Party leaders were sure a Republican could be elected president in eighteen ninety-six. The most likely candidate appeared to be Governor William McKinley of Ohio. VOICE ONE: McKinley was, in fact, nominated on the first ballot at the Republican convention in St. Louis, Missouri. The Democratic Party held its nominating convention in Chicago, Illinois. The most likely candidate was Congressman Richard Bland of Missouri. A majority of convention delegates, however, were silverites. And they expected to nominate a silverite candidate. Supporters of President Cleveland wanted to test the silverites' strength. They demanded a debate on the gold-silver issue. Several men spoke in support of President Cleveland and the gold standard. Several spoke in support of silver. The last to speak was congressman William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska. He had led an unsuccessful fight in Congress to keep America using silver. VOICE TWO: Bryan spoke emotionally during the convention debate. He said he represented America's farmers, laborers, and small businessmen who wanted a silver standard. Bryan ended his speech with a line that became famous during the campaign. It called to mind the torture and death of Jesus Christ. Bryan said gold supporters could not force their money system on silver supporters. "You shall not," he said, "crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." With those words, William Jennings Bryan won the nomination away from Congressman Bland. He would be the Democrats' presidential candidate. He was just thirty-six years old. VOICE ONE: A number of Democrats refused to accept Bryan as their candidate. They withdrew from the Chicago convention and held one of their own. They called themselves National Democrats. They nominated candidates for president and vice president. But they did not win many votes in the election. America's third party at that time -- The People's Party -- had a difficult decision to make. Populists, as they were called, agreed with silverite Democrats that the United States should have a silver standard. So, some believed the party should unite with the Democrats to support democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan. If they did not, Republican William McKinley was sure to win the election. Other populists feared that such a union would mean the end of the People's Party. The populists solved the problem at their nominating convention. Like the Democrats, they chose Bryan to be their candidate for president. But they chose a different candidate for vice president. In this way, William Jennings Bryan was able to run for president at the head of two separate political parties. VOICE TWO: There was a great difference in the way the two presidential candidates campaigned. William McKinley refused to travel. Instead of going to the voters, he let the voters come to him. And they did. Railroad companies supported McKinley. They ran special trains to his home in Ohio. The trip was free. Each trip was the same. A band met the train and marched with the group to McKinley's home. McKinley came outside to hear a statement of support from the leader of the group. Then he made a short speech and shook hands. The group left and another one came. On one day of the campaign, McKinley met thirty groups this way. That was more than eighty thousand people. VOICE ONE: While McKinley stayed at home, William Jennings Bryan travelled. He visited twenty-seven states and spoke to five million people. Bryan explained that he had to travel, because the Democratic Party did not have enough money to campaign in otherways. Bryan spent six hundred fifty-thousand dollars on his campaign. McKinley spent three-and-a-half-million dollars. Bryan's main campaign idea was that the gold standard would ruin America's economy. McKinley's main campaign idea was that silver money would ruin the economy. For a time, Bryan's campaign seemed to be succeeding. More and more people promised to support him. Then, in the final weeks before election day, the situation began to change. The depressed economy showed signs of improving. The price of wheat rose for the first time in several years. Perhaps, people said, it was wrong to blame gold for the depression. Perhaps, they said, the ideas of William Jennings Bryan were wrong. VOICE TWO: On election day, it was soon clear who had won. McKinley received two hundred seventy electoral votes. Bryan received one hundred seventy-six. Bryan congratulated McKinley. Then he told his supporters to begin getting ready for the next presidential election. "If we are right about silver," Bryan said, "we will win four years from now." VOICE ONE: McKinley's election seemed to give new life to the American economy. Within a month, a business publication reported that buying and selling had increased greatly. It said demand for goods had led to the re-opening of factories closed during the depression. At the same time, new supplies of gold were discovered in Alaska, Australia, and South Africa. The extra gold increased the supply of money in the same way silver would have increased it. Taxes on imported goods rose to almost sixty percent. Under this protective tariff, American industry grew fast. The depression ended. VOICE TWO: The economic depression of the eighteen nineties forced Americans to worry first about developments at home. But there were a number of international developments then which involved the United States. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-08-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Sam Gilliam: A Painter Who Always Tries Something New
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some jazz music … Report about pets still being rescued since Hurricane Katrina … And tell about an art show in Washington, D.C. Sam Gilliam Today we visit a museum in Washington, D.C. to learn about an important contemporary painter named Sam Gilliam. Shirley Griffith tells us more. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: A new exhibition of Sam Gilliam’s work is at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This show represents the many artistic developments Gilliam has made and continues to make during his many years as a painter. Sam Gilliam began painting as part of an art movement called the Washington Color School. This group of painters began working in the nineteen sixties in Washington, D.C. They made artworks that were colorful and abstract. Abstract means that there are no recognizable objects represented in the painting. Instead, abstract artists cover their painting surfaces with non-representational forms and colors. Sam Gilliam first became famous in the late nineteen sixties for his “draped” paintings. To make these, he spread many colors of paint onto large pieces of canvas material. But he did not stretch these canvases onto wooden forms like most painters do. Instead, he let them hang freely from the wall. These colorful pieces of flowing fabric are paintings, but they are also very theatrical sculptures. Experts say Sam Gilliam is interesting because he has always explored new methods of painting. He does not make the same kind of art over and over just because it is popular. Instead, Gilliam works to discover new artistic possibilities. For example, in the show at the Corcoran, you can see his “black paintings” from the nineteen seventies. To make these, he poured thick black paint onto a colorful canvas. The black paint dried in bursting layers. Through the uneven surface you can see small amounts of color. In the next room of the museum, you can see the wooden painted sculptures from yet another time in his career. What remains the same through all of these periods, however, is Gilliam’s love of color. Sam Gilliam’s latest art is completely different from past periods. He is now making smooth paintings on wood. Each painting has only one color. But the shiny perfection of the painted surfaces is very beautiful. Katrina Pet Rescue HOST: The severe ocean storm called Hurricane Katrina struck three American Gulf Coast states last August. It killed at least one thousand three hundred people. Many of the people who survived lost their homes, their jobs – and their pet animals. Now, more than three months later, people are still searching for their lost pets. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: One of the worst storms in American history separated a black and white cat named Sly from his owner, Alison Wells. Miz Wells was forced to leave the cat behind when she fled her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. The hurricane also destroyed plans she made for his care while she was gone. But this story has a happy ending. The five-year-old cat is safely back with Miz Wells in her home in New Orleans. Animal rescuers and an Internet Web site called Petfinder.com reunited the two last month. It was a long way home for Sly. First, people who found him in the street took him to an emergency shelter in the nearby state of Mississippi. Other rescuers later took him all the way to their shelter in New York City. That is where the reunion took place. The New York rescuers were from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. They put a picture of Sly on Petfinder.com. The site is one of a number helping to connect animals with their humans. One animal aid agency says fifteen thousand dogs, cats, horses, birds and farm animals were saved after the hurricane. But today, many pets remain unclaimed. Like Sly, rescued pets were sent to shelters and animal welfare centers all over the country. Distance makes it difficult to connect many owners with their pets. Some organizations that saved animals are small, like the Hamptons group. Others are huge, like the Humane Society of the United States and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Humane Society has helped organize more than one thousand two hundred reunions of people and their pets so far. Jazz HOST: Our VOA listener question for this week comes from Gurpinar, Turkey. Suat Atan asks about the birth of jazz music in America and if the English word comes from the Arabic word jazb. Jazz is often called the only true American music. Many different kinds of music helped to create jazz. In the eighteen eighties, African-Americans created blues music from church music and sad songs from the time of slavery. In large cities, African-Americans mixed these songs with music from other immigrants. Sounds from West African, Spanish, French and even Arabic cultures can be heard in jazz music. In this way, jazz is like American culture. Jazz brings together many ideas from around the world to make something new. Here is American jazz artist Duke Ellington with a song influenced by Middle Eastern sounds, “Caravan.” (MUSIC) There are many different ideas about where the word jazz came from. Some experts think that the word jazz borrows ideas from many different languages. They think that people may have made up their own word to describe the excitement of hearing and playing a new kind of music. Books on jazz music do not mention the Arabic word jazb. But Middle Eastern music and jazz have similar sounds. Both kinds of musicians like to make up the song as they play and create their own sounds using many different instruments. Several musicians from the Middle East have come to America to study jazz. They mix traditional jazz sounds with music from their own countries. This kind of jazz is called fusion and is one of the most popular forms of jazz in America today. We leave you with the song “Blue Flame” by jazz fusion artist Simon (se-MONE) Shaheen. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear some jazz music … Report about pets still being rescued since Hurricane Katrina … And tell about an art show in Washington, D.C. Sam Gilliam Today we visit a museum in Washington, D.C. to learn about an important contemporary painter named Sam Gilliam. Shirley Griffith tells us more. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: A new exhibition of Sam Gilliam’s work is at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This show represents the many artistic developments Gilliam has made and continues to make during his many years as a painter. Sam Gilliam began painting as part of an art movement called the Washington Color School. This group of painters began working in the nineteen sixties in Washington, D.C. They made artworks that were colorful and abstract. Abstract means that there are no recognizable objects represented in the painting. Instead, abstract artists cover their painting surfaces with non-representational forms and colors. Sam Gilliam first became famous in the late nineteen sixties for his “draped” paintings. To make these, he spread many colors of paint onto large pieces of canvas material. But he did not stretch these canvases onto wooden forms like most painters do. Instead, he let them hang freely from the wall. These colorful pieces of flowing fabric are paintings, but they are also very theatrical sculptures. Experts say Sam Gilliam is interesting because he has always explored new methods of painting. He does not make the same kind of art over and over just because it is popular. Instead, Gilliam works to discover new artistic possibilities. For example, in the show at the Corcoran, you can see his “black paintings” from the nineteen seventies. To make these, he poured thick black paint onto a colorful canvas. The black paint dried in bursting layers. Through the uneven surface you can see small amounts of color. In the next room of the museum, you can see the wooden painted sculptures from yet another time in his career. What remains the same through all of these periods, however, is Gilliam’s love of color. Sam Gilliam’s latest art is completely different from past periods. He is now making smooth paintings on wood. Each painting has only one color. But the shiny perfection of the painted surfaces is very beautiful. Katrina Pet Rescue HOST: The severe ocean storm called Hurricane Katrina struck three American Gulf Coast states last August. It killed at least one thousand three hundred people. Many of the people who survived lost their homes, their jobs – and their pet animals. Now, more than three months later, people are still searching for their lost pets. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: One of the worst storms in American history separated a black and white cat named Sly from his owner, Alison Wells. Miz Wells was forced to leave the cat behind when she fled her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. The hurricane also destroyed plans she made for his care while she was gone. But this story has a happy ending. The five-year-old cat is safely back with Miz Wells in her home in New Orleans. Animal rescuers and an Internet Web site called Petfinder.com reunited the two last month. It was a long way home for Sly. First, people who found him in the street took him to an emergency shelter in the nearby state of Mississippi. Other rescuers later took him all the way to their shelter in New York City. That is where the reunion took place. The New York rescuers were from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. They put a picture of Sly on Petfinder.com. The site is one of a number helping to connect animals with their humans. One animal aid agency says fifteen thousand dogs, cats, horses, birds and farm animals were saved after the hurricane. But today, many pets remain unclaimed. Like Sly, rescued pets were sent to shelters and animal welfare centers all over the country. Distance makes it difficult to connect many owners with their pets. Some organizations that saved animals are small, like the Hamptons group. Others are huge, like the Humane Society of the United States and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The Humane Society has helped organize more than one thousand two hundred reunions of people and their pets so far. Jazz HOST: Our VOA listener question for this week comes from Gurpinar, Turkey. Suat Atan asks about the birth of jazz music in America and if the English word comes from the Arabic word jazb. Jazz is often called the only true American music. Many different kinds of music helped to create jazz. In the eighteen eighties, African-Americans created blues music from church music and sad songs from the time of slavery. In large cities, African-Americans mixed these songs with music from other immigrants. Sounds from West African, Spanish, French and even Arabic cultures can be heard in jazz music. In this way, jazz is like American culture. Jazz brings together many ideas from around the world to make something new. Here is American jazz artist Duke Ellington with a song influenced by Middle Eastern sounds, “Caravan.” (MUSIC) There are many different ideas about where the word jazz came from. Some experts think that the word jazz borrows ideas from many different languages. They think that people may have made up their own word to describe the excitement of hearing and playing a new kind of music. Books on jazz music do not mention the Arabic word jazb. But Middle Eastern music and jazz have similar sounds. Both kinds of musicians like to make up the song as they play and create their own sounds using many different instruments. Several musicians from the Middle East have come to America to study jazz. They mix traditional jazz sounds with music from their own countries. This kind of jazz is called fusion and is one of the most popular forms of jazz in America today. We leave you with the song “Blue Flame” by jazz fusion artist Simon (se-MONE) Shaheen. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana Demange, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-08-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Deep in the Heart of Texas, a Labor Union Expands
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Labor unions in the United States have been losing members for years. Not all are shrinking, however. The nation's fastest-growing union has recently added thousands of members in Houston, Texas. The expansion is the result of an effort to organize the workers who clean buildings. The Service Employees International Union has close to two million members. It organizes workers in a number of service areas. These include health workers, government and public service workers and workers in property services. In Houston, janitors at four major companies have voted to unionize. The American Arbitration Association recognized the decision as official on November twenty-ninth. Four thousand seven hundred janitors in Houston have now joined the Service Employees International. That number is more than sixty percent of the janitors in large buildings in the city. It could increase to over seventy percent if workers at another company are able to unionize. The Houston janitors say they want the union to help them negotiate better pay. They also hope for some form of health plan and retirement savings. Currently, the janitors receive about five dollars and thirty cents an hour. That is a little above the national minimum wage of five dollars and fifteen cents. The minimum wage is the lowest pay that workers can receive. Unionized janitors in cities like Chicago, New York or Washington, D.C., earn eleven dollars or more. But most cleaning workers around the country do not belong to unions. Many workers in low-paying service jobs are recent immigrants. Some are in the country illegally. The Houston area is not known for organized labor activity. The union did not even have offices there. Organizers from Chicago supervised the effort. In July, the Service Employees International Union split with the A.F.L.-C.I.O. That came as part of a major division within the country's main labor alliance. Andrew Stern is president of the service employees union. He says twenty-first century unions must organize by industry across borders, to deal with huge international companies. Fifty years ago, about thirty-three percent of privately employed workers in America were in a union. By the early nineteen eighties it was twenty percent. Today about thirteen percent of American workers belong to unions. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-10-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Saddam Hussein Trial Suspended Until December 21st
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Baghdad has been suspended until after parliamentary elections. The elections will take place on Thursday. The trial is to continue on December twenty-first. Saddam Hussein is on trial with seven other men. The charges involve the killing of more than one hundred forty people from the Shiite town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. They were executed after an attack directed at Saddam Hussein in nineteen eighty-two. Gunmen from a Shiite party fired at a vehicle in which he rode through the town. The Iraqi leader was rescued after several hours of fighting. Later, his security forces attacked Dujail. They destroyed houses and businesses, and took away most of the men. Many never returned. The trial began on October nineteenth. The seven other men charged include Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim. He was the Iraqi intelligence chief at the time of the killings. Another is Taha Yassin Ramadan. He was vice president from nineteen ninety-one to two thousand three. A third defendant is Awad Haman Bander Sadun. He was chief of Iraq's Revolutionary Court. He signed death sentences in connection with Dujail killings. A group of five judges will decide the case. A chief investigating judge questions those who give evidence in the court. So far, those witnesses have described watching close family members being questioned, tortured and killed. ?They have told how security forces destroyed crops and property in Dujail. And they have described being held for years in the Abu Ghraib prison. The men on trial, however, say the witnesses have not named them as connected in any way to these crimes. Iraqi and American officials planned the trial after American troops captured Saddam Hussein in two thousand three. The officials say holding the trial in the country provides a good example for a democratic Iraq.But violence has interfered with the trial. Two defense lawyers have been killed. Another has resigned. And officials have said they discovered a plot to attack the courtroom. Also, one of the judges left the trial when he learned that one of the defendants had signed an order for the death of his brother. The defendants have shouted at the judges and other people in the courtroom. Saddam Hussein has denounced the court and told the judge to "go to hell."? On Wednesday he refused to attend the trial. It continued without him. He has promised to be in court when the trial begins again on December twenty-first. The former president could be executed if found guilty of the Dujail killings. But Iraqi government lawyers are preparing twelve other cases that could be brought against him in the future. ?IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-10-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Percival Lowell’s Work Led to the Discovery of the Planet Pluto?
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Percival Lowell whose work led to the discovery of the planet Pluto. His efforts and imagination helped change the history of astronomy in America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Percival Lowell came from a New England family with a long history in America. The Lowell family first came to the colony of Massachussetts in sixteen thirty-nine. One of Percival Lowell’s ancestors, John Cabot Lowell, manufactured cloth. He became an important American industrialist in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Percival Lowell Percival’s father, Augustus Lowell, worked in the family cloth business. He settled his family in Boston, Massachusetts. Percival was born there in eighteen fifty-five. He had a younger brother, Abbott Lawrence, and a younger sister, Amy. VOICE TWO: Percival Lowell attended American and European private schools as a young man. He studied mathematics at Harvard University. After he finished his studies at Harvard in eighteen seventy-six, he traveled in Europe and the Middle East for a year. Then he worked as a financial officer in the cloth business of his grandfather. After several years, Percival realized he was not happy as a businessman. So he decided to travel to Japan to study its culture and language. While there, he was asked to go with a special trade group from Korea to establish trade relations with the United States. VOICE TWO(cont): In eighteen eighty-three, Mister Lowell traveled to Korea as a diplomat. He reported on a clash there between Korean and Japanese troops. Mister Lowell remained in East Asia for ten years. He returned home when each of his six books about East Asian subjects was published. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Percival Lowell also had an intense interest in astronomy and mathematics. In eighteen ninety-three he left Tokyo for the last time and returned to the United States. He decided to spend more time observing the planet Mars. He had studied observations by the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. He found notes that described markings on Mars that Mister Schiaparelli called “canali” Mister Lowell came to believe that intelligent life created the markings on Mars. VOICE ONE(cont): In eighteen ninety-four, he built an observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. He had the world famous telescope maker Alvan Clark and Sons make a telescope for his observatory. He began a program of observing not only Mars, but also Venus and Mercury. VOICE TWO: Mister Lowell published his first book about Mars in eighteen ninety-five. In it, he developed a theory that intelligent life had created waterways all over the surface of Mars. His theory was that Martians were trying to bring water to the warm areas near the equator of the planet. Mister Lowell’s theories were based on what were serious scientific studies of that time. Yet his theories about life on Mars may have had more lasting influence on many writers of imaginary stories. Three years after Mister Lowell’s book was published, H-G Wells published his famous book “War of the Worlds.”? Mister Wells’ story told of a Martian invasion of Earth. The Martians that he imagined lived on a dry and wasted planet. This is very similar to Mister Lowell’s description of Mars. Mister Lowell’s theories about Mars also influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mister Burroughs is best known for stories about “Tarzan.”? He also wrote a series of books about an American who traveled to Mars and fell in love with a beautiful princess. The popular series began in nineteen twelve with “The Princess of Mars.”? VOICE ONE: Mister Lowell’s book, “Mars and Its Canals,” was published in nineteen-oh-six. In that book, he expanded his theory about Martian life. He said he could see changes in the seasons on the surface of Mars. He said the darkening of the Martian surface during some times of the year was caused by the growth of plants. His theory of Martian life became so complex that he made maps of cities and waterways on the planet. Percival Lowell did not know that his eyes played a part in the markings he saw on Mars. Experts explain that the movement of air in the atmosphere and natural qualities of the human eye caused him to see markings that were not there. VOICE TWO: Percival Lowell also studied the effect of gravity on the planet Neptune. Small changes in the movement of Neptune led several astronomers to believe that an undiscovered planet was affecting Neptune’s orbit. Mister Lowell called it Planet X. Mister Lowell himself searched for Planet X for two years starting in nineteen-oh-five. He made the search by comparing two pictures of the same part of the sky. The photographs would be taken several weeks apart. The astronomer would then check both photographs. An object in the solar system could be identified if it appeared to move from its place in the earlier photograph. However, the first search failed. In fact, he failed to recognize Planet X in a few photographs. He searched again for it several years later. Percival Lowell did not have the chance to discover Planet X. He died suddenly in November, nineteen sixteen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The search for Planet X did not restart at Lowell Observatory for years. Then in nineteen twenty-five, Guy Lowell, a relative of Percival, gained control of the observatory. He decided to seriously search for Planet X. He wanted to continue the work Percival had started. In the following years, Percival’s brother, Abbott Lawrence, provided money to build a special photographic telescope. The new telescope was completed in early nineteen twenty-nine. That year, an observatory official, V.M. Slipher, offered a young man a job working with the new telescope. The young man’s name was Clyde Tombaugh. VOICE TWO Mister Tombaugh got a job a Lowell Observatory after he sent drawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars. He quickly learned how best to use the new photographic telescope at the observatory. He carefully planned his research to make the most of his time. On February eighteenth, nineteen thirty, he discovered an unusual object after less than one year of searching. The object moved slowly in the sky like a distant planet. Percival Lowell’s Planet X had been found! On March thirteenth, Clyde Tombaugh and V.M Slipher announced the discovery of a new planet. The date was the seventy-fifth anniversary of Mister Lowell’s birth. Mister Tombaugh continued to record the motion of the new planet for thirteen years. He found more than seven hundred small bodies that orbit the sun, called asteroids. He also discovered a number of star systems called galaxies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During his life, Percival Lowell did not enjoy the success he hoped to find in astronomy. He died long before the search for Planet X resulted in the discovery of Pluto. And his theories about waterways and complex life on Mars have been disproved. In nineteen sixty-five, NASA’s Mariner Four spacecraft showed that no waterways existed on Mars. Yet, the institution Mister Lowell established in Flagstaff, Arizona, has made many discoveries in addition to that of Pluto. Evidence that the universe is expanding was first discovered at Lowell Observatory by V.M. Slipher. Also, the rings around the planet Uranus were discovered there. Lowell Observatory now has four telescopes and is continuing to expand. It supports programs that bring astronomy to the public. Astronomers at Lowell and many other observatories continue to search for life beyond our planet. Their efforts continue Percival Lowell’s tradition of scientific investigation. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-08-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Californian's Tale
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the weekly Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) Our story today is called “The Californian’s Tale."? It was written by Mark Twain. Here is Shep O’Neal with the story. STORYTELLER:? When I was young, I went looking for gold in California. I never found enough to make me rich. But I did discover a beautiful part of the country. It was called “the Stanislau.” The Stanislau was like Heaven on Earth. It had bright green hills and deep forests where soft winds touched the trees. Other men, also looking for gold, had reached the Stanislau hills of California many years before I did. They had built a town in the valley with sidewalks and stores, banks and schools. They had also built pretty little houses for their families. At first, they found a lot of gold in the Stanislau hills. But their good luck did not last. After a few years, the gold disappeared. By the time I reached the Stanislau, all the people were gone, too. Grass now grew in the streets. And the little houses were covered by wild rose bushes. Only the sound of insects filled the air as I walked through the empty town that summer day so long ago. Then, I realized I was not alone after all. A man was smiling at me as he stood in front of one of the little houses. This house was not covered by wild rose bushes. A nice little garden in front of the house was full of blue and yellow flowers. White curtains hung from the windows and floated in the soft summer wind. Still smiling, the man opened the door of his house and motioned to me. I went inside and could not believe my eyes. I had been living for weeks in rough mining camps with other gold miners. We slept on the hard ground, ate canned beans from cold metal plates and spent our days in the difficult search for gold. Here in this little house, my spirit seemed to come to life again. I saw a bright rug on the shining wooden floor. Pictures hung all around the room. And on little tables there were seashells, books and china vases full of flowers. A woman had made this house into a home. The pleasure I felt in my heart must have shown on my face. The man read my thoughts. “Yes,” he smiled, “it is all her work. Everything in this room has felt the touch of her hand.” One of the pictures on the wall was not hanging straight. He noticed it and went to fix it. He stepped back several times to make sure the picture was really straight. Then he gave it a gentle touch with his hand. “She always does that,” he explained to me. “It is like the finishing pat a mother gives her child’s hair after she has brushed it. I have seen her fix all these things so often that I can do it just the way she does. I don’t know why I do it. I just do it.” As he talked, I realized there was something in this room that he wanted me to discover. I looked around. When my eyes reached a corner of the room near the fireplace, he broke into a happy laugh and rubbed his hands together. “That’s it!” he cried out. “You have found it! I knew you would. It is her picture. I went to a little black shelf that held a small picture of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. There was a sweetness and softness in the woman’s expression that I had never seen before. The man took the picture from my hands and stared at it. “She was nineteen on her last birthday. That was the day we were married. When you see her…oh, just wait until you meet her!” “Where is she now?” I asked. “Oh, she is away,” the man sighed, putting the picture back on the little black shelf. “She went to visit her parents. They live forty or fifty miles from here. She has been gone two weeks today.” “When will she be back?” I asked. “Well, this is Wednesday,” he said slowly. “She will be back on Saturday, in the evening.” I felt a sharp sense of regret. “I am sorry, because I will be gone by then,” I said. “Gone?? No!? Why should you go? Don’t go. She will be so sorry. You see, she likes to have people come and stay with us.” “No, I really must leave,” I said firmly. He picked up her picture and held it before my eyes. “Here,” he said. “Now you tell her to her face that you could have stayed to meet her and you would not.” Something made me change my mind as I looked at the picture for a second time. I decided to stay. The man told me his name was Henry. That night, Henry and I talked about many different things, but mainly about her. The next day passed quietly. Thursday evening we had a visitor. He was a big, grey-haired miner named Tom. “I just came for a few minutes to ask when she is coming home,” he explained. “Is there any news?” “Oh yes,” the man replied. “I got a letter. Would you like to hear it? He took a yellowed letter out of his shirt pocket and read it to us. It was full of loving messages to him and to other people – their close friends and neighbors. When the man finished reading it, he looked at his friend. “Oh no, you are doing it again, Tom! You always cry when I read a letter from her. I’m going to tell her this time!” “No, you must not do that, Henry,” the grey-haired miner said. “I am getting old. And any little sorrow makes me cry. I really was hoping she would be here tonight.” The next day, Friday, another old miner came to visit. He asked to hear the letter. The message in it made him cry, too. “We all miss her so much,” he said. Saturday finally came. I found I was looking at my watch very often. Henry noticed this. “You don’t think something has happened to her, do you?” he asked me. I smiled and said that I was sure she was just fine. But he did not seem satisfied. I was glad to see his two friends, Tom and Joe, coming down the road as the sun began to set. The old miners were carrying guitars. They also brought flowers and a bottle of whiskey. They put the flowers in vases and began to play some fast and lively songs on their guitars. Henry’s friends kept giving him glasses of whiskey, which they made him drink. When I reached for one of the two glasses left on the table, Tom stopped my arm. “Drop that glass and take the other one!” he whispered. He gave the remaining glass of whiskey to Henry just as the clock began to strike midnight. Henry emptied the glass. His face grew whiter and whiter. “Boys,” he said, “I am feeling sick. I want to lie down.” Henry was asleep almost before the words were out of his mouth. In a moment, his two friends had picked him up and carried him into the bedroom. They closed the door and came back. They seemed to be getting ready to leave. So I said, “Please don’t go gentlemen. She will not know me. I am a stranger to her.” They looked at each other. “His wife has been dead for nineteen years,” Tom said. “Dead?” I whispered. “Dead or worse,” he said. “She went to see her parents about six months after she got married. On her way back, on a Saturday evening in June, when she was almost here, the Indians captured her. No one ever saw her again. Henry lost his mind. He thinks she is still alive. When June comes, he thinks she has gone on her trip to see her parents. Then he begins to wait for her to come back. He gets out that old letter. And we come around to visit so he can read it to us. “On the Saturday night she is supposed to come home, we come here to be with him. We put a sleeping drug in his drink so he will sleep through the night. Then he is all right for another year.” Joe picked up his hat and his guitar. “We have done this every June for nineteen years,” he said. “The first year there were twenty-seven of us. Now just the two of us are left.” He opened the door of the pretty little house. And the two old men disappeared into the darkness of the Stanislau. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: You have just heard the story "The Californian’s Tale."? It was written by Mark Twain and adapted for Special English by Donna de Sanctis. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. For VOA Special English, this is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-11-voa2.cfm
* Headline: U.S. Group Expands Free Help in China for Children With Clefts
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Jim Tedder with the VOA Special English Development Report. Cleft lip is a medical condition that can be easily corrected. The cleft is a separation in the lip of the mouth. Cleft palate is a separation in the top of the mouth or the soft tissue at the back. Clefts usually develop in the early weeks of pregnancy. Males have the condition more often than females. And it is more common in some groups, including Asian and Latin American children. Researchers believe the condition involves genetic and environmental causes. Things like sickness, smoking or drug use, including alcohol use, during pregnancy may increase the risk. A simple operation can repair the problem. Doctors say that without treatment, children in developing nations are more likely to suffer a life of poor nutrition and social rejection. The Smile Train is an organization based in the United States. It provides local doctors in developing countries with training and equipment to perform cleft operations. The Smile Train has established programs in more than fifty countries. Last month, it announced plans to expand its program in China. The group currently works with one hundred thirty-five hospitals there. It plans to double that number over the next eighteen months. Former President George H.W. Bush is one of the supporters of the group. He was at the announcement in Beijing. The Smile Train began in nineteen ninety-nine. Each year it provides free cleft operations to more than one hundred forty-five thousand children around the world. Local doctors do the operations, which take as little as forty-five minutes. The Smile Train says the operations cost an average of about two hundred fifty dollars to perform. The group collects money through gifts to pay for them. A spokeswoman says one hundred percent of all the money given is used to help children. She says supporters pay the program costs. Internet users can learn more details at smiletrain-dot-o-r-g. The Web site lists a new telephone number for poor Chinese families to call to sign up for a free cleft operation. The group says it guarantees that every poor child in China who needs cleft surgery can receive it for free at one of the hospitals in the program. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m?Jim Tedder. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-11-voa3.cfm
* Headline: To Win New Visitors, Las Vegas Bets Its Money on Popular Image
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. A marketing campaign for Las Vegas says, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."? What does happen there?? That is our subject this week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Las Vegas, Nevada, began as a small settlement in a sandy desert. Trains stopped there for water. Today people stop there for a lot more. The city is famous for its hotels and casinos where people risk their money on games of chance. Many visitors to Las Vegas bring their families. There is entertainment by top performers. Not all the entertainment, though, is fit for children. To some people, Las Vegas is a moral wasteland -- "Sin City."? To others, that is the appeal. VOICE TWO: Away from the gambling and the big hotels, Las Vegas can seem like any other city. True, its mayor, Oscar Goodman, formerly served as a defense lawyer in organized-crime cases. But there are stores and schools and houses -- and lots of people who want to live in those homes. The population of Las Vegas and its surrounding communities is nearing two million. The federal government says the population rose by more than eighty percent between nineteen ninety and two thousand. In fact, in the national population count of two thousand, it was the fastest-growing area in the country. VOICE ONE: The weather is usually warm and sunny, and the air is dry. The average temperature is between nineteen and twenty degrees Celsius. The climate for jobs looks good, too. Many people move to Las Vegas to work in the hotels or the building trades, or in jobs that service those industries. Unlike most Americans, people who live in Nevada do not have to pay a state tax on their wages. VOICE TWO: But Las Vegas has a problem like that of many other desert communities. The city needs more water. The area depends heavily on Lake Mead, on the border with Arizona. Lake Mead is a man-made body of water fed by the Colorado River. But in recent years, a shortage of rain has decreased the water level in Lake Mead. To deal with the water shortage, Las Vegas sends some of its used water back into the Colorado River to use again. The city has some of the most severe restrictions in the country on the use of water for things like watering grass. Officials urge people to grow desert plants instead. But some officials believe that efforts to save water are not enough. They want to build to build a pipeline almost four hundred kilometers long. The pipeline would carry groundwater from other areas of Nevada to Las Vegas. It would cost two thousand million dollars to build. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:?????? Each year, more than thirty-five million people visit Las Vegas looking for a good time. The signs on the hotels are huge and brightly colored. Author Tom Wolfe wrote that Las Vegas is the only town in the world where the signs make up the skyline. Some of the most unusual hotels in America can be found along what is known as the Strip. Visitors to the Luxor Hotel, for example, can feel like they are in ancient Egypt. The three-sided building looks like a pyramid, only it is made of black glass. Inside, visitors ride in boats along what is meant to be the Nile River. There is a huge statue like an ancient Egyptian sphinx, and a burial place like that of King Tutankhamen. Another place along the Strip, the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, has a water-and-light show that visitors gather to watch. The Wynn Las Vegas Hotel is a recent addition to the Strip. It opened in April. The Wynn cost almost three thousand million dollars to build. VOICE TWO:?????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ?????????????? ??????? A number of older hotels in Las Vegas have been brought down in recent years to make room for new ones. Presidents Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy stayed with their families at the Sands Hotel and Casino. The Sands has been gone since nineteen ninety-six. Frank SinatraThe end was sad for people who remember hearing artists like Frank Sinatra perform there. Sinatra made the hotel a headquarters for more than forty years. Sinatra led a group of friends who were also famous. This so-called Rat Pack often entertained with him. The group included Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin. Listen as Dean Martin sings “Volare.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Visitors to Las Vegas have a lot of entertainment to choose from. Currently there are shows like “Mamma Mia” and "Avenue Q."? VOICE TWO: Cirque du Soleil is appearing now at four hotels in Las Vegas. The circus performers are known for the artistry and skill in their movements. VOICE ONE: They seem to fly through the air. Close your eyes and imagine you are watching them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is hard to imagine that Las Vegas once was just a lot of sand in the desert. American Indians long ago settled around a place where water rose from natural springs in the ground. Grass and other plants grew in this desert oasis. In Spanish, "Las Vegas" means “the meadows.” In eighteen sixty-five, a man from Ohio, Octavius Gass, had a farm of about three hundred twenty hectares there. The crops grew, kept alive by the water. A United States senator, William Clark of Nevada, later bought the land. Then, in nineteen-oh-five, Clark sold the land to settlers. Six years later, the Nevada legislature officially created the city of Las Vegas. VOICE ONE: Hoover DamThe growing population of the American West required more water. So the federal government built Hoover Dam. The project was finished in nineteen thirty-one. That same year, Nevada became the first state to approve casino gambling. Legal gambling became a way to get more visitors, and more money, into the state. The state needed the money because the population just kept increasing. Today, most of the fifty states have casinos. Often they are operated by Native American tribes. Many religious leaders and other people opposed the decision to make gambling legal in Nevada. By the nineteen forties, however, Las Vegas was famous for its casinos, and its showgirls. State laws also made Nevada a place where people could get married -- or unmarried -- quickly. VOICE TWO:?????????????????????? Las Vegas has long been seen as a place where adults can go to do things they might not be too proud of. In recent years, the city tried to remake itself into more of a family place. But that idea did not pay off as well. So the old image is back with sayings like "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."? To some people, Las Vegas still represents all that is bad about popular culture. But a Virginia woman who recently spent a few days there had this advise for visitors: “Do not gamble more money than you can lose without feeling bad. See the best shows. If you do those things, you will have a wonderful time.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our? program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-13-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Partial Face Transplant in France Leads to Medical, Moral Questions
* Byline: Written by Katherine Gypson, Anne Pessala and George Grow

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. We begin this week with a report on the world's first partial face transplant. VOICE ONE: Then, a study shows that the drug tamoxifen can help prevent breast cancer in women at high risk. VOICE TWO: And, later, children and the importance of sleep. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctors in France have carried out the first partial face transplant. They took the nose, lips and chin from a woman who was declared brain-dead and used them to repair the face of another woman. The thirty-eight-year-old French woman who received the tissue had been severely injured in the face by her dog. Last week the newspaper Le Parisien published a few comments that it said she made by telephone from her hospital bed. The woman, identified only as Isabelle D.,? said she was "doing very well."? She asked that the media leave her and her family in peace. VOICE TWO: There were still questions, however, about how the woman came to be injured by her dog earlier this year. Some news reports have said she tried to kill herself with sleeping pills. There have been suggestions that her Labrador retriever was just trying to wake her. Her doctors have said repeatedly that she did not try to kill herself. The dog was put to death. After the injuries, the woman was unable to speak or eat normally. She wore a mask to hide her injuries. The injuries were so bad that doctors said it might be impossible to repair her face with normal methods. Faces have at least five kinds of skin. For this reason, normal repairs with other tissue do not work well for facial injuries. These operations can leave bad scars on the face. VOICE ONE: Medical progress has made it possible for several years now for doctors to transplant faces. But this is the first time they have performed the operation on a living patient. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in the United States had been expected to perform the first operation. Many doctors, however, say they will not perform a face transplant. There are medical and moral issues. Medical experts note that a person does not need a face to survive. Many people wonder how patients would react when they see someone else’s face on their body. A face is an important part of a person’s identity. A face transplant could help an injured patient eat and speak. But those activities can be assisted other ways. Then there is the question of where to find faces to transplant. Many doctors believe that people would not want to provide the faces of dying family members. VOICE TWO: The transplant operation in Lyon lasted fifteen hours. It took place late last month. The doctors were not sure what the transplanted face would look like. They say the woman's new face looks very much like her old one. In a way, the transplant created a third face. It combined the bone structure of the patient with the skin and muscles of the donor. Doctors say the patient looked at herself in a mirror and was very happy with her new face. The nose, chin and lips came from a woman of the same age, blood type and skin color. The Sunday Times of London has reported that the tissue came from a woman who killed herself. It says her family gave permission for the transplant. VOICE ONE: The body often rejects organs from someone else. It could reject a new face. Transplant patients have to take strong medicines to prevent tissue rejection. But these medicines come with their own risks. Many doctors say facial transplants should not be performed on people who just want to look better. They say the operation should be saved for patients who cannot eat or speak on their own without a new face. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. A study has confirmed that the drug tamoxifen can prevent breast cancer among women with a high risk of developing the disease. Tamoxifen is a man-made hormone that blocks the action of the female hormone estrogen. Estrogen causes cancer cells to divide and spread. Earlier studies showed that tamoxifen reduces the chance of breast cancer developing again in women who had been successfully treated for the disease. A research group in the United States organized the study with support from the National Cancer Institute. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute published the findings. VOICE ONE: The study began in nineteen ninety-two. It involved more than thirteen thousand women who were at high risk of developing breast cancer. All the women were thirty-five years of age and older. The risk of breast cancer increases with age. So women sixty years of age and older were chosen based on age alone. About half of the women received tamoxifen. The others received an inactive substance, also known as a placebo. Neither the women nor their doctors knew which one the women were taking. The study found that after five years, women who had used tamoxifen were forty-nine percent less likely to get breast cancer. Study organizers then told the women if they were taking the drug or the placebo. They did this so every woman in the study could decide if she wanted to take the drug. VOICE TWO: Recently, scientists reported final results of the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial. They found that the women who used tamoxifen for at least five years were about forty-three percent less likely to get breast cancer than the other women. There were one hundred forty-five cases of invasive breast cancer among the healthy women who took the drug. Two hundred fifty women who took the placebo developed the disease. The study organizers also examined possible side effects of tamoxifen. There was almost no difference in the number of heart attacks between the tamoxifen users and women who took the placebo. Women who took the drug reported fewer broken bones in areas such as the hips, wrist and spine. But there was an increased risk of blocked blood passages, and also cancer in the uterus. The study organizers noted that other methods for preventing breast cancer are being tested. But in their words, "Tamoxifen remains the only proven chemopreventive treatment for breast-cancer risk reduction." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Reducing the amount of sleep that students get directly affects their performance at school. An American study asked schoolteachers to look at the effects of sleep restriction in children between six and twelve years of age. The teachers found that children who stay up late have trouble thinking clearly and demonstrate more learning problems. Gahan Fallone supervised the study at the Brown Medical School and Bradley Hospital in the state of Rhode Island. Doctor Fallone now works at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri. He presented the results last month at a science reporters conference in Washington, D.C. The publication Sleep also reported the findings. VOICE TWO: The teachers were asked to complete weekly performance reports on seventy-four schoolchildren. The study lasted three weeks. During the period, Doctor Fallone and his team controlled the amount of sleep the children received. One week, the children went to bed and awoke at their usual times. Another week, every child was kept awake later than normal. Each night, the youngest boys and girls had less than eight hours of sleep. The older ones were limited to six and one-half hours. During the final week of the study, each child received no less than ten hours of sleep a night. The teachers were not told the amount of sleep the students received. The study found that students who received eight hours or less had the most difficulty remembering old information. They also had trouble learning new information, completing difficult work and following directions. VOICE ONE: The study did not find that sleep restriction caused hyperactivity in the children. The teachers reported that students were, in fact, a little less active at school when they got less sleep. Doctor Fallone says the results provide experts and parents with a clear message: When a child has learning problems, the issue of sleep must be considered among the possible causes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Katherine Gypson, Anne Pessala and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Our programs are online at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-13-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Flower in Winter: The Poinsettia's Story
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In many colder northern countries, poinsettias are a sure sign that Christmas is near. Nearly all sales of this flowering plant come at wintertime. Yet the poinsettia is native to Central America and needs warm weather to grow. Red poinsettias are the best known. But there are about one hundred different kinds, and they come in several colors. Here is how the poinsettia became one of America’s most popular flowers: In eighteen twenty-five, a man named Joel Roberts Poinsett was appointed the first United States minister to Mexico. Mister Poinsett was a diplomat, but he was also interested in plants. He brought back examples of a colorful plant to the United States. The botanical name for the plant is Euphorbia pulcherrima (yoo-FOR-bee-uh puhl-KEHR-ee-muh). In Latin, that means?“most beautiful euphorbia.”? There are hundreds of members of the euphorbia family. Rubber trees, trees that produce castor and tung oil, and the cassava -- an important root crop -- are all members of this family. Wild poinsettias can grow to four meters in size. They contain latex, like rubber trees. The flowers of the poinsettia are very small. Around the flowers are colorful leaves called bracts. These make the plant popular. In the nineteen twenties, Albert Ecke and his son Paul became interested in the poinsettia’s ability to flower in winter. Paul Ecke thought it would be good at Christmastime. The two started a farm near Encinitas, California. At first Paul Ecke, and later his son, Paul Ecke Junior, grew large plants in fields. Then they sent them to growers by train. Growers could divide the large plants into cuttings, to raise smaller ones in greenhouses until the holidays. In the nineteen sixties came poinsettias that grew best in containers. The Eckes started to sell cuttings from these new plants. Today, five companies supply poinsettia cuttings for the world’s large growers. Three are European. In the United States, there is Oglevee in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, and the Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, California. The Ecke Ranch supplies about seventy percent of the cuttings used in the United States, and about half of the world supply. Poinsettias are the most popular potted flowering plant in America, with sales last year of about two hundred fifty million dollars. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-13-voa3.cfm
* Headline: New Standards Aim to Strengthen Curriculum for English Learners in U.S.
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: new standards for English learners in American public schools. RS: One in nine public school students is a non-native English speaker; in twenty years, it could be one in four. The largest percentage speak Spanish. The next largest, at just four percent, speak Vietnamese. Students bring a long list of languages to America's classrooms. But there is no national policy about how to teach English. AA: We learned all this from our guest. Kathleen Leos is an assistant deputy secretary of Education, in the Office of English Language Acquisition. She says the states face new requirements under the Bush administration's federal education law, passed by Congress in two thousand one. Not only do they have to develop English language proficiency standards, they have to link them to academic content standards in reading, math, science and social studies. KATHLEEN LEOS: "Non-English speaking students are held to the same targets in academic achievement and expectation as native speakers. However, there's different approaches and different ways to get there. "I think it's important to remember that you don't take a content test until the third grade. Most of the non-English speaking students in this country come into classrooms kindergarten and first grade. So they're learning the language with new academic language, not just social and communicative skills." AA: "What about for students who come in later? Are they given more time to learn?" KATHLEEN LEOS: "A student that's considered a recent arrival or newly arrived to the U.S. public schools, doesn't take a content test until after the second year of being in a classroom to learn language. And so even though after the first year they may take a math test, none of the scores are included in the new accountability system until after the second year. So there's a lot more flexibility that's given than what was originally intended in the law." AA: "That was because there was some pushback from the states, wasn't there?" KATHLEEN LEOS: "No, it was because the research -- we've been working with researchers, oh, since I first got here. And what we've been trying to do is figure out together what is it that is reasonable assessment aligned to your new content standards. What I think a lot of people heard for a while is a lot of either misinformation, misunderstanding and what I call complaining based on information that was not out there fast enough." RS: "In the meantime, what's happening around the country, how do -- " KATHLEEN LEOS: "Well, what's happening is what has been happening for thirty years -- not a lot. There are 'pockets of brilliance' that go on around the country. There are lot of schools that are doing really, really good things with non-English speaking students. But what I've described is a new comprehensive system that's systemic and systematic. And it takes time to develop and get that all the way down into the classroom. We're probably about halfway there. "The next focus, the next big push and drive out of the door is this aligned instruction -- I mean curriculum, with aligned instructional strategies. Along with that will be money for professional development and retraining of teachers." RS: "How would you see this developing in a classroom?" KATHLEEN LEOS: "Over the next five years, what will happen is with the new aligned curriculum and the new research-based strategies that are now being published right now -- they just went to the publishers November twenty-first -- is that teachers will have the tools that they need to approach multiple languages in classrooms. "And some of the approaches that are important for teachers to be able to use -- and this is what the science, you're going to hear this in about a month as the books are being published. The approach for not only in the language development but especially for pre-literacy and literacy skills are the same that are being used from the National Reading Panel for monolingual English-speaking students, which is development of sound. "The discrete articulation of sound is extremely important for non-English speakers. And what does that mean? Well, that's phonics and phonemic awareness, embedded with vocabulary. Lots of literature in the classroom, so that students are familiar in content -- vocabulary out of context isn't going to make a lot of sense. And structured in what we call explicit instruction. Our children are not used to being taught explicitly in classrooms. That's a different kind of teaching philosophy that kids will pick it up because they're interested, and that's just absolutely not true." RS: Kathleen Leos is assistant deputy secretary of Education, in the Office of English Language Acquisition. AA: She tells us there's no interest in threatening to withhold federal education money if states do not follow the new standards -- at least not yet, she says. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and we're online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: South Street Seaport Museum Offers a Living Link With the Past
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE:? This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we take you to visit another unusual museum in New York City, the South Street Seaport. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On September Second, sixteen-oh-nine, British Captain Henry Hudson was sailing along the east coast of North America. He ordered his ship into the opening of a wide river. Mister Hudson was working for the Dutch East India Company. He was looking for a way across North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. What he found was one of the best natural ports in North America. Less than sixteen years later, settlers supported by the new Dutch West India Company arrived near the opening of the same river, now called the Hudson River. They had come to stay. They began building homes on the southern end of an island called Manhattan. They also began building a port. Forty years later, the Dutch gave up their claim to the area to the British. VOICE TWO: The new British rulers named the area after James, the Duke of York. The area became New York. The British added to the small port. The area began to grow quickly. By the year seventeen forty-seven the people of the little port owned ninety-nine ships. Less than twenty years later there were more than four hundred ships in the port. The little city continued to grow very quickly. Today, New York is the largest city in the United States and one of the largest in the world. VOICE ONE: Early maps of Manhattan show a street across the southern end of Manhattan Island. The settlers built a wall there as protection. They named it Wall Street. Another was named Water Street. A third street was called Pearl. The street closest to the water was named South Street. Wall Street now is known around the world as the financial center of the United States. South Street, Water Street and Pearl Street are still there, too. It is within this area of Manhattan that some of the first European settlers tried to develop businesses in North America. Today it is the home of the South Street Seaport Museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: If you say the word “museum” most people think of a large building that holds objects that are important to history. The South Street Seaport Museum has such a building, but it includes much more. The Museum is a group of buildings, streets, homes, businesses and eating places. It also is a dock area for several ships that once sailed the oceans of the world. The Museum is a continuing work that will not be completed for many years. A visit to the South Street Seaport Museum should start at the corner of South Street and Fulton Street. On this corner, you can see much of Fulton Street. If you look across South Street you can see two huge sailing ships, the Peking and the Wavertree. A little more than a hundred years ago, goods were carried around the world by thousands of huge ships powered by wind in their sails. Today there are only a few such ships, including the two that belong to the Seaport Museum. VOICE ONE: The South Street Seaport Museum used to share an area with the Fulton Fish Market, one of the largest markets of its kind in the world. For more than one hundred eighty years, fresh fish from the market were bought, sold and transported to eating places all over the United States. In November, two thousand five, the Fulton Fish Market moved from the South Street Seaport. The fish market is now in a new, modern structure in the Bronx area of New York. VOICE TWO: Most visitors to the South Street Seaport Museum come to see the ships. The Peking is a huge sailing ship. It is one of the largest sailing ships left from a time when these were the only ships on the seas. It is more than one hundred two meters long. It has four tall wood masts that hold up its many cloth sails. The Peking looks very new. It is not. In fact, it is ninety years old. It was made at the shipbuilding company of Blohm and Voss in Germany in nineteen eleven. It took workers at the South Street Seaport Museum twelve years of very hard work to make the ship look new. VOICE ONE: Next to the Peking is the Wavertree. It is almost as large. The Wavertree was built in the British port of Southampton. It was built for the R.W. Leyland and Company of Liverpool. The Leyland Company used it for many years to carry goods and some passengers from Britain to the United States. It also carried goods to India, Australia, and South America. A severe storm almost sank the Wavertree in nineteen ten near the coast of Cape Horn, at the end of South America. The ship was kept in that area and used for storage for many years. Officials of the South Street Museum found the Wavertree in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in nineteen sixty-six. A year later, Museum officials decided to buy the old ship and take it to New York. VOICE TWO: Workers began rebuilding the huge ship in nineteen seventy. The work continues today. Progress is extremely slow because of the cost and the amount of work needed to rebuild a ship the size of the Wavertree. For example, workers had to re-build the three, tall wooden masts that hold the ship’s sails. Each mast had to be built specially for the Wavertree. The work is extremely hard. It can also be very dangerous. People who work on the masts often work many meters above the deck of the ship. VOICE ONE: Sal Polisi is an artist. All of his unusual art is cut out of wood. Mister Polisi is a wood carver. He makes signs for the South Street Sea Port Museum. He also makes woodcarvings for the Wavertree and the Peking. Sailing ships like the Wavertree had a large woodcarving called a figurehead on the very front of the ship. A figurehead helped identify a ship. It could be a carving of an animal or a human or perhaps a bird. The Wavertree’s figurehead is a woman. Sal Polisi used a very small and very old photograph of the Wavertree to reproduce the figurehead. It took several years to complete the huge statue of the woman. It weighs more than three hundred sixty kilograms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The South Street Seaport Museum also repairs the many old buildings that are part of the museum. The museum officials try to make them look as they did hundreds of years ago. One good example of this kind of repair work is the museum’s Bowne and Company Stationers. This building was home to a company of that name more than one hundred years ago. Bowne Stationers printed paper documents such as tickets, timetables of trains and boats, and business papers. The museum repaired the building and printing now continues in it. VOICE ONE: Today, computers control most printing. At the museum’s Bowne and Company printing shop, all of the printing is done the same way it was done a hundred or more years ago. The workers use hand operated machinery that produces specially printed materials. Visitors can have the museum shop print something just for them. A woman and man who are about to get married can get the Bowne and Company Stationers to print their wedding announcements. The little shop produces unusual and beautiful work. VOICE TWO: Officials of the South Street Seaport Museum are busy repairing a large group of buildings called Schermerhorn Row. A family with that name first owned the buildings more than two hundred years ago. The buildings will be the home of a museum show called “World Port New York.”? “World Port New York” will have objects that belonged to the first humans that lived in the area. It will show the early development of the area by the first settlers. ?The new part of the museum will show drawings and pictures of the South Street buildings and ship docking area, as they looked more than one hundred years ago. It will show how the little port helped the great city of New York develop into an important center of world trade. VOICE ONE: The oldest buildings of the new “World Port New York” show have a long and interesting history. The oldest was built in seventeen twenty-six. Many people have lived in some of the buildings. Other buildings have sheltered businesses, hotels and eating places. They have been used to store goods brought by ships from all over the world. The old buildings, like the rest of the South Street Seaport Museum, will continue into the future as a living link with the past. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-14-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Scientists Learn More About How Cancer Spreads
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists have learned more about the way cancer spreads from one place in the body to another. Once it spreads, it gets more difficult to treat. Cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth. Traditional thinking is that cells simply break off the main cancer, travel through the blood and grow in other organs. But the new findings suggest there is more to this process. Researchers found that cells from the main tumor send out messengers. These prepare the new organ for a secondary tumor. It works this way. The primary tumor releases proteins called growth factors into the blood. They signal cells at the target organ to produce a sticky protein, called fibronectin. Fibronectin attaches to the surface of bone marrow cells. The result is a kind of landing area for cancer to arrive and grow into a secondary tumor. The bone marrow cells help make vessels for blood to pass through and feed the cancer cells. The researchers believe that without the bone marrow cells, the tumors could not land on the new organ and grow. Scientists from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, led the research. The study appeared in the publication Nature. It involved laboratory mice. The researchers killed off bone marrow cells in the animals and replaced them with special new ones. The bone marrow cells were brightly colored, so the researchers could observe them. The mice were then injected with lung cancer cells. The researchers were surprised when the bone marrow cells reached the lungs days before any cancer cells. They found that the bone marrow cells arrived to prepare the lungs for the cancer to spread. Other tests led to similar findings. The researchers believe they would find the same results in humans. They say knowledge of the process could lead to new ways to fight cancer. Cancers can be caused by genetic or environmental conditions, or a combination. There are estimates that about one-third of cancer deaths could be prevented if people took better care of themselves. That includes better diet, exercise and no smoking. Researchers recently studied the causes of the seven million cancer deaths worldwide in two thousand one. They linked nine avoidable risks to almost two and one-half million of them. The study led by Harvard researchers in the United States appeared in the Lancet. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-14-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Teen Schooled by Mom Wins Top Science Competition
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Education Report. A sixteen-year-old boy from California has won first prize in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Michael Viscardi of San Diego does not go to high school. His mother teaches him at home. His mother has a doctorate in neuroscience. His father is a software engineer. Michael does, however, attend advanced math classes at the University of California, San Diego. He worked on his project with his professor. The project involved a mathematical problem first developed in the nineteenth century by the French mathematician Lejeune Dirichlet. The winning research shows solutions to the problem. One of the judges said the young man’s work could lead to new developments in heat flow and other areas of physics. One possible use is in designing the shape of airplane wings. The Siemens Westinghouse competition awards a top prize of one hundred thousand dollars for college to one individual and one team. The team prize this year went to two students from Arizona, Anne Lee and Albert Shieh. They will share one hundred thousand dollars in college money. They improved computer programs used to study large amounts of genetic information. The two did their work at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Arizona? Their research could lead to finding genetic changes that cause some disorders. The Siemens Foundation joined with the College Board and six universities to start the competition in nineteen ninety-eight. This year, more than one thousand six hundred students took part. Experts from the universities judge competitions in six areas of the country. The individual and team winners from those areas then compete nationally. They demonstrate their research projects to a group of university professors and scientists. The top winners were chosen last week. The Siemens Foundation created the competition to improve student performance in math and science in the United States. It is open to American high school students who develop independent research projects in the physical or biological sciences or mathematics. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-14-voa4.cfm
* Headline: Trade Drives America's Foreign Policy in the Late 1800's
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) During the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States was not concerned much with events in other countries. It was too busy dealing with events inside its own borders. At that time, the nation was recovering from its civil war. It was expanding to the west. It was developing industries. As production increased, the United States began trading more and more with other countries. And it needed a new foreign policy to defend its interests. I'm Bob Doughty. Today, Maurice Joyce and Larry West discuss America's foreign policy in the late eighteen-hundreds. VOICE TWO: A growing number of lawmakers called for a new foreign policy. One was Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Lodge said the great nations of the world were taking control of the world's undeveloped areas. As one of the great nations, Lodge said, the United States must not fall out of this line of march. Another lawmaker said: "Fate has written our policy. The trade of the world must and shall be ours."? Some of these ideas came from the writings of Captain Alfred Mahan. He was head of America's Naval War College. Mahan wrote that all the great nations in history had possessed great sea power. He said the United States must build up its sea power, too, if it wanted to be a great nation. Sea power, Mahan said, was more than a strong navy. It was an economy that could produce goods for export. It was trade ships that could carry the goods. It was colonies that could supply raw materials and markets. And it was overseas naval bases that could defend American interests far from home. VOICE ONE: The Washington Post newspaper described America's growing power this way: "A new understanding seems to have come upon us, an understanding of our strength. And with it, a new feeling -- we want to show our strength. We are face-to-face with a strange fate. The taste of empire is in the mouth of the people." The Washington Post was not speaking for everyone, of course. In fact, many American presidents of the late eighteen hundreds did not have this taste for empire. Yet they were forced to face the future. Changes were coming. And it was their responsibility to guide the nation through the changes. For this reason, the United States entered into several agreements with foreign lands during the late eighteen hundreds. VOICE TWO: In eighteen seventy-eight, for example, the United States signed a treaty with Samoa. The United States agreed to help the South Pacific islands settle any differences with other nations. A few years later, the treaty was put to a test. A group of Germans living in Samoa forced the islands' ruler from power. They replaced him with a ruler who was more friendly to Germany. For a time, it seemed the United States and Germany would go to war. But when American warships arrived in Samoa, so did a big storm. The storm smashed both American and German ships. Neither side was left with a force strong enough to fight. In eighteen eighty-nine, the United States, Germany, and Britain agreed that Samoa should be an independent kingdom. For ten years, local leaders attempted to establish a strong government. Their efforts failed. In eighteen ninety-nine, Germany took control of Samoa's large western islands. The United States took control of the smaller islands to the east. VOICE ONE: Events in another group of Pacific Ocean islands affected American foreign policy in the late eighteen hundreds. These were the Hawaiian islands. Hawaii was an important port for American trade ships sailing between the United States and China. Good relations between Hawaii and the United States were necessary to keep the port open to American ships. In eighteen ninety-one, Liliuokalani became queen of Hawaii. She was not friendly to the United States. A group of American businessmen and planters in Hawaii plotted to oust her. The group started an uprising. Then it called on the United States for protection. Queen Liliuokalani was forced to surrender. The businessmen and planters formed a new government. They wanted Hawaii to be part of the United States. By the end of the century, Congress had made Hawaii an American territory. VOICE TWO: The United States also offered to serve as a negotiator in several international disputes during the late eighteen hundreds. One dispute involved Britain and Venezuela. Both countries claimed land that bordered the British colony of Guiana on the northeast coast of south America. The situation became tense when gold was discovered in the disputed area. The United States offered to negotiate an agreement. Britain refused the offer. The United States offered again. Britain refused again. Finally, President Grover Cleveland asked the United States Congress to appoint a committee to decide the border. Before the American committee had a chance to Meet, Britain and Venezuela agreed to let an international committee decide. VOICE ONE: In eighteen ninety-five, Cuban rebels revolted against the colonial government. They tried to destroy the economy of the island by burning private property. Spain sent a large force to Cuba to crush the revolt. Thousands of persons were arrested and put into prison camps. Many died of hunger and disease. Spain was denounced for its cruelty. VOICE TWO: It was difficult to get a true picture of what was happening in Cuba. American newspapers sent reporters to the island. But much of what they wrote about never happened. The reporters knew very well that exciting and horrifying stories sold newspapers. So, they made up stories about bloody battles and Spanish cruelty. One incident has become famous in American newspaper history. Publisher William Randolph Hearst sent artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to paint pictures of the fighting. Remington spent several months in Havana. He saw no fighting. He sent? Hearst a message. Things were quiet, Remington said. There would be no war. Hearst sent back this answer: "You supply the pictures. I'll supply the war." VOICE ONE: The newspaper built up strong public feeling against Spain. Soon, many Americans were calling for war to free Cuba from Spanish rule. William McKinley was president. He did not want the United States to become involved. He did, however, offer to help Spain find a solution that would return peace to the island. Spain refused the offer. It attempted to improve the situation in Cuba by itself. Spain called home the military commander accused of cruelty. It stopped putting people in prison camps. It offered equal political rights to all Cubans. And it promised them self-rule in the future. VOICE TWO: President McKinley welcomed Spain's policy statements. He felt Spain should be left alone to honor its promises to the Cuban people. He said the United States would not interfere. At about that time, however, riots broke out in Havana. President McKinley said it was his responsibility to protect the lives and property of Americans living there. So, he sent the battleship "Maine" to Havana. During the early weeks of eighteen ninety-eight, President McKinley waited for Spain to act on its promises to Cuba. He saw little progress. Relations between the United States and Spain became tense. Then, on the night of February fifteenth, a powerful explosion shook the battleship Maine in Havana harbor. The ship sank. More than two hundred fifty American sailors were dead. VOICE ONE: No one knew what caused the explosion on the battleship Maine. The United States said it was an underwater bomb. Spain said it was something on the ship itself. There was some evidence the explosion was caused by an accident in the ship's fuel tanks. Yet some people in the United States blamed Spain anyway. They demanded war. They cried: "Remember the Maine!" That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-16-voa1.cfm
* Headline: When It Ain't Right to Use 'Ain't' in English, and When It Is
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week: We hear music from a new CD to help hurricane victims… Answer a question about the use of an English word… And report about the opening of a new center that honors a champion. Ali Center A new museum has opened in the city of Louisville, Kentucky. It honors the life and work of former boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Bob Doughty has more. BOB DOUGHTY: The Muhammad Ali Center opened last month, although it will not be completely finished for another year. The center was built in Louisville because it is where Muhammad Ali was born. The center is meant to be an educational and cultural international gathering place. The six-level building is a place to learn about Muhammad Ali and to help visitors discover ways to increase understanding among people. The center is also an attempt to help the world find ways to prevent war and violence. Muhammad Ali’s wife Lonnie said the center will be a place where people can work for peace and understanding. She said her husband did not want the museum to be only about him and his boxing. Exhibits in some areas show Ali’s boxing successes. Other areas remember the days of racial separation in the American South when the young Cassius Clay was growing up. He later became a Muslim and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. The civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties is the subject of one exhibit at the center. Muhammad Ali has worked for many years to improve human rights, ease conflicts and provide food for the poor. The fifth level of the building is divided into six areas that show the values in Ali’s life. They include believing in yourself, giving and spirituality. Interactive experiences show how Ali stood up for what he believed. Center officials say its aim is to use Ali’s life as an example that will help visitors recognize that they too can make a difference. Muhammad Ali is now sixty-three years old. He is battling Parkinson’s syndrome. It affects his speech and movement. Ali and his wife are considering moving back to live in Louisville so that they can spend more time at the center. Ain’t HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Joao Ademir dos Santos asks about the use of the English word “ain’t”. The dictionary says that “ain’t” is an example of nonstandard English. Standard English follows rules of grammar and usage that people? learn in school. Nonstandard English includes words or expressions that violate these rules. “Ain’t” is an attempt to combine the words “am” and “not” in a way similar to the way that “don’t” combines the words “do” and “not.”? Experts say it first appeared in English in seventeen seventy-eight. They say people in that time period also developed the use of “don’t” and “won’t.”? Later, grammar experts criticized the use of “ain’t” because it was used by uneducated people. In the nineteenth century, it was criticized because it was not a combination of two words. The meaning of “ain’t” also expanded to include “is not,” “has not” and “have not,” as in the expression “I ain’t got any.” Grammar experts and teachers continue to criticize the use of “ain’t.”? They say it is slang and should not be used in conversation. Yet sometimes it seems to be the right word to use for informal speech. It has been used in many expressions such as “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” “Say it ain’t so” and “Ain’t that the truth!”? People also use it in a joking way. However, it is not used in writing unless the writer is trying to express a kind of informal relation among a group of people. The book “Understanding English Grammar” says “ain’t” is an issue about manners, not grammar. The writer says ideas about the word would change quickly if television news reporters and the president of the United States used the word. One language expert said that teachers, news reporters and presidents do not avoid “ain’t” because it is nonstandard English. It is nonstandard English because such people do not use it. Katrina Relief Music HOST: The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, has influenced many musicians over the years. Now, it is time for musicians to help New Orleans. “Hurricane Relief” is a new CD that many musicians, producers and record companies came together to create. Faith Lapidus tells us more. FAITH LAPIDUS: “Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now” is the full name of this special new CD. This collection of music includes many new and old songs. It includes many kinds of music. Some of the songs are about New Orleans. The CD is not only important for its music, however. It also represents a high level of cooperation among many people in the music industry. Their goal was to “come together” to create an album that could raise money for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (MUSIC) That was “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton. Sixteen famous musicians took part in the recording. If you listened carefully you could hear the voices of musicians such as Ringo Starr and Mary J. Blige. The musicians and producers who made this album did not want to earn money from it. Instead, each time the CD is purchased, almost all of the profits will go to a relief organization. These organizations include the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and the MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund. Here is “City Beneath the Sea” by Harry Connick, Junior. It describes the music, sights and sounds of New Orleans. Connick should know -- he grew up in that city. (MUSIC) We close with the song “Come Together Now” which was written by the actress Sharon Stone and other songwriters. More than twenty musicians such as Natalie Cole and Celine Dion came together to make this special recording. This song expresses the idea of the whole album. It tells about the importance of uniting to help people and a city in need. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Our show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-16-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Owners of the New York Stock Exchange Vote for Change
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In April, the New York Stock Exchange proposed to join with Archipelago Holdings. On December sixth, members of the exchange approved the merger by a vote of ninety-five percent. The New York Stock Exchange is two centuries old. It is the biggest in the world in terms of the value of the stocks traded. The Big Board lists almost two thousand eight hundred companies. They have a combined worth of almost twenty million million dollars. Archipelago is less than ten years old. It is a trading technology company based in Chicago. It developed one of the first electronic trading systems. It now trades over eight thousand stocks. Many are also listed on other exchanges. The combined company will be called the N.Y.S.E Group. Current members of the N.Y.S.E. will own seventy percent of the new company. Archipelago shareholders will own thirty percent of it. The New York Stock Exchange still uses an "open outcry" system. Traders shout offers to buy or sell stocks on the trading floor. But trading electronically has become more and more important. John Thain is the chief executive officer. He talks of a "hybrid market" that combines human and electronic trading systems. Mister Thain says developing both gives investors the best price on trades. Increasing electronic trading is only part of the merger deal. Since nineteen seventy-one, the New York Stock Exchange has been organized as a non-profit corporation. The current owners are the almost one thousand four hundred members known as seatholders. The new owners will be shareholders. The exchange will become a public company like other major stock exchanges. And, like other public companies, it will have to report financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The New York Stock Exchange is a self-regulatory organization. It enforces its own rules for some of its members. The National Association of Securities Dealers supervises investment traders and trading companies. Some companies are supervised by both the exchange and the association. Some lawmakers and the Securities Industry Association are suggesting changes. They want to make policing the market simpler. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Internet users can read and hear our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-17-voa1.cfm
* Headline: East Asian Leaders Form New Group to Improve Area's Future
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Two meetings this week in Asia could set the direction for the future of world trade, and the future of Asia itself. In Kuala Lumpur, leaders of sixteen countries held the first East Asia Summit. The leaders met Wednesday in the Malaysian capital to plan for a united future. They agreed to create a group that will work together to improve economic, security and political conditions in Asia. The new sixteen-member group will include both China and India. The leaders represented the ten members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. They also represented Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The sixteen-member group will represent about three thousand million people, half the world's population. And it will represent about twenty percent of world trade. Both numbers are expected to increase in the future. An expert on Asia says it will have three of the four largest economies in the world by two thousand fifty. Some Asian leaders say the new group is needed because East Asia does not want to lose trade and influence to the Americas and Europe. Supporters say the new group could become an economic force like the European Union in the future. But that will take work. For now, the sixteen leaders from Asia and the Pacific have agreed to meet again next year. They plan to meet in the Philippine capital, Manila, just after the next ASEAN meeting. The other big meeting in Asia this week is the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization. There are protests outside, as at earlier meetings. The W.T.O. has one hundred forty-eight members. It is the only international organization that negotiates trade rules. The last ministerial conference two years ago in Cancun, Mexico, ended without a new trade agreement. Objections by poor countries to agricultural support programs and trade barriers in wealthy ones were major issues. The United States, the European Union and Japan said they have been trying to avoid such problems in Hong Kong. They announced plans for thousands of millions of dollars in aid to poor countries. They also announced plans to end import taxes on goods from some of these nations. Some officials, however, said the proposals came with too many conditions. The W.T.O. had hoped for a free trade agreement by the end of last year on trade in farm and industrial goods and services. Now the hope is to have one completed by the end of two thousand six. But in Hong Kong Friday, Reuters news agency said rich nations were arguing over protected farm markets. And developing countries threatened to block any deal that did not give them better prices for bananas, sugar and cotton. European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said the talks were, if anything, "going backwards."? The meeting is to end on Sunday. IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-17-voa2.cfm
* Headline: We Profile Five Special People Who Died This Year
* Byline: Written by Katherine Gypson and Caty Weaver

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five special people who died during the past year. We start with Johnny Carson. For millions of Americans, Johnny Carson was the last voice they heard before going to sleep at night. (THEME) VOICE ONE: That was the music of the popular late night television show called “The Tonight Show.”? Johnny Carson became host of the show in nineteen sixty-two. Johnny Carson Carson was almost thirty-seven years old when he took over the show. But he had been entertaining people since he was a child. He was born in Corning, Iowa in nineteen twenty-five.As a young boy, Johnny discovered he was good at telling stories. He also became interested in magic. He performed his first public magic show when he was fourteen. He called himself “The Great Carsoni.” Johnny Carson began his career in television in his twenties. He worked at local stations in Nebraska. Several years later, he moved to Los Angeles, California. He was the host on several comedy shows during the nineteen fifties. VOICE TWO: But it was “The Tonight Show” that made Johnny Carson famous for thirty years. He became the most popular star of American television. He was called “the king of late night.” Critics said Americans from all parts of the country liked him and felt they knew him. Carson seemed to be more like the people who watched his show than the actors, singers and other famous people who appeared on it. He did not take his fame seriously. For example, when asked how he became a “star,” he answered: “I started in a gaseous state and I cooled.” Carson’s special skill was his sense of humor. Audiences laughed at the jokes he made at the beginning of his show. However, sometimes they laughed even harder at the jokes that failed. He was the most powerful performer on television. Many comedians and singers became successful after appearing on “The Tonight Show.” Johnny Carson retired in nineteen ninety-two. He received many awards during his life. Carson died in January at the age of seventy-nine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: “The Last of the Mohicans” is a famous nineteenth century historical novel. It ends with the death of the last Native American from the Mohegan tribe. Gladys Tantaquidgeon, the most honored member of the tribe, let people know that the book was just a story. In fact, her tribe has about one thousand seven hundred members. No one did more to protect the traditions and beliefs of the Mohegans than Tantaquidgeon. She was born in eighteen ninety-nine in Uncasville, Connecticut. Gladys was educated in traditional Native American ways. The oldest members of the tribe taught the young girl herbal medicine, crafts and stories about Mohegan history. Tantaquidgeon went on to study anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She wrote books about Native American medicine and traditional beliefs. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-one she started the Tantaquidgeon Indian Museum in Connecticut. Today, it is the oldest museum in the country operated by Native Americans. Many schoolchildren have learned about Native American history at the museum. Gladys Tantaquidgeon collected the tribal documents that helped the Mohegan regain official recognition from the federal government in nineteen ninety-four. Tantaquidgeon also served as the tribe’s medicine woman. She was only the third woman to do so since eighteen fifty-nine. Gladys Tantaquidgeon died in November at the age of one hundred six. Leaders from many Native American tribes said she was a great woman who carried out her goal of making sure that the history and culture of the Mohegan tribe survived. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John H. Johnson was born in nineteen eighteen to a poor family in the state of Arkansas. He later owned the world’s largest black-owned publishing company. And he was one of the richest African-American businessmen in the country. He died in March at the age of eighty-seven. People of all races mourned the man who had given African-Americans a voice by creating several very successful magazines. John Johnson’s mother believed that her son would grow up to be a great man. She moved the family to Chicago, Illinois so he could get a better education. Johnson attended the University of Chicago and went to work at an insurance company. VOICE TWO: In nineteen forty-two when he was just twenty-four years old, Johnson had an idea for a new kind of magazine, the Negro Digest. It would give African-Americans news about political, business and social issues. He used a five hundred dollar loan to start the magazine and worked hard to make it popular. Johnson believed that African-Americans needed to see positive images of themselves in the American media. He later started two other successful magazines, Ebony and Jet. Johnson published books, owned radio stations and other companies. He also operated an organization that raised millions of dollars to help African-American students attend college. John Johnson believed that his life was proof that hard work could overcome almost any problem and open almost any door. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was “Missus Robinson” a song about a character from the popular nineteen sixty-seven movie “The Graduate.”? Anne Bancroft played Missus Robinson, a woman who starts a sexual relationship with a young man. She often said she was surprised that people remembered that one role when she had acted in more than fifty movies and plays. Her Italian immigrant parents named her Anna Maria Louisa Italiano when she was born in the Bronx, New York in nineteen thirty-one. From an early age, Anna knew that she wanted to become an actress. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. ? VOICE TWO: Anne Bancroft went to Hollywood, California in nineteen fifty. The head of a movie studio changed her last name to Bancroft. She starred in a series of low budget movies. She also appeared in plays on Broadway in New York City. One of them was “The Miracle Worker.”She played the teacher of the famous writer Helen Keller. In nineteen sixty-three, Bancroft won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film of “The Miracle Worker.” Anne Bancroft was one of the most honored actresses of her time. She died in June at age seventy-three. The director Mike Nichols praised her intelligence, humor, honesty and sense. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Writer and historian Shelby Foote wrote a series of best-selling books about the American Civil War. His storytelling skills brought the Civil War to life for millions of readers. He died in June at the age of eighty-eight. Foote had mixed feelings about the American South. He was troubled by discrimination against African-Americans but also felt a great loyalty to his Southern ancestry. Shelby Foote was born in Greenville, Mississippi in nineteen sixteen. He loved reading and listening to stories about his ancestors who fought in the Civil War. He served in the United States Army and worked as a reporter. Then Foote wrote several fiction novels about American Southern life. ?In the nineteen fifties, Shelby Foote began writing a three-book history of the Civil War. He wrote quickly, using an old-fashioned pen dipped in ink. It took him twenty years to complete the books. Together, they had more than one million words. VOICE TWO: Readers loved his way of writing about famous historical American leaders and generals as though they were characters in a novel. He became even better known in nineteen-ninety when he appeared in Ken Burns’s popular television series about the Civil War. Foote had a strong southern accent. He told stories about Civil War battles as though he himself had been there. At the end of his life, Foote was one of the most famous historians in the United States. When asked if he liked being famous, Foote answered: “It’s fun…but I’m dead set against all the hoo-rah.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Katherine Gypson and Caty Weaver. It was produced by Dana Demange. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-18-voa1.cfm
* Headline: The Ambitious Guest
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER:? Now, the Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES.(MUSIC) Our story today is called, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Harry Monroe with our story. STORYTELLER:? One December night, a long, long time ago, a family sat around the fireplace in their home. A golden light from the fire filled the room. The mother and father laughed at something their oldest daughter had just said. The girl was seventeen, much older than her little brother and sister, who were only five and six years old. A very old woman, the family's grandmother, sat knitting in the warmest corner of the room. And a baby, the youngest child, smiled at the fire's light from its tiny bed. This family had found happiness in the worst place in all of New England. They had built their home high up in the White Mountains, where the wind blows violently all year long.The family lived in an especially cold and dangerous spot. Stones from the top of the mountain above their house would often roll down the mountainside and wake them in the middle of the night. No other family lived near them on the mountain. But this family was never lonely. They enjoyed each other's company, and often had visitors. Their house was built near an important road that connected the White Mountains to the Saint Lawrence River. People traveling through the mountains in wagons always stopped at the family's door for a drink of water and a friendly word. Lonely travelers, crossing the mountains on foot, would step into the house to share a hot meal. Sometimes, the wind became so wild and cold that these strangers would spend the night with the family. The family offered every traveler who stopped at their home a kindness that money could not buy. On that December evening, the wind came rushing down the mountain. It seemed to stop at their house to knock at the door before it roared down into the valley. The family fell silent for a moment. But then they realized that someone really was knocking at their door. The oldest girl opened the door and found a young man standing in the dark. The old grandmother put a chair near the fireplace for him. The oldest daughter gave him a warm, shy smile. And the baby held up its little arms to him. "This fire is just what I needed," the young man said. "The wind has been blowing in my face for the last two hours." The father took the young man's travel bag. "Are you going to Vermont?" the older man asked. "Yes, to Burlington," the traveler replied. "I wanted to reach the valley tonight. But when I saw the light in your window, I decided to stop. I would like to sit and enjoy your fire and your company for a while."?As the young man took his place by the fire, something like heavy footsteps was heard outside. It sounded as if someone was running down the side of the mountain, taking enormous steps. The father looked out one of the windows. "That old mountain has thrown another stone at us again. He must have been afraid we would forget him. He sometimes shakes his head and makes us think he will come down on top of us," the father explained to the young man."But we are old neighbors," he smiled. "And we manage to get along together pretty well. Besides, I have made a safe hiding place outside to protect us in case a slide brings the mountain down on our heads."?As the father spoke, the mother prepared a hot meal for their guest. While he ate, he talked freely to the family, as if it were his own. This young man did not trust people easily. Yet on this evening, something made him share his deepest secret with these simple mountain people. The young man's secret was that he was ambitious. He did not know what he wanted to do with his life, yet. But he did know that he did not want to be forgotten after he had died. He believed that sometime during his life, he would become famous and be admired by thousands of people. "So far," the young man said, "I have done nothing. If I disappeared tomorrow from the face of the earth, no one would know anything about me. No one would ask 'Who was he. Where did he go?' But I cannot die until I have reached my destiny. Then let death come! I will have built my monument!" The young man's powerful emotions touched the family. They smiled. "You laugh at me," the young man said, taking the oldest daughter's hand. "You think my ambition is silly."?She was very shy, and her face became pink with embarrassment. "It is better to sit here by the fire," she whispered, "and be happy, even if nobody thinks of us."?Her father stared into the fire. "I think there is something natural in what the young man says. And his words have made me think about our own lives here. "It would have been nice if we had had a little farm down in the valley. Some place where we could see our mountains without being afraid they would fall on our heads. I would have been respected by all our neighbors. And, when I had grown old, I would die happy in my bed. You would put a stone over my grave so everyone would know I lived an honest life."?"You see!" the young man cried out. "It is in our nature to want a monument. Some want only a stone on their grave. Others want to be a part of everyone's memory. But we all want to be remembered after we die!" The young man threw some more wood on the fire to chase away the darkness.The firelight fell on the little group around the fireplace: the father's strong arms and the mother's gentle smile. It touched the young man's proud face, and the daughter's shy one. It warmed the old grandmother, still knitting in the corner. She looked up from her knitting and, with her fingers still moving the needles, she said, "Old people have their secrets, just as young people do."?The old woman said she had made her funeral clothes some years earlier. They were the finest clothes she had made since her wedding dress. She said her secret was a fear that she would not be buried in her best clothes. The young man stared into the fire. "Old and young," he said. "We dream of graves and monuments. I wonder how sailors feel when their ship is sinking, and they know they will be buried in the wide and nameless grave that is the ocean?" A sound, rising like the roar of the ocean, shook the house. Young and old exchanged one wild look. Then the same words burst from all their lips. "The slide! The slide!" They rushed away from the house, into the darkness, to the secret spot the father had built to protect them from the mountain slide. The whole side of the mountain came rushing toward the house like a waterfall of destruction. But just before it reached the little house, the wave of earth divided in two and went around the family's home. Everyone and everything in the path of the terrible slide was destroyed, except the little house. The next morning, smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the house on the mountain. Inside, the fire was still burning. The chairs were still drawn up in a half circle around the fireplace. It looked as if the family had just gone out for a walk. Some people thought that a stranger had been with the family on that terrible night. But no one ever discovered who the stranger was. His name and way of life remain a mystery. His body was never found. (MUSIC) Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-18-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Does Foreign Aid Work? Opinions Are Divided
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Foreign aid is an important part of international efforts to reduce poverty. The United States Agency for International Development has an estimate of the amount given since the early nineteen fifties. It says seventy countries have received more than one million million dollars in payments and loans from Western nations. But does foreign aid work?? Reporter Aida Akl recently discussed the issue with several experts for VOA's Focus program. Michael Radew is a researcher at the World Policy Institute in New York. He says foreign aid can lead to, in his words, "all the wrong economic policies that made those countries poor in the first place."? Mister Radew argues that it does not help the majority of poor people in a country. Instead, he says, it strengthens the officials in power who are generally unelected. Other experts say foreign aid has produced mixed results, depending on where and how the money is spent. They note successful examples like Taiwan and South Korea. The two have since become wealthy enough to give foreign aid themselves. Steve Radelet is a researcher at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. He says foreign aid is least effective in countries like Somalia and Haiti where governments are especially weak. And he says it is "highly risky" also in politically insecure countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. But Mister Radelet says the world must continue to give money,? even though some of it will disappear or be stolen. United Nations experts agree that foreign aid faces difficulties in parts of the world without much democracy. In southern Africa, poverty rates increased from forty-one percent in nineteen eighty-one to forty-six percent in two thousand one. The director of the Poverty Reduction Program at the World Bank notes the situation in sub-Saharan Africa. But Luca Barbone says foreign aid has done a lot to reduce poverty worldwide. Yet because it is often stolen or misused, there are calls for new methods of giving. George Ayitey?is a Ghanaian-born economics professor at American University in Washington. He says Western countries should give less aid, but remove trade barriers so they import more goods from developing nations. Professor Ayitey also suggests that donor nations direct how they want their money spent. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-18-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Spirit of the Season: Christmas Music and Traditions in America
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night."? Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas -- he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. ?VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying? them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO:?????? ??????? Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people,? the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. ?(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling."? A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) ?VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in eighteen ninety-one. VOICE ONE:????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. ?VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker."? It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-19-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Easier Way to Treat Malaria | Scientists Grow Human Brain Cells in Mice
* Byline: Written by Caty Weaver and Mario Ritter

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Pat Bodnar. This week on our show: Treating malaria an easier way ... VOICE ONE: Growing human brain cells in mice ... VOICE TWO: Mapping the genes of cancer ... VOICE ONE: And looking to the sky for the December solstice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new treatment for malaria will combine the most effective drugs currently used. And it will be easier to take. A non-profit group called the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative announced the news. It says the treatment will be ready by late next year, and will cost about half the price of current treatments. The new treatment will combine artemisinin with one of two kinds of quinine-based drugs. Artemisinin is made from a Chinese plant. Two drug companies have agreed to produce the new treatment: Sanofi-Aventis of France and Far-Manguinhos of Brazil. Those companies say they will try to keep the cost below one dollar. They also agreed not to earn a profit or seek patent protection for the new treatments. This means other companies will be able to make their own copies. VOICE ONE: Currently people have to take many pills to treat a malaria infection. The new treatment comes in one pill taken just two times a day for three days. Bernard Pecoul is director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. He says the simpler the treatment, the more likely people are to complete it. Now, people commonly have to take two different kinds of pills for malaria. Successful treatment requires both. But only one has a pleasant taste. It also makes people feel better quickly. As a result, Doctor Pecoul says, people often take only that pill. The new treatment avoids the situation. It combines the two drugs. The single pill will also use the newest medicines. Experts say this is important because the malaria parasite has developed resistance to older drugs. Yet those older drugs have often been the only ones priced low enough for poor countries to buy. Doctor Pecoul says his group is seeking approval for the new combination treatment in countries with the highest rates of malaria. These are in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Several public and private groups established the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative in two thousand three. They include the World Health Organization and the French group Doctors Without Borders. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, from Washington. Scientists in La Jolla, California, say they have grown human brain cells in mice. The researchers at the Salk Institute used human stem cells in the process. Stem cells can develop into other kinds of cells, including brain cells. The researchers say they placed about one hundred thousand stem cells into the brains of mouse embryos. The embryos were two weeks old. The researchers removed them from pregnant mice temporarily to inject the embryos with the stem cells. The stem cells came from human embryos very early in their development. They were engineered to produce a green light. This made it easy to see which cells developed from the human material and which came from the mice. VOICE ONE: Professor Fred Gage led the research. He says most of the human stem cells did not survive. Less than one percent became human brain cells in the mice. But Mister Gage says those that did survive developed into fully active brain cells. The professor says the human brain cells adapted to their new environment. They moved around and settled into different areas of the mouse brain. They grew to the size and shape of the surrounding brain cells. The scientists say they are not sure how or why this happened. But Professor Gage says it shows that injecting human stem cells into a mouse brain does not restructure the brain. VOICE TWO: Similar studies in the past used older stem cells and adult mice. Many times the cells formed tumor growths. Other times the mouse’s body simply rejected the human cells. The scientists at the Salk Institute in California say no such problems appeared when they injected young stem cells into unborn mice. Researcher Allyson Moutri says the findings could lead to new ways to study human disease. The scientists say their work could help speed the testing of drugs to treat diseases that destroy the brain. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each year around December twenty-first the sun reaches its southernmost position in the sky. This event is called a solstice. The December solstice marks the beginning of winter for people in the northern half of the world. And it marks the beginning of summer for people in the southern half. The word solstice comes from French and Latin. It describes a time when the sun appears to stand still as it moves to the north or south. We usually think of the sun as moving only east to west. That gives us day and night. But a slow movement northward and southward gives us our seasons. Really, to be exact, we should say apparent movement. People used to think the sun orbited the Earth, not the opposite. And how long does one orbit take?? It takes one year. VOICE TWO: Between the south pole and the north pole is an axis. Earth turns around this imaginary line. The axis is fixed in space in one direction. But as our planet moves through space, that direction changes in relation to the sun. At the June solstice, the southern hemisphere is pointed away from the sun by about twenty-three degrees. At the December solstice, the southern hemisphere is pointed about twenty-three degrees toward the sun. VOICE ONE: People who live near the equator have days and nights of fairly equal length all year. They are said to live in the tropics -- that is, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. These are simply lines of latitude, lines that measure a position on a map in terms of degrees. If you live between the lines, the seasons all seem pretty much the same. The June solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. The Tropic of Cancer is about the same northern latitude as Havana, Cuba. On that day, usually June twenty-first, the sun appears at its northernmost position in the sky. At the December solstice, the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn, the same southern latitude as Sao Paulo, Brazil. VOICE TWO: While the southern half of the world enjoys long days, people in the north have long nights. And the farther north, the longer the nights. Without sunlight, temperatures drop. So our seasons and the length of our days are linked. The Naval Observatory in Washington says winter solstice will take place at eighteen hours thirty-five Universal Time Wednesday. Here in Washington, we will have about nine-and-a-half hours of daylight. People in Reykjavik, Iceland, will have less than four hours of sun. If you live in Murmansk, Russia, the sun will not rise at all on the day of the solstice. In fact, you would have last seen the sun on December third. And you will not see it again until January seventh. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In recent years, scientists have made important progress in studying genetics. In two thousand three, they completed the Human Genome Project -- a map of the genes that make a person. Now, researchers in the United States plan to do the same with cancer. Experts say more than two hundred different diseases are now defined as cancer. And they say all forms of cancer involve genetic changes. Last week, the National Institutes of Health announced plans for the Cancer Genome Atlas. Doctor Elias Zerhouni, the director of N.I.H., says maps of cancer genes could lead to major improvements in testing and treatment. He says the atlas could also lead to new methods for cancer prevention. The effort will begin with a three-year test project at a cost of one hundred million dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Caty Weaver, Jerilyn Watson and Mario Ritter. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And our thanks to astronomer Mark Stollberg at the Naval Observatory. I’m Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-19-voa2.cfm
* Headline: All About the Birds and the Bees -- No, Just the Bees
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Most people have heard the sound of bees among flowers. Bees live almost everywhere in the world -- except the arctic areas. Many kinds of agriculture depend on these small, social insects. Without bees, fruit and nut growers as well as many other farmers would not have a crop. There are more than twenty thousand kinds of bees. But only honey bees make enough honey for people to use. Honey bees are highly organized social insects. They work together in a group called a colony. Each colony lives in a hive. It contains one queen bee -- she lays all the eggs from which the members of the colony come. Each colony has only a few hundred males, called drones. The majority of all bees in a colony are workers, which are all females. Bees even have a special stomach, called a honey stomach. It is used to store sweet fluid that the bees gather from flowers. Bees also have long hairs on their body and legs. These hairs capture pollen as bees go from flower to flower. Some of the pollen is taken back to the hive. Some, however, is passed to the next flower. This is how many plants are fertilized. Pollen is the reproductive material of plants. Many important agricultural crops depend on bees for fertilization. Inside their hives, bees store sweet fluid from flowers, called nectar, and also pollen. They may even gather nectar from some other kinds of insects. These kinds of nectar are also stored in the hive. Bees have organs that produce a fatty substance called wax. They use wax to build structures in the hive that hold eggs and store honey. Bees make honey through a process. They add liquid from their own mouths to the nectar they have stored in the hive. The liquid breaks down the nectar into simple sugars. As the honey is stored, it dries. It becomes thicker and darker. Honey can be very thin and light in color or dark and thick. How the honey looks depends on the kinds of flowers used by the bees. Most honey is the easily recognized golden color. Although bees are often thought of as honey-makers, they provide a surprising number of products. Also, their greatest economic value is in fertilizing crops -- not in making honey. Next week, we will tell about important products provided by bees. We will also tell about problems in beekeeping. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-20-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 'Merry Christmas' vs. 'Happy Holidays': More Than a Simple Choice of Words
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the paradox of a social greeting designed not to offend anyone that, by its very design, offends some people. RS: Next Sunday, most Americans will celebrate Christmas. This year, by coincidence, Sunday is also the first night of Hanukkah, a minor festival in Judaism. And the next day is the start of Kwanzaa, a seasonal African-American celebration. AA: As America has grown more diverse -- in fact, experts see more Muslims than Jews in its future -- the traditional greeting "Merry Christmas" is often replaced with "Happy Holidays." Many "Christmas trees" are now "holiday trees." The reasoning goes that "Happy Holidays" is all-inclusive: it can also include the New Year. RS: But what some people see as cultural sensitivity looks to others like nothing more than political correctness gone wild. The Global Language Monitor is a California company that tracks the use of language on the Internet and in the media. Its president, Paul J.J. Payack, says his small staff has been following the debate over "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" all the way to Washington. PAUL PAYACK: "The main thing in the capital is Bush's Christmas cards, OK? He sent out his Christmas cards and they say "Happy Holidays" all over them. And people are offended because they think it's giving in to political correctness. On the other hand, he's always said 'Happy Holidays' on his Christmas cards. "And if you go back through the history of presidential Christmas cards, [which] really started with John Kennedy -- John Kennedy actually only sent out a few thousand, and he had his staff demarcate between those who celebrate Christmas and those that celebrate Hanukkah. Now the president sends out 1.4 million cards! [laughter]" RS: "So what's the deal here?" PAUL PAYACK: "What we're finding is that there's, it's kind of like there's a backlash where people are trying to say 'Merry Christmas' where they normally might say 'Happy Holidays,' because they see it as what's called the 'war against Christmas,' as some of the commentators are calling it. And there's not really a war against Christmas, but it's the idea that many major companies just take the name Christmas out of everything. "OK, in Boston, this was an interesting one, that a farmer, a tree farmer in Nova Scotia, donated this large, magnificent tree as the Christmas tree for the Boston Common. So the mayor sends out something that says, we're going to have a holiday tree-lighting ceremony. Well, people went berserk, and the fellow that donated the tree said, I want it back if it's not a Christmas tree. It's not a holiday tree, it's a Christmas tree." AA: "So what happened?" PAUL PAYACK: "Well, they changed it back to Christmas tree." AA: Which probably made our next guest happy. Joseph Farah hosts a radio talk show and is editor of WorldNetDaily.com. For the past few years he's gotten Christmas cards from the president. We asked him his reaction to this year's greeting. JOSEPH FARAH: "Well, it looked like the cards from the previous three years that I saw. It was a 'Happy Holidays' message, and I opened it, looked at it briefly for about five seconds, and put it in the garbage." AA: "Because it didn't use the word Christmas." JOSEPH FARAH: "Yep. I know a lot of people say -- why would, I mean he's wishing you a happy holiday, what's wrong with that? And what's wrong with it is, that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas in this country. Ninety-six percent -- you don't get that kind of unanimity on very many issues. But yet for some reason we want to pretend that Christmas is equal to Kwanzaa, Christmas is equal to Hanukkah. "I don't know any Jews who think, by the way, that Hanukkah has the same kind of importance in their life that the birth of Jesus has to Christians. And so it's not equal. But yet there's this determined effort by our culture -- and evidently some of our political leaders -- to, eh, make it all one big, happy picture. "And, by the way, I would also point out that the president has been outspoken in courting Muslims in recent years, holding Ramadan dinners in the White House, and he doesn't say 'Happy Holidays' to those folks. He talks about Ramadan, what it means, in very specific terms." RS: Joseph Farah makes his opnions known through radio, print and the Web site WorldNetDaily.com. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our reports are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. VOA/AA/rs/rms 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-20-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Researchers Seek Genetic Map of Cancer
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week, we discussed new findings about the way cancer spreads from one part of the body to another. Now, medical researchers in the United States are beginning an effort to find the genes that cause cancer. Experts say cancer is not a single disease, but more than two hundred different diseases. In each case, they say, uncontrolled cell growth starts with molecular changes at the genetic level. In some cases the cells metastasize, or spread to other parts of the body, making the cancer more difficult to treat. The Cancer Genome Atlas project could lead to new treatments and possibly even new ways to prevent cancer. Officials of the National Institutes of Health have agreed to spend one hundred million dollars over the next three years. Depending on the results, the project may be expanded in the future. Doctor Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health announced the project last week. Half the money will come from the National Cancer Institute. The other half will come from the National Human Genome Research Institute, where Doctor Collins is the director. The idea for the project came about after the successful effort to map the human genes. The Human Genome Project was completed in two thousand three. Now scientists will use that same technology to search for the genetic changes that lead to cancer. But they say mapping cancer genes will be much more complex than the human genome project. The researchers will study hundreds of examples of tissue taken from cancerous growths. Cancer is the second leading killer in most developed countries, after heart disease. But survival rates have improved with medical progress in finding, treating and preventing cancer. Researchers have worked for years to find the many genetic changes involved in cancer. But so far they have found very few. Many researchers have called for a systematic way to study cancer. Drugs have successfully blocked some cancer-causing genes. But experts say only a small number of people have the genetic conditions that the drugs target. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Internet users can learn more about the Cancer Genome Atlas project at the government Web site genome-dot-gov, g-e-n-o-m-e dot g-o-v. And our reports are online at voaspecialenglish. I'm Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-21-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Where Did the English Language Come From?
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the first of two programs about the history of the English Language. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More people are trying to learn English than any other language in the world. English is the language of political negotiations and international business. It has become the international language of science and medicine. International treaties say passenger airplane pilots must speak English. English is the major foreign language taught in most schools in South America and Europe. School children in the Philippines and Japan begin learning English at an early age. English is the official language of more than seventy-five countries including Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, and South Africa. In countries where many different languages are spoken, English is often used as an official language to help people communicate. India is good example. English is the common language in this country where at least twenty-four languages are spoken by more than one million people. VOICE TWO: Where did the English language come from?? Why has it become so popular? To answer these questions we must travel back in time about five thousand years to an area north of the Black Sea in southeastern Europe. Experts say the people in that area spoke a language called Proto-Indo-European. That language is no longer spoken. Researchers do not really know what it sounded like. Yet, Proto-Indo-European is believed to be the ancestor of most European languages. These include the languages that became ancient Greek, ancient German and the ancient Latin. Latin disappeared as a spoken language. Yet it left behind three great languages that became modern Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and one of the languages that developed into English. VOICE ONE: The English language is a result of the invasions of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years. The invaders lived along the northern coast of Europe. The first invasions were by a people called Angles about one thousand five hundred years ago. The Angles were a German tribe who crossed the English Channel. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes. These groups found a people called the Celts, who had lived in Britain for many thousands of years. The Celts and the invaders fought. After a while, most of the Celts were killed, or made slaves. Some escaped to live in the area that became Wales. Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is called Anglo-Saxon or Old English. Old English is extremely difficult to understand. Only a few experts can read this earliest form of English. VOICE TWO: Several written works have survived from the Old English period. Perhaps the most famous is called Beowulf. It is the oldest known English poem. Experts say it was written in Britain more than one thousand years ago. The name of the person who wrote it is not known. Beowulf is the story of a great king who fought against monsters. He was a good king, well liked by his people. A new book by Seamus Heaney tells this ancient story in modern English. Listen as Warren Scheer reads the beginning of this ancient story. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: The next great invasion of Britain came from the far north beginning about one thousand one hundred years ago. Fierce people called Vikings raided the coast areas of Britain. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and other northern countries. They were looking to capture trade goods and slaves and take away anything of value. In some areas, the Vikings became so powerful they built temporary bases. These temporary bases sometimes became permanent. Later, many Vikings stayed in Britain. Many English words used today come from these ancient Vikings. Words like “sky,”? “leg,” “skull,” “egg,”? “crawl,” “ lift” and “take” are from the old languages of the far northern countries. VOICE TWO: The next invasion of Britain took place more than nine hundred years ago, in ten sixty-six. History experts call this invasion the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror led it. The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France. They became the new rulers of Britain. These new rulers spoke only French for several hundred years. It was the most important language in the world at that time. It was the language of educated people. But the common people of Britain still spoke Old English. Old English took many words from the Norman French. Some of these include “damage,”? “prison,” and “marriage.”? Most English words that describe law and government come from Norman French. Words such as “jury,” “parliament,” and? “justice.”? The French language used by the Norman rulers greatly changed the way English was spoken by eight hundred years ago. English became what language experts call Middle English. As time passed, the ruling Normans no longer spoke true French. Their language had become a mix of French and Middle English. VOICE ONE: Middle English sounds like modern English. But it is very difficult to understand now. Many written works from this period have survived. Perhaps the most famous was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet who lived in London and died there in fourteen hundred. Chaucer’s most famous work is “The Canterbury Tales,” written more than six hundred years ago. “The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of poems about different people traveling to the town of Canterbury. Listen for a few moments as Warren Scheer reads the beginning of Chaucer’s famous “Canterbury Tales.” (SOUND) Now listen as Mister Scheer reads the same sentences again, but this time in Modern English. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: English language experts say Geoffrey Chaucer was the first important writer to use the English language. They also agree that Chaucer’s great Middle English poem gives us a clear picture of the people of his time. Some of the people described in “The Canterbury Tales” are wise and brave; some are stupid and foolish. Some believe they are extremely important. Some are very nice, others are mean. But they all still seem real. VOICE ONE: The history of the English language continues as Middle English becomes Modern English, which is spoken today. That will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week to hear the second part of the History of the English Language on the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-21-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Over One Million U.S. Students Are Home-Schooled
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 I'm Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week, we told you about a big honor for a California teenager who is home-schooled. Sixteen-year-old Michael Viscardi of San Diego won first prize in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. He showed solutions to a nineteenth-century math problem. Michael has been schooled by his mother, who has a doctorate in neuroscience. He also worked on his project with a professor at a university. Home-schoolers have won other honors including national competitions in geography and spelling. The National Center for Education Statistics did its latest research on home-schooling in two thousand three. Researchers found that more than one million American students learned at home. That was more than two percent of the school-age population. The report said the number of home-schooled students had increased. In? nineteen ninety-nine, about eight hundred fifty thousand students were considered home-schooled. This meant they were taught at home instead of a school for at least part of their education. The students’ time spent in public or private schools could not be more than twenty-five hours a week. Michael Viscardi, for example, has been taught mostly at home, but with advanced math classes at a local university. The researchers asked parents why they home-schooled their children. Thirty-one percent said the most important reason was concern about the environment of the local schools. Thirty percent said it was to provide religious instruction. Sixteen percent said they were not satisfied with the quality of the instruction in the local schools. The Associated Press recently reported about an increase in the number of black Americans home-schooling their children. An education expert said much of this increase was in cities with histories of racial tension. Also, some families were concerned that local schools were not teaching about African-American history and culture. Critics of home-schooling say children need to attend school to help them learn social skills. They also say that some home-schooled children do not get a very good education. Still, all fifty states and the District of Columbia permit home-schooling. But some require more parent preparation or student testing than other states do. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-21-voa3.cfm
* Headline: United States Declares War on Spain in 1898
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell about the Spanish-American War, which took place in the late eighteen hundreds during the administration of President William McKinley. VOICE TWO: Unlike other presidents of the late eighteen hundreds, William McKinley spent much of his presidency dealing with foreign policy. The most serious problem involved Spain. Spain ruled Cuba at that time. Cuban rebels had started a fight for independence. The Spanish government promised the cuban people equal rights and self-rule...but in the future. The rebels did not want to wait. President McKinley felt Spain should be left alone to honor its promises. He also felt responsible for protecting the lives and property of Americans in Cuba. When riots broke out in Havana, he ordered the battleship "Maine" to sail there. One night in early eighteen ninety-eight, a powerful explosion sank the Maine. More than two hundred fifty American sailors died. There was some evidence the explosion was caused by an accident in the ship's fuel tanks. But many Americans blamed Spain. They demanded war to free Cuba and make it independent. VOICE ONE: President McKinley had a difficult decision to make. He did not want war. As he told a friend: "I fought in our Civil War. I saw the dead piled up. I do not want to see that again." But McKinley also knew many Americans wanted war. If he refused to fight Spain, his Republican Party could lose popular support. So, he did not ask Congress for a declaration of war right away. He sent a message to the Spanish government, instead. McKinley demanded an immediate ceasefire in Cuba. He also offered his help in ending the revolt. By the time Spain agreed to the demands, McKinley had made his decision. He asked Congress for permission to use military force to bring peace to Cuba. Congress agreed. It also demanded that Spain withdraw from Cuba and give up all claims to the island. The president signed the congressional resolution. The Spanish government immediately broke relations. On April twenty-fifth, eighteen ninety-eight, the United States declared war on Spain. VOICE TWO: The American Navy was ready to fight. It was three times bigger than the Spanish navy. It also was better trained.A ship-building program begun fifteen years earlier had made the American Navy one of the strongest in the world. Its ships were made of steel and carried powerful guns. Part of the American Navy at that time was based in Hong Kong. The rest was based on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Admiral George Dewey commanded the Pacific Fleet. Dewey had received a message from the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt. If war broke out, it said, he was to attack the Spanish naval force in the Philippines. The Spanish force was commanded by Admiral Patricio Montojo. VOICE ONE: The American fleet arrived in Manila Bay on May first. It sailed toward the line of Spanish ships. The Spanish fired first. The shells missed. When the two naval forces were five thousand meters apart, Admiral Dewey ordered the Americans to fire. After three hours, Admiral Montojo surrendered. Most of his ships were sunk. Four hundred of his men were dead or wounded. American land forces arrived several weeks later. They captured Manila, giving the United States control of the Philippines. VOICE TWO: Dewey was suddenly a hero. Songs and poems were written about him. Congress gave him special honors. A spirit of victory spread across the nation. People called for an immediate invasion of Cuba. Unlike the Navy, America's Army was not ready to fight. When war was declared, the Army had only about twenty-five thousand men. Within a few months, however, it had more than two hundred thousand. The soldiers trained at camps in the southern United States. One of the largest camps was in Florida. Cuba is just one hundred fifty kilometers off the coast of Florida. VOICE ONE: Two weeks after the Spanish-American War began, the Army sent a small force to Cuba. The force was ordered to inspect the north coast of Cuba and to take supplies to Cuban rebels. That invasion failed. But the second one succeeded. Four hundred American soldiers landed with guns, bullets, and supplies for the rebels. Next, the Army planned to send twenty-five thousand men to Cuba. Their goal was the Port of Santiago on the south coast. American ships had trapped a Spanish naval force there earlier. One of the commanders of the big American invasion force was Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when the war started. He organized a group of horse soldiers. Most of the men were cowboys from America's southwest. They could ride and shoot well. Some were rich young men from New York who simply shared Roosevelt's love of excitement. The group became known as Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." VOICE TWO: As the Americans landed near Santiago, Spanish forces withdrew to positions outside the city. The strongest force was at San Juan Hill. The Spanish soldiers used smokeless gunpowder. This made their artillery hard to find. The Americans did not have the smokeless powder. But they had gatling machine guns which poured a stream of bullets at the enemy. When the machine guns opened fire, American soldiers began moving up San Juan Hill. Several American reporters watched. Later, one of them wrote this report: "I have seen many pictures of the charge on San Juan Hill. But none seem to show it as I remember it. In the pictures, the men are running up the hill quickly in straight lines. There seem to be so many men that no enemy could stand against them. "In fact," said the reporter, "there were not many men. And they moved up the hill slowly, in a close group, not in a straight line. It seemed as if someone had made a terrible mistake. One wanted to call to these few soldiers to come back." VOICE ONE: The American soldiers were not called back. They reached the top of San Juan Hill. The Spanish soldiers fled. "All we have to do," an American officer said, "is hold on to the hill. . . And Santiago will be ours." American Commander General William Shafter sent a message to Spanish Commander General Jose Toral. Shafter demanded Toral's surrender. While he waited for an answer, the Spanish naval force tried to break out of Santiago Harbor. The attempt failed, and the Americans took control of the port. The loss destroyed any hope that Spain could win the war. There was now no way it could send more soldiers and supplies to Cuba. General Toral agreed to a short ceasefire so women and children could leave santiago. But he rejected General Shafter's demand of unconditional surrender. American artillery then attacked Santiago. General Toral defended the city as best he could. Finally, on July seventeenth, he surrendered. The United States promised to send all his soldiers back to Spain. VOICE TWO: In the next few weeks, American forces occupied Puerto Rico and the Philippine capital of Manila. America's war with Spain was over. It had lasted just ten weeks. The next step was to negotiate terms of a peace treaty. The negotiations would be held in Paris. The victorious United States demanded independence for Cuba. It demanded control over Puerto Rico and Guam. And it demanded the right to occupy Manila. The two sides agreed quickly on the terms concerning Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. But they could not agree on what to do about the Philippines. Spain rejected the American demand for control. It did not want to give up this important colony. Negotiations on this point of the peace treaty lasted for days. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-22-voa1.cfm
* Headline: No Gunplay, Just Wordplay, With a Cowboy Named 'Palindrome'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: palindromes aplenty! RS: A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards or forwards. Palindromes make us think of Janus, the Roman god with one face looking forward, another looking backward. AA: And from Janus we get January. And from that we get the idea to rerun "The Ballad of Palindrome" each New Year. RS: It features a skit that spoofs a cowboy show on television in the 1950s called "Paladin." Here now is the group Riders in the Sky joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western. AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" RS: That's Riders in the Sky, from their 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a great big happy 2006, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: palindromes aplenty! RS: A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards or forwards. Palindromes make us think of Janus, the Roman god with one face looking forward, another looking backward. AA: And from Janus we get January. And from that we get the idea to rerun "The Ballad of Palindrome" each New Year. RS: It features a skit that spoofs a cowboy show on television in the 1950s called "Paladin." Here now is the group Riders in the Sky joined by singer and songwriter Johnny Western. AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" RS: That's Riders in the Sky, from their 1998 album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" on the Rounder Records label. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our segments are all online at voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a great big happy 2006, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-22-voa2.cfm
* Headline: A Special Story for Christmas: 'The Gift of the Magi'
* Byline: Written by O. Henry

 ANNOUNCER: Now, the VOA Special English program, AMERICAN STORIES. (MUSIC) STORYTELLER: One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it in the smallest pieces of money - pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by negotiating with the men at the market who sold vegetables and meat. Negotiating until one's face burned with the silent knowledge of being poor. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. There was clearly nothing to do but sit down and cry. So Della cried. Which led to the thought that life is made up of little cries and smiles, with more little cries than smiles. Della finished her crying and dried her face. She stood by the window and looked out unhappily at a gray cat walking along a gray fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Jim earned twenty dollars a week, which does not go far. Expenses had been greater than she had expected. They always are. Many a happy hour she had spent planning to buy something nice for him. Something fine and rare -- something close to being worthy of the honor of belonging to Jim. There was a tall glass mirror between the windows of the room. Suddenly Della turned from the window and stood before the glass mirror and looked at herself. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Quickly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. Now, Mister and Missus James Dillingham Young had two possessions which they valued. One was Jim's gold time piece, the watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in their building, Della would have let her hair hang out the window to dry just to reduce the value of the queen’s jewels. So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a brown waterfall. It reached below her knees and made itself almost like a covering for her. And then quickly she put it up again. She stood still while a few tears fell on the floor. She put on her coat and her old brown hat. With a quick motion and brightness still in her eyes, she danced out the door and down the street. Where she stopped the sign read: "Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." Della ran up the steps to the shop, out of breath. "Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. "I buy hair," said Madame. "Take your hat off and let us have a look at it.” Down came the beautiful brown waterfall of hair. "Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the hair with an experienced hand. "Give it to me quick," said Della. (MUSIC) The next two hours went by as if they had wings. Della looked in all the stores to choose a gift for Jim. She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. It was a chain -- simple round rings of silver. It was perfect for Jim’s gold watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be for him. It was like him. Quiet and with great value. She gave the shopkeeper twenty-one dollars and she hurried home with the eighty-seven cents that was left. When Della arrived home she began to repair what was left of her hair. The hair had been ruined by her love and her desire to give a special gift. Repairing the damage was a very big job. Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny round curls of hair that made her look wonderfully like a schoolboy. She looked at herself in the glass mirror long and carefully. "If Jim does not kill me before he takes a second look at me," she said to herself, "he'll say I look like a song girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?" At seven o'clock that night the coffee was made and the pan on the back of the stove was hot and ready to cook the meat. Jim was never late coming home from work. Della held the silver chain in her hand and sat near the door. Then she heard his step and she turned white for just a minute. She had a way of saying a little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty." (MUSIC) The door opened and Jim stepped in. He looked thin and very serious. Poor man, he was only twenty-two and he had to care for a wife. He needed a new coat and gloves to keep his hands warm. Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a dog smelling a bird. His eyes were fixed upon Della. There was an expression in them that she could not read, and it frightened her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor fear, nor any of the feelings that she had been prepared for. He simply looked at her with a strange expression on his face. Della went to him. "Jim, my love," she cried, "do not look at me that way. I had my hair cut and sold because I could not have lived through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow out again. I just had to do it. My hair grows very fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let us be happy. You do not know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I have for you." "You have cut off your hair?" asked Jim, slowly, as if he had not accepted the information even after his mind worked very hard. "Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Do you not like me just as well? I am the same person without my hair, right? Jim looked about the room as if he were looking for something. "You say your hair is gone?" he asked. "You need not look for it," said Della. "It is sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It is Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it was cut for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the meat on, Jim?" Jim seemed to awaken quickly and put his arms around Della. Then he took a package from his coat and threw it on the table. "Do not make any mistake about me, Dell," he said. "I do not think there is any haircut that could make me like my girl any less. But if you will open that package you may see why you had me frightened at first." White fingers quickly tore at the string and paper. There was a scream of joy; and then, alas! a change to tears and cries, requiring the man of the house to use all his skill to calm his wife. For there were the combs -- the special set of objects to hold her hair that Della had wanted ever since she saw them in a shop window. Beautiful combs, made of shells, with jewels at the edge --just the color to wear in the beautiful hair that was no longer hers. They cost a lot of money, she knew, and her heart had wanted them without ever hoping to have them. And now, the beautiful combs were hers, but the hair that should have touched them was gone. But she held the combs to herself, and soon she was able to look up with a smile and say, "My hair grows so fast, Jim!" Then Della jumped up like a little burned cat and cried, "Oh, oh!" Jim had not yet seen his beautiful gift. She happily held it out to him in her open hands. The silver chain seemed so bright. "Isn't it wonderful, Jim? I looked all over town to find it. You will have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it." Instead of obeying, Jim fell on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled. "Dell," said he, "let us put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They are too nice to use just right now. I sold my gold watch to get the money to buy the set of combs for your hair. And now, why not put the meat on." (MUSIC) The magi were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Baby Jesus. They invented the art of giving Christmas gifts. Being wise, their gifts were wise ones. And here I have told you the story of two young people who most unwisely gave for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts, these two were the wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. (MUSIC)? ANNOUNCER:? You have heard the American story “The Gift of the Magi.”? This story was written by O. Henry and adapted into Special English by Karen Leggett. Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal. The producer was Lawan Davis. Listen again next week at this time for another American story in VOA Special English. I’m Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-23-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Holiday Gifts: So What Have Americans Been Buying This Year?
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our special holiday show this week: We hear music popular at this time of the year … Report about a short story writer and his famous story … And tell about some popular holiday gifts. Holiday Gifts Millions of American families will celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah next week. One part of these celebrations is giving and receiving gifts. Faith Lapidus tells us about some of the most popular gifts for young people this year. FAITH LAPIDUS: Many American young people want electronic gifts. At the top of the list is the Apple iPod or other digital music players. These electronic devices have appeared for the first time on the National Retail Federation’s yearly list of the most popular toys. Last year, these devices were popular with adults. But experts say their use has greatly increased among young people. The new Microsoft Xbox Three-sixty is another popular gift for young people this year. The Xbox Three-sixty is a new kind of video game player system. Recent newspaper reports say that stores may have sold all of their supplies of the most popular toys before the holidays begin. These include an interactive doll called “Amazing Amanda” that expresses feelings. Another is the iDog, an electronic dog that connects to a digital music player. It can lift its ears and move its head in time to the music. Another toy that connects to a digital music player is called “Iz." This device permits its owner to create music and sound effects by moving parts of its body. Reports say that one surprise best selling toy this year is called “ChatNow.” It is two cell phones that permit communication free of charge between people within a distance of about three kilometers. A group of college students in the state of New Jersey went to a shopping area and asked more than five hundred people about their holiday spending this year. The students were doing market research for their business class. They found that many people like to buy young people gift cards. These look like credit cards. They are worth a set amount of money that can be spent at one store. Buying a gift card is a good way to solve the problem of what to buy someone. But gift cards have restrictions. They can lose some or all of their value unless they are used within a period of time. Business experts say gift cards earn a lot of money for stores. People often spend more money than the amount of the card. And some of the people who receive gift cards never even use them. O. Henry HOST: Have you ever read anything by the American writer known as O. Henry?? He was the writer who first developed the short story into a recognized kind of literature. One of his best loved stories is popular during the Christmas holiday. Bob Doughty tells about his life and work. BOB DOUGHTY: O. Henry was the name used by William Sidney Porter. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in eighteen sixty-two. His mother died when he was three years old. He left school at the age of fifteen to work in his uncle’s drug store. He moved to Texas five years later. He lived in the city of Austin where he got married, worked in a local bank and owned a weekly newspaper. William Sidney Porter had bad luck in Texas. His wife became sick, their baby died and his newspaper failed. Then he was accused of stealing money from the bank where he worked. He fled to Honduras, but returned to be with his sick wife. She died in eighteen ninety-seven. Porter was sentenced to prison. That is where he started to write. His first story was published in a national magazine in eighteen ninety-eight. After being released from prison in nineteen oh-one, Porter went to New York City. He published more stories, all under the name O. Henry. No one really knows where he got that name. O. Henry’s first book was a short story collection called “Cabbages and Kings”. It was published in nineteen-oh-four. ?O. Henry published thirteen other collections of short stories. He wrote six hundred stories during his life. He wrote so quickly that he could complete about one story a week. Porter tried to forget his past, but could not. He did not have any good friends. He began to drink too much alcohol. A second marriage failed. He died of tuberculosis in New York City in nineteen ten. He was forty-eight years old. The stories by O. Henry are well known for their surprise endings. One of his stories takes place during the Christmas season. It is called “The Gift of the Magi” (MAY-jie). It tells how a poor young husband and wife express their love for each other at Christmas. But I will not tell you any more about it. You can hear “The Gift of the Magi” Saturday on the Special English program AMERICAN STORIES or on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Holiday Music HOST: Next week, Americans will celebrate three holidays. The Christian holiday Christmas is on December twenty-fifth, as always. Christians celebrate the day as the birthday of Jesus. They gather around an evergreen tree that they have placed in their homes and exchange gifts. Tradition says that Santa Claus travels to every house on the night before Christmas and leaves gifts for the children. Many Americans also attend church, go to Christmas parties and sing holiday songs. Listen as Nat King Cole sings “The Christmas Song.” (MUSIC) The African-American celebration of Kwanzaa begins every year on December twenty-sixth. It is celebrated for seven days. Kwanzaa does not replace Christmas. It honors black culture, especially the importance of the family. People celebrating Kwanzaa may gather for a family meal or party and light candles. They may also play African music, like this song, from South Africa. It is performed by Dark City Sisters. It is called “Sekusile” (si-KOO-sel-lay). (MUSIC) This year, the Jewish holiday Hanukkah starts the night of December twenty-fifth. This eight-day holiday celebrates the Jewish people’s successful battle for religious freedom more than two thousand years ago. Jews around the world light candles and exchange gifts. They also play games and sing songs of joy. We leave you now with a popular Hanukkah song that describes one of those games – “The Dreydl Song”. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special holiday program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our special holiday show this week: We hear music popular at this time of the year … Report about a short story writer and his famous story … And tell about some popular holiday gifts. Holiday Gifts Millions of American families will celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah next week. One part of these celebrations is giving and receiving gifts. Faith Lapidus tells us about some of the most popular gifts for young people this year. FAITH LAPIDUS: Many American young people want electronic gifts. At the top of the list is the Apple iPod or other digital music players. These electronic devices have appeared for the first time on the National Retail Federation’s yearly list of the most popular toys. Last year, these devices were popular with adults. But experts say their use has greatly increased among young people. The new Microsoft Xbox Three-sixty is another popular gift for young people this year. The Xbox Three-sixty is a new kind of video game player system. Recent newspaper reports say that stores may have sold all of their supplies of the most popular toys before the holidays begin. These include an interactive doll called “Amazing Amanda” that expresses feelings. Another is the iDog, an electronic dog that connects to a digital music player. It can lift its ears and move its head in time to the music. Another toy that connects to a digital music player is called “Iz." This device permits its owner to create music and sound effects by moving parts of its body. Reports say that one surprise best selling toy this year is called “ChatNow.” It is two cell phones that permit communication free of charge between people within a distance of about three kilometers. A group of college students in the state of New Jersey went to a shopping area and asked more than five hundred people about their holiday spending this year. The students were doing market research for their business class. They found that many people like to buy young people gift cards. These look like credit cards. They are worth a set amount of money that can be spent at one store. Buying a gift card is a good way to solve the problem of what to buy someone. But gift cards have restrictions. They can lose some or all of their value unless they are used within a period of time. Business experts say gift cards earn a lot of money for stores. People often spend more money than the amount of the card. And some of the people who receive gift cards never even use them. O. Henry HOST: Have you ever read anything by the American writer known as O. Henry?? He was the writer who first developed the short story into a recognized kind of literature. One of his best loved stories is popular during the Christmas holiday. Bob Doughty tells about his life and work. BOB DOUGHTY: O. Henry was the name used by William Sidney Porter. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in eighteen sixty-two. His mother died when he was three years old. He left school at the age of fifteen to work in his uncle’s drug store. He moved to Texas five years later. He lived in the city of Austin where he got married, worked in a local bank and owned a weekly newspaper. William Sidney Porter had bad luck in Texas. His wife became sick, their baby died and his newspaper failed. Then he was accused of stealing money from the bank where he worked. He fled to Honduras, but returned to be with his sick wife. She died in eighteen ninety-seven. Porter was sentenced to prison. That is where he started to write. His first story was published in a national magazine in eighteen ninety-eight. After being released from prison in nineteen oh-one, Porter went to New York City. He published more stories, all under the name O. Henry. No one really knows where he got that name. O. Henry’s first book was a short story collection called “Cabbages and Kings”. It was published in nineteen-oh-four. ?O. Henry published thirteen other collections of short stories. He wrote six hundred stories during his life. He wrote so quickly that he could complete about one story a week. Porter tried to forget his past, but could not. He did not have any good friends. He began to drink too much alcohol. A second marriage failed. He died of tuberculosis in New York City in nineteen ten. He was forty-eight years old. The stories by O. Henry are well known for their surprise endings. One of his stories takes place during the Christmas season. It is called “The Gift of the Magi” (MAY-jie). It tells how a poor young husband and wife express their love for each other at Christmas. But I will not tell you any more about it. You can hear “The Gift of the Magi” Saturday on the Special English program AMERICAN STORIES or on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Holiday Music HOST: Next week, Americans will celebrate three holidays. The Christian holiday Christmas is on December twenty-fifth, as always. Christians celebrate the day as the birthday of Jesus. They gather around an evergreen tree that they have placed in their homes and exchange gifts. Tradition says that Santa Claus travels to every house on the night before Christmas and leaves gifts for the children. Many Americans also attend church, go to Christmas parties and sing holiday songs. Listen as Nat King Cole sings “The Christmas Song.” (MUSIC) The African-American celebration of Kwanzaa begins every year on December twenty-sixth. It is celebrated for seven days. Kwanzaa does not replace Christmas. It honors black culture, especially the importance of the family. People celebrating Kwanzaa may gather for a family meal or party and light candles. They may also play African music, like this song, from South Africa. It is performed by Dark City Sisters. It is called “Sekusile” (si-KOO-sel-lay). (MUSIC) This year, the Jewish holiday Hanukkah starts the night of December twenty-fifth. This eight-day holiday celebrates the Jewish people’s successful battle for religious freedom more than two thousand years ago. Jews around the world light candles and exchange gifts. They also play games and sing songs of joy. We leave you now with a popular Hanukkah song that describes one of those games – “The Dreydl Song”. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special holiday program. Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-23-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Giving to the Needy, and Making Sure the Money Is Well-Spent
* Byline: 

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Americans gave almost two hundred fifty thousand million dollars to charity in two thousand four. It was a five percent increase to a new record for giving in the United States. The estimates are from the Giving USA Foundation. The group says about seventy to eighty percent of Americans give yearly to at least one charity. Charities are non-profit organizations. They might raise money to provide services, or to support the social good. Americans can reduce their taxes by giving to charities. The federal tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service, recognizes donations to official charities. But many people give to charities even without saving on the taxes they owe. Individuals provide about seventy-five percent of all donations. The largest share of charitable giving goes to religious groups. The Giving USA Foundation says more than thirty-five percent of all giving in two thousand four went to religious organizations. Some Americans give a percentage of their pay to religious groups. Schools and other education-related organizations were second on the list. They received about thirteen percent of all charitable giving in two thousand four. Many people want to know how their gifts are being spent. They want to be sure the money is not wasted or misused. Not long ago, in the Washington, D.C., area, the local leader of a national charity stole nearly half a million dollars from the group. There are organizations that examine how charities spend the money they receive. These groups include Charity Navigator and the American Institute of Philanthropy. They also include the Wise Giving Alliance of the Better Business Bureau. Such groups provide reports or ratings that measure how effectively charities spend money. Charity Navigator says seventy percent of the groups it studies use at least three-fourths of their money to support their causes. Charities that spend too much on administrative or operating costs are not considered to be carrying out their purpose. Charity-rating groups get information from a tax document called Form Nine-Ninety. Charities are not taxed, but they must report their financial information each year to the Internal Revenue Service. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-23-voa3.cfm
* Headline: Many Voices, Trained and Untrained Alike, Join in 'Messiah'
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 Now, a VOA Special English program for the Christmas holiday. I’m Mary Tillotson. Each December, thousands of Americans take part in a traditional musical event called the “Messiah Sing-Along.” In seventeen forty-one, German composer George Frideric Handel started writing an oratorio or musical drama called “Messiah.”? The music contains words from the Bible, the Christian holy book. The words tell of the coming birth of Jesus of Nazareth. They praise his life and tell of his death and return to life. Many professional musicians have performed and recorded “Messiah.”? Every year, thousands of untrained singers from the public also perform this beautiful music. These people take part in a “Messiah Sing-Along” in churches or theaters. For example, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. holds this event each year before Christmas. Listen now as the Tallis Chamber Choir shows why so many people want to sing “Messiah.” (MUSIC)? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-24-voa1.cfm
* Headline: White Christmas: One of the Best Loved Holiday Songs
* Byline: Written by Staff

 This is Steve Ember with a VOA Special English holiday program. (MUSIC) Music fills the air. Colorful lights shine brightly in windows. ?Children and adults open gifts from loved ones and friends. These are all Christmas traditions. Another tradition is snow, at least in the northern part of the world where Christmas comes a few days after the start of winter. In many places, a blanket of clean white snow covers the ground on Christmas Day. This is what is meant by a "White Christmas." Of course, many places do not get snow at Christmas. In fact, they may be very warm this time of year. People who like snow, but live where it is warm, can only dream of having a white Christmas. American songwriter Irving Berlin captured these feelings in his song, "White Christmas."? It is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. The opening words explain why the singer is dreaming of a white Christmas. Most people never hear these words so they never really understand the true meaning of the song. Here’s how it starts:? The sun is shining. The grass is green. The orange and palm trees sway. I’ve never seen such a day in Beverly Hills, L.A. But it’s December the twenty-fourth And I’m longing to be up north. Up north, where it is cold and snowy. Not south, where it is warm and sunny. Over the years, hundreds of singers and musicians have recorded "White Christmas."? But the version most people still know best was sung by Bing Crosby. (Bing Crosby) Songwriter Irving Berlin was born in Russia in eighteen eighty-eight. He did not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. He was Jewish. (MUSIC) But his song celebrates an idea of peace and happiness that anyone, anywhere -- snowy or not -- can enjoy. To all of you, best wishes this holiday season from all of us in VOA Special English. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-24-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Christmas Music With the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 I’m Shirley Griffith with a VOA Special English program for the Christmas holiday. Christians around the world are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In the United States, people are observing the Christmas holiday in homes and religious centers. Music has always been an important part of Christmas. Holiday music fills the air. Today, we will hear a program of Christmas music performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (MUSIC) That was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with “Joy To the World.”? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is one of the largest singing groups in the world. It has more than three hundred singers. (MUSIC) The members of the choir offer their time and skills without payment. All choir members are Mormons who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many Christmas songs sound most beautiful when sung by a large group. Here is the choir performing a Ukrainian song, “Carol of the Bells.” (MUSIC) “Silent Night” is perhaps the best known of all Christmas songs. An Austrian clergyman named Joseph Mohr wrote the words. His friend Franz Gruber wrote the music. The song was performed for the first time at a religious service on the night before Christmas in eighteen eighteen. At that time, it was performed with a single musical instrument -- a guitar. Here are the men of the Tabernacle Choir with “Silent Night.” (MUSIC) The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is based at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. The choir made its first recording in nineteen ten. Since then, it has made more than one hundred fifty recordings. One recording of holiday music is called “A Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas.”? You are listening to music from that recording. (MUSIC) This is Shirley Griffith. We hope you enjoyed our program of Christmas music. This program was written and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Greg Burns. All of us in Special English wish you a very happy holiday season. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-25-voa1.cfm
* Headline: 2005: The Year in Development
* Byline: Written by Jill Moss

 I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Development Report. Two thousand five was a year with several important developments in the world of development. Among them were the decisions made in July at the Group of Eight meeting in Scotland. Leaders of the G-Eight nations agreed to increase development aid. They also agreed to cancel debts owed to international lenders by some of the world's poorest nations. Others could have their debts forgiven in the future. Two thousand five was also a year for dealing with the effects of nature at its most unforgiving. In October, an earthquake killed more than eighty thousand in Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. And December marked one year since the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than two hundred thousand people. In both cases, the world looked to the United Nations for help. The United Nations celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in two thousand five. Secretary General Kofi Annan presented a major reform plan in March. He proposed a bigger Security Council. But he called for a smaller and more effective group to replace the U.N. human rights commission. The plan also included ideas for dealing with terrorism and for establishing new rules on when to use military force. World leaders discussed the proposals when they met in New York in September. At the same time, Bill Clinton held his own conference in New York. The former president raised more than one thousand million dollars to fight poverty and other world problems. Finally, in December, the World Trade Organization reached a compromise agreement in Hong Kong. Ministers from the one hundred forty-nine member group argued over farm protections. Outside, protesters fought with police. Wealthy countries agreed on two thousand thirteen as the end date for export assistance to their farmers. They also agreed on other steps to increase trade with the world's poorest nations. Critics, however, said the results in Hong Kong left much to be desired. The World Trade Organization aims to complete negotiations on a wider agreement in two thousand six. The World Bank has been among those pushing for free trade as a way to pull millions of people out of poverty. But a new study by economists at the bank says trade reforms would help some countries more quickly than others. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. And it can be found online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-25-voa2.cfm
* Headline: What Are You Doing on New Year’s Eve?
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Two thousand six is just about here. Today we look at some of the ways that Americans celebrate the New Year. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: In America, the best-known place to be on December thirty-first is Times Square in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people gather in the cold. They crowd together and wait for midnight. It feels like a huge party. The people count down the final seconds. “Ten … nine … eight … ”? All eyes watch a huge glass ball as it slides down a pole on top of a tall building. Someone in the crowd says it looks like a bright piece of snow. Someone else says it looks like thousands of stars. This is a famous Times Square tradition. VOICE TWO:? When the ball reaches bottom, it is twelve o'clock. People shout “Happy New Year!”? There is lots of excitement. More than a ton of confetti, little pieces of paper, rains down on the crowd. The crowd does its duty and tries to sing "Auld Lang Syne," a traditional song of friendship at the New Year. Most people only know the first few words. The song is pretty much a mystery. But a fun mystery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They ooh and aah when the thousands of little lights in the ball come on. Then everyone waits for midnight. People who have never met talk as if they have known each other all their lives. Visitors from around the world are excited to experience this New York moment. VOICE TWO: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on the roof of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball joined the celebration. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen forty-two and 'forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square, but there was little to celebrate. VOICE ONE: Lots of Americans will be out someplace special for dinner and dancing on New Year's Eve. Some people like to be on a boat when the New Year arrives. In Chicago, Illinois, for example, people can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. Two hours later, midnight will reach the West Coast. In Southern California, some people will be out on boats in the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: Some Americans will have parties at home and invite all their friends. (SOUND) And no party will be complete without noisemakers -- and a traditional midnight kiss. Other people will spend a quiet evening at home. They might even be asleep when the clock strikes midnight. Now for a musical question -- Nancy Wilson asks, “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people do too much on New Year’s Eve. To reduce the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents, people will be urged to use a designated driver. This is one person who drinks little or no alcohol while out with friends. That way the designated driver can safely drive the other people home. In many cities, free tax service will be offered to take people home if they have been drinking. VOICE TWO: Many cities will also hold what are called First Night celebrations. These are events without any alcohol. Local artists in Boston, Massachusetts, organized First Night celebrations in nineteen seventy-six. People in Boston can choose among hundreds of performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky. ?VOICE ONE: After the celebrations on New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Millions like to watch the college game traditionally played in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day. This year, the big game will be played on January fourth. The Rose Bowl Game will serve as the national championship game in college football. The University of Southern California will play the University of Texas Longhorns. The Trojans of Southern California are the two-time defending national champions. VOICE TWO: The Rose Bowl Game traditionally follows the Rose Parade in Pasadena. The parade is a show of motor-driven floats covered in flowers. They make a beautiful sight. But the one hundred seventeenth Rose Parade will take place this year on Monday, January second. That is because January first is a Sunday. When that happens, the parade takes place on the following day. VOICE ONE: Some people invite friends to their home to visit on New Year’s Day. In some parts of the country, children and adults still follow an old custom from Europe on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. Listen now as the Christ Church Cathedral Choir sings the “Wassail Song, ” arranged by Gustav Holst. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions that they hope will bring them good luck in the New Year. Some start the year by eating black-eyed peas or cabbage. In the South, some people prepare a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. Children long ago were said to like it so much, they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. VOICE ONE: Asian-Americans might eat fortune cookies at the New Year. Fortune cookies contain small pieces of paper with a short message telling about a person’s future. And there are other things people do to celebrate the New Year. Some Latinos, for example, stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do to welcome the New Year, we wish you a very happy two thousand six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-26-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bees Keep Busy Producing More Than Just Honey (Part 2 of 3)
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week we talked about how bees make honey. Yet bees also produce other useful materials. Beeswax is another product, although much less of it is produced than honey. Bees need to eat about three kilograms of honey, or more, to produce less than one-half kilogram of wax. The beauty industry uses a lot of beeswax as a base for skin care products. Anyone who has ever lit a candle might have lit one made of beeswax. Woodworkers mix beeswax with oils to protect wood surfaces. And leatherworkers use beeswax to protect leather from water. There is even an old saying, "mind your own beeswax."? It means "mind your own business."? We never said it was a nice old saying. The "beeswax" in this case may only be a play on the word "business."? But some people do mind their beeswax. It is their business. Beekeepers use it to make structures called foundations. Bees build hives by adding wax to the foundations. Bees keep honey, food and their young in these structures. ?Most people know not to interfere with a busy bee. Worker bees have a sting that can inject poison. But the poison is also a valuable product. In some people, a bee sting causes their throat or tongue to swell up. This reaction can be deadly. But treatment with bee poison can sometimes help protect people who suffer these reactions. In warmer areas of the Americas, some bees are a special concern. Years ago African bees were brought to South America to improve honey production. But they spread out of control. They mixed with populations of European honey bees raised in the Americas. Africanized honey bees are very aggressive. They have killed animals and people. In the nineteen seventies, they became known as “killer bees.”? This may overstate the threat. But Africanized bees must be treated with special care. Bees face threats of their own. In the Americas, Asia and Europe, mites can destroy hives. The tiny creatures suck the blood of bees. Wax moths are insects that eat wax in the hive. And there are bacterial diseases that attack and destroy young bees. All these problems add to the cost of keeping bees. But beekeeping remains mostly low cost and very important to agriculture. Listen next week for the final part of our report. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-26-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Saying Goodbye to Polio: Not There Yet, but Close
* Byline: Written by Karen Leggett and Cynthia Kirk

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Pat Bodnar. This week -- a progress report on the campaign to end polio. VOICE ONE: And a simpler way to save the life of a heart attack victim. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Two thousand five was the year that polio was supposed to be gone from the world. World health officials say the goal has almost been reached. But in some countries the fight must go on. VOICE ONE: The worldwide campaign to end polio began in nineteen eighty-eight. At that time, the disease existed in more than one hundred twenty-five countries. Each year it affected more than three hundred fifty-thousand children. Since then, two thousand million children in two hundred countries have been immunized to protect against polio. Polio is caused by a virus that affects mostly children under five years old. Victims commonly get sick from water that contains human waste infected with the virus. The disease attacks nerve cells. Some people lose the ability to walk. Some lose the ability to breathe without assistance. About one victim in two hundred suffers permanent paralysis. And some victims die. VOICE TWO: More than one-third of all current cases are in Nigeria. The situation there is often described as the biggest threat to the effort to end polio. In two thousand three, some states in northern Nigeria suspended polio immunization programs. Muslim clergymen disputed the safety of the vaccine. Vaccinations restarted after a year. Now health experts say Nigeria is working hard again to immunize every child. They say Nigeria should be able to stop the spread of polio in one more year. While the campaigns were suspended, polio spread to ten countries in west and central Africa that had been free of the disease. But public health experts had good news in November. They said the ten countries had not reported any new cases of polio since June of this year. The countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Chad. The others are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Togo. VOICE ONE: Health officials report that Sudan has also stopped the spread of polio. Sudan held seven national immunization days in two thousand five. Medical experts say it is important to vaccinate every child in a country. The World Health Organization will declare Sudan free of polio if it has no new cases for three years. Polio from Nigeria also spread to Yemen and Indonesia. Health officials say it is now being controlled in Yemen, but continues to spread in areas of Indonesia. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington. Campaigns to stop the spread of polio include giving children vaccine four times by mouth in the first year of life. Health workers hope to make more progress with a new kind of vaccine. It is called a monovalent oral polio vaccine. Until now, vaccines have combined three medicines to fight three different polio viruses. But only one exists in most countries. So health officials have started to use the single strongest medicine that will prevent that type of polio. VOICE ONE: The new kind of vaccine is being used in both India and Pakistan. Health officials in those countries report great progress in their efforts to stop the spread of polio. The number of cases in each country this year is about half the number last year. In Pakistan, health workers involved in the effort to end polio also became some of the first to help victims of the October earthquake. These workers provided emergency services. They also immunized children against other diseases besides polio. VOICE TWO: Less than ten years ago, India had seventy-five thousand cases of polio in one year. Last year, health officials reported just one hundred thirty-six cases. More than a million teams have been going door-to-door all over India to vaccinate children. Immunization days are being held every six weeks in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These states have the most polio cases in the country. They also have the highest birth rates. Health workers mark houses with the letter P if all the children who live there have been vaccinated against polio. If any children are not home, or if the parents are worried about the vaccine, the house is marked with an X. Teams keep returning until the house can be marked with a P. Doctors say even children who are not feeling well should receive the vaccine. But they need to take it again when they are well in case the medicine washes out of their body. VOICE ONE: The fight to end polio has cost four thousand million dollars so far. Now, it also includes immunizing children against five other diseases. These are diphtheria, measles, pertussis, tetanus and tuberculosis. Money has come from the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Money also has come from the United Nations Children’s Fund and many individual nations. And it has come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Rotary International has also provided a lot of support. VOICE TWO: The Rotary Club started in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen-oh-five. Members are often business people who want to meet each other and help their own communities and others. Today Rotary International has more than one million members in one hundred sixty-six countries. In nineteen eighty-five, the group decided to help immunize all of the world’s children against polio. Ezra Teshome is a Rotary member who lives in Seattle, in the northwestern state of Washington. For the past nine years, Mister Teshome has taken a team to his native Ethiopia to help immunize millions of children. In November, Time? magazine honored Ezra Teshome as one of ten global health heroes. VOICE ONE: Other Rotary members have taken vaccine to children living on boats in Cambodia. In Angola, volunteers found planes and other vehicles to take vaccine to areas with landmines still hidden in the ground after years of war. And, in India, one hundred thousand Rotarians and family members helped immunize one hundred sixty-five million children in one day. Rotary members now look forward to a day when they can celebrate the end of polio. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When the heart is in cardiac arrest, it stops pumping blood. Breathing stops. Without lifesaving measures, the brain starts to die within four to six minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation can save the life of a heart attack victim. CPR combines rescue breaths and repeated pressure on the chest. It keeps blood and oxygen flowing to the heart and brain. The American Heart Association has new guidelines for the public about how to do CPR. It says the steps are simpler than before and easy to follow. They appeared in its journal Circulation. VOICE ONE: The biggest change is in the number of chest compressions. The earlier guidelines called for fifteen chest compressions for every two breaths. Now it is thirty compressions for every two breaths -- for adults as well as children. The steps are repeated over and over until medical help arrives. To do compressions, a person places one hand on top of the other and presses down into the chest. The idea is to push hard and push fast, at a rate of one hundred compressions per minute. With a newborn baby, two fingers should be used. Studies found that continuous compressions increase blood flow. This would give the victim more time until a defibrillator can be found or the heart can begin to pump again. A defibrillator is a device that sends an electric shock to the heart in an effort to return a normal heartbeat. Heart experts say CPR is important not only before defibrillation but also immediately after. Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States and Canada. Victims who are not in a hospital usually die because most of the public does not know what to do. The American Heart Association says immediate CPR can sharply increase the chances of survival. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and Cynthia Kirk who was also our producer. I'm Pat Bodnar. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2006-02-01-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bees Keep Busy Producing More Than Just Honey (Part 2 of 3)
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week we talked about how bees make honey. Yet bees also produce other useful materials. Beeswax is another product, although much less of it is produced than honey. Bees need to eat about three kilograms of honey, or more, to produce less than one-half kilogram of wax. The beauty industry uses a lot of beeswax as a base for skin care products. Anyone who has ever lit a candle might have lit one made of beeswax. Woodworkers mix beeswax with oils to protect wood surfaces. And leatherworkers use beeswax to protect leather from water. There is even an old saying, "mind your own beeswax."? It means "mind your own business."? We never said it was a nice old saying. The "beeswax" in this case may only be a play on the word "business."? But some people do mind their beeswax. It is their business. Beekeepers use it to make structures called foundations. Bees build hives by adding wax to the foundations. Bees keep honey, food and their young in these structures. ?Most people know not to interfere with a busy bee. Worker bees have a sting that can inject poison. But the poison is also a valuable product. In some people, a bee sting causes their throat or tongue to swell up. This reaction can be deadly. But treatment with bee poison can sometimes help protect people who suffer these reactions. In warmer areas of the Americas, some bees are a special concern. Years ago African bees were brought to South America to improve honey production. But they spread out of control. They mixed with populations of European honey bees raised in the Americas. Africanized honey bees are very aggressive. They have killed animals and people. In the nineteen seventies, they became known as “killer bees.”? This may overstate the threat. But Africanized bees must be treated with special care. Bees face threats of their own. In the Americas, Asia and Europe, mites can destroy hives. The tiny creatures suck the blood of bees. Wax moths are insects that eat wax in the hive. And there are bacterial diseases that attack and destroy young bees. All these problems add to the cost of keeping bees. But beekeeping remains mostly low cost and very important to agriculture. Listen next week for the final part of our report. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Bird Flu and Beyond: Health News in 2005
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 I’m?Doug Johnson?with the VOA Special English Health Report. We look back this week at some of the top health stories for two thousand five. Doctors in France made world news with a partial face transplant. But a more important story was the concern about avian influenza. The h-five-n-one virus appeared in birds in Europe for the first time. Yet the only known human cases were still in East Asia. The World Health Organization says there have been around one hundred forty confirmed cases since two thousand three. About half the people died. Most of the victims had touched or been around infected poultry birds, or surfaces with the virus. But the worry is that it could change into a form that spreads easily from person to person. Several countries are working on vaccines to protect against avian influenza. The effectiveness cannot be known, however, until the virus enters the general population. If that happens, the drug Tamiflu is the best-known treatment. Yet just last week researchers said resistance to the drug may be more common than experts had thought. Other health stories in two thousand five involved diseases already well-established. Experts said three million more people died of AIDS-related conditions. Almost five million more became infected. AIDS has killed more than twenty-five million people since nineteen eighty-one. Treatment efforts have improved. But the United Nations said only one area of the world has not had an increase in the number of H.I.V. cases in the past two years. There was no change in the Caribbean, which is the second hardest-hit area after southern Africa. Worldwide, an estimated forty million people are now living with the virus that causes AIDS. Our final story of the year deals with chronic diseases, like heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. Experts say chronic diseases are the major cause of death and disability among adults worldwide. Thirty-five million people were expected to die from chronic diseases in two thousand five. Health officials say that is two times as many deaths as from infectious diseases, pregnancy-related disorders and nutritional problems combined. Yet they say a better diet, more exercise and less or, better still, no smoking can often reduce the risk of chronic disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Our year in review can be found on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Doug Johnson, wishing you a happy and healthy two thousand six. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-28-voa2.cfm
* Headline: The History of English: How a Language Grew
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:? And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second of our two programs about the history of the English Language. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how the English language developed as a result of several invasions of Britain. The first involved three tribes called the Angles, the Jutes and the Saxons. A mix of their languages produced a language called Anglo-Saxon, or Old English. It sounded very much like German. Only a few words remained from the Celts who had lived in Britain. Two more invasions added words to Old English. The Vikings of Denmark, Norway and Sweden arrived in Britain more than one thousand years ago. The next invasion took place in the year ten sixty-six. French forces from Normandy were led by a man known as William the Conqueror. The Norman rulers added many words to English. The words “parliament,” “jury,” “justice,” and others that deal with law come from the Norman rulers. VOICE TWO: Over time, the different languages combined to result in what English experts call Middle English. While Middle English still sounds similar to German, it also begins to sound like Modern English. Here Warren Scheer reads the very beginning of Geoffrey Chaucer’s great poem, “The Canterbury Tales” as it was written in Middle English. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: Chaucer wrote that poem in the late thirteen hundreds. It was written in the language of the people. The rulers of Britain at that time still spoke the Norman French they brought with them in ten sixty-six. The kings of Britain did not speak the language of the people until the early fourteen hundreds. Slowly, Norman French was used less and less until it disappeared. VOICE TWO: The English language was strongly influenced by an event that took place more than one thousand four hundred years ago. In the year five ninety-seven, the Roman Catholic Church began its attempt to make Christianity the religion of Britain. The language of the Catholic Church was Latin. Latin was not spoken as a language in any country at that time. But it was still used by some people. Latin made it possible for a church member from Rome to speak to a church member from Britain. Educated people from different countries could communicate using Latin. Latin had a great affect on the English language. Here are a few examples. The Latin word “discus” became several words in English including “disk,” “dish,” and “desk.”? The Latin word “quietus” became the English word “quiet.”? Some English names of plants such as ginger and trees such as cedar come from Latin. So do some medical words such as cancer. VOICE ONE: English is a little like a living thing that continues to grow. English began to grow more quickly when William Caxton returned to Britain in the year fourteen seventy-six. He had been in Holland and other areas of Europe where he had learned printing. He returned to Britain with the first printing press. The printing press made it possible for almost anyone to buy a book. It helped spread education and the English language. VOICE TWO: Slowly, during the fifteen hundreds English became the modern language we would recognize. English speakers today would be able to communicate with English speakers in the last part of the Sixteenth Century. ?It was during this time period that the greatest writer in English produced his work. His name was William Shakespeare. His plays continue to be printed, acted in theaters, and seen in motion pictures almost four hundred years after his death. VOICE ONE: Experts say that Shakespeare’s work was written to be performed on the stage, not to be read. Yet every sound of his words can produce word pictures, and provide feelings of anger, fear, and laughter. Shakespeare’s famous play “Romeo and Juliet” is so sad that people cry when they see this famous story. The story of the power hungry King Richard the Third is another very popular play by Shakespeare. Listen as Shep O’Neal reads the beginning, of “Richard the Third.” (SOUND) VOICE TWO: The development of the English language took a giant step just nine years before the death of William Shakespeare. Three small British ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean in sixteen-oh-seven. They landed in an area that would later become the southern American state of Virginia. They began the first of several British colonies. The name of the first small colony was Jamestown. In time, people in these new colonies began to call areas of their new land by words borrowed from the native people they found living there. For example, many of the great rivers in the United States are taken from American Indian words. The Mississippi, the Tennessee, the Missouri are examples. Other Native American words included “moccasin”, the kind of shoe made of animal skin that Indians wore on their feet. This borrowing or adding of foreign words to English was a way of expanding the language. The names of three days of the week are good examples of this. The people from Northern Europe honored three gods with a special day each week. The gods were Odin, Thor and Freya. Odin’s-day became Wednesday in English, Thor’s-day became Thursday and Freya’s-day became Friday. VOICE ONE: Britain had other colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and India. The English language also became part of these colonies. These colonies are now independent, but English still is one of the languages spoken. And the English language grew as words from the native languages were added. For example, the word “shampoo” for soap for the hair came from India. “Banana” is believed to be from Africa. Experts cannot explain many English words. For hundreds of years, a dog was called a “hound.”? The word is still used but not as commonly as the word “dog.”? Experts do not know where the word “dog” came from or when. English speakers just started using it. Other words whose origins are unknown include “fun,” “bad,” and “big.” VOICE TWO: English speakers also continue to invent new words by linking old words together. A good example is the words “motor” and “hotel.”? Many years ago some one linked them together into the word “motel.”? A motel is a small hotel near a road where people travelling in cars can stay for the night. Other words come from the first letters of names of groups or devices. A device to find objects that cannot be seen called Radio Detecting and Ranging became “Radar.”? The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is usually called NATO. Experts say that English has more words that explain the same thing that any other language. For example, the words “large,” “huge,” “vast,” “massive,” and “enormous” all mean something really “big.” VOICE ONE: People often ask how many words there are in the English language. Well, no one really knows. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about six hundred fifteen thousand words. Yet the many scientific words not in the dictionary could increase the number to almost one million. And experts are never really sure how to count English words. For example, the word “mouse.”? A mouse is a small creature from the rodent family. But “mouse” has another very different meaning. A “mouse” is also a hand-held device used to help control a computer. If you are counting words do you count “mouse” two times? (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Visitors to the Voice of America hear people speaking more than forty different languages. Most broadcasters at VOA come from countries where these languages are spoken. International organizations such as VOA would find it impossible to operate without a second language all the people speak. The language that permits VOA to work is English. It is not unusual to see someone from the Mandarin Service talking to someone from the Urdu Service, both speaking English. English is becoming the common language of millions of people worldwide, helping speakers of many different languages communicate. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO:? And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-28-voa3.cfm
* Headline: SEED School Aims to Help Students Grow With Skills for Life
* Byline: Written by Dana Demange

 I’m?Faith Lapidus?with the VOA Special English Education Report. The SEED School in Washington, D.C., provides an intensive educational program in a boarding school environment. Students live at a boarding school. The SEED School is one of the few public boarding schools in the country. It opened in nineteen ninety-eight. It is a modern, high-technology school in the poorest part of the District of Columbia. Most of the students are black. Often they have grown up in areas of poverty and crime. SEED officials say the school provides a safe and secure environment twenty-four hours a day. The educational program is designed to prepare students for college. The boarding program is designed to help them learn life skills. School representatives work with local teachers and the community to identify students who could be helped by the school. Parents and children decide together if the SEED program is the best educational choice for them. It is not for everyone. Students enter the program in the seventh grade. They agree to stay for six years. The goal is to prepare them for success in college and in future employment. This means that learning continues after classes are over for the day. School officials say the students receive family and community support. They learn about personal responsibility. They learn to balance work and play. They can help teach younger students, or do community service. The school also offers sports and social activities. The SEED School currently has more than three hundred students. So far, two classes have completed the program. School officials say all of the young people were accepted at universities. The SEED School is a charter school. This means it is privately operated but receives public money. Private gifts also help pay for the school. The SEED School has had some important supporters and guests. In November, Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, Lady Camilla, spent an afternoon there with First Lady Laura Bush. The boarding school in the nation's capital is the first opened by the SEED Foundation. The group says it plans to open schools in other cities, such as Baltimore and Los Angeles. More information about the program can be found on the Web at seedfoundation dot com (seedfoundation.com). This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Dana Demange. Internet users can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-28-voa4.cfm
* Headline: William McKinley: The Twenty-Fifth President of the United States
* Byline: Written by Frank Beardsley

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Making of a Nation -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) On December tenth, eighteen ninety-eight, the United States and Spain signed a treaty in Paris officially ending the war between them. The fighting had stopped much earlier. Spain had made the first move toward peace after its forces surrendered at Santiago, on the Cuban coast. A few weeks before, the United States Navy had destroyed Spain's Atlantic Naval Fleet. The American Naval victory ended any chance that Spain could win the war. VOICE TWO: Late in July, the French ambassador in Washington gave President William McKinley a message from the Spanish government. Spain asked what terms the United States would demand for peace. President McKinley sent an immediate answer. Spain, he said, must give up Cuba. It must also give to the United states the islands of Puerto Rico and Guam. And he said Spain must recognize the right of the United States to occupy Manila in the Philippines. The future of the Philippines, he said, would be decided during negotiations on a peace treaty. VOICE ONE: McKinley's terms seemed severe to Spain. But Spain had no choice.It could not continue the war. So, ten weeks after war broke out, Spain agreed to stop the fighting and accept the American terms. It signed a peace agreement in Washington on August Twelfth. A Spanish note protested sadly that the agreement took away the last memory of a glorious past. "It expels us from the western hemisphere, which became peopled and civilized through the?proud efforts of our fathers." VOICE TWO: The two countries agreed to meet in paris to negotiate details of a?peace treaty. The talks opened October First. The two sides agreed quickly on the issue of Cuban independence, and an American takeover of Puerto rico and Guam. But they could not agree on what to do about the Philippines. At the beginning of the talks, the United States was not sure if it wanted all or only part of the Philippines. At first, President McKinley wanted Spain to give up only Luzon, the main island. Then he decided that the United States should demand all of the Philippines. McKinley explained later how he made this decision. VOICE ONE: "I thought first we would take only Manila. Then Luzon. Then other islands, perhaps. I walked the floor of the White House many nights. More than once, I went down on my knees and asked God to help me decide. "And one night," said McKinley, "It came to me this way:? "That we could not give the Philippines back to Spain. That would be cowardly and dishonorable. We could not turn them over to France or Germany, our trading competitors in Asia. That would be bad business. We could not leave them to themselves. They were not ready for self-government. So, there was nothing for us to do but to take them all. And to educate the Filipinos, to civilize them, and make Christians of them. "With that decision," said McKinley, "I went to bed and slept well." VOICE TWO: Spain, however, did not want to give up the Philippines. It protested that the United States had no right to demand the Islands. True, Americans occupied Manila. But they did not control any other part of the Philippines. The two sides negotiated for days. Finally, they reached an agreement. Spain would give all of the Philippines to the United States. In return, the United States would pay Spain twenty-million dollars. With this dispute ended, the peace treaty was quickly completed and signed. But trouble developed when President McKinley sent the treaty to the United States Senate for approval. VOICE ONE: Many Americans opposed the treaty. They thought McKinley was wrong to take the Philippines. Opponents of the treaty included former President Cleveland, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, labor leader Samuel Gompers, writer Mark Twain, and others. They organized anti-imperialist groups in many cities to oppose the treaty. They made speeches and published newspapers explaining their opposition. Imperialism, they said, had ruined ancient Rome. And it would ruin the American republic. They said colonies halfway around the world would be costly to protect. A large army and navy would be needed. They said colonial policies violated important democratic ideas upon which the United States had been built. We went to war with Spain, they said, to free Cuba from its colonial masters...not to make ourselves masters of the Philippines. VOICE TWO: Republican Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts led the Senate fight for the treaty. The opposition was led by the other Massachusetts senator, George Hoar, also a Republican. Senator Lodge appealed to national pride. He urged the Senate not to pull down the American flag. Rejection of the treaty, he said, would dishonor the president and the country. It would show that we are not ready as a nation to enter into great questions of foreign policy. Senator Albert Beveridge of Ohio also spoke in support of the treaty. Senator Beveridge said the Pacific would be of great?importance in coming years. Therefore, he said, the power that?rules the Pacific will be the power that rules the world. And,?with the Philippines, that power is -- and forever will be – the United States VOICE ONE: Senator Hoar spoke strongly against the treaty. He said that taking over the Philippines would be a dangerous break with America's past. He said the greatest thing the United States had was its tradition of freedom. To take the Philippines, he said, would deny that tradition. It would violate the Constitution and the ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence:? the idea that all men are created equal...and that government exists only with the permission of the governed. VOICE TWO: The Senate vote on the treaty was set for February sixth. It seemed that the opposition had enough votes to reject it. But several things happened before the vote. William Jennings Bryan, the leader of the democratic party, opposed the take-over of the Philippines. But he urged Democratic senators to vote for the treaty. Bryan was looking ahead to the presidential election in nineteen-hundred. He believed that the Philippines' takeover would cause the United States nothing but trouble. He could put the blame for all the trouble on the Republicans. Then -- if he was elected president -- the Democrats could give the Philippines their independence. Bryan succeeded in getting seventeen Democrats and Populists in the Senate to vote for the treaty. VOICE ONE: Two days before the vote was taken, violence broke out in the Philippines. President McKinley, without waiting for the senate to act, ordered the American military government in Manila to extend its control throughout the Philippines. The leader of the Philippine rebels, Emilio Aquinaldo, opposed the order. Rebel forces prepared to fight. On the night of February fourth, thirty-thousand rebels attacked American forces around manila. Sixty Americans were killed, and more than two-hundred-seventy were wounded. Rebel losses were much higher. VOICE TWO: News of the rebel attack caused some Senators to change their minds about the Philippines. Some who had opposed the treaty now agreed with the "Washington Star" newspaper that:?"the Filipinos must be taught to obey." Eighty-four Senators were present for the vote on the treaty. To pass, the treaty needed a two-thirds majority -- fifty-six votes. One by one, the Senators voted. Then the count was announced. Fifty-seven of the lawmakers had voted yes. Only twenty-seven had voted no. The treaty was approved. The Philippines belonged to the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, the Making of a Nation. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Doug Johnson.Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-30-voa2.cfm
* Headline: Top Economic News in 2005
* Byline: Written by Mario Ritter

 I’m?Steve Ember?with the VOA Special English Economic Report. Today, we look back on some top stories of two thousand five. In January, we heard about the retirement plans, or pensions, of several airline companies in the United States. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation has since taken control of the pensions of U.S. Airways and United Airlines. Also, Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines requested legal protection from their creditors in September. United Airlines The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation protects the pensions of more than thirty-four million workers. The federal agency takes control of troubled pension plans. It says the pensions of Delta and Northwest have a total deficit of more than sixteen thousand million dollars. But the agency has its own troubles. Its chief, Bradley Belt, said in November that the financial health of the agency was not improving. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation reported a deficit of almost twenty-three thousand million dollars this year. Last month, the United States Senate passed rules to strengthen pension plans. But the House of Representatives is not likely to vote on new rules soon. In September, fuel prices hit new highs. American drivers paid an average of three dollars and seven cents a gallon, or almost four liters. Damaging storms and growing demand were blamed for much of the increase. Hurricane Katrina and Rita damaged about one-third of all oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. The Department of Energy says problems of supply will remain until next year. As a result, most Americans will pay more for heating during the winter. Natural gas prices could increase the most. But pressure on drivers appears to be easing. Gasoline prices dropped to about two dollars twenty centers a gallon by the middle of December. This year also marked the tenth anniversary of e-commerce. To many Americans, it may seem much longer. Amazon-dot-com opened in July of nineteen ninety-five. The store has received credit for changing people’s opinions about buying over the Internet. How much has the Internet changed the way Americans buy things?? On the final Monday in November, Americans bought nearly five hundred million dollars in goods over the Internet. That represents a twenty-six percent increase from the same day last year. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-30-voa3.cfm
* Headline: The Best of 2005 in Music, Books and Movies
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Doug Johnson. The year two thousand five is coming to a close. So we present a special year ender show this week. We hear some of the best country songs of the year… Tell about some popular movies released this year… And…Report about some successful books published in two thousand five. Country Music HOST: This year, we are looking back at some of the best country music songs released recently. Bob Doughty plays some country music hits of two thousand five. ANNCR: VOA Country Music expert Mary Morningstar says one of the songs of the past year she likes best is by singer Jo Dee Messina. It is the first hit song on her album, “Delicious Surprise.”? It is called “My Give a Damn’s Busted”. (MUSIC) Another of Mary’s favorite artists this year is the country group called “Sugarland.”? She says everyone should look for more success from this group in the future. One of their big hits this year was from their album “Twice The Speed of Life.”? Here it is:“Baby Girl”. (MUSIC) Each year, Billboard Magazine publishes lists of the most popular recordings. Billboard says the most popular country single record this year was by Craig Morgan. We leave you now with that song, “That’s What I Love About Sunday”. (MUSIC) Top Selling Books HOST: Hundreds of books are published in the United States each year. Only a few are extremely successful. Here is Faith Lapidus to tell us about three of the best books of the year. ANNCR:? One extremely successful book published this year is “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion. ?It won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction. Didion writes about the year following the death of her husband and the serious sickness of her daughter. Critics say the book describes how a person mourns for a loved one and for the end of a long marriage. They say it shows the ways people do and do not deal with the fact that life ends. People who have read “The Year of Magical Thinking” say that it is extremely honest. But it is not meant to be a self-help book for others who are mourning. Some people say it did help them recognize that they are not alone in sadness after the death of a loved one. Still others say that Joan Didion’s book takes the reader on a trip to a place that people can not fully imagine until they have been there. Another critically praised book published this year is “The March” by E.L.Doctorow. It is a fictional story based on real people and events in history. The event is the American Civil War during the eighteen sixties. The real main character is the Union General, William Tecumseh Sherman. The story follows Sherman’s army as it marches through the South in the final days of the war. It shows the burning of southern cities and the executions of captured soldiers. ?It shows how the characters are changed by the war --Union and Southern soldiers, blacks and whites, men and women. Critics say the book tells a human story that shows how people in the South reacted to the destruction of their world. A third notable book published this year is “Prep” by a young woman named Curtis Sittenfeld. It tells about the experiences of a young American girl at a high school where the students live. This kind of school is called a boarding school or prep school. The main character is Lee Fiora who tells the story as a twenty-four year old looking back on her school days. People who have read “Prep” say it makes the reader feel what Lee feels during her four years at the school. And it clearly shows how young people will deny their individuality to fit in with the group. HIT MOVIES HOST: Three of the best movies of the year were about American men who became famous during the nineteen fifties and sixties. Pat Bodnar tells us about them. ANNOUNCER:? Critics say “Good Night and Good Luck,” “Capote” and “Walk the Line” were among the best American movies this year. The three films were based on true stories about famous men. Movies about famous people are called “biopics”. The three movies also create detailed pictures of America as it was about fifty years ago. “Good Night, and Good Luck” is about the famous CBS television newsman Edward R. Murrow. It shows how he made television broadcasts against Senator Joseph McCarthy in nineteen fifty-four. Murrow showed that the powerful senator’s charges of disloyalty against innocent Americans were false. David Strathairn plays Edward R. Murrow. The actor looks and sounds very much like the famous newsman. George Clooney plays Murrow’s producer, Fred Friendly. Mister Clooney also directed the movie. Critics say the film is about power, truth-telling and responsibility. Truman Capote was a famous, wealthy writer living in New York City. In nineteen fifty-nine, he read a newspaper story about the murder of a family in a small town in Kansas. He decided to write a book about it. The movie “Capote” shows how he spent the next six years following the case. Capote established a close relationship with one of the two men jailed for the murders. The two were finally executed for their crimes. Capote published his book, “In Cold Blood,” in nineteen sixty-six. Experts said he created a new kind of non-fiction: a crime story that was literature. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote in the movie. The actor changed his appearance and voice to look and sound more like the famous writer. The actor Joaquin Phoenix also changed his appearance and voice to star as singer Johnny Cash in the film “Walk the Line.”? The movie tells about Cash’s life from childhood in a poor Southern family to success as a country music singer. Phoenix performs Cash’s most famous songs in the movie. Reese Witherspoon plays June Carter, a famous country singer who performs with Cash and later marries him. Some critics say the two were among the best performances by actors in movies this year. HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special program for the end of the year. And we in Special English wish you a Happy New Year. Our show was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2005-12/2005-12-31-voa1.cfm
* Headline: Hurricane Katrina Voted Top Story of 2005
* Byline: Written by Brianna Blake

 (MUSIC) I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. The editors and news directors of the Associated Press have chosen the following as the top ten news stories of two thousand five. The AP chose Hurricane Katrina as this year’s top news story. The fierce ocean storm hit the United States’ southern coast in August. It killed more than one thousand three hundred people in five states. The storm destroyed much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It caused flooding that left eighty percent of New Orleans, Louisiana, under water. Other top news stories of the year included the death of Roman Catholic Church leader Pope John Paul the Second in April. He died after serving twenty-six years as Pope, the third longest in history. Millions of people around the world attended services on the day of his funeral. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany became the new Pope. In Iraq, rebel violence continued. The Bush administration said more than two thousand American service members and thirty thousand Iraqis have been killed since the war in Iraq began. Iraqi citizens elected a parliament and voted on a new constitution. In Washington, two new judges were nominated to the Supreme Court. John Roberts was confirmed to take the place of Chief Justice William Rehnquist who died. And Samuel Alito was nominated to take the place of Sandra Day O’Connor who announced her retirement. Crude oil prices reached a record high of almost seventy-one dollars a barrel. The rise in gasoline prices affected drivers in the United States. In July, a series of attacks on three trains and a bus in London killed fifty-six people, including four bombers who had ties to Islamic militants. In October, a huge earthquake near the border of Pakistan and India killed more than eighty-seven thousand people. More than three million people were left without homes. In the United States, the husband of a severely brain-damaged woman fought for the right to remove the feeding tube that had kept her alive for fifteen years. The United States Congress and President Bush became involved with efforts to keep Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube connected. A judge later ordered its removal. Missus Schiavo’s case raised questions about the role of government in private, family decisions about life and death. Members of the Bush administration were under investigation and accused of telling the name of an American intelligence agent to news reporters. The agent’s husband had earlier accused the administration of misusing prewar intelligence on Iraq. And President Bush’s national approval rating dropped below forty percent this year, the lowest of his presidency. Many Americans began to question the president’s decisions about the war in Iraq. Others were unhappy with how the president reacted to Hurricane Katrina. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Brianna Blake. Our reports can be found on our web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HOLIDAY PROGRAM -- New Year’s Resolutions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 1, 2004 This is Steve Ember with a VOA Special English holiday program. January first. The beginning of a new year. As far back in history as we can tell, people have celebrated the start of a new year. The people of ancient Egypt began their new year in summer. That is when the Nile River flooded its banks, bringing water and fertility to the land. Today, most people celebrate New Year’s Day on January first. People observe the New Year’s holiday in many different ways. The ancient Babylonians celebrated by forcing their king to give up his crown and royal clothing. They made him get down on his knees and admit all the mistakes he had made during the past year. The idea of admitting mistakes and finishing the business of the old year is found in many cultures at New Year’s. So is the idea of making New Year’s resolutions. A resolution is a promise to change or do something different in the coming year. Making New Year’s resolutions is a common American tradition.Today, popular resolutions might include the promise to lose weight, stop smoking, or be more productive at work. Some of our Special English writers and announcers offered New Year’s resolutions of their own. One person decided to get a new cat to replace a beloved one that recently died. Another promised to stop telling stories about other people. And another staff member promised to spend more time with his family. Other people use New Year’s resolutions to make major changes in their lives. One such resolution might be to “stop and smell the flowers.” This means to take time to enjoy simple pleasures instead of always being too busy and in a hurry. Another resolution might be “don’t sweat the small stuff.” This means not to worry or get angry about unimportant problems. Another resolution might be to be happy now and to forget about bad things that happened in the past. Or, to be thankful for the most important things in life, like family and friends. Our resolution is to wish all of our listeners a happy, healthy and productive New Year! This is Steve Ember for VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HOLIDAY PROGRAM - A Musical Exploration of Time
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 1, 2004 (MUSIC) ANNCR: This is Shep O'Neal with a Special English program for the New Year. We present fifteen minutes of music about time. (MUSIC) ANNCR: We celebrate the new year with a few examples of music about time. You just heard a song called "Syncopated Clock." American music writer Leroy Anderson wrote it more than fifty years ago. Ten years later, the group Bill Haley and His Comets provided musical proof that any time on the clock is a good time to dance. (MUSIC) In nineteen-sixty-five, a group named the Byrds recorded a song that seemed modern. But the words are old. They are from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible. (MUSIC) Countless songs have been written about time. Many songs are also about two other forces that seem just as unstoppable love and desire. This song by Jim Croce captures these emotions. (MUSIC) Jim Croce did not have much time to live. The singer died in an airplane crash in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. Another song about love and time is sung by one of the most famous groups of our time, the Rolling Stones. In this song, time is an ally. (MUSIC) Americans sing a traditional Scottish song at New Year's celebrations. It is "Auld Lang Syne. " Poet Robert Burns wrote it in the seventeen-hundreds. It is about keeping alive the memory of old friends. A bandleader named Guy Lombardo helped make "Auld Lang Syne" a modern tradition. The song has become a well known signal of the beginning of another year. (MUSIC) This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Lawan Davis. This is Shep O'Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Top Stories of 2003
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 3, 2004 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Debris fell from Shuttle Columbia during liftoff, 16 January 2003NASA photo Broadcast: January 3, 2004 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. American news experts at the Associated Press have chosen the top stories of two-thousand-three. Almost all the news directors named the war in Iraq as the most important event of the year. The United States led a military coalition against Iraq beginning March nineteenth. The military action began after President Bush repeatedly warned Iraq to report about its weapons of mass destruction. By April seventh, much of Baghdad was under control of the coalition. Mister Bush declared major combat operations over on May first. Many Iraqis said they were happy that Saddam Hussein’s rule was over. But Iraqi resisters have continued to attack and kill coalition fighters and Iraqi civilians. American troops captured Saddam Hussein on December thirteenth. But so far the coalition has found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The news experts named the loss of the American space shuttle Columbia as the second most important story of the year. Columbia broke apart on February first as it returned to Earth after a sixteen-day research flight. Seven astronauts died in the explosion. The Associated Press experts said a special recall vote by citizens in the state of California was the third most important story of the year. On October seventh, California voters removed Democrat Gray Davis as governor. They chose actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, to replace him. Under Governor Davis, California had suffered severe financial problems. The news experts said the disease SARS was another top story. In February, health experts in Asia reported the first cases of a new disease later named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Over time, about eight-thousand people around the world became sick with the disease. Almost eight-hundred people reportedly died. The news agency experts identified a power loss in North America as the next most important event. On August fourteenth, a power company computer failed in the American state of Ohio. This caused a loss of electricity in eight American states and part of Canada. Next, the experts noted America’s improving economy. The nation’s growth rate from July through September was the best in nineteen years. But estimates said the federal debt increased to five-hundred-thousand-million dollars. Another top story was the deadly wildfires in California in October and November. The news experts said the tax cut of three-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars for American taxpayers was also an important story. The safe return of a kidnapped fifteen-year-old girl was voted the ninth biggest story. Finally, the news experts chose the campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in the two-thousand-four election. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean now appears to lead eight other competitors. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. American news experts at the Associated Press have chosen the top stories of two-thousand-three. Almost all the news directors named the war in Iraq as the most important event of the year. The United States led a military coalition against Iraq beginning March nineteenth. The military action began after President Bush repeatedly warned Iraq to report about its weapons of mass destruction. By April seventh, much of Baghdad was under control of the coalition. Mister Bush declared major combat operations over on May first. Many Iraqis said they were happy that Saddam Hussein’s rule was over. But Iraqi resisters have continued to attack and kill coalition fighters and Iraqi civilians. American troops captured Saddam Hussein on December thirteenth. But so far the coalition has found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The news experts named the loss of the American space shuttle Columbia as the second most important story of the year. Columbia broke apart on February first as it returned to Earth after a sixteen-day research flight. Seven astronauts died in the explosion. The Associated Press experts said a special recall vote by citizens in the state of California was the third most important story of the year. On October seventh, California voters removed Democrat Gray Davis as governor. They chose actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, to replace him. Under Governor Davis, California had suffered severe financial problems. The news experts said the disease SARS was another top story. In February, health experts in Asia reported the first cases of a new disease later named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Over time, about eight-thousand people around the world became sick with the disease. Almost eight-hundred people reportedly died. The news agency experts identified a power loss in North America as the next most important event. On August fourteenth, a power company computer failed in the American state of Ohio. This caused a loss of electricity in eight American states and part of Canada. Next, the experts noted America’s improving economy. The nation’s growth rate from July through September was the best in nineteen years. But estimates said the federal debt increased to five-hundred-thousand-million dollars. Another top story was the deadly wildfires in California in October and November. The news experts said the tax cut of three-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars for American taxpayers was also an important story. The safe return of a kidnapped fifteen-year-old girl was voted the ninth biggest story. Finally, the news experts chose the campaign for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in the two-thousand-four election. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean now appears to lead eight other competitors. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Paul Robeson Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 4, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 4, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Paul Robeson [ROBE a son]. He was a singer, actor, and civil rights activist. In the Nineteen-Thirties, he was one of the best known and most widely honored black Americans. Later in his life he was condemned for supporting communism and the Soviet Union. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. His father was a former slave who became the religious leader of a Protestant church. Paul was an excellent student and athlete. Rutgers University in New Jersey gave him money so he could study there. He played four different sports while at Rutgers. He also was the top student in his class. Members of his class believed Paul Robeson would become the leader of black people in America. VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers in Nineteen-Nineteen. He attended law school at Columbia University in New York City. He was only the third black person to attend Columbia Law School. On the weekends, he earned money by playing professional football. He also acted in plays. He married Eslanda Cordoza Goode while he was in law school. After he graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three, he got a job with a group of lawyers in New York. However, he left when he experienced unfair treatment because he was black. He decided not to work as a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to use his ability in theater and music to support African-American history and culture. VOICE ONE: Robeson became a professional actor. He joined the Provincetown Players, an acting group linked to American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robeson was the star in two famous productions by Eugene O'Neill in the Nineteen-Twenties. They were "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones." Critics praised his performances. Robeson became the most recognized black actor of his time. VOICE TWO: In London, he earned international praise for his leading part in William Shakespeare's great tragic play, "Othello." That was in Nineteen-Thirty. Thirteen years later, he played "Othello" on Broadway in New York. It was very popular. In "Othello," Robeson played an African general in ancient Venice. He is married to a young white woman. Othello kills his wife after being tricked into believing that she loves someone else. This is how Paul Robeson sounded in "Othello." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson also was famous for appearing in the popular American musical play "Show Boat." He performed the play in London in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight and on Broadway four years later. He played a riverboat worker. Jerome Kern wrote the music for "Show Boat." Paul Robeson sang the song "Ol' Man River." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson appeared in eleven movies in the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties. However, he realized that his acting was limited by the small number of parts for black actors. He criticized the American movie industry for not showing the real lives of black people in America. He stopped making movies and decided to sing professionally instead. Robeson sang many kinds of music. He sang folk music from many countries. He sang songs to support the labor and social movements of his time. He sang songs for peace and justice. And, he sang African-American spiritual music. One of his famous songs was this spiritual, "Balm in Gilead." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson was recognized around the world for his fight for civil rights for black Americans. Separation of black people and white people was legal in the United States. Black people did not have the same rights as white people. They were not treated equally. For example, Robeson could not be served in some eating places in the United States. Violence against black people was common. Angry mobs of whites sometimes killed black people, especially in the southern United States. VOICE TWO: In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Paul Robeson became involved in national and international movements that sought peace and better labor conditions. He also supported independence for African colonies from their European rulers. He learned the languages and folk songs of other cultures. He said these folk songs expressed the same feelings that were in African-American music. He learned to speak, write and sing in more than twenty languages. VOICE ONE: Robeson traveled a great deal in Europe during the Nineteen-Thirties. He found that black people were treated better in Europe than in the United States. He met members of liberal political organizations, socialists and African nationalists. He also met many working people and poor people. For many years, he performed in concerts in many countries. The songs he sang supported the struggle for racial justice for black Americans, and for civil rights and economic justice for people around the world. He refused to perform at concerts where the people were separated by race. He said, "The idea of my concerts is to suggest that all men are brothers because of their music." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, Paul Robeson made the first of many trips to the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, he said, he was treated as an equal of whites for the first time in his life. He declared his friendship for the Soviet Union. And he spoke about the need for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Conservative groups in the United States strongly opposed his friendship with the Soviet Union and his support for other liberal issues. VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson went to Spain in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight during the Spanish Civil War. He sang for Spanish civilians. And he sang for the Loyalist forces fighting for the Spanish republic. One of the songs he sang was this Spanish Loyalist song, "The Four Insurgent Generals." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Forties, many people in the United States were strongly opposed to Paul Robeson's political beliefs. They said he was too liberal or extreme. Next week, we will tell you about how opposition to his political beliefs affected the last part of his life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This PEOPLE IN AMERICA program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again when we finish the story of Paul Robeson in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Paul Robeson [ROBE a son]. He was a singer, actor, and civil rights activist. In the Nineteen-Thirties, he was one of the best known and most widely honored black Americans. Later in his life he was condemned for supporting communism and the Soviet Union. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. His father was a former slave who became the religious leader of a Protestant church. Paul was an excellent student and athlete. Rutgers University in New Jersey gave him money so he could study there. He played four different sports while at Rutgers. He also was the top student in his class. Members of his class believed Paul Robeson would become the leader of black people in America. VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers in Nineteen-Nineteen. He attended law school at Columbia University in New York City. He was only the third black person to attend Columbia Law School. On the weekends, he earned money by playing professional football. He also acted in plays. He married Eslanda Cordoza Goode while he was in law school. After he graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three, he got a job with a group of lawyers in New York. However, he left when he experienced unfair treatment because he was black. He decided not to work as a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to use his ability in theater and music to support African-American history and culture. VOICE ONE: Robeson became a professional actor. He joined the Provincetown Players, an acting group linked to American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robeson was the star in two famous productions by Eugene O'Neill in the Nineteen-Twenties. They were "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones." Critics praised his performances. Robeson became the most recognized black actor of his time. VOICE TWO: In London, he earned international praise for his leading part in William Shakespeare's great tragic play, "Othello." That was in Nineteen-Thirty. Thirteen years later, he played "Othello" on Broadway in New York. It was very popular. In "Othello," Robeson played an African general in ancient Venice. He is married to a young white woman. Othello kills his wife after being tricked into believing that she loves someone else. This is how Paul Robeson sounded in "Othello." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson also was famous for appearing in the popular American musical play "Show Boat." He performed the play in London in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight and on Broadway four years later. He played a riverboat worker. Jerome Kern wrote the music for "Show Boat." Paul Robeson sang the song "Ol' Man River." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson appeared in eleven movies in the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties. However, he realized that his acting was limited by the small number of parts for black actors. He criticized the American movie industry for not showing the real lives of black people in America. He stopped making movies and decided to sing professionally instead. Robeson sang many kinds of music. He sang folk music from many countries. He sang songs to support the labor and social movements of his time. He sang songs for peace and justice. And, he sang African-American spiritual music. One of his famous songs was this spiritual, "Balm in Gilead." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson was recognized around the world for his fight for civil rights for black Americans. Separation of black people and white people was legal in the United States. Black people did not have the same rights as white people. They were not treated equally. For example, Robeson could not be served in some eating places in the United States. Violence against black people was common. Angry mobs of whites sometimes killed black people, especially in the southern United States. VOICE TWO: In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Paul Robeson became involved in national and international movements that sought peace and better labor conditions. He also supported independence for African colonies from their European rulers. He learned the languages and folk songs of other cultures. He said these folk songs expressed the same feelings that were in African-American music. He learned to speak, write and sing in more than twenty languages. VOICE ONE: Robeson traveled a great deal in Europe during the Nineteen-Thirties. He found that black people were treated better in Europe than in the United States. He met members of liberal political organizations, socialists and African nationalists. He also met many working people and poor people. For many years, he performed in concerts in many countries. The songs he sang supported the struggle for racial justice for black Americans, and for civil rights and economic justice for people around the world. He refused to perform at concerts where the people were separated by race. He said, "The idea of my concerts is to suggest that all men are brothers because of their music." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, Paul Robeson made the first of many trips to the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, he said, he was treated as an equal of whites for the first time in his life. He declared his friendship for the Soviet Union. And he spoke about the need for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Conservative groups in the United States strongly opposed his friendship with the Soviet Union and his support for other liberal issues. VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson went to Spain in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight during the Spanish Civil War. He sang for Spanish civilians. And he sang for the Loyalist forces fighting for the Spanish republic. One of the songs he sang was this Spanish Loyalist song, "The Four Insurgent Generals." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Forties, many people in the United States were strongly opposed to Paul Robeson's political beliefs. They said he was too liberal or extreme. Next week, we will tell you about how opposition to his political beliefs affected the last part of his life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This PEOPLE IN AMERICA program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again when we finish the story of Paul Robeson in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC -Yearender 2003
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 2, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 2, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. Two-Thousand-Four has arrived. On our show today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and recordings of the year Two-Thousand-Three. Top Books HOST: The newspaper “U-S-A Today” recently listed the most popular books of last year in the United States. It creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: The top book on the list is “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by British writer Joanne Rowling. This book is the fifth in the best selling series of children’s stories about the boy wizard, Harry Potter. Each of the books in the series tells about what happens to Harry and his friends during one year at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. In “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Harry again defeats the evil Lord Voldemort. But he suffers a great loss. Joanne Rowling reportedly is working on the sixth book in the series, although we do not know when it will be ready for the publisher. She has said that the series will end with a seventh book as Harry Potter finishes his education at Hogwarts. “U-S-A Today” says the second most popular book of the year was “Doctor Atkins’ New Diet Revolution” by Robert Atkins. Doctor Atkins is famous for helping people lose weight by eating fewer carbohydrates and more protein. This means that people on the Atkins diet are free to eat fatty meat products and can still lose weight. This newest book reportedly tells people how to burn even more calories and lose weight. The newspaper says the third most popular book in the United States last year was “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. The newspaper says that more than five-million copies are in print. “The Da Vinci Code” is an imaginary story about an art expert who tries to solve a murder mystery. The mystery involves the Roman Catholic Church and questions some of its beliefs. The questions asked in the book involve clues to the murder believed to have been left in artworks by Leonardo da Vinci. The information provided in the book has led some readers to question the teachings of their church. Religious leaders and history experts have both praised and criticized “The Da Vinci Code.” They say Dan Brown has given a new meaning on an old story that has not been proved. And they all say that it is important to remember that it is a work of fiction and not to be read as truth. Top Movies HOST: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The results are based on the number of tickets sold in theaters throughout the United States. The most popular movie of two-thousand-three in the United States was released in December of two-thousand-two. But it earned most of its money in two-thousand-three. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” earned more than three-hundred-forty-million dollars in the United States last year. The story continues the one begun in the earlier movie “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” A third and final “Lord of the Rings” movie has just been released. All the “Lord of the Rings” movies are from books by British writer J-R-R Tolkein. They tell about a magic ring that has powers to destroy life in a place called Middle Earth. A human-like creature called a Hobbit is the hero of the stories. His name is Frodo Baggins, and he must destroy the ring to save his world. The second most popular movie in the United States last year was “Finding Nemo.” It is a cartoon made for children, but adults enjoyed it too. “Finding Nemo” earned more than three-hundred-thirty-nine-million dollars in the United States last year. It is about a small fish who has lost his son, Nemo, in the ocean. The movie follows Nemo and his father as they try to find each other again. The third most popular movie in the United States last year earned more than three-hundred-five-million dollars. It was “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” The idea for the movie came from a popular ride at the Disneyland amusement park in California. It is about a pirate named Jack Sparrow who is played by the actor Johnny Depp. Jack Sparrow is looking for his lost ship. The ship has been seized by pirates who have been cursed by a sailor they betrayed. Jack Sparrow must find the pirates, their ship and their hidden gold to defeat them. Officials of the Disney Company say the movie was so popular that they are planning another Jack Sparrow pirate adventure. And they say that Johnny Depp will star din the new movie. Top Recordings HOST: Each December, “Billboard” magazine lists the most popular albums, records and performers of the year. Steve Ember tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: “Billboard” magazine says two-thousand-three was the first year since nineteen-ninety-four that the same artist has the number one single and album of the year. The album is Fifty Cent’s, “Get Rich or Die Trying.” The single is “In Da Club”: (MUSIC) “Billboard” says the second biggest album of the year was Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me.” The album was released in two-thousand-two, but became extremely popular in two-thousand-three. Here is the title song from that album. Norah Jones also wrote the song. (MUSIC) The magazine says third most popular record album in the United States last year was performed by country music singer Shania Twain. The album is called “Up!” We leave you now with a song from that album, “Forever and For Always.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson wishing you a very happy new year. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Wayne Shorter. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. Two-Thousand-Four has arrived. On our show today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and recordings of the year Two-Thousand-Three. Top Books HOST: The newspaper “U-S-A Today” recently listed the most popular books of last year in the United States. It creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: The top book on the list is “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by British writer Joanne Rowling. This book is the fifth in the best selling series of children’s stories about the boy wizard, Harry Potter. Each of the books in the series tells about what happens to Harry and his friends during one year at the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. In “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” Harry again defeats the evil Lord Voldemort. But he suffers a great loss. Joanne Rowling reportedly is working on the sixth book in the series, although we do not know when it will be ready for the publisher. She has said that the series will end with a seventh book as Harry Potter finishes his education at Hogwarts. “U-S-A Today” says the second most popular book of the year was “Doctor Atkins’ New Diet Revolution” by Robert Atkins. Doctor Atkins is famous for helping people lose weight by eating fewer carbohydrates and more protein. This means that people on the Atkins diet are free to eat fatty meat products and can still lose weight. This newest book reportedly tells people how to burn even more calories and lose weight. The newspaper says the third most popular book in the United States last year was “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. The newspaper says that more than five-million copies are in print. “The Da Vinci Code” is an imaginary story about an art expert who tries to solve a murder mystery. The mystery involves the Roman Catholic Church and questions some of its beliefs. The questions asked in the book involve clues to the murder believed to have been left in artworks by Leonardo da Vinci. The information provided in the book has led some readers to question the teachings of their church. Religious leaders and history experts have both praised and criticized “The Da Vinci Code.” They say Dan Brown has given a new meaning on an old story that has not been proved. And they all say that it is important to remember that it is a work of fiction and not to be read as truth. Top Movies HOST: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The results are based on the number of tickets sold in theaters throughout the United States. The most popular movie of two-thousand-three in the United States was released in December of two-thousand-two. But it earned most of its money in two-thousand-three. “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” earned more than three-hundred-forty-million dollars in the United States last year. The story continues the one begun in the earlier movie “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” A third and final “Lord of the Rings” movie has just been released. All the “Lord of the Rings” movies are from books by British writer J-R-R Tolkein. They tell about a magic ring that has powers to destroy life in a place called Middle Earth. A human-like creature called a Hobbit is the hero of the stories. His name is Frodo Baggins, and he must destroy the ring to save his world. The second most popular movie in the United States last year was “Finding Nemo.” It is a cartoon made for children, but adults enjoyed it too. “Finding Nemo” earned more than three-hundred-thirty-nine-million dollars in the United States last year. It is about a small fish who has lost his son, Nemo, in the ocean. The movie follows Nemo and his father as they try to find each other again. The third most popular movie in the United States last year earned more than three-hundred-five-million dollars. It was “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” The idea for the movie came from a popular ride at the Disneyland amusement park in California. It is about a pirate named Jack Sparrow who is played by the actor Johnny Depp. Jack Sparrow is looking for his lost ship. The ship has been seized by pirates who have been cursed by a sailor they betrayed. Jack Sparrow must find the pirates, their ship and their hidden gold to defeat them. Officials of the Disney Company say the movie was so popular that they are planning another Jack Sparrow pirate adventure. And they say that Johnny Depp will star din the new movie. Top Recordings HOST: Each December, “Billboard” magazine lists the most popular albums, records and performers of the year. Steve Ember tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: “Billboard” magazine says two-thousand-three was the first year since nineteen-ninety-four that the same artist has the number one single and album of the year. The album is Fifty Cent’s, “Get Rich or Die Trying.” The single is “In Da Club”: (MUSIC) “Billboard” says the second biggest album of the year was Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me.” The album was released in two-thousand-two, but became extremely popular in two-thousand-three. Here is the title song from that album. Norah Jones also wrote the song. (MUSIC) The magazine says third most popular record album in the United States last year was performed by country music singer Shania Twain. The album is called “Up!” We leave you now with a song from that album, “Forever and For Always.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson wishing you a very happy new year. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Wayne Shorter. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT-The Falling Value of the Dollar
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 2, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The falling value of the dollar has become a major story in international finance. The value of a country’s money is often thought to show the strength of its economy. But experts say this is not always the case. Changes in the value of currency help some parts of the economy and hurt others. When people go to foreign countries, they have direct experience with the exchange rate of money. International travelers must use their own money to buy the currency of the country they are visiting. For example, Americans on holiday in a foreign country can buy more currency when the dollar has a high exchange value. So a high exchange value is good for vacationers. It is not so good for exporting. A strong dollar means that American exports are more costly. Other countries are less likely to import products from the United States because they are too costly. American agricultural goods, computers and airplanes all are more costly on the world market when the dollar is strong. However, sellers of foreign goods within the United States are helped by a strong dollar. A strong dollar means that American companies can buy more with the same amount of money. They can sell goods at a low price in the United States and still make a profit. This means that Americans can buy more. Low prices increase demand for foreign goods in the United States. American companies and individuals then continue to buy less costly foreign goods. This helps to increase the American trade deficit. A weak dollar helps American companies that do business overseas. For example, the American computer industry gains because its products are less costly to foreign buyers. Financial magazines report that technology companies like Intel and Microsoft have increased profits because of the weak dollar. Increased trade helps reduce the American trade deficit. The United States Commerce Department keeps information on America’s imports and exports. Information on the third quarter of two-thousand-three shows that America’s trade deficit did fall. American exporters should gain the most from the falling dollar. But, the affect of the weakening dollar on the United States trade deficit remains to be seen. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Indian Medical Camp
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 5, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors are treating more than fifteen-thousand people this month at a special medical camp in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The medical camp takes place each year during the month of January in a hospital in the village of Bidada. A non-profit organization called the Shree Bidada Sarvodaya Trust organizes the medical camp each year. Doctors from India and the United States treat the patients. The patients are from more than one-thousand-two-hundred poor villages in the area of Kutch. Vijay Chheda (CHAY-da) is one of the organizers of the medical camp. He says the patients receive the best medical care at the camp for free. Mister Chheda says doctors are treating the patients for twenty-five diseases and medical problems. Doctors treat children as well as adults. Doctors also perform hundreds of operations during the camp. In addition, patients with the most serious problems are sent to hospitals in the city of Bombay. The Bidada medical camp began thirty years ago. At first, doctors treated only patients with eye diseases. Then the organizers expanded the camp to help people with other diseases. Organizers say the medical camp has treated almost two-million people since it began. People in India, the United States and other countries provide the money to operate the medical camp. About fifty doctors and medical assistants from the United States and about two-hundred doctors and assistants from Bombay are part of the program this year. The doctors and other volunteers provide their services without being paid. Many doctors who serve in the camp were born in Kutch and are now living in the United States. Some of them have been returning to volunteer at the camp each year for many years. The doctors from the United States also teach local Indian doctors the most modern medical techniques. The Shree Bidada Sarvodaya Trust also organizes smaller medical camps for patients during the year. The organization operates the hospital in Bidada and Maru Hospital in Bombay. These hospitals treat about three-hundred patients every day. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Shelley Gollust. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-04-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Asian-American Writers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 5, 2004 (THEME) Ha Jin (Photo: bookmagazine.com) Broadcast: January 5, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United States is made up mostly of people whose ancestors came from other continents. Writers who came here from other countries continue to explore how immigrants become American. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about four Asian- American writers this week on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. Future programs will tell about immigrant writers from South and Central America, the Caribbean Islands, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular American writers is Amy Tan. Her best-known book is “The Joy Luck Club.” It is based partly on her life in the United States and her mother’s life in China. Amy Tan’s parents left China just before the Communist government took power in nineteen-forty-nine. Mizz Tan’s mother had to leave behind in China daughters from an earlier marriage. The family settled in San Francisco, California. Amy and her two brothers were born there. A few years later, Mizz Tan’s father and brother died of brain cancer. This affected the family so much that her mother moved the family to Switzerland. Mizz Tan developed a very difficult relationship with her mother. It continued after she returned to the United States. VOICE TWO: As an adult, Amy Tan operated a technical writing business for many years. But she says she was not happy. She began writing short stories. Some of them were published. They later became part of her first book, “The Joy Luck Club,” published in nineteen-eighty-nine. The book was a great success. It remained on the New York Times newspaper’s best-seller list longer than any other book that year. A popular film based on the book was also made. Some of “The Joy Luck Club” takes place in China before the revolution. It also describes the lives of Chinese-Americans in San Francisco who do not get along well with their parents. The older people feel closer to their old country, China. The children want to be more American. VOICE ONE: Amy Tan also explores relationships between mothers and daughters. One part of the book says: “And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.” Mizz Tan said it was only after going to China with her mother that her own identity became clear. Amy Tan’s other books include “The Kitchen God’s Wife,” “The Hundred Secret Senses,” and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter.” She also wrote two books for children. Mizz Tan says many of her readers, especially Chinese-Americans, feel she has presented the truth about their issues and their lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ha Jin is another important Chinese-American writer. His most well-known book is “Waiting.” It is about a doctor at an army hospital in China. It won two main American prizes, the American Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner Award, in nineteen-ninety-nine. Ha Jin lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Emory University. Ha Jin was born in nineteen-fifty-six in Liaoning province, in northern China. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Ha Jin joined the army at the age of fourteen and served for six years. Colleges in China re-opened at the end of the Cultural Revolution in nineteen-seventy-seven. Ha Jin was made to study English, which had been his last choice. After completing two degrees, he came to the United States in nineteen-eighty-five for more study. He got a Ph.D. in English from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and also studied writing. VOICE ONE: Ha Jin and his wife had planned to return to China. However, he says they changed their plans after the killings at Tiananmen Square, in Beijing in nineteen-eighty-nine. He says he believed it would be impossible to write honestly in China. He looked for jobs at universities but could not get work, so he decided to write. Ha Jin said he decided to write in English because he did not think he would have readers in China. He said writing in English was hard work but it also gave him freedom. Critics have praised his language as being clear and powerful. Ha Jin has written two books of poetry, two short story collections, and three novels. VOICE TWO: Most of Ha Jin’s books are set in China. He has been called the first Chinese writer in English to write about daily life under Communist Party rule. Ha Jin does not talk directly about political dissent in his work. But his writing is political because it shows how the system affects the daily lives of Chinese people. You might ask, what makes Ha Jin an American writer? He has chosen the United States as his new home and he has chosen to write in English. He says that he no longer knows what life in China is like now. Ha Jin says the immigrant experience and American life are meaningful to him now. He says he will soon write about this experience. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bharati Mukherjee has written a lot about the immigrant experience, mainly of people from South Asia. She was born in Calcutta, India, in nineteen-forty. She moved to the United States in nineteen-sixty-one and married a Canadian-American writer. They lived in Canada for fourteen years. Then they moved back to the United States. Mizz Mukherjee has written thirteen books. Five of them are about true events. She wrote two of these non-fiction books with her husband, Clark Blaise. The first, “Days and Nights in Calcutta,” is said to be Mizz Mukherjee’s attempt to find her identity in her Indian culture. She and her husband wrote it after living in India for a year. Mizz Mukherjee says during that time she realized that she was no longer Indian in mind or in spirit. She now calls herself an immigrant American writer. She tells about a “new America” made up of people who have left a more traditional society to search for happiness. VOICE TWO: Bharati Mukherjee came to North America before there was a large population of South Asian immigrants. She says this made her life difficult. She got advice from professionals who help get a writer’s work published. These agents advised her not to write about the immigrant experience. They said she should write only about India. She strongly rejected this because she considered herself an American writer. Some South Asian critics disagree with Mizz Mukherjee. They say her books are popular because she writes about South Asian culture. Yet she refuses to take a lead in the community life of South Asian-Americans. However, Bharati Mukherjee says that as an American, she can define herself in whatever way she chooses. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say there is a clash between what the new and old countries expect of immigrants and how they identify themselves. This is important to the work of another South Asian-American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri. But her experiences and opinions are different from those of Bharati Mukherjee. Mizz Lahiri’s first book, “The Interpreter of Maladies,” won America’s Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-ninety-nine. The writer was only thirty-two years old. “The Interpreter of Maladies” is a collection of short stories about Indian immigrants in America and Indians in their own country. Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London, England to Indian parents. The family moved to the United States soon after Jhumpa was born. However, they traveled to India many times while she was growing up. Mizz Lahiri says the United States is her home, even though she feels like an outsider. She says she shares some of her parents’ concerns. They consider India to be their home even though they have not lived there for thirty years. These are the issues the writer explores in her stories in clear and beautiful language. VOICE TWO: Mizz Lahiri’s first novel, “The Namesake,” was published in the United States in August. Critics say the book is as good as her first collection of stories. It is about an Indian-American boy dealing with his life as a new American. Experts say the immigrant experience is an adventure that each generation deals with differently. More and more immigrants continue to arrive in America from different parts of the world. They will continue to write about immigrants’ lives in different ways. Experts say this new writing makes American culture richer because it includes influences from around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Doreen Baingana who is a prize-winning writer from Uganda. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: The United States is made up mostly of people whose ancestors came from other continents. Writers who came here from other countries continue to explore how immigrants become American. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about four Asian- American writers this week on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. Future programs will tell about immigrant writers from South and Central America, the Caribbean Islands, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular American writers is Amy Tan. Her best-known book is “The Joy Luck Club.” It is based partly on her life in the United States and her mother’s life in China. Amy Tan’s parents left China just before the Communist government took power in nineteen-forty-nine. Mizz Tan’s mother had to leave behind in China daughters from an earlier marriage. The family settled in San Francisco, California. Amy and her two brothers were born there. A few years later, Mizz Tan’s father and brother died of brain cancer. This affected the family so much that her mother moved the family to Switzerland. Mizz Tan developed a very difficult relationship with her mother. It continued after she returned to the United States. VOICE TWO: As an adult, Amy Tan operated a technical writing business for many years. But she says she was not happy. She began writing short stories. Some of them were published. They later became part of her first book, “The Joy Luck Club,” published in nineteen-eighty-nine. The book was a great success. It remained on the New York Times newspaper’s best-seller list longer than any other book that year. A popular film based on the book was also made. Some of “The Joy Luck Club” takes place in China before the revolution. It also describes the lives of Chinese-Americans in San Francisco who do not get along well with their parents. The older people feel closer to their old country, China. The children want to be more American. VOICE ONE: Amy Tan also explores relationships between mothers and daughters. One part of the book says: “And I was born to my mother and I was born a girl. All of us are like stairs, one step after another, going up and down, but all going the same way.” Mizz Tan said it was only after going to China with her mother that her own identity became clear. Amy Tan’s other books include “The Kitchen God’s Wife,” “The Hundred Secret Senses,” and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter.” She also wrote two books for children. Mizz Tan says many of her readers, especially Chinese-Americans, feel she has presented the truth about their issues and their lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ha Jin is another important Chinese-American writer. His most well-known book is “Waiting.” It is about a doctor at an army hospital in China. It won two main American prizes, the American Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner Award, in nineteen-ninety-nine. Ha Jin lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He teaches English and Creative Writing at Emory University. Ha Jin was born in nineteen-fifty-six in Liaoning province, in northern China. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Ha Jin joined the army at the age of fourteen and served for six years. Colleges in China re-opened at the end of the Cultural Revolution in nineteen-seventy-seven. Ha Jin was made to study English, which had been his last choice. After completing two degrees, he came to the United States in nineteen-eighty-five for more study. He got a Ph.D. in English from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and also studied writing. VOICE ONE: Ha Jin and his wife had planned to return to China. However, he says they changed their plans after the killings at Tiananmen Square, in Beijing in nineteen-eighty-nine. He says he believed it would be impossible to write honestly in China. He looked for jobs at universities but could not get work, so he decided to write. Ha Jin said he decided to write in English because he did not think he would have readers in China. He said writing in English was hard work but it also gave him freedom. Critics have praised his language as being clear and powerful. Ha Jin has written two books of poetry, two short story collections, and three novels. VOICE TWO: Most of Ha Jin’s books are set in China. He has been called the first Chinese writer in English to write about daily life under Communist Party rule. Ha Jin does not talk directly about political dissent in his work. But his writing is political because it shows how the system affects the daily lives of Chinese people. You might ask, what makes Ha Jin an American writer? He has chosen the United States as his new home and he has chosen to write in English. He says that he no longer knows what life in China is like now. Ha Jin says the immigrant experience and American life are meaningful to him now. He says he will soon write about this experience. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bharati Mukherjee has written a lot about the immigrant experience, mainly of people from South Asia. She was born in Calcutta, India, in nineteen-forty. She moved to the United States in nineteen-sixty-one and married a Canadian-American writer. They lived in Canada for fourteen years. Then they moved back to the United States. Mizz Mukherjee has written thirteen books. Five of them are about true events. She wrote two of these non-fiction books with her husband, Clark Blaise. The first, “Days and Nights in Calcutta,” is said to be Mizz Mukherjee’s attempt to find her identity in her Indian culture. She and her husband wrote it after living in India for a year. Mizz Mukherjee says during that time she realized that she was no longer Indian in mind or in spirit. She now calls herself an immigrant American writer. She tells about a “new America” made up of people who have left a more traditional society to search for happiness. VOICE TWO: Bharati Mukherjee came to North America before there was a large population of South Asian immigrants. She says this made her life difficult. She got advice from professionals who help get a writer’s work published. These agents advised her not to write about the immigrant experience. They said she should write only about India. She strongly rejected this because she considered herself an American writer. Some South Asian critics disagree with Mizz Mukherjee. They say her books are popular because she writes about South Asian culture. Yet she refuses to take a lead in the community life of South Asian-Americans. However, Bharati Mukherjee says that as an American, she can define herself in whatever way she chooses. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say there is a clash between what the new and old countries expect of immigrants and how they identify themselves. This is important to the work of another South Asian-American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri. But her experiences and opinions are different from those of Bharati Mukherjee. Mizz Lahiri’s first book, “The Interpreter of Maladies,” won America’s Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-ninety-nine. The writer was only thirty-two years old. “The Interpreter of Maladies” is a collection of short stories about Indian immigrants in America and Indians in their own country. Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London, England to Indian parents. The family moved to the United States soon after Jhumpa was born. However, they traveled to India many times while she was growing up. Mizz Lahiri says the United States is her home, even though she feels like an outsider. She says she shares some of her parents’ concerns. They consider India to be their home even though they have not lived there for thirty years. These are the issues the writer explores in her stories in clear and beautiful language. VOICE TWO: Mizz Lahiri’s first novel, “The Namesake,” was published in the United States in August. Critics say the book is as good as her first collection of stories. It is about an Indian-American boy dealing with his life as a new American. Experts say the immigrant experience is an adventure that each generation deals with differently. More and more immigrants continue to arrive in America from different parts of the world. They will continue to write about immigrants’ lives in different ways. Experts say this new writing makes American culture richer because it includes influences from around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Doreen Baingana who is a prize-winning writer from Uganda. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-05-15-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – New Rules to Fight Mad Cow
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 6, 2004 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Last week, American Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced new rules to protect the nation’s food supply from Mad Cow Disease. The rules represent the government’s reaction to the first American case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or B-S-E. A form of B-S-E, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, can infect people. An estimated one-hundred-fifty people worldwide died from the disease since nineteen-eighty-six. The first and most important new rule bans the use of what the cattle industry calls downer cattle. Such animals are too sickly or injured to walk. In the past, over one-hundred-fifty-thousand downer cattle were killed for food each year. About five percent of them were tested for disease. Now, meat from downer cattle will not be permitted in human food. In addition, the Department of Agriculture will not mark meat as inspected and passed until tests show that it is without disease. In the past, meat was prepared for market before testing had been completed. This is how meat for the first American case of Mad Cow Disease entered the food supply. On December ninth, a downer cow was identified in Washington State. Part of the cow’s nervous system was tested. The rest of the nervous system was taken for use as something other than human food. The meat was sent to several states and the island of Guam. America’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories confirmed the case thirteen days later. The new rules require companies to hold the meat from suspect cattle until tests show that they are without disease. The Agriculture Department also will ban some parts of cattle from the human food supply. The parts include the eyes, brain, and nervous system material from the back and bottom of the head. This will be required for cattle older than thirty months of age. The small intestine of all cattle will be banned from human food. Two other measures will be put in place. A system used to kill cattle called air-injection stunning will be banned. The method is believed to spread brain tissue throughout the body of the animal. And, meat that is mechanically removed from bones will no longer be used for human food. The rules are meant to ease fears of Americans and of beef importers. Currently, more than thirty countries have banned American beef. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-05-16-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Mystery of Time
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 6, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week our program is about a mystery as old as time. Bob Doughty and Sarah Long tell about the mystery of time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing. For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe. VOICE TWO: One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes. VOICE ONE: In the real world -- the world with time -- changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness -- one day. VOICE TWO: People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun's highest position until it returned to that position. They counted three-hundred sixty-five days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year. VOICE ONE: Early humans also noted changes in the moon. As it moved across the night sky, they must have wondered. Why did it look different every night? Why did it disappear? Where did it go? Even before they learned the answers to these questions, they developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time. The moon was "full" when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same -- about twenty-nine suns. Twenty-nine suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes from place to place in search of food. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. They learned to use animals to help them work, and for food. They found they no longer needed to move from one place to another to survive. As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars. No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months. When people started farming, the wise men of the tribes became very important. They studied the sky. They gathered enough information so they could know when the seasons would change. They announced when it was time to plant crops. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia four-thousand years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every three-hundred-sixty-five days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into twenty-four equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds. VOICE TWO: Humans have used many devices to measure time. The sundial was one of the earliest and simplest. A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes. The sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, other ways were invented to measure the passing of time. VOICE ONE: One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight --- wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true "hour" glass, it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour. By the eighteenth century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic. VOICE TWO: So, we have devices to mark the passing of time. But what time is it now. Clocks in different parts of the world do not show the same time at the same time. This is because time on Earth is set by the sun's position in the sky above. We all have a twelve o'clock noon each day. Noon is the time the sun is highest in the sky. But when it is twelve o'clock noon where I am, it may be ten o'clock at night where you are. VOICE ONE: As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world. In eighteen-eighty-four, an international conference divided the world into twenty-four time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east. The time at Greenwich -- as measured by the sun -- is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time. VOICE TWO: Some scientists say time is governed by the movement of matter in our universe. They say time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Some say it will stop expanding some day and will begin to move in the opposite direction, to grow smaller. Some believe time will also begin to flow in the opposite direction -- from the future to the past. Can time move backward? Most people have no trouble agreeing that time moves forward. We see people born and then grow old. We remember the past, but we do not know the future. We know a film is moving forward if it shows a glass falling off a table and breaking into many pieces. If the film were moving backward, the pieces would re-join to form a glass and jump back up onto the table. No one has ever seen this happen. Except in a film. VOICE ONE: Some scientists believe there is one reason why time only moves forward. It is a well-known scientific law -- the second law of thermodynamics. That law says disorder increases with time. In fact, there are more conditions of disorder than of order. For example, there are many ways a glass can break into pieces. That is disorder. But there is only one way the broken pieces can be organized to make a glass. That is order. If time moved backward, the broken pieces could come together in a great many ways. Only one of these many ways, however, would re-form the glass. It is almost impossible to believe this would happen. VOICE TWO: Not all scientists believe time is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. They do not agree that time must always move forward. The debate will continue about the nature of time. And time will remain a mystery. (THEME) ANNCR: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and read by Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: January 6, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week our program is about a mystery as old as time. Bob Doughty and Sarah Long tell about the mystery of time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing. For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe. VOICE TWO: One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated. A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes. VOICE ONE: In the real world -- the world with time -- changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time. In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness -- one day. VOICE TWO: People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun's highest position until it returned to that position. They counted three-hundred sixty-five days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year. VOICE ONE: Early humans also noted changes in the moon. As it moved across the night sky, they must have wondered. Why did it look different every night? Why did it disappear? Where did it go? Even before they learned the answers to these questions, they developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time. The moon was "full" when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same -- about twenty-nine suns. Twenty-nine suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes from place to place in search of food. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. They learned to use animals to help them work, and for food. They found they no longer needed to move from one place to another to survive. As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars. No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months. When people started farming, the wise men of the tribes became very important. They studied the sky. They gathered enough information so they could know when the seasons would change. They announced when it was time to plant crops. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia four-thousand years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every three-hundred-sixty-five days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into twenty-four equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds. VOICE TWO: Humans have used many devices to measure time. The sundial was one of the earliest and simplest. A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes. The sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, other ways were invented to measure the passing of time. VOICE ONE: One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight --- wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true "hour" glass, it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour. By the eighteenth century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic. VOICE TWO: So, we have devices to mark the passing of time. But what time is it now. Clocks in different parts of the world do not show the same time at the same time. This is because time on Earth is set by the sun's position in the sky above. We all have a twelve o'clock noon each day. Noon is the time the sun is highest in the sky. But when it is twelve o'clock noon where I am, it may be ten o'clock at night where you are. VOICE ONE: As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world. In eighteen-eighty-four, an international conference divided the world into twenty-four time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east. The time at Greenwich -- as measured by the sun -- is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time. VOICE TWO: Some scientists say time is governed by the movement of matter in our universe. They say time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Some say it will stop expanding some day and will begin to move in the opposite direction, to grow smaller. Some believe time will also begin to flow in the opposite direction -- from the future to the past. Can time move backward? Most people have no trouble agreeing that time moves forward. We see people born and then grow old. We remember the past, but we do not know the future. We know a film is moving forward if it shows a glass falling off a table and breaking into many pieces. If the film were moving backward, the pieces would re-join to form a glass and jump back up onto the table. No one has ever seen this happen. Except in a film. VOICE ONE: Some scientists believe there is one reason why time only moves forward. It is a well-known scientific law -- the second law of thermodynamics. That law says disorder increases with time. In fact, there are more conditions of disorder than of order. For example, there are many ways a glass can break into pieces. That is disorder. But there is only one way the broken pieces can be organized to make a glass. That is order. If time moved backward, the broken pieces could come together in a great many ways. Only one of these many ways, however, would re-form the glass. It is almost impossible to believe this would happen. VOICE TWO: Not all scientists believe time is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. They do not agree that time must always move forward. The debate will continue about the nature of time. And time will remain a mystery. (THEME) ANNCR: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and read by Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Science in the News, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  National Air And Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 7, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 7, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Last month, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened its new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy (OOD-var HAH-zee) Center in Virginia, near Washington, D-C. Today we tell about this new museum for famous aircraft. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Last month, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened its new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy (OOD-var HAH-zee) Center in Virginia, near Washington, D-C. Today we tell about this new museum for famous aircraft. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The new Udvar-Hazy Center has been open for a little more than three weeks. However, it has already proven to be extremely popular. On December twenty-sixth, the road leading to the new museum was blocked with vehicles. Local television stations showed pictures of thousands of automobiles waiting their turn to enter the museum’s parking area. Some vehicles were turned away. There was not enough room. The parking area was full. The new center may prove to be as popular as the main Air and Space Museum in Washington. VOICE TWO: The National Air and Space Museum is perhaps the most visited museum in the world. Almost ten-million people visit the museum ever year to see famous aircraft. They can see the Wright Brothers famous flyer. It was the first controllable aircraft to fly with an engine. It flew for the first time on December Seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum can also see Charles Lindbergh’s airplane, “The Spirit of Saint Louis.” He became the first pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone and without stopping, from the United States to France. That flight took place in May of nineteen-twenty-seven. Near the famous plane is an orange rocket plane that became the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound. Pilot Chuck Yeager made that flight in nineteen-forty-seven. Visitors to the museum can even touch a small piece of the moon. It was brought back to Earth by American astronauts who walked on the moon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The main job of a museum is to keep and protect important objects from the past so they can be studied, examined and enjoyed in the future. Displaying these collected objects helps the public understand the importance of a museum’s work. Finding room to keep a collection of aircraft has always been a problem for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. This museum only holds about ten percent of the aircraft it has collected over the years. Another ten percent of the aircraft have been loaned to other museums. The other eighty percent have been kept in storage buildings for safekeeping. Some of them have been stored for as long as fifty years. The opening of the Museum’s new Udvar-Hazy Center has changed this. As many as three-hundred aircraft will be placed on display in the new museum. More than eighty of them have already been placed in the building for the public to see. VOICE TWO: The new center was named for Steven Udvar-Hazy. He came to the United States from Hungary. He became very successful in the aircraft industry. He became so successful that he gave the National Air and Space Museum sixty-five-million dollars to help build the new center. Mister Udvar-Hazy said he wanted to give something to America for the opportunities he found here. He also wanted to pass on his love of aviation to the people of the future. VOICE ONE: Mister Udvar-Hazy’s gift helped build the center. It did not pay the total cost. That is expected to be more than three-hundred-million dollars. This includes the design, construction and cost of moving the aircraft into the new center. The largest of the new center’s several buildings is huge. It is thirty-one meters high, almost seventy-six meters wide, and three-hundred meters long. Visitors can see and walk near the aircraft on three levels in the main building. They can walk near the largest aircraft on the museum’s floor. Smaller aircraft are hung from the ceiling. Visitors can examine them from several walkways that are about fifteen meters above the floor. They can see other aircraft that are hung near the ceiling. They can do this from walkways that are near the top of the building. Computers at small information centers show close-up photographs of the aircraft. These photographs include pictures taken inside the aircraft. Visitors can use the computers to see the pilot’s controls, passenger areas and other parts of the inside of the aircraft. In the future, these pictures will be on the new museum’s computer link with the Internet. VOICE TWO: All of the aircraft that will be on display are important to the history of flight. Some are huge. The largest aircraft in the collection was given to the museum only a few months ago. It is the Air France Concorde. The plane landed at nearby Dulles International Airport on its last flight. It was pulled by a special vehicle to the museum. The Concorde was one of the few passenger airplanes that could fly faster than the speed of sound. A Concorde flight from Paris, France to Washington, D-C usually took less than four hours. The new center also has very small aircraft in the collection. One is the Boeing P-Twenty-Six-A Peashooter. The little Peashooter could hide under the wing of the Concorde. In fact, several of them could hide there. The Peashooter was a military fighter plane. It was built in the early nineteen-thirties. It is also one of the most beautiful aircraft in the new center. Most military aircraft are not painted with bright colors. But the Peashooter has wings painted yellow-gold. The body is painted black with white strips down its side. The front is painted a shiny white. VOICE ONE: The new Udvar-Hazy Center also holds the fastest aircraft every built. It is the Lockheed S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird. It looks like a rocket plane, but it is not. It has an aircraft jet engine, not a rocket engine. The military used the Blackbird to gather intelligence. It carried cameras, not guns. It used its great speed to fly away from danger. The Blackbird is a large aircraft. It is painted with a dull black paint and looks like a bullet. In fact it is faster than many bullets. It could travel at three times the speed of sound. That is about three-thousand-five-hundred-forty kilometers an hour. The last time a Blackbird flew was from Los Angeles, California to Dulles International Airport near the museum. The United States Air Force flew it for the last time to deliver it to the Udvar-Hazy Center. That flight from California to Virginia took only one hour, four minutes and twenty seconds. VOICE TWO: Many of the aircraft in the collection were built for military use. However, the museum is not a just a collection of military aircraft. Aviation experts say new flight technology has often been used first in the design of military aircraft. For example, the first jet was a military airplane. Civilian aircraft designers quickly used jet technology because jets are faster and cheaper. An aircraft called the Dash-Eighty is a good example of military technology being used for civilian purposes. The Boeing Company built the aircraft. Its real name is the Boeing Three-Six-Seven—dash—Eighty. It was designed as the first modern jet passenger aircraft. It first flew in July of nineteen-fifty-four. It does not look much different from aircraft used today by airlines around the world. Later, a similar aircraft was given the numbers Seven-Oh-Seven. The Seven-Oh-Seven was the first extremely successful passenger jet aircraft. It served as the first jet aircraft for many of the world’s passenger airlines. The Dash-Eighty looks very new, not fifty years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: National Air and Space Museum officials say they expect about three-million visitors a year to the new center. Many of these visitors will be school children. The center includes schoolrooms and will provide teachers with teaching materials. One of the center’s goals will be to educate the children of the future about the importance of aviation. Smithsonian officials recognize that it is difficult for many people to visit either of these two flight museums. In the near future, they hope to display photographs and information about all the aircraft on the Internet. You can already visit the museum if you have a computer that can link with the Internet. The Internet address is WWW.NASM.SI.EDU. Or have your computer search for the letters N-A-S-M. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The new Udvar-Hazy Center has been open for a little more than three weeks. However, it has already proven to be extremely popular. On December twenty-sixth, the road leading to the new museum was blocked with vehicles. Local television stations showed pictures of thousands of automobiles waiting their turn to enter the museum’s parking area. Some vehicles were turned away. There was not enough room. The parking area was full. The new center may prove to be as popular as the main Air and Space Museum in Washington. VOICE TWO: The National Air and Space Museum is perhaps the most visited museum in the world. Almost ten-million people visit the museum ever year to see famous aircraft. They can see the Wright Brothers famous flyer. It was the first controllable aircraft to fly with an engine. It flew for the first time on December Seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. Visitors to the National Air and Space Museum can also see Charles Lindbergh’s airplane, “The Spirit of Saint Louis.” He became the first pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone and without stopping, from the United States to France. That flight took place in May of nineteen-twenty-seven. Near the famous plane is an orange rocket plane that became the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound. Pilot Chuck Yeager made that flight in nineteen-forty-seven. Visitors to the museum can even touch a small piece of the moon. It was brought back to Earth by American astronauts who walked on the moon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The main job of a museum is to keep and protect important objects from the past so they can be studied, examined and enjoyed in the future. Displaying these collected objects helps the public understand the importance of a museum’s work. Finding room to keep a collection of aircraft has always been a problem for the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. This museum only holds about ten percent of the aircraft it has collected over the years. Another ten percent of the aircraft have been loaned to other museums. The other eighty percent have been kept in storage buildings for safekeeping. Some of them have been stored for as long as fifty years. The opening of the Museum’s new Udvar-Hazy Center has changed this. As many as three-hundred aircraft will be placed on display in the new museum. More than eighty of them have already been placed in the building for the public to see. VOICE TWO: The new center was named for Steven Udvar-Hazy. He came to the United States from Hungary. He became very successful in the aircraft industry. He became so successful that he gave the National Air and Space Museum sixty-five-million dollars to help build the new center. Mister Udvar-Hazy said he wanted to give something to America for the opportunities he found here. He also wanted to pass on his love of aviation to the people of the future. VOICE ONE: Mister Udvar-Hazy’s gift helped build the center. It did not pay the total cost. That is expected to be more than three-hundred-million dollars. This includes the design, construction and cost of moving the aircraft into the new center. The largest of the new center’s several buildings is huge. It is thirty-one meters high, almost seventy-six meters wide, and three-hundred meters long. Visitors can see and walk near the aircraft on three levels in the main building. They can walk near the largest aircraft on the museum’s floor. Smaller aircraft are hung from the ceiling. Visitors can examine them from several walkways that are about fifteen meters above the floor. They can see other aircraft that are hung near the ceiling. They can do this from walkways that are near the top of the building. Computers at small information centers show close-up photographs of the aircraft. These photographs include pictures taken inside the aircraft. Visitors can use the computers to see the pilot’s controls, passenger areas and other parts of the inside of the aircraft. In the future, these pictures will be on the new museum’s computer link with the Internet. VOICE TWO: All of the aircraft that will be on display are important to the history of flight. Some are huge. The largest aircraft in the collection was given to the museum only a few months ago. It is the Air France Concorde. The plane landed at nearby Dulles International Airport on its last flight. It was pulled by a special vehicle to the museum. The Concorde was one of the few passenger airplanes that could fly faster than the speed of sound. A Concorde flight from Paris, France to Washington, D-C usually took less than four hours. The new center also has very small aircraft in the collection. One is the Boeing P-Twenty-Six-A Peashooter. The little Peashooter could hide under the wing of the Concorde. In fact, several of them could hide there. The Peashooter was a military fighter plane. It was built in the early nineteen-thirties. It is also one of the most beautiful aircraft in the new center. Most military aircraft are not painted with bright colors. But the Peashooter has wings painted yellow-gold. The body is painted black with white strips down its side. The front is painted a shiny white. VOICE ONE: The new Udvar-Hazy Center also holds the fastest aircraft every built. It is the Lockheed S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird. It looks like a rocket plane, but it is not. It has an aircraft jet engine, not a rocket engine. The military used the Blackbird to gather intelligence. It carried cameras, not guns. It used its great speed to fly away from danger. The Blackbird is a large aircraft. It is painted with a dull black paint and looks like a bullet. In fact it is faster than many bullets. It could travel at three times the speed of sound. That is about three-thousand-five-hundred-forty kilometers an hour. The last time a Blackbird flew was from Los Angeles, California to Dulles International Airport near the museum. The United States Air Force flew it for the last time to deliver it to the Udvar-Hazy Center. That flight from California to Virginia took only one hour, four minutes and twenty seconds. VOICE TWO: Many of the aircraft in the collection were built for military use. However, the museum is not a just a collection of military aircraft. Aviation experts say new flight technology has often been used first in the design of military aircraft. For example, the first jet was a military airplane. Civilian aircraft designers quickly used jet technology because jets are faster and cheaper. An aircraft called the Dash-Eighty is a good example of military technology being used for civilian purposes. The Boeing Company built the aircraft. Its real name is the Boeing Three-Six-Seven—dash—Eighty. It was designed as the first modern jet passenger aircraft. It first flew in July of nineteen-fifty-four. It does not look much different from aircraft used today by airlines around the world. Later, a similar aircraft was given the numbers Seven-Oh-Seven. The Seven-Oh-Seven was the first extremely successful passenger jet aircraft. It served as the first jet aircraft for many of the world’s passenger airlines. The Dash-Eighty looks very new, not fifty years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: National Air and Space Museum officials say they expect about three-million visitors a year to the new center. Many of these visitors will be school children. The center includes schoolrooms and will provide teachers with teaching materials. One of the center’s goals will be to educate the children of the future about the importance of aviation. Smithsonian officials recognize that it is difficult for many people to visit either of these two flight museums. In the near future, they hope to display photographs and information about all the aircraft on the Internet. You can already visit the museum if you have a computer that can link with the Internet. The Internet address is WWW.NASM.SI.EDU. Or have your computer search for the letters N-A-S-M. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT-Importance of Hand Washing
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 7, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical experts say the most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is for people to wash their hands with soap and water. The World Bank, the United Nations, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine carried out a study to urge hand- washing around the world. They say that programs to increase hand- washing with soap could be among the most effective ways to reduce infectious disease. They say that one-million lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands with soap often. Doctors say many diseases can be prevented from spreading by hand-washing. These include pinworms, influenza, the common cold, hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea. Hand-washing destroys germs from other people, animals or objects a person has touched. When people get bacteria on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Then these people can infect other people. The experts say the easiest way to catch a cold is to touch your nose or eyes after someone nearby has sneezed or coughed. Another way to become sick is to eat food prepared by someone whose hands were not clean. The experts say that hand-washing is especially important before and after preparing food, before eating and after using the toilet. People should wash their hands after handling animals or animal waste, and after cleaning a baby. The experts say it is also a good idea to wash your hands after handling money and after sneezing or coughing. And it is important to wash your hands often when someone in your home is sick. The experts say the most effective way to wash your hands is to rub them together after using soap and warm water. They say you do not have to use special anti-bacterial soap. Be sure to rub all areas of the hands for about ten to fifteen seconds. The soap and the rubbing action remove germs. Rinse the hands with water and dry them. Experts say that people using public bathrooms should dry their hands with a paper towel and use the towel to turn off the water. They also advise using the paper towel to open the bathroom door before throwing the towel away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: January 7, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical experts say the most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is for people to wash their hands with soap and water. The World Bank, the United Nations, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine carried out a study to urge hand- washing around the world. They say that programs to increase hand- washing with soap could be among the most effective ways to reduce infectious disease. They say that one-million lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands with soap often. Doctors say many diseases can be prevented from spreading by hand-washing. These include pinworms, influenza, the common cold, hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea. Hand-washing destroys germs from other people, animals or objects a person has touched. When people get bacteria on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Then these people can infect other people. The experts say the easiest way to catch a cold is to touch your nose or eyes after someone nearby has sneezed or coughed. Another way to become sick is to eat food prepared by someone whose hands were not clean. The experts say that hand-washing is especially important before and after preparing food, before eating and after using the toilet. People should wash their hands after handling animals or animal waste, and after cleaning a baby. The experts say it is also a good idea to wash your hands after handling money and after sneezing or coughing. And it is important to wash your hands often when someone in your home is sick. The experts say the most effective way to wash your hands is to rub them together after using soap and warm water. They say you do not have to use special anti-bacterial soap. Be sure to rub all areas of the hands for about ten to fifteen seconds. The soap and the rubbing action remove germs. Rinse the hands with water and dry them. Experts say that people using public bathrooms should dry their hands with a paper towel and use the towel to turn off the water. They also advise using the paper towel to open the bathroom door before throwing the towel away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT -  High School Cyber Cafes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 8, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Education Report. Cyber Café computer centers are found in many cities around the world. Now, a few American high schools are opening these centers. For example, a high school in the state of Maryland began operating a Cyber Café last March. All students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda can use the Cyber Café. But school officials say it especially helps students who have no computer or cannot use the Internet at home. The officials say thirteen percent of the students at the school are from poor families. Many students have arrived in the United States from other countries only recently. Students in the school’s program for learning English speak twenty-three other languages. The idea for a Cyber Cafe at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School began three years ago. At that time, officials were planning to restore the school building. Parents interested in technology proposed a Cyber Café. They wanted this center even though schools in the area had suffered budget cuts. The community wanted to help. It wanted all students to have the best chances to learn. Officials in the area supported the idea. So did an organization called the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Educational Foundation. The foundation includes parents, teachers, former students, and business, community and other leaders. Over two years, the foundation collected money for a Cyber Café and other new computers. It received more than one-hundred-seventy-thousand dollars. The Café now has sixteen computers, a printer and a device called a scanner. School official Ann Hengerer (HEN-grr-er) says students use the Internet to complete research. They also write homework and required papers on the computers. In addition, they can send and receive electronic mail. That is especially helpful for the many students who have family members in other nations. The Cyber Café also serves a social purpose. Visitors can stop by for a drink of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. On Long Island, in New York, the Walter G. O’Connell Copiague (Co-PAYG) High School has six computers in its Cyber Café. One student at the school says students can start their homework even before they leave school. This VOA Special English Education report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: January 8, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Education Report. Cyber Café computer centers are found in many cities around the world. Now, a few American high schools are opening these centers. For example, a high school in the state of Maryland began operating a Cyber Café last March. All students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda can use the Cyber Café. But school officials say it especially helps students who have no computer or cannot use the Internet at home. The officials say thirteen percent of the students at the school are from poor families. Many students have arrived in the United States from other countries only recently. Students in the school’s program for learning English speak twenty-three other languages. The idea for a Cyber Cafe at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School began three years ago. At that time, officials were planning to restore the school building. Parents interested in technology proposed a Cyber Café. They wanted this center even though schools in the area had suffered budget cuts. The community wanted to help. It wanted all students to have the best chances to learn. Officials in the area supported the idea. So did an organization called the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Educational Foundation. The foundation includes parents, teachers, former students, and business, community and other leaders. Over two years, the foundation collected money for a Cyber Café and other new computers. It received more than one-hundred-seventy-thousand dollars. The Café now has sixteen computers, a printer and a device called a scanner. School official Ann Hengerer (HEN-grr-er) says students use the Internet to complete research. They also write homework and required papers on the computers. In addition, they can send and receive electronic mail. That is especially helpful for the many students who have family members in other nations. The Cyber Café also serves a social purpose. Visitors can stop by for a drink of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. On Long Island, in New York, the Walter G. O’Connell Copiague (Co-PAYG) High School has six computers in its Cyber Café. One student at the school says students can start their homework even before they leave school. This VOA Special English Education report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Thomas Jefferson, Part 9 (The Last Days)
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 8, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) Thomas Jefferson left the White House in March, Eighteen-Hundred and Nine. His secretary of state, James Madison, had been elected president. And Jefferson believed the nation was in good hands. He returned to his country home in Virginia and never went back to Washington again. Jefferson and the new president exchanged letters often. Jefferson offered his advice on a number of problems faced by Madison. There were many visitors to Jefferson's home. All of them were welcome. But Jefferson was happiest with the young men who came to see him. They discussed books, government, and developments in science. Jefferson answered their questions and proposed studies to improve their education. VOICE TWO: Jefferson believed firmly in the value of education. His whole idea of government depended on the ability of citizens to make intelligent decisions. He spent the final years of his life building a better educational system for Virginia. Jefferson had been interested in education for most of his life. He had developed many ideas about the best way to educate the people. He believed that every citizen had the right to an education. But he understood that all people do not have the same ability to learn. Jefferson divided the people into two groups: those who labor and those who use their minds. He thought both should start with the same simple education -- learning to read and write and count. After these things were learned, he believed the two groups should be taught separately. Those in the labor group, he thought, should learn how to be better farmers or how to make things with their hands. The other group should study science, or medicine, or law. VOICE ONE: Jefferson did not wait long to begin working to improve education in Virginia. A group of men decided to build a college at Charlottesville, near Jefferson's home. Jefferson immediately offered to take a leading part in starting the school. He said he would plan the buildings and also plan what the students would study. He wrote to many of his friends -- experts in education. He asked for their advice. One of the experts told Jefferson he should not include religion among the studies. Jefferson agreed. But he understood that leaving out religious studies would cause problems. He explained it this way: "We cannot always do what is absolutely best. Those with whom we act have different ideas. They have the right and power to act on their ideas. We make progress only one step at a time. To do our fellow men the most good, we must lead where we can, follow where we cannot. But we must still go with them, watching always for the moment we can help them move forward another step." VOICE TWO: Jefferson began by planning a program of studies for the Charlottesville College. But he did not stop there. Before he finished, he had completed plans for a complete education system for Virginia. He proposed a school system of three steps. The first step would be elementary schools, where all children could learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. These schools would be built in all areas of the state and would be paid for by the people living in each area. The second step would be colleges...equal to the high schools of today. He proposed that nine of these schools be built in the state. Students would begin the study of science, or would study agriculture, or how to use their hands to make things. These schools would be paid for by the state. The third step would be a state university, where students of great ability could go to get the best of educations. The university would produce the lawyers, doctors, professors, scientists, and government leaders. Young men whose families had money would pay for their own educations. The state would pay the costs of a small number of bright students from poor families. Jefferson also proposed that the University of Virginia be built at Charlottesville. He already had begun work on the college there and offered to give it to the university. VOICE ONE: His education program was offered to the Virginia legislature. Many law-makers thought it was excellent. But many others opposed it. They did not want to raise taxes for the large amount of money such a system would cost. The legislature, however, agreed to part of the plan. It approved a bill to help pay the cost of educating poor children. And it agreed to spend fifteen-thousand dollars each year for a university. There was much debate about where the university should be built. Several other towns wanted the school. Finally, Charlottesville was chosen. VOICE TWO: By this time, Jefferson had completed plans for the university buildings. He borrowed many of his ideas from the beautiful buildings of ancient Greece and Rome. The buildings were so well planned that one-hundred years later, when the university was to put up a new building, the builder could find no reason to change the plans drawn by Jefferson. Work began on the university immediately. But it was six years before the school was open to students. Jefferson was there almost every day, watching the workmen. He was quick to criticize any mistake or work that was not done well. When he was sick and not able to go down to the university, he would watch the work through a telescope from a window of his home. The cost of the university kept growing. And Jefferson had to struggle to get the legislature to pay for it. He also worked hard to get the best possible professors to teach at the university. He sent men throughout the United States to find good teachers. He even sent a man to Europe for this purpose. Finally, in March, Eighteen-Hundred Twenty-Five, the University of Virginia opened. VOICE ONE: Jefferson's health had suffered during his years of work for the university. He was eighty-two years old and feeling his age. He suffered from rheumatism and diabetes, and was so weak he could walk only short distances. Jefferson also found his memory was failing. He knew he did not have much longer to live. He told a friend one day: "When I look back over the ranks of those with whom I have lived and loved, it is like looking over a field of battle. All fallen." As his health grew worse, Jefferson turned his thoughts to death. He wrote how he wished to be buried. He wanted a simple grave on the mountainside below his house. He drew a picture of the kind of memorial he wanted put at his grave. On this stone he wanted the statement: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson -- author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Virginia Law for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia." He did not choose his work as governor of Virginia, secretary of state, or president. There was not a word about his purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, which added so greatly to the United States. Jefferson did not explain why he chose the Declaration of Independence, the law for religious freedom, and the university as his greatest works. VOICE TWO: Writer Nathan Schachner, in his book on Jefferson, offers this explanation: "He chose those points in his life when he performed some service in the unending struggle to free the human mind. Freedom from political tyranny, freedom from religious tyranny, and finally, freedom through education -- from all the tyrannies that have ever clouded and held back the human spirit." On the Fourth of July, Eighteen-Twenty-Six, the nation began its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Then, from Boston, came news that former president John Adams had died. His last words were: "Thomas Jefferson still lives." VOICE ONE: But Adams was wrong. At ten minutes before ten in the morning, on that same Fourth of July, his friend, Thomas Jefferson, had died. As the news of the deaths of the two great men spread across the country, the celebrations turned to mourning and sorrow. Jefferson was buried the next day, as he had ordered, in a simple grave on the quiet mountainside. But his spirit still lives in the Declaration of Independence, the American tradition of religious freedom, and at his beloved University of Virginia. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. Broadcast: January 8, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) Thomas Jefferson left the White House in March, Eighteen-Hundred and Nine. His secretary of state, James Madison, had been elected president. And Jefferson believed the nation was in good hands. He returned to his country home in Virginia and never went back to Washington again. Jefferson and the new president exchanged letters often. Jefferson offered his advice on a number of problems faced by Madison. There were many visitors to Jefferson's home. All of them were welcome. But Jefferson was happiest with the young men who came to see him. They discussed books, government, and developments in science. Jefferson answered their questions and proposed studies to improve their education. VOICE TWO: Jefferson believed firmly in the value of education. His whole idea of government depended on the ability of citizens to make intelligent decisions. He spent the final years of his life building a better educational system for Virginia. Jefferson had been interested in education for most of his life. He had developed many ideas about the best way to educate the people. He believed that every citizen had the right to an education. But he understood that all people do not have the same ability to learn. Jefferson divided the people into two groups: those who labor and those who use their minds. He thought both should start with the same simple education -- learning to read and write and count. After these things were learned, he believed the two groups should be taught separately. Those in the labor group, he thought, should learn how to be better farmers or how to make things with their hands. The other group should study science, or medicine, or law. VOICE ONE: Jefferson did not wait long to begin working to improve education in Virginia. A group of men decided to build a college at Charlottesville, near Jefferson's home. Jefferson immediately offered to take a leading part in starting the school. He said he would plan the buildings and also plan what the students would study. He wrote to many of his friends -- experts in education. He asked for their advice. One of the experts told Jefferson he should not include religion among the studies. Jefferson agreed. But he understood that leaving out religious studies would cause problems. He explained it this way: "We cannot always do what is absolutely best. Those with whom we act have different ideas. They have the right and power to act on their ideas. We make progress only one step at a time. To do our fellow men the most good, we must lead where we can, follow where we cannot. But we must still go with them, watching always for the moment we can help them move forward another step." VOICE TWO: Jefferson began by planning a program of studies for the Charlottesville College. But he did not stop there. Before he finished, he had completed plans for a complete education system for Virginia. He proposed a school system of three steps. The first step would be elementary schools, where all children could learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. These schools would be built in all areas of the state and would be paid for by the people living in each area. The second step would be colleges...equal to the high schools of today. He proposed that nine of these schools be built in the state. Students would begin the study of science, or would study agriculture, or how to use their hands to make things. These schools would be paid for by the state. The third step would be a state university, where students of great ability could go to get the best of educations. The university would produce the lawyers, doctors, professors, scientists, and government leaders. Young men whose families had money would pay for their own educations. The state would pay the costs of a small number of bright students from poor families. Jefferson also proposed that the University of Virginia be built at Charlottesville. He already had begun work on the college there and offered to give it to the university. VOICE ONE: His education program was offered to the Virginia legislature. Many law-makers thought it was excellent. But many others opposed it. They did not want to raise taxes for the large amount of money such a system would cost. The legislature, however, agreed to part of the plan. It approved a bill to help pay the cost of educating poor children. And it agreed to spend fifteen-thousand dollars each year for a university. There was much debate about where the university should be built. Several other towns wanted the school. Finally, Charlottesville was chosen. VOICE TWO: By this time, Jefferson had completed plans for the university buildings. He borrowed many of his ideas from the beautiful buildings of ancient Greece and Rome. The buildings were so well planned that one-hundred years later, when the university was to put up a new building, the builder could find no reason to change the plans drawn by Jefferson. Work began on the university immediately. But it was six years before the school was open to students. Jefferson was there almost every day, watching the workmen. He was quick to criticize any mistake or work that was not done well. When he was sick and not able to go down to the university, he would watch the work through a telescope from a window of his home. The cost of the university kept growing. And Jefferson had to struggle to get the legislature to pay for it. He also worked hard to get the best possible professors to teach at the university. He sent men throughout the United States to find good teachers. He even sent a man to Europe for this purpose. Finally, in March, Eighteen-Hundred Twenty-Five, the University of Virginia opened. VOICE ONE: Jefferson's health had suffered during his years of work for the university. He was eighty-two years old and feeling his age. He suffered from rheumatism and diabetes, and was so weak he could walk only short distances. Jefferson also found his memory was failing. He knew he did not have much longer to live. He told a friend one day: "When I look back over the ranks of those with whom I have lived and loved, it is like looking over a field of battle. All fallen." As his health grew worse, Jefferson turned his thoughts to death. He wrote how he wished to be buried. He wanted a simple grave on the mountainside below his house. He drew a picture of the kind of memorial he wanted put at his grave. On this stone he wanted the statement: "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson -- author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Virginia Law for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia." He did not choose his work as governor of Virginia, secretary of state, or president. There was not a word about his purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, which added so greatly to the United States. Jefferson did not explain why he chose the Declaration of Independence, the law for religious freedom, and the university as his greatest works. VOICE TWO: Writer Nathan Schachner, in his book on Jefferson, offers this explanation: "He chose those points in his life when he performed some service in the unending struggle to free the human mind. Freedom from political tyranny, freedom from religious tyranny, and finally, freedom through education -- from all the tyrannies that have ever clouded and held back the human spirit." On the Fourth of July, Eighteen-Twenty-Six, the nation began its celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Then, from Boston, came news that former president John Adams had died. His last words were: "Thomas Jefferson still lives." VOICE ONE: But Adams was wrong. At ten minutes before ten in the morning, on that same Fourth of July, his friend, Thomas Jefferson, had died. As the news of the deaths of the two great men spread across the country, the celebrations turned to mourning and sorrow. Jefferson was buried the next day, as he had ordered, in a simple grave on the quiet mountainside. But his spirit still lives in the Declaration of Independence, the American tradition of religious freedom, and at his beloved University of Virginia. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC -- The Empire State Building / Winners of a Student Science Competition / Music from Fountains of  Wayne
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 9, 2003 HOST: Broadcast: January 9, 2003 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about a tall building in New York City, and play some music by a group nominated for a Grammy Award. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about a tall building in New York City, and play some music by a group nominated for a Grammy Award. But first, a report about a recent student science competition. Siemens Westinghouse Competition HOST: The winners of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology were announced last month. The Siemens Foundation created the competition to improve mathematics and science studies among American high school students. The competition awards two top prizes of one-hundred-thousand dollars each to pay for college. The money goes to one individual and one team. Jim Tedder tells us about the top winners. ANNCR: Seventeen-year-old Yin Li of New York City received the individual award for his work in brain research. Mister Li did research on nerve cell activity in mice that could help improve understanding of the human brain. Experts say his project represents progress in understanding how neurons communicate. Mister Li discovered a protein that could be linked to neurons. His project explores how nerve cells work and how the strength of their connections may be ruled by the action of local proteins. Mister Li was born in Shanghai, China and came to the United States at the age of nine. He said that he has always been interested in the brain, especially since reading a speech given by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Eric Kandel. Mister Li did his award-winning research at Mister Kandel’s laboratory at Columbia University. The team award went to two brothers from the state of Connecticut. Eighteen-year-old Mark and sixteen-year-old Jeffrey Schneider studied the West Nile virus. They developed a model describing the spread of the virus in order to study ways to prevent and control it. Such models can help public health officials study different ways to stop the spread of viruses. The experts say the brothers’ work may help public health professionals make better decisions about the growing threat of West Nile disease. The Schneider Brothers said they chose to study the West Nile virus as a result of personal experience with the problem in their home town of South Windsor, Connecticut. And they reportedly entered the science competition as a result of seeing the movie, “October Sky.” In the movie, high school students in the state of West Virginia learn to build rockets and win a national science contest. Empire State Building HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Ngoc Lien Nguyen would like to know about the Empire State Building. That famous building has been an important part of New York City since it was completed in nineteen-thirty-one. It reaches more than four-hundred-forty-three meters into the sky. For many years, it was the tallest building in the world. That is no longer true. Construction of the building began on March seventeenth, nineteen-thirty. It was completed in just one year and forty-five days. It has one-hundred-three levels and six-thousand-five hundred windows. Visitors can ride in one of seventy-three elevators that take them from the bottom to very near the top of the building. Some of these elevators are very fast, reaching the eightieth floor in only forty-five seconds. The heads of government of almost every nation in the world have visited the Empire State Building. These important people are just a few of the millions who have ridden to the observation area near the top of the building each year. From there, visitors can seen almost all of New York City. They can see across the Hudson River into the state of New Jersey. They can see ships in the East River. People all over the world have also seen the Empire State Building in many movies. It has played an important part in at least three American movies. One is about a giant ape that escapes and climbs the building. That movie is “King Kong.” It was made in nineteen-thirty-three. Another movie is “An Affair to Remember,” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. It was made in nineteen-fifty-seven. In that movie, two people in love plan to meet at the top of the Empire State Building. But the woman is injured and is not able to go to the building. The man tries to find out what happened to her. The end of the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” also takes place at the top of the Empire State Building. It was made in nineteen-ninety-seven. It involves a man and woman played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. They meet for the first time at the top of the famous building in New York. So if you can not get to New York and want to see the Empire State Building, you can watch one of these movies! Fountains of Wayne HOST: Last month, the American music industry nominated artists for its yearly Grammy Awards. One of the groups nominated for Best New Artist is called Fountains of Wayne. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the group. ANNCR: Fountains of Wayne is named for a store near the New Jersey home of group member Adam Schlesinger. He and Chris Collingwood started the group after they met at Williams College in Massachusetts. Their first album was called “Fountains of Wayne.” One of the songs on that album became a hit in Great Britain. It is “Radiation Vibe.” (MUSIC) Fountains of Wayne was not a great success at first, and its members went on to do other things. But they re-formed and wrote more songs. These songs are on their new album, “Welcome Interstate Managers.” One of these is about a high school football player. It is called “All Kinds of Time.” (MUSIC) Another new song written by Schlesinger and Collingwood is about a friend’s mother. This song already has become a top ten hit. We leave you now with the Fountains of Wayne performing “Stacy’s Mom.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andrius Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Once again, here is the group “Fountains of Wayne” with one more song: “Hung Up On You.” (MUSIC) But first, a report about a recent student science competition. Siemens Westinghouse Competition HOST: The winners of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology were announced last month. The Siemens Foundation created the competition to improve mathematics and science studies among American high school students. The competition awards two top prizes of one-hundred-thousand dollars each to pay for college. The money goes to one individual and one team. Jim Tedder tells us about the top winners. ANNCR: Seventeen-year-old Yin Li of New York City received the individual award for his work in brain research. Mister Li did research on nerve cell activity in mice that could help improve understanding of the human brain. Experts say his project represents progress in understanding how neurons communicate. Mister Li discovered a protein that could be linked to neurons. His project explores how nerve cells work and how the strength of their connections may be ruled by the action of local proteins. Mister Li was born in Shanghai, China and came to the United States at the age of nine. He said that he has always been interested in the brain, especially since reading a speech given by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Eric Kandel. Mister Li did his award-winning research at Mister Kandel’s laboratory at Columbia University. The team award went to two brothers from the state of Connecticut. Eighteen-year-old Mark and sixteen-year-old Jeffrey Schneider studied the West Nile virus. They developed a model describing the spread of the virus in order to study ways to prevent and control it. Such models can help public health officials study different ways to stop the spread of viruses. The experts say the brothers’ work may help public health professionals make better decisions about the growing threat of West Nile disease. The Schneider Brothers said they chose to study the West Nile virus as a result of personal experience with the problem in their home town of South Windsor, Connecticut. And they reportedly entered the science competition as a result of seeing the movie, “October Sky.” In the movie, high school students in the state of West Virginia learn to build rockets and win a national science contest. Empire State Building HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Ngoc Lien Nguyen would like to know about the Empire State Building. That famous building has been an important part of New York City since it was completed in nineteen-thirty-one. It reaches more than four-hundred-forty-three meters into the sky. For many years, it was the tallest building in the world. That is no longer true. Construction of the building began on March seventeenth, nineteen-thirty. It was completed in just one year and forty-five days. It has one-hundred-three levels and six-thousand-five hundred windows. Visitors can ride in one of seventy-three elevators that take them from the bottom to very near the top of the building. Some of these elevators are very fast, reaching the eightieth floor in only forty-five seconds. The heads of government of almost every nation in the world have visited the Empire State Building. These important people are just a few of the millions who have ridden to the observation area near the top of the building each year. From there, visitors can seen almost all of New York City. They can see across the Hudson River into the state of New Jersey. They can see ships in the East River. People all over the world have also seen the Empire State Building in many movies. It has played an important part in at least three American movies. One is about a giant ape that escapes and climbs the building. That movie is “King Kong.” It was made in nineteen-thirty-three. Another movie is “An Affair to Remember,” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. It was made in nineteen-fifty-seven. In that movie, two people in love plan to meet at the top of the Empire State Building. But the woman is injured and is not able to go to the building. The man tries to find out what happened to her. The end of the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” also takes place at the top of the Empire State Building. It was made in nineteen-ninety-seven. It involves a man and woman played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. They meet for the first time at the top of the famous building in New York. So if you can not get to New York and want to see the Empire State Building, you can watch one of these movies! Fountains of Wayne HOST: Last month, the American music industry nominated artists for its yearly Grammy Awards. One of the groups nominated for Best New Artist is called Fountains of Wayne. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the group. ANNCR: Fountains of Wayne is named for a store near the New Jersey home of group member Adam Schlesinger. He and Chris Collingwood started the group after they met at Williams College in Massachusetts. Their first album was called “Fountains of Wayne.” One of the songs on that album became a hit in Great Britain. It is “Radiation Vibe.” (MUSIC) Fountains of Wayne was not a great success at first, and its members went on to do other things. But they re-formed and wrote more songs. These songs are on their new album, “Welcome Interstate Managers.” One of these is about a high school football player. It is called “All Kinds of Time.” (MUSIC) Another new song written by Schlesinger and Collingwood is about a friend’s mother. This song already has become a top ten hit. We leave you now with the Fountains of Wayne performing “Stacy’s Mom.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andrius Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Once again, here is the group “Fountains of Wayne” with one more song: “Hung Up On You.” (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Franchises
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 9, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Success does not come easily to a small business. The United States Small Business Administration says fifty percent fail in the first year. The government agency says ninety-five percent of small businesses fail within five years. Many owners believe one way to improve their chance of success is to buy an already recognized business through a franchise. A franchise provides a name and products that people know. One of the best known franchising companies in the world, for example, is McDonald’s. A person who wants to start a franchise must pay a fee. This amount of money depends on how much the franchising company expects the new business to earn. To open a McDonald’s franchise costs at least five-hundred-thousand dollars in fees. Franchise fees for some other companies are only a few thousand dollars. However, store space, goods and other things needed to operate a franchise may cost a lot more. Franchise buyers agree to pay a percentage of their earnings every year for the right to operate the business. They also must agree to pay for marketing efforts. A percentage of earnings goes to national advertising. Another percentage may go to local advertising. The franchising company must approve where the new business will be. The contract agreement will also require the owner to observe a number of rules. These may restrict where the new franchise can do business. Contracts usually remain in effect for as long as twenty years. Franchise owners must be prepared to work hard. But experts also say that some companies provide only limited training and other support. They say owners should make sure they understand what they can expect, and what is expected of them. In the United States there are more than three-hundred thousand small business franchises. The Wall Street Journal says franchises operate in about seventy-five industries. They produce one-million-million dollars in sales a year. And they employ one in every sixteen Americans workers. Franchises are a very big kind of small business. Like any other kind of business, though, there is no guarantee of success. There is an International Franchise Association. The Web site for the group is franchise-dot-o-r-g. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: January 8, 2003 - 'The Ballad of Palindrome' by Riders In The Sky
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 8, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a passel of palindromes in our traditional salute to January! Broadcast: January 8, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a passel of palindromes in our traditional salute to January! RS: When you can spell something forward or backward and have it read the same, that's a palindrome. January isn't a palindrome, obviously. But it is named after Janus, the Roman god usually depicted with two faces: one looking forward, the other looking backward. AA: Either way, we think Janus would have looked highly on this skit you're about to hear. We play it each January to welcome the New Year. RS: It's about a cowboy with an unusual speaking habit. It spoofs a popular television show from the 1950s called "Paladin." The skit is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." And it's by the cowboy musical group, Riders in the Sky.” AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" RS: ... That's Riders in the Sky, with "The Ballad of Palindrome" from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" (Rounder Records, 1998.) AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And if you've got a palindrome of your own that you'd like us all to hear, send it along! RS: And we invite you to our Web site. It's voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a happy 2004, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: When you can spell something forward or backward and have it read the same, that's a palindrome. January isn't a palindrome, obviously. But it is named after Janus, the Roman god usually depicted with two faces: one looking forward, the other looking backward. AA: Either way, we think Janus would have looked highly on this skit you're about to hear. We play it each January to welcome the New Year. RS: It's about a cowboy with an unusual speaking habit. It spoofs a popular television show from the 1950s called "Paladin." The skit is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." And it's by the cowboy musical group, Riders in the Sky.” AUDIO: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" RS: ... That's Riders in the Sky, with "The Ballad of Palindrome" from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" (Rounder Records, 1998.) AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And if you've got a palindrome of your own that you'd like us all to hear, send it along! RS: And we invite you to our Web site. It's voanews.com/wordmaster. Wishing you a happy 2004, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Bush Proposes Temporary Worker Program
* Byline: 

 Broacast: January 10, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. President Bush has proposed a temporary worker program for millions of people illegally in the United States. He announced the plan Wednesday at the White House. The United States is estimated to have at least eight-million illegal immigrants from Mexico and other countries. Immigration policy has been an area of tension between the United States and Mexico. President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox appeared close to an agreement in September of two-thousand-one. Then came the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, which increased concern about border controls. The Department of Homeland Security would operate the temporary worker program. Mister Bush says all who take part must have a job -- or, if not living in the United States, a job offer. Those approved for the program would not be punished for entering the country or working illegally. Workers would also be free to travel between the United States and their home countries. And they would have the same legal protections as American workers. The temporary work permits would be good for three years and could be renewed. But President Bush says the program would have an end. Then, workers would be expected to return home unless they had been approved for citizenship under the normal process. President Bush says the reform plan is important for the economy and national security. He says it will help establish more control of the border. Business groups say the plan would create a strong workforce and reduce labor shortages. But labor unions say it would take jobs away from American workers. President Bush says the plan will require employers to make every effort to find an American worker first. Some Mexican officials have expressed support for the plan. But immigrant rights activists are unhappy that it will not lead to citizenship. The plan is the president's first legislative proposal of this election year. It is widely described as an attempt to appeal to Hispanic voters. White House officials invited about two-hundred Latino supporters to attend the announcement. Hispanics are now the largest ethnic group in the United States. People of Spanish-speaking ancestry are about thirteen percent of the population. The plan requires approval from Congress. Some lawmakers from Mister Bush's own Republican Party are expected to criticize the idea. Conservatives say it pardons illegal immigration and illegal employment. President Bush says the plan does not represent forgiveness. And, he says, it will not be unfair to people who have followed the legal process. President Bush and President Fox are expected to discuss the plan at the Summit of the Americas meeting next week in Monterrey, Mexico. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Paul Robeson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 11, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 11, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember finish the story of the life of Paul Robeson (ROBE a son). He was a singer and international political activist. (THEME) VOICE ONE: ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember finish the story of the life of Paul Robeson (ROBE a son). He was a singer and international political activist. (THEME) VOICE ONE: By the late Nineteen-Twenties, Paul Robeson had become the most highly praised black actor and singer of the time. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he became involved in national and international movements for peace, equal rights for black Americans, and better labor conditions. He traveled around the world singing his songs to support these struggles. However, his friendship with the Soviet Union brought strong opposition from conservative groups in the United States. Many people in the United States opposed Robeson's political beliefs as too liberal or extreme. As early as Nineteen-Forty-One, American government agencies, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reportedly had targeted him as dangerous. They considered his political activism to be against the best interests of the American government. VOICE TWO: During World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies fighting against Nazi Germany. Robeson recorded several Russian songs to honor the Soviet people's defense of their land against the Nazi invasion. These recordings were broadcast in the Soviet Union. Many Soviet soldiers were said to have heard Paul Robeson's voice before going into battle. This is one of those songs. It is called "Native Land." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became tense. In the late Nineteen-Forties, Americans feared communism as a threat to their way of life. The people in the Soviet Union were denied the freedoms that Americans enjoyed. The United States joined with other nations to try to halt the spread of communism around the world. In addition, the crimes of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin became public. These included the killing of millions of people in the Soviet Union who opposed his policies. As a result, many former American supporters of communism stopped supporting the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: Robeson, however, continued to support the Soviet Union. He still believed in the idea of communism. And he believed in friendship between the United States and the Soviet Union. A congressional committee began investigating Americans who supported communism or who were friends of people who supported it. The committee questioned Robeson. He refused to say if he was a communist. Robeson saw the questioning as an attack on the democratic rights of everyone who worked for international friendship and for equality. VOICE ONE: Robeson also was condemned in the United States because of his criticism of the United States government. He spoke at the World Peace Conference in Paris in April, Nineteen-Forty-Nine. He was reported to have said he did not believe black Americans would fight for the American government that oppressed them against the Soviet Union. This statement brought a strong reaction against him from some people in the American press, government and public. It led to rioting at a concert in New York State where Robeson was to appear. Hundreds of people were injured when crowds threw stones at people attending the concert. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty, the American State Department withdrew Robeson's travel document because of the political ideas he expressed. This prevented him from leaving the United States to perform in other countries. The State Department said his travel to other countries would not be in the best interest of the United States. Robeson also was barred from performing in many places in the United States. His concerts were canceled. His records were withdrawn from stores. Record companies refused to produce new recordings of his songs. Robeson said the actions against him were attempts to silence artistic expression. He said they were attempts to control whom people could hear and what they could hear. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, the Mine, Mill and Smelters Workers Union of British Columbia, Canada, invited Robeson to attend its yearly meeting. Americans do not need a passport to enter Canada. But the United States government barred him from entering Canada anyway. So the union invited him to sing at an outdoor concert in the United States. The concert was held at Peace Arch Park. The park is in the northwestern state of Washington, on the border between the United States and Canada. Robeson sang to more than thirty-thousand people in both countries. Here is a recording from that concert. Robeson sang a famous labor union song called "Joe Hill." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Robeson performed at another outdoor concert at Peace Arch Park the following year. At the end of the program, Robeson spoke to the thousands of people attending. He promised to continue the fight for freedom as long as he could. Here is part of that speech. (SPEECH) VOICE ONE: Nineteen-Fifty Eight was an important year for Paul Robeson. His regained his passport that year after a Supreme Court ruling on a similar case. The Supreme Court ruled that the State Department could not withhold passports of American citizens because of their suspected beliefs or the groups they joined. A book he wrote about his life, “Here I Stand,” also was published. And, that same year, he performed in a concert at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. It was his first appearance there in eleven years. Every seat in the hall was filled. Paul Robeson sang an African-American spiritual called "Didn't My Lord Deliver." Here is a recording from that concert. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson and his wife Essie moved to London where he continued to sing and act. They also visited the Soviet Union often. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, they returned to the United States. Paul Robeson was suffering from physical and mental problems. He retired from public life because of his bad health. Paul Robeson died in Nineteen-Seventy-Six, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, Paul Robeson had written these words: "I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope...in the face of...fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail." (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of the life of singer and political activist Paul Robeson. This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I’m Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. By the late Nineteen-Twenties, Paul Robeson had become the most highly praised black actor and singer of the time. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he became involved in national and international movements for peace, equal rights for black Americans, and better labor conditions. He traveled around the world singing his songs to support these struggles. However, his friendship with the Soviet Union brought strong opposition from conservative groups in the United States. Many people in the United States opposed Robeson's political beliefs as too liberal or extreme. As early as Nineteen-Forty-One, American government agencies, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reportedly had targeted him as dangerous. They considered his political activism to be against the best interests of the American government. VOICE TWO: During World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies fighting against Nazi Germany. Robeson recorded several Russian songs to honor the Soviet people's defense of their land against the Nazi invasion. These recordings were broadcast in the Soviet Union. Many Soviet soldiers were said to have heard Paul Robeson's voice before going into battle. This is one of those songs. It is called "Native Land." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became tense. In the late Nineteen-Forties, Americans feared communism as a threat to their way of life. The people in the Soviet Union were denied the freedoms that Americans enjoyed. The United States joined with other nations to try to halt the spread of communism around the world. In addition, the crimes of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin became public. These included the killing of millions of people in the Soviet Union who opposed his policies. As a result, many former American supporters of communism stopped supporting the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: Robeson, however, continued to support the Soviet Union. He still believed in the idea of communism. And he believed in friendship between the United States and the Soviet Union. A congressional committee began investigating Americans who supported communism or who were friends of people who supported it. The committee questioned Robeson. He refused to say if he was a communist. Robeson saw the questioning as an attack on the democratic rights of everyone who worked for international friendship and for equality. VOICE ONE: Robeson also was condemned in the United States because of his criticism of the United States government. He spoke at the World Peace Conference in Paris in April, Nineteen-Forty-Nine. He was reported to have said he did not believe black Americans would fight for the American government that oppressed them against the Soviet Union. This statement brought a strong reaction against him from some people in the American press, government and public. It led to rioting at a concert in New York State where Robeson was to appear. Hundreds of people were injured when crowds threw stones at people attending the concert. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty, the American State Department withdrew Robeson's travel document because of the political ideas he expressed. This prevented him from leaving the United States to perform in other countries. The State Department said his travel to other countries would not be in the best interest of the United States. Robeson also was barred from performing in many places in the United States. His concerts were canceled. His records were withdrawn from stores. Record companies refused to produce new recordings of his songs. Robeson said the actions against him were attempts to silence artistic expression. He said they were attempts to control whom people could hear and what they could hear. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, the Mine, Mill and Smelters Workers Union of British Columbia, Canada, invited Robeson to attend its yearly meeting. Americans do not need a passport to enter Canada. But the United States government barred him from entering Canada anyway. So the union invited him to sing at an outdoor concert in the United States. The concert was held at Peace Arch Park. The park is in the northwestern state of Washington, on the border between the United States and Canada. Robeson sang to more than thirty-thousand people in both countries. Here is a recording from that concert. Robeson sang a famous labor union song called "Joe Hill." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Robeson performed at another outdoor concert at Peace Arch Park the following year. At the end of the program, Robeson spoke to the thousands of people attending. He promised to continue the fight for freedom as long as he could. Here is part of that speech. (SPEECH) VOICE ONE: Nineteen-Fifty Eight was an important year for Paul Robeson. His regained his passport that year after a Supreme Court ruling on a similar case. The Supreme Court ruled that the State Department could not withhold passports of American citizens because of their suspected beliefs or the groups they joined. A book he wrote about his life, “Here I Stand,” also was published. And, that same year, he performed in a concert at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. It was his first appearance there in eleven years. Every seat in the hall was filled. Paul Robeson sang an African-American spiritual called "Didn't My Lord Deliver." Here is a recording from that concert. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson and his wife Essie moved to London where he continued to sing and act. They also visited the Soviet Union often. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, they returned to the United States. Paul Robeson was suffering from physical and mental problems. He retired from public life because of his bad health. Paul Robeson died in Nineteen-Seventy-Six, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, Paul Robeson had written these words: "I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope...in the face of...fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail." (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of the life of singer and political activist Paul Robeson. This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I’m Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Alliance for the New Humanity
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 12, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new group says its goal is to recapture kindness within societies. The group is called the Alliance for the New Humanity. Organizers say societies put too much value on competition, wealth and individualism. They say one of the main problems in the world today is a lack of concern for one another. The organizers say they seek to build bridges between those who want peace and those who defend human rights. The group includes activists, two Nobel Peace Prize winners and, among others, Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. The alliance held its first conference in December in the United States territory of Puerto Rico. Former Vice President Al Gore was the guest speaker. He discussed environmental issues. The Associated Press reported that about two-hundred people attended the conference. One of the founding members of the alliance is former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. He won the nineteen-eighty-seven Nobel Peace Prize. Another is Betty Williams, a winner of the peace prize in nineteen-seventy-six for her work in Northern Ireland. Also a founding member is Deepak Chopra. The Indian writer is known for his books about health and spirituality. Mister Chopra says development is not simply the creation of wealth. He says it also has to do with improvement of the human spirit. Mister Chopra says he believes that people today recognize the need for more hopeful thinking, more caring societies and less influential media. The Alliance for the New Humanity say its purpose is to unite these people. It says the goal is to influence national and international policy toward a more caring humanity. The alliance has a name for individuals and groups that work toward these goals. It calls them “peace cells.” A person who provides shelter to a woman and her children to escape violence is a peace cell. A group that works to feed the homeless is a peace cell. Alliance organizers say their aim is to connect all these people and groups using the Internet. The Alliance for the New Humanity says it plans to raise money to support humanitarian work. The group says it also hopes to influence the media to report less on the world’s problems and more on answers to those problems. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: January 12, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new group says its goal is to recapture kindness within societies. The group is called the Alliance for the New Humanity. Organizers say societies put too much value on competition, wealth and individualism. They say one of the main problems in the world today is a lack of concern for one another. The organizers say they seek to build bridges between those who want peace and those who defend human rights. The group includes activists, two Nobel Peace Prize winners and, among others, Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. The alliance held its first conference in December in the United States territory of Puerto Rico. Former Vice President Al Gore was the guest speaker. He discussed environmental issues. The Associated Press reported that about two-hundred people attended the conference. One of the founding members of the alliance is former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. He won the nineteen-eighty-seven Nobel Peace Prize. Another is Betty Williams, a winner of the peace prize in nineteen-seventy-six for her work in Northern Ireland. Also a founding member is Deepak Chopra. The Indian writer is known for his books about health and spirituality. Mister Chopra says development is not simply the creation of wealth. He says it also has to do with improvement of the human spirit. Mister Chopra says he believes that people today recognize the need for more hopeful thinking, more caring societies and less influential media. The Alliance for the New Humanity say its purpose is to unite these people. It says the goal is to influence national and international policy toward a more caring humanity. The alliance has a name for individuals and groups that work toward these goals. It calls them “peace cells.” A person who provides shelter to a woman and her children to escape violence is a peace cell. A group that works to feed the homeless is a peace cell. Alliance organizers say their aim is to connect all these people and groups using the Internet. The Alliance for the New Humanity says it plans to raise money to support humanitarian work. The group says it also hopes to influence the media to report less on the world’s problems and more on answers to those problems. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Presidential Race
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 12, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This week, we examine the events ahead in the race for the presidential election in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Americans elect a president every four years. Election Day this year is November second. Republicans will gather in New York City at the end of August to nominate President Bush for a second term. Two terms is the limit under the Constitution. Democrats will hold their convention at the end of July in Boston, Massachusetts. Howard Dean has been leading the candidates for the Democratic nomination. But the former governor of Vermont has eight opponents -- most notably, Wesley Clark, who has been gaining support. The candidates have campaigned for months. But the nominating process is just beginning. What happens this month is important. VOICE TWO: On January nineteenth, party meetings called caucuses will take place in Iowa. People will gather in homes and public buildings all over the state to choose the person they want to lead the country. But they do not vote for a candidate like in a primary election. Instead, they elect local delegates. Each delegate elected represents a percentage of support from their local area for a presidential candidate. As the process continues, delegates elect other delegates to represent them. Those chosen at state conventions in Iowa then attend the national nominating convention of their party. For years, party leaders decided the nominees at the national conventions. But now the events are largely ceremonial. Votes at the state level decide who will compete for president long before the conventions begin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In each election year, the Iowa caucuses are a first test of public approval for a candidate. But some political experts criticize the Iowa caucuses. They call them strange and indirect. This year, two of the nine Democratic candidates are not competing in Iowa. They are retired Army General Wesley Clark and Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman. They are saving their money and energy for later events. Iowa public opinion changes from day to day. But Howard Dean, Congressman Richard Gephardt of Missouri and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts all have strong support. VOICE TWO: Public opinion research shows that Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio have little chance to win in Iowa. The same can be said for the Reverend Al Sharpton of New York and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. Still, these candidates for the Democratic nomination have chosen to compete in Iowa. They remember that in nineteen-seventy-six, a little-known candidate, the former governor of Georgia, won the Iowa caucuses. Jimmy Carter went on to become the thirty-ninth president of the United States. VOICE ONE: After Iowa, people will look to see who wins the New Hampshire primary. New Hampshire holds its primary election on January twenty-seventh. Some say the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary may decide the Democratic nomination. They say that if Howard Dean wins both events, he could soon have enough delegates to secure the nomination. Other states and territories will hold their own nominating events in the coming weeks and months. But candidates who do poorly this month may leave the race before long. They will find it difficult to raise enough money to continue their campaigns. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Howard Dean is a medical doctor. He served in the Vermont House of Representatives and later as lieutenant governor. He became governor in nineteen-ninety-one. In two-thousand he signed a bill to make Vermont the only state to permit civil unions between people of the same sex. Civil unions offer the same legal protections as marriage. Doctor Dean served as governor of the small state in the Northeast until January of last year. As a presidential candidate, he strongly opposed the war in Iraq. Since he opened his campaign, supporters have provided him with large amounts of money through the Internet. He raised at least fifteen-million dollars in the last three months alone. VOICE ONE: Wesley Clark entered the competition several months after the other candidates. But some political experts believe he has the best chance against Doctor Dean. Wesley Clark earned military honors in the Vietnam War. And he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England. General Clark rose in leadership positions in the Army. Before retiring, he served as NATO commander. He led NATO troops during the operations against Serbian forces in Kosovo. Like Howard Dean, Wesley Clark has also proven his ability to raise money. He collected at least ten-million dollars during the last three months. VOICE TWO: John Kerry received many honors for his military service during the Vietnam War. But later he opposed that war. He is now serving his fourth term in the Senate. As president, he says he would try to reduce American dependence on oil from the Middle East. He says his plan also would create a half-million jobs in new energy industries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Dick Gephardt is the former Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives. He has served twenty-six years in the House. Over the years he has won major labor-union support for his efforts to defend American workers. Mister Gephardt sought the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, he won the Iowa caucuses. VOICE TWO: Candidates for the presidential nomination of the two major parties have mainly been white, male and Protestant Christian. This year two of the candidates are African American: Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton. And Joe Lieberman is the first Jewish candidate. John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich are both Roman Catholic. VOICE ONE: Mister Lieberman has served more than fourteen years in the Senate. Many say he is the candidate whose policies are closest to those of former President Bill Clinton. He was the vice presidential candidate of Al Gore in the election of two-thousand. But, in this election, Mister Gore has given his support to Howard Dean. VOICE TWO: Carol Moseley Braun was the first black woman in the Senate. Later President Clinton appointed her ambassador to New Zealand. Al Sharpton campaigned several times for public office in New York, but was never elected. He established a civil rights group in nineteen-ninety-one. John Edwards is the youngest candidate for the Democratic nomination. He is fifty years old. The former trial lawyer is serving his first term as a senator from North Carolina. In nineteen-seventy-seven, Dennis Kucinich became mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of thirty one. He was the youngest mayor ever elected in a large American city. Today, the congressman opposes the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement. That agreement is ten years old this month. VOICE ONE: Mister Kucinich also opposed the war in Iraq, as did Howard Dean, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton. Wesley Clark says President Bush involved the United States in unnecessary conflict. But at one time he also said he would have voted for the war. Representative Gephardt and Senators Lieberman, Edwards and Kerry all did so. All the candidates have criticized the Bush administration for its handling of Iraq since the end of major fighting there. VOICE TWO: But right now President Bush is not the only target for criticism. So is Howard Dean as the other Democrats compete against his popularity for the nomination in July. Then will come the campaign for Election Day in November. Generally speaking, experts describe America as equally divided on major political issues. As evidence they point, for example, to the close results in the two-thousand election. Public opinion research shows that a majority of Americans approve of the job George W. Bush is doing as president. Political experts note that the improving economy and the capture of Saddam Hussein have helped those approval ratings. There have also been recent gains in Mister Bush's lead among likely voters over Howard Dean and the other Democratic candidates. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Economic Effects of Mad Cow Disease
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 13, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Reports suggest that the first case of mad cow disease in the United States has not worried the public very much. Officials point out that the sick cow came from Canada, although the case remains under investigation. But the American beef industry is worried about the economic effects. More than thirty nations have banned American beef. North America has now had two confirmed cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Last May, Canada announced a case of the brain-wasting disease in a cow in Alberta. People who eat infected meat can get a rare human form. So the United States and other countries banned imports of Canadian beef. The ban had a sharp effect on prices. The Economic Research Service of the Agriculture Department reports on prices in the United States. Its information shows that beef prices jumped almost thirty percent in one year. The research service estimated that prices would remain high because of limited supply. People who want to lose weight have also increased demand for beef and other high-protein foods. In August, the United States began again to accept some Canadian beef from younger cattle. Imports of live cattle are not yet included. Then, on December twenty-third, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced the first American case of the disease. Several nations moved within hours to ban American beef. These included Japan, the biggest importer of American beef. Japan has increased its imports almost every year since the early nineteen-seventies. But, last August, Japan raised import taxes on beef from thirty-eight percent to fifty-percent. The higher customs are meant to help the Japanese beef industry. That industry was hurt by its own outbreak of the disease in two-thousand-one. Late last week, a Japanese delegation met with officials in Washington to discuss steps to end the ban. Earlier, Japan said new measures to prevent the spread of the disease were not enough. These include a move to keep all tissue that may carry the infection out of human food. Other steps include a ban on the use of mechanically separated meat in food, and the use of sick or injured cows for food. Japanese officials called for greater steps to test for mad cow disease in the United States. In Japan, every cow is tested for the infection. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Findings About Air Pollution and Heart Disease / Fossils from the 'Missing Years' in Africa / U.S. Bans Ephedra for Weight Loss
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 13, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 13, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- fossils help bring light to a mysterious time in prehistoric Africa. VOICE ONE: New findings about air pollution: Could it be worse for the heart than the lungs? VOICE TWO: And, in the United States, the government acts to ban a weight-loss product. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Researchers say they have identified animal fossils from twenty-seven-million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. The remains are from the middle of a time called the "missing years" or the "dark period." This is because scientists have so little information about the mammals that lived then. The period began thirty-two-million years ago. Africa and Arabia were a single continent, a huge island known as Afro-Arabia. The period ended twenty-four-million years ago, after a land bridge formed with Eurasia. VOICE TWO: John Kappelman is an anthropologist at the University of Texas in Austin and leader of the American and Ethiopian search team. Mister Kappelman says eight million years is a long time to lack information about a continent. He says scientists have only been able to guess what happened to African mammals during that period. The remains found in the Chilga area of Ethiopia offer important evidence. VOICE ONE: The remains include teeth, skull pieces and other bones. The scientists found them in a farming area about two-thousand meters above sea level, in the highlands of Ethiopia. Satellite pictures helped the researchers decide where to dig. The fossils came from about seventy different digs. The magazine Nature published the findings. The scientists say the fossils come from before large numbers of animals began to arrive in Africa from Europe and Asia. The fossils also show that some animals existed millions of years before scientists had thought. VOICE TWO: The researchers found several kinds of ancient proboscideans. These are animals with trunks. Modern elephants are proboscideans. Scientists have long thought elephants began in Africa. They say this discovery proves that theory. The ancestors weighed about one-thousand kilograms, a lot smaller than African elephants today. John Kappelman says the elephant ancestors were one of the few African mammals that survived the invasion of mammals from Eurasia. He says elephants got their start in Africa during the eight-million-year period, and then spread around the world. VOICE ONE: The researchers also found the remains of an ancient animal with two horns on its head, called the arsinoithere. The scientists were excited, because this is the youngest set of such remains yet discovered. The animal is much larger than its ancestors. Earlier forms were about the size of pigs. But the arsinoithere found at Chilga was about two meters tall and weighed more than two tons. They were similar to the modern rhinoceros. The two are not related. In fact, scientists thought arsinoitheres had disappeared from the Afro-Arabian continent once rhinos arrived from Eurasia. One researcher says it now appears they did not compete for survival. Scientists say they expect more discoveries to come about the mammals that lived during the so-called missing years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A study finds that air pollution is worse for the heart than the lungs.The American Heart Association published the findings in its magazine, Circulation. Researchers used information given by more than half-a-million adults between nineteen-eighty-two and nineteen-ninety-eight. The information is from a continuing study by the American Cancer Society on cancer prevention. The study included people thirty and older living in cities where officials kept records on air pollution. VOICE ONE: During the sixteen-year period, one in five of the people in the study died. The scientists found that heart disease caused about forty-five percent of the deaths. Only eight percent of the people died from diseases of the breathing system. The researchers compared the information with air pollution records from more than one-hundred-fifty cities. The scientists controlled for things that increase the risk of heart disease, like smoking and being overweight. Still, they found a stronger link between air pollution and heart disease than respiratory disease. VOICE TWO: Arden Pope of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, led the study. He says air pollution is not the main cause of heart disease. But, he says, breathing polluted air causes swelling and worsens disease in the arteries of the blood system. He says this affects the ability of the heart to operate effectively. The study also suggests that air pollution harms the nervous system, leading to abnormal heartbeat. The study involved air polluted by small particles of soot. Vehicles that use diesel fuel create a lot of soot. So do some factories. But it is also released into the air by burning wood and other substances including animal waste and vegetable oil for fuel. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Soot was cause for a different concern in another recent study. Scientists with the American space agency, NASA, suggest it as a major cause of global warming. The NASA researchers say soot may be responsible for twenty-five percent of global warming observed over the past century. With computers they recreated the effects of industrial gases and other influences on world climate. They say carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat have been the main cause of recent global warming, and will remain so. Still, they say soot may be worse than has been thought. The study says the problem is how soot interacts with snow and ice. VOICE TWO: Snow and ice have highly reflective surfaces. A lot of the sunlight that hits them is forced back up toward the sky. This helps prevent melting. But the scientists say the problem develops when snowflakes pick up fine particles of soot as they fall. The black carbon in soot reduces the ability of snow and ice to reflect sunlight. Instead, the black soot absorbs the energy and warmth, and causes melting. James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported the findings. They estimate that soot particles in snow reduced reflectivity by three percent in northern land areas of the world. Their estimate for the Arctic is one-and-a-half percent. VOICE ONE: The scientists say the soot causes the melting season of glaciers to begin earlier and last longer. This has a large effect, they say, because wet snow is much darker than dry snow. So the problem increases. The scientists estimate that soot is two times as effective as carbon dioxide in changing surface air temperatures. But they say the good news is that cleaner diesel engines and other technologies are being developed to reduce soot. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the United States, the government is acting to ban the sale of ephedra as a product to help people lose weight. Ephedra is a plant that contains ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. These substances can increase a person’s energy level and cause weight loss. However, officials warn that ephedra also raises blood pressure. Ephedra has been linked to heart attacks, strokes, seizures and deaths. The secretary of Health and Human Services announced the ban. Tommy Thompson urged people to stop using ephedra even before the ban takes effect. He said he did not want to delay the announcement, because people often try to lose weight at the start of a new year. VOICE ONE: The market has grown sharply for herbal products known as dietary supplements. Companies do not have to prove them safe and effective the way drug makers do. In nineteen-ninety-four, Congress limited the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to take action against supplements. This is the first ban since then. The ban will not include the version of ephedra used in medicines to treat breathing infections. Ephedra has long been used for this purpose as a traditional medicine in China, where the plant is called ma huang. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And, I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another program about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- fossils help bring light to a mysterious time in prehistoric Africa. VOICE ONE: New findings about air pollution: Could it be worse for the heart than the lungs? VOICE TWO: And, in the United States, the government acts to ban a weight-loss product. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Researchers say they have identified animal fossils from twenty-seven-million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. The remains are from the middle of a time called the "missing years" or the "dark period." This is because scientists have so little information about the mammals that lived then. The period began thirty-two-million years ago. Africa and Arabia were a single continent, a huge island known as Afro-Arabia. The period ended twenty-four-million years ago, after a land bridge formed with Eurasia. VOICE TWO: John Kappelman is an anthropologist at the University of Texas in Austin and leader of the American and Ethiopian search team. Mister Kappelman says eight million years is a long time to lack information about a continent. He says scientists have only been able to guess what happened to African mammals during that period. The remains found in the Chilga area of Ethiopia offer important evidence. VOICE ONE: The remains include teeth, skull pieces and other bones. The scientists found them in a farming area about two-thousand meters above sea level, in the highlands of Ethiopia. Satellite pictures helped the researchers decide where to dig. The fossils came from about seventy different digs. The magazine Nature published the findings. The scientists say the fossils come from before large numbers of animals began to arrive in Africa from Europe and Asia. The fossils also show that some animals existed millions of years before scientists had thought. VOICE TWO: The researchers found several kinds of ancient proboscideans. These are animals with trunks. Modern elephants are proboscideans. Scientists have long thought elephants began in Africa. They say this discovery proves that theory. The ancestors weighed about one-thousand kilograms, a lot smaller than African elephants today. John Kappelman says the elephant ancestors were one of the few African mammals that survived the invasion of mammals from Eurasia. He says elephants got their start in Africa during the eight-million-year period, and then spread around the world. VOICE ONE: The researchers also found the remains of an ancient animal with two horns on its head, called the arsinoithere. The scientists were excited, because this is the youngest set of such remains yet discovered. The animal is much larger than its ancestors. Earlier forms were about the size of pigs. But the arsinoithere found at Chilga was about two meters tall and weighed more than two tons. They were similar to the modern rhinoceros. The two are not related. In fact, scientists thought arsinoitheres had disappeared from the Afro-Arabian continent once rhinos arrived from Eurasia. One researcher says it now appears they did not compete for survival. Scientists say they expect more discoveries to come about the mammals that lived during the so-called missing years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A study finds that air pollution is worse for the heart than the lungs.The American Heart Association published the findings in its magazine, Circulation. Researchers used information given by more than half-a-million adults between nineteen-eighty-two and nineteen-ninety-eight. The information is from a continuing study by the American Cancer Society on cancer prevention. The study included people thirty and older living in cities where officials kept records on air pollution. VOICE ONE: During the sixteen-year period, one in five of the people in the study died. The scientists found that heart disease caused about forty-five percent of the deaths. Only eight percent of the people died from diseases of the breathing system. The researchers compared the information with air pollution records from more than one-hundred-fifty cities. The scientists controlled for things that increase the risk of heart disease, like smoking and being overweight. Still, they found a stronger link between air pollution and heart disease than respiratory disease. VOICE TWO: Arden Pope of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, led the study. He says air pollution is not the main cause of heart disease. But, he says, breathing polluted air causes swelling and worsens disease in the arteries of the blood system. He says this affects the ability of the heart to operate effectively. The study also suggests that air pollution harms the nervous system, leading to abnormal heartbeat. The study involved air polluted by small particles of soot. Vehicles that use diesel fuel create a lot of soot. So do some factories. But it is also released into the air by burning wood and other substances including animal waste and vegetable oil for fuel. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Soot was cause for a different concern in another recent study. Scientists with the American space agency, NASA, suggest it as a major cause of global warming. The NASA researchers say soot may be responsible for twenty-five percent of global warming observed over the past century. With computers they recreated the effects of industrial gases and other influences on world climate. They say carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat have been the main cause of recent global warming, and will remain so. Still, they say soot may be worse than has been thought. The study says the problem is how soot interacts with snow and ice. VOICE TWO: Snow and ice have highly reflective surfaces. A lot of the sunlight that hits them is forced back up toward the sky. This helps prevent melting. But the scientists say the problem develops when snowflakes pick up fine particles of soot as they fall. The black carbon in soot reduces the ability of snow and ice to reflect sunlight. Instead, the black soot absorbs the energy and warmth, and causes melting. James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported the findings. They estimate that soot particles in snow reduced reflectivity by three percent in northern land areas of the world. Their estimate for the Arctic is one-and-a-half percent. VOICE ONE: The scientists say the soot causes the melting season of glaciers to begin earlier and last longer. This has a large effect, they say, because wet snow is much darker than dry snow. So the problem increases. The scientists estimate that soot is two times as effective as carbon dioxide in changing surface air temperatures. But they say the good news is that cleaner diesel engines and other technologies are being developed to reduce soot. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the United States, the government is acting to ban the sale of ephedra as a product to help people lose weight. Ephedra is a plant that contains ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. These substances can increase a person’s energy level and cause weight loss. However, officials warn that ephedra also raises blood pressure. Ephedra has been linked to heart attacks, strokes, seizures and deaths. The secretary of Health and Human Services announced the ban. Tommy Thompson urged people to stop using ephedra even before the ban takes effect. He said he did not want to delay the announcement, because people often try to lose weight at the start of a new year. VOICE ONE: The market has grown sharply for herbal products known as dietary supplements. Companies do not have to prove them safe and effective the way drug makers do. In nineteen-ninety-four, Congress limited the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to take action against supplements. This is the first ban since then. The ban will not include the version of ephedra used in medicines to treat breathing infections. Ephedra has long been used for this purpose as a traditional medicine in China, where the plant is called ma huang. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And, I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another program about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Outlaws and Lawmen of the Wild West, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 14, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 14, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we present the first of two programs about some of the most famous people who lived in the American West many years ago. We tell about lawmen, criminals and gunfighters. And we will try to tell as much truth as possible about this interesting time in American history. (WESTERN MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in eighteen-eighty-three in Dodge City, Kansas. Dodge City was a railroad town. Huge herds of cattle were brought there from western states to be transported by railroad to markets in the eastern United States. A man named Luke Short owned a small store where he sold alcohol. People also took part in gambling -- games of chance -- in his store. Several people who owned similar businesses wanted Luke Short to leave Dodge City. They did not like the business competition. Luke Short was threatened several times. He knew his life was in danger. So he left Dodge City. VOICE TWO: Several weeks later, the people in Dodge City began to see something that frightened them. Strangers were entering the town. All of these men carried guns. The men said they were friends of Luke Short. They caused no trouble. A newspaper in Dodge City printed a story that identified the men. One of the first of these men to arrive was a former Dodge City lawman. His name was William Masterson. The newspaper said he was well known as an expert with guns and had killed several men. His friends called him “Bat.” Two other men arrived together. One was Wyatt Earp. He was a famous gunfighter from Tombstone, in the Arizona territory. He also was a former lawman who had killed men in gunfights. With him was his friend, a dentist, John Holliday, who also survived several shooting incidents. His friends called him “Doc.” About twelve other men also arrived in Dodge City to help Luke Short. They were not as famous as the three named in the newspaper. But they were also considered to be very dangerous. VOICE ONE: Luke Short returned to Dodge City wearing his guns. The chief lawman of the town quickly sent a telegram to the governor of the state asking for help. He was afraid a major civil war would begin in his town. The men who had forced Luke Short out of town decided to negotiate a settlement. They did not want to face his many dangerous friends. A few days after the settlement, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the other dangerous friends of Luke Short left Dodge City. No one ever fired a shot. No one was even threatened. All it took to force a negotiated settlement was for these dangerous men to show their faces in Dodge City. Just the fear of them settled the argument in favor of Luke Short. No one wanted to deal with men who were not afraid of a gunfight. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Who were these dangerous men? Why did people fear them so much? Why did they become so famous? The story of these famous men began a little before the American Civil War of the eighteen-sixties. This wild and lawless period in the West has been shown in hundreds of movies, television programs and books. It only lasted for about seventy years. The first shooting incident by a person who could be considered a professional gunman took place in Texas in eighteen-fifty-four. Most of the shooting incidents between professional lawmen and outlaws took place during the eighteen-seventies in Texas. VOICE ONE: The real movement into the American West began after the Civil War. Many families moved west to build new lives after the war. Land was almost free. Some people wanted to find gold or silver and become rich. Other families wanted to raise cows or horses or begin a farm and start a new life. But living in the American West was not easy. There were no laws, no courts and little or no government. There were few lawmen to keep order. The people who arrived in the West included many criminals. Many were escaping punishment from their crimes. They knew that an area with no law would provide them with safety. These professional criminals often used force to take what they wanted -- cows, horses or money. Often, there was little to stop them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Honest people who moved to the West carried weapons to protect themselves and their property. These settlers began to build small towns when they found areas they liked. They tried to improve their towns with churches, schools and the rule of law. But it was often difficult. To protect their towns, the settlers often had to employ people who were expert in the use of firearms. Several lawmen in the Old West had learned to use their weapons when they were criminals. Both the outlaws and the lawmen in the Old West had something else in common. They could do something many other people could not. They were willing to risk their lives to enforce the law or to commit a crime. And they were willing to do this with a gun. VOICE ONE: A good example was a man named William Matthew Tilghman (TILL-man). He was arrested two times and charged with stealing when he was a young man. However, he later became a deputy United States marshal, a law officer. On July fourth, eighteen-eighty-eight, a man named Ed Prather began shooting his gun in the street in Farmer City, Kansas. People ran away in fear. Tilghman made him stop. Prather left the street angry and went into a drinking place. He began drinking alcohol and making threats. Later, Tilghman went into the drinking place looking for Prather. Prather put his hand on the gun he was carrying. Tilghman told him to move his hand away from the gun. When he did not obey, Bill Tilghman pulled out his gun and shot Ed Prather two times. He died immediately. VOICE TWO: That was only one of the many times Bill Tilghman used his gun as a law officer. He served in many other towns. Often, all he had to do was walk into a room to stop a fight. Outlaws feared and obeyed him. Most criminals stayed away from a town where Bill Tilghman was the marshal. Bill Tilghman was shot to death on November first, nineteen-twenty-four. He was trying to arrest a man who had been drinking too much alcohol. He was seventy years old and still working as the marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma. His life had lasted exactly the seventy years of the American Wild West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The famous American gunman named Wyatt Earp has been the subject of at least four major motion pictures, one television series and many books. He served as a marshal in Tombstone, Arizona. He took part in one of the most famous gunfights in American history -- the gunfight at the O-K Corral. Wyatt Earp was once asked how to win a gunfight. He said a good gunfighter took his time. He said he had to go into action as quickly as possible -- as fast as he could move. But then he should take his time with the shooting. He said a successful gunfighter could not let fear or anything else force him to shoot too soon and miss the target. Missing the target could get him killed. Wyatt Earp was very successful. He was only wounded once in a gunfight. He is one of the few successful gunfighters who lived to old age. He died in nineteen-twenty-nine. He was eighty-one years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts on the American West often disagree about who were the most dangerous gunmen in that period of American history. Was it one of the famous lawmen? Was it Bill Tilghman, or perhaps Wyatt Earp? Or was it one of the outlaws? Maybe it was the famous bank robber Jesse James or an extremely dangerous gunman named John Wesley Hardin. Those questions will never truly be answered. However, join us next week when we tell about two of the most dangerous gunfighters of the Old West. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we present the first of two programs about some of the most famous people who lived in the American West many years ago. We tell about lawmen, criminals and gunfighters. And we will try to tell as much truth as possible about this interesting time in American history. (WESTERN MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in eighteen-eighty-three in Dodge City, Kansas. Dodge City was a railroad town. Huge herds of cattle were brought there from western states to be transported by railroad to markets in the eastern United States. A man named Luke Short owned a small store where he sold alcohol. People also took part in gambling -- games of chance -- in his store. Several people who owned similar businesses wanted Luke Short to leave Dodge City. They did not like the business competition. Luke Short was threatened several times. He knew his life was in danger. So he left Dodge City. VOICE TWO: Several weeks later, the people in Dodge City began to see something that frightened them. Strangers were entering the town. All of these men carried guns. The men said they were friends of Luke Short. They caused no trouble. A newspaper in Dodge City printed a story that identified the men. One of the first of these men to arrive was a former Dodge City lawman. His name was William Masterson. The newspaper said he was well known as an expert with guns and had killed several men. His friends called him “Bat.” Two other men arrived together. One was Wyatt Earp. He was a famous gunfighter from Tombstone, in the Arizona territory. He also was a former lawman who had killed men in gunfights. With him was his friend, a dentist, John Holliday, who also survived several shooting incidents. His friends called him “Doc.” About twelve other men also arrived in Dodge City to help Luke Short. They were not as famous as the three named in the newspaper. But they were also considered to be very dangerous. VOICE ONE: Luke Short returned to Dodge City wearing his guns. The chief lawman of the town quickly sent a telegram to the governor of the state asking for help. He was afraid a major civil war would begin in his town. The men who had forced Luke Short out of town decided to negotiate a settlement. They did not want to face his many dangerous friends. A few days after the settlement, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the other dangerous friends of Luke Short left Dodge City. No one ever fired a shot. No one was even threatened. All it took to force a negotiated settlement was for these dangerous men to show their faces in Dodge City. Just the fear of them settled the argument in favor of Luke Short. No one wanted to deal with men who were not afraid of a gunfight. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Who were these dangerous men? Why did people fear them so much? Why did they become so famous? The story of these famous men began a little before the American Civil War of the eighteen-sixties. This wild and lawless period in the West has been shown in hundreds of movies, television programs and books. It only lasted for about seventy years. The first shooting incident by a person who could be considered a professional gunman took place in Texas in eighteen-fifty-four. Most of the shooting incidents between professional lawmen and outlaws took place during the eighteen-seventies in Texas. VOICE ONE: The real movement into the American West began after the Civil War. Many families moved west to build new lives after the war. Land was almost free. Some people wanted to find gold or silver and become rich. Other families wanted to raise cows or horses or begin a farm and start a new life. But living in the American West was not easy. There were no laws, no courts and little or no government. There were few lawmen to keep order. The people who arrived in the West included many criminals. Many were escaping punishment from their crimes. They knew that an area with no law would provide them with safety. These professional criminals often used force to take what they wanted -- cows, horses or money. Often, there was little to stop them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Honest people who moved to the West carried weapons to protect themselves and their property. These settlers began to build small towns when they found areas they liked. They tried to improve their towns with churches, schools and the rule of law. But it was often difficult. To protect their towns, the settlers often had to employ people who were expert in the use of firearms. Several lawmen in the Old West had learned to use their weapons when they were criminals. Both the outlaws and the lawmen in the Old West had something else in common. They could do something many other people could not. They were willing to risk their lives to enforce the law or to commit a crime. And they were willing to do this with a gun. VOICE ONE: A good example was a man named William Matthew Tilghman (TILL-man). He was arrested two times and charged with stealing when he was a young man. However, he later became a deputy United States marshal, a law officer. On July fourth, eighteen-eighty-eight, a man named Ed Prather began shooting his gun in the street in Farmer City, Kansas. People ran away in fear. Tilghman made him stop. Prather left the street angry and went into a drinking place. He began drinking alcohol and making threats. Later, Tilghman went into the drinking place looking for Prather. Prather put his hand on the gun he was carrying. Tilghman told him to move his hand away from the gun. When he did not obey, Bill Tilghman pulled out his gun and shot Ed Prather two times. He died immediately. VOICE TWO: That was only one of the many times Bill Tilghman used his gun as a law officer. He served in many other towns. Often, all he had to do was walk into a room to stop a fight. Outlaws feared and obeyed him. Most criminals stayed away from a town where Bill Tilghman was the marshal. Bill Tilghman was shot to death on November first, nineteen-twenty-four. He was trying to arrest a man who had been drinking too much alcohol. He was seventy years old and still working as the marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma. His life had lasted exactly the seventy years of the American Wild West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The famous American gunman named Wyatt Earp has been the subject of at least four major motion pictures, one television series and many books. He served as a marshal in Tombstone, Arizona. He took part in one of the most famous gunfights in American history -- the gunfight at the O-K Corral. Wyatt Earp was once asked how to win a gunfight. He said a good gunfighter took his time. He said he had to go into action as quickly as possible -- as fast as he could move. But then he should take his time with the shooting. He said a successful gunfighter could not let fear or anything else force him to shoot too soon and miss the target. Missing the target could get him killed. Wyatt Earp was very successful. He was only wounded once in a gunfight. He is one of the few successful gunfighters who lived to old age. He died in nineteen-twenty-nine. He was eighty-one years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts on the American West often disagree about who were the most dangerous gunmen in that period of American history. Was it one of the famous lawmen? Was it Bill Tilghman, or perhaps Wyatt Earp? Or was it one of the outlaws? Maybe it was the famous bank robber Jesse James or an extremely dangerous gunman named John Wesley Hardin. Those questions will never truly be answered. However, join us next week when we tell about two of the most dangerous gunfighters of the Old West. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - SARS
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 14, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week, health workers in China began to kill thousands of animals in an effort to prevent the spread of SARS. Severe acute respiratory syndrome killed more than seven-hundred-seventy people around the world last year. Last week, tests confirmed that a man in Guangdong province had the first new case of SARS in China. The thirty-two-year-old television producer was treated and released from a hospital. The tests showed he had a virus similar to one found in civets. Yet Chinese media reported that the man had not eaten a civet. Civets are related to the mongoose and are a popular food in southern China during the winter. Researchers think activities such as killing or handling infected animals is a likely way to spread the virus from animals to people. The World Health Organization warned of just such a danger from health workers killing the civets. The United Nations agency also warned that such action could destroy important information about the disease. SARS first appeared in Guangdong in November of two-thousand-two. It infected more than one-thousand-five-hundred people there. The lung disease killed about three-hundred-fifty people in China. Travelers spread SARS to nearly thirty countries. Eight-thousand people were infected by the middle of last year when the last cases appeared. Since then, public health officials have been warning that the disease could return. Researchers have been working to develop tests for the virus and a vaccine to prevent it. A report published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association discusses what was learned from the first SARS outbreak. Researchers say keeping people with signs of the disease away from the healthy population was effective in stopping the spread. The researchers say people who live with those suspected of SARS should also be quarantined until health workers are sure it is safe. Other ways to stop the spread of SARS include having health workers wear protective clothing and masks. Scientists also reported that the drug interferon appeared to improve the ability of steroid medicines to reduce the effects of SARS. In Guangdong, officials announced a health campaign to kill rats and cockroaches so the province would be clean for the Lunar New Year. The Chinese New Year begins January twenty-second. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: January 14, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week, health workers in China began to kill thousands of animals in an effort to prevent the spread of SARS. Severe acute respiratory syndrome killed more than seven-hundred-seventy people around the world last year. Last week, tests confirmed that a man in Guangdong province had the first new case of SARS in China. The thirty-two-year-old television producer was treated and released from a hospital. The tests showed he had a virus similar to one found in civets. Yet Chinese media reported that the man had not eaten a civet. Civets are related to the mongoose and are a popular food in southern China during the winter. Researchers think activities such as killing or handling infected animals is a likely way to spread the virus from animals to people. The World Health Organization warned of just such a danger from health workers killing the civets. The United Nations agency also warned that such action could destroy important information about the disease. SARS first appeared in Guangdong in November of two-thousand-two. It infected more than one-thousand-five-hundred people there. The lung disease killed about three-hundred-fifty people in China. Travelers spread SARS to nearly thirty countries. Eight-thousand people were infected by the middle of last year when the last cases appeared. Since then, public health officials have been warning that the disease could return. Researchers have been working to develop tests for the virus and a vaccine to prevent it. A report published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association discusses what was learned from the first SARS outbreak. Researchers say keeping people with signs of the disease away from the healthy population was effective in stopping the spread. The researchers say people who live with those suspected of SARS should also be quarantined until health workers are sure it is safe. Other ways to stop the spread of SARS include having health workers wear protective clothing and masks. Scientists also reported that the drug interferon appeared to improve the ability of steroid medicines to reduce the effects of SARS. In Guangdong, officials announced a health campaign to kill rats and cockroaches so the province would be clean for the Lunar New Year. The Chinese New Year begins January twenty-second. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - The Math Forum at Drexel
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many students and teachers of mathematics visit a Web site provided by Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The site is called the Math Forum at Drexel. The address is mathforum.org. The site says it receives about four-million visits a month from people around the world. Some services require membership. But other materials are free of charge. The Math Forum at Drexel includes an Internet Mathematics Library. This is a library that collects and organizes thousands of other Web sites related to math. Another area is called Ask Doctor Math. Visitors can ask an expert a question at any level. A number of experts give their time to choose and answer interesting problems. More than five-thousand questions-and-answers are organized by subject and level. Visitors can also search by terms. Ask Doctor Math contains a page of almost fifty commonly asked questions. For example, it explains how to make a Pascal’s Triangle. Mathematician, scientist and thinker Blaise Pascal developed this triangle made of numbers in the seventeenth century. It is used in algebra and to find combinations in probability. Another page at the Math Forum at Drexel is called Classic Problems. For example: In a family with two children, if one child is a boy, what are the chances that the other child is a girl? Ready for the answer? The answer is ... two-thirds. Why two-thirds? The example shows what is called a conditional probability tree to explain the answer. Another part of the site is called Teacher2Teacher. This area permits math educators to share opinions, suggestions and issues. They trade ideas for classroom activities and teaching methods. Master teachers answer questions and offer suggestions. These teachers have won top awards for their teaching of mathematics. And there is a Teacher Exchange area. Math teachers around the world can share their own materials. For example, there are materials by Suzanne Alejandre, a well-known middle school math teacher in the United States. She has prepared lessons and activities designed mainly for students between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Again, the address of the Math Forum at Drexel is mathforum.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. Broadcast: January 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many students and teachers of mathematics visit a Web site provided by Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The site is called the Math Forum at Drexel. The address is mathforum.org. The site says it receives about four-million visits a month from people around the world. Some services require membership. But other materials are free of charge. The Math Forum at Drexel includes an Internet Mathematics Library. This is a library that collects and organizes thousands of other Web sites related to math. Another area is called Ask Doctor Math. Visitors can ask an expert a question at any level. A number of experts give their time to choose and answer interesting problems. More than five-thousand questions-and-answers are organized by subject and level. Visitors can also search by terms. Ask Doctor Math contains a page of almost fifty commonly asked questions. For example, it explains how to make a Pascal’s Triangle. Mathematician, scientist and thinker Blaise Pascal developed this triangle made of numbers in the seventeenth century. It is used in algebra and to find combinations in probability. Another page at the Math Forum at Drexel is called Classic Problems. For example: In a family with two children, if one child is a boy, what are the chances that the other child is a girl? Ready for the answer? The answer is ... two-thirds. Why two-thirds? The example shows what is called a conditional probability tree to explain the answer. Another part of the site is called Teacher2Teacher. This area permits math educators to share opinions, suggestions and issues. They trade ideas for classroom activities and teaching methods. Master teachers answer questions and offer suggestions. These teachers have won top awards for their teaching of mathematics. And there is a Teacher Exchange area. Math teachers around the world can share their own materials. For example, there are materials by Suzanne Alejandre, a well-known middle school math teacher in the United States. She has prepared lessons and activities designed mainly for students between the ages of eleven and fifteen. Again, the address of the Math Forum at Drexel is mathforum.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Madison, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 15, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) James Madison of Virginia was elected president of the United States in Eighteen-Oh-Eight. He followed Thomas Jefferson in the office and served two terms. Madison's first four years were not easy. He had to deal with a foreign policy problem that Jefferson was unable to solve: increasingly tense relations with Britain. His second four years were worse. There was war. That is our story. VOICE TWO: James Madison was inaugurated in Washington on March Fourth, Eighteen-Oh-Nine. The people of the city were happy with the new president. But the nation was not yet sure what kind of leader he would be. The French minister to the United States did not think much of him. He said: "Mister Madison is an intelligent man, but weak. He will always see what should be done, but will not do it." VOICE ONE: Like the first three American presidents, Madison had a small cabinet. There would be a secretary of state and a secretary of the treasury. Madison decided to keep Albert Gallatin in the position of treasury secretary. Gallatin probably knew more about the nation's finances than anyone else. The choice for secretary of state was political. Madison named Robert Smith, the brother of a senator. The new president was not too concerned about Mister Smith's abilities, because he planned to make foreign policy himself. VOICE TWO: Jefferson's biggest foreign policy problem arose from a war between Britain and France. The two nations refused to honor America's neutrality. Each tried to prevent the United States from trading with the other. Both interfered with American shipping. And the British navy sometimes seized American sailors. President Jefferson ordered a ban on trade with Europe. But it failed to end the hostile acts against the United States. VOICE ONE: Britain and France were still at war when Madison was elected president. In place of the trade ban, Congress had approved a new law. It was called the Non-Intercourse Act. The law prevented trade with Britain and France. But it gave President Madison the power to re-open trade if either nation stopped interfering with American ships. Madison hoped the law would force Britain and France to honor American neutrality. He did not want war. But neither did he want to surrender America's rights as an independent nation. VOICE TWO: A month after Madison took office, the British minister in Washington, David Erskine, received new orders from his government. He said he had been given the power to settle all differences between the United States and Britain. Erskine said Britain would stop seizing American ships if the United States would end the Non-Intercourse law. He did not make clear that the British government demanded several conditions before an agreement could be reached. One condition was that the United States continue the law against trade with France. Another was that Britain be permitted to capture American ships that violated the law. Erskine called the conditions, "proposals." He did not force the United States to accept them. VOICE ONE: On April Nineteenth, President Madison announced that an agreement had been reached. He said the United States would re-open trade with Britain. The American people welcomed the agreement. It appeared that -- after less than two months as president -- Madison had been able to remove the threat of war. The United States began trading again with Britain on June Tenth, as agreed. Hundreds of ships left American ports. Relations with Britain seemed to have returned to normal. VOICE TWO: President Madison decided to spend the summer of Eighteen-Oh-Nine at his home in the hills of Virginia. Soon after he arrived, he received surprising news. The British government had rejected the agreement he had reached with Erskine. A British newspaper said the agreement was not what Britain wanted. It said Erskine had violated his orders and was being called back to London. A new minister, Francis James Jackson, would take his place. VOICE ONE: Madison returned to Washington in the autumn, about a month after the new British minister arrived. He learned that Secretary of State Smith had made no progress in talks with him. So the president decided to deal with him directly. He wanted to know exactly why Britain had rejected the agreement. Madison ordered that all communications between the two sides be written. There would be no more talks. Letters were exchanged. But the British minister failed to explain satisfactorily what had happened. And his letters seemed to charge that the United States had not negotiated honestly. Madison finally broke off all communications, and the British minister left Washington. VOICE TWO: America's policy of trade with Britain and France continued to be a serious issue. In the early days of Eighteen-Ten, Congress began to consider a new law to control such trade. After several weeks of debate, the two houses of Congress approved a compromise bill. The bill ended the Non-Intercourse Act against Britain and France. It permitted trade with any nation. But it gave the president the power to declare non-intercourse again with either Britain or France separately. President Madison signed the bill into law. VOICE ONE: Relations between the United States and Britain did not improve during the year. And President Madison once again declared non-intercourse against Britain. Trade between the two countries was stopped at the beginning of March, Eighteen-Eleven. Trade was not the only problem, however. A growing number of Americans believed that the British were helping some Native American Indians to fight the United States. VOICE TWO: As the people of the United States began to move to the northern and western territories, the government made treaties with the different Indian tribes. The treaties explained which land belonged to the Indians...and which land could be settled by the white men. The settlers did not always honor the treaties. A leader of the Shawnee Indian tribe, Tecumseh, decided to take action. He started a campaign to unite all Indians and to help them defend against the white men. Throughout the west, many Americans believed that the British in Canada were responsible for Tecumseh's efforts to unite the Indians. They demanded war with Britain to destroy the power of the tribes. VOICE ONE: In Washington, a new Congress was meeting. Some of the new members were very different from the men who had controlled Congress before. They were less willing to compromise...and more willing to go to war to defend America's interests. They soon got the name "War Hawks." The new Congress quickly approved several measures to prepare the United States for war. One bill increased the size of the army by twenty-five-thousand regular soldiers and fifty-thousand volunteers. VOICE TWO: At the same time, America had a new secretary of state. President Madison had not been pleased with the work of Robert Smith. Nor did he trust Smith. The president could not be sure of Smith's support for administration proposals. Madison wanted his close friend, James Monroe, to be secretary of state. Monroe was then governor of Virginia. He agreed to take the new job. VOICE ONE: What the United States did not have at that troubled time was a representative in Britain. hen Madison broke off communications with British minister Jackson in Washington, Jackson returned to London. And the American minister in London, William Pinkney, sailed home. There was no official in either capital to report what was happening. And the two countries were moving closer to war. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Leo Scully. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Broadcast: January 15, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) James Madison of Virginia was elected president of the United States in Eighteen-Oh-Eight. He followed Thomas Jefferson in the office and served two terms. Madison's first four years were not easy. He had to deal with a foreign policy problem that Jefferson was unable to solve: increasingly tense relations with Britain. His second four years were worse. There was war. That is our story. VOICE TWO: James Madison was inaugurated in Washington on March Fourth, Eighteen-Oh-Nine. The people of the city were happy with the new president. But the nation was not yet sure what kind of leader he would be. The French minister to the United States did not think much of him. He said: "Mister Madison is an intelligent man, but weak. He will always see what should be done, but will not do it." VOICE ONE: Like the first three American presidents, Madison had a small cabinet. There would be a secretary of state and a secretary of the treasury. Madison decided to keep Albert Gallatin in the position of treasury secretary. Gallatin probably knew more about the nation's finances than anyone else. The choice for secretary of state was political. Madison named Robert Smith, the brother of a senator. The new president was not too concerned about Mister Smith's abilities, because he planned to make foreign policy himself. VOICE TWO: Jefferson's biggest foreign policy problem arose from a war between Britain and France. The two nations refused to honor America's neutrality. Each tried to prevent the United States from trading with the other. Both interfered with American shipping. And the British navy sometimes seized American sailors. President Jefferson ordered a ban on trade with Europe. But it failed to end the hostile acts against the United States. VOICE ONE: Britain and France were still at war when Madison was elected president. In place of the trade ban, Congress had approved a new law. It was called the Non-Intercourse Act. The law prevented trade with Britain and France. But it gave President Madison the power to re-open trade if either nation stopped interfering with American ships. Madison hoped the law would force Britain and France to honor American neutrality. He did not want war. But neither did he want to surrender America's rights as an independent nation. VOICE TWO: A month after Madison took office, the British minister in Washington, David Erskine, received new orders from his government. He said he had been given the power to settle all differences between the United States and Britain. Erskine said Britain would stop seizing American ships if the United States would end the Non-Intercourse law. He did not make clear that the British government demanded several conditions before an agreement could be reached. One condition was that the United States continue the law against trade with France. Another was that Britain be permitted to capture American ships that violated the law. Erskine called the conditions, "proposals." He did not force the United States to accept them. VOICE ONE: On April Nineteenth, President Madison announced that an agreement had been reached. He said the United States would re-open trade with Britain. The American people welcomed the agreement. It appeared that -- after less than two months as president -- Madison had been able to remove the threat of war. The United States began trading again with Britain on June Tenth, as agreed. Hundreds of ships left American ports. Relations with Britain seemed to have returned to normal. VOICE TWO: President Madison decided to spend the summer of Eighteen-Oh-Nine at his home in the hills of Virginia. Soon after he arrived, he received surprising news. The British government had rejected the agreement he had reached with Erskine. A British newspaper said the agreement was not what Britain wanted. It said Erskine had violated his orders and was being called back to London. A new minister, Francis James Jackson, would take his place. VOICE ONE: Madison returned to Washington in the autumn, about a month after the new British minister arrived. He learned that Secretary of State Smith had made no progress in talks with him. So the president decided to deal with him directly. He wanted to know exactly why Britain had rejected the agreement. Madison ordered that all communications between the two sides be written. There would be no more talks. Letters were exchanged. But the British minister failed to explain satisfactorily what had happened. And his letters seemed to charge that the United States had not negotiated honestly. Madison finally broke off all communications, and the British minister left Washington. VOICE TWO: America's policy of trade with Britain and France continued to be a serious issue. In the early days of Eighteen-Ten, Congress began to consider a new law to control such trade. After several weeks of debate, the two houses of Congress approved a compromise bill. The bill ended the Non-Intercourse Act against Britain and France. It permitted trade with any nation. But it gave the president the power to declare non-intercourse again with either Britain or France separately. President Madison signed the bill into law. VOICE ONE: Relations between the United States and Britain did not improve during the year. And President Madison once again declared non-intercourse against Britain. Trade between the two countries was stopped at the beginning of March, Eighteen-Eleven. Trade was not the only problem, however. A growing number of Americans believed that the British were helping some Native American Indians to fight the United States. VOICE TWO: As the people of the United States began to move to the northern and western territories, the government made treaties with the different Indian tribes. The treaties explained which land belonged to the Indians...and which land could be settled by the white men. The settlers did not always honor the treaties. A leader of the Shawnee Indian tribe, Tecumseh, decided to take action. He started a campaign to unite all Indians and to help them defend against the white men. Throughout the west, many Americans believed that the British in Canada were responsible for Tecumseh's efforts to unite the Indians. They demanded war with Britain to destroy the power of the tribes. VOICE ONE: In Washington, a new Congress was meeting. Some of the new members were very different from the men who had controlled Congress before. They were less willing to compromise...and more willing to go to war to defend America's interests. They soon got the name "War Hawks." The new Congress quickly approved several measures to prepare the United States for war. One bill increased the size of the army by twenty-five-thousand regular soldiers and fifty-thousand volunteers. VOICE TWO: At the same time, America had a new secretary of state. President Madison had not been pleased with the work of Robert Smith. Nor did he trust Smith. The president could not be sure of Smith's support for administration proposals. Madison wanted his close friend, James Monroe, to be secretary of state. Monroe was then governor of Virginia. He agreed to take the new job. VOICE ONE: What the United States did not have at that troubled time was a representative in Britain. hen Madison broke off communications with British minister Jackson in Washington, Jackson returned to London. And the American minister in London, William Pinkney, sailed home. There was no official in either capital to report what was happening. And the two countries were moving closer to war. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Leo Scully. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: January 15, 2004 - 'Word of 2003'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: January 15, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- winning words for 2003 as voted by a small group of linguists and other scholarly observers of the language. RS: More than seventy members of the American Dialect Society voted in Boston on the words that -- and we quote here -- "most colored the nation's lexicon, or otherwise dominated the national discourse." The chairman of the new words committee, Wayne Glowka, says the word which most signifies 2003 is ... metrosexual. GLOWKA: "Metrosexual is not exactly a new word. I believe it's been around since about 1996. There was some discussion about what it actually meant. But I think we're safe in saying it's a heterosexual male who is fashion conscious. He may look fastidiously homosexual to someone else, but he's heterosexual." RS: "So use it in a sentence for us." GLOWKA: "Oh, I don't know, 'that man with the nice nails certainly looks metrosexual.'" AA: "Is it considered -- " GLOWKA: "I have actually never heard it in use. Someone sent me the word as a nomination several months and I went looking for it on Lexis-Nexus and found there was a book that talked about 'the metrosexuals' and there were articles about metrosexuals -- actually, just focused on what the word meant. But nothing sort of where you could see people naturally using it and you could hear it in the context where it's normally used. It's kind of a strange term to me, I guess." RS: "And it's on the top of a list of many other terms that you considered, phrases or words that you considered for 2003. And many of these words, they're predominantly war-related or health-related." GLOWKA: "Right." AA: "It beat out 'pre-emptive self-defense.'" GLOWKA: "Yeah, actually, what happened was there was an initial list of 'pre-emptive self-defense,' 'embed,' 'zhuzh' or however you say it, 'governator,' 'weapons of mass deception' and 'weapons of whatever.' And there was a first vote, and it looked like there was going to be a runoff between pre-emptive self-defense and metrosexual. And then a man from China stood up and he was kind of offended that 'SARS' -- which had already won Most Likely to Succeed -- was a much more important word than metrosexual. So there was another vote and, then a final vote with a runoff between metrosexual and SARS." AA: "And it looks like metrosexual received 35 votes and SARS received 31 votes in the final round." GLOWKA: "By that time some people had quit voting." RS: "[Laughter] Very unscientific." GLOWKA: "Absolutely! But very democratic." AA: "And one thing, we should explain 'governator,' just in case someone out there who has been living under a rock doesn't know what that -- " GLOWKA: "Doesn't have a t-shirt yet with 'governator' on it. Well that refers to, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger who was, what, the Terminator in several movies and now is the governor of California. So we have a blend here, along with 'gropenator' and 'gropenfuhrer.'" AA: "Which come from the accusations that ... " GLOWKA: "That he was a groper." AA: "Now turning to the Most Useful category here, tell us about the winner." GLOWKA: "Well, the winner is 'flexitarian.' This is a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat. So on Thanksgiving a flexitarian may eat some turkey, but basically is a vegetarian otherwise." RS: "You have many categories here -- Most Creative, Most Unnecessary, Most Euphemistic -- what do these words, in total, tell us about who we are as Americans, what our society has been like over the last year?" GLOWKA: "Well, even though this may look like a bad time to some people, the language is still a place where a sense of humor and novelty goes on. And sometimes the novelty ends up being kind of ugly or frightening, but sometimes it's kind of funny. In fact, I really love doing this and I really love editing this column for American Speech called 'Among the New Words' because I get to look at new words and many of them are just funny. I mean, governator to me is hilarious." AA: Wayne Glowka is an English professor at Georgia College and State University. And he edits a column in American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society. RS: You can find all the nominees and winners at the American Dialect Society Web site, americandialect.org. We'll post a link at voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And don't forget our e-mail address. It's word@voanews.com. Now, a quick word about "zhuzh," one of the losers for the Word of 2003. We learned that it's a verb spelled Z-H-U-Z-H or T-J-U-Z-S. It refers to the way fashion-conscious people primp their clothes to look just right. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: January 15, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- winning words for 2003 as voted by a small group of linguists and other scholarly observers of the language. RS: More than seventy members of the American Dialect Society voted in Boston on the words that -- and we quote here -- "most colored the nation's lexicon, or otherwise dominated the national discourse." The chairman of the new words committee, Wayne Glowka, says the word which most signifies 2003 is ... metrosexual. GLOWKA: "Metrosexual is not exactly a new word. I believe it's been around since about 1996. There was some discussion about what it actually meant. But I think we're safe in saying it's a heterosexual male who is fashion conscious. He may look fastidiously homosexual to someone else, but he's heterosexual." RS: "So use it in a sentence for us." GLOWKA: "Oh, I don't know, 'that man with the nice nails certainly looks metrosexual.'" AA: "Is it considered -- " GLOWKA: "I have actually never heard it in use. Someone sent me the word as a nomination several months and I went looking for it on Lexis-Nexus and found there was a book that talked about 'the metrosexuals' and there were articles about metrosexuals -- actually, just focused on what the word meant. But nothing sort of where you could see people naturally using it and you could hear it in the context where it's normally used. It's kind of a strange term to me, I guess." RS: "And it's on the top of a list of many other terms that you considered, phrases or words that you considered for 2003. And many of these words, they're predominantly war-related or health-related." GLOWKA: "Right." AA: "It beat out 'pre-emptive self-defense.'" GLOWKA: "Yeah, actually, what happened was there was an initial list of 'pre-emptive self-defense,' 'embed,' 'zhuzh' or however you say it, 'governator,' 'weapons of mass deception' and 'weapons of whatever.' And there was a first vote, and it looked like there was going to be a runoff between pre-emptive self-defense and metrosexual. And then a man from China stood up and he was kind of offended that 'SARS' -- which had already won Most Likely to Succeed -- was a much more important word than metrosexual. So there was another vote and, then a final vote with a runoff between metrosexual and SARS." AA: "And it looks like metrosexual received 35 votes and SARS received 31 votes in the final round." GLOWKA: "By that time some people had quit voting." RS: "[Laughter] Very unscientific." GLOWKA: "Absolutely! But very democratic." AA: "And one thing, we should explain 'governator,' just in case someone out there who has been living under a rock doesn't know what that -- " GLOWKA: "Doesn't have a t-shirt yet with 'governator' on it. Well that refers to, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger who was, what, the Terminator in several movies and now is the governor of California. So we have a blend here, along with 'gropenator' and 'gropenfuhrer.'" AA: "Which come from the accusations that ... " GLOWKA: "That he was a groper." AA: "Now turning to the Most Useful category here, tell us about the winner." GLOWKA: "Well, the winner is 'flexitarian.' This is a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat. So on Thanksgiving a flexitarian may eat some turkey, but basically is a vegetarian otherwise." RS: "You have many categories here -- Most Creative, Most Unnecessary, Most Euphemistic -- what do these words, in total, tell us about who we are as Americans, what our society has been like over the last year?" GLOWKA: "Well, even though this may look like a bad time to some people, the language is still a place where a sense of humor and novelty goes on. And sometimes the novelty ends up being kind of ugly or frightening, but sometimes it's kind of funny. In fact, I really love doing this and I really love editing this column for American Speech called 'Among the New Words' because I get to look at new words and many of them are just funny. I mean, governator to me is hilarious." AA: Wayne Glowka is an English professor at Georgia College and State University. And he edits a column in American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society. RS: You can find all the nominees and winners at the American Dialect Society Web site, americandialect.org. We'll post a link at voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And don't forget our e-mail address. It's word@voanews.com. Now, a quick word about "zhuzh," one of the losers for the Word of 2003. We learned that it's a verb spelled Z-H-U-Z-H or T-J-U-Z-S. It refers to the way fashion-conscious people primp their clothes to look just right. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - BCS Controversy / A Question about Slavery / Music by Lenny Kravitz
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 16, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 16, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about an American hero from the time of slavery. And we have music by Lenny Kravitz -- the singer is nominated this year for another Grammy Award. But first, we kick off our show with a dispute that a lot of American sports fans are talking about. BCS Controversy HOST: The Super Bowl in the National Football League is February first. The two teams that do the best this season will meet in Houston to decide the champion of the N-F-L. College football has tried to develop a championship system like the professionals have. This effort, however, has run into problems. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: College football teams in the United States end their season in November, then play championship games. One of the most famous is played in the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, on New Year's Day. Another is the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. Still another is the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana. For years, the teams that played in "bowl" games were the champions of groups of universities. These groups are called conferences. For example, the two teams in the Rose Bowl are the best from the Big Ten and the "Pac Ten" schools. The Big Ten conference is in the middle of the country. The Pacific Ten conference is in the far west. But bowl games have grown over the years. There is a lot of money to be made from broadcasting football games on television. This time there were twenty-eight bowl games. In the nineteen-nineties, football fans demanded that the final bowl games be played to decide a national champion of college football. So bowl officials ended up with the Bowl Championship Series. In this system, experts and computers decide which top teams play in which games. The idea is to have the two teams considered to be the strongest in the nation play for the national championship. This year, the Sugar Bowl was the national championship game. Louisiana State University won. But, in the media, and in public opinion, L-S-U split the championship with the University of Southern California. That highly rated team won the Rose Bowl. A lot of people say another game should be played to decide the national champion. Others say it will hurt the student athletes to extend the football season. The Gateway computer company even offered thirty-million dollars in scholarship money for a game between L-S-U and Southern California. But national college athletic officials rejected the idea. Bowl Championship Series officials say they hope to avoid disagreements in the future. They plan to change the computer system so that it weighs the opinions of the humans more than it does now. Harriet Tubman HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Akwa Ibom State, in Nigeria. Samuel Bassey asks who was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was an African-American woman who fought slavery and oppression. Stories about her say she was born in eighteen-twenty. No one really knows. We do know that Harriet Tubman helped many people escape from slavery through the Underground Railroad. This was a transportation system, but not in the traditional sense. It was an organized effort by people to help slaves from the Southern states get to areas that banned slavery. Her parents belonged to a farmer in Maryland. Slaves lived with the fear that they could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Harriet married a free black man named John Tubman in eighteen-forty-four. Yet she remained a slave. She decided to escape. In eighteen-forty-nine, the farmer who owned her and her family died. Harriet Tubman heard that she was to be sold immediately. She ran to the home of a white woman who had offered to help. This woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet Tubman went from place to place this way. Each place was a little closer to the northern states where slavery was illegal. This is how the Underground Railroad operated. Finally, she crossed the border into the northern state of Pennsylvania. But Harriet Tubman did not forget the slaves in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents and other family members. She traveled back and forth eighteen times. She helped three-hundred slaves escape. Harriet Tubman found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in eighteen-sixty-one. She went into the Southern states to spy for the North. She also helped people as a nurse. After the North won the Civil War, Harriet Tubman settled in New York state. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black Americans. She also worked for women's rights and improved housing. And, she sought help for older adults who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in nineteen-thirteen. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. Lenny Kravitz HOST: The American music industry will present its Grammy Awards on February eighth in Los Angeles. Shirley Griffith tells about one of the nominees this year for best male rock vocal performance. ANNCR: Lenny Kravitz was born in New York City in nineteen-sixty-four. He comes from a show business family: His father was a television producer; his mother, an actress. He taught himself to play the piano, bass and drums as a child. Lenny Kravitz also writes a lot of his own songs. You might remember this one from nineteen-ninety-eight, which earned him a Grammy. (MUSIC) The song is "Fly Away." It was on the fifth album Lenny Kravitz recorded; the album is called "Five." A song included on "Five" as a bonus track also won a Grammy. It was used in an "Austin Powers" movie: his version of "American Woman." (MUSIC) The newest album from Lenny Kravitz is called "Lenny." It contains the song that earned him a Grammy nomination this year. We leave you with "If I Could Fall in Love." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And remember to send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your name and mailing address. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andreus Regis. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about an American hero from the time of slavery. And we have music by Lenny Kravitz -- the singer is nominated this year for another Grammy Award. But first, we kick off our show with a dispute that a lot of American sports fans are talking about. BCS Controversy HOST: The Super Bowl in the National Football League is February first. The two teams that do the best this season will meet in Houston to decide the champion of the N-F-L. College football has tried to develop a championship system like the professionals have. This effort, however, has run into problems. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: College football teams in the United States end their season in November, then play championship games. One of the most famous is played in the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, on New Year's Day. Another is the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. Still another is the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana. For years, the teams that played in "bowl" games were the champions of groups of universities. These groups are called conferences. For example, the two teams in the Rose Bowl are the best from the Big Ten and the "Pac Ten" schools. The Big Ten conference is in the middle of the country. The Pacific Ten conference is in the far west. But bowl games have grown over the years. There is a lot of money to be made from broadcasting football games on television. This time there were twenty-eight bowl games. In the nineteen-nineties, football fans demanded that the final bowl games be played to decide a national champion of college football. So bowl officials ended up with the Bowl Championship Series. In this system, experts and computers decide which top teams play in which games. The idea is to have the two teams considered to be the strongest in the nation play for the national championship. This year, the Sugar Bowl was the national championship game. Louisiana State University won. But, in the media, and in public opinion, L-S-U split the championship with the University of Southern California. That highly rated team won the Rose Bowl. A lot of people say another game should be played to decide the national champion. Others say it will hurt the student athletes to extend the football season. The Gateway computer company even offered thirty-million dollars in scholarship money for a game between L-S-U and Southern California. But national college athletic officials rejected the idea. Bowl Championship Series officials say they hope to avoid disagreements in the future. They plan to change the computer system so that it weighs the opinions of the humans more than it does now. Harriet Tubman HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Akwa Ibom State, in Nigeria. Samuel Bassey asks who was Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was an African-American woman who fought slavery and oppression. Stories about her say she was born in eighteen-twenty. No one really knows. We do know that Harriet Tubman helped many people escape from slavery through the Underground Railroad. This was a transportation system, but not in the traditional sense. It was an organized effort by people to help slaves from the Southern states get to areas that banned slavery. Her parents belonged to a farmer in Maryland. Slaves lived with the fear that they could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Harriet married a free black man named John Tubman in eighteen-forty-four. Yet she remained a slave. She decided to escape. In eighteen-forty-nine, the farmer who owned her and her family died. Harriet Tubman heard that she was to be sold immediately. She ran to the home of a white woman who had offered to help. This woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet Tubman went from place to place this way. Each place was a little closer to the northern states where slavery was illegal. This is how the Underground Railroad operated. Finally, she crossed the border into the northern state of Pennsylvania. But Harriet Tubman did not forget the slaves in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents and other family members. She traveled back and forth eighteen times. She helped three-hundred slaves escape. Harriet Tubman found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in eighteen-sixty-one. She went into the Southern states to spy for the North. She also helped people as a nurse. After the North won the Civil War, Harriet Tubman settled in New York state. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black Americans. She also worked for women's rights and improved housing. And, she sought help for older adults who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in nineteen-thirteen. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. Lenny Kravitz HOST: The American music industry will present its Grammy Awards on February eighth in Los Angeles. Shirley Griffith tells about one of the nominees this year for best male rock vocal performance. ANNCR: Lenny Kravitz was born in New York City in nineteen-sixty-four. He comes from a show business family: His father was a television producer; his mother, an actress. He taught himself to play the piano, bass and drums as a child. Lenny Kravitz also writes a lot of his own songs. You might remember this one from nineteen-ninety-eight, which earned him a Grammy. (MUSIC) The song is "Fly Away." It was on the fifth album Lenny Kravitz recorded; the album is called "Five." A song included on "Five" as a bonus track also won a Grammy. It was used in an "Austin Powers" movie: his version of "American Woman." (MUSIC) The newest album from Lenny Kravitz is called "Lenny." It contains the song that earned him a Grammy nomination this year. We leave you with "If I Could Fall in Love." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And remember to send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your name and mailing address. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andreus Regis. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT – IMF Report on American Financial Policy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 16, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A new report warns that the rising United States budget deficit and trade imbalance threaten world economic security and growth. The International Monetary Fund released the report last week. The Bush administration says tax cuts have helped economic recovery, and deficit cuts are planned. Charles Collyns was among several I-M-F officials who researched and wrote the report. Mister Collyns notes that the federal financial balance has changed in the last few years. He says the two-thousand budget year had a surplus of two-and-one-half percent of the gross domestic product. That is the total value of goods and services produced in the country. But in fiscal year two-thousand-three the budget had a deficit of almost four percent of the gross domestic product. Mister Collyns says additional spending gave immediate and much needed support to the American economy. But he says there are long-term problems if large federal deficits continue. The I-M-F team says budget estimates show large deficits for the next ten fiscal years. The report says these deficits would lead the United States to borrow more money. It says foreign debt could equal forty percent of the economy in a few years. This would be a record level for a large industrial nation. The I-M-F says growing debt and increased borrowing may force international loan rates to rise. It says this would restrain private investment, especially in the purchase of government bonds. Mister Collyns says this process is already happening. He says it is partly to blame for the fall in the value of the American dollar during the last year. The I-M-F experts say the result in the end is lower worldwide productivity and earnings growth. The report says the American government must raise taxes and limit spending to avoid this. Administration officials noted that President Bush has already said he will work to reduce the deficit by half during the next five years. Mister Bush spoke about the economy in his weekly radio message last Saturday. He said business investment has increased and the unemployment rate is falling. He said American stock market wealth increased in the past year. And he again called on Congress to make his tax cuts for Americans permanent. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Summit of the Americas
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Leaders of thirty-four countries in the Americas met this week in Monterrey, Mexico. The leaders from north, central and south America and the Caribbean discussed trade, terrorism and poverty. Mexican President Vicente Fox led the special Summit of the Americas. Mister Fox praised the two days of talks but noted there were often sharp differences of opinion. The main disputes were about the issues of free trade and helping the poor. President Bush wanted the leaders to set a time limit of two-thousand-five to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas. That would bring together countries from Argentina to Canada, except for Cuba. Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro, was not invited to the summit. Eight-hundred-million people live in the thirty-four nations represented at the meeting. About half live in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Some leaders said the conference did not do enough for the other half. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the main goal should be to help the poor. He said free trade alone will not solve this problem. President Bush and President Fox noted economic growth in their countries as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That agreement, known as NAFTA, is ten years old. It links Mexico, the United States and Canada. But some research says NAFTA has failed to improve living conditions in Mexico. Mexico and Canada were the countries that gained the most from the United States during the summit and before. During the talks, President Bush promised Canada the chance to take part in future rebuilding projects in Iraq. The Bush administration had said countries that opposed the war, as Canada did, could not take part in those projects. Also, days before the summit, President Bush announced a temporary worker program for people who entered the United States illegally. The country has an estimated eight-million to as many as twelve-million illegal immigrants. Immigration officials estimated that almost five-million came from Mexico as of January of two-thousand. Mexico's president called the proposal a very important step forward. Mister Fox also accepted another invitation to visit Mister Bush at his home in Texas in March. Mister Bush's proposal would let illegal immigrants work legally for at least three years. Honduran President Ricardo Maduro said the plan would give people closer ties to Latin Americans in the United States. The final declaration at the summit did not set a date to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas. And it did not include an American proposal to bar leaders of dishonest governments from future meetings. But the leaders did promise greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: January 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Leaders of thirty-four countries in the Americas met this week in Monterrey, Mexico. The leaders from north, central and south America and the Caribbean discussed trade, terrorism and poverty. Mexican President Vicente Fox led the special Summit of the Americas. Mister Fox praised the two days of talks but noted there were often sharp differences of opinion. The main disputes were about the issues of free trade and helping the poor. President Bush wanted the leaders to set a time limit of two-thousand-five to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas. That would bring together countries from Argentina to Canada, except for Cuba. Cuba's leader, Fidel Castro, was not invited to the summit. Eight-hundred-million people live in the thirty-four nations represented at the meeting. About half live in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Some leaders said the conference did not do enough for the other half. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the main goal should be to help the poor. He said free trade alone will not solve this problem. President Bush and President Fox noted economic growth in their countries as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. That agreement, known as NAFTA, is ten years old. It links Mexico, the United States and Canada. But some research says NAFTA has failed to improve living conditions in Mexico. Mexico and Canada were the countries that gained the most from the United States during the summit and before. During the talks, President Bush promised Canada the chance to take part in future rebuilding projects in Iraq. The Bush administration had said countries that opposed the war, as Canada did, could not take part in those projects. Also, days before the summit, President Bush announced a temporary worker program for people who entered the United States illegally. The country has an estimated eight-million to as many as twelve-million illegal immigrants. Immigration officials estimated that almost five-million came from Mexico as of January of two-thousand. Mexico's president called the proposal a very important step forward. Mister Fox also accepted another invitation to visit Mister Bush at his home in Texas in March. Mister Bush's proposal would let illegal immigrants work legally for at least three years. Honduran President Ricardo Maduro said the plan would give people closer ties to Latin Americans in the United States. The final declaration at the summit did not set a date to establish the Free Trade Area of the Americas. And it did not include an American proposal to bar leaders of dishonest governments from future meetings. But the leaders did promise greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Mary Lyon
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 25, 2004 (THEME) Clapp Laboratory at Mount Holyoke College<br) (Photo: www.mtholyoke.edu) Broadcast: January 25, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. Every week at this time, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith tell about Mary Lyon. She was a leader in women's education in the nineteenth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: During the nineteenth century, women's education was not considered important in the United States. Supporters of advanced education for women faced many problems. States did require each town to provide a school for children, but teachers often were poorly prepared. Most young women were not able to continue on with their education in private schools. If they did, they often were not taught much except the French language, how to sew clothing, and music. Mary Lyon felt that women's education was extremely important. Through her lifelong work for education she became one of the most famous women in nineteenth century America. She believed that women were teachers both in the home and in the classroom. And, she believed that efforts to better educate young women also served God. If women were better educated, she felt, they could teach in local schools throughout the United States and in foreign countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mary Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts, in Seventeen-Ninety-Seven. Her father died when she was five years old. For Mary, hard work was a way of life. But she later remembered with great pleasure her childhood years in the home where she was born. This is how she described what she could see from that house on a hill: "The far-off mountains in all their grandeur, and the deep valleys, and widely extended plains, and more than all, that little village below, containing only a very few white houses, but more than those young eyes had ever seen." VOICE ONE: At the age of four, Mary began walking to the nearest school several kilometers away. Later, she began spending three months at a time with friends and relatives so she could attend other area schools. She helped clean and cook to pay for her stay. When Mary was thirteen, her mother re-married and moved to another town. Mary was left to care for her older brother who worked on the family farm. He paid her a dollar a week. She saved it to pay for her education. Mary's love of learning was so strong that she worked and saved her small amount of pay so she could go to school for another few months. Mary began her first teaching job at a one-room local school teaching children for the summer. She was seventeen years old. She was paid seventy-five cents a week. She also was given meals and a place to live. Mary Lyon was not a very successful teacher at first. She did not have much control over her students. She always was ready to laugh with them. Yet she soon won their parents' respect with her skills. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Mary Lyon was twenty years old, she began a long period of study and teaching. A new private school opened in the village of Ashfield, Massachusetts. It was called Sanderson Academy. Mary really wanted to attend. She sold book coverings she had made. And she used everything she had saved from her pay as a teacher. This was enough for her to begin attending Sanderson Academy. At Sanderson, Mary began to study more difficult subjects. These included science, history and Latin. A friend who went to school with Mary wrote of her "gaining knowledge by handfuls." It is said that Mary memorized a complete book about the Latin language in three days. Mary later wrote it was at Sanderson that she received the base of her education. VOICE ONE: After a year at Sanderson Academy, Mary decided that her handwriting was not good enough to be read clearly. She was a twenty-one-year-old woman. But she went to the local public school and sat among the children so she could learn better writing skills. In Eighteen-Twenty-One, Mary Lyon went to another private school where she was taught by Reverend Joseph Emerson. Mary said he talked to women "as if they had brains." She praised his equal treatment of men and women when it came to educating them. VOICE TWO: Three years later, Mary Lyon opened a school for young women in the village of Buckland. She called it the Buckland Female Seminary. Classes were held in a room on the third floor of a house. Mary's students praised her teaching. She proposed new ways of teaching, including holding discussion groups where students exchange ideas. Mary said it was while teaching at Buckland that she first thought of founding a private school open to daughters of farmers and skilled workers. She wanted education, not profits, to be the most important thing about the school. At that time, schools of higher learning usually were supported by people interested in profits from their investment. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Twenty-Eight, Mary became sick with typhoid fever. When her health improved, she decided to leave Buckland, the school she had started. She joined a close friend, Zilpah Grant, who had begun another private school, Ipswich Female Seminary. At Ipswich, Mary taught and was responsible for one-hundred-thirty students. It was one of the best schools at the time. But it lacked financial support. Mary said the lack of support was because of "good men's fear of greatness in women." Zilpah Grant and Mary Lyon urged that Ipswich be provided buildings so that the school might become permanent. However, their appeal failed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mary resigned from Ipswich. She helped to organize another private school for women, Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. It opened in Eighteen Thirty-Five. She also began to raise money for her dream of a permanent, non-profit school for the higher education of women. This school would own its own property. It would be guided by an independent group of directors. Its finances would be the responsibility of the directors, not of investors seeking profit. The school would not depend on any one person to continue. And, the students would share in cleaning and cooking to keep costs down. VOICE ONE: Mary Lyon got a committee of advisers to help her in planning and building the school. She collected the first thousand dollars for the school from women in and around the town of Ipswich. At one point, she even lent the committee some of her own money. She did not earn any money until she became head of the new school. Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women in Eighteen-Thirty-Seven. It was in the town of South Hadley, Massachusetts. She had raised more than twelve-thousand dollars. It was enough to build a five-story building. Four teachers and the first class of eighty young women lived and studied in the building when the school opened. By the next year, the number of students had increased to one-hundred-sixteen. Mary knew the importance of what had been established -- the first independent school for the higher education of women. VOICE TWO: The school continued to grow. More students began to attend. The size of the building was increased. And, all of the students were required to study for four years instead of three. Mary Lyon was head of the school for almost twelve years. She died in Eighteen-Forty-Nine. She was fifty-two years old. She left behind a school of higher education for women. It had no debt. And it had support for the future provided by thousands of dollars in gifts. In Eighteen-Ninety-Three, under a state law, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary became a college. Mount Holyoke College was the first college to offer women the same kind of education as was offered to men. VOICE ONE: People who have studied Mary Lyon say she was not fighting a battle of equality between men and women. Yet she knew she wanted more for women. Her efforts led to the spread of higher education for women in the United States. Historians say she was the strongest influence on the education of American young people during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her influence lasted as the many students from Mary Lyon's schools went out to teach others. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Shirley Griffith VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this same time for another People in American program on the Voice of America. ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. Every week at this time, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith tell about Mary Lyon. She was a leader in women's education in the nineteenth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: During the nineteenth century, women's education was not considered important in the United States. Supporters of advanced education for women faced many problems. States did require each town to provide a school for children, but teachers often were poorly prepared. Most young women were not able to continue on with their education in private schools. If they did, they often were not taught much except the French language, how to sew clothing, and music. Mary Lyon felt that women's education was extremely important. Through her lifelong work for education she became one of the most famous women in nineteenth century America. She believed that women were teachers both in the home and in the classroom. And, she believed that efforts to better educate young women also served God. If women were better educated, she felt, they could teach in local schools throughout the United States and in foreign countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mary Lyon was born in Buckland, Massachusetts, in Seventeen-Ninety-Seven. Her father died when she was five years old. For Mary, hard work was a way of life. But she later remembered with great pleasure her childhood years in the home where she was born. This is how she described what she could see from that house on a hill: "The far-off mountains in all their grandeur, and the deep valleys, and widely extended plains, and more than all, that little village below, containing only a very few white houses, but more than those young eyes had ever seen." VOICE ONE: At the age of four, Mary began walking to the nearest school several kilometers away. Later, she began spending three months at a time with friends and relatives so she could attend other area schools. She helped clean and cook to pay for her stay. When Mary was thirteen, her mother re-married and moved to another town. Mary was left to care for her older brother who worked on the family farm. He paid her a dollar a week. She saved it to pay for her education. Mary's love of learning was so strong that she worked and saved her small amount of pay so she could go to school for another few months. Mary began her first teaching job at a one-room local school teaching children for the summer. She was seventeen years old. She was paid seventy-five cents a week. She also was given meals and a place to live. Mary Lyon was not a very successful teacher at first. She did not have much control over her students. She always was ready to laugh with them. Yet she soon won their parents' respect with her skills. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Mary Lyon was twenty years old, she began a long period of study and teaching. A new private school opened in the village of Ashfield, Massachusetts. It was called Sanderson Academy. Mary really wanted to attend. She sold book coverings she had made. And she used everything she had saved from her pay as a teacher. This was enough for her to begin attending Sanderson Academy. At Sanderson, Mary began to study more difficult subjects. These included science, history and Latin. A friend who went to school with Mary wrote of her "gaining knowledge by handfuls." It is said that Mary memorized a complete book about the Latin language in three days. Mary later wrote it was at Sanderson that she received the base of her education. VOICE ONE: After a year at Sanderson Academy, Mary decided that her handwriting was not good enough to be read clearly. She was a twenty-one-year-old woman. But she went to the local public school and sat among the children so she could learn better writing skills. In Eighteen-Twenty-One, Mary Lyon went to another private school where she was taught by Reverend Joseph Emerson. Mary said he talked to women "as if they had brains." She praised his equal treatment of men and women when it came to educating them. VOICE TWO: Three years later, Mary Lyon opened a school for young women in the village of Buckland. She called it the Buckland Female Seminary. Classes were held in a room on the third floor of a house. Mary's students praised her teaching. She proposed new ways of teaching, including holding discussion groups where students exchange ideas. Mary said it was while teaching at Buckland that she first thought of founding a private school open to daughters of farmers and skilled workers. She wanted education, not profits, to be the most important thing about the school. At that time, schools of higher learning usually were supported by people interested in profits from their investment. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Twenty-Eight, Mary became sick with typhoid fever. When her health improved, she decided to leave Buckland, the school she had started. She joined a close friend, Zilpah Grant, who had begun another private school, Ipswich Female Seminary. At Ipswich, Mary taught and was responsible for one-hundred-thirty students. It was one of the best schools at the time. But it lacked financial support. Mary said the lack of support was because of "good men's fear of greatness in women." Zilpah Grant and Mary Lyon urged that Ipswich be provided buildings so that the school might become permanent. However, their appeal failed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mary resigned from Ipswich. She helped to organize another private school for women, Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts. It opened in Eighteen Thirty-Five. She also began to raise money for her dream of a permanent, non-profit school for the higher education of women. This school would own its own property. It would be guided by an independent group of directors. Its finances would be the responsibility of the directors, not of investors seeking profit. The school would not depend on any one person to continue. And, the students would share in cleaning and cooking to keep costs down. VOICE ONE: Mary Lyon got a committee of advisers to help her in planning and building the school. She collected the first thousand dollars for the school from women in and around the town of Ipswich. At one point, she even lent the committee some of her own money. She did not earn any money until she became head of the new school. Mary Lyon opened Mount Holyoke Seminary for Women in Eighteen-Thirty-Seven. It was in the town of South Hadley, Massachusetts. She had raised more than twelve-thousand dollars. It was enough to build a five-story building. Four teachers and the first class of eighty young women lived and studied in the building when the school opened. By the next year, the number of students had increased to one-hundred-sixteen. Mary knew the importance of what had been established -- the first independent school for the higher education of women. VOICE TWO: The school continued to grow. More students began to attend. The size of the building was increased. And, all of the students were required to study for four years instead of three. Mary Lyon was head of the school for almost twelve years. She died in Eighteen-Forty-Nine. She was fifty-two years old. She left behind a school of higher education for women. It had no debt. And it had support for the future provided by thousands of dollars in gifts. In Eighteen-Ninety-Three, under a state law, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary became a college. Mount Holyoke College was the first college to offer women the same kind of education as was offered to men. VOICE ONE: People who have studied Mary Lyon say she was not fighting a battle of equality between men and women. Yet she knew she wanted more for women. Her efforts led to the spread of higher education for women in the United States. Historians say she was the strongest influence on the education of American young people during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her influence lasted as the many students from Mary Lyon's schools went out to teach others. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Shirley Griffith VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this same time for another People in American program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – HIV Stigma Toolkit
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 19, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. People living with AIDS and the virus that causes it suffer not only from the disease, but also from the stigma linked to AIDS. Stigma means any bad thoughts or acts toward another person that are not based on facts. People have stigmas about H-I-V and AIDS- infected patients for many reasons. The disease is connected to blood, sickness and death. H-I-V is often caused by actions that are not accepted by many religions and communities. These include sexual activities between men and the injection of illegal drugs. Also, people are afraid they will get the virus from being near people who have HIV or AIDS. Experts have created special programs, campaigns and education tools to stop the stigmatization of people with AIDS. One group, called the Change Project, has developed teaching information for people at the local level fighting the disease. It is called a “Toolkit for Action.” The toolkit includes fifty-seven teaching exercises that community groups and educators can use to help improve people’s knowledge of the disease. The goal is to help people understand stigma, why it is an important issue, what causes stigma, and ways to end the stigmatization of AIDS patients. The toolkit uses several training methods and materials. For example, many activities involve group discussions and the sharing of ideas, fears and personal experiences. Other activities require people to present information or act out stories in front of other people. There are even exercises that use pictures and songs. The toolkit has exercises that deal with stigma in different ways. There are activities that teach about caring for HIV-AIDS patients in the family. Other activities teach about stigma faced by children. There are also exercises to teach people about sex, morality and dishonor. The Change Project created the toolkit with the help of the Academy for Educational Development and the United States Agency for International Development. It was developed from a three-country research project. AIDS activists from more than fifty non-governmental organizations in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia helped write the exercises. You can get the toolkit from the Change Project’s Internet Web site. That address is changeproject.org. Changeproject is all one word. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: January 19, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. People living with AIDS and the virus that causes it suffer not only from the disease, but also from the stigma linked to AIDS. Stigma means any bad thoughts or acts toward another person that are not based on facts. People have stigmas about H-I-V and AIDS- infected patients for many reasons. The disease is connected to blood, sickness and death. H-I-V is often caused by actions that are not accepted by many religions and communities. These include sexual activities between men and the injection of illegal drugs. Also, people are afraid they will get the virus from being near people who have HIV or AIDS. Experts have created special programs, campaigns and education tools to stop the stigmatization of people with AIDS. One group, called the Change Project, has developed teaching information for people at the local level fighting the disease. It is called a “Toolkit for Action.” The toolkit includes fifty-seven teaching exercises that community groups and educators can use to help improve people’s knowledge of the disease. The goal is to help people understand stigma, why it is an important issue, what causes stigma, and ways to end the stigmatization of AIDS patients. The toolkit uses several training methods and materials. For example, many activities involve group discussions and the sharing of ideas, fears and personal experiences. Other activities require people to present information or act out stories in front of other people. There are even exercises that use pictures and songs. The toolkit has exercises that deal with stigma in different ways. There are activities that teach about caring for HIV-AIDS patients in the family. Other activities teach about stigma faced by children. There are also exercises to teach people about sex, morality and dishonor. The Change Project created the toolkit with the help of the Academy for Educational Development and the United States Agency for International Development. It was developed from a three-country research project. AIDS activists from more than fifty non-governmental organizations in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia helped write the exercises. You can get the toolkit from the Change Project’s Internet Web site. That address is changeproject.org. Changeproject is all one word. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-18-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Health Care in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 19: 2004 (THEME) >b>George Bush Broadcast: January 19: 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: In recent years, health care spending in the United States has grown to fifteen percent of the economy. The care is often described as the best in the world, but the cost is a big problem. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. This week our program is about health care in the United States. VOICE ONE: In recent years, health care spending in the United States has grown to fifteen percent of the economy. The care is often described as the best in the world, but the cost is a big problem. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. This week our program is about health care in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Forty years ago, a Chicago businessman had an operation for cancer. Doctors could offer no further treatment. The cancer spread. The man died about a year later. His medical care cost about ten-thousand dollars. Six years ago, an office administrator in Washington, D.C., had an operation for cancer. Later she had treatment with radiation and powerful chemicals. Today she feels fine. Her doctors say she will probably live many more years. But her care cost several hundred thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: Medical science today saves many more lives. But this can also mean major debt. Government programs provide health insurance to the poor and elderly. Others depend on private insurance. Companies guarantee to pay part or all of the costs of care. But the more the policy covers, the higher the price. VOICE ONE: Around sixty percent of working Americans have health insurance through their jobs. Their employers usually pay at least part of the cost. But, as those costs increase, employers feel the pressure. The Department of Health and Human Services reported this month on health care spending for two-thousand-two. It says spending rose nine percent that year, to one-point-six million-million dollars. Health costs per person averaged more than five-thousand-four-hundred dollars. Some employers no longer offer health coverage. Others have increased the share paid by their employees. Getting insurance can be difficult for those who work only part time. The same is true for people who are already sick. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some Americans have no health insurance. The Census Bureau says fifteen percent of the population had no coverage in two-thousand-two. The number was forty-three-point-six million people. Last week a committee of experts called for health coverage for all by two-thousand-ten. The report was from the Institute of Medicine, one of the National Academies. The report says about eighteen-thousand people each year die unnecessarily because of lack of insurance. The experts also estimated how much money the United States loses as a result of poor health and early deaths of uninsured adults. The estimate is between sixty-five-thousand-million and one-hundred-thirty-thousand million dollars a year. A top official in the Bush administration, however, says it is not realistic to expect universal health coverage by two-thousand-ten. VOICE ONE: Some uninsured people get care at university teaching hospitals. A number of religious and humanitarian agencies like the Salvation Army offer free or low-cost care. But hospital emergency rooms are where many poor people go even for minor problems. This adds to hospital costs. The largest number of poor get medical help through public programs at several levels of government. The federal government and the states jointly offer an insurance program called Medicaid. States also administer a program to aid children whose families earn too much to receive Medicaid. However, budget problems have led some states to reduce their services. Florida, for example, has thousands on a waiting list for the State Children's Health Insurance Program there. VOICE TWO: Another issue for a lot of people is the cost of prescription medicine, drugs only a doctor can order. Drug companies say new medicines cost a lot to develop and market. The industry notes that about one-tenth of every dollar spent on health care in the United States goes to prescription medicines. It says these drugs represent only a small part of health care spending. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Both major political parties have offered plans to improve the health care system. The candidates for the Democratic nomination for president have proposed their own ideas. And President Bush recently won approval of big changes to Medicare. Medicare is the government insurance program for people age sixty-five and older. It also helps pay for some younger people who are disabled. Congress approved Medicare in nineteen-sixty-five. Lyndon Johnson was president. Johnson proposed Medicare as one of the social reforms in a plan he called the Great Society. VOICE TWO: President Bush signed the Medicare reform act in December. The bill received the support of an influential activist group. The group is called AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons. Members of AARP are age fifty and older. As the nation gets older, voters get older. So this issue is important politically. Parts of the new law will take effect at different times. Forty-million elderly or disabled people will receive help to buy medicine, starting in two-thousand-six. And seniors will get a chance to establish tax-free health accounts to save money for future care. VOICE ONE: The cost of the new Medicare law is estimated at four-hundred-thousand-million dollars over ten years. Critics say that is too much. Labor unions and other groups also argue that the changes are better for drug companies than for seniors. Supporters of the new Medicare act say this is not true. They say it is important that seniors will get their first help from Medicare to pay for medicine. The new law also lets private health plans and insurance companies play a bigger part in Medicare. Opponents say letting these companies compete with the government will damage the system. They say seniors will pay more, not less. Supporters say competition means better choices. VOICE TWO: Under the new Medicare law, patients will have choices about their drug plan. They can stay in traditional Medicare for their doctor and hospital costs, and choose a drug policy to go with this. Or, they can join a completely private plan. This would pay for hospital treatment and doctors in addition to medicines. Wealthier Medicare patients are to pay more than others for their medicines. But the poorest seniors would pay only a few dollars for each prescription. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When some Americans buy medicine, they do not go to the local drugstore. Some travel to Canada or Mexico to save money. Others use the Internet to order prescription drugs from Canadian suppliers. Canada negotiates for and buys large amounts of American-made drugs. Prices controls in Canada mean that drugs often cost much less there. Some people think this drives up American drug costs. The United States Food and Drug Administration says importing drugs is dangerous and illegal. It says this is true even if the drugs are re-imported. That is, they were made in America and then shipped for sale outside the country. VOICE TWO: But some public officials in the United States say they, too, will try to save money. Officials in Boston, Massachusetts, say they will buy drugs from Canada for seven-thousand current and retired city employees. The governor of New Hampshire says his state will use medicine from Canada for prisoners and poor people. Another state, Illinois, has appealed to the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. Illinois wants to import drugs from Canada legally. Illinois officials argue that the new Medicare law permits this if the drugs meet American safety requirements. VOICE ONE: Tom Daschle of South Dakota leads the Democratic minority in the Senate. Senator Daschle says the new Medicare law is bad legislation. He says seniors will demand many changes. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California was among Democrats who voted for the law. Senator Feinstein called it a step in the right direction. The president of A-A-R-P had stronger praise. He says it represents a victory for older citizens. What do those people think? Many would probably agree with this retired nurse from Rockville, Maryland. She says: “We will find out when the changes take effect.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report on life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Forty years ago, a Chicago businessman had an operation for cancer. Doctors could offer no further treatment. The cancer spread. The man died about a year later. His medical care cost about ten-thousand dollars. Six years ago, an office administrator in Washington, D.C., had an operation for cancer. Later she had treatment with radiation and powerful chemicals. Today she feels fine. Her doctors say she will probably live many more years. But her care cost several hundred thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: Medical science today saves many more lives. But this can also mean major debt. Government programs provide health insurance to the poor and elderly. Others depend on private insurance. Companies guarantee to pay part or all of the costs of care. But the more the policy covers, the higher the price. VOICE ONE: Around sixty percent of working Americans have health insurance through their jobs. Their employers usually pay at least part of the cost. But, as those costs increase, employers feel the pressure. The Department of Health and Human Services reported this month on health care spending for two-thousand-two. It says spending rose nine percent that year, to one-point-six million-million dollars. Health costs per person averaged more than five-thousand-four-hundred dollars. Some employers no longer offer health coverage. Others have increased the share paid by their employees. Getting insurance can be difficult for those who work only part time. The same is true for people who are already sick. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some Americans have no health insurance. The Census Bureau says fifteen percent of the population had no coverage in two-thousand-two. The number was forty-three-point-six million people. Last week a committee of experts called for health coverage for all by two-thousand-ten. The report was from the Institute of Medicine, one of the National Academies. The report says about eighteen-thousand people each year die unnecessarily because of lack of insurance. The experts also estimated how much money the United States loses as a result of poor health and early deaths of uninsured adults. The estimate is between sixty-five-thousand-million and one-hundred-thirty-thousand million dollars a year. A top official in the Bush administration, however, says it is not realistic to expect universal health coverage by two-thousand-ten. VOICE ONE: Some uninsured people get care at university teaching hospitals. A number of religious and humanitarian agencies like the Salvation Army offer free or low-cost care. But hospital emergency rooms are where many poor people go even for minor problems. This adds to hospital costs. The largest number of poor get medical help through public programs at several levels of government. The federal government and the states jointly offer an insurance program called Medicaid. States also administer a program to aid children whose families earn too much to receive Medicaid. However, budget problems have led some states to reduce their services. Florida, for example, has thousands on a waiting list for the State Children's Health Insurance Program there. VOICE TWO: Another issue for a lot of people is the cost of prescription medicine, drugs only a doctor can order. Drug companies say new medicines cost a lot to develop and market. The industry notes that about one-tenth of every dollar spent on health care in the United States goes to prescription medicines. It says these drugs represent only a small part of health care spending. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Both major political parties have offered plans to improve the health care system. The candidates for the Democratic nomination for president have proposed their own ideas. And President Bush recently won approval of big changes to Medicare. Medicare is the government insurance program for people age sixty-five and older. It also helps pay for some younger people who are disabled. Congress approved Medicare in nineteen-sixty-five. Lyndon Johnson was president. Johnson proposed Medicare as one of the social reforms in a plan he called the Great Society. VOICE TWO: President Bush signed the Medicare reform act in December. The bill received the support of an influential activist group. The group is called AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons. Members of AARP are age fifty and older. As the nation gets older, voters get older. So this issue is important politically. Parts of the new law will take effect at different times. Forty-million elderly or disabled people will receive help to buy medicine, starting in two-thousand-six. And seniors will get a chance to establish tax-free health accounts to save money for future care. VOICE ONE: The cost of the new Medicare law is estimated at four-hundred-thousand-million dollars over ten years. Critics say that is too much. Labor unions and other groups also argue that the changes are better for drug companies than for seniors. Supporters of the new Medicare act say this is not true. They say it is important that seniors will get their first help from Medicare to pay for medicine. The new law also lets private health plans and insurance companies play a bigger part in Medicare. Opponents say letting these companies compete with the government will damage the system. They say seniors will pay more, not less. Supporters say competition means better choices. VOICE TWO: Under the new Medicare law, patients will have choices about their drug plan. They can stay in traditional Medicare for their doctor and hospital costs, and choose a drug policy to go with this. Or, they can join a completely private plan. This would pay for hospital treatment and doctors in addition to medicines. Wealthier Medicare patients are to pay more than others for their medicines. But the poorest seniors would pay only a few dollars for each prescription. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When some Americans buy medicine, they do not go to the local drugstore. Some travel to Canada or Mexico to save money. Others use the Internet to order prescription drugs from Canadian suppliers. Canada negotiates for and buys large amounts of American-made drugs. Prices controls in Canada mean that drugs often cost much less there. Some people think this drives up American drug costs. The United States Food and Drug Administration says importing drugs is dangerous and illegal. It says this is true even if the drugs are re-imported. That is, they were made in America and then shipped for sale outside the country. VOICE TWO: But some public officials in the United States say they, too, will try to save money. Officials in Boston, Massachusetts, say they will buy drugs from Canada for seven-thousand current and retired city employees. The governor of New Hampshire says his state will use medicine from Canada for prisoners and poor people. Another state, Illinois, has appealed to the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. Illinois wants to import drugs from Canada legally. Illinois officials argue that the new Medicare law permits this if the drugs meet American safety requirements. VOICE ONE: Tom Daschle of South Dakota leads the Democratic minority in the Senate. Senator Daschle says the new Medicare law is bad legislation. He says seniors will demand many changes. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California was among Democrats who voted for the law. Senator Feinstein called it a step in the right direction. The president of A-A-R-P had stronger praise. He says it represents a victory for older citizens. What do those people think? Many would probably agree with this retired nurse from Rockville, Maryland. She says: “We will find out when the changes take effect.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report on life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Spirit Explores Mars / Going to the Moon and Mars / A Warning about Global Warming
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 20, 2004 (THEME) Artist concept of Mars exploration rover Broadcast: January 20, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week -- the news from Mars ... and a report on President Bush's plan for space exploration. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week -- the news from Mars ... and a report on President Bush's plan for space exploration. VOICE ONE: Plus a warning from scientists who study life, and its future, here on Earth. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Scientists are excited about the progress of Spirit, the American exploration vehicle on Mars. It landed January third to look for environmental conditions that could have supported life. Engineers and scientists cheered as the spacecraft sent its first pictures. Spirit landed on target in the Gusev Crater, an area fifteen degrees south of the Martin equator. Scientists chose the Gusev Crater based on evidence that it may have been an ancient lake. Hours after landing, the spacecraft began to send detailed pictures of the surrounding area. VOICE ONE: Spirit traveled four-hundred-eighty-seven-million kilometers to reach Mars. It stayed in place on its lander for more than a week. NASA officials wanted to make sure all the equipment worked before they told the rover to drive onto the surface. There was a delay. They had to turn the vehicle away from airbags that softened the landing but then blocked the desired path. Last Thursday the controllers again cheered as they declared that all six wheels of the rover were on Martian soil. Special cameras and devices to identify minerals helped engineers and scientists decide which direction to send the rover first. Spirit has a robotic arm to collect rocks and soil to study them for evidence of water in the past. VOICE TWO: Spirit was launched from Florida last June. NASA launched a second spacecraft in July, called Opportunity. Opportunity will land on Mars in a few days if all goes as planned,. The landing area chosen is called the Meridiani Planum. It is on the other side of the planet from where Spirit landed. NASA officials say the two areas are very different. Like Spirit, Opportunity weighs about one-hundred-eighty kilograms. The two rovers are expected to travel no more than forty meters each Martian day to search for evidence of water. A Martian day is about the same length as an Earth day. The exploration is supposed to continue for at least three months. VOICE ONE: On Earth, almost everywhere liquid water exists, so does life. Today Mars is cold and dry, with huge dust storms. Scientists say life cannot exist. But evidence from past landings suggest the red planet was once warmer. Experts say water could have flowed in lakes or even oceans. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: President Bush has proposed to send people to Mars. Before that, however, robotic spacecraft would go to the moon to prepare for the return of humans. People would return to the moon sometime between two-thousand-fifteen and two-thousand-twenty. They would go on a new kind of spaceship to be developed, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle. Crews would establish a moon base for scientific research. Later, that base could be used to launch explorers farther into space. Mister Bush visited NASA headquarters in Washington last week to announce the plan to explore what he called "worlds beyond our own." VOICE ONE: The first goal is to complete the International Space Station by two-thousand-ten. Fifteen other nations are also involved in the program. Mister Bush says the station is needed to study the long-term effects of radiation and weightlessness on health. He says there is much to learn before human crews can travel through space for months at a time. NASA will need its current space shuttles to complete the station. But Mister Bush says the three shuttles will be retired after that. NASA has not launched a shuttle since the Columbia broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere last February first. Seven astronauts were killed. Mister Bush said the United States will invite other nations to join his plans in what he called a spirit of cooperation and friendship. Last October, China sent its first person into orbit around Earth in a test as the Chinese develop a space program. VOICE TWO: Mister Bush says he wants Congress to add one-thousand-million dollars to the NASA budget over the next five years. In addition, NASA would move eleven-thousand-million dollars away from existing programs. The current five-year budget plan for the agency is eighty-six-thousand-million dollars. Mister Bush's father, when he was president, also proposed setting up a moon base and sending people to Mars. The older President Bush announced his plan in nineteen-eighty-nine. He did so to mark twenty years since the first moon landing. But that plan called for a much bigger budget and did not succeed. Critics call the new plan a political move in an election year. They say the money would be better spent at home. But President Bush said in his speech: "We chose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey." VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-sixties, President John F. Kennedy declared the goal to put a man on the moon. The space program began as a race with the Soviet Union. The Soviets were the first to reach space. But the United States was the first -- and so far only -- country to land people on the moon. The last of six Apollo landings took place in December of nineteen-seventy-two. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: International researchers say climate warming caused by human activity could lead to the destruction of hundreds of kinds of plants and animals in the next fifty years. Most scientists think climate change, or global warming, results from the release of carbon dioxide and other gases. Industrial production and vehicles release these gases. The gases trap heat in the atmosphere. The nineteen scientists studied more than one-thousand-one-hundred species of plants and animals in land areas around the world. They published their study in the magazine Nature. VOICE ONE: The researchers gathered information from earlier studies. These included examinations of animals that live in deserts, wetlands, cool climates and other habitats in five areas of the world. The scientists used several computer models on expected climate change. The models were divided into levels of possible severity, from moderate to extreme climate change. The researchers joined these models with maps of the different kinds of environments in which the species lived. These maps provided information about what each species needed from its environment and how climate change would affect those needs. Then they studied where those species might have to move in cases where their needs could no longer be met. The scientists found that between fifteen and thirty-seven percent of the species they studied will disappear in fifty years if climate change continues. VOICE TWO:There are more than fourteen-million known species of plants and animals on Earth. Study leader Chris D. Thomas says it would be helpful to include more in the examination. But, he also said there is no reason to think the findings would change greatly if more species were included. Mister Thomas is a scientist at the University of Leeds in Britain. Townsend Peterson of the University of Kansas in the United States was another study team member. He says there are a number of reasons people should be concerned about the threatened extinction. He says the information loss from destruction of a species is one concern. For example, a threatened plant may contain a substance that could be used to make an important medicine. But, Mister Peterson says humans should also care because each species is a part of the natural history of the planet. Other scientists criticized with the study. One scientist said it is too difficult to see into the future and predict results fifty years from now. Another scientist said the study did not recognize the ability of species to change or adapt in order to live in higher temperatures. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Avi Arditti and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Plus a warning from scientists who study life, and its future, here on Earth. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Scientists are excited about the progress of Spirit, the American exploration vehicle on Mars. It landed January third to look for environmental conditions that could have supported life. Engineers and scientists cheered as the spacecraft sent its first pictures. Spirit landed on target in the Gusev Crater, an area fifteen degrees south of the Martin equator. Scientists chose the Gusev Crater based on evidence that it may have been an ancient lake. Hours after landing, the spacecraft began to send detailed pictures of the surrounding area. VOICE ONE: Spirit traveled four-hundred-eighty-seven-million kilometers to reach Mars. It stayed in place on its lander for more than a week. NASA officials wanted to make sure all the equipment worked before they told the rover to drive onto the surface. There was a delay. They had to turn the vehicle away from airbags that softened the landing but then blocked the desired path. Last Thursday the controllers again cheered as they declared that all six wheels of the rover were on Martian soil. Special cameras and devices to identify minerals helped engineers and scientists decide which direction to send the rover first. Spirit has a robotic arm to collect rocks and soil to study them for evidence of water in the past. VOICE TWO: Spirit was launched from Florida last June. NASA launched a second spacecraft in July, called Opportunity. Opportunity will land on Mars in a few days if all goes as planned,. The landing area chosen is called the Meridiani Planum. It is on the other side of the planet from where Spirit landed. NASA officials say the two areas are very different. Like Spirit, Opportunity weighs about one-hundred-eighty kilograms. The two rovers are expected to travel no more than forty meters each Martian day to search for evidence of water. A Martian day is about the same length as an Earth day. The exploration is supposed to continue for at least three months. VOICE ONE: On Earth, almost everywhere liquid water exists, so does life. Today Mars is cold and dry, with huge dust storms. Scientists say life cannot exist. But evidence from past landings suggest the red planet was once warmer. Experts say water could have flowed in lakes or even oceans. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: President Bush has proposed to send people to Mars. Before that, however, robotic spacecraft would go to the moon to prepare for the return of humans. People would return to the moon sometime between two-thousand-fifteen and two-thousand-twenty. They would go on a new kind of spaceship to be developed, called the Crew Exploration Vehicle. Crews would establish a moon base for scientific research. Later, that base could be used to launch explorers farther into space. Mister Bush visited NASA headquarters in Washington last week to announce the plan to explore what he called "worlds beyond our own." VOICE ONE: The first goal is to complete the International Space Station by two-thousand-ten. Fifteen other nations are also involved in the program. Mister Bush says the station is needed to study the long-term effects of radiation and weightlessness on health. He says there is much to learn before human crews can travel through space for months at a time. NASA will need its current space shuttles to complete the station. But Mister Bush says the three shuttles will be retired after that. NASA has not launched a shuttle since the Columbia broke apart on re-entry into the atmosphere last February first. Seven astronauts were killed. Mister Bush said the United States will invite other nations to join his plans in what he called a spirit of cooperation and friendship. Last October, China sent its first person into orbit around Earth in a test as the Chinese develop a space program. VOICE TWO: Mister Bush says he wants Congress to add one-thousand-million dollars to the NASA budget over the next five years. In addition, NASA would move eleven-thousand-million dollars away from existing programs. The current five-year budget plan for the agency is eighty-six-thousand-million dollars. Mister Bush's father, when he was president, also proposed setting up a moon base and sending people to Mars. The older President Bush announced his plan in nineteen-eighty-nine. He did so to mark twenty years since the first moon landing. But that plan called for a much bigger budget and did not succeed. Critics call the new plan a political move in an election year. They say the money would be better spent at home. But President Bush said in his speech: "We chose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey." VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-sixties, President John F. Kennedy declared the goal to put a man on the moon. The space program began as a race with the Soviet Union. The Soviets were the first to reach space. But the United States was the first -- and so far only -- country to land people on the moon. The last of six Apollo landings took place in December of nineteen-seventy-two. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: International researchers say climate warming caused by human activity could lead to the destruction of hundreds of kinds of plants and animals in the next fifty years. Most scientists think climate change, or global warming, results from the release of carbon dioxide and other gases. Industrial production and vehicles release these gases. The gases trap heat in the atmosphere. The nineteen scientists studied more than one-thousand-one-hundred species of plants and animals in land areas around the world. They published their study in the magazine Nature. VOICE ONE: The researchers gathered information from earlier studies. These included examinations of animals that live in deserts, wetlands, cool climates and other habitats in five areas of the world. The scientists used several computer models on expected climate change. The models were divided into levels of possible severity, from moderate to extreme climate change. The researchers joined these models with maps of the different kinds of environments in which the species lived. These maps provided information about what each species needed from its environment and how climate change would affect those needs. Then they studied where those species might have to move in cases where their needs could no longer be met. The scientists found that between fifteen and thirty-seven percent of the species they studied will disappear in fifty years if climate change continues. VOICE TWO:There are more than fourteen-million known species of plants and animals on Earth. Study leader Chris D. Thomas says it would be helpful to include more in the examination. But, he also said there is no reason to think the findings would change greatly if more species were included. Mister Thomas is a scientist at the University of Leeds in Britain. Townsend Peterson of the University of Kansas in the United States was another study team member. He says there are a number of reasons people should be concerned about the threatened extinction. He says the information loss from destruction of a species is one concern. For example, a threatened plant may contain a substance that could be used to make an important medicine. But, Mister Peterson says humans should also care because each species is a part of the natural history of the planet. Other scientists criticized with the study. One scientist said it is too difficult to see into the future and predict results fifty years from now. Another scientist said the study did not recognize the ability of species to change or adapt in order to live in higher temperatures. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Avi Arditti and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - International Year of Rice
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 20, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2004 the International Year of Rice. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations discussed the importance of the declaration in January. Indonesia’s Minister of Agriculture said the UN declaration gives many nations the chance to consider food security. He said technology has an important part to play in improving rice production. Rice provides twenty percent of the world’s dietary energy — more than wheat or corn. It is a central food in the diet of a majority of the world’s population. The director-general of the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, has called rice a symbol of cultural identity and unity. But he warned that production must increase. The FAO says better farming methods could produce a bigger crop of most kinds of rice. During the 1990's, world rice production increased. But Mister Diouf warns that production will not meet the needs of growing populations by two-thousand-thirty. The economics of rice is also important. The FAO says developing governments often place price controls on rice. These governments have to balance two pressures. Prices need to stay low so people can buy this important food. But growers need prices to rise to increase their income. Price pressures hurt small farmers in developing countries the most. These farmers do not get aid that governments provide farmers in industrial countries. Exporting can ease these pressures. But only five to seven percent of the world rice crop is traded internationally. This is much lower than wheat and corn. More than eighty percent of all rice is grown on small farms and used locally. Small producers hold large shares of the world export market because of this. Thailand is the biggest exporter of rice with twenty-six percent of the market. But, China and India are by far the biggest producers of rice. Special kinds of rice may offer a way to create new export markets. Rice with qualities like good smell, unusual color or high protein levels represent specialty products. They could provide growers with higher profit crops. The UN has chosen the words, Rice is Life to represent the idea behind The International Year of Rice. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Outlaws and Lawmen of the Wild West, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 21, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 21, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we present the second of two programs about the Old American West. Experts disagree about who were the most dangerous gunmen of the Wild West. However, we will tell you about two of them. One was an outlaw. One was a lawman. (WESTERN MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There have been hundreds of movies and television programs about the wild and lawless American West. Thousands of books have been written about it. This famous time in American history only lasted about seventy years. The first recorded shooting incident by a person who was a professional gunman took place in Texas in eighteen-fifty-four. This violent period ended in about nineteen-twenty-four. Some people living in the West at this time became famous. These include men who worked as professional officers of the law, and others who were criminals. Their names were Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok and the brothers Jesse and Frank James. Books, movies and television programs have made these men more famous today than they were when they were alive. Some of the stories about them are true, but most are only stories. Here are two true stories of the Old West. Our first story begins with a very old photograph that was made in the little town of Pecos, Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Close your eyes for a few moments and imagine a very old photograph. The photograph was taken inside a saloon -- a place that served alcohol drinks. It was also where people played card games for money. The photograph clearly shows a group of men sitting in chairs around two tables. Other men are standing against the wall. It is easy to tell that it must be a cold day because several of the men are sitting near a wood stove for warmth. Most of the men are looking at the camera. Most wear boots and the large hats made famous by cowboys. One man wears a smaller, white hat. He is not looking at the camera. He is playing a card game called faro. No one is sitting near him. His left hand is on the table near the cards he will play in the game. His right hand is below the table -- not far from the gun he always carried. His face shows little emotion. VOICE ONE: This is one of the few photographs known to exist of a very dangerous man named James Miller. He was also known as “Killin’ Jim” or “Killer Miller”. History records show that he was responsible for the deaths of at least twelve people. Jim Miller often said he had killed more than fifty people. The real number of people he killed will never be known. Jim Miller killed people for money. He charged about one-hundred-fifty dollars to kill a person. He also killed anyone who caused him trouble. One man died a few days after he had spoken in court against Miller. There is no evidence to show who killed the man. However, people were sure Jim Miller was guilty of the crime. VOICE TWO: Miller was successful at what he did because there was little law enforcement in the areas of Texas and Oklahoma where he lived. And, people were afraid to say anything against Miller. They knew it would mean their lives. One law officer got into a shooting incident with Miller. The lawman shot Miller three times in the chest. Miller fell to the ground. The officer was sure he had killed the dangerous man. A few minutes later, Miller got to his feet. He had not been hurt. He was wearing a steel plate under his shirt. The bullets had hit the steel. The force of the bullets had knocked him down, but had not hurt him. Later, the law officer died from gun shot wounds. No one was sure who shot him. However most people knew Miller had killed again. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-nine, Miller made a mistake. He was paid money to kill a man in the little town of Ada, Oklahoma. He killed the man in the dark of night. Later, Miller was arrested for the crime. The citizens of Ada knew he had been arrested several times but had always been released for lack of evidence. Also, many people were afraid to speak in court against Miller. Many of the citizens of Ada thought Miller would escape justice again. On Sunday morning, April nineteenth, the citizens of Ada attacked the jail where Miller was being kept. They took him to a barn and hanged him. No one was ever arrested for the hanging of Jim Miller. Most people thought justice had been done. One man said, “He was just a killer. He was the worst man I ever knew.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Old American West had more than its share of bad people like Killin’ Jim Miller. However, other people worked hard and found good lives in the West. One of these was a man named John Horton Slaughter. He was sometimes called “Texas” John Slaughter. He was born in Louisiana in eighteen-forty-one. His family moved to Texas when he was only three months old. He grew up with little education. However, he learned to raise cattle. He learned to speak Spanish. And he learned much from the Native American Indians. He also fought against Indian raiders from the time he could ride a horse and carry a gun. He fought against both the Apache and the Comanche tribes. VOICE ONE: John Slaughter was not a very tall man. He was really very small. However, criminals became afraid just looking into his eyes. History records show that John Slaughter took part in at least eight gunfights. This does not include his time as a soldier in the Civil War or fighting against Indians. The records show that he was forced to kill at least four men and possibly two others. These recorded shooting incidents took place when he was an officer of the law. There may have been several more. People who knew John Slaughter said there was no doubt they were dealing with an extremely serious man -- a man who could be very dangerous. One friend of John Slaughter said Texas John was the meanest good man he ever met. VOICE TWO: John Slaughter worked all his life in the cattle business. He took part in some of the first movements of huge cattle herds from Texas to the railroads in the state of Kansas. He moved from Texas to New Mexico and then to Arizona. In Arizona, he bought a huge ranch to raise cattle. The ranch had more than twenty-six-thousand hectares. Part of it was in Arizona, part in Mexico. In eighteen-eighty-six, he was elected the lawman or sheriff of Douglas, Arizona, the town near his ranch. Several groups of criminals were working in the area at the time. Soon, many of these outlaws were in jail. Most refused to fight Texas John Slaughter. They surrendered instead. Those who would not immediately surrender faced Sheriff Slaughter’s guns. After two terms as the sheriff, John Slaughter helped the United States Army seek out the famous Apache warrior Geronimo. He helped start the bank in Douglas, Arizona. He later became a representative in the Territorial Government and worked to have Arizona admitted as a state. VOICE ONE: John Slaughter continued his work on his ranch. He became very wealthy. When he was not working, he was in a local hotel playing card games for large amounts of money. He would often play these games for more than twenty-four hours at a time. John Slaughter represented what was good about the American West. During his long life, Texas John Slaughter was a gunfighter, lawman, soldier, cattle rancher, Indian fighter, professional card player and a representative of the state of Arizona. He died in his sleep in February, nineteen-twenty-two, at the age of eighty-one. Viola Slaughter, his wife of forty-one years, was by his side. VOICE TWO: The wild times in the American West ended at about the time of John Slaughter’s death. It was still the American West, but men like John Slaughter made sure it was no longer wild. They helped to bring law and order to the West. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we present the second of two programs about the Old American West. Experts disagree about who were the most dangerous gunmen of the Wild West. However, we will tell you about two of them. One was an outlaw. One was a lawman. (WESTERN MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There have been hundreds of movies and television programs about the wild and lawless American West. Thousands of books have been written about it. This famous time in American history only lasted about seventy years. The first recorded shooting incident by a person who was a professional gunman took place in Texas in eighteen-fifty-four. This violent period ended in about nineteen-twenty-four. Some people living in the West at this time became famous. These include men who worked as professional officers of the law, and others who were criminals. Their names were Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok and the brothers Jesse and Frank James. Books, movies and television programs have made these men more famous today than they were when they were alive. Some of the stories about them are true, but most are only stories. Here are two true stories of the Old West. Our first story begins with a very old photograph that was made in the little town of Pecos, Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Close your eyes for a few moments and imagine a very old photograph. The photograph was taken inside a saloon -- a place that served alcohol drinks. It was also where people played card games for money. The photograph clearly shows a group of men sitting in chairs around two tables. Other men are standing against the wall. It is easy to tell that it must be a cold day because several of the men are sitting near a wood stove for warmth. Most of the men are looking at the camera. Most wear boots and the large hats made famous by cowboys. One man wears a smaller, white hat. He is not looking at the camera. He is playing a card game called faro. No one is sitting near him. His left hand is on the table near the cards he will play in the game. His right hand is below the table -- not far from the gun he always carried. His face shows little emotion. VOICE ONE: This is one of the few photographs known to exist of a very dangerous man named James Miller. He was also known as “Killin’ Jim” or “Killer Miller”. History records show that he was responsible for the deaths of at least twelve people. Jim Miller often said he had killed more than fifty people. The real number of people he killed will never be known. Jim Miller killed people for money. He charged about one-hundred-fifty dollars to kill a person. He also killed anyone who caused him trouble. One man died a few days after he had spoken in court against Miller. There is no evidence to show who killed the man. However, people were sure Jim Miller was guilty of the crime. VOICE TWO: Miller was successful at what he did because there was little law enforcement in the areas of Texas and Oklahoma where he lived. And, people were afraid to say anything against Miller. They knew it would mean their lives. One law officer got into a shooting incident with Miller. The lawman shot Miller three times in the chest. Miller fell to the ground. The officer was sure he had killed the dangerous man. A few minutes later, Miller got to his feet. He had not been hurt. He was wearing a steel plate under his shirt. The bullets had hit the steel. The force of the bullets had knocked him down, but had not hurt him. Later, the law officer died from gun shot wounds. No one was sure who shot him. However most people knew Miller had killed again. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-nine, Miller made a mistake. He was paid money to kill a man in the little town of Ada, Oklahoma. He killed the man in the dark of night. Later, Miller was arrested for the crime. The citizens of Ada knew he had been arrested several times but had always been released for lack of evidence. Also, many people were afraid to speak in court against Miller. Many of the citizens of Ada thought Miller would escape justice again. On Sunday morning, April nineteenth, the citizens of Ada attacked the jail where Miller was being kept. They took him to a barn and hanged him. No one was ever arrested for the hanging of Jim Miller. Most people thought justice had been done. One man said, “He was just a killer. He was the worst man I ever knew.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Old American West had more than its share of bad people like Killin’ Jim Miller. However, other people worked hard and found good lives in the West. One of these was a man named John Horton Slaughter. He was sometimes called “Texas” John Slaughter. He was born in Louisiana in eighteen-forty-one. His family moved to Texas when he was only three months old. He grew up with little education. However, he learned to raise cattle. He learned to speak Spanish. And he learned much from the Native American Indians. He also fought against Indian raiders from the time he could ride a horse and carry a gun. He fought against both the Apache and the Comanche tribes. VOICE ONE: John Slaughter was not a very tall man. He was really very small. However, criminals became afraid just looking into his eyes. History records show that John Slaughter took part in at least eight gunfights. This does not include his time as a soldier in the Civil War or fighting against Indians. The records show that he was forced to kill at least four men and possibly two others. These recorded shooting incidents took place when he was an officer of the law. There may have been several more. People who knew John Slaughter said there was no doubt they were dealing with an extremely serious man -- a man who could be very dangerous. One friend of John Slaughter said Texas John was the meanest good man he ever met. VOICE TWO: John Slaughter worked all his life in the cattle business. He took part in some of the first movements of huge cattle herds from Texas to the railroads in the state of Kansas. He moved from Texas to New Mexico and then to Arizona. In Arizona, he bought a huge ranch to raise cattle. The ranch had more than twenty-six-thousand hectares. Part of it was in Arizona, part in Mexico. In eighteen-eighty-six, he was elected the lawman or sheriff of Douglas, Arizona, the town near his ranch. Several groups of criminals were working in the area at the time. Soon, many of these outlaws were in jail. Most refused to fight Texas John Slaughter. They surrendered instead. Those who would not immediately surrender faced Sheriff Slaughter’s guns. After two terms as the sheriff, John Slaughter helped the United States Army seek out the famous Apache warrior Geronimo. He helped start the bank in Douglas, Arizona. He later became a representative in the Territorial Government and worked to have Arizona admitted as a state. VOICE ONE: John Slaughter continued his work on his ranch. He became very wealthy. When he was not working, he was in a local hotel playing card games for large amounts of money. He would often play these games for more than twenty-four hours at a time. John Slaughter represented what was good about the American West. During his long life, Texas John Slaughter was a gunfighter, lawman, soldier, cattle rancher, Indian fighter, professional card player and a representative of the state of Arizona. He died in his sleep in February, nineteen-twenty-two, at the age of eighty-one. Viola Slaughter, his wife of forty-one years, was by his side. VOICE TWO: The wild times in the American West ended at about the time of John Slaughter’s death. It was still the American West, but men like John Slaughter made sure it was no longer wild. They helped to bring law and order to the West. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-20-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Prion Diseases
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 21, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In December, the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease. Agriculture officials have been working to make sure other cows that came from Canada with that animal are not used as food. This is because of the possibility that people who eat infected beef can get a human form of the disease. Officials say more than one-hundred-forty people in Britain have died since an outbreak of mad cow disease in the nineteen-eighties. Ten deaths have been reported in other countries. The scientific name of the cattle disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy. A similar disease in sheep is known as scrapie. Deer and elk suffer chronic wasting disease. And minks get a disease called transmissable mink encephalopathy. In humans, there is a disease in babies called Alpers syndrome. Other similar diseases in people include fatal familial insomnia, kuru and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. The human version of mad cow disease is a form, or variant, of Creutzfeld-Jacob. All these diseases create holes in the brain. All kill. And experts say all are caused by infectious proteins. American scientist Stanley Prusiner discovered this kind of protein in the early nineteen-eighties. He named it a "prion" [PREE-on]. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Prions contain no genetic material. So they cannot copy themselves the way bacteria, viruses and other infectious agents do. Prions are found naturally in brain cells of people and animals. Research published last month in Cell magazine suggested that prions could help the brain store memories. But experts are not sure of their purpose. Prions appear to do no harm until one changes shape. Normally a prion is round like a ball. The protein becomes dangerous when it unfolds into a straight line. When it touches another prion, the second one unfolds and touches another. That one also unfolds, and so on. This process can start naturally. Or it can begin when an unfolded prion enters the brain of a person or animal that has eaten infected tissue. This is why farmers are now banned from feeding cows the remains of other cows and sheep. Researchers are trying to discover more about prions. A big question is why only some people who ate infected beef have gotten sick. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: January 21, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In December, the United States reported its first case of mad cow disease. Agriculture officials have been working to make sure other cows that came from Canada with that animal are not used as food. This is because of the possibility that people who eat infected beef can get a human form of the disease. Officials say more than one-hundred-forty people in Britain have died since an outbreak of mad cow disease in the nineteen-eighties. Ten deaths have been reported in other countries. The scientific name of the cattle disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy. A similar disease in sheep is known as scrapie. Deer and elk suffer chronic wasting disease. And minks get a disease called transmissable mink encephalopathy. In humans, there is a disease in babies called Alpers syndrome. Other similar diseases in people include fatal familial insomnia, kuru and Creutzfeld-Jacob disease. The human version of mad cow disease is a form, or variant, of Creutzfeld-Jacob. All these diseases create holes in the brain. All kill. And experts say all are caused by infectious proteins. American scientist Stanley Prusiner discovered this kind of protein in the early nineteen-eighties. He named it a "prion" [PREE-on]. He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Prions contain no genetic material. So they cannot copy themselves the way bacteria, viruses and other infectious agents do. Prions are found naturally in brain cells of people and animals. Research published last month in Cell magazine suggested that prions could help the brain store memories. But experts are not sure of their purpose. Prions appear to do no harm until one changes shape. Normally a prion is round like a ball. The protein becomes dangerous when it unfolds into a straight line. When it touches another prion, the second one unfolds and touches another. That one also unfolds, and so on. This process can start naturally. Or it can begin when an unfolded prion enters the brain of a person or animal that has eaten infected tissue. This is why farmers are now banned from feeding cows the remains of other cows and sheep. Researchers are trying to discover more about prions. A big question is why only some people who ate infected beef have gotten sick. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Philadelphia Schools Revisited
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Almost two years ago, a Pennsylvania State committee removed more than forty Philadelphia public schools from city control. The committee said it intervened because children attending the schools were learning very little. Private companies, universities and non-profit organizations began supervising these schools. The Philadelphia school district has more than two-hundred-fourteen-thousand students. Most of them are from low-income families. It is the seventh largest school system in the nation. It has more than two-hundred-seventy schools. The district includes traditional schools and restructured ones. Some district schools operate by agreement between Philadelphia and outside supervisors. The district also has special schools that have programs on a single subject such as mathematics. Philadelphia’s education chief, Paul Vallas, came to the city soon after the state intervened in the school system. Before that, Mister Vallas served as top administrator in the Chicago, Illinois public schools. He says society should place great importance on improving education for poor children. Under his leadership, the percentage of Philadelphia students performing in the lowest twenty-five percent of the nation has decreased. Test scores have improved in reading, language arts, mathematics and science. Still, about sixty-six percent of Philadelphia public school children test below the national averages in such basic studies. Mister Vallas has improved district finances. He cut a number of non-teaching positions. He renegotiated agreements with providers of school supplies. These actions provided money to hire new teachers and repair some school buildings. But the Philadelphia school district is far from rich. It has had to borrow money to operate on its budget of about one-point-eight-thousand-million dollars. A recent report criticized Pennsylvania for its financing of education. The report was written by the publication Education Week and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The report said the state spends a large amount on education. But it blames Pennsylvania for depending mainly on local property taxes to operate school districts. It says poor school areas cannot raise as much tax money for education as rich areas. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: January 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Almost two years ago, a Pennsylvania State committee removed more than forty Philadelphia public schools from city control. The committee said it intervened because children attending the schools were learning very little. Private companies, universities and non-profit organizations began supervising these schools. The Philadelphia school district has more than two-hundred-fourteen-thousand students. Most of them are from low-income families. It is the seventh largest school system in the nation. It has more than two-hundred-seventy schools. The district includes traditional schools and restructured ones. Some district schools operate by agreement between Philadelphia and outside supervisors. The district also has special schools that have programs on a single subject such as mathematics. Philadelphia’s education chief, Paul Vallas, came to the city soon after the state intervened in the school system. Before that, Mister Vallas served as top administrator in the Chicago, Illinois public schools. He says society should place great importance on improving education for poor children. Under his leadership, the percentage of Philadelphia students performing in the lowest twenty-five percent of the nation has decreased. Test scores have improved in reading, language arts, mathematics and science. Still, about sixty-six percent of Philadelphia public school children test below the national averages in such basic studies. Mister Vallas has improved district finances. He cut a number of non-teaching positions. He renegotiated agreements with providers of school supplies. These actions provided money to hire new teachers and repair some school buildings. But the Philadelphia school district is far from rich. It has had to borrow money to operate on its budget of about one-point-eight-thousand-million dollars. A recent report criticized Pennsylvania for its financing of education. The report was written by the publication Education Week and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The report said the state spends a large amount on education. But it blames Pennsylvania for depending mainly on local property taxes to operate school districts. It says poor school areas cannot raise as much tax money for education as rich areas. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Madison, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 22, 2004 The Saratoga.(Image: www.ina.tamu.edu) Broadcast: January 22, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) The United States and Britain were moving closer to war in the spring of Eighteen-Twelve. Congress had approved a ninety-day embargo on American ships. None of these ships was to leave home. And American ships in foreign ports and at sea were ordered to return to the United States. President Madison requested the embargo to prevent the capture of these ships when war started. The president was sure there would be war. He had seen the instructions from London to British minister Augustus Foster. The British foreign minister warned Foster to say nothing about any compromise. He wanted the United States to see how firmly Britain would continue its orders against neutral trade with the enemies of Britain. VOICE TWO: President Madison had hoped for some sign of compromise. But there was none. Congress continued to prepare the nation for war. Lawmakers voted to increase the size of the army and to borrow money to pay for things the larger army would need. But not all members of Congress wanted war with Britain. Many Federalists, especially, opposed it. Some of them tried to end the embargo only a month after it began. Congressman Hermanus Bleecker showed the House a list of hundreds of names from his area of New York. He said all these people opposed the embargo and the idea of war with Britain. "It is impossible," he said, "that we can go to war when the embargo ends, sixty days from now. Where are our armies? Our navy? Have we the money to fight a war? Why, it would be treason to go to war this soon...so poorly prepared." VOICE ONE: Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin was having a difficult time finding money to borrow. He could get almost no money at all from Federalist New England banks. Congress had approved borrowing eleven-million dollars. But Gallatin found the banks would lend only six-million to the United States government. The Federalists charged that Gallatin's difficulties showed the people did not want war, especially the people of New England. If the people of the West and the South wanted to fight, then let them pay for the war. Republican John Randolph also spoke against the war. "How could the administration speak of war when it did not even have the courage to order taxes to raise money? Are we to go to war without money, without men, without a navy? The people will not believe it." John C. Calhoun answered Randolph. "So far from being unprepared, Sir, I believe that four weeks from the time war is declared, we will have captured much of British Canada." VOICE TWO: Sure that Britain would not change its hostile policies, President Madison sent a secret message to Congress on June First, proposing that war be declared. Madison listed the reasons for war: British warships had violated the American flag at sea. The British navy had seized and carried off persons protected by this flag. British warships also violated United States waters, interfering with American ships as they entered and left port. Another reason, he said, was Britain's orders against trade with France or allies of France. International law, he said, gave Britain no right to make such orders. Madison also spoke of the hostile Indians of the northwest territory, and seemed to charge British Canada with helping the Indians. VOICE ONE: The president's message was sent to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House for discussion. The committee's report was made two days later by chairman John C. Calhoun. He proposed that the House declare war. The House, meeting in secret, heard the report. Federalist Josiah Quincy proposed that the debate should be made public. This proposal was defeated. The final vote on declaring war was seventy-nine "for" and forty-nine "against". In the Senate, the vote was even closer: nineteen "for" and thirteen "against". President Madison signed the bill on June Eighteenth. The War of 1812 had begun. VOICE TWO: The leaders in Washington did not know it, but Britain -- two days earlier -- had ended its orders against neutral American trade. The orders might have been withdrawn earlier, except for a number of events. British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, under great political pressure, had decided to end the British orders on neutral trade. Businessmen and traders were loudly protesting that the orders were destroying England's economy. On May Eleventh, before Perceval could act, he was shot to death. Not until June Eighth was agreement reached on a new prime minister, Lord Liverpool. Eight days later, his government announced that the orders were ended immediately. This was only two days before war was to be declared in Washington. And, with ships the only method of communication, the British action was not learned of in time. VOICE ONE: If the United States had had a minister in London during the spring of Eighteen-Twelve, he would have been able to report progress toward ending the orders. But the American minister, William Pinkney, had returned home a year earlier. On the day that war was declared, the United States was far from ready to fight. There were only about eight-thousand American soldiers. And most of them were serving in the West. The United States had only a few warships and gunboats with which to face the British navy -- the most powerful naval force in the world. Worst of all was the division among the people of the United States about the war. It was strongly opposed in the Northeast. Church bells were rung and flags lowered in New England when the declaration of war was announced. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut refused to let their state soldiers follow the orders of the national government. VOICE TWO: The United States could not have lasted long against the military power of Britain had it not been for the war in Europe. Most of Britain's forces were battling the soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte. Britain could send only small forces to fight the Americans. The United States tried to increase the size of its army. But the United States had not fought a war, or needed an army, for a long time. The officers who led troops in the Revolutionary War were old men, and tired. The young men had never fought and knew little about the ways of war. Two top generals were named by President Madison: sixty-two-year-old Henry Dearborn, and Thomas Pinckney, sixty-three. Most of the other generals were almost as old. There also was the problem of getting enough men to serve as soldiers. Congress had approved an increase of twenty-five-thousand men. Only five-thousand agreed to serve. Members of Congress from the western states had spoken proudly of how their people would rush to fight the British. This did not happen. The first request to Kentucky for soldiers produced only four-hundred men. VOICE ONE: The United States decided the first attacks should be made against Canada. There were only about twenty-five-hundred British soldiers guarding the border between the United States and Canada. Four campaigns were planned. The first of these was led by an old Revolutionary War soldier, General William Hull. General Hull and his two-thousand men were ordered to march from southern Ohio to the city of Detroit, in the Michigan territory. They had completed the three-hundred-kilometer march before war was declared. Hull was given immediate orders to invade Canada. The old general crossed the border and attacked the British at Malden. But the British general there was prepared, and the attack failed. Hull retreated back to Detroit. He was chased by a smaller force of British soldiers and Indians. Although Hull had the stronger force and plenty of supplies, he surrendered Detroit to the British. After the war, Hull was tried by a military court on charges of cowardice. The court found him guilty and ordered him shot. The president, because of Hull's service during the Revolutionary War, permitted the old soldier to live. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) The United States and Britain were moving closer to war in the spring of Eighteen-Twelve. Congress had approved a ninety-day embargo on American ships. None of these ships was to leave home. And American ships in foreign ports and at sea were ordered to return to the United States. President Madison requested the embargo to prevent the capture of these ships when war started. The president was sure there would be war. He had seen the instructions from London to British minister Augustus Foster. The British foreign minister warned Foster to say nothing about any compromise. He wanted the United States to see how firmly Britain would continue its orders against neutral trade with the enemies of Britain. VOICE TWO: President Madison had hoped for some sign of compromise. But there was none. Congress continued to prepare the nation for war. Lawmakers voted to increase the size of the army and to borrow money to pay for things the larger army would need. But not all members of Congress wanted war with Britain. Many Federalists, especially, opposed it. Some of them tried to end the embargo only a month after it began. Congressman Hermanus Bleecker showed the House a list of hundreds of names from his area of New York. He said all these people opposed the embargo and the idea of war with Britain. "It is impossible," he said, "that we can go to war when the embargo ends, sixty days from now. Where are our armies? Our navy? Have we the money to fight a war? Why, it would be treason to go to war this soon...so poorly prepared." VOICE ONE: Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin was having a difficult time finding money to borrow. He could get almost no money at all from Federalist New England banks. Congress had approved borrowing eleven-million dollars. But Gallatin found the banks would lend only six-million to the United States government. The Federalists charged that Gallatin's difficulties showed the people did not want war, especially the people of New England. If the people of the West and the South wanted to fight, then let them pay for the war. Republican John Randolph also spoke against the war. "How could the administration speak of war when it did not even have the courage to order taxes to raise money? Are we to go to war without money, without men, without a navy? The people will not believe it." John C. Calhoun answered Randolph. "So far from being unprepared, Sir, I believe that four weeks from the time war is declared, we will have captured much of British Canada." VOICE TWO: Sure that Britain would not change its hostile policies, President Madison sent a secret message to Congress on June First, proposing that war be declared. Madison listed the reasons for war: British warships had violated the American flag at sea. The British navy had seized and carried off persons protected by this flag. British warships also violated United States waters, interfering with American ships as they entered and left port. Another reason, he said, was Britain's orders against trade with France or allies of France. International law, he said, gave Britain no right to make such orders. Madison also spoke of the hostile Indians of the northwest territory, and seemed to charge British Canada with helping the Indians. VOICE ONE: The president's message was sent to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House for discussion. The committee's report was made two days later by chairman John C. Calhoun. He proposed that the House declare war. The House, meeting in secret, heard the report. Federalist Josiah Quincy proposed that the debate should be made public. This proposal was defeated. The final vote on declaring war was seventy-nine "for" and forty-nine "against". In the Senate, the vote was even closer: nineteen "for" and thirteen "against". President Madison signed the bill on June Eighteenth. The War of 1812 had begun. VOICE TWO: The leaders in Washington did not know it, but Britain -- two days earlier -- had ended its orders against neutral American trade. The orders might have been withdrawn earlier, except for a number of events. British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, under great political pressure, had decided to end the British orders on neutral trade. Businessmen and traders were loudly protesting that the orders were destroying England's economy. On May Eleventh, before Perceval could act, he was shot to death. Not until June Eighth was agreement reached on a new prime minister, Lord Liverpool. Eight days later, his government announced that the orders were ended immediately. This was only two days before war was to be declared in Washington. And, with ships the only method of communication, the British action was not learned of in time. VOICE ONE: If the United States had had a minister in London during the spring of Eighteen-Twelve, he would have been able to report progress toward ending the orders. But the American minister, William Pinkney, had returned home a year earlier. On the day that war was declared, the United States was far from ready to fight. There were only about eight-thousand American soldiers. And most of them were serving in the West. The United States had only a few warships and gunboats with which to face the British navy -- the most powerful naval force in the world. Worst of all was the division among the people of the United States about the war. It was strongly opposed in the Northeast. Church bells were rung and flags lowered in New England when the declaration of war was announced. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut refused to let their state soldiers follow the orders of the national government. VOICE TWO: The United States could not have lasted long against the military power of Britain had it not been for the war in Europe. Most of Britain's forces were battling the soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte. Britain could send only small forces to fight the Americans. The United States tried to increase the size of its army. But the United States had not fought a war, or needed an army, for a long time. The officers who led troops in the Revolutionary War were old men, and tired. The young men had never fought and knew little about the ways of war. Two top generals were named by President Madison: sixty-two-year-old Henry Dearborn, and Thomas Pinckney, sixty-three. Most of the other generals were almost as old. There also was the problem of getting enough men to serve as soldiers. Congress had approved an increase of twenty-five-thousand men. Only five-thousand agreed to serve. Members of Congress from the western states had spoken proudly of how their people would rush to fight the British. This did not happen. The first request to Kentucky for soldiers produced only four-hundred men. VOICE ONE: The United States decided the first attacks should be made against Canada. There were only about twenty-five-hundred British soldiers guarding the border between the United States and Canada. Four campaigns were planned. The first of these was led by an old Revolutionary War soldier, General William Hull. General Hull and his two-thousand men were ordered to march from southern Ohio to the city of Detroit, in the Michigan territory. They had completed the three-hundred-kilometer march before war was declared. Hull was given immediate orders to invade Canada. The old general crossed the border and attacked the British at Malden. But the British general there was prepared, and the attack failed. Hull retreated back to Detroit. He was chased by a smaller force of British soldiers and Indians. Although Hull had the stronger force and plenty of supplies, he surrendered Detroit to the British. After the war, Hull was tried by a military court on charges of cowardice. The court found him guilty and ordered him shot. The president, because of Hull's service during the Revolutionary War, permitted the old soldier to live. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: VOA's Online Pronunciation Guide / A Question About NASA / Rosemary Clooney's Grammy-Nominated Album, 'Last Concert'
* Byline: Written by George Grow

 HOST: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about the American space agency. And we continue our series about music nominated this year for a Grammy Award. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about the American space agency. And we continue our series about music nominated this year for a Grammy Award. But first, some help for anyone who has trouble with names. Names in the news, that is. VOA Pronunciation Guide HOST: Every second of the day, someone somewhere in the world is using the Web site for the VOA Pronunciation Guide. In fact, it is one of the most visited places on the Internet. Here's more from Shep O’Neal. ANNCR: The Pronunciation Guide began as a tool for VOA announcers. It lists more than four-thousand-five-hundred names. There are names of political leaders, scientists and other people who appear in the news. There are also names of places and organizations. The site shows the correct way to say the name and plays a recording. Jim Tedder is the VOA announcer who developed the online Pronunciation Guide. Yes, the same Jim Tedder who reads Special English! When a new name appears in the news, Jim quickly tries to find the correct pronunciation, so he can add the name to the list. He finds a lot of help right here inside the building. VOA broadcasts in more than fifty languages. So if, for example, someone new from China is in the news, Jim calls the China service. Sometimes, other broadcasters may not be sure how to say the name. Jim may try to call the person directly, if possible. Or he calls an embassy here in Washington. Or a delegation in New York at the United Nations. The Pronunciation Guide is an important tool for VOA announcers. But it has also become extremely popular with other radio and television stations throughout the world. Students and teachers also use the guide. So do businesspeople. It has become popular with anyone who needs to learn how to say a name correctly. So how can you find the VOA Pronunciation Guide? One way is to go to the Special English Web site and click on the link. The address is voaspecialenglish-dot-com. NASA HOST: Our question this week comes by e-mail from China. A listener who asks that we not use his name wants to know more about NASA. NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It has many jobs involving flight. But it is best known as the agency that plans and supervises the exploration of space by the United States government. Thousands of scientists, engineers and others work for NASA at ten major centers across the country. NASA began in nineteen-fifty-eight. Its first big program was Project Mercury. That was an effort to learn if humans could survive in space. Next came Gemini, which used spacecraft only big enough for two astronauts. Later, Project Apollo aimed to explore the moon. The flight of Apollo Eleven put the first humans on the moon in nineteen-sixty-nine. Since the nineteen-eighties, NASA has flown space shuttles. Astronauts from the United States and other countries have used these to do research and to build the International Space Station. Last February first, Space Shuttle Columbia broke up as it returned to Earth. Seven astronauts were killed. NASA immediately suspended shuttle flights until scientists could discover the cause of the accident. A special committee said the main cause involved a piece of heat-resistant foam. This material broke away from the support structure that connects the shuttle to its launch rocket. The object hit the edge of the left shuttle wing with strong force and created a hole. Images of the launch showed the strike. But NASA engineers decided that the crew was not in danger. The investigating committee found problems in the way NASA dealt with the situation. Problems with supervision were also found after the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch in nineteen-eighty-six. This past September, NASA released a plan that included suggestions made by the committee. NASA’s top official said the agency would work to return the remaining three shuttles to flight as soon as possible. But last week, President Bush proposed to complete the space station in two-thousand-ten and then retire the shuttles. He proposed a new spacecraft to fly to the moon between two-thousand-fifteen and two-thousand-twenty. Mister Bush called for establishing a base there to help astronauts reach Mars and beyond. Rosemary Clooney's "Last Concert" HOST: The Grammy Awards in music will be given out next month in Los Angeles. One of the nominees this year was nominated for an album recorded before her death. The singer is Rosemary Clooney. The album is “The Last Concert.” Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Rosemary Clooney died in June of two-thousand-two at the age of seventy-four. She recorded the Grammy-nominated album in November of two-thousand-one at a concert in Hawaii. One of the songs she sang was “You Go to My Head.” (MUSIC) Rosemary Clooney talked to her audience that night about other famous singers she had worked with over the years; singers like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. She remembered them in this song, called “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” (MUSIC) Rosemary Clooney worked in the music business for more than fifty years. In two-thousand-two she received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement. Yet she never won a Grammy for her music. The producers of her last album hope that will change at the awards ceremony on February eighth. We leave you with another song from “Last Concert.” This one describes her feelings about doing the performance and returning to Hawaii. Here is “Sentimental Journey,” sung by Rosemary Clooney. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Today’s program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. The engineer was Andreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. But first, some help for anyone who has trouble with names. Names in the news, that is. VOA Pronunciation Guide HOST: Every second of the day, someone somewhere in the world is using the Web site for the VOA Pronunciation Guide. In fact, it is one of the most visited places on the Internet. Here's more from Shep O’Neal. ANNCR: The Pronunciation Guide began as a tool for VOA announcers. It lists more than four-thousand-five-hundred names. There are names of political leaders, scientists and other people who appear in the news. There are also names of places and organizations. The site shows the correct way to say the name and plays a recording. Jim Tedder is the VOA announcer who developed the online Pronunciation Guide. Yes, the same Jim Tedder who reads Special English! When a new name appears in the news, Jim quickly tries to find the correct pronunciation, so he can add the name to the list. He finds a lot of help right here inside the building. VOA broadcasts in more than fifty languages. So if, for example, someone new from China is in the news, Jim calls the China service. Sometimes, other broadcasters may not be sure how to say the name. Jim may try to call the person directly, if possible. Or he calls an embassy here in Washington. Or a delegation in New York at the United Nations. The Pronunciation Guide is an important tool for VOA announcers. But it has also become extremely popular with other radio and television stations throughout the world. Students and teachers also use the guide. So do businesspeople. It has become popular with anyone who needs to learn how to say a name correctly. So how can you find the VOA Pronunciation Guide? One way is to go to the Special English Web site and click on the link. The address is voaspecialenglish-dot-com. NASA HOST: Our question this week comes by e-mail from China. A listener who asks that we not use his name wants to know more about NASA. NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It has many jobs involving flight. But it is best known as the agency that plans and supervises the exploration of space by the United States government. Thousands of scientists, engineers and others work for NASA at ten major centers across the country. NASA began in nineteen-fifty-eight. Its first big program was Project Mercury. That was an effort to learn if humans could survive in space. Next came Gemini, which used spacecraft only big enough for two astronauts. Later, Project Apollo aimed to explore the moon. The flight of Apollo Eleven put the first humans on the moon in nineteen-sixty-nine. Since the nineteen-eighties, NASA has flown space shuttles. Astronauts from the United States and other countries have used these to do research and to build the International Space Station. Last February first, Space Shuttle Columbia broke up as it returned to Earth. Seven astronauts were killed. NASA immediately suspended shuttle flights until scientists could discover the cause of the accident. A special committee said the main cause involved a piece of heat-resistant foam. This material broke away from the support structure that connects the shuttle to its launch rocket. The object hit the edge of the left shuttle wing with strong force and created a hole. Images of the launch showed the strike. But NASA engineers decided that the crew was not in danger. The investigating committee found problems in the way NASA dealt with the situation. Problems with supervision were also found after the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch in nineteen-eighty-six. This past September, NASA released a plan that included suggestions made by the committee. NASA’s top official said the agency would work to return the remaining three shuttles to flight as soon as possible. But last week, President Bush proposed to complete the space station in two-thousand-ten and then retire the shuttles. He proposed a new spacecraft to fly to the moon between two-thousand-fifteen and two-thousand-twenty. Mister Bush called for establishing a base there to help astronauts reach Mars and beyond. Rosemary Clooney's "Last Concert" HOST: The Grammy Awards in music will be given out next month in Los Angeles. One of the nominees this year was nominated for an album recorded before her death. The singer is Rosemary Clooney. The album is “The Last Concert.” Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Rosemary Clooney died in June of two-thousand-two at the age of seventy-four. She recorded the Grammy-nominated album in November of two-thousand-one at a concert in Hawaii. One of the songs she sang was “You Go to My Head.” (MUSIC) Rosemary Clooney talked to her audience that night about other famous singers she had worked with over the years; singers like Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. She remembered them in this song, called “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” (MUSIC) Rosemary Clooney worked in the music business for more than fifty years. In two-thousand-two she received a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement. Yet she never won a Grammy for her music. The producers of her last album hope that will change at the awards ceremony on February eighth. We leave you with another song from “Last Concert.” This one describes her feelings about doing the performance and returning to Hawaii. Here is “Sentimental Journey,” sung by Rosemary Clooney. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Today’s program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. The engineer was Andreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Parmalat's Problems
* Byline: 

 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In December, the Italian food company Parmalat admitted that almost five-thousand-million dollars the company said it had in a bank did not exist. The value of the company’s debt investments, called bonds, fell by about seventy-five percent. Within one week, the company sought protection from its creditors. The company had failed and was bankrupt. Company Chairman Calisto Tanzi was arrested in December. So far, eleven people have been arrested and at least twenty-five people are under investigation. Mister Tanzi has admitted to taking at least six-hundred-million dollars from Parmalat. Investigators are now looking for at least seven-thousand-million dollars that the company claimed it had. Parmalat’s creditors appointed Enrico Bondi as administrator of the company while it is in bankruptcy. The Italian Parliament has given Mister Bondi wide powers to administer the company. The Financial Times newspaper says Mister Bondi can cancel deals made by Parmalat up to two year ago. A lawyer for a group of Parmalat’s creditors said some of the missing money may have been placed in a Bank of America office in New York City. Carlo Zauli says private investigators have linked the money at the bank to Mister Tanzi. But the Bank of America says it has investigated and found no record of so much money. Fausto Tonna, a financial director and advisor at the company has also been arrested. So has his wife. One of Parmalat’s financial officials, Gianfranco Bocchi, has admitted to creating false documents. One claimed that a Parmalat company, called Bonlat Financing, had five-thousand-million dollars. The company was in the Cayman Islands. Bonlat is similar to other companies created by Parmalat in the Netherlands. These companies exist only on paper. They do not sell anything. They serve to create the appearance of business activity. Yet, these companies permitted Parmalat to raise huge amounts of money. Parmalat sold bonds thirty five times between nineteen-ninety-five and two-thousand-three. These sales also created a huge amount of debt. Parmalat is based in Parma, Italy. It has more than thirty-six-thousand employees and one-hundred-thirty-nine production centers all over the world. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: State of the Union
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 This Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush gave his yearly State of the Union message Tuesday. He spoke to a joint meeting of Congress. Mister Bush’s State of the Union speech marked his third such message. The Constitution requires the president to report to Congress “from time to time.” It also says the president should suggest measures necessary for the nation. President Bush reported to the nation about Iraq, tax reductions and other issues. Mister Bush spoke more about his policies than about proposed new legislation. But he suggested a number of actions by Congress. For example, he called for extending the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed the act after Islamic extremists attacked the United States in two-thousand-one. The act increases the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Critics say parts of the act violate Constitutional guarantees of privacy and fair treatment under the law. The president praised the recent capture of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Mister Bush also strongly defended the invasion of Iraq. He said that Saddam’s program for weapons of mass destruction would still be active if the United States had not acted. Such weapons have not been found in Iraq. But Mister Bush said enough proof existed of activities related to the weapons to launch an invasion. The president also answered critics who say other nations should be more involved in Iraq. He listed nations that have taken part in the effort. President Bush praised his tax cuts for Americans. He urged Congress to make the tax reductions permanent. He also praised the Medicare health care law for older citizens. He said the new law will help forty-million old people buy medicines ordered for them by their doctors. Mister Bush criticized American courts for actions supporting marriage between people of the same sex. He appeared to be supporting a Constitutional amendment to ban such marriages. Democratic Party leaders in Congress presented their party’s official reaction to Mister Bush’s speech. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said three-million private industry jobs were lost during Mister Bush’s presidency. She also criticized the cost of the war in Iraq, both in dollars and human lives. Hours after his State of the Union speech, the president left Washington to visit three states important to his re-election. Mister Bush is the Republican Party candidate for president in November. He is seeking a second four-year term in the White House. Seven Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination for president. On Monday, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry won the Iowa Caucuses. The caucuses are the first in a series of nominating events in American states. These nominating meetings and primary elections will choose the Democratic Party’s candidate for president. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. This Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush gave his yearly State of the Union message Tuesday. He spoke to a joint meeting of Congress. Mister Bush’s State of the Union speech marked his third such message. The Constitution requires the president to report to Congress “from time to time.” It also says the president should suggest measures necessary for the nation. President Bush reported to the nation about Iraq, tax reductions and other issues. Mister Bush spoke more about his policies than about proposed new legislation. But he suggested a number of actions by Congress. For example, he called for extending the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed the act after Islamic extremists attacked the United States in two-thousand-one. The act increases the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Critics say parts of the act violate Constitutional guarantees of privacy and fair treatment under the law. The president praised the recent capture of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Mister Bush also strongly defended the invasion of Iraq. He said that Saddam’s program for weapons of mass destruction would still be active if the United States had not acted. Such weapons have not been found in Iraq. But Mister Bush said enough proof existed of activities related to the weapons to launch an invasion. The president also answered critics who say other nations should be more involved in Iraq. He listed nations that have taken part in the effort. President Bush praised his tax cuts for Americans. He urged Congress to make the tax reductions permanent. He also praised the Medicare health care law for older citizens. He said the new law will help forty-million old people buy medicines ordered for them by their doctors. Mister Bush criticized American courts for actions supporting marriage between people of the same sex. He appeared to be supporting a Constitutional amendment to ban such marriages. Democratic Party leaders in Congress presented their party’s official reaction to Mister Bush’s speech. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said three-million private industry jobs were lost during Mister Bush’s presidency. She also criticized the cost of the war in Iraq, both in dollars and human lives. Hours after his State of the Union speech, the president left Washington to visit three states important to his re-election. Mister Bush is the Republican Party candidate for president in November. He is seeking a second four-year term in the White House. Seven Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination for president. On Monday, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry won the Iowa Caucuses. The caucuses are the first in a series of nominating events in American states. These nominating meetings and primary elections will choose the Democratic Party’s candidate for president. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-23-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Special English Archives
* Byline: 

 Click on a link below to find the script and audio of a Special English program. We publish all features except American Stories and Words and Their Stories; these scripts are restricted for copyright reasons. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-23-5-1.cfm
* Headline: January 22, 2004 - Lida Baker: Phrasal Verbs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: January 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. RS: They're all around us, especially in spoken English. The first word is a verb. The second word, sometimes even a third, is usually a preposition. AA: Phrasal verbs, also known as two-word verbs, have a reputation for being tough for English learners. So what does Lida Baker think? LB: "I think that is a myth." RS: "Really." LB: "Phrasal verbs are not hard to learn, as long as you learn them in a context. I think what has given phrasal verbs a reputation for being difficult is the way they are traditionally taught, which is that students are given long lists of verbs -- you know, for instance every phrasal verb connected with the word 'go.' So 'go on,' 'go up,' 'go out,' 'go in,' 'go away,' 'go through,' OK? That's a very tedious way of learning anything." RS: "Well, give us some of your strategies." LB: "All right. Well, one thing we should keep in mind about phrasal verbs is that they are used a lot more in conversational English than they are in formal English. So you are going to find a lot of phrasal verbs in conversational settings such as ... " RS: "Come on (laughter)." LB: " ... television programs, radio interviews, and pop music is a wonderful, wonderful source for phrasal verbs. I think the best way to learn, or one of the best ways of learning phrasal verbs is to learn them in everyday contexts. One good one is people's daily routine. We 'get up' in the morning, we 'wake up,' we 'put on' our clothes in the morning, we 'take off' our clothes at the end of the day, we 'turn on' the coffee maker or the television set, and of course we 'turn it off' also. After we eat we 'clean up.' If we're concerned about our health and our weight, we go to the gym and we ... " RS: "Work out." LB: "There you go. You see, so as far as our daily routine is concerned, there are lots and lots of phrasal verbs. Another wonderful context for phrasal verbs is traveling. What does an airplane do?" AA: "It 'takes off.'" LB: "It 'takes off,' that's right. And lots of phrasal verbs connected with hotels. So when we get to the hotel we 'check in,' and you can save a lot of money if you ... " RS: "Stay -- " LB: "'Stay over,' right." AA: "And you just have to make sure you don't get 'ripped off.'" LB: "That's right! I'm glad that you mentioned 'ripped off,' because a lot of phrasal verbs are slang, such as ripped off. And most of them do have sort of a formal English equivalent. So to get ripped off means to be treated unfairly ... " AA: "To be cheated." LB: "To be cheated, yeah. And there are lot of other two-word or phrasal verbs that you might find, for instance, in rap music. For example, to 'get down' means to, uh -- what does it mean?" RS: "It means to party, doesn't it?" LB: "To go to parties." AA: "Have a good time." LB: "Right. Another wonderful context is dating and romance. For example, when a relationship ends two people 'break up.' But when they decide that they've made a mistake and they really are in love and want to be together, they 'call each other up' ... " RS: "And they 'make up.'" LB: "And they make up. Now, if your boyfriend 'breaks up' with you and it's really, really over, then it might take you a few months to 'get over it.' But, you know, sooner or later you're going to find someone else ... " AA: "To 'hook up' with -- " LB: "To hook up with." AA: " -- to use a current idiom." LB: "Right. Or you might meet someone nice at work to 'go out with.'" RS: "So what would you recommend for a teacher to do, to build these contexts, so that the students can learn from them?" LB: "I think the best thing for a teacher to do, or for a person learning alone, is to learn the idioms in context. And there are vocabulary books and idiom books that will cluster the phrasal verbs for the student. There are also so many wonderful Web sites. I mean, if you go to a search engine and you just type in 'ESL + phrasal verbs,' you're going to run across -- and there's another one, 'run across' -- you're going to find lots of Web sites that present phrasal verbs in these contexts that I've been talking about. And also grammar sites which explain the grammar of phrasal verbs, which I haven't gotten into because we just don't have the time to discuss it here. But in doing my research for this segment I found lots of Web sites that do a really great job of explaining the grammar of phrasal verbs." AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: You'll find all her previous segments on our Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: January 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker joins us from Los Angeles to talk about phrasal verbs. RS: They're all around us, especially in spoken English. The first word is a verb. The second word, sometimes even a third, is usually a preposition. AA: Phrasal verbs, also known as two-word verbs, have a reputation for being tough for English learners. So what does Lida Baker think? LB: "I think that is a myth." RS: "Really." LB: "Phrasal verbs are not hard to learn, as long as you learn them in a context. I think what has given phrasal verbs a reputation for being difficult is the way they are traditionally taught, which is that students are given long lists of verbs -- you know, for instance every phrasal verb connected with the word 'go.' So 'go on,' 'go up,' 'go out,' 'go in,' 'go away,' 'go through,' OK? That's a very tedious way of learning anything." RS: "Well, give us some of your strategies." LB: "All right. Well, one thing we should keep in mind about phrasal verbs is that they are used a lot more in conversational English than they are in formal English. So you are going to find a lot of phrasal verbs in conversational settings such as ... " RS: "Come on (laughter)." LB: " ... television programs, radio interviews, and pop music is a wonderful, wonderful source for phrasal verbs. I think the best way to learn, or one of the best ways of learning phrasal verbs is to learn them in everyday contexts. One good one is people's daily routine. We 'get up' in the morning, we 'wake up,' we 'put on' our clothes in the morning, we 'take off' our clothes at the end of the day, we 'turn on' the coffee maker or the television set, and of course we 'turn it off' also. After we eat we 'clean up.' If we're concerned about our health and our weight, we go to the gym and we ... " RS: "Work out." LB: "There you go. You see, so as far as our daily routine is concerned, there are lots and lots of phrasal verbs. Another wonderful context for phrasal verbs is traveling. What does an airplane do?" AA: "It 'takes off.'" LB: "It 'takes off,' that's right. And lots of phrasal verbs connected with hotels. So when we get to the hotel we 'check in,' and you can save a lot of money if you ... " RS: "Stay -- " LB: "'Stay over,' right." AA: "And you just have to make sure you don't get 'ripped off.'" LB: "That's right! I'm glad that you mentioned 'ripped off,' because a lot of phrasal verbs are slang, such as ripped off. And most of them do have sort of a formal English equivalent. So to get ripped off means to be treated unfairly ... " AA: "To be cheated." LB: "To be cheated, yeah. And there are lot of other two-word or phrasal verbs that you might find, for instance, in rap music. For example, to 'get down' means to, uh -- what does it mean?" RS: "It means to party, doesn't it?" LB: "To go to parties." AA: "Have a good time." LB: "Right. Another wonderful context is dating and romance. For example, when a relationship ends two people 'break up.' But when they decide that they've made a mistake and they really are in love and want to be together, they 'call each other up' ... " RS: "And they 'make up.'" LB: "And they make up. Now, if your boyfriend 'breaks up' with you and it's really, really over, then it might take you a few months to 'get over it.' But, you know, sooner or later you're going to find someone else ... " AA: "To 'hook up' with -- " LB: "To hook up with." AA: " -- to use a current idiom." LB: "Right. Or you might meet someone nice at work to 'go out with.'" RS: "So what would you recommend for a teacher to do, to build these contexts, so that the students can learn from them?" LB: "I think the best thing for a teacher to do, or for a person learning alone, is to learn the idioms in context. And there are vocabulary books and idiom books that will cluster the phrasal verbs for the student. There are also so many wonderful Web sites. I mean, if you go to a search engine and you just type in 'ESL + phrasal verbs,' you're going to run across -- and there's another one, 'run across' -- you're going to find lots of Web sites that present phrasal verbs in these contexts that I've been talking about. And also grammar sites which explain the grammar of phrasal verbs, which I haven't gotten into because we just don't have the time to discuss it here. But in doing my research for this segment I found lots of Web sites that do a really great job of explaining the grammar of phrasal verbs." AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: You'll find all her previous segments on our Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Effort to End Polio by 2005 Continues
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Ending polio before the end of this year remains a goal of six countries where the disease is still present. New cases are mostly in Nigeria, India and Pakistan, but also in Afghanistan, Egypt and Niger. Health ministers of these six nations held an emergency meeting this month with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. They presented a new plan to vaccinate two-hundred-fifty million children. The campaign to end polio began in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, about three-hundred-fifty-thousand cases were reported each year. New cases were down to fewer than six-hundred-eighty last year. Three-hundred of those people were in Nigeria. There have been problems with vaccination campaigns in northern Nigeria. Last year, Muslim clergy in the state of Kano refused to let children get the vaccine. They said the medicine caused AIDS, cancer and a loss of reproductive ability in females. The W-H-O denied these claims. Nigerian doctors said their own tests showed that the vaccine is safe. But, because of the situation in the north, polio was able to spread to Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo. These countries had been free of the virus. Polio spreads quickly through contact with human waste. The virus enters the body through the mouth. Victims, mostly children, can lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Breathing may also be difficult. Some victims die. There is no cure for polio. Bruce Aylward is an official of the W-H-O campaign to end polio. He says this is the best and possibly the last chance for the world to become polio-free. Money is a problem. Many countries that are free of polio have stopped vaccinating children. The campaign to end polio has involved more than two-hundred countries. About two-thousand million children have been vaccinated. International investment in the program has totaled more than three-thousand-million dollars over the past fifteen years. The W-H-O says an additional one-hundred-fifty-million dollars is urgently needed for the final effort. If the campaign succeeds, polio would become the second disease in history to be ended by a medical campaign. The first was smallpox. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Ending polio before the end of this year remains a goal of six countries where the disease is still present. New cases are mostly in Nigeria, India and Pakistan, but also in Afghanistan, Egypt and Niger. Health ministers of these six nations held an emergency meeting this month with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. They presented a new plan to vaccinate two-hundred-fifty million children. The campaign to end polio began in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, about three-hundred-fifty-thousand cases were reported each year. New cases were down to fewer than six-hundred-eighty last year. Three-hundred of those people were in Nigeria. There have been problems with vaccination campaigns in northern Nigeria. Last year, Muslim clergy in the state of Kano refused to let children get the vaccine. They said the medicine caused AIDS, cancer and a loss of reproductive ability in females. The W-H-O denied these claims. Nigerian doctors said their own tests showed that the vaccine is safe. But, because of the situation in the north, polio was able to spread to Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo. These countries had been free of the virus. Polio spreads quickly through contact with human waste. The virus enters the body through the mouth. Victims, mostly children, can lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Breathing may also be difficult. Some victims die. There is no cure for polio. Bruce Aylward is an official of the W-H-O campaign to end polio. He says this is the best and possibly the last chance for the world to become polio-free. Money is a problem. Many countries that are free of polio have stopped vaccinating children. The campaign to end polio has involved more than two-hundred countries. About two-thousand million children have been vaccinated. International investment in the program has totaled more than three-thousand-million dollars over the past fifteen years. The W-H-O says an additional one-hundred-fifty-million dollars is urgently needed for the final effort. If the campaign succeeds, polio would become the second disease in history to be ended by a medical campaign. The first was smallpox. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Influenza and Bird Flu
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. In February, the World Health Organization will hold a series of meetings in Geneva, Switzerland. Health experts and representatives of drug makers will discuss the newest developments in the continual fight against influenza. VOICE ONE: The flu -- in humans and birds -- is our subject this week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Influenza is a common infection of the nose and throat, and sometimes the lungs. It is caused by a virus which passes from one person to another. The flu causes muscle pain, sudden high body temperature, breathing problems and weakness. It is most common in the winter months. Generally, people feel better after a week or two. But the flu can kill. It is especially dangerous to the very young, the very old and those with a weak defense system against disease. VOICE TWO: Historical records have described sicknesses believed to be influenza for more than two-thousand years. The Roman historian Livy described such a disease attacking the Roman army. People in fifteenth century Italy thought the sickness was caused by the influence of the stars. So they named it "influenza." In seventeen-eighty-one, influenza went from Europe to North America to the West Indies and Latin America. It spread in Asia in eighteen-twenty-nine, then again in eighteen-thirty-six. It also traveled to Indonesia, Russia and the United States. In eighteen-eighty-nine, the flu began in Central Asia, spread north into Russia, east to China and west to Europe. Later, it affected people in North America and Africa. Experts say two-hundred-fifty-thousand people died in Europe in that flu pandemic. Worldwide, the number was at least one-million. VOICE ONE: But the deadliest outbreak of influenza on record involved a flu that first appeared in Spain. The so-called Spanish flu killed between twenty-million and fifty-million people around the world in nineteen-eighteen and nineteen-nineteen. Even young, healthy people became sick and died in just a few days. Times when diseases spread throughout the world are called pandemics. The W-H-O says the next flu pandemic is likely to kill as many as six-hundred-fifty-thousand people in industrial countries. But it says the greatest effect will likely be in developing countries. The agency notes that health care resources in those countries are limited, and populations are weakened by poor health and diet. Researchers say the new kind of flu will appear unexpectedly. They will not have enough time to identify it and produce a vaccine. That is why they are developing faster ways to produce vaccines. Eighty years ago, the flu virus took months to spread around the world. Today, airplane travel means a virus can spread around the world within days. Experts say another virus like the one that appeared in nineteen-eighteen could be as dangerous as any disease ever known. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Medical experts have identified three major kinds of flu. They call them type A, B and C. Type C is the least serious. People may get it and not even know it. But researchers study the other two kinds very closely. Viruses change to survive. This can make it difficult for the body to recognize and fight an infection. A person who has suffered one kind of flu usually cannot develop that same kind again. The defense system produces antibodies. These substances stay in the blood and destroy the virus if it appears again. But the body may not recognize a flu virus that has even a small change. VOICE ONE: There are some antiviral drugs that doctors may use to treat influenza. But health officials say the best thing is to get a yearly vaccine to prevent the flu. Each year, medical researchers work to develop vaccines to prevent the flu from infecting people. They meet in February to discuss which kinds of flu viruses to include in the next formulation. They try to decide which vaccines will be most useful in fighting against the kinds of flu they think will appear months later. For this flu season, the vaccine chosen a year ago did not include the virus known as the Fujian strain. It came from Fujian province in China. It appeared late. To avoid a delay, it was not included in the vaccine. VOICE TWO: No one knows yet exactly how much protection the vaccine provided people this flu season. The northern flu season usually does not begin until December. This season, however, people started to get the flu in October. The World Health Organization says the majority of cases identified so far have involved the Fujian strain. As of last week, the W-H-O reported that influenza remained widespread in many countries in central and eastern Europe. Cases also increased in Italy and Japan. And the flu remained widespread in some parts of Canada and the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Humans are not alone. Chickens and some other animals also get the flu. Since December, parts of Asia have had high levels of bird flu. Avian influenza virus has jumped to some people. But direct contact with chickens or their waste has been suspected. The World Health Organization says there has been no evidence that the virus has spread person-to-person. Researchers are concerned about what could happen if the virus mixes genetic material with human flu virus. The new virus might then spread from person to person. People would become infected with proteins their bodies have never seen before. So they would have no defense. VOICE TWO: Scientists are especially concerned about Asia, where many human influenza viruses first appear. In nineteen-ninety-seven, an outbreak of bird flu in Hong Kong infected eighteen people and killed six. Workers killed more than one-million chickens to control the threat. Last year in Hong Kong, bird flu infected two people and killed one. Also last year, a different flu virus infected some agricultural workers and killed one person in the Netherlands. In the current outbreak, the W-H-O says Vietnam and South Korea have the first epidemics ever documented in those countries. Japan has its first epidemic since nineteen-twenty-five. VOICE ONE: But Vietnam and Thailand had the only human cases confirmed as of Monday. At least seven people in Vietnam have developed bird flu. Six of them died. Of those, five were children. In Thailand a six-year-old boy became the first death in that country. Thailand is the fourth largest exporter of chicken in the world. Announcements of flu outbreaks in chickens expanded in recent days to also include Indonesia and Cambodia. Pakistan and Taiwan have both reported outbreaks of less serious forms. Health officials say chicken and eggs that have been well cooked should be safe to eat. The W-H-O says poultry should be cooked to seventy degrees Celsius. And the agency advise people to wash their hands after touching poultry products. VOICE TWO: Millions of chickens have died of bird flu, or been killed in an effort to contain the spread. The World Health Organization says it is also working to develop a vaccine to protect people from the bird virus. The agency, part of the United Nations, says the effort requires the use of a new technology. This is called "reverse genetics." Scientists collect the virus from human victims. Then they mix genetic information from that virus with a virus grown in a laboratory. The resulting virus is recognized by the defense system in the body and causes a protective reaction. Drug companies could then use this virus to produce large amounts of vaccine. But the W-H-O says a vaccine may not be ready for several months to several years. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says influenza is thought to result in two-hundred-fifty-thousand to five-hundred-thousand deaths a year. As many as five-million people get severe cases of the flu. Lost productivity adds up to great economic costs. So medical and agricultural officials say stopping the spread of influenza is one of their most important jobs year after year. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Congress Delays Country-of-Origin Labeling
* Byline: 

 This is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States Congress has acted to delay a new requirement to identify food products by the country they came from. Food sellers would have to tell people where meat and fish were raised, and where fruits and vegetables were grown. Congress passed the requirement for country-of-origin labeling two years ago. The measure was to take effect this September. But a spending bill approved last Thursday included an amendment to delay the rule until two-thousand-six. Senator Tom Daschle and other supporters of labeling say they will try to stop the delay. Mister Daschle, leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, says the delay would kill the program. But Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman says country-of-origin labeling is a marketing tool and not a food safety program. She says the delay is needed to give Congress more time to consider the effects of the requirements. Major processors, producers and sellers oppose the rule. They say all it would do is increase costs. Some industry groups say they will organize their own labeling system, but not as a requirement. Many smaller and independent farmers say people are interested to know where their food comes from. Supporters of labeling note a recent public opinion study. It found that eighty-two percent of Americans would like to see country-of-origin labeling. The National Farmers Union and other farm groups, as well as public interest groups, say they will fight the delay. Bill Bullard is chief executive officer of a cattle producers group called R-Calf USA. USA stands for United Stockgrowers of America. Mister Bullard tells us that forty-eighty countries already have such measures. He says labeling is an urgent issue. He says nothing proves this better than the recent case of mad cow disease in Washington state. Officials learned that the infected cow had been imported from Canada. Currently, imported beef receives the same mark of Agriculture Department approval as American beef. But many of those who raise American beef are not happy with that. They say they work hard to sell the best product, and they want people to know. Tom Connelley is a rancher in South Dakota. He sells his beef directly to the public. And he says business is improving. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Campaign to Reopen the Statue of Liberty
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 26, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, learn about a campaign to let the public back inside one of America's most famous symbols, the Statue of Liberty. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Before September eleventh, two-thousand-one, two-million people a year visited Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Then, terrorist hijackers flew airplanes into the World Trade Center buildings three kilometers away. The attacks by al Qaeda on the United States that day killed more than three-thousand people. Liberty Island closed immediately. The island reopened in December of that year. But not the great landmark. People still cannot go inside the statue. Attendance at the island was down five percent last year. Officials say the statue must be made more secure. New communication systems are needed in case of fire or other emergency. And more emergency doors to get visitors out safely. VOICE TWO: A five-million-dollar campaign is in progress to reopen the Statue of Liberty. To help lead the effort, movie director Martin Scorsese [score-ZAY-zay] made a television movie for the History Channel. The movie is called “Lady by the Sea: The Statue of Liberty.” The goal is to get the public to give at least one-million dollars to add to improvements already made by the government. The American Express company paid for the movie, and Mister Scorsese gave his time. American Express also has guaranteed at least three-million dollars to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The Folger’s coffee company has promised one-million dollars. The foundation cares for Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island. The nonprofit group works in cooperation with the National Park Service. Ellis Island served for many years as the main immigration center for people who arrived in America. Now parts of it are a museum. Ellis Island was closed after September eleventh. But, like Liberty Island, it has been open again since December of two-thousand-one. VOICE ONE: In his movie, Martin Scorsese explains the spirit of cooperation with France that brought the Statue of Liberty to the United States. "Lady by the Sea" also celebrates the idea that the statue was meant as a way to mark the end of slavery in the American South. The Frenchman who had the idea for the statue was against slavery. But today, others argue that any relationship to slavery was lost as the project moved ahead. In any case, the Statue of Liberty has special meaning for Martin Scorsese. He says it had a great effect on his grandparents. Like so many immigrants, they saw it when they first arrived from Italy early in the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People like to say the Statue of Liberty is in good condition for someone her age. France gave the statue to the United States in eighteen-eighty-four. The full name is "Liberty Enlightening the World." Ships that sailed into New York Harbor carried millions of immigrants past the statue. The statue is forty-six meters tall. It is made mostly of copper. The color was reddish-brown, until time and weather turned it green. Liberty's right arm is high in the air and holds a torch, a golden light. Her left hand holds a tablet with the date July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six -- the date of the American Declaration of Independence. VOICE ONE: On the head of the Statue of Liberty is a crown with seven points. Each of these rays is meant to represent the light of freedom as it shines on seven seas and seven continents. A chain that represents oppression lies broken at her feet. The people of France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift to honor freedom. The two nations became friends during the American Revolution against Britain. France helped the revolutionary armies defeat the soldiers of King George the Third. The war officially ended in seventeen-eighty-three. A few years later, the French rebelled against their own king. VOICE TWO: A French historian and politician named Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye thought of the idea for a statue. He was giving a party in his home near Versailles in eighteen-sixty-five. This was the year the American Civil War ended. Slavery also ended in the United States. It was a time when Laboulaye and others were struggling to make their own country democratic against the rule of Napoleon the Third. Laboulaye suggested that the French and Americans build a monument together to celebrate freedom. One of the guests at the party was a young sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. For years Bartholdi had dreamed of creating a very large statue. By the end of the party he had been invited to make one for the United States. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-five the French established an organization to raise money for Bartholdi's creation. Two years later the Americans established a group to help pay for a pedestal to support the statue. American architect Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to design the pedestal. It would stand forty-seven meters high. In France, Bartholdi designed a small version of his statue. Then he built a series of larger copies. Workers created wooden forms covered with plaster for each main part. Then they placed three-hundred pieces of copper on the forms. The copper "skin" was less than three centimeters thick. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now, in addition to a pedestal, the Statue of Liberty needed a structure that could hold its weight of more than two-hundred tons. Engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created this new technology. Later he would build the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Eiffel and his helpers worked in Paris to produce a strong support system for the statue. The design also needed to let the statue move a little in strong winds. France had hoped to give the statue to the United States on July fourth, eighteen-seventy-six. That was the one-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But technical problems and lack of money delayed the project by eight years. VOICE ONE: At last France presented the statue to the United States. The celebration took place in Paris on July fourth, eighteen-eighty-four. Americans started to build the pedestal that same year. But they had to stop. People had not given enough money to finish it. A New York newspaper urged Americans to give more money for the pedestal. People gave one-hundred-thousand dollars more. Now the huge statue had a pedestal to stand on. In France, the statue was taken apart for shipping to the United States. It arrived in two-hundred-fourteen wooden boxes. VOICE TWO: On October twenty-eighth, eighteen-eighty-six, President Grover Cleveland officially accepted Liberty Enlightening the World. He said: “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home.” Over the years Americans shortened the name of the statue. They called it the Statue of Liberty, or Miss Liberty. VOICE ONE: Twelve-million immigrants passed the Statue of Liberty by ship between eighteen-ninety-two and nineteen twenty-four. By then, Ellis Island had stopped much of its operations. The great wave of European immigrants was mostly over. But millions of visitors kept coming to see the Statue of Liberty. By the nineteen-eighties, the statue badly needed repairs. Again people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean raised money. Fireworks lit the sky at the celebration for the restored Statue of Liberty on July fourth, nineteen-eighty-six. VOICE TWO: Even if the current campaign gathers enough money, there is still another step before the Statue of Liberty can reopen. The National Park Service must get permission within the government. Liberty Island is open to visitors. But many people look forward to the day when they can again visit the museum inside the pedestal. Some want to climb the three-hundred-fifty-four steps to the crown. Others want to ride up to observation areas in an elevator to look at New York Harbor. They say a symbol of freedom that has welcomed so many newcomers to America should once again welcome visitors inside. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Jerilyn Watson wrote our program, and Caty Weaver produced it. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: January 26, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, learn about a campaign to let the public back inside one of America's most famous symbols, the Statue of Liberty. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Before September eleventh, two-thousand-one, two-million people a year visited Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Then, terrorist hijackers flew airplanes into the World Trade Center buildings three kilometers away. The attacks by al Qaeda on the United States that day killed more than three-thousand people. Liberty Island closed immediately. The island reopened in December of that year. But not the great landmark. People still cannot go inside the statue. Attendance at the island was down five percent last year. Officials say the statue must be made more secure. New communication systems are needed in case of fire or other emergency. And more emergency doors to get visitors out safely. VOICE TWO: A five-million-dollar campaign is in progress to reopen the Statue of Liberty. To help lead the effort, movie director Martin Scorsese [score-ZAY-zay] made a television movie for the History Channel. The movie is called “Lady by the Sea: The Statue of Liberty.” The goal is to get the public to give at least one-million dollars to add to improvements already made by the government. The American Express company paid for the movie, and Mister Scorsese gave his time. American Express also has guaranteed at least three-million dollars to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The Folger’s coffee company has promised one-million dollars. The foundation cares for Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island. The nonprofit group works in cooperation with the National Park Service. Ellis Island served for many years as the main immigration center for people who arrived in America. Now parts of it are a museum. Ellis Island was closed after September eleventh. But, like Liberty Island, it has been open again since December of two-thousand-one. VOICE ONE: In his movie, Martin Scorsese explains the spirit of cooperation with France that brought the Statue of Liberty to the United States. "Lady by the Sea" also celebrates the idea that the statue was meant as a way to mark the end of slavery in the American South. The Frenchman who had the idea for the statue was against slavery. But today, others argue that any relationship to slavery was lost as the project moved ahead. In any case, the Statue of Liberty has special meaning for Martin Scorsese. He says it had a great effect on his grandparents. Like so many immigrants, they saw it when they first arrived from Italy early in the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People like to say the Statue of Liberty is in good condition for someone her age. France gave the statue to the United States in eighteen-eighty-four. The full name is "Liberty Enlightening the World." Ships that sailed into New York Harbor carried millions of immigrants past the statue. The statue is forty-six meters tall. It is made mostly of copper. The color was reddish-brown, until time and weather turned it green. Liberty's right arm is high in the air and holds a torch, a golden light. Her left hand holds a tablet with the date July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six -- the date of the American Declaration of Independence. VOICE ONE: On the head of the Statue of Liberty is a crown with seven points. Each of these rays is meant to represent the light of freedom as it shines on seven seas and seven continents. A chain that represents oppression lies broken at her feet. The people of France gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift to honor freedom. The two nations became friends during the American Revolution against Britain. France helped the revolutionary armies defeat the soldiers of King George the Third. The war officially ended in seventeen-eighty-three. A few years later, the French rebelled against their own king. VOICE TWO: A French historian and politician named Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye thought of the idea for a statue. He was giving a party in his home near Versailles in eighteen-sixty-five. This was the year the American Civil War ended. Slavery also ended in the United States. It was a time when Laboulaye and others were struggling to make their own country democratic against the rule of Napoleon the Third. Laboulaye suggested that the French and Americans build a monument together to celebrate freedom. One of the guests at the party was a young sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. For years Bartholdi had dreamed of creating a very large statue. By the end of the party he had been invited to make one for the United States. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-five the French established an organization to raise money for Bartholdi's creation. Two years later the Americans established a group to help pay for a pedestal to support the statue. American architect Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to design the pedestal. It would stand forty-seven meters high. In France, Bartholdi designed a small version of his statue. Then he built a series of larger copies. Workers created wooden forms covered with plaster for each main part. Then they placed three-hundred pieces of copper on the forms. The copper "skin" was less than three centimeters thick. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now, in addition to a pedestal, the Statue of Liberty needed a structure that could hold its weight of more than two-hundred tons. Engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created this new technology. Later he would build the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Eiffel and his helpers worked in Paris to produce a strong support system for the statue. The design also needed to let the statue move a little in strong winds. France had hoped to give the statue to the United States on July fourth, eighteen-seventy-six. That was the one-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But technical problems and lack of money delayed the project by eight years. VOICE ONE: At last France presented the statue to the United States. The celebration took place in Paris on July fourth, eighteen-eighty-four. Americans started to build the pedestal that same year. But they had to stop. People had not given enough money to finish it. A New York newspaper urged Americans to give more money for the pedestal. People gave one-hundred-thousand dollars more. Now the huge statue had a pedestal to stand on. In France, the statue was taken apart for shipping to the United States. It arrived in two-hundred-fourteen wooden boxes. VOICE TWO: On October twenty-eighth, eighteen-eighty-six, President Grover Cleveland officially accepted Liberty Enlightening the World. He said: “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home.” Over the years Americans shortened the name of the statue. They called it the Statue of Liberty, or Miss Liberty. VOICE ONE: Twelve-million immigrants passed the Statue of Liberty by ship between eighteen-ninety-two and nineteen twenty-four. By then, Ellis Island had stopped much of its operations. The great wave of European immigrants was mostly over. But millions of visitors kept coming to see the Statue of Liberty. By the nineteen-eighties, the statue badly needed repairs. Again people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean raised money. Fireworks lit the sky at the celebration for the restored Statue of Liberty on July fourth, nineteen-eighty-six. VOICE TWO: Even if the current campaign gathers enough money, there is still another step before the Statue of Liberty can reopen. The National Park Service must get permission within the government. Liberty Island is open to visitors. But many people look forward to the day when they can again visit the museum inside the pedestal. Some want to climb the three-hundred-fifty-four steps to the crown. Others want to ride up to observation areas in an elevator to look at New York Harbor. They say a symbol of freedom that has welcomed so many newcomers to America should once again welcome visitors inside. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Jerilyn Watson wrote our program, and Caty Weaver produced it. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-27-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  Mars Exploration, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 28, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 28, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Two new American exploration vehicles are now on the surface of the planet Mars. Today we begin a two-part program about Mars and efforts to explore it. We will tell about the history of human interest in the Red Planet. And we will tell about the two new rovers that are exploring and taking pictures of Mars. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Two new American exploration vehicles are now on the surface of the planet Mars. Today we begin a two-part program about Mars and efforts to explore it. We will tell about the history of human interest in the Red Planet. And we will tell about the two new rovers that are exploring and taking pictures of Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States successfully landed the first of two exploration vehicles on Mars on January third. The device is named “Spirit.” It landed safely on target in an area of Mars called the Gusev Crater. Exactly three weeks later, a similar exploration rover named “Opportunity” landed almost half-way around the planet in an area called Meridiani Planum. American space agency scientists say both devices have sent back exciting information. They also say Spirit has experienced some communications problems. The scientists say they believe they can repair most of these problems. NASA officials say the Opportunity rover made a near perfect landing and is communicating normally. Before the rovers landed on Mars, NASA announced that anyone who could link with the Internet communications system could see new photographs taken by the rovers. NASA said the photographs would show more detail and be clearer than any photographs ever taken of Mars. VOICE TWO: NASA began placing the first black and white photographs on its Internet Web site the same day they were sent by Spirit. During four days, more than ten-million computer users had linked with NASA’s Web site to see the photographs. The Web site had more than one-thousand-million hits. People from around the world copied more than one-hundred-fifty-million pages of photographs and information sent from the new device on the Martian surface. Internet users also linked with NASA’s Internet television broadcasts. More than two-hundred-fifty-thousand people watched some of the television broadcasts of activities in NASA’s explorer control area. More than forty-eight-thousand people watched NASA’s broadcast of the landing of Spirit, the first of the two exploration rovers. Millions more watched the successful landing of Opportunity. And they copied millions of pages of photographs and information about Meridiani Planum. Charles Elachi is the director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He said: “The wonders of space are now as close as your computer.” He added: “Who knows how many children will see these photographs and decide to study science or engineering because of the trip to Mars they took with the aid of our computer link?” If your computer can link with the Internet communications system, you can see these photographs and many more. Just ask your computer to search for the words MARS ROVER. M-A-R-S R-O-V-E-R. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mars -- the Red Planet of the night sky. Mars -- the fourth planet from our Sun and the first beyond Earth’s orbit. Mars has always excited the human imagination. It is the only planet that is similar to Earth. It is the only planet whose surface can be seen from Earth. The ancient Romans named the planet Mars. The ancient Romans’ religion taught that Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus. They are the two brothers who Romans believed first began the city of Rome. At first the Romans believed Mars was a god of agriculture. The Roman calendar began with the month of March in honor of Mars. March was the month of planting crops and growing. Later, Mars became the red god of war. Roman soldiers prayed to Mars for success in battle. VOICE TWO: Later, other people studied the red planet with great interest. In 1877, Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli studied Mars through a telescope. He saw long lines on the surface of the planet that seemed to connect in different areas. He called these lines “canali.” The word “canali” in Italian means both canal and channel. American astronomer Percival Lowell watched Mars from a huge telescope in the southwestern state of Arizona. He published a book in nineteen-oh-eight that said the canals were dug to carry water to crops. He said intelligent people dug the canals. Other scientists said this was not true. The argument continued for many years. VOICE ONE: The idea about possible life on Mars was the subject of several imaginary stories. In 1898, British writer H-G Wells wrote a book about a Martian force that invades Earth. That book is called “War of the Worlds.” It is still popular. It has been broadcast as a radio program and been made into a movie. In 1912, American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs began writing a series of books about Mars. They are about a man named John Carter who goes to Mars and meets people of many different cultures. Mister Burroughs’ Martian books are still popular, too. In later years, scientists built better telescopes. Using these large telescopes, scientists could see the surface of Mars. They could see huge sandstorms and mountains. They could see ice on the polar areas of the Red Planet. But they could not see evidence of intelligent life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In 1964, people began trying to send spacecraft to Mars. The United States launched a spacecraft named Mariner Three. It failed after liftoff. However, the next spacecraft, Mariner Four, was successful. That craft returned the first clear pictures of the Martian surface as it flew past the planet in nineteen-sixty-five. In nineteen-seventy-five, the United States launched Viking One and Viking Two. On July 20th, 1976, Viking One became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars. The Viking spacecraft sent back more than fifty-thousand photographs of Mars and other valuable scientific information. In nineteen-ninety-six, the United States launched Mars Pathfinder. It too carried a lander and an exploration vehicle. It arrived on Mars in July of nineteen-ninety-seven. The lander sent back thousands of photographs. Millions of people around the world followed the news of the Pathfinder. VOICE ONE: The United States, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency have sent more than twenty exploration vehicles to Mars. However, almost half of them have failed. The number of failures shows the great difficulty in reaching Mars. Those spacecraft that were successful returned much valuable information. For example, scientists finally saw evidence of Martian canals. Some of these canals are huge. One, called the Ares Vallis, is more than twenty-five kilometers wide and extremely deep. Scientists believe it may have been cut into the surface of the planet by huge and violent floods. They also learned that any water on the planet is now ice or water that has turned to gas. VOICE TWO: Scientists also used several different spacecraft to photograph the largest volcano known to exist in the universe. It is also one of the largest known objects in the universe. It is called Olympus Mons. It is about twenty-five kilometers high and more than five-hundred kilometers wide. That would about three times taller and much wider than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. Scientists have also learned that Mars is a place of extremes in climate. The lowest recorded temperature was one-hundred-twenty-four degrees below zero Celsius. Scientists believe the temperature near the polar areas might be as low as two-hundred degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: Every question answered about Mars has always led to more questions. The most important questions have always been: Does water exist on Mars? Is there now, or was there once, any life on Mars? Could humans survive on Mars? NASA is hoping the exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity will answer these questions. We will report about these efforts next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States successfully landed the first of two exploration vehicles on Mars on January third. The device is named “Spirit.” It landed safely on target in an area of Mars called the Gusev Crater. Exactly three weeks later, a similar exploration rover named “Opportunity” landed almost half-way around the planet in an area called Meridiani Planum. American space agency scientists say both devices have sent back exciting information. They also say Spirit has experienced some communications problems. The scientists say they believe they can repair most of these problems. NASA officials say the Opportunity rover made a near perfect landing and is communicating normally. Before the rovers landed on Mars, NASA announced that anyone who could link with the Internet communications system could see new photographs taken by the rovers. NASA said the photographs would show more detail and be clearer than any photographs ever taken of Mars. VOICE TWO: NASA began placing the first black and white photographs on its Internet Web site the same day they were sent by Spirit. During four days, more than ten-million computer users had linked with NASA’s Web site to see the photographs. The Web site had more than one-thousand-million hits. People from around the world copied more than one-hundred-fifty-million pages of photographs and information sent from the new device on the Martian surface. Internet users also linked with NASA’s Internet television broadcasts. More than two-hundred-fifty-thousand people watched some of the television broadcasts of activities in NASA’s explorer control area. More than forty-eight-thousand people watched NASA’s broadcast of the landing of Spirit, the first of the two exploration rovers. Millions more watched the successful landing of Opportunity. And they copied millions of pages of photographs and information about Meridiani Planum. Charles Elachi is the director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He said: “The wonders of space are now as close as your computer.” He added: “Who knows how many children will see these photographs and decide to study science or engineering because of the trip to Mars they took with the aid of our computer link?” If your computer can link with the Internet communications system, you can see these photographs and many more. Just ask your computer to search for the words MARS ROVER. M-A-R-S R-O-V-E-R. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mars -- the Red Planet of the night sky. Mars -- the fourth planet from our Sun and the first beyond Earth’s orbit. Mars has always excited the human imagination. It is the only planet that is similar to Earth. It is the only planet whose surface can be seen from Earth. The ancient Romans named the planet Mars. The ancient Romans’ religion taught that Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus. They are the two brothers who Romans believed first began the city of Rome. At first the Romans believed Mars was a god of agriculture. The Roman calendar began with the month of March in honor of Mars. March was the month of planting crops and growing. Later, Mars became the red god of war. Roman soldiers prayed to Mars for success in battle. VOICE TWO: Later, other people studied the red planet with great interest. In 1877, Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli studied Mars through a telescope. He saw long lines on the surface of the planet that seemed to connect in different areas. He called these lines “canali.” The word “canali” in Italian means both canal and channel. American astronomer Percival Lowell watched Mars from a huge telescope in the southwestern state of Arizona. He published a book in nineteen-oh-eight that said the canals were dug to carry water to crops. He said intelligent people dug the canals. Other scientists said this was not true. The argument continued for many years. VOICE ONE: The idea about possible life on Mars was the subject of several imaginary stories. In 1898, British writer H-G Wells wrote a book about a Martian force that invades Earth. That book is called “War of the Worlds.” It is still popular. It has been broadcast as a radio program and been made into a movie. In 1912, American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs began writing a series of books about Mars. They are about a man named John Carter who goes to Mars and meets people of many different cultures. Mister Burroughs’ Martian books are still popular, too. In later years, scientists built better telescopes. Using these large telescopes, scientists could see the surface of Mars. They could see huge sandstorms and mountains. They could see ice on the polar areas of the Red Planet. But they could not see evidence of intelligent life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In 1964, people began trying to send spacecraft to Mars. The United States launched a spacecraft named Mariner Three. It failed after liftoff. However, the next spacecraft, Mariner Four, was successful. That craft returned the first clear pictures of the Martian surface as it flew past the planet in nineteen-sixty-five. In nineteen-seventy-five, the United States launched Viking One and Viking Two. On July 20th, 1976, Viking One became the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars. The Viking spacecraft sent back more than fifty-thousand photographs of Mars and other valuable scientific information. In nineteen-ninety-six, the United States launched Mars Pathfinder. It too carried a lander and an exploration vehicle. It arrived on Mars in July of nineteen-ninety-seven. The lander sent back thousands of photographs. Millions of people around the world followed the news of the Pathfinder. VOICE ONE: The United States, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency have sent more than twenty exploration vehicles to Mars. However, almost half of them have failed. The number of failures shows the great difficulty in reaching Mars. Those spacecraft that were successful returned much valuable information. For example, scientists finally saw evidence of Martian canals. Some of these canals are huge. One, called the Ares Vallis, is more than twenty-five kilometers wide and extremely deep. Scientists believe it may have been cut into the surface of the planet by huge and violent floods. They also learned that any water on the planet is now ice or water that has turned to gas. VOICE TWO: Scientists also used several different spacecraft to photograph the largest volcano known to exist in the universe. It is also one of the largest known objects in the universe. It is called Olympus Mons. It is about twenty-five kilometers high and more than five-hundred kilometers wide. That would about three times taller and much wider than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. Scientists have also learned that Mars is a place of extremes in climate. The lowest recorded temperature was one-hundred-twenty-four degrees below zero Celsius. Scientists believe the temperature near the polar areas might be as low as two-hundred degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: Every question answered about Mars has always led to more questions. The most important questions have always been: Does water exist on Mars? Is there now, or was there once, any life on Mars? Could humans survive on Mars? NASA is hoping the exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity will answer these questions. We will report about these efforts next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-27-5-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Progression of Age-Related Macular Degeneration
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 28, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say that eating fatty foods can worsen the progress of the eye disease called age-related macular degeneration or A-M-D. A-M-D is a major cause of blindness among people over the age of fifty in industrial nations. Experts say that five-hundred-thousand people around the world are found to have A-M-D each year. They say more than twenty-five-million people are affected by some kind of A-M-D. And they expect the number to increase during the next twenty-five years. The cause of A-M-D is unknown. The disease destroys the central part of the retina, the cells at the back of the eye that gather light. This area of the eye is called the macula. Macular degeneration causes abnormal blood vessels to grow there. These blood vessels can bleed and damage tissue. A person with the disease can see little or nothing out of the center of the eye. There are two kinds of macular degeneration. The most common and less severe kind is called the “dry form.” It may or may not develop into the other kind of A-M-D, known as the “wet form.” This kind of A-M-D causes most of the serious vision loss. It involves the leaking blood vessels. The first sign of the disease is usually a loss of visual clearness. Later, people have trouble reading, driving and recognizing faces. Blindness is the end result. The new study was reported in the publication “The Archives of Ophthalmology.” It involved about two-hundred-sixty people with at least some vision loss from macular degeneration. The researchers studied them for more than four years. They found that the chance of the disease getting worse was two times greater in the people who ate highly fatty foods such as baked goods sold in stores. They said both vegetable and animal fats were responsible. The researchers said that diets high in meat and milk products also increased the chances of the disease becoming worse, but not as much as baked foods. And they said the people in the study who ate a lot of fish and nuts reduced the chances that their macular degeneration would get worse. The researchers said little evidence exists about what affects the progress of A-M-D. They called for more research into the link between fats and A-M-D. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: January 28, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say that eating fatty foods can worsen the progress of the eye disease called age-related macular degeneration or A-M-D. A-M-D is a major cause of blindness among people over the age of fifty in industrial nations. Experts say that five-hundred-thousand people around the world are found to have A-M-D each year. They say more than twenty-five-million people are affected by some kind of A-M-D. And they expect the number to increase during the next twenty-five years. The cause of A-M-D is unknown. The disease destroys the central part of the retina, the cells at the back of the eye that gather light. This area of the eye is called the macula. Macular degeneration causes abnormal blood vessels to grow there. These blood vessels can bleed and damage tissue. A person with the disease can see little or nothing out of the center of the eye. There are two kinds of macular degeneration. The most common and less severe kind is called the “dry form.” It may or may not develop into the other kind of A-M-D, known as the “wet form.” This kind of A-M-D causes most of the serious vision loss. It involves the leaking blood vessels. The first sign of the disease is usually a loss of visual clearness. Later, people have trouble reading, driving and recognizing faces. Blindness is the end result. The new study was reported in the publication “The Archives of Ophthalmology.” It involved about two-hundred-sixty people with at least some vision loss from macular degeneration. The researchers studied them for more than four years. They found that the chance of the disease getting worse was two times greater in the people who ate highly fatty foods such as baked goods sold in stores. They said both vegetable and animal fats were responsible. The researchers said that diets high in meat and milk products also increased the chances of the disease becoming worse, but not as much as baked foods. And they said the people in the study who ate a lot of fish and nuts reduced the chances that their macular degeneration would get worse. The researchers said little evidence exists about what affects the progress of A-M-D. They called for more research into the link between fats and A-M-D. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Music by the White Stripes / A question about Groundhog Day / The Key West Literary Seminar
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 30, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: January 30, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about Groundhog Day, coming up this Monday. And we continue our series about music nominated for Grammy Awards this year. But first, we take you to a writing conference in the southern United States. Key West Literary Seminar HOST: More than four-hundred people took part in a series of literary events in Key West, Florida, earlier this month. They explored the works of immigrant writers. Faith Lapidus tells us about the twenty-second yearly Key West Literary Seminar. ANNCR: The seminar was called “Crossing Borders: The Immigrant Voice in American Literature.” It examined ways in which the writings of immigrants have enriched and changed American literature and life. Nineteen well-known and award-winning writers took part in the events. They represented many different cultures and countries. These include Bosnia, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Trinidad and Vietnam. Some of the writers were born in other countries and have made the United States their home. Others are American-born writers whose work describes the immigrant experience. The writers took part in four days of talks, readings, discussions and parties. More than four-hundred people who love literature attended these events. Bharati Mukherjee was one of the main speakers at the Key West Literary Seminar. She spoke about her life and her writing. She has written several books that explore the experience of Indian immigrants in America. The other main speaker was Amy Tan. She talked about how her mother’s life influenced her writing. Tan is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She completed her first book, “The Joy Luck Club,” after a trip to China with her mother. “The Joy Luck Club” has been translated into seventeen languages. Elizabeth Nunez also took part in the Key West Literary Seminar. She was born in Trinidad and came to America for her college education. Nunez writes about being an immigrant in America: “I woke up one morning to find nothing beneath me. I was a tree without roots, standing uneasy on unfamiliar ground. A light gust of wind and I would topple down. No one, nothing here – friends, places, things, the very earth, the smell of the wind, the feel of the sun – nothing I could see, touch or taste was from the place where I was born, where I grew up as a child, where I ended my teenage years. What fear! What loneliness! Then it came to me: I belonged to the world.” Groundhog Day HOST: Our VOA listner question this week comes from Mako, Hungary. Ervin Nemeth asks about the American observance of “Groundhog Day.” Groundhog Day is observed on February second, but only in one place in the United States. That place is Punxsutawney, a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. Early in the morning, a ceremony takes place on a hill just outside the town. It stars a small animal named Phil that is brought there to "tell" the weather. Tradition says that if the groundhog sees its shadow on the ground, there will be six more weeks of cold winter weather. The tradition goes back to an old German story of Candlemas Day, a Christian observance. The old story says there will be six more weeks of winter if an animal makes a shadow on February second. Groundhog Day was first observed in Punxsutawney in eighteen-eighty-six. Over the years, the story of "Punxsutawney Phil" spread throughout the country. Phil may not always be right about the weather. But he is important to the local economy. Businesses earn a lot of money from visitors each year. The celebrations have become much more popular since the movie “Groundhog Day” came out in nineteen-ninety-three. Bill Murray stars as a television weather reporter who is not happy with his life. He is sent to Punxsutawney to report on Groundhog Day. Only something strange happens. He lives the same day over and over again, until ... well, we don't want to give the story away. The movie is even a popular subject of study for experts from different religions. Since the release of the movie, local officials say thirty-thousand people or more come to Punxsutawney to watch the real Groundhog Day. The White Stripes HOST: We continue our countdown to the Grammy Awards. The American music industry will present them one week from Sunday, on February eighth. The ceremony in Los Angeles will include a performance by the two members of the group, the White Stripes. And, as Phoebe Zimmermann reports, they could go home with some awards of their own. ANNCR: The White Stripes are Jack White and Meg White. We do not know if they are brother and sister or, as other stories say, formerly husband and wife. But we do know they formed the band in Detroit, Michigan, in nineteen-ninety-seven. And they like to perform dressed in red and white clothing. One of their songs is nominated for two Grammys: best rock song and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal. Here it is. The song is called “Seven Nation Army.” (MUSIC) “Seven Nation Army” is on their newest record album, "Elephant." "Elephant" is nominated for best alternative music album and album of the year. Jack White wrote all but one of the songs on “Elephant.” The album also includes a song from the nineteen-sixties by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It is called “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself.” (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from “Elephant,” by the White Stripes. This one is called “Ball and Biscuit.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. If you have a question about American life, send it to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your name and mailing address. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach, and produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Andreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about Groundhog Day, coming up this Monday. And we continue our series about music nominated for Grammy Awards this year. But first, we take you to a writing conference in the southern United States. Key West Literary Seminar HOST: More than four-hundred people took part in a series of literary events in Key West, Florida, earlier this month. They explored the works of immigrant writers. Faith Lapidus tells us about the twenty-second yearly Key West Literary Seminar. ANNCR: The seminar was called “Crossing Borders: The Immigrant Voice in American Literature.” It examined ways in which the writings of immigrants have enriched and changed American literature and life. Nineteen well-known and award-winning writers took part in the events. They represented many different cultures and countries. These include Bosnia, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Trinidad and Vietnam. Some of the writers were born in other countries and have made the United States their home. Others are American-born writers whose work describes the immigrant experience. The writers took part in four days of talks, readings, discussions and parties. More than four-hundred people who love literature attended these events. Bharati Mukherjee was one of the main speakers at the Key West Literary Seminar. She spoke about her life and her writing. She has written several books that explore the experience of Indian immigrants in America. The other main speaker was Amy Tan. She talked about how her mother’s life influenced her writing. Tan is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She completed her first book, “The Joy Luck Club,” after a trip to China with her mother. “The Joy Luck Club” has been translated into seventeen languages. Elizabeth Nunez also took part in the Key West Literary Seminar. She was born in Trinidad and came to America for her college education. Nunez writes about being an immigrant in America: “I woke up one morning to find nothing beneath me. I was a tree without roots, standing uneasy on unfamiliar ground. A light gust of wind and I would topple down. No one, nothing here – friends, places, things, the very earth, the smell of the wind, the feel of the sun – nothing I could see, touch or taste was from the place where I was born, where I grew up as a child, where I ended my teenage years. What fear! What loneliness! Then it came to me: I belonged to the world.” Groundhog Day HOST: Our VOA listner question this week comes from Mako, Hungary. Ervin Nemeth asks about the American observance of “Groundhog Day.” Groundhog Day is observed on February second, but only in one place in the United States. That place is Punxsutawney, a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. Early in the morning, a ceremony takes place on a hill just outside the town. It stars a small animal named Phil that is brought there to "tell" the weather. Tradition says that if the groundhog sees its shadow on the ground, there will be six more weeks of cold winter weather. The tradition goes back to an old German story of Candlemas Day, a Christian observance. The old story says there will be six more weeks of winter if an animal makes a shadow on February second. Groundhog Day was first observed in Punxsutawney in eighteen-eighty-six. Over the years, the story of "Punxsutawney Phil" spread throughout the country. Phil may not always be right about the weather. But he is important to the local economy. Businesses earn a lot of money from visitors each year. The celebrations have become much more popular since the movie “Groundhog Day” came out in nineteen-ninety-three. Bill Murray stars as a television weather reporter who is not happy with his life. He is sent to Punxsutawney to report on Groundhog Day. Only something strange happens. He lives the same day over and over again, until ... well, we don't want to give the story away. The movie is even a popular subject of study for experts from different religions. Since the release of the movie, local officials say thirty-thousand people or more come to Punxsutawney to watch the real Groundhog Day. The White Stripes HOST: We continue our countdown to the Grammy Awards. The American music industry will present them one week from Sunday, on February eighth. The ceremony in Los Angeles will include a performance by the two members of the group, the White Stripes. And, as Phoebe Zimmermann reports, they could go home with some awards of their own. ANNCR: The White Stripes are Jack White and Meg White. We do not know if they are brother and sister or, as other stories say, formerly husband and wife. But we do know they formed the band in Detroit, Michigan, in nineteen-ninety-seven. And they like to perform dressed in red and white clothing. One of their songs is nominated for two Grammys: best rock song and best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal. Here it is. The song is called “Seven Nation Army.” (MUSIC) “Seven Nation Army” is on their newest record album, "Elephant." "Elephant" is nominated for best alternative music album and album of the year. Jack White wrote all but one of the songs on “Elephant.” The album also includes a song from the nineteen-sixties by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It is called “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself.” (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from “Elephant,” by the White Stripes. This one is called “Ball and Biscuit.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. If you have a question about American life, send it to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your name and mailing address. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach, and produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Andreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Enron Officials in Court
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 30, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The large American energy services company, Enron, failed two years ago. It had been the seventh largest company in the United States. More than twenty people have been charged with financial crimes related to the company’s hidden debt, inflated profits and accounting tricks. On January twenty-second, Enron’s former chief accounting officer faced charges of helping Enron cheat investors and others. Richard Causey said he is not guilty. He says he believed all of Enron’s financial records were correct. He says he followed rules called the Generally Accepted Accounting Standards. The government says Mister Causey used his knowledge of accounting to make Enron look profitable. The government says Mister Causey sought to gain from his actions by causing the price of Enron stock to increase.The government has charged Mister Causey with planning businesses related to Enron, called partnerships. Enron used financial exchanges with partnerships to hide big financial losses. The government says these exchanges do not meet the requirements for real business exchanges. This is because only Enron’s money was at risk. Mister Causey is an important person in the Enron case. The charges came soon after another top official of Enron agreed to a deal. Andrew Fastow was the chief financial officer at Enron. On January fourteenth, he admitted guilt for two criminal acts. He will be sentenced to ten years in prison. Fastow had faced more than ninety separate charges. The deal depends on evidence he will offer in the future. Fastow admitted that he hid the financial situation at Enron by using partnerships. He admitted using partnerships for his own gain. He has been forced to return more than twenty-three-million dollars and other property to the government. Lea Fastow, Mister Fastow’s wife, also admitted to one charge of avoiding taxes on money made from one partnership. Fastow and other former Enron officials have admitted guilt. They are expected to give evidence that will be used against Mister Causey. What is different between the two cases is that Mister Fastow has admitted to cheating Enron. Mister Causey is charged with cheating investors and others. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #47 - James Madison, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 29, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) As we reported last week, the United States declared war on Britain in Eighteen-Twelve. It did so because Britain refused to stop seizing American ships that traded with France -- Britain's enemy in Europe. At last, after a change in government, Britain suspended the orders against such neutral trade. But it acted too late. The United States had declared war. The United States navy was not ready for war. It had only a few real warships and a small number of gunboats. It could not hope to defeat the British navy, the most powerful in the world. What the United States planned to do was seize Canada, the British territory to the north. Twenty-five-hundred British soldiers guarded the border. And American generals believed they could win an easy victory. They were wrong. VOICE TWO: An American general named William Hull led two-thousand men across the Canadian border. British soldiers were prepared, and they forced the Americans back. The British fought so well that General Hull surrendered all his men and the city of Detroit. The next American attack was made from Fort Niagara, a military center in New York on the shore of Lake Ontario. A small group of American soldiers crossed the Niagara River and attacked the British. Other Americans -- state soldiers of New York -- refused to cross the border to help against the British. They calmly watched as British soldiers shot down the attacking Americans. The third campaign was made by General Henry Dearborn. He led an army of state soldiers from Plattsburgh, New York, to the Canadian border. He was to cross the border and attack Montreal. But the state soldiers again refused to cross the border. Dearborn could do nothing but march them back to Plattsburgh. VOICE ONE: British forces at this time were winning victories. They captured an American fort in northern Michigan. And Indians -- fighting for the British -- captured a fort at the place now known as Chicago. Instead of marching through Canada without difficulty, the Americans found themselves trying hard to keep the British out of the state of Ohio. VOICE TWO: For a while, the weak little American navy was doing better than the army. Just two months after the war started, the United States warship "Constitution" forced a British ship to surrender. Several months later another American ship, the "Wasp", captured the British ship, "Frolic". Then the frigate, the "United States" defeated one of Britain's most famous fighting ships, the "Macedonian". The British ship was captured and brought to the United States. There were other victories at sea. At the end of six months, the United States navy had captured six British ships and lost only one of its own vessels. Private American trade ships had been armed with guns when the war started. They, too, were successful against the British. They captured more than three-hundred British trade ships. The American successes forced Britain to bring more of its fighting ships into the war with the United States. By the middle of Eighteen-Thirteen, a year after the war started, British ships controlled the United States coast. Not an American ship could enter or leave any port south of New England. VOICE ONE: The military situation was improving in the West. William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana territory, formed a large force to try to capture Detroit from the British. At the same time, Captain Oliver Perry built five warships on Lake Erie. With these and four he already had, Perry met and completely defeated an English naval force. Perry reported his victory to Harrison: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." Perry's victory and Harrison's large force caused the British to withdraw from Detroit, and from a British fort at Malden, in Canada. Harrison's men continued to chase the enemy. They caught them and defeated them in the battle of the Thames. Killed in this battle was the great Indian chief, Tecumseh, who had been fighting for the British. United States forces made new attempts to win control of Lake Ontario and invade Canada across the Niagara River. But none of these succeeded. Late in Eighteen-Thirteen, British soldiers crossed the river and captured Fort Niagara. They also burned the town of Buffalo. VOICE TWO: By April, Eighteen-Fourteen, Napoleon was forced from power in Europe. And the war between France and Britain was over. This permitted Britain to send many of its soldiers in Europe to fight against the United States. Fourteen-thousand troops were sent to Canada. A smaller force was put on ships that sailed along the American coast. Another group of British soldiers was sent to Jamaica to prepare for an attack on New Orleans. The British planned to send an army of eleven-thousand men down from Canada into New York. But before this, the soldiers aboard ships along the American coast were to attack the Chesapeake Bay area and threaten Washington and Baltimore. About four-thousand British soldiers landed on the Chesapeake coast, southeast of Washington. They marched quickly toward the capital. An American general, William Winder, commanded a force two times the size of the British group. Winder was not a good general, and his troops did not defend well. VOICE ONE: The two sides met at Bladensburg, a town ten kilometers from Washington. The British attacked and at first the American defenders held their ground. But then, British soldiers broke through the American lines, and the Americans began to run away. General Winder ordered his men back to Washington. A group of sailors refused to retreat with their artillery. Commanded by Joshua Barney, the four-hundred sailors chose to stand and fight. The struggle did not last long against the four-thousand British soldiers. Barney held his position for a half hour before enemy soldiers got behind his men and silenced the guns. Barney was wounded seriously. The British thought so much of his courage that they carried him to a hospital for their own soldiers at Bladensburg. Barney himself said the British officers treated him as a brother. Once the British force had smashed through Barney's navy men, nothing stood between it and Washington. VOICE TWO: The enemy spent the night about half a kilometer from the Capitol building. The commanders of the British force, General Robert Ross and Admiral Sir George Cockburn, took a group of men to the Capitol and set fire to it. Then the two commanders went to the White House to burn it. Before setting fire to the president's home, Cockburn took one of President Madison's hats and the seat from one of Dolley Madison's chairs. The admiral found the president's table ready for dinner. As a joke, he took a glass of wine and toasted the health of "President Jemmy". President Madison had fled the White House earlier. He crossed the Potomac River and started toward his home in Virginia. He joined his wife on the road the second day. And they decided to wait with others about twenty-five kilometers from Washington. The president returned to the capital three days after he left it. The British, after burning most public buildings, had withdrawn. VOICE ONE: The British coastal force next attacked the city of Baltimore. But this time, the defenses were strong, and the attack failed. Baltimore port was guarded by Fort McHenry. British warships sailed close to the fort and tried to destroy it with their guns. But the attack did little real damage to the fort. A young American civilian, Francis Scott Key, was aboard one of the British warships during the twenty-five-hour shelling of Fort McHenry. He and a group of others had gone to the ship with a message from President Madison. The message asked the British to release an American doctor they were holding. All through the night, the young man watched the shells bursting and the rockets exploding over the fort. In the first light of morning, he saw that the American flag still flew. On the back of an old letter from his pocket, Francis Scott Key wrote the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States. That will be our story next on THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Ideas for Teaching Young Children
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 29, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Experts say students are never too young to think creatively about science. Educator Karen Meador says early education can help children become creative science students later in life. Mizz Meador offers some suggestions for activities. She recently shared her ideas with Gifted Child Today Magazine. For example, she describes how students between the ages of about four and eight can explore the movement of liquid on wax paper. The wax keeps the water from disappearing into the paper. In addition to the wax paper, students need small tubes called eye droppers for the experiment. The students also need water containing red, yellow and blue food coloring. Using the eye droppers, they place the colored water onto the wax paper. Then they blow softly into the water. Or they can blow through a straw, a thin hollow tube, to move the water drops. The students observe the tension on the surface. They see how it affects the way the water moves and shapes itself. Even when students blow the drops of water across the paper, the liquid keeps its round shape. Mizz Meador says the children like to see how the colors mix when one colored drop slides into another. The shape and movement of the water is similar to that of mercury. But mercury is dangerous to handle.Mizz Meador also says children can study how water acts on aluminum foil. They can find out if the water will act the same on a metal surface as it did on wax paper. Before doing the new experiment, they can write their ideas about what they think will happen. Or they can record their ideas on tape. Mizz Meador says this activity prepares them for more difficult experiments. The children again move the colored water around by blowing directly onto it or through or a straw. But this time they move it on the foil. Then they test their theories about how the water would act against what really took place. Similar experiments can be carried out with other kinds of paper or glass. Karen Meador is writer of the book “Creative Thinking and Problem Solving for Young Learners,” published by Teacher Ideas Press. This Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-29-5-1.cfm
* Headline: January 29, 2004 - Political Rhetoric in America, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: January 29, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- political rhetoric in America. RS: This time, Howard Dean didn't scream. He finished what he called a "solid second" behind John Kerry in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. AA: It was a far cry from last week, when the former Vermont governor was a distant third in the Iowa caucuses -- the first major test of popularity among the Democratic presidential candidates. RS: It's not often that a speech becomes the talk of the nation. But the one Howard Dean gave after his surprise loss in Iowa quickly spawned creative remixes on the Internet. AA: And it got a name. Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963 became Howard Dean's "I Have a Scream" speech in 2004. DEAN: "... We're going to California and Texas and New York, and we are going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we are going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House, yeah!" AA: "How do you think that went over with Iowans?" GOLDFORD: "Oh, I don't think it went over well with anybody outside of perhaps the most dedicated Dean followers." AA: Dennis Goldford is a political scientist in Iowa. GOLDFORD: "From all reports, for those inside the venue where he gave that speech, it was received well, because the purpose was to pump up his supporters. But there's always television on, and the cameras are already there. And I think this particular rhetorical moment, if you will, will rank up there with Richard Nixon's nasty concession speech when he lost the governor's race in California in 1962 and he told the press 'you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore." RS: "So he appeared to be a bit over the edge." GOLDFORD: "Yes, this particular speech, I think, illustrated why so many people had misgivings about Dean, that he seemed just a little bit too intense and a little bit too angry rather than gracious and able to roll with the punches." RS: "Can we move now to just political rhetoric in general?" GOLDFORD: "Sure." RS: "And what would you consider some helpful tips for our listeners as they listen to the politicians during this presidential year." GOLDFORD: "Well, one key point I think is to suggest that if you want to understand whether at least an American politician is really saying anything meaningful, ask yourself if anyone in his right mind would campaign by affirming the opposite. In other words, if a politician says 'I'm against unnecessary regulations,' who's going to campaign and say 'I'm for unnecessary regulations'? So the question is not whether you're against unnecessary regulations. It's what counts as unnecessary regulations. "Similarly if a president says, or a candidate says, 'I'm in favor of a strong national defense.' Rhetorically, it's an attempt to bond with the audience without their thinking too much about what's being said." RS: "So what you're asking our listeners to do is to listen to this rhetoric and see if perhaps the candidate goes a little further." GOLDFORD: "Yes, to assess these people critically, you've go to proceed to the next question, 'what do you mean by that?' Or 'what counts for you as energy conservation or terrorism or a strong national defense?'" RS: "And what will you be paying attention to during all this political discourse, as you sit down and watch television or attend events?" AA: "Does anything still surprise you?" GOLDFORD: "Well, what surprises me at times if when somebody actually does say something substantive and something more than just speaking in cliches and soundbites. Television has made politics, as so much American life and life around the world, much more immediate, much more accessible to people. But at the same time it has shrunken our attention span, and in many ways it's dumbed down our discourse. Our discourse isn't as sharp and critical and self-aware as it used to be. "The surprising and welcome event is when somebody actually sketches a philosophy of governance, so people understand really what this is all about. 'OK, you're for all these particular policies, but why? What's the unifying thread that makes them part of a coherent whole?' I've seen much sharper rhetoric of that sort, much clearer, in German political campaigns, for example, and sometimes in British political campaigns. But in America, you tend because there's so much agreement on basic kinds of values, you tend to get so much of this laundry list approach to campaigning." AA: Dennis Goldford chairs the political science department at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. You'll hear more from Professor Goldford next week. RS: And that's Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Faint"/Linkin Park Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: January 29, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- political rhetoric in America. RS: This time, Howard Dean didn't scream. He finished what he called a "solid second" behind John Kerry in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. AA: It was a far cry from last week, when the former Vermont governor was a distant third in the Iowa caucuses -- the first major test of popularity among the Democratic presidential candidates. RS: It's not often that a speech becomes the talk of the nation. But the one Howard Dean gave after his surprise loss in Iowa quickly spawned creative remixes on the Internet. AA: And it got a name. Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech of 1963 became Howard Dean's "I Have a Scream" speech in 2004. DEAN: "... We're going to California and Texas and New York, and we are going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we are going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House, yeah!" AA: "How do you think that went over with Iowans?" GOLDFORD: "Oh, I don't think it went over well with anybody outside of perhaps the most dedicated Dean followers." AA: Dennis Goldford is a political scientist in Iowa. GOLDFORD: "From all reports, for those inside the venue where he gave that speech, it was received well, because the purpose was to pump up his supporters. But there's always television on, and the cameras are already there. And I think this particular rhetorical moment, if you will, will rank up there with Richard Nixon's nasty concession speech when he lost the governor's race in California in 1962 and he told the press 'you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore." RS: "So he appeared to be a bit over the edge." GOLDFORD: "Yes, this particular speech, I think, illustrated why so many people had misgivings about Dean, that he seemed just a little bit too intense and a little bit too angry rather than gracious and able to roll with the punches." RS: "Can we move now to just political rhetoric in general?" GOLDFORD: "Sure." RS: "And what would you consider some helpful tips for our listeners as they listen to the politicians during this presidential year." GOLDFORD: "Well, one key point I think is to suggest that if you want to understand whether at least an American politician is really saying anything meaningful, ask yourself if anyone in his right mind would campaign by affirming the opposite. In other words, if a politician says 'I'm against unnecessary regulations,' who's going to campaign and say 'I'm for unnecessary regulations'? So the question is not whether you're against unnecessary regulations. It's what counts as unnecessary regulations. "Similarly if a president says, or a candidate says, 'I'm in favor of a strong national defense.' Rhetorically, it's an attempt to bond with the audience without their thinking too much about what's being said." RS: "So what you're asking our listeners to do is to listen to this rhetoric and see if perhaps the candidate goes a little further." GOLDFORD: "Yes, to assess these people critically, you've go to proceed to the next question, 'what do you mean by that?' Or 'what counts for you as energy conservation or terrorism or a strong national defense?'" RS: "And what will you be paying attention to during all this political discourse, as you sit down and watch television or attend events?" AA: "Does anything still surprise you?" GOLDFORD: "Well, what surprises me at times if when somebody actually does say something substantive and something more than just speaking in cliches and soundbites. Television has made politics, as so much American life and life around the world, much more immediate, much more accessible to people. But at the same time it has shrunken our attention span, and in many ways it's dumbed down our discourse. Our discourse isn't as sharp and critical and self-aware as it used to be. "The surprising and welcome event is when somebody actually sketches a philosophy of governance, so people understand really what this is all about. 'OK, you're for all these particular policies, but why? What's the unifying thread that makes them part of a coherent whole?' I've seen much sharper rhetoric of that sort, much clearer, in German political campaigns, for example, and sometimes in British political campaigns. But in America, you tend because there's so much agreement on basic kinds of values, you tend to get so much of this laundry list approach to campaigning." AA: Dennis Goldford chairs the political science department at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. You'll hear more from Professor Goldford next week. RS: And that's Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Faint"/Linkin Park 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Chief Weapons Inspector Report on Iraq Weapons
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 31, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Former chief United States weapons inspector David Kay has called for an independent investigation into the United States intelligence failure over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Mister Kay said he has found no such weapons in Iraq even though he and a number of governments, including the United States, believed they existed. Mister Kay blamed bad intelligence for the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. Mister Kay said he does not believe Iraq had many nuclear, chemical or biological weapons when American forces invaded the country last year. The Bush administration noted intelligence showing Iraq had such weapons as the main reason for going to war to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mister Kay spoke Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, D-C. He said that people who believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were almost all wrong. He also said there was evidence that Saddam Hussein had made efforts to disarm long before President Bush began making the case for war. However, Mister Kay also noted evidence that Iraq was involved in weapons programs banned by United Nations resolutions. Some Democrats have suggested that the Bush administration pressured intelligence experts to shape the intelligence to help President Bush make the case for invading Iraq. But Mister Kay dismissed such comments. He said intelligence experts were never under political pressure. Democrats also have called for an independent investigation. But Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration oppose such an investigation. They say it could harm intelligence efforts. Mister Kay said questions about Iraq’s possible weapons of mass destruction may never be answered. He said that may be because many documents and other evidence were stolen following the American invasion of Iraq last year. David Kay was special adviser to Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet. He was chosen last year as the leader of the Iraq Survey Group, partly because he believed that weapons would be found. Mister Kay resigned last week as the top American weapons inspector in Iraq. He said he did so because resources for the search were being redirected. In another development this week, a British judge cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration of any wrongdoing over charges he overstated the Iraq weapons threat as a reason for war. Judge Brian Hutton said the British government’s understanding of the Iraqi threat came from intelligence officials. The judge denounced the British Broadcasting Corporation for a report accusing the Blair administration of falsely representing the evidence about Iraq’s weapons. The chairman of the B-B-C later resigned. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-01/a-2004-01-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Robert Frost, Pt. 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 1, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the Special English program, People in America. Today, we begin the story of twentieth century poet Robert Frost. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-one, John Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States. He asked one of America's best-known writers to read a poem. Robert Frost stood in the cold sunlight that day, his white hair blowing in the wind. He read these words from his poem, "The Gift Outright": NARRATOR: The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England's, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Robert Frost was one of America's best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life. He was forty years old before Americans began to read his poems and praise them. Once his fame was established, however, it grew stronger and stronger during the rest of his long life. His success came from uniting traditional forms of poetry with American words, spoken in a clearly American way. VOICE ONE: Frost used the same speaker for many poems, so the separate poems formed a larger unity. He created this speaker carefully. He felt that his readers would believe his poems if he put the words into the mouth of a wise person who lived in the country, not the city. Many people thought the speaker was Frost himself. In fact, the speaker was an imaginary person. Frost, the man, tried to become the imaginary person he created for his poetry. VOICE TWO: Robert Frost is always linked to the land of cold winters in the northeastern United States, the area called New England. Yet he came from the other side of the country, San Francisco, California. He was born there in eighteen-seventy-four. He lived in California during his early childhood. This man who was born in the West and became linked with New England was named for the chief southern general in America's Civil War. The general's name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general. Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost's childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Robert Frost's father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much alcohol and became angry. Robert was the victim of his anger. He was eleven when his father died. His mother tried to protect him from his father's anger. Some people think she protected him too much. As a child, Robert was afraid of the dark. All his life he suffered from imaginary sicknesses. VOICE TWO: Frost's mother was from New England. After her husband died, she moved back there. She supported her children by teaching school. Yet she got more enjoyment from reading and writing poetry. Frost finished high school in eighteen-ninety-one. He and a girl, Elinor White, had the best record of the students graduating that year. He married Elinor three years later. She rejected him at first, but finally agreed to marry him. This rejection led to a lack of trust in their marriage. It made Frost say this: "I could lose everything and not be surprised." VOICE ONE: After high school, Frost's grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. Frost left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry. VOICE TWO: Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until nineteen-thirteen, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. During this time of working and travelling from job to job, he and his wife had four children. Since he earned very little money, his family was always poor. VOICE ONE: Robert Frost saw himself becoming more and more like his father, treating his family badly. He became very unhappy with himself and with his life. He even thought about ending his life. In nineteen-twelve, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. And there was an interest in what was then called a "new poetry. " In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called “A Boy's Will.” When it appeared in nineteen-thirteen, Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country. Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine report about Frost. He also helped get Frost's second book of poems published in America. That book was called “North of Boston.” VOICE TWO: Many readers consider “North of Boston” to be Frost's best book of poems. In Britain, it was praised even more than his first book. Readers saw the way he took simple material and constructed from it a world of new meanings. They saw the way he spoke with a voice that sounded like common speech. What they failed to see was the differences Frost found between what was seen and the person doing the seeing. This was what he called "the outer and inner weather." In nineteen-fifteen, both of Frost's books were published in the United States. He felt that his books had "gone home," and he should go home, too. When he reached America, he was surprised by the praise he received and the acceptance of American publishers. In the words of the poem he read at President Kennedy's inauguration many years later: “The land was his before he was the land's.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: When Robert Frost returned to America from Britain, he bought another farm in New Hampshire. To feed himself and his family, he depended on the sales of his books and papers. He also earned money by speaking at universities. Success did not ease his life. And it did not change the way he thought and acted. The gentle, wise person who spoke from his poems was the man Frost wanted to be. He knew, however -- and his family knew -- he was not that man. Tragic events affected him. His son killed himself. His wife was often sick, and his daughter became mentally sick. Frost, too, suffered from his own imaginary sicknesses. Through his poems, however, he lived a different life. VOICE TWO: Frost was a worker in words, a craftsman. He tried to capture exactly the speech of the people of New England. He used simple descriptions that were easily understood. He talked about simple, natural things: trees, the weather, the seasons, night and day. In an early poem he wrote: NARRATOR: I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf That's standing by the mother. It's so young It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. VOICE ONE: Robert Frost said that reading his poems should begin with pleasure and end in wisdom. Yet as he grew older, his simple idea of the world became more difficult. His world was more touched with sadness. He wrote more about fear, about being alone, about losing whatever he had. (pause) We will continue our story of American poet Robert Frost next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Christine Johnson. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another program about People in America on VOA. Broadcast: February 1, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the Special English program, People in America. Today, we begin the story of twentieth century poet Robert Frost. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-one, John Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States. He asked one of America's best-known writers to read a poem. Robert Frost stood in the cold sunlight that day, his white hair blowing in the wind. He read these words from his poem, "The Gift Outright": NARRATOR: The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years Before we were her people. She was ours In Massachusetts, in Virginia, But we were England's, still colonials, Possessing what we still were unpossessed by, Possessed by what we now no more possessed. Something we were withholding made us weak Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. Such as we were we gave ourselves outright (The deed of gift was many deeds of war) To the land vaguely realizing westward, But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced, Such as she was, such as she would become. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Robert Frost was one of America's best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life. He was forty years old before Americans began to read his poems and praise them. Once his fame was established, however, it grew stronger and stronger during the rest of his long life. His success came from uniting traditional forms of poetry with American words, spoken in a clearly American way. VOICE ONE: Frost used the same speaker for many poems, so the separate poems formed a larger unity. He created this speaker carefully. He felt that his readers would believe his poems if he put the words into the mouth of a wise person who lived in the country, not the city. Many people thought the speaker was Frost himself. In fact, the speaker was an imaginary person. Frost, the man, tried to become the imaginary person he created for his poetry. VOICE TWO: Robert Frost is always linked to the land of cold winters in the northeastern United States, the area called New England. Yet he came from the other side of the country, San Francisco, California. He was born there in eighteen-seventy-four. He lived in California during his early childhood. This man who was born in the West and became linked with New England was named for the chief southern general in America's Civil War. The general's name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general. Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost's childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Robert Frost's father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much alcohol and became angry. Robert was the victim of his anger. He was eleven when his father died. His mother tried to protect him from his father's anger. Some people think she protected him too much. As a child, Robert was afraid of the dark. All his life he suffered from imaginary sicknesses. VOICE TWO: Frost's mother was from New England. After her husband died, she moved back there. She supported her children by teaching school. Yet she got more enjoyment from reading and writing poetry. Frost finished high school in eighteen-ninety-one. He and a girl, Elinor White, had the best record of the students graduating that year. He married Elinor three years later. She rejected him at first, but finally agreed to marry him. This rejection led to a lack of trust in their marriage. It made Frost say this: "I could lose everything and not be surprised." VOICE ONE: After high school, Frost's grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. Frost left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry. VOICE TWO: Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until nineteen-thirteen, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. During this time of working and travelling from job to job, he and his wife had four children. Since he earned very little money, his family was always poor. VOICE ONE: Robert Frost saw himself becoming more and more like his father, treating his family badly. He became very unhappy with himself and with his life. He even thought about ending his life. In nineteen-twelve, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. And there was an interest in what was then called a "new poetry. " In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called “A Boy's Will.” When it appeared in nineteen-thirteen, Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country. Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine report about Frost. He also helped get Frost's second book of poems published in America. That book was called “North of Boston.” VOICE TWO: Many readers consider “North of Boston” to be Frost's best book of poems. In Britain, it was praised even more than his first book. Readers saw the way he took simple material and constructed from it a world of new meanings. They saw the way he spoke with a voice that sounded like common speech. What they failed to see was the differences Frost found between what was seen and the person doing the seeing. This was what he called "the outer and inner weather." In nineteen-fifteen, both of Frost's books were published in the United States. He felt that his books had "gone home," and he should go home, too. When he reached America, he was surprised by the praise he received and the acceptance of American publishers. In the words of the poem he read at President Kennedy's inauguration many years later: “The land was his before he was the land's.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: When Robert Frost returned to America from Britain, he bought another farm in New Hampshire. To feed himself and his family, he depended on the sales of his books and papers. He also earned money by speaking at universities. Success did not ease his life. And it did not change the way he thought and acted. The gentle, wise person who spoke from his poems was the man Frost wanted to be. He knew, however -- and his family knew -- he was not that man. Tragic events affected him. His son killed himself. His wife was often sick, and his daughter became mentally sick. Frost, too, suffered from his own imaginary sicknesses. Through his poems, however, he lived a different life. VOICE TWO: Frost was a worker in words, a craftsman. He tried to capture exactly the speech of the people of New England. He used simple descriptions that were easily understood. He talked about simple, natural things: trees, the weather, the seasons, night and day. In an early poem he wrote: NARRATOR: I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf That's standing by the mother. It's so young It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I sha'n't be gone long. -- You come too. VOICE ONE: Robert Frost said that reading his poems should begin with pleasure and end in wisdom. Yet as he grew older, his simple idea of the world became more difficult. His world was more touched with sadness. He wrote more about fear, about being alone, about losing whatever he had. (pause) We will continue our story of American poet Robert Frost next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Christine Johnson. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another program about People in America on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Village Phones in Uganda
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 2, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A program in Uganda aims to provide telephone service to villages away from cities. Nineteen million people live in these communities. The goal is to provide service to a large part of them within five years. The Grameen Foundation USA organized the program with MTN Uganda. That is the largest provider of telecommunications service in the country. The program is called "MTN villagePhone." Organizers have already given cellular telephones to more than one-hundred people throughout Uganda. The people are called micro-entrepreneurs. They will charge other people to use the mobile phones. The organizers say they hope to train as many as three-thousand village telephone operators over the next three years. Five Ugandan groups provided small loans to pay for the equipment. The operators are expected to repay the loans over a period of up to twelve months. Such loans are known as micro-finance. Most micro-finance groups charge interest. But they often use their earnings to reach more people. The Grameen Foundation says operating the pay phone service will permit thousands of women to earn extra money for their families. It will also save business people and villagers money and time. The organizers estimate that a call that costs ten cents could save a person about one dollar in lost wages or business. This is how much it would cost the person to take a day to travel to the nearest city to place the call. The phones could also help save lives. Villagers will be able to call for help in case of an emergency. The project in Uganda is based on a program that the Grameen Foundation established in Bangladesh. The Grameen Telecom program began six years ago. Officials say it has permitted forty-thousand village operators to sell phone time to local citizens. Operators are said to earn about seven-hundred dollars a year. This is about two times the national average for wages in Bangladesh. Ugandan officials say the village phone program will help connect farming villages to the world’s information economy. They see the program as a step toward building support for private investment in developing countries. They say it is another way to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Cohen. Broadcast: February 2, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A program in Uganda aims to provide telephone service to villages away from cities. Nineteen million people live in these communities. The goal is to provide service to a large part of them within five years. The Grameen Foundation USA organized the program with MTN Uganda. That is the largest provider of telecommunications service in the country. The program is called "MTN villagePhone." Organizers have already given cellular telephones to more than one-hundred people throughout Uganda. The people are called micro-entrepreneurs. They will charge other people to use the mobile phones. The organizers say they hope to train as many as three-thousand village telephone operators over the next three years. Five Ugandan groups provided small loans to pay for the equipment. The operators are expected to repay the loans over a period of up to twelve months. Such loans are known as micro-finance. Most micro-finance groups charge interest. But they often use their earnings to reach more people. The Grameen Foundation says operating the pay phone service will permit thousands of women to earn extra money for their families. It will also save business people and villagers money and time. The organizers estimate that a call that costs ten cents could save a person about one dollar in lost wages or business. This is how much it would cost the person to take a day to travel to the nearest city to place the call. The phones could also help save lives. Villagers will be able to call for help in case of an emergency. The project in Uganda is based on a program that the Grameen Foundation established in Bangladesh. The Grameen Telecom program began six years ago. Officials say it has permitted forty-thousand village operators to sell phone time to local citizens. Operators are said to earn about seven-hundred dollars a year. This is about two times the national average for wages in Bangladesh. Ugandan officials say the village phone program will help connect farming villages to the world’s information economy. They see the program as a step toward building support for private investment in developing countries. They say it is another way to reduce poverty and improve the lives of people. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - 'Girl Groups' in Rock Music
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 2, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 2, 2004 (THEME) VOICE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. In the later years of the twentieth century, female musicians helped define new sounds in popular music. These bands are often called "girl groups." This week, learn about three of the most influential. (MUSIC) During the nineteen-seventies, guitar bands filled popular radio. One of the first all-female guitar bands on the radio was the Runaways. They appeared with their first album in nineteen-seventy-six. VOICE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. In the later years of the twentieth century, female musicians helped define new sounds in popular music. These bands are often called "girl groups." This week, learn about three of the most influential. (MUSIC) During the nineteen-seventies, guitar bands filled popular radio. One of the first all-female guitar bands on the radio was the Runaways. They appeared with their first album in nineteen-seventy-six. The music of the Runaways had the sounds of all-male heavy metal bands like Kiss and Aerosmith. But listeners could also hear the influence of punk music. Groups like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones made this kind of music popular. Here, from that first album by the Runaways, is a song called "Cherry Bomb." (MUSIC) Like other rock and roll groups, the Runaways sang about teen-age rebellion. But here the girls in the songs did everything that boys did. One song was about breaking out of a jail for teen-age girls. The song is called “Dead End Justice.” (MUSIC) Three of the Runaways -- Lita Ford, Cherie [sheh-REE] Currie and Joan Jett -- went on to separate lives as performers. But before the group broke up, they made two more recordings together. Here is the title song from their album "Queens of Noise." (MUSIC) In the nineteen-sixties, the Beach Boys defined the California sound ... (MUSIC) ... but in the nineteen-eighties, it was the Go-Go's. (MUSIC) Like the Runaways, the Go-Go's were influenced by the punk movement. But their music was more fun. In fact, their carefree sound influenced a lot of the "new wave" music of the nineteen-eighties. The Go-Go's had one of their first hits with this song from nineteen-eighty-one, "We Got the Beat”: (MUSIC) Most of the songs by the Go-Go's were written or co-written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey. A strong guitar and drums drove the sound, carried along by electronic pianos and led by the strong voice of Belinda Carlisle. This song, “Vacation,” is still played in American dance places. (MUSIC) The Go-Go's broke up in nineteen-eighty-five. During the nineteen-nineties, they worked together from time to time. And they released a few collections of older material. Then, in two-thousand-one, the five members reunited and produced the album "God Bless the Go-Go's." The band continues to perform together. “God Bless the Go-Go's” kept with the sound that made them famous. The album includes this love song called “Stuck in My Car.” (MUSIC) In the early nineteen-nineties, music produced independently of large record companies became more and more popular. The city of Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest, became known for what people called grunge music. All-male bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam became famous. In nineteen-ninety-four, two young women, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, formed a group. They called it Sleater-Kinney. They named it after a road near the city where they met in college: Olympia, Washington, south of Seattle. Their first album was released by an independent record company, Chainsaw Records of Olympia. Here is “Slow Song” from that album. (MUSIC) Sleater-Kinney was part of a movement in punk music from the early nineteen-nineties known as "riot grrl" [girl] ... G-R-R-L. This movement was an answer to the mostly male culture of punk music. It started with all-female groups like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. Sleater-Kinney is not as widely known as other bands in the country. Yet in two-thousand-one, Time magazine declared this three-member group "America's Best Rock Band." The words to their songs are both personal and political. Many of the songs have to do with women’s rights. This one speaks out against sexual violence. The song is called “#1 [number one] Must Have.” (MUSIC) Sleater-Kinney has recorded six albums so far. For their third album, “Dig Me Out,” they left Chainsaw Records. Since then, the band has been with another independent record company, called Kill Rock Stars. They recorded their most recent album, “One Beat,” in two-thousand-two. It has been the biggest success to date for Sleater-Kinney. It includes this song, called “Oh.” (MUSIC) Many music critics say the Runaways, the Go-Go's, and Sleater-Kinney have had a big effect on an industry where males hold most of the power. In fact, some consider them among the most influential groups ever to record music in America. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Robert Brumfield and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. We leave you with a Sleater-Kinney song. It's called “You’re No Rock ‘n Roll Fun.” The music of the Runaways had the sounds of all-male heavy metal bands like Kiss and Aerosmith. But listeners could also hear the influence of punk music. Groups like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones made this kind of music popular. Here, from that first album by the Runaways, is a song called "Cherry Bomb." (MUSIC) Like other rock and roll groups, the Runaways sang about teen-age rebellion. But here the girls in the songs did everything that boys did. One song was about breaking out of a jail for teen-age girls. The song is called “Dead End Justice.” (MUSIC) Three of the Runaways -- Lita Ford, Cherie [sheh-REE] Currie and Joan Jett -- went on to separate lives as performers. But before the group broke up, they made two more recordings together. Here is the title song from their album "Queens of Noise." (MUSIC) In the nineteen-sixties, the Beach Boys defined the California sound ... (MUSIC) ... but in the nineteen-eighties, it was the Go-Go's. (MUSIC) Like the Runaways, the Go-Go's were influenced by the punk movement. But their music was more fun. In fact, their carefree sound influenced a lot of the "new wave" music of the nineteen-eighties. The Go-Go's had one of their first hits with this song from nineteen-eighty-one, "We Got the Beat”: (MUSIC) Most of the songs by the Go-Go's were written or co-written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey. A strong guitar and drums drove the sound, carried along by electronic pianos and led by the strong voice of Belinda Carlisle. This song, “Vacation,” is still played in American dance places. (MUSIC) The Go-Go's broke up in nineteen-eighty-five. During the nineteen-nineties, they worked together from time to time. And they released a few collections of older material. Then, in two-thousand-one, the five members reunited and produced the album "God Bless the Go-Go's." The band continues to perform together. “God Bless the Go-Go's” kept with the sound that made them famous. The album includes this love song called “Stuck in My Car.” (MUSIC) In the early nineteen-nineties, music produced independently of large record companies became more and more popular. The city of Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest, became known for what people called grunge music. All-male bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam became famous. In nineteen-ninety-four, two young women, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, formed a group. They called it Sleater-Kinney. They named it after a road near the city where they met in college: Olympia, Washington, south of Seattle. Their first album was released by an independent record company, Chainsaw Records of Olympia. Here is “Slow Song” from that album. (MUSIC) Sleater-Kinney was part of a movement in punk music from the early nineteen-nineties known as "riot grrl" [girl] ... G-R-R-L. This movement was an answer to the mostly male culture of punk music. It started with all-female groups like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile. Sleater-Kinney is not as widely known as other bands in the country. Yet in two-thousand-one, Time magazine declared this three-member group "America's Best Rock Band." The words to their songs are both personal and political. Many of the songs have to do with women’s rights. This one speaks out against sexual violence. The song is called “#1 [number one] Must Have.” (MUSIC) Sleater-Kinney has recorded six albums so far. For their third album, “Dig Me Out,” they left Chainsaw Records. Since then, the band has been with another independent record company, called Kill Rock Stars. They recorded their most recent album, “One Beat,” in two-thousand-two. It has been the biggest success to date for Sleater-Kinney. It includes this song, called “Oh.” (MUSIC) Many music critics say the Runaways, the Go-Go's, and Sleater-Kinney have had a big effect on an industry where males hold most of the power. In fact, some consider them among the most influential groups ever to record music in America. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Robert Brumfield and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. We leave you with a Sleater-Kinney song. It's called “You’re No Rock ‘n Roll Fun.” 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Pollutants in Salmon / Counting Tigers / Ancient Lion Bones
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Bird Flu in Asia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 3, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. United Nations agencies are calling for money and technical help for countries in Asia to stop the spread of bird flu. The head of the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization says farmers should be paid for their losses. Workers in ten countries have been killing millions of chickens and other birds. The World Health Organization says workers should wear eye protection to avoid the virus. They should also wear what is known as an n-ninety-five (N95) respirator mask. Health officials say another possibility is the kind of mask that doctors wear during operations. Workers should also wear protective clothing that can be either treated to kill germs or thrown away after use. And they should wash their hands often. The W-H-O also suggests having antiviral drugs ready in case people get sick. Thailand on Monday reported its third death from avian influenza. And a ninth person died in Vietnam. Among the deaths in Vietnam were two sisters not known to have been near infected birds. The W-H-O said "one possible explanation" was that they got the virus from their brother. Health officials fear that bird flu could change into a form that spreads person-to-person worldwide. It could combine with human flu if someone gets both viruses. Or it may pass to humans through pigs. Yet the W-H-O says the limited number of human infections to date is a good sign. The United States Agriculture Department had expected world chicken production to increase by six percent this year. The Foreign Agriculture Service there estimated that production would be greater than demand. The industry in Thailand has grown quickly. Last week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed that the virus had entered his country. He said Thailand had not done a good job at first. But he said it would move quickly to control the disease. Thailand is the fourth largest exporter of chicken. The United States is the largest. Next are Brazil, the European Union, Thailand and China. China last week reported its first cases of bird flu. But the British magazine New Scientist reported that the current outbreak in Asia began months ago in southern China. The report suggested that efforts to prevent the flu had caused it. China started to vaccinate chickens after the nineteen-ninety-seven outbreak in Hong Kong. The Foreign Ministry dismissed the report. A Chinese agricultural official called it "purely a guess." This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Mars Exploration, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 4, 2004 (THEME) On Jan. 19 NASA said the Spirit rover had reached its first target on Mars, a rock the size of a football, to examine it. Broadcast: February 4, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we complete our two programs about exploring the planet Mars. We tell about the two vehicles that have landed successfully on the Red Planet and are exploring the surface for evidence of water and life. VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we complete our two programs about exploring the planet Mars. We tell about the two vehicles that have landed successfully on the Red Planet and are exploring the surface for evidence of water and life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People on Earth have always been interested in the planet Mars. Recently, that interest has increased because several successful spacecraft have been placed in orbit around Mars. These include the American space agency’s Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. Each of these spacecraft has increased our knowledge of Mars. Each has sent back huge amounts of scientific information and photographs of the planet. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has given that information and photographs to the public on the Internet computer system. This too has increased public interest in Mars. VOICE TWO: Perhaps the most exciting event took place on January third. That is when the first of two Mars exploration vehicles successfully landed on the Red Planet. The first lander is named “Spirit.” It came to rest in an area of Mars named Gusev Crater. Millions of people used their computers to link with NASA’s Internet Web site to see photographs sent back by Spirit. VOICE ONE: On January fifteenth, NASA scientists told Spirit to use its six wheels to move off the landing device. It did this successfully and rolled on to the surface of Mars. Excited NASA officials said Spirit was now ready to begin its task of exploring the surface of the Red Planet. Scientists on Earth sent commands to have Spirit move to a rock that could be clearly seen in photographs. It did this successfully. Spirit continued to send back photographs and valuable information. On January twentieth, scientists told the exploration rover to use one of its tools to study the soil near the rock. The next day, Spirit began having problems. It answered radio signals, but it would not send back scientific information. NASA officials began to work to correct the problem with Spirit’s computer. The part of the computer that stores information was not working correctly. On February first, NASA announced that Spirit’s computer memory had been successfully repaired. It will begin scientific examinations of rocks later this week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On January twenty-fourth, the second rover device reached the surface of Mars. It too immediately began sending back photographs of a very different area of Mars. Public interest in Mars increased again. The second vehicle is named “Opportunity.” It landed in an area of Mars called Meridiani Planum. NASA scientists say Opportunity landed inside a large hole in the surface of the planet. Photographs from Opportunity show several large formations of rock. The photographs clearly show this rock is below the surface. NASA scientists say the rock they see in the photographs is not like anything they have ever seen before. On January thirty-first, Opportunity moved off its landing device and on to the surface of Mars. NASA officials say it will examine soil in front of it for the next several days. Steve Squyres is a scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is the chief investigator for science instruments on both Opportunity and Spirit. He says the areas where the two devices landed are very different. He says Opportunity landed in a very strange and wonderful area for scientific investigation. He says that scientists are extremely excited about the Meridiani Planum area. Mister Squyres says it is good that Opportunity landed in a hole. It will be able to explore areas below the surface of the planet without having to dig. He also says the hole is not deep. This means when Opportunity is done exploring this important area it will be able to drive out of the hole with little or no problems. It will then be free to explore other areas. VOICE ONE: NASA officials say they have discovered and confirmed that Opportunity landed on an area of Mars that is rich in the mineral crystalline hematite. On Earth such hematite usually forms in the presence of water. Scientists want to know if the hematite on Mars was formed under water too. Some evidence suggests that long ago the Meridiani Planum area of Mars was wet and held water. Opportunity will search for more evidence of water and any evidence that some kind of life could have existed in the area. The Meridiani Planum where Opportunity landed and Gusev Crater where Spirit came to rest are very different. They were both carefully chosen from among one-hundred-fifty areas on Mars. NASA officials were able to make the choice using photographs and information supplied by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Both are in orbit around the planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spirit and Opportunity exploration vehicles carry special scientific equipment to learn many of the secrets of Mars. Both vehicles are exactly the same. Each weighs one-hundred-seventy-four kilograms. Each carries several cameras. But the cameras are used for different purposes. One camera is used to see where the vehicle is going. It searches for a clear path that is free of major objects. Another camera takes extremely detailed color photographs. It can take photographs in a complete circle around the exploration vehicle. One camera is inside a microscope that can see objects as small as a human hair. Batteries provide power for the exploration rovers. The batteries store power they receive from special solar collectors that change sunlight into electric energy. VOICE ONE: The exploration rovers carry communications equipment that permits them to communicate directly with Earth. They can also communicate with the Mars Global Surveyor satellite in orbit around the planet. The Surveyor satellite can pass on information it receives from the rovers. Each rover carries a special computer that can survive in the extremely cold temperature of Mars. The computers can also survive extreme amounts of radiation. VOICE TWO: The rovers each carry a science instrument called the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. This instrument can be placed on rocks and soil to study the chemicals inside. Another tool is called the Thermal Emissions Spectrometer. This tool studies minerals in rocks and soil from a distance by measuring the amount of heat radiation they release. It can also study the planet’s atmosphere. Devices called Capture-Filter Magnets can capture and hold dust that contains small amounts of iron. The other scientific instruments can then study this dust. One of those instruments is the Mossbauer Spectrometer. This instrument is designed to study minerals that have large amounts of iron. Spirit and Opportunity each carry a Rock Abrasion Tool. This is a powerful machine that uses electric motors to grind away the surface of rocks so the inside material can be inspected and studied. This is done with the microscope camera and other scientific instruments. VOICE ONE: Mister Squyres says all of the science instruments make the two vehicles into mechanical scientists. He says they use their color cameras and infrared instruments to study rocks and interesting soil at a distance. The vehicles then are commanded to go to the rocks or areas of soil that seem most interesting. When they get to an interesting area they reach out with a mechanical arm that carries several tools. The arm carries the microscope, two instruments for identifying what the rock is made of and a tool for cutting into the rock. Scientists say that Spirit and Opportunity will explore the surface of Mars for as long as ninety days. The rovers will be exploring the surface in an effort to find evidence of water on Mars. Water is extremely important to any future human exploration of Mars. The two devices are trying to discover if we have not been alone in the universe. They are trying to answer the question: Is there any evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet? (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People on Earth have always been interested in the planet Mars. Recently, that interest has increased because several successful spacecraft have been placed in orbit around Mars. These include the American space agency’s Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. Each of these spacecraft has increased our knowledge of Mars. Each has sent back huge amounts of scientific information and photographs of the planet. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has given that information and photographs to the public on the Internet computer system. This too has increased public interest in Mars. VOICE TWO: Perhaps the most exciting event took place on January third. That is when the first of two Mars exploration vehicles successfully landed on the Red Planet. The first lander is named “Spirit.” It came to rest in an area of Mars named Gusev Crater. Millions of people used their computers to link with NASA’s Internet Web site to see photographs sent back by Spirit. VOICE ONE: On January fifteenth, NASA scientists told Spirit to use its six wheels to move off the landing device. It did this successfully and rolled on to the surface of Mars. Excited NASA officials said Spirit was now ready to begin its task of exploring the surface of the Red Planet. Scientists on Earth sent commands to have Spirit move to a rock that could be clearly seen in photographs. It did this successfully. Spirit continued to send back photographs and valuable information. On January twentieth, scientists told the exploration rover to use one of its tools to study the soil near the rock. The next day, Spirit began having problems. It answered radio signals, but it would not send back scientific information. NASA officials began to work to correct the problem with Spirit’s computer. The part of the computer that stores information was not working correctly. On February first, NASA announced that Spirit’s computer memory had been successfully repaired. It will begin scientific examinations of rocks later this week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On January twenty-fourth, the second rover device reached the surface of Mars. It too immediately began sending back photographs of a very different area of Mars. Public interest in Mars increased again. The second vehicle is named “Opportunity.” It landed in an area of Mars called Meridiani Planum. NASA scientists say Opportunity landed inside a large hole in the surface of the planet. Photographs from Opportunity show several large formations of rock. The photographs clearly show this rock is below the surface. NASA scientists say the rock they see in the photographs is not like anything they have ever seen before. On January thirty-first, Opportunity moved off its landing device and on to the surface of Mars. NASA officials say it will examine soil in front of it for the next several days. Steve Squyres is a scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is the chief investigator for science instruments on both Opportunity and Spirit. He says the areas where the two devices landed are very different. He says Opportunity landed in a very strange and wonderful area for scientific investigation. He says that scientists are extremely excited about the Meridiani Planum area. Mister Squyres says it is good that Opportunity landed in a hole. It will be able to explore areas below the surface of the planet without having to dig. He also says the hole is not deep. This means when Opportunity is done exploring this important area it will be able to drive out of the hole with little or no problems. It will then be free to explore other areas. VOICE ONE: NASA officials say they have discovered and confirmed that Opportunity landed on an area of Mars that is rich in the mineral crystalline hematite. On Earth such hematite usually forms in the presence of water. Scientists want to know if the hematite on Mars was formed under water too. Some evidence suggests that long ago the Meridiani Planum area of Mars was wet and held water. Opportunity will search for more evidence of water and any evidence that some kind of life could have existed in the area. The Meridiani Planum where Opportunity landed and Gusev Crater where Spirit came to rest are very different. They were both carefully chosen from among one-hundred-fifty areas on Mars. NASA officials were able to make the choice using photographs and information supplied by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Both are in orbit around the planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spirit and Opportunity exploration vehicles carry special scientific equipment to learn many of the secrets of Mars. Both vehicles are exactly the same. Each weighs one-hundred-seventy-four kilograms. Each carries several cameras. But the cameras are used for different purposes. One camera is used to see where the vehicle is going. It searches for a clear path that is free of major objects. Another camera takes extremely detailed color photographs. It can take photographs in a complete circle around the exploration vehicle. One camera is inside a microscope that can see objects as small as a human hair. Batteries provide power for the exploration rovers. The batteries store power they receive from special solar collectors that change sunlight into electric energy. VOICE ONE: The exploration rovers carry communications equipment that permits them to communicate directly with Earth. They can also communicate with the Mars Global Surveyor satellite in orbit around the planet. The Surveyor satellite can pass on information it receives from the rovers. Each rover carries a special computer that can survive in the extremely cold temperature of Mars. The computers can also survive extreme amounts of radiation. VOICE TWO: The rovers each carry a science instrument called the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. This instrument can be placed on rocks and soil to study the chemicals inside. Another tool is called the Thermal Emissions Spectrometer. This tool studies minerals in rocks and soil from a distance by measuring the amount of heat radiation they release. It can also study the planet’s atmosphere. Devices called Capture-Filter Magnets can capture and hold dust that contains small amounts of iron. The other scientific instruments can then study this dust. One of those instruments is the Mossbauer Spectrometer. This instrument is designed to study minerals that have large amounts of iron. Spirit and Opportunity each carry a Rock Abrasion Tool. This is a powerful machine that uses electric motors to grind away the surface of rocks so the inside material can be inspected and studied. This is done with the microscope camera and other scientific instruments. VOICE ONE: Mister Squyres says all of the science instruments make the two vehicles into mechanical scientists. He says they use their color cameras and infrared instruments to study rocks and interesting soil at a distance. The vehicles then are commanded to go to the rocks or areas of soil that seem most interesting. When they get to an interesting area they reach out with a mechanical arm that carries several tools. The arm carries the microscope, two instruments for identifying what the rock is made of and a tool for cutting into the rock. Scientists say that Spirit and Opportunity will explore the surface of Mars for as long as ninety days. The rovers will be exploring the surface in an effort to find evidence of water on Mars. Water is extremely important to any future human exploration of Mars. The two devices are trying to discover if we have not been alone in the universe. They are trying to answer the question: Is there any evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet? (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - New Method to Find Alzheimer’s Disease
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 4, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Alzheimer’s disease usually appears late in life. In the United States alone, experts say about four million people have this brain disorder. Over time, it robs people of their memory and ability to think. There are no cures. Until now, Alzheimer's could be confirmed only by examining brain tissue after death or by taking brain tissue from a living patient. Now, a new test offers hope that Alzheimer’s may be found earlier. Experts currently give written and spoken tests to help decide if a person has the disease. They also use a process called magnetic resonance imaging to see the brain changes that may mean Alzheimer’s. Many patients already have been seriously affected by the time the disease shows up on these M-R-I’s. Most of the materials believed linked to the disease are present on the image. They are called protein clumps. But the new test makes it possible to see the protein clumps before they could be found by M-R-I. The new test might identify the disease before a person shows signs of Alzheimer’s. Treatment could begin earlier. Doctors could see if the treatment is helping. New or improved drugs may be developed. William Klunk of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania helped invent the test. It calls for patients to receive a small amount of a radioactive molecule called Pittsburgh Compound B. It is administered through the blood. Doctor Klunk says it connects itself to proteins called amyloid plaques. These plaques exist in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Doctors can see them with an examination called a PET scan. Proteins affected by Alzheimer’s show as yellow and red. For years, Doctor Klunk and his team searched for a substance that could connect with the amyloid. Finally they found a material that can reach the brain through the blood. This Pittsburgh Compound B can color the amyloid. The finding led to a test of sixteen suspected Alzheimer’s patients. The researchers say the test found amyloid in those patients. It also found small amounts in one of nine healthy people tested for comparison. Testing on more people is needed. The United States Food and Drug Administration currently is considering approval of the process. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: February 4, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Alzheimer’s disease usually appears late in life. In the United States alone, experts say about four million people have this brain disorder. Over time, it robs people of their memory and ability to think. There are no cures. Until now, Alzheimer's could be confirmed only by examining brain tissue after death or by taking brain tissue from a living patient. Now, a new test offers hope that Alzheimer’s may be found earlier. Experts currently give written and spoken tests to help decide if a person has the disease. They also use a process called magnetic resonance imaging to see the brain changes that may mean Alzheimer’s. Many patients already have been seriously affected by the time the disease shows up on these M-R-I’s. Most of the materials believed linked to the disease are present on the image. They are called protein clumps. But the new test makes it possible to see the protein clumps before they could be found by M-R-I. The new test might identify the disease before a person shows signs of Alzheimer’s. Treatment could begin earlier. Doctors could see if the treatment is helping. New or improved drugs may be developed. William Klunk of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania helped invent the test. It calls for patients to receive a small amount of a radioactive molecule called Pittsburgh Compound B. It is administered through the blood. Doctor Klunk says it connects itself to proteins called amyloid plaques. These plaques exist in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Doctors can see them with an examination called a PET scan. Proteins affected by Alzheimer’s show as yellow and red. For years, Doctor Klunk and his team searched for a substance that could connect with the amyloid. Finally they found a material that can reach the brain through the blood. This Pittsburgh Compound B can color the amyloid. The finding led to a test of sixteen suspected Alzheimer’s patients. The researchers say the test found amyloid in those patients. It also found small amounts in one of nine healthy people tested for comparison. Testing on more people is needed. The United States Food and Drug Administration currently is considering approval of the process. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Introduction
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 5, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we begin a series of programs about learning disabilities. These are disorders in the ways that people understand or use language. They can affect the ability to listen or think, or to speak, or to read and write. They can also affect the ability to do mathematics. A person with a learning disability has unusual difficulty in developing these skills. Researchers believe that learning disabilities are caused by differences in the way that the brain works with information. They say children with learning disabilities are not unintelligent or do not want to work. Their brains just process information differently than other people. Researchers say that as many as one out of every five people in the United States has some kind of learning disability. Almost three-million children in the United States receive some kind of help in school for a learning disability. How can you tell if someone has a learning disability? Experts look for a difference between how well a child does in school and the level of intelligence or ability of the child. But there is no one sign of a disorder. A few signs of a learning disability include not connecting letters with their sounds or not understanding what is read. A person with a learning disability may not be able to understand a funny story. They may not follow directions. They may not read numbers correctly or know how to start a task. Different people have different kinds of learning disabilities. One person may have trouble understanding mathematics. Another may have difficulty understanding what people are saying. Still another may not be able to express ideas in writing. These different kinds of learning disabilities are known by different names. For example, a person who has difficulty reading may have dyslexia. Someone who cannot do mathematics may have a disorder called dyscalculia. Experts say learning disabilities cannot be cured. But people who have them can be helped. Teachers and parents can help young people with learning disabilities to learn successfully. In the next few weeks, we will discuss different kinds of learning disabilities. We will provide advice from specialists about ways to deal with them. And we will also examine some of the political issues involved in the area of special education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: February 5, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we begin a series of programs about learning disabilities. These are disorders in the ways that people understand or use language. They can affect the ability to listen or think, or to speak, or to read and write. They can also affect the ability to do mathematics. A person with a learning disability has unusual difficulty in developing these skills. Researchers believe that learning disabilities are caused by differences in the way that the brain works with information. They say children with learning disabilities are not unintelligent or do not want to work. Their brains just process information differently than other people. Researchers say that as many as one out of every five people in the United States has some kind of learning disability. Almost three-million children in the United States receive some kind of help in school for a learning disability. How can you tell if someone has a learning disability? Experts look for a difference between how well a child does in school and the level of intelligence or ability of the child. But there is no one sign of a disorder. A few signs of a learning disability include not connecting letters with their sounds or not understanding what is read. A person with a learning disability may not be able to understand a funny story. They may not follow directions. They may not read numbers correctly or know how to start a task. Different people have different kinds of learning disabilities. One person may have trouble understanding mathematics. Another may have difficulty understanding what people are saying. Still another may not be able to express ideas in writing. These different kinds of learning disabilities are known by different names. For example, a person who has difficulty reading may have dyslexia. Someone who cannot do mathematics may have a disorder called dyscalculia. Experts say learning disabilities cannot be cured. But people who have them can be helped. Teachers and parents can help young people with learning disabilities to learn successfully. In the next few weeks, we will discuss different kinds of learning disabilities. We will provide advice from specialists about ways to deal with them. And we will also examine some of the political issues involved in the area of special education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Madison, Part 4
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 5, 2994 (THEME) Broadcast: January 5, 2994 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) As we reported in the last program, British forces attacked Washington in the summer of Eighteen-Fourteen. They burned the Capitol building, the White House, and other public buildings before withdrawing to their ships in the Chesapeake Bay. British General Robert Ross and Admiral Sir George Cockburn led the attack on Washington. They planned next to attack Baltimore. But the people of Baltimore expected the attack, and began to prepare for it. Fifty-thousand of them built defenses around the city. The port of Baltimore was protected by Fort McHenry. The guns and cannon of the fort could prevent British ships from reaching the city. VOICE TWO: The British began with a land attack against Baltimore. General Ross, Admiral Cockburn, and about four-thousand British soldiers landed at North Point, a finger of land reaching into the Chesapeake Bay. From North Point, it was a march of about twenty-two kilometers to Baltimore. The march began about seven in the morning. General Ross and Admiral Cockburn stopped their men after an hour. The two commanders and several of their officers rode to a nearby farmhouse and forced the family living there to give them breakfast. When the British officers had finished eating, the farmer asked General Ross where the British were going. "To Baltimore," answered Ross. The farmer told Ross that he might have some difficulty getting there, because of the city's strong defenses. "I will eat supper in Baltimore...or in hell," answered the British general. VOICE ONE: Ross and Cockburn moved far in front of the British forces. A group of several hundred Americans opened fire on the British officers. Ross was hit and died soon afterwards. The Americans retreated, but slowed the progress of the British soldiers. It was late the next day before the British force arrived to face the army of Americans near Baltimore. The Americans were on high ground and had about one-hundred cannon to fire down on the British. The British commander ordered his men to rest for the night. He sent a message to the British warships to attack the city with guns and mortars. Such an attack, he felt, might cause the Americans to fall back. But the British ships already had been firing since early morning at Fort McHenry. The British guns were more powerful than those of the fort. This let the ships fire from so far away that the American guns could not hit them. Shells and bombs from British mortars fell like rain over Fort McHenry. But few Americans in the fort were hurt or killed. Most of the rockets and shells exploded in the air or missed. Many of them failed to explode. VOICE TWO: On a tall staff from the center of the fort flew a large American flag. The flag could be seen by the soldiers defending the city and by the British warships. The flag also was seen by a young American. His name was Francis Scott Key. Key was a lawyer who once had thought of giving his life to religious work. He was a poet and writer. Key opposed war. But he loved his country and joined the army in Washington to help defend it. When the British withdrew from Washington, they took with them an American doctor, Wiliam Beanes. Key knew Beanes. And he asked President Madison to request the British commander to release the doctor. President Madison wrote such a request, and Key agreed to carry it to Admiral Cockburn. Key also carried letters from wounded British soldiers in American hospitals. In one of the letters, a British soldier told of the excellent medical care he was being given. Cockburn agreed to free the doctor after he read the reports of good medical care given his wounded men. But Cockburn would not permit Key, the doctor, or a man who came with Key to return to land until after the attack. VOICE ONE: Francis Scott Key watched as the shells and rockets began to fall on Fort McHenry. "I saw the flag of my country," Key said later, "waving over a city -- the strength and pride of my native state. I watched the enemy prepare for his assault. I heard the sound of battle. The noise of the conflict fell upon my listening ear. It told me that the `brave and the free' had met the invaders." All through the rainy day, the attack continued. Doctor Beanes, watching with Key, had difficulty seeing the flag. He kept asking Key if the "stars and stripes" still flew above the fort. Until dark, Key could still see it. After then, he could only hope. VOICE TWO: Britain tried to land another force of men near the fort. But the Americans heard the boats and fired at them. The landing failed. Shells and rockets continued to rain down on Fort McHenry. At times, the fort's cannon answered. And Key knew the Americans had not surrendered. The British land force east of Baltimore spent most of the night trying to keep dry. Commanders could not decide if they should attack or retreat. Finally, orders came from the admiral: "Withdraw to your ships." A land attack against Baltimore's defenses would not be attempted. At first light of morning, British shells were still bursting in the air over the fort. The flag had holes in it from the British shells. But it still flew. The British shelling stopped at seven o'clock. Key took an old letter from his pocket and wrote a poem about what he had seen. VOICE ONE: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? For more than one-hundred years, Americans sang this song and remembered the attack at Fort McHenry. In Nineteen-Thirty-One, Congress made the "Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States. VOICE TWO: The unsuccessful British attack on Baltimore was followed by news that Britain also had suffered a defeat to the north. British General Sir George Prevost led eleven-thousand soldiers south from Montreal to New York. At Plattsburgh, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, his army was opposed by less than four-thousand Americans. General Prevost believed he should get control of the lake before moving against the American defenders. He requested the support of four British ships and about ten gunboats. A group of American ships of about the same size also entered the lake. In a fierce battle, the American naval force sank the British ships. The large land army of Prevost decided not to attack without naval support. The eleven-thousand British soldiers turned around and marched back to Montreal. VOICE ONE: By the time these battles of Eighteen-Fourteen had been fought, the two sides already had agreed to discuss peace. The peace talks began in the summer at Ghent, in Belgium. The British at first were in no hurry to sign a peace treaty. They believed that their forces would be able to capture parts of the United States. Britain demanded as a condition for peace that the United States give large areas of its northwest to the Indians. It also said America must give Canada other areas along the border. And Britain would not promise to stop seizing American seamen and putting them in the British navy. But British policy at the peace talks changed after the battles of Baltimore and Plattsburgh. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) As we reported in the last program, British forces attacked Washington in the summer of Eighteen-Fourteen. They burned the Capitol building, the White House, and other public buildings before withdrawing to their ships in the Chesapeake Bay. British General Robert Ross and Admiral Sir George Cockburn led the attack on Washington. They planned next to attack Baltimore. But the people of Baltimore expected the attack, and began to prepare for it. Fifty-thousand of them built defenses around the city. The port of Baltimore was protected by Fort McHenry. The guns and cannon of the fort could prevent British ships from reaching the city. VOICE TWO: The British began with a land attack against Baltimore. General Ross, Admiral Cockburn, and about four-thousand British soldiers landed at North Point, a finger of land reaching into the Chesapeake Bay. From North Point, it was a march of about twenty-two kilometers to Baltimore. The march began about seven in the morning. General Ross and Admiral Cockburn stopped their men after an hour. The two commanders and several of their officers rode to a nearby farmhouse and forced the family living there to give them breakfast. When the British officers had finished eating, the farmer asked General Ross where the British were going. "To Baltimore," answered Ross. The farmer told Ross that he might have some difficulty getting there, because of the city's strong defenses. "I will eat supper in Baltimore...or in hell," answered the British general. VOICE ONE: Ross and Cockburn moved far in front of the British forces. A group of several hundred Americans opened fire on the British officers. Ross was hit and died soon afterwards. The Americans retreated, but slowed the progress of the British soldiers. It was late the next day before the British force arrived to face the army of Americans near Baltimore. The Americans were on high ground and had about one-hundred cannon to fire down on the British. The British commander ordered his men to rest for the night. He sent a message to the British warships to attack the city with guns and mortars. Such an attack, he felt, might cause the Americans to fall back. But the British ships already had been firing since early morning at Fort McHenry. The British guns were more powerful than those of the fort. This let the ships fire from so far away that the American guns could not hit them. Shells and bombs from British mortars fell like rain over Fort McHenry. But few Americans in the fort were hurt or killed. Most of the rockets and shells exploded in the air or missed. Many of them failed to explode. VOICE TWO: On a tall staff from the center of the fort flew a large American flag. The flag could be seen by the soldiers defending the city and by the British warships. The flag also was seen by a young American. His name was Francis Scott Key. Key was a lawyer who once had thought of giving his life to religious work. He was a poet and writer. Key opposed war. But he loved his country and joined the army in Washington to help defend it. When the British withdrew from Washington, they took with them an American doctor, Wiliam Beanes. Key knew Beanes. And he asked President Madison to request the British commander to release the doctor. President Madison wrote such a request, and Key agreed to carry it to Admiral Cockburn. Key also carried letters from wounded British soldiers in American hospitals. In one of the letters, a British soldier told of the excellent medical care he was being given. Cockburn agreed to free the doctor after he read the reports of good medical care given his wounded men. But Cockburn would not permit Key, the doctor, or a man who came with Key to return to land until after the attack. VOICE ONE: Francis Scott Key watched as the shells and rockets began to fall on Fort McHenry. "I saw the flag of my country," Key said later, "waving over a city -- the strength and pride of my native state. I watched the enemy prepare for his assault. I heard the sound of battle. The noise of the conflict fell upon my listening ear. It told me that the `brave and the free' had met the invaders." All through the rainy day, the attack continued. Doctor Beanes, watching with Key, had difficulty seeing the flag. He kept asking Key if the "stars and stripes" still flew above the fort. Until dark, Key could still see it. After then, he could only hope. VOICE TWO: Britain tried to land another force of men near the fort. But the Americans heard the boats and fired at them. The landing failed. Shells and rockets continued to rain down on Fort McHenry. At times, the fort's cannon answered. And Key knew the Americans had not surrendered. The British land force east of Baltimore spent most of the night trying to keep dry. Commanders could not decide if they should attack or retreat. Finally, orders came from the admiral: "Withdraw to your ships." A land attack against Baltimore's defenses would not be attempted. At first light of morning, British shells were still bursting in the air over the fort. The flag had holes in it from the British shells. But it still flew. The British shelling stopped at seven o'clock. Key took an old letter from his pocket and wrote a poem about what he had seen. VOICE ONE: Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? For more than one-hundred years, Americans sang this song and remembered the attack at Fort McHenry. In Nineteen-Thirty-One, Congress made the "Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States. VOICE TWO: The unsuccessful British attack on Baltimore was followed by news that Britain also had suffered a defeat to the north. British General Sir George Prevost led eleven-thousand soldiers south from Montreal to New York. At Plattsburgh, on the western shore of Lake Champlain, his army was opposed by less than four-thousand Americans. General Prevost believed he should get control of the lake before moving against the American defenders. He requested the support of four British ships and about ten gunboats. A group of American ships of about the same size also entered the lake. In a fierce battle, the American naval force sank the British ships. The large land army of Prevost decided not to attack without naval support. The eleven-thousand British soldiers turned around and marched back to Montreal. VOICE ONE: By the time these battles of Eighteen-Fourteen had been fought, the two sides already had agreed to discuss peace. The peace talks began in the summer at Ghent, in Belgium. The British at first were in no hurry to sign a peace treaty. They believed that their forces would be able to capture parts of the United States. Britain demanded as a condition for peace that the United States give large areas of its northwest to the Indians. It also said America must give Canada other areas along the border. And Britain would not promise to stop seizing American seamen and putting them in the British navy. But British policy at the peace talks changed after the battles of Baltimore and Plattsburgh. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT — Business Organizations, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 6, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured to meet different needs. One basic difference involves who is responsible for the business. Another involves how long the organization can stay in business. Today we begin a report about ways that businesses are organized under United States tax law. The simplest form of business is called an individual proprietorship. The word proprietor comes from French and Latin words for property owner. The proprietor owns all the property of the business and is responsible for it. This means the proprietor receives all the profits. But this also means that the proprietor is responsible for all the debts of the business. Also, any legal action against an individual proprietorship is taken against the owner. The law recognizes no difference between the owner and the business. Most small businesses in the United States are individual proprietorships. The Census Bureau says there are more the twelve-million of them. United States tax law has simpler reporting requirements for these kinds of businesses. One person may be able to complete all the tax documents required. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to state how much of the partnership each person controls. They can end the partnership at any time. But partnerships and individual proprietorships have a limited life. They exist only as long as the owners are alive. Some states permit what are called limited liability partnerships. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits. But their responsibilities to the organization are also limited. A partnership is often called a pass-through entity: money passes through it to the individual partners. The federal government does not tax partnerships. But the partners are taxed on the payments they receive. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share the profits and risks of doing business. A husband and wife can form a business partnership. The Census Bureau says there are more than one-million American partnerships. Partnerships and individual proprietorships are usually small business organizations. Next week, we discuss a bigger kind: the corporation. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Heavy Metal Music / Black History Month / Captain Kangaroo Dies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 6, 2004 (THEME) Metallica Broadcast: February 6, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about heavy metal music. And we remember a beloved children's television performer known as Captain Kangaroo. But first, a report about a remembrance of one the best known court rulings in American history. Captain Kangaroo (MUSIC) HOST: Children's television performer Bob Keeshan died last month. He was seventy-six years old. The actor was known as Captain Kangaroo. His program was on television for many years. Shirley Griffith tells more. ANNCR: Bob Keeshan was born in nineteen-twenty-seven on Long Island, New York. He finished high school and joined the Marines in nineteen-forty five. But fighting in World War Two had ended before he was deployed. Bob Keeshan worked in television for several years before he got the chance to launch his own children's program. The "Captain Kangaroo" show first appeared in nineteen-fifty-five. It was broadcast on the C-B-S network for twenty-nine years. Then, in nineteen-eighty-four, the program moved to public television. It appeared for six more years. Millions of American children grew up with Captain Kangaroo. Each day, Bob Keeshan wore a big red coat with large pockets on the side. Some people said the pockets were big enough to hide a baby kangaroo, like the animals do in Australia. That is how Bob Keeshan got his show name. Some characters always appeared on the Captain Kangaroo show. One was a friendly man named Mister Green Jeans. He always had some strange, new mechanical device that he could never get to work. Mister Moose and Bunny Rabbit were talking hand puppets. There was also an old grandfather clock that told poems. Bob Keeshan was an activist for children. He often warned parents against the influence of television. He also helped launch the Coalition for America’s Children. This organization works to inform politicians about the importance of young people. It also tries to educate voters about positions that elected officials take on children’s issues. On television Bob Keeshan tried to teach children something new everyday. He was known for being very calm. Bob Keeshan won six Emmy awards and three Peabodys for his work. He also wrote six books during his years performing as the man everyone knew as Captain Kangaroo. Black History Month Theme HOST: February is Black History Month in the United States. This year the observance honors the fiftieth anniversary of an important civil rights case. Shep O’Neal reports. ANNCR: In nineteen-fifty-four, the highest court in the nation ruled that racial separation in public schools violated the Constitution. The case was known as Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka. Oliver Brown was an African American father who lived in Topeka, Kansas. The city refused to permit his daughter to attend a school near her home. That school accepted only white students. So Mister Brown took legal action. Many public places were divided by race at that time. It was legal to separate blacks and whites as long as the services were separate but equal. Many towns and cities, for example, had schools for white children and schools for black children. Thurgood Marshall was the top lawyer for a civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He took the case brought by Oliver Brown and several similar ones to the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall argued that it was impossible to have racial separation and racial equality at the same time. He said that separation made minority students feel of lesser value. He said this affected their ability to learn. Thurgood Marshall won the case. Schools were forced to educate whites and blacks together. Thirteen years later, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American justice on the Supreme Court. Heavy Metal Music HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangalore, India. Ravindra Kashyap wants to know about American heavy metal music. This kind of music has been played for more than thirty years. So there is a lot to tell. But we will mostly let the music speak for itself. (MUSIC) This group became popular in the nineteen-seventies. Alice Cooper was one of the first heavy metal bands in the United States. Its leader, Vincent Furnier, was famous for his wild concert appearances. Heavy metal music often has long parts with only guitar or drums. The songs may sound out of control at times. But they often depend on simple three-chord melodies. “Enter Sandman” by Metallica is one example. (MUSIC) "Enter Sandman" was a huge hit when it was released in nineteen-ninety-one. Metallica is still popular. In fact, the group is nominated for a Grammy Award this Sunday for this song, “Saint Anger.” (MUSIC) Heavy metal music has risen and fallen in popularity many times. Other musical styles have developed from it. Another Grammy nominee this year is the band Korn. That group is considered “Nu Metal." We leave you with the song that Korn is nominated for, “Did My Time.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! We'll send you a gift if we use your question. So be sure to include your name and postal address. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Our producer is Paul Thompson. And our engineer is Andreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about heavy metal music. And we remember a beloved children's television performer known as Captain Kangaroo. But first, a report about a remembrance of one the best known court rulings in American history. Captain Kangaroo (MUSIC) HOST: Children's television performer Bob Keeshan died last month. He was seventy-six years old. The actor was known as Captain Kangaroo. His program was on television for many years. Shirley Griffith tells more. ANNCR: Bob Keeshan was born in nineteen-twenty-seven on Long Island, New York. He finished high school and joined the Marines in nineteen-forty five. But fighting in World War Two had ended before he was deployed. Bob Keeshan worked in television for several years before he got the chance to launch his own children's program. The "Captain Kangaroo" show first appeared in nineteen-fifty-five. It was broadcast on the C-B-S network for twenty-nine years. Then, in nineteen-eighty-four, the program moved to public television. It appeared for six more years. Millions of American children grew up with Captain Kangaroo. Each day, Bob Keeshan wore a big red coat with large pockets on the side. Some people said the pockets were big enough to hide a baby kangaroo, like the animals do in Australia. That is how Bob Keeshan got his show name. Some characters always appeared on the Captain Kangaroo show. One was a friendly man named Mister Green Jeans. He always had some strange, new mechanical device that he could never get to work. Mister Moose and Bunny Rabbit were talking hand puppets. There was also an old grandfather clock that told poems. Bob Keeshan was an activist for children. He often warned parents against the influence of television. He also helped launch the Coalition for America’s Children. This organization works to inform politicians about the importance of young people. It also tries to educate voters about positions that elected officials take on children’s issues. On television Bob Keeshan tried to teach children something new everyday. He was known for being very calm. Bob Keeshan won six Emmy awards and three Peabodys for his work. He also wrote six books during his years performing as the man everyone knew as Captain Kangaroo. Black History Month Theme HOST: February is Black History Month in the United States. This year the observance honors the fiftieth anniversary of an important civil rights case. Shep O’Neal reports. ANNCR: In nineteen-fifty-four, the highest court in the nation ruled that racial separation in public schools violated the Constitution. The case was known as Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka. Oliver Brown was an African American father who lived in Topeka, Kansas. The city refused to permit his daughter to attend a school near her home. That school accepted only white students. So Mister Brown took legal action. Many public places were divided by race at that time. It was legal to separate blacks and whites as long as the services were separate but equal. Many towns and cities, for example, had schools for white children and schools for black children. Thurgood Marshall was the top lawyer for a civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He took the case brought by Oliver Brown and several similar ones to the Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall argued that it was impossible to have racial separation and racial equality at the same time. He said that separation made minority students feel of lesser value. He said this affected their ability to learn. Thurgood Marshall won the case. Schools were forced to educate whites and blacks together. Thirteen years later, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American justice on the Supreme Court. Heavy Metal Music HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangalore, India. Ravindra Kashyap wants to know about American heavy metal music. This kind of music has been played for more than thirty years. So there is a lot to tell. But we will mostly let the music speak for itself. (MUSIC) This group became popular in the nineteen-seventies. Alice Cooper was one of the first heavy metal bands in the United States. Its leader, Vincent Furnier, was famous for his wild concert appearances. Heavy metal music often has long parts with only guitar or drums. The songs may sound out of control at times. But they often depend on simple three-chord melodies. “Enter Sandman” by Metallica is one example. (MUSIC) "Enter Sandman" was a huge hit when it was released in nineteen-ninety-one. Metallica is still popular. In fact, the group is nominated for a Grammy Award this Sunday for this song, “Saint Anger.” (MUSIC) Heavy metal music has risen and fallen in popularity many times. Other musical styles have developed from it. Another Grammy nominee this year is the band Korn. That group is considered “Nu Metal." We leave you with the song that Korn is nominated for, “Did My Time.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! We'll send you a gift if we use your question. So be sure to include your name and postal address. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Our producer is Paul Thompson. And our engineer is Andreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 5, 2004 - Political Rhetoric in America, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 5, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we continue our discussion of American political rhetoric. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 5, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we continue our discussion of American political rhetoric. RS: The Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University says two times as many Americans describe themselves as "conservative" than as "liberal." The Scripps Howard News Service says this finding was true for rich and poor alike. AA: But what exactly do Americans mean by these terms, “conservative,” and “liberal”? For some perspective, we asked Professor Dennis Goldford. He's chairman of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. GOLDFORD: "In the American context, those who call themselves social conservatives -- conservative Christians, those who emphasize the importance of morality and the culture -- they are speaking that language of traditional European Conservatism. Those who call themselves nowadays conservative in an economic sense are those who believe as nineteenth century Liberals did, that government should not interfere with the operation of the market, that the market and market competition left to itself always produces optimal results. RS: "So how will understanding these labels, how will this help our listeners who are weeding their way through the electoral process?" GOLDFORD: "Well, so often these labels are used not to enlighten but as rhetorical clubs to hit people over the head. That's the difficulty. So you simply again have got to bear in mind the kind of arguments people make. When President Bush talked about the sanctity of marriage and strengthening institutions like families and schools and churches, again that's the language of this classical Conservative tradition. But when there's talk about getting government off the backs of entrepreneurs and consumers in the marketplace, that's the language of nineteenth century Liberalism, which is now called economic conservatism." AA: "And twenty-first century liberalism would be what?" GOLDFORD: "These would be people who really began in the Progressive movement in American history and politics around the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. And they were very influenced by the rise of the modern, especially the giant corporations. And their argument was, that with these new giant corporations on the playing field, they've tilted the playing field, and that government must step in to protect competition and restore competition and equality of opportunity, that the market wouldn't do it automatically, as used to be thought in the nineteenth century. That's the economic side of what we call liberal now. "The social side of what we call liberal now is the view that government must remain neutral or agnostic regarding any kind of moral or religious orthodoxy. Government's job is simply to keep you from clubbing your neighbor over the head, and keep your neighbor from clubbing you over the head as each of you pursues your own interests and values as you see fit." RS: "Do you have any, I guess, advice to our listeners, any signs when they see it coming they should say, 'Ah, this is what I'm listening to.' Any warning signs?" GOLDFORD: "Well, there's been a kind of Europeanization of American political rhetoric over the past twenty-five years. You'll hear lots of talk among conservatives about 'the left,' and you'll hear talk among people who are more liberal about 'the right.' But really the left in American politics wouldn't dare go so far as to propose social programs that are accepted by the Conservative Democrat or the Christian Democratic Union in Germany, for example. "And the right in America usually wouldn't go so far as to propose various programs that might be seen in certain authoritarian countries and places like that. American political rhetoric takes place within a relatively narrow band that's really pretty much in the Liberal tradition of the notion of individual freedom and opportunity, with a little smattering or salting, as it were, of this older Conservative notion of the necessity of morality and culture and key institutions like family and church and schools. "But it takes place with a much narrower band of argument than you find in many countries around the world. So in this sense there's a lot of heat in American political rhetoric in campaign, but it's over quite often less of a significant difference than one might find in other countries and their political systems around the world." RS: Our thanks to Dennis Goldford at Drake University in Iowa for talking to us after the Iowa caucuses last month. By his count, the good professor had already given around one-hundred-seventy interviews in two weeks about that event. AA: Thirty-eight states will hold caucuses or primaries during this presidential election cycle, but Iowa traditionally goes first, so it's watched closely. And that's Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: The Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University says two times as many Americans describe themselves as "conservative" than as "liberal." The Scripps Howard News Service says this finding was true for rich and poor alike. AA: But what exactly do Americans mean by these terms, “conservative,” and “liberal”? For some perspective, we asked Professor Dennis Goldford. He's chairman of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. GOLDFORD: "In the American context, those who call themselves social conservatives -- conservative Christians, those who emphasize the importance of morality and the culture -- they are speaking that language of traditional European Conservatism. Those who call themselves nowadays conservative in an economic sense are those who believe as nineteenth century Liberals did, that government should not interfere with the operation of the market, that the market and market competition left to itself always produces optimal results. RS: "So how will understanding these labels, how will this help our listeners who are weeding their way through the electoral process?" GOLDFORD: "Well, so often these labels are used not to enlighten but as rhetorical clubs to hit people over the head. That's the difficulty. So you simply again have got to bear in mind the kind of arguments people make. When President Bush talked about the sanctity of marriage and strengthening institutions like families and schools and churches, again that's the language of this classical Conservative tradition. But when there's talk about getting government off the backs of entrepreneurs and consumers in the marketplace, that's the language of nineteenth century Liberalism, which is now called economic conservatism." AA: "And twenty-first century liberalism would be what?" GOLDFORD: "These would be people who really began in the Progressive movement in American history and politics around the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. And they were very influenced by the rise of the modern, especially the giant corporations. And their argument was, that with these new giant corporations on the playing field, they've tilted the playing field, and that government must step in to protect competition and restore competition and equality of opportunity, that the market wouldn't do it automatically, as used to be thought in the nineteenth century. That's the economic side of what we call liberal now. "The social side of what we call liberal now is the view that government must remain neutral or agnostic regarding any kind of moral or religious orthodoxy. Government's job is simply to keep you from clubbing your neighbor over the head, and keep your neighbor from clubbing you over the head as each of you pursues your own interests and values as you see fit." RS: "Do you have any, I guess, advice to our listeners, any signs when they see it coming they should say, 'Ah, this is what I'm listening to.' Any warning signs?" GOLDFORD: "Well, there's been a kind of Europeanization of American political rhetoric over the past twenty-five years. You'll hear lots of talk among conservatives about 'the left,' and you'll hear talk among people who are more liberal about 'the right.' But really the left in American politics wouldn't dare go so far as to propose social programs that are accepted by the Conservative Democrat or the Christian Democratic Union in Germany, for example. "And the right in America usually wouldn't go so far as to propose various programs that might be seen in certain authoritarian countries and places like that. American political rhetoric takes place within a relatively narrow band that's really pretty much in the Liberal tradition of the notion of individual freedom and opportunity, with a little smattering or salting, as it were, of this older Conservative notion of the necessity of morality and culture and key institutions like family and church and schools. "But it takes place with a much narrower band of argument than you find in many countries around the world. So in this sense there's a lot of heat in American political rhetoric in campaign, but it's over quite often less of a significant difference than one might find in other countries and their political systems around the world." RS: Our thanks to Dennis Goldford at Drake University in Iowa for talking to us after the Iowa caucuses last month. By his count, the good professor had already given around one-hundred-seventy interviews in two weeks about that event. AA: Thirty-eight states will hold caucuses or primaries during this presidential election cycle, but Iowa traditionally goes first, so it's watched closely. And that's Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Pakistani Nuclear Scientist Pardoned
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 7, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Debate continues in Pakistan over the decision to pardon nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. Mister Khan admitted Wednesday that he sold nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran. He spoke on national television. On Thurday, President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Mister Khan with support from the cabinet. And on Friday Islamic opposition parties held demonstrations in several cities in support of the scientist. But other opposition parties demanded a parliamentary investigation. Mister Khan is considered a national hero. He is known as the father of the Pakistani nuclear weapons program. In his statement, Mister Khan accepted full responsibility for spreading weapons technology to other countries. He said he acted alone, without government knowledge. He apologized and asked forgiveness. Mister Khan had met earlier Wednesday with Mister Musharraf to request a pardon. Critics say Mister Khan could not have sold nuclear secrets without the knowledge of military officials. General Musharraf denies that. He says he pardoned Mister Khan because the scientist has done much for national security. The president says Pakistan now has controls to stop the spread of nuclear technology. Pakistani officials carried out a two-month investigation. They had received evidence late last year from the International Atomic Energy Agency, part of the United Nations. The evidence showed that Pakistani scientists had provided technology to Iran that could be used to make nuclear bombs. The evidence was based on statements made by Iran to the U-N agency. In addition, Pakistan heard American concerns that North Korea had gotten help from Pakistani scientists. Finally, Libya's leader admitted in December that his country had a nuclear weapons program. Mister Khan has said he acted out of a desire to remove Western attention from the Pakistani nuclear program. But President Musharraf says the scientist did it for money. Pakistani officials say Mister Khan received millions of dollars over a period of years. They say he bought homes in Pakistan and other countries and put money into foreign banks. Two weeks ago, the Pakistani government had promised to take legal action against anyone caught selling nuclear secrets. Several scientists and other officials have been under investigation. But religious groups strongly opposed punishment for Mister Khan. The International Atomic Energy Agency says the problem does not end with Mister Khan. But President Musharraf says he will not permit international supervision of the Pakistani nuclear program. The United States said it would not judge the decision to pardon Mister Khan. It said what is more important is to make sure no more nuclear secrets leave Pakistan. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Robert Frost, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 8, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 8, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we finish the story of Robert Frost and his poetry. (THEME) VOICE ONE: When Robert Frost left the United States in nineteen-twelve he was an unknown writer. When he returned from Britain three years later he was on his way to becoming one of America's most honored writers. Publishers who had rejected his books now competed against each other to publish them. Unlike many poets of his time Frost wrote in traditional forms. He said that not using them was like playing a game that had no rules. He joined the rules of the form with the naturalness of common speech. Other poets before him had tried to do this, but none with Frost's skill. VOICE TWO: The common speech Frost used had the words and way of speaking that could be easily seen as American. For example, a poem called "The Death of the Hired Man" begins: NARRATOR: Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step, She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage To meet him in the doorway with the news And put him on his guard. 'Silas is back.' Frost is telling a story about an old farm worker named Silas. The discussion between Warren and Mary continues: NARRATOR: She pushed him outward with her through the door And shut it after her. 'Be kind,' she said. She took the market things from Warren's arms And set them on the porch, then drew him down To sit beside her on the wooden steps. VOICE TWO: Warren says: NARRATOR: 'When was I ever anything but kind to him. But I'll not have the fellow back,' he said. 'I told him so last haying, didn't I? If he left then, I said, that ended it. ' VOICE TWO: And Mary says: NARRATOR: 'He's worn out. He's asleep beside the stove. When I came up from Rowe's I found him here, Huddled against the barn-door fast asleep. . . . VOICE ONE: Through the discussion between Warren and Mary the reader discovers more and more about Silas. In some ways he is a good worker, but he usually disappears when he is most needed. He does not earn much money. He has his own ideas about the way farm work should be done. And he has his own ideas about himself. Instead of asking for help from his rich brother, Silas has come to Warren and Mary. She says: NARRATOR: ... He has come home to die: You needn't be afraid he'll leave you this time. ' 'Home,' He mocked gently. VOICE ONE: She answers: NARRATOR: 'Yes, what else but home? 'Home is the place where, when you go there, They have to take you in. ' VOICE ONE: Without ever having Silas speak, Frost has made the reader know this tired old man, who has come to die in the only home he has. In the final lines of the poem the story of Silas is completed. Mary says: NARRATOR: 'I made the bed up for him there tonight. You'll be surprised at him--how much he's broken. His working days are done; I'm sure of it. Go, look, see for yourself. ' Warren returned--too soon, it seemed to her, Slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited. 'Warren?' she questioned. 'Dead,' was all he answered. VOICE ONE: The poem tells of the understanding that Mary and Warren have for a man who has worked for them for many years. The poem also presents a sadness that Frost repeats many times. VOICE TWO: Frost was like an earlier New England writer and thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson. They never were good at joining others in programs or movements. Frost was politically conservative and avoided movements of the left or right. He did this not because he did not support their beliefs, but because they were group projects. In the poem "Mending Wall" the speaker and his neighbor walk together along a wall, repairing the damage caused by winter weather: NARRATOR: Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet and walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. VOICE TWO: The speaker questions his neighbor who says, "Good fences make good neighbors. " The speaker says: NARRATOR: Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. VOICE ONE: Frost's later poetry shows little change or development from his earlier writing. It confirms what he had established in such early books as “North of Boston.” For example, a poem called "Birches," written in nineteen-sixteen begins: NARRATOR: When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay As ice storms do. VOICE ONE: And it ends: NARRATOR: I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. VOICE TWO: In the nature poems there is often a comparison between what the poet sees and what he feels. It is what Frost in one poem calls the difference between "outer and inner weather. " Under the common speech of the person saying the poem is a dark picture of the world. In "The Road Not Taken" he says: NARRATOR: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. VOICE ONE: Among Frost's nature poems, there are more about winter than about any other season. Even the poems about spring, autumn, or summer remember winter. They are not poems about happiness found in nature. They are moments of resistance to time and its changes. And even the poems that tell stories are mainly pictures of people who are alone. Frost shared with Emerson the idea that everybody was a separate individual, and that groups weakened individuals. But where Emerson and those who followed him looked at God and saw a creator, Frost saw what he says is "no expression, nothing to express. " Frost sees the world as a "desert place. " In a poem called "Desert Places," he says: NARRATOR: Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it--it is theirs. All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares. And lonely as it is that loneliness Will be more lonely ere it will be less-- A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express. They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars--on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places. VOICE TWO: Frost received almost every honor a writer could receive. He won the Pulitzer Prize for literature four times. In nineteen-sixty, Congress voted Frost a gold medal for what he had given to the culture of the United States. In the last years of his life, Frost was no longer producing great poetry, but he represented the value of poetry in human life. He often taught, and he gave talks. Usually he would be asked to read his best known poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:" NARRATOR: Whose woods these are I think I know His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. VOICE ONE: Robert Frost died in nineteen-sixty-three. He had lived for almost one-hundred years, and had covered many miles before he slept, many miles before he slept. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Robert Frost's poetry was read by Shep O'Neal. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we finish the story of Robert Frost and his poetry. (THEME) VOICE ONE: When Robert Frost left the United States in nineteen-twelve he was an unknown writer. When he returned from Britain three years later he was on his way to becoming one of America's most honored writers. Publishers who had rejected his books now competed against each other to publish them. Unlike many poets of his time Frost wrote in traditional forms. He said that not using them was like playing a game that had no rules. He joined the rules of the form with the naturalness of common speech. Other poets before him had tried to do this, but none with Frost's skill. VOICE TWO: The common speech Frost used had the words and way of speaking that could be easily seen as American. For example, a poem called "The Death of the Hired Man" begins: NARRATOR: Mary sat musing on the lamp-flame at the table Waiting for Warren. When she heard his step, She ran on tip-toe down the darkened passage To meet him in the doorway with the news And put him on his guard. 'Silas is back.' Frost is telling a story about an old farm worker named Silas. The discussion between Warren and Mary continues: NARRATOR: She pushed him outward with her through the door And shut it after her. 'Be kind,' she said. She took the market things from Warren's arms And set them on the porch, then drew him down To sit beside her on the wooden steps. VOICE TWO: Warren says: NARRATOR: 'When was I ever anything but kind to him. But I'll not have the fellow back,' he said. 'I told him so last haying, didn't I? If he left then, I said, that ended it. ' VOICE TWO: And Mary says: NARRATOR: 'He's worn out. He's asleep beside the stove. When I came up from Rowe's I found him here, Huddled against the barn-door fast asleep. . . . VOICE ONE: Through the discussion between Warren and Mary the reader discovers more and more about Silas. In some ways he is a good worker, but he usually disappears when he is most needed. He does not earn much money. He has his own ideas about the way farm work should be done. And he has his own ideas about himself. Instead of asking for help from his rich brother, Silas has come to Warren and Mary. She says: NARRATOR: ... He has come home to die: You needn't be afraid he'll leave you this time. ' 'Home,' He mocked gently. VOICE ONE: She answers: NARRATOR: 'Yes, what else but home? 'Home is the place where, when you go there, They have to take you in. ' VOICE ONE: Without ever having Silas speak, Frost has made the reader know this tired old man, who has come to die in the only home he has. In the final lines of the poem the story of Silas is completed. Mary says: NARRATOR: 'I made the bed up for him there tonight. You'll be surprised at him--how much he's broken. His working days are done; I'm sure of it. Go, look, see for yourself. ' Warren returned--too soon, it seemed to her, Slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited. 'Warren?' she questioned. 'Dead,' was all he answered. VOICE ONE: The poem tells of the understanding that Mary and Warren have for a man who has worked for them for many years. The poem also presents a sadness that Frost repeats many times. VOICE TWO: Frost was like an earlier New England writer and thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson. They never were good at joining others in programs or movements. Frost was politically conservative and avoided movements of the left or right. He did this not because he did not support their beliefs, but because they were group projects. In the poem "Mending Wall" the speaker and his neighbor walk together along a wall, repairing the damage caused by winter weather: NARRATOR: Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet and walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. VOICE TWO: The speaker questions his neighbor who says, "Good fences make good neighbors. " The speaker says: NARRATOR: Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. VOICE ONE: Frost's later poetry shows little change or development from his earlier writing. It confirms what he had established in such early books as “North of Boston.” For example, a poem called "Birches," written in nineteen-sixteen begins: NARRATOR: When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay As ice storms do. VOICE ONE: And it ends: NARRATOR: I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. VOICE TWO: In the nature poems there is often a comparison between what the poet sees and what he feels. It is what Frost in one poem calls the difference between "outer and inner weather. " Under the common speech of the person saying the poem is a dark picture of the world. In "The Road Not Taken" he says: NARRATOR: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. VOICE ONE: Among Frost's nature poems, there are more about winter than about any other season. Even the poems about spring, autumn, or summer remember winter. They are not poems about happiness found in nature. They are moments of resistance to time and its changes. And even the poems that tell stories are mainly pictures of people who are alone. Frost shared with Emerson the idea that everybody was a separate individual, and that groups weakened individuals. But where Emerson and those who followed him looked at God and saw a creator, Frost saw what he says is "no expression, nothing to express. " Frost sees the world as a "desert place. " In a poem called "Desert Places," he says: NARRATOR: Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it--it is theirs. All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares. And lonely as it is that loneliness Will be more lonely ere it will be less-- A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express. They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars--on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places. VOICE TWO: Frost received almost every honor a writer could receive. He won the Pulitzer Prize for literature four times. In nineteen-sixty, Congress voted Frost a gold medal for what he had given to the culture of the United States. In the last years of his life, Frost was no longer producing great poetry, but he represented the value of poetry in human life. He often taught, and he gave talks. Usually he would be asked to read his best known poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:" NARRATOR: Whose woods these are I think I know His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. VOICE ONE: Robert Frost died in nineteen-sixty-three. He had lived for almost one-hundred years, and had covered many miles before he slept, many miles before he slept. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Robert Frost's poetry was read by Shep O'Neal. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – 'Motomen' Bring Cambodian Villages into E-Mail World
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 9, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Thirteen villages in northern Cambodia now have e-mail through a project that organizers hope other countries will copy. A group called American Assistance for Cambodia organized the project. It says the idea could serve as a way to help reduce economic differences between rich and poor nations. A group of schools and a medical center in Ratanakiri Province have been equipped with solar panels. These devices capture energy from the sun to power computers in the schools. Students use electronic mail to write messages to villages nearby. The messages are sent over the Internet, but with the help of what are called “motomen.” Every day, five people ride motorcycles into the villages to collect outgoing messages and bring incoming mail. The motorcycles are equipped with a computer to store the data. At the end of the day, each “motoman” returns to a computer center in the local capital, Ban Lung. The information is sent from there by satellite to the Internet. All this work is not just so students can write to nearby villages. Currently, a person in Ratanakiri Province earns about forty dollars a year. Organizers say they hope the project will help farmers and villagers sell their products on the world market over the Internet. In addition, the computers serve as a learning tool for hundreds of students. Local citizens can use the computers to communicate with the government. And newspapers can send their stories electronically to the villages. Local health care workers also use the computers. They communicate with doctors in other parts of Cambodia and in the United States. This means they are able to send medical pictures and discuss possible treatments for patients. A company in the United States developed the technology for the “motoman” project. The company is called First Mile Solutions. Organizers say a team of three people put the project into action in one month. The technology cost about five-hundred dollars per village. You can learn more about the project on the company Web site. The address is firstmilesolutions.com. The postal address is First Mile Solutions, four-three-two Columbia Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, zero-two-one-four-one, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: February 9, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Thirteen villages in northern Cambodia now have e-mail through a project that organizers hope other countries will copy. A group called American Assistance for Cambodia organized the project. It says the idea could serve as a way to help reduce economic differences between rich and poor nations. A group of schools and a medical center in Ratanakiri Province have been equipped with solar panels. These devices capture energy from the sun to power computers in the schools. Students use electronic mail to write messages to villages nearby. The messages are sent over the Internet, but with the help of what are called “motomen.” Every day, five people ride motorcycles into the villages to collect outgoing messages and bring incoming mail. The motorcycles are equipped with a computer to store the data. At the end of the day, each “motoman” returns to a computer center in the local capital, Ban Lung. The information is sent from there by satellite to the Internet. All this work is not just so students can write to nearby villages. Currently, a person in Ratanakiri Province earns about forty dollars a year. Organizers say they hope the project will help farmers and villagers sell their products on the world market over the Internet. In addition, the computers serve as a learning tool for hundreds of students. Local citizens can use the computers to communicate with the government. And newspapers can send their stories electronically to the villages. Local health care workers also use the computers. They communicate with doctors in other parts of Cambodia and in the United States. This means they are able to send medical pictures and discuss possible treatments for patients. A company in the United States developed the technology for the “motoman” project. The company is called First Mile Solutions. Organizers say a team of three people put the project into action in one month. The technology cost about five-hundred dollars per village. You can learn more about the project on the company Web site. The address is firstmilesolutions.com. The postal address is First Mile Solutions, four-three-two Columbia Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, zero-two-one-four-one, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - 'Lincoln Portrait'
* Byline: 

 Broadcst: February 9, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Next Monday is a holiday that honors American presidents. I'm Shirley Griffith. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and I tell about one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Presidents Day each year on the third Monday of February. But they did not always do so. They used to observe the birthdays of two of the greatest American presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both men were born in the month of February. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February twelfth. George Washington's is February twenty-second. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, Congress approved a law that affected some national holidays. It changed the official celebration of the holiday to the Monday closest to the real date. The birthdays of the two presidents were celebrated on one day – the third Monday in February. Later, Congress said the holiday would honor all American presidents. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth American president. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. He grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education. Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. In Eighteen-Sixty, he was elected to the country's highest office. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War between the northern and southern states. This was the most serious crisis in American history. President Lincoln helped end slavery in the nation. And he helped keep the American union from splitting apart during the war. President Lincoln believed that he proved to the world that democracy can be a lasting form of government. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Three, President Lincoln gave what became his most famous speech. Union armies of the north had won two great victories that year. They defeated the Confederate armies of the south at Vicksburg, Mississippi and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held to honor the dead soldiers at a burial place on the Gettysburg battlefield. President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. But his speech has never been forgotten. Historians say the speech defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality. Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most memorable words in American history. He was murdered a few days after the Civil War ended, in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. Yet his words live on. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked composer Aaron Copland to write a piece of music about Abraham Lincoln. Copland was one of the best modern American composers. He wrote many kinds of music. His music told stories about the United States. Aaron Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor the president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs opular during the Civil War. Here is the Seattle Symphony playing part of "Lincoln Portrait." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters to his "Lincoln Portrait." It has been performed many times in the United States. Many famous people have read the words. To celebrate Presidents Day, here is actor James Earl Jones reading part of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." (MUSIC) “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what Abraham Lincoln said: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility”… Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man. But, when he spoke of Democracy, this is what he said: He said: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen, for on the battleground at Gettysburg this is what he said: He said: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Al Alevy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcst: February 9, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Next Monday is a holiday that honors American presidents. I'm Shirley Griffith. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and I tell about one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Presidents Day each year on the third Monday of February. But they did not always do so. They used to observe the birthdays of two of the greatest American presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both men were born in the month of February. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February twelfth. George Washington's is February twenty-second. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, Congress approved a law that affected some national holidays. It changed the official celebration of the holiday to the Monday closest to the real date. The birthdays of the two presidents were celebrated on one day – the third Monday in February. Later, Congress said the holiday would honor all American presidents. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth American president. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. He grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education. Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. In Eighteen-Sixty, he was elected to the country's highest office. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War between the northern and southern states. This was the most serious crisis in American history. President Lincoln helped end slavery in the nation. And he helped keep the American union from splitting apart during the war. President Lincoln believed that he proved to the world that democracy can be a lasting form of government. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Three, President Lincoln gave what became his most famous speech. Union armies of the north had won two great victories that year. They defeated the Confederate armies of the south at Vicksburg, Mississippi and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held to honor the dead soldiers at a burial place on the Gettysburg battlefield. President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. But his speech has never been forgotten. Historians say the speech defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality. Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most memorable words in American history. He was murdered a few days after the Civil War ended, in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. Yet his words live on. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked composer Aaron Copland to write a piece of music about Abraham Lincoln. Copland was one of the best modern American composers. He wrote many kinds of music. His music told stories about the United States. Aaron Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor the president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs opular during the Civil War. Here is the Seattle Symphony playing part of "Lincoln Portrait." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters to his "Lincoln Portrait." It has been performed many times in the United States. Many famous people have read the words. To celebrate Presidents Day, here is actor James Earl Jones reading part of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." (MUSIC) “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what Abraham Lincoln said: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility”… Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man. But, when he spoke of Democracy, this is what he said: He said: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen, for on the battleground at Gettysburg this is what he said: He said: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Al Alevy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Fighting Obesity / Alcohol-based Hand Cleaners / AIDS Education 'Toolkit' / Changes at Kodak
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 10, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week -- the World Health Organization has a plan to fight the increase in overweight people around the world. VOICE ONE: Alcohol-based hand cleaners make life easier for some people, but others worry about the fire risk. VOICE TWO: These stories, and more, coming up ... (THEME) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization is moving forward with a proposal to fight obesity around the world. All one-hundred-ninety-two countries in the World Health Assembly are expected to consider the plan in May. The United States and other members of the W-H-O Executive Board voted last month to send the plan for final approval. However, the United States and some others also requested an extra month to comment on the plan. Tommy Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, attended the meeting in Geneva. Mister Thompson said more time was needed to make sure the guidelines contained what he called "more scientifically based evidence." Comments will be accepted until the end of February. The W-H-O calls the plan a "Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health." The proposal urges people to eat more fruits and vegetables and less fat, sugar and salt. The plan also suggests that governments restrict food advertising, especially messages aimed at children. And it suggests that governments use tax policies and price supports to get people to eat healthier food. VOICE TWO: Last month a Bush administration official sent a letter to W-H-O Director-General Lee Jong-wook to call for changes in the plan. The administration says the report is not based on "the best science." Also, it says the plan does not talk enough about the responsibility of a person to exercise and eat right. The administration says its supports dietary advice that centers on the idea that all foods can be part of a healthy and balanced diet. Non-government health groups argue that the ideas in the plan are based on common sense. They say the food and sugar industries are influencing the position of the administration. Administration officials deny that charge. They note several projects to fight obesity in the United States. They also note the personal campaign by Secretary Thompson to lose weight. VOICE ONE: A group called the International Obesity Task Force estimates that one-thousand-million people around the world weigh too much. This includes more than twenty-million children under age five. And it includes more than three-hundred-million people who are severely overweight. In the United States, about one-third of adults are considered obese. The problem of obesity has also spread to developing countries. Health officials say poor diet and lack of exercise are among the leading causes of heart disease, type two diabetes and some cancers. They estimate that these kinds of diseases are now responsible for almost sixty percent of deaths worldwide. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Health officials say one of the most important ways people can stop the spread of infection is to wash their hands well and often. Most people use soap and water. But others increasingly use products that let them clean their hands without water. Such cleansers are especially popular with medical workers. People in health care are supposed to wash their hands before and after each patient. One kind of product is made with alcohol. Alcohol kills germs. And researchers say it does not add to the problem of drug-resistant bacteria. They say soaps that contain antibacterial compounds may. Health officials say effective alcohol-based cleansers are at least sixty percent alcohol. That amount can go as high as ninety percent depending on the maker. VOICE ONE: In the United States, officials at the Centers for Disease Control -- the C-D-C -- advise all health care centers to use alcohol-based products. They say studies show that these cleansers reduce the number of bacteria on hands better than soap and water. VOICE ONE (CONT):The C-D-C says almost two-million patients in the United States each year are believed to get infections while in hospitals. It says ninety-thousand of them die as a result. The agency also notes the problem of infections in smaller health centers and long-term care places. But no product is perfect. Alcohol burns easily. This can present a serious fire risk. It can also present a conflict for hospitals that want to have containers of hand cleanser in busy areas. Fire prevention experts say hospitals should not place alcohol-based products in hallways that lead outside the building. They say passages should be as free of flammable materials as possible, so people can get out safely. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People living with AIDS and the virus that causes it can face rejection in their community and their jobs. Experts have created special programs to increase the acceptance of people with AIDS. One group, called the Change Project, has developed teaching information for people at the local level fighting the disease. It is called a “Toolkit for Action.” The toolkit includes fifty-seven teaching exercises that community groups and educators can use to help improve people’s knowledge of the disease. The goal is to help people understand the stigma, or bad thoughts about AIDS, and work toward ending it. For example, many activities involve group discussions and the sharing of ideas, fears and personal experiences. Other activities require people to present information or act out stories in front of other people. VOICE ONE: There are activities that teach about caring for HIV-AIDS patients in the family. Other activities teach about stigma faced by children. There are also exercises to teach people about sex, morality and dishonor. The Change Project created the toolkit with the help of the Academy for Educational Development and the United States Agency for International Development. AIDS activists from more than fifty non-governmental organizations in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia helped write the exercises. You can get the toolkit from the Change Project Web site. That address is changeproject-dot-o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Kodak company plans to stop selling traditional film cameras in the United States, Canada and western Europe by the end of this year. Sales of cameras for use only one time will continue. Kodak will also continue to sell its traditional thirty-five-millimeter film in those countries. Kodak says it wants to increase its sales of reloadable film cameras in developing markets. These include China, India, eastern Europe and Latin America. A Kodak official said the company is expanding efforts to sell film and cameras in these markets because of increasing demand there. Kodak also announced that it will no longer produce cameras for the Advanced Photo System. The company began to sell A-P-S cameras in nineteen-ninety-six. But these never became very popular. Kodak will continue to make A-P-S film. The announcements are the result of an increase in demand for digital cameras. Last year, more than twelve-million digital cameras were sold in the United States. Digital cameras record images electronically, without film. Most people then print the images out on a computer, or send them to other people by e-mail. Traditional cameras depend on film and chemical processing. VOICE ONE: The decisions mark an important event in the history of Eastman Kodak Company. George Eastman started the company in Rochester, New York, in eighteen-eighty. Eastman invented a way to make it easier to take pictures. He called his camera “Kodak” because it sounded good to him. Eastman said he always liked the sound of the letter K. So he mixed it with other letters and made the word Kodak. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Caty Weaver and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – Sunflower Rubber
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 10, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Gloves made from the guayule plant, shown, may be another choice for people who get a bad reaction to natural rubber latex gloves.(Photo - USDA) Broadcast: February 10, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Sunflower plants grow tall and produce a beautiful flower. The seeds are good to eat and produce a high quality oil for cooking. But scientists in the United States hope that sunflowers will also become known for their rubber. The scientists are attempting to improve the quality and amount of latex from sunflower plants. Latex is made of rubber particles, water and other plant substances. It is a higher value product than solid rubber. The scientists believe that sunflowers could reduce America’s dependence on imported natural rubber and rubber made from oil products. The United States imports more than one-million tons of natural rubber each year. Katrina Cornish is an expert on how plants produce rubber. She works for the Agriculture Department in its Agricultural Research Service office in Albany, California. Katrina Cornish notes that more than two-thousand-five-hundred kinds of plants produce natural latex. But she says few have the qualities that scientists want. Most plants are too small or grow too slowly. Others do not produce enough latex. Or the latex they produce is not good enough. Sunflowers are large and grow quickly. Currently, latex produced from sunflowers is not good enough to be used to make products because of the quality and amount. However, the scientists hope to improve the situation in the future through genetic engineering. Katrina Cornish and her team are experimenting with several different kinds of sunflowers. She is working with scientists from Colorado State University and Ohio State University. They are interested in the kinds of plants that produce the highest amounts of latex in stems and leaves. They are working with sunflower plants that grow in northern areas where most of the American sunflower crop is grown. The scientists also work with other kinds of plants. One is the guayule [why-YOU-lee]. This is a desert plant native to the American Southwest. Katrina Cornish says Native Americans chewed the plant to remove latex for rubber balls and other goods. She says early automobile tires were made with guayule. Last year a company working with her team opened a processing center. Guayule products will be made for people who get a severe health reaction to gloves and other goods made of other kinds of natural latex. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. Sunflower plants grow tall and produce a beautiful flower. The seeds are good to eat and produce a high quality oil for cooking. But scientists in the United States hope that sunflowers will also become known for their rubber. The scientists are attempting to improve the quality and amount of latex from sunflower plants. Latex is made of rubber particles, water and other plant substances. It is a higher value product than solid rubber. The scientists believe that sunflowers could reduce America’s dependence on imported natural rubber and rubber made from oil products. The United States imports more than one-million tons of natural rubber each year. Katrina Cornish is an expert on how plants produce rubber. She works for the Agriculture Department in its Agricultural Research Service office in Albany, California. Katrina Cornish notes that more than two-thousand-five-hundred kinds of plants produce natural latex. But she says few have the qualities that scientists want. Most plants are too small or grow too slowly. Others do not produce enough latex. Or the latex they produce is not good enough. Sunflowers are large and grow quickly. Currently, latex produced from sunflowers is not good enough to be used to make products because of the quality and amount. However, the scientists hope to improve the situation in the future through genetic engineering. Katrina Cornish and her team are experimenting with several different kinds of sunflowers. She is working with scientists from Colorado State University and Ohio State University. They are interested in the kinds of plants that produce the highest amounts of latex in stems and leaves. They are working with sunflower plants that grow in northern areas where most of the American sunflower crop is grown. The scientists also work with other kinds of plants. One is the guayule [why-YOU-lee]. This is a desert plant native to the American Southwest. Katrina Cornish says Native Americans chewed the plant to remove latex for rubber balls and other goods. She says early automobile tires were made with guayule. Last year a company working with her team opened a processing center. Guayule products will be made for people who get a severe health reaction to gloves and other goods made of other kinds of natural latex. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  – Aviation Hall of Fame
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 11, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 11, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: This is Doug Johnson. Today on Explorations in VOA Special English we tell about some men and women who are members of the Aviation Hall of Fame. They have been honored for what they did for flying. The National Aviation Hall of Fame is in Dayton, Ohio. It opened in nineteen-sixty-two. Since that time, the Hall of Fame has honored one-hundred-seventy-eight men and women for their work in aviation. Four more will be honored this year. Those honored will include Harriet Quimby, the first woman pilot in America. The first two people chosen as members of the Aviation Hall of Fame were Orville and Wilbur Wright. They lived and worked in Dayton. The Wright Brothers were the first humans to make and fly a powered aircraft. ANNCR: This is Doug Johnson. Today on Explorations in VOA Special English we tell about some men and women who are members of the Aviation Hall of Fame. They have been honored for what they did for flying. The National Aviation Hall of Fame is in Dayton, Ohio. It opened in nineteen-sixty-two. Since that time, the Hall of Fame has honored one-hundred-seventy-eight men and women for their work in aviation. Four more will be honored this year. Those honored will include Harriet Quimby, the first woman pilot in America. The first two people chosen as members of the Aviation Hall of Fame were Orville and Wilbur Wright. They lived and worked in Dayton. The Wright Brothers were the first humans to make and fly a powered aircraft. ANNCR: Their story is well known. Another early member of the Aviation Hall of Fame is Charles Lindbergh. His record-setting flight across the Atlantic Ocean began on May twentieth, nineteen-twenty-seven. Neil Armstrong is another member of the Hall of Fame. He was the first human to walk on the moon. The story of the Apollo Eleven landing on the moon is also well known. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember tell about other members of the Aviation Hall of Fame who are not as famous. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: First flight Dec. 17, 1903Library of Congress photo ANNCR: Their story is well known. Another early member of the Aviation Hall of Fame is Charles Lindbergh. His record-setting flight across the Atlantic Ocean began on May twentieth, nineteen-twenty-seven. Neil Armstrong is another member of the Hall of Fame. He was the first human to walk on the moon. The story of the Apollo Eleven landing on the moon is also well known. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember tell about other members of the Aviation Hall of Fame who are not as famous. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Have you ever heard the name Edwin Link? Probably not. Yet many pilots know him. Mister Link was a pioneer in flight training. He invented a machine that helped teach new pilots to fly. Edwin Link was born in nineteen-oh-four and died in nineteen-eighty-one. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen seventy-six. The device he invented is called the Link Trainer. Link Trainers did not really fly. But they were designed to copy flight. New pilots could use flight controls and instruments as if they were inside a real plane. A new pilot learned how to fly in the air by flying a Link Trainer that never left the ground. The Link Company improved their trainers over time. More experienced pilots used them to learn to fly using only flight instruments to find their way. Edwin Link made it possible for many pilots to learn difficult skills in complete safety. VOICE ONE: Just south of the city of San Diego, California is a small hill that looks toward the Pacific Ocean. A huge airplane wing rises out of the ground there. It is a monument to John Montgomery, another member of the Aviation Hall of Fame. Not many people remember John Montgomery now. Yet many aviation experts believe he was the father of basic flying. He flew in gliders...aircraft that have no power. John Montgomery built gliders for more than twenty years. He died in a glider accident in nineteen-eleven. Mister Montgomery made most of his flights before anyone understood how to control an aircraft in flight. Montgomery’s study of flight and his attempts at flying led the way for the many others who followed. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-seventy-three. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Giuseppe Bellanca is another name you probably do not know. He became a member of the Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-three. He came to the United States from Sicily before World War One. Mister Bellanca designed and built airplanes for the Wright Aircraft Company in the eastern state of New Jersey. Charles Lindbergh decided to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-twenty-seven. He wanted to use a Wright-Bellanca aircraft. Lindbergh met with Giuseppe Bellanca. Mister Bellanca said his airplane could make the flight. He was very excited about Lindbergh’s plan. The Wright company, however, did not approve of him using one of the company’s planes. Company officials thought Lindbergh might fail. Charles Lindbergh had to find a different airplane to make his famous flight. Later, a Wright-Bellanca airplane was the first to fly the Atlantic Ocean in both directions. And, in nineteen-thirty-one, Giuseppe Bellanca designed and built an airplane that became the first to fly across the Pacific Ocean without stopping. It was called the Miss Veedol. It flew from Samishiro Beach, Japan, to the town of Wenatchee in the western state of Washington. Clyde Pangborn was the pilot of Miss Veedol. He is remembered more in Japan than he is in the United States. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Only a few aviation experts can tell you about Charles E. Taylor. His friends called him “Charlie.” He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-sixty-five. On December Seventeeth, nineteen-oh-three, Orville Wright became the first human to fly in a powered aircraft. Orville and his brother Wilber designed and built the aircraft. Charlie Taylor built the small gasoline engine they used. The three men designed the engine. They drew pictures on pieces of paper. Then Charlie Taylor built the needed part. He made the complete engine in only six weeks using almost no equipment. Today, you can see the Wright airplane when you visit the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington D-C. Just to the left of the controls is Charlie Taylor’s very important engine! (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ten, a newspaper publisher offered fifty-thousand dollars to the first pilot to fly an airplane across the United States. He said the trip must be made within thirty days. Many pilots tried. All failed. No one was able to collect the prize. But one man did succeed in flying across the United States. His name was Calbraith Perry Rodgers. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-sixty-four. Calbraith Rodgers started his famous flight on Sunday, September Seventeenth, nineteen eleven. He took off from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on the eastern coast of the United States. Bad luck followed him all the way. He crashed several times. Each time the plane was rebuilt. The weather was often terrible and kept him on the ground for days. The thirty days he was supposed to fly to collect the prize passed, but Rodgers continued the flight. His plane crashed nineteen kilometers short of the Pacific Ocean. He was badly hurt. Newspapers said he had successfully completed the flight. Rodgers did not agree. Four weeks later, he was helped into his airplane and flew the remaining distance to the Pacific Ocean. He landed December Tenth on the beach, the tires of his airplane wet from the Pacific Ocean. The trip had taken eighty-four days to complete. Calbraith Rodgers had succeeded in becoming the first pilot to fly across the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jacqueline Cochran was chosen as a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame for many reasons. She was the first women to pilot a jet airplane faster than the speed of sound. She won a top prize for flying racing planes. She also won the highest award given to a pilot in America -- not once, but fourteen times. During World War Two, she helped organize a group of women pilots who flew military airplanes to help in the War effort. For this work, she became the first civilian ever to be given Americaąs Distinguished Service Medal. In the early nineteen-sixties, Jackie Cochran was a test pilot for the Lockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. That is more than two times the speed of sound. It was at that time the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot. Jackie Cochran died of a heart attack in nineteen-eighty. At the time of her death, she held more flying records for speed, distance and height than any other man or woman in aviation history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many of the men and women in the Aviation Hall of Fame designed, built and flew different kinds of airplanes. Some are honored for their service to the United States in time of war. Some are honored for the famous aircraft they designed. Others for the aviation companies they started. Members of the Aviation Hall of Fame helped make flying safe for the public. Some were killed in their efforts to improve aviation. And some of those honored have led the way to the exploration of space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. Have you ever heard the name Edwin Link? Probably not. Yet many pilots know him. Mister Link was a pioneer in flight training. He invented a machine that helped teach new pilots to fly. Edwin Link was born in nineteen-oh-four and died in nineteen-eighty-one. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen seventy-six. The device he invented is called the Link Trainer. Link Trainers did not really fly. But they were designed to copy flight. New pilots could use flight controls and instruments as if they were inside a real plane. A new pilot learned how to fly in the air by flying a Link Trainer that never left the ground. The Link Company improved their trainers over time. More experienced pilots used them to learn to fly using only flight instruments to find their way. Edwin Link made it possible for many pilots to learn difficult skills in complete safety. VOICE ONE: Just south of the city of San Diego, California is a small hill that looks toward the Pacific Ocean. A huge airplane wing rises out of the ground there. It is a monument to John Montgomery, another member of the Aviation Hall of Fame. Not many people remember John Montgomery now. Yet many aviation experts believe he was the father of basic flying. He flew in gliders...aircraft that have no power. John Montgomery built gliders for more than twenty years. He died in a glider accident in nineteen-eleven. Mister Montgomery made most of his flights before anyone understood how to control an aircraft in flight. Montgomery’s study of flight and his attempts at flying led the way for the many others who followed. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-seventy-three. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Giuseppe Bellanca is another name you probably do not know. He became a member of the Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-three. He came to the United States from Sicily before World War One. Mister Bellanca designed and built airplanes for the Wright Aircraft Company in the eastern state of New Jersey. Charles Lindbergh decided to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-twenty-seven. He wanted to use a Wright-Bellanca aircraft. Lindbergh met with Giuseppe Bellanca. Mister Bellanca said his airplane could make the flight. He was very excited about Lindbergh’s plan. The Wright company, however, did not approve of him using one of the company’s planes. Company officials thought Lindbergh might fail. Charles Lindbergh had to find a different airplane to make his famous flight. Later, a Wright-Bellanca airplane was the first to fly the Atlantic Ocean in both directions. And, in nineteen-thirty-one, Giuseppe Bellanca designed and built an airplane that became the first to fly across the Pacific Ocean without stopping. It was called the Miss Veedol. It flew from Samishiro Beach, Japan, to the town of Wenatchee in the western state of Washington. Clyde Pangborn was the pilot of Miss Veedol. He is remembered more in Japan than he is in the United States. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Only a few aviation experts can tell you about Charles E. Taylor. His friends called him “Charlie.” He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-sixty-five. On December Seventeeth, nineteen-oh-three, Orville Wright became the first human to fly in a powered aircraft. Orville and his brother Wilber designed and built the aircraft. Charlie Taylor built the small gasoline engine they used. The three men designed the engine. They drew pictures on pieces of paper. Then Charlie Taylor built the needed part. He made the complete engine in only six weeks using almost no equipment. Today, you can see the Wright airplane when you visit the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Washington D-C. Just to the left of the controls is Charlie Taylor’s very important engine! (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ten, a newspaper publisher offered fifty-thousand dollars to the first pilot to fly an airplane across the United States. He said the trip must be made within thirty days. Many pilots tried. All failed. No one was able to collect the prize. But one man did succeed in flying across the United States. His name was Calbraith Perry Rodgers. He became a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame in nineteen-sixty-four. Calbraith Rodgers started his famous flight on Sunday, September Seventeenth, nineteen eleven. He took off from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on the eastern coast of the United States. Bad luck followed him all the way. He crashed several times. Each time the plane was rebuilt. The weather was often terrible and kept him on the ground for days. The thirty days he was supposed to fly to collect the prize passed, but Rodgers continued the flight. His plane crashed nineteen kilometers short of the Pacific Ocean. He was badly hurt. Newspapers said he had successfully completed the flight. Rodgers did not agree. Four weeks later, he was helped into his airplane and flew the remaining distance to the Pacific Ocean. He landed December Tenth on the beach, the tires of his airplane wet from the Pacific Ocean. The trip had taken eighty-four days to complete. Calbraith Rodgers had succeeded in becoming the first pilot to fly across the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jacqueline Cochran was chosen as a member of the Aviation Hall of Fame for many reasons. She was the first women to pilot a jet airplane faster than the speed of sound. She won a top prize for flying racing planes. She also won the highest award given to a pilot in America -- not once, but fourteen times. During World War Two, she helped organize a group of women pilots who flew military airplanes to help in the War effort. For this work, she became the first civilian ever to be given Americaąs Distinguished Service Medal. In the early nineteen-sixties, Jackie Cochran was a test pilot for the Lockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. That is more than two times the speed of sound. It was at that time the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot. Jackie Cochran died of a heart attack in nineteen-eighty. At the time of her death, she held more flying records for speed, distance and height than any other man or woman in aviation history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many of the men and women in the Aviation Hall of Fame designed, built and flew different kinds of airplanes. Some are honored for their service to the United States in time of war. Some are honored for the famous aircraft they designed. Others for the aviation companies they started. Members of the Aviation Hall of Fame helped make flying safe for the public. Some were killed in their efforts to improve aviation. And some of those honored have led the way to the exploration of space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — How Antiviral Drugs Work
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 11, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Here is a common situation: A person gets sick with a high temperature, muscle pain and a cough. The person goes to a doctor to ask for some antibiotics to treat the infection. The doctor says the person has influenza which is caused by a virus. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses. They only treat infections caused by bacteria. But there are newer kinds of medicines known as antivirals. A case of the flu usually lasts a week or two. Scientists at the United States Centers for Disease Control say early antiviral treatment can shorten that time by about one day. But they say for this to happen, people must take the medicine within the first two days of sickness. Four antiviral drugs are approved for use against influenza in the United States. They mainly fight infections in the breathing system. Each drug has possible side effects. In the United States, a person must have an order from a doctor to receive these medicines. Scientists say two of the four drugs are effective against the infection caused by the type A influenza virus. They are not effective against influenza type B. The other two drugs can treat both. One of these antiviral medicines, called oseltamivir, can also help prevent influenza. Viruses invade cells and copy the genetic material inside in order to reproduce. Some antivirals work by preventing this process. Or they may interfere with the ability of the virus to connect itself to the cell. Other antiviral drugs prevent the virus from destroying the protective protein around a cell. The first antiviral drugs were created in the nineteen-sixties. A number of new antivirals were in common use by the nineteen-nineties. Progress in the engineering of genes and the science of molecular biology made these new medicines possible. Some have helped patients suffering from diseases like hepatitis B in the liver. Other kinds of antiviral drugs are able to suppress H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS, so a person lives longer. Antibiotics are made from bacteria. The drugs contain organisms that damage the cells of other microbes that cause sickness. The British doctor Alexander Fleming discovered what is generally accepted as the first antibiotic, penicillin. That was in nineteen-twenty-eight. Penicillin did not come into common use, however, until the nineteen-forties. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: February 11, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Here is a common situation: A person gets sick with a high temperature, muscle pain and a cough. The person goes to a doctor to ask for some antibiotics to treat the infection. The doctor says the person has influenza which is caused by a virus. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses. They only treat infections caused by bacteria. But there are newer kinds of medicines known as antivirals. A case of the flu usually lasts a week or two. Scientists at the United States Centers for Disease Control say early antiviral treatment can shorten that time by about one day. But they say for this to happen, people must take the medicine within the first two days of sickness. Four antiviral drugs are approved for use against influenza in the United States. They mainly fight infections in the breathing system. Each drug has possible side effects. In the United States, a person must have an order from a doctor to receive these medicines. Scientists say two of the four drugs are effective against the infection caused by the type A influenza virus. They are not effective against influenza type B. The other two drugs can treat both. One of these antiviral medicines, called oseltamivir, can also help prevent influenza. Viruses invade cells and copy the genetic material inside in order to reproduce. Some antivirals work by preventing this process. Or they may interfere with the ability of the virus to connect itself to the cell. Other antiviral drugs prevent the virus from destroying the protective protein around a cell. The first antiviral drugs were created in the nineteen-sixties. A number of new antivirals were in common use by the nineteen-nineties. Progress in the engineering of genes and the science of molecular biology made these new medicines possible. Some have helped patients suffering from diseases like hepatitis B in the liver. Other kinds of antiviral drugs are able to suppress H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS, so a person lives longer. Antibiotics are made from bacteria. The drugs contain organisms that damage the cells of other microbes that cause sickness. The British doctor Alexander Fleming discovered what is generally accepted as the first antibiotic, penicillin. That was in nineteen-twenty-eight. Penicillin did not come into common use, however, until the nineteen-forties. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 2: Dyslexia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 12, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week, we began a discussion of learning disabilities. These are disorders that cause unusual difficulty for a person to develop skills needed for life. A person can have a learning disability in one or more areas like reading, writing, listening, speaking or working with numbers. Today we talk about the condition known as dyslexia. Researchers say eighty-five percent of people with a reading disability have dyslexia. The experts say the brain fails to link letters and sounds correctly in people with dyslexia. The most common effects are difficulties reading, spelling and writing. Some people have problems with only one of these skills. Or they may have trouble with spoken language. They may find it difficult to express themselves clearly or understand what others say. Dyslexia also can affect a person emotionally. Specialists say students with dyslexia often think they are stupid and unable to learn. They say children who feel like this are in danger of failure and depression. Signs of dyslexia in young children include learning to talk at a later age than others, and difficulty pronouncing words. Dyslexic children also have trouble learning or remembering letters, numbers, days of the week, colors and shapes. Older students may have difficulty learning a foreign language. They may read very slowly or have trouble remembering what they read. Another possible sign of dyslexia is difficulty planning and organizing time. Researchers say dyslexia continues through life and there is no cure. They say the most important part of treatment is to find the condition at an early age. Specially trained educators can help teach people with dyslexia different ways to learn. Schools can give students more time to complete tasks and provide help taking notes. Researchers say listening to recorded books and writing with a computer can also help. There are organizations around the world that work to improve the study and treatment of dyslexia. One group is the International Dyslexia Association. You can learn more information on its Web site. The address interdys.org. Again, the Web site is interdys.org. We continue our series on learning disabilities next week. You can find our reports on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: February 12, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week, we began a discussion of learning disabilities. These are disorders that cause unusual difficulty for a person to develop skills needed for life. A person can have a learning disability in one or more areas like reading, writing, listening, speaking or working with numbers. Today we talk about the condition known as dyslexia. Researchers say eighty-five percent of people with a reading disability have dyslexia. The experts say the brain fails to link letters and sounds correctly in people with dyslexia. The most common effects are difficulties reading, spelling and writing. Some people have problems with only one of these skills. Or they may have trouble with spoken language. They may find it difficult to express themselves clearly or understand what others say. Dyslexia also can affect a person emotionally. Specialists say students with dyslexia often think they are stupid and unable to learn. They say children who feel like this are in danger of failure and depression. Signs of dyslexia in young children include learning to talk at a later age than others, and difficulty pronouncing words. Dyslexic children also have trouble learning or remembering letters, numbers, days of the week, colors and shapes. Older students may have difficulty learning a foreign language. They may read very slowly or have trouble remembering what they read. Another possible sign of dyslexia is difficulty planning and organizing time. Researchers say dyslexia continues through life and there is no cure. They say the most important part of treatment is to find the condition at an early age. Specially trained educators can help teach people with dyslexia different ways to learn. Schools can give students more time to complete tasks and provide help taking notes. Researchers say listening to recorded books and writing with a computer can also help. There are organizations around the world that work to improve the study and treatment of dyslexia. One group is the International Dyslexia Association. You can learn more information on its Web site. The address interdys.org. Again, the Web site is interdys.org. We continue our series on learning disabilities next week. You can find our reports on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #49 - James Madison, Part 5
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 12, 2004 (THEME) General Andrew Jackson (Image: www.americaslibrary.gov) Broadcast: February 12, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) As we reported last week, the United States and Britain opened peace talks at Ghent, in Belgium, in the summer of Eighteen-Fourteen. But Britain was in no hurry to agree on a peace treaty. British forces were planning several campaigns in the United States later in the year. Successful military campaigns could force the United States to accept the kind of treaty Britain wanted. Battle of New Orleans (Image: www.members.tripod.com) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) As we reported last week, the United States and Britain opened peace talks at Ghent, in Belgium, in the summer of Eighteen-Fourteen. But Britain was in no hurry to agree on a peace treaty. British forces were planning several campaigns in the United States later in the year. Successful military campaigns could force the United States to accept the kind of treaty Britain wanted. British representatives to the talks demanded that the United States give control of its Northwest Territory to the Indians. They also asked that the United States give part of the state of Maine to Canada, and make other changes in the border. VOICE TWO: United States representatives were led by John Quincy Adams, son of former president John Adams. They made equally tough demands. The United States wanted payment for damages suffered during the war. It also demanded that Britain stop seizing American seamen for the British navy. And the United States wanted all of Canada. The British representatives said they could not even discuss the question of impressing Americans into the British navy. John Quincy Adams had little hope the talks would succeed. The Americans would surrender none of their territory. Old John Adams, the former president, told President James Madison: "I would continue this war forever before surrendering an acre of America." His son, John Quincy, did not believe the British would reduce any of their demands. But another of the Americans at Ghent, House Speaker Henry Clay, felt differently. Clay was right. After Britain received word that its military campaigns had failed at Baltimore and Plattsburgh, its representatives became easier to negotiate with. They dropped the demand that the United States give the Northwest Territory to the Indians. VOICE ONE: Britain still hoped for military successes in America. The British government asked the duke of Wellington to lead British forces in Canada. The duke had won important victories in the war against Napoleon. Perhaps he could do the same in America. The duke was offered the power to continue the war or to make peace. Wellington told the government he would go to America if requested. But he refused to promise any success. He said it was not a new general that Britain needed in America, but naval control of the Great Lakes that separated the United States from Canada. "The question is," Wellington said, "can we get this naval control? If we cannot, then I will do you no good in America. I think," said Wellington, "that you might as well sign a peace treaty with the United States now. I think you have no right to demand any territory from the United States. The failure of the British military campaigns in America gives you no right to make such demands." VOICE TWO: The British government accepted this advice from its top military expert. It ordered the British representatives at Ghent to drop the demands for American territory. The Americans then dropped their demands for Canadian territory. The things that led to the war no longer existed. Britain's war with France had caused the British and French to interfere with neutral American trade. And Britain had needed men for its navy. Now, the war with France was over. No longer was there any reason to interfere with the trade of any nation. And no longer was there any need to seize Americans for service in the British navy. On the day before Christmas, Eighteen-Fourteen, the United States and Britain signed a simple treaty. In it, each side agreed to stop fighting. They agreed to settle all their differences at future negotiations. VOICE ONE: The war had ended. But one more battle was to be fought before news of the peace treaty reached the United States. During the autumn of Eighteen-Fourteen, British soldiers at Jamaica began preparing for an attack against New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Late in November, this force of about seven-thousand five-hundred men sailed from Jamaica to New Orleans. The British soldiers were commanded by General Sir Edward Pakenham. The general did not take his men directly to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Instead, they sailed across a lake east of the city. Early during the afternoon of December Twenty-Third, General Andrew Jackson, the commander of American forces at New Orleans, learned the British force was near. VOICE TWO: General Jackson was a good soldier and a great leader of men. He fought in the Revolutionary War, then studied law. He moved west to Nashville, Tennessee. The general also served in both houses of the United States Congress. When war broke out in Eighteen-Twelve, he was elected general of a group of volunteer soldiers from Tennessee. Jackson was a rough man. His soldiers feared and respected him. They called him "Old Hickory", because he seemed as tough as hickory wood. Jackson was given responsibility for defending the gulf coast. Earlier in the year, he had attacked Pensacola, in east Florida, and forced out several hundred British marines. Jackson believed the British would attack Mobile before attacking New Orleans. He left part of his forces at Mobile and took the others to the mouth of the Mississippi. VOICE ONE: Jackson was a sick man when he got to New Orleans. And what he found made him feel no better. Little had been done to prepare for the expected British attack. Jackson declared martial law and began building the city's defenses. Most of the work on the defenses had been completed when Jackson got word that the British were only a few kilometers from New Orleans. "Gentlemen," Jackson told his officers, "the British are below. We must fight them tonight." The British soldiers rested. They believed it would be easy to capture the city the next day. But Jackson rushed up guns and men, and attacked the British by surprise just after dark. Then, the Americans retreated to a place about eight kilometers south of the city. VOICE TWO: Jackson had chosen this place carefully. On the right was the Mississippi River. On the left was a swamp -- mud and water that could not be crossed. In front of the American soldiers was an open field. For two weeks, the British soldiers waited. They tested the American defenses at several places, but found no weaknesses. Every day, Jackson had his men improve their positions. At night, small groups of Jackson's soldiers would slip across the field and silently attack British soldiers guarding the other side. Finally, on January Eighth, the British attacked. They expected the Americans to flee in the face of their strong attack. But the Americans stood firm. Jackson's artillery fired into the enemy. When the British got as close as one-hundred-fifty meters, the Americans began to fire their long rifles. The rain of bullets and shells was deadly. General Pakenham was wounded twice and then killed by a shell that exploded near him. Only one British soldier reached the top of the American defenses. VOICE ONE: The British finally retreated. They left behind more than two-thousand dead and wounded. Five-hundred other British soldiers had been captured. Thirteen Americans were killed. It was a great victory for the United States, but one that was not necessary. The war had ended, by treaty, two weeks earlier. At the same time that the battle of New Orleans was being fought, New England Federalists were meeting in a special convention at Hartford, Connecticut. The purpose of the meeting was to protest against the war, and plan for a convention to change the United States Constitution. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. British representatives to the talks demanded that the United States give control of its Northwest Territory to the Indians. They also asked that the United States give part of the state of Maine to Canada, and make other changes in the border. VOICE TWO: United States representatives were led by John Quincy Adams, son of former president John Adams. They made equally tough demands. The United States wanted payment for damages suffered during the war. It also demanded that Britain stop seizing American seamen for the British navy. And the United States wanted all of Canada. The British representatives said they could not even discuss the question of impressing Americans into the British navy. John Quincy Adams had little hope the talks would succeed. The Americans would surrender none of their territory. Old John Adams, the former president, told President James Madison: "I would continue this war forever before surrendering an acre of America." His son, John Quincy, did not believe the British would reduce any of their demands. But another of the Americans at Ghent, House Speaker Henry Clay, felt differently. Clay was right. After Britain received word that its military campaigns had failed at Baltimore and Plattsburgh, its representatives became easier to negotiate with. They dropped the demand that the United States give the Northwest Territory to the Indians. VOICE ONE: Britain still hoped for military successes in America. The British government asked the duke of Wellington to lead British forces in Canada. The duke had won important victories in the war against Napoleon. Perhaps he could do the same in America. The duke was offered the power to continue the war or to make peace. Wellington told the government he would go to America if requested. But he refused to promise any success. He said it was not a new general that Britain needed in America, but naval control of the Great Lakes that separated the United States from Canada. "The question is," Wellington said, "can we get this naval control? If we cannot, then I will do you no good in America. I think," said Wellington, "that you might as well sign a peace treaty with the United States now. I think you have no right to demand any territory from the United States. The failure of the British military campaigns in America gives you no right to make such demands." VOICE TWO: The British government accepted this advice from its top military expert. It ordered the British representatives at Ghent to drop the demands for American territory. The Americans then dropped their demands for Canadian territory. The things that led to the war no longer existed. Britain's war with France had caused the British and French to interfere with neutral American trade. And Britain had needed men for its navy. Now, the war with France was over. No longer was there any reason to interfere with the trade of any nation. And no longer was there any need to seize Americans for service in the British navy. On the day before Christmas, Eighteen-Fourteen, the United States and Britain signed a simple treaty. In it, each side agreed to stop fighting. They agreed to settle all their differences at future negotiations. VOICE ONE: The war had ended. But one more battle was to be fought before news of the peace treaty reached the United States. During the autumn of Eighteen-Fourteen, British soldiers at Jamaica began preparing for an attack against New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Late in November, this force of about seven-thousand five-hundred men sailed from Jamaica to New Orleans. The British soldiers were commanded by General Sir Edward Pakenham. The general did not take his men directly to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Instead, they sailed across a lake east of the city. Early during the afternoon of December Twenty-Third, General Andrew Jackson, the commander of American forces at New Orleans, learned the British force was near. VOICE TWO: General Jackson was a good soldier and a great leader of men. He fought in the Revolutionary War, then studied law. He moved west to Nashville, Tennessee. The general also served in both houses of the United States Congress. When war broke out in Eighteen-Twelve, he was elected general of a group of volunteer soldiers from Tennessee. Jackson was a rough man. His soldiers feared and respected him. They called him "Old Hickory", because he seemed as tough as hickory wood. Jackson was given responsibility for defending the gulf coast. Earlier in the year, he had attacked Pensacola, in east Florida, and forced out several hundred British marines. Jackson believed the British would attack Mobile before attacking New Orleans. He left part of his forces at Mobile and took the others to the mouth of the Mississippi. VOICE ONE: Jackson was a sick man when he got to New Orleans. And what he found made him feel no better. Little had been done to prepare for the expected British attack. Jackson declared martial law and began building the city's defenses. Most of the work on the defenses had been completed when Jackson got word that the British were only a few kilometers from New Orleans. "Gentlemen," Jackson told his officers, "the British are below. We must fight them tonight." The British soldiers rested. They believed it would be easy to capture the city the next day. But Jackson rushed up guns and men, and attacked the British by surprise just after dark. Then, the Americans retreated to a place about eight kilometers south of the city. VOICE TWO: Jackson had chosen this place carefully. On the right was the Mississippi River. On the left was a swamp -- mud and water that could not be crossed. In front of the American soldiers was an open field. For two weeks, the British soldiers waited. They tested the American defenses at several places, but found no weaknesses. Every day, Jackson had his men improve their positions. At night, small groups of Jackson's soldiers would slip across the field and silently attack British soldiers guarding the other side. Finally, on January Eighth, the British attacked. They expected the Americans to flee in the face of their strong attack. But the Americans stood firm. Jackson's artillery fired into the enemy. When the British got as close as one-hundred-fifty meters, the Americans began to fire their long rifles. The rain of bullets and shells was deadly. General Pakenham was wounded twice and then killed by a shell that exploded near him. Only one British soldier reached the top of the American defenses. VOICE ONE: The British finally retreated. They left behind more than two-thousand dead and wounded. Five-hundred other British soldiers had been captured. Thirteen Americans were killed. It was a great victory for the United States, but one that was not necessary. The war had ended, by treaty, two weeks earlier. At the same time that the battle of New Orleans was being fought, New England Federalists were meeting in a special convention at Hartford, Connecticut. The purpose of the meeting was to protest against the war, and plan for a convention to change the United States Constitution. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: February 12, 2004 - Helen Fisher: 'Why We Love'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 12, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- enough about politics, today we talk about love! RS: We were searching for a topic for Valentine's Day -- it's this Saturday, you know. Then our friend Ali in Iran happened to tell us about the newest book by one of his favorite American authors, anthropologist Helen Fisher. AA: It contains the findings of her research to identify the areas of the brain that "light up" – or become neurologically more active -- when a person is madly in love. FISHER: "Well, I'd come to think that humanity had evolved three distinctly different brain circuits for mating and reproduction. One is the sex drive. The second is romantic love, that obsession of first love. And the third is attachment, that sense of calm that you can feel with a long-term partner. And I wanted to see how these three brain systems interacted. So I decided that I would start by trying to study the brain circuitry of romantic love." RS: "How do you go about doing that?" FISHER: "Well, I started out by reading the last twenty-five years of psychological research and culling out of that research every one of the traits of romantic love. Then I created a questionnaire that I gave to over four-hundred Americans and Japanese to see whether these traits really were associated with romantic love, things like focused attention, elation, heightened energy, obsessive thinking about the sweetheart, craving for emotional union with the sweetheart. And I began to see that there was a constellation of characteristics that represented this feeling ... " RS: ... a feeling that Helen Fisher calls "romantic love." FISHER: "And I also looked at poetry from around the world. And I found that everywhere in the world, people talk about being 'madly in love.' And they have forever. My oldest poetry comes from the ancient Sumerians, four-thousand years ago. "So then I decided what I would do is try and put people who were madly in love into a functional MRI brain scanner. And then we would show them a photograph of their sweetheart, and also a neutral photograph, somebody who when they looked at that picture, it called forth no positive or negative feelings. So that way we were able to capture the brain while it was looking at the sweetheart and feeling that romantic passion, and also capture the same brain while it was looking at a neutral photograph. And then we'd compare the differences between, and what we ended up finding was those parts of the brain that become active when you are feeling mad, passionate, romantic love." AA: "You're an anthropologist ... " FISHER: "I am." AA: " ... so I imagine you have your ears open whenever you're on the subway in the New York, or you're in the store or whatever you're doing ... " FISHER: "Sure." AA: " ... And if you're ever around younger couples, older couples, what sort of language are you hearing out in the world today?" FISHER: "'I love you.' I mean, that's so basic. But it's not even what they say, it's how they act. It's the smiling and the cuddling and the preening and the staring and sense of oneness that you can see that -- it's not as much the words as it is all the activity that goes with the words. You know that ninety percent of emotional communication is non-verbal. I mean, if I said 'I love you' [no inflection] it certainly wouldn't have much meaning. But if I said 'I love you' [highly inflected] it would be entirely different. So it's the inflection of the words, it's the inflection that's the same around the world." AA: "But you said in your book here, 'Smart men court with words.'" FISHER: "Yes, they do. You're right, because women love words. And I think this women's facility for language comes from millions of years of holding that baby in front of their faces, cajoling them, reprimanding them, educating them with words. Words were women's tools. And as a result, if you want to court a woman, it's very appealing to a woman if you talk to her. And in the courtship -- you know, there's all kinds of men who've never written a line of poetry since they courted their wife. But during their courting days they wrote bad poetry, and the wife loved it and married them for it." AA: "Last question, if you don't mind my asking, what are you going to be doing this Valentine's Day?" FISHER: "You know, I haven't talked to my boyfriend about this yet. But my book comes out today, and today I asked him to take me out to a very fancy restaurant and go dancing!" RS: "Oooh, sounds like fun!" FISHER: "Can't wait!" RS: Helen Fisher, speaking to us last week from New York. Her third book is called "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love." AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and we'd love you to visit us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 12, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- enough about politics, today we talk about love! RS: We were searching for a topic for Valentine's Day -- it's this Saturday, you know. Then our friend Ali in Iran happened to tell us about the newest book by one of his favorite American authors, anthropologist Helen Fisher. AA: It contains the findings of her research to identify the areas of the brain that "light up" – or become neurologically more active -- when a person is madly in love. FISHER: "Well, I'd come to think that humanity had evolved three distinctly different brain circuits for mating and reproduction. One is the sex drive. The second is romantic love, that obsession of first love. And the third is attachment, that sense of calm that you can feel with a long-term partner. And I wanted to see how these three brain systems interacted. So I decided that I would start by trying to study the brain circuitry of romantic love." RS: "How do you go about doing that?" FISHER: "Well, I started out by reading the last twenty-five years of psychological research and culling out of that research every one of the traits of romantic love. Then I created a questionnaire that I gave to over four-hundred Americans and Japanese to see whether these traits really were associated with romantic love, things like focused attention, elation, heightened energy, obsessive thinking about the sweetheart, craving for emotional union with the sweetheart. And I began to see that there was a constellation of characteristics that represented this feeling ... " RS: ... a feeling that Helen Fisher calls "romantic love." FISHER: "And I also looked at poetry from around the world. And I found that everywhere in the world, people talk about being 'madly in love.' And they have forever. My oldest poetry comes from the ancient Sumerians, four-thousand years ago. "So then I decided what I would do is try and put people who were madly in love into a functional MRI brain scanner. And then we would show them a photograph of their sweetheart, and also a neutral photograph, somebody who when they looked at that picture, it called forth no positive or negative feelings. So that way we were able to capture the brain while it was looking at the sweetheart and feeling that romantic passion, and also capture the same brain while it was looking at a neutral photograph. And then we'd compare the differences between, and what we ended up finding was those parts of the brain that become active when you are feeling mad, passionate, romantic love." AA: "You're an anthropologist ... " FISHER: "I am." AA: " ... so I imagine you have your ears open whenever you're on the subway in the New York, or you're in the store or whatever you're doing ... " FISHER: "Sure." AA: " ... And if you're ever around younger couples, older couples, what sort of language are you hearing out in the world today?" FISHER: "'I love you.' I mean, that's so basic. But it's not even what they say, it's how they act. It's the smiling and the cuddling and the preening and the staring and sense of oneness that you can see that -- it's not as much the words as it is all the activity that goes with the words. You know that ninety percent of emotional communication is non-verbal. I mean, if I said 'I love you' [no inflection] it certainly wouldn't have much meaning. But if I said 'I love you' [highly inflected] it would be entirely different. So it's the inflection of the words, it's the inflection that's the same around the world." AA: "But you said in your book here, 'Smart men court with words.'" FISHER: "Yes, they do. You're right, because women love words. And I think this women's facility for language comes from millions of years of holding that baby in front of their faces, cajoling them, reprimanding them, educating them with words. Words were women's tools. And as a result, if you want to court a woman, it's very appealing to a woman if you talk to her. And in the courtship -- you know, there's all kinds of men who've never written a line of poetry since they courted their wife. But during their courting days they wrote bad poetry, and the wife loved it and married them for it." AA: "Last question, if you don't mind my asking, what are you going to be doing this Valentine's Day?" FISHER: "You know, I haven't talked to my boyfriend about this yet. But my book comes out today, and today I asked him to take me out to a very fancy restaurant and go dancing!" RS: "Oooh, sounds like fun!" FISHER: "Can't wait!" RS: Helen Fisher, speaking to us last week from New York. Her third book is called "Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love." AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and we'd love you to visit us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT — Business Organizations, Part 2: The Corporation
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 13, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, we discussed ways that many small businesses are organized. This week, we examine the structure of big business. The most complex is the corporation. This kind of business organization is designed to have an unlimited lifetime. Investors in a corporation own stock. This is a share of the ownership. Investors can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. Investors may get paid dividends, a small amount of money for each share they own. A corporation is a legal entity, a being separate from its owners. Shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. Shareholders can only lose the money they invest in stock. The corporation itself is responsible for its debts. A board of directors controls the corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold any shares in the corporation. United States tax law recognizes two general kinds of corporations. The first is known as the C corporation. C corporations were the only kind for many years. Most pay taxes on their profits. Shareholders also pay taxes on dividends they receive. Some people call this “double taxation." So, in nineteen-eighty-six, the government created the S corporation. An S corporation is not taxed by the federal government. It is like a partnership. It can pass its profits and losses on to its owners. But S corporations cannot have more than seventy-five shareholders. There are other restrictions as well. The federal tax agency is the Internal Revenue Service. It says that in two-thousand, about fifty-seven percent of corporations in the United States were S corporations. Their number has grown each year since the start. Yet they control only a small part of the value of all corporations. Not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. The American Red Cross, for example, is organized as a non-profit corporation. Corporations can be huge or not so huge. They may have a few major shareholders. Or the ownership may be spread widely among the general public. Incorporating offers a way for businesses to gain the investments they need to grow. It also offers a way for the investors to limit their responsibility. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Louis Armstrong Museum / Education for the Blind / Grammy Winners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 13, 2004 HOST: (Photo - satchmo.net) Broadcast: February 13, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about education for Americans who cannot see. And we play some songs that won Grammy awards earlier this week. But first, a report about a new museum in New York City. Louis Armstrong Museum (MUSIC) HOST: That is singer and trumpet player Louis Armstrong performing his famous song, “Hello Dolly”. Louis Armstrong is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived. His voice, trumpet- playing skills and creativity continue to influence jazz artists today. Louis Armstrong died in nineteen-seventy-one. In nineteen-seventy-seven, his home was declared a national historic place. Recently, it opened as a museum. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The Louis Armstrong House and Archives is in Queens, an area of New York City. Louis Armstrong shared the house with his fourth wife, Lucille, from nineteen-forty-three until his death almost thirty years later. The house was not changed after Lucille Armstrong died in nineteen-eighty-three. Years later, the city of New York, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Save America’s Treasures program spent more than one-million dollars on the house. They made it look exactly as it did when Louis Armstrong lived there. Louis Armstrong could have lived anywhere he wanted. Yet he chose a simple home in a common area of Queens. Visitors appear every day to see where the famous jazz musician lived. For most of his life, Louis Armstrong was performing about three-hundred days of the year. But when he was home, he spent most of his time in a room where he produced most of his work. Today, the room looks as if Louis Armstrong might still be there. He often recorded people talking, music and the sounds of daily life. More than six-hundred-fifty of his recordings were discovered in his home. Here is an example of one of these recordings. Louis is talking with his wife, Lucille. (SOUND) Louis Armstrong collected many things from his travels and from the people he met. He wrote many letters to friends and fans. And he wrote about everyday things that took place in his life. Thousands of pages of his personal writings, pictures, trumpets and other things can be found at the Louis Armstrong Archives at Queens College in New York. For more information about Louis Armstrong, his archives and his house, you can go to the museum’s computer web site. The address is w-w-w dot s-a-t-c-h-m-o dot n-e-t. Education for the Blind HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Pakistan. Habib Nawaz wants to know about education for blind students in the United States. The American Federation for the Blind says there are about ten-million blind or visually disabled people in the United States. A federal law approved in nineteen-seventy-five guarantees blind students a free public education. It requires that all states provide a free public education in the best environment to children who suffer mental or physical problems. To help blind students learn, schools are also required to provide special books published in Braille. This is a system of printing and writing for the blind. Words are formed using raised areas of paper which blind people feel with their fingers. Schools also provide other services and equipment to help blind or visually impaired people learn. Many children with sight problems attend their local public schools with other children. They are taught the same subjects as other students their age. But they also receive special life skills training. This could include learning how to move and work successfully within the community. It could also mean special training on equipment to make life easier. Some schools even have special vision instructors. These are trained professionals who work directly with blind students. Blind or visually impaired students can also attend separate schools for people with disabilities. Often, students at these schools have other physical or mental problems. Many of these special services schools are paid for by the states. Others are private. Blind or visually impaired students have the right to attend either. It is the responsibility of the school to provide them with a full education. Many colleges and universities throughout the United States also have programs and special services for blind and visually impaired students. These are not free, however. At the university level, all students must pay for their education. Grammy Winners HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented its yearly Grammy Awards last Sunday, February eighth. It has been doing this every year for forty-six years. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the Grammies and plays some of the songs that won this year. ANNCR: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was organized by recording artists, songwriters and technicians. They wanted to recognize excellent musical recordings and those who create them. The award the Academy gives is called a Grammy. The award is a small statue. It is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Academy vote to choose the best recordings of the year. More than one-hundred awards were given this year. One of these is Song of the Year. It goes to the writer of the best song. The winners were Luther Vandross and Richard Marx for writing the song, “Dance With My Father.” It is performed by Luther Vandross. (MUSIC) Another Grammy Award was for Record of the Year. The winners were the artists and producers of the song “Clocks.” It is performed by the group Coldplay. (MUSIC) The Grammy Award for Album of the Year went to the rap group OutKast for its album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” We leave you with a song from that album, “The Way You Move.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer is Paul Thompson, and our engineer is Andrea Kominars. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about education for Americans who cannot see. And we play some songs that won Grammy awards earlier this week. But first, a report about a new museum in New York City. Louis Armstrong Museum (MUSIC) HOST: That is singer and trumpet player Louis Armstrong performing his famous song, “Hello Dolly”. Louis Armstrong is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived. His voice, trumpet- playing skills and creativity continue to influence jazz artists today. Louis Armstrong died in nineteen-seventy-one. In nineteen-seventy-seven, his home was declared a national historic place. Recently, it opened as a museum. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The Louis Armstrong House and Archives is in Queens, an area of New York City. Louis Armstrong shared the house with his fourth wife, Lucille, from nineteen-forty-three until his death almost thirty years later. The house was not changed after Lucille Armstrong died in nineteen-eighty-three. Years later, the city of New York, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Save America’s Treasures program spent more than one-million dollars on the house. They made it look exactly as it did when Louis Armstrong lived there. Louis Armstrong could have lived anywhere he wanted. Yet he chose a simple home in a common area of Queens. Visitors appear every day to see where the famous jazz musician lived. For most of his life, Louis Armstrong was performing about three-hundred days of the year. But when he was home, he spent most of his time in a room where he produced most of his work. Today, the room looks as if Louis Armstrong might still be there. He often recorded people talking, music and the sounds of daily life. More than six-hundred-fifty of his recordings were discovered in his home. Here is an example of one of these recordings. Louis is talking with his wife, Lucille. (SOUND) Louis Armstrong collected many things from his travels and from the people he met. He wrote many letters to friends and fans. And he wrote about everyday things that took place in his life. Thousands of pages of his personal writings, pictures, trumpets and other things can be found at the Louis Armstrong Archives at Queens College in New York. For more information about Louis Armstrong, his archives and his house, you can go to the museum’s computer web site. The address is w-w-w dot s-a-t-c-h-m-o dot n-e-t. Education for the Blind HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Pakistan. Habib Nawaz wants to know about education for blind students in the United States. The American Federation for the Blind says there are about ten-million blind or visually disabled people in the United States. A federal law approved in nineteen-seventy-five guarantees blind students a free public education. It requires that all states provide a free public education in the best environment to children who suffer mental or physical problems. To help blind students learn, schools are also required to provide special books published in Braille. This is a system of printing and writing for the blind. Words are formed using raised areas of paper which blind people feel with their fingers. Schools also provide other services and equipment to help blind or visually impaired people learn. Many children with sight problems attend their local public schools with other children. They are taught the same subjects as other students their age. But they also receive special life skills training. This could include learning how to move and work successfully within the community. It could also mean special training on equipment to make life easier. Some schools even have special vision instructors. These are trained professionals who work directly with blind students. Blind or visually impaired students can also attend separate schools for people with disabilities. Often, students at these schools have other physical or mental problems. Many of these special services schools are paid for by the states. Others are private. Blind or visually impaired students have the right to attend either. It is the responsibility of the school to provide them with a full education. Many colleges and universities throughout the United States also have programs and special services for blind and visually impaired students. These are not free, however. At the university level, all students must pay for their education. Grammy Winners HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presented its yearly Grammy Awards last Sunday, February eighth. It has been doing this every year for forty-six years. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the Grammies and plays some of the songs that won this year. ANNCR: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was organized by recording artists, songwriters and technicians. They wanted to recognize excellent musical recordings and those who create them. The award the Academy gives is called a Grammy. The award is a small statue. It is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Academy vote to choose the best recordings of the year. More than one-hundred awards were given this year. One of these is Song of the Year. It goes to the writer of the best song. The winners were Luther Vandross and Richard Marx for writing the song, “Dance With My Father.” It is performed by Luther Vandross. (MUSIC) Another Grammy Award was for Record of the Year. The winners were the artists and producers of the song “Clocks.” It is performed by the group Coldplay. (MUSIC) The Grammy Award for Album of the Year went to the rap group OutKast for its album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” We leave you with a song from that album, “The Way You Move.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer is Paul Thompson, and our engineer is Andrea Kominars. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Iran Looks Back at Revolution and Ahead to Elections
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 14, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Iranians this week observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of their Islamic Revolution. Many thousands of people gathered Wednesday in Azadi Square in Tehran. President Mohammed Khatami praised the nineteen-seventy-nine revolution. However, he warned Islamic conservatives not to dismiss the wishes of the people, especially younger Iranians. He said doing so could turn people against the values of the Islamic republic and even Islam. In a speech broadcast nationally, Mister Khatami told the crowds that he will continue to seek political reforms. He said elections for parliament will be held next Friday as planned. President Khatami says the elections will be unfair but his party will compete. Last month, the Guardian Council in Iran barred more than three-thousand pro-reform candidates from competing in the elections. The move created a political crisis. Many reformist members of parliament resigned. The Guardian Council later agreed to accept about one-thousand reformist candidates. But the reformers said that was not enough. Candidates for seats in the Iranian parliament officially began to campaign on Thursday. But many reformers say they will boycott the elections next week. Some Iranians say they fear a boycott would return control of parliament to conservatives. President Khatami is Iran’s leading reformist. He was elected and re-elected by a seventy-percent majority. But his government has not been able to carry out the reforms that it has promised. Popular support for reforms has been growing in recent years. Conservative Islamic leaders, however, still have most of the control. The Islamic Revolution ousted Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in nineteen-seventy-nine. It brought an Islamic government to power led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He had been in exile in Iraq. Reformists gained control of the Iranian parliament in the elections in two-thousand. But the conservative Islamic leaders have been accused of using their power to block attempts to reform the political system and to ease social laws. The Islamic leaders in Iran have more power than elected officials. The twelve members of the Guardian Council, for example, are appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. They have the power to block legislation passed by parliament if they believe it does not support Islamic values. The council also has the power to block people from seeking high public office. In his speech Wednesday, President Khatami criticized those who he said "oppose freedom and democracy in the name of religion." He urged Iranians to avoid the path either of the West or of extremism. He said he will continue along what he calls a "third way," even if he faces strong resistance. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Harriet Tubman
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 15, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 15, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People In America. Every week we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Harriet Tubman, an African American woman who fought slavery and oppression. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People In America. Every week we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Harriet Tubman, an African American woman who fought slavery and oppression. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Historians say Harriet Tubman was born in the year Eighteen-Twenty. Nobody really knows. In the United States in the Nineteenth Century the birth of slaves was not recorded. We do know that Harriet Tubman was one of the bravest women ever born in the United States. She helped hundreds of people escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. This was a system that helped slaves escape from the South to states where slavery was banned. Because of her work on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was called Moses. In the Bible, Moses was the leader of the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt. He brought his people out of slavery to the promised land. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. All her life, she always tried to improve life for African Americans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: From a very early age, Harriet knew how slaves suffered. Her parents were slaves. They belonged to Edward Brodas, a farmer in the middle Atlantic state of Maryland. Harriet's parents tried to protect her and their ten other children as much as they could. There was little they could do, however. Slaves were treated like animals. They could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Slave children were not permitted to act like children. By the time Harriet was three years old, Mister Brodas ordered her to carry notes from him to other farmers. Some of these farmers lived as far as fifteen kilometers away. Harriet was punished if she stopped to rest or play. VOICE ONE: When Harriet was six years old, the Brodas family sent her to work for another family who lived near their farm. While there, Harriet was infected with the disease measles. Even though she was sick, she was forced to place and remove animal traps in an icy river. She was sent home when she became dangerously ill. Harriet's mother took very good care of her. The child survived. Then she was sent to work in the Brodas's house. Her owners never gave her enough to eat. One day she was working in the kitchen. She was looking at a piece of sugar in a silver container when Missus Brodas saw her. Harriet ran away in fear. She was caught and beaten very severely. Her owners decided that Harriet never would make a good worker in the house. She was sent to the fields. VOICE TWO: Harriet's parents were sad. They worked in the fields and they knew how difficult it was to survive the hard work. But working outside made Harriet's body strong. And she began to learn things from the other slaves. These things one day would help her lead her people to freedom. Harriet heard about Nat Turner. He had led an unsuccessful rebellion of slaves. She heard about other slaves who had run away from their cruel owners. She was told that they had traveled by the Underground Railroad. They did not escape by using a special train. Instead of a real train, the Underground Railroad was a series of hiding places, usually in houses of people who opposed slavery. These were secret places that African Americans could stop at as they escaped from the South to the North. As Harriet heard stories of rebellion, she became more of a rebel. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One day when Harriet was fifteen she was at a local store. A slave owner entered and threatened a young boy who was his slave. At first, the slave refused to move. Then he ran for the door. Harriet moved in front of the young man. The slave owner reached for a heavy weight. He threw it at his slave. He missed. Instead, the heavy metal object hit Harriet in the head. Harriet almost died. Months passed before she could get out of bed. For the rest of her life, she carried the mark of a deep wound on her head. And she suffered from blackouts. She would suddenly lose consciousness as though she had fallen asleep. VOICE TWO: Mister Brodas felt he would never get any good work out of Harriet. So he decided to sell her. Harriet thought of a way to prevent this. Each time she was shown to someone who might buy her, she acted as if she were falling asleep. After a while, Mister Brodas gave up hope of selling Harriet. He sent her back to the fields. She dreamed of freedom while picking vegetables and digging in the fields. In Eighteen Forty-Four, at about age twenty-four, she married a free black man named John Tubman. By now, Harriet was sure she wanted to try to escape. It would be very dangerous. Slaves who were caught often were killed or almost beaten to death. Harriet knew she must wait for just the right time. VOICE ONE: Suddenly, in Eighteen-Forty-Nine, the time came. Mister Brodas died. His slaves probably would be sold to cotton farmers further South. The situation there would be even worse. John Tubman tried to make Harriet forget about running away. He was free. Why should he make a dangerous trip with a woman breaking the law? Harriet decided that her marriage to John must end. Harriet heard that she was to be sold immediately. She knew she needed to tell her family that she was leaving. She began to sing, softly at first, then louder. She sang the words, "I'm sorry to leave you...I'm going to the promised land." Her family understood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Harriet ran to the home of a white woman who had promised to help. This woman belonged to the Quakers, a religious group which hated slavery. The Quaker woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet went from house to house that way on the Underground Railroad. Each place was a little closer to the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Slavery was banned there. Once she was hidden under hay that had been cut from the fields. Another time, she wore men's clothing. Finally, she crossed the border into Pennsylvania. Later, she told a friend, "I felt like I was in heaven." VOICE ONE: Now that Harriet was free, she did not forget the hundreds of other slaves back in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents, her sister, brothers and other family members. She found a home for her parents in Auburn, New York. Harriet traveled back and forth eighteen times, helping about three-hundred slaves escape into free territory. She became an expert at hiding from slave hunters. At one time, anyone finding Harriet was promised forty-thousand dollars for catching her -- dead or alive. The people she helped called her Moses. She had rescued them from slavery just as the biblical Moses rescued the Jews. Harriet found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. Seven southern states decided to separate from the United States, mainly over the issue of slavery. The northern states refused to let the United States of America break apart. After fighting began, Harriet Tubman went into enemy territory to spy for the North. She also served as a nurse. After four years of bloody fighting, the North won the war. President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. There was no longer any need for Harriet to be Moses. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the fighting ended, Harriet Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. She married a man named Nelson Davis. This could have been the beginning of a few quiet years of family life for her. But she kept working. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black children. She also worked for women's rights and housing. And she sought help for old men and women who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. She was about ninety-three years old. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. The United States government gave a funeral with military honors for the woman known as Moses. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Historians say Harriet Tubman was born in the year Eighteen-Twenty. Nobody really knows. In the United States in the Nineteenth Century the birth of slaves was not recorded. We do know that Harriet Tubman was one of the bravest women ever born in the United States. She helped hundreds of people escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. This was a system that helped slaves escape from the South to states where slavery was banned. Because of her work on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was called Moses. In the Bible, Moses was the leader of the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt. He brought his people out of slavery to the promised land. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. All her life, she always tried to improve life for African Americans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: From a very early age, Harriet knew how slaves suffered. Her parents were slaves. They belonged to Edward Brodas, a farmer in the middle Atlantic state of Maryland. Harriet's parents tried to protect her and their ten other children as much as they could. There was little they could do, however. Slaves were treated like animals. They could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Slave children were not permitted to act like children. By the time Harriet was three years old, Mister Brodas ordered her to carry notes from him to other farmers. Some of these farmers lived as far as fifteen kilometers away. Harriet was punished if she stopped to rest or play. VOICE ONE: When Harriet was six years old, the Brodas family sent her to work for another family who lived near their farm. While there, Harriet was infected with the disease measles. Even though she was sick, she was forced to place and remove animal traps in an icy river. She was sent home when she became dangerously ill. Harriet's mother took very good care of her. The child survived. Then she was sent to work in the Brodas's house. Her owners never gave her enough to eat. One day she was working in the kitchen. She was looking at a piece of sugar in a silver container when Missus Brodas saw her. Harriet ran away in fear. She was caught and beaten very severely. Her owners decided that Harriet never would make a good worker in the house. She was sent to the fields. VOICE TWO: Harriet's parents were sad. They worked in the fields and they knew how difficult it was to survive the hard work. But working outside made Harriet's body strong. And she began to learn things from the other slaves. These things one day would help her lead her people to freedom. Harriet heard about Nat Turner. He had led an unsuccessful rebellion of slaves. She heard about other slaves who had run away from their cruel owners. She was told that they had traveled by the Underground Railroad. They did not escape by using a special train. Instead of a real train, the Underground Railroad was a series of hiding places, usually in houses of people who opposed slavery. These were secret places that African Americans could stop at as they escaped from the South to the North. As Harriet heard stories of rebellion, she became more of a rebel. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One day when Harriet was fifteen she was at a local store. A slave owner entered and threatened a young boy who was his slave. At first, the slave refused to move. Then he ran for the door. Harriet moved in front of the young man. The slave owner reached for a heavy weight. He threw it at his slave. He missed. Instead, the heavy metal object hit Harriet in the head. Harriet almost died. Months passed before she could get out of bed. For the rest of her life, she carried the mark of a deep wound on her head. And she suffered from blackouts. She would suddenly lose consciousness as though she had fallen asleep. VOICE TWO: Mister Brodas felt he would never get any good work out of Harriet. So he decided to sell her. Harriet thought of a way to prevent this. Each time she was shown to someone who might buy her, she acted as if she were falling asleep. After a while, Mister Brodas gave up hope of selling Harriet. He sent her back to the fields. She dreamed of freedom while picking vegetables and digging in the fields. In Eighteen Forty-Four, at about age twenty-four, she married a free black man named John Tubman. By now, Harriet was sure she wanted to try to escape. It would be very dangerous. Slaves who were caught often were killed or almost beaten to death. Harriet knew she must wait for just the right time. VOICE ONE: Suddenly, in Eighteen-Forty-Nine, the time came. Mister Brodas died. His slaves probably would be sold to cotton farmers further South. The situation there would be even worse. John Tubman tried to make Harriet forget about running away. He was free. Why should he make a dangerous trip with a woman breaking the law? Harriet decided that her marriage to John must end. Harriet heard that she was to be sold immediately. She knew she needed to tell her family that she was leaving. She began to sing, softly at first, then louder. She sang the words, "I'm sorry to leave you...I'm going to the promised land." Her family understood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Harriet ran to the home of a white woman who had promised to help. This woman belonged to the Quakers, a religious group which hated slavery. The Quaker woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet went from house to house that way on the Underground Railroad. Each place was a little closer to the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Slavery was banned there. Once she was hidden under hay that had been cut from the fields. Another time, she wore men's clothing. Finally, she crossed the border into Pennsylvania. Later, she told a friend, "I felt like I was in heaven." VOICE ONE: Now that Harriet was free, she did not forget the hundreds of other slaves back in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents, her sister, brothers and other family members. She found a home for her parents in Auburn, New York. Harriet traveled back and forth eighteen times, helping about three-hundred slaves escape into free territory. She became an expert at hiding from slave hunters. At one time, anyone finding Harriet was promised forty-thousand dollars for catching her -- dead or alive. The people she helped called her Moses. She had rescued them from slavery just as the biblical Moses rescued the Jews. Harriet found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. Seven southern states decided to separate from the United States, mainly over the issue of slavery. The northern states refused to let the United States of America break apart. After fighting began, Harriet Tubman went into enemy territory to spy for the North. She also served as a nurse. After four years of bloody fighting, the North won the war. President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. There was no longer any need for Harriet to be Moses. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the fighting ended, Harriet Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. She married a man named Nelson Davis. This could have been the beginning of a few quiet years of family life for her. But she kept working. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black children. She also worked for women's rights and housing. And she sought help for old men and women who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. She was about ninety-three years old. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. The United States government gave a funeral with military honors for the woman known as Moses. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – UN Study Says Gains Would Outweigh Costs to End Child Labor
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 16, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The International Labor Organization says child labor limits economic development. It says educating children instead of forcing them to work would create huge gains for developing countries. The International Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. The agency proposes that child labor be substituted with education by two-thousand-twenty. A three-year study by the agency compared the costs against the gains from ending child labor. Researchers found that paying for education in developing nations could bring seven times the return on investment. The researchers also note the other gains that would come from removing the worst forms of child labor. Ending slavery and the sale of children for sex would reduce injuries and sickness. The International Labor Organization estimates that about two-hundred-fifty-million children are involved in child labor. Of these, it says one out of every eight may be working with dangerous chemicals, breathing poisons or selling sex. The cost to replace child labor with education is estimated at seven-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars. But the U-N agency says the project should be seen as a long-term investment. It says the costs would be higher than returns mostly during the first fifteen years. For example, poor families would have to live at first without the wages earned by their children. To help balance this problem, the labor agency proposes that governments provide financial help to poor families with school-age children. Several nations including Brazil and Mexico already have support programs in place. The study says governments would also need to invest in new schools, books, equipment, and teacher training. Juan Somavia is the director general of the International Labor Organization. He says the proposal is not only a good social policy, but also a wise economic plan. He says each additional year of education for an older child adds eleven percent per year to future earnings. The labor agency says all parts of the world would gain by ending child labor. The study estimates that countries in North Africa and the Middle East would gain more than eight dollars for every one dollar invested. Asian countries would gain more than seven dollars for every dollar invested. And Latin American countries would gain over five dollars. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: February 16, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The International Labor Organization says child labor limits economic development. It says educating children instead of forcing them to work would create huge gains for developing countries. The International Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. The agency proposes that child labor be substituted with education by two-thousand-twenty. A three-year study by the agency compared the costs against the gains from ending child labor. Researchers found that paying for education in developing nations could bring seven times the return on investment. The researchers also note the other gains that would come from removing the worst forms of child labor. Ending slavery and the sale of children for sex would reduce injuries and sickness. The International Labor Organization estimates that about two-hundred-fifty-million children are involved in child labor. Of these, it says one out of every eight may be working with dangerous chemicals, breathing poisons or selling sex. The cost to replace child labor with education is estimated at seven-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars. But the U-N agency says the project should be seen as a long-term investment. It says the costs would be higher than returns mostly during the first fifteen years. For example, poor families would have to live at first without the wages earned by their children. To help balance this problem, the labor agency proposes that governments provide financial help to poor families with school-age children. Several nations including Brazil and Mexico already have support programs in place. The study says governments would also need to invest in new schools, books, equipment, and teacher training. Juan Somavia is the director general of the International Labor Organization. He says the proposal is not only a good social policy, but also a wise economic plan. He says each additional year of education for an older child adds eleven percent per year to future earnings. The labor agency says all parts of the world would gain by ending child labor. The study estimates that countries in North Africa and the Middle East would gain more than eight dollars for every one dollar invested. Asian countries would gain more than seven dollars for every dollar invested. And Latin American countries would gain over five dollars. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA  - Dating
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Our show this week is about the search for love. Join us as we explore dating in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another February fourteenth, Valentine's Day, has come and gone. Millions of people received flowers and chocolate, or some other gift, or even just a telephone call from someone they care about. Valentine's Day is a special time for love. People who follow old traditions have a second chance at the end of this month. A tradition says February twenty-ninth, Leap Year Day, is the one day a woman may ask a man to marry her. But a lot of people are not even close to that point. They would be happy just to find someone to date. VOICE TWO: In the past, young people in America usually lived with their parents until they got married. Some still do. But, in general, young people have grown more independent. They wait longer to get married. Even then, they still have to find the right person. There are many ways for people to meet. Some meet at work. Others meet by chance. Still others seek help from businesses that try to bring people together. VOICE ONE: Friends and family members might offer to help. Often a friend will plan a “blind date.” This is meeting between two people who have never seen each other before. The friend thinks the two people will like each other. They might. Or they might never want to see each other again. Usually, though, single people have to make their own plans. Some might go to a dance place, for example, and hope to meet someone they can ask out on a date. Some places are popular with young people. Others are for older people. But this kind of life is not for everyone. VOICE TWO: Dating and establishing a relationship can be hard work. So a lot of people want to go where they are sure they can meet people with similar interests. They might look for someone who shares a common interest in religion or books, for example. A lot of bookstores in America now have places that serve coffee and food. Many offer special programs and social activities for single people. Singles may join health clubs, or sports teams -- or maybe even a group for people who like to take long walks in the woods. If nothing else, at least they will have gotten some exercise. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some Americans use dating services, which help people choose a person they might like. For example, a company called Great Expectations has been helping to bring people together for almost thirty years. Great Expectations started in San Francisco, California. The company organizes events in more than fifty places in the United States for people to meet. Another company is called Brief Encounters. It serves people in several states and Washington, D.C. The name describes what the company does. Brief Encounters organizes events that provide very quick introductions for small groups of people. Men and women meet and get only three to six minutes to introduce themselves. VOICE TWO: Two people sit across from each other at a table. They talk until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write their reactions on paper. They write the names of the people they liked best. Then they give these notes to an employee of Brief Encounters. Within forty-eight hours, the people who took part receive the names and telephone numbers of the people who liked them. A program called SpeedDating also provides fast introductions for singles. Many young people are in a room. Two people meet and talk for seven minutes. Then they meet and talk to others. The SpeedDating program began in Los Angeles, California, at a Jewish educational center. It is one of a number of dating services operated by religious organizations. VOICE ONE: But some people do not like making hurried choices. A young woman in Chicago, Illinois, says nobody can make an intelligent choice under those conditions. But others praise this method. They say it is a way to avoid long hours with someone who is not very interesting. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many American newspapers and magazines publish messages from people who are seeking someone to date. The messages are called “personal want ads” or “personals.” This is the usual kind of message in a personal ad: “Nice looking woman, thirty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship.” VOICE ONE: Men who want to meet this woman write to the newspaper or magazine. They describe themselves and their interests. The woman then reads the letters and decides if she wants to meet any of them. There are also telephone services. A person calls and records a message. For example, a man describes himself and the kind of woman he hopes to meet. He describes what kind of relationship he would like. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. Once two people talk to each other directly, they might or might not decide to meet in person. Telephone dating services have led to video dating services. People go on camera and record a message about themselves. Then they wait until someone likes what they see. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some cities in America have restaurants where people hope to find more than just good food. A place called Drip opened in New York City in nineteen-ninety-six. It started with the idea to have people write down answers to a series of questions about themselves. Other people then read the answers. If someone likes what they read, an employee sets up a date. Now there is a Web site, Drip.com. People are directed to a DateCafe where an employee tries to set them up on a date. VOICE ONE: This is just one of the dating services on the Internet. A business called Match.com is a leader in the area of online matchmaking. Members can get lists of people around their age who live nearby. Some people identify themselves and even include pictures. Others do not. The goal is for people to get to know each other through electronic mail. Then, they can decide to meet and date. Match.com began in nineteen-ninety-five. It says many of its members have married or formed close relationships. One example is a teacher in the Washington, D.C., area whose marriage ended a few years ago. She had not dated much until she met a computer expert through Match-dot-com. VOICE TWO: A lot of people search for love online. People usually start by communicating with strangers. Sometimes the strangers become friends. They might decide to meet. Then they might decide to date. They may even decide to get married. But there are risks anytime strangers meet. There have been stories in the news about people killed by others they met over the Internet. That is not the only risk. People may lie about themselves or leave out details. Some people find that the person they met over the Internet is already married. VOICE ONE: However they meet, when single people finally get together, what do they do on a date? People of all ages do many of the same things. They go out to eat. Or they go dancing. They go for walks. Or they go to movies, museums or concerts. Couples might play sports together. Or they might just spend the evening watching television. VOICE TWO: Dating is the traditional first step toward marriage. But many young Americans no longer feel in as much of a hurry to get married as in the past. They want to finish their education and establish themselves in a profession first. Other people are ready to settle down and start a family. They want to meet someone and fall in love. There are more ways to meet other people today. Yet some say it is harder than ever to find the right person. So they keep dating, and hoping. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – Plate Tectonics
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 17, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Scientists who study the Earth tell us that the continents and ocean floors are always moving. Sometimes, this movement is violent and might result in great destruction. VOICE ONE: Today we examine the process that causes earthquakes. (THEME) The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green land masses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would. Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as had been thought. Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth’s outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again. VOICE TWO: Only since the nineteen-sixties have scientists begun to understand that the Earth is a great, living structure. Some experts say this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents — a process called plate tectonics. Earthquakes are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the surface of the Earth changes and how those changes cause earthquakes. VOICE ONE: Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a giant eggshell. They call the pieces tectonic plates. As many as twenty of them cover the Earth. The plates float about slowly, sometimes crashing into each other, and sometimes moving away from each other. When the plates move, the continents move with them. Sometimes the continents are above two plates. The continents split as the plates move. VOICE TWO: Tectonic plates can cause earthquakes as they move. Modern instruments show that about ninety percent of all earthquakes take place along a few lines in several places around the Earth. These lines follow underwater mountains where hot liquid rock flows up from deep inside the planet. Sometimes, the melted rock comes out with a great burst of pressure. This forces apart pieces of the Earth's surface in a violent earthquake. Other earthquakes take place at the edges of continents. Pressure increases as two plates move against each other. When this happens, one plate moves past the other, suddenly causing the Earth’s surface to split. VOICE ONE: One example of this is found in California, on the West Coast of the United States. One part of California is on what is known as the Pacific plate. The other part of the state is on what is known as the North American plate. Scientists say the Pacific plate is moving toward the northwest, while the North American plate is moving more to the southeast. Where these two huge plates come together is called a fault line. The name of this line between the plates in California is the San Andreas Fault. It is along or near this line that most of California’s earthquakes take place, as the two tectonic plates move in different directions. The city of Los Angeles in Southern California is about fifty kilometers from the San Andreas Fault. Many smaller fault lines can be found throughout the area around Los Angeles. A major earthquake in nineteen-ninety-four was centered along one of these smaller fault lines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener in the early part of the twentieth century. He first proposed that the continents had moved and were still moving. He said the idea came to him when he observed that the coasts of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.He proposed that the two continents might have been one, then split apart. Later, Alfred Wegener said the continents had once been part of a huge area of land he called Pangaea. He said the huge continent had split more than two-hundred-million years ago. He said the pieces were still floating apart. VOICE ONE: Wegener investigated the idea that continents move. He pointed out a line of mountains that appears from east to west in South Africa. Then he pointed out another line of mountains that looks almost exactly the same in Argentina, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He found fossil remains of the same kind of an early plant in areas of Africa, South America, India, Australia and even Antarctica. Alfred Wegener said the mountains and fossils were evidence that all the land on Earth was united at some time in the distant past. VOICE TWO: Wegener also noted differences between the continents and the ocean floor. He said the oceans were more than just low places that had filled with water. Even if the water was removed, he said, a person would still see differences between the continents and the ocean floor. Also, the continents and the ocean floor are not made of the same kind of rock. The continents are made of a granite-like rock, a mixture of silicon and aluminum. The ocean floor is basalt rock, a mixture of silicon and magnesium. Mister Wegener said the lighter continental rock floated up through the heavier basalt rock of the ocean floor. VOICE ONE: Support for Alfred Wegener’s ideas did not come until the early nineteen-fifties. American scientists Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said the continents moved as new sea floor was created under the Atlantic Ocean. They said a thin valley in the Atlantic Ocean was a place where the ocean floor splits. They said hot melted material flows up from deep inside the Earth through the split. As the hot material reaches the ocean floor, it spreads out, cools and hardens. It becomes new ocean floor. The two scientists proposed that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is moving away from each side of the split. The movement is very slow -- a few centimeters a year. In time, they said, the moving ocean floor is blocked when it comes up against the edge of a continent. Then it is forced down under the continent, deep into the Earth, where it is melted again. Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said this spreading does not make the Earth bigger. As new ocean floor is created, an equal amount is destroyed. VOICE TWO: The two scientists also said Alfred Wegener was correct. The continents move as new material from the center of the Earth rises, hardens and pushes older pieces of the Earth away from each other. The continents are moving all the time, although we cannot feel it. They called their theory "sea floor spreading." The theory explains that as the sea floor spreads, the tectonic plates are pushed and pulled in different directions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The idea of plate tectonics explains volcanoes as well as earthquakes. Many of the world's volcanoes are found at the edges of plates, where geologic activity is intense. The large number of volcanoes around the Pacific plate has earned the name "Ring of Fire." Volcanoes also are found in the middle of plates, where there is a well of melted rock. Scientists call these wells "hot spots." A hot spot does not move. However, as the plate moves over it, a line of volcanoes is formed. The Hawaiian Islands were created in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as the plate moved slowly over a hot spot. This process is continuing, as the plate continues to move. VOICE TWO: Volcanoes and earthquakes are among the most frightening events that nature can produce. The earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam at the end of two-thousand-three, for example, killed more than forty-thousand people. At times like these, we remember that the ground is not as solid and unchanging as people might like to think. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Marilyn Christiano and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: February 17, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Scientists who study the Earth tell us that the continents and ocean floors are always moving. Sometimes, this movement is violent and might result in great destruction. VOICE ONE: Today we examine the process that causes earthquakes. (THEME) The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green land masses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would. Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as had been thought. Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth’s outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again. VOICE TWO: Only since the nineteen-sixties have scientists begun to understand that the Earth is a great, living structure. Some experts say this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents — a process called plate tectonics. Earthquakes are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the surface of the Earth changes and how those changes cause earthquakes. VOICE ONE: Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a giant eggshell. They call the pieces tectonic plates. As many as twenty of them cover the Earth. The plates float about slowly, sometimes crashing into each other, and sometimes moving away from each other. When the plates move, the continents move with them. Sometimes the continents are above two plates. The continents split as the plates move. VOICE TWO: Tectonic plates can cause earthquakes as they move. Modern instruments show that about ninety percent of all earthquakes take place along a few lines in several places around the Earth. These lines follow underwater mountains where hot liquid rock flows up from deep inside the planet. Sometimes, the melted rock comes out with a great burst of pressure. This forces apart pieces of the Earth's surface in a violent earthquake. Other earthquakes take place at the edges of continents. Pressure increases as two plates move against each other. When this happens, one plate moves past the other, suddenly causing the Earth’s surface to split. VOICE ONE: One example of this is found in California, on the West Coast of the United States. One part of California is on what is known as the Pacific plate. The other part of the state is on what is known as the North American plate. Scientists say the Pacific plate is moving toward the northwest, while the North American plate is moving more to the southeast. Where these two huge plates come together is called a fault line. The name of this line between the plates in California is the San Andreas Fault. It is along or near this line that most of California’s earthquakes take place, as the two tectonic plates move in different directions. The city of Los Angeles in Southern California is about fifty kilometers from the San Andreas Fault. Many smaller fault lines can be found throughout the area around Los Angeles. A major earthquake in nineteen-ninety-four was centered along one of these smaller fault lines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener in the early part of the twentieth century. He first proposed that the continents had moved and were still moving. He said the idea came to him when he observed that the coasts of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.He proposed that the two continents might have been one, then split apart. Later, Alfred Wegener said the continents had once been part of a huge area of land he called Pangaea. He said the huge continent had split more than two-hundred-million years ago. He said the pieces were still floating apart. VOICE ONE: Wegener investigated the idea that continents move. He pointed out a line of mountains that appears from east to west in South Africa. Then he pointed out another line of mountains that looks almost exactly the same in Argentina, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He found fossil remains of the same kind of an early plant in areas of Africa, South America, India, Australia and even Antarctica. Alfred Wegener said the mountains and fossils were evidence that all the land on Earth was united at some time in the distant past. VOICE TWO: Wegener also noted differences between the continents and the ocean floor. He said the oceans were more than just low places that had filled with water. Even if the water was removed, he said, a person would still see differences between the continents and the ocean floor. Also, the continents and the ocean floor are not made of the same kind of rock. The continents are made of a granite-like rock, a mixture of silicon and aluminum. The ocean floor is basalt rock, a mixture of silicon and magnesium. Mister Wegener said the lighter continental rock floated up through the heavier basalt rock of the ocean floor. VOICE ONE: Support for Alfred Wegener’s ideas did not come until the early nineteen-fifties. American scientists Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said the continents moved as new sea floor was created under the Atlantic Ocean. They said a thin valley in the Atlantic Ocean was a place where the ocean floor splits. They said hot melted material flows up from deep inside the Earth through the split. As the hot material reaches the ocean floor, it spreads out, cools and hardens. It becomes new ocean floor. The two scientists proposed that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is moving away from each side of the split. The movement is very slow -- a few centimeters a year. In time, they said, the moving ocean floor is blocked when it comes up against the edge of a continent. Then it is forced down under the continent, deep into the Earth, where it is melted again. Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said this spreading does not make the Earth bigger. As new ocean floor is created, an equal amount is destroyed. VOICE TWO: The two scientists also said Alfred Wegener was correct. The continents move as new material from the center of the Earth rises, hardens and pushes older pieces of the Earth away from each other. The continents are moving all the time, although we cannot feel it. They called their theory "sea floor spreading." The theory explains that as the sea floor spreads, the tectonic plates are pushed and pulled in different directions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The idea of plate tectonics explains volcanoes as well as earthquakes. Many of the world's volcanoes are found at the edges of plates, where geologic activity is intense. The large number of volcanoes around the Pacific plate has earned the name "Ring of Fire." Volcanoes also are found in the middle of plates, where there is a well of melted rock. Scientists call these wells "hot spots." A hot spot does not move. However, as the plate moves over it, a line of volcanoes is formed. The Hawaiian Islands were created in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as the plate moved slowly over a hot spot. This process is continuing, as the plate continues to move. VOICE TWO: Volcanoes and earthquakes are among the most frightening events that nature can produce. The earthquake in the Iranian city of Bam at the end of two-thousand-three, for example, killed more than forty-thousand people. At times like these, we remember that the ground is not as solid and unchanging as people might like to think. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Marilyn Christiano and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Bird Flu Update
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Chicken farmers in the northeastern United States are dealing with a form of bird flu different from the virus in Asia. Officials say it is the form H7. The H7 virus does not have a history of infecting people. But it does kill chickens, and it spreads easily. The virus was first discovered on a farm in Delaware that provided live chickens to a market in New York City. States officials ordered that farm and another one to destroy thousands of chickens. Officials also banned the sales of live chickens. After Delaware, cases were reported in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The United States is the biggest producer and exporter of chicken. The American share of the export market in two-thousand-one was valued at nearly two-thousand-million dollars. That year, eighteen-percent of all American chicken production was exported. Because of the H7 outbreak, a number of nations have barred imports of American chicken. Some including Russia barred imports only from the affected areas. Russia is the biggest importer of American chicken products. Others ordered bans on chicken from anywhere in the United States. These countries included China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. The United States Agriculture Department says it does not believe the import bans will last long. In Asia, officials have been working to control the spread of the avian influenza virus known as H5N1. That virus has killed millions of chickens in several countries. The number of human deaths reached twenty last week in Vietnam and Thailand. The bird flu outbreak in Asia has caused economic damage. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says it will aid some of the countries affected. The FAO said it would provide one-point-six million dollars to Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan and Vietnam. The agency also joined the World Health Organization in urging measures to fight bird flu. One of these measures is the use of vaccine medicine to help chickens resist the virus. Scientists are developing a human vaccine in case the virus takes a form that spreads easily from person to person. Some people have worried that pigs may also become infected and give the virus to humans. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization says it has found no evidence that the H5N1 virus can infect pigs. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - The X-15 Rocketplane
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 18, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 18, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Explorations -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Today, Doug Johnson and Frank Oliver tell about the first airplane that flew out of the Earth's atmosphere. It was designed to test equipment and conditions for future space flights. The plane was called the X-15. ANNCR: Explorations -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Today, Doug Johnson and Frank Oliver tell about the first airplane that flew out of the Earth's atmosphere. It was designed to test equipment and conditions for future space flights. The plane was called the X-15. VOICE ONE: The pilot of the huge B-52 bomber plane pushes a button. From under the plane's right wing, the black sharp-nosed X-Fifteen drops free. It is eleven-and-one-half kilometers above the Earth. Pilot Scott Crossfield is in the X-15's only seat. When he is clear of the B-52, he starts the X-15's rocket engine. And so begins the first powered flight of the experimental plane designed to take man to the edge of space. VOICE TWO: The X-15 flies high over the sandy wasteland of California's Mojave Desert. Up, up it flies. After three minutes, its fuel has burned up. It is flying about 2000 kilometers an hour. Scott Crossfield's voice tightens. His breathing becomes harder as the plane pushes against the atmosphere. At that speed, the pressure is three times the force of gravity. Then the X-15 pushes over the top of its flight path. It settles into a long, powerless slide toward the landing field at Edwards Air Force Base. Designers of the X-15 have warned Crossfield about the landing. They say it will be like driving a race car toward a brick wall at 160 kilometers an hour, hitting the brakes, and stopping less than a meter from the wall. Crossfield lands the plane without any problem. His success shows, as one newspaper reports, that "The United States has men to match its rockets. " VOICE ONE: That first flight of the X-15 took place in September, 1959. But the story began in the nineteen-forties with the 'X' series of experimental aircraft. The first plane ever to fly faster than the speed of sound was the X-1 in 1947. United States government agencies and America's airplane industry realized then that it was possible to build an even faster plane. It would reach hypersonic speeds -- five times the speed of sound. The first proposal for this new research vehicle, the X-15, was made in 1954. The space agency, Air Force and Navy jointly supported the program. They wanted a plane that could test conditions for future flights into space. VOICE TWO: The project moved quickly. The North American Aviation Company won the competition to design and build the plane. The design would be part aircraft and part spacecraft. The company took less than four years to produce three X-15. The planes were not big. They were just 15 meters long with wings less than 7 meters across. They were designed to fly at speeds up to 6400 kilometers an hour. They were designed to reach heights of 80 kilometers. Their purpose was to explore some of the problems of manned flight, during short periods, in lower space. No one had ever done that before. VOICE ONE: The X-15 project had four major goals. It would test flight conditions at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. It would leave the atmosphere briefly, then return, testing the effects of the extreme heat of re-entry. It would provide information on the controls needed in the near weightless environment of lower space. And it would answer a very important question. How would humans react to space flight. VOICE TWO: The X-15 was a new idea. And it was built with new methods. It was covered in a new material called "inconel x." The material was a mixture of the metals nickel and chromium. It would protect the plane from high temperatures. There were new designs for the plane's rocket engine, landing equipment and the small rockets needed to move it in space. There was a new system of liquid nitrogen to keep the pilot cool and to resist the crushing force of gravity at high speeds. And there was a new fuel, a mixture of liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen. VOICE ONE: The X-15 was never designed to go into orbit. Nor could it take off from the ground. It was carried into the air by a B-52 bomber. The big B-52 carried the small X-15 under its wing. It looked a little like a mother whale swimming with its baby. At about 15,000 meters, the B-52 released the X-15. After a few seconds, when the X-15 was safely away, the pilot started its rocket engine. The X-15 flew upward with unbelievable power. VOICE TWO: The three X-15 were flown 199 times. Each flight was a new experiment. Planning took many days. The pilot spent 50 hours in a simulator -- a copy of the plane on the ground -- preparing for his ten-minute flight. Once the real flight began, the pilot had to remember everything he learned. He had to work quickly and exactly. All his movements were made against a force that could reach six times the power of gravity. He had to struggle to reach forward for the controls while being pushed back hard in his seat. A delay of even one second could affect the information being collected. It could change the plane's path just enough to destroy the pilot's chance of a safe landing. VOICE ONE: The X-15 set height and speed records greater than those expected. The number three plane climbed more than 107 kilometers above the earth. The number two plane flew 7,232 kilometers an hour. That was more than seven times the speed of sound. The X-15 was the first major investment by the United States in manned space flight technology. Much of what was learned from its flights speeded up the development of the space program. VOICE TWO: The X-15 tested materials for space vehicles. It tested spacesuits worn later by America's astronauts. It tested instruments for controlling a vehicle in the weightlessness of space. And it proved that experienced pilots had the skills necessary to fly in space. Twelve military and civilian test pilots flew the X-15. A few became astronauts. The X-15 program lasted about ten years. There were about 200 flights. Some of the flights carried scientific experiments. One was a container on the end of the wing. It gathered dust and tiny meteoroids from the edge of space. Another was a set of special instruments that helped measure the effects of the sun's radiation on the outside of the aircraft. VOICE ONE: The only tragedy connected with the X-15 program happened in 1967. The pilot was Michael Adams of the United States Air Force. It was his seventh X-15 flight. Everything, at first, appeared to be normal. The plane reached a height of 80 kilometers. It was flying more than five times the speed of sound. Then, during a test of the wings, the plane moved sharply off its flight path. It dove toward Earth at great speed, spinning rapidly out of control. Atmospheric pressure was too great for the plane. It broke apart. The pilot did not survive. VOICE TWO: The X-15 made its last flight in December, 1968. NASA needed money for its other projects. It decided to end the X-15 program. Many space experts disagreed with the decision. They felt the X-15 could have continued to provide new information about aviation and space. Today, the X-15 hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. It is in a memorial called Milestones of Flight. In the memorial, there is the X-1, the first airplane to fly faster than sound. And there is the "Spirit of Saint Louis," which Charles Lindbergh flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean. There also are copies of famous spacecraft like Russia’s Sputnik and Pioneer Ten. On the floor below these aircraft are three spacecraft command ships. One of them, the Apollo-Eleven, traveled to the moon just seven months after the last X-15 flight. It carried the man who became the first human to step on the moon, Neil Armstrong, a former X-15 pilot. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Frank Oliver. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The pilot of the huge B-52 bomber plane pushes a button. From under the plane's right wing, the black sharp-nosed X-Fifteen drops free. It is eleven-and-one-half kilometers above the Earth. Pilot Scott Crossfield is in the X-15's only seat. When he is clear of the B-52, he starts the X-15's rocket engine. And so begins the first powered flight of the experimental plane designed to take man to the edge of space. VOICE TWO: The X-15 flies high over the sandy wasteland of California's Mojave Desert. Up, up it flies. After three minutes, its fuel has burned up. It is flying about 2000 kilometers an hour. Scott Crossfield's voice tightens. His breathing becomes harder as the plane pushes against the atmosphere. At that speed, the pressure is three times the force of gravity. Then the X-15 pushes over the top of its flight path. It settles into a long, powerless slide toward the landing field at Edwards Air Force Base. Designers of the X-15 have warned Crossfield about the landing. They say it will be like driving a race car toward a brick wall at 160 kilometers an hour, hitting the brakes, and stopping less than a meter from the wall. Crossfield lands the plane without any problem. His success shows, as one newspaper reports, that "The United States has men to match its rockets. " VOICE ONE: That first flight of the X-15 took place in September, 1959. But the story began in the nineteen-forties with the 'X' series of experimental aircraft. The first plane ever to fly faster than the speed of sound was the X-1 in 1947. United States government agencies and America's airplane industry realized then that it was possible to build an even faster plane. It would reach hypersonic speeds -- five times the speed of sound. The first proposal for this new research vehicle, the X-15, was made in 1954. The space agency, Air Force and Navy jointly supported the program. They wanted a plane that could test conditions for future flights into space. VOICE TWO: The project moved quickly. The North American Aviation Company won the competition to design and build the plane. The design would be part aircraft and part spacecraft. The company took less than four years to produce three X-15. The planes were not big. They were just 15 meters long with wings less than 7 meters across. They were designed to fly at speeds up to 6400 kilometers an hour. They were designed to reach heights of 80 kilometers. Their purpose was to explore some of the problems of manned flight, during short periods, in lower space. No one had ever done that before. VOICE ONE: The X-15 project had four major goals. It would test flight conditions at the edge of Earth's atmosphere. It would leave the atmosphere briefly, then return, testing the effects of the extreme heat of re-entry. It would provide information on the controls needed in the near weightless environment of lower space. And it would answer a very important question. How would humans react to space flight. VOICE TWO: The X-15 was a new idea. And it was built with new methods. It was covered in a new material called "inconel x." The material was a mixture of the metals nickel and chromium. It would protect the plane from high temperatures. There were new designs for the plane's rocket engine, landing equipment and the small rockets needed to move it in space. There was a new system of liquid nitrogen to keep the pilot cool and to resist the crushing force of gravity at high speeds. And there was a new fuel, a mixture of liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen. VOICE ONE: The X-15 was never designed to go into orbit. Nor could it take off from the ground. It was carried into the air by a B-52 bomber. The big B-52 carried the small X-15 under its wing. It looked a little like a mother whale swimming with its baby. At about 15,000 meters, the B-52 released the X-15. After a few seconds, when the X-15 was safely away, the pilot started its rocket engine. The X-15 flew upward with unbelievable power. VOICE TWO: The three X-15 were flown 199 times. Each flight was a new experiment. Planning took many days. The pilot spent 50 hours in a simulator -- a copy of the plane on the ground -- preparing for his ten-minute flight. Once the real flight began, the pilot had to remember everything he learned. He had to work quickly and exactly. All his movements were made against a force that could reach six times the power of gravity. He had to struggle to reach forward for the controls while being pushed back hard in his seat. A delay of even one second could affect the information being collected. It could change the plane's path just enough to destroy the pilot's chance of a safe landing. VOICE ONE: The X-15 set height and speed records greater than those expected. The number three plane climbed more than 107 kilometers above the earth. The number two plane flew 7,232 kilometers an hour. That was more than seven times the speed of sound. The X-15 was the first major investment by the United States in manned space flight technology. Much of what was learned from its flights speeded up the development of the space program. VOICE TWO: The X-15 tested materials for space vehicles. It tested spacesuits worn later by America's astronauts. It tested instruments for controlling a vehicle in the weightlessness of space. And it proved that experienced pilots had the skills necessary to fly in space. Twelve military and civilian test pilots flew the X-15. A few became astronauts. The X-15 program lasted about ten years. There were about 200 flights. Some of the flights carried scientific experiments. One was a container on the end of the wing. It gathered dust and tiny meteoroids from the edge of space. Another was a set of special instruments that helped measure the effects of the sun's radiation on the outside of the aircraft. VOICE ONE: The only tragedy connected with the X-15 program happened in 1967. The pilot was Michael Adams of the United States Air Force. It was his seventh X-15 flight. Everything, at first, appeared to be normal. The plane reached a height of 80 kilometers. It was flying more than five times the speed of sound. Then, during a test of the wings, the plane moved sharply off its flight path. It dove toward Earth at great speed, spinning rapidly out of control. Atmospheric pressure was too great for the plane. It broke apart. The pilot did not survive. VOICE TWO: The X-15 made its last flight in December, 1968. NASA needed money for its other projects. It decided to end the X-15 program. Many space experts disagreed with the decision. They felt the X-15 could have continued to provide new information about aviation and space. Today, the X-15 hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. It is in a memorial called Milestones of Flight. In the memorial, there is the X-1, the first airplane to fly faster than sound. And there is the "Spirit of Saint Louis," which Charles Lindbergh flew alone across the Atlantic Ocean. There also are copies of famous spacecraft like Russia’s Sputnik and Pioneer Ten. On the floor below these aircraft are three spacecraft command ships. One of them, the Apollo-Eleven, traveled to the moon just seven months after the last X-15 flight. It carried the man who became the first human to step on the moon, Neil Armstrong, a former X-15 pilot. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Frank Oliver. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-17-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — Heart Disease in Women
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 18, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Studies show that many American women believe breast cancer is the biggest threat to their health. But more than ten times as many women die of cardiovascular diseases. These are diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Heart attacks and strokes are the leading killer of both men and women. Breast cancer kills about forty-thousand women in the United States each year. But heart attacks and strokes kill about five-hundred-thousand. In fact, fifteen percent more women than men die of cardiovascular disease. Yet many people still think of it mainly affecting men. The American Heart Association has new guidelines to help prevent heart attacks and strokes in women. It published the guidelines in Circulation: the Journal of the American Heart Association. For example, the guidelines urge women not to use hormone replacement therapy as a way to protect the heart. Hormone replacement is for women past the time when they can have children. But recent studies have shown that it may do more harm than good. The guidelines also urge women to know their risk of heart attack or heart disease. They suggest that a woman talk to her doctor about this beginning as young as the age of twenty. The heart association Web site has information that can help people measure their level of risk. The address is americanheart-dot-o-r-g. Users answer some questions. They enter their age and whether or not they smoke. They need to know the level of cholesterol in their blood. And they need to know their blood pressure. A total score below ten percent is considered low risk. This means that a woman has less than a ten percent chance of a heart attack in the next ten years. The next level of ten to twenty percent is considered intermediate risk. More than twenty percent is high risk. The heart association says those at high risk should ask their doctor for medicine that lowers cholesterol. Women are also urged to ask for treatment if their blood pressure is one-hundred-forty over ninety or higher. The guidelines say women at intermediate or high risk should consider taking an aspirin each day. Aspirin may reduce the risk of a heart attack. Again, the Web site is americanheart.org. Americanheart is all one word. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Broadcast: February 18, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Studies show that many American women believe breast cancer is the biggest threat to their health. But more than ten times as many women die of cardiovascular diseases. These are diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Heart attacks and strokes are the leading killer of both men and women. Breast cancer kills about forty-thousand women in the United States each year. But heart attacks and strokes kill about five-hundred-thousand. In fact, fifteen percent more women than men die of cardiovascular disease. Yet many people still think of it mainly affecting men. The American Heart Association has new guidelines to help prevent heart attacks and strokes in women. It published the guidelines in Circulation: the Journal of the American Heart Association. For example, the guidelines urge women not to use hormone replacement therapy as a way to protect the heart. Hormone replacement is for women past the time when they can have children. But recent studies have shown that it may do more harm than good. The guidelines also urge women to know their risk of heart attack or heart disease. They suggest that a woman talk to her doctor about this beginning as young as the age of twenty. The heart association Web site has information that can help people measure their level of risk. The address is americanheart-dot-o-r-g. Users answer some questions. They enter their age and whether or not they smoke. They need to know the level of cholesterol in their blood. And they need to know their blood pressure. A total score below ten percent is considered low risk. This means that a woman has less than a ten percent chance of a heart attack in the next ten years. The next level of ten to twenty percent is considered intermediate risk. More than twenty percent is high risk. The heart association says those at high risk should ask their doctor for medicine that lowers cholesterol. Women are also urged to ask for treatment if their blood pressure is one-hundred-forty over ninety or higher. The guidelines say women at intermediate or high risk should consider taking an aspirin each day. Aspirin may reduce the risk of a heart attack. Again, the Web site is americanheart.org. Americanheart is all one word. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 3: Dysgraphia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 19, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. People who have unusual difficulty with skills like reading, writing, listening or working with numbers may have a learning disability. We talked last week about dyslexia, a reading disorder. Today we discuss a condition with writing, called dysgraphia. Writing is not an easy skill. It is both mental and physical. A person must be able to move the muscles in the hands and fingers to form letters and numbers. Some people are not able to move these muscles easily. Experts say teachers and parents should suspect dysgraphia if they see handwriting that is unusually difficult to understand. Letters may be formed or spaced incorrectly. Capital letters may be in the wrong places. Children with dysgraphia often hold their writing tools in an unusual position. They may also place the paper in an odd position for writing. The disorder generally appears when they first learn to write. Children continue to write wrong or misspelled words even after their teacher tries to show them the correct way. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say the cause of the disorder is not known. Some people with dysgraphia are able to improve their writing ability. But others are not. As with other disorders, the most important part of treatment is for someone to first identify the problem. There are some simple interventions that can help students with dysgraphia. For example, schools can give them more time to complete writing activities and provide help taking notes. Students might be permitted to type their work instead of having to write by hand. Teachers can also permit students to take examinations by speaking the answers instead of writing them. Dysgraphia often appears with other learning disabilities. Some students may not be able to organize their thoughts and think about how to write at the same time. So a teacher might advise them to type their ideas first, without thinking about writing skills. Experts say people with dysgraphia may be able to write well if they work slowly and develop their skills. Technology can help. One way to avoid the problems of handwriting is to use a computer. Students can use the computer spell checker to help make sure every word is correct. We continue our series about learning disabilities next week. Our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: February 19, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. People who have unusual difficulty with skills like reading, writing, listening or working with numbers may have a learning disability. We talked last week about dyslexia, a reading disorder. Today we discuss a condition with writing, called dysgraphia. Writing is not an easy skill. It is both mental and physical. A person must be able to move the muscles in the hands and fingers to form letters and numbers. Some people are not able to move these muscles easily. Experts say teachers and parents should suspect dysgraphia if they see handwriting that is unusually difficult to understand. Letters may be formed or spaced incorrectly. Capital letters may be in the wrong places. Children with dysgraphia often hold their writing tools in an unusual position. They may also place the paper in an odd position for writing. The disorder generally appears when they first learn to write. Children continue to write wrong or misspelled words even after their teacher tries to show them the correct way. Experts at the National Institutes of Health say the cause of the disorder is not known. Some people with dysgraphia are able to improve their writing ability. But others are not. As with other disorders, the most important part of treatment is for someone to first identify the problem. There are some simple interventions that can help students with dysgraphia. For example, schools can give them more time to complete writing activities and provide help taking notes. Students might be permitted to type their work instead of having to write by hand. Teachers can also permit students to take examinations by speaking the answers instead of writing them. Dysgraphia often appears with other learning disabilities. Some students may not be able to organize their thoughts and think about how to write at the same time. So a teacher might advise them to type their ideas first, without thinking about writing skills. Experts say people with dysgraphia may be able to write well if they work slowly and develop their skills. Technology can help. One way to avoid the problems of handwriting is to use a computer. Students can use the computer spell checker to help make sure every word is correct. We continue our series about learning disabilities next week. Our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #50 - James Madison, Part 6
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 19, 2004 (Theme) Broadcast: February 19, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we reported earlier, the United States and Britain agreed late in December, 1814, to end the war between them. The peace treaty was signed the day before Christmas at Ghent, Belgium. It took several weeks for word of the agreement to reach Washington. This resulted in two events which would not have happened had communications across the Atlantic been faster. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we reported earlier, the United States and Britain agreed late in December, 1814, to end the war between them. The peace treaty was signed the day before Christmas at Ghent, Belgium. It took several weeks for word of the agreement to reach Washington. This resulted in two events which would not have happened had communications across the Atlantic been faster. One of the events was the battle of New Orleans. British forces had begun the attack about the time the peace treaty was being signed in Ghent. The American commander, General Andrew Jackson, had prepared his defenses well. He won a great victory against the British in a battle that was not necessary, because the treaty had ended the war. VOICE TWO: The other event was a convention of New England federalists at Hartford, Connecticut. The meeting began in the middle of December and lasted through the first few days of January. Most of the representatives were from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. There were a few from New Hampshire and Vermont. The Federalists called the meeting to protest the war with Britain. Many of them had opposed the war from the beginning. Federalist state governments refused to put their soldiers under control of the central government. And Federalist banks refused to lend to the government in Washington. During the early part of the war, many businessmen in the New England states traded with the enemy. All these things had caused people in other parts of the country to turn against the Federalists. This, in turn, caused some Federalist extremists to talk of taking the New England states out of the union. VOICE ONE: There was some fear that representatives to the Hartford Convention would propose a separate and independent government for New England. Such a proposal -- while the nation was at war with Britain -- would seriously threaten America's future. Not only were the representatives at Hartford to protest the war, they also were there to plan a convention to change the United States constitution. They wanted changes that would protect the interests of the New England states. These states felt threatened because new states were being created from the western territories. These new states would weaken the power of New England. Some of the more extreme Federalists, led by Timothy Pickering, believed Britain would capture New Orleans. By doing so, Britain could control the Mississippi River, which the western states needed to move their products to market. "If the British succeed against New Orleans," wrote Pickering, "And I see no reason to question that they will be successful, then I shall consider the union as cut in two. I do not expect to see a single representative in the next Congress from the western states." VOICE TWO: Not all the representatives at the convention were as extreme as Pickering. The majority of them were more moderate. They did not want to split the union. They only wanted to protect the interests of the New England states. These more moderate Federalists controlled the secret meetings and prevented any extreme proposals. They were able to do so because of the Republican strength in New England. True, the Federalists controlled the governments of these states, but only by small majorities. There would surely have been violence had the Federalists tried to take these states out of the union. VOICE ONE: The Federalist leaders made a public statement at Hartford, January fifth. They sharply criticized the war and President Madison. But they said there was no real reason to withdraw from the central government. New England's problems, they said, resulted from the war and from the Republican government in Washington. Then the Federalists listed the changes they wanted in the constitution. They wanted to reduce the congressional representation of the southern states, where slavery was permitted. They wanted new states added to the union only if two-thirds of Congress approved. They wished to reduce the power of the central government to interfere with trade. The Federalists wished to limit to four years the time that a man could serve as president. And they wanted only men born in the United States to serve in the government. Three of the Federalists were chosen to take this list of proposals to Washington and give it to President Madison. By the time they arrived, Washington had received the news of the peace treaty signed at Ghent. The war was over. VOICE TWO: The three Federalists met with Madison. They made only small talk and said nothing about the demands of the Hartford Convention. The Federalist Party found itself greatly embarrassed by the peace. Its leaders had long denounced the war and said Britain could not be defeated. Many of them had traded with the enemy. Some had even worked with the British against their own country. They had even threatened to break up the union. While there was some question about how the war would end, the Federalist Party had supporters. But once the war was over, its supporters vanished. And the party itself soon disappeared, even in New England. VOICE ONE: The Senate acted quickly to approve the treaty with Britain. On February 17, 1815, President Madison declared the war officially ended. It had lasted two years and eight months. The United States had suffered 30,000 casualties -- killed, wounded, or captured. But the war had united the American people. Albert Gallatin, Madison's Treasury Secretary and one of the negotiators at Ghent, explained it this way: "The war has renewed and reinstated the national feelings and character which the revolution had given and which were becoming weaker. The people now have more general objects of attachment with which their pride and political opinions are joined. They are more American. They feel and act more like a nation." VOICE TWO: On the following Fourth of July, the nation celebrated its thirty-nineth anniversary of independence. In Washington, the man who wrote the "Star-Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key, spoke at the celebrations. "My countrymen," he said, "We hold something rich in trust for ourselves and all the rest of mankind. It is the fire of liberty. If it is ever put out, our darkened land will cast a sad shadow over the nations. If it lives, its blaze will enlighten and gladden the whole earth." VOICE ONE: President Madison had been elected to his second term in 1812, the year the war started. The next presidential election was in 1816. Madison continued the tradition, begun by Washington and followed by Jefferson, of only serving eight years as president. Republican members of the House and Senate met March 15 to choose their presidential and vice presidential candidates. Three Republicans wanted to be president: Secretary of State James Monroe, former Senator and Secretary of War William Crawford, and New York Governor Daniel Tompkins. Monroe received 65 votes. Fifty-four of the lawmakers voted for Crawford. With Monroe chosen as the presidential candidate, the Republicans then chose Governor Tompkins as their vice presidential candidate. The Federalists did not meet to choose a presidential candidate. But electors from three of the New England states promised to vote for a New York Federalist, Rufus King. Nineteen states voted in the elections of 1816. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. One of the events was the battle of New Orleans. British forces had begun the attack about the time the peace treaty was being signed in Ghent. The American commander, General Andrew Jackson, had prepared his defenses well. He won a great victory against the British in a battle that was not necessary, because the treaty had ended the war. VOICE TWO: The other event was a convention of New England federalists at Hartford, Connecticut. The meeting began in the middle of December and lasted through the first few days of January. Most of the representatives were from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. There were a few from New Hampshire and Vermont. The Federalists called the meeting to protest the war with Britain. Many of them had opposed the war from the beginning. Federalist state governments refused to put their soldiers under control of the central government. And Federalist banks refused to lend to the government in Washington. During the early part of the war, many businessmen in the New England states traded with the enemy. All these things had caused people in other parts of the country to turn against the Federalists. This, in turn, caused some Federalist extremists to talk of taking the New England states out of the union. VOICE ONE: There was some fear that representatives to the Hartford Convention would propose a separate and independent government for New England. Such a proposal -- while the nation was at war with Britain -- would seriously threaten America's future. Not only were the representatives at Hartford to protest the war, they also were there to plan a convention to change the United States constitution. They wanted changes that would protect the interests of the New England states. These states felt threatened because new states were being created from the western territories. These new states would weaken the power of New England. Some of the more extreme Federalists, led by Timothy Pickering, believed Britain would capture New Orleans. By doing so, Britain could control the Mississippi River, which the western states needed to move their products to market. "If the British succeed against New Orleans," wrote Pickering, "And I see no reason to question that they will be successful, then I shall consider the union as cut in two. I do not expect to see a single representative in the next Congress from the western states." VOICE TWO: Not all the representatives at the convention were as extreme as Pickering. The majority of them were more moderate. They did not want to split the union. They only wanted to protect the interests of the New England states. These more moderate Federalists controlled the secret meetings and prevented any extreme proposals. They were able to do so because of the Republican strength in New England. True, the Federalists controlled the governments of these states, but only by small majorities. There would surely have been violence had the Federalists tried to take these states out of the union. VOICE ONE: The Federalist leaders made a public statement at Hartford, January fifth. They sharply criticized the war and President Madison. But they said there was no real reason to withdraw from the central government. New England's problems, they said, resulted from the war and from the Republican government in Washington. Then the Federalists listed the changes they wanted in the constitution. They wanted to reduce the congressional representation of the southern states, where slavery was permitted. They wanted new states added to the union only if two-thirds of Congress approved. They wished to reduce the power of the central government to interfere with trade. The Federalists wished to limit to four years the time that a man could serve as president. And they wanted only men born in the United States to serve in the government. Three of the Federalists were chosen to take this list of proposals to Washington and give it to President Madison. By the time they arrived, Washington had received the news of the peace treaty signed at Ghent. The war was over. VOICE TWO: The three Federalists met with Madison. They made only small talk and said nothing about the demands of the Hartford Convention. The Federalist Party found itself greatly embarrassed by the peace. Its leaders had long denounced the war and said Britain could not be defeated. Many of them had traded with the enemy. Some had even worked with the British against their own country. They had even threatened to break up the union. While there was some question about how the war would end, the Federalist Party had supporters. But once the war was over, its supporters vanished. And the party itself soon disappeared, even in New England. VOICE ONE: The Senate acted quickly to approve the treaty with Britain. On February 17, 1815, President Madison declared the war officially ended. It had lasted two years and eight months. The United States had suffered 30,000 casualties -- killed, wounded, or captured. But the war had united the American people. Albert Gallatin, Madison's Treasury Secretary and one of the negotiators at Ghent, explained it this way: "The war has renewed and reinstated the national feelings and character which the revolution had given and which were becoming weaker. The people now have more general objects of attachment with which their pride and political opinions are joined. They are more American. They feel and act more like a nation." VOICE TWO: On the following Fourth of July, the nation celebrated its thirty-nineth anniversary of independence. In Washington, the man who wrote the "Star-Spangled Banner," Francis Scott Key, spoke at the celebrations. "My countrymen," he said, "We hold something rich in trust for ourselves and all the rest of mankind. It is the fire of liberty. If it is ever put out, our darkened land will cast a sad shadow over the nations. If it lives, its blaze will enlighten and gladden the whole earth." VOICE ONE: President Madison had been elected to his second term in 1812, the year the war started. The next presidential election was in 1816. Madison continued the tradition, begun by Washington and followed by Jefferson, of only serving eight years as president. Republican members of the House and Senate met March 15 to choose their presidential and vice presidential candidates. Three Republicans wanted to be president: Secretary of State James Monroe, former Senator and Secretary of War William Crawford, and New York Governor Daniel Tompkins. Monroe received 65 votes. Fifty-four of the lawmakers voted for Crawford. With Monroe chosen as the presidential candidate, the Republicans then chose Governor Tompkins as their vice presidential candidate. The Federalists did not meet to choose a presidential candidate. But electors from three of the New England states promised to vote for a New York Federalist, Rufus King. Nineteen states voted in the elections of 1816. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Shark Attack Victim / Inventors Hall of Fame / Oscar Nominated Songs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 20, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 20, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about the Academy Awards -- and we play some songs that are nominated for one of the Oscars. We also tell about some of the people to be honored by the Inventors Hall of Fame. But first, a report about a girl who lost her arm to a shark, but not her spirits. Shark Attack Victim HOST: Researchers at the University of Florida say the number of shark attacks around the world dropped for the third year. There were eight fewer attacks reported last year than in two-thousand-two. Sharks attacked fifty-five people last year and killed four of them. Most of the attacks happened in United States waters. Steve Ember has a progress report on one of the victims. ANNCR: Bethany Hamilton celebrated her birthday this month. She is now fourteen years old. She lives on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. On October thirty-first of last year, Bethany and her best friend went to the ocean to surf. Bethany loves to balance on a surfboard and ride the waves to shore. In fact, this teenager is among the best amateur surfers in the world. Bethany was lying on her surfboard to rest, with her arm in the water. She does not remember much about what happened next. She says she did not feel the shark bite, but she knew her arm was gone when she saw the blood in the water. Her friend’s father was in the water nearby. He helped get her to shore. He tied a rubber surfboard rope around the top of her arm to slow the bleeding. Bethany lost more than half the blood in her body and all but ten centimeters of her left arm. She was in the hospital for a week. Then, ten weeks after the attack, she returned to surfing competition. In January, she placed fifth in her age group in a National Scholastic Surfing Association event in Hawaii. Bethany and her family also visited the United States mainland. This competitive surfer and skateboarder even learned another sport. She learned to snowboard in the western state of Colorado. On the way home to Hawaii, the family stopped in California. There, doctors gave Bethany a prosthetic device that she can wear in place of her arm. Bethany Hamilton has appeared on television and gotten many other requests to tell her story. She says she believes the shark attack had some purpose. She calls what happened "part of God's plan" for her life. Inventors Hall of Fame HOST: Do you ever repair things with a drop of Super Glue? Do you even know what Super Glue is? How about the Dolby sound system? These are just two of the inventions whose creators will be honored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Faith Lapidus has the story. ANNCR: The Inventors Hall of Fame is in Akron, Ohio. It honors people who have made important things for science, medicine and everyday life. One of these people is Harry Coover. He was a research chemist during World War Two. He worked with a group of chemicals called cyanoacrylates [SI-a-no-AK-ri-LATES]. He discovered that these chemicals could be used to attach one object to another. Harry Coover invented a glue that is often used in emergency medical operations to stop bleeding. Cyanoacrylates are also used to make a product sold in stores. Superglue is known for being extremely strong. And anyone who has ever used it will warn you not to get it on your fingers ... they can easily stick together! Today, Harry Coover holds four-hundred-sixty patents. Another American, Ray Dolby, invented a system that reduces the noise that was common in older sound recordings. He developed the idea during the nineteen-sixties as he recorded traditional music in India. Dolby technology is used in movie theaters and in cassette tape players. The Dolby Sound System makes recordings sound much more natural. Among others who will join Mister Dolby at the Inventors Hall of Fame ceremony is French scientist Luc Montagnier. He will be honored for discovering H-I-V, the human immunodeficiency virus, in nineteen-eighty-three. H-I-V was identified as the cause of AIDS. The discovery of the virus led to the development of a test for finding the presence of H-I-V in the blood. Luc Montagnier has received more than twenty major awards for his work. And he continues to work in the fight against AIDS. These are only three of the twenty inventors who will be honored by the Inventors Hall of Fame on May first. You can find a link to the Hall of Fame Web site at voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Oscar Nominated Songs HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Liaoning, China. Chu Xiaoxu wants to know about the American movie award, the Oscar. The official name is the Academy Awards. They are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The academy began giving the awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. This year the Oscars will be given on Sunday, February twenty-ninth. Filmmakers will receive honors for the best acting, directing, writing, editing and other work on movies released last year. One of the awards will go to the best song written for a motion picture. Five songs are nominated this year. This one is from the movie “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” The song is called “Into the West." The singer is Annie Lennox. (MUSIC) Another song nominated for an Oscar this year is “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from the movie “A Mighty Wind.” The third nominee is the title song from a cartoon movie, “The Triplets of Belleville,” sung by Ben Charest. (MUSIC) Two songs from the movie “Cold Mountain” have been nominated this year for best original song. One is called “Scarlett Tide.” The other is “You Will Be My Ain True Love.” It is performed by Allison Krauss. (MUSIC) To learn more about the Academy Awards and the nominees this year, listen this Monday to the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Tony Pollock. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we answer a question about the Academy Awards -- and we play some songs that are nominated for one of the Oscars. We also tell about some of the people to be honored by the Inventors Hall of Fame. But first, a report about a girl who lost her arm to a shark, but not her spirits. Shark Attack Victim HOST: Researchers at the University of Florida say the number of shark attacks around the world dropped for the third year. There were eight fewer attacks reported last year than in two-thousand-two. Sharks attacked fifty-five people last year and killed four of them. Most of the attacks happened in United States waters. Steve Ember has a progress report on one of the victims. ANNCR: Bethany Hamilton celebrated her birthday this month. She is now fourteen years old. She lives on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. On October thirty-first of last year, Bethany and her best friend went to the ocean to surf. Bethany loves to balance on a surfboard and ride the waves to shore. In fact, this teenager is among the best amateur surfers in the world. Bethany was lying on her surfboard to rest, with her arm in the water. She does not remember much about what happened next. She says she did not feel the shark bite, but she knew her arm was gone when she saw the blood in the water. Her friend’s father was in the water nearby. He helped get her to shore. He tied a rubber surfboard rope around the top of her arm to slow the bleeding. Bethany lost more than half the blood in her body and all but ten centimeters of her left arm. She was in the hospital for a week. Then, ten weeks after the attack, she returned to surfing competition. In January, she placed fifth in her age group in a National Scholastic Surfing Association event in Hawaii. Bethany and her family also visited the United States mainland. This competitive surfer and skateboarder even learned another sport. She learned to snowboard in the western state of Colorado. On the way home to Hawaii, the family stopped in California. There, doctors gave Bethany a prosthetic device that she can wear in place of her arm. Bethany Hamilton has appeared on television and gotten many other requests to tell her story. She says she believes the shark attack had some purpose. She calls what happened "part of God's plan" for her life. Inventors Hall of Fame HOST: Do you ever repair things with a drop of Super Glue? Do you even know what Super Glue is? How about the Dolby sound system? These are just two of the inventions whose creators will be honored by the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Faith Lapidus has the story. ANNCR: The Inventors Hall of Fame is in Akron, Ohio. It honors people who have made important things for science, medicine and everyday life. One of these people is Harry Coover. He was a research chemist during World War Two. He worked with a group of chemicals called cyanoacrylates [SI-a-no-AK-ri-LATES]. He discovered that these chemicals could be used to attach one object to another. Harry Coover invented a glue that is often used in emergency medical operations to stop bleeding. Cyanoacrylates are also used to make a product sold in stores. Superglue is known for being extremely strong. And anyone who has ever used it will warn you not to get it on your fingers ... they can easily stick together! Today, Harry Coover holds four-hundred-sixty patents. Another American, Ray Dolby, invented a system that reduces the noise that was common in older sound recordings. He developed the idea during the nineteen-sixties as he recorded traditional music in India. Dolby technology is used in movie theaters and in cassette tape players. The Dolby Sound System makes recordings sound much more natural. Among others who will join Mister Dolby at the Inventors Hall of Fame ceremony is French scientist Luc Montagnier. He will be honored for discovering H-I-V, the human immunodeficiency virus, in nineteen-eighty-three. H-I-V was identified as the cause of AIDS. The discovery of the virus led to the development of a test for finding the presence of H-I-V in the blood. Luc Montagnier has received more than twenty major awards for his work. And he continues to work in the fight against AIDS. These are only three of the twenty inventors who will be honored by the Inventors Hall of Fame on May first. You can find a link to the Hall of Fame Web site at voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Oscar Nominated Songs HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Liaoning, China. Chu Xiaoxu wants to know about the American movie award, the Oscar. The official name is the Academy Awards. They are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The academy began giving the awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. This year the Oscars will be given on Sunday, February twenty-ninth. Filmmakers will receive honors for the best acting, directing, writing, editing and other work on movies released last year. One of the awards will go to the best song written for a motion picture. Five songs are nominated this year. This one is from the movie “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” The song is called “Into the West." The singer is Annie Lennox. (MUSIC) Another song nominated for an Oscar this year is “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from the movie “A Mighty Wind.” The third nominee is the title song from a cartoon movie, “The Triplets of Belleville,” sung by Ben Charest. (MUSIC) Two songs from the movie “Cold Mountain” have been nominated this year for best original song. One is called “Scarlett Tide.” The other is “You Will Be My Ain True Love.” It is performed by Allison Krauss. (MUSIC) To learn more about the Academy Awards and the nominees this year, listen this Monday to the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Tony Pollock. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Comcast Tries to Buy Disney
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 20, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Firoozeh with Mickey Mouse and friend in California Broadcast: February 20, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Takeovers are a common part of business. One company offers to buy a controlling share of stock in another. But that other company may not want to be bought. What then? Last week, in the United States, Comcast offered to buy the Walt Disney Company. Disney did not ask for the offer. So it is considered a hostile takeover attempt. Comcast is the largest provider of cable television in the United States. More than twenty-one million people buy its service. Disney makes films and many other media products. It operates theme parks around the world. And it owns major radio and television broadcast companies in the United States. In its proposal, Comcast estimated the value of Disney at sixty-six-thousand-million dollars. Comcast offered to pay for the deal with shares of stock. It offered to trade point-seven-eight of a Comcast share for each Disney share. Under the offer, Disney shareholders would own forty-two percent of the combined company. But the price of Disney stock went up after the offer, while shares in Comcast went down. This week the Disney board of directors rejected the offer. It says Disney is worth more than Comcast is offering. Disney shareholders will meet in Philadelphia for their yearly meeting on March third. At that time, they will vote for members of the board of directors. Former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold say they will ask shareholders not to re-elect Disney Chairman Michael Eisner to the board. Mister Eisner has led the company since nineteen-eighty-four. He has angered many people. Comcast might be in a better position to take over Disney without Mister Eisner. A deal with Disney would create the biggest media company in the world, bigger than Time Warner. In a separate development, Disney announced this week that it will buy the Muppets. Disney will pay the Jim Henson Company ninety-million dollars for the rights to Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and other characters. These will join the famous Disney characters like Mickey Mouse. And, in other business news this week, Cingular Wireless offered to buy A-T-and-T Wireless. The deal would create the biggest system for wireless telephone in America. Cingular is jointly held by two companies, S-B-C Communications and Bell South. Earlier, Vodafone of Britain made an unsuccessful offer to buy A-T-and-T Wireless. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Takeovers are a common part of business. One company offers to buy a controlling share of stock in another. But that other company may not want to be bought. What then? Last week, in the United States, Comcast offered to buy the Walt Disney Company. Disney did not ask for the offer. So it is considered a hostile takeover attempt. Comcast is the largest provider of cable television in the United States. More than twenty-one million people buy its service. Disney makes films and many other media products. It operates theme parks around the world. And it owns major radio and television broadcast companies in the United States. In its proposal, Comcast estimated the value of Disney at sixty-six-thousand-million dollars. Comcast offered to pay for the deal with shares of stock. It offered to trade point-seven-eight of a Comcast share for each Disney share. Under the offer, Disney shareholders would own forty-two percent of the combined company. But the price of Disney stock went up after the offer, while shares in Comcast went down. This week the Disney board of directors rejected the offer. It says Disney is worth more than Comcast is offering. Disney shareholders will meet in Philadelphia for their yearly meeting on March third. At that time, they will vote for members of the board of directors. Former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold say they will ask shareholders not to re-elect Disney Chairman Michael Eisner to the board. Mister Eisner has led the company since nineteen-eighty-four. He has angered many people. Comcast might be in a better position to take over Disney without Mister Eisner. A deal with Disney would create the biggest media company in the world, bigger than Time Warner. In a separate development, Disney announced this week that it will buy the Muppets. Disney will pay the Jim Henson Company ninety-million dollars for the rights to Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and other characters. These will join the famous Disney characters like Mickey Mouse. And, in other business news this week, Cingular Wireless offered to buy A-T-and-T Wireless. The deal would create the biggest system for wireless telephone in America. Cingular is jointly held by two companies, S-B-C Communications and Bell South. Earlier, Vodafone of Britain made an unsuccessful offer to buy A-T-and-T Wireless. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 19, 2004 - Slang Flashcards
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 19, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a new way to learn slang. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: February 19, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a new way to learn slang. RS: It's a pack of sixty cards with slang terms on one side. Definitions and synonyms are on the back, plus a humorous illustration. AA: Jen Bilik says her company in California has sold twenty-thousand sets of Slang Flashcards since their release in September. They're meant for fun, but they seem like they could be a useful teaching tool. RS: We'd read about them, but not actually seen all the cards. So we asked Jen Bilik to come down to VOA's Los Angeles studio and quiz us on some of the words. BILIK: "OK, well tell me if you know the meaning of 'sick.'" RS: It's a pack of sixty cards with slang terms on one side. Definitions and synonyms are on the back, plus a humorous illustration. AA: Jen Bilik says her company in California has sold twenty-thousand sets of Slang Flashcards since their release in September. They're meant for fun, but they seem like they could be a useful teaching tool. RS: We'd read about them, but not actually seen all the cards. So we asked Jen Bilik to come down to VOA's Los Angeles studio and quiz us on some of the words. BILIK: "OK, well tell me if you know the meaning of 'sick.'" RS: "Sick. Sick could be very positive." AA: "That's right." RS: "Like 'that's a sick joke,' meaning gee that's really funny." AA: "Really good." RS: "It's a really good joke." BILIK: "Exactly, exactly, and that's of course a frequent slang process, is to take something that's negative and make it positive, like 'bad.'" AA: "OK, what's another term?" BILIK: "Another term is 'off the hook.'" AA: "Meaning other than in, 'let someone off the hook,' meaning absolve them of responsibility." BILIK: "Exactly. Other than that." AA: "Oh!" RS: "Off the hook ... like better than better?" BILIK: "Exact -- you're good!" AA: "Huh. How did you know that?" RS: "Well, I have a teen-age son." BILIK: "Ah, that'll do it!" [laughter] AA: "My daughter doesn't use that. I haven't heard that." BILIK: "It's 'off the hook' or an alternate pronunciation is 'off da hook,' off da hook. And it primarily means fun or enjoyable, as in 'that charades game was off the hook.' And in this particular card, two women are having a very lovely dinner with a white linen tablecloth, and one says to the other: 'You liked the ballet? Well, the symphony was off the hook.'" [laughter] RS: "Better than better." AA: "OK, keep going here. This is starting to bother me." RS: "Let's see if we can do three-for-three here." BILIK: "Well, here's one that I think might stump you: 'grip.'" RS: "Oh, get a grip!" AA: "No, that'd be too easy." BILIK: "That's too easy." AA: "And not a suitcase." BILIK: "No." RS: "And not a handle on something." AA: "Wait, a grip, get a grip ... " BILIK: "Suitcase is the closest so far." AA: "OK, because that's an old term for a suitcase." RS: "To carry something from one place to another?" BILIK: "No, it's a noun." RS: "It's a noun." AA: "Can you give us a hint?" BILIK: "It's an indication of quantity." RS: "Like a lot of something." BILIK: "Yes ... " AA: "Huh." BILIK: " ... exactly." RS: "Three-for-three." BILIK: "For example, 'she got a grip of cash in her fanny pack.'" AA: "Huh. OK, another one." BILIK: "Uh, 'crib' -- this is an easy one." AA: "Well, yeah, it's a home." RS: "Now see, I didn't know that. And the picture?" BILIK: "The picture is of a group of tourists standing in front of a castle, pointing to what seems to be the next castle, and saying to her friends, 'How much cheddar do you think it takes to heat a crib like that?' And 'cheddar' is another of the slang vocabulary words." RS: "A lot of money." BILIK: "Yes." AA: "Not cheese." BILIK: "Exactly." AA: "I'll have to remember that. And, uh, keep going. " RS: " ... when we're looking at our next castle." BILIK: "Actually the synonyms for cheddar are cheese, ends, bones, dough, flow, bank and cha-ching." AA: "And any last one that you want to stump us with --assuming we don't do this, you know, for the next two or three months and go through all sixty of these!" BILIK: "OK, how about 'biter.'" RS: "Biter." AA: "I haven't heard that. Biter ... " RS: "Kind of like a tease?" BILIK: "Close." RS: "Ummm ... " AA: "Come on, you can do it. ... Come on, Rosanne." RS: "Sounds like ... looks like ... little word ... big word! [laughter]" AA: "A biter. Is it -- what context is it used in?" BILIK: "It's something that you would call somebody. It's negative. For doing something." RS: "Abusive verbally?" BILIK: "No. Actually it means somebody who's kind of a copycat." AA: "A biter?" BILIK: "Somebody who steals others' ideas or imitates others. The picture on this card is of a boy and a girl in the computer lab, and the boy has made a very beautiful graph on his screen, and the boy is saying to the girl: 'You're such a biter. Go calculate your own pi chart.' And then bite, the verb,' is to copy, as in 'he bit off my lyrics.'" AA: "Now, one thing, some of this slang I'm imaging is maybe more regional than others. I mean, people coming to the United States could travel many states and maybe not hear some of these? Or ... " BILIK: "Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And we tried -- you know, I'm sure it's probably weighted toward the Southern California. But we tried to -- you know, we all have cousins and friends and friend's kids all over the country, so we tried not only to get terms from them, but also we vetted the actual list through them, so that they could check off the ones that they did use, the ones that they didn't use, how frequently they used or heard them, or if a word was totally dead." RS: Jen Bilik spoke to us from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. She's the founder of Knock Knock, a design company in Venice, California. If you're on the Internet, you can learn more about these Slang Flashcards at knockknock-dot-biz. AA: We'll post a link at voanews.com/wordmaster. That's our Web site. And don't forget our e-mail address -- it's word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: "Sick. Sick could be very positive." AA: "That's right." RS: "Like 'that's a sick joke,' meaning gee that's really funny." AA: "Really good." RS: "It's a really good joke." BILIK: "Exactly, exactly, and that's of course a frequent slang process, is to take something that's negative and make it positive, like 'bad.'" AA: "OK, what's another term?" BILIK: "Another term is 'off the hook.'" AA: "Meaning other than in, 'let someone off the hook,' meaning absolve them of responsibility." BILIK: "Exactly. Other than that." AA: "Oh!" RS: "Off the hook ... like better than better?" BILIK: "Exact -- you're good!" AA: "Huh. How did you know that?" RS: "Well, I have a teen-age son." BILIK: "Ah, that'll do it!" [laughter] AA: "My daughter doesn't use that. I haven't heard that." BILIK: "It's 'off the hook' or an alternate pronunciation is 'off da hook,' off da hook. And it primarily means fun or enjoyable, as in 'that charades game was off the hook.' And in this particular card, two women are having a very lovely dinner with a white linen tablecloth, and one says to the other: 'You liked the ballet? Well, the symphony was off the hook.'" [laughter] RS: "Better than better." AA: "OK, keep going here. This is starting to bother me." RS: "Let's see if we can do three-for-three here." BILIK: "Well, here's one that I think might stump you: 'grip.'" RS: "Oh, get a grip!" AA: "No, that'd be too easy." BILIK: "That's too easy." AA: "And not a suitcase." BILIK: "No." RS: "And not a handle on something." AA: "Wait, a grip, get a grip ... " BILIK: "Suitcase is the closest so far." AA: "OK, because that's an old term for a suitcase." RS: "To carry something from one place to another?" BILIK: "No, it's a noun." RS: "It's a noun." AA: "Can you give us a hint?" BILIK: "It's an indication of quantity." RS: "Like a lot of something." BILIK: "Yes ... " AA: "Huh." BILIK: " ... exactly." RS: "Three-for-three." BILIK: "For example, 'she got a grip of cash in her fanny pack.'" AA: "Huh. OK, another one." BILIK: "Uh, 'crib' -- this is an easy one." AA: "Well, yeah, it's a home." RS: "Now see, I didn't know that. And the picture?" BILIK: "The picture is of a group of tourists standing in front of a castle, pointing to what seems to be the next castle, and saying to her friends, 'How much cheddar do you think it takes to heat a crib like that?' And 'cheddar' is another of the slang vocabulary words." RS: "A lot of money." BILIK: "Yes." AA: "Not cheese." BILIK: "Exactly." AA: "I'll have to remember that. And, uh, keep going. " RS: " ... when we're looking at our next castle." BILIK: "Actually the synonyms for cheddar are cheese, ends, bones, dough, flow, bank and cha-ching." AA: "And any last one that you want to stump us with --assuming we don't do this, you know, for the next two or three months and go through all sixty of these!" BILIK: "OK, how about 'biter.'" RS: "Biter." AA: "I haven't heard that. Biter ... " RS: "Kind of like a tease?" BILIK: "Close." RS: "Ummm ... " AA: "Come on, you can do it. ... Come on, Rosanne." RS: "Sounds like ... looks like ... little word ... big word! [laughter]" AA: "A biter. Is it -- what context is it used in?" BILIK: "It's something that you would call somebody. It's negative. For doing something." RS: "Abusive verbally?" BILIK: "No. Actually it means somebody who's kind of a copycat." AA: "A biter?" BILIK: "Somebody who steals others' ideas or imitates others. The picture on this card is of a boy and a girl in the computer lab, and the boy has made a very beautiful graph on his screen, and the boy is saying to the girl: 'You're such a biter. Go calculate your own pi chart.' And then bite, the verb,' is to copy, as in 'he bit off my lyrics.'" AA: "Now, one thing, some of this slang I'm imaging is maybe more regional than others. I mean, people coming to the United States could travel many states and maybe not hear some of these? Or ... " BILIK: "Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And we tried -- you know, I'm sure it's probably weighted toward the Southern California. But we tried to -- you know, we all have cousins and friends and friend's kids all over the country, so we tried not only to get terms from them, but also we vetted the actual list through them, so that they could check off the ones that they did use, the ones that they didn't use, how frequently they used or heard them, or if a word was totally dead." RS: Jen Bilik spoke to us from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. She's the founder of Knock Knock, a design company in Venice, California. If you're on the Internet, you can learn more about these Slang Flashcards at knockknock-dot-biz. AA: We'll post a link at voanews.com/wordmaster. That's our Web site. And don't forget our e-mail address -- it's word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Haiti's Political Crisis
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 21, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The Organization of American States, the O-A-S, met Thursday in Washington to discuss the violence in Haiti. Rebels are threatening to seize the capital, Port-au-Prince, unless President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns. The O-A-S Permanent Council passed a resolution. It calls on Mister Aristide to honor human rights and to talk with the political opposition. It also urges armed groups to disarm. The American ambassador to the O-A-S said the government in Haiti acted in undemocratic and irresponsible ways in recent years. The rebels call themselves the Front for the Liberation and National Reconstruction of Haiti. They include former Aristide supporters. At least fifty-five people have been killed in two weeks of violence. The United States, Canada, France, the United Nations and others are working on a plan for a political solution. American Secretary of State Colin Powell said the proposal does not include calls for President Aristide to resign. His term ends in February of two-thousand-six. American officials say the proposal clears the way for a peace plan by the CARICOM group of Caribbean nations. Under the plan, Mister Aristide would have to share power with a new prime minister and an advisory council. This group would organize new elections. Members of the opposition refuse to take part in new elections unless the president resigns. Mister Aristide says he is ready to die to defend his country. The United States is urging Americans to leave Haiti. Armed groups once supported by the government began a rebellion in northern Haiti on February fifth. They control several cities and towns, including the fourth largest city. They have cut off the second largest city from most of the country. Mister Aristide became the first freely elected leader of Haiti in nineteen-ninety. The military overthrew him the next year. The United States sent twenty-thousand troops to Haiti in nineteen-ninety-four to return him to power. Mister Aristide later dismissed the army. The president has faced accusations of dishonesty and political violence. Tensions have risen since his party won legislative elections in two-thousand. Observers said the elections were unfair. During the campaign, Mister Aristide promised to improve conditions for the eight-million people in Haiti. But other countries suspended millions of dollars in aid after the elections. Now, there are fears of a food crisis. Many Haitians may try to flee the country in unsafe boats. That happened after the overthrow in nineteen-ninety-one. President Aristide has asked for international help. The United States said a small military team would be in Haiti on Saturday to examine the security situation. Canada and France have offered to send peacekeepers to Haiti, but only after the violence has stopped. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Shel Silverstein
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 22, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Shel Silverstein. He was a poet, writer, composer, singer, musician and artist. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein wrote hundreds of poems and published many books. He is most famous as a writer of books for children. He won several awards for his children’s books. But he also wrote many stories and created many drawings for adults. Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in nineteen-thirty. His birth name was Sheldon Allan Silverstein. Sometimes he called himself Uncle Shelby. He never planned to write children’s books. Still, he is most famous for writing them. Shel Silverstein once told a reporter that when he was growing up, he wanted to be a good baseball player. He also said he wanted to be popular with girls. But he could not play baseball, and girls did not like him. So he started to draw and write. Shel Silverstein said he developed his own way of writing. By the time girls were interested in him, he found that work was more important. VOICE TWO: Shel Silverstein served in the United States Army in the early nineteen-fifties. He worked as an artist for the American military newspaper, Pacific Stars and Stripes. He wrote his first book in nineteen-fifty-five. “Take Ten” was about life in the army, and included drawings. After leaving the army, he worked for Playboy magazine for almost twenty years. He wrote stories and drew funny pictures for the publication. Shel Silverstein was also a musician. He released his first album in nineteen-fifty-nine. It is called “Hairy Jazz.” He began writing folk music in the nineteen-sixties. Famous artists have recorded his songs. The Irish Rovers, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn have sung his songs. Ten years later, he released “A Boy Named Sue and His Other Country Songs.” The most famous song from the album is called “A Boy Named Sue.” It is about a boy whose father gave him a name usually given to girls. Johnny Cash made the song famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein is best known for his books for children. However, people of all ages like his poems and stories. He published his first children’s book in nineteen-sixty-three. It is called “Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back.” It is about a lion that eats hunters and lives like a human. The lion has to make some important decisions. One year later, Shel Silverstein published what may be his most popular book. It is called “The Giving Tree.” This story is about a boy and a tree that loved him. The tree gives the boy everything until it can give no more. Both adults and children have enjoyed reading this book. This book is still very popular today. It has sold more than five-million copies. Listen as Faith Lapidus reads from the beginning of “The Giving Tree.” VOICE THREE: “There was once a great apple tree and a little boy. They would spend hours and hours together. The boy would play in the tree’s branches, sleep at her roots and eat of her apples. And the tree loved the boy. One day, the boy came to the tree. The tree was delighted and beckoned, ‘Come and play!’ But the boy was no longer a boy; he was now a young man, and he was interested in making a living, but he didn’t know how. ‘Here,’ the tree said, ‘take my apples and sell them.’ The young man did just that, and the tree was happy. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-seventies, Shel Silverstein produced music for several movies. His first movie soundtrack was for the film “Ned Kelly.” It is based on a true story about a famous Australian criminal. Here is a song from the album. It is called “Ned Kelly.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein is also famous for his poetry. His first children’s poetry book was “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” It was published in nineteen-seventy-four. It contains more than one-hundred poems, and many drawings. The poems and drawings are creative, funny and wise. In the book, readers meet a boy who turns into a television set. They meet a girl who eats a whale. Imaginary creatures like the Unicorn and the Bloath live there. So does a girl called Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a place where you can wash your shadow. You can plant a garden of diamonds. It is a place where shoes can fly. And a crocodile goes to the dentist because his tooth hurts. Silverstein reads one of the poems in his book, called “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too.” (MUSIC) Shel Silverstein’s second children’s poetry book is called “A Light in the Attic.” It also contains many funny poems and drawings. This book was so popular that it was on the New York Times newspaper’s list of best-selling books for more than three years. Listen as he reads his poem “Ations.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-eighties, Shel Silverstein began writing plays. He wrote about twenty of them. His first play is called “The Lady or the Tiger Show.” It is a funny play about a game show. The game show player has to choose between two doors. Behind one door is a beautiful woman, and behind the other door is a tiger. VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein died of heart failure in nineteen-ninety-nine. He was sixty-eight years old. Some of his works were released after his death. Shel Silverstein once said: “I would hope that people, no matter what age, would find something to identify with in my books.” He hoped people would “experience a personal sense of discovery.” Shel Silverstein once said that he wanted to go everywhere, look at and listen to everything. He said people could go crazy with the wonderful things in life. And he communicated this in all of his writings, drawings and songs. We leave you now with a song by Shel Silverstein that was a huge hit around the world. The Irish Rovers sing “The “Unicorn.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Chi-Un Lee and produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. Broadcast: February 22, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Shel Silverstein. He was a poet, writer, composer, singer, musician and artist. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein wrote hundreds of poems and published many books. He is most famous as a writer of books for children. He won several awards for his children’s books. But he also wrote many stories and created many drawings for adults. Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in nineteen-thirty. His birth name was Sheldon Allan Silverstein. Sometimes he called himself Uncle Shelby. He never planned to write children’s books. Still, he is most famous for writing them. Shel Silverstein once told a reporter that when he was growing up, he wanted to be a good baseball player. He also said he wanted to be popular with girls. But he could not play baseball, and girls did not like him. So he started to draw and write. Shel Silverstein said he developed his own way of writing. By the time girls were interested in him, he found that work was more important. VOICE TWO: Shel Silverstein served in the United States Army in the early nineteen-fifties. He worked as an artist for the American military newspaper, Pacific Stars and Stripes. He wrote his first book in nineteen-fifty-five. “Take Ten” was about life in the army, and included drawings. After leaving the army, he worked for Playboy magazine for almost twenty years. He wrote stories and drew funny pictures for the publication. Shel Silverstein was also a musician. He released his first album in nineteen-fifty-nine. It is called “Hairy Jazz.” He began writing folk music in the nineteen-sixties. Famous artists have recorded his songs. The Irish Rovers, Johnny Cash, and Loretta Lynn have sung his songs. Ten years later, he released “A Boy Named Sue and His Other Country Songs.” The most famous song from the album is called “A Boy Named Sue.” It is about a boy whose father gave him a name usually given to girls. Johnny Cash made the song famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein is best known for his books for children. However, people of all ages like his poems and stories. He published his first children’s book in nineteen-sixty-three. It is called “Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back.” It is about a lion that eats hunters and lives like a human. The lion has to make some important decisions. One year later, Shel Silverstein published what may be his most popular book. It is called “The Giving Tree.” This story is about a boy and a tree that loved him. The tree gives the boy everything until it can give no more. Both adults and children have enjoyed reading this book. This book is still very popular today. It has sold more than five-million copies. Listen as Faith Lapidus reads from the beginning of “The Giving Tree.” VOICE THREE: “There was once a great apple tree and a little boy. They would spend hours and hours together. The boy would play in the tree’s branches, sleep at her roots and eat of her apples. And the tree loved the boy. One day, the boy came to the tree. The tree was delighted and beckoned, ‘Come and play!’ But the boy was no longer a boy; he was now a young man, and he was interested in making a living, but he didn’t know how. ‘Here,’ the tree said, ‘take my apples and sell them.’ The young man did just that, and the tree was happy. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-seventies, Shel Silverstein produced music for several movies. His first movie soundtrack was for the film “Ned Kelly.” It is based on a true story about a famous Australian criminal. Here is a song from the album. It is called “Ned Kelly.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein is also famous for his poetry. His first children’s poetry book was “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” It was published in nineteen-seventy-four. It contains more than one-hundred poems, and many drawings. The poems and drawings are creative, funny and wise. In the book, readers meet a boy who turns into a television set. They meet a girl who eats a whale. Imaginary creatures like the Unicorn and the Bloath live there. So does a girl called Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. “Where the Sidewalk Ends” is a place where you can wash your shadow. You can plant a garden of diamonds. It is a place where shoes can fly. And a crocodile goes to the dentist because his tooth hurts. Silverstein reads one of the poems in his book, called “Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too.” (MUSIC) Shel Silverstein’s second children’s poetry book is called “A Light in the Attic.” It also contains many funny poems and drawings. This book was so popular that it was on the New York Times newspaper’s list of best-selling books for more than three years. Listen as he reads his poem “Ations.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-eighties, Shel Silverstein began writing plays. He wrote about twenty of them. His first play is called “The Lady or the Tiger Show.” It is a funny play about a game show. The game show player has to choose between two doors. Behind one door is a beautiful woman, and behind the other door is a tiger. VOICE ONE: Shel Silverstein died of heart failure in nineteen-ninety-nine. He was sixty-eight years old. Some of his works were released after his death. Shel Silverstein once said: “I would hope that people, no matter what age, would find something to identify with in my books.” He hoped people would “experience a personal sense of discovery.” Shel Silverstein once said that he wanted to go everywhere, look at and listen to everything. He said people could go crazy with the wonderful things in life. And he communicated this in all of his writings, drawings and songs. We leave you now with a song by Shel Silverstein that was a huge hit around the world. The Irish Rovers sing “The “Unicorn.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Chi-Un Lee and produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – UN Study Examines Disaster Risks
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 23, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A United Nations report says better planning could help developing countries reduce deaths from natural disasters. One-million-five-hundred-thousand people died in natural disasters between nineteen-eighty and two-thousand. These included earthquakes, volcanoes, storms and severe dry periods. On an average day, one-hundred-eighty-four people die in natural disasters. These are the findings of a new study by the U-N Development Program. An international team of experts examined information collected over twenty years. They found that disasters put development at risk. And they also found that the choices that individuals, communities and nations make can create new risks. Researchers found that earthquakes killed more people by comparison in countries with high growth rates in cities. They say this is mainly because of poor quality housing and crowded conditions. Flooding caused more deaths in countries with widely spread populations. Rescue workers have a hard time reaching victims. Things like armed conflicts can turn dry weather into situations where people starve. Droughts and floods can also increase the spread of disease. The researchers created a special measure to show that poverty and the risk of dying in a disaster are linked. They call it a Disaster Risk Index. They gathered the number of people exposed to disasters in more than two-hundred nations. Then they compared those numbers to the populations of the countries. The researchers found that only eleven percent of people exposed to natural disasters live in developing nations. However, these people represent more than fifty-three percent of the deaths recorded. The study urges governments to develop better city planning. It also urges them to improve methods to rescue disaster victims. More importantly, the researchers say a strong government structure is needed. They say this can reduce disaster risks and improve development. The U-N researchers say they hope the study will improve understanding of the relationship between disaster risk and development. Their report is called “Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development.” This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: February 23, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A United Nations report says better planning could help developing countries reduce deaths from natural disasters. One-million-five-hundred-thousand people died in natural disasters between nineteen-eighty and two-thousand. These included earthquakes, volcanoes, storms and severe dry periods. On an average day, one-hundred-eighty-four people die in natural disasters. These are the findings of a new study by the U-N Development Program. An international team of experts examined information collected over twenty years. They found that disasters put development at risk. And they also found that the choices that individuals, communities and nations make can create new risks. Researchers found that earthquakes killed more people by comparison in countries with high growth rates in cities. They say this is mainly because of poor quality housing and crowded conditions. Flooding caused more deaths in countries with widely spread populations. Rescue workers have a hard time reaching victims. Things like armed conflicts can turn dry weather into situations where people starve. Droughts and floods can also increase the spread of disease. The researchers created a special measure to show that poverty and the risk of dying in a disaster are linked. They call it a Disaster Risk Index. They gathered the number of people exposed to disasters in more than two-hundred nations. Then they compared those numbers to the populations of the countries. The researchers found that only eleven percent of people exposed to natural disasters live in developing nations. However, these people represent more than fifty-three percent of the deaths recorded. The study urges governments to develop better city planning. It also urges them to improve methods to rescue disaster victims. More importantly, the researchers say a strong government structure is needed. They say this can reduce disaster risks and improve development. The U-N researchers say they hope the study will improve understanding of the relationship between disaster risk and development. Their report is called “Reducing Disaster Risk: A Challenge for Development.” This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Academy Awards
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 23, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 23, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Today, we tell about the seventy-sixth Academy Awards ceremony which takes place on Sunday. It is a night of excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch them. Scene from Lost in Translation(Photo courtesy Focus Features) VOICE ONE: Welcome to This is America in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Today, we tell about the seventy-sixth Academy Awards ceremony which takes place on Sunday. It is a night of excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-ninth, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Los Angeles, California. It will be the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as best foreign language film. They are “The Barbarian Invasions,” a film from Canada; “Evil,” from Sweden; “The Twilight Samurai,” from Japan; “Twin Sisters,” from the Netherlands and “Zelary,” from the Czech Republic. This year, there are many more Academy Award nominees from countries outside the United States and Britain than in years past. Some examples are the nominees for best acting awards. They include Keisha Castle-Hughes from New Zealand, Shohreh Aghdashloo from Iran, Ken Watanabe from Japan and Djimon Hounsou from Benin. A movie from Brazil, “City of God,” is nominated for four Academy Awards. A French-Canadian director, Denys Arcand, is nominated for best original screenplay. And “The Triplets of Belleville,” from France, is nominated for best animated feature film. VOICE ONE: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” received the most Academy Award nominations. It received eleven nominations, including best motion picture of the year. It is a story about a struggle to save the world from the forces of evil. It is the third of three movies in the “Lord of the Rings” series. These are based on the books by British writer J-R-R Tolkien about an imaginary place called Middle-earth. An adventure film that takes place on a British battleship in the eighteen-hundreds is nominated for ten Academy Awards. The nominations for “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” include best motion picture of the year. VOICE TWO: “Seabiscuit” is also nominated for best picture. It is about a famous American racehorse in the nineteen-thirties. The movie is nominated for seven Academy Awards. “Cold Mountain,” a love story that takes place during the American Civil War, is also nominated for seven awards. But, surprisingly, it did not receive a nomination for best picture. “Mystic River” is another film nominated for best picture of the year. It is about three friends and the tragic events in their lives. The last nominee for best picture is “Lost in Translation.” It is about two Americans who meet in Tokyo. One is a famous movie star and the other is a lonely young woman. VOICE ONE: “Lost in Translation” was directed by Sofia Coppola. She is only the third woman in Academy Award history to be nominated for best director. She is also the first American woman to get the nomination. Her father is the famous movie director Francis Ford Coppola. The other best director nominees are Clint Eastwood for “Mystic River,” Peter Jackson for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and Peter Weir for “Master and Commander.” Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles was nominated as best director for “City of God.” The film is about the violent lives of young people in a poor area of Rio de Janeiro. VOICE TWO: Other important Academy Awards are given for the best performance by an actor in a leading role. Sean Penn is nominated for his role in “Mystic River.” Bill Murray is nominated for “Lost in Translation.” The other nominees are Jude Law in “Cold Mountain,” Ben Kingsley in “House of Sand and Fog,” and Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” There was one surprise among the nominations for best actress in a leading role. Thirteen-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes from New Zealand was nominated for her performance in “Whale Rider.” She is the youngest person ever nominated for this award. Other nominees are Diane Keaton for the comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” and Samantha Morton for “In America.” Charlize Theron was nominated as best actress for the film “Monster.” And Naomi Watts was nominated for “Twenty-one Grams.” VOICE ONE: Oscars also are awarded for the best music in movies and the best song. Five songs are nominated as best original song. Two of them are from the movie “Cold Mountain.” One of these is “The Scarlet Tide” written by Henry Burnett and Elvis Costello. Alison Krauss sings this song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six-thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in nineteen-twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy began presenting awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. Some people said this is how the statue got its name: In nineteen-fifty-one, a woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this version. She said she named the award Oscar in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE ONE: The process of choosing award winners begins with members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. VOICE TWO: The awards are presented every spring. This year, the ceremony is being held one month earlier than usual. It will be held in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the ceremonies. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. The women wear beautiful dresses given to them by famous designers. Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They cry. They laugh. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. VOICE ONE: Thousands of Americans in forty-six cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday. The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors and technicians. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On February twenty-ninth, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Los Angeles, California. It will be the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as best foreign language film. They are “The Barbarian Invasions,” a film from Canada; “Evil,” from Sweden; “The Twilight Samurai,” from Japan; “Twin Sisters,” from the Netherlands and “Zelary,” from the Czech Republic. This year, there are many more Academy Award nominees from countries outside the United States and Britain than in years past. Some examples are the nominees for best acting awards. They include Keisha Castle-Hughes from New Zealand, Shohreh Aghdashloo from Iran, Ken Watanabe from Japan and Djimon Hounsou from Benin. A movie from Brazil, “City of God,” is nominated for four Academy Awards. A French-Canadian director, Denys Arcand, is nominated for best original screenplay. And “The Triplets of Belleville,” from France, is nominated for best animated feature film. VOICE ONE: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” received the most Academy Award nominations. It received eleven nominations, including best motion picture of the year. It is a story about a struggle to save the world from the forces of evil. It is the third of three movies in the “Lord of the Rings” series. These are based on the books by British writer J-R-R Tolkien about an imaginary place called Middle-earth. An adventure film that takes place on a British battleship in the eighteen-hundreds is nominated for ten Academy Awards. The nominations for “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” include best motion picture of the year. VOICE TWO: “Seabiscuit” is also nominated for best picture. It is about a famous American racehorse in the nineteen-thirties. The movie is nominated for seven Academy Awards. “Cold Mountain,” a love story that takes place during the American Civil War, is also nominated for seven awards. But, surprisingly, it did not receive a nomination for best picture. “Mystic River” is another film nominated for best picture of the year. It is about three friends and the tragic events in their lives. The last nominee for best picture is “Lost in Translation.” It is about two Americans who meet in Tokyo. One is a famous movie star and the other is a lonely young woman. VOICE ONE: “Lost in Translation” was directed by Sofia Coppola. She is only the third woman in Academy Award history to be nominated for best director. She is also the first American woman to get the nomination. Her father is the famous movie director Francis Ford Coppola. The other best director nominees are Clint Eastwood for “Mystic River,” Peter Jackson for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and Peter Weir for “Master and Commander.” Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles was nominated as best director for “City of God.” The film is about the violent lives of young people in a poor area of Rio de Janeiro. VOICE TWO: Other important Academy Awards are given for the best performance by an actor in a leading role. Sean Penn is nominated for his role in “Mystic River.” Bill Murray is nominated for “Lost in Translation.” The other nominees are Jude Law in “Cold Mountain,” Ben Kingsley in “House of Sand and Fog,” and Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” There was one surprise among the nominations for best actress in a leading role. Thirteen-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes from New Zealand was nominated for her performance in “Whale Rider.” She is the youngest person ever nominated for this award. Other nominees are Diane Keaton for the comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” and Samantha Morton for “In America.” Charlize Theron was nominated as best actress for the film “Monster.” And Naomi Watts was nominated for “Twenty-one Grams.” VOICE ONE: Oscars also are awarded for the best music in movies and the best song. Five songs are nominated as best original song. Two of them are from the movie “Cold Mountain.” One of these is “The Scarlet Tide” written by Henry Burnett and Elvis Costello. Alison Krauss sings this song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six-thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in nineteen-twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy began presenting awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. Some people said this is how the statue got its name: In nineteen-fifty-one, a woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this version. She said she named the award Oscar in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE ONE: The process of choosing award winners begins with members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. VOICE TWO: The awards are presented every spring. This year, the ceremony is being held one month earlier than usual. It will be held in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the ceremonies. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. The women wear beautiful dresses given to them by famous designers. Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They cry. They laugh. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. VOICE ONE: Thousands of Americans in forty-six cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the Academy Awards show on television Sunday. The American film industry will honor the best movies, actors and technicians. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Antibiotics and Breast Cancer / Mountain Gorillas / Protecting AIDS Babies / Explosion Lab
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 24, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- a study of antibiotics and breast cancer ... plus, findings that a way to protect babies from AIDS may not be so good for their mothers. VOICE ONE: Also ... an explosion laboratory with a burst of creativity ... and a possible sign of recovery for mountain gorillas in Africa. (THEME) VOICE TWO: A study suggests a possible connection between use of antibiotic drugs and increased risk of breast cancer. However, the study does not answer the question if antibiotics are a cause of breast cancer. The study appeared last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers in the American Northwest studied more than ten thousand women. The study involved members of Group Health Cooperative, a health plan based in Seattle, Washington. Antibiotics are used to fight many different kinds of infections caused by bacteria. The study found that women who took more antibiotics compared to other women had higher rates of breast cancer. Some women had taken antibiotics for more than five-hundred days over an average period of seventeen years. These women had more than two times the risk of breast cancer as women who had not taken any antibiotics. VOICE ONE: The study found that women who took antibiotics for fewer days had less risk. Yet even these women had one-and-one-half times the risk of those who took none. Doctor Stephen Taplin of the National Cancer Institute was among the leaders of the study. Doctor Taplin says the risk increased with all the kinds of antibiotics they studied. Some cancer experts suggested that antibiotics could suppress "good" bacteria in the intestinal system. They say these bacteria help the body process foods that may help defend against disease. Or, they say, antibiotics might damage the immune system that protects the body against infection. VOICE TWO: But Doctor Taplin and others say women who need more antibiotics may already have weakened immune systems. Another possibility is that the infections being treated may increase the risk of breast cancer. So the experts say more studies are needed before any direct link is made between antibiotics and breast cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In many poor countries, pregnant women infected with the AIDS virus are given the drug nevirapine one time. This is during labor. Their babies also receive nevirapine once, during the first three days after they are born. Such treatment can cut in half the risk that the AIDS virus will spread from mother to baby. But two studies have found that a single use of nevirapine may cause pregnant women to develop a resistance to it later. Scientists presented the studies in San Francisco, California, during a conference on anti-AIDS drugs. VOICE TWO: In South Africa, scientists found that about forty percent of infected women who took the drug while giving birth later became resistant to it. Researchers in Thailand also found that mothers who received nevirapine were less likely to be helped by the drug if they developed AIDS. Researchers from France and the United States helped carry out the studies. In richer countries, pregnant women with H-I-V receive a combination of anti-AIDS drugs throughout their pregnancies. Health officials say this lowers the chance that the mother will develop a resistance. In developing nations, however, this method may not be economically possible. Combinations of anti-retroviral drugs to suppress the infection cost a lot. So the World Health Organization suggests the use of nevirapine alone. It says the two studies will not change this advice, at least for now. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Engineers are building a laboratory at the University of California at San Diego to study the effects of explosions. There are other blast simulators in the world that study the effects of explosions on buildings and other structures. But the engineers say this will be the first where scientists do not have to create real explosions. The Jacobs School of Engineering is building the new laboratory at a field station several kilometers from the university. The blast simulator is expected to be in operation by early next year. It will use a computer to control devices called hydraulic actuators. These are a series of heavy metal tubes. Water flows through them under pressure. The tubes are designed to extend quickly and strike an object with great force. This will recreate the shock waves produced by a bomb explosion. VOICE TWO: The blast simulator will be connected to recording devices. The scientists will measure the effects of different size explosions on different kinds of structural materials. Bomb explosions move air with such force and speed that it pushes and pulls walls and other building supports. The United States government is providing support for the project as part of anti-terrorism efforts. The structural engineers in San Diego have been researching ways to harden buildings against bomb attacks since nineteen-ninety-eight. That was the year bombs wrecked the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. VOICE ONE: The Jacobs School of Engineering has done much work in the area of design to protect buildings against earthquakes. In fact, the blast simulator laboratory will be connected to another new laboratory. The school has almost completed what it calls the world's first outdoor "shake table." Imagine a table that shakes -- and yet is big enough to hold a building several floors high. It will help scientists measure how buildings react to earthquakes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For years, experts have been concerned about the future of the mountain gorillas of Africa. Disease, hunting, development and civil conflict all greatly reduced the population of these great apes. But researchers say the number of mountain gorillas in three national parks have increased by about seventeen-percent in recent years. Mountain gorillas are one of the most endangered species in the world. VOICE ONE: The International Gorilla Conservation Program led a study between September and October of last year. Teams of researchers studied mountain gorilla environments across the three national parks in the Virunga forests. The forests are on the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The researchers recorded information about gorilla sleeping places and the gorillas they saw. They used that information to estimate the current population in those parks at three-hundred-eighty gorillas. That is fifty-six gorillas more than scientists had recorded in the last count in nineteen-eighty-nine. VOICE TWO: War and hunting reduced the Virunga population to about two-hundred-sixty in the late nineteen-seventies. But national park officials and non-governmental organizations in the three countries have increased efforts in recent years to protect the great apes. Researchers say three-hundred-twenty other mountain gorillas live in Uganda, in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. That is the only other place they are found. This means there at least seven-hundred mountain gorillas left in the wild. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirteen villages in northern Cambodia now have e-mail through a project that organizers hope other countries will copy. Energy from the sun powers computers in a group of schools and a medical center in Ratanakiri Province. Electronic mail is sent over the Internet, but with the help of what are called “motomen.” Each day, five people ride motorcycles into the villages to collect outgoing messages and bring incoming mail. The motorcycles are equipped with a computer to store the messages. The “motomen” return to the local capital where the information is sent by satellite to the Internet. VOICE TWO: Students write to other villages. Local citizens can communicate with government officials, and receive newspaper stories by e-mail. Local doctors can get medical advice from far away. Organizers hope the system will also help local farmers sell their products online to the world market. The group American Assistance for Cambodia organized the project. The technology is from a company in Massachusetts called First Mile Solutions. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. We had recording assistance from _________. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: February 24, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- a study of antibiotics and breast cancer ... plus, findings that a way to protect babies from AIDS may not be so good for their mothers. VOICE ONE: Also ... an explosion laboratory with a burst of creativity ... and a possible sign of recovery for mountain gorillas in Africa. (THEME) VOICE TWO: A study suggests a possible connection between use of antibiotic drugs and increased risk of breast cancer. However, the study does not answer the question if antibiotics are a cause of breast cancer. The study appeared last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers in the American Northwest studied more than ten thousand women. The study involved members of Group Health Cooperative, a health plan based in Seattle, Washington. Antibiotics are used to fight many different kinds of infections caused by bacteria. The study found that women who took more antibiotics compared to other women had higher rates of breast cancer. Some women had taken antibiotics for more than five-hundred days over an average period of seventeen years. These women had more than two times the risk of breast cancer as women who had not taken any antibiotics. VOICE ONE: The study found that women who took antibiotics for fewer days had less risk. Yet even these women had one-and-one-half times the risk of those who took none. Doctor Stephen Taplin of the National Cancer Institute was among the leaders of the study. Doctor Taplin says the risk increased with all the kinds of antibiotics they studied. Some cancer experts suggested that antibiotics could suppress "good" bacteria in the intestinal system. They say these bacteria help the body process foods that may help defend against disease. Or, they say, antibiotics might damage the immune system that protects the body against infection. VOICE TWO: But Doctor Taplin and others say women who need more antibiotics may already have weakened immune systems. Another possibility is that the infections being treated may increase the risk of breast cancer. So the experts say more studies are needed before any direct link is made between antibiotics and breast cancer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In many poor countries, pregnant women infected with the AIDS virus are given the drug nevirapine one time. This is during labor. Their babies also receive nevirapine once, during the first three days after they are born. Such treatment can cut in half the risk that the AIDS virus will spread from mother to baby. But two studies have found that a single use of nevirapine may cause pregnant women to develop a resistance to it later. Scientists presented the studies in San Francisco, California, during a conference on anti-AIDS drugs. VOICE TWO: In South Africa, scientists found that about forty percent of infected women who took the drug while giving birth later became resistant to it. Researchers in Thailand also found that mothers who received nevirapine were less likely to be helped by the drug if they developed AIDS. Researchers from France and the United States helped carry out the studies. In richer countries, pregnant women with H-I-V receive a combination of anti-AIDS drugs throughout their pregnancies. Health officials say this lowers the chance that the mother will develop a resistance. In developing nations, however, this method may not be economically possible. Combinations of anti-retroviral drugs to suppress the infection cost a lot. So the World Health Organization suggests the use of nevirapine alone. It says the two studies will not change this advice, at least for now. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Engineers are building a laboratory at the University of California at San Diego to study the effects of explosions. There are other blast simulators in the world that study the effects of explosions on buildings and other structures. But the engineers say this will be the first where scientists do not have to create real explosions. The Jacobs School of Engineering is building the new laboratory at a field station several kilometers from the university. The blast simulator is expected to be in operation by early next year. It will use a computer to control devices called hydraulic actuators. These are a series of heavy metal tubes. Water flows through them under pressure. The tubes are designed to extend quickly and strike an object with great force. This will recreate the shock waves produced by a bomb explosion. VOICE TWO: The blast simulator will be connected to recording devices. The scientists will measure the effects of different size explosions on different kinds of structural materials. Bomb explosions move air with such force and speed that it pushes and pulls walls and other building supports. The United States government is providing support for the project as part of anti-terrorism efforts. The structural engineers in San Diego have been researching ways to harden buildings against bomb attacks since nineteen-ninety-eight. That was the year bombs wrecked the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. VOICE ONE: The Jacobs School of Engineering has done much work in the area of design to protect buildings against earthquakes. In fact, the blast simulator laboratory will be connected to another new laboratory. The school has almost completed what it calls the world's first outdoor "shake table." Imagine a table that shakes -- and yet is big enough to hold a building several floors high. It will help scientists measure how buildings react to earthquakes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For years, experts have been concerned about the future of the mountain gorillas of Africa. Disease, hunting, development and civil conflict all greatly reduced the population of these great apes. But researchers say the number of mountain gorillas in three national parks have increased by about seventeen-percent in recent years. Mountain gorillas are one of the most endangered species in the world. VOICE ONE: The International Gorilla Conservation Program led a study between September and October of last year. Teams of researchers studied mountain gorilla environments across the three national parks in the Virunga forests. The forests are on the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The researchers recorded information about gorilla sleeping places and the gorillas they saw. They used that information to estimate the current population in those parks at three-hundred-eighty gorillas. That is fifty-six gorillas more than scientists had recorded in the last count in nineteen-eighty-nine. VOICE TWO: War and hunting reduced the Virunga population to about two-hundred-sixty in the late nineteen-seventies. But national park officials and non-governmental organizations in the three countries have increased efforts in recent years to protect the great apes. Researchers say three-hundred-twenty other mountain gorillas live in Uganda, in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. That is the only other place they are found. This means there at least seven-hundred mountain gorillas left in the wild. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirteen villages in northern Cambodia now have e-mail through a project that organizers hope other countries will copy. Energy from the sun powers computers in a group of schools and a medical center in Ratanakiri Province. Electronic mail is sent over the Internet, but with the help of what are called “motomen.” Each day, five people ride motorcycles into the villages to collect outgoing messages and bring incoming mail. The motorcycles are equipped with a computer to store the messages. The “motomen” return to the local capital where the information is sent by satellite to the Internet. VOICE TWO: Students write to other villages. Local citizens can communicate with government officials, and receive newspaper stories by e-mail. Local doctors can get medical advice from far away. Organizers hope the system will also help local farmers sell their products online to the world market. The group American Assistance for Cambodia organized the project. The technology is from a company in Massachusetts called First Mile Solutions. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. We had recording assistance from _________. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - U.S. Cattle Industry Update
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 24, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. United States agriculture officials have ended their investigation into the case of mad cow disease found in Washington State in December. The Department of Agriculture reported this month on steps taken to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE. These include new restrictions on how cattle can be killed. New rules also ban the use of what are called "downer" cows for human food. Such animals are too sick or injured to walk. However, the infected cow was reported not to have been a downer. The cow was born in Canada. It was imported into the United States with eighty other cattle. Investigators found twenty-eight of those other cows. In all, officials identified two-hundred-fifty-five of what they called “animals of interest" in the case All were killed. Officials say tests found no additional cases of BSE. Foreign bans on American beef continue. Major importers like Japan and Mexico say it is too soon to end their bans. They say American officials must do more to test cattle. International experts appointed by the Agriculture Department urged American farmers to no longer feed any animal protein to their cows. Some protein can spread the disease. The experts also said the United States had probably imported other infected cows. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association criticized the report. It said the report does not fully recognize steps taken by the United States and Canada to reduce the risk of BSE. Last week, there was an unrelated development affecting the beef industry. A federal jury found that America's largest meat processor restricted competition. The jury found that Tyson Fresh Meats unfairly controlled the price of live cattle and forced prices down. The jury said Tyson should pay a group of independent cattle producers more than one-thousand-million dollars. The case in Alabama, called a class action, represents the interests of as many as thirty-thousand producers. The action said Tyson made agreements with producers to create a supply of cattle. Tyson could then buy cows from this supply at a set price when market prices were high. Tyson is appealing the decision. The company buys about one-third of the beef cattle in the United States. But it says it does not buy enough to set market prices. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS -  New Communications Technology
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 25, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 25, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about new technology that makes communication faster and easier. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our report begins high in the mountains of northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. A man and his son have reached an area called Little Mount Hoffman. It is more than two-thousand meters high in the beautiful mountains. The two are camping. They carry all their clothing, food, water and other things they need on their backs. They have come to this area of the great national park to enjoy the outdoors. VOICE TWO: It is late in the day and both are hungry. They build their camp for the night and cook their evening meal. After their meal, the man reaches into his pack and pulls out a special kind of telephone. It can be used from anywhere on Earth. It does not use wires. It links with a system of satellites in orbit high above the Earth. Minutes later, the man talks to a business partner in Japan. They discuss developments that are important to their company. A few minutes later, the young boy uses the telephone to talk to his mother. She is at home, in Miami, Florida. He tells her not to worry. The two of them are having a good time. He tells her he will call again tomorrow night. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Satellite telephones are not really new. But now they can be used anywhere in the world. Also, satellite telephones were once very large. Now, they are not much larger than any other small telephone. And, they are no longer as costly as they once were. A company called Iridium produces a satellite telephone. It also supplies the link to satellites. The Iridium company uses more than fifty satellites that provide communications for their telephones. Iridium and several other companies in the United States offer satellite telephones for less than four-hundred dollars. Most satellite telephone companies charge money each month for the service. They also charge money for each call made on the telephone. VOICE TWO: The satellite telephone is without equal as an emergency communications or business tool. It is possible to link a satellite telephone with a computer. The computer can be used to send large amounts of information very quickly to anywhere in the world. The telephone can also be linked with cameras and video cameras that can link with computers. People who travel to Tibet to climb Mount Everest use this kind of technology. These mountain climbers have made the satellite telephone an important part of their equipment. They often use these special telephones to send photographs and videos and to talk to family members from the highest mountain in the world. VOICE ONE: The satellite telephone is only one of many new telephones that have recently appeared on the market. Perhaps the most changes have been made to the wireless cellular or cell phone. A cell telephone is very different from a satellite telephone. It can not be used in areas that do not have the necessary receiving equipment. New cell phones can send voice communications, color photographs and written information called text messages. They can even receive electronic mail. Like the satellite telephone, the newest cellular telephones keep getting smaller. In fact, the N-E-C Corporation announced recently that it will soon market the smallest camera-equipped cellular telephone. It is eighty-five millimeters wide and only eight-point-six millimeters thick. It weighs only seventy grams. It has a color screen to show the photographs it takes and to show photographs that have been sent to it. Critics of such devices say they can be used to take photographs of people who do not know they are being photographed. However this has not stopped the sale of cell phones equipped with cameras. VOICE TWO: Gartner Dataquest is a research company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recently, Gartner Dataquest reported that more than five-hundred-million cell phones were sold around the world last year. This number is far higher than what industry experts had expected. The Gartner company says they expect more than five-hundred-sixty-million new cell phones will be sold this year. VOICE ONE: Cellular telephones have become extremely common throughout the world. You can see people talking on cell phones as they walk along the street. You can see others talking on cell phones as they drive their vehicles. They have become extremely popular in Asia. In two-thousand-two, Business Week Magazine reported that India had fewer than eight-million cell phone users. However, the magazine reported that the market for cellular telephones in India was growing at more than eighty percent each year. The magazine said India will have forty-four-million cellular telephone users by two-thousand-six. India is reportedly becoming the third largest market for cell phones in Asia after China and Japan. VOICE TWO: Communication industry experts say Americans spent about one-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars on all wireless communications last year in the United States. Wireless means communications devices that are not connected or linked to anything using a wire. This includes computers, cell phones, satellite telephones and other devices. The experts say that by two-thousand-seven, Americans will spend more than one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars each year on wireless communication. The experts say wireless communication will continue to expand in the future. They say people will use wireless communications devices to play games and send fast messages. They may also be able to watch movies with a small hand-held device. VOICE ONE: One company says it already produces a device that experts say will be part of the future. The device is called a Blackberry. A Blackberry is a cellular telephone. It can also send and receive written messages. It has four different ways to send and receive electronic mail from the Internet communications system. A Blackberry has the same kind of keys as a typewriter to enter information. It has a memory that holds names and address information. It has a calendar and space for a list of tasks. It will immediately tell you if you have a phone call or e-mail message. The Blackberry’s cell phone can be used in almost any country. The newest Blackberry costs about three-hundred dollars. It costs about seventy dollars a month to be linked to the services that a communications company provides. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Radio technology has also improved recently. Many people have problems listening to the radio while driving long distances in their cars. They lose the broadcast signal when they drive too far from a radio station. Two American companies have solved that problem. They have made it possible to drive a car across the country and listen to the same radio station during the whole trip. The Sirius and X-M Satellite Radio companies broadcast their signal from a satellite in orbit. The two companies provide more than one-hundred different programs. The choices include many kinds of music, like jazz, country and western, classical, hip-hop, rock and bluegrass. Their satellite communication system also provides news broadcasts twenty-four hours a day. The car radio that receives the satellite transmission costs as little as one-hundred dollars. Both X-M and Sirius charge a small amount of money each month for their service. VOICE ONE: Communications experts say satellite telephones, cell phones, devices like the Blackberry and satellite radio are just the beginning. The experts say new cell phones permit users to watch television and to record and send video pictures. Still other devices will provide any kind of music on demand. These new devices are changing the way we do business, have fun and communicate with each other. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about new technology that makes communication faster and easier. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our report begins high in the mountains of northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. A man and his son have reached an area called Little Mount Hoffman. It is more than two-thousand meters high in the beautiful mountains. The two are camping. They carry all their clothing, food, water and other things they need on their backs. They have come to this area of the great national park to enjoy the outdoors. VOICE TWO: It is late in the day and both are hungry. They build their camp for the night and cook their evening meal. After their meal, the man reaches into his pack and pulls out a special kind of telephone. It can be used from anywhere on Earth. It does not use wires. It links with a system of satellites in orbit high above the Earth. Minutes later, the man talks to a business partner in Japan. They discuss developments that are important to their company. A few minutes later, the young boy uses the telephone to talk to his mother. She is at home, in Miami, Florida. He tells her not to worry. The two of them are having a good time. He tells her he will call again tomorrow night. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Satellite telephones are not really new. But now they can be used anywhere in the world. Also, satellite telephones were once very large. Now, they are not much larger than any other small telephone. And, they are no longer as costly as they once were. A company called Iridium produces a satellite telephone. It also supplies the link to satellites. The Iridium company uses more than fifty satellites that provide communications for their telephones. Iridium and several other companies in the United States offer satellite telephones for less than four-hundred dollars. Most satellite telephone companies charge money each month for the service. They also charge money for each call made on the telephone. VOICE TWO: The satellite telephone is without equal as an emergency communications or business tool. It is possible to link a satellite telephone with a computer. The computer can be used to send large amounts of information very quickly to anywhere in the world. The telephone can also be linked with cameras and video cameras that can link with computers. People who travel to Tibet to climb Mount Everest use this kind of technology. These mountain climbers have made the satellite telephone an important part of their equipment. They often use these special telephones to send photographs and videos and to talk to family members from the highest mountain in the world. VOICE ONE: The satellite telephone is only one of many new telephones that have recently appeared on the market. Perhaps the most changes have been made to the wireless cellular or cell phone. A cell telephone is very different from a satellite telephone. It can not be used in areas that do not have the necessary receiving equipment. New cell phones can send voice communications, color photographs and written information called text messages. They can even receive electronic mail. Like the satellite telephone, the newest cellular telephones keep getting smaller. In fact, the N-E-C Corporation announced recently that it will soon market the smallest camera-equipped cellular telephone. It is eighty-five millimeters wide and only eight-point-six millimeters thick. It weighs only seventy grams. It has a color screen to show the photographs it takes and to show photographs that have been sent to it. Critics of such devices say they can be used to take photographs of people who do not know they are being photographed. However this has not stopped the sale of cell phones equipped with cameras. VOICE TWO: Gartner Dataquest is a research company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recently, Gartner Dataquest reported that more than five-hundred-million cell phones were sold around the world last year. This number is far higher than what industry experts had expected. The Gartner company says they expect more than five-hundred-sixty-million new cell phones will be sold this year. VOICE ONE: Cellular telephones have become extremely common throughout the world. You can see people talking on cell phones as they walk along the street. You can see others talking on cell phones as they drive their vehicles. They have become extremely popular in Asia. In two-thousand-two, Business Week Magazine reported that India had fewer than eight-million cell phone users. However, the magazine reported that the market for cellular telephones in India was growing at more than eighty percent each year. The magazine said India will have forty-four-million cellular telephone users by two-thousand-six. India is reportedly becoming the third largest market for cell phones in Asia after China and Japan. VOICE TWO: Communication industry experts say Americans spent about one-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars on all wireless communications last year in the United States. Wireless means communications devices that are not connected or linked to anything using a wire. This includes computers, cell phones, satellite telephones and other devices. The experts say that by two-thousand-seven, Americans will spend more than one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars each year on wireless communication. The experts say wireless communication will continue to expand in the future. They say people will use wireless communications devices to play games and send fast messages. They may also be able to watch movies with a small hand-held device. VOICE ONE: One company says it already produces a device that experts say will be part of the future. The device is called a Blackberry. A Blackberry is a cellular telephone. It can also send and receive written messages. It has four different ways to send and receive electronic mail from the Internet communications system. A Blackberry has the same kind of keys as a typewriter to enter information. It has a memory that holds names and address information. It has a calendar and space for a list of tasks. It will immediately tell you if you have a phone call or e-mail message. The Blackberry’s cell phone can be used in almost any country. The newest Blackberry costs about three-hundred dollars. It costs about seventy dollars a month to be linked to the services that a communications company provides. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Radio technology has also improved recently. Many people have problems listening to the radio while driving long distances in their cars. They lose the broadcast signal when they drive too far from a radio station. Two American companies have solved that problem. They have made it possible to drive a car across the country and listen to the same radio station during the whole trip. The Sirius and X-M Satellite Radio companies broadcast their signal from a satellite in orbit. The two companies provide more than one-hundred different programs. The choices include many kinds of music, like jazz, country and western, classical, hip-hop, rock and bluegrass. Their satellite communication system also provides news broadcasts twenty-four hours a day. The car radio that receives the satellite transmission costs as little as one-hundred dollars. Both X-M and Sirius charge a small amount of money each month for their service. VOICE ONE: Communications experts say satellite telephones, cell phones, devices like the Blackberry and satellite radio are just the beginning. The experts say new cell phones permit users to watch television and to record and send video pictures. Still other devices will provide any kind of music on demand. These new devices are changing the way we do business, have fun and communicate with each other. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Centers for Disease Control
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 25, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. One of the major health agencies in the United States is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is known as the C-D-C. "Prevention" was added to the name later. The agency has many jobs. For example, it recently provided information to the public about ricin. Some of that poison had been found in a Senate office building in Washington. The C-D-C advised people about ways to stay safe if they ever found ricin. The C-D-C warns, advises and reports on health subjects from around the world. For example, it is currently providing information about avian influenza. The outbreak of bird flu in Asia has killed more than twenty people in Thailand and Vietnam. The agency also is advising people how to protect against cold weather and poorly heated homes in winter. And the C-D-C just gave Americans the newest estimate of how long they can expect to live. In two-thousand-two, average life expectancy reached seventy-seven-point-four years. But the C-D-C also reported an increase in the rate of deaths among newborn babies that year. It was the first increase in the United States since nineteen-fifty-eight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. Its main offices and laboratories are in Atlanta, Georgia. Eight-thousand-five-hundred people work for the C-D-C. These include doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers and others. They all have some part in trying to learn how diseases start, and where and how they spread. C-D-C laboratories examine tissue, blood and other substances to help identify diseases. For example, the C-D-C recently confirmed the presence in Bangladesh of a viral infection similar to the Nipah virus. This virus was first recognized in nineteen-ninety-nine in Nipah, Malaysia. It was blamed for widespread cases of encephalitis, a brain infection. More than one-hundred people died of the disease. C-D-C experts are ready to travel anywhere in the world to help deal with outbreaks of disease. The faster the cause is identified, the faster health workers can take steps to contain and control it. The C-D-C Web site offers information about how to prevent and treat a number of sicknesses, and how to stay healthy. The address is w-w-w dot c-d-c dot g-o-v. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: February 25, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. One of the major health agencies in the United States is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is known as the C-D-C. "Prevention" was added to the name later. The agency has many jobs. For example, it recently provided information to the public about ricin. Some of that poison had been found in a Senate office building in Washington. The C-D-C advised people about ways to stay safe if they ever found ricin. The C-D-C warns, advises and reports on health subjects from around the world. For example, it is currently providing information about avian influenza. The outbreak of bird flu in Asia has killed more than twenty people in Thailand and Vietnam. The agency also is advising people how to protect against cold weather and poorly heated homes in winter. And the C-D-C just gave Americans the newest estimate of how long they can expect to live. In two-thousand-two, average life expectancy reached seventy-seven-point-four years. But the C-D-C also reported an increase in the rate of deaths among newborn babies that year. It was the first increase in the United States since nineteen-fifty-eight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. Its main offices and laboratories are in Atlanta, Georgia. Eight-thousand-five-hundred people work for the C-D-C. These include doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers and others. They all have some part in trying to learn how diseases start, and where and how they spread. C-D-C laboratories examine tissue, blood and other substances to help identify diseases. For example, the C-D-C recently confirmed the presence in Bangladesh of a viral infection similar to the Nipah virus. This virus was first recognized in nineteen-ninety-nine in Nipah, Malaysia. It was blamed for widespread cases of encephalitis, a brain infection. More than one-hundred people died of the disease. C-D-C experts are ready to travel anywhere in the world to help deal with outbreaks of disease. The faster the cause is identified, the faster health workers can take steps to contain and control it. The C-D-C Web site offers information about how to prevent and treat a number of sicknesses, and how to stay healthy. The address is w-w-w dot c-d-c dot g-o-v. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 4: Dyspraxia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 26, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. People who have unusual difficulty with reading, writing or other skills may have a learning disability. Today we continue our series about learning disabilities with a report about a movement disorder. This condition is called dyspraxia. With dyspraxia, the brain does not send messages clearly to other parts of the body. People with dyspraxia have a poor understanding of the messages sent by their senses. They have difficulty linking these messages to actions. As a result, people with dyspraxia have trouble planning and organizing thoughts. Physical activities are also difficult to learn and perform. Experts say the kinds of difficulties experienced by a person with dyspraxia can change from day to day or at different times in life. Babies with dyspraxia do not try to crawl or roll over. Later, they may have difficulty with eye movements. They may move their head instead of just their eyes. Children with dyspraxia may have trouble walking or holding a cup, riding a bicycle or throwing a ball. Social skills may be difficult for people with dyspraxia to learn. So they might have trouble making friends. People with dyspraxia can find sports activities extremely difficult. They may even have trouble speaking. Some cannot make the physical movements necessary to speak clearly. Adults with dyspraxia can have problems driving a car or cleaning the house. They can have problems cooking, writing, typing, even washing and dressing themselves. Experts say dyspraxia cannot be cured. They say people with this disorder must understand that it takes them longer to learn to do things than other people. It will also take them longer to remember how to do what they have already learned. Early intervention can help. Professional therapists say there are ways to help make life easier for those with dyspraxia. They say parents and teachers must understand that people with dyspraxia need help learning simple movements. Experts say children should be urged to take part in easy physical activities that can increase their trust in their abilities. We continue our series about learning disabilities next week. All of our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Links to more information about dyspraxia are also included. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #51 - James Monroe, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 26, 2004 (Theme) Broadcast: February 26, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) As we said in our last program, President James Madison retired after two four-year terms. His Republican Party chose another man from Virginia, James Monroe, as the next presidential candidate. The opposition Federalist Party had almost disappeared by the time of the election in 1816. It did not meet to chose a presidential candidate. However, three states -- Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts -- promised to vote for Federalist Rufus King. Henry Clay VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) As we said in our last program, President James Madison retired after two four-year terms. His Republican Party chose another man from Virginia, James Monroe, as the next presidential candidate. The opposition Federalist Party had almost disappeared by the time of the election in 1816. It did not meet to chose a presidential candidate. However, three states -- Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts -- promised to vote for Federalist Rufus King. VOICE TWO: James Monroe easily won the election. He would serve two terms. Monroe was sworn-in as president in February, 1817. A few months later, he began a long trip to 13 states. Everywhere he stopped, the people welcomed him warmly. Even in New England the crowds were large. The president returned to Washington after three and a half months. He was tired. But he was pleased with the way the people of the United States had accepted him. VOICE ONE: Not everyone was happy that Monroe had been elected. After all, he was the fourth American president from Virginia. The situation caused hard feelings among political leaders in other states, especially the states of New England. Monroe tried to improve this situation. He wanted to give the top four jobs in his cabinet to men from each of the nation's four major areas: the northeast, the south, the west, and the middle Atlantic coast. This would help improve unity. And it would help the president get expert knowledge about each of those parts of the country. Monroe was not able to do what he wanted. He got cabinet ministers from only three of the four areas. The west was not represented. VOICE TWO: The top cabinet job -- Secretary of State -- went to John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Adams was the son of former President John Adams. John Quincy Adams had been a Federalist, like his father. But he became a Republican during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Adams had served his country in many ways. He had served as minister to Russia. And he had been the chief negotiator at the peace talks with Britain following the War of 1812. President Monroe asked Henry Clay of Kentucky to be Secretary of War. But Clay refused. The president could find no other westerner who would take the job as Chief of the War Department. So he gave it to John C. Calhoun, a Congressman from South Carolina. William Crawford of Georgia, another southerner, continued as Treasury Secretary. And William Wirt of Virginia became head of the Justice Department. VOICE ONE: One of the first problems facing President Monroe was east Florida. It was the territory which is now the state of Florida in the southeastern United States. At that time, the territory belonged to Spain. But Spain controlled only a few towns in the area. The rest was controlled by criminals, escaped slaves, and former British soldiers. There also were native American Indians of the Seminole and Creek tribes. Sometimes, people from east Florida would cross the border and attack American citizens. One serious fight involved Seminole Indians and people just across the border in the state of Georgia. VOICE TWO: General Andrew Jackson was ordered to March against the Indians. He was a hero of the War of 1812 against Britain. Jackson sent a message to President Monroe. He said: "Let me know in any way that the United States wants possession of the Florida territory. And in 60 days, it will be done." Jackson received no answer to his letter. He believed the silence meant that he was free to seize Florida. He quickly gathered a force of soldiers and marched toward Florida. VOICE ONE: General Jackson failed to capture any Indians. But he seized two Spanish towns: Saint Marks and Pensacola. He also arrested two British subjects. The two men were tried by a military court. They were found guilty of spying and giving guns to the Indians. Both were executed. Jackson left soldiers at several places in Florida. Then he returned to his home in Tennessee. VOICE TWO: President Monroe called a cabinet meeting as soon as he learned of Jackson's actions. All the ministers, except Secretary of State Adams, believed that Jackson had gone too far. But they decided not to denounce him in public. Secretary Adams prepared messages to Britain and Spain about the incidents. His message to Britain carefully stated the activities of the two British subjects in Florida and explained why they were executed. Britain agreed not to take any action. VOICE ONE: Adams's message to Spain explained the situation this way: Spain had failed to keep the peace along the border as it had promised to do in a treaty. The United States had sent soldiers into Florida only to defend its citizens on the American side. The United States recognized that Florida belonged to Spain. But if Americans were forced to enter Florida again -- in self-defense -- the United States might not return the territory to Spain. Spain had a choice. It could send enough soldiers to keep order in Florida. Or it could give Florida to the United States. VOICE TWO: Spain really had no choice. At that time, Spain's colonies in South America were rebelling. All had declared their independence. Jose de San Martin led the struggle in Argentina. Bernardo O'Higgens was in Chile. And Simon Bolivar created the Republic of Great Columbia in the north. Spain's forces could not be sent to Florida. They were needed in South America. So the King of Spain agreed to give Florida to the United States. In exchange, the United States agreed to pay five-million dollars to American citizens who had damage claims against Spain. VOICE ONE: The Florida Treaty was signed in February, 1819. The American Senate quickly approved the treaty. But the King of Spain delayed his approval for almost two years. He had hoped the United States would agree to one more demand. He did not want the United States to recognize the independence of the rebel Spanish colonies in South America. The United States rejected the King's demand. It said Spain must approve the Florida treaty. . . Or it would take Florida on its own. The threat succeeded. Spain approved the treaty. VOICE TWO: Many Americans believed that the United States should recognize the independent republics in South America. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Henry Clay, agreed. He said recognition would help protect the rights and liberties of the new republics. He said it would lead to economic ties with the United States. And he said it would make the new republics follow the lead of the United States in diplomacy and foreign policy. As a result of all this, Clay said, the United States would become the leading nation in the Americas. VOICE ONE: Secretary of State Adams disagreed. He did not believe that the new republics could develop free and liberal forms of government. He also feared that United States' recognition of the South American republics would lead to trouble with European nations. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, some of the nations of Europe joined in an agreement to keep the peace. They agreed to help each other put down rebellions. Such rebellions were defeated in Spain and Italy. Britain refused to be part of the agreement. And it did not want the alliance to interfere in South America. Britain had a good trade with the new republics. Britain proposed a joint statement with the United States. The statement would say that neither country would seize Spanish colonies in the New World. And both would oppose any effort by Spain to give its American territory to another European nation. VOICE TWO: At first, President Monroe thought he would accept the British proposal. He asked former Presidents Jefferson and Madison for their advice. Both urged him to accept it. Secretary of state Adams, however, disagreed sharply. He said the United States should act alone in protesting European interference in south America. President Monroe finally accepted the advice of his Secretary of State. He included Adams's ideas in his message to Congress in 1839. They became known as the "Monroe Doctrine". That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE TWO: James Monroe easily won the election. He would serve two terms. Monroe was sworn-in as president in February, 1817. A few months later, he began a long trip to 13 states. Everywhere he stopped, the people welcomed him warmly. Even in New England the crowds were large. The president returned to Washington after three and a half months. He was tired. But he was pleased with the way the people of the United States had accepted him. VOICE ONE: Not everyone was happy that Monroe had been elected. After all, he was the fourth American president from Virginia. The situation caused hard feelings among political leaders in other states, especially the states of New England. Monroe tried to improve this situation. He wanted to give the top four jobs in his cabinet to men from each of the nation's four major areas: the northeast, the south, the west, and the middle Atlantic coast. This would help improve unity. And it would help the president get expert knowledge about each of those parts of the country. Monroe was not able to do what he wanted. He got cabinet ministers from only three of the four areas. The west was not represented. VOICE TWO: The top cabinet job -- Secretary of State -- went to John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Adams was the son of former President John Adams. John Quincy Adams had been a Federalist, like his father. But he became a Republican during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Adams had served his country in many ways. He had served as minister to Russia. And he had been the chief negotiator at the peace talks with Britain following the War of 1812. President Monroe asked Henry Clay of Kentucky to be Secretary of War. But Clay refused. The president could find no other westerner who would take the job as Chief of the War Department. So he gave it to John C. Calhoun, a Congressman from South Carolina. William Crawford of Georgia, another southerner, continued as Treasury Secretary. And William Wirt of Virginia became head of the Justice Department. VOICE ONE: One of the first problems facing President Monroe was east Florida. It was the territory which is now the state of Florida in the southeastern United States. At that time, the territory belonged to Spain. But Spain controlled only a few towns in the area. The rest was controlled by criminals, escaped slaves, and former British soldiers. There also were native American Indians of the Seminole and Creek tribes. Sometimes, people from east Florida would cross the border and attack American citizens. One serious fight involved Seminole Indians and people just across the border in the state of Georgia. VOICE TWO: General Andrew Jackson was ordered to March against the Indians. He was a hero of the War of 1812 against Britain. Jackson sent a message to President Monroe. He said: "Let me know in any way that the United States wants possession of the Florida territory. And in 60 days, it will be done." Jackson received no answer to his letter. He believed the silence meant that he was free to seize Florida. He quickly gathered a force of soldiers and marched toward Florida. VOICE ONE: General Jackson failed to capture any Indians. But he seized two Spanish towns: Saint Marks and Pensacola. He also arrested two British subjects. The two men were tried by a military court. They were found guilty of spying and giving guns to the Indians. Both were executed. Jackson left soldiers at several places in Florida. Then he returned to his home in Tennessee. VOICE TWO: President Monroe called a cabinet meeting as soon as he learned of Jackson's actions. All the ministers, except Secretary of State Adams, believed that Jackson had gone too far. But they decided not to denounce him in public. Secretary Adams prepared messages to Britain and Spain about the incidents. His message to Britain carefully stated the activities of the two British subjects in Florida and explained why they were executed. Britain agreed not to take any action. VOICE ONE: Adams's message to Spain explained the situation this way: Spain had failed to keep the peace along the border as it had promised to do in a treaty. The United States had sent soldiers into Florida only to defend its citizens on the American side. The United States recognized that Florida belonged to Spain. But if Americans were forced to enter Florida again -- in self-defense -- the United States might not return the territory to Spain. Spain had a choice. It could send enough soldiers to keep order in Florida. Or it could give Florida to the United States. VOICE TWO: Spain really had no choice. At that time, Spain's colonies in South America were rebelling. All had declared their independence. Jose de San Martin led the struggle in Argentina. Bernardo O'Higgens was in Chile. And Simon Bolivar created the Republic of Great Columbia in the north. Spain's forces could not be sent to Florida. They were needed in South America. So the King of Spain agreed to give Florida to the United States. In exchange, the United States agreed to pay five-million dollars to American citizens who had damage claims against Spain. VOICE ONE: The Florida Treaty was signed in February, 1819. The American Senate quickly approved the treaty. But the King of Spain delayed his approval for almost two years. He had hoped the United States would agree to one more demand. He did not want the United States to recognize the independence of the rebel Spanish colonies in South America. The United States rejected the King's demand. It said Spain must approve the Florida treaty. . . Or it would take Florida on its own. The threat succeeded. Spain approved the treaty. VOICE TWO: Many Americans believed that the United States should recognize the independent republics in South America. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Henry Clay, agreed. He said recognition would help protect the rights and liberties of the new republics. He said it would lead to economic ties with the United States. And he said it would make the new republics follow the lead of the United States in diplomacy and foreign policy. As a result of all this, Clay said, the United States would become the leading nation in the Americas. VOICE ONE: Secretary of State Adams disagreed. He did not believe that the new republics could develop free and liberal forms of government. He also feared that United States' recognition of the South American republics would lead to trouble with European nations. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, some of the nations of Europe joined in an agreement to keep the peace. They agreed to help each other put down rebellions. Such rebellions were defeated in Spain and Italy. Britain refused to be part of the agreement. And it did not want the alliance to interfere in South America. Britain had a good trade with the new republics. Britain proposed a joint statement with the United States. The statement would say that neither country would seize Spanish colonies in the New World. And both would oppose any effort by Spain to give its American territory to another European nation. VOICE TWO: At first, President Monroe thought he would accept the British proposal. He asked former Presidents Jefferson and Madison for their advice. Both urged him to accept it. Secretary of state Adams, however, disagreed sharply. He said the United States should act alone in protesting European interference in south America. President Monroe finally accepted the advice of his Secretary of State. He included Adams's ideas in his message to Congress in 1839. They became known as the "Monroe Doctrine". That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Leap Year / Electing a Pope / Evenescence
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 27, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: February 27, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we have music from the Grammy-winning group Evanescence. And we answer a question about the rights of Americans to vote in foreign elections. But first, we tell about an event that happens every four years, and has nothing to do with voting. Leap Year HOST: Sunday is February twenty-ninth -- Leap Day. Shep O’Neal takes time now to explain why this is one of those years with an extra day in it. ANNCR: Everyone knows the Earth takes three-hundred-sixty-five days to travel around the sun. Well, that is not exactly correct. The Earth really takes three-hundred-sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun. The problem for people developing calendars is what to do with the extra five-hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds. People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays. The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution. They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years. The ancient Romans had a different solution. In the year forty-six, Julius Caesar made a new calendar. The ruler of Rome had help from the astronomer Sosigenes. The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years. But there was a problem. The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle of the seasons. So, over the next few hundred years, the seasons moved slowly backward on the calendar. In fifteen-eighty-two, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better record of the days. Pope Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe. He decided that years that can be divided by four would add a day. However, years that end in two zeros that cannot be divided by four-hundred would not have a leap year. Hmm ... a little confusing. For example, seventeen-hundred, eighteen-hundred, nineteen-hundred and twenty-one hundred are not leap years. But sixteen-hundred, two-thousand and two-thousand-four-hundred are leap years. The Gregorian calendar is widely followed today. The calendar is good. But ... every three-thousand years or so it loses a day. Well, we don’t know anyone who really cares! Electing a Pope HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Dalby, Sweden. Thomas Corcoran wants to know how Roman Catholic clergy in America are able to take part in the election of a pope. Our listener states that American citizens are not permitted to take part in foreign elections. He says they risk losing their passports and even their citizenship. The pope is leader of an independent city-state. So, Mister Corcoran asks, what happens to American cardinals if they vote for a pope? In our research, we found that United States law does not bar American citizens from voting in foreign elections. However, it is not wrong to say that they could lose their passports and citizenship. But that is unlikely. The main legal decision involving this issue is from nineteen-sixty-seven. The Supreme Court considered the case of a Polish-born American named Beys Afroyim. In nineteen-fifty, he voted in elections in Israel. The following year, the State Department refused to renew his passport. It said he was no longer an American citizen under the Nationality Act of nineteen-forty. That act said citizens of the United States shall lose their citizenship upon voting in a foreign political election. Mister Afroyim argued that this violated his rights under the Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed with him by a vote of five to four. The court decided that the government cannot withdraw citizenship; a citizen must be willing to surrender it. In nineteen-seventy-eight, Congress amended the Nationality Act to remove the part about elections. In any case, when Roman Catholic cardinals choose a pope, the election is not considered political. We talked to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington. He told us that the College of Cardinals elects the Supreme Pontiff as head of the church. The Constitution of the Holy See names the pope as head of the Vatican City State. Our listener also asks what would happen if an American were elected pope, and thus head of a foreign country. We will answer that next week. Evanescence HOST: "Evanescence" is a word that describes the slow disappearance of something like smoke or fog. But many people hope the music of the group Evanescence is here to stay. More from Phoebe Zimmermann. ANNCR: Evanescence won a Grammy Award this month as best new artists. They also won a Grammy for best hard rock performance for their first hit, “Bring Me to Life.” (MUSIC) Group founders Ben Moody and Amy Lee met as children in their hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. They wrote most of the songs on the album “Fallen.” They said the music was meant to let people know they are not alone in feeling pain and hurt. Here is "Tourniquet.” (MUSIC) Ben Moody appeared at the Grammys. But, a few months ago, he suddenly left the group during performances in Europe. Guitar player Terry Balsamo has replaced him. Will the sound of Evanescence change? No one knows. But the other members are planning to record another album later this year. We leave you with another song from “Fallen.” Amy Lee describes it as the one that best shows what Evanescence tries to sound like. It is called “Haunted.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! We'll send you a gift if we use your question. So be sure to include your name and postal address. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Andreas Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we have music from the Grammy-winning group Evanescence. And we answer a question about the rights of Americans to vote in foreign elections. But first, we tell about an event that happens every four years, and has nothing to do with voting. Leap Year HOST: Sunday is February twenty-ninth -- Leap Day. Shep O’Neal takes time now to explain why this is one of those years with an extra day in it. ANNCR: Everyone knows the Earth takes three-hundred-sixty-five days to travel around the sun. Well, that is not exactly correct. The Earth really takes three-hundred-sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun. The problem for people developing calendars is what to do with the extra five-hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds. People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays. The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution. They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years. The ancient Romans had a different solution. In the year forty-six, Julius Caesar made a new calendar. The ruler of Rome had help from the astronomer Sosigenes. The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years. But there was a problem. The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle of the seasons. So, over the next few hundred years, the seasons moved slowly backward on the calendar. In fifteen-eighty-two, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better record of the days. Pope Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe. He decided that years that can be divided by four would add a day. However, years that end in two zeros that cannot be divided by four-hundred would not have a leap year. Hmm ... a little confusing. For example, seventeen-hundred, eighteen-hundred, nineteen-hundred and twenty-one hundred are not leap years. But sixteen-hundred, two-thousand and two-thousand-four-hundred are leap years. The Gregorian calendar is widely followed today. The calendar is good. But ... every three-thousand years or so it loses a day. Well, we don’t know anyone who really cares! Electing a Pope HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Dalby, Sweden. Thomas Corcoran wants to know how Roman Catholic clergy in America are able to take part in the election of a pope. Our listener states that American citizens are not permitted to take part in foreign elections. He says they risk losing their passports and even their citizenship. The pope is leader of an independent city-state. So, Mister Corcoran asks, what happens to American cardinals if they vote for a pope? In our research, we found that United States law does not bar American citizens from voting in foreign elections. However, it is not wrong to say that they could lose their passports and citizenship. But that is unlikely. The main legal decision involving this issue is from nineteen-sixty-seven. The Supreme Court considered the case of a Polish-born American named Beys Afroyim. In nineteen-fifty, he voted in elections in Israel. The following year, the State Department refused to renew his passport. It said he was no longer an American citizen under the Nationality Act of nineteen-forty. That act said citizens of the United States shall lose their citizenship upon voting in a foreign political election. Mister Afroyim argued that this violated his rights under the Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed with him by a vote of five to four. The court decided that the government cannot withdraw citizenship; a citizen must be willing to surrender it. In nineteen-seventy-eight, Congress amended the Nationality Act to remove the part about elections. In any case, when Roman Catholic cardinals choose a pope, the election is not considered political. We talked to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington. He told us that the College of Cardinals elects the Supreme Pontiff as head of the church. The Constitution of the Holy See names the pope as head of the Vatican City State. Our listener also asks what would happen if an American were elected pope, and thus head of a foreign country. We will answer that next week. Evanescence HOST: "Evanescence" is a word that describes the slow disappearance of something like smoke or fog. But many people hope the music of the group Evanescence is here to stay. More from Phoebe Zimmermann. ANNCR: Evanescence won a Grammy Award this month as best new artists. They also won a Grammy for best hard rock performance for their first hit, “Bring Me to Life.” (MUSIC) Group founders Ben Moody and Amy Lee met as children in their hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. They wrote most of the songs on the album “Fallen.” They said the music was meant to let people know they are not alone in feeling pain and hurt. Here is "Tourniquet.” (MUSIC) Ben Moody appeared at the Grammys. But, a few months ago, he suddenly left the group during performances in Europe. Guitar player Terry Balsamo has replaced him. Will the sound of Evanescence change? No one knows. But the other members are planning to record another album later this year. We leave you with another song from “Fallen.” Amy Lee describes it as the one that best shows what Evanescence tries to sound like. It is called “Haunted.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! We'll send you a gift if we use your question. So be sure to include your name and postal address. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Andreas Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Wal-Mart
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 27, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Discount stores sell goods at low prices. They succeed only if they sell a lot of goods and keep their costs low. One company has succeeded beyond imagination. Wal-Mart is bigger than any competitor. It has more than four-thousand stores in the United States and nine other countries. It has more than one-million workers. It is America's largest private employer. Wal-Mart reported sales of almost two-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars last year. And profits? The company reported earnings of nine-thousand-million dollars last year. Sam Walton recognized the power of low prices. He owned fifteen stores in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma before he began Wal-Mart. Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart store in nineteen-sixty-two. He began to use computers to control the flow of goods. He reduced prices to levels no one thought possible. By nineteen-eighty-five, Sam Walton was the richest man in America. He added businesses like Sam's Club membership stores. And he opened more Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Marts are big stores. They sell just about anything. Wal-Mart Supercenters are even bigger. They include a market full of food. Other food stores are worried. So are labor unions in that industry. To keep labor costs low, Wal-Mart has worked hard to prevent its employees from joining a union. The company has faced legal actions over some of its employment activities. And, last October, federal immigration agents raided sixty Wal-Mart stores. They arrested more than two-hundred night cleaning workers who were in the country illegally. Wal-Mart noted that an independent company employed them. But labor is not the only issue. Recently, the Los Angeles City Council began to consider a possible ban on huge stores like Wal-Mart Supercenters. Critics say Wal-Marts ruin small businesses and replace them with low-paying jobs. Wal-Mart denies this happens. It says people save money which they can spend on other things. Sam Walton died in nineteen-ninety-two. He urged people to buy American products to save jobs and to control the trade deficit. Today many goods are made in China. Wal-Mart says it believes in buying American goods and is willing to pay more to offer them. But, it says, it cannot tell people what to buy. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 26, 2004 - Adjectives
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 26, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- telling less, and showing more. RS: Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns. But here's how a lot of writers and writing teachers describe adjectives: in a word, overused. Back in the seventeen hundreds, the French writer Voltaire called adjectives "the enemy of the noun." AA: So notes University of Delaware English Professor Ben Yagoda. He wrote an essay about adjectives in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. YAGODA: "It would be impossible to communicate without them, although people like Hemingway seemed to have tried. There's a certain class of adjectives, which are absolutely necessary. So if someone says which hat do you want -- you say, well, I want that red one. The word red is the way you indicate which one you want. So no one would ever suggest that adjectives should be abolished. "I guess the problem comes in for people like Voltaire -- and also Mark Twain had a famous quote that said 'when you catch an adjective, kill it.' William Zinsser, an authority on writing said that 'most adjectives are unnecessary.' But I think the main problem that comes up is that people use adjectives sometimes -- especially beginning writers -- to do the work of nouns and verbs." RS: Ben Yagoda says it's better to let details speak for themselves. "If you're describing someone and say that she is a 'beautiful woman,' that word beautiful is the adjective. It's a hackneyed, tired word, almost on the level of a cliche, and if I had a student in my class who wrote that in a sentence, I would say no, you have to do better than that. Tell me that when she walked in the room, the jaw of every man in the room dropped -- the idea being to show, not tell." AA: "Well, you just took the words out of my mouth. I was going to say that my wife is a schoolteacher, and she always talks about how she teaches her students, or tries to get them to ‘show, not tell.’ What are some tips or some ideas for the appropriate use of adjectives?" YAGODA: "I would say, number one, would be to be sparing. The analogy, I would say, is with cooking and spices. You could say that the nouns and the verbs are the meat or the stew, and the adjectives and adverbs are the seasoning. So without them the stew would be very bland and dull indeed. But if you use too many spices, too much spice, they drown each other out. So just the right two or three words in the course of, you know, a passage of several paragraphs that are really well-chosen and not hackneyed and tired words like beautiful." RS: At the other extreme, some writers choose adjectives that send readers to their dictionary. Professor Ben Yagoda says obscure words have a place in good writing, but not always. "Use one of those words if there's no other word that can express that meaning. In other words, if you think something is funny, write the word 'funny,' not the word risible -- R-I-S-I-B-L-E, which basically means funny. And it doesn't add anything to it except the sense that the writer is trying to show off and show how smart they are. "Sometimes a word is the right word to choose maybe not only because of its meaning but because of the sound. One of the examples of great use of adjectives is one of the most famous quotations of all time, from Thomas Hobbes, the political philosopher, from his book 'Leviathan'. And he referred to life of man in the state of nature, and he called it 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.' "All of those words are very plain words but they are not cliches like beautiful. They are words that are well-chosen, they're simple, and the rhythm of that sentence has a certain inevitability to it in terms of the number of syllables and the sound of the words that really makes it one of the great quotations of all time." AA: "So use adjectives carefully, use them sparingly, don't shoot for obscure ones unless you really know what you're doing. These sound like some of the tips you're giving." YAGODA: "I think those, those -- yeah, now that you've paraphrased them, I think I'm a smarter guy than I thought I was before. Those sound like good tips." RS: And Ben Yagoda has one more piece of advice. Read, he says. Reading not only increases vocabulary, but also gives the reader a better sense of words and what they can do. AA: His book "The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing" is coming out in June. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And you'll find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast: February 26, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- telling less, and showing more. RS: Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns. But here's how a lot of writers and writing teachers describe adjectives: in a word, overused. Back in the seventeen hundreds, the French writer Voltaire called adjectives "the enemy of the noun." AA: So notes University of Delaware English Professor Ben Yagoda. He wrote an essay about adjectives in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. YAGODA: "It would be impossible to communicate without them, although people like Hemingway seemed to have tried. There's a certain class of adjectives, which are absolutely necessary. So if someone says which hat do you want -- you say, well, I want that red one. The word red is the way you indicate which one you want. So no one would ever suggest that adjectives should be abolished. "I guess the problem comes in for people like Voltaire -- and also Mark Twain had a famous quote that said 'when you catch an adjective, kill it.' William Zinsser, an authority on writing said that 'most adjectives are unnecessary.' But I think the main problem that comes up is that people use adjectives sometimes -- especially beginning writers -- to do the work of nouns and verbs." RS: Ben Yagoda says it's better to let details speak for themselves. "If you're describing someone and say that she is a 'beautiful woman,' that word beautiful is the adjective. It's a hackneyed, tired word, almost on the level of a cliche, and if I had a student in my class who wrote that in a sentence, I would say no, you have to do better than that. Tell me that when she walked in the room, the jaw of every man in the room dropped -- the idea being to show, not tell." AA: "Well, you just took the words out of my mouth. I was going to say that my wife is a schoolteacher, and she always talks about how she teaches her students, or tries to get them to ‘show, not tell.’ What are some tips or some ideas for the appropriate use of adjectives?" YAGODA: "I would say, number one, would be to be sparing. The analogy, I would say, is with cooking and spices. You could say that the nouns and the verbs are the meat or the stew, and the adjectives and adverbs are the seasoning. So without them the stew would be very bland and dull indeed. But if you use too many spices, too much spice, they drown each other out. So just the right two or three words in the course of, you know, a passage of several paragraphs that are really well-chosen and not hackneyed and tired words like beautiful." RS: At the other extreme, some writers choose adjectives that send readers to their dictionary. Professor Ben Yagoda says obscure words have a place in good writing, but not always. "Use one of those words if there's no other word that can express that meaning. In other words, if you think something is funny, write the word 'funny,' not the word risible -- R-I-S-I-B-L-E, which basically means funny. And it doesn't add anything to it except the sense that the writer is trying to show off and show how smart they are. "Sometimes a word is the right word to choose maybe not only because of its meaning but because of the sound. One of the examples of great use of adjectives is one of the most famous quotations of all time, from Thomas Hobbes, the political philosopher, from his book 'Leviathan'. And he referred to life of man in the state of nature, and he called it 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.' "All of those words are very plain words but they are not cliches like beautiful. They are words that are well-chosen, they're simple, and the rhythm of that sentence has a certain inevitability to it in terms of the number of syllables and the sound of the words that really makes it one of the great quotations of all time." AA: "So use adjectives carefully, use them sparingly, don't shoot for obscure ones unless you really know what you're doing. These sound like some of the tips you're giving." YAGODA: "I think those, those -- yeah, now that you've paraphrased them, I think I'm a smarter guy than I thought I was before. Those sound like good tips." RS: And Ben Yagoda has one more piece of advice. Read, he says. Reading not only increases vocabulary, but also gives the reader a better sense of words and what they can do. AA: His book "The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing" is coming out in June. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And you'll find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Bush Supports Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 28, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. President Bush this week urged Congress to pass an amendment to the United States Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. He said this is needed to stop what he called activist judges and local officials who want to redefine marriage. The president says all cultures and religions honor the union of a man and woman. He says changing this would weaken the influence of society. Amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress. Then it requires approval by at least thirty-eight of the fifty states. All this can take years, if it succeeds at all. Democratic opponents of an amendment say Mister Bush is trying to use the issue to help him win re-election. Not all Republicans support the idea of an amendment. Some say the issue should be decided by the states. But many conservatives had been urging Mister Bush to speak out on recent events. In November, the top court in Massachusetts ruled that a state ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The court ordered lawmakers to change the law so gays can marry. This has not happened yet. But the mayor of San Francisco recently began to permit homosexuals to marry at City Hall. California law bans same-sex marriage. The California attorney general is trying to defend that law by having the state Supreme Court rule on the actions in San Francisco. More than three-thousand same-sex weddings have been performed in San Francisco during the past two weeks. On Friday the mayor of a small college town in New York state also began to let same-sex couples marry. In Massachusetts, opponents tried to have gay marriages barred through an amendment to the state constitution. That effort failed, but it might be reconsidered in March. At least thirty-eight states have passed laws or amendments to bar recognition of gay marriages. President Bush says a constitutional amendment is needed to defend the nineteen-ninety-six Defense of Marriage Act. That federal law declares that marriage in the United States is the legal union between a man and a woman. It also gives the states the right not to honor same-sex marriage permits from other states. President Bill Clinton signed it into law. Public opinion research shows that most Americans oppose gay marriage. But the public appears more divided on the issue of what are called civil unions. Civil unions offer rights that are similar to those for husbands and wives. Vermont recognizes civil unions. A few other states also have laws that extend some rights to same-sex partners. President Bush says he supports protections like civil unions for same-sex couples, but not marriage itself. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: February 28, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. President Bush this week urged Congress to pass an amendment to the United States Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. He said this is needed to stop what he called activist judges and local officials who want to redefine marriage. The president says all cultures and religions honor the union of a man and woman. He says changing this would weaken the influence of society. Amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress. Then it requires approval by at least thirty-eight of the fifty states. All this can take years, if it succeeds at all. Democratic opponents of an amendment say Mister Bush is trying to use the issue to help him win re-election. Not all Republicans support the idea of an amendment. Some say the issue should be decided by the states. But many conservatives had been urging Mister Bush to speak out on recent events. In November, the top court in Massachusetts ruled that a state ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The court ordered lawmakers to change the law so gays can marry. This has not happened yet. But the mayor of San Francisco recently began to permit homosexuals to marry at City Hall. California law bans same-sex marriage. The California attorney general is trying to defend that law by having the state Supreme Court rule on the actions in San Francisco. More than three-thousand same-sex weddings have been performed in San Francisco during the past two weeks. On Friday the mayor of a small college town in New York state also began to let same-sex couples marry. In Massachusetts, opponents tried to have gay marriages barred through an amendment to the state constitution. That effort failed, but it might be reconsidered in March. At least thirty-eight states have passed laws or amendments to bar recognition of gay marriages. President Bush says a constitutional amendment is needed to defend the nineteen-ninety-six Defense of Marriage Act. That federal law declares that marriage in the United States is the legal union between a man and a woman. It also gives the states the right not to honor same-sex marriage permits from other states. President Bill Clinton signed it into law. Public opinion research shows that most Americans oppose gay marriage. But the public appears more divided on the issue of what are called civil unions. Civil unions offer rights that are similar to those for husbands and wives. Vermont recognizes civil unions. A few other states also have laws that extend some rights to same-sex partners. President Bush says he supports protections like civil unions for same-sex couples, but not marriage itself. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Walt Disney
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 29, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: February 29, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." It is from Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio." For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work. The song is about dreams ... and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture the imagination of children and adults all over the world. VOICE TWO: Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." It is from Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio." For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work. The song is about dreams ... and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture the imagination of children and adults all over the world. VOICE TWO: Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan. Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro-Disney in France. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois in Nineteen-Oh-One. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life. VOICE TWO: A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place. VOICE ONE: Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands. The artists called him "Mickey." Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie." Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It was a huge success. VOICE TWO: Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi." In Italy, he was "Topolino." In Latin America, he was "Raton Miquelito." Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was thefemale mouse called "Minnie." Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto. VOICE ONE: Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too. In the middle Nineteen-Thirties, he was working on his first long movie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." "Snow White" was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies. VOICE TWO: Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature. VOICE ONE: Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in Nineteen-Forty with the movie "Pinocchio." The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy. Disney 's artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make "Pinocchio." The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects. "Pinocchio" was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty." These movies are still popular today. VOICE TWO: In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings. Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evil forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland." He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places...as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future. Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands. VOICE TWO: Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture. But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world. Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, after Disney's death. The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America. Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro-Disney in France. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois in Nineteen-Oh-One. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life. VOICE TWO: A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place. VOICE ONE: Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands. The artists called him "Mickey." Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie." Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It was a huge success. VOICE TWO: Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi." In Italy, he was "Topolino." In Latin America, he was "Raton Miquelito." Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was thefemale mouse called "Minnie." Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto. VOICE ONE: Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too. In the middle Nineteen-Thirties, he was working on his first long movie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." "Snow White" was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies. VOICE TWO: Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature. VOICE ONE: Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in Nineteen-Forty with the movie "Pinocchio." The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy. Disney 's artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make "Pinocchio." The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects. "Pinocchio" was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty." These movies are still popular today. VOICE TWO: In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings. Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evil forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland." He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places...as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future. Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands. VOICE TWO: Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture. But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world. Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, after Disney's death. The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – New Cervical Cancer Test for Developing Countries
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 1, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Researchers say more than two-hundred-thousand women a year die from cervical cancer. These deaths are most common in developing countries. The main cause of cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus, or H-P-V. This is a common virus that men or women can give each other through sex. H-P-V may go away. But if it remains in the body, it greatly increases the chances of cervical cancer. The cervix is part of the female reproductive system. It is the opening at the end of the uterus. Cervical cancers develop slowly, usually over a period of ten or twenty years. There are tests that can find the disease early enough to save a woman's life. A common test is called a Pap smear. Laboratory workers examine cells under a microscope. But many national health systems do not have money for these tests. In other cases, there might be cultural issues. As a result, more than eighty percent of women who die from cervical cancer are in poor nations. Now a company in the United States says it plans to create a new test for cervical cancer in developing countries. The biotechnology company Digene says it expects research and development to take up to five years. The test will be based on Digene technology already approved for use in laboratories in the United States and Europe. This technology uses computers to examine the genetic material in cells. The goal is a test that is fast and low cost, has ease of use and is culturally acceptable. Women themselves might even be able to collect the cells during their visit to a doctor. The company says the aim is to collect cells and get the test results during the same visit. If pre-cancerous cells are found, health workers may then freeze them to kill them. If cancer is found, doctors may order radiation or other treatments. Digene notes that cervical cancer is now considered one of the most preventable cancers in rich nations. But it is a leading cause of cancer deaths among women in South and Central America, Africa and Southeast Asia. A non-profit group in Seattle, Washington, called PATH will give more than two-million dollars to the Digene project. PATH is Program for Appropriate Technology in Health. The money is from a program paid for by a thirteen-million dollar gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-02/a-2004-02-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Unusual Museums
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 1, 2004 (THEME) Lucy Desi Museum Broadcast: March 1, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Come along with us this week as we visit some unusual museums in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A nineteen-sixteen Packard funeral bus. The Mercedes that carried the body of Princess Grace of Monaco in nineteen-eighty-two. A copy of the sarcophagus container that held the body of King Tutankhamen of Egypt. These are some of what visitors find at the National Museum of Funeral History, near Houston, Texas. Some people like traditional collections of artwork and other objects in a museum. Millions visit the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., for example. But other people like smaller museums that collect one kind of object. Museum goers can learn about funerals, foods, the lives of actors, the history of radio ... even teeth. VOICE TWO: Most people would not consider a visit to a dentist their idea of a good time. But the Doctor Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry does not drill or pull teeth. Instead, it just tells about them. The museum is at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The first college to train dentists began there. A man named G.V. Black helped launch the profession in the eighteen-hundreds. When Doctor Black treated patients, he had no electric light. Most dental offices in those early times had big windows instead. Chairs for patients faced south to help dentists work by sunlight. Looking at devices once used to remove infected teeth should pleases visitors. They should be happy that dentists no longer use them. VOICE ONE: One set of false teeth in the museum is of special interest. It is made of animal bone. America’s first president, George Washington, wore these false teeth. They look as though they might have hurt. The museum also has a huge toothbrush in an exhibit called “Plaque Attackers.” Visitors can use the toothbrush on a huge mouth. The mouth shows how plaque bacteria can damage the teeth. Children learn how to keep their teeth clean. VOICE TWO: Another museum collects devices that help people hear. Some are old, and some are new. The Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum is at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The museum has more than three-thousand hearing aids from around the world. Some hearing aids were designed to look like other objects. These devices were for people who did not want anyone to know they were wearing a hearing aid. Here is how this museum got started. In nineteen-sixty-six, a professor at Kent State answered some questions for a publication now called Hearing Journal. Professor Kenneth Berger told the editor that he would like to show some hearing aids in the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the school. But the published story said he wanted a museum of hearing aids. VOICE ONE: Soon Professor Berger began to receive old hearing aids. They arrived from all over the United States and from other countries. A man in Massachusetts sent more than five-hundred hearing aids. Professor Berger and his wife kept the growing collection in their home. Then, enough space opened at the university for his collection to become a real museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some popular foods in America also have their own museum. One is the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, New York. Some Jell-O products taste like fruit. They come in colors like red, orange, yellow or green. You add water to make it from powder. Then you cool the liquid gelatin until it becomes solid. People like to watch how it shakes when moved. Jell-O was invented in eighteen-ninety-seven. This museum tells about the history of the product. VOICE ONE: Another museum also tells about a popular food product -- mustard. This museum is in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Mustard is a spicy substance made from mustard seeds. People have added it to their food for centuries. It tastes good on some meats and on bread. The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum has more than three-thousand kinds of mustard. These come from almost every one of the fifty states and several other countries. The museum shows how mustard is made. Visitors can taste three-hundred kinds of mustard. But it is probably not a good idea to try them all at once. VOICE TWO: A museum in Boston, Massachusetts, collects another common substance, but not one you would want to eat. This place is called the Museum of Dirt. It has hundreds of small containers of soil, sand and other dirt. People have given the museum dirt from around the world. For example, the museum has dirt from Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. There is red sand from Nome, Alaska, containing gold. There is also dirt from Mount Fuji in Japan. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Some museum collections are about the lives of famous people. A museum in Branson, Missouri, honors Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans. Roy Rogers was called the “King of the Cowboys.” He appeared in cowboy movies beginning in the nineteen-thirties. He later appeared on television. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans entertained people for more than a half a century. People in movies were not supposed to kiss when these two first appeared on film. So Roy kissed his horse. The museum is full of memories of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. There are western hats and clothing. Photographs. Letters and recordings. A statue of Roy Rogers' horse, Trigger, stands outside the museum. Inside the museum are mounted versions of Trigger, Dale Evans’ horse Buttermilk and their dog Bullet, a German shepherd. They were among the most famous animals ever to appear in Hollywood movies. VOICE TWO: Another museum honors the memory of two other entertainers, Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz. The Lucy-Desi Museum is in Jamestown, New York. That was her hometown. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared in one of America’s best-loved television programs, "I Love Lucy." Millions of people watched the show during the nineteen-fifties. Even today, millions watch repeats of "I Love Lucy." The museum includes clothing and other belongings of this famous Hollywood couple. VOICE ONE: Still another museum claims the world's largest collection of objects about the actor James Dean. The James Dean Gallery is in Fairmount, Indiana, the town where he grew up. James Dean was a film star in the nineteen-fifties. He appeared in only three movies: "East of Eden," "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Each time, he played a young man angry at the world. A man named David Loehr started the museum twelve years ago to honor the actor. The image and memory of James Dean as a rebel against society remains strong long after his death. James Dean was killed in a car crash in nineteen-fifty-five. He was twenty-four years old. VOICE TWO: From movies, we turn to radio. The development of this medium is the subject of a museum in Bedford, New Hampshire. It is called the United States National Marconi Museum. Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor and engineer. He sent the first wireless telegraph message over the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-oh-one. The signal reached from Cornwall, England, to Saint John’s, Canada. VOICE ONE: Visitors to the Marconi Museum learn about early wireless equipment. This invention more than proved its value at sea. In nineteen-oh–nine, it saved many lives from a sinking ship, the Republic. In nineteen-twelve, the crew of the Titanic appealed for help after that ship struck an iceberg. Visitors can discover how radios have changed over the years. One set from the nineteen-thirties, for example, is tall and wide. Modern children may be surprised to see no picture screen. But in the nineteen thirties radios could tell wonderful stories. They still can. (THEME) VOICE TWO: THIS IS AMERICA was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Come along with us this week as we visit some unusual museums in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A nineteen-sixteen Packard funeral bus. The Mercedes that carried the body of Princess Grace of Monaco in nineteen-eighty-two. A copy of the sarcophagus container that held the body of King Tutankhamen of Egypt. These are some of what visitors find at the National Museum of Funeral History, near Houston, Texas. Some people like traditional collections of artwork and other objects in a museum. Millions visit the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., for example. But other people like smaller museums that collect one kind of object. Museum goers can learn about funerals, foods, the lives of actors, the history of radio ... even teeth. VOICE TWO: Most people would not consider a visit to a dentist their idea of a good time. But the Doctor Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry does not drill or pull teeth. Instead, it just tells about them. The museum is at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The first college to train dentists began there. A man named G.V. Black helped launch the profession in the eighteen-hundreds. When Doctor Black treated patients, he had no electric light. Most dental offices in those early times had big windows instead. Chairs for patients faced south to help dentists work by sunlight. Looking at devices once used to remove infected teeth should pleases visitors. They should be happy that dentists no longer use them. VOICE ONE: One set of false teeth in the museum is of special interest. It is made of animal bone. America’s first president, George Washington, wore these false teeth. They look as though they might have hurt. The museum also has a huge toothbrush in an exhibit called “Plaque Attackers.” Visitors can use the toothbrush on a huge mouth. The mouth shows how plaque bacteria can damage the teeth. Children learn how to keep their teeth clean. VOICE TWO: Another museum collects devices that help people hear. Some are old, and some are new. The Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum is at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The museum has more than three-thousand hearing aids from around the world. Some hearing aids were designed to look like other objects. These devices were for people who did not want anyone to know they were wearing a hearing aid. Here is how this museum got started. In nineteen-sixty-six, a professor at Kent State answered some questions for a publication now called Hearing Journal. Professor Kenneth Berger told the editor that he would like to show some hearing aids in the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the school. But the published story said he wanted a museum of hearing aids. VOICE ONE: Soon Professor Berger began to receive old hearing aids. They arrived from all over the United States and from other countries. A man in Massachusetts sent more than five-hundred hearing aids. Professor Berger and his wife kept the growing collection in their home. Then, enough space opened at the university for his collection to become a real museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some popular foods in America also have their own museum. One is the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, New York. Some Jell-O products taste like fruit. They come in colors like red, orange, yellow or green. You add water to make it from powder. Then you cool the liquid gelatin until it becomes solid. People like to watch how it shakes when moved. Jell-O was invented in eighteen-ninety-seven. This museum tells about the history of the product. VOICE ONE: Another museum also tells about a popular food product -- mustard. This museum is in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Mustard is a spicy substance made from mustard seeds. People have added it to their food for centuries. It tastes good on some meats and on bread. The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum has more than three-thousand kinds of mustard. These come from almost every one of the fifty states and several other countries. The museum shows how mustard is made. Visitors can taste three-hundred kinds of mustard. But it is probably not a good idea to try them all at once. VOICE TWO: A museum in Boston, Massachusetts, collects another common substance, but not one you would want to eat. This place is called the Museum of Dirt. It has hundreds of small containers of soil, sand and other dirt. People have given the museum dirt from around the world. For example, the museum has dirt from Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. There is red sand from Nome, Alaska, containing gold. There is also dirt from Mount Fuji in Japan. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Some museum collections are about the lives of famous people. A museum in Branson, Missouri, honors Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans. Roy Rogers was called the “King of the Cowboys.” He appeared in cowboy movies beginning in the nineteen-thirties. He later appeared on television. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans entertained people for more than a half a century. People in movies were not supposed to kiss when these two first appeared on film. So Roy kissed his horse. The museum is full of memories of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. There are western hats and clothing. Photographs. Letters and recordings. A statue of Roy Rogers' horse, Trigger, stands outside the museum. Inside the museum are mounted versions of Trigger, Dale Evans’ horse Buttermilk and their dog Bullet, a German shepherd. They were among the most famous animals ever to appear in Hollywood movies. VOICE TWO: Another museum honors the memory of two other entertainers, Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz. The Lucy-Desi Museum is in Jamestown, New York. That was her hometown. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared in one of America’s best-loved television programs, "I Love Lucy." Millions of people watched the show during the nineteen-fifties. Even today, millions watch repeats of "I Love Lucy." The museum includes clothing and other belongings of this famous Hollywood couple. VOICE ONE: Still another museum claims the world's largest collection of objects about the actor James Dean. The James Dean Gallery is in Fairmount, Indiana, the town where he grew up. James Dean was a film star in the nineteen-fifties. He appeared in only three movies: "East of Eden," "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Each time, he played a young man angry at the world. A man named David Loehr started the museum twelve years ago to honor the actor. The image and memory of James Dean as a rebel against society remains strong long after his death. James Dean was killed in a car crash in nineteen-fifty-five. He was twenty-four years old. VOICE TWO: From movies, we turn to radio. The development of this medium is the subject of a museum in Bedford, New Hampshire. It is called the United States National Marconi Museum. Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor and engineer. He sent the first wireless telegraph message over the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-oh-one. The signal reached from Cornwall, England, to Saint John’s, Canada. VOICE ONE: Visitors to the Marconi Museum learn about early wireless equipment. This invention more than proved its value at sea. In nineteen-oh–nine, it saved many lives from a sinking ship, the Republic. In nineteen-twelve, the crew of the Titanic appealed for help after that ship struck an iceberg. Visitors can discover how radios have changed over the years. One set from the nineteen-thirties, for example, is tall and wide. Modern children may be surprised to see no picture screen. But in the nineteen thirties radios could tell wonderful stories. They still can. (THEME) VOICE TWO: THIS IS AMERICA was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Polio Vaccine Ban in Parts of Nigeria / Stronger Food Safety Laws Urged for India / Two More Elements?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 2, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: Some local leaders in Nigeria continue to resist the fight against polio ... VOICE ONE: Indian lawmakers call for stronger safety rules for food and drink. VOICE TWO: And, chemistry students may get two more elements to learn. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Last week, the World Health Organization led a three-day campaign against the spread of polio in Africa. The goal was to vaccinate sixty-three-million children in ten countries in west and central Africa. The World Health Organization is trying to end the spread of polio anywhere in the world this year. Recently, however, there have been more cases in Nigeria and India. In Nigeria, Islamic leaders in several northern states have banned the vaccine that prevents polio. Leaders in Kano and the other states say the vaccine is unsafe. They say the medicine contains chemicals that give people AIDS or prevent females from having babies. They say it is part of an American plot. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization and the Nigerian government have done tests. Health officials say the vaccine is completely safe. They also asked Islamic leaders to help test the vaccine. Recently the Nigerian government appointed a committee to gather the facts. Last week the chairman said the committee was still waiting for the results of a test performed in India. He said the committee does not expect to release its final report to the public until early March. VOICE TWO: The ten countries in the vaccination campaign last week included Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad and Cameroon. The others were Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Togo and Nigeria. Also last week, the W-H-O reported a case of polio in Ivory Coast. The agency said Ivory Coast could be the eighth polio-free country re-infected because of the spreading virus from northern Nigeria. The disease causes paralysis. Victims lose the use of their arms or legs. The "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign began in nineteen-ninety-six. The W-H-O says two-hundred-five children each day were becoming paralyzed. By last year, however, just three-hundred-eighty-eight cases of polio were reported in Africa. That was almost half of all the new cases of polio in the world. The international goal is to defeat polio by the end of this year. Health officials say that may be impossible if the bans on the vaccine continue in northern Nigeria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Indian lawmakers have confirmed that Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinks made in India contain pesticides. These poisons are used to kill insects on farms and in homes, but they can enter water supplies. The investigation showed that the pesticides came from the groundwater used in the drinks. The lawmakers said the problem is that India's food safety rules do not prevent this kind of situation. The committee reported tests on twelve kinds of soda drinks made by the Coca-Cola and Pepsi companies. The report said the tests found high levels of four pesticides. The companies say the drinks they make in India are safe and follow internationally accepted methods of production. Coke and Pepsi products are reported to control about eighty percent of the Indian soda market. Coca-Cola says it had twenty-two percent growth in India last year. VOICE TWO: The lawmakers began to investigate after an Indian public interest group reported about the pesticides. The Center for Science and Environment carried out the first tests. Its researchers used three bottles of each of the twelve kinds of sodas. They bought the drinks from different stores around New Delhi. The group says its laboratory workers tested all the drinks for sixteen kinds of pesticides. The researchers said they found one pesticide, lindane, in all the drinks tested. Lindane can be highly dangerous to humans. VOICE ONE: The researchers say most of the tested drinks also contained DDT. This pesticide is banned in the United States and some other countries. It can affect the central nervous system and cause problems during pregnancy. The United States Environmental Protection Agency says DDT is also believed to cause cancer. However, DDT remains popular in India to kill mosquitoes. The researchers said PepsiCo and Coca-Cola need better technology to remove poisons from the groundwater they use. However, the parliamentary investigators noted that neither company violated any Indian laws. The lawmakers say it is the laws that have to change. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All matter in the world is made of elements. Oxygen, for example, is the most common element on Earth. Elements are substances that cannot be separated into simpler substances by chemical methods. However, scientists can use nuclear reactions or radioactive decay to produce new elements. The goal is to find new materials and new ways to do chemistry. Russian and American scientists recently announced the discovery of two new chemical elements. Their findings appear in the magazine Physical Review C. VOICE ONE: Each element has a different number of protons in its nucleus. Protons are particles with a positive electrical charge. How many protons an element has establishes its place on the periodic table. This is the list of all the elements. Hydrogen, for example, is element number one. It has only one proton. It is the lightest gas known. Uranium is the heaviest element in nature. It has ninety-two protons. Elements with more than ninety-two protons are called superheavy elements. The two new elements are to appear as numbers one-hundred-thirteen and one-hundred-fifteen on the periodic table. VOICE TWO: The Russian scientists are from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. They worked with researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The two teams shot electrically charged protons of calcium at a target. This target was enriched americium. Americium is a radioactive metal. Very small amounts are commonly used in smoke detector devices. The scientists reported that a series of reactions created four atoms found in element one-hundred-fifteen. They say the atoms existed for ninety milliseconds. A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second. Then the atoms decayed into the other new element, with one-hundred-thirteen protons. The scientists say it remained this way for more than a second. Then it changed into known elements. VOICE ONE: The length of time that a nucleus can exist is very important. It is a measure of stability. Atoms that are forced together usually break apart quickly if the combined nucleus has more than ninety-two protons. For years researchers have been looking for what they call an “island of stability” on the periodic table. They believe that a nucleus with about one-hundred-fourteen protons may be able to exist for a long time. The two new elements have been named ununtrium and ununpentium. These are temporary names. The scientists will be able to choose others. VOICE TWO: But first the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry must confirm their discovery. Two years ago, a scientist in the United States provided false evidence about the discovery of element one-hundred-eighteen. Other laboratories must be able to reproduce findings of new elements. There are also rules about names. An element can be named after a mythological idea, a mineral, a place or country, a property, or a scientist. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It appears that insects existed on Earth twenty-million years earlier than thought. In fact, a new finding suggests that insects were among the first creatures on land. Two scientists from the United States have reported the discovery of a four-hundred-million-year-old insect. It was found in Scotland almost eighty years ago. But there was little interest until the two scientists rediscovered the fossil in a London museum. Next week, we will have more details about their findings. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: March 2, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: Some local leaders in Nigeria continue to resist the fight against polio ... VOICE ONE: Indian lawmakers call for stronger safety rules for food and drink. VOICE TWO: And, chemistry students may get two more elements to learn. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Last week, the World Health Organization led a three-day campaign against the spread of polio in Africa. The goal was to vaccinate sixty-three-million children in ten countries in west and central Africa. The World Health Organization is trying to end the spread of polio anywhere in the world this year. Recently, however, there have been more cases in Nigeria and India. In Nigeria, Islamic leaders in several northern states have banned the vaccine that prevents polio. Leaders in Kano and the other states say the vaccine is unsafe. They say the medicine contains chemicals that give people AIDS or prevent females from having babies. They say it is part of an American plot. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization and the Nigerian government have done tests. Health officials say the vaccine is completely safe. They also asked Islamic leaders to help test the vaccine. Recently the Nigerian government appointed a committee to gather the facts. Last week the chairman said the committee was still waiting for the results of a test performed in India. He said the committee does not expect to release its final report to the public until early March. VOICE TWO: The ten countries in the vaccination campaign last week included Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad and Cameroon. The others were Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Togo and Nigeria. Also last week, the W-H-O reported a case of polio in Ivory Coast. The agency said Ivory Coast could be the eighth polio-free country re-infected because of the spreading virus from northern Nigeria. The disease causes paralysis. Victims lose the use of their arms or legs. The "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign began in nineteen-ninety-six. The W-H-O says two-hundred-five children each day were becoming paralyzed. By last year, however, just three-hundred-eighty-eight cases of polio were reported in Africa. That was almost half of all the new cases of polio in the world. The international goal is to defeat polio by the end of this year. Health officials say that may be impossible if the bans on the vaccine continue in northern Nigeria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Indian lawmakers have confirmed that Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinks made in India contain pesticides. These poisons are used to kill insects on farms and in homes, but they can enter water supplies. The investigation showed that the pesticides came from the groundwater used in the drinks. The lawmakers said the problem is that India's food safety rules do not prevent this kind of situation. The committee reported tests on twelve kinds of soda drinks made by the Coca-Cola and Pepsi companies. The report said the tests found high levels of four pesticides. The companies say the drinks they make in India are safe and follow internationally accepted methods of production. Coke and Pepsi products are reported to control about eighty percent of the Indian soda market. Coca-Cola says it had twenty-two percent growth in India last year. VOICE TWO: The lawmakers began to investigate after an Indian public interest group reported about the pesticides. The Center for Science and Environment carried out the first tests. Its researchers used three bottles of each of the twelve kinds of sodas. They bought the drinks from different stores around New Delhi. The group says its laboratory workers tested all the drinks for sixteen kinds of pesticides. The researchers said they found one pesticide, lindane, in all the drinks tested. Lindane can be highly dangerous to humans. VOICE ONE: The researchers say most of the tested drinks also contained DDT. This pesticide is banned in the United States and some other countries. It can affect the central nervous system and cause problems during pregnancy. The United States Environmental Protection Agency says DDT is also believed to cause cancer. However, DDT remains popular in India to kill mosquitoes. The researchers said PepsiCo and Coca-Cola need better technology to remove poisons from the groundwater they use. However, the parliamentary investigators noted that neither company violated any Indian laws. The lawmakers say it is the laws that have to change. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All matter in the world is made of elements. Oxygen, for example, is the most common element on Earth. Elements are substances that cannot be separated into simpler substances by chemical methods. However, scientists can use nuclear reactions or radioactive decay to produce new elements. The goal is to find new materials and new ways to do chemistry. Russian and American scientists recently announced the discovery of two new chemical elements. Their findings appear in the magazine Physical Review C. VOICE ONE: Each element has a different number of protons in its nucleus. Protons are particles with a positive electrical charge. How many protons an element has establishes its place on the periodic table. This is the list of all the elements. Hydrogen, for example, is element number one. It has only one proton. It is the lightest gas known. Uranium is the heaviest element in nature. It has ninety-two protons. Elements with more than ninety-two protons are called superheavy elements. The two new elements are to appear as numbers one-hundred-thirteen and one-hundred-fifteen on the periodic table. VOICE TWO: The Russian scientists are from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. They worked with researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The two teams shot electrically charged protons of calcium at a target. This target was enriched americium. Americium is a radioactive metal. Very small amounts are commonly used in smoke detector devices. The scientists reported that a series of reactions created four atoms found in element one-hundred-fifteen. They say the atoms existed for ninety milliseconds. A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second. Then the atoms decayed into the other new element, with one-hundred-thirteen protons. The scientists say it remained this way for more than a second. Then it changed into known elements. VOICE ONE: The length of time that a nucleus can exist is very important. It is a measure of stability. Atoms that are forced together usually break apart quickly if the combined nucleus has more than ninety-two protons. For years researchers have been looking for what they call an “island of stability” on the periodic table. They believe that a nucleus with about one-hundred-fourteen protons may be able to exist for a long time. The two new elements have been named ununtrium and ununpentium. These are temporary names. The scientists will be able to choose others. VOICE TWO: But first the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry must confirm their discovery. Two years ago, a scientist in the United States provided false evidence about the discovery of element one-hundred-eighteen. Other laboratories must be able to reproduce findings of new elements. There are also rules about names. An element can be named after a mythological idea, a mineral, a place or country, a property, or a scientist. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It appears that insects existed on Earth twenty-million years earlier than thought. In fact, a new finding suggests that insects were among the first creatures on land. Two scientists from the United States have reported the discovery of a four-hundred-million-year-old insect. It was found in Scotland almost eighty years ago. But there was little interest until the two scientists rediscovered the fossil in a London museum. Next week, we will have more details about their findings. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Controlling Fruit Flies in Hawaii
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 2, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Fruit flies can damage four-hundred kinds of crops. These insects lay eggs not just in fruit but also vegetables and nuts. The young eat the produce, making it unusable. A female can lay a thousand eggs in her short lifetime. One of the most destructive kinds of fruit flies is the Mediterranean fruit fly. California, for example, has spent almost thirty years fighting to keep the medfly out of the state. Even islands far out at sea are not protected. The state of Hawaii has a history of problems with imported pests. The medfly came to Hawaii in the early nineteen-hundreds. Since then, three more kinds of fruit fly pests have arrived. The Agricultural Research Service of the Department of Agriculture has a team to deal with the problem. The United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center is located in Hilo, Hawaii. The center has designed a program that aims to keep damage below an economically important level. Lost markets now cost Hawaiian growers an estimated three-hundred-million dollars a year. Roger Vargas is an expert on insects. He started what is called the Hawaii Area-Wide Fruit Fly Integrated Pest Management program. The team says this program is showing success after three years. Past campaigns tried to kill all the fruit flies. The new program attacks the problem through a series of steps. One is to stop fruit fly reproduction. Infertile male flies are released to mate with the wild population. Also, growers are told to bury all unharvested fruit or vegetables. Or they can place them under a screening structure to keep young flies from escaping. The program in Hawaii also uses a biological pesticide to kill fruit flies. It is called spinosad. It is produced by a microscopic organism. Spinosad is put into a substance that the fruit flies like to eat. The researchers say this is better for the environment than the common pesticide malathion. Malathion is a chemical that is sprayed on crops. The program also uses a natural enemy of fruit flies. A kind of wasp called Biosteres arisanus feeds on medflies and oriental fruit flies. As Kim Kaplan of the Agricultural Research Service reported last month, growers in the program like the results so far. They say they are using less pesticide. And they say they are finding less damaged fruit. Officials have extended the program for two more years. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 3, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 3, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell the latest news from the International Space Station. We tell about new evidence of a black hole, one of the most powerful objects in space. We report about problems that must be solved before people can be sent to the planet Mars. We begin our report with news about the two vehicles that are now exploring that planet. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell the latest news from the International Space Station. We tell about new evidence of a black hole, one of the most powerful objects in space. We report about problems that must be solved before people can be sent to the planet Mars. We begin our report with news about the two vehicles that are now exploring that planet. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has set a new record. On February nineteenth, NASA reported it had received more than six-thousand-million “hits” to its Internet Web site. A hit is recorded for every piece of information a computer user receives from a Web site. All of these hits were to see the NASA photographs taken by the two Mars exploration vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. Glenn Mahone is the assistant administrator for NASA. He says this huge number of hits makes this the biggest Internet event in the history of the United States government. Mister Mahone says it could be the biggest single Internet event in history by the time the Mars rovers’ ninety-day exploration is completed. VOICE TWO: NASA says its Web sites have recorded at least one hit for every person on Earth since the first rover landed on Mars at the beginning of January. Public excitement about the Mars exploration was immediate. NASA says there were two-hundred-twenty-five-million hits within the first twenty-four hours after Spirit landed. NASA says the huge number does not really represent that many computers. NASA officials say they believe about fifty-million individual computer users around the world have linked with NASA many, many times. Some of the computer users move from page to page within NASA’s Internet Web site. Each of these movements counts as a hit. That is the reason the number of hits is so large. NASA says many people are following the daily progress of the two rover vehicles with the aid of the Internet. VOICE ONE: What are all of these people seeing on the Internet? They are seeing the thousands of photographs taken by the two vehicles. And, they are reading the reports NASA releases about the exploration rovers. For example, a recent photograph shows Spirit’s mechanical arm lowered into a long hole the rover dug in the surface of Mars. Scientific instruments on the arm are inspecting soil and rocks. The Opportunity rover is doing similar work on the other side of the planet. It is also inspecting soil. It has found strong evidence that water may have been extremely important in the ancient history of Mars. If you would like to follow the progress of the two vehicles and can link with the Internet, type the letters WWW.NASA.GOV and follow the links that are provided. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All the recent excitement about Mars has again raised the question: When will people be able to visit the Red Planet? NASA scientists are working on one of the major problems that must be solved before such a trip can take place. The problem is the extreme amounts of radiation in deep space. Frank Cucinotta works with NASA’s Space Radiation Health Project at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Mister Cucinotta says scientists know how much radiation is out in space. However, they are not sure how it will affect the human body. NASA measures radiation danger in amounts that create a risk of causing cancer. For example, a healthy forty-year-old American man has a twenty percent chance of dying from cancer. That is the risk for a man who stays on Earth. The risk increases if he travels to Mars. The main problem is that scientists do not know how much the risk increases. VOICE ONE: Mister Cucinotta says the risk for women is even greater because female breasts and ovaries can be harmed by radiation. He says the risk of cancer is almost two times greater for women than for men. Mister Cucinotta says NASA does not want to send astronauts to Mars and have them come home only to die of cancer. He says the Space Radiation Health Project is working on different methods to protect astronauts while they make the long trip to Mars. He says experiments with some kinds of plastics show they offer better protection from radiation than the metal aluminum that is found in spacecraft. Mister Cucinotta says the Health Project is working with a very light and strong plastic that provides twenty percent more radiation protection than aluminum. He says plastic could become the choice for building a space craft that will go to Mars. Mister Cucinotta believes that people can travel safely to Mars sometime in the future. He says scientists must find out how much radiation our bodies can stand and what kind of spacecraft we need to build. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have long suspected that one of the most powerful objects in space is a black hole. Black holes create huge amounts of gravity. The gravity produced by a black hole is so strong it can even capture light. Black holes pull everything into them. Recently, NASA experts released information and a photograph that shows a black hole slowly destroying a star. The powerful gravity of the black hole is tearing the star apart. Observations from two x-ray telescopes show evidence of this. VOICE ONE: The telescopes are NASA’s Chandra and the European Space Agency’s X-M-M-Newton X-Ray. They were combined with earlier images from the German Roentgen Satellite. Scientists have been observing the black hole for more than ten years. Stefanie Komossa works at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. She is the leader of an international team of researchers. Mizz Komossa says stars can bend or be stretched a small amount. However, evidence shows this star has been stretched so far it is now breaking apart. She says the star moved too close to the black hole.Scientists say the black hole they are observing has a mass of about one-hundred-million times that of the Sun. They believe the star that was destroyed was about the same size as the Sun. The black hole and the star are in a galaxy about seven-hundred-million light years away from Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last week, for the first time, both crewmembers of the International Space Station left the safety of their home. After preparing their safety equipment, American Astronaut Michael Foale and Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri opened the door and stepped into space. This was the first time there was no crewmember inside who could take immediate action if equipment inside the station failed. The two crewmembers were expected to spend about six hours working outside of the space station. However about half-way through, Russian Cosmonaut Kaleri reported a problem with his space suit. At first he said he was becoming very warm. Then he told Russian Mission Control in Moscow, “It is amazing. I have rain inside the helmet.” Russian space officials called a halt to the spacewalk and ordered both men back inside the Space Station. VOICE ONE: The spacesuit’s cooling system caused the problem. The system is supposed to take water out of the atmosphere of the suit. It failed. Once back inside the Space Station, the two crewmen inspected the spacesuit. The men quickly discovered a bend in the tube that provides water to cool the suit in the area of the stomach. Cosmonaut Kaleri straightened the tube and it began working correctly.The two crewmen were able to complete about half the planned work before they returned to the Space Station. They replaced devices that study the lack of normal gravity. They placed a special device which will provide information on how radiation affects the human body during space flight. They also worked with several devices that are part of an experiment by the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency. This experiment studies the effect of small meteors hitting the research device. The work they were unable to complete may be performed in the future. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has set a new record. On February nineteenth, NASA reported it had received more than six-thousand-million “hits” to its Internet Web site. A hit is recorded for every piece of information a computer user receives from a Web site. All of these hits were to see the NASA photographs taken by the two Mars exploration vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. Glenn Mahone is the assistant administrator for NASA. He says this huge number of hits makes this the biggest Internet event in the history of the United States government. Mister Mahone says it could be the biggest single Internet event in history by the time the Mars rovers’ ninety-day exploration is completed. VOICE TWO: NASA says its Web sites have recorded at least one hit for every person on Earth since the first rover landed on Mars at the beginning of January. Public excitement about the Mars exploration was immediate. NASA says there were two-hundred-twenty-five-million hits within the first twenty-four hours after Spirit landed. NASA says the huge number does not really represent that many computers. NASA officials say they believe about fifty-million individual computer users around the world have linked with NASA many, many times. Some of the computer users move from page to page within NASA’s Internet Web site. Each of these movements counts as a hit. That is the reason the number of hits is so large. NASA says many people are following the daily progress of the two rover vehicles with the aid of the Internet. VOICE ONE: What are all of these people seeing on the Internet? They are seeing the thousands of photographs taken by the two vehicles. And, they are reading the reports NASA releases about the exploration rovers. For example, a recent photograph shows Spirit’s mechanical arm lowered into a long hole the rover dug in the surface of Mars. Scientific instruments on the arm are inspecting soil and rocks. The Opportunity rover is doing similar work on the other side of the planet. It is also inspecting soil. It has found strong evidence that water may have been extremely important in the ancient history of Mars. If you would like to follow the progress of the two vehicles and can link with the Internet, type the letters WWW.NASA.GOV and follow the links that are provided. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All the recent excitement about Mars has again raised the question: When will people be able to visit the Red Planet? NASA scientists are working on one of the major problems that must be solved before such a trip can take place. The problem is the extreme amounts of radiation in deep space. Frank Cucinotta works with NASA’s Space Radiation Health Project at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Mister Cucinotta says scientists know how much radiation is out in space. However, they are not sure how it will affect the human body. NASA measures radiation danger in amounts that create a risk of causing cancer. For example, a healthy forty-year-old American man has a twenty percent chance of dying from cancer. That is the risk for a man who stays on Earth. The risk increases if he travels to Mars. The main problem is that scientists do not know how much the risk increases. VOICE ONE: Mister Cucinotta says the risk for women is even greater because female breasts and ovaries can be harmed by radiation. He says the risk of cancer is almost two times greater for women than for men. Mister Cucinotta says NASA does not want to send astronauts to Mars and have them come home only to die of cancer. He says the Space Radiation Health Project is working on different methods to protect astronauts while they make the long trip to Mars. He says experiments with some kinds of plastics show they offer better protection from radiation than the metal aluminum that is found in spacecraft. Mister Cucinotta says the Health Project is working with a very light and strong plastic that provides twenty percent more radiation protection than aluminum. He says plastic could become the choice for building a space craft that will go to Mars. Mister Cucinotta believes that people can travel safely to Mars sometime in the future. He says scientists must find out how much radiation our bodies can stand and what kind of spacecraft we need to build. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have long suspected that one of the most powerful objects in space is a black hole. Black holes create huge amounts of gravity. The gravity produced by a black hole is so strong it can even capture light. Black holes pull everything into them. Recently, NASA experts released information and a photograph that shows a black hole slowly destroying a star. The powerful gravity of the black hole is tearing the star apart. Observations from two x-ray telescopes show evidence of this. VOICE ONE: The telescopes are NASA’s Chandra and the European Space Agency’s X-M-M-Newton X-Ray. They were combined with earlier images from the German Roentgen Satellite. Scientists have been observing the black hole for more than ten years. Stefanie Komossa works at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. She is the leader of an international team of researchers. Mizz Komossa says stars can bend or be stretched a small amount. However, evidence shows this star has been stretched so far it is now breaking apart. She says the star moved too close to the black hole.Scientists say the black hole they are observing has a mass of about one-hundred-million times that of the Sun. They believe the star that was destroyed was about the same size as the Sun. The black hole and the star are in a galaxy about seven-hundred-million light years away from Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last week, for the first time, both crewmembers of the International Space Station left the safety of their home. After preparing their safety equipment, American Astronaut Michael Foale and Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri opened the door and stepped into space. This was the first time there was no crewmember inside who could take immediate action if equipment inside the station failed. The two crewmembers were expected to spend about six hours working outside of the space station. However about half-way through, Russian Cosmonaut Kaleri reported a problem with his space suit. At first he said he was becoming very warm. Then he told Russian Mission Control in Moscow, “It is amazing. I have rain inside the helmet.” Russian space officials called a halt to the spacewalk and ordered both men back inside the Space Station. VOICE ONE: The spacesuit’s cooling system caused the problem. The system is supposed to take water out of the atmosphere of the suit. It failed. Once back inside the Space Station, the two crewmen inspected the spacesuit. The men quickly discovered a bend in the tube that provides water to cool the suit in the area of the stomach. Cosmonaut Kaleri straightened the tube and it began working correctly.The two crewmen were able to complete about half the planned work before they returned to the Space Station. They replaced devices that study the lack of normal gravity. They placed a special device which will provide information on how radiation affects the human body during space flight. They also worked with several devices that are part of an experiment by the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency. This experiment studies the effect of small meteors hitting the research device. The work they were unable to complete may be performed in the future. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – How Much Water Should People Drink?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 3, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many people believe they are supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, or about two liters. Why? Because that is what they have been told all their life. But a new report offers some different advice. Experts say people should obey their bodies; they should drink as much water as they feel like drinking. The report says most healthy people meet their daily needs for liquid by letting thirst be their guide. The report is from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies. This organization provides scientific and technical advice to the government and the public. The report contains some general suggestions. The experts say women should get about two-point-seven liters of water daily. Men should get about three-point-seven liters. But wait -- in each case, that is more than eight glasses. There is an important difference. The report does not tell people how many glasses of water to drink. In fact, the experts say it may be impossible to know how many glasses are needed to meet these guidelines. This is because the daily water requirement can include the water content in foods. People do not get water only by forcing themselves to drink a set number of glasses per day. People also drink fruit juices and sodas and milk. They drink coffee and tea. These all contain water. Yet some also contain caffeine. This causes the body to expel more water. But the writers of the report say this does not mean the body loses too much water. As you might expect, the Institute of Medicine says people need to drink more water when they are physically active. The same is true of those who live in hot climates. Depending on heat and activity, people could need two times as much water as others do. All this, however, does not answer one question. No one seems sure why people have the idea that good health requires eight glasses of water daily. It may have started with a misunderstanding. In nineteen-forty-five, the National Academy of Sciences published some guidelines. Its Food and Nutrition Board said a good amount of water for most adults was two-point-five liters daily. This was based on an average of one milliliter for each calorie of food eaten. But that was only part of what the board said. It also said that most of this amount is contained in prepared foods.This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: March 3, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many people believe they are supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, or about two liters. Why? Because that is what they have been told all their life. But a new report offers some different advice. Experts say people should obey their bodies; they should drink as much water as they feel like drinking. The report says most healthy people meet their daily needs for liquid by letting thirst be their guide. The report is from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies. This organization provides scientific and technical advice to the government and the public. The report contains some general suggestions. The experts say women should get about two-point-seven liters of water daily. Men should get about three-point-seven liters. But wait -- in each case, that is more than eight glasses. There is an important difference. The report does not tell people how many glasses of water to drink. In fact, the experts say it may be impossible to know how many glasses are needed to meet these guidelines. This is because the daily water requirement can include the water content in foods. People do not get water only by forcing themselves to drink a set number of glasses per day. People also drink fruit juices and sodas and milk. They drink coffee and tea. These all contain water. Yet some also contain caffeine. This causes the body to expel more water. But the writers of the report say this does not mean the body loses too much water. As you might expect, the Institute of Medicine says people need to drink more water when they are physically active. The same is true of those who live in hot climates. Depending on heat and activity, people could need two times as much water as others do. All this, however, does not answer one question. No one seems sure why people have the idea that good health requires eight glasses of water daily. It may have started with a misunderstanding. In nineteen-forty-five, the National Academy of Sciences published some guidelines. Its Food and Nutrition Board said a good amount of water for most adults was two-point-five liters daily. This was based on an average of one milliliter for each calorie of food eaten. But that was only part of what the board said. It also said that most of this amount is contained in prepared foods.This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 5: Dyscalculia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 4, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series about learning disabilities. So far, we have talked about problems with skills like reading, writing and movement. Today we tell about a condition called dyscalculia. People with dyscalculia have unusual difficulty working with numbers. Experts say people with this disorder have trouble reading numbers and seeing them in their mind. They can have problems with similar numbers like three and eight. They also have trouble lining up numbers correctly on paper. Another problem is that people with dyscalculia may have difficulty remembering. So they cannot remember the order of operations they must follow to solve a mathematics problem. Such difficulties can lead to failure in school, which can lead to a fear of mathematics. Students may believe they cannot do math at all. Experts say dyscalculia cannot be cured, but children can be helped. Teachers and parents need to recognize the signs of the condition. These include such things as making mistakes when writing groups of numbers. Another possible sign is performing mathematical operations backwards. Still another is reading numbers in the wrong order or becoming confused about the order of past or future events. Older students may show difficulty counting money. They might not be able to understand the rules and ideas of mathematics. They might perform a mathematical operation one day, but not the next. People with dyscalculia may also have a poor sense of direction and get lost often. They may have difficulty keeping score during games, and limited ability to plan during games like chess. Adults can provide extra help with math problems for students with dyscalculia. For example, a picture might help explain the situation being described. Rhymes or songs or other memory aids might help students remember things. Students with dyscalculia could use extra time to learn facts and take examinations. Using a calculator or computer might also help. We continue our series about learning disabilities next week. All of our programs are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Links to more information about dyscalculia are also included. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #52 - James Monroe, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 4, 2004 (Theme) Henry Clay Broadcast: March 4, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we reported last week, Spain asked Europe to help it put down a rebellion among Spanish colonies in latin America. Some of these colonies had overthrown their Spanish rulers and declared themselves independent. Britain wanted no part of the Spanish proposal. Britain was trading heavily with these new Latin American countries. Spanish or even French control of this area would destroy or limit this trade. So Britain proposed a joint statement with the United States that neither country wanted any of Spain's territory in the New World. Britain also wanted the United States to join in opposing the transfer of any of Spain's American territories to any other power in Europe. VOICE TWO: Most of President James Monroe's advisors urged him to accept the British offer. Secretary of state John Quincy Adams opposed it. He did not believe the United States should tie itself to any European power, even Britain. Monroe accepted the advice of his Secretary of State. He included Adams' ideas in his message to Congress in December, 1823. This part of the message became known as the "Monroe Doctrine. " The president said no European power should, in the future, try to establish a colony anywhere in the Americas. He said the political system of the European powers was very different from that of the Americas. Monroe said any attempt to extend this European system to any of the Americas would threaten the peace and safety of the United States. VOICE ONE: The president also said the United States had not interfered with the colonies of any European power in South America and would not do so in the future. But, said Monroe, a number of these former colonies had become independent countries. And the United States had recognized their independence. We would see it as an unfriendly act, he said, for any European power to try to oppress or control these new American countries in any way. At the same time, Monroe said, the United States never had -- and never would -- take part in any war among the European powers. This statement of Monroe's was only part of a presidential message to Congress. But it clearly stated one of the most important of America's foreign policies. VOICE TWO: The nation had continued to grow during Monroe's term as president. A number of new states were added to the union. Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, and Alabama all became states before 1820. Louisiana had become the first state to be formed from part of the Louisiana territory that the United States bought from France. The rest of this great area was given the name of the Missouri territory. By 1819, there were enough people in part of the Missouri territory for that part to become a state. It would be known as the state of Missouri. But Missouri could not become a state without the approval of Congress. And this approval was almost impossible to get. VOICE ONE: The problem was slavery. Slaves were not new in America. Spain had brought them to the west indies hundreds of years before. In 1619, a ship brought 20 African slaves to Jamestown, Virginia. These black men were sold to farmers. Over the years, the use of slaves spread to all the American colonies. There were many more slaves in the agricultural south than in the north. The farms in the north were smaller and needed less man-power. But in the south, farms were much larger, and needed many men. Slaves were the least expensive form of labor. Most of the northern states had passed laws before 1800 freeing slaves. Even the southern states made it illegal to import more slaves from Africa. But those southerners who already owned slaves believed they were necessary, and they refused to free them. VOICE TWO: Slavery had been legal when France and Spain controlled the Louisiana territory. The United States did nothing to change this when it purchased the area. So slavery was permitted in the Missouri territory at the time it asked for statehood. A New York congressman, James Tallmadge, offered an amendment to Missouri's request to become a state. Tallmadge proposed that no more slaves be brought into Missouri, and that the children of slaves already there be freed at the age of 25. His proposal started a debate that lasted a year. Supporters of Tallmadge argued that his proposed amendment was constitutional. The constitution, they said, gave Congress the right to admit new states into the union. This also meant, they said, that Congress could refuse to admit new states unless these states met conditions demanded by Congress. VOICE ONE: Supporters of the amendment also said small farmers of the north and east could not compete with the southern farmers and the free labor of slaves. They argued that these northern and eastern farmers had as much right to the land of Missouri as anyone else. The Louisiana territory had been paid for by the taxes of all Americans. Those opposed to slavery also argued that slave-holding states would be given too great a voice in the government if Missouri joined them. Under the constitution, three of every five slaves were included in the population count to decide membership in the House of Representatives. In the past, each time a slave state was admitted to the union, a free state also had been admitted. This kept a balance in Congress. VOICE TWO: Southerners had an answer for each argument of those supporting the Tallmadge amendment. They agreed that Congress had the constitutional right to admit or reject a state. But they said Congress did not have the right to make conditions for a territory to become a state. William Pinkney of Maryland argued that states already in the union had joined without any conditions. If Congress, he declared, had the right to set conditions for new states, then these new states would not be equal to the old ones. The United States no longer would be a union of equal states. The debate was violent on both sides. Representative Howell Cobb of Georgia told Tallmadge: "You have started a fire. All the waters of the oceans cannot put it out. Only seas of blood can do so." VOICE ONE: The House of Representatives passed the Missouri bill with the Tallmadge amendment. It was rejected by the Senate. The people of Missouri would try again for statehood when the new Congress met in 1820. By this time, another free state was ready to enter the union. Maine -- with the permission of Massachusetts -- asked to become a separate state. Once again, a New York congressman tried to put a condition on statehood for Missouri. He offered an amendment that Missouri should agree never to permit any kind of slavery inside its borders. House Speaker Henry Clay said that as long as any kind of condition was put on Missouri, he could never permit Maine to become a state. Clay was not strong enough to prevent the House from approving statehood for Maine. This bill was sent to the Senate for its approval. The Senate, however, joined the Maine bill with the one for unlimited statehood for Missouri. Senators refused to separate the two. VOICE TWO: Finally, Senator Thomas of Illinois offered a compromise. He said Missouri should be admitted as a state permitting slavery. But, he said no other state permitting slavery could be formed from the northern part of the Louisiana territory. The compromise was accepted. And Congress approved statehood both for Missouri and Maine. But they would not become states until President Monroe signed the bills. President Monroe had to make a difficult decision. He was a slave-holder. Many of his friends urged him to veto the bills, which would limit slavery in the Louisiana territory. And electors would soon be chosen for the next presidential election. Still, a decision had to be made. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we reported last week, Spain asked Europe to help it put down a rebellion among Spanish colonies in latin America. Some of these colonies had overthrown their Spanish rulers and declared themselves independent. Britain wanted no part of the Spanish proposal. Britain was trading heavily with these new Latin American countries. Spanish or even French control of this area would destroy or limit this trade. So Britain proposed a joint statement with the United States that neither country wanted any of Spain's territory in the New World. Britain also wanted the United States to join in opposing the transfer of any of Spain's American territories to any other power in Europe. VOICE TWO: Most of President James Monroe's advisors urged him to accept the British offer. Secretary of state John Quincy Adams opposed it. He did not believe the United States should tie itself to any European power, even Britain. Monroe accepted the advice of his Secretary of State. He included Adams' ideas in his message to Congress in December, 1823. This part of the message became known as the "Monroe Doctrine. " The president said no European power should, in the future, try to establish a colony anywhere in the Americas. He said the political system of the European powers was very different from that of the Americas. Monroe said any attempt to extend this European system to any of the Americas would threaten the peace and safety of the United States. VOICE ONE: The president also said the United States had not interfered with the colonies of any European power in South America and would not do so in the future. But, said Monroe, a number of these former colonies had become independent countries. And the United States had recognized their independence. We would see it as an unfriendly act, he said, for any European power to try to oppress or control these new American countries in any way. At the same time, Monroe said, the United States never had -- and never would -- take part in any war among the European powers. This statement of Monroe's was only part of a presidential message to Congress. But it clearly stated one of the most important of America's foreign policies. VOICE TWO: The nation had continued to grow during Monroe's term as president. A number of new states were added to the union. Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, and Alabama all became states before 1820. Louisiana had become the first state to be formed from part of the Louisiana territory that the United States bought from France. The rest of this great area was given the name of the Missouri territory. By 1819, there were enough people in part of the Missouri territory for that part to become a state. It would be known as the state of Missouri. But Missouri could not become a state without the approval of Congress. And this approval was almost impossible to get. VOICE ONE: The problem was slavery. Slaves were not new in America. Spain had brought them to the west indies hundreds of years before. In 1619, a ship brought 20 African slaves to Jamestown, Virginia. These black men were sold to farmers. Over the years, the use of slaves spread to all the American colonies. There were many more slaves in the agricultural south than in the north. The farms in the north were smaller and needed less man-power. But in the south, farms were much larger, and needed many men. Slaves were the least expensive form of labor. Most of the northern states had passed laws before 1800 freeing slaves. Even the southern states made it illegal to import more slaves from Africa. But those southerners who already owned slaves believed they were necessary, and they refused to free them. VOICE TWO: Slavery had been legal when France and Spain controlled the Louisiana territory. The United States did nothing to change this when it purchased the area. So slavery was permitted in the Missouri territory at the time it asked for statehood. A New York congressman, James Tallmadge, offered an amendment to Missouri's request to become a state. Tallmadge proposed that no more slaves be brought into Missouri, and that the children of slaves already there be freed at the age of 25. His proposal started a debate that lasted a year. Supporters of Tallmadge argued that his proposed amendment was constitutional. The constitution, they said, gave Congress the right to admit new states into the union. This also meant, they said, that Congress could refuse to admit new states unless these states met conditions demanded by Congress. VOICE ONE: Supporters of the amendment also said small farmers of the north and east could not compete with the southern farmers and the free labor of slaves. They argued that these northern and eastern farmers had as much right to the land of Missouri as anyone else. The Louisiana territory had been paid for by the taxes of all Americans. Those opposed to slavery also argued that slave-holding states would be given too great a voice in the government if Missouri joined them. Under the constitution, three of every five slaves were included in the population count to decide membership in the House of Representatives. In the past, each time a slave state was admitted to the union, a free state also had been admitted. This kept a balance in Congress. VOICE TWO: Southerners had an answer for each argument of those supporting the Tallmadge amendment. They agreed that Congress had the constitutional right to admit or reject a state. But they said Congress did not have the right to make conditions for a territory to become a state. William Pinkney of Maryland argued that states already in the union had joined without any conditions. If Congress, he declared, had the right to set conditions for new states, then these new states would not be equal to the old ones. The United States no longer would be a union of equal states. The debate was violent on both sides. Representative Howell Cobb of Georgia told Tallmadge: "You have started a fire. All the waters of the oceans cannot put it out. Only seas of blood can do so." VOICE ONE: The House of Representatives passed the Missouri bill with the Tallmadge amendment. It was rejected by the Senate. The people of Missouri would try again for statehood when the new Congress met in 1820. By this time, another free state was ready to enter the union. Maine -- with the permission of Massachusetts -- asked to become a separate state. Once again, a New York congressman tried to put a condition on statehood for Missouri. He offered an amendment that Missouri should agree never to permit any kind of slavery inside its borders. House Speaker Henry Clay said that as long as any kind of condition was put on Missouri, he could never permit Maine to become a state. Clay was not strong enough to prevent the House from approving statehood for Maine. This bill was sent to the Senate for its approval. The Senate, however, joined the Maine bill with the one for unlimited statehood for Missouri. Senators refused to separate the two. VOICE TWO: Finally, Senator Thomas of Illinois offered a compromise. He said Missouri should be admitted as a state permitting slavery. But, he said no other state permitting slavery could be formed from the northern part of the Louisiana territory. The compromise was accepted. And Congress approved statehood both for Missouri and Maine. But they would not become states until President Monroe signed the bills. President Monroe had to make a difficult decision. He was a slave-holder. Many of his friends urged him to veto the bills, which would limit slavery in the Louisiana territory. And electors would soon be chosen for the next presidential election. Still, a decision had to be made. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 4, 2004 - Lida Baker: Keyword Method as a Memory Aid
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: March 4, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a lesson we'll never forget! RS: Like lots of people, our English teacher friend Lida Baker says she has trouble remembering names. So lately she's been trying a memory aid known as the keyword method. AA: She’s been reading about the psychologist R.C. Atkinson, who devised this technique thirty years ago to help students learn foreign language vocabulary. RS: Which is how Lida tested it on us. BAKER: "I'm going to give you a word in Hungarian, because Hungarian is a language that I don't think -- probably not too many of your listeners speak Hungarian. Neither do I, but I happen to know this word. The word is kaposzta. Can you say it?" RS: "Kaposzta." BAKER: "Kaposzta. Good. Now, the first step in the keyword method is you listen to the word, kaposzta. And a kaposzta is a cabbage. It's the Hungarian word for a cabbage. So now the trick becomes, how are we going to remember that word? The first thing you have to do is you select something called a keyword, which is going to serve as a cue to help you remember that new word. "There are three characteristics of a good keyword. The first one is that it should sound like the target word. So our target word is kaposzta. So, first of all, our keyword has to sound like it, OK? The second thing is that it should be a word that is easy to visualize. And so a good keyword is usually a concrete noun, because nouns are easy to visualize." RS: "So it wouldn't be the same word as the word." AA: "You're not supposed to visualize a cabbage." BAKER: "No. Hold on a second and you'll see -- yes and no. The third thing about the keyword is it has to be something very familiar to you. So given those three conditions -- the most important is the very first one, which is that the keyword you pick needs to sound like the word that we're trying to learn. So if our word is kaposzta, why don't we take that first syllable, which is kap (cop), and we will use that as our keyword -- cop, meaning police officer. It's a slang word for police officer in English, OK?" RS: "But it has nothing to do with a cabbage." BAKER: "Ahh -- not yet! Here's where the technique really comes into play, because once you've picked your keyword, what you want to do is to imagine the definition doing something with the keyword. So the keyword is cop and the definition is cabbage. What we're going to do is create an image in our mind where the cop, the police officer, and the cabbage are somehow interacting. The more exaggerated it is, the better. So the image I came up with for this word is a cop, in uniform, whose head is a cabbage." RS: "I was thinking exactly the same thing." BAKER: "OK, see? And it's kind of a ridiculous image -- the more ridiculous or silly it is, the harder it's going to be to forget. So we have a police officer, a cop. He's got a cabbage for a head and he's got eyes, a nose and a mouth on that cabbage. And let's put a cop's hat on him and maybe a mustache, OK?" "Now we could even, because our word is kaposzta, the second syllable is 'post,' we could have our cabbagehead cop standing in front of a post office, OK? Now let's just take that silly image and focus on it for a moment and see it in our mind's eye and really concentrate on it, so that the image becomes fixed in your memory." RS: "I'll never forget it." BAKER: "You won't ever forget it! Now let's suppose that it's a week later and you're studying for a big vocabulary test and you have your list of Hungarian words that you need to learn and remember for tomorrow's test. So you come to the word kaposzta on your list of vocabulary words. Now what happens?" RS: "You think of a cop with a cabbage head." BAKER: "You think of the cop and the word cop conjures up, it brings back that image of the cop with the cabbage head. You know, they're bound in your memory. You can't even separate them anymore." AA: "And this has helped you remember your students' names, picturing them with cabbages on their head?" BAKER: "Well, only if their name is kaposzta. But for other names, I've used other images. And I have to say, you know, for certain words, this technique has really worked for me." RS: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And tells us she's working on some new textbooks for English learners. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. We hope you can remember our e-mail address, word@voanews.com, and our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Cabbage Head"/Dr. John Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: March 4, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a lesson we'll never forget! RS: Like lots of people, our English teacher friend Lida Baker says she has trouble remembering names. So lately she's been trying a memory aid known as the keyword method. AA: She’s been reading about the psychologist R.C. Atkinson, who devised this technique thirty years ago to help students learn foreign language vocabulary. RS: Which is how Lida tested it on us. BAKER: "I'm going to give you a word in Hungarian, because Hungarian is a language that I don't think -- probably not too many of your listeners speak Hungarian. Neither do I, but I happen to know this word. The word is kaposzta. Can you say it?" RS: "Kaposzta." BAKER: "Kaposzta. Good. Now, the first step in the keyword method is you listen to the word, kaposzta. And a kaposzta is a cabbage. It's the Hungarian word for a cabbage. So now the trick becomes, how are we going to remember that word? The first thing you have to do is you select something called a keyword, which is going to serve as a cue to help you remember that new word. "There are three characteristics of a good keyword. The first one is that it should sound like the target word. So our target word is kaposzta. So, first of all, our keyword has to sound like it, OK? The second thing is that it should be a word that is easy to visualize. And so a good keyword is usually a concrete noun, because nouns are easy to visualize." RS: "So it wouldn't be the same word as the word." AA: "You're not supposed to visualize a cabbage." BAKER: "No. Hold on a second and you'll see -- yes and no. The third thing about the keyword is it has to be something very familiar to you. So given those three conditions -- the most important is the very first one, which is that the keyword you pick needs to sound like the word that we're trying to learn. So if our word is kaposzta, why don't we take that first syllable, which is kap (cop), and we will use that as our keyword -- cop, meaning police officer. It's a slang word for police officer in English, OK?" RS: "But it has nothing to do with a cabbage." BAKER: "Ahh -- not yet! Here's where the technique really comes into play, because once you've picked your keyword, what you want to do is to imagine the definition doing something with the keyword. So the keyword is cop and the definition is cabbage. What we're going to do is create an image in our mind where the cop, the police officer, and the cabbage are somehow interacting. The more exaggerated it is, the better. So the image I came up with for this word is a cop, in uniform, whose head is a cabbage." RS: "I was thinking exactly the same thing." BAKER: "OK, see? And it's kind of a ridiculous image -- the more ridiculous or silly it is, the harder it's going to be to forget. So we have a police officer, a cop. He's got a cabbage for a head and he's got eyes, a nose and a mouth on that cabbage. And let's put a cop's hat on him and maybe a mustache, OK?" "Now we could even, because our word is kaposzta, the second syllable is 'post,' we could have our cabbagehead cop standing in front of a post office, OK? Now let's just take that silly image and focus on it for a moment and see it in our mind's eye and really concentrate on it, so that the image becomes fixed in your memory." RS: "I'll never forget it." BAKER: "You won't ever forget it! Now let's suppose that it's a week later and you're studying for a big vocabulary test and you have your list of Hungarian words that you need to learn and remember for tomorrow's test. So you come to the word kaposzta on your list of vocabulary words. Now what happens?" RS: "You think of a cop with a cabbage head." BAKER: "You think of the cop and the word cop conjures up, it brings back that image of the cop with the cabbage head. You know, they're bound in your memory. You can't even separate them anymore." AA: "And this has helped you remember your students' names, picturing them with cabbages on their head?" BAKER: "Well, only if their name is kaposzta. But for other names, I've used other images. And I have to say, you know, for certain words, this technique has really worked for me." RS: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And tells us she's working on some new textbooks for English learners. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. We hope you can remember our e-mail address, word@voanews.com, and our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Cabbage Head"/Dr. John 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Diet Wars / Americans as Foreign Leaders / Joe Nichols
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 5, 2004 (THEME) George Papandreou Broadcast: February 5, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we have country music from Joe Nichols. And we answer a question about Americans who seek office in foreign countries. But first, we tell about some of the diet programs that Americans are using in an effort to lose weight. Diet Wars HOST: Recent studies show that Americans know they weigh too much. As a result, many are changing the way they eat so they will lose weight. Gwen Outen tells us about a few of these popular diet programs. ANNCR: One is the Atkins Weight Loss program. It was developed more than thirty years ago by medical doctor Robert Atkins. The diet comes from the idea that the human body burns both carbohydrates and fat for fuel. People on the diet stop eating carbohydrates like pasta, bread and potatoes, as well as sugar. The result is that the body burns fat and the person loses weight. People following the Atkins diet can eat as much protein and animal fat as they want, including red meat and bacon. Experts say this plan should not be followed by anyone suffering from diabetes, heart problems or kidney disease. That is because dangerous fluid loss can result when the body uses fat or muscle for energy. Food experts have said for years that the Atkins diet could lead to health problems like heart disease. But studies have not shown that to be true. In fact, many people say the Atkins diet has lowered their cholesterol levels. Another popular weight loss program in the United States is called the South Beach Diet. It was developed by a heart doctor who lives in Miami, Florida. This plan calls for eating foods known to prevent heart disease, like chicken, nuts, fish, olive oil, grains, fruits and vegetables. The plan says that this way of eating will improve heart health as a person loses weight. The South Beach Diet also restricts carbohydrates, but not as much as the Atkins diet. A third popular weight loss program is called Weight Watchers. People pay to join a group. Then they meet every week to weigh themselves and discuss their progress. The program does not restrict any foods, but assigns points to each food. The more fattening foods are given a higher point value. Each person is permitted to eat foods that add up to a total number of points each day. Each person chooses how to use his or her points in order not to feel hungry and to lose weight. American eating places and food companies have begun to provide special products for people following these diets. For example, American food stores now sell low-carbohydrate breads and pasta. And many Americans are trying to lose weight by not eating potatoes, bread or rice. Americans as Foreign Leaders HOST: Last week, in answering a question, we told how Americans have little reason to fear losing their citizenship if they vote in foreign elections. Today we answer the second part of that question from Thomas Corcoran in Sweden. He wants to know if the United States permits its citizens to become foreign leaders. The answer is: yes. In fact, several already have. And one native-born American hopes to very soon. George Papandreou was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in nineteen-fifty-two. He lived and studied in the United States for many years before he moved to Greece. Most recently, Mister Papandreou was foreign minister, until last month. Now he is seeking to become prime minister after elections on Sunday. So, we wrote to his Web site. His media center told us that he gave up his American citizenship when he became a lawmaker in Greece. Mister Papandreou was first elected to Parliament in the nineteen-eighties. Another person is Valdas Adamkus, the former president of Lithuania. Mister Adamkus fled the Soviet occupation in nineteen-forty-nine. He became an American citizen. In time, he became a high-level official in the Environmental Protection Agency. Mister Adamkus lived in America for almost fifty years. He returned to Lithuania in nineteen-ninety-seven. Six months later, he was elected president. He, too, chose to surrender his American citizenship. And so did Golda Meir when she became leader of Israel. She was born in Ukraine in eighteen-ninety-eight. She came to the United States as a child. At twenty-three, she moved to Palestine. The state of Israel was established in forty-nine. Golda Meir went to work for the government. Twenty years later, she was prime minister. So, Americans have the right to lead another country. But does every American have the same right at home? The Constitution says the president must be, in its words, "a natural born citizen." Some think it is time to amend that. A senator has proposed to include people who have been naturalized citizens for at least twenty years. The new governor of California recently said this idea sounded "really good" to him. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Austria. He became an American citizen in nineteen-eighty-three. Joe Nichols HOST: Joe Nichols was nominated for a Grammy Award earlier this year for best male country vocal performance. He did not win that award. But the Country Music Association named him the best new male vocalist last May. Who is Joe Nichols, you ask? Phoebe Zimmermann has the answer. ANNCR: Joe Nichols is twenty-seven years old. He was born and grew up in the southern state of Arkansas. After high school, he worked at different jobs during the day and wrote songs at night. He released his first album in nineteen-ninety-six. It was called “Joe Nichols.’’ It did not sell well, although one song on the album was popular. Here it is, “Six of One, Half a Dozen Of the Other”. (MUSIC) Joe Nichols’ second album was released in two-thousand-two. It is called “Man With a Memory.” Its lead single record is called “The Impossible.” (MUSIC) Last year, Joe Nichols had his first country music hit song. It is also on the album “Man With a Memory.” We leave you now with that song from country music singer Joe Nichols -- ”Brokenheartsville.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tony Pollock. On our show today, we have country music from Joe Nichols. And we answer a question about Americans who seek office in foreign countries. But first, we tell about some of the diet programs that Americans are using in an effort to lose weight. Diet Wars HOST: Recent studies show that Americans know they weigh too much. As a result, many are changing the way they eat so they will lose weight. Gwen Outen tells us about a few of these popular diet programs. ANNCR: One is the Atkins Weight Loss program. It was developed more than thirty years ago by medical doctor Robert Atkins. The diet comes from the idea that the human body burns both carbohydrates and fat for fuel. People on the diet stop eating carbohydrates like pasta, bread and potatoes, as well as sugar. The result is that the body burns fat and the person loses weight. People following the Atkins diet can eat as much protein and animal fat as they want, including red meat and bacon. Experts say this plan should not be followed by anyone suffering from diabetes, heart problems or kidney disease. That is because dangerous fluid loss can result when the body uses fat or muscle for energy. Food experts have said for years that the Atkins diet could lead to health problems like heart disease. But studies have not shown that to be true. In fact, many people say the Atkins diet has lowered their cholesterol levels. Another popular weight loss program in the United States is called the South Beach Diet. It was developed by a heart doctor who lives in Miami, Florida. This plan calls for eating foods known to prevent heart disease, like chicken, nuts, fish, olive oil, grains, fruits and vegetables. The plan says that this way of eating will improve heart health as a person loses weight. The South Beach Diet also restricts carbohydrates, but not as much as the Atkins diet. A third popular weight loss program is called Weight Watchers. People pay to join a group. Then they meet every week to weigh themselves and discuss their progress. The program does not restrict any foods, but assigns points to each food. The more fattening foods are given a higher point value. Each person is permitted to eat foods that add up to a total number of points each day. Each person chooses how to use his or her points in order not to feel hungry and to lose weight. American eating places and food companies have begun to provide special products for people following these diets. For example, American food stores now sell low-carbohydrate breads and pasta. And many Americans are trying to lose weight by not eating potatoes, bread or rice. Americans as Foreign Leaders HOST: Last week, in answering a question, we told how Americans have little reason to fear losing their citizenship if they vote in foreign elections. Today we answer the second part of that question from Thomas Corcoran in Sweden. He wants to know if the United States permits its citizens to become foreign leaders. The answer is: yes. In fact, several already have. And one native-born American hopes to very soon. George Papandreou was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in nineteen-fifty-two. He lived and studied in the United States for many years before he moved to Greece. Most recently, Mister Papandreou was foreign minister, until last month. Now he is seeking to become prime minister after elections on Sunday. So, we wrote to his Web site. His media center told us that he gave up his American citizenship when he became a lawmaker in Greece. Mister Papandreou was first elected to Parliament in the nineteen-eighties. Another person is Valdas Adamkus, the former president of Lithuania. Mister Adamkus fled the Soviet occupation in nineteen-forty-nine. He became an American citizen. In time, he became a high-level official in the Environmental Protection Agency. Mister Adamkus lived in America for almost fifty years. He returned to Lithuania in nineteen-ninety-seven. Six months later, he was elected president. He, too, chose to surrender his American citizenship. And so did Golda Meir when she became leader of Israel. She was born in Ukraine in eighteen-ninety-eight. She came to the United States as a child. At twenty-three, she moved to Palestine. The state of Israel was established in forty-nine. Golda Meir went to work for the government. Twenty years later, she was prime minister. So, Americans have the right to lead another country. But does every American have the same right at home? The Constitution says the president must be, in its words, "a natural born citizen." Some think it is time to amend that. A senator has proposed to include people who have been naturalized citizens for at least twenty years. The new governor of California recently said this idea sounded "really good" to him. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Austria. He became an American citizen in nineteen-eighty-three. Joe Nichols HOST: Joe Nichols was nominated for a Grammy Award earlier this year for best male country vocal performance. He did not win that award. But the Country Music Association named him the best new male vocalist last May. Who is Joe Nichols, you ask? Phoebe Zimmermann has the answer. ANNCR: Joe Nichols is twenty-seven years old. He was born and grew up in the southern state of Arkansas. After high school, he worked at different jobs during the day and wrote songs at night. He released his first album in nineteen-ninety-six. It was called “Joe Nichols.’’ It did not sell well, although one song on the album was popular. Here it is, “Six of One, Half a Dozen Of the Other”. (MUSIC) Joe Nichols’ second album was released in two-thousand-two. It is called “Man With a Memory.” Its lead single record is called “The Impossible.” (MUSIC) Last year, Joe Nichols had his first country music hit song. It is also on the album “Man With a Memory.” We leave you now with that song from country music singer Joe Nichols -- ”Brokenheartsville.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tony Pollock. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Outsourcing of Jobs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 5, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Companies often give work to an outside business that can do the job for less money than their own employees could. This is called outsourcing. Outsourcing has become a political issue in the campaign for the American presidential election in November. Many companies in the United States have been moving jobs to countries where costs are much lower. Factory production jobs have moved away for years. But the jobs now also involve computer programming and other skills based on knowledge. Labor groups and workers are angry. They point to reports that say the United States has lost two-and-a-half million jobs since two-thousand-one. Most were jobs in manufacturing. Some states have lost more jobs than others. But no one seems to know for sure how many jobs left the country. There was a recession. Jobs were cut. Yet, so far, the economic recovery has produced fewer jobs than expected. So outsourcing has created an emotional debate. Lou Dobbs has a business news program on CNN television. He keeps a list of companies that have sent jobs to foreign countries. Almost every night, Mister Dobbs talks about what he calls the “exporting of America.” Gregory Mankiw [man-CUE] is the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Bush. Recently Mister Mankiw said outsourcing is probably good for the economy in the long term. He said it makes sense to import goods or services produced at lower cost. He called it "just a new way of doing international trade." Most economists would probably agree. But Democrats and Republicans criticized Mister Mankiw. He later apologized for having appeared to praise the loss of United States jobs. Criticism of outsourcing has led some people to condemn free trade. They argue that if jobs are lost to foreign countries, then America should seek protective measures. The director general of the World Trade Organization does not see it that way. Supachai Panitchpakdi says one-third of all economic growth in the United States since nineteen-ninety resulted from international trade. Mister Supachai says training and education can create new opportunities for workers. He says exports have helped create five-million new jobs in America in the last ten years. He says those jobs pay ten-percent above the average. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - French Parliament Bans Religious Symbols in Public Schools
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. This week, the French Senate approved a law to give public schools the right to ban almost anything worn clearly as a show of religion. The law passed by a vote of two-hundred-seventy-six to twenty. The National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, passed a similar measure last month. Conservatives control both houses of parliament. President Jacques Chirac proposed the legislation. He is expected to sign the ban into law within fifteen days. Mister Chirac says the ban is designed to defend the French tradition of separating religion from civil life and education. He says there is a dangerous and growing extremist threat against this tradition. There have been times, for example, where Muslims girls refused to remove their head coverings in school. Under the new law, students could not wear headscarves or such things as large Christian crosses or Jewish skullcaps. French officials say public schools should be places of education, not places to display religious or ethnic identities. But many Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders have sharply criticized the legislation. They say it violates freedom of expression in France, including religious expression. Some foreign governments, including the United States, have also expressed concern about such a ban. The ban has widespread public support in France. But it has angered many Muslims and led to demonstrations in several countries. Some Muslims say the ban unfairly targets them. They say that some of the objects listed are cultural, not religious. Some say they fear that the headscarf issue may cause some Muslim girls to leave school or attend Islamic schools. France has an estimated five-million Muslims, the most of any country in western Europe. Most other people in France are Roman Catholic. Several top French officials have expressed concern that the law may damage relations with French Muslims. Yet public opinion research finds that not all Muslims in France oppose a law like this. In fact, some studies find that many, especially women, support the idea of a ban on too much show of religion. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin says the new law is not anti-religious. He says it is needed to contain the spread of Muslim extremism and to protect the laws of the French Republic. He says France needs to explain the law better, especially on the international level. Mister Raffarin has also spoken of the need for a law to require that patients at public hospitals follow Western rules of medical care. The new law for state schools would go into effect at the start of the new school year in September. France's education minister says he will meet with leaders of religious groups to see if they can find compromises. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ella Fitzgerald
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 7, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 7, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. She was known as America's first lady of song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the jazz singer, Ella Fitzgerald. She was known as America's first lady of song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year was nineteen-thirty-three. The place was New York City. Ella Fitzgerald was sixteen years old. She had entered a competition at the Apollo theater in Harlem. She was going to dance. But she had just watched two dancers perform. They were better dancers than she. So, instead of dancing, she sang a song called "Judy. " People watching the competition urged her to sing another song. She did. She won first prize - twenty-five dollars. That competition at the Apollo Theater changed Ella Fitzgerald's life forever. Band leader Chick Webb was watching the competition. He hired Ella to sing with his band. He taught her about singing in public. He even showed her what kind of clothes to wear. In three years, she had her first hit record, "A-Tisket-a-Tasket": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald was born in the southern city of Newport News, Virginia in nineteen-seventeen. Her father left soon after her birth. Her mother took Ella and moved to New York City. Ella's mother died when Ella was fifteen years old. The next year, Ella started singing with Chick Webb's band. She stayed with Chick Webb until he died in nineteen-thirty-nine. Ella kept his band together after he died until World War Two started. Then most of the band members joined the armed forces. While she was with the band, Ella recorded almost one-hundred-fifty songs. VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was greatly influenced by the experimental music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was called be-bop. She used be-bop rhythms in her singing. In nineteen-forty-five, she recorded the song "Flying Home," using the be-bop method known as 'scat'. In scat, the singer's voice sounds like another instrument in the orchestra. Critics say it was the most influential jazz record of the time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-nine, jazz musician Norman Granz invited her to join his band. It was with his band in Berlin, Germany in nineteen-sixty that Ella sang a famous song in a very different way. A man asked her if she knew the song "Mack the Knife. " Ella said she had heard it a few times but the band did not have the music for it. She said she would try to sing it anyway. This recording shows how she continued to sing "Mack the Knife" when she did not remember the words. The people listening loved it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Norman Granz later became her manager. He started a new recording company just for her. It was his idea for Ella to record the now famous series of record albums called the “Songbooks”. On each record, she sang works of a different songwriter. She recorded songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Critics say the best songbook is Ella singing the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. Ira Gershwin reportedly said: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. Here, she sings the Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television. She became popular internationally. She performed in concerts around the world sometimes forty weeks a year. She also recorded for different record companies. In the nineteen-sixties, she began to sing more modern songs such as those written by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. But she was not very successful with that kind of popular music. She returned to jazz in nineteen-seventy-three, again with Norman Granz. She also began performing with symphony orchestras. VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was married two times. Both marriages ended in divorce. She raised three children who were not her own. Ella lived quietly in Beverly Hills, California. Throughout her life she was a very private person. She wanted to be known only for her music. Her friends included members of the Duke Ellington band, Count Basie's band, and singers like Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee. Ella Fitzgerald began to have health problems during the nineteen-seventies. She had the disease diabetes which caused problems with her eyes. She had a heart operation in nineteen-eighty-six. In nineteen-ninety three, the effects of diabetes led to operations to remove both her legs. She died June fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-six. VOICE TWO: People around the world loved Ella Fitzgerald's joyful singing. Critics said she had raised the American popular song to the level of art. She won many awards. She received the National Medal of the Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime work. The University of Maryland named a performing arts center for her. Ella Fitzgerald's wonderful voice lives on in her two-hundred-fifty albums. She won thirteen Grammy awards given each year for the best recordings. Her last Grammy was for the nineteen-ninety record: "All That Jazz": (MUSIC) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) The year was nineteen-thirty-three. The place was New York City. Ella Fitzgerald was sixteen years old. She had entered a competition at the Apollo theater in Harlem. She was going to dance. But she had just watched two dancers perform. They were better dancers than she. So, instead of dancing, she sang a song called "Judy. " People watching the competition urged her to sing another song. She did. She won first prize - twenty-five dollars. That competition at the Apollo Theater changed Ella Fitzgerald's life forever. Band leader Chick Webb was watching the competition. He hired Ella to sing with his band. He taught her about singing in public. He even showed her what kind of clothes to wear. In three years, she had her first hit record, "A-Tisket-a-Tasket": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald was born in the southern city of Newport News, Virginia in nineteen-seventeen. Her father left soon after her birth. Her mother took Ella and moved to New York City. Ella's mother died when Ella was fifteen years old. The next year, Ella started singing with Chick Webb's band. She stayed with Chick Webb until he died in nineteen-thirty-nine. Ella kept his band together after he died until World War Two started. Then most of the band members joined the armed forces. While she was with the band, Ella recorded almost one-hundred-fifty songs. VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was greatly influenced by the experimental music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It was called be-bop. She used be-bop rhythms in her singing. In nineteen-forty-five, she recorded the song "Flying Home," using the be-bop method known as 'scat'. In scat, the singer's voice sounds like another instrument in the orchestra. Critics say it was the most influential jazz record of the time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-nine, jazz musician Norman Granz invited her to join his band. It was with his band in Berlin, Germany in nineteen-sixty that Ella sang a famous song in a very different way. A man asked her if she knew the song "Mack the Knife. " Ella said she had heard it a few times but the band did not have the music for it. She said she would try to sing it anyway. This recording shows how she continued to sing "Mack the Knife" when she did not remember the words. The people listening loved it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Norman Granz later became her manager. He started a new recording company just for her. It was his idea for Ella to record the now famous series of record albums called the “Songbooks”. On each record, she sang works of a different songwriter. She recorded songbooks of the music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Critics say the best songbook is Ella singing the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. Ira Gershwin reportedly said: "I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. Here, she sings the Gershwin song, "I Got Rhythm": (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ella Fitzgerald also appeared in movies and on television. She became popular internationally. She performed in concerts around the world sometimes forty weeks a year. She also recorded for different record companies. In the nineteen-sixties, she began to sing more modern songs such as those written by the Beatles and Burt Bacharach. But she was not very successful with that kind of popular music. She returned to jazz in nineteen-seventy-three, again with Norman Granz. She also began performing with symphony orchestras. VOICE ONE: Ella Fitzgerald was married two times. Both marriages ended in divorce. She raised three children who were not her own. Ella lived quietly in Beverly Hills, California. Throughout her life she was a very private person. She wanted to be known only for her music. Her friends included members of the Duke Ellington band, Count Basie's band, and singers like Sarah Vaughn and Peggy Lee. Ella Fitzgerald began to have health problems during the nineteen-seventies. She had the disease diabetes which caused problems with her eyes. She had a heart operation in nineteen-eighty-six. In nineteen-ninety three, the effects of diabetes led to operations to remove both her legs. She died June fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-six. VOICE TWO: People around the world loved Ella Fitzgerald's joyful singing. Critics said she had raised the American popular song to the level of art. She won many awards. She received the National Medal of the Arts and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime work. The University of Maryland named a performing arts center for her. Ella Fitzgerald's wonderful voice lives on in her two-hundred-fifty albums. She won thirteen Grammy awards given each year for the best recordings. Her last Grammy was for the nineteen-ninety record: "All That Jazz": (MUSIC) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – U.S. Group Fights to Free Modern-Day Slaves
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 8, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. American officials estimate that at least 800,000 people a year are brought across borders, into slavery. But they admit this estimate is probably low. Last June, the International Labor Organization estimated that at least 1,200,000 children a year are victims of trafficking. Slavery involves the sex trade, as well as other kinds of forced labor and military service. One of the groups fighting to end the slave trade is the International Justice Mission. This non-profit group in the United States helps nations enforce laws against slavery. Gary Haugen started the group in 1997. He was a trial lawyer for the United States Justice Department. He fought cases of police wrongdoing. He also assisted the United Nations. He directed the investigation into the 1994 killings in Rwanda. The International Justice Mission receives information from aid and religious workers about possible cases of slavery. IJM lawyers then build legal cases against those responsible. Investigators secretly gather evidence. They use tape recorders and video cameras. The group intervenes once it has enough information to support a case. Members go to local officials to seek legal charges. IJM estimates that it helps free several hundred people a year from slavery. Its Web site includes the story of a boy named Sridhar in southern India. It says his parents sold him to a local moneylender to pay for food. He was 10 years old at the time. His parents owed the moneylender $31. So, for six days a week, the boy made cigarettes to pay off the debt. The amount he earned each day would have kept him in slavery until he was an adult. IJM investigators say they helped the boy appeal to the local government. They say he is now free and attending school. Another job of the group is education. IJM officials say have a religious duty to fight slavery. The group says it provides people of faith with the training, tools and resources to become active. Gary Haugen says international treaties are important. But he says sometimes the best way to fight slavery is to attack it at the local level. The International Justice Mission Web site is ijm.org. The mailing address is post office box 58147, Washington, D-C, 20037, USA. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Dictionaries in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 8, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. This week -- a look inside the world of dictionaries. (THEME) VOICE ONE: If you call someone "fat," spelled F-A-T, it means overweight. But if you call someone "phat," spelled P-H-A-T, it means highly good looking. Some dictionaries now include this word as slang. The editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary explained how it reached their Eleventh Edition published last year. VOICE TWO: The editors read everything they can to search for new words and meanings. They keep electronic records. They also record words on individual citation cards. Over the years, their company has collected more than 15,000,000 citations. Editors continually consider and reconsider them for placement in their dictionaries. The editors found enough uses of “phat” over time to judge the word to be popular and long lasting. So they added it to the more than 225,000 explanations of words and phrases in the Collegiate. VOICE ONE: One of the early uses of "phat" that they found in print appeared in a magazine in 1994. A writer used it in relation to hip-hop music to mean excellent. But usage can change by the time a word appears in a dictionary. This is especially true of slang. Some teen-agers say phat is an old word already. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many of the 10,000 new words in the Eleventh Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary involve computers. Among them is the term drag-and-drop. This means to move a computer file across a screen. Technology terms like this are an example of how dictionaries show the influence of the times. Another example is the word “chairperson.” It first appeared in the Random House Webster’s College Dictionary in the nineteen-seventies. It recognized that women as well as men serve as leaders. “Carjacking” entered dictionaries in the 1990's. To carjack means to take someone’s car by force. The Fourth Edition of the Webster’s New World College Dictionary also includes "mosh." This is a way to dance to heavy metal music. Dancers crash into each other in a mosh pit in front of the band. VOICE ONE: Just because a word enters the dictionary does not mean it will stay. An example is "Macarena." (MUSIC) Many people did the Macarena dance. The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary listed Macarena in 1997. But a year later, this word disappeared ... much like the dance itself. VOICE TWO: There is a word that the McDonald's Corporation would like to see disappear from the Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate. The word is "McJob." It is defined as a job with low pay and little chance for improvement. It is meant to describe the sort of job that a worker who prepares fast food might have. But the chairman and chief executive officer of McDonald’s, Jim Cantalupo, denounced this definition. He said it insults the 12,000,000 people who work for McDonald’s. Also, the company itself uses the term “McJob” in its employment program for people with mental and physical disabilities. But editors of dictionaries say they do not invent words, they only record the ones people use. VOICE ONE: Dictionaries usually list their number of entries instead of their number of words. No one can say how many words are in the English language. There are always new ones, and new uses for old ones. Some words disappear. Others reappear with a different meaning. Then there are all the new groupings of words into phrases with meanings of their own. College dictionaries have about two-hundred-thousand or more definitions. This compares with 300,0000 or 400,000 in many unabridged dictionaries. Today many people use the Internet to look up words. Over the centuries, many people have looked to dictionaries to settle arguments about the correct way to use a word. But dictionaries these days do not judge how a word should be used. They simply describe how people use them. and Random House, for example, have free online services. Two others are dictionary.com and yourdictionary.com. Some online dictionaries let users also hear how to say words. VOICE TWO: Some dictionaries are limited to subject areas. For example, Artlex.com provides free definitions for more than three-thousand terms related to art. The address is www.artlex.com. There are many other kinds of dictionaries online, in print or both. There are biographical dictionaries of people and geographical dictionaries of places. OK, time for a question. Can you think of a word that you would find in both a medical dictionary and a music dictionary, but with different meanings? Keep listening -- we'll tell you what we thought of. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now we step back 400 years in the history of dictionary making. In 1604, a British school director named Robert Cawdrey produced a book that defined about 3,000 English words. These came from other languages. More than a century later, the writer Samuel Johnson published what he called a “Dictionary of the English Language." It appeared in 1855. Then, in 1791, another Englishman, John Walker, also produced a dictionary. An American, Noah Webster, wanted to create a dictionary as good as those others. Webster wanted to publish an American dictionary. And he did, in 1806, with a dictionary for schoolchildren. Experts say this work launched American dictionaries as we know them today. VOICE TWO: Noah Webster was born in 1858 in West Hartford, Connecticut. He became a teacher and studied law. He did not like the books he was supposed to use to teach. So he created many American schoolbooks. Later he became a political journalist. Historians say that after a few years, he returned to producing schoolbooks because he got tired of political disputes. His first dictionary, in 1806, was called “A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.” The next year, he published a shorter version, a dictionary "Compiled for the Use of Common Schools.” A new version appeared in 1817. VOICE ONE: After that Webster produced what he called “An American Dictionary of the English Language.” It was published in 1828. It contained 70,000 definitions. It was really two books. He corrected and enlarged it into what became known as “Webster’s Unabridged.” Webster proved himself untraditional as a maker of English language dictionaries. He included terms popular only in America. He spelled some words in untraditional ways. The same was true for the ways he listed to say words and to use them. Some critics denounced his work. They did not understand that Noah Webster had established the beginnings of many American dictionaries of the future. VOICE TWO: Noah Webster died in 1843. Two printers in Worcester, Massachusetts, bought the rights to continue his dictionary and publish their own. The two were brothers, Charles and George Merriam. Today the dictionary publishers at the Merriam-Webster company note that many of their competitors use the name "Webster." But their company is able to claim a historical link. Over the centuries, many people have looked to dictionaries to settle arguments about the correct way to use a word. But dictionaries these days do not judge how a word should be used. They simply describe how people use them. They will, however, often warn if a word is considered offensive. VOICE ONE: It would be interesting to know what the man whose name appears on so many modern dictionaries would think of them. They follow the spirit of the times. But so did Noah Webster. Who knows, maybe he would have included phat, P-H-A-T, in his dictionaries, too. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Earlier, we asked if you could think of a word with unrelated meanings in both a medical dictionary and a music dictionary. We thought of one; it describes both a part of the body and a musical instrument: organ. Our producer, Caty Weaver, gets the credit. VOICE ONE: Our recording engineer today was Zeinab Abdel-Rahman. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. We leave you with more of the Animaniacs and their production of "All the Words in the English Language." Broadcast: March 8, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. This week -- a look inside the world of dictionaries. (THEME) VOICE ONE: If you call someone "fat," spelled F-A-T, it means overweight. But if you call someone "phat," spelled P-H-A-T, it means highly good looking. Some dictionaries now include this word as slang. The editors of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary explained how it reached their Eleventh Edition published last year. VOICE TWO: The editors read everything they can to search for new words and meanings. They keep electronic records. They also record words on individual citation cards. Over the years, their company has collected more than 15,000,000 citations. Editors continually consider and reconsider them for placement in their dictionaries. The editors found enough uses of “phat” over time to judge the word to be popular and long lasting. So they added it to the more than 225,000 explanations of words and phrases in the Collegiate. VOICE ONE: One of the early uses of "phat" that they found in print appeared in a magazine in 1994. A writer used it in relation to hip-hop music to mean excellent. But usage can change by the time a word appears in a dictionary. This is especially true of slang. Some teen-agers say phat is an old word already. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many of the 10,000 new words in the Eleventh Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary involve computers. Among them is the term drag-and-drop. This means to move a computer file across a screen. Technology terms like this are an example of how dictionaries show the influence of the times. Another example is the word “chairperson.” It first appeared in the Random House Webster’s College Dictionary in the nineteen-seventies. It recognized that women as well as men serve as leaders. “Carjacking” entered dictionaries in the 1990's. To carjack means to take someone’s car by force. The Fourth Edition of the Webster’s New World College Dictionary also includes "mosh." This is a way to dance to heavy metal music. Dancers crash into each other in a mosh pit in front of the band. VOICE ONE: Just because a word enters the dictionary does not mean it will stay. An example is "Macarena." (MUSIC) Many people did the Macarena dance. The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary listed Macarena in 1997. But a year later, this word disappeared ... much like the dance itself. VOICE TWO: There is a word that the McDonald's Corporation would like to see disappear from the Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate. The word is "McJob." It is defined as a job with low pay and little chance for improvement. It is meant to describe the sort of job that a worker who prepares fast food might have. But the chairman and chief executive officer of McDonald’s, Jim Cantalupo, denounced this definition. He said it insults the 12,000,000 people who work for McDonald’s. Also, the company itself uses the term “McJob” in its employment program for people with mental and physical disabilities. But editors of dictionaries say they do not invent words, they only record the ones people use. VOICE ONE: Dictionaries usually list their number of entries instead of their number of words. No one can say how many words are in the English language. There are always new ones, and new uses for old ones. Some words disappear. Others reappear with a different meaning. Then there are all the new groupings of words into phrases with meanings of their own. College dictionaries have about two-hundred-thousand or more definitions. This compares with 300,0000 or 400,000 in many unabridged dictionaries. Today many people use the Internet to look up words. Over the centuries, many people have looked to dictionaries to settle arguments about the correct way to use a word. But dictionaries these days do not judge how a word should be used. They simply describe how people use them. and Random House, for example, have free online services. Two others are dictionary.com and yourdictionary.com. Some online dictionaries let users also hear how to say words. VOICE TWO: Some dictionaries are limited to subject areas. For example, Artlex.com provides free definitions for more than three-thousand terms related to art. The address is www.artlex.com. There are many other kinds of dictionaries online, in print or both. There are biographical dictionaries of people and geographical dictionaries of places. OK, time for a question. Can you think of a word that you would find in both a medical dictionary and a music dictionary, but with different meanings? Keep listening -- we'll tell you what we thought of. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now we step back 400 years in the history of dictionary making. In 1604, a British school director named Robert Cawdrey produced a book that defined about 3,000 English words. These came from other languages. More than a century later, the writer Samuel Johnson published what he called a “Dictionary of the English Language." It appeared in 1855. Then, in 1791, another Englishman, John Walker, also produced a dictionary. An American, Noah Webster, wanted to create a dictionary as good as those others. Webster wanted to publish an American dictionary. And he did, in 1806, with a dictionary for schoolchildren. Experts say this work launched American dictionaries as we know them today. VOICE TWO: Noah Webster was born in 1858 in West Hartford, Connecticut. He became a teacher and studied law. He did not like the books he was supposed to use to teach. So he created many American schoolbooks. Later he became a political journalist. Historians say that after a few years, he returned to producing schoolbooks because he got tired of political disputes. His first dictionary, in 1806, was called “A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.” The next year, he published a shorter version, a dictionary "Compiled for the Use of Common Schools.” A new version appeared in 1817. VOICE ONE: After that Webster produced what he called “An American Dictionary of the English Language.” It was published in 1828. It contained 70,000 definitions. It was really two books. He corrected and enlarged it into what became known as “Webster’s Unabridged.” Webster proved himself untraditional as a maker of English language dictionaries. He included terms popular only in America. He spelled some words in untraditional ways. The same was true for the ways he listed to say words and to use them. Some critics denounced his work. They did not understand that Noah Webster had established the beginnings of many American dictionaries of the future. VOICE TWO: Noah Webster died in 1843. Two printers in Worcester, Massachusetts, bought the rights to continue his dictionary and publish their own. The two were brothers, Charles and George Merriam. Today the dictionary publishers at the Merriam-Webster company note that many of their competitors use the name "Webster." But their company is able to claim a historical link. Over the centuries, many people have looked to dictionaries to settle arguments about the correct way to use a word. But dictionaries these days do not judge how a word should be used. They simply describe how people use them. They will, however, often warn if a word is considered offensive. VOICE ONE: It would be interesting to know what the man whose name appears on so many modern dictionaries would think of them. They follow the spirit of the times. But so did Noah Webster. Who knows, maybe he would have included phat, P-H-A-T, in his dictionaries, too. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Earlier, we asked if you could think of a word with unrelated meanings in both a medical dictionary and a music dictionary. We thought of one; it describes both a part of the body and a musical instrument: organ. Our producer, Caty Weaver, gets the credit. VOICE ONE: Our recording engineer today was Zeinab Abdel-Rahman. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. We leave you with more of the Animaniacs and their production of "All the Words in the English Language." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Cloning in South Korea / Ancient Insect / Preeclampsia Research
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 9, 2004 (THEME) Cloned embryo at four cell stage(Photo courtesy Huang Woo Suk, Seoul National Univ.) Broadcast: March 9, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, something new and something old ... the debate over the cloning of human embryos, and the discovery of the oldest insect ever found. VOICE ONE: Plus, some hopeful news from research on a dangerous disorder of pregnancy. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Two doctors in South Korea are in the news a lot these days. They are the first scientists to report success in efforts to create a human embryo and to remove stem cells from it. Stem cells have the ability to grow into other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. So they might offer new ways to treat disease. Hwang Woo-suk and Moon Shin-yong are doctors at Seoul National University. Their study was published in February in Science magazine. Sixteen women took part in the research. They agreed to take fertility drugs for a month. These caused them to produce a large number of eggs. The doctors collected two-hundred-forty-two eggs for their study. They removed the nucleus from each cell in the eggs. The nucleus contains DNA material, the complete genetic plans for an organism. Then the researchers used electricity to join each egg cell to a different cell taken from the women’s ovaries. The ovaries are the organs that produce eggs. Thirty of the joined cells grew into what are called blastocysts, an early form of an embryo. The doctors say they were able to collect stem cells from twenty of them. VOICE ONE: There are many political and moral questions about this work. Lawmakers around the world remain divided over how to supervise cloning research. But scientists, politicians and clergy generally agree that cloning should not be used to copy human beings. It has been done with animals. In each case, scientists created an embryo and placed it in a female animal to grow. There was Dolly the cloned sheep, for example. This form of science is called reproductive cloning. But many scientists do support therapeutic cloning for humans. This is where stem cells are harvested for research on possible treatments for disease. Supporters argue that cloned stem cells could be used for gene therapy or to repair tissue. Researchers say they are still years away from such uses. Yet critics say they fear that human embryos could become just another industrial product. Some people would ban any form of cloning. VOICE TWO: Doctor Hwang says he understands the issues about his research. But he says human embryo cloning must go forward to help people with deadly diseases. The two doctors are seeking patent ownership rights to the process they developed. They say they also want to protect the cloned human stem cells that grew from their experiments. Seoul National University will own sixty percent of the patent. Organizations that helped finance the research will own forty percent. Hwang Woo Suk and Moon Shin Yong say they are not seeking any economic gains in the future. They say their only hope is that one day, their discovery will help solve some incurable disease. VOICE ONE: Last week, there was a separate development in the United States. Harvard University announced plans to build a center to grow and study human stem cells. Harvard officials in Cambridge, Massachusetts, say they will pay for the center with private money. The Bush administration bars the use of federal money for stem cell research. This is because a developing embryo must be destroyed in order to collect the cells. Opponents of such research say this destroys life. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Some pregnant women develop a condition called preeclampsia [pre-ee-CLAMP-see-ah]. This causes dangerously high blood pressure. It causes the urine to contain large amounts of protein. And it causes fluid to collect in the hands and feet. Preeclampsia can threaten the life of the mother and her baby. In severe cases, the woman can suffer seizures and die. Doctors can treat the effects. But the only cure known is giving birth. However, babies born to mothers with preeclampsia may be small for their age. Or they may be born too soon. This puts the baby at risk for a number of problems. Researchers say preeclampsia affects about five percent of pregnancies. It can happen without warning. The cause is unknown. But new findings may help doctors look for signs of preeclampsia before it happens, and do more about it. VOICE ONE: A study found that two proteins in the blood may point to the development of preeclampsia. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings last month. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School did the study. They studied protein levels in blood taken from one hundred-twenty women who had preeclampsia. The blood had been taken throughout their pregnancies. They compared the findings to the blood of one-hundred-twenty other women who had not developed preeclampsia. The two groups began their pregnancies with similar levels of the two proteins measured. But the researchers found that changes took place in the women who later developed preeclampsia. Levels of one protein began to increase about five weeks before the women showed any signs of the condition. Also, levels of the other protein decreased beginning in the thirteenth and sixteenth weeks of their pregnancies. VOICE TWO: Doctor Richard Levine of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development led the study. He notes that the study did not include women who developed pregnancy-related high blood pressure but not preeclampsia. So it is not known if these women have similar changes in their proteins. But Doctor Levine says the findings do offer the possibility of preventing and treating preeclampsia. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Have you heard about the world's oldest insect? Scientists say a small bug found in Scotland is four-hundred-million years. No, it is not still alive. The finding suggests that insects existed on Earth twenty-million years earlier than thought. It also suggests they were among the first living creatures on land. The insect was first discovered about eighty years ago. But there was little interest until two-thousand-two. Then, two scientists rediscovered it while doing other research. They examined the fossil at the Natural History Museum in London. The two are David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Michael Engel of the University of Kansas. They examined the remains under a powerful microscope. Details of their discovery appear in Nature magazine. VOICE TWO: The scientists say the insect was probably just over one-half centimeter long. It may have been about the size of a grain of rice and looked like a small fly. The insect was found in red sandstone called chert. The scientists say the insect probably became trapped in crystals that formed around a hot spring. They examined parts of the head and body. Mister Grimaldi says the jaws proved it was an insect. He says the jaws were very similar to those found only in insects with wings. He says he and Mister Engel became excited at the idea that the insect may have flown. They did not find any wings. However, Mister Grimaldi says the jaw parts, or mandibles, provide strong evidence that it had them. VOICE ONE: Other scientists agree that this is the oldest insect found so far. But not all agree that it flew. The oldest known flying insects -- at least until now -- date back about three-hundred-twenty million years. Until now, the oldest insect fossils on record were two insects without wings. They are said to be about three-hundred-eighty million years old. They were found in New York State and Canada. The four-hundred-million-year-old insect is known by the Latin name Rhyniognatha hirsti. Mister Grimaldi says the finding suggests that insects likely developed during the Silurian period. This is the period when evidence shows that plants began to appear on land. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss, Lawan Davis and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week, when we throw some light on the dark ... dark energy, that is. Scientists say it appears to support a theory that Albert Einstein once proposed, and then rejected. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, something new and something old ... the debate over the cloning of human embryos, and the discovery of the oldest insect ever found. VOICE ONE: Plus, some hopeful news from research on a dangerous disorder of pregnancy. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Two doctors in South Korea are in the news a lot these days. They are the first scientists to report success in efforts to create a human embryo and to remove stem cells from it. Stem cells have the ability to grow into other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells. So they might offer new ways to treat disease. Hwang Woo-suk and Moon Shin-yong are doctors at Seoul National University. Their study was published in February in Science magazine. Sixteen women took part in the research. They agreed to take fertility drugs for a month. These caused them to produce a large number of eggs. The doctors collected two-hundred-forty-two eggs for their study. They removed the nucleus from each cell in the eggs. The nucleus contains DNA material, the complete genetic plans for an organism. Then the researchers used electricity to join each egg cell to a different cell taken from the women’s ovaries. The ovaries are the organs that produce eggs. Thirty of the joined cells grew into what are called blastocysts, an early form of an embryo. The doctors say they were able to collect stem cells from twenty of them. VOICE ONE: There are many political and moral questions about this work. Lawmakers around the world remain divided over how to supervise cloning research. But scientists, politicians and clergy generally agree that cloning should not be used to copy human beings. It has been done with animals. In each case, scientists created an embryo and placed it in a female animal to grow. There was Dolly the cloned sheep, for example. This form of science is called reproductive cloning. But many scientists do support therapeutic cloning for humans. This is where stem cells are harvested for research on possible treatments for disease. Supporters argue that cloned stem cells could be used for gene therapy or to repair tissue. Researchers say they are still years away from such uses. Yet critics say they fear that human embryos could become just another industrial product. Some people would ban any form of cloning. VOICE TWO: Doctor Hwang says he understands the issues about his research. But he says human embryo cloning must go forward to help people with deadly diseases. The two doctors are seeking patent ownership rights to the process they developed. They say they also want to protect the cloned human stem cells that grew from their experiments. Seoul National University will own sixty percent of the patent. Organizations that helped finance the research will own forty percent. Hwang Woo Suk and Moon Shin Yong say they are not seeking any economic gains in the future. They say their only hope is that one day, their discovery will help solve some incurable disease. VOICE ONE: Last week, there was a separate development in the United States. Harvard University announced plans to build a center to grow and study human stem cells. Harvard officials in Cambridge, Massachusetts, say they will pay for the center with private money. The Bush administration bars the use of federal money for stem cell research. This is because a developing embryo must be destroyed in order to collect the cells. Opponents of such research say this destroys life. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Some pregnant women develop a condition called preeclampsia [pre-ee-CLAMP-see-ah]. This causes dangerously high blood pressure. It causes the urine to contain large amounts of protein. And it causes fluid to collect in the hands and feet. Preeclampsia can threaten the life of the mother and her baby. In severe cases, the woman can suffer seizures and die. Doctors can treat the effects. But the only cure known is giving birth. However, babies born to mothers with preeclampsia may be small for their age. Or they may be born too soon. This puts the baby at risk for a number of problems. Researchers say preeclampsia affects about five percent of pregnancies. It can happen without warning. The cause is unknown. But new findings may help doctors look for signs of preeclampsia before it happens, and do more about it. VOICE ONE: A study found that two proteins in the blood may point to the development of preeclampsia. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings last month. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School did the study. They studied protein levels in blood taken from one hundred-twenty women who had preeclampsia. The blood had been taken throughout their pregnancies. They compared the findings to the blood of one-hundred-twenty other women who had not developed preeclampsia. The two groups began their pregnancies with similar levels of the two proteins measured. But the researchers found that changes took place in the women who later developed preeclampsia. Levels of one protein began to increase about five weeks before the women showed any signs of the condition. Also, levels of the other protein decreased beginning in the thirteenth and sixteenth weeks of their pregnancies. VOICE TWO: Doctor Richard Levine of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development led the study. He notes that the study did not include women who developed pregnancy-related high blood pressure but not preeclampsia. So it is not known if these women have similar changes in their proteins. But Doctor Levine says the findings do offer the possibility of preventing and treating preeclampsia. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Have you heard about the world's oldest insect? Scientists say a small bug found in Scotland is four-hundred-million years. No, it is not still alive. The finding suggests that insects existed on Earth twenty-million years earlier than thought. It also suggests they were among the first living creatures on land. The insect was first discovered about eighty years ago. But there was little interest until two-thousand-two. Then, two scientists rediscovered it while doing other research. They examined the fossil at the Natural History Museum in London. The two are David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Michael Engel of the University of Kansas. They examined the remains under a powerful microscope. Details of their discovery appear in Nature magazine. VOICE TWO: The scientists say the insect was probably just over one-half centimeter long. It may have been about the size of a grain of rice and looked like a small fly. The insect was found in red sandstone called chert. The scientists say the insect probably became trapped in crystals that formed around a hot spring. They examined parts of the head and body. Mister Grimaldi says the jaws proved it was an insect. He says the jaws were very similar to those found only in insects with wings. He says he and Mister Engel became excited at the idea that the insect may have flown. They did not find any wings. However, Mister Grimaldi says the jaw parts, or mandibles, provide strong evidence that it had them. VOICE ONE: Other scientists agree that this is the oldest insect found so far. But not all agree that it flew. The oldest known flying insects -- at least until now -- date back about three-hundred-twenty million years. Until now, the oldest insect fossils on record were two insects without wings. They are said to be about three-hundred-eighty million years old. They were found in New York State and Canada. The four-hundred-million-year-old insect is known by the Latin name Rhyniognatha hirsti. Mister Grimaldi says the finding suggests that insects likely developed during the Silurian period. This is the period when evidence shows that plants began to appear on land. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss, Lawan Davis and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week, when we throw some light on the dark ... dark energy, that is. Scientists say it appears to support a theory that Albert Einstein once proposed, and then rejected. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – Outbreaks of Disease Cut World Meat Exports
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 9, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A United Nations report says outbreaks of animal disease could reduce world meat exports by one-third this year. The Food and Agriculture Organization says losses could reach ten-thousand-million dollars if import bans stay in place all year. And this does not include costs like the measures to control the current outbreaks in Asia, the United States and Canada. In late February, the United States reported an outbreak of bird flu on a farm near San Antonio, Texas. The highly infectious virus was different from the one found earlier in the Northeast. But officials said there was no danger to the public in either case. Texas officials immediately destroyed almost seven-thousand birds. Jim Rogers of the Animal and Plant Inspection Service at the United States Department of Agriculture says the outbreak is under control. He says no new cases have been reported. He says birds experience a flu season just like people do. But the outbreak in Texas led the European Union to suspend all imports of live chickens, turkeys and eggs from the United States. The ban will remain at least until March twenty-third. One-third of world poultry exports come from the United States. The world market in beef has also suffered, because of mad cow disease. Last year one case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was found in Canada and one in the United States. The United States and Canada hold a twenty-five percent share of the world beef market. Last week Mexico agreed to reopen its border to some United States beef products. But many countries continue to ban imports of beef or chicken, or both. Some have banned chicken imports only from affected states. Import bans can affect countries differently. Japan, for example, imports much of its chicken and beef. The result was an increase of forty-percent last month in the price of meat from pigs. Japan has also had its own problems with bird flu and mad cow disease. A third outbreak of flu virus H5N1 was reported late last month, this time at a farm in Kyoto. That is the virus that has killed more than twenty people in Vietnam and Thailand. Concern about bird flu has affected even countries in Asia where the virus has not been reported. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says lower demand for chicken and eggs in India, for example, has cut prices there by one-third. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  La Brea Tar Pits
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 10, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 10, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual scientific research area in the United States. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual scientific research area in the United States. It is filled with the remains of ancient animals. This unusual place is in the center of Los Angeles, California. Its name is Rancho La Brea. But most people know it as the La Brea Tar Pits. (THEME) VOICE ONE: To understand why La Brea is an important scientific research center we must travel back through time almost forty-thousand years. Picture an area that is almost desert land. The sun is hot. A pig-like creature searches for food. It uses its short, flat nose to dig near a small tree. It moves small amounts of sand with its nose. It finds nothing. The pig starts to walk away, but it cannot move its feet. They are covered with a thick, black substance. The pig shakes one foot loose, but the others just sink deeper. The more it struggles against the black substance, the deeper it sinks. The pig attempts to free itself again and again. It now screams in fear and fights wildly to get loose. Less than a kilometer away, a huge cat-like creature with two long front teeth hears the screams. It, too, is hungry. Traveling across the ground at great speed, the cat nears the area where the pig is fighting for its life. The cat jumps on the pig’s back. It sinks its long teeth into the pig’s neck. The pig dies quickly, and the cat begins to eat. Almost an hour passes before the cat is finished. When it attempts to leave, like the pig, it finds it cannot move. The more the big cat struggles, the deeper it sinks into the black substance. Before morning, the cat is dead. Its body, and the bones of the pig, slowly sink into the sticky black hole. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the story we have told you happened again and again over a period of many thousands of years. The black substance that trapped the animals came out of the Earth as oil. The oil dried, leaving behind a partly solid substance called asphalt. In the heat of the sun, the asphalt softened. Whatever touched it would often become trapped forever. In seventeen-sixty-nine, a group of Spanish explorers visited the area. They were led by Gaspar de Portola, governor of Lower California. The group stopped to examine the sticky black substance that covered the Earth. They called the area “La Brea” the Spanish words for “tar.” Many years later, settlers used the tar, or asphalt, on the tops of their houses to keep water out. They found animal bones in the asphalt, but threw them away. In nineteen-oh-six, scientists began to study the bones found in La Brea. Ten years later, the owner of the land, George Allan Hancock, gave it to the government of Los Angeles. His gift carried one condition. He said La Brea could only be used for scientific work. VOICE ONE: Today, the La Brea Tar Pits are known to scientists around the world. The area is considered one of the richest areas of fossil bones in the world. It is an extremely valuable place to study ancient animals. Scientists have recovered more than one-million fossil bones from the La Brea Tar Pits. They have identified more than six-hundred-fifty different kinds of animals and plants. The fossils are from creatures as small as insects to those that were bigger than a modern elephant. These creatures became trapped as long ago as forty-thousand years. It is still happening today. Small birds and animals still become trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rancho La Brea is now the home of a modern research center and museum. Visitors can see the ancient fossil bones of creatures like the imperial mammoth and the American mastodon. Both look something like the modern day elephant, but bigger. The museum has many fossil remains of the huge cats that once lived in the area. They are called saber-toothed cats because of their long, fierce teeth. Scientists have found more than two-thousand examples of the huge cats. The museum also has many ground sloths and thousands of fossil remains of an ancient kind of wolf. Scientists believe large groups of wolves became stuck when they came to feed on animals already trapped in the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Since nineteen-sixty-nine, scientists have been digging at one area of La Brea called Pit Ninety-One. They have found more than forty-thousand fossils in Pit Ninety-One. More than ninety-five percent of the mammal bones are from just seven different animals. Three were plant-eaters. They were the western horse, the ancient bison and a two-meter tall animal called the Harlan’s ground sloth. Four of the animals were meat-eating hunters. These were the saber-tooth cat, the North American lion, the dire wolf and the coyote. All these animals, except the dog-like coyote, have disappeared from the Earth. VOICE TWO: Researchers say eighty percent of the fossils found are those of meat-eating animals. They say this is a surprise because there have always been more plant- eaters in the world. The researchers say each plant-eater that became trapped caused many meat-eaters to come to the place to feed. They, too, became trapped. Researches say the number of large animals caught in the tar pits represents only about three every ten years. Many more escaped. However, this represents many large animals over a period of several thousand years. Visitors often ask if the bones of any dinosaurs have been found at La Brea. The answer is no. Dinosaurs disappeared about sixty-five- million years before animals first became trapped at La Brea. The La Brea area and much of California was part of the Pacific Ocean when dinosaurs were alive in North America. VOICE ONE: Rancho La Brea has also been a trap for many different kinds of insects. Scientists free these dead insects by washing the asphalt away with special chemicals. The La Brea insects give scientists a close look at the history of insects in southern California. The La Brea Tar Pits have also provided science with interesting information about the plants that grew in the area. For many thousands of years, plant seeds landed in the sticky asphalt. The seeds have been saved for research. Scientists also have found pollen from many different kinds of plants. The seeds and pollen, or the lack of them, can show severe weather changes over thousands of years. Scientists say these provide information that has helped them understand the history of the environment. The seeds and pollen have left a forty-thousand year record of the environment and weather for this area of California. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Thousands of visitors come each year to see fossils that have been found at Rancho La Brea. They visit the George C. Page Museum. Mister Page was a wealthy man who became very interested in the scientific work being done at the tar pits. He gave the money to build the museum and research center. At the museum, visitors can watch scientists dig bones from La Brea’s Pit Ninety-One. The scientists dig very slowly, using small tools similar to those used by a doctor to examine teeth. They also use toothbrushes and cleaning fluids to help soften and clean away the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Visitors to the museum can also see the “fish bowl,” a laboratory surrounded by glass. Here, they can watch scientists do their research. Visitors can watch the scientists clean, examine, repair and identify fossils that are still being discovered. Through this process, scientists are able to answer questions and solve puzzles about animals and their environment from thousands of years ago. It is exciting to stand only a few meters away and watch scientists clean the asphalt off a fossil that is thousands of years old. Visitors quickly learn why researchers consider Rancho La Brea a very special place. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can visit the Rancho La Brea Page Museum. Have your computer search for the Spanish words “La Brea.” L-A-B-R-E-A, and look for the Page Museum link. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. It is filled with the remains of ancient animals. This unusual place is in the center of Los Angeles, California. Its name is Rancho La Brea. But most people know it as the La Brea Tar Pits. (THEME) VOICE ONE: To understand why La Brea is an important scientific research center we must travel back through time almost forty-thousand years. Picture an area that is almost desert land. The sun is hot. A pig-like creature searches for food. It uses its short, flat nose to dig near a small tree. It moves small amounts of sand with its nose. It finds nothing. The pig starts to walk away, but it cannot move its feet. They are covered with a thick, black substance. The pig shakes one foot loose, but the others just sink deeper. The more it struggles against the black substance, the deeper it sinks. The pig attempts to free itself again and again. It now screams in fear and fights wildly to get loose. Less than a kilometer away, a huge cat-like creature with two long front teeth hears the screams. It, too, is hungry. Traveling across the ground at great speed, the cat nears the area where the pig is fighting for its life. The cat jumps on the pig’s back. It sinks its long teeth into the pig’s neck. The pig dies quickly, and the cat begins to eat. Almost an hour passes before the cat is finished. When it attempts to leave, like the pig, it finds it cannot move. The more the big cat struggles, the deeper it sinks into the black substance. Before morning, the cat is dead. Its body, and the bones of the pig, slowly sink into the sticky black hole. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the story we have told you happened again and again over a period of many thousands of years. The black substance that trapped the animals came out of the Earth as oil. The oil dried, leaving behind a partly solid substance called asphalt. In the heat of the sun, the asphalt softened. Whatever touched it would often become trapped forever. In seventeen-sixty-nine, a group of Spanish explorers visited the area. They were led by Gaspar de Portola, governor of Lower California. The group stopped to examine the sticky black substance that covered the Earth. They called the area “La Brea” the Spanish words for “tar.” Many years later, settlers used the tar, or asphalt, on the tops of their houses to keep water out. They found animal bones in the asphalt, but threw them away. In nineteen-oh-six, scientists began to study the bones found in La Brea. Ten years later, the owner of the land, George Allan Hancock, gave it to the government of Los Angeles. His gift carried one condition. He said La Brea could only be used for scientific work. VOICE ONE: Today, the La Brea Tar Pits are known to scientists around the world. The area is considered one of the richest areas of fossil bones in the world. It is an extremely valuable place to study ancient animals. Scientists have recovered more than one-million fossil bones from the La Brea Tar Pits. They have identified more than six-hundred-fifty different kinds of animals and plants. The fossils are from creatures as small as insects to those that were bigger than a modern elephant. These creatures became trapped as long ago as forty-thousand years. It is still happening today. Small birds and animals still become trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rancho La Brea is now the home of a modern research center and museum. Visitors can see the ancient fossil bones of creatures like the imperial mammoth and the American mastodon. Both look something like the modern day elephant, but bigger. The museum has many fossil remains of the huge cats that once lived in the area. They are called saber-toothed cats because of their long, fierce teeth. Scientists have found more than two-thousand examples of the huge cats. The museum also has many ground sloths and thousands of fossil remains of an ancient kind of wolf. Scientists believe large groups of wolves became stuck when they came to feed on animals already trapped in the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Since nineteen-sixty-nine, scientists have been digging at one area of La Brea called Pit Ninety-One. They have found more than forty-thousand fossils in Pit Ninety-One. More than ninety-five percent of the mammal bones are from just seven different animals. Three were plant-eaters. They were the western horse, the ancient bison and a two-meter tall animal called the Harlan’s ground sloth. Four of the animals were meat-eating hunters. These were the saber-tooth cat, the North American lion, the dire wolf and the coyote. All these animals, except the dog-like coyote, have disappeared from the Earth. VOICE TWO: Researchers say eighty percent of the fossils found are those of meat-eating animals. They say this is a surprise because there have always been more plant- eaters in the world. The researchers say each plant-eater that became trapped caused many meat-eaters to come to the place to feed. They, too, became trapped. Researches say the number of large animals caught in the tar pits represents only about three every ten years. Many more escaped. However, this represents many large animals over a period of several thousand years. Visitors often ask if the bones of any dinosaurs have been found at La Brea. The answer is no. Dinosaurs disappeared about sixty-five- million years before animals first became trapped at La Brea. The La Brea area and much of California was part of the Pacific Ocean when dinosaurs were alive in North America. VOICE ONE: Rancho La Brea has also been a trap for many different kinds of insects. Scientists free these dead insects by washing the asphalt away with special chemicals. The La Brea insects give scientists a close look at the history of insects in southern California. The La Brea Tar Pits have also provided science with interesting information about the plants that grew in the area. For many thousands of years, plant seeds landed in the sticky asphalt. The seeds have been saved for research. Scientists also have found pollen from many different kinds of plants. The seeds and pollen, or the lack of them, can show severe weather changes over thousands of years. Scientists say these provide information that has helped them understand the history of the environment. The seeds and pollen have left a forty-thousand year record of the environment and weather for this area of California. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Thousands of visitors come each year to see fossils that have been found at Rancho La Brea. They visit the George C. Page Museum. Mister Page was a wealthy man who became very interested in the scientific work being done at the tar pits. He gave the money to build the museum and research center. At the museum, visitors can watch scientists dig bones from La Brea’s Pit Ninety-One. The scientists dig very slowly, using small tools similar to those used by a doctor to examine teeth. They also use toothbrushes and cleaning fluids to help soften and clean away the asphalt. VOICE ONE: Visitors to the museum can also see the “fish bowl,” a laboratory surrounded by glass. Here, they can watch scientists do their research. Visitors can watch the scientists clean, examine, repair and identify fossils that are still being discovered. Through this process, scientists are able to answer questions and solve puzzles about animals and their environment from thousands of years ago. It is exciting to stand only a few meters away and watch scientists clean the asphalt off a fossil that is thousands of years old. Visitors quickly learn why researchers consider Rancho La Brea a very special place. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can visit the Rancho La Brea Page Museum. Have your computer search for the Spanish words “La Brea.” L-A-B-R-E-A, and look for the Page Museum link. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - New Drug Cuts Blood Supply to Cancer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 10, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. There is an expression that describes the traditional three steps that doctors use to treat cancer: "cut, burn and poison." Cut out the growth. Burn the cancerous cells with radiation. Poison those that remain with chemotherapy drugs. More than thirty years ago, a young American doctor proposed another way. Doctor Judah Folkman thought cutting the blood supply to cancers could block their growth. For a long time, many other scientists dismissed this theory. But, last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug that works the way he proposed. The drug is called Avastin. The Genentech company developed it to lengthen the lives of people with colon cancer that has spread in the body. It does not cure the disease, however. To test the drug, some patients received both Avastin and chemotherapy chemicals. Others received only chemotherapy. The people who had both generally survived for twenty months. That was about five months longer than those on chemotherapy alone. Avastin is a genetically engineered protein. It connects with a protein in the body that helps blood vessels grow. That protein is known as V.E.G.F., vascular endothelial growth factor. Blocking this growth factor can interfere with the supply of blood to the cancer and starve the cells. Avastin is designed to target the weak places in cancer cells. It does not damage normal tissue. Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, but usually also kill other cells. This can cause infections along with stomach and intestinal problems. Today, Judah Folkman is a professor at the Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. During the nineteen-sixties he worked at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Doctor Folkman thought that cancers put out some kind of material that made new blood vessels form. He thought it might be possible to develop new treatments if the vessel growth could be blocked. Today other drugs are also being tested to see if they can stop the formation of blood vessels. Avastin is one of three new drugs approved for colon cancer in the past two years. But some doctors also note that these new medicines cost a lot more than older treatments. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 6:  Special Education
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 11, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue with part six in our series about learning disabilities. So far, we have discussed problems with skills like reading, writing, speech and mathematics. Today we examine what schools are doing to help students with learning disabilities. Public schools and colleges in the United States are required by law to provide help. Congress approved the Rehabilitation Act in nineteen-seventy-three. This law requires schools to provide disabled students with opportunities equal to those for other students. A more recent law requires public schools to establish a program for each child found to have a disability. Schools must write, and follow, a statement called an I.E.P., an individualized education program. If not, parents may take legal action. States must provide special education services for free. Teachers with these skills are in great demand. There are many ways to meet the needs of a student who has disabilities. One way is to give the student extra time to complete work. Teachers might also permit the student to take tests differently from others in class. For example, the teacher might let the student speak the answers. Or another person could write the answers that the student gives. Also, students who have trouble concentrating might wish to take tests in a room that is extra quiet. Some students might want others to take notes for them during class. Or they might want to listen to recordings of books instead of reading them. Technology is one way to help. There are computer programs, for example, designed for the needs of people with learning disabilities. There are some schools in the United States that teach only students with learning disabilities. One is Landmark College in the northeastern state of Vermont. Students attend for up to three years. It prepares them to continue their education at other colleges. Classes at Landmark College are small. Students have their own learning plan, and a special teacher to help them study. Our series about learning disabilities continues next week. You can find all of our programs on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Included are some links to lists of schools for students with learning disabilities. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #53 - James Monroe, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 11, 2004 (Theme) Broadcast: March 11, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) In the spring of eighteen-twenty, President James Monroe faced a difficult decision. His first four years as president were coming to an end. He wanted to be elected again. But he had to decide something that might force the presidential electors to choose another man. Congress, after much bitter debate between north and south, had approved a bill giving statehood to Missouri....A part of the Louisiana Territory. Southern lawmakers wanted Missouri to permit slavery. The northerners wanted no slaves in Missouri. A compromise was reached. Missouri could have slaves. But nowhere else in the northern part of the Louisiana territory would slavery be permitted. Henry Clay VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) In the spring of eighteen-twenty, President James Monroe faced a difficult decision. His first four years as president were coming to an end. He wanted to be elected again. But he had to decide something that might force the presidential electors to choose another man. Congress, after much bitter debate between north and south, had approved a bill giving statehood to Missouri....A part of the Louisiana Territory. Southern lawmakers wanted Missouri to permit slavery. The northerners wanted no slaves in Missouri. A compromise was reached. Missouri could have slaves. But nowhere else in the northern part of the Louisiana territory would slavery be permitted. VOICE TWO: Many southerners were not satisfied. The compromise closed the door against slavery entering large new areas of land. Southerners -- like all other Americans -- had a right to settle in the new territory. President Monroe was a slave-owner. He understood the feelings of the south. His friends urged him to veto the compromise bill, because it limited slavery in the territory. Monroe believed the compromise was wrong -- but not because it kept slaves out of the territory. The president did not believe the Constitution gave Congress the right to make such conditions. Monroe even wrote a veto message explaining why he could not approve the compromise. But he did not use the veto. He also understood the strong feelings of those opposed to slavery. He believed there might be civil war if he rejected the compromise. So Monroe signed the bill. Missouri had permission to enter the union as a slave state. VOICE ONE: The crisis seemed ended. But a few months later, a new problem developed. Missouri wrote a state constitution that it sent to Congress for approval. One part of this constitution did not permit free black men to enter the state. The constitution was immediately opposed by a number of congressmen. They charged that it violated the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution said citizens of each state had the rights of citizens of each of the other states. And since free black men were citizens of some states, they should have the right to be citizens of Missouri. The debate over this lasted several months. Former House Speaker Henry Clay finally proposed a compromise that both sides accepted. Missouri could become a state if its legislature would make this promise: It would never pass any law that would violate the rights of any citizen of another state. This second compromise ended the dispute over slavery in Missouri and the Louisiana Territory. VOICE TWO: The compromise of eighteen-twenty settled the crisis of slavery for more than twenty years. But everyone knew that the settlement was only temporary. Former President Thomas Jefferson used these words to explain his feelings about the compromise: "This question -- like a fire bell in the night -- awakened and filled me with terror. I understood it at once as the threat of death to the union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But," said Jefferson, "This is a reprieve only. . . Not a final settlement." Monroe's decision to approve the compromise did not hurt his election chances in eighteen-twenty. There was at this time really only one party -- the Republican -- and he was its leader. The opposition Federalist party was dead. It was no longer an election threat. Monroe was the only presidential candidate in the election of eighteen-twenty. He received the vote of every elector, but one. William Plumer of New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams. He explained later that George Washington had been the only president to get all the electoral votes. Plumer said he did not want anyone to share this honor given to Washington. VOICE ONE: Monroe's first four years as president had been successful. He had increased the size of the United States. Florida now was part of the country. And the problem of slavery had been temporarily settled. There had been economic problems -- some of the worst in the nation's history. But the situation was getting better. The nation was growing. As it grew, new problems developed between its different sections. There were really three separate areas with very different interests. The northeastern states had become the industrial center of the nation. The southern states were agricultural with large farms that produced cotton, rice, and tobacco. Much of the work on these farms was done by slave labor. The western states were areas of small farms where grain was produced with free labor. It was a place where a man could make a new start. . . Could build a new life. The land did not cost much. And the fruits of a man's labor were his own. VOICE TWO: This division of the nation into different sections with opposing interests ended the one-party system of Monroe's administration. The industrial northeast wanted high taxes on imported products to protect its industry from foreign competition. This part of the country also believed the national government should pay for roads and waterways to get their products to markets. The south did not agree to high import taxes. These taxes raised the prices on all goods. And import taxes on foreign goods might cause foreign nations to raise import taxes on southern cotton and tobacco. The south also opposed spending federal money for roads and canals. The mountains through the southern atlantic states would make road-building difficult and canals impossible. The western states supported government aid in the building of roads and canals. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were the only inexpensive transportation systems for moving their products to markets. The westerners also supported high taxes on imports, because they believed such taxes would raise the prices of their agricultural products. VOICE ONE: The separate interests of these different sections produced an exciting presidential election campaign in eighteen-twenty-four. Each section had at least one candidate. Several had more than one. The campaign began almost as soon as Monroe was elected for the second time. At one time, as many as sixteen men thought of themselves as presidential possibilities. By eighteen-twenty-two, the number had been reduced to six men. Three of them were members of Monroe's cabinet: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Treasury Secretary William Crawford, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. Adams was the only northern candidate. He was an extremely able man. There were few jobs in government he could not do, and do well. But he was not the kind of man that people liked. He was cold, questioning, and had a sharp tongue. His father was John Adams, the second president of the United States. VOICE TWO: Treasury Secretary Crawford was a southerner -- born in Virginia -- and a large land-owner in Georgia. Crawford had received some votes when the Republicans chose Monroe as their presidential candidate in eighteen-sixteen. He was a good politician and was supported by most southern Republicans. War Secretary Calhoun also was a southern candidate. But he had much less support than Crawford. His home state -- South Carolina -- first named another man as its candidate. When that man died, they named Calhoun. The west had two candidates in the election of eighteen-twenty-four. One was Henry Clay of Kentucky -- "Harry of the West" -- a great lawyer, congressman, Speaker of the House, and senator. The other was Andrew Jackson -- "Old Hickory" -- the hero of New Orleans [battle of New Orleans during the war of 1812]. Jackson was poorly educated, knew little about government, and had a terrible temper. He was a fighter, a man of the people. The sixth candidate was Dewitt Clinton of New York. He was governor of that state and leader of the commission that built the Erie Canal. But New York presidential electors were chosen by the legislature, which was controlled by Clinton's enemies. So Clinton's chances were poor. VOICE ONE: Treasury Secretary Crawford was clearly the leading candidate two years before the election. But he had a serious illness in the autumn of eighteen-twenty-three. He could not meet with the cabinet for months. He could not sign official papers. Crawford did go back to work. But he was only a shadow of the man he had been. "He walks slowly, like a blind man," wrote one reporter. So that took Secretary Crawford out as a possible candidate for the coming election. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Sarah Long. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. VOICE TWO: Many southerners were not satisfied. The compromise closed the door against slavery entering large new areas of land. Southerners -- like all other Americans -- had a right to settle in the new territory. President Monroe was a slave-owner. He understood the feelings of the south. His friends urged him to veto the compromise bill, because it limited slavery in the territory. Monroe believed the compromise was wrong -- but not because it kept slaves out of the territory. The president did not believe the Constitution gave Congress the right to make such conditions. Monroe even wrote a veto message explaining why he could not approve the compromise. But he did not use the veto. He also understood the strong feelings of those opposed to slavery. He believed there might be civil war if he rejected the compromise. So Monroe signed the bill. Missouri had permission to enter the union as a slave state. VOICE ONE: The crisis seemed ended. But a few months later, a new problem developed. Missouri wrote a state constitution that it sent to Congress for approval. One part of this constitution did not permit free black men to enter the state. The constitution was immediately opposed by a number of congressmen. They charged that it violated the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution said citizens of each state had the rights of citizens of each of the other states. And since free black men were citizens of some states, they should have the right to be citizens of Missouri. The debate over this lasted several months. Former House Speaker Henry Clay finally proposed a compromise that both sides accepted. Missouri could become a state if its legislature would make this promise: It would never pass any law that would violate the rights of any citizen of another state. This second compromise ended the dispute over slavery in Missouri and the Louisiana Territory. VOICE TWO: The compromise of eighteen-twenty settled the crisis of slavery for more than twenty years. But everyone knew that the settlement was only temporary. Former President Thomas Jefferson used these words to explain his feelings about the compromise: "This question -- like a fire bell in the night -- awakened and filled me with terror. I understood it at once as the threat of death to the union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But," said Jefferson, "This is a reprieve only. . . Not a final settlement." Monroe's decision to approve the compromise did not hurt his election chances in eighteen-twenty. There was at this time really only one party -- the Republican -- and he was its leader. The opposition Federalist party was dead. It was no longer an election threat. Monroe was the only presidential candidate in the election of eighteen-twenty. He received the vote of every elector, but one. William Plumer of New Hampshire voted for John Quincy Adams. He explained later that George Washington had been the only president to get all the electoral votes. Plumer said he did not want anyone to share this honor given to Washington. VOICE ONE: Monroe's first four years as president had been successful. He had increased the size of the United States. Florida now was part of the country. And the problem of slavery had been temporarily settled. There had been economic problems -- some of the worst in the nation's history. But the situation was getting better. The nation was growing. As it grew, new problems developed between its different sections. There were really three separate areas with very different interests. The northeastern states had become the industrial center of the nation. The southern states were agricultural with large farms that produced cotton, rice, and tobacco. Much of the work on these farms was done by slave labor. The western states were areas of small farms where grain was produced with free labor. It was a place where a man could make a new start. . . Could build a new life. The land did not cost much. And the fruits of a man's labor were his own. VOICE TWO: This division of the nation into different sections with opposing interests ended the one-party system of Monroe's administration. The industrial northeast wanted high taxes on imported products to protect its industry from foreign competition. This part of the country also believed the national government should pay for roads and waterways to get their products to markets. The south did not agree to high import taxes. These taxes raised the prices on all goods. And import taxes on foreign goods might cause foreign nations to raise import taxes on southern cotton and tobacco. The south also opposed spending federal money for roads and canals. The mountains through the southern atlantic states would make road-building difficult and canals impossible. The western states supported government aid in the building of roads and canals. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were the only inexpensive transportation systems for moving their products to markets. The westerners also supported high taxes on imports, because they believed such taxes would raise the prices of their agricultural products. VOICE ONE: The separate interests of these different sections produced an exciting presidential election campaign in eighteen-twenty-four. Each section had at least one candidate. Several had more than one. The campaign began almost as soon as Monroe was elected for the second time. At one time, as many as sixteen men thought of themselves as presidential possibilities. By eighteen-twenty-two, the number had been reduced to six men. Three of them were members of Monroe's cabinet: Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Treasury Secretary William Crawford, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. Adams was the only northern candidate. He was an extremely able man. There were few jobs in government he could not do, and do well. But he was not the kind of man that people liked. He was cold, questioning, and had a sharp tongue. His father was John Adams, the second president of the United States. VOICE TWO: Treasury Secretary Crawford was a southerner -- born in Virginia -- and a large land-owner in Georgia. Crawford had received some votes when the Republicans chose Monroe as their presidential candidate in eighteen-sixteen. He was a good politician and was supported by most southern Republicans. War Secretary Calhoun also was a southern candidate. But he had much less support than Crawford. His home state -- South Carolina -- first named another man as its candidate. When that man died, they named Calhoun. The west had two candidates in the election of eighteen-twenty-four. One was Henry Clay of Kentucky -- "Harry of the West" -- a great lawyer, congressman, Speaker of the House, and senator. The other was Andrew Jackson -- "Old Hickory" -- the hero of New Orleans [battle of New Orleans during the war of 1812]. Jackson was poorly educated, knew little about government, and had a terrible temper. He was a fighter, a man of the people. The sixth candidate was Dewitt Clinton of New York. He was governor of that state and leader of the commission that built the Erie Canal. But New York presidential electors were chosen by the legislature, which was controlled by Clinton's enemies. So Clinton's chances were poor. VOICE ONE: Treasury Secretary Crawford was clearly the leading candidate two years before the election. But he had a serious illness in the autumn of eighteen-twenty-three. He could not meet with the cabinet for months. He could not sign official papers. Crawford did go back to work. But he was only a shadow of the man he had been. "He walks slowly, like a blind man," wrote one reporter. So that took Secretary Crawford out as a possible candidate for the coming election. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Sarah Long. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - St. Patrick’s Day / Demi Moore / Norah Jones New Album
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 12, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 12, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. This is Doug Johnson. On our show today: music from the new album by Norah Jones. And a question about actress Demi Moore. But first, learn why a lot of Americans will be going green next week. St. Patrick’s Day HOST: Next Wednesday, March seventeenth, is Saint Patrick’s Day. This day honors the man who brought Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. It is observed as a religious holiday in Ireland. It is not an official holiday in the United States. But, as Gwenn Outen reports, many people see it as a time to celebrate. ANNCR: About twelve percent of Americans claim Irish ancestry. The Census Bureau says the state with the highest share is Massachusetts, at twenty-four percent. Irish immigrants first celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day in Boston, Massachusetts, about two-hundred-fifty-years ago. You know it is Saint Patrick’s Day in America when you see lots of the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some put green in their hair or on their faces. Some drinking establishments put green in their beer. The city of Chicago puts green in its river. An Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage is traditional on Saint Patrick's Day. And many people attend parties. Some cities have parades. New York City has the biggest. It dates to seventeen-sixty-two. It began with soldiers of the New York State Militia who were from Ireland. Parades spread as more Irish people came to America. They settled in big cities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders. But many Protestant Americans did not welcome the Catholic Irish. So Saint Patrick's Day parades became more than simply a show of celebration for these newcomers. In New York each year, thousands of people march along Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of thousands more gather along this major street to watch. Many of these Americans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day. Demi Moore HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jordan. Mohamed Issa All-ddan in Amman asks about the actress Demi [de-ME] Moore. We begin at the beginning. Demi Moore was born in Roswell, New Mexico, on November eleventh, nineteen-sixty-two. New Mexico is in the American Southwest. Her father was in the Air Force. He left her mother before Demi was born. Demi is short for Demetria. Her mother then married a man named Danny Guynes. The family is said to have moved at least thirty times while Demi was a child. One day, she learned that he was not her biological father. He killed himself while she was a teen-ager. Demi left school at the age of sixteen. At eighteen she married Freddy Moore, a rock musician. They spent four years together. In nineteen-eighty-two, Demi Moore began acting on “General Hospital,” a daytime television show. A few years later, she was in the film “Saint Elmo’s Fire." During filming, she met actor Emilio Estevez. They started a relationship. But in nineteen-eighty-seven, she met actor Bruce Willis. They met at a showing of the movie "Stakeout," which starred Emilio Estevez. Four months later, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis got married. They stayed married eleven years. They had three daughters: Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. Demi Moore is probably best known for her nineteen-ninety movie “Ghost." The next year, she appeared without clothes -- and very pregnant -- on the front of Vanity Fair magazine. Later, she was in several films that did poorly. Among these were “The Scarlet Letter,” “Striptease” and “G.I. Jane.” Most recently, Demi Moore has been a producer on the series of "Austin Powers" comedy films. She also returned to work in front of the camera. She appeared in the film “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” And, lately, pictures of the forty-one-year-old actress have been appearing in lots of places with the new man in her life. Actor Ashton Kutcher celebrated his twenty-sixth birthday last month. Norah Jones New Album HOST: Norah Jones is a twenty-four-year old singer. Her first album, “Come Away With Me” was a huge success. It was released two years ago. It has sold more than eight-million copies in the United States and seventeen-million copies around the world. And it won eight Grammy awards last year. Now, Norah Jones has a second album. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about it. ANNCR: Norah Jones’ new album is called “Feels Like Home.” It was released last month and sold almost two million copies within three weeks. The week after it was released, it was the top album in at least sixteen countries. Here is a song from the new album. The song is called “Sunrise.” (MUSIC) Norah Jones’ beautiful voice makes her new album similar to her first one. However, this album is also different. Jones and the members of her band wrote ten of the thirteen songs on “Feels Like Home.” Norah Jones wrote this one, “What Am I to You?” (MUSIC) Most of Norah Jones’ music is influenced by jazz. However, there are several songs on “Feels Like Home” that sound like country and bluegrass music. Country singer Dolly Parton joins Norah Jones on this song. We leave you with “Creepin’ In.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Audreus Regis. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. This is Doug Johnson. On our show today: music from the new album by Norah Jones. And a question about actress Demi Moore. But first, learn why a lot of Americans will be going green next week. St. Patrick’s Day HOST: Next Wednesday, March seventeenth, is Saint Patrick’s Day. This day honors the man who brought Christianity to Ireland in the fifth century. It is observed as a religious holiday in Ireland. It is not an official holiday in the United States. But, as Gwenn Outen reports, many people see it as a time to celebrate. ANNCR: About twelve percent of Americans claim Irish ancestry. The Census Bureau says the state with the highest share is Massachusetts, at twenty-four percent. Irish immigrants first celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day in Boston, Massachusetts, about two-hundred-fifty-years ago. You know it is Saint Patrick’s Day in America when you see lots of the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some put green in their hair or on their faces. Some drinking establishments put green in their beer. The city of Chicago puts green in its river. An Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage is traditional on Saint Patrick's Day. And many people attend parties. Some cities have parades. New York City has the biggest. It dates to seventeen-sixty-two. It began with soldiers of the New York State Militia who were from Ireland. Parades spread as more Irish people came to America. They settled in big cities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders. But many Protestant Americans did not welcome the Catholic Irish. So Saint Patrick's Day parades became more than simply a show of celebration for these newcomers. In New York each year, thousands of people march along Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of thousands more gather along this major street to watch. Many of these Americans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day. Demi Moore HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jordan. Mohamed Issa All-ddan in Amman asks about the actress Demi [de-ME] Moore. We begin at the beginning. Demi Moore was born in Roswell, New Mexico, on November eleventh, nineteen-sixty-two. New Mexico is in the American Southwest. Her father was in the Air Force. He left her mother before Demi was born. Demi is short for Demetria. Her mother then married a man named Danny Guynes. The family is said to have moved at least thirty times while Demi was a child. One day, she learned that he was not her biological father. He killed himself while she was a teen-ager. Demi left school at the age of sixteen. At eighteen she married Freddy Moore, a rock musician. They spent four years together. In nineteen-eighty-two, Demi Moore began acting on “General Hospital,” a daytime television show. A few years later, she was in the film “Saint Elmo’s Fire." During filming, she met actor Emilio Estevez. They started a relationship. But in nineteen-eighty-seven, she met actor Bruce Willis. They met at a showing of the movie "Stakeout," which starred Emilio Estevez. Four months later, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis got married. They stayed married eleven years. They had three daughters: Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. Demi Moore is probably best known for her nineteen-ninety movie “Ghost." The next year, she appeared without clothes -- and very pregnant -- on the front of Vanity Fair magazine. Later, she was in several films that did poorly. Among these were “The Scarlet Letter,” “Striptease” and “G.I. Jane.” Most recently, Demi Moore has been a producer on the series of "Austin Powers" comedy films. She also returned to work in front of the camera. She appeared in the film “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.” And, lately, pictures of the forty-one-year-old actress have been appearing in lots of places with the new man in her life. Actor Ashton Kutcher celebrated his twenty-sixth birthday last month. Norah Jones New Album HOST: Norah Jones is a twenty-four-year old singer. Her first album, “Come Away With Me” was a huge success. It was released two years ago. It has sold more than eight-million copies in the United States and seventeen-million copies around the world. And it won eight Grammy awards last year. Now, Norah Jones has a second album. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about it. ANNCR: Norah Jones’ new album is called “Feels Like Home.” It was released last month and sold almost two million copies within three weeks. The week after it was released, it was the top album in at least sixteen countries. Here is a song from the new album. The song is called “Sunrise.” (MUSIC) Norah Jones’ beautiful voice makes her new album similar to her first one. However, this album is also different. Jones and the members of her band wrote ten of the thirteen songs on “Feels Like Home.” Norah Jones wrote this one, “What Am I to You?” (MUSIC) Most of Norah Jones’ music is influenced by jazz. However, there are several songs on “Feels Like Home” that sound like country and bluegrass music. Country singer Dolly Parton joins Norah Jones on this song. We leave you with “Creepin’ In.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Audreus Regis. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Jury Finds Martha Stewart Guilty; Michael Eisner Faces Investors' Judgment
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 12, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Broadcast: March 12, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last Friday, a jury in New York found that businesswoman Martha Stewart lied and tried to interfere with a federal investigation. She is in the business of advice and products for home design. But the case did not involve Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She built that company and headed it until the charges last June. The case involves her sale of shares of a biotechnology company, ImClone Systems. In December of two-thousand-one, Martha Stewart sold her shares for two-hundred-twenty-eight-thousand dollars. The next day, some bad news about ImClone caused the share price to drop. Government lawyers charged that she had illegally used inside information from a friend, the man who started ImClone. She denied any wrongdoing. At the end of February, the judge cancelled a charge of insider trading. But the jury found her guilty of all four other charges. Her stock trader was found guilty of similar charges and also lying to the court. Her lawyers have been preparing their appeal. Sentencing is set for June and could result in prison. Martha Stewart is one of a number of business leaders accused recently of crimes. But last week another business leader faced a different kind of judgment. This came at a shareholders meeting of the Walt Disney Company. Investors had to vote yes or no to re-elect Michael Eisner as chairman and chief executive officer. Forty-three percent voted no. The Disney board of directors answered within hours. It kept Mister Eisner as chief executive. But it made board member George Mitchell acting chairman. Mister Mitchell is a former Senate majority leader and diplomat. Many shareholders, including former directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, were not satisfied. They say Mister Eisner has done a poor job. He has led the company for twenty years. Critics also say Mister Mitchell is too much of his friend. The Disney board also again rejected an offer by the cable television company Comcast to buy Disney. Last month, Comcast offered more than sixty-thousand-million dollars in stock and acceptance of debt. Since then, Disney shares have gone up; Comcast shares have gone down. Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said this week that Disney was not a "must-have" for his company. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Last Friday, a jury in New York found that businesswoman Martha Stewart lied and tried to interfere with a federal investigation. She is in the business of advice and products for home design. But the case did not involve Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She built that company and headed it until the charges last June. The case involves her sale of shares of a biotechnology company, ImClone Systems. In December of two-thousand-one, Martha Stewart sold her shares for two-hundred-twenty-eight-thousand dollars. The next day, some bad news about ImClone caused the share price to drop. Government lawyers charged that she had illegally used inside information from a friend, the man who started ImClone. She denied any wrongdoing. At the end of February, the judge cancelled a charge of insider trading. But the jury found her guilty of all four other charges. Her stock trader was found guilty of similar charges and also lying to the court. Her lawyers have been preparing their appeal. Sentencing is set for June and could result in prison. Martha Stewart is one of a number of business leaders accused recently of crimes. But last week another business leader faced a different kind of judgment. This came at a shareholders meeting of the Walt Disney Company. Investors had to vote yes or no to re-elect Michael Eisner as chairman and chief executive officer. Forty-three percent voted no. The Disney board of directors answered within hours. It kept Mister Eisner as chief executive. But it made board member George Mitchell acting chairman. Mister Mitchell is a former Senate majority leader and diplomat. Many shareholders, including former directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, were not satisfied. They say Mister Eisner has done a poor job. He has led the company for twenty years. Critics also say Mister Mitchell is too much of his friend. The Disney board also again rejected an offer by the cable television company Comcast to buy Disney. Last month, Comcast offered more than sixty-thousand-million dollars in stock and acceptance of debt. Since then, Disney shares have gone up; Comcast shares have gone down. Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said this week that Disney was not a "must-have" for his company. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 11, 2004 - Hypercorrection
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: March 11, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- getting hyper about correctness. RS: English once had a system where nouns took different forms depending on whether they were the subject or the object of a sentence. Jack Lynch, an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University, says we've lost most of that. AA: But this system survives in pronouns -- words like "I" and “me” and "she" and "her." And, as Professor Lynch explains, these can be confusing, and lead to common errors known as hypercorrections. LYNCH: "Hypercorrection is not simply being fussy or a nitpicker or a pedant. The 'hyper' part, from Greek, means 'too much.' It means working so hard to avoid one potential problem that you end up falling into another one." RS: "Can you give us an example?" LYNCH: "Sure. We're taught as children, and beginning language learners are told, you don't say 'me and you went to the movies.' It should be 'you and I.' And a lot of people, therefore, internalize the rule that 'you and I' is somehow more proper, and they end up using it in places where they shouldn't -- such as 'he gave it to you and I' when it should be 'he gave it to you and me.'" RS: "But we're not hearing that in common, spoken American English." AA: "What you're hearing is someone would say, let's say, 'He took Rosanne and I to the movies -- '" LYNCH: "Exactly." AA: " -- where it should be 'he took Rosanne and me to the movies.' How did this happen? Why are people doing this?" LYNCH: "It tends to come from areas where people are aware that there's something a little tricky in the language. Now it doesn't often happen if the preposition -- words like 'to' and 'for' and 'with' -- comes before one of these tricky pronouns. You would never say 'he gave it to she and I.' 'To she' just sounds wrong to us immediately. But 'to you' is right because 'you' has the same form whether it's the subject or the object." RS: "So that's a piece of cake there." LYNCH: "There are other areas where we make these mistakes; the word 'whom,' for instance." RS: "And 'who.'" LYNCH: "Yes, 'who' and 'whom.' Many people know there's this word 'whom' out there and they have a sense it's associated with 'proper' usage. But they end up using it wrong, such as 'whom should I say is calling?' It should, in fact, be 'who should I say is calling?' because 'who is calling' -- it functions as a subject." RS: "So this is a subject/object thing again." LYNCH: "Yes. You wouldn't say 'him is calling.' You would say 'he is calling.'" RS: "So what's an easy way to remember this?" LYNCH: "Well, whenever you're considering using 'who' or 'whom,' try converting it into 'he' and 'him.' If your ear tells you that you want a 'he' there, you probably want 'who.' If your ear tells you [that] you want a 'him' there, you probably want 'whom.' And the 'm' at the end is a good way to keep them straight." RS: "Now what about speakers of English as a foreign language, that's another group entirely." LYNCH: "Sure, and they'll make many of these same kinds of errors, especially with these forms where the language has been changing over a long time, and even native speakers can get confused in them. If you're not really confident in the rules, stick with what you do understand, rather than trying out the things that you don't quite get. Honest errors always sound better than hypercorrections, which run the risk of sounding pompous." RS: "We talked about pronouns. We've talked about who/whom. Are there any other features that ... AA: "There's one more. How about 'feeling badly.'" LYNCH: "Yes, 'feeling badly' is a common problem. Again, we're taught growing up, or we're taught as we're first learning language, that we have to use adverbs with verbs. We don't say 'he did it good,' we say 'he did it well.' We don't say 'he ran quick.' We say 'he ran quickly.' But there is a whole class of verbs, verbs of being, which can include verbs related to sense, that do properly take the adjective. So 'I'm feeling badly' is in fact a hypercorrection." RS: "So 'I'm feeling badly' is you're not really feeling some thing well." LYNCH: "Exactly. 'Feeling badly,' what that would mean is something like I'm not doing it correctly, or I'm not touching something very sensitively, something like that. But if you mean feel in the sense of feeling good or bad in yourself, then it should be 'I feel bad' or 'I feel good.'" AA: Language continually changes. Rutgers Professor Lynch says today's hypercorrection will probably become another generation's correct usage. RS: And speaking of another generation, Jack Lynch looks back in time in his new book. It's called "Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language." AA: And that's Wordmaster. Send e-mail to word@voanews.com. And we've got all our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Iraq's Temporary Constitution
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 13, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. A temporary constitution signed this week in Iraq takes effect on July first. That is one day after a temporary government is expected to take office. All twenty-five members of the Iraqi Governing Council or their representatives signed the constitution on Monday. Members called it a new beginning for their country. The document will serve as the law during efforts to approve a permanent constitution and to hold elections for leaders. The constitution is officially known as the Transitional Administrative Law in Iraq. It calls for elections by the end of next January to choose a temporary assembly. This group will propose a permanent constitution and choose a president and two deputy presidents. Those three officials will choose a prime minister and a cabinet. The temporary government is to remain in power until Iraqis vote on a permanent constitution and directly elect leaders. The document signed this week includes a bill of rights. It guarantees freedom of speech and religion. It also guarantees other rights denied by the government of Saddam Hussein, like the right to gather. The constitution says women will be represented in the government. Islam will be the official religion and what the document calls "a source of legislation." And Kurds will continue to have self-rule in northern Iraq. The signing was delayed last week after bombings in Baghdad and Karbala. The ceremony was delayed a second time last Friday. Shiite members of the American-appointed council had refused to sign the constitution because of objections by their leaders. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani objected to two parts of the document. One would veto a permanent constitution if two-thirds of voters in any three provinces rejected it. This could give veto power to ethnic Kurds. They control three provinces. Kurds say this part of the document protects them against having Shiites decide the terms of a permanent constitution. But Shiite leaders want it removed. They say it would let the Kurds block the will of the Shiite majority. About sixty-percent of Iraqis are Shiite. Kurds are about twenty percent. Sunni Muslims are also about twenty percent. Iraq has twenty-five million people. Shiite leaders also objected to a provision that would permit either of the future deputies to reject decisions of a Shiite president. Shiite members of the Governing Council say they will seek changes in the parts of the document that they consider undemocratic. Iraqis who praise the temporary constitution say it gives a voice to all groups. Others who reject the document call it a product of the United States. President Bush called the signing this week historic. He says Iraq is on a long road to liberty and peace. But he says difficult work remains to establish democracy in Iraq. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: March 13, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. A temporary constitution signed this week in Iraq takes effect on July first. That is one day after a temporary government is expected to take office. All twenty-five members of the Iraqi Governing Council or their representatives signed the constitution on Monday. Members called it a new beginning for their country. The document will serve as the law during efforts to approve a permanent constitution and to hold elections for leaders. The constitution is officially known as the Transitional Administrative Law in Iraq. It calls for elections by the end of next January to choose a temporary assembly. This group will propose a permanent constitution and choose a president and two deputy presidents. Those three officials will choose a prime minister and a cabinet. The temporary government is to remain in power until Iraqis vote on a permanent constitution and directly elect leaders. The document signed this week includes a bill of rights. It guarantees freedom of speech and religion. It also guarantees other rights denied by the government of Saddam Hussein, like the right to gather. The constitution says women will be represented in the government. Islam will be the official religion and what the document calls "a source of legislation." And Kurds will continue to have self-rule in northern Iraq. The signing was delayed last week after bombings in Baghdad and Karbala. The ceremony was delayed a second time last Friday. Shiite members of the American-appointed council had refused to sign the constitution because of objections by their leaders. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani objected to two parts of the document. One would veto a permanent constitution if two-thirds of voters in any three provinces rejected it. This could give veto power to ethnic Kurds. They control three provinces. Kurds say this part of the document protects them against having Shiites decide the terms of a permanent constitution. But Shiite leaders want it removed. They say it would let the Kurds block the will of the Shiite majority. About sixty-percent of Iraqis are Shiite. Kurds are about twenty percent. Sunni Muslims are also about twenty percent. Iraq has twenty-five million people. Shiite leaders also objected to a provision that would permit either of the future deputies to reject decisions of a Shiite president. Shiite members of the Governing Council say they will seek changes in the parts of the document that they consider undemocratic. Iraqis who praise the temporary constitution say it gives a voice to all groups. Others who reject the document call it a product of the United States. President Bush called the signing this week historic. He says Iraq is on a long road to liberty and peace. But he says difficult work remains to establish democracy in Iraq. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ray Kroc
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 14, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: March 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Ray Kroc, the man who helped make the fast food industry famous. He expanded a small business into an international operation called McDonald’s. VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Ray Kroc, the man who helped make the fast food industry famous. He expanded a small business into an international operation called McDonald’s. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You probably know what fast food is. It is cooked food that is ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place. It does not cost much. It is popular with most Americans and with many people around the world. Some experts say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and potatoes cooked in hot oil called french fries. Other fast food places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos. VOICE TWO: You see fast food restaurants almost everywhere in the United States. The names and the designs of the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald’s. Most are chain restaurants. That means each one is part of a huge company. Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign that can be recognized from far away. Each offers its own carefully limited choice of foods. Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain. VOICE ONE: The fast food industry began with two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the nineteen-forties. Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant. They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers. People stood outside the restaurant at a window. They told the workers inside what they wanted to eat. They received and paid for their food very quickly. The food came in containers that could be thrown away. The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices. VOICE TWO: Ray Kroc sold restaurant supplies. He recognized the importance of the McDonald brothers’ idea. He saw that food sales could be organized for mass production -- almost like a factory. Mister Kroc paid the McDonald brothers for permission to open several restaurants similar to theirs. He opened the first McDonald’s restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen-fifty-five. Soon, more McDonald’s were opening all across the United States. Other people copied the idea and more fast food restaurants followed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Raymond Albert Kroc was a very wealthy businessman when he died in nineteen-eighty-four. But he had not always been successful. Ray was born in Illinois in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were not rich. He attended school in Oak Park, near Chicago.Ray never completed high school, however. He left school to become a driver for the Red Cross in World War One. He lied about his age to be accepted. He was only fifteen. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe. VOICE TWO: After the war, Ray became a jazz piano player. He played with famous music groups. He got married when he was twenty. Then he began working for the Lily Tulip Cup Company, selling paper cups.He kept trying new things, however. He attempted to sell land in the southern state of Florida. That business failed. Ray Kroc remembered driving to Chicago from Florida after his business failed. He said: “I will never forget that drive as long as I live. The streets were covered with ice, and I did not have winter clothing. When I arrived home I was very cold and had no money.” VOICE ONE: Ray Kroc went back to being a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup Company. He was responsible for product sales in the central United States. His life improved when he started a small business that sold restaurant supplies. He sold a machine that could mix five milkshakes at one time. In nineteen-fifty-four, he discovered a small restaurant that was using eight of his machines. He went there and found that the owners of the restaurant had a good business selling only hamburgers, french fries and drinks. At first, Mister Kroc saw only the possibility for increasing the sales of his mixers to more restaurants. Then he proposed an agreement with the McDonald brothers to start a number of restaurants. Under the agreement, the McDonald brothers would get a percentage of all sales. VOICE TWO: The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in nineteen-fifty-five. Ray Kroc was fifty-two years old -- an age when many people start thinking about retirement. He opened two restaurants. Soon he began to understand that the real profits were made in selling hamburgers, not the mixers. He quickly sold the mixer company and invested the money in the growing chain of McDonald’s restaurants. In nineteen-sixty, Mister Kroc bought the legal rights to the restaurants from the McDonald brothers. By then, the chain had more than two-hundred restaurants. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fast food restaurants spread quickly in the United States because of franchising. Franchising means selling the legal right to operate a store in a company’s chain to an independent business person. If the company approves, the business person may buy or lease the store for a period of years. Many people want to own a McDonald’s restaurant, but only a few are approved. Each restaurant buys its supplies at a low cost from the parent company. Each restaurant also gives the company about ten percent of the money it earns in sales. Today, about seventy percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent businessmen and women. VOICE TWO: Ray Kroc was good at identifying what the public wanted. He knew that many American families wanted to eat in a restaurant sometimes. He gave people a simple eating place with popular food, low prices, friendly service and no waiting. And all McDonald’s restaurants sold the same food in every restaurant across the country. Ray Kroc established rules for how McDonald’s restaurants were to operate. He demanded that every restaurant offer “quality, service and cleanliness.” People lucky enough to get a franchise must complete a program at a training center called Hamburger University. They learn how to cook and serve the food, and how to keep the building clean. More than sixty-five-thousand people have completed this training. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: McDonald’s began to expand around the world in nineteen-sixty-seven. Ray Kroc’s business ability made McDonald’s the largest restaurant company in the world. There are now more than thirty-thousand McDonald’s restaurants on six continents. The company operates in about one-hundred-twenty countries. Every day, McDonald’s restaurants around the world serve about fifty-million people. VOICE TWO: In later years, Ray Kroc established the Kroc Foundation, a private organization that gives money to help others. He also established a number of centers that offer support to families of children who have cancer. They are called Ronald McDonald houses. Many people praised Ray Kroc for his company’s success and good works. But other people sharply criticized him for the way McDonald’s treated young employees. Many of the workers were paid the lowest wage permitted by American law. Health experts still criticize McDonald’s food for containing too much fat and salt. In the nineteen-seventies, Ray Kroc turned his energy from hamburgers to sports. He bought a professional baseball team in California, the San Diego Padres. He died in nineteen-eighty-four. He was eighty-one years old. VOICE ONE: That first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, was torn down. It was replaced by a store and visitors center that attempts to copy what was in the original building. Another museum in nearby Oak Park describes the life of Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc’s story remains an important part of McDonald’s history. And his way of doing business continues to influence fast food restaurants that feed people around the world. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was the producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You probably know what fast food is. It is cooked food that is ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place. It does not cost much. It is popular with most Americans and with many people around the world. Some experts say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and potatoes cooked in hot oil called french fries. Other fast food places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos. VOICE TWO: You see fast food restaurants almost everywhere in the United States. The names and the designs of the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald’s. Most are chain restaurants. That means each one is part of a huge company. Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign that can be recognized from far away. Each offers its own carefully limited choice of foods. Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain. VOICE ONE: The fast food industry began with two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the nineteen-forties. Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant. They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers. People stood outside the restaurant at a window. They told the workers inside what they wanted to eat. They received and paid for their food very quickly. The food came in containers that could be thrown away. The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices. VOICE TWO: Ray Kroc sold restaurant supplies. He recognized the importance of the McDonald brothers’ idea. He saw that food sales could be organized for mass production -- almost like a factory. Mister Kroc paid the McDonald brothers for permission to open several restaurants similar to theirs. He opened the first McDonald’s restaurant near Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen-fifty-five. Soon, more McDonald’s were opening all across the United States. Other people copied the idea and more fast food restaurants followed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Raymond Albert Kroc was a very wealthy businessman when he died in nineteen-eighty-four. But he had not always been successful. Ray was born in Illinois in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were not rich. He attended school in Oak Park, near Chicago.Ray never completed high school, however. He left school to become a driver for the Red Cross in World War One. He lied about his age to be accepted. He was only fifteen. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe. VOICE TWO: After the war, Ray became a jazz piano player. He played with famous music groups. He got married when he was twenty. Then he began working for the Lily Tulip Cup Company, selling paper cups.He kept trying new things, however. He attempted to sell land in the southern state of Florida. That business failed. Ray Kroc remembered driving to Chicago from Florida after his business failed. He said: “I will never forget that drive as long as I live. The streets were covered with ice, and I did not have winter clothing. When I arrived home I was very cold and had no money.” VOICE ONE: Ray Kroc went back to being a salesman for the Lily Tulip Cup Company. He was responsible for product sales in the central United States. His life improved when he started a small business that sold restaurant supplies. He sold a machine that could mix five milkshakes at one time. In nineteen-fifty-four, he discovered a small restaurant that was using eight of his machines. He went there and found that the owners of the restaurant had a good business selling only hamburgers, french fries and drinks. At first, Mister Kroc saw only the possibility for increasing the sales of his mixers to more restaurants. Then he proposed an agreement with the McDonald brothers to start a number of restaurants. Under the agreement, the McDonald brothers would get a percentage of all sales. VOICE TWO: The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in nineteen-fifty-five. Ray Kroc was fifty-two years old -- an age when many people start thinking about retirement. He opened two restaurants. Soon he began to understand that the real profits were made in selling hamburgers, not the mixers. He quickly sold the mixer company and invested the money in the growing chain of McDonald’s restaurants. In nineteen-sixty, Mister Kroc bought the legal rights to the restaurants from the McDonald brothers. By then, the chain had more than two-hundred restaurants. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fast food restaurants spread quickly in the United States because of franchising. Franchising means selling the legal right to operate a store in a company’s chain to an independent business person. If the company approves, the business person may buy or lease the store for a period of years. Many people want to own a McDonald’s restaurant, but only a few are approved. Each restaurant buys its supplies at a low cost from the parent company. Each restaurant also gives the company about ten percent of the money it earns in sales. Today, about seventy percent of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent businessmen and women. VOICE TWO: Ray Kroc was good at identifying what the public wanted. He knew that many American families wanted to eat in a restaurant sometimes. He gave people a simple eating place with popular food, low prices, friendly service and no waiting. And all McDonald’s restaurants sold the same food in every restaurant across the country. Ray Kroc established rules for how McDonald’s restaurants were to operate. He demanded that every restaurant offer “quality, service and cleanliness.” People lucky enough to get a franchise must complete a program at a training center called Hamburger University. They learn how to cook and serve the food, and how to keep the building clean. More than sixty-five-thousand people have completed this training. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: McDonald’s began to expand around the world in nineteen-sixty-seven. Ray Kroc’s business ability made McDonald’s the largest restaurant company in the world. There are now more than thirty-thousand McDonald’s restaurants on six continents. The company operates in about one-hundred-twenty countries. Every day, McDonald’s restaurants around the world serve about fifty-million people. VOICE TWO: In later years, Ray Kroc established the Kroc Foundation, a private organization that gives money to help others. He also established a number of centers that offer support to families of children who have cancer. They are called Ronald McDonald houses. Many people praised Ray Kroc for his company’s success and good works. But other people sharply criticized him for the way McDonald’s treated young employees. Many of the workers were paid the lowest wage permitted by American law. Health experts still criticize McDonald’s food for containing too much fat and salt. In the nineteen-seventies, Ray Kroc turned his energy from hamburgers to sports. He bought a professional baseball team in California, the San Diego Padres. He died in nineteen-eighty-four. He was eighty-one years old. VOICE ONE: That first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, was torn down. It was replaced by a store and visitors center that attempts to copy what was in the original building. Another museum in nearby Oak Park describes the life of Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc’s story remains an important part of McDonald’s history. And his way of doing business continues to influence fast food restaurants that feed people around the world. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was the producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Television Dramas Help Save Lives
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 15, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. More than three-million people died of AIDS last year. The estimate is that five-million others became infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes the disease. And there are warnings about what could happen unless much more is done to increase efforts to prevent AIDS. Right now, researchers say around forty-million people are living with the virus. The United Nations says there could be forty-five million new cases by two-thousand-ten. Public health experts say the media have a central part to play in the fight against AIDS. They point to drama series on television and radio in a number of countries. In Ivory Coast, for example, the weekly show “AIDS in the City” has been on television since nineteen-ninety-four. The program tells stories with actors in an effort to educate people about AIDS. Recently, broadcasts of the show were extended into nine other countries in West and Central Africa. Researchers say about two-thirds of people in South Africa watch the show “Soul City.” This program has dealt with other social issues in addition to H.I.V/AIDS. These include violence against women and alcoholism. "Soul City" also began in nineteen-ninety-four. A show created with BBC help has become one of India’s most-watched dramas. In “Detective Vijay,” the main hero is a policeman with H.I.V. A United Nations report says the program appears to be educating people. The report says eighty-five percent of those questioned had learned something new about AIDS from the show. But people who watch have yet to learn how Detective Vijay became infected. One of the main ways to get AIDS is through sex. Many people consider public discussion of such issues culturally unacceptable. In China, millions watch a daily program called “Ordinary People.” A non-profit group based in the United States helped create this drama show about social issues. The group is called Population Communications International. P.C.I. assists governments, local groups, and radio and television stations to develop media campaigns. The group supports what it calls the magic of entertainment for social change. P.C.I. is on the Internet at population.org. The mailing address is: P.C.I., seven-seven-seven United Nations Plaza, fifth floor, New York, New York, one-zero-zero-one-seven, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: March 15, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. More than three-million people died of AIDS last year. The estimate is that five-million others became infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes the disease. And there are warnings about what could happen unless much more is done to increase efforts to prevent AIDS. Right now, researchers say around forty-million people are living with the virus. The United Nations says there could be forty-five million new cases by two-thousand-ten. Public health experts say the media have a central part to play in the fight against AIDS. They point to drama series on television and radio in a number of countries. In Ivory Coast, for example, the weekly show “AIDS in the City” has been on television since nineteen-ninety-four. The program tells stories with actors in an effort to educate people about AIDS. Recently, broadcasts of the show were extended into nine other countries in West and Central Africa. Researchers say about two-thirds of people in South Africa watch the show “Soul City.” This program has dealt with other social issues in addition to H.I.V/AIDS. These include violence against women and alcoholism. "Soul City" also began in nineteen-ninety-four. A show created with BBC help has become one of India’s most-watched dramas. In “Detective Vijay,” the main hero is a policeman with H.I.V. A United Nations report says the program appears to be educating people. The report says eighty-five percent of those questioned had learned something new about AIDS from the show. But people who watch have yet to learn how Detective Vijay became infected. One of the main ways to get AIDS is through sex. Many people consider public discussion of such issues culturally unacceptable. In China, millions watch a daily program called “Ordinary People.” A non-profit group based in the United States helped create this drama show about social issues. The group is called Population Communications International. P.C.I. assists governments, local groups, and radio and television stations to develop media campaigns. The group supports what it calls the magic of entertainment for social change. P.C.I. is on the Internet at population.org. The mailing address is: P.C.I., seven-seven-seven United Nations Plaza, fifth floor, New York, New York, one-zero-zero-one-seven, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Grandparents
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 15, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 15, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week -- meet the grandparents! (THEME) VOICE ONE: One day recently, a woman in Washington, D.C., spoke on the telephone to her first and only grandchild. The boy lives in California, on the opposite side of the United States. The grandmother talked a long time. Later, a friend asked her what the child had said. The grandmother answered. He had not really said anything. Mostly, he cried. He was, after all, two weeks old. VOICE TWO: A children's doctor from Chicago, Illinois, says becoming a grandparent often makes normal adults act silly, even a little crazy. He should know. He has ten grandchildren. But he says the satisfaction of being around them never gets old. He says none of his friends can escape without seeing pictures of his grandchildren. American grandparents are surely like any other grandparents. Millions of them love to play with their grandchildren. They buy them gifts. They read to them and prepare special foods. They take them places. They teach them skills for later in life. And, in many cases, they try to make sure the children learn family traditions. Santa Fama is a retired teacher in Bethesda, Maryland. She likes to cook Sicilian and other Italian food with her grandchildren. Mary Horwitt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, liked to play with her grandson -- play music, that is. Missus Horwitt, who died several years ago, was a pianist who performed concerts with her teen-age grandson. VOICE ONE: Some grandparents are wealthy enough to pay for travel to faraway places with their grandchildren. But others are happy to take their grandchildren to local parks. Or they might watch them perform in some event at school. That is, if they live close enough to attend. Today, many Americans live far from their grandparents. School mental health specialist Suzy Karpel says she regrets this fact of modern life. She says she often sees situations in which families need the advice and support of grandparents. Mizz Karpel says this is true especially when problems develop. This is when parents might wish most that they had a helpful grandparent nearby. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: If you ask grandparents how it feels to be a grandparent, most will immediately say “wonderful.” They like spending time with their grandchildren. But many will also go on to say that they like being able to return the children to their parents when the time comes. These grandparents have already gone through the daily cares and worries of raising children. Now it is time for them to take pleasure in their grandchildren. VOICE ONE: Yet some grandparents have the responsibility of full-time care for their children’s children. At any one time, the research organization RAND says, ten percent of grandparents live only with a grandchild. RAND says four-million children in the United States live with their grandparents. But two-and-one-half-million of them also have at least one of their parents in the same home. These children represent around four-percent of all grandchildren. RAND researchers say this percentage has not changed much in recent years. But the growing number of young people in the United States means that the total numbers are rising. VOICE TWO: Nearly one-and-one-half million children live with their grandparents only. This is two percent of all grandchildren. The RAND researchers say this rate has increased in recent years, but not much. It had been decreasing from nineteen-forty through the nineteen-eighties. The RAND researchers say African American children are more likely to live with their grandparents. They report that about eight percent live with their parents and grandparents. Almost six percent live only with their grandparents. The researchers say black grandmothers historically have played a more important part in child-raising than white grandmothers. The researchers add that higher poverty rates among minority families may also help explain these numbers. VOICE ONE: Some grandparents who care for their grandchildren have legal custody. This means they have full responsibility for raising them. Other grandparents take care of their grandchildren full time, but do not have legal control. In some cases, one or both parents also stay in the grandparents' home, but are unable to care for their children. Some grandparents take care of their grandchildren only during the day. This is so one or both of the parents can work or attend school. VOICE TWO: The reasons that grandparents become caretakers for their grandchildren are often sad, as you might think. The parents may have died. Or they may no longer live together. Other times, a parent might have a serious health problem, or use illegal drugs. One or both parents may be in jail. Or they left their children without care, or physically mistreated them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mental health specialists say there is no way to know how children will feel living with their grandparents. They may feel happy and secure, or they may suffer emotional problems. They might mourn the loss of the family situation they had before. Young people may not want to obey the rules and advice from their grandparents. Other children at school might even make fun of their living situation. VOICE TWO: The grandparents also may have difficulties. Even if they receive public aid, they may struggle financially to support their grandchildren. Grandparents who have jobs may have to find additional childcare. Grandparents who are responsible for young children might not have the energy to deal with them. Health is an issue. Older people might worry about, if they die, what would happen to their grandchildren. VOICE ONE: Social workers say many grandparents who care for their children’s children express loneliness. They do not have anyone to talk to about the children’s health or schoolwork or problems of growing up. Most friends their age finished with such concerns long ago. A program in Dorchester, Massachusetts, helps caretaker grandparents deal with situations like these. The program is called GrandFamilies House. This is a living center with twenty-seven apartments for grandparents and their grandchildren. Most of the adults are grandmothers. Several agencies also operate in the building. The Y.W.C.A. of Boston, for example, provides childcare and help with schoolwork. It also provides computer education for people of all ages. VOICE TWO: Several years ago, researchers from the University of Massachusetts did a study at GrandFamilies House. They asked about issues like how the grandparents felt spending their later years caring for grandchildren. One woman said she enjoyed seeing her grandchildren grow up. She said she had worked all the time when her own children were small. Another grandmother said the children kept her young. A place like GrandFamilies House also helps keep families together. Many of the grandparents say they are glad to be able to keep their grandchildren out of foster care. Foster care is a system where state and local agencies place children in temporary homes or emergency shelters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day. So why not a day to honor grandparents? Grandparents Day was established in nineteen-seventy-eight. This holiday is observed in September on the first Sunday after Labor Day in the United States. Some families gather for a special meal. Others will send gifts or cards to faraway grandparents, or call, or write them an e-mail. VOICE TWO: But grandparents do not need a special holiday to talk to their grandchildren. A computer programmer who lives in Reston, Virginia, says she will never forget a telephone call she received. The call came a few minutes before she was about to get married. It was her grandfather on the line. He was eighty-seven-years old, and very sick. He called to say, “Have a happy life!” (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week -- meet the grandparents! (THEME) VOICE ONE: One day recently, a woman in Washington, D.C., spoke on the telephone to her first and only grandchild. The boy lives in California, on the opposite side of the United States. The grandmother talked a long time. Later, a friend asked her what the child had said. The grandmother answered. He had not really said anything. Mostly, he cried. He was, after all, two weeks old. VOICE TWO: A children's doctor from Chicago, Illinois, says becoming a grandparent often makes normal adults act silly, even a little crazy. He should know. He has ten grandchildren. But he says the satisfaction of being around them never gets old. He says none of his friends can escape without seeing pictures of his grandchildren. American grandparents are surely like any other grandparents. Millions of them love to play with their grandchildren. They buy them gifts. They read to them and prepare special foods. They take them places. They teach them skills for later in life. And, in many cases, they try to make sure the children learn family traditions. Santa Fama is a retired teacher in Bethesda, Maryland. She likes to cook Sicilian and other Italian food with her grandchildren. Mary Horwitt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, liked to play with her grandson -- play music, that is. Missus Horwitt, who died several years ago, was a pianist who performed concerts with her teen-age grandson. VOICE ONE: Some grandparents are wealthy enough to pay for travel to faraway places with their grandchildren. But others are happy to take their grandchildren to local parks. Or they might watch them perform in some event at school. That is, if they live close enough to attend. Today, many Americans live far from their grandparents. School mental health specialist Suzy Karpel says she regrets this fact of modern life. She says she often sees situations in which families need the advice and support of grandparents. Mizz Karpel says this is true especially when problems develop. This is when parents might wish most that they had a helpful grandparent nearby. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: If you ask grandparents how it feels to be a grandparent, most will immediately say “wonderful.” They like spending time with their grandchildren. But many will also go on to say that they like being able to return the children to their parents when the time comes. These grandparents have already gone through the daily cares and worries of raising children. Now it is time for them to take pleasure in their grandchildren. VOICE ONE: Yet some grandparents have the responsibility of full-time care for their children’s children. At any one time, the research organization RAND says, ten percent of grandparents live only with a grandchild. RAND says four-million children in the United States live with their grandparents. But two-and-one-half-million of them also have at least one of their parents in the same home. These children represent around four-percent of all grandchildren. RAND researchers say this percentage has not changed much in recent years. But the growing number of young people in the United States means that the total numbers are rising. VOICE TWO: Nearly one-and-one-half million children live with their grandparents only. This is two percent of all grandchildren. The RAND researchers say this rate has increased in recent years, but not much. It had been decreasing from nineteen-forty through the nineteen-eighties. The RAND researchers say African American children are more likely to live with their grandparents. They report that about eight percent live with their parents and grandparents. Almost six percent live only with their grandparents. The researchers say black grandmothers historically have played a more important part in child-raising than white grandmothers. The researchers add that higher poverty rates among minority families may also help explain these numbers. VOICE ONE: Some grandparents who care for their grandchildren have legal custody. This means they have full responsibility for raising them. Other grandparents take care of their grandchildren full time, but do not have legal control. In some cases, one or both parents also stay in the grandparents' home, but are unable to care for their children. Some grandparents take care of their grandchildren only during the day. This is so one or both of the parents can work or attend school. VOICE TWO: The reasons that grandparents become caretakers for their grandchildren are often sad, as you might think. The parents may have died. Or they may no longer live together. Other times, a parent might have a serious health problem, or use illegal drugs. One or both parents may be in jail. Or they left their children without care, or physically mistreated them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Mental health specialists say there is no way to know how children will feel living with their grandparents. They may feel happy and secure, or they may suffer emotional problems. They might mourn the loss of the family situation they had before. Young people may not want to obey the rules and advice from their grandparents. Other children at school might even make fun of their living situation. VOICE TWO: The grandparents also may have difficulties. Even if they receive public aid, they may struggle financially to support their grandchildren. Grandparents who have jobs may have to find additional childcare. Grandparents who are responsible for young children might not have the energy to deal with them. Health is an issue. Older people might worry about, if they die, what would happen to their grandchildren. VOICE ONE: Social workers say many grandparents who care for their children’s children express loneliness. They do not have anyone to talk to about the children’s health or schoolwork or problems of growing up. Most friends their age finished with such concerns long ago. A program in Dorchester, Massachusetts, helps caretaker grandparents deal with situations like these. The program is called GrandFamilies House. This is a living center with twenty-seven apartments for grandparents and their grandchildren. Most of the adults are grandmothers. Several agencies also operate in the building. The Y.W.C.A. of Boston, for example, provides childcare and help with schoolwork. It also provides computer education for people of all ages. VOICE TWO: Several years ago, researchers from the University of Massachusetts did a study at GrandFamilies House. They asked about issues like how the grandparents felt spending their later years caring for grandchildren. One woman said she enjoyed seeing her grandchildren grow up. She said she had worked all the time when her own children were small. Another grandmother said the children kept her young. A place like GrandFamilies House also helps keep families together. Many of the grandparents say they are glad to be able to keep their grandchildren out of foster care. Foster care is a system where state and local agencies place children in temporary homes or emergency shelters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day. So why not a day to honor grandparents? Grandparents Day was established in nineteen-seventy-eight. This holiday is observed in September on the first Sunday after Labor Day in the United States. Some families gather for a special meal. Others will send gifts or cards to faraway grandparents, or call, or write them an e-mail. VOICE TWO: But grandparents do not need a special holiday to talk to their grandchildren. A computer programmer who lives in Reston, Virginia, says she will never forget a telephone call she received. The call came a few minutes before she was about to get married. It was her grandfather on the line. He was eighty-seven-years old, and very sick. He called to say, “Have a happy life!” (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Suggestion of Possible Vaccine-Autism Link Withdrawn / Effects of Dirty Conditions on Child Growth / Mysterious Dark Energy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 16, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week -- new developments about a British study that frightened many parents. VOICE ONE: A study measures the effects of dirty conditions on child growth. VOICE TWO: Plus ... the mystery of dark energy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Six years ago, a British study suggested the possibility of a link between autism and the M.M.R vaccine. Autism is a brain disorder that appears in young children. It affects communication and the ability to relate to people and environments. The M.M.R. vaccine is a medicine given to millions of children to prevent three diseases: mumps, measles and rubella. Thirteen scientists did the study. Their report appeared in the British medical magazine The Lancet. But The Lancet has now published a letter from ten of those scientists. One of the others could not be reached. The ten withdrew the suggestion of a possible link between autism and the M.M.R. vaccine. They said they wish to make clear that they never stated that the vaccine caused autism. VOICE TWO: The ten scientists did not include Andrew Wakefield who led the study. Recently he has been criticized for accepting money from lawyers for a group of families of autistic children. The families wanted a separate study done to support legal claims against companies that make the vaccine. Doctor Wakefield says his work for the families was no secret and created no conflict of interest with his study. He is reported as saying he still believes a possible connection between autism and the vaccine needs further investigation. Lawyers for Doctor Wakefield have demanded an apology from The Lancet. VOICE ONE: Public trust in the M.M.R. vaccine has dropped in large part because of the nineteen-ninety-eight study. The ten scientists said they recognize there have been major effects on public health. Some parents in Europe and the United States have refused the vaccine for their children. Doctors say this is a serious risk. Mumps, measles and rubella can all make people very sick. Since the study, other studies have shown no link between autism and the vaccine. Some critics say a lot of money has been wasted trying to prove that the nineteen-ninety-eight study was false. But others have called the study "poor science." They note that only twelve children took part. In a commentary, The Lancet points out that the vaccine issue was only one observation. The study dealt with bowel disease in autistic children. The scientists reported a possible link between bowel disease and autism. The letter just published does not dismiss that part of the study. VOICE TWO: Last November, the United States government announced a ten-year plan to study autism. Scientists know that genetics play a part, but not much beyond that is known. Autism research does not have a very long history. In nineteen-forty-three, a researcher named Leo Kanner wrote about a condition that he found in eleven children. He described it as "extreme autistic loneliness." He said the children were unable to relate themselves in the normal way to people and situations "from the beginning of life." Leo Kanner was a medical doctor at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. His specialty was mental health in children. In nineteen-thirty-five, he wrote what is described as the first medical book on child psychiatry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Unsafe water supplies and dirty conditions can slow the growth of children. This is the finding of public health researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Their study appears in The Lancet. They studied two-hundred-thirty children in Peru from birth until three years of age. This is what they found: By age two, children from homes with the worst conditions were one centimeter shorter than those with the best conditions. They also had fifty-four percent more cases of diarrhea. The researchers examined the babies once a day and measured them once a month. VOICE TWO: But better water supplies alone did not guarantee good health. For example, some families kept water in large containers outdoors. Others kept small storage containers inside their homes. Small containers can be filled more often. But children in homes with the small containers had more cases of diarrhea. The researchers say this is because the containers are usually kept uncovered. So the water can get dirty more easily. The large containers outside are normally kept covered. The researchers found that other conditions could also affect the growth of children. Some of the children were from homes with a water connection, but not a good system for waste removal. These children were almost two centimeters shorter than those with the cleanest conditions at home. The study ended in nineteen-ninety-eight. Doctor William Checkley led the study. He says safe water and good sanitation are basic human rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American space scientists say Albert Einstein may have been right after all about what space is mostly made of. They say they have found the best evidence yet that some form of energy pushes at an unchanging rate throughout the universe. Scientists today call this dark energy. Einstein had a different name for such a force. He called it a cosmological constant. The German-born American physicist had a theory that this force balanced the pull of gravity. Without it, everything in the universe would crash together in the middle. Gravity would prevent the opposite. It would keep objects from spreading apart forever. VOICE TWO: Einstein developed this idea in support of a general belief that the universe was static, unchanging. However, he rejected the idea following a discovery by Edwin Hubble in nineteen-twenty-nine. The American astronomer found that the universe was expanding. Albert Einstein later called the cosmological constant theory his "greatest blunder." Yet now, the space telescope named after Edwin Hubble has gathered information to suggest this was no mistake. VOICE ONE: Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to examine stars that exploded thousands of millions of years ago. These stars are called supernovas. The scientists measured light from the supernovas. Such measurements tell much about conditions at different points in the history of the universe. Adam Reiss [reese] led the research at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Mister Reiss says dark energy appears to stay the same even as the universe expands. He says any change is extremely slow, if at all. He says the universe has at least thirty-thousand-million years left. This is even if Einstein's cosmological constant theory is wrong. VOICE TWO: So that is good news. Yet the researchers were not able to offer any new information about one question: What is dark energy? The only thing most scientists seem sure of is that they are not sure. Whatever it is acts in a way opposite to gravity. Gravity pulls things together. Dark energy pushes them apart. What if dark energy ever grows stronger than gravity? Then, it could tear all things apart. Stars, planets, even individual atoms would be destroyed. Scientists call this the “big rip.” VOICE ONE: But some question all this. An international team recently announced evidence that might conflict with the dark energy theory. The researchers studied X-rays recorded by the European satellite observatory XMM-Newton. They looked at X-rays from groups of galaxies thousands of millions of years old. They say there are ten times more of these clusters now. Alain Blanchard is a scientist at the Astrophysical Laboratory in France. Mister Blanchard says these results require a high density of matter in the universe. He says that would leave little room for dark energy. Adam Reiss tells us he is not worried about these findings. He studies supernovas. But he says most scientists who study galactic clusters report findings that are similar to his own. That is, a universe filled mostly with a mysterious force they call dark energy. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk produced our program. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: March 16, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our show this week -- new developments about a British study that frightened many parents. VOICE ONE: A study measures the effects of dirty conditions on child growth. VOICE TWO: Plus ... the mystery of dark energy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Six years ago, a British study suggested the possibility of a link between autism and the M.M.R vaccine. Autism is a brain disorder that appears in young children. It affects communication and the ability to relate to people and environments. The M.M.R. vaccine is a medicine given to millions of children to prevent three diseases: mumps, measles and rubella. Thirteen scientists did the study. Their report appeared in the British medical magazine The Lancet. But The Lancet has now published a letter from ten of those scientists. One of the others could not be reached. The ten withdrew the suggestion of a possible link between autism and the M.M.R. vaccine. They said they wish to make clear that they never stated that the vaccine caused autism. VOICE TWO: The ten scientists did not include Andrew Wakefield who led the study. Recently he has been criticized for accepting money from lawyers for a group of families of autistic children. The families wanted a separate study done to support legal claims against companies that make the vaccine. Doctor Wakefield says his work for the families was no secret and created no conflict of interest with his study. He is reported as saying he still believes a possible connection between autism and the vaccine needs further investigation. Lawyers for Doctor Wakefield have demanded an apology from The Lancet. VOICE ONE: Public trust in the M.M.R. vaccine has dropped in large part because of the nineteen-ninety-eight study. The ten scientists said they recognize there have been major effects on public health. Some parents in Europe and the United States have refused the vaccine for their children. Doctors say this is a serious risk. Mumps, measles and rubella can all make people very sick. Since the study, other studies have shown no link between autism and the vaccine. Some critics say a lot of money has been wasted trying to prove that the nineteen-ninety-eight study was false. But others have called the study "poor science." They note that only twelve children took part. In a commentary, The Lancet points out that the vaccine issue was only one observation. The study dealt with bowel disease in autistic children. The scientists reported a possible link between bowel disease and autism. The letter just published does not dismiss that part of the study. VOICE TWO: Last November, the United States government announced a ten-year plan to study autism. Scientists know that genetics play a part, but not much beyond that is known. Autism research does not have a very long history. In nineteen-forty-three, a researcher named Leo Kanner wrote about a condition that he found in eleven children. He described it as "extreme autistic loneliness." He said the children were unable to relate themselves in the normal way to people and situations "from the beginning of life." Leo Kanner was a medical doctor at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. His specialty was mental health in children. In nineteen-thirty-five, he wrote what is described as the first medical book on child psychiatry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Unsafe water supplies and dirty conditions can slow the growth of children. This is the finding of public health researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Their study appears in The Lancet. They studied two-hundred-thirty children in Peru from birth until three years of age. This is what they found: By age two, children from homes with the worst conditions were one centimeter shorter than those with the best conditions. They also had fifty-four percent more cases of diarrhea. The researchers examined the babies once a day and measured them once a month. VOICE TWO: But better water supplies alone did not guarantee good health. For example, some families kept water in large containers outdoors. Others kept small storage containers inside their homes. Small containers can be filled more often. But children in homes with the small containers had more cases of diarrhea. The researchers say this is because the containers are usually kept uncovered. So the water can get dirty more easily. The large containers outside are normally kept covered. The researchers found that other conditions could also affect the growth of children. Some of the children were from homes with a water connection, but not a good system for waste removal. These children were almost two centimeters shorter than those with the cleanest conditions at home. The study ended in nineteen-ninety-eight. Doctor William Checkley led the study. He says safe water and good sanitation are basic human rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American space scientists say Albert Einstein may have been right after all about what space is mostly made of. They say they have found the best evidence yet that some form of energy pushes at an unchanging rate throughout the universe. Scientists today call this dark energy. Einstein had a different name for such a force. He called it a cosmological constant. The German-born American physicist had a theory that this force balanced the pull of gravity. Without it, everything in the universe would crash together in the middle. Gravity would prevent the opposite. It would keep objects from spreading apart forever. VOICE TWO: Einstein developed this idea in support of a general belief that the universe was static, unchanging. However, he rejected the idea following a discovery by Edwin Hubble in nineteen-twenty-nine. The American astronomer found that the universe was expanding. Albert Einstein later called the cosmological constant theory his "greatest blunder." Yet now, the space telescope named after Edwin Hubble has gathered information to suggest this was no mistake. VOICE ONE: Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to examine stars that exploded thousands of millions of years ago. These stars are called supernovas. The scientists measured light from the supernovas. Such measurements tell much about conditions at different points in the history of the universe. Adam Reiss [reese] led the research at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Mister Reiss says dark energy appears to stay the same even as the universe expands. He says any change is extremely slow, if at all. He says the universe has at least thirty-thousand-million years left. This is even if Einstein's cosmological constant theory is wrong. VOICE TWO: So that is good news. Yet the researchers were not able to offer any new information about one question: What is dark energy? The only thing most scientists seem sure of is that they are not sure. Whatever it is acts in a way opposite to gravity. Gravity pulls things together. Dark energy pushes them apart. What if dark energy ever grows stronger than gravity? Then, it could tear all things apart. Stars, planets, even individual atoms would be destroyed. Scientists call this the “big rip.” VOICE ONE: But some question all this. An international team recently announced evidence that might conflict with the dark energy theory. The researchers studied X-rays recorded by the European satellite observatory XMM-Newton. They looked at X-rays from groups of galaxies thousands of millions of years old. They say there are ten times more of these clusters now. Alain Blanchard is a scientist at the Astrophysical Laboratory in France. Mister Blanchard says these results require a high density of matter in the universe. He says that would leave little room for dark energy. Adam Reiss tells us he is not worried about these findings. He studies supernovas. But he says most scientists who study galactic clusters report findings that are similar to his own. That is, a universe filled mostly with a mysterious force they call dark energy. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk produced our program. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Restrictions on Methyl Bromide
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 16, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Some chemicals are very good at killing insects and plants that cause trouble. But the trouble with these chemicals is they can also harm people and the environment. This was the case with the pesticide D.D.T. It is now banned in some countries. But others still use it. Another example involves the widely used pesticide methyl bromide. In nineteen-eighty-seven, nations met to discuss evidence of a decrease in the level of ozone in the atmosphere. Ozone helps protect against skin cancer from the sun. Negotiators met in Montreal. They developed the first part of an agreement called the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This treaty sets out steps to protect the ozone in the atmosphere. In nineteen-ninety-two, methyl bromide joined the list of chemicals to ban. Developed countries agreed to end the use of methyl bromide by two-thousand-five. Developing nations have ten more years. The Bush administration says it will seek permission for some uses of methyl bromide at least until two-thousand-six. The administration says no replacement can be found for some farm uses. Other nations are also expected to seek special permission. One-hundred-eighty-three nations have signed the treaty. The United States Congress amended federal pollution laws in nineteen-ninety-five. It did so to meet the requirements of the Montreal Protocol. Since then, the Department of Agriculture has supported programs to find a pesticide to replace methyl bromide. But its Agricultural Research Service says there is no one chemical or method that can do the job. One of the main problems is that methyl bromide is used on more than one-hundred crops and products. It goes on as a gas in a process called fumigation. The gas works quickly. It is able to kill worms, insects, harmful plants -- many different kinds of organisms. But this poison also affects the nervous system in people and is carried into the atmosphere. The Montreal Protocol permits countries to continue to use some banned chemicals if they must. Nations that signed the agreement have organized a meeting this month in Montreal to discuss the methyl bromide issue. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: March 16, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Some chemicals are very good at killing insects and plants that cause trouble. But the trouble with these chemicals is they can also harm people and the environment. This was the case with the pesticide D.D.T. It is now banned in some countries. But others still use it. Another example involves the widely used pesticide methyl bromide. In nineteen-eighty-seven, nations met to discuss evidence of a decrease in the level of ozone in the atmosphere. Ozone helps protect against skin cancer from the sun. Negotiators met in Montreal. They developed the first part of an agreement called the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This treaty sets out steps to protect the ozone in the atmosphere. In nineteen-ninety-two, methyl bromide joined the list of chemicals to ban. Developed countries agreed to end the use of methyl bromide by two-thousand-five. Developing nations have ten more years. The Bush administration says it will seek permission for some uses of methyl bromide at least until two-thousand-six. The administration says no replacement can be found for some farm uses. Other nations are also expected to seek special permission. One-hundred-eighty-three nations have signed the treaty. The United States Congress amended federal pollution laws in nineteen-ninety-five. It did so to meet the requirements of the Montreal Protocol. Since then, the Department of Agriculture has supported programs to find a pesticide to replace methyl bromide. But its Agricultural Research Service says there is no one chemical or method that can do the job. One of the main problems is that methyl bromide is used on more than one-hundred crops and products. It goes on as a gas in a process called fumigation. The gas works quickly. It is able to kill worms, insects, harmful plants -- many different kinds of organisms. But this poison also affects the nervous system in people and is carried into the atmosphere. The Montreal Protocol permits countries to continue to use some banned chemicals if they must. Nations that signed the agreement have organized a meeting this month in Montreal to discuss the methyl bromide issue. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 17, 2004 (THEME) Courtesy NASA Broadcast: March 17, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a new device to explore the polar areas of other planets. We tell about very distant solar systems photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. We have news of a new comet that is moving toward Earth. We begin with the discovery that the planet Mars was once wet enough to support life. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a new device to explore the polar areas of other planets. We tell about very distant solar systems photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. We have news of a new comet that is moving toward Earth. We begin with the discovery that the planet Mars was once wet enough to support life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On March third, scientists at the American space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California received exciting news from Mars. The exploration device Opportunity sent back good evidence that liquid water once was an important part of the environment of Mars. NASA scientists said the evidence of water suggests that life may have once been possible on the red planet. This evidence was found near the place where Opportunity landed, known as the Meridiani Planum. Steve Squyres is the top expert on the exploration rovers’ science instruments. He says Opportunity has gathered enough good evidence to show there was once liquid water in the area being explored. Mister Squyres says liquid water flowed through the rocks that Opportunity studied. He said the water changed the chemistry of the rocks. VOICE TWO: Mister Squyres says this evidence includes minerals that form in the presence of water. Opportunity’s drilling tool found the minerals when it dug two holes into rocks. Tests show the rocks contained sulfur and salts in as much as forty percent of their material. Mister Squyres said this is extremely good evidence that the presence of water is strongly linked with these rocks. He says there is enough evidence to suggest that it is possible that life could have existed in Meridiani Planum. However, he said Opportunity has not found any direct evidence to suggest that life was ever part of the Martian environment. Mister Squyres says Opportunity is now examining rocks in the area to see how they were formed. He says they could have been laid down by minerals that came out of a mixture at the bottom of a salty lake or sea. VOICE ONE: Almost halfway around the red planet, the exploration vehicle Spirit has also found limited evidence of water in the Martian past. Spirit found some evidence of water in a rock at the Gusev Crater. Spirit used its drilling tool to explore the inside of a volcanic rock. NASA scientists named the rock “Humphrey.” It is about sixty centimeters tall. Researchers say the evidence of water found in Humphrey is far less than that found by the Opportunity rover. The scientists want Spirit to explore other rocks for more and better evidence. Spirit will drill more deeply into rocks that have not yet been chosen. NASA scientists say both Opportunity and Spirit are returning extremely valuable information. The Spirit vehicle landed on Mars January third. It has been on the surface of the planet for seventy-five days. Opportunity landed about halfway around the planet from Spirit on January twenty-fifth. Both vehicles are expected to explore and carry out scientific tests for about ninety days. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is extremely difficult to design a vehicle that will be used to explore another planet. It is almost as difficult to test such a device here on Earth. However NASA has built and is testing a new device that may one day be used to explore the surface of some distant planet. It is called the tumbleweed rover. The device is named after the tumbleweed, a large plant with a round shape. The plant dies and breaks loose from the ground. Then the wind blows it across the deserts of the American West. VOICE ONE: NASA’s tumbleweed is a shaped like a large ball. It is almost two meters across. It carries scientific instruments. Scientists are developing the tumbleweed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They tested it in January at the National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It rolled across Antarctica’s polar area for eight days. Strong winds pushed the ball- shaped device across the ice at speeds as high as sixteen kilometers per hour. But sometimes there was no wind and the device did not move at all. It traveled about seventy kilometers during the test. The average temperature outside was minus thirty degrees Celsius. However, the instruments inside the tumbleweed were kept at about thirty degrees Celsius. VOICE TWO: NASA researchers tested the tumbleweed rover in Antarctica because of the extremely cold temperatures there. They hope to use it to explore the polar areas of Mars and perhaps other planets. Alberto Behar is a scientist working on the tumbleweed project. He says the device will be used to explore the polar areas of Mars for ice. Mister Behar says its instruments will measure air temperature, pressure, humidity and light and then transmit the information back to Earth. Mister Behar says the ball shape of the device works well in polar areas. It will be able to use its instruments to find water beneath a desert or polar ice. He says scientists are developing an advanced tumbleweed rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A comet called C-Two-Thousand-Two-T-Seven is traveling toward Earth. You cannot see it yet unless you have a telescope. Even a small one will do. You can see the new comet near the planet Venus in the western part of the sky. For the next three months, the comet will become brighter and brighter until a telescope is no longer needed. The comet will continue moving closer to Earth until May nineteenth. At that time it might be one of the brightest objects in the night sky. People in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to see it easily then. If you have a telescope, now is the best time to see the comet in the Northern Hemisphere before it begins to move into the southern part of the sky. VOICE TWO: Another bright object in the night sky is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter recently moved closer to Earth, about six-hundred-million kilometers away. Jupiter will be very bright during this month. With a small telescope you can see four of Jupiter’s many moons. You can easily see Jupiter in the eastern sky after sunset. March is also a good month for seeing several other planets. Venus is the brightest. It can be seen early in the evening. It is easy to find and one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Between March twenty-fifth and March thirtieth, you will be able to see five planets in the early evening sky without a telescope. They are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NASA has released a series of photographs of objects that are farther away in the universe than anything seen before. The Hubble Space Telescope took the photographs during several months. The photographs include images of about ten-thousand galaxies. NASA scientists say the photographs show galaxies of many ages and sizes, shapes and colors. They say the larger, brighter photographs show galaxies as they were more than one-thousand-million years ago. They say it has taken the light from these galaxies that long to reach an area of space where the Hubble Space Telescope could see it. VOICE TWO: The space telescope took the photographs from one very small area of the sky. Scientists chose this area because no stars or galaxies can be seen. The area appears to be empty if seen by telescopes from the ground. Massimo Stiavelli is a researcher with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the head of the project that took the photographs. Mister Stiavelli says the new Hubble photographs show an area of space that represents almost the very beginning of the universe. Space scientists say the new photographs are very exciting. They say the photographs will lead to research that will offer new ideas about the birth and development of galaxies. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see these beautiful and unusual photographs. Have your computer search for the word Hubble, HUBBLE, and follow the links. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On March third, scientists at the American space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California received exciting news from Mars. The exploration device Opportunity sent back good evidence that liquid water once was an important part of the environment of Mars. NASA scientists said the evidence of water suggests that life may have once been possible on the red planet. This evidence was found near the place where Opportunity landed, known as the Meridiani Planum. Steve Squyres is the top expert on the exploration rovers’ science instruments. He says Opportunity has gathered enough good evidence to show there was once liquid water in the area being explored. Mister Squyres says liquid water flowed through the rocks that Opportunity studied. He said the water changed the chemistry of the rocks. VOICE TWO: Mister Squyres says this evidence includes minerals that form in the presence of water. Opportunity’s drilling tool found the minerals when it dug two holes into rocks. Tests show the rocks contained sulfur and salts in as much as forty percent of their material. Mister Squyres said this is extremely good evidence that the presence of water is strongly linked with these rocks. He says there is enough evidence to suggest that it is possible that life could have existed in Meridiani Planum. However, he said Opportunity has not found any direct evidence to suggest that life was ever part of the Martian environment. Mister Squyres says Opportunity is now examining rocks in the area to see how they were formed. He says they could have been laid down by minerals that came out of a mixture at the bottom of a salty lake or sea. VOICE ONE: Almost halfway around the red planet, the exploration vehicle Spirit has also found limited evidence of water in the Martian past. Spirit found some evidence of water in a rock at the Gusev Crater. Spirit used its drilling tool to explore the inside of a volcanic rock. NASA scientists named the rock “Humphrey.” It is about sixty centimeters tall. Researchers say the evidence of water found in Humphrey is far less than that found by the Opportunity rover. The scientists want Spirit to explore other rocks for more and better evidence. Spirit will drill more deeply into rocks that have not yet been chosen. NASA scientists say both Opportunity and Spirit are returning extremely valuable information. The Spirit vehicle landed on Mars January third. It has been on the surface of the planet for seventy-five days. Opportunity landed about halfway around the planet from Spirit on January twenty-fifth. Both vehicles are expected to explore and carry out scientific tests for about ninety days. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is extremely difficult to design a vehicle that will be used to explore another planet. It is almost as difficult to test such a device here on Earth. However NASA has built and is testing a new device that may one day be used to explore the surface of some distant planet. It is called the tumbleweed rover. The device is named after the tumbleweed, a large plant with a round shape. The plant dies and breaks loose from the ground. Then the wind blows it across the deserts of the American West. VOICE ONE: NASA’s tumbleweed is a shaped like a large ball. It is almost two meters across. It carries scientific instruments. Scientists are developing the tumbleweed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They tested it in January at the National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It rolled across Antarctica’s polar area for eight days. Strong winds pushed the ball- shaped device across the ice at speeds as high as sixteen kilometers per hour. But sometimes there was no wind and the device did not move at all. It traveled about seventy kilometers during the test. The average temperature outside was minus thirty degrees Celsius. However, the instruments inside the tumbleweed were kept at about thirty degrees Celsius. VOICE TWO: NASA researchers tested the tumbleweed rover in Antarctica because of the extremely cold temperatures there. They hope to use it to explore the polar areas of Mars and perhaps other planets. Alberto Behar is a scientist working on the tumbleweed project. He says the device will be used to explore the polar areas of Mars for ice. Mister Behar says its instruments will measure air temperature, pressure, humidity and light and then transmit the information back to Earth. Mister Behar says the ball shape of the device works well in polar areas. It will be able to use its instruments to find water beneath a desert or polar ice. He says scientists are developing an advanced tumbleweed rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A comet called C-Two-Thousand-Two-T-Seven is traveling toward Earth. You cannot see it yet unless you have a telescope. Even a small one will do. You can see the new comet near the planet Venus in the western part of the sky. For the next three months, the comet will become brighter and brighter until a telescope is no longer needed. The comet will continue moving closer to Earth until May nineteenth. At that time it might be one of the brightest objects in the night sky. People in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to see it easily then. If you have a telescope, now is the best time to see the comet in the Northern Hemisphere before it begins to move into the southern part of the sky. VOICE TWO: Another bright object in the night sky is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter recently moved closer to Earth, about six-hundred-million kilometers away. Jupiter will be very bright during this month. With a small telescope you can see four of Jupiter’s many moons. You can easily see Jupiter in the eastern sky after sunset. March is also a good month for seeing several other planets. Venus is the brightest. It can be seen early in the evening. It is easy to find and one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Between March twenty-fifth and March thirtieth, you will be able to see five planets in the early evening sky without a telescope. They are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NASA has released a series of photographs of objects that are farther away in the universe than anything seen before. The Hubble Space Telescope took the photographs during several months. The photographs include images of about ten-thousand galaxies. NASA scientists say the photographs show galaxies of many ages and sizes, shapes and colors. They say the larger, brighter photographs show galaxies as they were more than one-thousand-million years ago. They say it has taken the light from these galaxies that long to reach an area of space where the Hubble Space Telescope could see it. VOICE TWO: The space telescope took the photographs from one very small area of the sky. Scientists chose this area because no stars or galaxies can be seen. The area appears to be empty if seen by telescopes from the ground. Massimo Stiavelli is a researcher with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the head of the project that took the photographs. Mister Stiavelli says the new Hubble photographs show an area of space that represents almost the very beginning of the universe. Space scientists say the new photographs are very exciting. They say the photographs will lead to research that will offer new ideas about the birth and development of galaxies. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see these beautiful and unusual photographs. Have your computer search for the word Hubble, HUBBLE, and follow the links. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Scientists Find New Clue about Acupuncture
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 17, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers have reported progress in learning how the ancient traditional Chinese method of acupuncture fights pain and other conditions. During acupuncture, very small, sharp needles are placed in the skin at targeted points on the body. Bruce Rosen presented an acupuncture study at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Orlando, Florida. Doctor Rosen is with the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Doctor Rosen reported that the study findings could show how the brain might help people suffering from a number of health problems. These include pain, unexplained worry and sadness and some disorders of the stomach and intestines. The findings also may aid people who are fighting dependence on substances like illegal drugs. Doctor Rosen led a team that studied about twenty healthy people. The team examined the people with functional magnetic resonance imaging devices. MRI’s can show changes in the flow of blood and the amount of oxygen in the blood. They studied the people before, during and after acupuncture. The researchers placed acupuncture needles in the skin on the peoples’ hands. They chose places linked to pain relief in traditional Chinese acupuncture. Most of the people reported that their hands felt heavy after the needles were placed. Blood flow to some areas of the brain decreased quickly in these people. Doctor Rosen said that was a sign that the acupuncture was working correctly. But a few of the people said their hands hurt. Their needles were probably not placed correctly. Their MRI’s showed an increase in blood in the same areas of the brain where the other people showed a decrease. Doctor Rosen reported that this means that acupuncture eased the work of the brain. The affected brain areas are the forebrain, the cerebellum and the brainstem. They help control pain and emotions. These areas have a rich supply of a chemical called dopamine. Doctor Rosen said the reduced blood flow may lead to changes in dopamine. This, in turn, leads to a reaction that releases endorphins. These brain chemicals reduce pain and help fight feelings of sadness. Jerilyn Watson wrote this VOA Special English Health Report. Broadcast: March 17, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers have reported progress in learning how the ancient traditional Chinese method of acupuncture fights pain and other conditions. During acupuncture, very small, sharp needles are placed in the skin at targeted points on the body. Bruce Rosen presented an acupuncture study at a meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Orlando, Florida. Doctor Rosen is with the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Doctor Rosen reported that the study findings could show how the brain might help people suffering from a number of health problems. These include pain, unexplained worry and sadness and some disorders of the stomach and intestines. The findings also may aid people who are fighting dependence on substances like illegal drugs. Doctor Rosen led a team that studied about twenty healthy people. The team examined the people with functional magnetic resonance imaging devices. MRI’s can show changes in the flow of blood and the amount of oxygen in the blood. They studied the people before, during and after acupuncture. The researchers placed acupuncture needles in the skin on the peoples’ hands. They chose places linked to pain relief in traditional Chinese acupuncture. Most of the people reported that their hands felt heavy after the needles were placed. Blood flow to some areas of the brain decreased quickly in these people. Doctor Rosen said that was a sign that the acupuncture was working correctly. But a few of the people said their hands hurt. Their needles were probably not placed correctly. Their MRI’s showed an increase in blood in the same areas of the brain where the other people showed a decrease. Doctor Rosen reported that this means that acupuncture eased the work of the brain. The affected brain areas are the forebrain, the cerebellum and the brainstem. They help control pain and emotions. These areas have a rich supply of a chemical called dopamine. Doctor Rosen said the reduced blood flow may lead to changes in dopamine. This, in turn, leads to a reaction that releases endorphins. These brain chemicals reduce pain and help fight feelings of sadness. Jerilyn Watson wrote this VOA Special English Health Report. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 7: Attention Deficit Disorder
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 18, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series about learning disabilities. So far, we have discussed some of the brain disorders that make different skills unusually difficult to learn. Last week, we told how schools can help. Today, we discuss something that is not considered a learning disability itself. We include it in our series because it can interfere with learning. Our subject is attention deficit disorder, or A.D.D. A related form is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- A.D.H.D. These are some of the signs of one or both: Children cannot sit still and control themselves. They talk excessively, and do not seem to listen. They lose things, forget easily and are not able to finish tasks. Many of us experience problems like these at one time or another. But people with A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. say it interferes with their lives and threatens their chances for success. One woman says it is like having twenty televisions in her head, all on different programs. Doctors say the cause involves chemical balances in the brain. It can affect not only school performance, but also personal relationships and the ability to keep a job. Many people with attention deficit are also found to have a learning disability or suffer from depression. A doctor has to identify A.D.D or A.D.H.D. There are drugs to help the chemical balances in the brain. These drugs calm people down, so they can finish tasks. But there are also possible side effects. Critics say parents and doctors are often too quick to give drugs. Some children outgrow effects like hyperactivity. Critics also express concern at the growing numbers of boys and girls identified with A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. Others say these are real disabilities. Drugs alone are not enough. Other important parts of treatment include providing a supportive environment. Students need to learn organizational skills, better use of time and different ways to study. They often need extended time to take tests, and individual help from concerned adults. Experts say children who make problems in class may not find their schoolwork interesting enough or difficult enough. Our series continues next week. All of our reports are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. We also have links to organizations for people with A.D.D. or A.D.H.D in thirty-nine countries around the world. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #54 - Election of 1824
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 18, 2004 (Theme) Henry Clay Broadcast: March 18, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) Four of the first five presidents of the United States came from Virginia. They were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James madison, and James Monroe. The second president, John Adams, was a New Englander. In the national election of eighteen-twenty-four, his son -- John Quincy Adams -- was one of four leading candidates for the presidency. And for the first time, the west began to make its weight felt in national politics. General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee got the most electoral votes: ninety-nine. But he needed one-hundred thirty-one to win a majority. The Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was second with eighty-four votes. Treasury Secretary William Crawford received forty-one. And Henry Clay of Kentucky got thirty-seven. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) Four of the first five presidents of the United States came from Virginia. They were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James madison, and James Monroe. The second president, John Adams, was a New Englander. In the national election of eighteen-twenty-four, his son -- John Quincy Adams -- was one of four leading candidates for the presidency. And for the first time, the west began to make its weight felt in national politics. General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee got the most electoral votes: ninety-nine. But he needed one-hundred thirty-one to win a majority. The Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was second with eighty-four votes. Treasury Secretary William Crawford received forty-one. And Henry Clay of Kentucky got thirty-seven. VOICE TWO: None of the candidates, however, got a majority of the votes. And the decision went to the House of Representatives. The House voted on only the three top candidates for president. The most powerful man in Congress -- Henry Clay -- was not, therefore, a candidate. But Clay's support would be the greatest help any of the candidates could receive. All three wanted his support. Treasury Secretary Crawford had suffered a serious illness before the election, and his health was bad. Clay felt he could not support him for that reason. VOICE ONE: This left Adams and Jackson. Clay did not agree with all of Adams' policies. But he did believe Adams had the education and ability to be president. Clay did not like Jackson, the hero of New Orleans during the war of 1812. He knew Jackson was poorly educated and easy to anger. Clay did not think Jackson would be a good president. So Clay decided to support Adams for president. He said nothing about this for a time. Several of Clay's friends visited Adams. They told him that Clay's supporters in the west would be pleased if Adams, as president, named Clay as Secretary of State. Adams told them that if the votes of the west elected him president, he would put a westerner in his cabinet. But he would not promise that the westerner would be Clay, or that the cabinet job would be that of Secretary of State. VOICE TWO: Clay still had not said publicly which candidate he supported. But it became known that his choice was Adams. Late in January, the Philadelphia newspaper, "Columbian Observer," published an unsigned letter. The letter charged that Clay and Adams had made a secret agreement. Clay, the letter said, would give his support to Adams. In exchange, Adams would name Clay his Secretary of State. Clay was furious. He not only denied the charge, but offered to fight a duel with the letter-writer, should his name be known. Much was made of the charge that Clay had sold his vote to Adams. But no proof was ever given. Clay demanded an investigation. But the man who accused him in the newspaper letter refused to say anything. Clay was sure Jackson's supporters were responsible. VOICE ONE: Snow was falling in Washington on the morning of February ninth, the day that Congress would elect the president. At noon, members of the Senate walked into the House of Representatives. The electoral votes were counted, and it was announced officially that no candidate had won. The Senators left, and the House began voting. Each state had one vote for president. Adams was sure he would get the votes of twelve states. Crawford had the votes of four and Jackson, seven. New York was the question. Seventeen of the New York congressmen were for Adams, and seventeen were opposed to him. Adams needed just one of these opposition votes to get the vote of New York and become president. VOICE TWO: One of those New Yorkers opposed to Adams was a rich old man who represented the Albany area, Stephen van Rensselaer. Although van Rensselaer had supported Crawford or Jackson, he really was not sure now whom to support. Henry Clay had taken the old man into his office that morning and talked to him. Daniel Webster also was there. They both told the New York congressman that the safety of the nation depended on the election of Adams as president. Clay and Webster told the old man that his was the most important vote in the whole Congress. . . That Stephen van Rensselaer would decide who would be president. The old man's head was not too clear after listening to Clay and Webster. He still did not know what to do. VOICE ONE: When the New York congressmen voted, van Rensselaer still was not sure of his choice. And he put his head down on his desk and asked God to help him make the right choice. After this short prayer, he opened his eyes and saw on the floor at his feet a piece of paper with Adams' name on it. Van Rensselaer picked it up and put it in the ballot box as his vote. This gave Adams the vote of the state of New York and made him president of the United States. A committee of congressmen was sent to Mr. Adams' home to tell him of the vote. One member of the committee described the Secretary of State: "Sweat rolled down his face. He shook from head to foot and was so nervous he could hardly stand to speak." VOICE TWO: Later in the evening, Adams had control of himself. President Monroe gave a big party at the White House. Adams was there. So was Jackson, and Clay. During the party, Adams and Jackson met face to face. Jackson had his arm around a young lady. "How do you do, Mr. Adams," said Jackson. "I give you my left hand, for the right -- as you see -- is devoted to the fair. I hope you are well, sir?" "Very well, sir," answered Adams, coolly. "I hope General Jackson is well." VOICE ONE: Two days later, Adams told President Monroe that he had decided to offer the job of Secretary of State to Clay. He said he was doing so because of the western support he had received. Clay thought deeply for a week about the offer. He asked a number of friends for advice. Most of them urged him to take the job. They told him that a man of the west was needed in the cabinet. And they said being Secretary of State would greatly help his own chances of becoming president some day. Clay accepted the offer. He said he would serve as Adams's Secretary of State. Until now, General Jackson had refused to believe the charges that Clay had sold his vote to Adams for the top cabinet job. Now he was sure of it. He wrote to a friend: "Was there ever before such bare-faced corruption? What is this trade of vote for office, if not bribery." VOICE TWO: Many of Jackson's supporters did not believe John Quincy Adams had the ability to be political leader of the party. They believed that Clay would seize the party leadership and use this power to help himself become elected the next president. Jackson, himself a senator, showed his feelings when the Senate was asked to approve Clay as Secretary of State. He voted no. And thirteen other senators joined him against the nomination. But they were too few to prevent Clay from getting the job. The next presidential election was four years away. General Andrew Jackson promised himself this would be one election he would not lose. Before he left Washington to return to Tennessee, Jackson wrote a letter that soon became public. "I became a soldier for the good of my country," Jackson wrote. "Difficulties met me at every step. I thank God that it was my duty to overcome them. I am in no way responsible to Henry Clay. There is a purer court to which I will put my case. . . to the intelligent judgment of our patriotic and honest voters." VOICE ONE: General Jackson returned to Nashville to rest and plan. He was still a senator, and he questioned if it might not be best for him to resign from the Senate. He would be free of Washington politics and able to build his political strength for the election in eighteen-twenty-eight. He decided to resign. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE TWO: None of the candidates, however, got a majority of the votes. And the decision went to the House of Representatives. The House voted on only the three top candidates for president. The most powerful man in Congress -- Henry Clay -- was not, therefore, a candidate. But Clay's support would be the greatest help any of the candidates could receive. All three wanted his support. Treasury Secretary Crawford had suffered a serious illness before the election, and his health was bad. Clay felt he could not support him for that reason. VOICE ONE: This left Adams and Jackson. Clay did not agree with all of Adams' policies. But he did believe Adams had the education and ability to be president. Clay did not like Jackson, the hero of New Orleans during the war of 1812. He knew Jackson was poorly educated and easy to anger. Clay did not think Jackson would be a good president. So Clay decided to support Adams for president. He said nothing about this for a time. Several of Clay's friends visited Adams. They told him that Clay's supporters in the west would be pleased if Adams, as president, named Clay as Secretary of State. Adams told them that if the votes of the west elected him president, he would put a westerner in his cabinet. But he would not promise that the westerner would be Clay, or that the cabinet job would be that of Secretary of State. VOICE TWO: Clay still had not said publicly which candidate he supported. But it became known that his choice was Adams. Late in January, the Philadelphia newspaper, "Columbian Observer," published an unsigned letter. The letter charged that Clay and Adams had made a secret agreement. Clay, the letter said, would give his support to Adams. In exchange, Adams would name Clay his Secretary of State. Clay was furious. He not only denied the charge, but offered to fight a duel with the letter-writer, should his name be known. Much was made of the charge that Clay had sold his vote to Adams. But no proof was ever given. Clay demanded an investigation. But the man who accused him in the newspaper letter refused to say anything. Clay was sure Jackson's supporters were responsible. VOICE ONE: Snow was falling in Washington on the morning of February ninth, the day that Congress would elect the president. At noon, members of the Senate walked into the House of Representatives. The electoral votes were counted, and it was announced officially that no candidate had won. The Senators left, and the House began voting. Each state had one vote for president. Adams was sure he would get the votes of twelve states. Crawford had the votes of four and Jackson, seven. New York was the question. Seventeen of the New York congressmen were for Adams, and seventeen were opposed to him. Adams needed just one of these opposition votes to get the vote of New York and become president. VOICE TWO: One of those New Yorkers opposed to Adams was a rich old man who represented the Albany area, Stephen van Rensselaer. Although van Rensselaer had supported Crawford or Jackson, he really was not sure now whom to support. Henry Clay had taken the old man into his office that morning and talked to him. Daniel Webster also was there. They both told the New York congressman that the safety of the nation depended on the election of Adams as president. Clay and Webster told the old man that his was the most important vote in the whole Congress. . . That Stephen van Rensselaer would decide who would be president. The old man's head was not too clear after listening to Clay and Webster. He still did not know what to do. VOICE ONE: When the New York congressmen voted, van Rensselaer still was not sure of his choice. And he put his head down on his desk and asked God to help him make the right choice. After this short prayer, he opened his eyes and saw on the floor at his feet a piece of paper with Adams' name on it. Van Rensselaer picked it up and put it in the ballot box as his vote. This gave Adams the vote of the state of New York and made him president of the United States. A committee of congressmen was sent to Mr. Adams' home to tell him of the vote. One member of the committee described the Secretary of State: "Sweat rolled down his face. He shook from head to foot and was so nervous he could hardly stand to speak." VOICE TWO: Later in the evening, Adams had control of himself. President Monroe gave a big party at the White House. Adams was there. So was Jackson, and Clay. During the party, Adams and Jackson met face to face. Jackson had his arm around a young lady. "How do you do, Mr. Adams," said Jackson. "I give you my left hand, for the right -- as you see -- is devoted to the fair. I hope you are well, sir?" "Very well, sir," answered Adams, coolly. "I hope General Jackson is well." VOICE ONE: Two days later, Adams told President Monroe that he had decided to offer the job of Secretary of State to Clay. He said he was doing so because of the western support he had received. Clay thought deeply for a week about the offer. He asked a number of friends for advice. Most of them urged him to take the job. They told him that a man of the west was needed in the cabinet. And they said being Secretary of State would greatly help his own chances of becoming president some day. Clay accepted the offer. He said he would serve as Adams's Secretary of State. Until now, General Jackson had refused to believe the charges that Clay had sold his vote to Adams for the top cabinet job. Now he was sure of it. He wrote to a friend: "Was there ever before such bare-faced corruption? What is this trade of vote for office, if not bribery." VOICE TWO: Many of Jackson's supporters did not believe John Quincy Adams had the ability to be political leader of the party. They believed that Clay would seize the party leadership and use this power to help himself become elected the next president. Jackson, himself a senator, showed his feelings when the Senate was asked to approve Clay as Secretary of State. He voted no. And thirteen other senators joined him against the nomination. But they were too few to prevent Clay from getting the job. The next presidential election was four years away. General Andrew Jackson promised himself this would be one election he would not lose. Before he left Washington to return to Tennessee, Jackson wrote a letter that soon became public. "I became a soldier for the good of my country," Jackson wrote. "Difficulties met me at every step. I thank God that it was my duty to overcome them. I am in no way responsible to Henry Clay. There is a purer court to which I will put my case. . . to the intelligent judgment of our patriotic and honest voters." VOICE ONE: General Jackson returned to Nashville to rest and plan. He was still a senator, and he questioned if it might not be best for him to resign from the Senate. He would be free of Washington politics and able to build his political strength for the election in eighteen-twenty-eight. He decided to resign. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Artistic Pandas / United States Dollar / Nellie McKay
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 19, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: March 19, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from Nellie McKay. And we answer a question about the American dollar. But first, some rare black-and-white animals are about to appear in color. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from Nellie McKay. And we answer a question about the American dollar. But first, some rare black-and-white animals are about to appear in color. Artistic Pandas HOST: More than one-thousand artists from around the country recently entered a competition in Washington, D.C. The winners will create artwork on one-hundred fifty plastic statues of pandas. As Gwen Outen reports, the animal art will appear on city streets and in other places. ANNOUNCER: The invasion of the capital is called “PandaMania. ” The statues will be shown from May through September. Later, they will be sold to raise money for the arts. The statues will be at least one-point-three meters high. That is around the size of a real panda. Washington artist Di Stovall (die STOW-vahl) designed a small panda to give ideas to other artists. Mizz Stovall also worked on an earlier showing of painted animal statues in Washington. The event in two-thousand-two was called “Party Animals.” It involved statues of donkeys and elephants. The donkey is the official animal of the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican Party. Mizz Stovall covered her statue with stars and stripes. Her “America the Beautiful” elephant brought the highest price. It sold for twenty-five-thousand dollars. Anthony Gittens heads the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He notes that the city has a long history with pandas – real ones, that is. In nineteen-seventy-two, China sent two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington. This followed the historic visit by President Richard Nixon to China. Those pandas lived until the nineteen-nineties. Now, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang are on loan to the zoo for one-million dollars a year. People often wait a long time to see them. If the crowds get too large, visitors can look for the artistic pandas on the street. United States Dollar HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Rodrigo Bueno Therezo asks about the history of the American dollar. We found a good place to start: a book called "A History of Money," by Glyn Davies, a British professor who died last year. He wrote that during American colonial times, the British pound was in short supply. So the colonists had to find substitutes -- tobacco, for example, even foreign coins. Some colonies printed their own money. Britain was not happy. This became one of the causes of the American Revolution. The colonists printed notes called Continentals to pay for the war. The value of some Continentals was based on the British pound. Others were based on the Spanish peso or dollar coin. The word dollar came from the German word "taler" (TAH-ler). That came from the name of a place where silver was mined and made into coins. The United States declared its independence in seventeen-seventy-six. In seventeen-ninety-two, the nation chose the dollar as its unit of currency. One dollar equaled one-hundred cents. It still does. The Constitution gives Congress the power to print money and set its value. In nineteen-thirteen, Congress created the United States central bank, the Federal Reserve, to supervise the money supply. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces bank notes for the Federal Reserve System. The bureau began in eighteen-sixty-two as a six-person operation in the Treasury Department. Steam powered the presses. Today, money is printed twenty-four hours a day. Notes come in one, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one-hundred dollar amounts. Design changes have been made in recent years to improve security. The United States Mint produces coins. The Associated Press reported just this week about a special coin. Coin collecting experts say they have identified a two-hundred-ten-year-old silver dollar. Some consider it the first silver dollar ever made by the United States Mint. The American Numismatic Association, a collectors group, says it plans to show the coin to the public as of next month. Nellie McKay HOST: Nellie McKay (muh-KYE) is a nineteen-year-old singer and songwriter with a grown-up sense of music. Her first album is called “Get Away From Me.” Shep O’Neal has more. ANNOUNCER: “Get Away From Me" is unusual for a first album. It comes recorded on two compact discs. Nellie McKay wrote so many songs, they could not all fit on one CD. She sings jazz, pop, even a little rap. She also plays eight musical instruments, including the glockenspiel. Nellie McKay was born in London. Her mother brought her to New York City when she was two. This song, “Manhattan Avenue,” is about the street where they lived. (MUSIC) Nellie McKay and her mother lived with a dog plus nine cats they rescued from the streets. One of her songs is about the death of a cat whose owner sounds just a little crazy. The song is called “Ding Dong.” (MUSIC) Nellie McKay sings about many subjects in the eighteen songs on her first album. Her sense of humor comes through in most of “Get Away From Me.” We leave you with a song called “Clonie.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This program was written by Jill Moss, Jeri Watson and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Vosco Volarich. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English Artistic Pandas HOST: More than one-thousand artists from around the country recently entered a competition in Washington, D.C. The winners will create artwork on one-hundred fifty plastic statues of pandas. As Gwen Outen reports, the animal art will appear on city streets and in other places. ANNOUNCER: The invasion of the capital is called “PandaMania. ” The statues will be shown from May through September. Later, they will be sold to raise money for the arts. The statues will be at least one-point-three meters high. That is around the size of a real panda. Washington artist Di Stovall (die STOW-vahl) designed a small panda to give ideas to other artists. Mizz Stovall also worked on an earlier showing of painted animal statues in Washington. The event in two-thousand-two was called “Party Animals.” It involved statues of donkeys and elephants. The donkey is the official animal of the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican Party. Mizz Stovall covered her statue with stars and stripes. Her “America the Beautiful” elephant brought the highest price. It sold for twenty-five-thousand dollars. Anthony Gittens heads the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He notes that the city has a long history with pandas – real ones, that is. In nineteen-seventy-two, China sent two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington. This followed the historic visit by President Richard Nixon to China. Those pandas lived until the nineteen-nineties. Now, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang are on loan to the zoo for one-million dollars a year. People often wait a long time to see them. If the crowds get too large, visitors can look for the artistic pandas on the street. United States Dollar HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Rodrigo Bueno Therezo asks about the history of the American dollar. We found a good place to start: a book called "A History of Money," by Glyn Davies, a British professor who died last year. He wrote that during American colonial times, the British pound was in short supply. So the colonists had to find substitutes -- tobacco, for example, even foreign coins. Some colonies printed their own money. Britain was not happy. This became one of the causes of the American Revolution. The colonists printed notes called Continentals to pay for the war. The value of some Continentals was based on the British pound. Others were based on the Spanish peso or dollar coin. The word dollar came from the German word "taler" (TAH-ler). That came from the name of a place where silver was mined and made into coins. The United States declared its independence in seventeen-seventy-six. In seventeen-ninety-two, the nation chose the dollar as its unit of currency. One dollar equaled one-hundred cents. It still does. The Constitution gives Congress the power to print money and set its value. In nineteen-thirteen, Congress created the United States central bank, the Federal Reserve, to supervise the money supply. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces bank notes for the Federal Reserve System. The bureau began in eighteen-sixty-two as a six-person operation in the Treasury Department. Steam powered the presses. Today, money is printed twenty-four hours a day. Notes come in one, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one-hundred dollar amounts. Design changes have been made in recent years to improve security. The United States Mint produces coins. The Associated Press reported just this week about a special coin. Coin collecting experts say they have identified a two-hundred-ten-year-old silver dollar. Some consider it the first silver dollar ever made by the United States Mint. The American Numismatic Association, a collectors group, says it plans to show the coin to the public as of next month. Nellie McKay HOST: Nellie McKay (muh-KYE) is a nineteen-year-old singer and songwriter with a grown-up sense of music. Her first album is called “Get Away From Me.” Shep O’Neal has more. ANNOUNCER: “Get Away From Me" is unusual for a first album. It comes recorded on two compact discs. Nellie McKay wrote so many songs, they could not all fit on one CD. She sings jazz, pop, even a little rap. She also plays eight musical instruments, including the glockenspiel. Nellie McKay was born in London. Her mother brought her to New York City when she was two. This song, “Manhattan Avenue,” is about the street where they lived. (MUSIC) Nellie McKay and her mother lived with a dog plus nine cats they rescued from the streets. One of her songs is about the death of a cat whose owner sounds just a little crazy. The song is called “Ding Dong.” (MUSIC) Nellie McKay sings about many subjects in the eighteen songs on her first album. Her sense of humor comes through in most of “Get Away From Me.” We leave you with a song called “Clonie.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This program was written by Jill Moss, Jeri Watson and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Vosco Volarich. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Current Account Deficit
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 19, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The United States recently reported a record deficit in its current account balance. The current account is a measure of the nation’s trade with other countries. Last year, America’s combined deficit on trade in goods, services and other economic activity rose to almost five-hundred-forty-two-thousand-million dollars. That is nearly thirteen percent more than the record current account deficit set in two-thousand-two. A deficit is often described as a shortage. This is true for the financial situation of an individual. For example, if you spend more than your earn, you must borrow from a creditor. However, economists see deficits differently. When money is taken away in one place, it becomes a credit someplace else. It all must balance. This does not mean that deficits are good necessarily. It just means that a deficit shows that another economic activity is increasing. In two-thousand-three, the United States had a huge trade deficit in goods. It had a moderate trade surplus in services of about sixty-thousand-million dollars. But, the question remains, how did the United States pay for everything it bought? The answer is that the United States paid in dollars. Other countries, then, accepted those dollars. They could then use the money to buy American goods, or they could buy American investments. That is what has happened since the United States developed large trade deficits in the nineteen-eighties. Countries that trade with the United States have increasingly invested in it. This foreign investment is recorded in the nation’s financial account. Last year, other countries invested five-hundred-seventy-nine-thousand-million dollars more in America than it invested in them. That investment surplus is greater than the trade deficit. Foreign investment has become an important part of economic development in the United States. In nineteen-ninety-three, foreign money represented about nine-percent of all investment activity in America. By two-thousand, that had grown to almost twenty-five percent. So does this mean that trade deficits are cancelled out by foreign investment? The short answer is no. The widest measure of investment flow in and out of the country is called the capital account. It shows that the United States has a deficit of three-thousand-million dollars. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 18, 2004 - Future of English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: March 18, 2004 English is fast becoming the language of science around the world, but what is its future among everyday speakers? One expert points out that the percentage of native English speakers is declining globally while the languages of other rapidly growing regions are being spoken by increasing numbers of people. But, as VOA Science Correspondent David McAlary reports, English will continue to remain widespread and important: DM: Just 10 years ago, native English speakers were second only to Chinese in number. But British language scholar David Graddol [GRAD-doll] says English will probably drop in dominance by the middle of this century to rank, after Chinese, about equally with Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu, a south-Asian tongue closely related to Hindi. He points out that the decline will not be in total numbers of English speakers, but in relative terms. GRADDOL: "The number of people speaking English as a first language continues to rise, but it isn't rising nearly as fast as the numbers of many other languages around the world simply because the main population group has been largely in the lesser developed countries where languages other than English have been spoken." In a recent article in the journal Science, Mr. Graddol noted that three languages not now near the top of the list of the most widely spoken might be there soon. These are Bengali, Tamil, and Malay -- spoken in south and southeast Asia. But another expert on the English language says Mr. Graddol underestimates the future of its dominance. David Crystal of the University of Wales, the author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, says about one-and-a-half-billion of the world's six-billion people speak it as a second tongue compared to the 400-million native speakers. CRYSTAL: "Nobody quite knows what's going to happen because no language has been in this position before. But all the evidence suggests that the English language snowball is rolling down a hill and is getting faster and faster and faster and accreting new foreign language users unlike any language has ever done before. I don't myself see that process stopping in the immediate future. David Graddol thinks even that momentum will die in the near future, but personally I think there is no sign of this." DM: David Graddol does not dispute English's expansion as a second language, but his sense of proportion differs. While Mr. Crystal says more than three times as many people speak it as a second language than as a first, Mr. Graddol says that only recently have the second language speakers surpassed the number of native English speakers. Whatever the total, he disagrees with the notion that English's growth as a second tongue means it will become the world language to the exclusion of all others. GRADDOL: "We have grown up with the idea of dominance meaning that a language actually pushes out other languages and takes over the world. That's not actually what seems to be happening. Precisely because people are learning English as a second language, they are not actually giving up their first languages. They are becoming bilingual or multilingual. So the spread of English around the world is actually creating a greatly increased bilingualism and multilingualism." Mr. Graddol says this will put people who speak only English at a competitive disadvantage. In the new linguistic world order, he says most people will switch between languages for routine tasks and monolingual English speakers will find it difficult to participate fully in society. GRADDOL: "In India, for example, someone might speak five, six, even seven languages and not think that is a particularly unusual thing. But there will be some activities like going down to the market and buying vegetables that they might be able to do only in, say, Tamil. Then when they go home, they will talk to their family in another language, but when they go to college they will use probably English." DM: Mr. Graddol notes that employers in parts of Asia are already looking beyond English. In the next decade, he says the most important language to learn for job opportunities is likely to be Mandarin Chinese. For Wordmaster, I'm David McAlary on VOA's Coast to Coast. Broadcast on Coast to Coast: March 18, 2004 English is fast becoming the language of science around the world, but what is its future among everyday speakers? One expert points out that the percentage of native English speakers is declining globally while the languages of other rapidly growing regions are being spoken by increasing numbers of people. But, as VOA Science Correspondent David McAlary reports, English will continue to remain widespread and important: DM: Just 10 years ago, native English speakers were second only to Chinese in number. But British language scholar David Graddol [GRAD-doll] says English will probably drop in dominance by the middle of this century to rank, after Chinese, about equally with Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu, a south-Asian tongue closely related to Hindi. He points out that the decline will not be in total numbers of English speakers, but in relative terms. GRADDOL: "The number of people speaking English as a first language continues to rise, but it isn't rising nearly as fast as the numbers of many other languages around the world simply because the main population group has been largely in the lesser developed countries where languages other than English have been spoken." In a recent article in the journal Science, Mr. Graddol noted that three languages not now near the top of the list of the most widely spoken might be there soon. These are Bengali, Tamil, and Malay -- spoken in south and southeast Asia. But another expert on the English language says Mr. Graddol underestimates the future of its dominance. David Crystal of the University of Wales, the author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, says about one-and-a-half-billion of the world's six-billion people speak it as a second tongue compared to the 400-million native speakers. CRYSTAL: "Nobody quite knows what's going to happen because no language has been in this position before. But all the evidence suggests that the English language snowball is rolling down a hill and is getting faster and faster and faster and accreting new foreign language users unlike any language has ever done before. I don't myself see that process stopping in the immediate future. David Graddol thinks even that momentum will die in the near future, but personally I think there is no sign of this." DM: David Graddol does not dispute English's expansion as a second language, but his sense of proportion differs. While Mr. Crystal says more than three times as many people speak it as a second language than as a first, Mr. Graddol says that only recently have the second language speakers surpassed the number of native English speakers. Whatever the total, he disagrees with the notion that English's growth as a second tongue means it will become the world language to the exclusion of all others. GRADDOL: "We have grown up with the idea of dominance meaning that a language actually pushes out other languages and takes over the world. That's not actually what seems to be happening. Precisely because people are learning English as a second language, they are not actually giving up their first languages. They are becoming bilingual or multilingual. So the spread of English around the world is actually creating a greatly increased bilingualism and multilingualism." Mr. Graddol says this will put people who speak only English at a competitive disadvantage. In the new linguistic world order, he says most people will switch between languages for routine tasks and monolingual English speakers will find it difficult to participate fully in society. GRADDOL: "In India, for example, someone might speak five, six, even seven languages and not think that is a particularly unusual thing. But there will be some activities like going down to the market and buying vegetables that they might be able to do only in, say, Tamil. Then when they go home, they will talk to their family in another language, but when they go to college they will use probably English." DM: Mr. Graddol notes that employers in parts of Asia are already looking beyond English. In the next decade, he says the most important language to learn for job opportunities is likely to be Mandarin Chinese. For Wordmaster, I'm David McAlary on VOA's Coast to Coast. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Iraq War Anniversary and the Madrid Bombings
* Byline: 

 Broacast: March 20, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. President Bush said Friday that every government has a duty to fight and destroy terrorism. He said any sign of weakness only invites more violence for all nations. Mister Bush made the comments as he observed the first anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq. Diplomats from more than eighty nations gathered at the White House to hear his speech. Mister Bush also said differences over Iraq belong to what he called, the past. He said the ouster of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has removed a cause of violence and aggression in the Middle East. Also Friday, justice and interior ministers from European Union countries agreed at talks in Belgium to do more to fight terrorism. On March eleventh, bombs exploded on four trains in Madrid. More than two-hundred people were killed. More than one-thousand others were injured. Many people in Spain blamed the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for the bombings. Mister Aznar has been a strong ally of President Bush and the war in Iraq. The Spanish government provided more than one-thousand troops for the American-led coalition. Ninety-percent of Spaniards opposed the war. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will be the next Prime Minister of Spain. Mister Zapatero says support for the war made his country a target for terrorist attacks. He has said he plans to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq unless they are placed under United Nations command by the end of June. The People’s Party of Mister Aznar lost power in general elections in Spain last Sunday, three days after the bombings. The opposition Socialist party of Mister Zapatero defeated the ruling conservatives. Before the attacks, the People’s Party was widely expected to win the election. The Spanish government says it had reason to blame the Basque separatist group ETA for the bombings. Police now say they believe Islamic militants linked to the al-Qaida group carried out the attacks. Some Spaniards say the government attempted to hide what it knew about links to Islamic extremists. The government said Thursday that it would release intelligence documents linked to the attacks. Officials said they want to prove they did not try to trick the public. On Friday, a judge in Madrid ordered five suspects in the bombings to remain in jail while an investigation continues. The three Moroccan and two Indian suspects deny any links to the attacks. Police also have been holding other people, including a man with Spanish citizenship. Some suspects are believed to have links to bombings in Morocco last year. Those attacks killed thirty-three people and the twelve bombers. There have been reported claims of responsibility for the Madrid attacks by al-Qaida members or others acting in its name. American officials say they fear that the apparent influence on the Spanish elections will only strengthen Islamic terrorist groups. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Cochise
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 21, 2004 VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) During the Eighteenth Century, Indians tried to halt the move of white settlers into territory in the American west. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we tell the story of one of the leaders of the Indian resistance, Apache chief Cochise. (THEME) VOICE TWO: In the middle Eighteen-Hundreds, there were only a few white settlers in the southwestern United States. This was Apache territory. The Chiricahuas were one of several Apache groups that lived in what today is southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Chiricahua war chief, Cochise had become used to American travelers and military officials stopping at Apache Pass. It was the only place in the area where drinking water could be found. The Chiricahuas lived at peace with the settlers. They sold wood to the settlers. And, in Eighteen-Fifty-Eight, Cochise had permitted the Butterfield Overland Mail Company to build a rest area at Apache Pass. He let mail carriers and other travelers pass safely through the area on their way to California. In February of Eighteen-Sixty-One, an American military officer asked to speak with Cochise. He wanted to discuss several problems. Some cattle were missing. And a boy had been taken from a farm in the area. Second Lieutenant George Bascom had been ordered to do whatever was necessary to find the child. He did not have any experience in dealing with Indians. VOICE ONE: Cochise was tall for an Apache -- almost six feet. He had strong cheekbones and a straight nose. He wore his black hair to his shoulders in the traditional Apache way. He carried himself as a person with power does. One American officer said he stood "...straight as an arrow, built, from the ground up, as perfect as a man could be." The Chiricahua Apaches believed that a leader was one who was wise and able to win in war. They believed that a leader is not chosen, but just recognized. Cochise was the son of a Chiricahua Apache chief. He had been trained to lead from a young age. The whites who knew him both feared and respected him. Friends as well as enemies considered him to be an honest man. He always told the truth and expected others to do the same. By the time he met with Lieutenant Bascom, Cochise was about fifty-five years old. He was an unusually powerful Apache leader. VOICE TWO: Lieutenant Bascom knew nothing about Cochise. The officer was concerned only with succeeding at his first command. Cochise was not responsible for the raid against the farm. So, the Apache chief believed the American soldiers had come in peace. He went to meet them with his wife and four other people. These included his brother, his young son, and two other relatives. That he came with his family was a sign of trust. But, Lieutenant Bascom did not understand the sign. They met in Lieutenant Bascom's cloth tent. Cochise told the officer that his people were not involved in the raid. Cochise said he would do what he could to help them find the boy. He told Lieutenant Bascom that he believed the boy had been taken by the White Mountain Apaches, a group that lived north of the Chiricahuas. Years later, this was found to be true. VOICE ONE: Lieutenant Bascom, however, was sure Cochise was hiding the boy. He accused Cochise of lying. At first, Cochise did not understand. He thought the American was joking. Then Lieutenant Bascom told Cochise that he and his family would be held prisoner until the cattle and the boy were returned. Cochise reacted quickly. He stood up, pulled out his knife and cut a hole in the tent. He escaped through the hole. The soldiers waiting outside were taken by surprise. They shot at Cochise three times but could not stop him. One of Cochise's relatives also tried to jump through the tent. But the soldiers captured him. Cochise later told an American that he ran all the way up the hill with his coffee cup still in his hand. VOICE TWO: Cochise captured four Americans and left a message for Lieutenant Bascom about exchanging prisoners. But Bascom did not find Cochise's message until two days later. By then, it was too late. The Americans already had hung Cochise's brother and two other relatives. They released Cochise's son and wife. Cochise immediately made plans to repay the Americans for the deaths of his relatives. Cochise killed his prisoners. He decided that Americans could never be trusted. He said, "I was at peace with the whites until they tried to kill me for what other Indians did; I now live and die at war them." VOICE ONE: The incident led to years of violence and terror. Cochise united the Apaches. They attacked the United States army and the increasing number of white settlers moving into the southwest. The Apaches fought so fiercely that troops, settlers and traders were forced to withdraw from the territory. It appeared for a time that the Apaches controlled Arizona. News of Cochise's bravery in battle became widely known. He fought as if he believed he was protected from harm. One American soldier described how his shots missed Cochise. He said Cochise would drop to the side of his horse, hang on its neck and use its body as protection. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Two, about two-thousand men marched from California to Apache Pass. General James Carleton commanded them. They were trying to re-establish communications between the Pacific coast and the eastern United States. Cochise had five-hundred Apache fighters hidden near Apache Pass. The Apaches attacked fiercely. Suddenly the Americans fired two large cannons. The Indians fled. Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Chihenne Apaches, was badly wounded. He survived. Six months later, he tried to make a peace treaty with a group of American soldiers. He was taken prisoner, shot and killed. Mangas's murder confirmed Cochise's belief that Americans must never be trusted. VOICE ONE: Cochise became the main chief of all the Apache tribes. He and his warriors rode through southeastern Arizona torturing and killing everyone they found, including small children. The federal government began a campaign to kill or capture all Apaches. Cochise and two-hundred followers escaped capture by hiding in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. During this time, new white settlements were built. The Apaches continued to raid and return to hide in the mountains. For twelve years, Cochise escaped capture by troops from the United States and Mexico. Officials in Arizona named him "public enemy number one." The story spread that no white person could look at Cochise and live to tell about it. VOICE TWO: Cochise refused to go to Washington for negotiations of any kind. He did not trust the United States government. Yet he permitted his son, Taza, to go. Taza got the disease pneumonia and died. He is buried in the American capital. In Eighteen-Seventy, General George Crook took command of the territory of Arizona. He won the loyalty of a number of Apaches. He got many of them to live on reservations, the public lands set aside for the Indians. But his main target was Cochise. VOICE ONE: Cochise agreed to come out of the mountains to discuss moving his people to a reservation in Arizona. But the federal government began moving other Apache tribes to a reservation in New Mexico. Cochise refused to agree to move to any place but his home territory. He returned to the mountains to hide. In the spring of Eighteen-Seventy-Two, he decided to negotiate a peace treaty. General Oliver Otis Howard met with Cochise in his hidden mountain headquarters. That summer, they agreed to establish a reservation in Chiricahua territory in Arizona. General Howard promised Cochise that his people would be allowed to live on their homeland forever. Cochise surrendered. He lived on the reservation peacefully until his death, in Eighteen-Seventy-Four. VOICE TWO: Two years later, the federal government broke the treaty and forced the Apaches to move. Some of them refused. Led by Geronimo and Cochise's son Naiche, they fled to the mountains. For ten years, they continued raiding. Finally, they too surrendered and were moved far away. Cochise had fought fiercely to protect the land the Apaches considered home. But he lost. He once said, "Wars are fought to see who owns the land, but in the end it possesses man. Who dares say he owns it--is he not buried beneath it?" ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: March 21, 2004 VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) During the Eighteenth Century, Indians tried to halt the move of white settlers into territory in the American west. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we tell the story of one of the leaders of the Indian resistance, Apache chief Cochise. (THEME) VOICE TWO: In the middle Eighteen-Hundreds, there were only a few white settlers in the southwestern United States. This was Apache territory. The Chiricahuas were one of several Apache groups that lived in what today is southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Chiricahua war chief, Cochise had become used to American travelers and military officials stopping at Apache Pass. It was the only place in the area where drinking water could be found. The Chiricahuas lived at peace with the settlers. They sold wood to the settlers. And, in Eighteen-Fifty-Eight, Cochise had permitted the Butterfield Overland Mail Company to build a rest area at Apache Pass. He let mail carriers and other travelers pass safely through the area on their way to California. In February of Eighteen-Sixty-One, an American military officer asked to speak with Cochise. He wanted to discuss several problems. Some cattle were missing. And a boy had been taken from a farm in the area. Second Lieutenant George Bascom had been ordered to do whatever was necessary to find the child. He did not have any experience in dealing with Indians. VOICE ONE: Cochise was tall for an Apache -- almost six feet. He had strong cheekbones and a straight nose. He wore his black hair to his shoulders in the traditional Apache way. He carried himself as a person with power does. One American officer said he stood "...straight as an arrow, built, from the ground up, as perfect as a man could be." The Chiricahua Apaches believed that a leader was one who was wise and able to win in war. They believed that a leader is not chosen, but just recognized. Cochise was the son of a Chiricahua Apache chief. He had been trained to lead from a young age. The whites who knew him both feared and respected him. Friends as well as enemies considered him to be an honest man. He always told the truth and expected others to do the same. By the time he met with Lieutenant Bascom, Cochise was about fifty-five years old. He was an unusually powerful Apache leader. VOICE TWO: Lieutenant Bascom knew nothing about Cochise. The officer was concerned only with succeeding at his first command. Cochise was not responsible for the raid against the farm. So, the Apache chief believed the American soldiers had come in peace. He went to meet them with his wife and four other people. These included his brother, his young son, and two other relatives. That he came with his family was a sign of trust. But, Lieutenant Bascom did not understand the sign. They met in Lieutenant Bascom's cloth tent. Cochise told the officer that his people were not involved in the raid. Cochise said he would do what he could to help them find the boy. He told Lieutenant Bascom that he believed the boy had been taken by the White Mountain Apaches, a group that lived north of the Chiricahuas. Years later, this was found to be true. VOICE ONE: Lieutenant Bascom, however, was sure Cochise was hiding the boy. He accused Cochise of lying. At first, Cochise did not understand. He thought the American was joking. Then Lieutenant Bascom told Cochise that he and his family would be held prisoner until the cattle and the boy were returned. Cochise reacted quickly. He stood up, pulled out his knife and cut a hole in the tent. He escaped through the hole. The soldiers waiting outside were taken by surprise. They shot at Cochise three times but could not stop him. One of Cochise's relatives also tried to jump through the tent. But the soldiers captured him. Cochise later told an American that he ran all the way up the hill with his coffee cup still in his hand. VOICE TWO: Cochise captured four Americans and left a message for Lieutenant Bascom about exchanging prisoners. But Bascom did not find Cochise's message until two days later. By then, it was too late. The Americans already had hung Cochise's brother and two other relatives. They released Cochise's son and wife. Cochise immediately made plans to repay the Americans for the deaths of his relatives. Cochise killed his prisoners. He decided that Americans could never be trusted. He said, "I was at peace with the whites until they tried to kill me for what other Indians did; I now live and die at war them." VOICE ONE: The incident led to years of violence and terror. Cochise united the Apaches. They attacked the United States army and the increasing number of white settlers moving into the southwest. The Apaches fought so fiercely that troops, settlers and traders were forced to withdraw from the territory. It appeared for a time that the Apaches controlled Arizona. News of Cochise's bravery in battle became widely known. He fought as if he believed he was protected from harm. One American soldier described how his shots missed Cochise. He said Cochise would drop to the side of his horse, hang on its neck and use its body as protection. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Two, about two-thousand men marched from California to Apache Pass. General James Carleton commanded them. They were trying to re-establish communications between the Pacific coast and the eastern United States. Cochise had five-hundred Apache fighters hidden near Apache Pass. The Apaches attacked fiercely. Suddenly the Americans fired two large cannons. The Indians fled. Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Chihenne Apaches, was badly wounded. He survived. Six months later, he tried to make a peace treaty with a group of American soldiers. He was taken prisoner, shot and killed. Mangas's murder confirmed Cochise's belief that Americans must never be trusted. VOICE ONE: Cochise became the main chief of all the Apache tribes. He and his warriors rode through southeastern Arizona torturing and killing everyone they found, including small children. The federal government began a campaign to kill or capture all Apaches. Cochise and two-hundred followers escaped capture by hiding in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. During this time, new white settlements were built. The Apaches continued to raid and return to hide in the mountains. For twelve years, Cochise escaped capture by troops from the United States and Mexico. Officials in Arizona named him "public enemy number one." The story spread that no white person could look at Cochise and live to tell about it. VOICE TWO: Cochise refused to go to Washington for negotiations of any kind. He did not trust the United States government. Yet he permitted his son, Taza, to go. Taza got the disease pneumonia and died. He is buried in the American capital. In Eighteen-Seventy, General George Crook took command of the territory of Arizona. He won the loyalty of a number of Apaches. He got many of them to live on reservations, the public lands set aside for the Indians. But his main target was Cochise. VOICE ONE: Cochise agreed to come out of the mountains to discuss moving his people to a reservation in Arizona. But the federal government began moving other Apache tribes to a reservation in New Mexico. Cochise refused to agree to move to any place but his home territory. He returned to the mountains to hide. In the spring of Eighteen-Seventy-Two, he decided to negotiate a peace treaty. General Oliver Otis Howard met with Cochise in his hidden mountain headquarters. That summer, they agreed to establish a reservation in Chiricahua territory in Arizona. General Howard promised Cochise that his people would be allowed to live on their homeland forever. Cochise surrendered. He lived on the reservation peacefully until his death, in Eighteen-Seventy-Four. VOICE TWO: Two years later, the federal government broke the treaty and forced the Apaches to move. Some of them refused. Led by Geronimo and Cochise's son Naiche, they fled to the mountains. For ten years, they continued raiding. Finally, they too surrendered and were moved far away. Cochise had fought fiercely to protect the land the Apaches considered home. But he lost. He once said, "Wars are fought to see who owns the land, but in the end it possesses man. Who dares say he owns it--is he not buried beneath it?" ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Infertility in the Developing World
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 22, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. A man and a woman are considered infertile if they cannot produce a pregnancy after twelve months of trying. For centuries, the lack of ability to have children was blamed only on women. Scientists now know that men, too, can be infertile. The organization PATH says infertility affects an estimated sixty-million to eighty-million people. It says the great majority live in developing countries. PATH is the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health. This non-profit group is in Seattle, Washington. There are many different causes of infertility. Some are genetic. Others involve physical problems or injuries. Still others are environmental, like pesticides and other chemicals. Experts say diet and the use of alcohol and drugs can also affect fertility. Some of these causes are preventable. So are others, such as infections spread through sex. Dirty conditions during childbirth can also cause infections that make women infertile. So can unsafe ways to end unwanted pregnancies. And so can the tradition in some cultures of cutting the female sex organs. In industrial countries, the best-known current treatment for infertility is a process called in vitro fertilization. This involves joining an egg with sperm in a laboratory. Once fertilized, the egg is placed in the woman to develop into a fetus. Treatments can also involve the use of fertility drugs to increase the production of eggs. But experts say cultural and religious beliefs may prevent people from seeking modern treatments. In Italy, for example, a new law took effect this month. The Medically Assisted Reproduction Law restricts or bans the use of many kinds of technologies. In other societies, people often blame evil spirits when a couple cannot have children. So people seek traditional treatments. In any case, technologies for assisted reproduction cost thousands of dollars. So public health systems usually do not offer them. Many experts say public health systems should do more to educate people about preventable causes of infertility. These include sexually transmitted diseases. The experts also say doctors should require an examination of both the man and the woman when a couple is infertile. The group PATH says men are the cause, or part of the cause, of infertility in more than half of couples. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Presidential Campaign Update
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 22, 2004 (THEME) Howard Dean at Wisconsin rallyVOA photo - G. Flakus Broadcast: March 22, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week -- a progress report on the race for the presidency. Dick Cheney VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week -- a progress report on the race for the presidency. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many Americans can remember when presidential campaigns lasted two or three months. The campaign this year will be one of the longest in American history. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts already has gained enough delegates to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party. Elections at the state level decide how many delegates will support a candidate at the party nominating convention. A candidate needed two-thousand-one-hundred-sixty-two delegates to secure the nomination. Democrats began to vote in January for a candidate to compete against President George W. Bush. The biggest day of voting was on March second. It was called Super Tuesday. Citizens voted in ten states. Senator Kerry won nine of them. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina won the tenth. But he left the race after that. VOICE TWO: So Democrats have chosen their candidate early. This did not happen by chance. Some states held their nominating elections earlier than before. Not everyone thinks this was such a good idea. They say voters may lose interest in the campaign. Election Day is not until November second. Democrats will meet in Boston, Massachusetts, in July to nominate John Kerry. Republicans will hold their nominating convention in New York City in August. President Bush ran unopposed for delegates. The Constitution permits presidents to serve two four-year terms. Early March was important for President Bush as well as for Senator Kerry. The Bush re-election campaign began television messages in seventeen states. And the president made some campaign trips to seek votes and raise money. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Kerry has served almost twenty years as a United States senator from Massachusetts. As a young man, he fought in the Vietnam War. He was honored for bravery. When he came home, however, he protested that war. Yet a lot of people thought the Democratic nominee this year would not be John Kerry, but Howard Dean. As of October there were ten candidates. They took part in debates and campaigned around the country. Howard Dean, a medical doctor, was popular as governor of the small northeastern state of Vermont. He resigned in two-thousand-two to begin his campaign to become America’s forty-fourth president. VOICE TWO: Some Democrats liked Doctor Dean because he opposed the war in Iraq. They liked the energetic way he expressed anger at the Bush administration. His supporters noted that other major Democratic candidates had voted in Congress for the United States to invade Iraq. Senator Kerry supported the American-led action when Congress considered it. He says he voted for war because the administration had warned that weapons of mass destruction threatened America. He criticizes the war, now that searchers have not found any such weapons. VOICE ONE: Political observers also praised Howard Dean for the way he raised money for his campaign. He received millions of dollars in small gifts through the Internet. Some experts thought he had a good chance to defeat the president. But people in the state of Iowa thought differently. The Iowa caucuses took place on January nineteenth. Local citizens held meetings to choose delegates who would support the candidates. John Kerry received thirty-eight percent of the delegates. John Edwards finished second. And Howard Dean finished third, with eighteen percent. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What happened? Commentators said many people in Iowa thought Howard Dean sounded too angry. They also thought some of his television messages were too critical of his opponents. And then there was the "Dean Scream." The night he lost the Iowa caucuses, Howard Dean made a short statement to his supporters. Many were young people who had worked hard for him. Clearly he wanted to say something to give them energy to campaign in the other states. Howard Dean shouted over the noise. He waved his arms around and ended his speech with a yell. Television showed this moment hundreds of times in the days to follow. The Dean campaign protested that this was unfair. But the media were not alone. Many Americans said Howard Dean did not appear presidential. VOICE ONE: The next nominating election was the primary in New Hampshire. Again, John Kerry won. He received thirty-eight percent of the vote. But this time Howard Dean finished second, with twenty-six percent. Wesley Clark was third, with John Edwards close behind. Mister Clark is a retired Army general and former NATO commander. Then came voting in seven states on February third. Senator Edwards won South Carolina, which is next to his home state. General Clark won Oklahoma. That proved to be the only state he won. Senator Kerry won the other five states. VOICE TWO: Some campaigns did not last long. Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois withdrew just before the Iowa caucuses in January. Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri quit afterward. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut stayed in the race until early February. So did Wesley Clark. On February eighteenth, Howard Dean also left the race. His campaign collected a lot of money. But campaign officials say they did not spend it well. As a result, there was not much left to spend this year. John Edwards left the campaign after he won only South Carolina on March second. Senator Bob Graham of Florida was also in the race for a time. And there were two other candidates: the Reverend Al Sharpton of New York and Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Senator Kerry must still choose someone for vice president. Many people would like him to choose John Edwards of North Carolina. They say he is the best speaker of all the candidates. He was a trial lawyer before he ran for the Senate. He is in his first term as a senator. Some people say John Edwards would bring balance to the Democrats in the election. Senator Kerry is from a rich family in New England, in the northeastern part of the United States. Senator Edwards, though now wealthy, is from a family in the South that did not have much money. Many people call John Kerry a liberal. John Edwards is known more as a moderate. VOICE TWO: President Bush says he wants Dick Cheney to remain his vice president. Public opinion research shows that the vice president has lost popularity in recent months. One issue involves the company that Mister Cheney once led, Halliburton. Halliburton provides services for oil fields. Currently it is also serving food to American troops and doing other work related to the Iraq war. There has been criticism about overcharging and a lack of competition for projects. Halliburton defends its pricing and the way it has received work. Still, some people say the company in Texas has too much influence in Washington. VOICE ONE: There are different issues in this election year. Iraq. Terrorism. Taxes. Education. Health care. But the economy plays a big part. The economy is better since the last recession. But the recovery has not created many new jobs yet. Another issue is the loss of information technology jobs to India and other countries. John Kerry leads President Bush in some public opinion studies. The president is just beginning his own campaign. Estimates of the amount of money that his supporters have already given are as high as two-hundred-million dollars. That is a lot more than the Kerry campaign has received. VOICE TWO: The two candidates have already begun to attack each other through paid announcements on television and radio. At some point President Bush and Senator Kerry will probably debate each other. And there will be lots of travel. Some states are considered easy for one or the other candidate to win. But other states could go either way. These are called battleground states. One thing is sure. Americans have eight months until Election Day to hear all about it. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many Americans can remember when presidential campaigns lasted two or three months. The campaign this year will be one of the longest in American history. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts already has gained enough delegates to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party. Elections at the state level decide how many delegates will support a candidate at the party nominating convention. A candidate needed two-thousand-one-hundred-sixty-two delegates to secure the nomination. Democrats began to vote in January for a candidate to compete against President George W. Bush. The biggest day of voting was on March second. It was called Super Tuesday. Citizens voted in ten states. Senator Kerry won nine of them. Senator John Edwards of North Carolina won the tenth. But he left the race after that. VOICE TWO: So Democrats have chosen their candidate early. This did not happen by chance. Some states held their nominating elections earlier than before. Not everyone thinks this was such a good idea. They say voters may lose interest in the campaign. Election Day is not until November second. Democrats will meet in Boston, Massachusetts, in July to nominate John Kerry. Republicans will hold their nominating convention in New York City in August. President Bush ran unopposed for delegates. The Constitution permits presidents to serve two four-year terms. Early March was important for President Bush as well as for Senator Kerry. The Bush re-election campaign began television messages in seventeen states. And the president made some campaign trips to seek votes and raise money. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Kerry has served almost twenty years as a United States senator from Massachusetts. As a young man, he fought in the Vietnam War. He was honored for bravery. When he came home, however, he protested that war. Yet a lot of people thought the Democratic nominee this year would not be John Kerry, but Howard Dean. As of October there were ten candidates. They took part in debates and campaigned around the country. Howard Dean, a medical doctor, was popular as governor of the small northeastern state of Vermont. He resigned in two-thousand-two to begin his campaign to become America’s forty-fourth president. VOICE TWO: Some Democrats liked Doctor Dean because he opposed the war in Iraq. They liked the energetic way he expressed anger at the Bush administration. His supporters noted that other major Democratic candidates had voted in Congress for the United States to invade Iraq. Senator Kerry supported the American-led action when Congress considered it. He says he voted for war because the administration had warned that weapons of mass destruction threatened America. He criticizes the war, now that searchers have not found any such weapons. VOICE ONE: Political observers also praised Howard Dean for the way he raised money for his campaign. He received millions of dollars in small gifts through the Internet. Some experts thought he had a good chance to defeat the president. But people in the state of Iowa thought differently. The Iowa caucuses took place on January nineteenth. Local citizens held meetings to choose delegates who would support the candidates. John Kerry received thirty-eight percent of the delegates. John Edwards finished second. And Howard Dean finished third, with eighteen percent. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What happened? Commentators said many people in Iowa thought Howard Dean sounded too angry. They also thought some of his television messages were too critical of his opponents. And then there was the "Dean Scream." The night he lost the Iowa caucuses, Howard Dean made a short statement to his supporters. Many were young people who had worked hard for him. Clearly he wanted to say something to give them energy to campaign in the other states. Howard Dean shouted over the noise. He waved his arms around and ended his speech with a yell. Television showed this moment hundreds of times in the days to follow. The Dean campaign protested that this was unfair. But the media were not alone. Many Americans said Howard Dean did not appear presidential. VOICE ONE: The next nominating election was the primary in New Hampshire. Again, John Kerry won. He received thirty-eight percent of the vote. But this time Howard Dean finished second, with twenty-six percent. Wesley Clark was third, with John Edwards close behind. Mister Clark is a retired Army general and former NATO commander. Then came voting in seven states on February third. Senator Edwards won South Carolina, which is next to his home state. General Clark won Oklahoma. That proved to be the only state he won. Senator Kerry won the other five states. VOICE TWO: Some campaigns did not last long. Former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois withdrew just before the Iowa caucuses in January. Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri quit afterward. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut stayed in the race until early February. So did Wesley Clark. On February eighteenth, Howard Dean also left the race. His campaign collected a lot of money. But campaign officials say they did not spend it well. As a result, there was not much left to spend this year. John Edwards left the campaign after he won only South Carolina on March second. Senator Bob Graham of Florida was also in the race for a time. And there were two other candidates: the Reverend Al Sharpton of New York and Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Senator Kerry must still choose someone for vice president. Many people would like him to choose John Edwards of North Carolina. They say he is the best speaker of all the candidates. He was a trial lawyer before he ran for the Senate. He is in his first term as a senator. Some people say John Edwards would bring balance to the Democrats in the election. Senator Kerry is from a rich family in New England, in the northeastern part of the United States. Senator Edwards, though now wealthy, is from a family in the South that did not have much money. Many people call John Kerry a liberal. John Edwards is known more as a moderate. VOICE TWO: President Bush says he wants Dick Cheney to remain his vice president. Public opinion research shows that the vice president has lost popularity in recent months. One issue involves the company that Mister Cheney once led, Halliburton. Halliburton provides services for oil fields. Currently it is also serving food to American troops and doing other work related to the Iraq war. There has been criticism about overcharging and a lack of competition for projects. Halliburton defends its pricing and the way it has received work. Still, some people say the company in Texas has too much influence in Washington. VOICE ONE: There are different issues in this election year. Iraq. Terrorism. Taxes. Education. Health care. But the economy plays a big part. The economy is better since the last recession. But the recovery has not created many new jobs yet. Another issue is the loss of information technology jobs to India and other countries. John Kerry leads President Bush in some public opinion studies. The president is just beginning his own campaign. Estimates of the amount of money that his supporters have already given are as high as two-hundred-million dollars. That is a lot more than the Kerry campaign has received. VOICE TWO: The two candidates have already begun to attack each other through paid announcements on television and radio. At some point President Bush and Senator Kerry will probably debate each other. And there will be lots of travel. Some states are considered easy for one or the other candidate to win. But other states could go either way. These are called battleground states. One thing is sure. Americans have eight months until Election Day to hear all about it. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Sedna Discovered / Satellites Fight Disease / Reports on TB Among Refugees and STD's among Young Americans
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 23, 2004 (THEME) (Photo - NASA/Caltech) Broadcast: March 23, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week: meet Sedna the planetoid. VOICE ONE: Learn how satellites may give early warning of disease outbreaks. VOICE TWO: Also, a study of sexually transmitted diseases in young Americans. VOICE ONE: And a report on World TB Day, all coming up. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Scientists have found an object far away in our solar system. They say it is planet-like. They are calling it a planetoid. The red object is thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from Earth. But it will get ten times farther. It is the most distant object known to orbit the sun. The discovery means that the solar system is bigger than scientists thought. NASA, the American space agency, helped pay for the research. Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, in Pasadena led the team. Chad Trujillo of Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii, also took part. So did David Rabinowitz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. VOICE ONE: The three scientists first saw the object in November though a telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. They named it Sedna, after a goddess of the Inuit people of the Arctic. Tradition says she lived in an icy cave at the bottom of the ocean and created the sea creatures of the Arctic. But Sedna the planetoid is in a much colder place. The scientists estimate the surface temperature at about two-hundred-forty degrees below zero Celsius. When Sedna is even farther from the sun, the temperature drops close to what scientists call absolute zero. This is minus two-hundred-seventy-three degrees Celsius. In theory, this is as cold as cold can get. VOICE TWO: So why is Sedna called a planetoid, and not our tenth planet? Mostly because of its size. The scientists measure Sedna at about one-thousand-seven-hundred kilometers around. This is about twenty-five percent smaller than the smallest planet, Pluto. Sedna also has an unusual orbit. The shape is much more elliptical than the orbits of most of the planets. Picture a circle stretched far from two opposite points. So how far away does Sedna get? Consider it this way: Sedna takes more than ten-thousand years to travel around the sun. Earth takes one year. VOICE ONE: Michael Brown at Caltech says the planetoid is evidence of what scientists call the Oort Cloud. This is an area of comets that orbit the sun, at least in theory. But others think Sedna is more likely part of the Kuiper Belt. This is an area of asteroids and other objects in orbit. Either way, the scientists all seem to agree that Sedna may tell much about the history of our solar system. (MUSIC) Here on Earth, NASA scientists think satellites can tell when and where diseases might appear. The idea is to look for environmental conditions that increase populations of insects like mosquitoes that spread malaria. VOICE ONE (CONT): Ronald Welch works at the NASA Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Mister Welch says scientists and health workers are now visiting places where diseases have already appeared. They are also studying satellite images to see how these areas look from space. NASA says a Russian scientist, E.N. Pavlovsky, first expressed such an idea in the nineteen-sixties. VOICE TWO: Ronald Welch is working with health officials in India to develop an early warning system. They are working in an area of more than four-hundred villages south of New Delhi. Mister Welch says the hope in the near future is to provide about a one-month warning before a malaria outbreak. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. Satellites would find an area with a lot of rainwater on the ground. Scientists also know that temperatures must be at least eighteen-degrees Celsius for the disease to survive in the mosquitoes. When conditions seem right for malaria to appear, workers would go to the area. They would spray chemicals to kill the young mosquitoes before they leave the water. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Wednesday, March twenty-fourth, is World TB Day. TB is the lung disease tuberculosis. India will lead the observance this year with public health events. Health experts say a new person is infected with TB somewhere in the world every second. Then they spread the bacteria through the air when they cough or sneeze. The problem is even more serious among refugees. The World Health Organization says half of all refugees may be infected with TB. Refugees often live in crowded conditions and do not have enough food or health care. Many people leave refugee camps to look for work or family members, or to return home. If they start treatment in the camp, but discontinue it when they leave, the infection may stay in their bodies. Then the disease becomes harder to cure, and easier to spread. VOICE TWO: Medicine can take six to eight months to cure TB. But doctors say a person who takes the medicine stops infecting other people in about two weeks. The World Health Organization says refugees with TB should take a combination of four medicines for at least two to three months. Then they are close to being cured and will not spread the infection. Tuberculosis in children may affect any part of the body. Children should be examined for TB if they are sick for more than ten days. Weight loss and a lack of energy are two possible signs. Children should also be examined if they live close to someone with TB. VOICE ONE: Experts say mothers who are infected with TB should continue to breastfeed their babies. Mother's milk helps protect babies against disease. Babies may die from other diseases if they stop nursing. Also, health workers urge people to cover their mouth when they cough. And people should not discontinue their medicine when they begin to feel better. They must continue to take the medicine to kill all the germs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we talk about another way diseases are spread. Researchers have just published a study of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States in two-thousand. They say there were nineteen-million new cases that year. Almost half were in people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Yet people in this age group represent only twenty-five percent of what the researchers call the sexually experienced population. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote two reports. Both appear in Perspectives in Sexual and Reproductive Health, published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Sharon Camp heads this non-profit group in New York. She says most young people are sexually active. However, she says many are poorly equipped to prevent infections or to seek testing and treatment. VOICE ONE: The researchers say nine-million infections were reported in young people in two-thousand. They estimate the cost to treat these people over their lifetimes could reach more than six-thousand-million dollars. Most of the cost is connected to the treatment of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. But AIDS is not the only threat from sexually transmitted diseases. Three other diseases represent almost ninety percent of all new cases among people in the United States age fifteen to twenty-four. One is the human papillomavirus. H.P.V is usually harmless and goes away. But some forms can cause cervical cancer and other conditions. The two other diseases are trichomoniasis and chlamydia. Doctors treat these with antibiotics. Yet many people never know they have a sexually transmitted disease, unless they go for a test. VOICE ONE: Health experts and a group of young people prepared a separate report released by the University of North Carolina. It says programs that only teach young people not to have sex until marriage will not control the spread of disease. In January, President Bush proposed a one-hundred-percent increase in federal money for programs that teach abstinence. The report says young people need to learn about abstinence. But it says they also need realistic advice about other ways to prevent infection. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Paul Thompson, Karen Leggett and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week: meet Sedna the planetoid. VOICE ONE: Learn how satellites may give early warning of disease outbreaks. VOICE TWO: Also, a study of sexually transmitted diseases in young Americans. VOICE ONE: And a report on World TB Day, all coming up. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Scientists have found an object far away in our solar system. They say it is planet-like. They are calling it a planetoid. The red object is thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from Earth. But it will get ten times farther. It is the most distant object known to orbit the sun. The discovery means that the solar system is bigger than scientists thought. NASA, the American space agency, helped pay for the research. Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, in Pasadena led the team. Chad Trujillo of Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii, also took part. So did David Rabinowitz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. VOICE ONE: The three scientists first saw the object in November though a telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California. They named it Sedna, after a goddess of the Inuit people of the Arctic. Tradition says she lived in an icy cave at the bottom of the ocean and created the sea creatures of the Arctic. But Sedna the planetoid is in a much colder place. The scientists estimate the surface temperature at about two-hundred-forty degrees below zero Celsius. When Sedna is even farther from the sun, the temperature drops close to what scientists call absolute zero. This is minus two-hundred-seventy-three degrees Celsius. In theory, this is as cold as cold can get. VOICE TWO: So why is Sedna called a planetoid, and not our tenth planet? Mostly because of its size. The scientists measure Sedna at about one-thousand-seven-hundred kilometers around. This is about twenty-five percent smaller than the smallest planet, Pluto. Sedna also has an unusual orbit. The shape is much more elliptical than the orbits of most of the planets. Picture a circle stretched far from two opposite points. So how far away does Sedna get? Consider it this way: Sedna takes more than ten-thousand years to travel around the sun. Earth takes one year. VOICE ONE: Michael Brown at Caltech says the planetoid is evidence of what scientists call the Oort Cloud. This is an area of comets that orbit the sun, at least in theory. But others think Sedna is more likely part of the Kuiper Belt. This is an area of asteroids and other objects in orbit. Either way, the scientists all seem to agree that Sedna may tell much about the history of our solar system. (MUSIC) Here on Earth, NASA scientists think satellites can tell when and where diseases might appear. The idea is to look for environmental conditions that increase populations of insects like mosquitoes that spread malaria. VOICE ONE (CONT): Ronald Welch works at the NASA Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Mister Welch says scientists and health workers are now visiting places where diseases have already appeared. They are also studying satellite images to see how these areas look from space. NASA says a Russian scientist, E.N. Pavlovsky, first expressed such an idea in the nineteen-sixties. VOICE TWO: Ronald Welch is working with health officials in India to develop an early warning system. They are working in an area of more than four-hundred villages south of New Delhi. Mister Welch says the hope in the near future is to provide about a one-month warning before a malaria outbreak. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. Satellites would find an area with a lot of rainwater on the ground. Scientists also know that temperatures must be at least eighteen-degrees Celsius for the disease to survive in the mosquitoes. When conditions seem right for malaria to appear, workers would go to the area. They would spray chemicals to kill the young mosquitoes before they leave the water. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Wednesday, March twenty-fourth, is World TB Day. TB is the lung disease tuberculosis. India will lead the observance this year with public health events. Health experts say a new person is infected with TB somewhere in the world every second. Then they spread the bacteria through the air when they cough or sneeze. The problem is even more serious among refugees. The World Health Organization says half of all refugees may be infected with TB. Refugees often live in crowded conditions and do not have enough food or health care. Many people leave refugee camps to look for work or family members, or to return home. If they start treatment in the camp, but discontinue it when they leave, the infection may stay in their bodies. Then the disease becomes harder to cure, and easier to spread. VOICE TWO: Medicine can take six to eight months to cure TB. But doctors say a person who takes the medicine stops infecting other people in about two weeks. The World Health Organization says refugees with TB should take a combination of four medicines for at least two to three months. Then they are close to being cured and will not spread the infection. Tuberculosis in children may affect any part of the body. Children should be examined for TB if they are sick for more than ten days. Weight loss and a lack of energy are two possible signs. Children should also be examined if they live close to someone with TB. VOICE ONE: Experts say mothers who are infected with TB should continue to breastfeed their babies. Mother's milk helps protect babies against disease. Babies may die from other diseases if they stop nursing. Also, health workers urge people to cover their mouth when they cough. And people should not discontinue their medicine when they begin to feel better. They must continue to take the medicine to kill all the germs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we talk about another way diseases are spread. Researchers have just published a study of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States in two-thousand. They say there were nineteen-million new cases that year. Almost half were in people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Yet people in this age group represent only twenty-five percent of what the researchers call the sexually experienced population. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote two reports. Both appear in Perspectives in Sexual and Reproductive Health, published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute. Sharon Camp heads this non-profit group in New York. She says most young people are sexually active. However, she says many are poorly equipped to prevent infections or to seek testing and treatment. VOICE ONE: The researchers say nine-million infections were reported in young people in two-thousand. They estimate the cost to treat these people over their lifetimes could reach more than six-thousand-million dollars. Most of the cost is connected to the treatment of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. But AIDS is not the only threat from sexually transmitted diseases. Three other diseases represent almost ninety percent of all new cases among people in the United States age fifteen to twenty-four. One is the human papillomavirus. H.P.V is usually harmless and goes away. But some forms can cause cervical cancer and other conditions. The two other diseases are trichomoniasis and chlamydia. Doctors treat these with antibiotics. Yet many people never know they have a sexually transmitted disease, unless they go for a test. VOICE ONE: Health experts and a group of young people prepared a separate report released by the University of North Carolina. It says programs that only teach young people not to have sex until marriage will not control the spread of disease. In January, President Bush proposed a one-hundred-percent increase in federal money for programs that teach abstinence. The report says young people need to learn about abstinence. But it says they also need realistic advice about other ways to prevent infection. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Paul Thompson, Karen Leggett and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Cover Crops
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 23, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The idea to grow a crop that improves the land and prepares it for other crops is thousands of years old. But scientists continue to search for new and better ways to use what are called cover crops. Aref Abdul-Baki is with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. He works at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland. Mister Abdul-Baki has found some cover crops that resist worms that attack tomatoes. These crops are sunn hemp, cowpea and velvet bean. They are planted during the months when the main crops are not normally grown. In states with moderate climates like Maryland and Virginia, the winter months are a good time to grow cover crops. For tomatoes, cover crops can be planted in September. They can be turned over in the soil in May. The same method can be used for other summer crops like peppers, sweet corn, green beans and some melons. After the cover crop is cut and turned, the result is a layer of organic material. This will provide fertilizer for the new crop. Also, the cover crop provides extra nitrogen to the soil. Cover crops mixed with soil into mulch prevents the growth of unwanted plants. It also keeps soil from drying out and prevents the loss of soil. In hot, dry parts of California, cover crops help keep down soil temperatures. They also reduce water loss and erosion. Mister Abdul-Baki has shown that cover crops can save farmers a lot of money. Tomato farmers, for example, have used methyl bromide to treat their soil before they plant their tomatoes. This chemical kills many kinds of organisms that harm crops. Such treatment can increase the size of the harvest. But the government restricts the use of methyl bromide. And countries have agreed to an international treaty to ban it. Mister Abdul-Baki has found that farmers who use cover crops with tomatoes save one-thousand-four hundred dollars per hectare. Farmers save on chemicals and also fertilizer. And Mister Abdul-Baki says the farmer produce as many, or more, tomatoes per hectare as compared to no use of cover crops. Some cover crops provide enough seed for the next growing season. This can reduce costs even more. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  Ford’s Theater
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 24, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 24, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we visit one of the most famous theaters in the United States. It is Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we visit one of the most famous theaters in the United States. It is Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ford’s Theater is both a happy and sad place. It is happy because it brings music shows and other theater productions to Washington, D.C. Ford’s Theater is also a sad place in American history. This is where the actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Today, the theater is a living memorial to President Lincoln’s love for the performing arts. It is also a museum operated by the National Park Service. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For a few minutes, we would like you to imagine that it is the evening of April fourteenth, eighteen-sixty-five. You are one of the one-thousand-seven-hundred men and women who have come to Ford’s Theater tonight. You have come here to see a popular and funny play, “Our American Cousin.” The famous actress Laura Keene has brought her theater company to Washington to perform it. The play will begin in a few minutes. People are walking into the theater to their seats. The inside is bright with candlelight. As we look towards the stage, we see something unusual. To the right and above the stage is a special small area called the State Box. It contains seats that President Lincoln uses when he comes to the theater. For tonight’s performance, John Ford, the owner of the theater, has ordered that the State Box be decorated with flags. Near the bottom of the box and in the center is a painting of America’s first President, George Washington. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln likes to go to the theater. But he has not had many chances to attend recently because the nation was involved in the Civil War. Five days earlier, however, the forces of the southern states surrendered to end the war. People in Washington are celebrating. Tonight the president and Missus Lincoln want to enjoy the funny play performed by Laura Keene and her company of actors. President Lincoln arrives after the play has begun. The actors stop performing and the people in the theater stand and cheer. The band plays a song to honor the president. Minutes later the play continues. VOICE TWO: President and Missus Lincoln have invited two guests to sit with them in the State Box. They are army Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. The play is funny and Mister Lincoln laughs. He leans forward a little and places his hand on one of the flags to hold it down because it blocks his view of part of the stage. The actor John Wilkes Booth enters the theater. He is there to kill the president. He strongly believes that killing Abraham Lincoln will stop the Union victory in the Civil War. He believes it might help the Southern states renew their efforts to fight the war. The people who work in the theater know Booth well. He is also a friend of John Ford, the owner of the theater. No one stops Booth. He slowly walks up the stairs that circle to the right side of the theater. He stops for a minute and watches the play and then walks to the closed door of President Lincoln’s box. Booth listens carefully to the words of the play. He knows it very well. He has chosen the exact moment in the play when the people watching will begin to laugh. Booth quickly opens the door to the box, enters the small room and closes the door behind him. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a small gun. He aims it at the president. VOICE ONE: On the stage, Laura Keene and an actor are speaking lines from the play: VOICE THREE: “I am aware, Mister Trenchard, you are not used to the manners of good society, and that alone will excuse the impertinence of which you have been guilty.” VOICE FOUR: “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal -- you sockdologizing old man-trap.” (SOUND EFFECTS) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Lincoln died the next morning. Doctors could do nothing to save his life. Ford’s Theater was immediately closed. For a few days, police held Mister Ford while they investigated the murder of the president. John Wilkes Booth escaped Washington on horseback. But he was found twelve days later in Virginia. He was shot to death when he refused to surrender. VOICE TWO: Three months later, Mister Ford was preparing to reopen the theater. But the powerful Secretary of War Edwin Stanton placed troops outside the building and would not permit it to be opened. The government offered to pay Mister Ford each month for the use of the theater. He had no choice but to accept the money. In August, the War Department began work to change the theater into an office building. In less than one year, part of the held War Department information. Another part of the building was the Army Medical Museum. Still another part was the Library of Medicine. In eighteen-sixty-six, the government bought the building from Mister Ford for one-hundred-thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-ninety-three, a terrible accident took place in the building. Three floors fell down. Twenty-two government workers were killed. Sixty-eight were injured. For many years after that, the government used the building as a storage area. In nineteen-thirty-two, it opened a small museum to honor President Lincoln. The National Park Service took control of the building. VOICE TWO: As the years passed, many people thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the theater. They wanted it to look as it did the night President Lincoln was assassinated. They wanted to make the theater into a memorial to honor President Lincoln. In nineteen-forty-six, a member of the United States Senate introduced legislation that called for rebuilding the theater. However, it was not until nineteen-sixty-four that Congress agreed to provide more than two-million dollars to rebuild the old theater. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rebuilding Ford’s Theater was difficult. The building plans for the theater had been lost many years earlier. However, photographs greatly helped the rebuilding process. The police had taken many photographs of the theater and kept them as evidence during the investigation of President Lincoln’s murder. These photographs included the stage, the president’s special box seats, and the seating area for the public. Many of these photographs were used to help rebuild the theater to make it look like it did on April fourteenth, eighteen-sixty-five. The rebuilding effort began in January, nineteen-sixty-five -- almost one-hundred years after President Lincoln’s death. It was finished in December, nineteen-sixty-seven. The re-opening ceremony took place on January thirtieth, nineteen-sixty-eight. American actress Helen Hayes walked on to the stage of the newly reopened Ford’s Theater. She was the first actress to stand on the stage since President Lincoln watched Laura Keene in the play, “Our American Cousin.” VOICE TWO: Today, Ford’s Theater is a popular place for visitors in Washington D.C. People on holiday come to see the famous theater. Many buses bring school children to the theater to learn about President Lincoln. The small museum is under the theater. It shows the clothing Mister Lincoln wore that night long ago. It has the small gun Booth used in the assassination and many photographs. It also has a likeness that was made in stone from President Lincoln’s face. Visitors can walk into the main theater to see the stage. They can sit in a chair for a few minutes and look up at the State Box where President Lincoln sat. It is decorated with flags the way it was then. Near the bottom of the box, between the flags, is the painting of George Washington. Experts believe it is the same one that hung there the night of the assassination. VOICE ONE: Many actors say Ford’s Theater is a difficult place in which to perform. Most say they do not look at President Lincoln’s State Box when they are on stage. But the memory of what happened there is always present. A new musical play is opening at Ford’s Theater March twenty-fifth. “Children of Eden” will be performed at until June sixth. It is a funny play about family relationships. It includes many different kinds of music. It is not difficult to imagine that President Lincoln would have enjoyed a play like “Children of Eden.” He loved going to the theater. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ford’s Theater is both a happy and sad place. It is happy because it brings music shows and other theater productions to Washington, D.C. Ford’s Theater is also a sad place in American history. This is where the actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Today, the theater is a living memorial to President Lincoln’s love for the performing arts. It is also a museum operated by the National Park Service. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For a few minutes, we would like you to imagine that it is the evening of April fourteenth, eighteen-sixty-five. You are one of the one-thousand-seven-hundred men and women who have come to Ford’s Theater tonight. You have come here to see a popular and funny play, “Our American Cousin.” The famous actress Laura Keene has brought her theater company to Washington to perform it. The play will begin in a few minutes. People are walking into the theater to their seats. The inside is bright with candlelight. As we look towards the stage, we see something unusual. To the right and above the stage is a special small area called the State Box. It contains seats that President Lincoln uses when he comes to the theater. For tonight’s performance, John Ford, the owner of the theater, has ordered that the State Box be decorated with flags. Near the bottom of the box and in the center is a painting of America’s first President, George Washington. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln likes to go to the theater. But he has not had many chances to attend recently because the nation was involved in the Civil War. Five days earlier, however, the forces of the southern states surrendered to end the war. People in Washington are celebrating. Tonight the president and Missus Lincoln want to enjoy the funny play performed by Laura Keene and her company of actors. President Lincoln arrives after the play has begun. The actors stop performing and the people in the theater stand and cheer. The band plays a song to honor the president. Minutes later the play continues. VOICE TWO: President and Missus Lincoln have invited two guests to sit with them in the State Box. They are army Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. The play is funny and Mister Lincoln laughs. He leans forward a little and places his hand on one of the flags to hold it down because it blocks his view of part of the stage. The actor John Wilkes Booth enters the theater. He is there to kill the president. He strongly believes that killing Abraham Lincoln will stop the Union victory in the Civil War. He believes it might help the Southern states renew their efforts to fight the war. The people who work in the theater know Booth well. He is also a friend of John Ford, the owner of the theater. No one stops Booth. He slowly walks up the stairs that circle to the right side of the theater. He stops for a minute and watches the play and then walks to the closed door of President Lincoln’s box. Booth listens carefully to the words of the play. He knows it very well. He has chosen the exact moment in the play when the people watching will begin to laugh. Booth quickly opens the door to the box, enters the small room and closes the door behind him. He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a small gun. He aims it at the president. VOICE ONE: On the stage, Laura Keene and an actor are speaking lines from the play: VOICE THREE: “I am aware, Mister Trenchard, you are not used to the manners of good society, and that alone will excuse the impertinence of which you have been guilty.” VOICE FOUR: “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal -- you sockdologizing old man-trap.” (SOUND EFFECTS) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President Lincoln died the next morning. Doctors could do nothing to save his life. Ford’s Theater was immediately closed. For a few days, police held Mister Ford while they investigated the murder of the president. John Wilkes Booth escaped Washington on horseback. But he was found twelve days later in Virginia. He was shot to death when he refused to surrender. VOICE TWO: Three months later, Mister Ford was preparing to reopen the theater. But the powerful Secretary of War Edwin Stanton placed troops outside the building and would not permit it to be opened. The government offered to pay Mister Ford each month for the use of the theater. He had no choice but to accept the money. In August, the War Department began work to change the theater into an office building. In less than one year, part of the held War Department information. Another part of the building was the Army Medical Museum. Still another part was the Library of Medicine. In eighteen-sixty-six, the government bought the building from Mister Ford for one-hundred-thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-ninety-three, a terrible accident took place in the building. Three floors fell down. Twenty-two government workers were killed. Sixty-eight were injured. For many years after that, the government used the building as a storage area. In nineteen-thirty-two, it opened a small museum to honor President Lincoln. The National Park Service took control of the building. VOICE TWO: As the years passed, many people thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the theater. They wanted it to look as it did the night President Lincoln was assassinated. They wanted to make the theater into a memorial to honor President Lincoln. In nineteen-forty-six, a member of the United States Senate introduced legislation that called for rebuilding the theater. However, it was not until nineteen-sixty-four that Congress agreed to provide more than two-million dollars to rebuild the old theater. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rebuilding Ford’s Theater was difficult. The building plans for the theater had been lost many years earlier. However, photographs greatly helped the rebuilding process. The police had taken many photographs of the theater and kept them as evidence during the investigation of President Lincoln’s murder. These photographs included the stage, the president’s special box seats, and the seating area for the public. Many of these photographs were used to help rebuild the theater to make it look like it did on April fourteenth, eighteen-sixty-five. The rebuilding effort began in January, nineteen-sixty-five -- almost one-hundred years after President Lincoln’s death. It was finished in December, nineteen-sixty-seven. The re-opening ceremony took place on January thirtieth, nineteen-sixty-eight. American actress Helen Hayes walked on to the stage of the newly reopened Ford’s Theater. She was the first actress to stand on the stage since President Lincoln watched Laura Keene in the play, “Our American Cousin.” VOICE TWO: Today, Ford’s Theater is a popular place for visitors in Washington D.C. People on holiday come to see the famous theater. Many buses bring school children to the theater to learn about President Lincoln. The small museum is under the theater. It shows the clothing Mister Lincoln wore that night long ago. It has the small gun Booth used in the assassination and many photographs. It also has a likeness that was made in stone from President Lincoln’s face. Visitors can walk into the main theater to see the stage. They can sit in a chair for a few minutes and look up at the State Box where President Lincoln sat. It is decorated with flags the way it was then. Near the bottom of the box, between the flags, is the painting of George Washington. Experts believe it is the same one that hung there the night of the assassination. VOICE ONE: Many actors say Ford’s Theater is a difficult place in which to perform. Most say they do not look at President Lincoln’s State Box when they are on stage. But the memory of what happened there is always present. A new musical play is opening at Ford’s Theater March twenty-fifth. “Children of Eden” will be performed at until June sixth. It is a funny play about family relationships. It includes many different kinds of music. It is not difficult to imagine that President Lincoln would have enjoyed a play like “Children of Eden.” He loved going to the theater. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT –National Library of Medicine
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 24, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Every year, people from all over the world get information from the United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The library is part of the National Institutes of Health. It is the world’s largest center of medical information. Doctors, scientists, teachers and historians use the library. So do people who just want to know more about health and sickness. Thousands of people visit the Library near Washington, D.C. Others get information by computer. For example, people can get health information from a National Library service called Medline Plus. This service cannot identify or advise about individual cases of disorders. But it provides general knowledge about more than six-hundred-fifty diseases and conditions. A Medline Plus dictionary includes descriptions of medical words. For example, you might hear that someone has had an appendectomy. In the medical dictionary, you can learn that the person has had an operation to remove a part of the intestine called the appendix. Drug information on the site describes medicines. Suppose you want to know the possible effects of taking the pain-killer aspirin. You can check a long list of drug descriptions. You can get Medline Plus services through the National Library of Medicine’s Web Site, www.nlm.nih.gov. Information appears in English and Spanish. The Library also offers a Web site especially for older adults and their families. It is called NIH Senior Health, found at www.nihseniorhealth.gov. The National Library created the site with the National Institute on Aging. The site makes it possible for people to find current information from National Institute of Health centers. For example, older people can learn the latest news about the treatment of heart disease or osteoporosis, a bone disorder. The site designers developed NIH Senior Health from Institute on Aging studies about changes in the thinking abilities of older people. These include understanding, learning, memory and ability to see. Because of these changes, the site contains print that can be made bigger and sharper. Information has been kept short. And a “talking” operation can speak the words. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: March 25, 2004 - TESOL Convention
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: March 25, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and today on Wordmaster -- it's TESOL time! RS: Next week is the thirty-eighth annual convention of the group known as TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. TESOL says there are one-point-three billion non-native speakers of English around the world. AA: TESOL has fourteen-thousand members across the globe. About half are expected to gather at the convention. This year the convention is in Long Beach, California, with more than a thousand lecture and discussion sessions on the program. TESOL President Amy Schlessman says the convention will give teachers from the United States and more than one-hundred other countries the opportunity to meet and network with each other. RS: They will also get a sense of the worldwide interest in the study of multiple intelligences. The convention will open with performances of music, dance and other creative arts -- all to make a point. SCHLESSMAN: "Of course, we focus on how people talk. But our expression of intelligence can be in multiple ways. Like we have the dance, which is a kinesthetic approach, and we have the music which is a musical approach, and then there are other types of things like intrapersonal intelligence, which is knowing yourself, or interpersonal, which is getting along with others -- which is the whole networking opportunity. "I recently talked to someone in Bahrain and he's doing research in multiple intelligences. In fact, they did a conference over there about critical thinking in English language teaching. I was also recently in Puerto Rico and they've added a fifth skill area. You're probably both familiar with teaching language often identifies listening, speaking, reading and writing and the four skill areas, and they've added a fifth area which is thinking. "I think it was (Ludwig) Wittgenstein the philosopher (British, born in Austria, 1889-1951) that said 'the limits of my language are the limits of my world.' We're always interested in people learning another language, but we get to that because we think by increasing their use of language, we increase the options that they have to them for thinking." AA: "And when we're applying, when English teachers apply these sorts of modern notions of multiple intelligences in their classrooms -- " RS: "How does that practically work?" AA: "I was going to say: what do they do this with? With music or with stories or with getting kids out of their seats, if you're going to talk about the kinesthetic intelligence?" AS: "Exactly. And the example that I'm giving in my presentation on creativity is for us to think about taking what we do a step beyond what we're usually competent in. So the example I'm going to use is a deck of cards. If you think about a straight activity, (it) would be sorting the cards, because you wanted to create a pattern. "Then the creative step would be, could you use the cards for something other than their original context. Like you would expect the card sort to be by suit or by number or by the type of face card -- face cards versus number cards. But if you give that as the activity to your class, you would kind of get the 'ahhh!' reaction if suddenly a student responded by making a clock out of the cards -- " RS: "Or a house." AS: " -- or use the numbers for a clock." RS: "Or building a house." AS: "Exactly. Actually that's one that I'm going to use. What we'd like to do is teach that to people so that they can have it as an option. So that's the kind of thing with teaching creativity, you can do it either multiple ways by encouraging different ways to be creative, but then the next step is to identify the principle that you're using, so that that becomes part of the repertoire that students have." RS: Professor Amy Schlessman of Northern Arizona University is the outgoing president of TESOL. She'll get to present the TESOL President's Award at the convention next week in California. The award this year honors Howard Gardner at Harvard University for his theories on multiple intelligences. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: March 25, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and today on Wordmaster -- it's TESOL time! RS: Next week is the thirty-eighth annual convention of the group known as TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. TESOL says there are one-point-three billion non-native speakers of English around the world. AA: TESOL has fourteen-thousand members across the globe. About half are expected to gather at the convention. This year the convention is in Long Beach, California, with more than a thousand lecture and discussion sessions on the program. TESOL President Amy Schlessman says the convention will give teachers from the United States and more than one-hundred other countries the opportunity to meet and network with each other. RS: They will also get a sense of the worldwide interest in the study of multiple intelligences. The convention will open with performances of music, dance and other creative arts -- all to make a point. SCHLESSMAN: "Of course, we focus on how people talk. But our expression of intelligence can be in multiple ways. Like we have the dance, which is a kinesthetic approach, and we have the music which is a musical approach, and then there are other types of things like intrapersonal intelligence, which is knowing yourself, or interpersonal, which is getting along with others -- which is the whole networking opportunity. "I recently talked to someone in Bahrain and he's doing research in multiple intelligences. In fact, they did a conference over there about critical thinking in English language teaching. I was also recently in Puerto Rico and they've added a fifth skill area. You're probably both familiar with teaching language often identifies listening, speaking, reading and writing and the four skill areas, and they've added a fifth area which is thinking. "I think it was (Ludwig) Wittgenstein the philosopher (British, born in Austria, 1889-1951) that said 'the limits of my language are the limits of my world.' We're always interested in people learning another language, but we get to that because we think by increasing their use of language, we increase the options that they have to them for thinking." AA: "And when we're applying, when English teachers apply these sorts of modern notions of multiple intelligences in their classrooms -- " RS: "How does that practically work?" AA: "I was going to say: what do they do this with? With music or with stories or with getting kids out of their seats, if you're going to talk about the kinesthetic intelligence?" AS: "Exactly. And the example that I'm giving in my presentation on creativity is for us to think about taking what we do a step beyond what we're usually competent in. So the example I'm going to use is a deck of cards. If you think about a straight activity, (it) would be sorting the cards, because you wanted to create a pattern. "Then the creative step would be, could you use the cards for something other than their original context. Like you would expect the card sort to be by suit or by number or by the type of face card -- face cards versus number cards. But if you give that as the activity to your class, you would kind of get the 'ahhh!' reaction if suddenly a student responded by making a clock out of the cards -- " RS: "Or a house." AS: " -- or use the numbers for a clock." RS: "Or building a house." AS: "Exactly. Actually that's one that I'm going to use. What we'd like to do is teach that to people so that they can have it as an option. So that's the kind of thing with teaching creativity, you can do it either multiple ways by encouraging different ways to be creative, but then the next step is to identify the principle that you're using, so that that becomes part of the repertoire that students have." RS: Professor Amy Schlessman of Northern Arizona University is the outgoing president of TESOL. She'll get to present the TESOL President's Award at the convention next week in California. The award this year honors Howard Gardner at Harvard University for his theories on multiple intelligences. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Learning Disabilities, Part 8: Conclusion
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 25, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we complete an eight-part series about learning disabilities. Such disorders interfere with skills like reading, writing or thinking. Students with learning disabilities are not considered slow learners. They are generally of average or above average intelligence. But many need help to succeed in school. In the United States, some students with learning disabilities are placed in classes called special education. The teachers have been trained as specialists and work with these students full time. Other students remain in traditional classes, but receive help from specialists. The parents of these students may like this way better. Or they may not have much choice. The movement in education is to include students with special needs in traditional classes, but to provide extra help. Yet limited school budgets often mean large classes and not as much individual help as parents would like. Another concern is students who need special instruction because they are extremely intelligent. Parents say they worry that the needs of these gifted students may not be met. American law guarantees all students the right to a free public education. Disabled students have special protections and rights under the law. For example, a student who cannot write the answers to a test may be able to use a computer instead. But conflicts can develop with the current movement in American education to increase testing requirements in schools. Almost half the states now require students to pass what is called an exit exam before they are permitted to graduate from high school. Some people say this is unfair to disabled students, who might not get the extra help they need to take the test. They say disabled students fail the tests in greater numbers than other students. Lawyers for the rights of the disabled have brought actions in California and Oregon. And on March sixteenth the same group brought a federal case in Alaska. Parents in that state want more protections for disabled students who take a new exit exam in reading, writing and mathematics. The test is to be given in June for the first time. Alaska education officials said they could not comment until they had time to study the case. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Internet users can find all of our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #55 - John Quincy Adams
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 25, 2004 (Music) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Music) John Quincy Adams was sworn in as President of the United States on March fourth, eighteen-twenty-five. A big crowd came to the capitol building for the ceremony. All the leaders of government were there: Senators; Congressmen; the Supreme Court; and James Monroe, whose term as president was ending. VOICE TWO: John Quincy Adams spoke to the crowd. The main idea in his speech was unity. Adams said the Constitution and the representative democracy of the United States had proved a success. The nation was free and strong. And it stretched from the Atlantic Ocean across the continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean. During the past ten years, he noted, political party differences had eased. So now, he said, it was time for the people to settle their differences to make a truly national government. Adams closed his speech by recognizing that he was a minority president. He said he needed the help of everyone in the years to come. Then he took the oath that made him the sixth President of the United States. VOICE ONE: John Quincy Adams had been raised to serve his country. His father was John Adams, the second President of the United States. His mother, Abigail, made sure he received an excellent education. There were three major periods in John Quincy Adams's public life. The period as President was the shortest. For about twenty-five years, Adams held mostly appointed jobs. He was the United States ambassador to the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, and Britain. He helped lead the negotiations that ended the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. And he served eight years as Secretary of State. He was President for four years after that. Then he served about seventeen years in the House of Representatives. He died in eighteen-forty-eight. VOICE TWO: As Secretary of State, Adams had two major successes. He was mostly responsible for the policy called the Monroe Doctrine. In that policy, President James Monroe declared that no European power should try to establish a colony anywhere in the Americas. Any attempt to do so would be considered a threat to the peace and safety of the United States. Adams's other success was the Transcontinental Treaty with Spain. In that treaty, Spain recognized American control over Florida. Spain also agreed on the line marking the western American frontier. The line went from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains. From there, it went to the Pacific Ocean, along what is now the border between the states of Oregon and California. VOICE ONE: John Quincy Adams did not care for political battles. Instead, he tried to bring his political opponents and the different parts of the country together in his cabinet. His opponents, however, refused to serve. And, although his cabinet included southerners, he did not really have the support of the south. Others in his administration tried to use the political power that he refused to use. One was Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Calhoun hoped to be president himself one day. He tried to influence Adams's choices for cabinet positions. Adams rejected Calhoun's ideas and made his own choices. Senator James Barbour, a former Governor of Virginia, became Secretary of War. Richard Rush of Pennsylvania became Secretary of the Treasury. And William Wirt of Maryland continued as Attorney General. Adams thought he had chosen men who would represent the different interests of the different parts of the country. VOICE TWO: In his first message to Congress, President Adams described his ideas about the national government. The chief purpose of the government, he said, was to improve the lives of the people it governed. To do this, he offered a national program of building roads and canals. He also proposed a national university and a national scientific center. Adams said Congress should not be limited only to making laws to improve the nation's economic life. He said it should make laws to improve the arts and sciences, too. Many people of the west and south did not believe that the Constitution gave the national government the power to do all these things. They believed that these powers belonged to the states. Their representatives in Congress rejected Adams's proposals. VOICE ONE: The political picture in the United States began to change during the administration of John Quincy Adams. His opponents won control of both houses of Congress in the elections of eighteen-twenty-six. These men called themselves Democrats. They supported General Andrew Jackson for president in the next presidential election in eighteen-twenty-eight. VOICE Two: A major piece of legislation during President Adams's term involved import taxes. A number of western states wanted taxes on industrial goods imported from other countries. The purpose was to protect their own industries. Southern states opposed import taxes. They produced no industrial goods that needed protection. And they said the Constitution did not give the national government the right to approve such taxes. Democrats needed the support of both the west and south to get Andrew Jackson elected president. So they proposed a bill that appeared to help the west, but was sure to be defeated. They thought the west would be happy that Democrats had tried to help. And the south would be happy that there would be no import taxes. VOICE ONE: To the Democrats' surprise, many congressmen from the northeast joined with congressmen from the west to vote for the bill. They did so even though the bill would harm industries in the northeast. Their goal was to keep alive the idea of protective trade taxes. The bill passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This left President Adams with a difficult decision. Should he sign it into law. Or should he veto it. If he signed the bill, it would show he believed that the Constitution permitted protective trade taxes. That would create even more opposition to him in the south. If he vetoed it, then he would lose support in the west and northeast. Adams signed the bill. But he made clear that Congress was fully responsible for it. VOICE TWO: There were other attempts by Democrats in Congress to weaken support for President Adams. For example, they claimed that Adams was mis-using government money. They tried to show that he, and his father before him, had become rich from government service. Others accused him of giving government jobs to his supporters. This charge was false. Top administration officials had urged Adams to give government jobs only to men who were loyal to him. Adams refused. He felt that as long as a government worker had done nothing wrong, he should continue in his job. During his four years as president, he removed only twelve people from government jobs. In each case, the person had failed to do his work or had done something criminal. Adams often gave jobs to people who did not support him politically. He believed it was completely wrong to give a person a job for political reasons. Many of Adams's supporters, who had worked hard to get him elected, could not understand this. Their support for him cooled. VOICE ONE: The political battle between Adams's Republican Party and Jackson's Democratic Party was bitter. Perhaps the worst fighting took place in the press. Each side had its own newspaper. The "Daily National Journal" supported the administration. The "United States Telegraph" supported Andrew Jackson. At first, the administration's newspaper called for national unity and an end to personal politics. Then it changed its policy. The paper had to defend charges of political wrong-doing within the Republican Party. It needed to turn readers away from these problems. So it printed a pamphlet that had been used against Andrew Jackson during an election campaign. The pamphlet accused Jackson of many bad things. The most damaging part said he had taken another man's wife. That will be our story on the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Music) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Broadcast: March 25, 2004 (Music) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Music) John Quincy Adams was sworn in as President of the United States on March fourth, eighteen-twenty-five. A big crowd came to the capitol building for the ceremony. All the leaders of government were there: Senators; Congressmen; the Supreme Court; and James Monroe, whose term as president was ending. VOICE TWO: John Quincy Adams spoke to the crowd. The main idea in his speech was unity. Adams said the Constitution and the representative democracy of the United States had proved a success. The nation was free and strong. And it stretched from the Atlantic Ocean across the continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean. During the past ten years, he noted, political party differences had eased. So now, he said, it was time for the people to settle their differences to make a truly national government. Adams closed his speech by recognizing that he was a minority president. He said he needed the help of everyone in the years to come. Then he took the oath that made him the sixth President of the United States. VOICE ONE: John Quincy Adams had been raised to serve his country. His father was John Adams, the second President of the United States. His mother, Abigail, made sure he received an excellent education. There were three major periods in John Quincy Adams's public life. The period as President was the shortest. For about twenty-five years, Adams held mostly appointed jobs. He was the United States ambassador to the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, and Britain. He helped lead the negotiations that ended the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. And he served eight years as Secretary of State. He was President for four years after that. Then he served about seventeen years in the House of Representatives. He died in eighteen-forty-eight. VOICE TWO: As Secretary of State, Adams had two major successes. He was mostly responsible for the policy called the Monroe Doctrine. In that policy, President James Monroe declared that no European power should try to establish a colony anywhere in the Americas. Any attempt to do so would be considered a threat to the peace and safety of the United States. Adams's other success was the Transcontinental Treaty with Spain. In that treaty, Spain recognized American control over Florida. Spain also agreed on the line marking the western American frontier. The line went from the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains. From there, it went to the Pacific Ocean, along what is now the border between the states of Oregon and California. VOICE ONE: John Quincy Adams did not care for political battles. Instead, he tried to bring his political opponents and the different parts of the country together in his cabinet. His opponents, however, refused to serve. And, although his cabinet included southerners, he did not really have the support of the south. Others in his administration tried to use the political power that he refused to use. One was Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Calhoun hoped to be president himself one day. He tried to influence Adams's choices for cabinet positions. Adams rejected Calhoun's ideas and made his own choices. Senator James Barbour, a former Governor of Virginia, became Secretary of War. Richard Rush of Pennsylvania became Secretary of the Treasury. And William Wirt of Maryland continued as Attorney General. Adams thought he had chosen men who would represent the different interests of the different parts of the country. VOICE TWO: In his first message to Congress, President Adams described his ideas about the national government. The chief purpose of the government, he said, was to improve the lives of the people it governed. To do this, he offered a national program of building roads and canals. He also proposed a national university and a national scientific center. Adams said Congress should not be limited only to making laws to improve the nation's economic life. He said it should make laws to improve the arts and sciences, too. Many people of the west and south did not believe that the Constitution gave the national government the power to do all these things. They believed that these powers belonged to the states. Their representatives in Congress rejected Adams's proposals. VOICE ONE: The political picture in the United States began to change during the administration of John Quincy Adams. His opponents won control of both houses of Congress in the elections of eighteen-twenty-six. These men called themselves Democrats. They supported General Andrew Jackson for president in the next presidential election in eighteen-twenty-eight. VOICE Two: A major piece of legislation during President Adams's term involved import taxes. A number of western states wanted taxes on industrial goods imported from other countries. The purpose was to protect their own industries. Southern states opposed import taxes. They produced no industrial goods that needed protection. And they said the Constitution did not give the national government the right to approve such taxes. Democrats needed the support of both the west and south to get Andrew Jackson elected president. So they proposed a bill that appeared to help the west, but was sure to be defeated. They thought the west would be happy that Democrats had tried to help. And the south would be happy that there would be no import taxes. VOICE ONE: To the Democrats' surprise, many congressmen from the northeast joined with congressmen from the west to vote for the bill. They did so even though the bill would harm industries in the northeast. Their goal was to keep alive the idea of protective trade taxes. The bill passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This left President Adams with a difficult decision. Should he sign it into law. Or should he veto it. If he signed the bill, it would show he believed that the Constitution permitted protective trade taxes. That would create even more opposition to him in the south. If he vetoed it, then he would lose support in the west and northeast. Adams signed the bill. But he made clear that Congress was fully responsible for it. VOICE TWO: There were other attempts by Democrats in Congress to weaken support for President Adams. For example, they claimed that Adams was mis-using government money. They tried to show that he, and his father before him, had become rich from government service. Others accused him of giving government jobs to his supporters. This charge was false. Top administration officials had urged Adams to give government jobs only to men who were loyal to him. Adams refused. He felt that as long as a government worker had done nothing wrong, he should continue in his job. During his four years as president, he removed only twelve people from government jobs. In each case, the person had failed to do his work or had done something criminal. Adams often gave jobs to people who did not support him politically. He believed it was completely wrong to give a person a job for political reasons. Many of Adams's supporters, who had worked hard to get him elected, could not understand this. Their support for him cooled. VOICE ONE: The political battle between Adams's Republican Party and Jackson's Democratic Party was bitter. Perhaps the worst fighting took place in the press. Each side had its own newspaper. The "Daily National Journal" supported the administration. The "United States Telegraph" supported Andrew Jackson. At first, the administration's newspaper called for national unity and an end to personal politics. Then it changed its policy. The paper had to defend charges of political wrong-doing within the Republican Party. It needed to turn readers away from these problems. So it printed a pamphlet that had been used against Andrew Jackson during an election campaign. The pamphlet accused Jackson of many bad things. The most damaging part said he had taken another man's wife. That will be our story on the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Music) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Robots Race Across the Mojave Desert / New Members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame / Question About Wall Street in New York
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 26, 2004 HOST: New York Stock Exchange Broadcast: March 26, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from some new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And we answer a question about Wall Street. But first, a report about a recent race that was not won. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from some new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And we answer a question about Wall Street. But first, a report about a recent race that was not won. Robot Race HOST: Earlier this month, an unusual race was held in the Mojave Desert of southern California. Thirteen scientific teams competed to see whose unmanned land vehicle could travel more than two-hundred-twenty-five kilometers. The winner would receive one-million dollars. ANNOUNCER: The United States government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized the race known as the Grand Challenge competition. It offered the prize to the team that could successfully move an unmanned vehicle across the desert in less than ten hours. The purpose of the race is to increase research into driverless technology. The Department of Defense says the use of driverless vehicles will change how wars are fought and reduce the number of people killed. The race is considered the first of its kind because the vehicles were required to find their own way to the finish line. Team members were not permitted to intervene after the vehicles began to move. The vehicles had radar and laser sensors, Global Positioning System receivers and computers. ZZ Top Robot Race HOST: Earlier this month, an unusual race was held in the Mojave Desert of southern California. Thirteen scientific teams competed to see whose unmanned land vehicle could travel more than two-hundred-twenty-five kilometers. The winner would receive one-million dollars. ANNOUNCER: The United States government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized the race known as the Grand Challenge competition. It offered the prize to the team that could successfully move an unmanned vehicle across the desert in less than ten hours. The purpose of the race is to increase research into driverless technology. The Department of Defense says the use of driverless vehicles will change how wars are fought and reduce the number of people killed. The race is considered the first of its kind because the vehicles were required to find their own way to the finish line. Team members were not permitted to intervene after the vehicles began to move. The vehicles had radar and laser sensors, Global Positioning System receivers and computers. Thirteen vehicles started the race, but none finished. Many crashed or stopped just after the start. For example, the vehicle from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg had its brakes fail in the starting area. The vehicle from the only high school team in the competition stopped after hitting a wall. The vehicle that traveled the farthest was built by a team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It traveled more than eleven kilometers before it got caught at the edge of the road and its tires started to burn. Government officials praised the vehicles even though none finished the race. They promised to hold the same competition again and again until a team wins the one-million dollar prize. The next race will probably be held next year. Until then, the government plans to talk with some of the competing teams to find out how they built their vehicles. And they may pay some of the teams for sharing the technology they have already developed. Wall Street HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Akingbulugbe Lawrence asks about Wall Street in New York City. Wall Street is the banking center of New York. But it is also much more. The business done on Wall Street makes New York City the financial center of the United States, in the same way that Washington, D.C. is the government center. People around the world think of power and big business when they think of Wall Street. That is because people who work there deal with huge amounts of money every day. They work at the New York Stock Exchange, international banks and large investment companies. They make business deals that affect millions of people. How did Wall Street get its name? To find out, we must go back to the early years of European exploration in North America. New York City was first called New Amsterdam by the explorer Henry Hudson. He was working for a Dutch trading company when he entered what is now the lower Hudson River area in the year sixteen-oh-nine. There, he found an island that was a perfect trading harbor. The Manhattan Indians lived there. Dutch traders built a town at the end of Manhattan Island. It became a rich trading center. But the British questioned the right of the Dutch to control the area. The two nations went to war in sixteen-fifty-two. The governor of New Amsterdam was Peter Stuyvesant. He worried that British settlers in New England would attack his town. He ordered that a protective wall be built at the north edge of Manhattan. The wall was more than seven-hundred meters long. It extended from the Hudson River to the East River. The British never attacked New Amsterdam. So the wall was never tested in war. But the path beside it became known as Wall Street. Later, Wall Street became a street of banks and businesses. Today, other streets in New York are known for one product or industry. Madison Avenue is the advertising center. Eighth Avenue businesses make clothing. Fifth Avenue stores sell costly clothes and jewelry. And Broadway is the street of famous theaters. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame HOST: Several famous recording artists were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week during a ceremony in New York City. The Hall of Fame honors recording artists for their importance and influence in rock and roll. Musicians can become members twenty-five years after their first recordings. Shep O'Neal tells us about the new members. ANNOUNCER: A group called ZZ Top became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. ZZ Top has been performing blues and rock music for more than thirty years. Here is one of its songs, “Tube Snake Boogie.” (MUSIC) Two other groups were chosen for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. One is Traffic. The other is the Dells. This group has performed and recorded for more than fifty years. It is well known for its smooth soul music. Here is an example, the Dells’ hit song, “Oh What a Night.” (MUSIC) Singers Jackson Browne, Bob Seger and the late George Harrison also became members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Jann (Yahn) Wenner received the Lifetime Achievement Award for helping start the magazine “Rolling Stone.” We leave you now with a song from Prince, another new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is one of his biggest hits, “Purple Rain.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use your question. Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Thirteen vehicles started the race, but none finished. Many crashed or stopped just after the start. For example, the vehicle from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg had its brakes fail in the starting area. The vehicle from the only high school team in the competition stopped after hitting a wall. The vehicle that traveled the farthest was built by a team from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It traveled more than eleven kilometers before it got caught at the edge of the road and its tires started to burn. Government officials praised the vehicles even though none finished the race. They promised to hold the same competition again and again until a team wins the one-million dollar prize. The next race will probably be held next year. Until then, the government plans to talk with some of the competing teams to find out how they built their vehicles. And they may pay some of the teams for sharing the technology they have already developed. Wall Street HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Akingbulugbe Lawrence asks about Wall Street in New York City. Wall Street is the banking center of New York. But it is also much more. The business done on Wall Street makes New York City the financial center of the United States, in the same way that Washington, D.C. is the government center. People around the world think of power and big business when they think of Wall Street. That is because people who work there deal with huge amounts of money every day. They work at the New York Stock Exchange, international banks and large investment companies. They make business deals that affect millions of people. How did Wall Street get its name? To find out, we must go back to the early years of European exploration in North America. New York City was first called New Amsterdam by the explorer Henry Hudson. He was working for a Dutch trading company when he entered what is now the lower Hudson River area in the year sixteen-oh-nine. There, he found an island that was a perfect trading harbor. The Manhattan Indians lived there. Dutch traders built a town at the end of Manhattan Island. It became a rich trading center. But the British questioned the right of the Dutch to control the area. The two nations went to war in sixteen-fifty-two. The governor of New Amsterdam was Peter Stuyvesant. He worried that British settlers in New England would attack his town. He ordered that a protective wall be built at the north edge of Manhattan. The wall was more than seven-hundred meters long. It extended from the Hudson River to the East River. The British never attacked New Amsterdam. So the wall was never tested in war. But the path beside it became known as Wall Street. Later, Wall Street became a street of banks and businesses. Today, other streets in New York are known for one product or industry. Madison Avenue is the advertising center. Eighth Avenue businesses make clothing. Fifth Avenue stores sell costly clothes and jewelry. And Broadway is the street of famous theaters. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame HOST: Several famous recording artists were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week during a ceremony in New York City. The Hall of Fame honors recording artists for their importance and influence in rock and roll. Musicians can become members twenty-five years after their first recordings. Shep O'Neal tells us about the new members. ANNOUNCER: A group called ZZ Top became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. ZZ Top has been performing blues and rock music for more than thirty years. Here is one of its songs, “Tube Snake Boogie.” (MUSIC) Two other groups were chosen for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. One is Traffic. The other is the Dells. This group has performed and recorded for more than fifty years. It is well known for its smooth soul music. Here is an example, the Dells’ hit song, “Oh What a Night.” (MUSIC) Singers Jackson Browne, Bob Seger and the late George Harrison also became members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And Jann (Yahn) Wenner received the Lifetime Achievement Award for helping start the magazine “Rolling Stone.” We leave you now with a song from Prince, another new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It is one of his biggest hits, “Purple Rain.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use your question. Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - EU Fines Microsoft for Anti-Competitive Actions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 26, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The European Union’s Commission on Competition ruled Wednesday that the Microsoft Corporation has used its powerful market position illegally. The E-U ordered Microsoft to provide information about its Windows operating system to other software companies. The E-U commission also ordered Microsoft to make a version of Windows without one of the company’s own software products. And, it ordered the American software company to pay about six-hundred-million dollars. Microsoft says it will appeal the decision to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. Microsoft is the world’s biggest software maker. Software is a set of orders for the parts of a computer. An operating system is a complex set of orders that control the computer, its software and other devices. Microsoft software runs more than ninety percent of all personal computers in the world. The E-U commission ruled about Microsoft’s addition of a media player to its operating system. A media player lets a computer play music and video through the Internet. The commission ordered Microsoft to make a version of Windows without the Microsoft Media Player. Microsoft has said that is not possible. Other software makers are increasingly using open code operating systems. Any company can make software for these systems. But Microsoft uses a secret code. The commission did not order Microsoft to share its secret code. But it did order Microsoft to share information that will permit competing companies to make software that works with Microsoft systems. Microsoft says the commission’s actions will give European buyers fewer choices. The company says a settlement it proposed would have been better. The company had offered to include three competing media players along with Windows. European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti says companies with powerful market positions have a special responsibility to make sure they do not prevent competition. He says the decision restores the conditions for fair competition. In the nineteen-nineties, the United States government charged Microsoft with harming competition. Microsoft settled its case with the government in two-thousand-one. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #1, Fruit Flies
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: March 2, 2004] This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Fruit flies can damage four-hundred kinds of crops. These insects lay eggs not just in fruit but also vegetables and nuts. The young eat the produce, making it unusable. A female can lay a thousand eggs in her short lifetime. One of the most destructive kinds of fruit flies is the Mediterranean fruit fly. California, for example, has spent almost thirty years fighting to keep the medfly out of the state. Even islands far out at sea are not protected. The state of Hawaii has a history of problems with imported pests. The medfly came to Hawaii in the early nineteen-hundreds. Since then, three more kinds of fruit fly pests have arrived. The Agricultural Research Service of the Department of Agriculture has a team to deal with the problem. The United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center is located in Hilo, Hawaii. The center has designed a program that aims to keep damage below an economically important level. Lost markets now cost Hawaiian growers an estimated three-hundred-million dollars a year. Roger Vargas is an expert on insects. He started what is called the Hawaii Area-Wide Fruit Fly Integrated Pest Management program. The team says this program is showing success after three years. Past campaigns tried to kill all the fruit flies. The new program attacks the problem through a series of steps. One is to stop fruit fly reproduction. Infertile male flies are released to mate with the wild population. Also, growers are told to bury all unharvested fruit or vegetables. Or they can place them under a screening structure to keep young flies from escaping. The program in Hawaii also uses a biological pesticide to kill fruit flies. It is called spinosad. It is produced by a microscopic organism. Spinosad is put into a substance that the fruit flies like to eat. The researchers say this is better for the environment than the common pesticide malathion. Malathion is a chemical that is sprayed on crops. The program also uses a natural enemy of fruit flies. A kind of wasp called Biosteres arisanus feeds on medflies and oriental fruit flies. As Kim Kaplan of the Agricultural Research Service reported last month, growers in the program like the results so far. They say they are using less pesticide. And they say they are finding less damaged fruit. Officials have extended the program for two more years. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Comprehension Questions: 1. How many kinds of crops can fruit flies damage? 2. What organization tries to solve the insect problem in Hawaii? 3. How does the new program differ from the old one? 4. What is spinosad? 5. Name one natural enemy of the fruit fly. Click here for the answers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #1: Answers
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: March 2, 2004] This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Fruit flies can damage four-hundred kinds of crops. These insects lay eggs not just in fruit but also vegetables and nuts. The young eat the produce, making it unusable. A female can lay a thousand eggs in her short lifetime. One of the most destructive kinds of fruit flies is the Mediterranean fruit fly. California, for example, has spent almost thirty years fighting to keep the medfly out of the state. Even islands far out at sea are not protected. The state of Hawaii has a history of problems with imported pests. The medfly came to Hawaii in the early nineteen-hundreds. Since then, three more kinds of fruit fly pests have arrived. The Agricultural Research Service of the Department of Agriculture has a team to deal with the problem. The United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center is located in Hilo, Hawaii. The center has designed a program that aims to keep damage below an economically important level. Lost markets now cost Hawaiian growers an estimated three-hundred-million dollars a year. Roger Vargas is an expert on insects. He started what is called the Hawaii Area-Wide Fruit Fly Integrated Pest Management program. The team says this program is showing success after three years. Past campaigns tried to kill all the fruit flies. The new program attacks the problem through a series of steps. One is to stop fruit fly reproduction. Infertile male flies are released to mate with the wild population. Also, growers are told to bury all unharvested fruit or vegetables. Or they can place them under a screening structure to keep young flies from escaping. The program in Hawaii also uses a biological pesticide to kill fruit flies. It is called spinosad. It is produced by a microscopic organism. Spinosad is put into a substance that the fruit flies like to eat. The researchers say this is better for the environment than the common pesticide malathion. Malathion is a chemical that is sprayed on crops. The program also uses a natural enemy of fruit flies. A kind of wasp called Biosteres arisanus feeds on medflies and oriental fruit flies. As Kim Kaplan of the Agricultural Research Service reported last month, growers in the program like the results so far. They say they are using less pesticide. And they say they are finding less damaged fruit. Officials have extended the program for two more years. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Comprehension Questions: 1. How many kinds of crops can fruit flies damage? 2. What organization tries to solve the insect problem in Hawaii? 3. How does the new program differ from the old one? 4. What is spinosad? 5. Name one natural enemy of the fruit fly. Answers: 1. Four-hundred. 2. United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center. 3. The old program tried to kill all the fruit flies. The new one tries to stop insect reproduction instead. It also uses environmentally friendly poisons and the insects’ natural enemies to kill them. 4. A biological pesticide. 5. The Biosteres arisanus wasp. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-26-5-1.cfm
* Headline: April 1, 2004 - TESOL Teacher (Repeat)
* Byline: 

 Rebroadcast from October 28, 2001 Update: Josh Atherton is now a teacher and academic adviser in the English Language Institute at the University of Texas at Arlington. AA: I've Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- come with us to the American Midwest to meet a young man who teaches English to speakers of other languages ... lots of other languages. RS: His name is Josh Atherton. He taught English in South Korea for three years, and now he's teaching a class while he works on a graduate degree in education at the University of Northern Iowa. AA: It's a writing class for students from other countries. He has twenty students -- from seventeen different countries! ATHERTON: "It's a challenge to say the least. I am charged with teaching them standard American academic English. All the students come from different cultures and the academic languages they have learned are sometimes very different from the academic language of America." RS: Argentina, Bosnia, China, Ghana -- in fact, two brothers from Ghana -- he's got them all. AA: Yet, as Josh Atherton has learned, his students are already familiar with some areas of American English -- maybe a little too familiar. ATHERTON: "I think the most interesting thing for me is [that] the students have a very hard time understanding the role of swear words and curse words. These students, they know the words, the swear words, from movies and whatever they've read on the Internet, but they don't know necessarily the connotations that surround this type of language." RS: "Right, they don't have the experience with it, they don't have the context, they don't have the emotion charged..." ATHERTON: "Exactly, so they feel it's appropriate to talk like this in class and to talk like this in their writing." AA: And that's not the only thing the students have a hard time adjusting to. ATHERTON: "You know, I tell my students, OK in this paper, in the academic papers you're going to write for American institutions, I want to see your thesis -- which I explained is the answer to the problem that they're addressing in the paper -- I want to see your thesis in the first paragraph. And they think, well, doesn't that spoil the mystery or the suspense of reading the paper if you know the answer before your hear all of the relevant details behind it?" RS: Maybe so, but what they're learning is the traditional formula for American academic writing: ATHERTON: "OK, this is what the introduction should include: Introduce a topic, create a problem, answer that problem with a thesis. OK, paragraph one addresses this point, paragraph two addresses that point, and the conclusion now restates your thesis, sums up all your information and maybe provides a little direction for the future. And the students say, well, that's so boring." RS: Right now Josh Atherton is teaching the students how to do research. He talks about the need to give proper credit. AA: That way, the students don't appear to be copying the words of an expert and claiming them as their own. ATHERTON: "Plagiarism in an American academic institution is seriously, seriously discouraged and I tell my students if you're caught plagiarizing, you at the very least fail the paper, probably fail the course. And the students, you know, their initial reaction is, why so serious? What's the problem?" RS: The students tell him that in some of their cultures, they're taught not to give their own opinion in a paper. ATHERTON: "So the idea is don't try to change, don't try to paraphrase, don't try to summarize, just cut and paste and that's the idea. Whereas in America I teach my students that this is not enough to go out and tell me what these people have said, you have to do some critical thinking and you have to synthesize." AA: "Meaning ..." RS: "You can quote them." ATHERTON: "You can quote them, right, but then I have students who have an entire paper of quotes and maybe one or two lines -- truly in a five or ten page paper, one or two lines is something that they've written themselves. And I say this is not appropriate, you need to have fewer quotes and more critical thinking. AA: "They're not just writing, they're also writing in a language, in a peculiar language in itself, of academic writing." ATHERTON: "I work my students through multiple drafts. So I tell my students when you do the first draft of any of the papers that I assign, I ask them to do a lot of free writing, I tell them to put down their dictionaries, I tell them to keep their pencils moving, just write as much as you can without paying attention to grammar and syntax and vocabulary. If they have something they want to say, put it in their native languages if they can't think of how to say it in English originally, just to get the thoughts onto the paper." RS: Josh Atherton, a graduate assistant instructor at the University of Northern Iowa. AA: If you're in the mood to write, our e-mail address here is word@voanews.com, or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #2, Importance of Handwashing
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: January 7, 2004] This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical experts say the most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is for people to wash their hands with soap and water. The World Bank, the United Nations, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine carried out a study to urge hand- washing around the world. They say that programs to increase hand- washing with soap could be among the most effective ways to reduce infectious disease. They say that one-million lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands with soap often. Doctors say many diseases can be prevented from spreading by hand-washing. These include pinworms, influenza, the common cold, hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea. Hand-washing destroys germs from other people, animals or objects a person has touched. When people get bacteria on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Then these people can infect other people. The experts say the easiest way to catch a cold is to touch your nose or eyes after someone nearby has sneezed or coughed. Another way to become sick is to eat food prepared by someone whose hands were not clean. The experts say that hand-washing is especially important before and after preparing food, before eating and after using the toilet. People should wash their hands after handling animals or animal waste, and after cleaning a baby. The experts say it is also a good idea to wash your hands after handling money and after sneezing or coughing. And it is important to wash your hands often when someone in your home is sick. The experts say the most effective way to wash your hands is to rub them together after using soap and warm water. They say you do not have to use special anti-bacterial soap. Be sure to rub all areas of the hands for about ten to fifteen seconds. The soap and the rubbing action remove germs. Rinse the hands with water and dry them. Experts say that people using public bathrooms should dry their hands with a paper towel and use the towel to turn off the water. They also advise using the paper towel to open the bathroom door before throwing the towel away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is the most effective way to stop the spread of disease? 2. How many lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands more often? 3. Name three diseases that can be prevented by hand washing. 4. Why does hand washing prevent sickness? 5. Describe the most effective way to wash the hands. Click here for the answers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #2: Answers
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: January 7, 2004] This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical experts say the most effective way to prevent the spread of disease is for people to wash their hands with soap and water. The World Bank, the United Nations, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine carried out a study to urge hand- washing around the world. They say that programs to increase hand- washing with soap could be among the most effective ways to reduce infectious disease. They say that one-million lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands with soap often. Doctors say many diseases can be prevented from spreading by hand-washing. These include pinworms, influenza, the common cold, hepatitis A, meningitis and infectious diarrhea. Hand-washing destroys germs from other people, animals or objects a person has touched. When people get bacteria on their hands, they can infect themselves by touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Then these people can infect other people. The experts say the easiest way to catch a cold is to touch your nose or eyes after someone nearby has sneezed or coughed. Another way to become sick is to eat food prepared by someone whose hands were not clean. The experts say that hand-washing is especially important before and after preparing food, before eating and after using the toilet. People should wash their hands after handling animals or animal waste, and after cleaning a baby. The experts say it is also a good idea to wash your hands after handling money and after sneezing or coughing. And it is important to wash your hands often when someone in your home is sick. The experts say the most effective way to wash your hands is to rub them together after using soap and warm water. They say you do not have to use special anti-bacterial soap. Be sure to rub all areas of the hands for about ten to fifteen seconds. The soap and the rubbing action remove germs. Rinse the hands with water and dry them. Experts say that people using public bathrooms should dry their hands with a paper towel and use the towel to turn off the water. They also advise using the paper towel to open the bathroom door before throwing the towel away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is the most effective way to stop the spread of disease? 2. How many lives could be saved each year if people washed their hands more often? 3. Name three diseases that can be prevented by hand washing. 4. Why does hand washing prevent sickness? 5. Describe the most effective way to wash the hands. Answers: 1. Washing the hands with soap and water. 2. One-million. 3. Pin worms, influenza and the common cold. 4. It kills germs that can infect people when they touch their nose or mouth, as well as spread to things they touch and make others sick. 5. Rub the hands together using soap and warm water for ten to fifteen seconds. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #3, Motomen Carry E-mail in Cambodia
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: February 9, 2004] This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Thirteen villages in northern Cambodia now have e-mail through a project that organizers hope other countries will copy. A group called American Assistance for Cambodia organized the project. It says the idea could serve as a way to help reduce economic differences between rich and poor nations. A group of schools and a medical center in Ratanakiri Province have been equipped with solar panels. These devices capture energy from the sun to power computers in the schools. Students use electronic mail to write messages to villages nearby. The messages are sent over the Internet, but with the help of what are called “motomen.” Every day, five people ride motorcycles into the villages to collect outgoing messages and bring incoming mail. The motorcycles are equipped with a computer to store the data. At the end of the day, each “motoman” returns to a computer center in the local capital, Ban Lung. The information is sent from there by satellite to the Internet. All this work is not just so students can write to nearby villages. Currently, a person in Ratanakiri Province earns about forty dollars a year. Organizers say they hope the project will help farmers and villagers sell their products on the world market over the Internet. In addition, the computers serve as a learning tool for hundreds of students. Local citizens can use the computers to communicate with the government. And newspapers can send their stories electronically to the villages. Local health care workers also use the computers. They communicate with doctors in other parts of Cambodia and in the United States. This means they are able to send medical pictures and discuss possible treatments for patients. A company in the United States developed the technology for the “motoman” project. The company is called First Mile Solutions. Organizers say a team of thee people put the project into action in one month. The technology cost about five-hundred dollars per village. You can learn more about the project on the company Web site. The address is firstmilesolutions-dot-com. The postal address is First Mile Solutions, four-three-two Columbia Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, zero-two-one-four-one, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is e-mail? 2. How many Cambodian villages now have it as a result of the project? 3. How do the project organizers hope the e-mail will help the villagers? 4. How much does the new technology cost? 5. Who wrote this Development Report? Click here for the answers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-4-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #3: Answers
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: February 9, 2004] This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Thirteen villages in northern Cambodia now have e-mail through a project that organizers hope other countries will copy. A group called American Assistance for Cambodia organized the project. It says the idea could serve as a way to help reduce economic differences between rich and poor nations. A group of schools and a medical center in Ratanakiri Province have been equipped with solar panels. These devices capture energy from the sun to power computers in the schools. Students use electronic mail to write messages to villages nearby. The messages are sent over the Internet, but with the help of what are called “motomen.” Every day, five people ride motorcycles into the villages to collect outgoing messages and bring incoming mail. The motorcycles are equipped with a computer to store the data. At the end of the day, each “motoman” returns to a computer center in the local capital, Ban Lung. The information is sent from there by satellite to the Internet. All this work is not just so students can write to nearby villages. Currently, a person in Ratanakiri Province earns about forty dollars a year. Organizers say they hope the project will help farmers and villagers sell their products on the world market over the Internet. In addition, the computers serve as a learning tool for hundreds of students. Local citizens can use the computers to communicate with the government. And newspapers can send their stories electronically to the villages. Local health care workers also use the computers. They communicate with doctors in other parts of Cambodia and in the United States. This means they are able to send medical pictures and discuss possible treatments for patients. A company in the United States developed the technology for the “motoman” project. The company is called First Mile Solutions. Organizers say a team of thee people put the project into action in one month. The technology cost about five-hundred dollars per village. You can learn more about the project on the company Web site. The address is firstmilesolutions-dot-com. The postal address is First Mile Solutions, four-three-two Columbia Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, zero-two-one-four-one, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is e-mail? 2. How many Cambodian villages now have it as a result of the project? 3. How do the project organizers hope the e-mail will help the villagers? 4. How much does the new technology cost? 5. Who wrote this Development Report? Answers: 1. Electronic mail. 2. Thirteen. 3. They hope the project will permit farmers and other villagers to sell their products in other countries over the Internet. 4. Five-hundred dollars per village. 5. Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-5-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #4, Debate Over Outsourcing
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: March 5, 2004] This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Companies often give work to an outside business that can do the job for less money than their own employees could. This is called outsourcing. Outsourcing has become a political issue in the campaign for the American presidential election in November. Many companies in the United States have been moving jobs to countries where costs are much lower. Factory production jobs have moved away for years. But the jobs now also involve skills like computer programming. Labor groups and workers are angry. They point to reports that say the United States has lost two-and-a-half million jobs since two-thousand-one. Most were jobs in manufacturing. Some states have lost more jobs than others. But no one seems to know for sure how many jobs left the country. There was a recession. Jobs were cut. Yet, so far, the economic recovery has produced fewer jobs than expected. So outsourcing has created an emotional debate. Lou Dobbs has a business news program on CNN television. He keeps a list of companies that have sent jobs to foreign countries. Almost every night, Mister Dobbs talks about what he calls the “exporting of America.” Gregory Mankiw [man-CUE] is the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Bush. Recently Mister Mankiw said outsourcing is probably good for the economy in the long term. He said it makes sense to import goods or services produced at lower cost. He called it "just a new way of doing international trade." Most economists would probably agree. But Democrats and Republicans criticized Mister Mankiw. He later apologized for having appeared to praise the loss of United States jobs. Criticism of outsourcing has led some people to condemn free trade. They argue that if jobs are lost to foreign countries, then America should seek protective measures. The director general of the World Trade Organization does not see it that way. Supachai Panitchpakdi says one-third of all economic growth in the United States since nineteen-ninety resulted from international trade. Mister Supachai says training and education can create new opportunities for workers. He says exports have helped create five-million new jobs in America in the last ten years. He says those jobs pay ten-percent above the average. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is outsourcing? 2. Why are labor groups and workers angry about it? 3. How many jobs has the United States lost in the past three years? 4. What reasons do people give to support outsourcing? 5. What reasons do people give to criticize outsourcing? Click here for the answers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-6-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #5
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: March 19, 2004] HOST: More than one-thousand artists from around the country recently entered a competition in Washington, D.C. The winners will create artwork on one-hundred fifty plastic statues of pandas. As Gwenn Outen reports, the animal art will appear on city streets and in other places. ANNCR: The invasion of the capital is called “PandaMania. ” The statues will be shown from May through September. Later, they will be sold to raise money for the arts. The statues will be at least one-point-three meters high. That is around the size of a real panda. Washington artist Di Stovall (die STOW-vahl) designed a small panda to help give ideas to other artists. Mizz Stovall also worked on an earlier showing of painted animal statues in Washington. The event in two-thousand-two was called “Party Animals.” It involved statues of donkeys and elephants. The donkey is the official animal of the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican Party. Mizz Stovall covered her statue with stars and stripes. Her “America the Beautiful” elephant brought the highest price. It sold for twenty-five-thousand dollars. Anthony Gittens heads the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He notes that the city has a long history with pandas – real ones, that is. In nineteen-seventy-two, China sent two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington. This followed the historic visit by President Richard Nixon to China. Those pandas lived until the nineteen-nineties. Now, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang are on loan to the zoo for one-million dollars a year. People often wait a long time to see them. If the crowds get too large, visitors can look for the artistic pandas on the street. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is the name of the new art exhibit in Washington? 2. What connection do pandas have to the city? 3. What animals were similarly displayed a few years ago? 4. Why were those animals chosen to be shown in the national capital? 5. What was the highest price paid for one of those animal statues? Click here for the answers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-27-7-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #5: Answers
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: March 19, 2004] HOST: More than one-thousand artists from around the country recently entered a competition in Washington, D.C. The winners will create artwork on one-hundred fifty plastic statues of pandas. As Gwenn Outen reports, the animal art will appear on city streets and in other places. ANNCR: The invasion of the capital is called “PandaMania. ” The statues will be shown from May through September. Later, they will be sold to raise money for the arts. The statues will be at least one-point-three meters high. That is around the size of a real panda. Washington artist Di Stovall (die STOW-vahl) designed a small panda to help give ideas to other artists. Mizz Stovall also worked on an earlier showing of painted animal statues in Washington. The event in two-thousand-two was called “Party Animals.” It involved statues of donkeys and elephants. The donkey is the official animal of the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican Party. Mizz Stovall covered her statue with stars and stripes. Her “America the Beautiful” elephant brought the highest price. It sold for twenty-five-thousand dollars. Anthony Gittens heads the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He notes that the city has a long history with pandas – real ones, that is. In nineteen-seventy-two, China sent two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington. This followed the historic visit by President Richard Nixon to China. Those pandas lived until the nineteen-nineties. Now, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang are on loan to the zoo for one-million dollars a year. People often wait a long time to see them. If the crowds get too large, visitors can look for the artistic pandas on the street. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is the name of the new art exhibit in Washington? 2. What connection do pandas have to the city? 3. What animals were similarly displayed a few years ago? 4. Why were those animals chosen to be shown in the national capital? 5. What was the highest price paid for one of those animal statues? Answers: 1. PandaMania. 2. China has provided four pandas to the National Zoo in Washington since the nineteen-seventies. 3. Elephants and donkeys. 4. They are the symbols of the two major American political parties. 5. Twenty-five-thousand dollars 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Hearings on Sept. 11th Attacks
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 27, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Hearings took place this week into intelligence and law enforcement failures before the attacks on the United States in two-thousand-one. The Bush administration is disputing accusations that it did not consider terrorism an urgent threat before September eleventh. Officials said they had worked throughout that year to prepare a plan to deal with the threat from al-Qaida. Former anti-terrorism official Richard Clarke made the accusation Wednesday in Washington. He spoke before an independent commission of former lawmakers and officials. There are five Democrats and five Republicans. Mister Clarke has worked in four administrations. He helped direct anti-terrorism policies for almost ten years. Mister Clarke says the administration did not take his warnings seriously. He says he had called for action against al-Qaida and its Taleban supporters in Afghanistan before September eleventh. Three-thousand people died in the attacks of that day. Hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and the military headquarters at the Pentagon. Mister Clarke told the commission that intelligence agencies warned repeatedly in two-thousand-one that al-Qaida appeared ready to attack the United States. He said he expressed his concern in a letter to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice a week before the attacks. Mister Clarke also accused the administration of harming the war on terrorism by invading Iraq. Republican members of the commission accused Mister Clarke of making baseless accusations in an effort to sell his new book. They questioned his truthfulness. They also suggested that he wanted to help the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator John Kerry. Democrats on the commission said the accusations by Mister Clarke should be taken seriously. They said his years of government work showed that he had been trusted by presidents from both parties. Condoleeza Rice has noted that Mister Clarke defended the policies of the administration in the past. Mizz Rice has spoken to the commission, but would not do so publicly. The commission held two days of public hearings this week. The members also heard from Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Officials from the administration of Bill Clinton also spoke. And so did the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. George Tenet has served under both presidents. Mister Tenet was asked why two administrations have been unable to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. He said there had been some disagreement among intelligence officials about whether the C.I.A. had permission to kill the leader of al-Qaida. Mister Tenet said even if he had been killed, that would not have prevented the attacks. The commission is expected to hold more hearings next month and to release its findings in July. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: March 27, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Hearings took place this week into intelligence and law enforcement failures before the attacks on the United States in two-thousand-one. The Bush administration is disputing accusations that it did not consider terrorism an urgent threat before September eleventh. Officials said they had worked throughout that year to prepare a plan to deal with the threat from al-Qaida. Former anti-terrorism official Richard Clarke made the accusation Wednesday in Washington. He spoke before an independent commission of former lawmakers and officials. There are five Democrats and five Republicans. Mister Clarke has worked in four administrations. He helped direct anti-terrorism policies for almost ten years. Mister Clarke says the administration did not take his warnings seriously. He says he had called for action against al-Qaida and its Taleban supporters in Afghanistan before September eleventh. Three-thousand people died in the attacks of that day. Hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and the military headquarters at the Pentagon. Mister Clarke told the commission that intelligence agencies warned repeatedly in two-thousand-one that al-Qaida appeared ready to attack the United States. He said he expressed his concern in a letter to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice a week before the attacks. Mister Clarke also accused the administration of harming the war on terrorism by invading Iraq. Republican members of the commission accused Mister Clarke of making baseless accusations in an effort to sell his new book. They questioned his truthfulness. They also suggested that he wanted to help the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator John Kerry. Democrats on the commission said the accusations by Mister Clarke should be taken seriously. They said his years of government work showed that he had been trusted by presidents from both parties. Condoleeza Rice has noted that Mister Clarke defended the policies of the administration in the past. Mizz Rice has spoken to the commission, but would not do so publicly. The commission held two days of public hearings this week. The members also heard from Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Officials from the administration of Bill Clinton also spoke. And so did the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. George Tenet has served under both presidents. Mister Tenet was asked why two administrations have been unable to kill or capture Osama bin Laden. He said there had been some disagreement among intelligence officials about whether the C.I.A. had permission to kill the leader of al-Qaida. Mister Tenet said even if he had been killed, that would not have prevented the attacks. The commission is expected to hold more hearings next month and to release its findings in July. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Lou Gehrig
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 28, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 28, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Now, the V-O-A Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. A North American Major League baseball record was established in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. The man who set it played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing one. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Lou Gehrig was born on June Nineteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. He was a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany. They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money. Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends. Then one of Lou's high-school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games. VOICE TWO: Years later, Lou said, "When I saw so many people and heard all the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game. So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player. VOICE ONE: A representative of a major league team, the New York Giants, came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a major league player. It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school. He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and without a job. VOICE TWO: The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team. But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college. Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit. VOICE ONE: Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments for their home. The New York Yankees major league baseball organization came to the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three-thousand-five-hundred dollars to finish the Nineteen-Twenty-Three baseball season. That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems. VOICE TWO: The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games. VOICE ONE: The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended. Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed. Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly. VOICE TWO: Gehrig continued to improve as a player. By Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series. Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an operation. He felt he should be with her. Missus Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother recovered. More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. His back, legs and hands were injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate. Another Yankee player said, "Every time he played, it hurt him." VOICE ONE: Gehrig felt good in Nineteen-Thirty. He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water. Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of Nineteen-Thirty-Two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig, "I did not think a player could be that good." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell. Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly. As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it. An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury. VOICE ONE: Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May Thirty-First, Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before. Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three-hundred. He scored one-hundred-fifteen runs. He batted in almost as many runs. But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy catches and throws. Yet his manager commented, "Everybody is asking what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club doing as poorly as he is doing." VOICE TWO: Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several times the next winter while ice-skating with Eleanor. He had trouble holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened. In May, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, he finally told his manager he could not play. Lou Gehrig had played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing any that his team played. Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June Nineteenth. That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. VOICE ONE: Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act frightened or sad. On July Fourth, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, more than sixty-thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky. His words echoed throughout the stadium. (CUT ONE: LOU GEHRIG AT YANKEE STADIUM: 16 SECS) "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." VOICE TWO: Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He died on June Second, Nineteen-Forty-One. He was thirty-seven years old. America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ANNCR: Now, the V-O-A Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. A North American Major League baseball record was established in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. The man who set it played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing one. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Lou Gehrig was born on June Nineteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. He was a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany. They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money. Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends. Then one of Lou's high-school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games. VOICE TWO: Years later, Lou said, "When I saw so many people and heard all the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game. So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player. VOICE ONE: A representative of a major league team, the New York Giants, came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a major league player. It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school. He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and without a job. VOICE TWO: The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team. But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college. Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit. VOICE ONE: Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments for their home. The New York Yankees major league baseball organization came to the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three-thousand-five-hundred dollars to finish the Nineteen-Twenty-Three baseball season. That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems. VOICE TWO: The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games. VOICE ONE: The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended. Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed. Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly. VOICE TWO: Gehrig continued to improve as a player. By Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series. Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an operation. He felt he should be with her. Missus Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother recovered. More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. His back, legs and hands were injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate. Another Yankee player said, "Every time he played, it hurt him." VOICE ONE: Gehrig felt good in Nineteen-Thirty. He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water. Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of Nineteen-Thirty-Two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig, "I did not think a player could be that good." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell. Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly. As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it. An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury. VOICE ONE: Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May Thirty-First, Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before. Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three-hundred. He scored one-hundred-fifteen runs. He batted in almost as many runs. But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy catches and throws. Yet his manager commented, "Everybody is asking what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club doing as poorly as he is doing." VOICE TWO: Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several times the next winter while ice-skating with Eleanor. He had trouble holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened. In May, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, he finally told his manager he could not play. Lou Gehrig had played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing any that his team played. Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June Nineteenth. That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. VOICE ONE: Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act frightened or sad. On July Fourth, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, more than sixty-thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky. His words echoed throughout the stadium. (CUT ONE: LOU GEHRIG AT YANKEE STADIUM: 16 SECS) "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." VOICE TWO: Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He died on June Second, Nineteen-Forty-One. He was thirty-seven years old. America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – History of Rock and Roll, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 29, 2004 (MUSIC) Jerry Lee Lewis (Image: www.loc.gov) Broadcast: March 29, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. This is Ray Freeman, with Rich Kleinfeldt. Today we begin the story of the first fifty years of rock and roll. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bob Dylan (Image: www.rockhall.com) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. This is Ray Freeman, with Rich Kleinfeldt. Today we begin the story of the first fifty years of rock and roll. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rock and roll combines many kinds of American music -- country music, folk music, church music, work songs, blues and jazz. Rock and roll developed in the early nineteen-fifties from a kind of music called rhythm and blues. Black singers and musicians performed rhythm and blues. At first, this music was popular only with African-Americans. VOICE ONE: But, during the early nineteen-fifties, the popularity of rhythm and blues music spread. It became very popular among white young people. They listened to this music on radio stations that broadcast across the country late at night. Some teenagers began buying rhythm and blues records as a form of rebellion. This music was very different from the music that was popular with their parents. The music was exciting. It had a very strong rhythm and beat. Some of the songs were about sex. Some adults strongly objected to rhythm and blues music. They did not think young people should listen to it. VOICE TWO: Alan Freed had a radio show in Cleveland, Ohio in the early nineteen-fifties. He is said to be the first person to use the expression "rock and roll" to describe rhythm and blues music. Alan Freed was one of the first to play rock and roll music on his radio show. And he organized the first rock and roll concert in Cleveland in nineteen-fifty-two. Songs by black performers like Fats Domino and Little Richard soon became popular with white teenagers. These singers recorded their records in the southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. VOICE ONE: Many experts believe that rock and roll music was born in the southern city of Memphis, Tennessee. Sam Phillips was a white record producer there. He produced records by local black musicians. One day, an eighteen-year-old truck driver came to his studio to record a song for his mother. The young man was Elvis Presley. Phillips produced Presley's first real record in nineteen-fifty-four. Many experts consider it to be the first rock and roll song. It is called "That's All Right." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts say another song is important in the history of rock and roll. Bill Haley and his Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in nineteen-fifty-four. It was not popular at first. Then it was used in a movie about rebellious teenagers, called "The Blackboard Jungle." The movie caused a lot of debate. It also made the song a huge hit. "Rock Around the Clock" became a song of teenage rebellion. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many other rock and roll singers became popular in the nineteen-fifties. They included Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Each performer created his own kind of rock and roll. Chuck Berry's music was a mixture of country and rhythm and blues. In nineteen-fifty-five, his song "Maybellene" was one of the most popular songs in the country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-sixties, black music and musicians became recognized as an important part of the music industry in America. This was because a company in Detroit, Michigan, called Motown Records produced some of the most popular songs in American music. Berry Gordy started Motown Records. He was the first person to present black music so it appealed to both blacks and whites. One of Motown's most successful groups was the Supremes, led by Diana Ross. Here is one of their hits, "Come See About Me." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A different kind of rock and roll music was developing in Southern California. Five young men from Los Angeles formed a group called the Beach Boys. Brian Wilson wrote, performed, and produced the group's records. The Beach Boys' songs had complex music and simple words. The words were about the local teenage culture. The group sang about riding surfboards on the ocean waves. One of their most popular songs was "Surfin' USA.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It was also in the nineteen-sixties that rock and roll music began to change. The words became as important as the music. Bob Dylan began writing songs that many young people considered to be poetry. Dylan was influenced by folk singers and songwriters like Woody Guthrie. Dylan's early songs concerned serious social issues. He wrote about war and racial injustice. Some of his songs were used as protest songs for the anti-war and civil rights movements in America. Later, Dylan wrote more personal songs. Here is one of his most popular songs, “Mister Tambourine Man." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-four, a new rock and roll group from England invaded America. Some say the Beatles' music shook America like an earthquake. The Beatles changed rock and roll music forever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver and Lawan Davis. I’m Ray Freeman. Next week, Rich Kleinfeldt and I continue the story of rock and roll on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Visitors to America can learn more at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Or visit, on the Internet, rockhall -- one word, rockhall.com. We leave you now with one of my favorite rock and roll hits from nineteen-sixty-one. Ray Charles sings, “Hit the Road Jack.” (MUSIC) Rock and roll combines many kinds of American music -- country music, folk music, church music, work songs, blues and jazz. Rock and roll developed in the early nineteen-fifties from a kind of music called rhythm and blues. Black singers and musicians performed rhythm and blues. At first, this music was popular only with African-Americans. VOICE ONE: But, during the early nineteen-fifties, the popularity of rhythm and blues music spread. It became very popular among white young people. They listened to this music on radio stations that broadcast across the country late at night. Some teenagers began buying rhythm and blues records as a form of rebellion. This music was very different from the music that was popular with their parents. The music was exciting. It had a very strong rhythm and beat. Some of the songs were about sex. Some adults strongly objected to rhythm and blues music. They did not think young people should listen to it. VOICE TWO: Alan Freed had a radio show in Cleveland, Ohio in the early nineteen-fifties. He is said to be the first person to use the expression "rock and roll" to describe rhythm and blues music. Alan Freed was one of the first to play rock and roll music on his radio show. And he organized the first rock and roll concert in Cleveland in nineteen-fifty-two. Songs by black performers like Fats Domino and Little Richard soon became popular with white teenagers. These singers recorded their records in the southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. VOICE ONE: Many experts believe that rock and roll music was born in the southern city of Memphis, Tennessee. Sam Phillips was a white record producer there. He produced records by local black musicians. One day, an eighteen-year-old truck driver came to his studio to record a song for his mother. The young man was Elvis Presley. Phillips produced Presley's first real record in nineteen-fifty-four. Many experts consider it to be the first rock and roll song. It is called "That's All Right." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Experts say another song is important in the history of rock and roll. Bill Haley and his Comets recorded "Rock Around the Clock" in nineteen-fifty-four. It was not popular at first. Then it was used in a movie about rebellious teenagers, called "The Blackboard Jungle." The movie caused a lot of debate. It also made the song a huge hit. "Rock Around the Clock" became a song of teenage rebellion. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many other rock and roll singers became popular in the nineteen-fifties. They included Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Each performer created his own kind of rock and roll. Chuck Berry's music was a mixture of country and rhythm and blues. In nineteen-fifty-five, his song "Maybellene" was one of the most popular songs in the country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-sixties, black music and musicians became recognized as an important part of the music industry in America. This was because a company in Detroit, Michigan, called Motown Records produced some of the most popular songs in American music. Berry Gordy started Motown Records. He was the first person to present black music so it appealed to both blacks and whites. One of Motown's most successful groups was the Supremes, led by Diana Ross. Here is one of their hits, "Come See About Me." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A different kind of rock and roll music was developing in Southern California. Five young men from Los Angeles formed a group called the Beach Boys. Brian Wilson wrote, performed, and produced the group's records. The Beach Boys' songs had complex music and simple words. The words were about the local teenage culture. The group sang about riding surfboards on the ocean waves. One of their most popular songs was "Surfin' USA.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It was also in the nineteen-sixties that rock and roll music began to change. The words became as important as the music. Bob Dylan began writing songs that many young people considered to be poetry. Dylan was influenced by folk singers and songwriters like Woody Guthrie. Dylan's early songs concerned serious social issues. He wrote about war and racial injustice. Some of his songs were used as protest songs for the anti-war and civil rights movements in America. Later, Dylan wrote more personal songs. Here is one of his most popular songs, “Mister Tambourine Man." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-four, a new rock and roll group from England invaded America. Some say the Beatles' music shook America like an earthquake. The Beatles changed rock and roll music forever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver and Lawan Davis. I’m Ray Freeman. Next week, Rich Kleinfeldt and I continue the story of rock and roll on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Visitors to America can learn more at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. Or visit, on the Internet, rockhall -- one word, rockhall.com. We leave you now with one of my favorite rock and roll hits from nineteen-sixty-one. Ray Charles sings, “Hit the Road Jack.” (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Lack of Hope Blamed as Some Afghan Women Choose Death by Fire
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 29, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Reports from western Afghanistan say at least fifty young women have killed themselves in recent months. In each case, they set themselves on fire. Poverty, forced marriage, limited rights to education, violence against women, a sense of hopelessness. These are all given as reasons for an increase in cases of self-immolation. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sent a delegation to Herat province to investigate. Medica Mondiale is a German-based organization that supports women and girls in crisis situations. The group has started to organize projects in Kabul and Herat in an effort to improve the lives of women. It says many do not believe their lives have improved since the ouster of the Taleban more than two years ago. The Islamic Taleban group ruled Afghanistan for five years. Women could not work or study. They could not leave their homes unless they had a male with them. And they were forced to wear a cloth burqa that covered all of their body. American-led forces began a campaign in October of two-thousand-one to oust the Taleban and to attack al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan. This followed the September eleventh terrorist attacks by the al-Qaida group on the United States. With the Taleban out of power, women regained their right to work and study. But Medica Mondiale says many still face oppression in parts of the country. Tribal leaders control these areas. In January of this year, delegates at a traditional meeting called a Loya Jirga approved a new constitution for Afghanistan. The document guarantees equal rights for women. It also guarantees a strong representation of women in the future parliament. Women’s Affairs Minister Habiba Sarabi says she plans to set up family courts. She also plans to open centers to assist women around the country. The governor of Herat, Ismail Khan, recently launched a media campaign to urge women to seek help. Husbands are also urged to show more consideration toward their wives. Human rights experts note that social changes can take many years, especially in conservative societies. They say a good place to start is to teach females to understand their rights. But they say even more important is that males must also understand those rights. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: March 29, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Reports from western Afghanistan say at least fifty young women have killed themselves in recent months. In each case, they set themselves on fire. Poverty, forced marriage, limited rights to education, violence against women, a sense of hopelessness. These are all given as reasons for an increase in cases of self-immolation. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sent a delegation to Herat province to investigate. Medica Mondiale is a German-based organization that supports women and girls in crisis situations. The group has started to organize projects in Kabul and Herat in an effort to improve the lives of women. It says many do not believe their lives have improved since the ouster of the Taleban more than two years ago. The Islamic Taleban group ruled Afghanistan for five years. Women could not work or study. They could not leave their homes unless they had a male with them. And they were forced to wear a cloth burqa that covered all of their body. American-led forces began a campaign in October of two-thousand-one to oust the Taleban and to attack al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan. This followed the September eleventh terrorist attacks by the al-Qaida group on the United States. With the Taleban out of power, women regained their right to work and study. But Medica Mondiale says many still face oppression in parts of the country. Tribal leaders control these areas. In January of this year, delegates at a traditional meeting called a Loya Jirga approved a new constitution for Afghanistan. The document guarantees equal rights for women. It also guarantees a strong representation of women in the future parliament. Women’s Affairs Minister Habiba Sarabi says she plans to set up family courts. She also plans to open centers to assist women around the country. The governor of Herat, Ismail Khan, recently launched a media campaign to urge women to seek help. Husbands are also urged to show more consideration toward their wives. Human rights experts note that social changes can take many years, especially in conservative societies. They say a good place to start is to teach females to understand their rights. But they say even more important is that males must also understand those rights. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #6, Learning Disabilities
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: February 5, 2004] This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we begin a series of programs about learning disabilities. These are disorders in the ways that people understand or use language. They can affect the ability to listen or think, or to speak, or to read and write. They can also affect the ability to do mathematics. A person with a learning disability has unusual difficulty in developing these skills. Researchers believe that learning disabilities are caused by differences in the way that the brain works with information. They say children with learning disabilities are not unintelligent or do not want to work. Their brains just process information differently than other people. Researchers say that as many as one out of every five people in the United States has some kind of learning disability. Almost three-million children in the United States receive some kind of help in school for a learning disability. How can you tell if someone has a learning disability? Experts look for a difference between how well a child does in school and the level of intelligence or ability of the child. But there is no one sign of a disorder. A few signs of a learning disability include not connecting letters with their sounds or not understanding what is read. A person with a learning disability may not be able to understand a funny story. They may not follow directions. They may not read numbers correctly or know how to start a task. Different people have different kinds of learning disabilities. One person may have trouble understanding mathematics. Another may have difficulty understanding what people are saying. Still another may not be able to express ideas in writing. These different kinds of learning disabilities are known by different names. For example, a person who has difficulty reading may have dyslexia. Someone who cannot do mathematics may have a disorder called dyscalculia. Experts say learning disabilities cannot be cured. But people who have them can be helped. Teachers and parents can help young people with learning disabilities to learn successfully. In the next few weeks, we will discuss different kinds of learning disabilities. We will provide advice from specialists about ways to deal with them. And we will also examine some of the political issues involved in the area of special education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is a learning disability? 2. What causes someone to have a learning disability? 3. How can you tell if a person has a learning disability? 4. Name two different kinds of learning disabilities. 5. How many children in the United States get some kind of help for a learning disability in school? Click here for the answers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #6: Answers
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: February 5, 2004] This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we begin a series of programs about learning disabilities. These are disorders in the ways that people understand or use language. They can affect the ability to listen or think, or to speak, or to read and write. They can also affect the ability to do mathematics. A person with a learning disability has unusual difficulty in developing these skills. Researchers believe that learning disabilities are caused by differences in the way that the brain works with information. They say children with learning disabilities are not unintelligent or do not want to work. Their brains just process information differently than other people. Researchers say that as many as one out of every five people in the United States has some kind of learning disability. Almost three-million children in the United States receive some kind of help in school for a learning disability. How can you tell if someone has a learning disability? Experts look for a difference between how well a child does in school and the level of intelligence or ability of the child. But there is no one sign of a disorder. A few signs of a learning disability include not connecting letters with their sounds or not understanding what is read. A person with a learning disability may not be able to understand a funny story. They may not follow directions. They may not read numbers correctly or know how to start a task. Different people have different kinds of learning disabilities. One person may have trouble understanding mathematics. Another may have difficulty understanding what people are saying. Still another may not be able to express ideas in writing. These different kinds of learning disabilities are known by different names. For example, a person who has difficulty reading may have dyslexia. Someone who cannot do mathematics may have a disorder called dyscalculia. Experts say learning disabilities cannot be cured. But people who have them can be helped. Teachers and parents can help young people with learning disabilities to learn successfully. In the next few weeks, we will discuss different kinds of learning disabilities. We will provide advice from specialists about ways to deal with them. And we will also examine some of the political issues involved in the area of special education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is a learning disability? 2. What causes someone to have a learning disability? 3. How can you tell if a person has a learning disability? 4. Name two different kinds of learning disabilities. 5. How many children in the United States get some kind of help for a learning disability in school? Answers: 1. Disorders in the way people understand or use language. 2. Differences in the way the brain works with information. 3. There is no one way to tell. A person with a learning disability may not be able to connect letters with their sounds or understanding what is read. A person with a learning disability may not be able to understand a funny story. They may not follow directions well. They may not read numbers correctly or know how to start a task. 4. Dyslexia, dyscalculia. 5. Almost three-million. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding, #4: Answers
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: March 5, 2004] This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Companies often give work to an outside business that can do the job for less money than their own employees could. This is called outsourcing. Outsourcing has become a political issue in the campaign for the American presidential election in November. Many companies in the United States have been moving jobs to countries where costs are much lower. Factory production jobs have moved away for years. But the jobs now also involve skills like computer programming. Labor groups and workers are angry. They point to reports that say the United States has lost two-and-a-half million jobs since two-thousand-one. Most were jobs in manufacturing. Some states have lost more jobs than others. But no one seems to know for sure how many jobs left the country. There was a recession. Jobs were cut. Yet, so far, the economic recovery has produced fewer jobs than expected. So outsourcing has created an emotional debate. Lou Dobbs has a business news program on CNN television. He keeps a list of companies that have sent jobs to foreign countries. Almost every night, Mister Dobbs talks about what he calls the “exporting of America.” Gregory Mankiw [man-CUE] is the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Bush. Recently Mister Mankiw said outsourcing is probably good for the economy in the long term. He said it makes sense to import goods or services produced at lower cost. He called it "just a new way of doing international trade." Most economists would probably agree. But Democrats and Republicans criticized Mister Mankiw. He later apologized for having appeared to praise the loss of United States jobs. Criticism of outsourcing has led some people to condemn free trade. They argue that if jobs are lost to foreign countries, then America should seek protective measures. The director general of the World Trade Organization does not see it that way. Supachai Panitchpakdi says one-third of all economic growth in the United States since nineteen-ninety resulted from international trade. Mister Supachai says training and education can create new opportunities for workers. He says exports have helped create five-million new jobs in America in the last ten years. He says those jobs pay ten-percent above the average. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Comprehension Questions: 1. What is outsourcing? 2. Why are labor groups and workers angry about it? 3. How many jobs has the United States lost in the past three years? 4. What reasons do people give to support outsourcing? 5. What reasons do people give to criticize outsourcing? Answers: 1. Moving jobs to places where labor and production costs are lower. 2. Workers in the United States lose their jobs to foreign workers. 3. About two-and-a-half million (though not all have been outsourced). 4. It makes sense to import goods produced at a lower cost. It is a new way of doing international trade, which increases economic growth. 5. A number of Americans have lost their jobs to outsourcing. Critics say American companies should use workers in the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISES - Test Your Understanding with Questions Based on Our Reports
* Byline: 

 Each reading exercise contains the text of a recent report, followed by five questions. Click on the links to listen along in MP3 or RealAudio and to find the answers. Please send any comments or suggestions to special@voanews.com. READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #10: Children and Television READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #9: Teacher of the Year READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #8: Road Safety Campaign READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #7: Getting a G.E.D. Certificate READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #6: Learning Disabilities READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #5: 'PandaMania' in Washington READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #4: Debate Over Outsourcing READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #3: 'Motomen' Carry E-Mail in Cambodia READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #2: Importance of Hand Washing READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #1: Fruit Flies in Hawaii Click here for more English teaching resources These reading exercises are the result of a suggestion by an English teacher in Iran. They are created by VOA Special English writer Nancy Steinbach, herself a former social studies teacher. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-5-1.cfm
* Headline: English Teaching Resources
* Byline: 

 READING EXERCISES Test your understanding of VOA Special English programs ENGLISH TEACHING U.S. State Department's Office of English Language Programs GAMES WITH WORDS All sorts of interactive fun developed by ESL teaching expert Charles Kelly based on our vocabulary WORDMASTER All about American English: weekly interviews with English teachers, linguists, authors and others. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-6-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Heroes of Medicine and Science
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-29-7-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Veterinary Medicine
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 30, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. When people feel sick, doctors treat them. So, who treats animals? Veterinarians are doctors for animals. But they also protect human health. Veterinarians are the first line of defense against animal diseases that can spread quickly. Diseases, like some kinds of bird flu, can spread to humans. Others, like foot and mouth disease, cause economic damage. Some veterinarians in the United States inspect animals raised for food. Some study diseases. Others work for drug companies and medical companies. And about half of all veterinarians care for more than one-hundred-million cats and dogs that Americans keep for pleasure. Becoming a veterinarian is hard work. Students take two years of preparatory studies in college. They must learn in the classroom about animal biology, diseases, medicines and treatments. Then, they attend four years in a college of veterinary medicine. There, students work in laboratories and treatment centers to gain real experience with animal health. They also learn to perform medical operations. There are twenty-eight schools of veterinary medicine in the United States. More than eight-thousand-five-hundred students study the subject. Seventy-five percent of the students are women. About two-thousand new veterinarians enter the job market each year. States give veterinarians official permission to treat animals. A veterinarian must take a test to receive a license from any state where he or she works. A number of groups help veterinarians. The American Veterinary Medical Association is one of the oldest. It started in eighteen-eighty-nine. The organization officially approves schools that teach veterinary science. The Department of Agriculture established the National Veterinary Accreditation Program in nineteen-twenty-one. The program was designed to teach veterinarians how to work with federal and state officials supervising animals raised for food. The program gives veterinarians extra training. Veterinarians have always been important to agriculture and public health. They set broken bones, treat infectious diseases, perform operations and help animals give birth. Many also are involved in the study of diseases that spread among animals. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS -Voyager
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 31, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: March 31, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. It was called the last great goal in flying. It would be a flight around the world without stopping or adding more fuel. Today, Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson tell about a special plane called Voyager and the effort to set a difficult world record. VOICE ONE: ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. It was called the last great goal in flying. It would be a flight around the world without stopping or adding more fuel. Today, Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson tell about a special plane called Voyager and the effort to set a difficult world record. VOICE ONE: Voyager began as a quick drawing on a small piece of paper. Six years later, the drawing was a plane that made history. Many people gave their time, energy and money to help make the flight happen. But three people had lead parts in the event. Dick Rutan. Burt Rutan. And Jeana Yeager. Dick Rutan was an experienced flier. He had been a pilot in the United States military during the war in Vietnam. After the war, he worked as a test pilot. He flew planes designed by his younger brother Burt. Burt Rutan was well-known as a designer of experimental planes. And Jeana Yeager held nine world flight records as a pilot. VOICE TWO: One day in early Nineteen-Eighty-One, Dick, Burt and Jeana were eating in a restaurant in Mojave, California. Burt turned to his brother and asked a wild question. "How would you like to be the first person to fly around the world without stopping to re-fuel?" The three considered the idea. A non-stop flight around the world without re-fueling was the last flight record to be set. The flight always had been considered impossible. No plane could carry enough fuel to fly that far: forty-thousand kilometers. But now there were new materials for planes. Burt thought he could build a plane that could make the voyage. Dick and Jeana thought they could fly it. No one could think of a good reason not to try. Burt picked up a small piece of paper. He drew an airplane that looked like a giant wing, and not much more. That was the beginning. VOICE ONE: Not since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright had the people making a record flight designed and built their own aircraft. Dick, Burt and Jeana did. Some people thought their Voyager project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous. The Voyager crew worked on the plane in a small building at an airport in California's Mojave Desert. Dick, Burt and Jeana received no government money. Instead, they got small amounts of money from lots of different people. As news of the project spread, more and more people offered to help. There were aviation engineers and workers from the space agency's experimental plane project. Several airplane companies offered equipment to be used in the plane. When Voyager was finished, it had two-million dollars' worth of parts in it. VOICE TWO: Burt Rutan had built light-weight planes before. He knew a normal plane made of aluminum metal could not make a trip around the world without adding fuel. So his solution was to build Voyager almost completely out of new materials. The materials were very light, but very strong. This meant Voyager could lift and carry many times its weight in fuel. The finished plane weighed just nine-hundred kilograms, about the weight of a small car. The full load of fuel weighed three times that much, about three-thousand kilograms. Voyager was not built to be a fast plane. It flew about one-hundred seventy-five kilometers an hour. VOICE ONE: The main wing of the finished plane was more than thirty-three meters across. That is wider than the main wing on today's big passenger planes. The center part of the plane held the crew. And on either side of this body were two long fuel tanks. In fact, almost all of the Voyager was a fuel tank. Seventeen separate containers were squeezed into every possible space. During the flight, the pilots had to move fuel from container to container to keep the plane balanced. One engine at each end of the body of the plane provided power. The area for the two pilots was unbelievably small. It was just one meter wide by two-and-one-quarter meters long. The person flying the plane sat in the pilot's seat. The other person had to lie down at all times. VOICE TWO: After many test flights, the Voyager was finally ready in December, Nineteen-Eighty-Six. The best weather for flying around the world is from June to August. That time was far past. But the pilots were tired of delays. They made the decision to take-off, knowing the weather might be bad. On December Fourteenth, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager walked around the plane one more time. It looked like a giant white flying insect. They were going to be trusting their lives to this strange plane for the next nine days. Dick climbed into the only seat. Jeana lay on the floor. They were ready to go. Flight controllers at Edwards Air Force Base in California cleared them for a trip no one had ever attempted before. VOICE ONE: The long, thin wings of the plane were so loaded with fuel that they almost touched the ground. Voyager began to move down the runway, slowly. But something was wrong. The ends of the wings were not lifting. Burt Rutan sent a radio message to his brother to lift the plane's nose. "Pull back on the stick!" he screamed. "Pull back!" But Dick did not hear the warning. And he did not see the wings. He was looking straight ahead. Voyager was getting dangerously close to the end of the runway. It appeared about to crash. Finally, just in time, the long wings swept up. The plane leaped into the air. Planes following Voyager could see that the ends of the wings were badly damaged. Dick turned the plane so the force of air currents would break off the broken ends. Then he aimed Voyager out over the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: Weight was the main consideration in designing the experimental plane. Not safety. Not comfort. Voyager did not have most of the normal safety equipment of modern planes. There were no special materials to block the noise of the engines. And space for the pilots was so tight they had great difficulty changing places. Voyager's long wings moved up and down as the winds changed. It seemed to sail on waves of air, just like a sailboat on ocean waves. This motion meant the flight was extremely rough. VOICE ONE: It was not an enjoyable trip. Dick and Jeana were always tense. At the end of the second day, the weather expert for the flight warned of trouble. Voyager was heading for an ocean storm. Dick was able to fly close to the storm and ride its winds. On the third day, Voyager was in trouble again. It had to fly between huge thunderhead clouds on one side and Vietnam's airspace on the other. Dick was able to keep the plane safely in the middle. Over Africa, the two pilots struggled with continuous stormy weather. Dick had flown almost all of the first sixty hours of the flight. Then he changed places with Jeana for short periods. Both were extremely tired. Suddenly, a red warning light turned on. It was a signal that there was not enough oil in one engine. Dick and Jeana had been so busy trying to fly around bad weather and mountains that they had forgotten to watch the oil level. But luck stayed with them. They added the necessary oil. The engine was not damaged. VOICE TWO: Once past the violent weather over Africa, Dick and Jeana began planning the way home. A computer confirmed that they had enough fuel left to make it. But as they flew up the coast of Mexico, the engine on the back of the plane failed. Fuel had stopped flowing to it. The more powerful front engine already had been shut down earlier to save fuel. With neither engine working, Voyager quickly began to lose speed and height. The plane fell for five minutes. Dick finally got the front engine started again. Then fuel started flowing to the back engine, and it began to work again, too. VOICE ONE: Nine days after take-off, Voyager landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It had completed a forty-thousand-kilometer flight around the world. It had not stopped. And it had not re-fueled. Dick said after landing: "This was the last major event of atmospheric flight." Jeana added: "It was a lot more difficult than we ever imagined." Burt Rutan's revolutionary plane design had worked. And, with it, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had joined the list of the world's greatest fliers. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. Voyager began as a quick drawing on a small piece of paper. Six years later, the drawing was a plane that made history. Many people gave their time, energy and money to help make the flight happen. But three people had lead parts in the event. Dick Rutan. Burt Rutan. And Jeana Yeager. Dick Rutan was an experienced flier. He had been a pilot in the United States military during the war in Vietnam. After the war, he worked as a test pilot. He flew planes designed by his younger brother Burt. Burt Rutan was well-known as a designer of experimental planes. And Jeana Yeager held nine world flight records as a pilot. VOICE TWO: One day in early Nineteen-Eighty-One, Dick, Burt and Jeana were eating in a restaurant in Mojave, California. Burt turned to his brother and asked a wild question. "How would you like to be the first person to fly around the world without stopping to re-fuel?" The three considered the idea. A non-stop flight around the world without re-fueling was the last flight record to be set. The flight always had been considered impossible. No plane could carry enough fuel to fly that far: forty-thousand kilometers. But now there were new materials for planes. Burt thought he could build a plane that could make the voyage. Dick and Jeana thought they could fly it. No one could think of a good reason not to try. Burt picked up a small piece of paper. He drew an airplane that looked like a giant wing, and not much more. That was the beginning. VOICE ONE: Not since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright had the people making a record flight designed and built their own aircraft. Dick, Burt and Jeana did. Some people thought their Voyager project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous. The Voyager crew worked on the plane in a small building at an airport in California's Mojave Desert. Dick, Burt and Jeana received no government money. Instead, they got small amounts of money from lots of different people. As news of the project spread, more and more people offered to help. There were aviation engineers and workers from the space agency's experimental plane project. Several airplane companies offered equipment to be used in the plane. When Voyager was finished, it had two-million dollars' worth of parts in it. VOICE TWO: Burt Rutan had built light-weight planes before. He knew a normal plane made of aluminum metal could not make a trip around the world without adding fuel. So his solution was to build Voyager almost completely out of new materials. The materials were very light, but very strong. This meant Voyager could lift and carry many times its weight in fuel. The finished plane weighed just nine-hundred kilograms, about the weight of a small car. The full load of fuel weighed three times that much, about three-thousand kilograms. Voyager was not built to be a fast plane. It flew about one-hundred seventy-five kilometers an hour. VOICE ONE: The main wing of the finished plane was more than thirty-three meters across. That is wider than the main wing on today's big passenger planes. The center part of the plane held the crew. And on either side of this body were two long fuel tanks. In fact, almost all of the Voyager was a fuel tank. Seventeen separate containers were squeezed into every possible space. During the flight, the pilots had to move fuel from container to container to keep the plane balanced. One engine at each end of the body of the plane provided power. The area for the two pilots was unbelievably small. It was just one meter wide by two-and-one-quarter meters long. The person flying the plane sat in the pilot's seat. The other person had to lie down at all times. VOICE TWO: After many test flights, the Voyager was finally ready in December, Nineteen-Eighty-Six. The best weather for flying around the world is from June to August. That time was far past. But the pilots were tired of delays. They made the decision to take-off, knowing the weather might be bad. On December Fourteenth, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager walked around the plane one more time. It looked like a giant white flying insect. They were going to be trusting their lives to this strange plane for the next nine days. Dick climbed into the only seat. Jeana lay on the floor. They were ready to go. Flight controllers at Edwards Air Force Base in California cleared them for a trip no one had ever attempted before. VOICE ONE: The long, thin wings of the plane were so loaded with fuel that they almost touched the ground. Voyager began to move down the runway, slowly. But something was wrong. The ends of the wings were not lifting. Burt Rutan sent a radio message to his brother to lift the plane's nose. "Pull back on the stick!" he screamed. "Pull back!" But Dick did not hear the warning. And he did not see the wings. He was looking straight ahead. Voyager was getting dangerously close to the end of the runway. It appeared about to crash. Finally, just in time, the long wings swept up. The plane leaped into the air. Planes following Voyager could see that the ends of the wings were badly damaged. Dick turned the plane so the force of air currents would break off the broken ends. Then he aimed Voyager out over the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: Weight was the main consideration in designing the experimental plane. Not safety. Not comfort. Voyager did not have most of the normal safety equipment of modern planes. There were no special materials to block the noise of the engines. And space for the pilots was so tight they had great difficulty changing places. Voyager's long wings moved up and down as the winds changed. It seemed to sail on waves of air, just like a sailboat on ocean waves. This motion meant the flight was extremely rough. VOICE ONE: It was not an enjoyable trip. Dick and Jeana were always tense. At the end of the second day, the weather expert for the flight warned of trouble. Voyager was heading for an ocean storm. Dick was able to fly close to the storm and ride its winds. On the third day, Voyager was in trouble again. It had to fly between huge thunderhead clouds on one side and Vietnam's airspace on the other. Dick was able to keep the plane safely in the middle. Over Africa, the two pilots struggled with continuous stormy weather. Dick had flown almost all of the first sixty hours of the flight. Then he changed places with Jeana for short periods. Both were extremely tired. Suddenly, a red warning light turned on. It was a signal that there was not enough oil in one engine. Dick and Jeana had been so busy trying to fly around bad weather and mountains that they had forgotten to watch the oil level. But luck stayed with them. They added the necessary oil. The engine was not damaged. VOICE TWO: Once past the violent weather over Africa, Dick and Jeana began planning the way home. A computer confirmed that they had enough fuel left to make it. But as they flew up the coast of Mexico, the engine on the back of the plane failed. Fuel had stopped flowing to it. The more powerful front engine already had been shut down earlier to save fuel. With neither engine working, Voyager quickly began to lose speed and height. The plane fell for five minutes. Dick finally got the front engine started again. Then fuel started flowing to the back engine, and it began to work again, too. VOICE ONE: Nine days after take-off, Voyager landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It had completed a forty-thousand-kilometer flight around the world. It had not stopped. And it had not re-fueled. Dick said after landing: "This was the last major event of atmospheric flight." Jeana added: "It was a lot more difficult than we ever imagined." Burt Rutan's revolutionary plane design had worked. And, with it, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had joined the list of the world's greatest fliers. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #56 - Election of 1828
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 1, 2004 (Theme) Broadcast: April 1, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The presidential election campaign of eighteen-twenty-eight was bitter and vicious. The old Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe had split into two opposing groups. One group was led by President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay. It called itself the National Republican Party. The other group was led by General Andrew Jackson. It called itself the Democratic Party. VOICE TWO: Each party had its own newspapers. In Washington, the "Daily National Journal" supported President Adams. The "United States Telegraph" supported General Jackson. The Telegraph published charges against the administration made by congressional Democrats. The Journal, in turn, published a pamphlet that had been used against Jackson earlier. Among other things, the pamphlet charged that Jackson had fought a man, chased him away like a dog, and then took his wife. The charge was not true. This is the story. It is important, because it had a great effect on Andrew Jackson for the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: Jackson met the young woman, Rachel, at her mother's home near Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, Rachel and her husband, Lewis Robards, were living there. They were having marriage problems. Robards argued with his wife about Jackson. He said she and Jackson seemed too close. Jackson was advised to leave, and he agreed to go. Before he left, he met with Robards. Robards reportedly wanted to fight Jackson with his fists. Jackson refused to fist-fight. But, he said he would face Robards in a duel, if Robards wished to fight like a gentleman. Robards rejected the invitation, and nothing more happened between the two men. Jackson left. VOICE TWO: Robards and Rachel settled their differences. She went back to their home in Kentucky, but did not stay long. They had another dispute, and she left. Court records say she left with a man -- Andrew Jackson. Rachel's family had heard how unhappy she was with Robards, and had asked Jackson to bring her back to Tennessee. Robards followed them. Rachel told him she wanted a divorce. Robards threatened her. He said he would carry her away by force if she did not go back to Kentucky. Rachel decided to flee. She would go with some traders to Natchez, in the Mississippi territory. It would be a dangerous trip down the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. VOICE ONE: Jackson was troubled. He felt badly, because he had been the cause of Rachel's unhappiness. By now, Rachel meant much to Jackson. He had fallen in love with her. When the traders asked him to go to Natchez, he agreed. The group left early in seventeen-ninety-one. A few weeks earlier, Lewis Robards had begun preparations for a divorce. He did not complete the necessary action, however. Yet he led Rachel's family to believe that he had. . . That the two of them were no longer married. Jackson returned to Nashville after several months. He asked for permission to marry Rachel, now that she was free of Robards. Rachel's mother gave her permission. VOICE TWO: Andrew Jackson and Rachel were married in August, seventeen-ninety-one. Both were twenty-four years old. They remained in Tennessee. The next two years were busy ones for Jackson. As a young lawyer, he worked hard and traveled far. In December, seventeen-ninety-three, he discovered court papers showing that Lewis Robards had only recently divorced Rachel. This meant that at the time Jackson and Rachel were married, she was still legally married to Robards. Jackson was shocked. As soon as possible, he and Rachel were married again -- legally this time. VOICE ONE: Almost ten years passed. Jackson was a judge and took part in Tennessee politics. One day, Jackson met the state's governor outside the court house in Knoxville. The governor was telling a large crowd about his great services to the state. Jackson felt it necessary to say that he, too, had done some public services. "Services," shouted the governor. "I know of no great service you have done the country except taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife!" Jackson's eyes grew as cold as ice. The governor pulled his sword. "Great God!" cried Jackson. "Do you speak her sacred name." He jumped at the governor with a stick. The two men were separated. A few years later, Jackson killed a man in a duel, after the other man made a joke -- while drunk -- about Jackson's marriage. VOICE TWO: As a candidate for president, Jackson could not take to the dueling field to defend his wife's honor. He wanted to. But he knew it would prevent him from being elected. Jackson asked a special committee of citizens to investigate his marriage and make a public report. The committee found that Jackson and Rachel got married only after they believed her first husband had divorced her. As soon as the mistake was discovered, they were married again, legally. The report said they were not at fault. VOICE ONE: The pro-Jackson newspaper in Washington published the committee's report. But anti-Jackson newspapers did not. They insulted him and his wife. General Jackson struggled to control his anger. "How hard it is," he said, "to keep myself away from these villains. I have made many sacrifices for my country. But being unable to punish those who lie about my wife is a sacrifice too great to bear." Anti-Jackson newspapers continued to print vicious lies about him. And the pro-Jackson newspapers began to print vicious lies about Pesident Adams and his wife. VOICE TWO: All during the bitter campaign, neither candidate said anything about one very important issue: slavery. Adams did not want to lose what little support he had in the south and west by denouncing slavery. Jackson did not want to lose the support of some Republicans in the north by openly defending it. Adams's silence did not mean that he approved of slavery. Southerners were sure that he opposed it. And Jackson did not have to tell the south what he thought about slavery. He was a slave owner, and had bought and sold slaves all his life. VOICE ONE: There was another important difference between the two men and their political parties. President Adams and the Republicans represented the interests of those who owned property. Many of the president's supporters felt that wealthy, property-owning citizens should control the government. They feared popular rule, or government elected by all the people. Jackson and the Democrats represented the interests of common men. They did not feel that the rich had more right to govern than the poor. They believed in the democratic right of all men to share equally in the government. VOICE TWO: The election was held in different states on different days between October thirty-first and November fifth, eighteen-twenty-eight. In two states -- South Carolina and Delaware -- the legislature chose the presidential electors. In all the other states, the electors were chosen by the voters. When the electoral votes were counted, Jackson received one-hundred seventy-eight. Adams received only eighty-three. It was a great victory for Jackson. VOICE ONE: His wife, however, was troubled. She was a simple, kind woman who loved her husband. "For Mr. Jackson's sake," she wrote, "I am glad. For my own part, I never wished it." She knew, of course, of the charges made during the campaign about their marriage. Her courage supported her. But when the excitement of the election had ended, she lost her energy. And her health became worse. Someone proposed that Rachel Jackson stay in Tennessee until her health became better. Then she could join her husband at the White House in Washington. Rachel did not want to go to Washington. But she felt that her place was with her husband. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The presidential election campaign of eighteen-twenty-eight was bitter and vicious. The old Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe had split into two opposing groups. One group was led by President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay. It called itself the National Republican Party. The other group was led by General Andrew Jackson. It called itself the Democratic Party. VOICE TWO: Each party had its own newspapers. In Washington, the "Daily National Journal" supported President Adams. The "United States Telegraph" supported General Jackson. The Telegraph published charges against the administration made by congressional Democrats. The Journal, in turn, published a pamphlet that had been used against Jackson earlier. Among other things, the pamphlet charged that Jackson had fought a man, chased him away like a dog, and then took his wife. The charge was not true. This is the story. It is important, because it had a great effect on Andrew Jackson for the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: Jackson met the young woman, Rachel, at her mother's home near Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, Rachel and her husband, Lewis Robards, were living there. They were having marriage problems. Robards argued with his wife about Jackson. He said she and Jackson seemed too close. Jackson was advised to leave, and he agreed to go. Before he left, he met with Robards. Robards reportedly wanted to fight Jackson with his fists. Jackson refused to fist-fight. But, he said he would face Robards in a duel, if Robards wished to fight like a gentleman. Robards rejected the invitation, and nothing more happened between the two men. Jackson left. VOICE TWO: Robards and Rachel settled their differences. She went back to their home in Kentucky, but did not stay long. They had another dispute, and she left. Court records say she left with a man -- Andrew Jackson. Rachel's family had heard how unhappy she was with Robards, and had asked Jackson to bring her back to Tennessee. Robards followed them. Rachel told him she wanted a divorce. Robards threatened her. He said he would carry her away by force if she did not go back to Kentucky. Rachel decided to flee. She would go with some traders to Natchez, in the Mississippi territory. It would be a dangerous trip down the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. VOICE ONE: Jackson was troubled. He felt badly, because he had been the cause of Rachel's unhappiness. By now, Rachel meant much to Jackson. He had fallen in love with her. When the traders asked him to go to Natchez, he agreed. The group left early in seventeen-ninety-one. A few weeks earlier, Lewis Robards had begun preparations for a divorce. He did not complete the necessary action, however. Yet he led Rachel's family to believe that he had. . . That the two of them were no longer married. Jackson returned to Nashville after several months. He asked for permission to marry Rachel, now that she was free of Robards. Rachel's mother gave her permission. VOICE TWO: Andrew Jackson and Rachel were married in August, seventeen-ninety-one. Both were twenty-four years old. They remained in Tennessee. The next two years were busy ones for Jackson. As a young lawyer, he worked hard and traveled far. In December, seventeen-ninety-three, he discovered court papers showing that Lewis Robards had only recently divorced Rachel. This meant that at the time Jackson and Rachel were married, she was still legally married to Robards. Jackson was shocked. As soon as possible, he and Rachel were married again -- legally this time. VOICE ONE: Almost ten years passed. Jackson was a judge and took part in Tennessee politics. One day, Jackson met the state's governor outside the court house in Knoxville. The governor was telling a large crowd about his great services to the state. Jackson felt it necessary to say that he, too, had done some public services. "Services," shouted the governor. "I know of no great service you have done the country except taking a trip to Natchez with another man's wife!" Jackson's eyes grew as cold as ice. The governor pulled his sword. "Great God!" cried Jackson. "Do you speak her sacred name." He jumped at the governor with a stick. The two men were separated. A few years later, Jackson killed a man in a duel, after the other man made a joke -- while drunk -- about Jackson's marriage. VOICE TWO: As a candidate for president, Jackson could not take to the dueling field to defend his wife's honor. He wanted to. But he knew it would prevent him from being elected. Jackson asked a special committee of citizens to investigate his marriage and make a public report. The committee found that Jackson and Rachel got married only after they believed her first husband had divorced her. As soon as the mistake was discovered, they were married again, legally. The report said they were not at fault. VOICE ONE: The pro-Jackson newspaper in Washington published the committee's report. But anti-Jackson newspapers did not. They insulted him and his wife. General Jackson struggled to control his anger. "How hard it is," he said, "to keep myself away from these villains. I have made many sacrifices for my country. But being unable to punish those who lie about my wife is a sacrifice too great to bear." Anti-Jackson newspapers continued to print vicious lies about him. And the pro-Jackson newspapers began to print vicious lies about Pesident Adams and his wife. VOICE TWO: All during the bitter campaign, neither candidate said anything about one very important issue: slavery. Adams did not want to lose what little support he had in the south and west by denouncing slavery. Jackson did not want to lose the support of some Republicans in the north by openly defending it. Adams's silence did not mean that he approved of slavery. Southerners were sure that he opposed it. And Jackson did not have to tell the south what he thought about slavery. He was a slave owner, and had bought and sold slaves all his life. VOICE ONE: There was another important difference between the two men and their political parties. President Adams and the Republicans represented the interests of those who owned property. Many of the president's supporters felt that wealthy, property-owning citizens should control the government. They feared popular rule, or government elected by all the people. Jackson and the Democrats represented the interests of common men. They did not feel that the rich had more right to govern than the poor. They believed in the democratic right of all men to share equally in the government. VOICE TWO: The election was held in different states on different days between October thirty-first and November fifth, eighteen-twenty-eight. In two states -- South Carolina and Delaware -- the legislature chose the presidential electors. In all the other states, the electors were chosen by the voters. When the electoral votes were counted, Jackson received one-hundred seventy-eight. Adams received only eighty-three. It was a great victory for Jackson. VOICE ONE: His wife, however, was troubled. She was a simple, kind woman who loved her husband. "For Mr. Jackson's sake," she wrote, "I am glad. For my own part, I never wished it." She knew, of course, of the charges made during the campaign about their marriage. Her courage supported her. But when the excitement of the election had ended, she lost her energy. And her health became worse. Someone proposed that Rachel Jackson stay in Tennessee until her health became better. Then she could join her husband at the White House in Washington. Rachel did not want to go to Washington. But she felt that her place was with her husband. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-03/a-2004-03-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Intel Science Talent Search Winners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 1, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A seventeen-year-old boy from the northeastern state of Massachusetts has won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search. The competition is the oldest program in the United States that honors the science projects of high school students. The Intel Science Talent Search is sixty-three years old this year. The winners receive a new computer and money for a college education. A record one-thousand-six-hundred-fifty-two students from forty-six states entered projects for the competition this year. Their research involved nearly every area of science, including chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, engineering, computer science and social science. Forty students were invited to Washington, D.C. for the final judging. A group of well-known scientists judged them on their research abilities, critical thinking skills and creativity. The judges also questioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the winners. The top winner is Herbert Mason Hedberg of North Attleboro, Massachusetts. He received one-hundred-thousand dollars for his college education. He developed a faster, more effective method to tell if a person has cancer. He explored a way to separate telomerase, an enzyme found in most cancer cells. His findings have helped advance research into ways of stopping cancer cells from growing. Herbert said he started the project after watching his grandmother struggle against cancer. He plans to be a doctor and continue doing medical research. The second place winner is seventeen-year-old Boris Alexeev of Athens, Georgia. He received a seventy-five-thousand dollar scholarship. His research in computer science could be used in the study of genetics. The third place winner is seventeen-year-old Ryna Karnik of Aloha, Oregon. She won fifty-thousand dollars for describing a new way to build microchips used in computers. Andrew Yeager of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was chairman of the judges for the Intel Science Talent Search this year. He said the competition is an excellent way to discover future leaders in science and technology. Past competition winners have gone on to receive many of the world’s highest honors for science and mathematics. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: April 1, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A seventeen-year-old boy from the northeastern state of Massachusetts has won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search. The competition is the oldest program in the United States that honors the science projects of high school students. The Intel Science Talent Search is sixty-three years old this year. The winners receive a new computer and money for a college education. A record one-thousand-six-hundred-fifty-two students from forty-six states entered projects for the competition this year. Their research involved nearly every area of science, including chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, engineering, computer science and social science. Forty students were invited to Washington, D.C. for the final judging. A group of well-known scientists judged them on their research abilities, critical thinking skills and creativity. The judges also questioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the winners. The top winner is Herbert Mason Hedberg of North Attleboro, Massachusetts. He received one-hundred-thousand dollars for his college education. He developed a faster, more effective method to tell if a person has cancer. He explored a way to separate telomerase, an enzyme found in most cancer cells. His findings have helped advance research into ways of stopping cancer cells from growing. Herbert said he started the project after watching his grandmother struggle against cancer. He plans to be a doctor and continue doing medical research. The second place winner is seventeen-year-old Boris Alexeev of Athens, Georgia. He received a seventy-five-thousand dollar scholarship. His research in computer science could be used in the study of genetics. The third place winner is seventeen-year-old Ryna Karnik of Aloha, Oregon. She won fifty-thousand dollars for describing a new way to build microchips used in computers. Andrew Yeager of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center was chairman of the judges for the Intel Science Talent Search this year. He said the competition is an excellent way to discover future leaders in science and technology. Past competition winners have gone on to receive many of the world’s highest honors for science and mathematics. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Sports Mascots / Neil Armstrong / Music by Jen Chapin
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 2, 2004 (THEME) Niel Armstrong (Image: www.hq.nasa.gov) Broadcast: April 2, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by singer and songwriter Jen Chapin. We answer a question about a famous astronaut. And, we report about some wild creatures of the sports world... HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by singer and songwriter Jen Chapin. We answer a question about a famous astronaut. And, we report about some wild creatures of the sports world... (THEME) Sports Mascots HOST: The calendar says April, but March Madness continues in the United States. March Madness is the name for the yearly championship series in college basketball. And as the teams play, some strange looking creatures perform for the crowds. Gwen Outen explains. ANNCR: A diamondback turtle larger than a man runs across the basketball court. Really, a man dressed as a turtle. He is not one of the players. He is Testudo, the official mascot of the Terrapins, the team from the University of Maryland. A terrapin is a kind of turtle. There is a saying at the University of Maryland: “Fear the turtle.” But basketball supporters love Testudo. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines mascot as a person, animal or object used to represent a group, especially to bring good luck. The word dates back centuries to masca, Latin for witch. Many schools have mascots. For example, teams at Pennsylvania State University are called the Nittany Lions. Crowds try to make the sound of a mountain lion roar when the Nittany Lion mascot appears. People get very attached to their mascots. Consider the case of Western Kentucky University. The school in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is taking international legal action to protect its mascot. Its mascot is a red, roundish creature called Big Red. It looks very much like a red, roundish creature called Gabibbo. Gabibbo appears on a television comedy in Italy. The university says the Italian media company that owns the show stole the idea. That company, Mediaset, denies any wrongdoing. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns Mediaset. Western Kentucky wants two-hundred-fifty-million dollars for the use of Gabibbo -- or Big Red as the school sees it. Neil Armstrong HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Trong Tuyen wants to know about the American astronaut Neil Armstrong and the famous words he spoke in nineteen-sixty-nine. Neil Alden Armstrong was born in nineteen-thirty in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He became interested in flying when he was a young boy. He had his first airplane ride when he was six years old although he told a reporter he had no memory of it. Ten years later, Neil had learned to fly a plane and got his first pilot’s license. After high school, Neil joined the Navy and was accepted in a special program that paid for his college education. He went to Purdue University in Indiana. It had a strong flight engineering program. However, the start of the Korean War delayed his studies there. He fought in Korea and returned to complete his studies at Purdue after the war ended in nineteen-fifty-two. Neil Armstrong was working as a test pilot when the American space agency chose him to become an astronaut. His first trip to space was with the Gemini program in nineteen-sixty-six. Three years later he was named commander of the Apollo Eleven flight. This was the first attempt to land humans on the moon. Apollo Eleven left Earth on July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty-nine. A few days later, hundreds of millions of people around the world watched or listened to the Apollo Eleven landing on the moon. On July twentieth, the door of the lunar module Eagle opened. There was Neil Armstrong with astronaut Buzz Aldrin behind him. Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon. Here is what he said: (SOUND) Neil Armstrong later served as a NASA official, a college professor, a writer and speaker. He is considered an American hero of flight. In two-thousand-one, Neil Armstrong spoke with historians as part of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. One of the reporters asked Mister Armstrong if he would like to return to space. He answered, with a laugh, that he would like to lead a mission to Mars. Neil Armstrong will be seventy-four in August. Jen Chapin HOST: Jen Chapin is a singer and songwriter from New York City. She released her first album on a national record label in February. Shep O’Neal tells about the musician and plays some of the songs from her album, called “Linger.” ANNCR: Jazz Times magazine has called Jen Chapin an excellent story teller. Her songs discuss many different issues. They include political activism, the music business, and the busy but meaningless lives some people lead. But, of course, a number of songs also talk about love, like this one called “Me Be Me.” (MUSIC) Jen Chapin is a political and social activist as well as a musician. In this way she follows in the footsteps of her late father, singer and songwriter Harry Chapin. Jen Chapin is head of the board of directors of the non-profit group her father helped establish in the nineteen-seventies. World Hunger Year works to end hunger mainly through community-based solutions. One of Jen Chapin’s songs seems like an appeal for political and social activism. Here is “Passive People.” (MUSIC) Jen Chapin says she loves New York City and feels linked to its people. But she also says she sometimes desires a quieter life. We leave you now with the first song on “Linger.” It is called “Little Hours.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our recording engineer was Audreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) Sports Mascots HOST: The calendar says April, but March Madness continues in the United States. March Madness is the name for the yearly championship series in college basketball. And as the teams play, some strange looking creatures perform for the crowds. Gwen Outen explains. ANNCR: A diamondback turtle larger than a man runs across the basketball court. Really, a man dressed as a turtle. He is not one of the players. He is Testudo, the official mascot of the Terrapins, the team from the University of Maryland. A terrapin is a kind of turtle. There is a saying at the University of Maryland: “Fear the turtle.” But basketball supporters love Testudo. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines mascot as a person, animal or object used to represent a group, especially to bring good luck. The word dates back centuries to masca, Latin for witch. Many schools have mascots. For example, teams at Pennsylvania State University are called the Nittany Lions. Crowds try to make the sound of a mountain lion roar when the Nittany Lion mascot appears. People get very attached to their mascots. Consider the case of Western Kentucky University. The school in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is taking international legal action to protect its mascot. Its mascot is a red, roundish creature called Big Red. It looks very much like a red, roundish creature called Gabibbo. Gabibbo appears on a television comedy in Italy. The university says the Italian media company that owns the show stole the idea. That company, Mediaset, denies any wrongdoing. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns Mediaset. Western Kentucky wants two-hundred-fifty-million dollars for the use of Gabibbo -- or Big Red as the school sees it. Neil Armstrong HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Trong Tuyen wants to know about the American astronaut Neil Armstrong and the famous words he spoke in nineteen-sixty-nine. Neil Alden Armstrong was born in nineteen-thirty in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He became interested in flying when he was a young boy. He had his first airplane ride when he was six years old although he told a reporter he had no memory of it. Ten years later, Neil had learned to fly a plane and got his first pilot’s license. After high school, Neil joined the Navy and was accepted in a special program that paid for his college education. He went to Purdue University in Indiana. It had a strong flight engineering program. However, the start of the Korean War delayed his studies there. He fought in Korea and returned to complete his studies at Purdue after the war ended in nineteen-fifty-two. Neil Armstrong was working as a test pilot when the American space agency chose him to become an astronaut. His first trip to space was with the Gemini program in nineteen-sixty-six. Three years later he was named commander of the Apollo Eleven flight. This was the first attempt to land humans on the moon. Apollo Eleven left Earth on July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty-nine. A few days later, hundreds of millions of people around the world watched or listened to the Apollo Eleven landing on the moon. On July twentieth, the door of the lunar module Eagle opened. There was Neil Armstrong with astronaut Buzz Aldrin behind him. Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon. Here is what he said: (SOUND) Neil Armstrong later served as a NASA official, a college professor, a writer and speaker. He is considered an American hero of flight. In two-thousand-one, Neil Armstrong spoke with historians as part of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. One of the reporters asked Mister Armstrong if he would like to return to space. He answered, with a laugh, that he would like to lead a mission to Mars. Neil Armstrong will be seventy-four in August. Jen Chapin HOST: Jen Chapin is a singer and songwriter from New York City. She released her first album on a national record label in February. Shep O’Neal tells about the musician and plays some of the songs from her album, called “Linger.” ANNCR: Jazz Times magazine has called Jen Chapin an excellent story teller. Her songs discuss many different issues. They include political activism, the music business, and the busy but meaningless lives some people lead. But, of course, a number of songs also talk about love, like this one called “Me Be Me.” (MUSIC) Jen Chapin is a political and social activist as well as a musician. In this way she follows in the footsteps of her late father, singer and songwriter Harry Chapin. Jen Chapin is head of the board of directors of the non-profit group her father helped establish in the nineteen-seventies. World Hunger Year works to end hunger mainly through community-based solutions. One of Jen Chapin’s songs seems like an appeal for political and social activism. Here is “Passive People.” (MUSIC) Jen Chapin says she loves New York City and feels linked to its people. But she also says she sometimes desires a quieter life. We leave you now with the first song on “Linger.” It is called “Little Hours.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our recording engineer was Audreus Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Fortune 500 List
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 2, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. For fifty years, the business magazine Fortune has published a list of the five-hundred biggest companies in the United States. The new Fortune five-hundred list has come out. For the third year, the magazine names Wal-Mart the biggest company in America. Wal-Mart is known for low prices in its stores. The company had sales of about two-hundred-fifty-nine-thousand-million dollars last year. Wal-Mart is first on the Fortune five-hundred list by revenue, or the total amount of money it received. Second is Exxon Mobil. But Exxon Mobil is first in profit among the five-hundred companies listed by Fortune magazine. The company recorded earnings of more than twenty-one-thousand-million dollars in two-thousand-three. Wal-Mart had a profit of nine-thousand-million dollars. That puts Wal-Mart in eighth place on the list of the most profitable companies in America. The new Fortune five-hundred list rates General Motors as the third largest company in the nation, down from second place last year. The Ford Motor Company is fourth. And fifth is General Electric. Two more oil companies are sixth and seventh on the list. Like Exxon Mobil, high oil prices helped sales at ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips last year. Citigroup is eighth on the Fortune five-hundred list by revenue. But the financial services company is second in profits. Citigroup recorded earnings of nearly eighteen-thousand-million dollars last year. Ninth on the Fortune five-hundred list is International Business Machines, the computer maker known as I.B.M. And the tenth biggest money-maker in the United States is the insurance company American International Group, or A.I.G. The Fortune five-hundred list is part of American business culture. But only public companies appear on the list. Public companies sell their shares of ownership on a stock exchange to any investor. They must also release their financial information. Together, the largest American companies had record sales last year. Low interest rates meant that people and businesses had more money to spend. Fortune also notes the tax cuts and spending increases by the Bush administration. The magazine says few observers had expected such a widespread profit recovery following two years of poor results. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Afghanistan Aid Conference
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 3, 2004 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Nations from around the world agreed this week to give more than eight-thousand-million dollars in development aid to Afghanistan. That amount is to be provided during the next three years. The agreement was announced during a two-day conference in Berlin, Germany. Delegates from more than fifty nations attended the meeting. In this year alone, Afghanistan will get more than four-thousand-five-hundred-million dollars in aid. The United States is providing almost half of that amount. Reports say the aid would help the Afghan government pay wages to its workers, prepare for national elections and continue rebuilding roads and schools. The United States also offered an additional one-hundred-twenty-three-million dollars to fight the illegal drug trade in Afghanistan. American Secretary of State Colin Powell attended the conference in Berlin. He praised the progress made by Afghanistan since an American-led attack ousted the Taliban government in late two-thousand one. Mister Powell said that United States forces would remain in Afghanistan for as long as needed. He urged America’s military allies to provide more troops and military equipment to fight three threats: the illegal drug trade, private armies and terrorists. Afghan President Hamid Karzai thanked other countries at the conference for their continued support. He said his country is working to become independent. Afghanistan is one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world. Reports say it produces just five-percent of all the money collected by the Afghan government. Afghan officials have said that almost twenty-eight-thousand-million dollars is needed during the next seven years for rebuilding and development. However, studies show that poor security and a lack of foreign aid have slowed rebuilding efforts. Private armies and rebel groups control about one-third of Afghanistan. Most of them are in an area along the border with Pakistan. Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium from poppy plants. Opium is used to produce the illegal drug heroin. President Karzai described Afghanistan’s battle against illegal drugs as a long-term struggle. He said other legal forms of economic activity must replace the drug trade. This week, Afghanistan and six other countries agreed to cooperate in the fight against illegal drugs. The other six are China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Conference delegates also discussed security concerns in the months before planned Afghan elections. Officials agreed to send five more military rebuilding teams to improve security. The elections are expected in September. They will be the first democratic elections ever held in Afghanistan. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Walt Whitman
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 4, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: April 4, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Walt Whitman, one of America’s greatest poets. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In the Nineteenth Century, one of America's greatest writers, Walt Whitman, helped people learn to value poetry. Whitman created a new kind of poetry. Walt Whitman was born in Eighteen-Nineteen in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated the common people. VOICE TWO: As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter. He was thirty-six years old when he published his first book of poetry in Eighteen-Fifty-Five. He called it "Leaves of Grass." It had only twelve poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short. Some lines are long. The words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme. Here are some lines from the famous poem “Song of Myself” from "Leaves of Grass.” Whitman writes about grass as a sign of everlasting life. VOICE THREE: A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose? …And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves, Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men… …It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps. VOICE ONE: One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of "Leaves of Grass." Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman's work. But most other poets and writers said nothing or denounced it. Most readers also rejected Whitman’s poems. The new form of his poetry surprised many people. His praise of the human body and sexual love shocked many people. Whitman was homosexual. He loved men. Some people disliked Whitman’s opinions of society. He rejected the desire for money and power. Even his own brother told Whitman that he should stop writing poetry. But Whitman had many things to say. And he continued to say them. Readers began to understand that America had a great new poetic voice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. The southern states had withdrawn from the United States. They wanted to protect their rights against the central government. They especially wanted to continue owning black slaves. The northern states fought the South to save the Union and free the slaves. Walt Whitman hated slavery because he believed all people are equal. He supported the northern cause. During the war, Whitman worked for the government in Washington, D.C. He also worked without pay at army hospitals. He helped care for wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours. He brought them food. He wrote letters for them. Whitman sometimes saw President Abraham Lincoln riding his horse in Washington. President Lincoln was murdered soon after the Civil War ended. Whitman honored him with a poem called "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed." The poem describes Lincoln as a great spirit and a fallen star. This is how the poem begins: VOICE THREE: When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed, And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night, I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I love. O powerful western fallen star! VOICE ONE: After the Civil War, Whitman worked for government agencies. He watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy. To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was the natural form of government for free people. Whitman believed democracy is meant to honor the rights of every person and the equality of all people. Whitman denounced people who believed they were better than others in the eyes of God. He expressed these ideas in his poem "Song of Myself." VOICE THREE: I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Walt Whitman’s poems praise the United States and its democracy. The poet expressed his love for America and its people in many ways. This poem is called “I Hear America Singing.” It celebrates the many different kinds of workers doing their jobs to help their country. VOICE THREE: I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing— Each singing what belongs to him or her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Experts today praise "Leaves of Grass" as a major literary work. In his time, Whitman thought of it as a work in progress. He re-published the book every few years for the rest of his life. Each time he added new poems. And he changed many of the old lines. The last version of the book contained more than four-hundred poems. By then, Whitman's fame had spread to many nations. In Eighteen-Seventy-Three, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He wrote more poems. He also wrote about political and democratic policies. Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He died in Eighteen-Ninety-Two. But if we can believe his poetry, death held no terrors for him. Listen to these lines from "Song of Myself": VOICE THREE: And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me… And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me… And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths. (No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before)… Do you see O my brothers and sisters? It is not chaos or death -- it is form, union, plan -- it is eternal life -- it is Happiness… I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun… I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless… Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you. VOICE TWO: Some critics say Walt Whitman was a spokesman for democracy. Others say he was not a spokesman for anything. Instead, they simply call him a great poet. We leave you now with more words from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman. VOICE THREE: I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, I am the poet of the woman the same as the man. (PAUSE)I celebrate myself. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Jerilyn Watson wrote this program. Lawan Davis produced it. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. Steve Ember read the poetry. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Walt Whitman, one of America’s greatest poets. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In the Nineteenth Century, one of America's greatest writers, Walt Whitman, helped people learn to value poetry. Whitman created a new kind of poetry. Walt Whitman was born in Eighteen-Nineteen in New York City. During his long life, he watched America grow from a young nation to the strongest industrial power in the world. Whitman was influenced by events around him. But his poetry speaks of the inner self. He celebrated great people like President Abraham Lincoln. He also celebrated the common people. VOICE TWO: As a young man, Whitman worked as a school teacher, a printer and a newspaper reporter. He was thirty-six years old when he published his first book of poetry in Eighteen-Fifty-Five. He called it "Leaves of Grass." It had only twelve poems. The poems are written in free verse. The lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short. Some lines are long. The words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme. Here are some lines from the famous poem “Song of Myself” from "Leaves of Grass.” Whitman writes about grass as a sign of everlasting life. VOICE THREE: A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more than he. I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped, Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose? …And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves, Tenderly will I use you curling grass, It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men… …It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps. VOICE ONE: One of America's greatest thinkers and writers immediately recognized the importance of "Leaves of Grass." Ralph Waldo Emerson praised Whitman's work. But most other poets and writers said nothing or denounced it. Most readers also rejected Whitman’s poems. The new form of his poetry surprised many people. His praise of the human body and sexual love shocked many people. Whitman was homosexual. He loved men. Some people disliked Whitman’s opinions of society. He rejected the desire for money and power. Even his own brother told Whitman that he should stop writing poetry. But Whitman had many things to say. And he continued to say them. Readers began to understand that America had a great new poetic voice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. The southern states had withdrawn from the United States. They wanted to protect their rights against the central government. They especially wanted to continue owning black slaves. The northern states fought the South to save the Union and free the slaves. Walt Whitman hated slavery because he believed all people are equal. He supported the northern cause. During the war, Whitman worked for the government in Washington, D.C. He also worked without pay at army hospitals. He helped care for wounded and dying soldiers. He sat beside these men for hours. He brought them food. He wrote letters for them. Whitman sometimes saw President Abraham Lincoln riding his horse in Washington. President Lincoln was murdered soon after the Civil War ended. Whitman honored him with a poem called "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed." The poem describes Lincoln as a great spirit and a fallen star. This is how the poem begins: VOICE THREE: When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed, And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night, I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I love. O powerful western fallen star! VOICE ONE: After the Civil War, Whitman worked for government agencies. He watched the United States try to heal itself and increase democracy. To Walt Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was the natural form of government for free people. Whitman believed democracy is meant to honor the rights of every person and the equality of all people. Whitman denounced people who believed they were better than others in the eyes of God. He expressed these ideas in his poem "Song of Myself." VOICE THREE: I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Walt Whitman’s poems praise the United States and its democracy. The poet expressed his love for America and its people in many ways. This poem is called “I Hear America Singing.” It celebrates the many different kinds of workers doing their jobs to help their country. VOICE THREE: I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics—each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat—the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck; The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench—the hatter singing as he stands; The wood-cutter’s song—the ploughboy’s, on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission, or at sundown; The delicious singing of the mother—or of the young wife at work—or of the girl sewing or washing— Each singing what belongs to him or her, and to none else; The day what belongs to the day—at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing, with open mouths, their strong melodious songs. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Experts today praise "Leaves of Grass" as a major literary work. In his time, Whitman thought of it as a work in progress. He re-published the book every few years for the rest of his life. Each time he added new poems. And he changed many of the old lines. The last version of the book contained more than four-hundred poems. By then, Whitman's fame had spread to many nations. In Eighteen-Seventy-Three, Walt Whitman suffered a stroke. He spent the last years of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He wrote more poems. He also wrote about political and democratic policies. Whitman was poor and weak during the last years of his life. He died in Eighteen-Ninety-Two. But if we can believe his poetry, death held no terrors for him. Listen to these lines from "Song of Myself": VOICE THREE: And as to you Death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me… And as to you Corpse I think you are good manure, but that does not offend me… And as to you Life I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths. (No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before)… Do you see O my brothers and sisters? It is not chaos or death -- it is form, union, plan -- it is eternal life -- it is Happiness… I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun… I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless… Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you. VOICE TWO: Some critics say Walt Whitman was a spokesman for democracy. Others say he was not a spokesman for anything. Instead, they simply call him a great poet. We leave you now with more words from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman. VOICE THREE: I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul, I am the poet of the woman the same as the man. (PAUSE)I celebrate myself. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Jerilyn Watson wrote this program. Lawan Davis produced it. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. Steve Ember read the poetry. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Rock and Roll History, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 5, 2004 (MUSIC) Jimi Hendrix Broadcast: April 5, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rock music has influenced American culture for fifty years. I'm Ray Freeman with Rich Kleinfeldt. Today, we continue the story of rock and roll on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Michael Jackson VOICE ONE: Rock music has influenced American culture for fifty years. I'm Ray Freeman with Rich Kleinfeldt. Today, we continue the story of rock and roll on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rock and roll music developed in the United States in the early nineteen-fifties. It was based on the music called rhythm and blues that was performed by African American musicians. Early rock and roll singers developed their own kinds of music. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan were the most popular rock and roll musicians in the early nineteen-sixties. All were American. Then, in nineteen-sixty-four, a new rock and roll group from England invaded America: the Beatles. VOICE TWO: Some people say the Beatles' music shook America like an earthquake. The Beatles changed rock and roll forever. Their early songs were influenced by American rock and roll musicians, including Chuck Berry. But the Beatles looked different and sounded different from any musical group before them. VOICE ONE: The Beatles released their first album in the United States in nineteen-sixty-four. That year, all of the top five records in America were by the Beatles. In nineteen-sixty-seven, they released an album called "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It was one of the first "concept" albums. That is, all the songs were linked by a common story or idea. Here is the title song from that album. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The popularity of the Beatles led the way for more rock and roll bands from England to become popular in America. The Rolling Stones was the most important of these bands. The Rolling Stones is one of the few groups from the nineteen-sixties that is still performing and recording today. In nineteen-sixty-five, the group recorded one of its most famous songs, "Satisfaction." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The musical instrument most linked to rock and roll is the guitar. Experts say Jimi Hendrix was one of the most influential guitar players in rock and roll during the late nineteen-sixties. He made electric guitar music more expressive by creating new sounds on the instrument. Here is Jimi Hendrix playing "Purple Haze." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the nineteen-seventies, rock and roll music became known as rock music. It expanded into many new forms. For example, there was country rock, hard rock, acid rock, and heavy metal rock. Punk rock, jazz rock, and glitter rock. Rock music became a bigger business than ever. It was the most popular music in America's music industry. VOICE ONE: In the middle nineteen-seventies, experts say rock music regained some of the energy of early rock and roll. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band became popular with their album "Born to Run." Springsteen's music was like the lively rock and roll music of the early nineteen-sixties. Many of his songs were about social issues. He sang about the effects of unemployment and the war in Vietnam. Here, he sings "Born to Run." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new kind of music, called rap music, became popular in the nineteen-eighties. It developed from the culture of young African Americans in big cities. Rap songs are spoken over the sounds of electronic rhythms. Rap artists express the concerns of young African Americans in their songs. However, some people have denounced rap music that is about sex and violence. VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-eighties, many rock performers began to show their music in short films called music videos. These videos may include music, acting, dancing, and unusual special effects. A new music network began showing these programs on cable television in America in nineteen-eighty-one. It was called the Music Television Network, or MTV. It showed rock music videos all day and all night. VOICE TWO: Singer and dancer Michael Jackson made several very successful music videos. In nineteen-eighty-two, MTV began showing music videos from his album "Thriller." These included the video for his song "Beat It." The videos helped make "Thriller" the biggest-selling album in popular music history. And Michael Jackson became one of the most popular performers in the history of rock music. Here is his song "Beat It." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-nineties, a new sound known as "grunge" became popular. Grunge bands were influenced by the hard rock, punk and heavy metal bands of the nineteen-seventies. Bands like Nirvana with Kurt Cobain came out of Seattle, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. Here is one of Nirvana’s major hits, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” (MUSIC) Today there are new sounds, but much of rock music is still played by males for males. Women have worked hard for success in this industry. In two-thousand-one, Time magazine declared the group Sleater-Kinney “America’s Best Rock Band.” Yet radio stations rarely play their music. Sleater-Kinney is an all-female band that formed in nineteen-ninety-four. Here is Sleater-Kinney with the song “Oh.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rock and roll changed a lot in its first fifty years. Yet rock is still just as difficult to define. It continues to reinvent itself, and the appeal now reaches far beyond America. Today, rock is often called the music of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver and Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman with Rich Kleinfeldt. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) Rock and roll music developed in the United States in the early nineteen-fifties. It was based on the music called rhythm and blues that was performed by African American musicians. Early rock and roll singers developed their own kinds of music. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan were the most popular rock and roll musicians in the early nineteen-sixties. All were American. Then, in nineteen-sixty-four, a new rock and roll group from England invaded America: the Beatles. VOICE TWO: Some people say the Beatles' music shook America like an earthquake. The Beatles changed rock and roll forever. Their early songs were influenced by American rock and roll musicians, including Chuck Berry. But the Beatles looked different and sounded different from any musical group before them. VOICE ONE: The Beatles released their first album in the United States in nineteen-sixty-four. That year, all of the top five records in America were by the Beatles. In nineteen-sixty-seven, they released an album called "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It was one of the first "concept" albums. That is, all the songs were linked by a common story or idea. Here is the title song from that album. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The popularity of the Beatles led the way for more rock and roll bands from England to become popular in America. The Rolling Stones was the most important of these bands. The Rolling Stones is one of the few groups from the nineteen-sixties that is still performing and recording today. In nineteen-sixty-five, the group recorded one of its most famous songs, "Satisfaction." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The musical instrument most linked to rock and roll is the guitar. Experts say Jimi Hendrix was one of the most influential guitar players in rock and roll during the late nineteen-sixties. He made electric guitar music more expressive by creating new sounds on the instrument. Here is Jimi Hendrix playing "Purple Haze." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the nineteen-seventies, rock and roll music became known as rock music. It expanded into many new forms. For example, there was country rock, hard rock, acid rock, and heavy metal rock. Punk rock, jazz rock, and glitter rock. Rock music became a bigger business than ever. It was the most popular music in America's music industry. VOICE ONE: In the middle nineteen-seventies, experts say rock music regained some of the energy of early rock and roll. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band became popular with their album "Born to Run." Springsteen's music was like the lively rock and roll music of the early nineteen-sixties. Many of his songs were about social issues. He sang about the effects of unemployment and the war in Vietnam. Here, he sings "Born to Run." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new kind of music, called rap music, became popular in the nineteen-eighties. It developed from the culture of young African Americans in big cities. Rap songs are spoken over the sounds of electronic rhythms. Rap artists express the concerns of young African Americans in their songs. However, some people have denounced rap music that is about sex and violence. VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-eighties, many rock performers began to show their music in short films called music videos. These videos may include music, acting, dancing, and unusual special effects. A new music network began showing these programs on cable television in America in nineteen-eighty-one. It was called the Music Television Network, or MTV. It showed rock music videos all day and all night. VOICE TWO: Singer and dancer Michael Jackson made several very successful music videos. In nineteen-eighty-two, MTV began showing music videos from his album "Thriller." These included the video for his song "Beat It." The videos helped make "Thriller" the biggest-selling album in popular music history. And Michael Jackson became one of the most popular performers in the history of rock music. Here is his song "Beat It." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-nineties, a new sound known as "grunge" became popular. Grunge bands were influenced by the hard rock, punk and heavy metal bands of the nineteen-seventies. Bands like Nirvana with Kurt Cobain came out of Seattle, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. Here is one of Nirvana’s major hits, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” (MUSIC) Today there are new sounds, but much of rock music is still played by males for males. Women have worked hard for success in this industry. In two-thousand-one, Time magazine declared the group Sleater-Kinney “America’s Best Rock Band.” Yet radio stations rarely play their music. Sleater-Kinney is an all-female band that formed in nineteen-ninety-four. Here is Sleater-Kinney with the song “Oh.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rock and roll changed a lot in its first fifty years. Yet rock is still just as difficult to define. It continues to reinvent itself, and the appeal now reaches far beyond America. Today, rock is often called the music of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver and Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman with Rich Kleinfeldt. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Malaria Vaccine
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 5, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Malaria is a very serious disease that kills more children under the age of five than any other disease. People get malaria when they are bitten by tiny insects called mosquitoes. The mosquitoes carry parasites which enter a person’s blood and cause malaria. Carter Dibbs is an American doctor who works on the Malaria Vaccine Development Program for the United States Agency for International Development. Doctor Dibbs says the parasite that causes malaria is much more complex than other organisms, such as the virus that causes polio. He says the malaria parasite uses many tricks so that it is more difficult to make a vaccine that is safe and will prevent the disease. Malaria vaccines are now being tested on adults in Burkina Faso and Mali. Vaccines are being tested on children in Mozambique and Mali. Many organizations are involved in the testing. They include U.S.A.I.D, the American military, American health organizations, and European governments. To make sure that a vaccine will really prevent malaria, it must be tested on many people in many different places. Doctor Dibbs says the people who join the vaccine tests are as important to the goal of finding the right medicine as the scientists. People are told about the tests during public meetings with community leaders. Doctor Dibbs says people should ask questions about good or bad things that could happen to their bodies if they take the medicine that is being tested. Adults or parents of children must agree to the vaccine test. Adults receive a small amount of the vaccine medicine. The children receive either the malaria vaccine or a different medicine that protects them against a different disease. Then health care workers observe the people to see if they show any signs of malaria. The results of the tests must be compared to people who have not received the vaccine. The vaccine is successful if fifty percent of the people who receive it do not show any signs of malaria for one year. Then the United States government will be asked to approve the vaccine. However, it could still take another five years before a licensed vaccine is ready to give to all the children in Africa and around the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: April 5, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Malaria is a very serious disease that kills more children under the age of five than any other disease. People get malaria when they are bitten by tiny insects called mosquitoes. The mosquitoes carry parasites which enter a person’s blood and cause malaria. Carter Dibbs is an American doctor who works on the Malaria Vaccine Development Program for the United States Agency for International Development. Doctor Dibbs says the parasite that causes malaria is much more complex than other organisms, such as the virus that causes polio. He says the malaria parasite uses many tricks so that it is more difficult to make a vaccine that is safe and will prevent the disease. Malaria vaccines are now being tested on adults in Burkina Faso and Mali. Vaccines are being tested on children in Mozambique and Mali. Many organizations are involved in the testing. They include U.S.A.I.D, the American military, American health organizations, and European governments. To make sure that a vaccine will really prevent malaria, it must be tested on many people in many different places. Doctor Dibbs says the people who join the vaccine tests are as important to the goal of finding the right medicine as the scientists. People are told about the tests during public meetings with community leaders. Doctor Dibbs says people should ask questions about good or bad things that could happen to their bodies if they take the medicine that is being tested. Adults or parents of children must agree to the vaccine test. Adults receive a small amount of the vaccine medicine. The children receive either the malaria vaccine or a different medicine that protects them against a different disease. Then health care workers observe the people to see if they show any signs of malaria. The results of the tests must be compared to people who have not received the vaccine. The vaccine is successful if fifty percent of the people who receive it do not show any signs of malaria for one year. Then the United States government will be asked to approve the vaccine. However, it could still take another five years before a licensed vaccine is ready to give to all the children in Africa and around the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Diabetes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 6, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: April 6, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease diabetes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization estimates that as many as one-hundred-twenty-million people have the disease diabetes. Diabetes is the name for several diseases with one thing in common: there is too much glucose, or sugar, in the blood. The disease develops when the body does not produce enough insulin or produces no insulin. Or the disease develops when the body cannot use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is necessary to change sugar, carbohydrates and other food into energy. In healthy people, the body changes food into a sugar, called glucose. Glucose is the source of fuel for the body. When food is changed into glucose, it enters the bloodstream and is taken to all parts of the body to feed muscles, organs, and tissue. VOICE TWO: When the body senses that there is too much glucose in the blood, it sends a signal to the pancreas. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. The pancreas sends insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin lowers the level of blood sugar by letting it enter cells. Insulin helps muscles, organs and tissues take glucose and change it into energy. That is how the body operates normally, in most people. Diabetes is present when too much glucose remains in the bloodstream and does not enter cells. If the amount of glucose in the blood remains too high, the body begins showing signs of diabetes. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage. High glucose levels in the blood also can lead to strokes and heart disease. Blood circulation also is affected, especially in the legs. Often, victims of diabetes must have a foot or even a leg removed because of blood circulation problems linked to the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are two main kinds of diabetes, Type One and Type Two. Between five and ten percent of those suffering from diabetes have Type One. It usually begins before the age of thirty in people who are thin. It is most commonly found in children under the age of sixteen. It is caused by the body’s defense system. The bodies of Type One diabetes victims produce a substance that attacks and kills some cells in the pancreas, blocking the production of insulin. These cells are called islet cells. Scientists are not sure why this happens. They believe there may be a number of causes. They include viruses, the presence of insect-killing pesticides in the environment or molecules known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced as part of normal chemical processes in the body. In people with diabetes, too many of these free radicals are present in the body. Scientists are not sure which of these causes is the most important to the development of Type One Diabetes. VOICE TWO: People suffering from Type One diabetes must carefully control their diets. And they must exercise often. People with this kind of diabetes almost always require insulin injections. Patients must always know their blood sugar levels. When the level of glucose in the blood is too high, they must inject insulin into their bodies to reduce the amount of glucose. The patients must inject insulin every day, often several times a day. In most developed countries, insulin is easy to get and does not cost much money. However, doctors believe that these injections can cause long-term problems. They believe that the injections cause levels of glucose to change often. Scientists believe that many quick changes in glucose levels can, over time, result in damage to the body. This damage can be blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, or poor blood flow in the body. VOICE ONE: Type One Diabetes also is known as juvenile onset diabetes, because it usually starts in children or young people. Scientists believe it is the form of the disease that they will most likely be able to cure some day. Among the treatments being studied is a vaccine to prevent the disease. A vaccine is injected into the body or taken by mouth in the form of a pill. Another possible treatment for Type One Diabetes is placing new islet cells into the pancreas to help it make insulin. Doctors have been transplanting islet cells into diabetes patients for several years. However, these healthy islet cells have failed to permanently replace the need for insulin injections. Scientists also are studying special cells called stem cells to treat the disease. Stem cells develop into all the different kinds of cells in the body. Scientists believe that stem cells from unborn babies could be used to treat diabetes and other diseases. However, it would be a long time before such treatment is possible. VOICE TWO: While some scientists continue to seek ways to cure Type One Diabetes, others are searching for easier ways to get insulin into the body. New devices are being developed that could replace injections. One device being tested is an inhaler. This device would permit patients to breathe insulin into their bodies. The insulin is in the form of a powder, like dust. When the insulin reaches the lungs, it quickly moves into the bloodstream to reduce glucose levels. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Type Two Diabetes generally is found in people more than forty years old. Most of these people are too fat. Their bodies can not produce enough insulin to reduce the levels of glucose in their blood. Or, their bodies do not react correctly to the action of insulin. Type Two Diabetes is more complex than Type One. Experts say Type Two Diabetes is really a group of diseases, with many possible causes. Scientists see little hope in developing a cure for this kind of diabetes. Instead, they are searching for better ways to control it. Many people suffering from the disease can control it with exercise and by carefully controlling their diet. Also, many of them do not need to inject insulin into their bodies. Type Two Diabetes is sometimes called non-insulin dependent. Still, patients often need drugs to treat the disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of drugs that can be used. However, many of them can cause other problems. One of the drugs is called sulfonylurea. It has been used for many years to help the pancreas make more insulin. But after several years, the drug loses its effects on the pancreas. Also, it can cause patients to gain weight. The drug metformin appears to be more effective. It lowers the amounts of glucose in the blood. It does this by helping the body make better use of its own natural insulin. It does not cause weight gain. However, metformin can be dangerous for people with damaged kidneys. It should not be used by people who drink large amounts of alcohol, or those with kidney, liver or heart problems. VOICE ONE: Genes seem to be more important in the development of Type Two Diabetes than in Type One. About ninety percent of those with Type Two Diabetes have parents and ancestors who also had the disease. In recent years, scientists have found several genes that may be linked to Type Two Diabetes. Some of these genes also are linked to extreme overweight, known as obesity. About eighty to ninety percent of people with Type Two Diabetes are obese. Often doctors do not discover that patients have diabetes until one of the disease’s serious results is found. For example, a doctor examines a patient suffering several health problems. The doctor carries out tests and finds the problems are the results of poor kidney performance. Tests then show the patient is suffering from diabetes, which can cause kidney problems and even failure. VOICE TWO: Although great progress has been made in the treatment of diabetes, it is still widespread and threatens the health of millions of people. Scientists hope that their research will lead to a cure for Type One Diabetes. And they hope they can find new ways to improve treatment of Type Two Diabetes. In future programs we will discuss new developments in diabetes research as they are reported. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease diabetes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization estimates that as many as one-hundred-twenty-million people have the disease diabetes. Diabetes is the name for several diseases with one thing in common: there is too much glucose, or sugar, in the blood. The disease develops when the body does not produce enough insulin or produces no insulin. Or the disease develops when the body cannot use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is necessary to change sugar, carbohydrates and other food into energy. In healthy people, the body changes food into a sugar, called glucose. Glucose is the source of fuel for the body. When food is changed into glucose, it enters the bloodstream and is taken to all parts of the body to feed muscles, organs, and tissue. VOICE TWO: When the body senses that there is too much glucose in the blood, it sends a signal to the pancreas. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. The pancreas sends insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin lowers the level of blood sugar by letting it enter cells. Insulin helps muscles, organs and tissues take glucose and change it into energy. That is how the body operates normally, in most people. Diabetes is present when too much glucose remains in the bloodstream and does not enter cells. If the amount of glucose in the blood remains too high, the body begins showing signs of diabetes. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage. High glucose levels in the blood also can lead to strokes and heart disease. Blood circulation also is affected, especially in the legs. Often, victims of diabetes must have a foot or even a leg removed because of blood circulation problems linked to the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are two main kinds of diabetes, Type One and Type Two. Between five and ten percent of those suffering from diabetes have Type One. It usually begins before the age of thirty in people who are thin. It is most commonly found in children under the age of sixteen. It is caused by the body’s defense system. The bodies of Type One diabetes victims produce a substance that attacks and kills some cells in the pancreas, blocking the production of insulin. These cells are called islet cells. Scientists are not sure why this happens. They believe there may be a number of causes. They include viruses, the presence of insect-killing pesticides in the environment or molecules known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced as part of normal chemical processes in the body. In people with diabetes, too many of these free radicals are present in the body. Scientists are not sure which of these causes is the most important to the development of Type One Diabetes. VOICE TWO: People suffering from Type One diabetes must carefully control their diets. And they must exercise often. People with this kind of diabetes almost always require insulin injections. Patients must always know their blood sugar levels. When the level of glucose in the blood is too high, they must inject insulin into their bodies to reduce the amount of glucose. The patients must inject insulin every day, often several times a day. In most developed countries, insulin is easy to get and does not cost much money. However, doctors believe that these injections can cause long-term problems. They believe that the injections cause levels of glucose to change often. Scientists believe that many quick changes in glucose levels can, over time, result in damage to the body. This damage can be blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, or poor blood flow in the body. VOICE ONE: Type One Diabetes also is known as juvenile onset diabetes, because it usually starts in children or young people. Scientists believe it is the form of the disease that they will most likely be able to cure some day. Among the treatments being studied is a vaccine to prevent the disease. A vaccine is injected into the body or taken by mouth in the form of a pill. Another possible treatment for Type One Diabetes is placing new islet cells into the pancreas to help it make insulin. Doctors have been transplanting islet cells into diabetes patients for several years. However, these healthy islet cells have failed to permanently replace the need for insulin injections. Scientists also are studying special cells called stem cells to treat the disease. Stem cells develop into all the different kinds of cells in the body. Scientists believe that stem cells from unborn babies could be used to treat diabetes and other diseases. However, it would be a long time before such treatment is possible. VOICE TWO: While some scientists continue to seek ways to cure Type One Diabetes, others are searching for easier ways to get insulin into the body. New devices are being developed that could replace injections. One device being tested is an inhaler. This device would permit patients to breathe insulin into their bodies. The insulin is in the form of a powder, like dust. When the insulin reaches the lungs, it quickly moves into the bloodstream to reduce glucose levels. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Type Two Diabetes generally is found in people more than forty years old. Most of these people are too fat. Their bodies can not produce enough insulin to reduce the levels of glucose in their blood. Or, their bodies do not react correctly to the action of insulin. Type Two Diabetes is more complex than Type One. Experts say Type Two Diabetes is really a group of diseases, with many possible causes. Scientists see little hope in developing a cure for this kind of diabetes. Instead, they are searching for better ways to control it. Many people suffering from the disease can control it with exercise and by carefully controlling their diet. Also, many of them do not need to inject insulin into their bodies. Type Two Diabetes is sometimes called non-insulin dependent. Still, patients often need drugs to treat the disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of drugs that can be used. However, many of them can cause other problems. One of the drugs is called sulfonylurea. It has been used for many years to help the pancreas make more insulin. But after several years, the drug loses its effects on the pancreas. Also, it can cause patients to gain weight. The drug metformin appears to be more effective. It lowers the amounts of glucose in the blood. It does this by helping the body make better use of its own natural insulin. It does not cause weight gain. However, metformin can be dangerous for people with damaged kidneys. It should not be used by people who drink large amounts of alcohol, or those with kidney, liver or heart problems. VOICE ONE: Genes seem to be more important in the development of Type Two Diabetes than in Type One. About ninety percent of those with Type Two Diabetes have parents and ancestors who also had the disease. In recent years, scientists have found several genes that may be linked to Type Two Diabetes. Some of these genes also are linked to extreme overweight, known as obesity. About eighty to ninety percent of people with Type Two Diabetes are obese. Often doctors do not discover that patients have diabetes until one of the disease’s serious results is found. For example, a doctor examines a patient suffering several health problems. The doctor carries out tests and finds the problems are the results of poor kidney performance. Tests then show the patient is suffering from diabetes, which can cause kidney problems and even failure. VOICE TWO: Although great progress has been made in the treatment of diabetes, it is still widespread and threatens the health of millions of people. Scientists hope that their research will lead to a cure for Type One Diabetes. And they hope they can find new ways to improve treatment of Type Two Diabetes. In future programs we will discuss new developments in diabetes research as they are reported. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - World Food Prize Winners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists from China and Sierra Leone are the winners of this year’s World Food Prize. The winners were announced at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. led by Secretary of State Colin Powell last Monday. Chinese Professor Yuan Longping and Monty Jones will share the two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar prize. Both men are being honored for work they did to improve rice production in developing countries. Two-thousand-four is the International Year of Rice. Professor Yuan is head of the National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Hunan, China. He received his share of the prize for work he did in the nineteen-seventies. Mister Yuan developed ways to genetically combine different kinds of rice to increase production. He discovered that combining two kinds of rice results in a better, more productive new rice. He established the hybrid rice seed industry in China. He also shared research and helped train scientists from more than twenty-five countries. For his efforts, Mister Yuan is called the “Father of Hybrid Rice.” Monty Jones is being honored for his part in developing the “New Rice for Africa” or NERICA. He developed NERICA while he was head of the Upland Rice Breeding Program. At the time, the program was part of the West Africa Rice Development Agency in Ivory Coast. NERICA is a combination of Asian and traditional African kinds of rice. It resists insects and dry conditions and can produce up to fifty percent more rice. It also grows faster and contains more protein than rice native to West Africa. Mister Jones is now a top official of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa in Accra, Ghana. The two scientists will officially receive their prize on October fourteenth in Des Moines, Iowa. Norman Borlaug first developed the idea of a world food prize. He wanted to honor people who increased food production to help feed the growing world population. Mister Borlaug knows something about major prizes. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-seventy. He received the award for his work to develop more productive agriculture. Iowa businessman John Ruan provides the money for the World Food Prize. He began his support in nineteen-ninety. The World Food Prize Foundation has given the prize every year since nineteen-eighty-seven. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: April 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists from China and Sierra Leone are the winners of this year’s World Food Prize. The winners were announced at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. led by Secretary of State Colin Powell last Monday. Chinese Professor Yuan Longping and Monty Jones will share the two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar prize. Both men are being honored for work they did to improve rice production in developing countries. Two-thousand-four is the International Year of Rice. Professor Yuan is head of the National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center in Hunan, China. He received his share of the prize for work he did in the nineteen-seventies. Mister Yuan developed ways to genetically combine different kinds of rice to increase production. He discovered that combining two kinds of rice results in a better, more productive new rice. He established the hybrid rice seed industry in China. He also shared research and helped train scientists from more than twenty-five countries. For his efforts, Mister Yuan is called the “Father of Hybrid Rice.” Monty Jones is being honored for his part in developing the “New Rice for Africa” or NERICA. He developed NERICA while he was head of the Upland Rice Breeding Program. At the time, the program was part of the West Africa Rice Development Agency in Ivory Coast. NERICA is a combination of Asian and traditional African kinds of rice. It resists insects and dry conditions and can produce up to fifty percent more rice. It also grows faster and contains more protein than rice native to West Africa. Mister Jones is now a top official of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa in Accra, Ghana. The two scientists will officially receive their prize on October fourteenth in Des Moines, Iowa. Norman Borlaug first developed the idea of a world food prize. He wanted to honor people who increased food production to help feed the growing world population. Mister Borlaug knows something about major prizes. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-seventy. He received the award for his work to develop more productive agriculture. Iowa businessman John Ruan provides the money for the World Food Prize. He began his support in nineteen-ninety. The World Food Prize Foundation has given the prize every year since nineteen-eighty-seven. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  Colorado National Monument
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 7, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: April 7, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Come with us today as we visit a National Park in the western state of Colorado. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Come with us today as we visit a National Park in the western state of Colorado. We also tell about one man who made sure the beautiful natural area would be protected for all time. He did this by working to make it part of the National Park System. Today we visit the Colorado National Monument. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Colorado National Monument is not as famous as some other National Parks. It does not get as many visitors as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite or the Yellowstone National Parks. However the Colorado Monument has a strange and exciting beauty all its own. It is similar to a great painting drawn by nature on to living rock. Minerals in the area helped nature create a painting that is black, light brown, dark brown and many different colors of red. Often the colors seem to change as clouds block the sun. At other times the sun makes the many different colors seem to burn brightly. VOICE TWO: We also tell about one man who made sure the beautiful natural area would be protected for all time. He did this by working to make it part of the National Park System. Today we visit the Colorado National Monument. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Colorado National Monument is not as famous as some other National Parks. It does not get as many visitors as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite or the Yellowstone National Parks. However the Colorado Monument has a strange and exciting beauty all its own. It is similar to a great painting drawn by nature on to living rock. Minerals in the area helped nature create a painting that is black, light brown, dark brown and many different colors of red. Often the colors seem to change as clouds block the sun. At other times the sun makes the many different colors seem to burn brightly. VOICE TWO: The Colorado National Monument is an area of great extremes. The ground rises very sharply from the surrounding flat desert area. The mountains here are part of the western Rocky Mountains. It is an area of huge rock formations created during more than one-thousand-million years. Volcanoes, great rivers, wind, rain, ice and the birth and death of huge mountains formed this beautiful area. It is not possible to see this extremely beautiful area and not feel the power of nature. Giant mountains seem to have been cut sharply with a huge knife. Their sides are smooth and clean. Other areas of the same mountain seem to have been torn apart in some violent struggle. These areas are filled with huge piles of broken rock. Walls of rock are twisted and have huge holes pushed into their sides. There are tall finger- like rocks that reach far into the sky. Many of these tall objects look as if they will fall down any minute. Other parts of the same area seem to have long, straight lines cut into the rock. It is possible to count these lines. Each line represents a time long ago when these mountains were at the bottom of an ancient ocean. Each line was formed by dirt, mud and sand that gathered at the bottom of the ancient ocean. Then, as time passed, the bottom of this ancient ocean floor was pushed high into the air by huge pressures deep in the Earth. VOICE ONE: Scientists have found seashells high in these mountains and the fossil remains of ancient ocean creatures. Near the Colorado National Park researchers have found the huge fossil remains of ancient reptiles called dinosaurs. One fossil skeleton found early last century was the largest fossil dinosaur ever found at that time. It was huge and surprised scientists around the world. Scientists are still busy looking for remains of these creatures that died millions of years ago. However, not all of the animals found in or near the park are fossils. Because the area is desert, it is easy to believe that nothing is living here. But if you are very quiet and stay very still you can see much life in the park. Mountain lions live here. It is very difficult to see them. However, visitors sometimes see the foot marks these big cats leave in the soft sand. VOICE TWO: If you look closely, you can see small rabbits serching for food or water early in the morning. On hot days you might see deer resting in the shade of the juniper trees. The deer are protected from hunters. Often they show little fear of people. Visitors must be careful not to surprise a small reptile called the midget faded rattlesnake. The bite of this snake can be very painful and make a victim very sick. At first, the Colorado National Monument seems to be nothing more than huge and very colorful rocks shaped by nature. But if you spend a few hours walking slowly on its many paths, you soon learn that it is very much alive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The forces of nature created the Colorado National Monument. But a man named John Otto was responsible for making sure this beautiful area became part of the United States National Park System. John Otto recognized the great natural beauty of this place and wanted it to be protected. John Otto was an unusual man. He lived alone much of the time in what later became the park. He did not build a house. He moved from place to place and lived in a temporary cloth home. In a letter written in nineteen-oh-seven, Mister Otto told a friend the area made him feel like it was the heart of the world. He told his friend he was going to stay and build paths and work to inform people about this beautiful work of nature. Some people thought he was insane. But John Otto began his campaign to protect the area by writing letters. He acted as a guide for people who read his letters and came to see the great natural beauty for themselves. He asked everyone who visited for their support in his campaign to have the federal government protect the area. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-eleven, President William Taft signed the documents making the area a national monument. It would forever be part of the National Park System and protected by the government. President Taft also appointed Mister Otto as the new park’s first top official. John Otto was only paid one dollar a year for this work. He was not expected to really work at the park, just deal with administrative duties, which were few. However, John Otto did work in the park. By nineteen-twenty-one he had finished building one of the first major paths. This made it much easier for people to visit the area. He built it using simple tools and without much help. It is called the Trail of the Serpent. He was also very careful to build the trail without damaging any of the area’s natural beauty. It was one of the first roads into the park that could be used by an automobile. VOICE ONE: High up in the Colorado National Monument is a steel sign that honors John Otto. It has been placed into the wall of a rock formation that John Otto loved. The marker says: “In recognition of John Otto, trail builder, promoter, and first custodian of Colorado National Monument, established May twenty-fourth, nineteen-eleven.” John Otto would have liked that. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Colorado National Monument is almost eight-thousand-three-hundred hectares. It is near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado, not far from the state border with Utah. The area is known for its mountains and the beauty of the desert. It is also here that the last of the Rocky Mountains begin to drop away to flat land. Although the Colorado National Monument is smaller than most National Parks, about five-hundred-thousand visitors come each year. Most visitors drive on the interstate highway system. Interstate Highway Seventy is only a few kilometers from the park. When a visitor leaves the road, the path becomes much smaller and begins to rise into the mountains. Signs urge safety. Other signs urge the driver of the vehicle to slow down. VOICE ONE: The small road begins to turn left, then sharply to the right, then left again. At the same time it moves up and up many meters at a time with each turn. At first, mountains surround the road on both sides of the car. Then, without warning, the little road moves into the clear and visitors can see hundreds of meters down into the valley. For a little more than six kilometers the road twists and turns high into the park. At the top of the little road visitors reach the National Park Visitors Center. The modern building provides information about the park. It has a small store where visitors can buy gifts. The Visitors Center also includes a small museum with fossils, photographs and the story of John Otto. VOICE TWO: When visitors have collected the information or gifts they want, most continue through the building to an observation area in back of the building. Slowly they walk to the very edge of the mountain. In this great open space, the finger-like rocks seem to reach for the sky. Far below is the great natural beauty that took more than one- thousand-million years for nature to create. And, it is here they can begin to understand why John Otto loved this place so much and why he worked so hard to protect it. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. The Colorado National Monument is an area of great extremes. The ground rises very sharply from the surrounding flat desert area. The mountains here are part of the western Rocky Mountains. It is an area of huge rock formations created during more than one-thousand-million years. Volcanoes, great rivers, wind, rain, ice and the birth and death of huge mountains formed this beautiful area. It is not possible to see this extremely beautiful area and not feel the power of nature. Giant mountains seem to have been cut sharply with a huge knife. Their sides are smooth and clean. Other areas of the same mountain seem to have been torn apart in some violent struggle. These areas are filled with huge piles of broken rock. Walls of rock are twisted and have huge holes pushed into their sides. There are tall finger- like rocks that reach far into the sky. Many of these tall objects look as if they will fall down any minute. Other parts of the same area seem to have long, straight lines cut into the rock. It is possible to count these lines. Each line represents a time long ago when these mountains were at the bottom of an ancient ocean. Each line was formed by dirt, mud and sand that gathered at the bottom of the ancient ocean. Then, as time passed, the bottom of this ancient ocean floor was pushed high into the air by huge pressures deep in the Earth. VOICE ONE: Scientists have found seashells high in these mountains and the fossil remains of ancient ocean creatures. Near the Colorado National Park researchers have found the huge fossil remains of ancient reptiles called dinosaurs. One fossil skeleton found early last century was the largest fossil dinosaur ever found at that time. It was huge and surprised scientists around the world. Scientists are still busy looking for remains of these creatures that died millions of years ago. However, not all of the animals found in or near the park are fossils. Because the area is desert, it is easy to believe that nothing is living here. But if you are very quiet and stay very still you can see much life in the park. Mountain lions live here. It is very difficult to see them. However, visitors sometimes see the foot marks these big cats leave in the soft sand. VOICE TWO: If you look closely, you can see small rabbits serching for food or water early in the morning. On hot days you might see deer resting in the shade of the juniper trees. The deer are protected from hunters. Often they show little fear of people. Visitors must be careful not to surprise a small reptile called the midget faded rattlesnake. The bite of this snake can be very painful and make a victim very sick. At first, the Colorado National Monument seems to be nothing more than huge and very colorful rocks shaped by nature. But if you spend a few hours walking slowly on its many paths, you soon learn that it is very much alive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The forces of nature created the Colorado National Monument. But a man named John Otto was responsible for making sure this beautiful area became part of the United States National Park System. John Otto recognized the great natural beauty of this place and wanted it to be protected. John Otto was an unusual man. He lived alone much of the time in what later became the park. He did not build a house. He moved from place to place and lived in a temporary cloth home. In a letter written in nineteen-oh-seven, Mister Otto told a friend the area made him feel like it was the heart of the world. He told his friend he was going to stay and build paths and work to inform people about this beautiful work of nature. Some people thought he was insane. But John Otto began his campaign to protect the area by writing letters. He acted as a guide for people who read his letters and came to see the great natural beauty for themselves. He asked everyone who visited for their support in his campaign to have the federal government protect the area. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-eleven, President William Taft signed the documents making the area a national monument. It would forever be part of the National Park System and protected by the government. President Taft also appointed Mister Otto as the new park’s first top official. John Otto was only paid one dollar a year for this work. He was not expected to really work at the park, just deal with administrative duties, which were few. However, John Otto did work in the park. By nineteen-twenty-one he had finished building one of the first major paths. This made it much easier for people to visit the area. He built it using simple tools and without much help. It is called the Trail of the Serpent. He was also very careful to build the trail without damaging any of the area’s natural beauty. It was one of the first roads into the park that could be used by an automobile. VOICE ONE: High up in the Colorado National Monument is a steel sign that honors John Otto. It has been placed into the wall of a rock formation that John Otto loved. The marker says: “In recognition of John Otto, trail builder, promoter, and first custodian of Colorado National Monument, established May twenty-fourth, nineteen-eleven.” John Otto would have liked that. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Colorado National Monument is almost eight-thousand-three-hundred hectares. It is near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado, not far from the state border with Utah. The area is known for its mountains and the beauty of the desert. It is also here that the last of the Rocky Mountains begin to drop away to flat land. Although the Colorado National Monument is smaller than most National Parks, about five-hundred-thousand visitors come each year. Most visitors drive on the interstate highway system. Interstate Highway Seventy is only a few kilometers from the park. When a visitor leaves the road, the path becomes much smaller and begins to rise into the mountains. Signs urge safety. Other signs urge the driver of the vehicle to slow down. VOICE ONE: The small road begins to turn left, then sharply to the right, then left again. At the same time it moves up and up many meters at a time with each turn. At first, mountains surround the road on both sides of the car. Then, without warning, the little road moves into the clear and visitors can see hundreds of meters down into the valley. For a little more than six kilometers the road twists and turns high into the park. At the top of the little road visitors reach the National Park Visitors Center. The modern building provides information about the park. It has a small store where visitors can buy gifts. The Visitors Center also includes a small museum with fossils, photographs and the story of John Otto. VOICE TWO: When visitors have collected the information or gifts they want, most continue through the building to an observation area in back of the building. Slowly they walk to the very edge of the mountain. In this great open space, the finger-like rocks seem to reach for the sky. Far below is the great natural beauty that took more than one- thousand-million years for nature to create. And, it is here they can begin to understand why John Otto loved this place so much and why he worked so hard to protect it. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Blood Pressure Drugs May Prevent Dry Eye Syndrome
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 7, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many people around the world suffer from dry eye syndrome. Lack of tears, the natural fluid of the eye, causes this condition. Older people are most likely to develop it. Dry eye syndrome makes your eyes hurt, itch and feel tired. The condition can damage the surface of your eyes if it is not treated. The syndrome does not cause people to lose their sight. But it can make daily life unpleasant. Over the years, not much research has been done on dry eye syndrome. But a recent study shows that drugs called ACE inhibitors may prevent the disorder. Doctors usually order these drugs for people to treat high blood pressure. The research results appeared the publication Archives of Ophthalmology. Barbara Klein led the research team from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Almost two-thousand-five-hundred people took part. They were ages forty-eight to ninety-one. None had dry eye syndrome when the study began. Over five years, some took ACE inhibitors for their high blood pressure. Others in the study did not take those drugs. During the five years, three-hundred-twenty-two people developed dry eye. That was about thirteen percent of those studied. The risk of dry eye syndrome increased among older people and those with other health problems. People who suffered from diabetes were also more likely to develop the condition. So were those with allergies. They had reactions to substances including animal hair and plant pollen. People who took some kinds of medicines also were more likely to develop dry eye than other people. Dry eye developed in about nine percent of the people taking ACE inhibitor drugs. Among those not taking the drugs, almost fourteen percent got dry eye syndrome. Health experts say there are simple ways you can try to treat the condition. For example, you can open and close your eyes more often. You can rest your eyes by closing them. You can avoid air conditioning, direct wind and smoke. You can buy a humidifying device to add water to the air inside your home. This especially helps during cold weather. And you can buy fluid for eyes similar to human tears. But if none of this helps, experts say you should see your doctor for advice. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #57 - Andrew Jackson, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 8, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: April 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) General Andrew Jackson was elected president in eighteen-twenty-eight. He defeated president John Quincy Adams, after a campaign in which both sides made bitter and vicious charges. One of those charges was about Jackson's wife. The General's opponents accused him of taking her from another man. They said Andrew and Rachel were married before her divorce from her first husband. This was true. But it happened because Misses Jackson's first husband said he had divorced her when he really had not done so. Andrew and Rachel completed a second marriage -- a legal one -- when they learned of the mistake. The campaign charge deeply hurt Rachel Jackson. She was a kind and simple woman. She was proud that Andrew was elected president. But she was not happy about the life she would have to lead as wife of the president. At first, it was thought she might remain in Tennessee, instead of going to Washington. But Rachel Jackson knew her place was with her husband. She would go with him. VOICE TWO: Preparations had to be made for the move to Washington. And for weeks, the Jackson home was busy. There was little time for Misses Jackson to rest. Her health seemed to suffer. Then on December seventeenth, just a few days before the Jacksons were to leave for Washington, two doctors were rushed to the Jackson home outside Nashville. They found Rachel in great pain. She seemed to be suffering a heart attack. The doctors treated her, and for a time, she seemed to get better. After a day or so, Rachel was able to sit up and talk with friends. She seemed cheerful. Jackson was at her side much of the time. On Sunday, Rachel sat up too long and began feeling worse. But the doctors said it was not serious, and they urged General Jackson to get some rest. He was to go to Nashville the next day. After her husband went to sleep in the next room, Rachel had her servant help her to sit up again. Rachel's mind was troubled about the years ahead in Washington. "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God," she said, "than live in that palace in Washington." VOICE ONE: A few minutes after ten that night, Rachel cried out and fell from her chair. The servants' screams awakened everyone. Jackson was the first to get to Rachel. He lifted her to the bed. He watched as the doctors bent over her. Jackson read in their eyes that life had left Rachel. Jackson could not believe it. He sat next to her, his head in his hands, his fingers through his gray hair. To his friend, John Coffee, Jackson said: "John, can you realize she is dead. I certainly cannot." Rachel was buried two days later. Ten-thousand people went to the Jackson home for the funeral. The Reverend William Hume spoke simply of Rachel Jackson's life. He talked of her kindness and humility. And he told how she had been hurt by the terrible charges made during the election campaign. VOICE TWO: Jackson fought to hold back his tears. When the churchman finished speaking, those near Jackson heard him say: "In the presence of this dear saint, I can and do forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who have lied about her, must look to God for mercy." Jackson felt that Rachel's death was caused by the vicious charges made during the election campaign. He told a friend a few days later: "May God almighty forgive her murderers as I know she would forgive them. I never can." Jackson left his home January eighteenth to begin the long trip to Washington. "My Heart is nearly broken," he said. "I try to lift my spirits, but cannot." VOICE ONE: In Washington, no one knew what to expect. Senator Daniel Webster wrote a friend at Boston: "General Jackson will be here about the fifteenth of February. Nobody knows what he will do when he does come. My opinion is that when he comes, he will bring a breeze with him. Which way it will blow, I cannot tell. My fear is stronger than my hope." Crowds of Jackson's supporters began arriving in the capital. Some wanted to see their man sworn-in as president. Many wanted -- and expected -- a government job. General Jackson arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, on February twelfth. Jackson was sixty-one years old. He was a tall, thin man. His face was wrinkled. And his white hair was pushed back from his high forehead. His eyes -- usually sharp and commanding -- were filled with grief. Jackson's health had never been really good. He carried in his body two bullets from duels fought years before. But he was a tough man with a spirit strong enough to keep moving, even when seriously sick. For three weeks, the general met with his advisers and friends. He decided on the men who would form his cabinet. VOICE TWO: For the job of Secretary of State, Jackson chose Martin Van Buren of New York, a man of great political ability. He named a Pennsylvania businessman, Samuel Ingham, to be Secretary of the Treasury. John Berrien of Georgia was chosen to be Attorney General. His Navy Secretary would be John Branch, a former senator and governor of North Carolina. For War Secretary Jackson chose an old friend, Senator John Eaton of Tennessee. Three members of this cabinet -- Berrien, Branch, and Ingham -- were friends of John C. Calhoun, Jackson's Vice President. Calhoun expected to be president himself when Jackson stepped down in four or eight years. Martin Van Buren also wanted the presidency. He would do all he could to block Calhoun's ambition. VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson was sworn-in as president on March fourth, eighteen-twenty-nine. President John Quincy Adams did not go to the ceremony at the Capitol building. Jackson had said publicly he would not go near Adams. And he did not make the traditional visit to the White House while Adams was there. Jackson was still filled with bitterness over the charges made against his wife in the election campaign. He felt Adams was at least partly responsible for the charges. The sky over Washington was cloudy on the fourth of March. But the clouds parted, and the sun shone through, as Jackson began the ride to the Capitol building. His cheering supporters saw this as a good sign. So many people crowded around the Capitol that Jackson had to climb a wall and enter from the back. He walked through the building and into the open area at the front where the ceremony would be held. VOICE TWO: The ceremony itself was simple. Jackson made a speech that few in the crowd were able to hear. Then Chief Justice John Marshall swore-in the new president. In the crowd was a newspaperman from Kentucky, Amos Kendall. "It is a proud day for the people," wrote Kendall. "General Jackson is their own president." From the Capitol, Jackson rode down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Behind him followed all those who had watched him become the nation's seventh president. The crowds followed him all the way into the White House, where food and drink had been put out for a party. Everyone tried to get in at once. Clothing was torn. Glasses and dishes were broken. Chairs and tables were damaged. Never had there been a party like this at the White House. Jackson stayed for a while. But the crush of people tired him, and he was able to leave. He spent the rest of the day in his hotel room in Alexandria. The guests at the White House finally left after drinks were put on the table outside the building. Many of the people left through windows, because the doors were so crowded. VOICE ONE: Jackson was now the president of the people. And it seemed that everybody was in Washington looking for a government job. Everywhere Jackson turned, he met people who asked him for a job. They urged him to throw out those government workers who supported Adams in the election. They demanded that these jobs be given to Jackson supporters. What Jackson did about this problem will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) General Andrew Jackson was elected president in eighteen-twenty-eight. He defeated president John Quincy Adams, after a campaign in which both sides made bitter and vicious charges. One of those charges was about Jackson's wife. The General's opponents accused him of taking her from another man. They said Andrew and Rachel were married before her divorce from her first husband. This was true. But it happened because Misses Jackson's first husband said he had divorced her when he really had not done so. Andrew and Rachel completed a second marriage -- a legal one -- when they learned of the mistake. The campaign charge deeply hurt Rachel Jackson. She was a kind and simple woman. She was proud that Andrew was elected president. But she was not happy about the life she would have to lead as wife of the president. At first, it was thought she might remain in Tennessee, instead of going to Washington. But Rachel Jackson knew her place was with her husband. She would go with him. VOICE TWO: Preparations had to be made for the move to Washington. And for weeks, the Jackson home was busy. There was little time for Misses Jackson to rest. Her health seemed to suffer. Then on December seventeenth, just a few days before the Jacksons were to leave for Washington, two doctors were rushed to the Jackson home outside Nashville. They found Rachel in great pain. She seemed to be suffering a heart attack. The doctors treated her, and for a time, she seemed to get better. After a day or so, Rachel was able to sit up and talk with friends. She seemed cheerful. Jackson was at her side much of the time. On Sunday, Rachel sat up too long and began feeling worse. But the doctors said it was not serious, and they urged General Jackson to get some rest. He was to go to Nashville the next day. After her husband went to sleep in the next room, Rachel had her servant help her to sit up again. Rachel's mind was troubled about the years ahead in Washington. "I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God," she said, "than live in that palace in Washington." VOICE ONE: A few minutes after ten that night, Rachel cried out and fell from her chair. The servants' screams awakened everyone. Jackson was the first to get to Rachel. He lifted her to the bed. He watched as the doctors bent over her. Jackson read in their eyes that life had left Rachel. Jackson could not believe it. He sat next to her, his head in his hands, his fingers through his gray hair. To his friend, John Coffee, Jackson said: "John, can you realize she is dead. I certainly cannot." Rachel was buried two days later. Ten-thousand people went to the Jackson home for the funeral. The Reverend William Hume spoke simply of Rachel Jackson's life. He talked of her kindness and humility. And he told how she had been hurt by the terrible charges made during the election campaign. VOICE TWO: Jackson fought to hold back his tears. When the churchman finished speaking, those near Jackson heard him say: "In the presence of this dear saint, I can and do forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who have lied about her, must look to God for mercy." Jackson felt that Rachel's death was caused by the vicious charges made during the election campaign. He told a friend a few days later: "May God almighty forgive her murderers as I know she would forgive them. I never can." Jackson left his home January eighteenth to begin the long trip to Washington. "My Heart is nearly broken," he said. "I try to lift my spirits, but cannot." VOICE ONE: In Washington, no one knew what to expect. Senator Daniel Webster wrote a friend at Boston: "General Jackson will be here about the fifteenth of February. Nobody knows what he will do when he does come. My opinion is that when he comes, he will bring a breeze with him. Which way it will blow, I cannot tell. My fear is stronger than my hope." Crowds of Jackson's supporters began arriving in the capital. Some wanted to see their man sworn-in as president. Many wanted -- and expected -- a government job. General Jackson arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, on February twelfth. Jackson was sixty-one years old. He was a tall, thin man. His face was wrinkled. And his white hair was pushed back from his high forehead. His eyes -- usually sharp and commanding -- were filled with grief. Jackson's health had never been really good. He carried in his body two bullets from duels fought years before. But he was a tough man with a spirit strong enough to keep moving, even when seriously sick. For three weeks, the general met with his advisers and friends. He decided on the men who would form his cabinet. VOICE TWO: For the job of Secretary of State, Jackson chose Martin Van Buren of New York, a man of great political ability. He named a Pennsylvania businessman, Samuel Ingham, to be Secretary of the Treasury. John Berrien of Georgia was chosen to be Attorney General. His Navy Secretary would be John Branch, a former senator and governor of North Carolina. For War Secretary Jackson chose an old friend, Senator John Eaton of Tennessee. Three members of this cabinet -- Berrien, Branch, and Ingham -- were friends of John C. Calhoun, Jackson's Vice President. Calhoun expected to be president himself when Jackson stepped down in four or eight years. Martin Van Buren also wanted the presidency. He would do all he could to block Calhoun's ambition. VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson was sworn-in as president on March fourth, eighteen-twenty-nine. President John Quincy Adams did not go to the ceremony at the Capitol building. Jackson had said publicly he would not go near Adams. And he did not make the traditional visit to the White House while Adams was there. Jackson was still filled with bitterness over the charges made against his wife in the election campaign. He felt Adams was at least partly responsible for the charges. The sky over Washington was cloudy on the fourth of March. But the clouds parted, and the sun shone through, as Jackson began the ride to the Capitol building. His cheering supporters saw this as a good sign. So many people crowded around the Capitol that Jackson had to climb a wall and enter from the back. He walked through the building and into the open area at the front where the ceremony would be held. VOICE TWO: The ceremony itself was simple. Jackson made a speech that few in the crowd were able to hear. Then Chief Justice John Marshall swore-in the new president. In the crowd was a newspaperman from Kentucky, Amos Kendall. "It is a proud day for the people," wrote Kendall. "General Jackson is their own president." From the Capitol, Jackson rode down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Behind him followed all those who had watched him become the nation's seventh president. The crowds followed him all the way into the White House, where food and drink had been put out for a party. Everyone tried to get in at once. Clothing was torn. Glasses and dishes were broken. Chairs and tables were damaged. Never had there been a party like this at the White House. Jackson stayed for a while. But the crush of people tired him, and he was able to leave. He spent the rest of the day in his hotel room in Alexandria. The guests at the White House finally left after drinks were put on the table outside the building. Many of the people left through windows, because the doors were so crowded. VOICE ONE: Jackson was now the president of the people. And it seemed that everybody was in Washington looking for a government job. Everywhere Jackson turned, he met people who asked him for a job. They urged him to throw out those government workers who supported Adams in the election. They demanded that these jobs be given to Jackson supporters. What Jackson did about this problem will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Single-sex Schools
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 8, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many private schools in the United States teach only boys or only girls. But fewer than one-hundred public schools teach boys and girls separately. There are twenty-five single-sex public schools. Seventy-two other public schools offer some classes for only boys or only girls. The United States government recently announced new rules concerning single-sex education in public schools. These rules were required by legislation Congress approved two years ago. That legislation represented a major change in American education policy. For thirty years, the government generally disapproved of single-sex public schools. A nineteen-seventy-two law banned unequal treatment based on sex, and single-sex schools faced possible legal action. The new rules permit public schools that teach both boys and girls to offer single-sex classes under three conditions. The first is a good reason for offering the class. For example, if the school wants more girls to study computer science and few girls are doing so, the school could offer a computer science class for only girls. The second condition is that the school must offer a class in the same subject for both girls and boys. The third condition is that the school must examine the need for the single-sex class from time to time. The new rules also permit single-sex schools — those that teach all boys or all girls. The only condition for operating an all-girls school, for example, is that equal classes and services are offered at other schools nearby. But those other schools do not have to be single-sex. They can have both boys and girls. Some educators say children can learn better in single-sex schools. Others disagree. Researchers have shown that boys and girls learn information in different ways. However, research about the effects of same-sex schools has shown mixed results. The United States Department of Education has begun a study of single-sex education. But it will not release any results until two-thousand-six. The National Association for Single-Sex Public Education says that some American educators are not waiting for these results. Officials say that ten new single-sex public schools will open in September. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Baseball Season Opens / Quilt Exhibit / Faith Hill
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 9, 2004 (MUSIC) A quilt made by Jessie Pettway of Gee's Bend, Alabama.(Photo - corcoran.org) Broadcast: April 9, 2004 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Bob Doughty. Faith Hill HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week, we have music from Faith Hill. And we answer a question about her. We also report about a new exhibit of hand-made quilts. But first, we tell about the opening of an important sports season. Baseball Season Opens HOST: The Major League professional baseball season opened in the United States last Sunday when the Baltimore Orioles played the Boston Red Sox. But two baseball games were played even earlier — in Japan. Gwen Outen explains. ANNCR: Perhaps no other sport has become as deeply rooted in American life as baseball. No other sport has created so many popular traditions, including poems, songs, books and films. Famous players of the past and present are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Major League Baseball officials continue to explore ways to add to these traditions. One of these is to play the season opening games in another country. So far, such games have been played in Mexico and Japan. This year, the first two games of the major league baseball season were played in Tokyo at the end of March. The New York Yankees played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Yankees are famous for winning more championships than any other baseball team in America. This year, the Yankees are paying some of their best players huge amounts of money. These famous athletes include Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and the Japanese baseball hero, Hideki Matsui. All three played in the two opening games at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Hideki Matsui won the most valuable player award. After the games, he said he got his power from the Japanese fans at the game and their high expectations of him. He told the New York Times newspaper that he was the happiest man in the world. Some American baseball writers and fans were less than happy about the opening games this year. They began in Tokyo at seven o’clock in the evening. That was about five o’clock in the morning in New York! Newspaper reports said fans held opening day breakfast parties so friends could gather to eat and watch the game on television. And many drinking places in the city opened early for the same reason. The Devil Rays won the opening day game. The Yankees won the second game one day later. Quilt Exhibit HOST: A new exhibit of colorful bed coverings called quilts opened last month at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. African-American women in a tiny farming town called Gee’s Bend, Alabama, created the quilts. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: There is only one road into and out of the town of Gee’s Bend. It is a very poor community. Yet it is rich in traditions. For many years, the women of Gee’s Bend have created beautiful quilts from everyday cloth material. Now, seventy of these quilts made by forty-six women are being shown in an exhibit called “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.” These large, colorful quilts hang on the walls of the museum. They look like modern abstract paintings. In fact, the chief art critic for the New York Times newspaper calls the quilts “some of the most miraculous works of modern art that America has produced.” The women of Gee’s Bend made the quilts to cover their beds and keep their families warm at night. The women sewed squares, triangles and long pieces of cloth together. They used everyday materials like old clothing and pieces of cloth left over from making other things. Experts say the bright colors and modern designs are different from traditional American quilts made in other parts of the country. Gee’s Bend, Alabama, is named after Joseph Gee, a white man who owned land in the area in the early eighteen-hundreds. Today, about seven-hundred-fifty people live in the town. All of them are black. Most of them have ancestors who were slaves on two large farms in the area. Women in the town learned quilting from their mothers and grandmothers. They made the quilts from the nineteen-thirties to the present time. There are several different kinds of quilts in the exhibit. Some are made of bright colored pieces of cotton cloth called corduroy. Others are “work clothes” quilts made of old blue denim clothing worn by farm workers. Experts say a Gee’s Bend quilt represents many things. It is useful as well as beautiful. It expresses the artistic ideas of the quilter and the cultural identity of the community. One of the women said this about her quilt: “It represents safekeeping, it represents beauty, and you could say it represents family history.” Faith Hill HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Wuhan, China. Qiu Tsuly asks about American singer Faith Hill. That is her name to music fans all over the world. Her name at birth was Audrey Faith Perry. She was born in the southern state of Mississippi in nineteen-sixty-seven. She grew up singing in church, and decided to become a singer when she was fourteen years old. Faith Perry moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of nineteen. She married songwriter Dan Hill the next year. Their marriage ended four years later. Faith Hill had her first hit record in nineteen-ninety-four. It is called “Wild One.” (MUSIC) Today, Faith Hill is married to another popular country singer, Tim McGraw. They have three daughters. Here is a hit song they recorded together a few years ago. It is called “Let’s Make Love.” (MUSIC) Faith Hill has won or been nominated for just about every music industry honor. Last year, she won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the title song of her latest album. We leave you now with that song, “Cry.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use your question. Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. On our show this week, we have music from Faith Hill. And we answer a question about her. We also report about a new exhibit of hand-made quilts. But first, we tell about the opening of an important sports season. Baseball Season Opens HOST: The Major League professional baseball season opened in the United States last Sunday when the Baltimore Orioles played the Boston Red Sox. But two baseball games were played even earlier — in Japan. Gwen Outen explains. ANNCR: Perhaps no other sport has become as deeply rooted in American life as baseball. No other sport has created so many popular traditions, including poems, songs, books and films. Famous players of the past and present are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Major League Baseball officials continue to explore ways to add to these traditions. One of these is to play the season opening games in another country. So far, such games have been played in Mexico and Japan. This year, the first two games of the major league baseball season were played in Tokyo at the end of March. The New York Yankees played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Yankees are famous for winning more championships than any other baseball team in America. This year, the Yankees are paying some of their best players huge amounts of money. These famous athletes include Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and the Japanese baseball hero, Hideki Matsui. All three played in the two opening games at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Hideki Matsui won the most valuable player award. After the games, he said he got his power from the Japanese fans at the game and their high expectations of him. He told the New York Times newspaper that he was the happiest man in the world. Some American baseball writers and fans were less than happy about the opening games this year. They began in Tokyo at seven o’clock in the evening. That was about five o’clock in the morning in New York! Newspaper reports said fans held opening day breakfast parties so friends could gather to eat and watch the game on television. And many drinking places in the city opened early for the same reason. The Devil Rays won the opening day game. The Yankees won the second game one day later. Quilt Exhibit HOST: A new exhibit of colorful bed coverings called quilts opened last month at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. African-American women in a tiny farming town called Gee’s Bend, Alabama, created the quilts. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: There is only one road into and out of the town of Gee’s Bend. It is a very poor community. Yet it is rich in traditions. For many years, the women of Gee’s Bend have created beautiful quilts from everyday cloth material. Now, seventy of these quilts made by forty-six women are being shown in an exhibit called “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.” These large, colorful quilts hang on the walls of the museum. They look like modern abstract paintings. In fact, the chief art critic for the New York Times newspaper calls the quilts “some of the most miraculous works of modern art that America has produced.” The women of Gee’s Bend made the quilts to cover their beds and keep their families warm at night. The women sewed squares, triangles and long pieces of cloth together. They used everyday materials like old clothing and pieces of cloth left over from making other things. Experts say the bright colors and modern designs are different from traditional American quilts made in other parts of the country. Gee’s Bend, Alabama, is named after Joseph Gee, a white man who owned land in the area in the early eighteen-hundreds. Today, about seven-hundred-fifty people live in the town. All of them are black. Most of them have ancestors who were slaves on two large farms in the area. Women in the town learned quilting from their mothers and grandmothers. They made the quilts from the nineteen-thirties to the present time. There are several different kinds of quilts in the exhibit. Some are made of bright colored pieces of cotton cloth called corduroy. Others are “work clothes” quilts made of old blue denim clothing worn by farm workers. Experts say a Gee’s Bend quilt represents many things. It is useful as well as beautiful. It expresses the artistic ideas of the quilter and the cultural identity of the community. One of the women said this about her quilt: “It represents safekeeping, it represents beauty, and you could say it represents family history.” Faith Hill HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Wuhan, China. Qiu Tsuly asks about American singer Faith Hill. That is her name to music fans all over the world. Her name at birth was Audrey Faith Perry. She was born in the southern state of Mississippi in nineteen-sixty-seven. She grew up singing in church, and decided to become a singer when she was fourteen years old. Faith Perry moved to Nashville, Tennessee at the age of nineteen. She married songwriter Dan Hill the next year. Their marriage ended four years later. Faith Hill had her first hit record in nineteen-ninety-four. It is called “Wild One.” (MUSIC) Today, Faith Hill is married to another popular country singer, Tim McGraw. They have three daughters. Here is a hit song they recorded together a few years ago. It is called “Let’s Make Love.” (MUSIC) Faith Hill has won or been nominated for just about every music industry honor. Last year, she won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the title song of her latest album. We leave you now with that song, “Cry.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use your question. Send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - OPEC and Oil Prices
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 9, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to reduce oil production by about four percent starting April first. Oil ministers from eleven member nations met in Vienna, Austria to approve the cut. OPEC says low oil supplies are not the cause of current high prices. It blames oil market traders and world conditions. OPEC says oil supplies are increasing and it must take action. The organization says its goal is to keep prices between twenty-two and twenty-eight dollars a barrel. The decision by OPEC comes at a time of record high fuel prices in the United States. In March, oil reached thirty-eight dollars a barrel. That is the highest price since the Persian Gulf War in nineteen-ninety-one. More price increases will especially hurt the United States. This is because oil is traded only in dollars. Other countries exchange their money to buy oil in dollars. But recently, the value of the dollar has decreased against the euro and the Japanese yen. Europe and Japan can buy more dollars with their euros and yen. That means they can buy more oil too. This difference in the value of the euro, yen and dollar makes oil more costly for the United States. Experts say OPEC nations will find it difficult to cut production. They point to the fact that OPEC countries already produce one-and-one-half million barrels a day more than the agreed limit. Experts say only Saudi Arabia could greatly cut production. This reduction would not meet the cuts required by OPEC. Also, two of the top three exporting nations, Russia and Norway, are not OPEC members. These and other nations could increase exports to meet world needs. Still, OPEC’s announcement has caused changes in the price of oil in recent days. Oil, or petroleum, is the most actively traded product in the world. The biggest oil trading centers are in London, New York and Singapore. Oil is sold by the barrel. A barrel contains one-hundred-fifty-nine liters. The International Energy Agency records the world’s energy activity. It says oil provides about thirty-five percent of the world’s energy. That is down from forty-five percent in nineteen-seventy-three. But oil remains one of the most important goods in the world economy. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: April 9, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to reduce oil production by about four percent starting April first. Oil ministers from eleven member nations met in Vienna, Austria to approve the cut. OPEC says low oil supplies are not the cause of current high prices. It blames oil market traders and world conditions. OPEC says oil supplies are increasing and it must take action. The organization says its goal is to keep prices between twenty-two and twenty-eight dollars a barrel. The decision by OPEC comes at a time of record high fuel prices in the United States. In March, oil reached thirty-eight dollars a barrel. That is the highest price since the Persian Gulf War in nineteen-ninety-one. More price increases will especially hurt the United States. This is because oil is traded only in dollars. Other countries exchange their money to buy oil in dollars. But recently, the value of the dollar has decreased against the euro and the Japanese yen. Europe and Japan can buy more dollars with their euros and yen. That means they can buy more oil too. This difference in the value of the euro, yen and dollar makes oil more costly for the United States. Experts say OPEC nations will find it difficult to cut production. They point to the fact that OPEC countries already produce one-and-one-half million barrels a day more than the agreed limit. Experts say only Saudi Arabia could greatly cut production. This reduction would not meet the cuts required by OPEC. Also, two of the top three exporting nations, Russia and Norway, are not OPEC members. These and other nations could increase exports to meet world needs. Still, OPEC’s announcement has caused changes in the price of oil in recent days. Oil, or petroleum, is the most actively traded product in the world. The biggest oil trading centers are in London, New York and Singapore. Oil is sold by the barrel. A barrel contains one-hundred-fifty-nine liters. The International Energy Agency records the world’s energy activity. It says oil provides about thirty-five percent of the world’s energy. That is down from forty-five percent in nineteen-seventy-three. But oil remains one of the most important goods in the world economy. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Tenth Anniversary of the Ethnic Killings in Rwanda
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 10, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Wednesday was the tenth anniversary of the start of widespread ethnic killings in Rwanda. Thousands of people attended a national burial ceremony in the capital, Kigali. They gathered there to honor the victims and to show support for the central African nation. The leaders of South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia attended the ceremony. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was the only Western leader to attend. Rwanda criticized Western countries for not sending high-level officials. During the ceremony, Rwandan President Paul Kagame led Rwandans in observing three minutes of silence for the victims. Earlier, he lit a flame at the new Kigali National Memorial Center. The killings in Rwanda began on April seventh, nineteen-ninety-four, after a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down over Kigali. Both leaders died in the crash. Rwanda’s President Juvenal Habyarimana was an ethnic Hutu. Following the crash, extremists in the Hutu government began a plan to kill all of the country’s minority Tutsi population and politically moderate Hutus. An estimated eight-hundred-thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in three months of violence. The killings ended when Mister Kagame’s Tutsi-led rebel army ousted the extremist Hutu government and seized control of the capital. More than two-million Hutus later fled to nearby Democratic Republic of Congo.In a speech during the ceremony in Kigali, President Kagame said Rwanda takes the most blame for the mass killings. But he criticized the international community for failing to intervene to stop the killings. He also repeated accusations that French officials helped train and arm the Hutu government soldiers and militants who carried out the killings. France has denied the accusations. It later withdrew its deputy foreign minister from the ceremony in Kigali. Rwanda is one of the world’s poorest countries. Many Rwandans are still suffering as a result of the violence ten years ago. Many women were infected with the disease AIDS during widespread sexual attacks. And thousands of children lost their parents in the mass killings or from AIDS. Human rights officials say the situation in Rwanda now is calm and the government has control in the country. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is trying some of those accused of planning and carrying out the killings. But tensions continue between the Hutus and Tutsis. And human rights groups say there are still very serious problems with the justice system because of the failure of Rwandan courts. Former President Bill Clinton and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan have apologized for failing to intervene in Rwanda. During a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland this week, Mister Annan proposed a five-point action plan designed to prevent future ethnic killings. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Louis Armstrong
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 11, 2004 (THEME) Louis Armstrong, right, at VOA Broadcast: April 11, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest jazz musicians. His voice, trumpet-playing skill and creativity continue to influence jazz artists today. One of Louis Armstrong’s biggest hits was “Hello Dolly.” VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Louis Armstrong, one of the greatest jazz musicians. His voice, trumpet-playing skill and creativity continue to influence jazz artists today. One of Louis Armstrong’s biggest hits was “Hello Dolly.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louis Armstrong played jazz, sang jazz and wrote jazz. He recorded hit songs for fifty years and his music is still heard today on television, radio and in movies. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August fourth, nineteen-oh-one. New Orleans is a port city at the mouth of the Mississippi River. It is a city where the customs of many different people mixed together. Louis Armstrong grew up in Storyville, one of the poorest areas of New Orleans. His father left the family shortly after he was born. His mother worked to support him and his sister. But Armstrong spent most of his time with his grandmother. VOICE TWO: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louis Armstrong played jazz, sang jazz and wrote jazz. He recorded hit songs for fifty years and his music is still heard today on television, radio and in movies. Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on August fourth, nineteen-oh-one. New Orleans is a port city at the mouth of the Mississippi River. It is a city where the customs of many different people mixed together. Louis Armstrong grew up in Storyville, one of the poorest areas of New Orleans. His father left the family shortly after he was born. His mother worked to support him and his sister. But Armstrong spent most of his time with his grandmother. VOICE TWO: Jazz was just beginning to develop when Louis was a boy. It grew out of the blues songs and ragtime music that had been popular at the turn of the century. Louis discovered music early in life. He was surrounded by it. The music of churches, bands, parades and drinking places were all a daily part of New Orleans culture. Louis sang with other boys on the streets for money. There he began to develop his musical skills. VOICE ONE: When he was eleven years old, Louis was sent to a reform school for firing a gun outside to celebrate New Year’s Eve. At the school, he learned to play the trumpet in the school’s brass band. Louis spent eighteen months at the reform school. Then he went back to work. He sold newspapers, unloaded boats and sold coal from a horse and cart. He also listened to bands at popular clubs in Storyville. Joe “King” Oliver played with the Kid Ory Band. He soon became young Louis’s teacher. As Louis’s skills developed, he began to perform professionally. VOICE TWO: At the age of eighteen, Armstrong joined the Kid Ory Band, one of the finest bands in New Orleans. The experience helped him develop his music skills. Armstrong later replaced King Oliver in the band when Oliver moved to Chicago, Illinois. In nineteen-nineteen, Armstrong joined Fate Marable’s band in St. Louis, Missouri. Marable’s band played on steamboats that traveled up and down the Mississippi River. Working with Marable helped prepare Armstrong to play for white audiences. VOICE ONE: Jazz was just beginning to develop when Louis was a boy. It grew out of the blues songs and ragtime music that had been popular at the turn of the century. Louis discovered music early in life. He was surrounded by it. The music of churches, bands, parades and drinking places were all a daily part of New Orleans culture. Louis sang with other boys on the streets for money. There he began to develop his musical skills. VOICE ONE: When he was eleven years old, Louis was sent to a reform school for firing a gun outside to celebrate New Year’s Eve. At the school, he learned to play the trumpet in the school’s brass band. Louis spent eighteen months at the reform school. Then he went back to work. He sold newspapers, unloaded boats and sold coal from a horse and cart. He also listened to bands at popular clubs in Storyville. Joe “King” Oliver played with the Kid Ory Band. He soon became young Louis’s teacher. As Louis’s skills developed, he began to perform professionally. VOICE TWO: At the age of eighteen, Armstrong joined the Kid Ory Band, one of the finest bands in New Orleans. The experience helped him develop his music skills. Armstrong later replaced King Oliver in the band when Oliver moved to Chicago, Illinois. In nineteen-nineteen, Armstrong joined Fate Marable’s band in St. Louis, Missouri. Marable’s band played on steamboats that traveled up and down the Mississippi River. Working with Marable helped prepare Armstrong to play for white audiences. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-two, Armstrong left the Marable Band to play with King Oliver in Chicago. By then, Chicago had become the center of jazz music. A year later, Armstrong made his first recordings as a member of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. He later moved to New York City, where he influenced the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra with his creativity. Armstrong returned to Chicago in nineteen-twenty-six and formed his own group. They were called the Hot Five and later the Hot Seven. Their recordings are considered some of the most influential in jazz history. Armstrong could make his voice sound like a musical instrument. He could make an instrument sound like a singer’s voice. The song “Heebie Jeebies” is said to be the first recorded example of what became known as scat singing. He recorded it with the Hot Five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-twenty-nine, Armstrong was becoming very popular. He returned to New York to play in an all-black Broadway musical called “Hot Chocolates.” The show included the music of Fats Waller. Armstrong’s version of Waller’s song, “Ain’t Misbehavin’, was a huge hit. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the end of the nineteen-twenties, Armstrong had formed his own band. In nineteen-thirty-two, he sailed to England, and had great success. A reporter there called him “Satchmo,” and he kept that nickname for the rest of his life. For the next three years, Armstrong played in cities across the United States and Europe. In nineteen-twenty-two, Armstrong left the Marable Band to play with King Oliver in Chicago. By then, Chicago had become the center of jazz music. A year later, Armstrong made his first recordings as a member of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. He later moved to New York City, where he influenced the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra with his creativity. Armstrong returned to Chicago in nineteen-twenty-six and formed his own group. They were called the Hot Five and later the Hot Seven. Their recordings are considered some of the most influential in jazz history. Armstrong could make his voice sound like a musical instrument. He could make an instrument sound like a singer’s voice. The song “Heebie Jeebies” is said to be the first recorded example of what became known as scat singing. He recorded it with the Hot Five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-twenty-nine, Armstrong was becoming very popular. He returned to New York to play in an all-black Broadway musical called “Hot Chocolates.” The show included the music of Fats Waller. Armstrong’s version of Waller’s song, “Ain’t Misbehavin’, was a huge hit. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the end of the nineteen-twenties, Armstrong had formed his own band. In nineteen-thirty-two, he sailed to England, and had great success. A reporter there called him “Satchmo,” and he kept that nickname for the rest of his life. For the next three years, Armstrong played in cities across the United States and Europe. Louis Armstrong returned to the United States in nineteen-thirty-five. He hired Joe Glaser to be his manager. Glaser proved to be a great manager and friend. Glaser organized a big band called Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. It was one of the most popular groups of the “swing” music period. Swing was a style of jazz played by big bands in the nineteen-thirties. VOICE TWO: The group played together for the next ten years. During that time, Armstrong became one of the most famous men in America. He experienced racial unfairness during his life. But he rarely made public statements. One time, however, he criticized the way the government treated blacks in the American South in the nineteen-fifties. Newspapers accused him of being a troublemaker for speaking out. In the nineteen-forties, Armstrong grew tired of leading a large group. For the remaining years of his life, he led a six-member group called the All Stars. The group included some of the best musicians in America. They performed extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Armstrong recorded with many famous musicians. For example, he worked with singers Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby and the great composer Duke Ellington. Armstrong was known as friendly and easy to work with. Armstrong’s biggest hits came later in his life. The song “Mack the Knife” was a big hit in nineteen-fifty-five. In nineteen-sixty-four, his version of the song “Hello Dolly” was the top hit around the world. It even replaced a top-selling hit by the hugely popular British rock group, the Beatles. Three years later, he appeared in the motion picture version of “Hello Dolly” with singer Barbra Streisand. The song “What a Wonderful World,” recorded in nineteen-sixty-eight, was his final big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Louis Armstrong never finished the fifth grade in school. Yet he wrote two books about his life and many stories for magazines. He appeared in more than thirty movies. He composed many jazz pieces. He won several gold records and many other awards. Armstrong performed an average of three-hundred concerts each year, traveling all over the world. He became known as the ambassador of American Jazz. Louis Armstrong was married four times. Lucille Armstrong was his fourth wife. They married in nineteen-forty-two and stayed together for the rest of his life. They had no children. Louis Armstrong died in nineteen-seventy-one. His death was front page news around the world. In nineteen-seventy-seven, his home in Queens, New York, was declared a national historic place. It is now a museum. For more information about Louis Armstrong and his house, you can go to the museum’s Internet Web site. The address is w-w-w dot s-a-t-c-h-m-o dot n-e-t. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. Louis Armstrong returned to the United States in nineteen-thirty-five. He hired Joe Glaser to be his manager. Glaser proved to be a great manager and friend. Glaser organized a big band called Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra. It was one of the most popular groups of the “swing” music period. Swing was a style of jazz played by big bands in the nineteen-thirties. VOICE TWO: The group played together for the next ten years. During that time, Armstrong became one of the most famous men in America. He experienced racial unfairness during his life. But he rarely made public statements. One time, however, he criticized the way the government treated blacks in the American South in the nineteen-fifties. Newspapers accused him of being a troublemaker for speaking out. In the nineteen-forties, Armstrong grew tired of leading a large group. For the remaining years of his life, he led a six-member group called the All Stars. The group included some of the best musicians in America. They performed extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Armstrong recorded with many famous musicians. For example, he worked with singers Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby and the great composer Duke Ellington. Armstrong was known as friendly and easy to work with. Armstrong’s biggest hits came later in his life. The song “Mack the Knife” was a big hit in nineteen-fifty-five. In nineteen-sixty-four, his version of the song “Hello Dolly” was the top hit around the world. It even replaced a top-selling hit by the hugely popular British rock group, the Beatles. Three years later, he appeared in the motion picture version of “Hello Dolly” with singer Barbra Streisand. The song “What a Wonderful World,” recorded in nineteen-sixty-eight, was his final big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Louis Armstrong never finished the fifth grade in school. Yet he wrote two books about his life and many stories for magazines. He appeared in more than thirty movies. He composed many jazz pieces. He won several gold records and many other awards. Armstrong performed an average of three-hundred concerts each year, traveling all over the world. He became known as the ambassador of American Jazz. Louis Armstrong was married four times. Lucille Armstrong was his fourth wife. They married in nineteen-forty-two and stayed together for the rest of his life. They had no children. Louis Armstrong died in nineteen-seventy-one. His death was front page news around the world. In nineteen-seventy-seven, his home in Queens, New York, was declared a national historic place. It is now a museum. For more information about Louis Armstrong and his house, you can go to the museum’s Internet Web site. The address is w-w-w dot s-a-t-c-h-m-o dot n-e-t. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA  - Marathons
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 12, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: April 12, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today, we report about marathon races and the popularity of running in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Forty-two kilometers is a long way to run without stopping. But twenty-thousand competitors with a lot of energy will try to do that next Monday, April nineteenth. These people will take part in the one-hundred-eighth Boston Marathon in Massachusetts. The race is the oldest marathon in the world held each year. Men and women over age eighteen run in the marathon. Some competitors are much older than eighteen. Some runners are seventy and older. But most of the runners are younger than forty. VOICE TWO: Winners of past Boston Marathons will race again this year. Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot of Kenya is defending his first-place finish last year. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya has won the Boston race two times. They are among many serious competitors in the two-thousand-four marathon. Winners will share five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars in prize money given by companies and organizations. VOICE ONE: Runners in the Boston Marathon have demonstrated that they are good at the sport. They completed earlier races called qualifying races. They have to run those races within a set time. Other people join the Boston Marathon just for fun. These people have not officially joined the race. They just start running with the crowds. They are called “bandits.” Many of them probably will finish hours after the serious runners. But these unofficial racers are just as happy. They sometimes kiss the ground after crossing the finish line. VOICE TWO: The runners will begin this year’s Boston Marathon at mid day next Monday in the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. They will then pass through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline. They will run up and down hills. They will complete the race in the center of Boston. People will provide liquids for the runners at twenty-four places along the way. If anyone gets hurt or sick, medical workers at twenty-six American Red Cross stations can provide medical help. As usual, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch the marathon. Many will carry signs that say things like, “We are proud of you, Mommy.” VOICE ONE: Before the marathon begins, a computer chip device is attached to each runner’s shoe. It electronically records how long the runner takes to complete the race. Timing begins when a runner passes another device placed across the road at the starting line. The computer chip records each runner’s time as he or she passes several areas along the race. And it records the runner’s final time when crossing the finish line. Last year, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot ran his winning race in two hours, ten minutes and eleven seconds. The women’s winner, Svetlana Zakharova, finished in two hours, twenty-five minutes and twenty seconds. VOICE TWO: People who cannot walk also compete in the Boston Marathon. Competitors in wheelchairs begin the race earlier than others. The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include users of wheelchairs in nineteen-seventy-five. Last year, South African competitor Ernst VanDyk won the wheelchair race. He finished in one hour, twenty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds. Mister VanDyk also won the wheelchair race in two-thousand-one and two-thousand-two. Christina Ripp of the United States won the women’s wheelchair event last year. She finished the race in one hour, fifty-four minutes and forty-seven seconds. VOICE ONE: The first Boston Marathon was held in eighteen-ninety-seven. Fifteen men competed. Ten finished the race. Since then, the marathon has been held every year as part of a holiday in Massachusetts called Patriot’s Day. The holiday honors the beginning of the American War of Independence in the seventeen-seventies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The word “marathon” comes from an area along the coast of Greece. An important battle took place in Marathon about two-thousand-five-hundred years ago. An army from Persia had invaded Greece. Greece’s army defeated the invading army at Marathon. An Athenian general sent a Greek runner to Athens to tell the news of the victory. Marathon was about forty kilometers from Athens. The man ran to Athens at top speed. He announced his message. Then he fell to the ground, dead. A men’s marathon of about forty kilometers was included in the first modern Olympic games in eighteen-ninety-six. The distance of the marathon was increased to forty-two and two-tenths kilometers at the nineteen-oh-eight Olympics in London. The marathon continues to be a popular Olympic sport. VOICE ONE: Many American cities in addition to Boston hold marathons. For example, the United States Marine Corps Marathon will take place October thirty-first in Washington, D. C. and the state of Virginia. The city of Chicago, Illinois also will hold its two-thousand-four marathon in October. The running area in Chicago is almost completely flat. This has permitted runners to set some of the world’s fastest times there. The Chicago race offers some of the largest prizes among American marathons. It will give six-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars in prize money. New York City will hold its marathon in November. This race is so large that competitors must take part in a game of chance to win the right to enter. As many as thirty-thousand people run in New York City marathons. VOICE TWO: Not all marathons are so successful. More than six-thousand people ran in the first Washington D.C. Marathon in March, two-thousand-two. Some said they enjoyed the race more than any other. The runners passed by some of the city’s most famous monuments, including the United States Capitol. But last year the race was cancelled. The organizers blamed security concerns because the war in Iraq was soon to start. The marathon was cancelled again this year. However, that did not stop hundreds of people from racing. They ran the “unofficial” marathon on the day the official race was to have taken place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirty years ago, far fewer people ran in the United States. Today, millions run. Many more women now take part in the sport. Many children in public and private schools run as part of their physical education programs. Running has gained popularity for several reasons. You can do it anywhere, any time. You do not need other people. And you do not need much equipment. However, experts say you should wear a good pair of running shoes to protect your feet. The manufacture of running shoes has become a huge industry. VOICE TWO: People run for different reasons. Most say running makes them feel better physically. It prevents them from gaining weight. It provides needed exercise to help prevent some diseases. Many people also say running makes them feel better mentally. It makes them feel happier. Some say they forget their worries when they run. Many people also run to help others. For example, Ed Burt of Hopedale, Massachusetts ran in the Boston Marathon last year to help the American Liver Foundation. This deeply pleased his father, who was suffering from liver disease. This year, Ed Burt already has raised more than two-thousand dollars in the Liver Foundation’s Run for Research campaign. He will take part in the marathon this year in memory of his father. VOICE ONE: Sports experts urge people to prepare themselves before trying to run in long races. They say special exercises and repeated runs are needed to build strength. Doctors also urge runners to make sure they are in good health before entering a marathon. They say forty-two kilometers is a long way to run as fast as you can, without stopping. But many marathon runners say it is exciting to cross the finish line. “You feel terribly tired,” says a runner from Encino, California. “At the same time, you feel just wonderful.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE : And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today, we report about marathon races and the popularity of running in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Forty-two kilometers is a long way to run without stopping. But twenty-thousand competitors with a lot of energy will try to do that next Monday, April nineteenth. These people will take part in the one-hundred-eighth Boston Marathon in Massachusetts. The race is the oldest marathon in the world held each year. Men and women over age eighteen run in the marathon. Some competitors are much older than eighteen. Some runners are seventy and older. But most of the runners are younger than forty. VOICE TWO: Winners of past Boston Marathons will race again this year. Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot of Kenya is defending his first-place finish last year. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya has won the Boston race two times. They are among many serious competitors in the two-thousand-four marathon. Winners will share five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars in prize money given by companies and organizations. VOICE ONE: Runners in the Boston Marathon have demonstrated that they are good at the sport. They completed earlier races called qualifying races. They have to run those races within a set time. Other people join the Boston Marathon just for fun. These people have not officially joined the race. They just start running with the crowds. They are called “bandits.” Many of them probably will finish hours after the serious runners. But these unofficial racers are just as happy. They sometimes kiss the ground after crossing the finish line. VOICE TWO: The runners will begin this year’s Boston Marathon at mid day next Monday in the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. They will then pass through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline. They will run up and down hills. They will complete the race in the center of Boston. People will provide liquids for the runners at twenty-four places along the way. If anyone gets hurt or sick, medical workers at twenty-six American Red Cross stations can provide medical help. As usual, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch the marathon. Many will carry signs that say things like, “We are proud of you, Mommy.” VOICE ONE: Before the marathon begins, a computer chip device is attached to each runner’s shoe. It electronically records how long the runner takes to complete the race. Timing begins when a runner passes another device placed across the road at the starting line. The computer chip records each runner’s time as he or she passes several areas along the race. And it records the runner’s final time when crossing the finish line. Last year, Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot ran his winning race in two hours, ten minutes and eleven seconds. The women’s winner, Svetlana Zakharova, finished in two hours, twenty-five minutes and twenty seconds. VOICE TWO: People who cannot walk also compete in the Boston Marathon. Competitors in wheelchairs begin the race earlier than others. The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include users of wheelchairs in nineteen-seventy-five. Last year, South African competitor Ernst VanDyk won the wheelchair race. He finished in one hour, twenty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds. Mister VanDyk also won the wheelchair race in two-thousand-one and two-thousand-two. Christina Ripp of the United States won the women’s wheelchair event last year. She finished the race in one hour, fifty-four minutes and forty-seven seconds. VOICE ONE: The first Boston Marathon was held in eighteen-ninety-seven. Fifteen men competed. Ten finished the race. Since then, the marathon has been held every year as part of a holiday in Massachusetts called Patriot’s Day. The holiday honors the beginning of the American War of Independence in the seventeen-seventies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The word “marathon” comes from an area along the coast of Greece. An important battle took place in Marathon about two-thousand-five-hundred years ago. An army from Persia had invaded Greece. Greece’s army defeated the invading army at Marathon. An Athenian general sent a Greek runner to Athens to tell the news of the victory. Marathon was about forty kilometers from Athens. The man ran to Athens at top speed. He announced his message. Then he fell to the ground, dead. A men’s marathon of about forty kilometers was included in the first modern Olympic games in eighteen-ninety-six. The distance of the marathon was increased to forty-two and two-tenths kilometers at the nineteen-oh-eight Olympics in London. The marathon continues to be a popular Olympic sport. VOICE ONE: Many American cities in addition to Boston hold marathons. For example, the United States Marine Corps Marathon will take place October thirty-first in Washington, D. C. and the state of Virginia. The city of Chicago, Illinois also will hold its two-thousand-four marathon in October. The running area in Chicago is almost completely flat. This has permitted runners to set some of the world’s fastest times there. The Chicago race offers some of the largest prizes among American marathons. It will give six-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars in prize money. New York City will hold its marathon in November. This race is so large that competitors must take part in a game of chance to win the right to enter. As many as thirty-thousand people run in New York City marathons. VOICE TWO: Not all marathons are so successful. More than six-thousand people ran in the first Washington D.C. Marathon in March, two-thousand-two. Some said they enjoyed the race more than any other. The runners passed by some of the city’s most famous monuments, including the United States Capitol. But last year the race was cancelled. The organizers blamed security concerns because the war in Iraq was soon to start. The marathon was cancelled again this year. However, that did not stop hundreds of people from racing. They ran the “unofficial” marathon on the day the official race was to have taken place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirty years ago, far fewer people ran in the United States. Today, millions run. Many more women now take part in the sport. Many children in public and private schools run as part of their physical education programs. Running has gained popularity for several reasons. You can do it anywhere, any time. You do not need other people. And you do not need much equipment. However, experts say you should wear a good pair of running shoes to protect your feet. The manufacture of running shoes has become a huge industry. VOICE TWO: People run for different reasons. Most say running makes them feel better physically. It prevents them from gaining weight. It provides needed exercise to help prevent some diseases. Many people also say running makes them feel better mentally. It makes them feel happier. Some say they forget their worries when they run. Many people also run to help others. For example, Ed Burt of Hopedale, Massachusetts ran in the Boston Marathon last year to help the American Liver Foundation. This deeply pleased his father, who was suffering from liver disease. This year, Ed Burt already has raised more than two-thousand dollars in the Liver Foundation’s Run for Research campaign. He will take part in the marathon this year in memory of his father. VOICE ONE: Sports experts urge people to prepare themselves before trying to run in long races. They say special exercises and repeated runs are needed to build strength. Doctors also urge runners to make sure they are in good health before entering a marathon. They say forty-two kilometers is a long way to run as fast as you can, without stopping. But many marathon runners say it is exciting to cross the finish line. “You feel terribly tired,” says a runner from Encino, California. “At the same time, you feel just wonderful.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE : And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – US Government Approves New AIDS Test
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 12, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Experts say it is low in cost, easy to use and provides fast results. The method tests liquid saliva from a person’s mouth, instead of his or her blood. Results are ready within twenty minutes, and are ninety-nine percent correct. OraSure Technologies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania developed the test. It is called OraQuick Rapid H.I.V. Antibody Test. The test is based on technology created earlier by the company that tests a single drop of blood. OraSure President Michael Gausling says the saliva test can be used anywhere, anytime and by anyone. He adds that there is no risk of spreading H.I.V. with the test. In the past, some health workers have accidentally become infected when testing people’s blood for the virus. Public health officials believe the OraQuick test will help fight AIDS in two ways. First, it could result in more people getting tested. The process is simple. A piece of cotton is moved across the gums inside a person’s mouth. It is then put into a liquid in the testing device. Two colored lines appear on the device if antibodies to the virus are present. The test also will permit people to get their results quickly. In many developing countries, blood test results can take up to two weeks. Because of this, people often do not return to find out if they are infected. The new test will let a person know within twenty minutes if he or she is infected. An infected person could receive immediate information about treatment and how to stop the disease from spreading. World health officials estimate that as many as ninety-five percent of people with H.I.V. in developing countries do not know they are infected. Mister Gausling hopes the OraQuick test will change this. He says that humanitarian aid workers and people with limited health care experience will now be able to quickly identify and help patients with the disease. OraSure officials estimate the OraQuick test will cost between eight and twenty dollars in the United States. However, they believe the product will cost much less in other countries. American officials say the new H.I.V. test will be especially important for use in Africa, which is the worst affected part of the world.This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: April 12, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Experts say it is low in cost, easy to use and provides fast results. The method tests liquid saliva from a person’s mouth, instead of his or her blood. Results are ready within twenty minutes, and are ninety-nine percent correct. OraSure Technologies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania developed the test. It is called OraQuick Rapid H.I.V. Antibody Test. The test is based on technology created earlier by the company that tests a single drop of blood. OraSure President Michael Gausling says the saliva test can be used anywhere, anytime and by anyone. He adds that there is no risk of spreading H.I.V. with the test. In the past, some health workers have accidentally become infected when testing people’s blood for the virus. Public health officials believe the OraQuick test will help fight AIDS in two ways. First, it could result in more people getting tested. The process is simple. A piece of cotton is moved across the gums inside a person’s mouth. It is then put into a liquid in the testing device. Two colored lines appear on the device if antibodies to the virus are present. The test also will permit people to get their results quickly. In many developing countries, blood test results can take up to two weeks. Because of this, people often do not return to find out if they are infected. The new test will let a person know within twenty minutes if he or she is infected. An infected person could receive immediate information about treatment and how to stop the disease from spreading. World health officials estimate that as many as ninety-five percent of people with H.I.V. in developing countries do not know they are infected. Mister Gausling hopes the OraQuick test will change this. He says that humanitarian aid workers and people with limited health care experience will now be able to quickly identify and help patients with the disease. OraSure officials estimate the OraQuick test will cost between eight and twenty dollars in the United States. However, they believe the product will cost much less in other countries. American officials say the new H.I.V. test will be especially important for use in Africa, which is the worst affected part of the world.This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Dental Health
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 13, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about diseases of the teeth and gums, and ways to prevent and treat them. VOICE ONE: People have been troubled by tooth and gum problems for thousands of years. The earliest record of dental treatment comes from ancient Egypt. Books say the Egyptians treated gum swelling by using a substance made of spices and onions. The earliest known person to treat tooth problems was also from Egypt. He lived about five-thousand years ago. He was known as a “doctor of the tooth.” Experts say Chinese people living almost five-thousand years ago treated tooth pain by acupuncture -- placing small sharp needles in different parts of the body. About one-thousand-three-hundred years ago, the Chinese filled holes in the teeth with a mixture of the metals mercury, silver and tin. That was almost one-thousand years before a similar substance was first used in western countries. Some ancient people like the Maya did not treat dental disease. But they made their teeth pretty by placing pieces of stone and metal on them. VOICE TWO: The ancient Romans were careful about keeping their teeth clean. More than two-thousand years ago, the Romans treated toothaches, filled holes in teeth, and made false teeth to replace those that had been lost. From the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, Europeans with tooth problems went to people called barber-surgeons. These people performed many services, including cutting hair, pulling teeth and treating medical conditions. Dental treatment improved during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as doctors increased their knowledge about teeth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Modern dentistry began in the Seventeen-Hundreds in France. That was when Pierre Fauchard published his book called "The Surgeon Dentist." It was the first book about dental science. The book provided information about dental problems for other dentists to use. And it described ways to keep teeth healthy. Pierre Fauchard is considered the father of modern dentistry. His work was important in helping establish dentistry as a separate profession. Organized dentistry began in Eighteen-Forty. That is when the world’s first dental school opened in the American city of Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later, a dentist first used drugs to ease the pain during dental work. Two years after that, another dentist publicly demonstrated the use of the gas, ether, as a way to reduce pain. And in Eighteen-Fifty-Eight, another American dentist invented a dental drill that was powered by stepping on a device. This machine made it possible for dentists to use both hands when working in a patient’s mouth. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Ninety, an American scientist showed that bacteria in the mouth act on sugars that remain on the teeth after eating. This action creates acid that damages the tooth. The damage appears as a hole in the tooth. It is called a cavity. The part of the tooth that has been destroyed by the acid is inside the cavity. It is known as tooth decay. Tooth decay is common in the United States and around the world. Dental professionals say the acid remaining in the mouth must be removed before it destroys the outer covering of the teeth. Dentists say the best thing people can do for their teeth is to keep them clean. After eating, people should use a toothbrush or other device to clean the teeth. Then they should use a thin string or dental floss to remove particles of food between the teeth. Visiting a dentist every six months can help keep the teeth healthy and prevent cavities. VOICE ONE: Experts say the greatest improvement in dental health during the twentieth century began in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Dentists in the small western town of Colorado Springs, Colorado found that children there had low rates of tooth decay. They discovered that the town’s water supply contained fluoride, an element found in rocks and minerals. Public health researchers thought that adding fluoride to water in other American cities could reduce the rates of tooth decay. In Nineteen-Forty-Five, a test program began in the middle western state of Michigan. Ten years later, results showed a fifty to seventy percent reduction in cavities in the children who drank water containing fluoride. Since then, many studies have confirmed the value of fluoride. Today, most of the American water supply contains fluoride. And international health organizations, including the World Health Organization, support water fluoridation programs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Decay is not the only disease that can cause tooth loss. Another serious disease affects the gums, the tissue that surrounds the teeth. It is also caused by bacteria. If the bacteria are not removed every day, they form a substance that stays on the teeth. This substance is known as plaque. At first, the gums appear to be swollen, and may bleed when the teeth are brushed. This can lead to serious infection of the tissue around the teeth. The infection may damage the bone that supports the teeth and cause tooth loss and other health problems. Studies have found that people with severe gum disease have an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Gum disease can be treated by a special dentist called a periodontist. Periodontists are trained to repair the gum areas that have been damaged. This can be painful and costly. Dental health experts say the best thing to do is to stop gum disease before it starts. The way to do this is to clean the teeth every day. People also should use dental floss to remove plaque from between the teeth. Most experts also agree that another way to prevent tooth and gum problems is to eat foods high in calcium and vitamins and low in sugar. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists continue to develop better dental treatments and equipment. Improved technology may change the way people receive dental treatment in the future. For example, dentists are now using laser light to treat diseased gums and teeth. Dentists use computer technology to help them repair damaged teeth. Researchers have developed improved methods to repair bone that supports the teeth. And genetic research is expected to develop tests that will show the presence of disease-causing bacteria in the mouth. Such increased knowledge about dental diseases and ways to prevent them has improved the health of many people. Yet problems remain in some areas. In industrial countries, minorities and other groups have a high level of untreated dental disease. In developing countries, many areas do not have even emergency care services. The World Health Organization says people in countries in Africa have the most tooth and gum problems. VOICE TWO: World Health organization experts say the dental health situation is different for almost every country in the world. As a result, it has developed oral health programs separately for each area. The W-H-O oral health program is mainly for people living in poor areas. It provides them with information about mouth diseases and health care. It also studies preventive programs using fluoride in water, salt, milk and toothpaste. And it explores ways to include dental health in national health care systems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many governments and other organizations provide help so people can get needed dental health services. But dental health professionals say people should take good care of their teeth and gums. They say people should keep their teeth as clean as possible. They should eat foods high in calcium and fiber. These include milk products, whole grain breads and cereals, vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts. Recent studies have shown that eating nuts can help slow the production of plaque on the teeth. Experts say these activities will help everyone improve their dental health throughout their lives. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: April 13, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about diseases of the teeth and gums, and ways to prevent and treat them. VOICE ONE: People have been troubled by tooth and gum problems for thousands of years. The earliest record of dental treatment comes from ancient Egypt. Books say the Egyptians treated gum swelling by using a substance made of spices and onions. The earliest known person to treat tooth problems was also from Egypt. He lived about five-thousand years ago. He was known as a “doctor of the tooth.” Experts say Chinese people living almost five-thousand years ago treated tooth pain by acupuncture -- placing small sharp needles in different parts of the body. About one-thousand-three-hundred years ago, the Chinese filled holes in the teeth with a mixture of the metals mercury, silver and tin. That was almost one-thousand years before a similar substance was first used in western countries. Some ancient people like the Maya did not treat dental disease. But they made their teeth pretty by placing pieces of stone and metal on them. VOICE TWO: The ancient Romans were careful about keeping their teeth clean. More than two-thousand years ago, the Romans treated toothaches, filled holes in teeth, and made false teeth to replace those that had been lost. From the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, Europeans with tooth problems went to people called barber-surgeons. These people performed many services, including cutting hair, pulling teeth and treating medical conditions. Dental treatment improved during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as doctors increased their knowledge about teeth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Modern dentistry began in the Seventeen-Hundreds in France. That was when Pierre Fauchard published his book called "The Surgeon Dentist." It was the first book about dental science. The book provided information about dental problems for other dentists to use. And it described ways to keep teeth healthy. Pierre Fauchard is considered the father of modern dentistry. His work was important in helping establish dentistry as a separate profession. Organized dentistry began in Eighteen-Forty. That is when the world’s first dental school opened in the American city of Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later, a dentist first used drugs to ease the pain during dental work. Two years after that, another dentist publicly demonstrated the use of the gas, ether, as a way to reduce pain. And in Eighteen-Fifty-Eight, another American dentist invented a dental drill that was powered by stepping on a device. This machine made it possible for dentists to use both hands when working in a patient’s mouth. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Ninety, an American scientist showed that bacteria in the mouth act on sugars that remain on the teeth after eating. This action creates acid that damages the tooth. The damage appears as a hole in the tooth. It is called a cavity. The part of the tooth that has been destroyed by the acid is inside the cavity. It is known as tooth decay. Tooth decay is common in the United States and around the world. Dental professionals say the acid remaining in the mouth must be removed before it destroys the outer covering of the teeth. Dentists say the best thing people can do for their teeth is to keep them clean. After eating, people should use a toothbrush or other device to clean the teeth. Then they should use a thin string or dental floss to remove particles of food between the teeth. Visiting a dentist every six months can help keep the teeth healthy and prevent cavities. VOICE ONE: Experts say the greatest improvement in dental health during the twentieth century began in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Dentists in the small western town of Colorado Springs, Colorado found that children there had low rates of tooth decay. They discovered that the town’s water supply contained fluoride, an element found in rocks and minerals. Public health researchers thought that adding fluoride to water in other American cities could reduce the rates of tooth decay. In Nineteen-Forty-Five, a test program began in the middle western state of Michigan. Ten years later, results showed a fifty to seventy percent reduction in cavities in the children who drank water containing fluoride. Since then, many studies have confirmed the value of fluoride. Today, most of the American water supply contains fluoride. And international health organizations, including the World Health Organization, support water fluoridation programs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Decay is not the only disease that can cause tooth loss. Another serious disease affects the gums, the tissue that surrounds the teeth. It is also caused by bacteria. If the bacteria are not removed every day, they form a substance that stays on the teeth. This substance is known as plaque. At first, the gums appear to be swollen, and may bleed when the teeth are brushed. This can lead to serious infection of the tissue around the teeth. The infection may damage the bone that supports the teeth and cause tooth loss and other health problems. Studies have found that people with severe gum disease have an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Gum disease can be treated by a special dentist called a periodontist. Periodontists are trained to repair the gum areas that have been damaged. This can be painful and costly. Dental health experts say the best thing to do is to stop gum disease before it starts. The way to do this is to clean the teeth every day. People also should use dental floss to remove plaque from between the teeth. Most experts also agree that another way to prevent tooth and gum problems is to eat foods high in calcium and vitamins and low in sugar. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists continue to develop better dental treatments and equipment. Improved technology may change the way people receive dental treatment in the future. For example, dentists are now using laser light to treat diseased gums and teeth. Dentists use computer technology to help them repair damaged teeth. Researchers have developed improved methods to repair bone that supports the teeth. And genetic research is expected to develop tests that will show the presence of disease-causing bacteria in the mouth. Such increased knowledge about dental diseases and ways to prevent them has improved the health of many people. Yet problems remain in some areas. In industrial countries, minorities and other groups have a high level of untreated dental disease. In developing countries, many areas do not have even emergency care services. The World Health Organization says people in countries in Africa have the most tooth and gum problems. VOICE TWO: World Health organization experts say the dental health situation is different for almost every country in the world. As a result, it has developed oral health programs separately for each area. The W-H-O oral health program is mainly for people living in poor areas. It provides them with information about mouth diseases and health care. It also studies preventive programs using fluoride in water, salt, milk and toothpaste. And it explores ways to include dental health in national health care systems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many governments and other organizations provide help so people can get needed dental health services. But dental health professionals say people should take good care of their teeth and gums. They say people should keep their teeth as clean as possible. They should eat foods high in calcium and fiber. These include milk products, whole grain breads and cereals, vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts. Recent studies have shown that eating nuts can help slow the production of plaque on the teeth. Experts say these activities will help everyone improve their dental health throughout their lives. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Biological Controls, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 13, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Biological controls are living things that eat organisms harmful to crops. They offer new ways for farmers to grow organic crops and protect the environment. In modern times, farmers have depended on chemicals to kill harmful insects, plants and other organisms. But, many scientists and farmers are looking for ways to grow crops without using poisons. Limiting chemicals can save farmers money as well. One way to avoid using poisons is to release helpful insects that are natural enemies of harmful insects, or pests. Some insects eat pests. The lady beetle, or ladybug, is well known. Round, colorful lady beetles eat many kinds of harmful insects including aphids. Aphids develop colonies and eat plant fluids. An adult lady beetle can eat fifty or more aphids a day. Aphids attack many different kinds of crops. This makes lady beetles a good defense against aphids for growers of fruit, grains, beans, strawberries and other crops. Lady beetles live in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Farmers can buy them from suppliers. Some insects inject their eggs inside the bodies of pests. These are called parasitoids. Young parasitoids come out of their eggs and eat the pests. Some parasitoids can be very effective. They keep the pests from reproducing. After they become adults, they lay many eggs on other pests. A tiny wasp with a big name is a good example. Encarsia formosa is used all over the world for vegetables and flowers grown indoors. The Encarsia formosa wasp injects eggs into the bodies of young white flies. There are many different kinds of white fly pests and E formosa likes to eat at least fifteen of them. Some of these wasps can lay enough eggs to kill ninety-five young white flies in twelve days. E. formosa is most popular in Russia and Europe. The United States Department of Agriculture has been studying a fly that attacks another pest — the fire ant. The phorid fly attacks fire ants in the same way as E. formosa. Phorid flies kill only about three percent of the ants in a colony. But they greatly damage the colony’s ability to collect food. The U.S.D.A. has released phorid flies in an effort to control fire ants in the southeastern United States. Next week, we tell about two kinds of biological controls that attack pests in new ways. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Soaring
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 14, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: April 14, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a dream that is as old as the human mind. The dream is flight. We tell about how that dream has led to the sport of soaring. Soaring is flying in an airplane without an engine. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a dream that is as old as the human mind. The dream is flight. We tell about how that dream has led to the sport of soaring. Soaring is flying in an airplane without an engine. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every sport has a history. But few sports have a history that goes back one-thousand years. It was then that a Roman Catholic monk built a device to fly. History records say his name was Eilmer of Malmesbury England. He reportedly jumped from a building with wings he had built. He floated down for about two hundred meters before crashing. He broke both his legs. It was not a good flight, but it was a beginning. One of the most famous inventors and artists designed a flying device in the fifteen-century. The Italian inventor-artist was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo designed bird-like wings for a man to wear. His drawings survive to this day. VOICE TWO: Real flight by humans developed very slowly because early inventors like Leonardo tried to make wings that moved. Leonardo and other inventors studied birds. They used the birds' method of flight for their designs. Their idea was that a person would wear wings on their arms and move them up and down just as a bird's wings move. The idea always failed. We now know that a human does not have enough power to move wings fast enough to fly. The first real flights took place in Eighteen-Forty- Nine. British inventor George Cayley built a winged machine called a glider that carried a man. But it crashed after a short flight. In Eighteen-Eighty- Three, an American, John J. Montgomery, made the first, controlled flight in a glider. In fact, he made several. Then Otto Lilienthal of Germany made about two-thousand flights in simple gliders during the Eighteen-Nineties. He built a tall hill from which to launch his flights. Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright flew several kinds of gliders. They also improved methods of controlling their glider flights. Their successful experiments with gliders led to the first aircraft powered by an engine. VOICE ONE: The gliders of long ago could only stay in the air for limited amounts of time. Usually they were launched from a high place. They slowly floated or glided down. Modern technology has made the glider a high performance machine. It can stay up for many hours. It can reach many kilometers into the sky by riding on the hot air that rises from the ground. It can carry one, two or more people. Modern gliders are built from space-age lightweight metals, or plastics. They can carry radios, oxygen needed for extreme heights, and many flight instruments. Many modern gliders or sailplanes look more like insects than birds. They have narrow, rounded bodies, with long thin tails. Their wings are extremely long too. There is very little room inside. The pilot does not sit straight. The seat permits the pilot to almost lie down in an area enclosed by a plastic top. The top is clear. This lets the pilot see very well in every direction. VOICE TWO: A pilot controls a sailplane or glider much the same as other aircraft. Control instruments called ailerons are built into each wing. With one aileron raised and the other lowered, the plane will turn in the direction of the raised aileron. Another control is on the tail. It is called the elevator. It swings up and down. The elevator makes the plane move up or down. The tail also has a control that moves from side to side. It is called a rudder. It helps direct the plane. The pilot controls the rudder with foot pedals. The pilot uses a device called a stick to control the ailerons and elevators. Moving the stick from side to side moves the ailerons. Moving the stick forward points the glider down. Pulling back on the stick makes it go up. In front of the pilot are several instruments. One shows how high the glider is. Another shows the air speed. Another is a compass that shows what direction the glider is flying. And another tells if the glider is going up, or down. VOICE ONE: The modern glider is like those designed hundreds of years ago. It has no power. It can get into the air only with help. In the United States, a powered airplane usually pulls the glider into the air. The glider is usually pulled up to one thousand meters. Then the rope used to pull the glider is released. The glider is on its own. Every school child knows that hot air rises. Glider pilots learn this fact. They learn how to use it. As hot air rises from the ground, it creates enough pressure to permit a modern glider to rise. It provides the power to keep the glider in the air. When the glider has risen as high as the pilot wants, he steers the glider away from the hot air. A glider pilot who has enough rising hot air can keep the aircraft in the air for several hours. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Howard Hoadley lives in the southern state of North Carolina. Howard loves to fly. When he is not flying gliders, he is talking about flying gliders. Or he is talking about glider equipment, good places to fly gliders and about his friends who fly gliders. He has very little interest in flying airplanes that have engines. He thinks they make too much noise. Flying with Howard is safe. It is also fun. Howard flies from a very small airport in beautiful North Carolina farm land. Crops grow next to the landing field. There are powered airplanes at the airport but Howard only cares about the ones that pull the gliders into the air. On weekends and holidays, gliders land and take off every few minutes. VOICE ONE: If you have never been in a glider before, Howard always takes time to explain how it works. He shows how to use the safety belts. He explains each of the instruments and what they do. He shows how the controls work. He makes each passenger feel good about trying a new experience. And he tells his passengers that they will have a chance to fly the glider themselves once they are safely in the air. The glider Howard usually flies can carry two people. One sits in the front and one behind. Howard, as the pilot, rides behind the passenger. Howard and the passenger both have a complete set of flight instruments and controls. The glider is launched with safety as the first consideration. A person on the ground provides support for both the pilot of the glider and the pilot of the plane that will pull the glider into the air. That person controls the launch and uses hand signs to communicate with both pilots. When everything is ready the sign to go is given. The person on the ground runs along with the glider to keep its wings level for the first few feet. VOICE TWO: The take-off area is covered with grass. So the ride is not very smooth. Howard tells his passengers to expect to feel many bumps in the first few moments. The glider moves faster and faster, as the airplane pulling it gathers speed. Within seconds both aircraft lift off the ground. The ride now is very smooth. You can hear the sound of the airplane engine in the plane that is pulling the glider. VOICE ONE: It takes a few minutes to reach the height where the rope holding the glider to the airplane is released. When the rope is released, the glider turns to the right. The airplane goes left. Now no loud sound is heard in the glider, only the sound of the air passing under the glider's wings. The clear plastic glass that covers the front of the glider provides a beautiful sight in all directions. The ground far below is green. There are dark green trees, green corn, and grass. A farm is seen in the distance. And, far below is the airport, with aircraft lined up in a row. VOICE TWO: Howard looks to make sure there are no other aircraft in the area. Then he tells his passenger to place his right hand on the stick and his feet on the rudder pedals. Howard takes his hands and feet off the controls. Howard tells the passenger, "Now, turn to the left. Move the stick to the left and press the left rudder pedal at the same time...stick and rudder together always. Now try pushing the stick forward a little. Now turn to the right." Howard sounds happy. Then he says one of the most exciting things the passenger will ever hear...., "Now you are really flying...all by yourself." (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (THEME) (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every sport has a history. But few sports have a history that goes back one-thousand years. It was then that a Roman Catholic monk built a device to fly. History records say his name was Eilmer of Malmesbury England. He reportedly jumped from a building with wings he had built. He floated down for about two hundred meters before crashing. He broke both his legs. It was not a good flight, but it was a beginning. One of the most famous inventors and artists designed a flying device in the fifteen-century. The Italian inventor-artist was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo designed bird-like wings for a man to wear. His drawings survive to this day. VOICE TWO: Real flight by humans developed very slowly because early inventors like Leonardo tried to make wings that moved. Leonardo and other inventors studied birds. They used the birds' method of flight for their designs. Their idea was that a person would wear wings on their arms and move them up and down just as a bird's wings move. The idea always failed. We now know that a human does not have enough power to move wings fast enough to fly. The first real flights took place in Eighteen-Forty- Nine. British inventor George Cayley built a winged machine called a glider that carried a man. But it crashed after a short flight. In Eighteen-Eighty- Three, an American, John J. Montgomery, made the first, controlled flight in a glider. In fact, he made several. Then Otto Lilienthal of Germany made about two-thousand flights in simple gliders during the Eighteen-Nineties. He built a tall hill from which to launch his flights. Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright flew several kinds of gliders. They also improved methods of controlling their glider flights. Their successful experiments with gliders led to the first aircraft powered by an engine. VOICE ONE: The gliders of long ago could only stay in the air for limited amounts of time. Usually they were launched from a high place. They slowly floated or glided down. Modern technology has made the glider a high performance machine. It can stay up for many hours. It can reach many kilometers into the sky by riding on the hot air that rises from the ground. It can carry one, two or more people. Modern gliders are built from space-age lightweight metals, or plastics. They can carry radios, oxygen needed for extreme heights, and many flight instruments. Many modern gliders or sailplanes look more like insects than birds. They have narrow, rounded bodies, with long thin tails. Their wings are extremely long too. There is very little room inside. The pilot does not sit straight. The seat permits the pilot to almost lie down in an area enclosed by a plastic top. The top is clear. This lets the pilot see very well in every direction. VOICE TWO: A pilot controls a sailplane or glider much the same as other aircraft. Control instruments called ailerons are built into each wing. With one aileron raised and the other lowered, the plane will turn in the direction of the raised aileron. Another control is on the tail. It is called the elevator. It swings up and down. The elevator makes the plane move up or down. The tail also has a control that moves from side to side. It is called a rudder. It helps direct the plane. The pilot controls the rudder with foot pedals. The pilot uses a device called a stick to control the ailerons and elevators. Moving the stick from side to side moves the ailerons. Moving the stick forward points the glider down. Pulling back on the stick makes it go up. In front of the pilot are several instruments. One shows how high the glider is. Another shows the air speed. Another is a compass that shows what direction the glider is flying. And another tells if the glider is going up, or down. VOICE ONE: The modern glider is like those designed hundreds of years ago. It has no power. It can get into the air only with help. In the United States, a powered airplane usually pulls the glider into the air. The glider is usually pulled up to one thousand meters. Then the rope used to pull the glider is released. The glider is on its own. Every school child knows that hot air rises. Glider pilots learn this fact. They learn how to use it. As hot air rises from the ground, it creates enough pressure to permit a modern glider to rise. It provides the power to keep the glider in the air. When the glider has risen as high as the pilot wants, he steers the glider away from the hot air. A glider pilot who has enough rising hot air can keep the aircraft in the air for several hours. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Howard Hoadley lives in the southern state of North Carolina. Howard loves to fly. When he is not flying gliders, he is talking about flying gliders. Or he is talking about glider equipment, good places to fly gliders and about his friends who fly gliders. He has very little interest in flying airplanes that have engines. He thinks they make too much noise. Flying with Howard is safe. It is also fun. Howard flies from a very small airport in beautiful North Carolina farm land. Crops grow next to the landing field. There are powered airplanes at the airport but Howard only cares about the ones that pull the gliders into the air. On weekends and holidays, gliders land and take off every few minutes. VOICE ONE: If you have never been in a glider before, Howard always takes time to explain how it works. He shows how to use the safety belts. He explains each of the instruments and what they do. He shows how the controls work. He makes each passenger feel good about trying a new experience. And he tells his passengers that they will have a chance to fly the glider themselves once they are safely in the air. The glider Howard usually flies can carry two people. One sits in the front and one behind. Howard, as the pilot, rides behind the passenger. Howard and the passenger both have a complete set of flight instruments and controls. The glider is launched with safety as the first consideration. A person on the ground provides support for both the pilot of the glider and the pilot of the plane that will pull the glider into the air. That person controls the launch and uses hand signs to communicate with both pilots. When everything is ready the sign to go is given. The person on the ground runs along with the glider to keep its wings level for the first few feet. VOICE TWO: The take-off area is covered with grass. So the ride is not very smooth. Howard tells his passengers to expect to feel many bumps in the first few moments. The glider moves faster and faster, as the airplane pulling it gathers speed. Within seconds both aircraft lift off the ground. The ride now is very smooth. You can hear the sound of the airplane engine in the plane that is pulling the glider. VOICE ONE: It takes a few minutes to reach the height where the rope holding the glider to the airplane is released. When the rope is released, the glider turns to the right. The airplane goes left. Now no loud sound is heard in the glider, only the sound of the air passing under the glider's wings. The clear plastic glass that covers the front of the glider provides a beautiful sight in all directions. The ground far below is green. There are dark green trees, green corn, and grass. A farm is seen in the distance. And, far below is the airport, with aircraft lined up in a row. VOICE TWO: Howard looks to make sure there are no other aircraft in the area. Then he tells his passenger to place his right hand on the stick and his feet on the rudder pedals. Howard takes his hands and feet off the controls. Howard tells the passenger, "Now, turn to the left. Move the stick to the left and press the left rudder pedal at the same time...stick and rudder together always. Now try pushing the stick forward a little. Now turn to the right." Howard sounds happy. Then he says one of the most exciting things the passenger will ever hear...., "Now you are really flying...all by yourself." (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT -  Post Polio Syndrome
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 14, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Polio is a disease of the muscles and the nervous system. It is caused by a virus and spreads through human waste. Health workers believe they may soon be able to end polio forever. The key to ending polio is preventing the disease in children. There are many cases of polio in only six countries. They are Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria and Pakistan. Health ministers in these countries have agreed to immunize two-hundred-fifty-million children against polio this year. To be immunized against polio, children must swallow a few drops of medicine several times while they are still young. Polio can cause people to lose the ability to move their arms or legs or even to breathe. Some people die. But many people recover and become healthy again. The World Health Organization estimates that there are about twenty-million people around the world who are survivors of polio. One polio survivor in Ghana wrote to VOA to say he is now a very good football player. But W-H-O health workers say polio survivors need to understand a condition called “post polio syndrome.” Between fifteen and forty years after a person has polio, new problems may appear. These problems may include being very tired and having weak or painful muscles. A person may have trouble sleeping, breathing or doing normal activities. There is no way to cure post polio syndrome. People who have these problems may need to be less active. They may need to use special equipment like a stick for walking or do special exercises to make their muscles stronger. They should stop any activity that causes pain or tiredness after ten minutes. There is no medicine to help these conditions. Some polio survivors may be taking medicines for other problems. Sometimes those other medicines may also cause people to become tired or weak. Polio survivors should always talk to a health care worker or doctor before starting or stopping any medicine that might increase their chances of getting post polio syndrome. Experts say the best way to prevent post polio syndrome is to stay healthy. This means eating healthy food, not becoming too fat, not smoking and not drinking too many alcoholic drinks. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #58 - Andrew Jackson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 15, 2004 (Theme) Vice President John C. Calhoun Broadcast: April 15, 2004 (Theme) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we reported in our last program, Andrew Jackson became president of the United States in March, eighteen-twenty-nine. Thousands of his supporters came to Washington to see him sworn-in. Many were there, however, only to get a government job. They expected President Jackson to turn out all the government workers who did not support him in the election. The Jackson people wanted those jobs for themselves. VOICE TWO: Most of the jobs were in the Post Office Department, headed by Postmaster General John McLean. McLean told Jackson that if he had to remove postmasters who took part in the election, he would remove those who worked for Jackson...as well as those who worked for the re-election of President John Quincy Adams. Jackson removed McLean as Postmaster General. William Barry of Kentucky was named to the position. Barry was willing to give jobs to Jackson's supporters. But he, too, refused to take jobs from people who had done nothing wrong. VOICE ONE: Many government workers had held their jobs for a long time. Some of them did very little work. Some were just too old. A few were drunk most of the time. And some were even found to have stolen money from the government. These were the people President Jackson wanted to remove. And he learned it was difficult for him to take a job away from someone who really needed it. VOICE TWO: One old man came to Jackson from Albany, New York. He told Jackson he was postmaster in that city. He said the politicians wanted to take his job. The old man said he had no other way to make a living. When the president did not answer, the old man began to take off his coat. "I am going to show you my wounds," he said. "I got them fighting the British with General George Washington during the war for independence." The next day, a New York congressman took President Jackson a list of names of government workers who were to be removed. The name of the old man from Albany was on the list. He had not voted for Jackson. "By the eternal!" shouted Jackson. "I will not remove that old man. Do you know he carries a pound of British lead in his body?" VOICE ONE: The job of another old soldier was threatened. The man had a large family and no other job. He had lost a leg on the battlefield during the war for independence. He had not voted for Jackson, either. But that did not seem to matter to the president. "If he lost a leg fighting for his country," Jackson said, "that is vote enough for me. He will keep his job." Jackson's supporters who failed to get the jobs they expected had to return home. VOICE TWO: Next, the president had to deal with a split that developed between himself and Vice President John C. Calhoun. The trouble grew out of a problem in the cabinet. Three of the cabinet members were supporters and friends of Calhoun. These were Treasury Secretary Samuel Ingham, Attorney General John Berrien, and Navy Secretary John Branch. A fourth member of the cabinet, Secretary of State Martin van Buren, opposed Calhoun. The fifth member of the cabinet was Jackson's close friend, John Eaton. Eaton had been married a few months before Jackson became president. Stories said he and the young woman had lived together before they were married. Vice President Calhoun tried to use the issue to force Eaton from the cabinet. He started a personal campaign against Mister Eaton. Calhoun's wife, and the wives of his three men in the cabinet, refused to have anything to do with her. This made President Jackson angry, because he liked the young woman. VOICE ONE: The split between Jackson and Calhoun deepened over another issue. Jackson learned that Calhoun -- as a member of former President James Monroe's cabinet -- had called for Jackson's arrest. Calhoun wanted to punish Jackson for his military campaign into Spanish Florida in eighteen-eighteen. Another thing that pushed the two men apart was Calhoun's belief that the rights of the states were stronger than the rights of the federal government. His feelings became well-known during a debate on a congressional bill. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-twenty-eight, Congress had passed a bill that -- among other things -- put taxes on imports. The purpose of the tax was to protect American industries. The south opposed the bill mainly because it had almost no industry. It was an agricultural area. Import taxes would only raise the price of products the south imported. The south claimed that the import tax was not constitutional. It said the constitution did not give the federal government the right to make a protective tax. The state of South Carolina -- Calhoun's state -- refused to pay the import tax. Calhoun wrote a long statement defending South Carolina's action. In the statement, he developed what was called the "Doctrine of Nullification." This idea declared that the power of the federal government was not supreme. VOICE ONE: Calhoun noted that the federal government was formed by an agreement among the independent states. That agreement, he said, was the Constitution. In it, he said, the powers of the states and the powers of the federal government were divided. But, he said, supreme power -- sovereignty -- was not divided. Calhoun argued that supreme power belonged to the states. He said they did not surrender this power when they ratified the Constitution. In any dispute between the states and the federal government, he said, the states should decide what is right. If the federal government passed a law that was not constitutional, then that law was null and void. It had no meaning or power. VOICE TWO: Then Calhoun brought up the question of the method to decide if a law was constitutional. He said the power to make such a decision was held by the states. He said the Supreme Court did not have the power, because it was part of the federal government. Calhoun argued that if the federal government passed a law that any state thought was not constitutional, or against its interests, that state could temporarily suspend the law. The other states of the union, Calhoun said, would then be asked to decide the question of the law's constitutionality. If two-thirds of the states approved the law, the complaining state would have to accept it, or leave the union. If less than two-thirds of the states approved it, then the law would be rejected. None of the states would have to obey it. It would be nullified -- cancelled. VOICE ONE: The idea of nullification was debated in the Senate by Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Hayne spoke first. He stated that there was no greater evil than giving more power to the federal government. The major point of his speech could be put into a few words: liberty first, union afterwards. Webster spoke next. He declared that the Constitution was not the creature of the state governments. It was more than an agreement among states. It was the law of the land. Supreme power was divided, Webster said, between the states and the union. The federal government had received from the people the same right to govern as the states. VOICE TWO: Webster declared that the states had no right to reject an act of the federal government and no legal right to leave the union. If a dispute should develop between a state and the federal government, he said, the dispute should be settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. Webster said Hayne had spoken foolishly when he used the words: liberty first, union afterwards. They could not be separated, Webster said. It was liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable. VOICE ONE: No one really knew how President Jackson felt about the question of nullification. He had said nothing during the debate. Did he support Calhoun's idea. Or did he agree with Webster. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we reported in our last program, Andrew Jackson became president of the United States in March, eighteen-twenty-nine. Thousands of his supporters came to Washington to see him sworn-in. Many were there, however, only to get a government job. They expected President Jackson to turn out all the government workers who did not support him in the election. The Jackson people wanted those jobs for themselves. VOICE TWO: Most of the jobs were in the Post Office Department, headed by Postmaster General John McLean. McLean told Jackson that if he had to remove postmasters who took part in the election, he would remove those who worked for Jackson...as well as those who worked for the re-election of President John Quincy Adams. Jackson removed McLean as Postmaster General. William Barry of Kentucky was named to the position. Barry was willing to give jobs to Jackson's supporters. But he, too, refused to take jobs from people who had done nothing wrong. VOICE ONE: Many government workers had held their jobs for a long time. Some of them did very little work. Some were just too old. A few were drunk most of the time. And some were even found to have stolen money from the government. These were the people President Jackson wanted to remove. And he learned it was difficult for him to take a job away from someone who really needed it. VOICE TWO: One old man came to Jackson from Albany, New York. He told Jackson he was postmaster in that city. He said the politicians wanted to take his job. The old man said he had no other way to make a living. When the president did not answer, the old man began to take off his coat. "I am going to show you my wounds," he said. "I got them fighting the British with General George Washington during the war for independence." The next day, a New York congressman took President Jackson a list of names of government workers who were to be removed. The name of the old man from Albany was on the list. He had not voted for Jackson. "By the eternal!" shouted Jackson. "I will not remove that old man. Do you know he carries a pound of British lead in his body?" VOICE ONE: The job of another old soldier was threatened. The man had a large family and no other job. He had lost a leg on the battlefield during the war for independence. He had not voted for Jackson, either. But that did not seem to matter to the president. "If he lost a leg fighting for his country," Jackson said, "that is vote enough for me. He will keep his job." Jackson's supporters who failed to get the jobs they expected had to return home. VOICE TWO: Next, the president had to deal with a split that developed between himself and Vice President John C. Calhoun. The trouble grew out of a problem in the cabinet. Three of the cabinet members were supporters and friends of Calhoun. These were Treasury Secretary Samuel Ingham, Attorney General John Berrien, and Navy Secretary John Branch. A fourth member of the cabinet, Secretary of State Martin van Buren, opposed Calhoun. The fifth member of the cabinet was Jackson's close friend, John Eaton. Eaton had been married a few months before Jackson became president. Stories said he and the young woman had lived together before they were married. Vice President Calhoun tried to use the issue to force Eaton from the cabinet. He started a personal campaign against Mister Eaton. Calhoun's wife, and the wives of his three men in the cabinet, refused to have anything to do with her. This made President Jackson angry, because he liked the young woman. VOICE ONE: The split between Jackson and Calhoun deepened over another issue. Jackson learned that Calhoun -- as a member of former President James Monroe's cabinet -- had called for Jackson's arrest. Calhoun wanted to punish Jackson for his military campaign into Spanish Florida in eighteen-eighteen. Another thing that pushed the two men apart was Calhoun's belief that the rights of the states were stronger than the rights of the federal government. His feelings became well-known during a debate on a congressional bill. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-twenty-eight, Congress had passed a bill that -- among other things -- put taxes on imports. The purpose of the tax was to protect American industries. The south opposed the bill mainly because it had almost no industry. It was an agricultural area. Import taxes would only raise the price of products the south imported. The south claimed that the import tax was not constitutional. It said the constitution did not give the federal government the right to make a protective tax. The state of South Carolina -- Calhoun's state -- refused to pay the import tax. Calhoun wrote a long statement defending South Carolina's action. In the statement, he developed what was called the "Doctrine of Nullification." This idea declared that the power of the federal government was not supreme. VOICE ONE: Calhoun noted that the federal government was formed by an agreement among the independent states. That agreement, he said, was the Constitution. In it, he said, the powers of the states and the powers of the federal government were divided. But, he said, supreme power -- sovereignty -- was not divided. Calhoun argued that supreme power belonged to the states. He said they did not surrender this power when they ratified the Constitution. In any dispute between the states and the federal government, he said, the states should decide what is right. If the federal government passed a law that was not constitutional, then that law was null and void. It had no meaning or power. VOICE TWO: Then Calhoun brought up the question of the method to decide if a law was constitutional. He said the power to make such a decision was held by the states. He said the Supreme Court did not have the power, because it was part of the federal government. Calhoun argued that if the federal government passed a law that any state thought was not constitutional, or against its interests, that state could temporarily suspend the law. The other states of the union, Calhoun said, would then be asked to decide the question of the law's constitutionality. If two-thirds of the states approved the law, the complaining state would have to accept it, or leave the union. If less than two-thirds of the states approved it, then the law would be rejected. None of the states would have to obey it. It would be nullified -- cancelled. VOICE ONE: The idea of nullification was debated in the Senate by Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Robert Hayne of South Carolina. Hayne spoke first. He stated that there was no greater evil than giving more power to the federal government. The major point of his speech could be put into a few words: liberty first, union afterwards. Webster spoke next. He declared that the Constitution was not the creature of the state governments. It was more than an agreement among states. It was the law of the land. Supreme power was divided, Webster said, between the states and the union. The federal government had received from the people the same right to govern as the states. VOICE TWO: Webster declared that the states had no right to reject an act of the federal government and no legal right to leave the union. If a dispute should develop between a state and the federal government, he said, the dispute should be settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. Webster said Hayne had spoken foolishly when he used the words: liberty first, union afterwards. They could not be separated, Webster said. It was liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable. VOICE ONE: No one really knew how President Jackson felt about the question of nullification. He had said nothing during the debate. Did he support Calhoun's idea. Or did he agree with Webster. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Television and Attention Problems
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new study suggests that very young children who watch a lot of television may have attention problems later in school. Children with attention problems cannot sit still or control their actions. They talk too much, lose things, forget easily and are not able to finish tasks. People with attention problems may suffer a condition known as Attention Deficit Disorder, or A.D.D. Experts say the cause of A.D.D involves chemicals in the brain. Teachers say many children in the United States are showing signs of the disorder. Some education researchers have been saying for years that watching television at a very young age could change the normal development of the brain. For example, they say that children who watch a lot of television are not able to sit and read for an extended period of time. The new study tested the idea that television watching by very young children is linked to attention problems by the age of seven. It involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred children. There were two groups of children, ages one and three. Researchers at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington reported the results in the publication Pediatrics. They asked the parents how often the children watched television. The parents also described their children’s actions at the age of seven using a method that can tell if someone suffers attention deficit disorders. The children who watched a lot of television at an early age were most likely to have attention problems. Every hour of watching television increased the chances of having attention problems by about ten per cent. For example, children who watched three hours a day were thirty percent more likely to have attention problems than those who watched no television. The researchers say that all the children with attention problems might not have A.D.D. But they still could face major learning problems in school. The findings support advice by a group of children’s doctors that children under the age of two should not watch television. One of the researchers said there are other reasons why children should not watch television. Earlier studies have linked it with children becoming too fat and too aggressive. Other experts say the new study is important, but more work needs to be done to confirm the findings and better explain the cause and effect. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: April 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new study suggests that very young children who watch a lot of television may have attention problems later in school. Children with attention problems cannot sit still or control their actions. They talk too much, lose things, forget easily and are not able to finish tasks. People with attention problems may suffer a condition known as Attention Deficit Disorder, or A.D.D. Experts say the cause of A.D.D involves chemicals in the brain. Teachers say many children in the United States are showing signs of the disorder. Some education researchers have been saying for years that watching television at a very young age could change the normal development of the brain. For example, they say that children who watch a lot of television are not able to sit and read for an extended period of time. The new study tested the idea that television watching by very young children is linked to attention problems by the age of seven. It involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred children. There were two groups of children, ages one and three. Researchers at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington reported the results in the publication Pediatrics. They asked the parents how often the children watched television. The parents also described their children’s actions at the age of seven using a method that can tell if someone suffers attention deficit disorders. The children who watched a lot of television at an early age were most likely to have attention problems. Every hour of watching television increased the chances of having attention problems by about ten per cent. For example, children who watched three hours a day were thirty percent more likely to have attention problems than those who watched no television. The researchers say that all the children with attention problems might not have A.D.D. But they still could face major learning problems in school. The findings support advice by a group of children’s doctors that children under the age of two should not watch television. One of the researchers said there are other reasons why children should not watch television. Earlier studies have linked it with children becoming too fat and too aggressive. Other experts say the new study is important, but more work needs to be done to confirm the findings and better explain the cause and effect. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 15, 2004 - Lida Baker: Stress in American English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: April 15, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we take some of the stress out of learning which words to stress in American English. RS: We turn to Lida Baker. She's an instructor at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She says the basic rule when speaking is to put emphasis on what she calls "content words" like nouns and verbs -- the words that convey information. BAKER: "Words that are part of the grammatical structure of the language tend to be unstressed. So words like articles and prepositions and pronouns. So let me give you an example, if I say something like 'I have to go to the store,' the most prominent word in that sentence is the word 'store.' It's a noun. It's also stressed because it is the last content word of the sentence. "One of the normal patterns of American English is that you stress the last content word, the last information-conveying word, of the sentence. Now in contrast to that, let's look at the words that are not stressed. The very first word is a pronoun. 'I' tends to be unstressed. The next two words, 'have to,' if we were to write those words out, we would write 'have to.' In conversation we run them together and we pronounce them very quickly, and we say 'hafta.'" AA: "Like h-a-f-t-a." BAKER: "Exactly." AA: "And that's perfectly acceptable." BAKER: "It's more than acceptable, it's required. This is what native speakers of English do. And by the way, a lot of people all over the world learn English by reading. They memorize lists of vocabulary and they're tested on their reading skills and so on. Well, when I get them in my classroom and they're in an English-speaking country for the first time in their lives, and they're hearing the language all around them, they don't understand a word. And one of the reasons they can't understand the spoken language is that they're not familiar with this alternating stress and unstressed pattern." RS: As Lida Baker explained, the word you choose to stress also lets you change the focus of a sentence in order to convey a specific meaning. BAKER: "Let's take a simple sentence like this: 'I put my red hat away.' Now what was the focus word in that phrase?" AA: "Hat." BAKER: "Right, because 'hat' is the last content word of the sentence. So if you were to ask me, 'what did you put away?' I would answer you, 'I put my red hat away.' But what if I say it like this, 'I put my red hat AWAY.' What question is that answering?" ARDITT: "What did you do with your red hat?" BAKER: "Or 'where did you put your red hat,' right? Now what if I say it like this, 'EYE put my red hat away.' What question is that answering?" AA: "Who put your red hat away." BAKER: "That's right. Let's move the focus one more time and say it like this, 'I put MY red hat away' ... 'I put MY red hat away.'" AA: "As opposed to someone else's." BAKER: "Right, so we can voluntarily focus on any word in the sentence that we want to in order to convey a specific meaning." AA: "And, in fact, if you're not familiar with the sort of natural patterns and you stress the wrong words, you might end up confusing the listener." BAKER: "That's exactly the point. As a matter of fact, people who are learning English have a tendency, for example, to stress pronouns. For them the normal stress pattern that they employ would be 'EYE put my red hat away.' And to a native speaker of English, as you say, that would be very confusing, because they would be wondering 'well, why are you stressing the pronoun there?'" AA: One way Lida Baker helps her students learn normal speech patterns is by listening to music and singing along. She says music also helps people remember things. She says the basic rule when speaking is to put emphasis on "content words" like nouns and verbs -- the words that convey information. RS: She plays classic songs, like one that Julie Andrews made famous in the movie soundtrack to "My Fair Lady." BAKER: "'The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly in the Plain' is a great example of a normal speech pattern. It's divided into two thought groups, 'the rain in Spain,' 'falls mainly in the plain.' Each thought group has a focus word -- in fact it has two focus words, rain/Spain, mainly/plain. And the function words -- the prepositions and the articles and so on -- are not stressed, and so they're what we call reduced. They're pronounced at a lower pitch, they're pronounced quickly ... MUSIC: "The Rain in Spain" RS: If you have a question for Lida Baker at UCLA's American Language Center, send it to us -- she might be able to answer it on the air. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. [Originally on VOA December 12, 2001] Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: April 15, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we take some of the stress out of learning which words to stress in American English. RS: We turn to Lida Baker. She's an instructor at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She says the basic rule when speaking is to put emphasis on what she calls "content words" like nouns and verbs -- the words that convey information. BAKER: "Words that are part of the grammatical structure of the language tend to be unstressed. So words like articles and prepositions and pronouns. So let me give you an example, if I say something like 'I have to go to the store,' the most prominent word in that sentence is the word 'store.' It's a noun. It's also stressed because it is the last content word of the sentence. "One of the normal patterns of American English is that you stress the last content word, the last information-conveying word, of the sentence. Now in contrast to that, let's look at the words that are not stressed. The very first word is a pronoun. 'I' tends to be unstressed. The next two words, 'have to,' if we were to write those words out, we would write 'have to.' In conversation we run them together and we pronounce them very quickly, and we say 'hafta.'" AA: "Like h-a-f-t-a." BAKER: "Exactly." AA: "And that's perfectly acceptable." BAKER: "It's more than acceptable, it's required. This is what native speakers of English do. And by the way, a lot of people all over the world learn English by reading. They memorize lists of vocabulary and they're tested on their reading skills and so on. Well, when I get them in my classroom and they're in an English-speaking country for the first time in their lives, and they're hearing the language all around them, they don't understand a word. And one of the reasons they can't understand the spoken language is that they're not familiar with this alternating stress and unstressed pattern." RS: As Lida Baker explained, the word you choose to stress also lets you change the focus of a sentence in order to convey a specific meaning. BAKER: "Let's take a simple sentence like this: 'I put my red hat away.' Now what was the focus word in that phrase?" AA: "Hat." BAKER: "Right, because 'hat' is the last content word of the sentence. So if you were to ask me, 'what did you put away?' I would answer you, 'I put my red hat away.' But what if I say it like this, 'I put my red hat AWAY.' What question is that answering?" ARDITT: "What did you do with your red hat?" BAKER: "Or 'where did you put your red hat,' right? Now what if I say it like this, 'EYE put my red hat away.' What question is that answering?" AA: "Who put your red hat away." BAKER: "That's right. Let's move the focus one more time and say it like this, 'I put MY red hat away' ... 'I put MY red hat away.'" AA: "As opposed to someone else's." BAKER: "Right, so we can voluntarily focus on any word in the sentence that we want to in order to convey a specific meaning." AA: "And, in fact, if you're not familiar with the sort of natural patterns and you stress the wrong words, you might end up confusing the listener." BAKER: "That's exactly the point. As a matter of fact, people who are learning English have a tendency, for example, to stress pronouns. For them the normal stress pattern that they employ would be 'EYE put my red hat away.' And to a native speaker of English, as you say, that would be very confusing, because they would be wondering 'well, why are you stressing the pronoun there?'" AA: One way Lida Baker helps her students learn normal speech patterns is by listening to music and singing along. She says music also helps people remember things. She says the basic rule when speaking is to put emphasis on "content words" like nouns and verbs -- the words that convey information. RS: She plays classic songs, like one that Julie Andrews made famous in the movie soundtrack to "My Fair Lady." BAKER: "'The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly in the Plain' is a great example of a normal speech pattern. It's divided into two thought groups, 'the rain in Spain,' 'falls mainly in the plain.' Each thought group has a focus word -- in fact it has two focus words, rain/Spain, mainly/plain. And the function words -- the prepositions and the articles and so on -- are not stressed, and so they're what we call reduced. They're pronounced at a lower pitch, they're pronounced quickly ... MUSIC: "The Rain in Spain" RS: If you have a question for Lida Baker at UCLA's American Language Center, send it to us -- she might be able to answer it on the air. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. [Originally on VOA December 12, 2001] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Freddy Adu / Metric System / Sesame Street Anniversary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 16, 2004 HOST: sesame street Cast Broadcast: April 16, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from a television show for children that has been broadcasting for thirty-five years. And we answer a question about the metric system. But first, we tell about an exciting new soccer football player. Freddy Adu HOST: Freddy Adu was born in the West African nation of Ghana fourteen years ago. On April sixth, he became the youngest professional athlete to play in a major American sport in more than one-hundred years. Shep O’Neal tells us more about him. ANNCR: Freddy Adu smiles a lot. He is a nice young man who happens to play soccer football very well. He plays well enough to be a member of the Washington D.C. United Major League Soccer Team. As a result, Freddy is earning a great deal of money. Soccer fans bought every ticket for sale on April sixth to watch Freddy play his first game as a professional. The D.C. United team played the San Jose Earthquakes. The D.C. United coach did not send Freddy into the game until the sixty-first minute. When he did, the crowd cheered. Many fans waved the flag of Ghana. Many more called his name -- “Freddy! Freddy!” Freddy did nothing unusual in the game. He did not score, but he helped his team win the game. Many soccer fans are excited thinking about what Freddy Adu may do in the future. Soccer experts say they love to watch Freddy play. They say he does not just move the ball. He dances with it. He is very fast. He moves the ball as fast as he can run. He can kick extremely well with either foot and is especially good with his left foot. Freddy did all of these things many times in the past few years while playing for the United States Youth Soccer National League. When he reached the age of thirteen, professional soccer teams in Europe offered him large amounts of money to play for them. But Freddy Adu wanted to play for a team close to his home. He lives with his family near Washington, D.C. Many critics say Freddy Adu is too young to play professional soccer. Freddy just smiles. He says he wants to be the best soccer player he can be and to help his team. Professional soccer players want Freddy Adu to succeed. They want him to play well and to help create excitement about soccer in the United States. Freddy is already creating that excitement. The future will tell if he can create even more excitement as a professional soccer player. Metric System HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Spain. Pedro-Vicente Bellosta y Ferrer asks if the United States has proposals to use the metric system some day. The answer to this question is yes. The United States is the only industrial country in the world that does not use the metric system as its main system of measurement. Congress approved a law in nineteen-seventy-five that called for the use of the metric system. It said the United States should begin measuring in kilometers, liters and hectares instead of miles, gallons and acres. Lawmakers knew that American companies would lose money if they made non-metric products for sale when most other nations used the metric system. And foreign importers did reject American goods that were not made in metric measurements. But Americans resisted such change. So Congress changed the Metric Conversion Act in nineteen-eighty-eight. The new law gave the federal government the responsibility to help industry change to the metric system of measurement. But the law did not require businesses to change. Lawmakers believed that companies would make the change if they recognized the need to do so. Kenneth Butcher of the Commerce Department heads the federal government’s metric program office. He says more and more American companies have changed to the metric system. Companies that export products or produce goods in other countries have been using metric measurements for years. The American public seems to be supporting a change to metric in recent years. For example, a federal law requires all product packaging in the United States to include both metric weight and non-metric weight. Mister Butcher says about five-hundred American companies now support a proposal that would change the law so companies would not have to provide the non-metric weight on the package. Only the metric weight would appear on the package. He also says that most American states support this idea, too. Mister Butcher says his office has provided American schools with materials to teach the metric system for many years. He says this effort is now showing results as young American business leaders are seeking to change to the metric system. Sesame Street Anniversary (MUSIC) HOST: Do you recognize this music? We are not surprised! The children’s television show “Sesame Street” is broadcast in more than one-hundred-twenty countries. “Sesame Street” began its thirty-fifth year earlier this month. Gwen Outen tells about the show and plays some its many famous songs. ANNCR: In the late nineteen-sixties, Joan Ganz Cooney was dissatisfied with American television programs for young children. She wanted to make them educational and fun. She especially hoped to reach poor children. Mizz Cooney and officials from the Carnegie Corporation set up the Children’s Television Workshop. They developed “Sesame Street” with the help of Jim Henson. He created the famous puppets on “Sesame Street.” They are called the Muppets. One of the earliest and most popular Muppets is Kermit the Frog. Here Kermit sings a song about the color of his skin. It is called “Bein’ Green.” (MUSIC) Humans also live on “Sesame Street.” Bob McGrath has lived on the street since its beginning. He plays a music teacher. Here Bob sings the popular song “People in Your Neighborhood.” (MUSIC) In the late nineteen-eighties, a furry red monster puppet named Elmo arrived on “Sesame Street.” He has since become a huge star. We leave you now with Elmo and some of his Muppet friends singing “Elmo’s Song.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from a television show for children that has been broadcasting for thirty-five years. And we answer a question about the metric system. But first, we tell about an exciting new soccer football player. Freddy Adu HOST: Freddy Adu was born in the West African nation of Ghana fourteen years ago. On April sixth, he became the youngest professional athlete to play in a major American sport in more than one-hundred years. Shep O’Neal tells us more about him. ANNCR: Freddy Adu smiles a lot. He is a nice young man who happens to play soccer football very well. He plays well enough to be a member of the Washington D.C. United Major League Soccer Team. As a result, Freddy is earning a great deal of money. Soccer fans bought every ticket for sale on April sixth to watch Freddy play his first game as a professional. The D.C. United team played the San Jose Earthquakes. The D.C. United coach did not send Freddy into the game until the sixty-first minute. When he did, the crowd cheered. Many fans waved the flag of Ghana. Many more called his name -- “Freddy! Freddy!” Freddy did nothing unusual in the game. He did not score, but he helped his team win the game. Many soccer fans are excited thinking about what Freddy Adu may do in the future. Soccer experts say they love to watch Freddy play. They say he does not just move the ball. He dances with it. He is very fast. He moves the ball as fast as he can run. He can kick extremely well with either foot and is especially good with his left foot. Freddy did all of these things many times in the past few years while playing for the United States Youth Soccer National League. When he reached the age of thirteen, professional soccer teams in Europe offered him large amounts of money to play for them. But Freddy Adu wanted to play for a team close to his home. He lives with his family near Washington, D.C. Many critics say Freddy Adu is too young to play professional soccer. Freddy just smiles. He says he wants to be the best soccer player he can be and to help his team. Professional soccer players want Freddy Adu to succeed. They want him to play well and to help create excitement about soccer in the United States. Freddy is already creating that excitement. The future will tell if he can create even more excitement as a professional soccer player. Metric System HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Spain. Pedro-Vicente Bellosta y Ferrer asks if the United States has proposals to use the metric system some day. The answer to this question is yes. The United States is the only industrial country in the world that does not use the metric system as its main system of measurement. Congress approved a law in nineteen-seventy-five that called for the use of the metric system. It said the United States should begin measuring in kilometers, liters and hectares instead of miles, gallons and acres. Lawmakers knew that American companies would lose money if they made non-metric products for sale when most other nations used the metric system. And foreign importers did reject American goods that were not made in metric measurements. But Americans resisted such change. So Congress changed the Metric Conversion Act in nineteen-eighty-eight. The new law gave the federal government the responsibility to help industry change to the metric system of measurement. But the law did not require businesses to change. Lawmakers believed that companies would make the change if they recognized the need to do so. Kenneth Butcher of the Commerce Department heads the federal government’s metric program office. He says more and more American companies have changed to the metric system. Companies that export products or produce goods in other countries have been using metric measurements for years. The American public seems to be supporting a change to metric in recent years. For example, a federal law requires all product packaging in the United States to include both metric weight and non-metric weight. Mister Butcher says about five-hundred American companies now support a proposal that would change the law so companies would not have to provide the non-metric weight on the package. Only the metric weight would appear on the package. He also says that most American states support this idea, too. Mister Butcher says his office has provided American schools with materials to teach the metric system for many years. He says this effort is now showing results as young American business leaders are seeking to change to the metric system. Sesame Street Anniversary (MUSIC) HOST: Do you recognize this music? We are not surprised! The children’s television show “Sesame Street” is broadcast in more than one-hundred-twenty countries. “Sesame Street” began its thirty-fifth year earlier this month. Gwen Outen tells about the show and plays some its many famous songs. ANNCR: In the late nineteen-sixties, Joan Ganz Cooney was dissatisfied with American television programs for young children. She wanted to make them educational and fun. She especially hoped to reach poor children. Mizz Cooney and officials from the Carnegie Corporation set up the Children’s Television Workshop. They developed “Sesame Street” with the help of Jim Henson. He created the famous puppets on “Sesame Street.” They are called the Muppets. One of the earliest and most popular Muppets is Kermit the Frog. Here Kermit sings a song about the color of his skin. It is called “Bein’ Green.” (MUSIC) Humans also live on “Sesame Street.” Bob McGrath has lived on the street since its beginning. He plays a music teacher. Here Bob sings the popular song “People in Your Neighborhood.” (MUSIC) In the late nineteen-eighties, a furry red monster puppet named Elmo arrived on “Sesame Street.” He has since become a huge star. We leave you now with Elmo and some of his Muppet friends singing “Elmo’s Song.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Tax Time in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 16, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. April fifteenth is a special date for Americans. But it is no holiday. It is tax day. It is the last day to pay any federal taxes owed on earnings from the year before. The Constitution gives Congress the power to establish federal taxes. State and local governments can also tax. But the idea of national taxes took time to develop. Not everyone liked the idea. In seventeen-ninety-one Congress approved a tax on whiskey and other alcoholic drink. Farmers in western Pennsylvania who produced alcohol refused to pay. They attacked officials and burned the home of a tax collector. America's first president, George Washington, gathered almost thirteen-thousand troops. The soldiers defeated the so-called Whiskey Rebellion of seventeen-ninety-four. It was one of the first times that the government used its powers to enforce a federal law within a state. At first the United States government collected most of its money through tariffs. These are taxes on trade. In the late eighteen-hundreds, Congress began to tax people's pay. The Supreme Court rejected the personal income tax. But, in nineteen-thirteen, the states passed the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This gave Congress the right to tax income. Today, personal income tax provides the government with more than forty percent of its money. Taxes collected to pay for retirement programs and other services provide thirty-five percent. Income taxes on businesses provided seven percent of federal money in two-thousand-two. And the government collects other taxes, including customs. The Internal Revenue Service collects federal taxes. The I.R.S. is part of the Treasury Department. Most taxpayers do not owe the agency any money on April fifteenth. Their employers have taken income taxes from their pay all year and already given it to I.R.S. In fact, most people get some money back. But tax laws are often criticized as too complex. The United States has what is called a progressive tax system. Tax rates increase as earnings increase. This year people who earn more than three-hundred-twelve-thousand dollars are taxed at thirty-five percent. That is the highest rate. Individuals who earn less than seven thousand dollars pay no income tax, but they do pay other taxes. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Bush Supports Israeli Withdrawal Plan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. President Bush this week announced his support for a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The plan is called a disengagement. Details published Friday said Israel would remove troops and all settlements from the Gaza Strip by the end of next year. About seven-thousand settlers live there. Israel would also remove four settlements in the West Bank. But six large settlements would remain. The ruling Likud party of Mister Sharon is expected to vote on the proposal on May second. Mister Sharon visited the White House on Wednesday. President Bush praised what he called "historic and courageous actions." Mister Bush said Friday that the plan gives the Palestinians, in his words, "a chance to create a reformed, just and free government." Palestinian leaders have denounced the president. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Mister Bush is the first president to accept Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories. Opposition to settlements has been American policy for more than twenty years. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was at the White House Friday. He said he welcomed the plan. Mister Blair urged other countries to get involved. He said this is a chance to help the Palestinians get ready to govern the territory that would be under their control. At least for now, Israel would continue to control airspace, waters and land passages. Mister Sharon says the disengagement is necessary because the Palestinian Authority has failed to stop attacks against Israelis. Diplomatic efforts also have not succeeded. A Bush administration official said the president supports the plan because Israel is taking steps to remove existing settlements. Mister Bush said removing all Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be unrealistic. Palestinian officials called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat says Palestinians will never stop seeking an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank in the nineteen-sixty-seven Middle East War. It soon began to build settlements. Palestinians want their own state in all of the West Bank and Gaza. They also demand the right of return to lands that are now part of Israel. Mister Bush says Palestinian refugees should settle in a future Palestinian state. He urged Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a final settlement to establish borders and to settle the refugee issue. The Israeli plan also provides for a security barrier that is being built through parts of the West Bank. Palestinians say it divides their land and their lives. President Bush say the barrier should be temporary. On Friday, several thousand Palestinians protested against President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Alan Shepard
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 18, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: April 18, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program, People in America. Each week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly in space. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program, People in America. Each week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly in space. TAPE: FREEDOM 7 LAUNCH (:09) MISSION CONTROL: "Three, two, one, zero...liftoff!" SHEPARD: "Roger, liftoff and the clock has started." VOICE ONE: The clock has started. With those words, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. He was in a small spacecraft called Freedom Seven. It was on top of a huge rocket traveling at more than eight-thousand kilometers an hour. Fifteen minutes later, Freedom Seven came down in the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Shepard was a national hero. He had won an important victory for the United States. The date was May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a tense competition for world influence. And this competition was reaching even into the cold darkness of space. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, the Soviet Union launched the first electronic satellite, Sputnik One. The United States successfully launched its first spacecraft less than four months later. Now the two sides were racing to see who could launch the first human space traveler. On April Twelfth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew in space for one-hundred-eight minutes. He circled the Earth once. The Soviets again were winning the "space race," but not for long. Three weeks later the United States also put a man into space. He was a thirty-seven-year-old officer in the Navy -- Alan Shepard. VOICE ONE: Alan Bartlett Shepard, Junior, was born on November Eighteenth, Nineteen-Twenty-Three, in East Derry, New Hampshire. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Nineteen-Forty-Four. He married soon after his graduation. Then he served for a short time on a destroyer in the Pacific during World War Two. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Alan Shepard became a pilot in the Navy. Later he became a test pilot. The life of a test pilot can be very dangerous. It helped prepare Alan Shepard for an even greater danger in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The successes that the Soviet Union had with its Sputnik program caused the United States to speed up its plans for a space program. The Americans decided to launch a satellite as soon as possible. The first attempt failed. The rocket exploded during launch. Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. NASA's job was to be scientific space exploration. Its major goal was sending the first Americans into space. Within three months, the program had a name: Project Mercury. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods. While engineers built the spacecraft, NASA looked for men to fly them. NASA wanted military test pilots because they test fly new planes. Test pilots are trained to think quickly in dangerous situations. On April Seventh, Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the space agency announced the seven Mercury astronauts. They would be the first American space travelers. Alan Shepard was one. The others were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton. VOICE ONE: Nine months after the project started, NASA made its first test flight of the Mercury spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the next two years, many other tests followed, all without astronauts. The final test flight was at the end of January, Nineteen-Sixty-One. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. Later, Alan Shepard often was asked how he became the first human American to fly in space. "They ran out of monkeys," he joked. VOICE TWO: There were some concerns about the safety of the huge Redstone rocket that was to carry the spacecraft. The launch had been delayed several times while more tests were done. By the time the rocket was ready for launch, Yuri Gagarin had already gone into space for the Soviet Union. The choice of Alan Shepard to be the first American to fly in space was announced just a few days before the launch. Flights planned for May Second and May Fourth had to be halted because of bad weather. On May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, a Friday, Alan Shepard struggled once again into his Mercury capsule. The vehicle was named Freedom Seven. There was almost no room to move. Shepard waited inside for four hours. Weather was partly the cause of the delay. There were clouds that would prevent filming the launch. Also some last-minute repairs had to be made to his radio. Shepard was tired of waiting. So he told the ground crew to hurry to solve the problems and fire the rocket. Finally, they did. VOICE ONE: The rocket slowly began climbing. Millions of radio listeners heard a voice from the Cape Canaveral control room say, "This is it, Alan Shepard, there's no turning back. Good luck from all of us here at the Cape." The rocket rose higher and higher. For five minutes, Alan Shepard felt the weightlessness of space. He felt himself floating. Freedom Seven flew one-hundred-eighty-five kilometers high. Then it re-entered the atmosphere and the spacecraft slowed. The fifteen-minute flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean about five-hundred kilometers from Cape Canaveral. Alan Shepard reported, "Everything is A-Okay." A helicopter pulled him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The flight was a complete success. Three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy declared a new goal for the United States. He called for "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the Nineteen-Sixties. In July of Nineteen-Sixty-Nine that goal came true. Alan Shepard was not on that first Apollo moon flight. In fact, he almost never made it to the moon. He developed a disorder in his inner-ear. It kept him from spaceflight for a number of years. Finally, an operation cured his problem. NASA named Shepard to command Apollo Fourteen. The flight was launched at the end of January, Nineteen-Seventy-One. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. Roosa orbited the moon while Shepard and Mitchell landed on the surface. They collected rocks and soil. Shepard also did something else. He played golf. He hit two small golf balls. It was not easy. Shepard was dressed in a big spacesuit. He described his difficulty to Mission Control in Houston. When Shepard did hit the golf balls, they traveled "for miles and miles," as he reported, because the gravity on the moon is one-sixth of the gravity on Earth. VOICE ONE: The only humans to walk on the moon were in the Apollo space flight program. Twelve American astronauts walked on the moon between Nineteen-Sixty-Nine and Nineteen-Seventy-Two. Alan Shepard was the fifth one. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, he retired from NASA and the Navy. Shepard became chairman of a building company in Houston, Texas. Later he began his own company, called Seven Fourteen Enterprises. It was named for his flights on Freedom Seven and Apollo Fourteen. He also wrote a book with astronaut Deke Slayton about his experiences. The book is called "Moon Shot." And he led a group raising college money for science and engineering students. VOICE TWO: Alan Shepard died on July Twenty-first, Nineteen-Ninety-Eight after a two-year fight with the blood disease leukemia. He was seventy-four years old. He had been married to his wife, Louise, for fifty-three years. Alan Shepard was the first American to fly in space. He rode into the sky on rocket fuel and the hopes and dreams of a nation. He will always be remembered as an American hero because of those fifteen minutes in space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Lawan Davis. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. TAPE: FREEDOM 7 LAUNCH (:09) MISSION CONTROL: "Three, two, one, zero...liftoff!" SHEPARD: "Roger, liftoff and the clock has started." VOICE ONE: The clock has started. With those words, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. He was in a small spacecraft called Freedom Seven. It was on top of a huge rocket traveling at more than eight-thousand kilometers an hour. Fifteen minutes later, Freedom Seven came down in the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Shepard was a national hero. He had won an important victory for the United States. The date was May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a tense competition for world influence. And this competition was reaching even into the cold darkness of space. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, the Soviet Union launched the first electronic satellite, Sputnik One. The United States successfully launched its first spacecraft less than four months later. Now the two sides were racing to see who could launch the first human space traveler. On April Twelfth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew in space for one-hundred-eight minutes. He circled the Earth once. The Soviets again were winning the "space race," but not for long. Three weeks later the United States also put a man into space. He was a thirty-seven-year-old officer in the Navy -- Alan Shepard. VOICE ONE: Alan Bartlett Shepard, Junior, was born on November Eighteenth, Nineteen-Twenty-Three, in East Derry, New Hampshire. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Nineteen-Forty-Four. He married soon after his graduation. Then he served for a short time on a destroyer in the Pacific during World War Two. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Alan Shepard became a pilot in the Navy. Later he became a test pilot. The life of a test pilot can be very dangerous. It helped prepare Alan Shepard for an even greater danger in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The successes that the Soviet Union had with its Sputnik program caused the United States to speed up its plans for a space program. The Americans decided to launch a satellite as soon as possible. The first attempt failed. The rocket exploded during launch. Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. NASA's job was to be scientific space exploration. Its major goal was sending the first Americans into space. Within three months, the program had a name: Project Mercury. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods. While engineers built the spacecraft, NASA looked for men to fly them. NASA wanted military test pilots because they test fly new planes. Test pilots are trained to think quickly in dangerous situations. On April Seventh, Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the space agency announced the seven Mercury astronauts. They would be the first American space travelers. Alan Shepard was one. The others were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton. VOICE ONE: Nine months after the project started, NASA made its first test flight of the Mercury spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the next two years, many other tests followed, all without astronauts. The final test flight was at the end of January, Nineteen-Sixty-One. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. Later, Alan Shepard often was asked how he became the first human American to fly in space. "They ran out of monkeys," he joked. VOICE TWO: There were some concerns about the safety of the huge Redstone rocket that was to carry the spacecraft. The launch had been delayed several times while more tests were done. By the time the rocket was ready for launch, Yuri Gagarin had already gone into space for the Soviet Union. The choice of Alan Shepard to be the first American to fly in space was announced just a few days before the launch. Flights planned for May Second and May Fourth had to be halted because of bad weather. On May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, a Friday, Alan Shepard struggled once again into his Mercury capsule. The vehicle was named Freedom Seven. There was almost no room to move. Shepard waited inside for four hours. Weather was partly the cause of the delay. There were clouds that would prevent filming the launch. Also some last-minute repairs had to be made to his radio. Shepard was tired of waiting. So he told the ground crew to hurry to solve the problems and fire the rocket. Finally, they did. VOICE ONE: The rocket slowly began climbing. Millions of radio listeners heard a voice from the Cape Canaveral control room say, "This is it, Alan Shepard, there's no turning back. Good luck from all of us here at the Cape." The rocket rose higher and higher. For five minutes, Alan Shepard felt the weightlessness of space. He felt himself floating. Freedom Seven flew one-hundred-eighty-five kilometers high. Then it re-entered the atmosphere and the spacecraft slowed. The fifteen-minute flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean about five-hundred kilometers from Cape Canaveral. Alan Shepard reported, "Everything is A-Okay." A helicopter pulled him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The flight was a complete success. Three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy declared a new goal for the United States. He called for "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the Nineteen-Sixties. In July of Nineteen-Sixty-Nine that goal came true. Alan Shepard was not on that first Apollo moon flight. In fact, he almost never made it to the moon. He developed a disorder in his inner-ear. It kept him from spaceflight for a number of years. Finally, an operation cured his problem. NASA named Shepard to command Apollo Fourteen. The flight was launched at the end of January, Nineteen-Seventy-One. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. Roosa orbited the moon while Shepard and Mitchell landed on the surface. They collected rocks and soil. Shepard also did something else. He played golf. He hit two small golf balls. It was not easy. Shepard was dressed in a big spacesuit. He described his difficulty to Mission Control in Houston. When Shepard did hit the golf balls, they traveled "for miles and miles," as he reported, because the gravity on the moon is one-sixth of the gravity on Earth. VOICE ONE: The only humans to walk on the moon were in the Apollo space flight program. Twelve American astronauts walked on the moon between Nineteen-Sixty-Nine and Nineteen-Seventy-Two. Alan Shepard was the fifth one. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, he retired from NASA and the Navy. Shepard became chairman of a building company in Houston, Texas. Later he began his own company, called Seven Fourteen Enterprises. It was named for his flights on Freedom Seven and Apollo Fourteen. He also wrote a book with astronaut Deke Slayton about his experiences. The book is called "Moon Shot." And he led a group raising college money for science and engineering students. VOICE TWO: Alan Shepard died on July Twenty-first, Nineteen-Ninety-Eight after a two-year fight with the blood disease leukemia. He was seventy-four years old. He had been married to his wife, Louise, for fifty-three years. Alan Shepard was the first American to fly in space. He rode into the sky on rocket fuel and the hopes and dreams of a nation. He will always be remembered as an American hero because of those fifteen minutes in space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Lawan Davis. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Pulitzer Prizes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 19, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: April 19, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Today we tell about the Pulitzer Prizes. These important yearly awards honor the best in American newspaper reporting, books and the arts. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Columbia University in New York City has awarded the Pulitzer Prizes since nineteen-seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary in eighteen-forty-seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. In eighteen-eighty-three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. Soon it sold more copies than any other newspaper in the country. VOICE TWO: Mister Pulitzer died in nineteen-eleven. He left two-million dollars to Columbia University. Part of this money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. He wanted the rest of the money to be used as prizes for the best writing in the United States. Each year, judges from around the country choose the best American journalism. They also recognize the best books, drama, poetry and music. This year's winners were announced two weeks ago. They were honored for work done during two-thousand-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post newspaper was in Baghdad, Iraq when he heard that he had won a Pulitzer Prize. Mister Shadid won the international reporting award for his work in Iraq before, during and after the war. The Pulitzer Prize judges praised his ability to describe the conditions and feelings of Iraqis. They noted that he did so while he himself was in danger. The Los Angeles Times newspaper, in California, won five Pulitzer Prizes. That was the second largest number ever won by a newspaper. The New York Times holds the record for Pulitzer Prizes. It won seven of these awards in two-thousand-two. The awards mainly honored reporting about the attacks against the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. VOICE TWO: More than ninety reporters at the Los Angeles Times earned a Pulitzer Prize for timely news reporting. Their stories were about wildfires that struck a large area of southern California last year. The deadly fires caused millions of dollars in damage. The Los Angeles Times also won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Four of its reporters wrote about Wal-Mart. This company has become the largest in the world. Its stores sell many kinds of goods at reduced prices. The stories told about Wal-Mart’s effects on American communities and developing nations. Abigail Goldman, Nancy Cleeland, Evelyn Iritani and Tyler Marshall wrote the stories. VOICE ONE:Los Angeles Times writer Daniel Neil became the first automobile writer ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He was honored for his reporting and commentary about cars. Pulitzer officials said Mister Neil’s stories made interesting observations about human nature and American culture. William Stall of the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Mister Stall writes opinion pieces for the newspaper. His work included editorials about the problems of the state government of California. Mister Stall also proposed possible solutions. His editorials appeared after California voters removed former Governor Gray Davis from office and replaced him with current Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. VOICE TWO: Pictures of the war in Liberia earned the feature photography prize for Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times. Mizz Cole’s photographs especially showed the suffering of innocent civilians. Photography during armed conflict also brought a Pulitzer Prize to David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer. They work for the Dallas Morning News in Texas. Judges honored them for pictures they took during the war in Iraq. The judges said they succeeded in capturing both the war’s violence and sadness. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Wall Street Journal newspaper in New York City won two Pulitzer Prizes. The judges honored Wall Street Journal reporters Kevin Helliker and Thomas M. Burton. They won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. They wrote ten stories explaining aneurysms. A problem in a blood vessel wall causes this serious medical condition. Last year, many Americans suffered from aneurysms – including reporter Kevin Helliker. He survived the sometimes deadly problem to write about it. Education writer Daniel Golden of the Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for continued excellent reporting about one subject. Mister Golden told how some American colleges choose students. He reported that these colleges are more likely to accept students whose parents graduated from the college. He also wrote that the children of people who give money to the colleges are also more likely to be accepted. VOICE TWO: The New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Reporters David Barstow and Lowell Bergman told of harmful conditions in the nation’s factories. Their stories showed how some employers violated safety rules. The reporters said the employers did not fear punishment for violations that led to deaths and injuries. The newspaper and Times Television cooperated with American and Canadian public television for one series of stories on the subject. It was called “Dangerous Business.” Mister Bergman wrote a second series called “When Workers Die.” VOICE ONE: Three writers for The Blade newspaper in Toledo, Ohio were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for investigative reporting. Mitch Weiss, Michael D. Sallah and Joe Mahr wrote about a United States Army group during the Vietnam War. They produced evidence that some Tiger Force members killed many unarmed civilians during that war. Leonard Pitts won the commentary prize. He was honored for his stories in the Miami Herald newspaper in Florida. Mister Pitts wrote about subjects including marriages between people of the same sex and rap music. Matt Davies of The Journal News in White Plains, New York was honored for his editorial cartoon drawings. Mister Davies’ winning drawings targeted political events.For the first time, no Pulitzer Prize was awarded for feature writing this year. The judges could not agree on a winner. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Judges for the Pulitzer Prize gave seven awards for the arts. Anne Applebaum won for a general nonfiction book. Her book is called “Gulag: A History. ” It tells about punishment labor camps in the former Soviet Union. William Taubman also wrote about the former Soviet Union. His book, “Khrushchev: The Man and His Era” tells about former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography, a book about someone’s life. Mister Taubman spent twenty years researching and writing the book. VOICE ONE: Edward P. Jones was honored for his book, “The Known World.” It won the Pulitzer Prize for a work of fiction. The book tells a story about a black man who owned slaves in the southern United States. A nonfiction book about African American life in the United States won the Pulitzer Prize for history. Steven Hahn wrote “A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration.” VOICE TWO: Musician Paul Moravec won for his composition called “Tempest Fantasy.” Mister Moravec says his instrumental chamber piece is linked to William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest.” Mister Moravec creates tonal music – music with traditional melody. Doug Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play, “I Am My Own Wife.” In this unusual drama, one actor takes the part of more than thirty-six people. It is playing on Broadway in New York City. One critic said the play should receive every prize that exists. Franz Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his collection, “Walking to Martha’s Vineyard.” Martha’s Vineyard is an island in the Atlantic Ocean near the state of Massachusetts. Mister Wright’s father, James Wright, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in nineteen-seventy-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Today we tell about the Pulitzer Prizes. These important yearly awards honor the best in American newspaper reporting, books and the arts. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Columbia University in New York City has awarded the Pulitzer Prizes since nineteen-seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary in eighteen-forty-seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. In eighteen-eighty-three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. Soon it sold more copies than any other newspaper in the country. VOICE TWO: Mister Pulitzer died in nineteen-eleven. He left two-million dollars to Columbia University. Part of this money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. He wanted the rest of the money to be used as prizes for the best writing in the United States. Each year, judges from around the country choose the best American journalism. They also recognize the best books, drama, poetry and music. This year's winners were announced two weeks ago. They were honored for work done during two-thousand-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post newspaper was in Baghdad, Iraq when he heard that he had won a Pulitzer Prize. Mister Shadid won the international reporting award for his work in Iraq before, during and after the war. The Pulitzer Prize judges praised his ability to describe the conditions and feelings of Iraqis. They noted that he did so while he himself was in danger. The Los Angeles Times newspaper, in California, won five Pulitzer Prizes. That was the second largest number ever won by a newspaper. The New York Times holds the record for Pulitzer Prizes. It won seven of these awards in two-thousand-two. The awards mainly honored reporting about the attacks against the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. VOICE TWO: More than ninety reporters at the Los Angeles Times earned a Pulitzer Prize for timely news reporting. Their stories were about wildfires that struck a large area of southern California last year. The deadly fires caused millions of dollars in damage. The Los Angeles Times also won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Four of its reporters wrote about Wal-Mart. This company has become the largest in the world. Its stores sell many kinds of goods at reduced prices. The stories told about Wal-Mart’s effects on American communities and developing nations. Abigail Goldman, Nancy Cleeland, Evelyn Iritani and Tyler Marshall wrote the stories. VOICE ONE:Los Angeles Times writer Daniel Neil became the first automobile writer ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for criticism. He was honored for his reporting and commentary about cars. Pulitzer officials said Mister Neil’s stories made interesting observations about human nature and American culture. William Stall of the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Mister Stall writes opinion pieces for the newspaper. His work included editorials about the problems of the state government of California. Mister Stall also proposed possible solutions. His editorials appeared after California voters removed former Governor Gray Davis from office and replaced him with current Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. VOICE TWO: Pictures of the war in Liberia earned the feature photography prize for Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times. Mizz Cole’s photographs especially showed the suffering of innocent civilians. Photography during armed conflict also brought a Pulitzer Prize to David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer. They work for the Dallas Morning News in Texas. Judges honored them for pictures they took during the war in Iraq. The judges said they succeeded in capturing both the war’s violence and sadness. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Wall Street Journal newspaper in New York City won two Pulitzer Prizes. The judges honored Wall Street Journal reporters Kevin Helliker and Thomas M. Burton. They won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. They wrote ten stories explaining aneurysms. A problem in a blood vessel wall causes this serious medical condition. Last year, many Americans suffered from aneurysms – including reporter Kevin Helliker. He survived the sometimes deadly problem to write about it. Education writer Daniel Golden of the Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for continued excellent reporting about one subject. Mister Golden told how some American colleges choose students. He reported that these colleges are more likely to accept students whose parents graduated from the college. He also wrote that the children of people who give money to the colleges are also more likely to be accepted. VOICE TWO: The New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for public service. Reporters David Barstow and Lowell Bergman told of harmful conditions in the nation’s factories. Their stories showed how some employers violated safety rules. The reporters said the employers did not fear punishment for violations that led to deaths and injuries. The newspaper and Times Television cooperated with American and Canadian public television for one series of stories on the subject. It was called “Dangerous Business.” Mister Bergman wrote a second series called “When Workers Die.” VOICE ONE: Three writers for The Blade newspaper in Toledo, Ohio were awarded Pulitzer Prizes for investigative reporting. Mitch Weiss, Michael D. Sallah and Joe Mahr wrote about a United States Army group during the Vietnam War. They produced evidence that some Tiger Force members killed many unarmed civilians during that war. Leonard Pitts won the commentary prize. He was honored for his stories in the Miami Herald newspaper in Florida. Mister Pitts wrote about subjects including marriages between people of the same sex and rap music. Matt Davies of The Journal News in White Plains, New York was honored for his editorial cartoon drawings. Mister Davies’ winning drawings targeted political events.For the first time, no Pulitzer Prize was awarded for feature writing this year. The judges could not agree on a winner. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Judges for the Pulitzer Prize gave seven awards for the arts. Anne Applebaum won for a general nonfiction book. Her book is called “Gulag: A History. ” It tells about punishment labor camps in the former Soviet Union. William Taubman also wrote about the former Soviet Union. His book, “Khrushchev: The Man and His Era” tells about former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography, a book about someone’s life. Mister Taubman spent twenty years researching and writing the book. VOICE ONE: Edward P. Jones was honored for his book, “The Known World.” It won the Pulitzer Prize for a work of fiction. The book tells a story about a black man who owned slaves in the southern United States. A nonfiction book about African American life in the United States won the Pulitzer Prize for history. Steven Hahn wrote “A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration.” VOICE TWO: Musician Paul Moravec won for his composition called “Tempest Fantasy.” Mister Moravec says his instrumental chamber piece is linked to William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest.” Mister Moravec creates tonal music – music with traditional melody. Doug Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play, “I Am My Own Wife.” In this unusual drama, one actor takes the part of more than thirty-six people. It is playing on Broadway in New York City. One critic said the play should receive every prize that exists. Franz Wright won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his collection, “Walking to Martha’s Vineyard.” Martha’s Vineyard is an island in the Atlantic Ocean near the state of Massachusetts. Mister Wright’s father, James Wright, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in nineteen-seventy-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – 80 Million Treated Against Elephantiasis
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 19, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Four years ago, the World Health Organization and other groups began a campaign to end lymphatic filariasis. This disease is a leading cause of disability in developing countries. Left untreated, fluid collects in tissue. Lymphatic filariasis can cause severe enlargement of the legs, arms and areas around the sexual organs. The disease is commonly known as elephantiasis. The cause is a parasite. It is spread to humans through the bite of mosquitoes that carry the organism. Early signs of the disease in children include learning problems and reduced growth. Once infected, humans can pass the parasite back to other mosquitoes that bite them. About one-hundred-twenty-million people in eighty countries are infected with lymphatic filariasis. Most of these people are in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and islands of the Pacific Ocean. The countries have a total population of more than one-thousand-million people. The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis has released a progress report on the treatment campaign. The group says eighty-million people have begun treatment against the disease. Two drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, are providing medicines for free. Individuals take two drugs once a year. This combined treatment stops the spread of elephantiasis. But it will not undo any damage already caused by the disease. The first drug is albendazol, made by GlaxoSmithKline. This drug also kills several other kinds of parasites that can infect the intestines. These include roundworm, whipworm and hookworm. A second drug commonly given against lymphatic filariasis is called ivermectin. The Merck company manufactures it. This drug is also used to fight river blindness. The parasite that causes lymphatic filariasis grows slowly. It is not expected to develop a resistance to the drug treatment. In addition, treatment costs are low – between ten cents and two dollars per person per year. Health officials want to put people on five-year treatment plans. The goal of the campaign is to end the disease worldwide within twenty years. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: April 19, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Four years ago, the World Health Organization and other groups began a campaign to end lymphatic filariasis. This disease is a leading cause of disability in developing countries. Left untreated, fluid collects in tissue. Lymphatic filariasis can cause severe enlargement of the legs, arms and areas around the sexual organs. The disease is commonly known as elephantiasis. The cause is a parasite. It is spread to humans through the bite of mosquitoes that carry the organism. Early signs of the disease in children include learning problems and reduced growth. Once infected, humans can pass the parasite back to other mosquitoes that bite them. About one-hundred-twenty-million people in eighty countries are infected with lymphatic filariasis. Most of these people are in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and islands of the Pacific Ocean. The countries have a total population of more than one-thousand-million people. The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis has released a progress report on the treatment campaign. The group says eighty-million people have begun treatment against the disease. Two drug companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, are providing medicines for free. Individuals take two drugs once a year. This combined treatment stops the spread of elephantiasis. But it will not undo any damage already caused by the disease. The first drug is albendazol, made by GlaxoSmithKline. This drug also kills several other kinds of parasites that can infect the intestines. These include roundworm, whipworm and hookworm. A second drug commonly given against lymphatic filariasis is called ivermectin. The Merck company manufactures it. This drug is also used to fight river blindness. The parasite that causes lymphatic filariasis grows slowly. It is not expected to develop a resistance to the drug treatment. In addition, treatment costs are low – between ten cents and two dollars per person per year. Health officials want to put people on five-year treatment plans. The goal of the campaign is to end the disease worldwide within twenty years. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Treating Ear Infections / Preventing a Return of Breast Cancer / Future of a Hydrogen Economy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 20, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. On our program this week: new findings for women who have had breast cancer. VOICE ONE: New advice about how to treat ear infections in children. VOICE TWO: Plus, the future of a so-called hydrogen economy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Researchers say a new drug may work better than the current treatment to prevent a return of breast cancer in some women. Doctors studied patients in thirty-seven countries. All of the women were beyond their reproductive years. All of them had developed a kind of breast cancer linked to the female hormone estrogen. And, all had been through operations to remove the cancerous growths. Then the women began to take the medicine tamoxifen. Currently, five years on tamoxifen is considered the best treatment after surgery for breast cancers linked to estrogen. More than two out of three breast cancers are this kind. Tamoxifen stops estrogen from attaching to tumor cells and causing them to spread. After some time, however, tamoxifen can stop working in some patients. VOICE TWO: Doctor Charles Coombes of Charing Cross Hospital in London led the study. It involved more than four-thousand-seven hundred breast cancer patients. All received tamoxifen after their operations. As part of the study, half the women discontinued that drug after two to three years. They began to take another medicine, called exemestane [egg-suh-MES-ten]. This drug is known as an estrogen blocker. It stops the production of estrogen in the body. The doctors found that the women who took exemestane reduced their risk for the return of breast cancer by more than thirty percent. This was compared to the women who continued to take tamoxifen for the remainder of the five years. VOICE ONE: The scientists say ninety-one percent of the women who took exemestane for three years were cancer-free. This compared to eighty-seven percent of the patients who remained on tamoxifen. The patients on tamoxifen also had a higher incidence of cancer in the other breast and other parts of the body. However, the scientists say the study did not show much difference in survival rates between the two groups. Ninety-three women who took exemestane died, compared to one-hundred six who took only tamoxifen. The researchers continue to observe the women. They say they think more time may show higher survival rates for patients on exemestane. VOICE TWO: The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug maker Pfizer helped pay for the research. The company makes the estrogen blocker under the name Aromasin. The investigators do not suggest that the new drug should replace tamoxifen. But they say tamoxifen can become less effective after two to three years following surgery. The study does not offer information about possible long-term effects from the use of exemestane. Doctors say they do not know a lot yet about this hormone blocker. But the report did say that severe reactions were rare among the patients in the study. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States, there is some new medical advice about how to treat ear infections in children. The goal is to decrease the use of antibiotic medicines. Antibiotics kill bacteria that cause infections. But too much use causes problems. Bacteria grow stronger. And people may develop a resistance to the medicine. Then the drugs might not work if a person gets a more serious infection. One of the conditions most commonly treated with antibiotics is ear infection in children. So the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians have released new guidelines for treatment. VOICE TWO: The guidelines tell parents and doctors that the most important step is to ease the pain. Children should first be given pain medicines such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Doctors also need to make sure that a child has acute otitis media, or middle ear infection, before they give antibiotics. The guidelines say antibiotics may be the right choice for children up to the age of two who have ear infections, not just fluid in the ears. The treatment advice says antibiotics may also be the right choice if a child is very sick or has a high body temperature. But the new guidelines note that eight out of ten children with ear infections get better with no antibiotics at all. VOICE ONE: The problem of drug resistance is not limited to antibiotics and ear infections. Bacteria, parasites and viruses are all microbes that cause disease. Antimicrobial medicines like penicillin have saved countless lives. But they have not always been used correctly. As a result, antimicrobial resistance also makes it harder now to treat infections like diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis and sexual diseases. People with drug-resistant infections stay sick longer. There is a greater risk they will die. And it is easier for the disease to spread to other people. Drug companies have to make new and more costly medicines to fight the stronger microbes. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says local health care workers are important to the effort to reduce drug resistance. But so are the people who need treatment. People should not take antibiotics, for example, in an effort to treat viral infections like the common cold. When people do take medicine, it is important to take all of it. People should not discontinue the medicine as soon as they feel better. In poorer countries, people may not have enough money to buy all the medicine they need. So they do not take enough to kill all the infection. The microbes get stronger and add to the problem of resistance. Food producers also add to the problem. Many give antibiotics to animals to increase growth or to prevent infections on crowded farms. VOICE ONE: In some countries, people can buy antimicrobial medicines without an order from a doctor. This was true in Chile, until health officials changed the rules. They decided that too many people took antibiotics. Because of the changes, people in Chile spent six-million-dollars less on antibiotics between nineteen-ninety-eight and nineteen-ninety-nine. The W.H.O. says lives and money can be saved if people use antibiotics more wisely. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In January of two-thousand-three, President Bush offered a plan to speed the development of cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The president asked Congress to spend more than one-thousand-million dollars over five years for the program. A new report says efforts to develop hydrogen as a major fuel in the next fifty years could change the energy economy of the United States. The scientists who wrote the report say hydrogen could reduce air pollution and expand the energy supply. However, the scientists also express concern about technical, economic and other barriers. They say the development of a hydrogen economy could take many years. The say any reductions in oil imports or pollution levels are likely to be small during the next twenty-five years. The scientists prepared the report for the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council. These are part of the National Academies which advise Congress on science and technology issues. VOICE ONE: Hydrogen is a gas. It is the most common element in the universe. By weight, it produces more energy than any other fuel known. When used to power an engine, the only waste produced is water. However, hydrogen explodes easily. It is difficult to store and keep safe. One way to produce hydrogen uses renewable energy, such as power from the sun, organic matter or wind. Another uses fuels like natural gas and coal. A third uses nuclear energy. In their report, the scientists say production costs cannot be too high if hydrogen use is to become widespread. They say systems will be needed to supply hydrogen to fueling stations. Also, vehicles will have to store enough hydrogen to go the distance between refuelings that drivers have come to expect. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Karen Leggett and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: April 20, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. On our program this week: new findings for women who have had breast cancer. VOICE ONE: New advice about how to treat ear infections in children. VOICE TWO: Plus, the future of a so-called hydrogen economy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Researchers say a new drug may work better than the current treatment to prevent a return of breast cancer in some women. Doctors studied patients in thirty-seven countries. All of the women were beyond their reproductive years. All of them had developed a kind of breast cancer linked to the female hormone estrogen. And, all had been through operations to remove the cancerous growths. Then the women began to take the medicine tamoxifen. Currently, five years on tamoxifen is considered the best treatment after surgery for breast cancers linked to estrogen. More than two out of three breast cancers are this kind. Tamoxifen stops estrogen from attaching to tumor cells and causing them to spread. After some time, however, tamoxifen can stop working in some patients. VOICE TWO: Doctor Charles Coombes of Charing Cross Hospital in London led the study. It involved more than four-thousand-seven hundred breast cancer patients. All received tamoxifen after their operations. As part of the study, half the women discontinued that drug after two to three years. They began to take another medicine, called exemestane [egg-suh-MES-ten]. This drug is known as an estrogen blocker. It stops the production of estrogen in the body. The doctors found that the women who took exemestane reduced their risk for the return of breast cancer by more than thirty percent. This was compared to the women who continued to take tamoxifen for the remainder of the five years. VOICE ONE: The scientists say ninety-one percent of the women who took exemestane for three years were cancer-free. This compared to eighty-seven percent of the patients who remained on tamoxifen. The patients on tamoxifen also had a higher incidence of cancer in the other breast and other parts of the body. However, the scientists say the study did not show much difference in survival rates between the two groups. Ninety-three women who took exemestane died, compared to one-hundred six who took only tamoxifen. The researchers continue to observe the women. They say they think more time may show higher survival rates for patients on exemestane. VOICE TWO: The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug maker Pfizer helped pay for the research. The company makes the estrogen blocker under the name Aromasin. The investigators do not suggest that the new drug should replace tamoxifen. But they say tamoxifen can become less effective after two to three years following surgery. The study does not offer information about possible long-term effects from the use of exemestane. Doctors say they do not know a lot yet about this hormone blocker. But the report did say that severe reactions were rare among the patients in the study. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States, there is some new medical advice about how to treat ear infections in children. The goal is to decrease the use of antibiotic medicines. Antibiotics kill bacteria that cause infections. But too much use causes problems. Bacteria grow stronger. And people may develop a resistance to the medicine. Then the drugs might not work if a person gets a more serious infection. One of the conditions most commonly treated with antibiotics is ear infection in children. So the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians have released new guidelines for treatment. VOICE TWO: The guidelines tell parents and doctors that the most important step is to ease the pain. Children should first be given pain medicines such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Doctors also need to make sure that a child has acute otitis media, or middle ear infection, before they give antibiotics. The guidelines say antibiotics may be the right choice for children up to the age of two who have ear infections, not just fluid in the ears. The treatment advice says antibiotics may also be the right choice if a child is very sick or has a high body temperature. But the new guidelines note that eight out of ten children with ear infections get better with no antibiotics at all. VOICE ONE: The problem of drug resistance is not limited to antibiotics and ear infections. Bacteria, parasites and viruses are all microbes that cause disease. Antimicrobial medicines like penicillin have saved countless lives. But they have not always been used correctly. As a result, antimicrobial resistance also makes it harder now to treat infections like diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis and sexual diseases. People with drug-resistant infections stay sick longer. There is a greater risk they will die. And it is easier for the disease to spread to other people. Drug companies have to make new and more costly medicines to fight the stronger microbes. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization says local health care workers are important to the effort to reduce drug resistance. But so are the people who need treatment. People should not take antibiotics, for example, in an effort to treat viral infections like the common cold. When people do take medicine, it is important to take all of it. People should not discontinue the medicine as soon as they feel better. In poorer countries, people may not have enough money to buy all the medicine they need. So they do not take enough to kill all the infection. The microbes get stronger and add to the problem of resistance. Food producers also add to the problem. Many give antibiotics to animals to increase growth or to prevent infections on crowded farms. VOICE ONE: In some countries, people can buy antimicrobial medicines without an order from a doctor. This was true in Chile, until health officials changed the rules. They decided that too many people took antibiotics. Because of the changes, people in Chile spent six-million-dollars less on antibiotics between nineteen-ninety-eight and nineteen-ninety-nine. The W.H.O. says lives and money can be saved if people use antibiotics more wisely. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In January of two-thousand-three, President Bush offered a plan to speed the development of cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells. The president asked Congress to spend more than one-thousand-million dollars over five years for the program. A new report says efforts to develop hydrogen as a major fuel in the next fifty years could change the energy economy of the United States. The scientists who wrote the report say hydrogen could reduce air pollution and expand the energy supply. However, the scientists also express concern about technical, economic and other barriers. They say the development of a hydrogen economy could take many years. The say any reductions in oil imports or pollution levels are likely to be small during the next twenty-five years. The scientists prepared the report for the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council. These are part of the National Academies which advise Congress on science and technology issues. VOICE ONE: Hydrogen is a gas. It is the most common element in the universe. By weight, it produces more energy than any other fuel known. When used to power an engine, the only waste produced is water. However, hydrogen explodes easily. It is difficult to store and keep safe. One way to produce hydrogen uses renewable energy, such as power from the sun, organic matter or wind. Another uses fuels like natural gas and coal. A third uses nuclear energy. In their report, the scientists say production costs cannot be too high if hydrogen use is to become widespread. They say systems will be needed to supply hydrogen to fueling stations. Also, vehicles will have to store enough hydrogen to go the distance between refuelings that drivers have come to expect. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Karen Leggett and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Biocontrols, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 20, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Biocontrols are the way nature seeks balance. Consider the example of insects that attack crops. Other creatures eat these pests, unless natural controls are missing. Biocontrols can also include organisms like worms and fungi. And they come in the form of bacteria and viruses. These are called pathogens. A good example is a disease that affects Japanese beetles. These beetles were accidentally brought to the United States almost one-hundred-years ago. They ate crops and spread out of control. But in the nineteen-thirties, researchers discovered some young beetles infected with a condition known as milky disease. The researchers found the bacteria that caused this infection. They put it on the soil for other beetles to eat. The government used hundreds of tons of the bacteria, called Bacillus popilliae (ba-SI-lus po-PILL-ee-eye). It controlled the Japanese beetles. But today it seems less effective. Another control may be needed. Plants may also find themselves in a new home where they can reproduce quickly. The alligator weed native to South America is one such plant. It came to the United States and took over wetlands and rivers in several states in the South. In nineteen-sixty-four, researchers released flea beetles in Florida. Flea beetles are also from South America. They like to eat alligator weed. The beetle solved the weed problem in central Florida. There was no need for further use of plant poisons. This case serves as a model of biological weed control. There are three methods for biocontrol. One is conservation. Experts say this is probably the most important. Natural enemies of pests must be protected. This means to avoid treating crops with chemicals that will harm any helpful insects. A second method is often called classical biological control. This means a helpful biocontrol is released to fight a pest problem. The release of ladybeetles to fight aphids on plants is another such example. Finally, there is the method of biocontrol that experts call augmentation. Helpful organisms are added to fields to improve environmental balance. Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has a full Web site on biocontrol. You can find a link at our site, voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Or enter the words "Cornell" and "biocontrol" into a search engine on the Internet. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Doc Holliday and the Old West
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 21, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: April 21, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Many stories have been told about the old American West. Some are true. Many more are just interesting stories. Today we will try to tell the true story of one of the most famous and dangerous American gun fighters. His name was John Henry Holliday. He was better known as “Doc”. VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Many stories have been told about the old American West. Some are true. Many more are just interesting stories. Today we will try to tell the true story of one of the most famous and dangerous American gun fighters. His name was John Henry Holliday. He was better known as “Doc”. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The little city of Glenwood Springs is deep in the Rocky Mountains in the western state of Colorado. The mountains here rise sharply out of the ground and surround Glenwood Springs. A small burial area in Glenwood Springs is called the Pioneer Cemetery. You have to walk up a steep hill on an old dirt road to reach it. The walk takes about twenty minutes. Visitors can stop at several places along this walk to look at the city far below. In the cemetery, large stones mark most of the burial places. Some of the stones look new. Many are more than one-hundred years old. VOICE TWO: A dirt path leads to the back of the cemetery and one, lone, burial place. This one is the reason most people come to the Pioneer Cemetery. The stone over the burial place is colored red, and larger than most of the others. A small black metal fence surrounds the grave. The name on the stone says “Doc Holliday… He died in bed.” This man’s real name was John Henry Holliday. He was called “Doc” because he was a doctor of dental surgery, a dentist. But he was best known as a gun fighter and gambler, a person who plays games of chance for money. Many people who knew him considered him the most dangerous man in the Old West. VOICE ONE: It is extremely difficult to separate truth from the false stories that were spread about some of the more famous people in the Old West. Many of these famous stories are very interesting and exciting. But they are not true. Many of these made-up stories tell about the man who was Doc Holliday. History experts say he was a very dangerous man because he was already dying when he came to the West. He knew he had the lung disease tuberculosis that causes a slow death. Many experts said he was not afraid of a gunfight. He thought a quick death from a bullet might be better than waiting to die a very slow, painful death from the disease. VOICE TWO: Another interesting fact about Doc Holliday is that many history experts now believe he may have spread several of the stories that were told about him. He may have done this because it caused people to fear him. If they feared him, they would not cause him trouble. It was not difficult to find trouble in many towns in the American West. And disputes about who had won a game of chance were always a possibility for a professional gambler like Doc Holliday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Henry Holliday was born in the southern state of Georgia in eighteen-fifty-one. He was born into a family that included several medical doctors and dentists. Like most young men of the American South at that time, John Henry Holliday learned to ride a horse well. He learned to shoot several kinds of weapons. He also was well educated. He learned math and science. He learned to read, write and speak Greek, Latin and French. A young black woman who worked for his family taught him to play card games. John Holliday became a very good card player. He could easily remember which cards had been played in a game. This was very difficult to do. It helped him much later in life when he became a professional gambler. In eighteen-seventy, John became a student at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. He graduated in eighteen-seventy-two. VOICE TWO: John Holliday was a tall man. He was thin and always dressed well. He was a quiet, friendly man who always smiled. People liked him. Doctor Holliday began working as a dentist in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. He soon began to show the signs of tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his mother. His doctor said he would live longer if he went to a warm, very dry place -- perhaps the American West. In eighteen-seventy-three, John Holliday said goodbye to his family and left Georgia on a train. He began his new life in the western city of Dallas, Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Holliday tried to work as a dentist for about four years. He was not very successful. Many people did not want to be treated by a dentist they knew had tuberculosis. He spent a great deal of time drinking alcohol in a saloon. It was here that be became known as “Doc” Holliday. Holliday traveled in Texas and Colorado for the next several years. He became a professional gambler. In eighteen-seventy-seven, he was living in the small town of Fort Griffin, Texas. Here he met a man who was to become one of his best friends. That man was a former law officer, gunfighter and gambler. His name was Wyatt Earp. Soon after meeting Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday killed a man during a card game. The man had reached for a gun. Doc Holliday was much quicker using a long knife. He had to leave Fort Griffin and Texas very quickly. The friendship continued between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In Dodge City, Kansas, Holliday saved Earp’s life late one night. A man drew his gun behind Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday yelled a warning, drew his gun and shot the man. VOICE TWO: Wyatt Earp had several brothers. They were a close family. Many experts believe that the Earp brothers were a replacement for the family Doc Holliday had left in Georgia. Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil remained close friends with Doc Holliday for the rest of their lives. Doc Holliday had become well known in the West. He became even more famous after he followed the Earp brothers to the town of Tombstone, Arizona. In Tombstone he took part in the most famous shooting incident in western history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That shooting incident in Tombstone is known as “The Gunfight at the O-K Corral.” It took place on October twenty-sixth, eighteen-eighty-one. It involved Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday. Virgil Earp was an officer of the law. He was on his way to arrest several men. Wyatt and Morgan went with him to help. Doc Holliday joined them as they walked down the street. The men they were going to arrest were also brothers -- Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury. VOICE TWO: As the two groups came together, Virgil Earp demanded that the Clantons and McLaurys raise their hands and surrender. They refused. No one knows who fired the first shot. All the men began shooting at once. When it was over, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury were dead. Ike Clanton had run away. Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded, but they survived. Neither Doc Holliday nor Wyatt Earp was hurt. Political enemies of the Earp Brothers wanted a trial. The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday were arrested and tried. The jury found them innocent. It said they were trying to disarm a group of men who wanted a fight. A few months later, an unknown gunman killed Morgan Earp. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday began to hunt the killers. They killed several men known to have been involved in the murder of Morgan Earp. VOICE ONE: No one really knows how many gunfights Doc Holliday took part in. No one knows just how many people died as a result. Some books say he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty men. But most experts say the number is closer to eight. History books will tell you Doc Holliday was arrested several times. Most of the time he was arrested for playing illegal games of chance. He was also arrested after several shootings. Often the charges were dismissed because he was only defending himself. The few times he faced a criminal trial he was found to be innocent. In the last years of Doc Holliday’s life, the West had changed a great deal. The people there no longer wanted gunfighters or gamblers. Doc Holliday may have won in games of chance and in several gunfights. However, he could not use his guns against tuberculosis. He died in his bed, in the little city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November eighth, eighteen-eighty-seven. He was thirty-six years old. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The little city of Glenwood Springs is deep in the Rocky Mountains in the western state of Colorado. The mountains here rise sharply out of the ground and surround Glenwood Springs. A small burial area in Glenwood Springs is called the Pioneer Cemetery. You have to walk up a steep hill on an old dirt road to reach it. The walk takes about twenty minutes. Visitors can stop at several places along this walk to look at the city far below. In the cemetery, large stones mark most of the burial places. Some of the stones look new. Many are more than one-hundred years old. VOICE TWO: A dirt path leads to the back of the cemetery and one, lone, burial place. This one is the reason most people come to the Pioneer Cemetery. The stone over the burial place is colored red, and larger than most of the others. A small black metal fence surrounds the grave. The name on the stone says “Doc Holliday… He died in bed.” This man’s real name was John Henry Holliday. He was called “Doc” because he was a doctor of dental surgery, a dentist. But he was best known as a gun fighter and gambler, a person who plays games of chance for money. Many people who knew him considered him the most dangerous man in the Old West. VOICE ONE: It is extremely difficult to separate truth from the false stories that were spread about some of the more famous people in the Old West. Many of these famous stories are very interesting and exciting. But they are not true. Many of these made-up stories tell about the man who was Doc Holliday. History experts say he was a very dangerous man because he was already dying when he came to the West. He knew he had the lung disease tuberculosis that causes a slow death. Many experts said he was not afraid of a gunfight. He thought a quick death from a bullet might be better than waiting to die a very slow, painful death from the disease. VOICE TWO: Another interesting fact about Doc Holliday is that many history experts now believe he may have spread several of the stories that were told about him. He may have done this because it caused people to fear him. If they feared him, they would not cause him trouble. It was not difficult to find trouble in many towns in the American West. And disputes about who had won a game of chance were always a possibility for a professional gambler like Doc Holliday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Henry Holliday was born in the southern state of Georgia in eighteen-fifty-one. He was born into a family that included several medical doctors and dentists. Like most young men of the American South at that time, John Henry Holliday learned to ride a horse well. He learned to shoot several kinds of weapons. He also was well educated. He learned math and science. He learned to read, write and speak Greek, Latin and French. A young black woman who worked for his family taught him to play card games. John Holliday became a very good card player. He could easily remember which cards had been played in a game. This was very difficult to do. It helped him much later in life when he became a professional gambler. In eighteen-seventy, John became a student at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. He graduated in eighteen-seventy-two. VOICE TWO: John Holliday was a tall man. He was thin and always dressed well. He was a quiet, friendly man who always smiled. People liked him. Doctor Holliday began working as a dentist in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. He soon began to show the signs of tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his mother. His doctor said he would live longer if he went to a warm, very dry place -- perhaps the American West. In eighteen-seventy-three, John Holliday said goodbye to his family and left Georgia on a train. He began his new life in the western city of Dallas, Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Doctor Holliday tried to work as a dentist for about four years. He was not very successful. Many people did not want to be treated by a dentist they knew had tuberculosis. He spent a great deal of time drinking alcohol in a saloon. It was here that be became known as “Doc” Holliday. Holliday traveled in Texas and Colorado for the next several years. He became a professional gambler. In eighteen-seventy-seven, he was living in the small town of Fort Griffin, Texas. Here he met a man who was to become one of his best friends. That man was a former law officer, gunfighter and gambler. His name was Wyatt Earp. Soon after meeting Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday killed a man during a card game. The man had reached for a gun. Doc Holliday was much quicker using a long knife. He had to leave Fort Griffin and Texas very quickly. The friendship continued between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In Dodge City, Kansas, Holliday saved Earp’s life late one night. A man drew his gun behind Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday yelled a warning, drew his gun and shot the man. VOICE TWO: Wyatt Earp had several brothers. They were a close family. Many experts believe that the Earp brothers were a replacement for the family Doc Holliday had left in Georgia. Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil remained close friends with Doc Holliday for the rest of their lives. Doc Holliday had become well known in the West. He became even more famous after he followed the Earp brothers to the town of Tombstone, Arizona. In Tombstone he took part in the most famous shooting incident in western history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That shooting incident in Tombstone is known as “The Gunfight at the O-K Corral.” It took place on October twenty-sixth, eighteen-eighty-one. It involved Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday. Virgil Earp was an officer of the law. He was on his way to arrest several men. Wyatt and Morgan went with him to help. Doc Holliday joined them as they walked down the street. The men they were going to arrest were also brothers -- Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury. VOICE TWO: As the two groups came together, Virgil Earp demanded that the Clantons and McLaurys raise their hands and surrender. They refused. No one knows who fired the first shot. All the men began shooting at once. When it was over, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury were dead. Ike Clanton had run away. Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded, but they survived. Neither Doc Holliday nor Wyatt Earp was hurt. Political enemies of the Earp Brothers wanted a trial. The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday were arrested and tried. The jury found them innocent. It said they were trying to disarm a group of men who wanted a fight. A few months later, an unknown gunman killed Morgan Earp. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday began to hunt the killers. They killed several men known to have been involved in the murder of Morgan Earp. VOICE ONE: No one really knows how many gunfights Doc Holliday took part in. No one knows just how many people died as a result. Some books say he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty men. But most experts say the number is closer to eight. History books will tell you Doc Holliday was arrested several times. Most of the time he was arrested for playing illegal games of chance. He was also arrested after several shootings. Often the charges were dismissed because he was only defending himself. The few times he faced a criminal trial he was found to be innocent. In the last years of Doc Holliday’s life, the West had changed a great deal. The people there no longer wanted gunfighters or gamblers. Doc Holliday may have won in games of chance and in several gunfights. However, he could not use his guns against tuberculosis. He died in his bed, in the little city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November eighth, eighteen-eighty-seven. He was thirty-six years old. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Kidney Transplants
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 21, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Each year, thousands of people receive organ transplants. The most common of these operations is a kidney transplant. Experts say almost thirty-thousand people received new kidneys last year. Fourteen-thousand of them were in the United States. One person who received a new kidney earlier this year was Ray Freeman. Many of you know him. Ray worked at VOA for years. He retired at the end of last month. And we are happy to report that he is doing well as he recovers from his operation. Ray had suffered from kidney problems for many years. He had begun treatment with a dialysis machine. But dialysis is not a cure. One reason kidney transplants are performed so often is that a kidney can come from a living donor. People have two kidneys to remove waste from the body. But they need only one. Ray needed a healthy kidney. The person who gives an organ or tissue is known as the donor. The person who receives it is the recipient. Ray found a donor. His wife, Renie, offered to give him one of her kidneys. A transplant succeeds only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the new organ or tissue. They attempt this with drugs that suppress the body’s defense system. Before any of this, however, the doctors must make sure the tissue is similar to that of the transplant patient. Both the donor and recipient must have the same blood type. They also must have some of the same proteins called H.L.A. antigens. These are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H.L.A. antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, tested both Renie and Ray Freeman. They found enough of a match to do the operation. Renie was in the hospital for three days. Ray was home after about a week. Three months later, he takes anti-rejection medicine each day. He has blood tests each week to make sure everything is all right. Renie is fine. And Ray says he feels better than he has in years. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. To learn more about organ transplants, listen next Tuesday at this hour for Science in the News. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #59 - Andrew Jackson, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 22, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: April 22, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In our last few programs of THE MAKING OF A NATION, we described the violence of the presidential election campaign of eighteen-twenty-eight. It split the old Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson into two hostile groups: the National Republicans of John Quincy Adams and the Democrats of Andrew Jackson. The election of Jackson deepened the split. It became more serious as a new dispute arose over import taxes. This is what happened: VOICE TWO: Congress passed a bill in eighteen-twenty-eight that put high taxes on a number of imported products. The purpose of the import tax was to protect American industries from foreign competition. The south opposed the tax, because it had no industry to protect. Its chief product was cotton, which was exported to Europe. The American import taxes forced European nations to put taxes on American cotton. This meant a drop in the sale of cotton and less money for the planters of the south. It also meant higher prices in the American market for manufactured goods. South Carolina refused to pay the import tax. It said the tax was not constitutional...that the constitution did not give the federal government the power to order a protective tax. VOICE ONE: At one time, the Vice President of the United States -- John C. Calhoun of South Carolina -- had believed in a strong central government. But he had become a strong supporter of states' rights. Calhoun wrote a long statement against the import tax for the South Carolina legislature. In it, he developed the idea of nullification -- cancelling federal powers. He said the states had created the federal government and, therefore, the states had the greater power. He argued that the states could reject, or nullify, any act of the central government which was not constitutional. And, Calhoun said, the states should be the judge of whether an act was constitutional or not. Calhoun's idea was debated in the Senate by Robert Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Hayne supported nullification, and Webster opposed it. Webster said Hayne was wrong in using the words "liberty first, and union afterwards." He said they could not be separated. Said Webster: "Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable." VOICE TWO: No one really knew how President Andrew Jackson felt about nullification. He made no public statement during the debate. Leaders in South Carolina developed a plan to get the president's support. They decided to hold a big dinner honoring the memory of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson agreed to be at the dinner. The speeches were carefully planned. They began by praising the democratic ideas of Jefferson. Then speakers discussed Virginia's opposition to the alien and sedition laws passed by the federal government in seventeen-ninety-eight. Next they discussed South Carolina's opposition to the import tax. Finally, the speeches were finished. It was time for toasts. President Jackson made the first one. He stood up, raised his glass, and looked straight at John C. Calhoun. He waited for the cheering to stop. "Our union," he said. "It must be preserved." VOICE ONE: Calhoun rose with the others to drink the toast. He had not expected Jackson's opposition to nullification. His hand shook, and he spilled some of the wine from his glass. Calhoun was called on to make the next toast. The vice president rose slowly. "The union," he said, "next to our liberty, most dear." He waited a moment, then continued. "May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the states and by giving equally the benefits and burdens of the union." President Jackson left a few minutes later. Most of those at dinner left with him. VOICE TWO: The nation now knew how the president felt. And the people were with him -- opposed to nullification. But the idea was not dead among the extremists of South Carolina. They were to start more trouble two years later. Calhoun's nullification doctrine was not the only thing that divided Jackson and the vice president. Calhoun had led a campaign against the wife of Jackson's friend and Secretary of War, John Eaton. Three members of Jackson's cabinet supported Calhoun. Mister Calhoun and the three cabinet wives would have nothing to do with Mister Eaton. Jackson saw this as a political trick to try to force Eaton from the cabinet, and make Jackson look foolish at the same time. VOICE ONE: The hostility between Jackson and his vice president was sharpened by a letter that was written by a member of President Monroe's cabinet. It told how Calhoun wanted Jackson arrested in eighteen-eighteen. The letter writer, William Crawford, was in the cabinet with Calhoun. Jackson had led a military campaign into Spanish Florida and had hanged two British citizens. Calhoun proposed during a cabinet meeting that Jackson be punished. Jackson did not learn of this until eighteen-twenty-nine. Jackson wanted no further communications with Calhoun. Several attempts were made to soften relations between Calhoun and Jackson. One of them seemed to succeed. Jackson told Secretary of State Martin van Buren that the dispute had been settled. He said the unfriendly letters that he and Calhoun sent each other would be destroyed. And he said he would invite the vice president to have dinner with him at the White House. VOICE TWO: With the dispute ended, Calhoun thought he saw a way to destroy his rival for the presidency -- Secretary of State Martin van Buren. He decided not to destroy the letters he and Jackson sent to each other. Instead, he had a pamphlet written, using the letters. The pamphlet also contained the statement of several persons denying the Crawford charges. And, it accused Mister van Buren of using Crawford to try to split Jackson and Calhoun. One of Calhoun's men took a copy of the pamphlet to Secretary Eaton and asked him to show it to President Jackson. He told Eaton that the pamphlet would not be published without Jackson's approval. Eaton did not show the pamphlet to Jackson and said nothing to Calhoun's men. Calhoun understood this silence to mean that Jackson did not object to the pamphlet. So he had it published and given to the public. VOICE ONE: Jackson exploded when he read it. Not only had Calhoun failed to destroy the letters, he had published them. Jackson's newspaper, "The Washington Globe," accused Calhoun of throwing a firebomb into the party. Jackson declared that Calhoun and his supporters had cut their own throats. Only later did Calhoun discover what had gone wrong. Eaton had not shown the pamphlet to Jackson. He had not even spoken to the president about it. This was Eaton's way of punishing those who treated his wife so badly. VOICE TWO: Jackson continued to defend Margaret Eaton's honor. He even held a cabinet meeting on the subject. All the secretaries but John Eaton were there. Jackson told them that he did not want to interfere in their private lives. But, he said it seemed that their families were trying to get others to have nothing to do with Mister Eaton. "I will not part with John Eaton," Jackson said. "And those of my cabinet who cannot harmonize with him had better withdraw. I must and I will have harmony." Jackson said any insult to Eaton would be an insult to himself. Either work with Eaton or resign. There were no resignations. VOICE ONE: But the problem got no better. Many people just would not accept Margaret Eaton as their social equal. Mister van Buren saw that the problem was hurting Jackson deeply. But he knew better than to propose to Jackson that he ask for Secretary Eaton's resignation. He already had heard Jackson say that he would resign as president before he would desert his friend Eaton. Mister van Buren decided on a plan of action. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were stuart spencer and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In our last few programs of THE MAKING OF A NATION, we described the violence of the presidential election campaign of eighteen-twenty-eight. It split the old Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson into two hostile groups: the National Republicans of John Quincy Adams and the Democrats of Andrew Jackson. The election of Jackson deepened the split. It became more serious as a new dispute arose over import taxes. This is what happened: VOICE TWO: Congress passed a bill in eighteen-twenty-eight that put high taxes on a number of imported products. The purpose of the import tax was to protect American industries from foreign competition. The south opposed the tax, because it had no industry to protect. Its chief product was cotton, which was exported to Europe. The American import taxes forced European nations to put taxes on American cotton. This meant a drop in the sale of cotton and less money for the planters of the south. It also meant higher prices in the American market for manufactured goods. South Carolina refused to pay the import tax. It said the tax was not constitutional...that the constitution did not give the federal government the power to order a protective tax. VOICE ONE: At one time, the Vice President of the United States -- John C. Calhoun of South Carolina -- had believed in a strong central government. But he had become a strong supporter of states' rights. Calhoun wrote a long statement against the import tax for the South Carolina legislature. In it, he developed the idea of nullification -- cancelling federal powers. He said the states had created the federal government and, therefore, the states had the greater power. He argued that the states could reject, or nullify, any act of the central government which was not constitutional. And, Calhoun said, the states should be the judge of whether an act was constitutional or not. Calhoun's idea was debated in the Senate by Robert Hayne of South Carolina and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Hayne supported nullification, and Webster opposed it. Webster said Hayne was wrong in using the words "liberty first, and union afterwards." He said they could not be separated. Said Webster: "Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable." VOICE TWO: No one really knew how President Andrew Jackson felt about nullification. He made no public statement during the debate. Leaders in South Carolina developed a plan to get the president's support. They decided to hold a big dinner honoring the memory of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson agreed to be at the dinner. The speeches were carefully planned. They began by praising the democratic ideas of Jefferson. Then speakers discussed Virginia's opposition to the alien and sedition laws passed by the federal government in seventeen-ninety-eight. Next they discussed South Carolina's opposition to the import tax. Finally, the speeches were finished. It was time for toasts. President Jackson made the first one. He stood up, raised his glass, and looked straight at John C. Calhoun. He waited for the cheering to stop. "Our union," he said. "It must be preserved." VOICE ONE: Calhoun rose with the others to drink the toast. He had not expected Jackson's opposition to nullification. His hand shook, and he spilled some of the wine from his glass. Calhoun was called on to make the next toast. The vice president rose slowly. "The union," he said, "next to our liberty, most dear." He waited a moment, then continued. "May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the states and by giving equally the benefits and burdens of the union." President Jackson left a few minutes later. Most of those at dinner left with him. VOICE TWO: The nation now knew how the president felt. And the people were with him -- opposed to nullification. But the idea was not dead among the extremists of South Carolina. They were to start more trouble two years later. Calhoun's nullification doctrine was not the only thing that divided Jackson and the vice president. Calhoun had led a campaign against the wife of Jackson's friend and Secretary of War, John Eaton. Three members of Jackson's cabinet supported Calhoun. Mister Calhoun and the three cabinet wives would have nothing to do with Mister Eaton. Jackson saw this as a political trick to try to force Eaton from the cabinet, and make Jackson look foolish at the same time. VOICE ONE: The hostility between Jackson and his vice president was sharpened by a letter that was written by a member of President Monroe's cabinet. It told how Calhoun wanted Jackson arrested in eighteen-eighteen. The letter writer, William Crawford, was in the cabinet with Calhoun. Jackson had led a military campaign into Spanish Florida and had hanged two British citizens. Calhoun proposed during a cabinet meeting that Jackson be punished. Jackson did not learn of this until eighteen-twenty-nine. Jackson wanted no further communications with Calhoun. Several attempts were made to soften relations between Calhoun and Jackson. One of them seemed to succeed. Jackson told Secretary of State Martin van Buren that the dispute had been settled. He said the unfriendly letters that he and Calhoun sent each other would be destroyed. And he said he would invite the vice president to have dinner with him at the White House. VOICE TWO: With the dispute ended, Calhoun thought he saw a way to destroy his rival for the presidency -- Secretary of State Martin van Buren. He decided not to destroy the letters he and Jackson sent to each other. Instead, he had a pamphlet written, using the letters. The pamphlet also contained the statement of several persons denying the Crawford charges. And, it accused Mister van Buren of using Crawford to try to split Jackson and Calhoun. One of Calhoun's men took a copy of the pamphlet to Secretary Eaton and asked him to show it to President Jackson. He told Eaton that the pamphlet would not be published without Jackson's approval. Eaton did not show the pamphlet to Jackson and said nothing to Calhoun's men. Calhoun understood this silence to mean that Jackson did not object to the pamphlet. So he had it published and given to the public. VOICE ONE: Jackson exploded when he read it. Not only had Calhoun failed to destroy the letters, he had published them. Jackson's newspaper, "The Washington Globe," accused Calhoun of throwing a firebomb into the party. Jackson declared that Calhoun and his supporters had cut their own throats. Only later did Calhoun discover what had gone wrong. Eaton had not shown the pamphlet to Jackson. He had not even spoken to the president about it. This was Eaton's way of punishing those who treated his wife so badly. VOICE TWO: Jackson continued to defend Margaret Eaton's honor. He even held a cabinet meeting on the subject. All the secretaries but John Eaton were there. Jackson told them that he did not want to interfere in their private lives. But, he said it seemed that their families were trying to get others to have nothing to do with Mister Eaton. "I will not part with John Eaton," Jackson said. "And those of my cabinet who cannot harmonize with him had better withdraw. I must and I will have harmony." Jackson said any insult to Eaton would be an insult to himself. Either work with Eaton or resign. There were no resignations. VOICE ONE: But the problem got no better. Many people just would not accept Margaret Eaton as their social equal. Mister van Buren saw that the problem was hurting Jackson deeply. But he knew better than to propose to Jackson that he ask for Secretary Eaton's resignation. He already had heard Jackson say that he would resign as president before he would desert his friend Eaton. Mister van Buren decided on a plan of action. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were stuart spencer and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Language Learning in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. It seems more and more Americans want schools to teach foreign languages to children younger than five years old. The most popular way to teach these young children another language is called immersion. Children in immersion programs hear only the new language in the classroom. The children play games, sing songs and talk to one another in the new language. Some experts say immersion programs are the most effective way for young children to learn a language. But there can be a problem when children in the United States begin to learn another language at such an early age. Not many elementary schools continue the effort as the children get older. Only seven of the fifty states require schools to teach a foreign language to students between the ages of six and twelve. Language experts say it is easier for younger children to learn a language. Still, American schools generally do not begin to teach foreign languages until secondary school. By then, students are about thirteen years old. American schools face difficult choices about the cost of educational programs. The federal government has increased support for foreign language study in its education law called No Child Left Behind. At the college level, the Modern Language Association says more students than ever are studying foreign languages. The group recently announced its findings for the period from nineteen-ninety-eight until two-thousand-two. The number of students who studied foreign languages in American colleges and universities increased by seventeen percent. Spanish is the most widely taught language in American colleges and universities. Other popular languages include French, German, Japanese, Chinese and Italian. The Modern Language Association says more languages are being studied now than in the past. It says the largest growth since nineteen-ninety-eight has been in the study of American Sign Language, Arabic and biblical Hebrew. The association says about nine percent of college students in the United States study foreign languages. That is the highest level since nineteen-seventy-two. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 22, 2004 - 'Logic Made Easy' by Deborah Bennett
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: April 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk to Deborah Bennett, a mathematician and author. It seemed only logical for her to combine her interests in a new book. It's called "Logic Made Easy: How to Know When Language Deceives You." BENNETT: "Most of us do not like to be considered inconsistent or contradictory, and those things that you do or say that appear contradictory violate the, quote, 'laws of logic.' I guess another thing that bothered me was all these talking heads [analysts and commentators] on TV that appear to give a logical argument. People need to understand what is and is not logical so that they can weed out the arguments that are not valid, that do not follow." RS: "Are there some red flags that go up when you're listening to those talking heads, for example? Can you give us some practical idea of how we would identify ... " AA: "There are laws to this, right? As a mathematician, you must see violations left and right of the traditional laws of logic." BENNETT: "Right. OK, if I say 'all mothers are women,' it's not necessarily true that all women are mothers. But people will reverse that all the time. For example, maybe just in office conversation or something, you know, maybe somebody will make the claim 'all women are pacifists.' And a man says 'well, I'm a pacifist and I'm not a woman.' But that's the error of the converse. You can do the same thing with an 'if-then' statement." RS: "Give us an example." AA: "Because in your book, you call if-then -- [you say] it's been referred to as the 'heart of logic.'" BENNETT: "Right, right. OK, I just did my taxes. OK, so there's one stipulation that says if you make more than -- I'll probably get the numbers wrong -- ten-thousand dollars in dividend income ... if you make that, then you must fill out Schedule B. It's not the case that if you're filling out Schedule B, it's necessarily because you have more than [ten-thousand dollars in dividend income]. So that would be one example." RS: "Which is very much like a mathematical equation." BENNETT: "Yes, any time you're having to agree or disagree to a statement or vote on something in voting referendums, they do this all the time. A statement that's worded in the negative, you'll have to be really careful what voting 'yes' means. So the flags for that are, you know, 'do you want the repeal of the term limits [on elected officials]?'" RS: "Yes or no." BENNETT: "So if you vote yes, then you are against term limits. 'Are you in favor of the ban on smoking?' So again it's a negative -- the repeal, the ban. The one I like is, 'do you favor the repeal of the ban on assault weapons?'" RS: "How should that statement be written?" AA: "Or was it written a certain way to try perhaps to ... " BENNETT: "Some people think they are written in such a way so that people will be confused. How should that [be written]? I'm not a lawmaker, I'm not sure I could. But if you wanted to know, I guess, the will of the people, you know, 'do you favor ownership, under certain conditions, of assault weapons?'" RS: "You're a mathematician. What did you learn about language by writing this book?" BENNETT: "Well, I learned that language doesn't necessarily follow the same -- the way we use language, the definitions are not exactly the logical definitions. So it's no wonder, really, that people don't always understand." AA: "What do you mean by that?" BENNETT: "OK, like you can take an easy word like 'or.' In logic, 'or' means either/or or both. You can say, you know, 'I bet you're an aunt or a mother,' all right? Well, you could be both. But we use the word 'or' all the time -- 'are you coming or going?' So sometimes we use it in what's called the exclusive sense, where [it means] take one or the other, but it can't be both. And yet if you interpret 'or' that way in, say, a logic test or on one of these national tests to get into college or law school or whatever, then you'd be wrong." AA: Deborah Bennett teaches mathematics at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. Her newest book is called "Logic Made Easy: How to Know When Language Deceives You." And that's Wordmaster for this week. If you have a question about American English, then here's the logical place to send it: word@voanews.com. Or visit our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: April 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk to Deborah Bennett, a mathematician and author. It seemed only logical for her to combine her interests in a new book. It's called "Logic Made Easy: How to Know When Language Deceives You." BENNETT: "Most of us do not like to be considered inconsistent or contradictory, and those things that you do or say that appear contradictory violate the, quote, 'laws of logic.' I guess another thing that bothered me was all these talking heads [analysts and commentators] on TV that appear to give a logical argument. People need to understand what is and is not logical so that they can weed out the arguments that are not valid, that do not follow." RS: "Are there some red flags that go up when you're listening to those talking heads, for example? Can you give us some practical idea of how we would identify ... " AA: "There are laws to this, right? As a mathematician, you must see violations left and right of the traditional laws of logic." BENNETT: "Right. OK, if I say 'all mothers are women,' it's not necessarily true that all women are mothers. But people will reverse that all the time. For example, maybe just in office conversation or something, you know, maybe somebody will make the claim 'all women are pacifists.' And a man says 'well, I'm a pacifist and I'm not a woman.' But that's the error of the converse. You can do the same thing with an 'if-then' statement." RS: "Give us an example." AA: "Because in your book, you call if-then -- [you say] it's been referred to as the 'heart of logic.'" BENNETT: "Right, right. OK, I just did my taxes. OK, so there's one stipulation that says if you make more than -- I'll probably get the numbers wrong -- ten-thousand dollars in dividend income ... if you make that, then you must fill out Schedule B. It's not the case that if you're filling out Schedule B, it's necessarily because you have more than [ten-thousand dollars in dividend income]. So that would be one example." RS: "Which is very much like a mathematical equation." BENNETT: "Yes, any time you're having to agree or disagree to a statement or vote on something in voting referendums, they do this all the time. A statement that's worded in the negative, you'll have to be really careful what voting 'yes' means. So the flags for that are, you know, 'do you want the repeal of the term limits [on elected officials]?'" RS: "Yes or no." BENNETT: "So if you vote yes, then you are against term limits. 'Are you in favor of the ban on smoking?' So again it's a negative -- the repeal, the ban. The one I like is, 'do you favor the repeal of the ban on assault weapons?'" RS: "How should that statement be written?" AA: "Or was it written a certain way to try perhaps to ... " BENNETT: "Some people think they are written in such a way so that people will be confused. How should that [be written]? I'm not a lawmaker, I'm not sure I could. But if you wanted to know, I guess, the will of the people, you know, 'do you favor ownership, under certain conditions, of assault weapons?'" RS: "You're a mathematician. What did you learn about language by writing this book?" BENNETT: "Well, I learned that language doesn't necessarily follow the same -- the way we use language, the definitions are not exactly the logical definitions. So it's no wonder, really, that people don't always understand." AA: "What do you mean by that?" BENNETT: "OK, like you can take an easy word like 'or.' In logic, 'or' means either/or or both. You can say, you know, 'I bet you're an aunt or a mother,' all right? Well, you could be both. But we use the word 'or' all the time -- 'are you coming or going?' So sometimes we use it in what's called the exclusive sense, where [it means] take one or the other, but it can't be both. And yet if you interpret 'or' that way in, say, a logic test or on one of these national tests to get into college or law school or whatever, then you'd be wrong." AA: Deborah Bennett teaches mathematics at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. Her newest book is called "Logic Made Easy: How to Know When Language Deceives You." And that's Wordmaster for this week. If you have a question about American English, then here's the logical place to send it: word@voanews.com. Or visit our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Time Square Birthday / Spam Jam / Mosaic Theme
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 23, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: April 23, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we answer a question about the music you're hearing. And we tell about an unusual celebration this week in Hawaii. Bela Fleck Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we answer a question about the music you're hearing. And we tell about an unusual celebration this week in Hawaii. But first, one of the best-known places in America has just had a big birthday party. Times Square Birthday HOST: Times Square, in the heart of New York City, is one-hundred years old. Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut a huge birthday cake to help start the celebrations earlier this month. Faith Lapidus tells the history of Times Square. ANNCR: “Times Square is New York.” Those are the words of the head of the Times Square Alliance, a coalition of area businesses. The millions of visitors to Times Square each year would probably agree. The area has one of the most recognizable names in the world. But, Times Square is not really a square. It is the name for the area around where Broadway crosses Forty-Second Street in Manhattan. The Times Square area stretches more than ten blocks north to south. The borders to the east and west are uneven. Some people call the shape of the area a bow tie. Times Square gets its name from the New York Times newspaper. In nineteen-oh-four, the newspaper began to build its headquarters in what was then called Long Acre Square. The city’s underground train system built a stop under the Times Tower. The city renamed the area Times Square. On December thirty-first, nineteen-oh-four, the newspaper held a big celebration in Times Square to welcome the New Year. Fireworks lit the sky. Celebrations have taken place every year since then. Now, crowds also watch a big glass ball slide down a pole as the New Year arrives. Hundreds of businesses are in Times Square. The alliance says twenty percent of all hotel rooms in New York City are in Times Square. It says Times Square also has about six and one-half million square meters of office space. And more is being built. Times Square used to have a lot of adult businesses and was not considered very safe. But the area has been redeveloped in recent years. In fact, businesses now have to pay a lot for space there. Times Square is home to famous Broadway theaters. And several television companies have studios there. MTV is one of them. Times Square is probably most famous for its huge colorful signs. The alliance says Times Square is the only place in New York where businesses are required to use them. Spam Jam HOST: Do you know what Spam is? We don’t mean the unwanted e-mail that tries to get you to buy something. The real Spam is a meat product that has been made since nineteen-thirty-seven. It is cooked pork sold in a small blue can. The name comes from "spiced ham." Shep O’Neal reports on a celebration of Spam in Hawaii. ANNCR: An event called “Spam Jam” will take place near the famous Waikiki Beach April twenty-third and twenty-fourth. This is the second year that Spam has been celebrated in the Hawaiian Islands. You probably want to know why the people of Hawaii would choose to celebrate canned meat. That is a good question. Well, you should know that people in Hawaii eat more Spam than any other American state. Almost seven-million cans of Spam are eaten in Hawaii each year. Hawaii is really the Spam capital of the United States. Some people believe Spam became popular in Hawaii because workers could take the little cans with them into the sugar cane fields. The heat of the fields would not spoil the meat. It was protected in the can. Maybe. But no one really knows if this was the reason. The real question is: what are people in Hawaii doing to celebrate Spam? Cooks from some of the hotels along Waikiki Beach will each try to make great tasting meals using Spam. A huge street party with singers and dancers will be held. This will continue for two days. Don’t laugh. Last year, more than thirty-thousand people attended the party. One lucky person will win a special prize -- a trip to the city of Austin, Minnesota. That is where the Hormel Foods company puts Spam in the little cans. The prize includes a visit to the Spam Museum. Organizers of Spam Jam also want to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. They plan to build the longest ever musubi (moo-soo-BEE). A musubi is a food made of sticky rice, seaweed and, of course, Spam. It is a favorite in Hawaii. The organizers say the musubi will be about ninety-one meters long. It will be enough to feed one-thousand-two-hundred people. That... is a lot of Spam. Mosaic Theme (MUSIC) HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Osaka, Japan. Toshikatsu Tada asks about the music you are hearing now -- the theme music we play each week on American Mosaic. The song is called “Lover’s Leap.” It is performed by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. We started to use it as the Mosaic theme about two years ago. This song is the third one used since the show began in nineteen-eighty-five. “Lover’s Leap” is on Bela Fleck’s record called “Live at the Quick.” Let’s listen to more: (MUSIC) “Lover’s Leap” is an unusual song. Bela Fleck has brought together instruments that are usually not heard in combination. These include the electric banjo, French horn, oboe, bass guitar, electric drums, clarinet and steel pan. Steel pans or steel drums are commonly used to play music in the islands of the West Indies in the Caribbean. We leave you as we began -- with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones playing “Lover’s Leap.” (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. But first, one of the best-known places in America has just had a big birthday party. Times Square Birthday HOST: Times Square, in the heart of New York City, is one-hundred years old. Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut a huge birthday cake to help start the celebrations earlier this month. Faith Lapidus tells the history of Times Square. ANNCR: “Times Square is New York.” Those are the words of the head of the Times Square Alliance, a coalition of area businesses. The millions of visitors to Times Square each year would probably agree. The area has one of the most recognizable names in the world. But, Times Square is not really a square. It is the name for the area around where Broadway crosses Forty-Second Street in Manhattan. The Times Square area stretches more than ten blocks north to south. The borders to the east and west are uneven. Some people call the shape of the area a bow tie. Times Square gets its name from the New York Times newspaper. In nineteen-oh-four, the newspaper began to build its headquarters in what was then called Long Acre Square. The city’s underground train system built a stop under the Times Tower. The city renamed the area Times Square. On December thirty-first, nineteen-oh-four, the newspaper held a big celebration in Times Square to welcome the New Year. Fireworks lit the sky. Celebrations have taken place every year since then. Now, crowds also watch a big glass ball slide down a pole as the New Year arrives. Hundreds of businesses are in Times Square. The alliance says twenty percent of all hotel rooms in New York City are in Times Square. It says Times Square also has about six and one-half million square meters of office space. And more is being built. Times Square used to have a lot of adult businesses and was not considered very safe. But the area has been redeveloped in recent years. In fact, businesses now have to pay a lot for space there. Times Square is home to famous Broadway theaters. And several television companies have studios there. MTV is one of them. Times Square is probably most famous for its huge colorful signs. The alliance says Times Square is the only place in New York where businesses are required to use them. Spam Jam HOST: Do you know what Spam is? We don’t mean the unwanted e-mail that tries to get you to buy something. The real Spam is a meat product that has been made since nineteen-thirty-seven. It is cooked pork sold in a small blue can. The name comes from "spiced ham." Shep O’Neal reports on a celebration of Spam in Hawaii. ANNCR: An event called “Spam Jam” will take place near the famous Waikiki Beach April twenty-third and twenty-fourth. This is the second year that Spam has been celebrated in the Hawaiian Islands. You probably want to know why the people of Hawaii would choose to celebrate canned meat. That is a good question. Well, you should know that people in Hawaii eat more Spam than any other American state. Almost seven-million cans of Spam are eaten in Hawaii each year. Hawaii is really the Spam capital of the United States. Some people believe Spam became popular in Hawaii because workers could take the little cans with them into the sugar cane fields. The heat of the fields would not spoil the meat. It was protected in the can. Maybe. But no one really knows if this was the reason. The real question is: what are people in Hawaii doing to celebrate Spam? Cooks from some of the hotels along Waikiki Beach will each try to make great tasting meals using Spam. A huge street party with singers and dancers will be held. This will continue for two days. Don’t laugh. Last year, more than thirty-thousand people attended the party. One lucky person will win a special prize -- a trip to the city of Austin, Minnesota. That is where the Hormel Foods company puts Spam in the little cans. The prize includes a visit to the Spam Museum. Organizers of Spam Jam also want to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. They plan to build the longest ever musubi (moo-soo-BEE). A musubi is a food made of sticky rice, seaweed and, of course, Spam. It is a favorite in Hawaii. The organizers say the musubi will be about ninety-one meters long. It will be enough to feed one-thousand-two-hundred people. That... is a lot of Spam. Mosaic Theme (MUSIC) HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Osaka, Japan. Toshikatsu Tada asks about the music you are hearing now -- the theme music we play each week on American Mosaic. The song is called “Lover’s Leap.” It is performed by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. We started to use it as the Mosaic theme about two years ago. This song is the third one used since the show began in nineteen-eighty-five. “Lover’s Leap” is on Bela Fleck’s record called “Live at the Quick.” Let’s listen to more: (MUSIC) “Lover’s Leap” is an unusual song. Bela Fleck has brought together instruments that are usually not heard in combination. These include the electric banjo, French horn, oboe, bass guitar, electric drums, clarinet and steel pan. Steel pans or steel drums are commonly used to play music in the islands of the West Indies in the Caribbean. We leave you as we began -- with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones playing “Lover’s Leap.” (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Apple Computer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 23, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The brains of the Apple 1: Steve Wozniak, left, and Steve Jobs. Broadcast: April 23, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. One of the most powerful tools ever developed is the P.C., the personal computer. One of the companies important to the history of the P.C. is Apple Computer. Apple is based in Cupertino, California. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started the company in nineteen-seventy-six. Mister Wozniak designed an early personal computer, the Apple One. At that time, people who wanted to work with computers often built their own, or used larger systems. Early personal computers had limited uses. Users had to write commands. This was true of the Apple One. But other Apple computers operated with a system known as a graphical user interface. Users chose from little pictures called icons. Researchers at Xerox designed such a system. But Apple was the first to make it popular. Today most personal computers use icons. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs tried to sell their ideas to other companies. They were rejected. But soon they found investors. Apple began to sell shares to the public in nineteen-eighty. The company became worth more than one-thousand-million dollars. In nineteen-eighty-one, International Business Machines began to sell a personal computer that many people bought. I.B.M. was the biggest computer company in the world. But Apple was known for its creativity. In nineteen-eighty-four, it released the first Macintosh. These computers were simple to use. Over the years, Apple gained a following of loyal users. But then lower-priced computers appeared. These used the Windows operating system made by Microsoft. Most personal computers today use Windows. Apple does not compete with makers of low-cost computers. Many of its computers are designed for special uses like video and music production. The brain of a computer is the processor. For years, Apple used processors made by Motorola. In two-thousand-three, Apple joined with I.B.M. to create a faster processor. But Apple still has only a small share of the computer market. Now, one of its most popular products is the iPod. This is a small music player. It can store up to one-thousand songs. Apple says it sold more than eight-hundred-thousand iPods in the three months ending in March. Apple reported a profit of forty-six million dollars for the period. It says the iPod greatly helped sales. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. One of the most powerful tools ever developed is the P.C., the personal computer. One of the companies important to the history of the P.C. is Apple Computer. Apple is based in Cupertino, California. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs started the company in nineteen-seventy-six. Mister Wozniak designed an early personal computer, the Apple One. At that time, people who wanted to work with computers often built their own, or used larger systems. Early personal computers had limited uses. Users had to write commands. This was true of the Apple One. But other Apple computers operated with a system known as a graphical user interface. Users chose from little pictures called icons. Researchers at Xerox designed such a system. But Apple was the first to make it popular. Today most personal computers use icons. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs tried to sell their ideas to other companies. They were rejected. But soon they found investors. Apple began to sell shares to the public in nineteen-eighty. The company became worth more than one-thousand-million dollars. In nineteen-eighty-one, International Business Machines began to sell a personal computer that many people bought. I.B.M. was the biggest computer company in the world. But Apple was known for its creativity. In nineteen-eighty-four, it released the first Macintosh. These computers were simple to use. Over the years, Apple gained a following of loyal users. But then lower-priced computers appeared. These used the Windows operating system made by Microsoft. Most personal computers today use Windows. Apple does not compete with makers of low-cost computers. Many of its computers are designed for special uses like video and music production. The brain of a computer is the processor. For years, Apple used processors made by Motorola. In two-thousand-three, Apple joined with I.B.M. to create a faster processor. But Apple still has only a small share of the computer market. Now, one of its most popular products is the iPod. This is a small music player. It can store up to one-thousand songs. Apple says it sold more than eight-hundred-thousand iPods in the three months ending in March. Apple reported a profit of forty-six million dollars for the period. It says the iPod greatly helped sales. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Supreme Court Hearings on Guantanamo Prisoners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 24, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. The United States Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the rights of foreign terrorism suspects. The cases involve prisoners held at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. About six-hundred men from more than forty countries are held there. Most were captured during fighting in Afghanistan. This followed the September eleventh, two-thousand-one, attacks on the United States by al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden’s group had camps in Afghanistan with support from the Taleban, which ruled the country. Those held are suspected members of al-Qaida or Taleban fighters. The Supreme Court heard appeals in cases brought by family members of sixteen British, Australian and Kuwaiti citizens. These are current or former prisoners at Guantanamo. Many have been held for two years. They have been not charged with crimes or permitted to speak directly with lawyers. Human rights groups and foreign governments have criticized the situation. The Bush administration has refused to declare those held at Guantanamo prisoners of war. People who are declared prisoners of war have legal rights. They are protected by the rules of the Geneva Conventions. Instead, the administration has declared the men unlawful enemy combatants. It says it has the right to hold them as long as necessary. Two lower federal courts have agreed. The administration bases its case on a Supreme Court ruling from nineteen-fifty. The high court ruled that foreign prisoners held outside the United States in connection with a war are not protected by a federal law. This law permits prisoners to dispute the government's right to hold them. Ted Olson is the top lawyer for the Bush administration. He told the nine justices that the United States is at war. His wife, Barbara, was among three-thousand people killed in the September eleventh attacks. Mister Olson argued that the Guantanamo naval base is outside the control of the federal courts. He said the base is still officially a part of Cuba. The United States has control of the base under agreements reached with Cuba one-hundred years ago. Retired federal judge John Gibbons represented the suspects. Mister Gibbons argued that American law does govern the base. He said the men should have a right to defend themselves in American courts. The Supreme Court justices appeared divided as they questioned the lawyers. The Bush administration has released one-hundred-forty-six prisoners from Guantanamo during the past two years. It also has announced plans to put six people on trial before a military court. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear two more cases. These involve American citizens held as enemy combatants. The court is expected to give its decisions by the end of June. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: April 24, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. The United States Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the rights of foreign terrorism suspects. The cases involve prisoners held at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. About six-hundred men from more than forty countries are held there. Most were captured during fighting in Afghanistan. This followed the September eleventh, two-thousand-one, attacks on the United States by al-Qaida. Osama bin Laden’s group had camps in Afghanistan with support from the Taleban, which ruled the country. Those held are suspected members of al-Qaida or Taleban fighters. The Supreme Court heard appeals in cases brought by family members of sixteen British, Australian and Kuwaiti citizens. These are current or former prisoners at Guantanamo. Many have been held for two years. They have been not charged with crimes or permitted to speak directly with lawyers. Human rights groups and foreign governments have criticized the situation. The Bush administration has refused to declare those held at Guantanamo prisoners of war. People who are declared prisoners of war have legal rights. They are protected by the rules of the Geneva Conventions. Instead, the administration has declared the men unlawful enemy combatants. It says it has the right to hold them as long as necessary. Two lower federal courts have agreed. The administration bases its case on a Supreme Court ruling from nineteen-fifty. The high court ruled that foreign prisoners held outside the United States in connection with a war are not protected by a federal law. This law permits prisoners to dispute the government's right to hold them. Ted Olson is the top lawyer for the Bush administration. He told the nine justices that the United States is at war. His wife, Barbara, was among three-thousand people killed in the September eleventh attacks. Mister Olson argued that the Guantanamo naval base is outside the control of the federal courts. He said the base is still officially a part of Cuba. The United States has control of the base under agreements reached with Cuba one-hundred years ago. Retired federal judge John Gibbons represented the suspects. Mister Gibbons argued that American law does govern the base. He said the men should have a right to defend themselves in American courts. The Supreme Court justices appeared divided as they questioned the lawyers. The Bush administration has released one-hundred-forty-six prisoners from Guantanamo during the past two years. It also has announced plans to put six people on trial before a military court. Next week, the Supreme Court will hear two more cases. These involve American citizens held as enemy combatants. The court is expected to give its decisions by the end of June. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Edith Wharton
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 25, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: April 25, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about writer Edith Wharton. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A critic once described American writer Edith Wharton as a "self-made man." She liked the comment and repeated it. Others said she was a product of New York City. But the New York she wrote about was different from the New York of those who came after her. Edith Wharton was born in New York City in Eighteen-Sixty-Two. New York then was several different cities. One New York was made up of people who worked for a living. The other was much smaller. It was made up of families who were so rich they did not need to work. Edith was born into the wealthy New York. But there was a "right" wealthy New York and a "wrong" wealthy New York. Among the rich there were those who had been given money by parents or grandparents. Then there were those who earned their own money, the newly rich. Edith's family was from the "right" New Yorkers, people who had 'old' money. It was a group that did not want its way of living changed. It also was a group without many ideas of its own. It was from this group that Edith Wharton created herself. VOICE TWO: Like many girls her age, Edith wrote stories. In one of her childhood stories, a woman apologizes for not having a completely clean house when another woman makes an unexpected visit. Edith's mother read the story. Her only comment was that one's house was always clean and ready for visitors. Edith's house always was. Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe. She was educated by special teachers, and not at schools. If Edith's family feared anything, it was sharp social, cultural, and economic change. Yet these were the things Edith would see in her lifetime. The end of the Civil War in Eighteen-Sixty-Five marked the beginning of great changes in the United States. The country that had been mostly agricultural was becoming industrial. Businessmen and workers increasingly were gaining political and economic power. Edith Wharton saw these changes sooner than most people. And she rejected them. To her, the old America was a victim of the new. She did not like the new values of money replacing the old values of family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Eighty-Five, she married Edward Wharton. He was her social equal. They lived together for twenty-eight years. But it was a marriage without much love. In Nineteen-Thirteen, she sought to end the marriage. That she waited so long to do so, one critic said, was a sign of her ties to the idea of family and to tradition. Some critics think that Edith Wharton began to write because she found the people of her social group so uninteresting. Others say she began when her husband became sick and she needed something to do. The fact is that Wharton thought of herself as a writer from the time she was a child. Writing gave her a sense of freedom from the restrictions of her social class. VOICE TWO: Writing was just one of a series of things she did. And she did all of them well. She was interested in designing and caring for gardens. She designed her own house. She had an international social life and left a large collection of letters. In her lifetime she published about fifty books on a number of subjects. Many critics believe Edith Wharton should have written the story of her social group. To do this, however, she would have had to remove herself from the group to see it clearly. She could not do this, even intellectually. Her education and her traditions made it impossible. The subject of Edith Wharton's writing became the story of the young and innocent in a dishonest world. She did not make a connection between her work and her own life. What she had was the ability to speak plainly about emotions that, until then, had been hidden. She also was among the first American women writers to gain a sense of the world as an evil place. "Life is the saddest thing," she wrote, "next to death." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To show that she could do more than just write stories, she Wrote a book with Ogden Codman, “The Decoration of Houses.” It was very successful. About the same time, her poems and stories also began to be published in Scribner's Magazine. In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine her collection of stories, “The Greater Inclination,” appeared. It was an immediate success. When she was in London, she visited a bookstore. The store owner, who did not know who she was, handed her the book. He said to her, "This is what everyone in London is talking about now. VOICE TWO: Three years later her first novel, “The Valley of Decision,” was published. Three years after that she published her first great popular success, the novel, “The House of Mirth.” “The House of Mirth” is the story of a young woman who lacks the money to continue her high social position. As in so many stories by Edith Wharton, the main character does not control what happens to her. She is a victim who is defeated by forces she does not fight to overcome. This idea is central to much of Edith Wharton's best writing. The old families of New York are in conflict with the newly rich families. The major people in the stories are trapped in a hopeless struggle with social forces more powerful than they. And they struggle against people whose beliefs and actions are not as moral as theirs. VOICE ONE: This is the situation in one of Wharton's most popular books, “Ethan Frome,” published in Nineteen-Eleven. Unlike her other novels, it is set on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the story of a man and woman whose lives are controlled, and finally destroyed, by custom. They are the victims of society. They die honorably instead of fighting back. If they were to reject custom, however, they would not be the people they are. And they would not mean as much to each other. In Nineteen-Thirteen, Wharton's marriage ended. It was the same year that she published another novel that was highly praised, “The Custom of the Country.” In it she discusses the effects of new wealth in the late Nineteenth Century on a beautiful young woman. VOICE TWO: Most critics agree that most of Edith Wharton's writing after Nineteen-Thirteen is not as good as before that time. It was as if she needed the difficulties of her marriage to write well. Much of her best work seems to have been written under the pressure of great personal crisis. After her marriage ended, her work was not as sharp as her earlier writing. In Nineteen-Twenty, however, she produced, “The Age of Innocence.” Many critics think this is her best novel. In it she deals with the lack of honesty that lies behind the apparent innocence of the New York social world. A man and woman see their lives ruined because they have duties they cannot escape. Edith Wharton received America's top writing award, the Pulitzer Prize, for “The Age of Innocence.” In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the movie of “The Age of Innocence” created new interest in her work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the later years of her life, Wharton gave more and more of her time to an important group of diplomats, artists, and thinkers. Among her friends was the American writer Henry James. She liked James as a man and as a writer. She often used her car and driver to take him on short trips. At one time, Henry James was hoping that his publisher would print a collection of his many novels and stories. Wharton knew of this wish. And she knew that the publisher thought he would lose money if he published such a collection. She wrote to the publisher. She agreed to secretly pay the publisher to print the collection of her friend's writings. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty, the American National Institute of Arts and Letters gave Wharton a gold medal. She was the first woman to be so honored. Four years later she wrote the story of her life, “A Backward Glance.” Edith Wharton died in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven at one of the two homes she owned in France. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about writer Edith Wharton. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A critic once described American writer Edith Wharton as a "self-made man." She liked the comment and repeated it. Others said she was a product of New York City. But the New York she wrote about was different from the New York of those who came after her. Edith Wharton was born in New York City in Eighteen-Sixty-Two. New York then was several different cities. One New York was made up of people who worked for a living. The other was much smaller. It was made up of families who were so rich they did not need to work. Edith was born into the wealthy New York. But there was a "right" wealthy New York and a "wrong" wealthy New York. Among the rich there were those who had been given money by parents or grandparents. Then there were those who earned their own money, the newly rich. Edith's family was from the "right" New Yorkers, people who had 'old' money. It was a group that did not want its way of living changed. It also was a group without many ideas of its own. It was from this group that Edith Wharton created herself. VOICE TWO: Like many girls her age, Edith wrote stories. In one of her childhood stories, a woman apologizes for not having a completely clean house when another woman makes an unexpected visit. Edith's mother read the story. Her only comment was that one's house was always clean and ready for visitors. Edith's house always was. Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe. She was educated by special teachers, and not at schools. If Edith's family feared anything, it was sharp social, cultural, and economic change. Yet these were the things Edith would see in her lifetime. The end of the Civil War in Eighteen-Sixty-Five marked the beginning of great changes in the United States. The country that had been mostly agricultural was becoming industrial. Businessmen and workers increasingly were gaining political and economic power. Edith Wharton saw these changes sooner than most people. And she rejected them. To her, the old America was a victim of the new. She did not like the new values of money replacing the old values of family. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Eighty-Five, she married Edward Wharton. He was her social equal. They lived together for twenty-eight years. But it was a marriage without much love. In Nineteen-Thirteen, she sought to end the marriage. That she waited so long to do so, one critic said, was a sign of her ties to the idea of family and to tradition. Some critics think that Edith Wharton began to write because she found the people of her social group so uninteresting. Others say she began when her husband became sick and she needed something to do. The fact is that Wharton thought of herself as a writer from the time she was a child. Writing gave her a sense of freedom from the restrictions of her social class. VOICE TWO: Writing was just one of a series of things she did. And she did all of them well. She was interested in designing and caring for gardens. She designed her own house. She had an international social life and left a large collection of letters. In her lifetime she published about fifty books on a number of subjects. Many critics believe Edith Wharton should have written the story of her social group. To do this, however, she would have had to remove herself from the group to see it clearly. She could not do this, even intellectually. Her education and her traditions made it impossible. The subject of Edith Wharton's writing became the story of the young and innocent in a dishonest world. She did not make a connection between her work and her own life. What she had was the ability to speak plainly about emotions that, until then, had been hidden. She also was among the first American women writers to gain a sense of the world as an evil place. "Life is the saddest thing," she wrote, "next to death." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To show that she could do more than just write stories, she Wrote a book with Ogden Codman, “The Decoration of Houses.” It was very successful. About the same time, her poems and stories also began to be published in Scribner's Magazine. In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine her collection of stories, “The Greater Inclination,” appeared. It was an immediate success. When she was in London, she visited a bookstore. The store owner, who did not know who she was, handed her the book. He said to her, "This is what everyone in London is talking about now. VOICE TWO: Three years later her first novel, “The Valley of Decision,” was published. Three years after that she published her first great popular success, the novel, “The House of Mirth.” “The House of Mirth” is the story of a young woman who lacks the money to continue her high social position. As in so many stories by Edith Wharton, the main character does not control what happens to her. She is a victim who is defeated by forces she does not fight to overcome. This idea is central to much of Edith Wharton's best writing. The old families of New York are in conflict with the newly rich families. The major people in the stories are trapped in a hopeless struggle with social forces more powerful than they. And they struggle against people whose beliefs and actions are not as moral as theirs. VOICE ONE: This is the situation in one of Wharton's most popular books, “Ethan Frome,” published in Nineteen-Eleven. Unlike her other novels, it is set on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the story of a man and woman whose lives are controlled, and finally destroyed, by custom. They are the victims of society. They die honorably instead of fighting back. If they were to reject custom, however, they would not be the people they are. And they would not mean as much to each other. In Nineteen-Thirteen, Wharton's marriage ended. It was the same year that she published another novel that was highly praised, “The Custom of the Country.” In it she discusses the effects of new wealth in the late Nineteenth Century on a beautiful young woman. VOICE TWO: Most critics agree that most of Edith Wharton's writing after Nineteen-Thirteen is not as good as before that time. It was as if she needed the difficulties of her marriage to write well. Much of her best work seems to have been written under the pressure of great personal crisis. After her marriage ended, her work was not as sharp as her earlier writing. In Nineteen-Twenty, however, she produced, “The Age of Innocence.” Many critics think this is her best novel. In it she deals with the lack of honesty that lies behind the apparent innocence of the New York social world. A man and woman see their lives ruined because they have duties they cannot escape. Edith Wharton received America's top writing award, the Pulitzer Prize, for “The Age of Innocence.” In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the movie of “The Age of Innocence” created new interest in her work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the later years of her life, Wharton gave more and more of her time to an important group of diplomats, artists, and thinkers. Among her friends was the American writer Henry James. She liked James as a man and as a writer. She often used her car and driver to take him on short trips. At one time, Henry James was hoping that his publisher would print a collection of his many novels and stories. Wharton knew of this wish. And she knew that the publisher thought he would lose money if he published such a collection. She wrote to the publisher. She agreed to secretly pay the publisher to print the collection of her friend's writings. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty, the American National Institute of Arts and Letters gave Wharton a gold medal. She was the first woman to be so honored. Four years later she wrote the story of her life, “A Backward Glance.” Edith Wharton died in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven at one of the two homes she owned in France. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Medical Transplant Operations
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 27, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is medical transplant operations. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Doctors perform transplants to replace organs or tissue in a person who is sick or injured. There are records of a transplant operation that took place in eighteen-twenty-three. A German doctor, Carl Bunger, removed skin from a woman's leg and used it to rebuild her nose. Scientists later showed that the defense system in the body tries to reject tissue transplanted from other people. VOICE TWO: Rejection continued to be a problem for transplants well into the twentieth century. In nineteen-fifty-eight, the French doctor Jean Dausset discovered a system to match tissue. This is a way to make sure that the tissue to be transplanted is closely similar to the patient’s own. In nineteen-seventy-two, the Swiss scientist Jean Borel discovered that the drug cyclosporine could stop the rejection. Cyclosporine is made from a fungus that lives in soil. Experts say this drug is the most important reason for the success of transplant operations today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than twenty different organs and tissues can be transplanted from one person to another. Clinical Transplants is a publication that reports each year on the numbers of such operations around the world. It is published by researchers at U.C.L.A., the University of California, Los Angeles. They say doctors performed more than fifty-thousand successful transplant operations in two-thousand-three. Close to thirty-thousand of these were kidney transplants. Kidneys are the organ most commonly transplanted. The success rate of such transplants is very high. A family member often can provide a kidney for transplant. People have two kidneys, but usually need only one. Some kidney transplant patients have survived for more than thirty years. A spokeswoman at U.C.L.A. says one transplanted kidney has been working for forty-one years. VOICE TWO: Another commonly transplanted organ is the liver. The liver is the only organ in the body that can grow to normal size from a small piece. Doctors can remove part of a liver from a person and place it into a patient who has liver failure. After the operation, both livers will grow to full size. Clinical Transplants says more than ten-thousand liver transplants took place around the world in two-thousand-three. VOICE ONE: The South African doctor Christiaan Barnard did the first successful heart transplant. That happened in nineteen-sixty-seven. Many more heart transplants have been done since nineteen-eighty-three. That was the year when the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States. More than three-thousand heart transplants were performed around the world in two-thousand-three. That same year, doctors also performed more than one-thousand lung transplants. Such operations can replace a single diseased lung or both lungs. Sometimes, lung disease also damages the heart. So doctors must replace both the heart and the lungs. Other organs that can be transplanted include the pancreas and the intestines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Doctors also perform tissue transplants. The most common is a blood transfusion. Blood is considered a tissue. People may receive blood after an operation or accident. Other tissue transplants include skin, bone marrow, blood vessels and corneas. Corneal transplants improve the sight of people whose eyes have been damaged by injury or infection. Corneal transplants have a success rate of more than ninety percent. Skin transplants reduce the chance of infection in areas of the body that have been burned. These transplants remain on the body for several weeks. This is done until skin from another part of the patient’s own body can be used for a permanent transplant. VOICE ONE: Bone marrow transplants are for people who have disease such as leukemia, cancer of the blood. Doctors remove marrow from inside the hip bone of a healthy person. Then they place it into the sick person where the marrow begins to produce healthy blood cells. Bones can be transplanted, too. Doctors have even transplanted hands and arms in several cases in Europe and the United States. VOICE TWO: A transplant operation succeeds only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the foreign organ or tissue. This is done with drugs like cyclosporine. Patients also must receive tissue that is similar to their own. The person who provides the organ or tissue is called the donor. The one who receives it is the recipient. Both the donor and recipient must have the same blood type. For some transplants, they also must have some of the same proteins called H.L.A antigens. These are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H.L.A. antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed. VOICE ONE: Family members are often the best possible choice for donors when a person needs a transplant. However, most transplanted organs come from people who have died or been declared brain dead. People who are brain dead usually suffered a head injury. After brain activity ends, doctors can keep the other organs alive with machines. This continues until transplant recipients are found. In the United States, people who wish to donate their organs if they die in an accident can say so on their driving permit. Their families may also be asked for permission. A local medical organization will then do a computer search for people who need organs and have similar tissue. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Transplants do not always have to come from other humans. Animal organs have also been transplanted into people. In nineteen-sixty-three and sixty-four, doctors in the United States placed kidneys from chimpanzees into six people. All the people died from infections. But one patient survived for nine months. Doctors began to perform such operations because of the lack of human organs. Those who continue the research say they believe there will never be enough human organs to meet the need. VOICE ONE: Many researchers say pigs are the best animals for transplants. Heart valves from pigs are being used to replace diseased or damaged heart valves in people. And scientists continue research to find ways to use pig cells to treat several diseases. These include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Doctors say animal tissue could also be useful in countries where human-to-human transplants are not permitted. One risk of human-to-human transplants is the spread of viruses. But some medical experts have similar concerns about the possible dangers of transplants from animals. Medical organizations around the world have developed rules about animal transplants. And there are moral issues. In some nations, animal rights groups strongly protest transplants from animals to humans. VOICE TWO: In the United States, there is a national list of people who need transplants. An organization called the United Network for Organ Sharing is responsible for this list. The organization says about eighty-four-thousand people in the United States are waiting for transplants. It says more than five-thousand people each year die before a donor is found. The government has a Web site for people to learn more about organ donation. The address is organdonor-dot-g-o-v. Organ and tissue shortages are a worldwide problem. Not surprisingly, some people see a chance to profit. There are illegal sellers of body parts. Public health officials call organ donation the gift of life. They urge more people to consider giving this gift should they die unexpectedly. (THEME ) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - World Grain Supplies Expected to Shrink Further
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 27, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Food and Agriculture Organization says it expects another decrease in world grain supplies. The F.A.O. says it expects the supplies to be eighteen percent lower at the end of the season than their opening levels last year. However, world grain production this year is expected to increase by two percent. That would be three percent above the average of the last five years. But decreased production of some crops will affect prices. The F.A.O. says it expects trade in grains this year to remain slow mainly because of rising prices. The F.A.O. is part of the United Nations. The agency released a World Food Outlook this month. The report has information on wheat, rice and coarse grains. These include barley, corn and millet. Wheat supplies have fallen in recent years. China, and recently India, have reduced their crops. This is partly because the world is using less wheat. Wheat prices began to increase in July of two-thousand-three. The recent cuts mean prices will continue to rise. Much of the coarse grain crops in the world have not yet been planted. But the F.A.O. says it expects production to decrease by one percent from last year. Corn prices have increased over the last few months. The world rice crop is expected to increase, but not enough to satisfy demand. Already, prices for most kinds of rice have increased since March. Uses of grain crops change with time. Today, farmers use one-third of all grains to feed animals. People eat less grain as their economies develop and their earnings increase. Instead, they eat more vegetable oils and animal products. This is the case in China. At the same time, industrial uses can increase demand for cereal grains. This is the case with corn. This year, almost half of the corn not used for food in the United States will go to make alcohol for fuel. Grain supplies are a good measure of how the world is producing and using food. Grains are a central part of the human diet. They provide protein, fat and starch. Coarse grains are a major food for about one-thousand-million people in Africa and Central and South America. Wheat is the main food for about one-third of all people. But rice is the most popular cereal grain in the world. It is eaten by about seventy percent of the population. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - History of Transportation in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 26, 2004 (MUSIC) Traffic in the 1950's (Image: www.americanhistory.si.edu) Broadcast: April 26, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week, travel back in time to explore the history of transportation in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-hundred, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president. Jefferson had a wish. He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. He wanted to build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country. At that time the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent. Jefferson proposed that a group of explorers travel across North America in search of such a waterway. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from eighteen-oh-three to eighteen-oh-six. They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land. They also found no coast-to-coast waterway. So Jefferson decided that a different transportation system would best connect American communities. This system involved roads, rivers and railroads. It also included the digging of waterways. VOICE TWO: By the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, dirt roads had been built in parts of the nation. The use of river steamboats increased. Boat also traveled along man-made canals which strengthened local economies. The American railroad system began. Many people did not believe train technology would work. In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States. In nineteenth-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel. Trains also found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-six, the United States celebrated its one-hundredth birthday. By now, there were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities. The flow of business changed. Lives improved. Within those first one-hundred years, transportation links had helped form a new national economy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Workers finished the first coast-to-coast railroad in eighteen-sixty-nine. Towns and cities could develop farther away from major waterways and the coasts. But, to develop economically, many small communities had to build links to the railroads. Railroads helped many industries, including agriculture. Farmers had a new way to send wheat and grain to ports. From there, ships could carry the goods around the world. Trains had special container cars with ice to keep meat, milk and other goods cold for long distances on their way to market. People could now get fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Locally grown crops could be sold nationally. Farmers often hired immigrant workers from Asia and Mexico to plant, harvest and pack these foods. VOICE ONE: By the early nineteen-hundreds, American cities had grown. So, too, had public transportation. The electric streetcar became a common form of transportation. These trolleys ran on metal tracks built into streets. Soon, however, people began to drive their own cars. Nelson Jackson and his friend, Sewall Crocker, were honored as the first to cross the United States in an automobile. Their trip in nineteen-oh-three lasted sixty-three days. And it was difficult. Mainly that was because few good roads for driving existed. But the two men, and their dog Bud, also had trouble with their car and with the weather. Yet, they proved that long-distance travel across the United States was possible. The trip also helped fuel interest in the American automobile industry. VOICE TWO: By nineteen-thirty, more than half the families in America owned an automobile. For many, a car became a need, not simply an expensive toy. To deal with the changes, lawmakers had to pass new traffic laws and rebuild roads. Cars also needed businesses to service them. Gas stations, tire stores and repair centers began to appear. Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work. The open highway came to represent independence and freedom. During the nineteen-twenties and thirties, the most traveled road in the United States was Route Sixty-Six. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. It was considered the "people’s highway." VOICE ONE: The writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the “Mother Road” in his book “The Grapes of Wrath.” Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties. They came from the middle of the country. They moved West in search of work and a better life. In nineteen-forty-six, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route Sixty-Six." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Soldiers came home and started families. Businesses started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing. Most families in these growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around. Buses also became popular. The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening of many downtown areas. City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support downtown development. Underground train systems also became popular in the nineteen-fifties. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane. VOICE ONE: But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no state-to-state highway system. In nineteen-fifty-six Congress passed a law called the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Engineers designed a sixty-five-thousand kilometer system of roads. They designed highways to reach every city with a population over one-hundred-thousand. The major work on the Interstate Highway System was completed around nineteen-ninety. It cost more than one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. It has done more than simply make a trip to see family in another state easier. It has also led to the rise of the container trucking industry. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American transportation system started with horses and boats. It now includes everything from container trucks to airplanes to motorcycles. Yet, in some ways, the system has been a victim of its own success. Many places struggle with traffic problems as more and more cars fill the roads. And a lot of people do not just drive cars anymore. They drive big sport utility vehicles and minivans and personal trucks. For others, hybrid cars are the answer. Hybrids use both gas and electricity. They save fuel and reduce pollution. But pollution is not the only environmental concern with transportation. Ease of travel means development can spread farther and farther. And that means the loss of natural areas. Yet, every day, Americans depend on their transportation system to keep them, and the largest economy in the world, on the move. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has a new transportation exhibition. “America on the Move” explores the connection to the economic, social and cultural development of the United States. And you can experience it all on the Internet at americanhistory.si.edu. Again, the address is americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week, travel back in time to explore the history of transportation in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-hundred, Americans elected Thomas Jefferson as their third president. Jefferson had a wish. He wanted to discover a waterway that crossed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. He wanted to build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country. At that time the United States did not stretch all the way across the continent. Jefferson proposed that a group of explorers travel across North America in search of such a waterway. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the exploration west from eighteen-oh-three to eighteen-oh-six. They discovered that the Rocky Mountains divided the land. They also found no coast-to-coast waterway. So Jefferson decided that a different transportation system would best connect American communities. This system involved roads, rivers and railroads. It also included the digging of waterways. VOICE TWO: By the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, dirt roads had been built in parts of the nation. The use of river steamboats increased. Boat also traveled along man-made canals which strengthened local economies. The American railroad system began. Many people did not believe train technology would work. In time, railroads became the most popular form of land transportation in the United States. In nineteenth-century American culture, railroads were more than just a way to travel. Trains also found their way into the works of writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Walt Whitman. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-six, the United States celebrated its one-hundredth birthday. By now, there were new ways to move people and goods between farms, towns and cities. The flow of business changed. Lives improved. Within those first one-hundred years, transportation links had helped form a new national economy. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Workers finished the first coast-to-coast railroad in eighteen-sixty-nine. Towns and cities could develop farther away from major waterways and the coasts. But, to develop economically, many small communities had to build links to the railroads. Railroads helped many industries, including agriculture. Farmers had a new way to send wheat and grain to ports. From there, ships could carry the goods around the world. Trains had special container cars with ice to keep meat, milk and other goods cold for long distances on their way to market. People could now get fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Locally grown crops could be sold nationally. Farmers often hired immigrant workers from Asia and Mexico to plant, harvest and pack these foods. VOICE ONE: By the early nineteen-hundreds, American cities had grown. So, too, had public transportation. The electric streetcar became a common form of transportation. These trolleys ran on metal tracks built into streets. Soon, however, people began to drive their own cars. Nelson Jackson and his friend, Sewall Crocker, were honored as the first to cross the United States in an automobile. Their trip in nineteen-oh-three lasted sixty-three days. And it was difficult. Mainly that was because few good roads for driving existed. But the two men, and their dog Bud, also had trouble with their car and with the weather. Yet, they proved that long-distance travel across the United States was possible. The trip also helped fuel interest in the American automobile industry. VOICE TWO: By nineteen-thirty, more than half the families in America owned an automobile. For many, a car became a need, not simply an expensive toy. To deal with the changes, lawmakers had to pass new traffic laws and rebuild roads. Cars also needed businesses to service them. Gas stations, tire stores and repair centers began to appear. Many people took to the road for personal travel or to find work. The open highway came to represent independence and freedom. During the nineteen-twenties and thirties, the most traveled road in the United States was Route Sixty-Six. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. It was considered the "people’s highway." VOICE ONE: The writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the “Mother Road” in his book “The Grapes of Wrath.” Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties. They came from the middle of the country. They moved West in search of work and a better life. In nineteen-forty-six, Nat King Cole came out with this song, called "Route Sixty-Six." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Soldiers came home and started families. Businesses started to move out to the edges of cities where suburbs were developing. Most families in these growing communities had cars, bicycles or motorcycles to get around. Buses also became popular. The movement of businesses and people away from city centers led to the economic weakening of many downtown areas. City leaders reacted with transportation projects designed to support downtown development. Underground train systems also became popular in the nineteen-fifties. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane. VOICE ONE: But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no state-to-state highway system. In nineteen-fifty-six Congress passed a law called the Federal-Aid Highway Act. Engineers designed a sixty-five-thousand kilometer system of roads. They designed highways to reach every city with a population over one-hundred-thousand. The major work on the Interstate Highway System was completed around nineteen-ninety. It cost more than one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. It has done more than simply make a trip to see family in another state easier. It has also led to the rise of the container trucking industry. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American transportation system started with horses and boats. It now includes everything from container trucks to airplanes to motorcycles. Yet, in some ways, the system has been a victim of its own success. Many places struggle with traffic problems as more and more cars fill the roads. And a lot of people do not just drive cars anymore. They drive big sport utility vehicles and minivans and personal trucks. For others, hybrid cars are the answer. Hybrids use both gas and electricity. They save fuel and reduce pollution. But pollution is not the only environmental concern with transportation. Ease of travel means development can spread farther and farther. And that means the loss of natural areas. Yet, every day, Americans depend on their transportation system to keep them, and the largest economy in the world, on the move. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE The National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has a new transportation exhibition. “America on the Move” explores the connection to the economic, social and cultural development of the United States. And you can experience it all on the Internet at americanhistory.si.edu. Again, the address is americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – UN Urges Action to Improve Road Safety
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 26, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has called for a campaign to improve road safety. The U-N General Assembly met earlier this month to discuss the issue. This was the first time the one-hundred-ninety-one members have held a meeting to consider the problem of road safety. The General Assembly invited the World Health Organization to lead the campaign. The World Health Organization is a U-N agency. World Health Day this year also centered on road safety. On April seventh, the W.H.O. and the World Bank released the "World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention." The report estimates that road traffic kills more than one-million people a year. Between twenty-million and fifty-million more are injured. Road crashes are a leading cause of death among people age five to forty-four. The economic loss is huge. The report says road injuries cost one to two percent of national earnings in many less developed nations. In rich countries, the people most at risk of traffic injuries are drivers and passengers. However, in poor nations, fewer people have money for a car. So people walking along roads or riding bicycles or motorcycles are among those at greatest risk. So are those using public transportation. The report suggests ways to improve road safety. These suggestions are directed at governments, international organizations and others. For example, the report calls for a government agency in each country to coordinate efforts to improve national road safety. The report also calls for stronger traffic laws and stronger enforcement. It urges more education about the need to use safety equipment like seatbelts. And it calls for teaching more about the dangers of driving too fast and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The report notes that efforts have been made in some parts of the world to improve road safety. For example, it says rates of traffic injuries and deaths have dropped in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana and Thailand. Rates have also decreased in many Western nations. But the report warns about what could happen without immediate action. It estimates that by two-thousand-twenty, road traffic deaths in less developed countries will increase by eighty percent. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: April 26, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has called for a campaign to improve road safety. The U-N General Assembly met earlier this month to discuss the issue. This was the first time the one-hundred-ninety-one members have held a meeting to consider the problem of road safety. The General Assembly invited the World Health Organization to lead the campaign. The World Health Organization is a U-N agency. World Health Day this year also centered on road safety. On April seventh, the W.H.O. and the World Bank released the "World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention." The report estimates that road traffic kills more than one-million people a year. Between twenty-million and fifty-million more are injured. Road crashes are a leading cause of death among people age five to forty-four. The economic loss is huge. The report says road injuries cost one to two percent of national earnings in many less developed nations. In rich countries, the people most at risk of traffic injuries are drivers and passengers. However, in poor nations, fewer people have money for a car. So people walking along roads or riding bicycles or motorcycles are among those at greatest risk. So are those using public transportation. The report suggests ways to improve road safety. These suggestions are directed at governments, international organizations and others. For example, the report calls for a government agency in each country to coordinate efforts to improve national road safety. The report also calls for stronger traffic laws and stronger enforcement. It urges more education about the need to use safety equipment like seatbelts. And it calls for teaching more about the dangers of driving too fast and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The report notes that efforts have been made in some parts of the world to improve road safety. For example, it says rates of traffic injuries and deaths have dropped in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana and Thailand. Rates have also decreased in many Western nations. But the report warns about what could happen without immediate action. It estimates that by two-thousand-twenty, road traffic deaths in less developed countries will increase by eighty percent. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 28, 2004 (MUSIC) This image taken by Mars Rover Opportunity shows microscopic rock forms indicating past signs of waterCourtesy: NASA Broadcast: April 28, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we have news about the American vehicles exploring the surface of the planet Mars. We tell you how to find Mars and three other planets in the night sky. We also will talk about a planet-like object named Sedna. But first, we begin with a report about the International Space Station and its new crew. Artist's version of Sedna(Image - NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt) VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we have news about the American vehicles exploring the surface of the planet Mars. We tell you how to find Mars and three other planets in the night sky. We also will talk about a planet-like object named Sedna. But first, we begin with a report about the International Space Station and its new crew. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new Commander and Science Officer of the International Space Station entered their new home for the first time last week. Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke are serving as the Expedition Nine crew on the Space Station. The American space agency reports their Russian Soyuz Eight space vehicle linked up with the Space Station early Wednesday, April twenty-first. After testing for possible air leaks, the doors between the two spacecraft were opened. Expedition Eight Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri greeted the new crew and Astronaut Andre Kuipers. Mister Kuipers is a medical doctor from the Netherlands. He has studied the effects of space flight on people. He flew to the Station as part of an agreement between the European Space Agency and Russia’s Federal Space Agency. VOICE TWO: The two crews expect to work together for nine days. They are carrying out a number of joint operations. Astronaut Kuipers is working with a number of scientific experiments for the European Space Agency. On Thursday, he, Astronaut Foale, and Cosmonaut Kaleri will leave the Space Station and return to Earth on the Soyuz Seven spacecraft. Soyuz Seven is the same vehicle that brought the returning crew to the Station in October of last year. Cosmonaut Padalka and Astronaut Fincke will spend the next six months on the Space Station. Commander Padalka is an officer in the Russian air force. He spent one-hundred-ninety-eight days on the Russian space station Mir in nineteen-ninety-nine. Astronaut Fincke is an officer in the United States Air Force. This is his first trip into space. VOICE ONE: The new Space Station crew will have little time to enjoy their new surroundings. They must quickly prepare for the arrival of a spacecraft named Progress. The Progress is to arrive on May twenty-first. It will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress is similar in size and shape to the Soyuz spacecraft, but carries no crew. The Progress is used to transport fuel and other supplies to the Space Station. After the Progress has completed its flight, it will carry away objects that are of no more use to the crew. It will be sent down to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. VOICE TWO: Commander Padalka and Astronaut Fincke plan brief trips outside the Space Station on July twenty-second and August twenty-fourth. The two men will work on the Zvezda, a service spacecraft already linked to the Station. They will connect cameras, communications equipment and other devices to the Zvezda. They will be preparing the spacecraft to link up with a supply vehicle operated by the European Space Agency. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An American vehicle exploring the planet Mars has found rocks that may have been formed under a large amount of salt water. Steven Squyres is the lead investigator for the science equipment on the American space agency’s explorer vehicle, Opportunity. He says Opportunity entered an area on the surface of Mars that scientists believe was once the edge of a large saltwater lake. Evidence that was gathered does not show how long ago liquid water covered the area. Opportunity was then sent toward an area with thicker rocks to gather more evidence. VOICE TWO: The space agency’s other explorer vehicle on Mars, Spirit, completed a drive of seventy-five meters earlier this month. It traveled around an area of the surface scientists have called, “Missoula Crater.” Spirit has used its large camera and scientific instruments to take pictures and measure the atmosphere of the red planet. On April first, Spirit found evidence that liquid water used to flow across Mars. Space agency officials say the evidence came from tests of a volcanic rock discovered on the planet. Hap McSween is a science team member for the Mars explorer vehicles. He says the discovery suggests that water may have been on the surface in this area in small amounts. Mister McSween also said the water might have been underground. VOICE ONE: Recently, the American space agency approved a plan to extend the life of the two Mars explorer vehicles. Agency officials say it is possible for the vehicles to keep operating on the planet for about another five months. Spirit and Opportunity were expected to operate for about three months each after they landed. Orlando Figueroa is the Mars Exploration program director at the Washington headquarters of the space agency, NASA. Mister Figueroa said the two vehicles have been extremely successful. He said that is why officials decided to provide the fifteen million dollars needed to operate them until sometime in September. VOICE TWO: Ed Weiler is NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Science. He said this new evidence of water in Martian history is adding to scientists’ knowledge of the planet that is most like Earth. Mister Weiler said this evidence is the proof the space agency needed to expand its programs for exploring Mars. He said the agency must now learn if microbes ever lived on the red planet. Also, he said, NASA must learn if humans can live there in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists are studying thirty-five pictures recently produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. They are attempting to answer questions about the farthest known object in our solar system. The object is called Sedna. It is almost thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from Earth. Sedna is like a very small planet. Like Earth, Sedna is in orbit around our sun. The mystery scientists are attempting to settle is, does Sedna have a moon? Mike Brown is a scientist with the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California. He announced the discovery of Sedna on March fifteenth. Mister Brown says he believes that Sedna must have a moon. The problem is no one has have been able to see a moon near the planet-like object. Mister Brown said this might be because Sedna turns very slowly and the moon is now behind Sedna. He said it turns much slower than other objects in space. Mister Brown said Sedna makes one turn about every forty Earth days. He thinks that the gravity of a small moon is the best reason that Sedna turns so slowly. VOICE TWO: Mister Brown said this makes Sedna a very interesting object. He said it is difficult to see Sedna even with the Hubble Space Telescope. He said it is a little like attempting to see a football from one-thousand-five-hundred kilometers away. Mister Brown said he keeps expecting a small moon to “pop-up” in the new pictures. But so far he has not been able to see any moon. Mister Brown said the mystery may be solved in time. He said he could think of no other reason why the small planet-like object moves so slowly. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may be able to observe something unusual in the northern sky if it is clear tonight. You may be able to see four objects near the moon. They are four planets: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. You can see them with your eyes. These four can be seen almost together until Thursday. It is really very easy. First, find the moon. Just below and a little to the left of the Moon is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus. Venus is easy to find. It is extremely bright this time of year. Just to the left of Venus is Mars, where NASA’s explorer vehicles are busy working on the surface. If you look to the left and up from Mars, the largest object you will see is Saturn. It is easy to see the four planets with only your eyes, but even more fun with a small telescope. If you have a telescope, you may easily see the rings of Saturn and the rings of Jupiter. When this many planets are close together in the night sky, it makes them very easy to see. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. Caty Weaver was our producer. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new Commander and Science Officer of the International Space Station entered their new home for the first time last week. Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke are serving as the Expedition Nine crew on the Space Station. The American space agency reports their Russian Soyuz Eight space vehicle linked up with the Space Station early Wednesday, April twenty-first. After testing for possible air leaks, the doors between the two spacecraft were opened. Expedition Eight Commander Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri greeted the new crew and Astronaut Andre Kuipers. Mister Kuipers is a medical doctor from the Netherlands. He has studied the effects of space flight on people. He flew to the Station as part of an agreement between the European Space Agency and Russia’s Federal Space Agency. VOICE TWO: The two crews expect to work together for nine days. They are carrying out a number of joint operations. Astronaut Kuipers is working with a number of scientific experiments for the European Space Agency. On Thursday, he, Astronaut Foale, and Cosmonaut Kaleri will leave the Space Station and return to Earth on the Soyuz Seven spacecraft. Soyuz Seven is the same vehicle that brought the returning crew to the Station in October of last year. Cosmonaut Padalka and Astronaut Fincke will spend the next six months on the Space Station. Commander Padalka is an officer in the Russian air force. He spent one-hundred-ninety-eight days on the Russian space station Mir in nineteen-ninety-nine. Astronaut Fincke is an officer in the United States Air Force. This is his first trip into space. VOICE ONE: The new Space Station crew will have little time to enjoy their new surroundings. They must quickly prepare for the arrival of a spacecraft named Progress. The Progress is to arrive on May twenty-first. It will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress is similar in size and shape to the Soyuz spacecraft, but carries no crew. The Progress is used to transport fuel and other supplies to the Space Station. After the Progress has completed its flight, it will carry away objects that are of no more use to the crew. It will be sent down to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. VOICE TWO: Commander Padalka and Astronaut Fincke plan brief trips outside the Space Station on July twenty-second and August twenty-fourth. The two men will work on the Zvezda, a service spacecraft already linked to the Station. They will connect cameras, communications equipment and other devices to the Zvezda. They will be preparing the spacecraft to link up with a supply vehicle operated by the European Space Agency. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An American vehicle exploring the planet Mars has found rocks that may have been formed under a large amount of salt water. Steven Squyres is the lead investigator for the science equipment on the American space agency’s explorer vehicle, Opportunity. He says Opportunity entered an area on the surface of Mars that scientists believe was once the edge of a large saltwater lake. Evidence that was gathered does not show how long ago liquid water covered the area. Opportunity was then sent toward an area with thicker rocks to gather more evidence. VOICE TWO: The space agency’s other explorer vehicle on Mars, Spirit, completed a drive of seventy-five meters earlier this month. It traveled around an area of the surface scientists have called, “Missoula Crater.” Spirit has used its large camera and scientific instruments to take pictures and measure the atmosphere of the red planet. On April first, Spirit found evidence that liquid water used to flow across Mars. Space agency officials say the evidence came from tests of a volcanic rock discovered on the planet. Hap McSween is a science team member for the Mars explorer vehicles. He says the discovery suggests that water may have been on the surface in this area in small amounts. Mister McSween also said the water might have been underground. VOICE ONE: Recently, the American space agency approved a plan to extend the life of the two Mars explorer vehicles. Agency officials say it is possible for the vehicles to keep operating on the planet for about another five months. Spirit and Opportunity were expected to operate for about three months each after they landed. Orlando Figueroa is the Mars Exploration program director at the Washington headquarters of the space agency, NASA. Mister Figueroa said the two vehicles have been extremely successful. He said that is why officials decided to provide the fifteen million dollars needed to operate them until sometime in September. VOICE TWO: Ed Weiler is NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Science. He said this new evidence of water in Martian history is adding to scientists’ knowledge of the planet that is most like Earth. Mister Weiler said this evidence is the proof the space agency needed to expand its programs for exploring Mars. He said the agency must now learn if microbes ever lived on the red planet. Also, he said, NASA must learn if humans can live there in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists are studying thirty-five pictures recently produced by the Hubble Space Telescope. They are attempting to answer questions about the farthest known object in our solar system. The object is called Sedna. It is almost thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from Earth. Sedna is like a very small planet. Like Earth, Sedna is in orbit around our sun. The mystery scientists are attempting to settle is, does Sedna have a moon? Mike Brown is a scientist with the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California. He announced the discovery of Sedna on March fifteenth. Mister Brown says he believes that Sedna must have a moon. The problem is no one has have been able to see a moon near the planet-like object. Mister Brown said this might be because Sedna turns very slowly and the moon is now behind Sedna. He said it turns much slower than other objects in space. Mister Brown said Sedna makes one turn about every forty Earth days. He thinks that the gravity of a small moon is the best reason that Sedna turns so slowly. VOICE TWO: Mister Brown said this makes Sedna a very interesting object. He said it is difficult to see Sedna even with the Hubble Space Telescope. He said it is a little like attempting to see a football from one-thousand-five-hundred kilometers away. Mister Brown said he keeps expecting a small moon to “pop-up” in the new pictures. But so far he has not been able to see any moon. Mister Brown said the mystery may be solved in time. He said he could think of no other reason why the small planet-like object moves so slowly. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may be able to observe something unusual in the northern sky if it is clear tonight. You may be able to see four objects near the moon. They are four planets: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. You can see them with your eyes. These four can be seen almost together until Thursday. It is really very easy. First, find the moon. Just below and a little to the left of the Moon is the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus. Venus is easy to find. It is extremely bright this time of year. Just to the left of Venus is Mars, where NASA’s explorer vehicles are busy working on the surface. If you look to the left and up from Mars, the largest object you will see is Saturn. It is easy to see the four planets with only your eyes, but even more fun with a small telescope. If you have a telescope, you may easily see the rings of Saturn and the rings of Jupiter. When this many planets are close together in the night sky, it makes them very easy to see. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. Caty Weaver was our producer. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Studies Show Ginger May Ease Stomach Sickness During Pregnancy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 28, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Stomach sickness is common during the first three months of pregnancy. Experts say most pregnant women experience times when food will not stay down. Or they feel like they might be sick at any moment. Such vomiting and nausea often happen in the morning. Many pregnant women are afraid to take medicines. They worry about possible harm to their baby. So, instead, many women take ginger products as a treatment for stomach sickness. These products are made from the ginger plant. Ginger is a traditional treatment for stomach problems in many cultures. Yet research on the safety has been limited. Now, a small study in Australia has added to recent evidence in support of ginger. Caroline Smith of the University of South Australia in Adelaide headed the research team. The findings appear in the publication Obstetrics and Gynecology. The team compared ginger with a vitamin that doctors commonly tell pregnant women to take for stomach sickness. The vitamin is B-six. The team studied almost three-hundred women. These women had been pregnant less than sixteen weeks and had nausea and vomiting. For the study, all the women took three pills a day. They did not know if these contained ginger or the vitamin. The women who took ginger received a total of one-point-zero-five grams per day. The other women took seventy-five milligrams of vitamin B-six per day. At the end of three weeks, the researchers compared the results. About half the women in both groups reported reductions in nausea and vomiting. In other words, the ginger and the B-six were equally effective. And there was no evidence of bad effects from either one. A small Canadian study reported in November showed similar results for ginger. Doctor Galina Portnoi of the University of Toronto in Ontario led that study. It compared pregnant women who had used ginger products with others who had not. The researchers reported that the ginger provided some help with nausea and vomiting. These studies seem to support the popularity of ginger among pregnant women. But the scientists say they cannot guarantee the safety for the women or their babies without more research. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Broadcast: April 28, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Stomach sickness is common during the first three months of pregnancy. Experts say most pregnant women experience times when food will not stay down. Or they feel like they might be sick at any moment. Such vomiting and nausea often happen in the morning. Many pregnant women are afraid to take medicines. They worry about possible harm to their baby. So, instead, many women take ginger products as a treatment for stomach sickness. These products are made from the ginger plant. Ginger is a traditional treatment for stomach problems in many cultures. Yet research on the safety has been limited. Now, a small study in Australia has added to recent evidence in support of ginger. Caroline Smith of the University of South Australia in Adelaide headed the research team. The findings appear in the publication Obstetrics and Gynecology. The team compared ginger with a vitamin that doctors commonly tell pregnant women to take for stomach sickness. The vitamin is B-six. The team studied almost three-hundred women. These women had been pregnant less than sixteen weeks and had nausea and vomiting. For the study, all the women took three pills a day. They did not know if these contained ginger or the vitamin. The women who took ginger received a total of one-point-zero-five grams per day. The other women took seventy-five milligrams of vitamin B-six per day. At the end of three weeks, the researchers compared the results. About half the women in both groups reported reductions in nausea and vomiting. In other words, the ginger and the B-six were equally effective. And there was no evidence of bad effects from either one. A small Canadian study reported in November showed similar results for ginger. Doctor Galina Portnoi of the University of Toronto in Ontario led that study. It compared pregnant women who had used ginger products with others who had not. The researchers reported that the ginger provided some help with nausea and vomiting. These studies seem to support the popularity of ginger among pregnant women. But the scientists say they cannot guarantee the safety for the women or their babies without more research. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #60 - Andrew Jackson, Part 4
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 29, 2004 (MUSIC) Vice President John C. Calhoun Broadcast: April 29, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Andrew Jackson served as president of the United States from eighteen-twenty-nine to eighteen-thirty-seven. His first term seemed to be mostly a political battle with Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun wanted to be the next president. Jackson believed his Secretary of State, Martin van Buren, would be a better president. And Van Buren wanted the job. He won the president's support partly because of his help in settling a serious political dispute. VOICE TWO: President Jackson's cabinet was in great disorder. Vice President Calhoun was trying to force out Secretary of War John Eaton. Eaton would not resign, and the president would not dismiss him. Van Buren designed a plan to gain Eaton's resignation. One morning, as Jackson discussed his cabinet problems, Van Buren said: "There is only one thing, general, that will bring you peace. My resignation." "Never," said Jackson. Van Buren explained how his resignation would solve a number of Jackson's political problems. Jackson did not want to let Van Buren go. But the next day, he told Van Buren that he would never stop any man who wished to leave. VOICE ONE: The president wanted to discuss the resignation with his other advisers. Van Buren agreed. He also said it might be best if Secretary of War Eaton were at the meeting. The advisers accepted Van Buren's resignation. Then they went to Van Buren's house for dinner. On the way, Eaton said: "Gentlemen, this is all wrong. I am the one who should resign!" Van Buren said Eaton must be sure of such a move. Eaton was sure. VOICE TWO: President Jackson accepted Eaton's decision as he had accepted Van Buren's. But he was unwilling to give up completely the services of his two friends. He named Van Buren to be Minister to Britain. And he told Eaton that he would help him get elected again to the Senate. Jackson then dismissed the remaining members of his cabinet. He was free to organize a new cabinet that would be loyal to him and not to Vice President Calhoun. Even with a new cabinet, Jackson still faced the problem of nullification. South Carolina politicians, led by Calhoun, continued to claim that states had the right to reject -- nullify -- a federal law which they believed was bad. VOICE ONE: Jackson asked a congressman from South Carolina to give a message to the nullifiers in his state. "Tell them," Jackson said, "that they can talk, and write resolutions, and print threats to their hearts' content. But if one drop of blood is shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find." Someone questioned if Jackson would go so far as to hang someone. A man answered: "When Jackson begins to talk about hanging, they can begin to look for the ropes." VOICE TWO: The nullifiers held a majority of seats in South Carolina's legislature at that time. They called a special convention. Within five days, convention delegates approved a declaration of nullification. They declared that the federal import tax laws of eighteen-twenty-eight and eighteen-thirty-two were unconstitutional, and therefore, cancelled. They said citizens of South Carolina need not pay the tax. The nullifiers also declared that if the federal government tried to use force against South Carolina, then the state would withdraw from the union and form its own independent government. VOICE ONE: President Jackson answered with a declaration of his own. Jackson said America's constitution formed a government, not just an association of sovereign states. South Carolina had no right to cancel a federal law or to withdraw from the union. Disunion by force was treason. Jackson said: "The laws of the United States must be enforced. This is my duty under the constitution. I have no other choice." VOICE TWO: Jackson did more. He asked Congress to give him the power to use the army and navy to enforce the laws of the land. Congress did so. Jackson sent eight warships to the port of Charleston, South Carolina, and soldiers to federal military bases in the state. While preparing to use force, Jackson offered hope for a peaceful settlement. In his yearly message to Congress, he spoke of reducing the federal import tax which hurt the sale of southern cotton overseas. He said the import tax could be reduced, because the national debt would soon be paid. VOICE ONE: Congress passed a compromise bill to end the import tax by eighteen-forty-two. South Carolina's congressmen accepted the compromise. And the state's legislature called another convention. This time, the delegates voted to end the nullification act they had approved earlier. They did not, however, give up their belief in the idea of nullification. The idea continued to be a threat to the American union until the issue was settled in the Civil War which began in eighteen-sixty-one. VOICE TWO: While President Jackson battled the nullifiers, another struggle began. This time, it was Jackson against the Bank of the United States. Congress provided money to establish the Bank of the United States in eighteen-sixteen. It gave the bank a charter to do business for twenty years. The bank was permitted to use the government's money to make loans. For this, the bank paid the government one-and-one-half million dollars a year. The bank was run by private citizens. VOICE ONE: The Bank of the United States was strong, because of the great amount of government money invested in it. The bank's paper notes were almost as good as gold. They came close to being a national money system. The bank opened offices in many parts of the country. As it grew, it became more powerful. By making it easy or difficult for businesses to borrow money, the bank could control the economy of almost any part of the United States. VOICE TWO: During Jackson's presidency, the Bank of the United States was headed by Nicholas Biddle. Biddle was an extremely intelligent man. He had completed studies at the University of Pennsylvania when he was only thirteen years old. When he was eighteen, he was sent to Paris as Secretary to the American Minister. Biddle worked on financial details of the purchase of the Louisiana territory from France. After America's war against Britain in eighteen-twelve, Biddle helped establish the Bank of the United States. He became its president when he was only thirty-seven years old. VOICE ONE: Biddle clearly understood his power as president of the Bank of the United States. In his mind, the government had no right to interfere in any way with the bank's business. President Jackson did not agree. Nor was he very friendly toward the bank. Not many westerners were. They did not trust the bank's paper money. They wanted to deal in gold and silver. Jackson criticized the bank in each of his yearly messages to Congress. He said the Bank of the United States was dangerous to the liberty of the people. He said the bank could build up or pull down political parties through loans to politicians. Jackson opposed giving the bank a new charter. He proposed that a new bank be formed as part of the Treasury Department. VOICE TWO: The president urged Congress to consider the future of the bank long before the bank's charter was to end. Then, if the charter was rejected, the bank could close its business slowly over several years. This would prevent serious economic problems for the country. Many of President Jackson's advisers believed he should say nothing about the bank until after the presidential election of eighteen-thirty-two. They feared he might lose the votes of those who supported the bank. Jackson accepted their advice. He agreed not to act on the issue, if bank president Biddle would not request renewal of the charter before the election. Biddle agreed. Then he changed his mind. He asked Congress for a new charter in January, eighteen-thirty-two. The request became a hot political issue in the presidential campaign. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Andrew Jackson served as president of the United States from eighteen-twenty-nine to eighteen-thirty-seven. His first term seemed to be mostly a political battle with Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun wanted to be the next president. Jackson believed his Secretary of State, Martin van Buren, would be a better president. And Van Buren wanted the job. He won the president's support partly because of his help in settling a serious political dispute. VOICE TWO: President Jackson's cabinet was in great disorder. Vice President Calhoun was trying to force out Secretary of War John Eaton. Eaton would not resign, and the president would not dismiss him. Van Buren designed a plan to gain Eaton's resignation. One morning, as Jackson discussed his cabinet problems, Van Buren said: "There is only one thing, general, that will bring you peace. My resignation." "Never," said Jackson. Van Buren explained how his resignation would solve a number of Jackson's political problems. Jackson did not want to let Van Buren go. But the next day, he told Van Buren that he would never stop any man who wished to leave. VOICE ONE: The president wanted to discuss the resignation with his other advisers. Van Buren agreed. He also said it might be best if Secretary of War Eaton were at the meeting. The advisers accepted Van Buren's resignation. Then they went to Van Buren's house for dinner. On the way, Eaton said: "Gentlemen, this is all wrong. I am the one who should resign!" Van Buren said Eaton must be sure of such a move. Eaton was sure. VOICE TWO: President Jackson accepted Eaton's decision as he had accepted Van Buren's. But he was unwilling to give up completely the services of his two friends. He named Van Buren to be Minister to Britain. And he told Eaton that he would help him get elected again to the Senate. Jackson then dismissed the remaining members of his cabinet. He was free to organize a new cabinet that would be loyal to him and not to Vice President Calhoun. Even with a new cabinet, Jackson still faced the problem of nullification. South Carolina politicians, led by Calhoun, continued to claim that states had the right to reject -- nullify -- a federal law which they believed was bad. VOICE ONE: Jackson asked a congressman from South Carolina to give a message to the nullifiers in his state. "Tell them," Jackson said, "that they can talk, and write resolutions, and print threats to their hearts' content. But if one drop of blood is shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find." Someone questioned if Jackson would go so far as to hang someone. A man answered: "When Jackson begins to talk about hanging, they can begin to look for the ropes." VOICE TWO: The nullifiers held a majority of seats in South Carolina's legislature at that time. They called a special convention. Within five days, convention delegates approved a declaration of nullification. They declared that the federal import tax laws of eighteen-twenty-eight and eighteen-thirty-two were unconstitutional, and therefore, cancelled. They said citizens of South Carolina need not pay the tax. The nullifiers also declared that if the federal government tried to use force against South Carolina, then the state would withdraw from the union and form its own independent government. VOICE ONE: President Jackson answered with a declaration of his own. Jackson said America's constitution formed a government, not just an association of sovereign states. South Carolina had no right to cancel a federal law or to withdraw from the union. Disunion by force was treason. Jackson said: "The laws of the United States must be enforced. This is my duty under the constitution. I have no other choice." VOICE TWO: Jackson did more. He asked Congress to give him the power to use the army and navy to enforce the laws of the land. Congress did so. Jackson sent eight warships to the port of Charleston, South Carolina, and soldiers to federal military bases in the state. While preparing to use force, Jackson offered hope for a peaceful settlement. In his yearly message to Congress, he spoke of reducing the federal import tax which hurt the sale of southern cotton overseas. He said the import tax could be reduced, because the national debt would soon be paid. VOICE ONE: Congress passed a compromise bill to end the import tax by eighteen-forty-two. South Carolina's congressmen accepted the compromise. And the state's legislature called another convention. This time, the delegates voted to end the nullification act they had approved earlier. They did not, however, give up their belief in the idea of nullification. The idea continued to be a threat to the American union until the issue was settled in the Civil War which began in eighteen-sixty-one. VOICE TWO: While President Jackson battled the nullifiers, another struggle began. This time, it was Jackson against the Bank of the United States. Congress provided money to establish the Bank of the United States in eighteen-sixteen. It gave the bank a charter to do business for twenty years. The bank was permitted to use the government's money to make loans. For this, the bank paid the government one-and-one-half million dollars a year. The bank was run by private citizens. VOICE ONE: The Bank of the United States was strong, because of the great amount of government money invested in it. The bank's paper notes were almost as good as gold. They came close to being a national money system. The bank opened offices in many parts of the country. As it grew, it became more powerful. By making it easy or difficult for businesses to borrow money, the bank could control the economy of almost any part of the United States. VOICE TWO: During Jackson's presidency, the Bank of the United States was headed by Nicholas Biddle. Biddle was an extremely intelligent man. He had completed studies at the University of Pennsylvania when he was only thirteen years old. When he was eighteen, he was sent to Paris as Secretary to the American Minister. Biddle worked on financial details of the purchase of the Louisiana territory from France. After America's war against Britain in eighteen-twelve, Biddle helped establish the Bank of the United States. He became its president when he was only thirty-seven years old. VOICE ONE: Biddle clearly understood his power as president of the Bank of the United States. In his mind, the government had no right to interfere in any way with the bank's business. President Jackson did not agree. Nor was he very friendly toward the bank. Not many westerners were. They did not trust the bank's paper money. They wanted to deal in gold and silver. Jackson criticized the bank in each of his yearly messages to Congress. He said the Bank of the United States was dangerous to the liberty of the people. He said the bank could build up or pull down political parties through loans to politicians. Jackson opposed giving the bank a new charter. He proposed that a new bank be formed as part of the Treasury Department. VOICE TWO: The president urged Congress to consider the future of the bank long before the bank's charter was to end. Then, if the charter was rejected, the bank could close its business slowly over several years. This would prevent serious economic problems for the country. Many of President Jackson's advisers believed he should say nothing about the bank until after the presidential election of eighteen-thirty-two. They feared he might lose the votes of those who supported the bank. Jackson accepted their advice. He agreed not to act on the issue, if bank president Biddle would not request renewal of the charter before the election. Biddle agreed. Then he changed his mind. He asked Congress for a new charter in January, eighteen-thirty-two. The request became a hot political issue in the presidential campaign. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Teacher of the Year
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 29, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A teacher of English as a second language is the two-thousand-four Teacher of the Year in the United States. Kathy Mellor of Rhode Island will spend the next year as an international spokeswoman for education. President Bush and his wife, Laura, honored her during a ceremony at the White House last week. For the past nineteen years, Kathy Mellor has taught English as a second language at Davisville Middle School. Davisville Middle School is in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, in the northeastern United States. Mizz Mellor redesigned the program for E.S.L. students at her school. She designed a program to provide each student with one to three periods per day in classes for English learners. How much instruction the students get depends on their level of skill in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The amount of time they spend in these classes is reduced as their level of English increases. They spend more and more time in classes with native speakers until they no longer need E.S.L. instruction. Another teacher describes this as the most successful E.S.L. program in North Kingstown. She also praises Kathy Mellor for providing help to students and their families. Kathy Mellor formed a local parents group for speakers of other languages. This improved their ability to help their children. One parent of a former student praised Kathy Mellor for her understanding of the difficulties in learning a new language. She says Mizz Mellor was always there to answer any questions the family had. And she says Mizz Mellor urges her students and their families to speak their first language at home and not forget their culture. Kathy Mellor was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned a master’s degree in education from Rhode Island College. Later she earned a master’s from Brown University. She studied teaching English as a second language. She was chosen for the national honor of Teacher of the Year from among top teachers in each of the fifty states. The Council of Chief State School Officers and the children's book publisher Scholastic organize the program. As Teacher of the Year, Kathy Mellor will travel around the United States and to other countries. She will talk about the importance of education and the work of teachers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 29, 2004 - Meet the English Teachers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: April 29, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster -- meet some of the teachers I met at the annual convention of TESOL. That's short for the group, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: April 29, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster -- meet some of the teachers I met at the annual convention of TESOL. That's short for the group, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. (MUSIC) The convention was in Long Beach, California -- complete with Mexican mariachi music -- and I was there to promote Special English, the VOA service for English learners. But I was sharing a booth with the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange Program. It's one of the various Fulbright programs that send Americans abroad and bring people to spend time in the United States. So it was a good spot to meet a mix of Fulbright and non-Fulbright alumni. People like ... VVEDENSKA: "My name is Tetyana VVedenska. I'm from Ukraine, the city of Dnipropetrovsk, and I'm affiliated with Dnipropetrovsk National University where I work as an associate professor at the Department of Educational Psychology and English." AA: "And if you had any tips for people who are starting out as English teachers, or have already been teaching for a number of years -- if you had any advice, what would that be?" (MUSIC) The convention was in Long Beach, California -- complete with Mexican mariachi music -- and I was there to promote Special English, the VOA service for English learners. But I was sharing a booth with the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange Program. It's one of the various Fulbright programs that send Americans abroad and bring people to spend time in the United States. So it was a good spot to meet a mix of Fulbright and non-Fulbright alumni. People like ... VVEDENSKA: "My name is Tetyana VVedenska. I'm from Ukraine, the city of Dnipropetrovsk, and I'm affiliated with Dnipropetrovsk National University where I work as an associate professor at the Department of Educational Psychology and English." AA: "And if you had any tips for people who are starting out as English teachers, or have already been teaching for a number of years -- if you had any advice, what would that be?" VVDENSKA: "Advice? [laughs] Stay there, in spite of the fact that sometimes it will seem like hell to you. Because, you know, for me it means a lot, because my Fulbright experience changed my personal and professional life completely. It was in nineteen-ninety-eight, and I came here for a half-a-year research program, when I was affiliated with SUNY [State University of New York] university in Albany, New York. And I've got so many amazing friends and colleagues, so that heightened my self-esteem. They charged me with energy for the rest of my life, I think!" BALLARD: "I'm Beverly Ballard and last year I taught in Bulgaria through the Fulbright program. I was in a small town on the Danube River and I taught every week two-hundred-twenty-five students. Well I'd never been in Eastern Europe before, so there were a lot of things that were a shock to me. One of the things is that they can boycott classes. And so if you give a test, sometimes they don't show up. This was a surprising thing. And, of course, that can't happen very much, at least not in California. If they boycott a class, there are certain repercussions for that." PARK: "I'm Shin-young Park. I go to NYU." AA: "So New York University. And where are you from?" PARK: "I'm from Korea. I'm going to graduate this summer, in July. I want to work in E.S.L. school here in U.S. just for one year, as an internship." AA: "You're here studying English as a second language, but you've also had to learn American idioms and culture along with it, for yourself, to survive. What's been the hardest part of that?" PARK: "Um ... like every E.F.L. student or E.S.L. student, as a second language learner, there are so many things, especially when you watch a sitcom -- " AA: "A situation comedy on television." PARK: "I know the meanings, but sometimes I don't get it why that expression is so funny. So, you know, everybody's laughing, but ... " GARLOW: "My name is Todd Garlow, I'm a high school E.S.L. teacher in Maryland. I worked in Turkey from [nineteen-] ninety-nine to two-thousand in a private Turkish school, teaching seventh and eighth grade students. I was there the year of the two big earthquakes. I actually left here the day the first big earthquake happened. "As the day went on even, I flew through New York in the airport, hearing that the death toll was rising and the extent of the devastation was increasing. And then in the days following, when I first arrived there, looking back on it now, it reminds me very much of the days following 9/11. People were in complete shock, disbelief, just glued to their TV, wanting information, wanting to know what was going on." AA: "And while your students learned English from you, what did you learn about Turkey?" GARLOW: "In many ways, Turkey is regarded as the model Muslim country. People are Muslim but they have a secular government. They're in a unique position in terms of fostering democracy but still struggling with it. But they're also very proud of their own history and accomplishments, and there are many modern aspects." AA: "Do you keep in touch with any of your students?" GARLOW: "I do keep in touch with some of my students via e-mail about what's going on, which is a very nice connection." AA: Todd Garlow and some of the other teachers at this year's TESOL convention, held this month in California. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. VVDENSKA: "Advice? [laughs] Stay there, in spite of the fact that sometimes it will seem like hell to you. Because, you know, for me it means a lot, because my Fulbright experience changed my personal and professional life completely. It was in nineteen-ninety-eight, and I came here for a half-a-year research program, when I was affiliated with SUNY [State University of New York] university in Albany, New York. And I've got so many amazing friends and colleagues, so that heightened my self-esteem. They charged me with energy for the rest of my life, I think!" BALLARD: "I'm Beverly Ballard and last year I taught in Bulgaria through the Fulbright program. I was in a small town on the Danube River and I taught every week two-hundred-twenty-five students. Well I'd never been in Eastern Europe before, so there were a lot of things that were a shock to me. One of the things is that they can boycott classes. And so if you give a test, sometimes they don't show up. This was a surprising thing. And, of course, that can't happen very much, at least not in California. If they boycott a class, there are certain repercussions for that." PARK: "I'm Shin-young Park. I go to NYU." AA: "So New York University. And where are you from?" PARK: "I'm from Korea. I'm going to graduate this summer, in July. I want to work in E.S.L. school here in U.S. just for one year, as an internship." AA: "You're here studying English as a second language, but you've also had to learn American idioms and culture along with it, for yourself, to survive. What's been the hardest part of that?" PARK: "Um ... like every E.F.L. student or E.S.L. student, as a second language learner, there are so many things, especially when you watch a sitcom -- " AA: "A situation comedy on television." PARK: "I know the meanings, but sometimes I don't get it why that expression is so funny. So, you know, everybody's laughing, but ... " GARLOW: "My name is Todd Garlow, I'm a high school E.S.L. teacher in Maryland. I worked in Turkey from [nineteen-] ninety-nine to two-thousand in a private Turkish school, teaching seventh and eighth grade students. I was there the year of the two big earthquakes. I actually left here the day the first big earthquake happened. "As the day went on even, I flew through New York in the airport, hearing that the death toll was rising and the extent of the devastation was increasing. And then in the days following, when I first arrived there, looking back on it now, it reminds me very much of the days following 9/11. People were in complete shock, disbelief, just glued to their TV, wanting information, wanting to know what was going on." AA: "And while your students learned English from you, what did you learn about Turkey?" GARLOW: "In many ways, Turkey is regarded as the model Muslim country. People are Muslim but they have a secular government. They're in a unique position in terms of fostering democracy but still struggling with it. But they're also very proud of their own history and accomplishments, and there are many modern aspects." AA: "Do you keep in touch with any of your students?" GARLOW: "I do keep in touch with some of my students via e-mail about what's going on, which is a very nice connection." AA: Todd Garlow and some of the other teachers at this year's TESOL convention, held this month in California. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Arbor Day / The F.B.I. / Eric Clapton Plays Robert Johnson
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 30, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: April 30, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week ... some old-time blues music, and a question about the F.B.I. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week ... some old-time blues music, and a question about the F.B.I. But first, we investigate the roots of a national observance. Arbor Day HOST: April thirtieth is Arbor Day in the United States. It is not an official holiday. Children still have to go to school. Instead, it is a day for planting trees. Shep O’Neal has our report. ANNCR: "Arbor" comes from the Latin word for tree. The idea for Arbor Day came from the American Midwest more than one-hundred-thirty-years ago. At that time, Nebraska was not yet a state. It was a territory. The land was wide and open, and flat mostly. There were almost no trees. A reporter named Sterling Morton moved to Nebraska. He and his wife loved nature. They planted trees and flowers around their new home. Mister Morton became the editor of the first newspaper in Nebraska. He wrote about agriculture and the importance of trees. Nebraska needed trees to prevent the wind from blowing away the soil. Trees also protect against the hot summer sun. Sterling Morton became an official of the Nebraska Territory. He proposed a tree-planting holiday. Local agriculture officials organized the first “Arbor Day” on April tenth, eighteen-seventy-two. There were prizes for planting the most trees. Experts say more than one-million trees were planted in Nebraska on that first Arbor Day. The idea for a day for planting trees began to spread to other areas of the country. By eighteen-seventy-four, every state celebrated Arbor Day. Today, most states celebrate Arbor Day on the last Friday in April. But some celebrate at other times, when the weather in their area is better for planting trees. For example, the southern states of Florida and Louisiana celebrate Arbor Day on the third Friday in January. Arbor Day in Oregon is April fourth. In Colorado, it is April sixteenth. The National Arbor Day Foundation is a private group that helps people plant trees and plan Arbor Day activities. And I bet you can guess where the National Arbor Day Foundation has its headquarters. That’s right, Nebraska. The F.B.I. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes by e-mail. A student somewhere in China wants to know about the F.B.I. The F.B.I. is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is the main investigating agency of the Department of Justice in the United States. The F.B.I. enforces more than two-hundred federal laws. But it says its two most important jobs now are to prevent terrorism and spying. The F.B.I. assists other law enforcement agencies in the United States and foreign countries. It has the world’s largest collection of fingerprints and is also known for its crime laboratories. The F.B.I. employs about twenty-seven-thousand people. They work in fifty-six offices in the United States and more than forty offices in other countries. More than eleven-thousand men and women serve as special agents. They investigate crimes like bank robberies, but also crimes involving computers, the environment and terrorism. The F.B.I. has been criticized for its part in the failure to stop the hijackings on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller recently went before the national commission investigating the attacks in New York and Washington. Mister Mueller said the F.B.I. and other agencies have made many changes since then. He said new laws have made it easier to share information about possible terrorist threats. He said these efforts have to led to al-Qaida supporters and the seizure of millions of dollars in terrorist financing. Eric Clapton Plays Robert Johnson (MUSIC) HOST: Singer and guitarist Eric Clapton has a new album. It honors one of the early American musicians who helped invent the kind of music known as the blues. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: Over the years, Eric Clapton has sold millions of records on his own and with bands like Cream and the Yardbirds. The British-born musician says he has been successful because of the influence of one man, Robert Johnson. Johnson died a mysterious death in nineteen-thirty-eight. He was only twenty-six years old. The new album is called "Me and Mister Johnson." It contains fourteen Robert Johnson songs. Eric Clapton does not play them the way Johnson did. But he is true to the heart and soul of the blues that Robert Johnson wrote and played. Here Eric Clapton plays a Robert Johnson song called “Little Queen of Spades.” (MUSIC) Eric Clapton is one of the few musicians today who continues the blues tradition begun by Robert Johnson. We leave you with another Robert Johnson song from "Me and Mister Johnson." This one is called “Kind Hearted Woman Blues.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. Our engineer was Tom Verba. (MUSIC) But first, we investigate the roots of a national observance. Arbor Day HOST: April thirtieth is Arbor Day in the United States. It is not an official holiday. Children still have to go to school. Instead, it is a day for planting trees. Shep O’Neal has our report. ANNCR: "Arbor" comes from the Latin word for tree. The idea for Arbor Day came from the American Midwest more than one-hundred-thirty-years ago. At that time, Nebraska was not yet a state. It was a territory. The land was wide and open, and flat mostly. There were almost no trees. A reporter named Sterling Morton moved to Nebraska. He and his wife loved nature. They planted trees and flowers around their new home. Mister Morton became the editor of the first newspaper in Nebraska. He wrote about agriculture and the importance of trees. Nebraska needed trees to prevent the wind from blowing away the soil. Trees also protect against the hot summer sun. Sterling Morton became an official of the Nebraska Territory. He proposed a tree-planting holiday. Local agriculture officials organized the first “Arbor Day” on April tenth, eighteen-seventy-two. There were prizes for planting the most trees. Experts say more than one-million trees were planted in Nebraska on that first Arbor Day. The idea for a day for planting trees began to spread to other areas of the country. By eighteen-seventy-four, every state celebrated Arbor Day. Today, most states celebrate Arbor Day on the last Friday in April. But some celebrate at other times, when the weather in their area is better for planting trees. For example, the southern states of Florida and Louisiana celebrate Arbor Day on the third Friday in January. Arbor Day in Oregon is April fourth. In Colorado, it is April sixteenth. The National Arbor Day Foundation is a private group that helps people plant trees and plan Arbor Day activities. And I bet you can guess where the National Arbor Day Foundation has its headquarters. That’s right, Nebraska. The F.B.I. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes by e-mail. A student somewhere in China wants to know about the F.B.I. The F.B.I. is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is the main investigating agency of the Department of Justice in the United States. The F.B.I. enforces more than two-hundred federal laws. But it says its two most important jobs now are to prevent terrorism and spying. The F.B.I. assists other law enforcement agencies in the United States and foreign countries. It has the world’s largest collection of fingerprints and is also known for its crime laboratories. The F.B.I. employs about twenty-seven-thousand people. They work in fifty-six offices in the United States and more than forty offices in other countries. More than eleven-thousand men and women serve as special agents. They investigate crimes like bank robberies, but also crimes involving computers, the environment and terrorism. The F.B.I. has been criticized for its part in the failure to stop the hijackings on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller recently went before the national commission investigating the attacks in New York and Washington. Mister Mueller said the F.B.I. and other agencies have made many changes since then. He said new laws have made it easier to share information about possible terrorist threats. He said these efforts have to led to al-Qaida supporters and the seizure of millions of dollars in terrorist financing. Eric Clapton Plays Robert Johnson (MUSIC) HOST: Singer and guitarist Eric Clapton has a new album. It honors one of the early American musicians who helped invent the kind of music known as the blues. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: Over the years, Eric Clapton has sold millions of records on his own and with bands like Cream and the Yardbirds. The British-born musician says he has been successful because of the influence of one man, Robert Johnson. Johnson died a mysterious death in nineteen-thirty-eight. He was only twenty-six years old. The new album is called "Me and Mister Johnson." It contains fourteen Robert Johnson songs. Eric Clapton does not play them the way Johnson did. But he is true to the heart and soul of the blues that Robert Johnson wrote and played. Here Eric Clapton plays a Robert Johnson song called “Little Queen of Spades.” (MUSIC) Eric Clapton is one of the few musicians today who continues the blues tradition begun by Robert Johnson. We leave you with another Robert Johnson song from "Me and Mister Johnson." This one is called “Kind Hearted Woman Blues.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. Our engineer was Tom Verba. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-04/a-2004-04-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - IMF Says World Economy Is Recovering
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 30, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The International Monetary Fund says it expects the world economy to grow more than four-percent both this year and next. Its chief economist says these could be the best two years since the early nineteen-nineties. But the I.M.F. also says interest rates are very low and will have to rise in the future. When rates are low, more people borrow money to buy things like homes and businesses. Prices increase. The I.M.F. says property values in Britain and some other countries may be too high now. However, it warns that prices could fall sharply if interest rates rise too fast. Some countries also worry that large United States budget deficits could harm the current recovery. The Bush administration says it will cut those deficits. The World Bank and I.M.F. held their spring meetings last week in Washington where they are based. This year is their sixtieth anniversary. Protests outside were mostly peaceful. And they were smaller than before. Protesters called on rich nations to cancel the debt of poor ones. A report by the I.M.F. and World Bank says private investment in developing countries is again increasing. The report says money is flowing to Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia. But it says poorer nations, especially in Africa, are not part of this growth. Before the meetings, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said the world is out of balance. He said one sixth of the population owns eighty percent of the wealth. At the same time, another one in six people lives in extreme poverty. Mister Wolfensohn urged developed countries to open their markets and increase aid. He also urged developing nations to improve their governments and to build good legal and financial systems. The World Bank and the I.M.F. work together as agencies of the United Nations. The bank makes loans to developing nations. But it is not like a traditional bank. Organizations within the World Bank Group seek private investment and offer protection against lending risk. They also help settle disputes among the more than one-hundred-eighty member nations. The I.M.F. is at the center of the international finance system. Its job is to prevent crises and support cooperation. It does research, lends money and offers technical help. The United States provides more than seventeen percent of the I.M.F. budget. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - European Union Welcomes Ten New Members
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 1, 2004 This is John Dryden with In the News, in VOA Special English. The European Union now has twenty-five members instead of fifteen. Among the new E-U countries are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. So are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta. Ireland currently holds the E-U presidency, and organized the welcoming ceremonies on Saturday in Dublin. Negotiations for entry began six years ago. The European Union began in nineteen-fifty as a trade and economic group. The first six members were Germany, France, Italy the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Later, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Greece and Portugal joined. The other current members are Spain, Austria, Sweden and Finland. The group now deals with such issues as human rights, environmental protection and job creation. E-U members have been struggling to write a constitution. The current expansion is the largest yet and creates a single market of four-hundred-fifty-million people. The new members will receive financial help. Supporters of enlargement say call this a historic chance to unite Europe. They say it will make Europe safer. And they say it could ease expected labor shortages in E-U markets. But some officials say it will be difficult for twenty-five countries with different histories and cultures to work together. Eight of the new members formerly had Communist governments. Most have only limited experience with democratic systems and market economies. The ten new members are much poorer than the current ones. Their membership will add only about five percent to E-U production. The new members are angry at restrictions placed on the movement of workers to wealthier E-U countries. Wealthy countries worry about foreigners looking for jobs and public assistance. Labor unions and others in countries like Germany with high labor costs worry about job losses. They fear that employers will move jobs to countries where wages are a lot lower. Wealthier countries are also not happy to have to share their E-U farm support payments. The new members want guarantees they will get their fair share. Their local industries worry about the competition they will now face from other E-U countries. Romania and Bulgaria are expected to join the European Union in two-thousand-seven. Turkey has attempted for years to join. The issue has divided Europeans. French President Jacques Chirac said this week that Turkey is not ready yet. Mister Chirac said Turkey probably will not be ready to join for at least ten years. He said Turkey needs to do more to improve its human rights and justice system before it can meet the conditions for membership. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is John Dryden. Broadcast: May 1, 2004 This is John Dryden with In the News, in VOA Special English. The European Union now has twenty-five members instead of fifteen. Among the new E-U countries are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. So are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta. Ireland currently holds the E-U presidency, and organized the welcoming ceremonies on Saturday in Dublin. Negotiations for entry began six years ago. The European Union began in nineteen-fifty as a trade and economic group. The first six members were Germany, France, Italy the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Later, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Greece and Portugal joined. The other current members are Spain, Austria, Sweden and Finland. The group now deals with such issues as human rights, environmental protection and job creation. E-U members have been struggling to write a constitution. The current expansion is the largest yet and creates a single market of four-hundred-fifty-million people. The new members will receive financial help. Supporters of enlargement say call this a historic chance to unite Europe. They say it will make Europe safer. And they say it could ease expected labor shortages in E-U markets. But some officials say it will be difficult for twenty-five countries with different histories and cultures to work together. Eight of the new members formerly had Communist governments. Most have only limited experience with democratic systems and market economies. The ten new members are much poorer than the current ones. Their membership will add only about five percent to E-U production. The new members are angry at restrictions placed on the movement of workers to wealthier E-U countries. Wealthy countries worry about foreigners looking for jobs and public assistance. Labor unions and others in countries like Germany with high labor costs worry about job losses. They fear that employers will move jobs to countries where wages are a lot lower. Wealthier countries are also not happy to have to share their E-U farm support payments. The new members want guarantees they will get their fair share. Their local industries worry about the competition they will now face from other E-U countries. Romania and Bulgaria are expected to join the European Union in two-thousand-seven. Turkey has attempted for years to join. The issue has divided Europeans. French President Jacques Chirac said this week that Turkey is not ready yet. Mister Chirac said Turkey probably will not be ready to join for at least ten years. He said Turkey needs to do more to improve its human rights and justice system before it can meet the conditions for membership. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is John Dryden. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Buffalo Bill Cody
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 2, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: May 2, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of a man called “Buffalo Bill.” His real name was William F. Cody. He created “Wild West” shows that people around the world enjoyed for more than thirty years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: William Frederick Cody was born in eighteen-forty-six in the state of Iowa. He died in Colorado in nineteen-seventeen. Researchers disagree about other incidents in his life. That is because some stories about “Buffalo Bill” are a combination of factual events and make-believe. However, there is general agreement about the influence of “Buffalo Bill” Cody. People say he represented the spirit and tradition of the American West. VOICE TWO: William F. Cody grew up in the center of the United States. William’s family moved from Iowa to the territory of Kansas when he was still a child. His father died in eighteen-fifty-seven. A short time later, William started working at different jobs to help his family. He worked as a driver for a team of oxen. He guided the powerful animals as they moved goods from place to place. He also carried messages for a local company. Later, William joined a group of men seeking gold in the mountains of Colorado. They were not very successful. Then he got a job as a Pony Express rider. The Pony Express used teams of men and horses to transport mail across the country. William was a skilled rider. Once he rode five-hundred-fifteen kilometers in a single trip. This was one of the longest rides for the Pony Express. At the time, he was just fifteen years old. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Kansas became a state in eighteen-sixty-one. A few weeks later, the Civil War between the states started. Southern states fought to protect the rights of individual states. Northern states fought to keep the country united. During the war, Kansas joined with the North and provided men for the Union army. William was too young to fight when the Civil War started. At first, he served the Union forces as a scout, or explorer. In eighteen-sixty-four, he joined the United States Army. Cody became a member of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry. His force was sent to nearby southern states during the Civil War. Cody drove a team of horses. He remained there until the war ended. VOICE TWO: After the war, William Cody married Louisa Frederici in Saint Louis, Missouri. They were married for more than fifty years and had four children. When they were first married, Cody had many different jobs. For example, he operated a hotel in Kansas. Then he began hunting buffalo for work crews building the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The workers used the wild animals for meat. Cody got the name “Buffalo Bill” by winning a buffalo hunting competition. Reports say he shot and killed more than four-thousand buffalo in just eighteen months. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Cody re-joined the Army in eighteen-sixty-eight. He served as a civilian scout for military forces fighting Indians in the West. His experience and skills made him an able fighter and guide for the Army. Cody helped the Fifth Cavalry defeat a group of Cheyenne warriors. He also served as a guide for individuals who wanted to hunt buffalo. Some hunters came from big cities in the eastern United States and from other countries. Once he guided a member of Russia’s ruling family, the Grand Duke Alexis, on a hunting trip. American newspapers reported on their activities. VOICE TWO: Cody’s exciting life provided the details for many stories. A number of writers began producing stories about famous people of the western United States. These stories became known as dime novels. Dime novels helped make heroes of people like Davy Crockett and Kit Carson. A writer named Ned Buntline decided to write a book about Buffalo Bill. Buntline’s book and newspaper reports helped make Cody famous. The book became popular and was later made into a play called “Scouts of the Prairie.” Buffalo Bill even appeared in the show. Critics said Cody was a bad actor, but the show was very successful. The play led Cody to form his own traveling show. The group included another hero of the American West, Wild Bill Hickok. VOICE ONE: During this period, Cody often returned to the West to find other work. He assisted the Army in its operations against Indian tribes. In eighteen-seventy-six, Indian warriors defeated General George Custer and his forces in the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. A few weeks later, Cody and other soldiers clashed with a group of Cheyenne Indians. During the fighting, Cody reportedly killed a Cheyenne warrior named Yellow Hair. This event added yet another incident to Buffalo Bill’s collection of stories. Cody liked the idea of being a showman and telling people about the American West. In eighteen-seventy-nine, he wrote his own life story and began publishing his own dime novels. He also continued to produce plays. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Cody organized his first Wild West show in eighteen-eighty-two in the state of Nebraska. The show was performed outside. It was designed to entertain and educate crowds of people. There were cowboys, Indians, buffalo and other kinds of animals. People were not sure exactly what the show was, but they liked it. The following year, Cody and his business partners formed a traveling show called “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.” It brought cowboys and Indians to people in parts of the United States who might never have seen them. The show was a major success for the next thirty years. People liked it for many reasons. One was a desire to return to earlier, simpler times. The American West of the dime novels was fast disappearing. The area was starting to develop. VOICE ONE: “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show included cowboys hunting buffalo. It had riders for the Pony Express. It re-created an Indian attack on a carriage transporting goods. The show also re-created the attack against General Custer and his forces. It included Indians who were involved in the real attack. It also included the famous Sioux chief Sitting Bull, who had killed General Custer. Sitting Bull traveled with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show for several months. In later years, a cowgirl named Annie Oakley performed with the show. She was one of the best gun shooters in the country. Annie Oakley could ride a horse standing up while shooting at a target. She could shoot a piece of money out of someone’s hand. Once, she became famous for shooting a cigarette held in the mouth of German Crown Prince Wilhelm. “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” performed in cities and towns across the United States and in Europe. In eighteen-eighty-seven, the show performed in England in honor of Queen Victoria’s fiftieth anniversary in power. Six years later, the show was popular at the World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: Buffalo Bill Cody was said to be the most famous American in the world by the beginning of the twentieth century. American presidents met with him to discuss issues important to the West. He had many modern ideas. For example, he supported fair treatment for American Indians. And he supported equal pay and equal voting rights for women. He was also a businessman who looked toward the future. He invested in projects that he hoped would bring economic growth to the West. Cody made a lot of money from his show business success. However, he lost his wealth because of bad investments and failure to watch how the money was used. In nineteen-oh-eight, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” combined with another traveling show. But this show failed. A short time later, Cody got a loan from a Colorado company to keep his show operating. But his financial situation got worse over the next few years. VOICE ONE: Buffalo Bill Cody died in nineteen-seventeen while visiting his sister in Denver, Colorado. He was buried near the city, at the top of Lookout Mountain. His funeral was a major event. Twenty-thousand people traveled there to attend the ceremony. Today, thousands of people visit Lookout Mountain every year. They see Cody’s burial place and a museum built in his honor. And, they hear stories about people who experienced the excitement of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of a man called “Buffalo Bill.” His real name was William F. Cody. He created “Wild West” shows that people around the world enjoyed for more than thirty years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: William Frederick Cody was born in eighteen-forty-six in the state of Iowa. He died in Colorado in nineteen-seventeen. Researchers disagree about other incidents in his life. That is because some stories about “Buffalo Bill” are a combination of factual events and make-believe. However, there is general agreement about the influence of “Buffalo Bill” Cody. People say he represented the spirit and tradition of the American West. VOICE TWO: William F. Cody grew up in the center of the United States. William’s family moved from Iowa to the territory of Kansas when he was still a child. His father died in eighteen-fifty-seven. A short time later, William started working at different jobs to help his family. He worked as a driver for a team of oxen. He guided the powerful animals as they moved goods from place to place. He also carried messages for a local company. Later, William joined a group of men seeking gold in the mountains of Colorado. They were not very successful. Then he got a job as a Pony Express rider. The Pony Express used teams of men and horses to transport mail across the country. William was a skilled rider. Once he rode five-hundred-fifteen kilometers in a single trip. This was one of the longest rides for the Pony Express. At the time, he was just fifteen years old. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Kansas became a state in eighteen-sixty-one. A few weeks later, the Civil War between the states started. Southern states fought to protect the rights of individual states. Northern states fought to keep the country united. During the war, Kansas joined with the North and provided men for the Union army. William was too young to fight when the Civil War started. At first, he served the Union forces as a scout, or explorer. In eighteen-sixty-four, he joined the United States Army. Cody became a member of the Seventh Kansas Cavalry. His force was sent to nearby southern states during the Civil War. Cody drove a team of horses. He remained there until the war ended. VOICE TWO: After the war, William Cody married Louisa Frederici in Saint Louis, Missouri. They were married for more than fifty years and had four children. When they were first married, Cody had many different jobs. For example, he operated a hotel in Kansas. Then he began hunting buffalo for work crews building the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The workers used the wild animals for meat. Cody got the name “Buffalo Bill” by winning a buffalo hunting competition. Reports say he shot and killed more than four-thousand buffalo in just eighteen months. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Cody re-joined the Army in eighteen-sixty-eight. He served as a civilian scout for military forces fighting Indians in the West. His experience and skills made him an able fighter and guide for the Army. Cody helped the Fifth Cavalry defeat a group of Cheyenne warriors. He also served as a guide for individuals who wanted to hunt buffalo. Some hunters came from big cities in the eastern United States and from other countries. Once he guided a member of Russia’s ruling family, the Grand Duke Alexis, on a hunting trip. American newspapers reported on their activities. VOICE TWO: Cody’s exciting life provided the details for many stories. A number of writers began producing stories about famous people of the western United States. These stories became known as dime novels. Dime novels helped make heroes of people like Davy Crockett and Kit Carson. A writer named Ned Buntline decided to write a book about Buffalo Bill. Buntline’s book and newspaper reports helped make Cody famous. The book became popular and was later made into a play called “Scouts of the Prairie.” Buffalo Bill even appeared in the show. Critics said Cody was a bad actor, but the show was very successful. The play led Cody to form his own traveling show. The group included another hero of the American West, Wild Bill Hickok. VOICE ONE: During this period, Cody often returned to the West to find other work. He assisted the Army in its operations against Indian tribes. In eighteen-seventy-six, Indian warriors defeated General George Custer and his forces in the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. A few weeks later, Cody and other soldiers clashed with a group of Cheyenne Indians. During the fighting, Cody reportedly killed a Cheyenne warrior named Yellow Hair. This event added yet another incident to Buffalo Bill’s collection of stories. Cody liked the idea of being a showman and telling people about the American West. In eighteen-seventy-nine, he wrote his own life story and began publishing his own dime novels. He also continued to produce plays. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Cody organized his first Wild West show in eighteen-eighty-two in the state of Nebraska. The show was performed outside. It was designed to entertain and educate crowds of people. There were cowboys, Indians, buffalo and other kinds of animals. People were not sure exactly what the show was, but they liked it. The following year, Cody and his business partners formed a traveling show called “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.” It brought cowboys and Indians to people in parts of the United States who might never have seen them. The show was a major success for the next thirty years. People liked it for many reasons. One was a desire to return to earlier, simpler times. The American West of the dime novels was fast disappearing. The area was starting to develop. VOICE ONE: “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show included cowboys hunting buffalo. It had riders for the Pony Express. It re-created an Indian attack on a carriage transporting goods. The show also re-created the attack against General Custer and his forces. It included Indians who were involved in the real attack. It also included the famous Sioux chief Sitting Bull, who had killed General Custer. Sitting Bull traveled with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show for several months. In later years, a cowgirl named Annie Oakley performed with the show. She was one of the best gun shooters in the country. Annie Oakley could ride a horse standing up while shooting at a target. She could shoot a piece of money out of someone’s hand. Once, she became famous for shooting a cigarette held in the mouth of German Crown Prince Wilhelm. “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” performed in cities and towns across the United States and in Europe. In eighteen-eighty-seven, the show performed in England in honor of Queen Victoria’s fiftieth anniversary in power. Six years later, the show was popular at the World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: Buffalo Bill Cody was said to be the most famous American in the world by the beginning of the twentieth century. American presidents met with him to discuss issues important to the West. He had many modern ideas. For example, he supported fair treatment for American Indians. And he supported equal pay and equal voting rights for women. He was also a businessman who looked toward the future. He invested in projects that he hoped would bring economic growth to the West. Cody made a lot of money from his show business success. However, he lost his wealth because of bad investments and failure to watch how the money was used. In nineteen-oh-eight, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” combined with another traveling show. But this show failed. A short time later, Cody got a loan from a Colorado company to keep his show operating. But his financial situation got worse over the next few years. VOICE ONE: Buffalo Bill Cody died in nineteen-seventeen while visiting his sister in Denver, Colorado. He was buried near the city, at the top of Lookout Mountain. His funeral was a major event. Twenty-thousand people traveled there to attend the ceremony. Today, thousands of people visit Lookout Mountain every year. They see Cody’s burial place and a museum built in his honor. And, they hear stories about people who experienced the excitement of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – The White House
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 3, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: May 3, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week, go inside the house that presidents have called home for more than two hundred years. White House State Dining Room VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week, go inside the house that presidents have called home for more than two hundred years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America's first president supervised the building of the White House. Yet George Washington and his wife, Martha, never had the chance to live there. It was completed after he left office in seventeen-ninety-seven. Since then, America has had forty-two other presidents. All of them have lived at sixteen-hundred Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, in Washington, D.C. This November, Americans will decide who lives in the White House for the next four years. President Bush and his wife, Laura, know their way around the place already. If John Kerry is elected, he and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, would meet with White House employees after the election. An official would walk the Kerrys through the house. They would move in on Inauguration Day next January twentieth. VOICE TWO: The White House has more than one-hundred-thirty rooms. It also has collections of more than forty-thousand objects. Presidential families often find things in storage that they like when they move in. Two of the Carter children, for example, found a chair among the unused furniture in the White House. Jimmy Carter served from nineteen-seventy-seven to nineteen-eighty-one. He was the thirty-ninth president. The chair belonged to the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, had bought the chair. The Carters made it part of their home. Wives of presidents have all added to the White House in some way. Jacqueline Kennedy, for example, created a colorful garden. It is named in her honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Washington had great hopes for the home he started. Washington entered office in seventeen-eighty-nine. In seventeen-ninety, he signed an act of Congress. It said the federal government would occupy an area in the District of Columbia near the Potomac River. President Washington and the French city planner Pierre L'Enfant chose the land for the new presidential home. VOICE TWO: A competition took place to find a designer. An architect named James Hoban won five-hundred dollars and a piece of land for his design. Hoban was an immigrant from Ireland. He chose a design similar to Leinster House in Dublin, where the Irish Parliament now meets. Grayish white sandstone was chosen for the walls of the new home of the president. Work started in seventeen-ninety-two. George Washington lived in Philadelphia during this time but watched over the work. America's second president, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live in the new home. They moved in on November first, eighteen-hundred. The home was not yet finished. John and Abigail Adams lived in six rooms and used others to entertain guests. But they lived there for only four months. VOICE ONE: John Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson tried to finish work on the home. So did James Madison, the next president. But, in eighteen-fourteen, British forces invaded Washington. They burned the White House. Dolley Madison, the president's wife, tried to save valuable objects from the fire. She saved a painting of George Washington. She took it with her as she fled for safety. This famous painting by Gilbert Stuart hangs in the White House to this day. After the fire, James Hoban came back to help rebuild the house he had designed. During this time, it was painted white. Over the years the White House has been enlarged and almost totally rebuilt. In nineteen-sixty-one, Congress decided that furniture of historic and artistic value would always be White House property. In effect, Congress made the White House a museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As visitors enter the White House, they see pictures of past presidents on the walls. Among them is Franklin Roosevelt, the thirty-second president. Roosevelt led the nation through the end of the great economic depression and World War Two. He was elected four times, more than any other president. He died in office. Today, the Constitution limits president to two terms. In another hall on the first floor are paintings of first ladies. In one painting, Nancy Reagan wears a beautiful red dress. She looks like the Hollywood movie actress she once was. Her husband, Ronald Reagan, also was an actor. Later he became the governor of California and, later still, the fortieth president of the United States. Another room off this hallway contains a collection of fine dishes made of china. Each president has added to this collection. VOICE ONE: Wide marble steps lead to the next floor. It is called the State Floor. Presidents use rooms here for official duties and to entertain guests. The largest room on the State Floor is the East Room. News conferences and music performances take place here. But this room has had other uses over the years. The daughter of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president, rode her tricycle in the East Room. Abigail Adams hung her family’s clothes to dry from the wash. Other rooms on the State Floor are named for their colors: the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room. The president meets with diplomats and other guests in these rooms. VOICE TWO: Nearby is the State Dining Room. This is where official state dinners take place. Important visitors sit with the president or first lady, or at tables with the secretary of state or other officials. Another room is the Treaty Room on the second floor. This is used for meetings. Important documents have been signed there. At different times, this was the cabinet room or the president's office. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The third floor of the White House contains bedrooms for guests. One of these is called the Lincoln Bedroom. Abraham Lincoln led the country through the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. He freed the slaves in the South. No story about a famous house would be complete without a ghost story. Lincoln was killed soon after the fighting ended. A supporter of the defeated South shot him at Ford's Theater in Washington. But some say the ghost of Lincoln walks around the White House at night. VOICE TWO: The White House has an East Wing and a West Wing. In the West Wing is the Oval Office. This is the large rounded office where the president works. Rooms in the East Wing offer private living space for the president and his family. The home of the vice president is on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington. President Carter's wife Rosalynn described the family area in the White House as surprisingly small. Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill Clinton, the forty-second president, had a favorite room in this area. It was the sunroom. VOICE ONE: One day, during World War Two, a local woman stopped at the White House. She asked to meet Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. An aide to Missus Roosevelt was going to tell the visitor that the first lady was busy. But the young woman said her husband was fighting overseas. Eleanor Roosevelt heard this and invited her to come in. She served tea and told her visitor that she, too, had loved ones fighting overseas. It seems hard to imagine such a visit today. In fact, the White House was closed to visitors after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Now, groups can take tours of the White House. But they must organize them through a member of Congress. The White House also offers an online tour at its Web site. The address is whitehouse.gov. Again, that address is whitehouse.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus.. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America's first president supervised the building of the White House. Yet George Washington and his wife, Martha, never had the chance to live there. It was completed after he left office in seventeen-ninety-seven. Since then, America has had forty-two other presidents. All of them have lived at sixteen-hundred Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, in Washington, D.C. This November, Americans will decide who lives in the White House for the next four years. President Bush and his wife, Laura, know their way around the place already. If John Kerry is elected, he and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, would meet with White House employees after the election. An official would walk the Kerrys through the house. They would move in on Inauguration Day next January twentieth. VOICE TWO: The White House has more than one-hundred-thirty rooms. It also has collections of more than forty-thousand objects. Presidential families often find things in storage that they like when they move in. Two of the Carter children, for example, found a chair among the unused furniture in the White House. Jimmy Carter served from nineteen-seventy-seven to nineteen-eighty-one. He was the thirty-ninth president. The chair belonged to the sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. His wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, had bought the chair. The Carters made it part of their home. Wives of presidents have all added to the White House in some way. Jacqueline Kennedy, for example, created a colorful garden. It is named in her honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Washington had great hopes for the home he started. Washington entered office in seventeen-eighty-nine. In seventeen-ninety, he signed an act of Congress. It said the federal government would occupy an area in the District of Columbia near the Potomac River. President Washington and the French city planner Pierre L'Enfant chose the land for the new presidential home. VOICE TWO: A competition took place to find a designer. An architect named James Hoban won five-hundred dollars and a piece of land for his design. Hoban was an immigrant from Ireland. He chose a design similar to Leinster House in Dublin, where the Irish Parliament now meets. Grayish white sandstone was chosen for the walls of the new home of the president. Work started in seventeen-ninety-two. George Washington lived in Philadelphia during this time but watched over the work. America's second president, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live in the new home. They moved in on November first, eighteen-hundred. The home was not yet finished. John and Abigail Adams lived in six rooms and used others to entertain guests. But they lived there for only four months. VOICE ONE: John Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson tried to finish work on the home. So did James Madison, the next president. But, in eighteen-fourteen, British forces invaded Washington. They burned the White House. Dolley Madison, the president's wife, tried to save valuable objects from the fire. She saved a painting of George Washington. She took it with her as she fled for safety. This famous painting by Gilbert Stuart hangs in the White House to this day. After the fire, James Hoban came back to help rebuild the house he had designed. During this time, it was painted white. Over the years the White House has been enlarged and almost totally rebuilt. In nineteen-sixty-one, Congress decided that furniture of historic and artistic value would always be White House property. In effect, Congress made the White House a museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As visitors enter the White House, they see pictures of past presidents on the walls. Among them is Franklin Roosevelt, the thirty-second president. Roosevelt led the nation through the end of the great economic depression and World War Two. He was elected four times, more than any other president. He died in office. Today, the Constitution limits president to two terms. In another hall on the first floor are paintings of first ladies. In one painting, Nancy Reagan wears a beautiful red dress. She looks like the Hollywood movie actress she once was. Her husband, Ronald Reagan, also was an actor. Later he became the governor of California and, later still, the fortieth president of the United States. Another room off this hallway contains a collection of fine dishes made of china. Each president has added to this collection. VOICE ONE: Wide marble steps lead to the next floor. It is called the State Floor. Presidents use rooms here for official duties and to entertain guests. The largest room on the State Floor is the East Room. News conferences and music performances take place here. But this room has had other uses over the years. The daughter of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president, rode her tricycle in the East Room. Abigail Adams hung her family’s clothes to dry from the wash. Other rooms on the State Floor are named for their colors: the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room. The president meets with diplomats and other guests in these rooms. VOICE TWO: Nearby is the State Dining Room. This is where official state dinners take place. Important visitors sit with the president or first lady, or at tables with the secretary of state or other officials. Another room is the Treaty Room on the second floor. This is used for meetings. Important documents have been signed there. At different times, this was the cabinet room or the president's office. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The third floor of the White House contains bedrooms for guests. One of these is called the Lincoln Bedroom. Abraham Lincoln led the country through the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. He freed the slaves in the South. No story about a famous house would be complete without a ghost story. Lincoln was killed soon after the fighting ended. A supporter of the defeated South shot him at Ford's Theater in Washington. But some say the ghost of Lincoln walks around the White House at night. VOICE TWO: The White House has an East Wing and a West Wing. In the West Wing is the Oval Office. This is the large rounded office where the president works. Rooms in the East Wing offer private living space for the president and his family. The home of the vice president is on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington. President Carter's wife Rosalynn described the family area in the White House as surprisingly small. Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill Clinton, the forty-second president, had a favorite room in this area. It was the sunroom. VOICE ONE: One day, during World War Two, a local woman stopped at the White House. She asked to meet Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. An aide to Missus Roosevelt was going to tell the visitor that the first lady was busy. But the young woman said her husband was fighting overseas. Eleanor Roosevelt heard this and invited her to come in. She served tea and told her visitor that she, too, had loved ones fighting overseas. It seems hard to imagine such a visit today. In fact, the White House was closed to visitors after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Now, groups can take tours of the White House. But they must organize them through a member of Congress. The White House also offers an online tour at its Web site. The address is whitehouse.gov. Again, that address is whitehouse.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus.. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Polio Vaccine 50th Anniversary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 3, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Fifty years ago, no one knew how to stop polio. Polio is a disease of the muscles and the nervous system. Victims lose the ability to move their arms or legs, and often the ability to breathe. Then a scientist named Jonas Salk developed an experimental vaccine to prevent it. The organization March of Dimes launched a test. The first vaccines were given on April twenty-sixth, nineteen-fifty-four. About four-thousand students were the first to receive the injections. They attended Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. The test was called “the shot felt around the world.” About two-million children were vaccinated in one year. Those who received the series of three injections became known as the “Polio Pioneers.” Today, a form of vaccine taken by mouth is used to fight polio. This vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin. Polio is almost gone from the world. The World Health Organization wants to declare an end to polio by next year. But this goal may be at risk. Recently, in southern Africa, Botswana reported its first case of polio in more than ten years. Health officials say the virus found in a child probably came from Nigeria. One state in Nigeria is not ready to vaccinate its children. Islamic leaders in Kano say the vaccine is not safe. Some opponents have said the vaccines are part of a Western plot to harm Muslims. Kano officials have said they are waiting for supplies of vaccine from Muslim countries in Asia. There have been several new cases of polio in Kano since January. Health officials believe most other new cases of polio in Nigeria spread from Kano. And the disease has spread to other African countries where there had been no polio for years. Polio is still a problem also in India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. India's national immunization days have reduced new cases to only eight reported so far this year. There were one-thousand cases two years ago. In Nigeria, Muslim leaders, government officials, doctors and others met recently to discuss the concerns in Kano. People at the meeting said they agreed that Islam supports vaccinations against disease. Kano leaders urged the government to do more to fight all diseases that kill children, not only polio. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett and Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: May 3, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Fifty years ago, no one knew how to stop polio. Polio is a disease of the muscles and the nervous system. Victims lose the ability to move their arms or legs, and often the ability to breathe. Then a scientist named Jonas Salk developed an experimental vaccine to prevent it. The organization March of Dimes launched a test. The first vaccines were given on April twenty-sixth, nineteen-fifty-four. About four-thousand students were the first to receive the injections. They attended Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia. The test was called “the shot felt around the world.” About two-million children were vaccinated in one year. Those who received the series of three injections became known as the “Polio Pioneers.” Today, a form of vaccine taken by mouth is used to fight polio. This vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin. Polio is almost gone from the world. The World Health Organization wants to declare an end to polio by next year. But this goal may be at risk. Recently, in southern Africa, Botswana reported its first case of polio in more than ten years. Health officials say the virus found in a child probably came from Nigeria. One state in Nigeria is not ready to vaccinate its children. Islamic leaders in Kano say the vaccine is not safe. Some opponents have said the vaccines are part of a Western plot to harm Muslims. Kano officials have said they are waiting for supplies of vaccine from Muslim countries in Asia. There have been several new cases of polio in Kano since January. Health officials believe most other new cases of polio in Nigeria spread from Kano. And the disease has spread to other African countries where there had been no polio for years. Polio is still a problem also in India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. India's national immunization days have reduced new cases to only eight reported so far this year. There were one-thousand cases two years ago. In Nigeria, Muslim leaders, government officials, doctors and others met recently to discuss the concerns in Kano. People at the meeting said they agreed that Islam supports vaccinations against disease. Kano leaders urged the government to do more to fight all diseases that kill children, not only polio. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett and Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Breeding Mice Without a Father / Aggression in Monkeys / Early Human Brains
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 4, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. On our program this week -- making a mouse with two mothers, no father required. VOICE ONE: A monkey society where females teach males to be less aggressive. VOICE TWO: And a theory why people have a bigger brain but a smaller mouth than early humans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There is a mouse in Japan with two mothers and no father. How could this happen? Scientists explain how in the magazine Nature. However, the process they used to create this small animal is not new. It is called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is development with an unfertilized egg or reproductive cell. Some plants and animals reproduce this way. Among them are a number of fish and birds. Scientists thought mammals had to have an egg from a female and sperm from a male to reproduce. VOICE TWO: Tomohiro Kono of Tokyo University of Agriculture led a team of Japanese and Korean scientists. They used only female mice in their experiment. They joined the nucleus of an egg from one mouse with the nucleus of an egg from a second mouse. They combined a young egg with an older egg. The young egg had not yet gone through an important part of development. Its genes were not yet imprinted. During this process, some genes are ordered to work and others are not. VOICE ONE: The imprint depends on whether the gene comes from the mother or the father. Eggs and sperm have similar sets of genes. But the imprint decides which gene in a set should be active and which should not. The young egg came from a genetically engineered mouse. This mouse was made to lack two genes linked to the growth of a fetus. Tomohiro Kono says he thinks the young egg acted more like a sperm because of the missing genes. The older egg was already imprinted. It had all the normal genes. In their experiment, the scientists produced hundreds of embryos. They placed them inside female mice to grow. Only ten live mice, all female, were born. Just one of these survived to grow into an adult. VOICE TWO: The scientists named her Kaguya, after a princess in a Japanese story. Kaguya is now more than a year old. She has already had babies through the way mice normally reproduce. The team says the results of the experiment suggest that imprinting with genes from the father prevents parthenogenesis. This would make sure that the father has a part in the development. Scientists say this experiment should not worry men. They say parthenogenesis will not replace them anytime soon. But experts in genetics and biology say the experiment did teach a lot about the mysterious process of imprinting. And Tomohiro Kono has other plans. He told Nature magazine that next he wants to make pigs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Biologists have reported about a group of male baboons that are unusually nice. The biologists are Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share of Stanford University in California. Their work involves a group of olive baboons at the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya. Mister Sapolsky began the study in nineteen-seventy-eight. The baboons slept in the trees near the visitors center. So Mister Sapolsky called them the Forest Troop. In the early nineteen-eighties, workers dug a large hole near the building to throw trash away. Members of Forest Troop began to search through the waste for meat and other food. However, another troop of baboons had already claimed the area. They became known as the Garbage Dump Troop. VOICE TWO: Adult male baboons are not known for their ability to share. The Garbage Dump males and the Forest Troop males often fought. So, only the most aggressive males from Forest Troop would go. These were the high-ranking baboons in the troop. Such males are at the top of the social order. In nineteen-eighty-three, however, tuberculosis began to spread in the garbage dump area. All the high-ranking Forest Troop males got sick with the lung disease and died. Only the least socially powerful males remained. After that, Mister Sapolsky observed that aggressive actions within Forest Troop greatly decreased. He ended his observation in nineteen-eighty-six. He began to study another troop of baboons. Then, in nineteen-ninety-three, Mister Sapolsky again observed the Forest Troop. This time he went with Lisa Share. They found that the males were still much more gentle compared to other baboons. But the scientists also found something else. All the adult males in Forest Troop at that time were from other troops. All the ones that were in Forest Troop in nineteen-eighty-six had died or moved on. Male baboons move into other troops when they become adults. The scientists wondered why the new members of Forest Troop were not aggressive like other male baboons. VOICE ONE: They say it appears that the females are teaching cooperation to males that enter the troop. They say the females present themselves to the new males sooner than females of other troops. The female also begin to care for the males by cleaning insects from their hair sooner than normal. The males also groom the females this way. Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share say adult males in Forest Troop do have some things in common with other male baboons. For example, those at the top of the social order stay at that level for about a year. High-ranking Forest Troop males mistreat lower-level males, just like in other troops. However, the mistreatment is less severe. VOICE TWO: The scientists took blood from lower-ranking members of Forest Troop. They did this to measure levels of hormones produced by tension. They say the blood tests found lower levels of these stress-related hormones than usual. The two biologists plan to continue to watch the Forest Troop in Kenya. They note that some animals pass along culture by teaching things like tool making or communication. They say the baboons in Forest Troop pass along their unusual social rules as part of their culture. And the scientists suggest this is mainly thanks to female guidance. The findings appear in PLoS (pronounced ploss) Biology. PLoS is the Public Library of Science. Internet users can read this scientific journal free of charge. The Web site is publiclibraryofscience.org. Again, the address is publiclibraryofscience.org. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Modern humans have a bigger brain and a smaller jaw than our ancestors. Some scientists in the United States have a theory to explain why. They say this may all have been the result of a change in one gene. The scientists are from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Their report is in Nature magazine. Hansell Stedman and Nancy Minugh-Purvis led the team. The team studied a protein called myosin. Myosin is what provides power to muscles. It permits them to tighten for movement. The scientists say they found that a change took place in a myosin gene about two-and-one-half-million years ago. This change, or mutation, prevented the gene from producing a form of myosin called M.Y.H.-sixteen. The scientists tested genetic material of people from all over the world. They found this change in all cases. VOICE TWO: The scientists also looked at D.N.A. from seven other kinds of primates besides humans. These included the chimpanzee and macaque monkey. The scientists did not find the mutated gene in any of them. All of these animals have the gene that produces M.Y.H-sixteen. The scientists found that this kind of myosin is involved mainly in biting and chewing. Two-point-five-million years ago was just before a period of major change in the human head. The fossil record shows that our jawbones shrank and brains grew larger beginning around two-million years ago. Nancy Minugh-Purvis offers a possible explanation: Without the myosin, jaw-muscle size and force decreased. This removed pressure on the skull. And that freed the brain to expand. Something to keep in mind. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 4, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. On our program this week -- making a mouse with two mothers, no father required. VOICE ONE: A monkey society where females teach males to be less aggressive. VOICE TWO: And a theory why people have a bigger brain but a smaller mouth than early humans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There is a mouse in Japan with two mothers and no father. How could this happen? Scientists explain how in the magazine Nature. However, the process they used to create this small animal is not new. It is called parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is development with an unfertilized egg or reproductive cell. Some plants and animals reproduce this way. Among them are a number of fish and birds. Scientists thought mammals had to have an egg from a female and sperm from a male to reproduce. VOICE TWO: Tomohiro Kono of Tokyo University of Agriculture led a team of Japanese and Korean scientists. They used only female mice in their experiment. They joined the nucleus of an egg from one mouse with the nucleus of an egg from a second mouse. They combined a young egg with an older egg. The young egg had not yet gone through an important part of development. Its genes were not yet imprinted. During this process, some genes are ordered to work and others are not. VOICE ONE: The imprint depends on whether the gene comes from the mother or the father. Eggs and sperm have similar sets of genes. But the imprint decides which gene in a set should be active and which should not. The young egg came from a genetically engineered mouse. This mouse was made to lack two genes linked to the growth of a fetus. Tomohiro Kono says he thinks the young egg acted more like a sperm because of the missing genes. The older egg was already imprinted. It had all the normal genes. In their experiment, the scientists produced hundreds of embryos. They placed them inside female mice to grow. Only ten live mice, all female, were born. Just one of these survived to grow into an adult. VOICE TWO: The scientists named her Kaguya, after a princess in a Japanese story. Kaguya is now more than a year old. She has already had babies through the way mice normally reproduce. The team says the results of the experiment suggest that imprinting with genes from the father prevents parthenogenesis. This would make sure that the father has a part in the development. Scientists say this experiment should not worry men. They say parthenogenesis will not replace them anytime soon. But experts in genetics and biology say the experiment did teach a lot about the mysterious process of imprinting. And Tomohiro Kono has other plans. He told Nature magazine that next he wants to make pigs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Biologists have reported about a group of male baboons that are unusually nice. The biologists are Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share of Stanford University in California. Their work involves a group of olive baboons at the Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya. Mister Sapolsky began the study in nineteen-seventy-eight. The baboons slept in the trees near the visitors center. So Mister Sapolsky called them the Forest Troop. In the early nineteen-eighties, workers dug a large hole near the building to throw trash away. Members of Forest Troop began to search through the waste for meat and other food. However, another troop of baboons had already claimed the area. They became known as the Garbage Dump Troop. VOICE TWO: Adult male baboons are not known for their ability to share. The Garbage Dump males and the Forest Troop males often fought. So, only the most aggressive males from Forest Troop would go. These were the high-ranking baboons in the troop. Such males are at the top of the social order. In nineteen-eighty-three, however, tuberculosis began to spread in the garbage dump area. All the high-ranking Forest Troop males got sick with the lung disease and died. Only the least socially powerful males remained. After that, Mister Sapolsky observed that aggressive actions within Forest Troop greatly decreased. He ended his observation in nineteen-eighty-six. He began to study another troop of baboons. Then, in nineteen-ninety-three, Mister Sapolsky again observed the Forest Troop. This time he went with Lisa Share. They found that the males were still much more gentle compared to other baboons. But the scientists also found something else. All the adult males in Forest Troop at that time were from other troops. All the ones that were in Forest Troop in nineteen-eighty-six had died or moved on. Male baboons move into other troops when they become adults. The scientists wondered why the new members of Forest Troop were not aggressive like other male baboons. VOICE ONE: They say it appears that the females are teaching cooperation to males that enter the troop. They say the females present themselves to the new males sooner than females of other troops. The female also begin to care for the males by cleaning insects from their hair sooner than normal. The males also groom the females this way. Robert Sapolsky and Lisa Share say adult males in Forest Troop do have some things in common with other male baboons. For example, those at the top of the social order stay at that level for about a year. High-ranking Forest Troop males mistreat lower-level males, just like in other troops. However, the mistreatment is less severe. VOICE TWO: The scientists took blood from lower-ranking members of Forest Troop. They did this to measure levels of hormones produced by tension. They say the blood tests found lower levels of these stress-related hormones than usual. The two biologists plan to continue to watch the Forest Troop in Kenya. They note that some animals pass along culture by teaching things like tool making or communication. They say the baboons in Forest Troop pass along their unusual social rules as part of their culture. And the scientists suggest this is mainly thanks to female guidance. The findings appear in PLoS (pronounced ploss) Biology. PLoS is the Public Library of Science. Internet users can read this scientific journal free of charge. The Web site is publiclibraryofscience.org. Again, the address is publiclibraryofscience.org. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Modern humans have a bigger brain and a smaller jaw than our ancestors. Some scientists in the United States have a theory to explain why. They say this may all have been the result of a change in one gene. The scientists are from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Their report is in Nature magazine. Hansell Stedman and Nancy Minugh-Purvis led the team. The team studied a protein called myosin. Myosin is what provides power to muscles. It permits them to tighten for movement. The scientists say they found that a change took place in a myosin gene about two-and-one-half-million years ago. This change, or mutation, prevented the gene from producing a form of myosin called M.Y.H.-sixteen. The scientists tested genetic material of people from all over the world. They found this change in all cases. VOICE TWO: The scientists also looked at D.N.A. from seven other kinds of primates besides humans. These included the chimpanzee and macaque monkey. The scientists did not find the mutated gene in any of them. All of these animals have the gene that produces M.Y.H-sixteen. The scientists found that this kind of myosin is involved mainly in biting and chewing. Two-point-five-million years ago was just before a period of major change in the human head. The fossil record shows that our jawbones shrank and brains grew larger beginning around two-million years ago. Nancy Minugh-Purvis offers a possible explanation: Without the myosin, jaw-muscle size and force decreased. This removed pressure on the skull. And that freed the brain to expand. Something to keep in mind. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Using Water to Produce Electricity
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 4, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The power of flowing water can be used to produce electricity. This can be done anywhere there is water and a hill for it to flow down rapidly. Micro-hydro systems produce electric power from water. These small water-powered systems can produce up to fifteen kilowatts of electrical power. This is enough to provide electricity for a village of fifty to eighty houses to use to power lights and small motors. It does not provide enough power for industrial uses. Micro-hydro systems are important for villages that are near water and do not have electric power. Before you begin the project, you should make sure that people living near you approve. People protest if there is less water for them to use for their crops or for washing clothes. Building or buying a micro-hydro system requires planning. First, someone has to estimate the amount of electrical power the falling water can produce. It is a complex process. It is necessary to find out how far the water drops and to measure the amount of water that flows past an area each second. These numbers can show how much electrical power can be produced. Then you can buy or build a micro-hydro system of the right size. Next you need to decide if falling water needs to flow inside a pipe or can flow freely. A long pipe costs more, but the water is easier to control. Even if the water flows freely, it must enter a piece of pipe just before it flows into a machine called a turbine. The water flowing through the pipe turns a large wheel in the turbine around. The turbine sends the power to a generator that creates electricity. Heavy rain can cause a problem for a micro-hydro system. The rain carries grass, leaves and other material into waterways. This can cause the turbine to stop turning. The problem can be prevented by placing steel bars in the pipe before the water flows into the turbine. These steel bars catch the material before it can damage the machine. People who can use flowing water to produce electricity have a free supply of energy. You can get more information about projects like this from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Global Positioning System
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 5, 2004 (MUSIC) The Flying Cloud (Image:www.eraofthe clipperships.com) Broadcast: May 5, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a device you can hold in your hand. It permits you to find your way across mountains, through deserts and across oceans without ever getting lost. Artist Picture of a GPS Satellite (Image:www.jpl.nasa.gov) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a device you can hold in your hand. It permits you to find your way across mountains, through deserts and across oceans without ever getting lost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Let us begin back on June twenty-seventh, Eighteen-Fifty-One. We are on the sailing ship, “Flying Cloud,” in the Atlantic Ocean. The Flying Cloud is under the command of Captain Josiah Cressy. For many days now, Captain Cressy has made the huge ship travel at speeds that were not thought possible. The crew is frightened by the speed. No ship in history has ever traveled this fast. The crew also is frightened because the ship is sailing in some of the most dangerous waters in the world. The Flying Cloud is near Cape Horn at the end of the South American continent. The weather has been bad for several days. The person responsible for guiding the ship must be able to see the Sun or a star to know the position of the ship. The stormy weather has prevented this for several days. VOICE TWO: The person who plans the directions for a sailing trip is usually the ship’s captain. On the Flying Cloud, however, the captain’s wife does this job. Her name is Eleanor Cressy. She is famous as an expert navigator. She has planned this trip through the dangerous waters near Cape Horn. Many underwater rocks are found here. To guide the ship safely, she must know where the ship is at all times. Eleanor Cressy must use a method called “Dead Reckoning” because she has not been able to see the Sun or stars to find the ship’s true position. Dead Reckoning is extremely difficult. It is part science, and part estimate. To find the position of the Flying Cloud, Missus Cressy must use the last known position of the ship. She also has to consider the ship’s direction, its speed and the movement of waves or the ocean current. Here, near Cape Horn, she is permitted no mistakes. Many ships have sunk in this part of the world. Hour after hour, Eleanor Cressy uses mathematics to find the ship’s Dead Reckoning position. She does this again and again, carefully searching for mistakes. The lives of the crew and the future of the ship are her responsibility. VOICE ONE: Eleanor Cressy demonstrates her great skill at navigation the next day. On the morning of June twenty-ninth, Captain Cressy can see Cape Horn, just eight kilometers to the north. The ship is exactly where Eleanor said it should be. It is safe and will continue on to San Francisco, California, faster than any sailing ship ever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eleanor Cressy’s job in Eighteen-Fifty-One was important and extremely difficult. The job of navigator did not change much until the middle of the Twentieth Century. At sea or on land, finding the correct direction to travel has always been a problem. However, within the past several years, the problem of navigation has greatly changed. Dead Reckoning navigation is a thing of the ancient past. Now, people do not need the skills of Eleanor Cressy to navigate. They can use a simple device that will permit them to navigate anywhere in the world. It uses a technology called “Global Positioning System,” or G-P-S. VOICE ONE: G-P-S is able to show your exact position on Earth. Weather does not affect the device. Many G-P-S devices can be held in the hand. Some are larger, and meant to be placed in ships, automobiles, trucks, airplanes or other aircraft. Whatever the size, the device works much the same way. The G-P-S device is a radio receiver. It receives information from twenty-four satellites in orbit around the Earth. The satellites are placed so that a G-P-S device on the surface of the Earth can receive information from at least four of the satellites at any time. VOICE TWO: A satellite sends information, including the exact time at which it is operating. It also sends information about the position of other satellites. This information travels from the satellite to the G-P-S device at almost the speed of light. But the satellite is far enough away to permit the device to measure the distance. The G-P-S device uses the time the information was sent to find its distance from the satellite. The device measures the exact distance to four satellites to establish its position on Earth. The G-P-S device can do this second by second, minute by minute, day after day and arrive an the correct answer all the time. You can place the device in a ship, a car or other moving vehicle. Then you can watch the position information change as the vehicle moves. In fact, the G-P-S device will give both your direction and the speed you are traveling. VOICE ONE: The United States government owns the twenty-four satellites that provide the information for G-P-S. The Department of Defense controls the satellites. The first G-P-S satellite system was called NAVSTAR. It was launched in February, Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. The NAVSTAR satellites were created to provide extremely correct navigation information to American military ships and aircraft. A few years later, President Ronald Reagan signed a document that permitted information from NAVSTAR to be used by anyone. He did this after a Korean Air Lines flight was lost. The Korean airplane had flown by mistake into airspace over the Soviet Union in nineteen-eighty-three. It was shot down by Soviet military aircraft. President Reagan said the American satellite navigation system would help prevent such accidents in the future. It costs nothing to use the satellite information. All you need is a G-P-S device to receive the information. The least costly G-P-S devices sell for about one-hundred dollars. The smallest devices can be held in the hand. Devices for aircraft or ships are larger. They may cost several thousands of dollars. VOICE TWO: After President Reagan permitted the public use of American navigation information, several electronics companies began making the G-P-S devices. However, there was a problem. The Defense Department would not let the satellites send the exact information to the public. Defense officials made sure the satellites sent information with mistakes. This was done so the information could not be used by military forces of any future enemy. In May of two-thousand, the United States announced that such a security measure was no longer needed. The government turned off the equipment preventing satellites from providing the correct information. Today, a G-P-S device that receives information from four satellites at the same time will show your correct position on Earth to within ten meters. It can also tell you the speed of your vehicle, the direction you are traveling, how far you have traveled, and the distance remaining until the end of your trip. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: G-P-S devices are popular in the United States. Many companies make and sell them. Most of the devices come with a receiver that looks like a small television. The less costly G-P-S devices provide information in black and white. More costly ones provide the information in color. Many G-P-S devices can be linked to computers. The computers place information into the device including maps of city streets and major roads between cities. The user of the device enters information using the controls. The G-P-S provides information about the direction of travel and tells how to get where you want to go. The device will correctly guide you from road to road and street to street, warning before a left and right turn must be made. The device also remembers where it has been. So it can guide the G-P-S user home again. Recently, some companies started producing G-P-S devices that speak the directions. A person driving a vehicle does not have to look at the device for information. A person only has to listen. Here is an example. This G-P-S device is from the Garmin Company. Listen as the voice gives directions. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: As you can see, the new G-P-S devices can help anyone get to where they want to go. And, they can do this just as well as the famous Eleanor Cressy did one-hundred-fifty years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Let us begin back on June twenty-seventh, Eighteen-Fifty-One. We are on the sailing ship, “Flying Cloud,” in the Atlantic Ocean. The Flying Cloud is under the command of Captain Josiah Cressy. For many days now, Captain Cressy has made the huge ship travel at speeds that were not thought possible. The crew is frightened by the speed. No ship in history has ever traveled this fast. The crew also is frightened because the ship is sailing in some of the most dangerous waters in the world. The Flying Cloud is near Cape Horn at the end of the South American continent. The weather has been bad for several days. The person responsible for guiding the ship must be able to see the Sun or a star to know the position of the ship. The stormy weather has prevented this for several days. VOICE TWO: The person who plans the directions for a sailing trip is usually the ship’s captain. On the Flying Cloud, however, the captain’s wife does this job. Her name is Eleanor Cressy. She is famous as an expert navigator. She has planned this trip through the dangerous waters near Cape Horn. Many underwater rocks are found here. To guide the ship safely, she must know where the ship is at all times. Eleanor Cressy must use a method called “Dead Reckoning” because she has not been able to see the Sun or stars to find the ship’s true position. Dead Reckoning is extremely difficult. It is part science, and part estimate. To find the position of the Flying Cloud, Missus Cressy must use the last known position of the ship. She also has to consider the ship’s direction, its speed and the movement of waves or the ocean current. Here, near Cape Horn, she is permitted no mistakes. Many ships have sunk in this part of the world. Hour after hour, Eleanor Cressy uses mathematics to find the ship’s Dead Reckoning position. She does this again and again, carefully searching for mistakes. The lives of the crew and the future of the ship are her responsibility. VOICE ONE: Eleanor Cressy demonstrates her great skill at navigation the next day. On the morning of June twenty-ninth, Captain Cressy can see Cape Horn, just eight kilometers to the north. The ship is exactly where Eleanor said it should be. It is safe and will continue on to San Francisco, California, faster than any sailing ship ever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eleanor Cressy’s job in Eighteen-Fifty-One was important and extremely difficult. The job of navigator did not change much until the middle of the Twentieth Century. At sea or on land, finding the correct direction to travel has always been a problem. However, within the past several years, the problem of navigation has greatly changed. Dead Reckoning navigation is a thing of the ancient past. Now, people do not need the skills of Eleanor Cressy to navigate. They can use a simple device that will permit them to navigate anywhere in the world. It uses a technology called “Global Positioning System,” or G-P-S. VOICE ONE: G-P-S is able to show your exact position on Earth. Weather does not affect the device. Many G-P-S devices can be held in the hand. Some are larger, and meant to be placed in ships, automobiles, trucks, airplanes or other aircraft. Whatever the size, the device works much the same way. The G-P-S device is a radio receiver. It receives information from twenty-four satellites in orbit around the Earth. The satellites are placed so that a G-P-S device on the surface of the Earth can receive information from at least four of the satellites at any time. VOICE TWO: A satellite sends information, including the exact time at which it is operating. It also sends information about the position of other satellites. This information travels from the satellite to the G-P-S device at almost the speed of light. But the satellite is far enough away to permit the device to measure the distance. The G-P-S device uses the time the information was sent to find its distance from the satellite. The device measures the exact distance to four satellites to establish its position on Earth. The G-P-S device can do this second by second, minute by minute, day after day and arrive an the correct answer all the time. You can place the device in a ship, a car or other moving vehicle. Then you can watch the position information change as the vehicle moves. In fact, the G-P-S device will give both your direction and the speed you are traveling. VOICE ONE: The United States government owns the twenty-four satellites that provide the information for G-P-S. The Department of Defense controls the satellites. The first G-P-S satellite system was called NAVSTAR. It was launched in February, Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. The NAVSTAR satellites were created to provide extremely correct navigation information to American military ships and aircraft. A few years later, President Ronald Reagan signed a document that permitted information from NAVSTAR to be used by anyone. He did this after a Korean Air Lines flight was lost. The Korean airplane had flown by mistake into airspace over the Soviet Union in nineteen-eighty-three. It was shot down by Soviet military aircraft. President Reagan said the American satellite navigation system would help prevent such accidents in the future. It costs nothing to use the satellite information. All you need is a G-P-S device to receive the information. The least costly G-P-S devices sell for about one-hundred dollars. The smallest devices can be held in the hand. Devices for aircraft or ships are larger. They may cost several thousands of dollars. VOICE TWO: After President Reagan permitted the public use of American navigation information, several electronics companies began making the G-P-S devices. However, there was a problem. The Defense Department would not let the satellites send the exact information to the public. Defense officials made sure the satellites sent information with mistakes. This was done so the information could not be used by military forces of any future enemy. In May of two-thousand, the United States announced that such a security measure was no longer needed. The government turned off the equipment preventing satellites from providing the correct information. Today, a G-P-S device that receives information from four satellites at the same time will show your correct position on Earth to within ten meters. It can also tell you the speed of your vehicle, the direction you are traveling, how far you have traveled, and the distance remaining until the end of your trip. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: G-P-S devices are popular in the United States. Many companies make and sell them. Most of the devices come with a receiver that looks like a small television. The less costly G-P-S devices provide information in black and white. More costly ones provide the information in color. Many G-P-S devices can be linked to computers. The computers place information into the device including maps of city streets and major roads between cities. The user of the device enters information using the controls. The G-P-S provides information about the direction of travel and tells how to get where you want to go. The device will correctly guide you from road to road and street to street, warning before a left and right turn must be made. The device also remembers where it has been. So it can guide the G-P-S user home again. Recently, some companies started producing G-P-S devices that speak the directions. A person driving a vehicle does not have to look at the device for information. A person only has to listen. Here is an example. This G-P-S device is from the Garmin Company. Listen as the voice gives directions. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: As you can see, the new G-P-S devices can help anyone get to where they want to go. And, they can do this just as well as the famous Eleanor Cressy did one-hundred-fifty years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – SARS in China
* Byline: 

 Broadcast May 5, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. China has been dealing recently with new cases of the lung disease SARS. SARS is severe acute respiratory syndrome. Chinese officials reported a small number of cases as of last week. All were linked to employees of a disease control laboratory in Beijing or people close to them. Last Friday the Health Ministry confirmed the first death from SARS since last year. The victim was a woman who died in late April in the eastern province of Anhui. She was the mother of a student researcher who became infected at the laboratory and traveled home to Anhui. Officials are keeping hundreds of people away from others to observe them for signs of SARS. Last Friday tens of millions of Chinese began to travel for a week-long May Day holiday. Officials were at airports and train stations to watch for sick travelers. New research shows that the SARS virus can travel through the air. Scientists from Hong Kong reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. Last year, in Hong Kong, more than three-hundred people got SARS in the Amoy Gardens housing project. Experts were not sure how the infection spread from building to building. A team of researchers decided to use computers to recreate conditions there. Ignatius Yu from Chinese University of Hong Kong led the team. The study centered on the buildings where the first one-hundred-eighty-seven cases of SARS were reported. The team connected the position of where each person lived with information about airflow in and around the buildings. They say the virus first began to spread in March of last year when a visitor used a toilet in one of the buildings. This person was sick from SARS. The bathroom with the toilet had an exhaust fan for airflow. Investigators from the World Health Organization later examined the pipes in the bathroom. They found conditions that could have permitted the fan to pull the virus up into the air system of the building. The researchers who did the new study say wind then carried the virus to other buildings. The virus traveled on drops of water so small they could not be seen. Experts say SARS began in mainland China in November two-thousand-two. It infected eight-thousand people worldwide last year. Seven-hundred-seventy-four deaths were reported. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #61 - Andrew Jackson, Part 5
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 6, 2004 (MUSIC) Senator Henry Clay</b< Broadcast: May 6, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported last week, the question of continuing the Bank of the United States arose as one of the serious issues facing the national election of eighteen-thirty-two. The bank's head, Nicholas Biddle, had become as powerful as the president of the United States. He refused to recognize that the government had the right to interfere in any way with the bank's business. Representative John Quincy Adams VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported last week, the question of continuing the Bank of the United States arose as one of the serious issues facing the national election of eighteen-thirty-two. The bank's head, Nicholas Biddle, had become as powerful as the president of the United States. He refused to recognize that the government had the right to interfere in any way with the bank's business. President Jackson also understood the power of the Bank of the United States. He did not believe the bank should continue. He opposed giving it a new charter. He proposed that a new national bank be formed as part of the Treasury Department. Jackson said the present Bank of the United States was dangerous to the liberty of Americans. He said the bank could build up, or pull down, political parties through loans to politicians. He said the bank always would support those who supported it. VOICE TWO: In the election year of eighteen-thirty-two, the bank still had four years left to continue. Its charter would not end until eighteen-thirty-six. Jackson had been urging Congress to act early, so that the bank could -- if its charter were rejected -- close its business slowly over several years. This would prevent serious economic problems for the country. Many of Jackson's advisers believed he should say nothing about the bank until after the election. They feared he might lose the votes of some supporters of the bank. Biddle felt that this might be the best time to get a charter. Henry Clay, the presidential candidate of the National Republicans, helped biddle to make this decision. Senator Clay, however, was not thinking of the bank when he gave his advice. Clay needed an issue to campaign on. Most of the people of the country approved of Jackson's programs. Clay could not get votes by opposing successful programs. But, he was sure that the issue of the bank could get him some votes. VOICE ONE: The campaign for a new charter was led by the most powerful men in each house of Congress. In the Senate, the bank's supporters included Senator Clay and Daniel Webster. Former President John Quincy Adams -- now a congressman -- led the bank's struggle in the house. The chief opponent to the bank was Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. "I object to the renewal of the charter," he told the Senate, "because the bank is too great and powerful to be permitted in a government of free and equal laws. I also object because the bank makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer." VOICE TWO: In the house, Representative Augustin Clayton of Georgia proposed an investigation of the bank. In a speech written by Senator Benton, Clayton charged that the bank had violated its charter a number of times. The bank's supporters were afraid to vote down the proposed investigation. It would be almost the same thing as saying that the charges were true. The investigation was approved. And a special committee was given six weeks to study the charges against the bank. Four members of the seven-man committee were opponents of the bank. Three, including John Quincy Adams, were friendly. As expected, opponents of the bank found the charges to be true. And the bank's supporters found them all to be false. The majority report told of easy loans made to congressmen and newspapermen. It said a New York newspaper that had opposed the bank began supporting it after receiving a secret fifteen-thousand-dollar loan. VOICE ONE: The investigation did not really change the votes of any of the congressmen. Many votes had been bought by the bank. Attorney General Roger Taney told of one example of this. Taney opposed the bank. And he rode to work one morning with a congressman who also opposed it. The congressman asked Taney for help on a speech he planned to make against the bank. Taney was surprised later to find that this same congressman had voted to give the bank its new charter. The congressman told Taney that the bank had made him a loan of twenty-thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: The Senate finally voted on the bank's new charter. The vote was twenty-eight, for, and twenty, against. The house voted three weeks later. It approved the charter, one-hundred-seven to eighty-five. The bill was sent to the White House. President Jackson called a cabinet meeting. Two cabinet members, McLane and Livingston, agreed that the bill should be vetoed. But they urged Jackson to reject the bank charter in such a way that a compromise might be worked out later. Attorney General Taney, however, believed that the veto should be in the strongest possible language. He opposed any compromise that would continue the bank beyond eighteen-thirty-six. Jackson agreed with Taney. He asked the attorney general and two white house advisers to help him write the veto message. They worked on the message for three days. VOICE ONE: On July tenth, the veto was announced. And the message explaining it was sent to Congress. Jackson said he did not believe the bank's charter was constitutional. He said it was true that the Supreme Court had ruled that Congress had the right to charter a national bank. But he said he did not agree with the high court. And Jackson said the president -- in taking his oath of office -- swears to support the constitution as he understands it...not as it is understood by others. He said the president and the congress had the same duty as the court to decide if a bill was constitutional. Jackson also spoke of the way the bank moved money from west to east. He said the bank was owned by a small group of rich men, mostly in the east. Some of the owners, he said, were foreigners. Much of the bank's business was done in the west. The money paid by westerners for loans went into the pockets of the eastern bankers. Jackson said this was wrong. Then the president spoke of his firm belief in the rights of the common man. VOICE TWO: "It is to be regretted," he said, "that the rich and powerful bend the acts of the government to their own purposes. Differences among men will always exist under every just government. Equality of ability, or education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. Every man has the equal right of protection under the laws. But when these laws are used to make the rich richer, and the powerful more powerful, then the more humble members of our society have a right to complain of injustice." Jackson said he could not understand how the present owners of the bank could have any claim of special treatment from the government. He said the government should shower its favors -- as heaven does its rain -- on the high and low alike, on the rich and the poor equally. VOICE ONE: Henry Clay had made the bank bill the chief issue of the eighteen-thirty-two presidential election campaign. Andrew Jackson chose the words of his veto message for the same purpose -- to win votes in the coming election. His veto of the bank bill cost him the votes of men of money. But it brought him the votes of the common man: the farmer, the laborer, and industrial worker. After his first two years as President, Andrew Jackson was not sure he wished to serve a second term. Jackson was not sure his health would permit him to complete a full eight years in the White House. But he wished to be a candidate again in eighteen-thirty-two to give the people a chance to show they approved of his programs. Jackson decided that he would campaign again for president. But if he won, he would resign after the first or second year...and leave the job to his vice president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stewart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. President Jackson also understood the power of the Bank of the United States. He did not believe the bank should continue. He opposed giving it a new charter. He proposed that a new national bank be formed as part of the Treasury Department. Jackson said the present Bank of the United States was dangerous to the liberty of Americans. He said the bank could build up, or pull down, political parties through loans to politicians. He said the bank always would support those who supported it. VOICE TWO: In the election year of eighteen-thirty-two, the bank still had four years left to continue. Its charter would not end until eighteen-thirty-six. Jackson had been urging Congress to act early, so that the bank could -- if its charter were rejected -- close its business slowly over several years. This would prevent serious economic problems for the country. Many of Jackson's advisers believed he should say nothing about the bank until after the election. They feared he might lose the votes of some supporters of the bank. Biddle felt that this might be the best time to get a charter. Henry Clay, the presidential candidate of the National Republicans, helped biddle to make this decision. Senator Clay, however, was not thinking of the bank when he gave his advice. Clay needed an issue to campaign on. Most of the people of the country approved of Jackson's programs. Clay could not get votes by opposing successful programs. But, he was sure that the issue of the bank could get him some votes. VOICE ONE: The campaign for a new charter was led by the most powerful men in each house of Congress. In the Senate, the bank's supporters included Senator Clay and Daniel Webster. Former President John Quincy Adams -- now a congressman -- led the bank's struggle in the house. The chief opponent to the bank was Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. "I object to the renewal of the charter," he told the Senate, "because the bank is too great and powerful to be permitted in a government of free and equal laws. I also object because the bank makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer." VOICE TWO: In the house, Representative Augustin Clayton of Georgia proposed an investigation of the bank. In a speech written by Senator Benton, Clayton charged that the bank had violated its charter a number of times. The bank's supporters were afraid to vote down the proposed investigation. It would be almost the same thing as saying that the charges were true. The investigation was approved. And a special committee was given six weeks to study the charges against the bank. Four members of the seven-man committee were opponents of the bank. Three, including John Quincy Adams, were friendly. As expected, opponents of the bank found the charges to be true. And the bank's supporters found them all to be false. The majority report told of easy loans made to congressmen and newspapermen. It said a New York newspaper that had opposed the bank began supporting it after receiving a secret fifteen-thousand-dollar loan. VOICE ONE: The investigation did not really change the votes of any of the congressmen. Many votes had been bought by the bank. Attorney General Roger Taney told of one example of this. Taney opposed the bank. And he rode to work one morning with a congressman who also opposed it. The congressman asked Taney for help on a speech he planned to make against the bank. Taney was surprised later to find that this same congressman had voted to give the bank its new charter. The congressman told Taney that the bank had made him a loan of twenty-thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: The Senate finally voted on the bank's new charter. The vote was twenty-eight, for, and twenty, against. The house voted three weeks later. It approved the charter, one-hundred-seven to eighty-five. The bill was sent to the White House. President Jackson called a cabinet meeting. Two cabinet members, McLane and Livingston, agreed that the bill should be vetoed. But they urged Jackson to reject the bank charter in such a way that a compromise might be worked out later. Attorney General Taney, however, believed that the veto should be in the strongest possible language. He opposed any compromise that would continue the bank beyond eighteen-thirty-six. Jackson agreed with Taney. He asked the attorney general and two white house advisers to help him write the veto message. They worked on the message for three days. VOICE ONE: On July tenth, the veto was announced. And the message explaining it was sent to Congress. Jackson said he did not believe the bank's charter was constitutional. He said it was true that the Supreme Court had ruled that Congress had the right to charter a national bank. But he said he did not agree with the high court. And Jackson said the president -- in taking his oath of office -- swears to support the constitution as he understands it...not as it is understood by others. He said the president and the congress had the same duty as the court to decide if a bill was constitutional. Jackson also spoke of the way the bank moved money from west to east. He said the bank was owned by a small group of rich men, mostly in the east. Some of the owners, he said, were foreigners. Much of the bank's business was done in the west. The money paid by westerners for loans went into the pockets of the eastern bankers. Jackson said this was wrong. Then the president spoke of his firm belief in the rights of the common man. VOICE TWO: "It is to be regretted," he said, "that the rich and powerful bend the acts of the government to their own purposes. Differences among men will always exist under every just government. Equality of ability, or education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. Every man has the equal right of protection under the laws. But when these laws are used to make the rich richer, and the powerful more powerful, then the more humble members of our society have a right to complain of injustice." Jackson said he could not understand how the present owners of the bank could have any claim of special treatment from the government. He said the government should shower its favors -- as heaven does its rain -- on the high and low alike, on the rich and the poor equally. VOICE ONE: Henry Clay had made the bank bill the chief issue of the eighteen-thirty-two presidential election campaign. Andrew Jackson chose the words of his veto message for the same purpose -- to win votes in the coming election. His veto of the bank bill cost him the votes of men of money. But it brought him the votes of the common man: the farmer, the laborer, and industrial worker. After his first two years as President, Andrew Jackson was not sure he wished to serve a second term. Jackson was not sure his health would permit him to complete a full eight years in the White House. But he wished to be a candidate again in eighteen-thirty-two to give the people a chance to show they approved of his programs. Jackson decided that he would campaign again for president. But if he won, he would resign after the first or second year...and leave the job to his vice president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stewart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - The GED Certificate
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Another school year is nearing an end in the United States. Students are preparing for their final examinations in the coming weeks. Those in their last year of high school are planning for their graduation ceremonies and parties. But not all young people graduate from high school. The results of their decision to leave school early may follow them throughout their lives. Students who leave are not likely to be as successful in life as those who finish at least high school. Since the nineteen-forties, students who do not complete high school have had another choice. This is a certificate called the G.E.D. G.E.D. is short for General Educational Development. People who have earned a G.E.D. can get admitted to college and continue their education. To earn a G.E.D., students must pass five examinations. These are in writing, social studies, science, reading and mathematics. Testing officials say a person who passes the test is at the same level as sixty percent of graduating high school students. This is in the level of ability to read, write, work with numbers and understand information. Each year, more than five-hundred-thousand people take the G.E.D. examinations. About seventy percent pass. But research has shown that only about eleven percent of G.E.D. holders complete a year or more of higher education. Some critics say earning a G.E.D. is not as good as completing high school. They say the test does not force people to study the way they have to in order to graduate. Critics say this is one reason G.E.D. holders generally do not stay in college. They also say the possibility of taking the G.E.D. test makes it easier for students to leave high school early. Critics argue that the easier it is to take the test, the higher the rate of students leaving school. Testing officials have made changes in recent years designed to make the exams more difficult. And both critics and supporters of the G.E.D. agree that it performs a valuable service for those who can go on to complete college. Successful G.E.D. holders include the actor Bill Cosby, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: May 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Another school year is nearing an end in the United States. Students are preparing for their final examinations in the coming weeks. Those in their last year of high school are planning for their graduation ceremonies and parties. But not all young people graduate from high school. The results of their decision to leave school early may follow them throughout their lives. Students who leave are not likely to be as successful in life as those who finish at least high school. Since the nineteen-forties, students who do not complete high school have had another choice. This is a certificate called the G.E.D. G.E.D. is short for General Educational Development. People who have earned a G.E.D. can get admitted to college and continue their education. To earn a G.E.D., students must pass five examinations. These are in writing, social studies, science, reading and mathematics. Testing officials say a person who passes the test is at the same level as sixty percent of graduating high school students. This is in the level of ability to read, write, work with numbers and understand information. Each year, more than five-hundred-thousand people take the G.E.D. examinations. About seventy percent pass. But research has shown that only about eleven percent of G.E.D. holders complete a year or more of higher education. Some critics say earning a G.E.D. is not as good as completing high school. They say the test does not force people to study the way they have to in order to graduate. Critics say this is one reason G.E.D. holders generally do not stay in college. They also say the possibility of taking the G.E.D. test makes it easier for students to leave high school early. Critics argue that the easier it is to take the test, the higher the rate of students leaving school. Testing officials have made changes in recent years designed to make the exams more difficult. And both critics and supporters of the G.E.D. agree that it performs a valuable service for those who can go on to complete college. Successful G.E.D. holders include the actor Bill Cosby, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 6, 2004 - Easy English Times
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: May 6, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster -- English made easy. There's a newspaper in California called Easy English Times. It's written for English learners, and it started in 1996. I met the publisher, Betty Malmgren, and the editor, Lorraine Ruston, at the TESOL English teachers convention in California last month. They were surprised that I'd heard of their small paper. They were even more surprised that someone mailed a copy to the VOA Special English office several years ago. The two women thought surely I was thinking of the fancier "News for You" newspaper featured at a booth nearby. No, I wanted to talk to them about their newspaper, starting with Betty Malmgren. MALMGREN: "Easy English Times was really started on a kitchen table in Napa as means to produce information for people studying English as a second language and adult literacy projects. We wanted to do a newspaper format so that people could start with reading Easy English Times, and then graduate on to a real newspaper." AA: "And what's your background?" MALMGREN: "My personal background is in journalism and Lorraine is in English as a second language." AA: "Let's talk about an average issue of Easy English Times. What will people find in it?" MALMGREN: "Every month we try to include useful information, so we'll have information on health and fitness. We'll have people-at-work stories. We want things to be relevant to daily lives. We also do feature stories of things that are current interest. We try to encourage people to vote, for example. We have stories on immigration. We love to put student writing in the paper. That's the thing that we love the most. So we publish student writing, which comes in many different forms, from poetry to personal essays to stories." AA: "Now Lorraine, you were an ESL teacher." RUSTON: "I still am. I've been teaching ESL for over 30 years. And then I write the paper and I use it with my class. So I can see how it's working and what they like and what they don't like." AA: "And how do you distribute the Easy English Times?" MALMGREN: "Mainly in classroom sets, by mail. Lorraine also writes learning activities that we publish every month with the paper, so that teachers get an extra page of learning activities so that they can walk into a classroom and start teaching from the paper." AA: "What's the circulation figures and how have they grown?" MALMGREN: "It's almost five-thousand now. And it's growing slowly because we are the staff, so we have limited resources." AA: "It's all volunteer, labor-of-love type work." RUSTON: "Totally. We don't even pay ourselves." AA: "I notice that on your banner, it mentions California. But you tell me you've got readers beyond California now." MALMGREN: "We've gotten a lot of interest at this conference, but we do focus mainly on California. But we'll have to go home, I think, and talk about other possibilities." RUSTON: "Ninety percent of our information is global, or United States. For instance, in March, April and May, we're running a big story about Lewis and Clark, in honor of the two-hundredth anniversary. So this is certainly United States history, and it will be helpful for citizenship learners, as well." AA: "What is the subscription price?" MALMGREN: "It's fifteen dollars for an individual subscription, or in a classroom set, it comes out to sixty cents a copy, or six dollars per student per year. But you can order the paper by the month and start and stop orders anytime." AA: "What's your Web site?" MALMGREN: "It's easyenglishtimes.com. Or our e-mail is easyenglish@aol.com." AA: "In terms of editorials, taking an editorial stance, you're the publisher -- do you take positions on issues?" MALMGREN: "We haven't really done that a lot. We try to do it in newspaper format, though, so we do have an editorial page. We just recently had a guest editorial that was more talking about spring. It was not political. And we do like letters to the editor, and it really encourages student writing. We want the students to feel ownership of the paper." RUSTON: "When we had our primary election in California, the recall, we took a stand on that." AA: "What position did you take?" RUSTON: "We were against the recall at that time." AA: "Against recalling Governor Gray Davis. Are you going to endorse a candidate for president in November?" MALMGREN: "We've never done that, but we might consider it." RUSTON: "Yeah, I think we will." MALMGREN: "We like to bring up current topics and then put out information so that teachers will take suggestions for class discussions and then have a lively discussion in their own class, and we provide them with some background information. That's really more, we think, how the teacher uses the newspaper in the classroom, as a stepping stone to other discussions or writing assignments." AA: "So you are journalists for the English learner community, I guess." MALMGREN: "That's exactly it. And we really feel strongly that we want people to start with Easy English Times and then go on to read other newspapers." AA: Betty Malmgren is the publisher of Easy English Times, and Lorraine Ruston is the editor. Again, their Web site is easyenglishtimes.com. And the e-mail address is easyenglish@aol.com. Our e-mail here at Wordmaster is word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. Rosanne Skirble is back with me next week. I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: May 6, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster -- English made easy. There's a newspaper in California called Easy English Times. It's written for English learners, and it started in 1996. I met the publisher, Betty Malmgren, and the editor, Lorraine Ruston, at the TESOL English teachers convention in California last month. They were surprised that I'd heard of their small paper. They were even more surprised that someone mailed a copy to the VOA Special English office several years ago. The two women thought surely I was thinking of the fancier "News for You" newspaper featured at a booth nearby. No, I wanted to talk to them about their newspaper, starting with Betty Malmgren. MALMGREN: "Easy English Times was really started on a kitchen table in Napa as means to produce information for people studying English as a second language and adult literacy projects. We wanted to do a newspaper format so that people could start with reading Easy English Times, and then graduate on to a real newspaper." AA: "And what's your background?" MALMGREN: "My personal background is in journalism and Lorraine is in English as a second language." AA: "Let's talk about an average issue of Easy English Times. What will people find in it?" MALMGREN: "Every month we try to include useful information, so we'll have information on health and fitness. We'll have people-at-work stories. We want things to be relevant to daily lives. We also do feature stories of things that are current interest. We try to encourage people to vote, for example. We have stories on immigration. We love to put student writing in the paper. That's the thing that we love the most. So we publish student writing, which comes in many different forms, from poetry to personal essays to stories." AA: "Now Lorraine, you were an ESL teacher." RUSTON: "I still am. I've been teaching ESL for over 30 years. And then I write the paper and I use it with my class. So I can see how it's working and what they like and what they don't like." AA: "And how do you distribute the Easy English Times?" MALMGREN: "Mainly in classroom sets, by mail. Lorraine also writes learning activities that we publish every month with the paper, so that teachers get an extra page of learning activities so that they can walk into a classroom and start teaching from the paper." AA: "What's the circulation figures and how have they grown?" MALMGREN: "It's almost five-thousand now. And it's growing slowly because we are the staff, so we have limited resources." AA: "It's all volunteer, labor-of-love type work." RUSTON: "Totally. We don't even pay ourselves." AA: "I notice that on your banner, it mentions California. But you tell me you've got readers beyond California now." MALMGREN: "We've gotten a lot of interest at this conference, but we do focus mainly on California. But we'll have to go home, I think, and talk about other possibilities." RUSTON: "Ninety percent of our information is global, or United States. For instance, in March, April and May, we're running a big story about Lewis and Clark, in honor of the two-hundredth anniversary. So this is certainly United States history, and it will be helpful for citizenship learners, as well." AA: "What is the subscription price?" MALMGREN: "It's fifteen dollars for an individual subscription, or in a classroom set, it comes out to sixty cents a copy, or six dollars per student per year. But you can order the paper by the month and start and stop orders anytime." AA: "What's your Web site?" MALMGREN: "It's easyenglishtimes.com. Or our e-mail is easyenglish@aol.com." AA: "In terms of editorials, taking an editorial stance, you're the publisher -- do you take positions on issues?" MALMGREN: "We haven't really done that a lot. We try to do it in newspaper format, though, so we do have an editorial page. We just recently had a guest editorial that was more talking about spring. It was not political. And we do like letters to the editor, and it really encourages student writing. We want the students to feel ownership of the paper." RUSTON: "When we had our primary election in California, the recall, we took a stand on that." AA: "What position did you take?" RUSTON: "We were against the recall at that time." AA: "Against recalling Governor Gray Davis. Are you going to endorse a candidate for president in November?" MALMGREN: "We've never done that, but we might consider it." RUSTON: "Yeah, I think we will." MALMGREN: "We like to bring up current topics and then put out information so that teachers will take suggestions for class discussions and then have a lively discussion in their own class, and we provide them with some background information. That's really more, we think, how the teacher uses the newspaper in the classroom, as a stepping stone to other discussions or writing assignments." AA: "So you are journalists for the English learner community, I guess." MALMGREN: "That's exactly it. And we really feel strongly that we want people to start with Easy English Times and then go on to read other newspapers." AA: Betty Malmgren is the publisher of Easy English Times, and Lorraine Ruston is the editor. Again, their Web site is easyenglishtimes.com. And the e-mail address is easyenglish@aol.com. Our e-mail here at Wordmaster is word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. Rosanne Skirble is back with me next week. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Estee Lauder / Kirsten Dunst / Mother’s Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 7, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week ... music for Mother’s Day -- it's this Sunday. And a question about the actress Kirsten Dunst. But first, we remember a woman whose products are used by millions of people hoping to look their best. Estee Lauder HOST: America has lost one of its most successful businesswomen. Estee Lauder died on April twenty-fourth in New York. She was ninety-seven years old. Bob Doughty looks back at her life and work. ANNCR: “Beauty is an attitude,” Estee Lauder once said. But for her it was also a big business. Estee Lauder spent more than seventy years in the beauty products industry. Today, the business she founded, Estee Lauder Companies, is worth about ten-thousand-million dollars. Its products are in stores around the world. And, it employs more than twenty-thousand people. Estee Lauder once said, “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” That business drive came early. She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, New York. Her parents came from Hungary. They owned a hardware store. They did not have much money. But they did have a beautiful daughter. Her uncle was a chemist. She worked with him to develop skin care creams. This was in the nineteen-twenties. She was a teen-ager. But she sold the products in New York City. Often, she stopped women on the streets. She let them try the creams for free. She called her products “jars of hope.” Soon, she was selling to large stores visited mostly by wealthy women. She would say things like “I have the secrets” and “start the New Year with a new face.” She also employed many smart sales tricks. For example, she invented the “gift with purchase” marketing idea. If you have ever bought a product and received another for free, thank Estee Lauder. She linked her makeup and perfumes with images of wealth and culture. She sent her products to influential women to try. This was the way she got Princess Grace of Monaco to use them. Estee Lauder also put her products in pretty containers. And, she employed some of the world’s most beautiful women as models. Her business partner was her husband, Joseph Lauder. They got married in nineteen-thirty. They divorced at one point, but three years later got married again. Mister Lauder died in nineteen-eighty-three. Missus Lauder retired in nineteen-ninety-five.Their two sons are both leaders in the company. When Estee Lauder died, her sons said she was as great a mother as she was a businesswoman. Kirsten Dunst HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is about Kirsten (KEER-stin) Dunst. Millions of movie-watchers know this young actress best from "Spider-Man." Mai Lien in Vietnam asks how old she is, where she is from and what is her latest film project. Kirsten Dunst was born in nineteen-eighty-two in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. In fact, she just had a birthday, on April thirtieth. She is twenty-two years old. Kirsten began to work in television at the age of three. She appeared first in commercials for different products. She got her first movie part in nineteen-eighty-nine. It was in a film by Woody Allen called “New York Stories.” In nineteen-ninety-three, her family moved from the East Coast to California, to live in Los Angeles. Kirsten was now in the capital of the American movie industry: Hollywood. The following year, she got a part in the movie “Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles.” Kirsten worked with actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Movie critics praised her performance in “Interview with a Vampire.” The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated her for a Golden Globe award. Not bad for an eleven-year-old! Next, Kirsten was in the movie “Little Women.” In nineteen-ninety-six, she began to appear on "E.R." That is a popular television series about a hospital emergency room. She played a kid who lived on the streets. Again, she received praise for her acting. Since then, Kirsten Dunst has worked in more than twenty movies. Right now she appears in the film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." And she recently finished work on “Wimbledon." But her most popular movie so far has earned more than eight-hundred-twenty-million dollars worldwide. Kirsten Dunst plays Mary Jane Watson, the love interest to Peter Parker. He is better known as Spider-Man. Actor Toby Maguire plays the crime-fighting superhero. He and Kirsten Dunst return in “Spider-Man Two.” It opens at the end of June. Mother’s Day HOST: Sunday, May ninth, is Mother’s Day in the United States. Shep O’Neal has that story. ANNCR: Mother’s Day began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. She started a campaign in the early nineteen-hundreds. She and others wrote thousands of letters to important people. In nineteen-fourteen, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress finally agreed. They declared a national observance to honor mothers. Since then, the second Sunday in May has been a day for public expressions of love for Mom. Here is a song that expresses that love. The recording is by Lou Reid. The song is called “Mom’s Picture Book.” (MUSIC) On Mother’s Day, children of all ages give special gifts. Popular ones are flowers, or books, or candy. Some young children learn a Mother’s Day song in school. This song also helps them learn how to spell. (MUSIC) Even children old enough to have their own children will not forget their mothers this Sunday. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for telephone companies. Fathers have their day, in June. HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Wagner Roberts. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - WTO Ruling on American Cotton Subsidies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 7, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, a group of three World Trade Organization officials ruled against the United States in a case brought by Brazil. They ruled that government payments to American cotton farmers violate international trade rules. Brazil seeks to stop the United States government from providing financial assistance to American cotton farmers. The assistance permits American farmers to plant more crops and produce extra cotton. This leads to lower prices for cotton on the world market. Brazil says the United States government unfairly hurts it foreign competition as a result. The United States is the world’s largest exporter of cotton. The ruling by the W.T.O. officials was not made public. The United States and Brazil are permitted time to seek changes to the ruling before a report is released. The W.T.O. is expected to announce a final decision on the issue in June. United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick says the government would appeal a W.T.O. decision supporting the ruling. He says the United States will fight for its agricultural interests by negotiation or through legal action. The United States says its payments to farmers are permitted under W.T.O. rules. Mister Zoellick also criticized Brazil’s method of dealing with the farm assistance issue. He suggested that Brazil could have saved time and protected relations by discussing its concerns in world trade talks. But Brazil’s Ambassador to the United States Roberto Abdenur objected to the criticism. Ambassador Abdenur said Brazil was forced to seek W-T-O judgement. He says the United States and other countries are unwilling to negotiate. The United States pays about twenty-five-thousand cotton farmers more than two-thousand-million dollars a year. It also makes payments to other farmers. Japanese and European governments also provide such support to farmers. And Brazil is not the only country angry about the issue. Several African representatives opposed farm assistance policies at a W.T.O. ministers meeting earlier this year. They argued that such policies hurt developing nations. Experts say other countries may seek similar action against American, European or Japanese farm assistance if the W.T.O. rules against the United States on the cotton issue. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Prisoner Abuse in Iraq
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 8, 2004 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized this week for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad. Mister Bush said he was sorry for the suffering caused to the prisoners and their families by the actions of American soldiers. The President made the comments Thursday after meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House. Mister Bush said he told the King that the pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison made Americans sick. In his words, "the wrongdoers will be brought to justice." The pictures that have appeared in the media include those of prisoners without clothing. Some of the men are tied to each other in sexual positions. People in the United States and around the world have denounced the treatment. In Washington, the House of Representatives this week passed a resolution deploring the actions of the soldiers involved. As of now, six members of the Army are facing criminal charges that could result in a military trial. There also are questions about the activities of privately employed civilians used by the Army. Some assist in questioning prisoners for intelligence. Mister Rumsfeld told Senators Friday that he accepted full responsibility. The Defense Secretary said he was seeking a way to help those prisoners who suffered. He said they suffered at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces. Mister Rumsfeld said the Army began an investigation in January as soon as one soldier reported wrong-doing at the prison. He said he first learned about the investigation when the Army announced it in January. He said the Army then told the world more details in March. The now former government of Iraq had used the Abu Ghraib prison to torture Iraqis. Senator Edward Kennedy noted that the International Committee of the Red Cross had earlier compared actions by Americans at the prison to torture. Mister Rumsfeld said the Red Cross report had helped Army generals begin to make what he called corrections at the prison. The pictures were included in a secret report written by Army Major General Antonio Taguba. His investigators seized them from guards at the prison. Mister Rumsfeld said he did not see the pictures, except those already released by the media, until late this week. He said someone gave them to the media illegally. C-B-S television first broadcast some of the pictures last week. The Washington Post newspaper published more on Thursday. President Bush said his defense secretary should have told him about the pictures. But he said Mister Rumsfeld is an important part of his cabinet and will stay in his job. Also this week, American officials said twenty-five prisoners had died in Iraq and Afghanistan since two-thousand-two. They said two deaths have been ruled criminal acts by soldiers. Officials say they continue to investigate ten of the deaths. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: May 8, 2004 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized this week for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad. Mister Bush said he was sorry for the suffering caused to the prisoners and their families by the actions of American soldiers. The President made the comments Thursday after meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House. Mister Bush said he told the King that the pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison made Americans sick. In his words, "the wrongdoers will be brought to justice." The pictures that have appeared in the media include those of prisoners without clothing. Some of the men are tied to each other in sexual positions. People in the United States and around the world have denounced the treatment. In Washington, the House of Representatives this week passed a resolution deploring the actions of the soldiers involved. As of now, six members of the Army are facing criminal charges that could result in a military trial. There also are questions about the activities of privately employed civilians used by the Army. Some assist in questioning prisoners for intelligence. Mister Rumsfeld told Senators Friday that he accepted full responsibility. The Defense Secretary said he was seeking a way to help those prisoners who suffered. He said they suffered at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces. Mister Rumsfeld said the Army began an investigation in January as soon as one soldier reported wrong-doing at the prison. He said he first learned about the investigation when the Army announced it in January. He said the Army then told the world more details in March. The now former government of Iraq had used the Abu Ghraib prison to torture Iraqis. Senator Edward Kennedy noted that the International Committee of the Red Cross had earlier compared actions by Americans at the prison to torture. Mister Rumsfeld said the Red Cross report had helped Army generals begin to make what he called corrections at the prison. The pictures were included in a secret report written by Army Major General Antonio Taguba. His investigators seized them from guards at the prison. Mister Rumsfeld said he did not see the pictures, except those already released by the media, until late this week. He said someone gave them to the media illegally. C-B-S television first broadcast some of the pictures last week. The Washington Post newspaper published more on Thursday. President Bush said his defense secretary should have told him about the pictures. But he said Mister Rumsfeld is an important part of his cabinet and will stay in his job. Also this week, American officials said twenty-five prisoners had died in Iraq and Afghanistan since two-thousand-two. They said two deaths have been ruled criminal acts by soldiers. Officials say they continue to investigate ten of the deaths. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Maria Callas
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 9, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: May 9, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about one of the most famous opera singers of the twentieth century, Maria Callas. (March From "Norma" instead of theme) VOICE ONE: Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes. Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States. VOICE TWO: Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen-fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well known operas remain very popular today. Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. Her real name was Maria kalogeropoulous [ka-lo-yer-OH-pu-los. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years. In nineteen-forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen-forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Eida" [eye-EE-da] by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world. In nineteen-fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul, became one of her most famous parts. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this. When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen-sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen-sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy. Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen-seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "Master Class." VOICE ONE: Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice. Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen-seventy-seven. She was fifty-three. VOICE TWO: Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning." People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about one of the most famous opera singers of the twentieth century, Maria Callas. (March From "Norma" instead of theme) VOICE ONE: Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes. Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States. VOICE TWO: Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen-fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well known operas remain very popular today. Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. Her real name was Maria kalogeropoulous [ka-lo-yer-OH-pu-los. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years. In nineteen-forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen-forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Eida" [eye-EE-da] by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world. In nineteen-fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul, became one of her most famous parts. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this. When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen-sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen-sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy. Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen-seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "Master Class." VOICE ONE: Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice. Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen-seventy-seven. She was fifty-three. VOICE TWO: Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning." People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - The Jury System
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 10, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: May 10, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we examine a British legal tradition that settlers brought here centuries ago: trial by jury. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we examine a British legal tradition that settlers brought here centuries ago: trial by jury. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution establishes the right to a jury trial in all federal criminal cases. The Seventh Amendment gives the same right in civil cases that involve more than a small amount of money. States also have their own laws that govern jury trials. The United States has three kinds of juries. The most common is called the petit jury. Petit juries decide both criminal and civil cases. They can have as few as five or six members or as many as twelve. Often a jury trial lasts only a day or two, but some can go much longer. During a trial, lawyers for opposing sides question people called to give evidence. The lawyers also make opening and closing statements to the jury. VOICE TWO: At the end, the judge makes a final statement to the jury. The judge explains the laws that govern the decision the jury must make. For example, in a criminal trial, the judge explains reasonable doubt. Under American law, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. Jurors do not have to be completely sure that the person is innocent. They only need to have a reasonable question in their mind. Unless they are sure the person is guilty as charged, they must find the suspect not guilty. Directions to juries are often full of legal language. California and other states have been trying to make them easier to understand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Juries meet in private to reach a judgment. Most states require all the jurors in a criminal case to agree on the verdict. A few states now require only a majority vote. When a jury cannot reach a verdict, it is called a hung jury. There was a recent example in New York. A jury failed to agree on criminal charges against two former leaders of Tyco International, a manufacturing and service company. Dennis Kozlowski served as chief executive. Mark Swartz was chief financial officer. The two men were accused of stealing six-hundred-million dollars from Tyco. Both pleaded not guilty. VOICE TWO: Eleven members of the jury believed the men were guilty of at least some of the charges. The twelfth juror, however, disagreed. She held to her opinion during days of argument with other jurors. Finally, in early April, the judge declared a mistrial with a hung jury. He blamed outside pressure on the juror. News media usually do not report the names of jurors, at least until a trial ends. However, this juror was said to have made an "O.K." sign with her hand to lawyers for the defense. The trial lasted six months. Another trial may take place, since the first ended without a verdict. VOICE ONE: Individuals and organizations that believe they have suffered a civil wrong can bring a lawsuit in court. This process is called filing suit. Many lawsuits are settled out of court. If a trial is held, jurors are not required to decide beyond a reasonable doubt, like in a criminal case. They must decide only that there is enough evidence to support the accusations. The jury might also award thousands or millions of dollars in damages, if requested. VOICE TWO: Another kind of jury is the grand jury. As many as twenty-three people may serve on one. The United States has two kinds of grand juries. The charging grand jury decides if there is enough evidence to bring someone to trial. If the jury decides there is enough, then it indicts the person. In April, a grand jury in California indicted Michael Jackson. The entertainer faces charges of sexual crimes with a child. A petty jury will have to decide the case at a trial. The other kind of grand jury is called the investigatory grand jury. Officials often call this kind of grand jury together in cases of organized crime or wrongdoing by government officials. The jurors are asked to approve efforts to gather evidence, often secretly. VOICE ONE: There was an interesting case a few years ago in the state of Connecticut. A judge acted as a one-person jury to investigate the death of a fifteen-year-old girl. Martha Moxley was killed in nineteen-seventy-five. The judge gathered evidence that led to the trial of a man who had lived near the girl. The man was also fifteen years old at the time of the killing. A petit jury found him guilty and sentenced him to prison. Finally, some investigations in the United States are heard by a coroner's jury. A coroner is a local medical examiner. The coroner usually calls six jurors to a hearing known as an inquest. An inquest takes place when someone has died under suspicious or unknown conditions. The jury is asked to decide the cause of death. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Courts choose jurors from public records like lists of voters or automobile drivers. People called to jury duty receive some questions by mail. Are they American citizens? Do they understand English? Do they have a mental or physical disability that would interfere? Some people are excused for health or family reasons, or because they cannot take time from work. But jury service is considered a duty of citizenship. A judge asks more questions once a jury is being chosen for a trial. So do lawyers for both sides in the case. Many times, they can reject people without the need to give a reason. In some big cases, hundreds of people are called. Lawyers may use jury experts to help them choose the ones who seem most sympathetic. Some people say this is not fair. VOICE ONE: Jurors are not supposed to form opinions or know too much about a case before the trial begins. But sometimes it is difficult to find such people. In California, a man named Scott Peterson has been charged with the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci. Mister Peterson denies the charges. It would be difficult to live in the United States and not have heard or read about this case. Lawyers for Mister Peterson asked to have the trial moved out of the city where police believe the crime took place. The lawyers said he would not be able to get a fair trial there. So earlier this year a judge agreed to a move. But on May third the head of the defense team requested another change. He said it was still not possible to find enough people who could be trusted to serve as fair-minded jurors. VOICE TWO: There are criticisms of the American jury system. Some involve issues that divide Americans in general. One such issue is race. An example often used is the case of O.J. Simpson, the former actor and football player. Mister Simpson is black. He was charged in Los Angeles with killing his former wife and a male friend of hers, both white. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-five, a mainly African American jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of criminal charges. Later, a mainly white jury ruled against him in a civil case brought by the families of the victims. The jury ordered him to pay millions of dollars in damages. Public opinion research found that most white Americans believed that the criminal jury freed a guilty man. Most black Americans believed the civil jury punished an innocent man. Neither group thought the other had acted out of a desire for justice. Wealth is another issue for critics of the legal system. One recent example involves Martha Stewart. In March a jury found the businesswoman guilty of lying about her sale of shares in a company. One of the jurors later said the verdict meant a defeat for the rich and powerful. Commentators questioned whether the man had decided that Martha Stewart was guilty before the trial began. VOICE TWO: Choosing average Americans to serve on juries is considered the democratic way. But legal cases are increasingly complex. Many are difficult for the average person to understand. Yet jurors may not even be permitted to take notes as they listen to evidence. Legal experts sometimes say that people who would make the best jurors do not want to serve. Or, they are not wanted. Lawyers for one side or the other might consider them too smart, and so more difficult to influence. Many people called to jury duty for the first time think it will not be worth the trouble. Afterward, a common reaction is that they enjoyed and learned from the experience. They say the jury system is not perfect, but no one has yet to find a better way. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for This is America, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution establishes the right to a jury trial in all federal criminal cases. The Seventh Amendment gives the same right in civil cases that involve more than a small amount of money. States also have their own laws that govern jury trials. The United States has three kinds of juries. The most common is called the petit jury. Petit juries decide both criminal and civil cases. They can have as few as five or six members or as many as twelve. Often a jury trial lasts only a day or two, but some can go much longer. During a trial, lawyers for opposing sides question people called to give evidence. The lawyers also make opening and closing statements to the jury. VOICE TWO: At the end, the judge makes a final statement to the jury. The judge explains the laws that govern the decision the jury must make. For example, in a criminal trial, the judge explains reasonable doubt. Under American law, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty. Jurors do not have to be completely sure that the person is innocent. They only need to have a reasonable question in their mind. Unless they are sure the person is guilty as charged, they must find the suspect not guilty. Directions to juries are often full of legal language. California and other states have been trying to make them easier to understand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Juries meet in private to reach a judgment. Most states require all the jurors in a criminal case to agree on the verdict. A few states now require only a majority vote. When a jury cannot reach a verdict, it is called a hung jury. There was a recent example in New York. A jury failed to agree on criminal charges against two former leaders of Tyco International, a manufacturing and service company. Dennis Kozlowski served as chief executive. Mark Swartz was chief financial officer. The two men were accused of stealing six-hundred-million dollars from Tyco. Both pleaded not guilty. VOICE TWO: Eleven members of the jury believed the men were guilty of at least some of the charges. The twelfth juror, however, disagreed. She held to her opinion during days of argument with other jurors. Finally, in early April, the judge declared a mistrial with a hung jury. He blamed outside pressure on the juror. News media usually do not report the names of jurors, at least until a trial ends. However, this juror was said to have made an "O.K." sign with her hand to lawyers for the defense. The trial lasted six months. Another trial may take place, since the first ended without a verdict. VOICE ONE: Individuals and organizations that believe they have suffered a civil wrong can bring a lawsuit in court. This process is called filing suit. Many lawsuits are settled out of court. If a trial is held, jurors are not required to decide beyond a reasonable doubt, like in a criminal case. They must decide only that there is enough evidence to support the accusations. The jury might also award thousands or millions of dollars in damages, if requested. VOICE TWO: Another kind of jury is the grand jury. As many as twenty-three people may serve on one. The United States has two kinds of grand juries. The charging grand jury decides if there is enough evidence to bring someone to trial. If the jury decides there is enough, then it indicts the person. In April, a grand jury in California indicted Michael Jackson. The entertainer faces charges of sexual crimes with a child. A petty jury will have to decide the case at a trial. The other kind of grand jury is called the investigatory grand jury. Officials often call this kind of grand jury together in cases of organized crime or wrongdoing by government officials. The jurors are asked to approve efforts to gather evidence, often secretly. VOICE ONE: There was an interesting case a few years ago in the state of Connecticut. A judge acted as a one-person jury to investigate the death of a fifteen-year-old girl. Martha Moxley was killed in nineteen-seventy-five. The judge gathered evidence that led to the trial of a man who had lived near the girl. The man was also fifteen years old at the time of the killing. A petit jury found him guilty and sentenced him to prison. Finally, some investigations in the United States are heard by a coroner's jury. A coroner is a local medical examiner. The coroner usually calls six jurors to a hearing known as an inquest. An inquest takes place when someone has died under suspicious or unknown conditions. The jury is asked to decide the cause of death. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Courts choose jurors from public records like lists of voters or automobile drivers. People called to jury duty receive some questions by mail. Are they American citizens? Do they understand English? Do they have a mental or physical disability that would interfere? Some people are excused for health or family reasons, or because they cannot take time from work. But jury service is considered a duty of citizenship. A judge asks more questions once a jury is being chosen for a trial. So do lawyers for both sides in the case. Many times, they can reject people without the need to give a reason. In some big cases, hundreds of people are called. Lawyers may use jury experts to help them choose the ones who seem most sympathetic. Some people say this is not fair. VOICE ONE: Jurors are not supposed to form opinions or know too much about a case before the trial begins. But sometimes it is difficult to find such people. In California, a man named Scott Peterson has been charged with the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci. Mister Peterson denies the charges. It would be difficult to live in the United States and not have heard or read about this case. Lawyers for Mister Peterson asked to have the trial moved out of the city where police believe the crime took place. The lawyers said he would not be able to get a fair trial there. So earlier this year a judge agreed to a move. But on May third the head of the defense team requested another change. He said it was still not possible to find enough people who could be trusted to serve as fair-minded jurors. VOICE TWO: There are criticisms of the American jury system. Some involve issues that divide Americans in general. One such issue is race. An example often used is the case of O.J. Simpson, the former actor and football player. Mister Simpson is black. He was charged in Los Angeles with killing his former wife and a male friend of hers, both white. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-five, a mainly African American jury found O.J. Simpson not guilty of criminal charges. Later, a mainly white jury ruled against him in a civil case brought by the families of the victims. The jury ordered him to pay millions of dollars in damages. Public opinion research found that most white Americans believed that the criminal jury freed a guilty man. Most black Americans believed the civil jury punished an innocent man. Neither group thought the other had acted out of a desire for justice. Wealth is another issue for critics of the legal system. One recent example involves Martha Stewart. In March a jury found the businesswoman guilty of lying about her sale of shares in a company. One of the jurors later said the verdict meant a defeat for the rich and powerful. Commentators questioned whether the man had decided that Martha Stewart was guilty before the trial began. VOICE TWO: Choosing average Americans to serve on juries is considered the democratic way. But legal cases are increasingly complex. Many are difficult for the average person to understand. Yet jurors may not even be permitted to take notes as they listen to evidence. Legal experts sometimes say that people who would make the best jurors do not want to serve. Or, they are not wanted. Lawyers for one side or the other might consider them too smart, and so more difficult to influence. Many people called to jury duty for the first time think it will not be worth the trouble. Afterward, a common reaction is that they enjoyed and learned from the experience. They say the jury system is not perfect, but no one has yet to find a better way. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for This is America, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Midwives in Training
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 10, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Women trained to help with childbirth celebrated International Day of the Midwife last week. The observance takes place each year on May fifth. It is organized by the International Confederation of Midwives. This group began in Belgium in nineteen-nineteen as the International Midwives Union. Today, it has member organizations in more than fifty countries. The World Health Organization estimates that more than half a million women each year die during pregnancy or childbirth. Blood loss and infection are two of the major causes. Others include diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. But many more women suffer injuries in childbirth. An estimated fifteen-million women each year are damaged so badly that they never fully recover. Experts say many deaths could be avoided if more women gave birth with skilled help. An estimated fifty-eight percent of women in developing countries have a trained healthcare worker present during birth. Africa has the highest death rate for mothers. The British Royal College of Midwives estimates that one woman dies for every sixteen babies that survive birth in Africa. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan also have high rates of maternal deaths. The Royal College of Midwives has launched Safe Motherhood projects around the world to expand health services for women. It also raises money on the International Day of the Midwife to provide transportation for midwives to reach those who need them. For example, money is raised for cars for Sierra Leone, bicycles for Kenya and Cambodia, and donkeys for midwives in Lebanon. An American-based group called the Afghan Relief Organization is launching a program in Afghanistan. It says there are few trained women there to assist with childbirth. The organization hopes to teach women to become midwives. They will learn how to deliver babies in homes, even if there is no electricity or modern medicine. The new midwives will also help educate mothers about family planning, nutrition, childcare and other health issues. The Afghan Relief Organization says it plans to mainly train women who live outside of Kabul. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting says that in some areas of Afghanistan, more than sixty percent of women die giving birth. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: May 10, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Women trained to help with childbirth celebrated International Day of the Midwife last week. The observance takes place each year on May fifth. It is organized by the International Confederation of Midwives. This group began in Belgium in nineteen-nineteen as the International Midwives Union. Today, it has member organizations in more than fifty countries. The World Health Organization estimates that more than half a million women each year die during pregnancy or childbirth. Blood loss and infection are two of the major causes. Others include diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. But many more women suffer injuries in childbirth. An estimated fifteen-million women each year are damaged so badly that they never fully recover. Experts say many deaths could be avoided if more women gave birth with skilled help. An estimated fifty-eight percent of women in developing countries have a trained healthcare worker present during birth. Africa has the highest death rate for mothers. The British Royal College of Midwives estimates that one woman dies for every sixteen babies that survive birth in Africa. India, Pakistan and Afghanistan also have high rates of maternal deaths. The Royal College of Midwives has launched Safe Motherhood projects around the world to expand health services for women. It also raises money on the International Day of the Midwife to provide transportation for midwives to reach those who need them. For example, money is raised for cars for Sierra Leone, bicycles for Kenya and Cambodia, and donkeys for midwives in Lebanon. An American-based group called the Afghan Relief Organization is launching a program in Afghanistan. It says there are few trained women there to assist with childbirth. The organization hopes to teach women to become midwives. They will learn how to deliver babies in homes, even if there is no electricity or modern medicine. The new midwives will also help educate mothers about family planning, nutrition, childcare and other health issues. The Afghan Relief Organization says it plans to mainly train women who live outside of Kabul. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting says that in some areas of Afghanistan, more than sixty percent of women die giving birth. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Advice for Women and Children About Mercury in Fish / An Ancient Sea Creature Able to Do Push-Ups / Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 11, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. On our program this week -- health advice about mercury in fish ... VOICE ONE: How some ancient fish gained the ability to do push-ups, and it had nothing to do with exercise. VOICE TWO: And, the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. (THEME) VOICE ONE: United States health officials have warned pregnant women to limit the amount of albacore tuna they eat. This is because of the levels of mercury in fish. The warning is also for young children, for women who may become pregnant and for women who nurse their babies. Mercury is a danger to the nervous system, especially in babies and children. Even small amounts of this metal have been found to harm development. Mercury in water supplies and fish is connected to industrial waste. Electric power stations that burn coal are a major cause of mercury in the environment. VOICE TWO: Albacore is also known as "white" tuna. Health officials say albacore contains more mercury than other kinds that are sold as "light" tuna in cans. The government says women and young children should eat up to three-hundred-forty grams of fish and shellfish a week. It says this may include up to one-hundred-seventy grams of albacore. Women and young children are advised not to eat any shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish. All of these fish contain high levels of mercury. The advice says five kinds of seafood low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. VOICE ONE: A committee advised the Food and Drug Administration on the issue of mercury in fish. One member resigned as soon as the public received the new advice. Vas Aposhian is a mercury expert at the University of Arizona. He told the Washington Post that the committee wanted to add albacore to the list of fish not to eat at all. He says the experts thought children and pregnant women should not eat a lot of light tuna either. The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection agency jointly released the new advice. The two agencies state that for most people, the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish is not a health concern. They say people should know that seafood can be part of a healthy and balanced diet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have reported the oldest arm bone ever found. They say it comes from a small animal that lived about three-hundred-sixty-five million years ago. The discovery may help explain more about how animals moved from the sea to live on land. Scientists at the University of Chicago and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia reported the finding. Their report is in the magazine Science. Neil Shubin from the University of Chicago led the team. Professor Shubin says the creature was a mix of ancient fish and early amphibian. Fish have fins. Amphibians have arms and legs. They are able to live on land or in water, like frogs or crocodiles. The bone is said to show the changing structure as fins became limbs. VOICE ONE: The upper arm bone, or humerus, was hidden in rock from the state of Pennsylvania. The scientists collected the red sandstone in nineteen-ninety-three. But no one found the bone until two-thousand-one. Other evidence from the rock suggests that the animal lived in a freshwater system that flowed in ancient times. The scientists say the animal was about sixty centimeters long and had thick front leg muscles. They think it looked something like a modern crocodile. VOICE TWO: Professor Shubin says the arm bone was connected to the same muscles that a person uses to do push-ups. Such an ability would have helped the animal raise its head above water to breathe. Also, it would have helped the creature move through plants in water that was not very deep. The animal might even have walked on land. But probably not very well. Scientists say animals began to move from water to land during the Devonian period. This was between three-hundred-sixty and three-hundred-seventy million years ago. Other fossils from the area where the bone was found suggest that the animal lived among meat-eating fish. In fact, one of them may have killed the creature. Neil Shubin says the arm bone has marks that could have been left by teeth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Seven activists are the winners this year of the Goldman Environmental Foundation awards. The winners each received one-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars. A ceremony took place in San Francisco, California. Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the prize in nineteen-ninety. It is meant to show the difference that individuals can make to help the environment. Environmental groups nominate people. So do former winners, policymakers and others. Winners are chosen by a jury of foundation directors and environmental experts. VOICE TWO: This year, two people share the prize for Asia. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla were victims of the chemical leak in Bhopal, India, in nineteen-eighty-four. More than twenty-thousand deaths have been blamed on the poison gas from a Union Carbide pesticide factory. Many thousands more were severely injured. The two Goldman Prize winners were among them. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla have led efforts to make the new owner of Union Carbide, Dow Chemical, take responsibility. They organized a hunger strike. They have traveled to protest at Dow shareholder meetings. The two women are also part a legal action to make Dow clean up the factory and take other steps to help people in Bhopal. VOICE ONE: The Goldman Prize for North America went to Margie Richard of the United States. Mizz Richard grew up in Lorco, Louisiana, in an area with a high rate of cancer. People call it "Cancer Alley." The Shell company has a chemical factory there. The factory releases tons of poisons into the air. Margie Richard led a thirteen-year campaign to demand that Shell pay for people to move to safer areas. Shell agreed. It also has agreed to reduce the factory’s pollution by thirty-percent. Mizz Richard is the first African American to win the award. The Goldman Prize for Africa went to Rudolf Amenga-Etego of Ghana. He is a lawyer from Accra. He stopped a plan to give control of the water system in Ghana to private companies. Mister Amenga-Etego says getting clean drinking water is difficult enough already. He got many people involved in the campaign. These included farmers, teachers, trade groups and religious leaders. VOICE TWO: Manana Kochladze of Tbilisi, Georgia, is the Goldman Prize winner for Europe. She established a group called Green Alternative. It pressured the government and British Petroleum about a major oil-pipeline project. The path would cut through the mountains where Georgian mineral water comes from. Mizz Kochladze helped gain promises from the project leaders to protect local villagers and the environment. Her work also led to the creation of an international group of scientists. The group was formed to study possible environmental effects of the pipeline project. VOICE ONE The prize winner from South and Central America is Libia Grueso of Colombia. She helped other black Colombians win territorial rights to lands they have lived on for hundreds of years. The law now recognizes Afro-Colombians as a separate ethnic group with rights to more than two-million hectares of land. Mizz Grueso has also helped restrict activities that can harm the environment, like logging, gold mining and fishing. The final Goldman Prize winner this year is Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho of East Timor, representing island nations. The former resistance fighter has established the Haburas Foundation. This private group helped to secure environmental language in the constitution when East Timor became independent from Indonesia. The document recognizes the right to a healthy environment. It also recognizes the need to deal with national resources in an intelligent, responsible way. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Robert Brumfield and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 11, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. On our program this week -- health advice about mercury in fish ... VOICE ONE: How some ancient fish gained the ability to do push-ups, and it had nothing to do with exercise. VOICE TWO: And, the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. (THEME) VOICE ONE: United States health officials have warned pregnant women to limit the amount of albacore tuna they eat. This is because of the levels of mercury in fish. The warning is also for young children, for women who may become pregnant and for women who nurse their babies. Mercury is a danger to the nervous system, especially in babies and children. Even small amounts of this metal have been found to harm development. Mercury in water supplies and fish is connected to industrial waste. Electric power stations that burn coal are a major cause of mercury in the environment. VOICE TWO: Albacore is also known as "white" tuna. Health officials say albacore contains more mercury than other kinds that are sold as "light" tuna in cans. The government says women and young children should eat up to three-hundred-forty grams of fish and shellfish a week. It says this may include up to one-hundred-seventy grams of albacore. Women and young children are advised not to eat any shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish. All of these fish contain high levels of mercury. The advice says five kinds of seafood low in mercury are shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock and catfish. VOICE ONE: A committee advised the Food and Drug Administration on the issue of mercury in fish. One member resigned as soon as the public received the new advice. Vas Aposhian is a mercury expert at the University of Arizona. He told the Washington Post that the committee wanted to add albacore to the list of fish not to eat at all. He says the experts thought children and pregnant women should not eat a lot of light tuna either. The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection agency jointly released the new advice. The two agencies state that for most people, the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish is not a health concern. They say people should know that seafood can be part of a healthy and balanced diet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have reported the oldest arm bone ever found. They say it comes from a small animal that lived about three-hundred-sixty-five million years ago. The discovery may help explain more about how animals moved from the sea to live on land. Scientists at the University of Chicago and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia reported the finding. Their report is in the magazine Science. Neil Shubin from the University of Chicago led the team. Professor Shubin says the creature was a mix of ancient fish and early amphibian. Fish have fins. Amphibians have arms and legs. They are able to live on land or in water, like frogs or crocodiles. The bone is said to show the changing structure as fins became limbs. VOICE ONE: The upper arm bone, or humerus, was hidden in rock from the state of Pennsylvania. The scientists collected the red sandstone in nineteen-ninety-three. But no one found the bone until two-thousand-one. Other evidence from the rock suggests that the animal lived in a freshwater system that flowed in ancient times. The scientists say the animal was about sixty centimeters long and had thick front leg muscles. They think it looked something like a modern crocodile. VOICE TWO: Professor Shubin says the arm bone was connected to the same muscles that a person uses to do push-ups. Such an ability would have helped the animal raise its head above water to breathe. Also, it would have helped the creature move through plants in water that was not very deep. The animal might even have walked on land. But probably not very well. Scientists say animals began to move from water to land during the Devonian period. This was between three-hundred-sixty and three-hundred-seventy million years ago. Other fossils from the area where the bone was found suggest that the animal lived among meat-eating fish. In fact, one of them may have killed the creature. Neil Shubin says the arm bone has marks that could have been left by teeth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Seven activists are the winners this year of the Goldman Environmental Foundation awards. The winners each received one-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars. A ceremony took place in San Francisco, California. Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the prize in nineteen-ninety. It is meant to show the difference that individuals can make to help the environment. Environmental groups nominate people. So do former winners, policymakers and others. Winners are chosen by a jury of foundation directors and environmental experts. VOICE TWO: This year, two people share the prize for Asia. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla were victims of the chemical leak in Bhopal, India, in nineteen-eighty-four. More than twenty-thousand deaths have been blamed on the poison gas from a Union Carbide pesticide factory. Many thousands more were severely injured. The two Goldman Prize winners were among them. Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla have led efforts to make the new owner of Union Carbide, Dow Chemical, take responsibility. They organized a hunger strike. They have traveled to protest at Dow shareholder meetings. The two women are also part a legal action to make Dow clean up the factory and take other steps to help people in Bhopal. VOICE ONE: The Goldman Prize for North America went to Margie Richard of the United States. Mizz Richard grew up in Lorco, Louisiana, in an area with a high rate of cancer. People call it "Cancer Alley." The Shell company has a chemical factory there. The factory releases tons of poisons into the air. Margie Richard led a thirteen-year campaign to demand that Shell pay for people to move to safer areas. Shell agreed. It also has agreed to reduce the factory’s pollution by thirty-percent. Mizz Richard is the first African American to win the award. The Goldman Prize for Africa went to Rudolf Amenga-Etego of Ghana. He is a lawyer from Accra. He stopped a plan to give control of the water system in Ghana to private companies. Mister Amenga-Etego says getting clean drinking water is difficult enough already. He got many people involved in the campaign. These included farmers, teachers, trade groups and religious leaders. VOICE TWO: Manana Kochladze of Tbilisi, Georgia, is the Goldman Prize winner for Europe. She established a group called Green Alternative. It pressured the government and British Petroleum about a major oil-pipeline project. The path would cut through the mountains where Georgian mineral water comes from. Mizz Kochladze helped gain promises from the project leaders to protect local villagers and the environment. Her work also led to the creation of an international group of scientists. The group was formed to study possible environmental effects of the pipeline project. VOICE ONE The prize winner from South and Central America is Libia Grueso of Colombia. She helped other black Colombians win territorial rights to lands they have lived on for hundreds of years. The law now recognizes Afro-Colombians as a separate ethnic group with rights to more than two-million hectares of land. Mizz Grueso has also helped restrict activities that can harm the environment, like logging, gold mining and fishing. The final Goldman Prize winner this year is Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho of East Timor, representing island nations. The former resistance fighter has established the Haburas Foundation. This private group helped to secure environmental language in the constitution when East Timor became independent from Indonesia. The document recognizes the right to a healthy environment. It also recognizes the need to deal with national resources in an intelligent, responsible way. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Robert Brumfield and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Mushrooms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 11, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Year after year, mushrooms of every size and shape push their way up from under dead leaves or from inside dead trees. The yearly growing season begins in late summer and continues through autumn. During that brief period, people who like to eat mushrooms spend a lot of time walking through fields and forests. They look for what some people call “the food of the gods.” Mushrooms are a fungus. They grow on dead organic matter. Mushrooms do not grow from seeds. They are formed by spores. Spores are produced by fully grown mushrooms. They fall from the underside of the top of a mushroom. Mushrooms drop their tiny spores only once. However, they drop millions of them at the same time. The wind spreads them over a wide area. When spores land on a tree that has fallen, they begin to grow. At first, a spore produces long tube-like growths called hyphae. A number of hyphae form what is known as a mycelium. In time, the mycelium grows into a mushroom. Mushrooms are rich in vitamin B. They contain more protein than most vegetables. And studies show they can lower cholesterol in the blood. It is possible to grow your own mushrooms – either inside the house or outside in the garden. Companies sell mushroom mycelium that you can use to start your own mushroom garden. Or you can buy small containers of organic matter with mushroom spores inside. You add water and put the container in a room at the correct temperature as directed. Then wait for your mushrooms to grow. The hunt for wild mushrooms has taken place throughout the world since ancient times. And, like most hunts, there is some danger. People have to be careful not to eat mushrooms that are poisonous. Until two-thousand years ago, mushrooms could be eaten only when they were found in the wild. Then the Chinese began to grow the shiitake mushroom. Shiitakes are popular for their taste and because they are easy to grow. They grow naturally in warm areas of China and Japan. The European button mushroom is also popular. It grows very quickly. During a thirty-day period, it is possible to get two button mushroom crops from one container of mycelium. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Sport Parachuting
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 12, 2004 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: May 12, 2004 VOICE ONE: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does. The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety. By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think, "Do I really want to do this?" You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too. VOICE ONE: The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready. Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky. The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned. You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind. While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts: VOICE TWO: "Jump-run!" VOICE ONE: This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot: VOICE TWO: "Cut the engine!" VOICE ONE: The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says: VOICE TWO: "Sit in the door!" VOICE ONE: Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command: VOICE TWO: "Climb out!" VOICE ONE: You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel. Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine-hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller feels heavy against your chest. Then your teacher shouts: VOICE TWO: "Go!" VOICE ONE: You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below. The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving...but not falling. Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff straps of the parachute harness gently pull on your shoulders and legs. You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left. VOICE TWO: You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small. For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump. VOICE ONE: Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place. Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet. You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun. VOICE TWO: The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as Fourteen-Ninety-Five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute. About two-hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device. The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, he parachuted from a balloon six-hundred meters above the city of Paris. VOICE ONE: There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives. Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool. In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old. VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving. Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three-thousand-meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely. People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up! Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight...like that of birds. VOICE ONE: Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five-hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors. One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works much like a jet airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer it. Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does. The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety. By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think, "Do I really want to do this?" You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too. VOICE ONE: The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready. Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky. The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned. You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind. While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts: VOICE TWO: "Jump-run!" VOICE ONE: This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot: VOICE TWO: "Cut the engine!" VOICE ONE: The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says: VOICE TWO: "Sit in the door!" VOICE ONE: Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command: VOICE TWO: "Climb out!" VOICE ONE: You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel. Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine-hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller feels heavy against your chest. Then your teacher shouts: VOICE TWO: "Go!" VOICE ONE: You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below. The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving...but not falling. Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff straps of the parachute harness gently pull on your shoulders and legs. You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left. VOICE TWO: You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small. For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump. VOICE ONE: Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place. Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet. You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun. VOICE TWO: The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as Fourteen-Ninety-Five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute. About two-hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device. The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, he parachuted from a balloon six-hundred meters above the city of Paris. VOICE ONE: There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives. Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool. In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old. VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving. Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three-thousand-meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely. People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up! Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight...like that of birds. VOICE ONE: Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five-hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors. One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works much like a jet airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer it. Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Carotid Stent
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 12, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Strokes can take place when fatty material blocks the flow of blood through arteries in the body. Soon, brain cells die from the lack of blood. About one-hundred-fifty-thousand people die of strokes each year in the United States alone. Stroke is the third leading cause of death. Many more suffer permanent brain damage. Blocked carotid arteries in the neck are a major cause of strokes. The traditional treatment is an operation. Doctors open and clean the arteries. Another treatment used in some countries now is the Cordis Carotid Stent. Doctors use a small device that holds the artery open. Patients can stay awake while doctors place the carotid stent inside an artery. They also can recover faster than from the traditional surgery. Stents have similar use for heart patients. In Washington, the Food and Drug Administration had a committee of experts consider the carotid stent for use in the United States. In April, the committee advised the F.D.A. to approve the system, with some conditions. The system would be meant for high-risk patients. These are people whose age or health makes the traditional operation too dangerous. The vote was close. Six of the experts supported the approval. Five opposed it. The agency will now consider a final decision. To use the stent, doctors make a small cut between the stomach and the top of the leg. They place a small tube called a catheter into the carotid artery. Then they pass the catheter up to the neck. At the end of the catheter is the stent. The doctors expand the stent to enlarge and clean the carotid artery. Another device protects the brain from any plaque material loosened by the cleaning process. The doctors then remove the catheter. But the stent remains in place to hold the artery open. Doctor Jay Yadav (YA-dav) of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio led a study to compare the stent to the traditional operation. A division of the Cordis Corporation that makes the system paid for the study. Three-hundred-ten people were treated. About half of them had the traditional operation. The others received stents. Doctor Yadav said that after one year, the stent patients did as well, and in many ways better, than those who had the operation. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #62 - Andrew Jackson, Part 6
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 13, 2004 (MUSIC) Senator Henry Clay</b< Broadcast: May 13, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Andrew Jackson was elected president in eighteen-twenty-eight. He was popular with voters. But he was not sure he wanted to run for re-election in eighteen-thirty-two. He was getting old. He suffered from health problems. Yet he wanted to give voters a chance to show their approval of his programs. So, Jackson made a decision. He would run again. If he won, however, he would resign after the first or second year. He would leave the job to his vice president. VOICE TWO: President Jackson spoke of this plan to the man he wanted as his vice president, Martin van Buren. He made the offer in eighteen-thirty, when Van Buren was still his secretary of state. Van Buren thanked Jackson for the offer. However, he rejected it. Van Buren said it would be politically dangerous. He did not want anyone to say that he had been brought into the presidency in secret. Jackson did not give up his idea. For more than a year, he continued to urge Van Buren to accept the offer. Van Buren continued to say "no". He agreed to be Jackson's vice presidential candidate in eighteen-thirty-two. But he said he did not want to become president without being elected by the people. VOICE ONE: As the election got closer, Jackson's health began to improve. He began to think about serving a second full term. One thing that helped was an operation to remove a bullet from his arm. He had received the wound during a gun fight with another man about twenty years earlier. It troubled him so badly that sometimes he could not use the arm. Doctors were afraid to remove the bullet. They thought it might cause a terrible shock to his heart. VOICE TWO: Early in the election year, a doctor said he believed the bullet could be removed easily. He told the president that it was poisoning his whole body. Jackson asked the doctor to cut out the bullet at once. The operation was over in a few minutes. Jackson's health quickly became much better. A funny little story was told about that bullet. Someone reportedly said Jackson should give it to the family of the man who shot him. One family member rejected the offer. He said Jackson had possessed the bullet for twenty years. So, he said, under the law, Jackson had clear ownership to it. "Only nineteen years," someone noted. "Oh," the man said, "that is all right. Since Jackson took good care of it, I will forget the extra year." VOICE ONE: The presidential election campaign of eighteen-thirty-two was bitter. President Jackson was, once again, the candidate of the Democratic Party. Henry Clay was the candidate of the National Republican Party. Clay had the support of Nicholas Biddle, who was head of the Bank of the United States. He also had the support of about two-thirds of the nation's newspapers. This was because most of them owed money to the bank. Most wealthy people supported Clay, too. Farmers and laborers supported Jackson. They showed their support by marching in parades and holding big, noisy public meetings. VOICE TWO: On election day, the people showed that Jackson was still their president. There was a much bigger difference in popular votes between Jackson and Clay than between Jackson and John Quincy Adams four years earlier. As the votes were counted, one of Clay's supporters said: "The news blows over us like a great cold storm." Jackson received about six-hundred eighty-eight-thousand popular votes. Clay received about four-hundred seventy-three-thousand votes. In the electoral college, Jackson got more than four times the number of votes than Clay got. Jackson's vice president would be Martin van Buren. VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson saw his re-election as proof that the American people approved of his policies. This included his policy to close the Bank of the United States when its charter ended in eighteen-thirty-six. During his second term, Jackson decided on a plan to reduce the bank's economic power. He would stop putting federal money into the bank. Instead, he would put it into state banks. This would greatly reduce the amount of money the Bank of the United States could use. VOICE TWO: The plan was not as easy as it seemed. The charter for the bank said federal money had to be kept there unless the secretary of the treasury ordered it put some place else. President Jackson's treasury secretary was friendly to the bank. He would not give the order. Jackson would have to dismiss the man and appoint someone who supported his plan. But the treasury secretary was a powerful politician. Jackson could not push him out of the job. He had to find another way. So he decided to reorganize his whole cabinet. VOICE ONE: Jackson named his secretary of state to be Minister to France. He named his treasury secretary to be secretary of state. Then he brought in someone new as secretary of the treasury. That turned out to be a mistake. The new treasury secretary refused to put federal money anywhere but in the Bank of the United States. He also refused to resign when Jackson asked him to resign. So Jackson dismissed him and named yet another new treasury secretary. VOICE TWO: This man immediately ordered that after October first, eighteen-thirty-three, all federal money was to be put into twenty-three state banks. He did not withdraw the government money already in the Bank of the United States. He said this money could be used to make payments until it was all gone. Nicholas Biddle, the head of the bank, fought back. He ordered the immediate repayment of all bank loans. He also withdrew from public use large numbers of bank notes. People had been using the notes as money. VOICE ONE: These actions caused serious economic difficulties throughout the country. Many businesses failed. They could not pay back their loans or borrow the money they needed. As businesses failed, workers lost their jobs. Nicholas Biddle said the Jackson administration was responsible for all the trouble. He said the bank was forced to take firm measures, because it was losing government money. He told people to protest to the administration. Critics of President Jackson's bank policy called him "King Andrew The First. " VOICE TWO: Groups of businessmen called on the president at the White House. T hey urged him to put government money back into the bank. Jackson told one group: "I will never restore the money. I will never renew the charter of the Bank of the United States. If you want help, go to Nicholas Bddle. " VOICE ONE: The president's actions worried even some of his supporters. There could be serious long-term effects of closing the Bank of the United States. Some of his supporters in Congress went to see him. They warned him of reports that a mob was forming to march on Washington. They told him that the mob planned to seize the capitol building until Congress returned government money to the bank. "Gentlemen," Jackson said, "I will be glad to see this mob on Capitol Hill. I will hang its leaders high. That should stop forever all attempts to control Congress by force." We will continue our story of Andrew Jackson's second term as president next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Y our narrators were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time for another report about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: VOA Special English programs can be heard every day in most parts of the world. Feature programs follow the latest world news. AMERICAN MOSAIC is our radio magazine. American stories present short stories by American writers. This is America reports about life in the United States today. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS tells about the latest developments in science and technology. EXPLORATIONS reports about outer space, the human body, and the world in which we live and work. And this program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, tells the history of the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Andrew Jackson was elected president in eighteen-twenty-eight. He was popular with voters. But he was not sure he wanted to run for re-election in eighteen-thirty-two. He was getting old. He suffered from health problems. Yet he wanted to give voters a chance to show their approval of his programs. So, Jackson made a decision. He would run again. If he won, however, he would resign after the first or second year. He would leave the job to his vice president. VOICE TWO: President Jackson spoke of this plan to the man he wanted as his vice president, Martin van Buren. He made the offer in eighteen-thirty, when Van Buren was still his secretary of state. Van Buren thanked Jackson for the offer. However, he rejected it. Van Buren said it would be politically dangerous. He did not want anyone to say that he had been brought into the presidency in secret. Jackson did not give up his idea. For more than a year, he continued to urge Van Buren to accept the offer. Van Buren continued to say "no". He agreed to be Jackson's vice presidential candidate in eighteen-thirty-two. But he said he did not want to become president without being elected by the people. VOICE ONE: As the election got closer, Jackson's health began to improve. He began to think about serving a second full term. One thing that helped was an operation to remove a bullet from his arm. He had received the wound during a gun fight with another man about twenty years earlier. It troubled him so badly that sometimes he could not use the arm. Doctors were afraid to remove the bullet. They thought it might cause a terrible shock to his heart. VOICE TWO: Early in the election year, a doctor said he believed the bullet could be removed easily. He told the president that it was poisoning his whole body. Jackson asked the doctor to cut out the bullet at once. The operation was over in a few minutes. Jackson's health quickly became much better. A funny little story was told about that bullet. Someone reportedly said Jackson should give it to the family of the man who shot him. One family member rejected the offer. He said Jackson had possessed the bullet for twenty years. So, he said, under the law, Jackson had clear ownership to it. "Only nineteen years," someone noted. "Oh," the man said, "that is all right. Since Jackson took good care of it, I will forget the extra year." VOICE ONE: The presidential election campaign of eighteen-thirty-two was bitter. President Jackson was, once again, the candidate of the Democratic Party. Henry Clay was the candidate of the National Republican Party. Clay had the support of Nicholas Biddle, who was head of the Bank of the United States. He also had the support of about two-thirds of the nation's newspapers. This was because most of them owed money to the bank. Most wealthy people supported Clay, too. Farmers and laborers supported Jackson. They showed their support by marching in parades and holding big, noisy public meetings. VOICE TWO: On election day, the people showed that Jackson was still their president. There was a much bigger difference in popular votes between Jackson and Clay than between Jackson and John Quincy Adams four years earlier. As the votes were counted, one of Clay's supporters said: "The news blows over us like a great cold storm." Jackson received about six-hundred eighty-eight-thousand popular votes. Clay received about four-hundred seventy-three-thousand votes. In the electoral college, Jackson got more than four times the number of votes than Clay got. Jackson's vice president would be Martin van Buren. VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson saw his re-election as proof that the American people approved of his policies. This included his policy to close the Bank of the United States when its charter ended in eighteen-thirty-six. During his second term, Jackson decided on a plan to reduce the bank's economic power. He would stop putting federal money into the bank. Instead, he would put it into state banks. This would greatly reduce the amount of money the Bank of the United States could use. VOICE TWO: The plan was not as easy as it seemed. The charter for the bank said federal money had to be kept there unless the secretary of the treasury ordered it put some place else. President Jackson's treasury secretary was friendly to the bank. He would not give the order. Jackson would have to dismiss the man and appoint someone who supported his plan. But the treasury secretary was a powerful politician. Jackson could not push him out of the job. He had to find another way. So he decided to reorganize his whole cabinet. VOICE ONE: Jackson named his secretary of state to be Minister to France. He named his treasury secretary to be secretary of state. Then he brought in someone new as secretary of the treasury. That turned out to be a mistake. The new treasury secretary refused to put federal money anywhere but in the Bank of the United States. He also refused to resign when Jackson asked him to resign. So Jackson dismissed him and named yet another new treasury secretary. VOICE TWO: This man immediately ordered that after October first, eighteen-thirty-three, all federal money was to be put into twenty-three state banks. He did not withdraw the government money already in the Bank of the United States. He said this money could be used to make payments until it was all gone. Nicholas Biddle, the head of the bank, fought back. He ordered the immediate repayment of all bank loans. He also withdrew from public use large numbers of bank notes. People had been using the notes as money. VOICE ONE: These actions caused serious economic difficulties throughout the country. Many businesses failed. They could not pay back their loans or borrow the money they needed. As businesses failed, workers lost their jobs. Nicholas Biddle said the Jackson administration was responsible for all the trouble. He said the bank was forced to take firm measures, because it was losing government money. He told people to protest to the administration. Critics of President Jackson's bank policy called him "King Andrew The First. " VOICE TWO: Groups of businessmen called on the president at the White House. T hey urged him to put government money back into the bank. Jackson told one group: "I will never restore the money. I will never renew the charter of the Bank of the United States. If you want help, go to Nicholas Bddle. " VOICE ONE: The president's actions worried even some of his supporters. There could be serious long-term effects of closing the Bank of the United States. Some of his supporters in Congress went to see him. They warned him of reports that a mob was forming to march on Washington. They told him that the mob planned to seize the capitol building until Congress returned government money to the bank. "Gentlemen," Jackson said, "I will be glad to see this mob on Capitol Hill. I will hang its leaders high. That should stop forever all attempts to control Congress by force." We will continue our story of Andrew Jackson's second term as president next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Y our narrators were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time for another report about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: VOA Special English programs can be heard every day in most parts of the world. Feature programs follow the latest world news. AMERICAN MOSAIC is our radio magazine. American stories present short stories by American writers. This is America reports about life in the United States today. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS tells about the latest developments in science and technology. EXPLORATIONS reports about outer space, the human body, and the world in which we live and work. And this program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, tells the history of the United States. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Intel Excellence in Science Teaching Awards
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 13, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Five high school teachers are the winners of an international award from the computer technology company Intel in the United States. The award honors excellence in the teaching of mathematics and science. The program is also meant as a way to help the winners share their ideas with other teachers. The five teachers won trips to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held this week in Portland, Oregon. Each of the teachers also received more than three-thousand dollars in prize winnings. Each winner will also be able to request up to ten-thousand dollars to pay for establishing their programs in other schools. The winners are from Argentina, Japan, Ukraine and the United States. Maria Adela Moyano de Burt teaches biology at a high school in Concepcion City, Argentina. Her program unites local students and adults to work on research projects. These involve the environment and behavioral science. The goal is to develop ways to help improve the quality of life in their area. Akihiko Shindo teaches at a high school in Okayama, Japan. The award information says he presents students with scientific methods usually taught only at the university level. He has also developed a four-day camp for high school students to learn about scientific technology and nature. Paul Pshenichka teaches physics in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. He established a group for students to work with scientific advisers and receive support for research. Students in his program take part in Ukrainian national and international scientific conferences and competitions. Roberta Tanner teaches physics in Loveland, Colorado. She developed a class that permits students to design and build their own engineering and electronics projects. Wafa Khalil teaches in Miami, Florida. She developed a course of study about forms of energy like power from the sun. Students investigate energy use around the world. This includes the economic and environmental effects. Intel calls its International Science and Engineering Fair "the world's largest pre-college celebration of science." More than one-thousand high school students from forty countries are presenting science projects in Portland this week. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: May 13, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Five high school teachers are the winners of an international award from the computer technology company Intel in the United States. The award honors excellence in the teaching of mathematics and science. The program is also meant as a way to help the winners share their ideas with other teachers. The five teachers won trips to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held this week in Portland, Oregon. Each of the teachers also received more than three-thousand dollars in prize winnings. Each winner will also be able to request up to ten-thousand dollars to pay for establishing their programs in other schools. The winners are from Argentina, Japan, Ukraine and the United States. Maria Adela Moyano de Burt teaches biology at a high school in Concepcion City, Argentina. Her program unites local students and adults to work on research projects. These involve the environment and behavioral science. The goal is to develop ways to help improve the quality of life in their area. Akihiko Shindo teaches at a high school in Okayama, Japan. The award information says he presents students with scientific methods usually taught only at the university level. He has also developed a four-day camp for high school students to learn about scientific technology and nature. Paul Pshenichka teaches physics in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. He established a group for students to work with scientific advisers and receive support for research. Students in his program take part in Ukrainian national and international scientific conferences and competitions. Roberta Tanner teaches physics in Loveland, Colorado. She developed a class that permits students to design and build their own engineering and electronics projects. Wafa Khalil teaches in Miami, Florida. She developed a course of study about forms of energy like power from the sun. Students investigate energy use around the world. This includes the economic and environmental effects. Intel calls its International Science and Engineering Fair "the world's largest pre-college celebration of science." More than one-thousand high school students from forty countries are presenting science projects in Portland this week. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 13, 2004 - 'Your Own Words' by Barbara Wallraff
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: May 13, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk to language columnist and author Barbara Wallraff about her new book. It's called "Your Own Words." In it, she explains, quote, "how to outsmart the reference books and be your own language expert." And Barbara Wallraff says one of the best ways to do that is with an Internet search engine like ... WALLRAFF: "Google in particular -- and some of the other ones are starting to have this too -- but Google in particular has a feature called Google News. Everything on Google News is some kind of edited medium. It might be a Web site for a newspaper with the stories from the newspaper. Or a television Web site. Thousands of edited media Web sites are searchable for even little words or phrases. "So if you're trying to decide whether -- if you're trying to figure out what the word 'phishing' spelled with a p-h at the beginning means, that's one of the examples of a new term that you can go look on Google News and you'll find a bunch of newspaper articles that will mention phishing and, because it's a new term, will tell you what it means." AA: "And please explain it." WALLRAFF: "Phishing is a form of e-mail scam. People will send an e-mail that pretends to be from something like PayPal or eBay or your bank, and it'll try to look official and it'll say 'oh sorry, we lost your credit card information and your social security number. Could you just give it to us again?'" RS: "Who sets the standards, though? How do you know what you're getting is correct?" WALLRAFF: "Well, this Internet method of looking things up that I'm talking about is particularly good for new words, because when I turned in the manuscript of my book, which was right around the beginning of the year, 'phishing' every time you saw it was glossed. Language people call it glossing when the word is defined. When you say phishing, you say 'comma, an e-mail scam that ... ' so on and so forth. Every time you saw phishing last year, it was glossed. "Now if you go look on Google News, and it gives you just the last month's worth of citations, I think the majority of citations -- or at least when I last looked the majority of citations were not glossed. So that's an interesting fact, that it's becoming well enough known that people are beginning to be comfortable using that word, expecting people they say it to to know what they mean. "If all the citations that you see are from very specialized publications, that tells you something. That tells you it's not in the mainstream. There was a business expression a few years ago: 'put the moose on the table.' And somebody wrote me and said, what in the heck does that mean. I would have no idea how to find out what 'put the moose on the table' meant if it weren't for the Internet. "You need to put quotation marks around a phrase. Otherwise you'll get all of the articles that contain 'put' somewhere in them and 'table' and 'moose' someplace in the article. But when I called that up, I got a magazine article explaining that a man whose name I now forget had been the CEO [chief executive officer] of a company, and it was his way of saying, let's talk about some uncomfortable truth that we're not acknowledging." RS: "What would you hope readers to your book take away from it." WALLRAFF: "A lot of people think what's in their head about language is right, and they haven't necessarily examined that in depth. If you begin to study, if you begin to think 'how do I know that, do I really know that?' you may find that there are things you don't know. But you'll also find you can know the answers to just about any question. And often -- more often than you'd like -- the answer is 'it depends.' Or 'that's up to you, here's the range of respectable opinion.' But you don't want to be somebody saying 'well, it's got to be done this way, this word is wrong, wrong, wrong,' when it's not." AA: Barbara Wallraff writes a language column in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, and she's just written a book called "Your Own Words." That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can find all of our segments archived at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Free"/Phish Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: May 13, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk to language columnist and author Barbara Wallraff about her new book. It's called "Your Own Words." In it, she explains, quote, "how to outsmart the reference books and be your own language expert." And Barbara Wallraff says one of the best ways to do that is with an Internet search engine like ... WALLRAFF: "Google in particular -- and some of the other ones are starting to have this too -- but Google in particular has a feature called Google News. Everything on Google News is some kind of edited medium. It might be a Web site for a newspaper with the stories from the newspaper. Or a television Web site. Thousands of edited media Web sites are searchable for even little words or phrases. "So if you're trying to decide whether -- if you're trying to figure out what the word 'phishing' spelled with a p-h at the beginning means, that's one of the examples of a new term that you can go look on Google News and you'll find a bunch of newspaper articles that will mention phishing and, because it's a new term, will tell you what it means." AA: "And please explain it." WALLRAFF: "Phishing is a form of e-mail scam. People will send an e-mail that pretends to be from something like PayPal or eBay or your bank, and it'll try to look official and it'll say 'oh sorry, we lost your credit card information and your social security number. Could you just give it to us again?'" RS: "Who sets the standards, though? How do you know what you're getting is correct?" WALLRAFF: "Well, this Internet method of looking things up that I'm talking about is particularly good for new words, because when I turned in the manuscript of my book, which was right around the beginning of the year, 'phishing' every time you saw it was glossed. Language people call it glossing when the word is defined. When you say phishing, you say 'comma, an e-mail scam that ... ' so on and so forth. Every time you saw phishing last year, it was glossed. "Now if you go look on Google News, and it gives you just the last month's worth of citations, I think the majority of citations -- or at least when I last looked the majority of citations were not glossed. So that's an interesting fact, that it's becoming well enough known that people are beginning to be comfortable using that word, expecting people they say it to to know what they mean. "If all the citations that you see are from very specialized publications, that tells you something. That tells you it's not in the mainstream. There was a business expression a few years ago: 'put the moose on the table.' And somebody wrote me and said, what in the heck does that mean. I would have no idea how to find out what 'put the moose on the table' meant if it weren't for the Internet. "You need to put quotation marks around a phrase. Otherwise you'll get all of the articles that contain 'put' somewhere in them and 'table' and 'moose' someplace in the article. But when I called that up, I got a magazine article explaining that a man whose name I now forget had been the CEO [chief executive officer] of a company, and it was his way of saying, let's talk about some uncomfortable truth that we're not acknowledging." RS: "What would you hope readers to your book take away from it." WALLRAFF: "A lot of people think what's in their head about language is right, and they haven't necessarily examined that in depth. If you begin to study, if you begin to think 'how do I know that, do I really know that?' you may find that there are things you don't know. But you'll also find you can know the answers to just about any question. And often -- more often than you'd like -- the answer is 'it depends.' Or 'that's up to you, here's the range of respectable opinion.' But you don't want to be somebody saying 'well, it's got to be done this way, this word is wrong, wrong, wrong,' when it's not." AA: Barbara Wallraff writes a language column in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, and she's just written a book called "Your Own Words." That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can find all of our segments archived at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Free"/Phish 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Smarty Jones / End of TV's 'Friends' / New Songs from Sam Phillips
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 14, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: May 14, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: a new album by Sam Phillips ... and the end of the popular television show “Friends.” But first ... the story of Smarty Jones. Smarty Jones HOST: Smarty Jones is three years old, and a champion. This horse won the Kentucky Derby. But, as Gwen Outen reports, this is the story of a champion that might never have been. ANNCR: Smarty Jones is from a farm in Pennsylvania, in the town of New Hope. His owners call it Someday Farm. Patricia and Roy Chapman hoped someday one of their horses would win a major race. They have raised horses for the past twenty years. But in two-thousand-one, the man who trained their horses was killed. His stepson faces murder charges. The Chapmans were so saddened by the loss, they wanted to get out of the business. Their new trainer, though, got them to keep Smarty Jones and one of their other horses. But then came an accident last year. Smarty was training. The young reddish brown horse was at the starting gate. Suddenly he jumped up. His head crashed into the heavy metal gate.He fell to the ground, and stayed there. John Servis, the new trainer, says he thought the horse was dead. He says months passed before it was clear that Smarty was all better. Smarty Jones raced only six times before the Kentucky Derby on May first. He won all six times. He became the first undefeated horse to win the Derby in almost thirty years. The last one was Seattle Slew in nineteen-seventy-seven. Smarty Jones' rider, Stewart Elliott, has ridden in thousands of races. But he and his horse had something in common. Neither had competed in the Kentucky Derby before. The race was also new to the Chapmans and John Servis. Seventy-seven-year-old Roy Chapman watched from a wheelchair. He has emphysema and needs an oxygen tank to help him breathe. Smarty Jones earned a record amount for a day in horse racing. The Chapmans received more than eight-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars from the Derby. But they also received five-million dollars. This was a one-hundredth anniversary bonus for any horse that won two races in Arkansas and the Kentucky Derby. Smarty Jones did exactly that. But the Kentucky Derby is only the beginning of the Triple Crown of horse racing. Next is the Preakness Stakes in Pimlico, Maryland, on Saturday. Then comes the Belmont Stakes. No horse has won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in nineteen-seventy-eight. End of "Friends" (MUSIC) HOST: A listener asks about the American television series "Friends." It ended last week after ten years, though the show will live on in repeats. Our friend Jing Lili, a Chinese college student of English education, asks if "Friends" truly represents American life. The answer is ... it depends. Yes, many young adults do form a small group of close friends. And some of them may share a place to live. This is especially true in big cities like New York, just like on the show. They save money and might have a lot of fun together. Some might even fall in love. But, no, the situations on the show were not always realistic. For example, in the first season, Rachel -- played by Jennifer Aniston -- is about to get married. But she runs away from her wedding. Yes, this does happen sometimes. But would someone still in her wedding clothes head for a coffee shop? Later, the man Rachel was supposed to marry goes on their honeymoon trip anyway. But, instead of Rachel, he takes one of her wedding attendants! “Friends” came on N.B.C. television in nineteen-ninety-four, starring six actors: three women and three men. The writers gave each friend something that the others could joke about. Monica, for example, had to have everything clean and organized. Joey was good looking, but not very smart. All the friends had one thing in common, though. They were are all looking for love. Marta Kauffman and David Crane created "Friends." Their show was nominated for fifty-five Emmy awards. This year it won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. “Friends” became part of popular culture. Real-life friends would gather to watch the show. Nielsen Media Research says more than fifty-one-million people in the United States watched the final episode last week. We leave you with a clip from that show. Monica and Chandler -- played by Courtney Cox Arquette and Matthew Perry -- have already gotten married. Now they are in a hospital. They are going to adopt a baby boy who has just been born. But they get some surprising news from the doctor: MONICA: "I’m gonna love you so much that no woman is ever gonna be good enough for you ... " BIRTH MOTHER: "I’m tired." DOCTOR: "Ah, you don’t have that much time to relax, the other one will be along in a minute." MONICA: "Uh, I’m sorry, who should be along in a minute?" DOCTOR: "The next baby should be along in a minute." MONICA: "Uhhh ... we only ordered one!" (MUSIC) Sam Phillips HOST: Sam Phillips, the female singer and songwriter, has a new album. It is called “A Boot and a Shoe.” Here’s Faith Lapidus. ANNCR: Billboard magazine says Sam Phillips sings a ray of light into the darkness on her new album. "A Boot and a Shoe" opens with a song called “How to Quit.” (MUSIC) This is the eighth album for Mizz Phillips ... under the name of Sam, at least. "Sam" is what she was called as a child. She used to sing Christian pop music. Back then she used her birth name, Leslie Phillips. In the late nineteen-eighties, Mizz Phillips left the Christian recording industry. She wanted more artistic freedom. Yet her music is still highly spiritual. She sings about human weaknesses and failings. But her songs are also about the possibility of renewal, as in this one, called “Love Changes Everything.” (MUSIC) Sam Phillips works all the time now with the famous music producer T-Bone Burnett. In nineteen-ninety-one, they got married. We leave you with Sam Phillips and another song from her new album. This song is called "I Dreamed I Stopped Dreaming.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. And our engineer was Tony Pollack. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: a new album by Sam Phillips ... and the end of the popular television show “Friends.” But first ... the story of Smarty Jones. Smarty Jones HOST: Smarty Jones is three years old, and a champion. This horse won the Kentucky Derby. But, as Gwen Outen reports, this is the story of a champion that might never have been. ANNCR: Smarty Jones is from a farm in Pennsylvania, in the town of New Hope. His owners call it Someday Farm. Patricia and Roy Chapman hoped someday one of their horses would win a major race. They have raised horses for the past twenty years. But in two-thousand-one, the man who trained their horses was killed. His stepson faces murder charges. The Chapmans were so saddened by the loss, they wanted to get out of the business. Their new trainer, though, got them to keep Smarty Jones and one of their other horses. But then came an accident last year. Smarty was training. The young reddish brown horse was at the starting gate. Suddenly he jumped up. His head crashed into the heavy metal gate.He fell to the ground, and stayed there. John Servis, the new trainer, says he thought the horse was dead. He says months passed before it was clear that Smarty was all better. Smarty Jones raced only six times before the Kentucky Derby on May first. He won all six times. He became the first undefeated horse to win the Derby in almost thirty years. The last one was Seattle Slew in nineteen-seventy-seven. Smarty Jones' rider, Stewart Elliott, has ridden in thousands of races. But he and his horse had something in common. Neither had competed in the Kentucky Derby before. The race was also new to the Chapmans and John Servis. Seventy-seven-year-old Roy Chapman watched from a wheelchair. He has emphysema and needs an oxygen tank to help him breathe. Smarty Jones earned a record amount for a day in horse racing. The Chapmans received more than eight-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars from the Derby. But they also received five-million dollars. This was a one-hundredth anniversary bonus for any horse that won two races in Arkansas and the Kentucky Derby. Smarty Jones did exactly that. But the Kentucky Derby is only the beginning of the Triple Crown of horse racing. Next is the Preakness Stakes in Pimlico, Maryland, on Saturday. Then comes the Belmont Stakes. No horse has won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in nineteen-seventy-eight. End of "Friends" (MUSIC) HOST: A listener asks about the American television series "Friends." It ended last week after ten years, though the show will live on in repeats. Our friend Jing Lili, a Chinese college student of English education, asks if "Friends" truly represents American life. The answer is ... it depends. Yes, many young adults do form a small group of close friends. And some of them may share a place to live. This is especially true in big cities like New York, just like on the show. They save money and might have a lot of fun together. Some might even fall in love. But, no, the situations on the show were not always realistic. For example, in the first season, Rachel -- played by Jennifer Aniston -- is about to get married. But she runs away from her wedding. Yes, this does happen sometimes. But would someone still in her wedding clothes head for a coffee shop? Later, the man Rachel was supposed to marry goes on their honeymoon trip anyway. But, instead of Rachel, he takes one of her wedding attendants! “Friends” came on N.B.C. television in nineteen-ninety-four, starring six actors: three women and three men. The writers gave each friend something that the others could joke about. Monica, for example, had to have everything clean and organized. Joey was good looking, but not very smart. All the friends had one thing in common, though. They were are all looking for love. Marta Kauffman and David Crane created "Friends." Their show was nominated for fifty-five Emmy awards. This year it won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. “Friends” became part of popular culture. Real-life friends would gather to watch the show. Nielsen Media Research says more than fifty-one-million people in the United States watched the final episode last week. We leave you with a clip from that show. Monica and Chandler -- played by Courtney Cox Arquette and Matthew Perry -- have already gotten married. Now they are in a hospital. They are going to adopt a baby boy who has just been born. But they get some surprising news from the doctor: MONICA: "I’m gonna love you so much that no woman is ever gonna be good enough for you ... " BIRTH MOTHER: "I’m tired." DOCTOR: "Ah, you don’t have that much time to relax, the other one will be along in a minute." MONICA: "Uh, I’m sorry, who should be along in a minute?" DOCTOR: "The next baby should be along in a minute." MONICA: "Uhhh ... we only ordered one!" (MUSIC) Sam Phillips HOST: Sam Phillips, the female singer and songwriter, has a new album. It is called “A Boot and a Shoe.” Here’s Faith Lapidus. ANNCR: Billboard magazine says Sam Phillips sings a ray of light into the darkness on her new album. "A Boot and a Shoe" opens with a song called “How to Quit.” (MUSIC) This is the eighth album for Mizz Phillips ... under the name of Sam, at least. "Sam" is what she was called as a child. She used to sing Christian pop music. Back then she used her birth name, Leslie Phillips. In the late nineteen-eighties, Mizz Phillips left the Christian recording industry. She wanted more artistic freedom. Yet her music is still highly spiritual. She sings about human weaknesses and failings. But her songs are also about the possibility of renewal, as in this one, called “Love Changes Everything.” (MUSIC) Sam Phillips works all the time now with the famous music producer T-Bone Burnett. In nineteen-ninety-one, they got married. We leave you with Sam Phillips and another song from her new album. This song is called "I Dreamed I Stopped Dreaming.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. And our engineer was Tony Pollack. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Google Goes Public
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 14, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Google is a powerful tool for users of the electronic communications system called the Internet. Computer users connecting to the Internet can use Google to search for any word, name or idea. Google finds electronic documents, or web pages, with news, information -- almost anything. More than eighty-million people use the Google Web page each month. Two young men, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, started Google in nineteen-ninety-eight. At the time, they were students at Stanford University in California. They created a search engine, a way to look for words on the Internet. The technology they developed chooses Web pages with the links closest to the word or words the user is searching for. Google was not the first Internet search engine. But people found it easy to use. Today, Google performs two-hundred-million searches everyday. It can search more than four-thousand-million web pages at one time. Yet each search takes less than one second. Google has even become an action word: to "google" means to search for information on the Internet. The search service that Google offers is free. But Google also provides links to Web pages of companies that sell goods and services. Companies pay Google every time someone uses it to connect with their web page. The amount a company pays depends on its size. Google’s business has grown very quickly. The company made almost one-thousand-million dollars in two-thousand-three. Its profit was more than one-hundred-million dollars. Late last month, Google announced that it wanted to become a public company. This means that Google will sell its ownership shares to the public. The company hopes to raise about two-thousand-seven-hundred-million dollars this way. But it has not said how many shares it would sell. It also has not set a price for the shares or the date when they will be sold. Some business experts have criticized Google for not releasing enough information about the company before the sale. But there is no question that investors are interested in the company’s shares. The people who may gain the most from the sale are Mister Brin and Mister Page. Each man owns fifteen-percent of the company. After the sale, they could both be worth several thousand million dollars. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - India Elections
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. India’s Congress Party has defeated the party of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in national parliamentary elections. The Congress Party and its allies won a majority of seats in the national legislature. Congress Party leaders will form a new coalition government and name a prime minister. The elections were held for five days over a three-week period that ended on Monday. Mister Vajpayee officially resigned Thursday following the defeat of India’s ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance. The coalition, led by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, had been in power for five years. Leaders from the prime minister’s B.J.P party and its allies expressed surprise at the election results. Mister Vajpayee and his alliance were expected to easily win another five-year term. Mister Vajpayee had organized the election six months earlier than necessary after a series of political successes. His campaign noted the country’s eight percent growth rate, which made it one of the world’s fastest growing economies. He also won praise for his efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan. But experts say the B.J.P. campaign failed to win the support of millions of India’s poor people. India is the world’s largest democracy. But many Indians still live on less than one dollar a day. The Congress Party and its allies said they would help poor people if elected. They criticized the government for failing to provide citizens with jobs, clean water and electricity. Congress Party officials said India’s new government would continue peace efforts with Pakistan begun by Mister Vajpayee. The two countries re-opened peace talks last year. Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi could become India’s next prime minister. But Missus Ghandi is unpopular with some Indians because she was born in Italy. Missus Gandhi is the widow of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was murdered in a bombing attack in nineteen-ninety-one. Rajiv Gandhi was the son of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and grandson of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Indira Gandhi was India’s last female leader. She was murdered while in power in nineteen-eighty-four. The Congress Party led by the Nehru-Gandhi family governed for almost fifty years after India gained independence from Britain in nineteen-forty-seven. Sonia Gandhi took control of the Congress Party in nineteen-ninety-eight as the B.J.P. was becoming more popular. But a year later, she led her party to its worst-ever defeat in parliamentary elections. In recent months, however, she has worked to strengthen the Congress Party. She spoke at hundreds of campaign gatherings throughout the country. Her son Rahul won his own seat in the Indian parliament. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Thurgood Marshall
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 16, 2004 (MUSIC) Thurgood Marshall Broadcast: May 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about a man who helped change the racial separation laws of America, Thurgood Marshall. VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about a man who helped change the racial separation laws of America, Thurgood Marshall. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thurgood Marshall was born a free man. But the father of his grandfather was a slave. He had lived in what was the Congo area of Africa. A man from the eastern American city of Baltimore, Maryland, brought him to the United States. He later set him free. Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore on July Second, Nineteen-Oh-Eight. In that city, and in many other parts of the United States at that time, black people were separated from white people by law. Black children did not go to school with white children. Black people lived only in areas where other blacks lived. VOICE TWO: Over the years, Thurgood Marshall became a very good story-teller. He told stories about himself, or about places he had visited. Often, the stories were funny. But most also had a serious message. One story was about being in trouble with his teachers when he was a boy in Baltimore. Mister Marshall said one of his teachers punished him by sending him to the room where the school's heating equipment was kept. There he was told to read and remember the words of the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution is a long document. Thurgood Marshall said he read all of it...more than once...and learned to remember most of it. He said this school boy punishment gave him a life-long respect for the Constitution. As he grew older, he began to think about the Constitution's guarantees of freedom. Those guarantees, he believed, should be for people of all races, not just for white people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln University in the state of Pennsylvania. He completed his studies, with honors, in nineteen-thirty. He wanted to go to law school at the University of Maryland. But officials at that school refused to let him attend, because he was black. So, he went to law school at Howard University in Washington D.C. Howard University was a school for African-Americans. Thurgood Marshall graduated first in his class. After completing his law studies, he accepted the case of a young black man who wanted to become a lawyer, too. The young man wanted to attend the University of Maryland law school. It was the same school that had refused to admit Thurgood Marshall. Again, the school refused to let a black man become a student. So, Mister Marshall took legal action. He won the case. The young black man was permitted to attend the university's law school. Thurgood Marshall would go on to win many more cases dealing with racial separation laws. And years later, the University of Maryland would name its law library in his honor. VOICE TWO: Thurgood Marshall was a very good lawyer. The people he represented in court were black and poor. He never earned much money. But his name soon became well known. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People offered him a job. He went to work as one of its legal representatives. In time, he became the organization’s chief legal representative. He traveled across the United States. He fought against racial separation laws. He also defended black people who were charged with a crime, but who did not have the money to pay for legal help. Many of those cases reached America’s highest court, the Supreme Court of the United States. During his life as a lawyer, Thurgood Marshall argued cases before the Supreme Court more than thirty times. He lost only a few cases. Slowly, the laws of racial separation in America began to change. Many of those changes were the result of the work of Thurgood Marshall. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Legal experts say that Thurgood Marshall’s most important case was the one known as “Brown versus Board of Education.” The case involved the city of Topeka in the middle western state of Kansas. A law there said that having separate schools for black students and white students was legal, if the schools were the same. It was the idea of “separate but equal”. But the schools were not equal. White children received a better education than black children. Thurgood Marshall agreed to argue the case before the Supreme Court. When newspapers reported this, he began getting messages, threatening him with death. Other civil rights lawyers said he was moving too quickly. They said a defeat in the Brown case would greatly damage the cause of civil rights. They told him to wait, to move more carefully and slowly. VOICE TWO: Thurgood Marshall did not listen to the threats against his life. And he did not listen to those who said he should move more slowly. The Supreme Court heard the case in nineteen-fifty-four. Mister Marshall said it was a violation of the Constitution to separate people because of their race. So, he argued, the racially-separated schools in Topeka, Kansas, were illegal. He added that nothing could be equal in racially-separated schools. One Supreme Court justice asked him to explain what he meant by the word equal. He answered: “Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place. The Supreme Court agreed. It ruled that no one could be rejected from a school in Topeka because of race. VOICE ONE: The case of “Brown versus Board of Education” provided the basis for other court decisions. It helped destroy the terrible wall of legal racial separation throughout the United States. Some people say it is the most important Supreme Court decision of the Twentieth century. That decision was the beginning of years of legal battles against racial separation in America's schools. It also sent a message to the people of the nation that black Americans had the same rights as white Americans. Many African-Americans said Mister Marshall's victory in nineteen-fifty-four changed their lives and their futures. For example, Sherman Parks is the former president of the school board of Topeka, Kansas. He said that without the victory he would never have had a chance to get a good education and become a lawyer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-sixty-one, President John Kennedy named Thurgood Marshall to be a judge of a federal appeals court. During his years on that court, Judge Marshall wrote more than one-hundred opinions on different legal issues. Several of his opinions from those days have been approved as law by a majority of the Supreme Court. In nineteen-sixty-seven, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. President Johnson said the nomination was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. Thurgood Marshall became the first black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. He served for twenty-four years. Justice Marshall wrote opinions about legal representation in America's criminal justice system. He said everyone has the right to be represented by a good lawyer, no matter how guilty they may be. In his last years on the Supreme Court, he often voted against the majority of the more conservative members. Justice Marshall always voted in dissent in cases in which the majority voted that a death sentence was legal. He said no one should be put to death for any reason. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-one, Thurgood Marshall announced that he would retire from the Supreme Court. Some reports said he no longer wanted to fight against the conservative majority of the court. At a news conference, a reporter asked him why he was retiring. Justice Marshall looked at the man and said, simply: “I am getting old and coming apart.” Another reporter asked Justice Marshall how he would like to be remembered. He sat quietly for a moment. Then Thurgood Marshall said: “I want to be remembered for doing the best I could with what I had.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. And our studio engineer was Tony Pollock. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thurgood Marshall was born a free man. But the father of his grandfather was a slave. He had lived in what was the Congo area of Africa. A man from the eastern American city of Baltimore, Maryland, brought him to the United States. He later set him free. Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore on July Second, Nineteen-Oh-Eight. In that city, and in many other parts of the United States at that time, black people were separated from white people by law. Black children did not go to school with white children. Black people lived only in areas where other blacks lived. VOICE TWO: Over the years, Thurgood Marshall became a very good story-teller. He told stories about himself, or about places he had visited. Often, the stories were funny. But most also had a serious message. One story was about being in trouble with his teachers when he was a boy in Baltimore. Mister Marshall said one of his teachers punished him by sending him to the room where the school's heating equipment was kept. There he was told to read and remember the words of the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution is a long document. Thurgood Marshall said he read all of it...more than once...and learned to remember most of it. He said this school boy punishment gave him a life-long respect for the Constitution. As he grew older, he began to think about the Constitution's guarantees of freedom. Those guarantees, he believed, should be for people of all races, not just for white people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln University in the state of Pennsylvania. He completed his studies, with honors, in nineteen-thirty. He wanted to go to law school at the University of Maryland. But officials at that school refused to let him attend, because he was black. So, he went to law school at Howard University in Washington D.C. Howard University was a school for African-Americans. Thurgood Marshall graduated first in his class. After completing his law studies, he accepted the case of a young black man who wanted to become a lawyer, too. The young man wanted to attend the University of Maryland law school. It was the same school that had refused to admit Thurgood Marshall. Again, the school refused to let a black man become a student. So, Mister Marshall took legal action. He won the case. The young black man was permitted to attend the university's law school. Thurgood Marshall would go on to win many more cases dealing with racial separation laws. And years later, the University of Maryland would name its law library in his honor. VOICE TWO: Thurgood Marshall was a very good lawyer. The people he represented in court were black and poor. He never earned much money. But his name soon became well known. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People offered him a job. He went to work as one of its legal representatives. In time, he became the organization’s chief legal representative. He traveled across the United States. He fought against racial separation laws. He also defended black people who were charged with a crime, but who did not have the money to pay for legal help. Many of those cases reached America’s highest court, the Supreme Court of the United States. During his life as a lawyer, Thurgood Marshall argued cases before the Supreme Court more than thirty times. He lost only a few cases. Slowly, the laws of racial separation in America began to change. Many of those changes were the result of the work of Thurgood Marshall. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Legal experts say that Thurgood Marshall’s most important case was the one known as “Brown versus Board of Education.” The case involved the city of Topeka in the middle western state of Kansas. A law there said that having separate schools for black students and white students was legal, if the schools were the same. It was the idea of “separate but equal”. But the schools were not equal. White children received a better education than black children. Thurgood Marshall agreed to argue the case before the Supreme Court. When newspapers reported this, he began getting messages, threatening him with death. Other civil rights lawyers said he was moving too quickly. They said a defeat in the Brown case would greatly damage the cause of civil rights. They told him to wait, to move more carefully and slowly. VOICE TWO: Thurgood Marshall did not listen to the threats against his life. And he did not listen to those who said he should move more slowly. The Supreme Court heard the case in nineteen-fifty-four. Mister Marshall said it was a violation of the Constitution to separate people because of their race. So, he argued, the racially-separated schools in Topeka, Kansas, were illegal. He added that nothing could be equal in racially-separated schools. One Supreme Court justice asked him to explain what he meant by the word equal. He answered: “Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place. The Supreme Court agreed. It ruled that no one could be rejected from a school in Topeka because of race. VOICE ONE: The case of “Brown versus Board of Education” provided the basis for other court decisions. It helped destroy the terrible wall of legal racial separation throughout the United States. Some people say it is the most important Supreme Court decision of the Twentieth century. That decision was the beginning of years of legal battles against racial separation in America's schools. It also sent a message to the people of the nation that black Americans had the same rights as white Americans. Many African-Americans said Mister Marshall's victory in nineteen-fifty-four changed their lives and their futures. For example, Sherman Parks is the former president of the school board of Topeka, Kansas. He said that without the victory he would never have had a chance to get a good education and become a lawyer. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-sixty-one, President John Kennedy named Thurgood Marshall to be a judge of a federal appeals court. During his years on that court, Judge Marshall wrote more than one-hundred opinions on different legal issues. Several of his opinions from those days have been approved as law by a majority of the Supreme Court. In nineteen-sixty-seven, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. President Johnson said the nomination was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. Thurgood Marshall became the first black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. He served for twenty-four years. Justice Marshall wrote opinions about legal representation in America's criminal justice system. He said everyone has the right to be represented by a good lawyer, no matter how guilty they may be. In his last years on the Supreme Court, he often voted against the majority of the more conservative members. Justice Marshall always voted in dissent in cases in which the majority voted that a death sentence was legal. He said no one should be put to death for any reason. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-one, Thurgood Marshall announced that he would retire from the Supreme Court. Some reports said he no longer wanted to fight against the conservative majority of the court. At a news conference, a reporter asked him why he was retiring. Justice Marshall looked at the man and said, simply: “I am getting old and coming apart.” Another reporter asked Justice Marshall how he would like to be remembered. He sat quietly for a moment. Then Thurgood Marshall said: “I want to be remembered for doing the best I could with what I had.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. And our studio engineer was Tony Pollock. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Fiftieth Anniversary of Ruling Against Racial Separation in Schools
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 17, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: May 17, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we look back at an event fifty years ago in civil rights history. On May seventeenth, ninety-fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that racial separation in public schools violated the Constitution. Thurgood Marshall VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we look back at an event fifty years ago in civil rights history. On May seventeenth, ninety-fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that racial separation in public schools violated the Constitution. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year is eighteen-ninety-six. Northern states won the Civil War thirty years ago. Southerners lost the right to have slaves. Black people are supposed to have the same legal rights now as white people under the Constitution. Yet the Supreme Court has just declared that blacks and whites can be educated in separate schools. The schools can be separate as long as the quality of the education is equal. VOICE TWO: Now it is nineteen-fifty-four. Almost sixty years have passed. These days, there is a lot of talk about civil rights. The United States armed services are no longer separated by race. President Harry Truman made that an order in nineteen-forty-eight, three years after World War Two ended. After the war, society is changing. Life is getting better, but not for all Americans. Equal treatment is an issue not just in the military. Now, the Supreme Court declares that schools paid for with public money must be open to students of all races. VOICE ONE: The case was important in the movement to gain equal rights for African Americans. At that time, it was legal to separate blacks and whites in public places as long as the services were "separate but equal." But schools for white children were almost always better. The situation was worst in the South. Most blacks in the South were not permitted to vote. They were denied jobs. They often had to live in fear of racists. The National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People is a leading civil rights group. In the nineteen-forties, the N-double-A-C-P decided to take action to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its eighteen-ninety-six ruling. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-one, the N-double-A-C-P sent its lawyers to help an African American man in the middle of the country. Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, wanted to send his daughter, Linda, to a new school closer to their home. But the school said no. That school was for white children only. So Oliver Brown and twelve other black parents in Topeka brought legal action. State courts ruled against them. After that, the parents joined with black families in other states. Twenty other states also separated schoolchildren by race. With the help of the N-double-A-C-P, the parents appealed their case to the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: The court decided to combine five cases involving schools in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C. These cases became known together as Brown versus the Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall was the top lawyer for the civil rights organization. Later, he became the first African American justice on the Supreme Court. The case opened in nineteen-fifty-two. Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers presented their side. They argued that separate schools denied black children the constitutional right of equal protection under the law. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court justices considered the case for almost a year and a half. Then on May seventeenth, nineteen-fifty-four, they announced their decision. All nine justices called for an end to racial separation in public schools. They decided that the rule of “separate but equal” had no place in public education. They found that separation made minority students feel of lesser value. This affected their ability to learn. The next year, the court said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. Some of the twenty-one states moved quickly to permit black students and white students to attend the same schools. Some in the South, however, resisted. The governor of Virginia closed public schools to thousands of students rather than desegregate. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-seven, the governor of Arkansas called out state troops. Orval Faubus ordered them to bar a group of black students from a school in the city of Little Rock. President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock to protect black students. In nineteen-sixty-four Congress passed a civil rights act. This law said the government could withdraw federal aid to schools that were racially separated. By nineteen-seventy, schools in the South were described as more integrated than anywhere else in the country. Experts say this remains true. Yet it is still possible to find traditional events like separate dances for blacks and whites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: After the Brown decision, many people and groups organized protests to demand equal rights for black people in all areas of life. The ruling also led to hundreds of other civil rights cases along with legislation. The Civil Rights Act of nineteen-sixty-four banned unequal treatment of black people in employment and public places. The Voting Rights Act of nineteen-sixty-five banned actions by Southern states that prevented black people from voting. VOICE ONE: Recently, experts have been discussing the progress made in the fifty years since the decision. Many note the improvements in the number of black students who graduate from high school. And they say growing numbers of minorities are studying science and engineering in higher education. However, black and Hispanic students are still far more likely than whites or Asian Americans to leave high school early. Critics also note that there are areas throughout the country where racial and ethnic groups live separately. This is the result not of laws, but usually of economics and immigration patterns. Research shows that most white, black and Hispanic students still go to a school where they are in the majority. Public schools get most of their money from taxes, often based on local property values. Schools that are mostly black or Hispanic often have too many students and not enough money. Many critics also say blacks and Hispanics are too often placed in lower-level programs instead of honors classes. VOICE TWO: Legal rulings during the nineteen-nineties have led to the end of court-supervised desegregation programs in many cities. These included programs like busing students across town in an effort to establish racially mixed schools. But creating a balance became more and more difficult. Many white families moved out of cities. Or they put their children into private schools. Some critics say that segregation is worse now in parts of the country than it was at the time of the Brown decision. But some steps have been taken to improve the quality of schools. In January of two-thousand-two, President Bush signed a federal education law that his administration proposed in Congress. The law is called No Child Left Behind. By two-thousand-fourteen, it calls for all children to be able to read and do math at the grade level for their age. Yet many schools are struggling to meet the requirements. Some states have been taking steps to withdraw, even if they lose federal aid. VOICE ONE: One way schools have tried to increase racial balance is through affirmative action. Such programs give special consideration to minorities who want to attend. Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to let the University of Michigan law school continue its program. Affirmative action is under attack, though. Some call it unfair. Others say students who attend racially mixed schools are better prepared to live in society. But some civil rights leaders say they are more concerned with the quality of the education than the racial balance of a school. VOICE TWO: The daughters of Oliver Brown are taking part in the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the ruling in their famous case. Linda Brown Thompson and her sister Cheryl Brown Henderson operate a private organization. It is called the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research. It awards scholarships and publishes information about the case. The Brown sisters say huge gains have been made since nineteen-fifty-four. But they say America still has a long way to go. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year is eighteen-ninety-six. Northern states won the Civil War thirty years ago. Southerners lost the right to have slaves. Black people are supposed to have the same legal rights now as white people under the Constitution. Yet the Supreme Court has just declared that blacks and whites can be educated in separate schools. The schools can be separate as long as the quality of the education is equal. VOICE TWO: Now it is nineteen-fifty-four. Almost sixty years have passed. These days, there is a lot of talk about civil rights. The United States armed services are no longer separated by race. President Harry Truman made that an order in nineteen-forty-eight, three years after World War Two ended. After the war, society is changing. Life is getting better, but not for all Americans. Equal treatment is an issue not just in the military. Now, the Supreme Court declares that schools paid for with public money must be open to students of all races. VOICE ONE: The case was important in the movement to gain equal rights for African Americans. At that time, it was legal to separate blacks and whites in public places as long as the services were "separate but equal." But schools for white children were almost always better. The situation was worst in the South. Most blacks in the South were not permitted to vote. They were denied jobs. They often had to live in fear of racists. The National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People is a leading civil rights group. In the nineteen-forties, the N-double-A-C-P decided to take action to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its eighteen-ninety-six ruling. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-one, the N-double-A-C-P sent its lawyers to help an African American man in the middle of the country. Oliver Brown of Topeka, Kansas, wanted to send his daughter, Linda, to a new school closer to their home. But the school said no. That school was for white children only. So Oliver Brown and twelve other black parents in Topeka brought legal action. State courts ruled against them. After that, the parents joined with black families in other states. Twenty other states also separated schoolchildren by race. With the help of the N-double-A-C-P, the parents appealed their case to the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: The court decided to combine five cases involving schools in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C. These cases became known together as Brown versus the Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall was the top lawyer for the civil rights organization. Later, he became the first African American justice on the Supreme Court. The case opened in nineteen-fifty-two. Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers presented their side. They argued that separate schools denied black children the constitutional right of equal protection under the law. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court justices considered the case for almost a year and a half. Then on May seventeenth, nineteen-fifty-four, they announced their decision. All nine justices called for an end to racial separation in public schools. They decided that the rule of “separate but equal” had no place in public education. They found that separation made minority students feel of lesser value. This affected their ability to learn. The next year, the court said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. Some of the twenty-one states moved quickly to permit black students and white students to attend the same schools. Some in the South, however, resisted. The governor of Virginia closed public schools to thousands of students rather than desegregate. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-seven, the governor of Arkansas called out state troops. Orval Faubus ordered them to bar a group of black students from a school in the city of Little Rock. President Dwight Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock to protect black students. In nineteen-sixty-four Congress passed a civil rights act. This law said the government could withdraw federal aid to schools that were racially separated. By nineteen-seventy, schools in the South were described as more integrated than anywhere else in the country. Experts say this remains true. Yet it is still possible to find traditional events like separate dances for blacks and whites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: After the Brown decision, many people and groups organized protests to demand equal rights for black people in all areas of life. The ruling also led to hundreds of other civil rights cases along with legislation. The Civil Rights Act of nineteen-sixty-four banned unequal treatment of black people in employment and public places. The Voting Rights Act of nineteen-sixty-five banned actions by Southern states that prevented black people from voting. VOICE ONE: Recently, experts have been discussing the progress made in the fifty years since the decision. Many note the improvements in the number of black students who graduate from high school. And they say growing numbers of minorities are studying science and engineering in higher education. However, black and Hispanic students are still far more likely than whites or Asian Americans to leave high school early. Critics also note that there are areas throughout the country where racial and ethnic groups live separately. This is the result not of laws, but usually of economics and immigration patterns. Research shows that most white, black and Hispanic students still go to a school where they are in the majority. Public schools get most of their money from taxes, often based on local property values. Schools that are mostly black or Hispanic often have too many students and not enough money. Many critics also say blacks and Hispanics are too often placed in lower-level programs instead of honors classes. VOICE TWO: Legal rulings during the nineteen-nineties have led to the end of court-supervised desegregation programs in many cities. These included programs like busing students across town in an effort to establish racially mixed schools. But creating a balance became more and more difficult. Many white families moved out of cities. Or they put their children into private schools. Some critics say that segregation is worse now in parts of the country than it was at the time of the Brown decision. But some steps have been taken to improve the quality of schools. In January of two-thousand-two, President Bush signed a federal education law that his administration proposed in Congress. The law is called No Child Left Behind. By two-thousand-fourteen, it calls for all children to be able to read and do math at the grade level for their age. Yet many schools are struggling to meet the requirements. Some states have been taking steps to withdraw, even if they lose federal aid. VOICE ONE: One way schools have tried to increase racial balance is through affirmative action. Such programs give special consideration to minorities who want to attend. Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to let the University of Michigan law school continue its program. Affirmative action is under attack, though. Some call it unfair. Others say students who attend racially mixed schools are better prepared to live in society. But some civil rights leaders say they are more concerned with the quality of the education than the racial balance of a school. VOICE TWO: The daughters of Oliver Brown are taking part in the fiftieth anniversary celebration of the ruling in their famous case. Linda Brown Thompson and her sister Cheryl Brown Henderson operate a private organization. It is called the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research. It awards scholarships and publishes information about the case. The Brown sisters say huge gains have been made since nineteen-fifty-four. But they say America still has a long way to go. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – UN Supports Chinese Herbal Drug in Fight Against Malaria
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 17, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has decided to support a traditional Chinese medicine as a way to fight malaria. The drug is called artemisinin. It comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood. Chinese researchers discovered artemisinin more than thirty years ago. Tests took place in the early nineteen-nineties in Vietnam. The country had a malaria crisis at that time. The drug helped reduce the rate of deaths by ninety-seven percent. Now, world health agencies are trying to secure one-hundred-million treatments of artemisinin. In addition, the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given money to eleven countries to buy the drug. It has also told thirty-four other nations to cancel their requests for two older drugs. Instead, those nations have been told to order the new drug. Malaria is caused by parasites. These organisms are passed to humans through a bite from a mosquito. Malaria produces high temperatures and causes the body to lose dangerous amounts of fluid. The World Health Organization estimates that each year about three-million people become infected with malaria. About one-million of them die. Malaria is especially dangerous to children and pregnant women. Hundreds of years ago, people in what is now Peru treated the disease with the bark covering the cinchona tree. Two French researchers in eighteen-twenty identified the active substance in the bark as quinine. This became the main drug used to prevent and cure some forms of malaria. Today, mostly manufactured drugs are used to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. The most common ones are chloroquine and mefloquine. Both must be taken once a week. Another drug is doxycycline. It must be taken every day. But treating malaria is difficult. The parasites can develop a resistance to drugs. Health experts hope to prevent this in the case of artemisinin by giving it in combination with other medicines. Experts also warn about the overuse of malaria drugs by people who do not have the disease. They say that sick people often mistake influenza or other diseases for malaria and take anti-malarial medicine. Health experts say greater use of home tests for malaria could reduce the problem. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: May 17, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has decided to support a traditional Chinese medicine as a way to fight malaria. The drug is called artemisinin. It comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood. Chinese researchers discovered artemisinin more than thirty years ago. Tests took place in the early nineteen-nineties in Vietnam. The country had a malaria crisis at that time. The drug helped reduce the rate of deaths by ninety-seven percent. Now, world health agencies are trying to secure one-hundred-million treatments of artemisinin. In addition, the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has given money to eleven countries to buy the drug. It has also told thirty-four other nations to cancel their requests for two older drugs. Instead, those nations have been told to order the new drug. Malaria is caused by parasites. These organisms are passed to humans through a bite from a mosquito. Malaria produces high temperatures and causes the body to lose dangerous amounts of fluid. The World Health Organization estimates that each year about three-million people become infected with malaria. About one-million of them die. Malaria is especially dangerous to children and pregnant women. Hundreds of years ago, people in what is now Peru treated the disease with the bark covering the cinchona tree. Two French researchers in eighteen-twenty identified the active substance in the bark as quinine. This became the main drug used to prevent and cure some forms of malaria. Today, mostly manufactured drugs are used to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. The most common ones are chloroquine and mefloquine. Both must be taken once a week. Another drug is doxycycline. It must be taken every day. But treating malaria is difficult. The parasites can develop a resistance to drugs. Health experts hope to prevent this in the case of artemisinin by giving it in combination with other medicines. Experts also warn about the overuse of malaria drugs by people who do not have the disease. They say that sick people often mistake influenza or other diseases for malaria and take anti-malarial medicine. Health experts say greater use of home tests for malaria could reduce the problem. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Early Maya Culture / A Shortage of Scientists? / Health Sites on the Internet
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 18, 2004 (THEME) A piece of jade recovered from the Maya queen's burial place at Waka.(Photo - David Lee) Broadcast: May 18, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week ... new thinking about an ancient people. VOICE ONE: Concerns about a possible shortage of American scientists. VOICE TWO: Some places to go for health information on the Internet. VOICE ONE: And, just how much water do we really need to drink? (THEME) VOICE TWO: In Central America, scientists have made some recent discoveries about the ancient Maya people. These findings show that the Maya developed their civilization centuries earlier than experts thought. Three separate teams made the discoveries in the rainforest of Guatemala. Experts call the time between the year two-fifty and the year nine-hundred the Classic Maya period. It was a period of great civilization. Until now, scientists thought that earlier Maya people were simple farmers. The discoveries show that they used writing, drew pictures and built complex structures sooner than the experts knew. VOICE ONE: Scientists have found some things they say are more than two-thousand years old. For example, a team found two masks inside the main pyramid in the city of Cival. These masks are three meters tall. They are cut in the image of a sun god. The Maya used the pyramid as a temple. The masks may have been a part of ceremonies led by a king. Experts from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, made the discovery. Another Vanderbilt team reported on new research at the city of Cancuen. And scientists from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, made discoveries at the ancient city of Waka [wah-KAH]. The National Geographic Society supported all the research. VOICE TWO: At Waka, scientists found the burial place of a woman they think was a Maya queen. They do not know her name. But they believe she ruled more than one-thousand-two-hundred years ago. Her bones were lying on a stone table. Many jewels surrounded her remains. The team also found pieces of green stone that appeared to be the remains of the kind of war helmet worn by rulers. Scientists say the discovery will help then understand how Maya women shared power with men. Not many burial places of important royal women have been found. Tens of thousands of people may have lived in the ancient city of Waka. Today it is called El Peru. The Waka project is part of an effort to save an area of rainforest from farming and other illegal activities inside a national park. VOICE ONE: Also in northern Guatemala, scientists found a stone showing an eighth-century king playing a game of ball with visiting rulers. It is the third such stone found at the city of Cancuen. They also found large pieces of stone with writing and pictures of leaders. A Guatemalan expert called it one of the greater masterpieces of Maya art ever discovered in Guatemala. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new government report warns that the United States may not have enough scientists in the future. The National Science Board says the situation threatens the economic health and security of the country. The United States is now seventeenth in its share of young people who train in science and engineering. In nineteen-seventy-five, the United States was third among nations in the number of people studying science. The report says the number of American jobs that require science and engineering will continue to grow. But the number of people prepared for those jobs will not. Today, thirty-eight percent of all the scientists and engineers in the United States are foreign born. But the National Science Board says the number of people with scientific training who come to the United States will decrease. One reason is because of limits to entry since the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. But there is also intense competition around the world for people with scientific skills. VOICE ONE: The National Science Board says that even if action is begun today, the situation will not improve for ten to twenty years. That is because students have to prepare at a young age if they want to become scientists or engineers. They must take the necessary math classes in middle school. The twenty-four member board governs the National Science Foundation. This independent federal agency advises Congress and the president. The report says the government has a responsibility to support education in science and technology at levels that will appeal to more students. VOICE TWO: Americans do still publish almost thirty-three percent of all scientific papers. This is one reason why not all scientists agree about the dangers to the health of American science. Still, they say schools and scientists themselves should be doing more to get young people to choose science over business or other jobs. For one thing, many older scientists will retire in the next ten years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. The National Library of Medicine, near Washington, D.C, is the largest center of medical information in the world. It is part of the National Institutes of Health. Doctors and scientists use this library. So do people from around the world who just want some health information. The library has a service on the Internet called MedlinePlus. This offers general information about more than six-hundred-fifty diseases and conditions. There is also a medical dictionary, and information about medicines. The Web site is medlineplus.gov. Again, the address is medlineplus dot g-o-v. The National Library of Medicine also has a Web site for older adults and their families. This service is called N.I.H. Senior Health. The address is nihseniorhealth.gov. The library created this site with the National Institute on Aging. Again, the site is nihseniorhealth, all one word, dot g-o-v. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people believe they are supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, or about two liters. Why? Because that is what they have been told all their life. But a recent report offers some different advice. Experts say people should obey their bodies; they should drink as much water as they feel like drinking. The report says most healthy people meet their daily needs for liquid by letting thirst be their guide. The report is from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies. This organization provides scientific and technical advice to the government and the public. The report contains some general suggestions. The experts say women should get about two-point-seven liters of water daily. Men should get about three-point-seven liters. But wait -- in each case, that is more than eight glasses. VOICE ONE: There is one important difference. The report does not tell people how many glasses of water to drink. In fact, the experts say it may be impossible to know how many glasses are needed to meet these guidelines. This is because the daily water requirement can include the water content in foods. People do not get water only by forcing themselves to drink a set number of glasses per day. People also drink fruit juices and sodas and milk. They drink coffee and tea. These all contain water. Yet some also contain caffeine. This causes the body to expel more water. But the writers of the report say this does not mean the body loses too much water. As you might expect, the Institute of Medicine says people need to drink more water when they are physically active. The same is true of those who live in hot climates. Depending on heat and activity, people could need two times as much water as others do. All this, however, does not answer one question. No one seems sure why people have the idea that good health requires eight glasses of water daily. VOICE TWO: It may have started with a misunderstanding. In nineteen-forty-five, the National Academy of Sciences published some guidelines. Its Food and Nutrition Board said a good amount of water for most adults was two-point-five liters daily. This was based on an average of one milliliter for each calorie of food eaten. But that was only part of what the board said. It also said that most of this amount is contained in prepared foods. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week ... new thinking about an ancient people. VOICE ONE: Concerns about a possible shortage of American scientists. VOICE TWO: Some places to go for health information on the Internet. VOICE ONE: And, just how much water do we really need to drink? (THEME) VOICE TWO: In Central America, scientists have made some recent discoveries about the ancient Maya people. These findings show that the Maya developed their civilization centuries earlier than experts thought. Three separate teams made the discoveries in the rainforest of Guatemala. Experts call the time between the year two-fifty and the year nine-hundred the Classic Maya period. It was a period of great civilization. Until now, scientists thought that earlier Maya people were simple farmers. The discoveries show that they used writing, drew pictures and built complex structures sooner than the experts knew. VOICE ONE: Scientists have found some things they say are more than two-thousand years old. For example, a team found two masks inside the main pyramid in the city of Cival. These masks are three meters tall. They are cut in the image of a sun god. The Maya used the pyramid as a temple. The masks may have been a part of ceremonies led by a king. Experts from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, made the discovery. Another Vanderbilt team reported on new research at the city of Cancuen. And scientists from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, made discoveries at the ancient city of Waka [wah-KAH]. The National Geographic Society supported all the research. VOICE TWO: At Waka, scientists found the burial place of a woman they think was a Maya queen. They do not know her name. But they believe she ruled more than one-thousand-two-hundred years ago. Her bones were lying on a stone table. Many jewels surrounded her remains. The team also found pieces of green stone that appeared to be the remains of the kind of war helmet worn by rulers. Scientists say the discovery will help then understand how Maya women shared power with men. Not many burial places of important royal women have been found. Tens of thousands of people may have lived in the ancient city of Waka. Today it is called El Peru. The Waka project is part of an effort to save an area of rainforest from farming and other illegal activities inside a national park. VOICE ONE: Also in northern Guatemala, scientists found a stone showing an eighth-century king playing a game of ball with visiting rulers. It is the third such stone found at the city of Cancuen. They also found large pieces of stone with writing and pictures of leaders. A Guatemalan expert called it one of the greater masterpieces of Maya art ever discovered in Guatemala. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A new government report warns that the United States may not have enough scientists in the future. The National Science Board says the situation threatens the economic health and security of the country. The United States is now seventeenth in its share of young people who train in science and engineering. In nineteen-seventy-five, the United States was third among nations in the number of people studying science. The report says the number of American jobs that require science and engineering will continue to grow. But the number of people prepared for those jobs will not. Today, thirty-eight percent of all the scientists and engineers in the United States are foreign born. But the National Science Board says the number of people with scientific training who come to the United States will decrease. One reason is because of limits to entry since the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. But there is also intense competition around the world for people with scientific skills. VOICE ONE: The National Science Board says that even if action is begun today, the situation will not improve for ten to twenty years. That is because students have to prepare at a young age if they want to become scientists or engineers. They must take the necessary math classes in middle school. The twenty-four member board governs the National Science Foundation. This independent federal agency advises Congress and the president. The report says the government has a responsibility to support education in science and technology at levels that will appeal to more students. VOICE TWO: Americans do still publish almost thirty-three percent of all scientific papers. This is one reason why not all scientists agree about the dangers to the health of American science. Still, they say schools and scientists themselves should be doing more to get young people to choose science over business or other jobs. For one thing, many older scientists will retire in the next ten years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. The National Library of Medicine, near Washington, D.C, is the largest center of medical information in the world. It is part of the National Institutes of Health. Doctors and scientists use this library. So do people from around the world who just want some health information. The library has a service on the Internet called MedlinePlus. This offers general information about more than six-hundred-fifty diseases and conditions. There is also a medical dictionary, and information about medicines. The Web site is medlineplus.gov. Again, the address is medlineplus dot g-o-v. The National Library of Medicine also has a Web site for older adults and their families. This service is called N.I.H. Senior Health. The address is nihseniorhealth.gov. The library created this site with the National Institute on Aging. Again, the site is nihseniorhealth, all one word, dot g-o-v. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people believe they are supposed to drink eight glasses of water a day, or about two liters. Why? Because that is what they have been told all their life. But a recent report offers some different advice. Experts say people should obey their bodies; they should drink as much water as they feel like drinking. The report says most healthy people meet their daily needs for liquid by letting thirst be their guide. The report is from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies. This organization provides scientific and technical advice to the government and the public. The report contains some general suggestions. The experts say women should get about two-point-seven liters of water daily. Men should get about three-point-seven liters. But wait -- in each case, that is more than eight glasses. VOICE ONE: There is one important difference. The report does not tell people how many glasses of water to drink. In fact, the experts say it may be impossible to know how many glasses are needed to meet these guidelines. This is because the daily water requirement can include the water content in foods. People do not get water only by forcing themselves to drink a set number of glasses per day. People also drink fruit juices and sodas and milk. They drink coffee and tea. These all contain water. Yet some also contain caffeine. This causes the body to expel more water. But the writers of the report say this does not mean the body loses too much water. As you might expect, the Institute of Medicine says people need to drink more water when they are physically active. The same is true of those who live in hot climates. Depending on heat and activity, people could need two times as much water as others do. All this, however, does not answer one question. No one seems sure why people have the idea that good health requires eight glasses of water daily. VOICE TWO: It may have started with a misunderstanding. In nineteen-forty-five, the National Academy of Sciences published some guidelines. Its Food and Nutrition Board said a good amount of water for most adults was two-point-five liters daily. This was based on an average of one milliliter for each calorie of food eaten. But that was only part of what the board said. It also said that most of this amount is contained in prepared foods. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Monsanto Decides Against Genetically Engineered Wheat
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 18, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, the Monsanto company announced that it would not sell genetically engineered wheat. The American company had been developing a kind of wheat for use with one of its top products. That product is Roundup. The chemicals in Roundup kill unwanted plants around crops. But the poison can kill crops, too. So farmers have to be careful. Monsanto has developed genetically engineered crops that can resist the product. Such crops are called Roundup-ready. Monsanto has already developed Roundup-ready soybeans, cotton and corn. The company says Roundup-ready wheat could have increased harvests by five to fifteen percent. But Monsanto found that the market is not ready for genetically engineered wheat. Monsanto says it invested less than five-million dollars in wheat this year, or less than one percent of its research budget. It says it might try again in four to eight years. Opposition to genetically engineered wheat came from outside and inside the United States. Japan, a major buyer of American wheat, opposed the new crop. Other big importers like the European Union and South Korea did not welcome the idea either. In the United States, many farmers who grow wheat for export did not want a genetically engineered product. They said they feared that many export buyers would reject it. There were also fears that the new product would mix with other wheat. The Monsanto decision pleased opponents of genetically engineered crops. Activists called it a victory for everyone. But the company says it made the decision for business reasons. Monsanto says planting of spring wheat in the United States and Canada has fallen by twenty-five percent in the last seven years. Use of wheat is expected to remain near current levels for several years. Products like genetically engineered soybeans, corn and cotton are already established in the market. But these crops are used mostly for animal food and vegetable oils, or cloth. There is greater opposition to the idea of genetically engineered foods like wheat, even though the industry says biotechnology is safe. Monsanto, for example, engineered potatoes to resist insects. But in two-thousand, the company faced resistance from McDonald's and other fast-food sellers. They did not want to sell a product that people might not want to buy. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Dry Tortugas National Park
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 Broadcast: May 19, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: May 19, 2004 (MUSIC) ANNCR: Welcome to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember visit one of the must unusual national parks in the United States. It is called the Dry Tortugas National Park. It includes seven very small islands about two-hundred kilometers southwest of the southern state of Florida. One of the islands was once a prison. Let us begin our visit by imagining we are traveling back in time more than one-hundred years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: ANNCR: Welcome to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, Mary Tillotson and Steve Ember visit one of the must unusual national parks in the United States. It is called the Dry Tortugas National Park. It includes seven very small islands about two-hundred kilometers southwest of the southern state of Florida. One of the islands was once a prison. Let us begin our visit by imagining we are traveling back in time more than one-hundred years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is the last few days of July in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. The United States Navy steamship “Florida” moves slowly toward a small island. Members of the crew tie the ship to the dock. Passengers begin to leave the ship. They move slowly in the extreme heat of the summer day. In front of them is a huge red brick building. The passengers walk over a small wooden bridge. It crosses an area of water that circles the huge building. They move slowly to the only door. They pass through the door and stop in front of a group of soldiers. VOICE TWO: An officer among the soldiers comes forward and tells the ship’s passengers to stop. He looks at the passengers and says, “You are now within the walls of the Fort Jefferson Military Prison in the Dry Tortugas. You have been tried, convicted and sentenced to serve your punishment here. “No prisoner has ever successfully escaped from Fort Jefferson. No one will ever escape. It is more than two-hundred kilometers across open ocean to the nearest occupied land.” VOICE ONE: Four of the prisoners that arrived that long ago day had been found guilty of taking part in the successful plot to murder the President of the United States…Abraham Lincoln. One of the prisoners was sentenced for giving medical aid to the man who killed President Lincoln. He was also found guilty of being an active member of the plot. That man was Samuel Mudd. He was a thirty-two year old doctor from the eastern state of Maryland. He had been sentenced to spend the rest of his life doing hard labor at Fort Jefferson. VOICE TWO The huge red brick building that faced Doctor Mudd and the other prisoners had six sides. It took up most of the land area of the small island. The six wide walls surrounded a large area of open space in the center. Each wall was about fifteen meters tall. Inside the walls were hundreds of rooms. Most of them held huge guns that pointed out to sea. Many other buildings were also inside the huge fort. Soldiers slept in them. Some of the houses were used by the officers. Soldiers and prisoners worked and lived within the walls of the fort. The extreme heat affected them all. Hundreds of sea birds flew over the small island. Doctor Mudd must have believed that those birds would be the only creatures that would ever escape from Fort Jefferson. He must have believed that far away island would be his new home for a very long time. But he was wrong. VOICE ONE: Three years later, in Eighteen-Sixty-Seven, Doctor Mudd was helping the prison doctor treat victims of the disease yellow fever. Many died. Soon, the prison doctor also lost his own battle with the disease. Only Doctor Mudd was left to treat the increasing number of men who became sick with Yellow Fever. Later, the sickness seemed to leave the island. Many of those who survived knew they owed their lives to Doctor Mudd. Almost every man in Fort Jefferson wrote to the President of the United States asking that Doctor Mudd be pardoned because of his work treating patients who had Yellow Fever. They said Doctor Mudd was a hero. In February Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, President Andrew Johnson signed a presidential pardon. Doctor Mudd was a free man. He left Fort Jefferson and returned to his home in the state of Maryland. He once again became a family doctor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first European visitor to the small islands was the Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon. He arrived in Fifteen-Thirteen. Ponce de Leon was an older man who was searching for special water that stories said would make him young again. It was called the “Fountain of Youth.” Ponce de Leon named the little islands the Tortugas. Tortugas is the Spanish word for the sea creature called a turtle. Thousands of them lived on the islands. Ponce de Leon was able to capture many to provide fresh meat for his ship’s crew. He never did find the special water of the Fountain of Youth. In fact, the little islands had no water at all. The Tortugas were dry. The word “dry” began to appear on early maps of the area to warn ships they could find no fresh water there. VOICE ONE: President Thomas Jefferson took an interest in the little islands as a place that could help protect ships traveling in a large area of water called the Florida Straits. He proposed a military base be built there. In Eighteen-Twenty-One, the United States took control of Florida and its islands. The military fort was not begun until Eighteen-Forty-Eight, long after Jefferson’s death. The fort was to be the home of one-thousand-five-hundred men and four-hundred-fifty huge cannon. It would become the largest American fort made of brick building material. VOICE TWO: Fort Jefferson was never really completed. It had to be worked on continually. The salt air, wind, water and sand quickly caused problems. The weight of the brick walls made then sink into the sand. It was difficult to keep the fort in good repair. As workers built new parts of the fort, others worked at repairing damage caused by the environment. Slaves and prisoners did the building and repair work at the fort. Most of the prisoners were army troops. They had been found guilty of some crime and ordered to serve their sentences at Fort Jefferson. In Eighteen Seventy-Four, the American army left Fort Jefferson. Modern artillery made the fort no longer useful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year, almost one-hundred thousand people made the long trip to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park. Soldiers no longer greet them when they arrive at Fort Jefferson. Friendly members of the National Park Service do. They meet every boat filled with visitors. They smile and say, “Welcome to Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas National Park.” The small island’s days as a prison are long past. Yet almost every visitor to the Dry Tortugas National Park asks about its most famous prisoner, Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd. They ask to see his room. Most people know that Doctor Mudd did not end his life in the Fort Jefferson prison. VOICE TWO: Today, the huge prison walls are empty. Only a few of the huge cannon remain. These have been left to show visitors what the old fort looked like. The weather continues to affect the fort’s buildings and grounds. So Park Service workers continue the fight against the severe environmental damage. VOICE ONE: The Park extends over an area of more than twenty-six-thousand hectares. Almost all of this is ocean water and living coral reefs that protect the little islands. Thousands of different kinds of fish live in the waters near the islands. Many ships have sunk in those waters over the past several hundred years. Many are inside the area that is part of the national park. The wrecks of these ships help provide safe places for many of the fish. Some visitors are lucky enough to see the huge sea turtles that gave the islands their name. The little islands are also home to many kinds of sea birds. Visitors are not permitted on some of the islands in the Dry Tortugas National Park because they would frighten birds that are laying eggs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Fort Jefferson was a prison, a sign was placed on the wall for new prisoners to see. It said, “Thee Who Enter Here Leave Hope Behind.” Few prisoners except for Doctor Mudd had any hope of ever leaving there. Today the sad old fort and empty little islands provide a protected home for thousands of birds, fish and turtles. Visitors travel for hours on high-speed boats that bring them from the island of Key West, Florida. They swim in the warm waters and enjoy the bright sun. Many explore the underwater shipwrecks. Still others bring temporary cloth shelters and spend a few days living on the white sand beaches. The striking natural beauty of the island today seems to clash with its earlier history as a lonely, inescapable prison. Doctor Mudd surely would approve of the change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Wayne Shorter. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. It is the last few days of July in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. The United States Navy steamship “Florida” moves slowly toward a small island. Members of the crew tie the ship to the dock. Passengers begin to leave the ship. They move slowly in the extreme heat of the summer day. In front of them is a huge red brick building. The passengers walk over a small wooden bridge. It crosses an area of water that circles the huge building. They move slowly to the only door. They pass through the door and stop in front of a group of soldiers. VOICE TWO: An officer among the soldiers comes forward and tells the ship’s passengers to stop. He looks at the passengers and says, “You are now within the walls of the Fort Jefferson Military Prison in the Dry Tortugas. You have been tried, convicted and sentenced to serve your punishment here. “No prisoner has ever successfully escaped from Fort Jefferson. No one will ever escape. It is more than two-hundred kilometers across open ocean to the nearest occupied land.” VOICE ONE: Four of the prisoners that arrived that long ago day had been found guilty of taking part in the successful plot to murder the President of the United States…Abraham Lincoln. One of the prisoners was sentenced for giving medical aid to the man who killed President Lincoln. He was also found guilty of being an active member of the plot. That man was Samuel Mudd. He was a thirty-two year old doctor from the eastern state of Maryland. He had been sentenced to spend the rest of his life doing hard labor at Fort Jefferson. VOICE TWO The huge red brick building that faced Doctor Mudd and the other prisoners had six sides. It took up most of the land area of the small island. The six wide walls surrounded a large area of open space in the center. Each wall was about fifteen meters tall. Inside the walls were hundreds of rooms. Most of them held huge guns that pointed out to sea. Many other buildings were also inside the huge fort. Soldiers slept in them. Some of the houses were used by the officers. Soldiers and prisoners worked and lived within the walls of the fort. The extreme heat affected them all. Hundreds of sea birds flew over the small island. Doctor Mudd must have believed that those birds would be the only creatures that would ever escape from Fort Jefferson. He must have believed that far away island would be his new home for a very long time. But he was wrong. VOICE ONE: Three years later, in Eighteen-Sixty-Seven, Doctor Mudd was helping the prison doctor treat victims of the disease yellow fever. Many died. Soon, the prison doctor also lost his own battle with the disease. Only Doctor Mudd was left to treat the increasing number of men who became sick with Yellow Fever. Later, the sickness seemed to leave the island. Many of those who survived knew they owed their lives to Doctor Mudd. Almost every man in Fort Jefferson wrote to the President of the United States asking that Doctor Mudd be pardoned because of his work treating patients who had Yellow Fever. They said Doctor Mudd was a hero. In February Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, President Andrew Johnson signed a presidential pardon. Doctor Mudd was a free man. He left Fort Jefferson and returned to his home in the state of Maryland. He once again became a family doctor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first European visitor to the small islands was the Spanish explorer, Ponce de Leon. He arrived in Fifteen-Thirteen. Ponce de Leon was an older man who was searching for special water that stories said would make him young again. It was called the “Fountain of Youth.” Ponce de Leon named the little islands the Tortugas. Tortugas is the Spanish word for the sea creature called a turtle. Thousands of them lived on the islands. Ponce de Leon was able to capture many to provide fresh meat for his ship’s crew. He never did find the special water of the Fountain of Youth. In fact, the little islands had no water at all. The Tortugas were dry. The word “dry” began to appear on early maps of the area to warn ships they could find no fresh water there. VOICE ONE: President Thomas Jefferson took an interest in the little islands as a place that could help protect ships traveling in a large area of water called the Florida Straits. He proposed a military base be built there. In Eighteen-Twenty-One, the United States took control of Florida and its islands. The military fort was not begun until Eighteen-Forty-Eight, long after Jefferson’s death. The fort was to be the home of one-thousand-five-hundred men and four-hundred-fifty huge cannon. It would become the largest American fort made of brick building material. VOICE TWO: Fort Jefferson was never really completed. It had to be worked on continually. The salt air, wind, water and sand quickly caused problems. The weight of the brick walls made then sink into the sand. It was difficult to keep the fort in good repair. As workers built new parts of the fort, others worked at repairing damage caused by the environment. Slaves and prisoners did the building and repair work at the fort. Most of the prisoners were army troops. They had been found guilty of some crime and ordered to serve their sentences at Fort Jefferson. In Eighteen Seventy-Four, the American army left Fort Jefferson. Modern artillery made the fort no longer useful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last year, almost one-hundred thousand people made the long trip to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park. Soldiers no longer greet them when they arrive at Fort Jefferson. Friendly members of the National Park Service do. They meet every boat filled with visitors. They smile and say, “Welcome to Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas National Park.” The small island’s days as a prison are long past. Yet almost every visitor to the Dry Tortugas National Park asks about its most famous prisoner, Doctor Samuel Alexander Mudd. They ask to see his room. Most people know that Doctor Mudd did not end his life in the Fort Jefferson prison. VOICE TWO: Today, the huge prison walls are empty. Only a few of the huge cannon remain. These have been left to show visitors what the old fort looked like. The weather continues to affect the fort’s buildings and grounds. So Park Service workers continue the fight against the severe environmental damage. VOICE ONE: The Park extends over an area of more than twenty-six-thousand hectares. Almost all of this is ocean water and living coral reefs that protect the little islands. Thousands of different kinds of fish live in the waters near the islands. Many ships have sunk in those waters over the past several hundred years. Many are inside the area that is part of the national park. The wrecks of these ships help provide safe places for many of the fish. Some visitors are lucky enough to see the huge sea turtles that gave the islands their name. The little islands are also home to many kinds of sea birds. Visitors are not permitted on some of the islands in the Dry Tortugas National Park because they would frighten birds that are laying eggs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Fort Jefferson was a prison, a sign was placed on the wall for new prisoners to see. It said, “Thee Who Enter Here Leave Hope Behind.” Few prisoners except for Doctor Mudd had any hope of ever leaving there. Today the sad old fort and empty little islands provide a protected home for thousands of birds, fish and turtles. Visitors travel for hours on high-speed boats that bring them from the island of Key West, Florida. They swim in the warm waters and enjoy the bright sun. Many explore the underwater shipwrecks. Still others bring temporary cloth shelters and spend a few days living on the white sand beaches. The striking natural beauty of the island today seems to clash with its earlier history as a lonely, inescapable prison. Doctor Mudd surely would approve of the change. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Wayne Shorter. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-18-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Doctors Study Benefits of Severely Reduced Calories
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 19, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Calories are a measure of energy in food. A small study has found that people improved their health when they severely restricted the amount of calories they ate. The study found that the people reduced their risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes. Such risk normally increases with age. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri, led the study. They say lower risk of disease means that the people can expect to live longer than average lives. The results appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers compared people who ate a traditional Western diet with people who ate fewer calories. They found that those who restricted their calories had less chance of blocked arteries. Fatty material can block the flow of blood to the heart and brain, and cause a heart attack or stroke. The researchers found the people for the study through an organization called the Caloric Restriction Optimal Nutrition Society. Members of this group try to eat between ten and twenty-five percent fewer calories than the average American. Eighteen members took part in the study. Their ages were thirty-five to eighty-two. They had lived on restricted calories for between three years and fifteen years. Doctors compared them with a group of people who ate normally. The calorie-restricted group ate between one-thousand-one-hundred calories and about two-thousand calories per day. The amount depended on their weight, height and sex. Twenty-six percent of the calories came from protein. Twenty-eight percent came from fat. And forty-six percent came from complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains. The other group ate between about two-thousand and three-thousand-five-hundred calories per day. Eighteen percent of their calories came from protein. Thirty-two percent came from fat. And fifty percent came from carbohydrates. These included processed sugars and grains. The researchers tested both groups for signs of blocked arteries. The team measured blood pressure and levels of several chemicals in the blood, including cholesterol and triglycerides. The doctors said some of the people who ate fewer calories had results like those of people many years younger. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #63 - Andrew Jackson, Part 7
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 20, 2004 (MUSIC) Senator Henry Clay</b< Broadcast: May 20, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The national election of eighteen-thirty-two put Andrew Jackson in the White House for a second term as president. One of the major events of his second term was the fight against the Bank of the United States. Jackson believed that the bank had grown too powerful. He urged Congress not to re-new the bank's charter to do business. He also stopped putting federal money into the Bank of the United States. Instead, he put this money into state banks. The head of the Bank of the United States was Nicholas Biddle. Biddle fought with all his power to keep the bank open. He created a financial panic and blamed it on President Jackson. Biddle did this by demanding immediate repayment of private loans. Businesses were in trouble without the bank's financial assistance. Workers lost their jobs. President Jackson was warned of mob action. But nothing happened. Most of the battle against the Bank of the United States was fought in Congress. VOICE TWO: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky led the support for the bank. Clay was head of the opposition political party, the National Republicans. Clay argued his case on the floor of the Senate for three days. He strongly urged the Senate to re-new the bank's charter. He said: "The country is in the middle of a revolution...not yet a bloody revolution. But things are happening that point to a total change of the pure republican character of our government. Power is being centered in the hands of one man." He meant President Jackson. Clay added: "If Congress does not act, the government will fail. And we will all die as slaves." Clay then asked the Senate to condemn Jackson for violating the constitution and the nation's laws. The Senate approved the resolution. VOICE ONE: Things went better for Jackson in the House of Representatives. James Polk defended Jackson's opposition to the bank. Polk said: "The bank set itself up as a great, irresponsible, competing power of the government. If the bank wins this fight, no man afterwards can expect to be elected to high office in this country without first surrendering to the bank. The question is," Polk said, "if we shall have the republic without the bank or the bank without the republic." VOICE TWO As time passed, businessmen began to see that the Bnk of the United States was being much tighter in its money policy than was necessary. They began to feel that it was Biddle -- not Jackson -- who was responsible for the serious economic situation in the country. Biddle took no responsibility for the financial crisis. He said: "The relief must come from Congress, and Congress alone. The bank feels no need to right the wrongs caused by these miserable people. This president thinks he is to have his way with the bank. He is mistaken." VOICE ONE: Biddle then made a serious mistake. e asked the governor of Pennsylvania to make a speech to the state legislature...a speech supporting the bank. At the same time, Biddle refused to lend the state of Pennsylvania three-hundred-thousand dollars. The governor was furious. Instead of making a speech supporting the bank, he made one that sharply criticized it. The upper house of the Pennsylvania legislature agreed with the governor. Although Nicholas Biddle threatened all sorts of action, the upper house passed a resolution that Congress should not give the bank a new charter. VOICE TWO: Two days later, the governor of New York proposed that the state sell four or five million dollars of stock for loans to help state banks. The New York legislature approved selling even more. This action would strengthen the state banks and help to break the power of the Bank of the United States. Nicholas Biddle began to see that the battle was lost. He started making more loans to business. The economic panic he had started slowly ended. VOICE ONE: Jackson's victory over the Bank of the United States was clear. Biddle started to lose the support of many members of Congress. In the House of Representatives, James Polk proposed four resolutions on the bank. One said the bank should not get a new charter. The second resolution said government money should not be deposited in the bank. The third said the government should continue to put its money in state banks. And the fourth proposed an investigation of the bank and the reasons for the economic panic in the country. All four of these anti-bank resolutions were approved. VOICE TWO: One of Biddle's assistants described the feelings of bank officials. "This day," he said, "should be ripped from the history of our republic. The president of the United States has seized the public treasury in violation of the law of the land. And the representatives of the people have approved his action." Jackson's words were shorter: "I have won a glorious triumph." VOICE ONE: The other major event of Andrew Jackson's second term as president was the situation in Texas. In an agreement with Spain in eighteen-nineteen, the United States had given up its claim to Texas. In exchange, Spain gave the United States all of Florida. After Mexico won its independence from Spain in eighteen-twenty-one, the United States tried to buy Texas. Mexico did not want to sell. When Andrew Jackson became president he, too, tried to buy Texas. Mexico still refused to sell. VOICE TWO: Texas was a rich land. But it was empty. Mexico decided to permit Americans to build colonies in Texas. Stephen Austin formed the first colony in eighteen-twenty-two. Each farming family in his colony could have about eighty hectares of land. Each family that wished to raise cattle could have about two-thousand hectares. The settlers in Texas were able to buy the land for almost nothing. But they had to promise to join the Roman Catholic Church. They also had to promise to obey the laws of Mexico. Most of the settlers came from the states of Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Many owned slaves and brought the slaves with them to Texas. During the eighteen-twenties, Americans poured into Texas for the low-priced land. VOICE ONE: The leader of one American colony got into trouble with the Mexican government. He was ordered to leave, but refused. With the help of a few supporters, he seized the town of Nacogdoches. He declared Texas to be an independent republic. He called it Fredonia. This man expected the other American colonists to join him against Mexico. He was wrong. Most of the colonists did not support him. In fact, some even joined the Mexican force that put down his rebellion. The man fled back across the border into the United States. VOICE TWO: The rebellion failed. But it made Mexican leaders see the danger of continuing to permit Americans to settle in Texas. The Mexican government sent an official to inspect conditions along the border with the United States. The official reported that as he traveled north through Texas, he saw less and less that was Mexican...and more and more that was American. He said there were very few Mexicans in some towns. And these Mexicans, he said, were extremely poor. He said the American settlers were not becoming true Mexicans. They were not speaking Spanish. They were not becoming Roman Catholics. And they were not accepting Mexican traditions. The official said the situation in Texas could throw the whole Mexican nation into revolution. He urged Mexico to send troops to occupy Texas. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen to THE MAKING OF A NATION again next week at this same time. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) The national election of eighteen-thirty-two put Andrew Jackson in the White House for a second term as president. One of the major events of his second term was the fight against the Bank of the United States. Jackson believed that the bank had grown too powerful. He urged Congress not to re-new the bank's charter to do business. He also stopped putting federal money into the Bank of the United States. Instead, he put this money into state banks. The head of the Bank of the United States was Nicholas Biddle. Biddle fought with all his power to keep the bank open. He created a financial panic and blamed it on President Jackson. Biddle did this by demanding immediate repayment of private loans. Businesses were in trouble without the bank's financial assistance. Workers lost their jobs. President Jackson was warned of mob action. But nothing happened. Most of the battle against the Bank of the United States was fought in Congress. VOICE TWO: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky led the support for the bank. Clay was head of the opposition political party, the National Republicans. Clay argued his case on the floor of the Senate for three days. He strongly urged the Senate to re-new the bank's charter. He said: "The country is in the middle of a revolution...not yet a bloody revolution. But things are happening that point to a total change of the pure republican character of our government. Power is being centered in the hands of one man." He meant President Jackson. Clay added: "If Congress does not act, the government will fail. And we will all die as slaves." Clay then asked the Senate to condemn Jackson for violating the constitution and the nation's laws. The Senate approved the resolution. VOICE ONE: Things went better for Jackson in the House of Representatives. James Polk defended Jackson's opposition to the bank. Polk said: "The bank set itself up as a great, irresponsible, competing power of the government. If the bank wins this fight, no man afterwards can expect to be elected to high office in this country without first surrendering to the bank. The question is," Polk said, "if we shall have the republic without the bank or the bank without the republic." VOICE TWO As time passed, businessmen began to see that the Bnk of the United States was being much tighter in its money policy than was necessary. They began to feel that it was Biddle -- not Jackson -- who was responsible for the serious economic situation in the country. Biddle took no responsibility for the financial crisis. He said: "The relief must come from Congress, and Congress alone. The bank feels no need to right the wrongs caused by these miserable people. This president thinks he is to have his way with the bank. He is mistaken." VOICE ONE: Biddle then made a serious mistake. e asked the governor of Pennsylvania to make a speech to the state legislature...a speech supporting the bank. At the same time, Biddle refused to lend the state of Pennsylvania three-hundred-thousand dollars. The governor was furious. Instead of making a speech supporting the bank, he made one that sharply criticized it. The upper house of the Pennsylvania legislature agreed with the governor. Although Nicholas Biddle threatened all sorts of action, the upper house passed a resolution that Congress should not give the bank a new charter. VOICE TWO: Two days later, the governor of New York proposed that the state sell four or five million dollars of stock for loans to help state banks. The New York legislature approved selling even more. This action would strengthen the state banks and help to break the power of the Bank of the United States. Nicholas Biddle began to see that the battle was lost. He started making more loans to business. The economic panic he had started slowly ended. VOICE ONE: Jackson's victory over the Bank of the United States was clear. Biddle started to lose the support of many members of Congress. In the House of Representatives, James Polk proposed four resolutions on the bank. One said the bank should not get a new charter. The second resolution said government money should not be deposited in the bank. The third said the government should continue to put its money in state banks. And the fourth proposed an investigation of the bank and the reasons for the economic panic in the country. All four of these anti-bank resolutions were approved. VOICE TWO: One of Biddle's assistants described the feelings of bank officials. "This day," he said, "should be ripped from the history of our republic. The president of the United States has seized the public treasury in violation of the law of the land. And the representatives of the people have approved his action." Jackson's words were shorter: "I have won a glorious triumph." VOICE ONE: The other major event of Andrew Jackson's second term as president was the situation in Texas. In an agreement with Spain in eighteen-nineteen, the United States had given up its claim to Texas. In exchange, Spain gave the United States all of Florida. After Mexico won its independence from Spain in eighteen-twenty-one, the United States tried to buy Texas. Mexico did not want to sell. When Andrew Jackson became president he, too, tried to buy Texas. Mexico still refused to sell. VOICE TWO: Texas was a rich land. But it was empty. Mexico decided to permit Americans to build colonies in Texas. Stephen Austin formed the first colony in eighteen-twenty-two. Each farming family in his colony could have about eighty hectares of land. Each family that wished to raise cattle could have about two-thousand hectares. The settlers in Texas were able to buy the land for almost nothing. But they had to promise to join the Roman Catholic Church. They also had to promise to obey the laws of Mexico. Most of the settlers came from the states of Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. Many owned slaves and brought the slaves with them to Texas. During the eighteen-twenties, Americans poured into Texas for the low-priced land. VOICE ONE: The leader of one American colony got into trouble with the Mexican government. He was ordered to leave, but refused. With the help of a few supporters, he seized the town of Nacogdoches. He declared Texas to be an independent republic. He called it Fredonia. This man expected the other American colonists to join him against Mexico. He was wrong. Most of the colonists did not support him. In fact, some even joined the Mexican force that put down his rebellion. The man fled back across the border into the United States. VOICE TWO: The rebellion failed. But it made Mexican leaders see the danger of continuing to permit Americans to settle in Texas. The Mexican government sent an official to inspect conditions along the border with the United States. The official reported that as he traveled north through Texas, he saw less and less that was Mexican...and more and more that was American. He said there were very few Mexicans in some towns. And these Mexicans, he said, were extremely poor. He said the American settlers were not becoming true Mexicans. They were not speaking Spanish. They were not becoming Roman Catholics. And they were not accepting Mexican traditions. The official said the situation in Texas could throw the whole Mexican nation into revolution. He urged Mexico to send troops to occupy Texas. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The Voice of America invites you to listen to THE MAKING OF A NATION again next week at this same time. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Student Winners of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 20, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Broadcast: May 20, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. High school students from more than forty countries gathered last week in the American Northwest. They took part in the two-thousand-four Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. They competed for more than three-million dollars in awards and money for college. We told you last week about five high school teachers honored for their excellence in teaching mathematics and science. They won money and a trip to the science and engineering fair held last week in Portland, Oregon. Now, meet a few of the students honored for the projects they presented there. The top winners are from the United States, Germany and China. They were named Intel Young Scientists. Each received a high performance computer and fifty-thousand dollars for college. One of the winners is seventeen-year-old Sarah Rose Langberg of Fort Myers, Florida. She won a top prize for her project in Earth and space sciences. She investigated the southern Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Pacific Ocean. This is one of the most active volcanic areas on Earth. She studied video images from the ocean floor and did other research in an effort to explain details of this area. Eighteen-year-old Uwe Treske of Grafenhainichen Germany, won for his physics project. He used common materials to develop a low-cost version of a powerful device called a scanning tunneling microscope. The third top winner is nineteen-year-old Zhu Yuanchen of Shanghai. His computer science project involved computer graphics. He developed a way to produce high-quality images with clearer detail in less time. More than one-thousand-three-hundred students competed in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Intel calls it "the world's largest pre-college celebration of science." The computer technology company in the United States has held the fair since nineteen-ninety-seven. But a non-profit organization called Science Service has administered the event for the past fifty-five years. You can learn more information about Science Service and the fair through the Internet. The Web site is sciserv.org. Again, the address is sciserv.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. High school students from more than forty countries gathered last week in the American Northwest. They took part in the two-thousand-four Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. They competed for more than three-million dollars in awards and money for college. We told you last week about five high school teachers honored for their excellence in teaching mathematics and science. They won money and a trip to the science and engineering fair held last week in Portland, Oregon. Now, meet a few of the students honored for the projects they presented there. The top winners are from the United States, Germany and China. They were named Intel Young Scientists. Each received a high performance computer and fifty-thousand dollars for college. One of the winners is seventeen-year-old Sarah Rose Langberg of Fort Myers, Florida. She won a top prize for her project in Earth and space sciences. She investigated the southern Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Pacific Ocean. This is one of the most active volcanic areas on Earth. She studied video images from the ocean floor and did other research in an effort to explain details of this area. Eighteen-year-old Uwe Treske of Grafenhainichen Germany, won for his physics project. He used common materials to develop a low-cost version of a powerful device called a scanning tunneling microscope. The third top winner is nineteen-year-old Zhu Yuanchen of Shanghai. His computer science project involved computer graphics. He developed a way to produce high-quality images with clearer detail in less time. More than one-thousand-three-hundred students competed in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Intel calls it "the world's largest pre-college celebration of science." The computer technology company in the United States has held the fair since nineteen-ninety-seven. But a non-profit organization called Science Service has administered the event for the past fifty-five years. You can learn more information about Science Service and the fair through the Internet. The Web site is sciserv.org. Again, the address is sciserv.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 20, 2004 - Lida Baker: Voiced and Voiceless Sounds in English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: May 20, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- helping English learners find their voice. RS: It's time for our monthly visit with English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. Today she has advice about how to master sounds that are often a source of confusion for students learning English. AA: In linguistic jargon they're called voiced and voiceless sounds. BAKER: "When we talk about voiced and voiceless sounds, what we're talking about primarily are consonant pairs in English where you have two sounds that are identical, except that one has vibration in the throat and the other doesn't." AA: "Like park and bark." BAKER: "Park and bark. Peach and beach. Pears and bears. Arabic speakers, for the most part -- generally the Arabic language does not have a 'phh' sound, the p, at the beginnings of words. So it is hard for an Arabic student to pronounce a word like 'pears.' So if an Arabic speaker says 'there are bears in the garden,' he might think that he's referring to a fruit. But what an English speaker hears is that there is a big scary animal. "If a German speaker says 'I'm choking,' the German speaker might mean that he is, in fact, joking. But Germans are not able, for the most part again, to pronounce a 'j' sound at the beginning of words, because the German language just doesn't have that. So what they'll do is substitute the 'ch' at the beginning of the word. And then you have the comprehension difficulty. Is he saying 'I'm choking' or 'I'm joking,' see? [laughter] So this could potentially lead to some unintended consequences." RS: "So what do you do? You first recognize that you've got a problem or there's an issue?" BAKER: "Well, you can't take that step for granted. The first step, in fact, is consciousness raising, where when you have people learning English, it's important to make them aware of the sound differences between their language and the English language. They don't know that there is a problem -- that, you know, English has two sounds where their language has only one sound. So the first step would be to simply make them aware of these differences." RS: "They can actually feel it, right?" BAKER: "That's right. You can feel it. The way to do is -- and all the people in our listening audience should play along with me now -- open up your hand and put it on your throat, and say 'bhh.'" RS & AA: "Bhh." BAKER: "Now what do you feel in your throat?" AA: "Vibration." BAKER: "Vibration. You feel something moving. You know what that is? That's your vocal cords, and there are two vocal cords, and they actually vibrate like the strings on a violin or a guitar. Now, in contrast to that, say 'phh' -- " AA: "Pah." BAKER: "Now don't say 'pah.' Because of the vowel. You see, all vowels are voiced. So just say 'phh.'" AA: "Yeah, no vibration." BAKER: "No vibration." RS: "Nothing there." BAKER: "Or here are some other voiceless sounds: ssssss." RS & AA: "Ssssss." BAKER: "No vibration, right?" AA: "No." RS: "Nothing." BAKER: "Now say 'muh.'" RS: "Oh, there you can feel it." BAKER: "You can feel it. So it's very easy to help students to distinguish between voiced and voiceless sounds just by having them do this physical action of putting their hand on their throat. And you can practice starting with minimal pairs like peach/beach, jeep/cheap for German speakers, or leaf/leave. Speakers of many languages have difficulty with the voiced/voiceless pair of 'f' and 'v,' especially at the ends of words, OK? "And then you start expanding into phrases and finally into sentences. And you can do this in a very controlled way, in the form of drills. But eventually what you want to do is give students more open and communicative contexts in which some of these minimal pairs might arise." RS: "You can feel the difference. But can you hear the difference?" BAKER: "After this consciousness-raising phase, where students become aware of the existence of voiced and voiceless pairs, the next step would be to do exercises where we're asking them to hear the differences. So one of my favorite activities is, I'll say something like 'there are pears in the garden.' And what I'll instruct them to do is to hold up one finger if they hear the voiceless -- the 'phh' -- and hold up two fingers if they hear the voiced, or 'bhh.' It's a wonderful activity, because the students are getting feedback from one another, instead of the teacher having to say 'that's right/that's wrong.'" AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. RS: You can find her previous segments on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: May 20, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- helping English learners find their voice. RS: It's time for our monthly visit with English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. Today she has advice about how to master sounds that are often a source of confusion for students learning English. AA: In linguistic jargon they're called voiced and voiceless sounds. BAKER: "When we talk about voiced and voiceless sounds, what we're talking about primarily are consonant pairs in English where you have two sounds that are identical, except that one has vibration in the throat and the other doesn't." AA: "Like park and bark." BAKER: "Park and bark. Peach and beach. Pears and bears. Arabic speakers, for the most part -- generally the Arabic language does not have a 'phh' sound, the p, at the beginnings of words. So it is hard for an Arabic student to pronounce a word like 'pears.' So if an Arabic speaker says 'there are bears in the garden,' he might think that he's referring to a fruit. But what an English speaker hears is that there is a big scary animal. "If a German speaker says 'I'm choking,' the German speaker might mean that he is, in fact, joking. But Germans are not able, for the most part again, to pronounce a 'j' sound at the beginning of words, because the German language just doesn't have that. So what they'll do is substitute the 'ch' at the beginning of the word. And then you have the comprehension difficulty. Is he saying 'I'm choking' or 'I'm joking,' see? [laughter] So this could potentially lead to some unintended consequences." RS: "So what do you do? You first recognize that you've got a problem or there's an issue?" BAKER: "Well, you can't take that step for granted. The first step, in fact, is consciousness raising, where when you have people learning English, it's important to make them aware of the sound differences between their language and the English language. They don't know that there is a problem -- that, you know, English has two sounds where their language has only one sound. So the first step would be to simply make them aware of these differences." RS: "They can actually feel it, right?" BAKER: "That's right. You can feel it. The way to do is -- and all the people in our listening audience should play along with me now -- open up your hand and put it on your throat, and say 'bhh.'" RS & AA: "Bhh." BAKER: "Now what do you feel in your throat?" AA: "Vibration." BAKER: "Vibration. You feel something moving. You know what that is? That's your vocal cords, and there are two vocal cords, and they actually vibrate like the strings on a violin or a guitar. Now, in contrast to that, say 'phh' -- " AA: "Pah." BAKER: "Now don't say 'pah.' Because of the vowel. You see, all vowels are voiced. So just say 'phh.'" AA: "Yeah, no vibration." BAKER: "No vibration." RS: "Nothing there." BAKER: "Or here are some other voiceless sounds: ssssss." RS & AA: "Ssssss." BAKER: "No vibration, right?" AA: "No." RS: "Nothing." BAKER: "Now say 'muh.'" RS: "Oh, there you can feel it." BAKER: "You can feel it. So it's very easy to help students to distinguish between voiced and voiceless sounds just by having them do this physical action of putting their hand on their throat. And you can practice starting with minimal pairs like peach/beach, jeep/cheap for German speakers, or leaf/leave. Speakers of many languages have difficulty with the voiced/voiceless pair of 'f' and 'v,' especially at the ends of words, OK? "And then you start expanding into phrases and finally into sentences. And you can do this in a very controlled way, in the form of drills. But eventually what you want to do is give students more open and communicative contexts in which some of these minimal pairs might arise." RS: "You can feel the difference. But can you hear the difference?" BAKER: "After this consciousness-raising phase, where students become aware of the existence of voiced and voiceless pairs, the next step would be to do exercises where we're asking them to hear the differences. So one of my favorite activities is, I'll say something like 'there are pears in the garden.' And what I'll instruct them to do is to hold up one finger if they hear the voiceless -- the 'phh' -- and hold up two fingers if they hear the voiced, or 'bhh.' It's a wonderful activity, because the students are getting feedback from one another, instead of the teacher having to say 'that's right/that's wrong.'" AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. RS: You can find her previous segments on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Proms / Katharine Hepburn / Music by Prince
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 21, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: May 21, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music from Prince, and a question about the actress Katharine Hepburn. But first, a report about formal dances called proms. Katharine Hepburn in 'Woman of the Year' Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music from Prince, and a question about the actress Katharine Hepburn. But first, a report about formal dances called proms. Proms HOST: Many American high school students attend proms each spring. Prom is short for promenade, a word meaning formal dance. It is traditional for a young man and woman to attend the dance together. But some American teenagers do not go to the prom on a formal date. They go with a group of friends instead. But however they go, the prom usually costs a lot of money for special clothes, flowers and dinner before the dance. Shep O’Neal tells about a way to reduce the cost of the prom. ANNCR: Last year, Rebecca Kirtman was a sixteen- year-old high school student in the southern state of Florida. She was killed in a car accident. Before she died, she had collected more than two-hundred prom gowns and gave them to poor girls across the state. Such dresses can cost hundreds of dollars. After her death, Rebecca’s friends and family continued this work. They even opened a special store called Becca’s Closet. More than twenty other similar stores are opening in nine states. Another is starting in Singapore. Proms HOST: Many American high school students attend proms each spring. Prom is short for promenade, a word meaning formal dance. It is traditional for a young man and woman to attend the dance together. But some American teenagers do not go to the prom on a formal date. They go with a group of friends instead. But however they go, the prom usually costs a lot of money for special clothes, flowers and dinner before the dance. Shep O’Neal tells about a way to reduce the cost of the prom. ANNCR: Last year, Rebecca Kirtman was a sixteen- year-old high school student in the southern state of Florida. She was killed in a car accident. Before she died, she had collected more than two-hundred prom gowns and gave them to poor girls across the state. Such dresses can cost hundreds of dollars. After her death, Rebecca’s friends and family continued this work. They even opened a special store called Becca’s Closet. More than twenty other similar stores are opening in nine states. Another is starting in Singapore. Rebecca’s family members say they are surprised that the idea has spread so quickly. They say Rebecca got the idea after reading a report about wealthy girls who gave their prom dresses to needy girls. She wrote to dress companies and asked them to send her some prom gowns. They did. Today, Becca’s Closet is an organization that provides formal dresses to young women who do not have enough money to buy one for proms or other formal dances. Where do the dresses come from? Reports say they are sent from all over the country, including some from actors in television shows. Girls who need a dress contact the organization through its Web site and make an appointment to see the dresses. Then they go to the store and choose the one they want to wear to the dance. The Becca’s Closet web site says the organization is expanding its goals. It says that Becca’s Closet will in the future include formal clothes for young men as well as women. And the organization has established a fund to provide college financial aid to students who need it. Becca’s Closet says it honors Rebecca Kirtman by continuing to help young people as she would have. Katharine Hepburn HOST: Our listener question this week comes from a computer science student named Tsuly, at Huazhong Agricultural University in China. Tsuly is a fan of old movies with Katharine Hepburn and wants to know more about this former star. Katharine Hepburn once said: “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” She was famous for saying things that were funny but true. She had a sharp mind and, sometimes, a sharp tongue. Katharine Hepburn died in July of two-thousand-three. She was in the movie business for more than sixty years. She held the record for the most Academy Awards. She won four Oscars and was nominated for eight others. Katharine Hepburn made more than fifty movies. She was sometimes called the First Lady of Cinema. But she was a stage actress first. She performed in plays on Broadway in New York. She was nominated for two Tony awards. In Hollywood, Katharine Hepburn said she liked movie work immediately. Her first film, “A Bill of Divorcement,” was a hit. She won her first Oscar for her third movie, “Morning Glory.” Her other popular movies include “The Philadelphia Story” and “The African Queen.” The actress was born in Connecticut in nineteen-oh-seven. Her father was a doctor. Her mother was an activist for the right for women to vote. Katharine Hepburn said her parents taught her freedom from fear. She starred in nine movies with Spencer Tracy. They also had a relationship together. It lasted almost thirty years, until his death. Throughout this time, Spencer Tracy was married to another woman. Katharine Hepburn was ninety-six years old when she died last year. Another famous Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Taylor, had these words to remember her. She said every actress in the world hoped to be like Katharine Hepburn. Prince (MUSIC: "Purple Rain") HOST: That song made American rock singer Prince famous back in nineten-eighty-four. He never stopped recording and performing, but has never been as successful as he was then. Now, critics are praising his new album, Musicology. Gwen Outen has more. ANNCR: Prince Rogers Nelson is forty-five years old now. Critics say his new album shows that he has grown up and has a message for his listeners. One example is this song that discusses some of the problems in the world. (MUSIC) But Prince has not forgotten to include a jazzy sound in his music. Here he performs the song “What Do You Want Me To Do?” (MUSIC) Prince says the songs on his new album represent his return to a kind of early rock music. And some critics say it sounds like the early records that made him famous. We leave you now with the title song from Prince’s new album, “Musicology.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. Rebecca’s family members say they are surprised that the idea has spread so quickly. They say Rebecca got the idea after reading a report about wealthy girls who gave their prom dresses to needy girls. She wrote to dress companies and asked them to send her some prom gowns. They did. Today, Becca’s Closet is an organization that provides formal dresses to young women who do not have enough money to buy one for proms or other formal dances. Where do the dresses come from? Reports say they are sent from all over the country, including some from actors in television shows. Girls who need a dress contact the organization through its Web site and make an appointment to see the dresses. Then they go to the store and choose the one they want to wear to the dance. The Becca’s Closet web site says the organization is expanding its goals. It says that Becca’s Closet will in the future include formal clothes for young men as well as women. And the organization has established a fund to provide college financial aid to students who need it. Becca’s Closet says it honors Rebecca Kirtman by continuing to help young people as she would have. Katharine Hepburn HOST: Our listener question this week comes from a computer science student named Tsuly, at Huazhong Agricultural University in China. Tsuly is a fan of old movies with Katharine Hepburn and wants to know more about this former star. Katharine Hepburn once said: “Life is hard. After all, it kills you.” She was famous for saying things that were funny but true. She had a sharp mind and, sometimes, a sharp tongue. Katharine Hepburn died in July of two-thousand-three. She was in the movie business for more than sixty years. She held the record for the most Academy Awards. She won four Oscars and was nominated for eight others. Katharine Hepburn made more than fifty movies. She was sometimes called the First Lady of Cinema. But she was a stage actress first. She performed in plays on Broadway in New York. She was nominated for two Tony awards. In Hollywood, Katharine Hepburn said she liked movie work immediately. Her first film, “A Bill of Divorcement,” was a hit. She won her first Oscar for her third movie, “Morning Glory.” Her other popular movies include “The Philadelphia Story” and “The African Queen.” The actress was born in Connecticut in nineteen-oh-seven. Her father was a doctor. Her mother was an activist for the right for women to vote. Katharine Hepburn said her parents taught her freedom from fear. She starred in nine movies with Spencer Tracy. They also had a relationship together. It lasted almost thirty years, until his death. Throughout this time, Spencer Tracy was married to another woman. Katharine Hepburn was ninety-six years old when she died last year. Another famous Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Taylor, had these words to remember her. She said every actress in the world hoped to be like Katharine Hepburn. Prince (MUSIC: "Purple Rain") HOST: That song made American rock singer Prince famous back in nineten-eighty-four. He never stopped recording and performing, but has never been as successful as he was then. Now, critics are praising his new album, Musicology. Gwen Outen has more. ANNCR: Prince Rogers Nelson is forty-five years old now. Critics say his new album shows that he has grown up and has a message for his listeners. One example is this song that discusses some of the problems in the world. (MUSIC) But Prince has not forgotten to include a jazzy sound in his music. Here he performs the song “What Do You Want Me To Do?” (MUSIC) Prince says the songs on his new album represent his return to a kind of early rock music. And some critics say it sounds like the early records that made him famous. We leave you now with the title song from Prince’s new album, “Musicology.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Inflation and the U.S. Consumer Price Index
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 21, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Concern about inflation is in the news a lot lately. In the United States, prices have risen especially for gasoline and other forms of energy. Higher energy prices lead to higher prices for other goods. Oil prices are high. But experts say this is not the only reason for the current fuel prices. They say companies in the United States are making as much oil into gasoline as they can. But drivers need lots of fuel for popular sport utility vehicles and personal trucks. Government economists reported that inflation rose at a yearly rate of four-point-four percent between December and April. For all of last year, the United States had an inflation rate of one-point-nine percent. These numbers are based on the Consumer Price Index. The Consumer Price Index is a way to measure average change in prices over time. It shows how inflation affects the average person. The Bureau of Labor Statistics gives a report each month. Some economists say the economy may be growing too fast and causing prices to rise. They expect the Central Bank to raise interest rates. Such action raises the cost to borrow money. Less borrowing and spending can help keep down prices. The Federal Open Market Committee met this month and decided not to raise interest rates. But the committee meets again in June. One measure it will look at is the Consumer Price Index. Here is how an index works. Let us say that some object cost an average of ten cents in nineteen-ninety. An economist then gives that price an index value of one-hundred. In the next year, the price goes up to eleven cents. That is a ten-percent increase. So the index value for the year is one-hundred-and-ten. Changes are recorded this way year after year. The Department of Labor gathers prices that Americans pay for medicines, housing, clothes and food. It gathers prices for education, transportation and other activities. The Consumer Price Index is made up of thousands of measures. But it does not measure prices in areas outside of cities and large towns. Also, it does not measure how price changes affect individual groups, like the poor or retired people. The measure mostly widely reported is called the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. It measures prices paid by about eighty-seven percent of Americans. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Gunther Gebel-Williams
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the famous circus performer, Gunther Gebel-Williams. He was known for his gentle ways of training wild animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The lights of the circus shone brightly on Gunther Gebel-Williams as he stood in the center ring. Big tigers surrounded him. He spoke quietly to the animals. Then he said a few more words to horses that waited in a line nearby. Thousands of people watched as the wild tigers climbed onto the horses’ backs to take a ride. It did not seem like anything that either a tiger or a horse would want to do. But they paraded under the shining lights. Some of the animals even looked pleased with themselves. The crowd under the circus tent in Boston, Massachusetts, shouted its approval. Mister Gebel-Williams gave the tigers little pieces of meat and offered other food to the horses. “Thank you,” he told them. VOICE TWO: Many people said the world had lost its greatest animal trainer when Mister Gebel-Williams died. He was sixty-six years old when he died of brain cancer in July of Two-Thousand-One. Gunther Gebel-Williams and his animals traveled across the United States with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for more than twenty years. He was the most famous circus performer in the nation. Gunther Gebel-Williams started working with animals as a child in Germany. He became famous as a circus performer and animal trainer in Europe. Mister Williams came to the United States in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. He became an American citizen in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. VOICE ONE: Gunther Gebel-Williams was wounded sometimes by his animals. But he gave about twelve-thousand performances without missing a show for injury or sickness. He retired from performing in Nineteen-Ninety. At the time he was working with about thirty-eight horses, twenty-two tigers and twenty-one elephants. Four zebras, three camels and a llama or two also took part in his performances. After leaving the show he remained with the circus as a trainer, officer and part owner. Gunther Gebel-Williams never made a secret of how he got animals to do what he wanted. He said he built a special world around them. In this world he was the father. The lions, tigers and other animals were his children. His methods changed the way Americans train and treat performing animals. (MUSIC/SOUNDS) VOICE TWO: The future circus star had a difficult childhood. Gunther Gebel was born in the eastern German village of Schweidnitz on September Twelfth, Nineteen-Thirty-Four. Gunther’s father was a carpenter who built things out of wood. Later he became a technical director for a theater company. The father’s Socialist beliefs got him into trouble with Germany’s Nazi government during the war. The Army sent him to Russia. He and thousands of other German soldiers who were captured there were never heard from again. VOICE ONE: During the final months of the war, Gunther, his mother and sister fled from their home in eastern Germany west to Cologne. Germany had lost the war, and the victorious Russians were moving in to take control. After the fighting ended Missus Gebel found work with Circus Williams. A well known horse trainer, Harry Williams, owned it. Missus Gebel made and repaired clothes for this circus. She also got Gunther a job at the circus. He was about twelve or thirteen years old at the time. The boy had been in school for only a few years. After a short time Missus Gebel left the circus. She left Gunther there. Gunther said later that he felt his mother gave him away. Harry Williams, however, was very glad to have the boy working for him. He immediately recognized that Gunther had unusual natural ability with animals. VOICE TWO: Mister Williams began helping Gunther develop an act in which the boy did tricks while riding horses. Before long Gunther was getting all kinds of animals to do what he wanted. He especially loved the tigers. He praised their beauty, wildness and intelligence. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, Harry Williams died after an accident in the circus. Harry’s wife asked Gunther to help her operate the circus. She also urged him to become a star performer. Gunther was seventeen years old at the time. He began his new responsibilities by adding the Williams family name to his own name. Gunther Gebel became Gunther Gebel-Williams. He wanted to demonstrate that Harry Williams and his circus had been a family to him. In Nineteen-Sixty, Mister Gebel-Williams married one of the Williams daughters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gunther Gebel-Williams and his big tigers, elephants and other animals became famous all over Europe. He won three major awards for his performances. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, an owner of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in the United States bought Circus Williams. The owner, Irvin Feld, did this mainly to get Gunther Gebel-Williams as a performer. Mister Gebel-Williams was an immediate success in the United States as he travelled with the circus. His leopards jumped through circles held by tigers in their teeth. His elephants walked calmly and carefully down busy streets. People in cities across the country praised his bravery in his acts with the animals. His performances were different from anything that had been seen in circuses before. VOICE TWO: For many years Clyde Beatty had been the most famous animal trainer in the United States. Mister Beatty was an American circus performer known for his “fighting act.” In this act he controlled forty lions and tigers. Mister Beatty also performed with dangerous mixes of tigers, lions, leopards, pumas, hyenas and bears. His act demonstrated how fierce the animals really were. He used chairs and whips to get the animals to obey his commands. Sometimes he even used guns. Mister Gebel-Williams had high praise for Clyde Beatty’s bravery and skill. But Mister Gebel-Williams made his own animals perform by being friendly to them. He said he wanted to work with happy animals. He did not believe in making them fear him. VOICE ONE: Training by Gunther Gebel-Williams began and ended with kindness. He never had an animal operated on to make it safer for him. All his big cats kept their hard, sharp claws on their feet. He spoke to animals in the same soft voice each time he worked with them. When they performed well he gave them special foods. When they failed to obey he expressed mild displeasure. He never used chairs or whips or guns. One of the most unusual things about Mister Gebel-Williams was the way he got animals to perform well together. For example, elephants and horses naturally fear tigers. He would take as long as two years to get the elephants and horses to let tigers ride on them. Traditional enemies like leopards and zebras also performed together in his acts. VOICE TWO: Mister Gebel-Williams especially liked working with a panther named Kenny. This big cat weighed more than thirty-four kilograms. Kenny enjoyed sitting on the neck and shoulders of his trainer. People liked to say the animal was probably thinking great thoughts as he rested on Mister Gebel-Williams. But Gunther Gebel-Williams never forgot the danger involved in his work. He could not have forgotten it if he wanted to. From time to time an animal would become wild for no apparent reason. Mister Gebel-Williams’ face was covered with old healed wounds that sometimes made it difficult for him to talk. VOICE ONE: Even when animals attacked, Gunther Gebel Williams did not become angry. After Kenny died, Mister Gebel-Williams was performing one day with a panther named Zorro. Zorro weighed two times as much as Kenny. Suddenly Zorro started making a threatening noise. Then he bit his trainer deeply in the neck. But Mister Gebel-Williams would not go to the hospital until he calmed the animal and got it back in its cage. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The marriage of Mister Gebel-Williams and his first wife ended. His second wife, Sigrid Neubauer, became a circus performer. They had been married thirty-three years when Mister Gebel-Williams died. They raised a daughter and a son. The son, Mark Oliver, now serves as a star trainer of tigers with a Ringling circus company. Friends say Mister Gebel-Williams was a loving husband and father. Yet they add that his deepest relationships probably were with his animals. He called animals dependable and honest although he sometimes suffered from their attacks. Gunther Gebel-Williams once said he liked animals more than most human beings. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the famous circus performer, Gunther Gebel-Williams. He was known for his gentle ways of training wild animals. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The lights of the circus shone brightly on Gunther Gebel-Williams as he stood in the center ring. Big tigers surrounded him. He spoke quietly to the animals. Then he said a few more words to horses that waited in a line nearby. Thousands of people watched as the wild tigers climbed onto the horses’ backs to take a ride. It did not seem like anything that either a tiger or a horse would want to do. But they paraded under the shining lights. Some of the animals even looked pleased with themselves. The crowd under the circus tent in Boston, Massachusetts, shouted its approval. Mister Gebel-Williams gave the tigers little pieces of meat and offered other food to the horses. “Thank you,” he told them. VOICE TWO: Many people said the world had lost its greatest animal trainer when Mister Gebel-Williams died. He was sixty-six years old when he died of brain cancer in July of Two-Thousand-One. Gunther Gebel-Williams and his animals traveled across the United States with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for more than twenty years. He was the most famous circus performer in the nation. Gunther Gebel-Williams started working with animals as a child in Germany. He became famous as a circus performer and animal trainer in Europe. Mister Williams came to the United States in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. He became an American citizen in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. VOICE ONE: Gunther Gebel-Williams was wounded sometimes by his animals. But he gave about twelve-thousand performances without missing a show for injury or sickness. He retired from performing in Nineteen-Ninety. At the time he was working with about thirty-eight horses, twenty-two tigers and twenty-one elephants. Four zebras, three camels and a llama or two also took part in his performances. After leaving the show he remained with the circus as a trainer, officer and part owner. Gunther Gebel-Williams never made a secret of how he got animals to do what he wanted. He said he built a special world around them. In this world he was the father. The lions, tigers and other animals were his children. His methods changed the way Americans train and treat performing animals. (MUSIC/SOUNDS) VOICE TWO: The future circus star had a difficult childhood. Gunther Gebel was born in the eastern German village of Schweidnitz on September Twelfth, Nineteen-Thirty-Four. Gunther’s father was a carpenter who built things out of wood. Later he became a technical director for a theater company. The father’s Socialist beliefs got him into trouble with Germany’s Nazi government during the war. The Army sent him to Russia. He and thousands of other German soldiers who were captured there were never heard from again. VOICE ONE: During the final months of the war, Gunther, his mother and sister fled from their home in eastern Germany west to Cologne. Germany had lost the war, and the victorious Russians were moving in to take control. After the fighting ended Missus Gebel found work with Circus Williams. A well known horse trainer, Harry Williams, owned it. Missus Gebel made and repaired clothes for this circus. She also got Gunther a job at the circus. He was about twelve or thirteen years old at the time. The boy had been in school for only a few years. After a short time Missus Gebel left the circus. She left Gunther there. Gunther said later that he felt his mother gave him away. Harry Williams, however, was very glad to have the boy working for him. He immediately recognized that Gunther had unusual natural ability with animals. VOICE TWO: Mister Williams began helping Gunther develop an act in which the boy did tricks while riding horses. Before long Gunther was getting all kinds of animals to do what he wanted. He especially loved the tigers. He praised their beauty, wildness and intelligence. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, Harry Williams died after an accident in the circus. Harry’s wife asked Gunther to help her operate the circus. She also urged him to become a star performer. Gunther was seventeen years old at the time. He began his new responsibilities by adding the Williams family name to his own name. Gunther Gebel became Gunther Gebel-Williams. He wanted to demonstrate that Harry Williams and his circus had been a family to him. In Nineteen-Sixty, Mister Gebel-Williams married one of the Williams daughters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gunther Gebel-Williams and his big tigers, elephants and other animals became famous all over Europe. He won three major awards for his performances. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, an owner of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in the United States bought Circus Williams. The owner, Irvin Feld, did this mainly to get Gunther Gebel-Williams as a performer. Mister Gebel-Williams was an immediate success in the United States as he travelled with the circus. His leopards jumped through circles held by tigers in their teeth. His elephants walked calmly and carefully down busy streets. People in cities across the country praised his bravery in his acts with the animals. His performances were different from anything that had been seen in circuses before. VOICE TWO: For many years Clyde Beatty had been the most famous animal trainer in the United States. Mister Beatty was an American circus performer known for his “fighting act.” In this act he controlled forty lions and tigers. Mister Beatty also performed with dangerous mixes of tigers, lions, leopards, pumas, hyenas and bears. His act demonstrated how fierce the animals really were. He used chairs and whips to get the animals to obey his commands. Sometimes he even used guns. Mister Gebel-Williams had high praise for Clyde Beatty’s bravery and skill. But Mister Gebel-Williams made his own animals perform by being friendly to them. He said he wanted to work with happy animals. He did not believe in making them fear him. VOICE ONE: Training by Gunther Gebel-Williams began and ended with kindness. He never had an animal operated on to make it safer for him. All his big cats kept their hard, sharp claws on their feet. He spoke to animals in the same soft voice each time he worked with them. When they performed well he gave them special foods. When they failed to obey he expressed mild displeasure. He never used chairs or whips or guns. One of the most unusual things about Mister Gebel-Williams was the way he got animals to perform well together. For example, elephants and horses naturally fear tigers. He would take as long as two years to get the elephants and horses to let tigers ride on them. Traditional enemies like leopards and zebras also performed together in his acts. VOICE TWO: Mister Gebel-Williams especially liked working with a panther named Kenny. This big cat weighed more than thirty-four kilograms. Kenny enjoyed sitting on the neck and shoulders of his trainer. People liked to say the animal was probably thinking great thoughts as he rested on Mister Gebel-Williams. But Gunther Gebel-Williams never forgot the danger involved in his work. He could not have forgotten it if he wanted to. From time to time an animal would become wild for no apparent reason. Mister Gebel-Williams’ face was covered with old healed wounds that sometimes made it difficult for him to talk. VOICE ONE: Even when animals attacked, Gunther Gebel Williams did not become angry. After Kenny died, Mister Gebel-Williams was performing one day with a panther named Zorro. Zorro weighed two times as much as Kenny. Suddenly Zorro started making a threatening noise. Then he bit his trainer deeply in the neck. But Mister Gebel-Williams would not go to the hospital until he calmed the animal and got it back in its cage. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The marriage of Mister Gebel-Williams and his first wife ended. His second wife, Sigrid Neubauer, became a circus performer. They had been married thirty-three years when Mister Gebel-Williams died. They raised a daughter and a son. The son, Mark Oliver, now serves as a star trainer of tigers with a Ringling circus company. Friends say Mister Gebel-Williams was a loving husband and father. Yet they add that his deepest relationships probably were with his animals. He called animals dependable and honest although he sometimes suffered from their attacks. Gunther Gebel-Williams once said he liked animals more than most human beings. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Sudan Conflict
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Sudan has had conflict throughout its history. The country gained its independence from Britain in nineteen-fifty-six. The current war in Sudan began twenty one years ago. Black southerners rebelled against their treatment by the Arab government in the north. At that time the government ordered non-Muslims to honor Islamic law. Sudan has about thirty-million people. Most in the north are Muslim. The south is mostly Christian or animist. Rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army want greater self-rule for the south. Two-million people have died in the war, mostly through hunger and disease. Four-million others have been displaced. Disputes over oil, ethnicity and differing cultural beliefs have added to the conflict. The current peace talks began eight months ago in Kenya. A cease-fire is supposed to remain in effect during the talks. The government and the rebels have been attempting to settle final disputes. They have already signed agreements to divide state and religion, form a new army and share oil profits after the war ends. But the agreements do not cover the conflict in the Darfur area of western Sudan. Violence has continued there for more than a year. The United Nations calls the situation in Darfur one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Many people have been killed. Many more risk starvation. And, more than one-hundred-thousand people have fled to Chad. The people in Darfur are black Muslim farmers. They rebelled in February of last year. They said the government did not care enough about them. They demanded the same compromises offered to Christians in the south. Since then, armed Arab groups known as janjaweed have burned villages and towns in Darfur. They are also accused of widespread sexual attacks and murder. The Sudanese government has faced criticism for not stopping the violence. The government in Khartoum has denied any involvement. It has offered to cooperate with the United States, the United Nations and international aid groups to help the displaced people. Under pressure, Sudan invited a U-N human rights team and the head of the World Food Program to visit the area. And late this week Sudan said it suspended the need for travel permits for aid workers to visit Darfur. Sudan still has other problems in the south. In recent days, fighting re-started in the Upper Nile area. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army controls that area. The fighting has forced thousands of people from their homes. And, on Friday, the World Health Organization reported ten cases of what it called an Ebola-like infection in southern Sudan. It said four people in Western Equatoria province had died from the virus. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: May 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Sudan has had conflict throughout its history. The country gained its independence from Britain in nineteen-fifty-six. The current war in Sudan began twenty one years ago. Black southerners rebelled against their treatment by the Arab government in the north. At that time the government ordered non-Muslims to honor Islamic law. Sudan has about thirty-million people. Most in the north are Muslim. The south is mostly Christian or animist. Rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army want greater self-rule for the south. Two-million people have died in the war, mostly through hunger and disease. Four-million others have been displaced. Disputes over oil, ethnicity and differing cultural beliefs have added to the conflict. The current peace talks began eight months ago in Kenya. A cease-fire is supposed to remain in effect during the talks. The government and the rebels have been attempting to settle final disputes. They have already signed agreements to divide state and religion, form a new army and share oil profits after the war ends. But the agreements do not cover the conflict in the Darfur area of western Sudan. Violence has continued there for more than a year. The United Nations calls the situation in Darfur one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Many people have been killed. Many more risk starvation. And, more than one-hundred-thousand people have fled to Chad. The people in Darfur are black Muslim farmers. They rebelled in February of last year. They said the government did not care enough about them. They demanded the same compromises offered to Christians in the south. Since then, armed Arab groups known as janjaweed have burned villages and towns in Darfur. They are also accused of widespread sexual attacks and murder. The Sudanese government has faced criticism for not stopping the violence. The government in Khartoum has denied any involvement. It has offered to cooperate with the United States, the United Nations and international aid groups to help the displaced people. Under pressure, Sudan invited a U-N human rights team and the head of the World Food Program to visit the area. And late this week Sudan said it suspended the need for travel permits for aid workers to visit Darfur. Sudan still has other problems in the south. In recent days, fighting re-started in the Upper Nile area. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army controls that area. The fighting has forced thousands of people from their homes. And, on Friday, the World Health Organization reported ten cases of what it called an Ebola-like infection in southern Sudan. It said four people in Western Equatoria province had died from the virus. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – History of Children’s Television
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 24, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: May 24, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we bring you a history of children's television in the United States. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we bring you a history of children's television in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Television became popular after World War Two in the nineteen-forties. Successful radio programs became early television shows. "Howdy Doody" was one of the first shows for children. The television show began on N.B.C., the National Broadcasting Company, in nineteen-forty-seven. Soon, it expanded to five days a week. Howdy Doody looked like an average American boy. Only he was made of wood and controlled with strings from above. He had red hair, although he appeared in black-and-white, like everything else in early television. And he had a permanent smile. An actor named Bob Smith, known as Buffalo Bob Smith, started the show each time with the same words. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early days, local television stations all over the country produced programs for children. Local actors, artists and musicians performed live. Often they played movies or animated cartoons like “Bugs Bunny” or “Popeye the Sailor.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: But Popeye the Sailor and Bugs Bunny were movie stars, really. In time, cartoons made especially for television replaced them. Hanna-Barbera Studios created cartoons like “Huckleberry Hound" and "Yogi Bear." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shows like "Yogi Bear" were syndicated. That means local stations paid for the rights to broadcast the program in different cities. Tim Hollis is an expert on the history of children’s television. He says that by the nineteen sixties, many shows were franchised. A local station would pay to use the idea for a show, but then produce it with local actors. Two popular franchised shows during the nineteen-sixties were “Romper Room” and “Bozo the Clown.” Tim Hollis estimates that at one time, the United States had more than two-hundred local Bozo the Clowns. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Television presented a new way for businesses to market to children through advertising. However, in the nineteen-sixties, many parents grew concerned. They thought their children were seeing too many commercials for products. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission limited the amount of commercial time in children’s programs. The government also barred local children's actors from reading commercials. This was meant as another way to reduce the influence on children. But these actions also reduced the amount of money that stations earned. By the early nineteen-seventies, most local television stations stopped producing their own shows for children. Many replaced them with syndicated programs like “I Love Lucy” and “Gilligan’s Island.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In addition to syndicated programs, local stations used national network shows to fill their broadcast day. C.B.S., the Columbia Broadcasting System, launched a children's show in nineteen-fifty-five. Each day, the star wore a red coat with pockets on the sides. The pockets were big -- big enough maybe even for a mother kangaroo to carry her baby. So an actor named Bob Keeshan became known as Captain Kangaroo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: C.B.S. aired "Captain Kangaroo" for twenty-nine years. In nineteen-eighty-four, the show moved to public television. There, it appeared for six more years. Another popular children’s show on the public broadcasting system is “Sesame Street.” This show began in nineteen-sixty-nine. Today, different versions of "Sesame Street" can been seen in more than one-hundred-twenty countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Public television also brought young children an educational show called “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.” It always started the same way. "Mister Rogers" -- Fred Rogers in real life -- walked through the front door into his television house, put on a sweater and changed his shoes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fred Rogers began the show in nineteen-sixty-eight. "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" aired for more than thirty years. Today, the shows on educational television for young children include imports like "Teletubbies" from Britain. In general, though, the programs on American television aimed at children are mainly for entertainment. Cable television became popular in the United States in the nineteen-eighties. There are children’s programs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. VOICE TWO: One of the most popular cartoons on cable is about a square yellow sea sponge. He lives deep in the Pacific Ocean, in a city called Bikini Bottom. His name is SpongeBob SquarePants. A former marine-biology teacher named Steven Hillenburg created "SpongeBob SquarePants" in nineteen-ninety-six. The show began on the Nickelodeon cable channel three years later. Children consider SpongeBob an honest person -- I mean, creature -- who always sees the brighter, happier side of life. The show is also aimed at adults, a lot of whom do find it funny. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: These days, there are hundreds of channels of broadcast, cable and satellite television to choose from. Plus there are countless videos and video games. Children can see all sorts of things, and their parents do not always supervise. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says children in the United States watch TV an average of three to four hours a day. The American Academy of Pediatrics says children under the age of two should not watch any television at all. And it says older children should watch no more than one to two hours a day. Many scientists believe that too much television can cause attention problems for children later in life. Studies have also linked a lot of television with children becoming too fat and too aggressive. VOICE TWO: There are also concerns about the limited number of female heroes on television for girls to identify with. And critics say children's television is too often simply a method to sell things to young consumers. Product marketing tied to shows is a major business. SpongeBob SquarePants, for example, appears not just on television. He is also on clothes, bedding, books, school supplies and toys. Experts urge parents to watch shows with their children and discuss them. Some of what they see might make them wish for the days of that puppet with a big smile on his face. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Television became popular after World War Two in the nineteen-forties. Successful radio programs became early television shows. "Howdy Doody" was one of the first shows for children. The television show began on N.B.C., the National Broadcasting Company, in nineteen-forty-seven. Soon, it expanded to five days a week. Howdy Doody looked like an average American boy. Only he was made of wood and controlled with strings from above. He had red hair, although he appeared in black-and-white, like everything else in early television. And he had a permanent smile. An actor named Bob Smith, known as Buffalo Bob Smith, started the show each time with the same words. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early days, local television stations all over the country produced programs for children. Local actors, artists and musicians performed live. Often they played movies or animated cartoons like “Bugs Bunny” or “Popeye the Sailor.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: But Popeye the Sailor and Bugs Bunny were movie stars, really. In time, cartoons made especially for television replaced them. Hanna-Barbera Studios created cartoons like “Huckleberry Hound" and "Yogi Bear." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Shows like "Yogi Bear" were syndicated. That means local stations paid for the rights to broadcast the program in different cities. Tim Hollis is an expert on the history of children’s television. He says that by the nineteen sixties, many shows were franchised. A local station would pay to use the idea for a show, but then produce it with local actors. Two popular franchised shows during the nineteen-sixties were “Romper Room” and “Bozo the Clown.” Tim Hollis estimates that at one time, the United States had more than two-hundred local Bozo the Clowns. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Television presented a new way for businesses to market to children through advertising. However, in the nineteen-sixties, many parents grew concerned. They thought their children were seeing too many commercials for products. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission limited the amount of commercial time in children’s programs. The government also barred local children's actors from reading commercials. This was meant as another way to reduce the influence on children. But these actions also reduced the amount of money that stations earned. By the early nineteen-seventies, most local television stations stopped producing their own shows for children. Many replaced them with syndicated programs like “I Love Lucy” and “Gilligan’s Island.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In addition to syndicated programs, local stations used national network shows to fill their broadcast day. C.B.S., the Columbia Broadcasting System, launched a children's show in nineteen-fifty-five. Each day, the star wore a red coat with pockets on the sides. The pockets were big -- big enough maybe even for a mother kangaroo to carry her baby. So an actor named Bob Keeshan became known as Captain Kangaroo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: C.B.S. aired "Captain Kangaroo" for twenty-nine years. In nineteen-eighty-four, the show moved to public television. There, it appeared for six more years. Another popular children’s show on the public broadcasting system is “Sesame Street.” This show began in nineteen-sixty-nine. Today, different versions of "Sesame Street" can been seen in more than one-hundred-twenty countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Public television also brought young children an educational show called “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.” It always started the same way. "Mister Rogers" -- Fred Rogers in real life -- walked through the front door into his television house, put on a sweater and changed his shoes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fred Rogers began the show in nineteen-sixty-eight. "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" aired for more than thirty years. Today, the shows on educational television for young children include imports like "Teletubbies" from Britain. In general, though, the programs on American television aimed at children are mainly for entertainment. Cable television became popular in the United States in the nineteen-eighties. There are children’s programs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. VOICE TWO: One of the most popular cartoons on cable is about a square yellow sea sponge. He lives deep in the Pacific Ocean, in a city called Bikini Bottom. His name is SpongeBob SquarePants. A former marine-biology teacher named Steven Hillenburg created "SpongeBob SquarePants" in nineteen-ninety-six. The show began on the Nickelodeon cable channel three years later. Children consider SpongeBob an honest person -- I mean, creature -- who always sees the brighter, happier side of life. The show is also aimed at adults, a lot of whom do find it funny. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: These days, there are hundreds of channels of broadcast, cable and satellite television to choose from. Plus there are countless videos and video games. Children can see all sorts of things, and their parents do not always supervise. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says children in the United States watch TV an average of three to four hours a day. The American Academy of Pediatrics says children under the age of two should not watch any television at all. And it says older children should watch no more than one to two hours a day. Many scientists believe that too much television can cause attention problems for children later in life. Studies have also linked a lot of television with children becoming too fat and too aggressive. VOICE TWO: There are also concerns about the limited number of female heroes on television for girls to identify with. And critics say children's television is too often simply a method to sell things to young consumers. Product marketing tied to shows is a major business. SpongeBob SquarePants, for example, appears not just on television. He is also on clothes, bedding, books, school supplies and toys. Experts urge parents to watch shows with their children and discuss them. Some of what they see might make them wish for the days of that puppet with a big smile on his face. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – New American Policy on AIDS Drugs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 24, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States has announced a new drug approval process for AIDS medicines for developing countries. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced it at a World Health Organization meeting in Geneva. Mister Thompson said the program will speed up the release of low-cost AIDS drugs to nations in Africa and the Caribbean. The program is part of President Bush’s fifteen-thousand-million-dollar emergency AIDS plan. The Food and Drug Administration will supervise the program. Several different drugs are generally used together to suppress H.I.V., the virus the causes AIDS. The new policy urges drug companies to produce treatments that would combine up to three anti-retroviral drugs in a single pill. These are called fixed-dose combinations. Drug companies are also being urged to put existing medicines together in the same package. This kind of combination is called co-packaging. Several drug companies say they have already started to develop combination products. Such efforts might require competing companies to work together. The new policy involves AIDS drugs purchased by the United States for developing countries. American officials say the new policy will help them make sure of the quality of the drugs. Under the plan, companies that make name-brand drugs or their generic copies can equally seek F.D.A. approval. They can offer existing research to show that the drugs are safe and effective. Companies must also show that a proposed combination product could be manufactured quickly. In some cases, the Food and Drug Administration could decide within two to six weeks if a request will be approved. AIDS activists have long accused the United States of protecting drug makers from competition from lower-cost versions of their drugs. They point out that there is already a list of AIDS drugs approved by the World Health Organization. This list includes generic copies. But W.H.O. Director General Lee Jong-wook says he welcomes the new approval program. He says AIDS drugs paid for by international agencies and governments must meet quality and safety requirements. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: May 24, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United States has announced a new drug approval process for AIDS medicines for developing countries. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced it at a World Health Organization meeting in Geneva. Mister Thompson said the program will speed up the release of low-cost AIDS drugs to nations in Africa and the Caribbean. The program is part of President Bush’s fifteen-thousand-million-dollar emergency AIDS plan. The Food and Drug Administration will supervise the program. Several different drugs are generally used together to suppress H.I.V., the virus the causes AIDS. The new policy urges drug companies to produce treatments that would combine up to three anti-retroviral drugs in a single pill. These are called fixed-dose combinations. Drug companies are also being urged to put existing medicines together in the same package. This kind of combination is called co-packaging. Several drug companies say they have already started to develop combination products. Such efforts might require competing companies to work together. The new policy involves AIDS drugs purchased by the United States for developing countries. American officials say the new policy will help them make sure of the quality of the drugs. Under the plan, companies that make name-brand drugs or their generic copies can equally seek F.D.A. approval. They can offer existing research to show that the drugs are safe and effective. Companies must also show that a proposed combination product could be manufactured quickly. In some cases, the Food and Drug Administration could decide within two to six weeks if a request will be approved. AIDS activists have long accused the United States of protecting drug makers from competition from lower-cost versions of their drugs. They point out that there is already a list of AIDS drugs approved by the World Health Organization. This list includes generic copies. But W.H.O. Director General Lee Jong-wook says he welcomes the new approval program. He says AIDS drugs paid for by international agencies and governments must meet quality and safety requirements. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Diabetes and Alzheimer's / Treatment for Alzheimer's / No Link between Vaccine and Autism
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 25, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Coming up, we have reports about Alzheimer's disease. VOICE ONE: And, a scientific committee finds no link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. (THEME) VOICE TWO: There is more evidence that people with diabetes have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease kills brain cells and usually affects people late in life. It starts with mild memory loss, but gets worse. Over time, it leads to death. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago studied more than eight-hundred people. The research was part of a project called the Religious Orders Study. The men and women were all Roman Catholic, over the age of fifty-five. They included priests and nuns. They were tested yearly for an average of more than five years. One-hundred-fifty-one of the people in the study developed Alzheimer's disease. These included thirty-one people who also had diabetes. The researchers found a sixty-five percent increase in the risk of Alzheimer's in those with diabetes. This was compared to the people who did not have the blood sugar disease. VOICE ONE: The researchers tested the ability of the people to remember and understand things. At the start of the study, they found that those with diabetes did not do as well on these tests as those without diabetes. During the study, the researchers found that diabetes was related to decreases in some mental systems but not in others. Diabetes is already a known risk for stroke, which can cause some kinds of brain disorders. Diabetes has also been linked to other health effects like heart disease, kidney failure and reduced mental abilities. Some scientists believe that a build-up of sugar in the brain could damage cells and increase the risk of Alzheimer's. VOICE TWO: The study adds to research on possible links between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The scientists say more research will tell if treatments for diabetes may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. There is no cure, but there are treatments that can ease some of the effects of Alzheimer's. Most scientists think the disease is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental influences. Earlier research found that eating foods high in vitamin E may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's in some people. Such foods include green leafy vegetables, vegetable oils and nuts. Researchers say people who remain intellectually active may also reduce their risk. But depression and being stressed a lot may increase the risk. The National Institute on Aging paid for the study. The American Medical Association published the findings in its Archives of Neurology. VOICE ONE: More and more people are developing diabetes. In the United States, health officials estimate that one in three children born in two-thousand could become diabetic. They say the only way to prevent this is for many more people to start eating less and exercising more. People can reduce their chances of getting diabetes. Steps include controlling their blood pressure and cholesterol, not using tobacco and not drinking too much alcohol. Weight control is also important. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the United States, Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated four-point-five million people. This number is expected to grow sharply as the population gets older. But a new report calls Alzheimer's an "unrecognized public health crisis" among the growing Hispanic population in the United States. The report is from the Alzheimer's Association, a group that supports research and provides services. It says about two-hundred-thousand Hispanics in the United States currently are living with Alzheimer's. It says this number is expected to grow to one-point-three million by two-thousand-fifty. VOICE ONE: Old age is the greatest risk for Alzheimer’s disease. And the report says Hispanics in the United States are expected to live longer than any other ethnic group. It says that by two-thousand-fifty, life expectancy for Hispanics will reach eighty-seven years. They would represent sixteen percent of old people in the United States. Hispanics now make up five percent of older Americans. The Alzheimer's Association says Hispanics also have increased rates of diabetes. This may put them at higher risk for Alzheimer's. But the group says Hispanics are less likely to see doctors and receive medical treatment. The report also notes that some studies suggest that education may help protect against Alzheimer’s. But it says ten percent of older Hispanics never attended school. And it says more than half have eight years of schooling or less. The association says there should be more efforts to educate people about Alzheimer's in their own language. And it wants the government to spend more money on Alzheimer's research. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There may be hope for better ways to slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease. In one small study, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, worked with eight patients and some genetic engineering. All eight had early forms of Alzheimer's. Doctors took skin cells from each of them. The team changed the genetic structure of the cells to make them produce a protein called Nerve Growth Factor. Later the doctors returned the cells to the patients. But not to the skin. They placed the cells in a part of the brain involved in memory and understanding. This is where Alzheimer’s first begins to attack. VOICE ONE: At first the doctors operated with the patients in a light sleep under anesthesia. Two of the people moved. This led to bleeding in their brains. One of those patients died of a heart attack five weeks later. The doctors put the other six people in a deep sleep under general anesthesia. They say those operations went smoothly. The doctors later studied images of the patients' brains. They reported increased cell growth activity compared to other people with Alzheimer’s. Also, the researchers tested the mental abilities of the patients. They say that on one measure, the rate of progression of the disease dropped by half after the cell replacement. On another, the doctors say a reduced rate continued for the eighteen-month to two-year period of the study. VOICE TWO: Doctor Mark Tuszynski led the study. He says no harmful effects have been found more than a year after the last operation. But he notes that testing is needed on larger numbers of people. Also, a new study will test a method of directly injecting the genetically engineered cells into the brain. The scientists reported their findings at the yearly meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We close with news about a brain disorder in children. Last week, in the United States, the Institute of Medicine said it found no connection between autism and a common vaccine. The Institute of Medicine is a private organization that advises the government. It is related to the National Academy of Sciences. A committee released its eighth and final report on vaccine safety. The scientists looked at studies of autism and the M.M.R. vaccine. This is a combined vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. The scientists also looked at studies of a mercury-based substance once used to protect the vaccine from bacteria. The substance is called thimerosal. And they compared the use of the vaccine with rates of autism. Doctor Marie McCormick of Harvard University led the committee. She noted that scientists do not know what causes autism. In fact, she says there may be many causes. And she says these may or may not include bad reactions to a vaccine or the effects of mercury in some people. But the committee found no evidence to support accusations by some groups about the M.M.R. vaccine or thimerosal. The committee says any such suggestions are theories only. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 25, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Coming up, we have reports about Alzheimer's disease. VOICE ONE: And, a scientific committee finds no link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. (THEME) VOICE TWO: There is more evidence that people with diabetes have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease kills brain cells and usually affects people late in life. It starts with mild memory loss, but gets worse. Over time, it leads to death. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago studied more than eight-hundred people. The research was part of a project called the Religious Orders Study. The men and women were all Roman Catholic, over the age of fifty-five. They included priests and nuns. They were tested yearly for an average of more than five years. One-hundred-fifty-one of the people in the study developed Alzheimer's disease. These included thirty-one people who also had diabetes. The researchers found a sixty-five percent increase in the risk of Alzheimer's in those with diabetes. This was compared to the people who did not have the blood sugar disease. VOICE ONE: The researchers tested the ability of the people to remember and understand things. At the start of the study, they found that those with diabetes did not do as well on these tests as those without diabetes. During the study, the researchers found that diabetes was related to decreases in some mental systems but not in others. Diabetes is already a known risk for stroke, which can cause some kinds of brain disorders. Diabetes has also been linked to other health effects like heart disease, kidney failure and reduced mental abilities. Some scientists believe that a build-up of sugar in the brain could damage cells and increase the risk of Alzheimer's. VOICE TWO: The study adds to research on possible links between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. The scientists say more research will tell if treatments for diabetes may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. There is no cure, but there are treatments that can ease some of the effects of Alzheimer's. Most scientists think the disease is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental influences. Earlier research found that eating foods high in vitamin E may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's in some people. Such foods include green leafy vegetables, vegetable oils and nuts. Researchers say people who remain intellectually active may also reduce their risk. But depression and being stressed a lot may increase the risk. The National Institute on Aging paid for the study. The American Medical Association published the findings in its Archives of Neurology. VOICE ONE: More and more people are developing diabetes. In the United States, health officials estimate that one in three children born in two-thousand could become diabetic. They say the only way to prevent this is for many more people to start eating less and exercising more. People can reduce their chances of getting diabetes. Steps include controlling their blood pressure and cholesterol, not using tobacco and not drinking too much alcohol. Weight control is also important. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the United States, Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated four-point-five million people. This number is expected to grow sharply as the population gets older. But a new report calls Alzheimer's an "unrecognized public health crisis" among the growing Hispanic population in the United States. The report is from the Alzheimer's Association, a group that supports research and provides services. It says about two-hundred-thousand Hispanics in the United States currently are living with Alzheimer's. It says this number is expected to grow to one-point-three million by two-thousand-fifty. VOICE ONE: Old age is the greatest risk for Alzheimer’s disease. And the report says Hispanics in the United States are expected to live longer than any other ethnic group. It says that by two-thousand-fifty, life expectancy for Hispanics will reach eighty-seven years. They would represent sixteen percent of old people in the United States. Hispanics now make up five percent of older Americans. The Alzheimer's Association says Hispanics also have increased rates of diabetes. This may put them at higher risk for Alzheimer's. But the group says Hispanics are less likely to see doctors and receive medical treatment. The report also notes that some studies suggest that education may help protect against Alzheimer’s. But it says ten percent of older Hispanics never attended school. And it says more than half have eight years of schooling or less. The association says there should be more efforts to educate people about Alzheimer's in their own language. And it wants the government to spend more money on Alzheimer's research. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There may be hope for better ways to slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease. In one small study, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, worked with eight patients and some genetic engineering. All eight had early forms of Alzheimer's. Doctors took skin cells from each of them. The team changed the genetic structure of the cells to make them produce a protein called Nerve Growth Factor. Later the doctors returned the cells to the patients. But not to the skin. They placed the cells in a part of the brain involved in memory and understanding. This is where Alzheimer’s first begins to attack. VOICE ONE: At first the doctors operated with the patients in a light sleep under anesthesia. Two of the people moved. This led to bleeding in their brains. One of those patients died of a heart attack five weeks later. The doctors put the other six people in a deep sleep under general anesthesia. They say those operations went smoothly. The doctors later studied images of the patients' brains. They reported increased cell growth activity compared to other people with Alzheimer’s. Also, the researchers tested the mental abilities of the patients. They say that on one measure, the rate of progression of the disease dropped by half after the cell replacement. On another, the doctors say a reduced rate continued for the eighteen-month to two-year period of the study. VOICE TWO: Doctor Mark Tuszynski led the study. He says no harmful effects have been found more than a year after the last operation. But he notes that testing is needed on larger numbers of people. Also, a new study will test a method of directly injecting the genetically engineered cells into the brain. The scientists reported their findings at the yearly meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We close with news about a brain disorder in children. Last week, in the United States, the Institute of Medicine said it found no connection between autism and a common vaccine. The Institute of Medicine is a private organization that advises the government. It is related to the National Academy of Sciences. A committee released its eighth and final report on vaccine safety. The scientists looked at studies of autism and the M.M.R. vaccine. This is a combined vaccine that prevents measles, mumps and rubella. The scientists also looked at studies of a mercury-based substance once used to protect the vaccine from bacteria. The substance is called thimerosal. And they compared the use of the vaccine with rates of autism. Doctor Marie McCormick of Harvard University led the committee. She noted that scientists do not know what causes autism. In fact, she says there may be many causes. And she says these may or may not include bad reactions to a vaccine or the effects of mercury in some people. But the committee found no evidence to support accusations by some groups about the M.M.R. vaccine or thimerosal. The committee says any such suggestions are theories only. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Endangered Breeds of Farm Animals
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 25, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farm animals supply an estimated thirty percent of all food and agricultural needs. They provide products like milk, meat and eggs. They provide fertilizer to help crops grow. And they help farmers work the land. But there is concern about the loss of many kinds of farm animals as a result of efforts to create new ones. People began to breed livestock at least twelve thousand years ago. Animals not only provided food and labor. Their skin and bones also provided clothes and tools. But people also bred animals to survive local conditions. Breeders look for farm animals with desirable qualities. Such animals are then used to reproduce, so they pass along these qualities for the future. Competition becomes difficult for animals with qualities that are seen as less desirable. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says more than eight hundred breeds are in danger. Big farms and modern agriculture often depend on only a few kinds of livestock. These animals have been bred to meet the needs of new technology and production methods. But older kinds of farm animals can be useful too. They may not be as productive as newer kinds of livestock. Yet, they may remain productive even under severe conditions. The Jamunapari goat of India, for example, produces good milk and meat. But its ability to survive in dry conditions with little food makes it highly valuable in parts of India. The Taihu pig of China is another example. It does not produce as much meat as some breeds of pig. But, it is able to eat many kinds of food and reproduce more than Western breeds. The Food and Agriculture Organization publishes a list of farm animals that are in danger of disappearing. The agency calls it the World Watch List for Domestic Animal Diversity. The F.A.O. is leading an effort to collect genetic information from breeds of farm animals around the world. In the United States, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy gathers information on rare farm animals and seeks to protect them. Breeding over thousands of years has created genetic diversity among farm animals. Different genes can give animals the ability to survive under more conditions. It can also give them better resistance to disease. But now experts warn that we are losing that genetic diversity. At least four thousand breeds of farm animals have been developed. But some experts say hundreds of breeds have disappeared. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - James Doolittle
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 26, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: May 26, 2004 (THEME) ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver tell about a famous World War Two pilot, Jimmy Doolittle. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver tell about a famous World War Two pilot, Jimmy Doolittle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: He was a scientist, an airplane engineer and a general in the United States Army. At one time, he held the record for flying faster than any other person. He was the first pilot to cross the United States in less than twenty-four hours. He was the first pilot to fly "blind," that is, using only instruments to guide his airplane. And, when his country entered World War Two, he led one of the first successful attacks against the enemy. VOICE TWO: His name was James Harold Doolittle. But to the many thousands of Americans, he was Jimmy...Jimmy Doolittle. Jimmy Doolittle was born on December fourteenth, Eighteen-Ninety-Six, in the western state of California. His family soon moved to Nome, Alaska. Jimmy was a small boy. He never grew to be very big. Yet larger boys made a mistake if they thought being small also meant being weak. Jimmy would fight if someone tried to hurt him. And he almost never lost. VOICE ONE: As a young man he became a boxing champion. He held the American West Coast championship for his weight. He continued to box when he entered the University of California to study mineral engineering. He held both the lightweight and middleweight college boxing championships. VOICE TWO: When the United States entered World War One, young Jimmy Doolittle joined the Army. He also asked to be trained as a pilot. On March Eighteenth, Nineteen-Eighteen, Jimmy passed the tests and graduated from flight school. He had hoped to go to France and fight in the war. The army, however, had him train other pilots. When the war ended, Jimmy chose to stay in the army. He thought this would give him a chance to combine his flying skills and his interest in engineering. VOICE ONE: For most of the years between World War One and World War Two, Jimmy Doolittle was involved in the growth of the airplane industry. He helped test new airplanes. He flew longer and longer distances. He also entered the world-famous air races of the time. During the Nineteen-Twenties and Thirties, airplane races were used to test new aircraft designs. Jimmy Doolittle won three of the most important races, the Schneider Marine Cup, the Bendix Trophy race and the Thompson Trophy race. By now, most Americans knew the name Jimmy Doolittle. VOICE TWO: Perhaps Jimmy's most important work during this period involved instrument flying. In the early years of aviation it was almost impossible to fly in bad weather. Many pilots crashed in poor conditions because they became lost. In a heavy fog, they could not tell if they were going right, left, up or down. Many pilots and aviation experts said the problem could not be solved. They said it was impossible to fly in bad weather. Jimmy Doolittle began working with experts who made flight instruments. These instruments helped tell if the aircraft was going up, going down or turning. The instruments helped a pilot fly straight. Other instruments linked radios to a direction device to help find the landing area. VOICE ONE: After ten months of tests, Jimmy Doolittle became the first pilot to fly successfully in poor weather conditions. It was September twenty-fourth, Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. It was impossible to see because it was so foggy. He took his airplane off the ground, flew for ten minutes, and then returned to land safely. Jimmy Doolittle's test flight had shown that instruments could help pilots fly. He proved that flying could be safe in almost any kind of weather. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: On December Seventh, Nineteen-Forty-One, Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was the beginning of World War Two for the United States. In the next several months, the Japanese won victory after victory in Asia. Many people began to believe the Japanese could not be stopped. Many Americans believed the west coast of the United States was in extreme danger. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt asked American military leaders to attack Japan as soon as possible. He said the American public needed a victory, even a small one, against Japan. This would be extremely difficult. Japan controlled the western Pacific area. Any attack would have to begin deep in Japanese- controlled territory. The only possible way to attack Japan was to fly large, two-engine bombing planes from a Navy carrier ship. It had never been done. American military leaders began looking for someone to lead the attack. They chose Jimmy Doolittle. VOICE TWO: The chosen airplane was called the B-Twenty-Five Mitchell. It carried five men. From the beginning, Jimmy Doolittle knew the airplanes might be able to take off from a carrier. But he knew they could never land there. They were too big. The planes would have to fly from the carrier to Japan and then land in China. The attack plan was a carefully guarded secret. The airplane crews did not know anything about it. They were only told the flight would be extremely dangerous. The sixteen airplanes and their crews were placed on the aircraft carrier Hornet near San Francisco. Jimmy Doolittle told his crews where they were going only after the carrier was at sea. VOICE ONE: The plan was simple. The carrier would sail to within six-hundred-fifty kilometers of the Japanese coast. The planes would take off from the carrier, bomb Japan at night, and land in China in the morning. But problems sometimes develop, with even the best made plans. At seven-thirty on the morning of April Eighteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Two, Japanese patrol boats saw the carrier. It was still one-thousand-fifty kilometers from the Japanese coast. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: The plans changed immediately. Orders were given to launch the planes. The bombing would be done during the day. The pilots started the engines. As everyone watched, Jimmy Doolittle flew the first aircraft off the carrier deck. The winds were strong. The ship was moving up and down in the high waves. But he made it look easy. The others followed. The carrier turned around and sped back toward the United States. Jimmy Doolittle and his air crews were alone. VOICE ONE: Jimmy Doolittle led the way to Japan. Each of the sixteen planes had different targets. Most of them bombed targets in Tokyo. Others hit targets in Yokohama and Nagoya. All the aircraft safely left Japan. One landed in the Soviet Union. Fifteen others tried to reach the air fields in China. None did. The distance was too great. All the planes ran out of fuel. Most of the crews were forced to jump from their planes using parachutes. Most of the men returned home safely. Eight were captured. VOICE TWO: The bombing by Jimmy Doolittle and his air crews did very little real damage to Japan. However, it did damage the Japanese government. War leaders had told the Japanese people their country never could be attacked. Jimmy Doolittle proved them wrong. Troops and airplanes were called home to protect Japan. At home in the United States, the Doolittle raid caused a great deal of joy. It was the first victory against the enemy. The newspapers praised Jimmy and his air crews as heroes. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt awarded Jimmy Doolittle the Medal of Honor, America's highest military award. He was promoted to general. He went on to command huge numbers of fighters and bombers during the war, often flying deep into enemy territory. After the war, Jimmy Doolittle served his country again in many different jobs for both private companies and for the government. He also worked with many civilian companies as a senior official. In Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, President Ronald Reagan presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jimmy Doolittle. The award honored his work in aviation and his service to his country VOICE TWO: On September Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Ninety-Three, scientist, racing pilot, aviation pioneer and military leader Jimmy Doolittle died. He was ninety-six. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver. This is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: He was a scientist, an airplane engineer and a general in the United States Army. At one time, he held the record for flying faster than any other person. He was the first pilot to cross the United States in less than twenty-four hours. He was the first pilot to fly "blind," that is, using only instruments to guide his airplane. And, when his country entered World War Two, he led one of the first successful attacks against the enemy. VOICE TWO: His name was James Harold Doolittle. But to the many thousands of Americans, he was Jimmy...Jimmy Doolittle. Jimmy Doolittle was born on December fourteenth, Eighteen-Ninety-Six, in the western state of California. His family soon moved to Nome, Alaska. Jimmy was a small boy. He never grew to be very big. Yet larger boys made a mistake if they thought being small also meant being weak. Jimmy would fight if someone tried to hurt him. And he almost never lost. VOICE ONE: As a young man he became a boxing champion. He held the American West Coast championship for his weight. He continued to box when he entered the University of California to study mineral engineering. He held both the lightweight and middleweight college boxing championships. VOICE TWO: When the United States entered World War One, young Jimmy Doolittle joined the Army. He also asked to be trained as a pilot. On March Eighteenth, Nineteen-Eighteen, Jimmy passed the tests and graduated from flight school. He had hoped to go to France and fight in the war. The army, however, had him train other pilots. When the war ended, Jimmy chose to stay in the army. He thought this would give him a chance to combine his flying skills and his interest in engineering. VOICE ONE: For most of the years between World War One and World War Two, Jimmy Doolittle was involved in the growth of the airplane industry. He helped test new airplanes. He flew longer and longer distances. He also entered the world-famous air races of the time. During the Nineteen-Twenties and Thirties, airplane races were used to test new aircraft designs. Jimmy Doolittle won three of the most important races, the Schneider Marine Cup, the Bendix Trophy race and the Thompson Trophy race. By now, most Americans knew the name Jimmy Doolittle. VOICE TWO: Perhaps Jimmy's most important work during this period involved instrument flying. In the early years of aviation it was almost impossible to fly in bad weather. Many pilots crashed in poor conditions because they became lost. In a heavy fog, they could not tell if they were going right, left, up or down. Many pilots and aviation experts said the problem could not be solved. They said it was impossible to fly in bad weather. Jimmy Doolittle began working with experts who made flight instruments. These instruments helped tell if the aircraft was going up, going down or turning. The instruments helped a pilot fly straight. Other instruments linked radios to a direction device to help find the landing area. VOICE ONE: After ten months of tests, Jimmy Doolittle became the first pilot to fly successfully in poor weather conditions. It was September twenty-fourth, Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. It was impossible to see because it was so foggy. He took his airplane off the ground, flew for ten minutes, and then returned to land safely. Jimmy Doolittle's test flight had shown that instruments could help pilots fly. He proved that flying could be safe in almost any kind of weather. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: On December Seventh, Nineteen-Forty-One, Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was the beginning of World War Two for the United States. In the next several months, the Japanese won victory after victory in Asia. Many people began to believe the Japanese could not be stopped. Many Americans believed the west coast of the United States was in extreme danger. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt asked American military leaders to attack Japan as soon as possible. He said the American public needed a victory, even a small one, against Japan. This would be extremely difficult. Japan controlled the western Pacific area. Any attack would have to begin deep in Japanese- controlled territory. The only possible way to attack Japan was to fly large, two-engine bombing planes from a Navy carrier ship. It had never been done. American military leaders began looking for someone to lead the attack. They chose Jimmy Doolittle. VOICE TWO: The chosen airplane was called the B-Twenty-Five Mitchell. It carried five men. From the beginning, Jimmy Doolittle knew the airplanes might be able to take off from a carrier. But he knew they could never land there. They were too big. The planes would have to fly from the carrier to Japan and then land in China. The attack plan was a carefully guarded secret. The airplane crews did not know anything about it. They were only told the flight would be extremely dangerous. The sixteen airplanes and their crews were placed on the aircraft carrier Hornet near San Francisco. Jimmy Doolittle told his crews where they were going only after the carrier was at sea. VOICE ONE: The plan was simple. The carrier would sail to within six-hundred-fifty kilometers of the Japanese coast. The planes would take off from the carrier, bomb Japan at night, and land in China in the morning. But problems sometimes develop, with even the best made plans. At seven-thirty on the morning of April Eighteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Two, Japanese patrol boats saw the carrier. It was still one-thousand-fifty kilometers from the Japanese coast. (SOUND) VOICE TWO: The plans changed immediately. Orders were given to launch the planes. The bombing would be done during the day. The pilots started the engines. As everyone watched, Jimmy Doolittle flew the first aircraft off the carrier deck. The winds were strong. The ship was moving up and down in the high waves. But he made it look easy. The others followed. The carrier turned around and sped back toward the United States. Jimmy Doolittle and his air crews were alone. VOICE ONE: Jimmy Doolittle led the way to Japan. Each of the sixteen planes had different targets. Most of them bombed targets in Tokyo. Others hit targets in Yokohama and Nagoya. All the aircraft safely left Japan. One landed in the Soviet Union. Fifteen others tried to reach the air fields in China. None did. The distance was too great. All the planes ran out of fuel. Most of the crews were forced to jump from their planes using parachutes. Most of the men returned home safely. Eight were captured. VOICE TWO: The bombing by Jimmy Doolittle and his air crews did very little real damage to Japan. However, it did damage the Japanese government. War leaders had told the Japanese people their country never could be attacked. Jimmy Doolittle proved them wrong. Troops and airplanes were called home to protect Japan. At home in the United States, the Doolittle raid caused a great deal of joy. It was the first victory against the enemy. The newspapers praised Jimmy and his air crews as heroes. VOICE ONE: President Roosevelt awarded Jimmy Doolittle the Medal of Honor, America's highest military award. He was promoted to general. He went on to command huge numbers of fighters and bombers during the war, often flying deep into enemy territory. After the war, Jimmy Doolittle served his country again in many different jobs for both private companies and for the government. He also worked with many civilian companies as a senior official. In Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, President Ronald Reagan presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jimmy Doolittle. The award honored his work in aviation and his service to his country VOICE TWO: On September Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Ninety-Three, scientist, racing pilot, aviation pioneer and military leader Jimmy Doolittle died. He was ninety-six. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver. This is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Spending Up for Behavior-Related Drugs for Children
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 26, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. More and more children take medicines to treat depression and other problems such as aggressiveness and lack of self-control. In fact, a new study says Americans spent more on behavior-related drugs for children last year than on antibiotics or asthma medicines. The research shows that spending increased seventy-seven percent between two-thousand and two-thousand-three. One reason was increased use. The report says the number of children on behavioral drugs increased more than twenty percent. But these medicines also cost more than traditional drugs for problems like infections. And patients usually stay on behavioral medicines longer. The report is by a company that administers drug plans for health care providers around the country. Medco Health Solutions studied the records of three-hundred-thousand young people up to age nineteen. It found that among children who take at least one medicine from their doctor, nearly nine percent are on a behavior-related drug. Medco says five percent of all children in the United States take behavioral medicine. Some of the largest increases involve medicines to treat attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. The study says spending for such drugs last year increased three-hundred-sixty-nine percent for children under age five. Companies have been developing new treatments for children who have difficulty learning and staying calm. Also, Medco says spending for anti-depressants for children grew twenty-five percent between two-thousand and last year. Use of these drugs increased by twenty-seven percent. Some parents say anti-depressants and other behavioral drugs have improved their children’s lives. But others worry that too many young people are being given such medicines and that some drugs could be harmful. In March, the United States Food and Drug Administration asked makers of anti-depressants to include a warning statement. The agency says health care providers should carefully observe adults and children who take these drugs. Scientists are investigating the possibility that some patients might become more depressed and try to kill themselves. This might be especially true at the beginning of treatment or when the amount of medicine is increased or decreased. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #64 - Andrew Jackson, Part 8
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 27, 2004 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English about the history of the United States. (THEME) In the early eighteen-thirties, the territory of Texas belonged to Mexico. Many Americans had moved to Texas, because they could buy a lot of land with little money. The government of Mexico expected the settlers to speak Spanish, to become Roman Catholics, and to accept Mexican traditions. The settlers did not. And the situation became tense. Andrew Jackson was president of the United States at that time. For the most part, he could do little to influence the situation in Texas. The United States had a treaty of friendship with Mexico. It was to remain neutral during the conflict. VOICE TWO: Americans in Texas held a convention in April, eighteen-thirty-three. They prepared a list of appeals to the leader of Mexico, General Santa Ana. The Texas settlers asked Santa Ana to end a tax on goods imported into the territory. They asked him to lift a ban on new settlers from the United States. And they asked that Texas be organized as a separate state of Mexico. One of the Americans, Stephen Austin, carried the appeals to Mexico City. He spent six months negotiating with the Mexican government. General Santa Ana promised to honor all the requests except one. He would not make Texas a separate state, although he said that might be possible someday. Stephen Austin was satisfied. He left the Mexican capital to return to Texas. On his way home, to his surprise, Austin was arrested. He was arrested because of a letter he wrote earlier, when his negotiations with Mexican officials seemed to be failing. He had said it might be best if the people declared Texas a separate state. Austin was put in prison in Mexico City for a year and a half. VOICE ONE: Austin urged the people of Texas to remain loyal to Mexico. But talk of rebellion already had begun. The settlers already were calling themselves "Texans." Minor hostilities broke out between Texans and local Mexican officials. The Mexican army threatened action. When Austin returned from prison, he was chosen to negotiate with the commander of Mexican forces. The commander refused to negotiate. It appeared that war would come. The Texans began to organize their own army. VOICE TWO: In November, eighteen-thirty-five, representatives from all parts of Texas held a convention to discuss the situation. They had no plans to take Texas out of the Mexican Republic. In fact, a proposal to do that was defeated by a large vote. However, the Texans took action to protect themselves against Santa Ana, who had declared himself dictator. They organized a temporary state government. They organized a state army. And they made plans for another convention to begin on March first. VOICE ONE: Before the Texans could meet again, Santa Ana led an army of seven-thousand men across the Rio Grande River into Texas. The first soldiers reached San Antonio on February twenty-third. The Texas forces withdrew to an old Spanish mission church called the Alamo. On March first, the second Texas convention opened. This time, the representatives voted to declare Texas a free, independent and sovereign republic. They wrote a constitution based on the constitution of the United States. They created a government. David Burnet was named president. And Sam Houston was to continue as commander of Texas forces. VOICE TWO: On the second day of the convention, a letter came from the Alamo in San Antonio. The letter was addressed to the people of Texas and all Americans. The commander of Texas forces at the Alamo wrote: "I have been under an artillery attack for twenty-four hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded our surrender. Otherwise, he said, he will kill every one of us. I have answered his demand with a cannon shot. Our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. "I call on you -- in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character -- to come to our aid with all speed. If my appeal is not answered, I will fight as long as possible, and die like a soldier who never forgets what he owes his own honor and that of his country." The letter from the Alamo closed with the words: "Victory or Death. " VOICE ONE: Representatives at the convention wanted to leave immediately to go to the aid of the Texans in San Antonio. But Sam Houston told them it was their duty to remain and create a government for Texas. Houston would go there himself with a small force. The help came too late for the one-hundred eighty-eight men at the Alamo. Santa Ana's forces captured the Spanish mission on March sixth. When the battle ended, not a Texan was left alive. Sam Houston ordered all Texas forces to withdraw northeast -- away from the Mexican army. VOICE TWO: One group of Texans did not move fast enough. Santa Ana trapped them. He said the Texans would not be harmed if they surrendered. They did. One week later, they were marched to a field and shot. Only a few escaped to tell the story. Santa Ana then moved against Sam Houston. He was sure his large army could defeat the remaining Texas force. President Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston were close friends. When told of Houston's retreat, the president pointed to a map of Texas. He said: "If Sam Houston is worth anything, he will make his stand here. Jackson pointed to the mouth of the San Jacinto River. VOICE ONE: The battle of San Jacinto began at four o'clock in the afternoon. There were about eight-hundred Texans. There were two times that many Mexicans. The Mexicans did not expect the retreating Texans to turn and fight. But they did. Shouting "Remember the Alamo!" the Texans ran at the Mexican soldiers. Eighteen minutes later, the battle was over. Santa Ana's army was destroyed. About half of the Mexicans were killed or wounded. The other half were captured. Only two Texans were killed. Twenty-three, including Sam Houston, were wounded. VOICE TWO: The Texans found Santa Ana the next day, wearing the clothes of a simple Mexican soldier. Santa Ana begged for mercy. Houston told him: "You might have shown some at the Alamo." Many of the Texans wanted to shoot the Mexican general. But Houston said he was worth more alive than dead. On May fourteenth, eighteen-thirty-six, Texas President Burnet and General Santa Ana signed a treaty. The treaty made Texas independent. VOICE ONE: Eighteen-thirty-six was a presidential election year in the United States. Andrew Jackson had served for eight years. He did not want another term. He supported his vice president, Martin Van Buren. Jackson's opposition to the demands for more states' rights, and his attack on the Bank of the United States, had created problems for his Democratic Party. Texas also was a problem. Slavery was legal in the new Republic of Texas. Most northerners in the United States opposed slavery anywhere. Jackson felt that if he recognized Texas, the Democrats would lose votes in the presidential election. So Jackson decided not to act on Texas until after the election. VOICE TWO: Opposition to the Democrats came from a coalition political party. Members of the party called themselves Whigs. Three Whigs ran for president in eighteen-thirty-six against Martin Van Buren. The Whigs did not expect any of their candidates to win. But they hoped to get enough votes to prevent Van Buren from gaining a majority. Then the House of Representatives would have to decide the election. And a Whig might have a better chance. The plan failed. Van Buren won. VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson had only a few months left as president. It seemed that much of his time was occupied with one question. That was the request by the Republic of Texas to become a state of the union. Jackson wanted to make Texas a state. But more important was the union itself. The issue of slavery in Texas was critical. Jackson said: "To give statehood to Texas now, or to recognize its independence, would increase the bitterness between the north and south. Nothing is worth this price." Then Jackson thought of a way in which statehood for Texas could bring the nation together, instead of splitting it apart. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English Program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Gwen Outen. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time for another report about the history of the United States. (THEME) Broadcast: May 27, 2004 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English about the history of the United States. (THEME) In the early eighteen-thirties, the territory of Texas belonged to Mexico. Many Americans had moved to Texas, because they could buy a lot of land with little money. The government of Mexico expected the settlers to speak Spanish, to become Roman Catholics, and to accept Mexican traditions. The settlers did not. And the situation became tense. Andrew Jackson was president of the United States at that time. For the most part, he could do little to influence the situation in Texas. The United States had a treaty of friendship with Mexico. It was to remain neutral during the conflict. VOICE TWO: Americans in Texas held a convention in April, eighteen-thirty-three. They prepared a list of appeals to the leader of Mexico, General Santa Ana. The Texas settlers asked Santa Ana to end a tax on goods imported into the territory. They asked him to lift a ban on new settlers from the United States. And they asked that Texas be organized as a separate state of Mexico. One of the Americans, Stephen Austin, carried the appeals to Mexico City. He spent six months negotiating with the Mexican government. General Santa Ana promised to honor all the requests except one. He would not make Texas a separate state, although he said that might be possible someday. Stephen Austin was satisfied. He left the Mexican capital to return to Texas. On his way home, to his surprise, Austin was arrested. He was arrested because of a letter he wrote earlier, when his negotiations with Mexican officials seemed to be failing. He had said it might be best if the people declared Texas a separate state. Austin was put in prison in Mexico City for a year and a half. VOICE ONE: Austin urged the people of Texas to remain loyal to Mexico. But talk of rebellion already had begun. The settlers already were calling themselves "Texans." Minor hostilities broke out between Texans and local Mexican officials. The Mexican army threatened action. When Austin returned from prison, he was chosen to negotiate with the commander of Mexican forces. The commander refused to negotiate. It appeared that war would come. The Texans began to organize their own army. VOICE TWO: In November, eighteen-thirty-five, representatives from all parts of Texas held a convention to discuss the situation. They had no plans to take Texas out of the Mexican Republic. In fact, a proposal to do that was defeated by a large vote. However, the Texans took action to protect themselves against Santa Ana, who had declared himself dictator. They organized a temporary state government. They organized a state army. And they made plans for another convention to begin on March first. VOICE ONE: Before the Texans could meet again, Santa Ana led an army of seven-thousand men across the Rio Grande River into Texas. The first soldiers reached San Antonio on February twenty-third. The Texas forces withdrew to an old Spanish mission church called the Alamo. On March first, the second Texas convention opened. This time, the representatives voted to declare Texas a free, independent and sovereign republic. They wrote a constitution based on the constitution of the United States. They created a government. David Burnet was named president. And Sam Houston was to continue as commander of Texas forces. VOICE TWO: On the second day of the convention, a letter came from the Alamo in San Antonio. The letter was addressed to the people of Texas and all Americans. The commander of Texas forces at the Alamo wrote: "I have been under an artillery attack for twenty-four hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded our surrender. Otherwise, he said, he will kill every one of us. I have answered his demand with a cannon shot. Our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. "I call on you -- in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character -- to come to our aid with all speed. If my appeal is not answered, I will fight as long as possible, and die like a soldier who never forgets what he owes his own honor and that of his country." The letter from the Alamo closed with the words: "Victory or Death. " VOICE ONE: Representatives at the convention wanted to leave immediately to go to the aid of the Texans in San Antonio. But Sam Houston told them it was their duty to remain and create a government for Texas. Houston would go there himself with a small force. The help came too late for the one-hundred eighty-eight men at the Alamo. Santa Ana's forces captured the Spanish mission on March sixth. When the battle ended, not a Texan was left alive. Sam Houston ordered all Texas forces to withdraw northeast -- away from the Mexican army. VOICE TWO: One group of Texans did not move fast enough. Santa Ana trapped them. He said the Texans would not be harmed if they surrendered. They did. One week later, they were marched to a field and shot. Only a few escaped to tell the story. Santa Ana then moved against Sam Houston. He was sure his large army could defeat the remaining Texas force. President Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston were close friends. When told of Houston's retreat, the president pointed to a map of Texas. He said: "If Sam Houston is worth anything, he will make his stand here. Jackson pointed to the mouth of the San Jacinto River. VOICE ONE: The battle of San Jacinto began at four o'clock in the afternoon. There were about eight-hundred Texans. There were two times that many Mexicans. The Mexicans did not expect the retreating Texans to turn and fight. But they did. Shouting "Remember the Alamo!" the Texans ran at the Mexican soldiers. Eighteen minutes later, the battle was over. Santa Ana's army was destroyed. About half of the Mexicans were killed or wounded. The other half were captured. Only two Texans were killed. Twenty-three, including Sam Houston, were wounded. VOICE TWO: The Texans found Santa Ana the next day, wearing the clothes of a simple Mexican soldier. Santa Ana begged for mercy. Houston told him: "You might have shown some at the Alamo." Many of the Texans wanted to shoot the Mexican general. But Houston said he was worth more alive than dead. On May fourteenth, eighteen-thirty-six, Texas President Burnet and General Santa Ana signed a treaty. The treaty made Texas independent. VOICE ONE: Eighteen-thirty-six was a presidential election year in the United States. Andrew Jackson had served for eight years. He did not want another term. He supported his vice president, Martin Van Buren. Jackson's opposition to the demands for more states' rights, and his attack on the Bank of the United States, had created problems for his Democratic Party. Texas also was a problem. Slavery was legal in the new Republic of Texas. Most northerners in the United States opposed slavery anywhere. Jackson felt that if he recognized Texas, the Democrats would lose votes in the presidential election. So Jackson decided not to act on Texas until after the election. VOICE TWO: Opposition to the Democrats came from a coalition political party. Members of the party called themselves Whigs. Three Whigs ran for president in eighteen-thirty-six against Martin Van Buren. The Whigs did not expect any of their candidates to win. But they hoped to get enough votes to prevent Van Buren from gaining a majority. Then the House of Representatives would have to decide the election. And a Whig might have a better chance. The plan failed. Van Buren won. VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson had only a few months left as president. It seemed that much of his time was occupied with one question. That was the request by the Republic of Texas to become a state of the union. Jackson wanted to make Texas a state. But more important was the union itself. The issue of slavery in Texas was critical. Jackson said: "To give statehood to Texas now, or to recognize its independence, would increase the bitterness between the north and south. Nothing is worth this price." Then Jackson thought of a way in which statehood for Texas could bring the nation together, instead of splitting it apart. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English Program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Gwen Outen. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this time for another report about the history of the United States. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Electronic Games in Education
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 27, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. For some educators, there is nothing wrong with fun and games. A group called the Education Arcade recently held a conference in Los Angeles to discuss the future of educational games. The Education Arcade brings together international game designers, publishers, teachers and policymakers. They say they want to lead change in the way the world learns through computer and video games. The conference was part of E-three, the Electronic Entertainment Exposition. This is a yearly trade show where companies show off new games and educational products. The Education Arcade started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, near Boston. Professors worked with the Microsoft company to create what they called the Games-to-Teach Project. The group began to explore ways to use technology in teaching and learning. They worked with game designers to develop ideas about how mathematics and science could mix with game playing. The Education Arcade is the research part of this Games-to-Teach Project. The group recently announced that a “Games for Learning” statement will be placed on some products. This should begin to appear in American stores in about six months. The goal is to help people find games that are fun but will also teach. The Education Arcade says it also wants to get businesses to produce more games that teach. The Entertainment Software Association says fifty percent of all Americans age six and older play computer and video games. Sales of such games in the United States grew eight percent last year, to seven-thousand-million dollars. The industry group says the average age of a game player is twenty-nine years old. And it says thirty-nine percent are women. Experts say developing a successful computer game can take millions of dollars and years of work. They say many companies are not willing to invest that much money and time in educational games when other kinds sell better. Still, companies have been creating systems like hand-held educational devices made by LeapFrog. And new educational role-playing games are being developed. M.I.T. and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia are developing a game called “Revolution.” Players will get to experience the American Revolution online. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 27, 2004 - Carnival Jargon
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 27, 2004 Memorial Day weekend is almost here, and with it, the unofficial start of America's summer season. Traditionally, Memorial Day is the busiest day in the year for traveling carnivals with their trained animals, games of chance and sideshow acts, complete with fire-eaters, sword-swallowers and other colorful, even freakish performers. The number of working sideshows has diminished since the advent of television and the amusement park. And fewer "carnies" are working the crowds. But you'll still find a traditional sideshow at New York's Coney Island, where some of the special jargon of the carnie is still spoken and understood. So step right up folks, as Todd Robbins, Coney Island's sideshow impresario takes Wordmaster guest host Adam Phillips on a little tour. PHILLIPS: To most Americans, that is the sound of a carousel or "merry-go-round." But to carnival and circus workers, what you're hearing is a "jenny" or "flying jenny" if the wooden horses go up and down. Sideshow entertainer and historian Todd Robbins, says that's just one example of the special vocabulary of the carnival. These traveling shows would roll into town, set up for a day or two, even perhaps a week or two, then pull up stakes and move on to the next stop. ROBBINS: "And because of this nomadic quality, they have a tendency to rely upon themselves and not look to the communities for much other than basic supplies. Because of that, there's a certain jargon that has developed." Mr. Robbins freely concedes that, over the years, certain "carnies" as carnival folks are often called developed a certain shady reputation as well. He points to the midway, the section of the carnival where food stands and games are set up and where the customers, called "marks," wander around distracted by all the activity. ROBBINS: "The term 'MARK' comes from the tradition of having someone putting a little mark on a person's back with a little piece of chalk to show, for instance, that they were at a game or they were at a food stand and took out their wallet, and they got what is known as a 'peek at the poke' which means that saw what they had in the wallet and there was a lot of money there. So they put a little mark on the person's shoulder so as when they were going along the games people would be really working to get them in to get to take their money." Today, carnivals are part of a regulated industry -- and sideshows, when they exist at all, are tame affairs. However, Todd Robbins says that 40 or 50 years ago carnivals provided an all-day exotic adventure for entire communities. ROBBINS: "They would come out and watch them put up the tent and set up the whole show. They'd wander around and they'd see them watering and exercising the animals. And then an hour before the show would start, they'd open the sideshow right next to the entrance and say, 'the show is so big on the inside; we cannot put it in the main tent. We have a whole separate show featuring strange and unusual, bizarre and beautiful people -- see it now.'" Todd Robbins lapses easily into the cadence of an old time "barker," the term non-carnival people call the man standing outside the tent trying to lure customers inside. ROBBINS: "Traditionally, the barker is known as the 'outside talker.' And a 'barker' in a carnival is actually a guard dog. So if you ask where the barker is, they'll say 'Come here, king! Come on over here, boy!'" While admission to the traditional sideshow was often very cheap, once inside, there was ample opportunity to, as Mr. Robbins puts it, "relieve oneself of more money." That's what "dings are for. ROBBINS: "It would be an additional charge to see various things. Or there would be souvenirs at the end of various acts. The magic act might sell you a magic trick. The giant might sell you a giant's finger ring. The dwarf or midget in the show might sell you a miniature bible. We are not sure why it's called the ding, but I think it is the sound of a cash register ringing up a sale." Most sideshows contained ten acts, with an obligatory extra act added on. ROBBINS: "At the end, there was something called a 'blowoff,' and it was the last act and usually something very strong. There was a term called 'working strong' which meant there was something shocking and startling about it. Like in our show we have a girl who turns into a gorilla right before your eyes. It was often what is known as a 'half and half' which would be a half-man, half-woman who would talk about their condition and then you'd step behind the curtain into the annex which was the curtained-off area where the blowoff was performed, and sometimes sell you little postcards showing themselves in the nude." It was a sight that kept almost everyone in the audience either amazed or fooled and the carnies, in the money. For more about sideshows and sideshow jargon, visit Todd Robbins' website at Carnivalknowledge that's c-a-r-n-i-v-a-l-k-n-o-w-l-e-d-g-e dot com and you're on your own. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from Coney Island New York. Broadcast: May 27, 2004 Memorial Day weekend is almost here, and with it, the unofficial start of America's summer season. Traditionally, Memorial Day is the busiest day in the year for traveling carnivals with their trained animals, games of chance and sideshow acts, complete with fire-eaters, sword-swallowers and other colorful, even freakish performers. The number of working sideshows has diminished since the advent of television and the amusement park. And fewer "carnies" are working the crowds. But you'll still find a traditional sideshow at New York's Coney Island, where some of the special jargon of the carnie is still spoken and understood. So step right up folks, as Todd Robbins, Coney Island's sideshow impresario takes Wordmaster guest host Adam Phillips on a little tour. PHILLIPS: To most Americans, that is the sound of a carousel or "merry-go-round." But to carnival and circus workers, what you're hearing is a "jenny" or "flying jenny" if the wooden horses go up and down. Sideshow entertainer and historian Todd Robbins, says that's just one example of the special vocabulary of the carnival. These traveling shows would roll into town, set up for a day or two, even perhaps a week or two, then pull up stakes and move on to the next stop. ROBBINS: "And because of this nomadic quality, they have a tendency to rely upon themselves and not look to the communities for much other than basic supplies. Because of that, there's a certain jargon that has developed." Mr. Robbins freely concedes that, over the years, certain "carnies" as carnival folks are often called developed a certain shady reputation as well. He points to the midway, the section of the carnival where food stands and games are set up and where the customers, called "marks," wander around distracted by all the activity. ROBBINS: "The term 'MARK' comes from the tradition of having someone putting a little mark on a person's back with a little piece of chalk to show, for instance, that they were at a game or they were at a food stand and took out their wallet, and they got what is known as a 'peek at the poke' which means that saw what they had in the wallet and there was a lot of money there. So they put a little mark on the person's shoulder so as when they were going along the games people would be really working to get them in to get to take their money." Today, carnivals are part of a regulated industry -- and sideshows, when they exist at all, are tame affairs. However, Todd Robbins says that 40 or 50 years ago carnivals provided an all-day exotic adventure for entire communities. ROBBINS: "They would come out and watch them put up the tent and set up the whole show. They'd wander around and they'd see them watering and exercising the animals. And then an hour before the show would start, they'd open the sideshow right next to the entrance and say, 'the show is so big on the inside; we cannot put it in the main tent. We have a whole separate show featuring strange and unusual, bizarre and beautiful people -- see it now.'" Todd Robbins lapses easily into the cadence of an old time "barker," the term non-carnival people call the man standing outside the tent trying to lure customers inside. ROBBINS: "Traditionally, the barker is known as the 'outside talker.' And a 'barker' in a carnival is actually a guard dog. So if you ask where the barker is, they'll say 'Come here, king! Come on over here, boy!'" While admission to the traditional sideshow was often very cheap, once inside, there was ample opportunity to, as Mr. Robbins puts it, "relieve oneself of more money." That's what "dings are for. ROBBINS: "It would be an additional charge to see various things. Or there would be souvenirs at the end of various acts. The magic act might sell you a magic trick. The giant might sell you a giant's finger ring. The dwarf or midget in the show might sell you a miniature bible. We are not sure why it's called the ding, but I think it is the sound of a cash register ringing up a sale." Most sideshows contained ten acts, with an obligatory extra act added on. ROBBINS: "At the end, there was something called a 'blowoff,' and it was the last act and usually something very strong. There was a term called 'working strong' which meant there was something shocking and startling about it. Like in our show we have a girl who turns into a gorilla right before your eyes. It was often what is known as a 'half and half' which would be a half-man, half-woman who would talk about their condition and then you'd step behind the curtain into the annex which was the curtained-off area where the blowoff was performed, and sometimes sell you little postcards showing themselves in the nude." It was a sight that kept almost everyone in the audience either amazed or fooled and the carnies, in the money. For more about sideshows and sideshow jargon, visit Todd Robbins' website at Carnivalknowledge that's c-a-r-n-i-v-a-l-k-n-o-w-l-e-d-g-e dot com and you're on your own. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from Coney Island New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Elvin Jones / Memorial Day / Cicadas
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 28, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: May 28, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by jazz drummer Elvin Jones, and a question about the Memorial Day holiday. But first, we report about the arrival of some interesting insects! (MUSIC) Cicadas HOST: Thousands of millions of unusual insects have begun invading the eastern United States. Shep O'Neal has the story about the Brood Ten cicadas. ANNCR: Insect experts have identified many different kinds of cicadas. At least one group appears every summer, but the group known as Brood Ten is the largest. They appear every seventeen years. For the past seventeen years, the insects have been living underground, getting food from tree roots. Then they come up out of the ground to mate before they die. These cicadas can be found this summer across fifteen states, from New York to Missouri and as far south as Georgia. The largest numbers will appear in parts of Indiana and Ohio. People there can expect between one-hundred-thousand and more than one-million cicadas per hectare in places. The experts say that the group known as Brood Ten is the largest insect appearance in the world. It will involve thousands of millions of insects. Cicadas are about four centimeters long. They are harmless. They do not bite or sting. They have black bodies, red eyes and red legs. They fly using orange-colored wings. And they make a rather loud noise that sounds like this: (SOUND OF CICADAS) Male cicadas make this noise to attract females. After they mate, the female lays her eggs at the top of a tree. When the eggs hatch, the tiny cicadas drop from the tree and dig into the ground where they will live for seventeen years. Experts say that many animals love to eat cicadas, including birds, snakes, squirrels, cats and dogs. Some people eat cicadas, too. But they cook the insects first. The cicadas that are not eaten survive to lay eggs and produce young. Experts say that is the secret to the survival of the Brood Ten cicadas. Animals may eat as many as they can. Yet enough cicadas survive to continue the species so the young will appear again in seventeen more years. (MUSIC) Memorial Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hoai Phi asks about the Memorial Day holiday in the United States. Americans will celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, May thirty-first. It is the holiday that honors the men and women who died fighting in wars for the United States. The story of Memorial Day begins after the American Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. It was the idea of the daughter of a Union officer who had been killed in battle. She wrote a letter to an organization of soldiers who had served in the Union Army of the northern states that had won the Civil War. She described a German tradition of placing flowers on soldiers’ burial places each spring. She said Americans should decorate soldiers’ burial places the same way. The commander of the soldiers’ organization agreed. He ordered that May thirtieth, eighteen-sixty-eight be named “Decoration Day” to honor soldiers who had died in the Civil War. “Decoration Day” became popular. It was also called “Memorial Day.” A confederate Memorial Day was observed in some southern states. New York was the first state to declare Memorial Day a legal state holiday. That was in eighteen-seventy-three. Congress made it a national holiday in eighteen-eighty-eight. After World War One, Memorial Day became a day to remember those who died in all the nation’s wars. Today, Americans celebrate Memorial Day in different ways. Towns and cities across the nation hold parades over Memorial Day weekend. Many people attend special ceremonies to hear speeches and band music. People enjoy the warm spring weather with their families. They may cook dinner outdoors, go swimming or have a party with friends. Some people travel to Washington, D.C. to attend national Memorial Day ceremonies. This weekend, many people from around the country are in Washington for the opening of the new National World War Two Memorial. You can hear more about the new memorial on the Special English program This is America on Monday. (MUSIC) Elvin Jones HOST: American jazz drummer Elvin Jones died last week in New Jersey. Faith Lapidus remembers the extremely influential artist. ANNOUNCER: Elvin Jones said he loved the drums since he was two years old. He said he knew he was not going to be a doctor or a firefighter, but a drummer. So, at thirteen, he began teaching himself how to play. Over time, he took drumming to a new level in jazz music. One expert said Elvin Jones created a circle of sound. Listen to his music composition, “George and Me.” (MUSIC) In nineteen-sixty, jazz saxophonist John Coltrane formed his first band. He invited Elvin Jones to join. The drummer stayed in the John Coltrane Quartet for six years. Elvin Jones described his working relationship with Coltrane as almost perfect harmony. Here Elvin Jones and the Quartet play “Resolution” from the album “A Love Supreme.” (MUSIC) Elvin Jones formed his own group after he left the Quartet. He continued to perform until the very last weeks of his life. Elvin Jones was seventy-six when he died. We leave you now with “It’s Easy to Remember,” an Elvin Jones group recording from nineteen-eighty-four. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Mario Ritter was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by jazz drummer Elvin Jones, and a question about the Memorial Day holiday. But first, we report about the arrival of some interesting insects! (MUSIC) Cicadas HOST: Thousands of millions of unusual insects have begun invading the eastern United States. Shep O'Neal has the story about the Brood Ten cicadas. ANNCR: Insect experts have identified many different kinds of cicadas. At least one group appears every summer, but the group known as Brood Ten is the largest. They appear every seventeen years. For the past seventeen years, the insects have been living underground, getting food from tree roots. Then they come up out of the ground to mate before they die. These cicadas can be found this summer across fifteen states, from New York to Missouri and as far south as Georgia. The largest numbers will appear in parts of Indiana and Ohio. People there can expect between one-hundred-thousand and more than one-million cicadas per hectare in places. The experts say that the group known as Brood Ten is the largest insect appearance in the world. It will involve thousands of millions of insects. Cicadas are about four centimeters long. They are harmless. They do not bite or sting. They have black bodies, red eyes and red legs. They fly using orange-colored wings. And they make a rather loud noise that sounds like this: (SOUND OF CICADAS) Male cicadas make this noise to attract females. After they mate, the female lays her eggs at the top of a tree. When the eggs hatch, the tiny cicadas drop from the tree and dig into the ground where they will live for seventeen years. Experts say that many animals love to eat cicadas, including birds, snakes, squirrels, cats and dogs. Some people eat cicadas, too. But they cook the insects first. The cicadas that are not eaten survive to lay eggs and produce young. Experts say that is the secret to the survival of the Brood Ten cicadas. Animals may eat as many as they can. Yet enough cicadas survive to continue the species so the young will appear again in seventeen more years. (MUSIC) Memorial Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Hoai Phi asks about the Memorial Day holiday in the United States. Americans will celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, May thirty-first. It is the holiday that honors the men and women who died fighting in wars for the United States. The story of Memorial Day begins after the American Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. It was the idea of the daughter of a Union officer who had been killed in battle. She wrote a letter to an organization of soldiers who had served in the Union Army of the northern states that had won the Civil War. She described a German tradition of placing flowers on soldiers’ burial places each spring. She said Americans should decorate soldiers’ burial places the same way. The commander of the soldiers’ organization agreed. He ordered that May thirtieth, eighteen-sixty-eight be named “Decoration Day” to honor soldiers who had died in the Civil War. “Decoration Day” became popular. It was also called “Memorial Day.” A confederate Memorial Day was observed in some southern states. New York was the first state to declare Memorial Day a legal state holiday. That was in eighteen-seventy-three. Congress made it a national holiday in eighteen-eighty-eight. After World War One, Memorial Day became a day to remember those who died in all the nation’s wars. Today, Americans celebrate Memorial Day in different ways. Towns and cities across the nation hold parades over Memorial Day weekend. Many people attend special ceremonies to hear speeches and band music. People enjoy the warm spring weather with their families. They may cook dinner outdoors, go swimming or have a party with friends. Some people travel to Washington, D.C. to attend national Memorial Day ceremonies. This weekend, many people from around the country are in Washington for the opening of the new National World War Two Memorial. You can hear more about the new memorial on the Special English program This is America on Monday. (MUSIC) Elvin Jones HOST: American jazz drummer Elvin Jones died last week in New Jersey. Faith Lapidus remembers the extremely influential artist. ANNOUNCER: Elvin Jones said he loved the drums since he was two years old. He said he knew he was not going to be a doctor or a firefighter, but a drummer. So, at thirteen, he began teaching himself how to play. Over time, he took drumming to a new level in jazz music. One expert said Elvin Jones created a circle of sound. Listen to his music composition, “George and Me.” (MUSIC) In nineteen-sixty, jazz saxophonist John Coltrane formed his first band. He invited Elvin Jones to join. The drummer stayed in the John Coltrane Quartet for six years. Elvin Jones described his working relationship with Coltrane as almost perfect harmony. Here Elvin Jones and the Quartet play “Resolution” from the album “A Love Supreme.” (MUSIC) Elvin Jones formed his own group after he left the Quartet. He continued to perform until the very last weeks of his life. Elvin Jones was seventy-six when he died. We leave you now with “It’s Easy to Remember,” an Elvin Jones group recording from nineteen-eighty-four. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Mario Ritter was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Russia Moves Closer to WTO
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 28, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Russia is the largest economic power that is not a member of the World Trade Organization. But that may change. Last Friday, the European Union said it would support Russia’s effort to become a W.T.O. member. Representatives of the European Union met with Russian officials in Moscow. They signed a trade agreement that took six years to negotiate. Russia called the trade agreement balanced. Russia agreed to slowly increase fuel prices within the country. It agreed to permit competition in its communications industry and to remove some barriers to trade. Russia said it will continue total control of its main energy company Gazprom. Officials also reached agreements on banking, transportation and financial protection, or insurance. In exchange for European support to join the W.T.O., Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would speed up the process to approve the Kyoto Protocol. That is an international environmental agreement to reduce the production of harmful industrial gases including carbon dioxide. These “greenhouse gases” trap heat in the atmosphere and are blamed for changing the world’s climate. Russia had signed the Kyoto Protocol, but has not approved it. A few months ago, Mister Putin had said that Russia would reject the Protocol. The agreement takes effect when it has been approved by nations that produce at least fifty-five percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Currently, nations producing only forty-four percent have approved the Protocol. Russia produces about seventeen percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. The United States, the world’s biggest producer, withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol after President Bush took office in two-thousand-one. So, Russia’s approval is required to put the Kyoto Protocol into effect. To join the W.T.O, a country must reach trade agreements with major trading countries that are also W.T.O. members. Until now, Russia had reached agreement with only ten W.T.O. members. Russia must still reach agreements with China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Russia is the ninth largest economy in the world. The total value of all goods and services produced by the country last year was one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty-million dollars. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – Central America Free Trade Agreement
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 29, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The United States has signed a trade agreement with five Central American countries. The five are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Trade ministers from the six countries signed the agreement in a ceremony Friday at the Washington headquarters of the Organization of American States. The new treaty is known as the Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. The Dominican Republic is expected to join CAFTA at a later date. All seven countries will be included in the agreement when it is presented to the United States Congress for approval. President Bush first announced his plan to negotiate a free trade agreement with Central American countries in two-thousand-two. The negotiations were completed at the end of last year. CAFTA generally would be an expansion of NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA was completed in nineteen-ninety-four. It links Canada, Mexico and the United States. The Central America Free Trade Agreement is similar to NAFTA. It would bring the Bush administration one step closer to its goal of creating a free trade area. The area would include every country in the western half of the world, except Cuba. The Bush administration is hoping to reach an agreement on the Free Trade Area of the Americas by January two-thousand-five.CAFTA would end taxes on more than eighty-percent of industrial and other goods exported from the United States to Central America. It also would cut taxes on more than fifty-percent of American farm products to Central America. Taxes on most other goods also would be ended over time. Most goods from Central America and the Dominican Republic already enter the United States without taxes or other restrictions. The Bush administration says the agreement would provide similar help to American businesses. It says the agreement also would strengthen trade and investment ties, and create jobs among all the member nations. But opponents say CAFTA will harm workers, farmers and the environment. Labor groups say the agreement would make it more profitable for American businesses to move jobs to Central America. Some members of the United States Congress say it fails to protect American workers from foreign competition. Critics also say it will weaken labor rules designed to help Central American workers. The Bush administration says the agreement’s labor and environmental rules extend beyond earlier trade agreements. It says CAFTA follows trade rules that members of Congress established in two-thousand-two. Central American nations have criticized the United States and other industrial nations for failing to fully open their markets to trade from developing areas. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Pocahontas
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: She lived almost four-hundred years ago in what became the American state of Virginia. She was the first Native American to marry a white person. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Today, we tell about Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian tribe. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Pocahontas was born in fifteen-ninety-five. She was one of twenty children of Chief Powhatan. Powhatan ruled a group of more than twenty Indian tribes in territory that is now the eastern state of Virginia. In sixteen-oh-seven, the Virginia company in England sent colonists to settle the land that later became the United States of America. The leader of the English settlers was John Ratcliffe. He claimed the land for King James of England. He named the new colony Jamestown, Virginia. The English colonists did not know that the area already was settled by Indians. VOICE TWO: The Powhatan Indians lived in the area where the English colonists landed. They were part of a large group of American tribes who spoke the Algonquian language. The Powhatans had lived in the area for almost one-thousand years. They built villages. They grew beans, corn, squash and melons. They created a strong political system, led by powerful chiefs like Powhatan. His power and wealth were evident. Women of the tribes controlled the houses and the fields. They made clothing of animal skins and containers of clay. Men hunted and fished for food. Both men and women wore earrings and other objects made of shells, pearls and copper. The young Pocahontas often visited Jamestown during the colony's first months. She was about twelve years old. The colonists knew her well. She became an important link between the colonists and her father, Powhatan. VOICE ONE: The Indians' culture was very different from that of the English settlers. The two groups did not understand each other. The mis-understandings led to hostile incidents between the colonists and the Indians. John Smith was an explorer, soldier and a leader of the Jamestown colony. He was captured in sixteen-oh-seven by followers of Powhatan. Captain Smith wrote about this incident in a book that was published in sixteen-twenty-four. He wrote that Pocahontas saved him from being executed by Powhatan. This story has been repeated for hundreds of years. This is what most people know about Pocahontas. VOICE TWO: Most historians, however, do not believe that Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith. Some believe that Captain Smith invented the story after reading about a similar event that took place in Florida. That event involved a captured Spanish explorer, an Indian chief and the chief's daughter. Some historians do not believe that John Smith's life was in danger. They say that what Captain Smith thought was to be his execution was really an Indian ceremony. The ceremony was meant to show that Powhatan accepted Smith as part of his tribe. Historians say the Indian chief wanted to make the English colonists his allies. VOICE ONE: After Captain Smith's capture, the Indians and the colonists agreed to a truce. Pocahontas visited Jamestown more often. She may not have really saved John Smith's life. But most experts agree that Pocahontas helped the colonists. She brought them corn when they were starving. She once was said to have warned the colonists about a surprise attack by the Indians. John Smith had been wounded during his capture. He returned to England. Hostilities once again broke out between the Indians and the English settlers. In sixteen-eleven, Thomas Dale became acting governor of the colony. He started a new aggressive policy toward the Indians. Two years later, an English soldier, Samuel Argall, kidnapped Pocahontas. She was about eighteen years old. The colonists kidnapped her because they wanted to prevent more attacks by the Indians. They also wanted to force chief Powhatan to negotiate a peace agreement. VOICE TWO: Pocahontas lived as a hostage in the Jamestown settlement for more than a year. A colonist, John Rolfe, taught her English. He also taught her the Christian religion. Pocahontas was the first Native American to become Christian. She changed her name to Rebecca. In sixteen-fourteen, she married John Rolfe in the church in Jamestown. She was the first Indian woman to marry a white man. Her husband believed that their marriage would be good for the colony. John Rolfe said he married Pocahontas "for the honor of our country, for the glory of God." VOICE ONE: Governor Dale immediately opened negotiations with Powhatan. The result was a period of peace that lasted for about eight years. Pocahontas' husband was a tobacco grower. She taught him the Indian way of planting tobacco. This method improved the tobacco crop. Tobacco later became America's first successful crop. VOICE TWO: In sixteen-fifteen, Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a son. They named him Thomas. The next year Pocahontas and her family sailed to England for a visit. In London, she was treated like a famous person. She was officially presented to king James the First. She also met John Smith again. The Virginia Company said her visit proved that it was possible to have good relations between the English colonists and the Indians. The company urged more people to move from England to the Virginia colony. Pocahontas had her picture painted while visiting England. She is wearing the clothes she wore when she met the King. They are the kind of clothes that were popular in England in the sixteen-hundreds. This picture is the only one that really is of her. VOICE ONE: Pocahontas and her family stayed in England for seven months. They prepared to return to Jamestown. But Pocahontas became sick with smallpox. She died from the disease. She was buried in Gravesend, England. She was twenty-two years old. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was raised in England. When he was twenty, he returned to Virginia. He lived as a settler in his mother's native land. He married and had a daughter. Through Thomas Rolfe, a number of famous Virginians have family ties to Pocahontas. These families are proud to claim their ties to Pocahontas. They call her "Virginia's First Lady. " VOICE TWO: Pocahontas left no writings of her own. The only reports about her from the time were written by John Smith. His reports may not all have been true. Yet the story of her rescue of Captain Smith became a popular folk story. Americans know that Pocahontas played a part in the early history of Virginia. They remember her bravery and friendship. Americans also remember her for what she represented as a Native American: the hope of close relations between the white people and the Indians. VOICE ONE: Pocahontas is honored in the United States Capitol building in Washington, D. C. There are three art works of her in the large, round, main hall of the capitol. There are more representations of her than any other American except for the nation's first president, George Washington. The three art works show the popular stories about Pocahontas. One is a painting of Pocahontas taking part in a religious ceremony in which she became a Christian. Two others show her saving the life of Captain John Smith. VOICE TWO: Many different American groups have used the name and some version of a picture of Pocahontas. Whale hunters in the nineteenth century named ships after Pocahontas in honor of her bravery. They also put small statues of her on their ships. Both the confederate forces in the South and the Union forces in the North used her name or picture during the American Civil War. A picture of Pocahontas was on the flag of a division of Confederate forces called the Guard of the Daughters of Powhatan. Union forces named a warship after the Indian woman. Many American writers have written about Pocahontas. The Walt Disney company produced a popular children's movie about her. VOICE ONE: Today, visitors to the Jamestown settlement in Virginia can see what life was like there in the sixteen-hundreds. They can see copies of the ships that brought the English settlers. And they can see statues of three of the people important in early America: John Smith, Chief Powhatan, and his daughter -- Pocahontas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: She lived almost four-hundred years ago in what became the American state of Virginia. She was the first Native American to marry a white person. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Today, we tell about Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Indian tribe. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Pocahontas was born in fifteen-ninety-five. She was one of twenty children of Chief Powhatan. Powhatan ruled a group of more than twenty Indian tribes in territory that is now the eastern state of Virginia. In sixteen-oh-seven, the Virginia company in England sent colonists to settle the land that later became the United States of America. The leader of the English settlers was John Ratcliffe. He claimed the land for King James of England. He named the new colony Jamestown, Virginia. The English colonists did not know that the area already was settled by Indians. VOICE TWO: The Powhatan Indians lived in the area where the English colonists landed. They were part of a large group of American tribes who spoke the Algonquian language. The Powhatans had lived in the area for almost one-thousand years. They built villages. They grew beans, corn, squash and melons. They created a strong political system, led by powerful chiefs like Powhatan. His power and wealth were evident. Women of the tribes controlled the houses and the fields. They made clothing of animal skins and containers of clay. Men hunted and fished for food. Both men and women wore earrings and other objects made of shells, pearls and copper. The young Pocahontas often visited Jamestown during the colony's first months. She was about twelve years old. The colonists knew her well. She became an important link between the colonists and her father, Powhatan. VOICE ONE: The Indians' culture was very different from that of the English settlers. The two groups did not understand each other. The mis-understandings led to hostile incidents between the colonists and the Indians. John Smith was an explorer, soldier and a leader of the Jamestown colony. He was captured in sixteen-oh-seven by followers of Powhatan. Captain Smith wrote about this incident in a book that was published in sixteen-twenty-four. He wrote that Pocahontas saved him from being executed by Powhatan. This story has been repeated for hundreds of years. This is what most people know about Pocahontas. VOICE TWO: Most historians, however, do not believe that Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith. Some believe that Captain Smith invented the story after reading about a similar event that took place in Florida. That event involved a captured Spanish explorer, an Indian chief and the chief's daughter. Some historians do not believe that John Smith's life was in danger. They say that what Captain Smith thought was to be his execution was really an Indian ceremony. The ceremony was meant to show that Powhatan accepted Smith as part of his tribe. Historians say the Indian chief wanted to make the English colonists his allies. VOICE ONE: After Captain Smith's capture, the Indians and the colonists agreed to a truce. Pocahontas visited Jamestown more often. She may not have really saved John Smith's life. But most experts agree that Pocahontas helped the colonists. She brought them corn when they were starving. She once was said to have warned the colonists about a surprise attack by the Indians. John Smith had been wounded during his capture. He returned to England. Hostilities once again broke out between the Indians and the English settlers. In sixteen-eleven, Thomas Dale became acting governor of the colony. He started a new aggressive policy toward the Indians. Two years later, an English soldier, Samuel Argall, kidnapped Pocahontas. She was about eighteen years old. The colonists kidnapped her because they wanted to prevent more attacks by the Indians. They also wanted to force chief Powhatan to negotiate a peace agreement. VOICE TWO: Pocahontas lived as a hostage in the Jamestown settlement for more than a year. A colonist, John Rolfe, taught her English. He also taught her the Christian religion. Pocahontas was the first Native American to become Christian. She changed her name to Rebecca. In sixteen-fourteen, she married John Rolfe in the church in Jamestown. She was the first Indian woman to marry a white man. Her husband believed that their marriage would be good for the colony. John Rolfe said he married Pocahontas "for the honor of our country, for the glory of God." VOICE ONE: Governor Dale immediately opened negotiations with Powhatan. The result was a period of peace that lasted for about eight years. Pocahontas' husband was a tobacco grower. She taught him the Indian way of planting tobacco. This method improved the tobacco crop. Tobacco later became America's first successful crop. VOICE TWO: In sixteen-fifteen, Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a son. They named him Thomas. The next year Pocahontas and her family sailed to England for a visit. In London, she was treated like a famous person. She was officially presented to king James the First. She also met John Smith again. The Virginia Company said her visit proved that it was possible to have good relations between the English colonists and the Indians. The company urged more people to move from England to the Virginia colony. Pocahontas had her picture painted while visiting England. She is wearing the clothes she wore when she met the King. They are the kind of clothes that were popular in England in the sixteen-hundreds. This picture is the only one that really is of her. VOICE ONE: Pocahontas and her family stayed in England for seven months. They prepared to return to Jamestown. But Pocahontas became sick with smallpox. She died from the disease. She was buried in Gravesend, England. She was twenty-two years old. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was raised in England. When he was twenty, he returned to Virginia. He lived as a settler in his mother's native land. He married and had a daughter. Through Thomas Rolfe, a number of famous Virginians have family ties to Pocahontas. These families are proud to claim their ties to Pocahontas. They call her "Virginia's First Lady. " VOICE TWO: Pocahontas left no writings of her own. The only reports about her from the time were written by John Smith. His reports may not all have been true. Yet the story of her rescue of Captain Smith became a popular folk story. Americans know that Pocahontas played a part in the early history of Virginia. They remember her bravery and friendship. Americans also remember her for what she represented as a Native American: the hope of close relations between the white people and the Indians. VOICE ONE: Pocahontas is honored in the United States Capitol building in Washington, D. C. There are three art works of her in the large, round, main hall of the capitol. There are more representations of her than any other American except for the nation's first president, George Washington. The three art works show the popular stories about Pocahontas. One is a painting of Pocahontas taking part in a religious ceremony in which she became a Christian. Two others show her saving the life of Captain John Smith. VOICE TWO: Many different American groups have used the name and some version of a picture of Pocahontas. Whale hunters in the nineteenth century named ships after Pocahontas in honor of her bravery. They also put small statues of her on their ships. Both the confederate forces in the South and the Union forces in the North used her name or picture during the American Civil War. A picture of Pocahontas was on the flag of a division of Confederate forces called the Guard of the Daughters of Powhatan. Union forces named a warship after the Indian woman. Many American writers have written about Pocahontas. The Walt Disney company produced a popular children's movie about her. VOICE ONE: Today, visitors to the Jamestown settlement in Virginia can see what life was like there in the sixteen-hundreds. They can see copies of the ships that brought the English settlers. And they can see statues of three of the people important in early America: John Smith, Chief Powhatan, and his daughter -- Pocahontas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - National World War Two Memorial
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 31, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, come with us to the National World War Two Memorial which just opened in Washington. And meet some of the people it honors. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States observes Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. This holiday is for Americans to honor members of the armed forces who died in wars. In World War Two, the United States and its allies fought Japan, Germany and Italy, together known as the Axis powers. Sixteen-million men and women served in the American military between nineteen-forty-one and nineteen-forty-five. More than four-hundred-thousand never returned home. Today fewer and fewer veterans of the war are still alive. Each day a thousand more die. Yet, until now, the nation’s capital had no special place to remember their service to their country. VOICE TWO: Now it does. The National World War Two Memorial officially opened on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Organizers put together four days of observances. The American Battle Monuments Commission planned a series of activities. Events included a huge reunion for the young soldiers, sailors, nurses, and pilots of sixty years ago. Thousands of women served in the armed forces during World War Two. They were nurses and pilots, intelligence and office workers, teachers and musicians. Many women aided the war effort by working in defense factories. And what would reliving the nineteen-forties be without remembering big band and swing sounds, like the music of Glenn Miller's Orchestra. (MUSIC: "String of Pearls") VOICE ONE: Roger Durbin remembered those days. He was in World War Two. The United States did not want to enter the war. But on December seventh, nineteen-forty-one, Japan bombed the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Congress acted quickly to declare war. By this time, Nazi Germany had already invaded and occupied western Europe. Roger Durbin fought in the Battle of the Bulge in nineteen-forty-four. That was the last major campaign by the Germans to stop the Allied invasion of Europe. Germany surrendered in May nineteen-forty-five. Forty years later, Roger Durbin was at a political event in his home state of Ohio. This Army veteran shouted a question to his local congresswoman. Mister Durbin wanted to know why the nation’s capital had no memorial to his war. VOICE TWO: Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio did not let that question go unanswered. In nineteen-eighty-seven, the congresswoman proposed a World War Two memorial for Washington. Yet, six years went by before Congress passed legislation to build it. Then, seemingly endless delays followed. Placement, cost, design – there was debate about everything. Such delays are really not so unusual, though. Work finally started in September of two-thousand-one. The memorial cost more than one-hundred-seventy-million-dollars. Much of it came from private gifts. VOICE TWO: Over the years, Roger Durbin worked from Ohio to raise money. Schoolchildren gave what they could. Former Kansas Senator Bob Dole and businessman Frederick Smith led a national campaign to collect money. Mister Dole was a hero in World War Two and, in recent years, a candidate for president. In the end, all the efforts raised more money than the memorial needed. Now, completed, it rises between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial along the National Mall. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. Visitors enter from Seventeenth Street in Northwest Washington. The ceremonial entrance opens into an area shaped like an egg. It is about the size of a football field. Friedrich St. Florian, an Austrian-born architect in the United States, designed the memorial. It is built of bronze and granite. The gray stone looks white in the sun. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. More water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. When the sunlight strikes just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent the states, territories and the District of Columbia at the time of the war. Two tall arches carry the names of where it all took place. One says “Atlantic”; the other says “Pacific.” Along one side of the memorial is a wall three meters high but much wider. This is called the Freedom Wall. On it are four-thousand gold stars. These honor the more than four-hundred-thousand Americans killed in the war. In front of the wall are these words: "Here we mark the price of freedom." VOICE TWO: Hector Blanchette came from Connecticut to see the new memorial. He is visiting with his son who lives near Washington. Mister Blanchette remembers Washington from long ago. Before World War Two, he helped build an airport here. He says he joined the Army because “that is what young men did then.” For the next several years, Hector Blanchette helped prepare shores on New Guinea and other islands so American ships could land. He was sent to Japan after the Japanese surrendered in September of nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: A woman from Maryland is taking pictures of a pillar that says “Indiana.” Two of her family members from that state went to war. One of them, Allen Anderson, still lives in Porter County, Indiana. Mister Anderson says he joined the Navy at seventeen. He became an airplane repairman on a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: Allen Anderson says he will never forget the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It happened in October of nineteen-forty-four. At that time, the United States was trying to recapture the Philippine islands from the Japanese. Some historians call it the greatest sea battle ever fought. More than two-hundred-eighty ships took part. The young American sailor stayed at his battle station for seventy-two hours. The Americans had to deal not only with Japanese shells. They also had to look out for kamikaze pilots. These pilots would try to crash their planes into American ships. Over several days, the Americans sank many Japanese ships. The Japanese navy never recovered from the loss of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. VOICE ONE: Recently we also talked to an eighty-four-year-old woman. She is a retired clothing designer from Chevy Chase, Maryland. She spent some of the war restricted to a camp in California. President Franklin Roosevelt had ordered that people of Japanese ancestry be held as threats to security. This woman did not want us to give her name. She got married in the camp. Her husband, also of Japanese ancestry, offered to join an intelligence agency in Washington. Years later, he was honored for his secret work. VOICE TWO: Nancy Dayhoff is an artist. She still has a clear image of World War Two in her mind. She was a college student. She was in love with a soldier named Thomas Belmont. In nineteen-forty-four, he received orders to go to Europe. Like other soldiers, he did not know if he would return alive. So he and his girlfriend raced around New York City. They wanted to get married, quickly. But first they had to get the required legal documents and find a church, which they did. Soon afterwards, Thomas Belmont left for Italy. He fought in the war and survived. He lived until nineteen-eighty-two. VOICE ONE: Not far from the new military memorial are two others. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen-eighty-two. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen-ninety-five. The veteran who dreamed of a national memorial to his war did not live to see it built. Roger Durbin died of cancer four months before ground was broken. The National World War Two Memorial honors the millions who served at a time when their nation, and the world, needed their help. This Memorial Day, Washington has a new place to remember history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: May 31, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, come with us to the National World War Two Memorial which just opened in Washington. And meet some of the people it honors. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States observes Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. This holiday is for Americans to honor members of the armed forces who died in wars. In World War Two, the United States and its allies fought Japan, Germany and Italy, together known as the Axis powers. Sixteen-million men and women served in the American military between nineteen-forty-one and nineteen-forty-five. More than four-hundred-thousand never returned home. Today fewer and fewer veterans of the war are still alive. Each day a thousand more die. Yet, until now, the nation’s capital had no special place to remember their service to their country. VOICE TWO: Now it does. The National World War Two Memorial officially opened on Saturday in Washington, D.C. Organizers put together four days of observances. The American Battle Monuments Commission planned a series of activities. Events included a huge reunion for the young soldiers, sailors, nurses, and pilots of sixty years ago. Thousands of women served in the armed forces during World War Two. They were nurses and pilots, intelligence and office workers, teachers and musicians. Many women aided the war effort by working in defense factories. And what would reliving the nineteen-forties be without remembering big band and swing sounds, like the music of Glenn Miller's Orchestra. (MUSIC: "String of Pearls") VOICE ONE: Roger Durbin remembered those days. He was in World War Two. The United States did not want to enter the war. But on December seventh, nineteen-forty-one, Japan bombed the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Congress acted quickly to declare war. By this time, Nazi Germany had already invaded and occupied western Europe. Roger Durbin fought in the Battle of the Bulge in nineteen-forty-four. That was the last major campaign by the Germans to stop the Allied invasion of Europe. Germany surrendered in May nineteen-forty-five. Forty years later, Roger Durbin was at a political event in his home state of Ohio. This Army veteran shouted a question to his local congresswoman. Mister Durbin wanted to know why the nation’s capital had no memorial to his war. VOICE TWO: Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio did not let that question go unanswered. In nineteen-eighty-seven, the congresswoman proposed a World War Two memorial for Washington. Yet, six years went by before Congress passed legislation to build it. Then, seemingly endless delays followed. Placement, cost, design – there was debate about everything. Such delays are really not so unusual, though. Work finally started in September of two-thousand-one. The memorial cost more than one-hundred-seventy-million-dollars. Much of it came from private gifts. VOICE TWO: Over the years, Roger Durbin worked from Ohio to raise money. Schoolchildren gave what they could. Former Kansas Senator Bob Dole and businessman Frederick Smith led a national campaign to collect money. Mister Dole was a hero in World War Two and, in recent years, a candidate for president. In the end, all the efforts raised more money than the memorial needed. Now, completed, it rises between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial along the National Mall. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. Visitors enter from Seventeenth Street in Northwest Washington. The ceremonial entrance opens into an area shaped like an egg. It is about the size of a football field. Friedrich St. Florian, an Austrian-born architect in the United States, designed the memorial. It is built of bronze and granite. The gray stone looks white in the sun. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. More water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle. When the sunlight strikes just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent the states, territories and the District of Columbia at the time of the war. Two tall arches carry the names of where it all took place. One says “Atlantic”; the other says “Pacific.” Along one side of the memorial is a wall three meters high but much wider. This is called the Freedom Wall. On it are four-thousand gold stars. These honor the more than four-hundred-thousand Americans killed in the war. In front of the wall are these words: "Here we mark the price of freedom." VOICE TWO: Hector Blanchette came from Connecticut to see the new memorial. He is visiting with his son who lives near Washington. Mister Blanchette remembers Washington from long ago. Before World War Two, he helped build an airport here. He says he joined the Army because “that is what young men did then.” For the next several years, Hector Blanchette helped prepare shores on New Guinea and other islands so American ships could land. He was sent to Japan after the Japanese surrendered in September of nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: A woman from Maryland is taking pictures of a pillar that says “Indiana.” Two of her family members from that state went to war. One of them, Allen Anderson, still lives in Porter County, Indiana. Mister Anderson says he joined the Navy at seventeen. He became an airplane repairman on a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: Allen Anderson says he will never forget the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It happened in October of nineteen-forty-four. At that time, the United States was trying to recapture the Philippine islands from the Japanese. Some historians call it the greatest sea battle ever fought. More than two-hundred-eighty ships took part. The young American sailor stayed at his battle station for seventy-two hours. The Americans had to deal not only with Japanese shells. They also had to look out for kamikaze pilots. These pilots would try to crash their planes into American ships. Over several days, the Americans sank many Japanese ships. The Japanese navy never recovered from the loss of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. VOICE ONE: Recently we also talked to an eighty-four-year-old woman. She is a retired clothing designer from Chevy Chase, Maryland. She spent some of the war restricted to a camp in California. President Franklin Roosevelt had ordered that people of Japanese ancestry be held as threats to security. This woman did not want us to give her name. She got married in the camp. Her husband, also of Japanese ancestry, offered to join an intelligence agency in Washington. Years later, he was honored for his secret work. VOICE TWO: Nancy Dayhoff is an artist. She still has a clear image of World War Two in her mind. She was a college student. She was in love with a soldier named Thomas Belmont. In nineteen-forty-four, he received orders to go to Europe. Like other soldiers, he did not know if he would return alive. So he and his girlfriend raced around New York City. They wanted to get married, quickly. But first they had to get the required legal documents and find a church, which they did. Soon afterwards, Thomas Belmont left for Italy. He fought in the war and survived. He lived until nineteen-eighty-two. VOICE ONE: Not far from the new military memorial are two others. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen-eighty-two. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen-ninety-five. The veteran who dreamed of a national memorial to his war did not live to see it built. Roger Durbin died of cancer four months before ground was broken. The National World War Two Memorial honors the millions who served at a time when their nation, and the world, needed their help. This Memorial Day, Washington has a new place to remember history. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-30-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Home-Based Management of Malaria
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 31, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Malaria is estimated to kill another child in Africa every thirty seconds. But there is new evidence that treatment of malaria at home can save many lives. This is called home-based management. Home-based management is being used in several countries in Africa. These include Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. Local health workers and mothers of young children are trained to recognize the signs of malaria. They are taught to seek treatment immediately. Store keepers are trained to sell the right amount of medicine for the age of the patient. And directions about how to use the drugs have pictures so they are easier to understand. World Health Organization officials say this treatment at home is reducing malaria deaths in children under the age of five. One example is in Burkina Faso. W.H.O. officials say deaths decreased by more than fifty percent when high body temperatures were treated quickly. High fever is the most important sign of malaria. Experts say children should be treated within twenty-four hours after their temperature rises. At first, a cool wet cloth may help reduce the body temperature. But children can die within two days if the malaria becomes severe. Children must receive the correct amount of medicine. And they must take all the medicine they are given. Mothers and health workers are told to take the child to a medical center if the fever is treated but continues after two days. Other signs of malaria include sleepiness and feeling sick in the stomach. The W.H.O. says people often take patients to traditional healers to treat another effect of malaria: severe shaking. But it says the healers should be trained to tell them they must go to a hospital. The World Health Organization has published a guide in an effort to increase malaria treatment at home. This information tells about how to train and educate mothers and other people about malaria. In Uganda, for example, communities have elected a person to learn the signs of malaria and provide medicine. Teachers and store keepers are also trained to help educate the community about malaria. The guide is called "Scaling Up Home-Based Management of Malaria." Internet users can find it at www.who.int. Again, www.who.int. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: May 31, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Malaria is estimated to kill another child in Africa every thirty seconds. But there is new evidence that treatment of malaria at home can save many lives. This is called home-based management. Home-based management is being used in several countries in Africa. These include Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. Local health workers and mothers of young children are trained to recognize the signs of malaria. They are taught to seek treatment immediately. Store keepers are trained to sell the right amount of medicine for the age of the patient. And directions about how to use the drugs have pictures so they are easier to understand. World Health Organization officials say this treatment at home is reducing malaria deaths in children under the age of five. One example is in Burkina Faso. W.H.O. officials say deaths decreased by more than fifty percent when high body temperatures were treated quickly. High fever is the most important sign of malaria. Experts say children should be treated within twenty-four hours after their temperature rises. At first, a cool wet cloth may help reduce the body temperature. But children can die within two days if the malaria becomes severe. Children must receive the correct amount of medicine. And they must take all the medicine they are given. Mothers and health workers are told to take the child to a medical center if the fever is treated but continues after two days. Other signs of malaria include sleepiness and feeling sick in the stomach. The W.H.O. says people often take patients to traditional healers to treat another effect of malaria: severe shaking. But it says the healers should be trained to tell them they must go to a hospital. The World Health Organization has published a guide in an effort to increase malaria treatment at home. This information tells about how to train and educate mothers and other people about malaria. In Uganda, for example, communities have elected a person to learn the signs of malaria and provide medicine. Teachers and store keepers are also trained to help educate the community about malaria. The guide is called "Scaling Up Home-Based Management of Malaria." Internet users can find it at www.who.int. Again, www.who.int. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-05/a-2004-05-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Calls for a 'Gene Revolution'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 1, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There are sixty-eight million hectares of genetically engineered crops. This is about five percent of all cropland in the world, and expanding. But debate over how best to use this biological technology continues. Experts compare the rise of biotechnology to the period of change in the nineteen-sixties and seventies. The Green Revolution produced the modern systems and chemicals of agriculture. Productivity increased in many countries. Today, the United Nations and others are calling for a Gene Revolution. Experts say the world must find new ways to fight hunger and feed its growing population. But, unlike the Green Revolution, biotechnology has been supported mainly by private investment. Businesses are unwilling to share trade secrets with countries that do not recognize their property rights. Companies also want to earn a profit, so they develop crops for large markets. Ninety-nine percent of genetically engineered crops are either soybeans, corn, cotton or canola. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says little research has been done on food crops like wheat, rice, potatoes and cassava. An F.A.O. report last month expressed concern that biotechnology is not helping developing nations. Six countries grew ninety-nine percent of all biotech crops last year: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, South Africa and the United States. Almost all these crops have special genes to resist damage by insects or by chemicals used to kill unwanted plants. The F.A.O. says there is little research on biotech plants that could resist crop failure in poor countries, or provide extra vitamins. Director-General Jacques Diouf says scientists generally agree that foods made from genetically engineered crops are safe to eat. But he adds that little is known about their long-term effects. He also says there is less scientific agreement on the environmental effects, so each product must be carefully observed. Public opinion is a big issue in the debate. Opponents say there may be unknown health dangers. Some poor nations have refused any food aid that contains genetically engineered products. Yet the industry has had some successes recently. Last month the European Union ended a six-year suspension of approval for new biotech foods. And Brazil has been moving to let farmers plant genetically engineered soybeans. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Testing the Atkins Diet / Getting People to Lose Weight / New Drug for Malaria
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 1, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Coming up, new evidence in support of a weight-loss method. VOICE ONE: A new plan to try to get more people around the world to lose weight. VOICE TWO: And, a new drug in the fight against another big problem: malaria. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people who try to lose weight know that no diet is perfect. But two new studies show that a diet low in carbohydrates can cause faster weight loss than a diet low in fats. This was true at least in the short term. Researchers published the findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The studies appear to support popular low-carbohydrate plans like the Atkins diet. Doctor Robert Atkins urged people to eat high-protein foods like meat and eggs. He told dieters to avoid foods high in starch and sugar. Doctor Atkins died last year. He fell on an icy street in New York and suffered a head injury. He was seventy-two years old. VOICE TWO: Our body uses carbohydrates for energy. It can also make energy from protein and fat. But proteins generally make people feel more satisfied with less food than carbohydrates do. This is one of the main arguments for a low-carb diet to lose weight. One of the new studies took place at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. The Robert C. Atkins Foundation paid for the study but was not involved in the research. This organization works to get more people to follow the doctor's ideas. One-hundred-twenty overweight adults took part in the study. They were between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five. They followed either the Atkins plan or a low-fat diet for one year. After six months, the people on the Atkins diet lost an average of eleven kilograms. Those on the low-fat diet lost an average of six kilograms. VOICE ONE: The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, did the second study. This study did not involve the Atkins Foundation. One-hundred-thirty-two adults took part. Most had diabetes. The researchers put half the people on a low-carb diet. The other half followed a low-fat diet. After one year, the low-carb dieters had lost on average as much as eight kilograms. Yet the low-fat dieters lost about the same amount. What happened? The low-carb dieters lost weight faster in the beginning. But the low-fat dieters lost weight throughout the year. However, the study found that the people with diabetes controlled their blood sugar better with low carbohydrates. The new research also found that triglyceride levels fell more on the low-carb diet than on the low-fat plan. Triglycerides are fats in the blood that can increase the risk of heart disease. Levels of so-called good cholesterol also appeared to improve with the low-carb diet. Higher levels of good cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease. But levels of bad cholesterol did go up in some people. VOICE TWO: Doctor Walter Willett is a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health. Doctor Willett wrote a commentary on the two studies. In his words, "we can no longer dismiss very-low carbohydrate diets." He says Doctor Atkins should get "credit for his observations that many people can control their weight by greatly reducing carbohydrates." But other health experts are not satisfied. They want more research done to learn the effects of following the Atkins diet for long periods of time. They warn that people who eat a lot of fat may give themselves a heart attack. And they question how good it is for people not to eat things like fruit. VOICE ONE: The Atkins diet and other low-carbohydrate plans have had a big effect on the food industry. Stores sell lots of new low-carb foods as well as lower-carb versions of breads and pastas. But supporters of the Atkins diet say people should not use it as an excuse to fill themselves with fatty foods. Marketers of the eating plan have been doing more lately to try to explain it to people. They say proteins such as poultry, fish, beef, pork and soy products should be the largest part of what people eat. But they say the next largest part should be green vegetables. After that, the plan calls for smaller amounts of fruits, oils, nuts, cheese and beans. The Atkins advice is that the smallest part of what people eat should be whole grain foods such as barley, oats and brown rice. VOICE TWO: But, to lose weight, it says eating should center on protein, leafy vegetables and healthy oils. Last week the New York Times reported what it said was apparently the first legal action against the Atkins diet. A Florida man said he suffered a blocked artery from high cholesterol after two years on the diet. He asked for twenty-eight-thousand dollars. The Atkins Nutritionals company said the case was part of an effort to scare people into not eating any animal protein. You're listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Low-carbohydrate diets or not, more people than ever weigh too much. The World Health Organization says this is a serious problem. It says the opposite problem, hunger, affects about eight-hundred-fifty-million people. But more than one-thousand-million are overweight. And that just counts adults. At least three-hundred-million adults are obese, severely overweight. Health ministers around the world now have a plan called the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. They approved it in late May at the meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. VOICE TWO: The plan urges people to eat less saturated fats and trans fatty acids. Food products often list trans fats under the name "partially hydrogenated" oil. The plan also urges people to eat less salt and sugar, and more fruits and vegetables. It calls for more physical activity. And it suggests that governments restrict food advertising, especially messages aimed at children. The plan took two years to develop. The sugar industry and several sugar-producing nations had objected to earlier proposals. They wanted to remove any discussion about limits on sugar. Some sugar producing nations feared that their farmers would be hurt by the new strategy. VOICE ONE: The director general of the W.H.O., Lee Jong-wook, praised the strategy as a major success in public health policy. He said it will provide countries with a powerful tool to fight diseases caused by obesity. Health officials say poor diet and lack of exercise are among the leading causes of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. They say these kinds of diseases now cause about sixty percent of deaths worldwide. In the United States, the government estimates that one in three adults is obese. But health officials warn that the problem is spreading in developing nations as they gain more wealth. And the problem is not just among adults. A group called the International Obesity Task Force estimates that one in ten children worldwide is overweight or obese. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another big problem in the world is malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that about three-million people a year become infected with this disease. About one-million of them die. Most of the deaths are in Africa. Young children and pregnant women suffer the most. Now, the United Nations has given its support to another drug to fight malaria. It is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine called artemisinin (are-TEM-is-in-in). This drug comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood. Chinese researchers discovered artemisinin more than thirty years ago. Tests took place in the early nineteen-nineties in Vietnam. Malaria spreads through mosquito bites. New drugs are needed because the parasites that cause the infection develop resistance. Health experts hope to prevent resistance to artemisinin by giving the drug in combination with other medicines. VOICE TWO: But experts also warn against the overuse of malaria drugs by people who do not have the disease. They say that sick people often mistake influenza or other diseases for malaria and take anti-malaria medicine. This can add to the problem of drug resistance. There are home tests for malaria. Health experts say greater use of these tests could help make sure people take malaria drugs only when they really need them. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: June 1, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Coming up, new evidence in support of a weight-loss method. VOICE ONE: A new plan to try to get more people around the world to lose weight. VOICE TWO: And, a new drug in the fight against another big problem: malaria. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people who try to lose weight know that no diet is perfect. But two new studies show that a diet low in carbohydrates can cause faster weight loss than a diet low in fats. This was true at least in the short term. Researchers published the findings in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The studies appear to support popular low-carbohydrate plans like the Atkins diet. Doctor Robert Atkins urged people to eat high-protein foods like meat and eggs. He told dieters to avoid foods high in starch and sugar. Doctor Atkins died last year. He fell on an icy street in New York and suffered a head injury. He was seventy-two years old. VOICE TWO: Our body uses carbohydrates for energy. It can also make energy from protein and fat. But proteins generally make people feel more satisfied with less food than carbohydrates do. This is one of the main arguments for a low-carb diet to lose weight. One of the new studies took place at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. The Robert C. Atkins Foundation paid for the study but was not involved in the research. This organization works to get more people to follow the doctor's ideas. One-hundred-twenty overweight adults took part in the study. They were between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five. They followed either the Atkins plan or a low-fat diet for one year. After six months, the people on the Atkins diet lost an average of eleven kilograms. Those on the low-fat diet lost an average of six kilograms. VOICE ONE: The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, did the second study. This study did not involve the Atkins Foundation. One-hundred-thirty-two adults took part. Most had diabetes. The researchers put half the people on a low-carb diet. The other half followed a low-fat diet. After one year, the low-carb dieters had lost on average as much as eight kilograms. Yet the low-fat dieters lost about the same amount. What happened? The low-carb dieters lost weight faster in the beginning. But the low-fat dieters lost weight throughout the year. However, the study found that the people with diabetes controlled their blood sugar better with low carbohydrates. The new research also found that triglyceride levels fell more on the low-carb diet than on the low-fat plan. Triglycerides are fats in the blood that can increase the risk of heart disease. Levels of so-called good cholesterol also appeared to improve with the low-carb diet. Higher levels of good cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease. But levels of bad cholesterol did go up in some people. VOICE TWO: Doctor Walter Willett is a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health. Doctor Willett wrote a commentary on the two studies. In his words, "we can no longer dismiss very-low carbohydrate diets." He says Doctor Atkins should get "credit for his observations that many people can control their weight by greatly reducing carbohydrates." But other health experts are not satisfied. They want more research done to learn the effects of following the Atkins diet for long periods of time. They warn that people who eat a lot of fat may give themselves a heart attack. And they question how good it is for people not to eat things like fruit. VOICE ONE: The Atkins diet and other low-carbohydrate plans have had a big effect on the food industry. Stores sell lots of new low-carb foods as well as lower-carb versions of breads and pastas. But supporters of the Atkins diet say people should not use it as an excuse to fill themselves with fatty foods. Marketers of the eating plan have been doing more lately to try to explain it to people. They say proteins such as poultry, fish, beef, pork and soy products should be the largest part of what people eat. But they say the next largest part should be green vegetables. After that, the plan calls for smaller amounts of fruits, oils, nuts, cheese and beans. The Atkins advice is that the smallest part of what people eat should be whole grain foods such as barley, oats and brown rice. VOICE TWO: But, to lose weight, it says eating should center on protein, leafy vegetables and healthy oils. Last week the New York Times reported what it said was apparently the first legal action against the Atkins diet. A Florida man said he suffered a blocked artery from high cholesterol after two years on the diet. He asked for twenty-eight-thousand dollars. The Atkins Nutritionals company said the case was part of an effort to scare people into not eating any animal protein. You're listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Low-carbohydrate diets or not, more people than ever weigh too much. The World Health Organization says this is a serious problem. It says the opposite problem, hunger, affects about eight-hundred-fifty-million people. But more than one-thousand-million are overweight. And that just counts adults. At least three-hundred-million adults are obese, severely overweight. Health ministers around the world now have a plan called the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. They approved it in late May at the meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. VOICE TWO: The plan urges people to eat less saturated fats and trans fatty acids. Food products often list trans fats under the name "partially hydrogenated" oil. The plan also urges people to eat less salt and sugar, and more fruits and vegetables. It calls for more physical activity. And it suggests that governments restrict food advertising, especially messages aimed at children. The plan took two years to develop. The sugar industry and several sugar-producing nations had objected to earlier proposals. They wanted to remove any discussion about limits on sugar. Some sugar producing nations feared that their farmers would be hurt by the new strategy. VOICE ONE: The director general of the W.H.O., Lee Jong-wook, praised the strategy as a major success in public health policy. He said it will provide countries with a powerful tool to fight diseases caused by obesity. Health officials say poor diet and lack of exercise are among the leading causes of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. They say these kinds of diseases now cause about sixty percent of deaths worldwide. In the United States, the government estimates that one in three adults is obese. But health officials warn that the problem is spreading in developing nations as they gain more wealth. And the problem is not just among adults. A group called the International Obesity Task Force estimates that one in ten children worldwide is overweight or obese. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another big problem in the world is malaria. The World Health Organization estimates that about three-million people a year become infected with this disease. About one-million of them die. Most of the deaths are in Africa. Young children and pregnant women suffer the most. Now, the United Nations has given its support to another drug to fight malaria. It is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine called artemisinin (are-TEM-is-in-in). This drug comes from a plant called the sweet wormwood. Chinese researchers discovered artemisinin more than thirty years ago. Tests took place in the early nineteen-nineties in Vietnam. Malaria spreads through mosquito bites. New drugs are needed because the parasites that cause the infection develop resistance. Health experts hope to prevent resistance to artemisinin by giving the drug in combination with other medicines. VOICE TWO: But experts also warn against the overuse of malaria drugs by people who do not have the disease. They say that sick people often mistake influenza or other diseases for malaria and take anti-malaria medicine. This can add to the problem of drug resistance. There are home tests for malaria. Health experts say greater use of these tests could help make sure people take malaria drugs only when they really need them. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Calls for a 'Gene Revolution'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 1, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There are sixty-eight million hectares of genetically engineered crops. This is about five percent of all cropland in the world, and expanding. But debate over how best to use this biological technology continues. Experts compare the rise of biotechnology to the period of change in the nineteen-sixties and seventies. The Green Revolution produced the modern systems and chemicals of agriculture. Productivity increased in many countries. Today, the United Nations and others are calling for a Gene Revolution. Experts say the world must find new ways to fight hunger and feed its growing population. But, unlike the Green Revolution, biotechnology has been supported mainly by private investment. Businesses are unwilling to share trade secrets with countries that do not recognize their property rights. Companies also want to earn a profit, so they develop crops for large markets. Ninety-nine percent of genetically engineered crops are either soybeans, corn, cotton or canola. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says little research has been done on food crops like wheat, rice, potatoes and cassava. An F.A.O. report last month expressed concern that biotechnology is not helping developing nations. Six countries grew ninety-nine percent of all biotech crops last year: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, South Africa and the United States. Almost all these crops have special genes to resist damage by insects or by chemicals used to kill unwanted plants. The F.A.O. says there is little research on biotech plants that could resist crop failure in poor countries, or provide extra vitamins. Director-General Jacques Diouf says scientists generally agree that foods made from genetically engineered crops are safe to eat. But he adds that little is known about their long-term effects. He also says there is less scientific agreement on the environmental effects, so each product must be carefully observed. Public opinion is a big issue in the debate. Opponents say there may be unknown health dangers. Some poor nations have refused any food aid that contains genetically engineered products. Yet the industry has had some successes recently. Last month the European Union ended a six-year suspension of approval for new biotech foods. And Brazil has been moving to let farmers plant genetically engineered soybeans. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Rio Grande, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 2, 2004 (MUSIC) (Photo - Ken Osborn/U.S. Geological Survey) Broadcast: June 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Rio Grande. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Rio Grande is the fifth longest river on the North American continent. It forms the border between the southwestern state of Texas and Mexico. The Rio Grande been has important in the history and development of the United States and Mexico. However, the river has a different name in Mexico. It is called Rio Bravo del Norte. The Rio Grande begins its three-thousand kilometer trip to the Gulf of Mexico high in the Rocky Mountains in the state of Colorado. It begins almost four-thousand meters up where the river is fed by melting snow. Soon, other small streams flow into the river, increasing its size as it flows generally south through the state of New Mexico. Its waters flow through deep mountain canyons. Some of them are more than five-hundred meters deep. It continues across great flat plains areas, and deserts, feeding rich agricultural areas along the way. VOICE TWO: The Rio Grande flows south to the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Then it turns in a southeast direction. Here it becomes the border line between the United States and Mexico for two-thousand kilometers. From this point in the most western part of Texas, the Rio Grande flows east to where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Along its way, the river flows through or past the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico, by El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez. The last cities it touches are Brownsville, Texas on one side of the border and Matamoros, Mexico on the other. On its long trip to the sea, the Rio Grande expands as a number of rivers flow into it. In the United States, those rivers include the Pecos, Devils, Chama, and Puerco rivers. In Mexico, the Conchos, Salado, and San Juan rivers provide waters to the Rio Grande. VOICE ONE: In some places the river is more than ten meters deep. But in many places on the river, there is not much water flowing. This lack of water is a sign that much of the river is used for growing crops and providing water supplies for the expanding population. This is not a new use for the Rio Grande. There is much evidence that the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico used water from the river to grow crops for thousands of years. The Pueblo ancestors arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States about two-thousand years ago. Although their food mostly came from hunting, they grew some crops for food. The Pueblo civilization went through a number of changes over time. Some of those changes were caused by invasions by other Indian groups such as the Navajo and Apache Indians. A severe dry period more than six-hundred years ago also affected the Pueblo civilization. The weather is believed to be one reason some of the great cities of the southwest area were left empty as the Pueblo ancestors moved closer to the Rio Grande. A major change for these people began soon after the first Europeans came to the Rio Grande. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early Fifteen-Hundreds, Spanish ships sailed to the mouth of the Rio Grande. They first were looking for a way to the Pacific Ocean. Soon they were more interested in searching for riches such as those captured by Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes. In Fifteen-Twenty-One, Cortes conquered the great Aztec Empire in what is modern Mexico. Cortes seized huge amounts of gold and jewels from the Aztecs. Many Spanish explorers heard the stories about the wealth of the Aztecs. They hoped to find similar wealth among other Indian groups in North America. Some explorers hoped that the Rio Grande would lead them to Indian nations that also possessed gold and jewels. The most famous explorer of the Rio Grande territory was Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. He arrived at the Rio Grande in Fifteen-Forty. VOICE ONE: Earlier explorers of the Rio Grande area said they had heard of great Indian cities on a river in the north. The stories they heard were about cities that had treasures of costly stones, such as turquoise and emeralds. The Spanish explorers also believed there was gold, silver, iron and copper in the mountains to the north. Spain had already taken great wealth from the Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico. Why not also take the riches of the Indians cities north of Mexico? So, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico gave an order which would change the history of North America. He asked Coronado to lead an army of Spanish soldiers to the north. They were ordered to conquer new land for the king of Spain -- land that the Spaniards called Cibola. VOICE TWO: Coronado and his soldiers did not find the cities of gold that they were seeking. Instead they found many Indian towns with tall houses and rich fields full of corn and other plants. The people were peaceful farmers. They did not remain peaceful. The Spanish soldiers did things to the Pueblo Indians that made them angry. So, the Indians decided to push the Spaniards out of their land. The Spanish soldiers won the battles with the Pueblo Indians and destroyed many of their towns. Then the Spanish searched for gold and silver. They found none. They returned to Mexico with nothing to show for their struggles in the areas of the Rio Grande River. Coronado died in Mexico City in Fifteen-fifty-four. He was forty-four years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After Coronado left the Rio Grande country in Fifteen-Forty-Two, the area again belonged to the Indians. Again the Spanish tried to establish a colony in the area. They tried four times and failed each time. In Fifteen-Ninety-Eight, a large Spanish army marched north from Mexico. The King of Spain ordered that a colony be established on the river north of Mexico. The name of the new colony was to be New Mexico. VOICE TWO: Traveling with this army were many families, Roman Catholic priests, and thousands of cattle. They established a colony on the river where some Pueblo Indians already lived. The Spanish called it San Juan. The Indians seemed to accept them. But the peace did not last. Suffering and tragedy spread through the land as the Spanish and Indians fought. The Spanish priests and the settlers in San Juan began to protest against the cruel treatment of the Indians. It would be better, they said, not to have any Spanish colony in New Mexico than to built one on such crimes against the native peoples. Finally, in Sixteen-Six, the King of Spain ordered the end of the colony at San Juan. The Spanish settlers left but the Indians remained at what is now San Juan Pueblo. The Spanish would be back. VOICE ONE: In Sixteen-Ten, a new governor of New Mexico arrived. A new capital was built, called Santa Fe. It still is the capital. This time the goal of the Spanish government was to spread the Christian religion among the Indians. The Brothers of the Order of Saint Francis were not like the earlier Spaniards. At first the Indians resisted them. But, over time, they understood that these men did not want to oppress them. The Franciscans wanted to teach the Indians about Jesus Christ. The Franciscans helped the Pueblo Indians build many beautiful churches throughout the area. The churches were built with local materials. They did not look like the traditional churches of Europe. Some of these churches still stand today. They are very popular with artists. VOICE TWO: The Spanish government and the Franciscans argued about how to treat the Indians. The government wanted to use them as slaves. The Franciscans wanted the Indians to be protected. The Indians were not sure who they should obey. While this dispute was taking place there was a long dry period that caused people in the area to starve. Then, the disease smallpox began taking the lives of many Indians and Spanish settlers. There was a violent rebellion by the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish were forced to leave the Rio Grande area. Yet, they were not to be pushed out for long. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the second part of this EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Rio Grande. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Rio Grande is the fifth longest river on the North American continent. It forms the border between the southwestern state of Texas and Mexico. The Rio Grande been has important in the history and development of the United States and Mexico. However, the river has a different name in Mexico. It is called Rio Bravo del Norte. The Rio Grande begins its three-thousand kilometer trip to the Gulf of Mexico high in the Rocky Mountains in the state of Colorado. It begins almost four-thousand meters up where the river is fed by melting snow. Soon, other small streams flow into the river, increasing its size as it flows generally south through the state of New Mexico. Its waters flow through deep mountain canyons. Some of them are more than five-hundred meters deep. It continues across great flat plains areas, and deserts, feeding rich agricultural areas along the way. VOICE TWO: The Rio Grande flows south to the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Then it turns in a southeast direction. Here it becomes the border line between the United States and Mexico for two-thousand kilometers. From this point in the most western part of Texas, the Rio Grande flows east to where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Along its way, the river flows through or past the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico, by El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez. The last cities it touches are Brownsville, Texas on one side of the border and Matamoros, Mexico on the other. On its long trip to the sea, the Rio Grande expands as a number of rivers flow into it. In the United States, those rivers include the Pecos, Devils, Chama, and Puerco rivers. In Mexico, the Conchos, Salado, and San Juan rivers provide waters to the Rio Grande. VOICE ONE: In some places the river is more than ten meters deep. But in many places on the river, there is not much water flowing. This lack of water is a sign that much of the river is used for growing crops and providing water supplies for the expanding population. This is not a new use for the Rio Grande. There is much evidence that the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico used water from the river to grow crops for thousands of years. The Pueblo ancestors arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States about two-thousand years ago. Although their food mostly came from hunting, they grew some crops for food. The Pueblo civilization went through a number of changes over time. Some of those changes were caused by invasions by other Indian groups such as the Navajo and Apache Indians. A severe dry period more than six-hundred years ago also affected the Pueblo civilization. The weather is believed to be one reason some of the great cities of the southwest area were left empty as the Pueblo ancestors moved closer to the Rio Grande. A major change for these people began soon after the first Europeans came to the Rio Grande. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early Fifteen-Hundreds, Spanish ships sailed to the mouth of the Rio Grande. They first were looking for a way to the Pacific Ocean. Soon they were more interested in searching for riches such as those captured by Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes. In Fifteen-Twenty-One, Cortes conquered the great Aztec Empire in what is modern Mexico. Cortes seized huge amounts of gold and jewels from the Aztecs. Many Spanish explorers heard the stories about the wealth of the Aztecs. They hoped to find similar wealth among other Indian groups in North America. Some explorers hoped that the Rio Grande would lead them to Indian nations that also possessed gold and jewels. The most famous explorer of the Rio Grande territory was Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. He arrived at the Rio Grande in Fifteen-Forty. VOICE ONE: Earlier explorers of the Rio Grande area said they had heard of great Indian cities on a river in the north. The stories they heard were about cities that had treasures of costly stones, such as turquoise and emeralds. The Spanish explorers also believed there was gold, silver, iron and copper in the mountains to the north. Spain had already taken great wealth from the Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico. Why not also take the riches of the Indians cities north of Mexico? So, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico gave an order which would change the history of North America. He asked Coronado to lead an army of Spanish soldiers to the north. They were ordered to conquer new land for the king of Spain -- land that the Spaniards called Cibola. VOICE TWO: Coronado and his soldiers did not find the cities of gold that they were seeking. Instead they found many Indian towns with tall houses and rich fields full of corn and other plants. The people were peaceful farmers. They did not remain peaceful. The Spanish soldiers did things to the Pueblo Indians that made them angry. So, the Indians decided to push the Spaniards out of their land. The Spanish soldiers won the battles with the Pueblo Indians and destroyed many of their towns. Then the Spanish searched for gold and silver. They found none. They returned to Mexico with nothing to show for their struggles in the areas of the Rio Grande River. Coronado died in Mexico City in Fifteen-fifty-four. He was forty-four years old. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After Coronado left the Rio Grande country in Fifteen-Forty-Two, the area again belonged to the Indians. Again the Spanish tried to establish a colony in the area. They tried four times and failed each time. In Fifteen-Ninety-Eight, a large Spanish army marched north from Mexico. The King of Spain ordered that a colony be established on the river north of Mexico. The name of the new colony was to be New Mexico. VOICE TWO: Traveling with this army were many families, Roman Catholic priests, and thousands of cattle. They established a colony on the river where some Pueblo Indians already lived. The Spanish called it San Juan. The Indians seemed to accept them. But the peace did not last. Suffering and tragedy spread through the land as the Spanish and Indians fought. The Spanish priests and the settlers in San Juan began to protest against the cruel treatment of the Indians. It would be better, they said, not to have any Spanish colony in New Mexico than to built one on such crimes against the native peoples. Finally, in Sixteen-Six, the King of Spain ordered the end of the colony at San Juan. The Spanish settlers left but the Indians remained at what is now San Juan Pueblo. The Spanish would be back. VOICE ONE: In Sixteen-Ten, a new governor of New Mexico arrived. A new capital was built, called Santa Fe. It still is the capital. This time the goal of the Spanish government was to spread the Christian religion among the Indians. The Brothers of the Order of Saint Francis were not like the earlier Spaniards. At first the Indians resisted them. But, over time, they understood that these men did not want to oppress them. The Franciscans wanted to teach the Indians about Jesus Christ. The Franciscans helped the Pueblo Indians build many beautiful churches throughout the area. The churches were built with local materials. They did not look like the traditional churches of Europe. Some of these churches still stand today. They are very popular with artists. VOICE TWO: The Spanish government and the Franciscans argued about how to treat the Indians. The government wanted to use them as slaves. The Franciscans wanted the Indians to be protected. The Indians were not sure who they should obey. While this dispute was taking place there was a long dry period that caused people in the area to starve. Then, the disease smallpox began taking the lives of many Indians and Spanish settlers. There was a violent rebellion by the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish were forced to leave the Rio Grande area. Yet, they were not to be pushed out for long. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the second part of this EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Molecule in Soy May Reduce Risk of Colon Cancer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 2, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Foods made from soybeans are increasingly popular, and not just because of the taste. Studies have found that soy can be good for the health in different ways. Now, research in the United States shows that a molecule in soy may help prevent colon cancer. The Journal of Nutrition published the study by researchers at Georgia Tech, Emory University and the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Al Merrill of Georgia Tech says that soy is known to suppress cancer. He says that some of this effect may be from a group of molecules. These are called sphingolipids. Plants and animals have many different kinds. Earlier research led by Professor Merrill showed that such molecules in milk can suppress the formation of growths. But he says this is the first study to show that similar molecules in plants can also suppress cancer. The study found that a molecule known as soy GlcCer reduced the formation and growth of tumor cells in mice. Some of the mice were born with a gene that leads to colon cancer. Others were given a chemical that causes the disease. The soy GlcCer passed through the stomach and intestines. But Professor Merrill says it stayed strong enough to suppress cancerous cells in the colon, part of the large intestine. The next step is to see if the molecule works the same way in humans. Interest in soy has led to many more food and health products that contain it. These are especially popular with older women. Their bodies no longer produce the female hormone estrogen. They worry about their risk of breast cancer. Soy contains two substances that are similar to estrogen. However, experts say one of these might increase the risk of breast cancer in some women. They say more research is needed on the different chemicals in soy and the safety of taking them in large amounts. Earlier this year, scientists reported that soy may help men prevent prostate cancer. But some men apparently are concerned about the estrogen-like effect of soy. So, in a different study, scientists had men eat much larger amounts of soy than they would normally get in food. There were a few side effects reported, including breast enlargement. But researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said none of these effects were serious. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #65 - Andrew Jackson, Part 9
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 3, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 3, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported last week, Texas won its independence from Mexico during the administration of President Andrew Jackson. It then wanted to become part of the United States. Jackson wanted to make Texas a state in the union. But more important to him was the union itself. Jackson felt that to give statehood to Texas would deepen the split between the northern and southern states. Texas would be a slave state. For this reason, Texas statehood was strongly opposed by the anti-slavery leaders in the north. Jackson told Texas minister William Wharton that there was a way that statehood for Texas would bring the north and south together, instead of splitting them apart. VOICE TWO: Jackson said Texas should claim California. The fishing interests of the north and east, said Jackson, wanted a port on the Pacific coast. Offer it to them, the president said, and they will soon forget the spreading of slavery through Texas. Jackson and Wharton held this discussion just three weeks before the end of the president's term. Wharton spent much time at the White House. He also worked with congressmen, urging the lawmakers to recognize Texas. He was able to get Congress to include in a bill a statement permitting the United States to send a minister to Texas. Such a minister was to be sent whenever the president received satisfactory evidence that Texas was an independent power. This bill was approved four days before the end of Jackson's term. VOICE ONE: Wharton went back to the White House. Again and again he gave Jackson arguments for recognizing Texas. On the afternoon of March third, eighteen-thirty-seven, Jackson agreed to recognize the new republic led by his old friend, Sam Houston. He sent to Congress his nomination for minister to Texas. One of the last acts of that Congress was to approve the nomination. The United States recognized Texas as an independent republic. But nine years would pass before Texas became a state. The fourth of March, eighteen-thirty-seven, was a bright, beautiful day. The sun warmed the thousands who watched the power of government pass from one man to another. Andrew Jackson left the White House with the man who would take his place, Martin Van Buren. They sat next to each other as the presidential carriage moved down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol building. Cheers stopped in the throats of the thousands who stood along the street. In silence, they removed their hats to show how much they loved this old man who was stepping down. "For once," wrote Senator Thomas Hart Benton, "the rising sun was eclipsed by the setting sun." VOICE TWO: The big crowd on the east side of the Capitol grew quiet when Jackson and Van Buren walked out onto the front steps of the building. After Chief Justice Taney swore in President Van Buren, the new president gave his inaugural speech. Then Andrew Jackson started slowly down the steps. A mighty cheer burst from the crowd. "It was a cry," wrote Senator Benton, "such as power never commanded, nor man in power received. It was love, gratitude and admiration. I felt a feeling that had never passed through me before." Why was this, men have asked? Why did the people love Jackson so? Senator Daniel Webster gave this reason: "General Jackson is an honest and upright man. He does what he thinks is right. And he does it with all his might." Another Senator put it this way: "He called himself 'the people's friend'. And he gave proofs of his sincerity. General Jackson understood the people of the United States better, perhaps, than any president before him." VOICE ONE: Jackson was always willing to let the people judge his actions. He was ready to risk his political life for what he believed in. Jackson's opposition could not understand why the people did not destroy him. They said he was lucky. "Jackson's luck" the opposition called it. Jackson seemed always to win whatever struggle he began. And the men he fought against were not weak opponents. They were political giants: Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Nicholas Biddle. The old general fought these men separately and, at times, all together. VOICE TWO: The day after Van Buren became president, Jackson met with a few of his friends. Frank Blair, the editor of Jackson's newspaper, was one of them. Senator Benton was another. It was a warm, friendly meeting. They thought back over Jackson's years in the White House and talked about what had been done. Jackson said he thought his best piece of work was getting rid of the Bank of the United States. He said he had saved the people from a monopoly of a few rich men. Someone asked about Texas. Jackson said he was not worried about Texas. That problem would solve itself, he said. Did the general have any regrets about anything? "Only two," said Jackson. "I regret I was unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun." VOICE ONE: The next morning, March sixth, Jackson left Washington to return to his home in Tennessee. President Van Buren protested that Jackson was not well enough to travel. The old man had been sick for the last few months of his presidency. He suffered from tuberculosis, and at times lost great amounts of blood from his lungs. When Jackson refused to listen to Van Buren's protests, the president sent the army's top doctor, Surgeon General Thomas Lawson, to travel with Jackson. General Jackson was to leave the capital by train. Thousands of people lined the streets to the train station, waiting for a last look at their president. Jackson stood in the open air on the rear platform of the train. His hat was off, and the wind blew through his long white hair. Not a sound came from the people who crowded around the back of the train. A bell rang. There was a hiss of steam. And the train began to move. General Jackson bowed. The crowd stood still. The train moved around a curve and could no longer be seen. The crowd began to break up. One man who was there said it was as if a bright star had gone out of the sky. VOICE TWO: Jackson lived for eight more years. He died as he had lived…with dignity and honor. A few hours after his death, a tall man and a small child arrived at the Jackson home. They had traveled a long way -- all the way from Texas. The big man was Sam Houston, the president of Texas. He had heard that his friend was dying. Houston was too late to say goodbye. He stood before Jackson's body, tears in his eyes. Then Houston dropped to his knees and buried his face on the chest of his friend and chief. He pulled the small boy close to him. "My son," he said, "try to remember that you have looked on the face of Andrew Jackson." VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson stepped down from the presidency in March, eighteen-thirty-seven. His presidential powers were passed to his most trusted political assistant, Martin Van Buren of New York. Van Buren was elected president after campaign promises to continue the policies of Jackson. He was opposed by several candidates, all of the new Whig Party. Van Buren won easily with the help of Andrew Jackson. Years before, Van Buren had done much himself to elect Jackson to the White House. After the election of eighteen-twenty-four had divided the opponents of John Quincy Adams, Van Buren began to put together a political alliance for the future. We will continue our story on Van Buren next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Gwen Outen and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported last week, Texas won its independence from Mexico during the administration of President Andrew Jackson. It then wanted to become part of the United States. Jackson wanted to make Texas a state in the union. But more important to him was the union itself. Jackson felt that to give statehood to Texas would deepen the split between the northern and southern states. Texas would be a slave state. For this reason, Texas statehood was strongly opposed by the anti-slavery leaders in the north. Jackson told Texas minister William Wharton that there was a way that statehood for Texas would bring the north and south together, instead of splitting them apart. VOICE TWO: Jackson said Texas should claim California. The fishing interests of the north and east, said Jackson, wanted a port on the Pacific coast. Offer it to them, the president said, and they will soon forget the spreading of slavery through Texas. Jackson and Wharton held this discussion just three weeks before the end of the president's term. Wharton spent much time at the White House. He also worked with congressmen, urging the lawmakers to recognize Texas. He was able to get Congress to include in a bill a statement permitting the United States to send a minister to Texas. Such a minister was to be sent whenever the president received satisfactory evidence that Texas was an independent power. This bill was approved four days before the end of Jackson's term. VOICE ONE: Wharton went back to the White House. Again and again he gave Jackson arguments for recognizing Texas. On the afternoon of March third, eighteen-thirty-seven, Jackson agreed to recognize the new republic led by his old friend, Sam Houston. He sent to Congress his nomination for minister to Texas. One of the last acts of that Congress was to approve the nomination. The United States recognized Texas as an independent republic. But nine years would pass before Texas became a state. The fourth of March, eighteen-thirty-seven, was a bright, beautiful day. The sun warmed the thousands who watched the power of government pass from one man to another. Andrew Jackson left the White House with the man who would take his place, Martin Van Buren. They sat next to each other as the presidential carriage moved down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol building. Cheers stopped in the throats of the thousands who stood along the street. In silence, they removed their hats to show how much they loved this old man who was stepping down. "For once," wrote Senator Thomas Hart Benton, "the rising sun was eclipsed by the setting sun." VOICE TWO: The big crowd on the east side of the Capitol grew quiet when Jackson and Van Buren walked out onto the front steps of the building. After Chief Justice Taney swore in President Van Buren, the new president gave his inaugural speech. Then Andrew Jackson started slowly down the steps. A mighty cheer burst from the crowd. "It was a cry," wrote Senator Benton, "such as power never commanded, nor man in power received. It was love, gratitude and admiration. I felt a feeling that had never passed through me before." Why was this, men have asked? Why did the people love Jackson so? Senator Daniel Webster gave this reason: "General Jackson is an honest and upright man. He does what he thinks is right. And he does it with all his might." Another Senator put it this way: "He called himself 'the people's friend'. And he gave proofs of his sincerity. General Jackson understood the people of the United States better, perhaps, than any president before him." VOICE ONE: Jackson was always willing to let the people judge his actions. He was ready to risk his political life for what he believed in. Jackson's opposition could not understand why the people did not destroy him. They said he was lucky. "Jackson's luck" the opposition called it. Jackson seemed always to win whatever struggle he began. And the men he fought against were not weak opponents. They were political giants: Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Nicholas Biddle. The old general fought these men separately and, at times, all together. VOICE TWO: The day after Van Buren became president, Jackson met with a few of his friends. Frank Blair, the editor of Jackson's newspaper, was one of them. Senator Benton was another. It was a warm, friendly meeting. They thought back over Jackson's years in the White House and talked about what had been done. Jackson said he thought his best piece of work was getting rid of the Bank of the United States. He said he had saved the people from a monopoly of a few rich men. Someone asked about Texas. Jackson said he was not worried about Texas. That problem would solve itself, he said. Did the general have any regrets about anything? "Only two," said Jackson. "I regret I was unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun." VOICE ONE: The next morning, March sixth, Jackson left Washington to return to his home in Tennessee. President Van Buren protested that Jackson was not well enough to travel. The old man had been sick for the last few months of his presidency. He suffered from tuberculosis, and at times lost great amounts of blood from his lungs. When Jackson refused to listen to Van Buren's protests, the president sent the army's top doctor, Surgeon General Thomas Lawson, to travel with Jackson. General Jackson was to leave the capital by train. Thousands of people lined the streets to the train station, waiting for a last look at their president. Jackson stood in the open air on the rear platform of the train. His hat was off, and the wind blew through his long white hair. Not a sound came from the people who crowded around the back of the train. A bell rang. There was a hiss of steam. And the train began to move. General Jackson bowed. The crowd stood still. The train moved around a curve and could no longer be seen. The crowd began to break up. One man who was there said it was as if a bright star had gone out of the sky. VOICE TWO: Jackson lived for eight more years. He died as he had lived…with dignity and honor. A few hours after his death, a tall man and a small child arrived at the Jackson home. They had traveled a long way -- all the way from Texas. The big man was Sam Houston, the president of Texas. He had heard that his friend was dying. Houston was too late to say goodbye. He stood before Jackson's body, tears in his eyes. Then Houston dropped to his knees and buried his face on the chest of his friend and chief. He pulled the small boy close to him. "My son," he said, "try to remember that you have looked on the face of Andrew Jackson." VOICE ONE: Andrew Jackson stepped down from the presidency in March, eighteen-thirty-seven. His presidential powers were passed to his most trusted political assistant, Martin Van Buren of New York. Van Buren was elected president after campaign promises to continue the policies of Jackson. He was opposed by several candidates, all of the new Whig Party. Van Buren won easily with the help of Andrew Jackson. Years before, Van Buren had done much himself to elect Jackson to the White House. After the election of eighteen-twenty-four had divided the opponents of John Quincy Adams, Van Buren began to put together a political alliance for the future. We will continue our story on Van Buren next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Gwen Outen and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Graduation Speakers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 3, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. May and June are the months when most American high schools and colleges hold their graduation ceremonies. Elementary and middle schools also hold ceremonies for children finishing those levels of education. And much older people may be completing their education, too. Men and women in their seventies and eighties receive high school diplomas or college degrees. Last year, in California, a high school in San Francisco awarded an honorary diploma to a woman ninety-seven years old. Traditionally at graduation ceremonies, the students wear dark colored caps and gowns over their clothing. Most graduations include speakers. Schools often invite famous guests or former students who became highly successful. Or both. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court spoke at Stanford University in California. That was where she went to college. Universities often want speakers who can comment on world events. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at Florida State University last month. President Bush spoke at three graduations this year. He spoke at Concordia University in Wisconsin and Louisiana State University. He also spoke at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Well-known reporters often speak at graduations. For example, Ted Koppel spoke at the University of California, Berkeley, last month. He has a nightly news program on national television. Entertainers are also popular choices for graduation speakers. One very busy speaker this year is the actor and comedian Bill Cosby. He spoke at the Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts and at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He also spoke at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bill Cosby has spoken at Temple University many times. That is where he went to college. Bono was also in Philadelphia. The singer from the Irish rock band U2 spoke last month at graduation ceremonies at the University of Pennsylvania. University officials praised Bono for using his popularity to help developing nations and fight against AIDS. He also received an honorary doctorate degree. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Tony Awards / Route 66 / Snakeheads in the Potomac
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 4, 2004 HOST: Broadcast: June 4, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music nominated for a Tony Award this Sunday, and a question about Route Sixty-Six. But first, we have a story about some unwelcome wildlife. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music nominated for a Tony Award this Sunday, and a question about Route Sixty-Six. But first, we have a story about some unwelcome wildlife. Snakeheads in the Potomac We talked last week about all the noise and dead insects around the eastern United States. The seventeen-year cicadas are out of the ground and back for a visit. Well, this invader is not alone. Steve Ember reports. ANNCR: Wildlife officials are concerned about the recent discovery of several northern snakeheads. These are fish. But, yes, their head does look like it belongs on a snake. They have been caught in the Potomac River in the area around Washington, D.C. Snakeheads are freshwater fish native to Asia and parts of Africa. In Asia, they are considered a fine food. But officials here worry that snakeheads will threaten native fish and other water resources if they become established. They say this could harm local economies that depend on those waters. Some of the cast members of 'Avenue Q.'<br)(Photo - Carol Rosegg) Snakeheads in the Potomac We talked last week about all the noise and dead insects around the eastern United States. The seventeen-year cicadas are out of the ground and back for a visit. Well, this invader is not alone. Steve Ember reports. ANNCR: Wildlife officials are concerned about the recent discovery of several northern snakeheads. These are fish. But, yes, their head does look like it belongs on a snake. They have been caught in the Potomac River in the area around Washington, D.C. Snakeheads are freshwater fish native to Asia and parts of Africa. In Asia, they are considered a fine food. But officials here worry that snakeheads will threaten native fish and other water resources if they become established. They say this could harm local economies that depend on those waters. Northern snakeheads can grow more than eighty centimeters long. They are able to leave the water and move across wetlands. And they are huge eaters. They eat other fish and frogs. Sometimes they eat birds and small mammals. The first snakeheads in the area were discovered in small ponds in Maryland two years ago. Officials removed the water or poisoned it as a solution. That is not possible with the Potomac River. The Potomac Conservancy group calls it "the wildest river running through a metropolitan area anywhere in the world." The Potomac flows more than six-hundred kilometers. It supplies fresh water for most of the four-million people in the Washington area. Birds like great blue herons and bald eagles live along the river. And it is a top fishing area for bass. Experts believe that snakeheads have gotten into American waters when people bought them but then released them. Officials in Maryland and Florida have found that the fish can reproduce in the wild. But Florida officials say they have found no harm to the local fish population. Owning a snakehead is illegal in some states. Officials in Maryland and Virginia are urging anyone who catches one to kill it. But some experts say the threat to American waterways is being overstated. They say a bigger threat is pollution. Route 66 HOST: Our listener question this week comes from via e-mail from James Osamene, and he asks about Route Sixty-Six. This highway was the most traveled road in the United States during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. Because it was so heavily traveled, it became known as “the people’s highway." A businessman in Tulsa, Oklahoma helped create the identity of Route Sixty-Six. Cyrus Avery headed the Oklahoma state highway committee. He also helped plan America’s national system of numbered roads. Mister Avery proposed that a federal road be built from Chicago to Los Angeles along a southwestern path. The government approved his proposal and named the road in nineteen-twenty-six. Mister Avery also started a special organization to support the road called the U-S Sixty-Six Highway Association. The group gave the road a special name -- “Main Street of America.” American writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the “Mother Road” in his book “The Grapes of Wrath.” Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties. They left their homes in the middle of the country and traveled west in search of work and a better life. Route Sixty-six was a flat road. Travelers could use it during any season of the year. This led to an increase in long-distance trucking in the United States. By the nineteen-thirties, trucks were transporting goods on Route Sixty-Six. So were farmers. By the nineteen-forties, military vehicles had also increased traffic on the road. In nineteen-forty-six, songwriter Bobby Troup drove to Los Angeles along Route Sixty-Six. During the trip, his wife Cynthia suggested that he write a song about the famous road. Bobby Troup wrote the music and most of the words while he and his wife traveled from town to town. When he reached Los Angeles, he performed the song for Nat King Cole, who made it famous. Here is Nat King Cole singing the song “Route Sixty-Six.” (MUSIC) Tony Award Nominees HOST: Hollywood movies have the Academy Awards. Broadway plays have the Tony Awards. The Tonys will be given out this Sunday in New York City. Gwen Outen presents the four nominees for best musical. ANNCR: One of the shows nominated this year is "Avenue Q.” This is about the secret lives of ... puppets. Another nominee is “Caroline, Or Change," a story about the struggle for civil rights. The third nominee for best musical is “Wicked.” This is about the witches from the story “The Wizard of Oz.” It includes this song, called “Thank Goodness.” (MUSIC) The Tony Awards are given by the American Theater Wing. That group began as a way for theater people to help during the two world wars. The first Tonys were presented in nineteen-forty-seven. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, "Tony" for short. She was a producer and director. The awards go to actors, directors, set designers and music composers. Tonys are also given for best dramatic play and best musical play of the year. The final show nominated for best musical this year is “The Boy from Oz.” It has nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz. It is about the life of the Australian singer Peter Allen. He died of AIDS in nineteen-ninety-two. We leave you with the Australian actor who plays him, Hugh Jackman, singing the Peter Allen song, “I Go to Rio.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Northern snakeheads can grow more than eighty centimeters long. They are able to leave the water and move across wetlands. And they are huge eaters. They eat other fish and frogs. Sometimes they eat birds and small mammals. The first snakeheads in the area were discovered in small ponds in Maryland two years ago. Officials removed the water or poisoned it as a solution. That is not possible with the Potomac River. The Potomac Conservancy group calls it "the wildest river running through a metropolitan area anywhere in the world." The Potomac flows more than six-hundred kilometers. It supplies fresh water for most of the four-million people in the Washington area. Birds like great blue herons and bald eagles live along the river. And it is a top fishing area for bass. Experts believe that snakeheads have gotten into American waters when people bought them but then released them. Officials in Maryland and Florida have found that the fish can reproduce in the wild. But Florida officials say they have found no harm to the local fish population. Owning a snakehead is illegal in some states. Officials in Maryland and Virginia are urging anyone who catches one to kill it. But some experts say the threat to American waterways is being overstated. They say a bigger threat is pollution. Route 66 HOST: Our listener question this week comes from via e-mail from James Osamene, and he asks about Route Sixty-Six. This highway was the most traveled road in the United States during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. It stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California. Because it was so heavily traveled, it became known as “the people’s highway." A businessman in Tulsa, Oklahoma helped create the identity of Route Sixty-Six. Cyrus Avery headed the Oklahoma state highway committee. He also helped plan America’s national system of numbered roads. Mister Avery proposed that a federal road be built from Chicago to Los Angeles along a southwestern path. The government approved his proposal and named the road in nineteen-twenty-six. Mister Avery also started a special organization to support the road called the U-S Sixty-Six Highway Association. The group gave the road a special name -- “Main Street of America.” American writer John Steinbeck called Route Sixty-Six the “Mother Road” in his book “The Grapes of Wrath.” Hundreds of thousands of people traveled this Mother Road during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties. They left their homes in the middle of the country and traveled west in search of work and a better life. Route Sixty-six was a flat road. Travelers could use it during any season of the year. This led to an increase in long-distance trucking in the United States. By the nineteen-thirties, trucks were transporting goods on Route Sixty-Six. So were farmers. By the nineteen-forties, military vehicles had also increased traffic on the road. In nineteen-forty-six, songwriter Bobby Troup drove to Los Angeles along Route Sixty-Six. During the trip, his wife Cynthia suggested that he write a song about the famous road. Bobby Troup wrote the music and most of the words while he and his wife traveled from town to town. When he reached Los Angeles, he performed the song for Nat King Cole, who made it famous. Here is Nat King Cole singing the song “Route Sixty-Six.” (MUSIC) Tony Award Nominees HOST: Hollywood movies have the Academy Awards. Broadway plays have the Tony Awards. The Tonys will be given out this Sunday in New York City. Gwen Outen presents the four nominees for best musical. ANNCR: One of the shows nominated this year is "Avenue Q.” This is about the secret lives of ... puppets. Another nominee is “Caroline, Or Change," a story about the struggle for civil rights. The third nominee for best musical is “Wicked.” This is about the witches from the story “The Wizard of Oz.” It includes this song, called “Thank Goodness.” (MUSIC) The Tony Awards are given by the American Theater Wing. That group began as a way for theater people to help during the two world wars. The first Tonys were presented in nineteen-forty-seven. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, "Tony" for short. She was a producer and director. The awards go to actors, directors, set designers and music composers. Tonys are also given for best dramatic play and best musical play of the year. The final show nominated for best musical this year is “The Boy from Oz.” It has nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz. It is about the life of the Australian singer Peter Allen. He died of AIDS in nineteen-ninety-two. We leave you with the Australian actor who plays him, Hugh Jackman, singing the Peter Allen song, “I Go to Rio.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT -- Will Former Exchange Chief Have to Return Pay?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 4, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Not many people would admit they were paid too much for a job. But that is what Richard Grasso is being asked to do. Mister Grasso was chief of the New York Stock Exchange until last September. Since then, the exchange has asked him to return more than one-hundred-million dollars of his pay. Now the state attorney general of New York, Eliot Spitzer, has brought civil charges to demand that money back. The New York Stock Exchange is organized as a company that operates for the public good. It is governed under state rules called the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law. This law says companies that do not earn profit cannot pay their employees an "unreasonable" amount. But the law does not say how much is too much. Mister Spitzer does not say that Mister Grasso was a bad chief executive officer. In fact, he praises his work as C.E.O. Mister Grasso is credited with helping to re-open the stock markets after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. But he also served as chairman of the board of directors of the exchange. Mister Spitzer says Mister Grasso pressured the members to approve too much pay. Mister Spitzer also says that information was hidden from the board. A man named Frank Ashen is cooperating in the case. His job was to inform the board about Mister Grasso’s pay. Mister Ashen says mistakes were made. But he says he never purposely gave incorrect or incomplete information to the directors. Last December, the stock exchange separated the duties of chief executive officer and chairman of the board. The pay plan for Mister Grasso is complex. It included a retirement plan, special pay and money to be paid at a later time. Last August the board voted to approve almost one-hundred-ninety-million dollars in pay for recent years. Mister Grasso has already received one-hundred-forty million dollars. He agreed not to ask for the additional money. But, in the end, the exchange may owe him even more than that if he wins. Mister Grasso says the case brought by the New York state attorney general appears political. He says he did not try to hide anything, and that the board approved all the money. The former chief of the world's biggest stock exchange says he did nothing wrong. And he says he expects the courts to agree. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: RONALD REAGAN, 1911-2004
* Byline: 

 Ronald Wilson Reagan, America's fortieth president, died Saturday at his home in California at the age of ninety-three. During his two terms, Mister Reagan led a revolution in conservative politics in the United States. He also helped speed the end of the Soviet Union. The president known as the "Great Communicator" served in office from nineteen-eighty-one to nineteen-eighty-nine. Mister Reagan was highly honored among Republicans, but left public life ten years ago because of Alzheimer's disease. His life, first in Hollywood and then in politics, will be the subject of PEOPLE IN AMERICA next Sunday. To hear our latest news reports, click here. For more coverage, go to voanews.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – New Government in Iraq
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 5, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Iraq now has leaders in place to take power temporarily from the coalition administration on June thirtieth. Special United Nations diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi urged Iraqis this week to support their new temporary government. The government will replace the American-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. The council dismissed itself on Tuesday so the new government could start work immediately. The government is to lead Iraq until national elections take place by the end of January. One of its aims is to increase security. The new government will seek a security agreement with the United States. Iraqi officials, American administrators and Mister Brahimi struggled for weeks over who to include in the new government. The Governing Council members wanted a major part in the process. But the U-N diplomat and American officials wanted to include local, tribal and religious leaders not represented on the council. Mister Brahimi announced at a ceremony in Baghdad that Ghazi Ajil al-Yawer will be president in the new government. Mister Yawer is a Sunni tribal leader. He served on the Governing Council and had its support. But American officials and Mister Brahimi wanted Adnan Pachachi for president. Mister Pachachi is also a Sunni Muslim. He rejected the offer, however, because he lacked support from the council members. The presidency will be largely a ceremonial position. There will also be two vice presidents. The prime minister who will lead the temporary government is Iyad Allawi. He was appointed last week. Mister Allawi is a Shiite politician who served on the Governing Council. His party had been supported in exile by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Mister Allawi has criticized the United States because of the security situation in Iraq. But he says his government will not ask the American-led troops to leave during the change of power. The thirty-two member cabinet has a mix of Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Assyrians. They represent the many ethnic and religious groups in Iraq. Several cabinet members are women. A one-hundred member assembly will have veto power over the decisions of the cabinet. The temporary government that takes power at the end of this month is to lead to an elected permanent government in Iraq. Members of the new government said they would try to influence the wording of a U-N Security Council resolution on terms for the change of power. Mister Yawer and others want to make sure they have full control of Iraqi security forces. They also want greater control over the activities of American troops. President Bush called the temporary government a major step toward a free Iraq. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Philo Farnsworth
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 6, 2004 (MUSIC) Philo Farnsworth (Image: www.antiquewireless.org) Broadcast: June 6, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a man who made possible one of the most important communications devices ever created -- television. His name was Philo Farnsworth. Philo Farnsworth (Image: www.cae.wisc.edu) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a man who made possible one of the most important communications devices ever created -- television. His name was Philo Farnsworth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-nine, American astronaut Neil Armstrong climbed down the side of the space vehicle that had taken him to the moon. As his foot touched the surface of the moon, pictures of the event were sent back to televisions on Earth. The pictures were not very good. It was hard to see astronaut Armstrong clearly. The surface of the moon was extremely bright. And the moon lander vehicle created a very dark, black shadow. But the quality of the television pictures was not important. Every man, woman and child who saw the television pictures understood they were watching an important event. They were watching history take place as it was happening many hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: For a few minutes, the poor quality television pictures captured the imagination of millions of people throughout the world. Experts believe about six-hundred-million people around the world watched as Neil Armstrong stepped from the space vehicle to the surface of the moon. In the years since then, people around the world have shared in many events. Television has made it possible for people in distant places to share a single experience. VOICE ONE: A television system changes light and sound waves from a moving picture into electronic signals that travel through the air. The signals are changed back into sound and pictures in a television receiver. Scientists in Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the former Soviet Union and the United States all made important discoveries that led to the development of modern television. Yet it was a young boy living on an American farm who was the first person to invent and design what became television. He first thought of the idea of an electronic television when he was only fourteen years old. His name was Philo Taylor Farnsworth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Philo Farnsworth was born on August Nineteenth, Nineteen Oh-Six, near Indian Creek in the western state of Utah. The house he lived in for the first few years of his life had no electric power. But Philo read about electricity. He was very excited when his family moved to a new house in Idaho that had electric power. He quickly began to experiment with electricity. He built an electric motor when he was twelve. Then he built the first electric washing machine for clothes that his family had ever owned. Philo Farnsworth attended a very small school near his family’s farm. He did very well in school. He asked his teacher for special help in science. The teacher began helping Philo learn a great deal more than most young students could understand. VOICE ONE: One night, Philo read a magazine story about the idea of sending pictures and sound through the air. Anyone with a device that could receive this electronic information could watch the pictures. The magazine story said some of the world’s best scientists were working on the idea. It said these scientists were using special machines to try to make a kind of device to send pictures. The story made Philo think. Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these famous scientists were wrong. He decided that mechanical devices would never work. They could never be made to move fast enough to clearly capture and reproduce an electronic picture sent through the air. Philo decided that such a device would have to be electronic, not mechanical. Philo knew electrons could be made to move extremely fast. All he would have to do was find a way to make electrons do the work. Very quickly Philo had an idea for such a receiver. It would trap light in a container and send the light on a line of electrons. Philo called it “light in a bottle.” VOICE TWO: Several days later, Philo told his teacher about a device that could capture pictures. He drew a plan for it that he gave his teacher. Philo’s drawing seems very simple. But it still clearly shows the information needed to build a television. In fact, all television equipment today still uses Philo’s early idea. Philo’s teacher was Justin Tolman. Many years later Philo would say Mister Tolman guided his imagination and opened the doors of science for him. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Philo Farnsworth had to solve several problems before he could produce a working television system. One was that he was only fourteen years old. He knew no one would listen to a child. In fact, experts say that probably only ten scientists in the world at that time could have understood his idea. Philo also had no money to develop his ideas. His idea for a working television would have to wait. After only two years of high school, Philo entered Brigham Young University in Utah. But he did not finish his education. He was forced to leave school when his father died. Philo did not give up his idea for creating a television. He began serious work on it when he moved to San Francisco, California a few years later. He was twenty-one years old. VOICE TWO: On September Seventh, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Philo turned on a device that was the first working television receiver. In another room was the first television camera. Philo had invented the special camera tube earlier that year. The image produced on the receiver was not very clear, but the device worked. Within a few months, Philo Farnsworth had found several people who wanted to invest money in his invention. In August, Nineteen-Thirty, the United States government gave Philo patent documents. These would protect his invention from being copied by others. Very soon, however, several other inventors claimed they had invented a television device. One of these inventors, Vladimir Zworykin, worked for the powerful Radio Corporation of America. The R-C-A company began legal action against Philo Farnsworth. It said Mister Zworykin had invented his device in the Nineteen-Twenties. The big and powerful R-C-A claimed that it, not the small Philo Farnsworth Television Company, had the right to produce, develop and market television. VOICE ONE: The legal action between R.C.A and the Farnsworth company continued for several years. R.C.A. proved that Mister Zworykin did make a mechanical television device. But it could not demonstrate that the device worked. At the same time, R.C.A. claimed that Mister Farnsworth had produced his television image tube after Mister Zworykin had developed his. When Mister Farnsworth said he had developed the idea much earlier, R.C.A. said it was impossible for a fourteen-year-old boy to produce the idea for a television device. Company representatives said Mister Farnsworth was not even a scientist. He had never finished college. R.C.A. said Philo Farnsworth should be forced to prove he had invented the television image tube. Philo could not prove he invented it. But his high school teacher could. In court, Justin Tolman produced the drawing that Philo had made for him many years before as a student. At that moment, the legal experts for R.C.A. knew they had lost. Philo Farnsworth won the legal action and the right to own the invention of television. However, he did not have the money or support to build a television industry. It was the Nineteen-Fifties before television became a major force in American life. Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnoff, the head of R.C.A., became the names connected with the new industry. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Philo Farnsworth continued to invent more than one-hundred devices that helped make modern television possible. He also developed early radar, invented the first electronic microscope, and worked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy. In his last years, Mister Farnsworth became a strong critic of television. He did not like most of the programs shown on television. Yet, as he watched Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, Mister Farnsworth knew the event clearly showed the power of his invention. Philo Farnsworth died in March, Nineteen-Seventy-One. Today, a statue of him stands in the United States Capitol. He is considered one of the most important inventors of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-nine, American astronaut Neil Armstrong climbed down the side of the space vehicle that had taken him to the moon. As his foot touched the surface of the moon, pictures of the event were sent back to televisions on Earth. The pictures were not very good. It was hard to see astronaut Armstrong clearly. The surface of the moon was extremely bright. And the moon lander vehicle created a very dark, black shadow. But the quality of the television pictures was not important. Every man, woman and child who saw the television pictures understood they were watching an important event. They were watching history take place as it was happening many hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: For a few minutes, the poor quality television pictures captured the imagination of millions of people throughout the world. Experts believe about six-hundred-million people around the world watched as Neil Armstrong stepped from the space vehicle to the surface of the moon. In the years since then, people around the world have shared in many events. Television has made it possible for people in distant places to share a single experience. VOICE ONE: A television system changes light and sound waves from a moving picture into electronic signals that travel through the air. The signals are changed back into sound and pictures in a television receiver. Scientists in Britain, Germany, France, Japan, the former Soviet Union and the United States all made important discoveries that led to the development of modern television. Yet it was a young boy living on an American farm who was the first person to invent and design what became television. He first thought of the idea of an electronic television when he was only fourteen years old. His name was Philo Taylor Farnsworth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Philo Farnsworth was born on August Nineteenth, Nineteen Oh-Six, near Indian Creek in the western state of Utah. The house he lived in for the first few years of his life had no electric power. But Philo read about electricity. He was very excited when his family moved to a new house in Idaho that had electric power. He quickly began to experiment with electricity. He built an electric motor when he was twelve. Then he built the first electric washing machine for clothes that his family had ever owned. Philo Farnsworth attended a very small school near his family’s farm. He did very well in school. He asked his teacher for special help in science. The teacher began helping Philo learn a great deal more than most young students could understand. VOICE ONE: One night, Philo read a magazine story about the idea of sending pictures and sound through the air. Anyone with a device that could receive this electronic information could watch the pictures. The magazine story said some of the world’s best scientists were working on the idea. It said these scientists were using special machines to try to make a kind of device to send pictures. The story made Philo think. Fourteen-year-old Philo decided these famous scientists were wrong. He decided that mechanical devices would never work. They could never be made to move fast enough to clearly capture and reproduce an electronic picture sent through the air. Philo decided that such a device would have to be electronic, not mechanical. Philo knew electrons could be made to move extremely fast. All he would have to do was find a way to make electrons do the work. Very quickly Philo had an idea for such a receiver. It would trap light in a container and send the light on a line of electrons. Philo called it “light in a bottle.” VOICE TWO: Several days later, Philo told his teacher about a device that could capture pictures. He drew a plan for it that he gave his teacher. Philo’s drawing seems very simple. But it still clearly shows the information needed to build a television. In fact, all television equipment today still uses Philo’s early idea. Philo’s teacher was Justin Tolman. Many years later Philo would say Mister Tolman guided his imagination and opened the doors of science for him. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Philo Farnsworth had to solve several problems before he could produce a working television system. One was that he was only fourteen years old. He knew no one would listen to a child. In fact, experts say that probably only ten scientists in the world at that time could have understood his idea. Philo also had no money to develop his ideas. His idea for a working television would have to wait. After only two years of high school, Philo entered Brigham Young University in Utah. But he did not finish his education. He was forced to leave school when his father died. Philo did not give up his idea for creating a television. He began serious work on it when he moved to San Francisco, California a few years later. He was twenty-one years old. VOICE TWO: On September Seventh, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Philo turned on a device that was the first working television receiver. In another room was the first television camera. Philo had invented the special camera tube earlier that year. The image produced on the receiver was not very clear, but the device worked. Within a few months, Philo Farnsworth had found several people who wanted to invest money in his invention. In August, Nineteen-Thirty, the United States government gave Philo patent documents. These would protect his invention from being copied by others. Very soon, however, several other inventors claimed they had invented a television device. One of these inventors, Vladimir Zworykin, worked for the powerful Radio Corporation of America. The R-C-A company began legal action against Philo Farnsworth. It said Mister Zworykin had invented his device in the Nineteen-Twenties. The big and powerful R-C-A claimed that it, not the small Philo Farnsworth Television Company, had the right to produce, develop and market television. VOICE ONE: The legal action between R.C.A and the Farnsworth company continued for several years. R.C.A. proved that Mister Zworykin did make a mechanical television device. But it could not demonstrate that the device worked. At the same time, R.C.A. claimed that Mister Farnsworth had produced his television image tube after Mister Zworykin had developed his. When Mister Farnsworth said he had developed the idea much earlier, R.C.A. said it was impossible for a fourteen-year-old boy to produce the idea for a television device. Company representatives said Mister Farnsworth was not even a scientist. He had never finished college. R.C.A. said Philo Farnsworth should be forced to prove he had invented the television image tube. Philo could not prove he invented it. But his high school teacher could. In court, Justin Tolman produced the drawing that Philo had made for him many years before as a student. At that moment, the legal experts for R.C.A. knew they had lost. Philo Farnsworth won the legal action and the right to own the invention of television. However, he did not have the money or support to build a television industry. It was the Nineteen-Fifties before television became a major force in American life. Vladimir Zworykin and David Sarnoff, the head of R.C.A., became the names connected with the new industry. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Philo Farnsworth continued to invent more than one-hundred devices that helped make modern television possible. He also developed early radar, invented the first electronic microscope, and worked on developing peaceful uses of atomic energy. In his last years, Mister Farnsworth became a strong critic of television. He did not like most of the programs shown on television. Yet, as he watched Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon, Mister Farnsworth knew the event clearly showed the power of his invention. Philo Farnsworth died in March, Nineteen-Seventy-One. Today, a statue of him stands in the United States Capitol. He is considered one of the most important inventors of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-06-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Long-Life Concrete Bridges
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 7, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, road accidents kill a million people and injure millions more. The economic costs are greatest for developing countries. Earlier this year, the United Nations called for a campaign to improve road safety. One way to avoid accidents is better driving. Another is better roads and bridges. Engineers in the United States have designed ten new concrete mixtures that they think could make bridges last longer. Professor Paul Tikalsky leads the experiments by a team at Pennsylvania State University. He says bridges made of concrete now last about twenty-five to thirty-five years. But he says the new mixtures might extend that to seventy-five or even one-hundred years. Concrete is made of stone, sand, water and cement. The materials in the cement hold the concrete together. Ancient Romans built with concrete. Yet strengthened concrete bridges did not appear until the late eighteen-hundreds. People keep looking for new ways to improve concrete. Professor Tikalsky says it is one of the most complex of all chemical systems. The new mixtures designed by his team contain industrial waste products. He says these make the concrete better able to resist damage from water and salt over time. One of the products is fly ash. This is released into the air as pollution when coal is burned. Professor Tikalsky says particles of fly ash are almost exactly the same size and chemical structure as Portland cement. This is the most costly material in concrete. So using fly ash to replace some of it would save money. Over the next two years, engineers will study ten bridges in Pennsylvania. These were built from the different cement mixtures designed by Professor Tikalsky’s team. He says longer-lasting bridges could save the state more than thirty-five-million dollars a year. And he says the materials would be environmentally friendly. The federal government is paying for part of the research. Engineers anywhere can use the technology. Professor Tikalsky says some of the ideas have already been put to use in China, the Philippines and other countries. You can find more about this research on the Pennsylvania State University Web site. The address is www.psu.edu. Again, the site is www.psu.edu. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: June 7, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, road accidents kill a million people and injure millions more. The economic costs are greatest for developing countries. Earlier this year, the United Nations called for a campaign to improve road safety. One way to avoid accidents is better driving. Another is better roads and bridges. Engineers in the United States have designed ten new concrete mixtures that they think could make bridges last longer. Professor Paul Tikalsky leads the experiments by a team at Pennsylvania State University. He says bridges made of concrete now last about twenty-five to thirty-five years. But he says the new mixtures might extend that to seventy-five or even one-hundred years. Concrete is made of stone, sand, water and cement. The materials in the cement hold the concrete together. Ancient Romans built with concrete. Yet strengthened concrete bridges did not appear until the late eighteen-hundreds. People keep looking for new ways to improve concrete. Professor Tikalsky says it is one of the most complex of all chemical systems. The new mixtures designed by his team contain industrial waste products. He says these make the concrete better able to resist damage from water and salt over time. One of the products is fly ash. This is released into the air as pollution when coal is burned. Professor Tikalsky says particles of fly ash are almost exactly the same size and chemical structure as Portland cement. This is the most costly material in concrete. So using fly ash to replace some of it would save money. Over the next two years, engineers will study ten bridges in Pennsylvania. These were built from the different cement mixtures designed by Professor Tikalsky’s team. He says longer-lasting bridges could save the state more than thirty-five-million dollars a year. And he says the materials would be environmentally friendly. The federal government is paying for part of the research. Engineers anywhere can use the technology. Professor Tikalsky says some of the ideas have already been put to use in China, the Philippines and other countries. You can find more about this research on the Pennsylvania State University Web site. The address is www.psu.edu. Again, the site is www.psu.edu. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-06-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Songs about American Cities
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 7, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most Americans have a city they like best. It may be the city they were born in. It may be the city they would like to call home. Over the years, American songwriters have described these feelings in music. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:75804| height="98" width="150" alt="Las Vegas, Nevada New Bureau Press Photo of "The Strip"" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/nav_las_vegas_news_bureau_press_photo_150.jpg" border="0"> Las Vegas, Nevada New Bureau Press Photo of "The Strip" VOICE ONE: Most Americans have a city they like best. It may be the city they were born in. It may be the city they would like to call home. Over the years, American songwriters have described these feelings in music. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of songs about American cities is our report today on the V.O.A. Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: New York. New York. More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city. More than eight-million people live in New York. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Almost three-million people live in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Near Chicago is the small industrial city of Gary, Indiana. This city was made famous by a song in a musical play called "The Music Man." The play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen-fifty-seven. In the musical, a young boy sings about his home town. Here, Eddie Hodges sings "Gary, Indiana." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Right in the middle of America is the city of Kansas City. It is the largest city in the state of Missouri. In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber and mike Stoller wrote about going to Kansas city. Why? Because they said it was filled with many wonderful women. James Brown sings the song, "Kansas City." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans love cities near the ocean. One of the most popular is Miami, Florida. Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm. This song about Miami was written in nineteen-thirty-five. The hot mustard jazz band sings, "Moon Over Miami. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. There you can play games of chance all night long. The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too. In nineteen-sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group Z-Z Top. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen-sixty-two. It sold more than three-million records. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second largest city. More than three-million people live there. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song, "I Love L.A." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They call Los Angeles "A great big freeway." They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is, "Do You Know The Way To San Jose." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V.O.A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of songs about American cities is our report today on the V.O.A. Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: New York. New York. More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city. More than eight-million people live in New York. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Almost three-million people live in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Near Chicago is the small industrial city of Gary, Indiana. This city was made famous by a song in a musical play called "The Music Man." The play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen-fifty-seven. In the musical, a young boy sings about his home town. Here, Eddie Hodges sings "Gary, Indiana." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Right in the middle of America is the city of Kansas City. It is the largest city in the state of Missouri. In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber and mike Stoller wrote about going to Kansas city. Why? Because they said it was filled with many wonderful women. James Brown sings the song, "Kansas City." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans love cities near the ocean. One of the most popular is Miami, Florida. Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm. This song about Miami was written in nineteen-thirty-five. The hot mustard jazz band sings, "Moon Over Miami. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. There you can play games of chance all night long. The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too. In nineteen-sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group Z-Z Top. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen-sixty-two. It sold more than three-million records. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second largest city. More than three-million people live there. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song, "I Love L.A." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They call Los Angeles "A great big freeway." They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is, "Do You Know The Way To San Jose." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V.O.A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Aspirin
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 8, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we talk about a medicine that has found new uses over time. VOICE ONE: And may find even newer ones. Learn the history of aspirin, and the most recent findings, coming up. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: More than two-thousand years ago, in ancient Greece, Hippocrates advised his patients about a way to ease pain. The great doctor told them to chew on the bark of the willow tree. The outer covering of the tree contains a chemical, salicylic acid. By the seventeen-hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce high body temperatures. In eighteen-sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied nature. They created acetyl salicylic acid. And they took a name from the spirea plant, which also contains the natural chemical. They called their new formula aspirin. VOICE TWO: Aspirin has been sold for more than a century as a treatment for headaches, muscle pain and high temperature. In nineteen-eighty-two, a British scientist shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. Sir John Vane found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and swelling in damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the kidneys, heart and blood vessels work well. But there is a problem. Aspirin works against all prostaglandins, good and bad. VOICE ONE: Scientists learned how aspirin interferes with an enzyme. One form of this protein makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates the protective kind of compound. So aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues. But it can also harm the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Aspirin competes these days with a lot of other pain medicines. Many people like to take acetaminophen. This is the active substance in products like Tylenol. Still, experts say aspirin does some things that the others cannot. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many people take aspirin to reduce the risk of a heart attack. Scientists say aspirin prevents tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. This can cause heart attacks or strokes. The use of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart disease has grown in recent years. Yet one doctor noted this effect in the nineteen-fifties. VOICE ONE: The doctor was Lawrence Craven. He observed unusual bleeding among children who chewed on aspirin gum to ease pain after a throat operation. Doctor Craven believed they were bleeding because aspirin prevented the blood from thickening. He decided that aspirin might help prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots. So Doctor Craven examined medical records of about eight-thousand people. He found no heart attacks or strokes among those who regularly took aspirin. Doctor Craven invited other scientists to test his ideas. But it was many years before large studies took place. VOICE TWO: Doctor Charles Hennekens of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, led one of the studies. In nineteen-eighty-three, he began to study more than twenty-two-thousand healthy male doctors over the age of forty. Half the doctors in the study took an aspirin every other day. The other half took what they thought was aspirin, but was just a sugar pill. Five years later, Doctor Hennekens reported that the men who took aspirin reduced their chances of a heart attack. However, the men who took aspirin also had a higher risk of bleeding in the brain. VOICE ONE: In recent years, a group of American medical experts examined studies on aspirin for the Department of Health and Human Services. The experts said people who have an increased risk of a heart attack should take a small amount of aspirin every day. People who are most likely to suffer a heart attack include men over the age of forty and women over the age of fifty. People who weigh too much or smoke cigarettes are also at greater risk. So are people with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Aspirin may help someone who is having a heart attack caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the heart. Aspirin thins the blood. This can permit blood to flow past the blockage in the artery. But heart experts say people should seek emergency help immediately. They say an aspirin is no substitute for treatment. Some people should not take aspirin. These include people who have stomach problems. Doctors say people who take other blood thinners or have bleeding disorders should not take aspirin either. VOICE ONE: Some studies have been done on the effects of taking aspirin during the first signs of a stroke. These studies showed some improvement in the condition of the patients. But can aspirin prevent strokes in healthy people? The Archives of Neurology published a report in two-thousand about aspirin and stroke prevention. Robert Hart and others at the University of Texas at San Antonio examined studies of more than fifty-thousand healthy people. Some of the people already had an increased risk of stroke, like high blood pressure. Others had no signs that they might suffer a stroke in the future. VOICE TWO: The researchers found that aspirin did not seem to prevent strokes, as long as people had no signs of blocked blood vessels in their brain. Doctors say aspirin may help prevent small strokes that result from such blockage. But the report said aspirin was linked to a small increase in the risk of bleeding in the brain. This can also cause a stroke. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Like other medicines, aspirin can cause problems, especially if taken in large amounts. The acid in the drug may damage the tissue of the stomach or intestines. Aspirin can also interfere with the healing of the cells. Some people develop severe bleeding. Yet other research has found that aspirin may help prevent cancers of the stomach and intestines. Studies in the last twenty years have shown that people who take aspirin have unusually low rates of such cancers. VOICE TWO: One of the newest reports about aspirin involves the most common form of breast cancer. In May, researchers announced findings from a study of almost three thousand women in New York City. The study compared women who took aspirin several times a week to women who did not. Scientists from Columbia University say the aspirin users had a twenty-five percent lower rate of breast cancer. One of the doctors involved in the study said aspirin appeared to reduce the production of estrogen. This female hormone is linked to up to seventy percent of all cases of breast cancer. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. But the researchers say they are not ready to advise women to take aspirin in hopes of protection against breast cancer. VOICE ONE: But doctors do often advise aspirin for patients at risk of diseases that result from blood clots, such as a heart attack. In May, a Harvard Medical School publication said that some people, however, get little or no protection from aspirin. The Harvard Heart Letter said this idea is so new that many doctors do not know about it, or they are waiting for more research. Still, the report advised that it is not too early for people to ask about being tested to see if they respond to aspirin. In any case, medical experts say no one should take aspirin for disease prevention without first asking a doctor. Aspirin is sold in different strengths. It can interfere with other drugs. And it is not safe for everyone. Most pregnant women are told to avoid aspirin. Children who take aspirin can suffer a serious disease called Reye's syndrome. Yet, even with its problems, aspirin remains one of the oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs in the world. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in VOA Special English. Broadcast: June 8, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we talk about a medicine that has found new uses over time. VOICE ONE: And may find even newer ones. Learn the history of aspirin, and the most recent findings, coming up. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: More than two-thousand years ago, in ancient Greece, Hippocrates advised his patients about a way to ease pain. The great doctor told them to chew on the bark of the willow tree. The outer covering of the tree contains a chemical, salicylic acid. By the seventeen-hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce high body temperatures. In eighteen-sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied nature. They created acetyl salicylic acid. And they took a name from the spirea plant, which also contains the natural chemical. They called their new formula aspirin. VOICE TWO: Aspirin has been sold for more than a century as a treatment for headaches, muscle pain and high temperature. In nineteen-eighty-two, a British scientist shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. Sir John Vane found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and swelling in damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the kidneys, heart and blood vessels work well. But there is a problem. Aspirin works against all prostaglandins, good and bad. VOICE ONE: Scientists learned how aspirin interferes with an enzyme. One form of this protein makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates the protective kind of compound. So aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues. But it can also harm the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Aspirin competes these days with a lot of other pain medicines. Many people like to take acetaminophen. This is the active substance in products like Tylenol. Still, experts say aspirin does some things that the others cannot. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many people take aspirin to reduce the risk of a heart attack. Scientists say aspirin prevents tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. This can cause heart attacks or strokes. The use of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart disease has grown in recent years. Yet one doctor noted this effect in the nineteen-fifties. VOICE ONE: The doctor was Lawrence Craven. He observed unusual bleeding among children who chewed on aspirin gum to ease pain after a throat operation. Doctor Craven believed they were bleeding because aspirin prevented the blood from thickening. He decided that aspirin might help prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots. So Doctor Craven examined medical records of about eight-thousand people. He found no heart attacks or strokes among those who regularly took aspirin. Doctor Craven invited other scientists to test his ideas. But it was many years before large studies took place. VOICE TWO: Doctor Charles Hennekens of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, led one of the studies. In nineteen-eighty-three, he began to study more than twenty-two-thousand healthy male doctors over the age of forty. Half the doctors in the study took an aspirin every other day. The other half took what they thought was aspirin, but was just a sugar pill. Five years later, Doctor Hennekens reported that the men who took aspirin reduced their chances of a heart attack. However, the men who took aspirin also had a higher risk of bleeding in the brain. VOICE ONE: In recent years, a group of American medical experts examined studies on aspirin for the Department of Health and Human Services. The experts said people who have an increased risk of a heart attack should take a small amount of aspirin every day. People who are most likely to suffer a heart attack include men over the age of forty and women over the age of fifty. People who weigh too much or smoke cigarettes are also at greater risk. So are people with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Aspirin may help someone who is having a heart attack caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the heart. Aspirin thins the blood. This can permit blood to flow past the blockage in the artery. But heart experts say people should seek emergency help immediately. They say an aspirin is no substitute for treatment. Some people should not take aspirin. These include people who have stomach problems. Doctors say people who take other blood thinners or have bleeding disorders should not take aspirin either. VOICE ONE: Some studies have been done on the effects of taking aspirin during the first signs of a stroke. These studies showed some improvement in the condition of the patients. But can aspirin prevent strokes in healthy people? The Archives of Neurology published a report in two-thousand about aspirin and stroke prevention. Robert Hart and others at the University of Texas at San Antonio examined studies of more than fifty-thousand healthy people. Some of the people already had an increased risk of stroke, like high blood pressure. Others had no signs that they might suffer a stroke in the future. VOICE TWO: The researchers found that aspirin did not seem to prevent strokes, as long as people had no signs of blocked blood vessels in their brain. Doctors say aspirin may help prevent small strokes that result from such blockage. But the report said aspirin was linked to a small increase in the risk of bleeding in the brain. This can also cause a stroke. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Like other medicines, aspirin can cause problems, especially if taken in large amounts. The acid in the drug may damage the tissue of the stomach or intestines. Aspirin can also interfere with the healing of the cells. Some people develop severe bleeding. Yet other research has found that aspirin may help prevent cancers of the stomach and intestines. Studies in the last twenty years have shown that people who take aspirin have unusually low rates of such cancers. VOICE TWO: One of the newest reports about aspirin involves the most common form of breast cancer. In May, researchers announced findings from a study of almost three thousand women in New York City. The study compared women who took aspirin several times a week to women who did not. Scientists from Columbia University say the aspirin users had a twenty-five percent lower rate of breast cancer. One of the doctors involved in the study said aspirin appeared to reduce the production of estrogen. This female hormone is linked to up to seventy percent of all cases of breast cancer. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. But the researchers say they are not ready to advise women to take aspirin in hopes of protection against breast cancer. VOICE ONE: But doctors do often advise aspirin for patients at risk of diseases that result from blood clots, such as a heart attack. In May, a Harvard Medical School publication said that some people, however, get little or no protection from aspirin. The Harvard Heart Letter said this idea is so new that many doctors do not know about it, or they are waiting for more research. Still, the report advised that it is not too early for people to ask about being tested to see if they respond to aspirin. In any case, medical experts say no one should take aspirin for disease prevention without first asking a doctor. Aspirin is sold in different strengths. It can interfere with other drugs. And it is not safe for everyone. Most pregnant women are told to avoid aspirin. Children who take aspirin can suffer a serious disease called Reye's syndrome. Yet, even with its problems, aspirin remains one of the oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs in the world. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Hybrids
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 8, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Since ancient times, farmers have chosen the seeds for the coming year from the biggest and best plants in their crop. The hope is that these seeds will have the same good qualities as their parent plants. This method is called inbreeding. But experts say it is not the best way to develop seed with strong, healthy qualities over time. In nineteen-oh-six, the genetic researcher G.H. Shull started work on breeding corn in New York State. He found that if he mated two inbred groups of corn plants, he could create a stronger new line of corn. This process is called crossbreeding. It produces hybrids from putting together different kinds of related plants. Researchers soon recognized that they could crossbreed four inbred lines of corn. The result is stronger than corn crossbred only once. Hybrid corn first appeared in nineteen-twenty-one. Today, almost all corn planted in the United States is hybrid. And farmers harvest about seven times more corn from each hectare than they did seventy years ago. Corn is not the only hybrid crop. Yuan Longping is called the Father of Hybrid Rice. He and other Chinese scientists worked on this idea in the nineteen-sixties and seventies. The first hybrid rice appeared in nineteen-seventy-four. Mister Yuan used three lines of parent seed that produced fifteen to twenty percent more grain. By nineteen-ninety-five, half of all the rice grown in China was hybrid. There are also hybrid animals. Long ago, farmers discovered that a female horse mated with a male donkey produces a mule. This animal is strong and good for work, although it cannot reproduce. In the early nineteen-eighties, American fish farmers wanted to raise striped bass. This fish had almost disappeared from the wild. So researchers created a fast-growing hybrid bass. By two-thousand, fish farmers harvested almost seven-million kilograms of the new sunshine bass. Hybrids are not the answer to every problem in agriculture. New hybrid seeds must be bought each year. They also cost more than other seed. Hybrids can take many years to develop. And not all crops can be crossbred successfully. But hybrids have been an important development for productivity. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 3, 2004 - Getting a Job, Part 1: Resume and Cover Letter
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 3, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: It's a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps people find jobs. She says the first step is to draft a short resume -- no more than two pages. ARMSTRONG: "It should be customized to the company or position you're going for. By that I mean it should use the lingo of the industry. It should be clear and targeted, easy to read, on good bond paper, and it should be perfect. There should be no spelling and no grammar mistakes. So you should use spell check and then have two or three friends at a minimum review it before you send it out." RS: "You say 'customized.' How do you know that language, the language of the company?" ARMSTRONG: "If it isn't your industry, you talk to people, you do informational interviews, you read their reports, you get your hands on everything that you can that would give you any type of information that will lead you to a good cover letter and resume." RS: "How do you structure a resume? What sections are necessary in a resume?" ARMSTRONG: "I think the first thing that I'm seeing in a lot of good resumes, the very first area that you would have, is called a qualifications summary, where you identify three or four important skills that you have that will be appealing to the new employer." AA: "Give us an example." ARMSTRONG: "I actually wrote one. Let's say someone is going for a project manager job. The summary up at the very top would read: 'Project manager skilled at coordinating complex information management projects; proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships; proficient at negotiating vendor contacts; particularly adept at analyzing information for patterns and trends and summarizing complex issues concisely; can-do attitude.' "So in the first couple of seconds an employer is going to read the top of that and then they're going to know whether they should continue to read. So you want to grab them right away with something strong." RS: "What other sections should follow?" ARMSTRONG: "Right after the qualifications summary, I would do work experience, unless you just recently completed a degree, in which case you want to probably highlight your education. But I would do the experience, then the education, then skills -- either computer skills or interpersonal skills -- and then a tag line at the bottom about references, just to kind of close it and end it." AA: "Should you include references, or do you just put the standard 'references upon request.'" ARMSTRONG: "I would put the standard, quite honestly, because again this is the resume first going out, you don't know even if there's interest." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about a cover letter." ARMSTRONG: "Should be no more than one page, it should be addressed to a specific person. It shouldn't be a 'to whom it may concern.' So you should have title for the person and the correct spelling of their name -- people are very sensitive about that -- and the company name correctly spelled as well. In the cover letter you should come right to the point, identify the position that you're interested it, how you heard about it." AA: "Now what are some things to avoid?" ARMSTRONG: "Ones that go on and on, two or three pages -- avoid that. Ones that reiterate what's in the resume." AA: "Do you begin with 'greetings' -- what works?" ARMSTRONG: "I think you go right to the point: 'Dear Mister Smith, I recently heard of your opening,' and then you go on. In fact, I did bring a sample one for you: 'I'm applying for the Web developer position that was advertised in the local paper this week. The position seems to fit very well with my education, experience and career interests. Your position requires skills in various types of programming and software used in Web development. My academic program in computer studies emphasized ... ' "And then you go on to indicate exactly what is targeted, not only in your academic program but also in your work experience. 'My enclosed resume provides more details on my qualifications. My background and career goals seem to match your job requirements well. I'm confidant that I can perform the job effectively.' "And then (add) a little assertiveness at the end. Telling me they're going to give me a call, asking me specifically or an interview, telling me in clear terms how to reach them and when to reach them, either by e-mail or by phone, and good times to reach them. And I would also customize it by doing some research about the company, so that each letter cannot be just a cookie-cutter approach. It has to be a specific letter to that specific company. People rarely do that, and it makes such a difference." AA: "And the language to use -- plain, simple English?" ARMSTRONG: "That's a good point, Avi, because people will write it in a very stilted way that they would never talk. It's so odd, you know, 'attached please find my ... ' You say 'enclosed is my resume.' Or just something that is a normal way that you would talk." RS: Sharon Armstrong is a consultant in Washington. She calls her business Human Resources 911. Nine-one-one is the telephone number Americans call in an emergency. Next week Ms. Armstrong will walk us through a job interview. AA: You'll find today's program, plus our archives, on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. [Rebroadcast from 2002] Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 3, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: It's a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps people find jobs. She says the first step is to draft a short resume -- no more than two pages. ARMSTRONG: "It should be customized to the company or position you're going for. By that I mean it should use the lingo of the industry. It should be clear and targeted, easy to read, on good bond paper, and it should be perfect. There should be no spelling and no grammar mistakes. So you should use spell check and then have two or three friends at a minimum review it before you send it out." RS: "You say 'customized.' How do you know that language, the language of the company?" ARMSTRONG: "If it isn't your industry, you talk to people, you do informational interviews, you read their reports, you get your hands on everything that you can that would give you any type of information that will lead you to a good cover letter and resume." RS: "How do you structure a resume? What sections are necessary in a resume?" ARMSTRONG: "I think the first thing that I'm seeing in a lot of good resumes, the very first area that you would have, is called a qualifications summary, where you identify three or four important skills that you have that will be appealing to the new employer." AA: "Give us an example." ARMSTRONG: "I actually wrote one. Let's say someone is going for a project manager job. The summary up at the very top would read: 'Project manager skilled at coordinating complex information management projects; proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships; proficient at negotiating vendor contacts; particularly adept at analyzing information for patterns and trends and summarizing complex issues concisely; can-do attitude.' "So in the first couple of seconds an employer is going to read the top of that and then they're going to know whether they should continue to read. So you want to grab them right away with something strong." RS: "What other sections should follow?" ARMSTRONG: "Right after the qualifications summary, I would do work experience, unless you just recently completed a degree, in which case you want to probably highlight your education. But I would do the experience, then the education, then skills -- either computer skills or interpersonal skills -- and then a tag line at the bottom about references, just to kind of close it and end it." AA: "Should you include references, or do you just put the standard 'references upon request.'" ARMSTRONG: "I would put the standard, quite honestly, because again this is the resume first going out, you don't know even if there's interest." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about a cover letter." ARMSTRONG: "Should be no more than one page, it should be addressed to a specific person. It shouldn't be a 'to whom it may concern.' So you should have title for the person and the correct spelling of their name -- people are very sensitive about that -- and the company name correctly spelled as well. In the cover letter you should come right to the point, identify the position that you're interested it, how you heard about it." AA: "Now what are some things to avoid?" ARMSTRONG: "Ones that go on and on, two or three pages -- avoid that. Ones that reiterate what's in the resume." AA: "Do you begin with 'greetings' -- what works?" ARMSTRONG: "I think you go right to the point: 'Dear Mister Smith, I recently heard of your opening,' and then you go on. In fact, I did bring a sample one for you: 'I'm applying for the Web developer position that was advertised in the local paper this week. The position seems to fit very well with my education, experience and career interests. Your position requires skills in various types of programming and software used in Web development. My academic program in computer studies emphasized ... ' "And then you go on to indicate exactly what is targeted, not only in your academic program but also in your work experience. 'My enclosed resume provides more details on my qualifications. My background and career goals seem to match your job requirements well. I'm confidant that I can perform the job effectively.' "And then (add) a little assertiveness at the end. Telling me they're going to give me a call, asking me specifically or an interview, telling me in clear terms how to reach them and when to reach them, either by e-mail or by phone, and good times to reach them. And I would also customize it by doing some research about the company, so that each letter cannot be just a cookie-cutter approach. It has to be a specific letter to that specific company. People rarely do that, and it makes such a difference." AA: "And the language to use -- plain, simple English?" ARMSTRONG: "That's a good point, Avi, because people will write it in a very stilted way that they would never talk. It's so odd, you know, 'attached please find my ... ' You say 'enclosed is my resume.' Or just something that is a normal way that you would talk." RS: Sharon Armstrong is a consultant in Washington. She calls her business Human Resources 911. Nine-one-one is the telephone number Americans call in an emergency. Next week Ms. Armstrong will walk us through a job interview. AA: You'll find today's program, plus our archives, on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. [Rebroadcast from 2002] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Rio Grande, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 9, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 9, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we finish the story of one of the most important rivers in the United States, the Rio Grande. The river flows from the mountains of Colorado south to the Gulf of Mexico. It forms the border between the United States and Mexico for two thousand kilometers. VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we finish the story of one of the most important rivers in the United States, the Rio Grande. The river flows from the mountains of Colorado south to the Gulf of Mexico. It forms the border between the United States and Mexico for two thousand kilometers. VOICE ONE: By the early Fifteen-Hundreds Spanish explorers arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States. They moved up the Rio Grande looking for gold and treasure. They found none. The native Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were friendly until they were treated badly by the Spanish. Then the Indians pushed the invaders out. But the Spanish returned in Sixteen-Ninety-Three. After some fighting, they finally made peace with the Pueblo Indians. More and more settlers arrived and established new towns along the Rio Grande. Soon people from other countries began arriving. They came from France, England, and, by the end of the Seventeen Hundreds, from the newly formed United States to the east. VOICE TWO: By the early Nineteenth Century, Americans had begun settling in the Rio Grande area, especially in the territory of Texas, east of New Mexico. The Spanish government in the American southwest began to lose control as Spain became less powerful in Europe. Soon more and more people settling near the Rio Grande began to think of themselves as Americans. In Eighteen-Twelve, the Mexican territory of Texas rebelled and declared itself an independent republic. Spain regained control of Texas, but the seeds of revolution had been planted. In Eighteen Twenty-One, Spain withdrew from the Americas. VOICE ONE: A new age was beginning in North America. Two young nations, the United States and Mexico, would now decide their own futures and the future of the Rio Grande area. One of the most important questions facing the two countries was who would control Texas. That was not an easy decision to make. In Eighteen-Twenty-Three, the Mexican government agreed to permit a group of Americans to live in Texas. Mexico said the Americans, led by Stephen Austin, could stay there permanently. More Americans settled in Texas. Many people wanted to make Texas a part of the United States. At the same time, more Mexicans wanted to push all Americans out of Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: South of the Rio Grande, there were three revolutions in Mexico’s first eight years of independence. North of the river, Americans were more and more unhappy with Mexican rule. In Eighteen-Thirty-Two, Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to ask that Texas become a separate Mexican state. At this time, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was struggling to gain control of Mexico and become its ruler. He faced a number of rebellions in different parts of the country. General Santa Anna told Stephen Austin he would make Texas a separate Mexican state. Yet events were moving in another direction. VOICE ONE: In Texas, demands for change became demands for independence from Mexico. This led to an invasion across the Rio Grande of thousands of soldiers led by General Santa Anna. He planned to quickly crush the rebellion. As Santa Anna moved his army into Texas in Eighteen-Thirty-Six, a group of Texans signed a document declaring Texas an independent nation. To answer this, General Santa Anna led a strong attack against a group of rebels near the city of San Antonio. The place they attacked was called The Alamo. There were one-hundred-twenty-eight men in the building defending it against the many thousands of soldiers in Santa Anna’s army. After many days of fighting, the Mexican army broke through the defenses of the Alamo and killed everyone inside. VOICE TWO: Santa Anna and his army began a march across Texas. They burned towns and villages. They chased the small army of Texans but were unable to catch them. The Mexican soldiers were tired. The Texans attacked, shouting “Remember the Alamo”. There was a fierce battle. Only forty Mexican soldiers escaped. All the others were killed, wounded or captured. General Santa Anna was among those captured. General Santa Anna met with Texas leader, General Sam Houston. The Mexican leader agreed that in return for his freedom Texas would become independent from Mexico. He agreed that the Rio Grande would be the border between Texas and Mexico. General Santa Anna went home to Mexico City. The new Republic of Texas looked to the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The future was not all good. President Santa Anna declared war on Texas eight years after his defeat by the Texan army. However, he never carried out his threat of war. He was removed from office. And the next year, Eighteen-Forty-Five, the United States government invited Texas to become a state. This was not acceptable to Mexico. War began. In Eighteen-Forty-Six, Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande. The Americans quickly defeated the invading army and began moving into Mexico, toward Mexico City. Other American soldiers began moving west into New Mexico. The government in Santa Fe quickly surrendered. VOICE TWO: In February Eighteen-Forty-Eight, Mexico surrendered to the American army. The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo declared the border between the United States and Mexico to be along the Rio Grande and then west to the Pacific Ocean. The new land belonging to the United States included New Mexico, Arizona and Upper California. For all this territory, the United States paid Mexico fifteen-million dollars. Becoming a part of the United States presented both political and social problems for Texas. The state of Texas permitted slavery. Governor Sam Houston opposed joining the Confederate states that also permitted slavery and were seeking to separate from the United States. He was removed from office. Texas joined the southern states in the Civil War. After the northern forces won the long war and the country united, Texas was re-admitted as a state. At this time, the expanding population of the Rio Grande country faced other problems. Criminals from both sides of the Rio Grande attacked the people. Also, Indian tribes such as the Apache and Comanche resisted the spread of white settlers into their lands. The settlers were destroying the Indians’ way of life. The Indians attacked and killed many white settlers. By Eighteen Seventy Four, government troops had forced many Indian tribes out of their traditional lands. VOICE ONE: The United States army also was ordered to take action to stop criminal activities along the Rio Grande. It was given permission to chase criminals across the river into Mexico. Also, the army acted to stop Indian attacks. Over time, fighting ended in the Rio Grande Valley and the surrounding territory. The United States and Mexico developed friendly relations. Yet tensions continue along the border between the two countries today. One problem is illegal immigrants. The other is illegal drugs. No one knows for sure how many people cross the border from Mexico to the United States. Officials have estimated that the number is in the millions. The illegal immigrants come from Mexico, and from Central and South America. Most come to the United States for economic or political reasons. A few come to sell illegal drugs. Many of the illegal drugs in the United States are transported across the border. VOICE TWO: The river itself can create problems too. The Rio Grande flows where it wants to flow. Dams, canals and other man-made devices cannot always control it. Most of the water from the upper Rio Grande does not flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Almost all of the water is completely used for agriculture and by cities and towns along the upper part of the river. VOICE ONE: Down the river, many springs and several other rivers flow into the Rio Grande, renewing the water supply. Two major dams create electric power and provide water for agriculture and other needs of people living along the lower part of the river. Yet man-made controls do not prevent changes in the path the river takes in many places. Some changes make it difficult to know exactly where the border is between the United States and Mexico. The great river, the Rio Grande, continues to flow across the land and through the history of two countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: By the early Fifteen-Hundreds Spanish explorers arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States. They moved up the Rio Grande looking for gold and treasure. They found none. The native Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were friendly until they were treated badly by the Spanish. Then the Indians pushed the invaders out. But the Spanish returned in Sixteen-Ninety-Three. After some fighting, they finally made peace with the Pueblo Indians. More and more settlers arrived and established new towns along the Rio Grande. Soon people from other countries began arriving. They came from France, England, and, by the end of the Seventeen Hundreds, from the newly formed United States to the east. VOICE TWO: By the early Nineteenth Century, Americans had begun settling in the Rio Grande area, especially in the territory of Texas, east of New Mexico. The Spanish government in the American southwest began to lose control as Spain became less powerful in Europe. Soon more and more people settling near the Rio Grande began to think of themselves as Americans. In Eighteen-Twelve, the Mexican territory of Texas rebelled and declared itself an independent republic. Spain regained control of Texas, but the seeds of revolution had been planted. In Eighteen Twenty-One, Spain withdrew from the Americas. VOICE ONE: A new age was beginning in North America. Two young nations, the United States and Mexico, would now decide their own futures and the future of the Rio Grande area. One of the most important questions facing the two countries was who would control Texas. That was not an easy decision to make. In Eighteen-Twenty-Three, the Mexican government agreed to permit a group of Americans to live in Texas. Mexico said the Americans, led by Stephen Austin, could stay there permanently. More Americans settled in Texas. Many people wanted to make Texas a part of the United States. At the same time, more Mexicans wanted to push all Americans out of Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: South of the Rio Grande, there were three revolutions in Mexico’s first eight years of independence. North of the river, Americans were more and more unhappy with Mexican rule. In Eighteen-Thirty-Two, Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to ask that Texas become a separate Mexican state. At this time, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was struggling to gain control of Mexico and become its ruler. He faced a number of rebellions in different parts of the country. General Santa Anna told Stephen Austin he would make Texas a separate Mexican state. Yet events were moving in another direction. VOICE ONE: In Texas, demands for change became demands for independence from Mexico. This led to an invasion across the Rio Grande of thousands of soldiers led by General Santa Anna. He planned to quickly crush the rebellion. As Santa Anna moved his army into Texas in Eighteen-Thirty-Six, a group of Texans signed a document declaring Texas an independent nation. To answer this, General Santa Anna led a strong attack against a group of rebels near the city of San Antonio. The place they attacked was called The Alamo. There were one-hundred-twenty-eight men in the building defending it against the many thousands of soldiers in Santa Anna’s army. After many days of fighting, the Mexican army broke through the defenses of the Alamo and killed everyone inside. VOICE TWO: Santa Anna and his army began a march across Texas. They burned towns and villages. They chased the small army of Texans but were unable to catch them. The Mexican soldiers were tired. The Texans attacked, shouting “Remember the Alamo”. There was a fierce battle. Only forty Mexican soldiers escaped. All the others were killed, wounded or captured. General Santa Anna was among those captured. General Santa Anna met with Texas leader, General Sam Houston. The Mexican leader agreed that in return for his freedom Texas would become independent from Mexico. He agreed that the Rio Grande would be the border between Texas and Mexico. General Santa Anna went home to Mexico City. The new Republic of Texas looked to the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The future was not all good. President Santa Anna declared war on Texas eight years after his defeat by the Texan army. However, he never carried out his threat of war. He was removed from office. And the next year, Eighteen-Forty-Five, the United States government invited Texas to become a state. This was not acceptable to Mexico. War began. In Eighteen-Forty-Six, Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande. The Americans quickly defeated the invading army and began moving into Mexico, toward Mexico City. Other American soldiers began moving west into New Mexico. The government in Santa Fe quickly surrendered. VOICE TWO: In February Eighteen-Forty-Eight, Mexico surrendered to the American army. The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo declared the border between the United States and Mexico to be along the Rio Grande and then west to the Pacific Ocean. The new land belonging to the United States included New Mexico, Arizona and Upper California. For all this territory, the United States paid Mexico fifteen-million dollars. Becoming a part of the United States presented both political and social problems for Texas. The state of Texas permitted slavery. Governor Sam Houston opposed joining the Confederate states that also permitted slavery and were seeking to separate from the United States. He was removed from office. Texas joined the southern states in the Civil War. After the northern forces won the long war and the country united, Texas was re-admitted as a state. At this time, the expanding population of the Rio Grande country faced other problems. Criminals from both sides of the Rio Grande attacked the people. Also, Indian tribes such as the Apache and Comanche resisted the spread of white settlers into their lands. The settlers were destroying the Indians’ way of life. The Indians attacked and killed many white settlers. By Eighteen Seventy Four, government troops had forced many Indian tribes out of their traditional lands. VOICE ONE: The United States army also was ordered to take action to stop criminal activities along the Rio Grande. It was given permission to chase criminals across the river into Mexico. Also, the army acted to stop Indian attacks. Over time, fighting ended in the Rio Grande Valley and the surrounding territory. The United States and Mexico developed friendly relations. Yet tensions continue along the border between the two countries today. One problem is illegal immigrants. The other is illegal drugs. No one knows for sure how many people cross the border from Mexico to the United States. Officials have estimated that the number is in the millions. The illegal immigrants come from Mexico, and from Central and South America. Most come to the United States for economic or political reasons. A few come to sell illegal drugs. Many of the illegal drugs in the United States are transported across the border. VOICE TWO: The river itself can create problems too. The Rio Grande flows where it wants to flow. Dams, canals and other man-made devices cannot always control it. Most of the water from the upper Rio Grande does not flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Almost all of the water is completely used for agriculture and by cities and towns along the upper part of the river. VOICE ONE: Down the river, many springs and several other rivers flow into the Rio Grande, renewing the water supply. Two major dams create electric power and provide water for agriculture and other needs of people living along the lower part of the river. Yet man-made controls do not prevent changes in the path the river takes in many places. Some changes make it difficult to know exactly where the border is between the United States and Mexico. The great river, the Rio Grande, continues to flow across the land and through the history of two countries. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – PSA Levels and Prostate Cancer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 9, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many older men are tested each year for cancer of the prostate gland. This organ is part of the male reproductive system. One test measures levels in the blood of a protein known as P.S.A. P.S.A. is prostate-specific antigen. Most men with prostate cancer have increased levels of this protein. The test results come back from the laboratory as a number. Doctors usually consider the results normal if the P.S.A. level is below four. But a new study raises questions. The study found prostate cancer in fifteen percent of older men with P.S.A. levels below four. But the researchers also found that most of these cancers were not especially dangerous. The risk of prostate cancer increased as the P.S.A. levels got higher. A result above ten is considered high. But a high P.S.A. level does not always mean that a man has cancer. There could be an infection or an enlarged prostate. This is a common problem in older men. The study involved almost three-thousand men. They were ages sixty-two to ninety-one. Ian Thompson of the Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio led the study. The results appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctors often perform biopsies on men with increased P.S.A. levels. They cut a small amount of tissue from the prostate to look for cancer. If cancer is found, then the question arises of what to do next. Doctors must decide how aggressive the cancer is. Non-aggressive prostate cancers usually grow slowly. They do not normally spread to other organs. Researchers say almost thirty percent of men in their thirties and forties have prostate cancer but do not know it. By their sixties and seventies, however, two out of three men may have prostate cancer. Some doctors advise men with non-aggressive prostate cancer to delay treatment. But, in the United States, almost thirty-thousand men per year die of prostate cancer. So most patients elect to have treatment. This often means an operation to remove the prostate. Last December, Secretary of State Colin Powell had an operation in which doctors removed his prostate because of cancer. Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, had the same experience early last year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Martin Van Buren, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 10, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Last week, we reported the election in Eighteen-Thirty-Six of Martin Van Buren as the eighth president of the United States. Van Buren had been very close to the outgoing president, Andrew Jackson. He had been successful in putting together a strong political alliance that helped to put Jackson in the White House in Eighteen-Twenty-Eight. Jackson was grateful for this help, and asked Van Buren to come to Washington to serve as Secretary of State. Van Buren had just been elected governor of the state of New York, but decided to accept Jackson's offer. VOICE TWO: Van Buren quickly became the most powerful man in Jackson's cabinet. He was able to help Jackson in negotiations with Britain and France. But his greatest help was in building a strong political party for Jackson. It was this party that gave Jackson wide support for his policies. Van Buren built up the national Democratic Party with the same methods he used to build his political organization in New York state. He removed from government jobs people who had not supported Jackson. These jobs were then given to those who had supported the president. Van Buren served as Secretary of State for two years. He resigned because he saw his resignation as the only way of solving a serious problem Jackson faced. VOICE ONE: The problem was Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun had presidential hopes. He did not think Jackson would serve more than one term. And he planned to be a candidate in the next election. Three of the five men in Jackson's cabinet supported Calhoun. Jackson could not trust them. And he wanted to get them out of the cabinet...but without a political fight. Then, later, he named Van Buren minister to Britain. But Calhoun's supporters in the Senate defeated Van Buren's nomination. By this time, Jackson had decided that Van Buren would be the best man to follow him as president. He offered to resign after the Eighteen-Thirty-Two elections and give Van Buren the job of president. Van Buren rejected the offer. He said he wanted to be elected by the people. But he did agree to be Jackson's vice president in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. VOICE TWO: Four years later, at Jackson's request, the Democrats chose Van Buren to be their presidential candidate. He was opposed by several candidates of the newly-formed Whig Party. The opposition was divided. And Van Buren won the election with little difficulty. Andrew Jackson stood beside Martin Van Buren as the new president was sworn-in. Physically, the two men were very different. Jackson was tall, with long white hair that flowed back over his head. Jackson's health had been poor during the last few months he spent in the White House. He seemed tired. There was almost no color in his face. Van Buren was much shorter and had much less hair. His eyes were brighter than those of the old man next to him. VOICE ONE: In his inaugural speech, Van Buren noted that he was the first American born after the Revolution to become president. He said he felt he belonged to a later age. He called for more unity among Democrats of the North and South. He said better times were ahead for the country. Van Buren had a strange way with words. He could talk with excitement about something, but say very little about his own feelings on the subject. Once, he spoke in New York about the tax on imports. Two men who heard the speech discussed it later. "It was a very able speech," said one man, a wool buyer. "Yes, very able," answered his friend. There was silence for a moment. Then the first man spoke again. "Was Mister Van Buren 'for' or 'against' the import tax?" VOICE TWO: The new president was a warm and friendly man. He tried to keep his political life and his social life separate. It was not unusual to see him exchange handshakes, smiles and jokes with men who were his political enemies. Van Buren had a poor education as a boy. He went to school only for a few years. His father was a farmer and hotel keeper at a little town in New York state. Van Buren had a quick mind and was a good judge of men. But he always felt he could have done more had he received a college education. VOICE ONE: Van Buren had been president for just a few days when an economic crisis and a political storm struck the country. The storm had been building for many months. It really began with the death of the Bank of the United States, more than a year before. Andrew Jackson had opposed the powerful bank in which the government's money was kept. He vetoed a bill that would have continued it. The bank was so strong that it was able to control the economy throughout most of the country. It did so through its loans to businessmen. By making many loans, the bank could increase economic activity. By reducing the number of loans, the economy could be tightened. VOICE TWO: The Bank of the United States also helped to control the smaller state banks. It refused to accept the notes -- or paper money -- of these banks, unless the state banks were ready to exchange the paper for gold or silver money. After the end of the Bank of the United States, there was little control of any kind over the state banks. Many new state banks opened. All of them produced large amounts of paper money...many times the amount they could exchange for gold or silver. Much of this paper money was used by business speculators to buy land from the government. These men bought the land, held it for a while, then sold it for more than they paid. The government soon found itself with millions of dollars of paper money. VOICE ONE: To stop this, President Jackson ordered gold or silver payments only for government land. This made it necessary for speculators to exchange their paper notes for gold. Many banks could not do this. They did not have enough gold. There was another problem. Congress passed a law on what was to be done with federal money not needed by the national government. This extra money -- or surplus -- was to be given to the states. Since the closing of the Bank of the United States, the government had kept its money in a number of state banks. Now these banks had to surrender the government surplus to the state governments. This left even less gold and silver to exchange for the huge amounts of paper money the banks had issued. VOICE TWO: There was still another demand for what gold the banks had. Eighteen-Thirty-Five and Eighteen-Thirty-Seven were bad years for American agriculture. Many crops failed. Instead of the United States exporting farm products to Europe, the opposite happened. American traders had to import these things from Europe. And they had to pay for them in gold or silver. As more and more paper money was put into use, the value of the money fell. Prices rose higher and higher. Poor people found it almost impossible to buy food and other necessities. In Eighteen-Thirty-Five, a barrel of flour cost six dollars. Two years later, the price had jumped to more than twelve dollars. The same was true with meat and other foods. Even coal -- the fuel people used to heat their homes -- cost twice as much. VOICE ONE: Poor people protested. But businessmen were satisfied. They wished to continue the flood of paper money. Violence finally broke out at a protest meeting in New York City. A crowd of angry people heard speakers criticize the use of paper money. Some in the crowd began demanding action against the rich traders. A crowd of about one-thousand marched to a nearby store, broke into it, and destroyed large amounts of flour and grain. In the spring of Eighteen-Thirty-Seven, the demand on banks for gold and silver grew too heavy. The banks stopped honoring their promises to exchange their paper money for gold. They said this was just temporary. That it was necessary to stop -- for a while -- all payments in gold or silver. The crisis got worse. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Gwen Outen. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. Broadcast: June 10, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Last week, we reported the election in Eighteen-Thirty-Six of Martin Van Buren as the eighth president of the United States. Van Buren had been very close to the outgoing president, Andrew Jackson. He had been successful in putting together a strong political alliance that helped to put Jackson in the White House in Eighteen-Twenty-Eight. Jackson was grateful for this help, and asked Van Buren to come to Washington to serve as Secretary of State. Van Buren had just been elected governor of the state of New York, but decided to accept Jackson's offer. VOICE TWO: Van Buren quickly became the most powerful man in Jackson's cabinet. He was able to help Jackson in negotiations with Britain and France. But his greatest help was in building a strong political party for Jackson. It was this party that gave Jackson wide support for his policies. Van Buren built up the national Democratic Party with the same methods he used to build his political organization in New York state. He removed from government jobs people who had not supported Jackson. These jobs were then given to those who had supported the president. Van Buren served as Secretary of State for two years. He resigned because he saw his resignation as the only way of solving a serious problem Jackson faced. VOICE ONE: The problem was Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun had presidential hopes. He did not think Jackson would serve more than one term. And he planned to be a candidate in the next election. Three of the five men in Jackson's cabinet supported Calhoun. Jackson could not trust them. And he wanted to get them out of the cabinet...but without a political fight. Then, later, he named Van Buren minister to Britain. But Calhoun's supporters in the Senate defeated Van Buren's nomination. By this time, Jackson had decided that Van Buren would be the best man to follow him as president. He offered to resign after the Eighteen-Thirty-Two elections and give Van Buren the job of president. Van Buren rejected the offer. He said he wanted to be elected by the people. But he did agree to be Jackson's vice president in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. VOICE TWO: Four years later, at Jackson's request, the Democrats chose Van Buren to be their presidential candidate. He was opposed by several candidates of the newly-formed Whig Party. The opposition was divided. And Van Buren won the election with little difficulty. Andrew Jackson stood beside Martin Van Buren as the new president was sworn-in. Physically, the two men were very different. Jackson was tall, with long white hair that flowed back over his head. Jackson's health had been poor during the last few months he spent in the White House. He seemed tired. There was almost no color in his face. Van Buren was much shorter and had much less hair. His eyes were brighter than those of the old man next to him. VOICE ONE: In his inaugural speech, Van Buren noted that he was the first American born after the Revolution to become president. He said he felt he belonged to a later age. He called for more unity among Democrats of the North and South. He said better times were ahead for the country. Van Buren had a strange way with words. He could talk with excitement about something, but say very little about his own feelings on the subject. Once, he spoke in New York about the tax on imports. Two men who heard the speech discussed it later. "It was a very able speech," said one man, a wool buyer. "Yes, very able," answered his friend. There was silence for a moment. Then the first man spoke again. "Was Mister Van Buren 'for' or 'against' the import tax?" VOICE TWO: The new president was a warm and friendly man. He tried to keep his political life and his social life separate. It was not unusual to see him exchange handshakes, smiles and jokes with men who were his political enemies. Van Buren had a poor education as a boy. He went to school only for a few years. His father was a farmer and hotel keeper at a little town in New York state. Van Buren had a quick mind and was a good judge of men. But he always felt he could have done more had he received a college education. VOICE ONE: Van Buren had been president for just a few days when an economic crisis and a political storm struck the country. The storm had been building for many months. It really began with the death of the Bank of the United States, more than a year before. Andrew Jackson had opposed the powerful bank in which the government's money was kept. He vetoed a bill that would have continued it. The bank was so strong that it was able to control the economy throughout most of the country. It did so through its loans to businessmen. By making many loans, the bank could increase economic activity. By reducing the number of loans, the economy could be tightened. VOICE TWO: The Bank of the United States also helped to control the smaller state banks. It refused to accept the notes -- or paper money -- of these banks, unless the state banks were ready to exchange the paper for gold or silver money. After the end of the Bank of the United States, there was little control of any kind over the state banks. Many new state banks opened. All of them produced large amounts of paper money...many times the amount they could exchange for gold or silver. Much of this paper money was used by business speculators to buy land from the government. These men bought the land, held it for a while, then sold it for more than they paid. The government soon found itself with millions of dollars of paper money. VOICE ONE: To stop this, President Jackson ordered gold or silver payments only for government land. This made it necessary for speculators to exchange their paper notes for gold. Many banks could not do this. They did not have enough gold. There was another problem. Congress passed a law on what was to be done with federal money not needed by the national government. This extra money -- or surplus -- was to be given to the states. Since the closing of the Bank of the United States, the government had kept its money in a number of state banks. Now these banks had to surrender the government surplus to the state governments. This left even less gold and silver to exchange for the huge amounts of paper money the banks had issued. VOICE TWO: There was still another demand for what gold the banks had. Eighteen-Thirty-Five and Eighteen-Thirty-Seven were bad years for American agriculture. Many crops failed. Instead of the United States exporting farm products to Europe, the opposite happened. American traders had to import these things from Europe. And they had to pay for them in gold or silver. As more and more paper money was put into use, the value of the money fell. Prices rose higher and higher. Poor people found it almost impossible to buy food and other necessities. In Eighteen-Thirty-Five, a barrel of flour cost six dollars. Two years later, the price had jumped to more than twelve dollars. The same was true with meat and other foods. Even coal -- the fuel people used to heat their homes -- cost twice as much. VOICE ONE: Poor people protested. But businessmen were satisfied. They wished to continue the flood of paper money. Violence finally broke out at a protest meeting in New York City. A crowd of angry people heard speakers criticize the use of paper money. Some in the crowd began demanding action against the rich traders. A crowd of about one-thousand marched to a nearby store, broke into it, and destroyed large amounts of flour and grain. In the spring of Eighteen-Thirty-Seven, the demand on banks for gold and silver grew too heavy. The banks stopped honoring their promises to exchange their paper money for gold. They said this was just temporary. That it was necessary to stop -- for a while -- all payments in gold or silver. The crisis got worse. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Gwen Outen. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Learning to Read
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 10, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. For most American children, summer is a time away from schoolbooks. But it is not supposed to be a time away from reading. One of the most important issues in American education is how to teach children to read. The most common methods depend on phonics. This system teaches children to connect words with the sounds of the letters that form those words. Children often learn the sounds of letters before they learn to read. With phonics, children are taught to “sound out” words they do not know. For example, to learn the word “cat,” children first learn to recognize the sound of the letter C. Then they learn the sounds of the letters A and T used together. Finally, they join these sounds to form the word. In another method of teaching phonics, children learn to recognize the whole word first. They write the word enough times until they remember it. Schools often present this method during the teaching of reading, not before. Then the children learn to study words for their sounds. This helps them understand why some letters are used in a word instead of others. Experts say phonics makes it possible for children to sound out many words that they do not recognize by sight. However, the sound of a letter is not always the same in every word. For this reason, many teachers add other methods to teach reading. A few years ago, a committee studied many reading methods. The National Reading Panel urged teachers to use phonics in their programs. And in two-thousand-two President Bush signed an education law called No Child Left Behind. It includes a program called “Reading First.” The goal is to increase the reading skills of American children. The program is based on the suggestions of the National Reading Panel. Over the years, there has been a lot of debate among teachers, parents and politicians over ways to teach reading. Another method is called whole language. Children are taught ways to learn new words not so much by how they sound as by how they are used. Supporters of phonics say this requires too much guessing. But a lot of experts say the best way to teach reading is to combine phonics and whole language methods. This VOA Special Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Summer Camps for Adults / Leonard Bernstein / Fast Food Film
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 11, 2004 HOST: Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1945.(Photo - Library of Congress) Broadcast: June 11, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Summer camps for adults, and a question about the musical life of Leonard Bernstein. But first, we have the story of a man who went on a diet no one should copy. Super Size Me (MUSIC) HOST: What would it be like to eat fast food for every meal? A young filmmaker decided to find out. His new movie is called “Super Size Me.” Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Health experts are concerned that two out of three American adults are overweight. There has been an increase in diseases linked to obesity. Many Americans eat foods that have too much fat and sugar. And they do not exercise enough. Reports say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. And McDonald’s is the largest fast food company in the world. So filmmaker Morgan Spurlock wanted to find out the effects of eating nothing but fast food at McDonald’s three times a day for a month. He followed three rules. He could only eat what was sold at McDonald’s. He had to eat every food at least once. And he would order the largest size French fries and soft drink only if the server offered. McDonald’s called these foods “supersize.” That is why Mister Spurlock named the movie “Super Size Me.” Three doctors and a nutrition expert examined Mister Spurlock before, during and after his eating experiment. They did many tests of his blood and the workings of his major organs. At the beginning, he was in excellent physical condition. He traveled to several American cities and many McDonald’s restaurants. He ate Egg McMuffins, Big Mac hamburger sandwiches, Chicken McNuggets, French fries, soft drinks and other foods every day. And he did not exercise. The doctors became very concerned about Mister Spurlock’s health. At the end of the month, he had gained more than eleven kilograms. His blood pressure increased. The cholesterol in his blood was too high. And his liver was damaged from eating too many fatty foods. Mister Spurlock’s film also appears to have had an effect on McDonald’s. The movie won an award for directing at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Less than two months later, McDonald’s said it would stop selling supersize meals. Recently, it started selling special Happy Meals for adults. These include a salad, bottled water and a pedometer for measuring how far a person walks. McDonald’s also issued a statement about “Super Size Me.” It said the movie is about one person’s decision to act irresponsibly by eating too many calories a day and limiting physical activity. It said McDonald’s offers many kinds of high-quality food choices. It also said McDonald’s is working with experts on nutrition and fitness. Summer Camps HOST: The summer camp season opens in the middle of June for most of the United States. Many children will spend the coming weeks at traditional camps by lakes in the mountains. But there are camps for all interests: horseback riding, rock climbing, art, and science, to name a few. There are even camps to learn how to be a clown. But why should kids have all the fun? Faith Lapidus reports. ANNCR: Many Americans have happy memories of going away to camp as kids. Singing by the campfire, swimming by moonlight. Well, grown-ups can relive those times. In Oregon, for example, adults can spend a week at a snowboarding camp at the base of Mount Hood. The mountain has snow all year. Snowboarding is a mix between skiing and skateboarding. At the High Cascades Snowboarding Camp, the campers spend most of the day on the mountain with coaches to teach them. In the afternoon, they return to camp for other activities. Some ride bicycles, others swim or play volleyball. The adults share cabins and meals just like kids at camp do. Environmental organizations also have summer camps for grown-ups. The Audubon Society, for example, operates ecology camps in several states. In Hog Island, Maine, adults can learn all about birds during five days along the coast. But, for some adults, the best camps are the ones where they can be with their kids. For instance, there are Parent/Child Space Camp programs in Alabama, California and Florida. These weekend programs are for children ages seven to eleven. Parents and kids learn about the history of space flight. They build small rockets together. And they use equipment that makes them feel like astronauts in space. This includes a gravity trainer, to learn what it feels like to walk on the moon. Leonard Bernstein (MUSIC) HOST: This is called "Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers." It was written by one of America’s greatest musicians. Leonard Bernstein died in nineteen-ninety in New York. One of our listeners in South Korea, Lim Chae Hun, would like to know more about him. Leonard Bernstein composed many classical pieces, like the one you just heard. But he also wrote popular music for the theater. In fact, one of his shows is on Broadway again right now. Here is a song from the current production of “Wonderful Town.” Donna Murphy and Jennifer Westfeldt sing “Ohio.” (MUSIC) Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in nineteen-eighteen. He began playing piano as a boy. His talent was clear from the start. Yet, he became so famous as an orchestra leader, it is easy to forget what a great pianist he was. Here is Leonard Bernstein with Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. (MUSIC) In nineteen-forty-three, Leonard Bernstein began to conduct the New York Philharmonic. In nineteen-fifty-eight, he became the first American to serve as its musical director. Leonard Bernstein was known for his hard work. He taught other musicians in summer programs at the Tanglewood music center in Massachusetts. But he also learned from others. These included his friend, the composer Aaron Copland. We leave you with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic performing Copland's “Fanfare for the Common Man.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Summer camps for adults, and a question about the musical life of Leonard Bernstein. But first, we have the story of a man who went on a diet no one should copy. Super Size Me (MUSIC) HOST: What would it be like to eat fast food for every meal? A young filmmaker decided to find out. His new movie is called “Super Size Me.” Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Health experts are concerned that two out of three American adults are overweight. There has been an increase in diseases linked to obesity. Many Americans eat foods that have too much fat and sugar. And they do not exercise enough. Reports say that at least twenty-five percent of American adults eat fast food every day. And McDonald’s is the largest fast food company in the world. So filmmaker Morgan Spurlock wanted to find out the effects of eating nothing but fast food at McDonald’s three times a day for a month. He followed three rules. He could only eat what was sold at McDonald’s. He had to eat every food at least once. And he would order the largest size French fries and soft drink only if the server offered. McDonald’s called these foods “supersize.” That is why Mister Spurlock named the movie “Super Size Me.” Three doctors and a nutrition expert examined Mister Spurlock before, during and after his eating experiment. They did many tests of his blood and the workings of his major organs. At the beginning, he was in excellent physical condition. He traveled to several American cities and many McDonald’s restaurants. He ate Egg McMuffins, Big Mac hamburger sandwiches, Chicken McNuggets, French fries, soft drinks and other foods every day. And he did not exercise. The doctors became very concerned about Mister Spurlock’s health. At the end of the month, he had gained more than eleven kilograms. His blood pressure increased. The cholesterol in his blood was too high. And his liver was damaged from eating too many fatty foods. Mister Spurlock’s film also appears to have had an effect on McDonald’s. The movie won an award for directing at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Less than two months later, McDonald’s said it would stop selling supersize meals. Recently, it started selling special Happy Meals for adults. These include a salad, bottled water and a pedometer for measuring how far a person walks. McDonald’s also issued a statement about “Super Size Me.” It said the movie is about one person’s decision to act irresponsibly by eating too many calories a day and limiting physical activity. It said McDonald’s offers many kinds of high-quality food choices. It also said McDonald’s is working with experts on nutrition and fitness. Summer Camps HOST: The summer camp season opens in the middle of June for most of the United States. Many children will spend the coming weeks at traditional camps by lakes in the mountains. But there are camps for all interests: horseback riding, rock climbing, art, and science, to name a few. There are even camps to learn how to be a clown. But why should kids have all the fun? Faith Lapidus reports. ANNCR: Many Americans have happy memories of going away to camp as kids. Singing by the campfire, swimming by moonlight. Well, grown-ups can relive those times. In Oregon, for example, adults can spend a week at a snowboarding camp at the base of Mount Hood. The mountain has snow all year. Snowboarding is a mix between skiing and skateboarding. At the High Cascades Snowboarding Camp, the campers spend most of the day on the mountain with coaches to teach them. In the afternoon, they return to camp for other activities. Some ride bicycles, others swim or play volleyball. The adults share cabins and meals just like kids at camp do. Environmental organizations also have summer camps for grown-ups. The Audubon Society, for example, operates ecology camps in several states. In Hog Island, Maine, adults can learn all about birds during five days along the coast. But, for some adults, the best camps are the ones where they can be with their kids. For instance, there are Parent/Child Space Camp programs in Alabama, California and Florida. These weekend programs are for children ages seven to eleven. Parents and kids learn about the history of space flight. They build small rockets together. And they use equipment that makes them feel like astronauts in space. This includes a gravity trainer, to learn what it feels like to walk on the moon. Leonard Bernstein (MUSIC) HOST: This is called "Mass: A Theater Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers." It was written by one of America’s greatest musicians. Leonard Bernstein died in nineteen-ninety in New York. One of our listeners in South Korea, Lim Chae Hun, would like to know more about him. Leonard Bernstein composed many classical pieces, like the one you just heard. But he also wrote popular music for the theater. In fact, one of his shows is on Broadway again right now. Here is a song from the current production of “Wonderful Town.” Donna Murphy and Jennifer Westfeldt sing “Ohio.” (MUSIC) Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in nineteen-eighteen. He began playing piano as a boy. His talent was clear from the start. Yet, he became so famous as an orchestra leader, it is easy to forget what a great pianist he was. Here is Leonard Bernstein with Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. (MUSIC) In nineteen-forty-three, Leonard Bernstein began to conduct the New York Philharmonic. In nineteen-fifty-eight, he became the first American to serve as its musical director. Leonard Bernstein was known for his hard work. He taught other musicians in summer programs at the Tanglewood music center in Massachusetts. But he also learned from others. These included his friend, the composer Aaron Copland. We leave you with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic performing Copland's “Fanfare for the Common Man.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Tom Verba. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Jobs and the U.S. Economy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 11, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Labor Department says the United States economy created two-hundred-forty-eight-thousand jobs in May. The department says almost one million jobs have been added in the last three months. Even so, the unemployment rate in May was the same as April: five-point-six percent. News reports said this was because, while there were more jobs, there were also more job seekers in the market. The jobs report last Friday added to signs that the economy is improving. The Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Commerce Department says the economy has grown since the last three months of two-thousand-one. But, until September of last year, the number of people with jobs had been shrinking. That situation led to concerns that the United States was in a jobless recovery. Now, President Bush says the economy is strong and getting stronger. His administration gives credit for the new growth to its personal tax cuts. The reasoning is that people who pay less in taxes put the savings into investments and goods. But Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says the United States is in a "wage recession." Senator Kerry's campaign released a statement about the jobs report. The statement said "America is still in the worst job recovery since the Great Depression." It said those who do find a job are earning less, while having to pay more for health care, college and gasoline. Before last September, about two-million-six-hundred-thousand more jobs had been lost than were created since Mister Bush took office. Recent job gains have cut that number by more than half. If the current rate continues, the deficit in jobs could disappear by the election in November. For more than seventy years, no American president has had more jobs lost than gained during his presidency. Measures of public opinion show that not all Americans are sure yet about the economic recovery. The Consumer Sentiment Index by the University of Michigan was reported down four percent in May. Some economists say worries about inflation and the possibility of higher interest rates may be influencing how people feel. The University of Michigan was supposed to release its early report for June on Friday. But it delayed the release because of the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Ronald Reagan’s Political Legacy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 12, 2004 This is In the News in VOA Special English. As America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan promised the nation a hopeful future. This made him very popular. So did his warm ways with people. Mister Reagan was laid to rest Friday with a national funeral service in Washington. His body was then flown for burial in California, where he died last Saturday at the age of ninety-three. Ronald Reagan was president from nineteen-eighty-one to nineteen-eighty-nine. This week's Economist magazine calls him "the man who beat Communism." He worked hard for the defeat of the Soviet Union which finally happened in nineteen-ninety-one. Political experts say his policies also made the United States more conservative for years to come. Ronald Reagan said government cannot solve problems. He said government was the problem. The former Democrat changed the Republican Party. He was the first Republican candidate for president in years to win the support of many labor union members. Religious conservatives also liked his positions on social issues. Today Republicans control both the White House and Congress. Some in Congress now were first elected in the nineteen-eighties. During his first term, Mister Reagan got Congress to reduce taxes in an effort to improve the economy. He said letting people keep more of what they earned would increase growth. But he also set records for defense spending. Budget deficits grew. Other programs were reduced. Critics say his administration hurt the poor through cuts in social programs. His position on defense was also criticized. He called the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” But many historians say his policies helped end the years of tension known as the Cold War. They say his military spending forced the Soviets to also spend more, until they had no more to spend. To try to prevent war, Mister Reagan met five times with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. They agreed to reductions in nuclear missiles. Mister Reagan's foreign policy also supported anti-Communist forces. Experts say this helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. But several officials in his administration got into legal trouble for giving money secretly to rebels in Nicaragua. This went against the wishes of Congress. The money came from secret sales of weapons to Iran. President Reagan had approved the sales as part of an effort to win the release of some American hostages in Lebanon. But he said he did not know the money went to Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras. George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton followed Mister Reagan in office. Both also followed his example of using military force when they thought it was needed, as has the current President Bush. For more about Ronald Reagan's life, listen on Sunday at this hour for PEOPLE IN AMERICA, in VOA Special English. In the News was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Ronald Reagan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 13, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 13, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. On Friday, the United States buried its fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. We tell about the life of the former actor and politician today on the VOA Special English program, People in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say Ronald Reagan re-defined the American presidency during his two terms in the nineteen-eighties. He became president when he was sixty-nine years old. It was a far different place from that of his birth on February sixth, nineteen-eleven. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. His mother Nelle, father Jack, and brother Neil lived above a bank in the town. Ronald Reagan’s family began calling the baby “Dutch.” The nickname remained for the rest of his life. Jack Reagan worked at a general store. The family was poor. Yet, in a book about his life, Ronald Reagan wrote that he never felt poor. He was good at sports, especially football. During the summers, he was a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. He reportedly rescued many people from drowning. Ronald Reagan said there was a feeling of security throughout his childhood. But it was not perfect. His father was dependent on alcohol. VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan studied at Eureka College in Illinois. After seeing a play at college, he said, “More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor’s words.” But Ronald Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to become an actor. So, after college he found a job as a sports broadcaster for a radio station in Iowa. Later he moved to a bigger radio station in Chicago, Illinois. He announced the action of baseball games. This work took him on a trip to California. He took a screen test to become an actor. Warner Brothers Studios offered him a job. Ronald Reagan moved to Hollywood and became a movie star. He appeared in many movies. “Knute Rockne – All American,” is probably his most famous. It is where he got the nickname “The Gipper.” Mister Reagan played George Gipp, one of the greatest college football players ever. In the movie, he speaks of the school’s football team as he is dying. (SOUND) “...ask them to go in there with all they got, win just one for the Gipper.” VOICE ONE: Those words, “win one for the Gipper,” later became a political battle cry for Ronald Reagan. In nineteen-forty, he married actress Jane Wyman. They had two children, Maureen and Michael. But the marriage ended in nineteen-forty-nine. Ronald Reagan became president of the main labor group for movie actors in nineteen-forty-eight. He served six terms. He met actress Nancy Davis through the union. They married in nineteen-fifty-two. They later had two children, Patti and Ron. At this time, Ronald Reagan was a member of the Democratic party who described himself as a liberal. But, he became increasingly conservative as his worries about communism grew. He opposed anyone in the movie industry who supported communism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-fifties, Ronald Reagan began to appear on television. He presented dramatic shows produced by the General Electric company. He became a spokesman for the company. Mister Reagan learned a lot about public speaking. He began to campaign for Republican party political candidates a few years later. Reagan developed the ability to reach people through his speeches. He later became known as “The Great Communicator.” Nancy Reagan supported her husband’s political interests. Political experts say she was always his most important advisor. In nineteen-sixty-six, Ronald Reagan announced his own candidacy for governor of California. Democrats in the state did not think he was a serious candidate. However, Mister Reagan was elected governor by almost one-million votes. Ronald Reagan received mixed public opinion as governor of the nation’s most populated state. He was praised for lowering California’s debt, yet criticized for raising taxes. Voters re-elected him as governor in nineteen-seventy. VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was unsuccessful in his first two attempts to win the Republican nomination for president. Then, in nineteen-eighty, he became the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. His opponent was President Jimmy Carter. The two men debated on national television. Ronald Reagan spoke directly and simply to the American people and asked them some questions: (SOUND) “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago?” VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan won the United States presidential election by a huge majority. He and his vice-president, George Herbert Walker Bush, were sworn into office in January, nineteen-eighty-one. Many people called the change in political power “The Reagan Revolution.” President Reagan immediately began to work to honor a major campaign promise. He called on Congress to lower taxes. But only two months later, tragedy struck. A mentally sick man shot the president and three other people outside a hotel in Washington. President Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady, were severely wounded. Mister Reagan had a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart. But, he showed his sense of humor at the hospital. As the president was taken into the operating room he said he hoped all the doctors were Republicans. Ronald Reagan recovered from the shooting and returned to work within two weeks. VOICE ONE: The President now began work on his main goal to reduce the size of the federal government. He had campaigned on the idea that the government was too costly and interfered too much in the lives of Americans. Mister Reagan and Congress reduced taxes and cut spending for social programs. The administration argued that these actions would create economic growth. Extremely high inflation rates did begin to fall. But, the United States’ debt rose sharply. This was partly from big increases in military spending. The Reagan economic policy became known as “Reaganomics.” It had, and still has, supporters and opponents. Some people argued that the cuts in social programs greatly hurt poor people. Others said the policy improved the economy. President Reagan sought re-election in nineteen-eighty-four. His Democratic opponent was former Vice-President Walter Mondale. Again Mister Reagan won the election by a large amount. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Reagan dealt with many serious foreign issues while in office. He sent American Marines to Lebanon to stop the fighting among several opposing groups. But more than two-hundred Marines were killed in an extremist bomb attack. The so-called “Reagan Doctrine” was the administration’s most famous foreign policy. That policy was to support anti-communist forces anywhere in the world. Under the policy, American forces invaded the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. The policy also led to secret United States support for rebels in Nicaragua. President Reagan met with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev several times in an effort to reduce nuclear weapons. He gave a famous speech at the Berlin Wall that divided Soviet-controlled East Germany from West Germany on June twelfth, nineteen-eighty-seven. (SOUND) “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mister Gorbachev, open this gate! Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” VOICE ONE: Some historians say Ronald Reagan helped cause the fall of the Soviet Union. They say his military spending forced the Soviets to spend more, too. They say this led to the Communist nation’s economic failure. President Reagan enjoyed very high public approval ratings throughout his presidency. Many Americans considered him a friendly leader, a “man of the people,” filled with hope for America. VOICE TWO: Ronald and Nancy Reagan returned to California after his second term ended in nineteen-eighty-nine. In nineteen-ninety-four, Mister Reagan wrote an open letter to the American people. He informed them that he had the brain disease Alzheimer’s. The former president expressed his love for the country and thanked Americans for letting him serve. And, he wrote, “I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.” Ronald Reagan died at his home in California on June fifth. He was ninety-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. Mario Ritter was the producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. On Friday, the United States buried its fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. We tell about the life of the former actor and politician today on the VOA Special English program, People in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Experts say Ronald Reagan re-defined the American presidency during his two terms in the nineteen-eighties. He became president when he was sixty-nine years old. It was a far different place from that of his birth on February sixth, nineteen-eleven. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. His mother Nelle, father Jack, and brother Neil lived above a bank in the town. Ronald Reagan’s family began calling the baby “Dutch.” The nickname remained for the rest of his life. Jack Reagan worked at a general store. The family was poor. Yet, in a book about his life, Ronald Reagan wrote that he never felt poor. He was good at sports, especially football. During the summers, he was a lifeguard at a local swimming pool. He reportedly rescued many people from drowning. Ronald Reagan said there was a feeling of security throughout his childhood. But it was not perfect. His father was dependent on alcohol. VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan studied at Eureka College in Illinois. After seeing a play at college, he said, “More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor’s words.” But Ronald Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to become an actor. So, after college he found a job as a sports broadcaster for a radio station in Iowa. Later he moved to a bigger radio station in Chicago, Illinois. He announced the action of baseball games. This work took him on a trip to California. He took a screen test to become an actor. Warner Brothers Studios offered him a job. Ronald Reagan moved to Hollywood and became a movie star. He appeared in many movies. “Knute Rockne – All American,” is probably his most famous. It is where he got the nickname “The Gipper.” Mister Reagan played George Gipp, one of the greatest college football players ever. In the movie, he speaks of the school’s football team as he is dying. (SOUND) “...ask them to go in there with all they got, win just one for the Gipper.” VOICE ONE: Those words, “win one for the Gipper,” later became a political battle cry for Ronald Reagan. In nineteen-forty, he married actress Jane Wyman. They had two children, Maureen and Michael. But the marriage ended in nineteen-forty-nine. Ronald Reagan became president of the main labor group for movie actors in nineteen-forty-eight. He served six terms. He met actress Nancy Davis through the union. They married in nineteen-fifty-two. They later had two children, Patti and Ron. At this time, Ronald Reagan was a member of the Democratic party who described himself as a liberal. But, he became increasingly conservative as his worries about communism grew. He opposed anyone in the movie industry who supported communism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-fifties, Ronald Reagan began to appear on television. He presented dramatic shows produced by the General Electric company. He became a spokesman for the company. Mister Reagan learned a lot about public speaking. He began to campaign for Republican party political candidates a few years later. Reagan developed the ability to reach people through his speeches. He later became known as “The Great Communicator.” Nancy Reagan supported her husband’s political interests. Political experts say she was always his most important advisor. In nineteen-sixty-six, Ronald Reagan announced his own candidacy for governor of California. Democrats in the state did not think he was a serious candidate. However, Mister Reagan was elected governor by almost one-million votes. Ronald Reagan received mixed public opinion as governor of the nation’s most populated state. He was praised for lowering California’s debt, yet criticized for raising taxes. Voters re-elected him as governor in nineteen-seventy. VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was unsuccessful in his first two attempts to win the Republican nomination for president. Then, in nineteen-eighty, he became the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. His opponent was President Jimmy Carter. The two men debated on national television. Ronald Reagan spoke directly and simply to the American people and asked them some questions: (SOUND) “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago?” VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan won the United States presidential election by a huge majority. He and his vice-president, George Herbert Walker Bush, were sworn into office in January, nineteen-eighty-one. Many people called the change in political power “The Reagan Revolution.” President Reagan immediately began to work to honor a major campaign promise. He called on Congress to lower taxes. But only two months later, tragedy struck. A mentally sick man shot the president and three other people outside a hotel in Washington. President Reagan and his press secretary, James Brady, were severely wounded. Mister Reagan had a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart. But, he showed his sense of humor at the hospital. As the president was taken into the operating room he said he hoped all the doctors were Republicans. Ronald Reagan recovered from the shooting and returned to work within two weeks. VOICE ONE: The President now began work on his main goal to reduce the size of the federal government. He had campaigned on the idea that the government was too costly and interfered too much in the lives of Americans. Mister Reagan and Congress reduced taxes and cut spending for social programs. The administration argued that these actions would create economic growth. Extremely high inflation rates did begin to fall. But, the United States’ debt rose sharply. This was partly from big increases in military spending. The Reagan economic policy became known as “Reaganomics.” It had, and still has, supporters and opponents. Some people argued that the cuts in social programs greatly hurt poor people. Others said the policy improved the economy. President Reagan sought re-election in nineteen-eighty-four. His Democratic opponent was former Vice-President Walter Mondale. Again Mister Reagan won the election by a large amount. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Reagan dealt with many serious foreign issues while in office. He sent American Marines to Lebanon to stop the fighting among several opposing groups. But more than two-hundred Marines were killed in an extremist bomb attack. The so-called “Reagan Doctrine” was the administration’s most famous foreign policy. That policy was to support anti-communist forces anywhere in the world. Under the policy, American forces invaded the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. The policy also led to secret United States support for rebels in Nicaragua. President Reagan met with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev several times in an effort to reduce nuclear weapons. He gave a famous speech at the Berlin Wall that divided Soviet-controlled East Germany from West Germany on June twelfth, nineteen-eighty-seven. (SOUND) “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mister Gorbachev, open this gate! Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” VOICE ONE: Some historians say Ronald Reagan helped cause the fall of the Soviet Union. They say his military spending forced the Soviets to spend more, too. They say this led to the Communist nation’s economic failure. President Reagan enjoyed very high public approval ratings throughout his presidency. Many Americans considered him a friendly leader, a “man of the people,” filled with hope for America. VOICE TWO: Ronald and Nancy Reagan returned to California after his second term ended in nineteen-eighty-nine. In nineteen-ninety-four, Mister Reagan wrote an open letter to the American people. He informed them that he had the brain disease Alzheimer’s. The former president expressed his love for the country and thanked Americans for letting him serve. And, he wrote, “I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.” Ronald Reagan died at his home in California on June fifth. He was ninety-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. Mario Ritter was the producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Mental Health in Developing Nations
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 14, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A study has found that most people with severe mental health problems go untreated in developing countries. The World Health Organization says between seventy-five and eighty-five percent had no treatment within the past year. In developed nations, between thirty-five and fifty percent went untreated. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. Ronald Kessler of Harvard University and Bedirhan Ustun of the W.H.O. led the study. They examined the results of questions asked of more than sixty-thousand adults in fourteen countries. The most developed nations were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. The less developed ones were Columbia, China, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria and Ukraine. Researchers gathered the information between two-thousand-one and two-thousand-three. They asked the same questions in every interview. They wanted to estimate how many people have mental disorders, and what kind. They also wanted to learn what treatment, if any, the people had received within the past year. The problems considered included nervous anxiety and uncontrolled anger. Others were such things as eating disorders and disorders related to the use of alcohol and illegal drugs. The percentage of people who said they had a mental disorder differed greatly from country to country. The researchers found that for most countries the rate was between nine and twenty percent. The United States had the highest, at twenty-six percent of those questioned. The Chinese city of Shanghai had the lowest, at four percent. The researchers say they believe this difference shows how mental health is seen differently around the world. They say people in many non-Western countries are often less likely to admit they have problems. In almost every country, the more severe a problem was, the more likely it was to be treated. Still, the researchers say many people with minor mental health problems are treated, while many with serious disorders are not. They say this is not simply a problem of limited treatment resources. It also shows that resources are not being used well. The researchers call for new efforts at early intervention. They say early treatment of minor disorders could prevent many serious cases later. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Glen Echo Park
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 14, 2004 (MUSIC) Glen Echo Park Carousel (Image: www.nps.gov) Broadcast: June 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we take you to Glen Echo Park near Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Glen Echo Park has less than four hectares of land but much history. In fact, more than one-hundred years ago, some people came here to learn about history. Others came to learn about the stars in the sky. People also came to paint and make crafts, to sing and dance, and to hear music. Some came just to sit and think in the beauty of the land by the Potomac River. Over the years, a lot changed. But a lot also changed back. VOICE TWO: Visitors keep Glen Echo a busy place. Just this month, there were thousands of people at a folk festival at the park. There are classes in hundreds of subjects. There are shows for children at the Adventure Theatre and the Puppet Company. Glen Echo Park is also home to the only merry-go-round owned by the United States government. One of the most historic places to visit is the home of Clara Barton. She established the American Red Cross in eighteen-eighty-one. Clara Barton lived the last fifteen years of her life in a big house at Glen Echo. VOICE ONE: Glen Echo was an education center when it opened in eighteen-ninety-one. It was part of the Chautauqua movement started by two men. Lewis Miller was a businessman in Ohio. John Vincent was a Protestant clergyman. They set out to help common people become more educated. They also wanted to give them a chance to enjoy nature the way that wealthier Americans could. Their work was part of a larger movement at that time toward religious faith among Americans. The Chautauqua movement began as a summer education program. It started in New York State in eighteen-seventy-four at a camp along Chautauqua Lake. Religious Sunday school teachers were the first to attend. But the idea spread. VOICE TWO: Two brothers in Maryland helped bring the movement to their state. They gave thirty-two hectares of land to an organization called the National Chautauqua of Glen Echo. Edwin and Edward Baltzley wanted to help people learn what they needed to know to act as members of society. A local history published at glenecho.org notes that the Baltzleys had other ideas for their land at first. The brothers hoped that people would build stone castles. They imagined it like Europe. But there was talk of a malaria danger. So buyers lost interest. VOICE ONE: Many people attended the first season of the Glen Echo Chautauqua. They studied different subjects, from rocks to foreign languages to something called “The Care and Development of Physical Powers.” One of the directors of the program was John Wesley Powell. He had explored the Colorado River and the American West. But then a teacher at the park developed a lung infection. He died of pneumonia. Somehow a story spread around Washington that he died of malaria. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. People became afraid to go to the park. The official Chautauqua closed in the summer of eighteen-ninety-two, a year after it opened. For the next five years, traveling shows entertained at the park. Then the Baltzley brothers let a small amusement park operate on part of the land. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-eleven the Washington Railway and Electric Company bought the land. The new owners continued to offer shows and rides at the park. The company had started an electric railway system in Washington. Many local citizens liked riding the trolley, especially in the summer. Traveling in the open air at sixteen kilometers an hour cooled people in the Washington heat. And Glen Echo served as an interesting stop. By nineteen-thirty-one, the park had a place where people could pay to dance. Two years later, there was a room with a huge dance floor: the Spanish Ballroom. People still dance there. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Before long, Glen Echo Park added other activities. There was a roller coaster ride. And the Crystal Pool could hold up to three-thousand swimmers. In nineteen-fifty-five, the park was sold to a new owner. People kept coming. But not everyone could enjoy the Glen Echo Amusement Park. African Americans were not welcome. In the summer of nineteen-sixty, the civil rights movement in America was gaining strength. Blacks and whites protested outside the park. The demonstrators won. The next year, the park accepted black people. Bigger changes were also taking place, though. Theme parks were opening around the United States. Families could now go to places like Disneyland in California. The little park near the Potomac River in Maryland no longer seemed so exciting. There was even a riot. It began on a day when the Glen Echo Amusement Park closed early. Young people from Washington could not get buses home. They became violent. This happened in nineteen-sixty-six. Two years later, the park closed permanently. Many rides were sold or destroyed. The much-loved heart of the park was a merry-go-round. This carousel too was sold. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-seventy the federal government bought the Glen Echo land. The government wanted to limit development near the Potomac River. People who lived nearby wanted to keep the carousel on the property. In just four weeks they raised enough money to buy it back from its new owner. They also raised money for the Wurlitzer organ that gave the carousel its music. Then they gave the carousel and the organ to the National Park Service, under an agreement to keep them in the park for public use. In the nineteen-eighties, an artist began work to return the merry-go-round to its former condition. Carousel riders and other people gave money for the repairs. Full restoration of the Dentzel Carousel was completed about a year ago. VOICE ONE: The animals are beautifully carved. There are forty horses, along with four rabbits and four ostriches. Riders also have the choice of a giraffe, a deer, a lion and a tiger. And there two circus chariots that people can ride in. One-thousand lights shine from the carousel. It looks very inviting, and not just to children. Now, suppose we take a ride. As we go around, we hear the music of the Wurlitzer. Only ten carousel organs like this one are known to exist in the world. Some of the instruments we hear are unusual, like the glockenspiel and flageolet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another popular part of Glen Echo is the Adventure Theatre. In July and August, the theater will perform “The Adventures of Paddington Bear.” There are also acting classes. The teachers say that here, "stories become plays and people become actors." But not all the actors at Glen Echo are people. Over at the Puppet Company Playhouse, through July eighteenth, is "The Wizard of Oz." Recently the Puppet Company began performing its plays in a new theater. Puppeteers Christopher Piper, MayField Piper and Allan Stevens present fairy tales and other children’s stories. The puppets are operated by hand or by strings. There is even a life-size lion. The puppeteers create the puppets, write the words of the stories, and make costumes. They do almost everything themselves. Their non-profit company has been entertaining children at Glen Echo Park for more than twenty years. Children sit on the floor and watch. Parents can sit on benches. Some people who came as children now bring their own children. VOICE ONE: Anne Finnegan McGrath of Pennsylvania grew up in Washington. As a child, she rode the carousel and swam in the Crystal Pool. As a young mother, she took her kids to the Adventure Theatre. Now, as a senior citizen, she has performed Irish dancing at folk festivals at Glen Echo. She says the park fills her with happy memories. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we take you to Glen Echo Park near Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Glen Echo Park has less than four hectares of land but much history. In fact, more than one-hundred years ago, some people came here to learn about history. Others came to learn about the stars in the sky. People also came to paint and make crafts, to sing and dance, and to hear music. Some came just to sit and think in the beauty of the land by the Potomac River. Over the years, a lot changed. But a lot also changed back. VOICE TWO: Visitors keep Glen Echo a busy place. Just this month, there were thousands of people at a folk festival at the park. There are classes in hundreds of subjects. There are shows for children at the Adventure Theatre and the Puppet Company. Glen Echo Park is also home to the only merry-go-round owned by the United States government. One of the most historic places to visit is the home of Clara Barton. She established the American Red Cross in eighteen-eighty-one. Clara Barton lived the last fifteen years of her life in a big house at Glen Echo. VOICE ONE: Glen Echo was an education center when it opened in eighteen-ninety-one. It was part of the Chautauqua movement started by two men. Lewis Miller was a businessman in Ohio. John Vincent was a Protestant clergyman. They set out to help common people become more educated. They also wanted to give them a chance to enjoy nature the way that wealthier Americans could. Their work was part of a larger movement at that time toward religious faith among Americans. The Chautauqua movement began as a summer education program. It started in New York State in eighteen-seventy-four at a camp along Chautauqua Lake. Religious Sunday school teachers were the first to attend. But the idea spread. VOICE TWO: Two brothers in Maryland helped bring the movement to their state. They gave thirty-two hectares of land to an organization called the National Chautauqua of Glen Echo. Edwin and Edward Baltzley wanted to help people learn what they needed to know to act as members of society. A local history published at glenecho.org notes that the Baltzleys had other ideas for their land at first. The brothers hoped that people would build stone castles. They imagined it like Europe. But there was talk of a malaria danger. So buyers lost interest. VOICE ONE: Many people attended the first season of the Glen Echo Chautauqua. They studied different subjects, from rocks to foreign languages to something called “The Care and Development of Physical Powers.” One of the directors of the program was John Wesley Powell. He had explored the Colorado River and the American West. But then a teacher at the park developed a lung infection. He died of pneumonia. Somehow a story spread around Washington that he died of malaria. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. People became afraid to go to the park. The official Chautauqua closed in the summer of eighteen-ninety-two, a year after it opened. For the next five years, traveling shows entertained at the park. Then the Baltzley brothers let a small amusement park operate on part of the land. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-eleven the Washington Railway and Electric Company bought the land. The new owners continued to offer shows and rides at the park. The company had started an electric railway system in Washington. Many local citizens liked riding the trolley, especially in the summer. Traveling in the open air at sixteen kilometers an hour cooled people in the Washington heat. And Glen Echo served as an interesting stop. By nineteen-thirty-one, the park had a place where people could pay to dance. Two years later, there was a room with a huge dance floor: the Spanish Ballroom. People still dance there. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Before long, Glen Echo Park added other activities. There was a roller coaster ride. And the Crystal Pool could hold up to three-thousand swimmers. In nineteen-fifty-five, the park was sold to a new owner. People kept coming. But not everyone could enjoy the Glen Echo Amusement Park. African Americans were not welcome. In the summer of nineteen-sixty, the civil rights movement in America was gaining strength. Blacks and whites protested outside the park. The demonstrators won. The next year, the park accepted black people. Bigger changes were also taking place, though. Theme parks were opening around the United States. Families could now go to places like Disneyland in California. The little park near the Potomac River in Maryland no longer seemed so exciting. There was even a riot. It began on a day when the Glen Echo Amusement Park closed early. Young people from Washington could not get buses home. They became violent. This happened in nineteen-sixty-six. Two years later, the park closed permanently. Many rides were sold or destroyed. The much-loved heart of the park was a merry-go-round. This carousel too was sold. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-seventy the federal government bought the Glen Echo land. The government wanted to limit development near the Potomac River. People who lived nearby wanted to keep the carousel on the property. In just four weeks they raised enough money to buy it back from its new owner. They also raised money for the Wurlitzer organ that gave the carousel its music. Then they gave the carousel and the organ to the National Park Service, under an agreement to keep them in the park for public use. In the nineteen-eighties, an artist began work to return the merry-go-round to its former condition. Carousel riders and other people gave money for the repairs. Full restoration of the Dentzel Carousel was completed about a year ago. VOICE ONE: The animals are beautifully carved. There are forty horses, along with four rabbits and four ostriches. Riders also have the choice of a giraffe, a deer, a lion and a tiger. And there two circus chariots that people can ride in. One-thousand lights shine from the carousel. It looks very inviting, and not just to children. Now, suppose we take a ride. As we go around, we hear the music of the Wurlitzer. Only ten carousel organs like this one are known to exist in the world. Some of the instruments we hear are unusual, like the glockenspiel and flageolet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another popular part of Glen Echo is the Adventure Theatre. In July and August, the theater will perform “The Adventures of Paddington Bear.” There are also acting classes. The teachers say that here, "stories become plays and people become actors." But not all the actors at Glen Echo are people. Over at the Puppet Company Playhouse, through July eighteenth, is "The Wizard of Oz." Recently the Puppet Company began performing its plays in a new theater. Puppeteers Christopher Piper, MayField Piper and Allan Stevens present fairy tales and other children’s stories. The puppets are operated by hand or by strings. There is even a life-size lion. The puppeteers create the puppets, write the words of the stories, and make costumes. They do almost everything themselves. Their non-profit company has been entertaining children at Glen Echo Park for more than twenty years. Children sit on the floor and watch. Parents can sit on benches. Some people who came as children now bring their own children. VOICE ONE: Anne Finnegan McGrath of Pennsylvania grew up in Washington. As a child, she rode the carousel and swam in the Crystal Pool. As a young mother, she took her kids to the Adventure Theatre. Now, as a senior citizen, she has performed Irish dancing at folk festivals at Glen Echo. She says the park fills her with happy memories. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Alzheimer's Disease
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 15, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. In November of nineteen-ninety-four, Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to the American people. The former president shared the news that he had Alzheimer's disease. He began what he called his journey into the sunset of his life. That ten-year journey ended on June fifth, at the age of ninety-three. VOICE ONE: Today we have a special program about Alzheimer's disease, as seen through the life of a woman named Irene. We first told you about Irene several years ago. Yet the story of her struggle remains timely. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Irene lives near Rochester, New York. She is her late eighties, but she is not always sure about her age. Sometimes she says she is twenty-seven. At other times she says she is ninety-seven. Often Irene cannot remember names of people she has known for many years. Also, she struggles to find words to say what she wants to say. And sometimes she forgets what she was talking about. She is no longer permitted to drive a car. She almost had a terrible accident one day. She turned at a place where she should not have turned. Her husband Dick told her she should not drive because it was too dangerous. This made some parts of Irene’s life difficult. She had to depend on others to drive her to the many community activities that she had always been involved in. Irene used to live a very full life. But then came new restrictions on her abilities, restrictions that seemed to increase almost daily. Today she lives in a nursing home where she receives care. VOICE ONE: Several years ago, Irene discovered that she had Alzheimer’s disease. She is among more than four-million Americans suffering from the disease. As the population of the United States grows older, many millions more are expected to have the disease in years to come. Doctors describe Alzheimer’s disease as a slowly increasing brain disorder. It affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Victims of the disease slowly lose their ability to deal with everyday life. At first they forget simple things, like where they put something, or a person’s name. As time passes they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husband, wife, or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally they remember nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the rest of their body dies. Victims of Alzheimer’s do die from the disease, but not always right away. VOICE TWO: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of a disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead dementia is a group of signs of certain conditions and diseases. Some forms of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they are caused by drugs, alcohol, infection, sight or hearing problems, heart or lung problems, or head injury. Other forms of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones or vitamins in the body. However, in victims of Alzheimer’s disease, brain cells die and are not replaced. As the ability to remember and think decreases, victims can become angry and violent. Often they shout and move about with no purpose or goal. Media reports often tell about older people found walking in places far from their homes, not knowing where they are, or where they came from. Generally these people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Although Alzheimer’s disease develops differently in each person, there are early signs of the disease that are common. Often, victims of the disease may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them. Probably the most common early sign of Alzheimer’s disease is short-term memory loss. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking processes become more difficult. For example, they find themselves unable to understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or do simple tasks. Another sign of Alzheimer’s is difficulty in solving easy problems, such as what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble trying to follow directions or find the way to nearby places. Another sign is victims struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer’s seem to change. Quiet people may become noisier and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others. VOICE TWO: Alzheimer’s is considered an old people’s disease. It normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. However, a few rare cases have been discovered in people younger than forty. The average age of those found to have the disease is about eighty years old. Alzheimer’s disease is found in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By age ninety, half of all people are found to have signs of the disease. Alzheimer’s affects people of all races equally. However, women are more likely than men to develop the disease. This is partly because women generally live longer than men. There is no simple test to tell if someone has Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors who suspect a person has the disease must test a patient for many other disabilities first. If the tests fail to show that other disabilities are responsible for the problems, then a doctor suspects that Alzheimer’s disease is responsible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In his book “The Notebook,” Nicholas Sparks calls Alzheimer’s disease “a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories.” British writer Iris Murdoch, who died of Alzheimer’s disease, said it was a dark and terrible place. Irene, also a writer, refused to surrender to that opinion. Instead, she began writing a book about her experience. She also wrote a short letter giving advice to those suffering from Alzheimer’s. She wrote that she lives with the disease "hopefully." She wrote: “We know that negative emotions can be harmful to health, and a strong will to live may well strengthen the body’s defense system. So, it seems wise to not spend time looking into the future, but to get the most from each day as it comes.” At the end of her letter, Irene wrote about care givers. She said she greatly honors those who take care of Alzheimer’s patients, because that job is so very hard. And that is one of the most tragic things about Alzheimer’s disease – care for the patient becomes more and more difficult. Often the caregiver’s help is rejected, as Alzheimer’s victims grow more and more distant and more difficult to control. And often, the caregiver is a family member. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ronald Reagan was probably the most famous person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In his letter in nineteen-ninety-four, America's fortieth president wrote about the fears and difficulties presented by Alzheimer’s. He said that he and his wife, Nancy, hoped that their public announcement would lead to greater understanding of the condition among individuals and families affected by it. Mister Reagan shared something in common with Irene. In their letters, they each expressed hope, a desire to continue their lives as they had in the past, and concern for those who must care for them. VOICE ONE: Researchers are not sure what causes Alzheimer's disease. But they are working to find ways to treat the disease, and to cure or prevent it. There have been some hopeful developments in recent years. Still, there is nothing yet that can stop the disease or ease the pain of those caring for victims of Alzheimer’s. Today, Irene's book about her own experience remains unfinished. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Fish Farming
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Fish is an important food for many people. In some places, it is the only animal protein to be found. For years, scientists have worried about supplies of ocean fish. As wild catches have decreased, many nations have turned to fish farming. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says farmed fish represented four percent of world fish production in nineteen-seventy. By two-thousand it was twenty-seven percent. China is the largest producer of fish, farmed or wild. In two-thousand, China harvested about twenty-five million tons of farmed fish. India, Japan and Thailand are also big producers. Fish farming has long been considered a way to improve the diets of people in developing areas. The F.A.O. says developing nations produce ninety percent of all farmed fish. But there are some problems connected with fish farming. Critics say it can cause not just water pollution. They say there is also “genetic pollution” when farmed fish reproduce with wild fish. Others say that farming some kinds of seafood is wasteful. They argue that salmon and eel, for example, eat more resources than they provide. Often they are fed with products prepared from wild fish. Also, a recent study of farmed salmon found that their food may contain higher levels of industrial pollution than salmon eat in the wild. But these levels were still well within legal limits. Another issue involves the lack of international rules about the use of antibiotics in farming. Some farmers feed these drugs to fish, just like cows and other animals, to prevent infections. The F.A.O. notes that there can be health risks to humans who eat the drugs through their food. Experts are concerned that this also reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics. The farmed fish industry is growing quickly in Asia. It is also growing in other parts of the world, including North America. In the United States, the value of the aquaculture industry has reached one-thousand-million dollars. That is one-third the value of the capture fishing industry. But scientists say most kinds of wild fish have been harvested too much. Farmed fish can help reduce pressure on populations in the wild. Still, experts and organizations like the F.A.O. warn that just like any other kind of farming, good methods are required. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Volcanoes National Park
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 16, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we visit two of the most unusual national parks in the United States. They are Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park, both in Hawaii. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we visit two of the most unusual national parks in the United States. They are Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park, both in Hawaii. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Let me ask you a question: What is the tallest mountain on Earth? Most school children will say the answer is Mount Everest near the border between Nepal and Tibet. There is something that is three-hundred-four meters taller than Mount Everest. However, it is mainly underwater. It begins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and rises more than seventeen kilometers from the ocean floor. Its name is Mauna Loa. In the Hawaiian language, Mauna Loa means “Long Mountain.” Mauna Loa is more than half of the island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also the largest and most active volcano on Earth. It has produced liquid rock called lava more than thirty times since records were first kept in Eighteen-Forty-Three. Today, Mauna Loa is quiet. It is not producing lava. However volcano experts say it is only a matter of time before this happens once again. VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa is not the only volcano on the island of Hawaii. There are four others. Three of them are no longer active. One of them still is active. It is named Kilauea. It has produced lava more than fifty times in the last one-hundred years. At this moment, red hot lava is pouring out of Kilauea. It has been doing this since Nineteen-Eighty-Three. Sometimes the lava moves slowly. At other times it pours out very fast as huge amounts of pressure force it from the volcano. During these times, it moves almost as quickly as water moving down the side of a mountain. Sometimes Kilauea produces large amounts of lava that seem like rivers of fire. VOICE ONE: When the lava from Kilauea reaches the ocean, its fierce heat produces great amounts of steam that rise into the air. The lava is so hot it continues to burn underwater for some time. The lava from Kilauea continues to add land to the island as the volcanoes of Hawaii have always done. It is these volcanoes that formed the islands of Hawaii. Most of the time the lava of Kilauea seems to move peacefully toward the ocean. Yet it is not as peaceful as it seems from a distance. In recent years the lava destroyed one small town on the island. The liquid rock slowly covered the town. It blocked roads and destroyed them. Nothing can stop the lava of Kilauea. Experts say the volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea are a serious threat to property on many parts of the island. Experts say the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii are proof that the changing environment of Earth is, and will always remain, beyond human control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa and Kilauea together form Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. But another national park has a huge volcano. It is on the island of Maui. It is the Haleakala National Park. Haleakala in the Hawaiian language means “House of the Sun.” Haleakala is another huge volcano. Together with a smaller, much older volcano it helped form the island of Maui. It is no longer considered to be active. In about Seventeen-Ninety, two areas in the side of the huge volcano opened and lava came out. The lava moved down the mountain and into the sea. That was the last recorded activity at Haleakala. The volcano that contains Haleakala National Park rises three-thousand-fifty meters above the sea. We would like to take you for a visit to Haleakala. For a few minutes, sit back while we drive the road up to the top of the volcano. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our trip begins near the ocean today. We drive through the city of Kahului. We see businesses and homes, the buildings you find in any American city. There are more flowers than in many American cities. The Hawaiian Islands are famous for their flowers. Soon the road begins to go up. The road moves back and forth and around corners as it moves up the face of the mountain. At times our driver must slow the vehicle and turn very sharply. Soon, there are no more homes or stores. From the city of Kahului to the top of Haleakala is about fifty-five kilometers. We will be three-thousand-fifty meters higher at the top of the mountain. Very soon, we no longer see trees. We have traveled too high for them to survive. Soon there are only a few plants. Then there is nothing but black lava rock. At one place, we begin to enter the clouds that hang close to the mountain. Our driver turns on the head lights of the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we are above the clouds in the bright sunshine. The road is good, so the trip takes only about an hour. VOICE TWO: The National Park Headquarters is about two kilometers from the top. Park officials at the information center tell you about the history of the volcano. They say that it is very safe…today. They also tell you that it could very well become active again. The experts just do not know. We soon leave the Park Headquarters and travel up again, this time to the top. There is an area here to leave our vehicle. We walk the last few meters to the top. As we reach the top, almost everyone says similar things. How strange! Did the violence of a volcano form this? This is so beautiful! VOICE ONE: We are on the top looking down inside what was the most active part of the volcano. The shape is almost like a circle except the sides have been stretched…almost the shape of an egg but longer. There are only a few plants here and no trees. However the volcano has left thousands of different shapes of lava stone. Hundreds of years of rain and bright sun have cut long paths in the stone. Time has turned the oldest lava to a soft sand. There are huge mountains. There are also smaller hills that seem to be made of ash or sand. The place is a riot of color. One big mountain seems to be a deep dark red. Another area seems almost yellow. Another is green, and still another is a beautiful brown color. One area is colored gray that seems to move into a deep black. It looks as if someone has spilled many colors of paint over the huge area. The volcano produced these colors because the lava is very rich in many kinds of minerals. VOICE TWO: The area we are seeing stretches for a long distance. This morning, high on the mountain in the bright sun, we can see almost forty kilometers of the park. And this is only part of it. There are eleven-thousand-five-hundred-ninety-six hectares of land in the park. Some of the park is closed to visitors. Scientists do research in those areas. Experts are trying to learn how to grow and protect some of the very unusual plants that live in Haleakala. One of these plants is called the Silver Sword. It grows only in Hawaii. It has long thin silver leaves. It is very beautiful and unusual. The Hawaiian Nay-Nay goose also lives here. It is a large bird. Visitors are asked not to come too near the Nay-Nay. Experts are helping both the Silver Sword plants and the Nay-Nay geese to reproduce so they will not disappear from the Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors each year enjoy Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii. Ships stop at the two islands and buses take the groups of visitors to see these huge volcanoes. VOICE ONE(cont): Many people also fly over the volcanoes in airplanes or helicopters. This is a safe and popular method of watching Kilauea’s lava moving slowly toward the ocean. Other people see it from ships.Visitors also may walk into the rain forest created by the volcano thousands of years ago. Here they can see Waimoku Falls where water drops one-hundred-twenty meters down the face of a mountain. Both parks offer visitors a sight of nature that most people never have the chance to enjoy. Visitors can see how an active volcano adds mass to the island. And they can see inside a volcano that has been silent for hundreds of years. The United States Park Service is responsible for both Haleakala and the Hawaii National Volcanoes Park. It works hard to keep both these areas as nature created them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our recording engineer today was Bob Phillips. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Let me ask you a question: What is the tallest mountain on Earth? Most school children will say the answer is Mount Everest near the border between Nepal and Tibet. There is something that is three-hundred-four meters taller than Mount Everest. However, it is mainly underwater. It begins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and rises more than seventeen kilometers from the ocean floor. Its name is Mauna Loa. In the Hawaiian language, Mauna Loa means “Long Mountain.” Mauna Loa is more than half of the island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also the largest and most active volcano on Earth. It has produced liquid rock called lava more than thirty times since records were first kept in Eighteen-Forty-Three. Today, Mauna Loa is quiet. It is not producing lava. However volcano experts say it is only a matter of time before this happens once again. VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa is not the only volcano on the island of Hawaii. There are four others. Three of them are no longer active. One of them still is active. It is named Kilauea. It has produced lava more than fifty times in the last one-hundred years. At this moment, red hot lava is pouring out of Kilauea. It has been doing this since Nineteen-Eighty-Three. Sometimes the lava moves slowly. At other times it pours out very fast as huge amounts of pressure force it from the volcano. During these times, it moves almost as quickly as water moving down the side of a mountain. Sometimes Kilauea produces large amounts of lava that seem like rivers of fire. VOICE ONE: When the lava from Kilauea reaches the ocean, its fierce heat produces great amounts of steam that rise into the air. The lava is so hot it continues to burn underwater for some time. The lava from Kilauea continues to add land to the island as the volcanoes of Hawaii have always done. It is these volcanoes that formed the islands of Hawaii. Most of the time the lava of Kilauea seems to move peacefully toward the ocean. Yet it is not as peaceful as it seems from a distance. In recent years the lava destroyed one small town on the island. The liquid rock slowly covered the town. It blocked roads and destroyed them. Nothing can stop the lava of Kilauea. Experts say the volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea are a serious threat to property on many parts of the island. Experts say the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii are proof that the changing environment of Earth is, and will always remain, beyond human control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa and Kilauea together form Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. But another national park has a huge volcano. It is on the island of Maui. It is the Haleakala National Park. Haleakala in the Hawaiian language means “House of the Sun.” Haleakala is another huge volcano. Together with a smaller, much older volcano it helped form the island of Maui. It is no longer considered to be active. In about Seventeen-Ninety, two areas in the side of the huge volcano opened and lava came out. The lava moved down the mountain and into the sea. That was the last recorded activity at Haleakala. The volcano that contains Haleakala National Park rises three-thousand-fifty meters above the sea. We would like to take you for a visit to Haleakala. For a few minutes, sit back while we drive the road up to the top of the volcano. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our trip begins near the ocean today. We drive through the city of Kahului. We see businesses and homes, the buildings you find in any American city. There are more flowers than in many American cities. The Hawaiian Islands are famous for their flowers. Soon the road begins to go up. The road moves back and forth and around corners as it moves up the face of the mountain. At times our driver must slow the vehicle and turn very sharply. Soon, there are no more homes or stores. From the city of Kahului to the top of Haleakala is about fifty-five kilometers. We will be three-thousand-fifty meters higher at the top of the mountain. Very soon, we no longer see trees. We have traveled too high for them to survive. Soon there are only a few plants. Then there is nothing but black lava rock. At one place, we begin to enter the clouds that hang close to the mountain. Our driver turns on the head lights of the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we are above the clouds in the bright sunshine. The road is good, so the trip takes only about an hour. VOICE TWO: The National Park Headquarters is about two kilometers from the top. Park officials at the information center tell you about the history of the volcano. They say that it is very safe…today. They also tell you that it could very well become active again. The experts just do not know. We soon leave the Park Headquarters and travel up again, this time to the top. There is an area here to leave our vehicle. We walk the last few meters to the top. As we reach the top, almost everyone says similar things. How strange! Did the violence of a volcano form this? This is so beautiful! VOICE ONE: We are on the top looking down inside what was the most active part of the volcano. The shape is almost like a circle except the sides have been stretched…almost the shape of an egg but longer. There are only a few plants here and no trees. However the volcano has left thousands of different shapes of lava stone. Hundreds of years of rain and bright sun have cut long paths in the stone. Time has turned the oldest lava to a soft sand. There are huge mountains. There are also smaller hills that seem to be made of ash or sand. The place is a riot of color. One big mountain seems to be a deep dark red. Another area seems almost yellow. Another is green, and still another is a beautiful brown color. One area is colored gray that seems to move into a deep black. It looks as if someone has spilled many colors of paint over the huge area. The volcano produced these colors because the lava is very rich in many kinds of minerals. VOICE TWO: The area we are seeing stretches for a long distance. This morning, high on the mountain in the bright sun, we can see almost forty kilometers of the park. And this is only part of it. There are eleven-thousand-five-hundred-ninety-six hectares of land in the park. Some of the park is closed to visitors. Scientists do research in those areas. Experts are trying to learn how to grow and protect some of the very unusual plants that live in Haleakala. One of these plants is called the Silver Sword. It grows only in Hawaii. It has long thin silver leaves. It is very beautiful and unusual. The Hawaiian Nay-Nay goose also lives here. It is a large bird. Visitors are asked not to come too near the Nay-Nay. Experts are helping both the Silver Sword plants and the Nay-Nay geese to reproduce so they will not disappear from the Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors each year enjoy Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii. Ships stop at the two islands and buses take the groups of visitors to see these huge volcanoes. VOICE ONE(cont): Many people also fly over the volcanoes in airplanes or helicopters. This is a safe and popular method of watching Kilauea’s lava moving slowly toward the ocean. Other people see it from ships.Visitors also may walk into the rain forest created by the volcano thousands of years ago. Here they can see Waimoku Falls where water drops one-hundred-twenty meters down the face of a mountain. Both parks offer visitors a sight of nature that most people never have the chance to enjoy. Visitors can see how an active volcano adds mass to the island. And they can see inside a volcano that has been silent for hundreds of years. The United States Park Service is responsible for both Haleakala and the Hawaii National Volcanoes Park. It works hard to keep both these areas as nature created them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our recording engineer today was Bob Phillips. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Surgeon General Links More Diseases to Smoking
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 16, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Tobacco is even more dangerous than doctors have known. A new report says smoking causes disease in almost every organ in the body. The report is from the top government doctor in the United States, Surgeon General Richard Carmona. The Office of the Surgeon General released its first report about smoking and health forty years ago. In nineteen-sixty-four, the surgeon general announced research establishing that smoking caused several diseases. These included cancer of the lungs and voice box. Later studies found that smoking causes other kinds of cancer and disease. Research also showed that cigarettes harm the babies of women who smoke. The newest report expands the list of conditions caused by smoking. New ones added include leukemia, cataracts and pneumonia. Smoking is now also known to cause cancers of the cervix, kidneys, pancreas and stomach. Health officials say smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease. An estimated four-hundred-forty-thousand Americans per year die of smoking-related diseases. The report says more than twelve-million have died since the first report forty years ago. Research has shown that the poorest and least educated are the ones most likely to smoke. The new report says that on average, smokers die thirteen to fourteen years before non-smokers. Smoking also harms others who have to breathe around a smoker, such as children at home. And it causes economic harm, including high medical costs and lost productivity. Some gains have been made. In nineteen-sixty-five, about forty-two percent of adults in the United States smoked. Now the estimate is about twenty-two percent. The government wants to reduce that to twelve percent by two-thousand-ten. But the report says rates of reduction among adults and young people have slowed. Public health groups say federal and state officials need to take stronger action. Congress is considering legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration control over cigarettes. Some are called "light" or "low tar." But Doctor Carmona says these are no healthier. He says there is no safe cigarette. The only good news for smokers in the surgeon general's report is that their health begins to improve immediately after they stop. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 10, 2004 - Getting a Job, Part 2: The Interview
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 10, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- surviving a job interview! RS: Here's the first bit of advice from human resources consultant Sharon Armstrong: It's not just words you have to think about, but also how you express them. Avoid, she says, a flat monotone voice that people sometimes get when they are nervous. ARMSTRONG: "It loses something. And I think that it can add so much if you show your excitement and your eagerness to work for that company." AA: Next: Be prepared for a common approach known as behavioral-based interviewing. ARMSTRONG: "And that is where past performance will indicate future performance. So good interviewers will ask you very detailed questions where they'll put you on the spot and they'll want to know specifically your role in what you did for a particular project. "And so the key to giving a good answer to a behavioral interview question is to do what I call a STAR, S-T-A-R. The S and the T stand for explaining a situation or a task that you were given, the A is the action you took and the R is the results." RS: "So what you're saying is that you need to be prepared before you walk in the door." ARMSTRONG: "Go through some mock interviews, if you can have friends ask you questions. Practice in the mirror, answering questions. Go in with three or four things you really want to stress about yourself. And then you can bring those out no matter what the question is asked." RS: "How do you follow up after the interview?" ARMSTRONG: "Please send a thank you letter. I'm begging you. And you can do it by e-mail. And in that thank you letter you do a couple of things. You make sure that you express sincere appreciation for the time that they spent interviewing you. You have an opportunity to re-emphasize some of your strongest qualities. You have another chance to make that case as to how your skills match their needs. "If there was something that you wish you had said a little more about, again an opportunity to do it here. Now that sounds like a lot to cover, but you do it very briefly, in a short couple of paragraphs and get it out right away." RS: "Keep it short, keep it simple?" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. Again, they're business people; they don't have a lot of time. Just getting it is going to make a big difference. I talk to recruiters all the time. They never get thank you letters. It's such a simple business etiquette that people just don't take the time to do it." AA: These days, Sharon Armstrong says interviewers ask tougher questions than they used to. ARMSTRONG: "It's no longer 'what do you see yourself doing in five years?' Those are old questions. They're asking questions that are going to get at more specific things. For example: 'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front of others. How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' They're trying to get at your communication skills. "'Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?' That's your assertiveness. So be ready for these kinds of questions, and if you have this experience in your background, just be able to communicate it effectively. You don't have to use the proper language all the time, just get across your results and your accomplishments." RS: "And you probably shouldn't be afraid to say 'well, I don't understand that question.'" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. And don't feel like you have to answer immediately. Take a moment. Pausing is a comfortable -- if you're comfortable with it, it will seem comfortable. But if you sometimes launch into an answer right away, you might head down a road you don't want to go. Say 'what an interesting question. May I think about that for a moment?' No one would say 'no, you can't.' AA: "What kind of answer would you give to that first one?" ARMSTRONG: "'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front others? How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' I think it's a hard question and you've got to be careful that you're answering it honestly but effectively. They don't want to know that you flew off the handle and you have a very negative response. "They're going to want to know that you have some teamwork skills and you tried to engage that person and question them a little more about what they found negative perhaps about your idea, and how they might add to it and make it more workable." AA: "What if that's not the truth. What if the last time someone criticized you, you -- as you say -- flew off the handle, got angry?" ARMSTRONG: "I would say that honestly, say that 'I've learned from that and I don't do it anymore.' The secret is to take a weakness and make it into a positive. So say 'I used to have a very bad habit of not being able to handle that well, but I recognized that that wasn't getting me anywhere in the business world.'" RS: And finally, at the end, Sharon Armstrong says be sure to ask some of your own questions, questions like: "What are some of the objectives you would like accomplished in this job?" "What would you like to have done within the next two or three months?" ARMSTRONG: "Remember that you are assessing the company as much as they are assessing you, and if you fail to ask questions at the end of the interview, they might interpret that as you not being interested." AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a consulting business in Washington called Human Resources 9-1-1, a name that plays off the emergency telephone number in America. RS: You can find today's program at our Web site -- voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Get a Job"/The Silhouettes (First broadcast in July 2002) Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 10, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- surviving a job interview! RS: Here's the first bit of advice from human resources consultant Sharon Armstrong: It's not just words you have to think about, but also how you express them. Avoid, she says, a flat monotone voice that people sometimes get when they are nervous. ARMSTRONG: "It loses something. And I think that it can add so much if you show your excitement and your eagerness to work for that company." AA: Next: Be prepared for a common approach known as behavioral-based interviewing. ARMSTRONG: "And that is where past performance will indicate future performance. So good interviewers will ask you very detailed questions where they'll put you on the spot and they'll want to know specifically your role in what you did for a particular project. "And so the key to giving a good answer to a behavioral interview question is to do what I call a STAR, S-T-A-R. The S and the T stand for explaining a situation or a task that you were given, the A is the action you took and the R is the results." RS: "So what you're saying is that you need to be prepared before you walk in the door." ARMSTRONG: "Go through some mock interviews, if you can have friends ask you questions. Practice in the mirror, answering questions. Go in with three or four things you really want to stress about yourself. And then you can bring those out no matter what the question is asked." RS: "How do you follow up after the interview?" ARMSTRONG: "Please send a thank you letter. I'm begging you. And you can do it by e-mail. And in that thank you letter you do a couple of things. You make sure that you express sincere appreciation for the time that they spent interviewing you. You have an opportunity to re-emphasize some of your strongest qualities. You have another chance to make that case as to how your skills match their needs. "If there was something that you wish you had said a little more about, again an opportunity to do it here. Now that sounds like a lot to cover, but you do it very briefly, in a short couple of paragraphs and get it out right away." RS: "Keep it short, keep it simple?" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. Again, they're business people; they don't have a lot of time. Just getting it is going to make a big difference. I talk to recruiters all the time. They never get thank you letters. It's such a simple business etiquette that people just don't take the time to do it." AA: These days, Sharon Armstrong says interviewers ask tougher questions than they used to. ARMSTRONG: "It's no longer 'what do you see yourself doing in five years?' Those are old questions. They're asking questions that are going to get at more specific things. For example: 'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front of others. How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' They're trying to get at your communication skills. "'Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?' That's your assertiveness. So be ready for these kinds of questions, and if you have this experience in your background, just be able to communicate it effectively. You don't have to use the proper language all the time, just get across your results and your accomplishments." RS: "And you probably shouldn't be afraid to say 'well, I don't understand that question.'" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. And don't feel like you have to answer immediately. Take a moment. Pausing is a comfortable -- if you're comfortable with it, it will seem comfortable. But if you sometimes launch into an answer right away, you might head down a road you don't want to go. Say 'what an interesting question. May I think about that for a moment?' No one would say 'no, you can't.' AA: "What kind of answer would you give to that first one?" ARMSTRONG: "'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front others? How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' I think it's a hard question and you've got to be careful that you're answering it honestly but effectively. They don't want to know that you flew off the handle and you have a very negative response. "They're going to want to know that you have some teamwork skills and you tried to engage that person and question them a little more about what they found negative perhaps about your idea, and how they might add to it and make it more workable." AA: "What if that's not the truth. What if the last time someone criticized you, you -- as you say -- flew off the handle, got angry?" ARMSTRONG: "I would say that honestly, say that 'I've learned from that and I don't do it anymore.' The secret is to take a weakness and make it into a positive. So say 'I used to have a very bad habit of not being able to handle that well, but I recognized that that wasn't getting me anywhere in the business world.'" RS: And finally, at the end, Sharon Armstrong says be sure to ask some of your own questions, questions like: "What are some of the objectives you would like accomplished in this job?" "What would you like to have done within the next two or three months?" ARMSTRONG: "Remember that you are assessing the company as much as they are assessing you, and if you fail to ask questions at the end of the interview, they might interpret that as you not being interested." AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a consulting business in Washington called Human Resources 9-1-1, a name that plays off the emergency telephone number in America. RS: You can find today's program at our Web site -- voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Get a Job"/The Silhouettes (First broadcast in July 2002) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 17, 2004 - Americanrhetoric.com
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 17, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a Web site that offers an interesting look at United States life and history, through examples of how Americans use rhetoric, the language of persuasion. RS: Michael Eidenmuller is an assistant professor of rhetoric and public address at the University of Texas at Tyler. He says an average of five-thousand Internet users a day visit his site, americanrhetoric.com. AA: What he calls the "heart" of the site is a huge database of political and religious speeches from the last two centuries. These come in text form. Many also have audio and in some cases video. RS: And there's lots more at americanrhetoric.com, which Professor Eidenmuller originally created for his students. EIDENMULLER: "You'll find quizzes, various exercises in rhetoric to kind of get the student acquainted with how we, in America anyway, conceptualize the discipline of rhetoric. And, gosh, you'll find an area dedicated to 9-11 [the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001], beginning with the radio reports of police units observing what it is they're seeing as in the Pentagon situation, for example, when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. POLICE OFFICER: " ... it was an American Airlines plane headed eastbound over the pike, possibly toward the Pentagon." DISPATCHER: "Ten-four. Cruiser 50 direct?" OFFICER: "Fifty, 10-4." SECOND OFFICER: "Thirty-six, I'm en route. I see the smoke." AA: We asked Michael Eidenmuller what are some of the most popular speeches on his site. EIDENMULLER: "By far the single most popular speech, as measured by the number of hits it gets per day, is Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' [delivered at a big demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.]" MARTIN LUTHER KING: " ... freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!" AA: "Now we've just recently lost a man who was known as the Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan." EIDENMULLER: "Right." AA: "Has there been an influx of people to your site, downloading his speeches? EIDENMULLER: "Yes, the site activity has over the last week and a half has approximately doubled, and the vast majority of the increased can be accounted for by people accessing Reagan's great speeches." RONALD REAGAN (January 28, 1986): "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss." RS: "What is there in the style of Ronald Reagan, what does his rhetoric style tell us about the life and times?" EIDENMULLER: "Much has been made about the tone of Ronald Reagan's delivery. He tended to convey rather sophisticated policy ideas in a neighborly way, quote unquote. But I think that he took presidential rhetoric in terms of style in a slightly different direction. He really greatly preferred telling stories that would capture both the emotional tone as well as some of the substance of the ideas that he was trying to communicate. And this was a kind of populist rhetoric that really hadn't caught on at least to the extent that it did under Reagan's direction." RS: "What can students of English as a foreign language learn from this Web site, learn from listening to great speeches?" EIDENMULLER: "Several things. I think that American rhetoric for foreign, students foreign to English as a first language anyway, it's useful for closing the gap, I think, between the formal study of American English grammar and syntax and perhaps the idiomatic expression of American language. And by the way, a significant minority of American Rhetoric audiences, two things, emanate from outside the United States. The greatest single percentage of these come from Communist China, interestingly enough. So it's useful for closing the gap between what you study formally and then how things actually play out rhetorically. I think it serves students, it teaches them to appreciate the role of public rhetoric in American-style democracy certainly. "There is an argument that says America, like Rome, is largely an idea. And if one accepts that argument at some level, it's an easy move from there to say that ideas are always and only expressed persuasively through rhetoric. And so an appreciation and understanding of the great rhetoric that has been produced in this country would help the student to understand the history of the ideas, really the way this country is made as an idea." AA: And you can find thousands of examples of everything from speeches to movie clips at americanrhetoric.com. It's creator is Michael Eidenmuller, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Tyler, who says he regularly gets visitors from some 200 countries. RS: We've posted a link at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, where you can also find archives of our segments. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 17, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a Web site that offers an interesting look at United States life and history, through examples of how Americans use rhetoric, the language of persuasion. RS: Michael Eidenmuller is an assistant professor of rhetoric and public address at the University of Texas at Tyler. He says an average of five-thousand Internet users a day visit his site, americanrhetoric.com. AA: What he calls the "heart" of the site is a huge database of political and religious speeches from the last two centuries. These come in text form. Many also have audio and in some cases video. RS: And there's lots more at americanrhetoric.com, which Professor Eidenmuller originally created for his students. EIDENMULLER: "You'll find quizzes, various exercises in rhetoric to kind of get the student acquainted with how we, in America anyway, conceptualize the discipline of rhetoric. And, gosh, you'll find an area dedicated to 9-11 [the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001], beginning with the radio reports of police units observing what it is they're seeing as in the Pentagon situation, for example, when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. POLICE OFFICER: " ... it was an American Airlines plane headed eastbound over the pike, possibly toward the Pentagon." DISPATCHER: "Ten-four. Cruiser 50 direct?" OFFICER: "Fifty, 10-4." SECOND OFFICER: "Thirty-six, I'm en route. I see the smoke." AA: We asked Michael Eidenmuller what are some of the most popular speeches on his site. EIDENMULLER: "By far the single most popular speech, as measured by the number of hits it gets per day, is Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' [delivered at a big demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.]" MARTIN LUTHER KING: " ... freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!" AA: "Now we've just recently lost a man who was known as the Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan." EIDENMULLER: "Right." AA: "Has there been an influx of people to your site, downloading his speeches? EIDENMULLER: "Yes, the site activity has over the last week and a half has approximately doubled, and the vast majority of the increased can be accounted for by people accessing Reagan's great speeches." RONALD REAGAN (January 28, 1986): "Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss." RS: "What is there in the style of Ronald Reagan, what does his rhetoric style tell us about the life and times?" EIDENMULLER: "Much has been made about the tone of Ronald Reagan's delivery. He tended to convey rather sophisticated policy ideas in a neighborly way, quote unquote. But I think that he took presidential rhetoric in terms of style in a slightly different direction. He really greatly preferred telling stories that would capture both the emotional tone as well as some of the substance of the ideas that he was trying to communicate. And this was a kind of populist rhetoric that really hadn't caught on at least to the extent that it did under Reagan's direction." RS: "What can students of English as a foreign language learn from this Web site, learn from listening to great speeches?" EIDENMULLER: "Several things. I think that American rhetoric for foreign, students foreign to English as a first language anyway, it's useful for closing the gap, I think, between the formal study of American English grammar and syntax and perhaps the idiomatic expression of American language. And by the way, a significant minority of American Rhetoric audiences, two things, emanate from outside the United States. The greatest single percentage of these come from Communist China, interestingly enough. So it's useful for closing the gap between what you study formally and then how things actually play out rhetorically. I think it serves students, it teaches them to appreciate the role of public rhetoric in American-style democracy certainly. "There is an argument that says America, like Rome, is largely an idea. And if one accepts that argument at some level, it's an easy move from there to say that ideas are always and only expressed persuasively through rhetoric. And so an appreciation and understanding of the great rhetoric that has been produced in this country would help the student to understand the history of the ideas, really the way this country is made as an idea." AA: And you can find thousands of examples of everything from speeches to movie clips at americanrhetoric.com. It's creator is Michael Eidenmuller, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Tyler, who says he regularly gets visitors from some 200 countries. RS: We've posted a link at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, where you can also find archives of our segments. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #67 - Martin Van Buren, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 17, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 17, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Martin Van Buren took office as America's eighth president in eighteen-thirty-seven. Not long after, the United States suffered a severe economic depression. Many state banks produced more paper money than they could guarantee with gold or silver. As more paper money was put into use, the value of the money fell. Prices rose sharply. Some people could not buy the food and other things they needed. In a short time, the demand on banks to exchange paper money for gold and silver grew too heavy. The banks stopped these exchanges. They said the situation was only temporary. But the crisis continued. VOICE TWO: Many of the weaker state banks closed after gold and silver payments were suspended. Those that stayed open had almost no money to lend. Businessmen could not pay back money they owed the banks. And they could not get loans to keep their businesses open. Many factories closed. Great numbers of people were out of work. The federal government itself lost nine-million dollars because of bank failures. Businessmen said the government was to blame for the economic depression. They said the biggest reason was an order made by former President Andrew Jackson. Jackson had said the government would not accept paper money as payment for the purchase of government land. It would accept only gold or silver. Opponents of the order said it had caused fear and mistrust. Even some of Jackson's strongest supporters said the order should be lifted. They said it had done its job of ending land speculation. Now, they said, it was hurting the economy. VOICE ONE: Two of President Van Buren's closest advisers urged him to continue the order. Lifting it, they argued, would flood the federal government with paper money of questionable value. Van Buren was troubled about the government's money. He wanted to make sure the government had enough money. And he wanted this money safe until needed. At the same time, Van Buren did not believe the federal government had the responsibility for ending the depression. And he did not believe the government had the right to interfere in any way with private business. So Van Buren decided to continue the order. No government land could be bought with paper money. The economy got worse. The president called a special meeting of Congress. In his message to Congress, Van Buren said "over-banking and over-trading" had caused the depression. He proposed several steps to protect the government. VOICE TWO: Van Vuren asked Congress to postpone payment of surplus federal government money to the states. He said the money would be needed to operate the federal government in the coming year. He also asked Congress to pass a law permitting the government to keep its own money in the Treasury, instead of putting it in private banks. This was the so-called "independent treasury" bill. The opposition Whig Party denounced the president's proposals. It criticized Van Buren for thinking only of protecting the federal government...and not helping businessmen, farmers, and the states. Whig opposition was not strong enough to defeat all the president's proposals. Congress approved a bill to postpone payment of surplus federal government money to the states. But the Whigs -- together with conservative Democrats -- rejected the proposal for an independent Treasury. VOICE ONE: America's Treasury Department received money when it collected import taxes and sold land. It used this money to pay what the government owed. The Treasury did not, however, hold the money from the time it was collected to the time it was paid out. The Treasury put the money in private banks. President Van Buren wanted to end this situation. He wanted a law to permit the Treasury to keep government money in its own secure places. The Whigs argued that such a law would give presidents too much power over the economy. Some Democrats who believed strongly in states' rights also opposed it. Between them, they had enough votes in Congress to defeat the proposal. VOICE TWO: President Van Buren tried again the following year to get approval for an independent Treasury. Again, the proposal was defeated. Finally, in June, eighteen-forty, Congress passed a law permitting the Treasury Department to hold government money itself. Van Buren signed the bill. The economic depression of eighteen-thirty-seven lasted for six years. It was the major problem -- but not the only problem -- during Van Buren's one term as president. VOICE ONE: In foreign affairs, one of the chief problems Van Buren faced was a dispute with Britain about Canada. Canadian rebels had tried two times to end British rule of Canada. They failed both times. Rebel leaders were forced to flee to safety in the United States. There they found it easy to get men and supplies to help them continue their struggle. The rebels built a base on a Canadian island in the Niagara River which formed part of the border between the two countries. They used an American boat to carry supplies from the American side to their base. In December, eighteen-thirty-seven, Canadian soldiers crossed the Niagara River and seized the boat. One American was killed in the fight. VOICE TWO: For a while, Canadian forces and Canadian rebels exchanged attacks on river boats. A number of American citizens fought with the rebels. President Van Buren was troubled. He declared that the wish to help others become independent was a natural feeling among Americans. But, he said no American had a right to invade a friendly country. He warned that citizens who fought against the Canadian government, and were captured, could expect no help from the United States. VOICE ONE: Another problem between the United States and Canada at that time concerned the border along the state of Maine. That part of the border had been in dispute ever since seventeen-eighty-three when Britain recognized the independence of the American states. Years later, the king of the Netherlands agreed to decide the dispute. The king said it was impossible to decide the border from words of the peace treaty between Britain and the United States. So he offered what he believed was a fair settlement, instead. The United States would get about two times as much of the disputed area as Canada. Britain accepted the proposal by the king of the Netherlands. The United States did not. The United States refused, because the state of Maine would not accept it. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-thirty-eight, Britain withdrew its acceptance of the proposal. And canadians entered the disputed area. The governor of Maine sent state forces to the area. The soldiers drove out the Canadians and built forts. Canada, too, began to prepare for war. President Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to Maine. Scott was able to get the governor to withdraw his forces from the disputed area. He also received guarantees that canadian forces would not enter the area. The danger of war passed. VOICE ONE: Americans in the border area, however, were angry with President Van Buren. They believed Van Buren was weak, because he did not want war. Not only in the northeast was the president losing support. People all over the country were suffering because of the economic depression. Most people believed Van Buren was responsible for their troubles, because he did not end the depression. The economy had fallen apart because of the hard money policies of former President Andrew Jackson, and the opposition to those policies by businessmen and bankers. And Van Buren did nothing to change those policies. VOICE TWO: Van Buren had been a good political adviser to President Jackson. But he had not been a strong president. He was unable to make the people understand his policies. The opposition Whig Party was happy over these developments. It saw an excellent chance to win the next presidential election. The issues in American politics before the election of eighteen-forty will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Martin Van Buren took office as America's eighth president in eighteen-thirty-seven. Not long after, the United States suffered a severe economic depression. Many state banks produced more paper money than they could guarantee with gold or silver. As more paper money was put into use, the value of the money fell. Prices rose sharply. Some people could not buy the food and other things they needed. In a short time, the demand on banks to exchange paper money for gold and silver grew too heavy. The banks stopped these exchanges. They said the situation was only temporary. But the crisis continued. VOICE TWO: Many of the weaker state banks closed after gold and silver payments were suspended. Those that stayed open had almost no money to lend. Businessmen could not pay back money they owed the banks. And they could not get loans to keep their businesses open. Many factories closed. Great numbers of people were out of work. The federal government itself lost nine-million dollars because of bank failures. Businessmen said the government was to blame for the economic depression. They said the biggest reason was an order made by former President Andrew Jackson. Jackson had said the government would not accept paper money as payment for the purchase of government land. It would accept only gold or silver. Opponents of the order said it had caused fear and mistrust. Even some of Jackson's strongest supporters said the order should be lifted. They said it had done its job of ending land speculation. Now, they said, it was hurting the economy. VOICE ONE: Two of President Van Buren's closest advisers urged him to continue the order. Lifting it, they argued, would flood the federal government with paper money of questionable value. Van Buren was troubled about the government's money. He wanted to make sure the government had enough money. And he wanted this money safe until needed. At the same time, Van Buren did not believe the federal government had the responsibility for ending the depression. And he did not believe the government had the right to interfere in any way with private business. So Van Buren decided to continue the order. No government land could be bought with paper money. The economy got worse. The president called a special meeting of Congress. In his message to Congress, Van Buren said "over-banking and over-trading" had caused the depression. He proposed several steps to protect the government. VOICE TWO: Van Vuren asked Congress to postpone payment of surplus federal government money to the states. He said the money would be needed to operate the federal government in the coming year. He also asked Congress to pass a law permitting the government to keep its own money in the Treasury, instead of putting it in private banks. This was the so-called "independent treasury" bill. The opposition Whig Party denounced the president's proposals. It criticized Van Buren for thinking only of protecting the federal government...and not helping businessmen, farmers, and the states. Whig opposition was not strong enough to defeat all the president's proposals. Congress approved a bill to postpone payment of surplus federal government money to the states. But the Whigs -- together with conservative Democrats -- rejected the proposal for an independent Treasury. VOICE ONE: America's Treasury Department received money when it collected import taxes and sold land. It used this money to pay what the government owed. The Treasury did not, however, hold the money from the time it was collected to the time it was paid out. The Treasury put the money in private banks. President Van Buren wanted to end this situation. He wanted a law to permit the Treasury to keep government money in its own secure places. The Whigs argued that such a law would give presidents too much power over the economy. Some Democrats who believed strongly in states' rights also opposed it. Between them, they had enough votes in Congress to defeat the proposal. VOICE TWO: President Van Buren tried again the following year to get approval for an independent Treasury. Again, the proposal was defeated. Finally, in June, eighteen-forty, Congress passed a law permitting the Treasury Department to hold government money itself. Van Buren signed the bill. The economic depression of eighteen-thirty-seven lasted for six years. It was the major problem -- but not the only problem -- during Van Buren's one term as president. VOICE ONE: In foreign affairs, one of the chief problems Van Buren faced was a dispute with Britain about Canada. Canadian rebels had tried two times to end British rule of Canada. They failed both times. Rebel leaders were forced to flee to safety in the United States. There they found it easy to get men and supplies to help them continue their struggle. The rebels built a base on a Canadian island in the Niagara River which formed part of the border between the two countries. They used an American boat to carry supplies from the American side to their base. In December, eighteen-thirty-seven, Canadian soldiers crossed the Niagara River and seized the boat. One American was killed in the fight. VOICE TWO: For a while, Canadian forces and Canadian rebels exchanged attacks on river boats. A number of American citizens fought with the rebels. President Van Buren was troubled. He declared that the wish to help others become independent was a natural feeling among Americans. But, he said no American had a right to invade a friendly country. He warned that citizens who fought against the Canadian government, and were captured, could expect no help from the United States. VOICE ONE: Another problem between the United States and Canada at that time concerned the border along the state of Maine. That part of the border had been in dispute ever since seventeen-eighty-three when Britain recognized the independence of the American states. Years later, the king of the Netherlands agreed to decide the dispute. The king said it was impossible to decide the border from words of the peace treaty between Britain and the United States. So he offered what he believed was a fair settlement, instead. The United States would get about two times as much of the disputed area as Canada. Britain accepted the proposal by the king of the Netherlands. The United States did not. The United States refused, because the state of Maine would not accept it. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-thirty-eight, Britain withdrew its acceptance of the proposal. And canadians entered the disputed area. The governor of Maine sent state forces to the area. The soldiers drove out the Canadians and built forts. Canada, too, began to prepare for war. President Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to Maine. Scott was able to get the governor to withdraw his forces from the disputed area. He also received guarantees that canadian forces would not enter the area. The danger of war passed. VOICE ONE: Americans in the border area, however, were angry with President Van Buren. They believed Van Buren was weak, because he did not want war. Not only in the northeast was the president losing support. People all over the country were suffering because of the economic depression. Most people believed Van Buren was responsible for their troubles, because he did not end the depression. The economy had fallen apart because of the hard money policies of former President Andrew Jackson, and the opposition to those policies by businessmen and bankers. And Van Buren did nothing to change those policies. VOICE TWO: Van Buren had been a good political adviser to President Jackson. But he had not been a strong president. He was unable to make the people understand his policies. The opposition Whig Party was happy over these developments. It saw an excellent chance to win the next presidential election. The issues in American politics before the election of eighteen-forty will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT- International Children’s Digital Library
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Looking for a good children's book? Internet users can find hundreds of them. These books are from around the world. And they are free of charge. The project is called the International Children’s Digital Library. The goal is to offer electronic versions of more than ten-thousand children's books in at least one-hundred languages. We will give the address of the Web site at the end of this report. So get ready to write it down. Project developers have been working with children to design easy ways to search the collection and read the books. An image of each page appears on the computer. Users can also print copies on paper. Officials say the project has been designed for two main groups of users. The first is children between the ages of three and thirteen, along with their teachers and parents. The second group is researchers in the area of children’s literature. The books chosen for the collection are meant to help children understand the world in which they live. Literature is one way to teach young people about new ideas. The idea behind the collection is that an interesting story not only helps children understand who they are. It may also influence their desire to explore the world. Project organizers say they have chosen books that show the similarities and differences in ways of life around the world. The aim is to create a greater understanding of other people's cultures and beliefs. The International Children’s Digital Library is also an attempt to use technology to strengthen libraries around the world. The digital library is a project of the University of Maryland and the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive is building an electronic library of Internet sites and other digital collections as a cultural record. The children's library project is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Library of Congress and other organizations are also involved. The first materials appeared in two-thousand-two. The goal is to have all ten-thousand books online in two-thousand-seven. So far, the collection contains more than five hundred books. Here is the address of the International Children’s Digital Library: www.icdlbooks.org. Again, www.icdlbooks.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/article-3-2004-06-17.cfm
* Headline: 9/11 Panel Casts Doubt on Iraq, Al-Qaida Link
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Payphone Project / Father’s Day / Ray Charles
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 18, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we remember Ray Charles and his music. And we answer a question about Father’s Day. But first, we connect you with something called the Payphone Project. Payphone Project HOST: The use of wireless telephones has reduced the demand for public pay phones. Yet these coin-operated phones have helped one man find a calling to serve other people. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: Mark Thomas has been interested in pay phones since he was a child. Now, he has created a site on the Internet that lists the telephone number and location of pay phones around the world. He calls it the Payphone Project. Mister Thomas says he is far from having a list of all the public pay phones in the world. But he does have more than five-hundred-thousand numbers already. These include a pay phone at the Vatican and another in Vietnam, at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. There is even a number listed for a pay phone in Uganda powered by the sun. Mark Thomas started his Web site in nineteen-ninety-five. He wanted to give strangers a way to talk to each other just by calling pay phones across the United States. But now most pay phones block incoming calls. In time, he recognized another purpose for his site. Some people know the number of a pay phone, through caller identification devices, but they need to know the location. The Payphone Project once helped the parents of a teen-age girl who ran away from home. It has also helped people find where threatening calls came from. Mark Thomas is an artist who lives in New York City. He plays piano in concerts. He does not have time anymore to call number after number, in the hope to connect with someone somewhere. But he wants his pay phone list to continue to grow as a public service. Telephone companies are not required to provide this kind of information. But many other pay phone number collectors have sent in listings. Some people include pictures and comments about the phone. So the next time you see a public pay phone, you might want to write down the number and location. Then, visit the Web site to see if the phone is listed. You might be able to add another number to the list. The site is payphone-project.com. Again, that address is payphone-project.com Father’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Baltchik, Bulgaria. Boyan Mitev asks about Father’s Day in the United States. In nineteen-oh-nine, a woman named Sonora Dodd was listening to a speech in church. The speech was about Mother's Day. Missus Dodd thought about her father, William Smart. He had fought in the American Civil War. Later, his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mister Smart raised the baby and his five other children. They lived on a farm in Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest. Sonora Dodd wanted a special day to honor men like her father. He was born in June. So she decided to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington, in June of nineteen-ten. Fourteen years later, in nineteen-twenty-four, President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the idea of a national observance. In nineteen-seventy-two, finally, President Richard Nixon signed a law to establish Father's Day. An old tradition on Father's Day was for people to wear a flower. Red roses honored fathers who were living. White flowers honored those who were dead. Father's Day is observed on the third Sunday in June. This Sunday, some families will go out for a special meal or prepare one at home. Many dads will get clothes or maybe some electronic gift. Or they might simply get a card with a message of thanks. Ray Charles HOST: Ray Charles was one of America's most influential musicians. He died last week at the age of seventy-three. Jim Tedder looks at the life of this showman who crossed the lines of jazz, blues, country and rock. ANNCR: Ray Charles Robinson was working as a musician by the age of fifteen. This was after he studied music at a school for the blind. Ray Charles developed glaucoma as a young child. The eye disease blinded him at age seven. His first hit record was a song he wrote with a mix of black church music, blues and rock and roll. He sang it and played it on the electric piano. The song is called “What’d I Say.” (MUSIC) Ray Charles became one of the top singers of rhythm and blues. Then he decided to record an album of country songs. Record company officials did not think it would be very successful. They were wrong. This song earned a Grammy Award. (MUSIC) Over the years, Ray Charles won thirteen Grammy awards. He was one of the first artists honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He made more than sixty albums. Ray Charles was preparing to begin a new series of concerts this month. But he had health problems recently. We leave you with another of his best known recordings, ”America the Beautiful.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. This program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Zenab Abdulrahman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: June 18, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we remember Ray Charles and his music. And we answer a question about Father’s Day. But first, we connect you with something called the Payphone Project. Payphone Project HOST: The use of wireless telephones has reduced the demand for public pay phones. Yet these coin-operated phones have helped one man find a calling to serve other people. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: Mark Thomas has been interested in pay phones since he was a child. Now, he has created a site on the Internet that lists the telephone number and location of pay phones around the world. He calls it the Payphone Project. Mister Thomas says he is far from having a list of all the public pay phones in the world. But he does have more than five-hundred-thousand numbers already. These include a pay phone at the Vatican and another in Vietnam, at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. There is even a number listed for a pay phone in Uganda powered by the sun. Mark Thomas started his Web site in nineteen-ninety-five. He wanted to give strangers a way to talk to each other just by calling pay phones across the United States. But now most pay phones block incoming calls. In time, he recognized another purpose for his site. Some people know the number of a pay phone, through caller identification devices, but they need to know the location. The Payphone Project once helped the parents of a teen-age girl who ran away from home. It has also helped people find where threatening calls came from. Mark Thomas is an artist who lives in New York City. He plays piano in concerts. He does not have time anymore to call number after number, in the hope to connect with someone somewhere. But he wants his pay phone list to continue to grow as a public service. Telephone companies are not required to provide this kind of information. But many other pay phone number collectors have sent in listings. Some people include pictures and comments about the phone. So the next time you see a public pay phone, you might want to write down the number and location. Then, visit the Web site to see if the phone is listed. You might be able to add another number to the list. The site is payphone-project.com. Again, that address is payphone-project.com Father’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Baltchik, Bulgaria. Boyan Mitev asks about Father’s Day in the United States. In nineteen-oh-nine, a woman named Sonora Dodd was listening to a speech in church. The speech was about Mother's Day. Missus Dodd thought about her father, William Smart. He had fought in the American Civil War. Later, his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mister Smart raised the baby and his five other children. They lived on a farm in Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest. Sonora Dodd wanted a special day to honor men like her father. He was born in June. So she decided to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington, in June of nineteen-ten. Fourteen years later, in nineteen-twenty-four, President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the idea of a national observance. In nineteen-seventy-two, finally, President Richard Nixon signed a law to establish Father's Day. An old tradition on Father's Day was for people to wear a flower. Red roses honored fathers who were living. White flowers honored those who were dead. Father's Day is observed on the third Sunday in June. This Sunday, some families will go out for a special meal or prepare one at home. Many dads will get clothes or maybe some electronic gift. Or they might simply get a card with a message of thanks. Ray Charles HOST: Ray Charles was one of America's most influential musicians. He died last week at the age of seventy-three. Jim Tedder looks at the life of this showman who crossed the lines of jazz, blues, country and rock. ANNCR: Ray Charles Robinson was working as a musician by the age of fifteen. This was after he studied music at a school for the blind. Ray Charles developed glaucoma as a young child. The eye disease blinded him at age seven. His first hit record was a song he wrote with a mix of black church music, blues and rock and roll. He sang it and played it on the electric piano. The song is called “What’d I Say.” (MUSIC) Ray Charles became one of the top singers of rhythm and blues. Then he decided to record an album of country songs. Record company officials did not think it would be very successful. They were wrong. This song earned a Grammy Award. (MUSIC) Over the years, Ray Charles won thirteen Grammy awards. He was one of the first artists honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He made more than sixty albums. Ray Charles was preparing to begin a new series of concerts this month. But he had health problems recently. We leave you with another of his best known recordings, ”America the Beautiful.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. This program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Zenab Abdulrahman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - U.S. Interest Rates Expected to Rise at the End of June
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 18, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Financial markets are preparing for something that has not happened since May of two-thousand. The United States central bank, the Federal Reserve, is expected to raise interest rates at the end of this month. Interest is the cost to borrow money. As the cost increases, people generally borrow and spend less. Less spending means less demand. And that generally keeps prices from rising. So economists say interest rates are an important tool to fight inflation. Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the central bank "will do what is required" to keep prices under control. This is known as price stability. Later, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said current interest rates are too low. Sandra Pianalto said inflation pressures appear reasonably under control right now. But she added that she is concerned that they could increase. Another Federal Reserve Bank president warned that recent price increases must be watched closely to see how much is temporary. Jack Guynn in Atlanta said Federal Reserve policymakers need to react to whatever happens. The policymakers said in May that rate increases are likely to come at a "measured" speed. But Mister Greenspan says they are prepared to act more quickly if needed. The Federal Reserve lends money to other banks at a rate set by the system’s Open Market Committee. The federal funds rate is currently one percent, the lowest since nineteen-fifty-eight. This is not the rate for individual borrowers, however. Banks borrow from the Federal Reserve so they can then lend money to businesses, individuals and each other. Low interest rates have led to record numbers of home sales in recent years. Now, interest rates for home loans are increasing. Economists say they are concerned that growth in jobs, high energy prices and increased demand in the economy will push prices up. The government says prices rose at a yearly rate of four-point-four percent in the first four months of this year. For all of last year, the inflation rate was less than two percent. The Federal Open Market Committee will meet in Washington for two days, starting June twenty-ninth. The committee is expected to raise the federal funds rate from one percent to one-point-two-five percent. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Bush Announces New Steps to Aid Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 19, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush this week announced more steps to help Afghanistan. He met at the White House Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. At a news conference, they spoke of progress toward democracy. Mister Bush said Afghanistan is no longer, in his words, "a terrorist factory sending thousands of killers into the world." He offered American training for Afghan politicians. Other steps include more schools for Afghan children, as well as training and aid for businesswomen. And Mister Bush said the two countries plan to seek a trade agreement and expand an education exchange program. Afghanistan was formerly ruled by the Taliban group which provided refuge for al-Qaida. After al-Qaida attacked the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, American-led forces ousted the Taliban. Since then, international efforts have helped improve schools, health care and roads. Afghanistan has a new constitution. Women have more rights. And the country is preparing for elections in September. But officials are worried about violence in the provinces and threats from the Taliban and allied Islamic groups. This week, Al Jazeera television showed what it said were new images of al-Qaida members training in Afghanistan. But the American commander there and a terrorism expert said the tape was likely made somewhere else. The Afghan government has limited control outside Kabul. Parts of the country are still controlled by local leaders and militants. President Karzai has promised to disarm the groups. Late this week, local commanders took control of the capital of Ghor province. Officials said ten men died in fighting. The governor fled. The United States has about twenty-thousand troops in Afghanistan. They face almost daily attacks blamed on fighters loyal to the Taliban and al-Qaida. In Washington, members of Congress have expressed concern about progress toward an Afghan National Army and police force. Opposition Democrats have said the invasion of Iraq last year took away resources from Afghanistan. President Karzai spoke to a joint meeting of Congress. He thanked the United States for its support. He also honored American soldiers killed or injured in Afghanistan. Mister Karzai noted strong economic growth in his country. But he said there is still "a long road ahead." He said Afghanistan needs more investment to help its economic recovery. And he called for NATO to do more. NATO's current duties include commanding the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul. President Karzai also appealed for American help to stop the spread of drug crops in Afghanistan. He said profits from the illegal trade threaten his government and finance terrorism and extremism. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Nellie Bly
* Byline: 

 Broacast: June 20, 2004 (THEME) Broacast: June 20, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about a reporter of more than one-hundred years ago. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year was eighteen-eighty-seven. The place was New York City. A young woman, Elizabeth Cochrane, wanted a job at a large newspaper. The editor agreed, if she would investigate a hospital for people who were mentally sick and then write about it. Elizabeth Cochrane decided to become a patient in the hospital herself. She used the name Nellie Brown so no one would discover her or her purpose. Newspaper officials said they would get her released after a while. To prepare, Nellie put on old clothes and stopped washing. She went to a temporary home for women. She acted as if she had severe mental problems. She cried and screamed and stayed awake all night. The police were called. She was examined by doctors. Most said she was insane. VOICE TWO: Nellie Brown was taken to the mental hospital. It was dirty. Waste material was left outside the eating room. Bugs ran across the tables. The food was terrible -- hard bread and gray-colored meat. Nurses bathed the patients in cold water and gave them only a thin piece of cloth to wear to bed. During the day, the patients did nothing but sit quietly. They had to talk in quiet voices. Yet, Nellie got to know some of them. Some were women whose families had put them in the hospital because they had been too sick to work. Some were women who had appeared insane because they were sick with fever. Now they were well, but they could not get out. Nellie recognized that the doctors and nurses had no interest in the patients' mental health. They were paid to keep the patients in a kind of jail. Nellie stayed in the hospital for ten days. Then a lawyer from the newspaper got her released. VOICE ONE: Five days later, the story of Elizabeth Cochrane's experience in the hospital appeared in the New York World newspaper. Readers were shocked. They wrote to officials of the city and the hospital protesting the conditions and patient treatment. An investigation led to changes at the hospital. Elizabeth Cochrane had made a difference in the lives of the people there. She made a difference in her own life too. She got her job at the New York World. And she wrote a book about her experience at the hospital. She did not write it as Nellie Brown, however, or as Elizabeth Cochrane. She wrote it under the name that always appeared on her newspaper stories: Nellie Bly. VOICE TWO: The child who would grow up to become Nellie Bly was born during the Civil War, in eighteen-sixty-four, in western Pennsylvania. Her family called her Pink. Her father was a judge. He died when she was six years old. Her mother married again. But her new husband drank too much alcohol and beat her. She got a divorce in eighteen-seventy-nine, when Pink was fifteen years old. Pink decided to learn to support herself so she would never need a man. Pink, her mother, brothers and sisters moved to a town near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pink worked at different jobs but could not find a good one. One day, she read something in the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper. The editor of the paper, Erasmus Wilson, wrote that it was wrong for women to get jobs. He said men should have them. Pink wrote the newspaper to disagree. She said she had been looking for a good job for about four years, as she had no father or husband to support her. She signed it "Orphan Girl". VOICE ONE: The editors of the dispatch liked her letter. They put a note in the paper asking "Orphan Girl" to visit. Pink did. Mister Wilson offered her a job. He said she could not sign her stories with her real name, because no woman writer did that. He asked news writers for suggestions. One was Nellie Bly, the name of a girl in a popular song. So Pink became Nellie Bly. For nine months, she wrote stories of interest to women. Then she left the newspaper because she was not permitted to write what she wanted. She went to Mexico to find excitement. She stayed there six months, sending stories to the Dispatch to be published. Soon after she returned to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, she decided to look for another job. Nellie Bly left for New York City and began her job at the New York World. VOICE TWO: As a reporter for the New York World, Nellie Bly investigated and wrote about illegal activities in the city. For one story, she acted as if she was a mother willing to sell her baby. For another, she pretended to be a woman who cleaned houses so she could report about illegal activities in employment agencies. Today, a newspaper reporter usually does not pretend to be someone else to get information for a story. Most newspapers ban such acts. But in Nellie Bly's day, reporters used any method to get information, especially if they were trying to discover people guilty of doing something wrong. Nellie Bly's success at this led newspapers to employ more women. But she was the most popular of the women writers. History experts say Nellie Bly was special because she included her own ideas and feelings in everything she wrote. They say her own voice seemed to speak on the page. Nellie Bly's stories always provided detailed descriptions. And her stories always tried to improve society. Critics said Nellie Bly was an example of what a reporter can do, even today. She saw every situation as a chance to make a real difference in other people's lives as well as her own. VOICE ONE: Nellie Bly may be best remembered in history for a trip she took. In the eighteen-seventies, French writer Jules Verne wrote the book “Around the World in Eighty Days.” It told of a man's attempt to travel all around the world. He succeeded. In real life, no one had tried. By eighteen-eighty-eight, a number of reporters wanted to do it. Nellie Bly told her editors she would go even if they did not help her. But they did. VOICE TWO: Nellie Bly left New York for France on November fourteenth, eighteen-eighty-nine. She met Jules Verne at his home in France. She told him about her plans to travel alone by train and ship around the world. From France she went to Italy and Egypt, through South Asia to Singapore and Japan, then to San Francisco and back to New York. Nellie Bly's trip created more interest in Jules Verne's book. Before the trip was over, “Around the World in Eighty Days” was published again. And a theater in Paris had plans to produce a stage play of the book. VOICE ONE: Back home in New York, the World was publishing the stories Bly wrote while travelling. On days when the mail brought no story from her, the editors still found something to write about it. They published new songs written about Bly and new games based on her trip. The newspaper announced a competition to guess how long her trip would take. The prize was a free trip to Europe. By December second, about one-hundred-thousand readers had sent in their estimates. Nellie Bly arrived back where she started on January twenty-fifth, eighteen-ninety. It had taken her seventy-six days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. She was twenty-five years old. And she was famous around the world. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Cochrane died in New York in nineteen-twenty-two. She was fifty-eight years old. In the years since her famous trip, she had married, and headed a business. She also had helped poor and homeless children. And she had continued to write all her life for newspapers and magazines as Nellie Bly. One newspaper official wrote this about her after her death: “Nellie Bly was the best reporter in America. More important is the work of which the world knew nothing. She died leaving little money. What she had was promised to take care of children without homes, for whom she wished to provide. Her life was useful. She takes with her from this Earth all that she cared about -- an honorable name, the respect and affection of her fellow workers, the memory of good fights well fought and many good deeds never to be forgotten. Happy the man or woman that can leave as good a record.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Nancy Steinbach. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about a reporter of more than one-hundred years ago. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year was eighteen-eighty-seven. The place was New York City. A young woman, Elizabeth Cochrane, wanted a job at a large newspaper. The editor agreed, if she would investigate a hospital for people who were mentally sick and then write about it. Elizabeth Cochrane decided to become a patient in the hospital herself. She used the name Nellie Brown so no one would discover her or her purpose. Newspaper officials said they would get her released after a while. To prepare, Nellie put on old clothes and stopped washing. She went to a temporary home for women. She acted as if she had severe mental problems. She cried and screamed and stayed awake all night. The police were called. She was examined by doctors. Most said she was insane. VOICE TWO: Nellie Brown was taken to the mental hospital. It was dirty. Waste material was left outside the eating room. Bugs ran across the tables. The food was terrible -- hard bread and gray-colored meat. Nurses bathed the patients in cold water and gave them only a thin piece of cloth to wear to bed. During the day, the patients did nothing but sit quietly. They had to talk in quiet voices. Yet, Nellie got to know some of them. Some were women whose families had put them in the hospital because they had been too sick to work. Some were women who had appeared insane because they were sick with fever. Now they were well, but they could not get out. Nellie recognized that the doctors and nurses had no interest in the patients' mental health. They were paid to keep the patients in a kind of jail. Nellie stayed in the hospital for ten days. Then a lawyer from the newspaper got her released. VOICE ONE: Five days later, the story of Elizabeth Cochrane's experience in the hospital appeared in the New York World newspaper. Readers were shocked. They wrote to officials of the city and the hospital protesting the conditions and patient treatment. An investigation led to changes at the hospital. Elizabeth Cochrane had made a difference in the lives of the people there. She made a difference in her own life too. She got her job at the New York World. And she wrote a book about her experience at the hospital. She did not write it as Nellie Brown, however, or as Elizabeth Cochrane. She wrote it under the name that always appeared on her newspaper stories: Nellie Bly. VOICE TWO: The child who would grow up to become Nellie Bly was born during the Civil War, in eighteen-sixty-four, in western Pennsylvania. Her family called her Pink. Her father was a judge. He died when she was six years old. Her mother married again. But her new husband drank too much alcohol and beat her. She got a divorce in eighteen-seventy-nine, when Pink was fifteen years old. Pink decided to learn to support herself so she would never need a man. Pink, her mother, brothers and sisters moved to a town near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pink worked at different jobs but could not find a good one. One day, she read something in the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper. The editor of the paper, Erasmus Wilson, wrote that it was wrong for women to get jobs. He said men should have them. Pink wrote the newspaper to disagree. She said she had been looking for a good job for about four years, as she had no father or husband to support her. She signed it "Orphan Girl". VOICE ONE: The editors of the dispatch liked her letter. They put a note in the paper asking "Orphan Girl" to visit. Pink did. Mister Wilson offered her a job. He said she could not sign her stories with her real name, because no woman writer did that. He asked news writers for suggestions. One was Nellie Bly, the name of a girl in a popular song. So Pink became Nellie Bly. For nine months, she wrote stories of interest to women. Then she left the newspaper because she was not permitted to write what she wanted. She went to Mexico to find excitement. She stayed there six months, sending stories to the Dispatch to be published. Soon after she returned to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, she decided to look for another job. Nellie Bly left for New York City and began her job at the New York World. VOICE TWO: As a reporter for the New York World, Nellie Bly investigated and wrote about illegal activities in the city. For one story, she acted as if she was a mother willing to sell her baby. For another, she pretended to be a woman who cleaned houses so she could report about illegal activities in employment agencies. Today, a newspaper reporter usually does not pretend to be someone else to get information for a story. Most newspapers ban such acts. But in Nellie Bly's day, reporters used any method to get information, especially if they were trying to discover people guilty of doing something wrong. Nellie Bly's success at this led newspapers to employ more women. But she was the most popular of the women writers. History experts say Nellie Bly was special because she included her own ideas and feelings in everything she wrote. They say her own voice seemed to speak on the page. Nellie Bly's stories always provided detailed descriptions. And her stories always tried to improve society. Critics said Nellie Bly was an example of what a reporter can do, even today. She saw every situation as a chance to make a real difference in other people's lives as well as her own. VOICE ONE: Nellie Bly may be best remembered in history for a trip she took. In the eighteen-seventies, French writer Jules Verne wrote the book “Around the World in Eighty Days.” It told of a man's attempt to travel all around the world. He succeeded. In real life, no one had tried. By eighteen-eighty-eight, a number of reporters wanted to do it. Nellie Bly told her editors she would go even if they did not help her. But they did. VOICE TWO: Nellie Bly left New York for France on November fourteenth, eighteen-eighty-nine. She met Jules Verne at his home in France. She told him about her plans to travel alone by train and ship around the world. From France she went to Italy and Egypt, through South Asia to Singapore and Japan, then to San Francisco and back to New York. Nellie Bly's trip created more interest in Jules Verne's book. Before the trip was over, “Around the World in Eighty Days” was published again. And a theater in Paris had plans to produce a stage play of the book. VOICE ONE: Back home in New York, the World was publishing the stories Bly wrote while travelling. On days when the mail brought no story from her, the editors still found something to write about it. They published new songs written about Bly and new games based on her trip. The newspaper announced a competition to guess how long her trip would take. The prize was a free trip to Europe. By December second, about one-hundred-thousand readers had sent in their estimates. Nellie Bly arrived back where she started on January twenty-fifth, eighteen-ninety. It had taken her seventy-six days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. She was twenty-five years old. And she was famous around the world. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Cochrane died in New York in nineteen-twenty-two. She was fifty-eight years old. In the years since her famous trip, she had married, and headed a business. She also had helped poor and homeless children. And she had continued to write all her life for newspapers and magazines as Nellie Bly. One newspaper official wrote this about her after her death: “Nellie Bly was the best reporter in America. More important is the work of which the world knew nothing. She died leaving little money. What she had was promised to take care of children without homes, for whom she wished to provide. Her life was useful. She takes with her from this Earth all that she cared about -- an honorable name, the respect and affection of her fellow workers, the memory of good fights well fought and many good deeds never to be forgotten. Happy the man or woman that can leave as good a record.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Nancy Steinbach. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Summer Camps
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 21, 2004 (MUSIC) Dance Student at Summer Camp (Image:www.interlochen.org) Broadcast: June 21, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of American children attend summer camp. Some play sports. Others make music, learn to use a computer or take part in other activities. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Come along with us this week to summer camp, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Traditional American summer camps offer young people a chance to play many sports. These camps may be in the mountains. Or they may be in the woods, or at a lake. Other camps teach activities like painting or music. Or they teach computer programming or foreign languages. Children at all kinds of camps meet new friends. They learn new skills and develop independence. Some children go to camp during the day and return home at night. These places are called day camps. Children as young as four years old attend day camps. Others stay at camp all day and all night. Most children who attend overnight camp are between the ages of about six and sixteen. Children stay at an overnight camp for between one and eight weeks. Parents can pay less than one-hundred dollars a week for an overnight camp. Or they can pay more than seven-hundred dollars a week. VOICE TWO: Children from poor families might not have a chance to attend summer camp. The Fresh Air Fund is a well-known organization that gives children in New York City that chance. People around the country give money to support the Fresh Air Fund. Each summer, it serves about ten-thousand poor children from the city. It sends them to stay with families in the country or to five camps in New York State. VOICE ONE: Since eighteen-seventy-seven, the Fresh Air Fund has helped almost two-million of New York City's most needy children. These children do what they cannot do in the city. They breathe fresh air. They play on green grass. They swim in a lake. Some children begin to stay with the same family when they are very young and continue for a number of summers. Shaquille is an eight-year-old boy from the Bronx, a part of New York City. He has visited the same family in the state of Vermont for several summers. He especially enjoys playing and going to open-air activities with the family’s two children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Summer camps have become very important to millions of families. Many American women now work outside the home. Working parents need a place where their children can be cared for during the summer when they are not in school. Camps also help children develop independence. For most children, overnight camp is the only time during the year they are away from their parents. Camp lets them enjoy being with many other children. Campers live together in cloth tents or in wooden cabins. They eat meals together in a large dining room. VOICE ONE: But the first time at summer camp can sometimes be difficult. Children might not like the food. Or, they might not like to swim in a cold lake. They may not want to climb a hill on a hot day. Some new campers miss their parents very much. Also, some camps ban the use of electronic equipment and toys. Children who play electronic games and use wireless telephones may miss them. These children might enjoy a camp that permits these devices. But many families say their children need to learn more about nature. They say their children need a holiday from technology. VOICE TWO: The American Camping Association suggests that parents prepare children before sending them to camp. It advises parents to discuss what the camp will be like and what campers will need to know. For example, parents can show their children how to use a flashlight to find a bathroom at night. The American tradition of sending children to summer camp began more than one-hundred years ago. Frederick and Abigail Gunn started what was probably the first organized American camp. They operated a school for boys in the state of Connecticut. In eighteen-sixty-one, Mister and Missus Gunn took their students on a two-week trip. They walked to an area where they set up camp. The students fished, hunted and traveled by boat. VOICE ONE: Today, summer camps may be outdoor ones similar to those of Abigail and Frederick Gunn. For example, a camp in Forest Lake, Minnesota, centers its activities on nature. Campers at the Wildlife Science Center study the structure of groups, or packs, of wolves. But camps today may also be very different from those early fresh-air camps. For example, Pali Adventures summer camp in southern California offers several special interest camps in addition to more traditional ones. In one of these special camps, children twelve to sixteen years of age study food preparation with a professional chef. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are more than twelve-thousand camps in the United States. Some offer just one main activity. Children can play a single sport, like tennis, soccer, baseball or basketball. Young people who like the arts can learn about music, dance, art, acting or writing. Perhaps the best known camp for young artists is the Interlochen Arts Camp. It is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the state of Michigan. Its music program is especially well known. More than two-thousand young people are attending the arts camp this year. VOICE ONE: Camps that offer programs in science and environmental studies are popular, too. For example, the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, welcomes adults as well as children. Whole families can live together in a place like a real space station. They take part in activities similar to those carried out during space shuttle flights. There are also camps for older children who like wilderness adventure. Campers take long trips by bicycle or canoe. Or, they go rock climbing or ride horses. For example, since nineteen-forty-eight, boys and girls have explored the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Sanborn Western Camps. These are built more than two-thousand-six-hundred meters above sea level. Other summer camps in America help children learn about religion, help them lose weight, or help them develop their knowledge of technology. Thousands of young people attend computer camps in the United States. VOICE TWO: The nation also has many camps for sick or disabled children. At these camps, many children take part in traditional activities, but they also receive special medical care. Handi Kids in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, offers camp for children and young adults with physical or mental disorders. The campers enjoy water sports, arts, dance, music and other activities. A camp in the state of Connecticut offers fun for children with cancer and serious blood diseases. It is called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Actor Paul Newman started the first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in nineteen-eighty-eight. Since then others have been established in the United States and overseas. VOICE ONE: For many children in overnight camps across the United States, the day ends in a traditional way. They gather around the campfire to cook and eat a sweet dessert food called "s'mores." The campers cook marshmallows over the fire. They put the marshmallows and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. This food got its name because after campers eat one, they ask for "some more." As the fire dies down, the campers join in traditional songs like this one. (MUSIC) Chances are, the children will always remember the times they spent in the firelight at summer camp. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of American children attend summer camp. Some play sports. Others make music, learn to use a computer or take part in other activities. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Come along with us this week to summer camp, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Traditional American summer camps offer young people a chance to play many sports. These camps may be in the mountains. Or they may be in the woods, or at a lake. Other camps teach activities like painting or music. Or they teach computer programming or foreign languages. Children at all kinds of camps meet new friends. They learn new skills and develop independence. Some children go to camp during the day and return home at night. These places are called day camps. Children as young as four years old attend day camps. Others stay at camp all day and all night. Most children who attend overnight camp are between the ages of about six and sixteen. Children stay at an overnight camp for between one and eight weeks. Parents can pay less than one-hundred dollars a week for an overnight camp. Or they can pay more than seven-hundred dollars a week. VOICE TWO: Children from poor families might not have a chance to attend summer camp. The Fresh Air Fund is a well-known organization that gives children in New York City that chance. People around the country give money to support the Fresh Air Fund. Each summer, it serves about ten-thousand poor children from the city. It sends them to stay with families in the country or to five camps in New York State. VOICE ONE: Since eighteen-seventy-seven, the Fresh Air Fund has helped almost two-million of New York City's most needy children. These children do what they cannot do in the city. They breathe fresh air. They play on green grass. They swim in a lake. Some children begin to stay with the same family when they are very young and continue for a number of summers. Shaquille is an eight-year-old boy from the Bronx, a part of New York City. He has visited the same family in the state of Vermont for several summers. He especially enjoys playing and going to open-air activities with the family’s two children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Summer camps have become very important to millions of families. Many American women now work outside the home. Working parents need a place where their children can be cared for during the summer when they are not in school. Camps also help children develop independence. For most children, overnight camp is the only time during the year they are away from their parents. Camp lets them enjoy being with many other children. Campers live together in cloth tents or in wooden cabins. They eat meals together in a large dining room. VOICE ONE: But the first time at summer camp can sometimes be difficult. Children might not like the food. Or, they might not like to swim in a cold lake. They may not want to climb a hill on a hot day. Some new campers miss their parents very much. Also, some camps ban the use of electronic equipment and toys. Children who play electronic games and use wireless telephones may miss them. These children might enjoy a camp that permits these devices. But many families say their children need to learn more about nature. They say their children need a holiday from technology. VOICE TWO: The American Camping Association suggests that parents prepare children before sending them to camp. It advises parents to discuss what the camp will be like and what campers will need to know. For example, parents can show their children how to use a flashlight to find a bathroom at night. The American tradition of sending children to summer camp began more than one-hundred years ago. Frederick and Abigail Gunn started what was probably the first organized American camp. They operated a school for boys in the state of Connecticut. In eighteen-sixty-one, Mister and Missus Gunn took their students on a two-week trip. They walked to an area where they set up camp. The students fished, hunted and traveled by boat. VOICE ONE: Today, summer camps may be outdoor ones similar to those of Abigail and Frederick Gunn. For example, a camp in Forest Lake, Minnesota, centers its activities on nature. Campers at the Wildlife Science Center study the structure of groups, or packs, of wolves. But camps today may also be very different from those early fresh-air camps. For example, Pali Adventures summer camp in southern California offers several special interest camps in addition to more traditional ones. In one of these special camps, children twelve to sixteen years of age study food preparation with a professional chef. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are more than twelve-thousand camps in the United States. Some offer just one main activity. Children can play a single sport, like tennis, soccer, baseball or basketball. Young people who like the arts can learn about music, dance, art, acting or writing. Perhaps the best known camp for young artists is the Interlochen Arts Camp. It is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the state of Michigan. Its music program is especially well known. More than two-thousand young people are attending the arts camp this year. VOICE ONE: Camps that offer programs in science and environmental studies are popular, too. For example, the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, welcomes adults as well as children. Whole families can live together in a place like a real space station. They take part in activities similar to those carried out during space shuttle flights. There are also camps for older children who like wilderness adventure. Campers take long trips by bicycle or canoe. Or, they go rock climbing or ride horses. For example, since nineteen-forty-eight, boys and girls have explored the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Sanborn Western Camps. These are built more than two-thousand-six-hundred meters above sea level. Other summer camps in America help children learn about religion, help them lose weight, or help them develop their knowledge of technology. Thousands of young people attend computer camps in the United States. VOICE TWO: The nation also has many camps for sick or disabled children. At these camps, many children take part in traditional activities, but they also receive special medical care. Handi Kids in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, offers camp for children and young adults with physical or mental disorders. The campers enjoy water sports, arts, dance, music and other activities. A camp in the state of Connecticut offers fun for children with cancer and serious blood diseases. It is called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Actor Paul Newman started the first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in nineteen-eighty-eight. Since then others have been established in the United States and overseas. VOICE ONE: For many children in overnight camps across the United States, the day ends in a traditional way. They gather around the campfire to cook and eat a sweet dessert food called "s'mores." The campers cook marshmallows over the fire. They put the marshmallows and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. This food got its name because after campers eat one, they ask for "some more." As the fire dies down, the campers join in traditional songs like this one. (MUSIC) Chances are, the children will always remember the times they spent in the firelight at summer camp. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Trafficking and Labor Reports Highlight Threats to Children's Futures
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 21, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Two separate reports offer new evidence for the problems facing children. Last week the American State Department released its two-thousand-four Trafficking in Persons Report. This rates efforts by one-hundred-forty countries to fight slavery. Information comes from American embassies, human rights groups and non-governmental organizations. The report divides the countries into three groups. The first two are countries believed to be working hard against trafficking or trying to improve. But the third group is nations believed to be making little or no effort. They could lose some American assistance or face other restrictions. Ten nations are in this group. Burma, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan were also listed last year. This year the State Department added Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone. It also added Venezuela, Guyana and Ecuador. Forty-two nations are on a special "watch list" of countries at risk of being given the lowest rating. One of them is Japan. The report says Japan could do much more to protect thousands of victims of sexual slavery linked to organized crime groups. Japan says it will do more. Worldwide, the report estimates that each year as many as eight-hundred-thousand people are taken across national borders for trafficking. It also notes that some groups place the number far higher. Most victims are women and girls forced into sexual slavery. Men are often forced into labor. Boys generally become child soldiers. Secretary of State Colin Powell says some countries have improved over the past year, including Turkey. It moved up from the lowest group to the watch list. Mister Powell said President Bush has promised fifty-million dollars more to fight international trafficking. This is above the seventy-million dollars budgeted for the past year. On June twelfth the International Labor Organization released a report for World Day Against Child Labor. The United Nations agency says at least ten-million children are being forced to work as house cleaners. In most cases, they earn little or no money. They are trapped. The report says that often the children are beaten or forced to have sex. Most of the victims are girls, some as young as ten. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: June 21, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Two separate reports offer new evidence for the problems facing children. Last week the American State Department released its two-thousand-four Trafficking in Persons Report. This rates efforts by one-hundred-forty countries to fight slavery. Information comes from American embassies, human rights groups and non-governmental organizations. The report divides the countries into three groups. The first two are countries believed to be working hard against trafficking or trying to improve. But the third group is nations believed to be making little or no effort. They could lose some American assistance or face other restrictions. Ten nations are in this group. Burma, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan were also listed last year. This year the State Department added Bangladesh, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone. It also added Venezuela, Guyana and Ecuador. Forty-two nations are on a special "watch list" of countries at risk of being given the lowest rating. One of them is Japan. The report says Japan could do much more to protect thousands of victims of sexual slavery linked to organized crime groups. Japan says it will do more. Worldwide, the report estimates that each year as many as eight-hundred-thousand people are taken across national borders for trafficking. It also notes that some groups place the number far higher. Most victims are women and girls forced into sexual slavery. Men are often forced into labor. Boys generally become child soldiers. Secretary of State Colin Powell says some countries have improved over the past year, including Turkey. It moved up from the lowest group to the watch list. Mister Powell said President Bush has promised fifty-million dollars more to fight international trafficking. This is above the seventy-million dollars budgeted for the past year. On June twelfth the International Labor Organization released a report for World Day Against Child Labor. The United Nations agency says at least ten-million children are being forced to work as house cleaners. In most cases, they earn little or no money. They are trapped. The report says that often the children are beaten or forced to have sex. Most of the victims are girls, some as young as ten. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - New Home for Elephants / Antarctic Volcano / Plastic Ocean Pollution
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 22, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: June 22, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: concerns about particles of plastic waste in the oceans. VOICE ONE: A hot discovery near Antarctica. VOICE TWO: And, a visit to an American zoo to look at a very unusual decision. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our first story is about two of the largest animals to walk the Earth. Their names are Wanda and Winky. They are Asian elephants. And they are not young anymore. Wanda is about forty-five years old. She has arthritis. Her joints hurt when she moves. Winky is fifty-one. She has foot problems. Wanda and Winky live at the Detroit Zoo, in the state of Michigan. Recently the zoo decided that they need a better home. Soon they will move to a wildlife refuge somewhere else in the United States. A lot of people were surprised that zoo officials would do this. You see, Wanda and Winky are the last two elephants in the Detroit Zoo. They are among the most popular animals in the collection. VOICE TWO: Yet their health problems are believed to be the result of the limited space they have. Six years ago, the Detroit Zoo expanded their living area. The elephants now have about one-half of a hectare to move around. This is two times as much space as they had before. Zoo Director Ron Kagan says this is still not nearly enough space. In the wild, elephants travel up to forty-eight kilometers a day. Elephants come from Africa and parts of Asia. They come from areas that are much warmer than places like Michigan. Winters there can be severe. Ron Kagan also notes that elephants are social animals. They normally live in groups and establish relationships. And he says elephants need lots of physical and mental activity to be happy. The Humane Society of the United States praised the Detroit Zoo for its decision to stop keeping elephants. The animal protection group has asked other animal parks to do the same. Wayne Pacelle is the chief of the Humane Society. He says even zoos with excellent conditions like the Detroit Zoo cannot provide a good home for elephants. VOICE ONE: The American Zoo and Aquarium Association has set new requirements for its members. These include more open space and activities to keep elephants from feeling depressed. But Ron Kagan at the Detroit Zoo notes that the new rules still permit several control methods. He says elephants can still be struck with a metal tool and, in some cases, electric shock devices. Mister Kagan also says the new requirements do not bar very young elephants from being separated from their mothers. In the wild, elephants stay with their mothers for years. Female elephants stay with their mothers all their lives. Mister Kagan says zoo and circus elephants often live in smaller groups than the herds that exist in the wild. And he says elephants reproduce with greater ease in the wild. He sees this as another sign that elephants should not be kept in zoos or circuses. VOICE TWO: Animal rights activists welcome the idea of ending the use of elephants for public show. But not everyone else does. Many people would agree with the comments of a young mother in Encino, California. She says if zoos and circuses no longer have elephants, her children may never see one. Many people enjoy circus performances by trained elephants. But Mister Kagan and other experts argue that these actions are unnatural for the animals. They say circus elephants are chained and sometimes treated badly. Some circus animals are said to travel up to fifty weeks a year. VOICE ONE: In the United States, millions of parents take their children to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Ringling Brothers has a center in Florida where Asian elephants are born and go to retire. The Center for Elephant Conservation does research and works to increase reproduction. The circus says it takes excellent care of all its animals. For years, it had the famous animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams. He got elephants and tigers to perform together. Now his son works with the animals. In two-thousand-one, Mark Oliver Gebel was charged with mistreating an elephant. Ringling Brothers said the accusations were made by extremist animal rights activists. A jury in San Jose, California, found Mister Gebel not guilty. But legal problems for the circus did not end there. Three animal protection groups brought a civil action in two-thousand over its treatment of animals. The groups expect a federal court in Washington, D.C., to hear that case next year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Scientists have known for a long time that plastic is harmful to ocean animals. But a new British study shows that plastic may continue to do harm even after it has broken into extremely small particles. British scientists collected pieces of plastic on seventeen British beaches as well as deep in the Atlantic Ocean. The pieces are so small they can only be seen with a microscope. The scientists found that nine kinds of plastic were common. These included nylon and polyester. The researchers also examined plankton, very small ocean animals and plants. These had been collected off the British coast during the past forty years. The scientists found particles of plastic in the plankton. They found three times more plastic in plankton from the nineteen-nineties than in plankton from the nineteen-sixties. VOICE ONE: Professor Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth led the study. Professor Thompson says his team will investigate how plastic affects the environment. For example, they want to learn if the plastic in plankton could poison fish and other sea life eaten by humans. The study appeared in the magazine Science. A spokesman for the American Plastics Council says a lot of the information from the British study was old. But he says the group will re-examine it. He also says industry must educate people about their responsibility to keep all waste out of oceans. Professor Thompson agrees that humans need to be more responsible. Plastic is a popular substance for containers and other objects partly because it is not easily destroyed. The professor estimates that plastic lasts from a hundred to a thousand years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have found what they believe is an active volcano near Antarctica. The volcano is outside an area known to have volcanic activity. Eugene Domack of Hamilton College in New York is the chief scientist on the project. He says the volcano stands seven-hundred meters above the sea bottom. It extends to within about two-hundred-seventy-five meters of the surface. The scientists first suspected the presence of the volcano in January of two-thousand-two. They were in the area on a ship operated by the National Science Foundation in the United States. VOICE ONE: The scientists mapped the sea floor with images made from sound waves. These maps first suggested the presence of a volcano. Also, there had been reports in the past from sailors who saw discolored water in the area. Changes in water color are often a sign of an active volcano. The volcano is in Antarctic Sound, at the northern edge of Antarctica. Mister Domack says there were no scientific records of active volcanoes in this area before. In April, the researchers returned to the area. They recorded video images of the sides and top of the volcano. They said these images showed a surface heavily populated by organisms that live on the sea bottom. However, there are also areas of black rock and no life on the edges of the volcano. The scientists say these dark areas show that lava, or liquid rock, has flowed from the volcano. This appears to have happened recently. The scientists also found heated seawater, especially around the freshest rock. The researchers are from five colleges in the United States and one in Canada. Their discovery was an unexpected part of a trip to investigate a huge area of ice that broke up several years ago. Mister Domack said more research was needed, since no one on their ship was an expert in volcanoes. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Doreen Baingana. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: concerns about particles of plastic waste in the oceans. VOICE ONE: A hot discovery near Antarctica. VOICE TWO: And, a visit to an American zoo to look at a very unusual decision. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our first story is about two of the largest animals to walk the Earth. Their names are Wanda and Winky. They are Asian elephants. And they are not young anymore. Wanda is about forty-five years old. She has arthritis. Her joints hurt when she moves. Winky is fifty-one. She has foot problems. Wanda and Winky live at the Detroit Zoo, in the state of Michigan. Recently the zoo decided that they need a better home. Soon they will move to a wildlife refuge somewhere else in the United States. A lot of people were surprised that zoo officials would do this. You see, Wanda and Winky are the last two elephants in the Detroit Zoo. They are among the most popular animals in the collection. VOICE TWO: Yet their health problems are believed to be the result of the limited space they have. Six years ago, the Detroit Zoo expanded their living area. The elephants now have about one-half of a hectare to move around. This is two times as much space as they had before. Zoo Director Ron Kagan says this is still not nearly enough space. In the wild, elephants travel up to forty-eight kilometers a day. Elephants come from Africa and parts of Asia. They come from areas that are much warmer than places like Michigan. Winters there can be severe. Ron Kagan also notes that elephants are social animals. They normally live in groups and establish relationships. And he says elephants need lots of physical and mental activity to be happy. The Humane Society of the United States praised the Detroit Zoo for its decision to stop keeping elephants. The animal protection group has asked other animal parks to do the same. Wayne Pacelle is the chief of the Humane Society. He says even zoos with excellent conditions like the Detroit Zoo cannot provide a good home for elephants. VOICE ONE: The American Zoo and Aquarium Association has set new requirements for its members. These include more open space and activities to keep elephants from feeling depressed. But Ron Kagan at the Detroit Zoo notes that the new rules still permit several control methods. He says elephants can still be struck with a metal tool and, in some cases, electric shock devices. Mister Kagan also says the new requirements do not bar very young elephants from being separated from their mothers. In the wild, elephants stay with their mothers for years. Female elephants stay with their mothers all their lives. Mister Kagan says zoo and circus elephants often live in smaller groups than the herds that exist in the wild. And he says elephants reproduce with greater ease in the wild. He sees this as another sign that elephants should not be kept in zoos or circuses. VOICE TWO: Animal rights activists welcome the idea of ending the use of elephants for public show. But not everyone else does. Many people would agree with the comments of a young mother in Encino, California. She says if zoos and circuses no longer have elephants, her children may never see one. Many people enjoy circus performances by trained elephants. But Mister Kagan and other experts argue that these actions are unnatural for the animals. They say circus elephants are chained and sometimes treated badly. Some circus animals are said to travel up to fifty weeks a year. VOICE ONE: In the United States, millions of parents take their children to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Ringling Brothers has a center in Florida where Asian elephants are born and go to retire. The Center for Elephant Conservation does research and works to increase reproduction. The circus says it takes excellent care of all its animals. For years, it had the famous animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams. He got elephants and tigers to perform together. Now his son works with the animals. In two-thousand-one, Mark Oliver Gebel was charged with mistreating an elephant. Ringling Brothers said the accusations were made by extremist animal rights activists. A jury in San Jose, California, found Mister Gebel not guilty. But legal problems for the circus did not end there. Three animal protection groups brought a civil action in two-thousand over its treatment of animals. The groups expect a federal court in Washington, D.C., to hear that case next year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Scientists have known for a long time that plastic is harmful to ocean animals. But a new British study shows that plastic may continue to do harm even after it has broken into extremely small particles. British scientists collected pieces of plastic on seventeen British beaches as well as deep in the Atlantic Ocean. The pieces are so small they can only be seen with a microscope. The scientists found that nine kinds of plastic were common. These included nylon and polyester. The researchers also examined plankton, very small ocean animals and plants. These had been collected off the British coast during the past forty years. The scientists found particles of plastic in the plankton. They found three times more plastic in plankton from the nineteen-nineties than in plankton from the nineteen-sixties. VOICE ONE: Professor Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth led the study. Professor Thompson says his team will investigate how plastic affects the environment. For example, they want to learn if the plastic in plankton could poison fish and other sea life eaten by humans. The study appeared in the magazine Science. A spokesman for the American Plastics Council says a lot of the information from the British study was old. But he says the group will re-examine it. He also says industry must educate people about their responsibility to keep all waste out of oceans. Professor Thompson agrees that humans need to be more responsible. Plastic is a popular substance for containers and other objects partly because it is not easily destroyed. The professor estimates that plastic lasts from a hundred to a thousand years. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have found what they believe is an active volcano near Antarctica. The volcano is outside an area known to have volcanic activity. Eugene Domack of Hamilton College in New York is the chief scientist on the project. He says the volcano stands seven-hundred meters above the sea bottom. It extends to within about two-hundred-seventy-five meters of the surface. The scientists first suspected the presence of the volcano in January of two-thousand-two. They were in the area on a ship operated by the National Science Foundation in the United States. VOICE ONE: The scientists mapped the sea floor with images made from sound waves. These maps first suggested the presence of a volcano. Also, there had been reports in the past from sailors who saw discolored water in the area. Changes in water color are often a sign of an active volcano. The volcano is in Antarctic Sound, at the northern edge of Antarctica. Mister Domack says there were no scientific records of active volcanoes in this area before. In April, the researchers returned to the area. They recorded video images of the sides and top of the volcano. They said these images showed a surface heavily populated by organisms that live on the sea bottom. However, there are also areas of black rock and no life on the edges of the volcano. The scientists say these dark areas show that lava, or liquid rock, has flowed from the volcano. This appears to have happened recently. The scientists also found heated seawater, especially around the freshest rock. The researchers are from five colleges in the United States and one in Canada. Their discovery was an unexpected part of a trip to investigate a huge area of ice that broke up several years ago. Mister Domack said more research was needed, since no one on their ship was an expert in volcanoes. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Doreen Baingana. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Briquetting
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In many parts of the world, people burn wood and other agricultural products for cooking and heating. However, as populations increase, materials for burning can be more difficult to find. One way to make better use of such materials is to press them together into a solid fuel. This is called briquetting. The objects that are burned are called briquettes. Briquettes are usually no bigger than a person's hand. They can be any shape. Charcoal is a common form of briquetting material. It is found throughout the world. Charcoal burns with a higher heat energy value per kilogram than wood. Charcoal briquettes are made from specially treated wood. Briquettes can also be made from many other kinds of materials. These include rice coverings, paper, food wastes, fish wastes, and wastes from processing coconuts and coffee. In general, anything that burns but is not found in an easy-to-use size can be used to makes briquettes. The first step in briquetting is to collect a large amount of the material. Then the material is cut or crushed to make it smaller. Next it is combined with a small amount of water and a substance called a binder. A binder keeps the material from falling apart when the pressure is taken away. Clay, mud, cement and starch are commonly used binders. At this point the material and binder may be partly dried. Finally, the substance is pushed together under high pressure in a machine. The machines used for families or in small briquetting businesses are often operated by hand. They shape the material into briquettes that can be burned immediately or stored and sold later. The same machines that make blocks and bricks from mud and straw can be used for briquetting. An example of such a machine is a Cinva Ram. Machines with electric motors can also be used. A twenty horsepower motor can be used for briquetting with rice husks. Two workers using such a machine can produce one-hundred-fifty kilograms of briquettes every hour. The machine can operate twenty-four hours a day. You can get more information about briquetting from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: June 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In many parts of the world, people burn wood and other agricultural products for cooking and heating. However, as populations increase, materials for burning can be more difficult to find. One way to make better use of such materials is to press them together into a solid fuel. This is called briquetting. The objects that are burned are called briquettes. Briquettes are usually no bigger than a person's hand. They can be any shape. Charcoal is a common form of briquetting material. It is found throughout the world. Charcoal burns with a higher heat energy value per kilogram than wood. Charcoal briquettes are made from specially treated wood. Briquettes can also be made from many other kinds of materials. These include rice coverings, paper, food wastes, fish wastes, and wastes from processing coconuts and coffee. In general, anything that burns but is not found in an easy-to-use size can be used to makes briquettes. The first step in briquetting is to collect a large amount of the material. Then the material is cut or crushed to make it smaller. Next it is combined with a small amount of water and a substance called a binder. A binder keeps the material from falling apart when the pressure is taken away. Clay, mud, cement and starch are commonly used binders. At this point the material and binder may be partly dried. Finally, the substance is pushed together under high pressure in a machine. The machines used for families or in small briquetting businesses are often operated by hand. They shape the material into briquettes that can be burned immediately or stored and sold later. The same machines that make blocks and bricks from mud and straw can be used for briquetting. An example of such a machine is a Cinva Ram. Machines with electric motors can also be used. A twenty horsepower motor can be used for briquetting with rice husks. Two workers using such a machine can produce one-hundred-fifty kilograms of briquettes every hour. The machine can operate twenty-four hours a day. You can get more information about briquetting from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 23, 2004 (MUSIC) Burt Rutan Broadcast: June 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft. It will soon be in orbit around the planet Saturn. We also tell the latest news from the two vehicles that are exploring the surface of the planet Mars. We begin with a report about the first attempt by a private company to launch a vehicle into space. The Cassini Mission to Saturn and its Moon Titan. VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft. It will soon be in orbit around the planet Saturn. We also tell the latest news from the two vehicles that are exploring the surface of the planet Mars. We begin with a report about the first attempt by a private company to launch a vehicle into space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A rocket plane called Space Ship One has completed the world’s first privately financed manned space flight. The rocket plane was launched into space Monday from the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center near Mojave, California. It flew to the edge of space, one-hundred kilometers above the Earth. It landed like an airplane ninety minutes later. Sixty-three-year old Michael Melvill was the pilot of Space Ship One. Mister Melvill said he had a problem with one of the devices on Space Ship One, but he was able to control the aircraft. He said looking down at the Earth from space was almost a religious experience. Thousands of people watched the event in California. VOICE TWO: The rocket plane was built by the Scaled Composites company of California. Aviation designer Burt Rutan (roo-TAN) planned the project. Mister Rutan is already famous for designing and building the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping for fuel. The plane called Voyager did this in nineteen-eighty-six. The Cassini Mission to Saturn and its Moon Titan. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A rocket plane called Space Ship One has completed the world’s first privately financed manned space flight. The rocket plane was launched into space Monday from the Mojave Civilian Aerospace Test Center near Mojave, California. It flew to the edge of space, one-hundred kilometers above the Earth. It landed like an airplane ninety minutes later. Sixty-three-year old Michael Melvill was the pilot of Space Ship One. Mister Melvill said he had a problem with one of the devices on Space Ship One, but he was able to control the aircraft. He said looking down at the Earth from space was almost a religious experience. Thousands of people watched the event in California. VOICE TWO: The rocket plane was built by the Scaled Composites company of California. Aviation designer Burt Rutan (roo-TAN) planned the project. Mister Rutan is already famous for designing and building the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping for fuel. The plane called Voyager did this in nineteen-eighty-six. Paul Allen helped pay for the fight of Space Ship One. He is one of the founders of the Microsoft computer software company. Mister Allen says he spent more than twenty-million dollars on the project. He says he has wanted to be part of space research ever since he was a small boy. VOICE ONE: Space Ship One was carried into the air by another airplane designed by Mister Rutan. An aircraft named the White Knight carried the smaller Space Ship One to an altitude of fifteen kilometers. It then released Space Ship One. Pilot Melvill then fired the rockets that gave it the power needed to reach space. Space Ship One was designed to reach an area of space called sub-orbital. This is just below the area where a spacecraft would enter an orbit around the Earth. VOICE TWO: Mister Rutan and Mister Allen say they believe the successful flight of Space Ship One is proof that privately financed space flight is possible. They say it is also proof that private companies can work in space in the future without government help. Mister Rutan says this first successful flight of Space Ship One is only the beginning of many more flights in the future. He says some of these future flights may include passengers who might pay about ten-thousand dollars each for a flight into space. The flight of Space Ship One was a step toward an international competition called the Ansari X prize. The competition is to create a reusable aircraft. The aircraft must be able to launch a pilot and two passengers into sub-orbital space and bring them back safely two times within two weeks. The prize is ten-million dollars. At least twenty-seven teams from several countries are reportedly working to compete for the prize. It must be claimed by the end of this year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On July first, the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft will arrive at the planet Saturn. It will move toward Saturn from below the famous rings that circle the planet. As it passes through Saturn’s rings, it will turn its cameras down to photograph the rings. The rings are made of dust and small rocks. Cassini will cross through a large space between two of the huge rings. Just after the spacecraft passes through the rings, it will fire its rocket engines. This will cause it to slow its speed, permitting the spacecraft to be captured by Saturn’s gravity. In this way, the Cassini spacecraft will enter an orbit around Saturn. VOICE TWO: Cassini has already sent back important information. On June eleventh, it passed within two-thousand kilometers of Saturn’s moon, Phoebe. NASA scientists say the photographs of Phoebe showed evidence of large amounts of ice. The photographs showed the ice was covered with a thin amount of dark material. It also showed huge holes in the surface of the moon. Torrence Johnson is the Cassini imaging team member at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says the photographs of Phoebe are very unusual and important. Mister Johnson said the photographs show the moon may be a rock from the beginning of our solar system. He says Phoebe may have been formed about four-and-one-half-thousand-million years ago. Mister Johnson says it is important to use all of the instruments that Cassini carries in an effort to learn all possible information about this small moon. Scientists plan to use the information gathered by Cassini’s eleven instruments to understand what Phoebe is made of and its size. VOICE ONE: When Cassini flew by Phoebe, it completed its first task in a four-year exploration of Saturn. Cassini is to pass near and gather information from seven of Saturn’s thirty-one known moons. The most important moon it will investigate is the huge moon Titan. It will pass by Titan forty-four times to gather information. It will do this during seventy-four orbits of Saturn. On December twenty-fifth, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will separate into two parts. The Huygens part of the spacecraft will begin its twenty-one day trip to the surface of Titan. It is to land on the surface of Titan on January fourteenth of next year. Titan is a big moon. It is larger than the planet Mercury and our own moon. It is of extreme interest to scientists because it is the only moon in the solar system with its own atmosphere. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida on October fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-seven. Seventeen nations took part in building the spacecraft. The American Space Agency, NASA, built and controls the Cassini orbiter. The European Space Agency built the Huygens lander. The Italian Space agency provided some of Cassini’s communications equipment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In April, the two NASA vehicles on the surface of Mars completed their three-month exploration of the Red Planet. NASA officials decided to extend the working life of the two vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. NASA reports that both Spirit and Opportunity are still working successfully. Spirit has driven more than three kilometers since arriving on Mars five months ago. It now has reached an area called the Columbia Hills. Scientists think rocks in the Columbia Hills may provide information about how hills form on Mars. The hills may hold information that will tell scientists if this part of Mars was wet. Scientists have seen the Columbia Hills before. In nineteen-ninety-seven, scientists could see the hills with the cameras of the Mars Pathfinder vehicle. But they could not be reached by the Pathfinder. VOICE ONE: Half way around the surface of Mars, NASA’s Opportunity vehicle is also still exploring. Earlier this month, Opportunity began exploring a large area called the Endurance Crater. The crater is about the size of a large soccer football field. It may have been made by a huge object that hit the Martian surface many years ago. Scientists who are controlling Opportunity moved the vehicle into the crater very carefully and slowly. First they moved Opportunity a short way down the side of the crater. Then they moved it back out. They wanted to make sure its six wheels would be able to climb back out of the crater. Opportunity has already used many of its instruments to study the inside of the crater. VOICE TWO: NASA officials who control Opportunity have begun to use a special command to shut down the vehicle during the Martian night. The command is called “deep sleep.” This method saves energy and permits the vehicle to work as much as three times longer during the Martian day. However, the “deep sleep” command is not without risk. NASA scientists say it is possible that a device on the vehicle called the thermal emissions spectrometer may be damaged. They say this has not happened yet. However, as Mars moves into its winter season, officials say the spectrometer will be lost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. Paul Allen helped pay for the fight of Space Ship One. He is one of the founders of the Microsoft computer software company. Mister Allen says he spent more than twenty-million dollars on the project. He says he has wanted to be part of space research ever since he was a small boy. VOICE ONE: Space Ship One was carried into the air by another airplane designed by Mister Rutan. An aircraft named the White Knight carried the smaller Space Ship One to an altitude of fifteen kilometers. It then released Space Ship One. Pilot Melvill then fired the rockets that gave it the power needed to reach space. Space Ship One was designed to reach an area of space called sub-orbital. This is just below the area where a spacecraft would enter an orbit around the Earth. VOICE TWO: Mister Rutan and Mister Allen say they believe the successful flight of Space Ship One is proof that privately financed space flight is possible. They say it is also proof that private companies can work in space in the future without government help. Mister Rutan says this first successful flight of Space Ship One is only the beginning of many more flights in the future. He says some of these future flights may include passengers who might pay about ten-thousand dollars each for a flight into space. The flight of Space Ship One was a step toward an international competition called the Ansari X prize. The competition is to create a reusable aircraft. The aircraft must be able to launch a pilot and two passengers into sub-orbital space and bring them back safely two times within two weeks. The prize is ten-million dollars. At least twenty-seven teams from several countries are reportedly working to compete for the prize. It must be claimed by the end of this year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On July first, the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft will arrive at the planet Saturn. It will move toward Saturn from below the famous rings that circle the planet. As it passes through Saturn’s rings, it will turn its cameras down to photograph the rings. The rings are made of dust and small rocks. Cassini will cross through a large space between two of the huge rings. Just after the spacecraft passes through the rings, it will fire its rocket engines. This will cause it to slow its speed, permitting the spacecraft to be captured by Saturn’s gravity. In this way, the Cassini spacecraft will enter an orbit around Saturn. VOICE TWO: Cassini has already sent back important information. On June eleventh, it passed within two-thousand kilometers of Saturn’s moon, Phoebe. NASA scientists say the photographs of Phoebe showed evidence of large amounts of ice. The photographs showed the ice was covered with a thin amount of dark material. It also showed huge holes in the surface of the moon. Torrence Johnson is the Cassini imaging team member at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says the photographs of Phoebe are very unusual and important. Mister Johnson said the photographs show the moon may be a rock from the beginning of our solar system. He says Phoebe may have been formed about four-and-one-half-thousand-million years ago. Mister Johnson says it is important to use all of the instruments that Cassini carries in an effort to learn all possible information about this small moon. Scientists plan to use the information gathered by Cassini’s eleven instruments to understand what Phoebe is made of and its size. VOICE ONE: When Cassini flew by Phoebe, it completed its first task in a four-year exploration of Saturn. Cassini is to pass near and gather information from seven of Saturn’s thirty-one known moons. The most important moon it will investigate is the huge moon Titan. It will pass by Titan forty-four times to gather information. It will do this during seventy-four orbits of Saturn. On December twenty-fifth, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will separate into two parts. The Huygens part of the spacecraft will begin its twenty-one day trip to the surface of Titan. It is to land on the surface of Titan on January fourteenth of next year. Titan is a big moon. It is larger than the planet Mercury and our own moon. It is of extreme interest to scientists because it is the only moon in the solar system with its own atmosphere. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida on October fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-seven. Seventeen nations took part in building the spacecraft. The American Space Agency, NASA, built and controls the Cassini orbiter. The European Space Agency built the Huygens lander. The Italian Space agency provided some of Cassini’s communications equipment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In April, the two NASA vehicles on the surface of Mars completed their three-month exploration of the Red Planet. NASA officials decided to extend the working life of the two vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. NASA reports that both Spirit and Opportunity are still working successfully. Spirit has driven more than three kilometers since arriving on Mars five months ago. It now has reached an area called the Columbia Hills. Scientists think rocks in the Columbia Hills may provide information about how hills form on Mars. The hills may hold information that will tell scientists if this part of Mars was wet. Scientists have seen the Columbia Hills before. In nineteen-ninety-seven, scientists could see the hills with the cameras of the Mars Pathfinder vehicle. But they could not be reached by the Pathfinder. VOICE ONE: Half way around the surface of Mars, NASA’s Opportunity vehicle is also still exploring. Earlier this month, Opportunity began exploring a large area called the Endurance Crater. The crater is about the size of a large soccer football field. It may have been made by a huge object that hit the Martian surface many years ago. Scientists who are controlling Opportunity moved the vehicle into the crater very carefully and slowly. First they moved Opportunity a short way down the side of the crater. Then they moved it back out. They wanted to make sure its six wheels would be able to climb back out of the crater. Opportunity has already used many of its instruments to study the inside of the crater. VOICE TWO: NASA officials who control Opportunity have begun to use a special command to shut down the vehicle during the Martian night. The command is called “deep sleep.” This method saves energy and permits the vehicle to work as much as three times longer during the Martian day. However, the “deep sleep” command is not without risk. NASA scientists say it is possible that a device on the vehicle called the thermal emissions spectrometer may be damaged. They say this has not happened yet. However, as Mars moves into its winter season, officials say the spectrometer will be lost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Tuberculosis and Women
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 23, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Tuberculosis kills about two million people a year. The international campaign called Stop TB says this lung disease kills more men than women in most of the world. Yet it says tuberculosis kills more women than all pregnancy related disorders combined. And, in some cultures, women who get TB face additional problems. They may not be able to leave their families or their jobs to go to a health center that is far away. They may be required to have their husband, father or brother take them for care. They may also have to depend on men to get them medicine. Women often get TB during their most productive years. They are having babies, caring for their families and often working in paid jobs. Most women who die of tuberculosis are between the ages of fifteen and forty-four. Often they die for lack of treatment or because of poor treatment. Tuberculosis is especially easy to catch in places where people live close together. Most people who get infected with TB never get sick. But mothers who do, and are not treated, can easily spread the disease to their children. The germs are spread through the air when a person with TB coughs or sneezes. People with active cases of tuberculosis have a bad cough. Other signs include pain in the chest and coughing up blood. Tuberculosis also produces weakness, increased body temperature and weight loss. Some women worry about rejection by family members and employers if they have TB. The World Health Organization leads the StopTB campaign. Campaign officials say there is no reason to reject someone who has TB. They say it is important to know that tuberculosis can be cured. People must take medicine for several months. But doctors say a person taking the medicine stops infecting others in about two weeks. Women may be concerned about taking tuberculosis drugs if they are pregnant. But experts at the American Centers for Disease Control advise them to continue treatment. And the women should get their treatment from a trained doctor or health care worker. That way they know they are taking the right medicine. The C.D.C also says women who take TB drugs can continue to breastfeed their babies. This is important for the development of natural defenses in babies. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Pre-Election, 1840
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 24, 2004 (MUSIC) Senator Henry Clay</b< Broadcast: June 24, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As the administration of Martin Van Buren came closer to an end in eighteen-forty, there was widespread feeling that he had not been a strong president. He seemed unable to make the people understand his policies. The opposition Whig Party was happy over Van Buren's failures. It saw an excellent chance to win the presidency in the upcoming election. Vice President John C. Calhoun VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As the administration of Martin Van Buren came closer to an end in eighteen-forty, there was widespread feeling that he had not been a strong president. He seemed unable to make the people understand his policies. The opposition Whig Party was happy over Van Buren's failures. It saw an excellent chance to win the presidency in the upcoming election. VOICE TWO: The Whig leader in the Senate was Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay told a friend he was sure he would be called on to serve as the Whig candidate for president. Other Whig leaders were not so sure. They did not question Clay's ability to be president. But he had been a candidate both in eighteen-twenty-four and eighteen-thirty-two. And he had lost both times. Then there was a growing political force in the United States that would not be helpful to Clay's candidacy. That was the Abolitionist Movement, which opposed slavery. Abolitionists did not like Clay, because he owned slaves. VOICE ONE: The dispute over slavery seemed to have been laid to rest for a time. But during the eighteen-thirties, it rose to the surface again. A major reason why the dispute came alive again was cotton. Cotton plants spread across the states of the south. Cotton production had grown so heavily that it gave the south a one-crop economy. Cotton depended on the labor of slaves. By the eighteen-thirties, cotton planters believed that without slavery, the whole economic system of the south would lie in ruins. To them, slavery was no longer just a question of right or wrong. It was a necessity for survival. VOICE TWO: Cotton made the agricultural south economically dependent on the industrial north. Northern ships carried southern cotton to the markets of Europe. Manufactured goods needed in the south came from the north. The south put so much time and energy into growing cotton, that it failed to give much thought to developing industries of its own. The situation deeply troubled the political leaders of the south. What made things worse was the fact that most of the federal government's financial aid for public works went to the north. Then there was the old dispute over import taxes. Taxes on foreign goods mostly helped the manufacturers of the north. The taxes were to be lowered in eighteen-forty-two. But that was some time in the future. No one could be sure what would happen then. Such was the general political and economic picture in the United States when the Abolitionist Movement began to make itself felt. VOICE ONE: In the beginning, the Abolitionist Movement was organized by religious groups. The members of these groups believed there could be no compromise with evil. They felt that slavery was evil. So slavery must go. The eighteen-thirties saw the birth of anti-slavery societies in New York and New England. The societies published newspapers and pamphlets. They began to flood the country with pamphlets and anti-slavery petitions. The south tried to stop the flow of this anti-slavery literature across the borders of southern states. The Abolitionists, in turn, declared that such actions violated freedom of the press and the constitutional right of petition. This was the beginning of a long, bitter struggle. It lasted for twenty years. It finally split the Union. VOICE TWO: The Abolitionists had not as yet received major support from the people of the north. Many northerners were hostile to them. But in eighteen-thirty-six, the House of Representatives declared that it would not listen to any anti-slavery petitions. This became known as the "Gag Rule." The Senate did not pass such a rule. But the Senate still made it almost impossible for anti-slavery petitions to come before it. Former President John Quincy Adams, who was then a congressman, rose up in protest. He was not an Abolitionist. But he led a campaign against the "Gag Rule." Adams said the rule was a violation of the constitutional right to petition Congress. The "Gag Rule" made great numbers of people in the north very angry. Because of it, these people began to support the Abolitionist Movement. VOICE ONE: The increasing bitterness over the issue of slavery put Whig leader Henry Clay in a difficult position. Clay was under pressure to make a decision on slavery, on the Abolitionists, and on the southern extremists. Where did he stand. Senator Clay had always hated slavery, although he owned some slaves himself. In a Senate speech in eighteen-thirty-three, he called slavery "this great evil...the darkest spot in the map of our country." Clay feared that the dispute over slavery might destroy him as a political leader. And, what was worse, he was afraid that it might destroy the nation. Clay was an extremely strong believer in the Union. VOICE TWO: Clay opposed violent action. He thought the slow growth of public opinion was better than violence in bringing about a solution to slavery. Clay hated the Abolitionists and the great noise they were beginning to make over slavery. He said they were interfering with a southern institution and were forcing slavery into politics. Slavery, he declared, did not belong in politics. Still, Clay was a national leader. He knew it would be bad to stand too strongly opposed to the growing Abolitionist Movement. Clay also opposed the southern senators who tried to prevent discussion of slavery. He said their position was emotional and extreme. It was as bad as that of the Abolitionists. VOICE ONE: The Senate did, in fact, discuss slavery, in a general way. It was concerned about the legal position of the federal government in relation to slavery. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina offered a resolution for consideration. This is what he said: The Union was created by an agreement among the states. Each state had the constitutional right to complete control over its own institutions. It was the job -- the duty -- of the government in Washington to protect that right. That meant protection against any interference in the institution of slavery. VOICE TWO: Calhoun was most forceful when it came to slavery in the District of Columbia and in the territories. He declared that any federal, state, or private interference with slavery in those places was a direct and dangerous attack on the interests of slave states. Calhoun said the south must not surrender an inch to the Abolitionist Movement. "If we do," he said, "we are gone." VOICE ONE: Senator Clay did not like such extreme talk about states' rights. He became especially angry when states talked about separating from the Union, instead of trying to solve problems together. "Separation," Clay said, "is a terrible word. One's ears should not accept it. I desire to see -- in continued safety and prosperity -- this Union, and no other Union. I am opposed to all separate confederacies and to all sectional conventions. This Union, this government, will do nothing to attack the rights and security of the slave-holding states." VOICE TWO: Clay then offered his own resolution for Senate consideration. This is what he said: Congress had no legal power over slavery within the states. Therefore, petitions for the abolition of slavery must be rejected, because Congress had no constitutional right to act on them. The Senate approved Clay's resolution. It rejected the one offered by Calhoun. VOICE ONE: Clay had acted as he did because he wanted to settle the dispute, and because he loved the Union. He did so for personal political reasons, too. Clay had defended the constitutional right of petition. That pleased the north. But he also had used a legal move to block the Abolitionist Movement from bringing anti-slavery petitions before Congress. That pleased the south. Clay believed he had protected his national position. He told a friend: "I have acted in such a way that I lost nothing, either in the south or the north." VOICE TWO: As the national election of eighteen-forty got closer, the Whig Party felt more hopeful. They began to believe they could defeat President Van Buren in his attempt to win a second term. But they also began to turn away from Henry Clay as a presidential candidate. The election of eighteen-forty will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. VOICE TWO: The Whig leader in the Senate was Henry Clay of Kentucky. Clay told a friend he was sure he would be called on to serve as the Whig candidate for president. Other Whig leaders were not so sure. They did not question Clay's ability to be president. But he had been a candidate both in eighteen-twenty-four and eighteen-thirty-two. And he had lost both times. Then there was a growing political force in the United States that would not be helpful to Clay's candidacy. That was the Abolitionist Movement, which opposed slavery. Abolitionists did not like Clay, because he owned slaves. VOICE ONE: The dispute over slavery seemed to have been laid to rest for a time. But during the eighteen-thirties, it rose to the surface again. A major reason why the dispute came alive again was cotton. Cotton plants spread across the states of the south. Cotton production had grown so heavily that it gave the south a one-crop economy. Cotton depended on the labor of slaves. By the eighteen-thirties, cotton planters believed that without slavery, the whole economic system of the south would lie in ruins. To them, slavery was no longer just a question of right or wrong. It was a necessity for survival. VOICE TWO: Cotton made the agricultural south economically dependent on the industrial north. Northern ships carried southern cotton to the markets of Europe. Manufactured goods needed in the south came from the north. The south put so much time and energy into growing cotton, that it failed to give much thought to developing industries of its own. The situation deeply troubled the political leaders of the south. What made things worse was the fact that most of the federal government's financial aid for public works went to the north. Then there was the old dispute over import taxes. Taxes on foreign goods mostly helped the manufacturers of the north. The taxes were to be lowered in eighteen-forty-two. But that was some time in the future. No one could be sure what would happen then. Such was the general political and economic picture in the United States when the Abolitionist Movement began to make itself felt. VOICE ONE: In the beginning, the Abolitionist Movement was organized by religious groups. The members of these groups believed there could be no compromise with evil. They felt that slavery was evil. So slavery must go. The eighteen-thirties saw the birth of anti-slavery societies in New York and New England. The societies published newspapers and pamphlets. They began to flood the country with pamphlets and anti-slavery petitions. The south tried to stop the flow of this anti-slavery literature across the borders of southern states. The Abolitionists, in turn, declared that such actions violated freedom of the press and the constitutional right of petition. This was the beginning of a long, bitter struggle. It lasted for twenty years. It finally split the Union. VOICE TWO: The Abolitionists had not as yet received major support from the people of the north. Many northerners were hostile to them. But in eighteen-thirty-six, the House of Representatives declared that it would not listen to any anti-slavery petitions. This became known as the "Gag Rule." The Senate did not pass such a rule. But the Senate still made it almost impossible for anti-slavery petitions to come before it. Former President John Quincy Adams, who was then a congressman, rose up in protest. He was not an Abolitionist. But he led a campaign against the "Gag Rule." Adams said the rule was a violation of the constitutional right to petition Congress. The "Gag Rule" made great numbers of people in the north very angry. Because of it, these people began to support the Abolitionist Movement. VOICE ONE: The increasing bitterness over the issue of slavery put Whig leader Henry Clay in a difficult position. Clay was under pressure to make a decision on slavery, on the Abolitionists, and on the southern extremists. Where did he stand. Senator Clay had always hated slavery, although he owned some slaves himself. In a Senate speech in eighteen-thirty-three, he called slavery "this great evil...the darkest spot in the map of our country." Clay feared that the dispute over slavery might destroy him as a political leader. And, what was worse, he was afraid that it might destroy the nation. Clay was an extremely strong believer in the Union. VOICE TWO: Clay opposed violent action. He thought the slow growth of public opinion was better than violence in bringing about a solution to slavery. Clay hated the Abolitionists and the great noise they were beginning to make over slavery. He said they were interfering with a southern institution and were forcing slavery into politics. Slavery, he declared, did not belong in politics. Still, Clay was a national leader. He knew it would be bad to stand too strongly opposed to the growing Abolitionist Movement. Clay also opposed the southern senators who tried to prevent discussion of slavery. He said their position was emotional and extreme. It was as bad as that of the Abolitionists. VOICE ONE: The Senate did, in fact, discuss slavery, in a general way. It was concerned about the legal position of the federal government in relation to slavery. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina offered a resolution for consideration. This is what he said: The Union was created by an agreement among the states. Each state had the constitutional right to complete control over its own institutions. It was the job -- the duty -- of the government in Washington to protect that right. That meant protection against any interference in the institution of slavery. VOICE TWO: Calhoun was most forceful when it came to slavery in the District of Columbia and in the territories. He declared that any federal, state, or private interference with slavery in those places was a direct and dangerous attack on the interests of slave states. Calhoun said the south must not surrender an inch to the Abolitionist Movement. "If we do," he said, "we are gone." VOICE ONE: Senator Clay did not like such extreme talk about states' rights. He became especially angry when states talked about separating from the Union, instead of trying to solve problems together. "Separation," Clay said, "is a terrible word. One's ears should not accept it. I desire to see -- in continued safety and prosperity -- this Union, and no other Union. I am opposed to all separate confederacies and to all sectional conventions. This Union, this government, will do nothing to attack the rights and security of the slave-holding states." VOICE TWO: Clay then offered his own resolution for Senate consideration. This is what he said: Congress had no legal power over slavery within the states. Therefore, petitions for the abolition of slavery must be rejected, because Congress had no constitutional right to act on them. The Senate approved Clay's resolution. It rejected the one offered by Calhoun. VOICE ONE: Clay had acted as he did because he wanted to settle the dispute, and because he loved the Union. He did so for personal political reasons, too. Clay had defended the constitutional right of petition. That pleased the north. But he also had used a legal move to block the Abolitionist Movement from bringing anti-slavery petitions before Congress. That pleased the south. Clay believed he had protected his national position. He told a friend: "I have acted in such a way that I lost nothing, either in the south or the north." VOICE TWO: As the national election of eighteen-forty got closer, the Whig Party felt more hopeful. They began to believe they could defeat President Van Buren in his attempt to win a second term. But they also began to turn away from Henry Clay as a presidential candidate. The election of eighteen-forty will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT- Year-round School
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 24, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many American schools have closed for the summer. Most children in the United States have a summer holiday of almost three months. This traditional school schedule was designed long ago when many Americans lived on farms. Children were needed at home during the summer to help their families with the crops and animals. Schools later continued the tradition, mostly because it was difficult to hold classes in the hot summer weather. American schools began to experiment with changing this system in the early nineteen-hundreds. One idea was for children to attend school all year round. But the idea did not become popular until about twenty-five years ago. Studies done at the time showed that American students were not performing as well as students in other countries. Students who attend year-round schools in the United States do not go to class every day of the year. They spend the same number of days in class as other students. But the time is organized differently. For example, some students attend school five days a week for nine weeks. Then they have three weeks off before going back to school for another nine weeks. In the summer they have about five weeks of holiday. Supporters of year-round schooling say it improves student learning. They say students in the traditional system often forget what they have learned during a long summer holiday. They say schools can offer special classes during the short holidays for students who need extra help. They also say it saves money because the school buildings are used throughout the year. People opposed to year-round schooling say the research has not proved that it improves learning. Families report problems organizing activities and travel when children in different schools have different holidays. Some parents want their children to have an extended summer away from the pressures of school. People who operate summer camps for children oppose the idea. So do businesses that employ teenagers in the summer. The National Association for Year-Round Education says that more than two-million American children, out of a total of fifty-two million, now attend school year-round. It says forty-seven American states have some schools that operate year-round. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 24, 2004 - Language Map of the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 24, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a map of mother tongues in America. RS: Last week, we told you about americanrhetoric.com, a collection of well-known American speeches. Well, there's something brand new on the Web. It's a way to find out which languages are spoken in any American neighborhood, and by how many people. AA: The Modern Language Association created the map with information from the last U.S. population count, the Census of 2000. The executive director of this scholarly association, Rosemary Feal, says the map is for educators, marketers, public officials -- really, anyone interested. FEAL: "We started off with a paper map -- it sounds quaint -- on a table, sort of putting Post-it's, you know, here's a concentration of Arabic speakers and here's the Portuguese speakers. And we soon realized that it had to be interactive and we thought, well, why not put it on the Web and let everyone take advantage of it." RS: "Now how is this different from just the census data? Doesn't the local government take in the census data and analyze it and use it? How would this be any different?" FEAL: "Well, first of all, ours allows anyone to have access and to play around with it, whereas if the particular community has the census data, it's probably buried in some report that addresses the demographics." "Sure we all have the numbers available to us, but it's another thing to plug in your Zip [postal] code and to see those 300 speakers of Polish and the 80 speakers of Vietnamese in a tabular fashion, or to look at the language map and see the colors jumping out at you where the density of certain speakers might be high." AA: "What are the top five languages that you've got?" FEAL: "The top languages spoken at home in the United States after English [are] Spanish, Chinese, French, German and Tagalog. Now that German is very interesting, because we know there was a great influx of Germans in previous immigration waves. But it's fascinating to see how many speakers of German there still are in the United States." RS: "And how did that break down, over 18 and under 18?" FEAL: "For example German, if you look at the states where it's most spoken, like California, there's over 135,000 adults who speak German in California, but only around 11,000 children between five and seventeen. In New York, 85,000 speakers over age 18 and only 7,000 under. So you can see that it's coming out to less than 10 percent (who are under 18)." AA: "So what are some of the up and coming languages in this country?" FEAL: "Some of the up and coming languages include Asian languages such as Vietnamese. Tagalog, one of the languages spoken in the Philippines, is certainly on the increase. Spanish, of course, continues to grow, as do some of the less commonly taught languages from countries where we continue to receive large numbers of immigrants. Russian has been on the increase, for example." AA: "Now do you think your map, I'm curious, when you think about the people with the official English movement, who want to make English the official language across the country -- it is now in some states, but they want to make it national -- do you think they're going to find more ammunition from your site? Or do you think this is going to reassure them? Or what's the state of English from your map?" FEAL: "This will show those who favor an English-only movement two things. Number one, that the great majority of people living in the United States speak English at home. Number two, that the great majority of those who speak a language other than English at home speak English very well or well -- seventy-seven percent. That's reassuring. "When immigrants come to the United States, they want to learn English. They know that English is the key to education and to success in American society, and immigrant families are eager for their children to learn English. What we hope this map will show is that we have great linguistic resources in the United States, in addition to English, and we should be preserving those while we're learning English. The conference that I'm at here right now in the Washington area on languages and national need talks precisely about the wasted resource that we throw away when we don't encourage the next generation to keep the mother tongue while they're learning English." RS: Rosemary Feal of the Modern Language Association spoke to us from the National Language Conference, held this week near Baltimore, Maryland. The new MLA Language Map lists the top thirty languages spoken in the United States. AA: The map is at mla.org. You can click on the link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And if you'd like to speak up, write to us at word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: June 24, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a map of mother tongues in America. RS: Last week, we told you about americanrhetoric.com, a collection of well-known American speeches. Well, there's something brand new on the Web. It's a way to find out which languages are spoken in any American neighborhood, and by how many people. AA: The Modern Language Association created the map with information from the last U.S. population count, the Census of 2000. The executive director of this scholarly association, Rosemary Feal, says the map is for educators, marketers, public officials -- really, anyone interested. FEAL: "We started off with a paper map -- it sounds quaint -- on a table, sort of putting Post-it's, you know, here's a concentration of Arabic speakers and here's the Portuguese speakers. And we soon realized that it had to be interactive and we thought, well, why not put it on the Web and let everyone take advantage of it." RS: "Now how is this different from just the census data? Doesn't the local government take in the census data and analyze it and use it? How would this be any different?" FEAL: "Well, first of all, ours allows anyone to have access and to play around with it, whereas if the particular community has the census data, it's probably buried in some report that addresses the demographics." "Sure we all have the numbers available to us, but it's another thing to plug in your Zip [postal] code and to see those 300 speakers of Polish and the 80 speakers of Vietnamese in a tabular fashion, or to look at the language map and see the colors jumping out at you where the density of certain speakers might be high." AA: "What are the top five languages that you've got?" FEAL: "The top languages spoken at home in the United States after English [are] Spanish, Chinese, French, German and Tagalog. Now that German is very interesting, because we know there was a great influx of Germans in previous immigration waves. But it's fascinating to see how many speakers of German there still are in the United States." RS: "And how did that break down, over 18 and under 18?" FEAL: "For example German, if you look at the states where it's most spoken, like California, there's over 135,000 adults who speak German in California, but only around 11,000 children between five and seventeen. In New York, 85,000 speakers over age 18 and only 7,000 under. So you can see that it's coming out to less than 10 percent (who are under 18)." AA: "So what are some of the up and coming languages in this country?" FEAL: "Some of the up and coming languages include Asian languages such as Vietnamese. Tagalog, one of the languages spoken in the Philippines, is certainly on the increase. Spanish, of course, continues to grow, as do some of the less commonly taught languages from countries where we continue to receive large numbers of immigrants. Russian has been on the increase, for example." AA: "Now do you think your map, I'm curious, when you think about the people with the official English movement, who want to make English the official language across the country -- it is now in some states, but they want to make it national -- do you think they're going to find more ammunition from your site? Or do you think this is going to reassure them? Or what's the state of English from your map?" FEAL: "This will show those who favor an English-only movement two things. Number one, that the great majority of people living in the United States speak English at home. Number two, that the great majority of those who speak a language other than English at home speak English very well or well -- seventy-seven percent. That's reassuring. "When immigrants come to the United States, they want to learn English. They know that English is the key to education and to success in American society, and immigrant families are eager for their children to learn English. What we hope this map will show is that we have great linguistic resources in the United States, in addition to English, and we should be preserving those while we're learning English. The conference that I'm at here right now in the Washington area on languages and national need talks precisely about the wasted resource that we throw away when we don't encourage the next generation to keep the mother tongue while they're learning English." RS: Rosemary Feal of the Modern Language Association spoke to us from the National Language Conference, held this week near Baltimore, Maryland. The new MLA Language Map lists the top thirty languages spoken in the United States. AA: The map is at mla.org. You can click on the link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And if you'd like to speak up, write to us at word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Country Singer Gretchen Wilson / Question About How Ronald Reagan Got Nicknamed 'The Gipper' / World of Blogs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 25, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by country singer Gretchen Wilson. And a question about the nickname of former President Ronald Reagan. But first, we report about blogs. Blogs HOST: Do you know what a “blogger” is? Well, here is Shep O’Neal to tell us. ANNCR: A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet computer Web site called a “blog.” The word “blog” is a short way of saying Web log, or personal Web site. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like. There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas to the many people who read them. They contain links to other Web sites. And they provide a place for people to write their ideas and react to the ideas of others. A research company called Perseus has studied more than three-thousand Web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than one-hundred-thousand bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year. However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products. At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended. Last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service, weblogs.com. He says the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago, and thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closing. One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket. Rebecca Blood created the Web site in nineteen-ninety-nine. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called “The Weblog Handbook.” It has been translated into four languages so far. Mizz Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket gets about thirty-thousand visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything -- politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent people from stealing money from on-line bank accounts. 'The Gipper' HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from N’Djamena, Chad. Awada Ehemir asks about the meaning of the phrase “the Gipper”, used to describe former President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan died earlier this month. He was called “the Gipper” by many announcers broadcasting his funeral on television. The explanation goes back to Mister Reagan’s early years in Hollywood, California, before he entered politics. Ronald Reagan moved to Hollywood from the American middle west and became a movie star. He appeared in about fifty movies, including “King’s Row,” “Bedtime For Bonzo” and “Hellcats of the Navy.” But he became known as “the Gipper” because of a real person he played in a movie. The real life “Gipper” was named George Gipp. He played football at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana from nineteen-seventeen to nineteen-twenty. He was one of the best college football players ever. But his story was a sad one. George Gipp developed a throat infection during one of his final football games at Notre Dame. He died a few weeks later, at the age of twenty-five. Before dying, he told his football coach what to do when the team was in danger of losing. He said to tell the team to “win one for the Gipper.” Eight years later, when Notre Dame was in danger of losing a game, Coach Knute Rockne told the players the story of the Gipper. And the team won the game. In nineteen-forty, Hollywood made a movie about the famous Notre Dame coach. It was called “Knute Rockne—All American.” Ronald Reagan played the part of George Gipp. In the movie, he speaks those famous words just before he dies. AUDIO: “ ... ask them to go in there with all they got, win just one for the Gipper.” After the movie was made, two men were known as “the Gipper” -- George Gipp and Ronald Reagan. And the words, “win one for the Gipper,” later became Ronald Reagan’s political battle cry. Gretchen Wilson HOST: One of the most popular new country singers in the United States today is Gretchen Wilson. She tells about herself on her new album, “Here for the Party.” It has sold more than one-million copies since its release last month. Gwen Outen has more. ANNCR: Gretchen Wilson was born in nineteen-seventy-three in a small town called Pocahontas in the middle western state of Illinois. She grew up poor, and without a father. She tells about her hometown in this song, “Pocahontas Proud.” (MUSIC) The first hit song from Gretchen Wilson’s new album is “Redneck Woman.” “Redneck” is a slang word used to describe a poor white person in the southern United States. The term is sometimes used as an insult but often used with pride. The song tells us even more about Gretchen Wilson. (MUSIC) Critics have praised “Here for the Party” as a great first album. And they expect more fresh country sounds from Gretchen Wilson in the future. We leave you now with the title song from her new album, “Here for the Party.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Roy Benson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English Broadcast: June 25, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by country singer Gretchen Wilson. And a question about the nickname of former President Ronald Reagan. But first, we report about blogs. Blogs HOST: Do you know what a “blogger” is? Well, here is Shep O’Neal to tell us. ANNCR: A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet computer Web site called a “blog.” The word “blog” is a short way of saying Web log, or personal Web site. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like. There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas to the many people who read them. They contain links to other Web sites. And they provide a place for people to write their ideas and react to the ideas of others. A research company called Perseus has studied more than three-thousand Web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than one-hundred-thousand bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year. However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products. At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended. Last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service, weblogs.com. He says the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago, and thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closing. One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket. Rebecca Blood created the Web site in nineteen-ninety-nine. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called “The Weblog Handbook.” It has been translated into four languages so far. Mizz Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket gets about thirty-thousand visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything -- politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent people from stealing money from on-line bank accounts. 'The Gipper' HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from N’Djamena, Chad. Awada Ehemir asks about the meaning of the phrase “the Gipper”, used to describe former President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan died earlier this month. He was called “the Gipper” by many announcers broadcasting his funeral on television. The explanation goes back to Mister Reagan’s early years in Hollywood, California, before he entered politics. Ronald Reagan moved to Hollywood from the American middle west and became a movie star. He appeared in about fifty movies, including “King’s Row,” “Bedtime For Bonzo” and “Hellcats of the Navy.” But he became known as “the Gipper” because of a real person he played in a movie. The real life “Gipper” was named George Gipp. He played football at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana from nineteen-seventeen to nineteen-twenty. He was one of the best college football players ever. But his story was a sad one. George Gipp developed a throat infection during one of his final football games at Notre Dame. He died a few weeks later, at the age of twenty-five. Before dying, he told his football coach what to do when the team was in danger of losing. He said to tell the team to “win one for the Gipper.” Eight years later, when Notre Dame was in danger of losing a game, Coach Knute Rockne told the players the story of the Gipper. And the team won the game. In nineteen-forty, Hollywood made a movie about the famous Notre Dame coach. It was called “Knute Rockne—All American.” Ronald Reagan played the part of George Gipp. In the movie, he speaks those famous words just before he dies. AUDIO: “ ... ask them to go in there with all they got, win just one for the Gipper.” After the movie was made, two men were known as “the Gipper” -- George Gipp and Ronald Reagan. And the words, “win one for the Gipper,” later became Ronald Reagan’s political battle cry. Gretchen Wilson HOST: One of the most popular new country singers in the United States today is Gretchen Wilson. She tells about herself on her new album, “Here for the Party.” It has sold more than one-million copies since its release last month. Gwen Outen has more. ANNCR: Gretchen Wilson was born in nineteen-seventy-three in a small town called Pocahontas in the middle western state of Illinois. She grew up poor, and without a father. She tells about her hometown in this song, “Pocahontas Proud.” (MUSIC) The first hit song from Gretchen Wilson’s new album is “Redneck Woman.” “Redneck” is a slang word used to describe a poor white person in the southern United States. The term is sometimes used as an insult but often used with pride. The song tells us even more about Gretchen Wilson. (MUSIC) Critics have praised “Here for the Party” as a great first album. And they expect more fresh country sounds from Gretchen Wilson in the future. We leave you now with the title song from her new album, “Here for the Party.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Roy Benson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - World Wealth Report
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 25, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Two-thousand-three was a good year for wealthy people around the world. Merrill Lynch and Capgemini have released their yearly World Wealth Report. Merrill Lynch is an American financial services company. Capgemini is a French company that gives business advice. Seven-point-seven million people worldwide had one million dollars or more in wealth at the end of last year. The report says the number grew by seven and a half percent from two-thousand two. That year there were not many new millionaires. But last year the investments of the wealthy did well. Their wealth increased by almost eight percent. China, India, Spain and the United States were high performers in the creation of wealth. Wealthy people around the world bought more stock last year. The report shows that their stock holdings as a share of their wealth increased from twenty percent to thirty-five percent. Last year, an economist at the Federal Reserve Board compared stock ownership rates among Americans. That report said the wealthiest one percent owned more than half of all stock held by individuals or families as of two-thousand-one. The percentage was even higher for government-secured investments in bonds. The top one percent owned sixty-four percent of the bonds. Stocks and bonds are called liquid assets, just like money in the bank. Houses are less easy to sell. So the World Wealth Report does not include the value of a personal home in its measure of wealth. Last year, the number of millionaires increased at the highest rates in Africa, North America and the Asia-Pacific areas. The United States had the largest increase in numbers of any country. But Europe with its larger population continued to have the most millionaires, followed by North America. Both areas have over two million millionaires. The study says most very wealthy people are at or near retirement age. Seventy percent are over fifty-five years old. All together, high-worth individuals had twenty-nine-million-million dollars in wealth last year. The World Wealth Report says that is expected to reach forty-million-million dollars by two-thousand-eight. And, the richest of the rich are doing the best of all. The report says a very small but fast growing group of seventy thousand people are worth more than thirty million dollars. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – Anti-Doping Agency Seeks to Ban Four Top Runners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 26, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. This week, the United States Anti-Doping Agency accused four top runners of drug violations. The athletes could face lifetime bans from competition. One of them is Tim Montgomery. He holds the record as the fastest man in the world. He ran the one-hundred-meter race in nine-point-seven-eight seconds in two-thousand-two. The other athletes are Chryste Gaines, Alvin Harrison and Michelle Collins. The four athletes have never failed a drug test. The agency has built its case with evidence from a federal investigation of the BALCO company in California. BALCO is the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. The agency says the evidence includes e-mail messages and other documents. A United States Senate committee gave the agency thousands of pages of documents from the investigation. Federal officials have charged BALCO founder Victor Conte and three other men with illegal trade in steroids. These drugs which can increase athletic performance are banned in most sports. But their use can be difficult to discover in drug testing. The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a private organization. It is known as USADA [you-SAH-dah]. It was created in two-thousand for the Olympic movement in the United States. Its rules permit athletes to continue to compete until their cases are decided. Competition is set for July ninth to choose the United States Olympic track and field team. The agency says it hopes to have the four cases settled before then. The Athens Olympics are in August. The agency sent letters to the four runners earlier this month to tell them they were under investigation. They can appeal to a United States court or to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Switzerland. Punishments could also include a loss of past results. Tim Montgomery could lose his world record from two-thousand-two. His lawyers say the evidence against him is weak. They say the agency is treating him unfairly and wants to ruin him. The San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that he told an investigating grand jury last year that he used performance drugs. Tim Montgomery is the boyfriend of Marion Jones, the runner, who has won three Olympic gold medals. Marion Jones is also under investigation. But she has not been charged. She has strongly denied using illegal substances. Last month, Olympic runner Kelli White admitted to such use. She accepted a two-year suspension. She also lost her world championship titles in the one-hundred and two-hundred meter races. All this comes as Americans follow the issue of performance drugs in professional sports. Some top baseball players have been named as part of the BALCO investigation. This has increased pressure to ban the use of such drugs by professional players. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: June 26, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. This week, the United States Anti-Doping Agency accused four top runners of drug violations. The athletes could face lifetime bans from competition. One of them is Tim Montgomery. He holds the record as the fastest man in the world. He ran the one-hundred-meter race in nine-point-seven-eight seconds in two-thousand-two. The other athletes are Chryste Gaines, Alvin Harrison and Michelle Collins. The four athletes have never failed a drug test. The agency has built its case with evidence from a federal investigation of the BALCO company in California. BALCO is the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. The agency says the evidence includes e-mail messages and other documents. A United States Senate committee gave the agency thousands of pages of documents from the investigation. Federal officials have charged BALCO founder Victor Conte and three other men with illegal trade in steroids. These drugs which can increase athletic performance are banned in most sports. But their use can be difficult to discover in drug testing. The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a private organization. It is known as USADA [you-SAH-dah]. It was created in two-thousand for the Olympic movement in the United States. Its rules permit athletes to continue to compete until their cases are decided. Competition is set for July ninth to choose the United States Olympic track and field team. The agency says it hopes to have the four cases settled before then. The Athens Olympics are in August. The agency sent letters to the four runners earlier this month to tell them they were under investigation. They can appeal to a United States court or to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Switzerland. Punishments could also include a loss of past results. Tim Montgomery could lose his world record from two-thousand-two. His lawyers say the evidence against him is weak. They say the agency is treating him unfairly and wants to ruin him. The San Francisco Chronicle reported this week that he told an investigating grand jury last year that he used performance drugs. Tim Montgomery is the boyfriend of Marion Jones, the runner, who has won three Olympic gold medals. Marion Jones is also under investigation. But she has not been charged. She has strongly denied using illegal substances. Last month, Olympic runner Kelli White admitted to such use. She accepted a two-year suspension. She also lost her world championship titles in the one-hundred and two-hundred meter races. All this comes as Americans follow the issue of performance drugs in professional sports. Some top baseball players have been named as part of the BALCO investigation. This has increased pressure to ban the use of such drugs by professional players. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Casey Jones
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 27, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Casey Jones. He was a famous railroad engineer. His life has been described and celebrated in stories and songs. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many Americans are very interested in railroad trains that were pulled by steam-powered engines a long time ago. Steam engines produced bright, fiery particles and clouds of smoke as they traveled across the countryside. People who miss steam engines often say each one had its own personality. They say the engines were living, breathing things -- not machines. A railroad lover would say: “Airplanes, space vehicles and automobiles are fine -- but I wish I was back in the days of Casey Jones.” VOICE TWO: John Luther Jones was born in eighteen-sixty-four in the state of Kentucky. As a boy, he lived in the small town of Cayce, Kentucky. It is from this town that he got the name Casey. The young man’s first railroad experience was with the Mobile (MO-beel) and Ohio Railroad in Columbus, Kentucky. At age fifteen, he worked as a telegraph operator. He sent and received messages for the railroad. Later, Casey Jones accepted a job as a brakeman for the Mobile and Ohio. He inspected railroad cars and assisted other train crew members. Then, he became a fireman on the company’s rail line between Columbus and Mobile, Alabama. He added coal to the fires that powered the steam engines. VOICE ONE: Casey Jones grew to be a tall man. He was one-hundred-ninety-three centimeters tall. He married a woman named Janie Brady. In eighteen-eighty-eight, Casey Jones joined the Illinois Central Railroad. He worked as a fireman on the rail line between Jackson, Tennessee and Water Valley, Mississippi. There were a lot of job possibilities with the Illinois Central. In two years, he became a driver, or engineer, with the company. This was the job he always wanted. He operated trains between Jackson and Water Valley for the next nine years. VOICE TWO: Casey Jones spent the summer of eighteen-ninety-three in Chicago, Illinois. Large crowds gathered there for a major event -- the Chicago World’s Fair. Jones provided rides for people going to and coming from the fairgrounds. He drove a steam engine known by its number: six-thirty-eight. At the end of the World’s Fair, number six-thirty-eight was supposed to return to Water Valley, Mississippi for repairs. Jones asked for and received permission to drive the engine there. VOICE ONE: Casey Jones loved steam engines. He would talk to engine six-thirty-eight as the train was climbing a hill. He would say: “Come on, honey, you can do it.” When he pulled the whistle, he would say: “Sing, sweetie. Kiss the wind with your voice.” ((CUT ONE: SFX: train whistle)) Jones became famous as the driver whose train was never late. He always brought his train in to a station on time. He also was famous for his skill at making different sounds with a railroad whistle. He would blow the whistle so it started softly, but would increase to a loud cry before disappearing. People would recognize that sound and knew when he was passing through the area. Whenever they heard it, they would say: “Casey Jones is coming, sure as the day of judgement.” (CUT ONE: SFX train whistle) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-hundred, Casey Jones was given the job of driving the Cannonball Express. This passenger train operated between Memphis, Tennessee and Canton, Mississippi. It was a difficult trip of about three-hundred kilometers, with several dangerous areas and turns. Some engineers avoided the trip, fearing for their safety. But not Casey Jones. Everything was fine until April twenty-ninth. That night, Jones completed his normal Cannonball Express run from Canton to Memphis with his fireman, Sim Webb. Just as Jones was leaving the train, he heard that his replacement on the next train was sick. The supervisor asked Jones if he would like to drive the train from Memphis to Canton. Both he and Webb were tired, but they agreed. Jones told the supervisor he wanted to use his own engine. Jones and his fireman had to wait while the train was prepared for the trip. Finally, they climbed on the steam engine and set off into the night, more than an hour late. VOICE ONE: Casey had orders not to arrive late in Canton. This was not a problem for Casey. He asked Sim Webb to add extra coal to the engine to make it travel faster. There are different reports about what happened early the next morning, as the train sped through Mississippi. The problems started near the little town of Vaughan. Three other trains were already in the area. However, their crews had begun taking action to let the Cannonball pass. Everything would have been fine, except for a mechanical problem. An air hose in one of the other trains burst. This caused a delay in clearing the rail line. Some cars were still on the main line and could not move. VOICE TWO: The Cannonball continued speeding forward. Suddenly, Casey saw the other train. Quickly, he pulled the whistle and pushed the brake to slow the Cannonball. But he knew it was too late. He told Sim Webb to jump off the train. However, Casey stayed on the train. Some people say the sound the engine made as it hit the other train was like the Earth had burst. The passengers and crew survived the train wreck. Among them was fireman Sim Webb. However, Casey did not survive. His body was discovered in the wreckage. One hand was still holding the brake. The other was holding the whistle. Because he stayed on the train, he had slowed the Cannonball enough so that none of the passengers were hurt. He had sacrificed his life for them. VOICE ONE: The body of Casey Jones was returned to his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. That is where he was buried. Railroad officials ordered an investigation into the wreck of the Cannonball. The investigation found that Casey Jones alone was responsible for the crash. He had not reacted to signs that he should stop the train. However, people also remembered his love of railroads and how he died trying to save the lives of others. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The story of Casey Jones would have ended with his death if not for a black man named Wallace Saunders. Saunders was a railroad worker who knew Jones from his stops in Canton, Mississippi. Saunders was deeply saddened by his friend’s death. He decided to create a song to honor the famous engineer. It is called “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” Visitors to Canton heard Saunders performing the song. One visitor liked what he heard, but decided to change some of the words. Soon, the song became popular, and found its way to Vaudeville shows. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early nineteen-hundreds. The popularity of the song helped keep the memory of Casey Jones alive. Today, “The Ballad of Casey Jones” is still heard when Americans gather to sing songs of long ago. Listen now as Ernie Sheldon and the Villagers perform “Casey Jones.” ((CUT THREE: Casey Jones LP-5395 1:30)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-eight, Jones was honored in his boyhood home of Cayce, Kentucky. Today, there are museums named in his honor in Water Valley and in Vaughan, Mississippi. The museums also keep the memory of Casey Jones alive. (THEME OR MORE CASEY JONES UNDER CLOSE) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Travels Through Seven States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 28, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 28, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Summer is when a lot of Americans take trips. So today come with us as we travel through seven states in fifteen minutes. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Summer is when a lot of Americans take trips. So today come with us as we travel through seven states in fifteen minutes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We start in Washington. Not the capital city, but the state of Washington on the other side of the country. It is in the Pacific Northwest, on the border with Canada. It is the only state named after a president. George Washington was the first president of the United States. Washington State entered the union in eighteen-eighty-nine. It is a major shipping port for Asia. Fishing is another big industry. So is technology. Washington State is home to the biggest maker of computer programs, Microsoft. Boeing still makes airplanes here. But its headquarters are now in Chicago. Mountains divide Washington State. The east is heavily agricultural, but the west gets most of the rain. VOICE TWO: Washington is called "the Evergreen State." It has lots of trees that keep their leaves all year. Those trees are important to the forest products industry. They are also important to the many people who hike through forests and climb mountains. The highest one here is Mount Rainier, in western Washington. It stands almost four-thousand-four-hundred meters above sea level. Not too far away is Seattle. It is the largest city in Washington. But the state capital is Olympia. VOICE ONE: Washington is one of three states along the West Coast. As we leave Washington, we travel south into Oregon. It became a state in eighteen-fifty-nine. Forests cover a lot of the state. In fact, Oregon leads the United States in wood production. Visitors enjoy places like Crater Lake National Park. A volcano formed this deep lake in the mountains. The bright blue water has appealed to photographers from all over the world. Cities in Oregon include Portland, Eugene and the capital, Salem. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From Oregon, we continue south into California. People from Spain settled the land in the seventeen-hundreds. Mexico later controlled it, until some of the land became the American state. The capital is Sacramento. Americans captured the California territory during the Mexican-American War in the eighteen-forties. The discovery of gold helped California join the United States in eighteen-fifty. Many gold miners came through San Francisco. And that is where we stop. Visitors like to ride the old cable cars up and down the hills of the city. They also like to see the Golden Gate Bridge. And, when they get hungry, many go for seafood along Fisherman’s Wharf. To the south of San Francisco is the area with a large of number of computer technology companies -- better known as Silicon Valley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: And a lot farther south is Los Angeles. Many communities form the city and county of Los Angeles. One of them is Hollywood, the center of the film and television industry. California has one of the largest economies in the world. It also has the largest population in the country, more than thirty-five million people. One-third of them are of Hispanic ancestry. But people come here from all over the world. These include a growing number from Africa. Population researchers say the Los Angeles-Long Beach area has the third largest number of African-born people in the United States. About forty-three thousand live there. About twelve-thousand live farther south, in San Diego. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now, from Southern California, we travel east into Arizona. Arizona is known the “Grand Canyon State.” Over time, the Colorado River cut through stone and rock to form the Grand Canyon. It is more than one and one-half kilometers deep. Millions of people come to see it. Arizona is a desert state. People once thought the land was worthless. But today many people come to Arizona for its hot, dry climate and its natural beauty. Phoenix is the largest city, and a shipping center for agriculture. It is also the state capital. Many people who come to Arizona visit Native American reservations. Indians who live on these tribal lands must obey United States laws, but they also make their own laws. VOICE ONE: To the east of Arizona is New Mexico. Both states are on the border with the country of Mexico. New Mexico has a rich Spanish history. It also has a lot of land – almost three-hundred-fifteen thousand square kilometers. But fewer than two million people live here. Lots more come to hunt, fish, or snow ski. They also come to enjoy arts and cultural activities. Santa Fe claims the largest collection of folk art in the world. Santa Fe is the state capital. But the largest city is Albuquerque. New Mexico has mines for coal, copper, potash and uranium. And it has around as many cows as it has people. Cattle growers help keep some traditions of the Old West alive. But New Mexico is also a center of scientific research. There are national laboratories. In fact, the first atomic bomb was exploded in the desert here. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: To the east of New Mexico is a state with a tradition of thinking big: Texas. Texas has more land than any other state except Alaska. There are still cowboys with big hats. That is true. But visitors can also find a rich cultural life in cities like San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. The city of Austin is the state capital. Texas once belonged to Mexico. Mexican influence remains strong. More than thirty percent of Texans are Hispanic. But many other groups also live here. Among the more recent arrivals are people from Africa. About forty-seven thousand live in Houston and Dallas. VOICE ONE: One of the places that many people like to visit in Texas is a stone building in San Antonio called the Alamo. The American hero Davy Crockett was among those who died in a long battle there. They were fighting for independence from Mexico. "Remember the Alamo!" became a battle cry after that. The Americans lost the battle of the Alamo, but they won the Mexican-American war. Texas became a state in eighteen-forty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From Texas we travel north into Oklahoma, deeper into the central part of the United States. Oklahoma is our last stop today. It too has lots of land but not a lot of people. It became a state in nineteen-oh-seven. Oklahoma is a big producer of fuel and food for the country. Flat areas and low hills make good places to grow wheat and raise cows. Oklahoma is part of what people call the American heartland. People think of the heartland as a peaceful place. So what happened in April of nineteen-ninety-five seemed especially shocking. A bomb wrecked the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, the state capital. A former soldier angry at the government was executed for the attack. One-hundred-sixty-eight people were killed. A national memorial now stands in place of the building to honor the victims. VOICE ONE: So, we have told you a few things about seven of the fifty states. Visitors leave with memories of wide open spaces, and cities without enough space. Forest-covered mountains, and flat, dry land without any trees as far as the eye can see. Farmers working in their fields, and fields with workers drilling for oil and natural gas. White-topped waves on the Pacific Ocean, and a golden sun setting over the Grand Canyon. If you do ever visit, don't forget to bring a camera. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We start in Washington. Not the capital city, but the state of Washington on the other side of the country. It is in the Pacific Northwest, on the border with Canada. It is the only state named after a president. George Washington was the first president of the United States. Washington State entered the union in eighteen-eighty-nine. It is a major shipping port for Asia. Fishing is another big industry. So is technology. Washington State is home to the biggest maker of computer programs, Microsoft. Boeing still makes airplanes here. But its headquarters are now in Chicago. Mountains divide Washington State. The east is heavily agricultural, but the west gets most of the rain. VOICE TWO: Washington is called "the Evergreen State." It has lots of trees that keep their leaves all year. Those trees are important to the forest products industry. They are also important to the many people who hike through forests and climb mountains. The highest one here is Mount Rainier, in western Washington. It stands almost four-thousand-four-hundred meters above sea level. Not too far away is Seattle. It is the largest city in Washington. But the state capital is Olympia. VOICE ONE: Washington is one of three states along the West Coast. As we leave Washington, we travel south into Oregon. It became a state in eighteen-fifty-nine. Forests cover a lot of the state. In fact, Oregon leads the United States in wood production. Visitors enjoy places like Crater Lake National Park. A volcano formed this deep lake in the mountains. The bright blue water has appealed to photographers from all over the world. Cities in Oregon include Portland, Eugene and the capital, Salem. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From Oregon, we continue south into California. People from Spain settled the land in the seventeen-hundreds. Mexico later controlled it, until some of the land became the American state. The capital is Sacramento. Americans captured the California territory during the Mexican-American War in the eighteen-forties. The discovery of gold helped California join the United States in eighteen-fifty. Many gold miners came through San Francisco. And that is where we stop. Visitors like to ride the old cable cars up and down the hills of the city. They also like to see the Golden Gate Bridge. And, when they get hungry, many go for seafood along Fisherman’s Wharf. To the south of San Francisco is the area with a large of number of computer technology companies -- better known as Silicon Valley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: And a lot farther south is Los Angeles. Many communities form the city and county of Los Angeles. One of them is Hollywood, the center of the film and television industry. California has one of the largest economies in the world. It also has the largest population in the country, more than thirty-five million people. One-third of them are of Hispanic ancestry. But people come here from all over the world. These include a growing number from Africa. Population researchers say the Los Angeles-Long Beach area has the third largest number of African-born people in the United States. About forty-three thousand live there. About twelve-thousand live farther south, in San Diego. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now, from Southern California, we travel east into Arizona. Arizona is known the “Grand Canyon State.” Over time, the Colorado River cut through stone and rock to form the Grand Canyon. It is more than one and one-half kilometers deep. Millions of people come to see it. Arizona is a desert state. People once thought the land was worthless. But today many people come to Arizona for its hot, dry climate and its natural beauty. Phoenix is the largest city, and a shipping center for agriculture. It is also the state capital. Many people who come to Arizona visit Native American reservations. Indians who live on these tribal lands must obey United States laws, but they also make their own laws. VOICE ONE: To the east of Arizona is New Mexico. Both states are on the border with the country of Mexico. New Mexico has a rich Spanish history. It also has a lot of land – almost three-hundred-fifteen thousand square kilometers. But fewer than two million people live here. Lots more come to hunt, fish, or snow ski. They also come to enjoy arts and cultural activities. Santa Fe claims the largest collection of folk art in the world. Santa Fe is the state capital. But the largest city is Albuquerque. New Mexico has mines for coal, copper, potash and uranium. And it has around as many cows as it has people. Cattle growers help keep some traditions of the Old West alive. But New Mexico is also a center of scientific research. There are national laboratories. In fact, the first atomic bomb was exploded in the desert here. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: To the east of New Mexico is a state with a tradition of thinking big: Texas. Texas has more land than any other state except Alaska. There are still cowboys with big hats. That is true. But visitors can also find a rich cultural life in cities like San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. The city of Austin is the state capital. Texas once belonged to Mexico. Mexican influence remains strong. More than thirty percent of Texans are Hispanic. But many other groups also live here. Among the more recent arrivals are people from Africa. About forty-seven thousand live in Houston and Dallas. VOICE ONE: One of the places that many people like to visit in Texas is a stone building in San Antonio called the Alamo. The American hero Davy Crockett was among those who died in a long battle there. They were fighting for independence from Mexico. "Remember the Alamo!" became a battle cry after that. The Americans lost the battle of the Alamo, but they won the Mexican-American war. Texas became a state in eighteen-forty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From Texas we travel north into Oklahoma, deeper into the central part of the United States. Oklahoma is our last stop today. It too has lots of land but not a lot of people. It became a state in nineteen-oh-seven. Oklahoma is a big producer of fuel and food for the country. Flat areas and low hills make good places to grow wheat and raise cows. Oklahoma is part of what people call the American heartland. People think of the heartland as a peaceful place. So what happened in April of nineteen-ninety-five seemed especially shocking. A bomb wrecked the Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, the state capital. A former soldier angry at the government was executed for the attack. One-hundred-sixty-eight people were killed. A national memorial now stands in place of the building to honor the victims. VOICE ONE: So, we have told you a few things about seven of the fifty states. Visitors leave with memories of wide open spaces, and cities without enough space. Forest-covered mountains, and flat, dry land without any trees as far as the eye can see. Farmers working in their fields, and fields with workers drilling for oil and natural gas. White-topped waves on the Pacific Ocean, and a golden sun setting over the Grand Canyon. If you do ever visit, don't forget to bring a camera. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – WHO Aims for Safety in the Use of Traditional Medicines
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 28, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says people need more information about how to safely use traditional medicines. The W.H.O. now has guidelines to suggest ways for public health officials to develop that information. The health agency is part of the United Nations. The W.H.O. says up to eighty percent of people in developing countries depend on traditional medicines. More and more people in wealthy countries use them too. But the W.H.O. notes that just because products are natural does not always mean they are safe. It says reports of bad reactions have increased sharply in the last few years. In China, for example, about ten-thousand harmful drug reactions were reported in two-thousand-two. There were just four-thousand cases reported between nineteen-ninety and nineteen-ninety-nine. Traditional medicines are made from plants, animal products and minerals. The health agency says they remain largely outside government control. In most countries, traditional medicines can be purchased without a doctor's order. Sometimes they are prepared by friends or by the patients themselves. The W.H.O. says this situation raises concerns about the quality of treatments and the lack of professional supervision. Lee Jong-wook is Director-General of the organization. Doctor Lee says the W.H.O. supports the use of traditional medicines when they have been shown to help and to have few risks. But he says governments should have the tools to make sure people get the best information. Under the new guidelines, traditional healers would have to be skilled. And they would have to be listed with the government. Also, people would have to be informed about how and where to report problems. Doctor Lee says governments can also use the guidelines to create media campaigns about the issue. The suggestions are based on the experiences of one-hundred-two countries. The W.H.O says it hopes its new guidelines will help educate people about the health care choices they make. Internet users can find the document at www.who.int. The full name is "Guidelines on Developing Consumer Information on Proper Use of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine." The site again is www.who.int. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Calls for a Drug Trial Registry / Formaldehyde Declared a Chemical that Causes Cancer / More Dangers of Tobacco / Giant Panda Count in China
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 29, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: June 29, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: calls for a listing of all drug studies in the United States. VOICE ONE: The widely used chemical formaldehyde is found to cause cancer. VOICE TWO: More warnings about the dangers of tobacco. VOICE ONE: And, a panda count in China. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Clinical trials are studies done with groups of people to test the safety and effectiveness of new treatments. But doctors and the general public may never learn the results of some experiments. Now, the American Medical Association wants to change that. It says there should be an electronic record of all clinical trials in the United States. The American Medical Association is the largest professional group for doctors in the country. The A.M.A. has called on the Department of Health and Human Services to create an electronic registry. Such a list would identify each clinical trial and permit scientists, doctors and others to find the results. VOICE ONE: The A.M.A says a registry would help deal with concerns that successful studies are more likely to be published than unsuccessful ones. The group says there is evidence that leaders of clinical trials sometimes think medical publications are not interested in negative results. Government approval of a new medicine often depends on the results of clinical trials paid for by the company that made the drug. Drug companies invest millions of dollars to develop new treatments, and millions more to sell them. Critics of the industry say they worry about the influence of business considerations on the reporting of studies. VOICE TWO: The drug maker GlaxoSmithKline faces legal action in New York in connection with this issue. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says the British company tried to hide information about the effects of Paxil on children. Paxil is a medicine for depression. Mister Spitzer says the company did at least five studies in children, but published only one. That one showed mixed results for the drug. The legal action says the company suppressed findings that Paxil was not effective in children. It says the company also suppressed findings that Paxil may increase the risk that young patients will think about killing themselves. The Food and Drug Administration has approved Paxil for use in adults. The only drug approved for children who are depressed is Prozac. However, doctors still have a right to give children Paxil. The lawsuit in New York notes that doctors treated more than two-million children with Paxil in two-thousand-two. VOICE ONE: GlaxoSmithKline says it acted responsibly in its studies in children. It also says it "publicly communicated" all those studies to government agencies worldwide. After facing the lawsuit, GlaxoSmithKline published the results of its studies on its Web site. Also, another major drug maker, Merck, says it supports the idea of a registry of clinical trials. But some medical experts warn that even a complete list is not a perfect solution. They say some doctors may not use such a registry even if it exists. VOICE TWO: The American Medical Association says other action would be needed to support a registry of clinical trials. For example, medical centers and universities use committees called review boards to approve research on humans. The A.M.A. says these review boards should consider requiring trials to be registered as a condition for approval. Also, the A.M.A. said it welcomes recent news involving the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The major publications that publish studies are represented on this committee. The editors were reported to be considering a proposal to publish only the results of clinical trials that are listed in a registry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An agency of the World Health Organization says formaldehyde causes cancer. Until now, the agency said only that this chemical probably caused cancer in humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer is based in France. It gathered twenty-six scientists from ten countries. The experts examined additional studies. They decided that formaldehyde was more dangerous that scientists had thought. The experts say there is now enough evidence to show that formaldehyde causes a relatively rare form of cancer of the nose and throat. Government researchers in the United States recently announced that formaldehyde may cause leukemia, a cancer of the blood. However, the W.H.O. agency said more studies are needed to establish such a link. VOICE TWO: Formaldehyde is a gas usually made from methanol, a form of alcohol. It is used in a liquid solution in substances that hold together materials such as wood and paper products. Formaldehyde is also used in the production of plastics and in textile finishing. It is used in cleaners and industrial chemicals, and in dead bodies, among other uses. VOICE TWO: Formaldehyde is found in smoke from vehicles and tobacco. It is found in particle board and similar building materials. And the agency lists other places where it is commonly found, such as carpets, paints and finishes. The International Agency for Research on Cancer notes the development of chemicals that release less formaldehyde. It says these have helped reduce the levels of formaldehyde that many workers have to breathe in their jobs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-four, the United States surgeon general warned the public about several diseases caused by smoking. The surgeon general is the top government doctor in the country. The diseases included cancer of the lungs and voice box. Later studies found that smoking causes other kinds of cancer and disease, and harms the babies of women who smoke. Now, the current surgeon general, Richard Carmona, says tobacco is even more dangerous than doctors have known. The newest report on tobacco says smoking causes disease in almost every organ in the body. The report expands the list of conditions caused by smoking. New ones added include leukemia, cataracts and pneumonia. Smoking is now also known to cause cancers of the cervix, kidneys, pancreas and stomach. VOICE TWO: Health officials say smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease. The new report says that on average, smokers die thirteen to fourteen years before non-smokers. Smoking also harms other people who have to breathe tobacco smoke. Doctor Carmona says there is no safe cigarette. The only good news for smokers in the surgeon general's report is that their health begins to improve immediately after they stop. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In China, researchers say almost one-thousand-six-hundred giants pandas remain in the wild. Chinese forestry officials and the World Wildlife Fund carried out a four-year project to count the pandas. The last count took place six years ago. It found one-thousand-one-hundred pandas, or more than forty percent fewer. VOICE TWO: So, are these large black-and-white animals reproducing more like rabbits than pandas? Karen Baragona of the World Wildlife Fund says the higher number is more likely the result of improved counting methods. More than one-hundred-seventy people were involved in the study. Each counter carried a global positioning device. This device uses a system of satellites to identify a position on Earth to within a few meters. Karen Baragona says the panda counters also covered more territory than in nineteen-ninety-eight. VOICE ONE: China says the new count shows that government measures to protect pandas are succeeding. In nineteen-ninety-eight, China banned logging in areas where giant pandas live. The government has also set up forty protected forest areas for pandas. But Karen Baragona notes that the census found that one-third of the giant pandas do not live in protected areas. She says the pressure for economic development in China threatens those animals. And she says the protected areas are disconnected, like separate panda islands across six mountains. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: calls for a listing of all drug studies in the United States. VOICE ONE: The widely used chemical formaldehyde is found to cause cancer. VOICE TWO: More warnings about the dangers of tobacco. VOICE ONE: And, a panda count in China. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Clinical trials are studies done with groups of people to test the safety and effectiveness of new treatments. But doctors and the general public may never learn the results of some experiments. Now, the American Medical Association wants to change that. It says there should be an electronic record of all clinical trials in the United States. The American Medical Association is the largest professional group for doctors in the country. The A.M.A. has called on the Department of Health and Human Services to create an electronic registry. Such a list would identify each clinical trial and permit scientists, doctors and others to find the results. VOICE ONE: The A.M.A says a registry would help deal with concerns that successful studies are more likely to be published than unsuccessful ones. The group says there is evidence that leaders of clinical trials sometimes think medical publications are not interested in negative results. Government approval of a new medicine often depends on the results of clinical trials paid for by the company that made the drug. Drug companies invest millions of dollars to develop new treatments, and millions more to sell them. Critics of the industry say they worry about the influence of business considerations on the reporting of studies. VOICE TWO: The drug maker GlaxoSmithKline faces legal action in New York in connection with this issue. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says the British company tried to hide information about the effects of Paxil on children. Paxil is a medicine for depression. Mister Spitzer says the company did at least five studies in children, but published only one. That one showed mixed results for the drug. The legal action says the company suppressed findings that Paxil was not effective in children. It says the company also suppressed findings that Paxil may increase the risk that young patients will think about killing themselves. The Food and Drug Administration has approved Paxil for use in adults. The only drug approved for children who are depressed is Prozac. However, doctors still have a right to give children Paxil. The lawsuit in New York notes that doctors treated more than two-million children with Paxil in two-thousand-two. VOICE ONE: GlaxoSmithKline says it acted responsibly in its studies in children. It also says it "publicly communicated" all those studies to government agencies worldwide. After facing the lawsuit, GlaxoSmithKline published the results of its studies on its Web site. Also, another major drug maker, Merck, says it supports the idea of a registry of clinical trials. But some medical experts warn that even a complete list is not a perfect solution. They say some doctors may not use such a registry even if it exists. VOICE TWO: The American Medical Association says other action would be needed to support a registry of clinical trials. For example, medical centers and universities use committees called review boards to approve research on humans. The A.M.A. says these review boards should consider requiring trials to be registered as a condition for approval. Also, the A.M.A. said it welcomes recent news involving the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. The major publications that publish studies are represented on this committee. The editors were reported to be considering a proposal to publish only the results of clinical trials that are listed in a registry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An agency of the World Health Organization says formaldehyde causes cancer. Until now, the agency said only that this chemical probably caused cancer in humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer is based in France. It gathered twenty-six scientists from ten countries. The experts examined additional studies. They decided that formaldehyde was more dangerous that scientists had thought. The experts say there is now enough evidence to show that formaldehyde causes a relatively rare form of cancer of the nose and throat. Government researchers in the United States recently announced that formaldehyde may cause leukemia, a cancer of the blood. However, the W.H.O. agency said more studies are needed to establish such a link. VOICE TWO: Formaldehyde is a gas usually made from methanol, a form of alcohol. It is used in a liquid solution in substances that hold together materials such as wood and paper products. Formaldehyde is also used in the production of plastics and in textile finishing. It is used in cleaners and industrial chemicals, and in dead bodies, among other uses. VOICE TWO: Formaldehyde is found in smoke from vehicles and tobacco. It is found in particle board and similar building materials. And the agency lists other places where it is commonly found, such as carpets, paints and finishes. The International Agency for Research on Cancer notes the development of chemicals that release less formaldehyde. It says these have helped reduce the levels of formaldehyde that many workers have to breathe in their jobs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-four, the United States surgeon general warned the public about several diseases caused by smoking. The surgeon general is the top government doctor in the country. The diseases included cancer of the lungs and voice box. Later studies found that smoking causes other kinds of cancer and disease, and harms the babies of women who smoke. Now, the current surgeon general, Richard Carmona, says tobacco is even more dangerous than doctors have known. The newest report on tobacco says smoking causes disease in almost every organ in the body. The report expands the list of conditions caused by smoking. New ones added include leukemia, cataracts and pneumonia. Smoking is now also known to cause cancers of the cervix, kidneys, pancreas and stomach. VOICE TWO: Health officials say smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease. The new report says that on average, smokers die thirteen to fourteen years before non-smokers. Smoking also harms other people who have to breathe tobacco smoke. Doctor Carmona says there is no safe cigarette. The only good news for smokers in the surgeon general's report is that their health begins to improve immediately after they stop. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In China, researchers say almost one-thousand-six-hundred giants pandas remain in the wild. Chinese forestry officials and the World Wildlife Fund carried out a four-year project to count the pandas. The last count took place six years ago. It found one-thousand-one-hundred pandas, or more than forty percent fewer. VOICE TWO: So, are these large black-and-white animals reproducing more like rabbits than pandas? Karen Baragona of the World Wildlife Fund says the higher number is more likely the result of improved counting methods. More than one-hundred-seventy people were involved in the study. Each counter carried a global positioning device. This device uses a system of satellites to identify a position on Earth to within a few meters. Karen Baragona says the panda counters also covered more territory than in nineteen-ninety-eight. VOICE ONE: China says the new count shows that government measures to protect pandas are succeeding. In nineteen-ninety-eight, China banned logging in areas where giant pandas live. The government has also set up forty protected forest areas for pandas. But Karen Baragona notes that the census found that one-third of the giant pandas do not live in protected areas. She says the pressure for economic development in China threatens those animals. And she says the protected areas are disconnected, like separate panda islands across six mountains. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - West African Leaders Discuss Genetically Engineered Crops
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 29, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For three days last week, West African leaders and government ministers met in Burkina Faso to discuss agricultural technology. Members of the Economic Community of West African States came to Ouagadougou, the capital, to discuss several issues. But the main subject was genetically engineered crops. Some leaders said they support the idea in general. They want proof that such crops are safe for people and the environment. The president of Mali, Amadou Toumani, told the conference that progress requires new technology. But he said the leaders must be careful, because they also have a duty to their people to keep food safe. The government of Burkina Faso and the American State Department organized the Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology. Burkina Faso is one of the poorest nations in West Africa. Last year, it also became the first West African nation to begin testing genetically engineered crops. The American company Monsanto planted cotton designed to protect against insects. Cotton is Burkina Faso's main export crop. The president of Niger, Mamadou Tandja, expressed interest in the possibilities of genetically engineered crops. But he said he wants Africans to have the finances and training needed to use such products. President Tandja said he hopes that Niger can restart its cotton industry with genetically engineered cotton. He said his country may cooperate with Burkina Faso. The president of Ghana, John Kufuor, said Africa is losing its fertile land because of traditional farming methods and overproduction. He too expressed support for biotechnology. The president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, said testing such crops is like testing new medicines. Mister Compaore said safety is always a concern. But he says it is important for Africa to use new technology that meets the needs of its people. Some non-governmental organizations, however, say genetically engineered crops are not the answer to food shortages in Africa. They say transportation and water projects would be more useful. They also say that such crops could force African farmers to depend on big companies for seed. Some groups are even calling for a five-year ban on genetically engineered crops in Africa. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - North Carolina Lighthouses
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 30, 2004 (MUSIC) Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Broadcast: June 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the lighthouses that protect ships sailing along the coast of North Carolina. Bodie Island Lighthouse VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the lighthouses that protect ships sailing along the coast of North Carolina. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lighthouses are built along coasts to signal to passing ships. Lighthouses are tall buildings of wood or stone or brick with large bright lights on top. Every night they shine lights to warn ships about dangerous areas where there are rocks, low water levels, or strong currents. The lighthouses along North Carolina’s coast are recognized as signs of safety for travelers at sea. Over the years, fierce ocean storms have sent many ships crashing into the North Carolina coast. Other boats have been lost in wars. During World War Two, for example, German submarines sank many allied transport ships in that area. History experts say more than six-hundred ships have been wrecked near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Storms still uncover the ruins of wrecked ships along the Outer Banks. The lighthouses shine their signals to prevent more wrecks. Many ships and lives have been saved because of the United States Life Saving Service and workers at lighthouses along the coast. VOICE TWO: The Outer Banks is a group of narrow islands stretching along the North Carolina coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands shelter North Carolina’s inland water passages. For thousands of years, these barrier islands have survived severe weather. Every few years, an ocean storm in the North Atlantic Ocean will move through the Outer Banks with destructive force. Each island of the Outer Banks has its own lighthouse with a special design and history. In addition, each lighthouse has its own signal which boats see from a distance. The different light signals help sailors identify their position from the land. This helps them judge if they are close to dangerous water passages. Today, the light signals work on an electrical timing system. In the past, workers living in the lighthouses had to turn the lights on and off. VOICE ONE: North Carolina’s simplest lighthouse is on Ocracoke Island in the southern Outer Banks. Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. It is considered the oldest lighthouse on the Carolina coast. Its signal is a continuous white light, which can be seen almost twenty-five kilometers out at sea. Although the plans used to build Ocracoke lighthouse appear normal, the building was built off-center. As a result, it rises more sharply on one side. Ocracoke Island is said to be the place where the pirate Blackbeard lost his head in the early Seventeen-Hundreds. This famous ocean robber was killed in a battle with a British officer more than a century before Ocracoke Lighthouse was build. Lieutenant Robert Maynard was protecting England’s colonial interest in the New World. Historians say he tricked Blackbeard into battle and then cut off his head. Stories passed down through the years say that the spirit of Blackbeard still walks around Ocracoke Island searching for his head. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people agree that the most recognized lighthouse in America is at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The building stretches fifty-eight meters in the air – making it the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. It was completed in Eighteen-Seventy. Its signal shines a white light every seven-and-a-half seconds. Ships thirty-seven kilometers from land are able to see the signal. Historians believe more people have read about, painted or taken pictures of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse than any other lighthouse in North America. It the picture on the official documents of the United States Lighthouse Service. It is also a memorial to hundreds of men and women who worked to make North Carolina’s coast safe for sea travelers. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved more than nine-hundred meters. Officials wanted to protect the building by moving it farther away from the ocean. Huge lift equipment picked up the more than four-thousand ton building and carried it inland. The lighthouse was then lowered onto a new eighteen-meter square concrete support structure. Engineers inspected the repositioned building. They declared that it is standing tall and strong on its new foundation. Visitors can climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, but they need to be in good physical condition. This is because two-hundred-sixty-eight steps lead to the top of North America’s tallest brick lighthouse. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another lighthouse along North Carolina’s Outer Banks is the Bodie (body) Lighthouse. Its history is quite interesting. The fifth financial inspector of the United States Treasury Department built the first Bodie Lighthouse in Eighteen-Forty-Eight. Stephen Pleasonton’s main concern while building the structure was to save money. As a result, his workers were not permitted to spend enough money to build a safe base. In addition, the building was fitted with a light system that was not considered effective even then. Shortly after it opened, Bodie Island Lighthouse started sinking on one side. Workers soon had to leave it. Several years later, the United States Congress ordered a new lighthouse be built. In Eighteen-Fifty-Two, work began on a new and improved structure. The second Bodie Lighthouse was to be representative of a new look in lighthouses. It was shaped like a circular cone, made of earthen bricks made hard in a fire. Its base was built on supporting bars driven into the earth. VOICE ONE: The second Bodie Lighthouse was destroyed in the American Civil War. Confederate soldiers from the south wrecked the building to prevent the Union navy of the north from gaining a position to help its ships. The structure was finally rebuilt and completed in Eighteen-Seventy-Two. It rises forty-eight meters in the air. Today, the Bodie Lighthouse needs several repairs. This is why the building is not open to the public to climb. However, the lighthouse signal is still recognized by passing ships. It is on, off, and on again for two-and-one-half seconds each time, then off for twenty-two-and-one-half seconds. Boats up to thirty-three kilometers out at sea are able to recognize the Bodie Lighthouse signal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The most northern lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is at Currituck Beach. Like the other lighthouses along the coast, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse still serves as an aid to sailors. The lighthouse runs its light signal from sunset to sunrise. The signal is three seconds on, seventeen seconds off. The light can be seen as far away as thirty-three kilometers. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse remains unpainted to help tell it apart from other lighthouses along the coast. This also gives visitors a strong sense of the one-and-a-half-million bricks used to build the building, which stands forty-seven meters in the air. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse was completed in Eighteen-Seventy-Five. It was the last major brick lighthouse built on the Outer Banks. Visitors are permitted to climb to the top. VOICE ONE: Wild horses run free near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. Horses are not native to North America. Yet for more than four-hundred years, these animals have run unrestricted along the northern Outer Banks. Historians are not sure how the horses first arrived in America. They believe either Spanish or English settlers transported them. The wild horses are called Barbs. They are known for their size, their ability to work hard, their easy movement, and their long lives. Historians say there was nothing but sea, sand and grass when these Barb horses first arrived on the Outer Banks. A continual increase in summer visitors over the past forty years has made survival for the horses more difficult. Because of this, a group of concerned citizens has built a fence to separate the horses from people. This gives the about six-thousand hectares of land to live on. The group is trying to make sure the animals will be permitted to stay on Currituck Beach. Like the lighthouses, the wild Barb horses are a traditional part of life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Lighthouses are built along coasts to signal to passing ships. Lighthouses are tall buildings of wood or stone or brick with large bright lights on top. Every night they shine lights to warn ships about dangerous areas where there are rocks, low water levels, or strong currents. The lighthouses along North Carolina’s coast are recognized as signs of safety for travelers at sea. Over the years, fierce ocean storms have sent many ships crashing into the North Carolina coast. Other boats have been lost in wars. During World War Two, for example, German submarines sank many allied transport ships in that area. History experts say more than six-hundred ships have been wrecked near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Storms still uncover the ruins of wrecked ships along the Outer Banks. The lighthouses shine their signals to prevent more wrecks. Many ships and lives have been saved because of the United States Life Saving Service and workers at lighthouses along the coast. VOICE TWO: The Outer Banks is a group of narrow islands stretching along the North Carolina coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands shelter North Carolina’s inland water passages. For thousands of years, these barrier islands have survived severe weather. Every few years, an ocean storm in the North Atlantic Ocean will move through the Outer Banks with destructive force. Each island of the Outer Banks has its own lighthouse with a special design and history. In addition, each lighthouse has its own signal which boats see from a distance. The different light signals help sailors identify their position from the land. This helps them judge if they are close to dangerous water passages. Today, the light signals work on an electrical timing system. In the past, workers living in the lighthouses had to turn the lights on and off. VOICE ONE: North Carolina’s simplest lighthouse is on Ocracoke Island in the southern Outer Banks. Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. It is considered the oldest lighthouse on the Carolina coast. Its signal is a continuous white light, which can be seen almost twenty-five kilometers out at sea. Although the plans used to build Ocracoke lighthouse appear normal, the building was built off-center. As a result, it rises more sharply on one side. Ocracoke Island is said to be the place where the pirate Blackbeard lost his head in the early Seventeen-Hundreds. This famous ocean robber was killed in a battle with a British officer more than a century before Ocracoke Lighthouse was build. Lieutenant Robert Maynard was protecting England’s colonial interest in the New World. Historians say he tricked Blackbeard into battle and then cut off his head. Stories passed down through the years say that the spirit of Blackbeard still walks around Ocracoke Island searching for his head. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people agree that the most recognized lighthouse in America is at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The building stretches fifty-eight meters in the air – making it the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. It was completed in Eighteen-Seventy. Its signal shines a white light every seven-and-a-half seconds. Ships thirty-seven kilometers from land are able to see the signal. Historians believe more people have read about, painted or taken pictures of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse than any other lighthouse in North America. It the picture on the official documents of the United States Lighthouse Service. It is also a memorial to hundreds of men and women who worked to make North Carolina’s coast safe for sea travelers. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved more than nine-hundred meters. Officials wanted to protect the building by moving it farther away from the ocean. Huge lift equipment picked up the more than four-thousand ton building and carried it inland. The lighthouse was then lowered onto a new eighteen-meter square concrete support structure. Engineers inspected the repositioned building. They declared that it is standing tall and strong on its new foundation. Visitors can climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, but they need to be in good physical condition. This is because two-hundred-sixty-eight steps lead to the top of North America’s tallest brick lighthouse. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another lighthouse along North Carolina’s Outer Banks is the Bodie (body) Lighthouse. Its history is quite interesting. The fifth financial inspector of the United States Treasury Department built the first Bodie Lighthouse in Eighteen-Forty-Eight. Stephen Pleasonton’s main concern while building the structure was to save money. As a result, his workers were not permitted to spend enough money to build a safe base. In addition, the building was fitted with a light system that was not considered effective even then. Shortly after it opened, Bodie Island Lighthouse started sinking on one side. Workers soon had to leave it. Several years later, the United States Congress ordered a new lighthouse be built. In Eighteen-Fifty-Two, work began on a new and improved structure. The second Bodie Lighthouse was to be representative of a new look in lighthouses. It was shaped like a circular cone, made of earthen bricks made hard in a fire. Its base was built on supporting bars driven into the earth. VOICE ONE: The second Bodie Lighthouse was destroyed in the American Civil War. Confederate soldiers from the south wrecked the building to prevent the Union navy of the north from gaining a position to help its ships. The structure was finally rebuilt and completed in Eighteen-Seventy-Two. It rises forty-eight meters in the air. Today, the Bodie Lighthouse needs several repairs. This is why the building is not open to the public to climb. However, the lighthouse signal is still recognized by passing ships. It is on, off, and on again for two-and-one-half seconds each time, then off for twenty-two-and-one-half seconds. Boats up to thirty-three kilometers out at sea are able to recognize the Bodie Lighthouse signal. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The most northern lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is at Currituck Beach. Like the other lighthouses along the coast, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse still serves as an aid to sailors. The lighthouse runs its light signal from sunset to sunrise. The signal is three seconds on, seventeen seconds off. The light can be seen as far away as thirty-three kilometers. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse remains unpainted to help tell it apart from other lighthouses along the coast. This also gives visitors a strong sense of the one-and-a-half-million bricks used to build the building, which stands forty-seven meters in the air. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse was completed in Eighteen-Seventy-Five. It was the last major brick lighthouse built on the Outer Banks. Visitors are permitted to climb to the top. VOICE ONE: Wild horses run free near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. Horses are not native to North America. Yet for more than four-hundred years, these animals have run unrestricted along the northern Outer Banks. Historians are not sure how the horses first arrived in America. They believe either Spanish or English settlers transported them. The wild horses are called Barbs. They are known for their size, their ability to work hard, their easy movement, and their long lives. Historians say there was nothing but sea, sand and grass when these Barb horses first arrived on the Outer Banks. A continual increase in summer visitors over the past forty years has made survival for the horses more difficult. Because of this, a group of concerned citizens has built a fence to separate the horses from people. This gives the about six-thousand hectares of land to live on. The group is trying to make sure the animals will be permitted to stay on Currituck Beach. Like the lighthouses, the wild Barb horses are a traditional part of life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Polio Threatens Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 30, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Health officials say the spread of polio from Nigeria into ten other countries in Africa threatens years of progress to end the disease. Polio weakens the muscles and nerves. Severe cases can cause loss of movement and sometimes death. Young children are most often the victims. Polio is caused by a virus that is usually spread through water that contains waste from an infected person. In nineteen-ninety-eight, the World Health Organization and other agencies launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This campaign has reduced new cases by ninety-nine percent. Polio is still also found in Afghanistan, Egypt, India and Pakistan. The goal has been to end polio by next year. But the W.H.O. says five times as many children in west and central Africa have gotten polio so far this year compared to the same period last year. Around two-hundred children have been paralyzed in Nigeria since late last year. That was when the current situation began. Some Islamic leaders in the state of Kano, in northern Nigeria, told the public that the vaccine that prevents polio was unsafe. They said it was part of a Western plot to harm them. Concern spread, and polio vaccination efforts halted. Soon, polio cases appeared in nearby countries that had been free of the disease. Before last year, Nigeria and Niger were the only countries south of the Sahara with polio. Since then, the virus has been found in Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Central African Republic. Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo have also had new infections. Scientists linked all these cases genetically to Nigeria. The same is true with the first case of polio in Sudan in more than three years. Last month a child became paralyzed in the Darfur area of western Sudan. Darfur already has a humanitarian crisis. Arab fighters supported by the government have been destroying villages of black African Muslims to crush a rebellion. In Nigeria, Kano state officials announced in May that they would restart polio vaccination efforts. Campaigns are being organized for twenty-two African countries this October and November. That is the season when polio cases are highest. The goal is to vaccinate more than seventy-million children. The VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - The Election of 1840
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 1, 2004 (MUSIC) President William Henry Harrison Broadcast: July 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As the American national election of eighteen-forty drew closer, the Whig Party felt more and more hopeful that it could put its candidate in the White House. The Whigs believed they could defeat President Martin Van Buren in his attempt to win a second term. The Whig leaders turned away from their early choice of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky as their candidate. There was too much popular opposition to him. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As the American national election of eighteen-forty drew closer, the Whig Party felt more and more hopeful that it could put its candidate in the White House. The Whigs believed they could defeat President Martin Van Buren in his attempt to win a second term. The Whig leaders turned away from their early choice of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky as their candidate. There was too much popular opposition to him. The more extreme anti-slavery groups were opposed to Clay because he owned slaves. Then, many were hostile to Clay because of his close ties to the business interests. They considered him a pro-bank man. Besides, there was a growing feeling among the Whig leaders that they should choose a military hero as their presidential candidate...a general like Andrew Jackson. VOICE TWO: Thurlow Weed, one of the important Whig leaders in the state of New York, remembered how the people had loved Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812. Weed thought General William Henry Harrison, one of the candidates in eighteen-thirty-six, might be the man the Whigs needed. Harrison had led an attack on Indians in the Indiana territory in eighteen-eleven. Westerners believed the battle -- at a place called Tippecanoe -- was a great victory for Harrison. Weed also thought of General Winfield Scott, who had kept the border with Canada quiet. Scott was a southerner, from Virginia. He had not been involved in politics and had no political enemies. Weed finally decided that Scott might be a better candidate than Harrison or Clay. VOICE ONE: But other party leaders remembered that Harrison had received many votes in eighteen-thirty-six, although not enough to win. When the Whig convention opened, all three men -- Clay, Scott, Harrison -- were possible candidates. The convention delegates finally chose General Harrison. For vice president, they decided on another southerner, John Tyler. Tyler was a strong believer in states' rights. He had worked hard to win the nomination for Senator Clay. One report said he felt so strongly about it that he cried when Clay was not chosen. Southern Whigs agreed to support Harrison only because Tyler was the vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: Clay was not at the convention. He stayed in Washington and waited for news from the convention. On the final day, as he waited for word, he drank glass after glass of wine. When the news came that the Whigs had chosen Harrison, Clay said in anger: "I am the most unfortunate man in the history of parties. Always chosen as a candidate when sure to be defeated. And now, tricked out of the nomination when I, or anyone, would surely be elected." The Democrats were happy that Clay was not the Whig presidential candidate. They were glad the whigs chose the sixty-seven-year-old Harrison. Democrats spoke of Harrison as an "old lady." They called him "Granny Harrison." One democratic newspaper said the old man did not really want to be president. It said Harrison would be happier with a two-thousand-dollar-a-year pension, a barrel of hard cider to drink, and a log cabin to live in. VOICE ONE: Working men drank hard apple cider. And a great many farmers still lived in houses, or cabins, made of rough logs. The Whigs put the democratic statement to their own use. They saw a way to represent their party of bankers and businessmen as the party of the working man and the small farmer. "The statement is right!" they cried. "The Whig Party is the party of hard cider and log cabins." They made Harrison -- a Virginia aristocrat -- a simple man of the people. His big home in Ohio became a log cabin. He exchanged his silk hat for the kind worn by farmers. Whig leaders would not let their candidate make many speeches. They would not let him write anything. All his letters were written by his political advisers. When Harrison did speak in public, it usually was about nothing important. No one really knew what the old man thought about any of the important issues. VOICE TWO: The Democrats opened their nominating convention in Baltimore in may, eighteen-forty. Van Buren was chosen to be the party's candidate again. The president received the votes of all the party representatives at the convention. But the representatives were not able to agree on a vice presidential candidate. They finally decided to let the states nominate candidates for the job. The election campaign was one of the wildest in the nation's history. Both parties did everything possible to show that they were the friend of the common man. The Whigs put up log cabins everywhere and offered free hard cider to everyone. They organized huge outdoor meetings for thousands, with food and drink for all. They held parades and marched with flags, bands, and pictures of William Henry Harrison. Many campaign songs were written. These songs told of Harrison's bravery against the Indians. They told how Harrison loved the hard and simple life of the common man. VOICE ONE: At the same time, the Whig campaign songs said Van Buren lived like a king in the White House. A Whig congressman from Pennsylvania made a wild speech against the president. Copies of it were spread throughout the country. The congressman charged that the White House had become a palace. He said Van Buren slept in the same kind of bed as the one used by the French King, Louis the Fifteenth. He said the president ate French food from gold and silver dishes. The carpets in the White House, he said, were so thick that a man could bury his feet in them. The congressman charged that President Van Buren wore silk clothing, and even put French perfume on his body to make him smell sweet as a flower. VOICE TWO: Van Buren and other Democrats called the charges foolish. But no one seemed to hear. The Democrats made charges just as foolish. They claimed that Harrison could not read or write. They said he would not pay people the money he owed them. And they charged that Harrison even sold white men into slavery. Henry Clay said the campaign was a struggle between log cabins and palaces...between hard cider and champagne. The state of Maine held elections in September of eighteen-forty. Voters in Maine elected Whig Edward Kent as governor. They gave the state's electoral votes to Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. The election results produced a new song for the whigs. "And have you heard the news from Maine, and what old Maine can do. She went hell-bent for Governor Kent, and Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. And Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. " VOICE ONE: One by one, the other states voted. It was clear early in the election that General Harrison would win. The election was close in total votes. But Harrison received two-hundred thirty-four electoral votes, and Van Buren only sixty. And so, Harrison became the ninth president of the United States. Whig leaders had made most of Harrison's campaign decisions. Some of them -- especially Henry Clay and Daniel Webster -- believed they could continue to control him, even after Harrison moved into the White House. But Harrison saw what was happening. He made a trip to Kentucky, Clay's home state, late in eighteen-forty. Harrison made it clear that he did not want to meet with Clay. He was afraid such a meeting would seem to show that Clay was the real power in the new administration. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. The more extreme anti-slavery groups were opposed to Clay because he owned slaves. Then, many were hostile to Clay because of his close ties to the business interests. They considered him a pro-bank man. Besides, there was a growing feeling among the Whig leaders that they should choose a military hero as their presidential candidate...a general like Andrew Jackson. VOICE TWO: Thurlow Weed, one of the important Whig leaders in the state of New York, remembered how the people had loved Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812. Weed thought General William Henry Harrison, one of the candidates in eighteen-thirty-six, might be the man the Whigs needed. Harrison had led an attack on Indians in the Indiana territory in eighteen-eleven. Westerners believed the battle -- at a place called Tippecanoe -- was a great victory for Harrison. Weed also thought of General Winfield Scott, who had kept the border with Canada quiet. Scott was a southerner, from Virginia. He had not been involved in politics and had no political enemies. Weed finally decided that Scott might be a better candidate than Harrison or Clay. VOICE ONE: But other party leaders remembered that Harrison had received many votes in eighteen-thirty-six, although not enough to win. When the Whig convention opened, all three men -- Clay, Scott, Harrison -- were possible candidates. The convention delegates finally chose General Harrison. For vice president, they decided on another southerner, John Tyler. Tyler was a strong believer in states' rights. He had worked hard to win the nomination for Senator Clay. One report said he felt so strongly about it that he cried when Clay was not chosen. Southern Whigs agreed to support Harrison only because Tyler was the vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: Clay was not at the convention. He stayed in Washington and waited for news from the convention. On the final day, as he waited for word, he drank glass after glass of wine. When the news came that the Whigs had chosen Harrison, Clay said in anger: "I am the most unfortunate man in the history of parties. Always chosen as a candidate when sure to be defeated. And now, tricked out of the nomination when I, or anyone, would surely be elected." The Democrats were happy that Clay was not the Whig presidential candidate. They were glad the whigs chose the sixty-seven-year-old Harrison. Democrats spoke of Harrison as an "old lady." They called him "Granny Harrison." One democratic newspaper said the old man did not really want to be president. It said Harrison would be happier with a two-thousand-dollar-a-year pension, a barrel of hard cider to drink, and a log cabin to live in. VOICE ONE: Working men drank hard apple cider. And a great many farmers still lived in houses, or cabins, made of rough logs. The Whigs put the democratic statement to their own use. They saw a way to represent their party of bankers and businessmen as the party of the working man and the small farmer. "The statement is right!" they cried. "The Whig Party is the party of hard cider and log cabins." They made Harrison -- a Virginia aristocrat -- a simple man of the people. His big home in Ohio became a log cabin. He exchanged his silk hat for the kind worn by farmers. Whig leaders would not let their candidate make many speeches. They would not let him write anything. All his letters were written by his political advisers. When Harrison did speak in public, it usually was about nothing important. No one really knew what the old man thought about any of the important issues. VOICE TWO: The Democrats opened their nominating convention in Baltimore in may, eighteen-forty. Van Buren was chosen to be the party's candidate again. The president received the votes of all the party representatives at the convention. But the representatives were not able to agree on a vice presidential candidate. They finally decided to let the states nominate candidates for the job. The election campaign was one of the wildest in the nation's history. Both parties did everything possible to show that they were the friend of the common man. The Whigs put up log cabins everywhere and offered free hard cider to everyone. They organized huge outdoor meetings for thousands, with food and drink for all. They held parades and marched with flags, bands, and pictures of William Henry Harrison. Many campaign songs were written. These songs told of Harrison's bravery against the Indians. They told how Harrison loved the hard and simple life of the common man. VOICE ONE: At the same time, the Whig campaign songs said Van Buren lived like a king in the White House. A Whig congressman from Pennsylvania made a wild speech against the president. Copies of it were spread throughout the country. The congressman charged that the White House had become a palace. He said Van Buren slept in the same kind of bed as the one used by the French King, Louis the Fifteenth. He said the president ate French food from gold and silver dishes. The carpets in the White House, he said, were so thick that a man could bury his feet in them. The congressman charged that President Van Buren wore silk clothing, and even put French perfume on his body to make him smell sweet as a flower. VOICE TWO: Van Buren and other Democrats called the charges foolish. But no one seemed to hear. The Democrats made charges just as foolish. They claimed that Harrison could not read or write. They said he would not pay people the money he owed them. And they charged that Harrison even sold white men into slavery. Henry Clay said the campaign was a struggle between log cabins and palaces...between hard cider and champagne. The state of Maine held elections in September of eighteen-forty. Voters in Maine elected Whig Edward Kent as governor. They gave the state's electoral votes to Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. The election results produced a new song for the whigs. "And have you heard the news from Maine, and what old Maine can do. She went hell-bent for Governor Kent, and Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. And Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. " VOICE ONE: One by one, the other states voted. It was clear early in the election that General Harrison would win. The election was close in total votes. But Harrison received two-hundred thirty-four electoral votes, and Van Buren only sixty. And so, Harrison became the ninth president of the United States. Whig leaders had made most of Harrison's campaign decisions. Some of them -- especially Henry Clay and Daniel Webster -- believed they could continue to control him, even after Harrison moved into the White House. But Harrison saw what was happening. He made a trip to Kentucky, Clay's home state, late in eighteen-forty. Harrison made it clear that he did not want to meet with Clay. He was afraid such a meeting would seem to show that Clay was the real power in the new administration. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-06/a-2004-06-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Shorter School Week
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 1, 2004 This is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week, the Education Report discussed schools that operate all year round with shorter holidays in the summer. This week, we report about another public school change, a shorter school week. In most of the United States, students attend class for five days each week -- Monday through Friday. Schools are required to hold classes for about one-hundred-eighty days a year. Recently, schools in some areas of the country have begun investigating the idea of holding classes for four days a week. Classes would meet either Monday through Thursday, or Tuesday through Friday. Some schools in twelve American states are now using that schedule. The students still have the same number of total hours in class as before. But they attend school for a longer time on each of the four days. In the western state of Colorado, schools on the four-day week hold classes for seven-and-one-half hours a day for one-hundred-forty-four-days. Traditional schools meet for six hours a day for one-hundred-eighty days. Many schools on a four-day schedule offer special programs for students or teachers, trips or sports competitions on the fifth day. Officials say this gives students even more time in class than on the traditional schedule. Students do not have to miss school to go to the events. Students can also go to doctors or other appointments on the fifth day. The main reason for shortening the school week is an economic one. Small school systems say they can save money by not providing meals or transportation for students on the fifth day. And they say research shows that students are not harmed by the shorter week. Opponents of the four-day school week say the research is not clear on this. They say the four-day week has not been shown to improve students’ learning. And they say that three days off from school each week is too long a time away from class. Financial pressures seem to be leading to a shorter school week in many parts of the world as well. Japan and Israel are changing from a six-day school week to a five-day schedule. South Korea will make the change next year. And some areas of Canada have already shortened their school week from five days to four. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Faith Lapidus. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Greatest Movie Songs / Bill Clinton's Book / How Americans Get Middle Names
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 2, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 2, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Some of the greatest movie songs ever. And a listener wants to know how Americans get their middle names. But first, a report on some reaction to the new book by Bill Clinton. “My Life” Last week, a book by former President Clinton went on sale in the United States and Europe. Experts say it had record sales for a non-fiction book. So far, the book “My Life” has sold about one-million copies. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: It took Bill Clinton almost two years to write the more than nine-hundred page book. The book’s publisher reportedly paid Mister Clinton ten-million dollars to write “My Life.” The book begins with his birth and ends with the present day. In the book, Bill Clinton tells about his parents, Virginia Kelly and William Blythe. His father died before he was born. He describes his family life in the southern state of Arkansas with his mother and grandparents. He tells about his stepfather, Roger Clinton, and his younger brother, Roger. He tells about his friends and the schools he attended. Bill Clinton describes his college and law school days, meeting and marrying Hillary Rodham and the birth of their daughter, Chelsea. He goes on to describe his rise in Arkansas politics, his terms as governor, his presidential campaigns and his two administrations. He writes about his sexual relationship with a young White House worker, Monica Lewinsky, and his feelings of regret that it ever happened. He tells about the effects of the scandal on his marriage and relationship with his daughter, Chelsea. He describes his successes and failures as president. And he writes about what he feels was a conservative plot to punish him for becoming president. Critics have not been kind to Mister Clinton’s writing abilities. They have called the book uninteresting and poorly written. But the American people do not seem to care what the critics say. They want to read what Bill Clinton has written. Many people waited in line at stores to buy the book and have Mister Clinton sign it. They say they want to read it to better understand the former president and his effect on the country. And they want to know how Mister Clinton feels about all that happened during his presidency. One bookstore official said people are buying the book because they want to know what Bill Clinton has to say, not how he says it. Middle Names in America DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Canada. Zhengliang Liu asks about how Americans get their middle names. Most parents in the United States give their babies a first, middle and last name when they are born. The last name is generally their family name. First names are a different story. Some children’s names are also the names of cities, such as Geneva or Savannah. Others are plants or flowers, such as Rosemary, Daisy, Lily or Iris. Religious names from the Bible or Koran are also common, like Isaac, Mohammed or Eve. Americans even choose names from other countries. Liam is a popular Irish name. Pierre and Sebastian are French. Stone and Sky are popular names from nature. American actress Gwyneth Paltrow named her new baby girl Apple, like the fruit. Americans are interested in the names that famous actors, entertainers and athletes give their children. Some famous people like names that have been around for many years. Actor Bill Murray named his son Homer. Actor Denzel Washington named his daughter Olivia. Last names as first names are also popular. Actor Tom Hanks named his son Truman Theodore. Middle names have become important because many famous people use them. One example is movie star Sarah Jessica Parker. A middle name is also a way for parents to honor a family member or hero. Eleanor is a popular middle name honoring the wife of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Another is Ray, honoring jazz musician Ray Charles, who died last month. Some parents give a girl a boy’s middle name, as did the parents of movie star Jennifer Jason Leigh. Sometimes, parents consider the monogram that will be formed from their child’s name. A monogram is made with the first letter of each name. Special English writer Jill Moss named her son Adam Isaac Moss. His monogram is A-I-M, or the word aim. Finally, some American women use their former last name as a middle name after they marry. For example, American Senator Hillary Clinton uses her former last name, Rodham, as her middle name. She was born Hillary Diane Rodham. Greatest Movie Songs DOUG JOHNSON: The American Film Institute has named the greatest songs from American movies. Gwen Outen tells us about them. GWEN OUTEN: The American Film Institute asked experts in the motion picture industry to choose the best one-hundred songs from American movies. They did so as part of a celebration of one-hundred years of American movies. The experts chose this song as the movie song of the century. It is “Over the Rainbow.” Judy Garland sings it in the nineteen-thirty-nine movie “The Wizard of Oz.” (MUSIC) The American Film Institute asked the experts to consider several things when choosing the best one-hundred songs from American movies. For example, the song should establish a feeling, define a character, advance the story or express the film’s ideas. The song should be loved by the American public and be remembered as representing the movie. In second place was “As Time Goes By” from the nineteen-forty-two film “Casablanca.” “Singin’ in the Rain” was third. Gene Kelly sang it in the movie of the same name released in nineteen-fifty-two. This song was selected as number four: “Moon River” from the nineteen-sixty-one film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Andy Williams sings it here. (MUSIC) The ninth greatest song is from a more recent movie, “Saturday Night Fever,” released in nineteen-seventy-seven. We leave you now with that song, “Stayin’ Alive,” performed by the Bee Gees. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Some of the greatest movie songs ever. And a listener wants to know how Americans get their middle names. But first, a report on some reaction to the new book by Bill Clinton. “My Life” Last week, a book by former President Clinton went on sale in the United States and Europe. Experts say it had record sales for a non-fiction book. So far, the book “My Life” has sold about one-million copies. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: It took Bill Clinton almost two years to write the more than nine-hundred page book. The book’s publisher reportedly paid Mister Clinton ten-million dollars to write “My Life.” The book begins with his birth and ends with the present day. In the book, Bill Clinton tells about his parents, Virginia Kelly and William Blythe. His father died before he was born. He describes his family life in the southern state of Arkansas with his mother and grandparents. He tells about his stepfather, Roger Clinton, and his younger brother, Roger. He tells about his friends and the schools he attended. Bill Clinton describes his college and law school days, meeting and marrying Hillary Rodham and the birth of their daughter, Chelsea. He goes on to describe his rise in Arkansas politics, his terms as governor, his presidential campaigns and his two administrations. He writes about his sexual relationship with a young White House worker, Monica Lewinsky, and his feelings of regret that it ever happened. He tells about the effects of the scandal on his marriage and relationship with his daughter, Chelsea. He describes his successes and failures as president. And he writes about what he feels was a conservative plot to punish him for becoming president. Critics have not been kind to Mister Clinton’s writing abilities. They have called the book uninteresting and poorly written. But the American people do not seem to care what the critics say. They want to read what Bill Clinton has written. Many people waited in line at stores to buy the book and have Mister Clinton sign it. They say they want to read it to better understand the former president and his effect on the country. And they want to know how Mister Clinton feels about all that happened during his presidency. One bookstore official said people are buying the book because they want to know what Bill Clinton has to say, not how he says it. Middle Names in America DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Canada. Zhengliang Liu asks about how Americans get their middle names. Most parents in the United States give their babies a first, middle and last name when they are born. The last name is generally their family name. First names are a different story. Some children’s names are also the names of cities, such as Geneva or Savannah. Others are plants or flowers, such as Rosemary, Daisy, Lily or Iris. Religious names from the Bible or Koran are also common, like Isaac, Mohammed or Eve. Americans even choose names from other countries. Liam is a popular Irish name. Pierre and Sebastian are French. Stone and Sky are popular names from nature. American actress Gwyneth Paltrow named her new baby girl Apple, like the fruit. Americans are interested in the names that famous actors, entertainers and athletes give their children. Some famous people like names that have been around for many years. Actor Bill Murray named his son Homer. Actor Denzel Washington named his daughter Olivia. Last names as first names are also popular. Actor Tom Hanks named his son Truman Theodore. Middle names have become important because many famous people use them. One example is movie star Sarah Jessica Parker. A middle name is also a way for parents to honor a family member or hero. Eleanor is a popular middle name honoring the wife of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Another is Ray, honoring jazz musician Ray Charles, who died last month. Some parents give a girl a boy’s middle name, as did the parents of movie star Jennifer Jason Leigh. Sometimes, parents consider the monogram that will be formed from their child’s name. A monogram is made with the first letter of each name. Special English writer Jill Moss named her son Adam Isaac Moss. His monogram is A-I-M, or the word aim. Finally, some American women use their former last name as a middle name after they marry. For example, American Senator Hillary Clinton uses her former last name, Rodham, as her middle name. She was born Hillary Diane Rodham. Greatest Movie Songs DOUG JOHNSON: The American Film Institute has named the greatest songs from American movies. Gwen Outen tells us about them. GWEN OUTEN: The American Film Institute asked experts in the motion picture industry to choose the best one-hundred songs from American movies. They did so as part of a celebration of one-hundred years of American movies. The experts chose this song as the movie song of the century. It is “Over the Rainbow.” Judy Garland sings it in the nineteen-thirty-nine movie “The Wizard of Oz.” (MUSIC) The American Film Institute asked the experts to consider several things when choosing the best one-hundred songs from American movies. For example, the song should establish a feeling, define a character, advance the story or express the film’s ideas. The song should be loved by the American public and be remembered as representing the movie. In second place was “As Time Goes By” from the nineteen-forty-two film “Casablanca.” “Singin’ in the Rain” was third. Gene Kelly sang it in the movie of the same name released in nineteen-fifty-two. This song was selected as number four: “Moon River” from the nineteen-sixty-one film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Andy Williams sings it here. (MUSIC) The ninth greatest song is from a more recent movie, “Saturday Night Fever,” released in nineteen-seventy-seven. We leave you now with that song, “Stayin’ Alive,” performed by the Bee Gees. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Up to 1.6 Million Female Employees Could Be Included in Sex-Discrimination Case Against Wal-Mart
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 2, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A class-action lawsuit is a legal case brought by a group of people who seek to represent a much larger group. In two-thousand-one, six women brought a case against Wal-Mart Stores. They say the company pays female employees, on average, five to fifteen percent less than men for the same work. Treating employees differently based on their sex is an illegal form of discrimination. Last week a federal judge in California ruled that the case can go forward as a class action. It could become the biggest sex-discrimination lawsuit in American history. It could involve as many as one-point-six million women employed by Wal-Mart now or in the past. These include the six who brought the case. Wal-Mart is based in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is the largest private employer in the world. It has more than one-million employees. Wal-Mart sells all kinds of low-price goods in its stores. The company reported profits of nine-thousand-million dollars last year. Wal-Mart says it has no policy of discrimination against women. It says decisions about jobs are usually made locally at its more than three-thousand stores across the country. Women make up about two-thirds of all the Wal-Mart workers who are paid by the hour. But only about one-third of supervisors are women. And women represent just fourteen percent of the top officials in the company. The percentage of women in top jobs is twenty points lower than the average of the twenty largest sellers in the country. Lawyers for the women presented these numbers based on information reported to the Department of Labor. Wal-Mart says women do not seek top positions as often as men. Judge Martin Jenkins in San Francisco did not rule on the arguments in the case. Wal-Mart said his ruling simply showed that the judge believes the case meets the legal requirements for a class action. The company said it would appeal. Wal-Mart argues that such a large class action is not fair. It says the court would need years to hear all the evidence. The company wants the right to answer claims individually. If the case remains a class action, legal experts say pressure will build on Wal-Mart to reach a settlement. That could mean paying thousands of millions of dollars to current and former employees. But a settlement would avoid a trial, and the risk of having to pay even more. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 1, 2004 - Hip-Hop Slang
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 1, 2004 HOST: Hip-hop music -- born in the rough and tumble of America's predominantly black inner city neighborhoods -- is one of the most successful musical styles in popular culture today. But music is just one face of the hip-hop phenomenon. Hip-hop has also had a significant impact on youth slang. For this Wordmaster segment, VOA's Adam Phillips went to a hip-hop gathering to learn about the lingo. ADAM PHILLIPS: In Newark, New Jersey, one of the East Coast cities where hip-hop began, teenagers like Dancette still like to dance to the latest hits with their friends -- right on the sidewalk. She says hip-hop slang is a big part of the fun. She especially enjoys the way hip-hoppers sometime invest mainstream American words with new meanings. DANCETTE: "Like when some people say 'phat.' It's not really 'fat,' like 'not small.' Phat is good. I don't know why they do that, but it's a street thing. Something cool to say." AP: "Give me another example." DANCETTE: "'Gangsta.' Usually when people say or when I say gangsta, it's more street, more underground, and not too preppy like 'straight' [conventional]. It's more relaxed. It's more down. That's what gansta is." AP: "Down?" DANCETTE: "When you down, it's like being a part of something." AP: "You go along with it." DANCETTE: "Yes." AP: Dancette's friend Jett, one of the more free-spirited dancers on this street corner, loves the word "crunk." JETT: "And crunk really means just let loose [relax], be your own person, have fun and do what you do -- not worrying about what anyone thinks about you." AP: "So getting 'crunked' is just being natural?" JETT: "Yeah. Being natural and having fun." AP: As in any living language, hip-hop words keep evolving. But this young woman says the meaning of some hip-hop slang words can change -- literally overnight. WOMAN: "One thing I always liked about hip-hop -- you could use a word one day and the next day it's something else. That's the beautiful thing about hip-hop. Three are new inventions for the hip-hop generation every day. So you gotta keep up!" AP: She and her friend say that "off the chain" is one phrase they've heard quite a bit lately. FIRST WOMAN: "Off the chain -- it's 'off the hook.' It's cool. It's good. So extraordinary. You could go to a concert and it just be off the chain. It just means 'wow' and 'it was fun' and exuberant and everything." SECOND WOMAN: "Some words we take and reinvent it. Like 'crazy' could mean something good. Crazy, something spontaneous. 'That was crazy!'" FIRST WOMAN: "Our language is cool. It's a hip-hop language. It's just us. It's a way of our life. That's what we do every day." AP: Hip-hop speech isn't just for teen-agers. Adults use it to express themselves as well. (MUSIC) That's Ameen, a young man from Oakland, California, rapping his own hip-hop number for his friend Rudy Corpus Junior and another buddy. RUDY CORPUS: "He's talking the [San Francisco] Bay in the house. We hold the dam from the O to the 'sco. Huh! We put it down like four flats on a Cadillac. Huh! AP: "What are the words you're using? RUDY CORPUS: "It's slang. It's words that was borrowed from the ghettos, you know what I mean? Cats come up with different types of slang just to tell you how they feel or just to express emotions. And it just comes naturally. Because we was born into this, we wasn't sworn into this." AP: Some hip-hop slang is used as a sort of secret code. FRIEND: "You don't always want people to understand exactly what you talking about anyway, you know what I mean? You could be talking about something illegal. And you don't want to be saying 'oh yeah, I got the elbow,' you know what I'm saying? You don't want to tell everybody what you got and what you're working with. So you want to have a way to talk to your people and get the message across without everybody knowing what's going on. AP: Indeed, many hip-hop words originate in prisons. Rudy Corpus. RUDY CORPUS: "I'm gonna give you a word, 'merkin.' Yeah, merkin means choking somebody out, man. Grabbing them from behind the neck and just choking them; someone who is 'out of pocket,' someone who ain't respecting you, someone who isn't coming at you properly, you gonna have to merk his ass out. You feel [understand] me? Like the police merkin people out all the time. You know what I mean? AP: Many hip-hop words have entered the world's working vocabulary. The words chillin' (pronounced without the g), meaning relaxing or taking it easy, and bling-bling, meaning fancy and expensive goods, are just two examples. Still, Ameen says that true hip-hop slang will always be rooted in the local neighborhoods where one's friends are and where life is lived. AMEEN: "It's like being a part of that brotherly bond. And that's the thing that feels good about it. It's your people, and you hear other people using it, it's kind of flattering, you know what I'm saying? Even if they don't give the recognition like they are supposed to! It feels good to hear people out there 'biting' [using] your slang, basically. It's communication, you know what I mean? It's communication." AP: For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from Newark, New Jersey. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 1, 2004 HOST: Hip-hop music -- born in the rough and tumble of America's predominantly black inner city neighborhoods -- is one of the most successful musical styles in popular culture today. But music is just one face of the hip-hop phenomenon. Hip-hop has also had a significant impact on youth slang. For this Wordmaster segment, VOA's Adam Phillips went to a hip-hop gathering to learn about the lingo. ADAM PHILLIPS: In Newark, New Jersey, one of the East Coast cities where hip-hop began, teenagers like Dancette still like to dance to the latest hits with their friends -- right on the sidewalk. She says hip-hop slang is a big part of the fun. She especially enjoys the way hip-hoppers sometime invest mainstream American words with new meanings. DANCETTE: "Like when some people say 'phat.' It's not really 'fat,' like 'not small.' Phat is good. I don't know why they do that, but it's a street thing. Something cool to say." AP: "Give me another example." DANCETTE: "'Gangsta.' Usually when people say or when I say gangsta, it's more street, more underground, and not too preppy like 'straight' [conventional]. It's more relaxed. It's more down. That's what gansta is." AP: "Down?" DANCETTE: "When you down, it's like being a part of something." AP: "You go along with it." DANCETTE: "Yes." AP: Dancette's friend Jett, one of the more free-spirited dancers on this street corner, loves the word "crunk." JETT: "And crunk really means just let loose [relax], be your own person, have fun and do what you do -- not worrying about what anyone thinks about you." AP: "So getting 'crunked' is just being natural?" JETT: "Yeah. Being natural and having fun." AP: As in any living language, hip-hop words keep evolving. But this young woman says the meaning of some hip-hop slang words can change -- literally overnight. WOMAN: "One thing I always liked about hip-hop -- you could use a word one day and the next day it's something else. That's the beautiful thing about hip-hop. Three are new inventions for the hip-hop generation every day. So you gotta keep up!" AP: She and her friend say that "off the chain" is one phrase they've heard quite a bit lately. FIRST WOMAN: "Off the chain -- it's 'off the hook.' It's cool. It's good. So extraordinary. You could go to a concert and it just be off the chain. It just means 'wow' and 'it was fun' and exuberant and everything." SECOND WOMAN: "Some words we take and reinvent it. Like 'crazy' could mean something good. Crazy, something spontaneous. 'That was crazy!'" FIRST WOMAN: "Our language is cool. It's a hip-hop language. It's just us. It's a way of our life. That's what we do every day." AP: Hip-hop speech isn't just for teen-agers. Adults use it to express themselves as well. (MUSIC) That's Ameen, a young man from Oakland, California, rapping his own hip-hop number for his friend Rudy Corpus Junior and another buddy. RUDY CORPUS: "He's talking the [San Francisco] Bay in the house. We hold the dam from the O to the 'sco. Huh! We put it down like four flats on a Cadillac. Huh! AP: "What are the words you're using? RUDY CORPUS: "It's slang. It's words that was borrowed from the ghettos, you know what I mean? Cats come up with different types of slang just to tell you how they feel or just to express emotions. And it just comes naturally. Because we was born into this, we wasn't sworn into this." AP: Some hip-hop slang is used as a sort of secret code. FRIEND: "You don't always want people to understand exactly what you talking about anyway, you know what I mean? You could be talking about something illegal. And you don't want to be saying 'oh yeah, I got the elbow,' you know what I'm saying? You don't want to tell everybody what you got and what you're working with. So you want to have a way to talk to your people and get the message across without everybody knowing what's going on. AP: Indeed, many hip-hop words originate in prisons. Rudy Corpus. RUDY CORPUS: "I'm gonna give you a word, 'merkin.' Yeah, merkin means choking somebody out, man. Grabbing them from behind the neck and just choking them; someone who is 'out of pocket,' someone who ain't respecting you, someone who isn't coming at you properly, you gonna have to merk his ass out. You feel [understand] me? Like the police merkin people out all the time. You know what I mean? AP: Many hip-hop words have entered the world's working vocabulary. The words chillin' (pronounced without the g), meaning relaxing or taking it easy, and bling-bling, meaning fancy and expensive goods, are just two examples. Still, Ameen says that true hip-hop slang will always be rooted in the local neighborhoods where one's friends are and where life is lived. AMEEN: "It's like being a part of that brotherly bond. And that's the thing that feels good about it. It's your people, and you hear other people using it, it's kind of flattering, you know what I'm saying? Even if they don't give the recognition like they are supposed to! It feels good to hear people out there 'biting' [using] your slang, basically. It's communication, you know what I mean? It's communication." AP: For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from Newark, New Jersey. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Week in Iraq
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 3, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. This week brought events many Iraqis never thought they would see. On Thursday, Saddam Hussein appeared before an Iraqi court. So did eleven of his former top officials. The ousted president and the others were charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. They were in power for twenty-four years. The charges involve the suppression of Shiite and Kurdish rebellions. They also involve the war with Iran during the nineteen-eighties, and the invasion of Kuwait in nineteen-ninety. Saddam Hussein argued that he is still president. Among the others charged is Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali.” He reportedly gave orders to use chemical weapons against Kurdish separatists in nineteen-eighty-eight. The new temporary government in Iraq took legal control of the twelve men on Wednesday. They are no longer considered prisoners of war. They are now criminal suspects under Iraqi law. But the American military will continue to guard them. They will be tried before a special Iraqi court set up in December by the former governing council. The trials are not expected to start until next year. Lawyers for Saddam Hussein say they worry about the fairness of any trial under the present government. They say the trial should be delayed until Iraqis elect a permanent government. The current leaders are to organize elections for a national assembly in January. Some people say the former dictator should be tried by an international court. American officials say international legal experts will observe the trials to make sure they are fair. Among the decisions that Iraqi leaders must make are these: Should foreign defense lawyers be permitted to work in Iraq? Should the trials be broadcast? And should Iraq again permit death sentences? The temporary prime minister, Iyad Allawi, has promised that the trials will be fair. He says the men will be given legal rights that they denied Iraqi citizens under their rule. Mister Allawi was sworn into office on Monday, when the United States returned the right for Iraq to govern itself. The ceremony took place two days early, for security reasons. More than one-hundred Iraqis and Americans have died in recent attacks in Iraq. On Friday, rockets hit two hotels in Baghdad. Damage was minor and no one was seriously hurt. More than one-hundred-fifty-thousand foreign troops are in Iraq. Most are American. Late this week, Yemen and Jordan offered to send troops to Iraq. They would be the first Arab nations to do so. And the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the American-led war on terrorism won an important ruling this week. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Americans and foreigners held at the base have the right to have their cases heard in federal courts. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Edward R. Murrow
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 4, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 4, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Edward R. Murrow, a famous radio and television broadcaster. He helped create and develop modern news broadcasting. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born in nineteen-oh-eight in the state of North Carolina. His parents lived on a farm in an area called Polecat Creek. The Murrows were members of the Quakers, a religious group known for its humanitarian activities and opposition to war. When he was a boy, the Murrow family moved across the country. They settled in the western state of Washington, near the border with Canada. VOICE TWO: In college, Egbert Murrow changed his name to Edward. He completed his college education at Washington State College in nineteen-thirty. Edward was active in college politics. He served as president of the National Student Federation. He organized debates and other events for the student organization. He also traveled throughout the United States and Europe. Ed Murrow joined the Institute of International Education in nineteen-thirty-two. He served as assistant director of the group. During this period, he married a young woman he had met at a student conference. Her name was Janet Brewster. They later had one child, a son. VOICE ONE: Edward R. Murrow accepted a job with the Columbia Broadcasting System in nineteen-thirty-five. His job was to get famous people to speak on CBS radio programs. Two years later, Murrow was named director of the CBS European office and moved to London, England. His job was to get European officials and experts to provide comments for CBS broadcasts. Murrow was twenty-nine years old and the company’s only representative in Europe. VOICE TWO: The situation in Europe was becoming tense. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had come to power in Germany. Up until that time, radio news in the United States was mostly opinions, or commentary. CBS officials were concerned about permitting news broadcasts by reporters. Murrow offered a job to William L. Shirer, a newspaper reporter. The two men wanted to do something different. They wanted to present radio reports about what they had seen and heard. In March, nineteen-thirty-eight, the two men made radio broadcasting history. They produced a thirty-minute broadcast to report on the seizure of Austria by Nazi Germany. That meant getting people in Berlin and other European capitals to comment on the news story. Murrow traveled to Vienna to report on Nazi forces entering the Austrian capital. The broadcast also included reports from London, Berlin, Paris, France and Rome, Italy. It was a huge success. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Murrow returned to London and continued his broadcasts as World War Two started. He opened the reports with the words, “This is London.” Murrow was an excellent reporter who chose his words with great skill. His reports seemed to bring the war home to Americans. For example, he described the Battle of Britain as he saw and experienced it. In some of his reports, listeners could hear the sound of bomb explosions or air raid warnings. Once, Murrow broadcast from the top of a building and described what he saw. Here is part of one report from August thirty-first, nineteen-thirty-nine. Murrow describes plans by British officials to move children away from coastal areas: “School children will be taken by their teachers to homes in safer districts where they will be housed by people who have already offered to receive them and look after them. All parents of school children are strongly urged to let their children go. Parents will be told where their children are as soon as they reach their new homes.” VOICE TWO: Murrow organized a team of reporters whose names would become well known to American listeners. They included Charles Collingwood, Robert Trout, Eric Severeid, and Howard K. Smith. The team had eleven members. They were called “the Murrow boys.” They reported news from the major European capitals. Their reports were heard on the CBS radio program “World News Roundup.” These men established the traditions of broadcast journalism. Most of the reporters had worked for newspapers or magazines. They had learned to work quickly and clearly, much-needed qualities in radio. The Murrow boys were to have a powerful effect on American broadcasting for years to come. Edward R. Murrow took his listeners places they had never been. He let them experience things they could not imagine. For example, after World War Two, he was among the first Allied reporters to visit the Buchenwald prison camp operated by the Nazis in Germany during the war. This is how he described the prisoners there: “As we walked into the courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over sixty, were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it. In another part of the camp, they showed me the children, hundreds of them. Some were only six. One rolled up his sleeve and showed me his number. It was tattooed on his arm.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Murrow was famous when he returned home to the United States after the war. His work in Europe guaranteed him a place in the history of news reporting. He was appointed vice president of News at CBS in nineteen-forty-six. However, he resigned from the position the following year and returned to broadcasting. Murrow recorded a series of record albums with a producer, Fred Friendly. The series was called “I Can Hear It Now.” These programs presented historical events through recordings of speeches and news broadcasts. Later, Murrow and Friendly developed a similar weekly radio show. It was called “Hear It Now.” VOICE TWO: In the United States, the rise of television in the nineteen-fifties ended the period called the Golden Age of Radio Broadcasting. Most of the popular shows disappeared from radio. More and more people started watching television. So Ed Murrow and his boys moved to television. He joined with Fred Friendly to create the series “See It Now.” This show lasted from nineteen-fifty-one to nineteen-fifty-eight. The first “See It Now” showed the first television pictures broadcast from both coasts. It showed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. In one program, “See It Now” examined accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He had accused government officials of being supporters or members of the Communist Party. The program showed that Senator McCarthy had no real evidence for the accusations. Some people say the program helped to end the senator’s hunt for Communists. Experts say the program was important in the history of television. Other broadcasts on “See It Now” concerned important issues of race, war and government dishonesty. VOICE ONE: Murrow also started another television show called “Person to Person.” He spoke with famous people in their homes. One program visited Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The show also visited actress Marilyn Monroe, actor Marlon Brando and Senator John F. Kennedy. Ed Murrow also produced a number of special investigative programs for CBS. One such program was called “Harvest of Shame.” It showed the hard lives and poor living conditions of farm workers who move from place to place. Some people say this broadcast was so powerful that it influenced American lawmakers to pass measures to protect these migrant workers. VOICE TWO: Murrow’s reporting and choice of subjects often led to disputes with his supervisors at CBS. After John F.Kennedy was elected president, he asked the newsman to lead the United States Information Agency. Murrow served as the agency’s director from nineteen-sixty-one to nineteen-sixty-four. Then, he retired from the job. Murrow was sick with lung cancer. He had smoked cigarettes for much of his life. He died in nineteen-sixty-five at his farm in Pawling, New York. He was fifty-seven years old. By the time he died, Murrow had won all of the top awards given to reporters. He also received honors from five colleges. President Lyndon Johnson gave him the Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen. Today, Edward R. Murrow is remembered for his influence on broadcasting and the quality of his reporting. Former CBS chairman William Paley once said Murrow was a man made for his time and work. Paley called him a student, a thinker and, at heart, a poet of mankind. As a result, he said, Murrow was a great reporter. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Edward R. Murrow, a famous radio and television broadcaster. He helped create and develop modern news broadcasting. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Egbert Roscoe Murrow was born in nineteen-oh-eight in the state of North Carolina. His parents lived on a farm in an area called Polecat Creek. The Murrows were members of the Quakers, a religious group known for its humanitarian activities and opposition to war. When he was a boy, the Murrow family moved across the country. They settled in the western state of Washington, near the border with Canada. VOICE TWO: In college, Egbert Murrow changed his name to Edward. He completed his college education at Washington State College in nineteen-thirty. Edward was active in college politics. He served as president of the National Student Federation. He organized debates and other events for the student organization. He also traveled throughout the United States and Europe. Ed Murrow joined the Institute of International Education in nineteen-thirty-two. He served as assistant director of the group. During this period, he married a young woman he had met at a student conference. Her name was Janet Brewster. They later had one child, a son. VOICE ONE: Edward R. Murrow accepted a job with the Columbia Broadcasting System in nineteen-thirty-five. His job was to get famous people to speak on CBS radio programs. Two years later, Murrow was named director of the CBS European office and moved to London, England. His job was to get European officials and experts to provide comments for CBS broadcasts. Murrow was twenty-nine years old and the company’s only representative in Europe. VOICE TWO: The situation in Europe was becoming tense. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party had come to power in Germany. Up until that time, radio news in the United States was mostly opinions, or commentary. CBS officials were concerned about permitting news broadcasts by reporters. Murrow offered a job to William L. Shirer, a newspaper reporter. The two men wanted to do something different. They wanted to present radio reports about what they had seen and heard. In March, nineteen-thirty-eight, the two men made radio broadcasting history. They produced a thirty-minute broadcast to report on the seizure of Austria by Nazi Germany. That meant getting people in Berlin and other European capitals to comment on the news story. Murrow traveled to Vienna to report on Nazi forces entering the Austrian capital. The broadcast also included reports from London, Berlin, Paris, France and Rome, Italy. It was a huge success. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Murrow returned to London and continued his broadcasts as World War Two started. He opened the reports with the words, “This is London.” Murrow was an excellent reporter who chose his words with great skill. His reports seemed to bring the war home to Americans. For example, he described the Battle of Britain as he saw and experienced it. In some of his reports, listeners could hear the sound of bomb explosions or air raid warnings. Once, Murrow broadcast from the top of a building and described what he saw. Here is part of one report from August thirty-first, nineteen-thirty-nine. Murrow describes plans by British officials to move children away from coastal areas: “School children will be taken by their teachers to homes in safer districts where they will be housed by people who have already offered to receive them and look after them. All parents of school children are strongly urged to let their children go. Parents will be told where their children are as soon as they reach their new homes.” VOICE TWO: Murrow organized a team of reporters whose names would become well known to American listeners. They included Charles Collingwood, Robert Trout, Eric Severeid, and Howard K. Smith. The team had eleven members. They were called “the Murrow boys.” They reported news from the major European capitals. Their reports were heard on the CBS radio program “World News Roundup.” These men established the traditions of broadcast journalism. Most of the reporters had worked for newspapers or magazines. They had learned to work quickly and clearly, much-needed qualities in radio. The Murrow boys were to have a powerful effect on American broadcasting for years to come. Edward R. Murrow took his listeners places they had never been. He let them experience things they could not imagine. For example, after World War Two, he was among the first Allied reporters to visit the Buchenwald prison camp operated by the Nazis in Germany during the war. This is how he described the prisoners there: “As we walked into the courtyard, a man fell dead. Two others, they must have been over sixty, were crawling toward the latrine. I saw it, but will not describe it. In another part of the camp, they showed me the children, hundreds of them. Some were only six. One rolled up his sleeve and showed me his number. It was tattooed on his arm.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Murrow was famous when he returned home to the United States after the war. His work in Europe guaranteed him a place in the history of news reporting. He was appointed vice president of News at CBS in nineteen-forty-six. However, he resigned from the position the following year and returned to broadcasting. Murrow recorded a series of record albums with a producer, Fred Friendly. The series was called “I Can Hear It Now.” These programs presented historical events through recordings of speeches and news broadcasts. Later, Murrow and Friendly developed a similar weekly radio show. It was called “Hear It Now.” VOICE TWO: In the United States, the rise of television in the nineteen-fifties ended the period called the Golden Age of Radio Broadcasting. Most of the popular shows disappeared from radio. More and more people started watching television. So Ed Murrow and his boys moved to television. He joined with Fred Friendly to create the series “See It Now.” This show lasted from nineteen-fifty-one to nineteen-fifty-eight. The first “See It Now” showed the first television pictures broadcast from both coasts. It showed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. In one program, “See It Now” examined accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He had accused government officials of being supporters or members of the Communist Party. The program showed that Senator McCarthy had no real evidence for the accusations. Some people say the program helped to end the senator’s hunt for Communists. Experts say the program was important in the history of television. Other broadcasts on “See It Now” concerned important issues of race, war and government dishonesty. VOICE ONE: Murrow also started another television show called “Person to Person.” He spoke with famous people in their homes. One program visited Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The show also visited actress Marilyn Monroe, actor Marlon Brando and Senator John F. Kennedy. Ed Murrow also produced a number of special investigative programs for CBS. One such program was called “Harvest of Shame.” It showed the hard lives and poor living conditions of farm workers who move from place to place. Some people say this broadcast was so powerful that it influenced American lawmakers to pass measures to protect these migrant workers. VOICE TWO: Murrow’s reporting and choice of subjects often led to disputes with his supervisors at CBS. After John F.Kennedy was elected president, he asked the newsman to lead the United States Information Agency. Murrow served as the agency’s director from nineteen-sixty-one to nineteen-sixty-four. Then, he retired from the job. Murrow was sick with lung cancer. He had smoked cigarettes for much of his life. He died in nineteen-sixty-five at his farm in Pawling, New York. He was fifty-seven years old. By the time he died, Murrow had won all of the top awards given to reporters. He also received honors from five colleges. President Lyndon Johnson gave him the Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen. Today, Edward R. Murrow is remembered for his influence on broadcasting and the quality of his reporting. Former CBS chairman William Paley once said Murrow was a man made for his time and work. Paley called him a student, a thinker and, at heart, a poet of mankind. As a result, he said, Murrow was a great reporter. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL FEATURE - Independence Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 4, 2004 (MUSIC) This is Bob Doughty. Today we present a VOA Special English report about Independence Day in the United States. Special English listener Alex Arulraj of India wrote to ask how Americans celebrate the Fourth of July. On the traditional Fourth of July, family and friends gather. They play sports and eat hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken cooked outdoors. At the end of the meal, some families cut up and eat pieces of a large sweet fruit called watermelon. Many people attend programs of music, speeches and fireworks. Here in Washington, fireworks from the National Mall will light the sky after dark on Sunday – unless it rains. People from all across the country gather on the grass to watch the colorful show above their heads. Special music at the Capitol will honor the American composer John Philip Sousa. People in the Middle Western community of Michigan City, Indiana, also will celebrate the holiday with music. Three groups of former soldiers will raise the nation’s flag during the ceremonies. July Fourth is the anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain. During the summer of seventeen-seventy-six, the American colonists were deeply divided. Almost one in three was loyal to Britain. Yet most people were increasingly angry about what they considered unfair treatment by the British government. Britain taxed the colonists without giving them representation in Parliament. It also canceled any of the colonists’ laws that it did not like. By June, some fighting had already taken place between colonial forces and British troops. The idea of independence was spreading. Delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a meeting of the Continental Congress. Some delegates still hoped the colonies could reach agreement with Britain. Others thought the colonies could gain their rights only by becoming independent. The Continental Congress decided that a document declaring separation from Britain should be prepared. Thomas Jefferson led a committee chosen to write it. On the Fourth of July, seventeen-seventy-six, the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence. It said people have the right to change their government if it denies them their rights. We leave you now with traditional Fourth of July music by John Philip Sousa, “STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER”. (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 4, 2004 (MUSIC) This is Bob Doughty. Today we present a VOA Special English report about Independence Day in the United States. Special English listener Alex Arulraj of India wrote to ask how Americans celebrate the Fourth of July. On the traditional Fourth of July, family and friends gather. They play sports and eat hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken cooked outdoors. At the end of the meal, some families cut up and eat pieces of a large sweet fruit called watermelon. Many people attend programs of music, speeches and fireworks. Here in Washington, fireworks from the National Mall will light the sky after dark on Sunday – unless it rains. People from all across the country gather on the grass to watch the colorful show above their heads. Special music at the Capitol will honor the American composer John Philip Sousa. People in the Middle Western community of Michigan City, Indiana, also will celebrate the holiday with music. Three groups of former soldiers will raise the nation’s flag during the ceremonies. July Fourth is the anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain. During the summer of seventeen-seventy-six, the American colonists were deeply divided. Almost one in three was loyal to Britain. Yet most people were increasingly angry about what they considered unfair treatment by the British government. Britain taxed the colonists without giving them representation in Parliament. It also canceled any of the colonists’ laws that it did not like. By June, some fighting had already taken place between colonial forces and British troops. The idea of independence was spreading. Delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a meeting of the Continental Congress. Some delegates still hoped the colonies could reach agreement with Britain. Others thought the colonies could gain their rights only by becoming independent. The Continental Congress decided that a document declaring separation from Britain should be prepared. Thomas Jefferson led a committee chosen to write it. On the Fourth of July, seventeen-seventy-six, the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence. It said people have the right to change their government if it denies them their rights. We leave you now with traditional Fourth of July music by John Philip Sousa, “STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER”. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Debate Over Electronic Voting
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 5, 2004 (MUSIC) Diebold voting system Broadcast: July 5, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Our subject this week is the debate about electronic voting. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The presidential election of two-thousand was one of the closest in American history. But, as closely divided as the nation was, the experience united people in a common belief. The election system needed reform. Efforts to do so have centered on technology. By this November, an estimated one in three voters will use an electronic voting machine. But many people worry that the election could be a repeat of two-thousand. VOICE TWO: Because of a dispute in Florida, the winner was not declared for thirty-six days. Florida counted almost six-million votes on Election Day. The Democratic Party candidate was Vice President Al Gore. The Republican nominee was Texas Governor George W. Bush. The difference was so narrow, election officials had to count the ballots again. State law calls for a recount when the difference is less than one-half of one percent of the vote. Some voters said their ballots were difficult to understand. Some ballots were also difficult for older computer systems to read. As a result, the Gore campaign requested that officials recount some disputed ballots by hand. The Bush campaign blocked the hand recount in federal court. In time, the case made its way to the United States Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: On December fourth, the Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida. The court was divided five to four. The ruling, in effect, declared Mister Bush the winner. He had five-hundred-thirty-seven more votes in Florida. The court also declared any additional recounts requested by Mister Gore unconstitutional. Nationally, Al Gore narrowly won the popular vote. But the United States uses the Electoral College system to elect presidents. The win in Florida meant that Mister Bush had two-hundred-seventy-one electoral votes. A candidate needs two-hundred-seventy to win the presidency. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The election dispute in Florida led the federal government to take action. In two-thousand-two, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act. The main purpose of this law is to help states replace old voting machines with modern systems. Yet there are strengths and weaknesses to every voting system. Most Americans marked their votes on paper ballots until a machine called the Myers Automatic Booth appeared. That was in eighteen-ninety-two, in Lockport, New York. Voters entered the booth and pulled on mechanical devices to make their choices. Another device attached to the machine counted the votes. Mechanical voting machines spread to most big cities in the United States by the nineteen-thirties. A lot of Americans still vote on machines that are no longer made. VOICE ONE: Computers entered the American election process in the early nineteen-sixties. These machines use a punch-card ballot that can be read by a computer. Voters strike holes to mark their choices. The ballots are then fed into a computer that uses light to count the holes. Many parts of the country, including areas in Florida, still used this system during the two-thousand election. But, when voters make their choice, a small piece of paper is sometimes left over the hole. These pieces that do not fully disconnect are called chads. Computers may not count ballots that have what became widely known in the two-thousand election as "hanging chads." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Under the Help America Vote Act, millions of dollars are being spent to replace old punch card and mechanical voting systems. State and local governments are buying systems where the ballot appears on a computer screen. Voters touch the screen to make their choices. These systems can provide results quickly. But technical problems have been reported. There are also questions about computer security. The worst fear is that someone dishonest might be able to steal an election. Avi Rubin is a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He and a team of researchers say electronic voting systems are not acceptable for the presidential election this November. They argue that there are still too many problems. Professor Rubin says electronic voting machines should be required to print out a copy of votes. These records would be saved in case of the need for a recount, or to confirm that the system worked correctly. VOICE ONE: Many organizations and political groups support this proposal. The Verified Voting Foundation and People for the American Way are urging their members to demand voter receipts in November. And last month the League of Women Voters withdrew its support for electronic voting without any paper records. Members had criticized its position. A resolution passed by the group now calls for "secure" and "recountable" voting systems. Many states have proposed legislation to require a paper record of every vote. Similar legislation has been proposed in Congress. VOICE TWO: One of the largest providers of electronic voting systems is Diebold, based in Ohio. Its machines are used in Ohio, Texas and Georgia and other states. Critics of electronic voting note that the chief executive officer of Diebold has raised a lot of money for President Bush. Walden O'Dell was criticized last August after he promised to help make sure the president received Ohio's electoral votes. Mister O'Dell later expressed regret for his comments and promised to limit his activities. And last month an Ohio newspaper reported that he went further. The Cleveland Plain Dealer said he got company directors to bar top Diebold officials from all political activity except voting. VOICE ONE: DeForest Soaries heads the Election Assistance Commission in Washington. Congress established this agency as a result of the two-thousand election. Mister Soaries was elected chairman when the commission held its first public meeting in March of this year. He says states should increase the security of electronic voting in November. He also says makers of electronic voting machines should release their computer software. That way security experts could examine the programs for weaknesses. And Mister Soaries has called for collecting information about problems with the machines. He says steps like these would help increase public trust in electronic voting. VOICE TWO: In California, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley says he wants to do just that. Mister Shelley is the chief elections official in America's most populated state. He has ordered that all electronic voting systems in California must provide paper records by two-thousand-six. Until then, he wants people who do not trust electronic voting machines to have the right to vote by a traditional paper ballot. Mister Shelley has also barred the use of electronic voting machines in some areas until they are more secure. But some local officials are not happy. They have gone to court to oppose his orders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The push to modernize the electoral process is not just in the United States. Earlier this year, parliamentary elections in India used electronic voting machines. Voters in Italy used electronic voting machines last month to choose representatives to the European Union. And voters in Venezuela will use them in August, in a special election to decide if Hugo Chavez will remain president. This November, about three out of four Americans will vote on the same equipment they used four years ago. But election officials say it is simply a matter of time before electronic voting is much more common in this country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Our subject this week is the debate about electronic voting. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The presidential election of two-thousand was one of the closest in American history. But, as closely divided as the nation was, the experience united people in a common belief. The election system needed reform. Efforts to do so have centered on technology. By this November, an estimated one in three voters will use an electronic voting machine. But many people worry that the election could be a repeat of two-thousand. VOICE TWO: Because of a dispute in Florida, the winner was not declared for thirty-six days. Florida counted almost six-million votes on Election Day. The Democratic Party candidate was Vice President Al Gore. The Republican nominee was Texas Governor George W. Bush. The difference was so narrow, election officials had to count the ballots again. State law calls for a recount when the difference is less than one-half of one percent of the vote. Some voters said their ballots were difficult to understand. Some ballots were also difficult for older computer systems to read. As a result, the Gore campaign requested that officials recount some disputed ballots by hand. The Bush campaign blocked the hand recount in federal court. In time, the case made its way to the United States Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: On December fourth, the Supreme Court stopped the recount in Florida. The court was divided five to four. The ruling, in effect, declared Mister Bush the winner. He had five-hundred-thirty-seven more votes in Florida. The court also declared any additional recounts requested by Mister Gore unconstitutional. Nationally, Al Gore narrowly won the popular vote. But the United States uses the Electoral College system to elect presidents. The win in Florida meant that Mister Bush had two-hundred-seventy-one electoral votes. A candidate needs two-hundred-seventy to win the presidency. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The election dispute in Florida led the federal government to take action. In two-thousand-two, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act. The main purpose of this law is to help states replace old voting machines with modern systems. Yet there are strengths and weaknesses to every voting system. Most Americans marked their votes on paper ballots until a machine called the Myers Automatic Booth appeared. That was in eighteen-ninety-two, in Lockport, New York. Voters entered the booth and pulled on mechanical devices to make their choices. Another device attached to the machine counted the votes. Mechanical voting machines spread to most big cities in the United States by the nineteen-thirties. A lot of Americans still vote on machines that are no longer made. VOICE ONE: Computers entered the American election process in the early nineteen-sixties. These machines use a punch-card ballot that can be read by a computer. Voters strike holes to mark their choices. The ballots are then fed into a computer that uses light to count the holes. Many parts of the country, including areas in Florida, still used this system during the two-thousand election. But, when voters make their choice, a small piece of paper is sometimes left over the hole. These pieces that do not fully disconnect are called chads. Computers may not count ballots that have what became widely known in the two-thousand election as "hanging chads." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Under the Help America Vote Act, millions of dollars are being spent to replace old punch card and mechanical voting systems. State and local governments are buying systems where the ballot appears on a computer screen. Voters touch the screen to make their choices. These systems can provide results quickly. But technical problems have been reported. There are also questions about computer security. The worst fear is that someone dishonest might be able to steal an election. Avi Rubin is a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. He and a team of researchers say electronic voting systems are not acceptable for the presidential election this November. They argue that there are still too many problems. Professor Rubin says electronic voting machines should be required to print out a copy of votes. These records would be saved in case of the need for a recount, or to confirm that the system worked correctly. VOICE ONE: Many organizations and political groups support this proposal. The Verified Voting Foundation and People for the American Way are urging their members to demand voter receipts in November. And last month the League of Women Voters withdrew its support for electronic voting without any paper records. Members had criticized its position. A resolution passed by the group now calls for "secure" and "recountable" voting systems. Many states have proposed legislation to require a paper record of every vote. Similar legislation has been proposed in Congress. VOICE TWO: One of the largest providers of electronic voting systems is Diebold, based in Ohio. Its machines are used in Ohio, Texas and Georgia and other states. Critics of electronic voting note that the chief executive officer of Diebold has raised a lot of money for President Bush. Walden O'Dell was criticized last August after he promised to help make sure the president received Ohio's electoral votes. Mister O'Dell later expressed regret for his comments and promised to limit his activities. And last month an Ohio newspaper reported that he went further. The Cleveland Plain Dealer said he got company directors to bar top Diebold officials from all political activity except voting. VOICE ONE: DeForest Soaries heads the Election Assistance Commission in Washington. Congress established this agency as a result of the two-thousand election. Mister Soaries was elected chairman when the commission held its first public meeting in March of this year. He says states should increase the security of electronic voting in November. He also says makers of electronic voting machines should release their computer software. That way security experts could examine the programs for weaknesses. And Mister Soaries has called for collecting information about problems with the machines. He says steps like these would help increase public trust in electronic voting. VOICE TWO: In California, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley says he wants to do just that. Mister Shelley is the chief elections official in America's most populated state. He has ordered that all electronic voting systems in California must provide paper records by two-thousand-six. Until then, he wants people who do not trust electronic voting machines to have the right to vote by a traditional paper ballot. Mister Shelley has also barred the use of electronic voting machines in some areas until they are more secure. But some local officials are not happy. They have gone to court to oppose his orders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The push to modernize the electoral process is not just in the United States. Earlier this year, parliamentary elections in India used electronic voting machines. Voters in Italy used electronic voting machines last month to choose representatives to the European Union. And voters in Venezuela will use them in August, in a special election to decide if Hugo Chavez will remain president. This November, about three out of four Americans will vote on the same equipment they used four years ago. But election officials say it is simply a matter of time before electronic voting is much more common in this country. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – "FutureShack" for Refugees
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 5, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Sean Godsell designs buildings. He is an award-winning architect in Australia. He is also active in social issues. Mister Godsell has designed an emergency shelter for refugees and homeless people. He calls the structure a FutureShack. But it is not really a building. Mister Godsell made it from an old shipping container used to transport goods. The steel box is about six-and-a-half meters long and two-and-a-half meters wide. It is also two-and-a-half meters high. Mister Godsell covered the inside with wood. Parts of the walls fold down to make beds and a table. The structure also has areas for cooking and bathing. There are two doors for airflow. And there is glass on part of the back wall. The top also has windows for light. Balanced above the top of the structure is an angled roof. Mister Godsell says FutureShacks could be sent around the world in times of crisis. He estimates that each structure would cost about fifteen-thousand dollars if produced in large numbers. But some critics have questioned how useful this temporary shelter would be in hot weather. Mister Godsell says air conditioners could be placed in the windows to cool the containers. These machines could even be powered with energy from the sun. Yet there are also questions about the effect that FutureShacks might have on the future of refugees who have lost their homes. Norman Day is a professor of architecture in Australia. He has written that FutureShacks could rob refugees of the desire they need to rebuild their lives. Mister Godsell says he got the idea when he was a student fourteen years ago. But he did not develop the structure until nineteen-ninety-nine. He entered the design into a competition organized by the group Architecture for Humanity. The competition was to design housing for returning refugees in Kosovo, the Serbian province now administrated by the United Nations. The FutureShack design was praised for its usefulness, but was not put into use. A model built by Mister Godsell can be seen through October in New York City. It is at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Internet users can find out more about the FutureShack at www.seangodsell.com. That's www.seangodsell.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: July 5, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Sean Godsell designs buildings. He is an award-winning architect in Australia. He is also active in social issues. Mister Godsell has designed an emergency shelter for refugees and homeless people. He calls the structure a FutureShack. But it is not really a building. Mister Godsell made it from an old shipping container used to transport goods. The steel box is about six-and-a-half meters long and two-and-a-half meters wide. It is also two-and-a-half meters high. Mister Godsell covered the inside with wood. Parts of the walls fold down to make beds and a table. The structure also has areas for cooking and bathing. There are two doors for airflow. And there is glass on part of the back wall. The top also has windows for light. Balanced above the top of the structure is an angled roof. Mister Godsell says FutureShacks could be sent around the world in times of crisis. He estimates that each structure would cost about fifteen-thousand dollars if produced in large numbers. But some critics have questioned how useful this temporary shelter would be in hot weather. Mister Godsell says air conditioners could be placed in the windows to cool the containers. These machines could even be powered with energy from the sun. Yet there are also questions about the effect that FutureShacks might have on the future of refugees who have lost their homes. Norman Day is a professor of architecture in Australia. He has written that FutureShacks could rob refugees of the desire they need to rebuild their lives. Mister Godsell says he got the idea when he was a student fourteen years ago. But he did not develop the structure until nineteen-ninety-nine. He entered the design into a competition organized by the group Architecture for Humanity. The competition was to design housing for returning refugees in Kosovo, the Serbian province now administrated by the United Nations. The FutureShack design was praised for its usefulness, but was not put into use. A model built by Mister Godsell can be seen through October in New York City. It is at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Internet users can find out more about the FutureShack at www.seangodsell.com. That's www.seangodsell.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS  - Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 6, 2004 (MUSIC) <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:75896| height="129" width="150" alt=""Superboy" (Image: New England Journal of Medicine)" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/German_Superboy_05July04_se_150jpg.jpg" border="0"> "Superboy" (Image: New England Journal of Medicine) Broadcast: July 6, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. First this week: saying goodbye to a young voice against muscular dystrophy. VOICE ONE: Then, a related report on the scientific interest in a small child with big muscles; he has earned the name "Superboy." VOICE TWO: And, learn how some American schools are trying to help students control their weight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, in the American state of Maryland, more than a thousand people attended the funeral of a local poet. The mourners included former President Jimmy Carter. Oprah Winfrey of television talk-show fame was also there; the poet had appeared on her show. They all gathered to say goodbye to Mattie Stepanek. He was thirteen years old. In his short life, he wrote five books of poetry. Three became national best sellers. In all, his books have sold more than one million copies. VOICE TWO: But Mattie Stepanek also became known for his work to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This group looks for ways to cure forty disorders. These all weaken the muscles that hold together the bones of the body. More than one million children are affected in the United States alone. Mattie Stepanek was one of them. He had a rare form of muscular dystrophy, called autonomic mitochondrial myopathy. This genetic disorder made his muscles extremely weak. It attacked his heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and ability to process food. He died on June twenty-second at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The same disease that killed Mattie also killed all three of his brothers. His mother, Jeni, has an adult form. VOICE ONE: Mattie Stepanek began to write poetry at age three, after one of his brothers died. A small publishing company printed two-hundred copies of his collected poems in two-thousand-one. The book was called “Heartsongs.” Before long, people across the country wanted copies. Mattie made public appearances and was in the media. But he spent a lot of his time in hospitals. He used a wheelchair he named "Slick." And he had to be connected to feeding and breathing devices. VOICE TWO: We might think of his life as terribly sad, but Mattie did not appear to. He told people that his purpose in life was to bring peace to the world. And he got to meet another peacemaker, Jimmy Carter. They wrote to each other for three years. At the funeral last week, the former president called Mattie the "most extraordinary person" he has ever known. A flag of the United Nations covered the boy's coffin. Mattie Stepanek also recorded his poems. Listen now as he reads from one called “About Things that Matter." (MUSIC) “A person by my name and being existed With a strong spirit and an eternal mindset To become a peacemaker for all By sharing the things that really matter.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The same week that Mattie Stepanek died, there was news that might offer some promise for people with muscular dystrophy. Medical researchers reported on the case of a healthy but unusual little boy in Germany. At birth, he was not nearly as soft as most newborns. The medical team immediately saw the big muscles on his body. But the doctors and nurses were more concerned about his health. His arms and legs made sudden movements that were not usual for a baby. The team at Charite University Medical Center in Berlin called on Markus Schuelke, a brain specialist who works with children. Doctor Schuelke examined the baby. But tests did not show anything wrong with the baby's brain. The boy appeared perfectly healthy. And, within a few months, his legs and arms moved normally. No one could explain the large and well-developed muscles, however. VOICE TWO: Doctor Schuelke and several other scientists did blood tests on the boy for the next four-and-a-half years. Se-Jin Lee was one of the first researchers whom Doctor Schuelke asked about the case. Doctor Lee teaches molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Several years ago, he led a study of a protein that limits muscle growth. The protein is called myostatin. In that study, the researchers created a group of mice with damaged myostatin genes. The mice developed two times the muscle mass as a group of mice with normal genes. Other scientists later proved that abnormal myostatin genes produce a kind of extra strong cattle. These cows are called Belgian Blues. Scientists involved in the study of myostatin developed a theory. They thought a lack of the protein would affect humans in the same way as other animals. But no scientist could prove it. Until now. VOICE ONE: Markus Schuelke, Se-Jin Lee and other doctors reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. They say the boy from Germany is the first human found with such a case. They say both copies of his myostatin gene, one from his mother and one from his father, are abnormal. As a result the gene does not produce myostatin. And the scientists say the little boy is very strong. At four-and-a-half, he could hold two three-kilogram hand weights with his arms extended out to his sides. The scientists also tested the boy's mother. She had been a professional athlete. They say she too appeared muscular, but not as much as her son. The report says the doctors did not know who the father was. But several members of the family were reported to be unusually strong. VOICE TWO: Researchers at the drug company Wyeth also took part in the study. Wyeth is testing a drug to block myostatin production. The company hopes this might serve as a treatment for one kind of muscular dystrophy. The doctor will continue to study the so-called "Superboy." They say he is healthy. And they say he seems like other kids his age -- in every way but one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We have talked a lot lately about the increasing numbers of overweight people around the world. Today we are going talk just about young people. In the United States, for example, the government says almost one-third are overweight or close to it. That is a national average. A recent study in Arkansas found that forty percent of public school children there are overweight or obese -- severely overweight. Being overweight increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other problems. VOICE TWO: American health experts say most children these days do not get enough physical activity, either in school or at home. But many schools are trying to do something about the obesity problem. In the northwest, schools in Spokane, Washington, have a fitness and wellness program for all students. It starts early and continues through high school. The program teaches children to exercise and care for their health. VOICE ONE: On the other side of the country, education officials in Virginia are considering several measures to improve student health. One is to offer physical education classes daily to more students. Another is to measure student health, then report the findings to the parents, like in Arkansas. That southern state has become the first in the country to require yearly weight examinations for all schoolchildren. Parents will receive yearly reports on their children's body-mass index. This number shows weight in relation to height. VOICE TWO: In recent years, a lot of schools have added food and drink machines to help raise money for education. But now schools are under pressure to remove the machines or limit sales of unhealthy foods. Some schools have given students devices to measure how much they walk each day. And a new private school is to open in September in California. The Academy of the Sierras says its goal is to help obese students lose weight and improve their health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. First this week: saying goodbye to a young voice against muscular dystrophy. VOICE ONE: Then, a related report on the scientific interest in a small child with big muscles; he has earned the name "Superboy." VOICE TWO: And, learn how some American schools are trying to help students control their weight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, in the American state of Maryland, more than a thousand people attended the funeral of a local poet. The mourners included former President Jimmy Carter. Oprah Winfrey of television talk-show fame was also there; the poet had appeared on her show. They all gathered to say goodbye to Mattie Stepanek. He was thirteen years old. In his short life, he wrote five books of poetry. Three became national best sellers. In all, his books have sold more than one million copies. VOICE TWO: But Mattie Stepanek also became known for his work to support the Muscular Dystrophy Association. This group looks for ways to cure forty disorders. These all weaken the muscles that hold together the bones of the body. More than one million children are affected in the United States alone. Mattie Stepanek was one of them. He had a rare form of muscular dystrophy, called autonomic mitochondrial myopathy. This genetic disorder made his muscles extremely weak. It attacked his heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and ability to process food. He died on June twenty-second at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The same disease that killed Mattie also killed all three of his brothers. His mother, Jeni, has an adult form. VOICE ONE: Mattie Stepanek began to write poetry at age three, after one of his brothers died. A small publishing company printed two-hundred copies of his collected poems in two-thousand-one. The book was called “Heartsongs.” Before long, people across the country wanted copies. Mattie made public appearances and was in the media. But he spent a lot of his time in hospitals. He used a wheelchair he named "Slick." And he had to be connected to feeding and breathing devices. VOICE TWO: We might think of his life as terribly sad, but Mattie did not appear to. He told people that his purpose in life was to bring peace to the world. And he got to meet another peacemaker, Jimmy Carter. They wrote to each other for three years. At the funeral last week, the former president called Mattie the "most extraordinary person" he has ever known. A flag of the United Nations covered the boy's coffin. Mattie Stepanek also recorded his poems. Listen now as he reads from one called “About Things that Matter." (MUSIC) “A person by my name and being existed With a strong spirit and an eternal mindset To become a peacemaker for all By sharing the things that really matter.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The same week that Mattie Stepanek died, there was news that might offer some promise for people with muscular dystrophy. Medical researchers reported on the case of a healthy but unusual little boy in Germany. At birth, he was not nearly as soft as most newborns. The medical team immediately saw the big muscles on his body. But the doctors and nurses were more concerned about his health. His arms and legs made sudden movements that were not usual for a baby. The team at Charite University Medical Center in Berlin called on Markus Schuelke, a brain specialist who works with children. Doctor Schuelke examined the baby. But tests did not show anything wrong with the baby's brain. The boy appeared perfectly healthy. And, within a few months, his legs and arms moved normally. No one could explain the large and well-developed muscles, however. VOICE TWO: Doctor Schuelke and several other scientists did blood tests on the boy for the next four-and-a-half years. Se-Jin Lee was one of the first researchers whom Doctor Schuelke asked about the case. Doctor Lee teaches molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Several years ago, he led a study of a protein that limits muscle growth. The protein is called myostatin. In that study, the researchers created a group of mice with damaged myostatin genes. The mice developed two times the muscle mass as a group of mice with normal genes. Other scientists later proved that abnormal myostatin genes produce a kind of extra strong cattle. These cows are called Belgian Blues. Scientists involved in the study of myostatin developed a theory. They thought a lack of the protein would affect humans in the same way as other animals. But no scientist could prove it. Until now. VOICE ONE: Markus Schuelke, Se-Jin Lee and other doctors reported their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. They say the boy from Germany is the first human found with such a case. They say both copies of his myostatin gene, one from his mother and one from his father, are abnormal. As a result the gene does not produce myostatin. And the scientists say the little boy is very strong. At four-and-a-half, he could hold two three-kilogram hand weights with his arms extended out to his sides. The scientists also tested the boy's mother. She had been a professional athlete. They say she too appeared muscular, but not as much as her son. The report says the doctors did not know who the father was. But several members of the family were reported to be unusually strong. VOICE TWO: Researchers at the drug company Wyeth also took part in the study. Wyeth is testing a drug to block myostatin production. The company hopes this might serve as a treatment for one kind of muscular dystrophy. The doctor will continue to study the so-called "Superboy." They say he is healthy. And they say he seems like other kids his age -- in every way but one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We have talked a lot lately about the increasing numbers of overweight people around the world. Today we are going talk just about young people. In the United States, for example, the government says almost one-third are overweight or close to it. That is a national average. A recent study in Arkansas found that forty percent of public school children there are overweight or obese -- severely overweight. Being overweight increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other problems. VOICE TWO: American health experts say most children these days do not get enough physical activity, either in school or at home. But many schools are trying to do something about the obesity problem. In the northwest, schools in Spokane, Washington, have a fitness and wellness program for all students. It starts early and continues through high school. The program teaches children to exercise and care for their health. VOICE ONE: On the other side of the country, education officials in Virginia are considering several measures to improve student health. One is to offer physical education classes daily to more students. Another is to measure student health, then report the findings to the parents, like in Arkansas. That southern state has become the first in the country to require yearly weight examinations for all schoolchildren. Parents will receive yearly reports on their children's body-mass index. This number shows weight in relation to height. VOICE TWO: In recent years, a lot of schools have added food and drink machines to help raise money for education. But now schools are under pressure to remove the machines or limit sales of unhealthy foods. Some schools have given students devices to measure how much they walk each day. And a new private school is to open in September in California. The Academy of the Sierras says its goal is to help obese students lose weight and improve their health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Study Finds Warmer Nights Mean Less Rice
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 7, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists have had theories that climate change could harm crops. Now, a study offers what it calls direct evidence that rising temperatures at night can shrink harvests of rice. Scientists from China, the Philippines and the United States did the study for the International Rice Research Institute. The institute is based outside Manila. The report appeared in the United States in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers used weather information gathered over twenty-five years at the institute's own farm. They also used information on rice harvests at the research farm from nineteen-ninety-two until last year. The scientists say every increase of one degree Celsius in the average daily temperature would decrease rice harvests by fifteen percent. Earlier studies found half that estimate. That was because they did not consider the effects of temperatures at different times of the day. The new study found that the average daily temperature in the twenty-five year period increased by seven-tenths of one degree. But nighttime temperatures increased more than a full degree. In fact, the increase was three times greater than the increase in daytimes temperatures. The scientists found that the daytime increase had no clear effect on productivity. Professor Kenneth Cassman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln took part in the study. He says the new findings could be explained by the theories of scientists about the effects of global warming. The scientists say industrial gasses trap heat in the atmosphere, so the ground cannot cool as much at night. Climate studies suggest that average temperatures could increase as much as four-point-five degrees in the next one hundred years. The researchers in the new study say higher nighttime temperatures may cause the rice plants to spend less energy on growing. Other studies have suggested that grains like wheat and maze act the same way. But scientists say more work must be done to understand how plants act under conditions of climate change. Improved crops developed in the nineteen-sixties and seventies mean that rice harvests are now two times greater. Rice production has kept up with population growth so far. But Professor Cassman says the gains needed in the future could be more difficult. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: July 7, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists have had theories that climate change could harm crops. Now, a study offers what it calls direct evidence that rising temperatures at night can shrink harvests of rice. Scientists from China, the Philippines and the United States did the study for the International Rice Research Institute. The institute is based outside Manila. The report appeared in the United States in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers used weather information gathered over twenty-five years at the institute's own farm. They also used information on rice harvests at the research farm from nineteen-ninety-two until last year. The scientists say every increase of one degree Celsius in the average daily temperature would decrease rice harvests by fifteen percent. Earlier studies found half that estimate. That was because they did not consider the effects of temperatures at different times of the day. The new study found that the average daily temperature in the twenty-five year period increased by seven-tenths of one degree. But nighttime temperatures increased more than a full degree. In fact, the increase was three times greater than the increase in daytimes temperatures. The scientists found that the daytime increase had no clear effect on productivity. Professor Kenneth Cassman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln took part in the study. He says the new findings could be explained by the theories of scientists about the effects of global warming. The scientists say industrial gasses trap heat in the atmosphere, so the ground cannot cool as much at night. Climate studies suggest that average temperatures could increase as much as four-point-five degrees in the next one hundred years. The researchers in the new study say higher nighttime temperatures may cause the rice plants to spend less energy on growing. Other studies have suggested that grains like wheat and maze act the same way. But scientists say more work must be done to understand how plants act under conditions of climate change. Improved crops developed in the nineteen-sixties and seventies mean that rice harvests are now two times greater. Rice production has kept up with population growth so far. But Professor Cassman says the gains needed in the future could be more difficult. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  San Francisco Maritime National Park
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 7, 2004 (MUSIC) Gaspar de Portola Broadcast: July 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This unusual national Park celebrates the great harbor of San Francisco, California. It also celebrates the men and women who sailed the ships that made this harbor famous. San Francisco Maritime Museum VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. This unusual national Park celebrates the great harbor of San Francisco, California. It also celebrates the men and women who sailed the ships that made this harbor famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins long ago in October, seventeen-sixty-nine. A group of Spanish explorers have come north from Mexico. They are moving slowly up the coast of the territory of California. The governor of California, Gaspar de Portola, leads the group. The men and horses are tired. It has been a long trip. Governor de Portola decides to rest for a few days. But he still wants to explore the area. He orders a young man to take some soldiers and search to the north for a few kilometers. The young man is Jose Francisco Ortega. VOICE TWO: On the morning of November second, seventeen-sixty-nine, Ortega leads his small group of soldiers up a hill. What they see from the top of the hill makes them stop. There, below them, is a body of water. They are looking at a huge bay. Its waters seem to stretch for many kilometers to the north, south and east. The waters are very calm. The Balclutha (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our story begins long ago in October, seventeen-sixty-nine. A group of Spanish explorers have come north from Mexico. They are moving slowly up the coast of the territory of California. The governor of California, Gaspar de Portola, leads the group. The men and horses are tired. It has been a long trip. Governor de Portola decides to rest for a few days. But he still wants to explore the area. He orders a young man to take some soldiers and search to the north for a few kilometers. The young man is Jose Francisco Ortega. VOICE TWO: On the morning of November second, seventeen-sixty-nine, Ortega leads his small group of soldiers up a hill. What they see from the top of the hill makes them stop. There, below them, is a body of water. They are looking at a huge bay. Its waters seem to stretch for many kilometers to the north, south and east. The waters are very calm. When the small group of soldiers reports to Governor de Portola, they are excited. They tell him of a huge natural harbor. A Spanish religious worker reports the harbor is so large it could hold all of the ships of Europe. VOICE ONE: Six years after the huge bay was discovered, the Spanish ship San Carlos is sailing north along the coast of California. Juan Manuel de Ayala commands the ship. As the little ship sails along the coast, one of the crew reports to de Ayala. He says there is a huge opening in the land mass several kilometers wide. De Ayala orders the San Carlos to sail carefully into the opening. A crewmember reports the water in the opening is more than one-hundred-twenty meters deep. Slowly the little ship enters the huge natural harbor. For more than a month, de Ayala and his crew will sail their little ship around the huge bay. They make maps and study the area. They discover the bay is more than eighty kilometers long and from three to nineteen kilometers wide. On September eighteenth, seventeen-seventy-five, the San Carlos leaves the great bay. The San Carlos was the first ship to enter what would become San Francisco Bay. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spanish exploration was the beginning of the history of San Francisco harbor. That long history is celebrated at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The park’s main visitor center and museum is only a few hundred meters from the waters of the great harbor. The main building and the surrounding area are part of the history of the city and its link with the Pacific Ocean. It is a memorial to the great ships and those who sailed them. The Maritime National Park was designed to tell the story of the huge harbor. It also tells of the importance of the bay to the city of San Francisco, the state of California and the United States. VOICE ONE: The visitor center holds many objects linked to the past of the great harbor. There are small ships, ship equipment, and hundreds of beautiful old photographs. Many of the photographs from about eighteen-forty-nine show thousands of sailing ships surrounding the city of San Francisco. This is when gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people came looking for gold and wealth. Many visitors also stop to look at a large painting of a huge sailing ship. The painting shows the ship fighting against an angry ocean. Blue and green waters break against the side of the ship. Men high up in the ship’s masts are trying to control the sails. It is a painting of a ship named the “Balclutha” The ship was built in Scotland in eighteen-eighty-six. Visitors learn that the Balclutha fought storms around the tip of South America on its first trip. It reached the harbor of San Francisco after one-hundred-forty days at sea. It carried a cargo of coal from Britain. Visitors who look at the painting can go out the front door of the visitor center and see the real Balclutha. The Balclutha is the largest of almost one- hundred ships and boats that are part of the Maritime National Park. VOICE TWO: People walking near Fisherman’s Wharf often do not believe their eyes when they first see the Balclutha. Almost everyone stops and looks at the huge ship. Many people take photographs. The Balclutha is more than ninety-one meters long. The three tall masts that once carried its sails reach forty-four meters into the sky. It seems to be an object from the past that has arrived in modern San Francisco. The great ship looks almost new. Several years ago, more than one-million dollars was spent to repair and paint the Balclutha. Now, more than two-hundred-thousand people a year visit the ship. The visitors learn how the Balclutha once traveled the world carrying cargo. They can see a photograph of the first crew of the Balclutha. That crew sailed it into San Francisco harbor with a cargo of coal more than one-hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Balclutha is perhaps the most popular ship with visitors to the Maritime Park. However they can also visit several others ships. These are also very important to the history of the great harbor. But not all of these ships are open to the public. One that is open is a small steam-powered workboat that was built in nineteen-oh-seven. This small boat is named the Hercules. The Hercules is a tugboat. Until nineteen-twenty-four it pulled ships around the harbor. It pulled huge amounts of wood from trees from the city of Seattle, Washington in the north all the way to Panama. And it moved cargo from place to place within San Francisco harbor. VOICE TWO: Another boat popular with visitors is the Eureka. It was built in eighteen-ninety. It is the largest wooden ship still floating today. The Eureka was a ferryboat. It carried people and cars across San Francisco bay. It did this until the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge were built. The C.A. Thayer is another sailing ship. It carried wood from trees along the Pacific Coast from the state of Washington to California. Later it was used as a fishing boat. Until recently it was used as a floating classroom for school children. Children stayed the night on the C.A. Thayer. They attended classes about living and working on a ship. They learned how hard the work was and how dangerous it could be. In December, two-thousand-three, the C.A. Thayer began a period of repairs that is expected to last two years. The rebuilding project will replace as much as eighty percent of its wooden parts. While the work is being done, visitors can still see the ship. They can watch the work as the ship is rebuilt. VOICE ONE: A much smaller sailing ship is called the Alma. Sailors called this kind of ship a scow. It usually had only two crewmembers and perhaps a boy who was learning how to work on a boat. The Alma was the kind of small ship used during the California Gold Rush. It delivered cargo across the great harbor and up rivers. Ships like the Alma carried almost everything -- bricks, salt, lumber, grain, food. The little ships could carry as much cargo as a large modern truck. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park also has a very unusual looking museum. It is a large building that almost looks like a ship. The museum is filled with interesting equipment. One room has been made to look like a ship’s radio room. Radio operators show visitors how the equipment was used. One of the most interesting objects in the museum is a small sailboat only large enough for one person. It is only five-and-one-half meters long. The little boat is named Mermaid. In nineteen-sixty-two, Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie sailed the Mermaid alone across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. No one had ever done such a thing before. VOICE ONE: From the top of the building, visitors can watch the ships of the world sail in and out of the great harbor. Visitors to the San Francisco Maritime National Park learn that the history of the harbor is important to the past. And the work of San Francisco harbor continues into the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. When the small group of soldiers reports to Governor de Portola, they are excited. They tell him of a huge natural harbor. A Spanish religious worker reports the harbor is so large it could hold all of the ships of Europe. VOICE ONE: Six years after the huge bay was discovered, the Spanish ship San Carlos is sailing north along the coast of California. Juan Manuel de Ayala commands the ship. As the little ship sails along the coast, one of the crew reports to de Ayala. He says there is a huge opening in the land mass several kilometers wide. De Ayala orders the San Carlos to sail carefully into the opening. A crewmember reports the water in the opening is more than one-hundred-twenty meters deep. Slowly the little ship enters the huge natural harbor. For more than a month, de Ayala and his crew will sail their little ship around the huge bay. They make maps and study the area. They discover the bay is more than eighty kilometers long and from three to nineteen kilometers wide. On September eighteenth, seventeen-seventy-five, the San Carlos leaves the great bay. The San Carlos was the first ship to enter what would become San Francisco Bay. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spanish exploration was the beginning of the history of San Francisco harbor. That long history is celebrated at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The park’s main visitor center and museum is only a few hundred meters from the waters of the great harbor. The main building and the surrounding area are part of the history of the city and its link with the Pacific Ocean. It is a memorial to the great ships and those who sailed them. The Maritime National Park was designed to tell the story of the huge harbor. It also tells of the importance of the bay to the city of San Francisco, the state of California and the United States. VOICE ONE: The visitor center holds many objects linked to the past of the great harbor. There are small ships, ship equipment, and hundreds of beautiful old photographs. Many of the photographs from about eighteen-forty-nine show thousands of sailing ships surrounding the city of San Francisco. This is when gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people came looking for gold and wealth. Many visitors also stop to look at a large painting of a huge sailing ship. The painting shows the ship fighting against an angry ocean. Blue and green waters break against the side of the ship. Men high up in the ship’s masts are trying to control the sails. It is a painting of a ship named the “Balclutha” The ship was built in Scotland in eighteen-eighty-six. Visitors learn that the Balclutha fought storms around the tip of South America on its first trip. It reached the harbor of San Francisco after one-hundred-forty days at sea. It carried a cargo of coal from Britain. Visitors who look at the painting can go out the front door of the visitor center and see the real Balclutha. The Balclutha is the largest of almost one- hundred ships and boats that are part of the Maritime National Park. VOICE TWO: People walking near Fisherman’s Wharf often do not believe their eyes when they first see the Balclutha. Almost everyone stops and looks at the huge ship. Many people take photographs. The Balclutha is more than ninety-one meters long. The three tall masts that once carried its sails reach forty-four meters into the sky. It seems to be an object from the past that has arrived in modern San Francisco. The great ship looks almost new. Several years ago, more than one-million dollars was spent to repair and paint the Balclutha. Now, more than two-hundred-thousand people a year visit the ship. The visitors learn how the Balclutha once traveled the world carrying cargo. They can see a photograph of the first crew of the Balclutha. That crew sailed it into San Francisco harbor with a cargo of coal more than one-hundred years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Balclutha is perhaps the most popular ship with visitors to the Maritime Park. However they can also visit several others ships. These are also very important to the history of the great harbor. But not all of these ships are open to the public. One that is open is a small steam-powered workboat that was built in nineteen-oh-seven. This small boat is named the Hercules. The Hercules is a tugboat. Until nineteen-twenty-four it pulled ships around the harbor. It pulled huge amounts of wood from trees from the city of Seattle, Washington in the north all the way to Panama. And it moved cargo from place to place within San Francisco harbor. VOICE TWO: Another boat popular with visitors is the Eureka. It was built in eighteen-ninety. It is the largest wooden ship still floating today. The Eureka was a ferryboat. It carried people and cars across San Francisco bay. It did this until the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge were built. The C.A. Thayer is another sailing ship. It carried wood from trees along the Pacific Coast from the state of Washington to California. Later it was used as a fishing boat. Until recently it was used as a floating classroom for school children. Children stayed the night on the C.A. Thayer. They attended classes about living and working on a ship. They learned how hard the work was and how dangerous it could be. In December, two-thousand-three, the C.A. Thayer began a period of repairs that is expected to last two years. The rebuilding project will replace as much as eighty percent of its wooden parts. While the work is being done, visitors can still see the ship. They can watch the work as the ship is rebuilt. VOICE ONE: A much smaller sailing ship is called the Alma. Sailors called this kind of ship a scow. It usually had only two crewmembers and perhaps a boy who was learning how to work on a boat. The Alma was the kind of small ship used during the California Gold Rush. It delivered cargo across the great harbor and up rivers. Ships like the Alma carried almost everything -- bricks, salt, lumber, grain, food. The little ships could carry as much cargo as a large modern truck. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park also has a very unusual looking museum. It is a large building that almost looks like a ship. The museum is filled with interesting equipment. One room has been made to look like a ship’s radio room. Radio operators show visitors how the equipment was used. One of the most interesting objects in the museum is a small sailboat only large enough for one person. It is only five-and-one-half meters long. The little boat is named Mermaid. In nineteen-sixty-two, Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie sailed the Mermaid alone across the Pacific Ocean from Japan to San Francisco. No one had ever done such a thing before. VOICE ONE: From the top of the building, visitors can watch the ships of the world sail in and out of the great harbor. Visitors to the San Francisco Maritime National Park learn that the history of the harbor is important to the past. And the work of San Francisco harbor continues into the future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Rise in Number of Cancer Survivors
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 7, 2004 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease. In the past, it was often considered a death sentence. But many patients now live longer because of improvements in discovery and treatment. Researchers say death rates in the United States from all cancers combined have fallen for thirty years. Survival rates have increased for most of the top fifteen cancers in both men and women, and for cancers in children. The National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied the number of cancer survivors. A cancer survivor is defined as anyone has been found to have cancer. This would include current patients. The study covered the period from nineteen-seventy-one to two-thousand-one. The researchers found there are three times as many cancer survivors today as there were thirty years ago. In nineteen-seventy-one, the United States had about three-million cancer survivors. Today there are about ten-million. The study also found that sixty-four percent of adults with cancer can expect to still be alive in five years. Thirty years ago, the five-year survival rate was fifty percent. The government wants to increase the five-year survival rate to seventy-percent by two-thousand-ten. Breast cancer survivors are the largest group of survivors, at twenty-two percent. That group is followed by survivors of prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. The risk of cancer increases with age. The report says the majority of survivors are sixty-five years and older. But it says medical improvements have also helped children with cancer live much longer. Researchers say eighty percent of children with cancer will survive at least five years after the discovery. About seventy-five percent will survive at least ten years. In the nineteen-seventies, the five-year survival rate for children was about fifty percent. In the nineteen-sixties, most children did not survive cancer.Researchers say they expect more improvements in cancer treatment in the future. In fact, they say traditional cancer-prevention programs are not enough anymore. They say public health programs should also aim to support the growing numbers of cancer survivors and their families. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #70 - William Henry Harrison
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 8, 2004 (MUSIC) Henry Clay Broadcast: July 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Late in the year eighteen-forty, the American people elected their ninth president, General William Henry Harrison. His election was expected. Still, it was a great victory for the Whig Party and a sharply-felt loss for the opposing party, the Democrats. They failed to put their man, President Martin Van Buren, in the White House for a second term. President John Tyler VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Late in the year eighteen-forty, the American people elected their ninth president, General William Henry Harrison. His election was expected. Still, it was a great victory for the Whig Party and a sharply-felt loss for the opposing party, the Democrats. They failed to put their man, President Martin Van Buren, in the White House for a second term. As we reported last week, Whig leaders made most of Harrison's campaign decisions. Some of them, especially Senators Henry Clay of Kentucky and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, believed they could control the newly-elected president. But Harrison saw what was happening. When he made a trip to Clay's home state of Kentucky, he made it clear that he did not want to meet with Clay. He felt that such a meeting might seem to show that Clay was the real power in the new administration. Clay made sure that General Harrison was publicly invited to visit him. The newly-elected president could not reject the invitation. He spent several days at Clay's home in Lexington. VOICE TWO: Daniel Webster, without even being asked, wrote an inaugural speech for the new president. Harrison thanked him, but said he already had written his speech. Harrison spoke for more than one and a half hours. He gave the speech outside, on the front steps of the Capitol building. It was the coldest inaugural day in the nation's history. But Harrison did not wear a coat or hat. Harrison caught a cold, probably from standing so long outside in the bitter weather of inaugural day. Rest was his best treatment. But Harrison was so busy, he had little time to rest. VOICE ONE: Hundreds of people demanded to see the new president. They wanted jobs with the government. Everywhere he turned, Harrison was met by crowds of job-hungry people. And there was a problem that worried him. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were fighting each other for power in the new administration. Harrison had offered Clay any job he wanted in the cabinet. But Clay chose to stay in the Senate. Harrison then gave the job of Secretary of State to Webster. He also gave Webster's supporters the best government jobs in New York City. VOICE TWO: Clay did not like this. And he told the president so. Harrison accused Clay of trying to tell him -- the president -- how to do his job. Later, he told Clay that he wanted no further words with him. He said any future communications between them would have to be written. Harrison's health grew worse. Late in March, eighteen forty-one, his cold turned into pneumonia. Doctors did everything they could to cure him. But nothing seemed to help. On April fourth, after exactly one month as president, William Henry Harrison died. Vice President John Tyler was then at his home in Williamsburg, Virginia. Secretary of State Webster sent his son Fletcher on horseback to tell Tyler of the president's death. The vice President was shocked. He had not even known that Harrison was sick. Two hours after he received the news, Tyler was on his way to Washington. He reached the capital just before sunrise on April sixth, eighteen-forty-one. VOICE ONE: There was some question about Tyler's position. This was the first time that a president had died in office. No one was really sure if the constitution meant that the vice president was to become president or only acting president. Webster and the other members of the cabinet decided that Tyler should be president and serve until the next election. Tyler also had decided this. Tyler was sworn-in as the tenth president on April sixth. He was fifty-one years old. No other man had become president at such an early age. Tyler was born and grew up in the same part of Virginia as William Henry Harrison. His father was a wealthy planter and judge who had been a friend of Thomas Jefferson. John completed studies at the college of William and Mary, and became a lawyer. He entered politics and served in the Virginia legislature. Then he was elected a member of Congress and, later, governor of Virginia. He also served as a United States senator. VOICE TWO: Tyler believed strongly in the rights of the states. As a congressman and a senator, he had voted against every attempt to give more power to the federal government. Tyler's political beliefs were strongly opposed to those of the northern and western Whigs. Henry Clay firmly supported the ideas of a national bank, a protective tax on imports, and federal spending to improve transportation in the states. Tyler was just as firmly against these ideas. There was something else. Clay expected to be the Whig Party's presidential candidate in eighteen-forty-four. If he supported Tyler, then the new president might become too strong politically and win a second term in the White House. VOICE ONE: Tyler quickly established his independence after becoming president. Webster told him that President Harrison had let the cabinet make the decisions of his administration. He said Harrison had only one vote...the same as any member of the cabinet. Webster asked if Tyler wanted this to continue. "I do not," said Tyler. "I would like to keep President Harrison's cabinet. But I, alone, will make the decisions. If the cabinet members do not approve of this, let them resign." Tyler wanted to change the cabinet, but could not do so immediately. All but two members of the cabinet were supporters of Senator Clay. Tyler wanted to put these men out and appoint men who would support him. But if he did this immediately, it would split the party. He would have to wait. VOICE TWO: The Whig Party controlled both houses of Congress after the eighteen-forty elections. Clay wanted a special session of the new Congress. He was able to get Harrison to call such a session before the president's death. At the session, Clay offered six resolutions as a plan of work for Congress. These proposed putting an end to the independent treasury, the establishment of a new national bank, and a tax increase on imports. They also included a new plan to give the states the money received by the federal government from the sale of public lands. It was no problem to put an end to the independent treasury. Tyler had opposed it during the campaign and in his message to Congress. Congress soon passed a bill repealing the independent treasury act. And Tyler quickly signed it. VOICE ONE: But a dispute arose on the issue of a new national bank. Tyler had his Secretary of the Treasury send Congress the administration's plan for a national bank. It would permit such a bank to be established in Washington. And it would permit the bank to open offices in a state, but only if the state approved. This was not the kind of bank Clay wanted. He wanted no limits of any kind on the power of a national bank to open offices anywhere in the country. Clay then offered a bill that would create just this kind of bank. There was much debate. And Clay finally agreed to a compromise. Bank offices would be permitted in any state where the state legislature did not immediately refuse permission. VOICE TWO: The Congress accepted the compromise. But President Tyler did not. He vetoed the bank bill and sent it back to Congress. This had been a difficult decision for Tyler to make. He wanted peace and unity in the party. But he also wanted to show that he -- and not Henry Clay -- was president. The people knew he opposed Clay's bill. If he accepted it, the people would feel that Clay was the more powerful. Clay did not have enough votes to pass the bill over the president's veto. Another effort was made to get a bank bill that the president would approve. This time, members of Congress met with Tyler to get his ideas. He explained, again, the kind of bank he would accept. He said the states must have the right to approve or reject bank offices. The congressmen wrote another bill. They said it was exactly what the president wanted. But the president did not agree. He said this second bill would also be vetoed unless changes were made in it. The changes were not made. And Tyler did as he said he would do. He vetoed it. This second veto caused a crisis in Tyler's cabinet. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. As we reported last week, Whig leaders made most of Harrison's campaign decisions. Some of them, especially Senators Henry Clay of Kentucky and Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, believed they could control the newly-elected president. But Harrison saw what was happening. When he made a trip to Clay's home state of Kentucky, he made it clear that he did not want to meet with Clay. He felt that such a meeting might seem to show that Clay was the real power in the new administration. Clay made sure that General Harrison was publicly invited to visit him. The newly-elected president could not reject the invitation. He spent several days at Clay's home in Lexington. VOICE TWO: Daniel Webster, without even being asked, wrote an inaugural speech for the new president. Harrison thanked him, but said he already had written his speech. Harrison spoke for more than one and a half hours. He gave the speech outside, on the front steps of the Capitol building. It was the coldest inaugural day in the nation's history. But Harrison did not wear a coat or hat. Harrison caught a cold, probably from standing so long outside in the bitter weather of inaugural day. Rest was his best treatment. But Harrison was so busy, he had little time to rest. VOICE ONE: Hundreds of people demanded to see the new president. They wanted jobs with the government. Everywhere he turned, Harrison was met by crowds of job-hungry people. And there was a problem that worried him. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were fighting each other for power in the new administration. Harrison had offered Clay any job he wanted in the cabinet. But Clay chose to stay in the Senate. Harrison then gave the job of Secretary of State to Webster. He also gave Webster's supporters the best government jobs in New York City. VOICE TWO: Clay did not like this. And he told the president so. Harrison accused Clay of trying to tell him -- the president -- how to do his job. Later, he told Clay that he wanted no further words with him. He said any future communications between them would have to be written. Harrison's health grew worse. Late in March, eighteen forty-one, his cold turned into pneumonia. Doctors did everything they could to cure him. But nothing seemed to help. On April fourth, after exactly one month as president, William Henry Harrison died. Vice President John Tyler was then at his home in Williamsburg, Virginia. Secretary of State Webster sent his son Fletcher on horseback to tell Tyler of the president's death. The vice President was shocked. He had not even known that Harrison was sick. Two hours after he received the news, Tyler was on his way to Washington. He reached the capital just before sunrise on April sixth, eighteen-forty-one. VOICE ONE: There was some question about Tyler's position. This was the first time that a president had died in office. No one was really sure if the constitution meant that the vice president was to become president or only acting president. Webster and the other members of the cabinet decided that Tyler should be president and serve until the next election. Tyler also had decided this. Tyler was sworn-in as the tenth president on April sixth. He was fifty-one years old. No other man had become president at such an early age. Tyler was born and grew up in the same part of Virginia as William Henry Harrison. His father was a wealthy planter and judge who had been a friend of Thomas Jefferson. John completed studies at the college of William and Mary, and became a lawyer. He entered politics and served in the Virginia legislature. Then he was elected a member of Congress and, later, governor of Virginia. He also served as a United States senator. VOICE TWO: Tyler believed strongly in the rights of the states. As a congressman and a senator, he had voted against every attempt to give more power to the federal government. Tyler's political beliefs were strongly opposed to those of the northern and western Whigs. Henry Clay firmly supported the ideas of a national bank, a protective tax on imports, and federal spending to improve transportation in the states. Tyler was just as firmly against these ideas. There was something else. Clay expected to be the Whig Party's presidential candidate in eighteen-forty-four. If he supported Tyler, then the new president might become too strong politically and win a second term in the White House. VOICE ONE: Tyler quickly established his independence after becoming president. Webster told him that President Harrison had let the cabinet make the decisions of his administration. He said Harrison had only one vote...the same as any member of the cabinet. Webster asked if Tyler wanted this to continue. "I do not," said Tyler. "I would like to keep President Harrison's cabinet. But I, alone, will make the decisions. If the cabinet members do not approve of this, let them resign." Tyler wanted to change the cabinet, but could not do so immediately. All but two members of the cabinet were supporters of Senator Clay. Tyler wanted to put these men out and appoint men who would support him. But if he did this immediately, it would split the party. He would have to wait. VOICE TWO: The Whig Party controlled both houses of Congress after the eighteen-forty elections. Clay wanted a special session of the new Congress. He was able to get Harrison to call such a session before the president's death. At the session, Clay offered six resolutions as a plan of work for Congress. These proposed putting an end to the independent treasury, the establishment of a new national bank, and a tax increase on imports. They also included a new plan to give the states the money received by the federal government from the sale of public lands. It was no problem to put an end to the independent treasury. Tyler had opposed it during the campaign and in his message to Congress. Congress soon passed a bill repealing the independent treasury act. And Tyler quickly signed it. VOICE ONE: But a dispute arose on the issue of a new national bank. Tyler had his Secretary of the Treasury send Congress the administration's plan for a national bank. It would permit such a bank to be established in Washington. And it would permit the bank to open offices in a state, but only if the state approved. This was not the kind of bank Clay wanted. He wanted no limits of any kind on the power of a national bank to open offices anywhere in the country. Clay then offered a bill that would create just this kind of bank. There was much debate. And Clay finally agreed to a compromise. Bank offices would be permitted in any state where the state legislature did not immediately refuse permission. VOICE TWO: The Congress accepted the compromise. But President Tyler did not. He vetoed the bank bill and sent it back to Congress. This had been a difficult decision for Tyler to make. He wanted peace and unity in the party. But he also wanted to show that he -- and not Henry Clay -- was president. The people knew he opposed Clay's bill. If he accepted it, the people would feel that Clay was the more powerful. Clay did not have enough votes to pass the bill over the president's veto. Another effort was made to get a bank bill that the president would approve. This time, members of Congress met with Tyler to get his ideas. He explained, again, the kind of bank he would accept. He said the states must have the right to approve or reject bank offices. The congressmen wrote another bill. They said it was exactly what the president wanted. But the president did not agree. He said this second bill would also be vetoed unless changes were made in it. The changes were not made. And Tyler did as he said he would do. He vetoed it. This second veto caused a crisis in Tyler's cabinet. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Study Gives High Marks to Teach for America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 8, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Teach for America is a program that has provided more than ten thousand teachers to schools across the country. They have taught more than a million children from poor families. Teach for America trains recent college graduates to work in low-economic schools in different areas of the country. They are expected to teach for at least two years. A student at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, had the idea for Teach for America in nineteen-eighty-nine. Wendy Kopp wrote a paper in which she proposed a national teaching organization. People supported her idea. Money from major companies helped launch the program. The program has also received money from the federal government. And money comes from people and businesses in areas where the teachers work. Wendy Kopp still leads Teach for America. Some education experts have criticized the lack of experience that the young teachers have before they begin work. But now the Mathematica Policy Research organization in Princeton has examined the effects of Teach for America. The Mathematica study took place in six areas around the country between two-thousand-two and two-thousand-three. It involved nearly two-thousand children in seventeen schools. Researchers tested the students at the beginning and end of the school year. They compared the results of students who had Teach for America teachers with those who did not. The study found that both groups did equally well on average in reading. The Teach for America group scored higher in mathematics. But two times as many of the Teach for America teachers reported that physical conflicts among students were a serious problem. Even so, the study found that the two groups of teachers had similar rates of student expulsions and suspensions. The researchers had praise for the Teach for America teachers. They say the new educators had more success than teachers with an average of six years of classroom experience. Most of the Teach for America teachers said they planned to teach for just a few years. About ten percent said they expected to teach until retirement. By comparison, that was true of sixty percent of teachers outside the program. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: July 8, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Teach for America is a program that has provided more than ten thousand teachers to schools across the country. They have taught more than a million children from poor families. Teach for America trains recent college graduates to work in low-economic schools in different areas of the country. They are expected to teach for at least two years. A student at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, had the idea for Teach for America in nineteen-eighty-nine. Wendy Kopp wrote a paper in which she proposed a national teaching organization. People supported her idea. Money from major companies helped launch the program. The program has also received money from the federal government. And money comes from people and businesses in areas where the teachers work. Wendy Kopp still leads Teach for America. Some education experts have criticized the lack of experience that the young teachers have before they begin work. But now the Mathematica Policy Research organization in Princeton has examined the effects of Teach for America. The Mathematica study took place in six areas around the country between two-thousand-two and two-thousand-three. It involved nearly two-thousand children in seventeen schools. Researchers tested the students at the beginning and end of the school year. They compared the results of students who had Teach for America teachers with those who did not. The study found that both groups did equally well on average in reading. The Teach for America group scored higher in mathematics. But two times as many of the Teach for America teachers reported that physical conflicts among students were a serious problem. Even so, the study found that the two groups of teachers had similar rates of student expulsions and suspensions. The researchers had praise for the Teach for America teachers. They say the new educators had more success than teachers with an average of six years of classroom experience. Most of the Teach for America teachers said they planned to teach for just a few years. About ten percent said they expected to teach until retirement. By comparison, that was true of sixty percent of teachers outside the program. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 8, 2004 - Lida Baker: Common Sentence Errors
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 8, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. But with me from Los Angeles this week on Wordmaster is English teacher Lida Baker. LB: "What we're going to talk about today is four types of common sentence errors, the kinds of mistakes that I see in my students' writing all the time. And I'm going to give some examples, and it might be easier for the listeners to follow along with me if they could write down the examples that I give. So the first type of error is called a sentence fragment. Now what is a fragment?" AA: "A little piece of something." LB: "A little piece of something. So a sentence fragment is a little piece of a sentence. It's not a complete sentence. So let me give you the most common example of a sentence fragment that I see in people's writing all the time. It goes something like this: 'I never eat chocolate. Because I'm allergic to it.' Do you see the problem?" AA: "Yes. That really should be one sentence." LB: "That really should be one sentence, right. Now the first part -- 'I never eat chocolate (period)' -- that's fine, because that is a sentence. It has the subject 'I', and then it has the verb part 'never eat,' OK? So that's a complete sentence. "The problem is the second part, 'because I'm allergic to it.' That can't stand alone as a sentence. What you have to do is you have to connect it to the complete sentence that came before it. When it stands by itself, it's called a dependent clause, or a subordinate clause. And the way that you fix a problem like this is that you take that dependent clause and you attach it to an independent clause, which is the same thing as a full sentence." AA: "Wouldn't some people say there should be a comma in there, between those two clauses?" LB: "No, no, no. Because if you put a comma in there, what you're doing is creating a different kind of sentence error, which is called a comma splice. In a comma splice, you have two sentences, two complete sentences that are separated by a comma. But what they should have in between is a period. So an example would be something like this: 'I never eat chocolate, I'm allergic to it.' Do you see how each of those parts is a complete sentence? So according to the rules of punctuation, we cannot use a comma to separate those two parts of the sentence." AA: "So now we've gotten through the fragment and the comma splice. So what's next?" LB: "Next we have what's called a run-on sentence. A run-on sentence consists of two independent clauses. And, remember, an independent clause is the same thing as a sentence. So it's two independent clauses that are not separated by any punctuation. So you have something like: 'I never eat chocolate I'm allergic to it.' In that case you can even hear that it's wrong. Because to say 'I never eat chocolate I'm allergic to it' doesn't even sound right. If we say it this way, though, 'I never eat chocolate (pause) I'm allergic to it,' you can actually hear where the period is supposed to go, right?" AA: "Right." LB: "It goes in the middle, between the two sentences." AA: "OK, we've got fragment, comma splice, run-on sentence, and the fourth kind of sentence error is ... ?" LB: "The stringy sentence. Let me give you an example of a stringy sentence: 'I never eat chocolate because I'm allergic to it, and I don't like nuts either, so I never eat them, but I'm not allergic to them, so last week I went out and I bought some nuts.' Now what do you think is wrong with that?" AA: "Is that all one sentence?" LB: "Yes, that is a stringy sentence. What we have there is a whole string of sentences, of independent clauses. All of them are separated by a comma and a conjunction: and, so, but. And as long as you punctuate it correctly with a comma and a conjunction, it isn't wrong. But you can hear that it just doesn't sound right. It sounds like somebody who's just babbling. And it's not considered good writing. "Good writing is writing where you have a lot of variety in your sentences. Some of them are short. Some of them are long. Some of them are simple. Some of them are compound. Some of them are complex. So it's not static. It isn't symmetrical, OK? There is a lot of variety and a lot of different rhythms. This is what we consider to be good writing." AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners, and she teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Internet users can find all of her previous segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. And the e-mail address for Wordmaster is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 8, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. But with me from Los Angeles this week on Wordmaster is English teacher Lida Baker. LB: "What we're going to talk about today is four types of common sentence errors, the kinds of mistakes that I see in my students' writing all the time. And I'm going to give some examples, and it might be easier for the listeners to follow along with me if they could write down the examples that I give. So the first type of error is called a sentence fragment. Now what is a fragment?" AA: "A little piece of something." LB: "A little piece of something. So a sentence fragment is a little piece of a sentence. It's not a complete sentence. So let me give you the most common example of a sentence fragment that I see in people's writing all the time. It goes something like this: 'I never eat chocolate. Because I'm allergic to it.' Do you see the problem?" AA: "Yes. That really should be one sentence." LB: "That really should be one sentence, right. Now the first part -- 'I never eat chocolate (period)' -- that's fine, because that is a sentence. It has the subject 'I', and then it has the verb part 'never eat,' OK? So that's a complete sentence. "The problem is the second part, 'because I'm allergic to it.' That can't stand alone as a sentence. What you have to do is you have to connect it to the complete sentence that came before it. When it stands by itself, it's called a dependent clause, or a subordinate clause. And the way that you fix a problem like this is that you take that dependent clause and you attach it to an independent clause, which is the same thing as a full sentence." AA: "Wouldn't some people say there should be a comma in there, between those two clauses?" LB: "No, no, no. Because if you put a comma in there, what you're doing is creating a different kind of sentence error, which is called a comma splice. In a comma splice, you have two sentences, two complete sentences that are separated by a comma. But what they should have in between is a period. So an example would be something like this: 'I never eat chocolate, I'm allergic to it.' Do you see how each of those parts is a complete sentence? So according to the rules of punctuation, we cannot use a comma to separate those two parts of the sentence." AA: "So now we've gotten through the fragment and the comma splice. So what's next?" LB: "Next we have what's called a run-on sentence. A run-on sentence consists of two independent clauses. And, remember, an independent clause is the same thing as a sentence. So it's two independent clauses that are not separated by any punctuation. So you have something like: 'I never eat chocolate I'm allergic to it.' In that case you can even hear that it's wrong. Because to say 'I never eat chocolate I'm allergic to it' doesn't even sound right. If we say it this way, though, 'I never eat chocolate (pause) I'm allergic to it,' you can actually hear where the period is supposed to go, right?" AA: "Right." LB: "It goes in the middle, between the two sentences." AA: "OK, we've got fragment, comma splice, run-on sentence, and the fourth kind of sentence error is ... ?" LB: "The stringy sentence. Let me give you an example of a stringy sentence: 'I never eat chocolate because I'm allergic to it, and I don't like nuts either, so I never eat them, but I'm not allergic to them, so last week I went out and I bought some nuts.' Now what do you think is wrong with that?" AA: "Is that all one sentence?" LB: "Yes, that is a stringy sentence. What we have there is a whole string of sentences, of independent clauses. All of them are separated by a comma and a conjunction: and, so, but. And as long as you punctuate it correctly with a comma and a conjunction, it isn't wrong. But you can hear that it just doesn't sound right. It sounds like somebody who's just babbling. And it's not considered good writing. "Good writing is writing where you have a lot of variety in your sentences. Some of them are short. Some of them are long. Some of them are simple. Some of them are compound. Some of them are complex. So it's not static. It isn't symmetrical, OK? There is a lot of variety and a lot of different rhythms. This is what we consider to be good writing." AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners, and she teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. Internet users can find all of her previous segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. And the e-mail address for Wordmaster is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Beastie Boys' New Album / Spanish Names of California Cities / Battle of Gettysburg
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 9, 2004 HOST: A cannon at Gettysburg Broadcast: July 9, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: some rap music by the Beastie Boys. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: some rap music by the Beastie Boys. And a listener wants to know about the names of some cities in the western state of California. But first, a report about activities last weekend in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Battle of Gettysburg HOST: Last weekend, many Americans visited the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That is because the first three days in July is the anniversary of one of the most important battles in the American Civil War. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: And a listener wants to know about the names of some cities in the western state of California. But first, a report about activities last weekend in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Battle of Gettysburg HOST: Last weekend, many Americans visited the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. That is because the first three days in July is the anniversary of one of the most important battles in the American Civil War. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Gettysburg is about one-hundred kilometers north of Washington, D.C. It is a peaceful place, surrounded by low hills and rich farmland. But during the first three days of July in eighteen-sixty-three, the armies of the North and South met in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. It began when Southern soldiers rode into the northern town of Gettysburg looking for new shoes. They found Northern soldiers instead. Other soldiers of the two armies rushed to the area. For three days, they battled fiercely near the small town. When the fighting ended, more than fifty-one-thousand soldiers were dead, wounded or missing. The Southern army fled to Virginia, never again to invade the North. Today, the Gettysburg battlefield is a National Military Park. More than one-million people visit each year. Some visitors are interested in military history. They study the methods of the opposing generals. Others want to see the thousands of monuments and statues made by famous artists that honor the men who fought there. But most visit because Gettysburg is one of the best known names in American history. On the anniversary of the great battle, park guides take visitors on special walks that follow the paths taken by northern and southern troops. Battle experts dressed as Northern and Southern soldiers are placed around the park to explain what happened during the battles. They also demonstrate the guns used during the Civil War. And they answer questions from visitors. Just outside the town of Gettysburg, men and women dress as Northern and Southern troops. They re-create some of the famous battles that took place on those three days in July, eighteen-sixty-three. All of this activity brings a lot of money to the small town of Gettysburg. Officials say the park gets about six-thousand visitors on a normal day during the summer. But on the anniversary weekend, at least ten-thousand visitors come to the park each day. Spanish Names in California HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Francisco de Assis Mateus would like to know why so many big cities in the western state of California have Spanish names. These include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. The simple answer is that they were named by Spanish explorers. However, there is more to that story. We really have to start at the beginning in southern California near the American border with Mexico. San Diego was the first Spanish settlement in California. Spanish soldiers built a fort there in seventeen-sixty-nine. The settlement was named for San Diego de Alcala, a Spanish saint, or holy man. Americans have called San Diego the birthplace of California. As the Spanish soldiers moved up the coast, they found other places that would made good settlements. One of these is -- get ready for this long name – “Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.” In English it means “Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula.” Porciuncula was a Roman Catholic church in Italy linked with Saint Francis of Assisi. He was the founder of the Franciscan Order of religious workers and priests. Franciscan Priest Juan Crespi gave the area that name. Today it has a much shorter name -- Los Angeles or just “L.A.” We would like to tell you about one more city in California -- San Francisco. The first explorer to give the area that name was, in fact, not Spanish but Portuguese. In fifteen-ninety-five, Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno named part of the California coast “Puerto de San Francisco.” Or, Port of Saint Francis. Later, the Spanish discovered the great harbor where the city of San Francisco was later built. A small settlement near the present city was called Pueblo de San Francisco. After the war between Mexico and the United States in eighteen-forty-six, Americans called the growing city San Francisco. A small island in the harbor was given the old Spanish name, Yerba Buena. So that explains the names of some cities in California. I am sorry we do not have time to tell about Portola, Los Gatos, San Dimas, San Bernardino, Los Altos, San Carlos, San Juan Capistrano, Escondido, San Jose ... The Beastie Boys HOST: Critics are praising a new recording by the American rap group the Beastie Boys. The group has been performing and recording since nineteen-eighty-one. Faith Lapidus tells us more. ANNCR: The three members of the Beastie Boys are Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch and Michael Diamond. The group’s first album was released in nineteen-eighty-five. It was called “License to Ill.” It became the first rap album to be number one on the list of most popular records at the time. It sold more than eight-million copies in the United States. The biggest single record on the album was this song, “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party.” (MUSIC) In nineteen-ninety-nine, the Beastie Boys won two Grammy Awards from the American record industry. One was for Best Alternative Music Performance for the song “Hello Nasty.” The other was Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for this song, “Intergalactic.” (MUSIC) Now, the Beastie Boys have a new album, “To the Five Boroughs.” The album sold more than three-hundred-sixty-thousand copies in the United States in its first week of release. We leave you with the first single from that album, “Ch-Check It Out.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use your question. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Zenab Abdulrahman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Gettysburg is about one-hundred kilometers north of Washington, D.C. It is a peaceful place, surrounded by low hills and rich farmland. But during the first three days of July in eighteen-sixty-three, the armies of the North and South met in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. It began when Southern soldiers rode into the northern town of Gettysburg looking for new shoes. They found Northern soldiers instead. Other soldiers of the two armies rushed to the area. For three days, they battled fiercely near the small town. When the fighting ended, more than fifty-one-thousand soldiers were dead, wounded or missing. The Southern army fled to Virginia, never again to invade the North. Today, the Gettysburg battlefield is a National Military Park. More than one-million people visit each year. Some visitors are interested in military history. They study the methods of the opposing generals. Others want to see the thousands of monuments and statues made by famous artists that honor the men who fought there. But most visit because Gettysburg is one of the best known names in American history. On the anniversary of the great battle, park guides take visitors on special walks that follow the paths taken by northern and southern troops. Battle experts dressed as Northern and Southern soldiers are placed around the park to explain what happened during the battles. They also demonstrate the guns used during the Civil War. And they answer questions from visitors. Just outside the town of Gettysburg, men and women dress as Northern and Southern troops. They re-create some of the famous battles that took place on those three days in July, eighteen-sixty-three. All of this activity brings a lot of money to the small town of Gettysburg. Officials say the park gets about six-thousand visitors on a normal day during the summer. But on the anniversary weekend, at least ten-thousand visitors come to the park each day. Spanish Names in California HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Francisco de Assis Mateus would like to know why so many big cities in the western state of California have Spanish names. These include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. The simple answer is that they were named by Spanish explorers. However, there is more to that story. We really have to start at the beginning in southern California near the American border with Mexico. San Diego was the first Spanish settlement in California. Spanish soldiers built a fort there in seventeen-sixty-nine. The settlement was named for San Diego de Alcala, a Spanish saint, or holy man. Americans have called San Diego the birthplace of California. As the Spanish soldiers moved up the coast, they found other places that would made good settlements. One of these is -- get ready for this long name – “Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.” In English it means “Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula.” Porciuncula was a Roman Catholic church in Italy linked with Saint Francis of Assisi. He was the founder of the Franciscan Order of religious workers and priests. Franciscan Priest Juan Crespi gave the area that name. Today it has a much shorter name -- Los Angeles or just “L.A.” We would like to tell you about one more city in California -- San Francisco. The first explorer to give the area that name was, in fact, not Spanish but Portuguese. In fifteen-ninety-five, Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno named part of the California coast “Puerto de San Francisco.” Or, Port of Saint Francis. Later, the Spanish discovered the great harbor where the city of San Francisco was later built. A small settlement near the present city was called Pueblo de San Francisco. After the war between Mexico and the United States in eighteen-forty-six, Americans called the growing city San Francisco. A small island in the harbor was given the old Spanish name, Yerba Buena. So that explains the names of some cities in California. I am sorry we do not have time to tell about Portola, Los Gatos, San Dimas, San Bernardino, Los Altos, San Carlos, San Juan Capistrano, Escondido, San Jose ... The Beastie Boys HOST: Critics are praising a new recording by the American rap group the Beastie Boys. The group has been performing and recording since nineteen-eighty-one. Faith Lapidus tells us more. ANNCR: The three members of the Beastie Boys are Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch and Michael Diamond. The group’s first album was released in nineteen-eighty-five. It was called “License to Ill.” It became the first rap album to be number one on the list of most popular records at the time. It sold more than eight-million copies in the United States. The biggest single record on the album was this song, “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party.” (MUSIC) In nineteen-ninety-nine, the Beastie Boys won two Grammy Awards from the American record industry. One was for Best Alternative Music Performance for the song “Hello Nasty.” The other was Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for this song, “Intergalactic.” (MUSIC) Now, the Beastie Boys have a new album, “To the Five Boroughs.” The album sold more than three-hundred-sixty-thousand copies in the United States in its first week of release. We leave you with the first single from that album, “Ch-Check It Out.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We will send you a gift if we use your question. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Zenab Abdulrahman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - United Airlines Will Have to Seek New Financing Without U.S. Loan Guarantees
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 9, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Bankruptcy is a process that, in some cases, can save a business. Companies that cannot pay their debts may go to bankruptcy court and seek protection from their creditors. In December of two-thousand-two, United Airlines declared bankruptcy. Since then, the carrier has continued to fly. And it has reorganized. The aim is to come out of bankruptcy and be able to meet financial responsibilities. United is the second-largest airline company in the world. But last week the government rejected a request for help. The parent company of United had asked the government to guarantee more than a thousand million dollars in loans. That meant the government would share responsibility if United could not repay the loans. A special committee decided against the aid. The Air Transportation Stabilization Board has three members. They represent the central bank, the Treasury and the Transportation Department. Congress formed this board after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Air travel decreased after the attacks with hijacked planes. Congress approved loan guarantees of up to ten-thousand-million dollars to help the transportation industry recover. But the board has used only about fifteen percent of that. And the time limit to request aid has passed.In all, United made three requests for loan guarantees. The first was for one-point-eight thousand million dollars in June of two-thousand-two. The board denied the request in December of that year. It rejected the business plan that United had proposed. But it gave United a second chance. Then, in June, the board rejected a smaller request. It said credit markets have improved and guarantees were no longer necessary. Air travel has increased worldwide over the past year.Then, at the end of June, the board rejected a third and final request from United. United says it has cut about thirty-seven percent of its jobs. It says it has cut costs by nearly five-thousand-million dollars. The airline is expected to ask for more pay cuts from its employees. And it is expected to seek at least two-thousand-million dollars in new financing without government guarantees. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - John Kerry Chooses John Edwards for Vice President
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 10, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. The Democratic National Convention begins July twenty-sixth in Boston. The party will officially nominate its candidates for president and vice president in the November election. This week John Kerry chose John Edwards for vice president. The two senators competed against each other earlier this year for the nomination. But Mister Kerry says they share values and a belief in strong international alliances and a strong military. He say they will work together to seek support from independent voters as well as Democrats. Many people who liked John Edwards as a presidential candidate said they liked his energy and his message. He says President Bush has created "two Americas," one for the wealthy and one for everybody else. Mister Edwards' father was a textile worker. His mother was a letter carrier. But Mister Edwards became a trial lawyer. He won big cases for injured people. He earned millions of dollars. The choice for vice president is usually the first major decision for a presidential candidate. The vice president becomes president if ever the president cannot carry out the duties of office. Vice presidents also act as president of the Senate. They make the deciding vote if the Senate is evenly split. Presidential candidates traditionally choose a vice president from another part of the country to provide geographical balance. But not always. In nineteen-ninety-two, for example, the Democrats won with two Southerners: Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Al Gore of Tennessee. John Edwards is from the South. John Kerry is from the Northeast. Democrats say the addition of the senator from North Carolina should help Mister Kerry win more Southern votes. They hope it will also strengthen the Kerry campaign in states where the vote is expected to be close. These so-called battleground states include Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. Some people say Ohio, in the Midwest, could decide the race. Mister Edwards had never served in public office before North Carolina voters elected him to the Senate in nineteen-ninety-eight. He decided not to seek a second term this year. He ran for president instead, but won only a single state in the Democratic nominating elections. That was South Carolina, where he was born. Critics say Mister Edwards lacks political and foreign policy experience. Republicans say his Senate record is too weak and too liberal. President Bush said this week that Dick Cheney is better prepared to be president. In any case, political experts say vice presidential candidates usually have little effect on elections. They say voters in November are likely to consider issues like the war in Iraq and the economy far more important. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ray Charles, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 11, 2004 (((THEME))) Ray Charles Broadcast: July 11, 2004 (((THEME))) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we begin a two-part report about singer, songwriter, and musician Ray Charles. His work will continue to have a lasting influence on American music. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we begin a two-part report about singer, songwriter, and musician Ray Charles. His work will continue to have a lasting influence on American music. (((MUSIC))) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles spent almost sixty years as a professional musician. Millions of people around the world enjoy his recordings. If Ray Charles only played the piano, he would have been considered one of the best. If he had only sung his music, his voice would have made him famous. If he had only played jazz music, the world would have listened. But Ray Charles did all these things and more. He played and sang rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues songs. He sold millions of country and western records, too. His work brought together different kinds of music and different kinds of music fans. His influence on much of America’s popular music cannot be truly measured. (((MUSIC))) VOICE ONE (CONTD): (((MUSIC))) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles spent almost sixty years as a professional musician. Millions of people around the world enjoy his recordings. If Ray Charles only played the piano, he would have been considered one of the best. If he had only sung his music, his voice would have made him famous. If he had only played jazz music, the world would have listened. But Ray Charles did all these things and more. He played and sang rock-and-roll and rhythm-and-blues songs. He sold millions of country and western records, too. His work brought together different kinds of music and different kinds of music fans. His influence on much of America’s popular music cannot be truly measured. (((MUSIC))) VOICE ONE (CONTD): That was Ray Charles and “One Mint Julep.” He recorded that song in nineteen-sixty-one on an album called “Genius Plus Soul Equals Jazz.” It is one of the many hundreds of records he recorded. VOICE TWO: Ray Charles Robinson was born in nineteen-thirty in Albany, Georgia. When he was six years old, he began to suffer from the eye disease glaucoma. The disease made him blind. He left the world of sight forever and turned to the world of sound. He learned to love sounds, especially music of all kinds. Ray Charles taught himself to play the organ, alto-saxophone, clarinet and trumpet. Yet there was a special relationship between him and the piano. Here is part of the song “Worried Mind.” The style is country and western, with a heavy influence of blues. Listen to his work on the piano, an instrument he truly loved. You can almost see him smiling. (((MUSIC))) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles was fifteen years old when his mother died. Within a year, he had left school to work. He began playing piano professionally in African-American eating and drinking places in the state of Florida. A year later, he moved to the opposite corner of America: Seattle, Washington. While in Seattle, he made forty records. But none was a success. That was Ray Charles and “One Mint Julep.” He recorded that song in nineteen-sixty-one on an album called “Genius Plus Soul Equals Jazz.” It is one of the many hundreds of records he recorded. VOICE TWO: Ray Charles Robinson was born in nineteen-thirty in Albany, Georgia. When he was six years old, he began to suffer from the eye disease glaucoma. The disease made him blind. He left the world of sight forever and turned to the world of sound. He learned to love sounds, especially music of all kinds. Ray Charles taught himself to play the organ, alto-saxophone, clarinet and trumpet. Yet there was a special relationship between him and the piano. Here is part of the song “Worried Mind.” The style is country and western, with a heavy influence of blues. Listen to his work on the piano, an instrument he truly loved. You can almost see him smiling. (((MUSIC))) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles was fifteen years old when his mother died. Within a year, he had left school to work. He began playing piano professionally in African-American eating and drinking places in the state of Florida. A year later, he moved to the opposite corner of America: Seattle, Washington. While in Seattle, he made forty records. But none was a success. VOICE TWO: At that time, Ray Charles was trying to play the piano and sing like the famous performer Nat King Cole. But he quickly learned there was only one Nat King Cole. No one wanted to hear a copy, not even a good copy. So Charles started looking for his own musical sound. He began to experiment. He tried mixing blues and jazz. He used some jazz styles with the music that later was known as rock-and-roll. His experiments soon became popular with many black Americans. He played at dances around the country. He also sold some records, mostly to black people. Few white Americans had heard of a blind musician named Ray Charles. VOICE ONE: By the middle of the nineteen-fifties, he had his own band. It was one of the most popular black dance bands in the country. A group of women sang with the band. One night, Charles began playing a simple song. He told the women to sing in a style known as call and response. In this style, the lead singer asks a question or sings some words. The other singers answer. This kind of singing was brought to America by black slaves from Africa. It has remained very popular in black church music. At the dance that night, Ray Charles put together simple piano music, traditional call and response, and rock-and-roll. The result was a revolution in American music. Soon after, Ray recorded that song. It is called “What’d I Say?” (((MUSIC))) VOICE TWO: “What’d I Say?” sold millions of copies. Ray Charles no longer just played at small dances for black people. He performed in large theaters for big audiences of every color. He had found a sound like no other. His style of music was filled with excitement. And those who listened shared in that excitement. By the end of the nineteen-fifties, Ray Charles had recorded many hit songs. Most of his music was black rhythm-and-blues or soul music. Yet white Americans were listening, too. Charles did not want to play just one kind of music, even if it was extremely popular. He began experimenting again, this time with jazz. One album, “Black Coffee,” is considered by experts to be one of his very best jazz recordings. It shows that his piano work can express many different feelings. Here is the song “Black Coffee” from that album. (((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles continued to make rhythm-and-blues and jazz records. But that was still not enough for him. He had always loved country-and-western music. So he decided to record a country album. Music industry experts said he was making a mistake. They told him not to do it. They said he would lose many fans. The fans, they said, would not understand or like this kind of music. Ray Charles did not listen to the experts. He took a chance. And he was right. The public loved his country-and-western songs. You can hear some of these country-and-western songs next week, when we bring you the second part of our report about Ray Charles. ((THEME))) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us next week for the second part of our program on Ray Charles on People In America, in VOA Special English. VOICE TWO: At that time, Ray Charles was trying to play the piano and sing like the famous performer Nat King Cole. But he quickly learned there was only one Nat King Cole. No one wanted to hear a copy, not even a good copy. So Charles started looking for his own musical sound. He began to experiment. He tried mixing blues and jazz. He used some jazz styles with the music that later was known as rock-and-roll. His experiments soon became popular with many black Americans. He played at dances around the country. He also sold some records, mostly to black people. Few white Americans had heard of a blind musician named Ray Charles. VOICE ONE: By the middle of the nineteen-fifties, he had his own band. It was one of the most popular black dance bands in the country. A group of women sang with the band. One night, Charles began playing a simple song. He told the women to sing in a style known as call and response. In this style, the lead singer asks a question or sings some words. The other singers answer. This kind of singing was brought to America by black slaves from Africa. It has remained very popular in black church music. At the dance that night, Ray Charles put together simple piano music, traditional call and response, and rock-and-roll. The result was a revolution in American music. Soon after, Ray recorded that song. It is called “What’d I Say?” (((MUSIC))) VOICE TWO: “What’d I Say?” sold millions of copies. Ray Charles no longer just played at small dances for black people. He performed in large theaters for big audiences of every color. He had found a sound like no other. His style of music was filled with excitement. And those who listened shared in that excitement. By the end of the nineteen-fifties, Ray Charles had recorded many hit songs. Most of his music was black rhythm-and-blues or soul music. Yet white Americans were listening, too. Charles did not want to play just one kind of music, even if it was extremely popular. He began experimenting again, this time with jazz. One album, “Black Coffee,” is considered by experts to be one of his very best jazz recordings. It shows that his piano work can express many different feelings. Here is the song “Black Coffee” from that album. (((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles continued to make rhythm-and-blues and jazz records. But that was still not enough for him. He had always loved country-and-western music. So he decided to record a country album. Music industry experts said he was making a mistake. They told him not to do it. They said he would lose many fans. The fans, they said, would not understand or like this kind of music. Ray Charles did not listen to the experts. He took a chance. And he was right. The public loved his country-and-western songs. You can hear some of these country-and-western songs next week, when we bring you the second part of our report about Ray Charles. ((THEME))) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us next week for the second part of our program on Ray Charles on People In America, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Mount Vernon
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 12, 2004 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: July 12, 2004 VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Today we visit Mount Vernon, the home of the first president of the United States, George Washington. (MUSIC) Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Today we visit Mount Vernon, the home of the first president of the United States, George Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Washington lived at Mount Vernon in Virginia for more than forty-five years. The big wooden house is twenty-four kilometers south of America's capital city named in his honor. George Washington was born in seventeen-thirty-two. Before he became president, he commanded the troops who won the American Revolution against Britain. He helped create the United States of America. Some historians say the nation would not exist if George Washington had never lived. Washington helped choose where to build the new capital city and a house for the president. Yet he is the only president who never lived in the White House. It was completed after he left office. He lived in New York and later Philadelphia while president. But Mount Vernon was always important to him. Today it remains an important place in history for a lot of people who visit Washington, D.C., and nearby areas. VOICE TWO George Washington helped design Mount Vernon. He died there in seventeen-ninety-nine. The property seems not too much different today. But there are big plans for the two-hundred hectares of present-day Mount Vernon. The goal is to make the hero of long ago more meaningful to the people of today. The group that operates Mount Vernon sought the plans. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association noted studies showing that young people know little about George Washington. Several years ago, the association decided to try to make him more real to visitors. The new building project resulted from that decision. Eighty-five million dollars in gifts have been promised for the expansion. The money is creating a center to welcome visitors to Mount Vernon. An education center and an underground museum also are being built. At the education center, visitors will be able to use interactive devices to see information and images. A new library will contain electronic versions of Washington’s papers and letters. The University of Virginia has those papers. The university is helping to produce the online collection. VOICE ONE: Mount Vernon director James Rees says three life-size statues of Washington will stand in the education center. One will represent him as a young explorer and land recorder. Another will show Washington as commander of the Continental Army during the revolution against England. A third statue will represent him as president. He led the new United States from seventeen-eighty-nine to seventeen-ninety-seven. Production will begin soon on a short movie about Washington. Visitors will see it in a new Mount Vernon theater. People will be introduced to George Washington as a man of action as well as a landowner and farmer. Visitors will also see a new exhibit of Washington and his soldiers crossing the Delaware River. The exhibit will show America’s colonial commander on his way to winning a surprise victory in New Jersey. The Battle of Trenton was one of the turning points of the American Revolution. The presentation will seem very real. Man-made snow will even fall on visitors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many things at Mount Vernon will remain the same after the additions. Guides will still wear clothing of Washington’s time. They will tell visitors about his daily life. And they will explain his service to America. George Washington spent many years away from his home. In seventeen-seventy-five, he took command of the Continental Army of the American colonies. After the victory, some people wanted him to be president for life. Or even king. But Washington said Americans had fought for freedom from such rulers. He was elected president two times without opposition. He was offered a third term. But he refused. He wanted to return to the life he had led at Mount Vernon before the war. VOICE ONE: And that is what he did. George Washington returned to Mount Vernon. During those last years, he led the life of a rich farmer. He directed the work of five farms. He and his wife Martha often invited friends for meals in the dining room at Mount Vernon. The Washingtons also provided sleeping rooms and food for travelers. Very few hotels existed then. So George and Martha Washington offered a place to stay for about six-hundred visitors a year. Many were strangers. VOICE TWO: But George Washington was able to enjoy retirement at Mount Vernon for less than three years. In seventeen-ninety-nine, the former president became sick. Modern doctors believe he died of a severe infection. He was sixty-seven years old. Citizens mourned. The United States had declared its independence on July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six. The country was still very young. People felt a terrible loss at the death of their revolutionary war hero and first president. More than seven-hundred speakers throughout the country honored him. Towns and villages held funeral marches. Businesses were closed for days. Bells rang and rang. ((BRIDGE: MOURNFUL BELLS: CDP 5575, TRACK ONE, BEGINNING 0:00)) VOICE ONE: Now we continue with our visit to Mount Vernon. The property contains the family home and smaller buildings. Visitors also see farming areas and nature paths. A green hillside leads down to the Potomac River. A guide suggests you start in the main house. It is three floors high. George Washington was responsible for much of the design. His office is on the ground level. It contains many of his books. This is the room where George Washington planned the farm activities on his land. It is also where he wrote to other leaders. One writer called this room “the center of political intelligence for the new world.” Another guide leads you up the steps to the second and third floors of the main house. Mount Vernon contains eight sleeping rooms. George and Martha Washington needed all these for their visitors. Above the bedrooms is a cupola, a small structure with windows on all sides. Washington designed this so hot summer air would escape from inside the house. VOICE TWO: More than three-hundred African slaves lived and worked at Mount Vernon. Slaves and some paid workers operated George Washington's five farms. Together, the farms covered more than one-thousand hectares. Other slaves built houses and furniture. Still others cooked and performed housekeeping duties. Visitors can see the burial places of slaves at Mount Vernon. Even in George Washington's time, there was great debate about slavery. Washington came to disapprove of slavery as he grew older. He was the only one of the men known as the Founding Fathers of the country to free his slaves. He ordered that his slaves be freed after he and his wife died. Older slaves received payments for years after that. Much is said about George Washington the hero. But there is also the argument today that not enough is said about George Washington the slave owner. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After George and Martha Washington died, Mount Vernon was given to other family members. By the eighteen-fifties, the person who owned it did not have enough money to keep it in good condition. He offered to sell Mount Vernon to Virginia or to the federal government. Both said no. That is when the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association rescued the home. The group bought the property with money it collected. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has made a number of changes over the years. Many visitors praise the organization for keeping the historical spirit of Mount Vernon while improving the property. Now, however, some people question if that spirit will survive the current changes. They say Mount Vernon could seem too modern. Others disagree. They want people to think of George Washington as more than just a name in a history book. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. You can visit Mount Vernon on the Internet at mountvernon.org. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: George Washington lived at Mount Vernon in Virginia for more than forty-five years. The big wooden house is twenty-four kilometers south of America's capital city named in his honor. George Washington was born in seventeen-thirty-two. Before he became president, he commanded the troops who won the American Revolution against Britain. He helped create the United States of America. Some historians say the nation would not exist if George Washington had never lived. Washington helped choose where to build the new capital city and a house for the president. Yet he is the only president who never lived in the White House. It was completed after he left office. He lived in New York and later Philadelphia while president. But Mount Vernon was always important to him. Today it remains an important place in history for a lot of people who visit Washington, D.C., and nearby areas. VOICE TWO George Washington helped design Mount Vernon. He died there in seventeen-ninety-nine. The property seems not too much different today. But there are big plans for the two-hundred hectares of present-day Mount Vernon. The goal is to make the hero of long ago more meaningful to the people of today. The group that operates Mount Vernon sought the plans. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association noted studies showing that young people know little about George Washington. Several years ago, the association decided to try to make him more real to visitors. The new building project resulted from that decision. Eighty-five million dollars in gifts have been promised for the expansion. The money is creating a center to welcome visitors to Mount Vernon. An education center and an underground museum also are being built. At the education center, visitors will be able to use interactive devices to see information and images. A new library will contain electronic versions of Washington’s papers and letters. The University of Virginia has those papers. The university is helping to produce the online collection. VOICE ONE: Mount Vernon director James Rees says three life-size statues of Washington will stand in the education center. One will represent him as a young explorer and land recorder. Another will show Washington as commander of the Continental Army during the revolution against England. A third statue will represent him as president. He led the new United States from seventeen-eighty-nine to seventeen-ninety-seven. Production will begin soon on a short movie about Washington. Visitors will see it in a new Mount Vernon theater. People will be introduced to George Washington as a man of action as well as a landowner and farmer. Visitors will also see a new exhibit of Washington and his soldiers crossing the Delaware River. The exhibit will show America’s colonial commander on his way to winning a surprise victory in New Jersey. The Battle of Trenton was one of the turning points of the American Revolution. The presentation will seem very real. Man-made snow will even fall on visitors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many things at Mount Vernon will remain the same after the additions. Guides will still wear clothing of Washington’s time. They will tell visitors about his daily life. And they will explain his service to America. George Washington spent many years away from his home. In seventeen-seventy-five, he took command of the Continental Army of the American colonies. After the victory, some people wanted him to be president for life. Or even king. But Washington said Americans had fought for freedom from such rulers. He was elected president two times without opposition. He was offered a third term. But he refused. He wanted to return to the life he had led at Mount Vernon before the war. VOICE ONE: And that is what he did. George Washington returned to Mount Vernon. During those last years, he led the life of a rich farmer. He directed the work of five farms. He and his wife Martha often invited friends for meals in the dining room at Mount Vernon. The Washingtons also provided sleeping rooms and food for travelers. Very few hotels existed then. So George and Martha Washington offered a place to stay for about six-hundred visitors a year. Many were strangers. VOICE TWO: But George Washington was able to enjoy retirement at Mount Vernon for less than three years. In seventeen-ninety-nine, the former president became sick. Modern doctors believe he died of a severe infection. He was sixty-seven years old. Citizens mourned. The United States had declared its independence on July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six. The country was still very young. People felt a terrible loss at the death of their revolutionary war hero and first president. More than seven-hundred speakers throughout the country honored him. Towns and villages held funeral marches. Businesses were closed for days. Bells rang and rang. ((BRIDGE: MOURNFUL BELLS: CDP 5575, TRACK ONE, BEGINNING 0:00)) VOICE ONE: Now we continue with our visit to Mount Vernon. The property contains the family home and smaller buildings. Visitors also see farming areas and nature paths. A green hillside leads down to the Potomac River. A guide suggests you start in the main house. It is three floors high. George Washington was responsible for much of the design. His office is on the ground level. It contains many of his books. This is the room where George Washington planned the farm activities on his land. It is also where he wrote to other leaders. One writer called this room “the center of political intelligence for the new world.” Another guide leads you up the steps to the second and third floors of the main house. Mount Vernon contains eight sleeping rooms. George and Martha Washington needed all these for their visitors. Above the bedrooms is a cupola, a small structure with windows on all sides. Washington designed this so hot summer air would escape from inside the house. VOICE TWO: More than three-hundred African slaves lived and worked at Mount Vernon. Slaves and some paid workers operated George Washington's five farms. Together, the farms covered more than one-thousand hectares. Other slaves built houses and furniture. Still others cooked and performed housekeeping duties. Visitors can see the burial places of slaves at Mount Vernon. Even in George Washington's time, there was great debate about slavery. Washington came to disapprove of slavery as he grew older. He was the only one of the men known as the Founding Fathers of the country to free his slaves. He ordered that his slaves be freed after he and his wife died. Older slaves received payments for years after that. Much is said about George Washington the hero. But there is also the argument today that not enough is said about George Washington the slave owner. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After George and Martha Washington died, Mount Vernon was given to other family members. By the eighteen-fifties, the person who owned it did not have enough money to keep it in good condition. He offered to sell Mount Vernon to Virginia or to the federal government. Both said no. That is when the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association rescued the home. The group bought the property with money it collected. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has made a number of changes over the years. Many visitors praise the organization for keeping the historical spirit of Mount Vernon while improving the property. Now, however, some people question if that spirit will survive the current changes. They say Mount Vernon could seem too modern. Others disagree. They want people to think of George Washington as more than just a name in a history book. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. You can visit Mount Vernon on the Internet at mountvernon.org. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Study Says Vitamins May Slow AIDS Virus
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 12, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A study of women infected with H.I.V. suggests that vitamins can delay the progress of AIDS. These are the results of a five-year study in Tanzania. The findings suggest that vitamins could delay the need to start costly AIDS drugs in developing countries. Doctors say the drugs could then go to those who need them most. American and Tanzanian scientists found that the vitamins increased counts of cells that fight disease. And there were some reductions in H.I.V. levels in the blood. H.I.V. is the virus that develops into AIDS. There are fourteen kinds of vitamins. People who do not get enough of these chemical compounds in their food, or want more, often take multivitamins. The women in the study took multivitamins that contained large amounts of vitamin B, as well as vitamins C and E. More than one-thousand pregnant women infected with H.I.V. took part. Some received a daily multivitamin without vitamin A. Others received a multivitamin plus vitamin A. Still others took vitamin A alone. The scientists gave placebo pills to a fourth group of women. These pills contained no vitamins at all. The mothers received yearly medical examinations. The best results were reported in those who took multivitamins without vitamin A for the five years of the study. The researchers found that these mothers were fifty percent less likely to progress to AIDS as those in the placebo group. Women who took multivitamins also had fewer problems such as mouth infections and diarrhea as their infection worsened. Still, death rates were not much different between the women who took multivitamins and those who did not. The researchers say the multivitamins used in the study cost about fifteen dollars for a one-year supply. AIDS drugs can cost developing countries several hundred dollars or more. The study did not include H.I.V. infected men. But Doctor Wafaie Fawzi at the Harvard School of Public Health says he believes men would also gain from multivitamins. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results last week. Also last week, the United Nations reported that about five million people became infected with H.I.V. last year. That is the most yet. To hear more about the AIDS crisis, listen to the Health Report at this same time on Wednesday. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Preserving Native American Ruins / Teleporting Atoms / Warning on Natural Medicines
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 13, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up: scientists demonstrate a possible way to make faster computers in the future. VOICE ONE: What to do about some ancient Native American ruins. VOICE TWO: And the World Health Organization urges people to be careful with traditional medicines. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists have made a big move in the transport of matter. Two teams say they transported the properties of one atom to another without the use of any physical link. The process is called teleportation. Back in the nineteen-sixties, the "Star Trek" television series made the process look easy. There, you stepped into a transporter. Your body de-materialized. Then it came back together someplace else. To return, you could simply radio the ship's chief engineer and say: "Beam me up, Scotty!" In real life, nothing about teleportation is simple, not even the scientific description. In the minds of physicists, to teleport is to move quantum states between atoms. The quantum state of an atom describes its physical properties. These are properties like energy, magnetic field and movement. Scientists have demonstrated teleportation with particles of light. But this was the first demonstration with atoms. VOICE TWO: The two teams that did the experiments are from the United States and Austria. The American team is from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. The Austrians work at the University of Innsbruck. The two teams worked independently. But they jointly published their findings in the magazine Nature. The scientists used different kinds of atoms in their experiments. The American team used laser beams to teleport the properties of an atom of beryllium, a kind of metal. The team in Austria used a calcium atom. All the atoms were ions. This means they had an electric charge. In both cases the teams used three ions. We will call them A, B and C. The teams set up magnetic traps that held the ions in place. Then the scientists began a process called entanglement. Entanglement links the quantum states of atoms. The scientists linked A with B. They also linked A with C. These relationships created a system. Any change to one ion produced a change in the others. The goal was to teleport the properties of B to C. The scientists did this in three steps. These were entanglement, measurement of A and B and correction to C to permit the teleportation to happen. VOICE ONE So ion C took on the properties of ion B. But not completely. This is one reason you will not be traveling by teleportation anytime soon. Humans would probably want a guarantee of one-hundred percent reproduction at the other end. And a human being would mean a lot more information to gather and send than a single atom. The scientists say they cannot imagine such use of teleportation. But their work does offer great possibilities for the future of information technology. It could help in efforts to build a quantum computer. Such a computer would be faster and more powerful than any we now use. VOICE TWO: Quantum properties of atoms are not like the world we normally observe. For example, scientists are able to create a special condition where ions can be in two places at once. Ions can also hold information representing more than one number at once. And scientists have known for many years that two ions can be entangled. Such atoms can be made to affect each other even when they are separated. Albert Einstein had a name for this kind of effect. The great physicist called it "spooky action at a distance." We talked about teleportation with Laura Ost [OH-st] in the news office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She noted that teleportation does not physically move matter. It only moves the properties of one particle to another. This could be faster than physically moving particles inside a device like a quantum computer. But the only way to teleport is to destroy the particle being teleported. If the particle were not destroyed, then you would be copying. And scientists say there is no copying in the quantum world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the American West, the public has gotten its first look at the ruins of an ancient people who lived in what is now the state of Utah. Officials recently showed reporters the area where the Fremont Indians lived about a thousand years ago. A cattle ranch owner named Waldo Wilcox had protected the ruins for the last fifty years. The land was part of his property. He permitted some researchers to visit. But mostly he kept the ruins a secret. Mister Wilcox is now in his seventies. He finally sold the property into the public trust. The state of Utah now owns the land. But Mister Wilcox says he still worries that the ruins will be destroyed or stolen by people who want a piece of history. The state wants to prevent this and still permit people to learn about the Fremont culture. The ruins are spread over thousands of hectares of land in the high desert about two-hundred kilometers southeast of Salt Lake City. Only one dirt road leads into the area. Scientists have found where the Indians stored grain in the sides of mountains. There was still maize inside. They have found arrows used a thousand years ago. They have also found human remains, examples of rock art and pieces of pottery. Fifteen years ago, Mister Wilcox himself discovered the remains of a small village built on an edge of a mountain. VOICE TWO: Scientists say the ruins may offer answers to questions about the Fremont Indians. Scientists do know that the people hunted animals and gathered plants for food. But no one knows what happened to them. The Indians left the place now known as Range Creek about eight hundred years ago. The ruins show that the Fremont Indians built homes from stone. They painted and carved designs in rock walls. They built stone containers for corn and beans. Waldo Wilcox, the former owner of the land, is not the only one worried about the future of the ancient ruins. Some local Indian leaders want to make sure that tribal ways are honored as the area is studied. They are especially worried about the human remains that have been found. Utah officials say they do not know how many remains are still at Range Creek. But they say they are sure that Native Americans will be involved in decisions about the future of the area. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says people need more information about how to safely use traditional medicines. The W.H.O. now has guidelines to suggest ways for public health officials to develop that information. The health agency is part of the United Nations. The W.H.O. says up to eighty percent of people in developing countries depend on traditional medicines. More and more people in wealthy countries use them too. But the W.H.O. notes that just because products are natural does not always mean they are safe. It says reports of bad reactions have increased sharply in the last few years. In China, for example, about ten-thousand harmful drug reactions were reported in two-thousand-two. There were just four-thousand cases reported between nineteen-ninety and nineteen-ninety-nine. Traditional medicines are made from plants, animal products and minerals. The health agency says they remain largely outside government control. VOICE TWO: In most countries, traditional medicines can be purchased without a doctor's order. Sometimes they are prepared by friends or by the patients themselves. The W.H.O. says this situation raises concerns about the quality of treatments and the lack of professional supervision. Under the new guidelines, traditional healers would have to be skilled. And the public would have to be informed about how and where to report problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Nancy Steinbach and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: July 13, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up: scientists demonstrate a possible way to make faster computers in the future. VOICE ONE: What to do about some ancient Native American ruins. VOICE TWO: And the World Health Organization urges people to be careful with traditional medicines. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists have made a big move in the transport of matter. Two teams say they transported the properties of one atom to another without the use of any physical link. The process is called teleportation. Back in the nineteen-sixties, the "Star Trek" television series made the process look easy. There, you stepped into a transporter. Your body de-materialized. Then it came back together someplace else. To return, you could simply radio the ship's chief engineer and say: "Beam me up, Scotty!" In real life, nothing about teleportation is simple, not even the scientific description. In the minds of physicists, to teleport is to move quantum states between atoms. The quantum state of an atom describes its physical properties. These are properties like energy, magnetic field and movement. Scientists have demonstrated teleportation with particles of light. But this was the first demonstration with atoms. VOICE TWO: The two teams that did the experiments are from the United States and Austria. The American team is from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. The Austrians work at the University of Innsbruck. The two teams worked independently. But they jointly published their findings in the magazine Nature. The scientists used different kinds of atoms in their experiments. The American team used laser beams to teleport the properties of an atom of beryllium, a kind of metal. The team in Austria used a calcium atom. All the atoms were ions. This means they had an electric charge. In both cases the teams used three ions. We will call them A, B and C. The teams set up magnetic traps that held the ions in place. Then the scientists began a process called entanglement. Entanglement links the quantum states of atoms. The scientists linked A with B. They also linked A with C. These relationships created a system. Any change to one ion produced a change in the others. The goal was to teleport the properties of B to C. The scientists did this in three steps. These were entanglement, measurement of A and B and correction to C to permit the teleportation to happen. VOICE ONE So ion C took on the properties of ion B. But not completely. This is one reason you will not be traveling by teleportation anytime soon. Humans would probably want a guarantee of one-hundred percent reproduction at the other end. And a human being would mean a lot more information to gather and send than a single atom. The scientists say they cannot imagine such use of teleportation. But their work does offer great possibilities for the future of information technology. It could help in efforts to build a quantum computer. Such a computer would be faster and more powerful than any we now use. VOICE TWO: Quantum properties of atoms are not like the world we normally observe. For example, scientists are able to create a special condition where ions can be in two places at once. Ions can also hold information representing more than one number at once. And scientists have known for many years that two ions can be entangled. Such atoms can be made to affect each other even when they are separated. Albert Einstein had a name for this kind of effect. The great physicist called it "spooky action at a distance." We talked about teleportation with Laura Ost [OH-st] in the news office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She noted that teleportation does not physically move matter. It only moves the properties of one particle to another. This could be faster than physically moving particles inside a device like a quantum computer. But the only way to teleport is to destroy the particle being teleported. If the particle were not destroyed, then you would be copying. And scientists say there is no copying in the quantum world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the American West, the public has gotten its first look at the ruins of an ancient people who lived in what is now the state of Utah. Officials recently showed reporters the area where the Fremont Indians lived about a thousand years ago. A cattle ranch owner named Waldo Wilcox had protected the ruins for the last fifty years. The land was part of his property. He permitted some researchers to visit. But mostly he kept the ruins a secret. Mister Wilcox is now in his seventies. He finally sold the property into the public trust. The state of Utah now owns the land. But Mister Wilcox says he still worries that the ruins will be destroyed or stolen by people who want a piece of history. The state wants to prevent this and still permit people to learn about the Fremont culture. The ruins are spread over thousands of hectares of land in the high desert about two-hundred kilometers southeast of Salt Lake City. Only one dirt road leads into the area. Scientists have found where the Indians stored grain in the sides of mountains. There was still maize inside. They have found arrows used a thousand years ago. They have also found human remains, examples of rock art and pieces of pottery. Fifteen years ago, Mister Wilcox himself discovered the remains of a small village built on an edge of a mountain. VOICE TWO: Scientists say the ruins may offer answers to questions about the Fremont Indians. Scientists do know that the people hunted animals and gathered plants for food. But no one knows what happened to them. The Indians left the place now known as Range Creek about eight hundred years ago. The ruins show that the Fremont Indians built homes from stone. They painted and carved designs in rock walls. They built stone containers for corn and beans. Waldo Wilcox, the former owner of the land, is not the only one worried about the future of the ancient ruins. Some local Indian leaders want to make sure that tribal ways are honored as the area is studied. They are especially worried about the human remains that have been found. Utah officials say they do not know how many remains are still at Range Creek. But they say they are sure that Native Americans will be involved in decisions about the future of the area. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says people need more information about how to safely use traditional medicines. The W.H.O. now has guidelines to suggest ways for public health officials to develop that information. The health agency is part of the United Nations. The W.H.O. says up to eighty percent of people in developing countries depend on traditional medicines. More and more people in wealthy countries use them too. But the W.H.O. notes that just because products are natural does not always mean they are safe. It says reports of bad reactions have increased sharply in the last few years. In China, for example, about ten-thousand harmful drug reactions were reported in two-thousand-two. There were just four-thousand cases reported between nineteen-ninety and nineteen-ninety-nine. Traditional medicines are made from plants, animal products and minerals. The health agency says they remain largely outside government control. VOICE TWO: In most countries, traditional medicines can be purchased without a doctor's order. Sometimes they are prepared by friends or by the patients themselves. The W.H.O. says this situation raises concerns about the quality of treatments and the lack of professional supervision. Under the new guidelines, traditional healers would have to be skilled. And the public would have to be informed about how and where to report problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver, Nancy Steinbach and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-12-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - New Cases of Avian Influenza in Asia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 13, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The chicken industry in East Asia has grown quickly in recent years. But now the industry must deal with findings that the avian influenza virus is more widespread than was thought. In the last two weeks, China, Thailand and Vietnam all reported new cases of bird flu. China and Thailand are two of the largest poultry producers in the world. Scientists were not immediately sure if this was a new virus or a continuation of the major outbreaks earlier this year. But a top official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said the new cases are not a surprise. Joseph Domenech says governments need to recognize that the virus will continue to spread and different ones could also appear. He says doing away with the avian flu virus "should be considered, at best, as a long-term task." By the end of last week workers had killed tens of thousands of chickens and ducks to stop the spread of the virus. But a World Health Organization official, Doctor Shigeru Omi, said there was still a great risk to public health. Earlier this year, the avian flu virus killed at least twenty-three people in Southeast Asia. The W.H.O. says thirty-four people in all became infected. At that time, workers killed about one-hundred million chickens and other birds in an effort to stop the infection. Scientists fear that the virus could become able to spread from person to person. Medical experts in China recently found that the h-five-n-one virus is becoming more dangerous to mammals. They studied viruses collected over four years. They observed the effects on chickens, mice and ducks. The researchers found that the more recent forms of the virus were more deadly to mice than earlier versions. They say immediate action is needed to prevent the spread of avian flu viruses from ducks into chickens or mammals. The virus infects ducks but does not make them sick. The study appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And a study last week in the magazine Nature says wild birds may have added to the increasing spread of the virus in Asia. The researchers say their results suggest that h-five-n-one has become firmly rooted in the area. They say these developments may be a threat to people and animals worldwide. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Caty Weaver and Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  Cassini-Huygens at Saturn
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 14, 2004 (MUSIC) Saturn from Cassini-Huygens Broadcast: July 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft that is now in orbit around Saturn. The spacecraft has already started sending back exciting information and photographs of Saturn’s famous rings and its moon, Titan. The Huygens probe VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft that is now in orbit around Saturn. The spacecraft has already started sending back exciting information and photographs of Saturn’s famous rings and its moon, Titan. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at the planet Saturn on July first. It flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet. Carefully, Cassini crossed through a large space between two of the huge rings at speeds close to eighty-seven-thousand kilometers an hour. Cassini flew to within one-hundred-fifty-eight-thousand kilometers of Saturn’s center. That is the closest Cassini will come to Saturn. After passing through the rings, Cassini fired its rocket engines. This slowed the spacecraft, permitting it to be captured by Saturn’s gravity. In this way, the Cassini spacecraft entered an orbit around Saturn. It had taken Cassini almost seven years to reach Saturn after traveling more than three-thousand-million kilometers through space. VOICE TWO: It did not take long for Cassini to start making discoveries. Cassini took photographs of Saturn’s giant moon Titan in its first few days of orbit. These photographs provided details of Titan’s surface that had never been seen before. True color image of Titan (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at the planet Saturn on July first. It flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet. Carefully, Cassini crossed through a large space between two of the huge rings at speeds close to eighty-seven-thousand kilometers an hour. Cassini flew to within one-hundred-fifty-eight-thousand kilometers of Saturn’s center. That is the closest Cassini will come to Saturn. After passing through the rings, Cassini fired its rocket engines. This slowed the spacecraft, permitting it to be captured by Saturn’s gravity. In this way, the Cassini spacecraft entered an orbit around Saturn. It had taken Cassini almost seven years to reach Saturn after traveling more than three-thousand-million kilometers through space. VOICE TWO: It did not take long for Cassini to start making discoveries. Cassini took photographs of Saturn’s giant moon Titan in its first few days of orbit. These photographs provided details of Titan’s surface that had never been seen before. Dennis Matson is a scientist for the International Cassini-Huygens project. He says the photographs sent back by Cassini are difficult to understand. He says the photographs do provide the first clear images of Titan’s surface, but will require a great amount of study. Titan has a thick atmosphere that usually looks almost white in photographs taken with telescopes. However Cassini has special cameras that can see through the giant moon’s atmosphere to study the surface. Elizabeth Turtle is a scientist with the University of Arizona. She says Cassini’s first photographs of Titan’s surface have shown unusual features. Mizz Turtle says they do not know what some of these features mean. She says it will take a great deal of work to understand the surface of Titan. VOICE ONE: Cassini-Huygens carries a total of eighteen scientific instruments. It used several of these to photograph and make maps of the surface of Titan. It also used several instruments to study minerals and chemicals on the surface of the huge moon. Kevin Baines is a science team member of the Cassini-Huygens project. He says Cassini provided evidence of pure water ice in some areas of the surface. He said it also showed areas of non-ice materials such as hydrocarbons. Mister Baines said the evidence was much different from what scientists had expected. Mister Baines also said Cassini showed clouds of gas made of methane near the moon’s south pole. He said the clouds showed good evidence that Titan has a very active atmosphere. VOICE TWO: The science team for Cassini says these first images of Titan are just the beginning. It is only the first information gathered in a four-year study of Saturn and its moons. In the future, the Cassini spacecraft will fly closer to Titan and be able to use radar to gather much better details of the moon’s surface. The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Cassini’s first trip near Titan was still more than three-hundred-thirty-nine thousand kilometers away. Future plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan. The closest flight will be only nine-hundred-fifty kilometers away from the giant moon. This very close flight will permit extremely detailed mapping of the surface. VOICE ONE: The Huygens part of the spacecraft will cut its link to Cassini on December twenty-fourth. It will then fly down through the atmosphere of Titan to the surface. As it passes into the atmosphere, it will deploy a large parachute. The Huygens instrument will send information back to Cassini. Cassini will then transmit the information back to Earth. The Huygens instrument will land on the surface of Titan on January fourteenth, two-thousand-five. It will be the first scientific instrument to land on the surface of a moon of another planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Saturn’s moon, Titan, is very large. In fact, it is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. It also has large amounts of nitrogen similar to Earth. And scientists believe it has large amounts of carbon material. This is the same material needed to form life as we know it on Earth. However, scientists are quick to say this does not mean there is life on Titan. VOICE ONE: The exploration of Titan is exciting for many scientists. Scientists believe evidence found on Titan may help to answer the question of how life began on Earth. Most experts agree this question is hard to answer because not enough is known about the atmosphere when Earth was a young planet. Scientists say they need to know what materials were present at the beginning of life on Earth. They say some of these answers may be present on Titan. The carbon material methane on Titan may have been easily found on Earth when it was young. VOICE TWO: Cassini carries more scientific instruments and can do more science work than any spacecraft ever sent to explore a planet. It carries twelve science instruments on the Cassini spacecraft and six more on the Huygens exploration device. Cassini is six-point-seven meters high, four meters wide and weighs almost six-thousand kilograms. Electric power for the spacecraft is supplied by thirty-three kilograms of the nuclear fuel, plutonium. The flight to Saturn represents the work of two-hundred-sixty scientists from the United States and seventeen European nations. The flight of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft cost more than three-thousand-million dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is expected to carry out many tasks. There is much to learn about Saturn. First, there are the seven huge rings that circle the planet. They are made of water ice, rock and dust. Only minutes after it arrived in orbit, Cassini made sixty-one photographs of the beautiful rings. Cassini’s radio sent the pictures to Earth. Radio signals travel at almost the speed of light. But even at that great speed, it took almost eighty-five minutes for the information to arrive on Earth. What scientists saw excited them. They saw unusual designs and structures in the rings they had never seen before. Cassini's photographs provided evidence that the rings are not a solid mass of objects, but many individual lines that circle the planet. These thin lines are held together and kept in orbit by gravity. Scientists now believe there may be more than one-thousand different lines or rings that make up the seven great rings. VOICE TWO: The huge moon Titan is not alone in its orbit around Saturn. Saturn has thirty-one known moons. Thirteen of these moons were discovered after Cassini was launched on October fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-seven. Scientists want to learn more about how these moons affect the rings. New photographs already show that the gravity of the moons has a great effect on the rings. Scientists hope Cassini will provide more information about this in the future. The Cassini spacecraft is named for astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini. He was born in Italy in the sixteen-hundreds. He later became a French citizen. He made important observations of Saturn and discovered four of its moons. The Huygens exploration device is named for Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens who also lived during the seventeenth century. He discovered the moon Titan. VOICE ONE: If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you too can see the photographs of Saturn. You can see the moon Titan and the rings that make Saturn such a beautiful planet. Have your computer link with www.nasa.gov. Then follow the links to Cassini-Huygens. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. Dennis Matson is a scientist for the International Cassini-Huygens project. He says the photographs sent back by Cassini are difficult to understand. He says the photographs do provide the first clear images of Titan’s surface, but will require a great amount of study. Titan has a thick atmosphere that usually looks almost white in photographs taken with telescopes. However Cassini has special cameras that can see through the giant moon’s atmosphere to study the surface. Elizabeth Turtle is a scientist with the University of Arizona. She says Cassini’s first photographs of Titan’s surface have shown unusual features. Mizz Turtle says they do not know what some of these features mean. She says it will take a great deal of work to understand the surface of Titan. VOICE ONE: Cassini-Huygens carries a total of eighteen scientific instruments. It used several of these to photograph and make maps of the surface of Titan. It also used several instruments to study minerals and chemicals on the surface of the huge moon. Kevin Baines is a science team member of the Cassini-Huygens project. He says Cassini provided evidence of pure water ice in some areas of the surface. He said it also showed areas of non-ice materials such as hydrocarbons. Mister Baines said the evidence was much different from what scientists had expected. Mister Baines also said Cassini showed clouds of gas made of methane near the moon’s south pole. He said the clouds showed good evidence that Titan has a very active atmosphere. VOICE TWO: The science team for Cassini says these first images of Titan are just the beginning. It is only the first information gathered in a four-year study of Saturn and its moons. In the future, the Cassini spacecraft will fly closer to Titan and be able to use radar to gather much better details of the moon’s surface. The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Cassini’s first trip near Titan was still more than three-hundred-thirty-nine thousand kilometers away. Future plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan. The closest flight will be only nine-hundred-fifty kilometers away from the giant moon. This very close flight will permit extremely detailed mapping of the surface. VOICE ONE: The Huygens part of the spacecraft will cut its link to Cassini on December twenty-fourth. It will then fly down through the atmosphere of Titan to the surface. As it passes into the atmosphere, it will deploy a large parachute. The Huygens instrument will send information back to Cassini. Cassini will then transmit the information back to Earth. The Huygens instrument will land on the surface of Titan on January fourteenth, two-thousand-five. It will be the first scientific instrument to land on the surface of a moon of another planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Saturn’s moon, Titan, is very large. In fact, it is larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. It also has large amounts of nitrogen similar to Earth. And scientists believe it has large amounts of carbon material. This is the same material needed to form life as we know it on Earth. However, scientists are quick to say this does not mean there is life on Titan. VOICE ONE: The exploration of Titan is exciting for many scientists. Scientists believe evidence found on Titan may help to answer the question of how life began on Earth. Most experts agree this question is hard to answer because not enough is known about the atmosphere when Earth was a young planet. Scientists say they need to know what materials were present at the beginning of life on Earth. They say some of these answers may be present on Titan. The carbon material methane on Titan may have been easily found on Earth when it was young. VOICE TWO: Cassini carries more scientific instruments and can do more science work than any spacecraft ever sent to explore a planet. It carries twelve science instruments on the Cassini spacecraft and six more on the Huygens exploration device. Cassini is six-point-seven meters high, four meters wide and weighs almost six-thousand kilograms. Electric power for the spacecraft is supplied by thirty-three kilograms of the nuclear fuel, plutonium. The flight to Saturn represents the work of two-hundred-sixty scientists from the United States and seventeen European nations. The flight of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft cost more than three-thousand-million dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is expected to carry out many tasks. There is much to learn about Saturn. First, there are the seven huge rings that circle the planet. They are made of water ice, rock and dust. Only minutes after it arrived in orbit, Cassini made sixty-one photographs of the beautiful rings. Cassini’s radio sent the pictures to Earth. Radio signals travel at almost the speed of light. But even at that great speed, it took almost eighty-five minutes for the information to arrive on Earth. What scientists saw excited them. They saw unusual designs and structures in the rings they had never seen before. Cassini's photographs provided evidence that the rings are not a solid mass of objects, but many individual lines that circle the planet. These thin lines are held together and kept in orbit by gravity. Scientists now believe there may be more than one-thousand different lines or rings that make up the seven great rings. VOICE TWO: The huge moon Titan is not alone in its orbit around Saturn. Saturn has thirty-one known moons. Thirteen of these moons were discovered after Cassini was launched on October fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-seven. Scientists want to learn more about how these moons affect the rings. New photographs already show that the gravity of the moons has a great effect on the rings. Scientists hope Cassini will provide more information about this in the future. The Cassini spacecraft is named for astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini. He was born in Italy in the sixteen-hundreds. He later became a French citizen. He made important observations of Saturn and discovered four of its moons. The Huygens exploration device is named for Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens who also lived during the seventeenth century. He discovered the moon Titan. VOICE ONE: If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you too can see the photographs of Saturn. You can see the moon Titan and the rings that make Saturn such a beautiful planet. Have your computer link with www.nasa.gov. Then follow the links to Cassini-Huygens. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - UN Says AIDS Crisis Is Getting Worse
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 14, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Health Report. The fifteenth International AIDS Conference ends Friday in Bangkok, Thailand. There has not been much good news. In fact, the United Nations AIDS program reported last week that the crisis is getting worse. The report said more people than ever, almost five million, became infected last year with H.I.V. Thirty-eight million are now infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Almost half are women. And half are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Last year almost three million people with AIDS died. The U.N. says more than twenty million have died since the disease was first recognized in nineteen-eighty-one. The report says H.I.V. is spreading fastest in eastern Europe and Asia. About seven million people in Asia are living with H.I.V. The disease largely began to spread there among sex workers, homosexual men and people who inject drugs. But experts say it is now moving into the general population. China, Indonesia and Vietnam were noted for the sharpest increases. India has the highest number of infections of any country except South Africa. India has more than five million people with H.I.V. Seventy percent of H.I.V. infected people in the world live in southern Africa. Yet that area has only ten percent of the world’s population. An estimated twenty-five million people are infected in countries south of the Sahara. Three out of four are women. Among sixteen year olds in southern Africa today, sixty percent might not reach their sixtieth birthday. After Africa, the U.N. report says the Caribbean is the area hardest hit. U.N. officials says infections are also on the rise in the United States and western Europe. Half of the new infections in the United States are among African-Americans. The report blames the increase in western countries largely on the use of AIDS drugs which suppress the virus. Officials say these medicines have made some people less concerned about being infected. Many countries have reduced their rates of H.I.V. infection. Among them are Brazil, Uganda and Thailand. Also, drug prices have dropped. And there is more money to fight AIDS. But the U.N. AIDS report says developing countries are getting less than half the money they need. It says only one person in five in developing countries is able to get treatment. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. Broadcast: July 14, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Health Report. The fifteenth International AIDS Conference ends Friday in Bangkok, Thailand. There has not been much good news. In fact, the United Nations AIDS program reported last week that the crisis is getting worse. The report said more people than ever, almost five million, became infected last year with H.I.V. Thirty-eight million are now infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Almost half are women. And half are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Last year almost three million people with AIDS died. The U.N. says more than twenty million have died since the disease was first recognized in nineteen-eighty-one. The report says H.I.V. is spreading fastest in eastern Europe and Asia. About seven million people in Asia are living with H.I.V. The disease largely began to spread there among sex workers, homosexual men and people who inject drugs. But experts say it is now moving into the general population. China, Indonesia and Vietnam were noted for the sharpest increases. India has the highest number of infections of any country except South Africa. India has more than five million people with H.I.V. Seventy percent of H.I.V. infected people in the world live in southern Africa. Yet that area has only ten percent of the world’s population. An estimated twenty-five million people are infected in countries south of the Sahara. Three out of four are women. Among sixteen year olds in southern Africa today, sixty percent might not reach their sixtieth birthday. After Africa, the U.N. report says the Caribbean is the area hardest hit. U.N. officials says infections are also on the rise in the United States and western Europe. Half of the new infections in the United States are among African-Americans. The report blames the increase in western countries largely on the use of AIDS drugs which suppress the virus. Officials say these medicines have made some people less concerned about being infected. Many countries have reduced their rates of H.I.V. infection. Among them are Brazil, Uganda and Thailand. Also, drug prices have dropped. And there is more money to fight AIDS. But the U.N. AIDS report says developing countries are getting less than half the money they need. It says only one person in five in developing countries is able to get treatment. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: July 15, 2004 - Baseball in American English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 15, 2004 INTRODUCTION: Major League Baseball had its All Star Game Tuesday night. And, for the seventh time in the last eight years, top players from the American League defeated the National League. That means the American League will have the home-field advantage again in the World Series at the end of the season. Now, our Wordmasters step up to the plate, to help give you a home-field advantage with some of the many baseball-related expressions in American English. Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talked to a linguist at Berkeley and found out that we can thank sportswriters for many these terms. AA: Baseball started in the eighteen-hundreds, and Maggie Sokolik says writers made up colorful ways to describe the game. After all, in those days, there was no television to watch the national pastime! RS: A lot of those phrases hit a home run with Americans, so today even people who don't follow baseball might still talk about doing something "right off the bat." SOKOLIK: "And if you can imagine a baseball striking the bat, that instant that things happen, things go very quickly, so if you need to do something fast, you might want to do it right off the bat. Similarly now if you have a large plan, say in business, in which you need to accomplish several tasks, you might tell your colleagues that you've 'touched all the bases,' you've contacted people -- you've 'covered your bases' as well, that is, you've prepared adequately." RS: Which means that you've probably gone beyond rough estimates, or "ballpark figures." SOKOLIK: "Often if we're talking, and perhaps we're negotiating, perhaps we might say, 'you know, we're not even in the same ballpark,' meaning my figures are so different from yours that we're not even communicating about them." AA: "Why a ballpark?" SOKOLIK: "Well, we have this notion of a ballpark as being a sort of rough area. The playing field doesn't really have a definite boundary. The diamond itself does, but what extends beyond the diamond doesn't have a specific dimension assigned to it. Similarly with time, an inning can be five minutes, an inning could be fifty minutes, it just depends on how long it takes to get all the outs in." AA: "And it's still if you get three strikes you're out." SOKOLIK: "Exactly." AA: "And it's not just in baseball anymore. We hear that now in laws. I know in California, if you commit three serious crimes ..." SOKOLIK: "Yes, three felonies and then I think it's a lifetime sentence after that. It 's call the 'three-strike law,' three strikes and you're in prison. I think a less happy baseball metaphor than most of them are." RS: "Do you have a favorite baseball expression?" SOKOLIK: "I think the ones that I like, there's a lot of baseball expressions that really focus on people making mistakes, because errors in baseball are sort of what make the game interesting and exciting and also make us scream and tear our hair out in the stands. So when you talk about people being 'off base' -- or 'way off base' in fact -- that means that they're really quite wrong. There's also the term, to call someone a 'screwball' which is a type of pitch, but also means that someone is sort of crazy and not thinking straight. If we talk about someone who's really capable, we talk about them being 'on the ball.'" RS: "Do you see that our baseball vocabulary is evolving, especially since we are attracting athletes from outside the United States, from Central and South America, from Japan. Do you find that with these players coming to the United States, that they're also bringing a new vocabulary into baseball?" SOKOLIK: "Well, interestingly enough, not a lot, because the answer is that American baseball vocabulary has begun to travel overseas, so the language they bring with them is that which was exported to begin with." AA: As far as creating new terms, Maggie Sokolik at the University of California at Berkeley says American baseball is in a slump. Still there are more baseball-related phrases out there than most people realize. RS: In fact, University of Missouri Professor Gerald Cohen tells us the earliest citations for "jazz" had nothing to do with music. San Francisco newspaper writer "Scoop" Gleeson used the term "jazz" in nineteen-thirteen to describe enthusiasm and spirit on the baseball field. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can find all of our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. [Interview first aired on VOA in April 2001] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Jazz from Wynton Marsalis / Appaloosa Horses / Marlon Brando
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 16, 2004 HOST: Wynton Marsalis Broadcast: July 16, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: some jazz music from Wynton Marsalis. And a listener wants to know about a kind of horse called the Appaloosa. But first, we remember American actor Marlon Brando. Marlon Brando The American movie industry lost one of its greatest stars on July first. Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles, California at the age of eighty. Gwen Outen takes a look back at the actor’s long life in movies. MARLON BRANDO: “You don’t understand. I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am.” GWEN OUTEN: That was Marlon Brando playing a former boxer in the nineteen-fifty-four movie “On the Waterfront.” Marlon Brando was somebody, of course. Many critics say he was the greatest actor of all time. And many actors say Marlon Brando influenced them more than any other person in the movie industry. Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen-twenty-four. His mother was an actress. His father was a salesman. His childhood was not happy. In a book about his life, Brando wrote that both his parents were dependent on alcohol. He wrote that his father never said anything good about his son. Marlon Brando linked his interest in acting to the painful years of his childhood. He said a child who feels unaccepted by his parents will search for a different identity that will be acceptable. When he was nineteen, Brando moved to New York City. He studied acting and learned what is called the “method” style of realistic acting. In nineteen-forty-seven, he became a Broadway star with his famous performance as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Brando’s fame grew in nineteen-fifty-one when he acted the same part in the film version of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Brando acted in more than forty movies. He won two Academy Awards for Best Actor. One was for his work in “On the Waterfront.” The other was for playing Vito Corleone, the powerful head of a criminal organization in “The Godfather” in nineteen-seventy-two. He was nominated for five other Academy Awards. Brando was a private man but he did not lead a quiet or easy life. He was married three times. He had at least seven children. Brando dealt with several tragedies. One of his sons was sent to prison for killing a man. Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne, killed herself in nineteen-ninety-five. No public service was held to honor Marlon Brando after his death. A family spokesperson said he would not have wanted one. But the actor’s place in Hollywood history is secure. The Appaloosa DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nice, France. Anne Claude Petit asks about the Appaloosa horse. Appaloosa horses have colorful spots on their bodies. History experts have found the horses shown in ancient cave paintings. The horses lived in Persia, China and Egypt. Spotted horses were developed into riding horses in Spain and taken to Mexico in the sixteenth century. They spread across North America. The Nez Perce Indians used the spotted animals to produce horses that were fast, strong and gentle. The Nez Perce lived near the Palouse River that flows through the northwestern states of Washington and Idaho. White settlers called the colorful horse “a Palouse horse.” Later, the name was pronounced Appaloosa. The breed was recognized in nineteen-thirty-eight when Claude Thompson and George Hatley established the Appaloosa Horse Club. Its headquarters is in Moscow, Idaho. Today, the Appaloosa Horse Club recognizes more than six-hundred-thousand Appaloosa horses. The club says Appaloosas are used everywhere a good horse is needed, including show racing and jumping. Appaloosas are also used for riding, on ranches and in the circus. Appaloosas have broad heads, short bodies and strong legs. They move very smoothly. An Appaloosa can have one of many different designs on its body. It may be white with colored spots, or colored with white spots. It may have a white back or colored spots on the back end. It may be a colored horse with light or white spots on the hips and legs. An Appaloosa can also be colored at birth but become almost white as the horse ages except for dark markings on the legs and face. To be officially recognized as an Appaloosa, a horse must also have a visible white part of the eye, similar to the human eye. It should also have striped hooves and a special kind of partly colored skin around the mouth and nose. Every year, the Appaloosa Horse Club organizes a championship contest for Appaloosas and their riders. The contest this year ended last week in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For more information about the contest and the horses, the Web site of the Appaloosa Horse Club is www.appaloosa.com. The Magic Hour Wynton Marsalis is a famous jazz musician, composer and conductor. He is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. He was the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. That was in nineteen-ninety-seven. Wynton Marsalis has released more than forty records. He plays trumpet on his new album with the Wynton Marsalis Quartet. It is called “The Magic Hour.” Shep O’Neal tells us about Marsalis and his music. SHEP O'NEAL: Wynton Marsalis says “the magic hour” is a special hour of the day for a family. He says that for children, the magic hour is one hour before they go to sleep. For parents, it is one hour after the children go to sleep. Marsalis says the album celebrates the child in all of us. Critics say the album is full of simple pleasures. Here is one of them, a song called “Free to Be.” (MUSIC) Wynton Marsalis says he made the new album with three other musicians because he wanted to restate his love of jazz music in a quartet. “The Magic Hour” also includes two songs by guest singers. This one is called “Baby, I Love You.” The singer is Bobby McFerrin. (MUSIC) One critic says Wynton Marsalis is the most recognized jazz artist in the world today. Three years ago, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan declared him an international ambassador of goodwill. Wynton Marsalis and his group are performing in the United States and ten other countries this summer. We leave you with the song “Skipping” from “The Magic Hour.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: some jazz music from Wynton Marsalis. And a listener wants to know about a kind of horse called the Appaloosa. But first, we remember American actor Marlon Brando. Marlon Brando The American movie industry lost one of its greatest stars on July first. Marlon Brando died in Los Angeles, California at the age of eighty. Gwen Outen takes a look back at the actor’s long life in movies. MARLON BRANDO: “You don’t understand. I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am.” GWEN OUTEN: That was Marlon Brando playing a former boxer in the nineteen-fifty-four movie “On the Waterfront.” Marlon Brando was somebody, of course. Many critics say he was the greatest actor of all time. And many actors say Marlon Brando influenced them more than any other person in the movie industry. Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen-twenty-four. His mother was an actress. His father was a salesman. His childhood was not happy. In a book about his life, Brando wrote that both his parents were dependent on alcohol. He wrote that his father never said anything good about his son. Marlon Brando linked his interest in acting to the painful years of his childhood. He said a child who feels unaccepted by his parents will search for a different identity that will be acceptable. When he was nineteen, Brando moved to New York City. He studied acting and learned what is called the “method” style of realistic acting. In nineteen-forty-seven, he became a Broadway star with his famous performance as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Brando’s fame grew in nineteen-fifty-one when he acted the same part in the film version of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Brando acted in more than forty movies. He won two Academy Awards for Best Actor. One was for his work in “On the Waterfront.” The other was for playing Vito Corleone, the powerful head of a criminal organization in “The Godfather” in nineteen-seventy-two. He was nominated for five other Academy Awards. Brando was a private man but he did not lead a quiet or easy life. He was married three times. He had at least seven children. Brando dealt with several tragedies. One of his sons was sent to prison for killing a man. Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne, killed herself in nineteen-ninety-five. No public service was held to honor Marlon Brando after his death. A family spokesperson said he would not have wanted one. But the actor’s place in Hollywood history is secure. The Appaloosa DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nice, France. Anne Claude Petit asks about the Appaloosa horse. Appaloosa horses have colorful spots on their bodies. History experts have found the horses shown in ancient cave paintings. The horses lived in Persia, China and Egypt. Spotted horses were developed into riding horses in Spain and taken to Mexico in the sixteenth century. They spread across North America. The Nez Perce Indians used the spotted animals to produce horses that were fast, strong and gentle. The Nez Perce lived near the Palouse River that flows through the northwestern states of Washington and Idaho. White settlers called the colorful horse “a Palouse horse.” Later, the name was pronounced Appaloosa. The breed was recognized in nineteen-thirty-eight when Claude Thompson and George Hatley established the Appaloosa Horse Club. Its headquarters is in Moscow, Idaho. Today, the Appaloosa Horse Club recognizes more than six-hundred-thousand Appaloosa horses. The club says Appaloosas are used everywhere a good horse is needed, including show racing and jumping. Appaloosas are also used for riding, on ranches and in the circus. Appaloosas have broad heads, short bodies and strong legs. They move very smoothly. An Appaloosa can have one of many different designs on its body. It may be white with colored spots, or colored with white spots. It may have a white back or colored spots on the back end. It may be a colored horse with light or white spots on the hips and legs. An Appaloosa can also be colored at birth but become almost white as the horse ages except for dark markings on the legs and face. To be officially recognized as an Appaloosa, a horse must also have a visible white part of the eye, similar to the human eye. It should also have striped hooves and a special kind of partly colored skin around the mouth and nose. Every year, the Appaloosa Horse Club organizes a championship contest for Appaloosas and their riders. The contest this year ended last week in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For more information about the contest and the horses, the Web site of the Appaloosa Horse Club is www.appaloosa.com. The Magic Hour Wynton Marsalis is a famous jazz musician, composer and conductor. He is the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. He was the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. That was in nineteen-ninety-seven. Wynton Marsalis has released more than forty records. He plays trumpet on his new album with the Wynton Marsalis Quartet. It is called “The Magic Hour.” Shep O’Neal tells us about Marsalis and his music. SHEP O'NEAL: Wynton Marsalis says “the magic hour” is a special hour of the day for a family. He says that for children, the magic hour is one hour before they go to sleep. For parents, it is one hour after the children go to sleep. Marsalis says the album celebrates the child in all of us. Critics say the album is full of simple pleasures. Here is one of them, a song called “Free to Be.” (MUSIC) Wynton Marsalis says he made the new album with three other musicians because he wanted to restate his love of jazz music in a quartet. “The Magic Hour” also includes two songs by guest singers. This one is called “Baby, I Love You.” The singer is Bobby McFerrin. (MUSIC) One critic says Wynton Marsalis is the most recognized jazz artist in the world today. Three years ago, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan declared him an international ambassador of goodwill. Wynton Marsalis and his group are performing in the United States and ten other countries this summer. We leave you with the song “Skipping” from “The Magic Hour.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - U.S. States and Gambling
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 16, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Some form of gambling is legal in all fifty American states except two, Hawaii and Utah. Some states increasingly see games of chance as a good chance to help pay for services. A new law in Pennsylvania will permit as many as sixty-one thousand slot machines in that state. Players put in money and hope to win more money. Pennsylvania expects to earn as much as one thousand million dollars a year. Governor Ed Rendell says some money will go to reduce property taxes. In Maryland, some lawmakers and Governor Robert Ehrlich want to make slot machines legal in their state as well. Maryland is next to Pennsylvania. Gambling on horse races is already legal in Maryland. Now, officials worry that Maryland will lose gambling money to Pennsylvania. Some people in Washington, D.C., want slot machines in the nation's capital. States with big budget deficits, like New York and California, also want to increase their gambling money. New York Governor George Pataki wants to put machines called "video lottery terminals" at horse races throughout the state. He says his plan would raise lots of money for education. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed deals with five Native American tribes. The tribes can now operate as many slot machines as they want. Gambling has become a major industry on tribal lands in the United States. Tribal governments do not pay taxes. But many states have agreements with tribes over gambling rights. Governor Schwarzenegger hopes California will receive one thousand million dollars for its current budget. But some people say public officials are taking too much of a chance on gambling. Religious leaders call it a social evil that ruins lives. Opponents say it brings crime and other problems. They argue that it does not create new wealth, but serves as a tax on the poor, who are more likely to gamble. In two-thousand, the General Accounting Office of Congress released a report on the economic and social effects of gambling. The writers noted a finding that eighty-six percent of Americans reported having gambled at least once in their lives. But the report said that while it is easy to know how much money gambling raises, it is difficult to know how gambling affects society. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - John Tyler
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 15, 2004 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, the national elections of eighteen-hundred-forty put a new man in the White House: General William Henry Harrison. He became the ninth president of the United States. He was a member of the Whig Party. The defeat of President Martin Van Buren was expected. Still, it was a sharp loss for the Democratic Party. President Harrison died soon after becoming president. And his vice president, John Tyler, moved into the White House. The Whig Party leaders, especially Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, tried to control the new president. But Tyler soon showed his independence. Clay proposed detailed legislative programs for the new Whig administration. Among them: the establishment of a national bank. This was high on Senator Clay's list of proposals. Tyler did not approve these plans as proposed by Clay. Tyler wanted peace and party unity. But he also wanted to show that he -- not Clay -- was president. Tyler vetoed two bills calling for the creation of a national bank. VOICE TWO: Clay's supporters in the cabinet did their best to get Tyler to sign the bank bills. When the president refused to do so, Whig Party leaders urged the cabinet to resign. This would show that the president, alone, was responsible for the veto of the bills. All cabinet members, but one -- Daniel Webster -- resigned. Secretary of State Webster was with the president when one of the letters of resignation arrived. "What am I to do, Mr. President?" asked Webster. "You must decide that for yourself," Tyler said. "If you leave it to me, Mr. President, I will stay where I am." President Tyler stood up. "Give me your hand on that," he said, "and I will say to you that Henry Clay is a doomed man from this hour. " Tyler named a new cabinet. And there was not one Clay supporter in it. VOICE ONE: The president's veto of the second bank bill brought strong public protests from those who wanted a national bank. A large group of Whig congressmen met and voted to expel Tyler from the party. During the struggle over the bank bills, the Whigs did not forget the other parts of Senator Clay's legislative program. Clay especially wanted approval of a bill to give the different states money from the sale of public land. Tyler liked this idea himself. Many of the states owed large amounts of money. The distribution bill, as it was called, would help them get out of debt. VOICE TWO: The president was willing to support the bill. But he saw one danger in it. If all the money from land sales was given to the states, the federal government might not have enough money. Tyler feared that Congress then would raise import taxes to get more money for the federal government. As a Southerner, the president opposed taxes on imports. He finally agreed to accept the distribution bill, but on one condition. The distribution of money to the states would be suspended if import taxes rose higher than twenty percent. Tyler signed the bill, and it became law. VOICE ONE: The next year, the government found itself short of money. It was spending more than it had. Congress decided that import taxes should be raised, some even higher than twenty percent. The bill was passed by close votes in the House and Senate. When it got to the White House, President Tyler vetoed it. He said it was wrong to raise the tax so high and, at the same time, continue to give the states the money from land sales. He said the federal government itself needed the land-sale money. The Whigs were angry. Still, they did not have enough votes to pass the bill over the president's veto. Then they approved a new bill. This one raised import taxes, but said nothing about distribution of federal money to the states. And president Tyler signed it. VOICE TWO: While the Whigs made bitter speeches about the failure of the party's legislative program, Tyler worked to improve relations with Britain. The United States and Britain disputed the border that separated Canada from the northeastern United States. Both Canada and the state of Maine claimed t he disputed area. Britain was also angry because Americans had helped Canadian rebels. Canadian soldiers had crossed the Niagara River and burned a boat that was used to carry supplies to the rebels. Secretary of State Daniel Webster wanted peace with Britain. And there was a new government in Britain. Its foreign minister, Lord Aberdeen, also wanted peace. VOICE ONE: Lord Aberdeen sent a special representative, Lord Ashburton,-to the United States. Lord Ashburton had an American wife. And he was a friend of Daniel Webster. He arrived in Washington in the spring of eighteen-hundred-forty-two with the power to settle all disputes with the United States. Lord Ashburton said Britain regretted that it had not made some explanation or apology for the sinking of an American boat in the niagara river. The two men discussed the border dispute between Canada and Maine. Webster proposed a compromise border line. Lord Ashburton accepted the compromise. The agreement gave almost eighteen-thousand square kilometers of the disputed area to Maine. Canada received more than twelve-thousand square kilometers. VOICE TWO: The Senate approved the Webster-Ashburton agreement. And American-British relations showed improvement. President Tyler then turned to another problem: Texas. Texas asked to become a state during President Van Buren's administration. But nothing was done about the request. Tyler was interested in Texas and wanted to make it part of the Union. Secretary Webster was cool to the idea of Texas statehood. As a Northerner, he did not want another slave state in the Union. Webster and his supporters were Tyler's only real strength in the Whig Party outside of Virginia. The president, therefore, did not push the issue of Texas. After Senate approval of his treaty with Lord Ashburton, Webster decided that he could be of no more real use to the administration. He resigned as secretary of state. Tyler named one of his Virginia supporters, Abel Upshur, to the job in the summer of eighteen-hundred-forty-three. VOICE ONE: Upshur was a firm believer in slavery. He felt slaves were necessary in the agricultural economy of the south. Upshur was worried about reports that Britain was interested in ending slavery in Texas. These reports said Britain had promised to defend Texas independence and to give economic aid, if the slaves were freed. Upshur and other southerners feared what might happen if this were done. Slaves from nearby southern states would try to escape to freedom in Texas. And the abolitionists might use Texas as a base for propaganda against the south. VOICE TWO: There was another reason for President Tyler's interest in Texas. He believed it possible to make political use of the question of Texas statehood. It could help him build a new political party, a party that might elect him president for another four years. Four months after becoming secretary of state, Upshur offered a statehood treaty to Texas. At first, Texas President Sam Houston refused the offer. He finally agreed to negotiate, but said the United States must accept two conditions. It must agree to protect Texas if Mexico attacked it. And it must promise that the United States Senate would approve the treaty. Upshur told the Texas representative in Washington that Texas would be given military protection just as soon as the treaty was signed. And he said the necessary two-thirds of the senators would approve the statehood treaty. Houston was satisfied. And his representative began secret negotiations with Upshur. VOICE ONE: A few weeks later, before the talks could be completed, Upshur joined the president and congressional leaders for a trip down the Potomac River. They sailed on a new American warship that carried two large cannons. The new guns were to be fired for the president. Upshur was standing near one of the cannons during the firing. He and two other men were killed when the gun exploded. The president was not injured. But nineteen others were hurt. President Tyler named John C. Calhoun -- a Democrat -- as his new secretary of state. He did so for two reasons: Calhoun believed that Texas should be part of the United States. And Tyler -- a Whig -- hoped that Calhoun might be able to get him nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Lew Roland and Bud Steele. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard thursdays. Broadcast: July 15, 2004 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, the national elections of eighteen-hundred-forty put a new man in the White House: General William Henry Harrison. He became the ninth president of the United States. He was a member of the Whig Party. The defeat of President Martin Van Buren was expected. Still, it was a sharp loss for the Democratic Party. President Harrison died soon after becoming president. And his vice president, John Tyler, moved into the White House. The Whig Party leaders, especially Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, tried to control the new president. But Tyler soon showed his independence. Clay proposed detailed legislative programs for the new Whig administration. Among them: the establishment of a national bank. This was high on Senator Clay's list of proposals. Tyler did not approve these plans as proposed by Clay. Tyler wanted peace and party unity. But he also wanted to show that he -- not Clay -- was president. Tyler vetoed two bills calling for the creation of a national bank. VOICE TWO: Clay's supporters in the cabinet did their best to get Tyler to sign the bank bills. When the president refused to do so, Whig Party leaders urged the cabinet to resign. This would show that the president, alone, was responsible for the veto of the bills. All cabinet members, but one -- Daniel Webster -- resigned. Secretary of State Webster was with the president when one of the letters of resignation arrived. "What am I to do, Mr. President?" asked Webster. "You must decide that for yourself," Tyler said. "If you leave it to me, Mr. President, I will stay where I am." President Tyler stood up. "Give me your hand on that," he said, "and I will say to you that Henry Clay is a doomed man from this hour. " Tyler named a new cabinet. And there was not one Clay supporter in it. VOICE ONE: The president's veto of the second bank bill brought strong public protests from those who wanted a national bank. A large group of Whig congressmen met and voted to expel Tyler from the party. During the struggle over the bank bills, the Whigs did not forget the other parts of Senator Clay's legislative program. Clay especially wanted approval of a bill to give the different states money from the sale of public land. Tyler liked this idea himself. Many of the states owed large amounts of money. The distribution bill, as it was called, would help them get out of debt. VOICE TWO: The president was willing to support the bill. But he saw one danger in it. If all the money from land sales was given to the states, the federal government might not have enough money. Tyler feared that Congress then would raise import taxes to get more money for the federal government. As a Southerner, the president opposed taxes on imports. He finally agreed to accept the distribution bill, but on one condition. The distribution of money to the states would be suspended if import taxes rose higher than twenty percent. Tyler signed the bill, and it became law. VOICE ONE: The next year, the government found itself short of money. It was spending more than it had. Congress decided that import taxes should be raised, some even higher than twenty percent. The bill was passed by close votes in the House and Senate. When it got to the White House, President Tyler vetoed it. He said it was wrong to raise the tax so high and, at the same time, continue to give the states the money from land sales. He said the federal government itself needed the land-sale money. The Whigs were angry. Still, they did not have enough votes to pass the bill over the president's veto. Then they approved a new bill. This one raised import taxes, but said nothing about distribution of federal money to the states. And president Tyler signed it. VOICE TWO: While the Whigs made bitter speeches about the failure of the party's legislative program, Tyler worked to improve relations with Britain. The United States and Britain disputed the border that separated Canada from the northeastern United States. Both Canada and the state of Maine claimed t he disputed area. Britain was also angry because Americans had helped Canadian rebels. Canadian soldiers had crossed the Niagara River and burned a boat that was used to carry supplies to the rebels. Secretary of State Daniel Webster wanted peace with Britain. And there was a new government in Britain. Its foreign minister, Lord Aberdeen, also wanted peace. VOICE ONE: Lord Aberdeen sent a special representative, Lord Ashburton,-to the United States. Lord Ashburton had an American wife. And he was a friend of Daniel Webster. He arrived in Washington in the spring of eighteen-hundred-forty-two with the power to settle all disputes with the United States. Lord Ashburton said Britain regretted that it had not made some explanation or apology for the sinking of an American boat in the niagara river. The two men discussed the border dispute between Canada and Maine. Webster proposed a compromise border line. Lord Ashburton accepted the compromise. The agreement gave almost eighteen-thousand square kilometers of the disputed area to Maine. Canada received more than twelve-thousand square kilometers. VOICE TWO: The Senate approved the Webster-Ashburton agreement. And American-British relations showed improvement. President Tyler then turned to another problem: Texas. Texas asked to become a state during President Van Buren's administration. But nothing was done about the request. Tyler was interested in Texas and wanted to make it part of the Union. Secretary Webster was cool to the idea of Texas statehood. As a Northerner, he did not want another slave state in the Union. Webster and his supporters were Tyler's only real strength in the Whig Party outside of Virginia. The president, therefore, did not push the issue of Texas. After Senate approval of his treaty with Lord Ashburton, Webster decided that he could be of no more real use to the administration. He resigned as secretary of state. Tyler named one of his Virginia supporters, Abel Upshur, to the job in the summer of eighteen-hundred-forty-three. VOICE ONE: Upshur was a firm believer in slavery. He felt slaves were necessary in the agricultural economy of the south. Upshur was worried about reports that Britain was interested in ending slavery in Texas. These reports said Britain had promised to defend Texas independence and to give economic aid, if the slaves were freed. Upshur and other southerners feared what might happen if this were done. Slaves from nearby southern states would try to escape to freedom in Texas. And the abolitionists might use Texas as a base for propaganda against the south. VOICE TWO: There was another reason for President Tyler's interest in Texas. He believed it possible to make political use of the question of Texas statehood. It could help him build a new political party, a party that might elect him president for another four years. Four months after becoming secretary of state, Upshur offered a statehood treaty to Texas. At first, Texas President Sam Houston refused the offer. He finally agreed to negotiate, but said the United States must accept two conditions. It must agree to protect Texas if Mexico attacked it. And it must promise that the United States Senate would approve the treaty. Upshur told the Texas representative in Washington that Texas would be given military protection just as soon as the treaty was signed. And he said the necessary two-thirds of the senators would approve the statehood treaty. Houston was satisfied. And his representative began secret negotiations with Upshur. VOICE ONE: A few weeks later, before the talks could be completed, Upshur joined the president and congressional leaders for a trip down the Potomac River. They sailed on a new American warship that carried two large cannons. The new guns were to be fired for the president. Upshur was standing near one of the cannons during the firing. He and two other men were killed when the gun exploded. The president was not injured. But nineteen others were hurt. President Tyler named John C. Calhoun -- a Democrat -- as his new secretary of state. He did so for two reasons: Calhoun believed that Texas should be part of the United States. And Tyler -- a Whig -- hoped that Calhoun might be able to get him nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Lew Roland and Bud Steele. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Educational Camps
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 15, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of American children attend summer camp. Most summer camps teach swimming and sports. But some are designed to teach special skills. One of these is Concordia Language Villages camp in the state of Minnesota. Campers there learn to speak a foreign language without the use of books or teachers. The counselors speak the language all the time and show the campers what to do. The campers learn the language by watching and hearing the words. One student at the German camp said she experienced what it would be like to be in Germany. Colleges and universities organize other learning camps. Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois offers a week long experience called “Summer Wings Camp.” The camp is held at the Southern Illinois Airport. Campers learn about the history of flight and experience what an airplane pilot does. At Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, students can take part in a two-week camp that teaches astronomy. They observe sunspots, for example, and study the motion of planets and stars. The Pennsylvania State University offers many summer programs. One camp this summer taught about what it is like to be a weather expert or meteorologist. Students at Weather Camp learned how tornadoes form. And they learned how to present weather information on television. Another Penn State summer program was Nursing Camp. Students in this program took part in different emergency situations and learned how to treat injuries. The students carried out first aid skills on life-like dolls in a laboratory. They also learned cardio pulmonary resuscitation, how to start a heart that has stopped beating. And they learned how to help people in a medical emergency. Another skills camp is organized by businesses. Camp CEO is a one-week program in the state of Arizona for fifty teen-age girls. At the camp, they link with successful businesswomen who are chief executive officers in different industries. The girls build a business. They also take part in a special outdoor exercise to develop communication and trust. Officials at Camp CEO say the experience is unlike any other kind of camp operating today. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - AIDS Conference in Bangkok
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The fifteenth International AIDS Conference ended Friday in Bangkok. The conference takes place every two years. It is the biggest gathering for scientists, AIDS activists, policymakers and people with H.I.V. and AIDS. Delegates from more than one hundred countries attended the meeting in Thailand. They shared information and urged governments to do more to fight the disease. The last AIDS conference took place in Barcelona, Spain, in two-thousand-two. Since then, six million people with AIDS have died. Ten million more people have become infected. And experts say the spread of H.I.V. shows no signs of slowing. The United Nations estimates that thirty-eight million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Most are in developing countries in Africa and Asia. But health officials say these countries do not get enough money to fight the disease. The World Health Organization says AIDS drugs are reaching only about seven percent of people in developing countries who need them. In recent years, many big drug companies have reduced the prices of antiretroviral drugs, which suppress the virus. They also have given some away free. But drugs made by American and European companies can cost as much as five thousand dollars a year. Countries like India, Thailand and Brazil make low-cost versions of AIDS drugs. But supplies are limited. During the conference, French officials said American trade policies aim to prevent more countries from making low-cost copies. An American official denied that. Delegates in Bangkok urged the United States and Europe to give more money to U.N. efforts to fight AIDS. But the Bush administration has its own five-year plan to spend fifteen thousand million dollars on prevention and treatment. This plan is similar to one in Uganda. But some delegates said the plan puts too much importance on urging people not to have sex until marriage. The Bush administration says just urging people to use condoms will not stop the spread of H.I.V. Experts at the International AIDS Conference called for more money to research new ways to prevent the spread of the virus. They discussed some methods being tested for women, such as chemicals that would kill H.I.V. during sex. Health officials say almost half of all people currently infected with H.I.V. are women. But, in many areas, infection rates are rising much faster among women than among men. Scientists say development of a vaccine to prevent infection is still years away. During the conference this week in Thailand, there were also calls for new ways to get more people tested for H.I.V. And former South African President Nelson Mandela discussed the need to fight tuberculosis as well. This sickness often kills people with AIDS, since AIDS robs people of their natural defenses against disease. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: July 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The fifteenth International AIDS Conference ended Friday in Bangkok. The conference takes place every two years. It is the biggest gathering for scientists, AIDS activists, policymakers and people with H.I.V. and AIDS. Delegates from more than one hundred countries attended the meeting in Thailand. They shared information and urged governments to do more to fight the disease. The last AIDS conference took place in Barcelona, Spain, in two-thousand-two. Since then, six million people with AIDS have died. Ten million more people have become infected. And experts say the spread of H.I.V. shows no signs of slowing. The United Nations estimates that thirty-eight million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Most are in developing countries in Africa and Asia. But health officials say these countries do not get enough money to fight the disease. The World Health Organization says AIDS drugs are reaching only about seven percent of people in developing countries who need them. In recent years, many big drug companies have reduced the prices of antiretroviral drugs, which suppress the virus. They also have given some away free. But drugs made by American and European companies can cost as much as five thousand dollars a year. Countries like India, Thailand and Brazil make low-cost versions of AIDS drugs. But supplies are limited. During the conference, French officials said American trade policies aim to prevent more countries from making low-cost copies. An American official denied that. Delegates in Bangkok urged the United States and Europe to give more money to U.N. efforts to fight AIDS. But the Bush administration has its own five-year plan to spend fifteen thousand million dollars on prevention and treatment. This plan is similar to one in Uganda. But some delegates said the plan puts too much importance on urging people not to have sex until marriage. The Bush administration says just urging people to use condoms will not stop the spread of H.I.V. Experts at the International AIDS Conference called for more money to research new ways to prevent the spread of the virus. They discussed some methods being tested for women, such as chemicals that would kill H.I.V. during sex. Health officials say almost half of all people currently infected with H.I.V. are women. But, in many areas, infection rates are rising much faster among women than among men. Scientists say development of a vaccine to prevent infection is still years away. During the conference this week in Thailand, there were also calls for new ways to get more people tested for H.I.V. And former South African President Nelson Mandela discussed the need to fight tuberculosis as well. This sickness often kills people with AIDS, since AIDS robs people of their natural defenses against disease. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ray Charles, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 18, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 18, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with People In America in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with People In America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, we began the story of a blind musician who had a huge influence on American popular music. He was famous for his recordings of jazz, rock-and-roll, blues and country music. His name was Ray Charles Robinson. But the world knew him better as Ray Charles. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The name of that song is “Let’s Go Get Stoned.” It is an example of Ray Charles’ own kind of music—his own sound. He worked hard for several years to create that sound. No one ever tried it before. He mixed black church music, blues and rock-and-roll. The sound was extremely successful. In the nineteen-fifties, his records began to sell millions of copies. At the same time, Ray Charles recorded jazz music. Those records sold well, too. Critics said they were new and exciting. Listen to his jazz song, “Sweet Sixteen Bars.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles became famous because he could play blues, rock and jazz. He also liked other kinds of music. He told record company officials that he wanted to record an album of country-and-western music. The president of the record company told him it would be a mistake. He said Ray’s fans would not buy the album. Charles disagreed. He said he believed he would gain many new fans to replace the few he might lose. He produced the album and it was an immediate success. The album was called “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.” Many of the songs were major hits. One of the most popular was “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” It is a country-and-western song with Ray Charles’ sound of blues and black church music. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ray Charles lived in a world of sound. For six months each year he traveled with his orchestra, performing in theaters. For the other six months, he worked in his recording studio in Los Angles, California. He did much of the recording work to produce his own albums. Ray Charles would often say that sound and music were his life’s blood. In fact, he said many times that he would not trade his musical ability for the ability to see again. You begin to understand what sound meant to Ray Charles when you learn that he helped create and support the Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders. This organization helps people deal with the loss of their hearing. You might think Ray Charles would have given his time and money to help the blind. He did not. He once said, “Being blind is my handicap. But ears are my opportunity.” He said losing his hearing would have ended his life. VOICE ONE: Ray Charles lived a long life that included his share of problems. There was a time when he used illegal drugs. He was married and divorced several times. Yet the Ray Charles sound, and his success, continued. He received twelve Grammy Awards from the recording industry. He was one of the first musicians to be elected to the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame. Several universities honored him. So did the French and American governments. His home state of Georgia made his recording of “Georgia on My Mind” the official state song. Several years ago, Ray Charles was asked to sing at a political convention. He performed the song “America the Beautiful.” Many people thought his recording was the best ever made. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ray Charles always said he owed most of his success to his mother. He said when he was a boy, she taught him a valuable lesson. She told him, “You can do anything you want to do. You cannot use your eyes. But you can work hard and use your brain.” Ray Charles died June tenth, two-thousand-four at the age of seventy-three. Music experts say he did more than anyone in the twentieth century to change American popular music. VOICE ONE: More than one-hundred years ago, Alice Cary wrote a poem that could have been written for Ray Charles. She wrote: My soul is full of whispered song, -- My blindness is my sight; The shadows that I feared so long Are full of life and light. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last week, we began the story of a blind musician who had a huge influence on American popular music. He was famous for his recordings of jazz, rock-and-roll, blues and country music. His name was Ray Charles Robinson. But the world knew him better as Ray Charles. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The name of that song is “Let’s Go Get Stoned.” It is an example of Ray Charles’ own kind of music—his own sound. He worked hard for several years to create that sound. No one ever tried it before. He mixed black church music, blues and rock-and-roll. The sound was extremely successful. In the nineteen-fifties, his records began to sell millions of copies. At the same time, Ray Charles recorded jazz music. Those records sold well, too. Critics said they were new and exciting. Listen to his jazz song, “Sweet Sixteen Bars.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles became famous because he could play blues, rock and jazz. He also liked other kinds of music. He told record company officials that he wanted to record an album of country-and-western music. The president of the record company told him it would be a mistake. He said Ray’s fans would not buy the album. Charles disagreed. He said he believed he would gain many new fans to replace the few he might lose. He produced the album and it was an immediate success. The album was called “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.” Many of the songs were major hits. One of the most popular was “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” It is a country-and-western song with Ray Charles’ sound of blues and black church music. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ray Charles lived in a world of sound. For six months each year he traveled with his orchestra, performing in theaters. For the other six months, he worked in his recording studio in Los Angles, California. He did much of the recording work to produce his own albums. Ray Charles would often say that sound and music were his life’s blood. In fact, he said many times that he would not trade his musical ability for the ability to see again. You begin to understand what sound meant to Ray Charles when you learn that he helped create and support the Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders. This organization helps people deal with the loss of their hearing. You might think Ray Charles would have given his time and money to help the blind. He did not. He once said, “Being blind is my handicap. But ears are my opportunity.” He said losing his hearing would have ended his life. VOICE ONE: Ray Charles lived a long life that included his share of problems. There was a time when he used illegal drugs. He was married and divorced several times. Yet the Ray Charles sound, and his success, continued. He received twelve Grammy Awards from the recording industry. He was one of the first musicians to be elected to the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame. Several universities honored him. So did the French and American governments. His home state of Georgia made his recording of “Georgia on My Mind” the official state song. Several years ago, Ray Charles was asked to sing at a political convention. He performed the song “America the Beautiful.” Many people thought his recording was the best ever made. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ray Charles always said he owed most of his success to his mother. He said when he was a boy, she taught him a valuable lesson. She told him, “You can do anything you want to do. You cannot use your eyes. But you can work hard and use your brain.” Ray Charles died June tenth, two-thousand-four at the age of seventy-three. Music experts say he did more than anyone in the twentieth century to change American popular music. VOICE ONE: More than one-hundred years ago, Alice Cary wrote a poem that could have been written for Ray Charles. She wrote: My soul is full of whispered song, -- My blindness is my sight; The shadows that I feared so long Are full of life and light. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - International Adoptions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 19, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 19, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Our subject this week is international adoptions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Adoption is the legal process where people take a child of other parents as their own. The Census Bureau says more than two percent of children in the United States are adopted. That is about one-point-six million children. These numbers are from the national population count in two-thousand. But since the nineteen-sixties and seventies, the number of American-born children in need of adoption has decreased. So today many people go to other countries to adopt a child. In nineteen-eighty-nine, Americans brought eight thousand foreign children to the United States. By last year, the State Department says the number was more than twenty-one thousand. VOICE TWO: The Census Bureau says thirteen percent of the adopted children in the United States were born in another country. Of these foreign-born children, one-sixth are from Europe. One-third are from Latin America. And almost half are from Asia. The largest number of foreign-born adopted children in the United States, twenty-two percent, are from South Korea. But immigration reports show that, in recent years, the largest numbers of foreign children brought here are from Russia and China. By last year South Korea was fourth, behind Guatemala. Four years ago, Romania suspended most international adoptions. Romania used to be one of the top countries where Americans adopted children. By last year Romania was twelfth on the list of countries. Two hundred Romanian children were brought here to live. VOICE ONE: Romania's president, Ion Iliescu, signed a bill into law last month to bar most foreign adoptions of Romanian children. The law will permit grandparents who live in other countries to adopt their Romanian grandchildren. Romania wants to join the European Union in two-thousand-seven. E.U. officials were concerned that Romania's adoption system could not prevent the illegal sale of children. So the E.U. urged Romania to pass a new law. But, in April, American Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called the plan a "tragedy" for children in state care. Critics of the new restrictions on international adoption say Romania does not have enough families for all the children who need parents. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans who want to adopt mainly want healthy babies or very young children. But there are not enough in the United States to meet the demand. Birth rates are down. And, in nineteen-seventy-three, the Supreme Court ruled that women have the right to end unwanted pregnancies. This meant fewer babies to put up for adoption. Yet there are many older children in the United States who need adoption but cannot find new parents. Thousands live in temporary homes under adult supervision as dependents of the state. VOICE ONE: Years ago, few unmarried Americans or couples older than about forty adopted children. Today, it is much more common for single people to adopt. The same is true of older married couples as well as older singles. Some couples of the same sex also adopt children. Laws about adoptions within the United States differ from state to state. People who want to adopt are asked to show that they can provide a safe and loving home. Then they wait until an adoption agency finds a child for them. Sometimes people wait years. Other adoptions happen much more quickly. Costs differ greatly. Some estimates say the average may be about ten thousand dollars; others say at least twenty thousand dollars. Adoptions also take place without the services of an agency. In a private adoption, a lawyer or doctor brings together a pregnant woman with people seeking a child. But this does not always guarantee there will be a baby to adopt. Biological parents who decide to surrender a child for adoption are given time to reconsider. VOICE TWO: Many adoption agencies in the United States also handle foreign adoptions. For parents, the easiest adoptions often involve what is called direct relinquishment. This means the biological parents may be dead. Or they may have already surrendered their child to an orphanage. The new parents then may take the child directly home to the United States. Like most adoptions within the United States, international adoptions take time -- in some cases, many months. Adoption agencies and the State Department have a number of requirements for people who want to adopt a foreign child. A social worker visits the home of the prospective parents, to make sure the home and family will be good for the child. For example, the prospective parent must show the ability to provide financial support. Officials also look for criminal records. VOICE ONE: Prospective parents must also meet any requirements by foreign agencies and governments. For example, China recently has been a major provider of children for adoption in the United States. Americans adopted almost seven thousand children from China last year. One American adoption agency says most children adopted from China are baby girls about seven months or older. Chinese officials will permit single people as well as married couples to adopt children. But China makes a legal difference between children whose parents are dead and those who have been left without care. Generally only childless people age thirty-five or older can adopt a healthy child who has a living biological parent. People under thirty-five can only adopt children whose parents are dead. This is also true of people who already have a child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many foreign adoption centers require prospective parents to make two trips. On the first, the people meet and spend time with a child. On the second, they complete the adoption process. Parents also are advised to repeat the legal process in the United States when they return. Foreign adoptions can be costly. For example, to adopt a Russian child can cost thirty thousand dollars or more. International adoptions involve more than just time and money, both for the adoption itself and the travel. They also require energy. And sometimes they even involve safety risks. For example, many Americans over the years have adopted children from Haiti. But the State Department has lately advised Americans not to travel to the Caribbean nation for any reason, because of political unrest. Last year, many prospective parents had to delay trips to China. That was because of the health risk from severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS. Some people had already waited a long time to become parents or add to their families. Earlier this year, cases of measles led the United States to suspend adoptions from an orphanage in Hunan province. American health officials ended the ban last month. VOICE ONE: Parents do not always know much about the physical or mental health of a child they adopt in another country. Or problems may develop later. Experts say children who have lived in large orphanages often develop more slowly than others. Children kept in group situations also have a greater risk of infections. And children from some countries may have diseases that American doctors rarely see. Some doctors in the United States provide special services for parents who want to adopt a foreign child. A doctor can meet with families before they go out of the country to adopt. The doctor can study any medical records that foreign agencies provide for a child. Agencies may also provide videotapes of the child. And the doctor can examine the child after the adoption is completed. VOICE TWO: But for many people, all the work and the chances they might have had to take are clearly worth the effort. Gordon and Jan Forbes live in Rockville, Maryland. They adopted a Korean girl more than thirty years ago. They say it is difficult to express the happiness that their daughter has brought them. Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Our subject this week is international adoptions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Adoption is the legal process where people take a child of other parents as their own. The Census Bureau says more than two percent of children in the United States are adopted. That is about one-point-six million children. These numbers are from the national population count in two-thousand. But since the nineteen-sixties and seventies, the number of American-born children in need of adoption has decreased. So today many people go to other countries to adopt a child. In nineteen-eighty-nine, Americans brought eight thousand foreign children to the United States. By last year, the State Department says the number was more than twenty-one thousand. VOICE TWO: The Census Bureau says thirteen percent of the adopted children in the United States were born in another country. Of these foreign-born children, one-sixth are from Europe. One-third are from Latin America. And almost half are from Asia. The largest number of foreign-born adopted children in the United States, twenty-two percent, are from South Korea. But immigration reports show that, in recent years, the largest numbers of foreign children brought here are from Russia and China. By last year South Korea was fourth, behind Guatemala. Four years ago, Romania suspended most international adoptions. Romania used to be one of the top countries where Americans adopted children. By last year Romania was twelfth on the list of countries. Two hundred Romanian children were brought here to live. VOICE ONE: Romania's president, Ion Iliescu, signed a bill into law last month to bar most foreign adoptions of Romanian children. The law will permit grandparents who live in other countries to adopt their Romanian grandchildren. Romania wants to join the European Union in two-thousand-seven. E.U. officials were concerned that Romania's adoption system could not prevent the illegal sale of children. So the E.U. urged Romania to pass a new law. But, in April, American Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called the plan a "tragedy" for children in state care. Critics of the new restrictions on international adoption say Romania does not have enough families for all the children who need parents. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans who want to adopt mainly want healthy babies or very young children. But there are not enough in the United States to meet the demand. Birth rates are down. And, in nineteen-seventy-three, the Supreme Court ruled that women have the right to end unwanted pregnancies. This meant fewer babies to put up for adoption. Yet there are many older children in the United States who need adoption but cannot find new parents. Thousands live in temporary homes under adult supervision as dependents of the state. VOICE ONE: Years ago, few unmarried Americans or couples older than about forty adopted children. Today, it is much more common for single people to adopt. The same is true of older married couples as well as older singles. Some couples of the same sex also adopt children. Laws about adoptions within the United States differ from state to state. People who want to adopt are asked to show that they can provide a safe and loving home. Then they wait until an adoption agency finds a child for them. Sometimes people wait years. Other adoptions happen much more quickly. Costs differ greatly. Some estimates say the average may be about ten thousand dollars; others say at least twenty thousand dollars. Adoptions also take place without the services of an agency. In a private adoption, a lawyer or doctor brings together a pregnant woman with people seeking a child. But this does not always guarantee there will be a baby to adopt. Biological parents who decide to surrender a child for adoption are given time to reconsider. VOICE TWO: Many adoption agencies in the United States also handle foreign adoptions. For parents, the easiest adoptions often involve what is called direct relinquishment. This means the biological parents may be dead. Or they may have already surrendered their child to an orphanage. The new parents then may take the child directly home to the United States. Like most adoptions within the United States, international adoptions take time -- in some cases, many months. Adoption agencies and the State Department have a number of requirements for people who want to adopt a foreign child. A social worker visits the home of the prospective parents, to make sure the home and family will be good for the child. For example, the prospective parent must show the ability to provide financial support. Officials also look for criminal records. VOICE ONE: Prospective parents must also meet any requirements by foreign agencies and governments. For example, China recently has been a major provider of children for adoption in the United States. Americans adopted almost seven thousand children from China last year. One American adoption agency says most children adopted from China are baby girls about seven months or older. Chinese officials will permit single people as well as married couples to adopt children. But China makes a legal difference between children whose parents are dead and those who have been left without care. Generally only childless people age thirty-five or older can adopt a healthy child who has a living biological parent. People under thirty-five can only adopt children whose parents are dead. This is also true of people who already have a child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many foreign adoption centers require prospective parents to make two trips. On the first, the people meet and spend time with a child. On the second, they complete the adoption process. Parents also are advised to repeat the legal process in the United States when they return. Foreign adoptions can be costly. For example, to adopt a Russian child can cost thirty thousand dollars or more. International adoptions involve more than just time and money, both for the adoption itself and the travel. They also require energy. And sometimes they even involve safety risks. For example, many Americans over the years have adopted children from Haiti. But the State Department has lately advised Americans not to travel to the Caribbean nation for any reason, because of political unrest. Last year, many prospective parents had to delay trips to China. That was because of the health risk from severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS. Some people had already waited a long time to become parents or add to their families. Earlier this year, cases of measles led the United States to suspend adoptions from an orphanage in Hunan province. American health officials ended the ban last month. VOICE ONE: Parents do not always know much about the physical or mental health of a child they adopt in another country. Or problems may develop later. Experts say children who have lived in large orphanages often develop more slowly than others. Children kept in group situations also have a greater risk of infections. And children from some countries may have diseases that American doctors rarely see. Some doctors in the United States provide special services for parents who want to adopt a foreign child. A doctor can meet with families before they go out of the country to adopt. The doctor can study any medical records that foreign agencies provide for a child. Agencies may also provide videotapes of the child. And the doctor can examine the child after the adoption is completed. VOICE TWO: But for many people, all the work and the chances they might have had to take are clearly worth the effort. Gordon and Jan Forbes live in Rockville, Maryland. They adopted a Korean girl more than thirty years ago. They say it is difficult to express the happiness that their daughter has brought them. Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Adobe
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 19, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. These days, stories about adobe are usually about Adobe, the California company that makes computer products. But this report is about adobe the traditional building material made of soil. Adobe is shaped into bricks that can be placed on top of each other. They are used as a low cost way of making houses. They can substitute for other building materials such as wood and steel. Adobe is soil that contains at least forty percent clay. In its purest form, clay can be shaped and stretched and used to make objects. Clay becomes very hard when it is put in a fire or a special oven. Adobe becomes a sticky mud when it is mixed with water. Liquid adobe mixture can be poured into containers called molds. This way the adobe ca be shaped into bricks of the desired size. Adobe bricks must be completely dried before they are used. That is necessary so that the walls of a building will not shrink or break. Too much water can make adobe weak. Sometimes other materials are added to the adobe mixture. These materials help keep the water in correct balance with the soil. This will help the adobe resist changes in the weather and humidity. One material that is commonly added to strengthen the adobe is straw. Straw is the dried stem part of plants such as wheat, millet and sorghum. Straw is especially popular in places where the clay content of the soil is high. Other materials such as lime and cement can be added to strengthen the adobe. About once a year, houses made from adobe should be given a layer of mud. This “paint” job helps keep the adobe strong. Adobe can take a long time to dry and become hard. So the bricks should be made in hot dry weather. If the weather is right, the bricks should dry in seven to ten days. People who work with adobe must experiment. They must find the right combination of soil mix, water content and drying methods. Many people around the world have found that adobe is a low cost way to make a house or farm buildings. You can get more information about building with adobe from the organization Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. VITA is on the Internet at www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Medical Mistakes in U.S. Hospitals / Ways to Control Mosquitos / Coral in Hawaii
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 20, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up this week: a report on efforts to reduce medical mistakes in American hospitals. VOICE ONE: Some new ways to kill mosquito eggs in water. VOICE TWO: And some underwater competition creates trouble for jewelry makers in Hawaii. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Five years ago, a study estimated the number of deaths each year caused by medical mistakes in hospitals in the United States. The estimate was between forty-four thousand and ninety-eight thousand -- or one in every two hundred patients. The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, did the study. The report was called "To Err Is Human." There was a lot of talk about the findings. Some experts called the estimates too high. Others called them too low. The report called for changes designed to reduce the chance for mistakes to happen in medical care. Not all mistakes are deadly. The report told of a man who was supposed to have his right leg removed. Doctors cut off the left one by mistake. The report said this kind of medical error is not unusual. It said many people are given the wrong medicine, or too much of the right medicine. New medicines with similar names are part of the problem. For example, Celebrex, Cerebyx and Celexa are three different medicines used to treat very different medical problems. VOICE TWO: The Institute of Medicine report said changes in hospital policies could prevent many of these mistakes. The nineteen-ninety-nine study called for another examination later this year to measure progress. Health care experts say a number of reforms have yet to take place. But they say hospitals have made improvements. Some are very simple. In fact, one of our friends here in the office discovered one for himself. Ten years ago he had an operation on his left knee. The operation was a success. But when he went into the hospital, no one asked him to confirm which knee required the operation. Recently, he had the same operation on his right knee. This time, a hospital worker asked him which knee was to be repaired. He was asked to place his hand on that knee. Then he was given a pen. He was told to write “yes” on the right knee and "no" on the left one. After that, he entered the operating room. The nurse and the doctor both asked him which knee was the one to be fixed. They wanted to make sure one last time that the right knee was the right knee. This month a group that inspects American hospitals ordered that simple safety measures like these be required before all operations. That group is called "Jayco" -- the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. VOICE ONE: Another effort to reduce mistakes involves information sharing among hospitals to improve the treatment of newborn babies. Each hospital can search the collected information for the best way to perform an operation or treat different problems in babies. Safety experts say information sharing can not only reduce mistakes but also improve the quality of medical care. The Institute of Medicine report five years ago said most mistakes are caused by communication failures. These include mistakes with medicines. There are efforts to increase the use of computers in hospitals to avoid such mistakes. The goal is make sure patients get the correct medicines and in the correct amounts. Traditionally, doctors have written their orders on paper. The handwriting can be difficult to read. But there is no such problem when the doctor enters the information into a computer instead. The computer can also be used to avoid other mistakes. For example, it can warn if a medicine will form a dangerous combination with another drug already taken by the patient. VOICE TWO: Safety experts hope that health care providers will learn from the mistakes of others -- and not just other health care providers. It is often said that doctors can learn from pilots. The flight industry has done a lot of work to reduce mistakes. These efforts include training for pilots about the importance of teamwork. But teamwork is not the only solution. Efforts are also made to change systems where misunderstandings and mistakes are easily possible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Mosquitoes spread malaria and other diseases that kill or sicken millions of people a year, mostly in developing countries. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. These insects often lay their eggs in old tires or other places where rainwater has collected. This is why public health officials tell people not to leave standing water on their property. But an American man has designed some ways to use standing water to control mosquitoes. Donald Hall of Virginia is a retired engineer. His inventions target mosquito eggs. One device pushes the water from a bird bath into a filter. The filter crushes the eggs that have been laid in the water. Some mosquitoes too young to fly are also killed. VOICE TWO: Another invention by Mister Hall is a special outdoor tray that is filled with water. It serves as an inviting place for mosquitoes to lay their eggs. But the heat of the sun causes a coil device at the bottom of the tray to expand during daylight hours. So the eggs rise to the surface of the water. There they become hot and die. In the evening, the metal coil shrinks back under water, so more mosquitoes can lay their eggs. Donald Hall says devices like these would be simple and low cost to make for developing countries. He recently received a United States patent to protect his ownership rights to his inventions. We have a link to his patent information on our Web site, voaspecialenglish-dot-com. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists in Hawaii say a beautiful but unwelcome form of ocean life threatens the coral industry in that state. They say snowflake coral is invading an area between the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Lanai. It kills black coral by crowding it out in the competition for resources. Coral is made up of colonies of small organisms called polyps. One end of a coral polyp has a mouth. The other end usually sticks to hard surfaces. The polyps of snowflake coral are white. So the colonies look like fields of snow. These polyps form shapes like trees as they grow. Right now, most of the snowflake coral develops at depths as low as one-hundred-ten meters. That is below the level that divers can easily reach. Snowflake coral connects itself to shells and other objects that live on black coral. Hawaii’s black coral is used to make jewelry and other objects. This industry is worth twenty-five to thirty million dollars to the state. Hawaiian coral rings, bracelets and necklaces are especially popular. VOICE TWO: Sam Kahng is an ocean science researcher at the University of Hawaii. Last December, Mister Kahng did research with a submarine provided by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. In the area he studied, he noted the presence of snowflake coral in or around all the colonies of black coral. He saw areas of black coral that had been killed by the snowflake coral. He said a single polyp of coral can produce as many as one hundred eggs. It can grow more than a centimeter a week. Mister Kahng said many new colonies of snowflake coral are just starting to form. Snowflake coral grows much faster than black coral. The invasive coral is not all bad. It does provides shelter for fish. Still, it competes with black coral and small fish for food supplies. VOICE ONE: Snowflake coral was first seen in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor in nineteen-seventy two. Researchers say the coral polyps may have stuck to the bottoms of ships that sailed into Hawaiian waters from the Caribbean. Several years ago, Sam Kahng explored the area between Maui and Lanai with Richard Grigg from the University of Hawaii. Mister Grigg is now partly retired. He says he does not think snowflake coral will kill all the black coral beds. But he says it reduces the black coral that can be harvested for jewelry. He also says it may reduce the growth of new black coral by killing older beds. These older beds make it possible for black coral to reproduce. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: July 20, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up this week: a report on efforts to reduce medical mistakes in American hospitals. VOICE ONE: Some new ways to kill mosquito eggs in water. VOICE TWO: And some underwater competition creates trouble for jewelry makers in Hawaii. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Five years ago, a study estimated the number of deaths each year caused by medical mistakes in hospitals in the United States. The estimate was between forty-four thousand and ninety-eight thousand -- or one in every two hundred patients. The Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, did the study. The report was called "To Err Is Human." There was a lot of talk about the findings. Some experts called the estimates too high. Others called them too low. The report called for changes designed to reduce the chance for mistakes to happen in medical care. Not all mistakes are deadly. The report told of a man who was supposed to have his right leg removed. Doctors cut off the left one by mistake. The report said this kind of medical error is not unusual. It said many people are given the wrong medicine, or too much of the right medicine. New medicines with similar names are part of the problem. For example, Celebrex, Cerebyx and Celexa are three different medicines used to treat very different medical problems. VOICE TWO: The Institute of Medicine report said changes in hospital policies could prevent many of these mistakes. The nineteen-ninety-nine study called for another examination later this year to measure progress. Health care experts say a number of reforms have yet to take place. But they say hospitals have made improvements. Some are very simple. In fact, one of our friends here in the office discovered one for himself. Ten years ago he had an operation on his left knee. The operation was a success. But when he went into the hospital, no one asked him to confirm which knee required the operation. Recently, he had the same operation on his right knee. This time, a hospital worker asked him which knee was to be repaired. He was asked to place his hand on that knee. Then he was given a pen. He was told to write “yes” on the right knee and "no" on the left one. After that, he entered the operating room. The nurse and the doctor both asked him which knee was the one to be fixed. They wanted to make sure one last time that the right knee was the right knee. This month a group that inspects American hospitals ordered that simple safety measures like these be required before all operations. That group is called "Jayco" -- the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. VOICE ONE: Another effort to reduce mistakes involves information sharing among hospitals to improve the treatment of newborn babies. Each hospital can search the collected information for the best way to perform an operation or treat different problems in babies. Safety experts say information sharing can not only reduce mistakes but also improve the quality of medical care. The Institute of Medicine report five years ago said most mistakes are caused by communication failures. These include mistakes with medicines. There are efforts to increase the use of computers in hospitals to avoid such mistakes. The goal is make sure patients get the correct medicines and in the correct amounts. Traditionally, doctors have written their orders on paper. The handwriting can be difficult to read. But there is no such problem when the doctor enters the information into a computer instead. The computer can also be used to avoid other mistakes. For example, it can warn if a medicine will form a dangerous combination with another drug already taken by the patient. VOICE TWO: Safety experts hope that health care providers will learn from the mistakes of others -- and not just other health care providers. It is often said that doctors can learn from pilots. The flight industry has done a lot of work to reduce mistakes. These efforts include training for pilots about the importance of teamwork. But teamwork is not the only solution. Efforts are also made to change systems where misunderstandings and mistakes are easily possible. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. Mosquitoes spread malaria and other diseases that kill or sicken millions of people a year, mostly in developing countries. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. These insects often lay their eggs in old tires or other places where rainwater has collected. This is why public health officials tell people not to leave standing water on their property. But an American man has designed some ways to use standing water to control mosquitoes. Donald Hall of Virginia is a retired engineer. His inventions target mosquito eggs. One device pushes the water from a bird bath into a filter. The filter crushes the eggs that have been laid in the water. Some mosquitoes too young to fly are also killed. VOICE TWO: Another invention by Mister Hall is a special outdoor tray that is filled with water. It serves as an inviting place for mosquitoes to lay their eggs. But the heat of the sun causes a coil device at the bottom of the tray to expand during daylight hours. So the eggs rise to the surface of the water. There they become hot and die. In the evening, the metal coil shrinks back under water, so more mosquitoes can lay their eggs. Donald Hall says devices like these would be simple and low cost to make for developing countries. He recently received a United States patent to protect his ownership rights to his inventions. We have a link to his patent information on our Web site, voaspecialenglish-dot-com. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists in Hawaii say a beautiful but unwelcome form of ocean life threatens the coral industry in that state. They say snowflake coral is invading an area between the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Lanai. It kills black coral by crowding it out in the competition for resources. Coral is made up of colonies of small organisms called polyps. One end of a coral polyp has a mouth. The other end usually sticks to hard surfaces. The polyps of snowflake coral are white. So the colonies look like fields of snow. These polyps form shapes like trees as they grow. Right now, most of the snowflake coral develops at depths as low as one-hundred-ten meters. That is below the level that divers can easily reach. Snowflake coral connects itself to shells and other objects that live on black coral. Hawaii’s black coral is used to make jewelry and other objects. This industry is worth twenty-five to thirty million dollars to the state. Hawaiian coral rings, bracelets and necklaces are especially popular. VOICE TWO: Sam Kahng is an ocean science researcher at the University of Hawaii. Last December, Mister Kahng did research with a submarine provided by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. In the area he studied, he noted the presence of snowflake coral in or around all the colonies of black coral. He saw areas of black coral that had been killed by the snowflake coral. He said a single polyp of coral can produce as many as one hundred eggs. It can grow more than a centimeter a week. Mister Kahng said many new colonies of snowflake coral are just starting to form. Snowflake coral grows much faster than black coral. The invasive coral is not all bad. It does provides shelter for fish. Still, it competes with black coral and small fish for food supplies. VOICE ONE: Snowflake coral was first seen in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor in nineteen-seventy two. Researchers say the coral polyps may have stuck to the bottoms of ships that sailed into Hawaiian waters from the Caribbean. Several years ago, Sam Kahng explored the area between Maui and Lanai with Richard Grigg from the University of Hawaii. Mister Grigg is now partly retired. He says he does not think snowflake coral will kill all the black coral beds. But he says it reduces the black coral that can be harvested for jewelry. He also says it may reduce the growth of new black coral by killing older beds. These older beds make it possible for black coral to reproduce. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Scientists Find Compound in Smoke that Helps Seeds Grow
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 20, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A discovery about a chemical in smoke could be a big help to farmers. Smoke causes lots of seeds to begin to grow. But smoke contains lots of different substances. No one knew which one caused the process of germination to begin. Now researchers from the University of Western Australia say they know. They published their findings this month in the magazine Science. The compound is called butenolide. To find it, the Australian team burned plants as well as paper. Both contain cellulose, the basic material of all plant life. The team separated butenolide from the other substances in the smoke from the burnt cellulose. Their work took eleven years. They performed experiments on seeds that normally germinate after fires. They also included seeds from plants that do not normally need fire to germinate. They found that both kinds of seeds germinated at a high rate when treated with butenolide. They found that even an extremely small amount of this carbon-based chemical can be effective. The discovery of butenolide could mean a lot not just to farmers but also to scientists who want to help rare plants grow. It could be used on wild lands and to help forests grow back more quickly after fires. Farmers could treat seeds with butenolide to increase the productivity of their crops. Kingsley Dixon, a member of the Australian team, notes that it could also be used to control unwanted plants. A farmer could treat fields with the chemical. This would cause weeds to germinate and grow. Then the farmer would use other treatments to kill the weeds before any crops are planted. Most kinds of seeds require a period of inactivity before they can germinate and send out roots. Inactivity is a natural defense, so the plants do not attempt to grow when conditions are poor. Some seeds need cold weather before they can germinate. Others cannot sprout until their outer skin is broken, which heat from a fire can do. Smoke from forest fires is known to cause seeds to germinate immediately. Now, scientists know what it is in smoke that causes seeds to start to grow. What they do not know yet is why butenolide does what it does. If you have a question about agriculture, we might be able to answer it on the air. Send an e-mail to special@voanews.com. And put the word agriculture in the subject line. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Yosemite National Park
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 21, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 21, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most famous national parks in the United States. You can find it high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the western state of California. It is one of the most beautiful places in the country. Its name is Yosemite. Yosemite Valley VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most famous national parks in the United States. You can find it high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the western state of California. It is one of the most beautiful places in the country. Its name is Yosemite. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yosemite National Park is a place of extremes. It has high mountains. It has valleys formed by ancient ice that cut deep into the Earth millions of years ago. Water from high in the mountains falls in many places to the green valley far below. There are thirteen beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. One of these waterfalls, Yosemite Falls, is the fifth highest on Earth. Up in the mountains are clear lakes, quick-moving small rivers, and huge formations of rock. One huge rock is called Half Dome. It rises more than two-thousand-seven-hundred meters into the air. Yosemite has a beautiful slow-moving river and large grassy areas where you can see wild animals. More than sixty kinds of animals live in the park. Deer are very common. You can see them almost everywhere. They have little fear of humans. You might even see a large black bear. You can also see two-hundred different kinds of birds. In a place called the Mariposa Grove, visitors can see some of the largest, tallest and oldest living things on Earth. These are the giant Sequoia Trees. One of these trees is called Grizzly Giant. It is more than one-thousand-eight-hundred years old. One tree is almost ninety-meters tall. Another is more than ten meters around. The huge old trees can make you feel very, very small. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the area that is Yosemite National Park begins about five-hundred-million years ago. The area then was at the bottom of an ancient sea. Scientists believe strong earthquakes forced the bottom of the sea to rise above the water. After millions of years, it was pushed up into the air to form land and mountains. At the same time, hot liquid rock from deep in the Earth pushed to the surface. This liquid rock slowly cooled. This cooling liquid formed a very hard rock known as granite. Many centuries of rain caused huge rivers to move violently through this area. Over time, these rivers cut deep into the new mountains. During the great Ice Age, millions of tons of ice cut and shaped the cooled granite to form giant rocks. Millions of years later these would become the giant rocks called Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite Park. VOICE ONE: Humans have lived in the area of Yosemite for more than four-thousand years. The people who first lived there were hunters. Most were members of a tribe of Native Americans called the Miwok. They lived in Yosemite Valley near the river. During the extremely cold winters, these people would move to lower, warmer areas. They would return when the winter months had passed. The first white Americans may have been hunters looking for fur animals. A famous American hunter and explorer named Joseph Walker passed through the area in the eighteen-thirties. He reported about the huge rock formations and said there was no way to reach the valley below. VOICE TWO: Citizens who had formed a military group were the first real modern explorers of the valley. They were at war with the local Indians and came into the valley. The white soldiers called the Indians Yosemites. The valley was named for the Indian tribe. Soon, reports of its great natural beauty were sent all the way back to Washington, D.C. In eighteen-sixty-four, a United States senator called for legislation to give the Yosemite Valley to the state of California as a public park. The legislation said the valley should be preserved and protected. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill after Congress approved it. This event was extremely important in the history of the United States. It was the first time that a government had approved a law to preserve and protect land because of its great beauty. The land was to be kept for the public to enjoy. Yosemite became the first state park. It was the first real park in the world. In eighteen-ninety, it became a national park. The National Park Service is responsible for the park today. It is preserved and protected for all people to enjoy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: No major roads lead to Yosemite National Park. Visitors must leave the highways and drive their cars over smaller roads. Yosemite is about three-hundred-twenty kilometers east of San Francisco. It is deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The roads leading to the park pass over lower parts of the huge mountains. Then the road goes lower and lower into the area of the park called Yosemite Valley. Visitors can stay in different kinds of places in Yosemite Park. Several beautiful old hotels have been built on the property. Some are very costly. Others cost less. Many people bring temporary cloth homes called tents. It costs only a few dollars a day to place a tent in the approved areas. Visitors can walk through many areas in the beautiful valley and the mountains. These walking paths are called trails. The National Park Service has improved more than one-thousand-one-hundred kilometers of trails. It is fun to explore these trails. Some take only a few minutes to walk. Others can take several days to complete. VOICE TWO: People come from all over the world to climb one of the huge rock formations at Yosemite. The most famous of these is called El Capitan. People who climb it call it “El Cap.” Climbing El Cap is only for experts. This activity is called “hard rock climbing.” It is extremely difficult and can be very dangerous. A climber must have expert skill and great strength. The climb is straight up the face of a rock wall. Experts say it can take about three days to climb to the top of El Cap. The climbing is very slow. Climbers must look for cracks in the rock. They place their hands and feet in the cracks and then work their way up. They also use ropes and special equipment. From the bottom of the valley to the top of El Cap is about one-thousand-one-hundred meters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the summer months, Yosemite Park is filled with visitors. Large buses bring people from San Francisco to spend the day. They leave San Francisco very early in the morning and arrive back late at night. They drive from one place to another to see Yosemite. Other visitors come by car. Some even come by bicycle. Some visit for just a few hours. Others take several days or weeks to enjoy the park. Many visitors come to Yosemite again and again. About four-million people visit the park every year. VOICE TWO: In the winter, heavy snow falls in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite. The snow usually begins to fall in the month of November. Heavy snow forces some of the roads into Yosemite to close during the winter months. The National Park Service works hard to keep most of the roads open. Drivers must use special care because of ice and snow on the roads. They enjoy a special beauty never seen by the summer visitors. Many winter visitors come to Yosemite to spend their time skiing at Badger Pass. Badger ski area is the oldest in California. It has a ski school for those who want to learn the exciting sport. Many visitors come to enjoy the park with its heavy coat of white snow. In some areas the snow is many meters deep. Some of the tall mountains keep their snow until the last hot days of summer. VOICE ONE: Whenever visitors come to Yosemite, they experience great natural beauty. A visit to the park provides lasting memories of what nature has produced. Most people who come to Yosemite usually bring a camera. They take many of pictures of the huge rocks, the beautiful Yosemite Valley, the waterfalls and the giant trees. But you do not really need a photograph to remember its great natural beauty. Yosemite will leave its image in your memory forever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yosemite National Park is a place of extremes. It has high mountains. It has valleys formed by ancient ice that cut deep into the Earth millions of years ago. Water from high in the mountains falls in many places to the green valley far below. There are thirteen beautiful waterfalls in Yosemite Valley. One of these waterfalls, Yosemite Falls, is the fifth highest on Earth. Up in the mountains are clear lakes, quick-moving small rivers, and huge formations of rock. One huge rock is called Half Dome. It rises more than two-thousand-seven-hundred meters into the air. Yosemite has a beautiful slow-moving river and large grassy areas where you can see wild animals. More than sixty kinds of animals live in the park. Deer are very common. You can see them almost everywhere. They have little fear of humans. You might even see a large black bear. You can also see two-hundred different kinds of birds. In a place called the Mariposa Grove, visitors can see some of the largest, tallest and oldest living things on Earth. These are the giant Sequoia Trees. One of these trees is called Grizzly Giant. It is more than one-thousand-eight-hundred years old. One tree is almost ninety-meters tall. Another is more than ten meters around. The huge old trees can make you feel very, very small. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the area that is Yosemite National Park begins about five-hundred-million years ago. The area then was at the bottom of an ancient sea. Scientists believe strong earthquakes forced the bottom of the sea to rise above the water. After millions of years, it was pushed up into the air to form land and mountains. At the same time, hot liquid rock from deep in the Earth pushed to the surface. This liquid rock slowly cooled. This cooling liquid formed a very hard rock known as granite. Many centuries of rain caused huge rivers to move violently through this area. Over time, these rivers cut deep into the new mountains. During the great Ice Age, millions of tons of ice cut and shaped the cooled granite to form giant rocks. Millions of years later these would become the giant rocks called Half Dome and El Capitan in Yosemite Park. VOICE ONE: Humans have lived in the area of Yosemite for more than four-thousand years. The people who first lived there were hunters. Most were members of a tribe of Native Americans called the Miwok. They lived in Yosemite Valley near the river. During the extremely cold winters, these people would move to lower, warmer areas. They would return when the winter months had passed. The first white Americans may have been hunters looking for fur animals. A famous American hunter and explorer named Joseph Walker passed through the area in the eighteen-thirties. He reported about the huge rock formations and said there was no way to reach the valley below. VOICE TWO: Citizens who had formed a military group were the first real modern explorers of the valley. They were at war with the local Indians and came into the valley. The white soldiers called the Indians Yosemites. The valley was named for the Indian tribe. Soon, reports of its great natural beauty were sent all the way back to Washington, D.C. In eighteen-sixty-four, a United States senator called for legislation to give the Yosemite Valley to the state of California as a public park. The legislation said the valley should be preserved and protected. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill after Congress approved it. This event was extremely important in the history of the United States. It was the first time that a government had approved a law to preserve and protect land because of its great beauty. The land was to be kept for the public to enjoy. Yosemite became the first state park. It was the first real park in the world. In eighteen-ninety, it became a national park. The National Park Service is responsible for the park today. It is preserved and protected for all people to enjoy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: No major roads lead to Yosemite National Park. Visitors must leave the highways and drive their cars over smaller roads. Yosemite is about three-hundred-twenty kilometers east of San Francisco. It is deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The roads leading to the park pass over lower parts of the huge mountains. Then the road goes lower and lower into the area of the park called Yosemite Valley. Visitors can stay in different kinds of places in Yosemite Park. Several beautiful old hotels have been built on the property. Some are very costly. Others cost less. Many people bring temporary cloth homes called tents. It costs only a few dollars a day to place a tent in the approved areas. Visitors can walk through many areas in the beautiful valley and the mountains. These walking paths are called trails. The National Park Service has improved more than one-thousand-one-hundred kilometers of trails. It is fun to explore these trails. Some take only a few minutes to walk. Others can take several days to complete. VOICE TWO: People come from all over the world to climb one of the huge rock formations at Yosemite. The most famous of these is called El Capitan. People who climb it call it “El Cap.” Climbing El Cap is only for experts. This activity is called “hard rock climbing.” It is extremely difficult and can be very dangerous. A climber must have expert skill and great strength. The climb is straight up the face of a rock wall. Experts say it can take about three days to climb to the top of El Cap. The climbing is very slow. Climbers must look for cracks in the rock. They place their hands and feet in the cracks and then work their way up. They also use ropes and special equipment. From the bottom of the valley to the top of El Cap is about one-thousand-one-hundred meters. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the summer months, Yosemite Park is filled with visitors. Large buses bring people from San Francisco to spend the day. They leave San Francisco very early in the morning and arrive back late at night. They drive from one place to another to see Yosemite. Other visitors come by car. Some even come by bicycle. Some visit for just a few hours. Others take several days or weeks to enjoy the park. Many visitors come to Yosemite again and again. About four-million people visit the park every year. VOICE TWO: In the winter, heavy snow falls in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Yosemite. The snow usually begins to fall in the month of November. Heavy snow forces some of the roads into Yosemite to close during the winter months. The National Park Service works hard to keep most of the roads open. Drivers must use special care because of ice and snow on the roads. They enjoy a special beauty never seen by the summer visitors. Many winter visitors come to Yosemite to spend their time skiing at Badger Pass. Badger ski area is the oldest in California. It has a ski school for those who want to learn the exciting sport. Many visitors come to enjoy the park with its heavy coat of white snow. In some areas the snow is many meters deep. Some of the tall mountains keep their snow until the last hot days of summer. VOICE ONE: Whenever visitors come to Yosemite, they experience great natural beauty. A visit to the park provides lasting memories of what nature has produced. Most people who come to Yosemite usually bring a camera. They take many of pictures of the huge rocks, the beautiful Yosemite Valley, the waterfalls and the giant trees. But you do not really need a photograph to remember its great natural beauty. Yosemite will leave its image in your memory forever. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-20-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Lightning Safety
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 21, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. People who are hit by lightning and survive often have long-term effects. These may include memory loss, sleep disorders, muscle pain and depression. Experts tell people to seek the safety of a building or a hard-top vehicle any time they hear thunder, even if it is not raining. They say lightning can strike as far as sixteen kilometers from any rainfall. Lightning can travel sideways. And at least ten percent of lightning happens without any clouds overhead that you can see. People who are outdoors should make sure they are not the tallest thing around. Bend low to the ground, but do not lie down. And do not stand near a tree or any tall object. Get away from water and anything made of metal. A car is safe, but do not touch any metal inside. Safety experts say people in buildings should stay away from anything with wires or pipes that lead to the outside. The National Weather Service says if you plan to disconnect any electronic equipment, do so before the storm arrives. Do not use a wired telephone. Do not use water. All these can carry electricity. Some people think a person struck by lighting carries an electrical charge afterward. Experts say this is false. It is safe to begin emergency treatment. Each year about four-hundred people in the United States are struck by lightning. Last year forty-four people died. The average is close to seventy. The National Weather Service says that is more than are killed by severe storms. Lightning is a release of energy in the sky. So what causes it? During a storm, the normally neutral particles in clouds hit each other. They become electrically charged. As they flow toward each other, they form an electric spark of light. Some lightning is created within clouds. Some is created between clouds. And some is created when negative charges move down from the base of a cloud to meet positive charges rising from Earth. Lightning strikes carry one or more electrical discharges called strokes. The bright light seen in a flash of lightning is called a return stroke. Return strokes travel at the speed of light. They discharge about one hundred million volts of electricity. They heat the air to more than thirty-three thousand degrees Celsius. Air heated by return strokes expands and produces the sound of thunder. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmbermann. Broadcast: July 21, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. People who are hit by lightning and survive often have long-term effects. These may include memory loss, sleep disorders, muscle pain and depression. Experts tell people to seek the safety of a building or a hard-top vehicle any time they hear thunder, even if it is not raining. They say lightning can strike as far as sixteen kilometers from any rainfall. Lightning can travel sideways. And at least ten percent of lightning happens without any clouds overhead that you can see. People who are outdoors should make sure they are not the tallest thing around. Bend low to the ground, but do not lie down. And do not stand near a tree or any tall object. Get away from water and anything made of metal. A car is safe, but do not touch any metal inside. Safety experts say people in buildings should stay away from anything with wires or pipes that lead to the outside. The National Weather Service says if you plan to disconnect any electronic equipment, do so before the storm arrives. Do not use a wired telephone. Do not use water. All these can carry electricity. Some people think a person struck by lighting carries an electrical charge afterward. Experts say this is false. It is safe to begin emergency treatment. Each year about four-hundred people in the United States are struck by lightning. Last year forty-four people died. The average is close to seventy. The National Weather Service says that is more than are killed by severe storms. Lightning is a release of energy in the sky. So what causes it? During a storm, the normally neutral particles in clouds hit each other. They become electrically charged. As they flow toward each other, they form an electric spark of light. Some lightning is created within clouds. Some is created between clouds. And some is created when negative charges move down from the base of a cloud to meet positive charges rising from Earth. Lightning strikes carry one or more electrical discharges called strokes. The bright light seen in a flash of lightning is called a return stroke. Return strokes travel at the speed of light. They discharge about one hundred million volts of electricity. They heat the air to more than thirty-three thousand degrees Celsius. Air heated by return strokes expands and produces the sound of thunder. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmbermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Election of 1844
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 22, 2004 (MUSIC) Vice President John C. Calhoun Broadcast: July 22, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Once more, in the year eighteen-forty-three, Texas had become a major issue in American politics. President John Tyler wanted to make it a state in the Union. But his secretary of state, Daniel Webster, was cool toward the idea. Webster was a northerner and was opposed to having another slave state in the Union. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Once more, in the year eighteen-forty-three, Texas had become a major issue in American politics. President John Tyler wanted to make it a state in the Union. But his secretary of state, Daniel Webster, was cool toward the idea. Webster was a northerner and was opposed to having another slave state in the Union. Tyler needed Webster's political support and therefore did not push the issue. Then, Webster resigned. And the president appointed a southern supporter, Abel Upshur, as secretary of state. Four months after taking the job, Upshur began negotiations to bring Texas into the union. A few weeks before these negotiations were completed, Upshur was killed in an accident. Tyler was a Whig. But he made a Democrat -- John C. Calhoun -- his secretary of state. He did so for two reasons. Calhoun also wanted Texas in the Union. And Tyler, although he was a Whig, hoped that Calhoun might be able to get him nominated in eighteen-forty-four as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. VOICE TWO: Calhoun completed the talks that Upshur had begun. And the treaty with Texas was signed April twelfth, eighteen-forty-four. A few days later, a letter from Calhoun to the British minister in Washington was made public. The letter was Calhoun's answer to a British note saying that Britain wished to end slavery wherever it existed. Calhoun defended slavery in the American south. He said that what was called slavery was really a political institution necessary for the peace, safety, and economic strength of those states where it existed. Calhoun said that statehood for Texas was necessary to the peace and security of the United States. He said that ending slavery in Texas would be a danger to the American south and to the Union itself. VOICE ONE: Senator Henry Clay</b< Tyler needed Webster's political support and therefore did not push the issue. Then, Webster resigned. And the president appointed a southern supporter, Abel Upshur, as secretary of state. Four months after taking the job, Upshur began negotiations to bring Texas into the union. A few weeks before these negotiations were completed, Upshur was killed in an accident. Tyler was a Whig. But he made a Democrat -- John C. Calhoun -- his secretary of state. He did so for two reasons. Calhoun also wanted Texas in the Union. And Tyler, although he was a Whig, hoped that Calhoun might be able to get him nominated in eighteen-forty-four as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. VOICE TWO: Calhoun completed the talks that Upshur had begun. And the treaty with Texas was signed April twelfth, eighteen-forty-four. A few days later, a letter from Calhoun to the British minister in Washington was made public. The letter was Calhoun's answer to a British note saying that Britain wished to end slavery wherever it existed. Calhoun defended slavery in the American south. He said that what was called slavery was really a political institution necessary for the peace, safety, and economic strength of those states where it existed. Calhoun said that statehood for Texas was necessary to the peace and security of the United States. He said that ending slavery in Texas would be a danger to the American south and to the Union itself. VOICE ONE: Calhoun made it seem that the United States wanted Texas -- not because of some great national interest -- but only to protect slavery in the south. The letter created great opposition to Texas statehood in the north. People called on their senators to vote against the acceptance of Texas. President Tyler sent the treaty with Texas to the Senate on April twenty-second, eighteen-forty-four. This was just nine days before the Whig party opened its national convention in Baltimore. Everybody was sure that the Whigs would choose Senator Henry Clay as their presidential candidate. Clay had been working hard for the nomination for more than two years. The Democrats were to hold their convention a month later. Former President Martin Van Buren was the choice of most Democrats. VOICE TWO: Both Clay and Van Buren opposed statehood for Texas. Clay said it would lead to war with Mexico. Van Buren agreed. As expected, Clay was chosen as the Whig Party's candidate for president. But Van Buren was given a surprise. The Democrats adopted a rule that their candidate must receive at least two-thirds of the votes...one-hundred and seventy-seven of the two-hundred and sixty-six delegates to the convention. Van Buren won a majority of the votes...one-hundred and forty-six. But that was not enough. The convention voted again. But Van Buren still fell short of the necessary two-thirds. The delegates voted again and again without giving Van Buren the number he needed. After a time, Van Buren began to lose votes. None of the names nominated seemed able to win the necessary two-thirds. At last, another name was proposed: James K. Polk. Polk was at one time governor of Tennessee and Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was a supporter of statehood for Texas. VOICE ONE: The convention delegates voted for the eighth time. Polk got only forty-four votes. Then they voted again. This time, polk received all two-hundred sixty-six votes. Senator Silas Wright of New York was chosen as candidate for the vice-presidency. But he refused to accept, because he did not support making Texas a state. The Democrats then chose Senator George Dallas of Pennsylvania. Two other parties offered candidates in the eighteen-forty-four elections. President Tyler formed a party of his supporters and government workers. They met and nominated him for president. A fourth group, the Liberty Party, was organized by northeastern Abolitionists after the Democratic and Whig parties refused to oppose slavery. Representatives from six states met at Albany, New York. They chose James Birney for president. VOICE TWO: President James Polk Calhoun made it seem that the United States wanted Texas -- not because of some great national interest -- but only to protect slavery in the south. The letter created great opposition to Texas statehood in the north. People called on their senators to vote against the acceptance of Texas. President Tyler sent the treaty with Texas to the Senate on April twenty-second, eighteen-forty-four. This was just nine days before the Whig party opened its national convention in Baltimore. Everybody was sure that the Whigs would choose Senator Henry Clay as their presidential candidate. Clay had been working hard for the nomination for more than two years. The Democrats were to hold their convention a month later. Former President Martin Van Buren was the choice of most Democrats. VOICE TWO: Both Clay and Van Buren opposed statehood for Texas. Clay said it would lead to war with Mexico. Van Buren agreed. As expected, Clay was chosen as the Whig Party's candidate for president. But Van Buren was given a surprise. The Democrats adopted a rule that their candidate must receive at least two-thirds of the votes...one-hundred and seventy-seven of the two-hundred and sixty-six delegates to the convention. Van Buren won a majority of the votes...one-hundred and forty-six. But that was not enough. The convention voted again. But Van Buren still fell short of the necessary two-thirds. The delegates voted again and again without giving Van Buren the number he needed. After a time, Van Buren began to lose votes. None of the names nominated seemed able to win the necessary two-thirds. At last, another name was proposed: James K. Polk. Polk was at one time governor of Tennessee and Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was a supporter of statehood for Texas. VOICE ONE: The convention delegates voted for the eighth time. Polk got only forty-four votes. Then they voted again. This time, polk received all two-hundred sixty-six votes. Senator Silas Wright of New York was chosen as candidate for the vice-presidency. But he refused to accept, because he did not support making Texas a state. The Democrats then chose Senator George Dallas of Pennsylvania. Two other parties offered candidates in the eighteen-forty-four elections. President Tyler formed a party of his supporters and government workers. They met and nominated him for president. A fourth group, the Liberty Party, was organized by northeastern Abolitionists after the Democratic and Whig parties refused to oppose slavery. Representatives from six states met at Albany, New York. They chose James Birney for president. VOICE TWO: Texas was the chief issue of the eighteen-forty-four campaign. President Tyler had sent the treaty with Texas to the Senate for approval. The Senate received it just one week after the democratic convention. Those senators who had supported Martin Van Buren were still bitter over the party's failure to nominate him as its candidate. They joined with the Whigs to defeat the treaty: thirty-five to sixteen. Tyler still hoped to get statehood for Texas. James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, also campaigned on promises to get Texas for the United States. The Whig candidate, Henry Clay, at first opposed statehood for Texas. But this position began to cost him support in the south. Then he said statehood might be possible if most of the people wanted it. This satisfied the slave owners of the south who wanted Texas in the Union as a slave state. Clay angered many people in the north because he softened his opposition to Texas. Some of these began supporting the Liberty Party candidate, James Birney. The Democrats were able to get President Tyler to withdraw as a candidate. They told him that he would take votes from the Democrats and might make Clay president. Wild campaign charges were made against both Polk and Clay. Clay was called a gambler, a duelist, a man of dishonest deals. Stories were told about Clay's use of strong language and his love of card games. Whig newspapers reported that a traveler saw a group of slaves being sold in Tennessee. Burned into the skin of each of the slaves, the papers said, were the letters j-k-p. The initials of James K. Polk. The election was very close. Two-million seven-hundred-thousand people voted. Polk received only thirty-eight-thousand votes more than Clay. But Polk got one-hundred-seventy electoral votes. Clay got only one-hundred-five. VOICE ONE: The election was really decided in New York state. Clay lost the state's thirty-six electoral votes. But he did so by just fifty-one-hundred votes. He might have won the state had not James Birney received more than fifteen-thousand votes in New York. President Tyler believed Polk's victory showed that the American people wanted statehood for Texas. But he knew that he could never get the Senate's approval of a Texas statehood treaty. It would take two-thirds of the Senate vote to do so. So Tyler proposed other action to make Texas a state. When Congress met in December, he proposed that Texas be given statehood through a joint resolution by both the House and Senate. Such a resolution needed only a simple majority for approval. A resolution calling for the annexation of Texas was passed by the house in January, eighteen-forty-five, and by the Senate on February twenty-seventh. Tyler signed the bill on March first...just three days before he stepped down as president. VOICE TWO: The resolution invited Texas to join the Union as a state. It gave Texas the right to split itself into as many as four more states when its population was large enough. Texas could keep its public lands. But it had to pay its own debts. And Texas could enter the Union as a slave state. The Mexican minister to Washington protested the resolution. He called it an act of aggression against his country. He demanded his passport and returned to Mexico. Britain and France tried to prevent Texas from becoming a state. They got Mexico to agree to recognize Texas independence, but only if Texas would not join the United States. VOICE ONE: Texas thus had two choices. It could become a state in the United States. Or it could continue as a republic with its independence recognized by Mexico. The Texas Congress chose statehood. President Polk looked even farther to the west for more new territory. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Texas was the chief issue of the eighteen-forty-four campaign. President Tyler had sent the treaty with Texas to the Senate for approval. The Senate received it just one week after the democratic convention. Those senators who had supported Martin Van Buren were still bitter over the party's failure to nominate him as its candidate. They joined with the Whigs to defeat the treaty: thirty-five to sixteen. Tyler still hoped to get statehood for Texas. James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, also campaigned on promises to get Texas for the United States. The Whig candidate, Henry Clay, at first opposed statehood for Texas. But this position began to cost him support in the south. Then he said statehood might be possible if most of the people wanted it. This satisfied the slave owners of the south who wanted Texas in the Union as a slave state. Clay angered many people in the north because he softened his opposition to Texas. Some of these began supporting the Liberty Party candidate, James Birney. The Democrats were able to get President Tyler to withdraw as a candidate. They told him that he would take votes from the Democrats and might make Clay president. Wild campaign charges were made against both Polk and Clay. Clay was called a gambler, a duelist, a man of dishonest deals. Stories were told about Clay's use of strong language and his love of card games. Whig newspapers reported that a traveler saw a group of slaves being sold in Tennessee. Burned into the skin of each of the slaves, the papers said, were the letters j-k-p. The initials of James K. Polk. The election was very close. Two-million seven-hundred-thousand people voted. Polk received only thirty-eight-thousand votes more than Clay. But Polk got one-hundred-seventy electoral votes. Clay got only one-hundred-five. VOICE ONE: The election was really decided in New York state. Clay lost the state's thirty-six electoral votes. But he did so by just fifty-one-hundred votes. He might have won the state had not James Birney received more than fifteen-thousand votes in New York. President Tyler believed Polk's victory showed that the American people wanted statehood for Texas. But he knew that he could never get the Senate's approval of a Texas statehood treaty. It would take two-thirds of the Senate vote to do so. So Tyler proposed other action to make Texas a state. When Congress met in December, he proposed that Texas be given statehood through a joint resolution by both the House and Senate. Such a resolution needed only a simple majority for approval. A resolution calling for the annexation of Texas was passed by the house in January, eighteen-forty-five, and by the Senate on February twenty-seventh. Tyler signed the bill on March first...just three days before he stepped down as president. VOICE TWO: The resolution invited Texas to join the Union as a state. It gave Texas the right to split itself into as many as four more states when its population was large enough. Texas could keep its public lands. But it had to pay its own debts. And Texas could enter the Union as a slave state. The Mexican minister to Washington protested the resolution. He called it an act of aggression against his country. He demanded his passport and returned to Mexico. Britain and France tried to prevent Texas from becoming a state. They got Mexico to agree to recognize Texas independence, but only if Texas would not join the United States. VOICE ONE: Texas thus had two choices. It could become a state in the United States. Or it could continue as a republic with its independence recognized by Mexico. The Texas Congress chose statehood. President Polk looked even farther to the west for more new territory. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and Maurice Joyce. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Summer School in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Recently we discussed the idea of year-round schools. Students do not get a long break from classes during the hot summer months. Instead, they get shorter breaks throughout the year. Not very many schools in the United States do this. But other schools that are not year-round do often have summer programs. In many cases, students take summer classes to repeat a subject they failed. This way they get a second chance to succeed. But schools also offer summer classes to students who want to be free of a required class during the next school year. Generally, students in these classes want to take fewer subjects during the year because they are involved in a lot of activities. They might be involved in sports or music programs. Or both -- and more. These summer school students do the same amount of work as if they took the class during the school year. But they do it in a much shorter time, one to two months. They say it makes for a lot of reading and homework and not much time for anything else. Some education experts are worried about high school students who take summer school because of pressure to attend a top university. The New York Times recently reported about summer classes at one of the best high schools in the United States. New Trier High School is in Winnetka, Illinois. Almost six hundred students are in school this summer. Only twenty are repeating classes that they failed. The others are in difficult courses like physics and honors history. The students say taking classes like these in the summer means that they can take even more difficult classes next year. They say this shows colleges not only that they are serious about their studies. It also shows that they have experienced the most difficult high school program possible. Another place with a lot of students in summer school is Palo Alto, California. The Mercury News reported that about twenty percent of the students in the city schools are in class this summer. That is more than two thousand teen-agers. A third are in classes they failed before. The others are taking subjects they do not have time for during the normal school year. But they are not taking subjects like physics and history. The students in Palo Alto are in classes like creative writing, film studies, literature and cooking. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: July 22, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Recently we discussed the idea of year-round schools. Students do not get a long break from classes during the hot summer months. Instead, they get shorter breaks throughout the year. Not very many schools in the United States do this. But other schools that are not year-round do often have summer programs. In many cases, students take summer classes to repeat a subject they failed. This way they get a second chance to succeed. But schools also offer summer classes to students who want to be free of a required class during the next school year. Generally, students in these classes want to take fewer subjects during the year because they are involved in a lot of activities. They might be involved in sports or music programs. Or both -- and more. These summer school students do the same amount of work as if they took the class during the school year. But they do it in a much shorter time, one to two months. They say it makes for a lot of reading and homework and not much time for anything else. Some education experts are worried about high school students who take summer school because of pressure to attend a top university. The New York Times recently reported about summer classes at one of the best high schools in the United States. New Trier High School is in Winnetka, Illinois. Almost six hundred students are in school this summer. Only twenty are repeating classes that they failed. The others are in difficult courses like physics and honors history. The students say taking classes like these in the summer means that they can take even more difficult classes next year. They say this shows colleges not only that they are serious about their studies. It also shows that they have experienced the most difficult high school program possible. Another place with a lot of students in summer school is Palo Alto, California. The Mercury News reported that about twenty percent of the students in the city schools are in class this summer. That is more than two thousand teen-agers. A third are in classes they failed before. The others are taking subjects they do not have time for during the normal school year. But they are not taking subjects like physics and history. The students in Palo Alto are in classes like creative writing, film studies, literature and cooking. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 22, 2004 - Infowalker
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a new way to walk through the Web. RS: Infowalker is a free computer program available on the Internet. It's called a browser companion, and the focus is on foreign-language learners, children and the visually impaired. It reads Web pages out loud, finds pictures to illustrate words, and translates text into or out of English. BOB MYERS: "At the moment we have Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian. But we do have plans to expand that list of languages in the near future." AA: Bob Myers is founder of a software company in West Hollywood, California, called Naturally Open. Infowalker is its first product. Bob Myers calls it a better way to browse the Web, though it's not meant for pages with lots of graphics and without much text. BOB MYERS: "There are also a large number of Web pages which are basically huge masses of text. And those are really the pages that Infowalker is trying to help people read better, translate better." AA: "I liked the way you could speed up or slow down the rate of speech, to help a little bit with the understanding, and there's also a selection of three different voices you can [use] -- a female voice, a couple of male voices." BOB MYERS: "The voices are, of course, computer-generated voices. And in some cases -- I hope none of your listeners try to learn English pronunciation by listening to those voices, because they'll end up sounding like a computer voice." AA: "It wasn't that bad." BOB MYERS: "It's not that bad, yes." AA: "You've also got the feature where it will look for pictures related to key terms on the page that's being read. It was kind of funny to see the photos that it would pull up to illustrate the texts." BOB MYERS: "Right. This is a feature where Infowalker, when you point it to a sentence, will automatically go into the sentence and identify keywords within the sentence which it thinks represent the important concepts in that sentence. And then based on those keywords, it goes out onto the Internet and automatically finds a picture which represents those concepts it identified. And it shows that picture to you also in the little Infowalker window in the lower right hand corner of your screen." AA: "Although I must point out that in some cases the photos had absolutely nothing -- or at least didn't seem to have anything to do with the sentence. But other photos certainly did. It helped illustrate what it was reading." BOB MYERS: "There's a new feature which we have added in the version which we are going to be releasing actually in just a few days which I think will partially solve that problem. What it lets you do is instead of only working on a sentence-by-sentence basis, it actually lets you select specific text within anywhere on the Web page. And then it does all the same things that Infowalker does now, which is it can translate that text, put up an image about that text, speak the text aloud." RS: "Now this is a free service." BOB MYERS: "This is absolutely free. It's not shareware that you're expected to pay something for later. The way we make our money is that, as your users will see if they download this product, there's a small, non-intrusive line which displays an advertisement. Which actually in some cases is useful, and people may want to click through and see what the advertisement is about." RS: "So what are your expectations for this product?" BOB MYERS: "The vision that I have is that Infowalker could become an integral part of the browsing process for many different kinds of people. I certainly think that includes foreign language learners. I think it also includes visually impaired people; another feature of Infowalker is that it can display text in large type, which is useful obviously for the visually impaired. I think it has a potential market in the educational area and also among children, especially using this automated ability to illustrate the sentence or phrase that you selected." AA: And it's not just groups like these that Bob Myers thinks can benefit. He says Infowalker is a useful tool for general Web searching. So where can you download it? RS: You can go directly to his company's Web site at naturallyopen.com/infowalker. Or you can also link from our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address here is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast: July 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a new way to walk through the Web. RS: Infowalker is a free computer program available on the Internet. It's called a browser companion, and the focus is on foreign-language learners, children and the visually impaired. It reads Web pages out loud, finds pictures to illustrate words, and translates text into or out of English. BOB MYERS: "At the moment we have Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian. But we do have plans to expand that list of languages in the near future." AA: Bob Myers is founder of a software company in West Hollywood, California, called Naturally Open. Infowalker is its first product. Bob Myers calls it a better way to browse the Web, though it's not meant for pages with lots of graphics and without much text. BOB MYERS: "There are also a large number of Web pages which are basically huge masses of text. And those are really the pages that Infowalker is trying to help people read better, translate better." AA: "I liked the way you could speed up or slow down the rate of speech, to help a little bit with the understanding, and there's also a selection of three different voices you can [use] -- a female voice, a couple of male voices." BOB MYERS: "The voices are, of course, computer-generated voices. And in some cases -- I hope none of your listeners try to learn English pronunciation by listening to those voices, because they'll end up sounding like a computer voice." AA: "It wasn't that bad." BOB MYERS: "It's not that bad, yes." AA: "You've also got the feature where it will look for pictures related to key terms on the page that's being read. It was kind of funny to see the photos that it would pull up to illustrate the texts." BOB MYERS: "Right. This is a feature where Infowalker, when you point it to a sentence, will automatically go into the sentence and identify keywords within the sentence which it thinks represent the important concepts in that sentence. And then based on those keywords, it goes out onto the Internet and automatically finds a picture which represents those concepts it identified. And it shows that picture to you also in the little Infowalker window in the lower right hand corner of your screen." AA: "Although I must point out that in some cases the photos had absolutely nothing -- or at least didn't seem to have anything to do with the sentence. But other photos certainly did. It helped illustrate what it was reading." BOB MYERS: "There's a new feature which we have added in the version which we are going to be releasing actually in just a few days which I think will partially solve that problem. What it lets you do is instead of only working on a sentence-by-sentence basis, it actually lets you select specific text within anywhere on the Web page. And then it does all the same things that Infowalker does now, which is it can translate that text, put up an image about that text, speak the text aloud." RS: "Now this is a free service." BOB MYERS: "This is absolutely free. It's not shareware that you're expected to pay something for later. The way we make our money is that, as your users will see if they download this product, there's a small, non-intrusive line which displays an advertisement. Which actually in some cases is useful, and people may want to click through and see what the advertisement is about." RS: "So what are your expectations for this product?" BOB MYERS: "The vision that I have is that Infowalker could become an integral part of the browsing process for many different kinds of people. I certainly think that includes foreign language learners. I think it also includes visually impaired people; another feature of Infowalker is that it can display text in large type, which is useful obviously for the visually impaired. I think it has a potential market in the educational area and also among children, especially using this automated ability to illustrate the sentence or phrase that you selected." AA: And it's not just groups like these that Bob Myers thinks can benefit. He says Infowalker is a useful tool for general Web searching. So where can you download it? RS: You can go directly to his company's Web site at naturallyopen.com/infowalker. Or you can also link from our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address here is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Women In Golf / American Political Parties / Phish Breaks Up
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 23, 2004 (THEME) Party Animals Broadcast: July 23, 2004 (THEME) Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: some music from the band called Phish. And a listener wants to know about American political parties. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: some music from the band called Phish. And a listener wants to know about American political parties. But first, we report about some young and successful American women golfers. Women In Golf A fourteen-year-old girl from Hawaii is making big news in women’s golf. Some people think Michelle Wie [pronounced wee] is not only good enough to compete with professional women golfers. They think she is good enough to compete with the men, too. Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: This year, Michele Wie finished thirteenth in the United States Women’s Open golf competition. She had the same score as another young non-professional player, seventeen-year-old Paula Creamer. Michele Wie is one of the young players who is changing women’s golf. The only difference is that she is the youngest. A year ago, she became the youngest player to win a United States Golf Association championship. She won the United States Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. That competition decides the best non-professional player who is not a member of a private golf club. At the time, she was only thirteen years old. At the Public Links Championship this year, Michele Wie lost in the final to Taiwanese player Ya-Ni Tseng. But Michele has a lot to look forward to. She was the youngest player to be permitted to play in the United States Women’s Open. And she will be back next year because of her finish in the top twenty. Michele wants to compete with professional male golfers. Her father says she wants to compete in the two-thousand-five Men’s United States Open. Michele has already played in a men’s professional event, the Sony Open in Hawaii. She came within one shot of entering in the second level of the competition. This means she played better than many professional male players. Some sports writers say the number of skilled young players in women’s golf has increased. They say younger players started affecting the game a few years ago. South Korean player Se Ri Pak won the United States Women’s Open and the Ladies Professional Golf Association Championship in nineteen-ninety-eight. She was only nineteen years old. But older players are still doing well. At the recent Women’s United States Open, Meg Mallon scored eleven shots better than the two young players, Michele Wie and Paula Creamer. But that should not be too much of a surprise. Meg Mallon started playing professional golf before either of those young ladies was born. Major American Political Parties DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jordan. Mohamed Issa Amer All Dan asks about the establishment of the two major political parties in the United States. This is a good time to answer that question. The Democratic Party will hold its presidential nominating convention next week in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts. At the convention, the Democratic Party will officially nominate Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as its presidential candidate. The vice-presidential candidate will be North Carolina Senator John Edwards. The Democratic Party is the older of the two major American political parties. Thomas Jefferson founded the party in seventeen-ninety-two. It was first called the Democratic-Republican Party. Thomas Jefferson was the first member of the party to be elected President, in eighteen-hundred. In eighteen-forty-four, the party changed its name to the Democratic Party. Democrats today say their party became an important force in American politics in the nineteen-hundreds. They say the party represents the idea that government should be used to help solve social problems. They also say the party supports equal opportunity for all citizens – the chance for everyone to succeed. The Republican Party began in the early eighteen-fifties as a result of efforts by anti-slavery activists and others. They wanted the government to give western lands to settlers free of charge. Delegates to the party’s first official meeting in eighteen-fifty-four chose the name Republican for two reasons. It suggested the idea of equal rights for all. And it led people to think of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. The Republicans became a national party in eighteen-fifty-six when they nominated John Fremont as presidential candidate. He did not win. But four years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican President. Republicans today say their party was responsible for banning slavery, guaranteeing all Americans equal legal protections and giving African-Americans voting rights. They also say it played a leading part in giving women the right to vote. The Republican Party says its members believe that citizens, not government, can make the best decisions. The Republican Party nominating convention will begin in New York City at the end of August. The party’s nominees will be President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. Phish Breaks Up DOUG JOHNSON: The popular band Phish is breaking up after twenty years together. Gwen Outen has more about the band, spelled P-H-I-S-H. GWEN OUTEN: Critics say that people are either greatly affected by the group’s decision to quit, or are not affected at all. That is because Phish was not really interested in recording. The four members of the group were more interested in becoming great musicians. They loved to perform and just wanted to play music. Here is an example, the song “Maze.” (MUSIC) Most people who like Phish’s music are about thirty years old or younger. Many follow the band from city to city. They enjoy the group’s concerts and also trade recordings of the shows. Here is a more recent Phish song, “Forty-Six Days”: (MUSIC) Phish is now performing in many American cities on its final tour. Reports say that all the tickets to the band’s final two shows next month are already sold. About seventy-thousand people will attend the final concert August fifteenth in the band’s home state of Vermont. We leave you now with the song that some Phish fans say truly shows what the group is all about. It is called “You Enjoy Myself.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. But first, we report about some young and successful American women golfers. Women In Golf A fourteen-year-old girl from Hawaii is making big news in women’s golf. Some people think Michelle Wie [pronounced wee] is not only good enough to compete with professional women golfers. They think she is good enough to compete with the men, too. Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: This year, Michele Wie finished thirteenth in the United States Women’s Open golf competition. She had the same score as another young non-professional player, seventeen-year-old Paula Creamer. Michele Wie is one of the young players who is changing women’s golf. The only difference is that she is the youngest. A year ago, she became the youngest player to win a United States Golf Association championship. She won the United States Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. That competition decides the best non-professional player who is not a member of a private golf club. At the time, she was only thirteen years old. At the Public Links Championship this year, Michele Wie lost in the final to Taiwanese player Ya-Ni Tseng. But Michele has a lot to look forward to. She was the youngest player to be permitted to play in the United States Women’s Open. And she will be back next year because of her finish in the top twenty. Michele wants to compete with professional male golfers. Her father says she wants to compete in the two-thousand-five Men’s United States Open. Michele has already played in a men’s professional event, the Sony Open in Hawaii. She came within one shot of entering in the second level of the competition. This means she played better than many professional male players. Some sports writers say the number of skilled young players in women’s golf has increased. They say younger players started affecting the game a few years ago. South Korean player Se Ri Pak won the United States Women’s Open and the Ladies Professional Golf Association Championship in nineteen-ninety-eight. She was only nineteen years old. But older players are still doing well. At the recent Women’s United States Open, Meg Mallon scored eleven shots better than the two young players, Michele Wie and Paula Creamer. But that should not be too much of a surprise. Meg Mallon started playing professional golf before either of those young ladies was born. Major American Political Parties DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jordan. Mohamed Issa Amer All Dan asks about the establishment of the two major political parties in the United States. This is a good time to answer that question. The Democratic Party will hold its presidential nominating convention next week in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts. At the convention, the Democratic Party will officially nominate Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as its presidential candidate. The vice-presidential candidate will be North Carolina Senator John Edwards. The Democratic Party is the older of the two major American political parties. Thomas Jefferson founded the party in seventeen-ninety-two. It was first called the Democratic-Republican Party. Thomas Jefferson was the first member of the party to be elected President, in eighteen-hundred. In eighteen-forty-four, the party changed its name to the Democratic Party. Democrats today say their party became an important force in American politics in the nineteen-hundreds. They say the party represents the idea that government should be used to help solve social problems. They also say the party supports equal opportunity for all citizens – the chance for everyone to succeed. The Republican Party began in the early eighteen-fifties as a result of efforts by anti-slavery activists and others. They wanted the government to give western lands to settlers free of charge. Delegates to the party’s first official meeting in eighteen-fifty-four chose the name Republican for two reasons. It suggested the idea of equal rights for all. And it led people to think of Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. The Republicans became a national party in eighteen-fifty-six when they nominated John Fremont as presidential candidate. He did not win. But four years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican President. Republicans today say their party was responsible for banning slavery, guaranteeing all Americans equal legal protections and giving African-Americans voting rights. They also say it played a leading part in giving women the right to vote. The Republican Party says its members believe that citizens, not government, can make the best decisions. The Republican Party nominating convention will begin in New York City at the end of August. The party’s nominees will be President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. Phish Breaks Up DOUG JOHNSON: The popular band Phish is breaking up after twenty years together. Gwen Outen has more about the band, spelled P-H-I-S-H. GWEN OUTEN: Critics say that people are either greatly affected by the group’s decision to quit, or are not affected at all. That is because Phish was not really interested in recording. The four members of the group were more interested in becoming great musicians. They loved to perform and just wanted to play music. Here is an example, the song “Maze.” (MUSIC) Most people who like Phish’s music are about thirty years old or younger. Many follow the band from city to city. They enjoy the group’s concerts and also trade recordings of the shows. Here is a more recent Phish song, “Forty-Six Days”: (MUSIC) Phish is now performing in many American cities on its final tour. Reports say that all the tickets to the band’s final two shows next month are already sold. About seventy-thousand people will attend the final concert August fifteenth in the band’s home state of Vermont. We leave you now with the song that some Phish fans say truly shows what the group is all about. It is called “You Enjoy Myself.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Morgan Stanley, Boeing Settle Sex-Discrimination Cases / Martha Stewart's Sentence
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 23, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Recently we told you about the accusations of unequal pay and treatment of female employees at Wal-Mart stores. That case is still early in the legal process, and the company is fighting it. But last week there were settlements in two other sex-discrimination cases. One involves the aircraft maker Boeing. The other involves the financial services company Morgan Stanley. Settlements avoid a trial. Morgan Stanley reached a fifty-four-million dollar settlement with a federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The two sides completed negotiations just before a jury in New York City was to hear evidence. The commission made its case on the experience of a former employee in the Morgan Stanley investment bank. Allison Schieffelin lost her job in two-thousand. She will receive twelve million dollars from the settlement. Forty million dollars is to go to pay other claims. This money could be divided among as many as three-hundred-forty women. Morgan Stanley also agreed to spend two million dollars for programs to support job development for women. But Morgan Stanley denied the accusations. The company says it has "at all times treated its women employees fairly and equitably." Boeing could pay as much as seventy-three million dollars in a settlement approved by a federal judge in Seattle. Lawyers negotiated the deal for as many as twenty-nine-thousand women who are current or former employees. Boeing avoided a trial in May when it announced an agreement in a class action lawsuit. Details were secret until last week. Final court approval is still needed. Boeing has denied wrongdoing. But it agreed to change its rules, to make sure women get equal pay and the same chance at higher paying jobs as men. Many women also reported cases of insulting treatment by male workers and supervisors. Finally, we told you about the legal troubles for Martha Stewart, the businesswoman famous for home design advice. She was found guilty in March of lying about the sale of a personal stock investment. Last week a judge sentenced her to five months in jail. But he suspended that while she appeals. Share prices in her company increased on the news that she got the shortest possible sentence. Her financial advisor received the same sentence. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - 9/11 Commission Report
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 24, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9-11 Commission, gave its final report Thursday. The document is almost six hundred pages. It follows twenty months of investigation into what went wrong on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, and how to prevent future attacks. The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission said they came together to present the report "without dissent." By agreement, copies are being sold through bookstores. The report can be read free of charge on the Internet. Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton presented the report to President Bush. Mister Bush said he looked forward to studying what he called "some very constructive recommendations" by the commission. The attacks killed three-thousand people. Al-Qaida hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the military headquarters at the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after a rebellion by passengers. Chairman Kean, in public comments, said the United States government was not active enough in dealing with the terrorist threat. He said the commission cannot say whether any measures would have prevented the attacks. But Mister Kean said the Clinton and Bush administrations must share blame for not recognizing the threat. The commission found what it called a "failure of imagination." It says agencies failed to share information and made mistakes. It says they missed ten chances to discover the plot. It also criticized Congress for poor supervision of intelligence gathering. The report calls for the appointment of a national intelligence director and the creation of a new national anti-terrorism center. It calls for changes in immigration policies in an effort to keep terrorists out of the country. And it says the United States needs to do more through its foreign policy to reach out to moderate Muslims around the world. The commission said it found no proof that Iraq cooperated with al-Qaida in any attacks against the United States. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. But the commission said it found no evidence of Saudi government involvement. Still, it said the United States must face problems with Saudi Arabia and, in its words, "build a relationship beyond oil." The commission said the United States continues to face one of the greatest security threats in its history. It called for urgent action on its proposals. In Congress, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he would ask for hearings over the next several months to consider possible legislation. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: July 24, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9-11 Commission, gave its final report Thursday. The document is almost six hundred pages. It follows twenty months of investigation into what went wrong on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, and how to prevent future attacks. The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission said they came together to present the report "without dissent." By agreement, copies are being sold through bookstores. The report can be read free of charge on the Internet. Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton presented the report to President Bush. Mister Bush said he looked forward to studying what he called "some very constructive recommendations" by the commission. The attacks killed three-thousand people. Al-Qaida hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center in New York and the military headquarters at the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after a rebellion by passengers. Chairman Kean, in public comments, said the United States government was not active enough in dealing with the terrorist threat. He said the commission cannot say whether any measures would have prevented the attacks. But Mister Kean said the Clinton and Bush administrations must share blame for not recognizing the threat. The commission found what it called a "failure of imagination." It says agencies failed to share information and made mistakes. It says they missed ten chances to discover the plot. It also criticized Congress for poor supervision of intelligence gathering. The report calls for the appointment of a national intelligence director and the creation of a new national anti-terrorism center. It calls for changes in immigration policies in an effort to keep terrorists out of the country. And it says the United States needs to do more through its foreign policy to reach out to moderate Muslims around the world. The commission said it found no proof that Iraq cooperated with al-Qaida in any attacks against the United States. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. But the commission said it found no evidence of Saudi government involvement. Still, it said the United States must face problems with Saudi Arabia and, in its words, "build a relationship beyond oil." The commission said the United States continues to face one of the greatest security threats in its history. It called for urgent action on its proposals. In Congress, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he would ask for hearings over the next several months to consider possible legislation. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Barbara Jordan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 25, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: July 25, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a woman who worked to make a difference in people’s lives, Barbara Jordan. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a woman who worked to make a difference in people’s lives, Barbara Jordan. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Barbara Jordan was a lawyer, educator and member of Congress. She was well-known for her powerful, thoughtful speeches. During her long political career, Barbara Jordan worked for social change. She sought to use her political influence to make a difference for all Americans. Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Congress to represent Texas. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, she gained national recognition as a member of the congressional committee investigating President Richard Nixon. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Barbara Charline Jordan was born in the southern city of Houston, Texas in Nineteen-Thirty-Six. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her father was a Baptist minister. He taught her a love of family, faith, music and language. As a child, Barbara’s parents pushed her to succeed. Barbara Jordan said her parents would criticize her for not speaking correct English. They urged her to become a music teacher, because they said that was the only good job for a black woman at that time. Her sisters did become music teachers. Barbara Jordan, however, explained later that she wanted to be something unusual. At first she thought about being a pharmacist, a scientist who is an expert in medicines. But, she noted, she never heard of an important pharmacist. VOICE ONE: In high school, Barbara heard a black woman lawyer speak. Mizz Jordan decided to become a lawyer. She attended the all-black college, Texas Southern University in Houston. She led a championship debating team and became known for her speaking skills. She finished at the top of her class. Then she went onto Boston University law school in Boston, Massachusetts. After she finished law school, Mizz Jordan returned to Texas. She began to work as a lawyer. She also discovered she was interested in politics. Her interest began when she helped in a presidential campaign. She worked to help get Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy elected in Nineteen-Sixty. VOICE TWO: Soon, Mizz Jordan decided to become a politician herself. She first campaigned for public office in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. She wanted to become a member of the Texas House of Representatives. She lost that election, and another election two years later. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, she decided to seek a seat in the Texas Senate. She won. Barbara Jordan became the first black person to serve in the Texas Senate since Eighteen-Eighty-Three. During her years as a Texas lawmaker, Mizz Jordan proposed and helped pass legislation dealing with social change. She helped reform public assistance programs and protect workers' wages. She also opposed legislation that would have made it harder for blacks and Latin Americans to vote. VOICE ONE: After eight years in the Texas Senate, Mizz Jordan campaigned for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. She won easily. She was the first woman and first black to be elected to Congress to represent Texas. In Congress, Mizz Jordan spoke for the poor, for women, for African-Americans and Latin Americans. She believed strongly, however, in being loyal to her state and her political party. She considered the interests of the people of Texas before those of any other group. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, Congresswoman Jordan was a member of the House Judiciary committee. The committee was investigating evidence of wrongdoing by then President Richard Nixon. The Congressional hearings into the situation known as Watergate were broadcast on national television. During the Watergate hearings, Mizz Jordan declared her strong belief in the United States Constitution. She denounced President Nixon for violating it. She is remembered still for her commanding presentation at the hearing and deep knowledge of constitutional issues. The Watergate hearings that led to President Nixon’s resignation made Barbara Jordan known around the nation. VOICE ONE: Following the Watergate hearings, Barbara Jordan went on to other firsts. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she was asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention which nominated Jimmy Carter. Mizz Jordan was the first black woman to give an opening speech at the Democratic Convention. She said members of the Democratic party believe that the people are the basis of all governmental power. Democrats believe, she continued, that the power of the people is to be extended, not restricted. In her speech, Mizz Jordan also urged Americans to work for the common good: (JORDAN) "Many fear the future. Many are distrustful of their leaders and believe that their voices are never heard. Many seek only to satisfy their private wants, to satisfy their private interests. But this is the great danger America faces -- that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups, each seeking to satisfy private wants. If that happens, who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?" VOICE TWO: The fact she was black and a woman did not seem to slow Barbara Jordan's rise. Her future seemed limitless. Then, in Nineteen-Seventy-Seven, Mizz Jordan suddenly announced she was retiring from Congress and returning to Texas. She later said she felt she was not making enough difference. (JORDAN) "If I felt that I could have been increasingly effective in that job, I suppose I would have continued to do it. But politics is (takes) a long, long time to make any significant, long-lasting difference." VOICE ONE: After returning to Texas, Barbara Jordan began teaching about political values at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. Her two classes were so popular, students had to be chosen from a long list. At the time that Mizz Jordan left Congress, there were widespread reports that failing health was the cause for her decision. Later, it was announced that she had the disease called multiple sclerosis that affects the muscles. She had to move about in a wheelchair. But, she said, the disease did not lessen her thinking or the quality of her mind. Nor did it affect her ability to speak. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the years after she retired from Congress, Mizz Jordan made two more appearances at Democratic National Conventions. She announced her support for the vice-presidential nomination of Lloyd Bentsen at the Nineteen-Eighty-Eight convention in Atlanta. She spoke from a wheelchair. Her powerful voice was heard once again at the Nineteen-Ninety-Two Democratic convention, which nominated Bill Clinton for president. In her speech, she called for national unity: (JORDAN) "We are one, we Americans, we're one, and we reject any intruder who seeks to divide us on the basis of race and color. We honor cultural identity--we always have, we always will. But, separatism is not allowed (applause)--separatism is not the American way. We must not allow ideas like political correctness to divide us and cause us to reverse hard-won achievements in human rights and civil rights." VOICE ONE: Barbara Jordan considered herself a teacher first, above all else. By her example, she taught all Americans about the importance of one's beliefs and the power of truth. She developed pneumonia caused by the blood cancer, leukemia, and died January Eighteenth, Nineteen-Ninety-Six. She was fifty-nine. VOICE TWO: Barbara Jordan was buried wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest non-military honor given to Americans. President Clinton presented it to her in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. At the funeral ceremony, former Texas Governor Ann Richards said: "There was simply something about her that made you proud to be part of the country that produced her." (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. (THEME) (THEME) VOICE ONE: Barbara Jordan was a lawyer, educator and member of Congress. She was well-known for her powerful, thoughtful speeches. During her long political career, Barbara Jordan worked for social change. She sought to use her political influence to make a difference for all Americans. Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to be elected to the United States Congress to represent Texas. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, she gained national recognition as a member of the congressional committee investigating President Richard Nixon. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Barbara Charline Jordan was born in the southern city of Houston, Texas in Nineteen-Thirty-Six. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her father was a Baptist minister. He taught her a love of family, faith, music and language. As a child, Barbara’s parents pushed her to succeed. Barbara Jordan said her parents would criticize her for not speaking correct English. They urged her to become a music teacher, because they said that was the only good job for a black woman at that time. Her sisters did become music teachers. Barbara Jordan, however, explained later that she wanted to be something unusual. At first she thought about being a pharmacist, a scientist who is an expert in medicines. But, she noted, she never heard of an important pharmacist. VOICE ONE: In high school, Barbara heard a black woman lawyer speak. Mizz Jordan decided to become a lawyer. She attended the all-black college, Texas Southern University in Houston. She led a championship debating team and became known for her speaking skills. She finished at the top of her class. Then she went onto Boston University law school in Boston, Massachusetts. After she finished law school, Mizz Jordan returned to Texas. She began to work as a lawyer. She also discovered she was interested in politics. Her interest began when she helped in a presidential campaign. She worked to help get Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy elected in Nineteen-Sixty. VOICE TWO: Soon, Mizz Jordan decided to become a politician herself. She first campaigned for public office in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. She wanted to become a member of the Texas House of Representatives. She lost that election, and another election two years later. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, she decided to seek a seat in the Texas Senate. She won. Barbara Jordan became the first black person to serve in the Texas Senate since Eighteen-Eighty-Three. During her years as a Texas lawmaker, Mizz Jordan proposed and helped pass legislation dealing with social change. She helped reform public assistance programs and protect workers' wages. She also opposed legislation that would have made it harder for blacks and Latin Americans to vote. VOICE ONE: After eight years in the Texas Senate, Mizz Jordan campaigned for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. She won easily. She was the first woman and first black to be elected to Congress to represent Texas. In Congress, Mizz Jordan spoke for the poor, for women, for African-Americans and Latin Americans. She believed strongly, however, in being loyal to her state and her political party. She considered the interests of the people of Texas before those of any other group. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, Congresswoman Jordan was a member of the House Judiciary committee. The committee was investigating evidence of wrongdoing by then President Richard Nixon. The Congressional hearings into the situation known as Watergate were broadcast on national television. During the Watergate hearings, Mizz Jordan declared her strong belief in the United States Constitution. She denounced President Nixon for violating it. She is remembered still for her commanding presentation at the hearing and deep knowledge of constitutional issues. The Watergate hearings that led to President Nixon’s resignation made Barbara Jordan known around the nation. VOICE ONE: Following the Watergate hearings, Barbara Jordan went on to other firsts. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she was asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention which nominated Jimmy Carter. Mizz Jordan was the first black woman to give an opening speech at the Democratic Convention. She said members of the Democratic party believe that the people are the basis of all governmental power. Democrats believe, she continued, that the power of the people is to be extended, not restricted. In her speech, Mizz Jordan also urged Americans to work for the common good: (JORDAN) "Many fear the future. Many are distrustful of their leaders and believe that their voices are never heard. Many seek only to satisfy their private wants, to satisfy their private interests. But this is the great danger America faces -- that we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups, each seeking to satisfy private wants. If that happens, who then will speak for America? Who then will speak for the common good?" VOICE TWO: The fact she was black and a woman did not seem to slow Barbara Jordan's rise. Her future seemed limitless. Then, in Nineteen-Seventy-Seven, Mizz Jordan suddenly announced she was retiring from Congress and returning to Texas. She later said she felt she was not making enough difference. (JORDAN) "If I felt that I could have been increasingly effective in that job, I suppose I would have continued to do it. But politics is (takes) a long, long time to make any significant, long-lasting difference." VOICE ONE: After returning to Texas, Barbara Jordan began teaching about political values at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin. Her two classes were so popular, students had to be chosen from a long list. At the time that Mizz Jordan left Congress, there were widespread reports that failing health was the cause for her decision. Later, it was announced that she had the disease called multiple sclerosis that affects the muscles. She had to move about in a wheelchair. But, she said, the disease did not lessen her thinking or the quality of her mind. Nor did it affect her ability to speak. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the years after she retired from Congress, Mizz Jordan made two more appearances at Democratic National Conventions. She announced her support for the vice-presidential nomination of Lloyd Bentsen at the Nineteen-Eighty-Eight convention in Atlanta. She spoke from a wheelchair. Her powerful voice was heard once again at the Nineteen-Ninety-Two Democratic convention, which nominated Bill Clinton for president. In her speech, she called for national unity: (JORDAN) "We are one, we Americans, we're one, and we reject any intruder who seeks to divide us on the basis of race and color. We honor cultural identity--we always have, we always will. But, separatism is not allowed (applause)--separatism is not the American way. We must not allow ideas like political correctness to divide us and cause us to reverse hard-won achievements in human rights and civil rights." VOICE ONE: Barbara Jordan considered herself a teacher first, above all else. By her example, she taught all Americans about the importance of one's beliefs and the power of truth. She developed pneumonia caused by the blood cancer, leukemia, and died January Eighteenth, Nineteen-Ninety-Six. She was fifty-nine. VOICE TWO: Barbara Jordan was buried wearing the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is the highest non-military honor given to Americans. President Clinton presented it to her in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. At the funeral ceremony, former Texas Governor Ann Richards said: "There was simply something about her that made you proud to be part of the country that produced her." (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Boston and the Democratic National Convention
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 26, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 26, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We take you to Boston where the Democratic National Convention opens today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than four thousand delegates are in Boston for the Democratic convention. Thousands of other visitors are there to report on the events or just to watch. The convention will end Thursday night after Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts accepts the nomination for president. On Wednesday night, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is to accept the nomination for vice president. Other speakers this week will include former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and former vice president Al Gore. VOICE TWO: Boston is under heavy security against terrorist attacks during the Democratic convention. Republicans will meet in New York next month. They will officially nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for the general election in November. The national conventions are held in a different city every four years. They are a chance for the parties to show support for their candidates. But political experts say these events are less important than they once were. Candidates are now chosen through state nominating elections. In fact, the major television broadcasters do not show much of the conventions live anymore. They leave that to the news networks on cable television. For Boston, this is the city's first national convention of either major party. VOICE ONE: Boston seems a natural choice for a political convention. The city played an important part in the birth of the United States. And politics are an important part of Boston life. Boston is the state capital of Massachusetts and the largest city. More than three million people live in the greater Boston area. About five-hundred-ninety-thousand of them live in the city itself. Boston is a center of finance, education and music. And it is a major seaport. The city and nearby communities form the largest industrial center in the New England area of the Northeastern United States. Boston occupies about one-hundred-thirty-five square kilometers along the Atlantic coast. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. There are still narrow streets laid with red brick. But Boston is also modern. Major building and improvement projects in the nineteen-sixties and seventies gave the city some of its more current look. Boston has a number of neighborhoods that seem like cities in themselves. Some are Back Bay, North End, South Boston and Roxbury. American schoolchildren learn that Boston is the birthplace of the nation’s freedom. This is where the war that separated the American colonies from Britain began in seventeen-seventy-five. VOICE ONE: Today, lots of people put on their best walking shoes and follow the Freedom Trail in Boston. This trail is almost five kilometers long. It takes people to sixteen historical places. One of these is the Old North Church. A sign tells how lights placed at the top of the church warned American colonists that the British would soon attack. Also along the walk is the area where the Boston Massacre took place. In seventeen-seventy, British soldiers shot into a crowd and killed five colonists. The anger that followed helped fire the spirit that produced the American Revolution. From the Boston Freedom Trail you can also see the first public school in the United States. Students first attended Boston Latin School in sixteen-thirty-five. VOICE TWO: The Boston area is full of colleges and universities. Harvard, in nearby Cambridge, became the nation’s first college in sixteen-thirty-six. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also is in Cambridge. The city of Boston is home to many top medical centers along with Harvard Medical School. The city is also known for its museums and libraries. The Boston Public Library opened in eighteen-fifty-four as the first major free library in the country. Music lovers have the Boston Symphony. There is also the Boston Pops Orchestra. It performs popular and semi-classical music in the spring and summer. VOICE ONE: Downtown Boston contains a mix of tall modern office buildings, old factories and historic landmarks. Eighteen hectares of downtown is the park called Boston Common. Many people like to ride the boats that look like swans on the lake in the Public Gardens there. In the sixteen-hundreds, women accused of being witches were hanged on Boston Common. The same was true for members of the Quaker religion. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first people of Massachusetts were the Native Americans. In sixteen-thirty, Christians known as Puritans arrived from England to escape religious oppression. Many Puritans came from the English city of Boston. So that is what they named their new home. Boston is also known as "Bean Town." Beans were an important trade crop for the city in colonial days. In recent years, the population of Boston has changed. Many Hispanics and Asians have moved to the city. Boston also has a large African American population. Black people began to move there in large numbers from the Southern states after World War One ended in nineteen-eighteen. Many African Americans and Hispanics live in Roxbury, in the center of the city. Non-Hispanic whites are no longer a majority in Boston. But leaders of other groups say white Bostonians still control the city. VOICE ONE: Many people of Italian ancestry live in North End. This area is along the waterfront. Ships brought large numbers of immigrants to Boston from southern and eastern Europe between eighteen-eighty and nineteen-fourteen. Many Italians arrived to start a new life in America. The Irish population in Boston began to grow sharply in about eighteen-forty-five. Large numbers of people left Ireland when potato crop failures led to starvation. The traditional center of the Irish-American community in Boston is South Boston. People call it “Southie.” The children and grandchildren of the first Irish families in Boston became political leaders of the city. These included politicians like John Francis Fitzgerald. He was known as "Honey Fitz." He served two terms as mayor. One of his grandsons became a senator from Massachusetts. Then, in nineteen-sixty, that grandson was elected the thirty-fifth president of the United States. His name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. VOICE TWO: Another early Irish-American mayor in Boston served four terms in office. His name was James Michael Curley. He and Honey Fitz Fitzgerald strengthened the political power of the Irish. Today that tradition continues with politicians like Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. He, too, is a grandson of Honey Fitz Fitzgerald, and a brother of President Kennedy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The racial and ethnic mixture of people in Boston helps give life to the city. But it has also caused deep divisions over the years. In nineteen-seventy-four, a federal judge ruled that Boston school officials had illegally separated students by race. The judge ordered the city to transport students to different schools to create a balance between blacks and whites. Many white parents protested. Some threw rocks at buses that carried black students to white schools. VOICE TWO: Busing continues as a way to balance school populations around Boston. But efforts at racial balance failed. Many white families moved their children to private schools. Or they moved out of the city. Today only about fifteen percent of the students in the Boston public schools are white. A committee has been considering proposals about the future of busing. These include proposals for the first major changes in thirty years, to permit more students to attend schools close to home. VOICE ONE: As the capital city in Massachusetts, Boston is at the center of another civil rights issue these days. In May, Massachusetts became the first American state to permit same-sex marriage. Some people compare this to an act of rebellion that is one of the best known events in Boston history. In seventeen-seventy-three, colonists dressed as Indians threw shiploads of British tea into Boston Harbor. They did it to protest British taxes. American schoolchildren still learn about the event that will be known forever as the Boston Tea Party. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We take you to Boston where the Democratic National Convention opens today. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than four thousand delegates are in Boston for the Democratic convention. Thousands of other visitors are there to report on the events or just to watch. The convention will end Thursday night after Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts accepts the nomination for president. On Wednesday night, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is to accept the nomination for vice president. Other speakers this week will include former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and former vice president Al Gore. VOICE TWO: Boston is under heavy security against terrorist attacks during the Democratic convention. Republicans will meet in New York next month. They will officially nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for the general election in November. The national conventions are held in a different city every four years. They are a chance for the parties to show support for their candidates. But political experts say these events are less important than they once were. Candidates are now chosen through state nominating elections. In fact, the major television broadcasters do not show much of the conventions live anymore. They leave that to the news networks on cable television. For Boston, this is the city's first national convention of either major party. VOICE ONE: Boston seems a natural choice for a political convention. The city played an important part in the birth of the United States. And politics are an important part of Boston life. Boston is the state capital of Massachusetts and the largest city. More than three million people live in the greater Boston area. About five-hundred-ninety-thousand of them live in the city itself. Boston is a center of finance, education and music. And it is a major seaport. The city and nearby communities form the largest industrial center in the New England area of the Northeastern United States. Boston occupies about one-hundred-thirty-five square kilometers along the Atlantic coast. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States. There are still narrow streets laid with red brick. But Boston is also modern. Major building and improvement projects in the nineteen-sixties and seventies gave the city some of its more current look. Boston has a number of neighborhoods that seem like cities in themselves. Some are Back Bay, North End, South Boston and Roxbury. American schoolchildren learn that Boston is the birthplace of the nation’s freedom. This is where the war that separated the American colonies from Britain began in seventeen-seventy-five. VOICE ONE: Today, lots of people put on their best walking shoes and follow the Freedom Trail in Boston. This trail is almost five kilometers long. It takes people to sixteen historical places. One of these is the Old North Church. A sign tells how lights placed at the top of the church warned American colonists that the British would soon attack. Also along the walk is the area where the Boston Massacre took place. In seventeen-seventy, British soldiers shot into a crowd and killed five colonists. The anger that followed helped fire the spirit that produced the American Revolution. From the Boston Freedom Trail you can also see the first public school in the United States. Students first attended Boston Latin School in sixteen-thirty-five. VOICE TWO: The Boston area is full of colleges and universities. Harvard, in nearby Cambridge, became the nation’s first college in sixteen-thirty-six. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also is in Cambridge. The city of Boston is home to many top medical centers along with Harvard Medical School. The city is also known for its museums and libraries. The Boston Public Library opened in eighteen-fifty-four as the first major free library in the country. Music lovers have the Boston Symphony. There is also the Boston Pops Orchestra. It performs popular and semi-classical music in the spring and summer. VOICE ONE: Downtown Boston contains a mix of tall modern office buildings, old factories and historic landmarks. Eighteen hectares of downtown is the park called Boston Common. Many people like to ride the boats that look like swans on the lake in the Public Gardens there. In the sixteen-hundreds, women accused of being witches were hanged on Boston Common. The same was true for members of the Quaker religion. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first people of Massachusetts were the Native Americans. In sixteen-thirty, Christians known as Puritans arrived from England to escape religious oppression. Many Puritans came from the English city of Boston. So that is what they named their new home. Boston is also known as "Bean Town." Beans were an important trade crop for the city in colonial days. In recent years, the population of Boston has changed. Many Hispanics and Asians have moved to the city. Boston also has a large African American population. Black people began to move there in large numbers from the Southern states after World War One ended in nineteen-eighteen. Many African Americans and Hispanics live in Roxbury, in the center of the city. Non-Hispanic whites are no longer a majority in Boston. But leaders of other groups say white Bostonians still control the city. VOICE ONE: Many people of Italian ancestry live in North End. This area is along the waterfront. Ships brought large numbers of immigrants to Boston from southern and eastern Europe between eighteen-eighty and nineteen-fourteen. Many Italians arrived to start a new life in America. The Irish population in Boston began to grow sharply in about eighteen-forty-five. Large numbers of people left Ireland when potato crop failures led to starvation. The traditional center of the Irish-American community in Boston is South Boston. People call it “Southie.” The children and grandchildren of the first Irish families in Boston became political leaders of the city. These included politicians like John Francis Fitzgerald. He was known as "Honey Fitz." He served two terms as mayor. One of his grandsons became a senator from Massachusetts. Then, in nineteen-sixty, that grandson was elected the thirty-fifth president of the United States. His name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. VOICE TWO: Another early Irish-American mayor in Boston served four terms in office. His name was James Michael Curley. He and Honey Fitz Fitzgerald strengthened the political power of the Irish. Today that tradition continues with politicians like Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. He, too, is a grandson of Honey Fitz Fitzgerald, and a brother of President Kennedy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The racial and ethnic mixture of people in Boston helps give life to the city. But it has also caused deep divisions over the years. In nineteen-seventy-four, a federal judge ruled that Boston school officials had illegally separated students by race. The judge ordered the city to transport students to different schools to create a balance between blacks and whites. Many white parents protested. Some threw rocks at buses that carried black students to white schools. VOICE TWO: Busing continues as a way to balance school populations around Boston. But efforts at racial balance failed. Many white families moved their children to private schools. Or they moved out of the city. Today only about fifteen percent of the students in the Boston public schools are white. A committee has been considering proposals about the future of busing. These include proposals for the first major changes in thirty years, to permit more students to attend schools close to home. VOICE ONE: As the capital city in Massachusetts, Boston is at the center of another civil rights issue these days. In May, Massachusetts became the first American state to permit same-sex marriage. Some people compare this to an act of rebellion that is one of the best known events in Boston history. In seventeen-seventy-three, colonists dressed as Indians threw shiploads of British tea into Boston Harbor. They did it to protest British taxes. American schoolchildren still learn about the event that will be known forever as the Boston Tea Party. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Fighting Malaria, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 26, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. There was a lot of talk at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok about the Global Fund that finds money to fight AIDS. But that is not all it does. The full name is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This organization was created in two-thousand-one to find more money to attack all three of these deadly diseases. The Global Fund has offices in Geneva. But it does not have its own programs. It gives money to finance local efforts. Member countries of the Global Fund have agreed to spend more than five thousand million dollars through two-thousand-eight. Because of this support, there is now two times as much money to fight malaria as there was two years ago. Malaria kills more than one million people each year. Almost half of all people in the world live in countries where malaria is found. But ninety percent of the deaths are in Africa, mostly in children under five years old. Pregnant women are also at high risk. So are refugees. They often have little or no protection against the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Aid officials worry about the situation for the refugees from the Darfur area in western Sudan. Seasonal rains have begun. That will mean more mosquitoes. These insects lay their eggs in water. Many countries, though, have success stories to tell about their efforts to fight malaria. These include Malawi, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia. Progress often comes with the use of new medicines called artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT. Older medicines like chloroquine no longer cure many people with malaria. These medicines have been used for such a long time that the malaria parasite resists them. ACT mixes several medicines. Health officials say it is now the best way to fight malaria. But ACT costs about two dollars per treatment. That is a lot of money compared to the older medicines, which cost about ten cents. Last week, the United States Institute of Medicine called for a program to help pay for these new medicines. The proposed fund would seek as much as five hundred million dollars per year. This would come from rich countries and international aid organizations. Next week, learn what some countries are doing to fight malaria. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: July 26, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. There was a lot of talk at the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok about the Global Fund that finds money to fight AIDS. But that is not all it does. The full name is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This organization was created in two-thousand-one to find more money to attack all three of these deadly diseases. The Global Fund has offices in Geneva. But it does not have its own programs. It gives money to finance local efforts. Member countries of the Global Fund have agreed to spend more than five thousand million dollars through two-thousand-eight. Because of this support, there is now two times as much money to fight malaria as there was two years ago. Malaria kills more than one million people each year. Almost half of all people in the world live in countries where malaria is found. But ninety percent of the deaths are in Africa, mostly in children under five years old. Pregnant women are also at high risk. So are refugees. They often have little or no protection against the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Aid officials worry about the situation for the refugees from the Darfur area in western Sudan. Seasonal rains have begun. That will mean more mosquitoes. These insects lay their eggs in water. Many countries, though, have success stories to tell about their efforts to fight malaria. These include Malawi, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia. Progress often comes with the use of new medicines called artemisinin-based combination therapy, or ACT. Older medicines like chloroquine no longer cure many people with malaria. These medicines have been used for such a long time that the malaria parasite resists them. ACT mixes several medicines. Health officials say it is now the best way to fight malaria. But ACT costs about two dollars per treatment. That is a lot of money compared to the older medicines, which cost about ten cents. Last week, the United States Institute of Medicine called for a program to help pay for these new medicines. The proposed fund would seek as much as five hundred million dollars per year. This would come from rich countries and international aid organizations. Next week, learn what some countries are doing to fight malaria. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Gray Wolf in Eastern U.S. May Come Off Endangered List / U.S. States Could Get More Power to Build Roads in National Forests / Concerns About Underwater 'Dead Zones'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 27, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up this week: gray wolves in the eastern United States may come off the endangered list. VOICE ONE: Another proposal in Washington would give states more power to decide about road building in national forests. VOICE TWO: And, a report on underwater "dead zones." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Government scientists in the United States say populations of the eastern gray wolf have returned to healthy levels in several states. As a result, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service says the time has come to remove this animal from the list of endangered species. Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in nineteen-seventy-three. At that time, the population of eastern gray wolves was down to a few hundred in Minnesota and Michigan. Historically, the eastern gray wolf populated a large number of states, including the New England area of the Northeast. VOICE TWO: Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced the proposal to remove the eastern gray wolf from the endangered list. Placement on the list provides special protections for animals and plants at risk of going out of existence. A count in Minnesota in nineteen-ninety-eight reported more than two-thousand-four-hundred gray wolves. The government says Michigan and Wisconsin together have almost seven-hundred. Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin are in the Great Lakes area. Federal officials say all three states have plans in place to support the long-term survival of their gray wolf populations. These animals are also known as timber wolves because they live mainly in forests. VOICE ONE: The Fish and Wildlife Service will accept public comments until November on its proposed action. Criticism surfaced immediately. The Wolf Conservation Center in New York says the recovery is just beginning. That group says what has been gained in the numbers of eastern gray wolves could quickly be lost. An expert on wolf recovery from the National Wildlife Federation also denounced the proposal. Peggy Struhsacker says the plan would threaten efforts to return wolf populations in the northeastern states. She says wolves are needed there to help keep populations of the animals they hunt, like deer and moose, in balance. The action under the Endangered Species Act would only affect gray wolves in the eastern United States. Special protections would continue for populations of western and southwestern gray wolves. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. In January of two-thousand-one, President Bill Clinton signed a policy called the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. He signed it shortly before he left office. The rule made it illegal to build roads in about twenty-four million hectares of national forests. The goal was to restrain the cutting of trees by the wood products industry. The rule covered almost one-third of the national forest system. The government has faced legal action ever since the rule took effect. Timber companies argue that the rule is unfair and hurts business. A number of states also have gone to court. They say they should have more power to make decisions about forests within their states. Now the Clinton administration rule may be coming to the end of its road. VOICE ONE: This month, the Bush administration moved to replace the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman proposed a new rule. She made the announcement in Idaho, one of the states that have most strongly protested the current rule. Mizz Veneman said endless lawsuits do not represent progress for communities. She said the new rule she proposed would lead to more cooperation between state and federal officials. Most roadless areas in national forests are in the West. Twelve states contain ninety-seven percent of all the roadless areas in the national forests. The Agriculture Department says the proposed rule establishes a process for governors to work with the Forest Service. It says the purpose is to develop locally supported rules for conserving roadless areas. State governors could ask for areas to be kept roadless. They could also request permission to develop areas of national forests. VOICE TWO: Timber companies and leaders in several states praised the new proposal. Governor Dick Kempthorne of Idaho appeared with Mizz Veneman as she made the announcement. He said the proposal creates a process that honors the independence of states. Environmental defense groups have their own opinion of the proposed new rule. Tim Preso is a lawyer with Earthjustice. That organization is defending the Clinton administration rule in a number of cases. Mister Preso says national forests belong to all Americans. He says state governors should not be able to go against the people’s interest in protecting those forests. Americans have until September to comment on the proposed rule before a final version is published. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Dead zones" are areas of water starved of oxygen. These areas are produced by pollution or natural causes. The United Nations Environment Program says there are almost one-hundred-fifty dead zones in oceans and seas around the world. Dead zones return year after year. They often develop in deep water close to shore. Usually they are found in water that differs in temperature or salt content from surface to bottom. Normal numbers of fish may live near the surface of a dead zone. But deep down, the fish lack enough oxygen. They leave the dead zone if they can. Shellfish that cannot escape the zone fast enough can die. So may other creatures that live on the bottom of the sea. VOICE TWO: Experts say these dead zones are a threat to fish supplies and to the people who depend on them. Earlier this year the U.N. Environment Program released its first "Global Environment Outlook Year Book." It says oxygen-starved areas in coastal waters have been expanding since the nineteen-sixties. It says there are two times as many as there were in nineteen-ninety. The U.N. Environment Program says the causes of dead zones can differ from place to place around the world. The causes can include agricultural and human wastes and air pollution from the burning of fuel. VOICE ONE: One of the largest dead zones is in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana in the southern United States. Oxygen loss in the Gulf of Mexico can begin as early as February. And it can last until the middle of fall. Scientists say nitrogen carried into the Gulf of Mexico from agricultural lands is mainly responsible. One report says an area of about twenty thousand square kilometers in the Gulf is affected now. The Mississippi River carries freshwater into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi is the largest river in the United States. It passes by many agricultural areas. VOICE TWO: Nitrogen increases the growth of algae in water. Algae is a single-celled organism, a rootless green plant. But a lot of algae can make an ocean or lake look like a forest. When algae die, they fall to the ocean floor. Bacteria then eat the remains. These bacteria take most of the oxygen from the deepest levels. Federal environmental officials say pollution from drilling for oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico might worsen the dead zone. Gannett News Service reported this month that some permits for new drilling have been delayed because of these concerns. A three-year study of the issue is planned. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long.. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: July 27, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Coming up this week: gray wolves in the eastern United States may come off the endangered list. VOICE ONE: Another proposal in Washington would give states more power to decide about road building in national forests. VOICE TWO: And, a report on underwater "dead zones." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Government scientists in the United States say populations of the eastern gray wolf have returned to healthy levels in several states. As a result, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service says the time has come to remove this animal from the list of endangered species. Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in nineteen-seventy-three. At that time, the population of eastern gray wolves was down to a few hundred in Minnesota and Michigan. Historically, the eastern gray wolf populated a large number of states, including the New England area of the Northeast. VOICE TWO: Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced the proposal to remove the eastern gray wolf from the endangered list. Placement on the list provides special protections for animals and plants at risk of going out of existence. A count in Minnesota in nineteen-ninety-eight reported more than two-thousand-four-hundred gray wolves. The government says Michigan and Wisconsin together have almost seven-hundred. Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin are in the Great Lakes area. Federal officials say all three states have plans in place to support the long-term survival of their gray wolf populations. These animals are also known as timber wolves because they live mainly in forests. VOICE ONE: The Fish and Wildlife Service will accept public comments until November on its proposed action. Criticism surfaced immediately. The Wolf Conservation Center in New York says the recovery is just beginning. That group says what has been gained in the numbers of eastern gray wolves could quickly be lost. An expert on wolf recovery from the National Wildlife Federation also denounced the proposal. Peggy Struhsacker says the plan would threaten efforts to return wolf populations in the northeastern states. She says wolves are needed there to help keep populations of the animals they hunt, like deer and moose, in balance. The action under the Endangered Species Act would only affect gray wolves in the eastern United States. Special protections would continue for populations of western and southwestern gray wolves. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. In January of two-thousand-one, President Bill Clinton signed a policy called the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. He signed it shortly before he left office. The rule made it illegal to build roads in about twenty-four million hectares of national forests. The goal was to restrain the cutting of trees by the wood products industry. The rule covered almost one-third of the national forest system. The government has faced legal action ever since the rule took effect. Timber companies argue that the rule is unfair and hurts business. A number of states also have gone to court. They say they should have more power to make decisions about forests within their states. Now the Clinton administration rule may be coming to the end of its road. VOICE ONE: This month, the Bush administration moved to replace the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman proposed a new rule. She made the announcement in Idaho, one of the states that have most strongly protested the current rule. Mizz Veneman said endless lawsuits do not represent progress for communities. She said the new rule she proposed would lead to more cooperation between state and federal officials. Most roadless areas in national forests are in the West. Twelve states contain ninety-seven percent of all the roadless areas in the national forests. The Agriculture Department says the proposed rule establishes a process for governors to work with the Forest Service. It says the purpose is to develop locally supported rules for conserving roadless areas. State governors could ask for areas to be kept roadless. They could also request permission to develop areas of national forests. VOICE TWO: Timber companies and leaders in several states praised the new proposal. Governor Dick Kempthorne of Idaho appeared with Mizz Veneman as she made the announcement. He said the proposal creates a process that honors the independence of states. Environmental defense groups have their own opinion of the proposed new rule. Tim Preso is a lawyer with Earthjustice. That organization is defending the Clinton administration rule in a number of cases. Mister Preso says national forests belong to all Americans. He says state governors should not be able to go against the people’s interest in protecting those forests. Americans have until September to comment on the proposed rule before a final version is published. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Dead zones" are areas of water starved of oxygen. These areas are produced by pollution or natural causes. The United Nations Environment Program says there are almost one-hundred-fifty dead zones in oceans and seas around the world. Dead zones return year after year. They often develop in deep water close to shore. Usually they are found in water that differs in temperature or salt content from surface to bottom. Normal numbers of fish may live near the surface of a dead zone. But deep down, the fish lack enough oxygen. They leave the dead zone if they can. Shellfish that cannot escape the zone fast enough can die. So may other creatures that live on the bottom of the sea. VOICE TWO: Experts say these dead zones are a threat to fish supplies and to the people who depend on them. Earlier this year the U.N. Environment Program released its first "Global Environment Outlook Year Book." It says oxygen-starved areas in coastal waters have been expanding since the nineteen-sixties. It says there are two times as many as there were in nineteen-ninety. The U.N. Environment Program says the causes of dead zones can differ from place to place around the world. The causes can include agricultural and human wastes and air pollution from the burning of fuel. VOICE ONE: One of the largest dead zones is in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana in the southern United States. Oxygen loss in the Gulf of Mexico can begin as early as February. And it can last until the middle of fall. Scientists say nitrogen carried into the Gulf of Mexico from agricultural lands is mainly responsible. One report says an area of about twenty thousand square kilometers in the Gulf is affected now. The Mississippi River carries freshwater into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi is the largest river in the United States. It passes by many agricultural areas. VOICE TWO: Nitrogen increases the growth of algae in water. Algae is a single-celled organism, a rootless green plant. But a lot of algae can make an ocean or lake look like a forest. When algae die, they fall to the ocean floor. Bacteria then eat the remains. These bacteria take most of the oxygen from the deepest levels. Federal environmental officials say pollution from drilling for oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico might worsen the dead zone. Gannett News Service reported this month that some permits for new drilling have been delayed because of these concerns. A three-year study of the issue is planned. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long.. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Mulch
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 27, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Mulch is important to farmers. Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made out of organic material, like crop waste. Farmers may keep the remains of maize or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. This is called conservation tillage. Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Mulch not only protects the soil against wind and water damage. It also helps keep the soil wet and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing. Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil. The United States Department of Agriculture says it is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut-up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds. The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. Mulched areas usually warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down slowly in autumn. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil. Mulch used to help moderate the effects of winter weather can be added late in autumn. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals will probably find another place to live. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Hoover Dam
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 28, 2004 (MUSIC) Hoover Dam under construction Broadcast: July 28, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Hoover Dam. It was the largest and most difficult structure of its kind ever built when work started in nineteen-thirty-one. Power generators at Hoover Dam VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Hoover Dam. It was the largest and most difficult structure of its kind ever built when work started in nineteen-thirty-one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our report today about Hoover Dam must begin with the Colorado River. This river made the dam necessary. The Colorado River begins high in the Rocky Mountains. It begins slowly, during the dark months of winter. Heavy snow falls on the Rocky Mountains. The snow is so deep in some areas that it will stay on the ground well into the hot days of summer. But the snow does melt. Ice cold water travels down the mountains and forms several rivers -- the Gila River, the Green River, the Little Colorado, the San Juan, the Virgin and the Gunnison Rivers. These rivers link together and form the beginnings of the Colorado River. The Colorado River flows through or provides water for the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Then it crosses the border into Mexico. VOICE TWO: The Colorado River has always been extremely powerful. The river created the huge Grand Canyon. The violent water cut hundreds of meters deep into the desert floor of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is proof of the power of this great river. The Grand Canyon was cut into the desert floor beginning thousands of years ago. But the power of this river has been demonstrated in more modern times. Between nineteen-oh-five and nineteen-oh-seven, the Colorado River caused great amounts of flooding in parts of Arizona and California. Huge amounts of water ran into a low area in the dry, waterless desert that had once been an ancient lake. In two years of flooding, the Colorado River filled the ancient lake. That lake is called the Salton Sea. Today, it is about fifty-six kilometers long by twenty-five kilometers wide. It is even larger in years of heavy rain. VOICE ONE: The flooding that created the Salton Sea also flooded homes, towns and farming areas. Many people were forced to flee their homes. Government leaders knew they had to do something to prevent such floods in the future. In nineteen-eighteen, a man named Arthur Davis proposed building a dam to control the Colorado River. Mister Davis was a government engineer. He said the dam should be built in an area called Boulder Canyon on the border between the states of Arizona and Nevada. VOICE TWO: Building the dam would not be a simple matter. The people of seven states and the people of Mexico needed and used the water of the Colorado River. Much of that area is desert land. Water is extremely important. Without water from the Colorado River, farming is not possible. Without water, life in the desert is not possible. On November twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-two, officials signed a document in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That document is called the Colorado River Compact. The document tells how the seven states would share the water of the Colorado River. It was agreed this could be more easily done with the aid of a dam. Later an agreement was signed with Mexico to supply it with water from the Colorado River. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The area chosen for the dam was called Black Canyon. The walls of Black Canyon rise almost two-hundred-forty-three meters above the river. An ancient volcano formed the rock in Black Canyon. Engineers decided the rock would provide a good strong support for the proposed dam. However, the area also presented problems. The nearest railroad was sixty kilometers away. There was no electric power. And, in the summer, the temperature in the desert in Black Canyon could reach as high as forty-eight degrees Celsius. A great deal of work was done before operations started on the dam. Workers built a town called Boulder City to house employees working on the dam. They built a large road from Boulder City to the area of the dam. They built a railroad from a main line in Las Vegas, Nevada to Boulder City. They built another railroad from Boulder City to the dam area. And they built a three-hundred-fifty kilometer power line from San Bernadino, California. This provided electric power to the area where the dam was being built. VOICE TWO: The work on the dam began in April of nineteen-thirty-one. Workers called “high scalers” were some of the first to begin building the dam. They were suspended from ropes as they used heavy air-powered hammers to break any loose rock away from the face of the canyon walls. When they could not use hammers, they used dynamite. One high scaler became very famous. His name was Arnold Parks. He caught another worker who had fallen off the top of the canyon. Mister Parks held the worker to the wall of the canyon until others came to help. Today, visitors can see a statue of the men who worked as high scalers to build Hoover Dam. The high scalers worked on the sides of the canyon. Other workers dug huge tunnels deep in the floor of the canyon. This was done to permit the Colorado River to flow away from the construction area. This had to be done so the floor of the dam could be built. On June sixth, nineteen-thirty-three, workers poured the first load of a building material called concrete. Men in two special factories worked day and night to make the concrete building material for the dam. Huge equipment moved millions of tons of rock and sand. In the summer months, the terrible desert heat slowed the work but did not stop it. Men who worked at night on the dam suffered less, but the heat was still as high as thirty degrees Celsius. VOICE ONE: Slowly the great dam began to rise from the floor of the canyon. From the canyon floor it reaches two-hundred-twenty-one meters high. Workers poured the last of the concrete on May twenty-ninth, nineteen-thirty-five. They had used almost four-million cubic meters of concrete in the dam. Workers also used more than twenty-million kilograms of steel to strengthen the concrete in the dam. VOICE TWO: The work was dangerous for the more than five-thousand men who worked on the structure. The extreme temperatures, falling objects and heavy equipment caused accidents. The workers were provided with medical care and two emergency vehicles to take them to a new hospital in Boulder City. However, ninety-six men lost their lives during the building of the great dam. The companies building the dam had been given seven years to complete the work. They did it in only five. The dam was finished on March first, nineteen-thirty-six. Other work now began. This work would make the dam into one of the largest producers of electric power ever built. The dam was built to control the powerful Colorado River. But it was also meant to use the river to produce large amounts of electric power. Today, seventeen huge machines use the river’s power to produce electric power. The states of Arizona and Nevada share the power. So do many cities in California, including Los Angeles, Burbank, and Pasadena. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When the Hoover Dam was finished in nineteen-thirty-six, it was the largest dam in the world. It was also the tallest. And it was the largest power producer that used water power to make electricity. Today this is no longer true. Taller dams, larger dams and a few that produce more power have been created. But Hoover Dam is still a huge and interesting place. Visitors to Hoover Dam drive on a small road that passes Lake Mead. They enter a special visitor’s center to learn about the dam and the men who built it. They ride high-speed elevators that go deep inside the dam. They see the huge machines that produce electric power. Many visitors say they thought the name of the huge structure was Boulder Dam. They are told that Hoover Dam is often called Boulder Dam. However, it is named after former President Herbert Hoover. Before he was president, Mister Hoover worked for many years to make the construction of the dam possible. It was officially named to honor him in nineteen-forty-seven. Visitors leave the great dam with an understanding of how difficult the project was. They learn that it still safely controls the great Colorado River. And it also provides water and electric power to millions of people in the American southwest. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our report today about Hoover Dam must begin with the Colorado River. This river made the dam necessary. The Colorado River begins high in the Rocky Mountains. It begins slowly, during the dark months of winter. Heavy snow falls on the Rocky Mountains. The snow is so deep in some areas that it will stay on the ground well into the hot days of summer. But the snow does melt. Ice cold water travels down the mountains and forms several rivers -- the Gila River, the Green River, the Little Colorado, the San Juan, the Virgin and the Gunnison Rivers. These rivers link together and form the beginnings of the Colorado River. The Colorado River flows through or provides water for the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. Then it crosses the border into Mexico. VOICE TWO: The Colorado River has always been extremely powerful. The river created the huge Grand Canyon. The violent water cut hundreds of meters deep into the desert floor of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is proof of the power of this great river. The Grand Canyon was cut into the desert floor beginning thousands of years ago. But the power of this river has been demonstrated in more modern times. Between nineteen-oh-five and nineteen-oh-seven, the Colorado River caused great amounts of flooding in parts of Arizona and California. Huge amounts of water ran into a low area in the dry, waterless desert that had once been an ancient lake. In two years of flooding, the Colorado River filled the ancient lake. That lake is called the Salton Sea. Today, it is about fifty-six kilometers long by twenty-five kilometers wide. It is even larger in years of heavy rain. VOICE ONE: The flooding that created the Salton Sea also flooded homes, towns and farming areas. Many people were forced to flee their homes. Government leaders knew they had to do something to prevent such floods in the future. In nineteen-eighteen, a man named Arthur Davis proposed building a dam to control the Colorado River. Mister Davis was a government engineer. He said the dam should be built in an area called Boulder Canyon on the border between the states of Arizona and Nevada. VOICE TWO: Building the dam would not be a simple matter. The people of seven states and the people of Mexico needed and used the water of the Colorado River. Much of that area is desert land. Water is extremely important. Without water from the Colorado River, farming is not possible. Without water, life in the desert is not possible. On November twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-two, officials signed a document in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That document is called the Colorado River Compact. The document tells how the seven states would share the water of the Colorado River. It was agreed this could be more easily done with the aid of a dam. Later an agreement was signed with Mexico to supply it with water from the Colorado River. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The area chosen for the dam was called Black Canyon. The walls of Black Canyon rise almost two-hundred-forty-three meters above the river. An ancient volcano formed the rock in Black Canyon. Engineers decided the rock would provide a good strong support for the proposed dam. However, the area also presented problems. The nearest railroad was sixty kilometers away. There was no electric power. And, in the summer, the temperature in the desert in Black Canyon could reach as high as forty-eight degrees Celsius. A great deal of work was done before operations started on the dam. Workers built a town called Boulder City to house employees working on the dam. They built a large road from Boulder City to the area of the dam. They built a railroad from a main line in Las Vegas, Nevada to Boulder City. They built another railroad from Boulder City to the dam area. And they built a three-hundred-fifty kilometer power line from San Bernadino, California. This provided electric power to the area where the dam was being built. VOICE TWO: The work on the dam began in April of nineteen-thirty-one. Workers called “high scalers” were some of the first to begin building the dam. They were suspended from ropes as they used heavy air-powered hammers to break any loose rock away from the face of the canyon walls. When they could not use hammers, they used dynamite. One high scaler became very famous. His name was Arnold Parks. He caught another worker who had fallen off the top of the canyon. Mister Parks held the worker to the wall of the canyon until others came to help. Today, visitors can see a statue of the men who worked as high scalers to build Hoover Dam. The high scalers worked on the sides of the canyon. Other workers dug huge tunnels deep in the floor of the canyon. This was done to permit the Colorado River to flow away from the construction area. This had to be done so the floor of the dam could be built. On June sixth, nineteen-thirty-three, workers poured the first load of a building material called concrete. Men in two special factories worked day and night to make the concrete building material for the dam. Huge equipment moved millions of tons of rock and sand. In the summer months, the terrible desert heat slowed the work but did not stop it. Men who worked at night on the dam suffered less, but the heat was still as high as thirty degrees Celsius. VOICE ONE: Slowly the great dam began to rise from the floor of the canyon. From the canyon floor it reaches two-hundred-twenty-one meters high. Workers poured the last of the concrete on May twenty-ninth, nineteen-thirty-five. They had used almost four-million cubic meters of concrete in the dam. Workers also used more than twenty-million kilograms of steel to strengthen the concrete in the dam. VOICE TWO: The work was dangerous for the more than five-thousand men who worked on the structure. The extreme temperatures, falling objects and heavy equipment caused accidents. The workers were provided with medical care and two emergency vehicles to take them to a new hospital in Boulder City. However, ninety-six men lost their lives during the building of the great dam. The companies building the dam had been given seven years to complete the work. They did it in only five. The dam was finished on March first, nineteen-thirty-six. Other work now began. This work would make the dam into one of the largest producers of electric power ever built. The dam was built to control the powerful Colorado River. But it was also meant to use the river to produce large amounts of electric power. Today, seventeen huge machines use the river’s power to produce electric power. The states of Arizona and Nevada share the power. So do many cities in California, including Los Angeles, Burbank, and Pasadena. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When the Hoover Dam was finished in nineteen-thirty-six, it was the largest dam in the world. It was also the tallest. And it was the largest power producer that used water power to make electricity. Today this is no longer true. Taller dams, larger dams and a few that produce more power have been created. But Hoover Dam is still a huge and interesting place. Visitors to Hoover Dam drive on a small road that passes Lake Mead. They enter a special visitor’s center to learn about the dam and the men who built it. They ride high-speed elevators that go deep inside the dam. They see the huge machines that produce electric power. Many visitors say they thought the name of the huge structure was Boulder Dam. They are told that Hoover Dam is often called Boulder Dam. However, it is named after former President Herbert Hoover. Before he was president, Mister Hoover worked for many years to make the construction of the dam possible. It was officially named to honor him in nineteen-forty-seven. Visitors leave the great dam with an understanding of how difficult the project was. They learn that it still safely controls the great Colorado River. And it also provides water and electric power to millions of people in the American southwest. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-27-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Survival Rates for Heart Failure Increase
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 28, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Heart failure is a condition in which the heart cannot pump as much blood as the body needs. This condition can begin with a heart attack or high blood pressure. The heart becomes weakened. Over time, it loses the ability to pump blood. A sign of heart failure is breathing difficulty. But people often mistake that for just a sign of aging. In the United States, doctors say about five million people have this major cause of sickness and death. They say heart failure is the leading cause of hospital treatment for people age sixty-five and older. But these doctors say the problem of heart failure has yet to be fully investigated. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota did a study of the last twenty years. They expected to find that heart failure has become more common. Hospital admissions for heart failure have increased. But they found that the percentage of the population developing heart failure has not changed. Instead, survival rates have improved. People with the condition are living longer today than they were twenty years ago. But this means they are also living longer with the effects of the disease. So, they are being admitted to the hospital many more times than people in the past with heart failure. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. Doctor Veronique Roger [ro-ZHAY] led the study of about four-thousand-five-hundred people. These patients all first learned they had heart failure between nineteen-seventy-nine and two-thousand. The study found that the chances a person would still be alive after five years improved during that period. The doctors say the gains were mainly among men and younger people. They say there has been some progress against heart failure. More lives are being saved. But they say more work needs to be done to improve survival. Doctor Roger notes that men remain at higher risk for heart failure at a younger age than women. And both men and women still have about a fifty percent chance of dying from heart failure within five years of discovery. The doctor says better ways are also needed to treat long-term effects like breathing difficulty. That way patients could remain at home and avoid repeated visits to the hospital. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Polk, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 29, 2004 (MUSIC) President James Polk Broadcast: July 29, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, Texas in the eighteen-forties had become a major issue in American politics. Congress in eighteen-hundred-forty-five passed a resolution inviting Texas to join the Union as a state. President Tyler signed the bill on March first, just three days before he stepped down as president and James K. Polk moved into the White House. Britain and France tried to prevent Texas from becoming a state. They got Mexico to agree to recognize Texas independence, but only if Texas would not join the United States. Texas thus had two choices. It could become a state in the United States. Or it could continue as a republic, with its independence recognized by Mexico. The Texas Congress chose statehood. VOICE TWO: James Polk had campaigned for the presidency on two promises. He declared that he would make all of Texas and all of Oregon part of the United States. The people had elected Polk because they shared his belief that the United States should extend from sea to sea -- from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. They felt it was God's will, and their duty, to spread American democracy and freedom across the continent. In the words of poet Walt Whitman: "It is for the interest of mankind that America's power and territory should be extended...the farther, the better." VOICE ONE: Traders from New England were the first Americans to visit Oregon. They stopped on the Oregon coast to trade for animal skins. Later, American explorers Lewis and Clark crossed the Louisiana territory to reach Oregon. And in eighteen-hundred-eleven, John Jacob Astor built a fur trading center at the mouth of Oregon's Columbia River. British explorers had given Britain claims to the same territory. The British Hudson's Bay Company also built a trading center on the Columbia and claimed a large area north of it. The two countries could not agree on how to divide Oregon between them. Since there were few settlers in Oregon, Britain and the United States agreed to occupy the territory jointly. This system worked well until the eighteen-forties. Then, thousands of Americans began moving west to Oregon. The new settlers were not satisfied with the joint occupation agreement. They wanted all of Oregon to belong to the United States. VOICE TWO: President Polk said he thought the United States had strong claims to all of the territory. But he said he would compromise. He offered to divide Oregon at the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. All north of this line would belong to Britain. All south of it -- including the Columbia River -- would belong to the United States. The offer was given to Britain's minister in Washington. He rejected it, refusing even to send it to London. He said Britain would accept nothing but the Columbia River as the southern border of British Oregon. President Polk withdrew the offer. He said America had no choice but to claim all of Oregon. He used strong language and seemed to say that the United States would fight, if necessary, to defend its claim. VOICE ONE: Polk really did not want war. But he thought a strong position was necessary in negotiating with Britain. He said softer treatment only led to stronger demands from Britain. Polk asked Congress to give him permission to end the joint occupation agreement. It did so in the spring of eighteen-hundred-forty-six. In London, the British government decided that Oregon was not worth a war with the United States. It had demanded the Columbia River border because of the Hudson's Bay trading center on the river. The center had been moved farther north to Vancouver Island. So there was no real reason to continue this demand. The British foreign minister proposed a treaty that would make the forty-ninth parallel of latitude the border between the United States and British Oregon. The proposal was almost the same that President Polk had made earlier. VOICE TWO: Leaders in the western United States demanded that Polk reject the British offer. They wanted all of Oregon. Polk decided to let the Senate vote on the British proposal. The Senate accepted the treaty, and Polk signed it. The treaty made the forty-ninth parallel the border from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The southern border of the Oregon territory was the forty-second parallel. South of this was California. The United States, for some time, had wanted to buy California from Mexico. Former President Tyler had asked his minister to Mexico to try to buy California. The minister, Waddy Thompson, had been to California. He described it as the richest, the most beautiful, the healthiest country in the world. Thompson said the port of San Francisco was big enough to hold all the navies of the world. He said San Francisco, some day, would control the trade of all of the Pacific Ocean. VOICE ONE: There was little chance that Thompson could get California from Mexico. But then something happened that destroyed any chance of getting California peacefully. The commander of a United States navy force in the Pacific, Thomas Jones, received news that led him to believe the United States was at war with Mexico. He sailed to Monterey, the capital of California. The navy force arrived there in October, eighteen-hundred-forty-two. Jones and his men seized Monterey and held it for two days. He found he had made a mistake and returned the town to Mexican officials. Jones apologized. But his actions greatly angered Mexican leaders. They refused even to talk about selling California to the United States. VOICE TWO: Mexico broke relations with the United States when Congress approved statehood for Texas. Mexican officials had warned that Texas statehood would lead to war. After Polk became president, he sent a representative to Mexico to try to establish diplomatic relations again. A weak government was in power in Mexico, headed by President Jose Joaquin Herrera. Herrera at first agreed to meet with the American, John Slidell, to discuss four offers from President Polk. Earlier, Mexico had agreed to pay more than two-million dollars for damages claimed by Americans. But it did not have the money. Slidell was to offer to pay these claims if Mexico would accept the Rio Grande River as the border between Texas and Mexico. And America would pay Mexico five-million dollars for New Mexico and twenty-five-million more for California. If these offers were rejected, Slidell was to try to buy part of California for five-million dollars. VOICE ONE: Slidell arrived in Mexico city in December, eighteen-hundred-forty-five. The Mexican government had grown even weaker. And Herrera was afraid he would be forced from power if he met with the American diplomat. The Herrera government fell anyway. And the new Mexican government refused to talk with the American representative. Slidell returned to the United States, firm in the belief that only force could win the Mexican territories the United States wanted. President Polk shared Slidell's belief. He learned in January, eighteen-hundred-forty-six, that Mexico had refused to negotiate with his representative. Polk had wanted a peaceful settlement of the differences with Mexico. This now seemed impossible. Perhaps, he thought, a more forceful policy would Make Mexico negotiate. VOICE TWO: President Polk had sent several thousand American soldiers to Texas six months before, when Texas accepted statehood. This force, led by General Zachary Taylor, had camped near the town of Corpus Christi at the mouth of the Nueces River. Polk now ordered Taylor's soldiers to the Rio Grande River. He told them to stay on the north side of the river. Should Mexico attack, Taylor and his men were to strike back as hard as possible. General Taylor was glad to get his orders. For months, his men had been training at Corpus Christi. They were ready for action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Lew Roland. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, Texas in the eighteen-forties had become a major issue in American politics. Congress in eighteen-hundred-forty-five passed a resolution inviting Texas to join the Union as a state. President Tyler signed the bill on March first, just three days before he stepped down as president and James K. Polk moved into the White House. Britain and France tried to prevent Texas from becoming a state. They got Mexico to agree to recognize Texas independence, but only if Texas would not join the United States. Texas thus had two choices. It could become a state in the United States. Or it could continue as a republic, with its independence recognized by Mexico. The Texas Congress chose statehood. VOICE TWO: James Polk had campaigned for the presidency on two promises. He declared that he would make all of Texas and all of Oregon part of the United States. The people had elected Polk because they shared his belief that the United States should extend from sea to sea -- from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. They felt it was God's will, and their duty, to spread American democracy and freedom across the continent. In the words of poet Walt Whitman: "It is for the interest of mankind that America's power and territory should be extended...the farther, the better." VOICE ONE: Traders from New England were the first Americans to visit Oregon. They stopped on the Oregon coast to trade for animal skins. Later, American explorers Lewis and Clark crossed the Louisiana territory to reach Oregon. And in eighteen-hundred-eleven, John Jacob Astor built a fur trading center at the mouth of Oregon's Columbia River. British explorers had given Britain claims to the same territory. The British Hudson's Bay Company also built a trading center on the Columbia and claimed a large area north of it. The two countries could not agree on how to divide Oregon between them. Since there were few settlers in Oregon, Britain and the United States agreed to occupy the territory jointly. This system worked well until the eighteen-forties. Then, thousands of Americans began moving west to Oregon. The new settlers were not satisfied with the joint occupation agreement. They wanted all of Oregon to belong to the United States. VOICE TWO: President Polk said he thought the United States had strong claims to all of the territory. But he said he would compromise. He offered to divide Oregon at the forty-ninth parallel of latitude. All north of this line would belong to Britain. All south of it -- including the Columbia River -- would belong to the United States. The offer was given to Britain's minister in Washington. He rejected it, refusing even to send it to London. He said Britain would accept nothing but the Columbia River as the southern border of British Oregon. President Polk withdrew the offer. He said America had no choice but to claim all of Oregon. He used strong language and seemed to say that the United States would fight, if necessary, to defend its claim. VOICE ONE: Polk really did not want war. But he thought a strong position was necessary in negotiating with Britain. He said softer treatment only led to stronger demands from Britain. Polk asked Congress to give him permission to end the joint occupation agreement. It did so in the spring of eighteen-hundred-forty-six. In London, the British government decided that Oregon was not worth a war with the United States. It had demanded the Columbia River border because of the Hudson's Bay trading center on the river. The center had been moved farther north to Vancouver Island. So there was no real reason to continue this demand. The British foreign minister proposed a treaty that would make the forty-ninth parallel of latitude the border between the United States and British Oregon. The proposal was almost the same that President Polk had made earlier. VOICE TWO: Leaders in the western United States demanded that Polk reject the British offer. They wanted all of Oregon. Polk decided to let the Senate vote on the British proposal. The Senate accepted the treaty, and Polk signed it. The treaty made the forty-ninth parallel the border from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The southern border of the Oregon territory was the forty-second parallel. South of this was California. The United States, for some time, had wanted to buy California from Mexico. Former President Tyler had asked his minister to Mexico to try to buy California. The minister, Waddy Thompson, had been to California. He described it as the richest, the most beautiful, the healthiest country in the world. Thompson said the port of San Francisco was big enough to hold all the navies of the world. He said San Francisco, some day, would control the trade of all of the Pacific Ocean. VOICE ONE: There was little chance that Thompson could get California from Mexico. But then something happened that destroyed any chance of getting California peacefully. The commander of a United States navy force in the Pacific, Thomas Jones, received news that led him to believe the United States was at war with Mexico. He sailed to Monterey, the capital of California. The navy force arrived there in October, eighteen-hundred-forty-two. Jones and his men seized Monterey and held it for two days. He found he had made a mistake and returned the town to Mexican officials. Jones apologized. But his actions greatly angered Mexican leaders. They refused even to talk about selling California to the United States. VOICE TWO: Mexico broke relations with the United States when Congress approved statehood for Texas. Mexican officials had warned that Texas statehood would lead to war. After Polk became president, he sent a representative to Mexico to try to establish diplomatic relations again. A weak government was in power in Mexico, headed by President Jose Joaquin Herrera. Herrera at first agreed to meet with the American, John Slidell, to discuss four offers from President Polk. Earlier, Mexico had agreed to pay more than two-million dollars for damages claimed by Americans. But it did not have the money. Slidell was to offer to pay these claims if Mexico would accept the Rio Grande River as the border between Texas and Mexico. And America would pay Mexico five-million dollars for New Mexico and twenty-five-million more for California. If these offers were rejected, Slidell was to try to buy part of California for five-million dollars. VOICE ONE: Slidell arrived in Mexico city in December, eighteen-hundred-forty-five. The Mexican government had grown even weaker. And Herrera was afraid he would be forced from power if he met with the American diplomat. The Herrera government fell anyway. And the new Mexican government refused to talk with the American representative. Slidell returned to the United States, firm in the belief that only force could win the Mexican territories the United States wanted. President Polk shared Slidell's belief. He learned in January, eighteen-hundred-forty-six, that Mexico had refused to negotiate with his representative. Polk had wanted a peaceful settlement of the differences with Mexico. This now seemed impossible. Perhaps, he thought, a more forceful policy would Make Mexico negotiate. VOICE TWO: President Polk had sent several thousand American soldiers to Texas six months before, when Texas accepted statehood. This force, led by General Zachary Taylor, had camped near the town of Corpus Christi at the mouth of the Nueces River. Polk now ordered Taylor's soldiers to the Rio Grande River. He told them to stay on the north side of the river. Should Mexico attack, Taylor and his men were to strike back as hard as possible. General Taylor was glad to get his orders. For months, his men had been training at Corpus Christi. They were ready for action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Lew Roland. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Helping Poor Students Go to College
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 29, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. More than twenty years ago, a successful American businessman made a promise to a group of twelve-year-old students in New York City. Eugene Lang said he would pay the college costs for each student who stayed in high school and graduated. He urged the students to dream about their futures. And he promised to do all he could to help them reach their goals. The sixty-one students all came from families who were extremely poor. And Eugene Lang quickly realized that they needed more help than he alone could provide. So he hired a social worker and others to provide the students with services and support they would need. He called the effort the “I Have A Dream” program. Since then, the “I Have A Dream Foundation” has expanded to include more than thirteen-thousand students in twenty-seven states. Eugene Lang received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work helping young Americans who could not pay for a college education. Eugene Lang also wanted other successful Americans to provide similar help to poor students. One of these is George Weiss. In nineteeen-eighty-seven, he made the same promise to one-hundred-twelve young students in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Only twenty students from that group graduated from college. But Mister Weiss did not stop. He has started four similar programs in the past seventeen years. He calls his program “Say Yes To Education.” Now, Mister Weiss is beginning another such program for four-hundred students in five schools in New York City. The students are only five years old. Mister Weiss is providing twenty-million dollars for the effort. He is trying to get businesses to provide thirty-million dollars more. The twenty-million dollars will pay for the students’ college costs. The other money is needed to pay for help that will increase the chances that these children will finish high school. This help includes a reading teacher and social worker for each school, and extra summer and after-school programs. Mister Weiss says he has learned that poor families have many problems that block their children from higher education. And he says all his programs have been successful because they are helping young people become productive citizens. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 29, 2004 - Confusing Synonyms and Confounding Political Terms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 29, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a few questions from listeners that really call for a dictionary editor. RS: We called Peter Sokolowski, associate editor at the nation's oldest dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, for some help. AA: A listener by the name of Atefeh Aghaei asked about the meaning of the word “unconditional.” PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "It means absolute or unqualified. And in English, of course, there are always idioms associated with words. And unconditional love is one of the best of the idioms that come up very frequently with this word. But also it's used for unconditional surrender, and that was the famous phrase from 1945 at the end of the World War Two. And also most recently in the news we see unconditional release, meaning the release of prisoners without their being harmed." RS: "In this one, this next one, what the listener wants to know is the difference between festival and carnival." PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Festival really comes from the word feast, from the Latin, feast meaning a holy day, a holy feast. And carnival comes from the Latin 'carne levare' which means to raise or to remove meat, and that's the time before Easter called Lent where you abstain from eating meat. And it's interesting that the end of Lent is, of course, the feast of Easter. "So what's interesting is these two words are sort of wrapped up together. The basic way to distinguish these words is that festival is much more general. You can use festival to say folk festival, arts festival, film festival, whereas there are two very specific senses of carnival. One is that pre-Lenten festival or celebration that we mentioned. The other is sort of an enterprise or place where there are amusements. And in America they might be traveling carnivals, something that would come from town to town and have maybe a carousel or I think of a lot of cotton candy and, uh ... " AA: "And if you eat too much of that cotton candy, you might get sick. Or ill." PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Or ill.” AA: "Which brings us to our next question, from Alibek Suyumov, who wants to know, 'Could you please tell me what the difference is between the words sick and ill.'" PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Sick and ill. You know, that's a great question. Again, two words that basically mean bad health, but just like festival and carnival, one of them is a little bit more general than the other, and in this case it's sick. We have many idioms in English that refer to bad health that aren't referring to a specific ailment or a specific disease. Like we would say 'I've been worried sick about you,' meaning that I'm very worried about you. 'I'm sick and tired of this.' And when someone talks about being ill, often it's a little bit more clinical or a little bit more technical. We say mentally ill or we say gravely ill, and it sounds a little bit more specific. "Now there are secondary uses that are not quite so synonymous between sick and ill. In the case of sick, you could say 'that was a sick joke' or 'he has a sick sense of humor' or 'he's a very sick person,' which means he's disturbed or abnormal or maybe has a sense of humor that we don't approve of. It can mean mean, as in unfriendly. But with the word ill, you have the notion of ill will, which also means unfriendly. Or ill omen means unlucky." RS: "Or ill-advised." PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Ill-advised, exactly. These are very specifically bad things." AA: But there was something specifically good about talking to a dictionary editor this week, with the Democratic convention in Boston. We wondered if any political terms in the news have sent people to the free dictionary online at webster.com. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "You know, one of the big words that is looked up frequently is democracy, because it's an abstract concept and it's something that folks need to sometimes remind themselves, and it's a word that is looked up quite frequently. One word that is very high this week is blog, and blog, of course, means a Web log, or a sort of journal kept on the Internet. "And this is the first political convention to which many folks who maintain blogs, or bloggers as they're called, have been invited as journalists to record the events. So that word is very high on our list, and I'm very sorry to say it's such a new word it's not quite in our dictionary yet. [Laughter] But another word that came up is incumbent. Also the word stump, as in stump speech, I believe." AA: "Incumbent, meaning the person who's currently in office, holding the office." RS: "And stump, where a politician stands to give his speech." AA: "Like a tree stump, because that's what they used to do, is stand on top of an old tree stump.” RS: "So they can be seen." PETER SOKOLOWKI: "Exactly. But a couple of other words if you just go back a week that came up that can broadly be called political, the word czar was looked up quite a lot last week, when the 9-11 Commission report brought up the notion of perhaps a new cabinet-level position which some people call the 'intelligence czar.' And czar, of course, comes from Caesar, meaning the sort of emperor, and it's the same root as the word in German 'kaiser,' and it means the leader." AA: Peter Sokolowski is associate editor at Merriam-Webster. He invites you to visit the company's Web site at webster.com [also, merriam-webster.com]. You can look up words and also hear how to pronounce them. RS: Our address here is voanews.com/wordmaster. And, if you have any questions or comments for us, e-mail them to word@voanews.com. Please tell us where you are from and how to pronounce your name. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 29, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we answer a few questions from listeners that really call for a dictionary editor. RS: We called Peter Sokolowski, associate editor at the nation's oldest dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, for some help. AA: A listener by the name of Atefeh Aghaei asked about the meaning of the word “unconditional.” PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "It means absolute or unqualified. And in English, of course, there are always idioms associated with words. And unconditional love is one of the best of the idioms that come up very frequently with this word. But also it's used for unconditional surrender, and that was the famous phrase from 1945 at the end of the World War Two. And also most recently in the news we see unconditional release, meaning the release of prisoners without their being harmed." RS: "In this one, this next one, what the listener wants to know is the difference between festival and carnival." PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Festival really comes from the word feast, from the Latin, feast meaning a holy day, a holy feast. And carnival comes from the Latin 'carne levare' which means to raise or to remove meat, and that's the time before Easter called Lent where you abstain from eating meat. And it's interesting that the end of Lent is, of course, the feast of Easter. "So what's interesting is these two words are sort of wrapped up together. The basic way to distinguish these words is that festival is much more general. You can use festival to say folk festival, arts festival, film festival, whereas there are two very specific senses of carnival. One is that pre-Lenten festival or celebration that we mentioned. The other is sort of an enterprise or place where there are amusements. And in America they might be traveling carnivals, something that would come from town to town and have maybe a carousel or I think of a lot of cotton candy and, uh ... " AA: "And if you eat too much of that cotton candy, you might get sick. Or ill." PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Or ill.” AA: "Which brings us to our next question, from Alibek Suyumov, who wants to know, 'Could you please tell me what the difference is between the words sick and ill.'" PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Sick and ill. You know, that's a great question. Again, two words that basically mean bad health, but just like festival and carnival, one of them is a little bit more general than the other, and in this case it's sick. We have many idioms in English that refer to bad health that aren't referring to a specific ailment or a specific disease. Like we would say 'I've been worried sick about you,' meaning that I'm very worried about you. 'I'm sick and tired of this.' And when someone talks about being ill, often it's a little bit more clinical or a little bit more technical. We say mentally ill or we say gravely ill, and it sounds a little bit more specific. "Now there are secondary uses that are not quite so synonymous between sick and ill. In the case of sick, you could say 'that was a sick joke' or 'he has a sick sense of humor' or 'he's a very sick person,' which means he's disturbed or abnormal or maybe has a sense of humor that we don't approve of. It can mean mean, as in unfriendly. But with the word ill, you have the notion of ill will, which also means unfriendly. Or ill omen means unlucky." RS: "Or ill-advised." PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Ill-advised, exactly. These are very specifically bad things." AA: But there was something specifically good about talking to a dictionary editor this week, with the Democratic convention in Boston. We wondered if any political terms in the news have sent people to the free dictionary online at webster.com. PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "You know, one of the big words that is looked up frequently is democracy, because it's an abstract concept and it's something that folks need to sometimes remind themselves, and it's a word that is looked up quite frequently. One word that is very high this week is blog, and blog, of course, means a Web log, or a sort of journal kept on the Internet. "And this is the first political convention to which many folks who maintain blogs, or bloggers as they're called, have been invited as journalists to record the events. So that word is very high on our list, and I'm very sorry to say it's such a new word it's not quite in our dictionary yet. [Laughter] But another word that came up is incumbent. Also the word stump, as in stump speech, I believe." AA: "Incumbent, meaning the person who's currently in office, holding the office." RS: "And stump, where a politician stands to give his speech." AA: "Like a tree stump, because that's what they used to do, is stand on top of an old tree stump.” RS: "So they can be seen." PETER SOKOLOWKI: "Exactly. But a couple of other words if you just go back a week that came up that can broadly be called political, the word czar was looked up quite a lot last week, when the 9-11 Commission report brought up the notion of perhaps a new cabinet-level position which some people call the 'intelligence czar.' And czar, of course, comes from Caesar, meaning the sort of emperor, and it's the same root as the word in German 'kaiser,' and it means the leader." AA: Peter Sokolowski is associate editor at Merriam-Webster. He invites you to visit the company's Web site at webster.com [also, merriam-webster.com]. You can look up words and also hear how to pronounce them. RS: Our address here is voanews.com/wordmaster. And, if you have any questions or comments for us, e-mail them to word@voanews.com. Please tell us where you are from and how to pronounce your name. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Foreign-born American Olympians / Question from Japan: Where Do Americans Go on Summer Vacation? / Music from Patti Scialfa's New Album
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 30, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: July 30, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from a new album by Patty Scialfa. A listener in Japan wants to know what Americans do on summer vacation. And, we begin with three Americans who know exactly what they will be doing next month in Athens. Naturalized American Olympians The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Athens from August thirteenth to the twenty-ninth. Ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred countries are expected to take part. Some of the athletes on the American team have competed before in the Olympics as citizens of other countries. Steve Ember tells us about three of them. STEVE EMBER: The United States team is considered to have a good chance this year to win a medal in table tennis. One reason is thirty-five-year-old Gao Jun. She won a silver medal in doubles competition when she represented China at the nineteen-ninety-two Olympics. After that, she moved to the United States. She became an American citizen. She has been a member of the United States National Team since nineteen-ninety-seven. She competed in the two-thousand Olympics in Sydney. Last year, Gao Jun reached the quarterfinals of the singles competition at the world championships in table tennis. She became the first American to do so since nineteen-fifty-nine. Now she has been training in China to get ready for the Olympics in Greece. Another foreign-born American athlete is swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg. He came to the United States with his family from the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Lenny Krayzelburg became an American citizen in nineteen-ninety-five. He won three gold medals in the Sydney Games in two-thousand. Recently, he has suffered shoulder injuries. He can no longer compete in the two-hundred meter backstroke. But he will swim again for the United States Olympic team this year in the one-hundred meter race. A third American athlete from another country is Colleen De Reuck. The forty-year-old runner was born in South Africa. Next month, she will become the oldest American woman to run an Olympic marathon. Colleen De Reuck won the Berlin Marathon in nineteen-ninety-six as a runner for South Africa. She also competed for her home country at the Olympics in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. Colleen De Reuck became an American citizen in two-thousand-two. Summer Vacations DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Chiba, Japan. Kimitoshi Hiraoka asks where Americans go on their summer vacations. That is an interesting question. Reports tell us that Americans work more and vacation less than people in other major industrial countries. Still, millions of Americans do try to get away from home for a week or two in the summer months. Some might even have the time and money to spend longer on vacation. For example, many retired Americans can be found driving around the United States in big recreational vehicles, known as R.V.'s. These serve as a home away from home. In fact, it might even be their only home as they see the country. Some American families get in their car and drive to historic places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. There, they can experience what life was like for early Americans. If that is not exciting enough, also in Williamsburg is a water park and an amusement park with rides. Other Americans visit national parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite out in the West. They want to spend time with nature. Or they take their vacation by a lake or the ocean. They might swim or fish. But many just want to sit and enjoy the feeling of doing nothing, except maybe read a book. Some families fly to other countries on vacation. Or they go on a cruise ship and stop in different ports. Cruise ships are like floating cities. But not everyone goes someplace special on vacation. This might be the only time for people to work on things like home improvement projects. And while they do that, they might think of all the fun their friends are having. Patti Scialfa Patti Scialfa [SKAL-fuh] is a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. She is also married to Bruce Springsteen. Since the nineteen-seventies, she has been a singer, songwriter and musician in her own right. Patti Scialfa has a new album of songs she wrote called “Twenty-Third Street Lullaby.” Shep O’Nealhas more. SHEP O'NEAL: Patti Scialfa is from the state of New Jersey. During the nineteen-seventies, she performed with several bands in New York City. Her new album, “Twenty-Third Street Lullaby,” recalls the New York City area called Chelsea. This is where she got her start as a singer and songwriter. She says: “You come to the city and you have a chance to find out who you really are. You test yourself, find yourself and lose pieces of yourself.” She tells about this in the song “Young in the City.” (MUSIC) Patti Scialfa’s new album includes songs about people from her past – such as a woman named Rose who served meals at an eating place. (MUSIC) Patti Scialfa says her new album is about acceptance and how you learn to think about the past in order to express who you are today. She plans to perform by herself for the first time. She will perform twenty concerts starting in September. We leave you now with the title song from Patti Scialfa’s new album, “Twenty-Third Street Lullaby.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from a new album by Patty Scialfa. A listener in Japan wants to know what Americans do on summer vacation. And, we begin with three Americans who know exactly what they will be doing next month in Athens. Naturalized American Olympians The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Athens from August thirteenth to the twenty-ninth. Ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred countries are expected to take part. Some of the athletes on the American team have competed before in the Olympics as citizens of other countries. Steve Ember tells us about three of them. STEVE EMBER: The United States team is considered to have a good chance this year to win a medal in table tennis. One reason is thirty-five-year-old Gao Jun. She won a silver medal in doubles competition when she represented China at the nineteen-ninety-two Olympics. After that, she moved to the United States. She became an American citizen. She has been a member of the United States National Team since nineteen-ninety-seven. She competed in the two-thousand Olympics in Sydney. Last year, Gao Jun reached the quarterfinals of the singles competition at the world championships in table tennis. She became the first American to do so since nineteen-fifty-nine. Now she has been training in China to get ready for the Olympics in Greece. Another foreign-born American athlete is swimmer Lenny Krayzelburg. He came to the United States with his family from the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Lenny Krayzelburg became an American citizen in nineteen-ninety-five. He won three gold medals in the Sydney Games in two-thousand. Recently, he has suffered shoulder injuries. He can no longer compete in the two-hundred meter backstroke. But he will swim again for the United States Olympic team this year in the one-hundred meter race. A third American athlete from another country is Colleen De Reuck. The forty-year-old runner was born in South Africa. Next month, she will become the oldest American woman to run an Olympic marathon. Colleen De Reuck won the Berlin Marathon in nineteen-ninety-six as a runner for South Africa. She also competed for her home country at the Olympics in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. Colleen De Reuck became an American citizen in two-thousand-two. Summer Vacations DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Chiba, Japan. Kimitoshi Hiraoka asks where Americans go on their summer vacations. That is an interesting question. Reports tell us that Americans work more and vacation less than people in other major industrial countries. Still, millions of Americans do try to get away from home for a week or two in the summer months. Some might even have the time and money to spend longer on vacation. For example, many retired Americans can be found driving around the United States in big recreational vehicles, known as R.V.'s. These serve as a home away from home. In fact, it might even be their only home as they see the country. Some American families get in their car and drive to historic places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. There, they can experience what life was like for early Americans. If that is not exciting enough, also in Williamsburg is a water park and an amusement park with rides. Other Americans visit national parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite out in the West. They want to spend time with nature. Or they take their vacation by a lake or the ocean. They might swim or fish. But many just want to sit and enjoy the feeling of doing nothing, except maybe read a book. Some families fly to other countries on vacation. Or they go on a cruise ship and stop in different ports. Cruise ships are like floating cities. But not everyone goes someplace special on vacation. This might be the only time for people to work on things like home improvement projects. And while they do that, they might think of all the fun their friends are having. Patti Scialfa Patti Scialfa [SKAL-fuh] is a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. She is also married to Bruce Springsteen. Since the nineteen-seventies, she has been a singer, songwriter and musician in her own right. Patti Scialfa has a new album of songs she wrote called “Twenty-Third Street Lullaby.” Shep O’Nealhas more. SHEP O'NEAL: Patti Scialfa is from the state of New Jersey. During the nineteen-seventies, she performed with several bands in New York City. Her new album, “Twenty-Third Street Lullaby,” recalls the New York City area called Chelsea. This is where she got her start as a singer and songwriter. She says: “You come to the city and you have a chance to find out who you really are. You test yourself, find yourself and lose pieces of yourself.” She tells about this in the song “Young in the City.” (MUSIC) Patti Scialfa’s new album includes songs about people from her past – such as a woman named Rose who served meals at an eating place. (MUSIC) Patti Scialfa says her new album is about acceptance and how you learn to think about the past in order to express who you are today. She plans to perform by herself for the first time. She will perform twenty concerts starting in September. We leave you now with the title song from Patti Scialfa’s new album, “Twenty-Third Street Lullaby.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Good Times, Bad Times: Microsoft and Yukos
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 30, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Investors take a risk when they buy shares of ownership in a company. Shareholders could lose their investment if the company does not have enough money. But what happens if a company has more money than it needs? Both situations have current examples. One involves the Russian oil company Yukos. The other involves Microsoft. The American company makes the operating systems used on more than ninety percent of personal computers. It has fifty-six thousand million dollars saved in the bank. The company has been under pressure to return some of that money to its investors. So last week Microsoft announced a plan to make a one-time payment to its shareholders of three dollars per share. Microsoft will pay out thirty-two thousand million dollars. This will be the largest such payout by any company. The largest shareholder in Microsoft is its chairman, Bill Gates. He will get three thousand million dollars. He has promised to give that to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support its health and education programs. He is already the richest man in the world. Microsoft also plans to increase it regular dividend payments to shareholders. And it says it will buy back thirty thousand million dollars of its stock over the next four years. The stock price has not changed much in the last few years. A reduction in shares on the market should increase the value for investors. But there was more bad news this week for investors in Russia's biggest oil company. Share prices fell after reports of a possible production halt linked to efforts by court officers to collect a huge debt. Oil prices rose. Yukos produces two percent of the world's oil. The Russian government says the company owes as much as ten thousand-million dollars in taxes. The government has threatened to sell the most productive part of Yukos. Yukos officials are also in trouble. The biggest shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in jail. Supporters say charges of financial crimes are part of a government campaign against him. Mister Khodorkovsky is Russia's richest man. He could face a possible sentence of ten years in prison. Last Friday, a group of investors based in Britain offered to pay the debts of Yukos. The group is seeking control of the company. Yukos shares are traded in Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-07/a-2004-07-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Kerry and Edwards Campaign Cross-Country by Bus After Democratic Convention
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 31, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. John Kerry at Democratic convention Broadcast: July 31, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. John Kerry, now officially the Democratic nominee for president, has started a two-week campaign trip across the United States. Senator Kerry will travel by bus with his choice for vice president, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. The candidates left from Boston, Massachusetts, for the first stops in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. These are among the so-called battleground states that could decide the winner of the election on November second. President Bush had a day of appearances Friday in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio. The Republican Party convention opens on August thirtieth in New York City. Delegates will nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for a second term. National conventions take place every four years, before the presidential election. John Kerry accepted his nomination Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In his acceptance speech, he told Americans that this is the most important election of their lifetime. He said the United States is a nation at war. In his words, "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president." The sixty-year-old senator from Massachusetts spoke of his military service during the Vietnam War. He earned medals for his actions as commander of a Navy gunboat, though he later protested the war. As president, Mister Kerry said he would build a stronger military to deal with all its current responsibilities. He said he would react quickly and forcefully to any attack. But he said he would never "mislead" the nation into war. Mister Kerry also said he would work to improve relations with other countries. The Bush administration says Americans should question Mister Kerry's ability to protect the country and fight the war on terrorism. But the senator suggested that measures taken since the September eleventh, two-thousand-one, attacks threaten constitutional freedoms. Mister Kerry criticized the Iraq war, as well as the president's economic record. He said wages are falling, health care costs are rising and the middle class in America is shrinking. He declared: "It is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families." John Kerry has served in the Senate for twenty years. But many commentators said his acceptance speech in Boston was his most important speech ever. Political observers say the presidential race appears extremely close. John Kerry said his goal this week was to show voters that he could do better than President Bush. Others who spoke at the Democratic convention included former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And they included Al Gore, the former vice president who lost to Mister Bush in the disputed election of two-thousand. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk and Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. John Kerry, now officially the Democratic nominee for president, has started a two-week campaign trip across the United States. Senator Kerry will travel by bus with his choice for vice president, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. The candidates left from Boston, Massachusetts, for the first stops in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. These are among the so-called battleground states that could decide the winner of the election on November second. President Bush had a day of appearances Friday in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio. The Republican Party convention opens on August thirtieth in New York City. Delegates will nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for a second term. National conventions take place every four years, before the presidential election. John Kerry accepted his nomination Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In his acceptance speech, he told Americans that this is the most important election of their lifetime. He said the United States is a nation at war. In his words, "I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president." The sixty-year-old senator from Massachusetts spoke of his military service during the Vietnam War. He earned medals for his actions as commander of a Navy gunboat, though he later protested the war. As president, Mister Kerry said he would build a stronger military to deal with all its current responsibilities. He said he would react quickly and forcefully to any attack. But he said he would never "mislead" the nation into war. Mister Kerry also said he would work to improve relations with other countries. The Bush administration says Americans should question Mister Kerry's ability to protect the country and fight the war on terrorism. But the senator suggested that measures taken since the September eleventh, two-thousand-one, attacks threaten constitutional freedoms. Mister Kerry criticized the Iraq war, as well as the president's economic record. He said wages are falling, health care costs are rising and the middle class in America is shrinking. He declared: "It is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families." John Kerry has served in the Senate for twenty years. But many commentators said his acceptance speech in Boston was his most important speech ever. Political observers say the presidential race appears extremely close. John Kerry said his goal this week was to show voters that he could do better than President Bush. Others who spoke at the Democratic convention included former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And they included Al Gore, the former vice president who lost to Mister Bush in the disputed election of two-thousand. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk and Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - R.F.I.D. Technology and Privacy Concerns / Doctors Study Mental Health of U.S. Soldiers Back from War / Test Finds Young Children Remember Better than College Students
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 3, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Coming up this week: businesses signal their interest in a technology known by the letters R.F.I.D. VOICE ONE: Researchers study the mental health of American soldiers just back from war. VOICE TWO: And, find out the results of a memory test between college students and … five year olds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many business leaders are excited about a technology known as radio frequency identification. R.F.I.D. technology sends information to a central computer about the location of products in factories, stores and other places. The system uses radio signals to communicate between a tiny electronic device and a reader. The device is a microchip only a few millimeters in size. The chip stores information. The reader can collect the information from up to ten meters away or, with some systems, from much farther. Radio frequency identification has existed for years. But recent improvements make it much less costly. Business leaders say they expect R.F.I.D. systems to be in general use around the world within five to ten years. VOICE TWO: The recent improvements are largely the result of efforts by the huge American company Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart officials wanted to improve the way the company follows its products to its thousands of stores. So, as their first step, they told their top one-hundred suppliers to start using R.F.I.D. devices by January of next year. The United States Defense Department also wants its suppliers to use R.F.I.D systems. Reports say the Wal-Mart and Defense Department decisions will together affect more than fifty-thousand suppliers. VOICE ONE: The European Union is considering the use of such systems in money to help prevent illegal copying of euros. And interest grows. Libraries place radio frequency identification devices in books. Hospitals put chips on medicine bottles. Animal owners place the devices under the skin of pets to help locate them in case of trouble. Some humans have chips under their skin for the same reason. The attorney general of Mexico, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, announced last month that he has a chip in his arm. He said other people in his office are also equipped with the devices. One reason is security. The chip will permit them to enter a new center with a secure computer system for crime investigators in Mexico. Also, Mister Macedo said the chip could be used to locate someone who is attacked or kidnapped. VOICE TWO: New and different uses are being found for radio frequency identification chips. Some people are concerned. They worry that the increasing use of this technology will threaten a person’s right to privacy. Chips can be used to follow the movements of individual products or shipments. The devices can also warn a business if someone tries to steal. But critics say the technology might be used to collect information on people who buy the products. Also, employers could use the technology to record the movements of workers who wear identification with a chip inside. Makers of R.F.I.D. systems say they recognize that the technology could be used to violate people’s rights. These companies say privacy is their biggest area of research. They say they are working to make sure their technology is not a threat to people. VOICE ONE: The most common technology now to identify goods uses a bar code. Each product is marked with a series of lines called a Universal Product Code. It must pass in front of a laser scanner to be read. The first product ever scanned for sale was a pack of chewing gum. The event took place at a market in Troy, Ohio, on June twenty-sixth, nineteen-seventy-four. Sharon Buchanan was the worker who scanned it. This June, she was back at the market to cut a cake in honor of the thirtieth anniversary. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A study has examined rates of mental health problems in some American soldiers after they returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. The military study says disorders appear more common among those who fought in the war in Iraq. Researchers from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research did the study. They collected information from more than six-thousand soldiers and Marines. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. Doctors say this is the first large study of psychological problems in soldiers during a continuing conflict. The report says almost seventeen percent of the soldiers who served in Iraq reported signs of severe depression or some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. The rate found in soldiers who served in Afghanistan was about eleven percent. Post-traumatic stress disorder can cause the sudden return of bad memories. It can lead to such things as uncontrollable crying, an inability to sleep and problems with social situations. VOICE ONE: Doctor Charles Hoge led the study. He is chief of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Walter Reed institute. His team asked soldiers to answer a series of questions before they went to war and a few months after they returned. The report offers several reasons for the higher number of disorders found among the soldiers back from Iraq. For example, the study says almost ninety percent of soldiers were attacked or trapped by enemy forces during their duty in Iraq. This was true of less than sixty percent of those who served in Afghanistan. The study also reports that more than ninety percent of the Iraq veterans said they were shot at. That compared to sixty-six percent of those sent to Afghanistan. And, the study says almost half who served in Iraq said they were responsible for the death of an enemy fighter. That was true of twelve percent of those sent to Afghanistan as part of the American-led war against terrorism. VOICE TWO: The Army researchers also compared the soldiers to Vietnam veterans. The report says rates of stress disorders were higher among those who fought in Vietnam. That war ended in nineteen-seventy-five. But Doctor Hoge notes that Vietnam veterans were not studied until years later. Those studies led to the recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder as a disorder. Also, it has been noted that many soldiers who returned from Vietnam were treated poorly by their country. Research has also been done on the mental health of soldiers who fought in the first Persian Gulf War. One expert on post-traumatic stress disorder says the research found that cases increased in the two years after soldiers returned home. In the new study, many soldiers said they worried that they would be seen as weak if they sought treatment. But the Defense Department says it is making much more intensive efforts than in the past to help soldiers deal with mental health problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Children often think they know more than their parents. Well, it appears that children may at least remember more than adults. Researchers did a study at Ohio State University, in the American Midwest. They asked children and adults to identify pictures they had seen earlier. Researchers Vladimir Sloutsky [pronounced slutskee] and Anna Fisher wrote a report on their findings for the journal Psychological Science. It is traditional to think that memory increases as a child grows older and has more to remember. But the findings of the Ohio State team dispute that idea. VOICE TWO: The team used a group of seventy-seven children. Their average age was five years old. Seventy-one college students were in a second group. The researchers had both groups look at pictures of cats, bears and birds. In one test, the researchers showed them twenty-eight pictures. Both groups were asked if they had seen each picture earlier. The children recognized about four times as many pictures as the adults. The adults answered correctly only seven percent of the time. VOICE ONE: Vladimir Sloutsky says the children did better because they studied the pictures for similarities. The children looked carefully to see if an animal looked like an animal they had seen earlier. The adults, however, used a different thought process. The researcher says this kind of reasoning blocks out unconnected information. For example, the adults looked at a picture of a cat. As soon as they recognized the object as a cat, they stopped looking. They did not study the details. So most of their answers were wrong. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long.. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: August 3, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Coming up this week: businesses signal their interest in a technology known by the letters R.F.I.D. VOICE ONE: Researchers study the mental health of American soldiers just back from war. VOICE TWO: And, find out the results of a memory test between college students and … five year olds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many business leaders are excited about a technology known as radio frequency identification. R.F.I.D. technology sends information to a central computer about the location of products in factories, stores and other places. The system uses radio signals to communicate between a tiny electronic device and a reader. The device is a microchip only a few millimeters in size. The chip stores information. The reader can collect the information from up to ten meters away or, with some systems, from much farther. Radio frequency identification has existed for years. But recent improvements make it much less costly. Business leaders say they expect R.F.I.D. systems to be in general use around the world within five to ten years. VOICE TWO: The recent improvements are largely the result of efforts by the huge American company Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart officials wanted to improve the way the company follows its products to its thousands of stores. So, as their first step, they told their top one-hundred suppliers to start using R.F.I.D. devices by January of next year. The United States Defense Department also wants its suppliers to use R.F.I.D systems. Reports say the Wal-Mart and Defense Department decisions will together affect more than fifty-thousand suppliers. VOICE ONE: The European Union is considering the use of such systems in money to help prevent illegal copying of euros. And interest grows. Libraries place radio frequency identification devices in books. Hospitals put chips on medicine bottles. Animal owners place the devices under the skin of pets to help locate them in case of trouble. Some humans have chips under their skin for the same reason. The attorney general of Mexico, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, announced last month that he has a chip in his arm. He said other people in his office are also equipped with the devices. One reason is security. The chip will permit them to enter a new center with a secure computer system for crime investigators in Mexico. Also, Mister Macedo said the chip could be used to locate someone who is attacked or kidnapped. VOICE TWO: New and different uses are being found for radio frequency identification chips. Some people are concerned. They worry that the increasing use of this technology will threaten a person’s right to privacy. Chips can be used to follow the movements of individual products or shipments. The devices can also warn a business if someone tries to steal. But critics say the technology might be used to collect information on people who buy the products. Also, employers could use the technology to record the movements of workers who wear identification with a chip inside. Makers of R.F.I.D. systems say they recognize that the technology could be used to violate people’s rights. These companies say privacy is their biggest area of research. They say they are working to make sure their technology is not a threat to people. VOICE ONE: The most common technology now to identify goods uses a bar code. Each product is marked with a series of lines called a Universal Product Code. It must pass in front of a laser scanner to be read. The first product ever scanned for sale was a pack of chewing gum. The event took place at a market in Troy, Ohio, on June twenty-sixth, nineteen-seventy-four. Sharon Buchanan was the worker who scanned it. This June, she was back at the market to cut a cake in honor of the thirtieth anniversary. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A study has examined rates of mental health problems in some American soldiers after they returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. The military study says disorders appear more common among those who fought in the war in Iraq. Researchers from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research did the study. They collected information from more than six-thousand soldiers and Marines. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. Doctors say this is the first large study of psychological problems in soldiers during a continuing conflict. The report says almost seventeen percent of the soldiers who served in Iraq reported signs of severe depression or some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. The rate found in soldiers who served in Afghanistan was about eleven percent. Post-traumatic stress disorder can cause the sudden return of bad memories. It can lead to such things as uncontrollable crying, an inability to sleep and problems with social situations. VOICE ONE: Doctor Charles Hoge led the study. He is chief of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Walter Reed institute. His team asked soldiers to answer a series of questions before they went to war and a few months after they returned. The report offers several reasons for the higher number of disorders found among the soldiers back from Iraq. For example, the study says almost ninety percent of soldiers were attacked or trapped by enemy forces during their duty in Iraq. This was true of less than sixty percent of those who served in Afghanistan. The study also reports that more than ninety percent of the Iraq veterans said they were shot at. That compared to sixty-six percent of those sent to Afghanistan. And, the study says almost half who served in Iraq said they were responsible for the death of an enemy fighter. That was true of twelve percent of those sent to Afghanistan as part of the American-led war against terrorism. VOICE TWO: The Army researchers also compared the soldiers to Vietnam veterans. The report says rates of stress disorders were higher among those who fought in Vietnam. That war ended in nineteen-seventy-five. But Doctor Hoge notes that Vietnam veterans were not studied until years later. Those studies led to the recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder as a disorder. Also, it has been noted that many soldiers who returned from Vietnam were treated poorly by their country. Research has also been done on the mental health of soldiers who fought in the first Persian Gulf War. One expert on post-traumatic stress disorder says the research found that cases increased in the two years after soldiers returned home. In the new study, many soldiers said they worried that they would be seen as weak if they sought treatment. But the Defense Department says it is making much more intensive efforts than in the past to help soldiers deal with mental health problems. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Children often think they know more than their parents. Well, it appears that children may at least remember more than adults. Researchers did a study at Ohio State University, in the American Midwest. They asked children and adults to identify pictures they had seen earlier. Researchers Vladimir Sloutsky [pronounced slutskee] and Anna Fisher wrote a report on their findings for the journal Psychological Science. It is traditional to think that memory increases as a child grows older and has more to remember. But the findings of the Ohio State team dispute that idea. VOICE TWO: The team used a group of seventy-seven children. Their average age was five years old. Seventy-one college students were in a second group. The researchers had both groups look at pictures of cats, bears and birds. In one test, the researchers showed them twenty-eight pictures. Both groups were asked if they had seen each picture earlier. The children recognized about four times as many pictures as the adults. The adults answered correctly only seven percent of the time. VOICE ONE: Vladimir Sloutsky says the children did better because they studied the pictures for similarities. The children looked carefully to see if an animal looked like an animal they had seen earlier. The adults, however, used a different thought process. The researcher says this kind of reasoning blocks out unconnected information. For example, the adults looked at a picture of a cat. As soon as they recognized the object as a cat, they stopped looking. They did not study the details. So most of their answers were wrong. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long.. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Locusts in North Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 3, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. An invasion of locusts from Northwest Africa continues to affect several countries. The United Nations said the number of insects invading crop areas in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal increased in the past two weeks. Locusts have also entered Niger. And the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week that locusts could reach Burkina Faso as well. But the F.A.O. said there were signs of improvement in other areas. Intensive operations to control the locusts began in Northwest Africa in February. The huge movement of locusts started in Algeria and Morocco. Young locusts began to leave their native territory to search for new places to mate and lay eggs. This migration can cover hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Winds can help the flying insects travel long distances. In July, some desert locusts from North Africa arrived on the Cape Verde Islands. The islands are five hundred kilometers from the coast of Africa. During migrations, locusts eat huge amounts of food. The Food and Agriculture Organization says locusts eat their own weight in food every day. One locust weighs only about two grams. But one ton of locusts can eat about as much food as two thousand five hundred people. Several countries have asked for aid to control the locusts. So far, there have been international promises of nine million dollars in emergency assistance. Officials from nine countries organized a meeting last week in Algiers to discuss ways to deal with the crisis. Algeria and Morocco have used chemical poisons. The two countries have treated more than one million five hundred thousand hectares. But good weather conditions have helped the spread of locusts to the south. Chemicals can be used to kill existing groups of insects. But most of these insecticides are very poisonous and should be kept away from places were farm animals may feed. By the middle of July, there was a decrease reported in the number of hectares treated in Morocco and Libya. The F.A.O. said this suggests that the situation should become calm in the area in the next few weeks. Experts say it is important to treat a locust outbreak quickly. After an outbreak, farmers can turn the soil in their fields in late autumn. This can help to destroy some locust eggs. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: August 3, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. An invasion of locusts from Northwest Africa continues to affect several countries. The United Nations said the number of insects invading crop areas in Mali, Mauritania and Senegal increased in the past two weeks. Locusts have also entered Niger. And the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warned last week that locusts could reach Burkina Faso as well. But the F.A.O. said there were signs of improvement in other areas. Intensive operations to control the locusts began in Northwest Africa in February. The huge movement of locusts started in Algeria and Morocco. Young locusts began to leave their native territory to search for new places to mate and lay eggs. This migration can cover hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Winds can help the flying insects travel long distances. In July, some desert locusts from North Africa arrived on the Cape Verde Islands. The islands are five hundred kilometers from the coast of Africa. During migrations, locusts eat huge amounts of food. The Food and Agriculture Organization says locusts eat their own weight in food every day. One locust weighs only about two grams. But one ton of locusts can eat about as much food as two thousand five hundred people. Several countries have asked for aid to control the locusts. So far, there have been international promises of nine million dollars in emergency assistance. Officials from nine countries organized a meeting last week in Algiers to discuss ways to deal with the crisis. Algeria and Morocco have used chemical poisons. The two countries have treated more than one million five hundred thousand hectares. But good weather conditions have helped the spread of locusts to the south. Chemicals can be used to kill existing groups of insects. But most of these insecticides are very poisonous and should be kept away from places were farm animals may feed. By the middle of July, there was a decrease reported in the number of hectares treated in Morocco and Libya. The F.A.O. said this suggests that the situation should become calm in the area in the next few weeks. Experts say it is important to treat a locust outbreak quickly. After an outbreak, farmers can turn the soil in their fields in late autumn. This can help to destroy some locust eggs. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Isaac Stern
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 1, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: August 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about one of the world’s greatest musicians, violinist Isaac Stern. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Isaac Stern was more than a great violin player. He was one of the most honored musicians in the world. He was an international cultural ambassador. He was a major supporter of the arts in America and in other countries. He was a teacher and activist. For more than sixty years, Mister Stern performed excellent music. He performed in concerts around the world and on recordings. He played with major orchestras and in small groups. Here he plays Sergey Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto, Opus Nineteen with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern was born in Nineteen-Twenty in what is now Ukraine. His parents moved to San Francisco, California the following year. His mother began teaching Isaac the piano when he was six years old. He began taking violin lessons after hearing a friend play the instrument. Later, he began studying music at the San Francisco Conservatory. He progressed quickly. When he was sixteen, he played with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The next year, he performed in New York City and was praised by music critics. VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Mister Stern played for thousands of American soldiers. It was the first time many of them had heard classical music. After the war, he was the first American violinist to perform in concert in the Soviet Union. Later, he declared that he would not perform there again until artists had more freedom to leave the country. Mister Stern had a strong connection to Israel. He supported young musicians and cultural organizations there. He performed in Israel many times, including during the Persian Gulf War in Nineteen-Ninety-One. VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern became one of the busiest musicians of his day. He played more than one-hundred concerts a year. He also became one of the most recorded musicians in history. This recording is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Romance in F-Major, Opus Fifty. Mister Stern performs with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carnegie Hall in New York City is one of the most famous places for the performance of classical music. All of the world’s best musicians have played there. In Nineteen-Sixty, there were plans to tear down Carnegie Hall and build a tall office building in its place. Mister Stern organized a committee of citizens, politicians and artists to oppose the plan. He successfully led the effort to save Carnegie Hall. Then he became president of the newly-established Carnegie Hall Corporation. He held that office for forty years. In recent years, he gave a series of classes for young musicians at Carnegie Hall. Isaac Stern also supported artistic development and freedom. He was an advisor when the National Endowment for the Arts was established. This is the government agency that supports the arts in America. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Isaac Stern visited China. He met with Chinese musicians and students. He taught them about classical Western music. His visit was made into a film. It is called “From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.” It won an Academy Award for best documentary film. Mister Stern loved to play music by many different composers. He found the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to be among the most difficult. Here he plays Mozart’s Adagio for Violin and Orchestra with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Isaac Stern received the Kennedy Center Honors Award for his gifts to American culture through music. He expressed his thoughts about the part that music plays in life. He said he believed that music makes life better for every one, especially children. He said music is an important part of a civilized life. He said people need music as much as they need bread. Mister Stern supported and guided younger classical musicians. They include violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Yefim Bronfman. Isaac Stern died in Two-Thousand-One at the age of eighty-one. He was a major influence on music in the Twentieth Century. He leaves the world richer with his many recordings. This one is “Humoresque” by Antonin Dvorak performed with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about one of the world’s greatest musicians, violinist Isaac Stern. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Isaac Stern was more than a great violin player. He was one of the most honored musicians in the world. He was an international cultural ambassador. He was a major supporter of the arts in America and in other countries. He was a teacher and activist. For more than sixty years, Mister Stern performed excellent music. He performed in concerts around the world and on recordings. He played with major orchestras and in small groups. Here he plays Sergey Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto, Opus Nineteen with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern was born in Nineteen-Twenty in what is now Ukraine. His parents moved to San Francisco, California the following year. His mother began teaching Isaac the piano when he was six years old. He began taking violin lessons after hearing a friend play the instrument. Later, he began studying music at the San Francisco Conservatory. He progressed quickly. When he was sixteen, he played with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The next year, he performed in New York City and was praised by music critics. VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Mister Stern played for thousands of American soldiers. It was the first time many of them had heard classical music. After the war, he was the first American violinist to perform in concert in the Soviet Union. Later, he declared that he would not perform there again until artists had more freedom to leave the country. Mister Stern had a strong connection to Israel. He supported young musicians and cultural organizations there. He performed in Israel many times, including during the Persian Gulf War in Nineteen-Ninety-One. VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern became one of the busiest musicians of his day. He played more than one-hundred concerts a year. He also became one of the most recorded musicians in history. This recording is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Romance in F-Major, Opus Fifty. Mister Stern performs with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carnegie Hall in New York City is one of the most famous places for the performance of classical music. All of the world’s best musicians have played there. In Nineteen-Sixty, there were plans to tear down Carnegie Hall and build a tall office building in its place. Mister Stern organized a committee of citizens, politicians and artists to oppose the plan. He successfully led the effort to save Carnegie Hall. Then he became president of the newly-established Carnegie Hall Corporation. He held that office for forty years. In recent years, he gave a series of classes for young musicians at Carnegie Hall. Isaac Stern also supported artistic development and freedom. He was an advisor when the National Endowment for the Arts was established. This is the government agency that supports the arts in America. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Isaac Stern visited China. He met with Chinese musicians and students. He taught them about classical Western music. His visit was made into a film. It is called “From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.” It won an Academy Award for best documentary film. Mister Stern loved to play music by many different composers. He found the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to be among the most difficult. Here he plays Mozart’s Adagio for Violin and Orchestra with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Isaac Stern received the Kennedy Center Honors Award for his gifts to American culture through music. He expressed his thoughts about the part that music plays in life. He said he believed that music makes life better for every one, especially children. He said music is an important part of a civilized life. He said people need music as much as they need bread. Mister Stern supported and guided younger classical musicians. They include violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Yefim Bronfman. Isaac Stern died in Two-Thousand-One at the age of eighty-one. He was a major influence on music in the Twentieth Century. He leaves the world richer with his many recordings. This one is “Humoresque” by Antonin Dvorak performed with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Reading in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. This week our program examines reading in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans have read a lot in recent weeks about a study. It shows that for the first time in modern history, fewer than half the adults in the country read literature. A federal agency that gives money to the arts announced the findings. The National Endowment for the Arts is the official arts organization of the United States government. The report says forty-seven percent of American adults read novels, short stories, plays or poetry in two-thousand-two. That was down ten percentage points from twenty years earlier. The study is called “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America.” The Census Bureau, the agency that collects facts about the population, did the study. VOICE TWO: Researchers asked seventeen-thousand people about their reading. The people could define literature however they wanted. It could be any kind of fiction, poetry or play. It could include works like love stories, mysteries or science fiction. The researchers compared the results with findings from nineteen-eighty-two and nineteen-ninety-two. Women read more literature than men. But the research shows that men and women are both reading less and less. Twenty years ago, people between the ages of eighteen and forty-four read more literature than any other age groups. But the new study shows an increasingly sharp loss of interest in reading among young adults. Researchers say the only people who read less literature in two-thousand-two were those age sixty-five and older. VOICE ONE: The poet Dana Gioia is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mister Gioia says all groups in America are reading less, and not just less literature. In nineteen-ninety-two, sixty-one percent of adults read a book. In two-thousand-two, it was fifty-seven percent. The average number of books read was eighteen. But some people read a lot more than others. Among readers of literature, almost half read novels or short stories in two-thousand-two. Twelve percent read poetry. Four percent read a play. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: “Reading at Risk” notes that the book industry in the United States now sells three times as many books as it did twenty-five years ago. In two-thousand the industry sold more than two thousand million books. Book sales are up. But the report shows that people are reading less for pleasure. And it says one reason is competition from technology. The report lists how Americans divide their spending on things like entertainment. In nineteen-ninety, they spent six percent on audio and video recordings and on computers and software. They spent almost as much, five-point-seven percent, on books. By two-thousand-two, five-point-six percent went to book buying. Twenty-four percent went to electronics. But some people do use technology to listen to recordings of books or read electronic versions. VOICE ONE: In the words of Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts: "This report documents a national crisis." Yet there are some who say Americans should not read too much into the importance of the warnings. Charles McGrath is former editor of the Book Review at The New York Times. The newspaper published a commentary in which Mister McGrath noted that the study dealt only with literature. He said he regrets that the research did not include works of non-fiction. After all, he says, some books about facts and events are very important for the information they provide. For example, he says recent books about the war in Iraq are shaping national debate. Also, Mister McGrath noted that the report did not consider magazines, newspapers or the Internet. And this literary critic criticized the fact that the people in the study could define literature any way they wished. They were told they did not have to include “just what literary critics might consider literature.” VOICE TWO: While Americans are reading less literature, more are trying to write it. “Reading at Risk” says creative writing is one of the few literary activities that have increased. And editors like David Green are trying to help people get their work printed. For many years, he has published a small magazine of short stories called Green's Magazine. Mister Green says it is costly to produce and mail four times a year. A few thousand Americans and Canadians buy it. But he says one reason he started the publication was to help beginning writers. He says it has always been difficult for new writers to find a publisher. Today, though, writers who cannot get their work published by a traditional publishing company can place their work on the Internet. That way, people can read it online or print out a copy. Some people who publish on the Internet are far from unknown. The writer Stephen King published “Riding the Bullet” online. It cost only a little money to read. But he suspended publication of his next online book, “The Plant.” He did that because people were printing the book without paying. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Reading at Risk" says more than ninety percent of people said they like television better than reading. The average American family watches television more than three hours a day. The report says television has reduced interest in books. We talked to a professor who teaches literature in Maryland. She says many of her students do not want to read the books required in her classes. They try to read only notes and commentaries about the books instead. She says the problem is that college students these days grew up on television. VOICE TWO: Yet some television programs have influenced people to read. For example, Oprah Winfrey started a book club on her popular talk show. During the first Oprah’s Book Club, she chose a current book that she liked. She asked people to read the book and then write to her show with their thoughts and opinions. Oprah’s Book Club had a big effect on the publishing industry. Publishers had to print more copies of books to satisfy demand. People who wanted to borrow copies from a library sometimes found several hundred others before them on the waiting list. In two-thousand-two, Oprah Winfrey decided to drop the book club from her television show. Now, however, she is again suggesting books. This time, she chooses classics. Her choice of “Anna Karenina” made this Russian classic an American best seller. Leo Tolstoy wrote it in the eighteen-seventies. VOICE ONE: Many Americans form their own book clubs. Members might be friends from work. Or they might live near each other. Most groups read the same book at the same time. Then they meet to discuss it. Some people discuss books over the Internet. Some book groups read only literary novels by great writers. Or they might read the works of only one writer. Members of a book club in the state of Georgia choose books of special interest to African Americans. Members of another Georgia book club each read different books. Then they give a report to the others. Children belong to reading clubs, too. In Illinois, for example, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago has organized book clubs in schools. Children’s book clubs can get help from the Great Books Foundation. This organization provides lists of books to read and also sells collected stories. It also trains people to lead discussions about the books. VOICE TWO: The National Endowment for the Arts says the move toward electronic media for entertainment and information is not good news for society. Its report, “Reading at Risk,” says readers are more active in their communities. The research shows that people who read literature are far more likely than non-readers to give their time to help others. They are more likely to support the arts. They are also more likely to attend sporting events. In other words, reading influences people’s lives beyond just the pleasure that books provide. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Broadcast: August 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. This week our program examines reading in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans have read a lot in recent weeks about a study. It shows that for the first time in modern history, fewer than half the adults in the country read literature. A federal agency that gives money to the arts announced the findings. The National Endowment for the Arts is the official arts organization of the United States government. The report says forty-seven percent of American adults read novels, short stories, plays or poetry in two-thousand-two. That was down ten percentage points from twenty years earlier. The study is called “Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America.” The Census Bureau, the agency that collects facts about the population, did the study. VOICE TWO: Researchers asked seventeen-thousand people about their reading. The people could define literature however they wanted. It could be any kind of fiction, poetry or play. It could include works like love stories, mysteries or science fiction. The researchers compared the results with findings from nineteen-eighty-two and nineteen-ninety-two. Women read more literature than men. But the research shows that men and women are both reading less and less. Twenty years ago, people between the ages of eighteen and forty-four read more literature than any other age groups. But the new study shows an increasingly sharp loss of interest in reading among young adults. Researchers say the only people who read less literature in two-thousand-two were those age sixty-five and older. VOICE ONE: The poet Dana Gioia is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mister Gioia says all groups in America are reading less, and not just less literature. In nineteen-ninety-two, sixty-one percent of adults read a book. In two-thousand-two, it was fifty-seven percent. The average number of books read was eighteen. But some people read a lot more than others. Among readers of literature, almost half read novels or short stories in two-thousand-two. Twelve percent read poetry. Four percent read a play. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: “Reading at Risk” notes that the book industry in the United States now sells three times as many books as it did twenty-five years ago. In two-thousand the industry sold more than two thousand million books. Book sales are up. But the report shows that people are reading less for pleasure. And it says one reason is competition from technology. The report lists how Americans divide their spending on things like entertainment. In nineteen-ninety, they spent six percent on audio and video recordings and on computers and software. They spent almost as much, five-point-seven percent, on books. By two-thousand-two, five-point-six percent went to book buying. Twenty-four percent went to electronics. But some people do use technology to listen to recordings of books or read electronic versions. VOICE ONE: In the words of Dana Gioia, the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts: "This report documents a national crisis." Yet there are some who say Americans should not read too much into the importance of the warnings. Charles McGrath is former editor of the Book Review at The New York Times. The newspaper published a commentary in which Mister McGrath noted that the study dealt only with literature. He said he regrets that the research did not include works of non-fiction. After all, he says, some books about facts and events are very important for the information they provide. For example, he says recent books about the war in Iraq are shaping national debate. Also, Mister McGrath noted that the report did not consider magazines, newspapers or the Internet. And this literary critic criticized the fact that the people in the study could define literature any way they wished. They were told they did not have to include “just what literary critics might consider literature.” VOICE TWO: While Americans are reading less literature, more are trying to write it. “Reading at Risk” says creative writing is one of the few literary activities that have increased. And editors like David Green are trying to help people get their work printed. For many years, he has published a small magazine of short stories called Green's Magazine. Mister Green says it is costly to produce and mail four times a year. A few thousand Americans and Canadians buy it. But he says one reason he started the publication was to help beginning writers. He says it has always been difficult for new writers to find a publisher. Today, though, writers who cannot get their work published by a traditional publishing company can place their work on the Internet. That way, people can read it online or print out a copy. Some people who publish on the Internet are far from unknown. The writer Stephen King published “Riding the Bullet” online. It cost only a little money to read. But he suspended publication of his next online book, “The Plant.” He did that because people were printing the book without paying. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: "Reading at Risk" says more than ninety percent of people said they like television better than reading. The average American family watches television more than three hours a day. The report says television has reduced interest in books. We talked to a professor who teaches literature in Maryland. She says many of her students do not want to read the books required in her classes. They try to read only notes and commentaries about the books instead. She says the problem is that college students these days grew up on television. VOICE TWO: Yet some television programs have influenced people to read. For example, Oprah Winfrey started a book club on her popular talk show. During the first Oprah’s Book Club, she chose a current book that she liked. She asked people to read the book and then write to her show with their thoughts and opinions. Oprah’s Book Club had a big effect on the publishing industry. Publishers had to print more copies of books to satisfy demand. People who wanted to borrow copies from a library sometimes found several hundred others before them on the waiting list. In two-thousand-two, Oprah Winfrey decided to drop the book club from her television show. Now, however, she is again suggesting books. This time, she chooses classics. Her choice of “Anna Karenina” made this Russian classic an American best seller. Leo Tolstoy wrote it in the eighteen-seventies. VOICE ONE: Many Americans form their own book clubs. Members might be friends from work. Or they might live near each other. Most groups read the same book at the same time. Then they meet to discuss it. Some people discuss books over the Internet. Some book groups read only literary novels by great writers. Or they might read the works of only one writer. Members of a book club in the state of Georgia choose books of special interest to African Americans. Members of another Georgia book club each read different books. Then they give a report to the others. Children belong to reading clubs, too. In Illinois, for example, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago has organized book clubs in schools. Children’s book clubs can get help from the Great Books Foundation. This organization provides lists of books to read and also sells collected stories. It also trains people to lead discussions about the books. VOICE TWO: The National Endowment for the Arts says the move toward electronic media for entertainment and information is not good news for society. Its report, “Reading at Risk,” says readers are more active in their communities. The research shows that people who read literature are far more likely than non-readers to give their time to help others. They are more likely to support the arts. They are also more likely to attend sporting events. In other words, reading influences people’s lives beyond just the pleasure that books provide. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-02-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Fighting Malaria, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 2, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. African baby stricken with malaria Broadcast: August 2, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Today we report on some national programs against malaria. In Zambia, the disease killed at least twenty thousand children in two-thousand-one. Now Zambia has money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This money is to buy new and more costly medicines that treat malaria. Government and private groups are both involved in this effort. Religious groups that provide health care are also giving people bed nets treated with chemicals. These kill the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Tanzania became the first government in Africa to end all taxes on treated bed nets. Pregnant women will receive one free of charge. Local stores will get money for the nets from an organization financed by the Global Fund. Nearly all the nets used are made in Tanzania. Officials say seventy percent of homes in Tanzania should have at least one chemically treated bed net by two-thousand-six. The United States Agency for International Development has a program called NetMark. The purpose is to make treated nets easier to get in several African countries. These include Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. More than six hundred thousand bed nets were purchased in these countries through NetMark in two-thousand-two. It is important to treat the nets with chemicals again after six months. So NetMark also makes that possible. In addition, a mining company in Zambia developed a chemical to be sprayed in five cities to kill mosquitoes. Experts say these ways to fight malaria are already working in Vietnam. Local health care workers are trained to recognize and treat the infection quickly. Pregnant women get medicine to prevent malaria, and families receive free bed nets. Health workers in Vietnam hope to reduce deaths from malaria by fifty percent over the next five years. In Sri Lanka, a local group called the Sarvodaya Malaria Project prints materials about the disease. Children receive the information in school. Also, workers spray houses and plants to kill mosquitoes. Workers close unused wells and waterways where the insects can lay eggs. Health workers in Sri Lanka visit houses in villages. They make sure families all know how to use nets on their beds, and how to re-treat them. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. Today we report on some national programs against malaria. In Zambia, the disease killed at least twenty thousand children in two-thousand-one. Now Zambia has money from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This money is to buy new and more costly medicines that treat malaria. Government and private groups are both involved in this effort. Religious groups that provide health care are also giving people bed nets treated with chemicals. These kill the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Tanzania became the first government in Africa to end all taxes on treated bed nets. Pregnant women will receive one free of charge. Local stores will get money for the nets from an organization financed by the Global Fund. Nearly all the nets used are made in Tanzania. Officials say seventy percent of homes in Tanzania should have at least one chemically treated bed net by two-thousand-six. The United States Agency for International Development has a program called NetMark. The purpose is to make treated nets easier to get in several African countries. These include Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal. More than six hundred thousand bed nets were purchased in these countries through NetMark in two-thousand-two. It is important to treat the nets with chemicals again after six months. So NetMark also makes that possible. In addition, a mining company in Zambia developed a chemical to be sprayed in five cities to kill mosquitoes. Experts say these ways to fight malaria are already working in Vietnam. Local health care workers are trained to recognize and treat the infection quickly. Pregnant women get medicine to prevent malaria, and families receive free bed nets. Health workers in Vietnam hope to reduce deaths from malaria by fifty percent over the next five years. In Sri Lanka, a local group called the Sarvodaya Malaria Project prints materials about the disease. Children receive the information in school. Also, workers spray houses and plants to kill mosquitoes. Workers close unused wells and waterways where the insects can lay eggs. Health workers in Sri Lanka visit houses in villages. They make sure families all know how to use nets on their beds, and how to re-treat them. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 4, 2004 (MUSIC) The Rings of Saturn Broadcast: August 4, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a new satellite that will be used to examine the health of Earth’s atmosphere. We report about thousands of meteors that have already begun to provide a show in the night sky. We report about beautiful color photographs of the rings that surround the Planet Saturn. And we begin with the latest news from the two American Space Agency devices that are exploring the planet Mars. NASA's Aura Satellite VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a new satellite that will be used to examine the health of Earth’s atmosphere. We report about thousands of meteors that have already begun to provide a show in the night sky. We report about beautiful color photographs of the rings that surround the Planet Saturn. And we begin with the latest news from the two American Space Agency devices that are exploring the planet Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The NASA exploration vehicles on Mars continue to provide information about the red planet. The vehicle named Spirit is climbing an area called the Columbia Hills. Spirit has already traveled more than three-and-one-half kilometers across the surface of Mars. This is more than six times the distance NASA had planned for Spirit to travel. The increased distance has led to some problems with Spirit’s right front wheel. The wheel does not turn as freely as Spirit’s other five wheels. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists who control Spirit have decided to make it travel backwards on five wheels to rest the problem wheel. The sixth wheel now will only be used to cross very difficult surface areas. Joe Melko is a NASA engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Melko says using only five wheels will make Spirit travel much more slowly. However, he says this method will permit NASA to continue doing science work with the vehicle much longer than was thought possible. VOICE ONE: As Spirit continues to drive up the Columbia Hills, the exploration vehicle named Opportunity is traveling deeper into a large hole. The hole is called Endurance Crater. It is in the area of Mars called Meridiani Planum. Instruments on Opportunity show the element chlorine is present in the huge hole. Scientists want to know how it got there. They also want to know which elements the chlorine is linked to. Opportunity will continue on this path to discover more about the chlorine. Scientists also want Opportunity to inspect a row of sharp rocks that look like teeth. Scientists believe this unusual area was formed when liquid moved over the ground. VOICE TWO: NASA officials are also preparing the two exploration vehicles for the coming of the Martian winter. The middle of winter on Mars is in September. There is less daily sunshine during winter. This means the rovers’ solar cells will be able to collect much less sunlight to make electric power. NASA officials say they must plan now for longer rest periods for the vehicles if they are to keep working through the winter. NASA officials say the two vehicles will work a little less each day to permit them to collect more sunlight for energy. Or perhaps the vehicles will work every other day while their solar cells produce and store electric power during a longer rest period. The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed on the planet in January. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cassini spacecraft has sent back to Earth beautiful color photographs of the famous rings of the planet Saturn. Cassini made the photographs on June twenty-first, a few days before it flew into orbit around the huge planet. The photographs show that the famous rings are many different colors. They include the color of sand and many shades of brown, gray and pink. Scientists have color photographs of the rings that were taken in the past. These include some taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager spacecraft. In the nineteen-eighties, two Voyager spacecraft flew near Saturn. So did Pioneer Eleven in nineteen-seventy-nine. The photographs sent back to Earth by those spacecraft raised many questions for scientists. The questions include: How many rings surround the planet? What effect do Saturn’s many moons have on the rings? The scientists had to wait twenty-five years for a chance to answer these questions. The photographs sent to Earth by Cassini are the beginning of a four-year study of Saturn, its rings and its moons. Scientists say many questions about the planet will be answered soon. VOICE TWO: Scientists say most evidence shows that the many rings of Saturn are made mostly of water ice. But pure water ice is white. So scientists believe that the many colors of the rings are the result of different amounts of other materials. They say the colors could be caused by small amounts of rock, carbon or other materials. In the near future the scientific instruments on Cassini will be able to help scientists learn what the rings are really made of. VOICE ONE: If you have a computer than can link with the Internet, you too can see the Cassini photographs of the huge rings. You can also see photographs of some of Saturn’s moons. The Internet address is www.nasa.gov/cassini. That Internet address again is www.nasa.gov/cassini. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A spacecraft named Aura was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California July fifteenth. Aura is NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite. NASA hopes it will help scientists understand and protect the air we breathe. Aura was designed to send back information about the quality of air in our atmosphere. It will also be used to study the changes in Earth’s climate and how weather affects the atmosphere. The launch of Aura completes the first series of NASA’s Earth Observing System satellites. The other satellites are Terra, which observes the land, and Aqua, which observes the water on Earth. VOICE ONE: The new satellite carries four instruments. They are designed to study different parts of Earth’s atmosphere. Aura will study the atmosphere from the area where humans live to the stratosphere. This is the area where the ozone layer protects life on Earth. The protective ozone layer has been damaged in the past. Scientists hope the new Aura satellite will provide information to help them answer three important questions. The scientists want to find out if the ozone layer is repairing itself. They want to learn the process that controls air quality.And they want to learn how the Earth’s climate is changing. NASA expects the first answers to these questions within thirty to ninety days. The Aura satellite joins a total of twelve other science satellites that have been placed in orbit in the past ten years. All are now gathering information about the Earth. Ghassem Asrar is a NASA official for Earth Science. He said the new Aura satellite will lead to a much better understanding of Earth. Mister Asrar says it will also help us understand other planets in our solar system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the middle of July, Earth entered an area of space that is filled with very small pieces of rock, ice and other material. The comet named Swift-Tuttle is leaving behind this material as it passes near Earth. Millions of pieces of this material are hitting the Earth’s atmosphere. When they do, they appear as a quickly drawn line of light moving across the night sky. Each bright line of light is the material burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. VOICE ONE: The event happens each year and is called the Perseid Meteor Shower. It began slowly in the middle of July and will reach full strength about the eleventh or twelfth of August. Bill Cooke is with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. He says there is something added to the show this year. He says Earth will also pass through material left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet long ago. He says this material was left in space in about eighteen-sixty-two – during the American Civil War. Mister Cooke says the Earth will move into this cloud of material on the night of August eleventh. He says observers in Europe and Asia will see as many as two-hundred of the small lines of light each hour if they watch closely. The show will begin at about twenty-one-hours Universal Time. This show can only be seen by people who live well north of the Equator. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The NASA exploration vehicles on Mars continue to provide information about the red planet. The vehicle named Spirit is climbing an area called the Columbia Hills. Spirit has already traveled more than three-and-one-half kilometers across the surface of Mars. This is more than six times the distance NASA had planned for Spirit to travel. The increased distance has led to some problems with Spirit’s right front wheel. The wheel does not turn as freely as Spirit’s other five wheels. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists who control Spirit have decided to make it travel backwards on five wheels to rest the problem wheel. The sixth wheel now will only be used to cross very difficult surface areas. Joe Melko is a NASA engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Melko says using only five wheels will make Spirit travel much more slowly. However, he says this method will permit NASA to continue doing science work with the vehicle much longer than was thought possible. VOICE ONE: As Spirit continues to drive up the Columbia Hills, the exploration vehicle named Opportunity is traveling deeper into a large hole. The hole is called Endurance Crater. It is in the area of Mars called Meridiani Planum. Instruments on Opportunity show the element chlorine is present in the huge hole. Scientists want to know how it got there. They also want to know which elements the chlorine is linked to. Opportunity will continue on this path to discover more about the chlorine. Scientists also want Opportunity to inspect a row of sharp rocks that look like teeth. Scientists believe this unusual area was formed when liquid moved over the ground. VOICE TWO: NASA officials are also preparing the two exploration vehicles for the coming of the Martian winter. The middle of winter on Mars is in September. There is less daily sunshine during winter. This means the rovers’ solar cells will be able to collect much less sunlight to make electric power. NASA officials say they must plan now for longer rest periods for the vehicles if they are to keep working through the winter. NASA officials say the two vehicles will work a little less each day to permit them to collect more sunlight for energy. Or perhaps the vehicles will work every other day while their solar cells produce and store electric power during a longer rest period. The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed on the planet in January. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Cassini spacecraft has sent back to Earth beautiful color photographs of the famous rings of the planet Saturn. Cassini made the photographs on June twenty-first, a few days before it flew into orbit around the huge planet. The photographs show that the famous rings are many different colors. They include the color of sand and many shades of brown, gray and pink. Scientists have color photographs of the rings that were taken in the past. These include some taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Voyager spacecraft. In the nineteen-eighties, two Voyager spacecraft flew near Saturn. So did Pioneer Eleven in nineteen-seventy-nine. The photographs sent back to Earth by those spacecraft raised many questions for scientists. The questions include: How many rings surround the planet? What effect do Saturn’s many moons have on the rings? The scientists had to wait twenty-five years for a chance to answer these questions. The photographs sent to Earth by Cassini are the beginning of a four-year study of Saturn, its rings and its moons. Scientists say many questions about the planet will be answered soon. VOICE TWO: Scientists say most evidence shows that the many rings of Saturn are made mostly of water ice. But pure water ice is white. So scientists believe that the many colors of the rings are the result of different amounts of other materials. They say the colors could be caused by small amounts of rock, carbon or other materials. In the near future the scientific instruments on Cassini will be able to help scientists learn what the rings are really made of. VOICE ONE: If you have a computer than can link with the Internet, you too can see the Cassini photographs of the huge rings. You can also see photographs of some of Saturn’s moons. The Internet address is www.nasa.gov/cassini. That Internet address again is www.nasa.gov/cassini. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A spacecraft named Aura was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California July fifteenth. Aura is NASA’s newest Earth-observing satellite. NASA hopes it will help scientists understand and protect the air we breathe. Aura was designed to send back information about the quality of air in our atmosphere. It will also be used to study the changes in Earth’s climate and how weather affects the atmosphere. The launch of Aura completes the first series of NASA’s Earth Observing System satellites. The other satellites are Terra, which observes the land, and Aqua, which observes the water on Earth. VOICE ONE: The new satellite carries four instruments. They are designed to study different parts of Earth’s atmosphere. Aura will study the atmosphere from the area where humans live to the stratosphere. This is the area where the ozone layer protects life on Earth. The protective ozone layer has been damaged in the past. Scientists hope the new Aura satellite will provide information to help them answer three important questions. The scientists want to find out if the ozone layer is repairing itself. They want to learn the process that controls air quality.And they want to learn how the Earth’s climate is changing. NASA expects the first answers to these questions within thirty to ninety days. The Aura satellite joins a total of twelve other science satellites that have been placed in orbit in the past ten years. All are now gathering information about the Earth. Ghassem Asrar is a NASA official for Earth Science. He said the new Aura satellite will lead to a much better understanding of Earth. Mister Asrar says it will also help us understand other planets in our solar system. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the middle of July, Earth entered an area of space that is filled with very small pieces of rock, ice and other material. The comet named Swift-Tuttle is leaving behind this material as it passes near Earth. Millions of pieces of this material are hitting the Earth’s atmosphere. When they do, they appear as a quickly drawn line of light moving across the night sky. Each bright line of light is the material burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. VOICE ONE: The event happens each year and is called the Perseid Meteor Shower. It began slowly in the middle of July and will reach full strength about the eleventh or twelfth of August. Bill Cooke is with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. He says there is something added to the show this year. He says Earth will also pass through material left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet long ago. He says this material was left in space in about eighteen-sixty-two – during the American Civil War. Mister Cooke says the Earth will move into this cloud of material on the night of August eleventh. He says observers in Europe and Asia will see as many as two-hundred of the small lines of light each hour if they watch closely. The show will begin at about twenty-one-hours Universal Time. This show can only be seen by people who live well north of the Equator. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - New Alzheimer’s Drugs Tested
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 4, 2004 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say two experimental drugs may be able to slow or even stop the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. This condition kills brain cells. People over the age of sixty-five have an increased risk of developing it. So do people with a family history of the disease. Scientists announced new findings during an international conference last month in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Alzheimer’s Association organized the meeting. The new experimental drugs are designed to interfere with a protein called beta-amyloid. This protein sticks together. It forms areas of plaque found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Many scientists believe it kills brain cells. Scientists at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., tested a drug called Alzhemed. The study involved two groups of people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. One group took Alzhemed. The other took an inactive substance. Neither group knew which one they got. The scientists say the group treated with the drug had a sharp drop in the level of beta-amyloid in spinal fluid from the brain. No changes were reported in the other group. Doctor Paul Aisen led the study. He said people who started with mild Alzheimer’s suffered no further memory loss after a year on the drug. He said there were no serious side effects. This drug is now in final testing. The other experimental drug is a compound known as l-y-four-five-oh-one-three-nine. This is designed to block the formation of enzymes that produce beta-amyloid. Researchers from Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, led this study. It involved thirty-seven healthy adults over forty-five years old. The researchers say levels of beta-amyloid in the blood fell after the group took the experimental drug for two weeks. They say greater amounts of the drug led to greater reductions. Experts say more than fifteen million people around the world have Alzheimer’s disease. These include four million Americans. Scientists are not sure what causes it. But they believe that genetic and environmental influences are both involved. Alzheimer's disease begins with mild memory loss. It gets worse and worse, until it robs people of their mind. Current drugs mostly treat only the signs of the condition. But they do not stop the disease or cure it. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #7, Getting a GED Certificate
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast May 6, 2004] This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Another school year is nearing an end in the United States. Students are preparing for their final examinations in the coming weeks. Those in their last year of high school are planning for their graduation ceremonies and parties. But not all young people graduate from high school. The results of their decision to leave school early may follow them throughout their lives. Students who leave are not likely to be as successful in life as those who finish at least high school. Since the nineteen-forties, students who do not complete high school have had another choice. This is a certificate called the G.E.D. G.E.D. is short for General Educational Development. People who have earned a G.E.D. can get admitted to college and continue their education. To earn a G.E.D., students must pass five examinations. These are in writing, social studies, science, reading and mathematics. Testing officials say a person who passes the test is at the same level as sixty percent of graduating high school students. This is in the level of ability to read, write, work with numbers and understand information. Each year, more than five-hundred-thousand people take the G.E.D. examinations. About seventy percent pass. But research has shown that only about eleven percent of G.E.D. holders complete a year or more of higher education. Some critics say earning a G.E.D. is not as good as completing high school. They say the test does not force people to study the way they have to in order to graduate. Critics say this is one reason G.E.D. holders generally do not stay in college. They also say the possibility of taking the G.E.D. test makes it easier for students to leave high school early. Critics argue that the easier it is to take the test, the higher the rate of students leaving school. Testing officials have made changes in recent years designed to make the exams more difficult. And both critics and supporters of the G.E.D. agree that it performs a valuable service for those who can go on to complete college. Successful G.E.D. holders include the actor Bill Cosby, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Comprehension Questions: 1. What are students able to do if they pass the GED examination? 2. How many students take it per year? 3. What subjects does the GED test? 4. How many GED holders complete a year or more of college? 5. Give two of the criticisms of the GED system. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #8, Road Safety Campaign
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: April 26, 2004] This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has called for a campaign to improve road safety. The U-N General Assembly met earlier this month to discuss the issue. This was the first time the one hundred ninety one members have held a meeting to consider the problem of road safety. The General Assembly invited the World Health Organization to lead the campaign. The World Health Organization is a U.N. agency. World Health Day this year also centered on road safety. On April seventh, the W.H.O. and the World Bank released the "World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention." The report estimates that road traffic kills more than one-million people a year. Between twenty million and fifty million more are injured. Road crashes are a leading cause of death among people age five to forty-four. The economic loss is huge. The report says road injuries cost one to two percent of national earnings in many less developed nations. In rich countries, the people most at risk of traffic injuries are drivers and passengers. However, in poor nations, fewer people have money for a car. So people walking along roads or riding bicycles or motorcycles are among those at greatest risk. So are those using public transportation. The report suggests ways to improve road safety. These suggestions are directed at governments, international organizations and others. For example, the report calls for a government agency in each country to coordinate efforts to improve national road safety. The report also calls for stronger traffic laws and stronger enforcement. It urges more education about the need to use safety equipment like seatbelts. And it calls for teaching more about the dangers of driving too fast and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The report notes that efforts have been made in some parts of the world to improve road safety. For example, it says rates of traffic injuries and deaths have dropped in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana and Thailand. Rates have also decreased in many Western nations. But the report warns about what could happen without immediate action. It estimates that by two thousand twenty, road traffic deaths in less developed countries will increase by eighty percent. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Comprehension Questions: 1. What U.N. organization is leading the campaign to improve road safety around the world? 2. A new report says road accidents kill how many people each year? How many others are injured? 3. What steps does the report call for to improve road safety? 4. Name two countries that have succeeded in reducing the number of traffic injuries and deaths in recent years. 5. The report says that without immediate action, road traffic deaths will increase in developing countries by how much? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #9, Teacher of the Year
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: April 29, 2004] This is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Education Report. A teacher of English as a second language is the two-thousand-four Teacher of the Year in the United States. Kathy Mellor of Rhode Island will spend the next year as an international spokeswoman for education. President Bush and his wife, Laura, honored her during a ceremony at the White House last week. For the past nineteen years, Kathy Mellor has taught English as a second language at Davisville Middle School. Davisville Middle School is in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, in the northeastern United States. Mizz Mellor redesigned the program for E.S.L. students at her school. She designed a program to provide each student with one to three periods per day in classes for English learners. How much instruction the students get depends on their level of skill in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The amount of time they spend in these classes is reduced as their level of English increases. They spend more and more time in classes with native speakers until they no longer need E.S.L. instruction. Another teacher describes this as the most successful E.S.L. program in North Kingstown. She also praises Kathy Mellor for providing help to students and their families. Kathy Mellor formed a local parents group for speakers of other languages. This improved their ability to help their children. One parent of a former student praised Kathy Mellor for her understanding of the difficulties in learning a new language. She says Mizz Mellor was always there to answer any questions the family had. And she says Mizz Mellor urges her students and their families to speak their first language at home and not forget their culture. Kathy Mellor was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned a master’s degree in education from Rhode Island College. Later she earned a master’s from Brown University. She studied teaching English as a second language. She was chosen for the national honor of Teacher of the Year from among top teachers in each of the fifty states. The Council of Chief State School Officers and the children's book publisher Scholastic organize the program. As Teacher of the Year, Kathy Mellor will travel around the United States and to other countries. She will talk about the importance of education and the work of teachers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Faith Lapidus. Comprehension Questions: 1. Who is the 2004 Teacher of the Year? Where does she live? 2. What will she be doing for the next year? 3. What new program did she design for her students? 4. How did she involve parents in their children's learning? 5. Who organizes the Teacher of the Year program? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-04-4-1.cfm
* Headline: READING EXERCISE - Test Your Understanding #10, Children & Television
* Byline: 

 [Broadcast: April 15, 2004] This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new study suggests that very young children who watch a lot of television may have attention problems later in school. Children with attention problems cannot sit still or control their actions. They talk too much, lose things, forget easily and are not able to finish tasks. People with attention problems may suffer a condition known as attention deficit disorder, or A.D.D. Experts say the cause of A.D.D involves chemicals in the brain. Teachers say many children in the United States are showing signs of the disorder. Some education researchers have been saying for years that watching television at a very young age could change the normal development of the brain. For example, they say that children who watch a lot of television are not able to sit and read for an extended period of time. The new study tested the idea that television watching by very young children is linked to attention problems by the age of seven. It involved more than one thousand three hundred children. There were two groups of children, ages one and three. Researchers at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, Washington reported the results in the publication Pediatrics. They asked the parents how often the children watched television. The parents also described their children’s actions at the age of seven using a method that can tell if someone suffers attention deficit disorders. The children who watched a lot of television at an early age were most likely to have attention problems. Every hour of watching television increased the chances of having attention problems by about ten per cent. For example, children who watched three hours a day were thirty percent more likely to have attention problems than those who watched no television. The researchers say that all the children with attention problems might not have A.D.D. But they still could face major learning problems in school. The findings support advice by a group of children’s doctors that children under the age of two should not watch television. One of the researchers said there are other reasons why children should not watch television. Earlier studies have linked it with children becoming too fat and too aggressive. Other experts say the new study is important, but more work needs to be done to confirm the findings and better explain the cause and effect. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Comprehension Questions: 1. A new study suggests that doing what can cause attention problems later in life? 2. What are some signs of attention problems? 3. What do many experts believe is the cause of attention defecit disorder, or ADD? 4. Children who watch five hours of television a day could be expected to have how much of an increase in the risk of attention problems? 5. What other reasons do researchers give to limit the amount of time children watch television? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-04-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Polk, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) In the middle eighteen-forties, the United States offered to buy California from Mexico. The government of Mexico refused to negotiate. American President James Polk felt that the use of force was the only way to make Mexico negotiate. So, in the spring of eighteen-forty-six, he ordered American soldiers to the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande formed part of the border between the United States and Mexico. VOICE TWO: General Zachary Taylor commanded the American force. He sent one of his officers across the river to meet with Mexican officials. The Mexicans protested the movement of the American troops to the Rio Grande. They said the area was Mexican territory. The movement of American troops there, they said, was an act of war. For almost a month, the Americans and the Mexicans kept their positions. Then, on April twenty-fifth, General Taylor received word that a large Mexican force had crossed the border a few kilometers up the river. A small force of American soldiers went to investigate. They were attacked. All were killed, wounded, or captured. General Taylor quickly sent a message to President Polk in Washington. It said war had begun. VOICE ONE: The message arrived at the White House on May ninth. A few days later, President Polk asked Congress to recognize that war had started. He asked Congress to give him everything he needed to win the war and bring peace to the area. A few members of Congress did not want to declare war against Mexico. They believed the United States was responsible for the situation along the Rio Grande. They were out-voted. President Polk signed the war bill. Later, Polk wrote: "We had not gone to war for conquest. But it was clear that in making peace we would, if possible, get California and other parts of Mexico." VOICE TWO: Many Americans opposed what they called "Mr. Polk's war." Whig Party members and Abolitionists in the north believed that slave-owners and southerners in Polk's administration had planned the war. They believed the south wanted to win Mexican territory for the purpose of spreading and strengthening slavery. President Polk was troubled by this opposition. But he did not think the war would last long. He thought the United States could quickly force Mexico to sell him the territory he wanted. Polk secretly sent a representative to former Mexican dictator Santa Ana. Santa Ana was living in exile in Cuba. Polk's representative said the United States wanted to buy California and some other Mexican territory. Santa Ana said he would agree to the sale, if the United States would help him return to power. VOICE ONE: President Polk ordered the United States navy to let Santa Ana return to Mexico. American ships that blocked the port of Vera Cruz permitted the Mexican dictator to land there. Once Santa Ana returned, he failed to honor his promises to Polk. He refused to end the war and sell California. Instead, Santa Ana organized an army to fight the United States. American General Zachary Taylor moved against the Mexicans. He crossed the Rio Grande River. He marched toward Monterrey, the major trading and transportation center of northeast Mexico. The battle for Monterrey lasted three days. The Mexicans surrendered. VOICE TWO: Then General Taylor got orders to send most of his forces back to the coast. They were to join other American forces for the invasion of Vera Cruz. While this was happening, Santa Ana was moving his army north. In four months, he had built an army of twenty-thousand men. When General Taylor learned that Santa Ana was preparing to attack, he left Vera Cruz. He moved his forces into a position to fight Santa Ana. VOICE ONE: Santa Ana sent a representative to meet with General Taylor. The representative said the American force had one hour to surrender. Taylor's answer was short: "Tell Santa Ana to go to hell." The battle between the United States and Mexican forces lasted two days. Losses were heavy on both sides. On the second night, Santa Ana's army withdrew from the battlefield. Taylor had won another victory. VOICE TWO: Other American forces were victorious, too. General Winfield Scott had captured the port of Vera Cruz and was ready to attack Mexico City. Commodore Robert Stockton had invaded California and had raised the American flag over the territory. Stephen Kearny had seized Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, without firing a shot. Still, the war was not over. President Polk's "short" war already had lasted for more than a year. Polk decided to send a special diplomatic representative to Mexico. He gave the diplomat the power to negotiate a peace treaty whenever Mexico wanted to stop fighting. VOICE ONE: A ceasefire was declared. But attempts to negotiate a peace treaty failed. Santa Ana tried to use the ceasefire to prepare for more fighting. So General Scott ended the ceasefire. His men began their attack on Mexico City. The fighting lasted one week. The government of Mexico surrendered. Santa Ana stepped down as president. Manuel de la Pena y Pena -- president of the supreme court -- became acting president. VOICE TWO: On February second, eighteen-forty-eight, the United States and Mexico signed a peace treaty. Mexico agreed to give up California and New Mexico. It would recognize the Rio Grande River as the southern border of Texas. The United States would pay Mexico fifteen-million dollars. It also would pay more than three-million dollars in damage claims that Mexico owed American citizens. The terms of the treaty were those set by President Polk. Yet he was not satisfied with just California and New Mexico. He wanted even more territory. But he realized he probably would have to fight for it. And he did not think Congress would agree to extend the war. So polk sent the peace treaty to the Senate. It was approved. The mexican Congress also approved it. The war was officially over. VOICE ONE: The United States now faced the problem of what to do with the new lands. President Polk wanted to form territorial governments in California and New Mexico. He asked Congress for immediate permission to do that. But the question of slavery delayed quick congressional action. Should the new territories be opened or closed to slavery. Southerners argued that they had the right to take slaves into the new territories. Northerners disagreed. They opposed any further spread of slavery. The real question was this: did Congress have the power to control or bar slavery in the territories. VOICE TWO: Until Texas became a state, almost all national leaders seemed to accept the idea that Congress did have this power. For fifty years, Congress had passed resolutions and laws controlling slavery in United States territories. Northerners believed Congress received the power from the constitution. Southern slave owners disagreed. They believed the power to control slavery remained with the states. VOICE ONE: There were some who thought the earlier Missouri Compromise could be used to settle the issue of slavery in California, Oregon, and New Mexico. They proposed that the line of the Missouri Compromise be pushed west, all the way to the Pacific Coast. Territory north of the line would be free of slavery. South of the line, slavery would be permitted. Everyone agreed that governments had to be organized in the territories. But there seemed to be no way to settle the issue of slavery. Then a Senator from Delaware agreed to be chairman of a special committee on the question of slavery in the new territories. The Senate committee included four Whigs and four Democrats. North and south were equally represented. Within six days, the committee had agreed on a compromise bill. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Broadcast: August 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) In the middle eighteen-forties, the United States offered to buy California from Mexico. The government of Mexico refused to negotiate. American President James Polk felt that the use of force was the only way to make Mexico negotiate. So, in the spring of eighteen-forty-six, he ordered American soldiers to the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande formed part of the border between the United States and Mexico. VOICE TWO: General Zachary Taylor commanded the American force. He sent one of his officers across the river to meet with Mexican officials. The Mexicans protested the movement of the American troops to the Rio Grande. They said the area was Mexican territory. The movement of American troops there, they said, was an act of war. For almost a month, the Americans and the Mexicans kept their positions. Then, on April twenty-fifth, General Taylor received word that a large Mexican force had crossed the border a few kilometers up the river. A small force of American soldiers went to investigate. They were attacked. All were killed, wounded, or captured. General Taylor quickly sent a message to President Polk in Washington. It said war had begun. VOICE ONE: The message arrived at the White House on May ninth. A few days later, President Polk asked Congress to recognize that war had started. He asked Congress to give him everything he needed to win the war and bring peace to the area. A few members of Congress did not want to declare war against Mexico. They believed the United States was responsible for the situation along the Rio Grande. They were out-voted. President Polk signed the war bill. Later, Polk wrote: "We had not gone to war for conquest. But it was clear that in making peace we would, if possible, get California and other parts of Mexico." VOICE TWO: Many Americans opposed what they called "Mr. Polk's war." Whig Party members and Abolitionists in the north believed that slave-owners and southerners in Polk's administration had planned the war. They believed the south wanted to win Mexican territory for the purpose of spreading and strengthening slavery. President Polk was troubled by this opposition. But he did not think the war would last long. He thought the United States could quickly force Mexico to sell him the territory he wanted. Polk secretly sent a representative to former Mexican dictator Santa Ana. Santa Ana was living in exile in Cuba. Polk's representative said the United States wanted to buy California and some other Mexican territory. Santa Ana said he would agree to the sale, if the United States would help him return to power. VOICE ONE: President Polk ordered the United States navy to let Santa Ana return to Mexico. American ships that blocked the port of Vera Cruz permitted the Mexican dictator to land there. Once Santa Ana returned, he failed to honor his promises to Polk. He refused to end the war and sell California. Instead, Santa Ana organized an army to fight the United States. American General Zachary Taylor moved against the Mexicans. He crossed the Rio Grande River. He marched toward Monterrey, the major trading and transportation center of northeast Mexico. The battle for Monterrey lasted three days. The Mexicans surrendered. VOICE TWO: Then General Taylor got orders to send most of his forces back to the coast. They were to join other American forces for the invasion of Vera Cruz. While this was happening, Santa Ana was moving his army north. In four months, he had built an army of twenty-thousand men. When General Taylor learned that Santa Ana was preparing to attack, he left Vera Cruz. He moved his forces into a position to fight Santa Ana. VOICE ONE: Santa Ana sent a representative to meet with General Taylor. The representative said the American force had one hour to surrender. Taylor's answer was short: "Tell Santa Ana to go to hell." The battle between the United States and Mexican forces lasted two days. Losses were heavy on both sides. On the second night, Santa Ana's army withdrew from the battlefield. Taylor had won another victory. VOICE TWO: Other American forces were victorious, too. General Winfield Scott had captured the port of Vera Cruz and was ready to attack Mexico City. Commodore Robert Stockton had invaded California and had raised the American flag over the territory. Stephen Kearny had seized Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, without firing a shot. Still, the war was not over. President Polk's "short" war already had lasted for more than a year. Polk decided to send a special diplomatic representative to Mexico. He gave the diplomat the power to negotiate a peace treaty whenever Mexico wanted to stop fighting. VOICE ONE: A ceasefire was declared. But attempts to negotiate a peace treaty failed. Santa Ana tried to use the ceasefire to prepare for more fighting. So General Scott ended the ceasefire. His men began their attack on Mexico City. The fighting lasted one week. The government of Mexico surrendered. Santa Ana stepped down as president. Manuel de la Pena y Pena -- president of the supreme court -- became acting president. VOICE TWO: On February second, eighteen-forty-eight, the United States and Mexico signed a peace treaty. Mexico agreed to give up California and New Mexico. It would recognize the Rio Grande River as the southern border of Texas. The United States would pay Mexico fifteen-million dollars. It also would pay more than three-million dollars in damage claims that Mexico owed American citizens. The terms of the treaty were those set by President Polk. Yet he was not satisfied with just California and New Mexico. He wanted even more territory. But he realized he probably would have to fight for it. And he did not think Congress would agree to extend the war. So polk sent the peace treaty to the Senate. It was approved. The mexican Congress also approved it. The war was officially over. VOICE ONE: The United States now faced the problem of what to do with the new lands. President Polk wanted to form territorial governments in California and New Mexico. He asked Congress for immediate permission to do that. But the question of slavery delayed quick congressional action. Should the new territories be opened or closed to slavery. Southerners argued that they had the right to take slaves into the new territories. Northerners disagreed. They opposed any further spread of slavery. The real question was this: did Congress have the power to control or bar slavery in the territories. VOICE TWO: Until Texas became a state, almost all national leaders seemed to accept the idea that Congress did have this power. For fifty years, Congress had passed resolutions and laws controlling slavery in United States territories. Northerners believed Congress received the power from the constitution. Southern slave owners disagreed. They believed the power to control slavery remained with the states. VOICE ONE: There were some who thought the earlier Missouri Compromise could be used to settle the issue of slavery in California, Oregon, and New Mexico. They proposed that the line of the Missouri Compromise be pushed west, all the way to the Pacific Coast. Territory north of the line would be free of slavery. South of the line, slavery would be permitted. Everyone agreed that governments had to be organized in the territories. But there seemed to be no way to settle the issue of slavery. Then a Senator from Delaware agreed to be chairman of a special committee on the question of slavery in the new territories. The Senate committee included four Whigs and four Democrats. North and south were equally represented. Within six days, the committee had agreed on a compromise bill. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-04-6-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Duke University's iPod Experiment
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 5, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina recently announced a campaign to increase creative uses of technology in education. The university will provide each of its one-thousand-six-hundred first-year students with a digital device called an Apple iPod. Apple iPods are small devices that copy, save and play music and written material. Duke University officials say the iPods will contain information about the school that its new students need to know. The university is also establishing a special Duke Web site so the students can copy to their iPods information provided by their professors. University officials say the experiment is part of a cooperation program between Duke and the Apple Computer company. Each iPod sells for about three-hundred dollars in stores. The experiment will cost Duke about five-hundred-thousand dollars. That includes the costs of hiring a computer specialist, paying for a research study and buying the digital devices for the students. The students will be able to keep their iPods free of charge. But they must pay for replacements if the devices are lost or broken. Duke says it is providing only its first-year students with the devices as a way to control the experiment and make it easy to examine the results. Researchers will do the study after the students have used the iPods for one year. The university wants to know if the iPods help people take part in creative educational experiences. Officials say that success will be measured by the number of ways that Duke students and professors use iPod recordings for educational purposes. Duke officials say they expect the iPod experiment to get professors and students thinking creatively about how to use the devices. They expect students will develop new ways to use the iPod. For example, one official said the student newspaper could create a weekly editorial that students could listen to by using the devices. University officials also expect Duke professors to suggest their own ideas about new ways to use the devices. Officials say professors could use the iPods to add music or foreign languages to their classes. One Duke professor is already planning to have students use the iPods to record lectures, take notes, and record music and other information from experts. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: August 5, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina recently announced a campaign to increase creative uses of technology in education. The university will provide each of its one-thousand-six-hundred first-year students with a digital device called an Apple iPod. Apple iPods are small devices that copy, save and play music and written material. Duke University officials say the iPods will contain information about the school that its new students need to know. The university is also establishing a special Duke Web site so the students can copy to their iPods information provided by their professors. University officials say the experiment is part of a cooperation program between Duke and the Apple Computer company. Each iPod sells for about three-hundred dollars in stores. The experiment will cost Duke about five-hundred-thousand dollars. That includes the costs of hiring a computer specialist, paying for a research study and buying the digital devices for the students. The students will be able to keep their iPods free of charge. But they must pay for replacements if the devices are lost or broken. Duke says it is providing only its first-year students with the devices as a way to control the experiment and make it easy to examine the results. Researchers will do the study after the students have used the iPods for one year. The university wants to know if the iPods help people take part in creative educational experiences. Officials say that success will be measured by the number of ways that Duke students and professors use iPod recordings for educational purposes. Duke officials say they expect the iPod experiment to get professors and students thinking creatively about how to use the devices. They expect students will develop new ways to use the iPod. For example, one official said the student newspaper could create a weekly editorial that students could listen to by using the devices. University officials also expect Duke professors to suggest their own ideas about new ways to use the devices. Officials say professors could use the iPods to add music or foreign languages to their classes. One Duke professor is already planning to have students use the iPods to record lectures, take notes, and record music and other information from experts. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Electronic Games for Women / Newport Jazz Festival / Jesse Owens
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 6, 2004 HOST: John Coltrane Broadcast: August 6, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Girls and video games. Music from the Newport Jazz Festival. And a question about Jesse Owens, the black Olympian who competed in Nazi Germany. Females and Video Games Americans bought two hundred forty million computer and video games last year. All those electronic games added up to seven thousand million dollars in sales. Most of the game designers are male. Not surprisingly, so are most of the players. But as Bob Doughty reports, the industry says it wants to get more females interested and involved in its games. BOB DOUGHTY: Next month, the first National Women’s Game Conference will be held in Austin, Texas. The conference is for anyone interested in the video and computer game industry. Discussions will examine the part that women play in the industry and the job situation for them. Conference goers will also discuss how games present women. The event is being produced by an industry group called the Game Initiative. The Entertainment Software Association says thirty-nine percent of players are women. The average age of all players is twenty-nine. But experts say females enjoy different kinds of games than males do. Males generally like computer games with competition and some kind of violence. Females generally like games with cooperation and social interaction. One series of games that many girls and women do like to play is The Sims. Sims are simulated people. Players guide groups of these electronic people through different situations and decide what they will do. There are game titles like The Sims House Party and The Sims Hot Date. The company that produces them, Electronic Arts, says at least fifty percent of the players are women. A spokeswoman says the games are about building relationships, so they appeal to females. They must appeal to lots of players: The Sims is the best-selling computer game of all time. Jesse Owens DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Borno State, Nigeria. Adamu S. Onakpa asks about the life of American athlete Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens may be in the thoughts of some American athletes this summer. Those athletes are preparing for the summer Olympic Games that begin next week in Athens, Greece. Jesse Owens competed in the summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany in nineteen-thirty-six. Adolph Hitler was the leader of Germany at that time. He and his Nazi party believed that white people were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races were almost less than human, especially those with dark skin. Jesse Owens was a black American. He said that he was not thinking about Hitler or the Nazis during the week he competed in four track and field events in Berlin. He became the fastest runner in the world. Jesse Owens won the highest award – the Gold Medal -- in all four Olympic competitions he entered. He equaled the fastest time ever run in the one-hundred meter race. He set new Olympic records in the long jump and the two-hundred meter race. And he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race as part of a four-man team. He was the first American in the history of the Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics. Jesse Owens returned to the United States a hero. But he struggled financially all his life. Later, in a book about his life, Jesse Owens wrote about the beliefs that had helped him gain athletic success. He wrote that people have a chance to succeed if they believe they can do it and really try. He said a person would probably fail without that belief. Many other athletes also believe in themselves, and will try to become Olympic champions this month in Greece. In a few weeks, we will see if they succeed. For more information about the life of Jesse Owens, listen to the Special English program “People In America” broadcast on Sunday. Newport Jazz Festival DOUG JOHNSON: The Newport Jazz Festival is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. A party on August twelfth in Newport, Rhode Island, will honor many of the artists presented by the jazz festival over the years. And a special CD has been released. It is called “Happy Birthday Newport! Fifty Swinging Years.” Gwen Outen has more. GWEN OUTEN: The Newport Jazz Festival was the first jazz festival in America. It presented live jazz performances outdoors during the summer in Newport, Rhode Island. The first Newport Jazz Festival in nineteen-fifty-four was a huge success. Experts say it was one of the most important events in the history of jazz. In the past fifty years, the festival has presented some of the greatest American musicians. They include Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane. The CD “Happy Birthday Newport!” has twenty-seven songs recorded by famous jazz musicians. Here is Louis Armstrong and His All Stars performing “Tin Roof Blues.” It was recorded at Newport in nineteen-fifty-six. (MUSIC) The CD “Happy Birthday Newport!” also includes a small booklet. It has photographs of the jazz artists and notes about the songs and performers. George Wein [pronounced ween] wrote the booklet. He started the Newport Jazz Festival and continues to produce it. Ella Fitzgerald was one of the performers at the first Newport Jazz Festival. Here she sings “I’ve Got a Crush on You.” (MUSIC) George Wein says there are now probably one-thousand jazz festivals around the world. He says this year’s Newport Jazz Festival is honoring John Coltrane. The saxophonist died in nineteen-sixty-seven. We leave you with the John Coltrane Quartet performing “My Favorite Things.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Girls and video games. Music from the Newport Jazz Festival. And a question about Jesse Owens, the black Olympian who competed in Nazi Germany. Females and Video Games Americans bought two hundred forty million computer and video games last year. All those electronic games added up to seven thousand million dollars in sales. Most of the game designers are male. Not surprisingly, so are most of the players. But as Bob Doughty reports, the industry says it wants to get more females interested and involved in its games. BOB DOUGHTY: Next month, the first National Women’s Game Conference will be held in Austin, Texas. The conference is for anyone interested in the video and computer game industry. Discussions will examine the part that women play in the industry and the job situation for them. Conference goers will also discuss how games present women. The event is being produced by an industry group called the Game Initiative. The Entertainment Software Association says thirty-nine percent of players are women. The average age of all players is twenty-nine. But experts say females enjoy different kinds of games than males do. Males generally like computer games with competition and some kind of violence. Females generally like games with cooperation and social interaction. One series of games that many girls and women do like to play is The Sims. Sims are simulated people. Players guide groups of these electronic people through different situations and decide what they will do. There are game titles like The Sims House Party and The Sims Hot Date. The company that produces them, Electronic Arts, says at least fifty percent of the players are women. A spokeswoman says the games are about building relationships, so they appeal to females. They must appeal to lots of players: The Sims is the best-selling computer game of all time. Jesse Owens DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Borno State, Nigeria. Adamu S. Onakpa asks about the life of American athlete Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens may be in the thoughts of some American athletes this summer. Those athletes are preparing for the summer Olympic Games that begin next week in Athens, Greece. Jesse Owens competed in the summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany in nineteen-thirty-six. Adolph Hitler was the leader of Germany at that time. He and his Nazi party believed that white people were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races were almost less than human, especially those with dark skin. Jesse Owens was a black American. He said that he was not thinking about Hitler or the Nazis during the week he competed in four track and field events in Berlin. He became the fastest runner in the world. Jesse Owens won the highest award – the Gold Medal -- in all four Olympic competitions he entered. He equaled the fastest time ever run in the one-hundred meter race. He set new Olympic records in the long jump and the two-hundred meter race. And he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race as part of a four-man team. He was the first American in the history of the Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics. Jesse Owens returned to the United States a hero. But he struggled financially all his life. Later, in a book about his life, Jesse Owens wrote about the beliefs that had helped him gain athletic success. He wrote that people have a chance to succeed if they believe they can do it and really try. He said a person would probably fail without that belief. Many other athletes also believe in themselves, and will try to become Olympic champions this month in Greece. In a few weeks, we will see if they succeed. For more information about the life of Jesse Owens, listen to the Special English program “People In America” broadcast on Sunday. Newport Jazz Festival DOUG JOHNSON: The Newport Jazz Festival is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. A party on August twelfth in Newport, Rhode Island, will honor many of the artists presented by the jazz festival over the years. And a special CD has been released. It is called “Happy Birthday Newport! Fifty Swinging Years.” Gwen Outen has more. GWEN OUTEN: The Newport Jazz Festival was the first jazz festival in America. It presented live jazz performances outdoors during the summer in Newport, Rhode Island. The first Newport Jazz Festival in nineteen-fifty-four was a huge success. Experts say it was one of the most important events in the history of jazz. In the past fifty years, the festival has presented some of the greatest American musicians. They include Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane. The CD “Happy Birthday Newport!” has twenty-seven songs recorded by famous jazz musicians. Here is Louis Armstrong and His All Stars performing “Tin Roof Blues.” It was recorded at Newport in nineteen-fifty-six. (MUSIC) The CD “Happy Birthday Newport!” also includes a small booklet. It has photographs of the jazz artists and notes about the songs and performers. George Wein [pronounced ween] wrote the booklet. He started the Newport Jazz Festival and continues to produce it. Ella Fitzgerald was one of the performers at the first Newport Jazz Festival. Here she sings “I’ve Got a Crush on You.” (MUSIC) George Wein says there are now probably one-thousand jazz festivals around the world. He says this year’s Newport Jazz Festival is honoring John Coltrane. The saxophonist died in nineteen-sixty-seven. We leave you with the John Coltrane Quartet performing “My Favorite Things.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - WTO Makes Progress on Doha Round of Talks
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 6, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Rich and poor nations have produced a new set of trade agreements at the World Trade Organization. The main issue for many developing countries was government support for farmers. Developing nations say rich nations give support called subsidies to farmers. They say this drives down the price of agricultural goods. Now, WTO members including Brazil, the European Union, Japan and the United States have agreed to reduce subsidies. The WTO General Council met last week in Geneva, Switzerland, to negotiate what is called the Doha Round of trade talks. This series of talks deals with more than forty trade issues in twelve areas. Members agreed to cut agricultural subsidies by twenty percent in the first year of the agreement. Export subsidies are to be completely ended in the future. Special consideration is given to developing countries. Some products are recognized as more important than others to a nation’s economy. The agreement notes the importance of cotton to developing countries. It says cotton trade will be dealt with in a different way from other agricultural issues. The agreement also calls for the highest import taxes on agricultural goods to be cut by the largest amount. In a victory for many developing countries, members voted not to deal with three of four so-called Singapore issues. These are trade issues that industrial nations wanted to negotiate as a group in this series of talks. They include easing trade restrictions, investment, competition policy and policies on how governments buy goods. Now, members will only negotiate easing trade restrictions in the Doha Round. Industrial countries also received something in the agreement. Members agreed to create a system for cutting import taxes on industrial goods over time. They also agreed to negotiate decreasing or ending some import taxes. Members agreed to provide a plan on how they can open their economies to service industries. Each nation must create a plan by May, two thousand five. WTO members also agreed not to ban foreign companies from any service industry. And they agreed to make it easier for their citizens to work in other countries. The WTO General Council plans to meet again in October. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – Sudan Update
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 7, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The United Nations is preparing to send a team of human rights observers to Sudan. Eight observers are expected in the capital on Sunday. Plans call for six of them to leave Khartoum and go to the Darfur area in western Sudan. The U.N. team will supervise efforts to disarm the pro-government groups known as the Janjaweed militias. Sudan and the United Nations signed an agreement this week about disarming the Arab fighters. The observers are to tell U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan if Sudan is making progress to improve security in Darfur. On Thursday, President Bush approved ninety-five million dollars in humanitarian aid. The United Nations says tens of thousands of people have been killed in Darfur in the past eighteen months. More than one million are homeless. Almost two hundred thousand have fled across the border into Chad. The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as ethnic cleansing. Fighting began in February of last year between the Janjaweed and two rebel groups of black African Muslims. The Sudanese government has denied that it supports the Arab fighters. But a U.N. investigator says there is no question that the government of Sudan is responsible for the killings of "large numbers of people." Asma Jahangir of Pakistan visited Sudan in June; she presented a report on Friday. She says there is great evidence that government forces and government-supported militias carried out the killing together. She says killings have also taken place in Upper Nile State. The U.N. investigator says the government is also largely responsible for the current humanitarian situation in Darfur. She says millions of people are at risk. She says many will likely die in the months to come from starvation or disease. Last week the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that called on the government to disarm the Janajweed within thirty days. If not, the resolution says Sudan is to face international action, but it does not say what kind. Some diplomats criticized the resolution as not strong enough. This week, thousands of Sudanese marched to the U.N. offices in Khartoum to protest the resolution. News reports said the government organized the protest. The African Union may increase its troop strength in Sudan to as many as two thousand peacekeepers. Three hundred soldiers are in Sudan now to enforce a cease-fire between the government and rebels in the south. Most people in the south are Christian or animist. The cease-fire comes after more than twenty years of civil war. Poor farmers in Darfur rebelled after the government agreed to share power and oil profits with the south in the future. The people of Darfur demanded the same treatment. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: August 7, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The United Nations is preparing to send a team of human rights observers to Sudan. Eight observers are expected in the capital on Sunday. Plans call for six of them to leave Khartoum and go to the Darfur area in western Sudan. The U.N. team will supervise efforts to disarm the pro-government groups known as the Janjaweed militias. Sudan and the United Nations signed an agreement this week about disarming the Arab fighters. The observers are to tell U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan if Sudan is making progress to improve security in Darfur. On Thursday, President Bush approved ninety-five million dollars in humanitarian aid. The United Nations says tens of thousands of people have been killed in Darfur in the past eighteen months. More than one million are homeless. Almost two hundred thousand have fled across the border into Chad. The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as ethnic cleansing. Fighting began in February of last year between the Janjaweed and two rebel groups of black African Muslims. The Sudanese government has denied that it supports the Arab fighters. But a U.N. investigator says there is no question that the government of Sudan is responsible for the killings of "large numbers of people." Asma Jahangir of Pakistan visited Sudan in June; she presented a report on Friday. She says there is great evidence that government forces and government-supported militias carried out the killing together. She says killings have also taken place in Upper Nile State. The U.N. investigator says the government is also largely responsible for the current humanitarian situation in Darfur. She says millions of people are at risk. She says many will likely die in the months to come from starvation or disease. Last week the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that called on the government to disarm the Janajweed within thirty days. If not, the resolution says Sudan is to face international action, but it does not say what kind. Some diplomats criticized the resolution as not strong enough. This week, thousands of Sudanese marched to the U.N. offices in Khartoum to protest the resolution. News reports said the government organized the protest. The African Union may increase its troop strength in Sudan to as many as two thousand peacekeepers. Three hundred soldiers are in Sudan now to enforce a cease-fire between the government and rebels in the south. Most people in the south are Christian or animist. The cease-fire comes after more than twenty years of civil war. Poor farmers in Darfur rebelled after the government agreed to share power and oil profits with the south in the future. The people of Darfur demanded the same treatment. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA  - Jesse Owens
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 8, 2004 (MUSIC) Jesse Owens Broadcast: August 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Jesse Owens running the hurdles at Ohio State VOICE ONE: This is Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the summer of nineteen-thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Owens joined the best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Berlin, Germany. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people – were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- were almost less than human. In the summer of nineteen-thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition. After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man. VOICE TWO: Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen-thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Owens was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability. Owens spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler. Owens said later: "I was looking only at the finish line. I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me." VOICE ONE: We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games. The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully-built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany. Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the Gold Medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fastest time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. He was the first American in the history of Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics. VOICE TWO: Owens's Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job. For many years after the nineteen-thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against people, motorcycles and horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Poverty was not new to James Cleveland Owens. He was born in nineteen-thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel to heat the house in winter. Some of Jesse’s brothers and sisters died while still young. Jesse was a sickly child. Partly because of this, and partly because of the racial hatred they saw around them, Jesse’s parents decided to leave the South. They moved north, to Cleveland, Ohio, when Jesse was eight years old. The large family lived in a few small rooms in a part of the city that was neither friendly nor pleasant to look at. Jesse’s father was no longer young or strong. He was unable to find a good job. Most of the time, no one would give him any work at all. But Jesse’s older brothers were able to get jobs in factories. So life was a little better than it had been in the South. VOICE TWO: Jesse, especially, was lucky. He entered a school where one white teacher, Charles Riley, took a special interest in him. Jesse looked thin and unhealthy, and Riley wanted to make him stronger. Through the years that Jesse was in school, Riley brought him food in the morning. Riley often invited the boy to eat with his family in the evening. And every day before school, he taught Owens how to run like an athlete. At first, the idea was only to make the boy stronger. But soon Riley saw that Jesse was a champion. By the time Jesse had completed high school, his name was known across the nation. Ohio State University wanted him to attend college there. While at Ohio State, he set new world records in several track and field events. And he was accepted as a member of the United States Olympic team. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Owens always remembered the white man who helped change his life. Charles Riley did not seem to care what color a person's skin was. Owens learned to think the same way. Later in life, Owens put all his energy into working with young people. He wanted to tell them some of the things he had learned about life, work and success: That it is important to choose a goal and always work toward it. That there are good people in the world who will help you to reach your goal. That if you try again and again, you will succeed. People who heard Owens's speeches said he spoke almost as well as he ran. Owens received awards for his work with boys and girls. The United States government sent him around the world as a kind of sports ambassador. The International Olympic Committee asked for his advice. VOICE TWO: In about nineteen-seventy, Jesse Owens wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called “Blackthink.” In the book, Owens denounced young black militants who blamed society for their troubles. He said young black people had the same chance to succeed in the United States as white people. Many black civil rights activists reacted angrily to these statements. They said what Owens had written was not true for everyone. Owens later admitted that he had been wrong. He saw that not all blacks were given the same chances and help that he had been given. In a second book, Owens tried to explain what he had meant in his first book. He called it “I Have Changed.” Owens said that, in his earlier book, he did not write about life as it was for everyone, but about life as it was for him. He said he truly wanted to believe that if you think you can succeed--- and you really try -- then you have a chance. If you do not think you have a chance, then you probably will fail. He said these beliefs had worked for him. And he wanted all young people to believe them, too. VOICE ONE: These were the same beliefs he tried to express when he spoke around the world about being an Olympic athlete. "The road to the Olympics," he said, "leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads -- in the end -- to the best within us.” In nineteen-seventy-six, President Gerald Ford awarded Jesse Owens the Medal of Freedom. This is the highest honor an American civilian can receive. Jesse Owens died of cancer in nineteen-eighty. His family members operate the Jesse Owens Foundation. It provides financial aid and support for young people to help them reach their goals in life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Barbara Dash. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the summer of nineteen-thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Owens joined the best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Berlin, Germany. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people – were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- were almost less than human. In the summer of nineteen-thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition. After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man. VOICE TWO: Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen-thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Owens was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability. Owens spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler. Owens said later: "I was looking only at the finish line. I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me." VOICE ONE: We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games. The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully-built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany. Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the Gold Medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fastest time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. He was the first American in the history of Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics. VOICE TWO: Owens's Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job. For many years after the nineteen-thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against people, motorcycles and horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Poverty was not new to James Cleveland Owens. He was born in nineteen-thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel to heat the house in winter. Some of Jesse’s brothers and sisters died while still young. Jesse was a sickly child. Partly because of this, and partly because of the racial hatred they saw around them, Jesse’s parents decided to leave the South. They moved north, to Cleveland, Ohio, when Jesse was eight years old. The large family lived in a few small rooms in a part of the city that was neither friendly nor pleasant to look at. Jesse’s father was no longer young or strong. He was unable to find a good job. Most of the time, no one would give him any work at all. But Jesse’s older brothers were able to get jobs in factories. So life was a little better than it had been in the South. VOICE TWO: Jesse, especially, was lucky. He entered a school where one white teacher, Charles Riley, took a special interest in him. Jesse looked thin and unhealthy, and Riley wanted to make him stronger. Through the years that Jesse was in school, Riley brought him food in the morning. Riley often invited the boy to eat with his family in the evening. And every day before school, he taught Owens how to run like an athlete. At first, the idea was only to make the boy stronger. But soon Riley saw that Jesse was a champion. By the time Jesse had completed high school, his name was known across the nation. Ohio State University wanted him to attend college there. While at Ohio State, he set new world records in several track and field events. And he was accepted as a member of the United States Olympic team. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Owens always remembered the white man who helped change his life. Charles Riley did not seem to care what color a person's skin was. Owens learned to think the same way. Later in life, Owens put all his energy into working with young people. He wanted to tell them some of the things he had learned about life, work and success: That it is important to choose a goal and always work toward it. That there are good people in the world who will help you to reach your goal. That if you try again and again, you will succeed. People who heard Owens's speeches said he spoke almost as well as he ran. Owens received awards for his work with boys and girls. The United States government sent him around the world as a kind of sports ambassador. The International Olympic Committee asked for his advice. VOICE TWO: In about nineteen-seventy, Jesse Owens wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called “Blackthink.” In the book, Owens denounced young black militants who blamed society for their troubles. He said young black people had the same chance to succeed in the United States as white people. Many black civil rights activists reacted angrily to these statements. They said what Owens had written was not true for everyone. Owens later admitted that he had been wrong. He saw that not all blacks were given the same chances and help that he had been given. In a second book, Owens tried to explain what he had meant in his first book. He called it “I Have Changed.” Owens said that, in his earlier book, he did not write about life as it was for everyone, but about life as it was for him. He said he truly wanted to believe that if you think you can succeed--- and you really try -- then you have a chance. If you do not think you have a chance, then you probably will fail. He said these beliefs had worked for him. And he wanted all young people to believe them, too. VOICE ONE: These were the same beliefs he tried to express when he spoke around the world about being an Olympic athlete. "The road to the Olympics," he said, "leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads -- in the end -- to the best within us.” In nineteen-seventy-six, President Gerald Ford awarded Jesse Owens the Medal of Freedom. This is the highest honor an American civilian can receive. Jesse Owens died of cancer in nineteen-eighty. His family members operate the Jesse Owens Foundation. It provides financial aid and support for young people to help them reach their goals in life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Barbara Dash. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Gwen Outen. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Baseball and American Culture
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 9, 2004 (THEME) Jackie Robinson's Dodgers' Jersey (Image: www.baseballasamerica.org) Broadcast: August 9, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Gwen Outen. This week on our program -- baseball and American culture. A Little League batter gets ready for the pitch VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Gwen Outen. This week on our program -- baseball and American culture. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The game is traditionally known as America’s national pastime. The men who play it professionally are “the boys of summer.” Baseball is considered part of the American spirit. Books, songs, movies, plays, poems and lots of baseball terms have become part of the American experience. An exhibit called "Baseball as America" is currently on show at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It contains more than five-hundred historical items. Most come from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Many people believe that baseball first started in this small town in eighteen-thirty-nine. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-oh-five, a committee was appointed to study the history of baseball. It was called the Mills Commission. Three years later, the Mills Commission reported its findings. The report declared that a Civil War hero named Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown. Evidence collected by the commission showed that Doubleday modernized what started as a game of catch with as many as fifty players. The evidence showed that he reduced the number of players, added bases and created a playing area in the shape of a diamond. No one knows for sure exactly how baseball began. But a copy of the commission report can be seen in the exhibit at the Natural History Museum. So can one of the first baseballs used by Abner Doubleday. The ball was found in a farmhouse near Cooperstown in nineteen-thirty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Organized professional baseball started with the National League. Teams formed this league in eighteen-seventy-six. Baseball was supposed to stand for American beliefs like equality and the chance to succeed. But the sport was representative of society at the time. The National League was for white players only. By eighteen-eighty-eight, more than sixty black players were on minor league teams. Barred from the National League, black players joined what were called the Negro Leagues. Teams began to appear in black communities throughout the country. VOICE TWO: The unofficial ban against black players in the National League lasted seventy years. World War Two and the civil rights movement in the United States helped end the racial divisions in professional baseball. Jackie Robinson became the first black player to break the color barrier. The Brooklyn Dodgers accepted him to their team in nineteen forty-seven. Soon, other black players began to join major league teams. The "Baseball as America" exhibit includes a shirt, hat and glove that Jackie Robinson wore as a Brooklyn Dodger. Also included is an example of the hundreds of death threats and hate letters that he received. Blacks were not the only group excluded. Hispanic and Japanese players were also among those rejected. Yet white Americans were not the only ones who enjoyed baseball. The museum exhibit includes baseball equipment used by Japanese-Americans held at an interment camp during World War Two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ten President William Howard Taft started a custom. President Taft threw out the first pitch on opening day of the baseball season that year. Almost every president since then has continued the tradition of the opening day pitch. Signed baseballs thrown by Presidents Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight Eisenhower as part of the exhibit. So are baseballs thrown by Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and the first President George Bush. VOICE TWO: On December seventh, nineteen-forty-one, Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on the American Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As a result, the United States entered World War Two. The baseball season was suspended after the attack. Five weeks later, the head of Major League baseball asked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt if the season should continue. The president said yes. He wrote the baseball commissioner that the game was a way to raise American spirits. That letter from President Roosevelt is part of the "Baseball as America" exhibit. Other items from World War Two include objects from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was formed to help keep American spirits high during the war. At that time, some of baseball's most famous male players were away as pilots and soldiers. The war ended in nineteen-forty-five. The women's league ended in nineteen-fifty-four after it lost popularity. VOICE ONE: Major League baseball postponed games for one week after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Several weeks later, a New York City firefighter discovered a baseball in the ruins of the World Trade Center. That ball is also in the "Baseball as America" exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Baseball and a similar game, softball, are among the first sports that American children learn to play. Many children compete on teams through Little League programs. Boys and girls can play together on Little League teams. Little League Baseball began to accept girls in nineteen-seventy-four as a result of court action. That year, Little League also established a softball program. Girls and boys can play either baseball or softball, but most girls choose softball. There are more than seven thousand Little League programs in more than one hundred countries around the world. VOICE ONE: Children between the ages of five and eight often play a game called T-ball. T-ball is similar to baseball. However, the ball is not thrown to the hitter. Instead, the ball sits on a stick called a tee. The "Baseball as America" exhibit includes pictures of T-ball games on the grounds of the White House. Games take place there each month during the baseball season, which runs from April to October. President Bush started this tradition three years ago. Before he entered politics, he owned part of the Texas Rangers baseball team. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ten years ago, Major League baseball players went on strike over pay and other issues. Part of the nineteen-ninety-four season and all the championship games that year were cancelled. The start of the nineteen-ninety-five season was delayed. When play finally began, many people had lost interest. They thought players earned too much and cared too little about the fans. Public support for baseball was at an all-time low. VOICE ONE: The national pastime worked hard to save itself from becoming a game past its time. In nineteen-ninety-eight a homerun race between two players helped renew interest in baseball. That year Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa each broke the record for the most homeruns in one season. In nineteen-twenty-seven Babe Ruth set a record with sixty homeruns. That record stood for more than thirty years, until Roger Maris hit sixty-one. Sammy Sosa finished the nineteen-ninety-eight season with sixty-six homeruns. Mark McGwire had seventy. Now, their bats and the bats of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris are all part of "Baseball as America." VOICE TWO: The exhibit closes October third at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. But it will travel to other American cities through two-thousand-six. Internet users can find out more on the Web at baseballasamerica.org. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The game is traditionally known as America’s national pastime. The men who play it professionally are “the boys of summer.” Baseball is considered part of the American spirit. Books, songs, movies, plays, poems and lots of baseball terms have become part of the American experience. An exhibit called "Baseball as America" is currently on show at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It contains more than five-hundred historical items. Most come from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Many people believe that baseball first started in this small town in eighteen-thirty-nine. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-oh-five, a committee was appointed to study the history of baseball. It was called the Mills Commission. Three years later, the Mills Commission reported its findings. The report declared that a Civil War hero named Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown. Evidence collected by the commission showed that Doubleday modernized what started as a game of catch with as many as fifty players. The evidence showed that he reduced the number of players, added bases and created a playing area in the shape of a diamond. No one knows for sure exactly how baseball began. But a copy of the commission report can be seen in the exhibit at the Natural History Museum. So can one of the first baseballs used by Abner Doubleday. The ball was found in a farmhouse near Cooperstown in nineteen-thirty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Organized professional baseball started with the National League. Teams formed this league in eighteen-seventy-six. Baseball was supposed to stand for American beliefs like equality and the chance to succeed. But the sport was representative of society at the time. The National League was for white players only. By eighteen-eighty-eight, more than sixty black players were on minor league teams. Barred from the National League, black players joined what were called the Negro Leagues. Teams began to appear in black communities throughout the country. VOICE TWO: The unofficial ban against black players in the National League lasted seventy years. World War Two and the civil rights movement in the United States helped end the racial divisions in professional baseball. Jackie Robinson became the first black player to break the color barrier. The Brooklyn Dodgers accepted him to their team in nineteen forty-seven. Soon, other black players began to join major league teams. The "Baseball as America" exhibit includes a shirt, hat and glove that Jackie Robinson wore as a Brooklyn Dodger. Also included is an example of the hundreds of death threats and hate letters that he received. Blacks were not the only group excluded. Hispanic and Japanese players were also among those rejected. Yet white Americans were not the only ones who enjoyed baseball. The museum exhibit includes baseball equipment used by Japanese-Americans held at an interment camp during World War Two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ten President William Howard Taft started a custom. President Taft threw out the first pitch on opening day of the baseball season that year. Almost every president since then has continued the tradition of the opening day pitch. Signed baseballs thrown by Presidents Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge and Dwight Eisenhower as part of the exhibit. So are baseballs thrown by Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and the first President George Bush. VOICE TWO: On December seventh, nineteen-forty-one, Japanese forces launched a surprise attack on the American Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As a result, the United States entered World War Two. The baseball season was suspended after the attack. Five weeks later, the head of Major League baseball asked President Franklin Delano Roosevelt if the season should continue. The president said yes. He wrote the baseball commissioner that the game was a way to raise American spirits. That letter from President Roosevelt is part of the "Baseball as America" exhibit. Other items from World War Two include objects from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was formed to help keep American spirits high during the war. At that time, some of baseball's most famous male players were away as pilots and soldiers. The war ended in nineteen-forty-five. The women's league ended in nineteen-fifty-four after it lost popularity. VOICE ONE: Major League baseball postponed games for one week after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Several weeks later, a New York City firefighter discovered a baseball in the ruins of the World Trade Center. That ball is also in the "Baseball as America" exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Baseball and a similar game, softball, are among the first sports that American children learn to play. Many children compete on teams through Little League programs. Boys and girls can play together on Little League teams. Little League Baseball began to accept girls in nineteen-seventy-four as a result of court action. That year, Little League also established a softball program. Girls and boys can play either baseball or softball, but most girls choose softball. There are more than seven thousand Little League programs in more than one hundred countries around the world. VOICE ONE: Children between the ages of five and eight often play a game called T-ball. T-ball is similar to baseball. However, the ball is not thrown to the hitter. Instead, the ball sits on a stick called a tee. The "Baseball as America" exhibit includes pictures of T-ball games on the grounds of the White House. Games take place there each month during the baseball season, which runs from April to October. President Bush started this tradition three years ago. Before he entered politics, he owned part of the Texas Rangers baseball team. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ten years ago, Major League baseball players went on strike over pay and other issues. Part of the nineteen-ninety-four season and all the championship games that year were cancelled. The start of the nineteen-ninety-five season was delayed. When play finally began, many people had lost interest. They thought players earned too much and cared too little about the fans. Public support for baseball was at an all-time low. VOICE ONE: The national pastime worked hard to save itself from becoming a game past its time. In nineteen-ninety-eight a homerun race between two players helped renew interest in baseball. That year Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa each broke the record for the most homeruns in one season. In nineteen-twenty-seven Babe Ruth set a record with sixty homeruns. That record stood for more than thirty years, until Roger Maris hit sixty-one. Sammy Sosa finished the nineteen-ninety-eight season with sixty-six homeruns. Mark McGwire had seventy. Now, their bats and the bats of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris are all part of "Baseball as America." VOICE TWO: The exhibit closes October third at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. But it will travel to other American cities through two-thousand-six. Internet users can find out more on the Web at baseballasamerica.org. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - 'DOTS' Program Helps Reduce Tuberculosis Rates in China
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 9, 2004 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says tuberculosis rates have dropped in China thanks to the DOTS program. DOTS is a way for countries to try to control tuberculosis. The full name is directly observed treatment-short course. Directly observed means that someone watches to make sure people take their daily medicine. Full treatment usually lasts from six to eight months. Some people stop as soon as they feel better. That only makes the infection more difficult to treat. The patient also remains a risk to others. The DOTS program calls for strong government support. China started its program with help from the World Bank and the W.H.O. in nineteen-ninety-one. Health officials established the program in half the population. After ten years researchers did a national study of tuberculosis. Doctors estimated there were thirty percent fewer cases in the DOTS half than in the other half of the population. The W.H.O. says the results prove that the program should be expanded throughout China. More than one million new cases of tuberculosis are reported in China each year. India has a worse situation. The W.H.O. estimates that forty percent of the eight million people in the world with TB live in China or India. But the agency says those two countries and others have made progress to reduce rates of infection. The rates are up, however, in southern Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union. The AIDS virus is to blame in Africa. Someone with H.I.V. is ten times more likely to become infected with tuberculosis. The situation is different in the former Soviet republics. Experts say the disease is spreading there mostly because infected people are not taking their medicine correctly. A bad cough is not the only sign of tuberculosis. Others include pain in the chest, increased body temperature and coughing up blood. The bacteria spread through the air when the person coughs or sneezes. Each year about two million people die from tuberculosis. The World Health Organization wants to expand the DOTS program to more countries. In two thousand two, only thirty-seven percent of all cases were treated this way. The United Nations wants to cut in half the number of TB cases by two thousand fifteen. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - The Endangered Species Act / Sonar Dangerous to Whales / World War Two Ships in the Gulf of Mexico
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 10, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week: a full program of environmental news, from land and sea. We have reports on the problem of whales and military sonar ... VOICE ONE: The future of the Endangered Species Act in the United States ... VOICE TWO: And the reason why researchers are exploring some old shipwrecks off the American coast. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-three the United States Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. President Richard Nixon signed the measure into law in December of that year. The Endangered Species Act is designed to protect rare animals and plants. It requires the government to take steps to save threatened wildlife. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are two agencies that enforce this law. These agencies decide which animals and plants to list as either threatened or endangered. They decide how much of an area these species need to live safely. And they decide how much human activity is acceptable in those areas. VOICE TWO: In some cases, the two agencies must work with a third, the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the jobs of the E.P.A. is to approve new pesticides. Under the law, the agency has had to first make sure that these agricultural poisons would not harm endangered wildlife. The E.P.A. has been required to consult with the other two agencies to seek their opinion. But a new policy by the Bush administration says these consultations are no longer necessary. The new policy permits the E.P.A. to decide independently if new pesticides are likely to harm endangered species. VOICE ONE: More than sixty members of the House of Representatives have expressed opposition to the change. They say public health and the survival of endangered wildlife could be threatened. They say harmful chemicals could enter the environment without enough supervision or study. The administration, however, says the new rules will speed up the approval process for agricultural chemicals. Officials say the old process was too complex. They say it was impossible to consider every likely interaction between hundreds of chemicals and more than one thousand species. That is how many are currently listed as threatened or endangered. As a result, administration officials say few consultations have taken place in the past ten years. VOICE TWO: Last year, a judge ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Endangered Species Act when it failed to seek such an opinion. The case involves an action brought in federal court by a coalition of environmental and fishing groups in Washington state. The issue is the possible threat from a group of pesticides to Pacific salmon protected by the act. The judge said the E.P.A.'s own reports showed serious risks from the chemicals to the survival of the fish. This past January, the judge temporarily restricted the use of almost forty pesticides near salmon waterways. VOICE ONE: This case and others led to action in Congress. Last month the House Committee on Resources passed two bills. One bill would change the process by which land is set aside for endangered species. The other would change the process by which animals and plants are listed as threatened or endangered. Similar legislation has been proposed in the Senate. Supporters say the proposed changes would modernize and improve the Endangered Species Act. Opponents say the changes would weaken thirty-year-old protections needed for endangered animals and plants to survive. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission has blamed military sonar for harm to whales. Sonar technology sends sound waves through water to find objects. Naval forces search for submarines. But the power of sonar has increased since World War Two. Today, the sound may be as loud as an airplane engine. Scientists say the noise can cause whales to suffer bleeding in the brain and the tissue near their ear bones. The sound may also interfere with communication among whales and their ability to guide themselves through the water. Scientists say whales may rise to the surface so quickly, gas bubbles form in their blood. VOICE ONE: The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission noted some recent incidents that appeared to involve sonar. One was the movement toward shore of two hundred melon-headed whales in Hawaii. This took place during American and Japanese naval training in the area. One whale died. Also, three beaked whales died off the Canary Islands of Spain. NATO had military exercises off the nearby coast of Morocco at the time. Scientists reported damage to the navigation systems and organs in the whales. Energy companies also use sonar, to search for oil and gas. The whaling commission said this threatens the survival of the last of the gray whales near the Pacific coast of Russia. The United States Marine Mammal Commission has been studying the effects of sonar and other underwater noise on sea animals. Congress is expected to receive a report next year. VOICE TWO: For now, the Navy continues with plans to develop a sonar testing area off the eastern United States. The Navy says it needs the area to train sailors to find the quieter submarines now used by other nations. Environmental groups say the training area would needlessly harm ocean life. These groups may take legal action to restrict the use of middle-frequency sonar. The Navy has already agreed to limit its use of low-frequency sonar. Such waves can travel huge distances. A group called the Natural Resources Defense Council brought action against the Navy. The Navy agreed to limit the use of low-frequency sonar to an area of the Pacific off East Asia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists are exploring seven ships that sank during World War Two off the southern United States. The wrecks lie in waters that are between eighty-five and almost two thousand meters deep. They are not far from each other in the Gulf of Mexico. Over more than sixty years, the wrecks may have become reefs where underwater animals and plants live. Man-made objects have been used to create such conditions closer to the surface. For example, old structures for oil and gas drilling at sea have been sunk in shallow water. They are thought to help increase fish production. But during the current exploration, the scientists want to learn if man-made reefs can also improve deep-water environments. At the same time, they want to learn more about the history of the ships. The exploration is to end later this month. The study team includes government agencies and a company from Louisiana called C and C Technologies. Researchers are using an unpiloted diving vehicle that can make video recordings and do other jobs in deep water. VOICE TWO: One of the wrecks is the German submarine known as U-one-sixty-six. The submarine lies about seventy-two kilometers off the Mississippi River Delta. Two oil companies identified it in two thousand one. During World War Two, it was among about twenty-four German submarines active in the Gulf of Mexico. They sank fifty-six ships. At one point, in nineteen-forty-two, they destroyed three ships. These carried oil, food and other supplies for America’s European allies. Then U-one-sixty-six began to chase a ship named the Robert E. Lee. The Lee carried passengers in addition to supplies. The German submarine fired a missile and sank the ship. Twenty-five people were killed. For years, American officials thought the submarine escaped for a short time after that attack. Now they know that a ship guarding the Robert E. Lee sank the German U-boat when the Lee went down. U-one-sixty-six had fifty-two crew members. The U-boat and the other wrecks are now being explored as candidates for protection on the National Register of Historic Places. (MUSIC) VOICE- ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach, and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: August 10, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. This week: a full program of environmental news, from land and sea. We have reports on the problem of whales and military sonar ... VOICE ONE: The future of the Endangered Species Act in the United States ... VOICE TWO: And the reason why researchers are exploring some old shipwrecks off the American coast. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy-three the United States Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. President Richard Nixon signed the measure into law in December of that year. The Endangered Species Act is designed to protect rare animals and plants. It requires the government to take steps to save threatened wildlife. The Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are two agencies that enforce this law. These agencies decide which animals and plants to list as either threatened or endangered. They decide how much of an area these species need to live safely. And they decide how much human activity is acceptable in those areas. VOICE TWO: In some cases, the two agencies must work with a third, the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the jobs of the E.P.A. is to approve new pesticides. Under the law, the agency has had to first make sure that these agricultural poisons would not harm endangered wildlife. The E.P.A. has been required to consult with the other two agencies to seek their opinion. But a new policy by the Bush administration says these consultations are no longer necessary. The new policy permits the E.P.A. to decide independently if new pesticides are likely to harm endangered species. VOICE ONE: More than sixty members of the House of Representatives have expressed opposition to the change. They say public health and the survival of endangered wildlife could be threatened. They say harmful chemicals could enter the environment without enough supervision or study. The administration, however, says the new rules will speed up the approval process for agricultural chemicals. Officials say the old process was too complex. They say it was impossible to consider every likely interaction between hundreds of chemicals and more than one thousand species. That is how many are currently listed as threatened or endangered. As a result, administration officials say few consultations have taken place in the past ten years. VOICE TWO: Last year, a judge ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Endangered Species Act when it failed to seek such an opinion. The case involves an action brought in federal court by a coalition of environmental and fishing groups in Washington state. The issue is the possible threat from a group of pesticides to Pacific salmon protected by the act. The judge said the E.P.A.'s own reports showed serious risks from the chemicals to the survival of the fish. This past January, the judge temporarily restricted the use of almost forty pesticides near salmon waterways. VOICE ONE: This case and others led to action in Congress. Last month the House Committee on Resources passed two bills. One bill would change the process by which land is set aside for endangered species. The other would change the process by which animals and plants are listed as threatened or endangered. Similar legislation has been proposed in the Senate. Supporters say the proposed changes would modernize and improve the Endangered Species Act. Opponents say the changes would weaken thirty-year-old protections needed for endangered animals and plants to survive. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission has blamed military sonar for harm to whales. Sonar technology sends sound waves through water to find objects. Naval forces search for submarines. But the power of sonar has increased since World War Two. Today, the sound may be as loud as an airplane engine. Scientists say the noise can cause whales to suffer bleeding in the brain and the tissue near their ear bones. The sound may also interfere with communication among whales and their ability to guide themselves through the water. Scientists say whales may rise to the surface so quickly, gas bubbles form in their blood. VOICE ONE: The scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission noted some recent incidents that appeared to involve sonar. One was the movement toward shore of two hundred melon-headed whales in Hawaii. This took place during American and Japanese naval training in the area. One whale died. Also, three beaked whales died off the Canary Islands of Spain. NATO had military exercises off the nearby coast of Morocco at the time. Scientists reported damage to the navigation systems and organs in the whales. Energy companies also use sonar, to search for oil and gas. The whaling commission said this threatens the survival of the last of the gray whales near the Pacific coast of Russia. The United States Marine Mammal Commission has been studying the effects of sonar and other underwater noise on sea animals. Congress is expected to receive a report next year. VOICE TWO: For now, the Navy continues with plans to develop a sonar testing area off the eastern United States. The Navy says it needs the area to train sailors to find the quieter submarines now used by other nations. Environmental groups say the training area would needlessly harm ocean life. These groups may take legal action to restrict the use of middle-frequency sonar. The Navy has already agreed to limit its use of low-frequency sonar. Such waves can travel huge distances. A group called the Natural Resources Defense Council brought action against the Navy. The Navy agreed to limit the use of low-frequency sonar to an area of the Pacific off East Asia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists are exploring seven ships that sank during World War Two off the southern United States. The wrecks lie in waters that are between eighty-five and almost two thousand meters deep. They are not far from each other in the Gulf of Mexico. Over more than sixty years, the wrecks may have become reefs where underwater animals and plants live. Man-made objects have been used to create such conditions closer to the surface. For example, old structures for oil and gas drilling at sea have been sunk in shallow water. They are thought to help increase fish production. But during the current exploration, the scientists want to learn if man-made reefs can also improve deep-water environments. At the same time, they want to learn more about the history of the ships. The exploration is to end later this month. The study team includes government agencies and a company from Louisiana called C and C Technologies. Researchers are using an unpiloted diving vehicle that can make video recordings and do other jobs in deep water. VOICE TWO: One of the wrecks is the German submarine known as U-one-sixty-six. The submarine lies about seventy-two kilometers off the Mississippi River Delta. Two oil companies identified it in two thousand one. During World War Two, it was among about twenty-four German submarines active in the Gulf of Mexico. They sank fifty-six ships. At one point, in nineteen-forty-two, they destroyed three ships. These carried oil, food and other supplies for America’s European allies. Then U-one-sixty-six began to chase a ship named the Robert E. Lee. The Lee carried passengers in addition to supplies. The German submarine fired a missile and sank the ship. Twenty-five people were killed. For years, American officials thought the submarine escaped for a short time after that attack. Now they know that a ship guarding the Robert E. Lee sank the German U-boat when the Lee went down. U-one-sixty-six had fifty-two crew members. The U-boat and the other wrecks are now being explored as candidates for protection on the National Register of Historic Places. (MUSIC) VOICE- ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach, and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Poplar Trees as Pollution Fighters
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 10, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Poplar trees can be cut down and used for wood or paper. Or they can be left to stand and also used for different purposes. Poplar trees are often used to guard against water pollution. They are planted as barriers to keep waste from entering groundwater and rivers. Their large root systems trap waste, like nitrogen-based fertilizer, and help reduce the loss of soil. Now, poplar trees may become important tools for cleaning the environment. Some scientists think poplars can be a valuable resource to remove poisonous substances from the soil. The poplar tree is found in many places in the northern half of the world. It is a fast growing tree that requires a lot of water. Different kinds of poplar trees are native to Asia, Europe and North America. In the United States, poplars are also known as cottonwood trees. For years, Professor Richard Meagher of the University of Georgia has done research on genetically engineered plants. He is now testing a poplar tree that has been genetically engineered to take in mercury through its roots. The tree then slowly releases the mercury into the air through its leaves. Mercury is a highly poisonous metal. It is a waste product of many industries. Mercury builds up in fish and other living things. It is especially dangerous to the development of children. This is why women who might get pregnant are warned to be careful about mercury levels in the food they eat. Professor Meagher is testing his genetically engineered poplars on some land in Danforth, Connecticut. The ground is polluted with mercury from a factory once there. The scientist has planted one hundred sixty poplars to remove the pollution. Not everyone likes the idea to use genetically engineered trees to collect mercury. Critics say these could reproduce with wild trees or displace them. Another criticism is that the poplars only spread mercury rather than remove it from the environment. The professor says it is better to spread the mercury than have it all in one place where it could be more of a health risk. Still, there is great interest in using plants to process and control harmful substances. And poplar trees are among the most studied. But using poplars as a natural barrier against water pollution is not a new idea. The Chinese have used them this way for thousands of years. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  -  Yellowstone Volcano
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 11, 2004 (MUSIC) Yellowstone Caldera Complex Broadcast: August 11, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Yellowstone National Park. It is one of the most beautiful national parks in the United States. However, an ancient and extremely violent volcano created the great beauty of Yellowstone. The ancient volcano that formed Yellowstone is not dead. It is only sleeping. And some experts say it could become very dangerous in the future. Old Faithful VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Yellowstone National Park. It is one of the most beautiful national parks in the United States. However, an ancient and extremely violent volcano created the great beauty of Yellowstone. The ancient volcano that formed Yellowstone is not dead. It is only sleeping. And some experts say it could become very dangerous in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yellowstone National Park is in the western state of Wyoming. It is one of the most unusual places in the world. Extremely hot water shoots out of the ground in several hundred places. Small lakes contain water that is so hot it is dangerous to come too close. Visitors can watch bubbles coming up through boiling, hot mud. They can see rocks that were once liquid and have cooled into strange shapes. Yellowstone is built on an ancient volcano. A lake of hot liquid rock is about six kilometers under the park. This lake is about sixty-five kilometers wide. Experts say this lake is under huge amounts of pressure. The pressure and heat cause hot water to shoot out of the ground and mud to boil at Yellowstone. VOICE TWO: The Yellowstone volcano has often been called a super volcano because it is so big. Scientists believe major volcanic activity in the Yellowstone area began about two million years ago. This activity created violent explosions and built mountains and valleys. Experts believe this super volcano had three major explosions called eruptions. Each of those three eruptions may have been more powerful than any in recorded history. Each eruption threw out millions of tons of ash and rock. The last eruption was so huge it covered much of North America with ash. Some of this ash traveled high into the atmosphere and was carried by strong winds around the world. This cloud of volcanic ash circled the Earth many times. It affected the climate by limiting the amount of sunlight that reached Earth’s lower atmosphere and surface. This last eruption formed the mountains and valleys that visitors can see today in Yellowstone. VOICE ONE: When a volcano erupts, a huge amount of material explodes out of the volcano. This leaves a giant circular hole in the ground, called a caldera. Experts have known for many years that Yellowstone was formed by volcanic activity. However they could not find the caldera. Many experts searched a huge area in and around Yellowstone Park looking for the remains of the caldera. A few years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency tested new satellite cameras. They offered Yellowstone Park officials photographs of the park taken from space. VOICE TWO: A national park expert was extremely surprised when he looked at the photographs taken from space. He immediately saw the caldera they had been searching for. The photographs showed that Yellowstone National Park is the caldera. The caldera is about seventy kilometers long and thirty kilometers wide. In fact, the park is a system of calderas formed within the past sixteen million years. Experts now believe that as many fifteen or twenty smaller eruptions also formed calderas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists know the volcanic heart of Yellowstone is deep within the Earth. This area is called a hot spot. It is only one of a few such places on Earth. Extreme pressure deep in the Earth forces liquid rock up through the hot spot to the lake of hot material that is below the surface. This causes the extreme heat that is found in Yellowstone. Scientists also know the Yellowstone hot spot is linked to the activity of the North American plate. The North American plate is one of several plates that make up the surface of the Earth. These plates move a few centimeters each year. The hot spot does not move. Very often the action between the hot spots and the plate causes great earthquakes as plates move against each other. The plates often split apart. And often after earthquakes, the hot spot forces liquid rock to the surface. This has not happened for several thousand years. VOICE TWO: The Yellowstone hot spot has been linked with the North American plate for as long as seventeen million years. At many different times, the hot spot has caused a kind of liquid rock called basalt to explode to the surface. This basalt rock from the Yellowstone hot spot can be found in the western states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho. Evidence of this basalt rock can be found in an area as large as three hundred twenty-two thousand square kilometers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the world. About three million people visit it each year. Its great natural beauty has made it one of the most popular national parks.Most visitors like to see “Old Faithful”, the world’s most famous geyser. A geyser shoots hot water high into the air. There are more than three hundred geysers in Yellowstone. Old Faithful is not the biggest or the most beautiful geyser. But it is the most popular. Visitors gather around Old Faithful before each eruption. Experts at the park are able to predict when these will happen. The average time between eruptions is about ninety minutes. Old Faithful shoots water an average of forty meters into the air. This eruption lasts between two and five minutes. Old Faithful releases up to about thirty thousand liters of water into the air each time. VOICE TWO: The hot spot deep under the ground produces geysers like Old Faithful. Old Faithful is evidence of the volcanic activity at Yellowstone. But will the Yellowstone volcano erupt again? Most experts think the answer is yes. But no one knows when. The most recent of the three extremely powerful eruptions was about six hundred fifty thousand years ago. Experts say at least thirty smaller volcanic eruptions have taken place at Yellowstone. Some of these were perhaps as big as the nineteen ninety-one eruption at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Several are believed to have been much larger. The most recent of these smaller eruptions took place about seventy thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Volcano experts say it is extremely difficult to tell when Yellowstone might become an active volcano again. However, earthquakes near a volcano are usually good evidence that a volcano might become active again. For example, Mount Saint Helens in the northwestern state of Washington exploded in nineteen eighty. Several earthquakes took place near the volcano before that time. On the morning that it exploded, Mount Saint Helens experienced an earthquake of five point one on the Richter scale. Yellowstone National Park experiences several thousand earthquakes each year. Most are very small. They cannot be felt. They can only be measured by scientific instruments. However, in August of nineteen fifty-nine, an earthquake at Yellowstone measured seven point five on the Richter scale. Twenty-eight people were killed. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the United States. But Yellowstone’s sleeping giant volcano did not erupt. VOICE TWO: In two thousand one, the United States Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park and the University of Utah signed an agreement. That agreement established the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Under the agreement, the park, the Geological Survey and the university are responsible for improving efforts to study the volcanic system of Yellowstone. The observatory uses information from many different instruments on the ground and from satellites to study the volcano. The information will help officials decided if Yellowstone’s huge volcano is becoming a danger. Then they could warn the public quickly if necessary. Experts at the observatory say Yellowstone represents some danger to the public. It always has. However, its natural beauty also makes it a treasure that could not be possible without the sleeping giant volcano that is under Yellowstone National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yellowstone National Park is in the western state of Wyoming. It is one of the most unusual places in the world. Extremely hot water shoots out of the ground in several hundred places. Small lakes contain water that is so hot it is dangerous to come too close. Visitors can watch bubbles coming up through boiling, hot mud. They can see rocks that were once liquid and have cooled into strange shapes. Yellowstone is built on an ancient volcano. A lake of hot liquid rock is about six kilometers under the park. This lake is about sixty-five kilometers wide. Experts say this lake is under huge amounts of pressure. The pressure and heat cause hot water to shoot out of the ground and mud to boil at Yellowstone. VOICE TWO: The Yellowstone volcano has often been called a super volcano because it is so big. Scientists believe major volcanic activity in the Yellowstone area began about two million years ago. This activity created violent explosions and built mountains and valleys. Experts believe this super volcano had three major explosions called eruptions. Each of those three eruptions may have been more powerful than any in recorded history. Each eruption threw out millions of tons of ash and rock. The last eruption was so huge it covered much of North America with ash. Some of this ash traveled high into the atmosphere and was carried by strong winds around the world. This cloud of volcanic ash circled the Earth many times. It affected the climate by limiting the amount of sunlight that reached Earth’s lower atmosphere and surface. This last eruption formed the mountains and valleys that visitors can see today in Yellowstone. VOICE ONE: When a volcano erupts, a huge amount of material explodes out of the volcano. This leaves a giant circular hole in the ground, called a caldera. Experts have known for many years that Yellowstone was formed by volcanic activity. However they could not find the caldera. Many experts searched a huge area in and around Yellowstone Park looking for the remains of the caldera. A few years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency tested new satellite cameras. They offered Yellowstone Park officials photographs of the park taken from space. VOICE TWO: A national park expert was extremely surprised when he looked at the photographs taken from space. He immediately saw the caldera they had been searching for. The photographs showed that Yellowstone National Park is the caldera. The caldera is about seventy kilometers long and thirty kilometers wide. In fact, the park is a system of calderas formed within the past sixteen million years. Experts now believe that as many fifteen or twenty smaller eruptions also formed calderas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists know the volcanic heart of Yellowstone is deep within the Earth. This area is called a hot spot. It is only one of a few such places on Earth. Extreme pressure deep in the Earth forces liquid rock up through the hot spot to the lake of hot material that is below the surface. This causes the extreme heat that is found in Yellowstone. Scientists also know the Yellowstone hot spot is linked to the activity of the North American plate. The North American plate is one of several plates that make up the surface of the Earth. These plates move a few centimeters each year. The hot spot does not move. Very often the action between the hot spots and the plate causes great earthquakes as plates move against each other. The plates often split apart. And often after earthquakes, the hot spot forces liquid rock to the surface. This has not happened for several thousand years. VOICE TWO: The Yellowstone hot spot has been linked with the North American plate for as long as seventeen million years. At many different times, the hot spot has caused a kind of liquid rock called basalt to explode to the surface. This basalt rock from the Yellowstone hot spot can be found in the western states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho. Evidence of this basalt rock can be found in an area as large as three hundred twenty-two thousand square kilometers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Yellowstone National Park is the oldest national park in the world. About three million people visit it each year. Its great natural beauty has made it one of the most popular national parks.Most visitors like to see “Old Faithful”, the world’s most famous geyser. A geyser shoots hot water high into the air. There are more than three hundred geysers in Yellowstone. Old Faithful is not the biggest or the most beautiful geyser. But it is the most popular. Visitors gather around Old Faithful before each eruption. Experts at the park are able to predict when these will happen. The average time between eruptions is about ninety minutes. Old Faithful shoots water an average of forty meters into the air. This eruption lasts between two and five minutes. Old Faithful releases up to about thirty thousand liters of water into the air each time. VOICE TWO: The hot spot deep under the ground produces geysers like Old Faithful. Old Faithful is evidence of the volcanic activity at Yellowstone. But will the Yellowstone volcano erupt again? Most experts think the answer is yes. But no one knows when. The most recent of the three extremely powerful eruptions was about six hundred fifty thousand years ago. Experts say at least thirty smaller volcanic eruptions have taken place at Yellowstone. Some of these were perhaps as big as the nineteen ninety-one eruption at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Several are believed to have been much larger. The most recent of these smaller eruptions took place about seventy thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Volcano experts say it is extremely difficult to tell when Yellowstone might become an active volcano again. However, earthquakes near a volcano are usually good evidence that a volcano might become active again. For example, Mount Saint Helens in the northwestern state of Washington exploded in nineteen eighty. Several earthquakes took place near the volcano before that time. On the morning that it exploded, Mount Saint Helens experienced an earthquake of five point one on the Richter scale. Yellowstone National Park experiences several thousand earthquakes each year. Most are very small. They cannot be felt. They can only be measured by scientific instruments. However, in August of nineteen fifty-nine, an earthquake at Yellowstone measured seven point five on the Richter scale. Twenty-eight people were killed. It was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the United States. But Yellowstone’s sleeping giant volcano did not erupt. VOICE TWO: In two thousand one, the United States Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park and the University of Utah signed an agreement. That agreement established the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Under the agreement, the park, the Geological Survey and the university are responsible for improving efforts to study the volcanic system of Yellowstone. The observatory uses information from many different instruments on the ground and from satellites to study the volcano. The information will help officials decided if Yellowstone’s huge volcano is becoming a danger. Then they could warn the public quickly if necessary. Experts at the observatory say Yellowstone represents some danger to the public. It always has. However, its natural beauty also makes it a treasure that could not be possible without the sleeping giant volcano that is under Yellowstone National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - New Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Developed for Researchers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 11, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers in the United States recently announced the development of seventeen new lines of human embryonic stem cells. The researchers work at Harvard University for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. They said the new stem cell lines will be offered for use by other scientists. Stem cells have qualities that might make them useful in the treatment of diseases. Scientists are especially interested in stem cells from embryos. These are able to develop into the different kinds of tissues of the body. In two thousand two, President Bush restricted government support for such research. Federal money can only go to research on existing lines of embryonic stem cells. Opponents of these limits include Ron Reagan, the son of the former Republican president. He gave a speech last month at the Democratic convention in Boston. He is not a scientist, but he described how stem cells might someday be used to treat a disease: Doctors would take a cell from a patient and place the nucleus inside an egg. Chemicals or electricity would cause the nucleus to divide into more cells to form an embryo. The stem cells could then be used to replace unhealthy cells in the patient. Many scientists have hope for the possibility of such cures. Not all think the promise is as great as some people might believe, at least not yet. But some people oppose the use of embryonic stem cells. They say human life is destroyed because the embryo is destroyed to collect the cells. Private laboratories are not affected by the government limits. The new stem cell lines were developed by scientists in the laboratory of Douglas Melton. He is a Howard Hughes researcher at Harvard. The institute along with the university and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation pay for his research. The laboratory will use the stem cell lines to look for a cure for type one diabetes. Type one diabetes is also called juvenile diabetes. It is generally found in young people. The disease is caused by a lack of cells that produce insulin in the pancreas. Douglas Melton’s goal is to learn how to make embryonic stem cells that can grow the needed pancreatic cells. He says he hopes the new cell lines will speed this research and lead to new discoveries about other diseases, too. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Paul Thompson. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Polk, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 12, 2004 (MUSIC) Senator Henry Clay</b< Broadcast: August 12, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) A great constitutional debate split the United States in eighteen-forty-eight. The dispute arose over slavery in the new territories. The question was this: did Congress have the power to control or prohibit slavery in the territories. Southerners argued that they had the right to take slaves into the new territories of New Mexico and California. Northerners opposed any further spread of slavery. There seemed to be no answer to the problem. Everyone agreed that governments had to be organized in the territories. But northern and southern leaders could not settle their dispute over slavery. VOICE TWO: Senator John Clayton of Delaware proposed to the Senate that it name a special committee on the question of slavery in the new territories. Both parties -- the Whigs and the Democrats -- had the same number of senators on the committee. Senator Clayton was its chairman. South and north were equally represented. After six days, Clayton's committee agreed on a compromise bill. It proposed that Oregon be organized as free territory. Slavery there would be illegal. And on California and New Mexico, the bill proposed this: they could be organized as territories. But their territorial legislatures would not have the power to act on the issue of slavery. All questions on slavery in these two territories must be decided by the United States Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: Not everyone believed this plan was a good one. Some northern senators believed that Chief Justice Taney would decide for slavery. Southern senators were just as sure that Taney would decide against slavery. Many Whigs in the House of Representatives opposed the plan, because they feared that the political dispute over slavery would destroy the Supreme Court. The Senate approved the compromise bill. But the House rejected it. After long debate, Congress finally approved territorial government for Oregon. And it voted that Oregon should be free territory, with slavery illegal. The vote on the Oregon bill was very close. It passed in the Senate only because two men from slave states voted for it. They were Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri and Senator Sam Houston of Texas. Senator John C. Calhoun said it was a bad defeat for the south. But what was worse was the fact that it was caused by the votes of two southern senators. Soon after, at the end of August, Congress ended its session. And the nation's leaders prepared for the national election of eighteen-forty-eight. VOICE TWO: The country moved quickly into the presidential campaign. President Polk was old, tired, and in poor health. He had decided not to try for a second term. Polk felt he had done his duty. During the first days of his administration, he listed the things he planned to do as president. First, he wanted to reduce the tax on imports. Second, he wished to establish the independent treasury, which the Whigs had voted out. Third, he hoped to settle the Oregon border dispute with Britain. And fourth, he wanted to get California for the United States. Less than four years later, he had succeeded with each item on his list. The United States and Britain agreed on a compromise in the Oregon dispute. In eighteen-forty-six, he was able to establish the independent treasury again, where the government could keep its own funds. No longer would government funds be kept in private banks. That same year, Polk was able to get Congress to approve a bill that greatly reduced the taxes on imports. And the peace treaty with Mexico gave the United States not only California, but also New Mexico. So, Polk believed he had served his country well. VOICE ONE: Polk, however, had not served his party well. He was not a good politician. He failed to unite the disputing groups of the Democratic Party. What was worse, he let them move even farther apart. There seemed to be no strong Democratic candidate who could unite the party. At one extreme were the supporters of former President Van Buren--New York Democrats opposed to slavery. They were called 'Barnburners'. They got this name from their political opponents, who charged that they were willing to burn down the barn to get rid of pro-slavery rats. At the party's other extreme were the Democrats of the south, led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. In every state, the Democrats were divided between those who supported the administration and those opposed to it. VOICE TWO: The Democrats met in Baltimore in May, eighteen-forty-eight, to choose their presidential candidate. Several men were proposed as possibilities: Polk's Treasury Secretary, Robert Walker of Mississippi; John Dix of New York; and Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. On the fourth vote, the convention chose Cass as the party's presidential candidate. Cass was sixty-six years old. He was a middle-of-the-road Democrat. He was a northerner who did not oppose slavery. On the question of slavery in the new territories, Cass believed that the people of the territory should make the decision. The 'Barnburner' Democrats of New York refused to accept Cass as their candidate. They walked out of the Baltimore convention. VOICE ONE: Senator Henry Clay -- three times the Whig Party choice for president -- expected to be its candidate again. The old members of the party still supported Clay. But young Whigs felt that a new candidate was needed. Some Whig leaders remembered how William Henry Harrison had won the presidency for the party by campaigning as a military hero. The country had a new military hero now. "Old Zach" -- General Zachary Taylor. General Taylor and his men never lost a battle in the Mexican War. Several times, he defeated Mexican forces much larger than his. After the General's first victory, New York politicalleader Thurlow Weed happened to meet Taylor's brother on a Hudson River steamboat. That meeting had a most important effect on future events. VOICE TWO: Weed asked Joseph Taylor if his brother was a political man. Joseph answered that "Old Zach" was not. He said his brother belonged to no party, that often he did not even vote. He said Zach supported Henry Clay and did not like Andrew Jackson. Joseph said his brother felt strongly that American products should be protected against competition from foreign imports. He felt so strongly about it, Joseph said, that he refused to wear any imported clothing. Weed made a quick decision. "Your brother," he said, "will be our next president." "That is preposterous. My brother knows nothing about government or civil affairs. When I tell you," said Joseph Taylor, "that he is not as fit to be president as I am, you will see how foolish this idea is." VOICE ONE: Weed, however, did not think his proposal was foolish. He began to build support for General Taylor among Whig politicians. When Old Zach first heard of efforts to make him president, he agreed with his brother. The idea was foolish. "I would not accept such high office," he said, "even if it were offered." This statement he made in June, eighteen-forty-six. A month later, he was saying he was not a candidate for president...and never would be. He said he felt it was wrong to make a military man president. But, a few months later, Taylor changed his mind. He told his son-in-law in December: "I will not say I would not serve if the good people were to be so unwise as to elect me." VOICE TWO: By July of eighteen-forty-seven, Old Zach had made up his mind. He told a friend: "I am satisfied that if the election were held now, nothing could prevent me from becoming president." Senator Clay did not think Taylor had the ability to be president. But Clay knew well how the voters loved a military hero. Senator Clay was seventy years old. He knew this would be his last chance to become president. He worked very hard to get the support of Whig leaders. The Whig party held its convention in Philadelphia in June, eighteen-forty-eight. Four names were put before the convention: General Taylor, Henry Clay, General Winfield Scott, and Daniel Webster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) A great constitutional debate split the United States in eighteen-forty-eight. The dispute arose over slavery in the new territories. The question was this: did Congress have the power to control or prohibit slavery in the territories. Southerners argued that they had the right to take slaves into the new territories of New Mexico and California. Northerners opposed any further spread of slavery. There seemed to be no answer to the problem. Everyone agreed that governments had to be organized in the territories. But northern and southern leaders could not settle their dispute over slavery. VOICE TWO: Senator John Clayton of Delaware proposed to the Senate that it name a special committee on the question of slavery in the new territories. Both parties -- the Whigs and the Democrats -- had the same number of senators on the committee. Senator Clayton was its chairman. South and north were equally represented. After six days, Clayton's committee agreed on a compromise bill. It proposed that Oregon be organized as free territory. Slavery there would be illegal. And on California and New Mexico, the bill proposed this: they could be organized as territories. But their territorial legislatures would not have the power to act on the issue of slavery. All questions on slavery in these two territories must be decided by the United States Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: Not everyone believed this plan was a good one. Some northern senators believed that Chief Justice Taney would decide for slavery. Southern senators were just as sure that Taney would decide against slavery. Many Whigs in the House of Representatives opposed the plan, because they feared that the political dispute over slavery would destroy the Supreme Court. The Senate approved the compromise bill. But the House rejected it. After long debate, Congress finally approved territorial government for Oregon. And it voted that Oregon should be free territory, with slavery illegal. The vote on the Oregon bill was very close. It passed in the Senate only because two men from slave states voted for it. They were Senator Thomas Benton of Missouri and Senator Sam Houston of Texas. Senator John C. Calhoun said it was a bad defeat for the south. But what was worse was the fact that it was caused by the votes of two southern senators. Soon after, at the end of August, Congress ended its session. And the nation's leaders prepared for the national election of eighteen-forty-eight. VOICE TWO: The country moved quickly into the presidential campaign. President Polk was old, tired, and in poor health. He had decided not to try for a second term. Polk felt he had done his duty. During the first days of his administration, he listed the things he planned to do as president. First, he wanted to reduce the tax on imports. Second, he wished to establish the independent treasury, which the Whigs had voted out. Third, he hoped to settle the Oregon border dispute with Britain. And fourth, he wanted to get California for the United States. Less than four years later, he had succeeded with each item on his list. The United States and Britain agreed on a compromise in the Oregon dispute. In eighteen-forty-six, he was able to establish the independent treasury again, where the government could keep its own funds. No longer would government funds be kept in private banks. That same year, Polk was able to get Congress to approve a bill that greatly reduced the taxes on imports. And the peace treaty with Mexico gave the United States not only California, but also New Mexico. So, Polk believed he had served his country well. VOICE ONE: Polk, however, had not served his party well. He was not a good politician. He failed to unite the disputing groups of the Democratic Party. What was worse, he let them move even farther apart. There seemed to be no strong Democratic candidate who could unite the party. At one extreme were the supporters of former President Van Buren--New York Democrats opposed to slavery. They were called 'Barnburners'. They got this name from their political opponents, who charged that they were willing to burn down the barn to get rid of pro-slavery rats. At the party's other extreme were the Democrats of the south, led by John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. In every state, the Democrats were divided between those who supported the administration and those opposed to it. VOICE TWO: The Democrats met in Baltimore in May, eighteen-forty-eight, to choose their presidential candidate. Several men were proposed as possibilities: Polk's Treasury Secretary, Robert Walker of Mississippi; John Dix of New York; and Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. On the fourth vote, the convention chose Cass as the party's presidential candidate. Cass was sixty-six years old. He was a middle-of-the-road Democrat. He was a northerner who did not oppose slavery. On the question of slavery in the new territories, Cass believed that the people of the territory should make the decision. The 'Barnburner' Democrats of New York refused to accept Cass as their candidate. They walked out of the Baltimore convention. VOICE ONE: Senator Henry Clay -- three times the Whig Party choice for president -- expected to be its candidate again. The old members of the party still supported Clay. But young Whigs felt that a new candidate was needed. Some Whig leaders remembered how William Henry Harrison had won the presidency for the party by campaigning as a military hero. The country had a new military hero now. "Old Zach" -- General Zachary Taylor. General Taylor and his men never lost a battle in the Mexican War. Several times, he defeated Mexican forces much larger than his. After the General's first victory, New York politicalleader Thurlow Weed happened to meet Taylor's brother on a Hudson River steamboat. That meeting had a most important effect on future events. VOICE TWO: Weed asked Joseph Taylor if his brother was a political man. Joseph answered that "Old Zach" was not. He said his brother belonged to no party, that often he did not even vote. He said Zach supported Henry Clay and did not like Andrew Jackson. Joseph said his brother felt strongly that American products should be protected against competition from foreign imports. He felt so strongly about it, Joseph said, that he refused to wear any imported clothing. Weed made a quick decision. "Your brother," he said, "will be our next president." "That is preposterous. My brother knows nothing about government or civil affairs. When I tell you," said Joseph Taylor, "that he is not as fit to be president as I am, you will see how foolish this idea is." VOICE ONE: Weed, however, did not think his proposal was foolish. He began to build support for General Taylor among Whig politicians. When Old Zach first heard of efforts to make him president, he agreed with his brother. The idea was foolish. "I would not accept such high office," he said, "even if it were offered." This statement he made in June, eighteen-forty-six. A month later, he was saying he was not a candidate for president...and never would be. He said he felt it was wrong to make a military man president. But, a few months later, Taylor changed his mind. He told his son-in-law in December: "I will not say I would not serve if the good people were to be so unwise as to elect me." VOICE TWO: By July of eighteen-forty-seven, Old Zach had made up his mind. He told a friend: "I am satisfied that if the election were held now, nothing could prevent me from becoming president." Senator Clay did not think Taylor had the ability to be president. But Clay knew well how the voters loved a military hero. Senator Clay was seventy years old. He knew this would be his last chance to become president. He worked very hard to get the support of Whig leaders. The Whig party held its convention in Philadelphia in June, eighteen-forty-eight. Four names were put before the convention: General Taylor, Henry Clay, General Winfield Scott, and Daniel Webster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Computer-Graded Writing
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 12, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last year, a report by a committee of education experts said a lot of American students cannot write well. The report noted the concerns of business leaders and teachers. The experts said more students should have to pass a writing test before they can finish high school. They pointed out that major college entrance tests are changing now to include a writing part. Educators know that teaching students to write well is not easy. One problem is the amount of time needed to read through large amounts of work. So some companies have developed computer programs. These can grade student writing much more quickly than a human can. Writing tests can also cost less to administer by computer than by paper-and-pencil. These computer systems are known as e-raters. They use artificial intelligence to think in a way like teachers. In the state of Indiana, computer grading of a statewide writing test began with a test of the system itself. For two years, both a computer and humans graded the student writing. Officials say there was almost no difference between the computer grades and those given by the human readers. The entrance test commonly used by business schools, the GMAT, already uses e-readers. The G.R.E. and TOEFL tests might start; officials are deciding. The G.R.E. is the Graduate Record Examination. TOEFL is the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Systems are also being used to grade writing in college classes. The computers read a few hundred examples of student writing already graded by humans. Then the systems compare new essays against those already examined. How do teachers feel about all this? Many say machines can never do the job as well as people can. A computer can find spelling and grammar mistakes. But these teachers say it can never really understand what a writer is trying to say. Critics say a program cannot follow a thought or judge humor or understand a beautifully expressed idea. But creators of the programs say computer grading guarantees that each piece of writing is graded in the same way. They also say the systems are meant to judge knowledge more than creativity. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 12, 2004 - Lida Baker: Present Perfect Tense
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 12, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: practice makes perfect. RS: With us from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain a part of grammar that makes English learners tense. AA: It's the verb tense known as the present perfect. First of all, Lida says don't be misled by the archaic meaning of perfect. LIDA BAKER: "In Latin it has to do with whether something is complete or incomplete. In linguistic terms, the present perfect tense is pretty unique, pretty unusual, and it's something that students always wrestle with. So the present perfect tense is formed by using the auxiliary verb 'have' and the past participle of a verb. And if that terminology is a little bit too confusing, I'll just give you some simple examples: 'I have eaten breakfast already' or 'he has seen that movie three times.' So the present perfect is that form that uses either have or has, followed by the past participle form of the verb." RS: "That's the form. Now we need to focus on how you use it." LB: "Well, that's the interesting part. One of the basic meanings of the present perfect tense is to talk about things that began in the past and continue up to the moment of speaking. An example of that would be something like 'I have lived in Los Angeles for 25 years,' 'she's been a teacher since she was 25 years old.' So cases where the action began in the past and continues until this moment, that's one way in which we use the present perfect tense. "Cases like that do not give students difficulty, though. Maybe it's because with that meaning we often pair the sentence with a phrase that starts with 'for' or 'since.' So, 'for 16 years' or 'since I was 12 years old,' those sorts of things are not hard for students to learn. "We use the past tense when something occurred in the past and we know exactly when it happened. So, 'I visited my grandmother three days ago' or 'he graduated from college last month.' When the time that the event occurred is given, then according to the rules, we have to use the past tense, OK? "In contrast to that, if something occurred in the past but there is no specific time stated, that's when we use the present perfect. So we would say something like 'I have finished my homework,' 'I've seen that movie' and so on. And, according to the strict rules of grammar, if you take a sentence like 'I've seen that movie' and you use it with the word 'yesterday,' in American English strictly speaking that sentence is incorrect. It would be wrong to say 'I have seen that movie yesterday.' But in reality -- " RS: "Instead you would say 'I saw that movie yesterday.'" LB: "That's right." AA: "Now, like in the homework example, if a kid comes up to you and says 'I have -- I've finished my homework,' they're talking about like in the past few minutes as opposed to 'I finished my homework -- " RS: "Two days ago." AA: " -- two days ago,' or something like that, is that what you're ... " LB: "That could be one explanation. But another explanation could be that the student is handing me his paper, you see. So this is how the relevance to the present is established. He says, 'I've finished my homework, and here it is.' You see? Sometimes the link is established by means of the context, OK? Sometimes we've had some kind of an experience in the past that has relevance for the present, in a sentence something like, 'I've used that machine lots of times, so I can teach you or help you with it now.' "Another way that this relevance to the current moment is established is if something has happened in the past, but there's a good probability that it might happen again. So a sentence like, 'I've been to the Hollywood Bowl twice this summer.' The Hollywood Bowl is a large outdoor concert arena here in Los Angeles. So, 'I've been to the Hollywood Bowl twice this summer ... '" RS: And the use of the present perfect indicates she might go again -- although at the present moment, Lida is busy with a new group of students. AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. All her previous lessons with us are on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And if you'd like to send Avi and me an e-mail, the address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 12, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: practice makes perfect. RS: With us from Los Angeles is English teacher Lida Baker to explain a part of grammar that makes English learners tense. AA: It's the verb tense known as the present perfect. First of all, Lida says don't be misled by the archaic meaning of perfect. LIDA BAKER: "In Latin it has to do with whether something is complete or incomplete. In linguistic terms, the present perfect tense is pretty unique, pretty unusual, and it's something that students always wrestle with. So the present perfect tense is formed by using the auxiliary verb 'have' and the past participle of a verb. And if that terminology is a little bit too confusing, I'll just give you some simple examples: 'I have eaten breakfast already' or 'he has seen that movie three times.' So the present perfect is that form that uses either have or has, followed by the past participle form of the verb." RS: "That's the form. Now we need to focus on how you use it." LB: "Well, that's the interesting part. One of the basic meanings of the present perfect tense is to talk about things that began in the past and continue up to the moment of speaking. An example of that would be something like 'I have lived in Los Angeles for 25 years,' 'she's been a teacher since she was 25 years old.' So cases where the action began in the past and continues until this moment, that's one way in which we use the present perfect tense. "Cases like that do not give students difficulty, though. Maybe it's because with that meaning we often pair the sentence with a phrase that starts with 'for' or 'since.' So, 'for 16 years' or 'since I was 12 years old,' those sorts of things are not hard for students to learn. "We use the past tense when something occurred in the past and we know exactly when it happened. So, 'I visited my grandmother three days ago' or 'he graduated from college last month.' When the time that the event occurred is given, then according to the rules, we have to use the past tense, OK? "In contrast to that, if something occurred in the past but there is no specific time stated, that's when we use the present perfect. So we would say something like 'I have finished my homework,' 'I've seen that movie' and so on. And, according to the strict rules of grammar, if you take a sentence like 'I've seen that movie' and you use it with the word 'yesterday,' in American English strictly speaking that sentence is incorrect. It would be wrong to say 'I have seen that movie yesterday.' But in reality -- " RS: "Instead you would say 'I saw that movie yesterday.'" LB: "That's right." AA: "Now, like in the homework example, if a kid comes up to you and says 'I have -- I've finished my homework,' they're talking about like in the past few minutes as opposed to 'I finished my homework -- " RS: "Two days ago." AA: " -- two days ago,' or something like that, is that what you're ... " LB: "That could be one explanation. But another explanation could be that the student is handing me his paper, you see. So this is how the relevance to the present is established. He says, 'I've finished my homework, and here it is.' You see? Sometimes the link is established by means of the context, OK? Sometimes we've had some kind of an experience in the past that has relevance for the present, in a sentence something like, 'I've used that machine lots of times, so I can teach you or help you with it now.' "Another way that this relevance to the current moment is established is if something has happened in the past, but there's a good probability that it might happen again. So a sentence like, 'I've been to the Hollywood Bowl twice this summer.' The Hollywood Bowl is a large outdoor concert arena here in Los Angeles. So, 'I've been to the Hollywood Bowl twice this summer ... '" RS: And the use of the present perfect indicates she might go again -- although at the present moment, Lida is busy with a new group of students. AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. All her previous lessons with us are on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And if you'd like to send Avi and me an e-mail, the address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - History of the Olympics / The Statue of Liberty / Music From the Movie
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 13, 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: A new movie celebrates the music of Cole Porter. A listener has a question about the Statue of Liberty, which has reopened to the public. But first -- a brief history of the Olympics, as the Summer Games open today in Athens. Summer Olympics The first Olympic competition was held in the ancient Greek city of Olympia more than two thousand seven hundred years ago. The modern day summer Olympics begin today in the Greek capital, Athens. Gwen Outen tells us more about the Olympic Games. GWEN OUTEN: At the first Olympics, men took part in foot races during celebrations to honor the Greek god, Zeus. More races and sports were added later. Greece held these Olympic games every four years for the next one thousand years. The ancient Romans banned them in the fourth century. The modern Olympic games began more than one hundred years ago. Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games of Greece. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens in eighteen ninety-six. Athletes from eight countries competed in ten sports. The purpose was to help athletes develop strength and values through competition. It also provided a way for athletes of all nations to become friends. The Olympic symbol of five linked rings represents this friendship. Baron de Coubertin designed it in nineteen thirteen. The rings represent the linking through sports of the major populated areas of the world—Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the two American continents, represented by one ring. The colors of the rings are blue, yellow, black, green and red. The flag of each nation competing in the games has at least one of these colors. Under the rings is the Olympic saying in Latin: “Citius, Altius, Fortius”. The words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”. The Olympic flame links the old and new games. In ancient Olympia, a fire burned for the god Zeus during the sports competitions. Now, runners bring a flame from Olympia, Greece to every new Olympics. That flame opens the summer games today in Athens. They end August twenty-ninth. About ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred nations will compete in the world’s most important international athletic event. Statue of Liberty DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Elnaz Ershadi asks about the Statue of Liberty in New York City. This is a good time to answer that question because the Statue of Liberty re-opened to visitors last week. It had been closed after the terrorist attacks in September, two thousand one. New York officials called the re-opening a sign of the recovery of the city and the country. The Statue of Liberty represents a woman holding a torch of fire. It stands on an island at the entrance to the New York City harbor. It is almost ninety-three meters tall, one of the tallest statues ever built. Its complete name is “Liberty Enlightening the World”. The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. It was an expression of friendship and the goal of liberty shared by the people of both countries. The idea for the statue came from a French history expert in eighteen sixty-five. Six years later, artist Frederic Bartholdi traveled to the United States to seek support for building the statue. He decided it should stand on an island in New York harbor. Bartholdi began designing the statue when he returned to France. He designed the woman’s face to look like his mother’s. French officials organized a group to raise money and supervise the project. The French people gave four hundred thousand dollars to build the statue. In eighteen seventy-seven, the Americans established a similar committee to raise money needed to build the statue’s base. The statue was built in France. Bartholdi had hoped it would be ready on the one hundredth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence in eighteen seventy-six. But it was not. France officially presented the statue to the United States Minister to France in Paris on July fourth, eighteen eighty-four. The statue was then taken apart and sent to the United States. “Liberty Enlightening the World” was completed in the United States in eighteen eighty-six. New York City celebrated with a huge parade. President Grover Cleveland and other American and French officials attended. Since then, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of freedom for people all over the world. Its meaning is expressed in the famous poem by Emma Lazarus that is written on the statue’s base. Here is part of that poem: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Cole Porter Cole Porter was one of America’s most famous and successful songwriters. He wrote songs for Broadway musical shows and Hollywood movies. He wrote most of his songs in the nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties. But they remain popular today. A new movie about Cole Porter was released last month. Shep O’Neal tells us about the man and his music. SHEP O'NEAL: Cole Porter lived from eighteen ninety-one until nineteen sixty-four. More than five-hundred of his songs were recorded in his lifetime. The new movie about his life is called “De-Lovely.” Popular young performers sing his songs in the movie. The songs were released on a new CD, also called “De-Lovely.” Robbie Williams sings the song “It’s De-Lovely.” (MUSIC) Cole Porter’s songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They were full of little jokes and hidden meanings. One of his earliest big hits was “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love.)” Alanis Morissette sings it. (MUSIC) Critics consider “Night and Day” perhaps the finest song Cole Porter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that is almost a form of insanity. We leave you now with John Barrowman and Kevin Kline singing “Night and Day” in the movie “De-Lovely.” You can learn more about Cole Porter on the Special English program People in America on Sunday. (MUSIC) HOST: DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. Broadcast: August 13, 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: A new movie celebrates the music of Cole Porter. A listener has a question about the Statue of Liberty, which has reopened to the public. But first -- a brief history of the Olympics, as the Summer Games open today in Athens. Summer Olympics The first Olympic competition was held in the ancient Greek city of Olympia more than two thousand seven hundred years ago. The modern day summer Olympics begin today in the Greek capital, Athens. Gwen Outen tells us more about the Olympic Games. GWEN OUTEN: At the first Olympics, men took part in foot races during celebrations to honor the Greek god, Zeus. More races and sports were added later. Greece held these Olympic games every four years for the next one thousand years. The ancient Romans banned them in the fourth century. The modern Olympic games began more than one hundred years ago. Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games of Greece. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens in eighteen ninety-six. Athletes from eight countries competed in ten sports. The purpose was to help athletes develop strength and values through competition. It also provided a way for athletes of all nations to become friends. The Olympic symbol of five linked rings represents this friendship. Baron de Coubertin designed it in nineteen thirteen. The rings represent the linking through sports of the major populated areas of the world—Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the two American continents, represented by one ring. The colors of the rings are blue, yellow, black, green and red. The flag of each nation competing in the games has at least one of these colors. Under the rings is the Olympic saying in Latin: “Citius, Altius, Fortius”. The words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”. The Olympic flame links the old and new games. In ancient Olympia, a fire burned for the god Zeus during the sports competitions. Now, runners bring a flame from Olympia, Greece to every new Olympics. That flame opens the summer games today in Athens. They end August twenty-ninth. About ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred nations will compete in the world’s most important international athletic event. Statue of Liberty DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Elnaz Ershadi asks about the Statue of Liberty in New York City. This is a good time to answer that question because the Statue of Liberty re-opened to visitors last week. It had been closed after the terrorist attacks in September, two thousand one. New York officials called the re-opening a sign of the recovery of the city and the country. The Statue of Liberty represents a woman holding a torch of fire. It stands on an island at the entrance to the New York City harbor. It is almost ninety-three meters tall, one of the tallest statues ever built. Its complete name is “Liberty Enlightening the World”. The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. It was an expression of friendship and the goal of liberty shared by the people of both countries. The idea for the statue came from a French history expert in eighteen sixty-five. Six years later, artist Frederic Bartholdi traveled to the United States to seek support for building the statue. He decided it should stand on an island in New York harbor. Bartholdi began designing the statue when he returned to France. He designed the woman’s face to look like his mother’s. French officials organized a group to raise money and supervise the project. The French people gave four hundred thousand dollars to build the statue. In eighteen seventy-seven, the Americans established a similar committee to raise money needed to build the statue’s base. The statue was built in France. Bartholdi had hoped it would be ready on the one hundredth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence in eighteen seventy-six. But it was not. France officially presented the statue to the United States Minister to France in Paris on July fourth, eighteen eighty-four. The statue was then taken apart and sent to the United States. “Liberty Enlightening the World” was completed in the United States in eighteen eighty-six. New York City celebrated with a huge parade. President Grover Cleveland and other American and French officials attended. Since then, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of freedom for people all over the world. Its meaning is expressed in the famous poem by Emma Lazarus that is written on the statue’s base. Here is part of that poem: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Cole Porter Cole Porter was one of America’s most famous and successful songwriters. He wrote songs for Broadway musical shows and Hollywood movies. He wrote most of his songs in the nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties. But they remain popular today. A new movie about Cole Porter was released last month. Shep O’Neal tells us about the man and his music. SHEP O'NEAL: Cole Porter lived from eighteen ninety-one until nineteen sixty-four. More than five-hundred of his songs were recorded in his lifetime. The new movie about his life is called “De-Lovely.” Popular young performers sing his songs in the movie. The songs were released on a new CD, also called “De-Lovely.” Robbie Williams sings the song “It’s De-Lovely.” (MUSIC) Cole Porter’s songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They were full of little jokes and hidden meanings. One of his earliest big hits was “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love.)” Alanis Morissette sings it. (MUSIC) Critics consider “Night and Day” perhaps the finest song Cole Porter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that is almost a form of insanity. We leave you now with John Barrowman and Kevin Kline singing “Night and Day” in the movie “De-Lovely.” You can learn more about Cole Porter on the Special English program People in America on Sunday. (MUSIC) HOST: DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Halliburton's Legal Troubles
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 13, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Investors in a company have some control over how it operates. Shareholders can vote on some issues. They can also go to court if they believe their interests are being harmed. Last week, investors brought legal action against the energy services company Halliburton. The investors accuse four former or current top officers of misleading them. The latest legal action says that Halliburton lost a legal case in Texas in September, two thousand one. A court ordered the company to pay one hundred thirty million dollars. The decision was kept secret. At the time, Halliburton told investors that the case had gone well. But three months later, the company’s stock price dropped forty-two percent on the day that news of the judgement became public. Four former Halliburton employees also told legal investigators that the company did not keep honest records of its sales and costs from nineteen ninety eight to two thousand one. They said the company claimed to collect more money than it received. They said workers were expected to change records to make the company appear more profitable. The charges cover two years when Vice President Dick Cheney was its chief executive officer. He was not named in the case. In a statement, Halliburton said the latest legal action is an attempt to turn public opinion against the company. Halliburton said a federal court in Dallas, Texas, approved a settlement of twenty similar cases on June seventh. The company agreed to pay six million dollars. Halliburton said the court ordered that no more shareholder cases be brought against the company. On August third, Halliburton reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. said the company had secretly changed its method of financial record-keeping in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. The new method made Halliburton’s earnings appear almost fifty percent higher. Halliburton paid seven million five hundred thousand dollars without admitting any wrongdoing. Halliburton faces other problems. The Justice Department is investigating Halliburton’s projects in the Balkans and in Nigeria. Halliburton is based in Houston, Texas. It is the world’s second largest oil services company. The largest is Schlumberger Limited. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Porter Goss Nomination
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 14, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush this week nominated Congressman Porter Goss to be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The president said Mister Goss is well prepared to reform and strengthen the C.I.A. to meet the threat of terrorism. Porter Goss is a former C.I.A. case officer. He is now in his eighth term as a Republican congressman from Florida. He stepped down this week as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He became chairman in nineteen ninety seven. Mister Goss has defended the Central Intelligence Agency against critics. But he himself has criticized the C.I.A. for its performance in Iraq and before the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Mister Goss is a political ally of President Bush. Still, they have disagreed about how to restructure intelligence gathering. Mister Goss recently proposed legislation to give the C.I.A. director more control over all fifteen intelligence agencies in the government. But last week Mister Bush called for the establishment of a national intelligence director to supervise the C.I.A and the other agencies. The new position was one of the main reforms urged by the commission that investigated the September eleventh attacks. However, Mister Bush rejected a call by the Nine-Eleven Commission to make the job part of his cabinet. The president had at first opposed the creation of the independent commission itself. He said committees already existing in Congress were in a better position to investigate the attacks on the United States. Some observers believe Mister Goss will become national intelligence director once that job is established. The national intelligence director will advise the president on all intelligence issues. That is now the job of the director of the C.I.A. The nomination of Porter Goss as C.I.A. director must be confirmed by the Senate. The leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller, has said Mister Goss might be too political to head the agency. Senator Rockefeller said it was a mistake to nominate a politician from either political party. Some Democrats have criticized President Bush for choosing a politician who has strongly supported the administration’s policies. They accuse Mister Goss of seeking to go too slowly on proposed intelligence changes. The congressman said last week that a rush to judgment is no more acceptable than a needless delay. A number of Democrats in the Senate have said they will not try to block the confirmation of Mister Goss. But they also said they would use the hearings as a chance to express concerns about intelligence failures under the Bush administration. If confirmed by the Senate, Mister Goss will replace George Tenet, who resigned as C.I.A. director last month. John McLaughlin, a C.I.A. official, is acting director of the agency for now. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Cole Porter, Pt. 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 15, 2004 ((THEME)) Broadcast: August 15, 2004 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and music of American songwriter Cole Porter. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: That was "Begin the Beguine" played by Artie Shaw's orchestra in nineteen-thirty-eight. It is one of almost one-thousand songs Cole Porter wrote. In his seventy-three years, more than five-hundred of those songs were published. Porter wrote most of his songs in the nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties. Yet they remain as fresh as when he wrote them. Cole Porter’s songs are still being sung and played today. They are performed at musical theaters, jazz clubs, even rock-and-roll concerts. A movie about his life, called “De-Lovely,” was released in two-thousand-four. Kevin Kline stars in the movie as Cole Porter. Ashley Judd plays his wife, Linda Porter. Popular young performers of today sing his songs in the movie. We will play some songs from that movie later in this program. VOICE TWO: Cole Porter was born June ninth, eighteen-ninety-one, in the middle western state of Indiana. His family was wealthy and educated. His mother, Kate, guided him to music at an early age. He wrote his first song at the age of ten. As a young man, he was sent east to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In his extra time, he continued to write songs. Two were for the university: the "Yale Bulldog" song and "Bingo Eli Yale." They are still sung there today. After finishing his studies at Yale, Cole Porter went to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to study law. That plan lasted only a year. At a party one night, he played some of his songs for the students and professors. The head of the law school spoke to him. "Why are you studying law?” he asked. "You are no good at it. Why don't you go to Harvard's Music School and then write for the musical theater?" Later, Porter said, "That idea had never entered my head before. " VOICE ONE: At the time, musical theater was extremely popular in America. This is because there were few music records. And radio programs were still being developed. So, songwriters had to work in the musical theater to be successful. Cole Porter wrote his first musical show in nineteen-sixteen. He was still a student at Harvard. The show was called "See America First." It was produced in the Broadway theater area of New York City. The show was a complete failure. Porter wanted to leave town until people forgot it. So, he went to Europe. He stayed there for most of the next thirteen years. VOICE TWO: During this time, Cole Porter became famous for his parties. His guests were wealthy, pleasure-loving people from all over Europe. They liked him because he was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. And they loved his songs, which he played at his parties. Here Cole Porter sings his song, “You’re the Top.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: In France, Cole Porter met the woman who became his wife. She was a beautiful and rich American named Linda Lee Thomas. They were married in nineteen-nineteen. The Porters gave parties that lasted for days. They had so much money they could do anything they wanted. And they did. Their life together was a search for excitement, adventure and pleasure. Still, Cole Porter remained a serious, hard-working songwriter. He wrote both the words and the music for his songs. The words and music always fit together perfectly. His songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They were playful -- full of little jokes and hidden meanings. One of his earliest big hits is called "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." It was written in nineteen-twenty-eight for a show called "Paris.” Alanis Morrissette sings the song in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Some of Porter's friends thought he might not be a success. One friend, Elsa Maxwell, told him: "You are too good. The humor and poetry of your words are far beyond the people. One day, however," she added, "you will bring the public up to your own level. Then the world will be yours." VOICE ONE: Most of Cole Porter's songs are about love and desire. When they were written, they stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. The words were often unexpected, sometimes even shocking. They spoke both directly and indirectly about sex, about drug use. Some songs he sang only for his friends. Critics consider "Love for Sale" to be one of Porter's finest songs. He wrote it in nineteen-thirty for a Broadway musical called "The New Yorkers." For years, the song was banned on American radio. Here is a new version by Vivian Green. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Many of Porter's songs were written in a minor musical key. This gives them a feeling of sadness and longing. Yet they also can have a feeling of great excitement. American songwriter Alan J. Lerner said only Cole Porter could really "write" passion. One example is "Night and Day." It is considered perhaps the finest song Cole Porter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that is almost a form of insanity. Porter got the idea for the song while traveling in Morocco. He heard drums and a man singing a prayer. The song has a sound that beats endlessly, over and over. It is like a lover who thinks of nothing but his love, over and over, night and day. The song "Night and Day" was introduced in a nineteen-thirty-two Broadway musical comedy called "The Gay Divorcee." The great dancer and singer Fred Astaire played the leading male character and sang the song. "Night and Day" became famous around the world. And Cole Porter was becoming one of the greatest songwriters America had ever produced. Today there are many recordings of the song by different singers and musicians. Here is “Night and Day” from the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” John Barrowman and Kevin Kline sing it. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: On our program next week, we will tell more about Cole Porter’s life, and bring you more of his music. ((MUSIC)) This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the life and music of American songwriter Cole Porter. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: That was "Begin the Beguine" played by Artie Shaw's orchestra in nineteen-thirty-eight. It is one of almost one-thousand songs Cole Porter wrote. In his seventy-three years, more than five-hundred of those songs were published. Porter wrote most of his songs in the nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties. Yet they remain as fresh as when he wrote them. Cole Porter’s songs are still being sung and played today. They are performed at musical theaters, jazz clubs, even rock-and-roll concerts. A movie about his life, called “De-Lovely,” was released in two-thousand-four. Kevin Kline stars in the movie as Cole Porter. Ashley Judd plays his wife, Linda Porter. Popular young performers of today sing his songs in the movie. We will play some songs from that movie later in this program. VOICE TWO: Cole Porter was born June ninth, eighteen-ninety-one, in the middle western state of Indiana. His family was wealthy and educated. His mother, Kate, guided him to music at an early age. He wrote his first song at the age of ten. As a young man, he was sent east to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In his extra time, he continued to write songs. Two were for the university: the "Yale Bulldog" song and "Bingo Eli Yale." They are still sung there today. After finishing his studies at Yale, Cole Porter went to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to study law. That plan lasted only a year. At a party one night, he played some of his songs for the students and professors. The head of the law school spoke to him. "Why are you studying law?” he asked. "You are no good at it. Why don't you go to Harvard's Music School and then write for the musical theater?" Later, Porter said, "That idea had never entered my head before. " VOICE ONE: At the time, musical theater was extremely popular in America. This is because there were few music records. And radio programs were still being developed. So, songwriters had to work in the musical theater to be successful. Cole Porter wrote his first musical show in nineteen-sixteen. He was still a student at Harvard. The show was called "See America First." It was produced in the Broadway theater area of New York City. The show was a complete failure. Porter wanted to leave town until people forgot it. So, he went to Europe. He stayed there for most of the next thirteen years. VOICE TWO: During this time, Cole Porter became famous for his parties. His guests were wealthy, pleasure-loving people from all over Europe. They liked him because he was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. And they loved his songs, which he played at his parties. Here Cole Porter sings his song, “You’re the Top.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: In France, Cole Porter met the woman who became his wife. She was a beautiful and rich American named Linda Lee Thomas. They were married in nineteen-nineteen. The Porters gave parties that lasted for days. They had so much money they could do anything they wanted. And they did. Their life together was a search for excitement, adventure and pleasure. Still, Cole Porter remained a serious, hard-working songwriter. He wrote both the words and the music for his songs. The words and music always fit together perfectly. His songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They were playful -- full of little jokes and hidden meanings. One of his earliest big hits is called "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." It was written in nineteen-twenty-eight for a show called "Paris.” Alanis Morrissette sings the song in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Some of Porter's friends thought he might not be a success. One friend, Elsa Maxwell, told him: "You are too good. The humor and poetry of your words are far beyond the people. One day, however," she added, "you will bring the public up to your own level. Then the world will be yours." VOICE ONE: Most of Cole Porter's songs are about love and desire. When they were written, they stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. The words were often unexpected, sometimes even shocking. They spoke both directly and indirectly about sex, about drug use. Some songs he sang only for his friends. Critics consider "Love for Sale" to be one of Porter's finest songs. He wrote it in nineteen-thirty for a Broadway musical called "The New Yorkers." For years, the song was banned on American radio. Here is a new version by Vivian Green. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Many of Porter's songs were written in a minor musical key. This gives them a feeling of sadness and longing. Yet they also can have a feeling of great excitement. American songwriter Alan J. Lerner said only Cole Porter could really "write" passion. One example is "Night and Day." It is considered perhaps the finest song Cole Porter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that is almost a form of insanity. Porter got the idea for the song while traveling in Morocco. He heard drums and a man singing a prayer. The song has a sound that beats endlessly, over and over. It is like a lover who thinks of nothing but his love, over and over, night and day. The song "Night and Day" was introduced in a nineteen-thirty-two Broadway musical comedy called "The Gay Divorcee." The great dancer and singer Fred Astaire played the leading male character and sang the song. "Night and Day" became famous around the world. And Cole Porter was becoming one of the greatest songwriters America had ever produced. Today there are many recordings of the song by different singers and musicians. Here is “Night and Day” from the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” John Barrowman and Kevin Kline sing it. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: On our program next week, we will tell more about Cole Porter’s life, and bring you more of his music. ((MUSIC)) This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - A Visit to Washington
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 16, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: August 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Gwen Outen. Today we take a summer visit around the nation's capital. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Gwen Outen. Today we take a summer visit around the nation's capital. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: August is a month when a lot of people from the Washington, D.C., area go someplace else for a week or two. But August is also when a lot of people from someplace else go to Washington. Such a trip often starts this way: A person who lives here -- we'll call her Suzy -- gets a call from friends in another part of the country. They want to see the city. They want to see everything. But they can only stay a day or two. Suzy knows that her friends cannot possibly see everything in such a short time. Also, the weather may be very hot. There may be security delays. But Suzy wants her visitors to leave with happy memories. VOICE TWO: So she organizes a plan for her friends. She decides they will do most of their travel in the city by foot or on Metro trains and buses. Metro is the public transportation system. That way they will not have to worry about where to leave their car. At night, they will visit open-air memorials. During the day, the group will see museums; many are free of charge to enter. But, without a lot of time, which ones should they see? The visitors have two children. So Suzy decides that her friends should begin at the National Museum of Natural History. This is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The first thing the children want to see is the area that shows what dinosaurs looked like millions of years ago. The Natural History Museum is along the grassy area in Washington called the National Mall. VOICE ONE: Next Suzy leads her friends along the Mall to the National Museum of American History. It contains all sorts of objects. There are dresses worn by the wives of presidents. There is a walking stick that Benjamin Franklin gave to George Washington, America’s first president. Franklin was a statesmen, writer and inventor. The collections in the American History Museum also include objects from popular culture of today. The guests have walked a lot so far. They see a table, but they cannot sit at it. This is the table where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Next, the visitors walk over to the most popular museum in the world. Each year as many as ten million people visit the National Air and Space Museum. Suzy points out some of the most famous things. One is the command vehicle from the Apollo Eleven spacecraft. In nineteen-sixty-nine, Apollo Eleven carried the first astronauts to land on the moon. The visitors all touch the moon rock that is also on display in museum. By now, everyone is hungry and a little tired. So they buy food inside the Air and Space Museum. Then, as they walk out into the sunlight, they look across the street. They see a building that looks unlike any others around it, including the Capitol, where Congress meets. The shape is like waves of golden sand. This is the National Museum of the American Indian. But it is not ready yet for the public. Opening ceremonies are planned for September twenty-first. VOICE ONE: Suzy's friends decide they would like to see some art. But they do not have the time or energy to see the National Gallery of Art. Instead they walk over to a smaller museum, the Freer Gallery. It has art collections from Asia and the United States. Here the group inspects one of the rooms. Large golden birds with shining tail feathers are painted on the walls. James McNeill Whistler painted this. It is called the Peacock Room. VOICE TWO: Next the group walks to a Metro station. The next stop for them is the International Spy Museum. It opened in two thousand two. Visitors learn about the history of intelligence gathering. And they see all kinds of devices used by spies. But spying is not the only subject here. Currently there is a collection called "The Enemy Within: Terror in America -- Seventeen Seventy Six to Today." This collection includes pieces of the planes flown into the World Trade Center in New York on September eleventh, two thousand one. By now, everyone in the group is ready for some quiet time and a good meal. So Suzy takes them back to her home by Metro. Later, they start out again. This time Suzy will drive her guests in her car to see the memorials in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now it is getting dark. The visitors will do some of their sightseeing by moonlight, when the temperature is cooler. They start at the F.D.R. Memorial. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the nation from nineteen thirty three until his death in nineteen forty five. He served longer than any other American president. The memorial opened in nineteen ninety seven. It contains four areas. Each represents one of his terms in office. Statues help show what life was like. One sculpture shows men standing in line waiting for bread during the Great Depression. VOICE TWO: After that, Suzy takes her guests to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The war lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty three. The statues of soldiers look real. Moonlight shines on their faces. From there, the visitors walk to the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president. He led the nation through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. He was shot to death as he watched a play in Washington. The memorial is a large white building open all the around. At the center is a larger-than-life size statue of the president. Lincoln is seated. He looks toward a body of water called the Reflecting Pool. VOICE ONE: Next, the visitors walk to the black wall that forms the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. On the wall are the names of more than fifty eight thousand Americans who died in the Vietnam War. Names are listed by year of death. The wall grows taller and taller as the war reaches its height. Many visitors find the names of loved ones and rub the letters onto paper. Many leave flowers and notes at the foot of the wall. Maya Lin designed this wall. In nineteen eighty, she entered a national competition to design a Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She was twenty one years old then, an architecture student at Yale University. VOICE TWO: In April of this year, the first National World War Two Memorial opened nearby. This memorial looks more traditional. It is made of bronze and granite, with stone pillars all around. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water with fountains in the middle. The World War Two memorial honors the sixteen million who served in the American armed forces. It includes a wall with four thousand gold stars to honor the more than four hundred thousand who died. VOICE ONE: After all their walking, Suzy and her guests are glad to return to the car. Now they will drive a short distance to see the memorial to America's third president. A statue of Thomas Jefferson stands in the middle of a white circular structure with columns all around. In the moonlight, the visitors can see an image of the memorial in the Tidal Basin, which collects water from the Potomac River. Next the group drives past the Washington Monument. This honor to George Washington is made of white stone. Its narrow form reaches more than one hundred sixty nine meters toward the sky. It is late now, and everyone decides they have seen enough for one day. VOICE TWO: Next morning, they walk past the White House. Visitors can go inside the president's home, but they must first get tickets through a member of Congress. Instead, Suzy's group stands in line to visit the United States Capitol. They see where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet. And they see the paintings and statues that are throughout the Capitol. VOICE ONE: Later that day, the guests fly home. Suzy gets some time to rest before she has to go back to work. But her friends are already planning their next trip. They did not have time to see places like the Holocaust Museum, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. They want to see the American Indian museum, too. Maybe next time they will have to stay longer. Suzy cannot wait till next time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. And our thanks to Suzy Karpel, whose real-life experience with visitors to Washington helped guide our story. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. We invite you back again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: August is a month when a lot of people from the Washington, D.C., area go someplace else for a week or two. But August is also when a lot of people from someplace else go to Washington. Such a trip often starts this way: A person who lives here -- we'll call her Suzy -- gets a call from friends in another part of the country. They want to see the city. They want to see everything. But they can only stay a day or two. Suzy knows that her friends cannot possibly see everything in such a short time. Also, the weather may be very hot. There may be security delays. But Suzy wants her visitors to leave with happy memories. VOICE TWO: So she organizes a plan for her friends. She decides they will do most of their travel in the city by foot or on Metro trains and buses. Metro is the public transportation system. That way they will not have to worry about where to leave their car. At night, they will visit open-air memorials. During the day, the group will see museums; many are free of charge to enter. But, without a lot of time, which ones should they see? The visitors have two children. So Suzy decides that her friends should begin at the National Museum of Natural History. This is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The first thing the children want to see is the area that shows what dinosaurs looked like millions of years ago. The Natural History Museum is along the grassy area in Washington called the National Mall. VOICE ONE: Next Suzy leads her friends along the Mall to the National Museum of American History. It contains all sorts of objects. There are dresses worn by the wives of presidents. There is a walking stick that Benjamin Franklin gave to George Washington, America’s first president. Franklin was a statesmen, writer and inventor. The collections in the American History Museum also include objects from popular culture of today. The guests have walked a lot so far. They see a table, but they cannot sit at it. This is the table where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Next, the visitors walk over to the most popular museum in the world. Each year as many as ten million people visit the National Air and Space Museum. Suzy points out some of the most famous things. One is the command vehicle from the Apollo Eleven spacecraft. In nineteen-sixty-nine, Apollo Eleven carried the first astronauts to land on the moon. The visitors all touch the moon rock that is also on display in museum. By now, everyone is hungry and a little tired. So they buy food inside the Air and Space Museum. Then, as they walk out into the sunlight, they look across the street. They see a building that looks unlike any others around it, including the Capitol, where Congress meets. The shape is like waves of golden sand. This is the National Museum of the American Indian. But it is not ready yet for the public. Opening ceremonies are planned for September twenty-first. VOICE ONE: Suzy's friends decide they would like to see some art. But they do not have the time or energy to see the National Gallery of Art. Instead they walk over to a smaller museum, the Freer Gallery. It has art collections from Asia and the United States. Here the group inspects one of the rooms. Large golden birds with shining tail feathers are painted on the walls. James McNeill Whistler painted this. It is called the Peacock Room. VOICE TWO: Next the group walks to a Metro station. The next stop for them is the International Spy Museum. It opened in two thousand two. Visitors learn about the history of intelligence gathering. And they see all kinds of devices used by spies. But spying is not the only subject here. Currently there is a collection called "The Enemy Within: Terror in America -- Seventeen Seventy Six to Today." This collection includes pieces of the planes flown into the World Trade Center in New York on September eleventh, two thousand one. By now, everyone in the group is ready for some quiet time and a good meal. So Suzy takes them back to her home by Metro. Later, they start out again. This time Suzy will drive her guests in her car to see the memorials in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now it is getting dark. The visitors will do some of their sightseeing by moonlight, when the temperature is cooler. They start at the F.D.R. Memorial. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led the nation from nineteen thirty three until his death in nineteen forty five. He served longer than any other American president. The memorial opened in nineteen ninety seven. It contains four areas. Each represents one of his terms in office. Statues help show what life was like. One sculpture shows men standing in line waiting for bread during the Great Depression. VOICE TWO: After that, Suzy takes her guests to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The war lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty three. The statues of soldiers look real. Moonlight shines on their faces. From there, the visitors walk to the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president. He led the nation through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. He was shot to death as he watched a play in Washington. The memorial is a large white building open all the around. At the center is a larger-than-life size statue of the president. Lincoln is seated. He looks toward a body of water called the Reflecting Pool. VOICE ONE: Next, the visitors walk to the black wall that forms the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. On the wall are the names of more than fifty eight thousand Americans who died in the Vietnam War. Names are listed by year of death. The wall grows taller and taller as the war reaches its height. Many visitors find the names of loved ones and rub the letters onto paper. Many leave flowers and notes at the foot of the wall. Maya Lin designed this wall. In nineteen eighty, she entered a national competition to design a Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She was twenty one years old then, an architecture student at Yale University. VOICE TWO: In April of this year, the first National World War Two Memorial opened nearby. This memorial looks more traditional. It is made of bronze and granite, with stone pillars all around. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water with fountains in the middle. The World War Two memorial honors the sixteen million who served in the American armed forces. It includes a wall with four thousand gold stars to honor the more than four hundred thousand who died. VOICE ONE: After all their walking, Suzy and her guests are glad to return to the car. Now they will drive a short distance to see the memorial to America's third president. A statue of Thomas Jefferson stands in the middle of a white circular structure with columns all around. In the moonlight, the visitors can see an image of the memorial in the Tidal Basin, which collects water from the Potomac River. Next the group drives past the Washington Monument. This honor to George Washington is made of white stone. Its narrow form reaches more than one hundred sixty nine meters toward the sky. It is late now, and everyone decides they have seen enough for one day. VOICE TWO: Next morning, they walk past the White House. Visitors can go inside the president's home, but they must first get tickets through a member of Congress. Instead, Suzy's group stands in line to visit the United States Capitol. They see where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet. And they see the paintings and statues that are throughout the Capitol. VOICE ONE: Later that day, the guests fly home. Suzy gets some time to rest before she has to go back to work. But her friends are already planning their next trip. They did not have time to see places like the Holocaust Museum, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. They want to see the American Indian museum, too. Maybe next time they will have to stay longer. Suzy cannot wait till next time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. And our thanks to Suzy Karpel, whose real-life experience with visitors to Washington helped guide our story. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. We invite you back again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Experts Say Babies Should Be Fed Only Breast Milk for the First Six Months
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 16, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Health experts commonly advise mothers to feed babies only breast milk for the first six months. They say no other food is more valuable to the development of a child. The World Health Organization says children can be breastfed as part of their diet for up to two years or longer. Yet it says only one out of three babies is fed only breast milk for even just four months. Breast milk helps protect children from infections and disease. It can prevent common sicknesses, such as diarrhea and pneumonia. And it can help babies recover more quickly if they do get sick. Studies also show that mothers who breastfeed reduce their risk of cancer in the reproductive organs. Breastfeeding also saves money, compared to milk substitutes. The first week in August is World Breastfeeding Week. The campaign this year involved the idea of exclusive breastfeeding. The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action say babies can be fed drops or syrups with extra vitamins and minerals. But exclusive means no other foods or drinks for six months. The World Health Organization and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, offer some steps for mothers. First, they say breastfeeding should start within the first hour after a baby's birth. Second, the baby should not receive any other food or drink, including water. Third, babies should be breastfed whenever they are hungry – day or night. And, lastly, the agencies say there should be no use of bottles, pacifiers or other equipment. International health experts say traditional ways to measure child growth do not recognize things like the importance of breastfeeding. So the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving more than six million dollars to the W.H.O. for a six-year project. The money will be used to develop new tools to measure the health and well-being of young people. Current growth standards describe how children grow at different times. The new standards will also be linked to motor development. Experts say the message here is that physical growth is not the only part of normal development. Doctor Mercedes de Onis heads the W.H.O. project. She says the current growth standards used by ninety-nine countries do not support international health goals. She notes that one of these goals is to increase breastfeeding. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: August 16, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Health experts commonly advise mothers to feed babies only breast milk for the first six months. They say no other food is more valuable to the development of a child. The World Health Organization says children can be breastfed as part of their diet for up to two years or longer. Yet it says only one out of three babies is fed only breast milk for even just four months. Breast milk helps protect children from infections and disease. It can prevent common sicknesses, such as diarrhea and pneumonia. And it can help babies recover more quickly if they do get sick. Studies also show that mothers who breastfeed reduce their risk of cancer in the reproductive organs. Breastfeeding also saves money, compared to milk substitutes. The first week in August is World Breastfeeding Week. The campaign this year involved the idea of exclusive breastfeeding. The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action say babies can be fed drops or syrups with extra vitamins and minerals. But exclusive means no other foods or drinks for six months. The World Health Organization and UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, offer some steps for mothers. First, they say breastfeeding should start within the first hour after a baby's birth. Second, the baby should not receive any other food or drink, including water. Third, babies should be breastfed whenever they are hungry – day or night. And, lastly, the agencies say there should be no use of bottles, pacifiers or other equipment. International health experts say traditional ways to measure child growth do not recognize things like the importance of breastfeeding. So the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving more than six million dollars to the W.H.O. for a six-year project. The money will be used to develop new tools to measure the health and well-being of young people. Current growth standards describe how children grow at different times. The new standards will also be linked to motor development. Experts say the message here is that physical growth is not the only part of normal development. Doctor Mercedes de Onis heads the W.H.O. project. She says the current growth standards used by ninety-nine countries do not support international health goals. She notes that one of these goals is to increase breastfeeding. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Stephen Hawking and Black Holes / Quantum Theory
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 17, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. When a world famous scientist admits being wrong about something, people hear about it. But when the subject is something like quantum theory, they might not understand it. VOICE ONE: So we will try our best to explain quantum theory ... coming up this week on SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recently, the physicist Stephen Hawking had an announcement that made news around the world. Mister Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England. He was in Ireland at the Seventeenth International Conference on General Relativity. This was his announcement: he has changed his mind about black holes. Professor Hawking admitted that he had been wrong for thirty years. He presented a new theory. He says he now accepts that black holes cannot destroy the information about the objects they swallow. VOICE ONE: Black holes are generally the remains of exploded stars -- big stars. Black holes are extremely dense. The gravity they produce is great enough to pull in other objects from space. Scientists tell us this force is so great that not even light can escape. In nineteen seventy five, Stephen Hawking declared that black holes destroyed all evidence of whatever they swallowed. He said any information about matter eaten by a black hole would cease to exist. VOICE TWO: Other physicists who study space found that declaration difficult to swallow. Many argued that the total loss of information would be impossible; it would violate the laws of quantum theory. The other astrophysicists argued that there must have been a mistake in Professor Hawking's math. Over the years, some found a compromise. They presented mathematical arguments to permit conflicting theories about information in black holes. But no scientist was able to discover the problem in the professor's work. Now Stephen Hawking says he has found the mistakes himself. He says he redid his work from nineteen seventy five, but in a new way. He says the new results show that information about what is inside a black hole is carried back out to the universe by radiation. Professor Hawking's work in the nineteen seventies had shown that black holes release radiation. In fact, scientists call this Hawking Radiation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Stephen Hawking says his recent work shows something new about the surface of a black hole. This surface is called the event horizon. The professor says changes that take place in the event horizon permit information to leak out of the black hole. However, he says the information would be changed by the black hole experience. By this theory, the information would be so changed that it could not be recognized. Stephen Hawking said he would publish a complete description of his new work in professional journals and on the Internet. The findings could help the scientific efforts to find what is called a Theory of Everything. Physicists hope to be able to find the link between the laws that govern the smallest parts of matter with those that guide larger objects in the universe. These laws often appear to conflict. VOICE TWO: The changes that Professor Hawking describes in the surface of black holes are quantum changes. Quantum theory describes how energy and matter act at the level of atoms and particles of atoms. It now guides most research in physics. In nineteen hundred, the German physicist Max Planck wrote a paper that dealt with two forms of energy: heat and light. At the time, scientists did not understand why increased heat leads to changes in the color of light. A common example involves what happens to a piece of metal that is heated. As the temperature increases, the metal becomes red. As the metal gets hotter and hotter, it turns yellow and then white. But why? To explain this, Planck said atoms and molecules must affect energy in small, separate parts. He called these divisions of energy "quanta." Material loses light energy as it is heated. The color of that light is the result of the number of quanta lost. Planck described an unchanging balance between the energy of each quantum and the color of the light. This balance is known as Planck’s constant. Before his paper, scientists thought energy changed in a continuous flow. But the new work showed that changes in huge numbers of extremely small parts simply make it appear that way. VOICE ONE: Max Planck’s finding was the beginning of quantum mechanics. This describes how matter and radiation operate at the atomic level. Quantum mechanics describes the structure of the atom and the movement of its particles. It also explores how atoms take in energy and release energy as light. Physicists hope quantum mechanics will help them to understand actions that conflict with traditional laws of physics. Isaac Newton developed his theories in England three centuries ago based on normal human experience. But scientists now know that extremely small particles and systems do not follow those laws of nature that Newton observed. Such conflicts must be settled if scientists are to reach a single theory for everything. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Several major ideas guide quantum mechanics. One is the idea that energy is divided into parts. Another is that light energy exists at the same time both as particles and as a wave. A person sees light particles. But the particles are spread out in an area that includes places where they could be but are not. So the probability of where each particle will be means that light acts like a wave. Another major part of quantum mechanics is called Schrodinger’s Equation. Erwin Schrodinger, an Austrian, developed this idea in the middle of the nineteen twenties. It basically says that the act of measurement changes the nature of that which is being measured. In everyday life, the effect of this interference is too small to notice. But, as we said, things are different in the world of atoms and subatomic particles. For example, scientists need light to see an electron before they can measure it. But light is made up of photons. These will affect the movement of the electron. VOICE ONE: Another major part of quantum mechanics is called the Uncertainty Principle. The German scientist Werner Heisenberg proposed this idea. The basic explanation is that the exact position of a particle and its speed and direction can never be known together. In other words, you can measure either the position or the momentum. But if you measure one, you sacrifice the other. So it is impossible to know both at the same time. But scientists can at least mathematically predict how matter will act in ways we would think impossible. Again, it is all about probability. VOICE TWO: The study of quantum mechanics has uses in areas like chemistry, molecular biology and information technology. It has already led to smaller and more powerful computers. Quantum theory has also led to a greater understanding of the universe. The same is true of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. But Einstein's theory deals with larger structures in the universe; quantum theory deals with the very opposite. Some scientists are at work to combine these two theories into a theory of everything. This could help explain the formation of the universe from the very beginning of time. VOICE ONE: One of the scientists involved in this effort is Stephen Hawking. Many people know about his work from his popular book "A Brief History of Time." Professor Hawking is sixty-two years old. That makes him one of the oldest survivors of A.L.S., or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Americans call this Lou Gherig's disease, after a baseball player who had it. The disease attacks the nervous system. Stephen Hawking uses a wheelchair. And he uses a computer to speak for him. He enters words one letter at a time. Then the computer serves as his voice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. If you have a question for our program, or a comment, we want to hear from you. Send an e-mail to special@voanews.com. And please tell us your name and where you are writing from. Our postal address is VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: August 17, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. When a world famous scientist admits being wrong about something, people hear about it. But when the subject is something like quantum theory, they might not understand it. VOICE ONE: So we will try our best to explain quantum theory ... coming up this week on SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recently, the physicist Stephen Hawking had an announcement that made news around the world. Mister Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England. He was in Ireland at the Seventeenth International Conference on General Relativity. This was his announcement: he has changed his mind about black holes. Professor Hawking admitted that he had been wrong for thirty years. He presented a new theory. He says he now accepts that black holes cannot destroy the information about the objects they swallow. VOICE ONE: Black holes are generally the remains of exploded stars -- big stars. Black holes are extremely dense. The gravity they produce is great enough to pull in other objects from space. Scientists tell us this force is so great that not even light can escape. In nineteen seventy five, Stephen Hawking declared that black holes destroyed all evidence of whatever they swallowed. He said any information about matter eaten by a black hole would cease to exist. VOICE TWO: Other physicists who study space found that declaration difficult to swallow. Many argued that the total loss of information would be impossible; it would violate the laws of quantum theory. The other astrophysicists argued that there must have been a mistake in Professor Hawking's math. Over the years, some found a compromise. They presented mathematical arguments to permit conflicting theories about information in black holes. But no scientist was able to discover the problem in the professor's work. Now Stephen Hawking says he has found the mistakes himself. He says he redid his work from nineteen seventy five, but in a new way. He says the new results show that information about what is inside a black hole is carried back out to the universe by radiation. Professor Hawking's work in the nineteen seventies had shown that black holes release radiation. In fact, scientists call this Hawking Radiation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Stephen Hawking says his recent work shows something new about the surface of a black hole. This surface is called the event horizon. The professor says changes that take place in the event horizon permit information to leak out of the black hole. However, he says the information would be changed by the black hole experience. By this theory, the information would be so changed that it could not be recognized. Stephen Hawking said he would publish a complete description of his new work in professional journals and on the Internet. The findings could help the scientific efforts to find what is called a Theory of Everything. Physicists hope to be able to find the link between the laws that govern the smallest parts of matter with those that guide larger objects in the universe. These laws often appear to conflict. VOICE TWO: The changes that Professor Hawking describes in the surface of black holes are quantum changes. Quantum theory describes how energy and matter act at the level of atoms and particles of atoms. It now guides most research in physics. In nineteen hundred, the German physicist Max Planck wrote a paper that dealt with two forms of energy: heat and light. At the time, scientists did not understand why increased heat leads to changes in the color of light. A common example involves what happens to a piece of metal that is heated. As the temperature increases, the metal becomes red. As the metal gets hotter and hotter, it turns yellow and then white. But why? To explain this, Planck said atoms and molecules must affect energy in small, separate parts. He called these divisions of energy "quanta." Material loses light energy as it is heated. The color of that light is the result of the number of quanta lost. Planck described an unchanging balance between the energy of each quantum and the color of the light. This balance is known as Planck’s constant. Before his paper, scientists thought energy changed in a continuous flow. But the new work showed that changes in huge numbers of extremely small parts simply make it appear that way. VOICE ONE: Max Planck’s finding was the beginning of quantum mechanics. This describes how matter and radiation operate at the atomic level. Quantum mechanics describes the structure of the atom and the movement of its particles. It also explores how atoms take in energy and release energy as light. Physicists hope quantum mechanics will help them to understand actions that conflict with traditional laws of physics. Isaac Newton developed his theories in England three centuries ago based on normal human experience. But scientists now know that extremely small particles and systems do not follow those laws of nature that Newton observed. Such conflicts must be settled if scientists are to reach a single theory for everything. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Several major ideas guide quantum mechanics. One is the idea that energy is divided into parts. Another is that light energy exists at the same time both as particles and as a wave. A person sees light particles. But the particles are spread out in an area that includes places where they could be but are not. So the probability of where each particle will be means that light acts like a wave. Another major part of quantum mechanics is called Schrodinger’s Equation. Erwin Schrodinger, an Austrian, developed this idea in the middle of the nineteen twenties. It basically says that the act of measurement changes the nature of that which is being measured. In everyday life, the effect of this interference is too small to notice. But, as we said, things are different in the world of atoms and subatomic particles. For example, scientists need light to see an electron before they can measure it. But light is made up of photons. These will affect the movement of the electron. VOICE ONE: Another major part of quantum mechanics is called the Uncertainty Principle. The German scientist Werner Heisenberg proposed this idea. The basic explanation is that the exact position of a particle and its speed and direction can never be known together. In other words, you can measure either the position or the momentum. But if you measure one, you sacrifice the other. So it is impossible to know both at the same time. But scientists can at least mathematically predict how matter will act in ways we would think impossible. Again, it is all about probability. VOICE TWO: The study of quantum mechanics has uses in areas like chemistry, molecular biology and information technology. It has already led to smaller and more powerful computers. Quantum theory has also led to a greater understanding of the universe. The same is true of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. But Einstein's theory deals with larger structures in the universe; quantum theory deals with the very opposite. Some scientists are at work to combine these two theories into a theory of everything. This could help explain the formation of the universe from the very beginning of time. VOICE ONE: One of the scientists involved in this effort is Stephen Hawking. Many people know about his work from his popular book "A Brief History of Time." Professor Hawking is sixty-two years old. That makes him one of the oldest survivors of A.L.S., or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Americans call this Lou Gherig's disease, after a baseball player who had it. The disease attacks the nervous system. Stephen Hawking uses a wheelchair. And he uses a computer to speak for him. He enters words one letter at a time. Then the computer serves as his voice. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. If you have a question for our program, or a comment, we want to hear from you. Send an e-mail to special@voanews.com. And please tell us your name and where you are writing from. Our postal address is VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Vitamin E and Poultry Health
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 17, 2004 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Researchers say extra vitamin E fed to turkeys appears to help control infections from listeria. People who eat foods that contain this bacteria can get listeriosis. This disease is especially dangerous to pregnant women, newborn babies and people with weakened defenses. The United States has more than two thousand cases of listeriosis each year. Five hundred people die from it. Some cases have been linked to poultry products that have not been cooked enough. The researchers found that vitamin E improved the ability of turkeys to fight the growth of listeria. The findings could help other meat industries as well. Irene Wesley led the study for the United States Department of Agriculture. Researchers from Iowa State University and the University of Arkansas also took part. The findings appeared in Poultry Science magazine earlier this year. Vitamin E is found in oils from vegetables, grains and animals. It helps protect some kinds of fatty acids that are necessary for healthy cells. Vitamin E helps prevent oxygen from combining with these fats to cause damage to cells. Turkeys need vitamin E for normal development. But the scientists added extra amounts to the diet of two groups of turkeys. The birds were one day old. Two other groups were not given any extra vitamin E. After six weeks, the researchers infected all the young turkeys with listeria. The scientists then tested the birds for the presence of the bacteria over a period of time. The results showed that the birds that received extra vitamin E did not get infected as often as the others. The birds that received the largest amount had the lowest number of infections. The scientists say vitamin E has a similar effect on chickens. They say chickens and turkeys that receive added vitamin E develop more infection-fighting cells called lymphocytes. The increased number of these cells appears to also help protect against other diseases that can be carried by birds. Earlier tests at Iowa State showed that extra amounts of vitamin E can improve the quality of meat as well, and keep it fresh longer. The scientists continue tests. They want to see if vitamin E can stop other dangerous bacteria that can enter food. They are testing it against salmonella and campylobacter. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Jacqueline Cochran
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 18, 2004 VOICE ONE: Jackie Cochran beside an airplane Broadcast: August 18, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS, in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about American pilot Jacqueline Cochran. During her time as a pilot, she set more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot in aviation history. VOICE ONE: Jackie Cochran in an F-104 This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS, in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about American pilot Jacqueline Cochran. During her time as a pilot, she set more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot in aviation history. VOICE ONE: Jacqueline Cochran was known as Jackie. She said she was born in Nineteen-Ten. She did not really know. Her parents died when she was a baby. Another man and woman adopted her. They became her legal parents. These people were very poor. They lived in several towns in Florida and Georgia. Jackie went to school for just two years. Then she began work in a cotton factory. She was eight years old. She earned six cents an hour. VOICE TWO: Later, Jackie studied to be a nurse. But, she decided to be a beautician, a person who cuts and fixes other people's hair. She went to a special school and worked in several beauty shops in the South. Then, she decided to move to New York City. There she worked in a very fine beauty shop. On a business trip, she met a wealthy financial expert, Floyd Odlum (ODE-lum). He urged Jackie to learn to fly. He also helped her establish what was to become a very successful business. Jackie had dreamed of selling her own beauty products. At that time, the United States was in severe economic trouble, the Great Depression. Floyd told Jackie it would be very difficult to sell enough beauty products to make her company successful. She would have to sell them all across America. To cover the territory, he said, she would need wings. She thought it was a great idea. VOICE ONE: Years later, Jackie Cochran remembered how she talked with her friends about learning to fly. They all warned her how difficult it would be. She did not think so. So she went to Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island to learn how. After two-and-a-half weeks of lessons, she received her official pilot's license. She immediately flew to Montreal, Canada. The year was Nineteen-Thirty-Two. Three years later, she competed in the Bendix Trophy Race from Los Angeles, California to Cleveland, Ohio. The race was an important competition for both male and female pilots. In her first try, Cochran had trouble with her plane. She failed to finish. Another young female pilot, Amelia Earhart, finished fifth. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, Jackie and Floyd were married. She continued to operate her company, Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics. And he continued to support her flying activities. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Amelia Earhart attempted to fly around the world. She disappeared during that flight. A group of female pilots held a memorial ceremony to honor her. Jackie Cochran spoke at the ceremony. "We can mourn her loss," Cochran said, "but not regret her effort. We will carry on her goals." VOICE ONE: A month after Earhart was declared lost at sea, Cochran flew again in the Bendix Trophy Race. She was the only female pilot. She finished in third place, ahead of several of America's toughest male pilots. The winner of that race flew a new kind of military plane. It was designed by Alexander de Seversky. He had come to the United States from Russia. Seversky wanted to sell his new long-distance plane to the United States Army Air Corps. He thought the army would notice his plane if a female pilot flew it in a race and did well. So he asked Cochran to fly it in the next Bendix race. She accepted immediately. VOICE TWO: Seversky added extra fuel containers in the wings. He wanted to show that the plane could fly long distances without stopping. Cochran would be the first pilot to use the new system. Twenty-one pilots flew a test course before the race. Only ten completed it successfully -- nine men and Jackie Cochran. The race began in Burbank, California, in the middle of the night. Forty-thousand people were there to watch. Seversky's plane, with Cochran at the controls, speeded down the runway. Its silver wings and body shone in the lights around the airfield. The plane lifted off the runway, climbed up and disappeared into the darkness. VOICE ONE: Another crowd was waiting in Cleveland, Ohio. They cheered as the first plane landed and crossed the finish line. It was the silver plane flown by Jackie Cochran. She had won the race. Cochran had flown three-thousand-two-hundred-seventy kilometers in eight hours and ten minutes. She had done it without stopping. But only she knew there was enough fuel left to fly just a few more minutes. Jackie Cochran won something else that year -- recognition. She received the Harmon Trophy, the highest award given to a pilot in America. She would win the Harmon Trophy thirteen more times. VOICE TWO: The next year, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, World War Two started in Europe. Cochran believed female pilots could help in the war effort. She thought they should be permitted to fly military transport planes. In that way, she said, more male pilots would be free to fly combat planes. In Nineteen-Forty, she tried to get the United States Army Air Force to support her idea. Cochran wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor. She said the real problem in wartime was likely to be a lack of trained pilots. Many women, she noted, already were trained. VOICE ONE: Cochran received permission to go to England to observe female pilots in the newly formed British Air Transport Auxiliary. She stayed there several years. By Nineteen-Forty-Three, the United States realized that it did need more pilots. The commander of America's Army Air Forces, General Henry Arnold, visited England. He asked Cochran to come home and organize a program for female pilots. The group would be known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. The group existed for two years. During that brief time, the women learned to fly seventy-seven kinds of military planes. One-thousand seventy-four women served as WASPs. They flew almost one-hundred-million kilometers. They were never officially part of the Army Air Forces. They were considered civilian employees. VOICE TWO: At the end of World War Two, the American government gave Jackie Cochran the Distinguished Service Medal for organizing the WASPs. She was the first civilian to receive the honor.After the war, she worked with General Arnold. She helped write a bill that created America's Air Force Reserve. She became the first female member. She was finally a member of the military. VOICE ONE: In the late Nineteen-Forties, Cochran started racing again. She set many more flying records. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, she entered the jet age. The Canadian government agreed to let her test its new fighter plane. In it, she became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound. In the early Nineteen-Sixties, she became a test pilot for the Lockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. That was more than two times the speed of sound. It was the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot. VOICE TWO: Jackie Cochran sold her beauty products company in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. She died of a heart attack in Nineteen-Eighty. At the time of her death, she held more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot -- man or woman -- in aviation history. She had risen from a lowly beginning to the heights of business and flight. Jackie Cochran is not as well known as some of the other great pilots. One history expert said people respected her, but did not really like her. She led the way for other female pilots. But she did not seek their company as friends. Jackie Cochran felt very much at home in the sky. She once described her feelings about flying. This is what she said: "Earth-bound souls know only that underside of the atmosphere in which they live. But go up higher, and the sky turns dark. High up enough, and one can see the stars at noon. I have. I have traveled with the wind and the stars." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. Jacqueline Cochran was known as Jackie. She said she was born in Nineteen-Ten. She did not really know. Her parents died when she was a baby. Another man and woman adopted her. They became her legal parents. These people were very poor. They lived in several towns in Florida and Georgia. Jackie went to school for just two years. Then she began work in a cotton factory. She was eight years old. She earned six cents an hour. VOICE TWO: Later, Jackie studied to be a nurse. But, she decided to be a beautician, a person who cuts and fixes other people's hair. She went to a special school and worked in several beauty shops in the South. Then, she decided to move to New York City. There she worked in a very fine beauty shop. On a business trip, she met a wealthy financial expert, Floyd Odlum (ODE-lum). He urged Jackie to learn to fly. He also helped her establish what was to become a very successful business. Jackie had dreamed of selling her own beauty products. At that time, the United States was in severe economic trouble, the Great Depression. Floyd told Jackie it would be very difficult to sell enough beauty products to make her company successful. She would have to sell them all across America. To cover the territory, he said, she would need wings. She thought it was a great idea. VOICE ONE: Years later, Jackie Cochran remembered how she talked with her friends about learning to fly. They all warned her how difficult it would be. She did not think so. So she went to Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island to learn how. After two-and-a-half weeks of lessons, she received her official pilot's license. She immediately flew to Montreal, Canada. The year was Nineteen-Thirty-Two. Three years later, she competed in the Bendix Trophy Race from Los Angeles, California to Cleveland, Ohio. The race was an important competition for both male and female pilots. In her first try, Cochran had trouble with her plane. She failed to finish. Another young female pilot, Amelia Earhart, finished fifth. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, Jackie and Floyd were married. She continued to operate her company, Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics. And he continued to support her flying activities. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Amelia Earhart attempted to fly around the world. She disappeared during that flight. A group of female pilots held a memorial ceremony to honor her. Jackie Cochran spoke at the ceremony. "We can mourn her loss," Cochran said, "but not regret her effort. We will carry on her goals." VOICE ONE: A month after Earhart was declared lost at sea, Cochran flew again in the Bendix Trophy Race. She was the only female pilot. She finished in third place, ahead of several of America's toughest male pilots. The winner of that race flew a new kind of military plane. It was designed by Alexander de Seversky. He had come to the United States from Russia. Seversky wanted to sell his new long-distance plane to the United States Army Air Corps. He thought the army would notice his plane if a female pilot flew it in a race and did well. So he asked Cochran to fly it in the next Bendix race. She accepted immediately. VOICE TWO: Seversky added extra fuel containers in the wings. He wanted to show that the plane could fly long distances without stopping. Cochran would be the first pilot to use the new system. Twenty-one pilots flew a test course before the race. Only ten completed it successfully -- nine men and Jackie Cochran. The race began in Burbank, California, in the middle of the night. Forty-thousand people were there to watch. Seversky's plane, with Cochran at the controls, speeded down the runway. Its silver wings and body shone in the lights around the airfield. The plane lifted off the runway, climbed up and disappeared into the darkness. VOICE ONE: Another crowd was waiting in Cleveland, Ohio. They cheered as the first plane landed and crossed the finish line. It was the silver plane flown by Jackie Cochran. She had won the race. Cochran had flown three-thousand-two-hundred-seventy kilometers in eight hours and ten minutes. She had done it without stopping. But only she knew there was enough fuel left to fly just a few more minutes. Jackie Cochran won something else that year -- recognition. She received the Harmon Trophy, the highest award given to a pilot in America. She would win the Harmon Trophy thirteen more times. VOICE TWO: The next year, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, World War Two started in Europe. Cochran believed female pilots could help in the war effort. She thought they should be permitted to fly military transport planes. In that way, she said, more male pilots would be free to fly combat planes. In Nineteen-Forty, she tried to get the United States Army Air Force to support her idea. Cochran wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor. She said the real problem in wartime was likely to be a lack of trained pilots. Many women, she noted, already were trained. VOICE ONE: Cochran received permission to go to England to observe female pilots in the newly formed British Air Transport Auxiliary. She stayed there several years. By Nineteen-Forty-Three, the United States realized that it did need more pilots. The commander of America's Army Air Forces, General Henry Arnold, visited England. He asked Cochran to come home and organize a program for female pilots. The group would be known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. The group existed for two years. During that brief time, the women learned to fly seventy-seven kinds of military planes. One-thousand seventy-four women served as WASPs. They flew almost one-hundred-million kilometers. They were never officially part of the Army Air Forces. They were considered civilian employees. VOICE TWO: At the end of World War Two, the American government gave Jackie Cochran the Distinguished Service Medal for organizing the WASPs. She was the first civilian to receive the honor.After the war, she worked with General Arnold. She helped write a bill that created America's Air Force Reserve. She became the first female member. She was finally a member of the military. VOICE ONE: In the late Nineteen-Forties, Cochran started racing again. She set many more flying records. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, she entered the jet age. The Canadian government agreed to let her test its new fighter plane. In it, she became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound. In the early Nineteen-Sixties, she became a test pilot for the Lockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. That was more than two times the speed of sound. It was the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot. VOICE TWO: Jackie Cochran sold her beauty products company in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. She died of a heart attack in Nineteen-Eighty. At the time of her death, she held more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot -- man or woman -- in aviation history. She had risen from a lowly beginning to the heights of business and flight. Jackie Cochran is not as well known as some of the other great pilots. One history expert said people respected her, but did not really like her. She led the way for other female pilots. But she did not seek their company as friends. Jackie Cochran felt very much at home in the sky. She once described her feelings about flying. This is what she said: "Earth-bound souls know only that underside of the atmosphere in which they live. But go up higher, and the sky turns dark. High up enough, and one can see the stars at noon. I have. I have traveled with the wind and the stars." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Blood Transfusion Blamed for Second 'Mad Cow' Infection in Humans
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 18, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Blood transfusions can save lives. But they can also spread diseases. Researchers believe this is how at least two people in Britain became infected with the human version of mad cow disease. They say the cases appears to confirm that eating beef from an infected cow is not the only way the disease can spread. The first case was reported at the end of last year; the second was reported earlier this month in the magazine The Lancet. The second patient had received a blood transfusion five years ago. The unidentified person was one of seventeen known to have received blood from people who later developed vCJD. The full name is variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The disease attacks the brain and central nervous system. But in this patient, the infection had not spread to those areas. In fact, the report says the elderly person never developed signs of the disease. The patient died of unrelated causes. Tests later found the infection in the spleen. Scientists say the finding suggests that a larger population of people could become infected. And here is why: The human genetic map comes in different versions called genotypes. This patient had the most common genotype in the British population. One hundred fifty deaths from the human form of mad cow disease have been reported worldwide. But so far, there have been no such cases in people with this common genotype. James Ironside is an investigator with the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh. He says infections might take longer to appear in people with this genotype. The evidence also suggests that people without signs of the disease could still carry the infection. And they may be able to pass it to others. In cows, the official name of the disease is bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Holes form in the brain. Researchers say the disease is caused by prions, proteins that are deformed and infectious. No cure is known. But French scientists reported in The Lancet that they have identified a new way to clean prions off of medical devices. Also, American scientists reported on a method used in Britain to try to make blood safer for transfusion. White blood cells are removed to lower the risk of the human form of mad cow disease. But the researchers say animal tests found that the risk is reduced by only about forty percent. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 19, 2004 - Linguistic Diversity in Action
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 19, 2004 A new map released by the Modern Language Association shows which languages are spoken where in the United States. According to the MLA map, a 33-square-kilometer area south of Los Angeles is one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the country. The communities there are home to speakers of everything from Navajo to Hmong. Though the variety provides cultural diversity, it can also create challenges for the residents. Alex Cohen filed this week's report for WORDMASTER: ALEX COHEN: The city of Artesia (are-TEE-zhuh) is just 4 square kilometers, but nearly 40 languages are spoken within its borders. SOUND: [Montage of prayers in Korean, Tagalog, Portuguese and Dutch] At a recent prayer breakfast, blessings were offered in Korean, Tagalog, Chinese, Hindi, Hebrew, Spanish, Danish, Portuguese and Dutch. Artesia Mayor Sally Flowers delivered the state of the city address at this breakfast in English, though she also speaks Spanish. She says she wanted the prayers to represent the many immigrant communities and reflect the cultural diversity in this city of 17,500 people. SALLY FLOWERS: "Governor Gray Davis when he was in office had said that Los Angeles was the most diverse city in the world, and within LA County, Artesia is one of the most diverse cities." Just down the road from the prayer breakfast is Seoul Soon-dae, a Korean restaurant that specializes in beef bone and knuckle soup. Owner Annie Kahng says in order to communicate with her Hispanic employees and a wide range of customers, she's picked up several languages over the years. ANNIE KAHNG: "I speak mostly Korean and second English and I speak a little bit of Spanish and a little bit just Chinese and Japanese, just greeting. [laughs]" Speaking several languages is pretty much par for the course in this area. According to the U.S. Census bureau, of the 40 most common languages spoken in this country, 39 of them can be heard in Artesia and neighboring cities like Cerritos and Bellflower. Annie Kahng says she once moved to a city about an hour away, but quickly got homesick. ANNIE KAHNG: "I didn't like it there. There aren't many places to go, as far as food goes. So I lived there about half a year and then I moved back here again." Not far from Ms. Kahng's restaurant is Sona Chaandi, a clothing store and beauty salon where patrons can buy saris and gold jewelry and get Indian henna tattoos. Owner Mala Malani introduces herself in her two native tongues - Fijian and Hindi. MALA MALANI: "Bula. Ni Samoday. And in Hindi, it's like Mira Nam Mala Hay." Ms. Malani says she uses Hindi and English to communicate with most of her customers. But she's also hired staff from all over the world to accommodate the store's multicultural clientele. MALA MALANI: "It's really good because the more the merrier, we do more business because all people comes here. That's why in my beauty salon I have Japanese, I have Chinese, I have Filipinos, so more people come. Because it's not just only for Indians, you know. We want everyone to come here." Despite the multitude of languages heard throughout the area, English is still the primary language used to communicate. TEACHER: "Everybody repeat, 'ah.'" CLASS: "Ah." TEACHER: "Again, 'ah.'" Class: "Ah." Jae Chun Oh is studying English as a second language at the local Adult School. During the 23 years he's spent in the United States, Mr. Oh has spoken mostly Korean. But lately, he says, he's realized the need to master English, even in an area as diverse as this. JAE CHUN OH: "I want to expand my horizon in my career. Sometimes I need to contact someone outside of the Korean community, so I need the tool -- which is fluent English - to communicate." Business isn't the only area where fluency in English is important. According to Juliet Stone with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, non-English speakers face many challenges in their day to day activities. JULIET STONE: "Things like going to the doctor and explaining what hurts. Going to get your driver's license, going to vote." As Artesia's city manager, Maria Dadian (DAY-dee-in) understands these challenges well… She says ideally, Artesia would provide documents like building permits, ballots for city elections and public notices in all of the many languages spoken in the city. But, she says, given Artesia's small staff and budget that's just not feasible. MARIA DADIAN: "We have people who are of the Portuguese culture, people who are of the Cambodian culture, we also have Spanish speaking individuals here. Unfortunately, we can't cover every ethnicity that's out there." But she acknowledges one advantage to being in such a small city: almost everyone in Artesia knows someone who speaks English. And so when the city is unable to provide services in a given language, officials can usually find someone within the community who can translate. For Wordmaster, I'm Alex Cohen in Los Angeles. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #76 - Zachary Taylor
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 19, 2004 (MUSIC) Vice President John C. Calhoun Broadcast: August 19, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The Whig party considered four men for its candidate in the presidential election of eighteen-forty-eight: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, General Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott, and Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Clay was seventy years old. He knew it would be his last chance to get into the White House. He worked hard to get the support of party leaders. But they did not give Clay their support. They wanted to win the election. And they felt they had a better chance for victory with a military hero like General Taylor. VOICE TWO: Taylor was sixty-three years old. He had almost no formal education. He had spent almost forty years in the west as an Indian fighter and commander of small army posts. A number of politicians did not believe he had the ability to be president. General Taylor's supporters put great energy into their campaign for his nomination. They tried to sell the idea that the old general was the only man who could defeat the candidate of the Democratic Party. On the first vote of the convention, Taylor got the most votes. But no candidate got the necessary majority. On the fourth vote, all of Webster's supporters and many of Clay's supporters gave their votes to Taylor. He finally won the Whig Party's nomination for president. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party's candidate for president was Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. Many Americans did not like either candidate, because of the candidates' policies on slavery. Lewis Cass saw nothing wrong with slavery if that was what the people wanted. Zachary Taylor was a slave-owner. In Ohio, a group of men decided to form a new political party. They called it the "Free Soil Party," because they believed in free land for free settlers. They wanted no further spread of slavery. The Free Soil leaders proposed a convention of all who supported their ideas. Ten-thousand people went to the convention in Buffalo, New York. For two days, the delegates debated the slavery issue and discussed their choice of a candidate for president. They also worked on a platform -- a statement of their party's purpose. VOICE TWO: The platform declared that slavery was an institution of the states, not the nation. It said Congress had no right to help spread slavery by permitting it in the new western territories. The platform declared that the issue should be faced with firmness. No more slave states. No more slave territory. No more compromises with slavery, anywhere. Convention delegates then voted on candidates. They chose former President Martin Van Buren as candidate for president. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The people of the nation voted on November seventh. It was the first time a presidential election was held on the same day in all parts of the country. Zachary Taylor won both the popular and electoral votes. He became the twelfth president of the United States. Congress met a few weeks after the election, long before Taylor took office. It faced serious problems. Territorial governments were needed for the areas won in the war against Mexico. California, especially, needed help. Gold had been discovered in California. Thousands were moving there. A government was needed to protect the lives and property of the new population. VOICE TWO: The dispute over slavery had prevented Congress from acting earlier. Southerners wanted the right to take slaves into the new territories. Northerners wanted to keep slavery out. Then there was the question of laws forcing northern states to return escaped slaves to their owners. The laws were not always obeyed. Southerners wanted a new law that would be easier to enforce. Congress found it difficult to act on these problems. The House of Representatives was controlled by members of the Free Soil Party, which opposed slavery. The Senate was controlled by southerners, who supported slavery. The two houses found it almost impossible to agree on anything. Early in January, eighteen-forty-nine, a congressman proposed a bill to first limit, and then end, slavery in the District of Columbia. The bill would free all slaves in the district who were born after a certain time. It would permit the federal government to buy slaves and then free them. VOICE ONE: Opposition to the bill was strong. It was amended. The new bill would simply close all places in the District of Columbia where slaves were bought and sold. Southern congressmen disliked the bill, even as amended. They organized a committee representing every one of the southern states. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina said the committee should write a declaration explaining the position of the south. The committee agreed, and Calhoun wrote most of the declaration himself. VOICE TWO: The southern declaration accused the north of many aggressions. The south, it said, faced many dangers. Soon there would be enough free states to control both the House and the Senate. And then the constitution would be changed and all slaves would be freed. And this, said the southern declaration, would lead to bitter hostility and war between north and south. The declaration called on the people of the south to unite and be firm in their opposition to the north. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: With this new firmness, southern lawmakers fought to make slavery legal in the new territories. They effectively blocked proposals for territorial governments in California and New Mexico. Congress ended its session on March fourth, eighteen-forty-nine, without any progress. Zachary Taylor was sworn-in as president that same day. The new president believed it would be easier to get statehood for California and New Mexico than to create territorial governments for them. Taylor, as we have said, was a slave-holder. But he believed that both California and New Mexico should be free states. VOICE TWO: During these years around eighteen-fifty, the people of the United States were becoming more and more involved in the dispute over slavery. In the north, more people joined the anti-slavery campaign. Even those who did not wish to end slavery in the south felt that slavery should not spread further. In the south, many people felt that the constitutional equality of fifteen southern states was being questioned. Sixteen-hundred-million dollars worth of slave property was threatened by Abolitionists. Southerners felt that if the campaign against slavery was successful, everything they believed in would be destroyed. People hoped that President Taylor would be able to bring the north and south together again. But his message to Congress showed no signs of such leadership. VOICE ONE: Taylor asked Congress to give statehood to California immediately. He reported that California leaders had written a state constitution. The constitution banned slavery. Settlers from both the north and south supported the document. The president also reported that the people of New Mexico would be asking for statehood soon. He said it would be best to let the people themselves decide if New Mexico would be a slave or free state. Taylor's opponents described these proposals as his "no action plan." VOICE TWO: President Taylor really had no policy. He could not support a bill to keep slavery out of the territories. That might start a quick revolt among the southern states. He could not support a bill to let slavery spread into the territories. That would make the north rise in anger. Taylor tried to be neutral. He hoped the problem of slavery would solve itself. But the problem would not solve itself. The division between north and south grew wider. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Faith Lapidus. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) The Whig party considered four men for its candidate in the presidential election of eighteen-forty-eight: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, General Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott, and Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. Clay was seventy years old. He knew it would be his last chance to get into the White House. He worked hard to get the support of party leaders. But they did not give Clay their support. They wanted to win the election. And they felt they had a better chance for victory with a military hero like General Taylor. VOICE TWO: Taylor was sixty-three years old. He had almost no formal education. He had spent almost forty years in the west as an Indian fighter and commander of small army posts. A number of politicians did not believe he had the ability to be president. General Taylor's supporters put great energy into their campaign for his nomination. They tried to sell the idea that the old general was the only man who could defeat the candidate of the Democratic Party. On the first vote of the convention, Taylor got the most votes. But no candidate got the necessary majority. On the fourth vote, all of Webster's supporters and many of Clay's supporters gave their votes to Taylor. He finally won the Whig Party's nomination for president. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party's candidate for president was Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan. Many Americans did not like either candidate, because of the candidates' policies on slavery. Lewis Cass saw nothing wrong with slavery if that was what the people wanted. Zachary Taylor was a slave-owner. In Ohio, a group of men decided to form a new political party. They called it the "Free Soil Party," because they believed in free land for free settlers. They wanted no further spread of slavery. The Free Soil leaders proposed a convention of all who supported their ideas. Ten-thousand people went to the convention in Buffalo, New York. For two days, the delegates debated the slavery issue and discussed their choice of a candidate for president. They also worked on a platform -- a statement of their party's purpose. VOICE TWO: The platform declared that slavery was an institution of the states, not the nation. It said Congress had no right to help spread slavery by permitting it in the new western territories. The platform declared that the issue should be faced with firmness. No more slave states. No more slave territory. No more compromises with slavery, anywhere. Convention delegates then voted on candidates. They chose former President Martin Van Buren as candidate for president. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The people of the nation voted on November seventh. It was the first time a presidential election was held on the same day in all parts of the country. Zachary Taylor won both the popular and electoral votes. He became the twelfth president of the United States. Congress met a few weeks after the election, long before Taylor took office. It faced serious problems. Territorial governments were needed for the areas won in the war against Mexico. California, especially, needed help. Gold had been discovered in California. Thousands were moving there. A government was needed to protect the lives and property of the new population. VOICE TWO: The dispute over slavery had prevented Congress from acting earlier. Southerners wanted the right to take slaves into the new territories. Northerners wanted to keep slavery out. Then there was the question of laws forcing northern states to return escaped slaves to their owners. The laws were not always obeyed. Southerners wanted a new law that would be easier to enforce. Congress found it difficult to act on these problems. The House of Representatives was controlled by members of the Free Soil Party, which opposed slavery. The Senate was controlled by southerners, who supported slavery. The two houses found it almost impossible to agree on anything. Early in January, eighteen-forty-nine, a congressman proposed a bill to first limit, and then end, slavery in the District of Columbia. The bill would free all slaves in the district who were born after a certain time. It would permit the federal government to buy slaves and then free them. VOICE ONE: Opposition to the bill was strong. It was amended. The new bill would simply close all places in the District of Columbia where slaves were bought and sold. Southern congressmen disliked the bill, even as amended. They organized a committee representing every one of the southern states. Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina said the committee should write a declaration explaining the position of the south. The committee agreed, and Calhoun wrote most of the declaration himself. VOICE TWO: The southern declaration accused the north of many aggressions. The south, it said, faced many dangers. Soon there would be enough free states to control both the House and the Senate. And then the constitution would be changed and all slaves would be freed. And this, said the southern declaration, would lead to bitter hostility and war between north and south. The declaration called on the people of the south to unite and be firm in their opposition to the north. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: With this new firmness, southern lawmakers fought to make slavery legal in the new territories. They effectively blocked proposals for territorial governments in California and New Mexico. Congress ended its session on March fourth, eighteen-forty-nine, without any progress. Zachary Taylor was sworn-in as president that same day. The new president believed it would be easier to get statehood for California and New Mexico than to create territorial governments for them. Taylor, as we have said, was a slave-holder. But he believed that both California and New Mexico should be free states. VOICE TWO: During these years around eighteen-fifty, the people of the United States were becoming more and more involved in the dispute over slavery. In the north, more people joined the anti-slavery campaign. Even those who did not wish to end slavery in the south felt that slavery should not spread further. In the south, many people felt that the constitutional equality of fifteen southern states was being questioned. Sixteen-hundred-million dollars worth of slave property was threatened by Abolitionists. Southerners felt that if the campaign against slavery was successful, everything they believed in would be destroyed. People hoped that President Taylor would be able to bring the north and south together again. But his message to Congress showed no signs of such leadership. VOICE ONE: Taylor asked Congress to give statehood to California immediately. He reported that California leaders had written a state constitution. The constitution banned slavery. Settlers from both the north and south supported the document. The president also reported that the people of New Mexico would be asking for statehood soon. He said it would be best to let the people themselves decide if New Mexico would be a slave or free state. Taylor's opponents described these proposals as his "no action plan." VOICE TWO: President Taylor really had no policy. He could not support a bill to keep slavery out of the territories. That might start a quick revolt among the southern states. He could not support a bill to let slavery spread into the territories. That would make the north rise in anger. Taylor tried to be neutral. He hoped the problem of slavery would solve itself. But the problem would not solve itself. The division between north and south grew wider. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Faith Lapidus. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Teachers in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 19, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Experts say the United States will need more than two million new teachers in the next ten years. More than one million public school teachers are close to retirement. So schools will have to do more to get people to become teachers. The National Education Association says the shortage of teachers from racial and ethnic minorities is especially great. The N.E.A. is the largest teachers union in the country. The government last counted teachers in two thousand. It found that eighty-four percent were white, compared to sixty-one percent of students. African Americans were about seventeen percent of the children in public schools. This was true of less than eight percent of the teachers. And Hispanics represented about sixteen percent of the students but less than six percent of the teachers. There has been some change in these numbers. In all, sixteen percent of teachers are minorities. But this is true of twenty-one percent of new teachers. Many people, however, say they do not enter teaching because it gets less respect than other professions. Only about ten percent of teachers in the lower grades are male, compared to nearly fifty percent in the upper grades. Also, demand for minority college graduates means these job seekers can often get other work that pays more. Teachers must have at least a bachelor’s degree. In some areas, they must earn a master’s degree within a few years to keep their jobs. But keeping new teachers can be difficult. About twenty percent leave the profession within three years. In cities, close to fifty percent leave in the first five years. Teachers say they are not paid enough for all of the duties and responsibilities they have. Many take work home with them during the school year and vacations. Many also take classes to increase their knowledge and skills. And many say they do not get enough help from more experienced teachers or support from school officials. The N.E.A. says teachers spend an average of more than four hundred dollars of their own money each year on classroom materials. Some do it because they want to; others might have little choice. Yet the union reported a year ago that a majority of teachers said they would return to the profession if they had it all to do again. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center / Olympic Cities / The Pixies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 20, 2004 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week ... Music from the Pixies... A question about American cities that have hosted the Olympic Games... And...A report about a new museum in the middle western city of Cincinnati, Ohio... National Underground Railroad Freedom Center HOST: The new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio officially opens on August twenty-third. The name sounds as if it tells about a real railroad. But the underground railroad was a secret organization. It helped African American slaves escape their owners during the eighteen hundreds. The slaves and the people who helped them flee formed the underground railroad system.Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a special museum. The Freedom Center is on the north side of the Ohio River. That is part of an area that meant hope for slaves trying to escape. It was called the “freedom corridor.” People fleeing their owners could stand on the other side of the river and dream of freedom across the water. The Freedom Center cost one hundred ten million dollars to build. Its collection shows two hundred objects. These include a copy of a wagon with a false bottom that was used to hide fleeing slaves. There are also photographs of Americans who were activists against slavery. Visitors can also see objects from the Civil War. The southern states fought the northern states from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five. In eighteen sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln announced an order to free the slaves. Perhaps the center’s most interesting object is a small building where slaves were kept. This wooden “pen” stands two levels high. A slave trader built it in the eighteen thirties. People captured in Africa were temporarily forced to stay inside the pen. Then they were sold for service in places further south. The slave pen was found on a farm in the state of Kentucky. The owner of the farm gave it to the Freedom Center. Experts spent six years researching the history of the building. Television star Oprah Winfrey introduces one of the films shown at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Actors tell about a young woman who escapes slavery. She flees to a town called Ripley, Ohio. Her former owners try to recapture her. But a family active in the Underground Railroad helps her remain free. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will offer a number of educational programs. They include public speakers. Also, the center will provide programs for visiting school groups and information for students through an Internet Web site. It is www.freedomcenter.org. Olympic Cities HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangalore, India. Prashant Devidas asks how many American cities have hosted the Olympic Games. The Summer Olympic Games are now being played in Athens, Greece. The games have taken place in six different cities in the United States since the modern Olympic Games began in eighteen ninety-six. The Summer Games in nineteen oh four were played in Saint Louis, Missouri. Twelve nations took part in more than ninety events held over more than four months. But only forty-two events included athletes who were not from the United States. The Saint Louis Olympics are important in the history of the games. They were the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals were given for first, second and third place in the competitions. And the first Africans to compete in the Olympics did so in Saint Louis. In nineteen thirty-two, the Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California. Thirty-seven nations took part in these games held during the great economic depression. Experts say the level of competition was extremely high. Eighteen world records were either broken or equaled. These Olympics were the first to be held over sixteen days. The length of the Olympics has remained between fifteen and eighteen days ever since. Los Angeles also hosted the Summer Olympics in nineteen eighty-four, when the Soviet Union refused to take part. A third American city to host the Summer Olympics was Atlanta, Georgia in nineteen ninety-six. Almost two hundred nations took part in more than two hundred events. The games set a record for the most nations to win medals — seventy-nine. Three other American cities have hosted the Winter Olympic Games since that competition began in nineteen twenty-four. Lake Placid, New York held the games in nineteen thirty-two and again in nineteen eighty. Squaw Valley, California hosted them in nineteen sixty. And Salt Lake City, Utah was the site of the most recent Winter Games in two thousand two. The Pixies Return HOST: The Pixies are back. From nineteen eighty-six to nineteen ninety-two, they gained a following among fans of alternative rock. This influential group led by Black Francis (also known as Charles Thompson) had four successful albums and several hit songs. Gwen Outen has more on the Pixies' reunion. ANNCR: It appears that the Pixies may have more fans now than before they broke up. A lot of their current shows are selling out. In fact, business is so good, the group is adding more performances along the way. One of the songs most popular with audiences is the nineteen eighty-nine hit, “Here Comes Your Man.” (MUSIC) "Here Comes Your Man" was on “Doolittle,” the second album from the Pixies and their biggest seller. Another popular album “Bossanova,” came out in nineteen ninety with this song, “Allison.” (MUSIC) The Pixies already have recorded one new song together. And their agent hopes the band will put together a new album. But until then you can enjoy them live ... if you can get tickets, that is. We leave you with another song from "Doolittle. " Here are the Pixies with “La La Love You.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. Broadcast: August 20, 2004 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week ... Music from the Pixies... A question about American cities that have hosted the Olympic Games... And...A report about a new museum in the middle western city of Cincinnati, Ohio... National Underground Railroad Freedom Center HOST: The new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio officially opens on August twenty-third. The name sounds as if it tells about a real railroad. But the underground railroad was a secret organization. It helped African American slaves escape their owners during the eighteen hundreds. The slaves and the people who helped them flee formed the underground railroad system.Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a special museum. The Freedom Center is on the north side of the Ohio River. That is part of an area that meant hope for slaves trying to escape. It was called the “freedom corridor.” People fleeing their owners could stand on the other side of the river and dream of freedom across the water. The Freedom Center cost one hundred ten million dollars to build. Its collection shows two hundred objects. These include a copy of a wagon with a false bottom that was used to hide fleeing slaves. There are also photographs of Americans who were activists against slavery. Visitors can also see objects from the Civil War. The southern states fought the northern states from eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five. In eighteen sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln announced an order to free the slaves. Perhaps the center’s most interesting object is a small building where slaves were kept. This wooden “pen” stands two levels high. A slave trader built it in the eighteen thirties. People captured in Africa were temporarily forced to stay inside the pen. Then they were sold for service in places further south. The slave pen was found on a farm in the state of Kentucky. The owner of the farm gave it to the Freedom Center. Experts spent six years researching the history of the building. Television star Oprah Winfrey introduces one of the films shown at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Actors tell about a young woman who escapes slavery. She flees to a town called Ripley, Ohio. Her former owners try to recapture her. But a family active in the Underground Railroad helps her remain free. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will offer a number of educational programs. They include public speakers. Also, the center will provide programs for visiting school groups and information for students through an Internet Web site. It is www.freedomcenter.org. Olympic Cities HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangalore, India. Prashant Devidas asks how many American cities have hosted the Olympic Games. The Summer Olympic Games are now being played in Athens, Greece. The games have taken place in six different cities in the United States since the modern Olympic Games began in eighteen ninety-six. The Summer Games in nineteen oh four were played in Saint Louis, Missouri. Twelve nations took part in more than ninety events held over more than four months. But only forty-two events included athletes who were not from the United States. The Saint Louis Olympics are important in the history of the games. They were the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals were given for first, second and third place in the competitions. And the first Africans to compete in the Olympics did so in Saint Louis. In nineteen thirty-two, the Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, California. Thirty-seven nations took part in these games held during the great economic depression. Experts say the level of competition was extremely high. Eighteen world records were either broken or equaled. These Olympics were the first to be held over sixteen days. The length of the Olympics has remained between fifteen and eighteen days ever since. Los Angeles also hosted the Summer Olympics in nineteen eighty-four, when the Soviet Union refused to take part. A third American city to host the Summer Olympics was Atlanta, Georgia in nineteen ninety-six. Almost two hundred nations took part in more than two hundred events. The games set a record for the most nations to win medals — seventy-nine. Three other American cities have hosted the Winter Olympic Games since that competition began in nineteen twenty-four. Lake Placid, New York held the games in nineteen thirty-two and again in nineteen eighty. Squaw Valley, California hosted them in nineteen sixty. And Salt Lake City, Utah was the site of the most recent Winter Games in two thousand two. The Pixies Return HOST: The Pixies are back. From nineteen eighty-six to nineteen ninety-two, they gained a following among fans of alternative rock. This influential group led by Black Francis (also known as Charles Thompson) had four successful albums and several hit songs. Gwen Outen has more on the Pixies' reunion. ANNCR: It appears that the Pixies may have more fans now than before they broke up. A lot of their current shows are selling out. In fact, business is so good, the group is adding more performances along the way. One of the songs most popular with audiences is the nineteen eighty-nine hit, “Here Comes Your Man.” (MUSIC) "Here Comes Your Man" was on “Doolittle,” the second album from the Pixies and their biggest seller. Another popular album “Bossanova,” came out in nineteen ninety with this song, “Allison.” (MUSIC) The Pixies already have recorded one new song together. And their agent hopes the band will put together a new album. But until then you can enjoy them live ... if you can get tickets, that is. We leave you with another song from "Doolittle. " Here are the Pixies with “La La Love You.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Oil Prices
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 20, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In terms of dollar value, of all the products in the world, nothing is traded more than oil. Crude oil traded above forty-seven dollars a barrel for the first time this week. The price a year ago was around thirty dollars. Crude can be made into gasoline or other products. Oil prices are high. But the United States Energy Department notes that they are not the highest ever if inflation is considered. It says a barrel of oil in March of nineteen eighty-one would have cost eighty dollars today. Prices are high in part because of concerns about problems in some oil-producing areas. Rebels in Iraq have attacked oil fields. In Russia, a huge tax debt threatens the future of Yukos, the largest Russian oil company. And in Venezuela, opponents tried but failed this week to oust President Hugo Chavez in a national vote. But world oil supplies were already limited because of demand. For example, economic growth has made China into the second largest oil user after the United States. On August fourth, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries again voted to increase production. OPEC produces about one-third of the world's oil. Many other countries are also producing more. But experts say except for Saudi Arabia, world oil production has little surplus for immediate growth. Saudi Arabia is the largest oil exporter. The International Energy Agency says the world oil supply reached eighty-three point five million barrels per day in July. But the agency expects the growth in demand for oil to slow next year. The current levels of growth are unusually high. A barrel of oil contains one hundred fifty-nine liters. Oil is traded only in American dollars, but there are different kinds of oil. The highest prices are for West Texas Intermediate. Brent Blend is a mix of European oils; it usually costs a few dollars less. OPEC oil prices are lower still. Prices reported in the news are generally for future shipments of crude oil. The New York Mercantile Exchange is the biggest energy exchange in the world. Twenty-one years ago, it began to trade in crude oil futures. These financial tools usually do not involve real sales of oil. But they can affect the prices paid at the time oil is shipped. Futures help buyers and sellers gain from, or protect against, any changes in the market. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS  - Bush Announces Troop Redeployment Plan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 21, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush this week announced a major redeployment of American military forces around the world. Mister Bush said the plan would take place over the next ten years. He said sixty thousand to seventy thousand soldiers will return to the United States. About one hundred thousand family members and civilian employees would also return home. Currently, about two hundred thirty thousand troops are stationed outside the United States, in countries other than Iraq and Afghanistan. Most are in Germany, Japan and South Korea. The United States has about ninety thousand troops in Asia and the Pacific. The president said the redeployment would create a military that is better prepared to fight terrorism. More troops would be stationed in the United States and could be deployed from there as needed. Mister Bush says base closures as a result of the redeployment would also reduce costs. And he says the plan would improve life for military families. The United States has kept a strong military presence in Europe and Asia since World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. Troops were stationed in Europe to contain the threat of communism. American officials say the end of the Soviet Union means that large numbers of troops are no longer needed. Under the new plan, officials say about thirty thousand troops in Germany would be replaced by a smaller force that could be deployed more quickly. The first troops from Germany are not expected to be brought home before late next year. Germany has expressed concern about the effect that the reduction would have on its economy. American officials say some troops could be moved to eastern European nations. That would put them closer to areas like the Balkans and the Middle East. Many experts say they do not believe American forces in Asia will be greatly reduced, and may even be increased. But officials say the plan is not designed to provide more troops for Iraq. Defense officials say they will talk about the plan with American allies. Mister Bush announced his plan Monday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry criticized the plan when he spoke at the convention on Wednesday. He said the plan would not increase America’s ability to combat terrorism. And he said it would not ease the stress on American troops. Senator Kerry stated, "Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars." But he added that this is not the right time or the sensible way to do it. National security is an important issue in this year’s presidential election. A new public opinion study was released this week. The Americans questioned in the study said that national security and foreign policy issues were more important than economic issues. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: August 21, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush this week announced a major redeployment of American military forces around the world. Mister Bush said the plan would take place over the next ten years. He said sixty thousand to seventy thousand soldiers will return to the United States. About one hundred thousand family members and civilian employees would also return home. Currently, about two hundred thirty thousand troops are stationed outside the United States, in countries other than Iraq and Afghanistan. Most are in Germany, Japan and South Korea. The United States has about ninety thousand troops in Asia and the Pacific. The president said the redeployment would create a military that is better prepared to fight terrorism. More troops would be stationed in the United States and could be deployed from there as needed. Mister Bush says base closures as a result of the redeployment would also reduce costs. And he says the plan would improve life for military families. The United States has kept a strong military presence in Europe and Asia since World War Two ended in nineteen forty-five. Troops were stationed in Europe to contain the threat of communism. American officials say the end of the Soviet Union means that large numbers of troops are no longer needed. Under the new plan, officials say about thirty thousand troops in Germany would be replaced by a smaller force that could be deployed more quickly. The first troops from Germany are not expected to be brought home before late next year. Germany has expressed concern about the effect that the reduction would have on its economy. American officials say some troops could be moved to eastern European nations. That would put them closer to areas like the Balkans and the Middle East. Many experts say they do not believe American forces in Asia will be greatly reduced, and may even be increased. But officials say the plan is not designed to provide more troops for Iraq. Defense officials say they will talk about the plan with American allies. Mister Bush announced his plan Monday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry criticized the plan when he spoke at the convention on Wednesday. He said the plan would not increase America’s ability to combat terrorism. And he said it would not ease the stress on American troops. Senator Kerry stated, "Nobody wants to bring troops home more than those of us who have fought in foreign wars." But he added that this is not the right time or the sensible way to do it. National security is an important issue in this year’s presidential election. A new public opinion study was released this week. The Americans questioned in the study said that national security and foreign policy issues were more important than economic issues. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Cole Porter Pt. 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 22, 2004 ((THEME)) Broadcast: August 22, 2004 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second part of our program about American songwriter Cole Porter. Porter wrote his songs from the nineteen-twenties to the nineteen-fifties. They continue to be popular today. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second part of our program about American songwriter Cole Porter. Porter wrote his songs from the nineteen-twenties to the nineteen-fifties. They continue to be popular today. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: That was a recording of “Anything Goes”, one of Cole Porter’s most famous songs. Caroline O’Connor sings it in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd star in this movie about Porter’s life, released in two-thousand-four. The title of the movie is from one of Porter’s popular songs, “It’s De-Lovely.” In the song, Porter plays with words that start with the letter “d.” Robbie Williams sings the song. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: As we said in our program last week, Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen-sixteen before he became famous. He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties. Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs. He worked hard on his songs. Both the words and music had to be perfect. VOICE ONE: Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen-thirties. His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City. He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America’s great economic depression. His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times. Some critics still consider one of Porter’s early musical plays, “Anything Goes,” to be his best. “Anything Goes” opened on Broadway in nineteen-thirty-four. It starred one of Porter’s favorite singers, Ethel Merman. She sang a song that became famous immediately. It is called “I Get a Kick Out of You.” That expression means I enjoy being with you. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: For years, Porter was Broadway’s “King Cole.” His musical plays were very successful. Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies. They were very popular, too. Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world. They were happily married most of the time. But Cole Porter was homosexual. He had sex with men. Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not exactly secret. Yet they could never be admitted publicly. VOICE ONE: All his life, Cole Porter wrote songs about love, desire and passion. He included the names of foreign countries, famous people and comments on current events. And he filled his songs with little jokes and hidden meanings. Porter’s words stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. They spoke directly and indirectly about sex. They admitted that love is not always pure. It is often selfish. And it rarely lasts forever. Porter was not even sure what love really is. He wonders about it in this song, “What is This Thing Called Love?” It is sung by Lemar. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Cole Porter also wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling. Critics consider “Every Time We Say Goodbye” to be one of his finest songs. Natalie Cole sings the song. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-seven, Cole Porter was injured while riding a horse. The horse slid on a muddy hill and fell on top of him. His legs were crushed. Cole Porter spent the rest of his life, twenty-seven years, disabled and in severe pain. Yet he continued writing wonderful songs, musical plays and movies. In nineteen-forty-eight, he wrote what some consider his greatest work. It was a musical play called “Kiss Me, Kate.” It was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” But it takes place in modern times, among a group of actors. The play was produced again on Broadway in nineteen-ninety-nine. One of the most famous songs in the musical is called “Too Darn Hot.” It is a funny song about how hard it is to be interested in love in really hot weather. Stanley Wayne Mathis sings it in “Kiss Me, Kate.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Cole Porter had another hit show in nineteen-fifty-three, called “Cancan.” It was his final play. That same year, Porter’s wife, Linda, died. Porter was very sad, and increasingly disabled by his old injury. He died at the age of seventy-three in nineteen-sixty-four. In nineteen-ninety-one, America celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of Cole Porter’s birth. Special concerts celebrated his music. New recordings were issued. Jazz singers and symphony orchestras recorded his songs. So did several rock-and-roll artists. They made a recording and special music video to honor him. All the money earned from the recording and video was given to research on AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that was first discovered among homosexual men. VOICE ONE: Today, Cole Porter’s songs are still valued for their beauty, humor and intelligence. And for their unexpected jokes and word play. They shine like jewels, one critic wrote. They are shot through with love that sometimes feels like pain. There seems little doubt that Cole Porter’s songs will continue to be sung. They will make us laugh. They will make us cry. And they will touch the deepest truths of our emotions. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: That was a recording of “Anything Goes”, one of Cole Porter’s most famous songs. Caroline O’Connor sings it in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd star in this movie about Porter’s life, released in two-thousand-four. The title of the movie is from one of Porter’s popular songs, “It’s De-Lovely.” In the song, Porter plays with words that start with the letter “d.” Robbie Williams sings the song. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: As we said in our program last week, Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen-sixteen before he became famous. He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties. Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs. He worked hard on his songs. Both the words and music had to be perfect. VOICE ONE: Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen-thirties. His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City. He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America’s great economic depression. His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times. Some critics still consider one of Porter’s early musical plays, “Anything Goes,” to be his best. “Anything Goes” opened on Broadway in nineteen-thirty-four. It starred one of Porter’s favorite singers, Ethel Merman. She sang a song that became famous immediately. It is called “I Get a Kick Out of You.” That expression means I enjoy being with you. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: For years, Porter was Broadway’s “King Cole.” His musical plays were very successful. Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies. They were very popular, too. Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world. They were happily married most of the time. But Cole Porter was homosexual. He had sex with men. Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not exactly secret. Yet they could never be admitted publicly. VOICE ONE: All his life, Cole Porter wrote songs about love, desire and passion. He included the names of foreign countries, famous people and comments on current events. And he filled his songs with little jokes and hidden meanings. Porter’s words stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. They spoke directly and indirectly about sex. They admitted that love is not always pure. It is often selfish. And it rarely lasts forever. Porter was not even sure what love really is. He wonders about it in this song, “What is This Thing Called Love?” It is sung by Lemar. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Cole Porter also wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling. Critics consider “Every Time We Say Goodbye” to be one of his finest songs. Natalie Cole sings the song. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-seven, Cole Porter was injured while riding a horse. The horse slid on a muddy hill and fell on top of him. His legs were crushed. Cole Porter spent the rest of his life, twenty-seven years, disabled and in severe pain. Yet he continued writing wonderful songs, musical plays and movies. In nineteen-forty-eight, he wrote what some consider his greatest work. It was a musical play called “Kiss Me, Kate.” It was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” But it takes place in modern times, among a group of actors. The play was produced again on Broadway in nineteen-ninety-nine. One of the most famous songs in the musical is called “Too Darn Hot.” It is a funny song about how hard it is to be interested in love in really hot weather. Stanley Wayne Mathis sings it in “Kiss Me, Kate.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Cole Porter had another hit show in nineteen-fifty-three, called “Cancan.” It was his final play. That same year, Porter’s wife, Linda, died. Porter was very sad, and increasingly disabled by his old injury. He died at the age of seventy-three in nineteen-sixty-four. In nineteen-ninety-one, America celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of Cole Porter’s birth. Special concerts celebrated his music. New recordings were issued. Jazz singers and symphony orchestras recorded his songs. So did several rock-and-roll artists. They made a recording and special music video to honor him. All the money earned from the recording and video was given to research on AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that was first discovered among homosexual men. VOICE ONE: Today, Cole Porter’s songs are still valued for their beauty, humor and intelligence. And for their unexpected jokes and word play. They shine like jewels, one critic wrote. They are shot through with love that sometimes feels like pain. There seems little doubt that Cole Porter’s songs will continue to be sung. They will make us laugh. They will make us cry. And they will touch the deepest truths of our emotions. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Yard Sales and Flea Markets
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 23, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, come along as we look at yard sales and flea markets in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An event called the World’s Longest Yard Sale took place this month in the southeastern part of the country. The yearly sale extends for a distance of seven hundred twenty kilometers. It goes from Gadsden, Alabama, to Covington, Kentucky. Thousands of sellers are stationed along the side of the road. They sell almost anything imaginable. Some collectors drive the full length in search of things to buy. The World's Longest Yard Sale began eighteen years ago. Last year organizers extended it from four days to nine days. The Kentucky Post says one village in Covington thought nine days was too long and withdrew this year. But the sale is popular; the governor of Alabama named it one of the top ten events in the state. VOICE TWO: Yard sales do not have to be huge. One family, or even one person, can hold a yard sale. People simply collect some things they no longer want and put them in the yard outside their home. They might also place handmade signs on nearby streets to direct people to the sale. And, as simple as that, they have a yard sale -- or a garage sale or a moving sale. Whatever people call it, the activity is the same. Such sales are based on the idea that an object that is useless, broken or ugly to one person can be a bargain to another. Over the years, homes can fill up with objects: Books no one wants anymore. Baby clothes for the child who is now a university student. These objects are no longer useful to their owner. Yet it seems wasteful to throw them away. Often, people must make a decision about things when they move to a different house. “Let's have a yard sale,” they say. That way, they do not have to move the things they do not use anymore. And at the same time they make a little money. VOICE ONE: They might pay for an announcement in a local newspaper to tell when and where the yard sale will take place. They might list some of the things to be sold. Around Washington, D.C., for example, almost two hundred yard sales are listed on some weekends. The warmer months like now are the most popular times. Early in the morning, all the things to be sold are carried out of the house. Then they sit for hours in the sunlight -- like tired guests at a party -- waiting for someone to take them home. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Just about anything can be sold at a yard sale. Sometimes, there are more clothes than anything else. Cooking equipment is also popular. So are old toys, tools, books, tables and chairs. Then there are objects known as “white elephants.” These are things that, for whatever reason, no one really wants, least of all the present owners. It may be an electric light shaped like a fish. Perhaps you received it for a wedding gift. But you feel a sharp pain whenever you look at it. To someone else, however, it might be a thing of beauty and joy. Usually, the seller puts a price on each object at a yard sale. Usually, that price can be negotiated. A table, for example, might be marked twenty dollars. But the seller will probably accept a little less. By the end of the day, if the table has not been sold, the seller will probably accept a lot less. Sometimes, the seller might just say "take it!" There is no better price than that. VOICE ONE: Just like sellers, serious buyers also spend time getting ready for yard sales. They look through newspapers and mark the sales they want to visit. Some use maps to plan their trip. They want to get to as many sales as possible. Some people go sailing on water; others go "yard sailing." Yard sales are a good way for people without much money to find things for their family. But even people with a lot of money like to look around. Why pay one hundred dollars for something in a store when you might find it for twenty at a yard sale? That is, if you can find it. Professional dealers might also go to yard sales. If they find something valuable at a low price, they can re-sell it for more. VOICE TWO: Still other people go to yard sales because they enjoy the hunt. They like to find beautiful or unusual things that are being sold for less than the value. For example, they may find a piece of old furniture that is worth a lot of money after it is repaired. Sometimes people find an unexpected treasure at a yard sale. Or at least they hope so. They need the opinion of an expert. There is a popular television program called “Antiques Roadshow.” People go on the show with an object for experts to examine. Sometimes the experts say the object is worth a lot of money. When that happens, the owner may shout “wow!” But sometimes the experts say the object is worthless. Then the owner may feel like shouting something else. VOICE ONE: Some people go to yard sales to find a special thing that they collect. They might look for things like stamps, dolls, old money, bottles, baseball cards, toys or advertising signs. Yard sales can also provide people with a new computer or sound system ... new to them, at least. Or there might be some exercise equipment that looks new because no one ever really used it. People never know what they might find. They might even find a snake skin -- the perfect gift for a science teacher. People who go to yard sales often are not looking for anything special. They are simply looking for something that appeals to them. Or they might enjoy negotiating over prices. Later, if necessary, they can hold their own yard sale to sell all the things they have bought. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There is an organized event similar to a yard sale, only bigger. The French name is "market with fleas"; Americans call it a flea market. Fleas are small, wingless insects that jump onto animals and people. Fleas bite. Some people might worry about fleas at a such a market. But mostly they worry that they will not find anything good to buy. Some flea markets are community events. Many families bring things to sell. The event may be held at a school or in a park. Most flea markets take place in the open air on weekends during the spring, summer and fall. Some organizations hold a flea market once a year to earn money for special projects. VOICE ONE: Professional dealers also hold flea markets. Sellers usually must have a business permit from the local government. And they usually must collect sales tax on everything they sell. Some people earn all their money by selling goods at flea markets. Others have jobs and earn extra money this way. Some dealers at a flea market sell lots of different things. Others sell just one kind of thing -- glass objects, for example. Still others might only sell things that are at least one hundred years old. One of the largest flea markets in the world takes place on the second Sunday of every month. It happens rain or shine at the Rose Bowl, the big sports center in Pasadena, California. More than two thousand sellers gather for the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Only a few kinds of items are restricted. These include food, animals and guns. VOICE TWO: To some people, flea markets and yard sales are a sign that Americans think too much about material possessions. But to other people, yard sales are simply a way to have fun. In some communities, ten or twenty families may have a yard sale on the same weekend. These are important social gatherings. Still other people say yard sales help the environment. Old things find new homes, so they are not thrown away. At least not yet. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. We close with a note about our program two weeks ago on baseball in American culture. We told you about the old Mills Commission report that declared Abner Doubleday the inventor of baseball. We should have made clear that the Mills report was disputed. As we said, no one knows for sure who invented the modern game. VOICE TWO: Who knows, maybe the answer lies hidden somewhere in a yard sale. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: August 23, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, come along as we look at yard sales and flea markets in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An event called the World’s Longest Yard Sale took place this month in the southeastern part of the country. The yearly sale extends for a distance of seven hundred twenty kilometers. It goes from Gadsden, Alabama, to Covington, Kentucky. Thousands of sellers are stationed along the side of the road. They sell almost anything imaginable. Some collectors drive the full length in search of things to buy. The World's Longest Yard Sale began eighteen years ago. Last year organizers extended it from four days to nine days. The Kentucky Post says one village in Covington thought nine days was too long and withdrew this year. But the sale is popular; the governor of Alabama named it one of the top ten events in the state. VOICE TWO: Yard sales do not have to be huge. One family, or even one person, can hold a yard sale. People simply collect some things they no longer want and put them in the yard outside their home. They might also place handmade signs on nearby streets to direct people to the sale. And, as simple as that, they have a yard sale -- or a garage sale or a moving sale. Whatever people call it, the activity is the same. Such sales are based on the idea that an object that is useless, broken or ugly to one person can be a bargain to another. Over the years, homes can fill up with objects: Books no one wants anymore. Baby clothes for the child who is now a university student. These objects are no longer useful to their owner. Yet it seems wasteful to throw them away. Often, people must make a decision about things when they move to a different house. “Let's have a yard sale,” they say. That way, they do not have to move the things they do not use anymore. And at the same time they make a little money. VOICE ONE: They might pay for an announcement in a local newspaper to tell when and where the yard sale will take place. They might list some of the things to be sold. Around Washington, D.C., for example, almost two hundred yard sales are listed on some weekends. The warmer months like now are the most popular times. Early in the morning, all the things to be sold are carried out of the house. Then they sit for hours in the sunlight -- like tired guests at a party -- waiting for someone to take them home. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Just about anything can be sold at a yard sale. Sometimes, there are more clothes than anything else. Cooking equipment is also popular. So are old toys, tools, books, tables and chairs. Then there are objects known as “white elephants.” These are things that, for whatever reason, no one really wants, least of all the present owners. It may be an electric light shaped like a fish. Perhaps you received it for a wedding gift. But you feel a sharp pain whenever you look at it. To someone else, however, it might be a thing of beauty and joy. Usually, the seller puts a price on each object at a yard sale. Usually, that price can be negotiated. A table, for example, might be marked twenty dollars. But the seller will probably accept a little less. By the end of the day, if the table has not been sold, the seller will probably accept a lot less. Sometimes, the seller might just say "take it!" There is no better price than that. VOICE ONE: Just like sellers, serious buyers also spend time getting ready for yard sales. They look through newspapers and mark the sales they want to visit. Some use maps to plan their trip. They want to get to as many sales as possible. Some people go sailing on water; others go "yard sailing." Yard sales are a good way for people without much money to find things for their family. But even people with a lot of money like to look around. Why pay one hundred dollars for something in a store when you might find it for twenty at a yard sale? That is, if you can find it. Professional dealers might also go to yard sales. If they find something valuable at a low price, they can re-sell it for more. VOICE TWO: Still other people go to yard sales because they enjoy the hunt. They like to find beautiful or unusual things that are being sold for less than the value. For example, they may find a piece of old furniture that is worth a lot of money after it is repaired. Sometimes people find an unexpected treasure at a yard sale. Or at least they hope so. They need the opinion of an expert. There is a popular television program called “Antiques Roadshow.” People go on the show with an object for experts to examine. Sometimes the experts say the object is worth a lot of money. When that happens, the owner may shout “wow!” But sometimes the experts say the object is worthless. Then the owner may feel like shouting something else. VOICE ONE: Some people go to yard sales to find a special thing that they collect. They might look for things like stamps, dolls, old money, bottles, baseball cards, toys or advertising signs. Yard sales can also provide people with a new computer or sound system ... new to them, at least. Or there might be some exercise equipment that looks new because no one ever really used it. People never know what they might find. They might even find a snake skin -- the perfect gift for a science teacher. People who go to yard sales often are not looking for anything special. They are simply looking for something that appeals to them. Or they might enjoy negotiating over prices. Later, if necessary, they can hold their own yard sale to sell all the things they have bought. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There is an organized event similar to a yard sale, only bigger. The French name is "market with fleas"; Americans call it a flea market. Fleas are small, wingless insects that jump onto animals and people. Fleas bite. Some people might worry about fleas at a such a market. But mostly they worry that they will not find anything good to buy. Some flea markets are community events. Many families bring things to sell. The event may be held at a school or in a park. Most flea markets take place in the open air on weekends during the spring, summer and fall. Some organizations hold a flea market once a year to earn money for special projects. VOICE ONE: Professional dealers also hold flea markets. Sellers usually must have a business permit from the local government. And they usually must collect sales tax on everything they sell. Some people earn all their money by selling goods at flea markets. Others have jobs and earn extra money this way. Some dealers at a flea market sell lots of different things. Others sell just one kind of thing -- glass objects, for example. Still others might only sell things that are at least one hundred years old. One of the largest flea markets in the world takes place on the second Sunday of every month. It happens rain or shine at the Rose Bowl, the big sports center in Pasadena, California. More than two thousand sellers gather for the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Only a few kinds of items are restricted. These include food, animals and guns. VOICE TWO: To some people, flea markets and yard sales are a sign that Americans think too much about material possessions. But to other people, yard sales are simply a way to have fun. In some communities, ten or twenty families may have a yard sale on the same weekend. These are important social gatherings. Still other people say yard sales help the environment. Old things find new homes, so they are not thrown away. At least not yet. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. We close with a note about our program two weeks ago on baseball in American culture. We told you about the old Mills Commission report that declared Abner Doubleday the inventor of baseball. We should have made clear that the Mills report was disputed. As we said, no one knows for sure who invented the modern game. VOICE TWO: Who knows, maybe the answer lies hidden somewhere in a yard sale. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Efforts to Rebuild Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 23, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Efforts are being made to educate people in Afghanistan about the political process before their first presidential election. The vote is set for October ninth. Parliamentary and local elections are planned for next April. Voters will have their finger marked with ink so they cannot vote more than once. The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs is a non-profit organization based in Washington. This group has opened six offices in Afghanistan to teach the public about political campaigns and fair elections. Another group, Internews, is working with local media and Internet providers to help guarantee freedom of expression. The United Nations said last week that nearly ten million people have received voting papers. The number who signed up to vote, especially women, is higher than expected. More than forty percent are women. Females had few rights under the Taliban government. Five years of Taliban rule ended in late two thousand one after American-led forces went to war in Afghanistan. The action against al-Qaida and its Taliban supporters followed the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. American officials say the Taliban and al-Qaida continue to operate along the Afghan borders. Fighting has increased recently. Election workers have been killed. The aid group Doctors Without Borders left the country. But there are examples of other aid efforts in Afghanistan. The World Health Organization has launched an emergency campaign against leishmaniasis. This disease is spread by sand flies. The World Bank has approved thirty-five million dollars for education. The U.N. refugee agency has launched a program to assist more than three million Afghans. And the Asia Development Bank has approved technical assistance to help rebuild roads. But there is another problem. The U.N. says Afghanistan has again become the world's largest producer of heroin. Farming of opium poppy to make the illegal drug has increased since the fall of the Taliban. Europe gets most of its heroin from Afghanistan. In Kabul earlier this month, American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Afghans they are winning in their effort to rebuild their country. But he warned that the drug trade threatens the future of their democracy and way of life. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - T. Rex 'Lived Fast and Died Young' / Another Look at Earliest Bird Ever Found / Gene Scientists Create Harder-Working Monkeys
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 24, 2004 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: August 24, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week: T. rex as a teen-ager, and new research about a small feathered dinosaur. VOICE ONE: Also, scientists learn how to create a harder working monkey. VOICE TWO: And the iPod goes to college. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the movie "Jurassic Park," T. Rex was the dinosaur that was really big and really fast. It was also really hungry for the humans who brought it back to life. At least they did for the film. In real life, scientists have learned something new about this creature which first appeared on Earth about seventy-five million years ago. They say Tyrannosaurus rex did most of its growing in its teen-age years. In fact, during its fastest period of growth, T. rex could gain more than two kilograms each day. The scientists say the dinosaur gained seventy percent of its final adult weight during those difficult teen years. VOICE TWO: Gregory Erickson of Florida State University in Tallahassee led the study. He is a paleontologist, an expert in ancient remains. His research team examined fossils of seven T. rexes and thirteen other tyrannosaurs. The scientists published their report in Nature magazine. Remains of tyrannosaurs have been found in North America and Asia. These huge animals walked on two legs. They also had two small forelegs that they used as arms. An adult T. rex was more than twenty meters long and almost four meters tall. It had about fifty teeth, each about twenty centimeters long. The scientists counted growth circles on the dinosaur bones they examined. These rings are like those in trees. One is created for each year of life -- a kind of printed history. But Greg Erickson points out that dinosaur growth rings are harder to read than those of trees. This is because in most cases the bone structure of the big meat-eating dinosaurs changed as they grew. The bones became hollow. So most evidence of the rings disappeared. VOICE ONE: A few years ago, Greg Erickson was looking at bones from Sue. Sue is a famous T. rex housed at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. She is the largest, oldest and most complete representative of her kind in the world. Professor Erickson found that Sue had solid rib bones. He also noted that a leg bone and some hipbones were solid. And growth rings were present on all of them. A number of researchers later joined him to examine these bones and compare them to other T. rex remains. They also compared the growth rings with modern reptiles like alligators and lizards. VOICE TWO: T. rex weighed a ton at around age fourteen. At eighteen, it weighed six tons. The scientists say earlier, smaller dinosaurs had much slower growth. They says the growth rate of T. rex can be compared to that of the modern elephant. But size can come with sacrifice. John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College in London says the running ability of T. rex probably decreased as the animal got bigger. So how was it able to find enough food to get so big so fast? Peter Mackovicky of the Field Museum also took part in the study. He says T. rex at fourteen might have started to hunt slower but bigger animals. Or, he says, the dinosaurs might have traveled in groups in which the younger, faster T. rexes were the hunters. VOICE ONE: Greg Erickson and his team also made another discovery: T. rexes apparently lived only about thirty years. In fact, they say Sue was just twenty-eight. They say her bones were in bad condition when she died, which was why scientists had thought she was close to one hundred. Professor Erickson says the news about Tyrannosaurus rex is that it "lived fast and died young." (MUSIC: “Only the Good Die Young”/Billy Joel) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Several years ago, a study came out about a small dinosaur called Archaeopteryx (ar-kee-OP-tur-ix). Archaeopteryx lived in Europe almost one hundred fifty million years ago, during the Jurassic period. It had feathers and was about the size of a crow, making it the oldest bird ever found. The study said bones from the animal proved that it could fly. Since that report, however, experts have continued to debate the flight issue. Did Archaeopteryx really fly? Now, paleontologists at the Natural History Museum in London have reported new findings in Nature magazine. They took X-ray pictures of the structure that held the brain in the small creature. They used C.T., or computed tomography, imaging. With about one thousand images of the braincase, they were able to build their own copy of the brain. VOICE ONE: The researchers say their model shows the Archaeopteryx brain was built like that of modern birds. It had similarly developed areas that controlled sight and movement. Also, the part of the ear that controlled balance was structured like that of birds today. There were dinosaurs that flew before Archaeopteryx appeared. However, the only ones found did not have feathers; they were flying reptiles. Archaeopteryx has been widely seen as a link between reptiles and birds. But the new study suggests that it was more like a bird than scientists have thought. Angela Milner led the study. She says it shows that the flight ability of Archaeopteryx was more developed than scientists have believed. She says this could mean that feathered dinosaurs flew millions of years earlier than is now thought. The only known fossils of Archaeopteryx came from a find in Germany in eighteen sixty-one. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Monkeys work hard when they know they will get something good in return. Now scientists have discovered a way to make monkeys -- and possibly humans -- into even harder workers. They temporarily suppressed a gene linked to what is known as reward learning. With the gene blocked, the monkeys lost their ability to expect a reward. The scientists work at the National Institute of Mental Health, in the United States. Their findings appeared last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. VOICE ONE: First, a team of scientists taught laboratory monkeys a computer game. This game rewarded the animals with sweet liquid. Then, the scientists injected a chemical into the brains of the monkeys. This substance temporarily blocked the gene known as D-two. That gene normally produces receiver cells for the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine helps animals and humans experience pleasure and happiness. Doctor Barry Richmond led the study. He says monkeys, like humans, will delay work when they know they will not get a reward. Doctor Richmond says the monkeys in the study were more or less tricked into working harder for a few months. He says they became "workaholics." They could no longer judge how many times they had to play the computer game before they got a reward. As a result, the monkeys worked faster and made fewer mistakes. VOICE TWO: Doctor Richmond says this study could lead to important discoveries for public health. He says the findings may be of interest in the study of mental disorders. For example, he says "people who are depressed often feel nothing is worth the work." But people with obsessive-compulsive disorder work continually. They repeat activities again and again even after they get rewarded. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE Finally, an experiment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, might get students to work harder. Or at least more creatively. Each of the one thousand six hundred first-year students is getting an Apple iPod. An iPod is a small digital player that can hold thousands of songs. But it can also record other material, including written information. Duke officials hope the half-million-dollar experiment will increase the creative uses of technology in education. The iPods will come with information about the school. Students will also download materials from their professors through a Web site. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. To send us a question or comment by e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week: T. rex as a teen-ager, and new research about a small feathered dinosaur. VOICE ONE: Also, scientists learn how to create a harder working monkey. VOICE TWO: And the iPod goes to college. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the movie "Jurassic Park," T. Rex was the dinosaur that was really big and really fast. It was also really hungry for the humans who brought it back to life. At least they did for the film. In real life, scientists have learned something new about this creature which first appeared on Earth about seventy-five million years ago. They say Tyrannosaurus rex did most of its growing in its teen-age years. In fact, during its fastest period of growth, T. rex could gain more than two kilograms each day. The scientists say the dinosaur gained seventy percent of its final adult weight during those difficult teen years. VOICE TWO: Gregory Erickson of Florida State University in Tallahassee led the study. He is a paleontologist, an expert in ancient remains. His research team examined fossils of seven T. rexes and thirteen other tyrannosaurs. The scientists published their report in Nature magazine. Remains of tyrannosaurs have been found in North America and Asia. These huge animals walked on two legs. They also had two small forelegs that they used as arms. An adult T. rex was more than twenty meters long and almost four meters tall. It had about fifty teeth, each about twenty centimeters long. The scientists counted growth circles on the dinosaur bones they examined. These rings are like those in trees. One is created for each year of life -- a kind of printed history. But Greg Erickson points out that dinosaur growth rings are harder to read than those of trees. This is because in most cases the bone structure of the big meat-eating dinosaurs changed as they grew. The bones became hollow. So most evidence of the rings disappeared. VOICE ONE: A few years ago, Greg Erickson was looking at bones from Sue. Sue is a famous T. rex housed at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. She is the largest, oldest and most complete representative of her kind in the world. Professor Erickson found that Sue had solid rib bones. He also noted that a leg bone and some hipbones were solid. And growth rings were present on all of them. A number of researchers later joined him to examine these bones and compare them to other T. rex remains. They also compared the growth rings with modern reptiles like alligators and lizards. VOICE TWO: T. rex weighed a ton at around age fourteen. At eighteen, it weighed six tons. The scientists say earlier, smaller dinosaurs had much slower growth. They says the growth rate of T. rex can be compared to that of the modern elephant. But size can come with sacrifice. John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College in London says the running ability of T. rex probably decreased as the animal got bigger. So how was it able to find enough food to get so big so fast? Peter Mackovicky of the Field Museum also took part in the study. He says T. rex at fourteen might have started to hunt slower but bigger animals. Or, he says, the dinosaurs might have traveled in groups in which the younger, faster T. rexes were the hunters. VOICE ONE: Greg Erickson and his team also made another discovery: T. rexes apparently lived only about thirty years. In fact, they say Sue was just twenty-eight. They say her bones were in bad condition when she died, which was why scientists had thought she was close to one hundred. Professor Erickson says the news about Tyrannosaurus rex is that it "lived fast and died young." (MUSIC: “Only the Good Die Young”/Billy Joel) VOICE TWO: You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Several years ago, a study came out about a small dinosaur called Archaeopteryx (ar-kee-OP-tur-ix). Archaeopteryx lived in Europe almost one hundred fifty million years ago, during the Jurassic period. It had feathers and was about the size of a crow, making it the oldest bird ever found. The study said bones from the animal proved that it could fly. Since that report, however, experts have continued to debate the flight issue. Did Archaeopteryx really fly? Now, paleontologists at the Natural History Museum in London have reported new findings in Nature magazine. They took X-ray pictures of the structure that held the brain in the small creature. They used C.T., or computed tomography, imaging. With about one thousand images of the braincase, they were able to build their own copy of the brain. VOICE ONE: The researchers say their model shows the Archaeopteryx brain was built like that of modern birds. It had similarly developed areas that controlled sight and movement. Also, the part of the ear that controlled balance was structured like that of birds today. There were dinosaurs that flew before Archaeopteryx appeared. However, the only ones found did not have feathers; they were flying reptiles. Archaeopteryx has been widely seen as a link between reptiles and birds. But the new study suggests that it was more like a bird than scientists have thought. Angela Milner led the study. She says it shows that the flight ability of Archaeopteryx was more developed than scientists have believed. She says this could mean that feathered dinosaurs flew millions of years earlier than is now thought. The only known fossils of Archaeopteryx came from a find in Germany in eighteen sixty-one. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Monkeys work hard when they know they will get something good in return. Now scientists have discovered a way to make monkeys -- and possibly humans -- into even harder workers. They temporarily suppressed a gene linked to what is known as reward learning. With the gene blocked, the monkeys lost their ability to expect a reward. The scientists work at the National Institute of Mental Health, in the United States. Their findings appeared last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. VOICE ONE: First, a team of scientists taught laboratory monkeys a computer game. This game rewarded the animals with sweet liquid. Then, the scientists injected a chemical into the brains of the monkeys. This substance temporarily blocked the gene known as D-two. That gene normally produces receiver cells for the brain chemical dopamine. Dopamine helps animals and humans experience pleasure and happiness. Doctor Barry Richmond led the study. He says monkeys, like humans, will delay work when they know they will not get a reward. Doctor Richmond says the monkeys in the study were more or less tricked into working harder for a few months. He says they became "workaholics." They could no longer judge how many times they had to play the computer game before they got a reward. As a result, the monkeys worked faster and made fewer mistakes. VOICE TWO: Doctor Richmond says this study could lead to important discoveries for public health. He says the findings may be of interest in the study of mental disorders. For example, he says "people who are depressed often feel nothing is worth the work." But people with obsessive-compulsive disorder work continually. They repeat activities again and again even after they get rewarded. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE Finally, an experiment at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, might get students to work harder. Or at least more creatively. Each of the one thousand six hundred first-year students is getting an Apple iPod. An iPod is a small digital player that can hold thousands of songs. But it can also record other material, including written information. Duke officials hope the half-million-dollar experiment will increase the creative uses of technology in education. The iPods will come with information about the school. Students will also download materials from their professors through a Web site. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. To send us a question or comment by e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Heifer International
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 24, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Heifer International is sixty years old. This organization gives farm animals to families and communities around the world. The idea is to fight hunger and poverty. Instead of short-term aid, the animals represent a chance for people to improve their lives and become independent. Heifer International gives away young cows, known as heifers. But it also gives away other animals. These include sheep, goats, pigs, buffalo, rabbits, birds, even bees. Celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary are planned in October in Little Rock, Arkansas. That is where the organization is based. Events will also include a Conference on Ending Hunger. The conference will follow a discussion called "the Small Farmer in the Global Economy." An American farmer named Dan West developed the idea for Heifer International. He was working in Spain in the nineteen thirties during the Spanish civil war. Many families were starving. So Dan West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The first ones were sent in nineteen forty-four. Since that time, Heifer International says it has helped millions of families in more than one hundred countries. Its Web site lists more than four hundred current projects in fifty countries. The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves and become self-supporting. Those who wish to receive an animal must first explain their needs and goals. They must make a plan for use of the animal. Local experts usually provide training. The animals must be guaranteed food, water, shelter, health care and the ability to reproduce. Also, those who receive an animal must share their success with someone else in need. Each family must agree to give away the first female animal born. Families must also agree to pass on the skills and training they received. This idea is called “passing on the gift." The organization has a gift catalog on its Web site to permit people to give money to support its activities. Five hundred dollars, for example, will pay for a heifer. Fifty dollars will pay for a share of one. The Web site is heifer.org. Heifer is spelled h-e-i-f-e-r. The mailing address is Heifer International, post office box eight-zero-five-eight, Little Rock, Arkansas, seven-two-two-zero-three, U.S.A. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jill Moss and Avi Arditti. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Wonders of the World,  Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 25, 2004 (MUSIC) The Pyramids of Giza Broadcast: August 25, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we present the first of three programs about some of the most interesting, beautiful and unusual places on Earth. We begin with a list of what have been called the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Great Wall of China VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we present the first of three programs about some of the most interesting, beautiful and unusual places on Earth. We begin with a list of what have been called the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have always felt the need to create lists. Lists are records of important ideas, places, events or people. About two thousand five hundred years ago a Greek historian named Herodotus is said to have made a list of what he thought were the greatest structures in the world. His list of places became known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Herodotus only wrote about places he knew. He did not know much about Asia. North and South America were completely unknown. Six of these ancient places no longer exist. We can only guess what they really looked like. But here is the list of those seven ancient Wonders of the World. VOICE TWO: We begin with one that existed in what is now Iraq. It was called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar the Second probably built the gardens about two thousand six hundred years ago. Ancient historians say they were a huge system of gardens with trees and flowers. Also on this list is the Colossus of Rhodes. It was a huge bronze metal statue of the Greek sun god Helios. The Colossus was about thirty-seven meters tall. It was built near the harbor on the Greek island of Rhodes about two thousand three hundred years ago. This ancient statue was destroyed in an earthquake. VOICE ONE: Next on our list is the statue of the Greek God Zeus in a temple at Olympia, Greece. It was the most famous statue in the ancient world. Records say it was about twelve meters tall and made of ivory and gold. An earthquake probably destroyed the temple. The statue was removed and later destroyed in a fire. The Pharos of Alexandria was an ancient lighthouse. A fire burning on the top of the lighthouse made it easier for ships to find the great harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. Records say the lighthouse was about one hundred thirty meters tall. It stood for one thousand five hundred years before it was destroyed by an earthquake. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is another ancient wonder of the world. It was built to honor a Greek goddess. It was one of the largest and most complex temples built in ancient times. The temple was built in what is now Turkey about two thousand five hundred years ago. Number six on our list was also built in what is now Turkey. It was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The huge marble burial place was built for King Mausolus of Caria. It was so famous that all large burial places, or tombs, became known as mausoleums. An earthquake destroyed the structure. VOICE TWO: The last of the seven ancient wonders are the oldest. Yet they are the only ones that still exist today. They are the three Pyramids of Egypt, near the Nile River at Giza. The pyraminds were built about four thousand five hundred years ago as burial places for ancient kings. The largest is called the Great Pyramid. It is almost one hundred forty meters high. It covers an area of more than four hectares. The Greek historian Herodotus said more than one hundred thousand men worked for more than thirty years to build the Great Pyramid. The great pyramids of Egypt will probably continue to exist for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now we will tell about several other ancient wonders that still exist today. We cannot tell about all of the great structures built in ancient times. There are too many. However, if Herodotus had known about the Great Wall of China we feel sure he would have included it on his list of wonders of the world. The Great Wall was begun more than two thousand years ago. It was built to keep out invaders. It extends about six thousand seven hundred kilometers across northern China. Today, the Chinese government is working to repair parts of the wall and protect as much of it as possible. The Great Wall of China is one of the largest building projects ever attempted. It is also the only object built by people that can be seen from space. VOICE TWO: One of the oldest structures ever built by people also belongs on a list of ancient wonders. It is a circle of huge stones on the Salisbury Plain in southwestern England. It is called Stonehenge. Experts believe work began on Stonehenge about five thousand years ago. It was added to and changed several times until it became the structure we see today. We know very little about Stonehenge. We do not even know how these huge stones were moved to the area. Some experts believe the stones were cut from solid rock about three hundred eighty kilometers away in Wales. One of the huge stones weighs as much as forty-five tons. Experts say Stonehenge may have been built as some kind of ceremonial or religious structure. Much has been written about Stonehenge, but experts say they still are not sure what it was used for. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another famous ancient structure is the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. It was built almost two thousand years ago. The ancient Roman sports center could hold fifty thousand people who gathered there to watch public events. Experts say it is one of the finest examples of Roman design and engineering. The city of Machu Picchu in Peru should be on most lists, too. Experts say it includes some of the best stone work ever built. The ancient Inca people built Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains, northwest of the city of Cuzco. Machu Picchu is about thirteen square kilometers. Historians say it might have been one of the last places of safety for the Incas who were fleeing invaders from Spain. VOICE TWO: India is famous for its temples and buildings. The most famous is the Taj Mahal, considered one of the most beautiful buildings every constructed. The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, ordered it built in Agra in sixteen thirty-one. He built it as a burial place in memory of his wife. The Taj Mahal has tiny colorful stones inlaid in white marble. The structure seems to change color during different times of the day and night. Experts say it is one of the most perfect buildings ever constructed. They say nothing could be added or taken away to improve the beautiful Taj Mahal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We will end our program today in Egypt. Any list of ancient places must include the two temples at Abu Simbel. They were built to honor an ancient king of Egypt, Ramses the Second, and his wife, and Nefertari. Abu Simbel was built more than three thousand years ago. It is about two hundred eighty kilometers south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile River. It took an army of workmen and artists more than thirty years to cut the huge temple into the face of a rock mountain. In front of the main temple are four huge statues of Ramses the Second. Each statue is about twenty meters high. Nearby is another temple that honors his wife, Nefertari. It too is beautifully carved out of solid rock. VOICE TWO: The Nile River has always made life possible in the desert areas of Egypt. However the Nile also made life difficult when it flooded. The modern Egyptian government decided a dam could control the Nile to prevent both floods and lack of water. Work began on the Aswan Dam in nineteen sixty. However, when plans were made for the dam experts quickly discovered that the great temples at Abu Simbel would be forever lost. They would be under water in the new lake formed by the dam. Egypt appealed to the United Nations agency UNESCO for help. UNESCO appealed to the world. The governments of the world provided technical help and financial aid to save the great temples. In nineteen sixty-four work began to cut the temples away from the rock mountain. Each large piece was moved sixty meters up the mountain to a safe area. Then the huge temples were carefully rebuilt. The work was finished in nineteen sixty-eight. Today Abu Simbel is safe. It looks much the same as it has for the past three thousand years. It will continue to honor the ancient king and his queen for many years to come. And it will honor the modern world’s efforts to save a truly great work of art. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next week we tell about some of the natural wonders of our world. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have always felt the need to create lists. Lists are records of important ideas, places, events or people. About two thousand five hundred years ago a Greek historian named Herodotus is said to have made a list of what he thought were the greatest structures in the world. His list of places became known as the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Herodotus only wrote about places he knew. He did not know much about Asia. North and South America were completely unknown. Six of these ancient places no longer exist. We can only guess what they really looked like. But here is the list of those seven ancient Wonders of the World. VOICE TWO: We begin with one that existed in what is now Iraq. It was called the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar the Second probably built the gardens about two thousand six hundred years ago. Ancient historians say they were a huge system of gardens with trees and flowers. Also on this list is the Colossus of Rhodes. It was a huge bronze metal statue of the Greek sun god Helios. The Colossus was about thirty-seven meters tall. It was built near the harbor on the Greek island of Rhodes about two thousand three hundred years ago. This ancient statue was destroyed in an earthquake. VOICE ONE: Next on our list is the statue of the Greek God Zeus in a temple at Olympia, Greece. It was the most famous statue in the ancient world. Records say it was about twelve meters tall and made of ivory and gold. An earthquake probably destroyed the temple. The statue was removed and later destroyed in a fire. The Pharos of Alexandria was an ancient lighthouse. A fire burning on the top of the lighthouse made it easier for ships to find the great harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. Records say the lighthouse was about one hundred thirty meters tall. It stood for one thousand five hundred years before it was destroyed by an earthquake. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus is another ancient wonder of the world. It was built to honor a Greek goddess. It was one of the largest and most complex temples built in ancient times. The temple was built in what is now Turkey about two thousand five hundred years ago. Number six on our list was also built in what is now Turkey. It was the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The huge marble burial place was built for King Mausolus of Caria. It was so famous that all large burial places, or tombs, became known as mausoleums. An earthquake destroyed the structure. VOICE TWO: The last of the seven ancient wonders are the oldest. Yet they are the only ones that still exist today. They are the three Pyramids of Egypt, near the Nile River at Giza. The pyraminds were built about four thousand five hundred years ago as burial places for ancient kings. The largest is called the Great Pyramid. It is almost one hundred forty meters high. It covers an area of more than four hectares. The Greek historian Herodotus said more than one hundred thousand men worked for more than thirty years to build the Great Pyramid. The great pyramids of Egypt will probably continue to exist for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now we will tell about several other ancient wonders that still exist today. We cannot tell about all of the great structures built in ancient times. There are too many. However, if Herodotus had known about the Great Wall of China we feel sure he would have included it on his list of wonders of the world. The Great Wall was begun more than two thousand years ago. It was built to keep out invaders. It extends about six thousand seven hundred kilometers across northern China. Today, the Chinese government is working to repair parts of the wall and protect as much of it as possible. The Great Wall of China is one of the largest building projects ever attempted. It is also the only object built by people that can be seen from space. VOICE TWO: One of the oldest structures ever built by people also belongs on a list of ancient wonders. It is a circle of huge stones on the Salisbury Plain in southwestern England. It is called Stonehenge. Experts believe work began on Stonehenge about five thousand years ago. It was added to and changed several times until it became the structure we see today. We know very little about Stonehenge. We do not even know how these huge stones were moved to the area. Some experts believe the stones were cut from solid rock about three hundred eighty kilometers away in Wales. One of the huge stones weighs as much as forty-five tons. Experts say Stonehenge may have been built as some kind of ceremonial or religious structure. Much has been written about Stonehenge, but experts say they still are not sure what it was used for. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another famous ancient structure is the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. It was built almost two thousand years ago. The ancient Roman sports center could hold fifty thousand people who gathered there to watch public events. Experts say it is one of the finest examples of Roman design and engineering. The city of Machu Picchu in Peru should be on most lists, too. Experts say it includes some of the best stone work ever built. The ancient Inca people built Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains, northwest of the city of Cuzco. Machu Picchu is about thirteen square kilometers. Historians say it might have been one of the last places of safety for the Incas who were fleeing invaders from Spain. VOICE TWO: India is famous for its temples and buildings. The most famous is the Taj Mahal, considered one of the most beautiful buildings every constructed. The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, ordered it built in Agra in sixteen thirty-one. He built it as a burial place in memory of his wife. The Taj Mahal has tiny colorful stones inlaid in white marble. The structure seems to change color during different times of the day and night. Experts say it is one of the most perfect buildings ever constructed. They say nothing could be added or taken away to improve the beautiful Taj Mahal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We will end our program today in Egypt. Any list of ancient places must include the two temples at Abu Simbel. They were built to honor an ancient king of Egypt, Ramses the Second, and his wife, and Nefertari. Abu Simbel was built more than three thousand years ago. It is about two hundred eighty kilometers south of Aswan on the western bank of the Nile River. It took an army of workmen and artists more than thirty years to cut the huge temple into the face of a rock mountain. In front of the main temple are four huge statues of Ramses the Second. Each statue is about twenty meters high. Nearby is another temple that honors his wife, Nefertari. It too is beautifully carved out of solid rock. VOICE TWO: The Nile River has always made life possible in the desert areas of Egypt. However the Nile also made life difficult when it flooded. The modern Egyptian government decided a dam could control the Nile to prevent both floods and lack of water. Work began on the Aswan Dam in nineteen sixty. However, when plans were made for the dam experts quickly discovered that the great temples at Abu Simbel would be forever lost. They would be under water in the new lake formed by the dam. Egypt appealed to the United Nations agency UNESCO for help. UNESCO appealed to the world. The governments of the world provided technical help and financial aid to save the great temples. In nineteen sixty-four work began to cut the temples away from the rock mountain. Each large piece was moved sixty meters up the mountain to a safe area. Then the huge temples were carefully rebuilt. The work was finished in nineteen sixty-eight. Today Abu Simbel is safe. It looks much the same as it has for the past three thousand years. It will continue to honor the ancient king and his queen for many years to come. And it will honor the modern world’s efforts to save a truly great work of art. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next week we tell about some of the natural wonders of our world. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Avoiding Medical Mistakes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 25, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Five years ago, researchers estimated the number of deaths each year from medical mistakes in United States hospitals. The estimate was between forty-four thousand and ninety-eight thousand, or one in every two hundred patients. The study called "To Err Is Human" came from the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences. Some experts called the estimates too high; others called them too low. The report called for changes in hospital policies in an effort to reduce the chance for mistakes. The study called for another examination later this year to measure progress. Health care experts say a number of reforms have yet to take place. But they say hospitals have made improvements. Some involve easy steps to avoid misunderstandings. If a patient needs an operation on the left leg, for example, the word "yes" might be written on that leg. The word "no" might be written on the other leg. Last month a hospital inspection group ordered that simple safety measures like these be required before all operations. Another effort to reduce mistakes involves information sharing among hospitals to improve the treatment of newborn babies. Each hospital can search the collected information for the best way to perform an operation or treat different problems. The Institute of Medicine report five years ago said most mistakes are caused by communication failures. These include mistakes with medicines. New medicines with similar names are part of the problem. Also, handwritten orders from doctors are often difficult to read. There are efforts to increase the use of computers in hospitals to avoid such mistakes. The goal is make sure patients get the correct medicines and in the correct amounts. A computer can also help avoid other problems. For example, it can warn if a medicine will react dangerously with other drugs taken by the patient. The flight industry has done a lot of work to reduce mistakes. This includes training pilots about the importance of teamwork. But safety experts say teamwork is not the only solution. Efforts are also made to change systems where misunderstandings and mistakes can easily happen. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Paul Thompson. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #77 - 1850 Compromise, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 26, 2004 Senator Henry Clay</b< Broadcast: August 26, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) A deep national crisis faced the United States in the year eighteen-fifty. It threatened to split the nation in two. It arose over the issue of slavery in the new territories of California and New Mexico. The president of the United States, General Zachary Taylor, had no clear policy on the issue. Taylor tried to be neutral, hoping that the problem would solve itself. But it did not solve itself. The split between the north and south got wider. There was a real danger that the south would try to leave the Union. Then, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky stepped forward to save the Union. VOICE TWO: After being away from the Senate for almost eight years, Clay was surprised to find how bitter the two sections of the United States -- north and south -- had grown toward each other. Clay urged his friends in the border states between north and south to try to build public support for the Union. He felt this would help prevent the south from seceding. Clay also began to think about a compromise that might settle the differences between the two sections of the country. VOICE ONE: Clay was a firm believer in the idea of compromise. He once said: "I go for honorable compromise whenever it can be made. Life itself is but a compromise between death and life. The struggle continues through our whole existence until the great destroyer finally wins. All legislation, all government, all society is formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, and courtesy. Upon these, everything is based." Clay was sure that a compromise between north and south was possible. Near the end of January, Clay completed work on his plan. Most parts of it already had been proposed as separate bills. Clay put them together in a way that both sides could accept. VOICE TWO: Clay offered his plan in a Senate speech on January twenty-ninth, eighteen-fifty. Clay proposed that California join the union as a free state. He said territorial governments should be formed in the other parts of the western territories, with no immediate decision on whether slavery would be permitted. Clay proposed that the western border of Texas be changed to give New Mexico most of the land disputed by them. In exchange for this, he said, the national government should agree to pay the public debts that Texas had when it became a state. He proposed that no more slaves be sold in the District of Columbia for use outside the federal district, but also proposed that slavery should not be ended in the district unless its citizens and those of Maryland approved. Clay said a better law was needed for the return of fugitive slaves to their owners. He also proposed that Congress declare that it had no power to interfere with the slave trade between states. Senator Clay believed these eight steps would satisfy the interests of both the north and the south. VOICE ONE: Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi declared that Clay's compromises did not offer anything of value to the south. He said the south would accept nothing less than extending the Missouri compromise line west to the Pacific Ocean. This meant that land south of the line would be open to slavery. Clay answered that no power on earth could force him to vote to establish slavery where it did not exist. He said Americans had blamed Britain for forcing African slavery on the colonists. He said he would not have the future citizens of California and New Mexico blaming Henry Clay for slavery there. VOICE TWO: Clay said he did not want to debate, but wished that the senators would think carefully about his proposals. He said he hoped they would decide on them only after careful study. He asked them to see the proposals as a system of compromise...not as separate bills. Clay expected extremists on both sides to denounce the compromise. But he believed the more reasonable leaders of the north and south would accept it. One week after Clay first proposed the compromise, he rose in the Senate to speak in its defense. The Senate hall was crowded. People had come from as far away as Boston and New York to hear Clay speak. Some senators said there had not been such a crowd in the capitol building since the day Clay said goodbye to the Senate eight years earlier. Clay had to rest several times as he climbed the steps of the capitol. He told a friend that he felt very tired and weak. His friend advised Clay to rest and make his speech later. "No," Clay said. "My country is in danger. If I can be the one to save it from that danger, then my health and life are not important." VOICE ONE: Clay began his speech by talking of the serious crisis that faced the nation. He said that never before had he spoken to a group as troubled and worried as the one he spoke to now. Clay listed his eight resolutions. Then he said: "No man on earth is more ready than I am to surrender anything which I have proposed and to accept in its place anything that is better. But I ask the honorable senators whether their duty will be done by simply limiting themselves to opposing any one or all of the resolutions I have offered.” “If my plan of peace and unity is not right, give us your plan. Let us see how all the questions that have arisen out of this unhappy subject of slavery can be better settled more fairly and justly than the plan I have offered. Present me with such a plan, and I will praise it with pleasure and accept it without the slightest feeling of regret." VOICE TWO: Clay said the major differences separating the country could be settled by facing facts. He said the first great fact was that laws were not necessary to keep slavery out of California and New Mexico. He said the people of California already had approved an anti-slavery state constitution. And he said the nature of land in New Mexico was such that slaves could not be used. Clay said there was justice in the borders he proposed for Texas, that it would still be a very large state after losing the area it disputed with New Mexico. And he said it was right for the United States to pay the debts of Texas, because that state no longer could collect taxes on trade as an independent country. VOICE ONE: Clay said there was equal justice in his resolutions ending the slave trade in the District of Columbia and strengthening laws on the return of runaway slaves. He said the south, perhaps, would be helped more than the north by his proposals. But the north, he said, was richer and had more money and power. To the north, slavery was a matter of feeling. But to the south, Clay said, it was a hard social and economic fact. He said the north could look on in safety while the actions of some of its people were producing flames of bitterness throughout the southern states. Then Clay attacked the south's claim that it had the right to leave the Union. He said the Union of states was permanent…that the men who built the Union did not do so only for themselves, but for all future Americans. VOICE TWO: Clay warned that if the south seceded, there would be war within sixty days. He said the slaves of the south would escape by the thousands to freedom in the north. Their owners would follow them and try to return them to slavery by force. This, he said, would lead to war between the slave-holding and free states. He said this would not be a war of only two or three years. History had shown, he said, that such wars lasted many years and often destroyed both sides. Even if the south could secede without war, he said, it still would not get any of the things it demanded. Secession would not open the territories to slavery. It would not continue the slave trade in the District of Columbia. And it would not lead to the return of slaves who escaped to the north. So, said Clay, the south would not help itself by leaving the Union. Clay's two-day speech gave new hope to many that the Union could be saved. His compromise seemed to be a way to settle the dispute. But extremists on both sides opposed it. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) A deep national crisis faced the United States in the year eighteen-fifty. It threatened to split the nation in two. It arose over the issue of slavery in the new territories of California and New Mexico. The president of the United States, General Zachary Taylor, had no clear policy on the issue. Taylor tried to be neutral, hoping that the problem would solve itself. But it did not solve itself. The split between the north and south got wider. There was a real danger that the south would try to leave the Union. Then, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky stepped forward to save the Union. VOICE TWO: After being away from the Senate for almost eight years, Clay was surprised to find how bitter the two sections of the United States -- north and south -- had grown toward each other. Clay urged his friends in the border states between north and south to try to build public support for the Union. He felt this would help prevent the south from seceding. Clay also began to think about a compromise that might settle the differences between the two sections of the country. VOICE ONE: Clay was a firm believer in the idea of compromise. He once said: "I go for honorable compromise whenever it can be made. Life itself is but a compromise between death and life. The struggle continues through our whole existence until the great destroyer finally wins. All legislation, all government, all society is formed upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, and courtesy. Upon these, everything is based." Clay was sure that a compromise between north and south was possible. Near the end of January, Clay completed work on his plan. Most parts of it already had been proposed as separate bills. Clay put them together in a way that both sides could accept. VOICE TWO: Clay offered his plan in a Senate speech on January twenty-ninth, eighteen-fifty. Clay proposed that California join the union as a free state. He said territorial governments should be formed in the other parts of the western territories, with no immediate decision on whether slavery would be permitted. Clay proposed that the western border of Texas be changed to give New Mexico most of the land disputed by them. In exchange for this, he said, the national government should agree to pay the public debts that Texas had when it became a state. He proposed that no more slaves be sold in the District of Columbia for use outside the federal district, but also proposed that slavery should not be ended in the district unless its citizens and those of Maryland approved. Clay said a better law was needed for the return of fugitive slaves to their owners. He also proposed that Congress declare that it had no power to interfere with the slave trade between states. Senator Clay believed these eight steps would satisfy the interests of both the north and the south. VOICE ONE: Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi declared that Clay's compromises did not offer anything of value to the south. He said the south would accept nothing less than extending the Missouri compromise line west to the Pacific Ocean. This meant that land south of the line would be open to slavery. Clay answered that no power on earth could force him to vote to establish slavery where it did not exist. He said Americans had blamed Britain for forcing African slavery on the colonists. He said he would not have the future citizens of California and New Mexico blaming Henry Clay for slavery there. VOICE TWO: Clay said he did not want to debate, but wished that the senators would think carefully about his proposals. He said he hoped they would decide on them only after careful study. He asked them to see the proposals as a system of compromise...not as separate bills. Clay expected extremists on both sides to denounce the compromise. But he believed the more reasonable leaders of the north and south would accept it. One week after Clay first proposed the compromise, he rose in the Senate to speak in its defense. The Senate hall was crowded. People had come from as far away as Boston and New York to hear Clay speak. Some senators said there had not been such a crowd in the capitol building since the day Clay said goodbye to the Senate eight years earlier. Clay had to rest several times as he climbed the steps of the capitol. He told a friend that he felt very tired and weak. His friend advised Clay to rest and make his speech later. "No," Clay said. "My country is in danger. If I can be the one to save it from that danger, then my health and life are not important." VOICE ONE: Clay began his speech by talking of the serious crisis that faced the nation. He said that never before had he spoken to a group as troubled and worried as the one he spoke to now. Clay listed his eight resolutions. Then he said: "No man on earth is more ready than I am to surrender anything which I have proposed and to accept in its place anything that is better. But I ask the honorable senators whether their duty will be done by simply limiting themselves to opposing any one or all of the resolutions I have offered.” “If my plan of peace and unity is not right, give us your plan. Let us see how all the questions that have arisen out of this unhappy subject of slavery can be better settled more fairly and justly than the plan I have offered. Present me with such a plan, and I will praise it with pleasure and accept it without the slightest feeling of regret." VOICE TWO: Clay said the major differences separating the country could be settled by facing facts. He said the first great fact was that laws were not necessary to keep slavery out of California and New Mexico. He said the people of California already had approved an anti-slavery state constitution. And he said the nature of land in New Mexico was such that slaves could not be used. Clay said there was justice in the borders he proposed for Texas, that it would still be a very large state after losing the area it disputed with New Mexico. And he said it was right for the United States to pay the debts of Texas, because that state no longer could collect taxes on trade as an independent country. VOICE ONE: Clay said there was equal justice in his resolutions ending the slave trade in the District of Columbia and strengthening laws on the return of runaway slaves. He said the south, perhaps, would be helped more than the north by his proposals. But the north, he said, was richer and had more money and power. To the north, slavery was a matter of feeling. But to the south, Clay said, it was a hard social and economic fact. He said the north could look on in safety while the actions of some of its people were producing flames of bitterness throughout the southern states. Then Clay attacked the south's claim that it had the right to leave the Union. He said the Union of states was permanent…that the men who built the Union did not do so only for themselves, but for all future Americans. VOICE TWO: Clay warned that if the south seceded, there would be war within sixty days. He said the slaves of the south would escape by the thousands to freedom in the north. Their owners would follow them and try to return them to slavery by force. This, he said, would lead to war between the slave-holding and free states. He said this would not be a war of only two or three years. History had shown, he said, that such wars lasted many years and often destroyed both sides. Even if the south could secede without war, he said, it still would not get any of the things it demanded. Secession would not open the territories to slavery. It would not continue the slave trade in the District of Columbia. And it would not lead to the return of slaves who escaped to the north. So, said Clay, the south would not help itself by leaving the Union. Clay's two-day speech gave new hope to many that the Union could be saved. His compromise seemed to be a way to settle the dispute. But extremists on both sides opposed it. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Stuart Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Charter Schools
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 26, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many American children are preparing to return to school following summer vacation. Most American students go to traditional public schools. There are about eighty-eight thousand public schools. Some students attend about three thousand independent public schools called charter schools. Charter schools are self-governing. Private companies operate some charter schools. They are similar in some ways to traditional public schools. They receive tax money just as other public schools do. Charter schools must prove to local or state governments that their students are learning. These governments provide the schools with the agreement called a charter that permits them to operate. Charter schools are different because they do not have to obey most laws governing traditional public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell them what to teach. Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to reach them. Class size is usually smaller than in traditional public schools. The Bush Administration strongly supports charter schools as a way to re-organize public schools that are failing to educate students. But some state education agencies, local education committees and unions oppose charter schools. One teachers union has just made public the results of the first national study comparing the progress of students in traditional schools and charter schools. The American Federation of Teachers criticized the government’s delay in releasing the results of the study from two thousand three. The study is called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Union education experts say the study shows that charter school students performed worse on math and reading tests than students in regular public schools. The students did so in grades four and eight. The study found that fourth graders at charter schools were about half a year behind public school students in both reading and mathematics. Some experts say the study is not a fair look at charter schools because students in those schools have more problems than students in traditional schools. Other education experts say the study results should make charter school officials demand improved student progress. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: August 26, 2004 - 'Hatchet Jobs & Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 26, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a guide to some political talk in America. This week, reporters asked President Bush about a television commercial that attacked the Vietnam War record of his Democratic opponent, John Kerry. The message was sponsored by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, though in political lingo this organization is known as a 527. PRESIDENT BUSH: "I can't be more plain about it, and I wish -- I hope my opponent joins me in saying -- condemning -- these activities of the 527s. It's, I think they're bad for the system." Five-twenty-sevens get their name from section 527 of the federal tax code. Organizations defined under this section can donate money for political causes without being taxed. But they must be unaffiliated with any candidate or party. Still ... GRANT BARRETT: "If the 527 organization is promoting a popular point of view, they really can do a great deal to support a candidate without being specifically affiliated with that campaign. Of course, there's been congressional hearings about this, there's been accusations on both sides, but for the time being it continues." AA: Grant Barrett is editor of a new book called "Hatchet Jobs & Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang." We asked him about a number of terms in the news right now, including all the talk about color-coded states. GRANT BARRETT: "This year because of what happened in the 2000 presidential election, red states and blue states is something that you keep hearing about. Red states are those states which supposedly will go Republican, or conservative. And the blue states are those states which supposedly will go to the Democrats because they're liberal or from the left. "These terms come out of the maps of the electoral votes from the 2000 election where during those weeks after the election and then the drama that ensued, the map always came up on the screen as television journalists were talking about how the voting went, particularly in Florida. "So the colors have come to kind of represent the tendency of those people to vote a certain way. Of course, then we have purple states, which is red plus blue, which are the states that are right on the line. These are also called the swing states, where no one quite knows how the vote is going to go until the day after the election." RS: "So how did they get these colors -- was it just purely TV?" GRANT BARRETT: "Completely arbitrary." AA: "These swing states are also called battleground states." GRANT BARRETT: "Yes." AA: "We keep hearing that term." GRANT BARRETT: "Knife-edge states, as well. If you go back to pre-2000, you'll actually see people talk about red states and blue states but they're switched the other way around." RS: "There are three phrases that I see constantly now, and I'd like for you to give us some quick definitions, all right? ABB." GRANT BARRETT: "'Anybody But Bush.' Actually it was first used against the first President Bush. It's just a shorthand. So much of slang is a shorthand, just a quicker way of saying something that everybody understands." RS: "Here's another one: 'hook and bullet crowd.' What's that mean?" GRANT BARRETT: "That's a fun one. The strategists always try to define a target audience who's underserved or whose politics are so broad that they can be easily focused upon in campaign advertisements. The hook and bullet crowd are the fisherman and the hunters. And it's not just people who like to fish and hunt. It also overlaps with people who own guns, people who probably live in rural settings, people who see themselves as being traditionalists. So they are seen as a favorable target, somebody to throw money at and try to persuade." RS: "And 'no-carb diet' has nothing to do with losing weight." GRANT BARRETT: "No, it doesn't. But the pun there is the well-known Atkins diet in the United States which tries to rid your food intake of carbohydrates. So 'no-carb diet' kind of rides along that wave. But what it stands for is 'No Cheney, No Ashcroft, No Rumsfeld, No Bush.' "There are, and I don't have any numbers for this, but there are a number of people who don't mind President Bush. They like him, they like his politics, they find him an appealing fellow, but they don't like some of the people such as [Attorney General John] Ashcroft, [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld or [Vice President Dick] Cheney that he has put into office." AA: "Now the last question I want to ask you is about the expression 'it's the economy, stupid.'" GRANT BARRETT: "During the first Clinton campaign in 1992, Democratic strategist James Carville was a part of that. There was a story that appeared in the August 3rd, 1992, edition of the Washington Post where they described this being written on the chalkboard: 'it's the economy, stupid.' "And it wasn't a message that they [the Democrats] were directing outward to their opponent and it wasn't a message that they were trying to get across to voters or to the media. It was a message for themselves, because they found that again, again and again they were straying from the core issue that they felt would make Americans vote for them, and that was the economy." AA: Grant Barrett is editor of "Hatchet Jobs & Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang," being published in September. And that's all for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 26, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a guide to some political talk in America. This week, reporters asked President Bush about a television commercial that attacked the Vietnam War record of his Democratic opponent, John Kerry. The message was sponsored by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, though in political lingo this organization is known as a 527. PRESIDENT BUSH: "I can't be more plain about it, and I wish -- I hope my opponent joins me in saying -- condemning -- these activities of the 527s. It's, I think they're bad for the system." Five-twenty-sevens get their name from section 527 of the federal tax code. Organizations defined under this section can donate money for political causes without being taxed. But they must be unaffiliated with any candidate or party. Still ... GRANT BARRETT: "If the 527 organization is promoting a popular point of view, they really can do a great deal to support a candidate without being specifically affiliated with that campaign. Of course, there's been congressional hearings about this, there's been accusations on both sides, but for the time being it continues." AA: Grant Barrett is editor of a new book called "Hatchet Jobs & Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang." We asked him about a number of terms in the news right now, including all the talk about color-coded states. GRANT BARRETT: "This year because of what happened in the 2000 presidential election, red states and blue states is something that you keep hearing about. Red states are those states which supposedly will go Republican, or conservative. And the blue states are those states which supposedly will go to the Democrats because they're liberal or from the left. "These terms come out of the maps of the electoral votes from the 2000 election where during those weeks after the election and then the drama that ensued, the map always came up on the screen as television journalists were talking about how the voting went, particularly in Florida. "So the colors have come to kind of represent the tendency of those people to vote a certain way. Of course, then we have purple states, which is red plus blue, which are the states that are right on the line. These are also called the swing states, where no one quite knows how the vote is going to go until the day after the election." RS: "So how did they get these colors -- was it just purely TV?" GRANT BARRETT: "Completely arbitrary." AA: "These swing states are also called battleground states." GRANT BARRETT: "Yes." AA: "We keep hearing that term." GRANT BARRETT: "Knife-edge states, as well. If you go back to pre-2000, you'll actually see people talk about red states and blue states but they're switched the other way around." RS: "There are three phrases that I see constantly now, and I'd like for you to give us some quick definitions, all right? ABB." GRANT BARRETT: "'Anybody But Bush.' Actually it was first used against the first President Bush. It's just a shorthand. So much of slang is a shorthand, just a quicker way of saying something that everybody understands." RS: "Here's another one: 'hook and bullet crowd.' What's that mean?" GRANT BARRETT: "That's a fun one. The strategists always try to define a target audience who's underserved or whose politics are so broad that they can be easily focused upon in campaign advertisements. The hook and bullet crowd are the fisherman and the hunters. And it's not just people who like to fish and hunt. It also overlaps with people who own guns, people who probably live in rural settings, people who see themselves as being traditionalists. So they are seen as a favorable target, somebody to throw money at and try to persuade." RS: "And 'no-carb diet' has nothing to do with losing weight." GRANT BARRETT: "No, it doesn't. But the pun there is the well-known Atkins diet in the United States which tries to rid your food intake of carbohydrates. So 'no-carb diet' kind of rides along that wave. But what it stands for is 'No Cheney, No Ashcroft, No Rumsfeld, No Bush.' "There are, and I don't have any numbers for this, but there are a number of people who don't mind President Bush. They like him, they like his politics, they find him an appealing fellow, but they don't like some of the people such as [Attorney General John] Ashcroft, [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld or [Vice President Dick] Cheney that he has put into office." AA: "Now the last question I want to ask you is about the expression 'it's the economy, stupid.'" GRANT BARRETT: "During the first Clinton campaign in 1992, Democratic strategist James Carville was a part of that. There was a story that appeared in the August 3rd, 1992, edition of the Washington Post where they described this being written on the chalkboard: 'it's the economy, stupid.' "And it wasn't a message that they [the Democrats] were directing outward to their opponent and it wasn't a message that they were trying to get across to voters or to the media. It was a message for themselves, because they found that again, again and again they were straying from the core issue that they felt would make Americans vote for them, and that was the economy." AA: Grant Barrett is editor of "Hatchet Jobs & Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang," being published in September. And that's all for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Skateboarding / Presidential Terms / Seven Mary Three
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 27, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: August 27, 2004 (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week: Music from the group Seven Mary Three ... A question about presidential term limits ... From left: Giti Khalsa, Casey Daniel, Jason Ross and Thomas Juliano. BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week: Music from the group Seven Mary Three ... A question about presidential term limits ... And a report about an action sport that Olympic fans haven't seen in Athens, except maybe on the local streets. Skateboarding The Summer Olympics end Sunday in Athens. Over the years, new sporting events have been added to the Games. Others have been taken away. It all depends on popularity. But one popular activity that is not in the Olympics -- at least not yet -- is skateboarding. Phoebe Zimmermann has our story. PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: Skateboards were developed in Southern California in the early nineteen fifties. Children, mostly boys, built their boards themselves. They attached four clay or metal wheels to a long, narrow piece of wood. The earliest versions were said to have been about thirty centimeters wide and close to two meters long. They would have looked much more like surfboards than modern skateboards. In fact, the first skateboarders were probably surfers. Back then, skateboarding was called “sidewalk surfing.” Skateboarding was popular through the early sixties. There was even some competitive skateboarding. But the boards were relatively slow and difficult to turn, and the ride was rough. By the end of the sixties, skateboards took a bad fall in sales. All that changed in nineteen seventy with a young man named Frank Nasworthy. He was a skater in Virginia. He discovered that wheels made of a plastic called urethane created a faster, smoother ride. Soon all skateboards had urethane wheels and the number of fans began to grow again. Today, skateboarding is popular internationally. Skaters from Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands and other countries competed last year in the X-Games Global Championship in San Antonio, Texas. X, as in “extreme” -- maybe too extreme for Olympic traditionalists. But skateboarding has grown up in the past thirty years. Many skaters now wear helmets and other protective equipment. Also, there are parks built especially for their sport. These parks usually include smooth concrete hills, bowl-shaped areas and jumps. In fact, a skate park is being built right now in the area where Frank Nasworthy often skated. The local government in Arlington, Virginia, plans to open it in October. And as for Frank, we understand he is now an engineer … in California. Presidential Terms in Office BOB DOUGHTY: Our VOA listener question this week comes from two places: Mysore, India, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Mohamud Abdi and Vincent Nguyen both want to know why American presidents cannot serve more than two terms in office. This is a good time to answer that question. The Republican Party opens its presidential nominating convention on Monday in New York City. Delegates will nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for a second term in the elections in November. The United States Constitution never said anything about how many times a president could be re-elected. The idea of serving only two four-year terms began with the first president, George Washington. He chose not to campaign for a third term. The presidents who followed him did the same. But there was no law that would have stopped them from serving longer, had they sought more terms. Franklin Roosevelt did not follow this tradition. He served longer than any other president, from March of nineteen thirty-three until April of nineteen forty-five. Political opponents criticized his elections to a third term and a fourth. They said no one person should have so much power for so long. But others believed his leadership and experience were needed during the Great Depression and World War Two. Franklin Roosevelt died during his fourth term. After his death, Congress proposed to amend the Constitution to limit the number of years a president could serve. States approved the change in nineteen fifty-one. The twenty-second amendment to the Constitution says no one may be elected president more than two times. It also says no one who has served as president for more than two years of someone else’s term may be elected more than once. All this guarantees that no American will serve as president for more than eight years, unless the Constitution is ever changed again. Seven Mary Three HOST: A new school year means a new chance to make friends -- and maybe even start a band. The group Seven Mary Three started that way. Gwen Outen has more. GWEN OUTEN: Three of the four current members of the band met in nineteen ninety-two at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. They started with a fourth member who also went there. The name of the band comes from a television show from the late nineteen seventies. It was a police show about California Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles. The show was called "CHiPs." But one of the actors used the radio call sign "Seven Mary Three." Seven Mary Three released its first album with a record company in nineteen ninety-five. The album was called “American Standard." It included this single, “Cumbersome.” (MUSIC) In two thousand one, the band released an album called “Economy of Sound." One of the songs was used in the movie “Crazy/Beautiful.” The name of the song is “Wait.” (MUSIC) The members of Seven Mary Three live in Orlando, Florida. But they travel a lot. In fact, drummer Giti Khalsa asked his father to take care of his dog for a little while, which has stretched into ten months. Last month, Seven Mary Three appeared in a show during Major League Baseball's All Star Week in Houston, Texas. They performed two songs from “Dis/Location," their newest album. We leave you with one of those songs, “Settle Up.” (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: This is Bob Doughty. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. And a report about an action sport that Olympic fans haven't seen in Athens, except maybe on the local streets. Skateboarding The Summer Olympics end Sunday in Athens. Over the years, new sporting events have been added to the Games. Others have been taken away. It all depends on popularity. But one popular activity that is not in the Olympics -- at least not yet -- is skateboarding. Phoebe Zimmermann has our story. PHOEBE ZIMMERMANN: Skateboards were developed in Southern California in the early nineteen fifties. Children, mostly boys, built their boards themselves. They attached four clay or metal wheels to a long, narrow piece of wood. The earliest versions were said to have been about thirty centimeters wide and close to two meters long. They would have looked much more like surfboards than modern skateboards. In fact, the first skateboarders were probably surfers. Back then, skateboarding was called “sidewalk surfing.” Skateboarding was popular through the early sixties. There was even some competitive skateboarding. But the boards were relatively slow and difficult to turn, and the ride was rough. By the end of the sixties, skateboards took a bad fall in sales. All that changed in nineteen seventy with a young man named Frank Nasworthy. He was a skater in Virginia. He discovered that wheels made of a plastic called urethane created a faster, smoother ride. Soon all skateboards had urethane wheels and the number of fans began to grow again. Today, skateboarding is popular internationally. Skaters from Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands and other countries competed last year in the X-Games Global Championship in San Antonio, Texas. X, as in “extreme” -- maybe too extreme for Olympic traditionalists. But skateboarding has grown up in the past thirty years. Many skaters now wear helmets and other protective equipment. Also, there are parks built especially for their sport. These parks usually include smooth concrete hills, bowl-shaped areas and jumps. In fact, a skate park is being built right now in the area where Frank Nasworthy often skated. The local government in Arlington, Virginia, plans to open it in October. And as for Frank, we understand he is now an engineer … in California. Presidential Terms in Office BOB DOUGHTY: Our VOA listener question this week comes from two places: Mysore, India, and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Mohamud Abdi and Vincent Nguyen both want to know why American presidents cannot serve more than two terms in office. This is a good time to answer that question. The Republican Party opens its presidential nominating convention on Monday in New York City. Delegates will nominate President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for a second term in the elections in November. The United States Constitution never said anything about how many times a president could be re-elected. The idea of serving only two four-year terms began with the first president, George Washington. He chose not to campaign for a third term. The presidents who followed him did the same. But there was no law that would have stopped them from serving longer, had they sought more terms. Franklin Roosevelt did not follow this tradition. He served longer than any other president, from March of nineteen thirty-three until April of nineteen forty-five. Political opponents criticized his elections to a third term and a fourth. They said no one person should have so much power for so long. But others believed his leadership and experience were needed during the Great Depression and World War Two. Franklin Roosevelt died during his fourth term. After his death, Congress proposed to amend the Constitution to limit the number of years a president could serve. States approved the change in nineteen fifty-one. The twenty-second amendment to the Constitution says no one may be elected president more than two times. It also says no one who has served as president for more than two years of someone else’s term may be elected more than once. All this guarantees that no American will serve as president for more than eight years, unless the Constitution is ever changed again. Seven Mary Three HOST: A new school year means a new chance to make friends -- and maybe even start a band. The group Seven Mary Three started that way. Gwen Outen has more. GWEN OUTEN: Three of the four current members of the band met in nineteen ninety-two at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. They started with a fourth member who also went there. The name of the band comes from a television show from the late nineteen seventies. It was a police show about California Highway Patrol officers on motorcycles. The show was called "CHiPs." But one of the actors used the radio call sign "Seven Mary Three." Seven Mary Three released its first album with a record company in nineteen ninety-five. The album was called “American Standard." It included this single, “Cumbersome.” (MUSIC) In two thousand one, the band released an album called “Economy of Sound." One of the songs was used in the movie “Crazy/Beautiful.” The name of the song is “Wait.” (MUSIC) The members of Seven Mary Three live in Orlando, Florida. But they travel a lot. In fact, drummer Giti Khalsa asked his father to take care of his dog for a little while, which has stretched into ten months. Last month, Seven Mary Three appeared in a show during Major League Baseball's All Star Week in Houston, Texas. They performed two songs from “Dis/Location," their newest album. We leave you with one of those songs, “Settle Up.” (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: This is Bob Doughty. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - New Law Changes U.S. Checking System
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 27, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A change in the United States banking system will affect how thousands of millions of dollars in payments are processed. The new law is known as Check Twenty-one. It takes effect in October. A check is a written order to a bank to pay an amount of money. People or businesses keep money in a bank. They write paper checks to spend that money. The Check Twenty-one law changes the way checks are processed. Today, people write checks and send them as payment. Then they have the right to have their checks returned to them from the bank for record keeping. After October, they will no longer have that right. Banks will keep only electronic images of the checks. Americans will be able to ask for electronic copies of their checks so they can dispute mistakes. But there is a limit to how much money they can receive if a mistake has been made. Also, no rules limit how much the electronic copies can cost. In another big change, checks will be approved for payment sooner. This will end what is called the “float.” This is the average time between when a check is written and when it is paid. A check floats for several days as it is transported from bank to bank to be approved for payment. Every day, thousands of millions of dollars float through the system uncollected for payments. With the new law, most checks will be approved in less than one day. However, although checks will be approved sooner, banks will not be required to provide payments sooner. Americans write more checks than people in any other nation. They also use electronic money exchanges more than anyone else. The International Business Machines company makes equipment that processes payments. It says that processing one paper check costs from seven to fifteen cents. In the year two thousand, Americans wrote about forty-three thousand million checks. Banks spend thousands of millions of dollars processing checks. But Americans are writing fewer checks each year. IBM says this creates cost pressures on banks. The new law does not necessarily reduce costs for all banks. Banks that do not have the technology to electronically process checks may have to seek the help of other banks. Or they may have to end their checking services. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Investigative Reports on Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 28, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. This week, there were two reports on the treatment of Iraqis by American troops at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Both reports said responsibility for the abuses that took place was not limited to low-level guards. But neither investigation found any orders to mistreat prisoners. Army investigators found that twenty-three members of military intelligence and four civilian workers were directly involved in abuse. These findings could result in administrative or criminal charges. Eight other people, including two civilians, were found not to have reported cases of abuse. The Army report places blame mainly on a lack of training among the troops and a lack of leadership by their commanders. It says rules for questioning prisoners were sometimes unclear. In April, pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public. Some showed prisoners forced into painful positions. Others showed men unclothed and placed on top of one another. Still others showed the use of dogs to threaten prisoners. The Army investigators found that troops hid eight Iraqi prisoners from the International Committee of the Red Cross. One prisoner later died. General Paul Kern led the investigation by three Army generals. They discovered what he called "serious misconduct and a loss of moral values." Criminal cases are being heard against six military police officers in Iraq. Their lawyers have argued that the soldiers were following orders from military intelligence officers and civilian contractors. One soldier has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez was the top American commander in Iraq at the time. He was criticized for leadership failures, but not found directly responsible for the abuses. Four high-level military officers, however, face possible administrative charges. On Friday the New York Times described some parts of the Army report that were not made public. These reportedly say that General Sanchez approved the use of some severe methods to get information from prisoners in Iraq. The newspaper says these interrogation methods were meant to be limited to prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan. The other report this week came from an independent committee led by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger. The committee examined the policies for people captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. It says there was no evidence of any policy to abuse prisoners. Still, it says top civilian and military officials in the Defense Department share part of the blame for what happened. The report says it is clear that pressures for additional intelligence resulted in stronger interrogation methods. But it says there are signs that the Department of Defense is now "on the path" to dealing with the failures that led to the abuses. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: August 28, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. This week, there were two reports on the treatment of Iraqis by American troops at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Both reports said responsibility for the abuses that took place was not limited to low-level guards. But neither investigation found any orders to mistreat prisoners. Army investigators found that twenty-three members of military intelligence and four civilian workers were directly involved in abuse. These findings could result in administrative or criminal charges. Eight other people, including two civilians, were found not to have reported cases of abuse. The Army report places blame mainly on a lack of training among the troops and a lack of leadership by their commanders. It says rules for questioning prisoners were sometimes unclear. In April, pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public. Some showed prisoners forced into painful positions. Others showed men unclothed and placed on top of one another. Still others showed the use of dogs to threaten prisoners. The Army investigators found that troops hid eight Iraqi prisoners from the International Committee of the Red Cross. One prisoner later died. General Paul Kern led the investigation by three Army generals. They discovered what he called "serious misconduct and a loss of moral values." Criminal cases are being heard against six military police officers in Iraq. Their lawyers have argued that the soldiers were following orders from military intelligence officers and civilian contractors. One soldier has pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez was the top American commander in Iraq at the time. He was criticized for leadership failures, but not found directly responsible for the abuses. Four high-level military officers, however, face possible administrative charges. On Friday the New York Times described some parts of the Army report that were not made public. These reportedly say that General Sanchez approved the use of some severe methods to get information from prisoners in Iraq. The newspaper says these interrogation methods were meant to be limited to prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan. The other report this week came from an independent committee led by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger. The committee examined the policies for people captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. It says there was no evidence of any policy to abuse prisoners. Still, it says top civilian and military officials in the Defense Department share part of the blame for what happened. The report says it is clear that pressures for additional intelligence resulted in stronger interrogation methods. But it says there are signs that the Department of Defense is now "on the path" to dealing with the failures that led to the abuses. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Clare Boothe Luce
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 29, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: August 29, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a woman who became famous for her activities in government, the media and the arts. She was a member of Congress and an ambassador. She was a news reporter and magazine editor. And she wrote plays. Her name was Clare Boothe Luce. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce was one of the most influential women in modern American history. Yet she came from simple roots. She was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-three. Clare’s father was a musician and businessman. Her mother had been a dancer. While Clare was a girl, her parents ended their marriage. She and her brother stayed with their mother. Their mother did not have a lot of money. Yet she was able to send Clare to very good schools. Her mother then married a doctor from Connecticut. Clare’s stepfather, Albert Austin, later served in the United States House of Representatives. VOICE TWO: As a young woman, Clare Boothe was known for her intelligence and good looks. She met her first husband through a family friend. George Tuttle Brokaw was a wealthy man. He also was more than twenty years older than Clare. They were married in nineteen-twenty-three and had one child – a daughter. However, her husband had a problem with alcoholic drinks. Their marriage ended after only six years. Clare developed a serious interest in writing. In nineteen-thirty, a friend, the magazine publisher Conde Nast, offered her a job. She wrote comments for pictures published in Vogue, a magazine for women about clothes and fashion. A short time later, she accepted a job at other magazine, Vanity Fair. She wrote reports about social events and famous people in New York. Later these reports were published in a book. VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe became a top editor at Vanity Fair. She worked there until nineteen-thirty-four. By then, she was also writing plays. One play was called “Abide With Me.” It was about a man who mistreats his wife. “Abide With Me” opened in a theater on Broadway in New York City in nineteen-thirty-five. Critics hated it. Two days after the show opened, Clare Boothe married Henry Robinson Luce. He was a famous and important magazine publisher. He published Time and Fortune magazines. She had first met Henry Luce at a party in New York. At the time, he was married and had two children. He and Clare were married a short time after a court order canceled his first marriage. They would stay together for more than thirty years. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Clare Boothe Luce returned to writing plays. Her second play, “The Women,” made fun of rich women. It opened on Broadway in nineteen-thirty-six. The show was very popular. It was later made into a movie. Another play, “Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” also was a success. So was her next play, “Margin For Error.” All three plays were noted for their use of sharp language and making fun of human failings. Clare Boothe Luce was known for expressing her opinions. Her most famous saying was: “No good deed goes unpunished.” She often spoke about the problems of women trying to succeed in a world mainly controlled by men. She said: “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’ They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.” She made these comments in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. ((VOICE)) We women are supposed to be a minority. I’ve never understood that myself because we outnumber the men in actual numbers, and we live five years longer. So I’ve never felt like a minority because, as you know, minorities are never supposed to say anything unkind about one another. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty, Clare Boothe Luce traveled to Europe as a reporter for Life magazine, which was published by her husband. She visited a number of countries and later wrote reports about how people were dealing with World War Two. She wrote a book about this called “Europe in Spring.” In the book, she noted that people were living in “a world where men have decided to die together because they are unable to find a way to live together. She also reported from Africa, China, India and Burma for Life magazine. In nineteen-forty-two, her stepfather, Albert Austin, died. Missus Luce agreed to be the Republican Party candidate for his seat in the House of Representatives from Connecticut. She was elected and entered Congress in January, nineteen-forty-three. Missus Luce was a political conservative. She spoke against the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She criticized the Roosevelt administration’s foreign policy. She said it failed to supervise the war effort. VOICE TWO: A tragic event affected Clare Boothe Luce in nineteen-forty-four. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Ann was killed in an automobile accident. Missus Luce experienced severe emotional problems. She sought help from a number of people, including a Roman Catholic clergyman, the Reverend Fulton J. Sheen. At the time, he was becoming known for his radio broadcasts. Missus Luce demanded to know why God had taken her daughter. Reverend Sheen said the young woman had died so that her mother could learn about the meaning of life. Missus Luce recovered and returned to Congress. She remained popular among the voters of Connecticut and was re-elected to a second term in office. However, she did not seek re-election in nineteen-forty-six. Missus Luce said she wanted to spend more time with her husband. She also became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Missus Luce returned to writing. She also edited a book about people considered holy by the Roman Catholic Church. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce criticized the spread of Communism after World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-two, she supported the Republican Party’s candidate for president, former General Dwight Eisenhower. He won the election and appointed Missus Luce as ambassador to Italy. She became one of the first American women to serve in a major diplomatic position. Missus Luce served as the ambassador until nineteen-fifty-six. She left Rome after becoming sick with arsenic poisoning caused by paint particles in her bedroom. VOICE TWO: Three years later, President Eisenhower nominated Missus Luce as ambassador to Brazil. Most members of the United States Senate supported her nomination. However, some senators were opposed. Among them was Wayne Morse, a Democrat from Oregon. The Senate approved Missus Luce as the new ambassador. After the debate, she said that Senator Morse’s actions were the result of him being “kicked in the head by a horse.” Many Democrats criticized her comment. A few days later she resigned as ambassador. VOICE ONE: Missus Luce remained active in politics. In nineteen-sixty-four, she supported Senator Barry Goldwater as the Republican Party’s candidate for president. She also announced plans to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Senate from New York. However, Republican leaders disapproved and she withdrew from the race. VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce retired from public life. She and her husband moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Henry Luce died there in nineteen-sixty-seven. He was sixty-eight years old. Missus Luce moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. She lived there until the early nineteen-eighties. During that period, she served as an advisor to three presidents. She was a member of the President’ s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Then Missus Luce moved to Washington, D.C. In nineteen-eighty-three, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen. Clare Boothe Luce had a long battle with cancer. She died at her home in nineteen-eighty-seven. She was eighty-four years old. She was buried near the remains of her husband in the state of South Carolina. Experts said Clare Boothe Luce had enough important jobs in government, the media and the arts to satisfy several women. She was often on the list of the ten most important and admired women in the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a woman who became famous for her activities in government, the media and the arts. She was a member of Congress and an ambassador. She was a news reporter and magazine editor. And she wrote plays. Her name was Clare Boothe Luce. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce was one of the most influential women in modern American history. Yet she came from simple roots. She was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-three. Clare’s father was a musician and businessman. Her mother had been a dancer. While Clare was a girl, her parents ended their marriage. She and her brother stayed with their mother. Their mother did not have a lot of money. Yet she was able to send Clare to very good schools. Her mother then married a doctor from Connecticut. Clare’s stepfather, Albert Austin, later served in the United States House of Representatives. VOICE TWO: As a young woman, Clare Boothe was known for her intelligence and good looks. She met her first husband through a family friend. George Tuttle Brokaw was a wealthy man. He also was more than twenty years older than Clare. They were married in nineteen-twenty-three and had one child – a daughter. However, her husband had a problem with alcoholic drinks. Their marriage ended after only six years. Clare developed a serious interest in writing. In nineteen-thirty, a friend, the magazine publisher Conde Nast, offered her a job. She wrote comments for pictures published in Vogue, a magazine for women about clothes and fashion. A short time later, she accepted a job at other magazine, Vanity Fair. She wrote reports about social events and famous people in New York. Later these reports were published in a book. VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe became a top editor at Vanity Fair. She worked there until nineteen-thirty-four. By then, she was also writing plays. One play was called “Abide With Me.” It was about a man who mistreats his wife. “Abide With Me” opened in a theater on Broadway in New York City in nineteen-thirty-five. Critics hated it. Two days after the show opened, Clare Boothe married Henry Robinson Luce. He was a famous and important magazine publisher. He published Time and Fortune magazines. She had first met Henry Luce at a party in New York. At the time, he was married and had two children. He and Clare were married a short time after a court order canceled his first marriage. They would stay together for more than thirty years. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Clare Boothe Luce returned to writing plays. Her second play, “The Women,” made fun of rich women. It opened on Broadway in nineteen-thirty-six. The show was very popular. It was later made into a movie. Another play, “Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” also was a success. So was her next play, “Margin For Error.” All three plays were noted for their use of sharp language and making fun of human failings. Clare Boothe Luce was known for expressing her opinions. Her most famous saying was: “No good deed goes unpunished.” She often spoke about the problems of women trying to succeed in a world mainly controlled by men. She said: “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn’t have what it takes.’ They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.” She made these comments in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. ((VOICE)) We women are supposed to be a minority. I’ve never understood that myself because we outnumber the men in actual numbers, and we live five years longer. So I’ve never felt like a minority because, as you know, minorities are never supposed to say anything unkind about one another. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty, Clare Boothe Luce traveled to Europe as a reporter for Life magazine, which was published by her husband. She visited a number of countries and later wrote reports about how people were dealing with World War Two. She wrote a book about this called “Europe in Spring.” In the book, she noted that people were living in “a world where men have decided to die together because they are unable to find a way to live together. She also reported from Africa, China, India and Burma for Life magazine. In nineteen-forty-two, her stepfather, Albert Austin, died. Missus Luce agreed to be the Republican Party candidate for his seat in the House of Representatives from Connecticut. She was elected and entered Congress in January, nineteen-forty-three. Missus Luce was a political conservative. She spoke against the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. She criticized the Roosevelt administration’s foreign policy. She said it failed to supervise the war effort. VOICE TWO: A tragic event affected Clare Boothe Luce in nineteen-forty-four. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Ann was killed in an automobile accident. Missus Luce experienced severe emotional problems. She sought help from a number of people, including a Roman Catholic clergyman, the Reverend Fulton J. Sheen. At the time, he was becoming known for his radio broadcasts. Missus Luce demanded to know why God had taken her daughter. Reverend Sheen said the young woman had died so that her mother could learn about the meaning of life. Missus Luce recovered and returned to Congress. She remained popular among the voters of Connecticut and was re-elected to a second term in office. However, she did not seek re-election in nineteen-forty-six. Missus Luce said she wanted to spend more time with her husband. She also became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Missus Luce returned to writing. She also edited a book about people considered holy by the Roman Catholic Church. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce criticized the spread of Communism after World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-two, she supported the Republican Party’s candidate for president, former General Dwight Eisenhower. He won the election and appointed Missus Luce as ambassador to Italy. She became one of the first American women to serve in a major diplomatic position. Missus Luce served as the ambassador until nineteen-fifty-six. She left Rome after becoming sick with arsenic poisoning caused by paint particles in her bedroom. VOICE TWO: Three years later, President Eisenhower nominated Missus Luce as ambassador to Brazil. Most members of the United States Senate supported her nomination. However, some senators were opposed. Among them was Wayne Morse, a Democrat from Oregon. The Senate approved Missus Luce as the new ambassador. After the debate, she said that Senator Morse’s actions were the result of him being “kicked in the head by a horse.” Many Democrats criticized her comment. A few days later she resigned as ambassador. VOICE ONE: Missus Luce remained active in politics. In nineteen-sixty-four, she supported Senator Barry Goldwater as the Republican Party’s candidate for president. She also announced plans to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Senate from New York. However, Republican leaders disapproved and she withdrew from the race. VOICE ONE: Clare Boothe Luce retired from public life. She and her husband moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Henry Luce died there in nineteen-sixty-seven. He was sixty-eight years old. Missus Luce moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. She lived there until the early nineteen-eighties. During that period, she served as an advisor to three presidents. She was a member of the President’ s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Then Missus Luce moved to Washington, D.C. In nineteen-eighty-three, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor a president can give to an American citizen. Clare Boothe Luce had a long battle with cancer. She died at her home in nineteen-eighty-seven. She was eighty-four years old. She was buried near the remains of her husband in the state of South Carolina. Experts said Clare Boothe Luce had enough important jobs in government, the media and the arts to satisfy several women. She was often on the list of the ten most important and admired women in the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - New York City and the Republican National Convention
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 30, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: August 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. We take you this week to New York City, where the Republican National Convention opens Monday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Republican Party delegates are in New York for their presidential nominating convention. All together, about fifty thousand delegates, reporters and guests are attending. Police also expect large numbers of protesters in the city. The convention is inside Madison Square Garden. Plans for the first night include a welcoming speech by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Speakers the following night include Laura Bush, the wife of the president, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California. On Wednesday the delegates will nominate Vice President Dick Cheney for a second term. And on Thursday night, President Bush is to accept his nomination to serve four more years in the White House. VOICE TWO: Nominating conventions take place in a different city every four years. In the past, the two major parties decided on their candidates at these events. But these days, candidates are chosen earlier through state nominating elections. This is the first time the Republican Party has held its national convention in New York City. Democrats have met there five times. The Democratic National Convention took place last month in Boston. Delegates nominated John Kerry for president and John Edwards for vice president. The two senators will face President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the general election on November second. VOICE ONE: As in Boston, New York has made intensive security preparations. But New Yorkers were already used to increased security. After all, the worst attack in American history took place in their city on September eleventh, two thousand one. Al Qaida terrorists flew hijacked planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The two tallest buildings in the city fell to ruins. Office workers and visitors died along with hundreds of firefighters and police officers. To observe the anniversary next month, parents and grandparents of the victims will read the names of those killed. Two thousand seven hundred forty nine names will be read. A major new building and a memorial park are being planned on what is now known as ground zero. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People call New York "The Big Apple.” But why? In the nineteen nineties, two language researchers, Gerald Cohen and Barry Popik, followed the popularity back to a local sports writer. John J. Fitz Gerald wrote about horse racing in the nineteen twenties and used the term "big apple." Horses love apples. The "big apple" meant the place with a lot of money to be won in racing. Fitz Gerald had heard New York described that way by African American workers at a racetrack in New Orleans. And big it is. More than eight million people make New York the biggest city in the United States. VOICE ONE: New York City is in the southeastern corner of New York State. The city covers about one thousand two hundred square kilometers. But thirty-five percent of that is water. People who talk about "New York" often mean just Manhattan. But the city is divided into five areas called boroughs. These are Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Only the Bronx is connected to the United States mainland. The others are surrounded by three rivers and New York Bay. VOICE TWO: Manhattan is the oldest borough. Dutch settlers bought the island from the American Indians in sixteen twenty-six. Historians in the eighteen hundreds estimated that the Indians received goods worth twenty-four American dollars. The Dutch established the first major European settlement in the area. They called it New Amsterdam. Later, they gave New Amsterdam to Britain as part of a peace treaty. The British renamed the colony “New York.” In the middle and late seventeen hundreds, New York played an important part in the struggle for American independence. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen hundreds, millions of European immigrants arrived in New York through Ellis Island, in New York Harbor. Today New Yorkers represent almost every race and ethnic group on the planet. They speak more than one hundred languages. The last population count, in two thousand, found that forty-five percent of New Yorkers were white. Blacks and Hispanics each represented twenty-seven percent of the population. Ten percent of New Yorkers were Asian. This adds up to more than one hundred percent, because Hispanics can be of any race. Many of the Spanish speakers in New York come from Puerto Rico. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Manhattan is known for its tall buildings. But there are also places to enjoy nature, like Central Park. Central Park covers three hundred forty hectares. There are walking paths, play areas for children, a lake and a zoo. The southern part of Manhattan, called Lower Manhattan, is the financial center of the city. The Financial District includes Wall Street, home to the New York Stock Exchange. Manhattan also represents the cultural heart of the city. The famous theaters of Broadway and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts are there. New York City has about eighty museums; most are in Manhattan. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has the largest collection in America. From Manhattan, many visitors take a boat to see the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. The statue reopened to the public recently. It was closed for security improvements after the September eleventh attacks. Visitors to New York also like to go up to the observation area at the top of the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building was completed in nineteen thirty-one. It has more than one hundred floors. Until the early nineteen seventies, it was the tallest building in the world. VOICE ONE: There are lots of places to shop in New York. Some of the finest are along Fifth Avenue. Rockefeller Center is also on Fifth Avenue; it is home to the Radio City Music Hall. Other areas of Manhattan include Greenwich Village and Harlem. Greenwich Village is popular with artists. Harlem is the traditional center of African American life in New York. And along the East River in Manhattan is a glass-covered building with a lot of flags outside. This is the headquarters of the United Nations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Like Manhattan, Brooklyn is densely populated. Brooklyn has the largest population of the five boroughs. Its two and one-half million people live mainly in apartment buildings and houses lined close together. During the summer, many people visit Coney Island in Brooklyn. There are swimming beaches along the Atlantic Ocean as well as rides and other activities for families. Brooklyn also has a major museum, the Brooklyn Art Museum. In different parts of New York, there are areas of wealth, but also poverty. Some of the poorest areas are in the South Bronx, known for its public housing projects. Yet the Bronx also has Fieldston, an area with large homes. The Bronx is also home to cultural and educational centers. VOICE ONE: Queens has major industry along the East River. It also has the two major airports in New York City: John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia. The borough with the fewest people is Staten Island. In nineteen sixty-four, the Verrazano Narrows bridge linked the island with Brooklyn. But there is no bridge between Staten Island and Manhattan. So people sail across on the Staten Island Ferry. New York is also known for its underground trains. The first part of the subway system opened one hundred years ago this October. VOICE TWO: New York has many of the same problems as other big cities. These include problems with the public schools and the health care system for the poor. Many new immigrants arrive in the city needing help. Some people have the idea that New Yorkers are not very friendly or helpful to others. Yet, after the September eleventh attacks, people saw just the opposite. America’s Big Apple won many new friends. And now New York even hopes to win the Summer Olympics in two thousand twelve. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. We take you this week to New York City, where the Republican National Convention opens Monday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Republican Party delegates are in New York for their presidential nominating convention. All together, about fifty thousand delegates, reporters and guests are attending. Police also expect large numbers of protesters in the city. The convention is inside Madison Square Garden. Plans for the first night include a welcoming speech by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Speakers the following night include Laura Bush, the wife of the president, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California. On Wednesday the delegates will nominate Vice President Dick Cheney for a second term. And on Thursday night, President Bush is to accept his nomination to serve four more years in the White House. VOICE TWO: Nominating conventions take place in a different city every four years. In the past, the two major parties decided on their candidates at these events. But these days, candidates are chosen earlier through state nominating elections. This is the first time the Republican Party has held its national convention in New York City. Democrats have met there five times. The Democratic National Convention took place last month in Boston. Delegates nominated John Kerry for president and John Edwards for vice president. The two senators will face President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the general election on November second. VOICE ONE: As in Boston, New York has made intensive security preparations. But New Yorkers were already used to increased security. After all, the worst attack in American history took place in their city on September eleventh, two thousand one. Al Qaida terrorists flew hijacked planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The two tallest buildings in the city fell to ruins. Office workers and visitors died along with hundreds of firefighters and police officers. To observe the anniversary next month, parents and grandparents of the victims will read the names of those killed. Two thousand seven hundred forty nine names will be read. A major new building and a memorial park are being planned on what is now known as ground zero. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People call New York "The Big Apple.” But why? In the nineteen nineties, two language researchers, Gerald Cohen and Barry Popik, followed the popularity back to a local sports writer. John J. Fitz Gerald wrote about horse racing in the nineteen twenties and used the term "big apple." Horses love apples. The "big apple" meant the place with a lot of money to be won in racing. Fitz Gerald had heard New York described that way by African American workers at a racetrack in New Orleans. And big it is. More than eight million people make New York the biggest city in the United States. VOICE ONE: New York City is in the southeastern corner of New York State. The city covers about one thousand two hundred square kilometers. But thirty-five percent of that is water. People who talk about "New York" often mean just Manhattan. But the city is divided into five areas called boroughs. These are Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. Only the Bronx is connected to the United States mainland. The others are surrounded by three rivers and New York Bay. VOICE TWO: Manhattan is the oldest borough. Dutch settlers bought the island from the American Indians in sixteen twenty-six. Historians in the eighteen hundreds estimated that the Indians received goods worth twenty-four American dollars. The Dutch established the first major European settlement in the area. They called it New Amsterdam. Later, they gave New Amsterdam to Britain as part of a peace treaty. The British renamed the colony “New York.” In the middle and late seventeen hundreds, New York played an important part in the struggle for American independence. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen hundreds, millions of European immigrants arrived in New York through Ellis Island, in New York Harbor. Today New Yorkers represent almost every race and ethnic group on the planet. They speak more than one hundred languages. The last population count, in two thousand, found that forty-five percent of New Yorkers were white. Blacks and Hispanics each represented twenty-seven percent of the population. Ten percent of New Yorkers were Asian. This adds up to more than one hundred percent, because Hispanics can be of any race. Many of the Spanish speakers in New York come from Puerto Rico. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Manhattan is known for its tall buildings. But there are also places to enjoy nature, like Central Park. Central Park covers three hundred forty hectares. There are walking paths, play areas for children, a lake and a zoo. The southern part of Manhattan, called Lower Manhattan, is the financial center of the city. The Financial District includes Wall Street, home to the New York Stock Exchange. Manhattan also represents the cultural heart of the city. The famous theaters of Broadway and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts are there. New York City has about eighty museums; most are in Manhattan. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has the largest collection in America. From Manhattan, many visitors take a boat to see the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. The statue reopened to the public recently. It was closed for security improvements after the September eleventh attacks. Visitors to New York also like to go up to the observation area at the top of the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building was completed in nineteen thirty-one. It has more than one hundred floors. Until the early nineteen seventies, it was the tallest building in the world. VOICE ONE: There are lots of places to shop in New York. Some of the finest are along Fifth Avenue. Rockefeller Center is also on Fifth Avenue; it is home to the Radio City Music Hall. Other areas of Manhattan include Greenwich Village and Harlem. Greenwich Village is popular with artists. Harlem is the traditional center of African American life in New York. And along the East River in Manhattan is a glass-covered building with a lot of flags outside. This is the headquarters of the United Nations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Like Manhattan, Brooklyn is densely populated. Brooklyn has the largest population of the five boroughs. Its two and one-half million people live mainly in apartment buildings and houses lined close together. During the summer, many people visit Coney Island in Brooklyn. There are swimming beaches along the Atlantic Ocean as well as rides and other activities for families. Brooklyn also has a major museum, the Brooklyn Art Museum. In different parts of New York, there are areas of wealth, but also poverty. Some of the poorest areas are in the South Bronx, known for its public housing projects. Yet the Bronx also has Fieldston, an area with large homes. The Bronx is also home to cultural and educational centers. VOICE ONE: Queens has major industry along the East River. It also has the two major airports in New York City: John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia. The borough with the fewest people is Staten Island. In nineteen sixty-four, the Verrazano Narrows bridge linked the island with Brooklyn. But there is no bridge between Staten Island and Manhattan. So people sail across on the Staten Island Ferry. New York is also known for its underground trains. The first part of the subway system opened one hundred years ago this October. VOICE TWO: New York has many of the same problems as other big cities. These include problems with the public schools and the health care system for the poor. Many new immigrants arrive in the city needing help. Some people have the idea that New Yorkers are not very friendly or helpful to others. Yet, after the September eleventh attacks, people saw just the opposite. America’s Big Apple won many new friends. And now New York even hopes to win the Summer Olympics in two thousand twelve. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Gwen Outen. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – World Population by 2050
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 30, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. New research shows that Earth will have more than nine thousand million people by two thousand fifty. The world population is currently estimated at six point four thousand million. The research is from the Population Reference Bureau, a private group based in Washington. It says most growth will take place in developing countries in Africa and western Asia. India is expected to pass China as the world’s most populated nation. By the middle of the century, the report says, India will have over one and one-half thousand million citizens, an increase of fifty percent. China currently has one point three thousand million people. The Population Reference Bureau says the population should increase about ten percent by two thousand fifty. Most industrial nations will see a drop in their populations. The only big exception is expected to be the United States. The report says the United States will remain the third biggest nation. The population is close to three hundred million now. It is expected to reach four hundred twenty million. The report says this will be because of immigration and low death rates among babies. Between now and two thousand fifty, Niger is expected to be the fastest growing country. The biggest decrease is expected in Bulgaria. The study is based on information from governments and the United Nations. Researcher Carl Haub wrote the report. He examined infant death rates, life expectancy, birth rates and the age structure of nations. The study also considered family planning use and, for the first time, rates of AIDS. Mister Haub says most growth will take place in countries with young populations and traditionally large families. He points to Nigeria and Japan as two nations that are moving in opposite directions in terms of population. In Nigeria, almost half the people are under the age of fifteen. Few are over sixty-five. Nigerian women generally give birth about six times during their lives. By comparison, the average Japanese woman has one child. And today about twenty percent of Japanese are over the age of sixty-five. Mister Haub expects the Japanese population to decrease by twenty percent. He estimates that the population of Nigeria will increase by more than one hundred twenty percent by the middle of the century. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Pressure Rises on Scientific Publishers to Offer 'Open Access' / 2,400-Year-Old Gold Mask Found in Bulgaria / Gene Team Creates 'Marathon Mice'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 31, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: more pressure on publishers over the costs of scientific literature. VOICE ONE: An expert on Chinese history says Genghis Khan could read and write. VOICE TWO: Bulgarian scientists find an ancient gold mask fit for a king. VOICE ONE: And, science and sports meet with "marathon mice." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Prices for published research on science, medicine and other subjects have been rising. This has been a problem for many libraries, schools and individuals. In Britain, for example, the average price of an academic journal rose fifty-eight percent between nineteen ninety-eight and two thousand three. Recently, British and American lawmakers have proposed measures toward what is called open access publishing. Researchers would pay to have their studies published. They would also be permitted to keep the right to reprint their own work. And, if a government pays for a study, the findings would be free for the public to read on the Internet. In Washington, there are proposals from the House Appropriations Committee. The committee said the National Institutes of Health should provide free access to any research it finances. Such access would normally be provided six months after a study has been published in a journal. However, if a scientist used federal money to pay any publication costs, then the research would go on the Internet immediately. These proposals now go to the Senate. The Science and Technology Committee in the House of Commons made similar recommendations last month to the British government. VOICE TWO: Critics, however, say such changes would decrease the number of journals. They say scientific publications would not have enough money to stay in business. Crispin Davis heads the publishing company Reed Elsevier in Britain. Mister Davis notes that many publishing companies already offer free access to some materials. But he says this kind of literature currently makes up only about one percent of what is published. As a result, he says he does not believe the “scholar pays” business model will succeed. Critics also say research could be influenced by whoever pays to publish the work, such as drug companies. But supporters argue that open access publishing will help researchers in developing countries especially. If the proposals become law, supporters say more experts from around the world will be able to influence scientific discovery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. A Chinese history expert says he has found new evidence about Genghis Khan, the thirteenth century ruler of Mongolia. Tengus Bayaryn of Inner Mongolia University says the evidence shows that Genghis Khan could both read and write. Historians have widely believed that he could do neither. Genghis Khan was over forty years old before there was a written Mongolian language. The new evidence is a group of ancient documents. The professor says these include a letter apparently written by Genghis Khan in the year twelve nineteen. The message praises the writings of a Taoist religious leader. And it says the Mongolian ruler will read the writings personally. Professor Bayaryn says the letter was written in Mongolian and the use of the word "personally" clearly suggests that Genghis Khan could read. Genghis Khan unified Mongolian tribes to create a fighting force that controlled China and Central Asia. He became the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Later, he was declared Genghis Khan, or universal ruler. His territory reached from Asia to present day Europe. He died in twelve twenty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Bulgarian scientists have found a solid gold mask in the burial place of a Thracian king from two thousand four hundred years ago. Thrace was an ancient country on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. The research team found the mask near a village east of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. Georgi Kitov of the Institute of Archaeology and Museum in Sofia says it is the first Thracian mask of solid gold ever found. Professor Kitov says the mask weighs five hundred grams and shows a human face. He says the face may be that of King Seutus the third. VOICE ONE: The Thracians were a tribal people. They lived in parts of what is now Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Turkey and Greece. They lived at the same time as the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. The Thracians sometimes clashed with these other cultures. The Thracians disappeared as a people almost two thousand years ago. They had no written language. The researchers who found the gold mask also found a ring nearby. It shows a man rowing a boat in what appears to be an Olympic competition. Professor Kitov had suggested that the discovery should bring good luck to the Bulgarian rowers at the Athens Olympics. Maybe it did. Rowers Ivo Yanakiev and Rumyana Neykova both finished third in their individual events. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Olympics closed Sunday after the men’s marathon in Athens. Those athletes ran fast and far. Now imagine if those runners had the strength to go two times as far before getting tired. Scientists have reported progress toward creating such an athlete. But, this athlete would have trouble entering the Olympics. Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, led the research. He says his team of genetic scientists created mice that ran for one thousand eight hundred meters on treadmill machines. A group of normal mice ran only nine hundred meters and they stopped after about an hour. The so-called marathon mice kept going for thirty more minutes. VOICE ONE: The scientists made some genetic changes in the mice that involved a protein. The protein is called PPAR-delta. It helps control the burning of fat in the body; it acts as a switch. The scientists treated normal mice with an experimental drug. As a result, the so-called fat switch was always active in the skeletal muscles. The scientists found that the activated form increased the rate at which the body burns fat. The mice had a lot more of the muscle cells needed for long periods of exercise than normal mice. And Ronald Evans says the muscles also provided resistance to weight gain, even in mice that did not exercise. The scientists say the PPAR-delta protein is a possible target for drugs to treat diabetes and disorders that result from too much fat in the blood. They say the discovery could also lead to treatments for people who are obese, severely overweight. VOICE TWO: The Public Library of Science published the report in its free online journal PLoS Biology, at publiclibraryofscience -- one word -- dot o-r-g. There was also a separate report on a study at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Randall Johnson and his team say they increased energy levels in mice by removing a gene. That gene controls how skeletal muscles burn fat when there are changes in oxygen levels in the muscle tissue. Muscles in mammals normally burn fat through a process that uses oxygen. This process is called aerobic metabolism. But if oxygen levels get low, the muscles begin to burn fat without the use of oxygen. That is called anaerobic metabolism. It provides bursts of power but not long-term energy. The scientists say the genetic change prevented the mice from creating energy this way. As a result, the animals could run for a much longer period of time. They were also much better swimmers than normal mice. VOICE ONE: But there was a price to pay. After four days of tests, the genetically engineered mice had far more muscle damage than a group of normal mice. The scientists did not know why that happened. Still, they say their work should interest medical researchers seeking treatments for genetic disorders in people. But discoveries of ways to create super-athletic mice must surely also add to the worries of Olympic officials. The use of performance drugs that are difficult to test for is already a problem. Genetically engineered athletes may be next. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Big Harvests Expected for Major U.S. Crops; May Add to Pressure on Prices
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 31, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Late summer is when many farmers begin to know what size harvest to expect in the fall. And it appears that American farmers can expect several major crops to be at or near record levels this year. The Agriculture Department says corn production is expected to reach almost eleven thousand million bushels. Each bushel is a little more than thirty-five liters. The United States is the largest producer and exporter of maize. A harvest this big would be eight percent larger than last year’s levels, which set a record. It would also represent greater productivity. Farmers expect a record yield, or the amount produced per hectare. The soybean crop this year is expected to be the second largest ever recorded. It is expected to be nineteen percent larger than last year. The soybean yield is also expected to increase. Cotton farmers are also expected to have a good year with an eleven percent increase in their harvest. They are expected to produce twenty million bales of cotton. One bale weighs about two hundred twenty-seven kilograms. Big harvests may seem like good news for farmers. Experts credit good weather conditions and improved seed for higher farm production and yields. But there are the laws of supply and demand. If supply increases, unless demand also increases, prices can drop. And prices have been going down through the summer. In April, the price of corn futures reached their highest level in years. But since April, prices of corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade have fallen by about thirty percent. Futures are financial tools that generally do not involve the exchange of real goods, but they can affect prices. Farmers or investors use futures to protect against changes in the market. Prices for soybean futures have also dropped from highs in April. The United States Department of Agriculture says China may decrease its soybean imports. China is the world’s biggest importer of soybeans. At the same time, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay -- all big South American producers of soybeans -- have surpluses. Lower prices and too much supply may not help farmers. But they do help companies that buy from farmers. Lower prices can also increase exports. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-08/a-2004-08-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Women and Heart Disease
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 1, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Heart disease is the leading killer of Americans. But it kills more women than men. The American Heart Association says heart disease and other cardiovascular disorders kill about five hundred thousand women a year. That is more than the next seven causes of death combined. In general, women are less likely than men to survive heart attacks. One of the possible explanations has been that women are not treated as early or as aggressively for heart disease. Most heart disease research traditionally involved men. But experts are now discovering that heart disease may act differently in women. The Washington Post recently reported on these findings. Men often develop one main blockage in major arteries. Arteries carry blood away from the heart. Women also develop blockages in major arteries. But experts say women are more likely to have smaller buildups of plaque along the length of the artery. These smaller areas of fatty material can be easily missed. But expert say they can be just as dangerous as one big blockage. We talked to Doctor Noel Bairey Merz, a heart expert at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She says that unlike in men, heart disease in women is often found in the smaller arteries which are often overlooked. Another difference may involve artery spasms. A spasm briefly causes the artery to narrow. The inner lining, called the endothelium, presses against itself. Doctors have known that women are more likely to have such spasms. This problem can produce pain. But experts say that in severe cases, it can also produce a heart attack. Heart experts say cardiovascular disease is often preventable. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking and being overweight can all cause different forms of heart disease. But researchers say the lining of arteries may also weaken as levels of estrogen decrease in older women. That hormone helps process nitric oxide, which helps arteries work better. Researchers are developing ultrasound and other imaging methods to help discover heart disease earlier in women. Another issue is treatment. The researchers say common drugs and other methods may not work as well for many women as for men. Heart experts agree that much more research is needed. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. --- Did you know? Veins carry blood to the heart. But there are also passages called coronary arteries on the surface of the heart. These supply oxygen-rich blood to keep the heart muscle working. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Wonders of the World, Part 2: Natural Wonders
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second of three programs about beautiful and unusual places in our world. Last week, we told about structures built hundreds or thousands of years ago. Today we tell about some of the great natural Wonders of the World. We do not have time to visit all these places, but here are a few from several different countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We begin our program today high in the southeastern mountains of Venezuela. Water falls from a mountain called Auyan-tepui (au-YAN tay-PWEE) or Devil Mountain. The water falls from a height of nine hundred seventy-nine meters. It ends in an area called Devil’s Canyon. The water begins to fall in a tightly controlled stream. However it ends in a beautiful white cloud of water spray. This waterfall is the highest in the world. The local native people called it the Churun Meru. It is now called Angel Falls. An American pilot named Jimmy Angel saw the beautiful waterfall for the first time in the nineteen-thirties. He was flying alone in a small airplane looking for gold when he saw water falling from a great height. Some time later several friends said the waterfall should be named after Jimmy Angel. VOICE TWO: A small airplane is still the best way to enjoy this beautiful sight. You can also visit the area under the falls after a three-and-a-half-hour boat ride and a one-hour walk through the jungle. And you can see Jimmy Angel’s little airplane if you visit Venezuela. It is considered a national treasure. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From a waterfall in Venezuela, we travel to another mountain. This one is in Japan. It is one of the most photographed mountains in the world. It is Mount Fuji on the island of Honshu. The Japanese call it Fujisan and they say it with love and honor. Mount Fuji is a sleeping volcano about three thousand seven hundred meters high. It is the tallest mountain in Japan. Since ancient times, the Japanese people have considered it a holy mountain. It has also been the favorite subject of thousands of artists. Its picture has even appeared on Japanese money. VOICE TWO: Mount Fuji is an almost perfectly shaped volcano. A crown of white snow covers the top of the mountain most of the year. Mount Fuji seems to rise sharply out of the ground into the shape most recognized as a volcano. A large area is missing from the side of the mountain. This is a result of its most recent explosion in seventeen-oh-seven. But the missing part of the mountain does nothing to decrease its beauty. Mount Fuji is much easier to enjoy than Angel Falls in Venezuela. On a clear day people can see it from both the major cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. The easiest way to see the famous mountain is on a train from Tokyo to Osaka. Or you could climb the mountain to get an even better look. Thousands of people climb Fujisan each summer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next, we travel to the desert of the southwestern United States. In fifteen forty, Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was searching this desert area for gold. The desert area is almost flat, like a table. His exploration team had been traveling north from Mexico for several weeks. Suddenly one morning he and his group came to an area that stopped their exploration. They could not continue. In front of them was a huge hole cut in the ground. Most of this canyon was more than one thousand two hundred meters deep. It was more than three hundred kilometers long. This huge deep canyon extended as far as the explorers could see. It was very beautiful. The sunlight made deep shadows and seemed to change the shape of things every minute. The colors also changed with the movement of the sun and clouds. Often, some areas of the deep canyon appeared bright red. Other times they were a deep brown or purple. The exploration team tried for three days to reach the river far down in the canyon. They failed. They could also see no way to move around the huge canyon. A lack of supplies forced Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to return to Mexico. VOICE TWO: That beautiful deep canyon is the Grand Canyon. It is a National Park that includes an area of almost five hundred thousand hectares. It is one of the most studied natural areas in the world. The high canyon walls are a record of the past written in rock. Explorers have found fossils of ancient creatures near the bottom of the Grand Canyon. People can see many kinds of animals in or near the great canyon. These include large deer. They do not fear the people who come to visit the Grand Canyon. The canyon, its animals, plants and rocks are protected in this special place. VOICE ONE: The Colorado River is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The river took several million years to cut the deep canyon into the face of the Earth. It is still doing this today. Visitors today do not have a problem reaching the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the great Colorado River. Many people take long exciting trips in rubber boats on the river. Millions of people from around the world visit the Grand Canyon National Park each year. Many stay for less than a day. However, people leave with the memory of this beautiful natural wonder that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Next we travel across the Pacific Ocean. Our next natural Wonder of the World is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It extends more than two thousand kilometers along Australia’s northeast coast. It is the largest group of coral reefs in the world. A reef is a limestone formation that is usually under water or just above it. The coral that forms the reef is made of the hardened remains of dead sea animals called polyps. Thousands of millions of living coral polyps and plants are attached to the reef. The coral is many different colors. The water near the reef is usually clear and visitors can see far down into the ocean. This natural formation supports many different kinds of fish, sea turtles, crabs, giant clams, birds and other wild life. Millions of visitors from around the world come every year to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef. Many people visit in boats that have glass bottoms so they can see the fish and the colorful coral. Others swim among the fish using underwater breathing equipment. Swimming along the reef is fun. But it can also be dangerous. The huge great white shark is one of the creatures that swims near the reef. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the Great Barrier Reef is about thirty million years old. However, in recent years, people have caused problems for the reef. Some took coral from the reef. And boats dumped garbage or human waste. Now the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an agency of the Australian government. Visitors are told it is against the law to collect any of the limestone or coral or to damage the reef in any way. Laws prevent oil companies from drilling for oil anywhere near the reef. The Australian government has also worked to make sure nothing is placed in the ocean that would harm the great reef. Scientists are working to make sure that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef remains healthy and a true Wonder of the World for years to come. VOICE TWO: We would have liked to have enough time to tell about other great wonders of the world -- Victoria Falls, for example. This huge waterfall in southern Africa is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Another great waterfall brings visitors to the border area between the United States and Canada. They come to see the famous Niagara Falls. We also wanted to tell about the huge volcano that exploded near the Island of Krakatoa in Indonesia. And the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest in Nepal, should be on any list of natural Wonders of the World. It is easy to visit most of these great natural wonders if you have a computer. If your computer can link with the Internet system you too can enjoy these beautiful sights. Have fun exploring. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Jill Moss. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week when we bring you the third part of our Wonders of the World series on EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Broadcast: September 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we bring you the second of three programs about beautiful and unusual places in our world. Last week, we told about structures built hundreds or thousands of years ago. Today we tell about some of the great natural Wonders of the World. We do not have time to visit all these places, but here are a few from several different countries. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We begin our program today high in the southeastern mountains of Venezuela. Water falls from a mountain called Auyan-tepui (au-YAN tay-PWEE) or Devil Mountain. The water falls from a height of nine hundred seventy-nine meters. It ends in an area called Devil’s Canyon. The water begins to fall in a tightly controlled stream. However it ends in a beautiful white cloud of water spray. This waterfall is the highest in the world. The local native people called it the Churun Meru. It is now called Angel Falls. An American pilot named Jimmy Angel saw the beautiful waterfall for the first time in the nineteen-thirties. He was flying alone in a small airplane looking for gold when he saw water falling from a great height. Some time later several friends said the waterfall should be named after Jimmy Angel. VOICE TWO: A small airplane is still the best way to enjoy this beautiful sight. You can also visit the area under the falls after a three-and-a-half-hour boat ride and a one-hour walk through the jungle. And you can see Jimmy Angel’s little airplane if you visit Venezuela. It is considered a national treasure. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From a waterfall in Venezuela, we travel to another mountain. This one is in Japan. It is one of the most photographed mountains in the world. It is Mount Fuji on the island of Honshu. The Japanese call it Fujisan and they say it with love and honor. Mount Fuji is a sleeping volcano about three thousand seven hundred meters high. It is the tallest mountain in Japan. Since ancient times, the Japanese people have considered it a holy mountain. It has also been the favorite subject of thousands of artists. Its picture has even appeared on Japanese money. VOICE TWO: Mount Fuji is an almost perfectly shaped volcano. A crown of white snow covers the top of the mountain most of the year. Mount Fuji seems to rise sharply out of the ground into the shape most recognized as a volcano. A large area is missing from the side of the mountain. This is a result of its most recent explosion in seventeen-oh-seven. But the missing part of the mountain does nothing to decrease its beauty. Mount Fuji is much easier to enjoy than Angel Falls in Venezuela. On a clear day people can see it from both the major cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. The easiest way to see the famous mountain is on a train from Tokyo to Osaka. Or you could climb the mountain to get an even better look. Thousands of people climb Fujisan each summer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next, we travel to the desert of the southwestern United States. In fifteen forty, Spanish explorer Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was searching this desert area for gold. The desert area is almost flat, like a table. His exploration team had been traveling north from Mexico for several weeks. Suddenly one morning he and his group came to an area that stopped their exploration. They could not continue. In front of them was a huge hole cut in the ground. Most of this canyon was more than one thousand two hundred meters deep. It was more than three hundred kilometers long. This huge deep canyon extended as far as the explorers could see. It was very beautiful. The sunlight made deep shadows and seemed to change the shape of things every minute. The colors also changed with the movement of the sun and clouds. Often, some areas of the deep canyon appeared bright red. Other times they were a deep brown or purple. The exploration team tried for three days to reach the river far down in the canyon. They failed. They could also see no way to move around the huge canyon. A lack of supplies forced Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to return to Mexico. VOICE TWO: That beautiful deep canyon is the Grand Canyon. It is a National Park that includes an area of almost five hundred thousand hectares. It is one of the most studied natural areas in the world. The high canyon walls are a record of the past written in rock. Explorers have found fossils of ancient creatures near the bottom of the Grand Canyon. People can see many kinds of animals in or near the great canyon. These include large deer. They do not fear the people who come to visit the Grand Canyon. The canyon, its animals, plants and rocks are protected in this special place. VOICE ONE: The Colorado River is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The river took several million years to cut the deep canyon into the face of the Earth. It is still doing this today. Visitors today do not have a problem reaching the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the great Colorado River. Many people take long exciting trips in rubber boats on the river. Millions of people from around the world visit the Grand Canyon National Park each year. Many stay for less than a day. However, people leave with the memory of this beautiful natural wonder that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Next we travel across the Pacific Ocean. Our next natural Wonder of the World is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It extends more than two thousand kilometers along Australia’s northeast coast. It is the largest group of coral reefs in the world. A reef is a limestone formation that is usually under water or just above it. The coral that forms the reef is made of the hardened remains of dead sea animals called polyps. Thousands of millions of living coral polyps and plants are attached to the reef. The coral is many different colors. The water near the reef is usually clear and visitors can see far down into the ocean. This natural formation supports many different kinds of fish, sea turtles, crabs, giant clams, birds and other wild life. Millions of visitors from around the world come every year to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef. Many people visit in boats that have glass bottoms so they can see the fish and the colorful coral. Others swim among the fish using underwater breathing equipment. Swimming along the reef is fun. But it can also be dangerous. The huge great white shark is one of the creatures that swims near the reef. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the Great Barrier Reef is about thirty million years old. However, in recent years, people have caused problems for the reef. Some took coral from the reef. And boats dumped garbage or human waste. Now the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an agency of the Australian government. Visitors are told it is against the law to collect any of the limestone or coral or to damage the reef in any way. Laws prevent oil companies from drilling for oil anywhere near the reef. The Australian government has also worked to make sure nothing is placed in the ocean that would harm the great reef. Scientists are working to make sure that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef remains healthy and a true Wonder of the World for years to come. VOICE TWO: We would have liked to have enough time to tell about other great wonders of the world -- Victoria Falls, for example. This huge waterfall in southern Africa is on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Another great waterfall brings visitors to the border area between the United States and Canada. They come to see the famous Niagara Falls. We also wanted to tell about the huge volcano that exploded near the Island of Krakatoa in Indonesia. And the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest in Nepal, should be on any list of natural Wonders of the World. It is easy to visit most of these great natural wonders if you have a computer. If your computer can link with the Internet system you too can enjoy these beautiful sights. Have fun exploring. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Jill Moss. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week when we bring you the third part of our Wonders of the World series on EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #78- 1850 Compromise, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 2, 2004 (MUSIC) Vice President John C. Calhoun Broadcast: September 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) During the first half of the eighteen-hundreds, the question of slavery in the United States remained a problem. The nation's leaders found no way to settle the issue. After the war with Mexico in eighteen-hundred-forty-nine, when the United States got California and New Mexico, the dispute over slavery became more threatening. Senator Henry Clay</b< VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) During the first half of the eighteen-hundreds, the question of slavery in the United States remained a problem. The nation's leaders found no way to settle the issue. After the war with Mexico in eighteen-hundred-forty-nine, when the United States got California and New Mexico, the dispute over slavery became more threatening. The north refused to permit slavery in these new territories. The south declared that it had a constitutional right to bring slaves into the new lands. The south was ready to secede -- leave and break up the Union of States. Then, in eighteen-hundred-fifty, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky offered a compromise to save the nation from a split, and probably a war between the north and the south. He attacked the south's claim that it had the right to leave the Union. He said the Union of States was permanent, created for all future Americans. He warned that the war which would follow southern secession would be long and bloody. VOICE TWO: Extremists on both sides opposed Clay's compromise proposals. So did President Taylor. The president had hoped that Webster, Clay, and other Whig Party leaders would support his own limited plan of statehood for California. The president's feelings were hurt when none of the party leaders thought that his idea was important. The president's chief adviser, Senator Seward of New York, was also against Clay's proposals. Seward strongly opposed slavery and did not believe it was right to compromise on it. One week after Clay spoke, Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi explained his position. He did not say much about Clay's proposed compromise. Davis was sure that no good would result from it, not even from stronger laws on the return of escaped slaves. He said these laws would not be enforced in states where people opposed slavery. VOICE ONE: Senator Davis said that what was needed was a change in the north's policy toward the south. He said the north must recognize the rights of southerners, especially the right to take slave property into territories of the United States. Davis said Congress had no right to destroy or limit this right. He admitted that the old Missouri compromise of eighteen-hundred-twenty had limited the right to take slaves into the territories. He said the eighteen-hundred-twenty compromise worked -- not because Congress passed it -- but because the states agreed to it. Senator Davis said the north was responsible for the growing split, because the north was trying to get complete control of the south. He said if these efforts were not stopped, the north some day would be powerful enough to change the constitution and end slavery everywhere. Davis warned that the south would never accept this. VOICE TWO: Three weeks later, the Senate heard another southern leader, Senator John C. Calhoun. For years, Calhoun was the voice of the south. He now was sixty-eight years old and a sick man. He would die within a month. Calhoun had been too ill to hear Clay's speech. He spent the last week in February writing what he believed to be the true position of the south. On Sunday, March third, it was announced that Calhoun would speak in the Senate the next day. Most understood that it would be his last speech. The Senate was crowded when Calhoun entered. One by one, friends came up to speak to him. The old man's long, gray hair fell to his shoulders. His face was thin and white. But his eyes were bright and his jaw firm. Calhoun was too weak to read his speech. He asked Senator Mason to read it for him. VOICE ONE: Calhoun said that for a long time he had believed that the dispute over slavery -- if not settled -- would end in disunion. Calhoun said it was clear now to everyone that the Union was breaking apart...that the ties that had held the north and south together were breaking, one by one. Three churches, once united across the nation, now were split between north and south. The two major political parties, he declared, were divided in the same way. Calhoun said the north was responsible for all this, because it had destroyed the political balance between the two parts of the country. As the population of the north had grown large, he noted, that part of the country had seized political and economic control. The north had passed tariff bills that the south opposed. It had filled most of the offices in the federal government. It closed the new territories to southern slaveholders. And, said Calhoun, it had viciously attacked the southern institution of slavery. VOICE TWO: The situation was so bad, Calhoun said, that the south could not -- with honor and safety -- remain in the Union. "How can the Union be saved?" he asked. "Not by the compromise proposed by the senator from Kentucky. There is but one way. A full and final settlement, with justice, of all the questions disputed by the two sections. "The south asks for justice, simple justice, and less she ought not to take. She has no compromise to offer but the constitution, and no concession or surrender to make. She has already surrendered so much that she has little left to surrender." Then Calhoun listed the things the north must do to satisfy the south. He said it must give the south an equal right in the new territories of the west. It must make people obey the laws on the return of runaway slaves. It must agree to an amendment to the constitution that would return political balance to north and south. And it must stop the attacks against slavery. If all these things were not done, Calhoun said, then it would be better to separate, to part in peace. But if the north refused a peaceful separation, then the south would be faced with the choice of surrender or fight. "The south will know what to do," said Calhoun. VOICE ONE: When calhoun finished his speech to the Senate, southern lawmakers crowded around the old man, congratulating him. But many of them could not agree with his extreme demands and the violence of his words. His appeal was too late. Most southerners believed that clay's proposals were a reasonable way to settle the difference and protect the union. Clay was worried that his compromise might be defeated by northern votes. Many in the north felt slavery was wrong. They opposed the compromise, because it might permit slavery in the New Mexico territory, and because it called for stronger laws on the return of slaves who had escaped to the north. VOICE TWO: Eight days before he first proposed the compromise, Clay visited Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. A friend of Webster's described the meeting in these words: "Mr. Clay came to Mr. Webster's house and had a long talk with him about the best way to settle the difficulties growing out of slavery and the new territories. I heard part of their conversation." "Mr. Clay left after about an hour. Mr. Webster called me to his side and spoke to me of Mr. Clay in words of great kindness. He said he agreed generally with Mr. Clay, that he thought Mr. Clay's purpose was great and highly patriotic." "He said Mr. Clay seemed to be very weak and had a very bad cough, that he was sure Mr. Clay wanted to do something for the good of his country during the little time he had left on Earth. Mr. webster said further that he thought Mr. Clay's plan was one that should be satisfactory to the north and to the reasonable men of the south. He said he believed that he could support all of it and would work for its approval in the Senate." VOICE ONE: Webster planned to speak in support of Clay's proposal. But he would wait until the best time for declaring it. He decided to make it on March seventh, just three days after Calhoun's speech was read to the Senate. Webster was sixty-eight years old, as old as Calhoun. His voice was weaker now. But his words rang with the same strength as years earlier. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were lew rowland and jack moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard thursdays. The north refused to permit slavery in these new territories. The south declared that it had a constitutional right to bring slaves into the new lands. The south was ready to secede -- leave and break up the Union of States. Then, in eighteen-hundred-fifty, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky offered a compromise to save the nation from a split, and probably a war between the north and the south. He attacked the south's claim that it had the right to leave the Union. He said the Union of States was permanent, created for all future Americans. He warned that the war which would follow southern secession would be long and bloody. VOICE TWO: Extremists on both sides opposed Clay's compromise proposals. So did President Taylor. The president had hoped that Webster, Clay, and other Whig Party leaders would support his own limited plan of statehood for California. The president's feelings were hurt when none of the party leaders thought that his idea was important. The president's chief adviser, Senator Seward of New York, was also against Clay's proposals. Seward strongly opposed slavery and did not believe it was right to compromise on it. One week after Clay spoke, Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi explained his position. He did not say much about Clay's proposed compromise. Davis was sure that no good would result from it, not even from stronger laws on the return of escaped slaves. He said these laws would not be enforced in states where people opposed slavery. VOICE ONE: Senator Davis said that what was needed was a change in the north's policy toward the south. He said the north must recognize the rights of southerners, especially the right to take slave property into territories of the United States. Davis said Congress had no right to destroy or limit this right. He admitted that the old Missouri compromise of eighteen-hundred-twenty had limited the right to take slaves into the territories. He said the eighteen-hundred-twenty compromise worked -- not because Congress passed it -- but because the states agreed to it. Senator Davis said the north was responsible for the growing split, because the north was trying to get complete control of the south. He said if these efforts were not stopped, the north some day would be powerful enough to change the constitution and end slavery everywhere. Davis warned that the south would never accept this. VOICE TWO: Three weeks later, the Senate heard another southern leader, Senator John C. Calhoun. For years, Calhoun was the voice of the south. He now was sixty-eight years old and a sick man. He would die within a month. Calhoun had been too ill to hear Clay's speech. He spent the last week in February writing what he believed to be the true position of the south. On Sunday, March third, it was announced that Calhoun would speak in the Senate the next day. Most understood that it would be his last speech. The Senate was crowded when Calhoun entered. One by one, friends came up to speak to him. The old man's long, gray hair fell to his shoulders. His face was thin and white. But his eyes were bright and his jaw firm. Calhoun was too weak to read his speech. He asked Senator Mason to read it for him. VOICE ONE: Calhoun said that for a long time he had believed that the dispute over slavery -- if not settled -- would end in disunion. Calhoun said it was clear now to everyone that the Union was breaking apart...that the ties that had held the north and south together were breaking, one by one. Three churches, once united across the nation, now were split between north and south. The two major political parties, he declared, were divided in the same way. Calhoun said the north was responsible for all this, because it had destroyed the political balance between the two parts of the country. As the population of the north had grown large, he noted, that part of the country had seized political and economic control. The north had passed tariff bills that the south opposed. It had filled most of the offices in the federal government. It closed the new territories to southern slaveholders. And, said Calhoun, it had viciously attacked the southern institution of slavery. VOICE TWO: The situation was so bad, Calhoun said, that the south could not -- with honor and safety -- remain in the Union. "How can the Union be saved?" he asked. "Not by the compromise proposed by the senator from Kentucky. There is but one way. A full and final settlement, with justice, of all the questions disputed by the two sections. "The south asks for justice, simple justice, and less she ought not to take. She has no compromise to offer but the constitution, and no concession or surrender to make. She has already surrendered so much that she has little left to surrender." Then Calhoun listed the things the north must do to satisfy the south. He said it must give the south an equal right in the new territories of the west. It must make people obey the laws on the return of runaway slaves. It must agree to an amendment to the constitution that would return political balance to north and south. And it must stop the attacks against slavery. If all these things were not done, Calhoun said, then it would be better to separate, to part in peace. But if the north refused a peaceful separation, then the south would be faced with the choice of surrender or fight. "The south will know what to do," said Calhoun. VOICE ONE: When calhoun finished his speech to the Senate, southern lawmakers crowded around the old man, congratulating him. But many of them could not agree with his extreme demands and the violence of his words. His appeal was too late. Most southerners believed that clay's proposals were a reasonable way to settle the difference and protect the union. Clay was worried that his compromise might be defeated by northern votes. Many in the north felt slavery was wrong. They opposed the compromise, because it might permit slavery in the New Mexico territory, and because it called for stronger laws on the return of slaves who had escaped to the north. VOICE TWO: Eight days before he first proposed the compromise, Clay visited Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. A friend of Webster's described the meeting in these words: "Mr. Clay came to Mr. Webster's house and had a long talk with him about the best way to settle the difficulties growing out of slavery and the new territories. I heard part of their conversation." "Mr. Clay left after about an hour. Mr. Webster called me to his side and spoke to me of Mr. Clay in words of great kindness. He said he agreed generally with Mr. Clay, that he thought Mr. Clay's purpose was great and highly patriotic." "He said Mr. Clay seemed to be very weak and had a very bad cough, that he was sure Mr. Clay wanted to do something for the good of his country during the little time he had left on Earth. Mr. webster said further that he thought Mr. Clay's plan was one that should be satisfactory to the north and to the reasonable men of the south. He said he believed that he could support all of it and would work for its approval in the Senate." VOICE ONE: Webster planned to speak in support of Clay's proposal. But he would wait until the best time for declaring it. He decided to make it on March seventh, just three days after Calhoun's speech was read to the Senate. Webster was sixty-eight years old, as old as Calhoun. His voice was weaker now. But his words rang with the same strength as years earlier. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were lew rowland and jack moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT- Foreign Student Series, #1: Introduction
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 2, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, we begin a series of reports about how students in other countries can attend colleges and universities in the United States. The last time we broadcast our Foreign Student Series was two years ago. Since then we have gotten more requests for information about how to attend American schools. So we will offer new reports in our series with the most current information. Each week, we will discuss a part of the process of becoming an international student in the United States. Each report will also appear on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com. Currently you can find the programs from the last time our series aired. Foreign students who want to study in the United States have many questions. How do I find out about American colleges? How do I choose the right one for me? What tests must I take? What kinds of documents will I need? How much will it cost? We will answer these and other questions in our reports. We will discuss the American system of higher education. We will tell about financial aid and rules about working in jobs while a student. We will discuss required tests and explain English language requirements. And we will tell where to find help in other countries. Our reports will also describe a few of the three-thousand colleges and universities in the United States. We will discuss programs of study as well as living situations at American schools. For students without the ability to come to the United States, we will tell how to take classes by computer. We will also examine how the threat of terrorism has changed some of the rules for study in the United States. In researching our series, we talked not only to officials in education and government, but also to some foreign students. Most students say planning ahead helped make their educational experience successful. That is the purpose of this series — to help you plan. We would like to hear from anyone who has a question about studying in the United States. We will try to answer as many questions as possible as part of our series in the coming weeks. Send your questions to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: September 2, 2004 - Wordcount.org
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 2, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: counting words. RS: If you wanted to show people the 88,000 most common words in English, how would you do it? Jonathan Harris thought of a sentence -- or something that looks like one. He works on interactive art projects. He laid out the words in a straight line, from the most frequently used to the least frequently used. AA: This is all on a Web site, so you keep clicking to the right to read the words on the screen. Or you can look up specific words to see their ranking. There's also a visual trick that displays the words as a graph. The most common are in really big type; the least common are in really small type. RS: Jonathan Harris is an artist in the field of "information visualization." What he created is wordcount-dot-org. JONATHAN HARRIS: "The experience I was trying to create for the user was like an archeologist sort of sifting through sand. And you never really get a look at the whole language at any one time. You really have to zero in one specific part and explore there. And in this sense you can really spend hours just killing time on this and playing around." RS: "You say it's like one very long sentence, but is there anything connecting these words?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "That's what's really interesting, and this is the one aspect of WordCount that people have really gravitated toward, as I've found. Because the data is essentially random -- I mean, it's not random, but the fact that a given word is next to another word is only based on how often those words appear in normal English usage. But when you have 88,000 words placed back to back, chances are pretty good that a few of those sequences are going to form some pretty conspiratorial meanings. "Every morning I sort of come into work and I check my e-mail and I have a pile of e-mails waiting for me from people all around the globe that have found interesting sequences in WordCount. Some of my favorites are words 992 to 995 are 'American ensure oil opportunity.' Then 4304 to 4307 is 'Microsoft acquire salary tremendous.'" AA: "I like this one, 5283 to 5285, which is 'angel seeks supper.'" JONATHAN HARRIS: "Exactly. I found that a lot of people suggest that this be used as a good device for people trying to come up with a name for their band." RS: "How is it determined, the frequency of any given word?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "The frequency is data that is not generated by me. The frequency data was all coming from this source data that I used, which is the British National Corpus and that's a collection of written and spoken English words that were collected over a few years, I think back in the mid-1990s, by this group in England. It's a little bit dated; I've found one word that people are often surprised does not appear at all in the archive is blog. So clearly the phenomenon of Web logging came up after this data was collected." AA: "So now you describe this basically as an 88,000-word-long sentence, starting with the word 'the,' the most frequently used word in the English language. What's at the other end?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "The other end is surprising, and this is a big point of contention for a lot of people that actually find what the last word is. But the last word, surprisingly or not, is conquistador. And if you look through the list and you spend some time with it, you'll find that there are many words much, much further in front of conquistador that you've never even heard of. So clearly there seems to be some errata in their data." AA: "So conquistador, as in a Spanish conqueror?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "Some other interesting sort of comparative rankings: war is 304 and peace is 1,155. Love beats hate, Coke beats Pepsi and love beats sex by over 1,000." AA: "Now this is according to British usage from a few years ago, right?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "That's right, so maybe this has all changed since then. WordCount went online about five months ago, and almost nobody saw it for about four months. And then back at the beginning of July a friend of mine posted it on his blog and within about a day or two days, the site was getting about 20,000 unique visitors a day. "And I was getting e-mails from all over the world, mainly people taking issue with some of the apparent disparities in the data, how some seemingly obscure words were being placed ahead of seemingly more common ones, but other people that were just sort of touched by how fun it was. And people, you know, found these little comparisons entertaining, like the Coke and Pepsi, and the love and the hate, and the war and the peace. Things like this." RS: Jonathan Harris, talking to us from Fabrica, a creative think tank for young artists where he has a year-long fellowship. It’s located near Venice, Italy, and it's where he developed wordcount dot o-r-g. AA: And that's all for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 2, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: counting words. RS: If you wanted to show people the 88,000 most common words in English, how would you do it? Jonathan Harris thought of a sentence -- or something that looks like one. He works on interactive art projects. He laid out the words in a straight line, from the most frequently used to the least frequently used. AA: This is all on a Web site, so you keep clicking to the right to read the words on the screen. Or you can look up specific words to see their ranking. There's also a visual trick that displays the words as a graph. The most common are in really big type; the least common are in really small type. RS: Jonathan Harris is an artist in the field of "information visualization." What he created is wordcount-dot-org. JONATHAN HARRIS: "The experience I was trying to create for the user was like an archeologist sort of sifting through sand. And you never really get a look at the whole language at any one time. You really have to zero in one specific part and explore there. And in this sense you can really spend hours just killing time on this and playing around." RS: "You say it's like one very long sentence, but is there anything connecting these words?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "That's what's really interesting, and this is the one aspect of WordCount that people have really gravitated toward, as I've found. Because the data is essentially random -- I mean, it's not random, but the fact that a given word is next to another word is only based on how often those words appear in normal English usage. But when you have 88,000 words placed back to back, chances are pretty good that a few of those sequences are going to form some pretty conspiratorial meanings. "Every morning I sort of come into work and I check my e-mail and I have a pile of e-mails waiting for me from people all around the globe that have found interesting sequences in WordCount. Some of my favorites are words 992 to 995 are 'American ensure oil opportunity.' Then 4304 to 4307 is 'Microsoft acquire salary tremendous.'" AA: "I like this one, 5283 to 5285, which is 'angel seeks supper.'" JONATHAN HARRIS: "Exactly. I found that a lot of people suggest that this be used as a good device for people trying to come up with a name for their band." RS: "How is it determined, the frequency of any given word?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "The frequency is data that is not generated by me. The frequency data was all coming from this source data that I used, which is the British National Corpus and that's a collection of written and spoken English words that were collected over a few years, I think back in the mid-1990s, by this group in England. It's a little bit dated; I've found one word that people are often surprised does not appear at all in the archive is blog. So clearly the phenomenon of Web logging came up after this data was collected." AA: "So now you describe this basically as an 88,000-word-long sentence, starting with the word 'the,' the most frequently used word in the English language. What's at the other end?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "The other end is surprising, and this is a big point of contention for a lot of people that actually find what the last word is. But the last word, surprisingly or not, is conquistador. And if you look through the list and you spend some time with it, you'll find that there are many words much, much further in front of conquistador that you've never even heard of. So clearly there seems to be some errata in their data." AA: "So conquistador, as in a Spanish conqueror?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "Some other interesting sort of comparative rankings: war is 304 and peace is 1,155. Love beats hate, Coke beats Pepsi and love beats sex by over 1,000." AA: "Now this is according to British usage from a few years ago, right?" JONATHAN HARRIS: "That's right, so maybe this has all changed since then. WordCount went online about five months ago, and almost nobody saw it for about four months. And then back at the beginning of July a friend of mine posted it on his blog and within about a day or two days, the site was getting about 20,000 unique visitors a day. "And I was getting e-mails from all over the world, mainly people taking issue with some of the apparent disparities in the data, how some seemingly obscure words were being placed ahead of seemingly more common ones, but other people that were just sort of touched by how fun it was. And people, you know, found these little comparisons entertaining, like the Coke and Pepsi, and the love and the hate, and the war and the peace. Things like this." RS: Jonathan Harris, talking to us from Fabrica, a creative think tank for young artists where he has a year-long fellowship. It’s located near Venice, Italy, and it's where he developed wordcount dot o-r-g. AA: And that's all for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Usher's 'Confesions' / Why September for U.S. Labor Day? / New Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 3, 2004 BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: September 3, 2004 BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week: Music from Usher, and a question from a listener about Labor Day in the United States. But first, a report about a writer who has at least a year of work ahead of him as America's new poet laureate. New Poet Laureate Each year, the Library of Congress chooses a national poet -- the poet laureate of the United States. Ted Kooser will become the country’s thirteenth poet laureate in October. He will replace Louise Gluck who served one term. Faith Lapidus tells us about the new poet laureate. FAITH LAPIDUS: Librarian of Congress James Billington calls Ted Kooser a major poetic voice for small town America. Mister Kooser is the first poet laureate from the Great Plains, in the middle of the country. Farmers of European ancestry were growing crops on this huge area of grasslands by the late eighteen hundreds. Ted Kooser was born in Iowa in nineteen thirty-nine. Today, the sixty-five-year-old poet is retired from the insurance business. He lives on a farm in Nebraska. He is a visiting English professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. As the new poet laureate, Mister Kooser will give a speech and read from his poetry in October. He will also help decide which poets read their works at the Library of Congress in the coming year. And he will help organize other poetry events. Ted Kooser says he has spent his life trying to write the kind of poetry that people can easily understand. He says he has some ideas about how to increase public interest in poetry, but he is keeping them to himself for now. Ted Kooser has written ten books of poetry. His most recent collection was published this year. It is called “Delights and Shadows.” Here is a poem from that book. Gwen Outen reads “At the Cancer Clinic.” GWEN OUTEN: She is being helped toward the open door that leads to the examining rooms by two young women I take to be her sisters. Each bends to the weight of an arm and steps with the straight, tough bearing of courage. At what must seem to be a great distance, a nurse holds the door, smiling and calling encouragement. How patient she is in the crisp white sails of her clothes. The sick woman peers from under her funny knit cap to watch each foot swing scuffing forward And take its turn under her weight. There is no restlessness or impatience or anger anywhere in sight. Grace fills the clean mold of this moment and all the shuffling magazines grow still. Labor Day BOB DOUGHTY: Our VOA listener question this week comes from the Kano State, Nigeria. Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim asks why the United States observes Labor Day in September and not in May. Since ancient times, May first has been a traditional day to celebrate spring. In modern times, May Day also became a traditional day for countries to honor workers. In eighteen eighty-nine, Socialists held an international congress in Paris. They chose May first as a workers holiday and a day for demonstrations. Since then, the first of May has been observed as International Labor Day. The United States, however, had already settled on another day. Peter McGuire was a New York labor leader. He is said to have suggested the first Monday in September as a holiday to honor labor. He said it was a nice time of the year for a celebration. He suggested parades to show the strength of labor organizations. And he urged people to end the day with outdoor parties. The first Labor Day celebration in the United States took place in New York City on September fifth, eighteen eighty-two. About ten thousand workers marched through the streets. Then everyone went to a park to eat a meal and hear speeches and music. The idea quickly spread throughout the country. In eighteen ninety-four, Congress approved a bill to declare Labor Day a national holiday. For years, the first Monday in September was a day when American workers demonstrated for better conditions and pay. Today, the Labor Day weekend is mostly observed as a time to enjoy the last warm days of summer. Listen Sunday at this time for PEOPLE IN AMERICA, and learn about five important labor leaders in the nation's history. Usher He began singing in church at age six. He was discovered by a record company at seventeen. This singer is twenty-five now, and popular enough that people know him by one name: Usher. And this week, Usher won two MTV awards, for best male video and best dance video, for his song "Yeah!" Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: His full name is Usher Raymond. His most recent album sold more than one million copies in its first week of release earlier this year. The album is called “Confessions.” The first big hit was "Yeah!" (MUSIC) “Confessions” is the fourth album by Usher. It has sold more than five million copies. It is the top selling album in the country so far this year. Another hit single from the album describes the feelings at the end of a relationship. This song, partly written by Usher, is called “Burn.” (MUSIC) Usher is now performing around the country.We leave you with the third hit from "Confessions." This one is called “Confessions, Part 2.” (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: This is Bob Doughty. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week: Music from Usher, and a question from a listener about Labor Day in the United States. But first, a report about a writer who has at least a year of work ahead of him as America's new poet laureate. New Poet Laureate Each year, the Library of Congress chooses a national poet -- the poet laureate of the United States. Ted Kooser will become the country’s thirteenth poet laureate in October. He will replace Louise Gluck who served one term. Faith Lapidus tells us about the new poet laureate. FAITH LAPIDUS: Librarian of Congress James Billington calls Ted Kooser a major poetic voice for small town America. Mister Kooser is the first poet laureate from the Great Plains, in the middle of the country. Farmers of European ancestry were growing crops on this huge area of grasslands by the late eighteen hundreds. Ted Kooser was born in Iowa in nineteen thirty-nine. Today, the sixty-five-year-old poet is retired from the insurance business. He lives on a farm in Nebraska. He is a visiting English professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. As the new poet laureate, Mister Kooser will give a speech and read from his poetry in October. He will also help decide which poets read their works at the Library of Congress in the coming year. And he will help organize other poetry events. Ted Kooser says he has spent his life trying to write the kind of poetry that people can easily understand. He says he has some ideas about how to increase public interest in poetry, but he is keeping them to himself for now. Ted Kooser has written ten books of poetry. His most recent collection was published this year. It is called “Delights and Shadows.” Here is a poem from that book. Gwen Outen reads “At the Cancer Clinic.” GWEN OUTEN: She is being helped toward the open door that leads to the examining rooms by two young women I take to be her sisters. Each bends to the weight of an arm and steps with the straight, tough bearing of courage. At what must seem to be a great distance, a nurse holds the door, smiling and calling encouragement. How patient she is in the crisp white sails of her clothes. The sick woman peers from under her funny knit cap to watch each foot swing scuffing forward And take its turn under her weight. There is no restlessness or impatience or anger anywhere in sight. Grace fills the clean mold of this moment and all the shuffling magazines grow still. Labor Day BOB DOUGHTY: Our VOA listener question this week comes from the Kano State, Nigeria. Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim asks why the United States observes Labor Day in September and not in May. Since ancient times, May first has been a traditional day to celebrate spring. In modern times, May Day also became a traditional day for countries to honor workers. In eighteen eighty-nine, Socialists held an international congress in Paris. They chose May first as a workers holiday and a day for demonstrations. Since then, the first of May has been observed as International Labor Day. The United States, however, had already settled on another day. Peter McGuire was a New York labor leader. He is said to have suggested the first Monday in September as a holiday to honor labor. He said it was a nice time of the year for a celebration. He suggested parades to show the strength of labor organizations. And he urged people to end the day with outdoor parties. The first Labor Day celebration in the United States took place in New York City on September fifth, eighteen eighty-two. About ten thousand workers marched through the streets. Then everyone went to a park to eat a meal and hear speeches and music. The idea quickly spread throughout the country. In eighteen ninety-four, Congress approved a bill to declare Labor Day a national holiday. For years, the first Monday in September was a day when American workers demonstrated for better conditions and pay. Today, the Labor Day weekend is mostly observed as a time to enjoy the last warm days of summer. Listen Sunday at this time for PEOPLE IN AMERICA, and learn about five important labor leaders in the nation's history. Usher He began singing in church at age six. He was discovered by a record company at seventeen. This singer is twenty-five now, and popular enough that people know him by one name: Usher. And this week, Usher won two MTV awards, for best male video and best dance video, for his song "Yeah!" Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: His full name is Usher Raymond. His most recent album sold more than one million copies in its first week of release earlier this year. The album is called “Confessions.” The first big hit was "Yeah!" (MUSIC) “Confessions” is the fourth album by Usher. It has sold more than five million copies. It is the top selling album in the country so far this year. Another hit single from the album describes the feelings at the end of a relationship. This song, partly written by Usher, is called “Burn.” (MUSIC) Usher is now performing around the country.We leave you with the third hit from "Confessions." This one is called “Confessions, Part 2.” (MUSIC) BOB DOUGHTY: This is Bob Doughty. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Please include your name and postal address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Back-to-School Time Spells S-h-o-p-p-i-n-g
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 3, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Most children in the United States are returning to school after the summer holiday. Public education for children in the United States is free. But parents still have to buy equipment, new clothes and other supplies for their children before every new school year. The National Retail Federation studies such sales each year. It is an organization of many kinds of stores, as well as companies that sell goods by mail order and the Internet. The group recently released a report on back-to-school sales this year. The report says American parents will spend almost fifteen thousand million dollars this year to prepare their children for school. A research business carried out the study for the National Retail Federation. It asked more than eight thousand Americans about their back-to-school needs and shopping and spending plans. The study found that ninety-three percent of families with school-age children plan to purchase clothes, shoes and school supplies. Families will spend an average of almost five-hundred dollars on those things. This is an increase of more than seven percent from last year. Almost half of those questioned also said they planned to spend about one hundred dollars on electronics and computer-related products. The National Retail Federation says that would be a fifteen percent increase from last year. The group says most families have enough money to buy electronic and computer equipment for their children. It says this helps parents continue their children’s education at home. Half of the parents in the study said their children would be using their own money to buy some things for school. Teenaged children are expected to spend about eighty five dollars each for supplies. And, twenty-three percent of parents said even their younger children will buy some things for themselves. To help shoppers save money, several cities permit people to buy some goods without paying sales tax. Washington, D.C., is one such city. It observed a ten-day sales tax holiday in August. During this period, people could buy clothing, shoes or school supplies that cost less than one-hundred dollars without having to pay sales tax. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - President Bush Nominated for Second Term
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 4, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. Republicans nominated George W. Bush this week for a second term as president. The election is November second. Mister Bush says he is running for president with a clear plan "to build a safer world and a more hopeful America." He accepted the nomination Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in New York City. Vice President Dick Cheney accepted his nomination the night before. Mister Bush said that he is a “compassionate conservative.” He says he believes "government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives." In his speech, Mister Bush also criticized the Democratic candidates for president and vice president, Senators John Kerry and John Edwards. He said they want to increase taxes and federal spending, yet they voted against money to support American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senator Kerry has said in the past that he did not want to increase the federal deficit. He wanted Congress to end the president's tax cuts and use the additional tax money instead. Shortly after the president spoke, Senator Kerry made a statement. He said: "I will not have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have, and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq." The senator spoke at an appearance in Ohio, one of the states where the race is especially close. One of the major issues in this campaign is national security. Mister Bush said: "We are staying on the offensive -- striking terrorists abroad -- so we do not have to face them here at home. And we will prevail." The Republican convention took place six kilometers from where two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center on September eleventh, two thousand one. "The freedom of many, and the future security of our nation, now depend on us," the president said. Mister Bush also told Americans that the economy is growing again and creating jobs because of his tax cuts. But he said many systems "were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow." If re-elected, he promised to lead an effort to simplify tax laws. He also promised changes in the systems of health coverage, retirement plans and worker training. He said these changes would permit citizens to make their own choices and seek their own dreams. Thousands of protesters held a week of demonstrations in New York City against the Iraq war and other administration policies. Police arrested almost one thousand eight hundred people. All the prisoners were supposed to be freed before the president's speech. A judge threatened to punish the city by making it pay a fine when some of the protesters were still in jail. After the convention, Mister Bush traveled Friday and Saturday to campaign in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Avi Arditti. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Five Labor Leaders in History
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 5, 2005 (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 5, 2005 (MUSIC) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American laborers often worked long hours for little pay. Many worked under extremely dangerous conditions. About five-hundred-thousand workers, however, had joined groups called labor unions, hoping to improve their situation. Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about five labor leaders who worked to improve conditions for American workers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Hundred, the largest national organization of labor unions was the American Federation of Labor. Its head was Samuel Gompers. Gompers had moved to New York with his parents when he was thirteen years old. He was twenty-four when he began working for the local union of cigar makers. He worked for the labor movement for sixty years. VOICE TWO: Samuel Gompers had helped create the A-F-L in the late Eighteen-Eighties. He led the organization for all but one year until his death in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. Gompers defined the purpose of the labor movement in America. He also established the method used to solve labor disputes. Gompers thought unions should work only to increase wages, improve work conditions and stop unfair treatment of workers. He called his method pure and simple unionism. Samuel Gompers sought immediate change for workers. He used group actions such as strikes as a way to try to force company owners to negotiate. VOICE ONE: Gompers was criticized for going to social events with industry leaders, and for compromising too easily with employers. But Gompers believed such actions helped his main goal. He believed if workers were respected their employers would want to make working conditions better. Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the labor movement won its first small gains. For example, the federal government recognized the right of workers to organize. That happened when union representatives were part of the National War Labor Board during World War One. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John L. Lewis expanded the American labor movement with a campaign he called organizing the unorganized.Lewis was the head of the United Mine Workers of America. He also was the vice-president of the A-F-L. In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the A-F-L. He wanted the C-I-O to organize workers in mass production industries, such as automobile industry. The A-F-L mainly organized unions of workers who had the same skills. But Lewis believed skilled and unskilled workers in the same industry should be organized into the same union. Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. It gave workers the legal right to join unions and to negotiate with employers. John L. Lewis thought it was the right time to press the large industries to recognize workers’ rights. The A-F-L, however, decided not to support such action and expelled the unions that belonged to the C-I-O. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, the C-I-O began operating as another national labor organization. Lewis was its leader. VOICE ONE: John L. Lewis was an extremely colorful and effective speaker. He had worked as a coal miner and could relate to the most terrible conditions workers faced. More than three million workers joined the C-I-O in its first year as a separate organization. For the first time, labor won many strikes and permanent improvements in workers conditions. For many years, presidents, members of Congress, and business leaders considered John L. Lewis the voice of labor. And, American workers saw Lewis as their hero. By the Nineteen-Fifties, the labor movement an established part of American life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Walter Reuther was the vice-president of the C-I-O under Lewis, and became its president in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. Reuther believed unions had a social responsibility. His ideas were partly influenced by his German father who was a socialist. Walter Reuther was trained to make tools to cut metal. He joined the United Automobile Workers union when it first formed in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. VOICE ONE: Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers for twenty-three years beginning in Nineteen-Forty-Six. He shaped the U-A-W into one of the most militant and forward-looking unions. He held strikes to gain increased wages for workers, but, at the same time, he expected workers to increase their rate of production. He was the first to link pay raises to productivity increases. Reuther also was greatly concerned about civil rights and the environment. In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Reuther helped the A-F-L and C-I-O re-join as one organization. Reuther’s ideas were recognized worldwide. But they also brought him enemies. He survived three murder attempts. He said, “You have to make up your mind whether you are willing to accept things as they are or whether you are willing to try to change them.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A. Philip Randolph is known for combining the labor and civil rights movements. Randolph became involved with unions in Nineteen-Twenty-Five. A group of black workers on passenger trains asked him to organize a union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolph was not a laborer. He was the college-educated son of a minister. He published a socialist magazine in New York City. He was known as a fighter for black rights. Randolph strongly believed that economic conditions affected rights and power for African-Americans. For twelve years, Randolph fought the Pullman Company that employed the passenger train workers. In 1935, Pullman finally agreed to negotiate with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Two years later, the porters’ union signed the first labor agreement between a company and a black union. A. Philip Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters for forty-three years. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven he became vice-president of the A-F-L--C-I-O. Randolph used large group protests to change work conditions. He planned marches on the capital in Washington to protest the unequal treatment of black workers by the government. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, Randolph planned the ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.’ At this huge peaceful gathering, civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Junior, made his famous “I have a dream” speech. Within a year the civil rights amendment passed guaranteeing equal rights for blacks and other minorities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez created the first farmers union in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. That union later became the United Farm Workers of America. Farm workers had been considered too difficult to organize. They worked during growing seasons. Many farm workers did not speak English or were in the country illegally. Farm workers earned only a few dollars each hour. They often lived in mud shelters and had no waste removal systems. Many farm workers were children. VOICE TWO: Cesar Chavez went to school for only eight years. But he read a lot. He was greatly influenced by the ideas of famous supporters of non-violence such as Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Chavez led his workers on marches for better pay and conditions. Workers walked hundreds of miles carrying cloth banners with the Spanish words Viva la Causa -- long live our cause. VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez created a new strike method called a boycott. People refused to buy products of a company accused of treating farm workers badly. Chavez also publicized the dangers of some farm chemicals. Cesar Chavez improved the conditions of farm workers by making their mistreatment a national issue. VOICE TWO: Union membership has dropped sharply since its highpoint in the Nineteen-Forties. Yet conditions for American workers continue to improve as employers realize that treating their workers well is good for business. The efforts of leaders of the American labor movement during the past one hundred years continue to improve the lives of millions of workers. (MUSIC) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Linda Burchill and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People In America program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American laborers often worked long hours for little pay. Many worked under extremely dangerous conditions. About five-hundred-thousand workers, however, had joined groups called labor unions, hoping to improve their situation. Today, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about five labor leaders who worked to improve conditions for American workers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Hundred, the largest national organization of labor unions was the American Federation of Labor. Its head was Samuel Gompers. Gompers had moved to New York with his parents when he was thirteen years old. He was twenty-four when he began working for the local union of cigar makers. He worked for the labor movement for sixty years. VOICE TWO: Samuel Gompers had helped create the A-F-L in the late Eighteen-Eighties. He led the organization for all but one year until his death in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. Gompers defined the purpose of the labor movement in America. He also established the method used to solve labor disputes. Gompers thought unions should work only to increase wages, improve work conditions and stop unfair treatment of workers. He called his method pure and simple unionism. Samuel Gompers sought immediate change for workers. He used group actions such as strikes as a way to try to force company owners to negotiate. VOICE ONE: Gompers was criticized for going to social events with industry leaders, and for compromising too easily with employers. But Gompers believed such actions helped his main goal. He believed if workers were respected their employers would want to make working conditions better. Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the labor movement won its first small gains. For example, the federal government recognized the right of workers to organize. That happened when union representatives were part of the National War Labor Board during World War One. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John L. Lewis expanded the American labor movement with a campaign he called organizing the unorganized.Lewis was the head of the United Mine Workers of America. He also was the vice-president of the A-F-L. In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, Lewis formed the Committee for Industrial Organization within the A-F-L. He wanted the C-I-O to organize workers in mass production industries, such as automobile industry. The A-F-L mainly organized unions of workers who had the same skills. But Lewis believed skilled and unskilled workers in the same industry should be organized into the same union. Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. It gave workers the legal right to join unions and to negotiate with employers. John L. Lewis thought it was the right time to press the large industries to recognize workers’ rights. The A-F-L, however, decided not to support such action and expelled the unions that belonged to the C-I-O. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, the C-I-O began operating as another national labor organization. Lewis was its leader. VOICE ONE: John L. Lewis was an extremely colorful and effective speaker. He had worked as a coal miner and could relate to the most terrible conditions workers faced. More than three million workers joined the C-I-O in its first year as a separate organization. For the first time, labor won many strikes and permanent improvements in workers conditions. For many years, presidents, members of Congress, and business leaders considered John L. Lewis the voice of labor. And, American workers saw Lewis as their hero. By the Nineteen-Fifties, the labor movement an established part of American life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Walter Reuther was the vice-president of the C-I-O under Lewis, and became its president in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. Reuther believed unions had a social responsibility. His ideas were partly influenced by his German father who was a socialist. Walter Reuther was trained to make tools to cut metal. He joined the United Automobile Workers union when it first formed in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. VOICE ONE: Walter Reuther was president of the United Auto Workers for twenty-three years beginning in Nineteen-Forty-Six. He shaped the U-A-W into one of the most militant and forward-looking unions. He held strikes to gain increased wages for workers, but, at the same time, he expected workers to increase their rate of production. He was the first to link pay raises to productivity increases. Reuther also was greatly concerned about civil rights and the environment. In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Reuther helped the A-F-L and C-I-O re-join as one organization. Reuther’s ideas were recognized worldwide. But they also brought him enemies. He survived three murder attempts. He said, “You have to make up your mind whether you are willing to accept things as they are or whether you are willing to try to change them.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A. Philip Randolph is known for combining the labor and civil rights movements. Randolph became involved with unions in Nineteen-Twenty-Five. A group of black workers on passenger trains asked him to organize a union, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Randolph was not a laborer. He was the college-educated son of a minister. He published a socialist magazine in New York City. He was known as a fighter for black rights. Randolph strongly believed that economic conditions affected rights and power for African-Americans. For twelve years, Randolph fought the Pullman Company that employed the passenger train workers. In 1935, Pullman finally agreed to negotiate with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Two years later, the porters’ union signed the first labor agreement between a company and a black union. A. Philip Randolph led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters for forty-three years. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven he became vice-president of the A-F-L--C-I-O. Randolph used large group protests to change work conditions. He planned marches on the capital in Washington to protest the unequal treatment of black workers by the government. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, Randolph planned the ‘March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.’ At this huge peaceful gathering, civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Junior, made his famous “I have a dream” speech. Within a year the civil rights amendment passed guaranteeing equal rights for blacks and other minorities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez created the first farmers union in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. That union later became the United Farm Workers of America. Farm workers had been considered too difficult to organize. They worked during growing seasons. Many farm workers did not speak English or were in the country illegally. Farm workers earned only a few dollars each hour. They often lived in mud shelters and had no waste removal systems. Many farm workers were children. VOICE TWO: Cesar Chavez went to school for only eight years. But he read a lot. He was greatly influenced by the ideas of famous supporters of non-violence such as Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Chavez led his workers on marches for better pay and conditions. Workers walked hundreds of miles carrying cloth banners with the Spanish words Viva la Causa -- long live our cause. VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez created a new strike method called a boycott. People refused to buy products of a company accused of treating farm workers badly. Chavez also publicized the dangers of some farm chemicals. Cesar Chavez improved the conditions of farm workers by making their mistreatment a national issue. VOICE TWO: Union membership has dropped sharply since its highpoint in the Nineteen-Forties. Yet conditions for American workers continue to improve as employers realize that treating their workers well is good for business. The efforts of leaders of the American labor movement during the past one hundred years continue to improve the lives of millions of workers. (MUSIC) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Linda Burchill and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People In America program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Artistic Expression in Reaction to 9/11
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 6, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 6, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Saturday is the third anniversary of the September eleventh attacks on the United States. Today we explore how Americans have reacted through expressions of art, culture, political debate and memorials. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Saturday is the third anniversary of the September eleventh attacks on the United States. Today we explore how Americans have reacted through expressions of art, culture, political debate and memorials. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In New York City, parents and grandparents of victims will read the names of those who died at ground zero, the World Trade Center. Nearly two thousand eight hundred people were killed when hijacked planes destroyed the Twin Towers. The names will be read at a ceremony in the morning on Saturday. Then, at sundown, the fallen buildings will be remembered with a Tribute in Light. Two huge lights will shine straight up into the sky. Ground zero is to get a new look in the next few years. The architect Daniel Libeskind won an international competition with his design for redeveloping the land. The design calls for a collection of modern glass office buildings. The tallest will be called Freedom Tower. VOICE TWO: On September eleventh, two thousand one, nineteen Islamic terrorists hijacked four passenger airplanes. The men flew two of the planes into the World Trade Center. A third hit the Pentagon, the military headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The crash left a huge hole in one of the five sides of the building. Workers had the wall repaired in time for the first anniversary of Nine-Eleven. A competition took place to design a memorial at the Pentagon. VOICE ONE: Officials believe the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight ninety-three, was aimed for the Capitol building or the White House. But, after the hijacking, passengers and crew members made calls on wireless phones. They learned from family and friends that other planes had been used as missiles. They decided to lead a rebellion. As the passengers fought back, the hijackers crashed the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All forty passengers and crew members died on United Flight ninety-three. On Saturday, the first part of a competition will open to design a memorial to honor these men and women. In all, three thousand people from ninety countries were killed on Nine-Eleven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of memorials to the victims of Nine-Eleven. Family members and others have written poems. Musicians have written different pieces, from country songs to classical works. Painters, poster makers, authors, playwrights, photographers and filmmakers have all added their ideas. One of these filmmakers is Michael Moore. In "Fahrenheit 9/11," he argues that President Bush used the fear created by the attacks to invade Iraq. The movie also criticizes the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed this legislation soon after the attacks. The Patriot Act expanded government powers to investigate terrorism suspects. Michael Moore uses humor in his films to deal with serious subjects. “Fahrenheit 9/11” became one of the top films of the year. It has made more money than any other documentary in American history. The movie has been criticized. Some people say it is unfair to the president. They say it is not a documentary but propaganda. VOICE ONE: This Saturday, many American libraries will hold discussions related to the Nine-Eleven attacks. Some of these discussions are expected to center on the Patriot Act. Some groups see this law as an invasion of privacy and say it restricts constitutional rights. But other groups plan discussions in support of efforts by the government to protect the country from more attacks. VOICE TWO: The attacks three years ago, the worst in American history, led to a Department of Homeland Security. There is also a play called “Homeland Security.” This summer, it was performed at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The play by Stuart Flack raises a question: Does safety mean that Americans must sacrifice their freedoms and their trust? In the play, government agents question a woman and her boyfriend as they arrive at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Susan is an American; Raj, a doctor, is an American of Indian ancestry. The situation suggests at first that the agents have targeted Raj just because they think he is Middle Eastern. But things are not as simple as that. Was Raj in fact helping terrorists, perhaps unknowingly? As in real life, people who see “Homeland Security” must decide for themselves. VOICE ONE: A play just opened in New York City deals with the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo wrote “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.” Most of the men in the camp were captured in the war in Afghanistan. The United States targeted al-Qaida, the group led by Osama bin Laden that carried out Nine-Eleven. American-led forces also ousted the Taliban government allied with al-Qaida. The new play denounces the policies used to hold suspected enemy fighters at Guantanamo. VOICE TWO: Another play related to Nine-Eleven is called “Recent Tragic Events.” The play by Craig Wright begins on the day after the terrorist attacks. But the action takes place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, far from the events of Nine-Eleven. A young woman named Waverly is worried about her sister Wendy, a student in New York. No one has heard from Wendy. Still, Waverly has decided to try to live a normal life. As the play continues, she talks to several visitors in her apartment. The events of Nine-Eleven force them all to deal with questions that people rarely face when life is normal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Among those killed at the World Trade Center were three hundred forty three New York City firefighters. From this tragedy came a play called "The Guys." A journalism professor, Anne Nelson, wrote the play based on her own experience. She helped a Fire Department captain as he struggled to write the words to say at memorial services for the men he lost. "The Guys" became a Hollywood movie. Sigourney Weaver plays the writer; Anthony LaPaglia is the fire captain. (SOUND) FIRE CAPTAIN: "The thing is, I don't really know what to do. The call came, and the guys went out. They haven't found them yet. Some of the families, they want to have a service now so they can move on. And, uh, I gotta’ get up and I gotta’ talk in church. I been sittin’ in front of a piece of paper all day and haven't been able to write a word, not a...not a sentence. I keep going into a clutch. I'm all right under normal circumstances. But, what am I going to tell those families?" WRITER: "Hey, it's okay. Maybe I can help. I've never written a eulogy before, but I've written some speeches. How many did you say there were?" FIRE CAPTAIN: "Eight." WRITER: "Eight!" FIRE CAPTAIN: "Eight men. I lost eight men." VOICE TWO: In Washington, the Library of Congress is showing a collection of posters related to Nine-Eleven. One of these posters is formed from images of the victims. It shows the Twin Towers with a burst of yellow light between the buildings. The poster by Alex Spektor is called “The Sun.” But the light could also represent the fires of Nine-Eleven or a spiritual effect. VOICE ONE: Some songs about Nine-Eleven express anger. Other express pride in America. Still others describe conditions during or after the attacks. Bruce Springsteen wrote “Empty Sky.” The name comes from the days immediately after Nine-Eleven when all but military flights were grounded. ((CUT TWO: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, “EMPTY SKY” CDP 25546A, Band Six, beginning at about 0:57 to 1:58)) VOICE TWO: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra asked the composer John Adams to write a piece in memory of Nine-Eleven. Mister Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for this work. The names of victims, and some of their final words, are heard over the music. The piece is called “On the Transmigration of Souls.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A recording of “On the Transmigration of Souls” by composer John Adams is being released to mark the third anniversary of Nine-Eleven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In New York City, parents and grandparents of victims will read the names of those who died at ground zero, the World Trade Center. Nearly two thousand eight hundred people were killed when hijacked planes destroyed the Twin Towers. The names will be read at a ceremony in the morning on Saturday. Then, at sundown, the fallen buildings will be remembered with a Tribute in Light. Two huge lights will shine straight up into the sky. Ground zero is to get a new look in the next few years. The architect Daniel Libeskind won an international competition with his design for redeveloping the land. The design calls for a collection of modern glass office buildings. The tallest will be called Freedom Tower. VOICE TWO: On September eleventh, two thousand one, nineteen Islamic terrorists hijacked four passenger airplanes. The men flew two of the planes into the World Trade Center. A third hit the Pentagon, the military headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The crash left a huge hole in one of the five sides of the building. Workers had the wall repaired in time for the first anniversary of Nine-Eleven. A competition took place to design a memorial at the Pentagon. VOICE ONE: Officials believe the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight ninety-three, was aimed for the Capitol building or the White House. But, after the hijacking, passengers and crew members made calls on wireless phones. They learned from family and friends that other planes had been used as missiles. They decided to lead a rebellion. As the passengers fought back, the hijackers crashed the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All forty passengers and crew members died on United Flight ninety-three. On Saturday, the first part of a competition will open to design a memorial to honor these men and women. In all, three thousand people from ninety countries were killed on Nine-Eleven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of memorials to the victims of Nine-Eleven. Family members and others have written poems. Musicians have written different pieces, from country songs to classical works. Painters, poster makers, authors, playwrights, photographers and filmmakers have all added their ideas. One of these filmmakers is Michael Moore. In "Fahrenheit 9/11," he argues that President Bush used the fear created by the attacks to invade Iraq. The movie also criticizes the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed this legislation soon after the attacks. The Patriot Act expanded government powers to investigate terrorism suspects. Michael Moore uses humor in his films to deal with serious subjects. “Fahrenheit 9/11” became one of the top films of the year. It has made more money than any other documentary in American history. The movie has been criticized. Some people say it is unfair to the president. They say it is not a documentary but propaganda. VOICE ONE: This Saturday, many American libraries will hold discussions related to the Nine-Eleven attacks. Some of these discussions are expected to center on the Patriot Act. Some groups see this law as an invasion of privacy and say it restricts constitutional rights. But other groups plan discussions in support of efforts by the government to protect the country from more attacks. VOICE TWO: The attacks three years ago, the worst in American history, led to a Department of Homeland Security. There is also a play called “Homeland Security.” This summer, it was performed at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The play by Stuart Flack raises a question: Does safety mean that Americans must sacrifice their freedoms and their trust? In the play, government agents question a woman and her boyfriend as they arrive at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Susan is an American; Raj, a doctor, is an American of Indian ancestry. The situation suggests at first that the agents have targeted Raj just because they think he is Middle Eastern. But things are not as simple as that. Was Raj in fact helping terrorists, perhaps unknowingly? As in real life, people who see “Homeland Security” must decide for themselves. VOICE ONE: A play just opened in New York City deals with the United States military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo wrote “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.” Most of the men in the camp were captured in the war in Afghanistan. The United States targeted al-Qaida, the group led by Osama bin Laden that carried out Nine-Eleven. American-led forces also ousted the Taliban government allied with al-Qaida. The new play denounces the policies used to hold suspected enemy fighters at Guantanamo. VOICE TWO: Another play related to Nine-Eleven is called “Recent Tragic Events.” The play by Craig Wright begins on the day after the terrorist attacks. But the action takes place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, far from the events of Nine-Eleven. A young woman named Waverly is worried about her sister Wendy, a student in New York. No one has heard from Wendy. Still, Waverly has decided to try to live a normal life. As the play continues, she talks to several visitors in her apartment. The events of Nine-Eleven force them all to deal with questions that people rarely face when life is normal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Among those killed at the World Trade Center were three hundred forty three New York City firefighters. From this tragedy came a play called "The Guys." A journalism professor, Anne Nelson, wrote the play based on her own experience. She helped a Fire Department captain as he struggled to write the words to say at memorial services for the men he lost. "The Guys" became a Hollywood movie. Sigourney Weaver plays the writer; Anthony LaPaglia is the fire captain. (SOUND) FIRE CAPTAIN: "The thing is, I don't really know what to do. The call came, and the guys went out. They haven't found them yet. Some of the families, they want to have a service now so they can move on. And, uh, I gotta’ get up and I gotta’ talk in church. I been sittin’ in front of a piece of paper all day and haven't been able to write a word, not a...not a sentence. I keep going into a clutch. I'm all right under normal circumstances. But, what am I going to tell those families?" WRITER: "Hey, it's okay. Maybe I can help. I've never written a eulogy before, but I've written some speeches. How many did you say there were?" FIRE CAPTAIN: "Eight." WRITER: "Eight!" FIRE CAPTAIN: "Eight men. I lost eight men." VOICE TWO: In Washington, the Library of Congress is showing a collection of posters related to Nine-Eleven. One of these posters is formed from images of the victims. It shows the Twin Towers with a burst of yellow light between the buildings. The poster by Alex Spektor is called “The Sun.” But the light could also represent the fires of Nine-Eleven or a spiritual effect. VOICE ONE: Some songs about Nine-Eleven express anger. Other express pride in America. Still others describe conditions during or after the attacks. Bruce Springsteen wrote “Empty Sky.” The name comes from the days immediately after Nine-Eleven when all but military flights were grounded. ((CUT TWO: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, “EMPTY SKY” CDP 25546A, Band Six, beginning at about 0:57 to 1:58)) VOICE TWO: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra asked the composer John Adams to write a piece in memory of Nine-Eleven. Mister Adams won a Pulitzer Prize for this work. The names of victims, and some of their final words, are heard over the music. The piece is called “On the Transmigration of Souls.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A recording of “On the Transmigration of Souls” by composer John Adams is being released to mark the third anniversary of Nine-Eleven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. And our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Gwen Outen. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – UN Urges More Aid for Women’s Health
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 6, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations says that developing nations have made great improvements in reproductive health and women’s rights. But it says that rich counties have given only half of the six thousand million dollars they promised for these goals ten years ago. The head of the U-N Population Fund made the announcement last week in London, England. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid spoke at a conference of non-governmental organizations. The meetings examined progress to improve reproductive health around the world by two thousand fifteen. The meetings observed the tenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. At that time, one hundred seventy-nine countries agreed to a U-N plan of action to improve women’s health, education and rights. Mizz Obaid says a new study by the U-N Population Fund shows that twenty-three countries have made the most progress toward improving the reproductive health of women. They include Zambia, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Nepal and the Philippines. But, Mizz Obaid says there has been little progress toward reaching other goals set ten years ago. The number of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth remains high. In addition, the spread of AIDS and the H-I-V virus is now affecting more women and children than ever before. The report studied one hundred thirty-three countries with populations over one million. Researchers examined national rates of death among mothers and babies, number of children, national policies to end pregnancies, and the average number of children with H-I-V or AIDS infections. Portugal, Kuwait, the United States, Botswana, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa are among the countries that made little or no progress. Mizz Obaid identified three important areas for reaching the goals by two thousand fifteen. They are better health for mothers, efforts to fight H-I-V/AIDS and devices to prevent pregnancy and the spread of sexual diseases. Mizz Obaid says the amount of money that rich nations give to pay for such contraceptives has dropped by more than thirty percent. But, she says the need for contraceptives in developing nations will increase forty percent by two thousand fifteen. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Sugar and Diet / Women and Diabetes / Preparing for a Flu Pandemic
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: writing new dietary guidelines for Americans. VOICE ONE: And, preparing for the next influenza pandemic. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans are expected in January to get new advice from the government about what to eat and what to avoid. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture publish a report every five years. It contains nutritional information and guidelines for the public on diet and physical activity. The report is based on the work of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. This group has just come out with its advice for the two thousand five version of the guidelines. The committee says its findings support the development of dietary guidelines that express messages such as: "Control calorie intake to manage body weight." "Be physically active every day." "Increase daily intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and non-fat and low-fat milk and milk products." And, "Choose fats wisely for good health." VOICE ONE: The list also includes: "Choose carbohydrates wisely for good health." The committee noted that this represents a major change. For the first time, the list does not say anything directly about sugar. Carbohydrates include the different sugars that people and nature use to sweeten foods. For more than twenty years, the dietary guidelines have directly advised Americans to limit their amount of sugar. The government will accept comments on the report through September twenty-seventh. The advisory committee provides explanations and scientific arguments for each message in its full report. Sugars are discussed in the part about carbohydrates. Most people do not read the full report. The dietary guidelines, however, often appear in schools, health centers and other places. They are also used to develop educational guides. A commentary in the New York Times criticized the change. It noted that some of the experts on the committee have ties to the food industry. The newspaper said it is difficult to imagine that the change was not the result of influence by the sugar industry. VOICE TWO: The Sugar Association said in a statement that it was pleased with the work of the committee. The industry group says the new messages recognize the importance of energy balance. This is the idea that people should not get more calories than they need to meet their energy requirements. The Sugar Association says the new guidance provides a "more helpful message" by not singling out individual nutrients. VOICE ONE: But the committee does say there are reasons for people to limit their intake of sugars and syrups added to food. It says a reduced intake of added sugars may help control weight gain and make sure other food needs are met. Health officials say two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. The committee says that while more research is needed, a number of studies suggest a link between sugar-sweetened drinks and weight gain. One of those studies appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association shortly before the committee released its report. VOICE TWO: The study dealt with the effects of sugar-sweetened colas and other soft drinks. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital did the study. They studied information provided by more than ninety thousand women. This information was collected between nineteen ninety-one and nineteen ninety-nine. The women answered questions two times each year about their food intake. The researchers say those who drank high levels of sugar-sweetened drinks were more likely to gain weight and develop diabetes. Some of the women had increased their level of sugary drinks to one or more per day during the eight-year period. The researchers say these women gained an average of almost eight kilograms. Other women had decreased their level to one or no sugary drinks per day. On average, these women gained less than three kilograms. VOICE ONE: The doctors note that weight gain is a major cause of type two diabetes. This form of the disease usually appears in adults. The study compared women who drank more than one sugar-sweetened soft drink a day with those who drank less than one a month. The women who drank more were reported to have over an eighty percent higher risk of diabetes than the other women. There were also findings about women who drank sugar-sweetened fruit drinks. The study says women who drank these every day were two times as likely to develop diabetes as those who drank less than one a month. VOICE TWO: Doctor Meir [mare] Stampfer at the Harvard School of Public Health says sugary soft drinks cause a sharp increase in blood sugar. He says this causes the body to produce more insulin, and that causes the sugar levels to go down. He describes the process as a recipe for diabetes, a disease where insulin production weakens. The researchers say diet drinks and unsweetened fruit juice did not appear to cause an increased risk of diabetes. Doctor Stampfer says it is easier to gain weight from calories in drinks than in foods. He says drinks sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup are high in calories, but do not satisfy hunger. When people do not feel full, they often take in more calories than their bodies need. The researchers says soft drinks are the leading way that Americans get added sugar. VOICE ONE: The American Beverage Association criticized the study. This trade group recently changed its name from the National Soft Drink Association. It says to blame any one food or drink for increasing the risk of diabetes is "scientifically indefensible." It says most published medical literature does not list sugar intake as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. A spokesman for the group says a careful reading of the study shows that an unhealthy lifestyle increased the risk for the women. The study found that the women who drank the most soft drinks were generally less physically active and more likely to smoke. They also generally ate less well than those who drank the fewest sugary drinks. For example, they ate less protein and grain. The association says the study provides no evidence to support the idea that sugar-sweetened drinks are a cause of type two diabetes. On the issue of weight gain, it says there is no proven link between increased sugar intake and obesity. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. Public health officials in the United States say they want to be ready in the event of another influenza pandemic. Pandemics are times when diseases spread throughout the world. Three influenza pandemics took place in the twentieth century. The most recent was in nineteen sixty eight. Last month the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a plan. It is called the "Pandemic Influenza Response and Preparedness Plan." Possible measures include actions like closing schools, restricting travel and keeping infected people away from others. The plan also proposes major federal research to create different kinds of flu viruses in order to study them. Experts say such efforts could reduce the time needed to produce new vaccines. One fear is that bird flu could develop the ability to spread between people and start a pandemic. Researchers with support from the National Institutes of Health aim to develop a vaccine against avian influenza. Tests are to begin this winter. The most deadly flu pandemic known struck in nineteen eighteen. As many as fifty million people may have died from the so-called Spanish flu. VOICE ONE: Officials announced the pandemic readiness plan on August twenty-sixth. That same day, the vaccine maker Chiron announced that some of it flu vaccine did not pass final inspection for purity. Chiron is one of the two major producers of flu vaccine in the United States. The company said it would halt shipments until more tests were done. The company is based in California. It produces vaccine at a factory in the British city of Liverpool. Chiron was to release as many as forty-eight million doses of vaccine in September. Now, the company says it expects that will not happen until October. Health officials say they still expect to be able to meet the needs of the public this flu season. Doctor Julie Gerberding is director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She noted there have been vaccine delays in the past. The other major supplier, Aventis Pasteur, aims to increase its supply to help make sure there is enough flu vaccine this winter. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: September 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: writing new dietary guidelines for Americans. VOICE ONE: And, preparing for the next influenza pandemic. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans are expected in January to get new advice from the government about what to eat and what to avoid. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture publish a report every five years. It contains nutritional information and guidelines for the public on diet and physical activity. The report is based on the work of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. This group has just come out with its advice for the two thousand five version of the guidelines. The committee says its findings support the development of dietary guidelines that express messages such as: "Control calorie intake to manage body weight." "Be physically active every day." "Increase daily intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and non-fat and low-fat milk and milk products." And, "Choose fats wisely for good health." VOICE ONE: The list also includes: "Choose carbohydrates wisely for good health." The committee noted that this represents a major change. For the first time, the list does not say anything directly about sugar. Carbohydrates include the different sugars that people and nature use to sweeten foods. For more than twenty years, the dietary guidelines have directly advised Americans to limit their amount of sugar. The government will accept comments on the report through September twenty-seventh. The advisory committee provides explanations and scientific arguments for each message in its full report. Sugars are discussed in the part about carbohydrates. Most people do not read the full report. The dietary guidelines, however, often appear in schools, health centers and other places. They are also used to develop educational guides. A commentary in the New York Times criticized the change. It noted that some of the experts on the committee have ties to the food industry. The newspaper said it is difficult to imagine that the change was not the result of influence by the sugar industry. VOICE TWO: The Sugar Association said in a statement that it was pleased with the work of the committee. The industry group says the new messages recognize the importance of energy balance. This is the idea that people should not get more calories than they need to meet their energy requirements. The Sugar Association says the new guidance provides a "more helpful message" by not singling out individual nutrients. VOICE ONE: But the committee does say there are reasons for people to limit their intake of sugars and syrups added to food. It says a reduced intake of added sugars may help control weight gain and make sure other food needs are met. Health officials say two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. The committee says that while more research is needed, a number of studies suggest a link between sugar-sweetened drinks and weight gain. One of those studies appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association shortly before the committee released its report. VOICE TWO: The study dealt with the effects of sugar-sweetened colas and other soft drinks. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital did the study. They studied information provided by more than ninety thousand women. This information was collected between nineteen ninety-one and nineteen ninety-nine. The women answered questions two times each year about their food intake. The researchers say those who drank high levels of sugar-sweetened drinks were more likely to gain weight and develop diabetes. Some of the women had increased their level of sugary drinks to one or more per day during the eight-year period. The researchers say these women gained an average of almost eight kilograms. Other women had decreased their level to one or no sugary drinks per day. On average, these women gained less than three kilograms. VOICE ONE: The doctors note that weight gain is a major cause of type two diabetes. This form of the disease usually appears in adults. The study compared women who drank more than one sugar-sweetened soft drink a day with those who drank less than one a month. The women who drank more were reported to have over an eighty percent higher risk of diabetes than the other women. There were also findings about women who drank sugar-sweetened fruit drinks. The study says women who drank these every day were two times as likely to develop diabetes as those who drank less than one a month. VOICE TWO: Doctor Meir [mare] Stampfer at the Harvard School of Public Health says sugary soft drinks cause a sharp increase in blood sugar. He says this causes the body to produce more insulin, and that causes the sugar levels to go down. He describes the process as a recipe for diabetes, a disease where insulin production weakens. The researchers say diet drinks and unsweetened fruit juice did not appear to cause an increased risk of diabetes. Doctor Stampfer says it is easier to gain weight from calories in drinks than in foods. He says drinks sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup are high in calories, but do not satisfy hunger. When people do not feel full, they often take in more calories than their bodies need. The researchers says soft drinks are the leading way that Americans get added sugar. VOICE ONE: The American Beverage Association criticized the study. This trade group recently changed its name from the National Soft Drink Association. It says to blame any one food or drink for increasing the risk of diabetes is "scientifically indefensible." It says most published medical literature does not list sugar intake as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. A spokesman for the group says a careful reading of the study shows that an unhealthy lifestyle increased the risk for the women. The study found that the women who drank the most soft drinks were generally less physically active and more likely to smoke. They also generally ate less well than those who drank the fewest sugary drinks. For example, they ate less protein and grain. The association says the study provides no evidence to support the idea that sugar-sweetened drinks are a cause of type two diabetes. On the issue of weight gain, it says there is no proven link between increased sugar intake and obesity. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. Public health officials in the United States say they want to be ready in the event of another influenza pandemic. Pandemics are times when diseases spread throughout the world. Three influenza pandemics took place in the twentieth century. The most recent was in nineteen sixty eight. Last month the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a plan. It is called the "Pandemic Influenza Response and Preparedness Plan." Possible measures include actions like closing schools, restricting travel and keeping infected people away from others. The plan also proposes major federal research to create different kinds of flu viruses in order to study them. Experts say such efforts could reduce the time needed to produce new vaccines. One fear is that bird flu could develop the ability to spread between people and start a pandemic. Researchers with support from the National Institutes of Health aim to develop a vaccine against avian influenza. Tests are to begin this winter. The most deadly flu pandemic known struck in nineteen eighteen. As many as fifty million people may have died from the so-called Spanish flu. VOICE ONE: Officials announced the pandemic readiness plan on August twenty-sixth. That same day, the vaccine maker Chiron announced that some of it flu vaccine did not pass final inspection for purity. Chiron is one of the two major producers of flu vaccine in the United States. The company said it would halt shipments until more tests were done. The company is based in California. It produces vaccine at a factory in the British city of Liverpool. Chiron was to release as many as forty-eight million doses of vaccine in September. Now, the company says it expects that will not happen until October. Health officials say they still expect to be able to meet the needs of the public this flu season. Doctor Julie Gerberding is director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She noted there have been vaccine delays in the past. The other major supplier, Aventis Pasteur, aims to increase its supply to help make sure there is enough flu vaccine this winter. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Subsoiling Increases Soybean and Cotton Production in Clay Soil
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 7, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Clay soil is a problem for soybean farmers. When the soil is dry, the clay shrinks and breaks up. This condition damages the root system of the plants. A few years ago, two United States Agriculture Department researchers made a discovery. They found a simple way to grow more soybeans in dry soil that contains a lot of heavy clay. Soybean farmers with heavy clay soils usually till the earth about ten to fifteen centimeters deep. The researchers found that preparing the soil to a depth of thirty to forty centimeters is better. The seeds are still planted about two to three centimeters below the surface. The system of preparing the soil this way is called subsoiling. It breaks up hard areas of soil that form when the clay dries. And it does not harm crop materials on the surface. Subsoiling is done with a device that looks something like a large hook to catch fish. Farmers pull it through the ground to break up the soil structure. Subsoiling permits water to reach areas below the surface quickly. More water is stored in the soil than would be with traditional ways. Increasing the ability of the soil to hold water produces bigger crops. It also helps the environment. Less water runs off the land. And less soil is washed away. The researchers said that subsoiling is probably not needed every year. Richard Wesley and Lowrey Smith made their discovery at an Agricultural Research Service laboratory in the state of Mississippi. They found that farms with deep subsoiling produced almost fifty percent more soybeans than farms with traditional methods. The farms with subsoiling produced, on average, more than four hundred seventy kilograms of soybeans per hectare. Farm with traditional planting, but without watering systems, produced three hundred twenty kilograms per hectare. Lowrey Smith also found improvements with cotton. Studies in the past showed that subsoiling clay soil in the spring does not improve cotton harvests. In the spring, the soil still holds rainwater. So the subsoiling process is unable to change the soil structure to prepare it for cotton production. Mister Smith did his studies in the fall, when the soil was dry. He found that subsoiling in the fall increased harvests of cotton, just as with soybeans. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Avi Arditti. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Wonders of the World, Part 3: Modern Wonders
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 8, 2004 (MUSIC) The Panama Canal Broadcast: September 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we finish our series of programs about the Wonders of the World. In earlier programs, we told about ancient structures and beautiful natural places. Today we tell about modern structures that are Wonders of the World. The Eurotunnel VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we finish our series of programs about the Wonders of the World. In earlier programs, we told about ancient structures and beautiful natural places. Today we tell about modern structures that are Wonders of the World. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Any list of modern wonders should include some of the buildings in the great cities of the world. An example in New York City is the Empire State Building. For many years, it was the tallest building in the world. Today, the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are taller. These buildings are important to any list. However, the modern wonders we have selected have changed history. They are important because they made life safer or easier or were useful to a great number of people. We begin with two similar structures in two very different parts of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than three thousand years ago, an ancient king of Egypt ordered that a river be built to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. This kind of man-made river is called a canal. Ancient evidence shows the work was done and a canal was built. Experts believe it was possible for small boats of that time to travel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Some evidence shows the Nile River may have been used for part of the canal. However, the ancient people of Egypt did not keep this canal in use. As years passed, the sands of the great deserts of Egypt closed the small canal. As the centuries passed, many people thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the canal. The problem was the huge cost. But the cost could not be compared to the cost of a ship that had to sail from ports on the Atlantic Ocean to ports in Asia. Ships had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, the most southern part of the continent of Africa. VOICE ONE: A French engineer planned and directed the modern canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. His name was Ferdinand de Lesseps. Egyptian workers began building the canal in eighteen fifty-nine. It was opened and named the Suez Canal during a ceremony on November seventeenth, eighteen sixty-nine. The Suez Canal is about one hundred sixty-three kilometers long and about sixty meters wide. The Suez Canal has been closed several times because of war or political problems. Today, the Suez Canal is still important. Ships pay money to use the canal. That money is important to the economy of Egypt. The canal saves shipping companies a great deal of time and money because it is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. VOICE TWO: Our next Modern Wonder of the World is also a canal -- the Panama Canal. It connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Before it was built, ships often had to spend several weeks traveling around Cape Horn at the end of South America. Many ships were lost in great storms in that dangerous area. Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his men were the first Europeans to travel through the thick jungles in Panama from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. That was in fifteen thirteen. Panama quickly became a major shipping area for the Spanish. Their ships from the colonies in the Western Hemisphere and from Asia brought treasure to the Pacific Coast. The treasure was taken overland to the city of Portobelo on the Atlantic Side. The idea of building a way to connect the two great oceans began with the Spanish explorers. They saw the need for a canal to speed up delivery of their cargo. However, it was impossible to build. The machines needed to build something as big as a canal did not exist. VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-nine, a French Company tried to build a canal across Panama. It failed. The company did not have enough money to complete the project. Also, thousands of men working on the project died of the disease Yellow Fever. In nineteen hundred, an American army doctor, Walter Reed, and his research team discovered that mosquito insects carried the virus that caused Yellow Fever. They worked on methods to destroy the mosquito population. This development helped make possible an American effort to build the Panama Canal. Panama and the United States signed treaties in nineteen-oh-three and work began on the canal. More than eighty thousand men worked on the huge effort. They made a canal about eighty kilometers long from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On August fifteenth, nineteen fourteen, the ship S-S Ancon became the first ship to sail through the new canal. Today, about thirteen thousand ships pass through the canal each year. That number represents about five percent of the world’s trade. Both the Suez and the Panama Canals are truly modern Wonders of the World. Both make it possible to safely move from one great ocean to another. And, both save huge amounts of time and money. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The two great canals we have discussed connect oceans. Our next great Wonder of the World connects land. This connecting device is called the Channel Tunnel, or “Chunnel.” It connects the island that is Britain with France. It was one of the largest and most difficult construction projects ever attempted. It is a three-tunnel railroad from Calais, France to Folkestone, England. The tunnels are fifty kilometers long. They were built about forty-five meters below the earth under the English Channel. Two of the tunnels carry trains and one is used for repair work and emergencies. VOICE ONE: The idea of a tunnel connecting Britain with other nations of Europe was first proposed to the French Emperor Napoleon in the early eighteen hundreds. However it was never a serious idea. The technology to make such a tunnel did not exist. But people dreamed of such a tunnel. Crossing the English Channel by ship was often a terrible trip because of storms. Three serious attempts were made to build the tunnel. The first two failed. Political differences between France and Britain stopped the first attempt. Financial problems stopped the second. VOICE TWO: The third and successful attempt to build the Chunnel began in nineteen eighty-seven after France and Britain signed an agreement. It took seven years to finish the work. To complete the tunnels, construction workers had to move more than seventeen million tons of earth. The cost was more than thirteen thousand million dollars. The Chunnel opened in nineteen ninety-four. Today, the Chunnel is very busy. High-speed trains carry cars, trucks and passengers from Britain to France and back again. The trains are famous for their smooth, quiet ride. The money paid for the trip is slowly paying for the huge cost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our last modern Wonder of the World has not yet been completed. It is perhaps the largest construction project ever attempted. It is the Three Gorges Dam Project in China’s Hubei Province. Some experts say it is the largest attempted construction project since the ancient Chinese built the Great Wall of China. The Three Gorges Dam is being built to produce power and control China’s Yangtze River. The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world. It is famous for the terrible floods it has caused. Some reports say more than one million people have been killed in Yangtze floods in the past one hundred years. VOICE TWO: The Three Gorges Dam will not be finished until two thousand nine. Work began in nineteen ninety-three. About two hundred fifty thousand workers are involved in the project. Experts say the huge dam will cost about twenty-five thousand million dollars. When finished it will be about one hundred eighty-one meters high. The dam will create a huge lake about six hundred thirty-two square kilometers. Some critics say the dam will harm the environment and damage historical areas. More than one million people will have to be resettled before the dam is finished. The completed dam will produce large amounts of electric power. Chinese government officials say it will lead to increased economic development in cities near the dam. And China says the terrible floods caused by the Yangtze will be memories of the past. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Any list of modern wonders should include some of the buildings in the great cities of the world. An example in New York City is the Empire State Building. For many years, it was the tallest building in the world. Today, the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are taller. These buildings are important to any list. However, the modern wonders we have selected have changed history. They are important because they made life safer or easier or were useful to a great number of people. We begin with two similar structures in two very different parts of the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than three thousand years ago, an ancient king of Egypt ordered that a river be built to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. This kind of man-made river is called a canal. Ancient evidence shows the work was done and a canal was built. Experts believe it was possible for small boats of that time to travel from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. Some evidence shows the Nile River may have been used for part of the canal. However, the ancient people of Egypt did not keep this canal in use. As years passed, the sands of the great deserts of Egypt closed the small canal. As the centuries passed, many people thought it would be a good idea to rebuild the canal. The problem was the huge cost. But the cost could not be compared to the cost of a ship that had to sail from ports on the Atlantic Ocean to ports in Asia. Ships had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, the most southern part of the continent of Africa. VOICE ONE: A French engineer planned and directed the modern canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. His name was Ferdinand de Lesseps. Egyptian workers began building the canal in eighteen fifty-nine. It was opened and named the Suez Canal during a ceremony on November seventeenth, eighteen sixty-nine. The Suez Canal is about one hundred sixty-three kilometers long and about sixty meters wide. The Suez Canal has been closed several times because of war or political problems. Today, the Suez Canal is still important. Ships pay money to use the canal. That money is important to the economy of Egypt. The canal saves shipping companies a great deal of time and money because it is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. VOICE TWO: Our next Modern Wonder of the World is also a canal -- the Panama Canal. It connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. Before it was built, ships often had to spend several weeks traveling around Cape Horn at the end of South America. Many ships were lost in great storms in that dangerous area. Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa and his men were the first Europeans to travel through the thick jungles in Panama from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. That was in fifteen thirteen. Panama quickly became a major shipping area for the Spanish. Their ships from the colonies in the Western Hemisphere and from Asia brought treasure to the Pacific Coast. The treasure was taken overland to the city of Portobelo on the Atlantic Side. The idea of building a way to connect the two great oceans began with the Spanish explorers. They saw the need for a canal to speed up delivery of their cargo. However, it was impossible to build. The machines needed to build something as big as a canal did not exist. VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-nine, a French Company tried to build a canal across Panama. It failed. The company did not have enough money to complete the project. Also, thousands of men working on the project died of the disease Yellow Fever. In nineteen hundred, an American army doctor, Walter Reed, and his research team discovered that mosquito insects carried the virus that caused Yellow Fever. They worked on methods to destroy the mosquito population. This development helped make possible an American effort to build the Panama Canal. Panama and the United States signed treaties in nineteen-oh-three and work began on the canal. More than eighty thousand men worked on the huge effort. They made a canal about eighty kilometers long from the Atlantic to the Pacific. On August fifteenth, nineteen fourteen, the ship S-S Ancon became the first ship to sail through the new canal. Today, about thirteen thousand ships pass through the canal each year. That number represents about five percent of the world’s trade. Both the Suez and the Panama Canals are truly modern Wonders of the World. Both make it possible to safely move from one great ocean to another. And, both save huge amounts of time and money. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The two great canals we have discussed connect oceans. Our next great Wonder of the World connects land. This connecting device is called the Channel Tunnel, or “Chunnel.” It connects the island that is Britain with France. It was one of the largest and most difficult construction projects ever attempted. It is a three-tunnel railroad from Calais, France to Folkestone, England. The tunnels are fifty kilometers long. They were built about forty-five meters below the earth under the English Channel. Two of the tunnels carry trains and one is used for repair work and emergencies. VOICE ONE: The idea of a tunnel connecting Britain with other nations of Europe was first proposed to the French Emperor Napoleon in the early eighteen hundreds. However it was never a serious idea. The technology to make such a tunnel did not exist. But people dreamed of such a tunnel. Crossing the English Channel by ship was often a terrible trip because of storms. Three serious attempts were made to build the tunnel. The first two failed. Political differences between France and Britain stopped the first attempt. Financial problems stopped the second. VOICE TWO: The third and successful attempt to build the Chunnel began in nineteen eighty-seven after France and Britain signed an agreement. It took seven years to finish the work. To complete the tunnels, construction workers had to move more than seventeen million tons of earth. The cost was more than thirteen thousand million dollars. The Chunnel opened in nineteen ninety-four. Today, the Chunnel is very busy. High-speed trains carry cars, trucks and passengers from Britain to France and back again. The trains are famous for their smooth, quiet ride. The money paid for the trip is slowly paying for the huge cost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our last modern Wonder of the World has not yet been completed. It is perhaps the largest construction project ever attempted. It is the Three Gorges Dam Project in China’s Hubei Province. Some experts say it is the largest attempted construction project since the ancient Chinese built the Great Wall of China. The Three Gorges Dam is being built to produce power and control China’s Yangtze River. The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world. It is famous for the terrible floods it has caused. Some reports say more than one million people have been killed in Yangtze floods in the past one hundred years. VOICE TWO: The Three Gorges Dam will not be finished until two thousand nine. Work began in nineteen ninety-three. About two hundred fifty thousand workers are involved in the project. Experts say the huge dam will cost about twenty-five thousand million dollars. When finished it will be about one hundred eighty-one meters high. The dam will create a huge lake about six hundred thirty-two square kilometers. Some critics say the dam will harm the environment and damage historical areas. More than one million people will have to be resettled before the dam is finished. The completed dam will produce large amounts of electric power. Chinese government officials say it will lead to increased economic development in cities near the dam. And China says the terrible floods caused by the Yangtze will be memories of the past. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Finding and Treating Tuberculosis
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 8, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Experts on tuberculosis say the best treatment program for this lung disease is DOTS. DOTS is directly observed treatment, short-course. This means health care workers watch patients take their medicine every day. This is a way to make sure patients take medicine long enough to kill the germs that cause TB. China recently reported a drop in tuberculosis rates because of DOTS. There has also been some success in the Philippines. But public health centers identified only sixty percent of TB cases in the country. So Philippine health officials have decided also to include private doctors in the program. Experts hope such efforts will reduce the spread of the kind of tuberculosis that resists common drugs. People with drug-resistant TB must take medicines that cost much more. And they must take these for eighteen to twenty-four months. Normally, patients with TB must take medicine for six to eight months. The DOTS program calls for direct observation for the first two months at least. Health experts say most people treated for TB are cured. But getting people to take all their medicine is not the only problem. Around the world, experts say only thirty-seven percent of TB cases are ever identified. The World Health Organization is trying new ways to educate people to see a health worker as soon as they show signs of the disease. Earlier this year, a program started in Kenya. The program is called COMBI, which means Communication for Behavioral Impact. Kenyan schoolchildren take home information about TB. People also get information through television and in movies and when they go into businesses. Colorful signs identify health care centers where people can be tested. Doctors say people who have a cough that does not go away after three weeks should get tested for TB. Infected people spread the bacteria through the air when they cough. Also, people with TB often have hiccups that will not stop. They may sweat at night and feel very hot. Yet there are reasons why people do not go to a doctor when they have signs of TB. They may not think a cough is very serious. They may need to keep working even though they are sick. Finding a doctor may not be easy. In the words of a W.H.O. report, “Knowing what to do is different from doing it.” This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - 1850 Compromise, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 9, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Today we continue our report about the compromise of eighteen-fifty. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-fifty, the United States faced the threat of a split between the northern and southern states. The two sides disagreed strongly over the issue of slavery. At that time, owning slaves was legal in the southern states. But should slavery be legal in new territories in the western part of the country. The issue needed to be settled. There was a danger of civil war between the north and south. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky offered a compromise. Conservative southern lawmakers rejected it. Other lawmakers supported it. These men believed it was the only way to save the Union of American states. VOICE ONE: One of the nation's top political leaders, Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, supported Henry Clay's compromise. Webster believed that slavery was evil. Yet he believed that national unity was more important. He did not want the nation to divide. He did not want to see the end of the United States of America. Daniel Webster spoke to other members of the Senate. His speech was an appeal to both sides in the dispute. "I speak today," he said, "to save the Union. I speak today out of a concerned and troubled heart. I speak for the return of a spirit of unity. I speak for the return of that general feeling of agreement which makes the blessings of this union so special to us all." VOICE TWO: Senator Webster spoke of how he hated slavery. He spoke of his fight against the spread of slavery in America. But he disagreed with those who wanted laws making slavery illegal in new territories. It would not be wise to pass such laws, he said. They would only make the south angry. They would only push the south away from the Union. Then Webster spoke about the things the north and south had done to make each other angry. VOICE ONE: One, he said, was the failure of the north to return runaway slaves. He said the south had good reason to protest. It was a matter of law. The law was contained in article four of the national constitution. "Every member of every northern legislature," Webster said, "has sworn to support the constitution of the United States. And the constitution says that states must return runaway slaves to their owners. This part of the constitution has as much power as any other part. It must be obeyed." VOICE TWO: Next, Webster spoke about the Abolition societies. These were organizations that demanded an end to slavery everywhere in the country. "I do not think that Abolition societies are useful," Webster said. "At the same time, I believe that thousands of their members are honest and good citizens who feel they must do something for liberty. However, their interference with the south has produced trouble." As an example, Webster spoke about the state of Virginia. Slavery was legal there. Webster noted that public opinion in Virginia had been turning against slavery until Abolitionists angered the people. After that, he said, no one would talk openly against slavery. He said Abolitionists were not ending slavery, but helping it to continue. VOICE ONE: Then Webster said the north also had a right to protest about some things the south had done. He said the south was wrong to try to take slaves into new American territories. He said attempts to do this violated earlier agreements to limit slavery to areas where it already existed. Webster said the north also had a right to protest statements by southern leaders about working conditions in the north. Southerners often said that slaves in the south lived better lives than free workers in the north. VOICE TWO: Webster appealed to both sides to forgive each other. He urged them to come to an agreement. He said the south could never leave the Union without violence. Webster said the two sides were joined together socially, economically, culturally, and in many other ways. There was no way to divide them. No Congress, he said, could establish a border between the north and south that either side would accept. VOICE ONE: In general, Webster's speech to the Senate was moderate. He wanted to appeal to reason, not emotion. Yet it was difficult for him to be unemotional. His voice rose as he finished. "Secession!" He called out. "Peaceable Secession! Your eyes and mine will never see that happen. There can be no such thing as peaceable secession. We live under a great constitution. Is it to be melted away by secession, as the snows of a mountain are melted away under the sun. "Let us not speak of the possibility of secession. Let us not debate an idea so full of horror. Let us not live with the thought of such darkness. Instead, let us come out into the light of day. Let us enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union." VOICE TWO: Northern Abolitionists quickly criticized Daniel Webster's speech. They called him a traitor. Yet most people of the north accepted Webster's appeal for compromise. His speech cooled the debate that threatened a complete break between the north and south. The dispute about slavery continued in the United States. It would, in time, lead to civil war. But historians say Webster's support for the compromise of eighteen-fifty probably helped delay that crisis. VOICE ONE: Daniel Webster's speech was not the end of debate on the compromise. Four days later, Senator William Seward of New York rose to speak. Seward said he opposed any compromise with the south. He said he did not want slavery in the new western territories. And he urged a national policy to start ending slavery everywhere...peacefully. Seward criticized Daniel Webster for speaking against the Abolition societies. He said such groups represented a moral movement that could not be stopped. He said the movement would continue until all the slaves in America were free. VOICE TWO: Seward then criticized another senator, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. He denounced Calhoun's demands for a political balance between the north and south. He said this would change the United States from a united, national democracy to an alliance of independent states. In such a system, he said, the minority would be able to veto actions of the majority. VOICE ONE: Many lawmakers seemed to support the idea of Clay's compromise. But they could not agree on which parts of it to pass first. Southern supporters were afraid that if a statehood bill for California was passed first, then northerners would refuse to pass the other parts of the compromise. So southerners wanted to include all parts in one bill. VOICE TWO: Hopes for the compromise increased after the death of John C. Calhoun on the last day of March, eighteen-fifty. Calhoun was pro-slavery. He had refused to compromise on the issue. One newspaper in Calhoun's state of South Carolina said: "The senator's death is best for the country and his own honor. The slavery question will now be settled. Calhoun would have blocked a settlement." VOICE 1: A committee of thirteen men was named to write a bill based on Henry Clay's compromise. The committee had six members from slave states and six from free states. Henry Clay was named to lead it. Three weeks later, the committee offered its bill. It was much like the compromise Clay had first proposed. It made California a free state. It created territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah. It settled the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico. It ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia. And it urged approval of a new law dealing with runaway slaves. VOICE TWO: For about a month, the proposed bill seemed to have the support of the administration of President Zachary Taylor. But then, President Taylor made it clear that he would do everything he could to defeat it. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Broadcast: September 9, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Today we continue our report about the compromise of eighteen-fifty. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-fifty, the United States faced the threat of a split between the northern and southern states. The two sides disagreed strongly over the issue of slavery. At that time, owning slaves was legal in the southern states. But should slavery be legal in new territories in the western part of the country. The issue needed to be settled. There was a danger of civil war between the north and south. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky offered a compromise. Conservative southern lawmakers rejected it. Other lawmakers supported it. These men believed it was the only way to save the Union of American states. VOICE ONE: One of the nation's top political leaders, Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, supported Henry Clay's compromise. Webster believed that slavery was evil. Yet he believed that national unity was more important. He did not want the nation to divide. He did not want to see the end of the United States of America. Daniel Webster spoke to other members of the Senate. His speech was an appeal to both sides in the dispute. "I speak today," he said, "to save the Union. I speak today out of a concerned and troubled heart. I speak for the return of a spirit of unity. I speak for the return of that general feeling of agreement which makes the blessings of this union so special to us all." VOICE TWO: Senator Webster spoke of how he hated slavery. He spoke of his fight against the spread of slavery in America. But he disagreed with those who wanted laws making slavery illegal in new territories. It would not be wise to pass such laws, he said. They would only make the south angry. They would only push the south away from the Union. Then Webster spoke about the things the north and south had done to make each other angry. VOICE ONE: One, he said, was the failure of the north to return runaway slaves. He said the south had good reason to protest. It was a matter of law. The law was contained in article four of the national constitution. "Every member of every northern legislature," Webster said, "has sworn to support the constitution of the United States. And the constitution says that states must return runaway slaves to their owners. This part of the constitution has as much power as any other part. It must be obeyed." VOICE TWO: Next, Webster spoke about the Abolition societies. These were organizations that demanded an end to slavery everywhere in the country. "I do not think that Abolition societies are useful," Webster said. "At the same time, I believe that thousands of their members are honest and good citizens who feel they must do something for liberty. However, their interference with the south has produced trouble." As an example, Webster spoke about the state of Virginia. Slavery was legal there. Webster noted that public opinion in Virginia had been turning against slavery until Abolitionists angered the people. After that, he said, no one would talk openly against slavery. He said Abolitionists were not ending slavery, but helping it to continue. VOICE ONE: Then Webster said the north also had a right to protest about some things the south had done. He said the south was wrong to try to take slaves into new American territories. He said attempts to do this violated earlier agreements to limit slavery to areas where it already existed. Webster said the north also had a right to protest statements by southern leaders about working conditions in the north. Southerners often said that slaves in the south lived better lives than free workers in the north. VOICE TWO: Webster appealed to both sides to forgive each other. He urged them to come to an agreement. He said the south could never leave the Union without violence. Webster said the two sides were joined together socially, economically, culturally, and in many other ways. There was no way to divide them. No Congress, he said, could establish a border between the north and south that either side would accept. VOICE ONE: In general, Webster's speech to the Senate was moderate. He wanted to appeal to reason, not emotion. Yet it was difficult for him to be unemotional. His voice rose as he finished. "Secession!" He called out. "Peaceable Secession! Your eyes and mine will never see that happen. There can be no such thing as peaceable secession. We live under a great constitution. Is it to be melted away by secession, as the snows of a mountain are melted away under the sun. "Let us not speak of the possibility of secession. Let us not debate an idea so full of horror. Let us not live with the thought of such darkness. Instead, let us come out into the light of day. Let us enjoy the fresh air of liberty and union." VOICE TWO: Northern Abolitionists quickly criticized Daniel Webster's speech. They called him a traitor. Yet most people of the north accepted Webster's appeal for compromise. His speech cooled the debate that threatened a complete break between the north and south. The dispute about slavery continued in the United States. It would, in time, lead to civil war. But historians say Webster's support for the compromise of eighteen-fifty probably helped delay that crisis. VOICE ONE: Daniel Webster's speech was not the end of debate on the compromise. Four days later, Senator William Seward of New York rose to speak. Seward said he opposed any compromise with the south. He said he did not want slavery in the new western territories. And he urged a national policy to start ending slavery everywhere...peacefully. Seward criticized Daniel Webster for speaking against the Abolition societies. He said such groups represented a moral movement that could not be stopped. He said the movement would continue until all the slaves in America were free. VOICE TWO: Seward then criticized another senator, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. He denounced Calhoun's demands for a political balance between the north and south. He said this would change the United States from a united, national democracy to an alliance of independent states. In such a system, he said, the minority would be able to veto actions of the majority. VOICE ONE: Many lawmakers seemed to support the idea of Clay's compromise. But they could not agree on which parts of it to pass first. Southern supporters were afraid that if a statehood bill for California was passed first, then northerners would refuse to pass the other parts of the compromise. So southerners wanted to include all parts in one bill. VOICE TWO: Hopes for the compromise increased after the death of John C. Calhoun on the last day of March, eighteen-fifty. Calhoun was pro-slavery. He had refused to compromise on the issue. One newspaper in Calhoun's state of South Carolina said: "The senator's death is best for the country and his own honor. The slavery question will now be settled. Calhoun would have blocked a settlement." VOICE 1: A committee of thirteen men was named to write a bill based on Henry Clay's compromise. The committee had six members from slave states and six from free states. Henry Clay was named to lead it. Three weeks later, the committee offered its bill. It was much like the compromise Clay had first proposed. It made California a free state. It created territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah. It settled the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico. It ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia. And it urged approval of a new law dealing with runaway slaves. VOICE TWO: For about a month, the proposed bill seemed to have the support of the administration of President Zachary Taylor. But then, President Taylor made it clear that he would do everything he could to defeat it. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Sarah Long and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series, #2: First Steps
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 9, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We begin a series of reports for students who want to study in the United States. Step one is to visit an American educational advising center. There are more than four hundred of these offices around the world. You can find them through the State Department Web site for international students. We will give that address later. Or you can ask the Public Affairs Office at a United States Embassy to tell you where to find the nearest one. These centers advise students about higher education and study opportunities in the United States. Some schools, for example, offer one-year certificate programs. These are in subjects like computer programming, public relations, administrative work and other jobs. Schools known as junior colleges or community colleges offer a two-year associate degree. These can prepare students for skilled jobs. Students also spend a lot less money than at a four-year school. Many universities accept this work as the first two years toward a bachelor’s degree. To get a bachelor’s degree, students traditionally take general subjects during the first two years. These include areas like history, literature, mathematics and science. After that they take classes in their major area of study. At the graduate school level, a master’s degree can take two or three years of full-time study in a subject. A doctorate can take longer. There are also professional schools in areas like medicine and law. Such programs require three to six years of study beyond college. Some specialties may require even more study. Whatever you choose, educational advisers say you should begin to plan at least two years before you want to start classes in the United States. Our reports will appear on our Web site, voaspecialenglish dot com. We will also include a link to the State Department site for international students. That address is educationusa.state.gov. Again, educationusa.state.gov. If you would like to ask us a question about education in the United States, send it to special@voanews.com. Please know that we cannot help with individual cases. But we might be able to answer some general questions on the air as our Foreign Student Series continues. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Dr. Seuss Anniversary / American Political Parties / The Ramones
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 10, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 10, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Some music by The Ramones. And we answer a question about the political parties involved in the upcoming American presidential election. But first, a report about the celebration of one of America’s best loved writers. Ralph Nader DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Some music by The Ramones. And we answer a question about the political parties involved in the upcoming American presidential election. But first, a report about the celebration of one of America’s best loved writers. Dr. Seuss Anniversary This year is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the American writer of children’s books known as Doctor Seuss. There is a year-long celebration of the writer and his work called the Seussentennial. Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: Doctor Seuss’ real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. He died in nineteen ninety-one. He wrote forty-six children’s books that have sold more than two hundred million copies. His books have been translated into twenty languages. All the books are fun to read. They contain pictures of funny creatures and plants. Yet they are about serious subjects like equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. Children and their parents enjoy the creatures created by Doctor Seuss: the elephant Horton from “Horton Hatches the Egg”, the mean Grinch from “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat In The Hat.” The year’s celebration began with an Imagination Tour — one hundred days of events honoring the memory of Doctor Seuss. The tour visited more than forty cities. It entertained children and adults with performances by actors dressed as Seuss characters and readings of Doctor Seuss books. Another traveling show that is part of the year-long celebration is “The Art of Doctor Seuss Tour.” This tour provides a look at Doctor Seuss’ artistic life. It has brought together examples of his art from galleries across the country. Doctor Seuss also is being honored through an interactive art show at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan in New York City. It is a Seussian world presented in activity areas for children. Museum officials say every part of the show is linked with some of his books. The Ramones in concert Dr. Seuss Anniversary This year is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the American writer of children’s books known as Doctor Seuss. There is a year-long celebration of the writer and his work called the Seussentennial. Shep O’Neal has more. SHEP O'NEAL: Doctor Seuss’ real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. He died in nineteen ninety-one. He wrote forty-six children’s books that have sold more than two hundred million copies. His books have been translated into twenty languages. All the books are fun to read. They contain pictures of funny creatures and plants. Yet they are about serious subjects like equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. Children and their parents enjoy the creatures created by Doctor Seuss: the elephant Horton from “Horton Hatches the Egg”, the mean Grinch from “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat In The Hat.” The year’s celebration began with an Imagination Tour — one hundred days of events honoring the memory of Doctor Seuss. The tour visited more than forty cities. It entertained children and adults with performances by actors dressed as Seuss characters and readings of Doctor Seuss books. Another traveling show that is part of the year-long celebration is “The Art of Doctor Seuss Tour.” This tour provides a look at Doctor Seuss’ artistic life. It has brought together examples of his art from galleries across the country. Doctor Seuss also is being honored through an interactive art show at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan in New York City. It is a Seussian world presented in activity areas for children. Museum officials say every part of the show is linked with some of his books. One of the simplest areas for the youngest children is a copy of the nest that Horton sits on when he hatches the egg. Other areas use modern digital technology. For example, children can change the pictures and words from Seuss stories on a huge wall. Or they can take part in vehicle races on video screens. In another interactive area, children can watch themselves on a large screen. Words from Doctor Seuss books rain down on them and they can push, move or catch the words. Museum officials say this fun activity teaches children how to read without having them recognize that they are learning. American Political Parties DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Phuong Le asks how many political parties are taking part in the American presidential election in November. A great many political parties are active in the United States. Some have candidates competing for the presidency. Others do not. The major parties involved in every presidential election are the Republican and Democratic parties. More than thirty other small political parties are known as “third parties.” More than ten of the third parties have candidates running for president. These include the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Libertarians want more freedom, lower taxes and less government. The Libertarian Party has more candidates than any other third party competing in local elections across the country. Four hundred of its members now hold local government offices. The Green Party is linked to the environmental Green movement around the world. The Green Party became important in American politics when activist Ralph Nader became its first presidential candidate in nineteen ninety-six. He got more than seven hundred thousand votes and finished fourth in the election. Mister Nader was the Green Party candidate again in two thousand. That time, he finished third with more than two million votes. This year, Ralph Nader is once again competing for the presidency, but not for the Green Party. This year, he is an independent candidate and the nominee of the Reform Party. Businessman Ross Perot founded the Reform Party in nineteen ninety-five. The next year, he ran as the party’s presidential nominee. He received eight million votes. However, he had received nineteen million votes when he ran as an independent candidate for president four years earlier, in nineteen ninety-two. Sometimes the two major parties object to candidates from third parties competing in the presidential race. They say these candidates receive votes that would have gone to one of the two main candidates. For example, in two thousand, the Democrats asked Ralph Nader not to compete for president. They said he would take votes away from their candidate, Vice President Al Gore. Political experts say that is what happened. Some say Mister Gore would have won the election if Ralph Nader had not been a candidate. The Ramones The Ramones, probably America's most famous punk rock band, broke up eight years ago. But this Sunday fans will gather for a thirtieth anniversary celebration. Also, there is new documentary film called “End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones." Faith Lapidus has our own story. FAITH LAPIDUS: The year is nineteen seventy-four. The place is New York City. Four young friends are influenced by the music of punk rockers like the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop. They form their own band and call it the Ramones. They call themselves Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone. They seem like a band of brothers. After they play at a New York music club, C.B.G.B, they gain a local following. In nineteen seventy-five, they sign a recording deal and release their first album. The first song is “Blitzkrieg Bop," also known as “Hey Ho, Let’s Go.” (MUSIC) Several popular albums follow, including “Leave Home” and “Road to Ruin.” In nineteen eighty-one the Ramones release “Pleasant Dreams." Fans love this song: “The K.K.K. Took My Baby Away.” (MUSIC) In nineteen ninety-six, the Ramones play at the Avalon in Hollywood. It is their last show together. Dee Dee died from drugs two years ago, a year after Joey died of cancer. And Johnny was treated in June for cancer. Organizers of the party this Sunday at the Avalon say the money will go to aid cancer research. Two later Ramones, Marky and C.J., will perform, and Tommy will speak to the crowd. The show is also to include performances by members of Pearl Jam, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Sex Pistols. We leave you with a nineteen eighty Ramones hit, “Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. One of the simplest areas for the youngest children is a copy of the nest that Horton sits on when he hatches the egg. Other areas use modern digital technology. For example, children can change the pictures and words from Seuss stories on a huge wall. Or they can take part in vehicle races on video screens. In another interactive area, children can watch themselves on a large screen. Words from Doctor Seuss books rain down on them and they can push, move or catch the words. Museum officials say this fun activity teaches children how to read without having them recognize that they are learning. American Political Parties DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Phuong Le asks how many political parties are taking part in the American presidential election in November. A great many political parties are active in the United States. Some have candidates competing for the presidency. Others do not. The major parties involved in every presidential election are the Republican and Democratic parties. More than thirty other small political parties are known as “third parties.” More than ten of the third parties have candidates running for president. These include the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Libertarians want more freedom, lower taxes and less government. The Libertarian Party has more candidates than any other third party competing in local elections across the country. Four hundred of its members now hold local government offices. The Green Party is linked to the environmental Green movement around the world. The Green Party became important in American politics when activist Ralph Nader became its first presidential candidate in nineteen ninety-six. He got more than seven hundred thousand votes and finished fourth in the election. Mister Nader was the Green Party candidate again in two thousand. That time, he finished third with more than two million votes. This year, Ralph Nader is once again competing for the presidency, but not for the Green Party. This year, he is an independent candidate and the nominee of the Reform Party. Businessman Ross Perot founded the Reform Party in nineteen ninety-five. The next year, he ran as the party’s presidential nominee. He received eight million votes. However, he had received nineteen million votes when he ran as an independent candidate for president four years earlier, in nineteen ninety-two. Sometimes the two major parties object to candidates from third parties competing in the presidential race. They say these candidates receive votes that would have gone to one of the two main candidates. For example, in two thousand, the Democrats asked Ralph Nader not to compete for president. They said he would take votes away from their candidate, Vice President Al Gore. Political experts say that is what happened. Some say Mister Gore would have won the election if Ralph Nader had not been a candidate. The Ramones The Ramones, probably America's most famous punk rock band, broke up eight years ago. But this Sunday fans will gather for a thirtieth anniversary celebration. Also, there is new documentary film called “End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones." Faith Lapidus has our own story. FAITH LAPIDUS: The year is nineteen seventy-four. The place is New York City. Four young friends are influenced by the music of punk rockers like the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop. They form their own band and call it the Ramones. They call themselves Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone. They seem like a band of brothers. After they play at a New York music club, C.B.G.B, they gain a local following. In nineteen seventy-five, they sign a recording deal and release their first album. The first song is “Blitzkrieg Bop," also known as “Hey Ho, Let’s Go.” (MUSIC) Several popular albums follow, including “Leave Home” and “Road to Ruin.” In nineteen eighty-one the Ramones release “Pleasant Dreams." Fans love this song: “The K.K.K. Took My Baby Away.” (MUSIC) In nineteen ninety-six, the Ramones play at the Avalon in Hollywood. It is their last show together. Dee Dee died from drugs two years ago, a year after Joey died of cancer. And Johnny was treated in June for cancer. Organizers of the party this Sunday at the Avalon say the money will go to aid cancer research. Two later Ramones, Marky and C.J., will perform, and Tommy will speak to the crowd. The show is also to include performances by members of Pearl Jam, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Sex Pistols. We leave you with a nineteen eighty Ramones hit, “Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Measuring Jobs in U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 10, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last Friday, the United States Labor Department released the employment numbers for August. The report said the number of unemployed people and the unemployment rate were both about the same as in July. Unemployment was down one-tenth of one percent, to five point four percent. More than one hundred fifty thousand people left the labor force for whatever reason. Last summer the unemployment rate reached six point three percent. The report said the number of jobs increased by one hundred forty-four thousand in August. There were gains in health care and several other industries that provide services. Manufacturers added twenty two thousand jobs. The Labor Department also said almost sixty thousand more jobs were created in June and July than first reported. President Bush said the new information shows that the "economy is strong and getting stronger." Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry saw the numbers differently. He said Mister Bush is now sure to be, in his words, "the first president since the Great Depression to face re-election without creating a single job." Both could be right, depending on which measure they use. The Department of Labor measures employment in two ways. One is known as the household survey. Sixty thousand households are asked if anyone age sixteen and over had worked during the past week. Even those who worked without pay in a family business or farm are considered employed. The other measure is taken from information from one hundred sixty thousand employers. This is known as the establishment survey. It does not include farm workers or the self-employed. The number of Americans counted as employed is about eight million higher in the household survey. The Republicans use numbers from this survey to point to job growth among the self-employed and others. The Democrats use the establishment survey to talk about the economy having fewer jobs than four years ago. But the two surveys measure employment differently. In any case, many economists noted that the rate of job creation has slowed compared to earlier this year. They say more jobs are needed just to meet population growth. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: September 9, 2004 - Epigram Writer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 9, 2004 DAVE ARLINGTON: Every Thursday we bring you another report in our Wordmaster series, looking at American English. Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble will be back next week. In their place, we meet a man who puts just a few words together in unusual ways. As VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, he has earned a living for more than three decades by getting his entertaining little phrases printed in newspapers and books and on postcards and T-shirts. MIKE O'SULLIVAN: Ashleigh Brilliant writes epigrams, which he explains are short, pithy sayings. ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT: "Traditionally, it's written to go onto something. That's where the 'epi' part comes from. 'Gram' means 'writing.' 'Epi' is 'upon.' So originally they were something to be written and put on a tree or on a rock. Nowadays, of course, they can go on a T-shirt or on a postcard, or anything. But it's the idea of a separate little piece of writing." MO: He has imposed some additional rules on himself in writing his epigrams. They must be original and no longer than 17 words. AB: "That's very short, even for an epigram. Mine must never have any rhyme of rhythm because my idea is to have them capable of being translated into other languages. Also, I try to say something meaningful, but also say it in a way that's entertaining." MO: He is the author of nine books, made up of his epigrams, with illustrations. AB: "The first one was called 'I May Not be Totally Perfect, But Parts of Me are Excellent.' Number two, 'I Have Abandoned My Search for Truth and am Now Looking for a Good Fantasy.' Next came, 'Appreciate Me Now and Avoid the Rush,' followed by, 'I Feel Much Better Now that I've Given Up Hope.'" MO: Book number five was titled, "All I Want is a Warm Bed and a Kind Word, and Unlimited Power." Ashleigh Brilliant was born in England, and says, yes, he was born with the name Brilliant. As a child, he moved to Canada with his parents, and came to California in 1956. After teaching high school briefly, he went on to finish a Ph.D. in American history at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught college briefly, then spent two years on a cruise ship that sailed around the world offering college courses. AB: "There was nowhere to go from that, so I had to find a new career. And it happened to be just about the time of the "summer of love" in San Francisco, 1967, so I became a sort of mock-hippie guru. And I had been writing these strange little things for quite a while and didn't know what to do with them, so this was my opportunity." MO: He soon found that people would pay for his sayings printed on postcards. That was the start of a business. He syndicates his sayings in a newspaper column called "Pot-Shots," sells them on cards and in books, and licenses them for reproduction on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even underwear. One of his popular epigrams says "Your smile is one of the great sights of the world." He reads some others: AB: "'By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.' 'No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas.' 'Instead of past, present and future, I prefer chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.' Oh, here's a good one for a journalist: 'My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating.'" MO: Some sayings are funny, others are ironic. They all have the ring of truth, he says, or people won't buy them. He says the rise of the Internet has been good for the epigram business. AB: "The postcard business has declined, but the Internet business is growing all the time. And I'm just on the verge of bringing out what I hope will be our most popular product, a database, a piece of software, containing all my work, both the text and the pictures." MO: After more than 35 years and thousands of epigrams, he says the task of writing them is getting more difficult. AB: "I've grown a little weary. I don't intend to go on forever. In fact, I'm thinking of stopping at 10,000, which I'm now approaching." MO: But at 70 years of age, the writer of epigrams is still satisfying his fans and rounding out his extensive body of very short works. Mike O'Sullivan, VOA News, Los Angeles. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 9, 2004 DAVE ARLINGTON: Every Thursday we bring you another report in our Wordmaster series, looking at American English. Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble will be back next week. In their place, we meet a man who puts just a few words together in unusual ways. As VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, he has earned a living for more than three decades by getting his entertaining little phrases printed in newspapers and books and on postcards and T-shirts. MIKE O'SULLIVAN: Ashleigh Brilliant writes epigrams, which he explains are short, pithy sayings. ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT: "Traditionally, it's written to go onto something. That's where the 'epi' part comes from. 'Gram' means 'writing.' 'Epi' is 'upon.' So originally they were something to be written and put on a tree or on a rock. Nowadays, of course, they can go on a T-shirt or on a postcard, or anything. But it's the idea of a separate little piece of writing." MO: He has imposed some additional rules on himself in writing his epigrams. They must be original and no longer than 17 words. AB: "That's very short, even for an epigram. Mine must never have any rhyme of rhythm because my idea is to have them capable of being translated into other languages. Also, I try to say something meaningful, but also say it in a way that's entertaining." MO: He is the author of nine books, made up of his epigrams, with illustrations. AB: "The first one was called 'I May Not be Totally Perfect, But Parts of Me are Excellent.' Number two, 'I Have Abandoned My Search for Truth and am Now Looking for a Good Fantasy.' Next came, 'Appreciate Me Now and Avoid the Rush,' followed by, 'I Feel Much Better Now that I've Given Up Hope.'" MO: Book number five was titled, "All I Want is a Warm Bed and a Kind Word, and Unlimited Power." Ashleigh Brilliant was born in England, and says, yes, he was born with the name Brilliant. As a child, he moved to Canada with his parents, and came to California in 1956. After teaching high school briefly, he went on to finish a Ph.D. in American history at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught college briefly, then spent two years on a cruise ship that sailed around the world offering college courses. AB: "There was nowhere to go from that, so I had to find a new career. And it happened to be just about the time of the "summer of love" in San Francisco, 1967, so I became a sort of mock-hippie guru. And I had been writing these strange little things for quite a while and didn't know what to do with them, so this was my opportunity." MO: He soon found that people would pay for his sayings printed on postcards. That was the start of a business. He syndicates his sayings in a newspaper column called "Pot-Shots," sells them on cards and in books, and licenses them for reproduction on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even underwear. One of his popular epigrams says "Your smile is one of the great sights of the world." He reads some others: AB: "'By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.' 'No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas.' 'Instead of past, present and future, I prefer chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.' Oh, here's a good one for a journalist: 'My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating.'" MO: Some sayings are funny, others are ironic. They all have the ring of truth, he says, or people won't buy them. He says the rise of the Internet has been good for the epigram business. AB: "The postcard business has declined, but the Internet business is growing all the time. And I'm just on the verge of bringing out what I hope will be our most popular product, a database, a piece of software, containing all my work, both the text and the pictures." MO: After more than 35 years and thousands of epigrams, he says the task of writing them is getting more difficult. AB: "I've grown a little weary. I don't intend to go on forever. In fact, I'm thinking of stopping at 10,000, which I'm now approaching." MO: But at 70 years of age, the writer of epigrams is still satisfying his fans and rounding out his extensive body of very short works. Mike O'Sullivan, VOA News, Los Angeles. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Russia Offers Reward for Chechen Rebel Leaders
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 11, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. This week, the government of Russia offered ten million dollars for information leading to two commanders of the rebels in Chechnya. Russian officials say Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov organized the attack a week ago at a school in southern Russia. Aslan Maskhadov is the former president of Chechnya. Both men denied any involvement. More than three hundred people were killed at the school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia. Many of them were children. A group of thirty men and women held more than one thousand people hostage for fifty-two hours. Russian officials say the attackers apparently set off explosives by accident. Many of the hostages then tried to flee and were shot. This led to a raid by Russian security forces that killed most of the attackers. Seven hundred people were injured in the resulting explosions and fire. A man identified as a captured hostage-taker appeared on state television. He said the attackers were told that the goal was to start a war across the Caucasus. The area has a mixture of ethnic and religious groups. Russian officials said several of the militants who seized the school came from other countries. Some attackers reportedly were Arabs. This has not been independently confirmed. Russian media have called the school attack "Russia's 9/11," comparing it to the attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Moscow Tuesday to denounce terrorism and attacks on children. Anger over the school attack in Beslan led the president of North Ossetia to promise that his government would resign. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to lead a full war against terrorism. But he also noted weaknesses in Russian security forces. Some officials have proposed travel and other restrictions in an effort to prevent rebels from moving freely around the country. For ten years, Russian troops have tried to crush a movement to gain independence for Chechnya and its mostly Muslim population. The Russian government says it has evidence that fighters from Arab countries and other areas have gone to fight in Chechnya. The government believes that the Chechen conflict is an example of international terrorism. Mister Putin promised to end the Chechen conflict when he was elected four years ago. But he has rejected recent Western calls to negotiate with representatives of the rebels. He said the Chechen cause was designed to spread to all of southern Russia. The school hostage crisis began one day after a bomber in Moscow killed herself and nine other people. It happened outside an underground train station. And, a week earlier, bombs destroyed two Russian passenger airplanes. Officials also linked those attacks to female bombers. Ninety people were killed. In the News in VOA Special English was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Georgia O'Keeffe
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 12, 2004 (THEME) <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:72688| height="100" width="150" alt="Georgia O'Keeffe, "Red Hills with the Pedernal," 1936" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/nmwa.org_Georgia_O'Keeffe2_4april02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> Georgia O'Keeffe, "Red Hills with the Pedernal," 1936 Broadcast: September 12, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, Georgia O'Keeffe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: America has produced many great painters in the past one-hundred years. Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most popular and easily recognized artists. People do not mistake her work for anyone else's. People can immediately identify her paintings of huge, colorful flowers or bones in dream-like deserts. Georgia O'Keeffe said she did not know how she got the idea to be an artist. But, she said, the idea came early. She remembered announcing when she was twelve years old that she planned to be an artist. VOICE TWO: Georgia was born in eighteen eighty seven, the second of seven children. Her parents were successful farmers in the middle western state of Wisconsin. Georgia's mother also had cultural interests. She made sure that Georgia and her sisters studied art, in addition to their usual school subjects. By the time Georgia was sixteen, the O'Keeffe family had moved to Williamsburg, Virginia. After Georgia finished school, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Georgia was especially pleased with the help she got from her teacher, John Vanderpoel. She later wrote that John Vanderpoel was one of the few real teachers she knew. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-seven, O’Keeffe began a year at the Art Students League in New York City. The famous painter William Merritt Chase was one of her teachers. Chase had a great influence on O'Keeffe's early artistic development. She described him as fresh, full of energy and fierce. She seemed to understand and agree with his style of painting. Then, in nineteen-oh-eight, Georgia O'Keeffe left the world of fine art. She moved back to Chicago and worked in the advertising business. She drew pictures of products to be sold. Her parents had been struggling financially for some time in Virginia. Later, her mother became sick with tuberculosis. Some art historians suspect these were the main reasons Georgia O’Keeffe spent four years in business instead of continuing her studies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen twelve, O'Keeffe returned to art school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Artist and teacher Arthur Wesley Dow taught that art should fill space in a beautiful way. This theory influenced and changed her work. O’Keefe also learned about the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. He wanted artists to represent the inner spirit in outer things. O'Keeffe considered Kandinsky's writings a treasure. She read them throughout her life. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifteen, Georgia O'Keeffe decided that much of what she had been taught in art school was of little value. She decided to hang recent work she had done on the wall of her home. She examined it and did not find herself in the art. She wrote that she had been taught to work like others. She decided then that she would not spend her life doing what had already been done. Georgia O'Keeffe began to search for her own style. She used only charcoal, the black material made from burned wood. In her book about her life, she wrote that she decided to limit herself to charcoal until she found she really needed color to do what she needed to do. She wrote that six months later she found she needed the color blue. She used it for a watercolor painting she called "Blue Lines." VOICE TWO: Georgia O'Keeffe had met the famous art critic and photographer Alfred Stieglitz (STEEG-lits) at his New York City gallery in nineteen-oh-eight. Their friendship grew as they wrote letters to each other. In nineteen fifteen, O'Keeffe told a friend that she wanted her art to please Alfred Stieglitz more than anyone else. That friend showed O'Keeffe’s charcoal drawings to Stieglitz. Stieglitz liked her drawings enough to show them in his art gallery, called Two Ninety One. VOICE ONE: Alfred Stieglitz was a major force behind shows of Georgia O'Keeffe's work for the next twenty-five years. Her first individual show at his gallery was well received. She sold her first piece at that show in nineteen seventeen. Stieglitz became O'Keeffe's strongest supporter. Seven years later he became her husband. He was twenty-four years older than his new wife. The relationship between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz was not an easy one. O’Keeffe once said that to her “he was much more wonderful in his work than as a human being.” But, she also said she loved him for what seemed “clear and bright and wonderful.” The two remained married until his death in nineteen forty six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Georgia O'Keeffe also had a long love relationship with the southwestern part of the United States. The desert environment was the subject of many of her paintings. O'Keeffe had moved to the state of Texas when she was twenty-five. She accepted a two-year position as supervisor of art in the public schools of Amarillo, Texas. Later, she taught in a small town. She wrote about long walks on narrow paths in a canyon near that town. The dangerous climbs in and out of the canyon were like nothing she had known before. She wrote that many paintings came from experiences like that. In one such painting, the canyon is shown as a huge deep hole of many colors -- reds, oranges and yellows. It looks as if it is on fire. The canyon fills most of the picture. A small area of blue sky in the distance lends additional depth to the picture. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty, Georgia O'Keeffe began spending most of her summers in the state of New Mexico. She called it “the faraway.” She painted big pictures of desert flowers and the high rocky hills. She also began to paint pictures of the bones she found during walks near her summer home. Most of her paintings share the qualities of largeness of subject and richness of color. The artist discussed those two qualities in her book, called “Georgia O’Keefe.” She wrote that color is more exact in meaning than words. Later, she wrote that she found she could say things with color and shape that she could not express in words. She also spoke of a special need to paint her subjects larger than they are in life. She seemed to want to force people to see more deeply into objects such as flowers. She tried to show the different shapes and colors within a single flower. The artist said she would make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what she saw in flowers. VOICE TWO: O'Keeffe was angered by some criticism of her work over the years. She rejected critics' claims that there was deep sexual meaning in her paintings of flowers. She said that people linked their own experience of a flower to her paintings. She suggested that critics wrote about her flower paintings as if they knew what she was seeing and thinking. But, she said, they did not know. Georgia O'Keeffe always argued that what others think of the artist's work is not important. She once wrote to a friend, "... I'll do as I please." VOICE ONE: Georgia O’Keeffe bought her first house in New Mexico in nineteen forty. After Alfred Stieglitz died, she moved to “the faraway’” permanently. She lived in New Mexico for the rest of her life. In the early nineteen seventies, O’Keeffe began losing her sight because of an eye disease. She stopped working with oil paints, but continued to produce watercolor paintings. Around the same time, she met a young artist who would become very important to her. Juan Hamilton made pottery, objects of clay. He became O’Keeffe’s assistant and friend. They also travelled together. But in the early nineteen-eighties Georgia O’Keeffe’s health failed severely. She died in nineteen-eighty-six. She was ninety-eight. VOICE TWO: Georgia O’Keefe received many honors during her long life. President Gerald Ford presented her with the Medal of Freedom in nineteen-seventy-seven. Eight years later, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National Medal of Arts. Students and experts continue to study and write about her work. Her paintings are shown around the world. And, more than one-million people have visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico since it opened in nineteen-ninety-seven. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People In America in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, Georgia O'Keeffe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: America has produced many great painters in the past one-hundred years. Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most popular and easily recognized artists. People do not mistake her work for anyone else's. People can immediately identify her paintings of huge, colorful flowers or bones in dream-like deserts. Georgia O'Keeffe said she did not know how she got the idea to be an artist. But, she said, the idea came early. She remembered announcing when she was twelve years old that she planned to be an artist. VOICE TWO: Georgia was born in eighteen eighty seven, the second of seven children. Her parents were successful farmers in the middle western state of Wisconsin. Georgia's mother also had cultural interests. She made sure that Georgia and her sisters studied art, in addition to their usual school subjects. By the time Georgia was sixteen, the O'Keeffe family had moved to Williamsburg, Virginia. After Georgia finished school, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Georgia was especially pleased with the help she got from her teacher, John Vanderpoel. She later wrote that John Vanderpoel was one of the few real teachers she knew. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-seven, O’Keeffe began a year at the Art Students League in New York City. The famous painter William Merritt Chase was one of her teachers. Chase had a great influence on O'Keeffe's early artistic development. She described him as fresh, full of energy and fierce. She seemed to understand and agree with his style of painting. Then, in nineteen-oh-eight, Georgia O'Keeffe left the world of fine art. She moved back to Chicago and worked in the advertising business. She drew pictures of products to be sold. Her parents had been struggling financially for some time in Virginia. Later, her mother became sick with tuberculosis. Some art historians suspect these were the main reasons Georgia O’Keeffe spent four years in business instead of continuing her studies. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In nineteen twelve, O'Keeffe returned to art school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Artist and teacher Arthur Wesley Dow taught that art should fill space in a beautiful way. This theory influenced and changed her work. O’Keefe also learned about the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. He wanted artists to represent the inner spirit in outer things. O'Keeffe considered Kandinsky's writings a treasure. She read them throughout her life. VOICE ONE: In nineteen fifteen, Georgia O'Keeffe decided that much of what she had been taught in art school was of little value. She decided to hang recent work she had done on the wall of her home. She examined it and did not find herself in the art. She wrote that she had been taught to work like others. She decided then that she would not spend her life doing what had already been done. Georgia O'Keeffe began to search for her own style. She used only charcoal, the black material made from burned wood. In her book about her life, she wrote that she decided to limit herself to charcoal until she found she really needed color to do what she needed to do. She wrote that six months later she found she needed the color blue. She used it for a watercolor painting she called "Blue Lines." VOICE TWO: Georgia O'Keeffe had met the famous art critic and photographer Alfred Stieglitz (STEEG-lits) at his New York City gallery in nineteen-oh-eight. Their friendship grew as they wrote letters to each other. In nineteen fifteen, O'Keeffe told a friend that she wanted her art to please Alfred Stieglitz more than anyone else. That friend showed O'Keeffe’s charcoal drawings to Stieglitz. Stieglitz liked her drawings enough to show them in his art gallery, called Two Ninety One. VOICE ONE: Alfred Stieglitz was a major force behind shows of Georgia O'Keeffe's work for the next twenty-five years. Her first individual show at his gallery was well received. She sold her first piece at that show in nineteen seventeen. Stieglitz became O'Keeffe's strongest supporter. Seven years later he became her husband. He was twenty-four years older than his new wife. The relationship between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz was not an easy one. O’Keeffe once said that to her “he was much more wonderful in his work than as a human being.” But, she also said she loved him for what seemed “clear and bright and wonderful.” The two remained married until his death in nineteen forty six. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Georgia O'Keeffe also had a long love relationship with the southwestern part of the United States. The desert environment was the subject of many of her paintings. O'Keeffe had moved to the state of Texas when she was twenty-five. She accepted a two-year position as supervisor of art in the public schools of Amarillo, Texas. Later, she taught in a small town. She wrote about long walks on narrow paths in a canyon near that town. The dangerous climbs in and out of the canyon were like nothing she had known before. She wrote that many paintings came from experiences like that. In one such painting, the canyon is shown as a huge deep hole of many colors -- reds, oranges and yellows. It looks as if it is on fire. The canyon fills most of the picture. A small area of blue sky in the distance lends additional depth to the picture. VOICE ONE: In nineteen thirty, Georgia O'Keeffe began spending most of her summers in the state of New Mexico. She called it “the faraway.” She painted big pictures of desert flowers and the high rocky hills. She also began to paint pictures of the bones she found during walks near her summer home. Most of her paintings share the qualities of largeness of subject and richness of color. The artist discussed those two qualities in her book, called “Georgia O’Keefe.” She wrote that color is more exact in meaning than words. Later, she wrote that she found she could say things with color and shape that she could not express in words. She also spoke of a special need to paint her subjects larger than they are in life. She seemed to want to force people to see more deeply into objects such as flowers. She tried to show the different shapes and colors within a single flower. The artist said she would make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what she saw in flowers. VOICE TWO: O'Keeffe was angered by some criticism of her work over the years. She rejected critics' claims that there was deep sexual meaning in her paintings of flowers. She said that people linked their own experience of a flower to her paintings. She suggested that critics wrote about her flower paintings as if they knew what she was seeing and thinking. But, she said, they did not know. Georgia O'Keeffe always argued that what others think of the artist's work is not important. She once wrote to a friend, "... I'll do as I please." VOICE ONE: Georgia O’Keeffe bought her first house in New Mexico in nineteen forty. After Alfred Stieglitz died, she moved to “the faraway’” permanently. She lived in New Mexico for the rest of her life. In the early nineteen seventies, O’Keeffe began losing her sight because of an eye disease. She stopped working with oil paints, but continued to produce watercolor paintings. Around the same time, she met a young artist who would become very important to her. Juan Hamilton made pottery, objects of clay. He became O’Keeffe’s assistant and friend. They also travelled together. But in the early nineteen-eighties Georgia O’Keeffe’s health failed severely. She died in nineteen-eighty-six. She was ninety-eight. VOICE TWO: Georgia O’Keefe received many honors during her long life. President Gerald Ford presented her with the Medal of Freedom in nineteen-seventy-seven. Eight years later, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the National Medal of Arts. Students and experts continue to study and write about her work. Her paintings are shown around the world. And, more than one-million people have visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in New Mexico since it opened in nineteen-ninety-seven. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Gwen Outen. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for People In America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Songs About American States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 13, 2004 (VOA photo - A. Phillips) Broadcast: September 13, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost every state in America has an official song. However, songwriters have written many beautiful, un-official songs to describe the state they love best. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We play songs about American states on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most famous songs about an American state is from the broadway musical play "Oklahoma!" Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote it in nineteen-forty-three. The play is about farmers and cowboys living in a territory in the American west in the early nineteen-hundreds. At the end of the play, they celebrate when their territory becomes a state. Here, Nelson Eddy sings "Oklahoma." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Texas is America's second largest state in land area. It is famous for oil wells, cattle, and cowboys. Many people believe that everything is bigger, better, and brighter in Texas. Songwriters have written more songs about Texas than about any other state. Bob Wills sings one of them here. It is called "Deep In The Heart of Texas." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people think America's southern states have a special beauty and history. And there are more songs about southern states than about states in any other part of the country. One of the most beautiful is about the state of Georgia. It is called "Georgia On My Mind." Hoagy Carmichael wrote it. Ray Charles made it famous. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-seventies, John Denver wrote and performed many popular songs. Two were about the states he liked best. Both have tall mountains. One state is West Virginia, which is actually in the eastern part of the country. John Denver said West Virginia is so beautiful that it is "almost heaven." Here he sings "Take Me Home, Country Roads." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Denver also loved the western state of Colorado, because of the Rocky Mountains there. He sings about a young man who discovers the mountains of Colorado. The experience changes his life. The song is called "Rocky Mountain High." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people love the states in the northeastern United States. This is the area called New England. These states are especially beautiful in autumn when the leaves on the trees change from green...to yellow...red...and orange. They also are beautiful in winter when the land is covered with snow. Here Billie Holiday sings about the beauty of one New England state in the song, "Moonlight in Vermont": (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people love the state of New York best. Of course, many people want to live in the nation's biggest and most exciting city, New York. Yet others love the rest of the state, too, better than any other place. Carmen McRae sings about this in the song, "New York State of Mind." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We do not want to forget America's middle western states, even though there are not as many songs about them. There is one popular song about the middle western state of Indiana. It is called "Back Home Again In Indiana." Errol Garner plays it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost every state in America has an official song. However, songwriters have written many beautiful, un-official songs to describe the state they love best. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We play songs about American states on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most famous songs about an American state is from the broadway musical play "Oklahoma!" Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote it in nineteen-forty-three. The play is about farmers and cowboys living in a territory in the American west in the early nineteen-hundreds. At the end of the play, they celebrate when their territory becomes a state. Here, Nelson Eddy sings "Oklahoma." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Texas is America's second largest state in land area. It is famous for oil wells, cattle, and cowboys. Many people believe that everything is bigger, better, and brighter in Texas. Songwriters have written more songs about Texas than about any other state. Bob Wills sings one of them here. It is called "Deep In The Heart of Texas." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people think America's southern states have a special beauty and history. And there are more songs about southern states than about states in any other part of the country. One of the most beautiful is about the state of Georgia. It is called "Georgia On My Mind." Hoagy Carmichael wrote it. Ray Charles made it famous. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-seventies, John Denver wrote and performed many popular songs. Two were about the states he liked best. Both have tall mountains. One state is West Virginia, which is actually in the eastern part of the country. John Denver said West Virginia is so beautiful that it is "almost heaven." Here he sings "Take Me Home, Country Roads." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Denver also loved the western state of Colorado, because of the Rocky Mountains there. He sings about a young man who discovers the mountains of Colorado. The experience changes his life. The song is called "Rocky Mountain High." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people love the states in the northeastern United States. This is the area called New England. These states are especially beautiful in autumn when the leaves on the trees change from green...to yellow...red...and orange. They also are beautiful in winter when the land is covered with snow. Here Billie Holiday sings about the beauty of one New England state in the song, "Moonlight in Vermont": (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people love the state of New York best. Of course, many people want to live in the nation's biggest and most exciting city, New York. Yet others love the rest of the state, too, better than any other place. Carmen McRae sings about this in the song, "New York State of Mind." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We do not want to forget America's middle western states, even though there are not as many songs about them. There is one popular song about the middle western state of Indiana. It is called "Back Home Again In Indiana." Errol Garner plays it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Decreases in Wars, Refugees and Arms Sales
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 13, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Researchers have hopeful news for the international community. A new study shows that fewer wars were reported around the world last year. A second study reports that last year’s agreements for non-nuclear weapons sales dropped in value. And a third study reports the number of people seeking asylum decreased during the first half of this year. We begin in Sweden. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has recorded major decreases in armed conflict worldwide. The non-governmental organization counted nineteen major armed conflicts during two thousand three. A record thirty-three wars were reported for nineteen ninety-one. That was after the Soviet Union fell apart. The Stockholm study says three new wars started last year. The United States led a coalition to invade Iraq, and two new conflicts started in Africa. One was in Liberia. The other was in the Darfur area of Sudan. The Swedish organization said wars already in progress included the separatist conflict in the Russian republic of Chechnya, and the continuing conflicts in the Middle East and Indian Kashmir. The second study measured the value of weapons transfer agreements in two thousand three. The Congressional Research Service of the United States Library of Congress said world arms sales last year dropped to about twenty-five thousand million dollars. The agency says this was the third straight year that world arms agreements decreased in value. The report also says the United States continues to be the world’s largest arms seller. The United States made agreements valued at fourteen and one-half thousand million dollars. That is almost fifty-seven percent of all weapons agreements worldwide. Russia made arms-transfer deals worth about four and one-half thousand million dollars. The agreements were about seventeen percent of total arms sales for the year. Finally, the United Nations reported the average number of people seeking asylum in more than twenty-four industrial nations for six months. The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said the monthly average for the first half of this year was the lowest since nineteen eighty-seven. France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Austria provided asylum for many refugees during that period. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - What is Science?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Our subject this week is the science of ... science. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each week we present reports about science. These are about many different subjects. They can be about volcanoes exploding, developments of improved farm crops, archeology, space, new treatments for diseases. We say they are about science, but we rarely, if ever, say what science is. VOICE TWO: In Special English we are very careful how we say things. We write our reports so that they are correct and can be easily understood. Our science reports usually are the most difficult programs to write. We use a limited number of words, and we want to write very simply and clearly. This makes it difficult to write about complex scientific subjects. For example, we write about developments in efforts to find a way to fight and cure diseases such as cancer or AIDS. We must find a way, in Special English, to describe how enzymes and proteins affect the structure of cells that are part of the human body’s system that defends against disease. This is an example of science. VOICE ONE: We tell about how the continents on our planet are always moving. We report on how the use of sonar in the ocean may affect whales. Or of warnings that great apes may be in danger of disappearing from Earth. We tell about discoveries of how humans made high-quality steel thousands of years ago. We report on progress in the study of the particles smaller than atoms. And of information gathered by the spacecraft Cassini at the planet Saturn. VOICE TWO: Week after week there are stories of discovery in the news. Some days the news is exciting. Some days it is not so exciting. And some days … well, some days are like last Wednesday. That was the day a small spacecraft returned to Earth after a flight to collect particles expelled from the Sun. These atoms, highly charged with electricity, are called solar wind. The elements in solar wind could help explain more about the birth of our solar system. The American space agency, NASA, launched the robotic vehicle Genesis in August of two thousand one. Early last Wednesday, Genesis released a one-and-a-half-meter-wide capsule to land with the particles of solar wind. Engineers designed the capsule with a parachute to be caught by a hook connected to a helicopter. VOICE ONE: Two helicopters were ready and in position for the catch ... except the parachute never deployed. The Genesis capsule fell from the sky, turning end over end, above the desert of the American West. It crashed and lay half-buried in the sand of the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range. The capsule broke open. Still, scientists are hopeful that they will be able to study pieces of the Sun. But risks like the crash of the Genesis capsule are a part of science. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Yet what exactly is science? The most simple definition is that science is knowledge. It is knowledge gained through observation and study. The scientific method is the use of rules and systems for gaining knowledge. There are three parts to the scientific method. The first part is recognizing and understanding problems. The second is collecting information through observation and experiment. The third part is developing and testing theories. For example, when scientists observe something happen, they try to develop a theory about how it happens and what causes it to happen. A theory is a possible explanation for an event. Scientists then test that theory by using experiments. They hope to prove that their explanation is correct. If the scientists can prove their theory, it becomes a fact. A fact is something known or proved to be true. VOICE ONE: Scientists are like other investigators. They try to gather as much evidence as possible to explain events. This idea -- that science can provide the answers -- often brings science into conflict with religion. People may separate the two by thinking of science as a process of gaining knowledge and religion as a system of beliefs. There are people who believe in science like a religion. But science and religion both seek to explain the mysteries of the universe, of nature and of ourselves. NASA clearly recognized this fact when it chose the name Genesis for its spacecraft that collected atoms from the Sun. Both the Jewish and Christian bibles begin with the Book of Genesis. It describes how God created the heavens and the Earth, and brought light to the universe. VOICE TWO: In ancient times, many, many things in the world were great mysteries to people. Ancient humans could explain these things only as the work of gods. These explanations became part of religious beliefs. As years passed and human knowledge expanded, many beliefs came to be explained scientifically. Sometimes, solving the mysteries by scientific study showed that religious teachings were wrong. This often angered religious leaders. An example is how the Roman Catholic Church reacted to the idea that the Earth was not the center of the universe. VOICE ONE: In fourteen ninety-seven, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus observed that the Earth moved in an orbit around the Sun. He used the scientific method to show that the Earth was not the center of the universe. His discovery conflicted with the beliefs and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as other religious groups. More than one hundred years later, the church tried and condemned Galileo Galilei for saying that Copernicus was right. Galileo was an Italian mathematician, physicist and astronomer. The church had taught for centuries that the Sun, all the planets and the stars orbited around the Earth. Three hundred fifty years passed before the Roman Catholic Church admitted officially that it was wrong. It withdrew its condemnation of Galileo. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In eighteen fifty-nine, the British scientist Charles Darwin published a book. It was called “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.” In this book, Darwin explained his theory that all living things developed, or evolved, from simple organisms. He wrote that these organisms changed over millions of years to produce all the different kinds of plants and animals, including humans. To prove his theory of evolution, Darwin used the scientific method. For five years he traveled around the world, observing different plants and animals. VOICE ONE: The studies showed Darwin that some animals and plants have abilities that help them survive in the struggle for life. He found that they pass these abilities along when they reproduce. Other plants and animals, he said, are less able to survive or reproduce and may disappear. Darwin came to believe that all modern creatures had developed from a few earlier ones. The book had a major effect. Many people who believed strongly in the influence of God condemned Darwin. His ideas conflicted with the teachings of creationism. This the idea that God created the universe and all living things fully formed. In any case, scientists consider that much of modern science evolved from the work of Charles Darwin. VOICE TWO: Some people reject scientific ideas that conflict with their religious beliefs. Some reject religious beliefs that conflict with their scientific ideas. And some would agree with Wilton Robert Abbott, an aerospace engineer who is given credit for this saying: “To understand the place of humans in the universe is to solve a complex problem. Therefore, I find it impossible to believe that an understanding based entirely on science or one based entirely on religion can be correct.” Probably the greatest scientist of the twentieth century was Albert Einstein. He had no problem mixing science and religion. Einstein once said that the religious experience is the strongest and the most honorable force behind scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Oliver Chanler and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. If you have a question or comment for us, write to special@voanews.com, or VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. You can learn more about the Genesis spacecraft tomorrow at this time on EXPLORATIONS. And please join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: September 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Our subject this week is the science of ... science. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each week we present reports about science. These are about many different subjects. They can be about volcanoes exploding, developments of improved farm crops, archeology, space, new treatments for diseases. We say they are about science, but we rarely, if ever, say what science is. VOICE TWO: In Special English we are very careful how we say things. We write our reports so that they are correct and can be easily understood. Our science reports usually are the most difficult programs to write. We use a limited number of words, and we want to write very simply and clearly. This makes it difficult to write about complex scientific subjects. For example, we write about developments in efforts to find a way to fight and cure diseases such as cancer or AIDS. We must find a way, in Special English, to describe how enzymes and proteins affect the structure of cells that are part of the human body’s system that defends against disease. This is an example of science. VOICE ONE: We tell about how the continents on our planet are always moving. We report on how the use of sonar in the ocean may affect whales. Or of warnings that great apes may be in danger of disappearing from Earth. We tell about discoveries of how humans made high-quality steel thousands of years ago. We report on progress in the study of the particles smaller than atoms. And of information gathered by the spacecraft Cassini at the planet Saturn. VOICE TWO: Week after week there are stories of discovery in the news. Some days the news is exciting. Some days it is not so exciting. And some days … well, some days are like last Wednesday. That was the day a small spacecraft returned to Earth after a flight to collect particles expelled from the Sun. These atoms, highly charged with electricity, are called solar wind. The elements in solar wind could help explain more about the birth of our solar system. The American space agency, NASA, launched the robotic vehicle Genesis in August of two thousand one. Early last Wednesday, Genesis released a one-and-a-half-meter-wide capsule to land with the particles of solar wind. Engineers designed the capsule with a parachute to be caught by a hook connected to a helicopter. VOICE ONE: Two helicopters were ready and in position for the catch ... except the parachute never deployed. The Genesis capsule fell from the sky, turning end over end, above the desert of the American West. It crashed and lay half-buried in the sand of the Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range. The capsule broke open. Still, scientists are hopeful that they will be able to study pieces of the Sun. But risks like the crash of the Genesis capsule are a part of science. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Yet what exactly is science? The most simple definition is that science is knowledge. It is knowledge gained through observation and study. The scientific method is the use of rules and systems for gaining knowledge. There are three parts to the scientific method. The first part is recognizing and understanding problems. The second is collecting information through observation and experiment. The third part is developing and testing theories. For example, when scientists observe something happen, they try to develop a theory about how it happens and what causes it to happen. A theory is a possible explanation for an event. Scientists then test that theory by using experiments. They hope to prove that their explanation is correct. If the scientists can prove their theory, it becomes a fact. A fact is something known or proved to be true. VOICE ONE: Scientists are like other investigators. They try to gather as much evidence as possible to explain events. This idea -- that science can provide the answers -- often brings science into conflict with religion. People may separate the two by thinking of science as a process of gaining knowledge and religion as a system of beliefs. There are people who believe in science like a religion. But science and religion both seek to explain the mysteries of the universe, of nature and of ourselves. NASA clearly recognized this fact when it chose the name Genesis for its spacecraft that collected atoms from the Sun. Both the Jewish and Christian bibles begin with the Book of Genesis. It describes how God created the heavens and the Earth, and brought light to the universe. VOICE TWO: In ancient times, many, many things in the world were great mysteries to people. Ancient humans could explain these things only as the work of gods. These explanations became part of religious beliefs. As years passed and human knowledge expanded, many beliefs came to be explained scientifically. Sometimes, solving the mysteries by scientific study showed that religious teachings were wrong. This often angered religious leaders. An example is how the Roman Catholic Church reacted to the idea that the Earth was not the center of the universe. VOICE ONE: In fourteen ninety-seven, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus observed that the Earth moved in an orbit around the Sun. He used the scientific method to show that the Earth was not the center of the universe. His discovery conflicted with the beliefs and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as other religious groups. More than one hundred years later, the church tried and condemned Galileo Galilei for saying that Copernicus was right. Galileo was an Italian mathematician, physicist and astronomer. The church had taught for centuries that the Sun, all the planets and the stars orbited around the Earth. Three hundred fifty years passed before the Roman Catholic Church admitted officially that it was wrong. It withdrew its condemnation of Galileo. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In eighteen fifty-nine, the British scientist Charles Darwin published a book. It was called “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.” In this book, Darwin explained his theory that all living things developed, or evolved, from simple organisms. He wrote that these organisms changed over millions of years to produce all the different kinds of plants and animals, including humans. To prove his theory of evolution, Darwin used the scientific method. For five years he traveled around the world, observing different plants and animals. VOICE ONE: The studies showed Darwin that some animals and plants have abilities that help them survive in the struggle for life. He found that they pass these abilities along when they reproduce. Other plants and animals, he said, are less able to survive or reproduce and may disappear. Darwin came to believe that all modern creatures had developed from a few earlier ones. The book had a major effect. Many people who believed strongly in the influence of God condemned Darwin. His ideas conflicted with the teachings of creationism. This the idea that God created the universe and all living things fully formed. In any case, scientists consider that much of modern science evolved from the work of Charles Darwin. VOICE TWO: Some people reject scientific ideas that conflict with their religious beliefs. Some reject religious beliefs that conflict with their scientific ideas. And some would agree with Wilton Robert Abbott, an aerospace engineer who is given credit for this saying: “To understand the place of humans in the universe is to solve a complex problem. Therefore, I find it impossible to believe that an understanding based entirely on science or one based entirely on religion can be correct.” Probably the greatest scientist of the twentieth century was Albert Einstein. He had no problem mixing science and religion. Einstein once said that the religious experience is the strongest and the most honorable force behind scientific research. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Oliver Chanler and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. If you have a question or comment for us, write to special@voanews.com, or VOA Special English, Washington D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. You can learn more about the Genesis spacecraft tomorrow at this time on EXPLORATIONS. And please join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Hurricane Damage to Florida Crops
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 14, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The state of Florida usually enjoys excellent weather conditions for agriculture. But this year, Florida has suffered from two major ocean storms. Hurricane Charley hit the western coast of Florida in the middle of August. Three weeks later, Hurricane Frances struck the eastern coast and crossed the state. Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson estimates that the two storms have cost farmers between eight hundred and one thousand million dollars. Mister Bronson asked Florida Governor Jeb Bush to declare an agricultural disaster in thirteen counties. Florida's total crop production is worth almost seven thousand million dollars. That is fourth in the nation. The orange is Florida’s biggest single crop. It is one of several kinds of citrus fruit. Florida has a sixty-eight percent share of the value of the fresh orange market. The state’s citrus industry is the most valuable in the country. Some reports place the total value of the industry at about nine thousand million dollars, including processed products. The United States Department of Agriculture had expected a good citrus harvest for two thousand four. After Hurricane Charley, officials estimated that about twenty percent of the crop was lost. Hurricane Frances affected many of the same areas. It brought winds of over one hundred fifty kilometers per hour. It also brought heavy rains and flooding to many areas. Citrus-producing areas like Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties were damaged by both storms. Officials are still studying the damage to Florida’s citrus crop. Reports suggest that the grapefruit harvest will be severely hurt. Florida produces more than seventy percent of the country’s grapefruit. Its share of the market is worth about two hundred million dollars. Also, farmers are still trying to estimate the damage caused to the vegetable crop. Florida has the second most valuable vegetable crop of any state. It grows more than one fourth of America’s tomatoes. After Hurricane Charley, Congress approved two thousand million dollars in aid for Florida that President Bush requested. Hurricane Frances added to the damage. And now, areas of Florida have been preparing for the possible effects of another major ocean storm, Hurricane Ivan. The Atlantic hurricane season is just over halfway through. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 15, 2004 (MUSIC) Scientist salvages samples from Genesis. Broadcast: September 15, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the crash of the Genesis spacecraft after three years in space. And we tell about the discovery of three new planets that orbit far-away stars. Artists picture of a new planet. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the crash of the Genesis spacecraft after three years in space. And we tell about the discovery of three new planets that orbit far-away stars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last Wednesday, September eighth, a spacecraft named Genesis entered Earth’s atmosphere high above the western United States. It was traveling at speeds of more than eleven kilometers a second. The spacecraft was supposed to deploy a parachute at almost thirty kilometers above the surface of the Earth. This special parachute would help the spacecraft slow its great speed. Then helicopters were supposed to catch the parachute before the spacecraft hit the ground. However, the parachute failed to open. Scientists and NASA officials on the ground watched as the two hundred five kilogram spacecraft crashed into the desert surface. It landed at the Utah Test and Training Range. VOICE TWO: The two hundred sixty million dollar spacecraft hit the ground at a speed of more than three hundred kilometers an hour. It hit so hard that it buried itself half underground. The most important immediate concern was the safety of people who worked to recover the spacecraft. The explosive device that was supposed to deploy the parachute had to be made safe before anything could be moved. As soon as possible, scientists opened the spacecraft. They removed the scientific instruments inside and took them to a special research room. They cleaned the instruments and examined them. Roger Wiens is a member of the Genesis science team. He said first examinations showed major damage inside the spacecraft. However, he said the science team is very hopeful they can still save much of the material collected. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said the design and strong construction of Genesis may still provide the scientific results they hoped for. VOICE ONE: The Genesis project manager is Don Sweetnam of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California. He told reporters that everything had worked extremely well with the Genesis project until the very end. Mister Sweetnam said the Genesis project had plans and special tools for this kind of a problem. He said the scientists will work to recover as much of the science project as possible. VOICE TWO: The Genesis spacecraft had been in an orbit almost one and a half million kilometers from Earth for the past three years. Its purpose was to collect extremely small pieces of material from the Sun. Some of the material weighs no more than a few grains of salt. These small pieces of the sun are invisible ions that flow off the Sun and make up what is called the solar wind. Ions are atoms that do not have many of their electrons. Scientists will inspect the solar material in special research centers designed to study very small pieces of matter. The research was to have taken several years. Scientists are hoping to find new information in this material about how the Sun and its family of planets came into being and developed. VOICE ONE: Scientists have long wanted to capture pieces of matter that come directly from the Sun. While the Sun is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, scientists believe it also has small amounts of all other elements. Scientists do not know exactly what the Sun is made of. They hope the Genesis spacecraft will provide evidence of the amounts of chemicals that make up the Sun. They hope this will show how these chemicals resulted in the collection of planets and other bodies in the solar system. VOICE TWO: To find this evidence, scientists had to launch a special spacecraft that could collect matter without interference from other planets. NASA’s Genesis spacecraft was launched in August, two thousand one from Cape Canaveral, in Florida. It was launched into an area of space between the Earth and the Sun where the gravity of both is balanced. There, it collected solar wind material for more than two years from an area in space far from the interfering effects of any planet. VOICE ONE: When the Genesis spacecraft arrived at the correct orbit, it opened the special collectors. The collectors are made of small disks of pure silicon, gold, diamond and sapphire. They collected thousands of millions of atoms from the Sun. In April of this year, the spacecraft began replacing the collectors safely inside the Genesis for the five month long trip back to Earth. The collectors were stored in a round device called a sample return capsule. In the early morning hours last Wednesday, the sample return capsule separated from the main Genesis spacecraft. The capsule returned to Earth, but crashed into the desert. Scientists will take any solar matter that survived the crash to a special research center at NASA’s Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, scientists from around the world will protect and study the materials for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Researchers have announced the discovery of three new planets in solar systems far from Earth. More than one hundred planets have been discovered in recent years in other solar systems. However, most of these have been huge planets made of gas like Jupiter in our solar system. The new planets are smaller and much more like Earth. They are the closest planets in size to Earth that have ever been found. Researchers say the newly discovered planets are between ten and twenty times the mass of Earth. And, it is possible that they might be made of rock, or rock and ice, instead of gas. One of the newly discovered planets joins three others that orbit a star named Fifty-Five Cancri. Another planet orbits a star named Gliese Four Thirty-Six. A famous planet-hunting team discovered these two planets. They are Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley and Barbara McArthur of the University of Texas. They announced their discoveries at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The third planet was discovered by a team led by Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory in Sauverny, Switzerland. The European team says the planet they discovered orbits the star mu Arae. That star is about fifty light-years from Earth in the constellation or group of stars called Ara. A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year. VOICE ONE: The two planets discovered by the Americans are thirty-one and forty light-years away from Earth. One is near the constellation Leo and the other is near the constellation Cancer. The American researchers say the new planets they have discovered are about the size of the planet Neptune. This would make them about seventeen times the mass of Earth. This is still much smaller than other planets that have been discovered. Some of these planets have been seventeen times the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. VOICE TWO: The research teams agree that it is unlikely that any of these new planets support life. The planets are too close to the stars they orbit. Temperatures on the surface of the planets are thought to be extremely hot. But the discovery of these planets is important because they are much smaller than others that have been found. The researchers say it has become easier to find huge planets, but very difficult to find a planet like Earth. An Earth-size planet is much more difficult to see. VOICE ONE: Geoffrey Marcy is a member of the American research team. He says the search for new planets will continue. He says researchers are learning to do a better job finding new and smaller planets. And he says the goal of the American team now is to find planets that are no bigger than ten times the mass of Earth. Mister Marcy says it is not yet possible to see Earth-sized planets far out in space. But it is possible to see their “big brothers.” Mister Marcy says scientists are searching the stars for answers about our own planet and solar system. They are searching for chemical and biological evidence. Mister Marcy says they are getting closer to answering the question of whether life exists on distant planets. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last Wednesday, September eighth, a spacecraft named Genesis entered Earth’s atmosphere high above the western United States. It was traveling at speeds of more than eleven kilometers a second. The spacecraft was supposed to deploy a parachute at almost thirty kilometers above the surface of the Earth. This special parachute would help the spacecraft slow its great speed. Then helicopters were supposed to catch the parachute before the spacecraft hit the ground. However, the parachute failed to open. Scientists and NASA officials on the ground watched as the two hundred five kilogram spacecraft crashed into the desert surface. It landed at the Utah Test and Training Range. VOICE TWO: The two hundred sixty million dollar spacecraft hit the ground at a speed of more than three hundred kilometers an hour. It hit so hard that it buried itself half underground. The most important immediate concern was the safety of people who worked to recover the spacecraft. The explosive device that was supposed to deploy the parachute had to be made safe before anything could be moved. As soon as possible, scientists opened the spacecraft. They removed the scientific instruments inside and took them to a special research room. They cleaned the instruments and examined them. Roger Wiens is a member of the Genesis science team. He said first examinations showed major damage inside the spacecraft. However, he said the science team is very hopeful they can still save much of the material collected. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said the design and strong construction of Genesis may still provide the scientific results they hoped for. VOICE ONE: The Genesis project manager is Don Sweetnam of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California. He told reporters that everything had worked extremely well with the Genesis project until the very end. Mister Sweetnam said the Genesis project had plans and special tools for this kind of a problem. He said the scientists will work to recover as much of the science project as possible. VOICE TWO: The Genesis spacecraft had been in an orbit almost one and a half million kilometers from Earth for the past three years. Its purpose was to collect extremely small pieces of material from the Sun. Some of the material weighs no more than a few grains of salt. These small pieces of the sun are invisible ions that flow off the Sun and make up what is called the solar wind. Ions are atoms that do not have many of their electrons. Scientists will inspect the solar material in special research centers designed to study very small pieces of matter. The research was to have taken several years. Scientists are hoping to find new information in this material about how the Sun and its family of planets came into being and developed. VOICE ONE: Scientists have long wanted to capture pieces of matter that come directly from the Sun. While the Sun is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, scientists believe it also has small amounts of all other elements. Scientists do not know exactly what the Sun is made of. They hope the Genesis spacecraft will provide evidence of the amounts of chemicals that make up the Sun. They hope this will show how these chemicals resulted in the collection of planets and other bodies in the solar system. VOICE TWO: To find this evidence, scientists had to launch a special spacecraft that could collect matter without interference from other planets. NASA’s Genesis spacecraft was launched in August, two thousand one from Cape Canaveral, in Florida. It was launched into an area of space between the Earth and the Sun where the gravity of both is balanced. There, it collected solar wind material for more than two years from an area in space far from the interfering effects of any planet. VOICE ONE: When the Genesis spacecraft arrived at the correct orbit, it opened the special collectors. The collectors are made of small disks of pure silicon, gold, diamond and sapphire. They collected thousands of millions of atoms from the Sun. In April of this year, the spacecraft began replacing the collectors safely inside the Genesis for the five month long trip back to Earth. The collectors were stored in a round device called a sample return capsule. In the early morning hours last Wednesday, the sample return capsule separated from the main Genesis spacecraft. The capsule returned to Earth, but crashed into the desert. Scientists will take any solar matter that survived the crash to a special research center at NASA’s Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, scientists from around the world will protect and study the materials for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Researchers have announced the discovery of three new planets in solar systems far from Earth. More than one hundred planets have been discovered in recent years in other solar systems. However, most of these have been huge planets made of gas like Jupiter in our solar system. The new planets are smaller and much more like Earth. They are the closest planets in size to Earth that have ever been found. Researchers say the newly discovered planets are between ten and twenty times the mass of Earth. And, it is possible that they might be made of rock, or rock and ice, instead of gas. One of the newly discovered planets joins three others that orbit a star named Fifty-Five Cancri. Another planet orbits a star named Gliese Four Thirty-Six. A famous planet-hunting team discovered these two planets. They are Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California at Berkeley and Barbara McArthur of the University of Texas. They announced their discoveries at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The third planet was discovered by a team led by Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory in Sauverny, Switzerland. The European team says the planet they discovered orbits the star mu Arae. That star is about fifty light-years from Earth in the constellation or group of stars called Ara. A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year. VOICE ONE: The two planets discovered by the Americans are thirty-one and forty light-years away from Earth. One is near the constellation Leo and the other is near the constellation Cancer. The American researchers say the new planets they have discovered are about the size of the planet Neptune. This would make them about seventeen times the mass of Earth. This is still much smaller than other planets that have been discovered. Some of these planets have been seventeen times the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. VOICE TWO: The research teams agree that it is unlikely that any of these new planets support life. The planets are too close to the stars they orbit. Temperatures on the surface of the planets are thought to be extremely hot. But the discovery of these planets is important because they are much smaller than others that have been found. The researchers say it has become easier to find huge planets, but very difficult to find a planet like Earth. An Earth-size planet is much more difficult to see. VOICE ONE: Geoffrey Marcy is a member of the American research team. He says the search for new planets will continue. He says researchers are learning to do a better job finding new and smaller planets. And he says the goal of the American team now is to find planets that are no bigger than ten times the mass of Earth. Mister Marcy says it is not yet possible to see Earth-sized planets far out in space. But it is possible to see their “big brothers.” Mister Marcy says scientists are searching the stars for answers about our own planet and solar system. They are searching for chemical and biological evidence. Mister Marcy says they are getting closer to answering the question of whether life exists on distant planets. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Bill Clinton's Heart Bypass
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 15, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Former President Bill Clinton is recovering from a major heart operation on Monday of last week. Mister Clinton had a coronary bypass operation to improve blood flow to his heart. Doctors at New York Presbyterian Hospital performed the four-hour operation. Mister Clinton was hospitalized after suffering chest pains and shortness of breath the week before. Tests showed he had serious blockages in four of his coronary arteries. Some were blocked by as much as ninety percent. Doctors say that without the operation, Mister Clinton probably would have had a major heart attack in the near future. Most arteries carry blood away from the heart. Coronary arteries supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle. Doctors perform bypass operations when these arteries become blocked by cholesterol or fatty material called plaque. Doctors take an artery or vein from the patient’s chest or leg and use it to go around, or bypass, a blocked artery. In Mister Clinton’s case, doctors used two arteries from the chest and a vein from the leg. During the operation, Mister Clinton’s heart was stopped for seventy-three minutes. Blood flow and breathing are taken over by a heart-lung machine. That process is used for more than seventy-five percent of bypass patients. But it carries a small risk of stroke and nervous system damage. Some patients with less severe blockages can be treated with medications. Others can be treated with angioplasty. That is when doctors expand a balloon-like device inside the arteries to clear the blockage. Mister Clinton is fifty-eight years old. He recently lost weight on a new diet and his cholesterol level dropped. But he had been experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath for several months. He says he did not recognize these as warning signs of heart disease. He thought there were other explanations, like not enough exercise. He said part of his heart condition was linked to a family history of the disease, but part of it was his poor eating habits. Doctors say Mister Clinton must follow a low-salt, low-fat diet and take medications to keep his arteries clear. The American Heart Association says coronary heart disease kills almost a half-million people a year in the United States. It is the leading cause of death among Americans. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Chief Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota / Music by the Fiery Furnaces / How Many Languages Spoken in U.S.?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 17, 2004 (MUSIC) Blueberry Boat (Image: www.thefieryfurnaces.com) Broadcast: September 17, 2004 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by the Fiery Furnaces. A question from a listener who wants to know how many languages are spoken in America. And, a progress report on a huge memorial to Chief Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse Memorial HOST: On September sixth, a celebration took place in the state of South Dakota. September sixth is the anniversary of the death of the American Indian chief Crazy Horse. It is also the birthday of the artist who started work on a huge memorial. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: In nineteen forty-eight, Korczak Ziolkowski began to cut a likeness of Crazy Horse into a mountain. The Polish-American artist was asked to carve the statue by Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota Indians. Crazy Horse was a young leader of the Lakota. He was a hero to his people. He died in eighteen seventy-seven. Crazy Horse had gone to an Army commander to protest a broken promise by the government. The promise was to let his people choose where to live. Soldiers arrested Crazy Horse. A soldier stabbed him when he tried to escape. Korczak Ziolkowski died in nineteen eighty-two. His wife, Ruth, and seven of their ten children have continued his work. Visitors pay to see the monument even before it is finished. The huge statue is at the top of Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The head was completed in nineteen ninety-eight. The Ziolkowski family says more than eight million tons of rock has been taken off the mountain. They are now working to carve the head of a horse on which the chief will sit. The family expects the finished statue to be more than one hundred seventy meters tall and one hundred ninety-five meters long. It is already considered the largest mountain sculpture in the world. The family has established the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. This group is also working to improve the education of Native Americans. The foundation has completed a building to show Indian arts. Other plans include a university, medical center and history center to be built near the statue of Chief Crazy Horse. HOST: On Sunday at this time, learn about another Indian chief, Rain in the Face, on PEOPLE IN AMERICA. And listen Monday to THIS IS AMERICA. We tell about the opening in Washington of the National Museum of the American Indian. Languages Spoken in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jijiga, Ethiopia. Abdikader Gahnug Muhumed asks about the number of languages spoken in the United States. More than three hundred languages are spoken in this country. The most recent report comes from the Census count of the population in the year two thousand. Of more than two hundred sixty million people over the age of five, eighty-two percent spoke only English at home. Spanish is the most commonly spoken foreign language in the United States. The two thousand Census found that twenty-eight million people spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole at home. The second most commonly spoken foreign language is Chinese, with two million speakers. More than one million six hundred thousand people said they spoke French at home. And more than one million three hundred thousand reported speaking German. Italian, Tagalog and Vietnamese also have more than a million speakers each. More than half a million people reported speaking Arabic, Korean, Polish, Portuguese or Russian. Nearly five hundred thousand spoke Japanese at home. And more than four hundred thousand spoke African languages. Persian and Hindi each had more than three hundred thousand speakers. There were two hundred sixty thousand speakers of Urdu. Also in the last Census, close to four hundred thousand people reported speaking Native American languages at home. The largest number speak Navajo. Reports say more than one hundred fifty languages are still spoken by American Indians. Others include Ojibwa, Dakota, Choctaw, Apache, Cherokee and Yupik. The Fiery Furnaces HOST: The Fiery Furnaces are out with their second album, to a lot of praise from music critics. Steve Ember has our report on this brother-and-sister group. ANNCR: Eleanor and Matt Friedberger grew up near Chicago, Illinois. Matt is older than his sister. Their interest in music led them to perform and record together when they both moved to New York City. They got the idea for the name of their band from a Bible story and the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” The letters F.F. also represent their names: Friedberger and Friedberger. The Fiery Furnaces became well known in New York from performing in clubs. Then, last year, they recorded their first album, “Gallowsbird’s Bark.” Ten months later they released their second one. “Blueberry Boat” opens with a ten-minute song called “Quay Cur.” (MUSIC) "Blueberry Boat" is currently the most popular record among American college students. Music critics say the Fiery Furnaces are unlike any other group performing today. Their songs are long and tell stories. Like this one, “My Dog Was Lost But Now It’s Found.” (MUSIC) Eleanor and Matt Friedberger are already working on a third album. Eleanor will sing with their eighty-year-old grandmother. For now, the Fiery Furnaces will perform across the country. We leave you with the title song from “Blueberry Boat.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Rob McLean. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by the Fiery Furnaces. A question from a listener who wants to know how many languages are spoken in America. And, a progress report on a huge memorial to Chief Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse Memorial HOST: On September sixth, a celebration took place in the state of South Dakota. September sixth is the anniversary of the death of the American Indian chief Crazy Horse. It is also the birthday of the artist who started work on a huge memorial. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: In nineteen forty-eight, Korczak Ziolkowski began to cut a likeness of Crazy Horse into a mountain. The Polish-American artist was asked to carve the statue by Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota Indians. Crazy Horse was a young leader of the Lakota. He was a hero to his people. He died in eighteen seventy-seven. Crazy Horse had gone to an Army commander to protest a broken promise by the government. The promise was to let his people choose where to live. Soldiers arrested Crazy Horse. A soldier stabbed him when he tried to escape. Korczak Ziolkowski died in nineteen eighty-two. His wife, Ruth, and seven of their ten children have continued his work. Visitors pay to see the monument even before it is finished. The huge statue is at the top of Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The head was completed in nineteen ninety-eight. The Ziolkowski family says more than eight million tons of rock has been taken off the mountain. They are now working to carve the head of a horse on which the chief will sit. The family expects the finished statue to be more than one hundred seventy meters tall and one hundred ninety-five meters long. It is already considered the largest mountain sculpture in the world. The family has established the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. This group is also working to improve the education of Native Americans. The foundation has completed a building to show Indian arts. Other plans include a university, medical center and history center to be built near the statue of Chief Crazy Horse. HOST: On Sunday at this time, learn about another Indian chief, Rain in the Face, on PEOPLE IN AMERICA. And listen Monday to THIS IS AMERICA. We tell about the opening in Washington of the National Museum of the American Indian. Languages Spoken in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jijiga, Ethiopia. Abdikader Gahnug Muhumed asks about the number of languages spoken in the United States. More than three hundred languages are spoken in this country. The most recent report comes from the Census count of the population in the year two thousand. Of more than two hundred sixty million people over the age of five, eighty-two percent spoke only English at home. Spanish is the most commonly spoken foreign language in the United States. The two thousand Census found that twenty-eight million people spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole at home. The second most commonly spoken foreign language is Chinese, with two million speakers. More than one million six hundred thousand people said they spoke French at home. And more than one million three hundred thousand reported speaking German. Italian, Tagalog and Vietnamese also have more than a million speakers each. More than half a million people reported speaking Arabic, Korean, Polish, Portuguese or Russian. Nearly five hundred thousand spoke Japanese at home. And more than four hundred thousand spoke African languages. Persian and Hindi each had more than three hundred thousand speakers. There were two hundred sixty thousand speakers of Urdu. Also in the last Census, close to four hundred thousand people reported speaking Native American languages at home. The largest number speak Navajo. Reports say more than one hundred fifty languages are still spoken by American Indians. Others include Ojibwa, Dakota, Choctaw, Apache, Cherokee and Yupik. The Fiery Furnaces HOST: The Fiery Furnaces are out with their second album, to a lot of praise from music critics. Steve Ember has our report on this brother-and-sister group. ANNCR: Eleanor and Matt Friedberger grew up near Chicago, Illinois. Matt is older than his sister. Their interest in music led them to perform and record together when they both moved to New York City. They got the idea for the name of their band from a Bible story and the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” The letters F.F. also represent their names: Friedberger and Friedberger. The Fiery Furnaces became well known in New York from performing in clubs. Then, last year, they recorded their first album, “Gallowsbird’s Bark.” Ten months later they released their second one. “Blueberry Boat” opens with a ten-minute song called “Quay Cur.” (MUSIC) "Blueberry Boat" is currently the most popular record among American college students. Music critics say the Fiery Furnaces are unlike any other group performing today. Their songs are long and tell stories. Like this one, “My Dog Was Lost But Now It’s Found.” (MUSIC) Eleanor and Matt Friedberger are already working on a third album. Eleanor will sing with their eighty-year-old grandmother. For now, the Fiery Furnaces will perform across the country. We leave you with the title song from “Blueberry Boat.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Rob McLean. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #3: College or University?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 16, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We have part three of our series for students who want to attend a college or university in the United States. Today we talk about the difference between a college and a university. Internet users can find this report at voaspecialenglish.com. Colleges and universities have a lot in common. They prepare young adults for work. They provide a greater understanding of the world and its past. And they help students learn to value the arts and sciences. Students who attend either a college or a university traditionally take four years to complete a program of study. Those who are successful receive a bachelor’s degree. But one difference is that many colleges do not offer additional study programs or support research projects. Universities often are much larger than colleges. Universities carry out a lot of research. They offer more programs in different areas of study, for undergraduate and graduate students. Modern universities developed from those of the Middle Ages in Europe. The word “university” came from the Latin “universitas.” This described a group of people organized for a common purpose. “College” came from a Latin word with a similar meaning, “collegium.” In England, colleges were formed to provide students with places to live. Usually each group was studying the same thing. So the word “college” came to mean one area of study. Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal arts. The liberal arts are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They trained a person’s mind. They were seen as different from subjects that were considered more useful in everyday life. Another meaning of “college” is a part of a university. The first American universities divided their studies into many areas and called each one a college. This is still true. Programs in higher learning may also be called “schools.” For example, the University of Texas at Austin has fourteen colleges and schools. These include the colleges of pharmacy, education, engineering, and fine arts. They also include the schools of architecture, business, law and information. Again, you can find our Foreign Student Series online at voaspecialenglish.com. International students can also get information at educationusa.state.gov. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Hurricanes and Insurance in Florida
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 17, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. People who own something valuable, like a house, want to protect themselves against financial loss. Natural disasters like fire, storms or flooding can damage or destroy valuable possessions. An agreement offering financial protection against loss is called insurance. An insurance agreement is called a policy. It says that the policyholder will pay the insurance company an amount of money called a premium. In return, the company will pay for financial losses if something happens to the policyholder’s property. Recently, insurance in the American state of Florida has become a big issue. The state often suffers powerful ocean storms called hurricanes. Two major hurricanes, named Charley and Frances, recently hit Florida and caused a huge amount of damage. In nineteen ninety-two, Florida suffered the most costly natural disaster ever, Hurricane Andrew. Insurance companies paid almost twenty-one thousand million dollars to repair the damage. At the time, some insurance companies considered leaving Florida. They said that it was too risky to do business in the state. After Hurricane Andrew, Florida changed its insurance laws. It began saving money for hurricane damage. The state formed an organization to provide some insurance for people who could not buy insurance from companies. Florida permitted insurers to increase premiums by twenty-four percent or more. Insurance companies also stopped insuring about ninety thousand people in the state. Some companies split their Florida business from their main business. Today, Florida law says that people with home insurance must pay from two to five percent of the value of their homes before insurance will pay for any repairs. The Insurance Information Institute estimates that Hurricane Charley will be the third most costly natural disaster in American history. That does not include the effects of Hurricane Frances. So far, insurers in Florida report that they have enough money to pay most insurance claims. But, experts say a few insurance companies may fail. Insurance companies pay out one dollar and seven cents for every dollar they collect in premiums. Insurance companies make a profit by investing the money they collect. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - 1850 Compromise, Part 4
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 16, 2004 (MUSIC) President Millard Fillmore Broadcast: September 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In eighteen-fifty, the Congress of the United States debated an important compromise proposal. The compromise dealt mostly with the national dispute over slavery. The dispute threatened to split the northern and southern parts of the country. There was a danger of war. Many leaders in the north and south supported the compromise. But, President Zachary Taylor did not. VOICE TWO: Taylor did not think there was a crisis. He did not believe the dispute over slavery was as serious as others did. He had his own plan to settle one part of the dispute. He would make the new territory of California a free state. Slavery there would be banned. Taylor's plan did not, however, settle other parts of the dispute. It said nothing about laws on escaped slaves. It said nothing about slavery in the nation's capital, the District of Columbia. It said nothing about the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico. The congressional compromise was an attempt to settle all these problems. VOICE ONE: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, who had written the compromise, questioned the president's limited proposal. Clay said: "Now what is the plan of the president? Here are five problems...five wounds that are bleeding and threatening the life of the republic. What is the president's plan? Is it to heal all these wounds. No such thing. It is to heal one of the five and to leave the other four to bleed more than ever." VOICE TWO: While the debate continued in Washington, the situation in Texas and New Mexico got worse. Texas claimed a large part of New Mexico, including the capital, Santa Fe. Early in eighteen-fifty, Texas sent a representative to Santa Fe to take control of the government. The United States military commander in New Mexico advised the people not to recognize the man. The governor of Texas was furious. He decided to send state soldiers to enforce Texas's claims in New Mexico. He said if trouble broke out, the United States government would be to blame. VOICE ONE: President Taylor rejected Texas's claims. He told his secretary of war to send an order to the military commander in New Mexico. The commander was to use force to oppose any attempt by Texas to seize the territory. The secretary of war said he would not send such an order. He believed that if fighting began, southerners would hurry to the aid of Texas. And that, he thought, might be the start of a southern struggle against the federal government. In a short time, the north and south would be at war. When the secretary of war refused to sign the order, President Taylor answered sharply. "Then I will sign the order myself!" Taylor had been a general before becoming president. He said he would take command of the army himself to enforce the law. And he said he was willing to hang anyone who rebelled against the Union. VOICE TWO: President Taylor began writing a message to Congress on the situation. He never finished it. On the afternoon of July fourth, eighteen-fifty, Taylor attended an outdoor independence day ceremony. The ceremony was held at the place where a monument to America's first president, George Washington, was being built. The day was very hot, and Taylor stood for a long time in the burning sun. That night, he became sick with pains in his stomach. Doctors were called to the White House. But none of their treatments worked. Five days later, President Taylor died. Vice President Millard Fillmore was sworn-in as president. VOICE ONE: Fillmore was from New York state. His family was poor. His early education came not from school teachers, but from whatever books he could find. Later, Fillmore was able to study law. He became a successful lawyer. He also served in the United States Congress for eight years. The Whig Party chose him as its vice presidential candidate in the election of eighteen-forty-eight. He served as vice president for about a year and a half before the death of President Taylor. VOICE TWO: Fillmore had disagreed with Taylor over the congressional compromise on slavery and the western territories. Unlike Taylor, Fillmore truly believed that the nation was facing a crisis. And he truly believed the compromise would help save the Union. Now, as president, Fillmore offered his complete support to the bill. Its chances of passing looked better than ever. Fillmore asked the old cabinet to resign. He named his own cabinet members. All were strong supporters of the union. All supported the compromise. VOICE ONE: Congress debated the compromise throughout the summer of eighteen-fifty. There were several proposals in the bill. Supporters decided not to vote on the proposals as one piece of legislation. They saw a better chance of success by trying to pass each proposal separately. Their idea worked. By the end of September, both the Senate and House of Representatives had approved all parts of the eighteen-fifty compromise. President Fillmore signed them into law. One part of the compromise permitted California to enter the Union as a free state. One established territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah. One settled the dispute between Texas and New Mexico. Another ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia. VOICE TWO: Many happy celebrations took place when citizens heard that President Fillmore had signed the eighteen-fifty compromise. Many people believed the problem of slavery had been solved. They believed the union had been saved. Others, however, believed the problem had only been postponed. They hoped the delay would give reasonable men of the north and south time to find a permanent answer to the issue of slavery. Time was running out. VOICE ONE: It was true that the eighteen-fifty compromise had ended a national crisis. But both northern and southern extremists remained bitter. Those opposed to slavery believed the compromise law on runaway slaves violated the constitution. The new law said negroes accused of being runaway slaves could not have a jury trial. It said government officials could send negroes to whoever claimed to own them. It said negroes could not appeal such a decision. Those who supported slavery had a different idea of the compromise. They did not care about the constitutional rights of negroes. They considered the compromise a simple law for the return of valuable property. No law approved by Congress, and signed by the president, could change these beliefs. VOICE TWO: The issue of slavery was linked to the issue of secession. Did states have the right to leave the Union. If southern states rejected all compromises on slavery, did they have the right to secede. The signing of the eighteen-fifty compromise cooled the debate for a time. But disagreement on the issues was deep. It would continue to build over the next ten years. Those were difficult years for America's presidents. Next week, we will tell how the situation affected the administration of President Millard Fillmore. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Leo Scully. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In eighteen-fifty, the Congress of the United States debated an important compromise proposal. The compromise dealt mostly with the national dispute over slavery. The dispute threatened to split the northern and southern parts of the country. There was a danger of war. Many leaders in the north and south supported the compromise. But, President Zachary Taylor did not. VOICE TWO: Taylor did not think there was a crisis. He did not believe the dispute over slavery was as serious as others did. He had his own plan to settle one part of the dispute. He would make the new territory of California a free state. Slavery there would be banned. Taylor's plan did not, however, settle other parts of the dispute. It said nothing about laws on escaped slaves. It said nothing about slavery in the nation's capital, the District of Columbia. It said nothing about the border dispute between Texas and New Mexico. The congressional compromise was an attempt to settle all these problems. VOICE ONE: Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, who had written the compromise, questioned the president's limited proposal. Clay said: "Now what is the plan of the president? Here are five problems...five wounds that are bleeding and threatening the life of the republic. What is the president's plan? Is it to heal all these wounds. No such thing. It is to heal one of the five and to leave the other four to bleed more than ever." VOICE TWO: While the debate continued in Washington, the situation in Texas and New Mexico got worse. Texas claimed a large part of New Mexico, including the capital, Santa Fe. Early in eighteen-fifty, Texas sent a representative to Santa Fe to take control of the government. The United States military commander in New Mexico advised the people not to recognize the man. The governor of Texas was furious. He decided to send state soldiers to enforce Texas's claims in New Mexico. He said if trouble broke out, the United States government would be to blame. VOICE ONE: President Taylor rejected Texas's claims. He told his secretary of war to send an order to the military commander in New Mexico. The commander was to use force to oppose any attempt by Texas to seize the territory. The secretary of war said he would not send such an order. He believed that if fighting began, southerners would hurry to the aid of Texas. And that, he thought, might be the start of a southern struggle against the federal government. In a short time, the north and south would be at war. When the secretary of war refused to sign the order, President Taylor answered sharply. "Then I will sign the order myself!" Taylor had been a general before becoming president. He said he would take command of the army himself to enforce the law. And he said he was willing to hang anyone who rebelled against the Union. VOICE TWO: President Taylor began writing a message to Congress on the situation. He never finished it. On the afternoon of July fourth, eighteen-fifty, Taylor attended an outdoor independence day ceremony. The ceremony was held at the place where a monument to America's first president, George Washington, was being built. The day was very hot, and Taylor stood for a long time in the burning sun. That night, he became sick with pains in his stomach. Doctors were called to the White House. But none of their treatments worked. Five days later, President Taylor died. Vice President Millard Fillmore was sworn-in as president. VOICE ONE: Fillmore was from New York state. His family was poor. His early education came not from school teachers, but from whatever books he could find. Later, Fillmore was able to study law. He became a successful lawyer. He also served in the United States Congress for eight years. The Whig Party chose him as its vice presidential candidate in the election of eighteen-forty-eight. He served as vice president for about a year and a half before the death of President Taylor. VOICE TWO: Fillmore had disagreed with Taylor over the congressional compromise on slavery and the western territories. Unlike Taylor, Fillmore truly believed that the nation was facing a crisis. And he truly believed the compromise would help save the Union. Now, as president, Fillmore offered his complete support to the bill. Its chances of passing looked better than ever. Fillmore asked the old cabinet to resign. He named his own cabinet members. All were strong supporters of the union. All supported the compromise. VOICE ONE: Congress debated the compromise throughout the summer of eighteen-fifty. There were several proposals in the bill. Supporters decided not to vote on the proposals as one piece of legislation. They saw a better chance of success by trying to pass each proposal separately. Their idea worked. By the end of September, both the Senate and House of Representatives had approved all parts of the eighteen-fifty compromise. President Fillmore signed them into law. One part of the compromise permitted California to enter the Union as a free state. One established territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah. One settled the dispute between Texas and New Mexico. Another ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia. VOICE TWO: Many happy celebrations took place when citizens heard that President Fillmore had signed the eighteen-fifty compromise. Many people believed the problem of slavery had been solved. They believed the union had been saved. Others, however, believed the problem had only been postponed. They hoped the delay would give reasonable men of the north and south time to find a permanent answer to the issue of slavery. Time was running out. VOICE ONE: It was true that the eighteen-fifty compromise had ended a national crisis. But both northern and southern extremists remained bitter. Those opposed to slavery believed the compromise law on runaway slaves violated the constitution. The new law said negroes accused of being runaway slaves could not have a jury trial. It said government officials could send negroes to whoever claimed to own them. It said negroes could not appeal such a decision. Those who supported slavery had a different idea of the compromise. They did not care about the constitutional rights of negroes. They considered the compromise a simple law for the return of valuable property. No law approved by Congress, and signed by the president, could change these beliefs. VOICE TWO: The issue of slavery was linked to the issue of secession. Did states have the right to leave the Union. If southern states rejected all compromises on slavery, did they have the right to secede. The signing of the eighteen-fifty compromise cooled the debate for a time. But disagreement on the issues was deep. It would continue to build over the next ten years. Those were difficult years for America's presidents. Next week, we will tell how the situation affected the administration of President Millard Fillmore. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Leo Scully. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: September 16, 2004 - 'Presidential Voices'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 16, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the voice of American presidents. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 16, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: the voice of American presidents. RS: Allan Metcalf of the American Dialect Society has just written a timely book. It's called "Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush." AA: He listened to recordings, where he could. He got a sense of how the early presidents sounded by what people had to say about their speeches. Allan Metcalf says in the late 1700s, George Washington – America’s first president – had an especially formal style. ALLAN METCALF: "He wanted to prove that an ordinary citizen, an ordinary citizen of the enlightenment of a free country, would be as worthy and dignified as any of the crowned heads of Europe. For example, his inaugural address begins with, 'Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month.' And he goes on in that vein, and he was such an influence that most presidents since him have needed to be somewhat dignified and elevated. "And even in the nineteenth century, the first six presidents were all rather aristocratic themselves. But then along came Andrew Jackson and then a number of other presidents who boasted of having been born in log cabins, common men, but nevertheless they, too, followed along in Washington's example." RS: "What would it have been like to have listened to Washington?" ALLAN METCALF: "Well, for one thing, you wouldn't have had to spend too much time. His false teeth were so painful that he rarely spoke for longer than ten minutes at a time. And they were painful because they had springs in them to keep his mouth open. So he had to exert pressure to keep his mouth closed." RS: "Allan, have any words or phrases come into American English because of the president's speeches?" ALLAN METCALF: "Some have. President Jefferson was noted for his innovations in vocabulary. He had words like Anglomania, electioneering, belittle -- he seems to be among the first to use that. I think the most impressive, though, the most creative of all the presidents, was Teddy Roosevelt. He was able to come up with terms like muckraker and even lunatic fringe. And bully pulpit -- he called the presidency a bully pulpit, meaning it was a wonderful place to give speeches and be listened to. He used the term bully all the time as a term of enthusiasm." RS: "Say we wanted to run for president. What kind of advice would you give us in order to write a good speech." ALLAN METCALF: "Well, all you have to do is go back to George Washington and then you go back to the other presidents who followed in Washington's footsteps, or mouthsteps or whatever, using the phrases that they used. And you'll find as you look at the different inaugural addresses that they are almost interchangeable. So in my book I came up with an all-purpose presidential inaugural address that you or anyone can use when you become president. And it begins with: "'Fellow citizens' (which George Washington and his successors said) conscious of 'the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which my country called me' (that's Washington) but knowing that 'the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of the people the end, of all legitimate government upon earth' (that's John Quincy Adams) I pledge my 'attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it' (that's John Adams). "'The business of our nation goes forward' (said Ronald Reagan, and that's suitable in all occasions). 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself' (said Franklin Roosevelt). 'Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration ... But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity' (said George W. Bush). So 'God bless you and may God bless America" (said Ronald Reagan and his successors).'" RS: "That was Ronald Reagan?" ALLAN METCALF: "Yes, he was the innovator for the 'God bless you, and may God bless America.'" AA: "So before that, how did presidents end their speeches?" ALLAN METCALF: "Oh that's a good question. I'll have to look it up. [laughter]" RS: "It sounds like you had a lot of fun writing this book. Any surprises along the way?" ALLAN METCALF: "The chief surprise was that the presidents didn't speak that well. But I also was surprised at how shy some of our presidents were about public speaking. Thomas Jefferson, such a great writer, declined to speak in public when the Declaration of Independence was being debated, the thing that he had written. He didn't say a word. "I was surprised at how unimpressive Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address was. His second was tremendous and his Gettysburg Address was great. But his first inaugural attempted to give a lawyer's argument against secession, which totally failed. "And I was surprised that George W. Bush, who makes blunders, not only isn't bothered but in fact relishes them, and shortly after he was elected president, he gave a talk where he read aloud from the 'Book of Bushisms,' laughing at them just as much as anybody else." AA: Allan Metcalf is executive secretary of the American Dialect Society and an English professor at MacMurray College in Illinois. His newest book is called "Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush." RS: And that's all for this week. Word@voanews.com is our e-mail address. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: Allan Metcalf of the American Dialect Society has just written a timely book. It's called "Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush." AA: He listened to recordings, where he could. He got a sense of how the early presidents sounded by what people had to say about their speeches. Allan Metcalf says in the late 1700s, George Washington – America’s first president – had an especially formal style. ALLAN METCALF: "He wanted to prove that an ordinary citizen, an ordinary citizen of the enlightenment of a free country, would be as worthy and dignified as any of the crowned heads of Europe. For example, his inaugural address begins with, 'Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month.' And he goes on in that vein, and he was such an influence that most presidents since him have needed to be somewhat dignified and elevated. "And even in the nineteenth century, the first six presidents were all rather aristocratic themselves. But then along came Andrew Jackson and then a number of other presidents who boasted of having been born in log cabins, common men, but nevertheless they, too, followed along in Washington's example." RS: "What would it have been like to have listened to Washington?" ALLAN METCALF: "Well, for one thing, you wouldn't have had to spend too much time. His false teeth were so painful that he rarely spoke for longer than ten minutes at a time. And they were painful because they had springs in them to keep his mouth open. So he had to exert pressure to keep his mouth closed." RS: "Allan, have any words or phrases come into American English because of the president's speeches?" ALLAN METCALF: "Some have. President Jefferson was noted for his innovations in vocabulary. He had words like Anglomania, electioneering, belittle -- he seems to be among the first to use that. I think the most impressive, though, the most creative of all the presidents, was Teddy Roosevelt. He was able to come up with terms like muckraker and even lunatic fringe. And bully pulpit -- he called the presidency a bully pulpit, meaning it was a wonderful place to give speeches and be listened to. He used the term bully all the time as a term of enthusiasm." RS: "Say we wanted to run for president. What kind of advice would you give us in order to write a good speech." ALLAN METCALF: "Well, all you have to do is go back to George Washington and then you go back to the other presidents who followed in Washington's footsteps, or mouthsteps or whatever, using the phrases that they used. And you'll find as you look at the different inaugural addresses that they are almost interchangeable. So in my book I came up with an all-purpose presidential inaugural address that you or anyone can use when you become president. And it begins with: "'Fellow citizens' (which George Washington and his successors said) conscious of 'the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which my country called me' (that's Washington) but knowing that 'the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of the people the end, of all legitimate government upon earth' (that's John Quincy Adams) I pledge my 'attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious determination to support it' (that's John Adams). "'The business of our nation goes forward' (said Ronald Reagan, and that's suitable in all occasions). 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself' (said Franklin Roosevelt). 'Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration ... But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity' (said George W. Bush). So 'God bless you and may God bless America" (said Ronald Reagan and his successors).'" RS: "That was Ronald Reagan?" ALLAN METCALF: "Yes, he was the innovator for the 'God bless you, and may God bless America.'" AA: "So before that, how did presidents end their speeches?" ALLAN METCALF: "Oh that's a good question. I'll have to look it up. [laughter]" RS: "It sounds like you had a lot of fun writing this book. Any surprises along the way?" ALLAN METCALF: "The chief surprise was that the presidents didn't speak that well. But I also was surprised at how shy some of our presidents were about public speaking. Thomas Jefferson, such a great writer, declined to speak in public when the Declaration of Independence was being debated, the thing that he had written. He didn't say a word. "I was surprised at how unimpressive Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address was. His second was tremendous and his Gettysburg Address was great. But his first inaugural attempted to give a lawyer's argument against secession, which totally failed. "And I was surprised that George W. Bush, who makes blunders, not only isn't bothered but in fact relishes them, and shortly after he was elected president, he gave a talk where he read aloud from the 'Book of Bushisms,' laughing at them just as much as anybody else." AA: Allan Metcalf is executive secretary of the American Dialect Society and an English professor at MacMurray College in Illinois. His newest book is called "Presidential Voices: Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush." RS: And that's all for this week. Word@voanews.com is our e-mail address. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Putin Calls for Changes in Russia's Political System
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 18, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a plan for changes in the political system in Russia. The measures would increase the powers of the central government. Mister Putin said the proposals are needed to improve security. He said those responsible for terrorist acts seek to ruin Russia. Earlier this month, more than three hundred people were killed at Middle School Number One in the southern town of Beslan. Half were children. The hostage crisis followed bombings on two Russian airplanes and near an underground train station in Moscow. One-hundred people were killed in those attacks. A Chechen rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, reportedly claimed responsibility for all the attacks in a letter Friday on a Web site. The letter threatened more violence and urged Russia to recognize independence for Chechnya. In Moscow, President Putin said Friday that Russia is preparing what he called pre-emptive action against terrorists. He said it would follow Russian and international law. Mister Putin announced the proposed changes Monday. He said Russia needs a single anti-terrorism agency that is able not only to deal with attacks but also to work to prevent them. He said the new agency should have the power to destroy criminals in their hideouts and, if necessary, in other countries. Mister Putin also called for changes in the rules for electing parliament. His plan would end local elections that now fill half of the four hundred fifty seats in the lower house, the Duma. Instead, all members would be elected from party lists chosen by Russia's main national parties. The changes must be approved by the Duma, which is controlled by supporters of Mister Putin. Also, the Russian leader called for local governors to be nominated by the president and approved by local parliaments. In recent years, the eighty-nine governors have been elected directly by the people. Critics say the changes would violate Russia's Constitution. Some say they do not believe the moves will really help fight terrorism. They say the government is using the recent attacks as a chance to expand its power. Mister Putin faces little organized opposition. For ten years, Russian troops have attempted to crush the independence movement for Chechnya and its mostly Muslim population. Russian officials say there is evidence that international terrorists are involved. The United States says it supports a political solution to the Chechen conflict. It also says it supports Russia in its struggle against terrorism. But American officials say they are concerned that the changes will harm democracy in Russia. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Rain-in-the-Face
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 19, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: September 19, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. I’m Steve Ember. In the early days of the last century, an American doctor wrote about the Native American people called the Lakota or Sioux. His name was Charles Eastman. He was one of the few people to ever win the trust of the old people. He could do this because he too was a Lakota, Sioux. His Lakota name was Ohiyasa. VOICE ONE: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. I’m Steve Ember. In the early days of the last century, an American doctor wrote about the Native American people called the Lakota or Sioux. His name was Charles Eastman. He was one of the few people to ever win the trust of the old people. He could do this because he too was a Lakota, Sioux. His Lakota name was Ohiyasa. As a child he learned to ride a horse. He learned to hunt. And he learned other skills that made the Sioux great. When Ohiyasa was fifteen years old he was sent to an American school for Indian children. He was given the English name Charles Eastman. He did very well in school. He was chosen to go on to college and then to medical school. He returned to his tribe as their medical doctor. In the early part of the past century, Charles Eastman saw that many of the old people were dying. He feared their history and culture would die with them. He talked to many of the very old members of the Sioux. He put their words down on paper. One of these stories was about a famous Indian fighter named “Rain-in-the-Face.” This is the story that Doctor Eastman wrote. VOICE TWO: About two months before the great Sioux warrior, Rain-in-the-Face, died, I went to see him for the last time. “Friend,” I said, “at home when the old men were asked to tell the brave things they had done, the tobacco pipe was passed. So come, let us smoke now to the memory of the old days.” He took some of my tobacco and filled his long pipe. The old man lay upon a small bed covered by a red blanket. He was all alone that day, only an old dog lay silent by his feet. Finally he looked up and began telling me about his long life. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: “I was born near the Cheyenne River about seventy years ago. My family were not great chiefs, but they were good warriors and great hunters. I was given the name “Rain-in-the-Face” as a young man. This was after a great battle when we were on a warpath against the Gros Ventres tribe. I had painted my face with warpaint that day. I had wished my face to represent the sun when partly covered with darkness. So I painted it half-black, half red. We fought all day in the rain and some of the war paint on my face was washed away. Much of the black and red paint had run together. So I was given the name “Rain-in-the-Face.” We Sioux considered it an honorable name. VOICE TWO: As he told his story old Rain seemed to come alive. He smiled as he talked. He seemed younger and his eyes shined. VOICE THREE: One of the most daring attacks that we ever made was against the army base called Fort Totten in North Dakota. The fight took place in the summer of Eighteen-Sixty-Six. I had a special friend then. His name was Wapaypay. He was known to the white men as Fearless Bear. He was the bravest man among us. In those days Wapaypay and I called each other “Brother — Friend.” This was a life and death promise among the Sioux. What one does the other must do and that meant that I must be with him in the attack. And, if he was killed, I must fight until I died also. I prepared for death. I painted my face with my special sign -- half red, half black. Now the signal for the attack was given. My horse started even with Wapaypay, but his horse was faster than mine. This was bad for me. By the time I came close to the fort, the soldiers had somewhat recovered from the surprise of our attack. They were aiming their guns more carefully. Their guns talked very loud but hit few of us. Their guns were like an old dog with no teeth who makes much noise and becomes more angry the more noise he makes. How much harm we did I do not know. When the fight was finished I saw blood on my leg. Both my horse and I were wounded. VOICE TWO: I knew that Rain-in-the-Face had taken part in two of the most famous fights with white soldiers. One of these fights was near an army fort named Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. The other was the most famous battle between the Sioux and the American Army. Rain-in- the-Face was in the battle against the famous army general, George Armstrong Custer. That great battle took place near the Little Big Horn River. I asked him to tell me about these two great battles. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: We attacked a fort west of the Black Hills. The white soldiers called it Fort Phil Kearny. It was there we killed almost one-hundred soldiers. They were commanded by a captain named Fetterman. It was a big fight. Many famous chiefs were there -- Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud. And many young warriors -- Sword, American Horse, Crow King. The plan for the battle was decided after many meetings. The main group would stay hidden from view and a few of the bravest young men were chosen to attack a group of white men. These men were cutting wood for the fort. We were told not to kill these men, but to chase them back to the fort and then ride slowly away. We did this. A large group of soldiers commanded by Captain Fetterman followed us. They thought we were only few in number. We led them into the trap. It was a matter of a very few minutes before every soldier lay dead. The very next year we signed a peace treaty at Fort Rice in North Dakota. Almost all the Sioux chiefs signed the treaty. The treaty said all the country north of the Republican River in Nebraska, including the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, was to be always Sioux country. No white man could go there without our permission. After the treaty was signed, the white men found the yellow metal they call gold in our country. They came in great numbers. They chased away all the animals we hunted for food. We had no choice, so for the last time we took up arms against them. No one honored the treaty. VOICE TWO: When the treaty failed, many hundreds of Sioux families moved north to an area of what is now in the State of Montana. Rain-in-the-Face described what happened then. VOICE THREE: In the Spring, the Sioux got together near the Tongue River. It was one of the greatest camps of the Sioux that I ever saw. Some Northern Cheyennes were with us. And there were Santee Sioux from Canada. We had decided to fight the white soldiers until no warrior should be left. We crossed the Tongue River to the Little Big Horn. I was eating my food one day when suddenly the Long-Haired Soldier Chief called George Custer began to attack us. It was a great surprise. I heard a Sioux war cry. I saw a warrior riding his horse at top speed giving the warning as he came. Then we heard the sound of soldiers’ guns. I seized my gun, my bow and arrows and my stone war club. As I was about to go join the fight, I saw a group of soldiers near us at the edge of a long line of cliffs across the small river. We all got on our horses and immediately started toward those soldiers. We quickly began to surround the soldiers. When the soldiers were surrounded on two sides, with the river on the third, the order came to attack. The soldiers tried to ride the other way, but they could not leave. They fired their guns at us as fast as they could. We mostly used bows and arrows. The soldiers fought very bravely until they were killed. I had always thought that white men were not brave, but I had a great respect for them after this day. No one knows who killed the soldier chief Long-Hair Custer. Many lies have been told about me. Some say I killed Custer or his brother Tom Custer that day. Why, in that fight the excitement was so great that we could not recognize our nearest friends. Everything was done as fast as lightning. But that was long ago. I have lived in peace now for many, many years. No one can say Rain-in-the-Face has broken the rules. I fought for my people and my country. When we lost, I remained silent, as a warrior should. My warrior spirit died when I put down my weapons. Now, there is only my poor body that has lived on. Now that too is almost ready to lie down for the last time. Ahhhhhh… It is well. VOICE TWO: Rain-in-the-Face, one of the last of the great Sioux warriors, died at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on September Fourteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Five. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was taken from the book “Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains” by Doctor Charles Eastman. Doug Johnson was the voice of Doctor Eastman; Shep O’Neal was the voice of Rain-in- the-Face. Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) As a child he learned to ride a horse. He learned to hunt. And he learned other skills that made the Sioux great. When Ohiyasa was fifteen years old he was sent to an American school for Indian children. He was given the English name Charles Eastman. He did very well in school. He was chosen to go on to college and then to medical school. He returned to his tribe as their medical doctor. In the early part of the past century, Charles Eastman saw that many of the old people were dying. He feared their history and culture would die with them. He talked to many of the very old members of the Sioux. He put their words down on paper. One of these stories was about a famous Indian fighter named “Rain-in-the-Face.” This is the story that Doctor Eastman wrote. VOICE TWO: About two months before the great Sioux warrior, Rain-in-the-Face, died, I went to see him for the last time. “Friend,” I said, “at home when the old men were asked to tell the brave things they had done, the tobacco pipe was passed. So come, let us smoke now to the memory of the old days.” He took some of my tobacco and filled his long pipe. The old man lay upon a small bed covered by a red blanket. He was all alone that day, only an old dog lay silent by his feet. Finally he looked up and began telling me about his long life. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: “I was born near the Cheyenne River about seventy years ago. My family were not great chiefs, but they were good warriors and great hunters. I was given the name “Rain-in-the-Face” as a young man. This was after a great battle when we were on a warpath against the Gros Ventres tribe. I had painted my face with warpaint that day. I had wished my face to represent the sun when partly covered with darkness. So I painted it half-black, half red. We fought all day in the rain and some of the war paint on my face was washed away. Much of the black and red paint had run together. So I was given the name “Rain-in-the-Face.” We Sioux considered it an honorable name. VOICE TWO: As he told his story old Rain seemed to come alive. He smiled as he talked. He seemed younger and his eyes shined. VOICE THREE: One of the most daring attacks that we ever made was against the army base called Fort Totten in North Dakota. The fight took place in the summer of Eighteen-Sixty-Six. I had a special friend then. His name was Wapaypay. He was known to the white men as Fearless Bear. He was the bravest man among us. In those days Wapaypay and I called each other “Brother — Friend.” This was a life and death promise among the Sioux. What one does the other must do and that meant that I must be with him in the attack. And, if he was killed, I must fight until I died also. I prepared for death. I painted my face with my special sign -- half red, half black. Now the signal for the attack was given. My horse started even with Wapaypay, but his horse was faster than mine. This was bad for me. By the time I came close to the fort, the soldiers had somewhat recovered from the surprise of our attack. They were aiming their guns more carefully. Their guns talked very loud but hit few of us. Their guns were like an old dog with no teeth who makes much noise and becomes more angry the more noise he makes. How much harm we did I do not know. When the fight was finished I saw blood on my leg. Both my horse and I were wounded. VOICE TWO: I knew that Rain-in-the-Face had taken part in two of the most famous fights with white soldiers. One of these fights was near an army fort named Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. The other was the most famous battle between the Sioux and the American Army. Rain-in- the-Face was in the battle against the famous army general, George Armstrong Custer. That great battle took place near the Little Big Horn River. I asked him to tell me about these two great battles. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: We attacked a fort west of the Black Hills. The white soldiers called it Fort Phil Kearny. It was there we killed almost one-hundred soldiers. They were commanded by a captain named Fetterman. It was a big fight. Many famous chiefs were there -- Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud. And many young warriors -- Sword, American Horse, Crow King. The plan for the battle was decided after many meetings. The main group would stay hidden from view and a few of the bravest young men were chosen to attack a group of white men. These men were cutting wood for the fort. We were told not to kill these men, but to chase them back to the fort and then ride slowly away. We did this. A large group of soldiers commanded by Captain Fetterman followed us. They thought we were only few in number. We led them into the trap. It was a matter of a very few minutes before every soldier lay dead. The very next year we signed a peace treaty at Fort Rice in North Dakota. Almost all the Sioux chiefs signed the treaty. The treaty said all the country north of the Republican River in Nebraska, including the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, was to be always Sioux country. No white man could go there without our permission. After the treaty was signed, the white men found the yellow metal they call gold in our country. They came in great numbers. They chased away all the animals we hunted for food. We had no choice, so for the last time we took up arms against them. No one honored the treaty. VOICE TWO: When the treaty failed, many hundreds of Sioux families moved north to an area of what is now in the State of Montana. Rain-in-the-Face described what happened then. VOICE THREE: In the Spring, the Sioux got together near the Tongue River. It was one of the greatest camps of the Sioux that I ever saw. Some Northern Cheyennes were with us. And there were Santee Sioux from Canada. We had decided to fight the white soldiers until no warrior should be left. We crossed the Tongue River to the Little Big Horn. I was eating my food one day when suddenly the Long-Haired Soldier Chief called George Custer began to attack us. It was a great surprise. I heard a Sioux war cry. I saw a warrior riding his horse at top speed giving the warning as he came. Then we heard the sound of soldiers’ guns. I seized my gun, my bow and arrows and my stone war club. As I was about to go join the fight, I saw a group of soldiers near us at the edge of a long line of cliffs across the small river. We all got on our horses and immediately started toward those soldiers. We quickly began to surround the soldiers. When the soldiers were surrounded on two sides, with the river on the third, the order came to attack. The soldiers tried to ride the other way, but they could not leave. They fired their guns at us as fast as they could. We mostly used bows and arrows. The soldiers fought very bravely until they were killed. I had always thought that white men were not brave, but I had a great respect for them after this day. No one knows who killed the soldier chief Long-Hair Custer. Many lies have been told about me. Some say I killed Custer or his brother Tom Custer that day. Why, in that fight the excitement was so great that we could not recognize our nearest friends. Everything was done as fast as lightning. But that was long ago. I have lived in peace now for many, many years. No one can say Rain-in-the-Face has broken the rules. I fought for my people and my country. When we lost, I remained silent, as a warrior should. My warrior spirit died when I put down my weapons. Now, there is only my poor body that has lived on. Now that too is almost ready to lie down for the last time. Ahhhhhh… It is well. VOICE TWO: Rain-in-the-Face, one of the last of the great Sioux warriors, died at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on September Fourteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Five. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was taken from the book “Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains” by Doctor Charles Eastman. Doug Johnson was the voice of Doctor Eastman; Shep O’Neal was the voice of Rain-in- the-Face. Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, 1926-2004
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 21, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week: the life story of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the doctor who gave a voice to the dying. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For most of her life, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross studied death. She became famous. She changed the way many others in the medical profession care for the dying. In recent years, Doctor Kubler-Ross could speak from personal experience. She had a series of infections and strokes. But she continued her work, even as her health weakened. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross died last month at her home in Arizona, in the American West. She was seventy-eight years old. VOICE TWO: She was born Elisabeth Kubler in Switzerland in nineteen twenty-six. She was born at the same time as her two sisters. Back then, giving birth to triplets was far riskier than it is now. All three girls and their mother survived. But Elisabeth weighed less than a kilogram at birth. After high school, she became interested in the process of death. She worked without pay at a hospital in Zurich. She helped care for World War Two refugees. Later she traveled through Europe. She visited countries affected by the war. She also visited a Nazi German death camp in Poland. It was there that she decided she would become a doctor of psychiatry and help people deal with death. VOICE ONE: Elisabeth Kubler studied medicine at the University of Zurich. She became a doctor in nineteen fifty-seven. She married another doctor, Emmanuel Ross. In nineteen fifty-eight they moved to the United States. She worked for a couple of years at a hospital in New York City. Doctor Kubler-Ross said the lack of interest in dying patients at the hospital shocked her. She demanded better care. She developed programs to provide emotional support. In nineteen sixty-one, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had her first chance to teach others about what she found so important. She moved West to teach at the University of Colorado Medical School. She knew that few doctors wanted to talk about the subject of death. Most usually kept the truth from dying patients. But Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wanted medical students to explore what she called the "greatest mystery in medicine." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There was very little written about the subject of death. But she had met a young cancer patient, a teenage girl with leukemia. The teenager had spoken openly and emotionally about her fear. She also expressed anger that her family was not preparing for the unavoidable. Doctor Kubler-Ross invited the girl to be a guest speaker in class. The doctor told her to be completely honest, so the medical students could learn what it is like to be sixteen and dying. Many of those future doctors cried. Word spread about this unusual lesson organized by Doctor Kubler-Ross. Her medical classes became very popular. Students of religion and members of the clergy also began to attend. So did social workers. In nineteen sixty-five, Doctor Kubler-Ross began to teach at the University of Chicago Medical School. It was there that she began a series of classes that led to her famous book in nineteen sixty-nine called “On Death and Dying.” VOICE ONE: Some religion students had asked her for help in the study of death. She set up meetings with dying patients. She asked them questions while the students observed from another room. Other doctors said patients, especially the young, should be sheltered from all talk of death. But Doctor Kubler-Ross said dying patients knew when they were being lied to, and that these lies had a terrible effect. She said dying patients often felt alone, like they had done something wrong. VOICE TWO: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had talked to enough people to develop a theory. She found that many people go through five stages when they learn they are dying. The first reaction usually is denial. In time, denial generally turns into anger, the idea of “why me?” People often next go through a stage that Doctor Kubler-Ross called bargaining. They might seek intervention from a higher power. Or they might think they can avoid death by changes in the way they live. When bargaining fails, a person may begin to think of all that will be lost and left undone, which leads to depression. The last part of this process that Doctor Kubler-Ross described is acceptance. Generally, she found that people at the fifth stage mainly seek peace and rest. They disconnect, to different extents, from the world around them. VOICE ONE: The work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross first appeared in a popular magazine. Life magazine published a story about a woman who criticized the way doctors treated her at the University of Chicago teaching hospital. This was one of the dying patients interviewed by Doctor Kubler-Ross. Hospital administrators were not happy. They said the hospital wanted to be known for saving lives. The hospital would not let its doctors attend any more of the lectures about death. Still, the article in Life magazine made Elisabeth Kubler-Ross famous. She received speaking invitations from across the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The force of the movement that she began is still felt today through programs like hospice care. A hospice is a home for people who are very sick and have no possibility for a cure. Doctor Kubler-Ross did not start hospice care in the United States, but her work provided guiding ideas. The Hospice Foundation of America says hospices do not try to lengthen or shorten life. They try to make the final days as comfortable as possible. Hospices provide support to family members as well. The teachings of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross dealt not only with death, but also with life. She often said the people who died most peacefully were those with the least regret about how they had lived. VOICE ONE: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross studied the process of dying until she was too sick to continue. She became especially interested in the idea of life after death. She and other doctors interviewed thousands of patients with near-death experiences. She said the stories of what the people experienced before doctors had saved their lives were all similar. They usually said they experienced a freedom from pain, and a sense that they were floating above their bodies. Even so, they could often remember the words and actions of medical workers in the room. Doctor Kubler-Ross reported that many people also spoke of moving toward a light or a feeling of warmth. They remembered that this felt so peaceful, they did not want to return. As a result of these interviews, Doctor Kubler-Ross reasoned that there was some kind of life after death. She stated this as fact at a meeting of psychiatrists in nineteen seventy-three. She was widely criticized. Later, she spoke of spirits that served as her “guides.” As a result of statements like these, her position as a scientist suffered greatly. VOICE TWO: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross left hospital work to further explore her theories about life after death. She also became interested in the study of what are known as out-of-body experiences. These new interests caused tension in her marriage. Her husband divorced her and took their two children to live with him. Years later, though, at the end of his life, he moved to Arizona where Doctor Kubler-Ross and her son took care of him. In the late nineteen seventies, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross opened a center in California. Later she opened one in Virginia where she mainly worked with people with AIDS, especially babies. Both centers burned. In both cases, police believed the fires had been set. The Virginia center burned in nineteen ninety-four. The following year, Doctor Kubler-Ross had a series of strokes. The last one limited her ability to move. But she continued to write books. She spent her remaining years in Scottsdale, Arizona, to be near her son. In two thousand-two, she moved into an assisted-living center. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was with friends and family when she died last month, on August twenty-fourth. Her death was described as peaceful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. If you would like to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: September 21, 2004 VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week: the life story of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the doctor who gave a voice to the dying. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For most of her life, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross studied death. She became famous. She changed the way many others in the medical profession care for the dying. In recent years, Doctor Kubler-Ross could speak from personal experience. She had a series of infections and strokes. But she continued her work, even as her health weakened. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross died last month at her home in Arizona, in the American West. She was seventy-eight years old. VOICE TWO: She was born Elisabeth Kubler in Switzerland in nineteen twenty-six. She was born at the same time as her two sisters. Back then, giving birth to triplets was far riskier than it is now. All three girls and their mother survived. But Elisabeth weighed less than a kilogram at birth. After high school, she became interested in the process of death. She worked without pay at a hospital in Zurich. She helped care for World War Two refugees. Later she traveled through Europe. She visited countries affected by the war. She also visited a Nazi German death camp in Poland. It was there that she decided she would become a doctor of psychiatry and help people deal with death. VOICE ONE: Elisabeth Kubler studied medicine at the University of Zurich. She became a doctor in nineteen fifty-seven. She married another doctor, Emmanuel Ross. In nineteen fifty-eight they moved to the United States. She worked for a couple of years at a hospital in New York City. Doctor Kubler-Ross said the lack of interest in dying patients at the hospital shocked her. She demanded better care. She developed programs to provide emotional support. In nineteen sixty-one, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had her first chance to teach others about what she found so important. She moved West to teach at the University of Colorado Medical School. She knew that few doctors wanted to talk about the subject of death. Most usually kept the truth from dying patients. But Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wanted medical students to explore what she called the "greatest mystery in medicine." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There was very little written about the subject of death. But she had met a young cancer patient, a teenage girl with leukemia. The teenager had spoken openly and emotionally about her fear. She also expressed anger that her family was not preparing for the unavoidable. Doctor Kubler-Ross invited the girl to be a guest speaker in class. The doctor told her to be completely honest, so the medical students could learn what it is like to be sixteen and dying. Many of those future doctors cried. Word spread about this unusual lesson organized by Doctor Kubler-Ross. Her medical classes became very popular. Students of religion and members of the clergy also began to attend. So did social workers. In nineteen sixty-five, Doctor Kubler-Ross began to teach at the University of Chicago Medical School. It was there that she began a series of classes that led to her famous book in nineteen sixty-nine called “On Death and Dying.” VOICE ONE: Some religion students had asked her for help in the study of death. She set up meetings with dying patients. She asked them questions while the students observed from another room. Other doctors said patients, especially the young, should be sheltered from all talk of death. But Doctor Kubler-Ross said dying patients knew when they were being lied to, and that these lies had a terrible effect. She said dying patients often felt alone, like they had done something wrong. VOICE TWO: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross had talked to enough people to develop a theory. She found that many people go through five stages when they learn they are dying. The first reaction usually is denial. In time, denial generally turns into anger, the idea of “why me?” People often next go through a stage that Doctor Kubler-Ross called bargaining. They might seek intervention from a higher power. Or they might think they can avoid death by changes in the way they live. When bargaining fails, a person may begin to think of all that will be lost and left undone, which leads to depression. The last part of this process that Doctor Kubler-Ross described is acceptance. Generally, she found that people at the fifth stage mainly seek peace and rest. They disconnect, to different extents, from the world around them. VOICE ONE: The work of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross first appeared in a popular magazine. Life magazine published a story about a woman who criticized the way doctors treated her at the University of Chicago teaching hospital. This was one of the dying patients interviewed by Doctor Kubler-Ross. Hospital administrators were not happy. They said the hospital wanted to be known for saving lives. The hospital would not let its doctors attend any more of the lectures about death. Still, the article in Life magazine made Elisabeth Kubler-Ross famous. She received speaking invitations from across the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The force of the movement that she began is still felt today through programs like hospice care. A hospice is a home for people who are very sick and have no possibility for a cure. Doctor Kubler-Ross did not start hospice care in the United States, but her work provided guiding ideas. The Hospice Foundation of America says hospices do not try to lengthen or shorten life. They try to make the final days as comfortable as possible. Hospices provide support to family members as well. The teachings of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross dealt not only with death, but also with life. She often said the people who died most peacefully were those with the least regret about how they had lived. VOICE ONE: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross studied the process of dying until she was too sick to continue. She became especially interested in the idea of life after death. She and other doctors interviewed thousands of patients with near-death experiences. She said the stories of what the people experienced before doctors had saved their lives were all similar. They usually said they experienced a freedom from pain, and a sense that they were floating above their bodies. Even so, they could often remember the words and actions of medical workers in the room. Doctor Kubler-Ross reported that many people also spoke of moving toward a light or a feeling of warmth. They remembered that this felt so peaceful, they did not want to return. As a result of these interviews, Doctor Kubler-Ross reasoned that there was some kind of life after death. She stated this as fact at a meeting of psychiatrists in nineteen seventy-three. She was widely criticized. Later, she spoke of spirits that served as her “guides.” As a result of statements like these, her position as a scientist suffered greatly. VOICE TWO: Elisabeth Kubler-Ross left hospital work to further explore her theories about life after death. She also became interested in the study of what are known as out-of-body experiences. These new interests caused tension in her marriage. Her husband divorced her and took their two children to live with him. Years later, though, at the end of his life, he moved to Arizona where Doctor Kubler-Ross and her son took care of him. In the late nineteen seventies, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross opened a center in California. Later she opened one in Virginia where she mainly worked with people with AIDS, especially babies. Both centers burned. In both cases, police believed the fires had been set. The Virginia center burned in nineteen ninety-four. The following year, Doctor Kubler-Ross had a series of strokes. The last one limited her ability to move. But she continued to write books. She spent her remaining years in Scottsdale, Arizona, to be near her son. In two thousand-two, she moved into an assisted-living center. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was with friends and family when she died last month, on August twenty-fourth. Her death was described as peaceful. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. If you would like to send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - National Museum of the American Indian
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 20, 2004 (MUSIC) George Gustav Heye Broadcast: September 20, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about the National Museum of the American Indian which opens this week in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Museum of the American Indian is opening with six days of events celebrating Indian culture. The events begin on Tuesday with a Native Nations Procession. About fifteen thousand people from North, Central and South America are expected to walk along the National Mall and gather for the museum’s opening ceremony. Many will be wearing traditional Native clothing. During the week, more than three hundred performers and artists will present music, dance and storytelling as part of the First Americans Festival. The new National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums operated by the government. It was built on the last open space on the Mall, between the Air and Space Museum and the United States Capitol. But the National Museum of the American Indian is more than another museum in Washington. It is a gathering place for living cultures. Its goal is to save, study and show the life, languages, history and arts of the Native people of North, Central and South America. One thousand Native communities are represented. VOICE TWO: The most important words in the museum’s goal are “living cultures.” This museum shows American Indian objects from the past and also from the present. Native people provide the explanations about the meaning and importance of the objects. Members of these living cultures played an important part in creating the new museum. They also decided which objects to show to the public and how they should be shown. Visitors can see more than seven thousand objects in the new museum. Some of them are more than ten thousand years old. VOICE ONE: These are some of the objects visitors can see in the new Museum of the American Indian: Wood and stone carvings and face coverings from the northwest coast of North America. Clothing and head coverings made of animal skins and feathers from the North American plains. Clay pots, woven baskets and silver jewelry from the southwestern United States. The collection also includes ancient objects from the Native peoples of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. These include ceramic containers from Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. Beautifully carved jade objects from the Olmec and Maya peoples. Woven cloths and gold objects from the Andean cultures. VOICE TWO: The objects are shown in three permanent exhibits. Through these objects, twenty-four Native communities tell their own stories of who they are. The exhibits are called "Our Universes," "Our Peoples” and “Our Lives.” "Our Universes" explores Native peoples’ theories about the world around them and their spiritual worlds. It contains objects and stories that tell about the values and beliefs of different Native cultures. In "Our Peoples," several Native communities present their tribal histories. They have chosen the objects, pictures, songs and other materials to tell about their past and their present. "Our Lives" examines the modern history of several Native communities through their cultural, social and political beliefs. VOICE ONE: Richard West has been the director of the Museum of the American Indian since nineteen ninety. He is a member of the Southern Cheyenne tribe. Mister West says the museum will show the success of Native people in keeping their way of life and overcoming pressures against them. He says it “will be a place to show and tell the world who we are and to use our own voices in the telling.” Mister West said the museum would not avoid addressing the troubles in American Indian communities since the arrival of colonial powers five hundred years ago. These include broken treaties with Indian tribes, the capture of Native lands and the killing of Native Americans. They also include the poor living conditions on reservations where many Native Americans live today. Experts say building the museum in the very heart of the nation’s capital represents a kind of cultural justice. It is a sign of a long-delayed cooperation between the people whose ancestors came to this country and the people who were already here. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Museum of the American Indian owns about eight hundred thousand objects. They are from the collection of one man, American businessman George Gustav Heye. He spent the first fifty years of the last century gathering American Indian objects. He created one of the largest collections in the world. He collected objects from the far northern Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America. These objects have great artistic, historic and cultural meaning. In nineteen twenty-two, the Heye Foundation opened a private museum in New York City to show the collection. However, the museum had space to show the public only a small part of the collection. The foundation did not have enough money to expand the museum or to correctly care for the huge number of objects being stored. After years of negotiations, an agreement was reached to make the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian part of the Smithsonian Institution. Congress approved the action in nineteen eighty-nine. In nineteen ninety-four, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian opened in the old Custom House in New York City. It is one of the most visited museums in New York. It will continue to offer major exhibits and public programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Sweeney is the head of public relations for the new National Museum of the American Indian. He says tribal representatives from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America were asked for their ideas about the design of the new building. They said the building needed roundness, light and open space, natural materials, water and plants. The finished design of the museum includes all this. It is beautiful and unusual. It looks like no other building in Washington. The museum covers only about twenty-five percent of the two hectares of land that surrounds it. It fits into the setting on the Mall, yet it shows traditional American Indian values. The outside wall is made of different size blocks of sand-colored limestone. It looks like waves of stone. The wall seems to flow as if formed by wind and water. Glass window areas provide light and a connection between inside and out. VOICE TWO: The main entrance to the museum faces east and the rising sun, like the doorway in a traditional American Indian home. About thirty thousand trees and plants native to the area surround the building. The grounds recreate four traditional environments of Native peoples: A hardwood forest. Lowland freshwater wetlands. Eastern grassy meadows. And traditional croplands where beans, corn and squash will be grown. Water is very much a part of the building’s surroundings. It flows over and around rocks. There are more than forty huge rocks from Canada called Grandfather Rocks. They show the respect of Native Americans for ancient things that existed in the area long before people arrived. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Visitors to the National Museum of the American Indian enter a large central circular space. It has a rounded top more than thirty-three meters high that is similar to the dome of the nearby Capitol building. This area is called Potomac, which in the Native local language means “where the goods are brought in.” Live demonstrations like boatbuilding, storytelling, music, and dance will take place here. The public will experience the living traditions and skills of Native people. VOICE TWO: One of the most important parts of the new National Museum of the American Indian is called the Fourth Museum. This is not a physical structure. It is the Community Services office, a link between the museum and Native communities throughout the Americas. Native people have been employed to work with individuals, communities and organizations to develop museum programs. They have created traveling exhibits, educational materials and an Internet Web site. The address is americanindian.si.edu. The National Museum of the American Indian will use these to inform people around the world about the living Native cultures of the Americas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you now with a Lakota Sioux Indian song, “Heart is Sad, The Morning Song.” VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today we tell about the National Museum of the American Indian which opens this week in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Museum of the American Indian is opening with six days of events celebrating Indian culture. The events begin on Tuesday with a Native Nations Procession. About fifteen thousand people from North, Central and South America are expected to walk along the National Mall and gather for the museum’s opening ceremony. Many will be wearing traditional Native clothing. During the week, more than three hundred performers and artists will present music, dance and storytelling as part of the First Americans Festival. The new National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian Institution, a group of museums operated by the government. It was built on the last open space on the Mall, between the Air and Space Museum and the United States Capitol. But the National Museum of the American Indian is more than another museum in Washington. It is a gathering place for living cultures. Its goal is to save, study and show the life, languages, history and arts of the Native people of North, Central and South America. One thousand Native communities are represented. VOICE TWO: The most important words in the museum’s goal are “living cultures.” This museum shows American Indian objects from the past and also from the present. Native people provide the explanations about the meaning and importance of the objects. Members of these living cultures played an important part in creating the new museum. They also decided which objects to show to the public and how they should be shown. Visitors can see more than seven thousand objects in the new museum. Some of them are more than ten thousand years old. VOICE ONE: These are some of the objects visitors can see in the new Museum of the American Indian: Wood and stone carvings and face coverings from the northwest coast of North America. Clothing and head coverings made of animal skins and feathers from the North American plains. Clay pots, woven baskets and silver jewelry from the southwestern United States. The collection also includes ancient objects from the Native peoples of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and South America. These include ceramic containers from Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. Beautifully carved jade objects from the Olmec and Maya peoples. Woven cloths and gold objects from the Andean cultures. VOICE TWO: The objects are shown in three permanent exhibits. Through these objects, twenty-four Native communities tell their own stories of who they are. The exhibits are called "Our Universes," "Our Peoples” and “Our Lives.” "Our Universes" explores Native peoples’ theories about the world around them and their spiritual worlds. It contains objects and stories that tell about the values and beliefs of different Native cultures. In "Our Peoples," several Native communities present their tribal histories. They have chosen the objects, pictures, songs and other materials to tell about their past and their present. "Our Lives" examines the modern history of several Native communities through their cultural, social and political beliefs. VOICE ONE: Richard West has been the director of the Museum of the American Indian since nineteen ninety. He is a member of the Southern Cheyenne tribe. Mister West says the museum will show the success of Native people in keeping their way of life and overcoming pressures against them. He says it “will be a place to show and tell the world who we are and to use our own voices in the telling.” Mister West said the museum would not avoid addressing the troubles in American Indian communities since the arrival of colonial powers five hundred years ago. These include broken treaties with Indian tribes, the capture of Native lands and the killing of Native Americans. They also include the poor living conditions on reservations where many Native Americans live today. Experts say building the museum in the very heart of the nation’s capital represents a kind of cultural justice. It is a sign of a long-delayed cooperation between the people whose ancestors came to this country and the people who were already here. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Museum of the American Indian owns about eight hundred thousand objects. They are from the collection of one man, American businessman George Gustav Heye. He spent the first fifty years of the last century gathering American Indian objects. He created one of the largest collections in the world. He collected objects from the far northern Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America. These objects have great artistic, historic and cultural meaning. In nineteen twenty-two, the Heye Foundation opened a private museum in New York City to show the collection. However, the museum had space to show the public only a small part of the collection. The foundation did not have enough money to expand the museum or to correctly care for the huge number of objects being stored. After years of negotiations, an agreement was reached to make the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian part of the Smithsonian Institution. Congress approved the action in nineteen eighty-nine. In nineteen ninety-four, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian opened in the old Custom House in New York City. It is one of the most visited museums in New York. It will continue to offer major exhibits and public programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Sweeney is the head of public relations for the new National Museum of the American Indian. He says tribal representatives from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central and South America were asked for their ideas about the design of the new building. They said the building needed roundness, light and open space, natural materials, water and plants. The finished design of the museum includes all this. It is beautiful and unusual. It looks like no other building in Washington. The museum covers only about twenty-five percent of the two hectares of land that surrounds it. It fits into the setting on the Mall, yet it shows traditional American Indian values. The outside wall is made of different size blocks of sand-colored limestone. It looks like waves of stone. The wall seems to flow as if formed by wind and water. Glass window areas provide light and a connection between inside and out. VOICE TWO: The main entrance to the museum faces east and the rising sun, like the doorway in a traditional American Indian home. About thirty thousand trees and plants native to the area surround the building. The grounds recreate four traditional environments of Native peoples: A hardwood forest. Lowland freshwater wetlands. Eastern grassy meadows. And traditional croplands where beans, corn and squash will be grown. Water is very much a part of the building’s surroundings. It flows over and around rocks. There are more than forty huge rocks from Canada called Grandfather Rocks. They show the respect of Native Americans for ancient things that existed in the area long before people arrived. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Visitors to the National Museum of the American Indian enter a large central circular space. It has a rounded top more than thirty-three meters high that is similar to the dome of the nearby Capitol building. This area is called Potomac, which in the Native local language means “where the goods are brought in.” Live demonstrations like boatbuilding, storytelling, music, and dance will take place here. The public will experience the living traditions and skills of Native people. VOICE TWO: One of the most important parts of the new National Museum of the American Indian is called the Fourth Museum. This is not a physical structure. It is the Community Services office, a link between the museum and Native communities throughout the Americas. Native people have been employed to work with individuals, communities and organizations to develop museum programs. They have created traveling exhibits, educational materials and an Internet Web site. The address is americanindian.si.edu. The National Museum of the American Indian will use these to inform people around the world about the living Native cultures of the Americas. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. We leave you now with a Lakota Sioux Indian song, “Heart is Sad, The Morning Song.” 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Ways to Keep Food Safe
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 20, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. People who grow their own food usually want to keep enough from their harvest for future use. But they also want to avoid the risk of food poisoning. So food safety experts offer some advice. One suggestion is to carefully examine vegetables that grow underground before they are put away for later use. They should be clean, dry, and have no cuts. They should be kept in a cool, dry place. Some people dig cellars where they keep their potatoes and root vegetables. It is important that this underground room be kept dark. Light can cause potatoes to develop a poison called solanine. Meats, fruits and vegetables can be dried and kept in cloth bags. The bags should be hung in a cool, dry place. Hanging the bags in the air will keep animals and insects on the ground from damaging the food. Mold is likely to grow on dried food that is kept where the air contains a lot of water. Milk will go bad if it is kept for a long time, especially if it is not kept cold. However, fresh milk should be safe to drink for a while if it is boiled. Put the boiled milk in a clean container and keep it in the coolest place you can find. Fats and oils should be kept in a cool place in covered containers. The containers should keep out light. Light can harm the properties of oils and fats. The containers should be made of dark glass or fired clay. Containers made of iron or copper will ruin fats and oils. If possible, heat the oil or fat to remove any water which would cause mold to grow. Fresh bread can be kept for later use if it is cooled quickly after it is baked. Then, it should be covered completely with clean paper or cloth. Fresh bread can be kept in a clean tin container. Be sure dust and insects cannot get to the bread. In hot weather when there is high humidity in the air, the tin container should not be closed too tightly. This could cause mold to grow on the bread. To help prevent mold, the bread container should be cleaned with hot water at least once a week and carefully dried. Canned foods should be kept in a place that is clean, dry and cool. Organisms can grow if cans or jars are damaged and air gets inside. Never eat food from cans that are swollen or leaking. These are possible signs of botulism. The food could contain a rare but deadly bacteria. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Bob Bowen. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Building a Rooftop Vegetable Garden
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 21, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Who says people need land to grow vegetables? All you need is a roof that is strong enough, and flat enough, to support a garden. We are going to describe one way to build a rooftop garden that does not even require soil. The advice is based on a method developed by the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, or Echo, in the early nineteen eighties. Echo is a Christian non-profit group that has a demonstration farm in Florida. The idea was to help people living in cities to grow their own vegetables. Four things are needed to follow this design for a small rooftop garden. One thing, as we said, is a roof that can support the weight. Another is grass cuttings. The third thing is a sheet of plastic on which to spread the cut grass. And the last thing is a box about eight centimeters deep and made out of four pieces of wood. Once you are sure the roof is good, cut and collect some grass. Then lay down the plastic where the garden box will go. The four-sided box can be as long and as wide as needed. Place the box on top of the sheet of plastic. Then fill it with the cut grass. Next, add water and walk on the cuttings to press them down. After about three weeks, the rooftop garden is ready for planting. Put the seeds directly into the wet grass cuttings. This garden is a good place to grow peas, tomatoes, beans, onions and lettuce. If the box is deep enough, potatoes and carrots will also grow. It is important to keep the grass wet until the plants begin to grow. When the plants are growing, they will need watering every day, unless there is rain. And they will need some liquid fertilizer. If you can get chicken waste, you can make your own liquid fertilizer. Put the chicken manure in a cloth bag. Then, put the bag in a big container of water. After about one week, the water becomes a good liquid fertilizer. Rooftop gardens need a lot of water. Also, seeds and new plants must be protected from insects and birds. Rooftop gardens are increasingly popular, and not just to grow vegetables. They keep buildings cooler in the sun, so they save energy. They can also extend the useful life of a roof. Rooftop gardens also reduce the runoff of stormwater and help clean the air. Plus they add beauty, and give birds and insects in the city a nice place to live. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 22, 2004 (MUSIC) The Skyhook invented by Robert Edison Fulton Broadcast: September 22, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual man who traveled alone around the world. He was an inventor and a filmmaker. He wrote a best-selling book. He was a poet, an artist and an airplane pilot. His name was Robert Edison Fulton, Junior. He was named for two of America’s most famous inventors, Robert Fulton and Thomas Edison. We begin his story at a dinner party in London, England in nineteen thirty-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Robert Edison Fulton, Junior was twenty-four years old. He had graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had recently completed advanced studies in building design at the University of Vienna in Austria. He was on his way back to the United States when he stopped to visit friends in London. At a dinner party at his friends’ house, a young woman asked him if he would be sailing home soon. He answered: “No, I am going around the world on a motorcycle.” Robert Fulton would say for the rest of his life that he had no idea why he said such a thing. Another man at the party said such a trip would be a great idea. And, he said he owned the Douglas Motor Works Company. He offered Robert Fulton a new Douglas motorcycle to use on his trip. Many years later, Mister Fulton said this dinner party was the beginning of an eighteen-month adventure. His trip would extend over more than forty thousand kilometers and include twenty-two countries. VOICE TWO: Within a few days of the dinner party, Robert Fulton began his preparations. He started collecting maps of the different countries he might visit. In nineteen thirty-two, maps of some countries were difficult to find. The Douglas company added special equipment to a new motorcycle. This included a second gasoline tank. Mister Fulton would learn that he could ride about five hundred sixty kilometers without needing more fuel. Two common automobile tires were fitted to the motorcycle. This would make it easier to find new tires or repair the two he had. And the company made a special box to hold tools and a motion picture camera and film. Robert Fulton decided to make a movie about his trip. VOICE ONE: A few weeks later, Robert Fulton found himself riding his new motorcycle out of London. He rode to the port of Dover. He crossed the English Channel on a ship. Robert Fulton said the first part of the trip was not exciting. He had traveled in much of Europe before. The only new thing was the motorcycle. He quickly rode through France, Germany and Austria. He also passed through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece. Each time, it took several hours to get permission to cross the border. Often, border police thought he must be insane. Some said they would permit him to cross, but not his motorcycle. But each time, Mister Fulton was able to talk his way across the border. VOICE TWO: Robert Fulton spoke English, French and German. Soon, these languages did not help him. But he always seemed to be able to communicate with almost everyone. He was a nice-looking, friendly young man. People liked him almost immediately. Many people offered him help when they learned what he was trying to do. Police in small towns often let him sleep in the town jail at night. In time, he reached Damascus, Syria. His next stop would be Baghdad, Iraq. He quickly learned he would have to cross almost eight hundred kilometers of the great Syrian Desert. Officials told him it would be impossible with a motorcycle. Other people said it could be done. Robert Fulton decided to find out for himself. He loaded the motorcycle with extra cans of fuel and water and began his trip across the desert. Syrians called this desert “the Blue.” This was because all you could see was the very blue sky and the very hot sun. He rode sixteen kilometers on the road out of Damascus. Then he saw a sign showing the way toward Baghdad. It was here that the road ended. In front of him was the great desert. Robert Fulton was alone for most of the trip. He worried about his motorcycle. If the engine failed, he could die of lack of water before anyone could find him. He could fall off and break a leg or arm. The severe heat could kill him. But the motorcycle did not fail him. He survived the fierce heat. He arrived safely in Baghdad. VOICE ONE: Robert Fulton successfully completed his trip. He traveled through what are now Afghanistan, India, Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Japan. He crossed the Pacific Ocean on a ship, and arrived in San Francisco. From there, he rode his motorcycle home to New York City. He arrived one day before Christmas, nineteen thirty-three. When he began his trip, Mister Fulton said he wanted to study buildings and monuments because that is what he had studied in school. He later wrote that he became much more interested in the people he met. He said race or religion did not make a difference. The people were almost always very friendly. He said many people in small villages did not trust him because he was a stranger. But almost everyone tried to help him when they found out that he was riding around the world. In nineteen thirty-seven, Robert Fulton wrote a book about his trip. He called it “One Man Caravan.” It included many photographs of buildings he had seen. Some were very beautiful. They included religious buildings in Malaysia and old military forts in India. But Robert Fulton liked the photographs of people’s faces best. The photos showed people in their native dress, working, playing and examining his motorcycle. “One Man Caravan” still sells well today. People can order it from bookstores. The movie he made of the trip is called “Twice Upon a Caravan.” People can also order it from some bookstores. VOICE TWO: Robert Fulton would be considered an unusual man if this long trip was all he did. It was a dangerous thing to do. Some experts said he was lucky to survive. But the trip was only a small part of his long and interesting life. Later, he became a professional photographer for Pan American World Airways. He taught himself to be a pilot. During World War Two, he designed a machine used to train military aircraft crews to fire guns at enemy aircraft. Both the United States Army Air Corps and Navy bought many of these machines. VOICE ONE: Another invention earned Robert Fulton a special place in aviation history. He designed and built an airplane that was also a car. It flew like any other aircraft. But when it landed, the pilot could take off the wings and propeller and drive it like any other car. He called this invention the Airphibian. In nineteen fifty, Robert Fulton flew his Airphibian to National Airport in Washington, D.C. Then he drove the car from the airport to the headquarters of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. There he was given the legal documents needed to produce the vehicle. But it was not a success. The costs to develop the Airphibian were too high. Now, the Smithsonian Institution owns the only remaining example of Mister Fulton’s unusual invention. VOICE TWO: Robert Fulton owned more than seventy legal documents that protected his inventions. Among these was a special wheelchair that helped people enter passenger airplanes. He also invented the Skyhook, an air rescue system that involved an airplane and a large helium balloon. The Skyhook was an emergency device designed to rescue people in areas that were hard to reach, such as spies in enemy territory. This device was used in the spy movie “Thunderball” about British secret agent James Bond. VOICE ONE: Robert Edison Fulton, Junior died at his home in Newtown, Connecticut at the age of ninety-five on May seventh, two thousand-four. He did not own a copy of his flying car. He no longer had many of the inventions he had made. However, he did own a motorcycle. It was the same special motorcycle made by the Douglas Motor Works so many years ago. He had had it rebuilt to look new. Robert Fulton could never give up his Douglas motorcycle. It was a part of him. He once said the year and a half he spent traveling around the world was the experience that changed his life. He said it gave him the courage to try many things and succeed. It was an experience that began with a few simple words: “I am going around the world on a motorcycle.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an unusual man who traveled alone around the world. He was an inventor and a filmmaker. He wrote a best-selling book. He was a poet, an artist and an airplane pilot. His name was Robert Edison Fulton, Junior. He was named for two of America’s most famous inventors, Robert Fulton and Thomas Edison. We begin his story at a dinner party in London, England in nineteen thirty-two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Robert Edison Fulton, Junior was twenty-four years old. He had graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had recently completed advanced studies in building design at the University of Vienna in Austria. He was on his way back to the United States when he stopped to visit friends in London. At a dinner party at his friends’ house, a young woman asked him if he would be sailing home soon. He answered: “No, I am going around the world on a motorcycle.” Robert Fulton would say for the rest of his life that he had no idea why he said such a thing. Another man at the party said such a trip would be a great idea. And, he said he owned the Douglas Motor Works Company. He offered Robert Fulton a new Douglas motorcycle to use on his trip. Many years later, Mister Fulton said this dinner party was the beginning of an eighteen-month adventure. His trip would extend over more than forty thousand kilometers and include twenty-two countries. VOICE TWO: Within a few days of the dinner party, Robert Fulton began his preparations. He started collecting maps of the different countries he might visit. In nineteen thirty-two, maps of some countries were difficult to find. The Douglas company added special equipment to a new motorcycle. This included a second gasoline tank. Mister Fulton would learn that he could ride about five hundred sixty kilometers without needing more fuel. Two common automobile tires were fitted to the motorcycle. This would make it easier to find new tires or repair the two he had. And the company made a special box to hold tools and a motion picture camera and film. Robert Fulton decided to make a movie about his trip. VOICE ONE: A few weeks later, Robert Fulton found himself riding his new motorcycle out of London. He rode to the port of Dover. He crossed the English Channel on a ship. Robert Fulton said the first part of the trip was not exciting. He had traveled in much of Europe before. The only new thing was the motorcycle. He quickly rode through France, Germany and Austria. He also passed through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece. Each time, it took several hours to get permission to cross the border. Often, border police thought he must be insane. Some said they would permit him to cross, but not his motorcycle. But each time, Mister Fulton was able to talk his way across the border. VOICE TWO: Robert Fulton spoke English, French and German. Soon, these languages did not help him. But he always seemed to be able to communicate with almost everyone. He was a nice-looking, friendly young man. People liked him almost immediately. Many people offered him help when they learned what he was trying to do. Police in small towns often let him sleep in the town jail at night. In time, he reached Damascus, Syria. His next stop would be Baghdad, Iraq. He quickly learned he would have to cross almost eight hundred kilometers of the great Syrian Desert. Officials told him it would be impossible with a motorcycle. Other people said it could be done. Robert Fulton decided to find out for himself. He loaded the motorcycle with extra cans of fuel and water and began his trip across the desert. Syrians called this desert “the Blue.” This was because all you could see was the very blue sky and the very hot sun. He rode sixteen kilometers on the road out of Damascus. Then he saw a sign showing the way toward Baghdad. It was here that the road ended. In front of him was the great desert. Robert Fulton was alone for most of the trip. He worried about his motorcycle. If the engine failed, he could die of lack of water before anyone could find him. He could fall off and break a leg or arm. The severe heat could kill him. But the motorcycle did not fail him. He survived the fierce heat. He arrived safely in Baghdad. VOICE ONE: Robert Fulton successfully completed his trip. He traveled through what are now Afghanistan, India, Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Japan. He crossed the Pacific Ocean on a ship, and arrived in San Francisco. From there, he rode his motorcycle home to New York City. He arrived one day before Christmas, nineteen thirty-three. When he began his trip, Mister Fulton said he wanted to study buildings and monuments because that is what he had studied in school. He later wrote that he became much more interested in the people he met. He said race or religion did not make a difference. The people were almost always very friendly. He said many people in small villages did not trust him because he was a stranger. But almost everyone tried to help him when they found out that he was riding around the world. In nineteen thirty-seven, Robert Fulton wrote a book about his trip. He called it “One Man Caravan.” It included many photographs of buildings he had seen. Some were very beautiful. They included religious buildings in Malaysia and old military forts in India. But Robert Fulton liked the photographs of people’s faces best. The photos showed people in their native dress, working, playing and examining his motorcycle. “One Man Caravan” still sells well today. People can order it from bookstores. The movie he made of the trip is called “Twice Upon a Caravan.” People can also order it from some bookstores. VOICE TWO: Robert Fulton would be considered an unusual man if this long trip was all he did. It was a dangerous thing to do. Some experts said he was lucky to survive. But the trip was only a small part of his long and interesting life. Later, he became a professional photographer for Pan American World Airways. He taught himself to be a pilot. During World War Two, he designed a machine used to train military aircraft crews to fire guns at enemy aircraft. Both the United States Army Air Corps and Navy bought many of these machines. VOICE ONE: Another invention earned Robert Fulton a special place in aviation history. He designed and built an airplane that was also a car. It flew like any other aircraft. But when it landed, the pilot could take off the wings and propeller and drive it like any other car. He called this invention the Airphibian. In nineteen fifty, Robert Fulton flew his Airphibian to National Airport in Washington, D.C. Then he drove the car from the airport to the headquarters of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. There he was given the legal documents needed to produce the vehicle. But it was not a success. The costs to develop the Airphibian were too high. Now, the Smithsonian Institution owns the only remaining example of Mister Fulton’s unusual invention. VOICE TWO: Robert Fulton owned more than seventy legal documents that protected his inventions. Among these was a special wheelchair that helped people enter passenger airplanes. He also invented the Skyhook, an air rescue system that involved an airplane and a large helium balloon. The Skyhook was an emergency device designed to rescue people in areas that were hard to reach, such as spies in enemy territory. This device was used in the spy movie “Thunderball” about British secret agent James Bond. VOICE ONE: Robert Edison Fulton, Junior died at his home in Newtown, Connecticut at the age of ninety-five on May seventh, two thousand-four. He did not own a copy of his flying car. He no longer had many of the inventions he had made. However, he did own a motorcycle. It was the same special motorcycle made by the Douglas Motor Works so many years ago. He had had it rebuilt to look new. Robert Fulton could never give up his Douglas motorcycle. It was a part of him. He once said the year and a half he spent traveling around the world was the experience that changed his life. He said it gave him the courage to try many things and succeed. It was an experience that began with a few simple words: “I am going around the world on a motorcycle.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Study Increases Estimate of Flu Hospitalizations in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 22, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Influenza can be life-threatening, especially for the very old or the very young. In the United States, a new study raises the estimate of how many people require hospital care related to the flu. Most cases of influenza in the United States usually happen from November until about April, during the colder months. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did they study. They looked at hospital records from the flu seasons between nineteen seventy-nine and two thousand-one. They counted flu-related hospitalizations. Doctor William Thompson led the research. They found that more than two hundred thousand people are hospitalized each year because of the flu. That is almost two times as many as earlier estimates by the C.D.C. The researchers say one major reason for the increase is the aging of the population. The number of Americans age eighty-five and older more than doubled in the last thirty years. Also, the study included the years in the late nineteen nineties when there were more cases of severe forms of the flu. And the researchers noted a third reason for the higher number of hospitalizations they found. They considered a greater number of flu-related sicknesses to reach the new estimate. The report appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The highest rates of influenza-related hospitalizations were among people eighty-five and older. The study found that the risk of hospitalizations increased with age starting at fifty. Those least affected were between five and forty-nine years old. Children younger than five had rates similar to those among people fifty to sixty-four. Influenza is a respiratory illness. It attacks the nose, throat and lungs. It causes a high body temperature and muscle aches and makes people feel very tired. It also causes a dry cough and sore throat. The virus spreads through the air when infected people cough or sneeze. The C.D.C. says most people who get the flu will recover in a week or two. But some people develop life-threatening conditions like pneumonia. In the United States, health officials say an average of about thirty-six thousand people each year die from influenza. They say the best way to prevent the flu is to get vaccinated each fall before flu season begins. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: September 23, 2004 - Native American Influence on English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 23, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: with the National Museum of the American Indian opening in Washington, we look at Native American influence on the English language. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 23, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: with the National Museum of the American Indian opening in Washington, we look at Native American influence on the English language. RS: Linguist Marianne Mithun is author of the book "The Languages of Native North America." She's a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. AA: Professor Mithun says the Europeans who came to North America had to borrow native words to describe lots of things, including places. MARIANNE MITHUN: "One of the first contacts the Europeans made when they came to the New World (involved) Jacques Cartier, who sailed up the St. Lawrence River and ran into some people and said 'where is this?' or 'where are we?' And they said something like 'ganada,' which is the Mohawk word now and the word in other related languages for a settlement or a town. And so they wrote it down and said 'we must be in Canada.' Ohio, that's another Iroquoian word, which means large river or large creek. And so it was the name of the river first and then became the name of the state. Kentucky is another one, which means prairie or meadow or garden." RS: "So the people who came to this land, they didn't have names for places and they probably didn't have names for some of the plants (because) they didn't know what they were." (VOA photo - R. Pentola) RS: Linguist Marianne Mithun is author of the book "The Languages of Native North America." She's a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. AA: Professor Mithun says the Europeans who came to North America had to borrow native words to describe lots of things, including places. MARIANNE MITHUN: "One of the first contacts the Europeans made when they came to the New World (involved) Jacques Cartier, who sailed up the St. Lawrence River and ran into some people and said 'where is this?' or 'where are we?' And they said something like 'ganada,' which is the Mohawk word now and the word in other related languages for a settlement or a town. And so they wrote it down and said 'we must be in Canada.' Ohio, that's another Iroquoian word, which means large river or large creek. And so it was the name of the river first and then became the name of the state. Kentucky is another one, which means prairie or meadow or garden." RS: "So the people who came to this land, they didn't have names for places and they probably didn't have names for some of the plants (because) they didn't know what they were." MARIANNE MITHUN: "That's right. So some of those are things like squash and hickory -- these are Algonquian, so these are from the east -- hominy, persimmon, pecan." RS: "Are there any idioms that may endure now that have gone through or ways of describing things that are not either places or animals or plants." MARIANNE MITHUN: "That's tricky. I should say there are cultural things; the other kind of thing that gets borrowed a lot is, if you want a name for something that only the native people use, and so we have a lot of those -- like moccasin, for example. That's a regular word for shoe, but now it means a special kind of shoe. Things like powwow, tomahawk. Eskimo gives us things like kayak and mukluk and anorak." AA: "And what's interesting is that I suppose in modern times now to use some of these terms, perhaps in jest or however, might actually be considered offensive to Native Americans." MARIANNE MITHUN: "Absolutely. In fact, a very good example of that is squaw. That's a regular Alongquian word for woman." RS: But Professor Mithun says the term squaw as used by Europeans took on different connotations over the centuries, so that now people often think of it as being derogatory. AA: Marianne Mithun is not Native American herself, but she works with different native languages to help document them. MARIANNE MITHUN: "A lot of people don't realize how many languages there were here and still are here. There were probably around 300 different languages in North America." AA: "How many of those 300 languages still exist?" MARIANNE MITHUN: "About 180 right now -- and I say about, because we're losing them all the time. It's not how many speakers you have, it's how old they are. So if all of your speakers are over 80, you can see how many years you might have left. Almost all of the languages in North America are endangered. There's only one (native) language in North America that isn't endangered, and that's Greenlandic. What this means is that either children are no longer learning them as a first language, which is the case for almost all of them, or fewer children are learning them every year. "So we think of Navajo, for example, as being very healthy because there are more Navajo speakers than of all other North American languages combined. There are over 100,000 Navajo speakers. But in the early '90s most children came to school knowing Navajo as their first language. Now very few come to school with Navajo as their first language. So even Navajo, which seems to be the strongest outside of Greenlandic, is in danger. "It's sort of obvious parents want to help their children get ahead, and they themselves had a hard time because they didn't speak English, so they want their children to speak English. And the problem is that people haven't realized that being bilingual can be a very powerful thing." RS: Marianne Mithun is a linguistics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of "The Languages of Native North America." Now, in case you're wondering, mukluks are animal-skin boots that Eskimos wear. And an anorak? It's a type of jacket with a hood. AA: And that's all for us this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and you can find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. If you'd like to visit the new National Museum of the American Indian online, go to americanindian.si.edu. With Rosanne Skirble, I’m Avi Arditti. MARIANNE MITHUN: "That's right. So some of those are things like squash and hickory -- these are Algonquian, so these are from the east -- hominy, persimmon, pecan." RS: "Are there any idioms that may endure now that have gone through or ways of describing things that are not either places or animals or plants." MARIANNE MITHUN: "That's tricky. I should say there are cultural things; the other kind of thing that gets borrowed a lot is, if you want a name for something that only the native people use, and so we have a lot of those -- like moccasin, for example. That's a regular word for shoe, but now it means a special kind of shoe. Things like powwow, tomahawk. Eskimo gives us things like kayak and mukluk and anorak." AA: "And what's interesting is that I suppose in modern times now to use some of these terms, perhaps in jest or however, might actually be considered offensive to Native Americans." MARIANNE MITHUN: "Absolutely. In fact, a very good example of that is squaw. That's a regular Alongquian word for woman." RS: But Professor Mithun says the term squaw as used by Europeans took on different connotations over the centuries, so that now people often think of it as being derogatory. AA: Marianne Mithun is not Native American herself, but she works with different native languages to help document them. MARIANNE MITHUN: "A lot of people don't realize how many languages there were here and still are here. There were probably around 300 different languages in North America." AA: "How many of those 300 languages still exist?" MARIANNE MITHUN: "About 180 right now -- and I say about, because we're losing them all the time. It's not how many speakers you have, it's how old they are. So if all of your speakers are over 80, you can see how many years you might have left. Almost all of the languages in North America are endangered. There's only one (native) language in North America that isn't endangered, and that's Greenlandic. What this means is that either children are no longer learning them as a first language, which is the case for almost all of them, or fewer children are learning them every year. "So we think of Navajo, for example, as being very healthy because there are more Navajo speakers than of all other North American languages combined. There are over 100,000 Navajo speakers. But in the early '90s most children came to school knowing Navajo as their first language. Now very few come to school with Navajo as their first language. So even Navajo, which seems to be the strongest outside of Greenlandic, is in danger. "It's sort of obvious parents want to help their children get ahead, and they themselves had a hard time because they didn't speak English, so they want their children to speak English. And the problem is that people haven't realized that being bilingual can be a very powerful thing." RS: Marianne Mithun is a linguistics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of "The Languages of Native North America." Now, in case you're wondering, mukluks are animal-skin boots that Eskimos wear. And an anorak? It's a type of jacket with a hood. AA: And that's all for us this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and you can find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. If you'd like to visit the new National Museum of the American Indian online, go to americanindian.si.edu. With Rosanne Skirble, I’m Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Election of 1852
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 23, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the history of the United States in the middle of the last century. President Franklin Pierce VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I continue the history of the United States in the middle of the last century. In eighteen-fifty, President Zachary Taylor died after serving about a year and a half in office. Taylor's Vice President, Millard Fillmore, took his place. Early in his administration, President Fillmore signed the compromise of eighteen-fifty. That compromise helped settle a national dispute over slavery and the western territories. It ended a crisis between northern and southern states. It prevented a civil war. The eighteen-fifty compromise did not, however, end slavery in the United States. So the issue did not really die. It continued to affect the nation. And it was the most important issue of Millard Fillmore's presidency. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-fifty-two, an American woman published a book about slavery. She called it Uncle Tom's Cabin. The woman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the book for one reason. She wanted to show how cruel slavery was. Stowe's words painted a picture of slavery that most people in the north had never seen. They were shocked. Public pressure to end slavery grew strong. Abolitionists wanted to free all slaves immediately. Even if that could be done, there was the question of what to do with the freed slaves. Their rights as citizens were limited. Some states closed their borders to negroes. Other states permitted negroes, but said they could not vote. In many places, it seemed impossible that negroes and whites could live together peacefully, in freedom. The best answer, many people thought, was to free the slaves and help them return to Africa. VOICE ONE: It was not a new idea. Forty years earlier, a group of leading Americans had formed an organization for that purpose. They called it the American Colonization Society. In eighteen-twenty, the Society began helping send negroes to Africa. The negroes formed a government of their own. In eighteen-forty-seven, they declared themselves independent. They called their new country the Republic of Liberia. The new country had a constitution like that of the United States. By eighteen-fifty-four, nine-thousand negroes from the United States had been sent to Liberia. Some had technical skills. They knew how to make iron. They knew how to use steam engines and other machinery. The Colonization Society hoped these negroes would use their skills to help improve life for the people of Africa. The Society's plan ended a cruel life of slavery for many negroes. But it could not be denied that the plan was a way to get black people out of the United States. Many whites refused to accept the fact that most free negroes did not want to go to Africa. The negroes had grown up in the United States. It was their home. VOICE TWO: Negro slaves took great chances to escape to freedom. Many gained their freedom through the so-called "underground railroad." That was not a real railroad. It was an organization of people who secretly helped slaves escape to the north. An escaped slave would be hidden during the day by a member of the organization. Then at night, the negro would be taken to another hiding place farther north. The process was repeated every day and night until the escaped slave was safe in New England or even Canada. VOICE ONE: The year eighteen-fifty-two was a presidential election year in the United States. The eighteen-fifty compromise was a major issue in the campaign. A number of men wanted to be the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. They included Senators Lewis Cass of Michigan and Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Another was former Secretary of State James Buchanan. Cass and Douglas supported the idea of letting the people of a territory decide if slavery would be permitted in that territory. Buchanan opposed the anti-slavery movements of the north. Because of this, he had many supporters in the south. VOICE TWO: The Democrats opened their presidential nominating convention in Baltimore on the first of June, eighteen-fifty-two. The delegates agreed that a man must win two-thirds of the convention's votes to be the party's candidate. On the first ballot, no one got two-thirds of the vote. So the voting continued. Finally, on the forty-seventh ballot, support began to increase for one of the minor candidates. His name was Franklin Pierce. Pierce was from the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He had served as a congressman and senator. On the forty-ninth ballot, Pierce won. He would be the Democratic Party's candidate for president. VOICE ONE: The Whig party held its presidential nominating convention in Baltimore two weeks after the Democrats. Three whigs wanted to be nominated: President Millard Fillmore, Secretary of State Daniel Webster, and General Winfield Scott. The same thing that happened at the democratic convention now happened at the Whig convention. Delegates voted over and over again. But no man got enough votes to win. It took fifty-three ballots before one of the men -- General Scott -- won the nomination. VOICE TWO: The presidential campaign lasted about five months. The election was in November. Pierce, the Democrat, won a crushing victory over Scott, the Whig. The Democratic victory was so great that many people thought the Whig Party was finished. In fact, many Whigs themselves hoped their party had been destroyed. Northern Whigs wanted to form a new anti-slavery party. And southern Whigs wanted to form a party that would better represent their interests. The Democrats won the election, because they were able to bridge the differences between their northern and southern members. The Whigs were not able to do that. VOICE ONE: The new president, Franklin Pierce, was a charming man. He made friends easily. Those who knew Pierce best worried about this. They knew that under all his friendly charm, he was a weak man. They feared that the duties and problems of the presidency would be too great for him to deal with. As president in eighteen-fifty-three, Pierce was forced to choose between two policies on the issue of slavery. He could support the compromise of eighteen-fifty and declare it to be the final settlement of the problem. That would lead to a fight with northern and southern extremists. Or he could compromise with the extremists and give them jobs in his administration. That would be the easy way to satisfy their demands. And that was the policy pierce chose. VOICE TWO: In putting together his cabinet, President Pierce tried to include men from every group in the Democratic Party. He named William Marcy of New York to be Secretary of State. Marcy opposed the spread of slavery and all talk of splitting the Union. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was named Secretary of War. Davis, more than any other man, represented the southern extremists. He had threatened to take the south out of the Union if any limits were put on slavery. Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts was named Attorney General. Although a northerner, Cushing was a friend of many southern extremists. He was a very able man, but his loyalties were not clear. James Buchanan of Pennsylvania was named Minister to Britain. VOICE ONE: All of these men had strong ideas about the future of the United States. President Pierce found it difficult to control them. One senator said the administration should not have been called the Pierce administration, because Pierce did not lead it. He said it was an administration of enemies of the Union who used the president's name and power for their own purposes. VOICE TWO: For a time, things were peaceful. The dispute over slavery had cooled. But thoughtful people did not believe that peace would last long. No permanent solution had been found to settle differences over slavery and the right of states to leave the Union. One northerner wrote: "It was said hundreds of years ago that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The truth of this saying is written on every page in history. It is likely that the history of our own country may offer fresh examples to teach this truth to future ages." We will continue our story of the presidency of Franklin Pierce next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. In eighteen-fifty, President Zachary Taylor died after serving about a year and a half in office. Taylor's Vice President, Millard Fillmore, took his place. Early in his administration, President Fillmore signed the compromise of eighteen-fifty. That compromise helped settle a national dispute over slavery and the western territories. It ended a crisis between northern and southern states. It prevented a civil war. The eighteen-fifty compromise did not, however, end slavery in the United States. So the issue did not really die. It continued to affect the nation. And it was the most important issue of Millard Fillmore's presidency. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-fifty-two, an American woman published a book about slavery. She called it Uncle Tom's Cabin. The woman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the book for one reason. She wanted to show how cruel slavery was. Stowe's words painted a picture of slavery that most people in the north had never seen. They were shocked. Public pressure to end slavery grew strong. Abolitionists wanted to free all slaves immediately. Even if that could be done, there was the question of what to do with the freed slaves. Their rights as citizens were limited. Some states closed their borders to negroes. Other states permitted negroes, but said they could not vote. In many places, it seemed impossible that negroes and whites could live together peacefully, in freedom. The best answer, many people thought, was to free the slaves and help them return to Africa. VOICE ONE: It was not a new idea. Forty years earlier, a group of leading Americans had formed an organization for that purpose. They called it the American Colonization Society. In eighteen-twenty, the Society began helping send negroes to Africa. The negroes formed a government of their own. In eighteen-forty-seven, they declared themselves independent. They called their new country the Republic of Liberia. The new country had a constitution like that of the United States. By eighteen-fifty-four, nine-thousand negroes from the United States had been sent to Liberia. Some had technical skills. They knew how to make iron. They knew how to use steam engines and other machinery. The Colonization Society hoped these negroes would use their skills to help improve life for the people of Africa. The Society's plan ended a cruel life of slavery for many negroes. But it could not be denied that the plan was a way to get black people out of the United States. Many whites refused to accept the fact that most free negroes did not want to go to Africa. The negroes had grown up in the United States. It was their home. VOICE TWO: Negro slaves took great chances to escape to freedom. Many gained their freedom through the so-called "underground railroad." That was not a real railroad. It was an organization of people who secretly helped slaves escape to the north. An escaped slave would be hidden during the day by a member of the organization. Then at night, the negro would be taken to another hiding place farther north. The process was repeated every day and night until the escaped slave was safe in New England or even Canada. VOICE ONE: The year eighteen-fifty-two was a presidential election year in the United States. The eighteen-fifty compromise was a major issue in the campaign. A number of men wanted to be the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. They included Senators Lewis Cass of Michigan and Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Another was former Secretary of State James Buchanan. Cass and Douglas supported the idea of letting the people of a territory decide if slavery would be permitted in that territory. Buchanan opposed the anti-slavery movements of the north. Because of this, he had many supporters in the south. VOICE TWO: The Democrats opened their presidential nominating convention in Baltimore on the first of June, eighteen-fifty-two. The delegates agreed that a man must win two-thirds of the convention's votes to be the party's candidate. On the first ballot, no one got two-thirds of the vote. So the voting continued. Finally, on the forty-seventh ballot, support began to increase for one of the minor candidates. His name was Franklin Pierce. Pierce was from the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He had served as a congressman and senator. On the forty-ninth ballot, Pierce won. He would be the Democratic Party's candidate for president. VOICE ONE: The Whig party held its presidential nominating convention in Baltimore two weeks after the Democrats. Three whigs wanted to be nominated: President Millard Fillmore, Secretary of State Daniel Webster, and General Winfield Scott. The same thing that happened at the democratic convention now happened at the Whig convention. Delegates voted over and over again. But no man got enough votes to win. It took fifty-three ballots before one of the men -- General Scott -- won the nomination. VOICE TWO: The presidential campaign lasted about five months. The election was in November. Pierce, the Democrat, won a crushing victory over Scott, the Whig. The Democratic victory was so great that many people thought the Whig Party was finished. In fact, many Whigs themselves hoped their party had been destroyed. Northern Whigs wanted to form a new anti-slavery party. And southern Whigs wanted to form a party that would better represent their interests. The Democrats won the election, because they were able to bridge the differences between their northern and southern members. The Whigs were not able to do that. VOICE ONE: The new president, Franklin Pierce, was a charming man. He made friends easily. Those who knew Pierce best worried about this. They knew that under all his friendly charm, he was a weak man. They feared that the duties and problems of the presidency would be too great for him to deal with. As president in eighteen-fifty-three, Pierce was forced to choose between two policies on the issue of slavery. He could support the compromise of eighteen-fifty and declare it to be the final settlement of the problem. That would lead to a fight with northern and southern extremists. Or he could compromise with the extremists and give them jobs in his administration. That would be the easy way to satisfy their demands. And that was the policy pierce chose. VOICE TWO: In putting together his cabinet, President Pierce tried to include men from every group in the Democratic Party. He named William Marcy of New York to be Secretary of State. Marcy opposed the spread of slavery and all talk of splitting the Union. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was named Secretary of War. Davis, more than any other man, represented the southern extremists. He had threatened to take the south out of the Union if any limits were put on slavery. Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts was named Attorney General. Although a northerner, Cushing was a friend of many southern extremists. He was a very able man, but his loyalties were not clear. James Buchanan of Pennsylvania was named Minister to Britain. VOICE ONE: All of these men had strong ideas about the future of the United States. President Pierce found it difficult to control them. One senator said the administration should not have been called the Pierce administration, because Pierce did not lead it. He said it was an administration of enemies of the Union who used the president's name and power for their own purposes. VOICE TWO: For a time, things were peaceful. The dispute over slavery had cooled. But thoughtful people did not believe that peace would last long. No permanent solution had been found to settle differences over slavery and the right of states to leave the Union. One northerner wrote: "It was said hundreds of years ago that a house divided against itself cannot stand. The truth of this saying is written on every page in history. It is likely that the history of our own country may offer fresh examples to teach this truth to future ages." We will continue our story of the presidency of Franklin Pierce next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #4: Online Education
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 23, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports for students in other countries who want to attend a United States college or university. This week, in part four, we discuss how some students are able to stay in their home country and still earn a degree. Many students who take classes by computer over the Internet say they like the independence of online education. Students do not have to sit in a classroom and do not have to attend courses at a set time. Professors say they have better communication with students through e-mail than they do in many traditional classes. American college and universities have been offering classes online for a number of years. The University of Phoenix, in Arizona, has been offering degrees online since nineteen eighty-nine. University officials say they try to provide students with a social experience as well as an educational one. In some programs, for example, students in groups of six take all their classes together. They communicate with each other by computer. Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado, describes itself as the first fully online accredited university. Jones International offers both bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Another online school is Cardean University, near Chicago, Illinois. It began in two thousand. It offers a master’s of business administration degree. It says its courses are developed with five top business schools and can be completed in as little as twenty-two months. Cardean says it has taught students from ninety countries. Lists of schools that offer online programs are easy to find on the Internet. Just use a search engine like Google or Yahoo and type in "online education." Be careful, though, of offers for a college degree in return for little or no work. Such operations are illegal in the United States. Educational advisers say that before you enter any program, you should make sure the work will be recognized in your country. Our Foreign Student Series is online, at voaspecialenglish dot com. And for information from the State Department, go to educationusa.state.gov. Again, educationusa.state.gov. Our series continues next week. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Judy Blume / Country, Nation, State: What's the Difference? / Music by Big and Rich
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 24, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 24, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Country music from Big and Rich ... A question from Nigeria about some place names ... And a report about an award for children’s writer Judy Blume. Judy Blume American children's writer Judy Blume has won many awards. Her books have sold more than seventy-five million copies. They have been published in more than twenty languages. Now the National Book Foundation will honor her with its two thousand four Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Faith Lapidus has more about Judy Blume and her books. FAITH LAPIDUS: Judy Blume is sixty-six years old. But book critics say this grandmother has never forgotten what it feels like to be a child. She writes mostly about the struggles of growing up. She published her first such book in nineteen sixty-nine. Judy Blume says she writes about real life and real feelings. And she says children recognize themselves and their own problems in her books. These are problems like not having friends. Or worrying about physical development. Or being afraid to grow up. Some of the children in her books are trying to understand why their parents have separated. Others are not sure about their religious beliefs. Not everyone praises Judy Blume, however. Some parents feel that children should not read about some of the subjects that she writes about. Her books have often been removed from libraries or placed in restricted areas as a result of challenges by parents. The American Library Association says five of her books are among the one hundred most frequently challenged books. Not surprisingly, Judy Blume is active against censorship. She says people try to ban books because it satisfies their need to feel in control of their children’s lives. She says they think if children don’t read about a subject, they won’t know about it. She argues that children need to know about ideas different from those of their parents. Judy Blume is the first writer of young-adult literature to receive the National Book Foundation medal. This honor was established in nineteen eighty-eight. It will be given at the National Books Awards ceremony in New York City in November. Country, Nation, State: What's the Difference? DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Katsina State, Nigeria. Shamsu Rabiu Galadunchi would like to know the difference between a country and a nation. Our listener also asks how a town, a district, a city, a suburb and a state are different. This is a good question, because some of these terms have similar meanings or mean more than one thing. The American Heritage Dictionary, for example, says a nation is a "relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country." Now this is how the definition for country begins: "a. A nation or state. b. The territory of a nation or state ... (and) c. The people of a nation or state." So you see how nation and country can often mean the same thing. The United States, for example, could be called either a country or a nation. It could also be called a state. Internationally, a country is defined as a state. The word state can also mean the highest political power within a country, as well as an area of territory with a country. The United States has fifty states, such as Texas, Oregon and Michigan. The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says a city is a place "of greater size, population or importance than a town or village." A suburb is an area outside a city. People who live in a suburb may or may not work in the city. But most usually do. An example of a suburb is Bellevue, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. It is next to the city of Seattle. An example of a town is Hampden, Massachusetts. About five thousand people live there. A district can mean a legal division of an area for a purpose, like a school district. It can also be a name given to an area within a city because of local ties to an industry or activity. Chicago, for example, has an area known as the Meat Packing District. Another kind of district is Washington, D.C. D.C. is the District of Columbia. It was created with land from two states, Virginia and Maryland, to serve as the home of the federal government. Big and Rich DOUG JOHNSON: Big Kenny and John Rich, two new stars in country music, met six years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. Bob Doughty has the story of Big & Rich. BOB DOUGHTY: Kenny Alphin, known as "Big" Kenny, was performing at a club. John Rich went to see the show. He must have liked what he heard, because soon the two men were writing songs together. They formed a band. Their first single, “Wild West Show,” came out early this year. (MUSIC) In May, Big & Rich released an album. “Horse of a Different Color” took about four months to reach number one on the country music charts. Here is the first song on that recording. It's called “Rollin’ (The Ballad of Big & Rich).” (MUSIC) Big & Rich are nominated for two Country Music Association awards, including Duo of the Year. The C.M.A. Awards ceremony is November ninth at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. We leave you with another song from Big & Rich. This one is called “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. Before we go, we want to follow up on our report earlier this month about the history of the former punk rock band The Ramones. On September fifteenth Johnny Ramone died. He had prostate cancer. He was fifty-five years old. This program was written by Brian Kim, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Country music from Big and Rich ... A question from Nigeria about some place names ... And a report about an award for children’s writer Judy Blume. Judy Blume American children's writer Judy Blume has won many awards. Her books have sold more than seventy-five million copies. They have been published in more than twenty languages. Now the National Book Foundation will honor her with its two thousand four Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Faith Lapidus has more about Judy Blume and her books. FAITH LAPIDUS: Judy Blume is sixty-six years old. But book critics say this grandmother has never forgotten what it feels like to be a child. She writes mostly about the struggles of growing up. She published her first such book in nineteen sixty-nine. Judy Blume says she writes about real life and real feelings. And she says children recognize themselves and their own problems in her books. These are problems like not having friends. Or worrying about physical development. Or being afraid to grow up. Some of the children in her books are trying to understand why their parents have separated. Others are not sure about their religious beliefs. Not everyone praises Judy Blume, however. Some parents feel that children should not read about some of the subjects that she writes about. Her books have often been removed from libraries or placed in restricted areas as a result of challenges by parents. The American Library Association says five of her books are among the one hundred most frequently challenged books. Not surprisingly, Judy Blume is active against censorship. She says people try to ban books because it satisfies their need to feel in control of their children’s lives. She says they think if children don’t read about a subject, they won’t know about it. She argues that children need to know about ideas different from those of their parents. Judy Blume is the first writer of young-adult literature to receive the National Book Foundation medal. This honor was established in nineteen eighty-eight. It will be given at the National Books Awards ceremony in New York City in November. Country, Nation, State: What's the Difference? DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Katsina State, Nigeria. Shamsu Rabiu Galadunchi would like to know the difference between a country and a nation. Our listener also asks how a town, a district, a city, a suburb and a state are different. This is a good question, because some of these terms have similar meanings or mean more than one thing. The American Heritage Dictionary, for example, says a nation is a "relatively large group of people organized under a single, usually independent government; a country." Now this is how the definition for country begins: "a. A nation or state. b. The territory of a nation or state ... (and) c. The people of a nation or state." So you see how nation and country can often mean the same thing. The United States, for example, could be called either a country or a nation. It could also be called a state. Internationally, a country is defined as a state. The word state can also mean the highest political power within a country, as well as an area of territory with a country. The United States has fifty states, such as Texas, Oregon and Michigan. The Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary says a city is a place "of greater size, population or importance than a town or village." A suburb is an area outside a city. People who live in a suburb may or may not work in the city. But most usually do. An example of a suburb is Bellevue, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. It is next to the city of Seattle. An example of a town is Hampden, Massachusetts. About five thousand people live there. A district can mean a legal division of an area for a purpose, like a school district. It can also be a name given to an area within a city because of local ties to an industry or activity. Chicago, for example, has an area known as the Meat Packing District. Another kind of district is Washington, D.C. D.C. is the District of Columbia. It was created with land from two states, Virginia and Maryland, to serve as the home of the federal government. Big and Rich DOUG JOHNSON: Big Kenny and John Rich, two new stars in country music, met six years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. Bob Doughty has the story of Big & Rich. BOB DOUGHTY: Kenny Alphin, known as "Big" Kenny, was performing at a club. John Rich went to see the show. He must have liked what he heard, because soon the two men were writing songs together. They formed a band. Their first single, “Wild West Show,” came out early this year. (MUSIC) In May, Big & Rich released an album. “Horse of a Different Color” took about four months to reach number one on the country music charts. Here is the first song on that recording. It's called “Rollin’ (The Ballad of Big & Rich).” (MUSIC) Big & Rich are nominated for two Country Music Association awards, including Duo of the Year. The C.M.A. Awards ceremony is November ninth at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. We leave you with another song from Big & Rich. This one is called “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. Before we go, we want to follow up on our report earlier this month about the history of the former punk rock band The Ramones. On September fifteenth Johnny Ramone died. He had prostate cancer. He was fifty-five years old. This program was written by Brian Kim, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - US Airways Declares Bankruptcy a Second Time
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 24, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. A business receives legal protection from its creditors when it declares bankruptcy. But what happens when a company declares bankruptcy twice in just two years? US Airways declared bankruptcy in August of two thousand two. The company, like most airlines, suffered after the terrorist attacks the year before. The company wanted to reorganize its debt and reduce costs. US Airways received help from the Air Transportation Stabilization Board. The government established this agency to aid airlines after the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. The board agreed to guarantee nine hundred million dollars in loans for US Airways. The company received the largest loan guarantee of any airline. The guarantee made it easier for US Airways to find creditors. In return, US Airways agreed to repay the loan or release much of its property to the agency and the creditors. While in bankruptcy, US Airways cut costs. It asked labor unions to agree to a plan to reduce pay and other employment costs by one thousand nine hundred million dollars. The company told its workers that the cuts were necessary for the airline to remain competitive. The unions agreed. US Airways came out of bankruptcy protection in April of two thousand three. It had cut about two thousand million dollars in costs. But that still was not enough. US Airways could not make a profit. The company then tried to get workers to agree to new pay cuts worth about eight hundred million dollars. This time, the unions rejected the proposal. The company declared bankruptcy again earlier this month in Alexandria, Virginia. The announcement came days before the airline would have had to pay more than one hundred million dollars into employee retirement plans. The government board has agreed to permit US Airways to continue its business under bankruptcy protection. But the agency has restricted the amount of money the company can spend. Some experts say US Airways may be liquidated. This would mean the end of the company and the sale of all its property. US Airways says it will present a new financial plan by the end of the year. Listen next week for another report about changes in the airline industry. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Indonesia's Presidential Election
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 25, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to become the next president of Indonesia. With most ballots counted, the former military chief and security minister has a wide lead over President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Both candidates say they will not comment on the election until final results are announced October fifth. The new president is to be sworn-in October twentieth. The election was Monday. The next day, a measure of leading Indonesian stocks closed at an all-time high in reaction to the apparent victory. Traders say the market rose in hopes of aggressive economic measures by Mister Yudhoyono. The Indonesian economy has suffered since the Asian financial crisis that began in nineteen ninety-seven. Mister Yudhoyono has said he hopes to increase foreign investment by improving legal protections for businesses. But he could have difficulty winning support for his programs in parliament. Political parties allied with Mizz Megawati hold a majority of seats. Mister Yudhoyono would be Indonesia’s fourth head of state since nineteen ninety-eight. That was when protests forced President Suharto to resign. A former general, he ruled the country for thirty-two years. Under Mister Suharto, lawmakers and representatives of the military and provinces chose the president. The next leader will be the country’s first directly elected president. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is known to most Indonesians as S.B.Y. He helped start the Democratic Party in two thousand-two. The former military commander served in the governments of Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati. He was dismissed after he refused to support emergency measures to prevent the ouster of President Wahid. And he left the government of President Megawati in March in another dispute. Mister Yudhoyono campaigned as a new independent voice. He said he would provide strong but fair leadership for the more than two hundred million people in Indonesia. He also said he would improve the economy, create more jobs and put an end to separatist and ethnic violence. He also promised strong action against terrorism. This has helped make him popular with many Western governments. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population. There have been three major attacks there in the past two years. The most recent was the bombing this month near the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Nine people were killed. The attacks have been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a group tied to al-Qaida. Some of the top suspects remain free. In a speech to parliament Thursday, President Megawati apologized for her government’s record in fighting terrorism. She said international cooperation is needed to do the job effectively. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: September 25, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to become the next president of Indonesia. With most ballots counted, the former military chief and security minister has a wide lead over President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Both candidates say they will not comment on the election until final results are announced October fifth. The new president is to be sworn-in October twentieth. The election was Monday. The next day, a measure of leading Indonesian stocks closed at an all-time high in reaction to the apparent victory. Traders say the market rose in hopes of aggressive economic measures by Mister Yudhoyono. The Indonesian economy has suffered since the Asian financial crisis that began in nineteen ninety-seven. Mister Yudhoyono has said he hopes to increase foreign investment by improving legal protections for businesses. But he could have difficulty winning support for his programs in parliament. Political parties allied with Mizz Megawati hold a majority of seats. Mister Yudhoyono would be Indonesia’s fourth head of state since nineteen ninety-eight. That was when protests forced President Suharto to resign. A former general, he ruled the country for thirty-two years. Under Mister Suharto, lawmakers and representatives of the military and provinces chose the president. The next leader will be the country’s first directly elected president. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is known to most Indonesians as S.B.Y. He helped start the Democratic Party in two thousand-two. The former military commander served in the governments of Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati. He was dismissed after he refused to support emergency measures to prevent the ouster of President Wahid. And he left the government of President Megawati in March in another dispute. Mister Yudhoyono campaigned as a new independent voice. He said he would provide strong but fair leadership for the more than two hundred million people in Indonesia. He also said he would improve the economy, create more jobs and put an end to separatist and ethnic violence. He also promised strong action against terrorism. This has helped make him popular with many Western governments. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population. There have been three major attacks there in the past two years. The most recent was the bombing this month near the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Nine people were killed. The attacks have been linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a group tied to al-Qaida. Some of the top suspects remain free. In a speech to parliament Thursday, President Megawati apologized for her government’s record in fighting terrorism. She said international cooperation is needed to do the job effectively. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Ralph Waldo Emerson
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 26, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: September 26, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of Nineteenth Century philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE ONE: The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation's politics, Emerson did for its culture. When he began writing and speaking in the eighteen thirties, conservatives saw him as radical -- wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence -- a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson's life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers -- Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. He once said that the shortest books are those about the lives of people with great minds. Emerson was not speaking about himself. Yet his own life proves the thought. VOICE ONE: Emerson was born in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts, in eighteen oh three. Boston was then the capital of learning in the United States. Emerson's father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eleven years old, his father died. Missus Emerson was left with very little money to raise her five sons. After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson's aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. VOICE TWO: Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University. For a few years, he taught in a girls' school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life. VOICE ONE: In eighteen thirty-one, Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as the minister of his church because of a minor religious issue. What really troubled him was something else. It was his growing belief that a person could find God without the help of an organized church. He believed that God is not found in systems and words, but in the minds of people. He said that God in us worships God. Emerson traveled to Europe the following year. He talked about his ideas with the best-known European writers and thinkers of his time. When he returned to the United States, he married and settled in Concord. Then he began his life as a writer and speaker. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book, Nature, in Eighteen thirty-six. It made conservatives see him as a revolutionary. But students at Harvard University liked the book and invited him to speak to them. His speech, "The American Scholar," created great excitement among the students. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence -- a declaration of the independence of the mind. VOICE ONE: "Give me an understanding of today's world," he told them, "and you may have the worlds of the past and the future. Show me where God is hidden...as always...in nature. What is near explains what is far. A drop of water is a small ocean. Each of us is a part of all of nature." Emerson said a sign of the times was the new importance given to each person. "The world," he said, "is nothing. The person is all. In yourself is the law of all nature." Emerson urged students to learn directly from life. He told them, "Life is our dictionary." VOICE TWO: The following year, Emerson was invited to speak to students and teachers at the Harvard religious school. In his speech, he called for moral and spiritual rebirth. But his words shocked members of Harvard's traditional Christian church. He said churches treated religion as if God were dead. "Let mankind stand forevermore," he said, "as a temple returned to greatness by new love, new faith, new sight." Church members who heard him speak called him a man who did not believe in God. Almost thirty years passed before Harvard invited Emerson to speak there again. VOICE ONE: Away from Harvard, Emerson's speeches became more and more popular. He was able to make his living by writing and speaking. "Do you understand Mister Emerson?" a Boston woman asked her servant. "Not a word," the servant answered. "But I like to go and see him speak. He stands up there and looks as if he thought everyone was as good as he was." Many people, especially the young, did understand Emerson. His ideas seemed right for a new country just beginning to enjoy its independence -- a country expanding in all directions. Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done. VOICE TWO: In a speech called "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson told his listeners, "Believe your own thoughts, believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men." Emerson said society urges us to act carefully. This, he said, restricts our freedom of action. "It is always easy to agree," he said. "Yet nothing is more holy than the independence of your own mind. Let a person know his own value. Have no regrets. Nothing can bring you peace but yourselves." VOICE ONE: The eighteen fifties were not a peaceful time for America. The nation was divided by a bitter argument about slavery. Most people in the South defended slavery. They believed the agricultural economy of the South depended on Negro slaves. Most people in the North condemned slavery. They believed it was wrong for one man to own another. Emerson was not interested in debates or disputes. But he was prepared to defend truth, as he saw it. Emerson believed that the slaves should be freed. But he did not take an active part in the anti-slavery movement. All his beliefs about the individual opposed the idea of group action -- even group action against slavery. As the dispute became more intense, however, Emerson finally, quietly, added his voice to the anti-slavery campaign. When one of his children wrote a school report about building a house, he said no one should build a house without a place to hide runaway slaves. VOICE TWO: Emerson's health began to fail in the early eighteen seventies. His house was partly destroyed by fire. He and his wife escaped. But the shock was great. Friends gave him money to travel to Egypt with his daughter. While he was gone, they rebuilt his house. Emerson returned to Concord. But his health did not improve. He could no longer work. In April, eighteen eighty-two, he became sick with pneumonia. He died on April twenty-seventh. He was seventy-nine years old. VOICE ONE: Ralph Waldo Emerson's death was national news. In Concord and other places, people hung black cloth on houses and public buildings as a sign of mourning. His friends in Concord walked to the church for his funeral service. They carried branches of the pine trees that Emerson loved. After the funeral, Ralph Waldo Emerson was buried in Concord near the graves of two other important early American writers -- Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of Nineteenth Century philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE ONE: The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation's politics, Emerson did for its culture. When he began writing and speaking in the eighteen thirties, conservatives saw him as radical -- wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence -- a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson's life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers -- Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. He once said that the shortest books are those about the lives of people with great minds. Emerson was not speaking about himself. Yet his own life proves the thought. VOICE ONE: Emerson was born in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts, in eighteen oh three. Boston was then the capital of learning in the United States. Emerson's father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eleven years old, his father died. Missus Emerson was left with very little money to raise her five sons. After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson's aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. VOICE TWO: Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University. For a few years, he taught in a girls' school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life. VOICE ONE: In eighteen thirty-one, Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as the minister of his church because of a minor religious issue. What really troubled him was something else. It was his growing belief that a person could find God without the help of an organized church. He believed that God is not found in systems and words, but in the minds of people. He said that God in us worships God. Emerson traveled to Europe the following year. He talked about his ideas with the best-known European writers and thinkers of his time. When he returned to the United States, he married and settled in Concord. Then he began his life as a writer and speaker. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book, Nature, in Eighteen thirty-six. It made conservatives see him as a revolutionary. But students at Harvard University liked the book and invited him to speak to them. His speech, "The American Scholar," created great excitement among the students. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence -- a declaration of the independence of the mind. VOICE ONE: "Give me an understanding of today's world," he told them, "and you may have the worlds of the past and the future. Show me where God is hidden...as always...in nature. What is near explains what is far. A drop of water is a small ocean. Each of us is a part of all of nature." Emerson said a sign of the times was the new importance given to each person. "The world," he said, "is nothing. The person is all. In yourself is the law of all nature." Emerson urged students to learn directly from life. He told them, "Life is our dictionary." VOICE TWO: The following year, Emerson was invited to speak to students and teachers at the Harvard religious school. In his speech, he called for moral and spiritual rebirth. But his words shocked members of Harvard's traditional Christian church. He said churches treated religion as if God were dead. "Let mankind stand forevermore," he said, "as a temple returned to greatness by new love, new faith, new sight." Church members who heard him speak called him a man who did not believe in God. Almost thirty years passed before Harvard invited Emerson to speak there again. VOICE ONE: Away from Harvard, Emerson's speeches became more and more popular. He was able to make his living by writing and speaking. "Do you understand Mister Emerson?" a Boston woman asked her servant. "Not a word," the servant answered. "But I like to go and see him speak. He stands up there and looks as if he thought everyone was as good as he was." Many people, especially the young, did understand Emerson. His ideas seemed right for a new country just beginning to enjoy its independence -- a country expanding in all directions. Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done. VOICE TWO: In a speech called "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson told his listeners, "Believe your own thoughts, believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men." Emerson said society urges us to act carefully. This, he said, restricts our freedom of action. "It is always easy to agree," he said. "Yet nothing is more holy than the independence of your own mind. Let a person know his own value. Have no regrets. Nothing can bring you peace but yourselves." VOICE ONE: The eighteen fifties were not a peaceful time for America. The nation was divided by a bitter argument about slavery. Most people in the South defended slavery. They believed the agricultural economy of the South depended on Negro slaves. Most people in the North condemned slavery. They believed it was wrong for one man to own another. Emerson was not interested in debates or disputes. But he was prepared to defend truth, as he saw it. Emerson believed that the slaves should be freed. But he did not take an active part in the anti-slavery movement. All his beliefs about the individual opposed the idea of group action -- even group action against slavery. As the dispute became more intense, however, Emerson finally, quietly, added his voice to the anti-slavery campaign. When one of his children wrote a school report about building a house, he said no one should build a house without a place to hide runaway slaves. VOICE TWO: Emerson's health began to fail in the early eighteen seventies. His house was partly destroyed by fire. He and his wife escaped. But the shock was great. Friends gave him money to travel to Egypt with his daughter. While he was gone, they rebuilt his house. Emerson returned to Concord. But his health did not improve. He could no longer work. In April, eighteen eighty-two, he became sick with pneumonia. He died on April twenty-seventh. He was seventy-nine years old. VOICE ONE: Ralph Waldo Emerson's death was national news. In Concord and other places, people hung black cloth on houses and public buildings as a sign of mourning. His friends in Concord walked to the church for his funeral service. They carried branches of the pine trees that Emerson loved. After the funeral, Ralph Waldo Emerson was buried in Concord near the graves of two other important early American writers -- Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Media in the United States, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 27, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 27, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we begin a two-part look at the media in the United States. Dan Rather VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we begin a two-part look at the media in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans get some of their news and entertainment from public television and radio. These public media receive money to operate from private citizens, organizations and government. Many of their programs are educational. But most of the American media are run by businesses for profit. These privately owned media have changed greatly in recent years. Newspapers, magazines and traditional broadcast television organizations have lost some of their popularity. At the same time, online, cable and satellite media have increased in numbers and strength. So have media that serve ethnic groups and those communicating in foreign languages. In general, more media than ever now provide Americans with news and entertainment. At the same time, fewer owners control them. Huge companies have many holdings. In some areas, one company controls much of the media. VOICE TWO: One dramatic change in American media is the increased success of cable television. It comes into most homes over wires. It does not use the public airwaves, as broadcast television does. Like broadcast television, most cable television programs include sales messages. This is true although people must pay to see cable television in their homes. Thirty years ago, few people had cable. Today, about sixty-eight percent of American homes have cable television. Television by satellite also is gaining popularity. VOICE ONE: Over the years, traditional broadcast organizations have tried to appeal to as many watchers as possible. Many cable companies, however, present programs for one special group of viewers. For example, there are stations for people who like books, cooking, travel, golf or comedy. Some cable channels also launched programs with sexual material or language that could not be used on broadcast television. American law considers that the broadcast airwaves belong to the public. So broadcast networks traditionally guarded against offensive content. But the networks have reacted to the popularity of cable by also showing more suggestive material. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the past few years, “reality” television programs have become extremely popular. They show situations as they happen, without a written story. They cost less to produce than other kinds of programs. In the United States, CBS Television started reality programs in two-thousand with “Survivor.” Sixteen people who did not know each other lived together on an unpopulated island for thirty-nine days. They had few supplies. They formed alliances. They also plotted against one another. The cameras recorded the action as they competed to stay on the island. Each week the group voted one of the people off the island. The last one to remain took home one million dollars. VOICE ONE: The computer has also changed American media. By two thousand, the government said more than half of American homes had computers. At least one person used the Internet in more than eighty percent of these homes. Other people use the Internet in schools, at work and at libraries. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a study of Internet use. The center’s Internet and American Life Project found that forty-four percent of Internet users share their thoughts on the Internet. Some write commentaries about politics and other issues on Web logs, or blogs. VOICE TWO: The Pew Center says some young people today learn about politics in another non-traditional way. Earlier this year, the center questioned more than one thousand five hundred people. One in five who were younger than thirty said they usually get political information from television comedy programs. That is two times as many as four years ago. They watch programs like “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” VOICE ONE: The studies also show that thirty-three percent of both young and older people said they sometimes learn about politics on the Internet. Their answers showed a nine percent increase in Internet use for this purpose since the last presidential election. The Internet is also playing a financial part in political campaigns. For example, the candidates for president have received millions of dollars in gifts over the Internet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Project for Excellence in Journalism says almost forty-one million Americans watched nightly network news in nineteen ninety-four. By last November, that had dropped below thirty million. Tom Brokaw of NBC, Peter Jennings of ABC and Dan Rather of CBS are the main reporters, or anchors, on these shows. Mister Brokaw, however, plans to leave the position after the presidential election. And just last week, CBS launched an independent investigation into a report on another news program on which Dan Rather appears. The recent report added to questions about President Bush’s military service during the time of the Vietnam War. Mister Rather presented some documents given to CBS News. Last week, however, he apologized. He said he could no longer trust that the documents were real. VOICE ONE: The Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that eleven percent fewer people buy daily newspapers than in nineteen ninety. It also says many people no longer believe what they read in the newspapers. The project says that in nineteen eighty-five, eighty percent of readers trusted newspapers. In two thousand two, only fifty-nine percent said they believed what they read. VOICE TWO: In May of last year, a reporter was forced to leave The New York Times. Jayson Blair invented facts in some stories or copied from other newspapers. And in January of this year, a top reporter at USA Today, Jack Kelly, resigned for similar reasons. More recently The New York Times apologized for some of its reporting before the Iraqi war. It said it depended too much on information from unidentified officials and Iraqi exiles. Also, the Washington Post found weaknesses in its own reporting. Another media story recently has involved some newspapers that lied about their circulation. The Chicago Sun-Times admitted misrepresenting its number of readers during the past two years. In addition, The Tribune Company reported that two of its publications had overstated the number of copies they sell. VOICE ONE: It is natural for owners and investors to expect to make a profit, though some media owners say they would be happy just not to lose money. They say they are operating a newspaper or radio station mainly as a public service. But media organizations usually depend on money from businesses that advertise their products and services. Reporters often express concern about pressure from media owners. Reporters sometimes say they cannot write some stories for fear of loss of advertising. But there are also many examples of aggressive reporting that serves the public interest. Many people, though, say they do not believe they are always getting fair reporting. They often accuse journalists of supporting only one set of political beliefs. The Pew Center reports that about twelve percent of local reporters, editors and media officials questioned say they are conservatives. This compares with thirty-four percent who identify themselves as liberals. The difference found between conservatives and liberals is even wider on the national level. But most journalists say they do not let personal opinion interfere with their reporting. VOICE TWO: In the United States, newspapers serving ethnic groups and speakers of foreign languages are doing better than many others. Their popularity demonstrates America’s big gains of people of foreign ancestry, especially Hispanics and Asians. These groups are also watching and listening to an increasing number of television and radio stations in their own languages. VOICE ONE: Next week, we tell about government and court decisions affecting media operators. And we present issues about freedom of expression in the media. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for the second part of our report about the media in the United States, on THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans get some of their news and entertainment from public television and radio. These public media receive money to operate from private citizens, organizations and government. Many of their programs are educational. But most of the American media are run by businesses for profit. These privately owned media have changed greatly in recent years. Newspapers, magazines and traditional broadcast television organizations have lost some of their popularity. At the same time, online, cable and satellite media have increased in numbers and strength. So have media that serve ethnic groups and those communicating in foreign languages. In general, more media than ever now provide Americans with news and entertainment. At the same time, fewer owners control them. Huge companies have many holdings. In some areas, one company controls much of the media. VOICE TWO: One dramatic change in American media is the increased success of cable television. It comes into most homes over wires. It does not use the public airwaves, as broadcast television does. Like broadcast television, most cable television programs include sales messages. This is true although people must pay to see cable television in their homes. Thirty years ago, few people had cable. Today, about sixty-eight percent of American homes have cable television. Television by satellite also is gaining popularity. VOICE ONE: Over the years, traditional broadcast organizations have tried to appeal to as many watchers as possible. Many cable companies, however, present programs for one special group of viewers. For example, there are stations for people who like books, cooking, travel, golf or comedy. Some cable channels also launched programs with sexual material or language that could not be used on broadcast television. American law considers that the broadcast airwaves belong to the public. So broadcast networks traditionally guarded against offensive content. But the networks have reacted to the popularity of cable by also showing more suggestive material. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the past few years, “reality” television programs have become extremely popular. They show situations as they happen, without a written story. They cost less to produce than other kinds of programs. In the United States, CBS Television started reality programs in two-thousand with “Survivor.” Sixteen people who did not know each other lived together on an unpopulated island for thirty-nine days. They had few supplies. They formed alliances. They also plotted against one another. The cameras recorded the action as they competed to stay on the island. Each week the group voted one of the people off the island. The last one to remain took home one million dollars. VOICE ONE: The computer has also changed American media. By two thousand, the government said more than half of American homes had computers. At least one person used the Internet in more than eighty percent of these homes. Other people use the Internet in schools, at work and at libraries. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released a study of Internet use. The center’s Internet and American Life Project found that forty-four percent of Internet users share their thoughts on the Internet. Some write commentaries about politics and other issues on Web logs, or blogs. VOICE TWO: The Pew Center says some young people today learn about politics in another non-traditional way. Earlier this year, the center questioned more than one thousand five hundred people. One in five who were younger than thirty said they usually get political information from television comedy programs. That is two times as many as four years ago. They watch programs like “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” VOICE ONE: The studies also show that thirty-three percent of both young and older people said they sometimes learn about politics on the Internet. Their answers showed a nine percent increase in Internet use for this purpose since the last presidential election. The Internet is also playing a financial part in political campaigns. For example, the candidates for president have received millions of dollars in gifts over the Internet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Project for Excellence in Journalism says almost forty-one million Americans watched nightly network news in nineteen ninety-four. By last November, that had dropped below thirty million. Tom Brokaw of NBC, Peter Jennings of ABC and Dan Rather of CBS are the main reporters, or anchors, on these shows. Mister Brokaw, however, plans to leave the position after the presidential election. And just last week, CBS launched an independent investigation into a report on another news program on which Dan Rather appears. The recent report added to questions about President Bush’s military service during the time of the Vietnam War. Mister Rather presented some documents given to CBS News. Last week, however, he apologized. He said he could no longer trust that the documents were real. VOICE ONE: The Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that eleven percent fewer people buy daily newspapers than in nineteen ninety. It also says many people no longer believe what they read in the newspapers. The project says that in nineteen eighty-five, eighty percent of readers trusted newspapers. In two thousand two, only fifty-nine percent said they believed what they read. VOICE TWO: In May of last year, a reporter was forced to leave The New York Times. Jayson Blair invented facts in some stories or copied from other newspapers. And in January of this year, a top reporter at USA Today, Jack Kelly, resigned for similar reasons. More recently The New York Times apologized for some of its reporting before the Iraqi war. It said it depended too much on information from unidentified officials and Iraqi exiles. Also, the Washington Post found weaknesses in its own reporting. Another media story recently has involved some newspapers that lied about their circulation. The Chicago Sun-Times admitted misrepresenting its number of readers during the past two years. In addition, The Tribune Company reported that two of its publications had overstated the number of copies they sell. VOICE ONE: It is natural for owners and investors to expect to make a profit, though some media owners say they would be happy just not to lose money. They say they are operating a newspaper or radio station mainly as a public service. But media organizations usually depend on money from businesses that advertise their products and services. Reporters often express concern about pressure from media owners. Reporters sometimes say they cannot write some stories for fear of loss of advertising. But there are also many examples of aggressive reporting that serves the public interest. Many people, though, say they do not believe they are always getting fair reporting. They often accuse journalists of supporting only one set of political beliefs. The Pew Center reports that about twelve percent of local reporters, editors and media officials questioned say they are conservatives. This compares with thirty-four percent who identify themselves as liberals. The difference found between conservatives and liberals is even wider on the national level. But most journalists say they do not let personal opinion interfere with their reporting. VOICE TWO: In the United States, newspapers serving ethnic groups and speakers of foreign languages are doing better than many others. Their popularity demonstrates America’s big gains of people of foreign ancestry, especially Hispanics and Asians. These groups are also watching and listening to an increasing number of television and radio stations in their own languages. VOICE ONE: Next week, we tell about government and court decisions affecting media operators. And we present issues about freedom of expression in the media. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for the second part of our report about the media in the United States, on THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Double-Drum Sawdust Stove
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 27, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Sawdust is what remains after trees and logs are cut up into boards for building houses and other structures. In many parts of the world, sawdust is considered waste. It is thrown away or left for the rain to wash away. Sawdust is not often thought of as a fuel. It is difficult to burn, although fine particles of sawdust can explode if there is a fire or spark nearby. Yet it is possible to burn sawdust to provide heat or to cook food. One way is to build a stove from two round metal containers, or drums. To build one, place a one hundred liter drum inside a two hundred liter drum. The smaller drum is held in place by a false floor that connects to the larger drum. Three metal legs support the large drum. The legs hold the structure above the ground. Beneath the false floor is a space where the sawdust fuel is placed. There are holes in the false floor allowing air to pass through. As the sawdust burns, smoke passes from the small drum that does not have a cover to the larger drum that is covered. Pipes are placed in the wall of the outside drum to carry smoke outside. The space for the fuel and the holes in the pipes can be changed if more or less heat is desired. To make the fuel, place the sawdust inside a round, wooden container that is about one meter across. Leave a hole in the middle. Make the sawdust hard by hitting it over and over again with a stick or stone. Then remove the wooden container very carefully. The sawdust keeps the same shape it had when it was inside the wooden container. Place small pieces of paper into the hole. When the paper is lighted with fire from a match, the sawdust around it begins to burn. It is important that the sawdust be as dry as possible. With dry sawdust, this double-drum stove can heat a small room for six to eight hours. During the first two hours of burning, there is enough heat at the center of the cover on the larger drum to boil water or to cook food. In addition to sawdust, other kinds of waste from sawmills can be burned in the stove. You can get more information about how to make a double-drum stove from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. This group is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Why So Many Hurricanes? / New Publication Policy Aims to Make All Drug Studies Public / Stronger Warnings Urged for Depression Drugs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 28, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This week: the busy hurricane season in the Atlantic ... VOICE ONE: A new publishing policy aims to make all drug studies known to the public ... VOICE TWO: And, calls for stronger warnings about the risk to children from drugs that treat depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean extends, officially, from June first to November thirtieth. Weather scientists expected an active season of ocean storms this year. But a lot have expressed surprise at just how active this season has been already. The agency known as NOAA [NO-uh] reported that the number of named tropical storms in the Atlantic set a record in August. NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States. Eight storms were strong enough to earn a name in August. These started with Alex, the first major storm of the season. Four of the eight storms developed into hurricanes. This means they had winds of at least one hundred nineteen kilometers an hour. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, says the record before was seven. That was in nineteen thirty-three and nineteen ninety-five. The hurricane center says the normal number of storms in a season through the end of August is four. VOICE TWO: Major ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late summer or autumn over waters near the Equator. Weather movements off the coast of North Africa help to produce the storms. Warm ocean waters feed the storms which gives them energy. The storms gather strength as they move west toward the Caribbean Sea and North America. The word hurricane comes from the native Caribbean language Taino. Such storms are called hurricanes if they happen in the Atlantic or in parts of the Pacific Ocean east of the international dateline. They are called typhoons in parts of the Pacific west of the dateline. And they are called cyclones in the Southwest Pacific and in the Indian Ocean. VOICE ONE: The Saffir-Simpson scale measures hurricanes by their intensity based on wind speed. The scale is listed in categories. A category one storm has winds of up to about one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Experts say this storm might damage trees and light structures like mobile homes. Top winds of a category two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often strong enough to break windows or take the top off a house. Categories three and four represent winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Hurricane Ivan was a category four storm. It killed at least one hundred ten people on Caribbean islands and in the United States. It caused thousands of millions of dollars in damage. The highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale is a category five storm. This is any storm with a wind speed greater than two hundred forty-nine kilometers an hour. However, a storm does not have to reach hurricane strength to cause loss of life. In fact the deadliest storm so far this year was Tropical Storm Jeanne. More than one thousand five hundred people were killed when it tore across Haiti last week. The storm caused severe floods and landslides in areas cleared of forests. Tropical Storm Jeanne later strengthened into a hurricane. This past weekend it struck the Atlantic coast of Florida, killing several people. It caused more damage along an area hit by Hurricane Frances three weeks earlier. Jeanne was the fourth hurricane to hit Florida in the past six weeks. VOICE TWO: Many people believe that all these storms must have something to do with human activities and climate change. But scientists have no simple answers. Some say warmer ocean temperatures could produce storms of greater intensity. But they say this would not necessarily mean a greater number of storms. Others say there is no proof of a connection between global warming and severe weather. Still others note that averages can hide the fact that some years just have more storms than others. There are cycles of hurricane activity in the Atlantic that last at least twenty years. These are periods of generally above-normal or below-normal activity. NOAA says tropical storm activity in the Atlantic has been "considerably above normal" since nineteen ninety-five. The last above-normal years were in the nineteen fifties and sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Drug companies are often accused of only publishing studies that make their medicines look good. That means the public may never know about tests that found a drug to be useless or perhaps even dangerous. This is known as selective reporting. Critics say this kind of reporting goes against the interests of public health. As a result, a group of leading medical editors announced a new policy this month. They say researchers must publicly list all tests if they want any of them published. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors says all eleven of its member journals will follow this policy. These include The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. Editors for the journals say that beginning next July, they will no longer publish results from tests that have not been registered in a public database. They say that honest reporting begins with announcing the existence of all experiments. The announcement came as the United States Congress began hearings on the issue. Lawmakers are considering measures that would require drug companies to publicly list their tests, called trials. Companies could also be required to publish their results on a government Web site. VOICE TWO: Such possible measures led the drug industry to develop a plan of its own. A trade group said it will create a database for its members to list their test results if they choose. Some drug makers say they oppose publishing details of their experiments because competitors could learn trade secrets. In any case, the medical journal editors say the plan by the drug industry is not enough. They say doctors and patients need complete information to make informed decisions about the use of medicines. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Selective reporting of drug tests may also lead to a change by the United States Food and Drug Administration. An advisory committee says anti-depression medicines should come with the strongest possible warnings to doctors and patients. Experts say that in some cases, these anti-depressants may lead children and young adults to want to kill themselves. The F.D.A. is considering the recommendations from its Public Health Advisory Committee. The committee held a series of public hearings in which past drug tests were discussed. Drug companies that supported the tests had hidden some of the results for years. Family members of children who killed themselves while on the medicines also spoke at the hearings. VOICE TWO: But critics say the proposals are too little and too late. The F.D.A. reported last October about the suicidal risks among some children taking antidepressant medicines. Six months later, the agency told drug companies to place warnings on ten drugs. Critics noted that British health officials had advised doctors late last year to avoid the use of most kinds of antidepressants in children. A study by Medco Health Solutions, however, suggests that the concerns have had an effect in the United States. The study shows that number of children on antidepressants dropped eighteen percent during the first three months of this year. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Caty Weaver and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Next week, learn about findings that air pollution can reduce lung development in children. A study in California found that children in areas with dirty air were more likely to grow up with weak lungs, a risk for early death. Also, we'll report on a legal settlement by the DuPont Company. The case involves the possible health risks from a chemical used to make Teflon products. Those stories, and more, next week on SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.. Broadcast: September 28, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This week: the busy hurricane season in the Atlantic ... VOICE ONE: A new publishing policy aims to make all drug studies known to the public ... VOICE TWO: And, calls for stronger warnings about the risk to children from drugs that treat depression. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean extends, officially, from June first to November thirtieth. Weather scientists expected an active season of ocean storms this year. But a lot have expressed surprise at just how active this season has been already. The agency known as NOAA [NO-uh] reported that the number of named tropical storms in the Atlantic set a record in August. NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States. Eight storms were strong enough to earn a name in August. These started with Alex, the first major storm of the season. Four of the eight storms developed into hurricanes. This means they had winds of at least one hundred nineteen kilometers an hour. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, says the record before was seven. That was in nineteen thirty-three and nineteen ninety-five. The hurricane center says the normal number of storms in a season through the end of August is four. VOICE TWO: Major ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late summer or autumn over waters near the Equator. Weather movements off the coast of North Africa help to produce the storms. Warm ocean waters feed the storms which gives them energy. The storms gather strength as they move west toward the Caribbean Sea and North America. The word hurricane comes from the native Caribbean language Taino. Such storms are called hurricanes if they happen in the Atlantic or in parts of the Pacific Ocean east of the international dateline. They are called typhoons in parts of the Pacific west of the dateline. And they are called cyclones in the Southwest Pacific and in the Indian Ocean. VOICE ONE: The Saffir-Simpson scale measures hurricanes by their intensity based on wind speed. The scale is listed in categories. A category one storm has winds of up to about one hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Experts say this storm might damage trees and light structures like mobile homes. Top winds of a category two hurricane can reach close to one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. These storms are often strong enough to break windows or take the top off a house. Categories three and four represent winds between about one hundred eighty and two hundred fifty kilometers an hour. Hurricane Ivan was a category four storm. It killed at least one hundred ten people on Caribbean islands and in the United States. It caused thousands of millions of dollars in damage. The highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale is a category five storm. This is any storm with a wind speed greater than two hundred forty-nine kilometers an hour. However, a storm does not have to reach hurricane strength to cause loss of life. In fact the deadliest storm so far this year was Tropical Storm Jeanne. More than one thousand five hundred people were killed when it tore across Haiti last week. The storm caused severe floods and landslides in areas cleared of forests. Tropical Storm Jeanne later strengthened into a hurricane. This past weekend it struck the Atlantic coast of Florida, killing several people. It caused more damage along an area hit by Hurricane Frances three weeks earlier. Jeanne was the fourth hurricane to hit Florida in the past six weeks. VOICE TWO: Many people believe that all these storms must have something to do with human activities and climate change. But scientists have no simple answers. Some say warmer ocean temperatures could produce storms of greater intensity. But they say this would not necessarily mean a greater number of storms. Others say there is no proof of a connection between global warming and severe weather. Still others note that averages can hide the fact that some years just have more storms than others. There are cycles of hurricane activity in the Atlantic that last at least twenty years. These are periods of generally above-normal or below-normal activity. NOAA says tropical storm activity in the Atlantic has been "considerably above normal" since nineteen ninety-five. The last above-normal years were in the nineteen fifties and sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Drug companies are often accused of only publishing studies that make their medicines look good. That means the public may never know about tests that found a drug to be useless or perhaps even dangerous. This is known as selective reporting. Critics say this kind of reporting goes against the interests of public health. As a result, a group of leading medical editors announced a new policy this month. They say researchers must publicly list all tests if they want any of them published. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors says all eleven of its member journals will follow this policy. These include The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. Editors for the journals say that beginning next July, they will no longer publish results from tests that have not been registered in a public database. They say that honest reporting begins with announcing the existence of all experiments. The announcement came as the United States Congress began hearings on the issue. Lawmakers are considering measures that would require drug companies to publicly list their tests, called trials. Companies could also be required to publish their results on a government Web site. VOICE TWO: Such possible measures led the drug industry to develop a plan of its own. A trade group said it will create a database for its members to list their test results if they choose. Some drug makers say they oppose publishing details of their experiments because competitors could learn trade secrets. In any case, the medical journal editors say the plan by the drug industry is not enough. They say doctors and patients need complete information to make informed decisions about the use of medicines. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Selective reporting of drug tests may also lead to a change by the United States Food and Drug Administration. An advisory committee says anti-depression medicines should come with the strongest possible warnings to doctors and patients. Experts say that in some cases, these anti-depressants may lead children and young adults to want to kill themselves. The F.D.A. is considering the recommendations from its Public Health Advisory Committee. The committee held a series of public hearings in which past drug tests were discussed. Drug companies that supported the tests had hidden some of the results for years. Family members of children who killed themselves while on the medicines also spoke at the hearings. VOICE TWO: But critics say the proposals are too little and too late. The F.D.A. reported last October about the suicidal risks among some children taking antidepressant medicines. Six months later, the agency told drug companies to place warnings on ten drugs. Critics noted that British health officials had advised doctors late last year to avoid the use of most kinds of antidepressants in children. A study by Medco Health Solutions, however, suggests that the concerns have had an effect in the United States. The study shows that number of children on antidepressants dropped eighteen percent during the first three months of this year. VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Caty Weaver and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Next week, learn about findings that air pollution can reduce lung development in children. A study in California found that children in areas with dirty air were more likely to grow up with weak lungs, a risk for early death. Also, we'll report on a legal settlement by the DuPont Company. The case involves the possible health risks from a chemical used to make Teflon products. Those stories, and more, next week on SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Farmers Almanacs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 28, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In seventeen ninety-two, in the United States, a man named Robert Thomas started The Farmer's Almanac. Later the name became The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Robert Thomas wanted to make his almanac useful and interesting. Most of his readers were farmers. He tried to give them information no one else could provide. Robert Thomas included weather predictions for the whole year in his almanacs. The Old Farmer’s Almanac continued to grow under his supervision for more than fifty years. It was a big success. Later, in the early nineteen hundreds, the almanac changed to include stories of interest to the general public -- much like it is today. The almanac tells the story of a time when federal officials captured a German spy on Long Island during World War Two. The spy was carrying The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Officials worried that it could provide the enemy with intelligence about the weather. But the editor at the time was able to get officials to agree not to close the almanac. In eighteen eighteen, an astronomer named David Young started the Farmers' Almanac. It is not the same as the Old Farmer’s Almanac, although they shared the same name for many years. In more recent years, whoever makes the weather predictions has gone by the name of "Caleb Weatherbee." Both almanacs say they use a secret system to tell what the weather will be like. The systems are said to be based, among other things, on the movements of the sun and moon. The Old Farmer's Almanac says its results are traditionally eighty percent right. The Farmers' Almanac says many of its longtime followers claim its forecasts are eighty to eighty-five percent accurate. But it points out that weather forecasting still remains an inexact science. The Old Farmer’s Almanac has been published for two hundred twelve years. It is based in Dublin, New Hampshire. The Farmers' Almanac was established one hundred eighty-six years ago. It is based in Lewiston, Maine. In their pages, readers can find astronomy facts like when the sun, moon and planets rise and set. Both contain advice about when to plant gardens. They also contain history, stories and information that is meant to be more fun than fact. Both are examples of a great tradition in publishing that started with the needs of farmers. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Computer Software Theft
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 29, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Computer programs are the written materials that permit a computer to do useful work. Today, we tell what is being done about people who illegally copy, sell or steal thousands of millions of dollars of computer programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A court in Richmond, Virginia recently found a man guilty of illegally copying and selling computer software. The software was the product of the Microsoft Corporation. He was sentenced to almost six years in prison. He also will have to pay almost two million dollars to Microsoft Corporation for stealing its computer software. Recently a citizen of China was about to fly home from the United States. As he waited to enter the airplane, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him for stealing computer software. He has confessed to the crime in court and told the judge he was guilty of software theft. He could face as many as four years in prison and be forced to pay a fine of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. These are only two examples of several hundred trials or charges against people who have been caught copying and stealing computer software. Police agencies around the world are working to stop computer software theft. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The modern computer has changed the way the world communicates, the way business is done and the way many people work and live. A computer needs written material called software to be able to do anything. Entering the written material into the computer causes the machine to operate. Without software, a computer is nothing more than glass, wire and plastic. Few people would think of stealing a costly computer from a store. They know that theft is a crime. However, many people think it is all right to buy a computer program from a person they know is making illegal copies. Or they will take a computer program they bought legally and make an illegal copy of it for a friend. For some reason, many people do not consider the theft of computer software a crime. They are wrong. The crime of copying, selling or stealing computer software can send a person to jail or cost them a great deal of money, or both. People steal every kind of software program -- from games that do not cost much to very costly complex business programs. Almost every company that produces software has been the victim of such theft. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Business Software Alliance is a group that fights the crime of software theft. Each year, it publishes a report for computer companies that are members of the Alliance. The report attempts to show how much money computer companies have lost in the past year because of software theft. In two thousand-three, the Software Alliance worked with the International Data Corporation to write the report. IDC studied computer software use in eighty-six countries. The report showed that computer users around the world spent more than fifty thousand million dollars on legally bought computer software. Yet computer software worth almost eighty thousand million dollars was placed or installed on computers during the same period of time. The report says the legal sale of computer software should increase from fifty thousand million dollars to seventy thousand million dollars in the next five years. At the same time, the report said that more than forty thousand million dollars worth of computer software will be copied, sold illegally, or stolen. The report says the industry loss is partly the result of people making illegal copies of computer programs and games. A major loss results from large and small businesses making and selling thousands of illegally copied software programs. VOICE TWO: The computer itself aids in the problem of software theft. Almost anyone can make an illegal copy of a computer program in a few seconds. This copying is done in homes, schools, businesses and even governments. The Business Software Alliance says theft from a software company decreases the amount of money the company has for research and development of new products. That means computer users have fewer programs that are useful for work or play. VOICE ONE: Governments around the world have approved new and stronger laws against the theft of computer software. Laws in the United States call for severe punishment for people found guilty of computer software theft. Sentences can include many years in jail and the guilty person can be forced to pay large amounts of money. One crime is called copyright infringement. A copyright is the legal protection a person receives from the government for a work or product that he or she has created. A copyright makes it illegal for anyone to copy or reproduce the work of another person or company. Copyright infringement is a federal crime. A person found guilty could be sentenced to as many as five years in federal prison and be made to pay as much as two hundred fifty thousand dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest and best-known computer companies in the world. Microsoft was one of the first companies to begin developing and selling software products. Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft Corporation. He started the company in nineteen seventy-five. One year later, Mister Gates learned that people were already making illegal copies of the products of his small company. Mister Gates published a letter to computer users. In it, he accused many of stealing software. He said he could not understand why all computer users would pay for a computer but steal the software. VOICE ONE: Microsoft was one of the companies that helped form the Business Software Alliance in an effort to fight software theft around the world. Microsoft Corporation says people make illegal copies of software or buy illegal copies in an effort to save money. The company says they are wrong. Microsoft says an illegal software program does not have the support of the company that makes the real product. Microsoft says many illegal copies are of very poor quality. Some are so poor they can damage the computer that they are used on. The illegal copies sometimes cannot do all the useful work that the legal product can do. Often illegal copies do not have the written instructions the company includes with its products. This makes it difficult to get the program to work correctly. Microsoft also says that a software company usually releases major changes to a program from time to time to make it better and more useful. Computer users with illegal copies do not receive such improvements. VOICE TWO: Microsoft Corporation and the Software Alliance work with law enforcement agencies around the world. They work to find people who steal software products and then the law enforcement agencies bring charges against them. The companies also work with local law enforcement agencies and court systems in an effort to help them learn how to deal with this crime. The United States government is very active in fighting software theft. “Operation Buccaneer” is an international program that investigates and fights copyright theft. “Operation Buccaneer” continually investigates the theft of computer software, movies, games and music. Its major aim is to find those criminals that use the Internet to send, receive or sell stolen material. One investigation involved criminals in the United States, Russia, Israel, Brazil and several countries in Western Europe. One of the members of this group was arrested in the United States. He will soon stand trial for violating federal criminal copyright laws and for having stolen property in his possession. If found guilty, he could face as many as ten years in jail and be made to pay two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The Business Software Alliance says methods of investigating software thefts are improving. Many countries around the world now recognize the harm done by software theft and are joining the effort to stop it. The Alliance says more and more software thieves are caught and severely punished every year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. Broadcast: September 29, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Computer programs are the written materials that permit a computer to do useful work. Today, we tell what is being done about people who illegally copy, sell or steal thousands of millions of dollars of computer programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A court in Richmond, Virginia recently found a man guilty of illegally copying and selling computer software. The software was the product of the Microsoft Corporation. He was sentenced to almost six years in prison. He also will have to pay almost two million dollars to Microsoft Corporation for stealing its computer software. Recently a citizen of China was about to fly home from the United States. As he waited to enter the airplane, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him for stealing computer software. He has confessed to the crime in court and told the judge he was guilty of software theft. He could face as many as four years in prison and be forced to pay a fine of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. These are only two examples of several hundred trials or charges against people who have been caught copying and stealing computer software. Police agencies around the world are working to stop computer software theft. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The modern computer has changed the way the world communicates, the way business is done and the way many people work and live. A computer needs written material called software to be able to do anything. Entering the written material into the computer causes the machine to operate. Without software, a computer is nothing more than glass, wire and plastic. Few people would think of stealing a costly computer from a store. They know that theft is a crime. However, many people think it is all right to buy a computer program from a person they know is making illegal copies. Or they will take a computer program they bought legally and make an illegal copy of it for a friend. For some reason, many people do not consider the theft of computer software a crime. They are wrong. The crime of copying, selling or stealing computer software can send a person to jail or cost them a great deal of money, or both. People steal every kind of software program -- from games that do not cost much to very costly complex business programs. Almost every company that produces software has been the victim of such theft. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Business Software Alliance is a group that fights the crime of software theft. Each year, it publishes a report for computer companies that are members of the Alliance. The report attempts to show how much money computer companies have lost in the past year because of software theft. In two thousand-three, the Software Alliance worked with the International Data Corporation to write the report. IDC studied computer software use in eighty-six countries. The report showed that computer users around the world spent more than fifty thousand million dollars on legally bought computer software. Yet computer software worth almost eighty thousand million dollars was placed or installed on computers during the same period of time. The report says the legal sale of computer software should increase from fifty thousand million dollars to seventy thousand million dollars in the next five years. At the same time, the report said that more than forty thousand million dollars worth of computer software will be copied, sold illegally, or stolen. The report says the industry loss is partly the result of people making illegal copies of computer programs and games. A major loss results from large and small businesses making and selling thousands of illegally copied software programs. VOICE TWO: The computer itself aids in the problem of software theft. Almost anyone can make an illegal copy of a computer program in a few seconds. This copying is done in homes, schools, businesses and even governments. The Business Software Alliance says theft from a software company decreases the amount of money the company has for research and development of new products. That means computer users have fewer programs that are useful for work or play. VOICE ONE: Governments around the world have approved new and stronger laws against the theft of computer software. Laws in the United States call for severe punishment for people found guilty of computer software theft. Sentences can include many years in jail and the guilty person can be forced to pay large amounts of money. One crime is called copyright infringement. A copyright is the legal protection a person receives from the government for a work or product that he or she has created. A copyright makes it illegal for anyone to copy or reproduce the work of another person or company. Copyright infringement is a federal crime. A person found guilty could be sentenced to as many as five years in federal prison and be made to pay as much as two hundred fifty thousand dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest and best-known computer companies in the world. Microsoft was one of the first companies to begin developing and selling software products. Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft Corporation. He started the company in nineteen seventy-five. One year later, Mister Gates learned that people were already making illegal copies of the products of his small company. Mister Gates published a letter to computer users. In it, he accused many of stealing software. He said he could not understand why all computer users would pay for a computer but steal the software. VOICE ONE: Microsoft was one of the companies that helped form the Business Software Alliance in an effort to fight software theft around the world. Microsoft Corporation says people make illegal copies of software or buy illegal copies in an effort to save money. The company says they are wrong. Microsoft says an illegal software program does not have the support of the company that makes the real product. Microsoft says many illegal copies are of very poor quality. Some are so poor they can damage the computer that they are used on. The illegal copies sometimes cannot do all the useful work that the legal product can do. Often illegal copies do not have the written instructions the company includes with its products. This makes it difficult to get the program to work correctly. Microsoft also says that a software company usually releases major changes to a program from time to time to make it better and more useful. Computer users with illegal copies do not receive such improvements. VOICE TWO: Microsoft Corporation and the Software Alliance work with law enforcement agencies around the world. They work to find people who steal software products and then the law enforcement agencies bring charges against them. The companies also work with local law enforcement agencies and court systems in an effort to help them learn how to deal with this crime. The United States government is very active in fighting software theft. “Operation Buccaneer” is an international program that investigates and fights copyright theft. “Operation Buccaneer” continually investigates the theft of computer software, movies, games and music. Its major aim is to find those criminals that use the Internet to send, receive or sell stolen material. One investigation involved criminals in the United States, Russia, Israel, Brazil and several countries in Western Europe. One of the members of this group was arrested in the United States. He will soon stand trial for violating federal criminal copyright laws and for having stolen property in his possession. If found guilty, he could face as many as ten years in jail and be made to pay two hundred fifty thousand dollars. The Business Software Alliance says methods of investigating software thefts are improving. Many countries around the world now recognize the harm done by software theft and are joining the effort to stop it. The Alliance says more and more software thieves are caught and severely punished every year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - World Heart Day
* Byline: 

 Broacast: September 29, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Last Sunday was World Heart Day. The World Heart Federation started the event five years ago to increase public education about the threat of heart disease and stroke. World Heart Day is run by the World Heart Federation’s member organizations in almost one-hundred countries. Each year, they hold educational activities designed to get more people to exercise, eat better and lead a heart-healthy way of life. This year, the main subject of World Heart Day was “Children, Adolescents and Heart Disease.” Health officials say two-thirds of children worldwide are not active enough for good health. The World Heart Federation says more than three hundred million adults and twenty-two million children under the age of five are severely overweight. Obesity has risen sharply in both developed and less developed countries. Experts say overweight children are three to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke before they reach the age of sixty-five. Even children who are overweight, but not severely, are at increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Cigarettes also threaten the future of children's hearts. The World Heart Foundation says smokers often begin to use tobacco before they are ten years old. The younger a person begins to smoke, the greater the risk of developing heart disease. Also, the World Heart Federation says almost half of all children around the world live with someone who smokes. It says children who breathe so-called secondhand smoke suffer from many of the same diseases as smokers. Experts say those children also have a twenty-five percent increased risk of developing both lung cancer and heart disease. And they have an eighty percent increased risk of a stroke. A stroke happens when an artery that carries blood and oxygen to the brain is blocked by a clot or bursts. The World Heart Federation says education is the most effective way to reduce future heart disease and stroke in children. It says children must be taught to eat healthier foods and to exercise more. It also says measures must be taken to limit their exposure to tobacco. And it says governments must develop policies that work to reduce the risks for heart disease and stroke. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #82- Franklin Pierce, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of the United States during the middle of the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Franklin Pierce was elected president in eighteen-fifty-two. He was forty-eight years old, one of America's youngest presidents. Pierce was the compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He won the nomination on the forty-ninth ballot at the party's convention. He then won a large victory over the candidate of the Whig Party, General Winfield Scott, in the general election. One of Pierce's friends, writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, helped him with his campaign. VOICE TWO: Franklin Pierce was from the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He was a lawyer and former state lawmaker. He also had served in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He became an officer in the army during America's war with Mexico in the late eighteen-forties. Pierce had been a public official for more than twenty years when he became president. Yet he was not a strong leader. He also faced a difficult situation in his personal life. VOICE ONE: Two of his children had died when they were babies. A third child was killed in a train accident shortly before Pierce was inaugurated. In addition, his wife Jane did not like the city of Washington. She did not support her husband's campaign for president. Years earlier, she had urged him to resign from the Senate and return to New Hampshire. She did not want to go back to Washington, even to be first lady. When her husband was elected, she agreed to live there. But she rarely saw anyone. One of her close friends took her place at public events. VOICE TWO: Franklin Pierce was a young man. And his inauguration speech was about a young America. He promised strong support for expanding the territory of the United States. He also promised a strong foreign policy. In his foreign policy, President Pierce successfully negotiated with Britain to gain American fishing rights along the coast of Canada. However, he was unsuccessful in an attempt to buy Cuba from Spain. VOICE ONE: One of the most important developments in foreign policy during Pierce's administration actually began earlier. Former President Millard Fillmore had sent Navy commodore Matthew Perry to Asia. Perry finally sailed into Tokyo Bay in eighteen-fifty-three. His arrival led to the establishment of diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and Japan. VOICE TWO: National issues presented President Pierce with more difficult decisions. The Compromise of eighteen-fifty had settled the dispute over slavery in the western territories. But it did not end slavery. There was still a chance that the north and south would go to war over the issue. Another question linked slavery and the western territories. Where should the United States build its new railroads. VOICE ONE: As America grew and white settlers moved west, many felt a great need for good transportation. They wanted railroads that reached across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Engineers decided that four new rail lines would be possible. One could cross the northern part of the country, connecting the cities of Saint Paul and Seattle. Another could cross the middle, connecting Saint Louis and San Francisco. A third could connect Memphis and San Francisco. And a fourth could be far to the south, connecting New Orleans and San Diego. VOICE TWO: Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed that three lines be built. He said the government could give land to the railroad companies. The companies could then sell the land to get the money they needed to build the lines. A Senate committee discussed the situation. It decided that building three railroads at the same time would be too difficult. It proposed that only one be built. But which one. VOICE ONE: Many congressmen believed that a southern line would be best. There would be little snow in winter. And the railroad would cross lands already organized as states or official territories. A northern or central line would face severe winter weather. And it would have to cross a wild area called Nebraska. Nebraska was neither a state nor a territory. In trying to settle the question of railroads, the issue of slavery rose once again. VOICE TWO: Nebraska lay north of the Missouri compromise line, which had been established in eighteen-twenty. Slavery was not permitted there. The state of Missouri lay next to Nebraska. Missouri was a slave state. Slave-holders in Missouri did not want the Nebraska area to become a free territory. They were afraid their slaves would flee to it. They felt threatened by the free states and free territories all around them. VOICE ONE: For years, Congressmen from Missouri had defeated all attempts to make Nebraska an official territory. When Congress met in eighteen-fifty-three, it considered a new bill on Nebraska. Instead of creating one large territory, the bill would create two. The northern part would be called the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be called the Kansas territory. The proposal to split them was called the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The bill did not clearly say if slavery would be legal, or illegal, in the two new territories. VOICE TWO: The purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska bill reportedly was to settle differences among opposing railroad interests in the area. Yet many Americans believed the real purpose was to permit the spread of slavery. A group of anti-slavery Senators denounced the bill. They said it was part of a southern plan to spread slavery wherever possible. They also said it was being used by Senator Stephen Douglas for political purposes. They said he was trying to gain southern support for himself in the next presidential election. When the Senate began debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Stephen Douglas was the first to defend it. VOICE ONE: Douglas said the bill would give people in the Kansas and Nebraska territories the right to decide if slavery would be permitted. He said the same right had been given to people in New Mexico and Utah by the compromise of eighteen-fifty. And he said that same right was meant for the people of all future territories. In the past, he noted, the national government had tried to divide free states from slave states by a line across a map. He said a geographical line was not the answer. He said the people of a state or territory had the right to decide for themselves. Douglas argued that the compromise of eighteen-fifty took the place of the earlier Missouri compromise of eighteen-twenty. The new Kansas-Nebraska bill, he said, simply recognized the fact that the Missouri compromise was dead. VOICE TWO: Opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska bill quickly rejected the Senator's argument. They said Douglas was not honest in his statements about the eighteen-fifty compromise. True, they said, the compromise gave the people of Utah and New Mexico the right to decide about slavery. But they said it did not give that right to the people of all future territories. VOICE ONE: Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill was extremely strong in the northern United States. In city after city, big public meetings were held. Businessmen organized many of the meetings. They were angry at Senator Douglas because he had re-opened the dispute about slavery. They feared that the dispute would hurt the economy. Northern churchmen also united against the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Thousands signed protests and sent them to Congress. Senator Douglas criticized the churchmen. He said they should stay out of politics. In the southern United States, the Kansas-Nebraska bill caused little excitement. Most southerners were not greatly interested in it. They believed it might help the cause of slavery. But they also believed it might lead to trouble. VOICE TWO: Senate debate on the bill continued for more than a month. Senator Stephen Douglas was sure it would be approved. We will continue the story of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the administration of President Franklin Pierce, next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next time for another report about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) Broadcast: September 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of the United States during the middle of the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Franklin Pierce was elected president in eighteen-fifty-two. He was forty-eight years old, one of America's youngest presidents. Pierce was the compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He won the nomination on the forty-ninth ballot at the party's convention. He then won a large victory over the candidate of the Whig Party, General Winfield Scott, in the general election. One of Pierce's friends, writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, helped him with his campaign. VOICE TWO: Franklin Pierce was from the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He was a lawyer and former state lawmaker. He also had served in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He became an officer in the army during America's war with Mexico in the late eighteen-forties. Pierce had been a public official for more than twenty years when he became president. Yet he was not a strong leader. He also faced a difficult situation in his personal life. VOICE ONE: Two of his children had died when they were babies. A third child was killed in a train accident shortly before Pierce was inaugurated. In addition, his wife Jane did not like the city of Washington. She did not support her husband's campaign for president. Years earlier, she had urged him to resign from the Senate and return to New Hampshire. She did not want to go back to Washington, even to be first lady. When her husband was elected, she agreed to live there. But she rarely saw anyone. One of her close friends took her place at public events. VOICE TWO: Franklin Pierce was a young man. And his inauguration speech was about a young America. He promised strong support for expanding the territory of the United States. He also promised a strong foreign policy. In his foreign policy, President Pierce successfully negotiated with Britain to gain American fishing rights along the coast of Canada. However, he was unsuccessful in an attempt to buy Cuba from Spain. VOICE ONE: One of the most important developments in foreign policy during Pierce's administration actually began earlier. Former President Millard Fillmore had sent Navy commodore Matthew Perry to Asia. Perry finally sailed into Tokyo Bay in eighteen-fifty-three. His arrival led to the establishment of diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and Japan. VOICE TWO: National issues presented President Pierce with more difficult decisions. The Compromise of eighteen-fifty had settled the dispute over slavery in the western territories. But it did not end slavery. There was still a chance that the north and south would go to war over the issue. Another question linked slavery and the western territories. Where should the United States build its new railroads. VOICE ONE: As America grew and white settlers moved west, many felt a great need for good transportation. They wanted railroads that reached across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Engineers decided that four new rail lines would be possible. One could cross the northern part of the country, connecting the cities of Saint Paul and Seattle. Another could cross the middle, connecting Saint Louis and San Francisco. A third could connect Memphis and San Francisco. And a fourth could be far to the south, connecting New Orleans and San Diego. VOICE TWO: Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed that three lines be built. He said the government could give land to the railroad companies. The companies could then sell the land to get the money they needed to build the lines. A Senate committee discussed the situation. It decided that building three railroads at the same time would be too difficult. It proposed that only one be built. But which one. VOICE ONE: Many congressmen believed that a southern line would be best. There would be little snow in winter. And the railroad would cross lands already organized as states or official territories. A northern or central line would face severe winter weather. And it would have to cross a wild area called Nebraska. Nebraska was neither a state nor a territory. In trying to settle the question of railroads, the issue of slavery rose once again. VOICE TWO: Nebraska lay north of the Missouri compromise line, which had been established in eighteen-twenty. Slavery was not permitted there. The state of Missouri lay next to Nebraska. Missouri was a slave state. Slave-holders in Missouri did not want the Nebraska area to become a free territory. They were afraid their slaves would flee to it. They felt threatened by the free states and free territories all around them. VOICE ONE: For years, Congressmen from Missouri had defeated all attempts to make Nebraska an official territory. When Congress met in eighteen-fifty-three, it considered a new bill on Nebraska. Instead of creating one large territory, the bill would create two. The northern part would be called the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be called the Kansas territory. The proposal to split them was called the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The bill did not clearly say if slavery would be legal, or illegal, in the two new territories. VOICE TWO: The purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska bill reportedly was to settle differences among opposing railroad interests in the area. Yet many Americans believed the real purpose was to permit the spread of slavery. A group of anti-slavery Senators denounced the bill. They said it was part of a southern plan to spread slavery wherever possible. They also said it was being used by Senator Stephen Douglas for political purposes. They said he was trying to gain southern support for himself in the next presidential election. When the Senate began debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Stephen Douglas was the first to defend it. VOICE ONE: Douglas said the bill would give people in the Kansas and Nebraska territories the right to decide if slavery would be permitted. He said the same right had been given to people in New Mexico and Utah by the compromise of eighteen-fifty. And he said that same right was meant for the people of all future territories. In the past, he noted, the national government had tried to divide free states from slave states by a line across a map. He said a geographical line was not the answer. He said the people of a state or territory had the right to decide for themselves. Douglas argued that the compromise of eighteen-fifty took the place of the earlier Missouri compromise of eighteen-twenty. The new Kansas-Nebraska bill, he said, simply recognized the fact that the Missouri compromise was dead. VOICE TWO: Opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska bill quickly rejected the Senator's argument. They said Douglas was not honest in his statements about the eighteen-fifty compromise. True, they said, the compromise gave the people of Utah and New Mexico the right to decide about slavery. But they said it did not give that right to the people of all future territories. VOICE ONE: Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill was extremely strong in the northern United States. In city after city, big public meetings were held. Businessmen organized many of the meetings. They were angry at Senator Douglas because he had re-opened the dispute about slavery. They feared that the dispute would hurt the economy. Northern churchmen also united against the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Thousands signed protests and sent them to Congress. Senator Douglas criticized the churchmen. He said they should stay out of politics. In the southern United States, the Kansas-Nebraska bill caused little excitement. Most southerners were not greatly interested in it. They believed it might help the cause of slavery. But they also believed it might lead to trouble. VOICE TWO: Senate debate on the bill continued for more than a month. Senator Stephen Douglas was sure it would be approved. We will continue the story of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the administration of President Franklin Pierce, next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next time for another report about the history of the United States. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #5: Government Rules
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 30, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can attend a college or university in the United States. These reports are on the Special English Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Every foreign student who has been accepted to study in this country must have a legal document called a visa from the United States government. The rules for getting a visa have changed since the terrorist attacks against the United States in two thousand one. Three of the nineteen hijackers in the September eleventh attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had student visas. The State Department rules for giving permission to foreign students to study in the United States can be found on the State Department Web site. The address is www.unitedstatesvisas.gov. Another State Department Web site for students from other countries is educationusa.state.gov Government officials say that national security is the most important issue in deciding if a person should be permitted to enter the United States. It takes a longer time than it used to for students to receive permission to enter the country. Officials must see if a student is on any list of people with possible links to terrorists. The State Department says students are not being examined any more closely than other people who want to come to the United States. But students must enter the country before their classes begin. So they should apply for a visa as soon as they can, to permit enough time for approval. The State Department says the place to start is the United States Embassy or diplomatic office in the student’s home area. And it says foreign students should apply for visas as soon as they have their documents. Foreign students accepted at an American school will receive a document called a Certificate of Eligibility. It permits entrance into the United States to study. The State Department says each student must enter the country using the certificate provided by the school he or she will be attending. It is a violation of the law to enter the country on one school’s certificate but attend another school. We will have more information next week about rules for students who want to come to the United States. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Walter Mosley / Leisure Activities / The Scissor Sisters
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 1, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from the Scissor Sisters ... The newest crime mystery from author Walter Mosley ... And a question from a listener who wants to know what Americans do in their free time. Walter Mosley DOUG JOHNSON: Walter Mosley has published eight books in his Easy Rawlins mystery series. Gwen Outen tells us about this popular author and his most recent book. SHEP O'NEAL: Walter Mosley is fifty-two years old. He was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of an African-American father and a Jewish mother. His books have been published in more than twenty languages. Walter Mosley calls himself a political writer. His books gained popularity during the nineteen ninety-two presidential campaign. Bill Clinton named him as one of his favorite writers. Walter Mosley is best known for his mystery series about a private investigator. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins is African-American. He is tough and powerful, yet caring and gentle. Most of the books in the series have names of colors in their titles. First in the series was “Devil in a Blue Dress.” It was published in nineteen-ninety. Other titles include “White Butterfly,” “Black Betty” and “A Little Yellow Dog.” Walter Mosley recently published “Little Scarlet.” Scarlet is a kind of red. The story is about a woman named Nola Payne. She is known as Little Scarlet because she has red hair. The story takes place in nineteen sixty-five at the time of the race riots in Watts. Watts is a poor area of Los Angeles. Nola Payne, a black woman, is found murdered after she provided shelter to a white man attacked by rioters. The man becomes a suspect in her murder. Because of racial tensions, white police officers call Easy Rawlins to help solve the murder. Walter Mosley has won many awards. These include an O’Henry Award and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. That award honors works that increase the understanding of racism or the value of different cultures. This year the Robert Redford Sundance Institute honored Walter Mosley with a “Risktaker Award.” What’s next for Walter Mosley? He plans to publish his first book for young adults next year. It will combine history, science fiction and exploration. He is also working on an Easy Rawlins television series. And Walter Mosley says he is working on his next Easy Rawlins mystery novel. It, too, will be published next year. Leisure Activities DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ghana. Jonathan Mutuo asks what Americans do when they are not working. Well, the average adult spends almost two hours a day on household activities like cooking, cleaning and paying bills. How do we know? The Department of Labor has just released a study of how Americans use their time. The study confirmed something that many people already knew. Women spend more time on child care and housework than men do even when the women are employed. Men, however, spend more time at work. Men also spend more time on leisure activities and sports. They average five hours twenty minutes a day, half an hour more than women. Leisure activities include things like watching television, seeing friends or exercising. Both men and women reported that they spent about half their leisure time watching television. Visiting friends and attending social events was the next most common leisure activity for both sexes. Older Americans spent more of their leisure time watching TV and reading than younger people. Younger people reported spending more time with friends, using the computer and playing sports. In all, nineteen percent of men and sixteen percent of women played sports on any given day. That was another finding of the Labor Department study. We did a little study of our own. We asked a few people how they spend their time outside of work. A student in a coffee shop in Washington, D.C., told us that she reads or studies for school. She also likes to run and swim. And she enjoys eating with friends or watching movies. When she’s at home, she enjoys cooking. A worker at a bookstore likes to experience the local nightlife. He enjoys meeting with his friends for drinks and food. He also goes dancing in clubs. When he wants a quiet night, he turns off his telephone and sleeps as long as he wants. And a professor at American University in Washington told us that she spends her free time on home repairs. “There is a lot to be done when you own your own house,” she says. She and her husband also enjoy movies. And on nice days, they walk in the woods or visit museums. The Scissor Sisters DOUG JOHNSON: The Scissor Sisters were popular in Britain first. But now the band is gaining popularity in the United States. Shep O’Neal has our report. GWEN OUTEN: The five members of the Scissor Sisters are not really sisters. They are not even all female. The Scissor Sisters are four men and one woman from New York City. Music critics say you have to go back at least thirty years to singers like the Bee Gees or Elton John to find music like theirs. Here is an example from their recent album. The name of the song is "Laura.” (MUSIC) One of the most popular songs on the album was first recorded by the British group Pink Floyd. But music critics say the Scissor Sisters have taken it to a new level. The song is “Comfortably Numb.” (MUSIC) Fans say the Scissor Sisters are making today’s pop music exciting again. Anyone old enough to remember disco dance music will recognize the sound. We leave you now with another song from the group. This one is called “Better Luck.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. And, if you’d like, you can also e-mail us a picture of yourself that will appear at voaspecialenglish dot com if we use your question. This program was written by Lawan Davis, Brian Kim and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: October 1, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from the Scissor Sisters ... The newest crime mystery from author Walter Mosley ... And a question from a listener who wants to know what Americans do in their free time. Walter Mosley DOUG JOHNSON: Walter Mosley has published eight books in his Easy Rawlins mystery series. Gwen Outen tells us about this popular author and his most recent book. SHEP O'NEAL: Walter Mosley is fifty-two years old. He was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of an African-American father and a Jewish mother. His books have been published in more than twenty languages. Walter Mosley calls himself a political writer. His books gained popularity during the nineteen ninety-two presidential campaign. Bill Clinton named him as one of his favorite writers. Walter Mosley is best known for his mystery series about a private investigator. Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins is African-American. He is tough and powerful, yet caring and gentle. Most of the books in the series have names of colors in their titles. First in the series was “Devil in a Blue Dress.” It was published in nineteen-ninety. Other titles include “White Butterfly,” “Black Betty” and “A Little Yellow Dog.” Walter Mosley recently published “Little Scarlet.” Scarlet is a kind of red. The story is about a woman named Nola Payne. She is known as Little Scarlet because she has red hair. The story takes place in nineteen sixty-five at the time of the race riots in Watts. Watts is a poor area of Los Angeles. Nola Payne, a black woman, is found murdered after she provided shelter to a white man attacked by rioters. The man becomes a suspect in her murder. Because of racial tensions, white police officers call Easy Rawlins to help solve the murder. Walter Mosley has won many awards. These include an O’Henry Award and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. That award honors works that increase the understanding of racism or the value of different cultures. This year the Robert Redford Sundance Institute honored Walter Mosley with a “Risktaker Award.” What’s next for Walter Mosley? He plans to publish his first book for young adults next year. It will combine history, science fiction and exploration. He is also working on an Easy Rawlins television series. And Walter Mosley says he is working on his next Easy Rawlins mystery novel. It, too, will be published next year. Leisure Activities DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ghana. Jonathan Mutuo asks what Americans do when they are not working. Well, the average adult spends almost two hours a day on household activities like cooking, cleaning and paying bills. How do we know? The Department of Labor has just released a study of how Americans use their time. The study confirmed something that many people already knew. Women spend more time on child care and housework than men do even when the women are employed. Men, however, spend more time at work. Men also spend more time on leisure activities and sports. They average five hours twenty minutes a day, half an hour more than women. Leisure activities include things like watching television, seeing friends or exercising. Both men and women reported that they spent about half their leisure time watching television. Visiting friends and attending social events was the next most common leisure activity for both sexes. Older Americans spent more of their leisure time watching TV and reading than younger people. Younger people reported spending more time with friends, using the computer and playing sports. In all, nineteen percent of men and sixteen percent of women played sports on any given day. That was another finding of the Labor Department study. We did a little study of our own. We asked a few people how they spend their time outside of work. A student in a coffee shop in Washington, D.C., told us that she reads or studies for school. She also likes to run and swim. And she enjoys eating with friends or watching movies. When she’s at home, she enjoys cooking. A worker at a bookstore likes to experience the local nightlife. He enjoys meeting with his friends for drinks and food. He also goes dancing in clubs. When he wants a quiet night, he turns off his telephone and sleeps as long as he wants. And a professor at American University in Washington told us that she spends her free time on home repairs. “There is a lot to be done when you own your own house,” she says. She and her husband also enjoy movies. And on nice days, they walk in the woods or visit museums. The Scissor Sisters DOUG JOHNSON: The Scissor Sisters were popular in Britain first. But now the band is gaining popularity in the United States. Shep O’Neal has our report. GWEN OUTEN: The five members of the Scissor Sisters are not really sisters. They are not even all female. The Scissor Sisters are four men and one woman from New York City. Music critics say you have to go back at least thirty years to singers like the Bee Gees or Elton John to find music like theirs. Here is an example from their recent album. The name of the song is "Laura.” (MUSIC) One of the most popular songs on the album was first recorded by the British group Pink Floyd. But music critics say the Scissor Sisters have taken it to a new level. The song is “Comfortably Numb.” (MUSIC) Fans say the Scissor Sisters are making today’s pop music exciting again. Anyone old enough to remember disco dance music will recognize the sound. We leave you now with another song from the group. This one is called “Better Luck.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. And, if you’d like, you can also e-mail us a picture of yourself that will appear at voaspecialenglish dot com if we use your question. This program was written by Lawan Davis, Brian Kim and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Jim Sleeman. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Changes in the Airline Industry
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 1, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Many airline companies are finding it difficult to make a profit. The International Air Transport Association says it expects the industry to lose up to four thousand million dollars this year. Yet air travel continues to increase. So what is the problem? Fuel prices are high. But many airlines are finding that their way of doing business is also too costly. U.S. Airways, for example, wants a Bankruptcy Court judge to order temporary pay reductions for many of its workers. The company also plans to cut pay for its managers by a reported twenty percent. U.S. Airways is under protection from its creditors for the second time in two years. It says it could go out of business in February. U.S. Airways is the seventh largest airline in the United States. The third largest, Delta, is trying to avoid bankruptcy. Delta Airlines announced a ten percent pay cut for its top officials and some other workers. This week, Delta reached an agreement with the labor union for its pilots. A lot of them have taken early retirements. To avoid a shortage, the deal permits newly retired pilots to return to work. In return, Delta agreed not to take any immediate steps to cancel the retirement plan for its pilots. United Airlines, the second largest carrier, is under bankruptcy protection. It wants to end its pension programs and replace them to save money. But the existing plans are owed thousands of millions of dollars which United wants the government to pay. How much the plans are owed is in dispute. Not all airlines are in trouble. Low-cost airlines like Southwest and JetBlue remain profitable. These smaller airlines provide limited services and usually do not serve meals on their flights. Some major airlines have tried to raise their prices in recent months. American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, started such an effort last week. But the low-price competition has made it difficult for traditional airlines to charge more. Airlines in the United States are not the only ones facing such competition. The Italian airline Alitalia is close to seeking protection from its creditors. Alitalia has lost market share to companies like Ryanair of Ireland which offer low-cost travel in Italy. Some people believe that airlines should combine their businesses to cut costs. But some costs cannot be controlled, like oil prices which reached fifty dollars a barrel this week. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - First Presidential Debate
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 2, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush and Democratic party presidential candidate John Kerry held their first presidential debate Thursday night at the University of Miami in Florida. It is the first of three debates they will hold before the American presidential election on November second. More than fifty-million Americans watched the debate on television. Both men answered questions from a reporter. The main issues of the debate were national security, the war in Iraq and terrorism. These issues are among the top concerns of voters in this election. The candidates explained their positions on these issues and told why they can do a better job. Senator Kerry said the president has failed to tell the truth to the American public about Iraq. He said although Mister Bush says the situation is improving there, attacks against Iraqis and American forces continue to increase. The senator also noted that American intelligence says the violence there will likely continue or it could even become a civil war. Senator Kerry said “America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and when we are leading strong alliances.” He also said he has a better plan for homeland security. And he said he has a better plan for fighting the war on terror by strengthening the American military and American intelligence. President Bush said Iraq is the central front in the fight against terrorism. He said the war on terror and the war in Iraq are linked. He said it was right to oust Saddam Hussein from Iraq because it has made America safer. He criticized Mister Kerry for calling the war in Iraq “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He said Mister Kerry keeps changing his positions on important national security issues such as the Iraq war and terrorism. President Bush said “the enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred.” He said “if we remain strong we will defeat this enemy.” Historically, televised debates have often had an effect on presidential elections, especially close elections. Three major opinion studies said most of the people questioned said Senator Kerry did better than President Bush in the debate. Opinion studies suggest there are fewer undecided voters in this year’s election than in recent times. But political experts say undecided voters will be the main target for both candidates during the three presidential debates. President Bush and Senator Kerry will hold a second debate in Saint Louis, Missouri on October eighth. The last presidential debate will be in Tempe, Arizona on October thirteenth. The vice presidential candidates, Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards, will debate on October fifth in Cleveland, Ohio. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: October 2, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush and Democratic party presidential candidate John Kerry held their first presidential debate Thursday night at the University of Miami in Florida. It is the first of three debates they will hold before the American presidential election on November second. More than fifty-million Americans watched the debate on television. Both men answered questions from a reporter. The main issues of the debate were national security, the war in Iraq and terrorism. These issues are among the top concerns of voters in this election. The candidates explained their positions on these issues and told why they can do a better job. Senator Kerry said the president has failed to tell the truth to the American public about Iraq. He said although Mister Bush says the situation is improving there, attacks against Iraqis and American forces continue to increase. The senator also noted that American intelligence says the violence there will likely continue or it could even become a civil war. Senator Kerry said “America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and when we are leading strong alliances.” He also said he has a better plan for homeland security. And he said he has a better plan for fighting the war on terror by strengthening the American military and American intelligence. President Bush said Iraq is the central front in the fight against terrorism. He said the war on terror and the war in Iraq are linked. He said it was right to oust Saddam Hussein from Iraq because it has made America safer. He criticized Mister Kerry for calling the war in Iraq “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He said Mister Kerry keeps changing his positions on important national security issues such as the Iraq war and terrorism. President Bush said “the enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred.” He said “if we remain strong we will defeat this enemy.” Historically, televised debates have often had an effect on presidential elections, especially close elections. Three major opinion studies said most of the people questioned said Senator Kerry did better than President Bush in the debate. Opinion studies suggest there are fewer undecided voters in this year’s election than in recent times. But political experts say undecided voters will be the main target for both candidates during the three presidential debates. President Bush and Senator Kerry will hold a second debate in Saint Louis, Missouri on October eighth. The last presidential debate will be in Tempe, Arizona on October thirteenth. The vice presidential candidates, Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards, will debate on October fifth in Cleveland, Ohio. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Doctor Spock
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 3, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: October 3, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the world’s most famous doctor for children, Benjamin Spock. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Benjamin Spock’s first book caused a revolution in the way American children were raised. His book, “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,” was published in nineteen forty-six. More copies of it have been sold in the United States than any other book except the Christian Bible. The book gave advice to parents of babies and young children. The first lines of the book are famous. Doctor Spock wrote: “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do”. VOICE TWO: This message shocked many parents. For years, mothers had been told that they should reject their natural feelings about their babies. Before Doctor Spock’s book appeared, the most popular guide to raising children was called “Psychological Care of Infant and Child.” The book’s writer, John B. Watson, urged extreme firmness in dealing with children. The book called for a strong structure of rules in families. It warned parents never to kiss, hug or physically comfort their children. VOICE ONE: Doctor Spock’s book was very different. He gave gentle advice to ease the fears of new parents. Doctor Spock said his work was an effort to help parents trust their own natural abilities in caring for their children. Doctor Spock based much of his advice on the research and findings of the famous Austrian psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. Doctor Spock’s book discusses the mental and emotional development of children. It urges parents to use that information to decide how to deal with their babies when they are crying, hungry, or tired. For example, Doctor Spock dismissed the popular idea of exactly timed feedings for babies. Baby care experts had believed that babies must be fed at the same times every day or they would grow up to be demanding children. Doctor Spock said babies should be fed when they are hungry. He argued that babies know better than anyone about when and how much they need to eat. He did not believe that feeding babies when they cry in hunger would make them more demanding. He also believed that showing love to babies by hugging and kissing them would make them happier and more secure. VOICE TWO: “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” examined the emotional and physical growth of children. Doctor Spock said he did not want to just tell a parent what to do. He said he tried to explain what children generally are like at different times in their development so parents would know what to expect. Doctor Spock’s book did not receive much notice from the media when it was published in nineteen forty- six. Yet, seven hundred fifty thousand copies of the book were sold during the year after its release. Doctor Spock began receiving many letters of thanks from mothers around the country. VOICE ONE: Doctor Spock considered his mother, Mildred Spock, to be the major influence on his personal and professional life. He said his ideas about how parents should act were first formed because of her. He reacted to the way in which his mother cared for him and his brother and sisters. Doctor Spock described his mother as extremely controlling. He said she believed all human action was the result of a physical health issue or a moral one. She never considered her children’s actions were based on emotional needs. Doctor Spock later argued against this way of thinking. Yet, he praised his mother’s trust of her own knowledge of her children. In his book, “Spock on Spock,” he wrote about his mother’s ability to correctly identify her children’s sicknesses when the doctors were wrong. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Benjamin Spock was born in nineteen-oh-three. He was the first of six children. The Spock family lived in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was a successful lawyer. Benjamin was a quiet child. He attended Phillips Academy, a private school in Andover, Massachusetts. Later he attended Yale University in New Haven. He joined a sports team at Yale that competed in rowing boats. In nineteen twenty-four, he and his team members competed in rowing at the Olympic Games in Paris, France. They won the gold medal. VOICE ONE: Benjamin Spock worked at a camp for disabled children for three summers during his years at Yale. He said the experience probably led to his decision to enter medical school. He began at Yale Medical School, but he completed his medical degree at Columbia University in New York City. He graduated as the best student in his class in nineteen twenty-nine. Benjamin Spock had married Jane Cheney during his second year in medical school. They later had two sons, Michael and John. Doctor Spock began working as a pediatrician, treating babies and children in New York City in nineteen thirty-three. During the next ten years he tried to fit the theories about how children develop with what mothers told him about their children. In nineteen forty-three, a publisher asked him to write a book giving advice to parents. He finished the book by writing at night during his two years of service in the United States Navy. Jane Spock helped her husband produce the first version of “Baby and Child Care.” She typed the book from his notes and spoken words. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen fifties, Doctor Spock became famous. He wrote several other books. He wrote articles for a number of magazines. He appeared on television programs. He taught at several universities. And he gave speeches around the country to talk to parents about their concerns. During this time, he discovered things he wanted to change in the book. He wanted to make sure parents knew they should have control over their children and expect cooperation from them. So, in nineteen fifty-seven the second version of the book was published. He continued to make changes to “Baby and Child Care” throughout his life. In all, there have been seven versions of the book. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen sixties, Benjamin Spock began to be active in politics. He supported John F. Kennedy in his campaign for president. He joined a group opposed to the development of nuclear weapons. Doctor Spock also took part in demonstrations to protest the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-eight, he was found guilty of plotting to aid men who were refusing to join the American armed forces. VOICE TWO: Doctor Spock appealed the ruling against him. Finally, it was cancelled. However, the legal battle cost Doctor Spock a lot of money. The events damaged public opinion of the once very trusted children’s doctor. Fewer people bought his books. Some people said Doctor Spock’s teachings were to blame for the way young people in the nineteen sixties and seventies rebelled against the rules of society. A leading American religious thinker of that time called Doctor Spock “the father of permissiveness.” In nineteen seventy-two, Doctor Spock decided to seek election as president of the United States. He was the candidate of the small “People’s Party.” He spoke out on issues concerning working families, children and minorities. Doctor Spock received about seventy-five thousand votes in the election that Richard Nixon won. VOICE ONE: Doctor Spock’s marriage had been suffering for some time. For years, Jane Spock drank too much alcohol and suffered from depression. She reportedly felt her husband valued his professional and political interests more than he valued her. In nineteen seventy-five, Benjamin and Jane Spock ended their forty-eight-year marriage. One year later, Mary Morgan became his second wife. VOICE TWO: More than fifty million copies of Doctor Spock’s “Baby and Child Care” book have been sold since it was published. It has been published in thirty-nine languages. The current version includes the latest medical developments. It also deals with social issues such as working mothers, day care centers and single parents. Benjamin Spock did not see the release of the last version of his book in May, nineteen ninety-eight. He died two months earlier at the age of ninety-four. Yet his advice continues to affect the lives of millions of children and their parents. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the world’s most famous doctor for children, Benjamin Spock. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Benjamin Spock’s first book caused a revolution in the way American children were raised. His book, “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,” was published in nineteen forty-six. More copies of it have been sold in the United States than any other book except the Christian Bible. The book gave advice to parents of babies and young children. The first lines of the book are famous. Doctor Spock wrote: “Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do”. VOICE TWO: This message shocked many parents. For years, mothers had been told that they should reject their natural feelings about their babies. Before Doctor Spock’s book appeared, the most popular guide to raising children was called “Psychological Care of Infant and Child.” The book’s writer, John B. Watson, urged extreme firmness in dealing with children. The book called for a strong structure of rules in families. It warned parents never to kiss, hug or physically comfort their children. VOICE ONE: Doctor Spock’s book was very different. He gave gentle advice to ease the fears of new parents. Doctor Spock said his work was an effort to help parents trust their own natural abilities in caring for their children. Doctor Spock based much of his advice on the research and findings of the famous Austrian psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud. Doctor Spock’s book discusses the mental and emotional development of children. It urges parents to use that information to decide how to deal with their babies when they are crying, hungry, or tired. For example, Doctor Spock dismissed the popular idea of exactly timed feedings for babies. Baby care experts had believed that babies must be fed at the same times every day or they would grow up to be demanding children. Doctor Spock said babies should be fed when they are hungry. He argued that babies know better than anyone about when and how much they need to eat. He did not believe that feeding babies when they cry in hunger would make them more demanding. He also believed that showing love to babies by hugging and kissing them would make them happier and more secure. VOICE TWO: “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” examined the emotional and physical growth of children. Doctor Spock said he did not want to just tell a parent what to do. He said he tried to explain what children generally are like at different times in their development so parents would know what to expect. Doctor Spock’s book did not receive much notice from the media when it was published in nineteen forty- six. Yet, seven hundred fifty thousand copies of the book were sold during the year after its release. Doctor Spock began receiving many letters of thanks from mothers around the country. VOICE ONE: Doctor Spock considered his mother, Mildred Spock, to be the major influence on his personal and professional life. He said his ideas about how parents should act were first formed because of her. He reacted to the way in which his mother cared for him and his brother and sisters. Doctor Spock described his mother as extremely controlling. He said she believed all human action was the result of a physical health issue or a moral one. She never considered her children’s actions were based on emotional needs. Doctor Spock later argued against this way of thinking. Yet, he praised his mother’s trust of her own knowledge of her children. In his book, “Spock on Spock,” he wrote about his mother’s ability to correctly identify her children’s sicknesses when the doctors were wrong. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Benjamin Spock was born in nineteen-oh-three. He was the first of six children. The Spock family lived in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was a successful lawyer. Benjamin was a quiet child. He attended Phillips Academy, a private school in Andover, Massachusetts. Later he attended Yale University in New Haven. He joined a sports team at Yale that competed in rowing boats. In nineteen twenty-four, he and his team members competed in rowing at the Olympic Games in Paris, France. They won the gold medal. VOICE ONE: Benjamin Spock worked at a camp for disabled children for three summers during his years at Yale. He said the experience probably led to his decision to enter medical school. He began at Yale Medical School, but he completed his medical degree at Columbia University in New York City. He graduated as the best student in his class in nineteen twenty-nine. Benjamin Spock had married Jane Cheney during his second year in medical school. They later had two sons, Michael and John. Doctor Spock began working as a pediatrician, treating babies and children in New York City in nineteen thirty-three. During the next ten years he tried to fit the theories about how children develop with what mothers told him about their children. In nineteen forty-three, a publisher asked him to write a book giving advice to parents. He finished the book by writing at night during his two years of service in the United States Navy. Jane Spock helped her husband produce the first version of “Baby and Child Care.” She typed the book from his notes and spoken words. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen fifties, Doctor Spock became famous. He wrote several other books. He wrote articles for a number of magazines. He appeared on television programs. He taught at several universities. And he gave speeches around the country to talk to parents about their concerns. During this time, he discovered things he wanted to change in the book. He wanted to make sure parents knew they should have control over their children and expect cooperation from them. So, in nineteen fifty-seven the second version of the book was published. He continued to make changes to “Baby and Child Care” throughout his life. In all, there have been seven versions of the book. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen sixties, Benjamin Spock began to be active in politics. He supported John F. Kennedy in his campaign for president. He joined a group opposed to the development of nuclear weapons. Doctor Spock also took part in demonstrations to protest the Vietnam War. In nineteen sixty-eight, he was found guilty of plotting to aid men who were refusing to join the American armed forces. VOICE TWO: Doctor Spock appealed the ruling against him. Finally, it was cancelled. However, the legal battle cost Doctor Spock a lot of money. The events damaged public opinion of the once very trusted children’s doctor. Fewer people bought his books. Some people said Doctor Spock’s teachings were to blame for the way young people in the nineteen sixties and seventies rebelled against the rules of society. A leading American religious thinker of that time called Doctor Spock “the father of permissiveness.” In nineteen seventy-two, Doctor Spock decided to seek election as president of the United States. He was the candidate of the small “People’s Party.” He spoke out on issues concerning working families, children and minorities. Doctor Spock received about seventy-five thousand votes in the election that Richard Nixon won. VOICE ONE: Doctor Spock’s marriage had been suffering for some time. For years, Jane Spock drank too much alcohol and suffered from depression. She reportedly felt her husband valued his professional and political interests more than he valued her. In nineteen seventy-five, Benjamin and Jane Spock ended their forty-eight-year marriage. One year later, Mary Morgan became his second wife. VOICE TWO: More than fifty million copies of Doctor Spock’s “Baby and Child Care” book have been sold since it was published. It has been published in thirty-nine languages. The current version includes the latest medical developments. It also deals with social issues such as working mothers, day care centers and single parents. Benjamin Spock did not see the release of the last version of his book in May, nineteen ninety-eight. He died two months earlier at the age of ninety-four. Yet his advice continues to affect the lives of millions of children and their parents. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Media in the United States, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 4, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: October 4, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we present the second part of our report about the American media. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The media in the United States have changed in recent years. For example, in nineteen eighty-four, about fifty companies owned or operated thousands of North American media. They included daily newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and book publishers. In two thousand-two, only six companies owned about the same number of these media. Companies with large media holdings include the Walt Disney Company, Viacom, Time Warner, General Electric and News Corporation. The chance to choose among more media pleases many Americans. They enjoy the Internet and cable and satellite. But others protest that some material presented by the media can seem too similar. VOICE TWO: Last year, the Federal Communications Commission voted to loosen restrictions on media owners. This agency, the F.C.C., supervises the use of the public airwaves. It is responsible to Congress. The F.C.C.’s measures increased the number of media businesses that a company can own or operate in the same area. But in June, a court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mainly rejected the changes. The Third District Circuit Court of Appeals largely stopped the F.C.C. from easing ownership restrictions. VOICE ONE: F.C.C. Chairman Michael Powell called the court’s action “deeply troubling.” Mister Powell is the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell. Michael Powell spoke for the majority of the five commission members. The commission said it was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. The F.C.C. rule changes would have ended some restrictions on owners. Those limitations were placed in nineteen seventy-five. They said a single company could own local television stations that reach thirty-five percent of the public. The new limit would have been forty-five percent. A company called Nielsen Media Research divides the nation into two hundred ten market areas. The new rules would have eased limitations on how many media organizations a company could control in the same market area. VOICE TWO: Chairman Powell said new conditions in the American media mean that the nation needs new rules. He pointed to the competition that the broadcast industry faces from newer media. He said this competition means that traditional television broadcasting needs help. Mister Powell said the changed rules would have provided this protection. A number of different kinds of activist organizations opposed the rule changes. The National Council of Churches protested to Congress. So did the National Rifle Association, which supports gun ownership rights. More than two million people wrote their objections to the F.C.C. rule changes. Some activists said the F.C.C. overstated the importance of the Internet as a local news provider. They said this influenced the F.C.C. decision to change the rules. They pointed to a study by the Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America. The study asked where people get local news. It showed that sixty-one percent of those asked still read newspapers for community news. This was said to be true although newspapers in general have lost readers in recent years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some restrictions on media operations had been loosened much earlier. That happened when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of nineteen ninety-six. Among other changes, the Telecommunications Act affected radio station owners. It also affected those who hold a major financial interest in a station. They received permission to operate up to eight signals in the country’s largest market areas. VOICE TWO: Some media companies bought or joined with small local community stations. For example, Clear Channel Communications owned fewer than fifty radio stations before the Telecommunications Act passed. Afterwards, Clear Channel grew to more than one thousand two hundred stations. The company clearly leads American radio. Infinity Broadcasting owns and operates America’s second largest number of radio stations. It owns about one hundred eighty stations. About one thousand radio stations disappeared after the Telecommunications Act. People in some areas say they miss hearing local sports events. They say they need local weather reports for their safety. But the F.C.C. says stations owned or operated by networks do better with local news and production. VOICE ONE: Some critics of the Telecommunications Act also say the measure harmed free speech. For example, Natalie Maines sings with the group Dixie Chicks. She criticized President Bush while performing in London last year. After that, a number of radio stations stopped playing Dixie Chicks music. Critics say this was censorship, the removal of content that some people or groups dislike. The American Civil Liberties Union is among organizations that say censorship threatens democracy. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution promises free speech. It lets people express themselves without government interference. Some activists for children are angry about a Supreme Court decision involving freedom of speech on the Internet. Late in June, the court announced that a law called the Child Online Protection Act may be illegal. A court majority said the measure may violate the First Amendment. Yet American legal tradition does permit limits on free speech. Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of America’s greatest Supreme Court justices. Many years ago, he said that no one has the right, for example, to falsely cry “Fire!” in a crowded theater. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When citizens protest what they believe is unacceptable material on public airwaves, the F.C.C. can decide to punish media companies. The problem is to judge what is unacceptable. Laws governing the media judge some situations and images to be indecent and offensive to community morals. They also say some words are unacceptable. The F.C.C. bans obscenity – those bad words -- over public airwaves at all times. But some programs that contain material meant for adults are permitted in the late evening, when children are supposed to be asleep. A private group, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, recently did a national opinion study of parents. More than half said they are very concerned about the amount of sex and violence their children see on television. Sixty-three percent of parents said they would support stronger limits on what can be shown during early evening hours. VOICE ONE: Early this year, hundreds of thousands protested an incident during a half-time show at the Super Bowl football game. Television cameras showed the uncovered breast of singer and dancer Janet Jackson. Late last month the F.C.C. told the CBS television division of Viacom Incorporated that it owes five hundred fifty thousand dollars in fines for the incident. CBS was given thirty days to appeal the proposed fine. VOICE TWO: A network statement expressed regret over the incident. But it also said CBS does not believe it violated indecency laws. The program was produced by MTV, also a property of Viacom. CBS says it did not know that the incident was to take place. The F.C.C. also has punished Clear Channel Communications for indecency violations on its radio stations. That happened after listeners complained about comments by Howard Stern and other broadcasters. The company says it will pay record fines of one-point-seven-five million dollars for airing the comments. Clear Channel dropped Mister Stern's program from six of its stations. But now he is heard in a number of new markets. [On October sixth, Howard Stern announced that he will move his show to Sirius Satellite Radio in January two thousand six. He said he was "tired of all the censorship." Satellite radio, like cable television, is outside the restrictions of the Federal Communications Commission. The programs do not go over public airwaves, and people pay to receive them. [The money-losing Sirius says it will spend one hundred million dollars a year in a five-year deal to bring Mister Stern to its listeners. He currently has an estimated twelve million listeners. About six hundred thousand people pay to receive Sirius programs over special receivers.] VOICE ONE: Deciding what is acceptable for the public in the media is a difficult issue. Should total freedom be permitted? Or are some language and images unacceptable? No one believes these questions will be answered anytime soon. Nor will the issue of how many media a single company may operate in the same area. It seems that there is only one thing sure about use and control of the American media. Debate will continue. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we present the second part of our report about the American media. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The media in the United States have changed in recent years. For example, in nineteen eighty-four, about fifty companies owned or operated thousands of North American media. They included daily newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and book publishers. In two thousand-two, only six companies owned about the same number of these media. Companies with large media holdings include the Walt Disney Company, Viacom, Time Warner, General Electric and News Corporation. The chance to choose among more media pleases many Americans. They enjoy the Internet and cable and satellite. But others protest that some material presented by the media can seem too similar. VOICE TWO: Last year, the Federal Communications Commission voted to loosen restrictions on media owners. This agency, the F.C.C., supervises the use of the public airwaves. It is responsible to Congress. The F.C.C.’s measures increased the number of media businesses that a company can own or operate in the same area. But in June, a court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mainly rejected the changes. The Third District Circuit Court of Appeals largely stopped the F.C.C. from easing ownership restrictions. VOICE ONE: F.C.C. Chairman Michael Powell called the court’s action “deeply troubling.” Mister Powell is the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell. Michael Powell spoke for the majority of the five commission members. The commission said it was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. The F.C.C. rule changes would have ended some restrictions on owners. Those limitations were placed in nineteen seventy-five. They said a single company could own local television stations that reach thirty-five percent of the public. The new limit would have been forty-five percent. A company called Nielsen Media Research divides the nation into two hundred ten market areas. The new rules would have eased limitations on how many media organizations a company could control in the same market area. VOICE TWO: Chairman Powell said new conditions in the American media mean that the nation needs new rules. He pointed to the competition that the broadcast industry faces from newer media. He said this competition means that traditional television broadcasting needs help. Mister Powell said the changed rules would have provided this protection. A number of different kinds of activist organizations opposed the rule changes. The National Council of Churches protested to Congress. So did the National Rifle Association, which supports gun ownership rights. More than two million people wrote their objections to the F.C.C. rule changes. Some activists said the F.C.C. overstated the importance of the Internet as a local news provider. They said this influenced the F.C.C. decision to change the rules. They pointed to a study by the Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America. The study asked where people get local news. It showed that sixty-one percent of those asked still read newspapers for community news. This was said to be true although newspapers in general have lost readers in recent years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some restrictions on media operations had been loosened much earlier. That happened when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of nineteen ninety-six. Among other changes, the Telecommunications Act affected radio station owners. It also affected those who hold a major financial interest in a station. They received permission to operate up to eight signals in the country’s largest market areas. VOICE TWO: Some media companies bought or joined with small local community stations. For example, Clear Channel Communications owned fewer than fifty radio stations before the Telecommunications Act passed. Afterwards, Clear Channel grew to more than one thousand two hundred stations. The company clearly leads American radio. Infinity Broadcasting owns and operates America’s second largest number of radio stations. It owns about one hundred eighty stations. About one thousand radio stations disappeared after the Telecommunications Act. People in some areas say they miss hearing local sports events. They say they need local weather reports for their safety. But the F.C.C. says stations owned or operated by networks do better with local news and production. VOICE ONE: Some critics of the Telecommunications Act also say the measure harmed free speech. For example, Natalie Maines sings with the group Dixie Chicks. She criticized President Bush while performing in London last year. After that, a number of radio stations stopped playing Dixie Chicks music. Critics say this was censorship, the removal of content that some people or groups dislike. The American Civil Liberties Union is among organizations that say censorship threatens democracy. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution promises free speech. It lets people express themselves without government interference. Some activists for children are angry about a Supreme Court decision involving freedom of speech on the Internet. Late in June, the court announced that a law called the Child Online Protection Act may be illegal. A court majority said the measure may violate the First Amendment. Yet American legal tradition does permit limits on free speech. Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of America’s greatest Supreme Court justices. Many years ago, he said that no one has the right, for example, to falsely cry “Fire!” in a crowded theater. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When citizens protest what they believe is unacceptable material on public airwaves, the F.C.C. can decide to punish media companies. The problem is to judge what is unacceptable. Laws governing the media judge some situations and images to be indecent and offensive to community morals. They also say some words are unacceptable. The F.C.C. bans obscenity – those bad words -- over public airwaves at all times. But some programs that contain material meant for adults are permitted in the late evening, when children are supposed to be asleep. A private group, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, recently did a national opinion study of parents. More than half said they are very concerned about the amount of sex and violence their children see on television. Sixty-three percent of parents said they would support stronger limits on what can be shown during early evening hours. VOICE ONE: Early this year, hundreds of thousands protested an incident during a half-time show at the Super Bowl football game. Television cameras showed the uncovered breast of singer and dancer Janet Jackson. Late last month the F.C.C. told the CBS television division of Viacom Incorporated that it owes five hundred fifty thousand dollars in fines for the incident. CBS was given thirty days to appeal the proposed fine. VOICE TWO: A network statement expressed regret over the incident. But it also said CBS does not believe it violated indecency laws. The program was produced by MTV, also a property of Viacom. CBS says it did not know that the incident was to take place. The F.C.C. also has punished Clear Channel Communications for indecency violations on its radio stations. That happened after listeners complained about comments by Howard Stern and other broadcasters. The company says it will pay record fines of one-point-seven-five million dollars for airing the comments. Clear Channel dropped Mister Stern's program from six of its stations. But now he is heard in a number of new markets. [On October sixth, Howard Stern announced that he will move his show to Sirius Satellite Radio in January two thousand six. He said he was "tired of all the censorship." Satellite radio, like cable television, is outside the restrictions of the Federal Communications Commission. The programs do not go over public airwaves, and people pay to receive them. [The money-losing Sirius says it will spend one hundred million dollars a year in a five-year deal to bring Mister Stern to its listeners. He currently has an estimated twelve million listeners. About six hundred thousand people pay to receive Sirius programs over special receivers.] VOICE ONE: Deciding what is acceptable for the public in the media is a difficult issue. Should total freedom be permitted? Or are some language and images unacceptable? No one believes these questions will be answered anytime soon. Nor will the issue of how many media a single company may operate in the same area. It seems that there is only one thing sure about use and control of the American media. Debate will continue. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Efforts to Fight Poverty
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 4, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank estimates that more than one thousand million people live on less than one dollar a day. These are the poorest of the poor, about one-sixth of the world population. Martin Ravallion works for the Development Research Group at the World Bank. He says about fifty percent of the people in several African nations are among the world’s poorest. These nations include Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia. But even though these areas remain extremely poor, Mister Ravallion says world poverty has been cut in half over the last twenty years. He says the number of poor people dropped by almost four hundred million between nineteen eighty-one and two thousand one. To reduce poverty, the World Bank says developing nations should expand the possibilities for business and investment. The bank’s newest World Development Report notes that private industry creates more than ninety percent of jobs in developing countries. The report for two thousand five is based on questions asked of more than thirty thousand businesses in fifty-three developing countries. World Bank researchers found that companies are most concerned about how governments decide to enforce laws. About ninety percent of those in Guatemala reported policy conflicts with their government. This was true of more than seventy percent of businesses in Belarus and Zambia. Many companies also express concerns about problems like dishonesty and undependable electricity supplies. Last week, about fifty heads of state discussed ways to reduce poverty during a one-day conference in New York. The leaders and top officials met before the opening of the United Nations General Assembly meeting. French President Jacques Chirac and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva called for a world tax to help finance an anti-poverty campaign. Diplomats say international finances, airplane tickets and sales of heavy weapons are just some of the things that could be taxed. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and another official represented the United States at the conference. She said taxes on world trade would be undemocratic and impossible to put in place. The U.N. has a goal to reduce by half the remaining number of poor people in the world by two thousand fifteen. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: October 4, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank estimates that more than one thousand million people live on less than one dollar a day. These are the poorest of the poor, about one-sixth of the world population. Martin Ravallion works for the Development Research Group at the World Bank. He says about fifty percent of the people in several African nations are among the world’s poorest. These nations include Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia. But even though these areas remain extremely poor, Mister Ravallion says world poverty has been cut in half over the last twenty years. He says the number of poor people dropped by almost four hundred million between nineteen eighty-one and two thousand one. To reduce poverty, the World Bank says developing nations should expand the possibilities for business and investment. The bank’s newest World Development Report notes that private industry creates more than ninety percent of jobs in developing countries. The report for two thousand five is based on questions asked of more than thirty thousand businesses in fifty-three developing countries. World Bank researchers found that companies are most concerned about how governments decide to enforce laws. About ninety percent of those in Guatemala reported policy conflicts with their government. This was true of more than seventy percent of businesses in Belarus and Zambia. Many companies also express concerns about problems like dishonesty and undependable electricity supplies. Last week, about fifty heads of state discussed ways to reduce poverty during a one-day conference in New York. The leaders and top officials met before the opening of the United Nations General Assembly meeting. French President Jacques Chirac and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva called for a world tax to help finance an anti-poverty campaign. Diplomats say international finances, airplane tickets and sales of heavy weapons are just some of the things that could be taxed. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and another official represented the United States at the conference. She said taxes on world trade would be undemocratic and impossible to put in place. The U.N. has a goal to reduce by half the remaining number of poor people in the world by two thousand fifteen. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: September 30, 2004 - Language of Broadway
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 30, 2004 It's autumn in New York -- time for an all-new razzle-dazzle season on Broadway, the undisputed capital of the American stage. For over one hundred years, audiences have been going to Broadway shows to be moved and entertained blissfully unaware of all the hard work going on backstage. But as VOAs Adam Phillips reports in this edition of Wordmaster, backstage on Broadway is an entire world in itself complete with its own colorful -- and often highly dramatic -- vocabulary. ADAM PHILLIPS: That's the music for "Tim and Scrooge," a new show that is scheduled to open soon in New York hopefully to thunderous applause. Before the curtain on "Tim and Scrooge" rises however, it's work-work-work for the cast and crew in Broadway rehearsal studios like this one. (AMBIENT SOUND) Jennifer Paulson-Lee, the show's choreographer and associate director, takes a few moments to teach me something about the special language of the theater. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "To get to a result, a product, a finished show that someone has paid money to go see, actors have to go through these rehearsals and develop the heart of their character. We call it 'the process.' It's their preparation from the minute you get the script in their hand to when you open. Everyone has their own process." AP: But even before any actors say a line, a show's director and creative staff must develop a firm sense together for how the show will ultimately look and sound. Ms. Paulson Lee that that is a process in itself -- complete with its own jargon. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "You talk about the whole overall structure of the piece that has do with the concept and the story and the way in which you're going to tell the story: the 'arc' of the show. And that is where the 'high points' are [and] where the 'low points' are. We talk about when we stop for applause 'Are we are going to go for a button?'" A button is the final 'pose,' the final picture. 'Ta da!' Essentially that ends the 'number.' And the button is -- " AP: "The number?" JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "A number is a song. You have to button the number that sends everyone to rousing applause -- we hope! -- and then you 'break' the applause. The actor breaks the applause. That's a term we use when he steps in and continues the show. So he 'rides' the applause. There's another one [term]. And when it peaks, you break it with movement, or the actor starts to speak." Ms. Paulson Lee says that an actor who overacts in search of attention or applause is said to be "chewing the scenery." JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "Actors who chew the scenery are just either very loud or hysterical. They typically 'steal the show.' That means you steal it away from the leading actor who is supposed to be leading the scene." AP: "You divert attention away, you mean?" JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "Yes. That's a nice way of putting it. Stealing is the most appropriate way!" The conversation in a scene onstage may seem spontaneous, but its pacing is carefully contrived by dividing a scene into "beats." JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "And that is when one aspect of a scene has been in a completion. You've finished talking about a subject or you've changed the subject. And those turns in the conversation are called beats. And those are as determined by the actor and the director together, or the director." In the theater as in everyday life, it's wise to expect the unexpected. Ms. Paulson-Lee says that when that happens in a good way ... JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "It just becomes 'GOLD.' GOLD! That is the undefined magic that is what theater really is." Ms. Paulson-Lee experienced that gold recently, during auditions for a stage production of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Scores of actresses had tried out for the role, but none seemed to be a good fit. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "So this girl walks into the audition. She had sparkly eyes, she is very shapely and all she did was smile. And we knew that was it! She was perfect. Just perfect! And we said 'That's it. She's gold.' Because she was gonna bring to our show the spark that you couldn't define. You had to just see it!" Jennifer Paulson-Lee acknowledges that sometimes, theater critics fail to find any gold in a production, so they 'kill' it in their reviews. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "That means they use such language that tears apart the utter core of the show, which means that no one is going to want to buy a ticket for your show. They can 'pan' your show. Panning means bad, echh, don't waste your time. "They can 'eat it up.' That means they love it. "To sum it all up, you want to make sure you get a 'grand curtain call.' Which means the bows, when the actors come out and they take their bows and you get an ovation, which hopefully they know about. A 'standing ovation,' when everyone's done a brilliant job, you stand up, you give the rousing applause and you don't stop. You make them [the actors] come back." AP: "I can see that even remembering it you just get pleasure from it." JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "Oh I love it. I just love it." Jennifer Paulson-Lee is the choreographer and associate director of "Tim and Scrooge," one of many shows that are scheduled for the New York theater season just getting underway. Let's hope that everyone -- in theater jargon -- "breaks a leg," meaning, of course, we hope that they don't. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips in New York. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 30, 2004 It's autumn in New York -- time for an all-new razzle-dazzle season on Broadway, the undisputed capital of the American stage. For over one hundred years, audiences have been going to Broadway shows to be moved and entertained blissfully unaware of all the hard work going on backstage. But as VOAs Adam Phillips reports in this edition of Wordmaster, backstage on Broadway is an entire world in itself complete with its own colorful -- and often highly dramatic -- vocabulary. ADAM PHILLIPS: That's the music for "Tim and Scrooge," a new show that is scheduled to open soon in New York hopefully to thunderous applause. Before the curtain on "Tim and Scrooge" rises however, it's work-work-work for the cast and crew in Broadway rehearsal studios like this one. (AMBIENT SOUND) Jennifer Paulson-Lee, the show's choreographer and associate director, takes a few moments to teach me something about the special language of the theater. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "To get to a result, a product, a finished show that someone has paid money to go see, actors have to go through these rehearsals and develop the heart of their character. We call it 'the process.' It's their preparation from the minute you get the script in their hand to when you open. Everyone has their own process." AP: But even before any actors say a line, a show's director and creative staff must develop a firm sense together for how the show will ultimately look and sound. Ms. Paulson Lee that that is a process in itself -- complete with its own jargon. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "You talk about the whole overall structure of the piece that has do with the concept and the story and the way in which you're going to tell the story: the 'arc' of the show. And that is where the 'high points' are [and] where the 'low points' are. We talk about when we stop for applause 'Are we are going to go for a button?'" A button is the final 'pose,' the final picture. 'Ta da!' Essentially that ends the 'number.' And the button is -- " AP: "The number?" JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "A number is a song. You have to button the number that sends everyone to rousing applause -- we hope! -- and then you 'break' the applause. The actor breaks the applause. That's a term we use when he steps in and continues the show. So he 'rides' the applause. There's another one [term]. And when it peaks, you break it with movement, or the actor starts to speak." Ms. Paulson Lee says that an actor who overacts in search of attention or applause is said to be "chewing the scenery." JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "Actors who chew the scenery are just either very loud or hysterical. They typically 'steal the show.' That means you steal it away from the leading actor who is supposed to be leading the scene." AP: "You divert attention away, you mean?" JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "Yes. That's a nice way of putting it. Stealing is the most appropriate way!" The conversation in a scene onstage may seem spontaneous, but its pacing is carefully contrived by dividing a scene into "beats." JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "And that is when one aspect of a scene has been in a completion. You've finished talking about a subject or you've changed the subject. And those turns in the conversation are called beats. And those are as determined by the actor and the director together, or the director." In the theater as in everyday life, it's wise to expect the unexpected. Ms. Paulson-Lee says that when that happens in a good way ... JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "It just becomes 'GOLD.' GOLD! That is the undefined magic that is what theater really is." Ms. Paulson-Lee experienced that gold recently, during auditions for a stage production of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Scores of actresses had tried out for the role, but none seemed to be a good fit. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "So this girl walks into the audition. She had sparkly eyes, she is very shapely and all she did was smile. And we knew that was it! She was perfect. Just perfect! And we said 'That's it. She's gold.' Because she was gonna bring to our show the spark that you couldn't define. You had to just see it!" Jennifer Paulson-Lee acknowledges that sometimes, theater critics fail to find any gold in a production, so they 'kill' it in their reviews. JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "That means they use such language that tears apart the utter core of the show, which means that no one is going to want to buy a ticket for your show. They can 'pan' your show. Panning means bad, echh, don't waste your time. "They can 'eat it up.' That means they love it. "To sum it all up, you want to make sure you get a 'grand curtain call.' Which means the bows, when the actors come out and they take their bows and you get an ovation, which hopefully they know about. A 'standing ovation,' when everyone's done a brilliant job, you stand up, you give the rousing applause and you don't stop. You make them [the actors] come back." AP: "I can see that even remembering it you just get pleasure from it." JENNIFER PAULSON-LEE: "Oh I love it. I just love it." Jennifer Paulson-Lee is the choreographer and associate director of "Tim and Scrooge," one of many shows that are scheduled for the New York theater season just getting underway. Let's hope that everyone -- in theater jargon -- "breaks a leg," meaning, of course, we hope that they don't. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips in New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Air Pollution Harms Young Lungs / A Legal Settlement Over a Chemical Used to Make Teflon
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 5, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week: an award-winning supercomputer, and a new study of air pollution and children’s lungs. VOICE ONE: But first, a report on the dispute over a chemical used to make Teflon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Teflon is a kind of plastic. It is extremely smooth. It can be found on many products, from industrial machines to weather-resistant clothing. One of the most common uses for Teflon is to protect cooking surfaces like pans. It keeps food from sticking. A researcher at the American chemical company DuPont invented Teflon, by accident, in nineteen thirty-eight. Atoms of carbon and fluorine combined to form a very strong molecule. The result is a substance that does not react with other materials chemically or electrically. In fact, most materials just slide off Teflon. VOICE TWO: But DuPont faces questions about the safety of a chemical used to make Teflon. It is known as P.F.O.A or C-eight. The full name is perfluorooctanoic acid. This chemical is used like a soap. P.F.O.A. has been found in drinking water supplies in communities near a Teflon factory in West Virginia. In early September, DuPont agreed to settle a legal case brought by people in the area around Parkersburg, West Virginia. As many as sixty thousand people are represented in the class action lawsuit. In a statement, DuPont said that settling this lawsuit does not suggest “any admission of liability” on the part of the company. It said the action helps both parties “by taking reasonable steps based on science and, at the same time, contributing to the community.” The case had been set to go to a trial in October. VOICE ONE: In the proposed settlement, DuPont agreed to eighty-five million dollars in payments and other spending. It also agreed to pay legal costs of almost twenty-three million dollars. And it agreed to provide water treatment operations in affected communities in West Virginia and Ohio. The settlement plan also calls for independent experts to study the effects of the chemical. If the experts find that P.F.O.A. harms people, DuPont could have to pay up to two hundred thirty-five million dollars. This would go to medical studies and health care for victims. A concern expressed about P.F.O.A. is the possibility that it may cause birth disorders. The company disputes this. VOICE TWO: DuPont agreed to the settlement even though P.F.O.A. is not listed as a substance that the government considers dangerous. The company says it obeyed all laws about reporting possible risks from chemicals. But the United States Environmental Protection Agency disagrees. In July the E.P.A. brought an administrative action against DuPont. The agency says that in nineteen eighty-one DuPont observed P.F.O.A. in blood taken from pregnant workers at its factory in West Virginia. In at least one case, the chemical was in the fetus as well. The E.P.A. says DuPont also found the chemical in public water supplies as early as the mid-nineteen eighties. VOICE ONE: The agency says DuPont violated two government rules. These require companies to report any serious risks to human health or the environment from a chemical. The agency could fine DuPont at least twenty-five thousand dollars for each day that it failed to report the information. The accusations cover a period of twenty years. So the fines could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. DuPont says it fully reported all the information that it was supposed to report. The company says it “remains confident that P.F.O.A. is safe.” It says fifty years of experience and studies support this position. VOICE TWO: Teflon and similar non-stick materials are called fluoropolymers. The Environmental Protection Agency noted last year that P.F.O.A. is used to make such materials. But it said, "the finished products themselves are not expected to contain P.F.O.A." A study by a competitor of DuPont, Three-M, has shown that the chemical is found in the blood of ninety percent of Americans. How is this happening? The E.P.A. says direct releases from industry may not be the only way, since a limited number of places produce P.F.O.A. It says the answer is not known. The agency has not decided if there is an unreasonable risk to the public from this chemical. But it says it does not believe there is any reason for people to stop using any products. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A study suggests that dirty air can reduce lung development. Researchers at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles published their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. About one thousand seven hundred children from different communities in Southern California took part in the study. The scientists tested the children every year for eight years, starting at age ten. They say this is the longest study ever done on air pollution and the health of children. The scientists found that children who lived in areas with the dirtiest air were five times more likely to grow up with weak lungs. Many were using less than eighty percent of normal lung strength to breathe. VOICE TWO: The damage from dirty air was as bad as that found in children with parents who smoke. Children with reduced lung power may suffer more severe effects from a common cold, for example. But the researchers express greater concerns about long-term effects. They say adults normally begin to lose one percent of their lung power each year after age twenty. The doctors note that weak lung activity is the second leading cause of early deaths among adults. The first is smoking. By the time people are eighteen, their lungs are fully developed, or close to it. The doctors say it is impossible to recover from any damage. Researchers say they are still not sure how air pollution affects lung development. They believe that pollution affects the tiny air spaces where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged. VOICE ONE: Arden Pope is an economics professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Professor Pope wrote a commentary about the study. He noted that air quality in Southern California has improved since the study began in the early nineteen-nineties. Clean-air laws have reduced pollution from vehicles, industry and other causes. But dirty air is still a problem in areas of California and other places. Professor Pope says continued efforts to improve air quality are likely to provide additional improvements in health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People who travel in Virginia, in the eastern United States, often visit places that are famous from American history. But now people can visit a place where university scientists are at work on the future. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg is offering tours for the public to see its supercomputer. The machine was built last year from more than one thousand personal computers. It is one of the most powerful computers in the world. This past June, leaders from the computer industry honored Virginia Tech for best use of information technology in the world of science. The supercomputer project was chosen from more than two hundred fifty entries by businesses, companies and other universities in twenty-six countries. The award was presented at the two thousand-four Computerworld Honors Program in Washington, D.C. Next week, learn how a group of people built the computer in three months with parts that anyone can buy. And we’ll tell you about some of the scientific goals for this powerful machine called System X. You can also learn more about the supercomputer, and sign up for a tour if you are ever in Blacksburg, at the Virginia Tech Web site. The address is vt.edu. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brian Kim, Mario Ritter and Paul Thompson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. If you would like to find any of our programs online, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And if you would like to e-mail us a question or comments, write to special@voanews.com. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join was again next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: October 5, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week: an award-winning supercomputer, and a new study of air pollution and children’s lungs. VOICE ONE: But first, a report on the dispute over a chemical used to make Teflon. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Teflon is a kind of plastic. It is extremely smooth. It can be found on many products, from industrial machines to weather-resistant clothing. One of the most common uses for Teflon is to protect cooking surfaces like pans. It keeps food from sticking. A researcher at the American chemical company DuPont invented Teflon, by accident, in nineteen thirty-eight. Atoms of carbon and fluorine combined to form a very strong molecule. The result is a substance that does not react with other materials chemically or electrically. In fact, most materials just slide off Teflon. VOICE TWO: But DuPont faces questions about the safety of a chemical used to make Teflon. It is known as P.F.O.A or C-eight. The full name is perfluorooctanoic acid. This chemical is used like a soap. P.F.O.A. has been found in drinking water supplies in communities near a Teflon factory in West Virginia. In early September, DuPont agreed to settle a legal case brought by people in the area around Parkersburg, West Virginia. As many as sixty thousand people are represented in the class action lawsuit. In a statement, DuPont said that settling this lawsuit does not suggest “any admission of liability” on the part of the company. It said the action helps both parties “by taking reasonable steps based on science and, at the same time, contributing to the community.” The case had been set to go to a trial in October. VOICE ONE: In the proposed settlement, DuPont agreed to eighty-five million dollars in payments and other spending. It also agreed to pay legal costs of almost twenty-three million dollars. And it agreed to provide water treatment operations in affected communities in West Virginia and Ohio. The settlement plan also calls for independent experts to study the effects of the chemical. If the experts find that P.F.O.A. harms people, DuPont could have to pay up to two hundred thirty-five million dollars. This would go to medical studies and health care for victims. A concern expressed about P.F.O.A. is the possibility that it may cause birth disorders. The company disputes this. VOICE TWO: DuPont agreed to the settlement even though P.F.O.A. is not listed as a substance that the government considers dangerous. The company says it obeyed all laws about reporting possible risks from chemicals. But the United States Environmental Protection Agency disagrees. In July the E.P.A. brought an administrative action against DuPont. The agency says that in nineteen eighty-one DuPont observed P.F.O.A. in blood taken from pregnant workers at its factory in West Virginia. In at least one case, the chemical was in the fetus as well. The E.P.A. says DuPont also found the chemical in public water supplies as early as the mid-nineteen eighties. VOICE ONE: The agency says DuPont violated two government rules. These require companies to report any serious risks to human health or the environment from a chemical. The agency could fine DuPont at least twenty-five thousand dollars for each day that it failed to report the information. The accusations cover a period of twenty years. So the fines could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. DuPont says it fully reported all the information that it was supposed to report. The company says it “remains confident that P.F.O.A. is safe.” It says fifty years of experience and studies support this position. VOICE TWO: Teflon and similar non-stick materials are called fluoropolymers. The Environmental Protection Agency noted last year that P.F.O.A. is used to make such materials. But it said, "the finished products themselves are not expected to contain P.F.O.A." A study by a competitor of DuPont, Three-M, has shown that the chemical is found in the blood of ninety percent of Americans. How is this happening? The E.P.A. says direct releases from industry may not be the only way, since a limited number of places produce P.F.O.A. It says the answer is not known. The agency has not decided if there is an unreasonable risk to the public from this chemical. But it says it does not believe there is any reason for people to stop using any products. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A study suggests that dirty air can reduce lung development. Researchers at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles published their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. About one thousand seven hundred children from different communities in Southern California took part in the study. The scientists tested the children every year for eight years, starting at age ten. They say this is the longest study ever done on air pollution and the health of children. The scientists found that children who lived in areas with the dirtiest air were five times more likely to grow up with weak lungs. Many were using less than eighty percent of normal lung strength to breathe. VOICE TWO: The damage from dirty air was as bad as that found in children with parents who smoke. Children with reduced lung power may suffer more severe effects from a common cold, for example. But the researchers express greater concerns about long-term effects. They say adults normally begin to lose one percent of their lung power each year after age twenty. The doctors note that weak lung activity is the second leading cause of early deaths among adults. The first is smoking. By the time people are eighteen, their lungs are fully developed, or close to it. The doctors say it is impossible to recover from any damage. Researchers say they are still not sure how air pollution affects lung development. They believe that pollution affects the tiny air spaces where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged. VOICE ONE: Arden Pope is an economics professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Professor Pope wrote a commentary about the study. He noted that air quality in Southern California has improved since the study began in the early nineteen-nineties. Clean-air laws have reduced pollution from vehicles, industry and other causes. But dirty air is still a problem in areas of California and other places. Professor Pope says continued efforts to improve air quality are likely to provide additional improvements in health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People who travel in Virginia, in the eastern United States, often visit places that are famous from American history. But now people can visit a place where university scientists are at work on the future. Virginia Tech in Blacksburg is offering tours for the public to see its supercomputer. The machine was built last year from more than one thousand personal computers. It is one of the most powerful computers in the world. This past June, leaders from the computer industry honored Virginia Tech for best use of information technology in the world of science. The supercomputer project was chosen from more than two hundred fifty entries by businesses, companies and other universities in twenty-six countries. The award was presented at the two thousand-four Computerworld Honors Program in Washington, D.C. Next week, learn how a group of people built the computer in three months with parts that anyone can buy. And we’ll tell you about some of the scientific goals for this powerful machine called System X. You can also learn more about the supercomputer, and sign up for a tour if you are ever in Blacksburg, at the Virginia Tech Web site. The address is vt.edu. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brian Kim, Mario Ritter and Paul Thompson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. If you would like to find any of our programs online, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And if you would like to e-mail us a question or comments, write to special@voanews.com. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join was again next week for more news about science, in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – Study of a Biotech Plant Finds Pollen Can Travel Farther than Thought
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 5, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Wind plays an important part in the reproduction of many crops. In some cases, though, the effect can be surprising. A study recently appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This study involved a genetically engineered kind of grass. Scientists found that pollen from the grass spread up to twenty one kilometers to fertilize other grasses. This was true of plants grown for the experiment. The scientists say they found similar evidence of gene flow in wild plants up to fourteen kilometers away. Earlier studies of genetically engineered plants had found pollination at distances of one kilometer or less. Scientists from the United States Environmental Protection Agency led the new study in the state of Oregon. The team planted a kind of grass engineered to resist RoundUp, a poison that kills weeds. Two companies, Monsanto and Scotts, developed this kind of creeping bentgrass for use on golf courses. Scotts also wants to market the grass for home use. There are concerns that the genetically engineered bentgrass could pass its chemical resistance genes to wild grasses or weeds. In Hawaii, some fruit growers face a similar issue that involves papaya trees. These growers do not use chemicals or biotechnology. But tests have found genetically engineered seeds in their papayas. The organic growers say this is the result of pollen from genetically engineered papaya trees on nearby farms. Those trees were designed to resist a virus that was destroying Hawaii’s papaya crop. Now, the industry has come back to life. But the New York Times told how one organic grower reacted after tests showed that some of his fruit contained the genetically engineered seeds. He cut down all one hundred seventy of his trees. He has planted new ones, although the same thing could happen again. Some plant scientists say farmers should not worry too much about problems from so-called genetic pollution. They say plants do not easily pass genetic qualities to other organisms in the wild. They say this is especially true of a single quality, like resistance to chemicals. Still, the age-old spread of pollen in the wind is a modern issue in the debate over biotechnology. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 6, 2004 (MUSIC) Image taken before Mars Rover Spirit temporarily shuts down. Broadcast: October 6, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we have a report about NASA’s two exploration vehicles on the surface of Mars. We also tell about a very successful satellite that is orbiting Mars. We begin with a report about SpaceShipOne. The privately owned spacecraft won a ten million dollar prize by flying into space two times in six days. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of people gathered near the little town of Mojave, California Monday. They watched as a privately built rocket plane made its second successful flight into space. The rocket plane is called SpaceShipOne. The Scaled Composites Company of California built it. Aviation designer Burt Rutan (roo-TAN) designed the spacecraft and organized the project. Mister Rutan is already famous for designing and building the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping for fuel. An aircraft called the White Knight carried the smaller SpaceShipOne to an altitude of fifteen kilometers. It then released SpaceShipOne. Mike Melvill flew the White Knight aircraft. He was the earlier pilot on SpaceShipOne. Brian Binnie was the second pilot to fly Space Ship One. After the White Knight released SpaceShipOne, pilot Binnie fired the rockets that gave it the power needed to reach space. Space Ship One was designed to reach sub-orbital space. This is just below the area where a spacecraft would enter an orbit around the Earth. SpaceShipOne flew to a height of more than one hundred twelve kilometers above the Earth. VOICE TWO: Brian Binnie became only the second private citizen to successfully fly into space. He and Mike Melvill are now the only two private citizens who have flown as astronauts. About an hour after SpaceShipOne landed, it was announced that the spacecraft’s team had won the Ansari X prize of ten million dollars. To win the Ansari X Prize, a spacecraft had to be built entirely with private money. It had to make two flights within fourteen days. Each flight had to reach a height of at least one hundred kilometers above the Earth. This is the area where the Earth’s atmosphere ends and space begins. The spacecraft also had to carry the pilot and the amount of weight that would equal two passengers. The X Prize competition was organized to support space travel by private companies for private citizens. Reports say more than twenty-four different groups around the world planned or built spacecraft similar to Space Ship One. Each had hoped to win the X Prize. Aircraft designer Burt Rutan’s Space Ship One made its first successful flight in June. It reached one hundred kilometers above the Earth. It made a second flight on September twenty-ninth. Pilot Melvill was at the controls. That flight was the team’s first attempt to win the X Prize. VOICE ONE: Businessman Paul Allen was among those in the large crowd who watched the flight on Monday. He is one of the founders of the Microsoft Company. Mister Allen helped pay for the SpaceShipOne project. Mister Allen says he spent more than twenty million dollars on the project. He says he has wanted to be part of space research since he was a small boy. Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Airlines, was also there. He says he will buy several larger spacecraft from Mister Rutan. Mister Branson wants to start a business to take passengers into space. He says more than five thousand people have offered to pay for a seat on the first flights to space. News of the flight of Space Ship One was also sent to the International Space Station. Astronaut Mike Fincke and Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka welcomed Astronaut Binnie into space. The International Space Station team said it was great to learn that for a while on Monday they were not the only people off the planet Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For more than twelve days in September, NASA’s two exploration vehicles on the surface of Mars did not move. For most of that time the planet Mars passed nearly behind the Sun. This prevented good radio communications between NASA scientists here on Earth and the exploration vehicles. The two vehicles were also passing through the worst part of the Martian winter. This meant there was little sunlight for the vehicles’ collection devices to change into electric power. Now, NASA reports Mars is no longer behind the sun. Both vehicles are again making the needed electric power from sunlight and have returned to work. VOICE ONE: The two vehicles are named Spirit and Opportunity. They successfully completed their first three months of work in April. Now, they have completed another five months of work. Their main job is to search for evidence of water or water ice on the surface of Mars. Andrew Dantzler is a top official at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. He says Spirit and Opportunity are continuing their work. Mister Dantzler says NASA is adding more support for the team here on Earth. VOICE TWO: Jim Erickson is the project manager for both vehicles at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Erickson says scientists had believed the two vehicles would have stopped doing any useful work by this time. However, he says neither vehicle shows any signs of problems. This is the second time NASA has extended the work period for the two vehicles. Mister Erickson says NASA does not know how much longer the two vehicles will continue to do useful work. He says it could be days, weeks or several months. Mister Erickson says the exploration vehicle team will do their best to continue getting the best possible use from these very valuable scientific machines. VOICE ONE: When Mars moved from behind the Sun, Spirit was near an area of the Martian surface called the Columbia Hills. This is more than three kilometers from its landing area. Opportunity is inside a huge hole called Endurance Crater. It will explore an area of rock called Burns Cliff. More than one hundred fifty exploration team members work with the two vehicles. However, they no longer all work together at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The team members are now able to work at their home agencies in several states and in Europe. Special computer, video and sound equipment permit them to work together without being in the same building. This reduces the cost of the project and permits scientists to spend more time at home with their families. Steve Squyres is a scientist with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a top investigator working with Spirit and Opportunity. He says he can now explore Mars during the day and still go home at night to be with his family. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spirit and Opportunity research vehicles are not the only scientific instruments sending back important information about Mars. NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor satellite has recently started its third period of extended work. The Mars Global Surveyor has been orbiting the planet for seven years. It has already sent back more than one hundred seventy thousand photographs of the Red Planet. NASA reports that it is sending back better pictures than ever because of new methods of photography. The new photographs show three times the amount of detail as in the past. For example, one of the improved photographs shows the wheel marks left on the Martian surface by the exploration vehicle Spirit. Ken Edgett is a scientist for the Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California. Malin Space Science Systems built the Mars Orbiter Camera. Mister Edgett says the new method is very difficult and does not always result in a good picture. However, he says when it does, the results are extremely good. NASA has placed more than twenty-four thousand new photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor’s Orbiter Camera on the Internet computer communications system. You can see these photographs by going to www.msss.com. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we have a report about NASA’s two exploration vehicles on the surface of Mars. We also tell about a very successful satellite that is orbiting Mars. We begin with a report about SpaceShipOne. The privately owned spacecraft won a ten million dollar prize by flying into space two times in six days. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of people gathered near the little town of Mojave, California Monday. They watched as a privately built rocket plane made its second successful flight into space. The rocket plane is called SpaceShipOne. The Scaled Composites Company of California built it. Aviation designer Burt Rutan (roo-TAN) designed the spacecraft and organized the project. Mister Rutan is already famous for designing and building the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping for fuel. An aircraft called the White Knight carried the smaller SpaceShipOne to an altitude of fifteen kilometers. It then released SpaceShipOne. Mike Melvill flew the White Knight aircraft. He was the earlier pilot on SpaceShipOne. Brian Binnie was the second pilot to fly Space Ship One. After the White Knight released SpaceShipOne, pilot Binnie fired the rockets that gave it the power needed to reach space. Space Ship One was designed to reach sub-orbital space. This is just below the area where a spacecraft would enter an orbit around the Earth. SpaceShipOne flew to a height of more than one hundred twelve kilometers above the Earth. VOICE TWO: Brian Binnie became only the second private citizen to successfully fly into space. He and Mike Melvill are now the only two private citizens who have flown as astronauts. About an hour after SpaceShipOne landed, it was announced that the spacecraft’s team had won the Ansari X prize of ten million dollars. To win the Ansari X Prize, a spacecraft had to be built entirely with private money. It had to make two flights within fourteen days. Each flight had to reach a height of at least one hundred kilometers above the Earth. This is the area where the Earth’s atmosphere ends and space begins. The spacecraft also had to carry the pilot and the amount of weight that would equal two passengers. The X Prize competition was organized to support space travel by private companies for private citizens. Reports say more than twenty-four different groups around the world planned or built spacecraft similar to Space Ship One. Each had hoped to win the X Prize. Aircraft designer Burt Rutan’s Space Ship One made its first successful flight in June. It reached one hundred kilometers above the Earth. It made a second flight on September twenty-ninth. Pilot Melvill was at the controls. That flight was the team’s first attempt to win the X Prize. VOICE ONE: Businessman Paul Allen was among those in the large crowd who watched the flight on Monday. He is one of the founders of the Microsoft Company. Mister Allen helped pay for the SpaceShipOne project. Mister Allen says he spent more than twenty million dollars on the project. He says he has wanted to be part of space research since he was a small boy. Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Airlines, was also there. He says he will buy several larger spacecraft from Mister Rutan. Mister Branson wants to start a business to take passengers into space. He says more than five thousand people have offered to pay for a seat on the first flights to space. News of the flight of Space Ship One was also sent to the International Space Station. Astronaut Mike Fincke and Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka welcomed Astronaut Binnie into space. The International Space Station team said it was great to learn that for a while on Monday they were not the only people off the planet Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For more than twelve days in September, NASA’s two exploration vehicles on the surface of Mars did not move. For most of that time the planet Mars passed nearly behind the Sun. This prevented good radio communications between NASA scientists here on Earth and the exploration vehicles. The two vehicles were also passing through the worst part of the Martian winter. This meant there was little sunlight for the vehicles’ collection devices to change into electric power. Now, NASA reports Mars is no longer behind the sun. Both vehicles are again making the needed electric power from sunlight and have returned to work. VOICE ONE: The two vehicles are named Spirit and Opportunity. They successfully completed their first three months of work in April. Now, they have completed another five months of work. Their main job is to search for evidence of water or water ice on the surface of Mars. Andrew Dantzler is a top official at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. He says Spirit and Opportunity are continuing their work. Mister Dantzler says NASA is adding more support for the team here on Earth. VOICE TWO: Jim Erickson is the project manager for both vehicles at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Erickson says scientists had believed the two vehicles would have stopped doing any useful work by this time. However, he says neither vehicle shows any signs of problems. This is the second time NASA has extended the work period for the two vehicles. Mister Erickson says NASA does not know how much longer the two vehicles will continue to do useful work. He says it could be days, weeks or several months. Mister Erickson says the exploration vehicle team will do their best to continue getting the best possible use from these very valuable scientific machines. VOICE ONE: When Mars moved from behind the Sun, Spirit was near an area of the Martian surface called the Columbia Hills. This is more than three kilometers from its landing area. Opportunity is inside a huge hole called Endurance Crater. It will explore an area of rock called Burns Cliff. More than one hundred fifty exploration team members work with the two vehicles. However, they no longer all work together at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The team members are now able to work at their home agencies in several states and in Europe. Special computer, video and sound equipment permit them to work together without being in the same building. This reduces the cost of the project and permits scientists to spend more time at home with their families. Steve Squyres is a scientist with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a top investigator working with Spirit and Opportunity. He says he can now explore Mars during the day and still go home at night to be with his family. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spirit and Opportunity research vehicles are not the only scientific instruments sending back important information about Mars. NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor satellite has recently started its third period of extended work. The Mars Global Surveyor has been orbiting the planet for seven years. It has already sent back more than one hundred seventy thousand photographs of the Red Planet. NASA reports that it is sending back better pictures than ever because of new methods of photography. The new photographs show three times the amount of detail as in the past. For example, one of the improved photographs shows the wheel marks left on the Martian surface by the exploration vehicle Spirit. Ken Edgett is a scientist for the Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California. Malin Space Science Systems built the Mars Orbiter Camera. Mister Edgett says the new method is very difficult and does not always result in a good picture. However, he says when it does, the results are extremely good. NASA has placed more than twenty-four thousand new photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor’s Orbiter Camera on the Internet computer communications system. You can see these photographs by going to www.msss.com. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Study Says Dogs Can Smell Cancer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 6, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Dogs are known for their sense of smell. They can find missing people and things like bombs and illegal drugs. Now a study suggests that the animal known as man’s best friend can even find bladder cancer. Cancer cells are thought to produce chemicals with unusual odors. Researchers think dogs have the ability to smell these odors, even in very small amounts, in urine. The sense of smell in dogs is thousands of times better than in humans. The study follows reports of cases where, for example, a dog showed great interest in a growth on the leg of its owner. The mole was later found to be skin cancer. Carolyn Willis led a team of researchers at Amersham Hospital in England. They trained different kinds of dogs for the experiment. The study involved urine collected from bladder cancer patients, from people with other diseases and from healthy people. Each dog was tested eight times. In each test there were seven samples for the dogs to smell. The dog was supposed to signal the one from a bladder cancer patient by lying down next to it. Two cocker spaniels were correct fifty-six percent of the time. But the scientists reported an average success rate of forty-one percent. As a group, the study found that the dogs chose the correct sample twenty-two out of fifty-four times. That is almost three times more often than would be expected by chance alone. The British Medical Journal published the research. In all, thirty-six bladder cancer patients and one hundred eight other people took part. During training, all the dogs reportedly even identified a cancer in a person who had tested healthy before the study. Doctors found a growth on the person’s right kidney. Carolyn Willis says dogs could help scientists identify the compounds produced by bladder cancer. That information could then be used to develop machines to test for the chemicals. Now, doctors must remove tissue from the bladder to test for cancer. The team also plans to use dogs to help identify markers for other kinds of cancer. Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer worldwide. The International Agency for Research on Cancer says this disease kills more than one hundred thousand people each year. Doctors say cigarette smoking is the leading cause of bladder cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #83 - Franklin Pierce, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today,we continue the story of America's fourteenth president, Franklin Pierce. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Franklin Pierce was elected in eighteen-fifty-two. He was a compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He was well-liked. But he was not considered a strong leader. The eighteen-fifties were an increasingly tense time in the United States. Most of the population lived east of the Mississippi River. However, more and more people were moving west. As western areas became populated, they became official territories and then new states. What kind of laws would the new territories and states have. Would the laws be decided by the Congress in Washington. Or would they be voted on by the people living there. The biggest legal question affecting western lands was slavery. VOICE TWO: Owning another human being was legal in many parts of the United States at that time. Slaves were considered property, like furniture and farm animals. People who owned negro slaves wanted to take all their property -- including the slaves -- with them when they moved west. People who opposed slavery did not want it to spread. Some of them considered slavery a moral issue. They believed it violated the laws of God. An increasing number of white Americans, however, saw slavery as an economic issue. They wanted new states to be free from slavery, so they would not have to compete with slave labor. VOICE ONE: The United States had been established as a democracy. Yet slavery existed. America's early leaders knew that trying to end slavery probably would split the nation in two. So they looked for compromises. They decided it was better to save the Union...even if it was not perfect...than to watch the Union end. Like other presidents, Franklin Pierce hoped to avoid the issue. He also believed that earlier legislation had settled the debate. In eighteen-twenty, Congress had passed the Missouri Compromise. It extended a line across the map of the United States. South of the line, slavery was legal. North of the line, slavery was not legal, except in Missouri. Thirty years later, another political compromise made the situation less clear. VOICE TWO: The compromise of eighteen-fifty made slavery a local issue, instead of a national issue, in several western territories. It said the people in those territories had the right to decide for themselves if slavery would be legal or illegal. Within a few years, that law caused a new debate in Congress. Lawmakers argued: was the peoples' right to decide the issue of slavery restricted only to the territories named in the compromise of eighteen-fifty? Or was the right extended to the people of all future territories? VOICE ONE: The answer came in eighteen-fifty-four. In that year, Congress debated a proposal to create two territories from one large area in the west. The northern part would be known as the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be known as the Kansas territory. Settlers in both new territories would have the right to decide the question of slavery. President Pierce did not like the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He feared it would re-open the bitter, national debate about slavery. He did not want to have to deal with the results. Tensions were increasing. Violence was increasingly possible. The Kansas-Nebraska bill had a lot of support in the Senate. It passed easily. The bill had less support in the House of Representatives. The vote there was close, but the measure passed. President Pierce finally agreed to sign it. In exchange, congressional leaders promised to approve several presidential appointments. Supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska bill celebrated their victory. They fired cannons as the city of Washington was waking to a new day. Two senators who opposed the bill heard the noise as they walked down the steps of the capitol building. One of them said: "They celebrate a victory now. But the echoes they awake will never rest until slavery itself is dead." VOICE TWO: The new bill gave the people of Kansas and Nebraska the right to decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The vote would depend on who settled in the territories. It was not likely that people who owned slaves would settle in Nebraska. However, there was a good chance that they would settle in Kansas. Groups in the south organized quickly to help pro-slavery settlers move to Kansas. At the same time, groups in the north helped free-state settlers move there, too. VOICE ONE: Some of the northern groups were companies called emigrant aid societies. Shares of these companies were sold to the public. The money was used to help build towns and farms in Kansas. Owners of the companies hoped to make a lot of money from the development. The southern effort to settle Kansas was led mostly by slave-owning farmers in Missouri. They believed that peace in Missouri depended on what happened in Kansas. They did not want to live next to a territory where slavery was not legal. VOICE TWO: In Washington, President Pierce announced the appointment of Andrew Reeder to be governor of the Kansas territory. Pro-slavery settlers urged Reeder to hold immediate elections for a territorial legislature. They believed they were in the majority. They wanted a vote before too many free-state settlers moved in. The legislature would have the power to keep the territory open to slavery and, in time, help it become a slave state. VOICE ONE: Governor Reeder rejected the demands. He decided to hold an election, but only for a territorial representative to the national Congress. On election day, hundreds of men from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas. They voted illegally, and the pro-slavery candidate won. The same thing happened when Kansas finally held an election for a legislature. Governor Reeder took steps to make the voting fair. His efforts were not completely successful. Once again, men from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas. Many of them carried guns. They forced election officials to count their illegal votes. As a result, almost every pro-slavery candidate was elected to the new legislature. VOICE TWO: The governor ordered an investigation. The investigation showed evidence of wrong-doing in six areas, and new elections were held in those areas. This time, when only legal votes were counted, many of the pro-slavery candidates were defeated. Yet there were still enough pro-slavery candidates to have a majority. VOICE ONE: Andrew Reeder was governor of a bitterly divided territory. He wanted to warn President pierce about what was happening. Reeder went to Washington. He met with Pierce almost every day for two weeks. He described how pro-slavery groups in Missouri were interfering in Kansas. He said if the state of Missouri refused to deal with the trouble-makers, then the national government must deal with them. He asked the president to do something. VOICE TWO: Pierce agreed that Kansas was a serious problem. He seemed ready to act. So reeder returned home and opened the first meeting of the territorial legislature. The pro-slavery majority quickly voted to move to a town close to the Missouri border. It also approved several pro-slavery measures. Governor Reeder vetoed these bills. But there were enough votes to reject his veto and pass the new laws. VOICE ONE: The Kansas legislature also sent a message to President Pierce. It wanted him to remove Andrew Reeder as governor. Political pressure was strong, and the president agreed. He named a new governor, Wilson Shannon. Shannon supported the pro-slavery laws of the legislature. He also said Kansas should become a slave state, like Missouri. Free-state leaders were extremely angry. They felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an unusual step. They met and formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. It would not be long before the situation in Kansas became violent. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next time for another VOA Special English report about the history of the United States. Broadcast: October 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today,we continue the story of America's fourteenth president, Franklin Pierce. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Franklin Pierce was elected in eighteen-fifty-two. He was a compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He was well-liked. But he was not considered a strong leader. The eighteen-fifties were an increasingly tense time in the United States. Most of the population lived east of the Mississippi River. However, more and more people were moving west. As western areas became populated, they became official territories and then new states. What kind of laws would the new territories and states have. Would the laws be decided by the Congress in Washington. Or would they be voted on by the people living there. The biggest legal question affecting western lands was slavery. VOICE TWO: Owning another human being was legal in many parts of the United States at that time. Slaves were considered property, like furniture and farm animals. People who owned negro slaves wanted to take all their property -- including the slaves -- with them when they moved west. People who opposed slavery did not want it to spread. Some of them considered slavery a moral issue. They believed it violated the laws of God. An increasing number of white Americans, however, saw slavery as an economic issue. They wanted new states to be free from slavery, so they would not have to compete with slave labor. VOICE ONE: The United States had been established as a democracy. Yet slavery existed. America's early leaders knew that trying to end slavery probably would split the nation in two. So they looked for compromises. They decided it was better to save the Union...even if it was not perfect...than to watch the Union end. Like other presidents, Franklin Pierce hoped to avoid the issue. He also believed that earlier legislation had settled the debate. In eighteen-twenty, Congress had passed the Missouri Compromise. It extended a line across the map of the United States. South of the line, slavery was legal. North of the line, slavery was not legal, except in Missouri. Thirty years later, another political compromise made the situation less clear. VOICE TWO: The compromise of eighteen-fifty made slavery a local issue, instead of a national issue, in several western territories. It said the people in those territories had the right to decide for themselves if slavery would be legal or illegal. Within a few years, that law caused a new debate in Congress. Lawmakers argued: was the peoples' right to decide the issue of slavery restricted only to the territories named in the compromise of eighteen-fifty? Or was the right extended to the people of all future territories? VOICE ONE: The answer came in eighteen-fifty-four. In that year, Congress debated a proposal to create two territories from one large area in the west. The northern part would be known as the Nebraska territory. The southern part would be known as the Kansas territory. Settlers in both new territories would have the right to decide the question of slavery. President Pierce did not like the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He feared it would re-open the bitter, national debate about slavery. He did not want to have to deal with the results. Tensions were increasing. Violence was increasingly possible. The Kansas-Nebraska bill had a lot of support in the Senate. It passed easily. The bill had less support in the House of Representatives. The vote there was close, but the measure passed. President Pierce finally agreed to sign it. In exchange, congressional leaders promised to approve several presidential appointments. Supporters of the Kansas-Nebraska bill celebrated their victory. They fired cannons as the city of Washington was waking to a new day. Two senators who opposed the bill heard the noise as they walked down the steps of the capitol building. One of them said: "They celebrate a victory now. But the echoes they awake will never rest until slavery itself is dead." VOICE TWO: The new bill gave the people of Kansas and Nebraska the right to decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The vote would depend on who settled in the territories. It was not likely that people who owned slaves would settle in Nebraska. However, there was a good chance that they would settle in Kansas. Groups in the south organized quickly to help pro-slavery settlers move to Kansas. At the same time, groups in the north helped free-state settlers move there, too. VOICE ONE: Some of the northern groups were companies called emigrant aid societies. Shares of these companies were sold to the public. The money was used to help build towns and farms in Kansas. Owners of the companies hoped to make a lot of money from the development. The southern effort to settle Kansas was led mostly by slave-owning farmers in Missouri. They believed that peace in Missouri depended on what happened in Kansas. They did not want to live next to a territory where slavery was not legal. VOICE TWO: In Washington, President Pierce announced the appointment of Andrew Reeder to be governor of the Kansas territory. Pro-slavery settlers urged Reeder to hold immediate elections for a territorial legislature. They believed they were in the majority. They wanted a vote before too many free-state settlers moved in. The legislature would have the power to keep the territory open to slavery and, in time, help it become a slave state. VOICE ONE: Governor Reeder rejected the demands. He decided to hold an election, but only for a territorial representative to the national Congress. On election day, hundreds of men from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas. They voted illegally, and the pro-slavery candidate won. The same thing happened when Kansas finally held an election for a legislature. Governor Reeder took steps to make the voting fair. His efforts were not completely successful. Once again, men from Missouri crossed the border into Kansas. Many of them carried guns. They forced election officials to count their illegal votes. As a result, almost every pro-slavery candidate was elected to the new legislature. VOICE TWO: The governor ordered an investigation. The investigation showed evidence of wrong-doing in six areas, and new elections were held in those areas. This time, when only legal votes were counted, many of the pro-slavery candidates were defeated. Yet there were still enough pro-slavery candidates to have a majority. VOICE ONE: Andrew Reeder was governor of a bitterly divided territory. He wanted to warn President pierce about what was happening. Reeder went to Washington. He met with Pierce almost every day for two weeks. He described how pro-slavery groups in Missouri were interfering in Kansas. He said if the state of Missouri refused to deal with the trouble-makers, then the national government must deal with them. He asked the president to do something. VOICE TWO: Pierce agreed that Kansas was a serious problem. He seemed ready to act. So reeder returned home and opened the first meeting of the territorial legislature. The pro-slavery majority quickly voted to move to a town close to the Missouri border. It also approved several pro-slavery measures. Governor Reeder vetoed these bills. But there were enough votes to reject his veto and pass the new laws. VOICE ONE: The Kansas legislature also sent a message to President Pierce. It wanted him to remove Andrew Reeder as governor. Political pressure was strong, and the president agreed. He named a new governor, Wilson Shannon. Shannon supported the pro-slavery laws of the legislature. He also said Kansas should become a slave state, like Missouri. Free-state leaders were extremely angry. They felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an unusual step. They met and formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. It would not be long before the situation in Kansas became violent. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next time for another VOA Special English report about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #6: Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 7, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Last week we discussed rules for getting permission to enter the United States to study at a college or university. Now, in part six of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. This computer system is known as SEVIS. It went into effect in January of two thousand three. All schools must enter information when they admit a foreign student. SEVIS brings together about seventy-four thousand [correction: seven thousand three hundred] American colleges, universities and technical schools. It links them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. The government uses the system to let a school know when a student has entered the country. The school must report within thirty days if the student is attending classes. The school must also report if the student leaves school. The Department of Homeland Security says SEVIS now lists about seven hundred seventy thousand students and exchange visitors. Family members who traveled with them are also listed. On September first, the United States began to charge each student and exchange visitor one hundred dollars to help pay for the system. The money will also help pay for a new SEVIS Web site that is being developed. The site will permit student and exchange visitors to examine their SEVIS information and payment record online. Information about SEVIS can be found on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site: www.ice.gov...www.ice.gov. And you can find our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish.com. Finally, we want to add to our report two weeks ago about online programs. One example we gave is the largest university in the country to operate for profit, the University of Phoenix. Last month, its owner, the Apollo Group, announced settlement agreements with the Department of Education. In one case, the company agreed to pay a fine of nearly ten million dollars. Investigators say the University of Phoenix used unacceptable sales methods to pressure employees to sign up students. Employees reportedly admitted some students who were unprepared. The settlement involved no admission of wrongdoing. Other profit-making higher education companies have also been under investigation. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 7, 2004 - Lida Baker: Crafting a Complaint
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 7, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a lesson in complaining. RS: English teacher Lida Baker is with us from Los Angeles to discuss a topic suggested by one of our listeners, an English teacher in Iran. His students would like to know the proper way to complain. AA: Lida Baker says the first part of any complaint is a factual statement about what the problem is. But there's another part to learn that's more important, she says. LIDA BAKER: "I'm guessing that there are students from a lot of cultures where this cultural behavior we have in the United States of being very forthright about what we think and what we want -- that's the part that would be a lot harder for them than the linguistic part of complaining, which is just saying 'here is the problem.'" RS: "It's legitimate in the United States to complain, it's legitimate to take a product back to a store, and I think this is something that a student would have to understand before he or she could actually put the complaint into action. But Lida, how would you put this into context, into a classroom? How would you teach -- I guess it would be kind of an assertiveness training?" LIDA BAKER: "I think in teaching, the first step is providing that cultural background. What is the return policy of a store? And understanding that it isn't the same from one store to the next. I had an incident a few weeks ago where I bought some clothes for my daughter from a store where I just assumed that if they didn't fit her, because she wasn't with me at the time, I just assumed that if they didn't fit I could bring them back. "And they didn't fit, and I went back to the store, and to my utter surprise this store would not refund my money. It would only give me a store credit or allow for an exchange. And I was very shocked because I was used to shopping in stores that provided you with a full refund for your money." AA: "What did you say to the clerk? I'm curious, how did you handle that?" LIDA BAKER: "I expressed my surprise. But at the same time, I reminded myself that this is not -- you know, the clerks are the people in the first line of fire. But we have to remember that they are not the ones who set the store policy." AA: "You know what, I have here an example of a complaint letter. This is on the Sarasota, Florida, public school system's Web site, and it was written to this clothing company. And this is a letter about some shoes, and it begins: "'To Whom It May Concern: "'On September 20, I ordered (by phone) a pair of brown leather Peace Mules for $36.99, which includes $4.99 for shipping and handling. When they were delivered to my home, the package was wet and the leather shoes were ruined. "'I am returning the shoes. I realize the shipping and handling fee is non-refundable, but I would like the original amount of $32 to be refunded. "'Thank you for your attention to this matter. "'Sincerely,' and she signs it here. So what do you think of that?" LIDA BAKER: "I think that's a perfect letter of complaint. She states what the problem is. She states what correction she would like the company to make. The tone is neutral; she doesn't come across as angry or demanding. It's short -- you know, there's nothing extra there, so that the person reading the letter doesn't have to go hunting, you know, through the letter. What is it that happened, and what does the person want? "And getting back to the classroom now, if we wanted to give our students experience learning how to write letters of complaint, we would show them several examples. We would then give them a situation in which there was something to complain about, and we would ask them to write a similar letter using one of the models that we've provided, like the one that you just read. "What is much harder, of course, is for people to get experience complaining verbally, in person. And so once we have demonstrated, by means of either video or literature, several scenarios in which complaining takes place, and we've analyzed the language and structures that go into complaining, the final step -- and perhaps the most important one -- is to give students practice complaining in a sheltered environment; in other words, in the classroom. And I would do that by means of role playing." RS: Lida Baker writes English textbooks and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. We’d love to hear from you, even if it is a complaint! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And we have all our previous segments with Lida at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 7, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a lesson in complaining. RS: English teacher Lida Baker is with us from Los Angeles to discuss a topic suggested by one of our listeners, an English teacher in Iran. His students would like to know the proper way to complain. AA: Lida Baker says the first part of any complaint is a factual statement about what the problem is. But there's another part to learn that's more important, she says. LIDA BAKER: "I'm guessing that there are students from a lot of cultures where this cultural behavior we have in the United States of being very forthright about what we think and what we want -- that's the part that would be a lot harder for them than the linguistic part of complaining, which is just saying 'here is the problem.'" RS: "It's legitimate in the United States to complain, it's legitimate to take a product back to a store, and I think this is something that a student would have to understand before he or she could actually put the complaint into action. But Lida, how would you put this into context, into a classroom? How would you teach -- I guess it would be kind of an assertiveness training?" LIDA BAKER: "I think in teaching, the first step is providing that cultural background. What is the return policy of a store? And understanding that it isn't the same from one store to the next. I had an incident a few weeks ago where I bought some clothes for my daughter from a store where I just assumed that if they didn't fit her, because she wasn't with me at the time, I just assumed that if they didn't fit I could bring them back. "And they didn't fit, and I went back to the store, and to my utter surprise this store would not refund my money. It would only give me a store credit or allow for an exchange. And I was very shocked because I was used to shopping in stores that provided you with a full refund for your money." AA: "What did you say to the clerk? I'm curious, how did you handle that?" LIDA BAKER: "I expressed my surprise. But at the same time, I reminded myself that this is not -- you know, the clerks are the people in the first line of fire. But we have to remember that they are not the ones who set the store policy." AA: "You know what, I have here an example of a complaint letter. This is on the Sarasota, Florida, public school system's Web site, and it was written to this clothing company. And this is a letter about some shoes, and it begins: "'To Whom It May Concern: "'On September 20, I ordered (by phone) a pair of brown leather Peace Mules for $36.99, which includes $4.99 for shipping and handling. When they were delivered to my home, the package was wet and the leather shoes were ruined. "'I am returning the shoes. I realize the shipping and handling fee is non-refundable, but I would like the original amount of $32 to be refunded. "'Thank you for your attention to this matter. "'Sincerely,' and she signs it here. So what do you think of that?" LIDA BAKER: "I think that's a perfect letter of complaint. She states what the problem is. She states what correction she would like the company to make. The tone is neutral; she doesn't come across as angry or demanding. It's short -- you know, there's nothing extra there, so that the person reading the letter doesn't have to go hunting, you know, through the letter. What is it that happened, and what does the person want? "And getting back to the classroom now, if we wanted to give our students experience learning how to write letters of complaint, we would show them several examples. We would then give them a situation in which there was something to complain about, and we would ask them to write a similar letter using one of the models that we've provided, like the one that you just read. "What is much harder, of course, is for people to get experience complaining verbally, in person. And so once we have demonstrated, by means of either video or literature, several scenarios in which complaining takes place, and we've analyzed the language and structures that go into complaining, the final step -- and perhaps the most important one -- is to give students practice complaining in a sheltered environment; in other words, in the classroom. And I would do that by means of role playing." RS: Lida Baker writes English textbooks and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. We’d love to hear from you, even if it is a complaint! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And we have all our previous segments with Lida at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Music from Modest Mouse / New Hope for Private Space Travel / A Listener Asks About TV Talk-Show Host Jerry Springer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 8, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: October 8, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Modest Mouse ... A question from a listener about television talk-show host Jerry Springer ... And a report about why the next place for travelers could be out of this world. SpaceShipOne How would you like to take a rocket ship into space? The flight this week that won the ten million dollar Ansari X Prize could launch new chances for space travel. Faith Lapidus explains -- oh, and if you would like to buy a ticket, you might have to start saving your money now. FAITH LAPIDUS: On Monday, a rocket plane named SpaceShipOne entered the part of space just above the Earth’s atmosphere. It was released from an airplane over the Mojave Desert in California. Pilot Brian Binnie was at the controls. It was the second flight of SpaceShipOne in six days. To win the ten million dollars, a spacecraft had to be built without government help. It had to make two flights within two weeks. And each time, it had to reach a height of one hundred kilometers. It also had to carry the pilot and enough weight to equal two passengers. Burt Rutan designed SpaceShipOne. His company, Scaled Composites, built the rocket plane in an effort to win the X Prize. Peter Diamandis is an official with the X Prize Foundation. He says the prize was an effort to do for space flight what early prizes did to build the airplane industry. The goal now is to develop lower-cost space vehicles, like SpaceShipOne. British businessman Richard Branson has an agreement with Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, Mister Rutan's business partner. Mister Branson will pay for the right to build rocket planes similar to SpaceShipOne. He will also start a new company to offer rides into space. The company will be called Virgin Galactic. Mister Branson wants Virgin Galactic to offer two-hour space rides. The price of a ticket? It could be as much as one hundred ninety thousand dollars. Jerry Springer DOUG JOHNSON: From New Zealand, our VOA listener question this week comes from a Chinese student named Philip. He says he has seen "The Jerry Springer Show" on television recently, thinks it is very funny and wants to know more about Jerry Springer. On the show, people talk about their lives and their problems, but mostly their problems. Sometimes, the show surprises one of its guests. For example, a person who has betrayed the guest may appear. Or a person whom the guest is keeping a secret from. The show is known for times when people scream at each other or get into physical fights. Some critics have called “The Jerry Springer Show” the worst show on television. Even Jerry Springer says his show can be "really silly and stupid at times." He also says he is sure some of the guests have made up their stories. But there is more to the story of Jerry Springer. He was born in London in nineteen forty-four. His parents had fled Germany just before World War Two. When he was five years old, his family moved to the United States. They settled in New York City. After college, he attended law school. He became politically active for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and worked for a law firm. In nineteen seventy, he was a candidate for Congress. He lost that election. But later the people of Cincinnati elected him mayor of the city. Jerry Springer also worked in Cincinnati as a news reporter and television announcer. He won ten Emmy awards. He started “The Jerry Springer Show” in nineteen ninety-one. As a result of its success, he has hosted television shows in England and South Africa. An opera was produced in London about "The Jerry Springer Show." He has recorded country songs in Nashville and has appeared in movies and on the Broadway stage. A few years ago, Jerry Springer wrote a book about his life. He compared his job as a talk show host to that of the person who leads a circus. He named his book "Ringmaster!" Modest Mouse The band Modest Mouse is preparing for a short series of concerts around the United States. The first stop is in Los Angeles on November sixth for the event called All Tomorrow’s Parties. Bob Doughty has our report. BOB DOUGHTY: All Tomorrow’s Parties is a festival organized each year by a guest artist or band. It started in England in nineteen ninety-nine and now has a second location, in Los Angeles. So far, about twenty bands are set to perform at the two-day event in California. These include the hosts this year: Modest Mouse. Here is their current hit, “Float On. ” (MUSIC) Singer and guitarist Isaac Brock, bassist Eric Judy and drummer Jeremiah Green formed Modest Mouse in nineteen ninety-three. The group started in Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest. The band recorded on independent labels. In nineteen ninety-seven, Modest Mouse released “Lonesome Crowded West.” It got more radio play than earlier albums. One of the popular songs was “Convenient Parking.” (MUSIC) In two thousand, Modest Mouse signed with Sony. We leave you now with the band performing “Ocean Breathes Salty." It is from their latest album, “Good News for People Who Love Bad News.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. Our engineer was Jim Sleeman. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Modest Mouse ... A question from a listener about television talk-show host Jerry Springer ... And a report about why the next place for travelers could be out of this world. SpaceShipOne How would you like to take a rocket ship into space? The flight this week that won the ten million dollar Ansari X Prize could launch new chances for space travel. Faith Lapidus explains -- oh, and if you would like to buy a ticket, you might have to start saving your money now. FAITH LAPIDUS: On Monday, a rocket plane named SpaceShipOne entered the part of space just above the Earth’s atmosphere. It was released from an airplane over the Mojave Desert in California. Pilot Brian Binnie was at the controls. It was the second flight of SpaceShipOne in six days. To win the ten million dollars, a spacecraft had to be built without government help. It had to make two flights within two weeks. And each time, it had to reach a height of one hundred kilometers. It also had to carry the pilot and enough weight to equal two passengers. Burt Rutan designed SpaceShipOne. His company, Scaled Composites, built the rocket plane in an effort to win the X Prize. Peter Diamandis is an official with the X Prize Foundation. He says the prize was an effort to do for space flight what early prizes did to build the airplane industry. The goal now is to develop lower-cost space vehicles, like SpaceShipOne. British businessman Richard Branson has an agreement with Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, Mister Rutan's business partner. Mister Branson will pay for the right to build rocket planes similar to SpaceShipOne. He will also start a new company to offer rides into space. The company will be called Virgin Galactic. Mister Branson wants Virgin Galactic to offer two-hour space rides. The price of a ticket? It could be as much as one hundred ninety thousand dollars. Jerry Springer DOUG JOHNSON: From New Zealand, our VOA listener question this week comes from a Chinese student named Philip. He says he has seen "The Jerry Springer Show" on television recently, thinks it is very funny and wants to know more about Jerry Springer. On the show, people talk about their lives and their problems, but mostly their problems. Sometimes, the show surprises one of its guests. For example, a person who has betrayed the guest may appear. Or a person whom the guest is keeping a secret from. The show is known for times when people scream at each other or get into physical fights. Some critics have called “The Jerry Springer Show” the worst show on television. Even Jerry Springer says his show can be "really silly and stupid at times." He also says he is sure some of the guests have made up their stories. But there is more to the story of Jerry Springer. He was born in London in nineteen forty-four. His parents had fled Germany just before World War Two. When he was five years old, his family moved to the United States. They settled in New York City. After college, he attended law school. He became politically active for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. He moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and worked for a law firm. In nineteen seventy, he was a candidate for Congress. He lost that election. But later the people of Cincinnati elected him mayor of the city. Jerry Springer also worked in Cincinnati as a news reporter and television announcer. He won ten Emmy awards. He started “The Jerry Springer Show” in nineteen ninety-one. As a result of its success, he has hosted television shows in England and South Africa. An opera was produced in London about "The Jerry Springer Show." He has recorded country songs in Nashville and has appeared in movies and on the Broadway stage. A few years ago, Jerry Springer wrote a book about his life. He compared his job as a talk show host to that of the person who leads a circus. He named his book "Ringmaster!" Modest Mouse The band Modest Mouse is preparing for a short series of concerts around the United States. The first stop is in Los Angeles on November sixth for the event called All Tomorrow’s Parties. Bob Doughty has our report. BOB DOUGHTY: All Tomorrow’s Parties is a festival organized each year by a guest artist or band. It started in England in nineteen ninety-nine and now has a second location, in Los Angeles. So far, about twenty bands are set to perform at the two-day event in California. These include the hosts this year: Modest Mouse. Here is their current hit, “Float On. ” (MUSIC) Singer and guitarist Isaac Brock, bassist Eric Judy and drummer Jeremiah Green formed Modest Mouse in nineteen ninety-three. The group started in Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest. The band recorded on independent labels. In nineteen ninety-seven, Modest Mouse released “Lonesome Crowded West.” It got more radio play than earlier albums. One of the popular songs was “Convenient Parking.” (MUSIC) In two thousand, Modest Mouse signed with Sony. We leave you now with the band performing “Ocean Breathes Salty." It is from their latest album, “Good News for People Who Love Bad News.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. Our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Fannie Mae, Under Investigation, Plays a Huge Part in Home Loan Market
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 8, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Americans say owning a home is part of the American dream. But many people may not recognize the part that a company called Fannie Mae plays in the home loan industry. Now government financial investigators have found serious problems at the company. Fannie Mae began as the Federal National Mortgage Association. Congress established it in nineteen thirty-eight. It became a private corporation in nineteen seventy, and later changed its name to Fannie Mae. A mortgage is a loan secured by property. A person goes to a lender, usually a bank, to borrow money for a home. The person pays the loan back, with interest, over a period of long as thirty years. The bank must wait a long time to get its money back. So Fannie Mae buys mortgages from lenders. This supplies them with money to use for other loans. Investors buy shares in Fannie Mae so the company has money to pay for mortgages. Fannie Mae also sells and trades what are called mortgage-backed securities. Bonds based on mortgages are considered low-risk investments. However, these are not guaranteed by the government. Fannie Mae and a similar company, Freddie Mac, control about half the home loans in America. Experts say the market is worth almost eight million million dollars. Last year, investigators found problems with financial record-keeping at Freddie Mac. But they say the problems at Fannie Mae are a lot more serious. An agency called the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight accused Fannie Mae of hiding changes in its value. The agency criticized the company for poor supervision and not carefully reporting its finances. Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are also investigating Fannie Mae. Franklin Raines, the chief executive officer, defends the actions of the company. Mister Raines says Fannie Mae did not falsely represent its financial condition. Industry experts say the work of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helps keep mortgage rates lower, so more Americans can own homes. But the price of Fannie Mae stock has dropped after news of the investigations. Experts say the company could have to pay more when it needs to borrow money. They say the situation could also lead to higher mortgage rates for home buyers in the future. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Voter Registration Rises in U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 9, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Voter lists are growing as the United States prepares for general elections on November second. Some people think the increase in possible new voters is enough to influence the presidential election. But political experts are not sure which candidate will be helped more, Republican President George W. Bush or Democratic Senator John Kerry. Americans in a number of states had until this week to sign up to vote. Others have more time to register. Six of the fifty states permit registration on Election Day. Both major parties and several activist groups have been trying to sign up voters in the battleground states. These are states like Florida and Ohio where the vote is expected to be especially close. Republicans have led many of their efforts in areas away from cities. Democrats and community groups have worked hard in cities to register minorities and young people, especially students. People under the age of twenty-five have the lowest voting rates. In some poor and minority areas of Ohio, officials report four times as many new registrations as in the two thousand election. Four years ago, President Bush won Ohio by a narrow victory over Al Gore. In Pennsylvania, election officials say voter registration in the city of Philadelphia is at the highest level in twenty years. Officials in the states of New Jersey and Georgia also say they expect big increases in voter lists. Political experts link the interest this year in part to the disputed election in Florida four years ago. Mister Bush won the state by five hundred thirty-seven votes. But the efforts to sign up and process new voters have led in some cases to accusations of wrongdoing. Investigations are under way in Michigan, Florida and Ohio. On Thursday, the Florida Democratic Party went to court in a dispute with the state over incomplete voter registration papers. The documents have two places where people had to confirm that they are American citizens. They had to sign a statement. And they had to mark a box. Some people failed to mark the box. A state official told counties that, under the law, they should reject those forms. The Florida Democratic Party disagrees. All American citizens eighteen and older may vote, although people can lose that right if they are found guilty of a serious crime. Groups that have led voter registration drives this year say they will now work to get people to vote. How many Americans vote? The Census Bureau says sixty percent of all the adult citizens in the country voted in the two thousand election. But the reason groups want more people to register is because eighty-six percent of those who were signed up to vote in the last election did vote. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: October 9, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Voter lists are growing as the United States prepares for general elections on November second. Some people think the increase in possible new voters is enough to influence the presidential election. But political experts are not sure which candidate will be helped more, Republican President George W. Bush or Democratic Senator John Kerry. Americans in a number of states had until this week to sign up to vote. Others have more time to register. Six of the fifty states permit registration on Election Day. Both major parties and several activist groups have been trying to sign up voters in the battleground states. These are states like Florida and Ohio where the vote is expected to be especially close. Republicans have led many of their efforts in areas away from cities. Democrats and community groups have worked hard in cities to register minorities and young people, especially students. People under the age of twenty-five have the lowest voting rates. In some poor and minority areas of Ohio, officials report four times as many new registrations as in the two thousand election. Four years ago, President Bush won Ohio by a narrow victory over Al Gore. In Pennsylvania, election officials say voter registration in the city of Philadelphia is at the highest level in twenty years. Officials in the states of New Jersey and Georgia also say they expect big increases in voter lists. Political experts link the interest this year in part to the disputed election in Florida four years ago. Mister Bush won the state by five hundred thirty-seven votes. But the efforts to sign up and process new voters have led in some cases to accusations of wrongdoing. Investigations are under way in Michigan, Florida and Ohio. On Thursday, the Florida Democratic Party went to court in a dispute with the state over incomplete voter registration papers. The documents have two places where people had to confirm that they are American citizens. They had to sign a statement. And they had to mark a box. Some people failed to mark the box. A state official told counties that, under the law, they should reject those forms. The Florida Democratic Party disagrees. All American citizens eighteen and older may vote, although people can lose that right if they are found guilty of a serious crime. Groups that have led voter registration drives this year say they will now work to get people to vote. How many Americans vote? The Census Bureau says sixty percent of all the adult citizens in the country voted in the two thousand election. But the reason groups want more people to register is because eighty-six percent of those who were signed up to vote in the last election did vote. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Elizabeth Blackwell
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 10, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: October 10, 2004 (THEME) ANNCR: Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about the first western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England in eighteen twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal. Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave trade. He tried to help improve low pay and poor living conditions of workers. And he wanted women to have the same chance for education as men. He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. These subjects were normally taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered, "They shall do what they please". VOICE TWO: In eighteen thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided to move the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old. The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mister Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family, Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs. In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching. Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying. She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people. The dying friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died. Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school. Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard, Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her, except Geneva Medical College in the state of New York. She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned the reason: her acceptance was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students decide. The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors from Geneva Medical School in eighteen forty-nine. She was the only woman in the western world to have completed medical school training. Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon. She wanted to work in a hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she was a doctor. A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At the hospital, Doctor Blackwell accidentally got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon. Instead, she went to London to study at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But no patients came. So doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school. With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re-built house. The work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York. They treated only three hundred people in their hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented. News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke to groups in London about disease prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty-eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for women opened in Boston and Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease. Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering from ever happening. In eighteen seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay healthy. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding wives who wanted to be considered as equals. Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's rights. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen ten. She was eighty-nine years old. She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal was very important. Toward the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One wrote that doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on. (Theme) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. ANNCR: Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about the first western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England in eighteen twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal. Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave trade. He tried to help improve low pay and poor living conditions of workers. And he wanted women to have the same chance for education as men. He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. These subjects were normally taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered, "They shall do what they please". VOICE TWO: In eighteen thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided to move the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old. The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mister Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family, Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs. In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching. Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying. She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people. The dying friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died. Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school. Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard, Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her, except Geneva Medical College in the state of New York. She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned the reason: her acceptance was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students decide. The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors from Geneva Medical School in eighteen forty-nine. She was the only woman in the western world to have completed medical school training. Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon. She wanted to work in a hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she was a doctor. A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At the hospital, Doctor Blackwell accidentally got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon. Instead, she went to London to study at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But no patients came. So doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school. With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re-built house. The work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York. They treated only three hundred people in their hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented. News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke to groups in London about disease prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty-eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for women opened in Boston and Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease. Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering from ever happening. In eighteen seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay healthy. VOICE ONE: Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding wives who wanted to be considered as equals. Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's rights. VOICE TWO: Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen ten. She was eighty-nine years old. She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal was very important. Toward the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One wrote that doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on. (Theme) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Agricultural Fairs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 11, 2004 (MUSIC) Kid Rock Broadcast: October 11, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. It is October – time for some of America’s thousands of agricultural fairs. Today we visit several of these yearly events. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: All you need to enjoy yourself at an agricultural fair is a sense of history and a spirit of fun. Music immediately surrounds you as you start your visit. It might be country music. Or it might be rock and roll, rap or heavy metal. You can go and enjoy the music. Or you can try the rides. Children laugh and shout on the Ferris wheel ride. Older boys and girls are holding hands as they reach the top. VOICE TWO: You can see dogs guiding sheep together into herds. You can watch horses giving birth, or llamas jumping like great Olympic athletes. You can look at new home products or farm equipment. At some fairs, you can watch cars race – or crash into each other on purpose at events called demolition derbies. Or maybe you just want to walk around and watch other people. VOICE ONE: It is easy to find a fair to attend in the United States. Several thousand such events take place. Almost all fifty states have a fair. They usually are held in August, September or October. Some fairs last up to three weeks. Local counties also hold fairs. Or several counties will join to organize a fair. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Come with us now to the event known as America’s first fair. The York Fair in York, Pennsylvania, was first held in seventeen sixty-five. That was eleven years before the United States became a nation. Now that you are here, we hope you are hungry. Eating is one of the most important activities at a fair. People compete to prepare the best foods. Judges choose the best dishes, like pies and cakes. Then you can buy them. Over there are waffles, a kind of cake prepared in a special iron heater. The waffles have ice cream and fruit on top. Try some. Not too far from the waffles are custards, sweet puddings made of milk and eggs. And you can also buy cotton candy. This candy is made from colored liquid and lots of sugar. VOICE ONE: After you pay, the seller will hand you the candy on a paper stick. You try to chew it with your teeth. But cotton candy seems to disappear in your mouth. You are left with a mouthful of air and a very sweet taste. But you do not want to eat just sweet food. The York Fair also has salty pretzels. A pretzel is kind of bread shaped like a loose knot. And there are baked potatoes with all kinds of toppings. VOICE TWO: Like most such events, the York Fair is holding competitions for the best farm animals. More than ten thousand animals compete for awards at the nation’s biggest fairs. Farmers whose animals win prizes can sell them for a lot of money. Young winners sometimes use the money to go to college. Many children and young people whose animals compete at state and country fairs belong to group called the Four-H Clubs of America. The term Four-H means head, heart, hands and health. Millions of young Americans take part in group activities. Many of them complete projects like raising and caring for a horse, cow or other animal. Some of the animals that people see at the York Fair are not traditional farm animals. Sea lions perform, and a beekeeper brought almost two thousand of the insects to show and talk about. In the fair’s Horticultural Hall, he explained how the bees produce honey. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some competitions at the York Fair are funny. For example, there is judging for the strangest looking vegetable. This year, the award went to two carrots that grew together. They looked like a big orange pretzel. Many people commented about the winner of the competition for the biggest pumpkin. This orange fruit grows on a vine and is a traditional part of the Halloween celebration in late October. York’s winning pumpkin this year weighed four hundred fifty kilograms. York Fair’s animal races are also organized in the spirit of fun. You can watch pigs racing each other. Or, there are also duck races. But you may have to wait awhile to see who – or what – wins. This is because the competitors sometimes do not run in a straight line. VOICE TWO: One of the rides at the York Fair is a mechanical bull. This device looks like a male cow. It tries to throw off any rider who gets on. If riders can stay on for one and one-half minutes, they can take home a big toy animal. One of the most unusual shows at the fair is called “Masters of the Chainsaw.” In a performance lasting less than one hour, more than ten artists create sculptures from wood. They use only the sharp teeth of chainsaw cutting tools to produce these artworks. Like many other American fairs, the York event has some famous entertainers. This year, the star performers included Kid Rock, the country group Lonestar, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Clay Aiken. This young singer became famous on the “American Idol” television program. VOICE ONE: Entertainers are not the only well-known people who attend fairs. Officials and political candidates often visit fairs, especially during elections years. Both local and national candidates speak to the crowds, shake hands and kiss babies. For example, President Bush recently campaigned at the Farm Progress Show, a fair in Iowa. His Democratic opponent for president, Senator John Kerry, visited the Iowa State Fair. VOICE TWO: Food and animals are important parts of American agricultural fairs. But some people attend fairs especially to watch the car races. The DuQuoin State Fair is famous for such competition. The fair opened in nineteen twenty-three in southern Illinois. Exciting auto racing has been part of its events since its early days. At first, the racers competed on a track of one point three kilometers. People watched from a seating area made of wood. At the end of World War Two, building began on a track of more than one and one half kilometers. A new area for people to sit in also was added. VOICE ONE: The organizers of the famous Indianapolis Five Hundred Mile Race recognized DuQuoin’s possibilities for major racing. By nineteen forty-eight, the American Automobile Association had awarded the DuQuoin track two national championship races. Today, people come from far away to watch the car races at the Illinois State Fair at DuQuoin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: American fairs follow some of the traditions of fairs held in Europe in the eighteenth century. But the International Association of Fairs and Expositions says fairs took place long before that. The association says these events were held more than two thousand five-hundred years ago. The Latin word feria, written f-e-r-i-a, means holy day. This may have been the root of the word fair. It meant a time when many people would gather for prayer. Some of the biggest fairs were in the ancient cities of Athens, Ninevah and Tyre. VOICE ONE: History played a big part in the recent New York State Fair. A Carriage Museum exhibited more than fifty vehicles pulled by horses. People acted the part of workers who made shoes for horses. Visitors saw a camp like the ones cowboys had in the eighteen-eighties in the American West. American Indians demonstrated traditional dances and food preparation. Visitors were invited to taste the food. At the New York State Fair, like other American agricultural fairs, there was no reason why anyone should go home hungry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com And listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. It is October – time for some of America’s thousands of agricultural fairs. Today we visit several of these yearly events. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: All you need to enjoy yourself at an agricultural fair is a sense of history and a spirit of fun. Music immediately surrounds you as you start your visit. It might be country music. Or it might be rock and roll, rap or heavy metal. You can go and enjoy the music. Or you can try the rides. Children laugh and shout on the Ferris wheel ride. Older boys and girls are holding hands as they reach the top. VOICE TWO: You can see dogs guiding sheep together into herds. You can watch horses giving birth, or llamas jumping like great Olympic athletes. You can look at new home products or farm equipment. At some fairs, you can watch cars race – or crash into each other on purpose at events called demolition derbies. Or maybe you just want to walk around and watch other people. VOICE ONE: It is easy to find a fair to attend in the United States. Several thousand such events take place. Almost all fifty states have a fair. They usually are held in August, September or October. Some fairs last up to three weeks. Local counties also hold fairs. Or several counties will join to organize a fair. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Come with us now to the event known as America’s first fair. The York Fair in York, Pennsylvania, was first held in seventeen sixty-five. That was eleven years before the United States became a nation. Now that you are here, we hope you are hungry. Eating is one of the most important activities at a fair. People compete to prepare the best foods. Judges choose the best dishes, like pies and cakes. Then you can buy them. Over there are waffles, a kind of cake prepared in a special iron heater. The waffles have ice cream and fruit on top. Try some. Not too far from the waffles are custards, sweet puddings made of milk and eggs. And you can also buy cotton candy. This candy is made from colored liquid and lots of sugar. VOICE ONE: After you pay, the seller will hand you the candy on a paper stick. You try to chew it with your teeth. But cotton candy seems to disappear in your mouth. You are left with a mouthful of air and a very sweet taste. But you do not want to eat just sweet food. The York Fair also has salty pretzels. A pretzel is kind of bread shaped like a loose knot. And there are baked potatoes with all kinds of toppings. VOICE TWO: Like most such events, the York Fair is holding competitions for the best farm animals. More than ten thousand animals compete for awards at the nation’s biggest fairs. Farmers whose animals win prizes can sell them for a lot of money. Young winners sometimes use the money to go to college. Many children and young people whose animals compete at state and country fairs belong to group called the Four-H Clubs of America. The term Four-H means head, heart, hands and health. Millions of young Americans take part in group activities. Many of them complete projects like raising and caring for a horse, cow or other animal. Some of the animals that people see at the York Fair are not traditional farm animals. Sea lions perform, and a beekeeper brought almost two thousand of the insects to show and talk about. In the fair’s Horticultural Hall, he explained how the bees produce honey. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some competitions at the York Fair are funny. For example, there is judging for the strangest looking vegetable. This year, the award went to two carrots that grew together. They looked like a big orange pretzel. Many people commented about the winner of the competition for the biggest pumpkin. This orange fruit grows on a vine and is a traditional part of the Halloween celebration in late October. York’s winning pumpkin this year weighed four hundred fifty kilograms. York Fair’s animal races are also organized in the spirit of fun. You can watch pigs racing each other. Or, there are also duck races. But you may have to wait awhile to see who – or what – wins. This is because the competitors sometimes do not run in a straight line. VOICE TWO: One of the rides at the York Fair is a mechanical bull. This device looks like a male cow. It tries to throw off any rider who gets on. If riders can stay on for one and one-half minutes, they can take home a big toy animal. One of the most unusual shows at the fair is called “Masters of the Chainsaw.” In a performance lasting less than one hour, more than ten artists create sculptures from wood. They use only the sharp teeth of chainsaw cutting tools to produce these artworks. Like many other American fairs, the York event has some famous entertainers. This year, the star performers included Kid Rock, the country group Lonestar, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Clay Aiken. This young singer became famous on the “American Idol” television program. VOICE ONE: Entertainers are not the only well-known people who attend fairs. Officials and political candidates often visit fairs, especially during elections years. Both local and national candidates speak to the crowds, shake hands and kiss babies. For example, President Bush recently campaigned at the Farm Progress Show, a fair in Iowa. His Democratic opponent for president, Senator John Kerry, visited the Iowa State Fair. VOICE TWO: Food and animals are important parts of American agricultural fairs. But some people attend fairs especially to watch the car races. The DuQuoin State Fair is famous for such competition. The fair opened in nineteen twenty-three in southern Illinois. Exciting auto racing has been part of its events since its early days. At first, the racers competed on a track of one point three kilometers. People watched from a seating area made of wood. At the end of World War Two, building began on a track of more than one and one half kilometers. A new area for people to sit in also was added. VOICE ONE: The organizers of the famous Indianapolis Five Hundred Mile Race recognized DuQuoin’s possibilities for major racing. By nineteen forty-eight, the American Automobile Association had awarded the DuQuoin track two national championship races. Today, people come from far away to watch the car races at the Illinois State Fair at DuQuoin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: American fairs follow some of the traditions of fairs held in Europe in the eighteenth century. But the International Association of Fairs and Expositions says fairs took place long before that. The association says these events were held more than two thousand five-hundred years ago. The Latin word feria, written f-e-r-i-a, means holy day. This may have been the root of the word fair. It meant a time when many people would gather for prayer. Some of the biggest fairs were in the ancient cities of Athens, Ninevah and Tyre. VOICE ONE: History played a big part in the recent New York State Fair. A Carriage Museum exhibited more than fifty vehicles pulled by horses. People acted the part of workers who made shoes for horses. Visitors saw a camp like the ones cowboys had in the eighteen-eighties in the American West. American Indians demonstrated traditional dances and food preparation. Visitors were invited to taste the food. At the New York State Fair, like other American agricultural fairs, there was no reason why anyone should go home hungry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com And listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Polio Campaign in Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 11, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Health workers in West and Central Africa have been carrying out a campaign to protect eighty million children from polio. The vaccination effort involves twenty-three countries. Organizers call it "the single-largest public health campaign in history." The workers are going house to house. They want to make sure every child below the age of five is vaccinated. The first part of the campaign began Friday and continues through Tuesday. The polio vaccine is taken by mouth. The first child to receive the drops of liquid was Zainab Ibrahim Shekaru. She is the one-year-old daughter of the governor of Kano state in Nigeria. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave the baby the vaccine at a ceremony in Kano on October second. Other African leaders also attended. Mister Obasanjo directed all Nigerians to stay at home this past Saturday morning so children could be immunized. Polio is caused by a virus. The virus is spread through body fluids and also water or food handled by an infected person. People who get the disease often lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Some die from polio. There is no cure. But polio can be prevented. To work best, the vaccine is given to children several times during their first few years of life. Since two thousand three, there have been new cases in twelve African countries that had been free of polio. Polio began to spread in Africa last year after Kano and other states in northern Nigeria stopped immunization efforts. Islamic religious leaders had claimed that the vaccine was harmful. But the leaders have declared the current supplies to be safe. The next National Immunization Days are set from November eighteenth to the twenty-second. Children will also have the chance to receive vitamin A, which is important for good health. The campaign is led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This program includes the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organization. Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also involved. World health officials set a goal to end polio by two thousand five. The W.H.O. counted seven hundred fifty-four new cases in the world this year through the end of September. Three-fourths were in Nigeria. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: October 11, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Health workers in West and Central Africa have been carrying out a campaign to protect eighty million children from polio. The vaccination effort involves twenty-three countries. Organizers call it "the single-largest public health campaign in history." The workers are going house to house. They want to make sure every child below the age of five is vaccinated. The first part of the campaign began Friday and continues through Tuesday. The polio vaccine is taken by mouth. The first child to receive the drops of liquid was Zainab Ibrahim Shekaru. She is the one-year-old daughter of the governor of Kano state in Nigeria. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave the baby the vaccine at a ceremony in Kano on October second. Other African leaders also attended. Mister Obasanjo directed all Nigerians to stay at home this past Saturday morning so children could be immunized. Polio is caused by a virus. The virus is spread through body fluids and also water or food handled by an infected person. People who get the disease often lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Some die from polio. There is no cure. But polio can be prevented. To work best, the vaccine is given to children several times during their first few years of life. Since two thousand three, there have been new cases in twelve African countries that had been free of polio. Polio began to spread in Africa last year after Kano and other states in northern Nigeria stopped immunization efforts. Islamic religious leaders had claimed that the vaccine was harmful. But the leaders have declared the current supplies to be safe. The next National Immunization Days are set from November eighteenth to the twenty-second. Children will also have the chance to receive vitamin A, which is important for good health. The campaign is led by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. This program includes the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organization. Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also involved. World health officials set a goal to end polio by two thousand five. The W.H.O. counted seven hundred fifty-four new cases in the world this year through the end of September. Three-fourths were in Nigeria. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Nobel Prizes in Science  / Americans face limited flu vaccine / Melting ice in Antarctica / How to build a supercomputer?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 12, 2004 (MUSIC) Richard Axel Broadcast: October 12, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: the Nobel Prize winners for science…melting ice in Antarctica…and more about an award-winning supercomputer. VOICE ONE: But first, news about a vaccine to protect against the disease influenza… (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States will have limited supplies of vaccine to prevent influenza this winter. As a result, American officials are urging healthy adults to delay getting the vaccine or not get one at all this flu season. The officials say the limited supplies should go first to people most at risk from influenza. High-risk groups include children age six to twenty-three months and anyone sixty-five years of age and older. They also include pregnant women and people with long-term medical conditions. Officials say health workers and persons caring for babies also need flu vaccine injections. VOICE TWO: There will be no flu vaccine this year from a company that provides half the supply used in the United States. The company, Chiron, makes its vaccine in Liverpool, England. Last week, British officials suspended its production permit for three months. American health officials say the British action was unexpected. Chiron had announced in September that some of its flu vaccine failed company inspections for purity. But Chiron also said it expected to be able to release its supplies by early October. Now the company says it will not be able to release any of its product this flu season. VOICE ONE: Chicken eggs are used in the process to make flu vaccine. Chiron is one of two companies that supply the vaccine used in flu shots in the United States. There have been limited supplies before, but nothing like this. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a long-term solution is needed. Doctor Julie Gerberding says this would end the situation of an undependable supply from year to year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Health experts in the United States are criticizing the Food and Drug Administration after the worldwide withdrawal of a popular medicine. The criticism comes five years after the F.D.A. approved the drug Vioxx for treating pain. The maker of Vioxx, Merck and Company, announced last month that it has stopped selling the drug. Merck said a long-term study suggested that people who used Vioxx had an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The drug company paid for the study itself. Two thousand six hundred people were observed for eighteen months. Merck organized the study to find out if Vioxx was helpful in preventing cancer growths in the colon. But, the study discovered something else. It found that heart attacks were almost two times as common among Vioxx users than among those who did not take the drug. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration approved Vioxx in nineteen-ninety-nine. The following year, Merck gave the federal agency results of a study on the drug’s safety. It found that patients taking Vioxx had an increased risk of health problems, such as heart attacks and strokes. Two years ago, the F. D. A. ordered Merck to include warnings with the drug. Vioxx is among a group of drugs called Cox-Two non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. They grew in popularity among pain sufferers because they are supposed to cause fewer stomach problems than other medicines. Worldwide sales of Vioxx were worth two thousand five-hundred million dollars last year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: New studies show that glaciers on two sides of Antarctica are getting thinner and moving faster. The changes might mean that seawater levels could continually rise for hundreds of years. Three teams of investigators carried out separate studies of the Antarctic glaciers. The teams used satellites and airplanes to observe the thick ice covering the continent. One area studied is along the Antarctic Peninsula, just south of the Atlantic Ocean. The other area faces the Pacific Ocean. It involves the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Amundsen Sea. In each place, floating ice formations called ice shelves were connected to the coastline. Or, they were connected to the sea bottom. The ice shelves were in front of the glaciers. VOICE ONE: The studies examined what happened after these ice shelves broke up. Scientists report that the shelves seemingly released large pieces of inland ice. The freed ice is now flowing faster toward the coast. There it will melt and raise the sea level. The scientists say warming conditions on Antarctica caused some of the changes. Yet not all areas of the continent are getting warmer. Some areas are cooling. Still, the studies show that enough coastal air and waters have warmed to produce the changed conditions. Some of the scientists say the sea level will rise about six-tenths of a meter by two thousand one hundred. That is within estimates made by a worldwide committee studying the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. But, that amount already threatens the future of areas below sea level. VOICE TWO: Theodore Scambos of the University of Colorado says he believes Antarctica reacts fast to climate warming. Temperatures there have risen as much as two-point-five degrees Celsius in the past sixty years. That is said to be one of the fastest rates in the world. Mister Scambos was among the research scientists from American universities who studied the Antarctic glaciers. They say more warming could cause additional ice to fall into the sea. Scientists from the American space agency took part in the studies. So did researchers from the Institute of Antarctica in Argentina and the Center of Scientific Studies in Chile. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced winners of the Nobel Prizes for science last week. This year, three Americans will share the Nobel Prize for Physics. David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczak are being recognized for their studies of quarks, the smallest building blocks of nature. Three scientists will share the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. They are Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, both of Israel, and American Irwin Rose. The Royal Swedish Academy says the three men provided important findings about the normal process of protein destruction in cells. VOICE TWO: The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine will be given to two Americans. Richard Axel and Linda Buck studied the sense of smell. They were recognized for their discovery of a large family of genes and receptors in the nose that are linked to the genes. The two Americans found that three percent of all human genes are responsible for the sense of smell. Their work helped explained how animals recognize and remember about ten thousand different smells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Supercomputers are extremely powerful. They are mostly for scientific and engineering work. If you ever decide to build a supercomputer, you can get some ideas from how it was done at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Virginia Tech students, teachers, and others linked together one thousand one hundred personal computers. They used the Macintosh G-five made by Apple Computer. This year, they rebuilt the machine with a new server computer from Apple, the Xserve G-five. This is expected to make the supercomputer even stronger. It was already the most powerful computer at any university, and the third most powerful in the world. In all, almost two hundred people worked to build the supercomputer last year at the school in Blacksburg, Virginia. Team members worked seven days a week and up to twenty hours a day. VOICE TWO: The team designed and built the supercomputer in three months. They named it System X. It cost a little more than five million dollars to build. Other top supercomputers had cost at least ten times more. The team members tested the computer each time they finished part of it. On September twenty-third, two thousand-three, they turned on the complete system for the first time. They learned that their new computer could solve ten million million mathematical problems every second. Physicists at Virginia Tech are using System X to design new electronic systems controlled by single atoms. Chemists and biologists use System X in studies of molecules. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Paul Thompson, Jeri Watson, Caty Weaver and Avi Arditti. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about Science in Special English on VOA. VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: the Nobel Prize winners for science…melting ice in Antarctica…and more about an award-winning supercomputer. VOICE ONE: But first, news about a vaccine to protect against the disease influenza… (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States will have limited supplies of vaccine to prevent influenza this winter. As a result, American officials are urging healthy adults to delay getting the vaccine or not get one at all this flu season. The officials say the limited supplies should go first to people most at risk from influenza. High-risk groups include children age six to twenty-three months and anyone sixty-five years of age and older. They also include pregnant women and people with long-term medical conditions. Officials say health workers and persons caring for babies also need flu vaccine injections. VOICE TWO: There will be no flu vaccine this year from a company that provides half the supply used in the United States. The company, Chiron, makes its vaccine in Liverpool, England. Last week, British officials suspended its production permit for three months. American health officials say the British action was unexpected. Chiron had announced in September that some of its flu vaccine failed company inspections for purity. But Chiron also said it expected to be able to release its supplies by early October. Now the company says it will not be able to release any of its product this flu season. VOICE ONE: Chicken eggs are used in the process to make flu vaccine. Chiron is one of two companies that supply the vaccine used in flu shots in the United States. There have been limited supplies before, but nothing like this. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a long-term solution is needed. Doctor Julie Gerberding says this would end the situation of an undependable supply from year to year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Health experts in the United States are criticizing the Food and Drug Administration after the worldwide withdrawal of a popular medicine. The criticism comes five years after the F.D.A. approved the drug Vioxx for treating pain. The maker of Vioxx, Merck and Company, announced last month that it has stopped selling the drug. Merck said a long-term study suggested that people who used Vioxx had an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The drug company paid for the study itself. Two thousand six hundred people were observed for eighteen months. Merck organized the study to find out if Vioxx was helpful in preventing cancer growths in the colon. But, the study discovered something else. It found that heart attacks were almost two times as common among Vioxx users than among those who did not take the drug. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration approved Vioxx in nineteen-ninety-nine. The following year, Merck gave the federal agency results of a study on the drug’s safety. It found that patients taking Vioxx had an increased risk of health problems, such as heart attacks and strokes. Two years ago, the F. D. A. ordered Merck to include warnings with the drug. Vioxx is among a group of drugs called Cox-Two non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. They grew in popularity among pain sufferers because they are supposed to cause fewer stomach problems than other medicines. Worldwide sales of Vioxx were worth two thousand five-hundred million dollars last year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: New studies show that glaciers on two sides of Antarctica are getting thinner and moving faster. The changes might mean that seawater levels could continually rise for hundreds of years. Three teams of investigators carried out separate studies of the Antarctic glaciers. The teams used satellites and airplanes to observe the thick ice covering the continent. One area studied is along the Antarctic Peninsula, just south of the Atlantic Ocean. The other area faces the Pacific Ocean. It involves the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Amundsen Sea. In each place, floating ice formations called ice shelves were connected to the coastline. Or, they were connected to the sea bottom. The ice shelves were in front of the glaciers. VOICE ONE: The studies examined what happened after these ice shelves broke up. Scientists report that the shelves seemingly released large pieces of inland ice. The freed ice is now flowing faster toward the coast. There it will melt and raise the sea level. The scientists say warming conditions on Antarctica caused some of the changes. Yet not all areas of the continent are getting warmer. Some areas are cooling. Still, the studies show that enough coastal air and waters have warmed to produce the changed conditions. Some of the scientists say the sea level will rise about six-tenths of a meter by two thousand one hundred. That is within estimates made by a worldwide committee studying the warming of Earth’s atmosphere. But, that amount already threatens the future of areas below sea level. VOICE TWO: Theodore Scambos of the University of Colorado says he believes Antarctica reacts fast to climate warming. Temperatures there have risen as much as two-point-five degrees Celsius in the past sixty years. That is said to be one of the fastest rates in the world. Mister Scambos was among the research scientists from American universities who studied the Antarctic glaciers. They say more warming could cause additional ice to fall into the sea. Scientists from the American space agency took part in the studies. So did researchers from the Institute of Antarctica in Argentina and the Center of Scientific Studies in Chile. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced winners of the Nobel Prizes for science last week. This year, three Americans will share the Nobel Prize for Physics. David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczak are being recognized for their studies of quarks, the smallest building blocks of nature. Three scientists will share the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. They are Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, both of Israel, and American Irwin Rose. The Royal Swedish Academy says the three men provided important findings about the normal process of protein destruction in cells. VOICE TWO: The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine will be given to two Americans. Richard Axel and Linda Buck studied the sense of smell. They were recognized for their discovery of a large family of genes and receptors in the nose that are linked to the genes. The two Americans found that three percent of all human genes are responsible for the sense of smell. Their work helped explained how animals recognize and remember about ten thousand different smells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Supercomputers are extremely powerful. They are mostly for scientific and engineering work. If you ever decide to build a supercomputer, you can get some ideas from how it was done at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Virginia Tech students, teachers, and others linked together one thousand one hundred personal computers. They used the Macintosh G-five made by Apple Computer. This year, they rebuilt the machine with a new server computer from Apple, the Xserve G-five. This is expected to make the supercomputer even stronger. It was already the most powerful computer at any university, and the third most powerful in the world. In all, almost two hundred people worked to build the supercomputer last year at the school in Blacksburg, Virginia. Team members worked seven days a week and up to twenty hours a day. VOICE TWO: The team designed and built the supercomputer in three months. They named it System X. It cost a little more than five million dollars to build. Other top supercomputers had cost at least ten times more. The team members tested the computer each time they finished part of it. On September twenty-third, two thousand-three, they turned on the complete system for the first time. They learned that their new computer could solve ten million million mathematical problems every second. Physicists at Virginia Tech are using System X to design new electronic systems controlled by single atoms. Chemists and biologists use System X in studies of molecules. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Paul Thompson, Jeri Watson, Caty Weaver and Avi Arditti. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about Science in Special English on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Thai Agriculture Minister Dismissed Over Bird Flu
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 12, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Thailand and its chicken industry continue to deal with the effects from the spread of bird influenza. Last week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra replaced his agriculture minister. The dismissal followed an emergency meeting called by the prime minister at the end of September. Mister Thaksin threatened to dismiss several ministers if the avian influenza problem is not controlled by the end of October. The World Health Organization, however, noted that an outbreak in Mexico in nineteen ninety-two took three years to control completely. Thai officials admitted early this year that they had not done enough to control the outbreak in their country. Cases of bird flu have been reported in almost half the provinces in Thailand. The most recent report to the World Organization for Animal Health said forty-six more farms reported cases in the last week of September. At least twenty-five thousand birds were destroyed. Not only chickens have been affected, but also ducks and other birds. The World Health Organization said a nine-year-old girl died of avian influenza on October third. Her death was the eleventh this year caused by the form of virus called h-five-n-one. Thai officials recently announced a case in which they said one person had probably infected another with avian flu. However, that possibility was not immediately confirmed. Avian influenza has meant heavy economic losses for Thai agriculture. Last year, Thailand was the biggest exporter of chicken products in Asia. It was the fourth largest exporter in the world. But the United States Agriculture Department says it expects Thai chicken exports to fall by sixty percent this year. The department estimates Thailand will export about two hundred thousand metric tons. On September fifteenth, the European Union extended a ban on chicken, eggs and live birds from Thailand and nine other Asian countries. The ban will stay in effect at least until the end of March. The Thai government is trying to get farmers to raise chickens in buildings, not in open areas where wild birds could infect them. Officials are also urging people to report any suspected cases of bird flu, and to wear protection if they ever touch dead birds. People are being told to put dead birds in plastic bags and give them to health or agricultural officials. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: October 12, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Thailand and its chicken industry continue to deal with the effects from the spread of bird influenza. Last week, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra replaced his agriculture minister. The dismissal followed an emergency meeting called by the prime minister at the end of September. Mister Thaksin threatened to dismiss several ministers if the avian influenza problem is not controlled by the end of October. The World Health Organization, however, noted that an outbreak in Mexico in nineteen ninety-two took three years to control completely. Thai officials admitted early this year that they had not done enough to control the outbreak in their country. Cases of bird flu have been reported in almost half the provinces in Thailand. The most recent report to the World Organization for Animal Health said forty-six more farms reported cases in the last week of September. At least twenty-five thousand birds were destroyed. Not only chickens have been affected, but also ducks and other birds. The World Health Organization said a nine-year-old girl died of avian influenza on October third. Her death was the eleventh this year caused by the form of virus called h-five-n-one. Thai officials recently announced a case in which they said one person had probably infected another with avian flu. However, that possibility was not immediately confirmed. Avian influenza has meant heavy economic losses for Thai agriculture. Last year, Thailand was the biggest exporter of chicken products in Asia. It was the fourth largest exporter in the world. But the United States Agriculture Department says it expects Thai chicken exports to fall by sixty percent this year. The department estimates Thailand will export about two hundred thousand metric tons. On September fifteenth, the European Union extended a ban on chicken, eggs and live birds from Thailand and nine other Asian countries. The ban will stay in effect at least until the end of March. The Thai government is trying to get farmers to raise chickens in buildings, not in open areas where wild birds could infect them. Officials are also urging people to report any suspected cases of bird flu, and to wear protection if they ever touch dead birds. People are being told to put dead birds in plastic bags and give them to health or agricultural officials. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Mount Saint Helens
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 13, 2004 (MUSIC) The dome inside the crater of Mount Saint Helens Broadcast: October 13, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. On May eighteenth, nineteen eighty, a volcano exploded in the northwestern state of Washington. It killed fifty-seven people and destroyed huge areas of forest. Recently, that volcano has become active again. Today, we tell about the famous Mount Saint Helens volcano. Mount Saint Helens erupts in October of 2004 VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. On May eighteenth, nineteen eighty, a volcano exploded in the northwestern state of Washington. It killed fifty-seven people and destroyed huge areas of forest. Recently, that volcano has become active again. Today, we tell about the famous Mount Saint Helens volcano. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Native American Indians in the state of Washington still call Mount Saint Helens by its Indian name -- Loowit. It means “Lady of Fire.” In the past two weeks, this famous “Lady of Fire” has been waking up after twenty-four years of sleep. The last major explosion of Mount Saint Helens took place in nineteen eighty. The volcano expelled fire, rock and volcanic gas with a force of four hundred eighty kilometers an hour. That explosion was three hundred fifty times more powerful than the explosions of the first nuclear bombs. VOICE TWO: Recent earthquakes near Mount Saint Helens were a sure sign that something was happening deep under the ground. Scientists also knew there is a huge area of melted rock deep underneath the mountain. This liquid rock creates pressure. The pressure can cause more earthquakes. When thousands of small earthquakes began to happen, scientists knew Mount Saint Helens was becoming active once again. Experts began to closely observe the huge volcano. They placed scientific instruments in many areas on the mountain. These observations are still taking place twenty-four hours a day. Scientists said the evidence showed a seventy percent chance the volcano would do something. They were not sure exactly what it would do. But they were sure it would not be anything like the huge explosion in nineteen eighty. VOICE ONE: Volcano experts first observed increased underground activity near the mountain on September twenty-third. The experts said this activity continued to increase. This evidence led the experts to believe it might produce a volcanic event. Scientists observed more underground activity in the next few days. Then the volcano expelled steam and ash thousands of meters into the air. Experts declared the volcano could once again be a danger. At first, they said the volcano was mostly a danger to aircraft. They said the ash could damage an aircraft’s engines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Mount Saint Helens area is a huge National Park. Thousands of people visit each year to look at the large volcano and to learn about the violent explosion in nineteen eighty. When there is no danger, visitors can even ask for a permit to climb Mount Saint Helens. They can walk near the top and see down into the area called the crater. The recent underground activity forced park officials to close the visitor’s center closest to the volcano. The Johnson Ridge Observatory is only eight kilometers from the mountain. Park officials told visitors to leave the area immediately. The volcano expelled large amounts of steam for about thirty minutes on Monday, October fourth. Scientists said it was mostly water that had been super-heated by the liquid rock far below. The next day, however, the volcano once again began expelling steam and ash several thousand meters into the air. Winds pushed the steam and ash toward the northeast part of the state. When the ash came down, it made driving a car difficult in some areas. VOICE ONE: Again, scientists said evidence gathered from the volcano showed more explosions were possible. Experts also warned that explosions of steam and ash were not the only concerns. Extreme heat near the top of the volcano could melt the huge formations of ice on the mountain. Some areas of ice are more than one hundred eighty meters deep. Experts said extreme heat could melt the ice and start huge floods and mudslides down the mountain. By last Tuesday night, Mount Saint Helens had stopped most activity. Instruments that measured underground activity showed very low levels. The earthquakes had almost stopped. Tom Pierson is a scientist with the United States Geological Survey. Mister Pierson said most evidence showed the possibility of more activity. However he says there is still a good chance the volcano might go back to sleep. Other experts said all volcanoes go through periods of activity and rest. This could go on for days, weeks or even months. Officials lowered the threat level by the end of last week. VOICE TWO: By Monday, October eleventh, Mount Saint Helens was still producing steam. Cool weather made the steam look more threatening than it was. Research teams were able to measure the heat from near the top of the volcano. The highest surface temperatures were between two hundred and three hundred degrees Celsius. Experts say Mount Saint Helens could still explode if there were an increase in the amount of underground activity. They say the explosion could take place suddenly or with very little warning. Experts say it is extremely difficult to tell what a volcano will do. For example, strong earthquakes and other underground activity near the volcano produced good evidence. Earthquakes under Mount Saint Helens were measured at about one each minute for long periods last week. These were very small earthquakes. Most measured only about one on the Richter scale. But volcano experts cannot always tell what this evidence means. They cannot tell when an earthquake will grow stronger. And they cannot always tell what the hot liquid rock called magma is going to do. It is also difficult to measure the pressure created by the magma deep inside the volcano. Most often scientists use all the information they can gather and try to make a good guess. Above all, they try to provide the best warnings when they believe the volcano may become a threat. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Around the world there are more than six hundred active volcanoes – those that have exploded within the past two hundred years. There are more than fifty active volcanoes in the United States. The most active ones are in the states of Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. There are twelve major volcanoes in an area of mountains called the Cascade Range. These are in northern California, Oregon and Washington. Volcanoes produce many different effects that can kill people and destroy property. Extremely large explosions can threaten people and property hundreds of kilometers away. Volcanoes can also affect the weather on Earth. VOICE TWO: Mount Saint Helens is just one of a large number of volcanoes that form a circle around the Pacific Ocean. This circle is called the Ring of Fire. Beginning in Japan, the ring of volcanoes extends south through the Philippines and Indonesia to New Zealand. Across the Pacific, the ring begins again at the southern end of South America and extends north along the Pacific Coast to Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and California. The ring stretches up the American Pacific Coast to Alaska and then across to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The Ring of Fire includes about three-fourths of the world’s volcanoes. Many of them have a tragic history of death and destruction. For example, in nineteen eighty-five, more than twenty-five thousand peopled died as a result of the explosion of Mount Ruiz in Colombia. That volcano caused huge mudslides that covered many villages and towns. In Mexico, millions of tons of ash from El Chichon volcano killed more than two thousand people in nineteen eighty-two. VOICE ONE: Recently, an earthquake in the central part of California measured six on the Richter scale. Scientists say that earthquake and volcanic activity at Mount Saint Helens are not linked. However, they say the two events have a common cause. The land mass deep under the Pacific Ocean and the land mass of the Pacific coast are moving toward each other. These land masses float on liquid rock deep within the Earth. This movement is called plate tectonics. It causes earthquakes. It also builds mountains and causes liquid rock deep in the earth to flow near the surface and form volcanoes. As long as these huge land masses continue to move, people will continue to observe and study earthquakes. And they will study volcanoes like Loowit -- the Lady of Fire -- Mount Saint Helens. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Native American Indians in the state of Washington still call Mount Saint Helens by its Indian name -- Loowit. It means “Lady of Fire.” In the past two weeks, this famous “Lady of Fire” has been waking up after twenty-four years of sleep. The last major explosion of Mount Saint Helens took place in nineteen eighty. The volcano expelled fire, rock and volcanic gas with a force of four hundred eighty kilometers an hour. That explosion was three hundred fifty times more powerful than the explosions of the first nuclear bombs. VOICE TWO: Recent earthquakes near Mount Saint Helens were a sure sign that something was happening deep under the ground. Scientists also knew there is a huge area of melted rock deep underneath the mountain. This liquid rock creates pressure. The pressure can cause more earthquakes. When thousands of small earthquakes began to happen, scientists knew Mount Saint Helens was becoming active once again. Experts began to closely observe the huge volcano. They placed scientific instruments in many areas on the mountain. These observations are still taking place twenty-four hours a day. Scientists said the evidence showed a seventy percent chance the volcano would do something. They were not sure exactly what it would do. But they were sure it would not be anything like the huge explosion in nineteen eighty. VOICE ONE: Volcano experts first observed increased underground activity near the mountain on September twenty-third. The experts said this activity continued to increase. This evidence led the experts to believe it might produce a volcanic event. Scientists observed more underground activity in the next few days. Then the volcano expelled steam and ash thousands of meters into the air. Experts declared the volcano could once again be a danger. At first, they said the volcano was mostly a danger to aircraft. They said the ash could damage an aircraft’s engines. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Mount Saint Helens area is a huge National Park. Thousands of people visit each year to look at the large volcano and to learn about the violent explosion in nineteen eighty. When there is no danger, visitors can even ask for a permit to climb Mount Saint Helens. They can walk near the top and see down into the area called the crater. The recent underground activity forced park officials to close the visitor’s center closest to the volcano. The Johnson Ridge Observatory is only eight kilometers from the mountain. Park officials told visitors to leave the area immediately. The volcano expelled large amounts of steam for about thirty minutes on Monday, October fourth. Scientists said it was mostly water that had been super-heated by the liquid rock far below. The next day, however, the volcano once again began expelling steam and ash several thousand meters into the air. Winds pushed the steam and ash toward the northeast part of the state. When the ash came down, it made driving a car difficult in some areas. VOICE ONE: Again, scientists said evidence gathered from the volcano showed more explosions were possible. Experts also warned that explosions of steam and ash were not the only concerns. Extreme heat near the top of the volcano could melt the huge formations of ice on the mountain. Some areas of ice are more than one hundred eighty meters deep. Experts said extreme heat could melt the ice and start huge floods and mudslides down the mountain. By last Tuesday night, Mount Saint Helens had stopped most activity. Instruments that measured underground activity showed very low levels. The earthquakes had almost stopped. Tom Pierson is a scientist with the United States Geological Survey. Mister Pierson said most evidence showed the possibility of more activity. However he says there is still a good chance the volcano might go back to sleep. Other experts said all volcanoes go through periods of activity and rest. This could go on for days, weeks or even months. Officials lowered the threat level by the end of last week. VOICE TWO: By Monday, October eleventh, Mount Saint Helens was still producing steam. Cool weather made the steam look more threatening than it was. Research teams were able to measure the heat from near the top of the volcano. The highest surface temperatures were between two hundred and three hundred degrees Celsius. Experts say Mount Saint Helens could still explode if there were an increase in the amount of underground activity. They say the explosion could take place suddenly or with very little warning. Experts say it is extremely difficult to tell what a volcano will do. For example, strong earthquakes and other underground activity near the volcano produced good evidence. Earthquakes under Mount Saint Helens were measured at about one each minute for long periods last week. These were very small earthquakes. Most measured only about one on the Richter scale. But volcano experts cannot always tell what this evidence means. They cannot tell when an earthquake will grow stronger. And they cannot always tell what the hot liquid rock called magma is going to do. It is also difficult to measure the pressure created by the magma deep inside the volcano. Most often scientists use all the information they can gather and try to make a good guess. Above all, they try to provide the best warnings when they believe the volcano may become a threat. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Around the world there are more than six hundred active volcanoes – those that have exploded within the past two hundred years. There are more than fifty active volcanoes in the United States. The most active ones are in the states of Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. There are twelve major volcanoes in an area of mountains called the Cascade Range. These are in northern California, Oregon and Washington. Volcanoes produce many different effects that can kill people and destroy property. Extremely large explosions can threaten people and property hundreds of kilometers away. Volcanoes can also affect the weather on Earth. VOICE TWO: Mount Saint Helens is just one of a large number of volcanoes that form a circle around the Pacific Ocean. This circle is called the Ring of Fire. Beginning in Japan, the ring of volcanoes extends south through the Philippines and Indonesia to New Zealand. Across the Pacific, the ring begins again at the southern end of South America and extends north along the Pacific Coast to Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and California. The ring stretches up the American Pacific Coast to Alaska and then across to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The Ring of Fire includes about three-fourths of the world’s volcanoes. Many of them have a tragic history of death and destruction. For example, in nineteen eighty-five, more than twenty-five thousand peopled died as a result of the explosion of Mount Ruiz in Colombia. That volcano caused huge mudslides that covered many villages and towns. In Mexico, millions of tons of ash from El Chichon volcano killed more than two thousand people in nineteen eighty-two. VOICE ONE: Recently, an earthquake in the central part of California measured six on the Richter scale. Scientists say that earthquake and volcanic activity at Mount Saint Helens are not linked. However, they say the two events have a common cause. The land mass deep under the Pacific Ocean and the land mass of the Pacific coast are moving toward each other. These land masses float on liquid rock deep within the Earth. This movement is called plate tectonics. It causes earthquakes. It also builds mountains and causes liquid rock deep in the earth to flow near the surface and form volcanoes. As long as these huge land masses continue to move, people will continue to observe and study earthquakes. And they will study volcanoes like Loowit -- the Lady of Fire -- Mount Saint Helens. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT- Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Blood Clots
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 13, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers report more risks for older women who take the hormone replacement drugs estrogen and progestin. The researchers found that some women who take the hormones are at sharply higher risk for developing blockages in blood vessels in the legs and lungs. Hormone replacement drugs are designed to help ease problems among older women during menopause. This is when a woman’s body produces less of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Lower hormone levels in menopause cause some women to feel hot, experience mood changes, and suffer bone loss. To help with these problems, some women have been taking estrogen or estrogen with progestin. Earlier studies had suggested an increased risk of blood clots among women who took the hormones. But researchers did not know until now that some groups of women are at even greater risk. Researchers studied sixteen thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine years old. They found that the risk of blood clots for women who had taken the hormones was two times higher than for those who had not. The research showed that women over the age of seventy who took the hormones had more than seven times the risk. And the researchers found that being overweight also raises the danger of a blood clot among women who took the hormones. Normally, taking aspirin reduces the risk of blood clots by thinning the blood. But researchers found that aspirin did not help the women who were also taking the hormones. The latest findings come from a fifteen-year government study called the Women’s Health Initiative. For many years, health experts thought that the hormone drugs could help prevent heart disease, cancer and possibly mental illness in women. But many women stopped taking the drugs two years ago after a government study found that the hormones raised the risk of heart disease and some cancers. Experts say taking estrogen and progestin does reduce the risk of the bone loss disease, osteoporosis. The drugs have also been shown to lower the risk for colon cancer. However, American health officials advise women to take the smallest amount of hormones needed for the shortest possible time. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #84 - Franklin Pierce, Part 3 - Election of 1856
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 14, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: October 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of events during the presidency of Franklin Pierce. And we tell about the presidential election of eighteen-fifty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The situation in Kansas was the most difficult national problem of the Pierce Administration. The territory struggled with the issue of slavery. Pro-slavery settlers elected a representative to Congress. Then they won a majority of seats in the territorial legislature. An investigation found that people from the nearby state of Missouri had voted in the elections illegally. Yet the results were accepted. The new Kansas lawmakers did not like the territorial governor. They demanded that President Pierce dismiss him. Pierce agreed. VOICE TWO: Anti-slavery settlers in Kansas felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an extreme step. They formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. Their political group was known as the "Free State" Party. Party members wrote their own constitution and chose their own governor. VOICE ONE: President Pierce said the actions of the Free State Party seemed revolutionary. He warned against violence. He said if party members attacked any officials or property of the territory or the federal government, party leaders should be charged with treason. The president gave the pro-slavery governor of Kansas control of troops at two army bases in the territory. Many people feared that the governor would use the troops to arrest the leaders of the free state government. VOICE TWO: Fighting between the two sides almost began when a free state man was killed by a pro-slavery man. Free State settlers gathered in the town of Lawrence and organized a defense force. At the same time, hundreds of pro-slavery men crossed the border from Missouri. They planned to go to Lawrence and burn it to the ground. The pro-slavery governor and the Free State governor agreed to hold an emergency meeting. They negotiated a settlement, and the men on both sides went home. The truce did not last long. VOICE ONE: In the weeks that followed, a number of attempts were made to stop or arrest the leaders of the Free State government. Pro-slavery officials urged private citizens to help. Once again, hundreds of men -- including many from Missouri -- gathered in Kansas. Once again, their target was the town of Lawrence. This time, however, there was no truce. The pro-slavery mob attacked and burned several buildings. A number of people were killed. The violence might have ended quickly. But one of the men defending the town believed that the battle against the forces of slavery must continue. And he believed that God had chosen him to lead it. The man was John Brown. VOICE TWO: John Brown heard that five free state men had died in the attack on Lawrence. So he said five pro-slavery men must die in return. He led a group that seized and killed five people. The civil disorder in Kansas continued. Settlers were forced off their land. Houses were burned. More people were killed. The territory became known as "bleeding Kansas." VOICE ONE: It was clear that there were deep differences between the northern and southern American states. The differences involved their economies, their systems of labor, and their way of life. The civil disorder caused by these differences was the chief issue in the presidential election of eighteen-fifty-six. Three political parties offered candidates: the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Know-Nothings. The Whig Party did not offer a candidate. The party had gone out of existence by then. Its members had split over the question of slavery in the western territories. The split could not be healed. Most southern Whigs joined the Democratic Party. Most northern Whigs joined the Know-Nothing Party. VOICE TWO: The Know-Nothing Party began as a secret anti-immigrant organization. It feared that too many people from other countries were coming to live in the United States. Members did not want to admit that they belonged to the group. When asked, they said, "I know nothing." And that is how the organization got its name. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party was led by President Franklin Pierce. Pierce wanted to run for re-election. Many northern Democrats, however, objected to his support of the pro-slavery legislature in Kansas. Other Democrats did not think he was the strongest candidate. As a result, Pierce faced competition for the party's nomination. One opponent was Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas had great political ability. He also had many political enemies. He was the man most responsible for gaining congressional approval of the bill that opened Kansas to slavery. VOICE TWO: Pierce's other opponent for the Democratic nomination was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Buchanan was a northerner who would probably leave the south alone. "I am not friendly to the idea of slavery," he said. "but the rights of the south -- under our constitution -- should have as much protection as the rights of any other part of our Union. " VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party met in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the first time a national political convention was held that far west. Candidates needed two-thirds of the votes to win the nomination. After several days of voting, no candidate had received enough. So, in an effort to unite the party, Stephen Douglas offered to withdraw. James Buchanan got his votes and the nomination. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party was a new political party. Its members opposed slavery for either moral or economic reasons. Many Republicans were Abolitionists. They wanted to ban slavery everywhere in the United States. The majority of Republicans, however, were not Abolitionists. They had no interest in ending slave labor in the south. They simply did not want slavery to spread to other areas. The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia. For months, party members had spoken of just one man. He was John Fremont. Fremont had explored the American west. He had been a senator from California. He was young and exciting. Republicans thought he was the right man to lead their young and exciting party. VOICE ONE: The Know-Nothing Party had a divided nominating convention. Northern and southern members agreed on policies that denounced immigrants. But they split on the issue of slavery. Northern members opposed it. Southern members supported it. Delegates to the convention chose a candidate who seemed to support the party's policies. Yet he was not even a member of the party. He was a Whig, former President Millard Fillmore. Northern members refused to support Fillmore. They broke away from the Know-Nothing Party and supported the Republican candidate, John Fremont. VOICE TWO: Fremont could not expect to win any votes in the slave states of the south. He would have to get all of his support in the north. He would have to win the votes of the big states, including Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania was the home of the Democratic candidate, James Buchanan. Buchanan had said that the constitutional rights of the southern states should be protected. So he could expect to win some votes there. When all the votes were counted, Buchanan was elected. Now he would have to deal with the problems that presidents before him had not been able to solve. VOICE ONE: James Buchanan was sixty-five years old. He had served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. He had served as Secretary of State and as ambassador. He was a good diplomat. But he was not considered a strong political leader. Buchanan usually supported the southern position in the dispute about slavery. He said the north should stop interfering with the south. He even said the south had good reason to leave the Union, if northern Abolitionists continued their anti-slavery campaign. As president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slavery question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. He wanted a cabinet that shared and supported this idea. We will tell about James Buchanan's administration in our next program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next time for another VOA Special English report about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of events during the presidency of Franklin Pierce. And we tell about the presidential election of eighteen-fifty-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The situation in Kansas was the most difficult national problem of the Pierce Administration. The territory struggled with the issue of slavery. Pro-slavery settlers elected a representative to Congress. Then they won a majority of seats in the territorial legislature. An investigation found that people from the nearby state of Missouri had voted in the elections illegally. Yet the results were accepted. The new Kansas lawmakers did not like the territorial governor. They demanded that President Pierce dismiss him. Pierce agreed. VOICE TWO: Anti-slavery settlers in Kansas felt they could not get fair treatment from either the president or the new governor. So they took an extreme step. They formed their own government in opposition to the elected government of the territory. Their political group was known as the "Free State" Party. Party members wrote their own constitution and chose their own governor. VOICE ONE: President Pierce said the actions of the Free State Party seemed revolutionary. He warned against violence. He said if party members attacked any officials or property of the territory or the federal government, party leaders should be charged with treason. The president gave the pro-slavery governor of Kansas control of troops at two army bases in the territory. Many people feared that the governor would use the troops to arrest the leaders of the free state government. VOICE TWO: Fighting between the two sides almost began when a free state man was killed by a pro-slavery man. Free State settlers gathered in the town of Lawrence and organized a defense force. At the same time, hundreds of pro-slavery men crossed the border from Missouri. They planned to go to Lawrence and burn it to the ground. The pro-slavery governor and the Free State governor agreed to hold an emergency meeting. They negotiated a settlement, and the men on both sides went home. The truce did not last long. VOICE ONE: In the weeks that followed, a number of attempts were made to stop or arrest the leaders of the Free State government. Pro-slavery officials urged private citizens to help. Once again, hundreds of men -- including many from Missouri -- gathered in Kansas. Once again, their target was the town of Lawrence. This time, however, there was no truce. The pro-slavery mob attacked and burned several buildings. A number of people were killed. The violence might have ended quickly. But one of the men defending the town believed that the battle against the forces of slavery must continue. And he believed that God had chosen him to lead it. The man was John Brown. VOICE TWO: John Brown heard that five free state men had died in the attack on Lawrence. So he said five pro-slavery men must die in return. He led a group that seized and killed five people. The civil disorder in Kansas continued. Settlers were forced off their land. Houses were burned. More people were killed. The territory became known as "bleeding Kansas." VOICE ONE: It was clear that there were deep differences between the northern and southern American states. The differences involved their economies, their systems of labor, and their way of life. The civil disorder caused by these differences was the chief issue in the presidential election of eighteen-fifty-six. Three political parties offered candidates: the Democrats, the Republicans, and the Know-Nothings. The Whig Party did not offer a candidate. The party had gone out of existence by then. Its members had split over the question of slavery in the western territories. The split could not be healed. Most southern Whigs joined the Democratic Party. Most northern Whigs joined the Know-Nothing Party. VOICE TWO: The Know-Nothing Party began as a secret anti-immigrant organization. It feared that too many people from other countries were coming to live in the United States. Members did not want to admit that they belonged to the group. When asked, they said, "I know nothing." And that is how the organization got its name. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party was led by President Franklin Pierce. Pierce wanted to run for re-election. Many northern Democrats, however, objected to his support of the pro-slavery legislature in Kansas. Other Democrats did not think he was the strongest candidate. As a result, Pierce faced competition for the party's nomination. One opponent was Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas had great political ability. He also had many political enemies. He was the man most responsible for gaining congressional approval of the bill that opened Kansas to slavery. VOICE TWO: Pierce's other opponent for the Democratic nomination was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Buchanan was a northerner who would probably leave the south alone. "I am not friendly to the idea of slavery," he said. "but the rights of the south -- under our constitution -- should have as much protection as the rights of any other part of our Union. " VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party met in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the first time a national political convention was held that far west. Candidates needed two-thirds of the votes to win the nomination. After several days of voting, no candidate had received enough. So, in an effort to unite the party, Stephen Douglas offered to withdraw. James Buchanan got his votes and the nomination. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party was a new political party. Its members opposed slavery for either moral or economic reasons. Many Republicans were Abolitionists. They wanted to ban slavery everywhere in the United States. The majority of Republicans, however, were not Abolitionists. They had no interest in ending slave labor in the south. They simply did not want slavery to spread to other areas. The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia. For months, party members had spoken of just one man. He was John Fremont. Fremont had explored the American west. He had been a senator from California. He was young and exciting. Republicans thought he was the right man to lead their young and exciting party. VOICE ONE: The Know-Nothing Party had a divided nominating convention. Northern and southern members agreed on policies that denounced immigrants. But they split on the issue of slavery. Northern members opposed it. Southern members supported it. Delegates to the convention chose a candidate who seemed to support the party's policies. Yet he was not even a member of the party. He was a Whig, former President Millard Fillmore. Northern members refused to support Fillmore. They broke away from the Know-Nothing Party and supported the Republican candidate, John Fremont. VOICE TWO: Fremont could not expect to win any votes in the slave states of the south. He would have to get all of his support in the north. He would have to win the votes of the big states, including Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania was the home of the Democratic candidate, James Buchanan. Buchanan had said that the constitutional rights of the southern states should be protected. So he could expect to win some votes there. When all the votes were counted, Buchanan was elected. Now he would have to deal with the problems that presidents before him had not been able to solve. VOICE ONE: James Buchanan was sixty-five years old. He had served in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. He had served as Secretary of State and as ambassador. He was a good diplomat. But he was not considered a strong political leader. Buchanan usually supported the southern position in the dispute about slavery. He said the north should stop interfering with the south. He even said the south had good reason to leave the Union, if northern Abolitionists continued their anti-slavery campaign. As president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slavery question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. He wanted a cabinet that shared and supported this idea. We will tell about James Buchanan's administration in our next program. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today's program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next time for another VOA Special English report about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #7: Applications
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 14, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. This week, in part seven of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss the application process to get into an American college or university. Earlier, we explained how to begin your search by going to one of the American educational advising centers around the world. We described the rules for entering in the United States. And we talked about programs that let students get an education by computer. But if your goal is to come to the United States to study, then it is time to make a list of colleges or universities that interest you. Be sure to choose more than one. Directors of foreign student admissions say students should apply to at least three schools. You can request an application in the mail or, in many cases, find it online. For example, the Ohio State University provides international student applications on its Web site. You can answer the questions by computer. In this case, you must use a credit card to pay the application charge. Or you can print the forms and mail them with payment. Many colleges and universities have their catalog online. Or you can request one in the mail. A catalog is the publication in which a school tells all about its programs. Make sure also to ask for an international admission application. Describe the education you already have. Explain what you want to study and what degree you are seeking. Tell when you want to begin. You should request application papers at least two years before you want to begin studies. Once you send in your applications, there is one more thing to do: wait for a decision. But there are other steps before your application is complete. Next week, in part eight of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss college admissions tests. Internet users can find our series at voaspecialenglish dot com. The State Department Web site for international student information is educationusa.state.gov. And there is travel information at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement site: ice.gov Click on the link for SEVIS, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. We said last week that SEVIS involves more than seventy thousand schools. The number is seven thousand. Our thanks to John Pluebell at Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco for correcting us. If you have a general question for our series, send it to special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: #1 - What Is the Theme Music At the Beginning and End of Special English Programs?
* Byline: 

 The music that starts and ends each Special English program was written by a different American composer. For example, George Gershwin wrote “Prelude Two,” the music we use for the program “People in America." The theme for “This Is America” is music composed by Aaron Copland called “Simple Gifts.” The theme for the Special English program “Words and Their Stories” is “Maple Leaf Rag." African-American composer Scott Joplin wrote the music in eighteen-ninety-nine. An American Indian, R. Carlos Nikai, wrote the music we use for another Special English program, “Explorations.” The music is called “All Souls Waltz." You can find the names and composers of all the theme music for Special English programs on our Internet web site. The address is www.voanews.com/specialenglish. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-4-1.cfm
* Headline: #2 - Why is America Called the United States?
* Byline: 

 This is a common question. In fact, writer William Safire answered this question in the New York Times magazine. His report says that Benjamin Franklin used the name United Colonies of north America around the time of the war for independence from Britain in seventeen-seventy-five. But another name appeared on the Declaration of Independence that was approved on July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six. The declaration used the name United States of America. Mr. Safire's readers wrote to him with more information. He learned that the name United States of America had been used in two letters, each written a month before the Declaration. One was published in the Pennsylvania Evening Post newspaper on June twenty-ninth, seventeen-seventy-six. Mr. Safire also heard from a history expert, Ronald Gephart. He searched delegates' letters to the Continental Congress between seventeen-seventy-four and seventeen-eighty-nine. This is what he found. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia made the proposal in the Congress on June seventh, seventeen-seventy-six, to declare that the United Colonies should be free and independent states. This proposal led to the creation of three committees to write three important documents. One wrote a Declaration of Independence. Another wrote Articles of Confederation. The third wrote a treaty plan. All three groups worked together and used the name United States of America. Mr. Gephart said the term developed from one or more members of the committees during these meetings. We also know that the Articles of Confederation included the statement "The name of this confederation shall be the United States of America." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-5-1.cfm
* Headline: #3 - Why Is the Imaginary Man Called Uncle Sam Linked With the United  States?
* Byline: 

 Uncle Sam is a fun name for the United States government. The drawing of a man called Uncle Sam is used to represent the federal government on large signs called posters. His name, Uncle Sam, uses the same first letters as the words United States - a “U” and an “S”. History experts are not really sure how Uncle Sam was created or how he was named. However, some say the name was first used on supply containers during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. People in the northeastern city of Troy, New York think they know the true story. They say that Uncle Sam was a person named Samuel Wilson. Many people in Troy believe that Mister Wilson is linked to the first use of the term “Uncle Sam” to represent the United States. This is their story: Samuel Wilson worked as a meat packer in Troy during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. He often was called Uncle Sam because he was so friendly and fair. Mister Wilson supplied large amounts of meat to the Army. The meat was sent to the troops in rounded wooden containers. The barrels were marked with the letters “U S” to show they were meant for the government. Someone suggested that the letters represented “Uncle Sam” Wilson. The idea that the meat came from “Uncle Sam” led to the idea that Uncle Sam represented the federal government. Samuel Wilson did not look like the drawing of Uncle Sam. The most famous drawings show him dressed in clothes showing stars and stripes. They appeared in political cartoons. Famous newspaper cartoonist Thomas Nast produced many of the earliest drawings of Uncle Sam in the eighteen thirties. In the twentieth century, Uncle Sam was shown with a short white beard, high hat and long-tailed coat. The single most famous picture of him is a large sign painted by James Montgomery Flagg in about nineteen-seventeen. Its aim was to influence young American young men to go into the army during World War One. It shows Uncle Sam pointing his finger. Above him are written the words “I Want You.” Congress approved Uncle Sam as an official representation of the United States in nineteen-sixty-one. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-6-1.cfm
* Headline: #4 - What Do the Letters D and C Mean in Washington, D.C?
* Byline: 

 To answer the question, we must go back about two-hundred years, to the beginning of the United States. The states approved a Constitution for the country in seventeen-eighty-eight. But they could not decide where to build the permanent capital. Northern states did not want the capital in the south because of slavery. The southern states did not want it in the north. Several places were proposed, but Congress could not agree on one. Then Thomas Jefferson of Virginia invited Alexander Hamilton of New York to dinner to discuss the dispute. Two congressmen from Virginia were also there. The four men talked politics. Southern votes had defeated a bill in Congress that Mister Hamilton wanted very much to be approved. It would have required the federal government to pay the money owed by the states for fighting the war to gain independence from Britain. The two Virginia congressmen agreed to change their votes against the bill. And, Mister Hamilton agreed to find northern votes to support a proposal to build the capital along the Potomac River between the states of Virginia and Maryland. That is how Congress agreed to build the capital in a federal area on land provided by the two states. A year later, officials announced that the city would be called Washington, in honor of the country’s first president, George Washington. The larger federal area would be named the District of Columbia. Columbia had become another name for the United States, one that was used by poets and other writers. The name came from Christopher Columbus, the explorer who sailed from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to the Western Hemisphere. Today, Washington, D.C. is known to those who live in the area as the District. But if you want to write to us, our address is Washington, D.C. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-7-1.cfm
* Headline: #5 - Who Are the Carved Faces on Mount Rushmore?
* Byline: 

 Mount Rushmore is part of the Black Hills in the middle western state of South Dakota. The Black Hills are ancient. They were old even before Asia's Himalaya Mountains and Europe's Alps Mountains were formed. Pine trees cover the land. They stretch as far as the eye can see. Rising above the trees are the huge stone faces of four American presidents. The man who carved the faces was Gutzon Borglum. Mr. Borglum liked big statues. He believed they excited the emotions of the people. So, for Mount Rushmore, he decided to carve huge men -- giants of American history -- to be the symbols of the nation. First was George Washington. He represented the founding of the country. Next was Thomas Jefferson. He represented America's faith in the common man. Then came Abraham Lincoln. He represented the unity of the nation, saved after the American Civil War. And finally, Theodore Roosevelt. He represented the progressive spirit of America. Mr. Borglum began blasting away rock for the Mount Rushmore statues in nineteen-twenty-seven. Each face was to be eighteen meters high. The work was completed fourteen years later...a year after Borglum died. Since then, rock experts have worked to repair minor weather damage to the stone. They say Mount Rushmore is not in danger of falling down. The granite mountain is more than one-and-one-half-thousand-million years old. The experts say the faces on Mount Rushmore will last longer than the famous Sphinx statue in Egypt. About three-million people visit Mount Rushmore every year. Officials there say the busiest time is during America's Independence Day celebration, July fourth. The Mount Rushmore celebration includes bands, musical performances and guest speakers. And it honors the men who built the monument more than fifty years ago. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-8-1.cfm
* Headline: #6 - How Did Hollywood Become Hollywood?
* Byline: 

 Hollywood is the center of America's movie industry. It is part of the city of Los Angeles, in the western state of California. In eighteen-eighty-seven, a man named Harvey Wilcox decided to sell some farmland he owned near Los Angeles. He hoped builders would put up houses there. Harvey's wife thought the name Hollywood would be nice for the new housing development. She liked the sound of the word, although no holly trees grow in California. At first, Hollywood was just a little town surrounded by orange trees and farms. But new technology would change it forever. Inventors in the United States and Europe had become interested in the idea of making pictures that moved. Thomas Edison's company showed the first moving picture machine in eighteen-ninety-three. Two years later, the Lumiere brothers of France showed the first simple moving picture in Paris. American businessmen and artists hurried to explore the possibilities of the new technology. No one, however, suspected that movies would become the most popular kind of art in history. Soon, theaters around the United States began showing short movies. In nineteen-oh-nine, some of the largest American movie-making companies joined together. They legally stopped other companies from using the new technology. So, independent movie producers moved away from the Atlantic coast, the center of movie-making at that time. Independent movie producers wanted to go where eastern lawyers would not make trouble for them. They also wanted to go where there was warm weather and sunshine throughout the year. Hollywood was perfect. The Nestor Company built the first movie studio in Hollywood in nineteen-eleven. Two years later, Cecil B. Demille produced the first long, serious movie in Hollywood. It was called "The Squaw Man." Director D. W. Griffith also arrived in Hollywood in those early years. He created new ways of using a camera to tell a story through moving pictures. Soon, the quiet community of farms and orange trees had changed. By the nineteen-twenties, Hollywood had become the movie capital of the world. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-9-1.cfm
* Headline: #7 - How Did "American Mosaic" Get Its Name?
* Byline: 

 The name of the show was suggested by two listeners in China and Egypt in response to a contest we held to name it. We chose the name because mosaic is the word that best describes what we wanted the show to be. The meaning of the word mosaic is a picture made up of many different pieces. Each has its own shape and color. They form a large picture when they are brought together. We wanted each small picece of the show to be interesting. And we wanted all the pieces to come together into a design...into an Amerian Mosaic that provides an interesting and accurate picture of life in the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-13-10-1.cfm
* Headline: Most Common Listner Questions About American Life
* Byline: 

 The following are some questions asked most often by listners of AMERICAN MOSAIC. #1 - What Is the Theme Music At the Beginning and End of Special English Programs? #2 - Why is America Called the United States? #3 - Why Is the Imaginary Man Called Uncle Sam Linked With the United States? #4 - What Do the Letters D and C Mean in Washington, D.C? #5 - Who Are the Carved Faces on Mount Rushmore? #6 - How Did Hollywood Become Hollywood? #7 - How Did "American Mosaic" Get Its Name? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Questions from Listeners About How Americans Vote / Queen Latifah Explores a Musical World Before Rap
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 15, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: October 15, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Queen Latifah ... and questions from listeners about voting in America. And, we'll tell you about a special program next week to mark an anniversary for Special English. Voting On November second, Americans will choose a president and vice president. They will elect members of Congress and state and local officials. And they will decide local measures. Between now and Election Day, we are going to answer listener questions about voting. Mister Nguyen from Vietnam wants to know how Americans vote for president. And C. Jayakumar of Tamil Nadu, India, and M.S. Haque of Bangladesh, both ask how old Americans must be to vote. Voters must be at least eighteen. The voting age used to be twenty-one years old, until the Constitution was changed in nineteen seventy-one. Here is another fact. Until nineteen twenty, the Constitution did not permit women to vote. Today women vote at higher rates than men in national elections. The Census Bureau says this has been true for more than twenty years. Still, not all adults have the right to vote. Most of the states require voters not to have been found guilty of a major crime. Voters must also be American citizens. And they must be registered to vote in the area where they live. Their names must appear on a local election list. In many states, a person must register at least two to four weeks before an election. Voters do not have to register again unless they move to a different area or do not vote in several elections. On Election Day, people usually vote in a school or other public building near their home. Voting is done by secret ballot. But local election officials decide what kind of voting equipment is used. Paper-and-pencil ballots are rare these days. But many systems still do use paper. Voters mark their choices on the ballot and a computer counts the votes. Some places use machines to record votes when a person moves a lever next to the name of a candidate. These kinds of machines are old and are slowly being replaced. Other kinds of voting machines use punch cards. Voters use a device to make holes in the ballot to mark their choices. Then a computer passes light through the holes to count the votes. But these devices are also being replaced. The problems with vote counting in Florida four years ago led Congress to pass the Help America Vote Act. Under this two thousand two law, states are getting money to buy modern technology. Still, officials say most voters this November will vote on the same equipment they used four years ago. The most modern voting machines today use touch screen technology. Voters press on a computer screen to enter their choices. But some people question the security of these machines, especially without a printed record of the votes. One way to avoid any machine at all is to vote early by absentee ballot. Election officials must receive the ballot on or before Election Day. This way of voting is increasingly popular. It avoids any wait at voting stations. But there are also questions about the security of absentee ballots against the possibility of cheating. Special English Anniversary HOST: Special English will celebrate its forty-fifth anniversary next week. Here is Bob Doughty with the story. BOB DOUGHTY: Special English began on October nineteenth, nineteen-fifty-nine. VOA officials wanted a program to communicate with English learners. They wanted a way for people to get to know the language and, at the same time, learn about the United States and world events. The writing is limited as much as possible to a list of about one thousand five hundred words. Our word book is online at voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Another way that Special English is different, as you can hear, is the speed. The rate is about one third slower than standard English as spoken on VOA. Some language experts thought the programs would be too simple or not make sense. But listeners proved these experts wrong. Listeners of this program know that we answer questions on the air about American life. Usually we choose one question per week. But next Tuesday, on the forty-fifth anniversary of Special English, we are going to present a special American Mosaic. We are going to answer some of the most commonly asked questions that we get. The answers will also appear at voaspecialenglish.com. So be sure to listen Tuesday at this same time for our special American Mosaic. Queen Latifah The newest album from Queen Latifah contains none of the hip-hop music that made her famous. Instead, she performs jazz, blues, soul and pop songs from the past. The collection is called "The Dana Owens Album." Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Queen Latifah became Queen Latifah in college. Before that, she was Dana Owens, the name her parents gave her. Queen Latifah is famous as a rapper. But here she sings “Hello Stranger,” a hit by Barbara Lewis in nineteen sixty-three. (MUSIC) Queen Latifah says she got the idea for her new album after looking at her own record collection. She says she wanted to record some songs that had influenced her. One of them is “Simply Beautiful” by Al Green. He joins her on the recording. (MUSIC) Queen Latifah is also an actress. She stars with comedian Jimmy Fallon in the new action movie "Taxi." A few years ago Queen Latifah sang a famous Billy Strayhorn song in one of her movies. She recorded it again for her new album. We leave you with Queen Latifah -- or Dana Owens -- and a song called “Lush Life.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. Our engineer was Jim Sleeman. DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from Queen Latifah ... and questions from listeners about voting in America. And, we'll tell you about a special program next week to mark an anniversary for Special English. Voting On November second, Americans will choose a president and vice president. They will elect members of Congress and state and local officials. And they will decide local measures. Between now and Election Day, we are going to answer listener questions about voting. Mister Nguyen from Vietnam wants to know how Americans vote for president. And C. Jayakumar of Tamil Nadu, India, and M.S. Haque of Bangladesh, both ask how old Americans must be to vote. Voters must be at least eighteen. The voting age used to be twenty-one years old, until the Constitution was changed in nineteen seventy-one. Here is another fact. Until nineteen twenty, the Constitution did not permit women to vote. Today women vote at higher rates than men in national elections. The Census Bureau says this has been true for more than twenty years. Still, not all adults have the right to vote. Most of the states require voters not to have been found guilty of a major crime. Voters must also be American citizens. And they must be registered to vote in the area where they live. Their names must appear on a local election list. In many states, a person must register at least two to four weeks before an election. Voters do not have to register again unless they move to a different area or do not vote in several elections. On Election Day, people usually vote in a school or other public building near their home. Voting is done by secret ballot. But local election officials decide what kind of voting equipment is used. Paper-and-pencil ballots are rare these days. But many systems still do use paper. Voters mark their choices on the ballot and a computer counts the votes. Some places use machines to record votes when a person moves a lever next to the name of a candidate. These kinds of machines are old and are slowly being replaced. Other kinds of voting machines use punch cards. Voters use a device to make holes in the ballot to mark their choices. Then a computer passes light through the holes to count the votes. But these devices are also being replaced. The problems with vote counting in Florida four years ago led Congress to pass the Help America Vote Act. Under this two thousand two law, states are getting money to buy modern technology. Still, officials say most voters this November will vote on the same equipment they used four years ago. The most modern voting machines today use touch screen technology. Voters press on a computer screen to enter their choices. But some people question the security of these machines, especially without a printed record of the votes. One way to avoid any machine at all is to vote early by absentee ballot. Election officials must receive the ballot on or before Election Day. This way of voting is increasingly popular. It avoids any wait at voting stations. But there are also questions about the security of absentee ballots against the possibility of cheating. Special English Anniversary HOST: Special English will celebrate its forty-fifth anniversary next week. Here is Bob Doughty with the story. BOB DOUGHTY: Special English began on October nineteenth, nineteen-fifty-nine. VOA officials wanted a program to communicate with English learners. They wanted a way for people to get to know the language and, at the same time, learn about the United States and world events. The writing is limited as much as possible to a list of about one thousand five hundred words. Our word book is online at voaspecialenglish-dot-com. Another way that Special English is different, as you can hear, is the speed. The rate is about one third slower than standard English as spoken on VOA. Some language experts thought the programs would be too simple or not make sense. But listeners proved these experts wrong. Listeners of this program know that we answer questions on the air about American life. Usually we choose one question per week. But next Tuesday, on the forty-fifth anniversary of Special English, we are going to present a special American Mosaic. We are going to answer some of the most commonly asked questions that we get. The answers will also appear at voaspecialenglish.com. So be sure to listen Tuesday at this same time for our special American Mosaic. Queen Latifah The newest album from Queen Latifah contains none of the hip-hop music that made her famous. Instead, she performs jazz, blues, soul and pop songs from the past. The collection is called "The Dana Owens Album." Faith Lapidus explains. FAITH LAPIDUS: Queen Latifah became Queen Latifah in college. Before that, she was Dana Owens, the name her parents gave her. Queen Latifah is famous as a rapper. But here she sings “Hello Stranger,” a hit by Barbara Lewis in nineteen sixty-three. (MUSIC) Queen Latifah says she got the idea for her new album after looking at her own record collection. She says she wanted to record some songs that had influenced her. One of them is “Simply Beautiful” by Al Green. He joins her on the recording. (MUSIC) Queen Latifah is also an actress. She stars with comedian Jimmy Fallon in the new action movie "Taxi." A few years ago Queen Latifah sang a famous Billy Strayhorn song in one of her movies. She recorded it again for her new album. We leave you with Queen Latifah -- or Dana Owens -- and a song called “Lush Life.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was the producer. Our engineer was Jim Sleeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Kydland, Prescott Win Nobel Prize in Economics
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 15, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Broadcast: October 15, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The winners of the Nobel prize in economics this year are Finn Kydland of Norway and Edward Prescott of the United States. Mister Prescott is an adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also an Arizona State University professor. Mister Kydland is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The prize recognizes their work together on two studies. The first was published in nineteen seventy-seven. Before the nineteen seventies, economic problems were seen mainly in terms of a lack of balance. Too much demand caused inflation. Too much supply caused a recession. Governments would take steps aggressively to re-balance supply and demand. Low interest rates and increased government spending would expand growth and employment. Then, if prices went up too much, higher interest rates would ease inflation. But in the seventies, many nations experienced both low employment and high inflation at the same time. This was called stagflation. And no one could explain it. Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott showed that stagflation resulted when policymakers did not do as they promised. Most governments say they want high employment and low inflation. But, over time, events can cause them not to follow their stated economic policy to support these goals. This is called the time consistency problem. The two economists published another study in nineteen eighty-two. They developed ways to explain business cycles, times of increase or decrease in economic activity. They showed how new technology creates periods of economic growth and productivity. Markets then make corrections which slow the growth. Wages change. Investments change. People buy more or less of things. The two economists showed how activities at this level govern an economy. They also showed how a shock like an increase in oil prices can affect business cycles. Today, their work influences central bank officials and policymakers around the world. Their award is officially called the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presents the honor. Edward Prescott and Finn Kydland will share almost one million four hundred thousand dollars in prize money. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. The winners of the Nobel prize in economics this year are Finn Kydland of Norway and Edward Prescott of the United States. Mister Prescott is an adviser at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also an Arizona State University professor. Mister Kydland is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The prize recognizes their work together on two studies. The first was published in nineteen seventy-seven. Before the nineteen seventies, economic problems were seen mainly in terms of a lack of balance. Too much demand caused inflation. Too much supply caused a recession. Governments would take steps aggressively to re-balance supply and demand. Low interest rates and increased government spending would expand growth and employment. Then, if prices went up too much, higher interest rates would ease inflation. But in the seventies, many nations experienced both low employment and high inflation at the same time. This was called stagflation. And no one could explain it. Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott showed that stagflation resulted when policymakers did not do as they promised. Most governments say they want high employment and low inflation. But, over time, events can cause them not to follow their stated economic policy to support these goals. This is called the time consistency problem. The two economists published another study in nineteen eighty-two. They developed ways to explain business cycles, times of increase or decrease in economic activity. They showed how new technology creates periods of economic growth and productivity. Markets then make corrections which slow the growth. Wages change. Investments change. People buy more or less of things. The two economists showed how activities at this level govern an economy. They also showed how a shock like an increase in oil prices can affect business cycles. Today, their work influences central bank officials and policymakers around the world. Their award is officially called the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Science in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presents the honor. Edward Prescott and Finn Kydland will share almost one million four hundred thousand dollars in prize money. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 18, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai says poor women can fight poverty and help the environment by planting trees. In December, she will receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to save the forests of Africa. Wangari Maathai is the twelfth woman since nineteen oh one to win the prize. Last year the Norwegian Nobel Committee also recognized a woman, Shirin Ebadi of Iran. She is a lawyer who has fought for human rights for women. But this is the first time the peace prize will go to an African woman. It is also the first time someone within the environmental movement has been recognized at such a high level. The Nobel Committee said: "Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment." In nineteen seventy-seven, Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt Movement. The goal is to plant trees all over Africa, to replace those cut down over the years. Trees are the main source of cooking fuel. Trees also protect wildlife. And they keep nutrients in the soil and help prevent flooding. Today the program operates in a number of countries. A reported thirty million trees have been planted. Young trees are grown from seeds at thousands of nurseries. The Green Belt Movement gives these young trees to communities. Locally trained people advise women farmers about planting and taking care of the trees. The movement pays farmers for every tree that survives. Later the women can use some of the trees for fuel. Professor Maathai is sixty-four years old. She studied in the United States and Kenya. She is believed to have been the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She became a professor of animal science at the University of Nairobi. But her activism angered the former government in Kenya. She was beaten and arrested. Now, she is assistant minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife. But she does not speak out only about the environment. In August, she called the AIDS virus a biological weapon to control black people. Later, she said her comments were meant to get people to ask questions and not think of AIDS as a "curse from God." Wangari Maathai will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December tenth. She will also receive almost one point four million dollars in prize money. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - George W. Bush and John Kerry
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 18, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. On November second, the United States will hold general elections. Americans will vote for national, state and local representatives. They also will choose a president, as they do every four years. Today we tell about the two major candidates for president. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: President George W. Bush is seeking a second term in office. He is the Republican Party candidate. The Democratic Party candidate is John Kerry. He is a member of the United States Senate. Americans in past elections sometimes objected that the major candidates seemed to agree about many issues. Clearly, that is not true this year. George W. Bush and John Kerry each say they can protect Americans from harm and improve the economy. But the two men have very different ideas about how the United States should be governed. VOICE TWO: In some ways, the lives of both candidates are similar. Both were born into well-educated families. They had more wealth than average Americans. Mister Kerry’s father was a Foreign Service officer for the State Department. Mister Bush’s father served four years as President. He had been Vice President for eight years and held several other high-level positions in government. George W. Bush and John Kerry attended some of the best schools in the United States. Both men are married and the fathers of two adult daughters. Mister Bush’s wife Laura is a former teacher. Mister Kerry’s wife Teresa is chairman of two large aid organizations. She accepted the position after her first husband, Senator John Heinz, died in nineteen ninety-one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George W. Bush was born in the state of Connecticut in nineteen forty-six. However, he grew up in Texas. He graduated from Yale University in Connecticut. During the Vietnam War, he was a fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. This meant he did not have to fight in Vietnam. Critics have said that Mister Bush’s father helped his son get a position in the Air National Guard. There also are reports that George W. Bush did not complete all his requirements in the National Guard. But he left the service with honor when his term of duty ended. Then he studied business administration at Harvard Business School in Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Mister Bush returned to Texas and worked in the energy business. He has said he became serious about Christianity during this period. Since then, he says religion has been important in his life. Mister Bush worked for his father’s campaign for president in nineteen eighty-eight. Later, George W. Bush became part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. He was elected governor of Texas in nineteen ninety-four. Four years later, he won a second term in office. Mister Bush was the Republican candidate for President four years ago. He defeated Vice President Al Gore in an extremely close, disputed race. VOICE ONE: George W. Bush was sworn in as America’s forty-third President on January twentieth, two thousand one. On September eleventh, militants linked to the al-Qaida terror group attacked the United States. Three thousand people were killed in the attacks. President Bush said the United States would punish those responsible. He also announced what he called a war against terrorism. The Taleban government in Afghanistan had provided support for al-Qaida. The United States military ousted the Taleban and captured suspected al-Qaida supporters. President Bush supported creation of the USA Patriot Act. This measure increases the powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Critics say parts of the law violate Constitutional guarantees of privacy and fair treatment. VOICE TWO: In early two thousand two, President Bush told Congress that the war against terrorism was just beginning. He said the United States must stop terrorists from possessing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. The President criticized three nations – North Korea, Iran and Iraq. He said they were an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. The United States and Britain invaded Iraq and ousted its leader, Saddam Hussein, last year. Mister Bush said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to the United States. Recently, America’s chief weapons inspector reported that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. But Mister Bush says intelligence reports showed enough of a threat to remove Saddam Hussein from power. In June, an American-led coalition gave power to a temporary Iraqi government. Iraq is expected to hold elections in January. VOICE ONE: In the United States, one of Mister Bush’s most popular measures has been a temporary cut in federal income taxes. Now Mister Bush wants Congress to make the tax cuts permanent. At his urging, Congress passed a health care law for older adults. He says the new law helps forty million people buy medicines. Congress also approved his program meant to improve education in public schools. Mister Bush signed an order lifting barriers to ties between the government and organizations established by religious groups. He supports a Constitutional amendment to bar marriages between people of the same sex. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Democratic Party candidate John Kerry was born in Colorado in nineteen forty-three. He completed studies at Yale University in nineteen sixty-six. That year, he joined the United States Navy. Mister Kerry was wounded and won honors for his service in the Vietnam War. But, like President Bush, Mister Kerry’s military service has been criticized. Some men who served in Vietnam say he lied about some of his actions. But the Navy says it acted correctly in approving and awarding the honors. Mister Kerry began to question the Vietnam War after his military service ended. He helped lead other former soldiers in opposing America’s part in the conflict. He asked Congress: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” VOICE ONE: John Kerry received a degree in law from Boston College in nineteen seventy-six. He became a lawyer for the Massachusetts state government. Then he served two years as lieutenant governor of the state. Mister Kerry was first elected to the United States Senate twenty years ago. He is now serving his fourth term. In the Senate, Mister Kerry has become known for his interest in the environment. For example, he opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. President Bush supports it. VOICE TWO: Mister Kerry voted to give President Bush the power to declare war against Iraq. But the Senator criticizes the way the Iraqi conflict has been fought. More than one thousand Americans have died in Iraq since the war started in March of last year. Many Iraqi civilians also have been killed. Mister Kerry talked about the war in Iraq: KERRY: “You gotta be able to look in the eyes of families and say to those parents, ‘I tried to do everything in my power to prevent the loss of your son and daughter.’ I don’t believe the United States did that. And we pushed our allies aside.” President Bush has defended American actions in Iraq. He says they are needed to fight the war against terrorism. The President also has expressed great satisfaction that Iraqis are free of a cruel dictator. VOICE ONE: Mister Kerry says the United States should be recovering faster from a period of weak economic activity. He denounces the growth of the national debt under Mister Bush’s leadership. President Bush talked about his economic record: BUSH: “We delivered historic tax relief, and over the past three years, America has had the fastest growing economy in the industrialized world.” President Bush also says he wants young workers to place some of the taxes on their pay in private retirement accounts. John Kerry opposes this idea. Mister Bush opposes most operations to end pregnancies. Mister Kerry supports a woman’s right to have such an abortion. His position is in disagreement with his religious group, the Roman Catholic Church. VOICE TWO: Recent public opinion studies show that support is divided evenly between George W. Bush and John Kerry. Experts say the election in November will be very close. Some people say this will be the most important election in recent times. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 17, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about pianist John Lewis. He created one of one of the most famous jazz groups in America, the Modern Jazz Quartet. VOICE ONE: John Lewis was known for his creativity. He was a skilled piano player and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet for almost fifty years. He wrote and arranged all the music for the small group. Mister Lewis was responsible for the group’s sound and its identity. John Lewis was interested in jazz, blues and bebob, a music with a great deal of energy. Yet he was also greatly influenced by his training in European classical music. Classical music is expressive and intense, but is also structured. He thought jazz should be presented the same way. John Lewis combined classical music with traditional jazz to create songs for himself and the three other members of his quartet. He believed music should be simple and clear, yet played in a meaningful way. Here is one of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s big hits, "Django." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Lewis was greatly influenced by the piano style of the famous jazz bandleader, Count Basie. Like Basie, Lewis believed in making every note of music count. He depended as much on silence as he did on notes to get his message across. John Lewis often used a form of music called fugue. Fugue is a series of opposing melodies used to create a complex effect. Mister Lewis also combined written music with music that the group invented as it went along. This new kind of jazz attracted both lovers of jazz and classical music. It also appealed to people who did not necessarily like jazz. Here is an example of fugue in the song “Alexander’s Fugue.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Modern Jazz Quartet included John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Connie Kay. The group made its first recording in nineteen fifty-two. And they continued to play together, with a seven year break, until nineteen ninety-nine. John Lewis was as concerned about appearances as he was about the music. The musicians had to dress well for every performance. They played mostly in concert halls instead of small dance clubs. Lewis believed jazz should receive the same respect as classical music. VOICE TWO: John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, in nineteen twenty. He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He started playing the piano when he was seven. As a teenager, he played professionally in churches around Albuquerque. He soon was playing in local dance halls. Lewis studied anthropology and music at the University of New Mexico. In nineteen forty-two, he joined the Army and served in Europe during World War Two. After the war, Lewis moved to New York City and played in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. He also studied for his master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music. VOICE ONE: John Lewis played in the rhythm section of Gillespie’s band. Other members were drummer Kenny Clarke, bass player Ray Brown and vibraphone player Milt Jackson. The four often performed together while the horn players in the band rested. The four band members continued to work together after leaving Dizzy’s group in the late nineteen forties. At that time, they were criticized for not playing “true jazz.” But they continued anyway. Ray Brown and Kenny Clarke soon left the group. Bass player Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay replaced them. In nineteen fifty-two, the group became the Modern Jazz Quartet and established its own identity. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-six, the Modern Jazz Quartet played a series of concerts in Europe. The group helped make jazz popular with many music listeners in Europe. The members of the quartet had become major stars by the time they returned to the United States. The Modern Jazz Quartet continued to perform all over the world for sold-out crowds until the late nineteen seventies. People loved the group’s teamwork and their amazing sound. Listen as we play “Vendome”, another big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics say John Lewis’s “less is more” piano style and Milt Jackson’s energy on the vibraphone were the secret to the group’s long-lasting success. Yet over the years, Mister Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with limits that were put on his talents. The group separated in nineteen seventy-four. However, the members of the quartet reunited after seven years. They played together until Milt Jackson’s death in nineteen ninety-nine. In addition to his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet, John Lewis worked for many years as musical director of the Monterey Jazz Festival in California. He wrote the music for several Hollywood films. He taught at Harvard University and the City College of New York. And he helped establish a jazz school in Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Through the years, John Lewis worked with some of the biggest names in jazz, including trumpet player Miles Davis. Yet for all the praise Lewis received, he was known for putting the interests of the group over the individual.John Lewis lived a quiet life with his wife, Mirjana, in New York City. In March, two thousand one, he died of cancer. He was eighty years old. His death officially marked the end of a historic period in modern jazz. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Roy Benson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: October 17, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about pianist John Lewis. He created one of one of the most famous jazz groups in America, the Modern Jazz Quartet. VOICE ONE: John Lewis was known for his creativity. He was a skilled piano player and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet for almost fifty years. He wrote and arranged all the music for the small group. Mister Lewis was responsible for the group’s sound and its identity. John Lewis was interested in jazz, blues and bebob, a music with a great deal of energy. Yet he was also greatly influenced by his training in European classical music. Classical music is expressive and intense, but is also structured. He thought jazz should be presented the same way. John Lewis combined classical music with traditional jazz to create songs for himself and the three other members of his quartet. He believed music should be simple and clear, yet played in a meaningful way. Here is one of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s big hits, "Django." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Lewis was greatly influenced by the piano style of the famous jazz bandleader, Count Basie. Like Basie, Lewis believed in making every note of music count. He depended as much on silence as he did on notes to get his message across. John Lewis often used a form of music called fugue. Fugue is a series of opposing melodies used to create a complex effect. Mister Lewis also combined written music with music that the group invented as it went along. This new kind of jazz attracted both lovers of jazz and classical music. It also appealed to people who did not necessarily like jazz. Here is an example of fugue in the song “Alexander’s Fugue.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Modern Jazz Quartet included John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Connie Kay. The group made its first recording in nineteen fifty-two. And they continued to play together, with a seven year break, until nineteen ninety-nine. John Lewis was as concerned about appearances as he was about the music. The musicians had to dress well for every performance. They played mostly in concert halls instead of small dance clubs. Lewis believed jazz should receive the same respect as classical music. VOICE TWO: John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, in nineteen twenty. He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He started playing the piano when he was seven. As a teenager, he played professionally in churches around Albuquerque. He soon was playing in local dance halls. Lewis studied anthropology and music at the University of New Mexico. In nineteen forty-two, he joined the Army and served in Europe during World War Two. After the war, Lewis moved to New York City and played in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. He also studied for his master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music. VOICE ONE: John Lewis played in the rhythm section of Gillespie’s band. Other members were drummer Kenny Clarke, bass player Ray Brown and vibraphone player Milt Jackson. The four often performed together while the horn players in the band rested. The four band members continued to work together after leaving Dizzy’s group in the late nineteen forties. At that time, they were criticized for not playing “true jazz.” But they continued anyway. Ray Brown and Kenny Clarke soon left the group. Bass player Percy Heath and drummer Connie Kay replaced them. In nineteen fifty-two, the group became the Modern Jazz Quartet and established its own identity. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-six, the Modern Jazz Quartet played a series of concerts in Europe. The group helped make jazz popular with many music listeners in Europe. The members of the quartet had become major stars by the time they returned to the United States. The Modern Jazz Quartet continued to perform all over the world for sold-out crowds until the late nineteen seventies. People loved the group’s teamwork and their amazing sound. Listen as we play “Vendome”, another big hit. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics say John Lewis’s “less is more” piano style and Milt Jackson’s energy on the vibraphone were the secret to the group’s long-lasting success. Yet over the years, Mister Jackson expressed dissatisfaction with limits that were put on his talents. The group separated in nineteen seventy-four. However, the members of the quartet reunited after seven years. They played together until Milt Jackson’s death in nineteen ninety-nine. In addition to his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet, John Lewis worked for many years as musical director of the Monterey Jazz Festival in California. He wrote the music for several Hollywood films. He taught at Harvard University and the City College of New York. And he helped establish a jazz school in Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Through the years, John Lewis worked with some of the biggest names in jazz, including trumpet player Miles Davis. Yet for all the praise Lewis received, he was known for putting the interests of the group over the individual.John Lewis lived a quiet life with his wife, Mirjana, in New York City. In March, two thousand one, he died of cancer. He was eighty years old. His death officially marked the end of a historic period in modern jazz. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Roy Benson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-15-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Cheating Investigated in UN Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 16, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The United Nations will use money left over from its oil-for-food program in Iraq to pay for an investigation of that program. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the U.N. Security Council this week that thirty million dollars will be used. The money was meant to pay costs of the program, which ended last year. This past April, Mister Annan appointed Paul Volcker to lead an independent investigation into reports of wrongdoing. Mister Volcker is former chairman of the United States central bank, the Federal Reserve. The oil-for-food program also faces other investigations in the United States and Iraq. The Security Council established the program at the end of nineteen ninety-six. The program was designed to ease the harm caused to the Iraqi population by U.N. economic restrictions. These went into effect after Iraq invaded Kuwait in nineteen ninety. The program was valued at sixty thousand million dollars. It permitted the former government of Saddam Hussein to sell limited amounts of oil. Money from the oil sales was used to buy food, medicine and other aid. But in January, an Iraqi newspaper listed about two hundred seventy foreigners suspected of illegally profiting from the oil sales. There were more accusations last week in a report by an American team, the Iraq Survey Group. Chief American weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, a special adviser to the Central Intelligence Agency, prepared the report. The report said Saddam Hussein made eleven thousand million dollars in oil profits outside U.N. control. It said his government also imported military equipment and other illegal goods. The report says the former government offered deals to hundreds of individuals, companies and governments in an effort to end the U.N. restrictions. It says many offers were aimed at Russia, France and China, all permanent members of the Security Council. The report also says there were illegal oil sales to Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt during the full period of the restrictions. The thousand-page Duelfer report says Iraq used a secret system of oil vouchers. These permitted the holder to buy oil and resell it at a profit. Benon Sevan, the former chief of the U.N. oil-for-food program, is listed among those said to have received vouchers. He has denied any wrongdoing. So have Russia, France and others named in the report. The Iraq Survey Group also listed American companies and individuals. But American officials said they could not release those names because of privacy laws. Mister Duelfer said the report was based on Iraqi documents and information from members of the former government. But many of those named in the report say there is no independent proof that illegal offers were accepted. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: WHY? WHY? WHY? - Commonly Asked Questions from Listeners
* Byline: 

 Many thanks to listeners who have e-mailed us pictures of themselves for our 45th anniversary. The pictures will appear on our site in the coming days. Broadcast: October 19, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to a special presentation of AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. We're here today to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: AMERICAN MOSAIC is normally heard on Friday. Every show includes a question sent in by a listener. But today we are going to answer several of the most commonly asked questions. VOICE TWO: These include questions about some of the music used for Special English programs. So here now is the theme from “Words and Their Stories.” This is called the “Bethena Concert Waltz" by Scott Joplin. (MUSIC) Special English was first broadcast on October nineteenth, nineteen fifty-nine. VOA wanted to help people get to know American English while they learned about the United States and world events. So, we begin with one of the questions asked most often: Why is America called the United States? VOICE ONE: Colonial leaders used that name when they declared independence from Britain in seventeen seventy-six. In seventeen seventy-five the Second Continental Congress had established the "United Colonies of America." Once the Declaration of Independence was signed, and war declared against Britain, the thirteen colonies became states. Now you may also ask, why is America is called America? Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain to the New World in fourteen nineteen ninety-two. But it was the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci who described the new lands as a separate continent. A mapmaker in Europe, Martin Waldseemuller, drew a map of the continent in fifteen-oh-seven. He named the continent America. He chose a Latin version of Amerigo to honor the explorer. Today the last remaining copy of that map is owned by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. VOICE TWO: This leads to another commonly asked question: What does D.C. mean? The answer takes us back to the early years of the United States. The states approved the Constitution in seventeen eighty-eight. But they disagreed about where to build a permanent capital. Finally they compromised. The capital city would be in a federal area built on land provided by Virginia and Maryland. Congress agreed to build the capital city along the Potomac River between the two states. Later, officials announced that the city would be called Washington, to honor George Washington, the first president. The larger federal area would be known as the District of Columbia. Columbia was a name for the United States used by poets and writers. It came from Columbus, as in Christopher Columbus. Here now is another Special English theme. From PEOPLE IN AMERICA, this is “Prelude Number Two” by George Gershwin. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People sometimes call the United States government "Uncle Sam." Uncle Sam traditionally appears as an old man with a tall hat. His clothes are red, white and blue, like the flag. Many listeners ask, who is this man? History experts are not really sure. But people in Troy, New York, have a popular explanation of how the name began: There was a meatpacker in the city named Samuel Wilson. People called him "Uncle Sam." During the War of Eighteen-Twelve, he supplied meat to troops fighting the British. The shipments for the government were marked "U.S." U.S. meant United States. But, the explanation goes, U.S. also came to represent Uncle Sam to the troops. The imaginary Uncle Sam that Americans know came to life in the eighteen thirties. Newspaper cartoonist Thomas Nast drew him to represent the government. Now, here is the theme from SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, the Special English program normally heard at this time. The composer is unknown. The music is called “Expansion of Knowledge.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many listeners ask about famous places in the United States. One of the most common questions is about Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, in the Midwestern part of the country. Cut into the mountain are the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Each president was chosen to represent something different about America. George Washington represented the founding of the country. Thomas Jefferson represented faith in the common man. Abraham Lincoln represented the unity saved after the Civil War. And Theodore Roosevelt represented the progressive spirit of America. The stone faces are eighteen meters high. The man who carved them was Gutzon Borglum. He began exploding away pieces of rock in nineteen twenty-seven. The work was completed fourteen years later, a year after he died. Here now is the music from the Special English program EXPLORATIONS. The name of the piece is “All Souls Waltz” by Carlos Nikai. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another popular question about places is about a place on the West Coast: Hollywood, the capital of the American movie industry. Hollywood is part of the city of Los Angeles, in California. The wife of a local land developer named the area Hollywood in the eighteen eighties. She liked the sound of the word, even though there were no holly trees in California. At first, Hollywood was surrounded by orange trees and farms. Then, in nineteen eleven, independent movie producers moved from the eastern United States. They wanted to get away from large companies that were trying to stop them from using new movie-making technology. They liked Hollywood because of the warm weather and sunshine all through the year. Soon, the quiet community of farms and orange trees had changed. By the nineteen twenties, Hollywood was the movie capital of the world. And now, we present the music from the program AMERICAN STORIES. This is “Warm Valley” by Duke Ellington. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another name-related question often asked is about the name of our program. AMERICAN MOSAIC was chosen in a contest when the show began in nineteen eighty-five. A mosaic picture is made up of different pieces. Each piece has its own shape and color. Our program brings together different stories to form a picture of American life. So listeners in China and Egypt suggested the name AMERICAN MOSAIC. Now, here is our theme music. This is "Lover’s Leap” by Bela Fleck. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: All the answers you just heard are on the Special English Web site. The address is voaspecialenglish dot com. And we will be adding other commonly asked questions. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and where you live. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven U.S.A. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I'm Doug Johnson. SCIENCE IN THE NEWS will be back next Tuesday. And be sure to listen again this Friday for another AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Candidates State Their Positions on Farm Policy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 19, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Recently, the American Farm Bureau Federation asked the major presidential candidates about farm issues. Here are some of the answers by President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. The Farm Bureau asked what policies the candidates would propose to strengthen farming. President Bush said the farm bill of two thousand two had provided payments to farmers when prices were low. The Department of Agriculture says the bill has provided farmers with more than fifteen thousand million dollars. Senator Kerry said he would seek fair trade policies. He also said he would expand agriculture markets to include new kinds of products. Mister Kerry said he supported financial protection against low prices and other risks for farmers. The Farm Bureau asked how the candidates would change America’s energy policy to meet energy needs while moving toward renewable energy sources in the future. Senator Kerry proposed a Clean Fuels Partnership that would bring together government, agriculture and industry. The goal would be to have twenty percent of America’s motor fuel produced from American agricultural products by the year twenty twenty. One example is ethanol, a fuel made from grain. President Bush said he proposed a bill to provide four thousand million dollars in lower taxes for renewable energy businesses. But that bill has not passed in Congress. The Farm Bureau asked if the candidates would seek greater acceptance of biotechnology products. President Bush said he opposes identifying genetically engineered food with labels. He said the government is aiding farmers who do not want to grow such crops. Senator Kerry said he would seek the acceptance of safe agricultural products around the world. He said nations should not use the issue of biotechnology to unfairly close their markets to American exports. Both candidates were asked why farmers should vote them. President Bush said he understands the problems of farmers. And he added it was important to pass more tax cuts and to open new markets. Senator Kerry said he wants to help American family farmers compete in the international agricultural economy. He said he would fight for fair trade and protect farmers from risks like floods and lack of rain. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – National Geographic Worldwide
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 20, 2004 (MUSIC) Gilbert H. Grosvenor Broadcast: October 20, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the National Geographic Society and its international programs. K6 in Pakistan by Jimmy Chin VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the National Geographic Society and its international programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Books. Movies. Magazines. Maps. Television programs. Internet sites. Trips for travelers. Continuing support for research and exploration around the world. These are all ways an American organization, the National Geographic Society, is trying to increase its worldwide reach. The National Geographic Society began in the United States more than a century ago with thirty-three members. Today it has more than nine million members worldwide. It is the largest non-profit scientific and educational organization in the world. It has taught millions of people about the world they live in, the deep oceans and outer space. VOICE TWO: In eighteen eighty-eight, thirty-three men gathered at a social club in Washington, D.C. They were scientists, explorers, military officers and teachers. Most of them had traveled many places. They were excited about new discoveries. They believed in the importance of geography – the study of the Earth and its resources. The men believed travel helps people understand their world and other cultures. So they decided to create an organization for people interested in knowing more about the world. They named it the National Geographic Society. Nine months later they published their first effort to communicate with members. It was the official record of the society. It contained factual, scientific reports. VOICE ONE: Gilbert H. Grosvenor became the editor of the magazine in nineteen-oh-three. He remained with the magazine for fifty-five years. He wanted to increase the Society’s membership by presenting “the living, breathing human-interest truth about this great world of ours.” He wanted the magazine to offer simple, clear writing describing the personal experience of explorers and photographs of what they saw. The magazine continues to offer writing that describes the personal experiences of explorers and adventurers. It has become famous for its memorable photographs from around the world. It is a record of what is happening to cultures, nature, science and technology. Today about forty million people read the National Geographic magazine every month. It is published in twenty-five languages including Japanese, Korean, Greek, Chinese, Turkish and Russian. Eight years ago, only twenty percent of the National Geographic readers lived outside the United States. Now, more than forty percent of the readers live outside the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the last century, the National Geographic Society expanded in many different areas. It now publishes four other magazines, including one especially for children. It publishes about eighty books a year for adults and children, a total of more than two-thousand books in thirty-two languages. The National Geographic also produces videos and movies. It has an Internet Web site, nationalgeographic.com. And it has twenty local Web sites, including ones in India, Brazil, Japan, Romania and Latin America. National Geographic Channels International broadcasts television programs in twenty-six languages. People in about one hundred fifty countries can see them. One recent program followed the steps of early explorer Marco Polo in China. Another went to the middle of a tornado to see nature at its worst. The main goal of the National Geographic Society still is to support research and exploration throughout the world. The Committee for Research and Exploration has paid for more than seven thousand scientific research and exploration projects in about one hundred eighty countries. Forty percent of the grants have been given to explorers and scientists outside the United States. Recently, the Society has increased its international reach through new programs for younger explorers and for filmmakers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-eight, the National Geographic created the Expeditions Council. The Council awards grants for explorations in unrecorded or little known areas of the world. Rebecca Martin is executive director of the Expeditions Council. She says it is seeking projects that may not be scientific but will provide exciting stories in words and pictures about the world we live in. In the year two thousand, the Society began a program to honor and give financial support to experienced explorers. There are eight Explorers-in-Residence now. They share what they learn with the public through National Geographic Society books, magazines, television programs, and talks. VOICE TWO: Underwater explorer Robert Ballard is one of the Explorers-in-Residence. He returned this year to the Atlantic Ocean to examine the famous sunken passenger ship, the Titanic, nineteen years after he discovered it. He found that other divers are damaging the ship when they land on it and remove objects. His new examination of the Titanic led to a National Geographic book, a magazine report and two television programs. The newest Explorers-in Residence are Meave and Louise Leakey who are mother and daughter. They are paleontologists who have made important discoveries of early human ancestors and prehistoric mammals in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month, the Society announced a new program for younger explorers. Barbara Moffett is a spokeswoman for the National Geographic Society. She says the Emerging Explorers program is designed to help younger people who are adding to world knowledge. Up to ten people will be chosen each year. Each one will receive an award of ten thousand dollars to help with his or her research and explorations. The program is open to explorers, scientists, photographers and storytellers who are not yet known for their work. VOICE TWO: Nine people are in the first group of Emerging Explorers. One of them is Tierney Thys who works for a movie company in California. She has spent four years traveling the oceans of the world. She is studying a giant sunfish named the mola. It can weigh more than two hundred twenty-five kilograms. Zeray (ze-RYE) Alemseged is an anthropology researcher in Leipzig, Germany. He is leading a scientific dig in Ethiopia’s Afar area. His team is discovering important information about the four million year history of human development. Photographer Jimmy Chin is another Emerging Explorer. He is climbing some of the highest mountains in the world to take pictures of places most people will never see. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Earlier this year, the National Geographic launched the All Roads Film project. Its goal is to provide support to filmmakers who are members of a native group or minority culture. The All Roads Film project will provide grant money to produce films or videos. Experienced filmmakers will offer training and advice. The project will provide public showings of some of the best movies made by independent filmmakers who have difficulty getting their work shown. This month, movies made in sixteen countries will be shown at two All Roads Film Festivals in Los Angeles, California, and Washington, D.C. A group of movie industry advisors chose the winners from more than five-hundred entered in the competition. Members of the native Maoris of Australia made one of the movies. It is about a group of Maori soldiers in World War Two. Another movie, made in Thailand, looks at a Buddhist’s feelings about terrorism. An Iranian actress directed a movie that shows Iranian women and what they think. VOICE TWO: The National Geographic Society has become increasingly concerned about the need to protect the Earth’s natural resources. It also believes that young people must better understand the world if they are to become its future leaders. And, the Society needs to provide exciting stories for its television programs and magazines that are produced in many areas of the world. So, Rebecca Martin says, the National Geographic is always looking for younger explorers whose exciting projects will help people understand their world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Books. Movies. Magazines. Maps. Television programs. Internet sites. Trips for travelers. Continuing support for research and exploration around the world. These are all ways an American organization, the National Geographic Society, is trying to increase its worldwide reach. The National Geographic Society began in the United States more than a century ago with thirty-three members. Today it has more than nine million members worldwide. It is the largest non-profit scientific and educational organization in the world. It has taught millions of people about the world they live in, the deep oceans and outer space. VOICE TWO: In eighteen eighty-eight, thirty-three men gathered at a social club in Washington, D.C. They were scientists, explorers, military officers and teachers. Most of them had traveled many places. They were excited about new discoveries. They believed in the importance of geography – the study of the Earth and its resources. The men believed travel helps people understand their world and other cultures. So they decided to create an organization for people interested in knowing more about the world. They named it the National Geographic Society. Nine months later they published their first effort to communicate with members. It was the official record of the society. It contained factual, scientific reports. VOICE ONE: Gilbert H. Grosvenor became the editor of the magazine in nineteen-oh-three. He remained with the magazine for fifty-five years. He wanted to increase the Society’s membership by presenting “the living, breathing human-interest truth about this great world of ours.” He wanted the magazine to offer simple, clear writing describing the personal experience of explorers and photographs of what they saw. The magazine continues to offer writing that describes the personal experiences of explorers and adventurers. It has become famous for its memorable photographs from around the world. It is a record of what is happening to cultures, nature, science and technology. Today about forty million people read the National Geographic magazine every month. It is published in twenty-five languages including Japanese, Korean, Greek, Chinese, Turkish and Russian. Eight years ago, only twenty percent of the National Geographic readers lived outside the United States. Now, more than forty percent of the readers live outside the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the last century, the National Geographic Society expanded in many different areas. It now publishes four other magazines, including one especially for children. It publishes about eighty books a year for adults and children, a total of more than two-thousand books in thirty-two languages. The National Geographic also produces videos and movies. It has an Internet Web site, nationalgeographic.com. And it has twenty local Web sites, including ones in India, Brazil, Japan, Romania and Latin America. National Geographic Channels International broadcasts television programs in twenty-six languages. People in about one hundred fifty countries can see them. One recent program followed the steps of early explorer Marco Polo in China. Another went to the middle of a tornado to see nature at its worst. The main goal of the National Geographic Society still is to support research and exploration throughout the world. The Committee for Research and Exploration has paid for more than seven thousand scientific research and exploration projects in about one hundred eighty countries. Forty percent of the grants have been given to explorers and scientists outside the United States. Recently, the Society has increased its international reach through new programs for younger explorers and for filmmakers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen ninety-eight, the National Geographic created the Expeditions Council. The Council awards grants for explorations in unrecorded or little known areas of the world. Rebecca Martin is executive director of the Expeditions Council. She says it is seeking projects that may not be scientific but will provide exciting stories in words and pictures about the world we live in. In the year two thousand, the Society began a program to honor and give financial support to experienced explorers. There are eight Explorers-in-Residence now. They share what they learn with the public through National Geographic Society books, magazines, television programs, and talks. VOICE TWO: Underwater explorer Robert Ballard is one of the Explorers-in-Residence. He returned this year to the Atlantic Ocean to examine the famous sunken passenger ship, the Titanic, nineteen years after he discovered it. He found that other divers are damaging the ship when they land on it and remove objects. His new examination of the Titanic led to a National Geographic book, a magazine report and two television programs. The newest Explorers-in Residence are Meave and Louise Leakey who are mother and daughter. They are paleontologists who have made important discoveries of early human ancestors and prehistoric mammals in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Last month, the Society announced a new program for younger explorers. Barbara Moffett is a spokeswoman for the National Geographic Society. She says the Emerging Explorers program is designed to help younger people who are adding to world knowledge. Up to ten people will be chosen each year. Each one will receive an award of ten thousand dollars to help with his or her research and explorations. The program is open to explorers, scientists, photographers and storytellers who are not yet known for their work. VOICE TWO: Nine people are in the first group of Emerging Explorers. One of them is Tierney Thys who works for a movie company in California. She has spent four years traveling the oceans of the world. She is studying a giant sunfish named the mola. It can weigh more than two hundred twenty-five kilograms. Zeray (ze-RYE) Alemseged is an anthropology researcher in Leipzig, Germany. He is leading a scientific dig in Ethiopia’s Afar area. His team is discovering important information about the four million year history of human development. Photographer Jimmy Chin is another Emerging Explorer. He is climbing some of the highest mountains in the world to take pictures of places most people will never see. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Earlier this year, the National Geographic launched the All Roads Film project. Its goal is to provide support to filmmakers who are members of a native group or minority culture. The All Roads Film project will provide grant money to produce films or videos. Experienced filmmakers will offer training and advice. The project will provide public showings of some of the best movies made by independent filmmakers who have difficulty getting their work shown. This month, movies made in sixteen countries will be shown at two All Roads Film Festivals in Los Angeles, California, and Washington, D.C. A group of movie industry advisors chose the winners from more than five-hundred entered in the competition. Members of the native Maoris of Australia made one of the movies. It is about a group of Maori soldiers in World War Two. Another movie, made in Thailand, looks at a Buddhist’s feelings about terrorism. An Iranian actress directed a movie that shows Iranian women and what they think. VOICE TWO: The National Geographic Society has become increasingly concerned about the need to protect the Earth’s natural resources. It also believes that young people must better understand the world if they are to become its future leaders. And, the Society needs to provide exciting stories for its television programs and magazines that are produced in many areas of the world. So, Rebecca Martin says, the National Geographic is always looking for younger explorers whose exciting projects will help people understand their world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Actor Christopher Reeve Dies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 20, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Actor Christopher Reeve died last week. He was fifty-two years old. He was a movie star who became an activist for people with spinal cord injuries. Mister Reeve died last Sunday after developing a serious bloodstream infection from a pressure wound. Such a wound can form on the skin of people who are not able to move. The wound became severely infected and the infection spread through his body. It caused his major organs to shut down. He suffered a heart attack and went into a coma at a hospital near his home outside New York City. Christopher Reeve became famous after starring in the four “Superman” movies in the nineteen seventies and eighties. His life changed in nineteen ninety-five. He was thrown from his horse during a horseback-riding competition. The accident broke his neck, leaving him unable to move his arms or legs. He was paralyzed from the neck down. He could not breathe without the help of a machine. Doctors said he broke the top two vertebrae in his neck and damaged his spinal cord. At the time of the accident, doctors said he would probably live only for seven more years because of the severity of his injury. But Mister Reeve surprised the doctors through his efforts to recover. He began working to strengthen his legs and arms. Doctors used electrical shocks to re-activate his nervous system. In two-thousand, he regained the ability to move his finger. He later regained some movement and feeling in other parts of his body. And last year, an experimental electric device was placed in his abdomen. It permitted him to breathe without a respirator for hours at a time. After his accident, Christopher Reeve promised himself that he would walk again. He used his fame to raise millions of dollars for research into spinal cord injuries. He worked to get better protection for people with long-term disabilities. And he led efforts to increase funding for stem cell research. Many scientists believe such research may lead to cures for paralysis and other conditions, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Some research has shown that stem cells could help paralyzed mice and rats to move again. Experts say about two hundred fifty thousand Americans suffer from paralysis. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #85 - James Buchanan, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 21, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program, the national election of eighteen fifty-six put a new man into the White House: James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. He defeated John Fremont, the candidate of the new Republican Party, which was opposed to slavery. Most of the new president's closest friends were southerners. Buchanan had often supported the south in the dispute over slavery. He wrote that the north was too aggressive toward the south and should stop interfering with slavery in the slave states. Buchanan said that the south had good reason to leave the Union if Abolitionists kept up their attacks against slavery. VOICE TWO: As the new president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slave question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. Success would mean the end of the anti-slavery Republican Party. In choosing his cabinet, Buchanan wanted men who shared the same ideas and interests. President Pierce had tried to unite the different groups in the party by giving each a representative in his cabinet. This had not worked. It had driven the different party groups farther apart. Buchanan had served in President Polk's cabinet. He remembered how well its members worked together. He said it was the unity of this cabinet that made Polk's administration so successful. VOICE ONE: Buchanan gave the job of Secretary of State to Lewis Cass of Michigan. Cass was seventy-five years old. His mind had lost its sharpness. This did not worry Buchanan, because he had planned to be his own foreign minister. The job of Treasury Secretary went to Howell Cobb, a southern moderate from Georgia. Southerners also were named as Secretary of War, Interior Secretary, and Postmaster General. Isaac Toucey of Connecticut was given the job of Navy Secretary. Toucey was a northerner. But he supported many policies of the south. Another northerner -- Jeremiah Black of Pennsylvania -- became Attorney General. In forming his cabinet, Buchanan did not ask for advice from Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas was the party's leader in the Senate and the most powerful Democrat in the northwest. Douglas believed that the northwest should have two representatives in the cabinet. He said Cass could be one of them. But Douglas wanted one of his own supporters to be the other. Buchanan refused what Douglas wanted. And he gave the administration's support to a political enemy of Douglas. VOICE TWO: James Buchanan was sworn-in as president on March fourth, eighteen fifty-seven. In his inaugural speech, the new president denounced the long dispute over slavery. He said he hoped it would end soon. Buchanan said the dispute could be settled easily by doing two things: by ending interference with slavery in states where it was legal. And by letting the people of a territory decide if they wanted slavery. Buchanan said he expected the Supreme Court to rule soon on the right of the people of a territory to decide this. He said he was sure that all good citizens -- north and south -- would accept the high court's ruling. VOICE ONE: At the time he said this, Buchanan already knew what the court's decision would be. He had even used his influence to help one member of the court to decide. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, a negro slave. Scott was sold in Missouri to an army doctor who took him to Illinois and then went into the Wisconsin territory. Scott lived in these two places for almost four years before he was returned to Missouri. Scott asked a court in Missouri to give him his freedom. He claimed that living in Illinois and Wisconsin -- where slavery was illegal -- had made him a free man. VOICE TWO: The court agreed with Scott and gave him his freedom. But the decision was appealed, and the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled against him. Scott then took his case to a federal court. Finally, he asked the United States Supreme Court to decide if he was a slave or a free man. The Supreme Court took up the case in December, eighteen-fifty-six. The judges studied it carefully because it raised serious constitutional questions. Scott claimed he was free because he had lived in free territory. It was free because Congress -- in the Missouri compromise of eighteen twenty made slavery illegal in that area. Scott's owner raised the questions: Did Congress have the Constitutional power to close a territory to slavery? Was the Missouri Compromise legal? VOICE ONE: At first, most of the nine Supreme Court judges had planned to give a decision without answering this question. They did not want to involve the court in this bitter dispute. The majority decided that a negro was not a citizen. Therefore, they said, Dred Scott had no right to ask the court to hear his case. In this way, the case could be settled without deciding on the power of Congress to act on slavery in the territories. But two of the nine Supreme Court judges opposed this ruling. Both were from the north. They had said they would write a minority decision. They said their decision would include a statement that Congress did have power over slavery in the territories. VOICE TWO: Since two members of the court had planned to offer views on this question, the other seven decided the majority also should do so. Of the seven, five were from the south. They did not believe Congress had any power over territorial slavery. The remaining two judges -- both from the north -- did not want to make what they felt would be a political decision. One southern member of the Supreme Court was James Catron, a good friend of James Buchanan. Buchanan had written to him asking when the court would act on the Dred Scott case. VOICE ONE: Catron had answered that the court would rule soon. Then he asked for Buchanan's help in getting one of the northern members of the court to vote with the five from the south. He told the president that the country would more easily accept the court's ruling if one of the northern judges gave his support. Catron proposed that Buchanan write to Justice Robert Grier of Pennsylvania. So Buchanan wrote to Grier. He told him that a strong decision in the Dred Scott case might do much to bring peace to the country. Grier agreed. He said he would vote with the five southerners. They would rule that the Constitution did not give Congress power over slavery in the territories. All this had happened in the few weeks before Buchanan became president. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court finally announced its decision just two days after Buchanan moved into the White House. Chief Justice Roger Taney read the decision in the small courtroom in the Capitol building. The room was crowded with congressmen, senators, government officials, and newspapermen. Chief Justice Taney began reading the decision at eleven o'clock. He read for more than two and a half hours. He said the high court rejected Scott's claim of freedom for three reasons. First, Scott was not a citizen. Taney said the Constitution gave the right of citizenship only to members of the white race. Because he was not a citizen, he had no right to ask the court to hear his case. Secondly, Taney said Scott was ruled by the laws of Missouri, the state in which he lived. Missouri laws did not give freedom to slaves who lived temporarily in free territory. Therefore, said Taney, Scott was still a slave. VOICE ONE: Then the Chief Justice took up the question of the free territory in which Scott had lived. It had become free territory under the Missouri Compromise. This was the law that Congress passed in eighteen twenty. This law kept slavery out of the northern part of the territory which the United States bought from France. Justice Taney said Congress did not have the constitutional power to pass such a law. He said when new territory was won, it belonged to all citizens. He said Congress had the right to govern such territory until it became a state. But he said Congress did not have power to close new territory to any American citizen. He said the citizen from Georgia had as much right to settle in this territory with his slaves as a citizen of Maine with his horse. Taney said there was no word in the Constitution that gave Congress greater power over slave property than over any other kind of property. The only such power Congress held was the power to guard and protect the rights of the property owner. To close territory to slaves, Taney said, violated the constitutional rights of slaveholding citizens. Therefore, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Congress did not have power to act on slavery in the territories. The Supreme Court's decision was cheered by the south. But in the north, it raised a great fury. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stan Busby and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. Broadcast: October 21, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program, the national election of eighteen fifty-six put a new man into the White House: James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. He defeated John Fremont, the candidate of the new Republican Party, which was opposed to slavery. Most of the new president's closest friends were southerners. Buchanan had often supported the south in the dispute over slavery. He wrote that the north was too aggressive toward the south and should stop interfering with slavery in the slave states. Buchanan said that the south had good reason to leave the Union if Abolitionists kept up their attacks against slavery. VOICE TWO: As the new president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slave question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. Success would mean the end of the anti-slavery Republican Party. In choosing his cabinet, Buchanan wanted men who shared the same ideas and interests. President Pierce had tried to unite the different groups in the party by giving each a representative in his cabinet. This had not worked. It had driven the different party groups farther apart. Buchanan had served in President Polk's cabinet. He remembered how well its members worked together. He said it was the unity of this cabinet that made Polk's administration so successful. VOICE ONE: Buchanan gave the job of Secretary of State to Lewis Cass of Michigan. Cass was seventy-five years old. His mind had lost its sharpness. This did not worry Buchanan, because he had planned to be his own foreign minister. The job of Treasury Secretary went to Howell Cobb, a southern moderate from Georgia. Southerners also were named as Secretary of War, Interior Secretary, and Postmaster General. Isaac Toucey of Connecticut was given the job of Navy Secretary. Toucey was a northerner. But he supported many policies of the south. Another northerner -- Jeremiah Black of Pennsylvania -- became Attorney General. In forming his cabinet, Buchanan did not ask for advice from Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas was the party's leader in the Senate and the most powerful Democrat in the northwest. Douglas believed that the northwest should have two representatives in the cabinet. He said Cass could be one of them. But Douglas wanted one of his own supporters to be the other. Buchanan refused what Douglas wanted. And he gave the administration's support to a political enemy of Douglas. VOICE TWO: James Buchanan was sworn-in as president on March fourth, eighteen fifty-seven. In his inaugural speech, the new president denounced the long dispute over slavery. He said he hoped it would end soon. Buchanan said the dispute could be settled easily by doing two things: by ending interference with slavery in states where it was legal. And by letting the people of a territory decide if they wanted slavery. Buchanan said he expected the Supreme Court to rule soon on the right of the people of a territory to decide this. He said he was sure that all good citizens -- north and south -- would accept the high court's ruling. VOICE ONE: At the time he said this, Buchanan already knew what the court's decision would be. He had even used his influence to help one member of the court to decide. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, a negro slave. Scott was sold in Missouri to an army doctor who took him to Illinois and then went into the Wisconsin territory. Scott lived in these two places for almost four years before he was returned to Missouri. Scott asked a court in Missouri to give him his freedom. He claimed that living in Illinois and Wisconsin -- where slavery was illegal -- had made him a free man. VOICE TWO: The court agreed with Scott and gave him his freedom. But the decision was appealed, and the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled against him. Scott then took his case to a federal court. Finally, he asked the United States Supreme Court to decide if he was a slave or a free man. The Supreme Court took up the case in December, eighteen-fifty-six. The judges studied it carefully because it raised serious constitutional questions. Scott claimed he was free because he had lived in free territory. It was free because Congress -- in the Missouri compromise of eighteen twenty made slavery illegal in that area. Scott's owner raised the questions: Did Congress have the Constitutional power to close a territory to slavery? Was the Missouri Compromise legal? VOICE ONE: At first, most of the nine Supreme Court judges had planned to give a decision without answering this question. They did not want to involve the court in this bitter dispute. The majority decided that a negro was not a citizen. Therefore, they said, Dred Scott had no right to ask the court to hear his case. In this way, the case could be settled without deciding on the power of Congress to act on slavery in the territories. But two of the nine Supreme Court judges opposed this ruling. Both were from the north. They had said they would write a minority decision. They said their decision would include a statement that Congress did have power over slavery in the territories. VOICE TWO: Since two members of the court had planned to offer views on this question, the other seven decided the majority also should do so. Of the seven, five were from the south. They did not believe Congress had any power over territorial slavery. The remaining two judges -- both from the north -- did not want to make what they felt would be a political decision. One southern member of the Supreme Court was James Catron, a good friend of James Buchanan. Buchanan had written to him asking when the court would act on the Dred Scott case. VOICE ONE: Catron had answered that the court would rule soon. Then he asked for Buchanan's help in getting one of the northern members of the court to vote with the five from the south. He told the president that the country would more easily accept the court's ruling if one of the northern judges gave his support. Catron proposed that Buchanan write to Justice Robert Grier of Pennsylvania. So Buchanan wrote to Grier. He told him that a strong decision in the Dred Scott case might do much to bring peace to the country. Grier agreed. He said he would vote with the five southerners. They would rule that the Constitution did not give Congress power over slavery in the territories. All this had happened in the few weeks before Buchanan became president. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court finally announced its decision just two days after Buchanan moved into the White House. Chief Justice Roger Taney read the decision in the small courtroom in the Capitol building. The room was crowded with congressmen, senators, government officials, and newspapermen. Chief Justice Taney began reading the decision at eleven o'clock. He read for more than two and a half hours. He said the high court rejected Scott's claim of freedom for three reasons. First, Scott was not a citizen. Taney said the Constitution gave the right of citizenship only to members of the white race. Because he was not a citizen, he had no right to ask the court to hear his case. Secondly, Taney said Scott was ruled by the laws of Missouri, the state in which he lived. Missouri laws did not give freedom to slaves who lived temporarily in free territory. Therefore, said Taney, Scott was still a slave. VOICE ONE: Then the Chief Justice took up the question of the free territory in which Scott had lived. It had become free territory under the Missouri Compromise. This was the law that Congress passed in eighteen twenty. This law kept slavery out of the northern part of the territory which the United States bought from France. Justice Taney said Congress did not have the constitutional power to pass such a law. He said when new territory was won, it belonged to all citizens. He said Congress had the right to govern such territory until it became a state. But he said Congress did not have power to close new territory to any American citizen. He said the citizen from Georgia had as much right to settle in this territory with his slaves as a citizen of Maine with his horse. Taney said there was no word in the Constitution that gave Congress greater power over slave property than over any other kind of property. The only such power Congress held was the power to guard and protect the rights of the property owner. To close territory to slaves, Taney said, violated the constitutional rights of slaveholding citizens. Therefore, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Congress did not have power to act on slavery in the territories. The Supreme Court's decision was cheered by the south. But in the north, it raised a great fury. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stan Busby and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #8 - College Entrance Tests
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 21, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Colleges and universities in the United States generally consider three things when they decide which students to accept. They consider the grades that a student has earned in school. Experts say marks are the most important thing. But officials also consider the difficulty of the classes that the student took. And they consider the scores that the student received on college entrance tests. Today, in part eight of our Foreign Student Series, we discuss the two tests known as the S.A.T. and the A.C.T. The S.A.T. measures reasoning skills in mathematics and language. This includes how well a student reads and understands what is read. Students may also need to take S.A.T. subject tests in areas like history, science and foreign language. After January, the S.A.T. will cost forty-one dollars and fifty cents, a twelve dollar increase. The international processing charge is an additional twenty dollars. Next March, there will be changes in the S.A.T. For example, students will have to write an essay. But they will no longer be tested on word analogies. The test is now three hours long. The changes will add forty-five minutes. You can get more information about the S.A.T. at the College Board Web site, collegeboard dot com. The A.C.T. has tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. It takes about three hours and thirty minutes to complete. Starting in February, students can also take a writing test. The A.C.T. costs forty-five dollars to take outside the United States. The Web site for more information is actstuden.org. Some schools may suggest that foreign students also take the Test of Spoken English or the Test of Written English. But most American schools require the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language. That is our subject next week. Internet users can find the reports in our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish.com. The State Department has information for international students at educationusa.state.gov. Now here is a quick test. Do you know what A.C.T. and S.A.T. mean? A.C.T. stands for American College Test. S.A.T. used to stand for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Then it became Scholastic Assessment Test. Now, the College Board, which owns the test, says S.A.T. does not stand for anything. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: October 21, 2004 - Creative Writing, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 21, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we have a special guest to discuss creative writing. CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "My name is Chitra Divakaruni, and I am a writer and also a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston." RS: "Creative writing is something you can teach?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Only if you already know how to write. We can help you get better and we can help writers see what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses. And this is something that many writers, and myself included, sometimes have a hard time with, because we are so close to our own writing that it's hard to be critical about it." AA: "And you have to think about, I suppose in some cases, commercial considerations, if you want to actually make money from your writing. I mean, what's the market demanding right now?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "What we are dealing with in creative writing programs is really literary fiction. So over there the market is very open and looking for new talent, people who can tell a story in a different way, people who create characters that are unique. That's what publishers are looking for, people who have a voice that is different from other voices." RS: "You talk about strengths and weaknesses. When you look at a story, what would be some of those strengths and weaknesses?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, one of the things that I would look for in my students' stories is, how well are the characters depicted? Are these characters coming alive? Are they believable? Do they have a unique voice when they speak in their dialogue? That would be one of the first things. Does the reader feel sympathy or empathy or at least some kind of strong reaction to these characters?" RS: "Wouldn't that be highly subjective?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Creative writing, as you continue to work in the field, you see that it is often subjective in the ways in which people express things. But certain things are universal about good literature, and one of them is that good literature makes the reader think about a lot of issues and makes the reader feel about a lot of issues that are central in the novel. And if that connection is not created right away, then your book has failed on some level." RS: "You say 'right away.' What do you mean right away, in the first sentence -- " AA: "The first chapter?" RS: " -- in the first chapter, in the first paragraph?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "If it's a story, yes, the first paragraph. If it's a novel, then you have a few more pages to work with, but within two or three pages, the reader must want to continue reading. The reader must say 'wow, this is really exciting and worth my time.'" AA: "So, now, you are out with your latest novel. It's called 'Queen of Dreams.' Why don't you just talk a little bit about the process you went through. Did you feel a bit like a student, or do you talk to your students about -- did you have to do many rewrites? Tell us a little bit about the process." CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Yes, definitely. When I was doing 'Queen of Dreams,' when I was writing that, I had to do a lot of revision. I always do a lot of revision. I'm kind of one of those addicted, compulsive revisers. And for me, each word just has to be right, or I'll keep worrying the text, I'll keep working with it. "And one of the first things that's always important to me in my writing, and certainly in 'Queen of Dreams' but also in earlier novels like 'Mistress of Spices' and 'Sister of My Heart,' is that I have to have a very strong idea of the protagonist or at least two or three of the major characters before I can start writing. I have to be able to visualize them, I have to understand their inner thinking, and I have to get a sense of their voice, how they speak. And I can't start stories until I have that clearly in my head." RS: "Are any of the voices, or students, in your classes, are they from other communities, other cultures, so they're speaking with a wide variety of voices?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "We have a very multicultural program, and I have students who are Indian American. I have African American students. I have Latino American students. I really have students from just about, so many cultures, and that creates a really wonderful mix in the classroom, because everyone is bringing their own culture into their writing. And even though they're writing in English, they have the rhythms of their own mother tongues." RS: "And what is your mother tongue?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "My mother tongue is Bengali." RS: "And is that voice heard in your novels?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Very much so. In 'Queen of Dreams,' the title character, who is a dream interpreter, comes from Bengal. She's living in the United States right now." AA: And, next week, we’ll hear more from Chitra Divakaruni, a novelist, poet and professor of creative writing at the University of Houston, in Texas. That's all for now. Our e-mail address here is word@voanews.com. And find our interviews online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 21, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we have a special guest to discuss creative writing. CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "My name is Chitra Divakaruni, and I am a writer and also a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston." RS: "Creative writing is something you can teach?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Only if you already know how to write. We can help you get better and we can help writers see what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses. And this is something that many writers, and myself included, sometimes have a hard time with, because we are so close to our own writing that it's hard to be critical about it." AA: "And you have to think about, I suppose in some cases, commercial considerations, if you want to actually make money from your writing. I mean, what's the market demanding right now?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "What we are dealing with in creative writing programs is really literary fiction. So over there the market is very open and looking for new talent, people who can tell a story in a different way, people who create characters that are unique. That's what publishers are looking for, people who have a voice that is different from other voices." RS: "You talk about strengths and weaknesses. When you look at a story, what would be some of those strengths and weaknesses?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, one of the things that I would look for in my students' stories is, how well are the characters depicted? Are these characters coming alive? Are they believable? Do they have a unique voice when they speak in their dialogue? That would be one of the first things. Does the reader feel sympathy or empathy or at least some kind of strong reaction to these characters?" RS: "Wouldn't that be highly subjective?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Creative writing, as you continue to work in the field, you see that it is often subjective in the ways in which people express things. But certain things are universal about good literature, and one of them is that good literature makes the reader think about a lot of issues and makes the reader feel about a lot of issues that are central in the novel. And if that connection is not created right away, then your book has failed on some level." RS: "You say 'right away.' What do you mean right away, in the first sentence -- " AA: "The first chapter?" RS: " -- in the first chapter, in the first paragraph?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "If it's a story, yes, the first paragraph. If it's a novel, then you have a few more pages to work with, but within two or three pages, the reader must want to continue reading. The reader must say 'wow, this is really exciting and worth my time.'" AA: "So, now, you are out with your latest novel. It's called 'Queen of Dreams.' Why don't you just talk a little bit about the process you went through. Did you feel a bit like a student, or do you talk to your students about -- did you have to do many rewrites? Tell us a little bit about the process." CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Yes, definitely. When I was doing 'Queen of Dreams,' when I was writing that, I had to do a lot of revision. I always do a lot of revision. I'm kind of one of those addicted, compulsive revisers. And for me, each word just has to be right, or I'll keep worrying the text, I'll keep working with it. "And one of the first things that's always important to me in my writing, and certainly in 'Queen of Dreams' but also in earlier novels like 'Mistress of Spices' and 'Sister of My Heart,' is that I have to have a very strong idea of the protagonist or at least two or three of the major characters before I can start writing. I have to be able to visualize them, I have to understand their inner thinking, and I have to get a sense of their voice, how they speak. And I can't start stories until I have that clearly in my head." RS: "Are any of the voices, or students, in your classes, are they from other communities, other cultures, so they're speaking with a wide variety of voices?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "We have a very multicultural program, and I have students who are Indian American. I have African American students. I have Latino American students. I really have students from just about, so many cultures, and that creates a really wonderful mix in the classroom, because everyone is bringing their own culture into their writing. And even though they're writing in English, they have the rhythms of their own mother tongues." RS: "And what is your mother tongue?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "My mother tongue is Bengali." RS: "And is that voice heard in your novels?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Very much so. In 'Queen of Dreams,' the title character, who is a dream interpreter, comes from Bengal. She's living in the United States right now." AA: And, next week, we’ll hear more from Chitra Divakaruni, a novelist, poet and professor of creative writing at the University of Houston, in Texas. That's all for now. Our e-mail address here is word@voanews.com. And find our interviews online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/photo_gallery_audience2.cfm
* Headline: PHOTO GALLERY - Pictures of Our Audience
* Byline: 

 We asked our listeners to e-mail us pictures of themselves for our 45th anniversary on Oct. 19. Thank you! If you would like to add your picture to our collection, please send it to special@voanews.com Photos 1-100 | Photos 101-200 | Photos 201-300 | Photos 300+ Here are pictures 101-200: 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Officials Investigate Competition in the U.S. Insurance Industry
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 22, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In a fair market, businesses compete to provide products and services to buyers. Competition is supposed to keep down prices. Now, the top law enforcement official in New York State is investigating competition in the insurance industry. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought civil action last week against the biggest insurance broker in the world. Marsh & McLennan Companies is accused of cheating buyers. These are mostly businesses, but also local governments and some individuals. Insurance is a guarantee against risk. Insurance companies pay for losses when something bad happens. There are many kinds of policies, such as automobile insurance, fire insurance and health insurance. Brokers bring together buyers and sellers. The job of an insurance broker is to collect competing offers, called bids, from insurance companies. Buyers then choose the best one. Mister Spitzer says Marsh directed buyers to companies from which it received special payments. These are known as "contingent commissions." Also, he says Marsh at times requested false bids from insurance companies, to create the appearance of real competition. Several large insurance companies are named, but not charged, in the action. These include Ace and A.I.G., the American International Group. A.I.G. is the world’s largest insurance company. Two officials from A.I.G. and one from Ace said they are guilty of criminal charges in connection with the case. Other companies are still under investigation. A.I.G. and Ace both say they will no longer pay contingent commissions to brokers. And Marsh says it will no longer accept such payments. Marsh announced the immediate suspension of "market service agreements" with insurance companies. It says these agreements provided eight hundred forty-five million dollars last year. That was twelve percent of all the money from its risk and insurance services. Marsh & McLennan says it takes the accusations of wrongdoing very seriously. The New York investigation has led California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to warn of legal action in his state against the industry. Eliot Spitzer is already known for reaching big settlements in civil cases against financial companies accused of cheating investors. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Desert Beauty in Sedona, Arizona / Politically Active Musicians / Question from China About Presidential Campaign Costs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 22, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by musicians with a political goal this election year ... A question from a listener about how much American presidential candidates spend on their campaigns ... And a report about a popular vacation town in the American Southwest. Sedona The third presidential debate was held last week in Tempe, Arizona, near Phoenix. The southwestern state of Arizona is known for its beautiful red rock formations and the Grand Canyon. Between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon is a town of about ten thousand people called Sedona. Millions of people travel there each year. Bob Doughty tells us why. BOB DOUGHTY: Sedona is a desert community about one thousand four hundred meters above sea level. Last year, USA Today newspaper named Sedona the most beautiful place in the United States. Some of the oldest rocks on Earth surround the area, called Red Rock Country. Each morning and night, the rock formations change colors. Light from the sun as it rises and sets causes the formations to change from yellow, to orange, to bright red, even purple. For visitors, one of the best ways to see this natural beauty is to ride jeep vehicles that can climb on the rocks. Sedona is also famous for its growing arts community and Native American history. Hundreds of years ago, Native American Indians considered the Red Rocks holy. They traveled great distances to perform ceremonies on them. Only the bravest chiefs and medicine men were permitted to enter the rock formations. Theodore Carl Schnebly named the town after his wife in nineteen-oh-two. At that time, six families lived in the area. The American movie industry has filmed hundreds of motion pictures and television shows in Sedona. The town’s natural beauty looks like no other place on Earth. One of the first Hollywood movies to show Sedona was “The Call of the Canyon,” filmed in nineteen twenty-three. In nineteen forty-seven, the area became famous because of the film "Angel and the Badman” starring John Wayne. The next year, actor Robert Mitchum’s film, "Blood On The Moon", increased public interest in Sedona. Today, about four million people visit Sedona each year. With that many travelers, you would think the town would be a busy place. But it is not. About half of the town is privately owned. The other half is part of the Coconino National Forest. Cost of Elections DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Guangzhou, China. Vicky Mok asks how much will be spent on the presidential election this year and how the candidates pay for it. The Federal Election Commission records how much money is spent on elections. Campaigns must keep detailed records and report them to the F.E.C. The commission’s job is to enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act. Congress approved the law to stop wealthy individuals and groups from unfairly influencing elections. The act limits how much individuals and groups can give to candidates. Individual gifts to candidates are now limited to two thousand dollars. A mix of private gifts and tax money pay for the primary campaigns and the presidential campaigns. Federal law bars companies, labor groups and foreign citizens from giving to campaigns. But political action groups, and state and local party committees can accept gifts from individuals and combine the money. They can give up to five thousand dollars of this money to candidates. Every American who pays income tax can send three dollars to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This fund is used to help pay for political campaigns. It is also used to pay for the conventions of the major political parties and some of the convention costs of smaller parties. This year, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund provided about fifteen million dollars to help pay for the Democratic and Republican conventions. The major party candidates – President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry -- each received about seventy-five million dollars in federal matching funds. The total amount spent on the two thousand four presidential election will not be known until the campaigns give their final reports for the year. But we can report the amount received by all the candidates up to August thirty-first -- about six hundred sixty-two million dollars. But that amount does not include money given to groups not connected to the campaigns. These groups can spend money to influence the election for or against a candidate. And there are no limits on the amount individuals can give to these groups. A group called The Center for Public Integrity reports on spending by five of these groups. It says these groups had raised about three hundred twenty-three million dollars as of the beginning of October. Vote for Change Tour Some popular American musicians joined together in an effort to influence the presidential election this year. Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam and REM were some of the artists to join the “Vote for Change” tour. Gwen Outen tells us more. GWEN OUTEN: About twenty musicians who support John Kerry for president traveled around the country for two weeks this month. They performed more than thirty concerts in nine states where the election is expected to be the closest. The final show was October eleventh in Washington, D.C. It was broadcast live around the nation on radio, television and the Internet. During the show, John Fogerty performed his song, “Fortunate Son.” (MUSIC) The MoveOn political organization presented the “Vote for Change” tour. The organization said it hoped to raise about ten million dollars. The money went to another political organization called America Coming Together. That group used the money to sign up new voters. MoveOn says the “Vote for Change” tour was the first of its kind. It was the largest group of musicians to come together to try to influence an election. Other musical movements have raised money for social causes. For example, the yearly Farm Aid show raises money for American farmers. Musicians supporting President Bush did not have a concert tour like the “Vote for Change” tour. However, many entertainers support the president. They include the Gatlin Brothers, Kid Rock, Sara Evans and Jessica Simpson. Many of them performed during the Republican National Convention in New York City this summer. Country singer Lee Ann Womack also supports the president. She sang this song, “I Hope You Dance,” at a gathering for President bush in Ohio. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or write to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and postal address. And you can also e-mail us a picture of yourself. It will appear at voaspecialenglish dot com if we use your question. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Mario Ritter. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: October 22, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by musicians with a political goal this election year ... A question from a listener about how much American presidential candidates spend on their campaigns ... And a report about a popular vacation town in the American Southwest. Sedona The third presidential debate was held last week in Tempe, Arizona, near Phoenix. The southwestern state of Arizona is known for its beautiful red rock formations and the Grand Canyon. Between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon is a town of about ten thousand people called Sedona. Millions of people travel there each year. Bob Doughty tells us why. BOB DOUGHTY: Sedona is a desert community about one thousand four hundred meters above sea level. Last year, USA Today newspaper named Sedona the most beautiful place in the United States. Some of the oldest rocks on Earth surround the area, called Red Rock Country. Each morning and night, the rock formations change colors. Light from the sun as it rises and sets causes the formations to change from yellow, to orange, to bright red, even purple. For visitors, one of the best ways to see this natural beauty is to ride jeep vehicles that can climb on the rocks. Sedona is also famous for its growing arts community and Native American history. Hundreds of years ago, Native American Indians considered the Red Rocks holy. They traveled great distances to perform ceremonies on them. Only the bravest chiefs and medicine men were permitted to enter the rock formations. Theodore Carl Schnebly named the town after his wife in nineteen-oh-two. At that time, six families lived in the area. The American movie industry has filmed hundreds of motion pictures and television shows in Sedona. The town’s natural beauty looks like no other place on Earth. One of the first Hollywood movies to show Sedona was “The Call of the Canyon,” filmed in nineteen twenty-three. In nineteen forty-seven, the area became famous because of the film "Angel and the Badman” starring John Wayne. The next year, actor Robert Mitchum’s film, "Blood On The Moon", increased public interest in Sedona. Today, about four million people visit Sedona each year. With that many travelers, you would think the town would be a busy place. But it is not. About half of the town is privately owned. The other half is part of the Coconino National Forest. Cost of Elections DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Guangzhou, China. Vicky Mok asks how much will be spent on the presidential election this year and how the candidates pay for it. The Federal Election Commission records how much money is spent on elections. Campaigns must keep detailed records and report them to the F.E.C. The commission’s job is to enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act. Congress approved the law to stop wealthy individuals and groups from unfairly influencing elections. The act limits how much individuals and groups can give to candidates. Individual gifts to candidates are now limited to two thousand dollars. A mix of private gifts and tax money pay for the primary campaigns and the presidential campaigns. Federal law bars companies, labor groups and foreign citizens from giving to campaigns. But political action groups, and state and local party committees can accept gifts from individuals and combine the money. They can give up to five thousand dollars of this money to candidates. Every American who pays income tax can send three dollars to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This fund is used to help pay for political campaigns. It is also used to pay for the conventions of the major political parties and some of the convention costs of smaller parties. This year, the Presidential Election Campaign Fund provided about fifteen million dollars to help pay for the Democratic and Republican conventions. The major party candidates – President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry -- each received about seventy-five million dollars in federal matching funds. The total amount spent on the two thousand four presidential election will not be known until the campaigns give their final reports for the year. But we can report the amount received by all the candidates up to August thirty-first -- about six hundred sixty-two million dollars. But that amount does not include money given to groups not connected to the campaigns. These groups can spend money to influence the election for or against a candidate. And there are no limits on the amount individuals can give to these groups. A group called The Center for Public Integrity reports on spending by five of these groups. It says these groups had raised about three hundred twenty-three million dollars as of the beginning of October. Vote for Change Tour Some popular American musicians joined together in an effort to influence the presidential election this year. Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, the Dixie Chicks, Pearl Jam and REM were some of the artists to join the “Vote for Change” tour. Gwen Outen tells us more. GWEN OUTEN: About twenty musicians who support John Kerry for president traveled around the country for two weeks this month. They performed more than thirty concerts in nine states where the election is expected to be the closest. The final show was October eleventh in Washington, D.C. It was broadcast live around the nation on radio, television and the Internet. During the show, John Fogerty performed his song, “Fortunate Son.” (MUSIC) The MoveOn political organization presented the “Vote for Change” tour. The organization said it hoped to raise about ten million dollars. The money went to another political organization called America Coming Together. That group used the money to sign up new voters. MoveOn says the “Vote for Change” tour was the first of its kind. It was the largest group of musicians to come together to try to influence an election. Other musical movements have raised money for social causes. For example, the yearly Farm Aid show raises money for American farmers. Musicians supporting President Bush did not have a concert tour like the “Vote for Change” tour. However, many entertainers support the president. They include the Gatlin Brothers, Kid Rock, Sara Evans and Jessica Simpson. Many of them performed during the Republican National Convention in New York City this summer. Country singer Lee Ann Womack also supports the president. She sang this song, “I Hope You Dance,” at a gathering for President bush in Ohio. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or write to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and postal address. And you can also e-mail us a picture of yourself. It will appear at voaspecialenglish dot com if we use your question. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Mario Ritter. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Marlon Brando
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 24, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: October 24, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And, I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about actor Marlon Brando. Many critics say he was the greatest actor of all time. And many actors say he influenced them more than any other person in the film industry. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And, I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about actor Marlon Brando. Many critics say he was the greatest actor of all time. And many actors say he influenced them more than any other person in the film industry. (THEME) VOICE ONE: There was no public service to honor Marlon Brando when he died in two thousand four at the age of eighty. The actor’s sister, Jocelyn Brando, said he would have hated such an event. The family held a small private ceremony instead. Brando did not seek public attention when he was alive. He protected his private life. But he was a huge star. This, combined with his personal tragedies and his politics, made him a special target of the press. VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen twenty-four. He was named after his father, a salesman, but his family called him Bud. His mother, Dorothy, was an actress in the local theater. He had two older sisters. (THEME) VOICE ONE: There was no public service to honor Marlon Brando when he died in two thousand four at the age of eighty. The actor’s sister, Jocelyn Brando, said he would have hated such an event. The family held a small private ceremony instead. Brando did not seek public attention when he was alive. He protected his private life. But he was a huge star. This, combined with his personal tragedies and his politics, made him a special target of the press. VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando was born in Omaha, Nebraska in nineteen twenty-four. He was named after his father, a salesman, but his family called him Bud. His mother, Dorothy, was an actress in the local theater. He had two older sisters. Marlon Brando’s childhood was not happy. His parents drank too much alcohol and argued often. Dorothy Brando blamed her husband for the failure of her acting career. The older Marlon Brando did not have a good relationship with his son. In a book about his life, the actor wrote that his father never had anything good to say about his son. VOICE ONE: The Brandos moved many times when Marlon was young. His parents separated when he was eleven, but they re-united after two years. Young Marlon was always getting into trouble at school. His father decided to send him to a military school in Minnesota. Marlon did not do well in classes there. But he did find support for his interest in theater. A drama teacher urged him to begin acting in plays there and he did. But he was expelled from the school for getting into trouble. VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando moved to New York City when he was nineteen years old in nineteen forty-three. He took acting classes at the New School for Social Research. One of his teachers was Stella Adler, who taught the “Method” style of realistic acting. The Method teaches actors how to use their own memories and emotions to identify with the characters they are playing. Marlon Brando learned the Method style quickly and easily. Critics say he was probably the greatest Method actor ever. One famous actress commented on his natural ability for it. She said teaching Marlon Brando the Method was like sending a tiger to jungle school. Marlon Brando appeared in several plays. He got his first major part in a Broadway play in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of twenty-three. He received great praise for his powerful performance as Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” His fame grew when he acted the same part in the movie version, released in nineteen fifty-one. Brando plays an angry working-class man. His wife’s sister, Blanche, comes to visit them in New Orleans, Louisiana. Blanche’s family used to be rich landowners but they lost all their property. Now she is mentally unstable. Stanley treats Blanche unkindly and insults her. Here, he tells Blanche what he thinks about women. (ACT ONE: “A Streetcar Named Desire”) “I don’t go in for that stuff.” “What stuff?” “Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a dame yet didn’t know if she was good-lookin’ or not without bein’ told. And there’s some of them that give themselves credit for more than they’ve got. I once went out with a dame who told me, ‘I’m the glamorous type’…she says ‘I am the glamorous type.’ I says ‘so what?’” “And what did she say then?” “She didn’t say nothin’. I shut her up like a clam.” VOICE ONE: “Streetcar” was Brando’s second film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the performance. He was nominated for Oscars for his next two films as well. In nineteen fifty-two he played Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata in the movie “Viva Zapata.” The following year he played Marc Antony in “Julius Caesar.” Marlon Brando did not win an Oscar for Best Actor until nineteen fifty-four for the movie “On the Waterfront.” Many critics consider it his finest performance. The film’s director, Elia Kazan, said it was the best performance by a male actor in the history of film. Brando plays Terry Malloy, a failed boxer. He informs on organized crime leaders, including his brother, Charlie. His brother had made him lose fights on purpose so Charlie could make money gambling on the fights. But now, Terry expresses his regrets about losing the fights. (ACT TWO: “On The Waterfront”) “You don’t understand. I could’a’ had class. I could’a’ been a contender. I could’ve been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am. Let’s face it.” VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando acted in about forty movies. He was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards. In his movies, he played a Japanese translator, a German Nazi military officer and the father of Superman. He even sang in a movie musical called “Guys and Dolls.” His real life was as colorful as his many movie characters. His love life was especially active. He married actress Anna Kashfi in nineteen fifty-seven. The marriage had problems from the start. Their child, a son named Christian, was born a few months after they married. They separated the next year. In nineteen sixty, Brando married Movita Castenada, a Mexican-American actress. They had two children before they separated in nineteen sixty-two. The same year, he married a Tahitian actress, Tarita. The two had met while filming the movie “Mutiny On the Bounty.” Brando’s marriage to Tarita lasted ten years. But his love of Tahiti never ended. In nineteen sixty-six, he bought a small island near Tahiti. Brando divided his time between his island and his home in California for the rest of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics say Marlon Brando began to suffer professionally during and after his work on “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Hollywood directors and producers considered him difficult to work with. Some critics said the actor appeared to be tired of acting. But that changed in nineteen seventy-two when Brando appeared in “The Godfather.” At first, the film studio officials did not want Brando in the movie. But the director, Francis Ford Coppola, chose him for the part. The film was a major critical and financial success. Brando was praised for his performance as the Godfather, Vito Corleone, the powerful head of a criminal organization in New York City. He speaks to a man who wants the Godfather to have someone killed. (ACT THREE: “The Godfather”) “If you’d come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.” VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Oscar for “The Godfather.” But he rejected it. He sent a woman named Sasheen Littlefeather to speak for him at the Academy Awards ceremony. She said that Brando could not accept the award because of the way the American film industry treated Native Americans. The people at the Academy Awards ceremony did not like the speech. But some experts think the action helped change the way American Indians were shown in movies. Marlon Brando was also active in the civil rights movement. He spoke out against racism often and forcefully. He marched in demonstrations. And he gave money to civil rights groups. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marlon Brando had two family tragedies. In nineteen ninety, his son, Christian, shot and killed a Tahitian man at the family’s home in California. The victim, Dag Drollet, was the boyfriend of Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne. Christian Brando said the killing was accidental. He was found guilty of responsibility in the death and served almost five years in prison. During the trial, Marlon Brando told the court that he and Anna Kashfi had failed Christian as parents. He also apologized to the Drollet family and said he wished he could trade places with their son. VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-five, Marlon Brando’s daughter Cheyenne killed herself. She had struggled with mental problems and was still depressed about the killing of her boyfriend. Marlon Brando never made public statements about the death of his daughter. But reports said he blamed himself. He did not attend his daughter’s funeral in Tahiti. VOICE ONE: In the following nine years, he made just four more movies. And the parts he played were small. But his influence on the American film industry was huge. When Marlon Brando died, many famous actors expressed regret. One of them said simply: “He was the best.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. Marlon Brando’s childhood was not happy. His parents drank too much alcohol and argued often. Dorothy Brando blamed her husband for the failure of her acting career. The older Marlon Brando did not have a good relationship with his son. In a book about his life, the actor wrote that his father never had anything good to say about his son. VOICE ONE: The Brandos moved many times when Marlon was young. His parents separated when he was eleven, but they re-united after two years. Young Marlon was always getting into trouble at school. His father decided to send him to a military school in Minnesota. Marlon did not do well in classes there. But he did find support for his interest in theater. A drama teacher urged him to begin acting in plays there and he did. But he was expelled from the school for getting into trouble. VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando moved to New York City when he was nineteen years old in nineteen forty-three. He took acting classes at the New School for Social Research. One of his teachers was Stella Adler, who taught the “Method” style of realistic acting. The Method teaches actors how to use their own memories and emotions to identify with the characters they are playing. Marlon Brando learned the Method style quickly and easily. Critics say he was probably the greatest Method actor ever. One famous actress commented on his natural ability for it. She said teaching Marlon Brando the Method was like sending a tiger to jungle school. Marlon Brando appeared in several plays. He got his first major part in a Broadway play in nineteen forty-seven, at the age of twenty-three. He received great praise for his powerful performance as Stanley Kowalski in the Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” His fame grew when he acted the same part in the movie version, released in nineteen fifty-one. Brando plays an angry working-class man. His wife’s sister, Blanche, comes to visit them in New Orleans, Louisiana. Blanche’s family used to be rich landowners but they lost all their property. Now she is mentally unstable. Stanley treats Blanche unkindly and insults her. Here, he tells Blanche what he thinks about women. (ACT ONE: “A Streetcar Named Desire”) “I don’t go in for that stuff.” “What stuff?” “Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a dame yet didn’t know if she was good-lookin’ or not without bein’ told. And there’s some of them that give themselves credit for more than they’ve got. I once went out with a dame who told me, ‘I’m the glamorous type’…she says ‘I am the glamorous type.’ I says ‘so what?’” “And what did she say then?” “She didn’t say nothin’. I shut her up like a clam.” VOICE ONE: “Streetcar” was Brando’s second film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for the performance. He was nominated for Oscars for his next two films as well. In nineteen fifty-two he played Mexican revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata in the movie “Viva Zapata.” The following year he played Marc Antony in “Julius Caesar.” Marlon Brando did not win an Oscar for Best Actor until nineteen fifty-four for the movie “On the Waterfront.” Many critics consider it his finest performance. The film’s director, Elia Kazan, said it was the best performance by a male actor in the history of film. Brando plays Terry Malloy, a failed boxer. He informs on organized crime leaders, including his brother, Charlie. His brother had made him lose fights on purpose so Charlie could make money gambling on the fights. But now, Terry expresses his regrets about losing the fights. (ACT TWO: “On The Waterfront”) “You don’t understand. I could’a’ had class. I could’a’ been a contender. I could’ve been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am. Let’s face it.” VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando acted in about forty movies. He was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards. In his movies, he played a Japanese translator, a German Nazi military officer and the father of Superman. He even sang in a movie musical called “Guys and Dolls.” His real life was as colorful as his many movie characters. His love life was especially active. He married actress Anna Kashfi in nineteen fifty-seven. The marriage had problems from the start. Their child, a son named Christian, was born a few months after they married. They separated the next year. In nineteen sixty, Brando married Movita Castenada, a Mexican-American actress. They had two children before they separated in nineteen sixty-two. The same year, he married a Tahitian actress, Tarita. The two had met while filming the movie “Mutiny On the Bounty.” Brando’s marriage to Tarita lasted ten years. But his love of Tahiti never ended. In nineteen sixty-six, he bought a small island near Tahiti. Brando divided his time between his island and his home in California for the rest of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Critics say Marlon Brando began to suffer professionally during and after his work on “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Hollywood directors and producers considered him difficult to work with. Some critics said the actor appeared to be tired of acting. But that changed in nineteen seventy-two when Brando appeared in “The Godfather.” At first, the film studio officials did not want Brando in the movie. But the director, Francis Ford Coppola, chose him for the part. The film was a major critical and financial success. Brando was praised for his performance as the Godfather, Vito Corleone, the powerful head of a criminal organization in New York City. He speaks to a man who wants the Godfather to have someone killed. (ACT THREE: “The Godfather”) “If you’d come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.” VOICE TWO: Marlon Brando won the Best Actor Oscar for “The Godfather.” But he rejected it. He sent a woman named Sasheen Littlefeather to speak for him at the Academy Awards ceremony. She said that Brando could not accept the award because of the way the American film industry treated Native Americans. The people at the Academy Awards ceremony did not like the speech. But some experts think the action helped change the way American Indians were shown in movies. Marlon Brando was also active in the civil rights movement. He spoke out against racism often and forcefully. He marched in demonstrations. And he gave money to civil rights groups. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Marlon Brando had two family tragedies. In nineteen ninety, his son, Christian, shot and killed a Tahitian man at the family’s home in California. The victim, Dag Drollet, was the boyfriend of Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne. Christian Brando said the killing was accidental. He was found guilty of responsibility in the death and served almost five years in prison. During the trial, Marlon Brando told the court that he and Anna Kashfi had failed Christian as parents. He also apologized to the Drollet family and said he wished he could trade places with their son. VOICE TWO: In nineteen ninety-five, Marlon Brando’s daughter Cheyenne killed herself. She had struggled with mental problems and was still depressed about the killing of her boyfriend. Marlon Brando never made public statements about the death of his daughter. But reports said he blamed himself. He did not attend his daughter’s funeral in Tahiti. VOICE ONE: In the following nine years, he made just four more movies. And the parts he played were small. But his influence on the American film industry was huge. When Marlon Brando died, many famous actors expressed regret. One of them said simply: “He was the best.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Election Roundup
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 23, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Worker sorts absentee recall ballotsVOA photo - M. O'Sullivan Broadcast: October 23, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Americans in some states are already voting in the November second general elections. Thousands of people lined up to vote in Florida, one of four states where early voting began Monday. Election officials estimate that at least twenty percent of voters will vote before Election Day. Those votes, however, will be counted at the same time as the others, on November second. Since the two thousand election, many states have made it easier for people to vote before Election Day. More and more people vote by mail. Absentee ballots are meant for people who cannot go to their local voting station on Election Day. There is also a kind of ballot called a provisional ballot. These are given to people who try to vote on Election Day but do not find their name on voter lists. In two thousand two Congress passed the Help America Vote Act. This law requires a provisional ballot to be counted if officials are able to later establish that an individual could vote. Republicans and Democrats, however, are fighting over the rules for counting provisional ballots. In the final days before the election, campaigning is aimed at several states known as swing states or battleground states. These are where Republican President George Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry are closest in levels of support. Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered the top three among these states. Some political experts say whichever candidate wins two of those three states will win the election. Americans do not vote directly for their president. Instead, each of the fifty states represents a number of electoral votes. The number is related to population. A candidate must gain at least two hundred-seventy out of five hundred thirty-eight electoral votes to win. In two thousand, the dispute over the vote in Florida lasted more than a month. The Supreme Court finally decided the legal battle. Many Americans are concerned about the possibility of another such delay. Democrats and Republicans have been organizing thousands of lawyers to deploy on Election Day. A coalition of civil rights groups says it will have six thousand lawyers and law students to assist minority voters. The Republican National Lawyers Association says it has trained about one thousand lawyers to watch for anyone who tries to vote illegally. Some international election observers are already at work. And computer experts plan to watch for any trouble with electronic voting machines that will be used in many places. Election officials around the country say record numbers of people have registered to vote. This includes record numbers of Americans living in other countries. Officials estimate that six million Americans live outside the United States. At least half are registered to vote. This includes about five hundred thousand members of the military and their families. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Americans in some states are already voting in the November second general elections. Thousands of people lined up to vote in Florida, one of four states where early voting began Monday. Election officials estimate that at least twenty percent of voters will vote before Election Day. Those votes, however, will be counted at the same time as the others, on November second. Since the two thousand election, many states have made it easier for people to vote before Election Day. More and more people vote by mail. Absentee ballots are meant for people who cannot go to their local voting station on Election Day. There is also a kind of ballot called a provisional ballot. These are given to people who try to vote on Election Day but do not find their name on voter lists. In two thousand two Congress passed the Help America Vote Act. This law requires a provisional ballot to be counted if officials are able to later establish that an individual could vote. Republicans and Democrats, however, are fighting over the rules for counting provisional ballots. In the final days before the election, campaigning is aimed at several states known as swing states or battleground states. These are where Republican President George Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry are closest in levels of support. Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania are considered the top three among these states. Some political experts say whichever candidate wins two of those three states will win the election. Americans do not vote directly for their president. Instead, each of the fifty states represents a number of electoral votes. The number is related to population. A candidate must gain at least two hundred-seventy out of five hundred thirty-eight electoral votes to win. In two thousand, the dispute over the vote in Florida lasted more than a month. The Supreme Court finally decided the legal battle. Many Americans are concerned about the possibility of another such delay. Democrats and Republicans have been organizing thousands of lawyers to deploy on Election Day. A coalition of civil rights groups says it will have six thousand lawyers and law students to assist minority voters. The Republican National Lawyers Association says it has trained about one thousand lawyers to watch for anyone who tries to vote illegally. Some international election observers are already at work. And computer experts plan to watch for any trouble with electronic voting machines that will be used in many places. Election officials around the country say record numbers of people have registered to vote. This includes record numbers of Americans living in other countries. Officials estimate that six million Americans live outside the United States. At least half are registered to vote. This includes about five hundred thousand members of the military and their families. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Answering 5 Questions About Civics in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October, 25, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is civics in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Civics is a subject that deals with the rights and duties of citizens. It brings together law, history and political science. In the nineteen sixties, a non-profit group called the Center for Civic Education got started. Its job is to help people in the United States and other countries learn about the ideas of democracy. Its work includes an international civic education exchange program, Civitas. In nineteen ninety-four, the Center for Civic Education developed five questions for teaching about civics and government. We will use these questions to guide our program. The answers will combine our own reporting with information from the center. Question one: "What are civic life, politics and government?" VOICE TWO: The simple answer is that people have their personal life, but they also have a civic life. This involves issues that affect their community and their nation. Politics is a process. It is a way for people with opposing interests and beliefs about issues to reach decisions. Government is the organization in society with the power to put these decisions into effect. It also has the power to enforce them. In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of government. The founders of the nation wanted to protect individual rights. At the same time, however, they also wanted to work for the common good. Under the Constitution, government officials must follow the rule of law. This means they must follow the same rules as everyone else. The Constitution is the highest law in the land. VOICE ONE: Constitutions are also vehicles for change. One example involves the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment took effect in eighteen sixty-eight, after the Civil War. It guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. It meant that former slaves had the same rights as other Americans. Black Americans used this amendment to seek better treatment during the civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second question presented by the Center for Civic Education asks: "What are the foundations of the American political system?" The system is built on the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and property. The Constitution also establishes a system of checks and balances on government power. Congress passes bills for the president to sign into law. If the president refuses, Congress has the power to reject the veto. The Supreme Court has the power to strike down laws if it finds they violate the Constitution. VOICE ONE: The Constitution also recognizes the powers of the states. In fact, the American political system is built on the idea that states have any powers not given to the federal government. The system was also built on the idea that the different groups in society would all share a common identity as Americans. And several intellectual traditions have influenced the American political system. One is classic liberalism. Classic liberalism represents the idea that governments are created by the people, for the people. This theory had its roots in Europe, through writers like John Locke. The American Declaration of Independence is an example of a document that supports the main ideas of classic liberalism. It guaranteed the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." VOICE TWO: Another theory that influenced early America is classic republicanism. A republic is a state governed by elected representatives instead of directly by the people. The United States is known as a constitutional representative democracy. Classic republicanism links the idea of civic virtue to the common good. Civic virtue means that people put the interests of society before their own. But a belief in the public good may conflict with a desire for the protection of individual rights. So classic republicanism and classic liberalism can sometimes clash. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Here is question number three from the Center for Civic Education: "How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purposes, values and principles of American democracy?" There are many ideas behind American democracy, but one of the most important is federalism. Early leaders wanted to create a government system that would prevent the misuse of power. So they created several levels of government. Power and responsibilities are divided among the national, state and local governments. VOICE TWO: The federal government is organized into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The judicial branch is the Supreme Court and the federal court system. The executive branch is the president and the fifteen cabinet-level agencies. The federal government also has about sixty independent agencies. VOICE ONE: State governments are established by state constitutions. Each of the fifty states has its own legislative, executive and judicial branch. State and local governments provide police and fire protection, education, public works and other services. To pay for services, taxes are collected at all levels of government. The American political system also provides citizens with the ability to influence how laws are made. Some people become involved in political or public interest groups. Others are civically active through groups such as unions or religious organizations. The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. So the media also play a part in civic life and shaping public opinion. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: "What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs?" This is the fourth question asked by the Center for Civic Education. At times, the United States has closed itself off from the world. At other times, it has been an active leader. National politics and the guiding ideas of the Constitution have shaped and reshaped relations. Disagreements over foreign policy have led to difficult periods in American history. The United States declared its independence from Britain on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, it is often called the last remaining superpower, after the fall of the Soviet Union. But military strength is only one measure of power. Economic power also influences relations between countries. And the United States has the largest economy in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The final question asks: "What are the roles of citizens in American democracy?" In the words of the Center for Civic Education, "democratic citizens are active." They must know what their personal, political and economic rights are. And they must know what responsibilities come with those rights. The center says those responsibilities include voting in elections and giving time to community organizations. It says another responsibility is serving as a helpful critic of public organizations, officials and policies. But, above all, it says people must see how democracy depends on knowledgeable citizens who care about other citizens and their country. This is what Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, said in eighteen fifty-four: "If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions." In other words, to keep democracy alive, citizens must do it themselves. VOICE TWO: The Center for Civic Education organized its teachings around questions because, in its words, "democracy is a discussion." Citizens exchange ideas. They search for new and better ways. The use of questions is meant to show that the process is never-ending. The center provides materials to schools. It also trains teachers and organizes community programs. For more information, you can write to the Center for Civic Education at five-one-four-five Douglas Fir Road, Calabasas, California, nine-one-three-zero two, U-S-A. Internet users can go to civiced.org. Civiced is spelled c-i-v-i-c-e-d. And the e-mail address is c-c-e at civiced.org. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: October, 25, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Our subject this week is civics in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Civics is a subject that deals with the rights and duties of citizens. It brings together law, history and political science. In the nineteen sixties, a non-profit group called the Center for Civic Education got started. Its job is to help people in the United States and other countries learn about the ideas of democracy. Its work includes an international civic education exchange program, Civitas. In nineteen ninety-four, the Center for Civic Education developed five questions for teaching about civics and government. We will use these questions to guide our program. The answers will combine our own reporting with information from the center. Question one: "What are civic life, politics and government?" VOICE TWO: The simple answer is that people have their personal life, but they also have a civic life. This involves issues that affect their community and their nation. Politics is a process. It is a way for people with opposing interests and beliefs about issues to reach decisions. Government is the organization in society with the power to put these decisions into effect. It also has the power to enforce them. In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of government. The founders of the nation wanted to protect individual rights. At the same time, however, they also wanted to work for the common good. Under the Constitution, government officials must follow the rule of law. This means they must follow the same rules as everyone else. The Constitution is the highest law in the land. VOICE ONE: Constitutions are also vehicles for change. One example involves the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment took effect in eighteen sixty-eight, after the Civil War. It guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law. It meant that former slaves had the same rights as other Americans. Black Americans used this amendment to seek better treatment during the civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second question presented by the Center for Civic Education asks: "What are the foundations of the American political system?" The system is built on the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, liberty and property. The Constitution also establishes a system of checks and balances on government power. Congress passes bills for the president to sign into law. If the president refuses, Congress has the power to reject the veto. The Supreme Court has the power to strike down laws if it finds they violate the Constitution. VOICE ONE: The Constitution also recognizes the powers of the states. In fact, the American political system is built on the idea that states have any powers not given to the federal government. The system was also built on the idea that the different groups in society would all share a common identity as Americans. And several intellectual traditions have influenced the American political system. One is classic liberalism. Classic liberalism represents the idea that governments are created by the people, for the people. This theory had its roots in Europe, through writers like John Locke. The American Declaration of Independence is an example of a document that supports the main ideas of classic liberalism. It guaranteed the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." VOICE TWO: Another theory that influenced early America is classic republicanism. A republic is a state governed by elected representatives instead of directly by the people. The United States is known as a constitutional representative democracy. Classic republicanism links the idea of civic virtue to the common good. Civic virtue means that people put the interests of society before their own. But a belief in the public good may conflict with a desire for the protection of individual rights. So classic republicanism and classic liberalism can sometimes clash. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Here is question number three from the Center for Civic Education: "How does the government established by the Constitution embody the purposes, values and principles of American democracy?" There are many ideas behind American democracy, but one of the most important is federalism. Early leaders wanted to create a government system that would prevent the misuse of power. So they created several levels of government. Power and responsibilities are divided among the national, state and local governments. VOICE TWO: The federal government is organized into the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The judicial branch is the Supreme Court and the federal court system. The executive branch is the president and the fifteen cabinet-level agencies. The federal government also has about sixty independent agencies. VOICE ONE: State governments are established by state constitutions. Each of the fifty states has its own legislative, executive and judicial branch. State and local governments provide police and fire protection, education, public works and other services. To pay for services, taxes are collected at all levels of government. The American political system also provides citizens with the ability to influence how laws are made. Some people become involved in political or public interest groups. Others are civically active through groups such as unions or religious organizations. The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. So the media also play a part in civic life and shaping public opinion. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: "What is the relationship of the United States to other nations and to world affairs?" This is the fourth question asked by the Center for Civic Education. At times, the United States has closed itself off from the world. At other times, it has been an active leader. National politics and the guiding ideas of the Constitution have shaped and reshaped relations. Disagreements over foreign policy have led to difficult periods in American history. The United States declared its independence from Britain on July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. Today, it is often called the last remaining superpower, after the fall of the Soviet Union. But military strength is only one measure of power. Economic power also influences relations between countries. And the United States has the largest economy in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The final question asks: "What are the roles of citizens in American democracy?" In the words of the Center for Civic Education, "democratic citizens are active." They must know what their personal, political and economic rights are. And they must know what responsibilities come with those rights. The center says those responsibilities include voting in elections and giving time to community organizations. It says another responsibility is serving as a helpful critic of public organizations, officials and policies. But, above all, it says people must see how democracy depends on knowledgeable citizens who care about other citizens and their country. This is what Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, said in eighteen fifty-four: "If there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions." In other words, to keep democracy alive, citizens must do it themselves. VOICE TWO: The Center for Civic Education organized its teachings around questions because, in its words, "democracy is a discussion." Citizens exchange ideas. They search for new and better ways. The use of questions is meant to show that the process is never-ending. The center provides materials to schools. It also trains teachers and organizes community programs. For more information, you can write to the Center for Civic Education at five-one-four-five Douglas Fir Road, Calabasas, California, nine-one-three-zero two, U-S-A. Internet users can go to civiced.org. Civiced is spelled c-i-v-i-c-e-d. And the e-mail address is c-c-e at civiced.org. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Two MacArthur Award Winners Honored for Work with Low-Cost Technology
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 25, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. David Green (Image:www.macfdn.org) Broadcast: October 25, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Development Report. Two winners of MacArthur Fellowships are being honored for their work with technology in the developing world. Amy Smith and David Green are among twenty-three MacArthur Fellows chosen for this year. Each will receive five hundred thousand dollars, paid over the next five years. The MacArthur Foundation chooses highly creative individuals in the United States who show great promise for the future. People are nominated secretly. There are no restrictions on how the award can be spent. Amy Smith teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. She served in the Peace Corps in Botswana. She is a mechanical engineer who develops labor-saving technologies for poor people. One of her inventions is a low-cost machine to crush grain. Another is a device to test water quality without a laboratory. In two thousand, Amy Smith became the first female winner of the Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Prize. She won thirty thousand dollars. But she tells us that she usually has very little money to pay for her projects. She currently has several in Haiti. For example, Haitians traditionally use trees to make charcoal for cooking fires. But most of their trees have been cut down. Also, smoke from wood fires is bad for breathing. So, last year, Amy Smith helped a group of students develop a process to make sugarcane waste into cooking fuel. David Green lives in Berkeley, California. He brings together experts to start companies that produce high-quality medical products at low cost. He calls his way of doing business "compassionate capitalism." Four years ago, Mister Green started Project Impact. This is a non-profit group that works to develop and produce medical technologies in several countries around the world. Over the years, David Green also launched a project to sell high-quality hearing aids at a low price. And he started a company in India that makes corrective devices for people with cataracts and other eye diseases. The Aurolab company now sends these special lenses to more than eighty-five countries. They cost about four dollars each, compared to about one hundred dollars in the United States. David Green says he wants to use his MacArthur award to expand his work. He says his next project is to provide low-cost AIDS drugs to poor nations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Doughty. Two winners of MacArthur Fellowships are being honored for their work with technology in the developing world. Amy Smith and David Green are among twenty-three MacArthur Fellows chosen for this year. Each will receive five hundred thousand dollars, paid over the next five years. The MacArthur Foundation chooses highly creative individuals in the United States who show great promise for the future. People are nominated secretly. There are no restrictions on how the award can be spent. Amy Smith teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. She served in the Peace Corps in Botswana. She is a mechanical engineer who develops labor-saving technologies for poor people. One of her inventions is a low-cost machine to crush grain. Another is a device to test water quality without a laboratory. In two thousand, Amy Smith became the first female winner of the Lemelson-M.I.T. Student Prize. She won thirty thousand dollars. But she tells us that she usually has very little money to pay for her projects. She currently has several in Haiti. For example, Haitians traditionally use trees to make charcoal for cooking fires. But most of their trees have been cut down. Also, smoke from wood fires is bad for breathing. So, last year, Amy Smith helped a group of students develop a process to make sugarcane waste into cooking fuel. David Green lives in Berkeley, California. He brings together experts to start companies that produce high-quality medical products at low cost. He calls his way of doing business "compassionate capitalism." Four years ago, Mister Green started Project Impact. This is a non-profit group that works to develop and produce medical technologies in several countries around the world. Over the years, David Green also launched a project to sell high-quality hearing aids at a low price. And he started a company in India that makes corrective devices for people with cataracts and other eye diseases. The Aurolab company now sends these special lenses to more than eighty-five countries. They cost about four dollars each, compared to about one hundred dollars in the United States. David Green says he wants to use his MacArthur award to expand his work. He says his next project is to provide low-cost AIDS drugs to poor nations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Earthquake Warning Systems / Earth's Mystery Noise / Sharing Gene Research / The Big Bang
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 26, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week: a computer program that discovers an earthquake before it happens ... a mystery noise from deep in the Earth ... and we answer a question from a listener in Pakistan. VOICE ONE: But first, a new report on ways to improve human health in developing countries. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Scientists are calling for an international effort to share the products of genomics research. The scientists say such an effort could help to save the lives of millions of people in developing countries each year. The University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics proposed the effort in a report to the United Nations. The report is called Genomics and Global Health. It was presented earlier this month at the Fourth World Conference of Science Journalists in Montreal, Canada. VOICE TWO: The science of genomics investigates genes and the way they operate. Genomics has led to new medicines and tools for fighting disease. The University of Toronto group says such tools are able to identify disease at the molecular level in blood or tissues. It says this will help increase a patient’s chance of survival and prevent diseases from spreading. The group says poor countries often waste limited resources on wrong treatments. VOICE ONE: Peter Singer is Director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics. He says millions of people in developing countries die from diseases that could be prevented or treated easily through products of biotechnology. Doctor Singer says the report urges industrial nations to share their wealth of information with developing countries. He says the report also shows a way for developing countries to reach targets set at a United Nations conference four years ago. The targets are known as the U-N’s Millennium Development Goals. Delegates at the conference agreed to reach these goals by two-thousand-fifteen. VOICE TWO: The report explains how genomics could improve human health in developing countries. For example, scientists could make a genetic map of the organisms responsible for the disease malaria in humans. This information can be used to develop new drugs and vaccines to strengthen the human body’s defenses against disease. The report says the products of genomics once were so costly that only wealthy nations could pay for them. It says developing countries are now able to pay for some of these products. And, it says, a few are now so low-cost and simple they can start replacing older, more costly health care technologies in poorer countries. The report calls for creation of a program to support genomics for the public good of all people. The program would ask governments, businesses and other organizations to support genomics and learning worldwide. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A team of scientists has developed a computer program that can tell where and when earthquakes will happen. The program successfully warned of fifteen of the sixteen largest earthquakes in the American state of California in the past ten years. John Rundle of the University of California at Davis led the scientific team. Mister Rundle says the scientists are extremely happy with results of the project. He says the results are evidence of the project’s ability to tell when and where earthquakes will happen in the future. VOICE TWO: The method involves the use of a special computer program called QuakeSim. The program examined information about large earthquakes in the past. The information tells where and when the earthquakes took place. It also includes their strength as measured by the Richter scale. The computer program used information about earthquakes in California as long ago as nineteen thirty-two. The program also examined information about small, recent earthquakes and information gathered from satellites in Earth orbit. The satellites measured small changes in the surface of the planet. The computer program then consideed all of the information to help the scientists tell where and when earthquakes were most likely to happen. VOICE ONE: The scientific team published its findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February, two thousand-two. Their report warned that fifteen earthquakes would take place. There were eleven earthquakes after the report was published. Four others happened before it was released to the public. The effort to estimate when earthquakes will happen was a project developed by scientists at the University of Colorado and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The American space agency and the United States Department of Energy paid for the study. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists in the United States believe they have identified the cause of a mysterious noise made by the Earth. They say the noise seems to be coming from some ocean areas. They say it starts during periods of severe winter storm activity. For years, scientists have known the Earth can ring like a bell after an earthquake. They believed that the shaking would end when there are no earthquakes. Yet studies have shown it continues long after the effects of an earthquake. VOICE ONE: Scientists in Japan first described the noise six years ago. They said it is a deep, low sound that is present in the ground. The sound is too low for human ears to hear. Scientists say the sound is not very powerful. They say it only has as much power as a few one hundred watt electric light bulbs. Recently, research scientists from the University of California at Berkeley attempted to find the cause of the noise. Barbara Romanowicz and graduate student Junkee Rhie reported their findings in the publication Nature. The researchers studied information collected by seismographic equipment in California and Japan. Seismographs measure the movements of the ground and within the Earth. The researchers considered information gathered on sixty days during the year when there was little or no earthquake activity. VOICE TWO: The researchers say the noise appeared to come from the northern Pacific Ocean during winter months in Japan and California. During summer months in these areas, the noise seemed to move to oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, just north of Antarctica. The researchers noted that these are times and places where winter weather causes strong winds and large waves. Professor Romanowicz says this suggests that the force of the water hitting the ocean floor may be causing the noise. Toshiro Tanimoto is a geophysicist with the University of California at Santa Barbara. Professor Tanimoto praised the new study for finding a believable explanation. He says he proposed a similar explanation in the past. He also said the noise shows that the Earth, its oceans and atmosphere all are part of a common system. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Several weeks ago, we began asking listeners to send us any science questions they might have. Electronic mail messages came quickly. One came from Pakistan. Nadeem wants to know about the Big Bang theory. Our first stop for information was the American apace agency, NASA. NASA calls the Big Bang Theory the leading theory for describing the beginning of the universe. The theory says the universe was created almost fourteen-thousand-million years ago from a huge explosion. Big Bang scientists think all the parts of the universe started from a single object. It would have been small, but of great mass. Scientists believe this object exploded. They think the universe is still expanding today from that event. VOICE TWO: There are two major pieces of evidence that scientists say support the Big Bang theory. First, stars and other objects in space appear to be moving away from each other. The other major evidence is the existence of background microwave radiation. Scientists think the Big Bang explosion created this energy. The Big Bang theory is widely accepted by scientists. However, most of them would agree that it is unlikely anyone will ever be able to prove the theory. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Brian Kim, Paul Thompson, George Grow and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. Broadcast: October 26, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week: a computer program that discovers an earthquake before it happens ... a mystery noise from deep in the Earth ... and we answer a question from a listener in Pakistan. VOICE ONE: But first, a new report on ways to improve human health in developing countries. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Scientists are calling for an international effort to share the products of genomics research. The scientists say such an effort could help to save the lives of millions of people in developing countries each year. The University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics proposed the effort in a report to the United Nations. The report is called Genomics and Global Health. It was presented earlier this month at the Fourth World Conference of Science Journalists in Montreal, Canada. VOICE TWO: The science of genomics investigates genes and the way they operate. Genomics has led to new medicines and tools for fighting disease. The University of Toronto group says such tools are able to identify disease at the molecular level in blood or tissues. It says this will help increase a patient’s chance of survival and prevent diseases from spreading. The group says poor countries often waste limited resources on wrong treatments. VOICE ONE: Peter Singer is Director of the Joint Centre for Bioethics. He says millions of people in developing countries die from diseases that could be prevented or treated easily through products of biotechnology. Doctor Singer says the report urges industrial nations to share their wealth of information with developing countries. He says the report also shows a way for developing countries to reach targets set at a United Nations conference four years ago. The targets are known as the U-N’s Millennium Development Goals. Delegates at the conference agreed to reach these goals by two-thousand-fifteen. VOICE TWO: The report explains how genomics could improve human health in developing countries. For example, scientists could make a genetic map of the organisms responsible for the disease malaria in humans. This information can be used to develop new drugs and vaccines to strengthen the human body’s defenses against disease. The report says the products of genomics once were so costly that only wealthy nations could pay for them. It says developing countries are now able to pay for some of these products. And, it says, a few are now so low-cost and simple they can start replacing older, more costly health care technologies in poorer countries. The report calls for creation of a program to support genomics for the public good of all people. The program would ask governments, businesses and other organizations to support genomics and learning worldwide. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A team of scientists has developed a computer program that can tell where and when earthquakes will happen. The program successfully warned of fifteen of the sixteen largest earthquakes in the American state of California in the past ten years. John Rundle of the University of California at Davis led the scientific team. Mister Rundle says the scientists are extremely happy with results of the project. He says the results are evidence of the project’s ability to tell when and where earthquakes will happen in the future. VOICE TWO: The method involves the use of a special computer program called QuakeSim. The program examined information about large earthquakes in the past. The information tells where and when the earthquakes took place. It also includes their strength as measured by the Richter scale. The computer program used information about earthquakes in California as long ago as nineteen thirty-two. The program also examined information about small, recent earthquakes and information gathered from satellites in Earth orbit. The satellites measured small changes in the surface of the planet. The computer program then consideed all of the information to help the scientists tell where and when earthquakes were most likely to happen. VOICE ONE: The scientific team published its findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February, two thousand-two. Their report warned that fifteen earthquakes would take place. There were eleven earthquakes after the report was published. Four others happened before it was released to the public. The effort to estimate when earthquakes will happen was a project developed by scientists at the University of Colorado and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The American space agency and the United States Department of Energy paid for the study. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists in the United States believe they have identified the cause of a mysterious noise made by the Earth. They say the noise seems to be coming from some ocean areas. They say it starts during periods of severe winter storm activity. For years, scientists have known the Earth can ring like a bell after an earthquake. They believed that the shaking would end when there are no earthquakes. Yet studies have shown it continues long after the effects of an earthquake. VOICE ONE: Scientists in Japan first described the noise six years ago. They said it is a deep, low sound that is present in the ground. The sound is too low for human ears to hear. Scientists say the sound is not very powerful. They say it only has as much power as a few one hundred watt electric light bulbs. Recently, research scientists from the University of California at Berkeley attempted to find the cause of the noise. Barbara Romanowicz and graduate student Junkee Rhie reported their findings in the publication Nature. The researchers studied information collected by seismographic equipment in California and Japan. Seismographs measure the movements of the ground and within the Earth. The researchers considered information gathered on sixty days during the year when there was little or no earthquake activity. VOICE TWO: The researchers say the noise appeared to come from the northern Pacific Ocean during winter months in Japan and California. During summer months in these areas, the noise seemed to move to oceans of the Southern Hemisphere, just north of Antarctica. The researchers noted that these are times and places where winter weather causes strong winds and large waves. Professor Romanowicz says this suggests that the force of the water hitting the ocean floor may be causing the noise. Toshiro Tanimoto is a geophysicist with the University of California at Santa Barbara. Professor Tanimoto praised the new study for finding a believable explanation. He says he proposed a similar explanation in the past. He also said the noise shows that the Earth, its oceans and atmosphere all are part of a common system. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Several weeks ago, we began asking listeners to send us any science questions they might have. Electronic mail messages came quickly. One came from Pakistan. Nadeem wants to know about the Big Bang theory. Our first stop for information was the American apace agency, NASA. NASA calls the Big Bang Theory the leading theory for describing the beginning of the universe. The theory says the universe was created almost fourteen-thousand-million years ago from a huge explosion. Big Bang scientists think all the parts of the universe started from a single object. It would have been small, but of great mass. Scientists believe this object exploded. They think the universe is still expanding today from that event. VOICE TWO: There are two major pieces of evidence that scientists say support the Big Bang theory. First, stars and other objects in space appear to be moving away from each other. The other major evidence is the existence of background microwave radiation. Scientists think the Big Bang explosion created this energy. The Big Bang theory is widely accepted by scientists. However, most of them would agree that it is unlikely anyone will ever be able to prove the theory. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Brian Kim, Paul Thompson, George Grow and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Importance of Biodiversity
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 26, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. An environment that is biologically diverse has lots of different plants and animals. The Food and Agriculture Organization says this is needed for people to have enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives. For World Food Day this year, the United Nations agency chose the message: "Biodiversity for Food Security" The idea of biodiversity recognizes that natural systems are complex and depend on one another. In agriculture, depending on only a few crops can be dangerous. One example is the Great Potato Famine in the eighteen forties. Ireland depended on potatoes as a food resource. But a disease ruined the crop for several years. More than one million people died from hunger. Yet experts say the world depends on only four crops to provide half its food energy from plants. These are wheat, maize, rice and potato. The experts say it is important to support a large number of different food crops and farm animals that can survive different conditions. Such diversity helps to reduce the risk from losing one main crop. Farmers also have a responsibility to protect wild species. The Food and Agriculture Organization says more than forty percent of all land is used for agriculture. Farm fields are an important place for wild animals to live and reproduce. Also, farmers must consider the effects that agriculture has on the environment. Farm pollution or poor agricultural methods can harm wetlands, rivers and other environments needed to support life. The World Bank says invasive species are a severe threat to biodiversity. Plants and animals often spread without natural controls when they enter areas they are not native to. They can destroy crops, native species and property. Invasive species cost the world economy thousands of millions of dollars each year. The World Bank says it is the world’s largest supporter of biodiversity projects. It says its support had reached almost five thousand million dollars by the end of the two thousand four financial year. World Food Day is observed on October sixteenth. It celebrates the anniversary of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, which has its headquarters in Rome. The F.A.O. started in nineteen forty-five in Quebec City, Canada. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Children’s Press Line
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 27, 2004 (MUSIC) Young reporter talks to Denis Hastert Broadcast: October 27, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about American children serving as news reporters to explore the issues important to them. A young reporter talks to Teresa Heinz Kerry VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about American children serving as news reporters to explore the issues important to them. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States is holding a general election on Tuesday. Politicians who are candidates often like to be seen with their children. They believe this shows that they support strong families. But children themselves do not often have a chance to be news reporters writing their own stories about politicians. That is exactly what happens at Children’s Press Line, an organization in New York City. VOICE TWO: Hundreds of news reporters from all over the world went to Boston, Massachusetts and New York City this summer. They reported about the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. These conventions chose the candidates who are running for president in the election next Tuesday –John Kerry and George W. Bush. Children wearing bright yellow shirts also attended the conventions. They were reporters for Children’s Press Line. VOICE ONE: Young people make almost all the decisions at Children’s Press Line. One young reporter says: “The children do the work, while the adults pay the bills and buy the pizza for us to eat.” Money to operate Children’s Press Line comes from individuals and big businesses. Children’s Press Line reporters are eight to eighteen years old. Most of them are not able to vote, but they are able to ask difficult questions. One reporter is Emily Olfson, a sixteen-year-old student at the United Nations International School in New York City. Emily says the young reporters want to “question adults who have power about issues that are important to kids.” VOICE TWO: The young reporters wrote one story about how they prepared for the national conventions. These young people said they want to ask questions that will cause adults to make changes. They also want to inform as many people as possible about issues important to children. They wrote “if we do not know something we will try to find it out, and if someone is stopping us from finding out, that means trouble.” The young reporters decided to research five issues important to children: Education. Homelessness. Children who do not have health care. Young people who are in prison waiting to be executed for committing murder. And the rights of young people who love other young people of the same sex. VOICE ONE: The young reporters spent several months learning about these issues. They talked to children who had no homes. They talked to mothers who could not pay for health care for their children. They talked to two young people in prison who were waiting to be executed. All of these talks were written and published for adult readers. Then the young reporters wrote twenty questions about each issue. They knew they wanted to ask these questions in discussions with members of Congress and elected officials who would be at the national conventions. VOICE TWO: Emily Olfson says many of the people being interviewed expected the children to ask easy questions. However, Tarissa Whitely says it is important to write good questions that will get good answers. Tarissa is a sixteen-year-old reporter from New York City. She says the young reporters must ask questions like “why?” or “why not?” She says they should not ask questions that allow a politician to just answer “yes” or “no”. “We want to go deeper. We want to make politicians think,” says Tarissa. “We do not want them to give us an answer from a speech they give every day.” She says most politicians at the conventions did answer questions from the young reporters as if they were adults. VOICE ONE: In one story, the young reporters wrote: “If the politicians start giving us the same speech they give every day, we say that we do not understand. We ask ‘can you explain it in a different way?’ Or ‘how can you solve this problem?’ We want to make them agree to fix the problem. We want to know exactly how they will help kids.” Tarissa says it is important to get people to look at you while they answer your questions. She says: “If someone does not look you in the eye, he may not be telling the truth. Or if someone plays with his fingers, he may not be telling the truth.” But Tarissa also says she tries not to let her opinion about a person affect her reporting. VOICE TWO: The Children’s Press Line reporters do not always get the answers they want. The children told about one experience at the Democratic Convention in Boston. They were talking to Lieutenant Governor John Moore of Kansas. When they asked what children’s issues were important to him, Mister Moore said “education, education, education.” The young people said that is what politicians always say to children. When they tried to ask more questions, a band began playing music. Mister Moore said, “nice talking to you” and walked away. The young reporters tried to find Mister Moore again but he was already lost in the crowd. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Children’s Press Line reporters write stories about many kinds of issues. Every idea comes from a young person and must be an issue that affects children. All the reporters together choose the stories they find the most interesting. They research the stories, write questions and find people who can answer their questions. They write stories about what they learn. The stories are published in the New Amsterdam News in New York City. Some of the stories are published online and in other newspapers in the United States. Children’s Press Line says more than sixty thousand adults read their stories. Tarissa Whitely has written and researched stories about hip hop songs that support fair treatment for people who have the disease AIDS. She has written stories about cuts in government money for programs helping young people. She says Children’s Press Line has given her a chance to meet many new people and do things children do not usually do. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sometimes Children’s Press Line reporters talk about important issues with young people from other countries. These talks are on the Children’s Press Line Internet Web site. The address is www.cplmedia.org. The Web site also has movies of the talks among young people from different countries. In one movie, young people in the United States talk with young people in Iraq about the war there. Also on the Web site, young people from the United States, Britain and Japan talked about differences in punishment when students do something wrong in school. Now, Children’s Press Line is trying to open a high school in New York City for students who want to study the media. VOICE ONE: Marie Ponsot (PON sott) is eleven years old and is in the fifth grade in New York City. She has been a Children’s Press Line reporter since she was nine years old. Her first story is still the one she likes best. The young reporters wrote about security cameras in Greenwich Village, an area in New York City. Marie says the cameras invade people’s privacy. Her stories reported about protestors who performed plays in front of the security cameras. She said the protestors were using the plays to tell other people what they thought about the security cameras. Marie says writing these stories helped her learn about issues and problems in society that affected her. Later, she talked to a student her age who could not read. Marie said that concerned her because she felt it was not fair. Marie says a society that has news reporters who are free to ask questions and write stories helps people know what is happening where they live. VOICE TWO: Emily says she knows that the media have a very big influence on what people know and think about issues and problems in society. She attended an international meeting of students at her local school. Students listened to news reporters from the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Arabic news company Al Jazeera. The students compared the same stories told by different media in different countries. Emily says the more people know about a problem, the more they will want to know how they can help solve the problem. Children’s Press Line says twenty-five percent of the people in the United States are younger than eighteen years old. But only ten percent of the news stories are about issues important to children. Emily says Children’s Press Line gives children a voice since they do not have a vote. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States is holding a general election on Tuesday. Politicians who are candidates often like to be seen with their children. They believe this shows that they support strong families. But children themselves do not often have a chance to be news reporters writing their own stories about politicians. That is exactly what happens at Children’s Press Line, an organization in New York City. VOICE TWO: Hundreds of news reporters from all over the world went to Boston, Massachusetts and New York City this summer. They reported about the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. These conventions chose the candidates who are running for president in the election next Tuesday –John Kerry and George W. Bush. Children wearing bright yellow shirts also attended the conventions. They were reporters for Children’s Press Line. VOICE ONE: Young people make almost all the decisions at Children’s Press Line. One young reporter says: “The children do the work, while the adults pay the bills and buy the pizza for us to eat.” Money to operate Children’s Press Line comes from individuals and big businesses. Children’s Press Line reporters are eight to eighteen years old. Most of them are not able to vote, but they are able to ask difficult questions. One reporter is Emily Olfson, a sixteen-year-old student at the United Nations International School in New York City. Emily says the young reporters want to “question adults who have power about issues that are important to kids.” VOICE TWO: The young reporters wrote one story about how they prepared for the national conventions. These young people said they want to ask questions that will cause adults to make changes. They also want to inform as many people as possible about issues important to children. They wrote “if we do not know something we will try to find it out, and if someone is stopping us from finding out, that means trouble.” The young reporters decided to research five issues important to children: Education. Homelessness. Children who do not have health care. Young people who are in prison waiting to be executed for committing murder. And the rights of young people who love other young people of the same sex. VOICE ONE: The young reporters spent several months learning about these issues. They talked to children who had no homes. They talked to mothers who could not pay for health care for their children. They talked to two young people in prison who were waiting to be executed. All of these talks were written and published for adult readers. Then the young reporters wrote twenty questions about each issue. They knew they wanted to ask these questions in discussions with members of Congress and elected officials who would be at the national conventions. VOICE TWO: Emily Olfson says many of the people being interviewed expected the children to ask easy questions. However, Tarissa Whitely says it is important to write good questions that will get good answers. Tarissa is a sixteen-year-old reporter from New York City. She says the young reporters must ask questions like “why?” or “why not?” She says they should not ask questions that allow a politician to just answer “yes” or “no”. “We want to go deeper. We want to make politicians think,” says Tarissa. “We do not want them to give us an answer from a speech they give every day.” She says most politicians at the conventions did answer questions from the young reporters as if they were adults. VOICE ONE: In one story, the young reporters wrote: “If the politicians start giving us the same speech they give every day, we say that we do not understand. We ask ‘can you explain it in a different way?’ Or ‘how can you solve this problem?’ We want to make them agree to fix the problem. We want to know exactly how they will help kids.” Tarissa says it is important to get people to look at you while they answer your questions. She says: “If someone does not look you in the eye, he may not be telling the truth. Or if someone plays with his fingers, he may not be telling the truth.” But Tarissa also says she tries not to let her opinion about a person affect her reporting. VOICE TWO: The Children’s Press Line reporters do not always get the answers they want. The children told about one experience at the Democratic Convention in Boston. They were talking to Lieutenant Governor John Moore of Kansas. When they asked what children’s issues were important to him, Mister Moore said “education, education, education.” The young people said that is what politicians always say to children. When they tried to ask more questions, a band began playing music. Mister Moore said, “nice talking to you” and walked away. The young reporters tried to find Mister Moore again but he was already lost in the crowd. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Children’s Press Line reporters write stories about many kinds of issues. Every idea comes from a young person and must be an issue that affects children. All the reporters together choose the stories they find the most interesting. They research the stories, write questions and find people who can answer their questions. They write stories about what they learn. The stories are published in the New Amsterdam News in New York City. Some of the stories are published online and in other newspapers in the United States. Children’s Press Line says more than sixty thousand adults read their stories. Tarissa Whitely has written and researched stories about hip hop songs that support fair treatment for people who have the disease AIDS. She has written stories about cuts in government money for programs helping young people. She says Children’s Press Line has given her a chance to meet many new people and do things children do not usually do. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sometimes Children’s Press Line reporters talk about important issues with young people from other countries. These talks are on the Children’s Press Line Internet Web site. The address is www.cplmedia.org. The Web site also has movies of the talks among young people from different countries. In one movie, young people in the United States talk with young people in Iraq about the war there. Also on the Web site, young people from the United States, Britain and Japan talked about differences in punishment when students do something wrong in school. Now, Children’s Press Line is trying to open a high school in New York City for students who want to study the media. VOICE ONE: Marie Ponsot (PON sott) is eleven years old and is in the fifth grade in New York City. She has been a Children’s Press Line reporter since she was nine years old. Her first story is still the one she likes best. The young reporters wrote about security cameras in Greenwich Village, an area in New York City. Marie says the cameras invade people’s privacy. Her stories reported about protestors who performed plays in front of the security cameras. She said the protestors were using the plays to tell other people what they thought about the security cameras. Marie says writing these stories helped her learn about issues and problems in society that affected her. Later, she talked to a student her age who could not read. Marie said that concerned her because she felt it was not fair. Marie says a society that has news reporters who are free to ask questions and write stories helps people know what is happening where they live. VOICE TWO: Emily says she knows that the media have a very big influence on what people know and think about issues and problems in society. She attended an international meeting of students at her local school. Students listened to news reporters from the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Arabic news company Al Jazeera. The students compared the same stories told by different media in different countries. Emily says the more people know about a problem, the more they will want to know how they can help solve the problem. Children’s Press Line says twenty-five percent of the people in the United States are younger than eighteen years old. But only ten percent of the news stories are about issues important to children. Emily says Children’s Press Line gives children a voice since they do not have a vote. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Karen Leggett. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Progress Toward a Malaria Vaccine
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 27, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. There is progress toward a vaccine to prevent malaria. Researchers have been testing an experimental vaccine in Mozambique. This is what they have found: In a group of one thousand six hundred children, the vaccine reduced the risk of malaria attacks by thirty percent. It reduced the risk of severe cases of the disease by almost sixty percent. Also, the vaccine appeared effective in preventing new cases of infection with the malaria parasite most common in Africa. In a second group of four hundred children, the vaccine reduced the risk of new infections by forty-five percent. The findings appeared earlier this month in The Lancet. The researchers say the experimental vaccine is safe. Doctor Pedro Alonso of the University of Barcelona, in Spain, led the study. He says the vaccine should protect children for at least six months. He noted that earlier tests found that the protection lasted only a short time in adults. There are several hundred million cases of malaria in the world each year. Malaria damages the nervous system, kidneys and liver. By current estimates, at least one million people a year die from malaria. Most of those victims are young children in Africa. In fact, malaria kills more African children under the age of five than any other disease. The economic costs to Africa from malaria are estimated at twelve thousand million dollars a year. People get malaria when they are bitten by mosquitoes that carry the parasite. Researchers say the malaria parasite is more complex than organisms that cause many other diseases. That has made it more difficult to find a vaccine that is safe and effective. Cost is also an important issue. The Ministry of Health in Mozambique, the drug company GlaxoSmithKline and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative supported the tests. The initiative began in nineteen ninety-nine with fifty million dollars from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. More testing is needed. Experts say they do not expect a malaria vaccine to be approved for use until at least two thousand ten. GlaxoSmithKline says it can take six years to build a factory where the vaccine can be made. More than one-third of all people live in countries with malaria. By two thousand ten, experts say that share of the population will increase to half. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: October 28, 2004 - Creative Writing, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 28, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we continue our conversation about creative writing with a self-described "addicted, compulsive reviser." RS: Chitra Divakaruni has written four novels; her newest, "Queen of Dreams," was just published. But when she's not writing books, she's helping future writers as a professor at the University of Houston. CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Fortunately, in some ways, writing is not a totally logical process. At some point if you start thinking 'I have to do this and this and this,' you're overwhelmed by the task. But when you begin to write, intuitively a lot of this comes to you. Because, with my students, and certainly I think many of our listeners, we've been readers all our lives. We know what works in literature from the point of view of the reader." AA: "Now here's a technical question for you: Where do you stand on adjectives and adverbs?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, I think each story has its own rules. Some stories will require a minimalistic writing where you cut back on those adjectives and adverbs. And some stories, the style that will bring that story out most fruitfully will require a lot of description, a lot of detail. And therefore you need to bring in adjectives and adverbs and powerful verbs as well. Sometimes we forget that verbs can be so very descriptive. And we have to try. And if it's not working, there's always revision." RS: "You're both a writer of fiction and a teacher. Those are two very different worlds. How do you jump from one to the other?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "That is very difficult. It's a real juggling act. My situation at the university is, I teach one semester and then I get the rest of the year off. And it's really when I have time off that I do most of my writing, because I find when I'm writing I have to enter the fictional universe of my stories. "For example, when I was writing 'Queen of Dreams,' much of that story is set in India, where the mother is undergoing training as a dream interpreter and she's living in a community of dream interpreters. And I really for days had to just be in that world. Otherwise I couldn't write it. And it's very disruptive when you have to get out of that creative mode of thinking and that imaginative mode of thinking and you have to move to the critical mode of thinking, which is where I am when I am teaching." RS: "What kind of advice would you give to our listeners, those who speak English as a foreign language who might want to write in their native language or perhaps someday in English?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, one of the things that I always say to my students, and I think this applies to everyone, because it has been very helpful for me as well, is to read a lot, and to read as a writer, which is different. Because when you read as a writer, now you're reading much more slowly, and you're reading with a pen or pencil in your hand and you're marking things that you really admire. And as you admire these things, you're trying to figure out the technique of the writer. ‘Well, here I really like how the character relates to another person, I can really understand the feelings. What did the writer do to create this?’ So that kind of reading I think is very, very helpful. And it's often something that we don't do when we're just reading right through a book." AA: "Well, I imagine you must write a great essay. [laughter] Actually I was wondering if you have any advice for a student out there who had to write an essay either to get into school or something -- " RS: "What advice would you give to my son who is applying for the university right now and has to write these college essays?" AA: "Do you stick to the dreaded five-paragraph essay, or what's your advice?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, what I would first say is read the directions very carefully [laughter] because directions will often give you a sense of what they're looking for. And we want to work with language in these essays. We want to use exact descriptive phrases that will stay in the reader's mind. And then, of course, I think what's really important is being honest, being truthful and writing something you're passionate about. "A lot of these essays will ask you to say something that is special about yourself, to describe something that has had meaning in your life and has taught you something. Now sometimes students will take the easy path and they'll write about an experience that isn't risky, that's pretty much along the beaten path. And what I say to my students, and what I tried to do in 'Queen of Dreams,' is to take risks. I think good writers take risks, and they're not afraid to open themselves up for their readers." RS: Novelist Chitra Divakaruni is a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston. AA: And now for a programming note: Wordmaster will move to Wednesday, with a repeat on Saturday, starting next week. We will put the exact times on our Website at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And you can always write to use at word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 28, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: we continue our conversation about creative writing with a self-described "addicted, compulsive reviser." RS: Chitra Divakaruni has written four novels; her newest, "Queen of Dreams," was just published. But when she's not writing books, she's helping future writers as a professor at the University of Houston. CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Fortunately, in some ways, writing is not a totally logical process. At some point if you start thinking 'I have to do this and this and this,' you're overwhelmed by the task. But when you begin to write, intuitively a lot of this comes to you. Because, with my students, and certainly I think many of our listeners, we've been readers all our lives. We know what works in literature from the point of view of the reader." AA: "Now here's a technical question for you: Where do you stand on adjectives and adverbs?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, I think each story has its own rules. Some stories will require a minimalistic writing where you cut back on those adjectives and adverbs. And some stories, the style that will bring that story out most fruitfully will require a lot of description, a lot of detail. And therefore you need to bring in adjectives and adverbs and powerful verbs as well. Sometimes we forget that verbs can be so very descriptive. And we have to try. And if it's not working, there's always revision." RS: "You're both a writer of fiction and a teacher. Those are two very different worlds. How do you jump from one to the other?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "That is very difficult. It's a real juggling act. My situation at the university is, I teach one semester and then I get the rest of the year off. And it's really when I have time off that I do most of my writing, because I find when I'm writing I have to enter the fictional universe of my stories. "For example, when I was writing 'Queen of Dreams,' much of that story is set in India, where the mother is undergoing training as a dream interpreter and she's living in a community of dream interpreters. And I really for days had to just be in that world. Otherwise I couldn't write it. And it's very disruptive when you have to get out of that creative mode of thinking and that imaginative mode of thinking and you have to move to the critical mode of thinking, which is where I am when I am teaching." RS: "What kind of advice would you give to our listeners, those who speak English as a foreign language who might want to write in their native language or perhaps someday in English?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, one of the things that I always say to my students, and I think this applies to everyone, because it has been very helpful for me as well, is to read a lot, and to read as a writer, which is different. Because when you read as a writer, now you're reading much more slowly, and you're reading with a pen or pencil in your hand and you're marking things that you really admire. And as you admire these things, you're trying to figure out the technique of the writer. ‘Well, here I really like how the character relates to another person, I can really understand the feelings. What did the writer do to create this?’ So that kind of reading I think is very, very helpful. And it's often something that we don't do when we're just reading right through a book." AA: "Well, I imagine you must write a great essay. [laughter] Actually I was wondering if you have any advice for a student out there who had to write an essay either to get into school or something -- " RS: "What advice would you give to my son who is applying for the university right now and has to write these college essays?" AA: "Do you stick to the dreaded five-paragraph essay, or what's your advice?" CHITRA DIVAKARUNI: "Well, what I would first say is read the directions very carefully [laughter] because directions will often give you a sense of what they're looking for. And we want to work with language in these essays. We want to use exact descriptive phrases that will stay in the reader's mind. And then, of course, I think what's really important is being honest, being truthful and writing something you're passionate about. "A lot of these essays will ask you to say something that is special about yourself, to describe something that has had meaning in your life and has taught you something. Now sometimes students will take the easy path and they'll write about an experience that isn't risky, that's pretty much along the beaten path. And what I say to my students, and what I tried to do in 'Queen of Dreams,' is to take risks. I think good writers take risks, and they're not afraid to open themselves up for their readers." RS: Novelist Chitra Divakaruni is a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston. AA: And now for a programming note: Wordmaster will move to Wednesday, with a repeat on Saturday, starting next week. We will put the exact times on our Website at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And you can always write to use at word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/video-test-article.cfm
* Headline: video test article
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #86 - James Buchanan, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 28, 2004 (MUSIC THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC Early in eighteen-fifty-seven, the Supreme Court of the United States announced one of its most important decisions. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, a negro slave. This is Leo Scully. And today, Harry Monroe and I tell about this ruling, and the continuing national dispute over slavery. VOICE TWO Dred Scott lived in Missouri, where slavery was legal. Then he was sold to a man who took him to Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was not legal. After four years, he was returned to Missouri. Dred Scott demanded his freedom, because of the years he had spent in places where slavery was illegal. Congress had banned slavery in those places under the Missouri Compromise Act of eighteen-twenty. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not have the power to close territories to slavery. It said the Missouri Compromise was a violation of the United States Constitution, and that Dred Scott was not a free man. VOICE ONE: James Buchanan was sworn-in as president at the time of the Dred Scott case. Buchanan believed the Supreme Court's decision would put an end to the dispute over slavery. He believed that Americans -- north and south -- would accept the decision as the final word in the dispute. This did not happen. The Dred Scott decision did not calm the storm that divided the nation. Instead, it increased its fury. VOICE TWO: New trouble threatened to break out in the territory of Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. In the past few years, the two sides had argued and fought over their opinions. They even had formed two separate governments. The pro-slavery forces controlled the legal government. The anti-slavery forces controlled an opposition government which had no power. Supporters of slavery wanted to organize a constitutional convention that could put Kansas into the Union as a slave state. The pro-slavery legislature passed a bill calling for such a convention. The bill gave supporters of slavery every chance to control the election of delegates to the convention. And it gave the convention complete freedom to make its own rules. The bill provided no way for the people of Kansas to vote on their own constitution. VOICE ONE: The governor of the Kansas territory, John Geary, vetoed the bill. But the legislature quickly over-ruled his veto. Pro-slavery men called for Geary to get out of Kansas. Some talked of shooting him if he did not leave. Governor Geary had been living under extreme tension for months. He had worked hard to keep Kansas peaceful. He was angry, because he could get no help from the federal government. He sent his resignation to President Buchanan. Then the former governor spoke publicly. He said most of the settlers in Kansas were peace-loving people. He said only a small group was responsible for the trouble there. Geary said a few powerful men hoped to make Kansas a slave state. If this failed, Geary said, they hoped their actions would produce civil war. VOICE TWO: President Buchanan appointed a new governor for Kansas. Buchanan told him that slavery in the territory must be decided on the votes of the people of the territory. And he said the people must be given a fair chance to approve or reject a constitution for statehood. The new governor arrived in Kansas at the end of May, eighteen-fifty-seven. He explained his policies in a speech to the people of Kansas. The new governor promised to enforce the laws of the pro-slavery legislature...but only those laws which were constitutional. He urged everyone to vote in the coming election of delegates to the constitutional convention. He said he was hopeful that the convention would offer its constitution to the people for their approval or rejection. He added that Congress would not accept Kansas as a slave state, or a free state, until the people had voted on the question of slavery. VOICE ONE: On June fifteenth, the election was held for delegates to the constitutional convention. Most anti-slavery men did not vote, because their names had been kept off the voting lists by pro-slavery officials. Others refused to vote, because they believed the election was unfair. Sixty delegates were elected. All supported slavery. They planned to meet in the autumn to begin work on a constitution for Kansas. Most of the delegates were wild, rough men who found it difficult to read and write. But these men were sure of one thing. They wanted Kansas to be a slave state. VOICE TWO: The delegates began the constitution by claiming that the right of property was higher than any constitutional power. They said a slave-owner had as much right to his property as the owner of any other kind of property. Then they wrote the different parts of the document. One part of the constitution severely limited the right of the legislature to free slaves. Another part barred free negroes from entering Kansas. And another prevented the constitution from being changed for seven years. VOICE ONE: Most of the delegates to the Kansas constitutional convention wanted to send the document directly to Congress for approval. They did not want to give the people of Kansas a chance to vote on it. They were sure that the majority of the population would reject a constitution that made slavery legal. Some delegates, however, knew that Congress would not approve statehood for Kansas unless the people voted on the constitution. The two sides finally agreed on a compromise. VOICE TWO: The constitution itself would not be offered to the people. Instead, the people would vote only on the question of slavery. They could vote for the constitution with slavery or the constitution without slavery. If the voters approved the constitution with slavery, then Kansas would be open to new slaves. If they approved the constitution without slavery, then Kansas would be closed to new slaves. Slaves already in the territory could be kept there. This compromise brought a cry of anger from opponents of slavery in Kansas. They said the constitutional convention had only given them the right to vote for limited slavery or unlimited slavery. It had not given them the right to vote for freedom. VOICE ONE: President Buchanan had promised the people of Kansas that they would have a fair chance to vote on their constitution. But members of his cabinet told him to forget this promise. They said Americans were tired of the dispute in Kansas and would accept any settlement. They told Buchanan that approval of the constitution would end the Kansas problem. It would satisfy the south, they said, and the north would soon forget about Kansas. Under this pressure, President Buchanan made his decision. He would ask Congress to accept the pro-slavery Kansas constitution and make the territory a slave state. VOICE TWO: In Kansas, the vote on slavery was held. Most opponents of slavery did not vote. They were waiting until they could vote against the complete statehood constitution. Many of the votes were illegal. Still, Kansas officials declared that slavery had been approved. They urged Congress to make Kansas a state under this condition. Shortly after, President Buchanan sent Congress a similar message. Buchanan's chief opponent on the statehood bill was a member of his own Democratic Party, sSnator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas did not oppose slavery. But he believed that the people of a territory had the right to make their own decision to accept or reject slavery. VOICE ONE: Stephen Douglas united other Democrats and members of the anti-slavery Republican Party to fight against the bill in the Senate. He lost. The Senate approved the bill to make Kansas a state where slavery was legal. The House of Representatives, however, rejected the bill. Instead, it approved a bill to let the people of Kansas vote again on their statehood constitution. The Senate approved a compromise version of this House bill. VOICE TWO: So the people of Kansas got another chance to show that they did not want a pro-slavery constitution. They voted and rejected the constitution by a large majority. The pro-slavery statehood constitution was dead. Kansas would continue as a territory for a few more years. But there would be no further attempt to make it a slave state. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Leo Scully and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Broadcast: October 28, 2004 (MUSIC THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC Early in eighteen-fifty-seven, the Supreme Court of the United States announced one of its most important decisions. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, a negro slave. This is Leo Scully. And today, Harry Monroe and I tell about this ruling, and the continuing national dispute over slavery. VOICE TWO Dred Scott lived in Missouri, where slavery was legal. Then he was sold to a man who took him to Illinois and Wisconsin, where slavery was not legal. After four years, he was returned to Missouri. Dred Scott demanded his freedom, because of the years he had spent in places where slavery was illegal. Congress had banned slavery in those places under the Missouri Compromise Act of eighteen-twenty. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not have the power to close territories to slavery. It said the Missouri Compromise was a violation of the United States Constitution, and that Dred Scott was not a free man. VOICE ONE: James Buchanan was sworn-in as president at the time of the Dred Scott case. Buchanan believed the Supreme Court's decision would put an end to the dispute over slavery. He believed that Americans -- north and south -- would accept the decision as the final word in the dispute. This did not happen. The Dred Scott decision did not calm the storm that divided the nation. Instead, it increased its fury. VOICE TWO: New trouble threatened to break out in the territory of Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. In the past few years, the two sides had argued and fought over their opinions. They even had formed two separate governments. The pro-slavery forces controlled the legal government. The anti-slavery forces controlled an opposition government which had no power. Supporters of slavery wanted to organize a constitutional convention that could put Kansas into the Union as a slave state. The pro-slavery legislature passed a bill calling for such a convention. The bill gave supporters of slavery every chance to control the election of delegates to the convention. And it gave the convention complete freedom to make its own rules. The bill provided no way for the people of Kansas to vote on their own constitution. VOICE ONE: The governor of the Kansas territory, John Geary, vetoed the bill. But the legislature quickly over-ruled his veto. Pro-slavery men called for Geary to get out of Kansas. Some talked of shooting him if he did not leave. Governor Geary had been living under extreme tension for months. He had worked hard to keep Kansas peaceful. He was angry, because he could get no help from the federal government. He sent his resignation to President Buchanan. Then the former governor spoke publicly. He said most of the settlers in Kansas were peace-loving people. He said only a small group was responsible for the trouble there. Geary said a few powerful men hoped to make Kansas a slave state. If this failed, Geary said, they hoped their actions would produce civil war. VOICE TWO: President Buchanan appointed a new governor for Kansas. Buchanan told him that slavery in the territory must be decided on the votes of the people of the territory. And he said the people must be given a fair chance to approve or reject a constitution for statehood. The new governor arrived in Kansas at the end of May, eighteen-fifty-seven. He explained his policies in a speech to the people of Kansas. The new governor promised to enforce the laws of the pro-slavery legislature...but only those laws which were constitutional. He urged everyone to vote in the coming election of delegates to the constitutional convention. He said he was hopeful that the convention would offer its constitution to the people for their approval or rejection. He added that Congress would not accept Kansas as a slave state, or a free state, until the people had voted on the question of slavery. VOICE ONE: On June fifteenth, the election was held for delegates to the constitutional convention. Most anti-slavery men did not vote, because their names had been kept off the voting lists by pro-slavery officials. Others refused to vote, because they believed the election was unfair. Sixty delegates were elected. All supported slavery. They planned to meet in the autumn to begin work on a constitution for Kansas. Most of the delegates were wild, rough men who found it difficult to read and write. But these men were sure of one thing. They wanted Kansas to be a slave state. VOICE TWO: The delegates began the constitution by claiming that the right of property was higher than any constitutional power. They said a slave-owner had as much right to his property as the owner of any other kind of property. Then they wrote the different parts of the document. One part of the constitution severely limited the right of the legislature to free slaves. Another part barred free negroes from entering Kansas. And another prevented the constitution from being changed for seven years. VOICE ONE: Most of the delegates to the Kansas constitutional convention wanted to send the document directly to Congress for approval. They did not want to give the people of Kansas a chance to vote on it. They were sure that the majority of the population would reject a constitution that made slavery legal. Some delegates, however, knew that Congress would not approve statehood for Kansas unless the people voted on the constitution. The two sides finally agreed on a compromise. VOICE TWO: The constitution itself would not be offered to the people. Instead, the people would vote only on the question of slavery. They could vote for the constitution with slavery or the constitution without slavery. If the voters approved the constitution with slavery, then Kansas would be open to new slaves. If they approved the constitution without slavery, then Kansas would be closed to new slaves. Slaves already in the territory could be kept there. This compromise brought a cry of anger from opponents of slavery in Kansas. They said the constitutional convention had only given them the right to vote for limited slavery or unlimited slavery. It had not given them the right to vote for freedom. VOICE ONE: President Buchanan had promised the people of Kansas that they would have a fair chance to vote on their constitution. But members of his cabinet told him to forget this promise. They said Americans were tired of the dispute in Kansas and would accept any settlement. They told Buchanan that approval of the constitution would end the Kansas problem. It would satisfy the south, they said, and the north would soon forget about Kansas. Under this pressure, President Buchanan made his decision. He would ask Congress to accept the pro-slavery Kansas constitution and make the territory a slave state. VOICE TWO: In Kansas, the vote on slavery was held. Most opponents of slavery did not vote. They were waiting until they could vote against the complete statehood constitution. Many of the votes were illegal. Still, Kansas officials declared that slavery had been approved. They urged Congress to make Kansas a state under this condition. Shortly after, President Buchanan sent Congress a similar message. Buchanan's chief opponent on the statehood bill was a member of his own Democratic Party, sSnator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas did not oppose slavery. But he believed that the people of a territory had the right to make their own decision to accept or reject slavery. VOICE ONE: Stephen Douglas united other Democrats and members of the anti-slavery Republican Party to fight against the bill in the Senate. He lost. The Senate approved the bill to make Kansas a state where slavery was legal. The House of Representatives, however, rejected the bill. Instead, it approved a bill to let the people of Kansas vote again on their statehood constitution. The Senate approved a compromise version of this House bill. VOICE TWO: So the people of Kansas got another chance to show that they did not want a pro-slavery constitution. They voted and rejected the constitution by a large majority. The pro-slavery statehood constitution was dead. Kansas would continue as a territory for a few more years. But there would be no further attempt to make it a slave state. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Leo Scully and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #9: TOEFL
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 28, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. TOEFL is an important test for foreign students who want to study in the United States. TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. And today, it is the subject in part nine of our Foreign Student Series. More than four thousand American universities and other schools require students seeking admission to take the test. It measures the ability to read, write and understand English. The Educational Testing Service produces two kinds of TOEFL tests. One is taken by computer in a special testing center. This is how people in most areas of the world take the TOEFL. The second version is taken with paper and pencil. One of our listeners, Ana Paula Pinheiro in Brazil, has written to ask us about the minimum score needed to pass the TOEFL. Colleges and universities set their own requirements. But, in general, schools want a minimum score on the paper-and-pencil test of about five hundred fifty. This is out of a possible six hundred seventy-seven points. On the computer test, schools generally require a minimum score of about two hundred thirteen out of a possible three hundred points. The TOEFL includes a part to test listening skills. A new TOEFL is being developed. It will also test speaking skills. This test will be given starting in September of two thousand five. The Educational Testing Service says it is still doing tests to see what might be considered a passing score. You can take the TOEFL as many times as you wish. But you must pay each time. The cost is about one hundred thirty dollars. Experts say it is a good idea to take the test one or two times for experience. They also say the best way to prepare for the TOEFL is to use English as much as you can. Internet users can find more information about the TOEFL at www.toefl.org. The postal address is TOEFL Services, Educational Testing Service, Post Office Box six-one-five-one, Princeton, New Jersey, zero-eight-five-four-one, U-S-A. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish dot com. And if you have a general question about studying in the United States, send it to special@voanews.com. We can only answer questions on the air. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - How the Electoral College Works ...
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 29, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: A listener asks how the Electoral College works ... A look at some body art ... And a musical history of the Apollo Theater. Body Art Body art is the use of the human body as a form of self-expression. Tattooing and piercing are both forms of body art. And, as Faith Lapidus tells us, both have become more socially acceptable in the United States. FAITH LAPIDUS: Tattooing is the art of injecting colors into the skin to create designs. Piercing is putting holes in the body for wearing jewelry. Ancient societies used body art to represent many different things, including social position and religious beliefs. In the United States, tattoos were considered mostly for military men or laborers, or young people who disobeyed their parents. But in recent years, all kinds of people have gotten tattoos -- men, women, teachers, entertainers. Some tattoos are small and hidden under clothes. But it is not so unusual these days to see young men with colorful designs that cover their arms. Some young women have large tattoos across their lower back. Piercing used to be just for ears. But now other parts include lips, noses, eyebrows and navels. Piercing and tattooing can involve serious risks, in addition to pain and bleeding. There is the risk of infection and the spread of disease if the artist is not careful about cleanliness. Of course, people may later regret their decision to get a permanent tattoo. Removal is costly and painful. So some people get a temporary one, like mehndi. Mehndi is a traditional body art done with henna, which comes from a plant. It washes off in a few weeks. Electoral College DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from South Africa. Clifford Riffel in Atlantis writes: "I keep hearing about an Electoral College. How does it work?" It works this way: When Americans vote for president and vice president next Tuesday, their votes will not go to the candidates. Instead, Americans vote for electors to represent them in what is known as the Electoral College. The founders of the nation thought appointed representatives should make the choice. They saw this as a compromise between having Congress elect a president and having the people do it directly. They borrowed an idea from the ancient Holy Roman Empire. Back then, a number of princes of German states acted as electors of the king. The term "college" comes from Latin. It can mean any group of people who act together for a common purpose. The Constitution talks about "electors," but never uses the term "electoral college." Yet Americans were calling it that by the early eighteen hundreds. Different states have different laws on the appointment of electors. But political parties often nominate people to recognize their service to their party. In some states, the names of the electors appear on the ballot, below the names of the candidates. The number of electors in each state equals the number or representatives and senators that the state has in Congress. This depends on population. So, states with more people have more electoral votes. California has the most – fifty-five. In all, there are five hundred thirty-eight votes in the Electoral College. To become president, a candidate must win more than half, or at least two hundred seventy. If there is a tie, the election would be decided in the House of Representatives. In general, the candidate with the most popular votes in a state wins all the electoral votes in that state. Two of the fifty states, Maine and Nebraska, no longer have a winner-takes-all system. And on Tuesday, voters in Colorado will consider a ballot measure that proposes a similar change. Their nine electoral votes would be divided by the share of the popular vote that each candidate receives. The proposal calls for the change to take effect immediately. No federal law requires electors to vote for the candidate who won the most votes in their state. Some states, however, do have such laws. Usually, the candidate who wins in the popular vote nationwide also wins in the Electoral College, but not always. In two thousand, for example, Al Gore received half a million more votes than George W. Bush. But Mister Bush won the electoral vote when the Supreme Court ruled, five to four, to halt a recount of the ballots in Florida. The state was decided by five hundred thirty-seven votes. Critics of the Electoral College system call it undemocratic, difficult to understand and dangerous to the political system. Supporters say it helps to guarantee the rights of states with small populations. They say it also requires candidates to reach out to many states, not just those with large populations. There have been hundreds of proposals in Congress to end or reform the Electoral College. But amending the Constitution is a difficult process. In any case, this year the election of the president and vice president will not take place, officially, until December thirteenth. That is the day for electors in each state and the District of Columbia to meet to choose America's leaders for the next four years. To learn more about the Electoral College, go to voaspecialenglish.com. We have a link to information from the Federal Register. Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater in New York City celebrated its seventieth anniversary this year. Steve Ember takes us inside this historic place. STEVE EMBER: The Apollo Theater is in Harlem, the traditional center of African American life in New York. The Apollo calls itself a place "where stars are born and legends are made." Many singers, dancers and other artists have become famous after they performed there. One of them was Ella Fitzgerald. She performed at the Apollo for the first time in nineteen thirty-four, the year it opened. Four years later, she recorded her first big hit, ”A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” (MUSIC) Singer James Brown recorded a performance at the Apollo Theater in nineteen sixty-two. The following year, he released an album. Here, from “Live at the Apollo,” is James Brown with “Living In America.” (MUSIC) In recent years, the Apollo stage has been a stepping-stone for performers like Lauryn Hill. Her music combines rap, reggae, soul and hip-hop. She wrote and produced her nineteen ninety-eighty album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” We leave you with a song called “Doo Wop (That Thing).” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or write to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and postal address. And if you e-mail us a picture of yourself, we'll post it at voaspecialenglish.com. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Lawan Davis and Brian Kim. Caty Weaver was our producer. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - 75th Anniversary of the 'Great Crash'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 29, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Seventy-five years ago this week, an event shook the world: the Great Crash of nineteen twenty-nine. It began October twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-nine. Fear seized the New York Stock Exchange. Investors wanted to sell their shares before the stock lost value. Over the next five days, millions of shares flooded the market. Many investors lost all their money. During the nineteen twenties, many Americans had invested in the stock market. Many got rich. In nineteen twenty-eight, Herbert Hoover was elected president. He said the future was bright with hope. People were being advised to buy stock before prices climbed even higher. Common sense was in short supply. Stock market rules let investors buy shares even if they did not have enough money. That is still true today, but there are stronger controls. During the summer of nineteen twenty-nine, some economists warned that there was no real value behind the high prices. President Hoover urged stock market officials to make trading safer and more honest. But he did not think the government should interfere in the market. When the drop in stock prices finally came, it was slow at first. It picked up speed as investors sold more and more shares. Several bankers bought stocks in an effort to prevent a crash. But the intense activity continued. October twenty-ninth is remembered as Black Tuesday. That day alone, stocks lost a tenth of their value. The crash caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, their farms and their homes. Many banks and businesses failed. The crash led to a worldwide depression. In nineteen thirty-two, Americans elected a new president, Franklin Roosevelt. He increased federal control over banks and the stock market. But the Great Depression did not end in America until nineteen forty-two, during the Second World War. The stock market has had other bad days in the last seventy-five years. October nineteenth, nineteen eighty-seven, is called Black Monday. American stocks lost twenty-three percent of their value, their biggest percentage loss in a single day. In less than two years, however, those stocks had regained all the value they lost. And economists like Lee Kjelleren [SHELL-er-en] at the Museum of American Financial History in New York say good quality stocks are still the best investment. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: October 29, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Seventy-five years ago this week, an event shook the world: the Great Crash of nineteen twenty-nine. It began October twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-nine. Fear seized the New York Stock Exchange. Investors wanted to sell their shares before the stock lost value. Over the next five days, millions of shares flooded the market. Many investors lost all their money. During the nineteen twenties, many Americans had invested in the stock market. Many got rich. In nineteen twenty-eight, Herbert Hoover was elected president. He said the future was bright with hope. People were being advised to buy stock before prices climbed even higher. Common sense was in short supply. Stock market rules let investors buy shares even if they did not have enough money. That is still true today, but there are stronger controls. During the summer of nineteen twenty-nine, some economists warned that there was no real value behind the high prices. President Hoover urged stock market officials to make trading safer and more honest. But he did not think the government should interfere in the market. When the drop in stock prices finally came, it was slow at first. It picked up speed as investors sold more and more shares. Several bankers bought stocks in an effort to prevent a crash. But the intense activity continued. October twenty-ninth is remembered as Black Tuesday. That day alone, stocks lost a tenth of their value. The crash caused a lot of people to lose their jobs, their farms and their homes. Many banks and businesses failed. The crash led to a worldwide depression. In nineteen thirty-two, Americans elected a new president, Franklin Roosevelt. He increased federal control over banks and the stock market. But the Great Depression did not end in America until nineteen forty-two, during the Second World War. The stock market has had other bad days in the last seventy-five years. October nineteenth, nineteen eighty-seven, is called Black Monday. American stocks lost twenty-three percent of their value, their biggest percentage loss in a single day. In less than two years, however, those stocks had regained all the value they lost. And economists like Lee Kjelleren [SHELL-er-en] at the Museum of American Financial History in New York say good quality stocks are still the best investment. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Missing Explosives in Iraq
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 30, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. On Monday, the United Nations nuclear agency reported that three hundred fifty metric tons of high explosives in Iraq were missing. The materials were kept at a storage center at Al Qaqaa near Baghdad. United States officials say the explosives may have disappeared before American forces occupied the capital. The International Atomic Energy Agency, however, says American forces failed to secure them after entering Baghdad in early April of last year. Mohammed ElBaradei is the director general of the U.N. agency. He reported the disappearance to the Security Council on Monday. The New York Times newspaper and C.B.S. television had first reported the story that same day. Mister ElBaradei said Iraqi officials had informed him in early October that the explosives were missing. They said the material disappeared sometime after American-led coalition forces took control of Baghdad. U.N. nuclear inspectors had been supervising the explosives because one possible use is to set off a nuclear bomb. The inspectors said the explosives were still at Al Qaqaa during their final visit on March ninth, before they left Iraq. The war began on March twentieth of last year. Defense Department officials say they have evidence of Iraqi military activity at Al Qaqaa before the war began. On Thursday they released a satellite picture. They said it showed two Iraqi trucks parked outside a storage area several days before the war started. American officials say this picture proves that Iraqis were at Al Qaqaa after U.N. inspectors had left the country. The Defense Department says it is investigating what happened to the missing explosives. American officials have suggested that the explosives were probably removed by Saddam Hussein’s forces before the invasion. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said any large effort to steal the material after that would have been discovered. Officials say more than four hundred thousand tons of ammunition, explosives and other material in Iraq have been seized or destroyed. Still, the missing explosives have become an issue in the race for the presidential election on Tuesday. Democratic Senator John Kerry says the missing explosives are more evidence that the administration is doing a bad job in Iraq. President Bush accused his opponent of making "wild accusations" before the facts are known. Adding to the dispute was a report broadcast Thursday by A.B.C. television. It showed images made by a news crew traveling with the first American troops to arrive at Al Qaqaa. That was on April eighteenth of last year, nine days after the fall of Baghdad and Saddam Hussein. The pictures showed what appeared to be high explosives in containers with the markings of the I.A.E.A. There is disagreement, however, if these were the same containers that held the explosives that are now missing. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Red Adair
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 31, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: October 31, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Red Adair. He was famous for putting out dangerous oil well fires around the world. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Red Adair. He was famous for putting out dangerous oil well fires around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Neal Adair was born in Houston, Texas in nineteen fifteen. He was one of five sons of a metal worker. He also had three sisters. While growing up, he became known as Red Adair because his hair was bright red. The color became a trademark for Adair. He wore red clothes and red boots. He drove a red car, and his crew members used red trucks and red equipment. As a young man, Red Adair dropped out of high school to help support his family. He worked as a laborer for several different companies. In nineteen thirty-eight, Adair got his first oil-related job with the Otis Pressure Control Company. VOICE TWO: During World War Two, Adair served on a trained army team that removed and destroyed bombs. After the war, he returned to Houston and took a job with Myron Kinley. At the time, Kinley was the leader in putting out fires in oil wells. Red Adair worked with Myron Kinley for fourteen years. But in nineteen fifty-nine, Adair started his own company. During his thirty-six years in business, Red Adair and his crews battled more than two thousand fires all over the world. Some were on land. Others were on ocean oil-drilling structures. Some fires were in burning oil wells. Others were in natural gas wells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Red Adair was a leader in a specialized and extremely dangerous profession. Putting out oil well fires can be difficult. This is because oil well fires are extinguished, or put out, at the wellhead just above ground. Normally, explosives are used to stop the fire from burning. The explosion robs the fire of oxygen. But, once the fire is out, the well still needs to be covered, or capped, to stop the flow of oil. This is the most dangerous part of the process. Any new heat or fire could cause the leaking well and the surrounding area to explode. VOICE TWO: Red Adair developed modern methods to extinguish and cover burning oil wells. They became known in the industry as Wild Well Control techniques. In addition to explosives, the techniques involved large amounts of water and dirt. Adair also developed special equipment made of bronze metal to help extinguish oil well fires. The modern tools and his Wild Well Control techniques earned Red Adair and his crews the honor of being called the “best in the business.” Red Adair was known for not being afraid. He was also known for his sense of calm and safety. None of his workers were ever killed while putting out oil well or gas fires. He described his work this way: “It scares you -- all the noise, the rattling, the shaking. But the look on everyone’s face, when you are finished and packing, it is the best smile in the world; and there is nobody hurt, and the well is under control.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of Red Adair’s most important projects was in nineteen sixty-two. He and his crew put out a natural gas fire in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. The fire had been burning for six months. This famous fire was called the “Devil’s Cigarette Lighter.” Fire from the natural gas well shot about one hundred forty meters into the air. The fire was so big that American astronaut John Glenn could see it from space as he orbited Earth. The desert sand around the well had melted into glass from the extreme heat. News reports said Adair used about three hundred forty kilograms of nitroglycerine explosive material to pull the oxygen out of the fire. VOICE TWO: Adair’s success with the “Devil’s Cigarette Lighter” and earlier well fires captured the imagination of the American film industry. In nineteen sixty-eight, Hollywood made an action film called “Hellfighters.” It was loosely based on events in Red Adair’s life. Actor John Wayne played an oil well firefighter from Houston, Texas whose life was similar to Adair’s. Adair served as an advisor to Wayne while the film was being made. The two men became close friends. Adair said one of the best honors in the world was to have John Wayne play him in a movie. Here is John Wayne in the film “Hellfighters.” He has just flown into Venezuela to help his crew fight a dangerous fire. He has brought needed supplies with him. ((SOUND)) “Wooo. It’s about time you got back to earning an honest living. If you think I’m going to say it’s a pleasure to be here, forget it. Hi boss. George, nice to see you. I spent a lot of your money. Well, what did you do, buy up all the control heads in Houston? This far away from supplies, you get all the spares you can. This is Colonel Valdez Chance. He’s in charge of keeping us from getting shot. Well, I hope you do a good job, Colonel. If I do not, you will have my profound apologies. (Laughter) The longer you guys stand there, the longer it’s going to take to unload this thing. Right Joe…” VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-eight, Adair fought what was possibly the world’s worst off-shore accident. It was at the Piper Alpha drilling structure in the North Sea. Occidental Petroleum operated the structure off the coast of Scotland. The structure produced oil and gas from twenty-four wells. One hundred sixty-seven men were killed when the structure exploded after a gas leak. Red Adair had to stop the fires and cap the wells. He faced winds blowing more than one hundred twenty kilometers an hour, and ocean waves at least twenty meters high. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In March of nineteen ninety-one, Red Adair went to Kuwait following the Persian Gulf War. He and his crews were called in to help put out fires set by the Iraqi army as it fled from coalition forces. But Adair faced serious problems in putting out the fires. In June, he flew to Washington, D.C. to talk to government officials about those problems. He told congressional lawmakers that he needed more water and more equipment. He also described his concerns about medical services for his men, and the buried landmines throughout Kuwait. VOICE ONE: Adair also met with then-President George H.W. Bush. President Bush listened to his concerns and offered his support. Within weeks, Adair had the equipment he needed to complete the job. The Red Adair Company capped more than one hundred wells. His crews were among twenty-seven teams from sixteen countries called in to fight the fires. The crews’ efforts put out about seven hundred Kuwaiti fires. Their efforts saved millions of barrels of oil. Some experts say the operation also helped prevent an environmental tragedy. The job had been expected to take three to five years. However, it was completed in just eight months. In a ceremony, the Emir of Kuwait extinguished the last burning well on November sixth, nineteen ninety-one. In addition to Kuwait, Adair and his men carried out sixteen other jobs that year. They worked in India, Venezuela, Nigeria, the Gulf of Mexico and the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Red Adair had spent his seventy-sixth birthday in Kuwait working side by side with his crew. When asked when he might retire, he told reporters: “Retire? I do not know what that word means. As long as a man is able to work, and he is productive out there and he feels good – keep at it.” Still, Red Adair finally did retire in nineteen ninety-four. At that time, he joked about where he would end up when he died. He said he hoped to be in Heaven. But he said this about Hell: “I have made a deal with the devil. He said he is going to give me an air-conditioned place when I go down there – if I go there – so I won’t put all the fires out.” VOICE ONE: Red Adair died in two thousand four. He was eighty-nine years old. At his funeral, many family members and friends honored him by wearing red clothes. Many Americans remember Red Adair for his bravery. He lived his life on the edge of danger. He was known for his willingness to risk his own life to save others. During his life, Adair received Special Letters of Recognition from Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. One of the letters said this: “You have served your country well by your willingness to do a dangerous and important job with a rare ability. In an age said to be without heroes, you are an authentic hero.” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Paul Neal Adair was born in Houston, Texas in nineteen fifteen. He was one of five sons of a metal worker. He also had three sisters. While growing up, he became known as Red Adair because his hair was bright red. The color became a trademark for Adair. He wore red clothes and red boots. He drove a red car, and his crew members used red trucks and red equipment. As a young man, Red Adair dropped out of high school to help support his family. He worked as a laborer for several different companies. In nineteen thirty-eight, Adair got his first oil-related job with the Otis Pressure Control Company. VOICE TWO: During World War Two, Adair served on a trained army team that removed and destroyed bombs. After the war, he returned to Houston and took a job with Myron Kinley. At the time, Kinley was the leader in putting out fires in oil wells. Red Adair worked with Myron Kinley for fourteen years. But in nineteen fifty-nine, Adair started his own company. During his thirty-six years in business, Red Adair and his crews battled more than two thousand fires all over the world. Some were on land. Others were on ocean oil-drilling structures. Some fires were in burning oil wells. Others were in natural gas wells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Red Adair was a leader in a specialized and extremely dangerous profession. Putting out oil well fires can be difficult. This is because oil well fires are extinguished, or put out, at the wellhead just above ground. Normally, explosives are used to stop the fire from burning. The explosion robs the fire of oxygen. But, once the fire is out, the well still needs to be covered, or capped, to stop the flow of oil. This is the most dangerous part of the process. Any new heat or fire could cause the leaking well and the surrounding area to explode. VOICE TWO: Red Adair developed modern methods to extinguish and cover burning oil wells. They became known in the industry as Wild Well Control techniques. In addition to explosives, the techniques involved large amounts of water and dirt. Adair also developed special equipment made of bronze metal to help extinguish oil well fires. The modern tools and his Wild Well Control techniques earned Red Adair and his crews the honor of being called the “best in the business.” Red Adair was known for not being afraid. He was also known for his sense of calm and safety. None of his workers were ever killed while putting out oil well or gas fires. He described his work this way: “It scares you -- all the noise, the rattling, the shaking. But the look on everyone’s face, when you are finished and packing, it is the best smile in the world; and there is nobody hurt, and the well is under control.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of Red Adair’s most important projects was in nineteen sixty-two. He and his crew put out a natural gas fire in the Sahara Desert in Algeria. The fire had been burning for six months. This famous fire was called the “Devil’s Cigarette Lighter.” Fire from the natural gas well shot about one hundred forty meters into the air. The fire was so big that American astronaut John Glenn could see it from space as he orbited Earth. The desert sand around the well had melted into glass from the extreme heat. News reports said Adair used about three hundred forty kilograms of nitroglycerine explosive material to pull the oxygen out of the fire. VOICE TWO: Adair’s success with the “Devil’s Cigarette Lighter” and earlier well fires captured the imagination of the American film industry. In nineteen sixty-eight, Hollywood made an action film called “Hellfighters.” It was loosely based on events in Red Adair’s life. Actor John Wayne played an oil well firefighter from Houston, Texas whose life was similar to Adair’s. Adair served as an advisor to Wayne while the film was being made. The two men became close friends. Adair said one of the best honors in the world was to have John Wayne play him in a movie. Here is John Wayne in the film “Hellfighters.” He has just flown into Venezuela to help his crew fight a dangerous fire. He has brought needed supplies with him. ((SOUND)) “Wooo. It’s about time you got back to earning an honest living. If you think I’m going to say it’s a pleasure to be here, forget it. Hi boss. George, nice to see you. I spent a lot of your money. Well, what did you do, buy up all the control heads in Houston? This far away from supplies, you get all the spares you can. This is Colonel Valdez Chance. He’s in charge of keeping us from getting shot. Well, I hope you do a good job, Colonel. If I do not, you will have my profound apologies. (Laughter) The longer you guys stand there, the longer it’s going to take to unload this thing. Right Joe…” VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-eight, Adair fought what was possibly the world’s worst off-shore accident. It was at the Piper Alpha drilling structure in the North Sea. Occidental Petroleum operated the structure off the coast of Scotland. The structure produced oil and gas from twenty-four wells. One hundred sixty-seven men were killed when the structure exploded after a gas leak. Red Adair had to stop the fires and cap the wells. He faced winds blowing more than one hundred twenty kilometers an hour, and ocean waves at least twenty meters high. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In March of nineteen ninety-one, Red Adair went to Kuwait following the Persian Gulf War. He and his crews were called in to help put out fires set by the Iraqi army as it fled from coalition forces. But Adair faced serious problems in putting out the fires. In June, he flew to Washington, D.C. to talk to government officials about those problems. He told congressional lawmakers that he needed more water and more equipment. He also described his concerns about medical services for his men, and the buried landmines throughout Kuwait. VOICE ONE: Adair also met with then-President George H.W. Bush. President Bush listened to his concerns and offered his support. Within weeks, Adair had the equipment he needed to complete the job. The Red Adair Company capped more than one hundred wells. His crews were among twenty-seven teams from sixteen countries called in to fight the fires. The crews’ efforts put out about seven hundred Kuwaiti fires. Their efforts saved millions of barrels of oil. Some experts say the operation also helped prevent an environmental tragedy. The job had been expected to take three to five years. However, it was completed in just eight months. In a ceremony, the Emir of Kuwait extinguished the last burning well on November sixth, nineteen ninety-one. In addition to Kuwait, Adair and his men carried out sixteen other jobs that year. They worked in India, Venezuela, Nigeria, the Gulf of Mexico and the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Red Adair had spent his seventy-sixth birthday in Kuwait working side by side with his crew. When asked when he might retire, he told reporters: “Retire? I do not know what that word means. As long as a man is able to work, and he is productive out there and he feels good – keep at it.” Still, Red Adair finally did retire in nineteen ninety-four. At that time, he joked about where he would end up when he died. He said he hoped to be in Heaven. But he said this about Hell: “I have made a deal with the devil. He said he is going to give me an air-conditioned place when I go down there – if I go there – so I won’t put all the fires out.” VOICE ONE: Red Adair died in two thousand four. He was eighty-nine years old. At his funeral, many family members and friends honored him by wearing red clothes. Many Americans remember Red Adair for his bravery. He lived his life on the edge of danger. He was known for his willingness to risk his own life to save others. During his life, Adair received Special Letters of Recognition from Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. One of the letters said this: “You have served your country well by your willingness to do a dangerous and important job with a rare ability. In an age said to be without heroes, you are an authentic hero.” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Lawan Davis. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Muslim Girls in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Muslims everywhere are in the middle of Ramadan. The holy month is a time for special prayers. It also means no food or drink from sunrise until sunset each day. Today we explore what it is like, especially for girls, to be young and Muslim in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jesmin Saikh is a student at a public high school in Rockville, Maryland. There are more than two thousand students at Magruder High School. About twenty of them are members of the Muslim Student Association. Most of these young people were born in the United States. But their parents came from other countries, like India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan. The students say more people began to ask them questions about Islam after the terrorist attacks on the United States in two thousand one. But the teenagers say they have not been treated badly because of what happened. For Ramadan, the Muslim students gave candy to all the teachers at the school. Tied to the candy was a piece of paper with facts about the observance. VOICE TWO: It is easy to tell that Jesmin is Muslim. A hijab cloth covers her hair. Jesmin says it is easier to follow Muslim rules about boys and girls when she wears hijab. These rules limit social relationships between girls and boys. Jesmin and another student, Sherine Heshmat, say the scarf lets boys know that they do not go on dates. In some schools, religious rules about dress can sometimes conflict with administrative rules. For example, schools might want students only to wear hats outdoors. Or some kinds of head coverings might be banned because they can represent a sign of membership in a gang. VOICE ONE: An eleven-year-old Muslim girl faced these sorts of rules at her school in the state of Oklahoma. She was told not to wear her scarf because schools in her city ban all head coverings for boys and girls. Her family brought action in court. They said the school was treating her unfairly because of her religion. The court agreed. Now school officials must permit students to wear religious head coverings. Atena Asiaii goes to high school in a small town in Pennsylvania. She wants to become a doctor. She, too, wears hijab. Atena wrote about herself for a new American magazine for Muslim women, called Azizah. Azizah is the Arabic word for strong and dear. Atena says she likes people to ask questions about Islam. She found the students at her school, in her words, "simply uninformed." One girl asked if she had ever seen her own hair. Another girl pulled the cloth off Atena's head. But Atena's friends explained that the girl who did that liked to play tricks on everyone, not just Muslim girls. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Asma Gull Hasan is twenty-nine years old and works as a lawyer in San Francisco, California. Her parents are from Pakistan, but she grew up in the state of Colorado. She has written two books, "American Muslim" and "Why I Am a Muslim." She is also a public speaker. Asma Hasan wears hijab only when she prays at a mosque. She believes Muslim women and girls should wear clothes that do not show too much skin. But she agrees that it can be difficult to resist popular culture. Asma Hasan has a Web site where girls can ask questions. Some ask about problems they may be having as Muslims in American society. Others ask about personal relationships, or how to deal with their parents. The questions are answered by a group of older Muslim women. They often tell young people to try to understand the differences between growing up here and growing up in their parents’ country. The Web site is asmahasan.com. VOICE ONE: Another young Muslim woman from California is Munira Lekovic Ezzeldine. Her parents are from Montenegro. She is the author of a book called "Before the Wedding: One-hundred-fifty Questions for Muslims to Ask Before Getting Married." Munira Ezzeldine says she began to study her religion seriously only after she became a university student. Now she is a mother who wears hijab and works with organizations of young Muslim girls. She says she tries to help girls understand that their parents want to protect them. She urges them to have parties at their own homes, so their parents will know their friends. Munira Ezzeldine says teenage girls who wear hijabs like boys just as much as girls who do not cover their hair. So she says it is a good thing there are more places where Muslim girls can talk about these issues. She lives in Irvine, California. She says there are four high schools just in her city that now have Muslim student associations. VOICE TWO: For the first time, the national president of the Muslim Student Association is female. Hadia Mubarak is also the first president born in the United States. Her parents are from Syria; she grew up in Florida. In a story for Azizah magazine, Hadia Mubarak wrote that she sometimes felt she did not belong in America or in Syria. But, as a university student, she met Muslims from many other countries. She wrote that she started to feel good about being an American Muslim. Now she will lead an organization of Muslim young people that has more members born inside the United States than outside. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jabbir Khan is a Muslim boy who goes to Magruder High School in Maryland. Recently, he sat in a circle of boys and girls and talked about being Muslim. Jabbir says boys and girls would not be sitting together in his parents’ country, Bangladesh. But he says following his religion helps him do the right thing when he is with other young people. For example, Muslims are not supposed to drink alcohol. Usman Khan, another boy in the circle, says he is sometimes offered alcohol at parties. The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one. Usman says no one asks questions if you say no because of your religion. VOICE TWO: High school proms are a tradition in the United States. A prom is a special dance where boys and girls celebrate the completion of high school. At a school in California last year, Muslim girls organized their own prom, without any boys. They took off their scarves and wore the same long, pretty dresses that other girls wear to proms. On the other side of the country, in Maryland, Jesmin Saikh says she does not plan to attend her high school prom. She says she would rather go to dinner or a party after the prom with her friends. Another student, Aisha Jamal, does not think a separate dance for girls is a good idea. She says it would only make the differences seem greater between students who are Muslim and those who are not. VOICE ONE: Aisha is a little rebellious. Recently she decided to stop covering her hair. She says one reason is that she found it difficult to play sports. She says the scarf made her very hot when she played basketball. But Aisha says she also believes it is easier to say what she thinks when she is not wearing hijab. She explains that she was once defending a friend who was arguing with another girl. She says the other girl called Aisha a terrorist because of her hijab. Jesmin says people have thought similar things about her, because she is Muslim and wears hijab. She agrees that it is often difficult to explain Islam to other people. But when she goes back to India, where her parents were born, Jesmin says she feels defensive about America. She says she does not like to hear insults against Americans. VOICE TWO: Young Muslims in America are finding more ways to explain Islam to other Americans. In the town of Herndon, Virginia, children from a Muslim school visited a public school to explain Ramadan. They shared foods that their families eat at night during the month of fasting. The Muslim Student Association is organizing events called “fast-a-thons.” On some days, the association asks Muslim and non-Muslim students to give the money they would spend on food to community groups. There is also a Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament, or MIST. This is for Islamic organizations in American high schools, though students of any religion can compete. The areas are knowledge, arts, skills and community service. This event gives Muslim young people a chance to think about who they are and what they believe. It also gives them a chance to think about their identity in America and how they relate to other Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Karen Leggett. Jill Moss was our producer and Bob Doughty was our recording engineer. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Muslims everywhere are in the middle of Ramadan. The holy month is a time for special prayers. It also means no food or drink from sunrise until sunset each day. Today we explore what it is like, especially for girls, to be young and Muslim in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jesmin Saikh is a student at a public high school in Rockville, Maryland. There are more than two thousand students at Magruder High School. About twenty of them are members of the Muslim Student Association. Most of these young people were born in the United States. But their parents came from other countries, like India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan. The students say more people began to ask them questions about Islam after the terrorist attacks on the United States in two thousand one. But the teenagers say they have not been treated badly because of what happened. For Ramadan, the Muslim students gave candy to all the teachers at the school. Tied to the candy was a piece of paper with facts about the observance. VOICE TWO: It is easy to tell that Jesmin is Muslim. A hijab cloth covers her hair. Jesmin says it is easier to follow Muslim rules about boys and girls when she wears hijab. These rules limit social relationships between girls and boys. Jesmin and another student, Sherine Heshmat, say the scarf lets boys know that they do not go on dates. In some schools, religious rules about dress can sometimes conflict with administrative rules. For example, schools might want students only to wear hats outdoors. Or some kinds of head coverings might be banned because they can represent a sign of membership in a gang. VOICE ONE: An eleven-year-old Muslim girl faced these sorts of rules at her school in the state of Oklahoma. She was told not to wear her scarf because schools in her city ban all head coverings for boys and girls. Her family brought action in court. They said the school was treating her unfairly because of her religion. The court agreed. Now school officials must permit students to wear religious head coverings. Atena Asiaii goes to high school in a small town in Pennsylvania. She wants to become a doctor. She, too, wears hijab. Atena wrote about herself for a new American magazine for Muslim women, called Azizah. Azizah is the Arabic word for strong and dear. Atena says she likes people to ask questions about Islam. She found the students at her school, in her words, "simply uninformed." One girl asked if she had ever seen her own hair. Another girl pulled the cloth off Atena's head. But Atena's friends explained that the girl who did that liked to play tricks on everyone, not just Muslim girls. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Asma Gull Hasan is twenty-nine years old and works as a lawyer in San Francisco, California. Her parents are from Pakistan, but she grew up in the state of Colorado. She has written two books, "American Muslim" and "Why I Am a Muslim." She is also a public speaker. Asma Hasan wears hijab only when she prays at a mosque. She believes Muslim women and girls should wear clothes that do not show too much skin. But she agrees that it can be difficult to resist popular culture. Asma Hasan has a Web site where girls can ask questions. Some ask about problems they may be having as Muslims in American society. Others ask about personal relationships, or how to deal with their parents. The questions are answered by a group of older Muslim women. They often tell young people to try to understand the differences between growing up here and growing up in their parents’ country. The Web site is asmahasan.com. VOICE ONE: Another young Muslim woman from California is Munira Lekovic Ezzeldine. Her parents are from Montenegro. She is the author of a book called "Before the Wedding: One-hundred-fifty Questions for Muslims to Ask Before Getting Married." Munira Ezzeldine says she began to study her religion seriously only after she became a university student. Now she is a mother who wears hijab and works with organizations of young Muslim girls. She says she tries to help girls understand that their parents want to protect them. She urges them to have parties at their own homes, so their parents will know their friends. Munira Ezzeldine says teenage girls who wear hijabs like boys just as much as girls who do not cover their hair. So she says it is a good thing there are more places where Muslim girls can talk about these issues. She lives in Irvine, California. She says there are four high schools just in her city that now have Muslim student associations. VOICE TWO: For the first time, the national president of the Muslim Student Association is female. Hadia Mubarak is also the first president born in the United States. Her parents are from Syria; she grew up in Florida. In a story for Azizah magazine, Hadia Mubarak wrote that she sometimes felt she did not belong in America or in Syria. But, as a university student, she met Muslims from many other countries. She wrote that she started to feel good about being an American Muslim. Now she will lead an organization of Muslim young people that has more members born inside the United States than outside. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jabbir Khan is a Muslim boy who goes to Magruder High School in Maryland. Recently, he sat in a circle of boys and girls and talked about being Muslim. Jabbir says boys and girls would not be sitting together in his parents’ country, Bangladesh. But he says following his religion helps him do the right thing when he is with other young people. For example, Muslims are not supposed to drink alcohol. Usman Khan, another boy in the circle, says he is sometimes offered alcohol at parties. The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty-one. Usman says no one asks questions if you say no because of your religion. VOICE TWO: High school proms are a tradition in the United States. A prom is a special dance where boys and girls celebrate the completion of high school. At a school in California last year, Muslim girls organized their own prom, without any boys. They took off their scarves and wore the same long, pretty dresses that other girls wear to proms. On the other side of the country, in Maryland, Jesmin Saikh says she does not plan to attend her high school prom. She says she would rather go to dinner or a party after the prom with her friends. Another student, Aisha Jamal, does not think a separate dance for girls is a good idea. She says it would only make the differences seem greater between students who are Muslim and those who are not. VOICE ONE: Aisha is a little rebellious. Recently she decided to stop covering her hair. She says one reason is that she found it difficult to play sports. She says the scarf made her very hot when she played basketball. But Aisha says she also believes it is easier to say what she thinks when she is not wearing hijab. She explains that she was once defending a friend who was arguing with another girl. She says the other girl called Aisha a terrorist because of her hijab. Jesmin says people have thought similar things about her, because she is Muslim and wears hijab. She agrees that it is often difficult to explain Islam to other people. But when she goes back to India, where her parents were born, Jesmin says she feels defensive about America. She says she does not like to hear insults against Americans. VOICE TWO: Young Muslims in America are finding more ways to explain Islam to other Americans. In the town of Herndon, Virginia, children from a Muslim school visited a public school to explain Ramadan. They shared foods that their families eat at night during the month of fasting. The Muslim Student Association is organizing events called “fast-a-thons.” On some days, the association asks Muslim and non-Muslim students to give the money they would spend on food to community groups. There is also a Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament, or MIST. This is for Islamic organizations in American high schools, though students of any religion can compete. The areas are knowledge, arts, skills and community service. This event gives Muslim young people a chance to think about who they are and what they believe. It also gives them a chance to think about their identity in America and how they relate to other Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Karen Leggett. Jill Moss was our producer and Bob Doughty was our recording engineer. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-10/a-2004-10-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Canadian Professor Aims to 'Light Up the World'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 1, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A light emitting diode, or L.E.D., is a device that shines when electricity passes through it. But it works differently than traditional kinds of light bulbs. Light emitting diodes use less energy and last much longer than bulbs with a filament inside. L.E.D.'s are also cooler to the touch, and shine a lot brighter than they used to. Red L.E.D.'s have long been used as signal lights on electronic equipment. But now light emitting diodes also come in blue and other colors. Colored L.E.D.'s are used to show images on everything from wireless phones to huge video signs. And white L.E.D.'s are being used increasingly to replace traditional lighting systems. But all these require electricity. In poor countries, people often burn fuel to produce light. But the smoke can make people sick. So an electrical engineering professor from Canada started a project to produce L.E.D. lighting systems for the developing world. These lights are powered by batteries that can be recharged with energy from the sun. The batteries can also be charged through other ways, such as wind power, water power or pedal power. Someone sits and pedals a wheel connected to a generator. Professor David Irvine-Halliday tells the story of how he got the idea. In nineteen ninety-seven, while climbing in the Annapurna mountains in Nepal, he saw a small school. All the children were outside. He looked though a window and saw that inside the school was dark. The school had a sign that read: “We have no teachers. If you want to stay and teach for a few days, we would be very pleased.” Professor Irvine-Halliday says that experience had a big effect on him. Back at the University of Calgary, he was on the Internet one day. He saw a company in Japan selling bright white L.E.D.'s. So he built a light with some. This is how he began the Light Up the World Foundation. This non-profit group has provided lights to several thousand homes in Asia and Latin America. Presently the foundation does not sell its products to individuals. But it does sell to non-governmental organizations and humanitarian groups. Professor Irvine-Halliday says “we have a market that is very large.” He notes that about two thousand million people around the world live without electricity. The Web site for the foundation is lightuptheworld.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Public Opinion Research / Deep Sea Exploration / Newton's Laws of Motion
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 2, 2004 (MUSIC) Isaac Newton (Image:www.nasa.gov) Broadcast: November 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: a research vehicle that will carry people to ninety-nine percent of the ocean floor and we answer a listener’s question about the famous English scientist, Isaac Newton. VOICE ONE: But first, we have a look at the science of public opinion studies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans are electing a President Tuesday. We hope to learn the name of the winner soon. However, public opinion studies have been attempting to identify the winner for several months now. Every few days another study claims to know which candidate has the most support. What exactly are these studies? How and where do they get their numbers? And, how trustworthy are the findings? Some of the best-known opinion research companies are the Gallup Organization, Zogby International and the Pew Research Center. These companies often work for news organizations during an election campaign. This is why a study will often have several names connected with it. VOICE TWO: For example, you might read about a C.N.N./U.S.A. Today/Gallup study. A Gallup official says this means that Cable News Network and the newspaper U.S.A. Today requested and paid for the study. And, they have the right to report results of the study first. But, the official says news organizations normally have no control over how the study is carried out or its results. In the United States, opinion research companies often question about one-thousand people for a study. Mathematical evidence suggests that this is enough people for a general understanding of the country’s one-hundred-million possible voters. If two-thousand people are questioned, the results do not change very much. Experts say the science of questioning people is similar to the science of testing blood. A small amount can closely represent the whole. VOICE ONE: Many research companies have equipment that can create telephone numbers from all the areas of the United States. A telephone connected to a computer then calls a number at random. This means each number has the same chance of being called. The process is meant to guarantee that people across the country are represented in the study. Some companies use numbers of people who are listed with political parties. This is a more direct way to reach likely voters. However, it may not be as representative. This method may not include new voters. It also may miss people who keep their telephone number private or use only wireless phones. And, most calling is done at night. So people who work nights are likely to be missed. VOICE TWO: Opinion research companies question adult members of homes. They seek people of different racial and socio-economic groups and parties. And they want to balance representation in the study with representation in the general population. But, it is not likely that any one study group will be perfectly representative. So, researchers commonly use a method called “weighting” in an effort to balance the study. In simple terms, they will increase the influence of groups that are not fairly represented in the study. They give more weight to answers provided by members of such groups. Political opinion studies always weight likely voters. There are several methods they use to judge if someone is likely to vote. The Gallup Organization has a list of questions to measure a person’s interest in the election. Research companies also consider how a person voted in earlier elections. VOICE ONE: No opinion study is perfect. All such studies come with what is called a margin of error. A study of one-thousand randomly chosen people will produce results with a three percent margin of error. In other words, ninety-five percent of the time another study will produce similar results, within three percentage points. Most researchers would say they want their studies to be as scientific as possible. But, it is hard to create completely neutral questions. And, even if questions are neutral, the order that they are asked may affect the results. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: American scientists have announced plans for a new deep-sea diving research vehicle. It will be able to carry people to ninety-nine percent of the ocean floor. The planned vehicle will replace Alvin, a submarine that has been operating for forty years. Alvin has helped researchers study deep-sea creatures, the movement of continents and even the wreck of the passenger ship Titanic. The new vehicle will be ready in four years. It is expected to cost more than twenty-one million dollars. Most of the money will come from an independent federal agency, the National Science Foundation. The foundation supports research projects and education in all areas of science and engineering. VOICE ONE: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will operate the new vehicle as it now operates Alvin. Woods Hole is a private research organization in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The planned vehicle will be able to dive six thousand five hundred meters below the surface of the ocean. Alvin dives to four thousand five hundred meters. Scientists say the new vehicle will be able to explore areas of the ocean that have not been explored before. The new vehicle is expected to dive faster and move forward more quickly than Alvin. It also will carry more scientific equipment and have better information collection and communication systems. VOICE TWO: The National Science Foundation says the replacement for Alvin will require no major changes to its support ship, the Atlantis. And, the operating costs of the underwater vehicles are expected to be similar. Alvin is the only deep-diving human-occupied vehicle in the United States. There are four other such vehicles in the world. The submarine has completed more than four thousand dives. It also has transported more than twelve thousand people to the deep-sea floor. Alvin has spent more than twenty-seven thousand hours underwater since nineteen sixty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our listener question this week comes from Saudi Arabia. Mohd Nafisah asks about the great scientist Isaac Newton. Newton was born in sixteen-forty-two in Woolsthorpe, England. During his lifetime, he made discoveries in astronomy, mathematics, optics, and physics. They helped change the direction of scientific discovery for centuries. Newton received his education at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. He invented the theory of integral calculus in the sixteen-sixties. Calculus is the area of mathematics that deals with changing amounts, or quantities. A German mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, developed differential calculus independently. VOICE TWO: Newton discovered how the universe is held together. He called this theory, the “Law of Universal Gravitation.” He explained his ideas in a book commonly called “Principia.” It is considered by experts to be one of the greatest scientific books ever written. It includes Newton’s three laws of motion. His first law of motion states that an object in motion will continue moving unless it is affected by a foreign, or outside, force. His second law says the speed of an object depends on two things -- the force acting on the object and the object’s mass. His third law states that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. VOICE ONE: Newton showed that white light was made up of colors mixed together. He discovered this through a series of experiments with a prism of cut glass. He used his discoveries to build a reflecting telescope. It used a flat surface to show images of objects in the sky. Isaac Newton died in seventeen twenty-seven. He was buried at Westminster Abbey in London. Today, he is considered one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. His laws and theories influenced religion and culture for years after his death. To learn more about Newton’s influence on our world, computer users should visit the New York City Public Library Internet website at www.nypl.org. The Library currently has a show about Sir Isaac Newton and his life. It can be seen at one of New York’s Public Libraries through February fifth of next year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: a research vehicle that will carry people to ninety-nine percent of the ocean floor and we answer a listener’s question about the famous English scientist, Isaac Newton. VOICE ONE: But first, we have a look at the science of public opinion studies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans are electing a President Tuesday. We hope to learn the name of the winner soon. However, public opinion studies have been attempting to identify the winner for several months now. Every few days another study claims to know which candidate has the most support. What exactly are these studies? How and where do they get their numbers? And, how trustworthy are the findings? Some of the best-known opinion research companies are the Gallup Organization, Zogby International and the Pew Research Center. These companies often work for news organizations during an election campaign. This is why a study will often have several names connected with it. VOICE TWO: For example, you might read about a C.N.N./U.S.A. Today/Gallup study. A Gallup official says this means that Cable News Network and the newspaper U.S.A. Today requested and paid for the study. And, they have the right to report results of the study first. But, the official says news organizations normally have no control over how the study is carried out or its results. In the United States, opinion research companies often question about one-thousand people for a study. Mathematical evidence suggests that this is enough people for a general understanding of the country’s one-hundred-million possible voters. If two-thousand people are questioned, the results do not change very much. Experts say the science of questioning people is similar to the science of testing blood. A small amount can closely represent the whole. VOICE ONE: Many research companies have equipment that can create telephone numbers from all the areas of the United States. A telephone connected to a computer then calls a number at random. This means each number has the same chance of being called. The process is meant to guarantee that people across the country are represented in the study. Some companies use numbers of people who are listed with political parties. This is a more direct way to reach likely voters. However, it may not be as representative. This method may not include new voters. It also may miss people who keep their telephone number private or use only wireless phones. And, most calling is done at night. So people who work nights are likely to be missed. VOICE TWO: Opinion research companies question adult members of homes. They seek people of different racial and socio-economic groups and parties. And they want to balance representation in the study with representation in the general population. But, it is not likely that any one study group will be perfectly representative. So, researchers commonly use a method called “weighting” in an effort to balance the study. In simple terms, they will increase the influence of groups that are not fairly represented in the study. They give more weight to answers provided by members of such groups. Political opinion studies always weight likely voters. There are several methods they use to judge if someone is likely to vote. The Gallup Organization has a list of questions to measure a person’s interest in the election. Research companies also consider how a person voted in earlier elections. VOICE ONE: No opinion study is perfect. All such studies come with what is called a margin of error. A study of one-thousand randomly chosen people will produce results with a three percent margin of error. In other words, ninety-five percent of the time another study will produce similar results, within three percentage points. Most researchers would say they want their studies to be as scientific as possible. But, it is hard to create completely neutral questions. And, even if questions are neutral, the order that they are asked may affect the results. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: American scientists have announced plans for a new deep-sea diving research vehicle. It will be able to carry people to ninety-nine percent of the ocean floor. The planned vehicle will replace Alvin, a submarine that has been operating for forty years. Alvin has helped researchers study deep-sea creatures, the movement of continents and even the wreck of the passenger ship Titanic. The new vehicle will be ready in four years. It is expected to cost more than twenty-one million dollars. Most of the money will come from an independent federal agency, the National Science Foundation. The foundation supports research projects and education in all areas of science and engineering. VOICE ONE: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will operate the new vehicle as it now operates Alvin. Woods Hole is a private research organization in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The planned vehicle will be able to dive six thousand five hundred meters below the surface of the ocean. Alvin dives to four thousand five hundred meters. Scientists say the new vehicle will be able to explore areas of the ocean that have not been explored before. The new vehicle is expected to dive faster and move forward more quickly than Alvin. It also will carry more scientific equipment and have better information collection and communication systems. VOICE TWO: The National Science Foundation says the replacement for Alvin will require no major changes to its support ship, the Atlantis. And, the operating costs of the underwater vehicles are expected to be similar. Alvin is the only deep-diving human-occupied vehicle in the United States. There are four other such vehicles in the world. The submarine has completed more than four thousand dives. It also has transported more than twelve thousand people to the deep-sea floor. Alvin has spent more than twenty-seven thousand hours underwater since nineteen sixty-four. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our listener question this week comes from Saudi Arabia. Mohd Nafisah asks about the great scientist Isaac Newton. Newton was born in sixteen-forty-two in Woolsthorpe, England. During his lifetime, he made discoveries in astronomy, mathematics, optics, and physics. They helped change the direction of scientific discovery for centuries. Newton received his education at Trinity College in Cambridge, England. He invented the theory of integral calculus in the sixteen-sixties. Calculus is the area of mathematics that deals with changing amounts, or quantities. A German mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, developed differential calculus independently. VOICE TWO: Newton discovered how the universe is held together. He called this theory, the “Law of Universal Gravitation.” He explained his ideas in a book commonly called “Principia.” It is considered by experts to be one of the greatest scientific books ever written. It includes Newton’s three laws of motion. His first law of motion states that an object in motion will continue moving unless it is affected by a foreign, or outside, force. His second law says the speed of an object depends on two things -- the force acting on the object and the object’s mass. His third law states that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. VOICE ONE: Newton showed that white light was made up of colors mixed together. He discovered this through a series of experiments with a prism of cut glass. He used his discoveries to build a reflecting telescope. It used a flat surface to show images of objects in the sky. Isaac Newton died in seventeen twenty-seven. He was buried at Westminster Abbey in London. Today, he is considered one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. His laws and theories influenced religion and culture for years after his death. To learn more about Newton’s influence on our world, computer users should visit the New York City Public Library Internet website at www.nypl.org. The Library currently has a show about Sir Isaac Newton and his life. It can be seen at one of New York’s Public Libraries through February fifth of next year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - How to Become a Fish Farmer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 2, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Aquaculture can supply protein-rich foods by simple methods and low-cost equipment. Aquaculture is the production of food from animals and plants that live in water. One popular environment for aquaculture is a small pond surrounded by land, away from the ocean. Fish such as carp and tilapia are produced in this way. Twenty-five percent of the pond should be deeper than everywhere else. Auburn University Professor David Bayne says the deepest areas should be no more than two meters deep. Everywhere else should be no less than one meter deep. You can plant grass on the bottom. But remove all trees and bushes from the bottom and sides, in order to keep the level of oxygen high enough for the fish. You should also remove all rocks. And you should remove all trees within nine meters of the edge of the pond. This is so leaves will not fall in. Leaves can use up a lot of the oxygen. You can feed the fish many kinds of foods. These include cassava, sweet potatoes, banana and maize. Other foods include coffee and wastes from fruit-processing factories. Feed the fish only as much as they can eat in one day. Aquaculture requires good quality water, and you must know how much is available at all times. One way to make a pond is to build a dam along a waterway in a small valley. Another way is to build up dirt all the way around an area above ground. If you dig a hole, it will be hard to drain. Professor Bayne says you should put a pipe at the bottom of the deepest part of the pond. This pipe goes through the dam or the dirt and comes out at the surface. The pipe should be big enough to empty the pond in what Professor Bayne calls a reasonably short period of time. You can harvest the fish by letting some of the water escape from the pipe. Then the larger fish can be caught by hand or with nets. There should be enough water left for the fish that remain in the pond. Fish can also be harvested with nets from the top of the pond. You can harvest the fish at any time, but it is best done in cool weather. If necessary, the pond can also be dried out at this time to fix any problems. You can get more information about aquaculture from Volunteers in Technical Assistance. This group is on the Web www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Running a Marathon
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 3, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we report about marathon races in the United States. And one marathon runner tells about his experience. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Forty-two kilometers is a long way to run without stopping. But as many as thirty-five thousand competitors with a lot of energy will try to do that on Sunday, November seventh. They will take part in the thirty-fifth New York City Marathon. This race is so large that competitors must take part in a game of chance to win the right to enter. Two million people will watch the competitors as they run through the streets of America’s most famous city. The athletes will run across five bridges and through the five boroughs, or areas, of New York City. These are Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. The race ends in the city’s famous Central Park. Like other marathons, the New York City Marathon is an international race. World champions and Olympic athletes will compete. So will top athletes from twenty countries. The athletes will compete for prize money worth more than five hundred thirty thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: Many other cities in the United States hold marathons. For example, the United States Marine Corps Marathon took place last Sunday in Washington, D. C. and the state of Virginia. The city of Chicago, Illinois also held its yearly marathon last month. The running area in Chicago is almost completely flat. This has permitted runners to set some of the world’s fastest times there. The Chicago race offered some of the largest prizes among American marathons. It gave six hundred fifty thousand dollars in prize money. VOICE ONE: In April, other runners will take part in the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts. That race is the oldest marathon in the world held each year. The first Boston Marathon was held in eighteen ninety-seven. Some people run in the Boston Marathon just for fun. These people have not officially joined the race. They just start running with the crowds. They are called “bandits.” Many of them finish the race hours after the serious runners. But these unofficial racers are just as happy. They sometimes kiss the ground after crossing the finish line. ((MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The word “marathon” comes from an area along the coast of Greece. An important battle took place in Marathon about two thousand five hundred years ago. An army from Persia had invaded Greece. Greece’s army defeated the invading army at Marathon. An Athenian general sent a Greek runner to Athens to tell the news of the victory. Marathon was about forty kilometers from Athens. The man ran to Athens at top speed. He announced his message. Then he fell to the ground, dead.A men’s marathon of about forty kilometers was included in the first modern Olympic games in eighteen ninety-six. The distance of the marathon was increased to forty-two and two-tenths kilometers at the nineteen-oh-eight Olympics in London. The marathon continues to be a popular Olympic sport. VOICE ONE: What is it like to run a marathon? Recently, one of our Special English writers, Mario Ritter, ran in a marathon race. He thought it would be fun to tell about it. Most people would never think of running forty-two kilometers for fun. But, the pleasure in running a marathon is not in doing it — but in knowing that you did. Mario runs almost every day to keep healthy. He is not a competitive runner. He ran a marathon before—ten years ago. This year, he decided to run another in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Training is extremely important. Starting in May, Mario began training by running more often. He also increased the length of his runs to eight, twelve and even twenty kilometers. Soon, he ran five days a week. Running regularly is necessary to build the needed strength. In the months before the race, Mario ran a total of more than eight hundred kilometers in training. That really is not very much. Competitive runners train much more. But for someone just trying to prepare, that seems enough. VOICE TWO: The day before the race, Mario travels to Baltimore with his wife, Yaxue, and three-year-old daughter, Atalanta. They stay at a hotel near the start of the race. He gets his identification number and a computer chip in a band that he wears around his ankle. The chip is activated at the start of the race and keeps time. Race day is cold and windy. Runners gather at the starting line. They are stretching their arms and legs or jumping up and down trying to stay warm. Many are talking with friends and other runners. The line of people stretches hundreds of meters behind the start. The very best runners are in the front. They are competing for prize money. The winner will receive fifteen thousand dollars. There is a total of one hundred thousand dollars in prize money. But more than two thousand people will run only for fun. The mayor of Baltimore is talking. The sound of his voice flows in the air above the runners. But no one is listening to him. It is almost time to start the race. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is eight o’clock in the morning, October fifteenth. A horn sounds. The runners are off. The big race starts slowly. The top runners quickly move out. But, a crowd of hundreds waits behind them. This is a dangerous part of the race. It is easy for a runner to trip and fall in a storm of elbows and shoes. The runners gain speed. With more space, Mario worries less about being tripped. He can run his own race. The first few kilometers are up hill. This does not seem too bad. Kilometer number three…four…ten…fifteen. The first half of the race feels “easy.” VOICE TWO: A marathon is a civic event. The city police block traffic on the main roads. Some runners thank the officers as they run by. Every few kilometers, volunteers offer water to the runners. Hundreds of people in the community give their time and effort. Lots of people cheer. Half way. Mario has not run as fast as he wanted. But, he is saving energy for the second half of the race. The hard part starts here. About half way into a marathon, the human body starts to show signs of extreme tiredness. Pain starts to build in the legs, knees and feet. The mind plays tricks too. While half the race is over, the other half is just beginning. VOICE ONE: At the thirty-kilometer mark, Mario really feels horrible. His legs just do not want to work. To make matters worse, the path of the race goes up several big hills. Every step hurts. This is “the wall” -- the point were the body wants to stop and rest. Here, only the mind can tell the body to move forward. Competitive runners condition their bodies to go beyond this point regularly. Runners like Mario only become this physically tired a few times in their lives. Mario centers his thoughts on putting one foot in front of the other--continuing the motion of running. He remembers to use his arms and shoulders to lengthen his stride. VOICE TWO: As he reaches the top of the last big hill, Mario can sense that the finish line is only a few kilometers away. He tries to cover more ground with each step. Other runners speed up too. But as the long line of runners heads down hill, the path becomes crowded. The street is uneven and tricky. If someone trips at this point, the runner will not be able to avoid falling. A young woman ahead mis-steps and cannot react quickly enough. She falls directly on her face and is bleeding. People rush to help her.The runners can only look on. They ride a wave of motion that they are powerless to halt. VOICE ONE: The finish line represents a goal that Mario has thought about for almost four hours. When he sees it, he speeds up. He is able to pass a number of people. Suddenly, a thin, young woman sprints across the finish line just ahead of him. He did not see her coming. Mario finishes seven hundred thirty-first in the Baltimore Marathon. It has been one hour and forty minutes since John Itati of Kenya won the race. Two thirds of the marathoners have yet to finish. VOICE TWO: A crowd of runners, volunteers and family members gathers at the end of the race. People are laughing and calling out. The atmosphere feels like a holiday. Mario’s wife and daughter find him. They are happy, caught up in the excitement. “You did it!” his wife, Yaxue, exclaims. Mario realizes that he cannot bend down to untie his shoes. In a few hours he will feel satisfied with his effort. But at this moment, he wonders why anyone would run a marathon for fun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 3, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we report about marathon races in the United States. And one marathon runner tells about his experience. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Forty-two kilometers is a long way to run without stopping. But as many as thirty-five thousand competitors with a lot of energy will try to do that on Sunday, November seventh. They will take part in the thirty-fifth New York City Marathon. This race is so large that competitors must take part in a game of chance to win the right to enter. Two million people will watch the competitors as they run through the streets of America’s most famous city. The athletes will run across five bridges and through the five boroughs, or areas, of New York City. These are Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. The race ends in the city’s famous Central Park. Like other marathons, the New York City Marathon is an international race. World champions and Olympic athletes will compete. So will top athletes from twenty countries. The athletes will compete for prize money worth more than five hundred thirty thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: Many other cities in the United States hold marathons. For example, the United States Marine Corps Marathon took place last Sunday in Washington, D. C. and the state of Virginia. The city of Chicago, Illinois also held its yearly marathon last month. The running area in Chicago is almost completely flat. This has permitted runners to set some of the world’s fastest times there. The Chicago race offered some of the largest prizes among American marathons. It gave six hundred fifty thousand dollars in prize money. VOICE ONE: In April, other runners will take part in the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts. That race is the oldest marathon in the world held each year. The first Boston Marathon was held in eighteen ninety-seven. Some people run in the Boston Marathon just for fun. These people have not officially joined the race. They just start running with the crowds. They are called “bandits.” Many of them finish the race hours after the serious runners. But these unofficial racers are just as happy. They sometimes kiss the ground after crossing the finish line. ((MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The word “marathon” comes from an area along the coast of Greece. An important battle took place in Marathon about two thousand five hundred years ago. An army from Persia had invaded Greece. Greece’s army defeated the invading army at Marathon. An Athenian general sent a Greek runner to Athens to tell the news of the victory. Marathon was about forty kilometers from Athens. The man ran to Athens at top speed. He announced his message. Then he fell to the ground, dead.A men’s marathon of about forty kilometers was included in the first modern Olympic games in eighteen ninety-six. The distance of the marathon was increased to forty-two and two-tenths kilometers at the nineteen-oh-eight Olympics in London. The marathon continues to be a popular Olympic sport. VOICE ONE: What is it like to run a marathon? Recently, one of our Special English writers, Mario Ritter, ran in a marathon race. He thought it would be fun to tell about it. Most people would never think of running forty-two kilometers for fun. But, the pleasure in running a marathon is not in doing it — but in knowing that you did. Mario runs almost every day to keep healthy. He is not a competitive runner. He ran a marathon before—ten years ago. This year, he decided to run another in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Training is extremely important. Starting in May, Mario began training by running more often. He also increased the length of his runs to eight, twelve and even twenty kilometers. Soon, he ran five days a week. Running regularly is necessary to build the needed strength. In the months before the race, Mario ran a total of more than eight hundred kilometers in training. That really is not very much. Competitive runners train much more. But for someone just trying to prepare, that seems enough. VOICE TWO: The day before the race, Mario travels to Baltimore with his wife, Yaxue, and three-year-old daughter, Atalanta. They stay at a hotel near the start of the race. He gets his identification number and a computer chip in a band that he wears around his ankle. The chip is activated at the start of the race and keeps time. Race day is cold and windy. Runners gather at the starting line. They are stretching their arms and legs or jumping up and down trying to stay warm. Many are talking with friends and other runners. The line of people stretches hundreds of meters behind the start. The very best runners are in the front. They are competing for prize money. The winner will receive fifteen thousand dollars. There is a total of one hundred thousand dollars in prize money. But more than two thousand people will run only for fun. The mayor of Baltimore is talking. The sound of his voice flows in the air above the runners. But no one is listening to him. It is almost time to start the race. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is eight o’clock in the morning, October fifteenth. A horn sounds. The runners are off. The big race starts slowly. The top runners quickly move out. But, a crowd of hundreds waits behind them. This is a dangerous part of the race. It is easy for a runner to trip and fall in a storm of elbows and shoes. The runners gain speed. With more space, Mario worries less about being tripped. He can run his own race. The first few kilometers are up hill. This does not seem too bad. Kilometer number three…four…ten…fifteen. The first half of the race feels “easy.” VOICE TWO: A marathon is a civic event. The city police block traffic on the main roads. Some runners thank the officers as they run by. Every few kilometers, volunteers offer water to the runners. Hundreds of people in the community give their time and effort. Lots of people cheer. Half way. Mario has not run as fast as he wanted. But, he is saving energy for the second half of the race. The hard part starts here. About half way into a marathon, the human body starts to show signs of extreme tiredness. Pain starts to build in the legs, knees and feet. The mind plays tricks too. While half the race is over, the other half is just beginning. VOICE ONE: At the thirty-kilometer mark, Mario really feels horrible. His legs just do not want to work. To make matters worse, the path of the race goes up several big hills. Every step hurts. This is “the wall” -- the point were the body wants to stop and rest. Here, only the mind can tell the body to move forward. Competitive runners condition their bodies to go beyond this point regularly. Runners like Mario only become this physically tired a few times in their lives. Mario centers his thoughts on putting one foot in front of the other--continuing the motion of running. He remembers to use his arms and shoulders to lengthen his stride. VOICE TWO: As he reaches the top of the last big hill, Mario can sense that the finish line is only a few kilometers away. He tries to cover more ground with each step. Other runners speed up too. But as the long line of runners heads down hill, the path becomes crowded. The street is uneven and tricky. If someone trips at this point, the runner will not be able to avoid falling. A young woman ahead mis-steps and cannot react quickly enough. She falls directly on her face and is bleeding. People rush to help her.The runners can only look on. They ride a wave of motion that they are powerless to halt. VOICE ONE: The finish line represents a goal that Mario has thought about for almost four hours. When he sees it, he speeds up. He is able to pass a number of people. Suddenly, a thin, young woman sprints across the finish line just ahead of him. He did not see her coming. Mario finishes seven hundred thirty-first in the Baltimore Marathon. It has been one hour and forty minutes since John Itati of Kenya won the race. Two thirds of the marathoners have yet to finish. VOICE TWO: A crowd of runners, volunteers and family members gathers at the end of the race. People are laughing and calling out. The atmosphere feels like a holiday. Mario’s wife and daughter find him. They are happy, caught up in the excitement. “You did it!” his wife, Yaxue, exclaims. Mario realizes that he cannot bend down to untie his shoes. In a few hours he will feel satisfied with his effort. But at this moment, he wonders why anyone would run a marathon for fun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Cell Phones Linked to Benign Tumors
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 3, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A Swedish study suggests that people who use cellular phones for at least ten years might be at greater risk for developing a rare, non-cancerous tumor. These tumors are called acoustic neuromas. They grow on the nerve that leads from the inner ear to the brain. The risk was higher on the side of the head where the phone was usually held. Acoustic neuromas affect fewer than one in one hundred thousand people a year. They grow slowly and can take several years to be discovered. The tumor pushes on the surface of the brain, but does not grow into the brain itself. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden led the study. It was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The study involved seven hundred fifty Swedes. About one hundred fifty of them had acoustic neuromas. About six hundred other people did not. Researchers asked all of the people about their cell phone use. The researchers found that those people who had used cell phones for at least ten years had almost two times the risk of developing acoustic neuromas. In addition, the tumor risk was almost four times higher on the side of the head where the phone was usually held. There was no increased risk for those who had used cell phones for fewer than ten years. At the time the study was done, only analog phones had been in use for ten years. Almost all early analog cell phones released more electromagnetic radiation than the digital phones now being sold. But researchers say they cannot be sure if the results are just linked to the use of analog phones. They say further study is needed. Several earlier experiments have shown radiation from cellular phones can affect brain cells in a laboratory. But studies on people have found no evidence that the phones present a health risk. However, experts say children should avoid using the phones for long periods because their brains are still developing. The study is part of a wider research program known as the Interphone study. The World Health Organization’s cancer research institute organized the research. It is trying to find out if electromagnetic radiation from cell phones damages health. Final results of the study are expected to be released early next year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: 2004 ELECTION COVERAGE
* Byline: 

 President George W. Bush won a second term in elections Tuesday that also strengthened Republican control of Congress. "Today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust," Mister Bush said in a victory speech Wednesday afternoon. The forty-third president spoke of one country with one Constitution and one future. He declared that working together, "there is no limit to the greatness of America" He described his goals for the next four years: "We will continue our economic progress. We'll reform our outdated tax code. We'll strengthen the Social Security for the next generation. We'll make public schools all they can be. And we will uphold our deepest values of family and faith. "We'll help the emerging democracies of Iraq and Afghanistan, so they can grow in strength and defend their freedom. And then our service men and women will come home with the honor they have earned. With good allies at our side, we will fight this war on terror with every resource of our national power so our children can live in freedom and in peace." Mister Bush spoke to supporters gathered in Washington soon after Senator John Kerry publicly accepted defeat in a speech in Boston, Massachusetts. Senator Kerry had telephoned the president earlier in the day. "We talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today, I hope that we can begin the healing," the Democratic candidate said. But he also said that "our fight goes on" for issues such as job growth, health care and the environment. Senator Kerry told his supporters that there was no way he could have gained enough votes from ballots that remained to be counted in Ohio. That state decided the election; Ohio's 20 electoral votes gave Mister Bush the number he needed for victory in the Electoral College. Mister Bush also won a majority of the popular vote. No president has done that since his father was elected in nineteen eighty-eight. In the two thousand election, the winner was not known for more than a month. Al Gore won more popular votes, but Mister Bush won the electoral vote with Florida after the Supreme Court stopped a ballot recount there. On Saturday we will have a full report on the presidential election on IN THE NEWS. And listen Monday for results from congressional and other elections on THIS IS AMERICA. Among those who lost their seats: Tom Daschle of South Dakota, leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate. For more VOA coverage, click on the English-Worldwide link above and the link at right to the VOA Election Results Map. President George W. Bush won a second term in elections Tuesday that also strengthened Republican control of Congress. "Today I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust," Mister Bush said in a victory speech Wednesday afternoon. The forty-third president spoke of one country with one Constitution and one future. He declared that working together, "there is no limit to the greatness of America" He described his goals for the next four years: "We will continue our economic progress. We'll reform our outdated tax code. We'll strengthen the Social Security for the next generation. We'll make public schools all they can be. And we will uphold our deepest values of family and faith. "We'll help the emerging democracies of Iraq and Afghanistan, so they can grow in strength and defend their freedom. And then our service men and women will come home with the honor they have earned. With good allies at our side, we will fight this war on terror with every resource of our national power so our children can live in freedom and in peace." Mister Bush spoke to supporters gathered in Washington soon after Senator John Kerry publicly accepted defeat in a speech in Boston, Massachusetts. Senator Kerry had telephoned the president earlier in the day. "We talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today, I hope that we can begin the healing," the Democratic candidate said. But he also said that "our fight goes on" for issues such as job growth, health care and the environment. Senator Kerry told his supporters that there was no way he could have gained enough votes from ballots that remained to be counted in Ohio. That state decided the election; Ohio's 20 electoral votes gave Mister Bush the number he needed for victory in the Electoral College. Mister Bush also won a majority of the popular vote. No president has done that since his father was elected in nineteen eighty-eight. In the two thousand election, the winner was not known for more than a month. Al Gore won more popular votes, but Mister Bush won the electoral vote with Florida after the Supreme Court stopped a ballot recount there. On Saturday we will have a full report on the presidential election on IN THE NEWS. And listen Monday for results from congressional and other elections on THIS IS AMERICA. Among those who lost their seats: Tom Daschle of South Dakota, leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate. For more VOA coverage, click on the English-Worldwide link above and the link at right to the VOA Election Results Map. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #87 - James Buchanan, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 4, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) As we reported in our last program, slavery supporters failed to push through Congress a bill to make Kansas a slave state. Congress, instead, let the people of Kansas vote on the statehood constitution written by pro-slavery men. The people rejected the constitution. And slavery supporters gave up the fight for Kansas. But the problem of slavery still divided north and south. Northerners warned that slavery could spread no farther. Southerners threatened to leave the Union unless southern rights were protected. In the far west, one could forget this bitter dispute. There were no slaves in the west. The land and the weather were not right for the kind of farming that used slaves. VOICE TWO: The west was growing quickly. Gold had brought thousands of settlers to California ten years earlier. New discoveries of gold and silver now were leading men to Colorado, Arizona and Nevada. "Don't go," warned the New York Tribune, "if you have a job or a farm. But if you have neither," it said, "and can get fifty dollars, then go to Colorado." There were many men without jobs or farms in the summer of eighteen-fifty-eight. The country had suffered a serious economic depression the year before, and jobs were difficult to find. Thousands left cities in the east. The first ones to reach Colorado reported that gold was easy to find. They said any man who worked hard could find five to ten dollars worth of gold a day, and sometimes even more. VOICE ONE: The thousands who rushed to Colorado soon found that there was not as much gold as expected. The valuable metal became harder to find. No longer could it be washed from the bottoms of mountain streams. Men had to dig into the mountains of rock to get it. Huge digging machines were needed and crushers to get the gold from the rock. These machines were expensive. Few men had enough money to buy them. Some of the miners organized companies. They borrowed money from eastern banks or sold shares of their companies. In a few years, almost all of the gold from Colorado came from the mining companies. VOICE TWO: Many of those who went west to search for gold stayed to become farmers or storekeepers. Others moved farther west to find gold in Nevada or California. Some cleared the ground of trees and cut them into wood for houses. Such timber from the forests of Oregon and Washington was sold in California and Mexico, even in China and Hawaii. A few men recognized the need for transportation across the nation. Engineers planned four railroads. But northern and southern leaders could not agree on which one to build first. Until a railroad could be built, supplies were carried west in wagons pulled by horses or oxen. Three men -- Russell, Majors, and Waddell -- formed a transportation company in eighteen-fifty-five to carry government supplies to soldiers in the west. They started with five-hundred wagons. Three years later, the company had three-thousand five-hundred wagons and forty-thousand oxen. VOICE ONE: Getting letters to and from the west was not easy in the eighteen-fifties. Ships brought mail to San Francisco two times a month. And once each month, mail would arrive in California after a slow trip by wagon from St. Louis, Missouri. The federal government decided to send mail overland two times a week to California. It gave the job of carrying the letters to a new company -- the Overland Mail Company. The mail was carried by train or boat to St. Louis. Then it was put on overland company stage coaches -- light wagons pulled by four or six horses. The company was told to take the mail along a four-thousand-kilometer southern route through Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The mail arrived in Los Angeles twenty-four days after it left St. Louis. VOICE TWO: There was a shorter way across the country. But the postal chief was a southerner, A. V. Brown. He believed stage coach travel might lead the way for a railroad. And he wanted a southern railroad to California. Brown said the southern route was the only one that could be kept open in all seasons. He said the other routes would be closed by snow in winter. The overland stage coaches were large enough to carry four passengers. But not many people went to California in the coaches. The coaches never stopped for very long -- only to change horses or drivers. And there were not many places to eat. Also, the trip was dangerous, because of hostile Indians. VOICE ONE: The shortest distance between Missouri and California was across the central part of the country. The Russell, Majors and Waddell Company decided to show that this central route could be used all year. It began a speedy mail service called the Pony Express. Letters were carried by riders on fast horses. Stations with fresh horses were built about twenty-four kilometers apart, all along the way. A rider would change horses at each station until he had traveled one-hundred-twenty kilometers. Then he would give his letters to another rider. In this way, the letters would be carried between California and Missouri. The first letters sent by Pony Express from California took ten days to reach Missouri. The Pony Express lasted only eighteen months. It was no longer needed after a telegraph line was completed to San Francisco. VOICE TWO: As communications and transportation improved, the government was able to increase its control over the west. But closer ties were not welcomed between the government and a religious group known as the Mormons. The Mormon religion was started by a young New England man named Joseph Smith. In eighteen-twenty-three, at the age of eighteen, Smith claimed that an Angel told him of a golden book. He said the book contained God's words to the ancient people of America. Smith said he was able to read the strange writing in this book and put it into English. He called this work the book of Mormon. VOICE ONE: He organized a church and made himself its leader. Many people became Mormons. They believed themselves to be a special people chosen by God. Mormons worked hard. They helped each other and shared with those in need. People who did not agree with the beliefs of the mormons did not like them. Trouble developed between mormons and other people. Joseph Smith was forced to move his people from New York to Ohio and then to Missouri. The Mormons seemed finally to have found a home in Illinois. They built their own town and called it Nauvoo. They governed themselves and had their own defense force. The Mormons did so well that Nauvoo became the fastest-growing city in Illinois. VOICE TWO: Then some members of the group split apart, because of a new message Smith claimed to have received from God. Smith said God gave permission for Mormons to have more than one wife. This was polygamy. And it was opposed by almost all people. Some of the Mormons who left the church published a newspaper criticizing Smith and the other Mormon leaders. [Correction: Followers ordered by] Smith destroyed the newspaper's publishing equipment. This caused non-Mormons to demonstrate and demand that Smith be punished. Smith was arrested and put in jail in Carthage, Illinois. His brother also was arrested. An angry mob attacked the jail and shot both Smith and his brother to death. VOICE ONE: The governor of Illinois ordered the Mormons to leave his state. He said only this would prevent further violence. There was no choice. They had to leave. The Mormons had a new leader: Brigham Young. Young decided to take his people west and find a new home for them. He wanted a place where they would be safe...where no one could interfere with their religion. Brigham Young told his people that he had seen their new home in a dream. He said they would search for it in the west, for a wide beautiful valley. He said he would recognize it when he saw it. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Lew Roland and Mel Johonson. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #10: Cost to Study in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 4, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue with our Foreign Student Series. Today, in part ten, we discuss the cost to attend a college or university in the United States. Students who want to come to this country to study must have enough money to pay for each year of their education. There are different costs to consider. The cost to attend classes is called tuition. Room-and-board is the cost for a place to live at the school and for meals. You will also need money for books and supplies. If you want to take part in social activities or buy things like music and clothes, you will need money for that, too. Educational advisers say foreign students should keep enough money in a local bank to pay for at least two months of spending. So how much will a year at school cost? We will use the University of Arizona in Tucson as an example. Almost three thousand foreign students from one hundred thirty-five countries attended the University of Arizona last year. The school says foreign students pay almost twenty-six thousand dollars a year. Many schools in the United States cost less than the University of Arizona. Others cost more. The university says it generally offers no financial aid to undergraduate foreign students. However, some foreign students can receive aid that lets them avoid out-of-state costs. These are costs normally paid by any student whose family does not live in Arizona. Such aid can save about ten thousand dollars a year. Foreign students who want to attend an American school must explain how they plan to pay for their education. For example, when you apply to the University of Arizona, you must identify any person who will help you pay for your education. That person must sign the documents and also send proof from a bank to show that he or she has the money. If you will be paying the costs yourself, a banker in your country must write to confirm that you have enough money. Your government or your employer may help you pay some of the costs of an education. It is a good idea to seek such financial aid at least eighteen months before you want to start your studies in the United States. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish dot com. And for information from the State Department, visit educationusa.state.gov. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Bhangra Dance Classes Become Popular / Brian Wilson's 'Smile' / Chicago's O'Hare International Airport
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 5, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: A new album by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys ... A listener question about one of the busiest airports in the world ... And a class that teaches a dance from India. Bhangra Dance Classes The music and dance of India are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. There is an Indian musical play on Broadway in New York City called “Bombay Dreams.” So-called “Bollywood” movies made in India are often shown in America as well. And many classes around the country teach Indian dances. Shep O’Neal tells us more about one of these dances. SHEP O'NEAL: Bhangra is a lively folk dance from the northern Indian state of Punjab. Dancers move their arms and legs to the strong beat of the music. Kumud Mathur teaches Bhangra and other Indian dances in the Washington, D.C., area. She has been performing and teaching dance in the area for more than fifteen years. Mizz Mathur is a mathematician by profession. She works for the United States Army. She developed the Dance to Health Society in nineteen ninety. She wanted to develop a fitness program that combines aerobic exercise, Indian culture and music. So she studied exercise techniques and developed a class for the Montgomery County Department of Recreation. She teaches Bhangra dance to a group of about thirty people on Tuesday nights at the community center in Potomac, Maryland. The group includes young people and older people. The majority of them have family members from India. Several young Indian-Americans in the class are learning Bhangra so they can perform the dance with other young people at dance clubs in Washington. Several older people are learning the dance because it is part of their Indian culture. Other people in the class are not of Indian ancestry. But they say the class is good exercise. It is also great fun. And they like the music. You can also find Bhangra dance classes in other areas, including New York City, New Jersey and California. Bhangra dance competitions are held at colleges and universities in many areas. Here is a Bhangra dance song called "Naal Naal." (MUSIC) O’Hare International Airport DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Abdulkadir Usman asks about O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. O’Hare Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia each claim to be the world’s busiest airport. O’Hare may be the world’s busiest airport. Or it may be only the second busiest. But everything about it is big. The Federal Aviation Administration says more than nine hundred thirty thousand flights traveled through O’Hare last year. During that time, more than sixty-nine million passengers passed through O’Hare. Most of these people were waiting for connecting flights. As they waited, they could shop at many airport stores. They could eat at airport cafes. They could exercise at a health club or do office work in a business-support center. They could take their children to a flight museum or visit the airport’s religious center. The huge O’Hare Airport of today is very different from its beginning. It started as a military air base and factory in the nineteen forties. The center produced planes for World War Two. Later, the airport was named for Navy pilot Edward O’Hare. He was killed in action during the war after being honored with medals for bravery. As big as O’Hare airport is today, however, it is not big enough. Too many airplanes crowd the runways where they take off and land. Delays and cancellations interfere with air traffic across the country. Officials say sixty-five percent of the flights at O’Hare were delayed during the first seven months of this year. This was the worst record among the nation’s major airports. To improve the situation, the governor of Illinois signed the O’Hare Modernization Act last year. The Act calls for building another runway. Existing runways would be moved and extended. More buildings are planned. The project will cost more than six-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. When all that is completed in the next eight years, busy O’Hare Airport can get even busier. Brian Wilson’s Album “Smile” The former leader of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, is making waves again by finally releasing his old, yet new, album, “Smile.” Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: Brian Wilson wrote and produced most of the songs for the nineteen sixties hit group, the Beach Boys. In nineteen sixty-seven, Wilson started to work on the album “Smile.” But he did not complete it until thirty-seven years later. Wilson had a vision of creating a special album that was American in sound. He wanted to include all kinds of American music -- doo-wop, pop, jazz and gospel. But recording for the album stopped. Wilson suffered from mental illness. Other members of the Beach Boys felt that the music did not go along with their image. They felt that the music was too complex. However, some songs recorded for the “Smile” album were released. “Heroes and Villains” and “Surf’s Up” became popular songs on other albums. Brian Wilson began working on “Smile” again last year at the age of sixty-one. The album is a rock opera with seventeen songs. Wilson described it as a “teenage symphony to God.” Here he sings “Song for Children.” (MUSIC) Wilson uses drums and piano in “Roll Plymouth Rock.” The song expresses a powerful message with the easy Beach Boys sound. (MUSIC) The Beach Boys created fun songs throughout the years. We leave you now with “Good Vibrations,” one of their most popular hits. Wilson adds his own personal touches to the song. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jerilyn Watson and Brian Kim. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Efrem Drucker. Broadcast: November 5, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: A new album by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys ... A listener question about one of the busiest airports in the world ... And a class that teaches a dance from India. Bhangra Dance Classes The music and dance of India are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. There is an Indian musical play on Broadway in New York City called “Bombay Dreams.” So-called “Bollywood” movies made in India are often shown in America as well. And many classes around the country teach Indian dances. Shep O’Neal tells us more about one of these dances. SHEP O'NEAL: Bhangra is a lively folk dance from the northern Indian state of Punjab. Dancers move their arms and legs to the strong beat of the music. Kumud Mathur teaches Bhangra and other Indian dances in the Washington, D.C., area. She has been performing and teaching dance in the area for more than fifteen years. Mizz Mathur is a mathematician by profession. She works for the United States Army. She developed the Dance to Health Society in nineteen ninety. She wanted to develop a fitness program that combines aerobic exercise, Indian culture and music. So she studied exercise techniques and developed a class for the Montgomery County Department of Recreation. She teaches Bhangra dance to a group of about thirty people on Tuesday nights at the community center in Potomac, Maryland. The group includes young people and older people. The majority of them have family members from India. Several young Indian-Americans in the class are learning Bhangra so they can perform the dance with other young people at dance clubs in Washington. Several older people are learning the dance because it is part of their Indian culture. Other people in the class are not of Indian ancestry. But they say the class is good exercise. It is also great fun. And they like the music. You can also find Bhangra dance classes in other areas, including New York City, New Jersey and California. Bhangra dance competitions are held at colleges and universities in many areas. Here is a Bhangra dance song called "Naal Naal." (MUSIC) O’Hare International Airport DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Abdulkadir Usman asks about O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. O’Hare Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia each claim to be the world’s busiest airport. O’Hare may be the world’s busiest airport. Or it may be only the second busiest. But everything about it is big. The Federal Aviation Administration says more than nine hundred thirty thousand flights traveled through O’Hare last year. During that time, more than sixty-nine million passengers passed through O’Hare. Most of these people were waiting for connecting flights. As they waited, they could shop at many airport stores. They could eat at airport cafes. They could exercise at a health club or do office work in a business-support center. They could take their children to a flight museum or visit the airport’s religious center. The huge O’Hare Airport of today is very different from its beginning. It started as a military air base and factory in the nineteen forties. The center produced planes for World War Two. Later, the airport was named for Navy pilot Edward O’Hare. He was killed in action during the war after being honored with medals for bravery. As big as O’Hare airport is today, however, it is not big enough. Too many airplanes crowd the runways where they take off and land. Delays and cancellations interfere with air traffic across the country. Officials say sixty-five percent of the flights at O’Hare were delayed during the first seven months of this year. This was the worst record among the nation’s major airports. To improve the situation, the governor of Illinois signed the O’Hare Modernization Act last year. The Act calls for building another runway. Existing runways would be moved and extended. More buildings are planned. The project will cost more than six-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. When all that is completed in the next eight years, busy O’Hare Airport can get even busier. Brian Wilson’s Album “Smile” The former leader of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, is making waves again by finally releasing his old, yet new, album, “Smile.” Faith Lapidus tells us about it. FAITH LAPIDUS: Brian Wilson wrote and produced most of the songs for the nineteen sixties hit group, the Beach Boys. In nineteen sixty-seven, Wilson started to work on the album “Smile.” But he did not complete it until thirty-seven years later. Wilson had a vision of creating a special album that was American in sound. He wanted to include all kinds of American music -- doo-wop, pop, jazz and gospel. But recording for the album stopped. Wilson suffered from mental illness. Other members of the Beach Boys felt that the music did not go along with their image. They felt that the music was too complex. However, some songs recorded for the “Smile” album were released. “Heroes and Villains” and “Surf’s Up” became popular songs on other albums. Brian Wilson began working on “Smile” again last year at the age of sixty-one. The album is a rock opera with seventeen songs. Wilson described it as a “teenage symphony to God.” Here he sings “Song for Children.” (MUSIC) Wilson uses drums and piano in “Roll Plymouth Rock.” The song expresses a powerful message with the easy Beach Boys sound. (MUSIC) The Beach Boys created fun songs throughout the years. We leave you now with “Good Vibrations,” one of their most popular hits. Wilson adds his own personal touches to the song. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jerilyn Watson and Brian Kim. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Efrem Drucker. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - When Newspapers Lie (About How Many People Read Them)
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 5, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The big news for American newspapers this week was the elections. But there was also news about their industry. The number of newspaper readers in the United States continues to fall. Average daily circulation fell by almost one percent in the six months that ended September thirtieth. Shrinking circulation has been a problem for newspapers for some years. The Internet is just the most recent competitor for people's time. American media are privately owned. Newspapers get some of their money from readers. But mostly they depend on businesses to buy advertising space in their pages. The larger the circulation, the more a newspaper can charge advertisers. But recently, several newspapers have admitted lying about their number of readers. In June, the Tribune Company announced that it had overstated sales of two of its papers. These were Newsday in Long Island, New York, and the Spanish-language paper Hoy in New York City. The Tribute Company also owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. In July, the Audit Bureau of Circulations punished Newsday and Hoy through a process called censure. The A.B.C. is a private organization. It examines circulation claims made by publishers, so advertisers can trust the numbers. Among other steps, the two newspapers will have to report their circulation numbers more often than usual for the next two years. The Chicago Sun-Times also faces the same punishment. That newspaper is owned by Hollinger International. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Hollinger International and its ousted chief, Conrad Black. Hollinger says Mister Black took nearly four hundred million dollars from the company. He denies any wrongdoing. Recently the Belo Corporation announced it had overstated the circulation of the Dallas Morning News, in Texas. The publisher will repay twenty-three million dollars to advertisers. It will also provide four million dollars in free advertising. Other publishers that falsely reported their circulations will also be repaying advertisers millions of dollars. An Audit Bureau spokeswoman says cases like these recent ones appear to be rare. But the Securities and Exchange Commission announced last month that it would expand its investigation to other newspapers. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Bush Describes Second-Term Goals
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush has discussed his plans for his next four years in office. At a news conference, the newly re-elected president spoke first of the continuing fight against terrorism. Mister Bush urged allies and all Americans to unite in the war on terror. He said "every civilized country" has an interest in the outcome of this war. He also said he will reach out to the European Union and NATO to support development and progress, as well as freedom and democracy. Mister Bush said American forces are making progress in training Iraqi troops. He said one hundred twenty-five thousand should be trained in time for elections in Iraq. Voting is planned at the end of January. Iraq's temporary prime minister, Iyad Allawi, joined a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels Friday. He received promises of close to forty million dollars in technical aid for the elections. The Europeans also offered other steps, including more money to protect United Nations aid workers. Diplomats told VOA's Roger Wilkison that the European Union is trying to repair relations with the United States following the election. Almost half the members opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq. President Bush also discussed other issues when he spoke to reporters Thursday. He promised to work to simplify American tax laws and to strengthen the Social Security system for retired workers. He said tax reform will help make sure the American economy is the most competitive in the world. The president also called on Congress to pass an intelligence reform law. And he said he would also continue to work on education issues and supporting legal reform legislation. Mister Bush offered to work with his opponents. But he made clear that he has enough political support to fight for his positions. Republicans strengthened their control of Congress in the general elections Tuesday. Democrats in the Senate, however, still have enough votes to block legislation. The president said there will be some cabinet changes, but added that he did not know who they will be. Media reports this week said Attorney General John Ashcroft is likely to resign soon. Mister Bush in his new term may also have to name one or more new justices of the Supreme Court. He said he would appoint judges who do not let personal opinion interfere with understanding the law. Five of the nine current members often vote as a conservative majority. They include Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is being treated for thyroid cancer. President Bush will be sworn-in for his second term on January twentieth. He won fifty-one percent of the popular vote. Democratic Senator John Kerry received forty-eight percent. Senator Kerry called for unity and national healing. But he said Democrats will continue to fight for issues such as job growth, health care and the environment. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: November 6, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush has discussed his plans for his next four years in office. At a news conference, the newly re-elected president spoke first of the continuing fight against terrorism. Mister Bush urged allies and all Americans to unite in the war on terror. He said "every civilized country" has an interest in the outcome of this war. He also said he will reach out to the European Union and NATO to support development and progress, as well as freedom and democracy. Mister Bush said American forces are making progress in training Iraqi troops. He said one hundred twenty-five thousand should be trained in time for elections in Iraq. Voting is planned at the end of January. Iraq's temporary prime minister, Iyad Allawi, joined a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels Friday. He received promises of close to forty million dollars in technical aid for the elections. The Europeans also offered other steps, including more money to protect United Nations aid workers. Diplomats told VOA's Roger Wilkison that the European Union is trying to repair relations with the United States following the election. Almost half the members opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq. President Bush also discussed other issues when he spoke to reporters Thursday. He promised to work to simplify American tax laws and to strengthen the Social Security system for retired workers. He said tax reform will help make sure the American economy is the most competitive in the world. The president also called on Congress to pass an intelligence reform law. And he said he would also continue to work on education issues and supporting legal reform legislation. Mister Bush offered to work with his opponents. But he made clear that he has enough political support to fight for his positions. Republicans strengthened their control of Congress in the general elections Tuesday. Democrats in the Senate, however, still have enough votes to block legislation. The president said there will be some cabinet changes, but added that he did not know who they will be. Media reports this week said Attorney General John Ashcroft is likely to resign soon. Mister Bush in his new term may also have to name one or more new justices of the Supreme Court. He said he would appoint judges who do not let personal opinion interfere with understanding the law. Five of the nine current members often vote as a conservative majority. They include Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is being treated for thyroid cancer. President Bush will be sworn-in for his second term on January twentieth. He won fifty-one percent of the popular vote. Democratic Senator John Kerry received forty-eight percent. Senator Kerry called for unity and national healing. But he said Democrats will continue to fight for issues such as job growth, health care and the environment. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Dian Fossey
* Byline: 

 November 7, 2004 (THEME) November 7, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Dian Fossey. She studied the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa. Her work resulted in efforts to save these rare and endangered animals. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Dian Fossey. She studied the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa. Her work resulted in efforts to save these rare and endangered animals. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Dian Fossey was born in nineteen thirty-two in San Francisco, California. Her parents ended their marriage when she was young. She stayed with her mother, who married another man a short time later. Dian said she had a difficult relationship with both her mother and stepfather. Dian was interested in animals all her life. She started making plans to be a veterinarian, a doctor who treats animals. After high school, she attended San Jose State College in California. There, she was successful in some subjects, but not others. She changed her program of study to occupational therapy. Occupational therapists help injured and sick people learn to do their day-to-day activities independently. She completed her studies at San Jose State in nineteen fifty-four. VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey left California and moved to the state of Kentucky. She accepted a position at the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital in the city of Louisville. People there said she had a special gift of communicating with children with special needs. Yet she also had a desire to see more of the world. Through friends, she became interested in Africa. She read a book about the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa written by American zoologist George Schaller. The mountain gorilla is the largest of the world’s apes. VOICE ONE: Fossey borrowed money and made a six-week trip to Africa in nineteen sixty-three. She visited a camp operated by the famous research scientists Louis and Mary Leakey. The Leakeys were best known for their studies of the development of human ancestors. Fossey met with Louis Leakey and discussed the importance of scientific research on the great apes. She decided to study mountain gorillas, which were in danger of disappearing. Later on her trip, she traveled to the mountains of Rwanda. This is where she first saw mountain gorillas. VOICE TWO: Fossey returned to the United States with a desire to work in Africa. She met with Professor Leakey a second time when he visited the United States to give a series of talks. This time, he asked her to begin a long-term study of the gorillas. He said information she collected might help to show how human ancestors developed. A group called the Wilkie Foundation agreed to support her research. The Wilkie Foundation already supported another researcher, Jane Goodall, in her study of wild chimpanzees. Fossey also received help from a major scientific and educational organization -- the National Geographic Society. VOICE ONE: Fossey returned to central Africa in nineteen sixty-six. She spent a short time observing Jane Goodall. Then she began setting up her own research camp in what was then the country of Zaire. Fossey sought help from the local native people who knew how to follow mountain gorillas in the wild. A short time later, political unrest forced her to move to nearby Rwanda. She settled in a protected area between two mountains, Karisimbi and Visoke. There, she established the Karisoke Research Center. This would be her home for most of the next eighteen years. Much of that time, she worked alone. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: DianFossey spent thousands of hours observing mountain gorillas. She worked hard to gain acceptance among the animals. To do this, she copied their actions and sounds. She studied the gorillas daily and developed an understanding of each individual. Many people had believed that mountain gorillas are fierce. Fossey found just the opposite. She learned that gorillas are both gentle and intelligent. They use their strength mainly when defending other members of their family or group. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy, the National Geographic Society wanted to publish a story about Fossey and her research. It sent a photographer named Bob Campbell to Karisoke to take pictures. He took a picture of an adult male gorilla named Peanuts touching Fossey’s hand. This became the first friendly gorilla-to-human action ever recorded. The picture appeared on the front cover of National Geographic magazine. It helped to make Fossey and her work famous. The American researcher was able to sit among the gorillas and play with them and their young. She made notes of everything she saw. She took a count, or census, of the gorilla population. She noted what the animals ate and their environment. Fossey learned a lot about the gorillas. But it became difficult for her to remain an independent observer. She believed that the animals would disappear forever unless something was done to protect them and their environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey needed money to continue her research project. She believed that she could get more financial assistance for her work by getting an advanced degree. She left Africa in nineteen seventy and attended the University of Cambridge in England. She received a doctorate in zoology a few years later. Fossey returned to Rwanda to find that hunters were killing some of what she called “her gorillas.” The hunters earned money by selling the heads, hands and feet of the animals. Among the gorillas killed was one called Digit. Fossey had observed Digit for many years and treated him almost like a friend. His remains were placed with those of other dead gorillas in a special burial area near her camp. VOICE ONE: After Digit was killed, Fossey established a program to increase international support for efforts to protect mountain gorillas. It was called the Digit Fund. Fossey also began an active campaign to stop the killing of the gorillas. She opposed efforts by Rwandan officials to increase the number of visitors to the animals’ native environment. She formed a small force to help guard mountain gorillas against humans. She destroyed traps used to catch the animals. She threatened the hunters and the people who helped them. National Geographic magazine published a report about her efforts. Many people who read the story sent money to support the campaign. However, not everyone supported what Fossey was doing. Some people condemned her treatment of the hunters. Rwandan officials opposed her efforts to control an area that she did not own. And, some animal experts criticized her strong emotional links with the gorillas. They also questioned her work as a scientist. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey suffered from a number of health problems. As she grew older, she spent less time in the field and more time at her camp doing paperwork. This was partly because she had college students assisting in her research efforts. In nineteen eighty, Fossey left Karisoke and accepted a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. There, she began to write a book about her years with the mountain gorillas. Her book was published in nineteen eighty-three. It is called “Gorillas in the Mist.” By then, there were only about two hundred mountain gorillas in the world. Dian Fossey made a large number of public appearances to publicize her book and the efforts to save the mountain gorillas. Then she returned to Rwanda. On December twenty-sixth, nineteen eighty-five, she was found murdered at her camp. A few days later, her body was buried near the remains of some of her gorillas. VOICE ONE: Even now, her death remains unsolved. Some people believe that she was killed by someone who opposed her strong attempts to protect the gorillas. Three years after her death, a major American motion picture based on her book was released. It is also called “Gorillas in the Mist.” It helped tell her story to millions of people around the world. Dian Fossey kept a written record of her daily activities. She wrote: When you understand the value of all life, you think less about what is past and think instead about the protection of the future. Dian Fossey loved her work and used her research to help save the gorillas and their environment. Today, the mountain gorilla population is increasing. Some people have said that without her efforts the animals would no longer exist. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International continues her work. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Dian Fossey was born in nineteen thirty-two in San Francisco, California. Her parents ended their marriage when she was young. She stayed with her mother, who married another man a short time later. Dian said she had a difficult relationship with both her mother and stepfather. Dian was interested in animals all her life. She started making plans to be a veterinarian, a doctor who treats animals. After high school, she attended San Jose State College in California. There, she was successful in some subjects, but not others. She changed her program of study to occupational therapy. Occupational therapists help injured and sick people learn to do their day-to-day activities independently. She completed her studies at San Jose State in nineteen fifty-four. VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey left California and moved to the state of Kentucky. She accepted a position at the Kosair Crippled Children’s Hospital in the city of Louisville. People there said she had a special gift of communicating with children with special needs. Yet she also had a desire to see more of the world. Through friends, she became interested in Africa. She read a book about the wild mountain gorillas of central Africa written by American zoologist George Schaller. The mountain gorilla is the largest of the world’s apes. VOICE ONE: Fossey borrowed money and made a six-week trip to Africa in nineteen sixty-three. She visited a camp operated by the famous research scientists Louis and Mary Leakey. The Leakeys were best known for their studies of the development of human ancestors. Fossey met with Louis Leakey and discussed the importance of scientific research on the great apes. She decided to study mountain gorillas, which were in danger of disappearing. Later on her trip, she traveled to the mountains of Rwanda. This is where she first saw mountain gorillas. VOICE TWO: Fossey returned to the United States with a desire to work in Africa. She met with Professor Leakey a second time when he visited the United States to give a series of talks. This time, he asked her to begin a long-term study of the gorillas. He said information she collected might help to show how human ancestors developed. A group called the Wilkie Foundation agreed to support her research. The Wilkie Foundation already supported another researcher, Jane Goodall, in her study of wild chimpanzees. Fossey also received help from a major scientific and educational organization -- the National Geographic Society. VOICE ONE: Fossey returned to central Africa in nineteen sixty-six. She spent a short time observing Jane Goodall. Then she began setting up her own research camp in what was then the country of Zaire. Fossey sought help from the local native people who knew how to follow mountain gorillas in the wild. A short time later, political unrest forced her to move to nearby Rwanda. She settled in a protected area between two mountains, Karisimbi and Visoke. There, she established the Karisoke Research Center. This would be her home for most of the next eighteen years. Much of that time, she worked alone. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: DianFossey spent thousands of hours observing mountain gorillas. She worked hard to gain acceptance among the animals. To do this, she copied their actions and sounds. She studied the gorillas daily and developed an understanding of each individual. Many people had believed that mountain gorillas are fierce. Fossey found just the opposite. She learned that gorillas are both gentle and intelligent. They use their strength mainly when defending other members of their family or group. VOICE ONE: In nineteen seventy, the National Geographic Society wanted to publish a story about Fossey and her research. It sent a photographer named Bob Campbell to Karisoke to take pictures. He took a picture of an adult male gorilla named Peanuts touching Fossey’s hand. This became the first friendly gorilla-to-human action ever recorded. The picture appeared on the front cover of National Geographic magazine. It helped to make Fossey and her work famous. The American researcher was able to sit among the gorillas and play with them and their young. She made notes of everything she saw. She took a count, or census, of the gorilla population. She noted what the animals ate and their environment. Fossey learned a lot about the gorillas. But it became difficult for her to remain an independent observer. She believed that the animals would disappear forever unless something was done to protect them and their environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey needed money to continue her research project. She believed that she could get more financial assistance for her work by getting an advanced degree. She left Africa in nineteen seventy and attended the University of Cambridge in England. She received a doctorate in zoology a few years later. Fossey returned to Rwanda to find that hunters were killing some of what she called “her gorillas.” The hunters earned money by selling the heads, hands and feet of the animals. Among the gorillas killed was one called Digit. Fossey had observed Digit for many years and treated him almost like a friend. His remains were placed with those of other dead gorillas in a special burial area near her camp. VOICE ONE: After Digit was killed, Fossey established a program to increase international support for efforts to protect mountain gorillas. It was called the Digit Fund. Fossey also began an active campaign to stop the killing of the gorillas. She opposed efforts by Rwandan officials to increase the number of visitors to the animals’ native environment. She formed a small force to help guard mountain gorillas against humans. She destroyed traps used to catch the animals. She threatened the hunters and the people who helped them. National Geographic magazine published a report about her efforts. Many people who read the story sent money to support the campaign. However, not everyone supported what Fossey was doing. Some people condemned her treatment of the hunters. Rwandan officials opposed her efforts to control an area that she did not own. And, some animal experts criticized her strong emotional links with the gorillas. They also questioned her work as a scientist. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dian Fossey suffered from a number of health problems. As she grew older, she spent less time in the field and more time at her camp doing paperwork. This was partly because she had college students assisting in her research efforts. In nineteen eighty, Fossey left Karisoke and accepted a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. There, she began to write a book about her years with the mountain gorillas. Her book was published in nineteen eighty-three. It is called “Gorillas in the Mist.” By then, there were only about two hundred mountain gorillas in the world. Dian Fossey made a large number of public appearances to publicize her book and the efforts to save the mountain gorillas. Then she returned to Rwanda. On December twenty-sixth, nineteen eighty-five, she was found murdered at her camp. A few days later, her body was buried near the remains of some of her gorillas. VOICE ONE: Even now, her death remains unsolved. Some people believe that she was killed by someone who opposed her strong attempts to protect the gorillas. Three years after her death, a major American motion picture based on her book was released. It is also called “Gorillas in the Mist.” It helped tell her story to millions of people around the world. Dian Fossey kept a written record of her daily activities. She wrote: When you understand the value of all life, you think less about what is past and think instead about the protection of the future. Dian Fossey loved her work and used her research to help save the gorillas and their environment. Today, the mountain gorilla population is increasing. Some people have said that without her efforts the animals would no longer exist. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International continues her work. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. Lawan Davis was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Elections of 2004
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 8, 2004 (MUSIC) Barack Obama Broadcast: November 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Coming up ... results from the state and national elections of two thousand four. (MUSIC) (SOUND) VOICE ONE: That was Senator John Kerry last Wednesday, telling his supporters that he had lost the presidential election. (SOUND) President George W. Bush begins his second and final term January twentieth. But first there is the Electoral College tradition. Electors in each state have to meet next month to make the vote official. VOICE TWO: More than fifty-nine million people voted for President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. That was fifty-one percent. And that was three and one-half million more than voted for John Kerry and his vice presidential candidate, Senator John Edwards. The Democrats had forty-eight percent. George Walker Bush is America's forty-third president. But he is the first in sixteen years to win a majority of the popular vote. The last one was his father, in nineteen eighty-eight. VOICE ONE: On colored maps on election-night television, red states meant Republican victories. Blue states meant Democratic victories. In the end, the map looked very much like the map in the two thousand election. Mister Kerry won all three states on the West Coast -- California, Oregon and Washington state -- as well as Hawaii. He also won the Northeast including New Hampshire, which last time voted for Mister Bush. And Mister Kerry won states in the upper Midwest including Minnesota and Wisconsin. But most of the country was red. The election was decided when a victory for Mister Bush became clear in Ohio, a large state in the Midwest. There was a long night of waiting. But this election was not as close as many people had expected. Four years ago, when Mister Bush faced Al Gore, Americans had to wait more than a month to know their president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Republicans also increased their strength in Congress in the general elections last Tuesday. Most notably, former Congressman John Thune defeated Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Mister Daschle is the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. Fifty years have passed since a Senate leader of either party was voted out of office. Republicans gained a majority in both houses ten years ago. In the next Congress, they will control fifty-five of the one hundred seats in the Senate. They will control more than two hundred thirty of the four hundred thirty-five seats in the House of Representatives. VOICE ONE: Democrats did score a few victories. A new star in the party, Illinois state Senator Barack Obama, was easily elected to the United States Senate. Mister Obama gave a major speech this summer at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from the United States. Only two other African Americans have been elected to the Senate since the rebuilding after the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. VOICE TWO: In Colorado, Democrat Ken Salazar, the state attorney general, defeated Republican businessman Pete Coors in a race for the United States Senate. But in Florida, Republican Mel Martinez defeated Democrat Betty Castor, a former state education chief, to replace retiring Senator Bob Graham. Mister Martinez was born in Cuba. He served President Bush as housing secretary. Eleven states had to elect governors last week. Here, voters were about as likely to choose Democrats as Republicans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On the morning of Election Day, long lines formed at schools, community centers and other voting places. And this was not just in the so-called battleground states. Democrats and Republicans had both signed up millions of new voters, many of them young. Curtis Gans is director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a research group. He says about one hundred twenty million Americans voted. By his estimate, the turnout was the highest since nineteen sixty-eight, at almost sixty percent of possible voters. Most political experts had suggested that higher numbers of voters would be better for John Kerry. This was not the case. VOICE TWO: We get some sense of who voted from the questioning of voters for exit polls. Fifty-four percent were women. Women have outnumbered men in voting for president for the past twenty years. More women chose Senator Kerry. But women were more likely to choose President Bush as four years ago. Thirty-seven percent of voters said they were Democrats. Thirty-seven percent said they were Republicans. Independents were divided almost evenly between Senator Kerry and President Bush. Election-day reports said that young people represented the same share of voters as four years ago. But University of Maryland researchers disputed the idea that young voters stayed away. They noted that all age groups increased their voting. The researchers say the percentage of young people who voted reached about half for the first time in years. In fact, they were the only age group strongly for the Democrats. VOICE ONE: Even if not as many young voters showed up as some people had hoped, conservative white Christians did show up. The Republican Party targeted this base of support throughout the campaign. Exit polls found that they made up about one-fourth of all voters. Many experts believe they were the deciding voice. Terrorism and the economy were major issues to voters. But a national exit poll found that even more people said they cared most about "moral values." These include issues like same-sex marriage and the ending of unwanted pregnancies. VOICE TWO: Elections in the United States are organized by local officials. They choose the voting equipment and ballot designs. Four years ago people had many problems voting, especially in Florida. This year the major parties sent thousands of lawyers to voting places to prepare for anything. By the end of Election Day, however, most of the problems seemed minor. VOICE ONE: Spending for federal campaigns this year reached an estimated four thousand million dollars. The Center for Responsive Politics says this is a thirty percent increase from four years ago. The research group says more than one thousand million dollars was spent in the presidential race. The elections were the first under a new political finance law, known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. This law bans unlimited money, usually from businesses or unions, in federal campaigns. Instead, the law increases the limit on how much individuals can give in direct support of candidates. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans also had many state issues to decide. Eleven states asked voters if marriage should be defined as being between a man and a woman. Voters in all eleven states agreed. They approved amendments to their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriages. In California, a ballot measure to pay for stem cell research passed by fifty-nine percent. The state is to spend three thousand million dollars over ten years. Scientists will investigate possible uses for stem cells from embryos for medical treatments. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, supported the measure. President Bush has restricted federal financing of studies on embryonic stem cells. Opponents say such research destroys life. VOICE ONE: In Arizona, voters agreed to require people to prove their American citizenship before they can sign up to vote. The initiative also requires state employees to report illegal immigrants who request public aid. Initiatives are a way for citizens to bypass a state legislature and put a measure to a popular vote. The Democratic and Republican parties both opposed the measure. But many people in the state say more needs to be done about illegal immigration. Arizona borders Mexico. In Colorado, voters rejected a proposal to change the way that state awards its nine electoral votes. Almost all states, including Colorado, have a winner-takes-all system. VOICE TWO: Voters, however, did agree to require Colorado to get at least ten percent of its electricity from the wind and sun by two thousand fifteen. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. --- Correction: An earlier version of this report said 13 states now have constitutional bans against same-sex marriage. The correct number is 17. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Coming up ... results from the state and national elections of two thousand four. (MUSIC) (SOUND) VOICE ONE: That was Senator John Kerry last Wednesday, telling his supporters that he had lost the presidential election. (SOUND) President George W. Bush begins his second and final term January twentieth. But first there is the Electoral College tradition. Electors in each state have to meet next month to make the vote official. VOICE TWO: More than fifty-nine million people voted for President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. That was fifty-one percent. And that was three and one-half million more than voted for John Kerry and his vice presidential candidate, Senator John Edwards. The Democrats had forty-eight percent. George Walker Bush is America's forty-third president. But he is the first in sixteen years to win a majority of the popular vote. The last one was his father, in nineteen eighty-eight. VOICE ONE: On colored maps on election-night television, red states meant Republican victories. Blue states meant Democratic victories. In the end, the map looked very much like the map in the two thousand election. Mister Kerry won all three states on the West Coast -- California, Oregon and Washington state -- as well as Hawaii. He also won the Northeast including New Hampshire, which last time voted for Mister Bush. And Mister Kerry won states in the upper Midwest including Minnesota and Wisconsin. But most of the country was red. The election was decided when a victory for Mister Bush became clear in Ohio, a large state in the Midwest. There was a long night of waiting. But this election was not as close as many people had expected. Four years ago, when Mister Bush faced Al Gore, Americans had to wait more than a month to know their president. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Republicans also increased their strength in Congress in the general elections last Tuesday. Most notably, former Congressman John Thune defeated Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Mister Daschle is the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. Fifty years have passed since a Senate leader of either party was voted out of office. Republicans gained a majority in both houses ten years ago. In the next Congress, they will control fifty-five of the one hundred seats in the Senate. They will control more than two hundred thirty of the four hundred thirty-five seats in the House of Representatives. VOICE ONE: Democrats did score a few victories. A new star in the party, Illinois state Senator Barack Obama, was easily elected to the United States Senate. Mister Obama gave a major speech this summer at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from the United States. Only two other African Americans have been elected to the Senate since the rebuilding after the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. VOICE TWO: In Colorado, Democrat Ken Salazar, the state attorney general, defeated Republican businessman Pete Coors in a race for the United States Senate. But in Florida, Republican Mel Martinez defeated Democrat Betty Castor, a former state education chief, to replace retiring Senator Bob Graham. Mister Martinez was born in Cuba. He served President Bush as housing secretary. Eleven states had to elect governors last week. Here, voters were about as likely to choose Democrats as Republicans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On the morning of Election Day, long lines formed at schools, community centers and other voting places. And this was not just in the so-called battleground states. Democrats and Republicans had both signed up millions of new voters, many of them young. Curtis Gans is director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a research group. He says about one hundred twenty million Americans voted. By his estimate, the turnout was the highest since nineteen sixty-eight, at almost sixty percent of possible voters. Most political experts had suggested that higher numbers of voters would be better for John Kerry. This was not the case. VOICE TWO: We get some sense of who voted from the questioning of voters for exit polls. Fifty-four percent were women. Women have outnumbered men in voting for president for the past twenty years. More women chose Senator Kerry. But women were more likely to choose President Bush as four years ago. Thirty-seven percent of voters said they were Democrats. Thirty-seven percent said they were Republicans. Independents were divided almost evenly between Senator Kerry and President Bush. Election-day reports said that young people represented the same share of voters as four years ago. But University of Maryland researchers disputed the idea that young voters stayed away. They noted that all age groups increased their voting. The researchers say the percentage of young people who voted reached about half for the first time in years. In fact, they were the only age group strongly for the Democrats. VOICE ONE: Even if not as many young voters showed up as some people had hoped, conservative white Christians did show up. The Republican Party targeted this base of support throughout the campaign. Exit polls found that they made up about one-fourth of all voters. Many experts believe they were the deciding voice. Terrorism and the economy were major issues to voters. But a national exit poll found that even more people said they cared most about "moral values." These include issues like same-sex marriage and the ending of unwanted pregnancies. VOICE TWO: Elections in the United States are organized by local officials. They choose the voting equipment and ballot designs. Four years ago people had many problems voting, especially in Florida. This year the major parties sent thousands of lawyers to voting places to prepare for anything. By the end of Election Day, however, most of the problems seemed minor. VOICE ONE: Spending for federal campaigns this year reached an estimated four thousand million dollars. The Center for Responsive Politics says this is a thirty percent increase from four years ago. The research group says more than one thousand million dollars was spent in the presidential race. The elections were the first under a new political finance law, known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. This law bans unlimited money, usually from businesses or unions, in federal campaigns. Instead, the law increases the limit on how much individuals can give in direct support of candidates. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans also had many state issues to decide. Eleven states asked voters if marriage should be defined as being between a man and a woman. Voters in all eleven states agreed. They approved amendments to their state constitutions to ban same-sex marriages. In California, a ballot measure to pay for stem cell research passed by fifty-nine percent. The state is to spend three thousand million dollars over ten years. Scientists will investigate possible uses for stem cells from embryos for medical treatments. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, supported the measure. President Bush has restricted federal financing of studies on embryonic stem cells. Opponents say such research destroys life. VOICE ONE: In Arizona, voters agreed to require people to prove their American citizenship before they can sign up to vote. The initiative also requires state employees to report illegal immigrants who request public aid. Initiatives are a way for citizens to bypass a state legislature and put a measure to a popular vote. The Democratic and Republican parties both opposed the measure. But many people in the state say more needs to be done about illegal immigration. Arizona borders Mexico. In Colorado, voters rejected a proposal to change the way that state awards its nine electoral votes. Almost all states, including Colorado, have a winner-takes-all system. VOICE TWO: Voters, however, did agree to require Colorado to get at least ten percent of its electricity from the wind and sun by two thousand fifteen. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. --- Correction: An earlier version of this report said 13 states now have constitutional bans against same-sex marriage. The correct number is 17. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Public Service Web Site
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 8, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The Internet is a system of electronic computer communication. It helps people share information, communicate with family and friends, and start businesses. One popular Web site that whole communities can use is craigslist.org. It helps people find the goods or services they need. For example, if I want to sell my car, I can put a message on Craigslist. Or if I want a new job, I can search the employment area on the Web site. People use Craigslist to start community groups or to provide services. They can find new friends or search for a place to live. There are many uses for this kind of Web site. Craig Newmark started Craigslist in nineteen ninety-five. He had just moved to San Francisco, California. He was sending his friends information about parties and other events. He says interest in the Web site increased. Almost ten years later, Craigslist exists in forty-eight cities in the United States, and nine cities in four other countries. Putting information on the site is free. However, companies listing job openings and housing announcements in some cities have to pay a small cost. Mister Newmark says it is easy to create a Craigslist for any city in the world. However, two questions must be answered first. Is an English language Web site temporarily acceptable? And, does the community truly want it? Mister Newmark says people have to ask to set up a Craigslist in their community. His company keeps a record of the number of requests. If enough community interest develops, his company will create the site. In time, Mister Newmark says he hopes to offer Craigslist in many languages. Mister Newmark describes his Web site as a public service. He says it is owned and shared by everyone. Mister Newmark says the Web site is operated on traditional American values. He believes people around the world share these same values. He says Craigslist is about trying to help other people. And, he says his company urges users to honor the shared interests of the community. It urges users to follow moral traditions, be honest, do not steal and do the right thing. To learn more about Craigslist, visit the company Web site at www.craigslist.org. Craigslist is one word: craigslist. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Pregnant Mothers and Depression / Anti-depression Drugs to Carry Stronger Warning / Kyoto Protocol To Become Law
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 9, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: a plan for limiting climate change moves one step closer to enactment as an international treaty and American officials agree to increase warnings on antidepressant drugs. VOICE ONE: But first, how deep sadness in a pregnant woman or new mothers could affect her baby. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new study examines how depression in pregnant women can influence the health of their babies. Earlier studies showed that ten to fifteen percent of pregnant women and new mothers in Western nations suffer from depression. Other studies have shown that almost two times as many women in developing countries have this problem. Atif Rahman of the University of Manchester in England led the new study. His team linked depression in Pakistani women to lower weight in their babies during the first year of life. It also linked depressed mothers with the emotional health and development in their babies. VOICE TWO: Doctor Rahman’s team studied six hundred thirty-two women from areas with small populations near the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The women were in good physical health and in the last three months of pregnancy. One hundred sixty of the women were identified as depressed. They had lost interest and pleasure in normal life. They always felt sad or tired. They had problems eating or sleeping. They felt guilty and thought about killing themselves. VOICE ONE: The depressed women were compared with one hundred sixty women with normal emotional health. Health workers then weighed and measured the babies of both groups of mothers. They did this when the babies were born. They also examined the babies at ages two, six and twelve months. At these times, the health workers studied the emotional health of the mothers. Babies whose mothers remained depressed grew considerably less than the babies of the other women. In addition, the babies of the depressed mothers were more likely to suffer from the intestinal problem, diarrhea. Doctor Rahman says the environment in poor countries may make it difficult to care for a baby. For example, water must be boiled. Supplies must be cleaned before use. A depressed mother may find it harder to do these things. VOICE TWO: Doctor Rahman plans an effort to help depressed mothers in Pakistan next year. For ten years, that country has employed health workers called “lady health workers.” They visit new mothers and babies for up to a year. The workers offer advice about health and cleanliness. Doctor Rahman plans to add to this program. He wants the lady health worker to provide special help to the mother. The worker will listen sympathetically to her problems. The worker also will give the mother a few easy things to do. Then, on the next visit, she may be able to tell the mother that she has helped her baby’s growth. The program will be tested over several years to learn if it is a success. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States Food and Drug Administration has ordered drug makers to place strong warnings on all antidepressant drugs. The announcement comes a month after an advisory committee agreed that recent studies showed a need for the strengthened warnings. F.D.A. officials say the studies found that some children and young adults who use the drugs have an increased risk of suicidality. The officials describe suicidality as thoughts or actions involving taking one’s life. The increased risk of suicidality was identified in short-term testing of nine antidepressant drugs. More than four thousand four-hundred young people took part in a total of twenty-four studies. They suffered from major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or other mental health problems. VOICE TWO: The results showed an increased risk of suicidality during the first few months of treatment. Those taking antidepressant drugs had a four percent risk of suicidality. That is two times greater than those taking a harmless substance, or placebo. No suicides were reported during the studies. The new warnings will appear on containers for all antidepressant drugs. They will be written in heavy black letters, surrounded with a black line. These “black box” warnings will inform patients that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions in children and young adults. It will advise health care providers that patients should be watched closely for any unusual changes, such as worsening of depression, excitability or suicidality. Family members and caregivers are advised to watch for these changes every day. These changes should be reported to the patient’s doctor. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration also says it plans to develop a medication guide for patients. F.D.A. officials say patients will receive this MedGuide every time they receive antidepressant drugs or when there is a change in the amount they should take. The MedGuide will inform the patient of drug risks. Also, it will state if the drug is approved for young people. The black box warnings and patient medication guide are the strongest warnings that the federal government can order without banning the drugs. Officials say computer users can read the warnings on F.D.A.’s Web site, www.fda.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The President of Russia has signed a bill confirming his country’s approval of the Kyoto Protocol. The signing clears the way for the agreement to come into force early next year. The Russian government announced that President Vladimir Putin signed the bill last Thursday. Both houses of the Russian parliament approved the Kyoto Protocol last month. The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the amount of pollution released into the environment. Some scientists say carbon dioxide and other industrial gases are to blame for climate changes around the world. The scientists say such gases build up in the atmosphere and trap heat below. They say this results in increasing temperatures and rising sea levels. VOICE ONE: The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in nineteen-ninety-seven at an international conference in Kyoto, Japan. It requires industrial nations to reduce the amount of industrial gases released, or emissions, to below the levels of nineteen-ninety. Nations responsible for fifty-five percent of the world’s industrial emissions must approve the agreement before it can go into effect. By last month, more than one hundred twenty nations had approved the agreement. These nations represent forty-four percent of all industrial emissions. The European Union and many industrial nations have already approved the Kyoto Protocol. They will receive credit for their own emissions if they invest in cleaner technologies in developing nations. Developing nations will not have to meet the emissions requirements of the agreement. VOICE TWO: Russia’s approval became necessary after the United States rejected the Kyoto Protocol. The United States produced thirty-six percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions in nineteen-ninety. In that year, Russia produced about seventeen percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. For years, Russia had delayed approval of the Kyoto Protocol because of economic concerns. Recently, however, the European Union pressured Russia to accept the treaty. In exchange, the E-U agreed to support Russian membership in the World Trade Organization. Russia will now report its approval of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations. Ninety days later, the terms of the agreement will take effect. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Lawan Davis, Jill Moss and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-thirty-seven, U.S.A. Or listeners with computers can send electronic messages to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 9, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to Science in the News in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. This week: a plan for limiting climate change moves one step closer to enactment as an international treaty and American officials agree to increase warnings on antidepressant drugs. VOICE ONE: But first, how deep sadness in a pregnant woman or new mothers could affect her baby. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new study examines how depression in pregnant women can influence the health of their babies. Earlier studies showed that ten to fifteen percent of pregnant women and new mothers in Western nations suffer from depression. Other studies have shown that almost two times as many women in developing countries have this problem. Atif Rahman of the University of Manchester in England led the new study. His team linked depression in Pakistani women to lower weight in their babies during the first year of life. It also linked depressed mothers with the emotional health and development in their babies. VOICE TWO: Doctor Rahman’s team studied six hundred thirty-two women from areas with small populations near the city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The women were in good physical health and in the last three months of pregnancy. One hundred sixty of the women were identified as depressed. They had lost interest and pleasure in normal life. They always felt sad or tired. They had problems eating or sleeping. They felt guilty and thought about killing themselves. VOICE ONE: The depressed women were compared with one hundred sixty women with normal emotional health. Health workers then weighed and measured the babies of both groups of mothers. They did this when the babies were born. They also examined the babies at ages two, six and twelve months. At these times, the health workers studied the emotional health of the mothers. Babies whose mothers remained depressed grew considerably less than the babies of the other women. In addition, the babies of the depressed mothers were more likely to suffer from the intestinal problem, diarrhea. Doctor Rahman says the environment in poor countries may make it difficult to care for a baby. For example, water must be boiled. Supplies must be cleaned before use. A depressed mother may find it harder to do these things. VOICE TWO: Doctor Rahman plans an effort to help depressed mothers in Pakistan next year. For ten years, that country has employed health workers called “lady health workers.” They visit new mothers and babies for up to a year. The workers offer advice about health and cleanliness. Doctor Rahman plans to add to this program. He wants the lady health worker to provide special help to the mother. The worker will listen sympathetically to her problems. The worker also will give the mother a few easy things to do. Then, on the next visit, she may be able to tell the mother that she has helped her baby’s growth. The program will be tested over several years to learn if it is a success. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States Food and Drug Administration has ordered drug makers to place strong warnings on all antidepressant drugs. The announcement comes a month after an advisory committee agreed that recent studies showed a need for the strengthened warnings. F.D.A. officials say the studies found that some children and young adults who use the drugs have an increased risk of suicidality. The officials describe suicidality as thoughts or actions involving taking one’s life. The increased risk of suicidality was identified in short-term testing of nine antidepressant drugs. More than four thousand four-hundred young people took part in a total of twenty-four studies. They suffered from major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or other mental health problems. VOICE TWO: The results showed an increased risk of suicidality during the first few months of treatment. Those taking antidepressant drugs had a four percent risk of suicidality. That is two times greater than those taking a harmless substance, or placebo. No suicides were reported during the studies. The new warnings will appear on containers for all antidepressant drugs. They will be written in heavy black letters, surrounded with a black line. These “black box” warnings will inform patients that antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and actions in children and young adults. It will advise health care providers that patients should be watched closely for any unusual changes, such as worsening of depression, excitability or suicidality. Family members and caregivers are advised to watch for these changes every day. These changes should be reported to the patient’s doctor. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration also says it plans to develop a medication guide for patients. F.D.A. officials say patients will receive this MedGuide every time they receive antidepressant drugs or when there is a change in the amount they should take. The MedGuide will inform the patient of drug risks. Also, it will state if the drug is approved for young people. The black box warnings and patient medication guide are the strongest warnings that the federal government can order without banning the drugs. Officials say computer users can read the warnings on F.D.A.’s Web site, www.fda.gov. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The President of Russia has signed a bill confirming his country’s approval of the Kyoto Protocol. The signing clears the way for the agreement to come into force early next year. The Russian government announced that President Vladimir Putin signed the bill last Thursday. Both houses of the Russian parliament approved the Kyoto Protocol last month. The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the amount of pollution released into the environment. Some scientists say carbon dioxide and other industrial gases are to blame for climate changes around the world. The scientists say such gases build up in the atmosphere and trap heat below. They say this results in increasing temperatures and rising sea levels. VOICE ONE: The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in nineteen-ninety-seven at an international conference in Kyoto, Japan. It requires industrial nations to reduce the amount of industrial gases released, or emissions, to below the levels of nineteen-ninety. Nations responsible for fifty-five percent of the world’s industrial emissions must approve the agreement before it can go into effect. By last month, more than one hundred twenty nations had approved the agreement. These nations represent forty-four percent of all industrial emissions. The European Union and many industrial nations have already approved the Kyoto Protocol. They will receive credit for their own emissions if they invest in cleaner technologies in developing nations. Developing nations will not have to meet the emissions requirements of the agreement. VOICE TWO: Russia’s approval became necessary after the United States rejected the Kyoto Protocol. The United States produced thirty-six percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions in nineteen-ninety. In that year, Russia produced about seventeen percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. For years, Russia had delayed approval of the Kyoto Protocol because of economic concerns. Recently, however, the European Union pressured Russia to accept the treaty. In exchange, the E-U agreed to support Russian membership in the World Trade Organization. Russia will now report its approval of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations. Ninety days later, the terms of the agreement will take effect. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Lawan Davis, Jill Moss and Jerilyn Watson. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-thirty-seven, U.S.A. Or listeners with computers can send electronic messages to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Californians Vote on Biotech Crops
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 9, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Voters in the American state of California did not just choose government representatives in elections on November second. In some areas, voters also made decisions about agriculture. Four counties decided if they wanted to ban products of genetically engineering. This was not the first time that Californians have voted on the issue. In March, Mendocino County became the first area in the United States to ban genetically engineered crops and animals. Trinity County approved a similar ban in August. Last week, four more California counties voted on the issue. Butte County rejected a measure to ban genetically engineered crops. So did voters in San Luis Obispo County. A similar measure in Humboldt County was declared unconstitutional. However, Marin County, to the North of San Francisco, voted to ban such crops and animals. The votes are the latest clashes in a campaign to limit the spread of genetically changed products. Environmental groups support votes to ban such products. Many environmentalists are concerned that genetically engineered crops will mix with traditional crops. In October, the Environment Protection Agency released a study on a genetically engineered kind of grass. It found that the grass could fertilize grasses up to twenty-one kilometers away. That surprised scientists. Many farmers oppose bans on crops they can grow. The California Farm Bureau Federation wants voters to reject bans on genetically changed products. And many farmers are concerned that their products may become less competitive if they cannot use the latest technology. But, the success of local votes on genetically changed crops depends on the agricultural interests in those areas. In Mendocino County, for example, organic grape growers are an important part of the economy. Wine-making companies such as Fetzer and Frey use organically grown grapes from Mendocino. These companies have found that organic wines are an expanding part of the American and foreign wine markets. Organic growers may fear losing their organic approval if genetically engineered crops are nearby. At the same time, organic wine-making is a growth industry in the American wine market. That market is worth nearly twenty-two thousand million dollars. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Erie Canal
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 10, 2004 (MUSIC) Governor De Witt Clinton opens the Erie Canal, 1825. Broadcast: November 10, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. In the early eighteen hundreds, traveling in the United States was dangerous. Business and trading were limited. Then came the waterway called the Erie Canal. It helped build America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: July Fourth, eighteen seventeen was a special day in Rome, New York. People there celebrated the anniversary of America’s independence from Britain. They also marked the groundbreaking for the building of the Erie Canal. When it was completed eight years later, the canal became America’s first national waterway. The Erie Canal crossed the state of New York from the city of Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany and Troy on the Hudson River. The Hudson River flowed into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. So the canal joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The canal made New York City a major port. VOICE TWO: The difficulty of traveling through the Appalachian Mountains had kept many people from going west. The mountains also prevented people in the west from sending their wood and farm products east. But the canal overcame the natural barrier of those mountains. It helped open the American West. The Erie Canal made the United States a richer and stronger young nation. VOICE ONE: Politicians, businessmen, farmers and traders had talked about creating a canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean for one hundred years. A lawyer and politician named De Witt Clinton finally succeeded in getting the canal built. As early as eighteen-oh-nine, Clinton saw the need for the canal. Then he had to defend his idea against people who laughed at him. Some critics called the canal “Clinton’s Folly” -- a stupid project. In eighteen twelve, the federal government rejected a proposal to provide money for the canal. But five years later, the New York State legislature provided more than seven million dollars for the project. The lawmakers named Clinton to head a committee to supervise the development of the canal. De Witt Clinton was elected governor of New York that same year. VOICE TWO: The Erie Canal was five hundred eighty-four kilometers long, more than eight meters wide at the bottom and one and one-half meters deep. It could not have been completed without the hard and dangerous labor of many workers. Historians say about one-third of the workers had recently moved to the United States from Ireland. They received about fifty cents a day for building the Erie Canal. The men used explosives to break the rocky earth. Many workers were injured. Many were infected with the disease malaria. Twenty-six workers died of smallpox. Some were buried in unmarked graves along the canal. VOICE ONE: Big guns were fired in October, eighteen twenty-five in Buffalo, New York. The cannons were part of a celebration to observe the completion of the Erie Canal. Governor De Witt Clinton and his wife left Buffalo on a barge called the Seneca Chief. The boat moved at the rate of less than five kilometers per hour. It reached the Hudson River nine days later. To mark the arrival, Governor Clinton dropped some water from Lake Erie into the Hudson River. VOICE TWO: Within ten years, the Erie Canal had repaid the cost of building it. Transportation of products by canal was less costly than other methods.The waterway carried barges. Most of these boats had flat bottoms for carrying goods. The barges measured up to twenty-four meters long and about four and one-half meters wide. Mules and horses on land pulled the barges through the canal using ropes. Eighty-three devices called locks raised the barges on the canal by more than one hundred seventy meters from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Men and animals worked hard to pull the barges. A mule named Sal became famous in a folksong called “The Erie Canal.” Ken Darby and the Whiskeyhill Chorus sing about life on the canal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over time, the canal grew. Many improvements were made between eighteen thirty-five and eighteen sixty-two. But a few years later, the canal began to lose importance. Trains were becoming an easier and more profitable way to transport goods. As the Erie Canal was losing business, some of its levees began to break. Levees normally hold back the water, preventing floods. The breaks damaged the towpaths next to the canal and stopped travel. VOICE TWO: Age or heavy rains often caused the levees to break. But the breaks were not always an accident. Towns like Forestport, New York had been suffering from the closing of businesses. Then, in the last years of the eighteen hundreds, several area levees broke under suspicious conditions. Breaks in the levees should have been bad news for Forestport. Difficult repairs were needed. But few people in the town seemed sad about the breaks. Instead, many were pleased. Almost two thousand men were brought in to repair the damage. That was more than the normal population of Forestport. People crowded into places to eat, drink and play games of chance. The town had money again. Life became as profitable and wild as it had been during the best days of trade on the canal. VOICE ONE: The administration of New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt grew suspicious. Officials investigated. State officials charged several men from Forestport with plotting to damage canal property. Newspaper reporter Michael Doyle recently wrote a book called “The Forestport Breaks.” He wrote the book after researching his ancestors who had lived in Forestport. Mister Doyle said he learned that his great-grandfather took part in the wrongdoing. At the beginning of the book, a farmer sees water flooding over a levee in Forestport. He warns local officials. His warning prevents more severe damage. But some of the townspeople do not praise the farmer for his action. Instead, Mister Doyle writes that they want to kill him. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-oh-three, some businesses were pressuring New York to build a whole system of canals. These people did not want the railroads to completely control the transport of goods. So the state formed the New York State Barge Canal System in nineteen eighteen. The Erie Canal became the largest part, linked to three shorter canals. The canal system stayed busy until nineteen fifty-nine. At that time, the United States and Canada opened the Saint Lawrence Seaway. This waterway permitted ocean ships to sail up the Saint Lawrence River and through the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal lost a lot of its business. VOICE ONE: But the Erie Canal and the other parts of the New York canal system got help. In nineteen ninety-one, people who cared about the historic canal held a big public event. The group is called Erie’s Restoration Interests Everyone. It made the same trip that had celebrated completion of the Erie Canal in eighteen twenty-five. As Governor and Missus Clinton had done, the group traveled from Buffalo, New York to the Hudson River. A man taking the part of De Witt Clinton dropped water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor. A few days later, citizens voted to take measures to re-develop the canal system. Today, barges still use the system to transport heavy goods. One estimate says the canal system carries more than four hundred thousand tons of goods each year. More than one hundred fifty thousand pleasure boats also use the system each year. VOICE TWO: Today, an area called the Canalway National Heritage Corridor contains parts of the Erie Canal of the eighteen hundreds. You can walk, run or ride a bicycle in this area. You can take pictures or study plants, birds and other wildlife. You can ride on the canal in a small boat called a canoe. Or, you can take a historic Erie Canal boat trip. Thousands of people do this every year. The boat moves slowly along the water. You can listen to guides tell about the animals and the men who pulled the barges. And, musicians play songs of the days when the Erie Canal was helping a young nation grow. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. In the early eighteen hundreds, traveling in the United States was dangerous. Business and trading were limited. Then came the waterway called the Erie Canal. It helped build America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: July Fourth, eighteen seventeen was a special day in Rome, New York. People there celebrated the anniversary of America’s independence from Britain. They also marked the groundbreaking for the building of the Erie Canal. When it was completed eight years later, the canal became America’s first national waterway. The Erie Canal crossed the state of New York from the city of Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany and Troy on the Hudson River. The Hudson River flowed into the Atlantic Ocean at New York City. So the canal joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The canal made New York City a major port. VOICE TWO: The difficulty of traveling through the Appalachian Mountains had kept many people from going west. The mountains also prevented people in the west from sending their wood and farm products east. But the canal overcame the natural barrier of those mountains. It helped open the American West. The Erie Canal made the United States a richer and stronger young nation. VOICE ONE: Politicians, businessmen, farmers and traders had talked about creating a canal connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean for one hundred years. A lawyer and politician named De Witt Clinton finally succeeded in getting the canal built. As early as eighteen-oh-nine, Clinton saw the need for the canal. Then he had to defend his idea against people who laughed at him. Some critics called the canal “Clinton’s Folly” -- a stupid project. In eighteen twelve, the federal government rejected a proposal to provide money for the canal. But five years later, the New York State legislature provided more than seven million dollars for the project. The lawmakers named Clinton to head a committee to supervise the development of the canal. De Witt Clinton was elected governor of New York that same year. VOICE TWO: The Erie Canal was five hundred eighty-four kilometers long, more than eight meters wide at the bottom and one and one-half meters deep. It could not have been completed without the hard and dangerous labor of many workers. Historians say about one-third of the workers had recently moved to the United States from Ireland. They received about fifty cents a day for building the Erie Canal. The men used explosives to break the rocky earth. Many workers were injured. Many were infected with the disease malaria. Twenty-six workers died of smallpox. Some were buried in unmarked graves along the canal. VOICE ONE: Big guns were fired in October, eighteen twenty-five in Buffalo, New York. The cannons were part of a celebration to observe the completion of the Erie Canal. Governor De Witt Clinton and his wife left Buffalo on a barge called the Seneca Chief. The boat moved at the rate of less than five kilometers per hour. It reached the Hudson River nine days later. To mark the arrival, Governor Clinton dropped some water from Lake Erie into the Hudson River. VOICE TWO: Within ten years, the Erie Canal had repaid the cost of building it. Transportation of products by canal was less costly than other methods.The waterway carried barges. Most of these boats had flat bottoms for carrying goods. The barges measured up to twenty-four meters long and about four and one-half meters wide. Mules and horses on land pulled the barges through the canal using ropes. Eighty-three devices called locks raised the barges on the canal by more than one hundred seventy meters from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Men and animals worked hard to pull the barges. A mule named Sal became famous in a folksong called “The Erie Canal.” Ken Darby and the Whiskeyhill Chorus sing about life on the canal. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Over time, the canal grew. Many improvements were made between eighteen thirty-five and eighteen sixty-two. But a few years later, the canal began to lose importance. Trains were becoming an easier and more profitable way to transport goods. As the Erie Canal was losing business, some of its levees began to break. Levees normally hold back the water, preventing floods. The breaks damaged the towpaths next to the canal and stopped travel. VOICE TWO: Age or heavy rains often caused the levees to break. But the breaks were not always an accident. Towns like Forestport, New York had been suffering from the closing of businesses. Then, in the last years of the eighteen hundreds, several area levees broke under suspicious conditions. Breaks in the levees should have been bad news for Forestport. Difficult repairs were needed. But few people in the town seemed sad about the breaks. Instead, many were pleased. Almost two thousand men were brought in to repair the damage. That was more than the normal population of Forestport. People crowded into places to eat, drink and play games of chance. The town had money again. Life became as profitable and wild as it had been during the best days of trade on the canal. VOICE ONE: The administration of New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt grew suspicious. Officials investigated. State officials charged several men from Forestport with plotting to damage canal property. Newspaper reporter Michael Doyle recently wrote a book called “The Forestport Breaks.” He wrote the book after researching his ancestors who had lived in Forestport. Mister Doyle said he learned that his great-grandfather took part in the wrongdoing. At the beginning of the book, a farmer sees water flooding over a levee in Forestport. He warns local officials. His warning prevents more severe damage. But some of the townspeople do not praise the farmer for his action. Instead, Mister Doyle writes that they want to kill him. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-oh-three, some businesses were pressuring New York to build a whole system of canals. These people did not want the railroads to completely control the transport of goods. So the state formed the New York State Barge Canal System in nineteen eighteen. The Erie Canal became the largest part, linked to three shorter canals. The canal system stayed busy until nineteen fifty-nine. At that time, the United States and Canada opened the Saint Lawrence Seaway. This waterway permitted ocean ships to sail up the Saint Lawrence River and through the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal lost a lot of its business. VOICE ONE: But the Erie Canal and the other parts of the New York canal system got help. In nineteen ninety-one, people who cared about the historic canal held a big public event. The group is called Erie’s Restoration Interests Everyone. It made the same trip that had celebrated completion of the Erie Canal in eighteen twenty-five. As Governor and Missus Clinton had done, the group traveled from Buffalo, New York to the Hudson River. A man taking the part of De Witt Clinton dropped water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor. A few days later, citizens voted to take measures to re-develop the canal system. Today, barges still use the system to transport heavy goods. One estimate says the canal system carries more than four hundred thousand tons of goods each year. More than one hundred fifty thousand pleasure boats also use the system each year. VOICE TWO: Today, an area called the Canalway National Heritage Corridor contains parts of the Erie Canal of the eighteen hundreds. You can walk, run or ride a bicycle in this area. You can take pictures or study plants, birds and other wildlife. You can ride on the canal in a small boat called a canoe. Or, you can take a historic Erie Canal boat trip. Thousands of people do this every year. The boat moves slowly along the water. You can listen to guides tell about the animals and the men who pulled the barges. And, musicians play songs of the days when the Erie Canal was helping a young nation grow. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Study Links Traffic and Heart Attacks
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 10, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say people traveling in traffic are three times more likely to suffer a heart attack whether driving in a car, riding a bus or bicycling. They say the risk of a heart attack is greatest within an hour of being in traffic. Researchers believe the main reason is polluted air. The findings are based on a German study of almost seven hundred people who suffered heart attacks. The patients described their activities during the four days before their heart attack. Researchers found that those who had been in traffic were three times more likely to have a heart attack within one hour, compared to those who had not been in traffic. Most of those in the study had been traveling by car. But some had been on bicycles and others were on buses. Women, people over the age of sixty and those already at risk for heart problems were most at risk. Research shows that people in cars and buses are exposed to ten times the amount of pollutants as people walking on the street. That is largely because they breathe in the particles and gasses released from the vehicles in front of them. Over time, these small particles speed the buildup of a sticky substance in the blood. This can cause blockages to form in the arteries around the heart and lead to a heart attack. Earlier studies have linked traffic, air pollution and heart disease. They found that people who live near major roads are at greater risk of dying from heart and lung problems. Other studies have also linked heart trouble to stress, similar to the kind that people face while driving in heavy traffic. But the researchers of the latest study say they do not know whether the increased heart attack risk was the result of stress or pollution. They suggest it may be a combination of stress, noise and pollution. The study found that traffic was linked to eight percent of heart attacks. But experts note that the overall risk of having a heart attack after being in traffic is still very low. Annette Peters led the research. She is with the National Research Center for Environment and Health in Neuherberg, Germany. She said the research shows the need for cleaner vehicles and better city planning. The research was done from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand one. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-09-5-1.cfm
* Headline: November 10, 2004 - Proverbs in American English, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on VOA News Now: November 10, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: proverbs in American English. RS: It's tempting to call Wolfang Mieder the proverbial expert from out-of-town. A professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, he has dedicated his career to studying proverbs from around the world. After talking to Professor Mieder, we realized that good things really do come to those who wait. AA: "Now you know originally I wanted to set up this interview for a couple of weeks ago." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Yah." AA: "But then you told me that you were out of town. And then Rosanne was out of town. So what is the proverb that I'm looking for here ... " WOLFGANG MIEDER: "When you can't find anybody, you mean?" AA: "Or I was thinking -- " RS: "Or count on someone." AA: " -- or not counting your chickens before they hatch?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: " ... before they hatch, right. And then, of course, I could have said, 'You know, Rosanne, absence makes the heart grow fonder.' So if I'm not here, maybe you try harder to reach me. You know, that's the nice thing about proverbs; you can really find one for any situation. But you can also find one that opposes it. I just mentioned 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' But of course you know the proverb 'out of sight, out of mind.' "So you have to keep in mind that proverbs are not a logical system, but rather that they are based on life's observations, generalizations and experiences, and they are as contradictory as life itself." RS: "Now what is a proverb and how did proverbs come about?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "I think a nice definition would be a proverb is a concise or short statement of an apparent truth which has currency among the people. And I want to stress the 'apparent' truth, because, you know, proverbs are not in every situation true. But anyhow, proverbs came about because people, especially in times when there was no writing, people observed things and realized that this seems to be recurring all the time -- let's just say the proverb 'look before you leap,' it seems to make sense that you ought to check out things before you jump ahead. And in order to transmit that experienced wisdom, people couched them into metaphors or images with some nice forms like alliteration and rhyme and parallelism. And then they could be memorized and handed down from grandfather and grandmother to grandchild, and from generation to generation." RS: "German is your first language -- " WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That's right." RS: "English is your second language -- " WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Right." RS: " -- what role did proverbs play for you when you came to the United States to learn American English." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, I remember I used to have trouble with 'it is six of one or half-dozen of the other.' I had a friend who made me practice it because I could never quite say it right. The proverbs that give you problems are those that are specifically cultural bound. Let me give you a modern American one. When I first came to America in 1960, among the African American population of Detroit and other urban areas of the United States, there was the proverb 'different strokes for different folks.' And, you know, that became very popular then through a rock-and-roll song by Sly and the Family Stone. You might recall that." MUSIC: "Everyday People"/Sly & the Family Stone, 1968 "We got to live together "There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one "That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one "And different strokes for different folks "And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "'Different strokes for different folks' happens to be my favorite American proverb by now. Now 'different strokes for different folks' is, in my opinion, a proverb that has to have grown on American soil, because it tells you and me that whomever we deal with ought to give us a chance to be our own person. In other words, to let us do the things that we would like to do and not always, at least, force onto us rules and regulations that you might like." AA: We'll hear more from University of Vermont Professor Wolfgang Mieder next week on VOA News Now. In the meantime, if you'd like to send us e-mail, write to word@voanews.com. RS: Internet users can find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on VOA News Now: November 10, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: proverbs in American English. RS: It's tempting to call Wolfang Mieder the proverbial expert from out-of-town. A professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, he has dedicated his career to studying proverbs from around the world. After talking to Professor Mieder, we realized that good things really do come to those who wait. AA: "Now you know originally I wanted to set up this interview for a couple of weeks ago." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Yah." AA: "But then you told me that you were out of town. And then Rosanne was out of town. So what is the proverb that I'm looking for here ... " WOLFGANG MIEDER: "When you can't find anybody, you mean?" AA: "Or I was thinking -- " RS: "Or count on someone." AA: " -- or not counting your chickens before they hatch?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: " ... before they hatch, right. And then, of course, I could have said, 'You know, Rosanne, absence makes the heart grow fonder.' So if I'm not here, maybe you try harder to reach me. You know, that's the nice thing about proverbs; you can really find one for any situation. But you can also find one that opposes it. I just mentioned 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' But of course you know the proverb 'out of sight, out of mind.' "So you have to keep in mind that proverbs are not a logical system, but rather that they are based on life's observations, generalizations and experiences, and they are as contradictory as life itself." RS: "Now what is a proverb and how did proverbs come about?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "I think a nice definition would be a proverb is a concise or short statement of an apparent truth which has currency among the people. And I want to stress the 'apparent' truth, because, you know, proverbs are not in every situation true. But anyhow, proverbs came about because people, especially in times when there was no writing, people observed things and realized that this seems to be recurring all the time -- let's just say the proverb 'look before you leap,' it seems to make sense that you ought to check out things before you jump ahead. And in order to transmit that experienced wisdom, people couched them into metaphors or images with some nice forms like alliteration and rhyme and parallelism. And then they could be memorized and handed down from grandfather and grandmother to grandchild, and from generation to generation." RS: "German is your first language -- " WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That's right." RS: "English is your second language -- " WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Right." RS: " -- what role did proverbs play for you when you came to the United States to learn American English." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, I remember I used to have trouble with 'it is six of one or half-dozen of the other.' I had a friend who made me practice it because I could never quite say it right. The proverbs that give you problems are those that are specifically cultural bound. Let me give you a modern American one. When I first came to America in 1960, among the African American population of Detroit and other urban areas of the United States, there was the proverb 'different strokes for different folks.' And, you know, that became very popular then through a rock-and-roll song by Sly and the Family Stone. You might recall that." MUSIC: "Everyday People"/Sly & the Family Stone, 1968 "We got to live together "There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one "That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one "And different strokes for different folks "And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo-bee" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "'Different strokes for different folks' happens to be my favorite American proverb by now. Now 'different strokes for different folks' is, in my opinion, a proverb that has to have grown on American soil, because it tells you and me that whomever we deal with ought to give us a chance to be our own person. In other words, to let us do the things that we would like to do and not always, at least, force onto us rules and regulations that you might like." AA: We'll hear more from University of Vermont Professor Wolfgang Mieder next week on VOA News Now. In the meantime, if you'd like to send us e-mail, write to word@voanews.com. RS: Internet users can find all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - 'Sweet Potato Queens' Grow Strong / Question from Nigeria About the White House / Lalah Hathaway Sings the Rhythm-and-Blues
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 12, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Lalah and Donny Hathaway ... A listener question about the White House ... And an international organization known as "Sweet Potato Queens." Sweet Potato Queens HOST: A few years ago, Jill Conner Browne had to work at four jobs to pay her debts. Today, she is a writer whose books have sold almost two million copies. She also leads an international movement. Shep O’Neal tells us more. SHEP O'NEAL: Jill Conner Browne started an organization called Sweet Potato Queens. Its purpose is friendship and fun. Thousands of people belong to the Sweet Potato Queens. Most are women. Sweet potatoes grow in the American South. During the past five years, four thousand groups of Sweet Potato Queens have organized in the United States and in foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia. Members share interests in food, love and life after forty years of age. Mizz Browne started her Sweet Potato Queens movement on Saint Patrick’s Day, nineteen eighty-two. A friend had organized a parade to celebrate the holiday in Jackson, Mississippi, Jill Conner Browne’s hometown. Browne rode in an open truck wearing extremely unusual clothing. Her appearance surprised other drivers. She called to other women, urging them to join her. On that day, few did. But later, she made copies of the unusual clothing. She put together shining green costumes with material that makes the chest and lower back look bigger. Over her own hair, she wore a bright red wig. After that, many other women joined the celebration. Now, the Sweet Potato Queens take part every year in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Jackson. Before long, local groups of her organization formed throughout the world. Mizz Browne’s first book was published in nineteen ninety-nine. It is called “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love.” In it, she offers observations about what she calls "issues." These include the four main food groups. And how to wear one’s hair. The book also lists words she says are guaranteed to get any man to do what you want. The book was a big success. So she wrote three more books. Jill Conner Browne’ s latest book is called “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Love is Either Married, Gay or Dead.” The White House DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Barrister Ikechukwu Edwin Ike asks why the United States capitol building is called the White House. The short answer to that question is that the United States capitol building is not called the White House. The capitol building has a dome-shaped roof that rises above all the other buildings in Washington, D.C. The two houses of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives, meet in the Capitol building. The building known as the White House is the home of the President of the United States and his family. The President also has his office there. America’s first President, George Washington, helped choose the land for the new presidential home in seventeen ninety. A competition was held to find a designer to build it. Architect James Hoban won the contest. He planned a building of grayish white sandstone. The color gave the house its name. Work started in seventeen ninety-two. But the house was not ready before the end of President Washington’s term. America’s second President, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail, moved into the house on November first, eighteen hundred. By then, the building had six completed rooms. Many of the rooms were still empty when John Adams left office a few months later. Other Presidents tried to complete the White House. But the British burned it during the War of Eighteen Twelve. The White House was re-built after that war. Since then, it has been enlarged, repaired and almost totally re-built. Today, the White House has one hundred thirty-two rooms. Visitors can walk through some of the public ones. Visiting has been restricted since the terrorist attacks three years ago. But anyone with a computer can make an electronic visit to the White House. You can see the public rooms, and the Oval Office, where the President does his work. The Internet address is www.whitehouse.gov. White House is all one word. Lalah and Donny Hathaway Singer and songwriter Lalah Hathaway says music has always been a major part of her life. Her father was the rhythm-and-blues singer Donny Hathaway. Shirley Griffith has our story. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Lalah Hathaway released her first album in nineteen ninety. The smoky sound of her voice captured music critics and fans. Her singing is similar to the way her father sang. Here is “We Were Two” from her recent album, “Outrun the Sky.” (MUSIC) Lalah Hathaway says the songs on her new album are about learning to deal with the joys of life, and the unhappiness. Her father suffered from depression. In nineteen seventy-nine, he killed himself. Donny Hathaway had a brief musical career. But he is remembered as one of the greatest soul singers of all time. His music is still influential and popular. Lalah Hathaway says it seems unreal that her father has a new album twenty-five years after his death. A collection of songs by Donny Hathaway was released recently. The album “These Songs for You, Live!” includes this famous song, "Someday We’ll All Be Free.” (MUSIC) We leave you with Lalah Hathaway and a song from another album released this year, “Forever, For Always, For Luther.” It is a collection of songs made famous by Luther Van Dross. who survived a stroke last year. Several recording artists came together to honor him with this album. Here now is Donny Hathaway's daughter Lalah with “Forever, For Always, For Love.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Lawan Davis, Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for American Mosaic, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. --- This is the one-thousandth program of AMERICAN MOSAIC. Broadcast: November 12, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Lalah and Donny Hathaway ... A listener question about the White House ... And an international organization known as "Sweet Potato Queens." Sweet Potato Queens HOST: A few years ago, Jill Conner Browne had to work at four jobs to pay her debts. Today, she is a writer whose books have sold almost two million copies. She also leads an international movement. Shep O’Neal tells us more. SHEP O'NEAL: Jill Conner Browne started an organization called Sweet Potato Queens. Its purpose is friendship and fun. Thousands of people belong to the Sweet Potato Queens. Most are women. Sweet potatoes grow in the American South. During the past five years, four thousand groups of Sweet Potato Queens have organized in the United States and in foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia. Members share interests in food, love and life after forty years of age. Mizz Browne started her Sweet Potato Queens movement on Saint Patrick’s Day, nineteen eighty-two. A friend had organized a parade to celebrate the holiday in Jackson, Mississippi, Jill Conner Browne’s hometown. Browne rode in an open truck wearing extremely unusual clothing. Her appearance surprised other drivers. She called to other women, urging them to join her. On that day, few did. But later, she made copies of the unusual clothing. She put together shining green costumes with material that makes the chest and lower back look bigger. Over her own hair, she wore a bright red wig. After that, many other women joined the celebration. Now, the Sweet Potato Queens take part every year in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Jackson. Before long, local groups of her organization formed throughout the world. Mizz Browne’s first book was published in nineteen ninety-nine. It is called “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Book of Love.” In it, she offers observations about what she calls "issues." These include the four main food groups. And how to wear one’s hair. The book also lists words she says are guaranteed to get any man to do what you want. The book was a big success. So she wrote three more books. Jill Conner Browne’ s latest book is called “The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Love is Either Married, Gay or Dead.” The White House DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Barrister Ikechukwu Edwin Ike asks why the United States capitol building is called the White House. The short answer to that question is that the United States capitol building is not called the White House. The capitol building has a dome-shaped roof that rises above all the other buildings in Washington, D.C. The two houses of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives, meet in the Capitol building. The building known as the White House is the home of the President of the United States and his family. The President also has his office there. America’s first President, George Washington, helped choose the land for the new presidential home in seventeen ninety. A competition was held to find a designer to build it. Architect James Hoban won the contest. He planned a building of grayish white sandstone. The color gave the house its name. Work started in seventeen ninety-two. But the house was not ready before the end of President Washington’s term. America’s second President, John Adams, and his wife, Abigail, moved into the house on November first, eighteen hundred. By then, the building had six completed rooms. Many of the rooms were still empty when John Adams left office a few months later. Other Presidents tried to complete the White House. But the British burned it during the War of Eighteen Twelve. The White House was re-built after that war. Since then, it has been enlarged, repaired and almost totally re-built. Today, the White House has one hundred thirty-two rooms. Visitors can walk through some of the public ones. Visiting has been restricted since the terrorist attacks three years ago. But anyone with a computer can make an electronic visit to the White House. You can see the public rooms, and the Oval Office, where the President does his work. The Internet address is www.whitehouse.gov. White House is all one word. Lalah and Donny Hathaway Singer and songwriter Lalah Hathaway says music has always been a major part of her life. Her father was the rhythm-and-blues singer Donny Hathaway. Shirley Griffith has our story. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Lalah Hathaway released her first album in nineteen ninety. The smoky sound of her voice captured music critics and fans. Her singing is similar to the way her father sang. Here is “We Were Two” from her recent album, “Outrun the Sky.” (MUSIC) Lalah Hathaway says the songs on her new album are about learning to deal with the joys of life, and the unhappiness. Her father suffered from depression. In nineteen seventy-nine, he killed himself. Donny Hathaway had a brief musical career. But he is remembered as one of the greatest soul singers of all time. His music is still influential and popular. Lalah Hathaway says it seems unreal that her father has a new album twenty-five years after his death. A collection of songs by Donny Hathaway was released recently. The album “These Songs for You, Live!” includes this famous song, "Someday We’ll All Be Free.” (MUSIC) We leave you with Lalah Hathaway and a song from another album released this year, “Forever, For Always, For Luther.” It is a collection of songs made famous by Luther Van Dross. who survived a stroke last year. Several recording artists came together to honor him with this album. Here now is Donny Hathaway's daughter Lalah with “Forever, For Always, For Love.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Lawan Davis, Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for American Mosaic, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. --- This is the one-thousandth program of AMERICAN MOSAIC. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Trade Dispute Over Boeing and Airbus
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 12, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. America's biggest exporter is Boeing. It is easy to understand why. Have you ever looked at airplane prices? A big jet plane can cost well over a hundred million dollars. In fact, trade in civilian planes is so important, it is one of fifteen main areas of negotiation for the World Trade Organization. It is also a cause of tensions between the United States and the European Union. The biggest competitor to Boeing is Airbus. E.A.D.S., the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, owns eighty percent of Airbus. B.A.E. Systems of Britain owns twenty percent. Last Friday, the European Union requested talks with American officials over a new tax law for companies in the United States. Congress passed the measure last month, and President Bush signed it. It is called the "American Jobs Creation Act of Two Thousand Four." Exporters like Boeing lose a tax cut that the World Trade Organization had declared illegal. This makes the European Union happy. But the tax cut will not end for three years. And the law provides other tax cuts for many kinds of industries. Now the European Union is questioning the legality of the new law. Some observers say the Europeans are reacting to a case brought last month by the United States in the World Trade Organization. On October sixth, the United States asked the W.T.O. to ban government aid to Airbus. American officials say the European Union unfairly provides loans and other support. On the same day, the European Union answered by asking the W.T.O. to ban government support to Boeing. The Europeans say Boeing receives several forms of aid that represent illegal subsidies. For example, they say Boeing receives special tax treatment from states where it has factories. At the root of the problem is a nineteen ninety-two agreement between the United States and the European Union. It ended direct aid for Airbus. But it permitted Airbus to receive help such as long-term loans at low rates of interest. At the time, Airbus was still developing its business. Last year, for the first time, it built more planes than Boeing. Airbus uses the loans to develop new airplanes. The United States calls this “launch aid.” The American trade representative says Airbus received more than six thousand million dollars this way for its newest plane, the huge A-Three-Eighty. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #88 - James Buchanan, Part 4
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 11, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: November 11, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of events in the United States during the eighteen-hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-twenties, a man named Joseph Smith started the Mormon religion in New York state. Smith based the religion on what he said were God's words to the ancient people of America. Many people became members of the Mormon church. Other people laughed at some of their different beliefs. This led to trouble. Smith had to move his people many times. For a while, they settled in Illinois state, in a town they built and called Nauvoo. The church split when Joseph Smith said that Mormons could have more than one wife. The split led to violence and great public opposition to the Mormons. Smith was arrested and put in jail. A mob attacked the jail and killed Smith and his brother. The governor of Illinois ordered the Mormons to leave. VOICE TWO: Brigham Young became the new leader of the Mormons. He told his people that he had seen their new home in a dream. He said it was a wide, beautiful valley in the west. He said he would recognize it when he saw it. The Mormons left Illinois in the spring of eighteen-forty-six. There were more than fifteen-thousand people, and many wagons and farm animals. The trip west was hard. Many of the people died. After months of slow travel, they stopped to make their winter camp. VOICE ONE: Explorers visited the camp. They told Brigham Young about a great salt lake in a wide valley on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. From the way they described it, young believed it was the valley of his dream. He started to move his people toward the great salt lake as soon as the winter snows melted. They arrived in the summer of eighteen-forty-seven. Brigham young looked out over the valley. "This," he said, "is the right place." VOICE TWO: The Mormons wasted no time. Two hours after arriving, they began to prepare the ground for planting. The lake water was too salty to use. So they built a system of canals to bring water down from the mountains. The first few years were difficult. Cold weather and insects destroyed their crops. Yet the Mormons continued to work hard to make their settlement a success. They refused to think of leaving. VOICE ONE: At first, the Mormons were ruled only by the laws of their church and by their leader. Then gold was discovered in California. Many non-Mormons passed through the salt lake area on their way to the gold fields. Some of them stayed. It soon became clear that new laws were needed to govern the growing population. The Mormons asked Congress to approve a territorial government for their land. They called the land "deseret." That was a Mormon word meaning "honey bee." The Mormons claimed a large area. It stretched from the mountains of Colorado west to the mountains of California; from Arizona north to Oregon. VOICE TWO: Congress rejected the large claim of deseret and made it a much smaller territory. It also refused to accept the name deseret. Instead, Congress called it Utah, after the Ute tribe of native American Indians that lived there. As a compromise, Brigham yYung was named governor of the new Utah territory. Most of the new territorial officials were Mormons, too. Four were not Mormon. VOICE ONE: Governing the territory would not be easy. There were disputes during the administrations of several American presidents. As a result of one dispute, the four non-Mormon officials returned to Washington. The Mormons then formed their own territorial government with a legislature and courts. Other federal officials were sent to Utah. Some of them were not prepared for the job. Usually, they did not stay long. VOICE TWO: Some of the officials made many charges against Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders. They said Mormons refused to recognize the power of the federal government. They said Mormons put the words of Young above the laws of Congress. They said the church had a secret organization to take the lives and property of those who questioned the power of the church. There were charges that Mormons had burned the papers of the Supreme Court of the territory. And there were charges that Mormons were responsible for Indian attacks on some officials. President Franklin Pierce decided he should make someone else governor of Utah. The man he chose, however, did not want the job. Instead, he urged the president to let Brigham Young remain. President Pierce agreed. VOICE ONE: Relations between the Mormons and the government did not improve in the next three years. Territorial officials resigned. They charged that the Mormons were in open rebellion against the federal government. The next president, James Buchanan, dismissed Brigham Young as governor. He ordered more than one-thousand soldiers to go to Utah to put down the rebellion. He also sent a new governor, Alfred Cumming, with the soldiers. The Mormons prepared to fight. A small group of Mormon men attacked and destroyed the army's supply wagons. They forced the soldiers to stop for the winter before reaching the salt lake valley. The soldiers could do nothing until spring. VOICE TWO: In Washington, efforts were made to settle the dispute. A man named Thomas Kane asked President Buchanan to let him go to Utah. Kane was an old friend of the president. He also was a friend of the Mormons. He had spent much time with them during their long trip to Utah ten years earlier. Kane feared what might happen to his Mormon friends if fighting started. He told President Buchanan that he did not want a job or money. He only wanted a chance to be useful. The president agreed to let him try to settle the dispute. VOICE ONE: Thomas Kane arrived in Salt Lake City, the territorial capital, early in eighteen-fifty-eight. He found that the Mormons had decided not to fight. Instead, they were preparing to search for a new home. They talked of moving to Mexico or perhaps to an island in the South Pacific. Kane talked with Brigham Young. Then he went to the army camp to talk with Governor Cumming. The governor agreed to go to Salt Lake City with Kane. The two men went alone, without any soldiers. VOICE TWO: The Mormons welcomed Cumming, but continued their preparations to leave. Cumming called a public meeting. He said he was in Utah to represent the federal government. He said he was there to make sure the people of the territory obeyed the constitution and the laws of the United States. He said he would not use military force until every other way had failed. Above all, said Cumming, he would not interfere with the Mormon religion. He urged the Mormons not to leave the land they had worked so hard to build. Brigham Young agreed to stay. VOICE ONE: Governor Cumming returned to the army camp. He told the commander that the Mormons had accepted him. He said military force would not be needed. A few days later, two representatives of President Buchanan arrived. They brought news that the president would not act against Mormons who accepted the rule of the United States government. Brigham Young and the other Mormon leaders made a statement. They said they wished to live in peace under the constitution and the laws of the United States. The dispute was over. Brigham Young continued to lead the Mormon church. But the governor ruled the territorial government. The two jobs were separate and would remain that way. VOICE TWO: Congressional elections were held in the United States in eighteen-fifty-eight. One political race created national interest. It was for one of the two Senate seats representing the state of Illinois. The candidate of the Democratic Party was Stephen Douglas. He was running for re-election. His opponent was a lawyer and member of the Republican Party. His name was Abraham Lincoln. That will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Frank Beardsley. This is Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again for the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE ONE: This is Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of events in the United States during the eighteen-hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-twenties, a man named Joseph Smith started the Mormon religion in New York state. Smith based the religion on what he said were God's words to the ancient people of America. Many people became members of the Mormon church. Other people laughed at some of their different beliefs. This led to trouble. Smith had to move his people many times. For a while, they settled in Illinois state, in a town they built and called Nauvoo. The church split when Joseph Smith said that Mormons could have more than one wife. The split led to violence and great public opposition to the Mormons. Smith was arrested and put in jail. A mob attacked the jail and killed Smith and his brother. The governor of Illinois ordered the Mormons to leave. VOICE TWO: Brigham Young became the new leader of the Mormons. He told his people that he had seen their new home in a dream. He said it was a wide, beautiful valley in the west. He said he would recognize it when he saw it. The Mormons left Illinois in the spring of eighteen-forty-six. There were more than fifteen-thousand people, and many wagons and farm animals. The trip west was hard. Many of the people died. After months of slow travel, they stopped to make their winter camp. VOICE ONE: Explorers visited the camp. They told Brigham Young about a great salt lake in a wide valley on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. From the way they described it, young believed it was the valley of his dream. He started to move his people toward the great salt lake as soon as the winter snows melted. They arrived in the summer of eighteen-forty-seven. Brigham young looked out over the valley. "This," he said, "is the right place." VOICE TWO: The Mormons wasted no time. Two hours after arriving, they began to prepare the ground for planting. The lake water was too salty to use. So they built a system of canals to bring water down from the mountains. The first few years were difficult. Cold weather and insects destroyed their crops. Yet the Mormons continued to work hard to make their settlement a success. They refused to think of leaving. VOICE ONE: At first, the Mormons were ruled only by the laws of their church and by their leader. Then gold was discovered in California. Many non-Mormons passed through the salt lake area on their way to the gold fields. Some of them stayed. It soon became clear that new laws were needed to govern the growing population. The Mormons asked Congress to approve a territorial government for their land. They called the land "deseret." That was a Mormon word meaning "honey bee." The Mormons claimed a large area. It stretched from the mountains of Colorado west to the mountains of California; from Arizona north to Oregon. VOICE TWO: Congress rejected the large claim of deseret and made it a much smaller territory. It also refused to accept the name deseret. Instead, Congress called it Utah, after the Ute tribe of native American Indians that lived there. As a compromise, Brigham yYung was named governor of the new Utah territory. Most of the new territorial officials were Mormons, too. Four were not Mormon. VOICE ONE: Governing the territory would not be easy. There were disputes during the administrations of several American presidents. As a result of one dispute, the four non-Mormon officials returned to Washington. The Mormons then formed their own territorial government with a legislature and courts. Other federal officials were sent to Utah. Some of them were not prepared for the job. Usually, they did not stay long. VOICE TWO: Some of the officials made many charges against Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders. They said Mormons refused to recognize the power of the federal government. They said Mormons put the words of Young above the laws of Congress. They said the church had a secret organization to take the lives and property of those who questioned the power of the church. There were charges that Mormons had burned the papers of the Supreme Court of the territory. And there were charges that Mormons were responsible for Indian attacks on some officials. President Franklin Pierce decided he should make someone else governor of Utah. The man he chose, however, did not want the job. Instead, he urged the president to let Brigham Young remain. President Pierce agreed. VOICE ONE: Relations between the Mormons and the government did not improve in the next three years. Territorial officials resigned. They charged that the Mormons were in open rebellion against the federal government. The next president, James Buchanan, dismissed Brigham Young as governor. He ordered more than one-thousand soldiers to go to Utah to put down the rebellion. He also sent a new governor, Alfred Cumming, with the soldiers. The Mormons prepared to fight. A small group of Mormon men attacked and destroyed the army's supply wagons. They forced the soldiers to stop for the winter before reaching the salt lake valley. The soldiers could do nothing until spring. VOICE TWO: In Washington, efforts were made to settle the dispute. A man named Thomas Kane asked President Buchanan to let him go to Utah. Kane was an old friend of the president. He also was a friend of the Mormons. He had spent much time with them during their long trip to Utah ten years earlier. Kane feared what might happen to his Mormon friends if fighting started. He told President Buchanan that he did not want a job or money. He only wanted a chance to be useful. The president agreed to let him try to settle the dispute. VOICE ONE: Thomas Kane arrived in Salt Lake City, the territorial capital, early in eighteen-fifty-eight. He found that the Mormons had decided not to fight. Instead, they were preparing to search for a new home. They talked of moving to Mexico or perhaps to an island in the South Pacific. Kane talked with Brigham Young. Then he went to the army camp to talk with Governor Cumming. The governor agreed to go to Salt Lake City with Kane. The two men went alone, without any soldiers. VOICE TWO: The Mormons welcomed Cumming, but continued their preparations to leave. Cumming called a public meeting. He said he was in Utah to represent the federal government. He said he was there to make sure the people of the territory obeyed the constitution and the laws of the United States. He said he would not use military force until every other way had failed. Above all, said Cumming, he would not interfere with the Mormon religion. He urged the Mormons not to leave the land they had worked so hard to build. Brigham Young agreed to stay. VOICE ONE: Governor Cumming returned to the army camp. He told the commander that the Mormons had accepted him. He said military force would not be needed. A few days later, two representatives of President Buchanan arrived. They brought news that the president would not act against Mormons who accepted the rule of the United States government. Brigham Young and the other Mormon leaders made a statement. They said they wished to live in peace under the constitution and the laws of the United States. The dispute was over. Brigham Young continued to lead the Mormon church. But the governor ruled the territorial government. The two jobs were separate and would remain that way. VOICE TWO: Congressional elections were held in the United States in eighteen-fifty-eight. One political race created national interest. It was for one of the two Senate seats representing the state of Illinois. The candidate of the Democratic Party was Stephen Douglas. He was running for re-election. His opponent was a lawyer and member of the Republican Party. His name was Abraham Lincoln. That will be our story next time. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Frank Beardsley. This is Richard Rael. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again for the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #11: Health Insurance
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 11, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series. Today, in part eleven, we talk about a cost that students who want to study in the United States may not always consider. That is, the cost of health insurance. Most Americans are responsible for their own medical costs. These can be extremely high if a person gets very sick or has an accident. So people buy a health insurance plan to make sure these costs will be paid. Most American colleges and universities have student health centers. There may even be a teaching hospital that can treat more serious problems. Some medical services may be included in the cost of attending a school. But health insurance is usually needed for extra services. So most full-time college students must have insurance. Students may already be protected under their family’s health plan. If not, many colleges offer their own plans. The University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, will be our example. Students pay a health service fee. Then there is no extra charge when they are treated for minor medical problems at the University Health Center. But the school wants students to have health insurance to pay for other services. The insurance plan offered by the university costs about one thousand seven hundred dollars a year. Such health insurance plans generally pay for hospital services, emergency room care and visits to doctors. They usually do not pay for care of the teeth. And they usually do not pay for treatment of medical conditions that existed before the student arrived at school. International students at the University of Michigan have two choices. They can buy the university health plan. Or they can have private insurance that is approved by the university. The school also offers a special International Student Insurance Plan. This pays for most of the services offered by the University Health Center that are not included in the health service fee. Students in the United States can also buy private insurance policies from independent companies. Whatever plan is right, schools want to know that all their students can pay for their health care needs. Our Foreign Student Series is on the Internet at voaspecialenglish dot com. And for student information from the State Department, visit educationusa.state.gov. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Yasser Arafat Buried
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 13, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Yasser Arafat talks to reporters Wednesday Broadcast: November 13, 2004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. Yasser Arafat was buried Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on the grounds of the Muqata. That is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority which Mister Arafat led as president. Officials wanted to keep the area clear, but tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered. Palestinian guards fired shots into the air in an effort to keep order after a helicopter brought the body. Some mourners waved Palestinian flags and pictures of the man they also knew by his war name, Abu Ammar. Earlier in the day, Egypt held a private military funeral in Cairo. The presidents of Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Indonesia were among the foreign leaders who attended. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and American Assistant Secretary of State William Burns were also there. Mister Arafat died early Thursday at a French military hospital near Paris. He was seventy-five years old. Yasser Arafat spent forty years leading the efforts for a Palestinian nation. Some people will remember him as a terrorist. Israel had restricted him to the Muqata since December of two thousand one, until he became sick recently. Israel held him responsible for many bombings and other attacks on civilians. But others will see him as a freedom fighter who made the world think about the Palestinians. Yet he was not always very popular. There was criticism of dishonesty in the Palestinian Authority. And, now, Palestinians must find all the money that he put into banks around the world. They will also need to find a new leader. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia is taking Mister Arafat’s duties with the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas, the former prime minister, was named to head the Palestine Liberation Organization. Farouk Kaddoumi will lead Fatah, Mister Arafat's movement within the P.L.O. And Rauhi Fattouh, the parliament speaker, is to serve as temporary president for sixty days. After that, Palestinian law calls for elections for a new president. Yasser Arafat was born in Cairo in August of nineteen twenty-nine. As a teenager, he supplied weapons to Palestinians fighting Jews and British troops in the British territory of Palestine. Yet, in nineteen ninety-four, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize for a peace agreement with Israel. Then, in two thousand, there was an American-negotiated plan to exchange land for peace. Israel accepted; Mister Arafat did not. In September of two thousand, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza began new violence that continues today. On Friday, President Bush said he believes there is “a great chance” to establish a Palestinian state. He said he will work for that goal during his next four years. He spoke during a news conference in Washington with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mister Blair wants to hold an international conference. With Yasser Arafat gone, he says it is important to renew the search for what he called a "genuine, lasting and just peace in the Middle East." In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. Yasser Arafat was buried Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on the grounds of the Muqata. That is the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority which Mister Arafat led as president. Officials wanted to keep the area clear, but tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered. Palestinian guards fired shots into the air in an effort to keep order after a helicopter brought the body. Some mourners waved Palestinian flags and pictures of the man they also knew by his war name, Abu Ammar. Earlier in the day, Egypt held a private military funeral in Cairo. The presidents of Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Indonesia were among the foreign leaders who attended. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and American Assistant Secretary of State William Burns were also there. Mister Arafat died early Thursday at a French military hospital near Paris. He was seventy-five years old. Yasser Arafat spent forty years leading the efforts for a Palestinian nation. Some people will remember him as a terrorist. Israel had restricted him to the Muqata since December of two thousand one, until he became sick recently. Israel held him responsible for many bombings and other attacks on civilians. But others will see him as a freedom fighter who made the world think about the Palestinians. Yet he was not always very popular. There was criticism of dishonesty in the Palestinian Authority. And, now, Palestinians must find all the money that he put into banks around the world. They will also need to find a new leader. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia is taking Mister Arafat’s duties with the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas, the former prime minister, was named to head the Palestine Liberation Organization. Farouk Kaddoumi will lead Fatah, Mister Arafat's movement within the P.L.O. And Rauhi Fattouh, the parliament speaker, is to serve as temporary president for sixty days. After that, Palestinian law calls for elections for a new president. Yasser Arafat was born in Cairo in August of nineteen twenty-nine. As a teenager, he supplied weapons to Palestinians fighting Jews and British troops in the British territory of Palestine. Yet, in nineteen ninety-four, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize for a peace agreement with Israel. Then, in two thousand, there was an American-negotiated plan to exchange land for peace. Israel accepted; Mister Arafat did not. In September of two thousand, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza began new violence that continues today. On Friday, President Bush said he believes there is “a great chance” to establish a Palestinian state. He said he will work for that goal during his next four years. He spoke during a news conference in Washington with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mister Blair wants to hold an international conference. With Yasser Arafat gone, he says it is important to renew the search for what he called a "genuine, lasting and just peace in the Middle East." In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Oppenheimer and Fermi
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 14, 2004 (THEME) Enrico Fermi Broadcast: November 14, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we report about two scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi, who helped lead the world into the nuclear age. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is July Sixteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Five. All is quiet in an American desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Suddenly there is a terrible explosion. A huge cloud rises from the Earth. The sky turns purple and yellow. The first atomic bomb has been exploded. It is a test of the most deadly weapon ever known. American officials are considering using this weapon to try to end World War Two. J. Robert Oppenheimer is the head of the Los Alamos laboratory. It is the creative center of the secret Manhattan Project, which made the explosion possible. As the cloud rises, Mister Oppenheimer remembers words from the Hindu holy book, the Baghavad Gita. He says: “For I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” VOICE TWO: Less than one month after the test at Alamogordo, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. President Harry Truman announced to the world about the first bomb: ACT ONE: TRUMAN READING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DROPPING OF THE BOMB AT HIROSHIMA. (15 secs) The Japanese soon surrendered. World War Two ended. VOICE ONE: Enrico Fermi had been the first to use a neutron to produce the radioactive change of one element to another. He was a refugee from Fascist Italy. He and other refugee scientists were worried that Germany was working to develop an atomic bomb. They urged the United States government to pay for a secret scientific effort, called the Manhattan Project, to create the bomb. Mister Fermi helped Mister Oppenheimer prepare the Alamogordo bomb test. Yet later both Mister Oppenheimer and Mister Fermi spoke against further development of nuclear weapons. Both men opposed the hydrogen bomb. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April Twenty-Second, Nineteen-Oh-Four. Even as a boy, he showed he had unusual intelligence. As a young man he attended Harvard University, in the eastern United States, and Cambridge University in England.He earned his doctorate in physics at Gottingen University, Germany, in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. There he worked with the famous scientist, Max Born. By Nineteen-Thirty, Mister Oppenheimer was teaching at two top universities on the American West Coast. His fame as a teacher spread. Soon he was teaching the best students of physics in the United States. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, Mister Oppenheimer joined the American government’s project to develop the atomic bomb. He was appointed head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Many of his former students worked for him on the project. One year after the bombs were dropped on Japan, he received the Presidential Medal of Merit for his work . In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, he began to direct the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University on the East Coast. VOICE TWO: At the same time, Mister Oppenheimer became chairman of the advisory committee to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used the position to try to make the public recognize the dangers of nuclear power as well as its possibilities for good. He regretted that work was being done to develop the hydrogen bomb. He felt it was bad for both scientific and humanitarian reasons. However, extreme tension existed between the United States and the Soviet Union at the time. So in Nineteen-Forty-Nine President Truman decided that work on nuclear weapons should continue. VOICE ONE: J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and work were affected deeply by Americans intense fear of Communism in the Nineteen-Fifties. Mister Oppenheimer made an easy target for suspicious critics. His wife had once been a Communist. Some of his friends were former Communists. Years earlier he had suggested sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets. He opposed developing the hydrogen bomb. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Atomic Energy Commission and a special security committee moved against Mister Oppenheimer. They did not question his loyalty to the United States. However, they said his personal life made him a threat to national security. VOICE TWO: Mister Oppenheimer had directed one of America's most important secret scientific projects. Now this famous physicist was barred from secret work for the government. He published several books during this difficult period of his life. One of the best known was “The Open Mind.” The books contained his thoughts about science. He continued teaching at Princeton University. Again he taught many of the most important scientists of our century. VOICE ONE: In time Mister Oppenheimer's work in science and teaching made people forget the accusations against him. The government decided to give him the highest award of the Atomic Energy Commission for his work on atomic energy. President Lyndon Johnson presented the honor in late Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called the Enrico Fermi Award. J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer on February Eighteenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. He was sixty-two years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Enrico Fermi had worked with Robert Oppenheimer and other top scientists to develop the atom bomb. He won an award for his work in atomic energy from the Atomic Energy Commission in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was the first time the award was presented. Later, the honor was named for him. It recognized Mister Fermi as one of the greatest physicists of the Twentieth Century. VOICE ONE: Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen-Oh-One. After his education in Italy, he studied with Max Born in Germany, just as Robert Oppenheimer had. Enrico Fermi returned to Italy in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. He became that nation's first professor of theory of physics. At the time there was almost no physics education offered in Italy He married Laura Capon, who also was a scientist, in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Laura was Jewish. Later the Fermis decided to leave Italy, because the Fascist government had begun oppressing Jews. VOICE TWO: Enrico Fermi went to Stockholm, Sweden, to accept a Nobel Prize in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. He won for producing new radioactive elements beyond uranium. Without knowing it, he had split the atom. However, that fact was not recognized until later. He and his family sailed directly from Stockholm to the United States. If he stayed in Europe, he might have been forced to work for Nazi Germany. VOICE ONE: Mister Fermi taught at Columbia University in New York City. He also was part of the American research team for the top secret Manhattan Project Mister Fermi led the team that created the world's first controlled, continued nuclear-fission reaction. It happened on December Second, Nineteen-Forty-Two, at the University of Chicago. VOICE TWO: Mister Fermi directed the building of the first atomic reactor that made the reaction possible. He had invented the method with another scientist, Leo Szilard. The reactor was put together in a squash court under the seats of the university sports center. It contained natural uranium placed in graphite and controlled by pieces of cadmium and boron rods. By, Nineteen-Forty-Four, Enrico Fermi had become a citizen of the United States. He was asked to help Robert Oppenheimer with the atomic bomb test at Alamogordo. Mister Fermi returned to the University of Chicago after the war. There he headed the Institute for Nuclear Studies, now known as the Enrico Fermi Institute. VOICE ONE: Like Mister Oppenheimer, Mister Fermi recognized the dangers of atomic energy. They both worried about the possible use of a hydrogen bomb. With another scientist Mister Fermi wrote a Nineteen-Forty-Seven report to the Atomic Energy Commission. The report opposed creation of the bomb for humane reasons. Enrico Fermi died of cancer in Chicago in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. He was fifty-three years old. VOICE TWO: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi were two of the greatest scientists of the century. They were both concerned about the results of their discoveries that led the world into the Nuclear Age. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we report about two scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi, who helped lead the world into the nuclear age. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is July Sixteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Five. All is quiet in an American desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Suddenly there is a terrible explosion. A huge cloud rises from the Earth. The sky turns purple and yellow. The first atomic bomb has been exploded. It is a test of the most deadly weapon ever known. American officials are considering using this weapon to try to end World War Two. J. Robert Oppenheimer is the head of the Los Alamos laboratory. It is the creative center of the secret Manhattan Project, which made the explosion possible. As the cloud rises, Mister Oppenheimer remembers words from the Hindu holy book, the Baghavad Gita. He says: “For I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” VOICE TWO: Less than one month after the test at Alamogordo, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. President Harry Truman announced to the world about the first bomb: ACT ONE: TRUMAN READING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DROPPING OF THE BOMB AT HIROSHIMA. (15 secs) The Japanese soon surrendered. World War Two ended. VOICE ONE: Enrico Fermi had been the first to use a neutron to produce the radioactive change of one element to another. He was a refugee from Fascist Italy. He and other refugee scientists were worried that Germany was working to develop an atomic bomb. They urged the United States government to pay for a secret scientific effort, called the Manhattan Project, to create the bomb. Mister Fermi helped Mister Oppenheimer prepare the Alamogordo bomb test. Yet later both Mister Oppenheimer and Mister Fermi spoke against further development of nuclear weapons. Both men opposed the hydrogen bomb. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April Twenty-Second, Nineteen-Oh-Four. Even as a boy, he showed he had unusual intelligence. As a young man he attended Harvard University, in the eastern United States, and Cambridge University in England.He earned his doctorate in physics at Gottingen University, Germany, in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. There he worked with the famous scientist, Max Born. By Nineteen-Thirty, Mister Oppenheimer was teaching at two top universities on the American West Coast. His fame as a teacher spread. Soon he was teaching the best students of physics in the United States. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, Mister Oppenheimer joined the American government’s project to develop the atomic bomb. He was appointed head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Many of his former students worked for him on the project. One year after the bombs were dropped on Japan, he received the Presidential Medal of Merit for his work . In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, he began to direct the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University on the East Coast. VOICE TWO: At the same time, Mister Oppenheimer became chairman of the advisory committee to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used the position to try to make the public recognize the dangers of nuclear power as well as its possibilities for good. He regretted that work was being done to develop the hydrogen bomb. He felt it was bad for both scientific and humanitarian reasons. However, extreme tension existed between the United States and the Soviet Union at the time. So in Nineteen-Forty-Nine President Truman decided that work on nuclear weapons should continue. VOICE ONE: J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life and work were affected deeply by Americans intense fear of Communism in the Nineteen-Fifties. Mister Oppenheimer made an easy target for suspicious critics. His wife had once been a Communist. Some of his friends were former Communists. Years earlier he had suggested sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets. He opposed developing the hydrogen bomb. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Atomic Energy Commission and a special security committee moved against Mister Oppenheimer. They did not question his loyalty to the United States. However, they said his personal life made him a threat to national security. VOICE TWO: Mister Oppenheimer had directed one of America's most important secret scientific projects. Now this famous physicist was barred from secret work for the government. He published several books during this difficult period of his life. One of the best known was “The Open Mind.” The books contained his thoughts about science. He continued teaching at Princeton University. Again he taught many of the most important scientists of our century. VOICE ONE: In time Mister Oppenheimer's work in science and teaching made people forget the accusations against him. The government decided to give him the highest award of the Atomic Energy Commission for his work on atomic energy. President Lyndon Johnson presented the honor in late Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called the Enrico Fermi Award. J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer on February Eighteenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. He was sixty-two years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Enrico Fermi had worked with Robert Oppenheimer and other top scientists to develop the atom bomb. He won an award for his work in atomic energy from the Atomic Energy Commission in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was the first time the award was presented. Later, the honor was named for him. It recognized Mister Fermi as one of the greatest physicists of the Twentieth Century. VOICE ONE: Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen-Oh-One. After his education in Italy, he studied with Max Born in Germany, just as Robert Oppenheimer had. Enrico Fermi returned to Italy in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. He became that nation's first professor of theory of physics. At the time there was almost no physics education offered in Italy He married Laura Capon, who also was a scientist, in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Laura was Jewish. Later the Fermis decided to leave Italy, because the Fascist government had begun oppressing Jews. VOICE TWO: Enrico Fermi went to Stockholm, Sweden, to accept a Nobel Prize in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. He won for producing new radioactive elements beyond uranium. Without knowing it, he had split the atom. However, that fact was not recognized until later. He and his family sailed directly from Stockholm to the United States. If he stayed in Europe, he might have been forced to work for Nazi Germany. VOICE ONE: Mister Fermi taught at Columbia University in New York City. He also was part of the American research team for the top secret Manhattan Project Mister Fermi led the team that created the world's first controlled, continued nuclear-fission reaction. It happened on December Second, Nineteen-Forty-Two, at the University of Chicago. VOICE TWO: Mister Fermi directed the building of the first atomic reactor that made the reaction possible. He had invented the method with another scientist, Leo Szilard. The reactor was put together in a squash court under the seats of the university sports center. It contained natural uranium placed in graphite and controlled by pieces of cadmium and boron rods. By, Nineteen-Forty-Four, Enrico Fermi had become a citizen of the United States. He was asked to help Robert Oppenheimer with the atomic bomb test at Alamogordo. Mister Fermi returned to the University of Chicago after the war. There he headed the Institute for Nuclear Studies, now known as the Enrico Fermi Institute. VOICE ONE: Like Mister Oppenheimer, Mister Fermi recognized the dangers of atomic energy. They both worried about the possible use of a hydrogen bomb. With another scientist Mister Fermi wrote a Nineteen-Forty-Seven report to the Atomic Energy Commission. The report opposed creation of the bomb for humane reasons. Enrico Fermi died of cancer in Chicago in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. He was fifty-three years old. VOICE TWO: J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi were two of the greatest scientists of the century. They were both concerned about the results of their discoveries that led the world into the Nuclear Age. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Driving Cross-Country: One Family's Story
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 15, 2004 (MUSIC) Frank Beardsley at a lake in the Black Hills of South Dakota (VOA Photo - Frank Beardsley) Broadcast: November 15, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week: the story of a family that went for a drive. A very long drive. George Washington on Mt. Rushmore.(VOA Photo - Steve Ember) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week: the story of a family that went for a drive. A very long drive. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States is a big country. Most people travel coast-to-coast by airplane. The flight from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington, for example, is less than six hours. The Beardsley family usually flew to Seattle. This year, however, they decided to drive. You might recognize the family name. Frank Beardsley is a retired chief of Special English. Nancy Beardsley is VOA's book editor. Their son, Tommy, is a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, south of Seattle. His parents decided to give him their car, then fly back to their home near Washington, D.C. They expected to do the trip in ten days. That would give them time to see some of the country along the way. Tommy and Nancy Beardsley at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota (VOA Image - Frank Beardsley) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States is a big country. Most people travel coast-to-coast by airplane. The flight from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington, for example, is less than six hours. The Beardsley family usually flew to Seattle. This year, however, they decided to drive. You might recognize the family name. Frank Beardsley is a retired chief of Special English. Nancy Beardsley is VOA's book editor. Their son, Tommy, is a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, south of Seattle. His parents decided to give him their car, then fly back to their home near Washington, D.C. They expected to do the trip in ten days. That would give them time to see some of the country along the way. VOICE TWO: On the first day, the Beardsleys traveled through five states. They passed through the green mountains and hills of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the flat farmlands of Ohio. The high-speed road, Interstate Seventy, took them through cities and small towns. They spent the first night at a hotel in Springfield, Ohio. VOICE ONE: From Ohio, they drove across other Midwestern states. They traveled through Indiana, then Illinois. That is where Abraham Lincoln lived until he became president. The Beardsleys crossed the great Mississippi River at Saint Louis, Missouri. Near the river, the Gateway Arch welcomed them to the city. The arch rises almost two hundred meters. It was built as a monument to the spirit of the pioneers who traveled West. It was the place where the explorers Merriwether Lewis and William Clark began their trip across the western territories in eighteen-oh-four. VOICE TWO: From Saint Louis, the Beardsleys drove on Interstate Forty into central Missouri. Interstate Forty replaced an earlier road across the country, Route Sixty-Six. Many Americans remember stories, a television show and a song about Route Sixty-Six. In some places, the new interstate took a different path. Today, near Devil’s Elbow, Missouri, a part of the old road seemed small. It had many holes. Tall grass grew at the edges. It was hard to imagine how important this road once was. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next day, the Beardsleys drove to Kansas City on the western border of Missouri. It was another stop for Lewis and Clark. President Harry Truman grew up nearby, in the town of Independence. The home where he lived is open to visitors. Kansas City is a famous place in the history of jazz music. It also has sister-city ties with Seville, in Spain. One part of Kansas City has buildings that look Spanish. VOICE TWO: The Beardsleys turned north at Kansas City, onto Interstate Twenty-Nine, to Saint Joseph, Missouri. The Pony Express started there almost one hundred fifty years ago. A museum tells the story of this mail system that carried letters between Saint Joseph and San Francisco, California. Riders carried the mail on horseback from one station to another, up to thirty-two kilometers apart. A letter from Saint Joseph could get to San Francisco in ten days. VOICE ONE: Farther north, along the Missouri River in the state of Iowa, is the burial place of Sergeant Charles Floyd. He was the only man to die during the three-year trip by Lewis and Clark. A tall monument honors him in Sioux City, on a hill above the river. It is shaped like the Washington Monument, back in America’s capital city. In Iowa, the land becomes flat, with many large cornfields. Drivers can see for long distances. The sky looks bigger, filled with clouds of different shapes and colors. VOICE TWO: In South Dakota, the land looks even emptier and the sky larger. Along Interstate Ninety, there are fewer places to get fuel for the car or something to eat. Sometimes, places to stop are a half-hour or more apart. There are, however, many interesting places to visit. If the Beardsleys had more time, they would have liked to see where "Dances With Wolves" was filmed. Travelers driving from the east also begin to see more and more casinos. Such gambling places are against the law in many parts of the United States. But American Indians can operate them on lands that belong to them. Casinos have become an important way for many tribes to earn money. VOICE ONE: For hundreds of kilometers, travelers see signs for the Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota. It is a big museum built of concrete and covered with maize. The museum honors South Dakota agriculture, especially corn. The Beardsleys visit the Corn Palace. They, and a lot of other people. It was crowded. But farther west, near Rapid City, South Dakota, is one of America’s most popular places for travelers, Mount Rushmore. The faces of four presidents have been cut into the rock on the side of the mountain. They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The stone faces are eighteen [text is correct] meters high. People can vote at Mount Rushmore for their favorite president. George Washington, America’s first president, still wins the most votes. VOICE TWO: A few kilometers away, on another mountain, another statue is being made. This one will be more than one hundred seventy meters high. It will show Chief Crazy Horse, a Native American hero. An American sculptor born in Poland began the statue in nineteen forty-five. He died in nineteen eighty-two, but his family continues the work. The statue will show the chief on his horse, pointing to the lands the Indians have lost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When you cross the state line into Wyoming, you know you are in the American West. People wear cowboy hats and boots. There are buffalo and cows along the side of the road. One of the best places to learn about the West is in Cody, Wyoming. The town is named for Buffalo Bill Cody, a cowboy and showman. Cody is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Its five museums are filled with objects that show the culture, history and older ways of life in the West. Visitors can stay in the Irma Hotel, built by Buffalo Bill in nineteen-oh-two. VOICE TWO: Cody, Wyoming, is also one of the four entrances to Yellowstone, the oldest national park in America. Visitors can spend many days exploring Yellowstone. It is home to bears, elk, antelope and other animals. It is also known for its geysers, holes in the ground that blow boiling water and steam into the air. Many visitors to Yellowstone sleep in tents or cabins, or stay in hotels built many years ago. VOICE ONE: Just south of Yellowstone is the Grand Teton National Park, known for its beautiful mountains topped by snow. Vice President Dick Cheney, actor Harrison Ford and other famous people have homes near the Grand Tetons. Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park are both very popular. From June to August, during the summer months, the roads are filled with people. Visitors need to request a hotel room months before they arrive. The Beardsleys were there in September. The crowds in the parks were not as large, but the weather was a lot colder. They went through a snowstorm as they drove farther north and west, through the mountains of Montana and Idaho. VOICE TWO: On the tenth day of their trip, they crossed from Idaho into Washington State. The eastern part is flat and dry. But as they traveled west, they saw more mountains and trees that stay green all year. Washington, in the Pacific Northwest, is called "the Evergreen State." They knew the trip was almost over when they saw Mount Rainer in the distance. Mount Ranier is four thousand four hundred meters high, and a popular place to camp, climb and take walks. It is southeast of Seattle. Late that afternoon the Beardsleys arrived in Olympia, the state capital. The city is at the south end of Puget Sound, which flows into the Pacific Ocean. Frank and Nancy dropped off their son, and their car, at his college. VOICE ONE: The Beardsleys had driven almost six thousand kilometers. It was a ten-day drive across a country that seemed a lot bigger than the one they crossed in five hours on the flight home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We thank the Beardlseys for writing our story today. Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. And our studio engineer was Kelvin Fowler. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Before we go...our election report last week said thirteen states now have constitutional bans against same-sex marriage. Dexter Massoletti in San Francisco corrects us: the number is at least seventeen. And, he notes that most other states have also passed laws with a similar aim. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. VOICE TWO: On the first day, the Beardsleys traveled through five states. They passed through the green mountains and hills of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the flat farmlands of Ohio. The high-speed road, Interstate Seventy, took them through cities and small towns. They spent the first night at a hotel in Springfield, Ohio. VOICE ONE: From Ohio, they drove across other Midwestern states. They traveled through Indiana, then Illinois. That is where Abraham Lincoln lived until he became president. The Beardsleys crossed the great Mississippi River at Saint Louis, Missouri. Near the river, the Gateway Arch welcomed them to the city. The arch rises almost two hundred meters. It was built as a monument to the spirit of the pioneers who traveled West. It was the place where the explorers Merriwether Lewis and William Clark began their trip across the western territories in eighteen-oh-four. VOICE TWO: From Saint Louis, the Beardsleys drove on Interstate Forty into central Missouri. Interstate Forty replaced an earlier road across the country, Route Sixty-Six. Many Americans remember stories, a television show and a song about Route Sixty-Six. In some places, the new interstate took a different path. Today, near Devil’s Elbow, Missouri, a part of the old road seemed small. It had many holes. Tall grass grew at the edges. It was hard to imagine how important this road once was. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next day, the Beardsleys drove to Kansas City on the western border of Missouri. It was another stop for Lewis and Clark. President Harry Truman grew up nearby, in the town of Independence. The home where he lived is open to visitors. Kansas City is a famous place in the history of jazz music. It also has sister-city ties with Seville, in Spain. One part of Kansas City has buildings that look Spanish. VOICE TWO: The Beardsleys turned north at Kansas City, onto Interstate Twenty-Nine, to Saint Joseph, Missouri. The Pony Express started there almost one hundred fifty years ago. A museum tells the story of this mail system that carried letters between Saint Joseph and San Francisco, California. Riders carried the mail on horseback from one station to another, up to thirty-two kilometers apart. A letter from Saint Joseph could get to San Francisco in ten days. VOICE ONE: Farther north, along the Missouri River in the state of Iowa, is the burial place of Sergeant Charles Floyd. He was the only man to die during the three-year trip by Lewis and Clark. A tall monument honors him in Sioux City, on a hill above the river. It is shaped like the Washington Monument, back in America’s capital city. In Iowa, the land becomes flat, with many large cornfields. Drivers can see for long distances. The sky looks bigger, filled with clouds of different shapes and colors. VOICE TWO: In South Dakota, the land looks even emptier and the sky larger. Along Interstate Ninety, there are fewer places to get fuel for the car or something to eat. Sometimes, places to stop are a half-hour or more apart. There are, however, many interesting places to visit. If the Beardsleys had more time, they would have liked to see where "Dances With Wolves" was filmed. Travelers driving from the east also begin to see more and more casinos. Such gambling places are against the law in many parts of the United States. But American Indians can operate them on lands that belong to them. Casinos have become an important way for many tribes to earn money. VOICE ONE: For hundreds of kilometers, travelers see signs for the Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota. It is a big museum built of concrete and covered with maize. The museum honors South Dakota agriculture, especially corn. The Beardsleys visit the Corn Palace. They, and a lot of other people. It was crowded. But farther west, near Rapid City, South Dakota, is one of America’s most popular places for travelers, Mount Rushmore. The faces of four presidents have been cut into the rock on the side of the mountain. They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The stone faces are eighteen [text is correct] meters high. People can vote at Mount Rushmore for their favorite president. George Washington, America’s first president, still wins the most votes. VOICE TWO: A few kilometers away, on another mountain, another statue is being made. This one will be more than one hundred seventy meters high. It will show Chief Crazy Horse, a Native American hero. An American sculptor born in Poland began the statue in nineteen forty-five. He died in nineteen eighty-two, but his family continues the work. The statue will show the chief on his horse, pointing to the lands the Indians have lost. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When you cross the state line into Wyoming, you know you are in the American West. People wear cowboy hats and boots. There are buffalo and cows along the side of the road. One of the best places to learn about the West is in Cody, Wyoming. The town is named for Buffalo Bill Cody, a cowboy and showman. Cody is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Its five museums are filled with objects that show the culture, history and older ways of life in the West. Visitors can stay in the Irma Hotel, built by Buffalo Bill in nineteen-oh-two. VOICE TWO: Cody, Wyoming, is also one of the four entrances to Yellowstone, the oldest national park in America. Visitors can spend many days exploring Yellowstone. It is home to bears, elk, antelope and other animals. It is also known for its geysers, holes in the ground that blow boiling water and steam into the air. Many visitors to Yellowstone sleep in tents or cabins, or stay in hotels built many years ago. VOICE ONE: Just south of Yellowstone is the Grand Teton National Park, known for its beautiful mountains topped by snow. Vice President Dick Cheney, actor Harrison Ford and other famous people have homes near the Grand Tetons. Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park are both very popular. From June to August, during the summer months, the roads are filled with people. Visitors need to request a hotel room months before they arrive. The Beardsleys were there in September. The crowds in the parks were not as large, but the weather was a lot colder. They went through a snowstorm as they drove farther north and west, through the mountains of Montana and Idaho. VOICE TWO: On the tenth day of their trip, they crossed from Idaho into Washington State. The eastern part is flat and dry. But as they traveled west, they saw more mountains and trees that stay green all year. Washington, in the Pacific Northwest, is called "the Evergreen State." They knew the trip was almost over when they saw Mount Rainer in the distance. Mount Ranier is four thousand four hundred meters high, and a popular place to camp, climb and take walks. It is southeast of Seattle. Late that afternoon the Beardsleys arrived in Olympia, the state capital. The city is at the south end of Puget Sound, which flows into the Pacific Ocean. Frank and Nancy dropped off their son, and their car, at his college. VOICE ONE: The Beardsleys had driven almost six thousand kilometers. It was a ten-day drive across a country that seemed a lot bigger than the one they crossed in five hours on the flight home. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We thank the Beardlseys for writing our story today. Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. And our studio engineer was Kelvin Fowler. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Before we go...our election report last week said thirteen states now have constitutional bans against same-sex marriage. Dexter Massoletti in San Francisco corrects us: the number is at least seventeen. And, he notes that most other states have also passed laws with a similar aim. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Handheld Medical Computers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 15, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Computers are increasingly important in health care. But can they also help poor people escape poverty? Vikram Sheel Kumar thinks so. Mister Kumar is a doctor, an engineer and the head of a small business in Boston, Massachusetts. And, in September, this twenty-eight-year-old received an award for Technology in Service to Humanity. That award came from Technology Review magazine. His goal is to improve health care in poor nations with the help of computers small enough to hold in one hand. These devices are known as personal digital assistants, or P.D.A.’s. Doctor Kumar started his company two years ago. It is called Dimagi, which means “smart guy” in Hindi. His parents came from India. There, Dimagi computer programs are used to organize medical information on more than seventy thousand patients. Doctor Kumar says health care workers had problems at first, but then learned quickly how to use the devices. Nurses no longer have to carry heavy documents whenever they travel to villages. And they no longer have to copy large amounts of health information by hand. In South Africa, health workers are using a Dimagi program for a different purpose in the KwaZulu-Natal area. They use it to provide patients with results from tests for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. People who get tested must enter a secret identification code to see the results. And, in Boston, children with diabetes are using a Dimagi system to learn about their disease and how to control it. The software includes games and ways for the children to communicate with others with diabetes. Doctor Vikram Kumar says it is important to get patients involved in their own health care by helping them gain information. He says there are endless possible uses for this technology, especially in developing countries. And he urges people to suggest ways to improve it. Dimagi programs are written in code that is open to anyone. You can learn more about Dimagi at dimagi.com. The name is spelled d-i-m-a-g-i. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Homo Floresiensis / Arctic Warning / Polio Vaccination Days in Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 16, 2004 (MUSIC) So long Broadcast: November 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: a new effort against the disease polio and an ancient group of little people. VOICE ONE: But first, rising temperatures in the northernmost part of our planet. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new report says the Arctic is experiencing some of the most severe climate change on Earth. The report says average winter temperatures there have risen at almost two times the rate of that in other areas in the past fifty years. It also says computer programs estimate an additional increase of four to seven degrees Celsius during the next century. About three-hundred scientists prepared the report after a four-year study. The scientists say human activities are responsible for increasing amounts of heat-trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Other studies have linked recent climate changes to such activities. VOICE TWO: The report was presented to an organization called the Arctic Council. Its members include the United States and the seven other countries with territory in the Arctic. Six groups representing native peoples also are members. The Council considered the report last week during a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. Robert Correll of the American Meteorological Society led the committee that wrote the report. He says climate changes will have a major effect on the Arctic. Polar bears and some kinds of seals may disappear. As a result, native peoples who hunt for these animals will experience food shortages and economic problems. VOICE ONE: The report also warns of possible health risks to people. As new kinds of wildlife move into the Arctic, animal diseases that can infect people may spread. And, northern freshwater fisheries that supply the native people with food could suffer. The report says melting ice would add more freshwater to the Arctic Ocean. This could cause sea levels to rise around the world. As the frozen ground warms, many existing buildings in the Arctic, roads and industrial areas could be damaged. The report notes some possible improvements as a result of rising temperatures. For example, the melting ice will increase the ability of fish and other sea creatures to use Arctic resources. The melting is likely to permit increased exploration for oil and gas. And, reduced ice is likely to extend the period when ships can travel in the area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This week, health workers in West and Central Africa are starting a new effort against the disease polio. The effort is aimed at young boys and girls in more than twenty countries. The workers plan to give polio vaccines to the children. Vaccines help the body’s natural defense system recognize and fight disease. Last month, one million people spread out over twenty-five African countries to vaccinate boys and girls against polio. The goal of the effort is to protect eighty-million children against the disease. Organizers called it the single largest public health campaign in history. VOICE ONE: A virus causes polio. The virus is spread through body fluids and also water or food touched by an infected person. People who get the disease often lose their ability to move their arms or legs. Some die from polio. There is no cure. However, polio can be prevented. To work best, the vaccine is given to children several times during the first years of life. World health officials have set a goal of defeating polio by two-thousand-five. VOICE TWO: Polio began to spread in Africa last year after Islamic religious leaders in northern Nigeria said the vaccine was harmful. Kano State and other areas halted an effort to vaccinate children. Since then, polio has spread to four countries where it had been completely removed. Now the leaders in Kano State say there is a safe vaccine. They supported the vaccination campaign in October. Yet there were protests in other parts of Nigeria. Leaders across Africa have been organizing support for the vaccination campaign. Last month, religious and traditional leaders from several African countries met in Dakar, Senegal. They agreed to use their organizations and influence to support vaccination efforts and other programs to keep children healthy. Esseldin El Sawy of Al-Azhar University in Egypt attended the Senegal meeting. Doctor El Sawy noted that the average vaccination rate in Muslim communities in Africa is lower than the rate worldwide. He says Islam supports the protection of every human being, including children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Debate continues about the remains of small human-like creatures discovered in Indonesia. A team of Australian and Indonesian scientists reported the discovery last month in Nature magazine. The first of the bones were uncovered last year in Liang Bua, a large cave on the island of Flores. The scientists believe the bones came from an adult who stood only about one meter tall. Their study found that such individuals lived as recently as twelve-thousand years ago. The scientists also say the bones appear to be different from those of any known group, or species. So, they consider these human-like creatures to be part of a new species. The scientists have named it Homo floresiensis, or man of Flores. VOICE TWO: The bones of several other human-like individuals have been found in Liang Bua. At first, the scientists thought the remains came from children. But, closer study of the teeth and bones confirmed that they belonged to adults. The discovery has caused excitement in the field of archaeology, the study of material remains of past human life and activities. This is partly because the bones represent a new species. But, scientists are even more interested in learning how Flores Man developed. The scientists described the remains of an individual believed to have been a woman. Tests showed the woman was about thirty years old when she died about eighteen-thousand years ago. Her brain was only about one-third the size of a human brain. VOICE ONE: The scientists also discovered what they believe are stone tools near the bones. They say there are signs that Flores Man knew how to use fire and hunted as part of a group. This suggests a higher level of mental development than thought possible for a small brain. Human development theories are based in part on the idea that as the size of the brain grew, so did intelligence. The scientists also found the remains of an ancient species of elephant called a Stegodon. Unlike modern elephants, Stegodons were about the size of the human-like beings. The remains of large meat-eating lizards also were uncovered. These creatures were similar to reptiles still living today on the nearby island of Komodo. They are called Komodo Dragons. VOICE TWO: Australian archaeologist Mike Morwood directed the dig on Flores. He believes that Flores Man developed from the group of early humans called Homo erectus. That group was the same size as modern human beings. However, Homo erectus lived between two-hundred-thousand and more than one million years ago. Mister Morwood’s earlier research has shown that Homo erectus arrived in the area more than eight-hundred thousand years ago. The bones from the recent Flores finds extend from about twelve-thousand to ninety-five thousand years ago. Mister Morwood argues that Homo erectus became smaller over the years in Flores as a result of the island’s environment. This theory has been shown in the development of some island animals. It can happen when an animal group shares a small land area with a limited food supplies and no natural enemies. VOICE TWO: The scientists say Flores man probably died about twelve-thousand years ago after a volcanic explosion on the island. Yet people living on Flores today still tell stories of the island’s little people. They say the little people lived in caves until the first Dutch traders arrived about five-hundred years ago. Nature magazine published a commentary by Marta Mirazon Lahr and Robert Foley of the University of Cambridge in England. They described the new findings as one of the most important discoveries in the past half-century. VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss, Karen Leggett and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-thirty-seven, U.S.A. Or send electronic messages to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: a new effort against the disease polio and an ancient group of little people. VOICE ONE: But first, rising temperatures in the northernmost part of our planet. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A new report says the Arctic is experiencing some of the most severe climate change on Earth. The report says average winter temperatures there have risen at almost two times the rate of that in other areas in the past fifty years. It also says computer programs estimate an additional increase of four to seven degrees Celsius during the next century. About three-hundred scientists prepared the report after a four-year study. The scientists say human activities are responsible for increasing amounts of heat-trapping gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Other studies have linked recent climate changes to such activities. VOICE TWO: The report was presented to an organization called the Arctic Council. Its members include the United States and the seven other countries with territory in the Arctic. Six groups representing native peoples also are members. The Council considered the report last week during a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. Robert Correll of the American Meteorological Society led the committee that wrote the report. He says climate changes will have a major effect on the Arctic. Polar bears and some kinds of seals may disappear. As a result, native peoples who hunt for these animals will experience food shortages and economic problems. VOICE ONE: The report also warns of possible health risks to people. As new kinds of wildlife move into the Arctic, animal diseases that can infect people may spread. And, northern freshwater fisheries that supply the native people with food could suffer. The report says melting ice would add more freshwater to the Arctic Ocean. This could cause sea levels to rise around the world. As the frozen ground warms, many existing buildings in the Arctic, roads and industrial areas could be damaged. The report notes some possible improvements as a result of rising temperatures. For example, the melting ice will increase the ability of fish and other sea creatures to use Arctic resources. The melting is likely to permit increased exploration for oil and gas. And, reduced ice is likely to extend the period when ships can travel in the area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This week, health workers in West and Central Africa are starting a new effort against the disease polio. The effort is aimed at young boys and girls in more than twenty countries. The workers plan to give polio vaccines to the children. Vaccines help the body’s natural defense system recognize and fight disease. Last month, one million people spread out over twenty-five African countries to vaccinate boys and girls against polio. The goal of the effort is to protect eighty-million children against the disease. Organizers called it the single largest public health campaign in history. VOICE ONE: A virus causes polio. The virus is spread through body fluids and also water or food touched by an infected person. People who get the disease often lose their ability to move their arms or legs. Some die from polio. There is no cure. However, polio can be prevented. To work best, the vaccine is given to children several times during the first years of life. World health officials have set a goal of defeating polio by two-thousand-five. VOICE TWO: Polio began to spread in Africa last year after Islamic religious leaders in northern Nigeria said the vaccine was harmful. Kano State and other areas halted an effort to vaccinate children. Since then, polio has spread to four countries where it had been completely removed. Now the leaders in Kano State say there is a safe vaccine. They supported the vaccination campaign in October. Yet there were protests in other parts of Nigeria. Leaders across Africa have been organizing support for the vaccination campaign. Last month, religious and traditional leaders from several African countries met in Dakar, Senegal. They agreed to use their organizations and influence to support vaccination efforts and other programs to keep children healthy. Esseldin El Sawy of Al-Azhar University in Egypt attended the Senegal meeting. Doctor El Sawy noted that the average vaccination rate in Muslim communities in Africa is lower than the rate worldwide. He says Islam supports the protection of every human being, including children. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Debate continues about the remains of small human-like creatures discovered in Indonesia. A team of Australian and Indonesian scientists reported the discovery last month in Nature magazine. The first of the bones were uncovered last year in Liang Bua, a large cave on the island of Flores. The scientists believe the bones came from an adult who stood only about one meter tall. Their study found that such individuals lived as recently as twelve-thousand years ago. The scientists also say the bones appear to be different from those of any known group, or species. So, they consider these human-like creatures to be part of a new species. The scientists have named it Homo floresiensis, or man of Flores. VOICE TWO: The bones of several other human-like individuals have been found in Liang Bua. At first, the scientists thought the remains came from children. But, closer study of the teeth and bones confirmed that they belonged to adults. The discovery has caused excitement in the field of archaeology, the study of material remains of past human life and activities. This is partly because the bones represent a new species. But, scientists are even more interested in learning how Flores Man developed. The scientists described the remains of an individual believed to have been a woman. Tests showed the woman was about thirty years old when she died about eighteen-thousand years ago. Her brain was only about one-third the size of a human brain. VOICE ONE: The scientists also discovered what they believe are stone tools near the bones. They say there are signs that Flores Man knew how to use fire and hunted as part of a group. This suggests a higher level of mental development than thought possible for a small brain. Human development theories are based in part on the idea that as the size of the brain grew, so did intelligence. The scientists also found the remains of an ancient species of elephant called a Stegodon. Unlike modern elephants, Stegodons were about the size of the human-like beings. The remains of large meat-eating lizards also were uncovered. These creatures were similar to reptiles still living today on the nearby island of Komodo. They are called Komodo Dragons. VOICE TWO: Australian archaeologist Mike Morwood directed the dig on Flores. He believes that Flores Man developed from the group of early humans called Homo erectus. That group was the same size as modern human beings. However, Homo erectus lived between two-hundred-thousand and more than one million years ago. Mister Morwood’s earlier research has shown that Homo erectus arrived in the area more than eight-hundred thousand years ago. The bones from the recent Flores finds extend from about twelve-thousand to ninety-five thousand years ago. Mister Morwood argues that Homo erectus became smaller over the years in Flores as a result of the island’s environment. This theory has been shown in the development of some island animals. It can happen when an animal group shares a small land area with a limited food supplies and no natural enemies. VOICE TWO: The scientists say Flores man probably died about twelve-thousand years ago after a volcanic explosion on the island. Yet people living on Flores today still tell stories of the island’s little people. They say the little people lived in caves until the first Dutch traders arrived about five-hundred years ago. Nature magazine published a commentary by Marta Mirazon Lahr and Robert Foley of the University of Cambridge in England. They described the new findings as one of the most important discoveries in the past half-century. VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss, Karen Leggett and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-thirty-seven, U.S.A. Or send electronic messages to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Trade Dispute Over E.U. Sugar Subsidies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 16, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. By some measures, these would seem like sweet times for the sugar industry. The world market for sugar is expanding. So is production. Developing countries currently produce more than two-thirds of all sugar. And they are expected to be responsible for almost all production growth through two thousand ten. This is shown in research by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Yet the value of sugar exports has decreased. In nineteen eighty, it was almost ten thousand million dollars. By two thousand one, the value of sugar exports fell to six thousand million dollars. The Food and Agriculture Organization says government intervention drives down world sugar prices. It says policies in the United States and the European Union are believed to have the most effect in limiting chances for growth. It says prices are kept high in their own markets, while prices on the world market are depressed. In July of last year, Australia, Brazil and Thailand took action in the World Trade Organization against the European Union. The three nations said European Union countries were giving more aid to their sugar producers than they had agreed to under W.T.O. rules. They said this aid was unfair and kept world prices down. Brazil is the biggest producer of sugar from sugar cane. As much as seventy percent of sugar is made from this plant. France is the biggest producer of sugar from sugar beets. Australia, Brazil and Thailand argued that the European Union guaranteed its sugar producers very high prices within its market. As a result, they said the producers were able to export surplus sugar at prices below their cost of production. Also, the three nations said the European Union was giving more direct subsidies to its sugar producers than permitted. These payments are based on the amount of sugar imported into the union under special trade agreements with some countries. These countries include India, but they are mainly in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Last month, the W.T.O. ruled the European subsidies illegal. The European Union immediately said it would appeal. But Agricultural Commissioner Franz Fischler says the E.U. needs reforms to make its sugar industry "more competitive and trade-friendly." This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Exploring Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 17, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit Africa with a well known biologist and explorer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On World Environment Day last June, explorer J. Michael Fay began exploring Africa from the air. Mister Fay is flying over one hundred sixty thousand kilometers of the continent’s wildest forests and most densely populated areas. He and his pilot, Peter Ragg of Austria, are making photographic records of fifty of the fifty-four countries of Africa. The two also are meeting with African environmental activists and government officials. Mister Fay wants to find places that could be officially declared areas of conservation where wildlife can be protected. And he also wants a closer look at the populated areas. VOICE TWO: Many people believe that Africa has endless undeveloped land. Michael Fay does not think so. He says humans are changing some of the world’s last totally wild areas. And he believes it is important to save parts of Africa in their natural form. Michael Fay was born and educated in the United States. He earned a doctorate degree in anthropology from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. He went to Africa as an unpaid worker with the Peace Corps in nineteen seventy-eight. That is when he discovered the place that would guide his life’s work. For more than twenty years, he has lived in central Africa. The continent is now his home. It is also the heart of his work. Mister Fay is an expert about plants and animals. He is also an expert photographer. In his forty-five years, he has explored thousands of kilometers of land. Michael Fay has survived many dangers. One very bad day, he was attacked and injured by an angry elephant. VOICE ONE: Mister Fay is now flying over Africa in a forty-year-old, single-engine airplane. The pilot, Peter Ragg, owns the plane. He painted it bright red. The National Geographic Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society are paying for the trip. Both groups have headquarters in the United States. The trip is called the Africa MegaFlyover. It is expected to end next August. It is the most far-reaching study by air of the people, animals and plants of Africa. VOICE TWO: Michael Fay’s flying conservation project began June fifth with great ceremony at the Swartkop Air Force Base in South Africa. One hundred eighty-two people celebrated the launch of the MegaFlyover. The United States ambassador to South Africa, Cameron Hume, was among the guests. So was Virginia Rathebe (Rah TEH bay), a traditional tribal healer. She offered good wishes for the exploration. Other aircraft also lifted off with Mister Fay’s plane. They included members of the Bataleurs, a team of South African pilots. This group is named for a bird. Its members fly over Africa for environmental causes. The Bateleurs are supporting Mister Fay’s project in a number of ways. A South African Air Force helicopter also started with the MegaFlyover team. The helicopter carried twelve photographers. They recorded the beginning of the air travels of Michael Fay and Peter Ragg. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: J. Michael Fay has made many extended and difficult trips. In nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand, for example, he walked three thousand two-hundred kilometers across Africa. This project was called the Megatransect. His goal was to record every kind of plant and animal he found on his walk. A team of Africans walked with him. At times, National Geographic magazine photographer Michael Nichols joined the group. Their explorations took them through the Central African Republic, Congo and Cameroon. The walk took fifteen months and ended in Gabon. Mister Fay chose areas to explore where few or no people lived. He called these places the Last of the Wild, or the Wildest of the Wild. VOICE TWO: Mister Fay’s travels showed the world that Gabon had areas that needed to be protected. After his visit, Gabon’s President Omar Bongo officially opened thirteen national parks in the nation. Mister Fay’s Megatransect walk raised more than one hundred million dollars. The money is aiding six central African nations to protect their wild areas. He said the results of his walking travels caused him to start his current flying trip. He said he wanted to do for all of Africa what he had done for Gabon. VOICE ONE: As you might think, Mister Fay’s Megatransect walk was not easy. His team had to cross rivers and jungles. They had to deal with wild animals, snakes and insects. Gorillas and elephants visited the explorers. They watched the group before retreating back into the thick green jungle. Some of the members of the team suffered diseases including malaria, hepatitis and pneumonia. VOICE TWO: An unusual map helped make possible both Mister Fay’s walking trip and his current air travels. He was able to use such a map because the world changed dramatically during the nineteen nineties. Many years of tensions ended between western nations and the former Soviet Union.After that, the American government released some satellite images. Civilians now can map the whole world much better than before. VOICE ONE: The new information helped scientists in New York City make an extremely useful map. Workers at the Wildlife Conservation Society and New York University created this Human Footprint Map. The map got its name because it recognizes areas of human activity. It also shows land cover, roads, rivers and coastlines. It shows different areas like deserts and wet lands. It shows electrical power use at night. From this information, it has become clear that people have used and changed most of the livable surface of the planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Michael Fay and Peter Ragg are following the Human Footprint Map from their plane. They also are adding to it. They are taking photographs with a digital camera every sixteen seconds. The images show uses of land and kinds of soil. When these images are combined, they should make a complete picture of the Wildest of the Wild. Mister Fay hopes to propose detailed conservation projects in Africa from the observations. He will present these plans to the United States and other governments and organizations. His goal, as always, is to help save the wild areas for the future of humanity. VOICE ONE: Mister Fay’s observations about Africa do not stop with conservation efforts. He observes crowded areas near national borders. Then he notes nearby unpopulated land. The explorer says people without land traditionally move into empty land. For example, he says central Africans are moving west even though they may cross political borders. He believes that border crossings are causing conflicts in the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan. Mister Fay says observations made possible by the Human Footprint Map have created a whole new science. He says this science can tell what group will attack another --- and when this could happen. The results of people moving to get natural resources may be political, Mister Fay reasons. But he says the conflict is really not about politics. Instead, he says it involves use or misuse of the resources. For example, he charges that most of the wood cut in central Africa is burned or wasted. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some of the most dramatic problems of Michael Fay’s MegaFlyover took place during its early months. That is when the little red plane passed over wildlife protection areas, national animal parks and totally unpopulated areas in South Africa. By the time the team left South Africa for Namibia, it had equaled the distance between Paris, France and Bangkok, Thailand. Their plane has given the explorers some bad moments. For example, on an extremely windy day, the pilot was trying to land the plane. Mister Fay reported to the Bateleurs that the speed of the plane jumped from fifty to one hundred fifty knots. Then it slowed again. He compared the flight to a rollercoaster ride at an amusement park. VOICE ONE: But the plane landed safely. If they continue to have good luck, the flying environmental explorers will finish their work in about nine months. By that time, Michael Fay should have a very good idea of where to protect African land that is the Wildest of the Wild. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 17, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit Africa with a well known biologist and explorer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On World Environment Day last June, explorer J. Michael Fay began exploring Africa from the air. Mister Fay is flying over one hundred sixty thousand kilometers of the continent’s wildest forests and most densely populated areas. He and his pilot, Peter Ragg of Austria, are making photographic records of fifty of the fifty-four countries of Africa. The two also are meeting with African environmental activists and government officials. Mister Fay wants to find places that could be officially declared areas of conservation where wildlife can be protected. And he also wants a closer look at the populated areas. VOICE TWO: Many people believe that Africa has endless undeveloped land. Michael Fay does not think so. He says humans are changing some of the world’s last totally wild areas. And he believes it is important to save parts of Africa in their natural form. Michael Fay was born and educated in the United States. He earned a doctorate degree in anthropology from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. He went to Africa as an unpaid worker with the Peace Corps in nineteen seventy-eight. That is when he discovered the place that would guide his life’s work. For more than twenty years, he has lived in central Africa. The continent is now his home. It is also the heart of his work. Mister Fay is an expert about plants and animals. He is also an expert photographer. In his forty-five years, he has explored thousands of kilometers of land. Michael Fay has survived many dangers. One very bad day, he was attacked and injured by an angry elephant. VOICE ONE: Mister Fay is now flying over Africa in a forty-year-old, single-engine airplane. The pilot, Peter Ragg, owns the plane. He painted it bright red. The National Geographic Society and the Wildlife Conservation Society are paying for the trip. Both groups have headquarters in the United States. The trip is called the Africa MegaFlyover. It is expected to end next August. It is the most far-reaching study by air of the people, animals and plants of Africa. VOICE TWO: Michael Fay’s flying conservation project began June fifth with great ceremony at the Swartkop Air Force Base in South Africa. One hundred eighty-two people celebrated the launch of the MegaFlyover. The United States ambassador to South Africa, Cameron Hume, was among the guests. So was Virginia Rathebe (Rah TEH bay), a traditional tribal healer. She offered good wishes for the exploration. Other aircraft also lifted off with Mister Fay’s plane. They included members of the Bataleurs, a team of South African pilots. This group is named for a bird. Its members fly over Africa for environmental causes. The Bateleurs are supporting Mister Fay’s project in a number of ways. A South African Air Force helicopter also started with the MegaFlyover team. The helicopter carried twelve photographers. They recorded the beginning of the air travels of Michael Fay and Peter Ragg. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: J. Michael Fay has made many extended and difficult trips. In nineteen ninety-nine and two thousand, for example, he walked three thousand two-hundred kilometers across Africa. This project was called the Megatransect. His goal was to record every kind of plant and animal he found on his walk. A team of Africans walked with him. At times, National Geographic magazine photographer Michael Nichols joined the group. Their explorations took them through the Central African Republic, Congo and Cameroon. The walk took fifteen months and ended in Gabon. Mister Fay chose areas to explore where few or no people lived. He called these places the Last of the Wild, or the Wildest of the Wild. VOICE TWO: Mister Fay’s travels showed the world that Gabon had areas that needed to be protected. After his visit, Gabon’s President Omar Bongo officially opened thirteen national parks in the nation. Mister Fay’s Megatransect walk raised more than one hundred million dollars. The money is aiding six central African nations to protect their wild areas. He said the results of his walking travels caused him to start his current flying trip. He said he wanted to do for all of Africa what he had done for Gabon. VOICE ONE: As you might think, Mister Fay’s Megatransect walk was not easy. His team had to cross rivers and jungles. They had to deal with wild animals, snakes and insects. Gorillas and elephants visited the explorers. They watched the group before retreating back into the thick green jungle. Some of the members of the team suffered diseases including malaria, hepatitis and pneumonia. VOICE TWO: An unusual map helped make possible both Mister Fay’s walking trip and his current air travels. He was able to use such a map because the world changed dramatically during the nineteen nineties. Many years of tensions ended between western nations and the former Soviet Union.After that, the American government released some satellite images. Civilians now can map the whole world much better than before. VOICE ONE: The new information helped scientists in New York City make an extremely useful map. Workers at the Wildlife Conservation Society and New York University created this Human Footprint Map. The map got its name because it recognizes areas of human activity. It also shows land cover, roads, rivers and coastlines. It shows different areas like deserts and wet lands. It shows electrical power use at night. From this information, it has become clear that people have used and changed most of the livable surface of the planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Michael Fay and Peter Ragg are following the Human Footprint Map from their plane. They also are adding to it. They are taking photographs with a digital camera every sixteen seconds. The images show uses of land and kinds of soil. When these images are combined, they should make a complete picture of the Wildest of the Wild. Mister Fay hopes to propose detailed conservation projects in Africa from the observations. He will present these plans to the United States and other governments and organizations. His goal, as always, is to help save the wild areas for the future of humanity. VOICE ONE: Mister Fay’s observations about Africa do not stop with conservation efforts. He observes crowded areas near national borders. Then he notes nearby unpopulated land. The explorer says people without land traditionally move into empty land. For example, he says central Africans are moving west even though they may cross political borders. He believes that border crossings are causing conflicts in the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan. Mister Fay says observations made possible by the Human Footprint Map have created a whole new science. He says this science can tell what group will attack another --- and when this could happen. The results of people moving to get natural resources may be political, Mister Fay reasons. But he says the conflict is really not about politics. Instead, he says it involves use or misuse of the resources. For example, he charges that most of the wood cut in central Africa is burned or wasted. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some of the most dramatic problems of Michael Fay’s MegaFlyover took place during its early months. That is when the little red plane passed over wildlife protection areas, national animal parks and totally unpopulated areas in South Africa. By the time the team left South Africa for Namibia, it had equaled the distance between Paris, France and Bangkok, Thailand. Their plane has given the explorers some bad moments. For example, on an extremely windy day, the pilot was trying to land the plane. Mister Fay reported to the Bateleurs that the speed of the plane jumped from fifty to one hundred fifty knots. Then it slowed again. He compared the flight to a rollercoaster ride at an amusement park. VOICE ONE: But the plane landed safely. If they continue to have good luck, the flying environmental explorers will finish their work in about nine months. By that time, Michael Fay should have a very good idea of where to protect African land that is the Wildest of the Wild. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – New Heart Drug Shows Promise in African Americans
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 17, 2004 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Health Report. Heart failure is a disease where the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body. Fluid collects in the lungs. People who develop heart failure are generally older. They feel tired and short of breath. Half the people die within five years. Heart failure affects an estimated five million Americans. But African Americans are two and one-half times more likely to develop it. Now, an experimental treatment appears to increase their chance of survival. Heart failure is usually treated with drugs called ACE inhibitors. But research has suggested that these drugs do not work as well in blacks as in whites. The difference may be linked to lower levels of nitric oxide in the blood of African Americans with heart failure. This chemical in the body helps blood flow. So a company in Massachusetts, NitroMed, developed a treatment called BiDil. This combines two existing medicines to increase the amount of nitric oxide in the blood. Earlier studies failed to prove its effectiveness. But those studies involved mostly white patients. Scientists later re-examined the results and saw signs that it did help black patients. As a result, NitroMed began a study of more than one thousand black people. They took traditional drugs for heart failure and either BiDil or an inactive substance. The study found that the patients who took BiDil had a forty-three percent better chance of survival after one year. They also needed fewer hospital visits. Doctor Anne Taylor, a professor at the University of Minnesota, reported on the study at a meeting of the American Heart Association. The findings appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine. NitroMed has been preparing to ask for federal approval of its treatment. Such approval was rejected after the earlier studies. Some people, though, are uneasy with the idea of what is known as a "race-based therapy." That is, a drug developed for just one group with a disease common in the general population. Yet some doctors think the new pill might help the larger population as well. The heart association says heart failure can be caused by disorders present at birth, or by a virus that damages the heart muscle. But it says the same things linked to heart attacks can also cause heart failure. These include smoking, being overweight, eating high-fat foods and not getting exercise. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: November 17, 2004 - Proverbs in American English, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 17, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we have part two of our look at proverbs in American English. RS: We continue our conversation with Wolfgang Mieder, a professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, and a widely published expert on proverbs. AA: And there are certainly lots of them, although there are also many proverbs that different cultures have in common. So is this a case where "great minds think alike"? WOLFGANG MIEDER: "If you look back in history and you compare the proverbs let's say of Germany, England, and also including the United States, France, Russia, Italy, Spain, you'd be surprised how many absolutely identical proverbs there are. The reason why that is, is that many of our everyday proverbs actually originated in Greek and Roman antiquity. "I'll give you an example. 'Big fish eat little fish' is a proverb that goes back, way back, into Greek antiquity, and then it was translated in Europe from language to language and it wound up in England, and of course the immigrants brought it to the United States." RS: Professor Mieder says the Bible is the second major source for proverbs that cross national boundaries. WOLFGANG MIEDER: "I'll give you an example: 'Man does not live by bread alone' is absolutely identical in France, it's identical in Germany, it's identical in Poland. So that's the second major group. And the third one is Medieval Latin. If you take the proverb 'strike while the iron is hot,' we know it started in the Middle Ages, in Latin, and they used proverbs at that time to teach youngsters foreign languages, in other words Latin and French or Latin and German and so on." RS: "Speaking of learning languages, how useful are proverbs in learning American English or any other language?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Oh, oh, extremely important. You know, those instructors who, let's say -- or students who study to become teachers of English as a second language -- are very interested in teaching some of the colloquial language like proverbs and phrases. And we are now doing studies where, through questionnaires -- thousands of questionnaires -- we have established which proverbs, let's just say in the United States, are the most popular." AA: "And could you tell us the top five?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, I will not say that these are exactly the top five, but I'll give you some examples." AA: "OK, great." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, 'strike while the iron is hot' is certainly one. 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' is one. 'New brooms sweep clean' might be one." AA: "Now that's an old one. I haven't heard that one in a while." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That's actually a Medieval Latin one that was translated into all of those languages as I mentioned. Let me give you some new American ones that one ought to know. 'It takes two to tango.' That started in 1952 with Pearl Bailey's famous song 'Takes Two to Tango.'" MUSIC: "TAKES TWO TO TANGO"/Pearl Bailey WOLFGANG MIEDER: "And then there is 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'" RS: "Well, that had to start with modern photography." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That started in 1921 with an advertising campaign." RS: "That was what I was going to ask you. What's the difference between a proverb and advertising jargon -- " AA: "Or slogan." RS: " -- or slogan? Can an advertising slogan morph it's way into becoming a proverb?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "You're catching on beautifully. [Laughter] Yes, if an advertising slogan has a certain amount of wisdom to it or generality or truth, then advertising can become a proverb. In fact, I would say that one of the most important sources for modern proverbs is advertising." AA: Wolfang Mieder is a professor at the University of Vermont. RS: If you have a favorite proverb, send it to us! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can visit us online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC "Takes Two to Tango" Broadcast: November 17, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we have part two of our look at proverbs in American English. RS: We continue our conversation with Wolfgang Mieder, a professor of German and folklore at the University of Vermont, and a widely published expert on proverbs. AA: And there are certainly lots of them, although there are also many proverbs that different cultures have in common. So is this a case where "great minds think alike"? WOLFGANG MIEDER: "If you look back in history and you compare the proverbs let's say of Germany, England, and also including the United States, France, Russia, Italy, Spain, you'd be surprised how many absolutely identical proverbs there are. The reason why that is, is that many of our everyday proverbs actually originated in Greek and Roman antiquity. "I'll give you an example. 'Big fish eat little fish' is a proverb that goes back, way back, into Greek antiquity, and then it was translated in Europe from language to language and it wound up in England, and of course the immigrants brought it to the United States." RS: Professor Mieder says the Bible is the second major source for proverbs that cross national boundaries. WOLFGANG MIEDER: "I'll give you an example: 'Man does not live by bread alone' is absolutely identical in France, it's identical in Germany, it's identical in Poland. So that's the second major group. And the third one is Medieval Latin. If you take the proverb 'strike while the iron is hot,' we know it started in the Middle Ages, in Latin, and they used proverbs at that time to teach youngsters foreign languages, in other words Latin and French or Latin and German and so on." RS: "Speaking of learning languages, how useful are proverbs in learning American English or any other language?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Oh, oh, extremely important. You know, those instructors who, let's say -- or students who study to become teachers of English as a second language -- are very interested in teaching some of the colloquial language like proverbs and phrases. And we are now doing studies where, through questionnaires -- thousands of questionnaires -- we have established which proverbs, let's just say in the United States, are the most popular." AA: "And could you tell us the top five?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, I will not say that these are exactly the top five, but I'll give you some examples." AA: "OK, great." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "Well, 'strike while the iron is hot' is certainly one. 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' is one. 'New brooms sweep clean' might be one." AA: "Now that's an old one. I haven't heard that one in a while." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That's actually a Medieval Latin one that was translated into all of those languages as I mentioned. Let me give you some new American ones that one ought to know. 'It takes two to tango.' That started in 1952 with Pearl Bailey's famous song 'Takes Two to Tango.'" MUSIC: "TAKES TWO TO TANGO"/Pearl Bailey WOLFGANG MIEDER: "And then there is 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'" RS: "Well, that had to start with modern photography." WOLFGANG MIEDER: "That started in 1921 with an advertising campaign." RS: "That was what I was going to ask you. What's the difference between a proverb and advertising jargon -- " AA: "Or slogan." RS: " -- or slogan? Can an advertising slogan morph it's way into becoming a proverb?" WOLFGANG MIEDER: "You're catching on beautifully. [Laughter] Yes, if an advertising slogan has a certain amount of wisdom to it or generality or truth, then advertising can become a proverb. In fact, I would say that one of the most important sources for modern proverbs is advertising." AA: Wolfang Mieder is a professor at the University of Vermont. RS: If you have a favorite proverb, send it to us! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can visit us online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC "Takes Two to Tango" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/photo_gallery_audience.cfm
* Headline: PHOTO GALLERY - Pictures of Our Audience
* Byline: 

 If you would like to add your picture, please send it to special@voanews.com. We began our gallery when we asked listeners to e-mail us pictures of themselves for our 45th anniversary on Oct. 19. Thank you for making it such a success. Photos 1-100 | Photos 101-200 | Photos 201-300 | Photos 300+Here are?photos 1-100:? 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #89-James Buchanan, Part 5
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 18, 2004 (MUSIC) Stephen Douglas Broadcast: November 18, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In the summer of eighteen-fifty-eight, two men campaigned across the state of Illinois for a seat in the United States Senate. Stephen Douglas of the Democratic Party held the seat. He was running for re-election. His opponent was a lawyer from the Republican Party. His name was Abraham Lincoln. I'm Larry West. Today, Frank Oliver and I will tell about this local campaign, which had national importance. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln proposed that he and Stephen Douglas hold several debates. The rules for each debate would be the same. One man would speak for an hour. His opponent would speak for an hour and a half. Then the first man would speak for half an hour to close the debate. Douglas agreed. There were seven debates in all. They were held in towns throughout Illinois. In some places, there was great interest in what the two candidates had to say. Thousands of people attended. Douglas was a short, heavy man. One reporter said he looked like a fierce bulldog. Douglas's friends and supporters called him "the little giant." Lincoln was just the opposite. He was very tall and thin, with long arms and legs. His clothes did not fit well. And he had a plain face...one which many thought was ugly. He looked more like a simple farmer than a candidate for the United States Senate. VOICE ONE: The Lincoln-Douglas debates covered party politics and the future of the nation. But everything the two men discussed was tied to one issue: slavery. Douglas spoke first at the first debate. He questioned a statement made in one of Lincoln's campaign speeches. Lincoln had said that the United States could not continue to permit slavery in some areas, while banning it in others. He said the Union could not stand so divided. It must either permit slavery everywhere...or nowhere. Douglas did not agree. He noted that the country had been half-slave and half-free for seventy years. Why then, he asked, should it not continue to exist that way. The United States was a big country. What was best for one part might not be best for another. VOICE TWO: Then Douglas questioned Lincoln's statement on the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. Lincoln had said he opposed the decision, because it did not permit Negroes to enjoy the rights of citizenship. Douglas said he believed the decision was correct. He said it was clear that the government had been made by white men...for white men. He said he opposed Negro citizenship. "I do not accept the Negro as my equal," Douglas said. "And I deny that he is my brother. However," he said, "this does not mean I believe that negroes should be slaves. Negroes should enjoy every possible right that does not threaten the safety of the society in which they live." "Every State and territory must decide for itself what these rights will be. Illinois decided that Negroes will not be citizens, but that it will protect their life, property, and civil rights. It keeps from negroes only political rights, and refuses to make Negroes equal to white men. That policy satisfies me," Douglas said. "And, it satisfies the Democratic Party." VOICE ONE: Then Lincoln spoke. First, he denied that the Republican Party was an Abolitionist party." I have no purpose," he said, "either directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery where it exists. I believe I have no legal right to do so. Nor do I wish to do so. I do not," Lincoln said, "wish to propose political and social equality between the white and black races." "But," he went on, "there is no reason in the world why Negroes should not have all the natural rights listed in the Declaration of Independence. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I agree with judge Douglas," Lincoln said, "that the Negro is not my equal in many ways -- certainly not in color, perhaps not mentally or morally. But in the right to eat the bread that his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." VOICE TWO: Lincoln then defended his statement that the United States could not continue half slave and half free. He said he did not mean that customs or institutions must be the same in every state. He said it was healthy and necessary for differences to exist in a country so large. He said different customs and institutions helped unite the country, not divide it. But Lincoln questioned if slavery was such an institution. He said slavery had not tied the states of the Union together, but had always been an issue that divided them. How had the country existed half-slave and half-free for so many years, Lincoln asked. Because, he said, the men who created the government believed that slavery was only temporary. Once people understood that slavery was not permanent, the crisis would pass. Slavery could be left alone in the south until it slowly died. That way, Lincoln said, would be best for both the white and black races. VOICE ONE: Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were campaigning for a Senate seat from the state of Illinois. But their debates had national importance, too. Douglas expected to be the Democratic candidate for president in eighteen-sixty. His statements could win or lose him support for that contest. Whenever possible, he tried to show that he was a man of the people, like Lincoln. He tried to show that his Democratic Party was a national party, while the Republican Party was a party only of the north. And he tried to show that Lincoln's policies would lead to civil war. VOICE TWO: Lincoln, for his part, may have looked like a simple farmer. But he was a very smart lawyer and politician. He asked questions which he knew would cause trouble for Douglas. He wanted to create a split between Douglas and his supporters in the south. Lincoln also wanted to keep alive the debate over slavery. "That," he said, "is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself are silent. It is the eternal struggle between right and wrong." VOICE ONE: In Illinois in eighteen-fifty-eight, the state legislature chose the men who would represent the state in the national Senate. So Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln had to depend on legislative support to get to Washington. On election day, the legislative candidates supporting Lincoln won four-thousand more popular votes than the candidates supporting Douglas. But because of the way election areas had been organized, the Douglas Democrats won a majority of seats. The newly-elected legislature chose him to be senator. VOICE TWO: Lincoln was sad that he had not won. But he said he was glad to have tried. The campaign, he said, "...gave me a hearing on the great question of the age, which I could have had in no other way. And though I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I have gone." Many people, however, did not think Abraham Lincoln would be forgotten. His campaign speeches had been published everywhere in the east. His name was becoming widely known. People began to speak of him as a presidential candidate. To win the presidential election of eighteen-sixty, the Republican Party had decided it needed a man of the people. He must be a good politician and leader. He must be opposed to slavery, but not too extreme. Many people thought Lincoln could be that man. VOICE ONE: After the election in Illinois, Lincoln made several speaking trips in the western states. In none of his speeches did he say he might be a candidate for president in eighteen-sixty. If anyone said anything about 'Lincoln for president', he would answer that he did not have the ability. Or he would say there were better men in the party than himself. Lincoln said: "only events can make a president." He would wait for those events. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In the summer of eighteen-fifty-eight, two men campaigned across the state of Illinois for a seat in the United States Senate. Stephen Douglas of the Democratic Party held the seat. He was running for re-election. His opponent was a lawyer from the Republican Party. His name was Abraham Lincoln. I'm Larry West. Today, Frank Oliver and I will tell about this local campaign, which had national importance. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln proposed that he and Stephen Douglas hold several debates. The rules for each debate would be the same. One man would speak for an hour. His opponent would speak for an hour and a half. Then the first man would speak for half an hour to close the debate. Douglas agreed. There were seven debates in all. They were held in towns throughout Illinois. In some places, there was great interest in what the two candidates had to say. Thousands of people attended. Douglas was a short, heavy man. One reporter said he looked like a fierce bulldog. Douglas's friends and supporters called him "the little giant." Lincoln was just the opposite. He was very tall and thin, with long arms and legs. His clothes did not fit well. And he had a plain face...one which many thought was ugly. He looked more like a simple farmer than a candidate for the United States Senate. VOICE ONE: The Lincoln-Douglas debates covered party politics and the future of the nation. But everything the two men discussed was tied to one issue: slavery. Douglas spoke first at the first debate. He questioned a statement made in one of Lincoln's campaign speeches. Lincoln had said that the United States could not continue to permit slavery in some areas, while banning it in others. He said the Union could not stand so divided. It must either permit slavery everywhere...or nowhere. Douglas did not agree. He noted that the country had been half-slave and half-free for seventy years. Why then, he asked, should it not continue to exist that way. The United States was a big country. What was best for one part might not be best for another. VOICE TWO: Then Douglas questioned Lincoln's statement on the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. Lincoln had said he opposed the decision, because it did not permit Negroes to enjoy the rights of citizenship. Douglas said he believed the decision was correct. He said it was clear that the government had been made by white men...for white men. He said he opposed Negro citizenship. "I do not accept the Negro as my equal," Douglas said. "And I deny that he is my brother. However," he said, "this does not mean I believe that negroes should be slaves. Negroes should enjoy every possible right that does not threaten the safety of the society in which they live." "Every State and territory must decide for itself what these rights will be. Illinois decided that Negroes will not be citizens, but that it will protect their life, property, and civil rights. It keeps from negroes only political rights, and refuses to make Negroes equal to white men. That policy satisfies me," Douglas said. "And, it satisfies the Democratic Party." VOICE ONE: Then Lincoln spoke. First, he denied that the Republican Party was an Abolitionist party." I have no purpose," he said, "either directly or indirectly, to interfere with slavery where it exists. I believe I have no legal right to do so. Nor do I wish to do so. I do not," Lincoln said, "wish to propose political and social equality between the white and black races." "But," he went on, "there is no reason in the world why Negroes should not have all the natural rights listed in the Declaration of Independence. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I agree with judge Douglas," Lincoln said, "that the Negro is not my equal in many ways -- certainly not in color, perhaps not mentally or morally. But in the right to eat the bread that his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." VOICE TWO: Lincoln then defended his statement that the United States could not continue half slave and half free. He said he did not mean that customs or institutions must be the same in every state. He said it was healthy and necessary for differences to exist in a country so large. He said different customs and institutions helped unite the country, not divide it. But Lincoln questioned if slavery was such an institution. He said slavery had not tied the states of the Union together, but had always been an issue that divided them. How had the country existed half-slave and half-free for so many years, Lincoln asked. Because, he said, the men who created the government believed that slavery was only temporary. Once people understood that slavery was not permanent, the crisis would pass. Slavery could be left alone in the south until it slowly died. That way, Lincoln said, would be best for both the white and black races. VOICE ONE: Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were campaigning for a Senate seat from the state of Illinois. But their debates had national importance, too. Douglas expected to be the Democratic candidate for president in eighteen-sixty. His statements could win or lose him support for that contest. Whenever possible, he tried to show that he was a man of the people, like Lincoln. He tried to show that his Democratic Party was a national party, while the Republican Party was a party only of the north. And he tried to show that Lincoln's policies would lead to civil war. VOICE TWO: Lincoln, for his part, may have looked like a simple farmer. But he was a very smart lawyer and politician. He asked questions which he knew would cause trouble for Douglas. He wanted to create a split between Douglas and his supporters in the south. Lincoln also wanted to keep alive the debate over slavery. "That," he said, "is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself are silent. It is the eternal struggle between right and wrong." VOICE ONE: In Illinois in eighteen-fifty-eight, the state legislature chose the men who would represent the state in the national Senate. So Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln had to depend on legislative support to get to Washington. On election day, the legislative candidates supporting Lincoln won four-thousand more popular votes than the candidates supporting Douglas. But because of the way election areas had been organized, the Douglas Democrats won a majority of seats. The newly-elected legislature chose him to be senator. VOICE TWO: Lincoln was sad that he had not won. But he said he was glad to have tried. The campaign, he said, "...gave me a hearing on the great question of the age, which I could have had in no other way. And though I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I have gone." Many people, however, did not think Abraham Lincoln would be forgotten. His campaign speeches had been published everywhere in the east. His name was becoming widely known. People began to speak of him as a presidential candidate. To win the presidential election of eighteen-sixty, the Republican Party had decided it needed a man of the people. He must be a good politician and leader. He must be opposed to slavery, but not too extreme. Many people thought Lincoln could be that man. VOICE ONE: After the election in Illinois, Lincoln made several speaking trips in the western states. In none of his speeches did he say he might be a candidate for president in eighteen-sixty. If anyone said anything about 'Lincoln for president', he would answer that he did not have the ability. Or he would say there were better men in the party than himself. Lincoln said: "only events can make a president." He would wait for those events. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #12: Financial Aid
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 18, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Today, in part twelve of our Foreign Student Series, the subject is financial aid. This is an area to consider when you first begin to explore the idea of studying at a college or university in the United States. Most of the students who come to America pay for their education with their own money or with money from their family. The group NAFSA: Association of International Educators says this is true of eighty-one percent of students. That is because not much financial aid is offered to foreign students in the United States. Foreign graduate students have more chances than undergraduates do. Still, forty-seven percent of foreign graduate students pay for their studies with their own money or their family’s money. Most financial aid from government and private groups is restricted to American citizens. Some countries provide aid for their citizens to study in the United States, on the guarantee that they return home to work. The United States government provides aid for students from some countries. You can ask for details at an American Embassy or an office of the United States Agency for International Development. A local university may also have such information. And some American schools do provide financial aid to foreign students. A list of these can be found at a useful Web site. This site also provides information about where to write for financial help. And it warns foreign students not to pay if any money is requested for scholarship application forms. You could be cheated. The address is edupass.org. That's e-d-u-p-a-s-s-dot-o-r-g. The site also tells how to order publications such as “Funding for U.S. Study -- A Guide for International Students and Professionals.” This guide lists more than six hundred places where international students can get help paying for their studies. Again, the site is edupass.org. A lot of information about financial aid can be found on the Internet. If you do not have a computer, you might be able to use one at a local school or an educational advising center. Another useful site for students is operated by the State Department. That address is educationusa.state.gov. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. You can find the reports online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Friendster / Two Thanksgivings / Music by John Fogerty
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 19, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: New music by John Fogerty ... A question from China about Thanksgiving ... And a way to make friends online. Friendster Social networking has become popular on the Internet. A network is a system of connections. The idea of social networking is to connect people. And, as Faith Lapidus reports, one way many people do that is through friendster.com. FAITH LAPIDUS: Jonathan Abrams began Friendster in two thousand two. Last year, investors put fourteen million dollars into his company in Silicon Valley, California. Mister Abrams thought of a way for people to meet on the Web. Friendster links not only friends but also friends of friends. It shows people how they are connected. Friendster is a free service that sells advertising. The company says thirteen million people have joined. There are two ways to begin creating a social network on Friendster. One way is to receive an e-mail invitation from a friend already on the service. The second way is to sign up at friendster.com. Once registered, users must describe themselves. They list things like their location, schools they attended, and favorite books and movies. They can also add pictures to their profile. When their profile is complete, users can search other profiles to find some sort of connection to other people. Users may leave messages for each other. Some people use Friendster to renew old friendships. Others make new friends, or use the site as an online dating service. Friendster has been especially popular among college students. Many use it to reconnect with old classmates. Jennifer is a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She says Friendster has helped her keep in touch with her high school friends. In fact, she has even found some of her friends from elementary school. But Friendster is not for everyone. A forty-three-year-old lawyer in Washington says people his age were not on the social network homepage. He had no luck finding anyone he knew. Instead, he says he will leave it to his two children to use Friendster. The site has added a bulletin board where friends can share announcements. People can also receive a reminder when a friend is having a birthday. Friendster calls itself "the fun and safe way to organize your social life." So now people have a new way to make friends -- or, in this case, "friendsters." Two Thanksgivings HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Fujian, China. Chunfu Zheng asks about the difference between Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada. Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday on the second Monday in October. There are stories that the English explorer Martin Frobisher held the first Thanksgiving celebration in Canada in fifteen seventy-eight. But a researcher at York University in Toronto found that these stories are false. Peter Stevens gives credit for the holiday to Protestant Christian leaders in Ontario province in the nineteen century. Mister Stevens says they took the idea of the American celebration and created a version for Canada, although they did not just copy it. He says the observance became an expression of Canadian nationalism. He says it lost its Protestant religious meaning in the early twentieth century, and Canadians created their own traditions. The government established the holiday in October because it was early enough in the year for people to spend the day outdoors. Thanksgiving in the United States developed from a celebration of English settlers known as Pilgrims. They are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in sixteen twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. Soon, more than half had died of disease or lack of food. Those who survived thanked God. They also thanked the Native Americans who showed them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims and the Indians celebrated together for about three days. Within a few years, though, the Indians and the growing number of settlers were at war. Today a Thanksgiving celebration might last three hours. Americans traditionally prepare some of the same foods eaten at that first Thanksgiving. This includes turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. And this is similar to what Canadians eat on their day for giving thanks. John Fogerty’s New Album DOUG JOHNSON: Creedence Clearwater Revival was a band with hits like this one from nineteen sixty-nine, “Proud Mary.” (MUSIC) Singer John Fogerty led Creedence Clearwater Revival and wrote many of its songs. The band broke up in nineteen seventy-two. Since then, John Fogerty has been working alone. Now, Shep O’Neal tells us about his newest album. ANNCR: The album is called “Deja Vu All Over Again.” Deja vu is a French expression. It means experiencing something that you feel you have experienced before. The title song is a commentary on the Vietnam War and, now, the war in Iraq. (MUSIC) But the album is not all about sadness and war. The songs mix all kinds of music: rock, folk, country, bluegrass and punk. In fact, John Fogerty says the album shows how happy he is these days. We leave you with one of those happy songs from John Fogerty’s newest album. This one is called “Sugar-Sugar (In My Life.)” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Brian Kim and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and postal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: November 19, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: New music by John Fogerty ... A question from China about Thanksgiving ... And a way to make friends online. Friendster Social networking has become popular on the Internet. A network is a system of connections. The idea of social networking is to connect people. And, as Faith Lapidus reports, one way many people do that is through friendster.com. FAITH LAPIDUS: Jonathan Abrams began Friendster in two thousand two. Last year, investors put fourteen million dollars into his company in Silicon Valley, California. Mister Abrams thought of a way for people to meet on the Web. Friendster links not only friends but also friends of friends. It shows people how they are connected. Friendster is a free service that sells advertising. The company says thirteen million people have joined. There are two ways to begin creating a social network on Friendster. One way is to receive an e-mail invitation from a friend already on the service. The second way is to sign up at friendster.com. Once registered, users must describe themselves. They list things like their location, schools they attended, and favorite books and movies. They can also add pictures to their profile. When their profile is complete, users can search other profiles to find some sort of connection to other people. Users may leave messages for each other. Some people use Friendster to renew old friendships. Others make new friends, or use the site as an online dating service. Friendster has been especially popular among college students. Many use it to reconnect with old classmates. Jennifer is a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She says Friendster has helped her keep in touch with her high school friends. In fact, she has even found some of her friends from elementary school. But Friendster is not for everyone. A forty-three-year-old lawyer in Washington says people his age were not on the social network homepage. He had no luck finding anyone he knew. Instead, he says he will leave it to his two children to use Friendster. The site has added a bulletin board where friends can share announcements. People can also receive a reminder when a friend is having a birthday. Friendster calls itself "the fun and safe way to organize your social life." So now people have a new way to make friends -- or, in this case, "friendsters." Two Thanksgivings HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Fujian, China. Chunfu Zheng asks about the difference between Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada. Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday on the second Monday in October. There are stories that the English explorer Martin Frobisher held the first Thanksgiving celebration in Canada in fifteen seventy-eight. But a researcher at York University in Toronto found that these stories are false. Peter Stevens gives credit for the holiday to Protestant Christian leaders in Ontario province in the nineteen century. Mister Stevens says they took the idea of the American celebration and created a version for Canada, although they did not just copy it. He says the observance became an expression of Canadian nationalism. He says it lost its Protestant religious meaning in the early twentieth century, and Canadians created their own traditions. The government established the holiday in October because it was early enough in the year for people to spend the day outdoors. Thanksgiving in the United States developed from a celebration of English settlers known as Pilgrims. They are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in sixteen twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. Soon, more than half had died of disease or lack of food. Those who survived thanked God. They also thanked the Native Americans who showed them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims and the Indians celebrated together for about three days. Within a few years, though, the Indians and the growing number of settlers were at war. Today a Thanksgiving celebration might last three hours. Americans traditionally prepare some of the same foods eaten at that first Thanksgiving. This includes turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. And this is similar to what Canadians eat on their day for giving thanks. John Fogerty’s New Album DOUG JOHNSON: Creedence Clearwater Revival was a band with hits like this one from nineteen sixty-nine, “Proud Mary.” (MUSIC) Singer John Fogerty led Creedence Clearwater Revival and wrote many of its songs. The band broke up in nineteen seventy-two. Since then, John Fogerty has been working alone. Now, Shep O’Neal tells us about his newest album. ANNCR: The album is called “Deja Vu All Over Again.” Deja vu is a French expression. It means experiencing something that you feel you have experienced before. The title song is a commentary on the Vietnam War and, now, the war in Iraq. (MUSIC) But the album is not all about sadness and war. The songs mix all kinds of music: rock, folk, country, bluegrass and punk. In fact, John Fogerty says the album shows how happy he is these days. We leave you with one of those happy songs from John Fogerty’s newest album. This one is called “Sugar-Sugar (In My Life.)” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Brian Kim and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and postal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Deficits and the Dollar
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 19, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week the Commerce Department reported on the United States trade deficit in September. The United States imported almost fifty-two thousand million dollars more in goods and services than it exported. The deficit remains very high. But it fell in September by almost four percent from the month before. Imports decreased, while exports increased. Trade specialists say American exports should continue to increase as long as the dollar is weak. Basically, strong currencies help importers; weak currencies help exporters. In Europe, there is concern about the added cost of European exports from the strength of the euro against the dollar. In the past week it took about one dollar and thirty cents to buy one euro. In China, the situation is different. China links the value of its currency, the yuan, to the dollar. The set exchange rate keeps down the cost of Chinese exports. American competitors are not happy about this policy. The trade deficit with China is expected to set a new record this year. It was over fifteen thousand million dollars in September alone. The second biggest deficit was with Japan, at six thousand million dollars. Countries that have a trade surplus with the United States usually buy American government debt with the dollars they receive in payment. This way, they earn interest on their investment. Japan and China together own about one-fourth of the debt of the United States Treasury. Japan also buys a lot of Treasury debt with its own currency. This means there is a lot of yen on world currency markets. This keeps down the value of the yen, and the cost of Japanese exports. Economists say the presence of a trade deficit does not mean that an economy is doing poorly. In fact, some say trade deficits are not very important. They are more concerned about record budget deficits in the United States. These economists worry that too much American borrowing could harm the world economy. But other economists say world markets have enough to lend. Treasury Secretary John Snow says cutting the budget deficit in half is a top goal of President Bush in his second term. Mister Snow also says the United States supports a strong dollar. Speaking Wednesday in London, he urged European countries to increase their economic growth more quickly. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Condoleezza Rice Nominated as Secretary of State
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 20, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush this week nominated his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state. Mister Powell resigned. Condoleezza Rice has had a long relationship with the Bush family. She worked on the National Security Council when President Bush's father was president. She is an expert on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. She became a political science professor at Stanford University in California in the nineteen eighties. Later Condoleezza Rice was a top administrator there. She advised George W. Bush during the two thousand presidential campaign. Once in office, he appointed her his national security adviser. This week he named her deputy, Steven Hadley, to replace her. Condoleezza Rice had her fiftieth birthday last Sunday. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, during the time of racial separation laws in the South. She is a classical pianist and an ice skater, and is known as a big sports fan. "Condi" Rice, as she is known, would be the first African American woman as America's top diplomat. The only other woman was Madeleine Albright, appointed by President Bill Clinton. President Bush called Secretary Powell "one of the great public servants of our time." Colin Powell was a solder in the Vietnam War. Later, as a general, he served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also served for a time as national security adviser when Ronald Reagan was president. Yet his moderate positions on issues like Iraq often clashed with those of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. For the past four years, Condoleezza Rice has not said much publicly about her opinions. She is considered more conservative on foreign policy than Colin Powell. But critics say she did not do enough to ease tensions between the State Department and the Defense Department. She was also criticized for the way the administration dealt with terrorism threats before the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Condoleezza Rice is expected to win Senate conformation as the next secretary of state. Some people say her strong ties to Mister Bush will be helpful because governments will know she speaks for the president. Others say they worry that she will be less open to dissenting opinions and debate because of her loyalty. President Bush announced her nomination on Tuesday. That was a day after the White House announced the resignation of Colin Powell and the secretaries of agriculture, energy and education. Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Attorney General John Ashcroft resigned earlier. Among the replacements nominated are White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as the new attorney general. The president also chose his domestic policy adviser, Margaret Spellings, as secretary of education. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. Broadcast: November 20, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. President Bush this week nominated his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to replace Colin Powell as secretary of state. Mister Powell resigned. Condoleezza Rice has had a long relationship with the Bush family. She worked on the National Security Council when President Bush's father was president. She is an expert on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. She became a political science professor at Stanford University in California in the nineteen eighties. Later Condoleezza Rice was a top administrator there. She advised George W. Bush during the two thousand presidential campaign. Once in office, he appointed her his national security adviser. This week he named her deputy, Steven Hadley, to replace her. Condoleezza Rice had her fiftieth birthday last Sunday. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama, during the time of racial separation laws in the South. She is a classical pianist and an ice skater, and is known as a big sports fan. "Condi" Rice, as she is known, would be the first African American woman as America's top diplomat. The only other woman was Madeleine Albright, appointed by President Bill Clinton. President Bush called Secretary Powell "one of the great public servants of our time." Colin Powell was a solder in the Vietnam War. Later, as a general, he served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also served for a time as national security adviser when Ronald Reagan was president. Yet his moderate positions on issues like Iraq often clashed with those of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. For the past four years, Condoleezza Rice has not said much publicly about her opinions. She is considered more conservative on foreign policy than Colin Powell. But critics say she did not do enough to ease tensions between the State Department and the Defense Department. She was also criticized for the way the administration dealt with terrorism threats before the attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Condoleezza Rice is expected to win Senate conformation as the next secretary of state. Some people say her strong ties to Mister Bush will be helpful because governments will know she speaks for the president. Others say they worry that she will be less open to dissenting opinions and debate because of her loyalty. President Bush announced her nomination on Tuesday. That was a day after the White House announced the resignation of Colin Powell and the secretaries of agriculture, energy and education. Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Attorney General John Ashcroft resigned earlier. Among the replacements nominated are White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as the new attorney general. The president also chose his domestic policy adviser, Margaret Spellings, as secretary of education. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Movie Pioneers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 21, 2004 (THEME) Samuel Goldwyn Broadcast: November 21, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about three people who helped make Hollywood the center of the movie industry. Louis Mayer VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about three people who helped make Hollywood the center of the movie industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When you hear the name Hollywood, you probably think of excitement, lights, cameras and movie stars. Famous actors are not the only important people in the entertainment business. Directors and producers are important, too. Today, Hollywood is full of producers and directors. However, very few are as famous and successful as Hollywood’s first motion picture businessmen, Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis Mayer. (((“There’s No Business Like Show Business”, CDP-8244))) VOICE TWO: Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in Eighteen-Eighty-One. Both his parents were writers of plays. His father died when he was twelve years old. His mother kept the family together by establishing a theater company. Cecil joined the company as an actor. He continued working in his mother’s theater company as an actor and a manager until Nineteen-Thirteen. That year, he joined Jesse L. Lasky and Samuel Goldfish to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Goldfish later changed his name to Samuel Goldwyn. VOICE ONE: The three men started making motion pictures immediately. They loved working in the movie business. They were deeply interested in its creative and financial possibilities. DeMille, Lasky and Goldfish began working on a movie version of the popular American western play, “Squaw Man.” DeMille urged that the movie be made in the real American West. He chose Flagstaff, Arizona. DeMille and the company traveled to Flagstaff by train. When they arrived, DeMille thought the area looked too modern. They got back on the train and keep going until they reached the end of the line. They were in a quiet little town in southern California. The town was called Hollywood. DeMille decided this was the perfect place to film the movie. “Squaw Man” was one of the first full-length movies produced in Hollywood. It was released in Nineteen-Thirteen and was an immediate success. DeMille is considered the man who helped Hollywood become the center of the motion picture business. He quickly became a creative force in the new movie industry. His success continued with “Brewster’s Millions,” “The Call of the North” and “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.” VOICE TWO: Cecil B. DeMille was among the very few filmmakers in Hollywood whose name appeared above the title of his movie. His name was more important to movie-goers than the names of the stars in the movie. DeMille’s movies were known to be big productions. He combined a lot of action, realistic storytelling and hundreds of actors to make some of Hollywood’s best movies. He made many kinds of movies including westerns, comedies, romances and ones dealing with moral issues DeMille gained a great deal of fame with the kind of movie known as an epic. An epic tells a story of events that are important in history. DeMille’s epic movies were based on the settling of the American West, Roman history or stories from the Bible. His first version of the historic film “The Ten Commandments” was a huge success among silent films in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he released a new version of “The Ten Commandments” to include sound. It is broadcast still on American television during the Christian observance of Easter. VOICE ONE: Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed seventy movies. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine he received a special Academy Award for “thirty-seven years of brilliant showmanship.” He died of heart failure in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. One of DeMille’s last films was “The Greatest Show on Earth.” It won the Academy Award for best picture in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. It was about people who performed in the circus. Some people say it was a fitting subject because Cecil B. DeMille often was called the greatest showman in Hollywood. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Ninety-Five, a thirteen-year-old boy from Warsaw, Poland found his way to the United States. Samuel Goldfish was alone. He had no money. He found work as a glove maker. He continued working in the glove-making industry until he was almost thirty years old. VOICE TWO(cont): In Nineteen-Thirteen, Samuel and his wife’s brother, Jesse L. Lasky, and Cecil B. DeMille formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. It produced the movie, “Squaw Man.” In Nineteen-Sixteen, Goldfish started a business with Edgar Selwyn. They combined their names Goldfish and Selwyn and called the new company Goldwyn. Samuel Goldfish liked the name and changed his to Samuel Goldwyn in Nineteen-Eighteen. The Goldwyn Company made many successful motion pictures. Yet, the company was not a financial success. In Nineteen-Twenty-Two, Samuel Goldwyn was forced to leave the company. The Goldwyn Company then joined with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, known as MGM. Samuel Goldwyn was not part of the deal. He promised never to be a joint owner of another company. He formed his own company Samuel Goldwyn Productions. VOICE ONE: Samuel Goldwyn was one of the great independent producers during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. Most of his films were successful financially and popular with critics. He insisted that his films be well made and of high quality. This became known as the “Goldwyn Touch.” Goldwyn usually paid for his films himself. He bought the best stories and plays to be made into movies. He employed the best writers, directors and actors. And he discovered new actors including Lucille Ball, Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward and Will Rogers. Goldwyn was extremely independent. He had a strong desire to control every element of the production and marketing of his films. He made all decisions concerning his films including choosing directors, actors and writers. His best films include “The Little Foxes,” “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “Porgy and Bess.” His movies received many Academy Awards. VOICE TWO: Samuel Goldwyn was known also for his sense of humor. He created funny expressions. In Hollywood they are known as Goldwynisms. One of his most famous expressions was “Include me out.” In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Goldwyn received the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award for his excellent movie productions during the Academy Award ceremonies that year. He died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four. Samuel Goldwyn was in the movie business for almost sixty years. He is considered one of the most influential film producers ever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louis B. Mayer began as a theater operator in Havermill, Massachusetts in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. Over the next several years he bought more theaters. Soon he owned the largest group of theaters in New England. In Nineteen-Seventeen, Mayer formed his own movie production company. In the early Nineteen-Twenties, Louis B. Mayer Pictures joined two other companies to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mayer was appointed vice president and general manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He had a strong fatherly way of supervising the company and actors. The company had some of the biggest names in show business including Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. A popular expression used at the time was M-G-M had “more stars than there are in heaven.” M-G-M produced some of the most popular movies of all time including “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone with the Wind” and “The Philadelphia Story.” VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Thirties and Nineteen-Forties, Louis B. Mayer was the most powerful businessman in Hollywood. He earned more than one-million-two-hundred-thousand-dollars a year. He was paid more than anyone else in the United States. In Nineteen-Fifty, Mayer received a special Academy Award for “excellent service to the Motion Picture industry.” He died in Hollywood, California in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven. He was seventy-two years old. VOICE ONE: Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer are remembered for their excellent movies and their continuing influence in the motion picture industry. They led the way for movie producers and directors of today and those still to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and directed by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When you hear the name Hollywood, you probably think of excitement, lights, cameras and movie stars. Famous actors are not the only important people in the entertainment business. Directors and producers are important, too. Today, Hollywood is full of producers and directors. However, very few are as famous and successful as Hollywood’s first motion picture businessmen, Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis Mayer. (((“There’s No Business Like Show Business”, CDP-8244))) VOICE TWO: Cecil Blount DeMille was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in Eighteen-Eighty-One. Both his parents were writers of plays. His father died when he was twelve years old. His mother kept the family together by establishing a theater company. Cecil joined the company as an actor. He continued working in his mother’s theater company as an actor and a manager until Nineteen-Thirteen. That year, he joined Jesse L. Lasky and Samuel Goldfish to form the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. Goldfish later changed his name to Samuel Goldwyn. VOICE ONE: The three men started making motion pictures immediately. They loved working in the movie business. They were deeply interested in its creative and financial possibilities. DeMille, Lasky and Goldfish began working on a movie version of the popular American western play, “Squaw Man.” DeMille urged that the movie be made in the real American West. He chose Flagstaff, Arizona. DeMille and the company traveled to Flagstaff by train. When they arrived, DeMille thought the area looked too modern. They got back on the train and keep going until they reached the end of the line. They were in a quiet little town in southern California. The town was called Hollywood. DeMille decided this was the perfect place to film the movie. “Squaw Man” was one of the first full-length movies produced in Hollywood. It was released in Nineteen-Thirteen and was an immediate success. DeMille is considered the man who helped Hollywood become the center of the motion picture business. He quickly became a creative force in the new movie industry. His success continued with “Brewster’s Millions,” “The Call of the North” and “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.” VOICE TWO: Cecil B. DeMille was among the very few filmmakers in Hollywood whose name appeared above the title of his movie. His name was more important to movie-goers than the names of the stars in the movie. DeMille’s movies were known to be big productions. He combined a lot of action, realistic storytelling and hundreds of actors to make some of Hollywood’s best movies. He made many kinds of movies including westerns, comedies, romances and ones dealing with moral issues DeMille gained a great deal of fame with the kind of movie known as an epic. An epic tells a story of events that are important in history. DeMille’s epic movies were based on the settling of the American West, Roman history or stories from the Bible. His first version of the historic film “The Ten Commandments” was a huge success among silent films in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he released a new version of “The Ten Commandments” to include sound. It is broadcast still on American television during the Christian observance of Easter. VOICE ONE: Cecil B. DeMille produced and directed seventy movies. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine he received a special Academy Award for “thirty-seven years of brilliant showmanship.” He died of heart failure in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. One of DeMille’s last films was “The Greatest Show on Earth.” It won the Academy Award for best picture in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. It was about people who performed in the circus. Some people say it was a fitting subject because Cecil B. DeMille often was called the greatest showman in Hollywood. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Ninety-Five, a thirteen-year-old boy from Warsaw, Poland found his way to the United States. Samuel Goldfish was alone. He had no money. He found work as a glove maker. He continued working in the glove-making industry until he was almost thirty years old. VOICE TWO(cont): In Nineteen-Thirteen, Samuel and his wife’s brother, Jesse L. Lasky, and Cecil B. DeMille formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. It produced the movie, “Squaw Man.” In Nineteen-Sixteen, Goldfish started a business with Edgar Selwyn. They combined their names Goldfish and Selwyn and called the new company Goldwyn. Samuel Goldfish liked the name and changed his to Samuel Goldwyn in Nineteen-Eighteen. The Goldwyn Company made many successful motion pictures. Yet, the company was not a financial success. In Nineteen-Twenty-Two, Samuel Goldwyn was forced to leave the company. The Goldwyn Company then joined with Metro Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, known as MGM. Samuel Goldwyn was not part of the deal. He promised never to be a joint owner of another company. He formed his own company Samuel Goldwyn Productions. VOICE ONE: Samuel Goldwyn was one of the great independent producers during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. Most of his films were successful financially and popular with critics. He insisted that his films be well made and of high quality. This became known as the “Goldwyn Touch.” Goldwyn usually paid for his films himself. He bought the best stories and plays to be made into movies. He employed the best writers, directors and actors. And he discovered new actors including Lucille Ball, Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward and Will Rogers. Goldwyn was extremely independent. He had a strong desire to control every element of the production and marketing of his films. He made all decisions concerning his films including choosing directors, actors and writers. His best films include “The Little Foxes,” “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “Porgy and Bess.” His movies received many Academy Awards. VOICE TWO: Samuel Goldwyn was known also for his sense of humor. He created funny expressions. In Hollywood they are known as Goldwynisms. One of his most famous expressions was “Include me out.” In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Goldwyn received the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award for his excellent movie productions during the Academy Award ceremonies that year. He died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four. Samuel Goldwyn was in the movie business for almost sixty years. He is considered one of the most influential film producers ever. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Louis B. Mayer began as a theater operator in Havermill, Massachusetts in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. Over the next several years he bought more theaters. Soon he owned the largest group of theaters in New England. In Nineteen-Seventeen, Mayer formed his own movie production company. In the early Nineteen-Twenties, Louis B. Mayer Pictures joined two other companies to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mayer was appointed vice president and general manager of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He had a strong fatherly way of supervising the company and actors. The company had some of the biggest names in show business including Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. A popular expression used at the time was M-G-M had “more stars than there are in heaven.” M-G-M produced some of the most popular movies of all time including “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone with the Wind” and “The Philadelphia Story.” VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Thirties and Nineteen-Forties, Louis B. Mayer was the most powerful businessman in Hollywood. He earned more than one-million-two-hundred-thousand-dollars a year. He was paid more than anyone else in the United States. In Nineteen-Fifty, Mayer received a special Academy Award for “excellent service to the Motion Picture industry.” He died in Hollywood, California in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven. He was seventy-two years old. VOICE ONE: Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer are remembered for their excellent movies and their continuing influence in the motion picture industry. They led the way for movie producers and directors of today and those still to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written and directed by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Blues Music, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 22, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. Today we have the first of two programs about the kind of music called blues. (MUSIC) No American form of music would be what it is today without blues. The influence is heard not just in rhythm and blues, but also jazz, country and rock and roll. What you just heard was from a song called "Sweet Little Angel," by one of the best-known blues musicians of all, B.B. King. So where did blues come from? You could say it arrived hundreds of years ago with the ships that brought slaves from Africa. These men and women lost almost everything, but not their music. They brought it with them. This music was played on simple instruments. And it was sung by both men and women. Much of it also had a beat that people danced to. If you want to dance, music has to have a tempo that lets you move with the music. Listen for a few moments to the great African recording star Miriam Makeba. This song is called “Kwazulu." (MUSIC) Could you hear the rhythm? It is hard to listen to that song and not move your feet. You don’t have to understand the language. You just want to be part of the music. Perhaps you want to tap your fingers in time with the music. American blues almost always has this same kind of beat. Musicians call this beat four-four time. This means the music has four beats per measure, like this: one-two-three-four. A quarter-note equals one beat. You can play it faster or slower, but it is still a four-four beat. Listen for a moment to this blues song and see if you can keep time with the four-four beat. Just listen and tap your foot with the music. The name of the song is ”Dark Road Blues.” The lead singer is the great blues harmonica player Sonny Terry. (MUSIC) Now that we understand the beat of blues music, let’s discuss the instruments. The first and perhaps the most important instrument in blues is the human voice. Blues began with the human voice. You can play blues without any singing. But blues music is connected with the voice and always will be. Slaves often sang to help make the work in the fields easier. Blues music grew out of these work songs. It also grew out of the religious singing in black churches. The next most important instrument in blues may be the guitar. It became popular with black musicians in the South in the nineteen twenties. The harmonica closely followed. If you add drums, a piano and perhaps a bass violin, you have the instruments for a blues band. You can add other instruments -- really, as many as you want. But blues music is usually played by small bands. Blues music first became popular with the American public in the nineteen twenties. The reason is simple. Slavery ended in the late eighteen-hundreds, after the Civil War. Thousands of black families left farm work in the South. Many moved to cities to look for work and a better life. They brought blues music with them. Many people in major cities heard this unusual music for the first time. Blues became popular in places outside the South like Chicago and Kansas City. In fact, two kinds of blues are named after these cities. (MUSIC) Now, let’s talk about one of the early great blues musicians and play some of his music. As we said, the guitar became popular in the nineteen twenties. One of the early great guitar players was a young black man named Robert Johnson. He also wrote the words to his songs and, like all good blues musicians, he sang them. Robert Johnson also recorded his songs, mostly in the early nineteen thirties. These were not recorded on the best equipment. Listen closely to a true master of blues. What you will hear is just Robert Johnson with his guitar. The song is called “Come On In My Kitchen.” (MUSIC) The work of Robert Johnson is still an influence in the world of blues. Eric Clapton, the singer and guitarist, is one of the most successful of all rock musicians. He says he learned blues by listening to many Robert Johnson recordings. Eric Clapton put together his own blues album called “Me and Mister Johnson.” Now, listen to the same song you just heard. Only this time, the recording equipment is the best that modern technology can produce. And Eric Clapton plays an electric guitar. He has help from a piano, drums and harmonica. But the music and the words are pure Robert Johnson. The song is as fresh and alive today as when Robert Johnson wrote it. (MUSIC) So today we looked at the very beginnings of a music form that first became popular with the American public in the nineteen twenties. We talked about the instruments. And we listened to some proof of the lasting influence of Robert Johnson. Next week, learn more about the history of the blues. We will play some great sounds of the past. And we will play songs by some of the top blues performers of today. We leave you with a song by another one of the truly great blues artists. His name was McKinley Morganfield. Most people have never heard that name. Come back next week and we’ll tell you the name he used on stage. For now, just listen. The song is called “Soon Forgotten.” (MUSIC) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Doug Johnson. Join us for part two of our blues program next week on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 22, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. Today we have the first of two programs about the kind of music called blues. (MUSIC) No American form of music would be what it is today without blues. The influence is heard not just in rhythm and blues, but also jazz, country and rock and roll. What you just heard was from a song called "Sweet Little Angel," by one of the best-known blues musicians of all, B.B. King. So where did blues come from? You could say it arrived hundreds of years ago with the ships that brought slaves from Africa. These men and women lost almost everything, but not their music. They brought it with them. This music was played on simple instruments. And it was sung by both men and women. Much of it also had a beat that people danced to. If you want to dance, music has to have a tempo that lets you move with the music. Listen for a few moments to the great African recording star Miriam Makeba. This song is called “Kwazulu." (MUSIC) Could you hear the rhythm? It is hard to listen to that song and not move your feet. You don’t have to understand the language. You just want to be part of the music. Perhaps you want to tap your fingers in time with the music. American blues almost always has this same kind of beat. Musicians call this beat four-four time. This means the music has four beats per measure, like this: one-two-three-four. A quarter-note equals one beat. You can play it faster or slower, but it is still a four-four beat. Listen for a moment to this blues song and see if you can keep time with the four-four beat. Just listen and tap your foot with the music. The name of the song is ”Dark Road Blues.” The lead singer is the great blues harmonica player Sonny Terry. (MUSIC) Now that we understand the beat of blues music, let’s discuss the instruments. The first and perhaps the most important instrument in blues is the human voice. Blues began with the human voice. You can play blues without any singing. But blues music is connected with the voice and always will be. Slaves often sang to help make the work in the fields easier. Blues music grew out of these work songs. It also grew out of the religious singing in black churches. The next most important instrument in blues may be the guitar. It became popular with black musicians in the South in the nineteen twenties. The harmonica closely followed. If you add drums, a piano and perhaps a bass violin, you have the instruments for a blues band. You can add other instruments -- really, as many as you want. But blues music is usually played by small bands. Blues music first became popular with the American public in the nineteen twenties. The reason is simple. Slavery ended in the late eighteen-hundreds, after the Civil War. Thousands of black families left farm work in the South. Many moved to cities to look for work and a better life. They brought blues music with them. Many people in major cities heard this unusual music for the first time. Blues became popular in places outside the South like Chicago and Kansas City. In fact, two kinds of blues are named after these cities. (MUSIC) Now, let’s talk about one of the early great blues musicians and play some of his music. As we said, the guitar became popular in the nineteen twenties. One of the early great guitar players was a young black man named Robert Johnson. He also wrote the words to his songs and, like all good blues musicians, he sang them. Robert Johnson also recorded his songs, mostly in the early nineteen thirties. These were not recorded on the best equipment. Listen closely to a true master of blues. What you will hear is just Robert Johnson with his guitar. The song is called “Come On In My Kitchen.” (MUSIC) The work of Robert Johnson is still an influence in the world of blues. Eric Clapton, the singer and guitarist, is one of the most successful of all rock musicians. He says he learned blues by listening to many Robert Johnson recordings. Eric Clapton put together his own blues album called “Me and Mister Johnson.” Now, listen to the same song you just heard. Only this time, the recording equipment is the best that modern technology can produce. And Eric Clapton plays an electric guitar. He has help from a piano, drums and harmonica. But the music and the words are pure Robert Johnson. The song is as fresh and alive today as when Robert Johnson wrote it. (MUSIC) So today we looked at the very beginnings of a music form that first became popular with the American public in the nineteen twenties. We talked about the instruments. And we listened to some proof of the lasting influence of Robert Johnson. Next week, learn more about the history of the blues. We will play some great sounds of the past. And we will play songs by some of the top blues performers of today. We leave you with a song by another one of the truly great blues artists. His name was McKinley Morganfield. Most people have never heard that name. Come back next week and we’ll tell you the name he used on stage. For now, just listen. The song is called “Soon Forgotten.” (MUSIC) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Doug Johnson. Join us for part two of our blues program next week on THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Trickle Up Program Helps the Poorest of the Poor
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 22, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. There is an economic theory that says the best way to help those without money is to help those with money. Economic growth would then act like water moving slowly from a higher place to a lower one. It would "trickle down" through society in the form of more jobs, for example, and less need for public aid. Not everyone believes in trickle down economics. An international organization based in New York calls itself the Trickle Up Program. This group is celebrating twenty-five years of work directly with very poor people to help them set up businesses. The Trickle Up Program receives money from large companies and agencies that provide aid. Then it gives this money away, usually in two payments of fifty dollars each. This is called “seed capital.” First a family or small group of people has to write a business plan. Trickle Up provides training to help them do this. If the plan is approved, the first payment of fifty dollars is given to start the business. Then, after about three months, if the business is operating, the second payment is made. Money from the Trickle Up Program does not have to be paid back. This is different from the idea of micro-credit, or very small loans. Trickle Up officials say micro-credit programs often do not reach the poorest of the poor. The Trickle Up Program says it has helped to build more than one hundred twenty thousand small businesses around the world. It says more than five hundred thousand people have been assisted over the last twenty-five years. One of the stories told on its Web site is that of Dona Bernarda in a small town in Nicaragua. She is described as a survivor of the severe storm Hurricane Mitch in nineteen ninety-eight. She has had some health training, and provides free medical tests for malaria and dengue fever. Trickle Up says Dona Bernarda wanted to do more to help her community. So she started a small store. At first she sold only ten food products and simple health supplies. Then she received money from the program. Now, it says, Dona Bernarda sells thirty-four different products and hopes her store will become a center of the community. You can learn more about the Trickle Up Program at trickleup.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Caffeine Withdrawal Called a Disorder / Scientists Seek to Change Smallpox Virus / 'Kangaroo Mother Care' for Baby Humans
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: an American study recognizes caffeine withdrawal as a disorder and a report says people in wealthy countries have a lot to learn from an animal native to Australia. VOICE ONE: But first, scientists suggest genetic engineering experiments with the virus responsible for the disease smallpox. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An advisory committee to the World Health Organization has proposed that scientists be permitted to work with a live, smallpox virus. The committee this month approved a proposal to let scientists carry out genetic experiments with the virus for the first time. W.H.O. officials say the aim would be to speed the development of drugs that could fight the disease. They say the proposal is just the first step in what could be a long approval process for the experiments. W-H-O member countries are expected to consider the proposal at a meeting in May. VOICE TWO: Smallpox is a serious, often deadly disease. A virus called variola is the cause. In nineteen eighty, the W.H.O. declared that smallpox was no longer a health threat to people around the world. The declaration came after an international campaign to increase the use of smallpox vaccines. Vaccines help the body’s natural defenses recognize and fight disease. For years, scientists have debated if the remaining variola virus should be destroyed. Two laboratories have supplies of the live virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates one such laboratory in the United States. The other is at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Russia. VOICE ONE: Some officials have expressed fear that terrorists may get the virus and use it as a weapon. Many adults were given the smallpox vaccine years ago, but most young people have not been vaccinated. Also, American experts note that some people should avoid getting the vaccine for health reasons. Several drug treatments have been tested against smallpox, but none has shown much effectiveness. That is one reason why the W.H.O.’s Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research approved the proposal for the experiments. In one proposed experiment, scientists would put a marker gene into the virus. This gene would shine green when placed under special lighting. The gene would stop shining if a drug destroys the changed virus. VOICE TWO: Not everyone thinks the genetic experiments are a good idea. Some scientists believe the process might make the variola virus stronger. The Advisory Committee has said that placing the marker gene in the virus would not make the disease more dangerous. Geoffrey Smith of Imperial College, London, led the recent meeting of the Committee. He says many conditions and rules would be placed on the experiments. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: How important is your morning cup of coffee? Research scientists in the United States have found that people really can develop a need for coffee. They say people who drink coffee every day and then miss a day can develop physical disorders such as headaches. In general, the more coffee a person drinks, the more severe the disorders are. However, the researchers note that drinking as little as one cup of coffee a day can produce this effect, called caffeine withdrawal. VOICE TWO: Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, soft drinks. It also is present in chocolate, cold medicine, and drugs that keep people awake. An estimated eighty to ninety percent of all adults in North America eat or drink products with caffeine. In the United States, adults who use such products get an average of about two hundred eighty milligrams of caffeine a day. This is the amount of caffeine in about two large cups of coffee. VOICE ONE: The American researchers identified more than sixty studies on caffeine withdrawal. They examined each study to test the truthfulness of the reported findings. The researchers identified several common caffeine withdrawal disorders. They include headaches and sleepiness. Some people have difficulty thinking. Others get angry easily or become very sad. The researchers found that half of the people studied suffered headaches if they did not have caffeine. Thirteen percent had a more serious problem. They were unable to work or do other normal activities. These problems generally resulted twelve to twenty-four hours after stopping caffeine. VOICE TWO: Ronald Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, led the study. He noted that caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant in the world. A stimulant is something that produces a temporary increase of activity. The researchers said it is possible for people to free themselves from dependence on caffeine. They say people should slowly reduce the amount of caffeinated products in their diet. Food or drinks with little or no caffeine should be used in place of those with caffeine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gabriel Margosis was born at Fairfax Hospital in the American state of Virginia. Gabriel came about ten weeks before he was supposed to. He was too small and underdeveloped to keep his normal body temperature. Doctors immediately placed the newborn in a special machine called an incubator. The incubator helped to keep Gabriel warm. It also continuously measured his breathing, heartbeat and other signs of life. VOICE TWO: Elise Margosis did not get to hold her baby until he was five days old. Gabriel was kept in the intensive care area for newborns at the hospital. The area has a lot of modern medical equipment. Yet Elise says that, for all the high technology, she knew her baby needed her to hold him close. Gabriel’s medical team knew that too. So several weeks after giving birth Elise began what is called Kangaroo Mother Care, or K.M.C. It is a method for increasing warmth and closeness between babies and their mothers. VOICE ONE: The baby wears just two things: A cloth cover for the top of the head and a piece of cloth placed between the legs and around the waist. A mother loosens or removes clothing from the upper part of her body. She then holds the baby up high on her chest. Pieces of cloth connect the mother with her baby. The baby can be breastfed in this position. Mother and baby could even sleep together, although they should not lie flat. Other caregivers also can get involved. Fathers and friends may take turns holding the baby in the position. VOICE TWO: Kangaroo Mother Care was developed about twenty-five years ago in Bogotá, Colombia. But it is now used in as many as twenty-five developing countries. Some doctors in wealthy countries also support its use. Last week, the British Medical Journal published a report on Kangaroo Mother Care. Juan Gabriel Ruiz-Palaez of Javeriana University in Bogota was the lead writer. His team examined the effect of K.M.C. on low weight babies. They wrote that it is as effective as an incubator treatment for many such babies. They said the method effectively turns the mother or caregiver into a human incubator. VOICE ONE: The report says K.M.C. can begin as soon as a baby no longer needs continual support from intensive care equipment. It says babies who received the treatment generally had shorter hospital stays. They also had milder infections and better breastfeeding rates. Doctor Ruiz-Palaez says the low cost of K.M.C. makes it very appealing to developing countries. He says wealthy nations also should make it part of normal care for small babies. He says the treatment also helps mothers form emotional ties to their newborns. VOICE TWO: Elise Margosis agrees. She says it was hard having to wait so long to hold her baby. She says that when she finally got Gabriel on her chest, she knew it was the best thing for him. But Elise has new difficulties holding on to her now healthy baby boy. At twenty months old Gabriel now weighs more than twelve kilograms and is a very active little person. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson, George Grow, and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: an American study recognizes caffeine withdrawal as a disorder and a report says people in wealthy countries have a lot to learn from an animal native to Australia. VOICE ONE: But first, scientists suggest genetic engineering experiments with the virus responsible for the disease smallpox. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An advisory committee to the World Health Organization has proposed that scientists be permitted to work with a live, smallpox virus. The committee this month approved a proposal to let scientists carry out genetic experiments with the virus for the first time. W.H.O. officials say the aim would be to speed the development of drugs that could fight the disease. They say the proposal is just the first step in what could be a long approval process for the experiments. W-H-O member countries are expected to consider the proposal at a meeting in May. VOICE TWO: Smallpox is a serious, often deadly disease. A virus called variola is the cause. In nineteen eighty, the W.H.O. declared that smallpox was no longer a health threat to people around the world. The declaration came after an international campaign to increase the use of smallpox vaccines. Vaccines help the body’s natural defenses recognize and fight disease. For years, scientists have debated if the remaining variola virus should be destroyed. Two laboratories have supplies of the live virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates one such laboratory in the United States. The other is at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Russia. VOICE ONE: Some officials have expressed fear that terrorists may get the virus and use it as a weapon. Many adults were given the smallpox vaccine years ago, but most young people have not been vaccinated. Also, American experts note that some people should avoid getting the vaccine for health reasons. Several drug treatments have been tested against smallpox, but none has shown much effectiveness. That is one reason why the W.H.O.’s Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research approved the proposal for the experiments. In one proposed experiment, scientists would put a marker gene into the virus. This gene would shine green when placed under special lighting. The gene would stop shining if a drug destroys the changed virus. VOICE TWO: Not everyone thinks the genetic experiments are a good idea. Some scientists believe the process might make the variola virus stronger. The Advisory Committee has said that placing the marker gene in the virus would not make the disease more dangerous. Geoffrey Smith of Imperial College, London, led the recent meeting of the Committee. He says many conditions and rules would be placed on the experiments. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: How important is your morning cup of coffee? Research scientists in the United States have found that people really can develop a need for coffee. They say people who drink coffee every day and then miss a day can develop physical disorders such as headaches. In general, the more coffee a person drinks, the more severe the disorders are. However, the researchers note that drinking as little as one cup of coffee a day can produce this effect, called caffeine withdrawal. VOICE TWO: Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, soft drinks. It also is present in chocolate, cold medicine, and drugs that keep people awake. An estimated eighty to ninety percent of all adults in North America eat or drink products with caffeine. In the United States, adults who use such products get an average of about two hundred eighty milligrams of caffeine a day. This is the amount of caffeine in about two large cups of coffee. VOICE ONE: The American researchers identified more than sixty studies on caffeine withdrawal. They examined each study to test the truthfulness of the reported findings. The researchers identified several common caffeine withdrawal disorders. They include headaches and sleepiness. Some people have difficulty thinking. Others get angry easily or become very sad. The researchers found that half of the people studied suffered headaches if they did not have caffeine. Thirteen percent had a more serious problem. They were unable to work or do other normal activities. These problems generally resulted twelve to twenty-four hours after stopping caffeine. VOICE TWO: Ronald Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, led the study. He noted that caffeine is the most commonly used stimulant in the world. A stimulant is something that produces a temporary increase of activity. The researchers said it is possible for people to free themselves from dependence on caffeine. They say people should slowly reduce the amount of caffeinated products in their diet. Food or drinks with little or no caffeine should be used in place of those with caffeine. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Gabriel Margosis was born at Fairfax Hospital in the American state of Virginia. Gabriel came about ten weeks before he was supposed to. He was too small and underdeveloped to keep his normal body temperature. Doctors immediately placed the newborn in a special machine called an incubator. The incubator helped to keep Gabriel warm. It also continuously measured his breathing, heartbeat and other signs of life. VOICE TWO: Elise Margosis did not get to hold her baby until he was five days old. Gabriel was kept in the intensive care area for newborns at the hospital. The area has a lot of modern medical equipment. Yet Elise says that, for all the high technology, she knew her baby needed her to hold him close. Gabriel’s medical team knew that too. So several weeks after giving birth Elise began what is called Kangaroo Mother Care, or K.M.C. It is a method for increasing warmth and closeness between babies and their mothers. VOICE ONE: The baby wears just two things: A cloth cover for the top of the head and a piece of cloth placed between the legs and around the waist. A mother loosens or removes clothing from the upper part of her body. She then holds the baby up high on her chest. Pieces of cloth connect the mother with her baby. The baby can be breastfed in this position. Mother and baby could even sleep together, although they should not lie flat. Other caregivers also can get involved. Fathers and friends may take turns holding the baby in the position. VOICE TWO: Kangaroo Mother Care was developed about twenty-five years ago in Bogotá, Colombia. But it is now used in as many as twenty-five developing countries. Some doctors in wealthy countries also support its use. Last week, the British Medical Journal published a report on Kangaroo Mother Care. Juan Gabriel Ruiz-Palaez of Javeriana University in Bogota was the lead writer. His team examined the effect of K.M.C. on low weight babies. They wrote that it is as effective as an incubator treatment for many such babies. They said the method effectively turns the mother or caregiver into a human incubator. VOICE ONE: The report says K.M.C. can begin as soon as a baby no longer needs continual support from intensive care equipment. It says babies who received the treatment generally had shorter hospital stays. They also had milder infections and better breastfeeding rates. Doctor Ruiz-Palaez says the low cost of K.M.C. makes it very appealing to developing countries. He says wealthy nations also should make it part of normal care for small babies. He says the treatment also helps mothers form emotional ties to their newborns. VOICE TWO: Elise Margosis agrees. She says it was hard having to wait so long to hold her baby. She says that when she finally got Gabriel on her chest, she knew it was the best thing for him. But Elise has new difficulties holding on to her now healthy baby boy. At twenty months old Gabriel now weighs more than twelve kilograms and is a very active little person. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson, George Grow, and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Barbara Klein. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT- Turkeys and Thanksgiving
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 23, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving Day this Thursday. The holiday tradition includes eating turkey. Some of the birds will be fried in oil or barbecued over hot coals. Most will be cooked in the oven. Most farm-raised turkeys grow quickly. In fourteen weeks, a female turkey weighs seven kilograms and is ready for market. Hens are usually sold as whole birds. Male turkeys, or toms, are usually grown for eighteen weeks. They weigh more than fourteen kilograms. Toms are processed for meat products. Some farms have started to raise what are called heritage turkeys. These more traditional kinds of birds take longer to raise and require more care. Some can be ordered over the Internet. The meat is at least four times the cost of other turkey. Often, heritage turkeys are raised on organic farms, where no chemicals are used. Under federal law, turkeys and other poultry cannot be given hormones to increase growth. But they may receive antibiotic drugs to fight infection and improve weight gain. Turkeys once were served mainly during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now people have a wide choice of products served all year. Over the years, growers have developed turkeys that have more meat on their chest. These farm-raised birds are very different from their wild relatives. They cannot even reproduce without assistance. They are fertilized through the artificial insemination process. Two-thirds of the cost to raise a turkey is spent on food. Farmed turkeys eat a mixture of corn and soybean with added vitamins and minerals. It takes about thirty-six kilograms of food to raise a fourteen-kilogram bird. About eight percent of turkeys raised in the United States are exported. Mexico is the top importer. American turkey production is valued at three thousand million dollars a year. Turkeys are native to North America. In the seventeen hundreds, Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey, and not the bald eagle, to be the national symbol. But today it does have a place in national politics before Thanksgiving Day. Last week President Bush “pardoned” two turkeys in a ceremony at the White House. The National Turkey Federation, an industry group, started this tradition in nineteen forty-seven. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. Broadcast: November 23, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving Day this Thursday. The holiday tradition includes eating turkey. Some of the birds will be fried in oil or barbecued over hot coals. Most will be cooked in the oven. Most farm-raised turkeys grow quickly. In fourteen weeks, a female turkey weighs seven kilograms and is ready for market. Hens are usually sold as whole birds. Male turkeys, or toms, are usually grown for eighteen weeks. They weigh more than fourteen kilograms. Toms are processed for meat products. Some farms have started to raise what are called heritage turkeys. These more traditional kinds of birds take longer to raise and require more care. Some can be ordered over the Internet. The meat is at least four times the cost of other turkey. Often, heritage turkeys are raised on organic farms, where no chemicals are used. Under federal law, turkeys and other poultry cannot be given hormones to increase growth. But they may receive antibiotic drugs to fight infection and improve weight gain. Turkeys once were served mainly during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now people have a wide choice of products served all year. Over the years, growers have developed turkeys that have more meat on their chest. These farm-raised birds are very different from their wild relatives. They cannot even reproduce without assistance. They are fertilized through the artificial insemination process. Two-thirds of the cost to raise a turkey is spent on food. Farmed turkeys eat a mixture of corn and soybean with added vitamins and minerals. It takes about thirty-six kilograms of food to raise a fourteen-kilogram bird. About eight percent of turkeys raised in the United States are exported. Mexico is the top importer. American turkey production is valued at three thousand million dollars a year. Turkeys are native to North America. In the seventeen hundreds, Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey, and not the bald eagle, to be the national symbol. But today it does have a place in national politics before Thanksgiving Day. Last week President Bush “pardoned” two turkeys in a ceremony at the White House. The National Turkey Federation, an industry group, started this tradition in nineteen forty-seven. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Ecotourism
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 24, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: November 24, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about visiting places to enjoy the natural environment or ecology. This kind of holiday vacation is called ecotourism. (ee-co-TOUR-ism) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We begin our holiday in the northeastern United States. We are in the town of Bar Harbor, Maine. We have paid money to take a three-hour trip on a large boat. We will be traveling several kilometers off the coast to look for whales. We hope to see several kinds of whales -- the huge humpback, the finback and the smaller minke. VOICE TWO: A small storm passed the area last night and the water is rough. The ocean makes the large boat move in several directions at once. The movement of the boat makes walking difficult. The trip out to the ocean takes about forty-five minutes. Soon, the captain slows the engines. We begin to wait. A member of the crew says they have seen whales here for the past several days. If we are lucky we too will see a few. VOICE ONE: Suddenly a crewmember shouts, “There — on the left side of the boat. Look! It’s a humpback whale.” About ninety meters from our boat, a huge humpback whale raises its head above the water. Slowly, it begins to move down again. Moments later the huge tail clears the water and then slowly moves below the waves. A crewmember tells everyone to look for a smooth area of water. That means the whale will be again rising to the surface. Minutes later, a smooth area is seen to the left. The color of the water turns from deep blue to light green and the whale again comes to the surface. This time, two whales appear. Now everyone is standing on the left side of the boat holding a camera. The captain of the boat is careful not to come too close to the whales. He does not want to frighten or harm the huge animals. A few minutes later, it is time to return to the harbor. The passengers will take back with us several photographs of the whales. We will also take memories of one of nature’s largest animals. We will always remember how we shared a few minutes with these wonderful creatures. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have just experienced what travel industry officials call ecotourism. The word ecotourism means several things. It is a holiday vacation that can include visiting and learning about local areas and cultures. It can mean visiting extremely wild areas. It can also mean learning about nature, animals, birds, plants and new ways to live on our planet. And it is tourism designed to limit damage to the environment. Our three-hour trip to see humpback whales off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine was a small ecotourism adventure. VOICE ONE: Travel and holiday experts say ecotourism is the fastest growing part of the holiday vacation industry. It is possible to visit almost any country to learn about the culture, history, food, plants, animals or anything else that might interest you. You can learn about and watch whales in the American states of Maine and Hawaii, and in Mexico. You can visit a natural protected area in Costa Rica, one of the top ecotourism countries in the world. You can travel to the huge national parks in several African countries to see and photograph lions, elephants and other wild animals. You can swim deep under water to experience this beautiful world if you learn how to use special breathing equipment. Companies offer underwater exploration trips in Australia, Mexico, several islands in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and many other places. VOICE TWO: Tourism, the travel and holiday industry, provides huge amounts of money to the economies of many nations. So ecotourism has become extremely important. And officials in the travel industry say ecotourism works to create, improve and protect holiday areas that people will want to visit. Ecotourism also teaches the people who live in areas that tourists may want to visit and enjoy. Government agencies use ecotourism methods to teach these people how to develop these areas for visitors. The people learn to protect the natural environment so that they remain popular places to visit. VOICE ONE: An example of this kind of protection is our whale-watching trip in Bar Harbor, Maine. The boat companies that operate such trips are very careful not to harm or frighten the whales. The boats do not come too close to the large animals. Crewmembers on the boats warn passengers not to throw anything in the water. The boat companies work to protect the whales. They want the whales to return to the area and feel safe there. Most professionals in the travel business learn very quickly that the environment must be protected if an area is to remain popular. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some environmental scientists have strongly criticized the tourism industry. These scientists say the travel industry often fails to understand that thousands of people visiting an area can greatly harm the environment. Environmental experts say people who visit an area are sometimes careless in their actions. They leave food, paper, and bottles behind. They harm plants, animals or objects important to a local culture. The experts say people on holiday often do not understand the damage they can cause. In some cases the experts say ecotourism is killing animals and destroying the environment. They say it is destroying the very thing it is seeking to develop and protect. VOICE ONE: A boat ride to watch whales is a good example of what environmentalists mean. Three years ago, a large humpback whale came up under a ship off the coast of the eastern state of Massachusetts. The whale was seriously injured. In another accident, a smaller minke whale was hit by a ship and killed. These accidents were caused by ships carrying people who paid money to see the whales. However, travel industry officials say environmentalists do not understand how important economic growth can be to the local economy in a developing country. And they say ecotourism can be a very important part of that growth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Tourism Organization is the leading international organization in travel and tourism. It serves as an international meeting place to discuss tourism policy issues and education. It works to help countries and local communities develop ecotourism areas. The World Tourism Organization’s members include one hundred thirty-eight countries and territories. It has more than three hundred-fifty members representing local governments, tourism organizations and private companies. The headquarters of the World Tourism Organization is in Madrid, Spain. Last month, the World Tourism Organization held a meeting in Washington, D.C. Officials from many governments, international aid agencies and several of the world’s leading universities attended the meeting. It was the first meeting among many government agencies, developing countries and university officials. Their goal was to look for ways to cooperate and use the economic power of tourism to increase development. VOICE ONE: At the meeting, the World Bank vice president and the president of the Inter-American Development Bank spoke about the importance of tourism. Both said ecotourism creates jobs and brings money to local economies. They also said ecotourism creates the need for local people to learn to protect the environment. They said agencies and departments within each government must learn to work together to create a tourism industry that can help the economy. The World Tourism Organization says tourism has become the main source of foreign money earnings in the forty-nine least developed countries in the world. But it says the money from tourism in these countries still represents only one percent of the world total. World Tourism Organization records show that there were more than seven hundred million international travelers last year. These visitors spent more than five hundred thousand million dollars. The organization says there will be nine hundred million international tourist visits by the year two thousand ten. Experts say ecotourism is becoming an important part of the future for many countries in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about visiting places to enjoy the natural environment or ecology. This kind of holiday vacation is called ecotourism. (ee-co-TOUR-ism) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We begin our holiday in the northeastern United States. We are in the town of Bar Harbor, Maine. We have paid money to take a three-hour trip on a large boat. We will be traveling several kilometers off the coast to look for whales. We hope to see several kinds of whales -- the huge humpback, the finback and the smaller minke. VOICE TWO: A small storm passed the area last night and the water is rough. The ocean makes the large boat move in several directions at once. The movement of the boat makes walking difficult. The trip out to the ocean takes about forty-five minutes. Soon, the captain slows the engines. We begin to wait. A member of the crew says they have seen whales here for the past several days. If we are lucky we too will see a few. VOICE ONE: Suddenly a crewmember shouts, “There — on the left side of the boat. Look! It’s a humpback whale.” About ninety meters from our boat, a huge humpback whale raises its head above the water. Slowly, it begins to move down again. Moments later the huge tail clears the water and then slowly moves below the waves. A crewmember tells everyone to look for a smooth area of water. That means the whale will be again rising to the surface. Minutes later, a smooth area is seen to the left. The color of the water turns from deep blue to light green and the whale again comes to the surface. This time, two whales appear. Now everyone is standing on the left side of the boat holding a camera. The captain of the boat is careful not to come too close to the whales. He does not want to frighten or harm the huge animals. A few minutes later, it is time to return to the harbor. The passengers will take back with us several photographs of the whales. We will also take memories of one of nature’s largest animals. We will always remember how we shared a few minutes with these wonderful creatures. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have just experienced what travel industry officials call ecotourism. The word ecotourism means several things. It is a holiday vacation that can include visiting and learning about local areas and cultures. It can mean visiting extremely wild areas. It can also mean learning about nature, animals, birds, plants and new ways to live on our planet. And it is tourism designed to limit damage to the environment. Our three-hour trip to see humpback whales off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine was a small ecotourism adventure. VOICE ONE: Travel and holiday experts say ecotourism is the fastest growing part of the holiday vacation industry. It is possible to visit almost any country to learn about the culture, history, food, plants, animals or anything else that might interest you. You can learn about and watch whales in the American states of Maine and Hawaii, and in Mexico. You can visit a natural protected area in Costa Rica, one of the top ecotourism countries in the world. You can travel to the huge national parks in several African countries to see and photograph lions, elephants and other wild animals. You can swim deep under water to experience this beautiful world if you learn how to use special breathing equipment. Companies offer underwater exploration trips in Australia, Mexico, several islands in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and many other places. VOICE TWO: Tourism, the travel and holiday industry, provides huge amounts of money to the economies of many nations. So ecotourism has become extremely important. And officials in the travel industry say ecotourism works to create, improve and protect holiday areas that people will want to visit. Ecotourism also teaches the people who live in areas that tourists may want to visit and enjoy. Government agencies use ecotourism methods to teach these people how to develop these areas for visitors. The people learn to protect the natural environment so that they remain popular places to visit. VOICE ONE: An example of this kind of protection is our whale-watching trip in Bar Harbor, Maine. The boat companies that operate such trips are very careful not to harm or frighten the whales. The boats do not come too close to the large animals. Crewmembers on the boats warn passengers not to throw anything in the water. The boat companies work to protect the whales. They want the whales to return to the area and feel safe there. Most professionals in the travel business learn very quickly that the environment must be protected if an area is to remain popular. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some environmental scientists have strongly criticized the tourism industry. These scientists say the travel industry often fails to understand that thousands of people visiting an area can greatly harm the environment. Environmental experts say people who visit an area are sometimes careless in their actions. They leave food, paper, and bottles behind. They harm plants, animals or objects important to a local culture. The experts say people on holiday often do not understand the damage they can cause. In some cases the experts say ecotourism is killing animals and destroying the environment. They say it is destroying the very thing it is seeking to develop and protect. VOICE ONE: A boat ride to watch whales is a good example of what environmentalists mean. Three years ago, a large humpback whale came up under a ship off the coast of the eastern state of Massachusetts. The whale was seriously injured. In another accident, a smaller minke whale was hit by a ship and killed. These accidents were caused by ships carrying people who paid money to see the whales. However, travel industry officials say environmentalists do not understand how important economic growth can be to the local economy in a developing country. And they say ecotourism can be a very important part of that growth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Tourism Organization is the leading international organization in travel and tourism. It serves as an international meeting place to discuss tourism policy issues and education. It works to help countries and local communities develop ecotourism areas. The World Tourism Organization’s members include one hundred thirty-eight countries and territories. It has more than three hundred-fifty members representing local governments, tourism organizations and private companies. The headquarters of the World Tourism Organization is in Madrid, Spain. Last month, the World Tourism Organization held a meeting in Washington, D.C. Officials from many governments, international aid agencies and several of the world’s leading universities attended the meeting. It was the first meeting among many government agencies, developing countries and university officials. Their goal was to look for ways to cooperate and use the economic power of tourism to increase development. VOICE ONE: At the meeting, the World Bank vice president and the president of the Inter-American Development Bank spoke about the importance of tourism. Both said ecotourism creates jobs and brings money to local economies. They also said ecotourism creates the need for local people to learn to protect the environment. They said agencies and departments within each government must learn to work together to create a tourism industry that can help the economy. The World Tourism Organization says tourism has become the main source of foreign money earnings in the forty-nine least developed countries in the world. But it says the money from tourism in these countries still represents only one percent of the world total. World Tourism Organization records show that there were more than seven hundred million international travelers last year. These visitors spent more than five hundred thousand million dollars. The organization says there will be nine hundred million international tourist visits by the year two thousand ten. Experts say ecotourism is becoming an important part of the future for many countries in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-23-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Preparing for the Next Flu Pandemic
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 24, 2004 I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Health Report. There has not been a worldwide outbreak of influenza since nineteen sixty-eight. Experts say there should have been another by now. They hope to be prepared to limit the effects when the next one finally happens. The so-called Spanish flu in nineteen eighteen became the most deadly influenza pandemic ever recorded. A pandemic is when a disease spreads around the world. It killed an estimated twenty million to fifty million people. Almost half were young adults. There were two other flu pandemics in the twentieth century. The Asian flu struck in nineteen fifty-seven, and the Hong Kong flu in nineteen sixty-eight. Scientists at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the cause of the Spanish flu pandemic is not clear. But the two others are known to have resulted from a human virus that became mixed with an avian influenza virus. And that could happen again. Scientists first identified avian influenza in Italy more than one hundred years ago. Bird flu is caused by type A influenza viruses. Type A are the most common, and usually cause the most serious flu outbreaks in people. Currently the most serious kind of bird flu is known as a-h-five-n-one. It has spread among chickens and ducks in Asia. The virus has infected at least forty-four people in Thailand and Vietnam this year. More than thirty of them have died. Researchers worry that the virus could spread quickly worldwide if it gains the ability to pass easily between people. Many researchers say governments must do more to support planning for the next flu pandemic. This month, the World Health Organization held a meeting to discuss efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent infection with the virus. About fifty experts met in Geneva. Klaus Stohr heads the global influenza program at the W.H.O. He says this is the first chance to produce a vaccine that would limit the damage caused by a flu pandemic. This is the result of improvements in the way scientists study flu outbreaks in people and animals. Scientists are developing two vaccines based on the current bird flu virus in Asia. To have both of these "candidate vaccines" tested within a year would cost an estimated thirteen million dollars each. Medical experts say a vaccine is unlikely to prevent another flu pandemic, but it could save millions of lives. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-23-5-1.cfm
* Headline: November 24, 2004 - Lida Baker: Compliments in American English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on VOA News Now: November 24, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: compliments in American English. Thanksgiving (observed on the fourth Thursday in November) is a day when American families traditionally get together for a festive meal. It's a good time to hear the latest family news and acknowledge who's accomplished what. So before the holiday, we asked our friend, English teacher Lida Baker, for some analysis of how Americans compliment each other. LIDA BAKER: "I think there are a couple of structures that are very common. One of them is 'what a ... ' What-a-adjective-noun. OK? [Laughter] So like, 'what a nice hat' or 'what a beautiful table' or 'what a gorgeous necklace.' So the what-a-adjective-noun is one structure that is I think pretty common. A little bit on the formal side, though. I think in casual conversation between friends, we tend to say things like 'I like your (blank)' or even 'I love your (blank),' so 'I like your hat,' 'I like your hair,' I like your shoes.' That's a fairly common way. "Another one would be 'that's a ... ' That's-a-adjective-noun. 'That's a beautiful flower arrangement,' 'that's a gorgeous turkey.' I mean, we're sitting down tomorrow to Thanksgiving dinner, it's traditional for everybody to compliment the hostess on -- well, that's not fair, the hostess and the host, and/or the host -- on the beautiful table, on the flowers. And everybody oohs and ahhs about the turkey, right?" AA: "Right." LIDA BAKER: "'What a gorgeous turkey!' So more interesting is the question of when it's appropriate to give somebody a compliment and what it's appropriate to compliment people on." RS: "Why don't you give us some examples." LIDA BAKER: "Well, I think that it's always appropriate to compliment a person on something that they have done well. 'You did a good job on that presentation' or 'I'm proud of what you did.' So I think that's one circumstance where we compliment people a lot in this culture. Another situation where we compliment people is, well, when we like the way that they look. But -- " AA: "You have to be careful." LIDA BAKER: " -- we have to be careful about how say things like, for example, about people's weight." RS: "A college friend of mine from Africa came up to me one day, very upset, and he said to me that he had had a fight with his girlfriend and could I help him out, that he had given what he considered a compliment. He said to her, 'My, but you're looking fight.'" And that obviously -- LIDA BAKER: "Ah, yes." RS: " -- to an American woman was not an ideal compliment." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, you know it's interesting you just brought up kind of a cross-cultural comparison. Another one I was very surprised to learn that there are cultures where -- well, to give a little background, in United States culture it's very common for us to compliment people on their belongings. 'I like your hat,' what a beautiful vase,' that painting is fabulous.'" RS: "And your response would be 'thank you.'" LIDA BAKER: "Yes, and that's a good point. The appropriate response to a compliment is 'thank you' in the United States. But in certain cultures, if you compliment people on their belongings, they will feel an obligation to give it to you." RS: "That happened to me in Japan. I learned not to compliment everything as if I were living in the United States. In Japan, they wanted to give everything to me." AA: "In your classroom, do you talk about compliments at all? I mean, do you see your kids having problems, your students having problems with this ever?" RS: "Or do you have any exercises that you use in the classroom to reinforce some of the things we've been talking about?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, anytime we want students to learn social functions, the best way to reinforce that is through role playing. Either we give them things to compliment their classmates on, or a really fun exercise that I've done with students -- and this serves as a great icebreaker too -- is to instruct students, put them in pairs and to instruct them to find something about the other person to compliment." AA: "We'll end with a compliment for the teacher. This is an e-mail we got from a listener named Tristan in China, who's a fan of Wordmaster and he says, 'by the way, I like Lida Baker the most. She is just the right kind of teacher in my mind.'" LIDA BAKER: "To which I would say to Tristan: Thank you very much, that really makes me feel good." RS: "It made her day. AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And listen to us online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on VOA News Now: November 24, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: compliments in American English. Thanksgiving (observed on the fourth Thursday in November) is a day when American families traditionally get together for a festive meal. It's a good time to hear the latest family news and acknowledge who's accomplished what. So before the holiday, we asked our friend, English teacher Lida Baker, for some analysis of how Americans compliment each other. LIDA BAKER: "I think there are a couple of structures that are very common. One of them is 'what a ... ' What-a-adjective-noun. OK? [Laughter] So like, 'what a nice hat' or 'what a beautiful table' or 'what a gorgeous necklace.' So the what-a-adjective-noun is one structure that is I think pretty common. A little bit on the formal side, though. I think in casual conversation between friends, we tend to say things like 'I like your (blank)' or even 'I love your (blank),' so 'I like your hat,' 'I like your hair,' I like your shoes.' That's a fairly common way. "Another one would be 'that's a ... ' That's-a-adjective-noun. 'That's a beautiful flower arrangement,' 'that's a gorgeous turkey.' I mean, we're sitting down tomorrow to Thanksgiving dinner, it's traditional for everybody to compliment the hostess on -- well, that's not fair, the hostess and the host, and/or the host -- on the beautiful table, on the flowers. And everybody oohs and ahhs about the turkey, right?" AA: "Right." LIDA BAKER: "'What a gorgeous turkey!' So more interesting is the question of when it's appropriate to give somebody a compliment and what it's appropriate to compliment people on." RS: "Why don't you give us some examples." LIDA BAKER: "Well, I think that it's always appropriate to compliment a person on something that they have done well. 'You did a good job on that presentation' or 'I'm proud of what you did.' So I think that's one circumstance where we compliment people a lot in this culture. Another situation where we compliment people is, well, when we like the way that they look. But -- " AA: "You have to be careful." LIDA BAKER: " -- we have to be careful about how say things like, for example, about people's weight." RS: "A college friend of mine from Africa came up to me one day, very upset, and he said to me that he had had a fight with his girlfriend and could I help him out, that he had given what he considered a compliment. He said to her, 'My, but you're looking fight.'" And that obviously -- LIDA BAKER: "Ah, yes." RS: " -- to an American woman was not an ideal compliment." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah, you know it's interesting you just brought up kind of a cross-cultural comparison. Another one I was very surprised to learn that there are cultures where -- well, to give a little background, in United States culture it's very common for us to compliment people on their belongings. 'I like your hat,' what a beautiful vase,' that painting is fabulous.'" RS: "And your response would be 'thank you.'" LIDA BAKER: "Yes, and that's a good point. The appropriate response to a compliment is 'thank you' in the United States. But in certain cultures, if you compliment people on their belongings, they will feel an obligation to give it to you." RS: "That happened to me in Japan. I learned not to compliment everything as if I were living in the United States. In Japan, they wanted to give everything to me." AA: "In your classroom, do you talk about compliments at all? I mean, do you see your kids having problems, your students having problems with this ever?" RS: "Or do you have any exercises that you use in the classroom to reinforce some of the things we've been talking about?" LIDA BAKER: "Well, anytime we want students to learn social functions, the best way to reinforce that is through role playing. Either we give them things to compliment their classmates on, or a really fun exercise that I've done with students -- and this serves as a great icebreaker too -- is to instruct students, put them in pairs and to instruct them to find something about the other person to compliment." AA: "We'll end with a compliment for the teacher. This is an e-mail we got from a listener named Tristan in China, who's a fan of Wordmaster and he says, 'by the way, I like Lida Baker the most. She is just the right kind of teacher in my mind.'" LIDA BAKER: "To which I would say to Tristan: Thank you very much, that really makes me feel good." RS: "It made her day. AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And listen to us online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: November 3, 2004 - English Classes for Hmong Immigrants in Minnesota
* Byline: 

 November 3, 2004 English language classes are bursting at the seams across Minnesota. The northern state has absorbed English language classes are bursting at the seams across Minnesota. The northern state has absorbed nearly 50,000 immigrants just since the year 2000. As Toni Randolph reports, these new arrivals to the United States have been packing the classes, eager to learn the primary language of their new homeland. TONI RANDOLPH: At Lao Family English in St. Paul, Minnesota, the beginner class has 39 students -- that's about three times the normal size. It's so big that computer stations were taken out so that more tables and chairs could be put in. And, there's a waiting list with more than 50 names. Jean Hanslin is the instructional coordinator for the English education program. JEAN HANSLIN: "We knew we'd be getting new learners, especially those who've just arrived from Thailand, but we didn't know how many and we didn't know how soon." TEXT: About one third of the students in the most basic English class are newly resettled Hmong refugees. Some of them are among the record-setting 1,400 refugees who arrived in Minnesota in September. More than 5,000 new Hmong are expected in the state over the next two months. Su Xiong moved to St. Paul in June, with the first group to arrive. Speaking through interpreter Plia Vang, he says knowing English is essential. SU XIONG (IN HMONG) AND PLIA VANG: "I feel that there's a need to learn a little bit of English, writing, reading before getting a good job." Plus, Mr. Xiong says he wants to be able to have conversations with Americans. But the overcrowded classrooms are making it hard on the students and teachers. Lao Family English Coordinator Jean Hanslin says one of her teachers was laid off earlier this year because of funding cutbacks. JEAN HANSLIN: "We have a tremendous staff with experience in just these types of new Americans, but we have less money than we've ever had before. We have fewer staff people than we've had for a long time. And we're dealing with more learners than we have for a long, long time." Ms. Hanslin does not foresee an immediate improvement in the situation, since funding for these programs is based on the number of learners in the previous year. St. Paul literacy activist Tom Cytron-Hysom says he fears the overcrowded and understaffed classrooms may lead to poorer quality instruction. TOM CYTRON-HYSOM: "Learning English is a pretty labor intensive task and students need to be able to practice their pronunciation and have a lot of time with the teacher to correct their mistakes and so on. So when you have twice as many students as the optimum level, it really does, over time, effect the quality of instruction the students are receiving." Mr. Cytron-Hysom has been recruiting volunteers to help but says there aren't enough to meet demand. What's happening in St. Paul is being repeated across Minnesota, according to Barry Shafer, the state director of Adult Basic Education, which includes English as a Second Language. Mr. Shaffer says the only relief would be more resources, but funding for adult basic education has stayed the same for the past few years. He says increasing funding, though, would make economic sense. BARRY SHAFER: "If we can, as quickly as possible, get our new Minnesotans into the job market through the English language training, they'll be off public assistance, they will not be using other social services, they will be independent and self-sufficient." Barry Shaffer says for every dollar spent on English language training, the state gets a $5 to $7 payoff. Back at Lao Family English, Tong Her attends language classes every day. He was in the first group of Hmong to arrive in the St. Paul area from Thailand earlier this year. Speaking through interpreter Plia Vang, Mr. Her says learning the language will help him get a better job than the temporary one he has now, vacuuming an office. TONY HER (IN HMONG) AND PLIA VANG: "As time goes by and I'm learning more English, it will help me better. I want to get a job that's permanent and full-time." But Mr. Her's dream may be delayed. The classes at Lao Family English are so full that students who are ready to advance are sometimes kept in lower level classes, because there's no room for them to move up. For Wordmaster, I'm Toni Randolph in St. Paul, Minnesota. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #90 - James Buchanan, Part 6
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 25, 2004 (MUSIC) Brown's fort near Harpers Ferry (Image:www.nps.gov/hafe) Broadcast: November 25, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Throughout most of the eighteen-fifties, war between north and south over the issue of slavery remained a continuing threat. Then, in the autumn of eighteen-fifty-nine, the American crisis seemed to cool. There had been elections in most states of the north and south. The people had rejected candidates of extreme ideas and elected moderate men. Only in a few states of the north did anti-slavery extremists rule. And pro-slavery extremists held power in only a few states of the deep south. People saw the elections as a sign of hope that reasonable men might find a way to settle the bitter dispute over slavery. But these hopes fell on October seventeenth, eighteen-fifty-nine, with the news that a group of Abolitionists had attacked the Virginia town of Harper's Ferry. VOICE TWO: The attack was led by John Brown, an old anti-slavery extremist. Many believed him insane. He had gone to Kansas and fought bitterly against pro-slavery forces. Once, to answer an attack on the town of Lawrence, Brown and his men pulled five men and boys from their homes amd murdered them. The wife of one of the men said brown told her: "If a man stands between me and what I believe to be right, I will take his life as coolly as I would eat my breakfast." Brown lost a son in a pro-slavery attack on his home at Osawatomie, Kansas. Brown and his friends were forced to flee. They watched as the pro-slavery men burned the town. Brown shook with grief and anger. "I have only a short time to live," he said, "only one death to die. And I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave territory. I will carry this war into the south." VOICE ONE: To fight a war against slavery, Brown needed money and guns. He went to Massachusetts and New York. He spoke at town meetings and met privately with Abolitionist leaders. In these private talks, Brown said it was too late to settle the slave question through politics or any other peaceful way. He said the only answer was a slave rebellion. It would be bloody, Brown said, and this was terrible. But slavery itself was a terrible wrong -- the same as murder. Only blood, he said, would wash away the wrongs of slavery. Brown said God meant for him to begin this rebellion by invading Virginia with a military force he already was organizing. Brown said even if the rebellion failed, it would probably lead to a civil war between north and south. In such a war, he said, the north would break the chains of the black man on the battlefield. VOICE TWO: Brown won the support of a group of Abolitionist leaders. They formed a secret committee and called themselves the "Secret Six. " They agreed to advise Brown and, more importantly, to raise one thousand dollars for him. From New England, Brown went to Chatham, Canada. He went there for a secret convention he had called to form a revolutionary government. This government would rule all the slave territory that Brown and his men could capture. Forty-six representatives went to the convention -- thirty-four Negroes and twelve whites. Brown told them of his plan. He said he was sure that southern slaves were ready for rebellion. He said they would rise up at the first sign of a leader who wished to break their chains. VOICE ONE: "But what if troops are brought against you," one man asked. Brown answered that his men would fight in the mountains, where a small force could stop a much larger one. He said his men would be well-trained in mountain fighting. Brown said he expected his small force to grow much larger. He would invite the slaves he freed to join his army. And, he said he thought that all the free Negroes of the north would come to fight slavery with him. The representatives approved Brown's constitution. And they named him commander-in-chief. VOICE TWO: Brown had decided to strike at Harpers Ferry, a town of about twenty-five-hundred people. It was in northern Virginia about one hundred kilometers north of Washington. Harpers Ferry was built on a narrow finger of land where the Shenandoah River flowed into the Potomac River. There were two bridges. One crossed the Shenandoah. The other, a railroad bridge, crossed the Potomac to Maryland. John Brown chose Harpers Ferry because there was a factory there that made guns for the army. There also was an arsenal where several million dollars' worth of military equipment was kept. Brown needed the guns and equipment for the slave army he hoped to form. VOICE ONE: Old Brown arrived at Harpers Ferry early in July, eighteen-fifty-nine. Two of his sons, Owen and Oliver, and another man came with him. They rented an old house on a farm in Maryland not far from Harpers Ferry. Brown told people that he was a cattle buyer from New York. Brown's men joined him, one or two at a time, over the next several months. They traveled at night so no one would see them. Once they reached the farm house, they had to stay in hiding. Week by week, the little force grew. But it grew too slowly. By the end of summer, there were still less than twenty men hiding in the old house. Brown wrote letters to his supporters in the north. He asked for more money and more men. He got little of either. His supporters were afraid. Too many people knew of Brown's plans. The "Secret Six" feared they would face criminal charges if Brown attacked Harpers Ferry. Brown's men grew tired of the small, crowded rooms of the farm house. Brown knew he must act soon or his young men would begin leaving. VOICE TWO: On Saturday, October fifteenth, three men arrived to join the group. One of them brought six-hundred dollars in gold for Brown's use. Brown saw the gold as a sign that God wanted him to act. He told his men they would strike the next night. Brown held religious services Sunday morning and prayed for God to help him free the slaves. Then he called his men around him to explain to them his battle plan. They would seize the two bridges at Harpers Ferry and close them. Next, they would capture the armory and the rifle factory. They would capture as many people as possible. They would use the people as hostages for protection against any soldiers that might be sent against them. VOICE ONE: The army had no men near Harpers Ferry. Brown believed he would have all the time he needed. He believed his only opposition might be local groups of militia. He did not fear these civilian soldiers. The old man thought he and his men could hold Harpers Ferry until slaves in the area rebelled and joined them. Brown knew that Maryland and western Virginia were full of people opposed to slavery. He expected many of them to come to his aid. The twenty-two men rested until dark, listening to rain hit the roof of the farm house. VOICE TWO: About eight o'clock, Brown called his group. "Men," he said, "get your weapons. We are going to the Ferry." A wagon was brought out and a horse tied to it. In the wagon were a few tools and some extra guns. Brown climbed into the wagon and started it toward town. Two of his men stepped out in front of the wagon, leading the way. The others walked behind. It was a dark and cold night. A light rain was falling. There was no one else on the road. After a time, they reached the high ground above the Potomac. Below them, across the river, lay the town of Harpers Ferry. Most of the town was sleeping. Only a few lights shone through the rain. John Brown was ready for his final struggle against slavery. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) Throughout most of the eighteen-fifties, war between north and south over the issue of slavery remained a continuing threat. Then, in the autumn of eighteen-fifty-nine, the American crisis seemed to cool. There had been elections in most states of the north and south. The people had rejected candidates of extreme ideas and elected moderate men. Only in a few states of the north did anti-slavery extremists rule. And pro-slavery extremists held power in only a few states of the deep south. People saw the elections as a sign of hope that reasonable men might find a way to settle the bitter dispute over slavery. But these hopes fell on October seventeenth, eighteen-fifty-nine, with the news that a group of Abolitionists had attacked the Virginia town of Harper's Ferry. VOICE TWO: The attack was led by John Brown, an old anti-slavery extremist. Many believed him insane. He had gone to Kansas and fought bitterly against pro-slavery forces. Once, to answer an attack on the town of Lawrence, Brown and his men pulled five men and boys from their homes amd murdered them. The wife of one of the men said brown told her: "If a man stands between me and what I believe to be right, I will take his life as coolly as I would eat my breakfast." Brown lost a son in a pro-slavery attack on his home at Osawatomie, Kansas. Brown and his friends were forced to flee. They watched as the pro-slavery men burned the town. Brown shook with grief and anger. "I have only a short time to live," he said, "only one death to die. And I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave territory. I will carry this war into the south." VOICE ONE: To fight a war against slavery, Brown needed money and guns. He went to Massachusetts and New York. He spoke at town meetings and met privately with Abolitionist leaders. In these private talks, Brown said it was too late to settle the slave question through politics or any other peaceful way. He said the only answer was a slave rebellion. It would be bloody, Brown said, and this was terrible. But slavery itself was a terrible wrong -- the same as murder. Only blood, he said, would wash away the wrongs of slavery. Brown said God meant for him to begin this rebellion by invading Virginia with a military force he already was organizing. Brown said even if the rebellion failed, it would probably lead to a civil war between north and south. In such a war, he said, the north would break the chains of the black man on the battlefield. VOICE TWO: Brown won the support of a group of Abolitionist leaders. They formed a secret committee and called themselves the "Secret Six. " They agreed to advise Brown and, more importantly, to raise one thousand dollars for him. From New England, Brown went to Chatham, Canada. He went there for a secret convention he had called to form a revolutionary government. This government would rule all the slave territory that Brown and his men could capture. Forty-six representatives went to the convention -- thirty-four Negroes and twelve whites. Brown told them of his plan. He said he was sure that southern slaves were ready for rebellion. He said they would rise up at the first sign of a leader who wished to break their chains. VOICE ONE: "But what if troops are brought against you," one man asked. Brown answered that his men would fight in the mountains, where a small force could stop a much larger one. He said his men would be well-trained in mountain fighting. Brown said he expected his small force to grow much larger. He would invite the slaves he freed to join his army. And, he said he thought that all the free Negroes of the north would come to fight slavery with him. The representatives approved Brown's constitution. And they named him commander-in-chief. VOICE TWO: Brown had decided to strike at Harpers Ferry, a town of about twenty-five-hundred people. It was in northern Virginia about one hundred kilometers north of Washington. Harpers Ferry was built on a narrow finger of land where the Shenandoah River flowed into the Potomac River. There were two bridges. One crossed the Shenandoah. The other, a railroad bridge, crossed the Potomac to Maryland. John Brown chose Harpers Ferry because there was a factory there that made guns for the army. There also was an arsenal where several million dollars' worth of military equipment was kept. Brown needed the guns and equipment for the slave army he hoped to form. VOICE ONE: Old Brown arrived at Harpers Ferry early in July, eighteen-fifty-nine. Two of his sons, Owen and Oliver, and another man came with him. They rented an old house on a farm in Maryland not far from Harpers Ferry. Brown told people that he was a cattle buyer from New York. Brown's men joined him, one or two at a time, over the next several months. They traveled at night so no one would see them. Once they reached the farm house, they had to stay in hiding. Week by week, the little force grew. But it grew too slowly. By the end of summer, there were still less than twenty men hiding in the old house. Brown wrote letters to his supporters in the north. He asked for more money and more men. He got little of either. His supporters were afraid. Too many people knew of Brown's plans. The "Secret Six" feared they would face criminal charges if Brown attacked Harpers Ferry. Brown's men grew tired of the small, crowded rooms of the farm house. Brown knew he must act soon or his young men would begin leaving. VOICE TWO: On Saturday, October fifteenth, three men arrived to join the group. One of them brought six-hundred dollars in gold for Brown's use. Brown saw the gold as a sign that God wanted him to act. He told his men they would strike the next night. Brown held religious services Sunday morning and prayed for God to help him free the slaves. Then he called his men around him to explain to them his battle plan. They would seize the two bridges at Harpers Ferry and close them. Next, they would capture the armory and the rifle factory. They would capture as many people as possible. They would use the people as hostages for protection against any soldiers that might be sent against them. VOICE ONE: The army had no men near Harpers Ferry. Brown believed he would have all the time he needed. He believed his only opposition might be local groups of militia. He did not fear these civilian soldiers. The old man thought he and his men could hold Harpers Ferry until slaves in the area rebelled and joined them. Brown knew that Maryland and western Virginia were full of people opposed to slavery. He expected many of them to come to his aid. The twenty-two men rested until dark, listening to rain hit the roof of the farm house. VOICE TWO: About eight o'clock, Brown called his group. "Men," he said, "get your weapons. We are going to the Ferry." A wagon was brought out and a horse tied to it. In the wagon were a few tools and some extra guns. Brown climbed into the wagon and started it toward town. Two of his men stepped out in front of the wagon, leading the way. The others walked behind. It was a dark and cold night. A light rain was falling. There was no one else on the road. After a time, they reached the high ground above the Potomac. Below them, across the river, lay the town of Harpers Ferry. Most of the town was sleeping. Only a few lights shone through the rain. John Brown was ready for his final struggle against slavery. That will be our story in the next program of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #13: 'Open Doors 2004' Report
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 25, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. Our Foreign Student Series continues with a report this month from the Institute of International Education. The report says the number of foreign students in the United States during the last school year decreased by more than two percent. The institute, in New York, says this is the first drop in the number of foreign students in more than thirty years. More than five hundred seventy-two thousand attended American colleges and universities between September of last year and May of this year. Officials counted five percent fewer undergraduates from other countries than the year before. However, the number of foreign graduate students increased. It was up by two and one-half percent. For a third year, India sent the most students to the United States, just under eighty thousand. That was a seven percent increase from the year before. China sent the next highest number, sixty-one thousand. But that was down five percent from the year before. South Korea was third, with fifty-two thousand students, up two percent. And Japan was fourth, with forty-thousand students. That was down eleven percent from the year before. The school with the largest number of foreign students was, for a third year, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Columbia University in New York City was second. The report is called "Open Doors Two Thousand Four." It discusses reasons for the decrease in foreign students in the United States. These include difficulties getting a visa, higher costs and competition from schools in other English-speaking nations. Also, some people think foreign students are no longer welcome in the United States. Education Department officials say they are working with other agencies to show that international students are welcome. And the number of students is expected to increase next year. The number of student visas approved in the first six months of this year was up eleven percent from the same period last year. You can read more of the report on the Web site of the Institute of International Education: www.iie.org. And you can find our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish dot com. Next week, in part fourteen, learn about ways to study in the United States through the Fulbright programs. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: American Mosaic
* Byline: 

 DATE=11-26-2004 TYPE=Special English Feature NUMBER=7- TITLE=SPECIAL ENGLISH AMERICAN MOSAIC # TELEPHONE=619-2585 DATELINE=Washington EDITOR=Avi Arditti CONTENT= Clinton Presidential Library(Steinbach); Singer Kenny Chesney(Steinbach); Separation of Powers(Steinbach) (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: The Clinton Presidential Center…Country music singer Kenny Chesney…And a listener question about which part of the United States government is the most powerful. Clinton Presidential Center HOST: Last Friday, November nineteenth, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center opened to the public in the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is the twelfth presidential library in the United States. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Government officials have described the Clinton Presidential Center as a kind of “bridge to the twenty-first century.” They say it much different from the other eleven presidential libraries. It includes a large museum area. The museum shows more than eighty million objects that aim to tell the story of the Bill Clinton presidency. Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that the library will tell the true story of her husband’s time in Washington. This includes his involvement with White House assistant Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment. One room shows public events that took place each year that Bill Clinton was president. These include his peace efforts in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Also on display in the museum is an electronic copy of the president’s book of daily appointments. Visitors can touch a screen and see his official duties that day. The museum also includes the only full-size copy of the Oval Office in a presidential library. Reports say Clinton administration officials took thousands of pictures of the president’s office in the White House so they could re-create the room. Other, more personal presidential property is also displayed. For example, visitors can see Mister Clinton’s collection of objects that belonged to singer Elvis Presley. Letters the president received from famous people. And an area honoring the Clintons’ pet cat and dog that lived with them in the White House. Along with the library and museum, the center includes an eleven hectare park and a bridge across the Arkansas River. It will also include a University of Arkansas graduate school that will train students in public service. The Clinton Center was built with one hundred sixty-five million dollars in private money. Officials expect more than three hundred thousand visitors a year. And the city of Little Rock expects the Clinton Center to increase its popularity as a place people want to go for a holiday. Country Music Singer Kenny Chesney HOST: If there were a president of country music, it might very well be singer Kenny Chesney. Earlier this month, he won two awards from the Country Music Association -- Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year. Then, the American Music Association named him Artist of the Year. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. ANNCR: Kenny Chesney is thirty-six years old. He grew up in the southern state of Tennessee, and has been recording country music since nineteen ninety-one. His first successful single record was a song he wrote and recorded in nineteen ninety-four, “The Tin Man.” ((CUT 1: THE TIN MAN: CDP-22464)) Fans have been buying his albums ever since. Two years ago, he recorded a popular album called “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.” One of the most popular songs on that album was this one, “Young.” ((CUT 2: YOUNG; CDP-25139)) Kenny Chesney’s awards are the result of his latest album, “When the Sun Goes Down.” Critics say the album is a celebration of living life, seeking love and not being afraid to dream. We leave you now with the title song from “When The Sun Goes Down” that Kenny Chesney performs with Uncle Kracker. ((CUT 3: WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN; CDP-28627)) Separation of Powers HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guangzhou, China. Huang Shixiang asks who is more powerful in the United States government -- the president or the Congress? Early American leaders designed the government so that no one part would become too powerful. The federal government is organized into three branches. Most government offices are in the executive branch. This branch is led by the president. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And the judicial branch is the federal court system, under the Supreme Court. This way of government is known as the system of checks and balances, or the separation of powers. Under this system, each branch of government is restricted by the others. For example, both houses of Congress must approve a bill before it can become law. And the Supreme Court has the power to declare laws unconstitutional. Bills are signed into law by the president. But the president may veto a bill. The rejected measure then goes back to Congress. Congress can let the veto stand. Or it can vote to make the bill into law without presidential approval. To do so, two-thirds of the members of both houses must agree. The Constitution gives the president the power to sign treaties. But treaties must be approved by the Senate. In nineteen nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Treaty of Versailles to end World War One. That treaty also included a proposal to establish a League of Nations where countries could meet and discuss problems. But Americans feared they would become involved in another war. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations was established anyway without American involvement -- and without much success. After World War Two, the United Nations took its place. HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jerilyn Watson and Brian Kim. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Efrem Drucker. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Sears and Kmart to Merge
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 26, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Sears used to call itself "the place where America shops." For more than a century, Sears department stores have tried to meet the needs of a changing nation. Now, the company that was once the nation's biggest seller faces big changes of its own. A smaller competitor, Kmart, announced plans last week to buy Sears for eleven thousand million dollars. Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck started Sears, Roebuck and Company in eighteen ninety-three. At first they sold only timepieces and jewelry. Then they published a general catalog for people to order goods by mail. Sears opened its first store in nineteen twenty-five in Chicago. As the company grew, it opened many stores in large shopping malls away from high land prices in cities. Sears also led the way in providing average people with credit cards. Kmart opened its first store in nineteen sixty-two. It sold goods at low prices. That same year, Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart. He used computer technology to organize his business and improve the flow of goods to stores. He kept prices extremely low. Americans found a new place to shop. In two thousand two, Kmart sought protection from its creditors. Businessman Edward Lampert bought control of the company. He sold many of the stores. He re-organized the company and reduced its debt. In two thousand three, Kmart came out of bankruptcy. Since then, its stock has increased over six times in price. The purchase of Sears would create the third largest retail group in the country, behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Home Depot sells tools and home improvement products. The plan is to organize Sears and Kmart under a larger holding company called Sears Holdings, led by Mister Lampert. Some people do not think the Kmart name will continue very long. Kmart is perhaps best known for a line of home products sold under the Martha Stewart name. Sears brands include Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances like washing machines. The merger of Sears and Kmart requires approval by shareholders and federal officials. Nobody knows how much the combination will help sales. Some experts suggest that the land under the stores may be worth more than the businesses themselves. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: November 26, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Sears used to call itself "the place where America shops." For more than a century, Sears department stores have tried to meet the needs of a changing nation. Now, the company that was once the nation's biggest seller faces big changes of its own. A smaller competitor, Kmart, announced plans last week to buy Sears for eleven thousand million dollars. Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck started Sears, Roebuck and Company in eighteen ninety-three. At first they sold only timepieces and jewelry. Then they published a general catalog for people to order goods by mail. Sears opened its first store in nineteen twenty-five in Chicago. As the company grew, it opened many stores in large shopping malls away from high land prices in cities. Sears also led the way in providing average people with credit cards. Kmart opened its first store in nineteen sixty-two. It sold goods at low prices. That same year, Sam Walton opened his first Wal-Mart. He used computer technology to organize his business and improve the flow of goods to stores. He kept prices extremely low. Americans found a new place to shop. In two thousand two, Kmart sought protection from its creditors. Businessman Edward Lampert bought control of the company. He sold many of the stores. He re-organized the company and reduced its debt. In two thousand three, Kmart came out of bankruptcy. Since then, its stock has increased over six times in price. The purchase of Sears would create the third largest retail group in the country, behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Home Depot sells tools and home improvement products. The plan is to organize Sears and Kmart under a larger holding company called Sears Holdings, led by Mister Lampert. Some people do not think the Kmart name will continue very long. Kmart is perhaps best known for a line of home products sold under the Martha Stewart name. Sears brands include Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances like washing machines. The merger of Sears and Kmart requires approval by shareholders and federal officials. Nobody knows how much the combination will help sales. Some experts suggest that the land under the stores may be worth more than the businesses themselves. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Country Music Singer Kenny Chesney / A Question from China  / New Presidential Library
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 26, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: November 26, 2004 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Country music from Kenny Chesney … A question from China about who has more power in America, the president or Congress ... And a look at America's newest presidential library. Clinton Library Opens HOST: Last Friday, November nineteenth, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center opened to the public in the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is the twelfth presidential library in the United States. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Government officials have described the Clinton Presidential Center as a kind of “bridge to the twenty-first century.” They say it much different from the other eleven presidential libraries. It includes a large museum area. The museum shows more than eighty million objects that aim to tell the story of the Bill Clinton presidency. Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that the library will tell the true story of her husband’s time in Washington. This includes his involvement with White House assistant Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment. One room shows public events that took place each year that Bill Clinton was president. These include his peace efforts in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Also on display in the museum is an electronic copy of the president’s book of daily appointments. Visitors can touch a screen and see his official duties that day. The museum also includes the only full-size copy of the Oval Office in a presidential library. Reports say Clinton administration officials took thousands of pictures of the president’s office in the White House so they could re-create the room. Other, more personal presidential property is also displayed. For example, visitors can see Mister Clinton’s collection of objects that belonged to singer Elvis Presley. Letters the president received from famous people. And an area honoring the Clintons’ pet cat and dog that lived with them in the White House. Along with the library and museum, the center includes an eleven hectare park and a bridge across the Arkansas River. It will also include a University of Arkansas graduate school that will train students in public service. The Clinton Center was built with one hundred sixty-five million dollars in private money. Officials expect more than three hundred thousand visitors a year. And the city of Little Rock expects the Clinton Center to increase its popularity as a place people want to go for a holiday. Separation of Powers HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guangzhou, China. Huang Shixiang asks who is more powerful in the United States government -- the president or the Congress? Early American leaders designed the government so that no one part would become too powerful. The federal government is organized into three branches. Most government offices are in the executive branch. This branch is led by the president. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And the judicial branch is the federal court system, under the Supreme Court. This way of government is known as the system of checks and balances, or the separation of powers. Under this system, each branch of government is restricted by the others. For example, both houses of Congress must approve a bill before it can become law. And the Supreme Court has the power to declare laws unconstitutional. Bills are signed into law by the president. But the president may veto a bill. The rejected measure then goes back to Congress. Congress can let the veto stand. Or it can vote to make the bill into law without presidential approval. To do so, two-thirds of the members of both houses must agree. The Constitution gives the president the power to sign treaties. But treaties must be approved by the Senate. In nineteen nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Treaty of Versailles to end World War One. That treaty also included a proposal to establish a League of Nations where countries could meet and discuss problems. But Americans feared they would become involved in another war. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations was established anyway without American involvement -- and without much success. After World War Two, the United Nations took its place. Kenny Chesney HOST: If there were a president of country music, it might very well be singer Kenny Chesney. Earlier this month, he won two awards from the Country Music Association -- Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year. Then, the American Music Association named him Artist of the Year. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. ANNCR: Kenny Chesney is thirty-six years old. He grew up in the southern state of Tennessee, and has been recording country music since nineteen ninety-one. His first successful single record was a song he wrote and recorded in nineteen ninety-four, “The Tin Man.” (MUSIC) Fans have been buying his albums ever since. Two years ago, he recorded a popular album called “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.” One of the most popular songs on that album was this one, “Young.” (MUSIC) Kenny Chesney’s awards are the result of his latest album, “When the Sun Goes Down.” Critics say the album is a celebration of living life, seeking love and not being afraid to dream. We leave you now with the title song from “When The Sun Goes Down” that Kenny Chesney performs with Uncle Kracker. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Country music from Kenny Chesney … A question from China about who has more power in America, the president or Congress ... And a look at America's newest presidential library. Clinton Library Opens HOST: Last Friday, November nineteenth, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center opened to the public in the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is the twelfth presidential library in the United States. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Government officials have described the Clinton Presidential Center as a kind of “bridge to the twenty-first century.” They say it much different from the other eleven presidential libraries. It includes a large museum area. The museum shows more than eighty million objects that aim to tell the story of the Bill Clinton presidency. Hillary Rodham Clinton has said that the library will tell the true story of her husband’s time in Washington. This includes his involvement with White House assistant Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment. One room shows public events that took place each year that Bill Clinton was president. These include his peace efforts in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. Also on display in the museum is an electronic copy of the president’s book of daily appointments. Visitors can touch a screen and see his official duties that day. The museum also includes the only full-size copy of the Oval Office in a presidential library. Reports say Clinton administration officials took thousands of pictures of the president’s office in the White House so they could re-create the room. Other, more personal presidential property is also displayed. For example, visitors can see Mister Clinton’s collection of objects that belonged to singer Elvis Presley. Letters the president received from famous people. And an area honoring the Clintons’ pet cat and dog that lived with them in the White House. Along with the library and museum, the center includes an eleven hectare park and a bridge across the Arkansas River. It will also include a University of Arkansas graduate school that will train students in public service. The Clinton Center was built with one hundred sixty-five million dollars in private money. Officials expect more than three hundred thousand visitors a year. And the city of Little Rock expects the Clinton Center to increase its popularity as a place people want to go for a holiday. Separation of Powers HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guangzhou, China. Huang Shixiang asks who is more powerful in the United States government -- the president or the Congress? Early American leaders designed the government so that no one part would become too powerful. The federal government is organized into three branches. Most government offices are in the executive branch. This branch is led by the president. The legislative branch is Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. And the judicial branch is the federal court system, under the Supreme Court. This way of government is known as the system of checks and balances, or the separation of powers. Under this system, each branch of government is restricted by the others. For example, both houses of Congress must approve a bill before it can become law. And the Supreme Court has the power to declare laws unconstitutional. Bills are signed into law by the president. But the president may veto a bill. The rejected measure then goes back to Congress. Congress can let the veto stand. Or it can vote to make the bill into law without presidential approval. To do so, two-thirds of the members of both houses must agree. The Constitution gives the president the power to sign treaties. But treaties must be approved by the Senate. In nineteen nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Treaty of Versailles to end World War One. That treaty also included a proposal to establish a League of Nations where countries could meet and discuss problems. But Americans feared they would become involved in another war. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations was established anyway without American involvement -- and without much success. After World War Two, the United Nations took its place. Kenny Chesney HOST: If there were a president of country music, it might very well be singer Kenny Chesney. Earlier this month, he won two awards from the Country Music Association -- Entertainer of the Year and Album of the Year. Then, the American Music Association named him Artist of the Year. Faith Lapidus tells us about him. ANNCR: Kenny Chesney is thirty-six years old. He grew up in the southern state of Tennessee, and has been recording country music since nineteen ninety-one. His first successful single record was a song he wrote and recorded in nineteen ninety-four, “The Tin Man.” (MUSIC) Fans have been buying his albums ever since. Two years ago, he recorded a popular album called “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems.” One of the most popular songs on that album was this one, “Young.” (MUSIC) Kenny Chesney’s awards are the result of his latest album, “When the Sun Goes Down.” Critics say the album is a celebration of living life, seeking love and not being afraid to dream. We leave you now with the title song from “When The Sun Goes Down” that Kenny Chesney performs with Uncle Kracker. (MUSIC) HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Ukraine's Presidential Election
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 26, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 26, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Ukrainian officials this week declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of Ukraine’s presidential election. They say he defeated opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in the election last Sunday. Officials say Mister Yanukovych won forty-nine percent of the vote. They say Mister Yushchenko received forty-six percent. But on Thursday, Ukraine’s Supreme Court stopped the Central Elections Commission from officially publishing the election results. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear objections from Mister Yushchenko and his supporters on Monday. Mister Yushchenko says there was widespread cheating in the election. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the United States also have criticized the vote. But Russian observers are dismissing the criticism. Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the election as open and honest. Since Monday, opposition supporters have demonstrated in Kiev and other cities to protest the official election results. On Friday, demonstrators blocked entrances to government offices in the capital. They also briefly stopped Prime Minister Yanukovych from entering his office. At the same time, many mineworkers who support him were entering the city. The V-O-A reporter in Kiev has said there are fears that Ukraine could divide if the dispute is not dealt with quickly. Eastern Ukraine supported Mister Yanukovych in the election. The western part of the country supported Mister Yushchenko. Some historians and political scientists say the two men represent a divide between Russia and Europe. Russia has deep economic, ethnic and language ties to Ukraine. It considers Ukraine an important ally. The Russian President attended election campaign events for Mister Yanukovych. The Ukrainian Prime Minister wants to strengthen economic and political ties with Russia. Many of his supporters speak Russian. The areas where they live depend economically on Russia. Most supporters of Mister Yushchenko mainly speak Ukrainian. Many live in Ukraine’s largest cities. Mister Yushchenko says he supports democratic reforms and wants to ease government controls. He also wants to increase ties between his country and the West. One year ago, elections for parliament were held in Georgia. Public protests over that vote led Georgia’s President to resign. On Friday, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma met with the two candidates. European and Russian officials also attended the meeting. They included European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland. Later, Mister Kuchma announced the creation of a working group to end the election dispute. He said both candidates agreed to stand against any use of force to settle the crisis. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. Ukrainian officials this week declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of Ukraine’s presidential election. They say he defeated opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in the election last Sunday. Officials say Mister Yanukovych won forty-nine percent of the vote. They say Mister Yushchenko received forty-six percent. But on Thursday, Ukraine’s Supreme Court stopped the Central Elections Commission from officially publishing the election results. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear objections from Mister Yushchenko and his supporters on Monday. Mister Yushchenko says there was widespread cheating in the election. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the United States also have criticized the vote. But Russian observers are dismissing the criticism. Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the election as open and honest. Since Monday, opposition supporters have demonstrated in Kiev and other cities to protest the official election results. On Friday, demonstrators blocked entrances to government offices in the capital. They also briefly stopped Prime Minister Yanukovych from entering his office. At the same time, many mineworkers who support him were entering the city. The V-O-A reporter in Kiev has said there are fears that Ukraine could divide if the dispute is not dealt with quickly. Eastern Ukraine supported Mister Yanukovych in the election. The western part of the country supported Mister Yushchenko. Some historians and political scientists say the two men represent a divide between Russia and Europe. Russia has deep economic, ethnic and language ties to Ukraine. It considers Ukraine an important ally. The Russian President attended election campaign events for Mister Yanukovych. The Ukrainian Prime Minister wants to strengthen economic and political ties with Russia. Many of his supporters speak Russian. The areas where they live depend economically on Russia. Most supporters of Mister Yushchenko mainly speak Ukrainian. Many live in Ukraine’s largest cities. Mister Yushchenko says he supports democratic reforms and wants to ease government controls. He also wants to increase ties between his country and the West. One year ago, elections for parliament were held in Georgia. Public protests over that vote led Georgia’s President to resign. On Friday, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma met with the two candidates. European and Russian officials also attended the meeting. They included European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland. Later, Mister Kuchma announced the creation of a working group to end the election dispute. He said both candidates agreed to stand against any use of force to settle the crisis. IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Patsy Cline
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 28, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: November 28, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a young woman named Virginia Patterson Hensley. No one but her family would remember that name. The world remembers her as Patsy Cline. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song is called "Walkin' After Midnight. " It was Patsy Cline's first big hit record. She recorded it in nineteen fifty-seven. It became number three on the list of country music hit recordings and number twelve on the list of most popular music. Patsy had worked for many years to make that first successful record. She began singing when she was a young girl in her home town of Winchester, in the southern state of Virginia. Patsy sang anywhere she could. She sang at weddings and dances. She sang at public eating places for eight dollars a night. Those who knew her said she worked hard to improve her singing. In nineteen fifty-four she won a country music competition near her home. She was twenty-two years old. She was asked to appear on a country music television program in Washington, D.C. She also sang on radio programs in the Virginia area and recorded some records. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-seven, Patsy Cline appeared on a national television show in New York City. It was on this program that millions of people first heard her sing. She sang "Walkin' After Midnight," a song she had recently recorded. Her appearance on the television program helped make that record a major hit. Patsy continued to record more songs. Within two years she had another major hit. It was called, "I Fall to Pieces.” By this time Patsy's voice had already become something special. She had learned to control not only the sound but the feelings expressed in her songs. It was the slow, sad love songs that her fans enjoyed most, songs like "I Fall to Pieces. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Patsy Cline's recording of "I Fall to Pieces" became her first number one country music hit. It was also a hit with fans of popular music. Patsy was a major star. She also had begun performing at the country music theater, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Those who knew her after she became a recording star say Patsy Cline was a very good friend. She liked to help young musicians. Later, many of these young musicians became important stars themselves. One of Patsy's biggest hit songs also helped two of these young musicians become known. The song is called "Crazy. " It was written by an unknown musician who later became a major country music star. His name is Willie Nelson. If you listen carefully to Patsy Cline's recording of "Crazy," you can hear the beautiful piano playing of another young musician, Floyd Cramer. He also became a major recording star. Listen to Patsy and Floyd perform Willie Nelson's song, "Crazy." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On March sixth, nineteen sixty-three, Patsy Cline was killed in the crash of a small airplane. She was only thirty years old. She was flying home to Nashville. She had taken part in a special concert in Kansas City to raise money for the family of a country music radio performer who recently had died. Patsy Cline was buried near her home town of Winchester, Virginia. Thousands of people came to her funeral. Ten years after her death, she became the first woman performer elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-five, Hollywood producers made a movie about the life of Patsy Cline. It was called "Sweet Dreams. " Popular actress Jessica Lange played Patsy. No one really could sound like Patsy Cline. So the producers used her old records in the movie. Mizz Lange moved her mouth so she appeared to be singing. People who had never heard of Patsy Cline saw the movie and enjoyed her singing. They began buying her records. Today, her records still sell thousands of copies each year as new fans discover her. We leave you with a song Patsy Cline recorded only a month before she died. It sounds almost as though she was singing in Special English. The song is called "Faded Love. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a young woman named Virginia Patterson Hensley. No one but her family would remember that name. The world remembers her as Patsy Cline. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That song is called "Walkin' After Midnight. " It was Patsy Cline's first big hit record. She recorded it in nineteen fifty-seven. It became number three on the list of country music hit recordings and number twelve on the list of most popular music. Patsy had worked for many years to make that first successful record. She began singing when she was a young girl in her home town of Winchester, in the southern state of Virginia. Patsy sang anywhere she could. She sang at weddings and dances. She sang at public eating places for eight dollars a night. Those who knew her said she worked hard to improve her singing. In nineteen fifty-four she won a country music competition near her home. She was twenty-two years old. She was asked to appear on a country music television program in Washington, D.C. She also sang on radio programs in the Virginia area and recorded some records. VOICE TWO: In nineteen fifty-seven, Patsy Cline appeared on a national television show in New York City. It was on this program that millions of people first heard her sing. She sang "Walkin' After Midnight," a song she had recently recorded. Her appearance on the television program helped make that record a major hit. Patsy continued to record more songs. Within two years she had another major hit. It was called, "I Fall to Pieces.” By this time Patsy's voice had already become something special. She had learned to control not only the sound but the feelings expressed in her songs. It was the slow, sad love songs that her fans enjoyed most, songs like "I Fall to Pieces. " (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Patsy Cline's recording of "I Fall to Pieces" became her first number one country music hit. It was also a hit with fans of popular music. Patsy was a major star. She also had begun performing at the country music theater, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Those who knew her after she became a recording star say Patsy Cline was a very good friend. She liked to help young musicians. Later, many of these young musicians became important stars themselves. One of Patsy's biggest hit songs also helped two of these young musicians become known. The song is called "Crazy. " It was written by an unknown musician who later became a major country music star. His name is Willie Nelson. If you listen carefully to Patsy Cline's recording of "Crazy," you can hear the beautiful piano playing of another young musician, Floyd Cramer. He also became a major recording star. Listen to Patsy and Floyd perform Willie Nelson's song, "Crazy." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On March sixth, nineteen sixty-three, Patsy Cline was killed in the crash of a small airplane. She was only thirty years old. She was flying home to Nashville. She had taken part in a special concert in Kansas City to raise money for the family of a country music radio performer who recently had died. Patsy Cline was buried near her home town of Winchester, Virginia. Thousands of people came to her funeral. Ten years after her death, she became the first woman performer elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-five, Hollywood producers made a movie about the life of Patsy Cline. It was called "Sweet Dreams. " Popular actress Jessica Lange played Patsy. No one really could sound like Patsy Cline. So the producers used her old records in the movie. Mizz Lange moved her mouth so she appeared to be singing. People who had never heard of Patsy Cline saw the movie and enjoyed her singing. They began buying her records. Today, her records still sell thousands of copies each year as new fans discover her. We leave you with a song Patsy Cline recorded only a month before she died. It sounds almost as though she was singing in Special English. The song is called "Faded Love. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Blues Music, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 29, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: November 29, 2004 (MUSIC) Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. This week ... the second of our two programs about the history of blues music. (MUSIC) If you listened last week, you heard that song. It's called “Soon Forgotten.” It is one of thousands of great blues songs. You might remember that we said it was sung by McKinley Morganfield. Who is that? McKinley Morganfield was much better known as Muddy Waters, one of the greatest blues musicians of all. He died in nineteen eighty-three. He left a lasting influence on blues music. Muddy Waters grew up in the American South, in the area by the mouth of the Mississippi River called the Mississippi Delta. Blues also grew up in the Mississippi Delta. Muddy Waters learned blues guitar from Robert Johnson there. Robert Johnson was another big influence on this kind of music. We talked about him last week. Muddy Waters left Mississippi and moved north to Illinois in nineteen forty-three. It was in Chicago that the American public came to know him. It was in Chicago that Muddy Waters put together bands of several musicians. These bands played a kind of music that was soon called Chicago Blues. Muddy Waters made Chicago Blues famous. And Chicago Blues helped make Muddy Waters famous. His first big hit was with a recording of an old Mississippi Delta blues song called “I Can’t Be Satisfied.” (MUSIC) The great guitar work you heard was also Muddy Waters. Soon after he recorded that song, he began playing electric guitar. The electric guitar became another strong voice for blues music. With an electric guitar, blues musicians could add more to their music. The electric guitar permitted them to create sounds that were not really possible before. For a moment, we would like you to listen to the man who is perhaps the best-known blues guitarist today, B.B. King. Listen to him and Lucille. Lucille is what he named his electric guitar. The song is called “How Blue Can You Get?” (MUSIC) B.B. King makes Lucille almost talk. She seems to speak a language. You might not understand the words, but you can understand the meaning. B.B. King and Lucille create all of the feeling and emotion that is the tradition of blues music. The human voice was the first blues instrument. It still is. Lucille can get very close, but you still need the human voice for blues. The words in blues music almost always tell a story. The words are usually simple and easy to remember. Usually, the opening line of a song is repeated and then followed by a third line that rhymes. It's like a poem. That B.B. King song we just played begins with these lines: "I’ve been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met. "I say, I’ve been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met. "You know our love is nothing but the blues. Baby, how blue can you get? Those words were meant to be sung by someone who really knows how to sing the blues. (MUSIC) To feel "blue" is to feel sad or disappointed. The Historical Dictionary of American Slang says this term was in use by the late seventeen hundreds. To "sing the blues," however, meant to complain, especially in the kind of sing-song voice of a child unhappy about a rainy day. The expression "singing the blues" goes back at least to nineteen eighteen. Today a lot of people pay good money to hear musicians sing the blues. But what about the future? Many blues musicians are playing and recording today. One of them is a young woman named Shemekia Copeland. She was born in nineteen seventy-nine. Shemekia Copeland grew up listening to blues. Her father is the famous blues musician Johnny Copeland. Listen as Shemekia Copeland sings a song from "Wicked," one of her albums. The name of the song is "The Other Woman.” (MUSIC) Some people will try to tell you that blues music is sad. The words may be sad. But the music has always been a way to lift the soul, a kind of medicine for dealing with hard times. Blues music came from the Mississippi Delta. It came from the cotton fields of North Carolina. It came from the red dirt farms of Georgia. Blues music began as very much a part of the black experience in America. The beat and the vocal tradition came with the slaves from Africa. But, years later, it grew into an American form of music like no other. Today, blues music comes from everywhere. Johnny Lang, a popular artist, is not even from the South. He is from North Dakota. His first album came out in nineteen ninety-seven. He was immediately recognized as a top blues performer. And Johnny Lang was only sixteen years old. We end our program with the modern sound of blues music as performed by Johnny Lang. The song is called “Lie To Me!” (MUSIC) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Doug Johnson. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. This week ... the second of our two programs about the history of blues music. (MUSIC) If you listened last week, you heard that song. It's called “Soon Forgotten.” It is one of thousands of great blues songs. You might remember that we said it was sung by McKinley Morganfield. Who is that? McKinley Morganfield was much better known as Muddy Waters, one of the greatest blues musicians of all. He died in nineteen eighty-three. He left a lasting influence on blues music. Muddy Waters grew up in the American South, in the area by the mouth of the Mississippi River called the Mississippi Delta. Blues also grew up in the Mississippi Delta. Muddy Waters learned blues guitar from Robert Johnson there. Robert Johnson was another big influence on this kind of music. We talked about him last week. Muddy Waters left Mississippi and moved north to Illinois in nineteen forty-three. It was in Chicago that the American public came to know him. It was in Chicago that Muddy Waters put together bands of several musicians. These bands played a kind of music that was soon called Chicago Blues. Muddy Waters made Chicago Blues famous. And Chicago Blues helped make Muddy Waters famous. His first big hit was with a recording of an old Mississippi Delta blues song called “I Can’t Be Satisfied.” (MUSIC) The great guitar work you heard was also Muddy Waters. Soon after he recorded that song, he began playing electric guitar. The electric guitar became another strong voice for blues music. With an electric guitar, blues musicians could add more to their music. The electric guitar permitted them to create sounds that were not really possible before. For a moment, we would like you to listen to the man who is perhaps the best-known blues guitarist today, B.B. King. Listen to him and Lucille. Lucille is what he named his electric guitar. The song is called “How Blue Can You Get?” (MUSIC) B.B. King makes Lucille almost talk. She seems to speak a language. You might not understand the words, but you can understand the meaning. B.B. King and Lucille create all of the feeling and emotion that is the tradition of blues music. The human voice was the first blues instrument. It still is. Lucille can get very close, but you still need the human voice for blues. The words in blues music almost always tell a story. The words are usually simple and easy to remember. Usually, the opening line of a song is repeated and then followed by a third line that rhymes. It's like a poem. That B.B. King song we just played begins with these lines: "I’ve been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met. "I say, I’ve been downhearted baby, ever since the day we met. "You know our love is nothing but the blues. Baby, how blue can you get? Those words were meant to be sung by someone who really knows how to sing the blues. (MUSIC) To feel "blue" is to feel sad or disappointed. The Historical Dictionary of American Slang says this term was in use by the late seventeen hundreds. To "sing the blues," however, meant to complain, especially in the kind of sing-song voice of a child unhappy about a rainy day. The expression "singing the blues" goes back at least to nineteen eighteen. Today a lot of people pay good money to hear musicians sing the blues. But what about the future? Many blues musicians are playing and recording today. One of them is a young woman named Shemekia Copeland. She was born in nineteen seventy-nine. Shemekia Copeland grew up listening to blues. Her father is the famous blues musician Johnny Copeland. Listen as Shemekia Copeland sings a song from "Wicked," one of her albums. The name of the song is "The Other Woman.” (MUSIC) Some people will try to tell you that blues music is sad. The words may be sad. But the music has always been a way to lift the soul, a kind of medicine for dealing with hard times. Blues music came from the Mississippi Delta. It came from the cotton fields of North Carolina. It came from the red dirt farms of Georgia. Blues music began as very much a part of the black experience in America. The beat and the vocal tradition came with the slaves from Africa. But, years later, it grew into an American form of music like no other. Today, blues music comes from everywhere. Johnny Lang, a popular artist, is not even from the South. He is from North Dakota. His first album came out in nineteen ninety-seven. He was immediately recognized as a top blues performer. And Johnny Lang was only sixteen years old. We end our program with the modern sound of blues music as performed by Johnny Lang. The song is called “Lie To Me!” (MUSIC) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Doug Johnson. To send us e-mail, write to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – How to Make a Solar Water Heater
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 29, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Solar water heaters save on energy costs. They also save on oil and other forms of energy needed for electric or gas-powered water heaters. The Taiwan News reported this month that the Ministry of Economic Affairs will increase its budget for a program to help pay for solar water heaters. The program was supposed to end this year. But officials have decided to continue it through next year. A ministry official said Taiwan is among the top users of solar water heaters in the world. Solar water heating is used worldwide. The device we are about to describe was developed in Afghanistan more than thirty years ago. Since then, it has been used in many countries. It can heat seventy liters of water to sixty degrees Celsius. It can do this between sunrise and noon on a clear day with an average outside temperature of thirty-two degrees Celsius. There are two parts to the solar water heater. One part is the solar collector. This is made of metal sheets painted black. The collector is placed in contact with the water. There are several kinds of metal sheets that can be used for the collector. Metal sheets that have raised sections will work very well. These corrugated sheets often are used to make the roofs of houses. Once the water is heated, it is kept hot with insulation material. This helps the water stay warm for a long time. The second part of the solar water heater is the storage tank. The tank can be a container that holds about one hundred liters. Two rubber pipes are attached to the storage tank. One pipe lets water flow into the system. The other lets water flow out. When the water heater is working correctly, water will flow from the storage tank to the collector and back again. You can use the hot water at the top of the tank for washing and cleaning. You can change the flow of water so that the temperature is hot or warm as desired. This solar water heater is easy to build and operate. It will last about two years before the rubber pipes need to be replaced. However, it will heat water only on sunny days. You can get more details from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Web at vita.org. And you can find more Development Reports at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Ancestor of the Great Apes / Study of Possible Wireless Phone Health Risks / What is a Computer?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. On our program this week: a possible health risk for users of cellular telephones and we answer a listener’s question about computers. VOICE ONE: But first, a discovery that could help scientists better understand how great apes developed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Research scientists in Spain have discovered fossil remains of an ape-like animal that lived about thirteen million years ago. The researchers believe the fossils might be from the last common ancestor of all great apes alive today. Or, they say the fossils might be from a creature similar to the last ancestor. The researchers found more than eighty bones or pieces of bone from the same animal. The bones form one of the most complete known ape skeletons from the Miocene Epoch. That period began about twenty-two million years ago. It ended about five million years ago. VOICE TWO: Salvador Moya-Sola led the team that found the fossils. He says this marks the first time that a modern ape-like system of chest bones has been discovered. Mister Moya-Sola works for the Miquel Crusafont Institute of Paleontology in Barcelona, Spain. His team reported its findings in Science magazine. The fossils were found near Barcelona. An earth-moving vehicle uncovered a tooth. Then the researchers found other bones from the head, chest, back, hands and feet of the ape-like creature. They named it Pierolapithecus catalaunicus (pyair-o-la-PITH-ee-cuss cat-a-LOON-ih-cuss). VOICE ONE: The researchers say the individual they uncovered probably was male and weighed about thirty-five kilograms. They say Pierolapithecus had firm bones in its lower back and could move its wrists in different directions. They say this made climbing possible. The creature also appears to have had teeth that could crush fruit. The researchers say Pierolapithecus had shoulders like modern great apes, such as chimpanzees, gorillas and human beings. However, the shoulders are different from those of monkeys. Monkey shoulders are like those of dogs. VOICE TWO: Modern great apes are thought to have developed from Old World monkeys. The great apes then divided from lesser apes. That happened between eleven million and sixteen million years ago. For many years, scientists have been attempting to find ancestors of the great ape that developed after this division. Skeletons of other ape-like animals were found. But they appear to have been less well developed than the newly-found fossils. VOICE ONE: The researchers say the lower back of Pierolapithecus is much like that of modern great apes. They say the head bones of the fossil and great apes also are similar. Mister Moya-Sola says he believes Pierolapithecus lived in Africa in addition to what became Spain. He also says he believes this kind of animal probably first developed in Africa. Scientists unconnected with the study have praised the findings. Other scientists said more studies are needed to satisfy questions about how great apes developed. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A Swedish study suggests that people who use cellular phones for at least ten years might be at greater risk for developing a rare, non-cancerous tumor. These tumors are called acoustic neuromas. They grow on the nerve that leads from the inner ear to the brain. The risk was higher on the side of the head where the phone was usually held. Acoustic neuromas affect fewer than one in one hundred thousand people a year. They grow slowly and can take several years to be discovered. The tumor pushes on the surface of the brain, but does not grow into the brain itself. VOICE ONE: Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, led the study. It was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The study involved seven hundred fifty Swedes. About one hundred fifty of them had acoustic neuromas. About six hundred other people did not. Researchers asked all of the people about their cell phone use. The researchers found that those people who had used cell phones for at least ten years had almost two times the risk of developing acoustic neuromas. Also, the tumor risk was almost four times higher on the side of the head where the phone was usually held. There was no increased risk for those who had used cell phones for fewer than ten years. VOICE TWO: At the time the study was done, only analog phones had been in use for ten years. Almost all early analog cell phones released more electromagnetic radiation than the digital phones now being sold. But researchers say they cannot be sure if the results are just linked to the use of analog phones. They say additional study is needed. Earlier experiments have shown radiation from cellular phones can affect brain cells in a laboratory. But studies on people found no evidence that the phones present a health risk. However, experts say children should avoid using the phones for long periods because their brains are still developing. The study is part of a research program known as the Interphone study. The World Health Organization’s cancer research institute organized the research. It is attempting to learn if electromagnetic radiation from cell phones damages health. Final results of the study are to be released early next year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We recently received a message from a listener in Nepal. Lok Raj Joshi asks, “How can you define 'computer'?” That is a big question. We immediately went to our computer. We asked the Google search engine for a definition. Answers appeared almost immediately. Many of the definitions were similar. They generally said a computer is an electronic device that executes the orders in a program. A computer stores, processes and provides information for users. VOICE TWO: There are several kinds of computers. Supercomputers are the fastest and most powerful. These computers carry out complex mathematical problems, mostly in connection with large systems. They are important for work including engineering design and weather science. Supercomputers are rare and very costly. Personal computers are much more common. You will find them in someone’s home or car. There are personal computers small enough to carry in your hand. People often use computers at work. They help people communicate and work together without having to be near each other. VOICE ONE: Computers can be linked together through a simple telephone line or through more complex wireless technology. One huge system of these connections is called the Internet. It includes the World Wide Web and electronic mail operations. This communication system linked only about two-hundred computers in nineteen-eighty-one. In less than ten years, that number was hundreds of thousands. Today, experts say it is not possible to know exactly how many computers have Internet links. But, they say the estimates begin in the hundreds of millions. VOICE TWO: The Internet makes it possible for people to find information within seconds. Newspapers and magazines often have an Internet website. Organizations of all kinds also create their own websites. Reporters use the Internet to help them write stories. Doctors use it to compare information about medical treatments. Teachers, farmers, and truckers also use the Internet. And, many people search the World Wide Web for non-work purposes. VOICE ONE: The Internet has led to changes in the way people live. Many people praise it as an open exchange for ideas and information. Yet government officials and industry experts have expressed concern about a lack of control over the Internet. Some groups protest sexual or violent images and writing placed on the World Wide Web. Other critics question the trustworthiness of information found through the Internet. The Internet is surely part of any larger explanation of a computer. But maybe our listener in Nepal wanted a more personal definition. One well-known American recently wrote that his hope for the future of computers has never been greater. Microsoft founder Bill Gates wrote that he expects computing to change how people live, work, learn and are entertained as deeply in the next twenty-five years as in the last. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Jerilyn Watson, and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. And, our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - How to Build a Windbreak
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 30, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers use different kinds of soil conservation methods to protect their land from damage by farming and the forces of nature. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. There have been studies done on windbreaks in parts of West Africa, for example. These found that grain harvests can be twenty percent higher in fields protected by windbreaks compared to fields without such protection. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty percent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. VITA is on the Web at vita.org. You can find more Agriculture Reports at voaspecialenglish dot com. If you have a question for us, send it to special@voanews.com. Make sure to include your name and where you live. We might be able to answer your question on the air. But please know that we cannot answer questions personally. This VOA Special Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Appalachian Trail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 1, 2004 (MUSIC) The Appalachian Trail. Broadcast: November 1, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most popular walking paths in the United States, the Appalachian Trail. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths through the country. This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States. Some of these paths, or trails, are short. Some are only a few kilometers. Others are many hundreds of kilometers. One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System. The trails system was established by Congress and the President in nineteen sixty-eight. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Trail is more than three thousand four hundred kilometers long. It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia. The trail goes through fourteen states. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains. They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama. VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth. They first began forming about one thousand million years ago. During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind. Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them. Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail. And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail. Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments. Some parts are not protected by the government directly. Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property. VOICE TWO: Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains. They can look down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers. Farmland in the valleys is rich and productive. And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys. For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye. Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in nineteen twenty-one. Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected. In nineteen twenty-five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D.C. and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference. Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia. It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery. Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed. This happened on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty-seven. VOICE TWO: Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people. But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening. Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly. Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world. However, it is not the longest hiking trail. Two others in the western United States are longer. They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous. VOICE ONE: People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail. The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world. Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago. This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States. The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day. Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail. For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking. They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days. These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents. VOICE ONE: In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps. The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference. Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. The Appalachian Mountain Club has about ninety thousand members. It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail. Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food. Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one. These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead. It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends. Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families. Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family. She found it very different from what her family does every day at home. She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp. There are no radios or televisions. So families spend time talking with each other. After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience. VOICE ONE: The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people. The first part is difficult. But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying. This may be enough for most people. But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail. These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end. They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring. Generally, they hike the more than three thousand four hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months. VOICE TWO: One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson. Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book “A Walk in the Woods.” However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned. At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail. After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip. Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it. He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness. He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts. At the end of “A Walk in the Woods,” Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about one of the most popular walking paths in the United States, the Appalachian Trail. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths through the country. This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States. Some of these paths, or trails, are short. Some are only a few kilometers. Others are many hundreds of kilometers. One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System. The trails system was established by Congress and the President in nineteen sixty-eight. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Trail is more than three thousand four hundred kilometers long. It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia. The trail goes through fourteen states. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains. They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama. VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth. They first began forming about one thousand million years ago. During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind. Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them. Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail. And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail. Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments. Some parts are not protected by the government directly. Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property. VOICE TWO: Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains. They can look down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers. Farmland in the valleys is rich and productive. And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys. For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye. Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in nineteen twenty-one. Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected. In nineteen twenty-five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D.C. and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference. Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia. It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery. Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed. This happened on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty-seven. VOICE TWO: Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people. But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening. Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly. Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world. However, it is not the longest hiking trail. Two others in the western United States are longer. They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous. VOICE ONE: People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail. The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world. Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago. This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States. The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day. Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail. For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking. They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days. These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents. VOICE ONE: In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps. The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference. Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. The Appalachian Mountain Club has about ninety thousand members. It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail. Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food. Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one. These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead. It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends. Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families. Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family. She found it very different from what her family does every day at home. She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp. There are no radios or televisions. So families spend time talking with each other. After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience. VOICE ONE: The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people. The first part is difficult. But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying. This may be enough for most people. But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail. These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end. They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring. Generally, they hike the more than three thousand four hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months. VOICE TWO: One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson. Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book “A Walk in the Woods.” However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned. At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail. After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip. Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it. He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness. He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts. At the end of “A Walk in the Woods,” Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT- World AIDS Day 2004 Focuses on Risk to Women and Girls
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 1, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. December first is World AIDS Day. This year, the campaign centers on women and girls. They now make up almost half of all people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. And H.I.V. is spreading faster among women than men in most areas of the world. These findings are from the yearly report by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, a U.N. agency. The report says East Asia had the sharpest increase in the number of women infected with H.I.V during the past two years. Eastern Europe and Central Asia came next. In Southern Africa, almost sixty percent of infected adults are women. In the Caribbean, young women are two times as likely as men their age to become infected. And, in the United States, seventy-two percent of women infected with H.I.V are African American. AIDS experts say there are several reasons why women are at greater risk. One has to do with the body. It is physically easier for women, and especially girls, to become infected during sex. Other reasons are cultural. Many women cannot demand that their partners use protection. And marriage is no protection if the husband has been with someone with H.I.V. These reasons often combine with sexual violence, poverty and a lack of education for females. Worldwide, an estimated thirty-nine million people are living with H.I.V. That is up from almost thirty-seven million two years ago. An estimated three million people died of AIDS-related causes this year, and five million more became infected. These numbers are the highest yet. Southern Africa has more than sixty percent of all people with H.I.V. The area with the next highest rate is the Caribbean. In East Asia, H.I.V. infections increased fifty percent over the last two years. The report says this was largely the result of new cases in China, Indonesia and Vietnam. It noted progress in countries with large prevention programs, like Cambodia and Thailand. But the report says the two most populous countries, China and India, need to do more. Doctor Peter Piot leads the U.N. AIDS Program. Doctor Piot says prevention efforts alone are not enough to slow the spread of AIDS among women in developing countries. He says women not only need to be protected from violence, but also provided with education, jobs and the right to own property. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-11/a-2004-11-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 1, 2004 - College Slang
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 1, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: college slang. RS: When Tom Wolfe was doing research on college slang for his new novel, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," he consulted some experts. One was Connie Eble, the author of a book called "Slang and Sociability: In-Group Language Among College Students." AA: Connie Eble is an English professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CONNIE EBLE: "One day I came to my office and there was the flashing red message light, and when I picked up the phone to retrieve the message, there was this very friendly voice introducing himself as Tom Wolfe and telling me who he was -- and of course I knew who he was, but I thought that was very nice -- and telling me what every author wants to hear, music to my ear, that 'I was reading your book, and I had some questions.' [laughter] And he said he would like to talk to me, and so I returned the phone call and he said he was coming to North Carolina for purposes of research on a novel he was writing, and could he set up an appointment to see me when he came. And that's exactly what he did." AA: "Some of the slang terms, or I guess a good number of the ones that I've read so far in Tom Wolfe's book, we couldn't say on the radio, so let's stick to some that maybe we can. What are some slang terms that are current and that catch your ear?" CONNIE EBLE: "Well you know, to tell you the truth, not many catch my ear because students don't use slang around me very much. For the most part, when they talk to me they use informal language with me, but they rarely use slang, because that's not the point of it." AA: "So how do you collect your information?" CONNIE EBLE: "I have a very simple-minded -- and not particularly good in terms of research design -- way of doing it. Once a semester I ask the undergraduates in the same class to bring into class on a specific day ten items that they consider good, current campus slang. And in April in this one class -- you have to remember it is just one class, and they were not necessarily volunteering ones that would be shocking -- the most frequent term that was turned in was to 'bounce,' meaning to leave. Students for at least 30 years have had different slang synonyms for leaving. So, you know, 'this party's lame, let's bounce.' "They also commented that they would use 'bolt,' b-o-l-t, 'let's bolt,' or 'let's jet' -- those were the three that they reported to me last spring. Another one that was fairly frequent last spring is 'whack,' 'that's whack,' meaning silly or stupid or strange." AA: "And that's w-h-a-c-k?" CONNIE EBLE: "Well, who knows how it's spelled. Some of the students spelled it w-h-a-c-k and others spelled it w-a-c-k. Also, lame. Now lame has been around for a long, long time. It means basically the same thing as whack -- something is silly, stupid. So anything that could be negative just about you could call lame or whack." AA: "So whack, lame -- what was next on the list from April?" CONNIE EBLE: "Bling-bling. Now that one is straight from rap music. It means jewelry. Now it also can mean wealth. For example, the students reported that you could look at someone's engagement ring and say 'I'd say your man's got the bling-bling,' meaning that he's wealthy enough to buy you a large diamond engagement ring. And then 'tight.' "Tight, of course, has been around for years meaning drunk. But now it means trendy or impressive or interesting. And then the next word in terms of frequency of submission is 'banging' [pronounced bangin']. And banging I think also comes out of the whole hip-hop culture and the lyrics to rap music. It means great or good or awesome or whatever." AA: "So do your students think you're pretty bangin' for doing this?" CONNIE EBLE: "No, they just think I'm some ancient woman who is somehow off in her own world. And so they help enlighten me once a semester." RS: And for helping enlighten Tom Wolfe, University of North Carolina Professor Connie Eble gets credit in the acknowledgements of his latest novel. AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and all our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "She Bangs" from the album "Inspiration" by William Hung (a University of California, Berkeley, student who became a star by mangling the Ricky Martin song "She Bangs" on the TV talent show "American Idol.") Broadcast: December 1, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: college slang. RS: When Tom Wolfe was doing research on college slang for his new novel, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," he consulted some experts. One was Connie Eble, the author of a book called "Slang and Sociability: In-Group Language Among College Students." AA: Connie Eble is an English professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CONNIE EBLE: "One day I came to my office and there was the flashing red message light, and when I picked up the phone to retrieve the message, there was this very friendly voice introducing himself as Tom Wolfe and telling me who he was -- and of course I knew who he was, but I thought that was very nice -- and telling me what every author wants to hear, music to my ear, that 'I was reading your book, and I had some questions.' [laughter] And he said he would like to talk to me, and so I returned the phone call and he said he was coming to North Carolina for purposes of research on a novel he was writing, and could he set up an appointment to see me when he came. And that's exactly what he did." AA: "Some of the slang terms, or I guess a good number of the ones that I've read so far in Tom Wolfe's book, we couldn't say on the radio, so let's stick to some that maybe we can. What are some slang terms that are current and that catch your ear?" CONNIE EBLE: "Well you know, to tell you the truth, not many catch my ear because students don't use slang around me very much. For the most part, when they talk to me they use informal language with me, but they rarely use slang, because that's not the point of it." AA: "So how do you collect your information?" CONNIE EBLE: "I have a very simple-minded -- and not particularly good in terms of research design -- way of doing it. Once a semester I ask the undergraduates in the same class to bring into class on a specific day ten items that they consider good, current campus slang. And in April in this one class -- you have to remember it is just one class, and they were not necessarily volunteering ones that would be shocking -- the most frequent term that was turned in was to 'bounce,' meaning to leave. Students for at least 30 years have had different slang synonyms for leaving. So, you know, 'this party's lame, let's bounce.' "They also commented that they would use 'bolt,' b-o-l-t, 'let's bolt,' or 'let's jet' -- those were the three that they reported to me last spring. Another one that was fairly frequent last spring is 'whack,' 'that's whack,' meaning silly or stupid or strange." AA: "And that's w-h-a-c-k?" CONNIE EBLE: "Well, who knows how it's spelled. Some of the students spelled it w-h-a-c-k and others spelled it w-a-c-k. Also, lame. Now lame has been around for a long, long time. It means basically the same thing as whack -- something is silly, stupid. So anything that could be negative just about you could call lame or whack." AA: "So whack, lame -- what was next on the list from April?" CONNIE EBLE: "Bling-bling. Now that one is straight from rap music. It means jewelry. Now it also can mean wealth. For example, the students reported that you could look at someone's engagement ring and say 'I'd say your man's got the bling-bling,' meaning that he's wealthy enough to buy you a large diamond engagement ring. And then 'tight.' "Tight, of course, has been around for years meaning drunk. But now it means trendy or impressive or interesting. And then the next word in terms of frequency of submission is 'banging' [pronounced bangin']. And banging I think also comes out of the whole hip-hop culture and the lyrics to rap music. It means great or good or awesome or whatever." AA: "So do your students think you're pretty bangin' for doing this?" CONNIE EBLE: "No, they just think I'm some ancient woman who is somehow off in her own world. And so they help enlighten me once a semester." RS: And for helping enlighten Tom Wolfe, University of North Carolina Professor Connie Eble gets credit in the acknowledgements of his latest novel. AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and all our segments are online at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "She Bangs" from the album "Inspiration" by William Hung (a University of California, Berkeley, student who became a star by mangling the Ricky Martin song "She Bangs" on the TV talent show "American Idol.") 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #91 - James Buchanan, Part 7
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) One day in mid-October, eighteen-fifty-nine, the American people were shocked by the report of an attack against the Virginia town of Harpers Ferry. The attack was led by an old anti-slavery extremist, John Brown. Many believed that he was a madman. Brown had declared that he was ready to die fighting slavery. He said that God wanted him to fight slavery by invading Virginia with a military force. And, he said, that even if his rebellion failed, it would lead to a civil war between the north and the south. In such a war, he said, the north would break the chains of the black man. Brown decided to strike at Harpers Ferry, a small town in northern Virginia, about one-hundred kilometers north of Washington. It had a factory that made guns for the army and an arsenal of valuable military equipment. Brown wanted the guns and equipment for the slave army he hoped to organize. Harpers Ferry was built on a narrow finger of land where the Shenandoah flowed into the Potomac River. There was a bridge across each river. Across the Potomac, in Maryland, Brown organized his attack. VOICE TWO: With his force of less than twenty men, John Brown moved through the darkness down to the bridge that crossed the Potomac River. Two men left the group to cut the telegraph lines east and west of Harpers Ferry. At the bridge, Brown's men surprised a railroad guard. They told him he was their prisoner. The guard thought they were joking...until he saw their guns. Once across the bridge, Brown and his men moved quickly. They captured a few people in the street and another guard at the front gate of the government armory. They seized the armory, then crossed the street and seized the supply center. Millions of dollars' worth of military equipment was kept there. VOICE ONE: After leaving a few men to guard the prisoners, Brown and the others went to the gun factory across town. They seized the few people who were there and captured the factory. Without firing a shot, Brown now controlled the three places he wanted in Harpers Ferry. His problem now was to hold what he had captured. Brown knew he had little time. The people of the town would soon learn what had happened. They would call for help. And several groups of militia in the area would come to the aid of Harpers Ferry. Brown planned to use the people he had captured as hostages. The militia would not attack if there was danger of harming the prisoners. He wanted as many prisoners as possible, to protect himself. If his plan failed, he could offer them in exchange for his own freedom and that of his men. VOICE TWO: Brown had decided to capture, as his best hostage, Colonel Lewis Washington. The Colonel was a descendant of president George Washingon. He lived on a big farm near Harpers Ferry. Brown sent some of his men to capture the old colonel and free his slaves. They returned from the Washington farm after midnight. They brought Colonel Washington and ten slaves. They also captured another farmer and his son. The slaves were given spears and told to guard the prisoners. Then, at the far end of the Potomac River bridge, the first shots were fired. Brown's son, Watson, and another man fired at a railroad guard who refused to halt. A bullet struck his head, but did not hurt him seriously. The guard raced back across the bridge to the railroad station. He cried out that a group of armed men had seized the bridge. VOICE ONE: A few minutes later, a train from the west arrived at Harpers Ferry. The wounded guard warned the trainmen of the danger at the bridge. Two of the trainmen decided to investigate. They walked toward the bridge. Before they could reach it, bullets began whizzing past them. They ran back to the train and moved it farther from the bridge. Then a free Negro man who worked at the railroad station, Hayward Shepherd, walked down to the bridge. Brown's men ordered him to halt. Shepherd tried to run and was shot. He got back to the station, but died several hours later. VOICE TWO: Brown finally agreed to let the train pass over the bridge and continue on to Baltimore. The train left at sunrise. By this time, word of Brown's attack had spread to Charles Town, more than twelve kilometers away. Officials called out the militia, ordering the men of Charles Town to get ready to go to the aid of Harpers Ferry. Soon after sunrise, men began arriving at Harpers Ferry from other towns in the area. They took positions above the armory and started shooting at it. The militia from Charles Town arrived at the Maryland end of the Potomac bridge. They charged across, forcing Brown's men on the bridge to flee to the armory. Only one of Brown's men was hit. He was killed instantly. VOICE ONE: Brown saw that he was surrounded. His only hope was to try to negotiate a ceasefire and offer to release his thirty hostages, if the militia would let him and his men go free. Brown sent out one of his men and one of the prisoners with a white flag. The excited crowd refused to recognize the white flag. They seized Brown's man and carried him away. Brown moved his men and the most important of his hostages into a small brick building at the armory. Then he sent out two more of his men with a prisoner to try to negotiate a ceasefire. One of them was his son, Watson. VOICE TWO: This time, the crowd opened fire. Watson and the other raider were wounded. Their prisoner escaped to safety. Watson was able to crawl back to the armory. One of the youngest of Brown's men, William Leeman, tried to escape. He ran from the armory and jumped into the Potomac, planning to swim across the river. He did not get far. A group of militia saw him and began shooting. Leeman was forced to hide behind a rock in the middle of the river. Two men went out to the rock with guns and shot him. His body lay in the river for two days. Later, more people were killed. One was the mayor of Harpers Ferry, Fontaine Beckham. VOICE ONE: After the mayor's death, a mob went to the hotel where one of Brown's men had been held since he was seized earlier in the day. They pulled him from the hotel and took him to the bridge over the river. Several members of the mob put guns to his head and fired. They pushed his body off the bridge and into the water. Across town, three of Brown's men were in trouble at the gun factory. The factory was built on an island in the Shenandoah River. The island was now surrounded by militia. Forty of the soldiers attacked the factory from three sides. They pushed the three raiders back to a small building next to the river. The three men fought as long as possible. Then they jumped through a window into the river. They tried to swim to safety. Men with guns were waiting for them. Bullets fell around the three like rain. One man was hit. He died instantly. Another was wounded. He was pulled to land and left to die. The third man escaped death. He was captured and held for trial. VOICE TWO: All through the afternoon and evening, Brown's men at the armory continued to exchange shots with the militia. Several more on both sides were killed or wounded. One of those was another of Brown's sons, Oliver. He was shot and seriously wounded. Night fell. Then, a militia officer, Captain Sinn, walked up to the small building held by Brown. He shouted to the men inside that he wished to talk. Brown opened the door and let him in. For almost an hour, the two men talked. They talked about slavery and the right to rebel against the government. VOICE ONE: Brown was furious that the crowd outside had refused to honor his white flag of truce earlier in the day. He told Sinn that his men could have killed unarmed men and women, but did not do so. "That is not quite correct," Captain Sinn said. "Mayor Beckham had no gun when he was shot." "Then I can only say I am most sad to hear it," said Brown. "Men who take up guns against the government," said Sinn, "must expect to be shot down like dogs." VOICE TWO: In Washington, President Buchanan and Secretary of War John Floyd did not learn of the rebellion at Harpers Ferry until after ten o'clock that morning. The president wanted immediate action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. Broadcast: December 2, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) One day in mid-October, eighteen-fifty-nine, the American people were shocked by the report of an attack against the Virginia town of Harpers Ferry. The attack was led by an old anti-slavery extremist, John Brown. Many believed that he was a madman. Brown had declared that he was ready to die fighting slavery. He said that God wanted him to fight slavery by invading Virginia with a military force. And, he said, that even if his rebellion failed, it would lead to a civil war between the north and the south. In such a war, he said, the north would break the chains of the black man. Brown decided to strike at Harpers Ferry, a small town in northern Virginia, about one-hundred kilometers north of Washington. It had a factory that made guns for the army and an arsenal of valuable military equipment. Brown wanted the guns and equipment for the slave army he hoped to organize. Harpers Ferry was built on a narrow finger of land where the Shenandoah flowed into the Potomac River. There was a bridge across each river. Across the Potomac, in Maryland, Brown organized his attack. VOICE TWO: With his force of less than twenty men, John Brown moved through the darkness down to the bridge that crossed the Potomac River. Two men left the group to cut the telegraph lines east and west of Harpers Ferry. At the bridge, Brown's men surprised a railroad guard. They told him he was their prisoner. The guard thought they were joking...until he saw their guns. Once across the bridge, Brown and his men moved quickly. They captured a few people in the street and another guard at the front gate of the government armory. They seized the armory, then crossed the street and seized the supply center. Millions of dollars' worth of military equipment was kept there. VOICE ONE: After leaving a few men to guard the prisoners, Brown and the others went to the gun factory across town. They seized the few people who were there and captured the factory. Without firing a shot, Brown now controlled the three places he wanted in Harpers Ferry. His problem now was to hold what he had captured. Brown knew he had little time. The people of the town would soon learn what had happened. They would call for help. And several groups of militia in the area would come to the aid of Harpers Ferry. Brown planned to use the people he had captured as hostages. The militia would not attack if there was danger of harming the prisoners. He wanted as many prisoners as possible, to protect himself. If his plan failed, he could offer them in exchange for his own freedom and that of his men. VOICE TWO: Brown had decided to capture, as his best hostage, Colonel Lewis Washington. The Colonel was a descendant of president George Washingon. He lived on a big farm near Harpers Ferry. Brown sent some of his men to capture the old colonel and free his slaves. They returned from the Washington farm after midnight. They brought Colonel Washington and ten slaves. They also captured another farmer and his son. The slaves were given spears and told to guard the prisoners. Then, at the far end of the Potomac River bridge, the first shots were fired. Brown's son, Watson, and another man fired at a railroad guard who refused to halt. A bullet struck his head, but did not hurt him seriously. The guard raced back across the bridge to the railroad station. He cried out that a group of armed men had seized the bridge. VOICE ONE: A few minutes later, a train from the west arrived at Harpers Ferry. The wounded guard warned the trainmen of the danger at the bridge. Two of the trainmen decided to investigate. They walked toward the bridge. Before they could reach it, bullets began whizzing past them. They ran back to the train and moved it farther from the bridge. Then a free Negro man who worked at the railroad station, Hayward Shepherd, walked down to the bridge. Brown's men ordered him to halt. Shepherd tried to run and was shot. He got back to the station, but died several hours later. VOICE TWO: Brown finally agreed to let the train pass over the bridge and continue on to Baltimore. The train left at sunrise. By this time, word of Brown's attack had spread to Charles Town, more than twelve kilometers away. Officials called out the militia, ordering the men of Charles Town to get ready to go to the aid of Harpers Ferry. Soon after sunrise, men began arriving at Harpers Ferry from other towns in the area. They took positions above the armory and started shooting at it. The militia from Charles Town arrived at the Maryland end of the Potomac bridge. They charged across, forcing Brown's men on the bridge to flee to the armory. Only one of Brown's men was hit. He was killed instantly. VOICE ONE: Brown saw that he was surrounded. His only hope was to try to negotiate a ceasefire and offer to release his thirty hostages, if the militia would let him and his men go free. Brown sent out one of his men and one of the prisoners with a white flag. The excited crowd refused to recognize the white flag. They seized Brown's man and carried him away. Brown moved his men and the most important of his hostages into a small brick building at the armory. Then he sent out two more of his men with a prisoner to try to negotiate a ceasefire. One of them was his son, Watson. VOICE TWO: This time, the crowd opened fire. Watson and the other raider were wounded. Their prisoner escaped to safety. Watson was able to crawl back to the armory. One of the youngest of Brown's men, William Leeman, tried to escape. He ran from the armory and jumped into the Potomac, planning to swim across the river. He did not get far. A group of militia saw him and began shooting. Leeman was forced to hide behind a rock in the middle of the river. Two men went out to the rock with guns and shot him. His body lay in the river for two days. Later, more people were killed. One was the mayor of Harpers Ferry, Fontaine Beckham. VOICE ONE: After the mayor's death, a mob went to the hotel where one of Brown's men had been held since he was seized earlier in the day. They pulled him from the hotel and took him to the bridge over the river. Several members of the mob put guns to his head and fired. They pushed his body off the bridge and into the water. Across town, three of Brown's men were in trouble at the gun factory. The factory was built on an island in the Shenandoah River. The island was now surrounded by militia. Forty of the soldiers attacked the factory from three sides. They pushed the three raiders back to a small building next to the river. The three men fought as long as possible. Then they jumped through a window into the river. They tried to swim to safety. Men with guns were waiting for them. Bullets fell around the three like rain. One man was hit. He died instantly. Another was wounded. He was pulled to land and left to die. The third man escaped death. He was captured and held for trial. VOICE TWO: All through the afternoon and evening, Brown's men at the armory continued to exchange shots with the militia. Several more on both sides were killed or wounded. One of those was another of Brown's sons, Oliver. He was shot and seriously wounded. Night fell. Then, a militia officer, Captain Sinn, walked up to the small building held by Brown. He shouted to the men inside that he wished to talk. Brown opened the door and let him in. For almost an hour, the two men talked. They talked about slavery and the right to rebel against the government. VOICE ONE: Brown was furious that the crowd outside had refused to honor his white flag of truce earlier in the day. He told Sinn that his men could have killed unarmed men and women, but did not do so. "That is not quite correct," Captain Sinn said. "Mayor Beckham had no gun when he was shot." "Then I can only say I am most sad to hear it," said Brown. "Men who take up guns against the government," said Sinn, "must expect to be shot down like dogs." VOICE TWO: In Washington, President Buchanan and Secretary of War John Floyd did not learn of the rebellion at Harpers Ferry until after ten o'clock that morning. The president wanted immediate action. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #14: Fulbright Program
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 2, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports for students who want to come to the United States to attend a college or university. Today we tell about the Fulbright Program. It gives Americans a chance to study, teach or do research in other countries. And it gives people in other countries a chance to do the same in the United States. Those who take part in this program are called Fulbright scholars. Fulbright scholars receive enough money to pay for travel, education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United States government, governments of other countries and private groups. The program was established in nineteen forty-six under legislation proposed by Senator William Fulbright. He saw this as a good way to improve world understanding. He also believed that the program could educate future world leaders. Senator Fulbright thought that living and learning in another country would help people understand other ideas and ways of life. And he thought the experience would help them understand their own country, too. More than two hundred thousand students, teachers and researchers have taken part in the Fulbright Program. Among the scholars in the past was Boutros Boutros Ghali, who became secretary general of the United Nations. Almost five thousand Fulbright grants are awarded each year to American and foreign students, educators and professionals. You can learn more about the program from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department. We have a link to the Web site at voaspecialenglish.com. Or do a search on the Internet for the term “Fulbright Program.” A separate program is called the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange. This is a way for an American educator and a foreign educator to trade places, usually for a full school year. More than twenty thousand teachers and administrators have taken part in the exchange program since nineteen forty-six. The list of countries involved in the program changes from year to year. The Web site for the Fulbright Teacher and Administrator Exchange Program is fulbrightexchanges.org. Listen next week for part fifteen of our Foreign Student Series. Our reports are also online at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Jewish Life in America / The 'Show-Me State' / Music by New Edition
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 3, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by New Edition … A question from China about why Missouri is the "Show-Me State" … And, a report on three hundred fifty years of Jewish life in America. Jewish Life in America Next week, Jews all over the world will begin celebrating the eight- day holiday of Hanukkah. At the same time, The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is honoring Jewish history in the United States. It is showing more than two hundred objects from Jewish life in America. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC: Hanukkah prayer sung in Hebrew)) BARBARA KLEIN: The exhibit is called “From Haven to Home: Three Hundred Fifty Years of Jewish Life in America.” Photographs, paintings, newspaper stories, films and other objects tell the Jewish story. Many Jews came to the United States in search of security. Twenty-three people who fled religious oppression in Brazil were the first Jews to arrive. They settled in what would later become New York City in sixteen fifty-four. The collection tells the promise of America for those from other countries who came here. One example is a letter written by America’s first president, George Washington, in seventeen ninety. President Washington wrote the letter to the Newport Hebrew Congregation in Rhode Island. His letter says Jewish people should continue to enjoy the good will of others in the United States. A painting from later in history shows Uriah Philipps Levy, who fought in the War of Eighteen Twelve. He also helped keep the home of President Thomas Jefferson as a national monument. The Library of Congress collection also shows a handwritten poem by Emma Lazarus. It contains the lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She wrote the poem in eighteen eighty-three to help raise money for the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Her poem is written on the famous statue. The collection represents more modern times as well. It recognizes Jewish entertainers, writers, politicians and athletes. The collection also recalls difficult times for Jews. A newspaper cartoon documents such a time in the American South during the nineteen-fifties. A Library of Congress guide says some southerners became hostile because many Jews supported human rights for black people. The collection ends with a short film of the Jewish music writer, Irving Berlin, who was born in Russia. He is singing one of his most famous songs, “God Bless America.” Berlin always said that he wrote the song to thank America for all it did to help him succeed. 'Show-Me State' DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Hubei, China. A listener named Hall writes: "It's said that people from the state of Missouri tend to be suspicious. ... Why?" Well, we cannot speak for all the people from Missouri. But it is true that their Midwestern state is known as the “Show-Me State.” When people say “show me,” what they mean is, “show me the proof.” In other words, they are not easily tricked. The same is true when people say “I’m from Missouri” even when they are not. Being a little suspicious ourselves, we did some searching on the Web. We found out from the state government that Missouri is not officially called the “Show-Me State.” But that term does appear on automobile license plates and is commonly used around Missouri. So where did it come from? State officials note that there are a number of stories to explain it. The most widely known involves a congressman from Missouri named Willard Duncan Vandiver. In eighteen ninety-nine, the congressman gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was in connection with serving on the House Committee on Naval Affairs. He declared that he came from a state that raises corn and cotton “and Democrats.” He said fancy language “neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Missouri officials are not sure Congressman Vandiver was the first to say that. But they say his use helped make the saying popular. Another story takes place during a strike by miners in the eighteen nineties in the western town of Leadville, Colorado. A number of lead miners from Missouri had been hired to replace the local strikers. As this version goes, the Missouri miners did not know Colorado mining methods and needed a lot of help. Supervisors began saying: “That man is from Missouri. You’ll have to show him.” It was not something nice to say. But we have all the proof we need that “show me” is a term spoken with pride. VOA’s book editor Nancy Beardsley grew up in the “Show-Me State.” She tells us that the saying means the people of Missouri are independent and need proof before they will trust authority. New Edition In nineteen eighty, five teenage singers from Boston, Massachusetts, formed a group they called New Edition. Now New Edition is out with its eighth album. Gwen Outen has our story. GWEN OUTEN: New Edition set out to become a new version of the nineteen seventies group the Jackson Five. In nineteen eighty-three, New Edition released its first album, “Candy Girl.” The members of the group were between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. New Edition became popular with hits like “Is This the End,” “Popcorn Love” and “Candy Girl.” (MUSIC) In nineteen eighty-six, Bobby Brown left New Edition to sing on his own. Rhythm-and-blues singer Johnny Gill joined the group in time for its nineteen eighty-eight album “Heart Break." That album included this hit, “Can You Stand the Rain.” (MUSIC) New Edition had its last album, "Home Again," in nineteen ninety-six. The newest album from the group is called “One Love.” We leave you with New Edition and a song called “Hot 2Nite.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Paul Thompson was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and postal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: December 3, 2004 (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by New Edition … A question from China about why Missouri is the "Show-Me State" … And, a report on three hundred fifty years of Jewish life in America. Jewish Life in America Next week, Jews all over the world will begin celebrating the eight- day holiday of Hanukkah. At the same time, The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is honoring Jewish history in the United States. It is showing more than two hundred objects from Jewish life in America. Barbara Klein has more. (MUSIC: Hanukkah prayer sung in Hebrew)) BARBARA KLEIN: The exhibit is called “From Haven to Home: Three Hundred Fifty Years of Jewish Life in America.” Photographs, paintings, newspaper stories, films and other objects tell the Jewish story. Many Jews came to the United States in search of security. Twenty-three people who fled religious oppression in Brazil were the first Jews to arrive. They settled in what would later become New York City in sixteen fifty-four. The collection tells the promise of America for those from other countries who came here. One example is a letter written by America’s first president, George Washington, in seventeen ninety. President Washington wrote the letter to the Newport Hebrew Congregation in Rhode Island. His letter says Jewish people should continue to enjoy the good will of others in the United States. A painting from later in history shows Uriah Philipps Levy, who fought in the War of Eighteen Twelve. He also helped keep the home of President Thomas Jefferson as a national monument. The Library of Congress collection also shows a handwritten poem by Emma Lazarus. It contains the lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She wrote the poem in eighteen eighty-three to help raise money for the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Her poem is written on the famous statue. The collection represents more modern times as well. It recognizes Jewish entertainers, writers, politicians and athletes. The collection also recalls difficult times for Jews. A newspaper cartoon documents such a time in the American South during the nineteen-fifties. A Library of Congress guide says some southerners became hostile because many Jews supported human rights for black people. The collection ends with a short film of the Jewish music writer, Irving Berlin, who was born in Russia. He is singing one of his most famous songs, “God Bless America.” Berlin always said that he wrote the song to thank America for all it did to help him succeed. 'Show-Me State' DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Hubei, China. A listener named Hall writes: "It's said that people from the state of Missouri tend to be suspicious. ... Why?" Well, we cannot speak for all the people from Missouri. But it is true that their Midwestern state is known as the “Show-Me State.” When people say “show me,” what they mean is, “show me the proof.” In other words, they are not easily tricked. The same is true when people say “I’m from Missouri” even when they are not. Being a little suspicious ourselves, we did some searching on the Web. We found out from the state government that Missouri is not officially called the “Show-Me State.” But that term does appear on automobile license plates and is commonly used around Missouri. So where did it come from? State officials note that there are a number of stories to explain it. The most widely known involves a congressman from Missouri named Willard Duncan Vandiver. In eighteen ninety-nine, the congressman gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was in connection with serving on the House Committee on Naval Affairs. He declared that he came from a state that raises corn and cotton “and Democrats.” He said fancy language “neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.” Missouri officials are not sure Congressman Vandiver was the first to say that. But they say his use helped make the saying popular. Another story takes place during a strike by miners in the eighteen nineties in the western town of Leadville, Colorado. A number of lead miners from Missouri had been hired to replace the local strikers. As this version goes, the Missouri miners did not know Colorado mining methods and needed a lot of help. Supervisors began saying: “That man is from Missouri. You’ll have to show him.” It was not something nice to say. But we have all the proof we need that “show me” is a term spoken with pride. VOA’s book editor Nancy Beardsley grew up in the “Show-Me State.” She tells us that the saying means the people of Missouri are independent and need proof before they will trust authority. New Edition In nineteen eighty, five teenage singers from Boston, Massachusetts, formed a group they called New Edition. Now New Edition is out with its eighth album. Gwen Outen has our story. GWEN OUTEN: New Edition set out to become a new version of the nineteen seventies group the Jackson Five. In nineteen eighty-three, New Edition released its first album, “Candy Girl.” The members of the group were between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. New Edition became popular with hits like “Is This the End,” “Popcorn Love” and “Candy Girl.” (MUSIC) In nineteen eighty-six, Bobby Brown left New Edition to sing on his own. Rhythm-and-blues singer Johnny Gill joined the group in time for its nineteen eighty-eight album “Heart Break." That album included this hit, “Can You Stand the Rain.” (MUSIC) New Edition had its last album, "Home Again," in nineteen ninety-six. The newest album from the group is called “One Love.” We leave you with New Edition and a song called “Hot 2Nite.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Paul Thompson was our producer. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and postal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Holiday Shopping Season in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 3, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Almost one-fourth of all personal spending in the United States takes place during the holiday season. There are gifts to give this month for Christmas, Hanukkah and the African American celebration of Kwanzaa. The traditional shopping season began last Friday, after Thanksgiving Day. Personal spending represents two-thirds of the economy, so holiday sales are especially important. Reports on November results have just come out. Major sellers, especially lower-priced ones, had mostly moderate gains at stores open at least a year. Wal-Mart was up just seven-tenths of one percent. Wal-Mart is the biggest seller in the world. The company had expected growth of two to four percent in November, fueled by sales on "Black Friday." The day after Thanksgiving is called that. Storekeepers used to record profits in black ink and losses in red ink. A day in the black means a return to profit. But for this Black Friday, Wal-Mart decided not to cut prices as aggressively on some goods as other stores did. Wal-Mart says it has learned from this and will listen more to its customers this holiday season. Businesses also listen to the Consumer Confidence Index to get an idea of how Americans feel about the economy. Many economists expected an increase in consumer confidence in November. But the Conference Board, a private group, says the index fell again for a fourth month. The National Retail Federation estimated in September that holiday sales would increase four and one-half percent this year. Holiday sales increased five percent last year, after poor sales the year before. The business group estimated that Americans will spend two hundred twenty thousand million dollars this season. It says they spent just over ten percent of that last weekend. Also, it says more Americans for the first time this season plan to use a debit card than a credit card for purchases. A debit card, also called a check card, is linked to the money that a person has in a bank. In other words, users must have the money before they can spend it. About thirty-five percent of shoppers said they would mainly use debit cards, compared to thirty percent for credit cards. Financial experts say this change might mean that more people want to keep to a budget this holiday season. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - United Nations Reform Plan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 4, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. A high-level United Nations committee has released a report about reforming the world organization. The committee presented the report to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan Thursday. Mister Annan appointed the sixteen-member group a year ago. He did so because of sharp divisions over the American-led war in Iraq, which the Security Council refused to approve. Former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun led the group. The committee’s report contains one hundred one proposals. They call for several steps designed to make the Security Council more effective. The report is considered the biggest reform effort since the U.N. was founded in nineteen forty-five. The report identified six areas as the greatest threats to worldwide security and proposed ways to deal with them. These are continued poverty and environmental destruction, terrorism, civil war, conflict between countries, the spread of nuclear weapons and organized crime. The group also proposed a definition of terrorism. That is an effort the U.N. General Assembly has tried unsuccessfully to do for years. The most divisive issue was the proposed enlargement of the U.N.’s most powerful group, the Security Council. The committee presented two proposals. Both proposals would increase the size of the Council from fifteen to twenty-four members. One proposal would add six new permanent members -- two from Africa, two from Asia and one each from Europe and the Americas. Three additional members would be elected for two-year terms. The other proposal would create eight temporary members chosen for four-year terms and open to re-election. They would include two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. An additional non-permanent seat would also be created. Currently, the Security Council has five permanent members and ten temporary members with terms of two years each. The five permanent members are the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France. These countries can veto resolutions. Neither proposal would extend veto powers to any new Security Council members. The report also proposed guidelines to establish when the use of force is necessary. The committee decided there is no need to change the U-N charter, which permits the use of force for self-defense to prevent an immediate threat. However, it said any good argument for preventive military action should be put to the Security Council in the future. Secretary General Annan wants to use the report as a basis for a plan he will present to the General Assembly in March. But Mister Annan’s leadership is being questioned because of charges of dishonesty in the U.N. oil for food program in Iraq. A United States senator has called for his resignation. President Bush on Thursday called for a full investigation into the program. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 4, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. A high-level United Nations committee has released a report about reforming the world organization. The committee presented the report to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan Thursday. Mister Annan appointed the sixteen-member group a year ago. He did so because of sharp divisions over the American-led war in Iraq, which the Security Council refused to approve. Former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun led the group. The committee’s report contains one hundred one proposals. They call for several steps designed to make the Security Council more effective. The report is considered the biggest reform effort since the U.N. was founded in nineteen forty-five. The report identified six areas as the greatest threats to worldwide security and proposed ways to deal with them. These are continued poverty and environmental destruction, terrorism, civil war, conflict between countries, the spread of nuclear weapons and organized crime. The group also proposed a definition of terrorism. That is an effort the U.N. General Assembly has tried unsuccessfully to do for years. The most divisive issue was the proposed enlargement of the U.N.’s most powerful group, the Security Council. The committee presented two proposals. Both proposals would increase the size of the Council from fifteen to twenty-four members. One proposal would add six new permanent members -- two from Africa, two from Asia and one each from Europe and the Americas. Three additional members would be elected for two-year terms. The other proposal would create eight temporary members chosen for four-year terms and open to re-election. They would include two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. An additional non-permanent seat would also be created. Currently, the Security Council has five permanent members and ten temporary members with terms of two years each. The five permanent members are the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France. These countries can veto resolutions. Neither proposal would extend veto powers to any new Security Council members. The report also proposed guidelines to establish when the use of force is necessary. The committee decided there is no need to change the U-N charter, which permits the use of force for self-defense to prevent an immediate threat. However, it said any good argument for preventive military action should be put to the Security Council in the future. Secretary General Annan wants to use the report as a basis for a plan he will present to the General Assembly in March. But Mister Annan’s leadership is being questioned because of charges of dishonesty in the U.N. oil for food program in Iraq. A United States senator has called for his resignation. President Bush on Thursday called for a full investigation into the program. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - William Faulkner, Part One
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 5, 2004 ((THEME)) Broadcast: December 5, 2004 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we begin the story of the life of a famous Southern writer, William Faulkner. He wrote about an imaginary place and described changes in the American South. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: William Faulkner was born at the end of the nineteenth century. It was a time when there were two Souths in the United States. The first was the South whose beliefs had existed from before the American Civil War which began in eighteen sixty-one. This South did not question rules, even when those rules did not satisfy human needs. It was a South filled with injustice for black people. It held the seeds of its own destruction. The other South was a land without any beliefs. It was a place where success was measured by self-interest. This was a South where each person had lost his place in the group. It was a place where people owned things that they did not know how to use. Faulkner saw that the old beliefs were not right or even worth believing. And he saw that they could not provide justice because they were based on slavery. Yet he felt that even with their lies and half truths the old beliefs were better than the moral emptiness of the modern South. VOICE TWO: In Faulkner's story called "The Bear" a group of men are talking after the day's hunt. One man reads from a poem by the English writer, John Keats: "'She cannot fade, though thou has not thy bliss, Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair. ' "He's talking about a girl," one man says. The other answers, 'He was talking about truth. Truth is one. It doesn't change. It covers all things which touch the heart -- honor and pity and justice and courage and love. Do you see now. '" The American writer, Robert Penn Warren says about Faulkner, "The important thing is the presence of the idea of truth. It covers all things that involve the heart and define the effort of man to rise above the mechanical process of life. " VOICE ONE: Faulkner has been accused of looking back to a time when life was better. Yet, he believes that truth belongs to all times. But it is found most often in the people who stand outside what he calls "the loud world. " One of the people in his story "Delta Autumn" says, "There are good men everywhere, at all times. " Faulkner's great-grandfather accepted the old beliefs. He was one of the men who had helped build the South, but his time was gone. Now money had replaced the old order of honor. What Faulkner saw was that there could be no order at all, no idea of doing what is right, in a world that measured success in terms of money. VOICE TWO: This is the changing South that Faulkner describes in the area he created. He named it Yoknapatawpha County. He describes it as in the northern part of the state of Mississippi. It lies between sand hills covered with pine trees and rich farmland near the Mississippi River. It has fifteen-thousand-six-hundred-eleven people, living on almost four-thousand square kilometers. Its central city is Jefferson, where the storekeepers, mechanics, and professional men live. The rest of the people of Yoknapatawpha County are farmers or men who cut trees. Their only crops are wood and cotton. A few live in big farmhouses, left from an earlier time. Most of them do not even own the land they farm. The critic Malcolm Cowley says, "Others might say that Faulkner was not so much writing stories for the public as telling them to himself. It is what a lonely child might do, or a great writer. " ((Music Bridge)) VOICE ONE: William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in eighteen-ninety-seven. His father worked for the railroad. William's great-grandfather had built it. His grandfather owned it. When the grandfather decided to sell the railroad, William's father moved his family thirty-five miles west to the city of Oxford. Growing up in Oxford, William Faulkner heard stories of the past from his grandmother and from a black woman who worked for his family. He heard more stories from old men in front of the courthouse, and from poor farmers sitting in front of a country store. You learn the stories, Faulkner says, without speech somehow from having been born and living beside them, with them, as children will and do. VOICE TWO: Faulkner was a good student. Yet by the time he was fifteen he had left school. Except for a year at the University of Mississippi at the end of World War One, that was the last of his official education. He took a number of jobs in Oxford, but did not stay with any of them. He began to think that he was a writer. Then in nineteen-eighteen the woman he loved married another man. Faulkner left Mississippi and joined the British Royal Flying Corps. He was sent to Canada to train to fight in World War One. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe. He returned to Oxford, walking with difficulty because of what he said was a "war wound. " VOICE ONE: At home Faulkner again moved from one job to the next. He wrote bad poetry, drew pictures that looked like other men's pictures, and wrote uninteresting stories. A book of his poetry, The Marble Faun, was published in nineteen-twenty-four. A year later he went to the Southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. There he met the American writer, Sherwood Anderson. They became friends. Anderson told Faulkner to develop his own way of writing, and to use material from his own part of the country. He also told Faulkner he would find a publisher for the novel Faulkner was writing. But Anderson also told Faulkner that he would not read the book. VOICE TWO: The book was called “Soldier's Pay.” It would not be remembered today if it were not for Faulkner's later work. The same could be said of Faulkner's next book, “Mosquitoes.” Money from these books made it possible for him to travel to Europe. He educated himself by reading a large number of modern writers. Among them was the Irish writer James Joyce. From him, Faulkner learned to write about people's inner thoughts. He also read the books of the Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud. From him, Faulkner learned some of the reasons people act in the strange way they often do. Instead of remaining in Paris, as many American writers did, Faulkner returned to Mississippi and began his serious writing. "I was trying," he said, "to put the history of mankind in one sentence. " Later he said, "I am still trying to do it, but now I want to put it all on the head of a pin. " He created Yoknapatawpha County and its people, and gave them a meaning far beyond their place and lives. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-nine Faulkner married Estelle Oldham, the woman he had loved since they were in school together. Her earlier marriage had failed. She had returned to Oxford with her two children. They bought an old ruined house and began the costly work of repairing it. Faulkner also took on the job of supporting the rest of his family. His letters from this time on are often full of talk about what he must do to support his family and to continue the repairs to his house. VOICE TWO: Faulkner's next book, “Sartoris,” presents almost all the ideas that he develops during the rest of his life. First, however, the book Faulkner wrote had to be cut by about twenty-five percent. Faulkner resisted. He said, if you grow a vegetable, you can cut it to look like something else, but it will be dead. Yet, when Faulkner read the book after his editor cut it, he approved. He even cooperated in more re-shaping of the book. In “Sartoris,” Faulkner found his subject, his voice, and his area. He writes about the connection between an important Southern family and the local community. He describes how the Sartoris family seems to help in its own destruction. VOICE ONE: In the next seven years, between nineteen-twenty-nine and nineteen-thirty-six, he seemed to re-invent the novel with every book he wrote. "Get it down," he said. "Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything good. " At that time, most novels about the South described a land that never existed. After Faulkner, few northerners were brave enough to write about a South they did not know. And no serious Southern writer was willing to describe a South that did not exist. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for the rest of the story about William Faulkner on People in America in VOA Special English. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we begin the story of the life of a famous Southern writer, William Faulkner. He wrote about an imaginary place and described changes in the American South. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: William Faulkner was born at the end of the nineteenth century. It was a time when there were two Souths in the United States. The first was the South whose beliefs had existed from before the American Civil War which began in eighteen sixty-one. This South did not question rules, even when those rules did not satisfy human needs. It was a South filled with injustice for black people. It held the seeds of its own destruction. The other South was a land without any beliefs. It was a place where success was measured by self-interest. This was a South where each person had lost his place in the group. It was a place where people owned things that they did not know how to use. Faulkner saw that the old beliefs were not right or even worth believing. And he saw that they could not provide justice because they were based on slavery. Yet he felt that even with their lies and half truths the old beliefs were better than the moral emptiness of the modern South. VOICE TWO: In Faulkner's story called "The Bear" a group of men are talking after the day's hunt. One man reads from a poem by the English writer, John Keats: "'She cannot fade, though thou has not thy bliss, Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair. ' "He's talking about a girl," one man says. The other answers, 'He was talking about truth. Truth is one. It doesn't change. It covers all things which touch the heart -- honor and pity and justice and courage and love. Do you see now. '" The American writer, Robert Penn Warren says about Faulkner, "The important thing is the presence of the idea of truth. It covers all things that involve the heart and define the effort of man to rise above the mechanical process of life. " VOICE ONE: Faulkner has been accused of looking back to a time when life was better. Yet, he believes that truth belongs to all times. But it is found most often in the people who stand outside what he calls "the loud world. " One of the people in his story "Delta Autumn" says, "There are good men everywhere, at all times. " Faulkner's great-grandfather accepted the old beliefs. He was one of the men who had helped build the South, but his time was gone. Now money had replaced the old order of honor. What Faulkner saw was that there could be no order at all, no idea of doing what is right, in a world that measured success in terms of money. VOICE TWO: This is the changing South that Faulkner describes in the area he created. He named it Yoknapatawpha County. He describes it as in the northern part of the state of Mississippi. It lies between sand hills covered with pine trees and rich farmland near the Mississippi River. It has fifteen-thousand-six-hundred-eleven people, living on almost four-thousand square kilometers. Its central city is Jefferson, where the storekeepers, mechanics, and professional men live. The rest of the people of Yoknapatawpha County are farmers or men who cut trees. Their only crops are wood and cotton. A few live in big farmhouses, left from an earlier time. Most of them do not even own the land they farm. The critic Malcolm Cowley says, "Others might say that Faulkner was not so much writing stories for the public as telling them to himself. It is what a lonely child might do, or a great writer. " ((Music Bridge)) VOICE ONE: William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in eighteen-ninety-seven. His father worked for the railroad. William's great-grandfather had built it. His grandfather owned it. When the grandfather decided to sell the railroad, William's father moved his family thirty-five miles west to the city of Oxford. Growing up in Oxford, William Faulkner heard stories of the past from his grandmother and from a black woman who worked for his family. He heard more stories from old men in front of the courthouse, and from poor farmers sitting in front of a country store. You learn the stories, Faulkner says, without speech somehow from having been born and living beside them, with them, as children will and do. VOICE TWO: Faulkner was a good student. Yet by the time he was fifteen he had left school. Except for a year at the University of Mississippi at the end of World War One, that was the last of his official education. He took a number of jobs in Oxford, but did not stay with any of them. He began to think that he was a writer. Then in nineteen-eighteen the woman he loved married another man. Faulkner left Mississippi and joined the British Royal Flying Corps. He was sent to Canada to train to fight in World War One. The war ended before he could be sent to Europe. He returned to Oxford, walking with difficulty because of what he said was a "war wound. " VOICE ONE: At home Faulkner again moved from one job to the next. He wrote bad poetry, drew pictures that looked like other men's pictures, and wrote uninteresting stories. A book of his poetry, The Marble Faun, was published in nineteen-twenty-four. A year later he went to the Southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. There he met the American writer, Sherwood Anderson. They became friends. Anderson told Faulkner to develop his own way of writing, and to use material from his own part of the country. He also told Faulkner he would find a publisher for the novel Faulkner was writing. But Anderson also told Faulkner that he would not read the book. VOICE TWO: The book was called “Soldier's Pay.” It would not be remembered today if it were not for Faulkner's later work. The same could be said of Faulkner's next book, “Mosquitoes.” Money from these books made it possible for him to travel to Europe. He educated himself by reading a large number of modern writers. Among them was the Irish writer James Joyce. From him, Faulkner learned to write about people's inner thoughts. He also read the books of the Austrian doctor, Sigmund Freud. From him, Faulkner learned some of the reasons people act in the strange way they often do. Instead of remaining in Paris, as many American writers did, Faulkner returned to Mississippi and began his serious writing. "I was trying," he said, "to put the history of mankind in one sentence. " Later he said, "I am still trying to do it, but now I want to put it all on the head of a pin. " He created Yoknapatawpha County and its people, and gave them a meaning far beyond their place and lives. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-nine Faulkner married Estelle Oldham, the woman he had loved since they were in school together. Her earlier marriage had failed. She had returned to Oxford with her two children. They bought an old ruined house and began the costly work of repairing it. Faulkner also took on the job of supporting the rest of his family. His letters from this time on are often full of talk about what he must do to support his family and to continue the repairs to his house. VOICE TWO: Faulkner's next book, “Sartoris,” presents almost all the ideas that he develops during the rest of his life. First, however, the book Faulkner wrote had to be cut by about twenty-five percent. Faulkner resisted. He said, if you grow a vegetable, you can cut it to look like something else, but it will be dead. Yet, when Faulkner read the book after his editor cut it, he approved. He even cooperated in more re-shaping of the book. In “Sartoris,” Faulkner found his subject, his voice, and his area. He writes about the connection between an important Southern family and the local community. He describes how the Sartoris family seems to help in its own destruction. VOICE ONE: In the next seven years, between nineteen-twenty-nine and nineteen-thirty-six, he seemed to re-invent the novel with every book he wrote. "Get it down," he said. "Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything good. " At that time, most novels about the South described a land that never existed. After Faulkner, few northerners were brave enough to write about a South they did not know. And no serious Southern writer was willing to describe a South that did not exist. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for the rest of the story about William Faulkner on People in America in VOA Special English. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Writers and the Immigrant Experience: Latin America and the Caribbean
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 6, 2004 [See correction at end] (MUSIC) Francisco Goldman Broadcast: December 6, 2004 [See correction at end] (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Books about the immigrant experience act as a bridge between cultures. They carry readers across borders and help them experience the lives of people different from themselves. Jamaica Kincaid VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Books about the immigrant experience act as a bridge between cultures. They carry readers across borders and help them experience the lives of people different from themselves. VOICE ONE: This week, our program looks at the lives of four writers in the United States who have strong ties to Latin America and the Caribbean. They are Isabel Allende, Francisco Goldman, Jamaica Kincaid and Sandra Cisneros. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Isabel Allende is one of the most popular immigrant writers from South America. She has written many books for adults and children. One of her most successful was her first book, “The House of Spirits.” Mizz Allende based it on memories of her family and the political crises in Chile where she grew up. Isabel Allende was born in nineteen forty-two in Lima, Peru. Her father was a Chilean diplomat there. But her parents ended their marriage when she was three years old. Sandra Cisneros VOICE ONE: This week, our program looks at the lives of four writers in the United States who have strong ties to Latin America and the Caribbean. They are Isabel Allende, Francisco Goldman, Jamaica Kincaid and Sandra Cisneros. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Isabel Allende is one of the most popular immigrant writers from South America. She has written many books for adults and children. One of her most successful was her first book, “The House of Spirits.” Mizz Allende based it on memories of her family and the political crises in Chile where she grew up. Isabel Allende was born in nineteen forty-two in Lima, Peru. Her father was a Chilean diplomat there. But her parents ended their marriage when she was three years old. After her school years, Isabel Allende got married and worked as a reporter for a magazine and for television. Then in nineteen seventy-three her uncle, the president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was murdered in a military overthrow. In nineteen seventy-five Isabel Allende and her family fled to Venezuela. She based “The House of Spirits” on a letter that she wrote to her grandmother who was dying. The book shows the world from the view of women who suffer but survive the problems they face. Some of Mizz Allende’s other books also deal with this issue. VOICE ONE: Isabel Allende has lived in a number of countries around the world. Her marriage ended in divorce. A year later, she married a man she had met while in the United States to talk about one of her books. That was in nineteen eighty-eight; they have lived in Northern California ever since. After a few years in the United States, Mizz Allende wrote a book called “The Infinite Plan." The story is about an American man. It is set in the United States. "The Infinite Plan" was very different from her other books, which were mostly set in South America. At least one book critic noted with praise for Mizz Allende that not many immigrants write about natives of their new country. But she still writes in Spanish. Isabel Allende says she always considered herself a Latin American. But, as she told the New York Times, the terrorist attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one, changed her feelings about her identity. She describes these feelings in her two thousand three book, “My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey through Chile.” Although she is now an American citizen, Mizz Allende says, "My heart isn't divided; it has merely grown larger." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another American writer with strong links to another country is Francisco Goldman. He was born in nineteen fifty-four. He grew up in Guatemala City and Massachusetts. His mother came from Guatemala to the United States by herself before the age of twenty. His father was from a family of Russian immigrants. Now Francisco Goldman divides his time between Mexico City and New York City. He is an English professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His first book, "The Long Night of White Chickens," was about a Guatemalan-American man. He travels to Central America to investigate the murder of a Guatemalan woman he knew as a child. The book received honors. Book critics praised the power with which Francisco Goldman dealt with both love and politics in "The Long Night of White Chickens." VOICE ONE: His second book was “The Ordinary Seaman." Fifteen Central American men are brought to the United States illegally to repair an old ship. But they are tricked by the owners. The ship cannot sail from its port in Brooklyn, New York. The men must search for food and a way out of their situation. Critics again praised Mister Goldman for his writing and storytelling. For his third book, he wrote a story based on the relationship between Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti and a Guatemalan woman. The book is called “The Divine Husband: A Novel.” Francisco Goldman has also written for magazines like The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine. He says reporting and storytelling are not very different for Latin American writers. He has written both ways about the same issues. These include the war in Guatemala in the nineteen eighties. Mister Goldman says he writes to try to find the truth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jamaica Kincaid is another writer who sets most of her stories in another country. Her books are set on a Caribbean island nation similar to her native Antigua. Mizz Kincaid was born in nineteen forty-nine. Her parents named her Elaine Potter Richardson. She left Antigua when she was seventeen. She changed her name as an adult when she began writing in New York. Jamaica Kincaid took care of other people's children in New York and went to school. Later, she wrote for magazines. She wrote for The New Yorker for twenty years. Jamaica Kincaid published her first book, called “At the Bottom of the River,” in nineteen eighty-three. This collection of short stories is about a young girl growing up in the Caribbean. The book was praised for its musical writing style and intense emotion. Since then, Jamaica Kincaid's other books have had a similar strong style and subject matter. Most of her writing is based on her life and her difficult relationship with her mother. VOICE ONE: The relationship she presents has been compared to that between Britain and its former colony, Antigua. Jamaica Kincaid dealt with the issue directly in her book “A Small Place.” She condemned Britain for its history of slave trade and colonialism, and the effects on her native land. Some book critics called “A Small Place” too angry. But Mizz Kincaid once said, “The first step in claiming yourself is anger.” VOICE TWO: Jamaica Kincaid lives in the state of Vermont with her American-born husband and two children. She wrote about the immigrant experience in her book “Lucy.” Lucy, a Caribbean woman, tries to survive in a strange and difficult environment. She becomes very critical of American society. How does the writer herself feel about that society? Jamaica Kincaid says America has "given me a place to be myself – but myself as I was formed somewhere else.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Unlike the other writers we have discussed, Sandra Cisneros was born in the United States. But she writes mainly about the immigrant experience. Sandra Cisneros is a daughter of Mexican-Americans. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-four. She studied at a writing program in another Midwestern state, Iowa. It was in that program, she says, that she recognized the importance of her ancestry and her experiences as a woman. She says this realization gave her writing its own voice. She has written books of poetry and fiction. Her first book was “The House on Mango Street.” The book is about a young Mexican-American girl. She wants to leave the poor part of the city where she lives. Later, she accepts and welcomes her ethnic identity. The book was a huge success. It won many prizes. "The House on Mango Street" is widely read in schools. Other books by Sandra Cisneros have also been well-received. VOICE TWO: "Caramelo," published in two thousand three, tells the story of a big Mexican-American family that travels to Mexico City. The book includes the history of modern Mexico and how it is closely linked to United States history. "Caramelo" deals with cultural identity and women in society. It deals with lies and memories. And it deals with childhood and family. Sandra Cisneros says it is important that all people in the United States understand the lives of Mexican-Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. You can find an earlier program about Asian American writers on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. A future program will present immigrant writers from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. --- Correction: Sandra Cisneros is not the only one of the four writers who was born in the United States. Francisco Goldman was born in Boston, although, as the story notes, he also lived in Guatemala as a child. After her school years, Isabel Allende got married and worked as a reporter for a magazine and for television. Then in nineteen seventy-three her uncle, the president of Chile, Salvador Allende, was murdered in a military overthrow. In nineteen seventy-five Isabel Allende and her family fled to Venezuela. She based “The House of Spirits” on a letter that she wrote to her grandmother who was dying. The book shows the world from the view of women who suffer but survive the problems they face. Some of Mizz Allende’s other books also deal with this issue. VOICE ONE: Isabel Allende has lived in a number of countries around the world. Her marriage ended in divorce. A year later, she married a man she had met while in the United States to talk about one of her books. That was in nineteen eighty-eight; they have lived in Northern California ever since. After a few years in the United States, Mizz Allende wrote a book called “The Infinite Plan." The story is about an American man. It is set in the United States. "The Infinite Plan" was very different from her other books, which were mostly set in South America. At least one book critic noted with praise for Mizz Allende that not many immigrants write about natives of their new country. But she still writes in Spanish. Isabel Allende says she always considered herself a Latin American. But, as she told the New York Times, the terrorist attacks on the United States on September eleventh, two thousand one, changed her feelings about her identity. She describes these feelings in her two thousand three book, “My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey through Chile.” Although she is now an American citizen, Mizz Allende says, "My heart isn't divided; it has merely grown larger." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another American writer with strong links to another country is Francisco Goldman. He was born in nineteen fifty-four. He grew up in Guatemala City and Massachusetts. His mother came from Guatemala to the United States by herself before the age of twenty. His father was from a family of Russian immigrants. Now Francisco Goldman divides his time between Mexico City and New York City. He is an English professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. His first book, "The Long Night of White Chickens," was about a Guatemalan-American man. He travels to Central America to investigate the murder of a Guatemalan woman he knew as a child. The book received honors. Book critics praised the power with which Francisco Goldman dealt with both love and politics in "The Long Night of White Chickens." VOICE ONE: His second book was “The Ordinary Seaman." Fifteen Central American men are brought to the United States illegally to repair an old ship. But they are tricked by the owners. The ship cannot sail from its port in Brooklyn, New York. The men must search for food and a way out of their situation. Critics again praised Mister Goldman for his writing and storytelling. For his third book, he wrote a story based on the relationship between Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti and a Guatemalan woman. The book is called “The Divine Husband: A Novel.” Francisco Goldman has also written for magazines like The New Yorker and Harper’s Magazine. He says reporting and storytelling are not very different for Latin American writers. He has written both ways about the same issues. These include the war in Guatemala in the nineteen eighties. Mister Goldman says he writes to try to find the truth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jamaica Kincaid is another writer who sets most of her stories in another country. Her books are set on a Caribbean island nation similar to her native Antigua. Mizz Kincaid was born in nineteen forty-nine. Her parents named her Elaine Potter Richardson. She left Antigua when she was seventeen. She changed her name as an adult when she began writing in New York. Jamaica Kincaid took care of other people's children in New York and went to school. Later, she wrote for magazines. She wrote for The New Yorker for twenty years. Jamaica Kincaid published her first book, called “At the Bottom of the River,” in nineteen eighty-three. This collection of short stories is about a young girl growing up in the Caribbean. The book was praised for its musical writing style and intense emotion. Since then, Jamaica Kincaid's other books have had a similar strong style and subject matter. Most of her writing is based on her life and her difficult relationship with her mother. VOICE ONE: The relationship she presents has been compared to that between Britain and its former colony, Antigua. Jamaica Kincaid dealt with the issue directly in her book “A Small Place.” She condemned Britain for its history of slave trade and colonialism, and the effects on her native land. Some book critics called “A Small Place” too angry. But Mizz Kincaid once said, “The first step in claiming yourself is anger.” VOICE TWO: Jamaica Kincaid lives in the state of Vermont with her American-born husband and two children. She wrote about the immigrant experience in her book “Lucy.” Lucy, a Caribbean woman, tries to survive in a strange and difficult environment. She becomes very critical of American society. How does the writer herself feel about that society? Jamaica Kincaid says America has "given me a place to be myself – but myself as I was formed somewhere else.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Unlike the other writers we have discussed, Sandra Cisneros was born in the United States. But she writes mainly about the immigrant experience. Sandra Cisneros is a daughter of Mexican-Americans. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, in nineteen fifty-four. She studied at a writing program in another Midwestern state, Iowa. It was in that program, she says, that she recognized the importance of her ancestry and her experiences as a woman. She says this realization gave her writing its own voice. She has written books of poetry and fiction. Her first book was “The House on Mango Street.” The book is about a young Mexican-American girl. She wants to leave the poor part of the city where she lives. Later, she accepts and welcomes her ethnic identity. The book was a huge success. It won many prizes. "The House on Mango Street" is widely read in schools. Other books by Sandra Cisneros have also been well-received. VOICE TWO: "Caramelo," published in two thousand three, tells the story of a big Mexican-American family that travels to Mexico City. The book includes the history of modern Mexico and how it is closely linked to United States history. "Caramelo" deals with cultural identity and women in society. It deals with lies and memories. And it deals with childhood and family. Sandra Cisneros says it is important that all people in the United States understand the lives of Mexican-Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. You can find an earlier program about Asian American writers on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. A future program will present immigrant writers from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. --- Correction: Sandra Cisneros is not the only one of the four writers who was born in the United States. Francisco Goldman was born in Boston, although, as the story notes, he also lived in Guatemala as a child. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Study Calls for Millions of New Health Workers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 6, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. A new study says the world needs four million more health workers to improve public health. Southern Africa alone needs an estimated one million more health workers just to meet the Millennium Development Goals. These United Nations goals aim to improve health by two thousand fifteen. The study is by a group of health and development organizations called the Joint Learning Initiative. The Lancet in Britain published the results. The researchers estimate that more than one hundred million people work in health care worldwide. But the study says only about one-fourth of these people are trained as doctors, nurses or midwives. The others are believed to be traditional, community or other kinds of health workers. The study examines the way skilled professionals are spread throughout the world. For example, it says sub-Saharan Africa has one-tenth as many nurses and doctors for its population as Europe has. Italy has fifty times as many as Ethiopia has. The study blames several things. First is the AIDS crisis. Health workers face more work and the danger of infection. The study says many no longer act as healers but as providers of care for the dying. Second is the so-called “brain drain” of skilled workers from poor nations to countries that can pay them more. And third is a lack of enough investment in health workers in many countries. But the study says official development assistance is finally increasing after ten years. Currently, about four thousand million dollars a year in foreign aid for health is spent on human resources, such as pay and training. The researchers say foreign aid providers must work together to better organize their investments. They say ten percent, or four hundred million dollars, should go toward workforce development. The study also suggests better use of resources such as paraprofessionals. These are people trained to do much of the work of doctors, including some operations. But they are not doctors, so there is less chance they might leave for wealthier countries that need doctors. Lincoln Chen at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, helped write this call for action. What we do or fail to do today, he says, will shape the direction of world health in the twenty-first century. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Special Report on Tobacco / How to Stop Smoking
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about the health effects of smoking tobacco products. We also offer advice about how to stop smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that almost five million people around the world die each year from the effects of smoking. That number is increasing. W.H.O. officials say tobacco use could kill more than nine million people a year by two thousand twenty if nothing is done to control the problem. In the United States, an estimated forty-six million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the country. This year, an estimated four hundred forty thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking also has been linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for about eighty-seven percent of all lung cancers in the United States. The group adds that smoking is a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than sixty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: American experts say smoking affects not only the smoker. Women who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems. Pregnant women who smoke are at risk of having a baby who weighs less than normal. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of early death and may suffer from a number of health disorders. Experts say tobacco smoke also affects the health of people who do not smoke. Smokers may harm the health of family members and people at work when they breathe out smoke from cigarettes. This is called “second-hand smoke.” Tobacco smoke causes an estimated three thousand non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer each year. Tobacco smoke also causes lung infections in up to three hundred thousand American children each year. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. VOICE TWO: Last week, United Nations officials announced that a treaty against smoking will become part of international law early next year. The announcement came after Peru became the fortieth country to agree to the treaty. The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will come into force on February twenty-eighth, two thousand five. After that date, any country approving the treaty will be required to obey its rules. They govern issues such as tobacco price and tax increases, the illegal trade of tobacco products, and second-hand smoke. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nicotine is the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again. This forces the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or the drug cocaine. So experts say it is better not to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE TWO: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. However, most smokers find that is difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. People who use menthol cigarettes can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other products. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous. VOICE ONE: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. Three years ago, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting diseases linked with smoking. The report found no evidence that changes in cigarette design and production during the past fifty years have improved public health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of other people who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE ONE: Experts say there are some products designed to help end a smoker’s dependency on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. A drug to fight depression has proved effective for many smokers. Depression is the mental condition that causes extreme sadness and hopelessness. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug works by increasing levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. There is evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have some other ideas to help you stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people are smoking. If you drink alcohol, you probably will need to stop drinking temporarily. Many people lose their inner strength when they drink alcohol. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Cynthia Kirk is our producer and our engineer is Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: December 7, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week, we tell about the health effects of smoking tobacco products. We also offer advice about how to stop smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that almost five million people around the world die each year from the effects of smoking. That number is increasing. W.H.O. officials say tobacco use could kill more than nine million people a year by two thousand twenty if nothing is done to control the problem. In the United States, an estimated forty-six million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the country. This year, an estimated four hundred forty thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking also has been linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for about eighty-seven percent of all lung cancers in the United States. The group adds that smoking is a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than sixty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: American experts say smoking affects not only the smoker. Women who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems. Pregnant women who smoke are at risk of having a baby who weighs less than normal. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of early death and may suffer from a number of health disorders. Experts say tobacco smoke also affects the health of people who do not smoke. Smokers may harm the health of family members and people at work when they breathe out smoke from cigarettes. This is called “second-hand smoke.” Tobacco smoke causes an estimated three thousand non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer each year. Tobacco smoke also causes lung infections in up to three hundred thousand American children each year. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. VOICE TWO: Last week, United Nations officials announced that a treaty against smoking will become part of international law early next year. The announcement came after Peru became the fortieth country to agree to the treaty. The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will come into force on February twenty-eighth, two thousand five. After that date, any country approving the treaty will be required to obey its rules. They govern issues such as tobacco price and tax increases, the illegal trade of tobacco products, and second-hand smoke. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Nicotine is the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again. This forces the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or the drug cocaine. So experts say it is better not to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE TWO: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. However, most smokers find that is difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. People who use menthol cigarettes can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other products. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous. VOICE ONE: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. Three years ago, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting diseases linked with smoking. The report found no evidence that changes in cigarette design and production during the past fifty years have improved public health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of other people who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE ONE: Experts say there are some products designed to help end a smoker’s dependency on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. A drug to fight depression has proved effective for many smokers. Depression is the mental condition that causes extreme sadness and hopelessness. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug works by increasing levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. There is evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have some other ideas to help you stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people are smoking. If you drink alcohol, you probably will need to stop drinking temporarily. Many people lose their inner strength when they drink alcohol. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. Cynthia Kirk is our producer and our engineer is Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Asian Soybean Rust Found in Several U.S. States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 7, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Asian soybean rust has been found in a number of American states. The first report of the plant disease came on November tenth in the state of Louisiana. There were later reports from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina. All these states are in the South. The presence of soybean rust was also confirmed in Missouri, in the Midwest. Asian soybean rust is a fungus that can sharply reduce harvests. A fungus is a simple organism. It cannot make its own food. So it takes nutrients from material living or dead. Asian soybean rust can infect several other kinds of bean plants, as well as kudzu, an invasive plant. The fungus does not harm animals or people. It was first discovered in Japan just over a century ago. It has spread to Africa and, most recently, to South America. Scientists believe it moved north to the United States on the winds of a severe storm, Hurricane Ivan, in September. The rust is light brown or red in color. It grows on leaves, which develop growths. These growths break open and release a powder of reproductive material. Scientists say winds can carry the fungus spores for thousands of kilometers. Over the years, the disease has caused major damage in Asia. Australia has also experienced damage. Outbreaks in Africa over the last several years have reduced soy harvests by over fifty percent in some areas. The disease arrived in Brazil in two thousand one. The United States Agriculture Department says soybean rust took only one year to spread to sixty percent of the soybean fields in Brazil. Still, the Brazilian government says it expects a record harvest this year. Brazil recently passed the United States as the biggest exporter of soybeans in the world. The United States is the biggest producer. In nineteen ninety-four, Asian soybean rust appeared in Hawaii. But until now, it was never found on the mainland. The discovery comes at the end of the growing season in the United States. Officials say the fungus did not affect this year’s harvest. But it could return next year. Agricultural officials say farmers have time to start planning ways to control the disease for the next planting season. A number of chemicals can be used to treat fields. But they are costly. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Indian Museum Education Programs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 8, 2004 (MUSIC) Interior of the National Museum of the American Indian Broadcast: December 8, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about how the new National Museum of the American Indian is educating the public. W. Richard West VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about how the new National Museum of the American Indian is educating the public. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A large group of school children waits outside the doors of the new museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They are loudly talking and laughing with their friends while they wait. Then the doors to the National Museum of the American Indian open. The young students move past the security guards and walk around a metal wall. Suddenly they are very quiet. They are standing in a huge round space that is the center of the new building. Light from the sky pours in through a glass opening almost forty meters above them. This is a space that quiets people. It expresses the American Indian respect for how the sky and the earth join to create the native universe. The sudden silence of the students is evidence they have begun to learn something about American Indians’ culture and beliefs. That is the goal of the new museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Museum of the American Indian opened September twenty-first with a week-long celebration. On opening day, more than eighty thousand people gathered on the Mall to celebrate. About twenty-five thousand American Indians in their traditional clothes marched in the colorful Native Nations Procession. They represented five hundred tribes and Native communities from northern Canada to as far south as Chile in South America. VOICE ONE: Congress created the NMAI as part of the Smithsonian Institution in nineteen eighty-nine. Planning began the next year to create the first national museum to honor Native Americans. W. Richard West, a Southern Cheyenne, has been the director of the museum since nineteen ninety. Mister West explains that Native Americans have had a continuing part in developing the design and goals of the museum and what it should show the public. Meetings were held for years with hundreds of Native people from North, Central and South America. They said that this museum should be different from other museums. They wanted the building to connect to the earth and its surroundings so it looked like it belongs on Indian land. And they urged that the voices and ideas of Native people be heard in all the displays and programs. VOICE TWO: Their advice has been followed. The design of the building and its surroundings show its connection to nature. Colors, materials and forms that are found in American Indian lands are used outside and inside the building. Throughout the museum, the voices of Native people describe their world. Mister West says the museum was created to be a center for learning about the history and cultures of the native peoples of the Americas. He hopes visitors will leave the museum experience knowing that Indians are not just a part of history. VOICE ONE: The National Museum of the American Indian has about eight hundred thousand objects in its collection. Most of them were collected by one man, American businessman George Gustav Heye (high). He spent the first fifty years of the last century gathering all kinds of American Indian objects that have great artistic, historic and cultural meaning. The collection now is in three different buildings. Some of the objects are shown in the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. Most of the collection is kept in the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland, which opened in nineteen ninety-eight. This is also where people can do research. The new museum in Washington, D.C. has about eight thousand objects in its exhibits. It also has space for educational activities, ceremonies and performances. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Representatives of Native communities helped develop the three main exhibit areas in the new museum. One area is called Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World. It shows the spiritual links between people and the natural world. And it shows how these links are honored in many different ceremonies throughout the year. Eight Native communities are represented in the Our Universes area. Tessie Naranjo helped choose the objects and the theme of the Santa Clara Pueblo exhibit. Mizz Naranjo says the goal is to help visitors understand how the Santa Clara people look at life. This is done, she explains, through storytelling, which is used throughout the museum. All tribal stories have a teaching purpose, she says. Stories express the values of each Native community and the way community members are connected to the universe. So the Santa Clara exhibit tells about the importance of water, maize, and the four sacred mountains that surround the reservation in New Mexico. Visitors learn how young people in Santa Clara are taught to listen to older people and to honor the land. VOICE ONE: Another major exhibit area is called Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories. It explores events that have shaped the lives of Native Americans since Europeans arrived in fourteen ninety-two. It shows how American Indians have struggled to save their traditions. The third exhibit area is called Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities. It tries to answer the question of what is an American Indian. Visitors see objects, pictures, and films and hear spoken words. They learn about the difficulties native peoples face to survive economically, save their languages, and keep their culture and arts alive. VOICE TWO: Genevieve Simermeyer, a member of the Osage tribe, is the school programs coordinator for the museum. She says the museum education office has developed three programs for different age groups of school children. Nine Native Americans act as tour guides or cultural interpreters. They meet school groups in the large open space. Then they take the students through different areas of the museum. They explain about some of the exhibits and answer questions. Before a group of school children visits the museum, their teacher receives materials to help prepare them. The youngest children from ages five to eight explore the idea of old things and new things. At the museum they discover links between the past and present in American Indian life. VOICE ONE: For groups of school children nine to eleven years old, the visit to the museum is about the cultural values of Native Americans. They explore how American Indians have dealt with change. Older children learn how modern issues such as borders and treaties have affected the culture, language and traditions of native peoples. Mizz Simermeyer says the guided tours for school children are so popular they are already filled through May. But school groups can visit the museum without a guide. There are teaching materials to help them prepare for the visit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Storytelling takes place throughout the museum. There are short films that tell American Indian stories. Voices in some of the some exhibits tell stories that explain native beliefs. The cultural interpreters also tell stories. Adults and children also enjoy the hands-on parts of the museum. Computer games and instructional devices that provide learning experiences are very popular. So are teaching boxes that contain objects that visitors can touch. For people who cannot get to the museum, education materials can be found on the Internet at AmericanIndian.si.edu. Amy Drapeau (drah-poe) is a spokesperson for the National Museum of the American Indian. She says the education program helps the general public understand that American Indians are not just from the past and are not all the same. They live in many different places. They speak hundreds of different languages. And their traditions are very different. VOICE ONE: Children who visit the museum seem to enjoy what they learn. You can hear their excited comments as they make discoveries for themselves. “Wow.” “Come look at this!” “I did not know that.” Adults learn, too. A woman from Silver Spring, Maryland, says she learned that present day Native Americans still have traditions they know and value. She says that made her think about her own family traditions and what has happened to them. “The Museum of the American Indian,” she says “ is a powerful place.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A large group of school children waits outside the doors of the new museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They are loudly talking and laughing with their friends while they wait. Then the doors to the National Museum of the American Indian open. The young students move past the security guards and walk around a metal wall. Suddenly they are very quiet. They are standing in a huge round space that is the center of the new building. Light from the sky pours in through a glass opening almost forty meters above them. This is a space that quiets people. It expresses the American Indian respect for how the sky and the earth join to create the native universe. The sudden silence of the students is evidence they have begun to learn something about American Indians’ culture and beliefs. That is the goal of the new museum. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Museum of the American Indian opened September twenty-first with a week-long celebration. On opening day, more than eighty thousand people gathered on the Mall to celebrate. About twenty-five thousand American Indians in their traditional clothes marched in the colorful Native Nations Procession. They represented five hundred tribes and Native communities from northern Canada to as far south as Chile in South America. VOICE ONE: Congress created the NMAI as part of the Smithsonian Institution in nineteen eighty-nine. Planning began the next year to create the first national museum to honor Native Americans. W. Richard West, a Southern Cheyenne, has been the director of the museum since nineteen ninety. Mister West explains that Native Americans have had a continuing part in developing the design and goals of the museum and what it should show the public. Meetings were held for years with hundreds of Native people from North, Central and South America. They said that this museum should be different from other museums. They wanted the building to connect to the earth and its surroundings so it looked like it belongs on Indian land. And they urged that the voices and ideas of Native people be heard in all the displays and programs. VOICE TWO: Their advice has been followed. The design of the building and its surroundings show its connection to nature. Colors, materials and forms that are found in American Indian lands are used outside and inside the building. Throughout the museum, the voices of Native people describe their world. Mister West says the museum was created to be a center for learning about the history and cultures of the native peoples of the Americas. He hopes visitors will leave the museum experience knowing that Indians are not just a part of history. VOICE ONE: The National Museum of the American Indian has about eight hundred thousand objects in its collection. Most of them were collected by one man, American businessman George Gustav Heye (high). He spent the first fifty years of the last century gathering all kinds of American Indian objects that have great artistic, historic and cultural meaning. The collection now is in three different buildings. Some of the objects are shown in the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. Most of the collection is kept in the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Maryland, which opened in nineteen ninety-eight. This is also where people can do research. The new museum in Washington, D.C. has about eight thousand objects in its exhibits. It also has space for educational activities, ceremonies and performances. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Representatives of Native communities helped develop the three main exhibit areas in the new museum. One area is called Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World. It shows the spiritual links between people and the natural world. And it shows how these links are honored in many different ceremonies throughout the year. Eight Native communities are represented in the Our Universes area. Tessie Naranjo helped choose the objects and the theme of the Santa Clara Pueblo exhibit. Mizz Naranjo says the goal is to help visitors understand how the Santa Clara people look at life. This is done, she explains, through storytelling, which is used throughout the museum. All tribal stories have a teaching purpose, she says. Stories express the values of each Native community and the way community members are connected to the universe. So the Santa Clara exhibit tells about the importance of water, maize, and the four sacred mountains that surround the reservation in New Mexico. Visitors learn how young people in Santa Clara are taught to listen to older people and to honor the land. VOICE ONE: Another major exhibit area is called Our Peoples: Giving Voice to Our Histories. It explores events that have shaped the lives of Native Americans since Europeans arrived in fourteen ninety-two. It shows how American Indians have struggled to save their traditions. The third exhibit area is called Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities. It tries to answer the question of what is an American Indian. Visitors see objects, pictures, and films and hear spoken words. They learn about the difficulties native peoples face to survive economically, save their languages, and keep their culture and arts alive. VOICE TWO: Genevieve Simermeyer, a member of the Osage tribe, is the school programs coordinator for the museum. She says the museum education office has developed three programs for different age groups of school children. Nine Native Americans act as tour guides or cultural interpreters. They meet school groups in the large open space. Then they take the students through different areas of the museum. They explain about some of the exhibits and answer questions. Before a group of school children visits the museum, their teacher receives materials to help prepare them. The youngest children from ages five to eight explore the idea of old things and new things. At the museum they discover links between the past and present in American Indian life. VOICE ONE: For groups of school children nine to eleven years old, the visit to the museum is about the cultural values of Native Americans. They explore how American Indians have dealt with change. Older children learn how modern issues such as borders and treaties have affected the culture, language and traditions of native peoples. Mizz Simermeyer says the guided tours for school children are so popular they are already filled through May. But school groups can visit the museum without a guide. There are teaching materials to help them prepare for the visit. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Storytelling takes place throughout the museum. There are short films that tell American Indian stories. Voices in some of the some exhibits tell stories that explain native beliefs. The cultural interpreters also tell stories. Adults and children also enjoy the hands-on parts of the museum. Computer games and instructional devices that provide learning experiences are very popular. So are teaching boxes that contain objects that visitors can touch. For people who cannot get to the museum, education materials can be found on the Internet at AmericanIndian.si.edu. Amy Drapeau (drah-poe) is a spokesperson for the National Museum of the American Indian. She says the education program helps the general public understand that American Indians are not just from the past and are not all the same. They live in many different places. They speak hundreds of different languages. And their traditions are very different. VOICE ONE: Children who visit the museum seem to enjoy what they learn. You can hear their excited comments as they make discoveries for themselves. “Wow.” “Come look at this!” “I did not know that.” Adults learn, too. A woman from Silver Spring, Maryland, says she learned that present day Native Americans still have traditions they know and value. She says that made her think about her own family traditions and what has happened to them. “The Museum of the American Indian,” she says “ is a powerful place.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Study Links Ozone Pollution to Increased Deaths
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 08, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say they have found the strongest link yet between ozone pollution and damage to health. Their findings show that short-term increases in ozone lead to higher death rates in cities. Ozone is a form of oxygen. The gas is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere to protect the Earth against radiation from the sun. But human activity can also create ozone in the lower atmosphere. Gasses from vehicles and industry react with sunlight to form this ozone. Levels usually increase in the warmer months. Ozone is the main chemical in smog, the air pollution that is a combination of fog and smoke. Ozone has been linked to heart and lung problems especially, and to higher rates of hospital cases. Researchers from Yale University and Johns Hopkins University did the study. Michelle Bell of Yale was the lead investigator. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results. The researchers collected information on ninety-five American cities. These contain about forty percent of the national population. The study compared deaths rates to ozone levels between nineteen eighty-seven and two thousand. The research suggests that even a small increase in ozone, ten parts per thousand million, can lead to higher death rates the following week. The study found that the average daily number of deaths rose point-five percent. Heart and lung related deaths rose point-six percent. And deaths among older people rose point-seven percent. The researchers controlled for other possible causes of death, such as hot weather or pollution from particle matter. The study linked even a single day of increased ozone to more deaths the following week. The study is one of the largest ever done of ozone and death rates. The researchers note that ozone is widespread in the United States and many other countries. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is re-examining its air pollution rules. The current limit for ozone is eighty parts per thousand million for an eight-hour period. Limits were higher in the past. But the researchers say they found an increase in deaths even below the current levels. They say that if ozone decreased by one-third in those ninety-five cities, almost four thousand lives per year might be saved. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 8, 2004 - Pronunciation, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 8, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: VOA's prince of pronunciation. RS: Jim Tedder has been with VOA for 25 years. He works in the English production branch, and is one of the news readers in Special English. But he's also the creator -- and voice -- of the online VOA Pronunciation Guide. AA: The guide is used not only in-house, but also by competing international broadcasters and by American radio and TV networks. In fact, just about anyone in the world who needs to know how to say a name in the news might find it just a click or two away. RS: Stay tuned for the address. But first, some background from Jim Tedder. Since our schedules are different, we called him at home to talk about the pronunciation guide. JIM TEDDER: "It's been online about five years. It now has about 5,000 names in it, spelled phonetically and then pronounced with an audio file with it. And it's been a tremendous success. It's been a great deal of satisfaction." RS: "Let me ask you something, Jim. How do you know what's right? How do you know how to pronounce a name or a word?" JIM TEDDER: "It's a strange situation, in that people will ask me that question a lot. They ask it as if they know or think or suspect that somewhere, written in stone by the hand of God, there is a correct and a non-correct, a right and a wrong way, to say things. "When you're dealing with a person's name, we have a methodology that we have set up, and the methodology is pretty simple. When dealing with a person's name, we try to go to that person himself or herself and say 'how do you say it?' Most of the time this isn't possible when you're dealing with international leaders. So we go down one notch on the priority list and we contact their office. If that doesn't work, the next line down is that I go to the various language services at VOA and talk to people there. AA: But when it comes to geography, there's a different methodology. JIM TEDDER: "Again, let me refer to what I said earlier: For person's names, we want to say the name as that person says it. Place names are an entirely different matter. We chose many years ago at VOA to use the Merriam-Webster Geographic Dictionary as our main guide. "When we talk about a place name, I get amused a lot of times because people will say 'well, what's correct? Webster gives two different pronunciations.' Well, if you read the fine print in the front of Merriam-Webster's dictionaries, essentially what they say is, they are not the pronunciation police. They're not in the business of saying 'this is correct and that is wrong.' What they are in the business of doing is have their lexicographers do research and say 'we have tried to find out how to pronounce this place name, and we have found that most people in that area of the world, in that area of the country, pronounce it this way." "Or they may have a comma after that pronunciation and have another pronunciation. Most people in the United States, I think, who have not read the methodology would say 'oh, OK, Webster's prefers the first pronunciation because they listed it first.' Big mistake. What Webster say is, 'we have to put something first. We aren't saying this is preferred over that. What we're saying is that educated, informed individuals -- some of them say this, some of them say that.' RS: So what do international broadcasters do when they try to find how to pronounce a place name -- and there are variations? JIM TEDDER: "And here's an example. There's a prominent city that shows up in the news every day almost in Iraq, M-O-S-U-L. That's one spelling of it. It can be pronounced a number of different ways. But one way is mo-SOOL, the other is MO-sill." RS: "Very different." JIM TEDDER: "Very different, to the point where I think an international broadcaster, editors, should say we're going to standardize this. We're not going to say that one is right and one is wrong. But for the sake of our listeners' understanding what it is we have to say, we're going to settle on this and make that our standard and hold people to that. At VOA over the years sometimes that has been enforced to a greater degree than others. Right now it's not being enforced for place names. For persons' names, again, a different item." AA: We'll hear more from VOA's Jim Tedder next week. So how do you find the VOA Pronunciation Guide? You can go to voanews.com and click on the link at the bottom of the page. You'll also find a link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: One technical note: Jim says he would have preferred to use the International Phonetic Alphabet for the entries. But it's pretty complex for most people who aren't professional announcers. So you'll find a system of phonetic pronunciation that's easier to use. AA: And here is one more address. It's our e-mail address: word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast: December 8, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: VOA's prince of pronunciation. RS: Jim Tedder has been with VOA for 25 years. He works in the English production branch, and is one of the news readers in Special English. But he's also the creator -- and voice -- of the online VOA Pronunciation Guide. AA: The guide is used not only in-house, but also by competing international broadcasters and by American radio and TV networks. In fact, just about anyone in the world who needs to know how to say a name in the news might find it just a click or two away. RS: Stay tuned for the address. But first, some background from Jim Tedder. Since our schedules are different, we called him at home to talk about the pronunciation guide. JIM TEDDER: "It's been online about five years. It now has about 5,000 names in it, spelled phonetically and then pronounced with an audio file with it. And it's been a tremendous success. It's been a great deal of satisfaction." RS: "Let me ask you something, Jim. How do you know what's right? How do you know how to pronounce a name or a word?" JIM TEDDER: "It's a strange situation, in that people will ask me that question a lot. They ask it as if they know or think or suspect that somewhere, written in stone by the hand of God, there is a correct and a non-correct, a right and a wrong way, to say things. "When you're dealing with a person's name, we have a methodology that we have set up, and the methodology is pretty simple. When dealing with a person's name, we try to go to that person himself or herself and say 'how do you say it?' Most of the time this isn't possible when you're dealing with international leaders. So we go down one notch on the priority list and we contact their office. If that doesn't work, the next line down is that I go to the various language services at VOA and talk to people there. AA: But when it comes to geography, there's a different methodology. JIM TEDDER: "Again, let me refer to what I said earlier: For person's names, we want to say the name as that person says it. Place names are an entirely different matter. We chose many years ago at VOA to use the Merriam-Webster Geographic Dictionary as our main guide. "When we talk about a place name, I get amused a lot of times because people will say 'well, what's correct? Webster gives two different pronunciations.' Well, if you read the fine print in the front of Merriam-Webster's dictionaries, essentially what they say is, they are not the pronunciation police. They're not in the business of saying 'this is correct and that is wrong.' What they are in the business of doing is have their lexicographers do research and say 'we have tried to find out how to pronounce this place name, and we have found that most people in that area of the world, in that area of the country, pronounce it this way." "Or they may have a comma after that pronunciation and have another pronunciation. Most people in the United States, I think, who have not read the methodology would say 'oh, OK, Webster's prefers the first pronunciation because they listed it first.' Big mistake. What Webster say is, 'we have to put something first. We aren't saying this is preferred over that. What we're saying is that educated, informed individuals -- some of them say this, some of them say that.' RS: So what do international broadcasters do when they try to find how to pronounce a place name -- and there are variations? JIM TEDDER: "And here's an example. There's a prominent city that shows up in the news every day almost in Iraq, M-O-S-U-L. That's one spelling of it. It can be pronounced a number of different ways. But one way is mo-SOOL, the other is MO-sill." RS: "Very different." JIM TEDDER: "Very different, to the point where I think an international broadcaster, editors, should say we're going to standardize this. We're not going to say that one is right and one is wrong. But for the sake of our listeners' understanding what it is we have to say, we're going to settle on this and make that our standard and hold people to that. At VOA over the years sometimes that has been enforced to a greater degree than others. Right now it's not being enforced for place names. For persons' names, again, a different item." AA: We'll hear more from VOA's Jim Tedder next week. So how do you find the VOA Pronunciation Guide? You can go to voanews.com and click on the link at the bottom of the page. You'll also find a link at our site, voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: One technical note: Jim says he would have preferred to use the International Phonetic Alphabet for the entries. But it's pretty complex for most people who aren't professional announcers. So you'll find a system of phonetic pronunciation that's easier to use. AA: And here is one more address. It's our e-mail address: word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Buchanan, Part 8
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 9, 2004 (MUSIC) John Brown Broadcast: December 9, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In the autumn of eighteen-fifty-nine, a group of anti-slavery extremists attacked the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The group seized a gun factory and a federal arsenal where military equipment was kept. It planned to use the guns and equipment for a rebel army of Negro slaves. The leader of the extremists was an Abolitionist named John Brown. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell what happened to John Brown after he seized Harpers Ferry. VOICE TWO: The President of the United States in eighteen-fifty-nine was James Buchanan. When Buchanan learned of the attack, he wanted immediate action. He sent a force of Marines to Harpers Ferry, under the command of Army Colonel Robert E. Lee. John Brown had attacked with about twenty men. Several, including two of his sons, had been killed by local militia. He and his remaining men withdrew to a small brick building. The attack had failed. Not one slave had come to Harpers Ferry to help Brown. The few whom his men had freed had refused to fight when the shooting started. Brown could not understand the fear that kept the slaves from fighting for their freedom. VOICE ONE: Brown and his men were trapped inside the brick building. They held a few hostages whom they hoped to exchange for their freedom. Colonel Lee wrote a message to John Brown demanding his surrender. He did not think Brown would surrender peaceably. So, he planned to attack as soon as Brown rejected the message. He felt this was the surest way to save the lives of the hostages. As expected, Brown refused to surrender. He said he and his men had the right to go free. As soon as Brown spoke, the signal was given. The Marines attacked. They broke open a small hole in the door of the brick building. One by one, the Marines moved through the hole. They fought hand-to-hand against the men inside. After a brief fight, they won. John Brown's rebellion was crushed. VOICE TWO: A few hours after Brown was captured, the Governor of Virginia and three Congressmen arrived in Harpers Ferry. They wanted to question Brown. Brown had been wounded in the final attack. He was weak from the loss of blood. But he welcomed the chance to explain his actions. The officials first asked where Brown got the money to organize his raid. Brown said he raised most of it himself. He refused to give the names of any of his supporters. Then the officials asked why Brown had come to Harpers Ferry. "We came to free the slaves," Brown said, "and only that." He continued: "I think that you are guilty of a great wrong against God and humanity. I believe anyone would be perfectly right to interfere with you, so far as to free those you wickedly hold in slavery. I think I did right. You had better -- all you people of the south -- prepare yourselves for a settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. "You may get rid of me very easily. I am nearly gone now. But this question is still to be settled...this Negro question, I mean. That is not yet ended." VOICE ONE: The raid on Harpers Ferry increased the bitterness of the national dispute over slavery. Members of the Democratic Party called the raid a plot by the Republican Party. Republican leaders denied the charge. They said the raid was the work of one man -- one madman -- John Brown. Still, they said, he had acted for good reason: to end slavery in America. Southern newspapers condemned Brown. Some said his raid was an act of war. Some demanded that he be executed as a thief and murderer. Many southerners said all of the north was responsible for the raid. They believed all northerners wanted a slave rebellion in the south. And it was such a rebellion that southerners feared more than anything else. New measures were approved throughout the south to prevent this. Military law was declared in some areas. Slave owners threatened to beat or hang any Negro who even looked rebellious. VOICE TWO: The fear of a slave rebellion united the people of the south. For years, rich slave owners had talked of taking the southern states out of the Union to save their way of life. But those who had no slaves opposed the idea of disunion. John Brown's raid changed that. After his attack on Harpers Ferry, the south spoke with one voice. All southerners declared that they would fight to protect their homes from a Negro rebellion or from another attack by men like Brown. Feelings were especially high in Virginia, the state in which the raid took place. Virginians wanted Brown punished quickly to show what would happen to anyone who tried to lead a Negro rebellion. There was some question whether Brown should be tried in a federal court or a state court. Brown's raid took place within the borders of a state. But the property he seized belonged to the federal government. The Governor of Virginia decided to try Brown in a state court. He believed a federal court trial would take too long. If Brown were not brought to trial quickly, he said, people might attack the jail and kill him. VOICE ONE: Brown was being held in Charles Town, a few kilometers from Harpers Ferry. The court there named two lawyers to defend him. A doctor examined Brown. He reported that Brown's wounds were not serious enough to prevent the trial from starting. Brown lay in a bed in the courtroom throughout the trial. John Brown's lawyers tried to show that his family had a history of madness. They tried to prove that Brown, too, was mad. They asked the court to declare him innocent because of insanity. Brown protested. He said the lawyers were just trying to save his life. He did not want such a defense. The matter of insanity was dropped. VOICE TWO: Brown's lawyers then argued that he was not guilty of the three crimes with which he was charged. First, they said, he could not be guilty of treason against Virginia, because he was not a citizen of Virginia. Second, he could not be guilty of plotting a slave rebellion, because he had never incited slaves against their owners. And third, he could not be guilty of murder, because he had killed only in self-defense. The trial lasted five days. The jury found John Brown guilty of all three charges. VOICE ONE: The judge asked Brown if he wanted to make a statement before being sentenced. Brown did. He declared that he had not planned to start a slave rebellion. He said he only wanted to free some slaves and take them to Canada. Brown's statement was strong. But it was not true. He had, in fact, planned to organize an army of slaves to fight for their freedom. He acted in the belief that slaves throughout the south would rise up against their owners and join him. Brown's words did not move the judge. He said he could find no reason to question the jury's decision that Brown was guilty. He sentenced brown to be hanged. VOICE TWO: One of Brown's supporters attempted to find a way to free Brown from jail. Several plans were proposed. None were tried. Brown himself did not want to escape. He said he could do more to destroy slavery by hanging than by staying alive. John Brown was executed on December second, eighteen-fifty-nine. His death created a wave of public emotion throughout the country. In the north, people mourned. One man wrote: "The events of the last month or two have done more to build northern opposition to slavery than anything which has ever happened before...than all the anti-slavery pamphlets and books that have ever been written." In the south, people cheered. But their happiness at Brown's punishment was mixed with anger at those who honored him. As the nation prepared for a presidential election year, the south renewed its promise to defend slavery...or leave the Union. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (MUSIC) In the autumn of eighteen-fifty-nine, a group of anti-slavery extremists attacked the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The group seized a gun factory and a federal arsenal where military equipment was kept. It planned to use the guns and equipment for a rebel army of Negro slaves. The leader of the extremists was an Abolitionist named John Brown. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell what happened to John Brown after he seized Harpers Ferry. VOICE TWO: The President of the United States in eighteen-fifty-nine was James Buchanan. When Buchanan learned of the attack, he wanted immediate action. He sent a force of Marines to Harpers Ferry, under the command of Army Colonel Robert E. Lee. John Brown had attacked with about twenty men. Several, including two of his sons, had been killed by local militia. He and his remaining men withdrew to a small brick building. The attack had failed. Not one slave had come to Harpers Ferry to help Brown. The few whom his men had freed had refused to fight when the shooting started. Brown could not understand the fear that kept the slaves from fighting for their freedom. VOICE ONE: Brown and his men were trapped inside the brick building. They held a few hostages whom they hoped to exchange for their freedom. Colonel Lee wrote a message to John Brown demanding his surrender. He did not think Brown would surrender peaceably. So, he planned to attack as soon as Brown rejected the message. He felt this was the surest way to save the lives of the hostages. As expected, Brown refused to surrender. He said he and his men had the right to go free. As soon as Brown spoke, the signal was given. The Marines attacked. They broke open a small hole in the door of the brick building. One by one, the Marines moved through the hole. They fought hand-to-hand against the men inside. After a brief fight, they won. John Brown's rebellion was crushed. VOICE TWO: A few hours after Brown was captured, the Governor of Virginia and three Congressmen arrived in Harpers Ferry. They wanted to question Brown. Brown had been wounded in the final attack. He was weak from the loss of blood. But he welcomed the chance to explain his actions. The officials first asked where Brown got the money to organize his raid. Brown said he raised most of it himself. He refused to give the names of any of his supporters. Then the officials asked why Brown had come to Harpers Ferry. "We came to free the slaves," Brown said, "and only that." He continued: "I think that you are guilty of a great wrong against God and humanity. I believe anyone would be perfectly right to interfere with you, so far as to free those you wickedly hold in slavery. I think I did right. You had better -- all you people of the south -- prepare yourselves for a settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. "You may get rid of me very easily. I am nearly gone now. But this question is still to be settled...this Negro question, I mean. That is not yet ended." VOICE ONE: The raid on Harpers Ferry increased the bitterness of the national dispute over slavery. Members of the Democratic Party called the raid a plot by the Republican Party. Republican leaders denied the charge. They said the raid was the work of one man -- one madman -- John Brown. Still, they said, he had acted for good reason: to end slavery in America. Southern newspapers condemned Brown. Some said his raid was an act of war. Some demanded that he be executed as a thief and murderer. Many southerners said all of the north was responsible for the raid. They believed all northerners wanted a slave rebellion in the south. And it was such a rebellion that southerners feared more than anything else. New measures were approved throughout the south to prevent this. Military law was declared in some areas. Slave owners threatened to beat or hang any Negro who even looked rebellious. VOICE TWO: The fear of a slave rebellion united the people of the south. For years, rich slave owners had talked of taking the southern states out of the Union to save their way of life. But those who had no slaves opposed the idea of disunion. John Brown's raid changed that. After his attack on Harpers Ferry, the south spoke with one voice. All southerners declared that they would fight to protect their homes from a Negro rebellion or from another attack by men like Brown. Feelings were especially high in Virginia, the state in which the raid took place. Virginians wanted Brown punished quickly to show what would happen to anyone who tried to lead a Negro rebellion. There was some question whether Brown should be tried in a federal court or a state court. Brown's raid took place within the borders of a state. But the property he seized belonged to the federal government. The Governor of Virginia decided to try Brown in a state court. He believed a federal court trial would take too long. If Brown were not brought to trial quickly, he said, people might attack the jail and kill him. VOICE ONE: Brown was being held in Charles Town, a few kilometers from Harpers Ferry. The court there named two lawyers to defend him. A doctor examined Brown. He reported that Brown's wounds were not serious enough to prevent the trial from starting. Brown lay in a bed in the courtroom throughout the trial. John Brown's lawyers tried to show that his family had a history of madness. They tried to prove that Brown, too, was mad. They asked the court to declare him innocent because of insanity. Brown protested. He said the lawyers were just trying to save his life. He did not want such a defense. The matter of insanity was dropped. VOICE TWO: Brown's lawyers then argued that he was not guilty of the three crimes with which he was charged. First, they said, he could not be guilty of treason against Virginia, because he was not a citizen of Virginia. Second, he could not be guilty of plotting a slave rebellion, because he had never incited slaves against their owners. And third, he could not be guilty of murder, because he had killed only in self-defense. The trial lasted five days. The jury found John Brown guilty of all three charges. VOICE ONE: The judge asked Brown if he wanted to make a statement before being sentenced. Brown did. He declared that he had not planned to start a slave rebellion. He said he only wanted to free some slaves and take them to Canada. Brown's statement was strong. But it was not true. He had, in fact, planned to organize an army of slaves to fight for their freedom. He acted in the belief that slaves throughout the south would rise up against their owners and join him. Brown's words did not move the judge. He said he could find no reason to question the jury's decision that Brown was guilty. He sentenced brown to be hanged. VOICE TWO: One of Brown's supporters attempted to find a way to free Brown from jail. Several plans were proposed. None were tried. Brown himself did not want to escape. He said he could do more to destroy slavery by hanging than by staying alive. John Brown was executed on December second, eighteen-fifty-nine. His death created a wave of public emotion throughout the country. In the north, people mourned. One man wrote: "The events of the last month or two have done more to build northern opposition to slavery than anything which has ever happened before...than all the anti-slavery pamphlets and books that have ever been written." In the south, people cheered. But their happiness at Brown's punishment was mixed with anger at those who honored him. As the nation prepared for a presidential election year, the south renewed its promise to defend slavery...or leave the Union. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #15: International Student Handbook
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 9, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series with a report about the two thousand five International Student Handbook. Students may find much of the information they need to attend college in the United States. This guide is published by the College Board, an educational organization. The International Student Handbook explains the American system of higher education. It tells how to apply for college. It explains the different costs and what kinds of financial aid that foreign students can get. The handbook also gives information about required tests. The material is organized for both undergraduate and graduate students. Information is included on more than two thousand five hundred colleges. The International Student Handbook costs twenty eight dollars if purchased through the College Board Web site. You might find it for less at a site like Amazon.com. Students who want to know about undergraduate education only can buy the Online Undergraduate Edition at the College Board site. It costs twelve dollars and can be read on the computer or printed out. The online version includes links to learn about colleges, prepare an admissions application, estimate costs and find financial aid. The Web site is collegeboard, collegeboard.com. Or you can write to the College Board at forty-five Columbus Avenue, New York, New York one-zero-zero-two-three, U-S-A. We are now in the fifteenth week of our Foreign Student series. So far, we have explored the American college system, how to choose a school, and government rules about coming to the United States. We have also talked about the TOEFL and other tests, the costs of education and the different forms of financial aid. Next week, the subject is how to decide what kind of housing situation to choose once you are admitted to a school. Future reports will take you to different colleges and universities around the country. And we will discuss working as a teaching assistant. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a general question about American education, send it to special@voanews.com. We cannot answer questions personally, but we might be able to give an answer on the air. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Hybrid Vehicles / History of Television / Music by Alison Krauss
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 10, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Alison Krauss… A question from India about television … But first, get ready for a ride! Hybrid Vehicles Hybrid vehicles are increasingly popular in the United States. Hybrids combine the usual internal combustion engine with a battery-operated electric motor. These automobiles produce their own electrical energy to keep the battery charged. Hybrids use less gasoline, so they save oil. And they pollute less, so they are friendlier to the environment. More from Gwen Outen. GWEN OUTEN: Hybrids are still a very small part of the market. But the most popular hybrid in the United States currently is the Toyota Prius [PRE-us]. Motor Trend magazine named the Prius its two thousand four car of the year. The Prius can run either on gasoline or electric power, or both together. Toyota says the Prius can travel more than twenty kilometers on a liter of gasoline. Other popular hybrids in the United States are the Honda Insight and the Honda Civic Hybrid. Their design is a little different from the Prius. Their electric motor cannot run the car alone. Higher gasoline prices might be helping to fuel the interest in hybrid vehicles, but most are small cars. Many Americans want bigger sport utility vehicles. Last year, Ford Motor Company came out with a hybrid version of an S.U.V. Like the Prius, the Ford Escape can run on either electricity or gasoline or both. The Escape is a small S.U.V. But it is much larger than the Prius and sits higher off the ground. However, both vehicles are built for only a driver and four passengers. That is not enough space for some people. So bigger hybrids are coming. In early two thousand five, Toyota is expected to have a full-size hybrid S.U.V. The Highlander will have three rows of seats and hold seven people. Lexus, the luxury car division of Toyota, plans to begin selling a hybrid S.U.V. next year also. And General Motors sells a full-size hybrid pickup truck, the Sierra, in several markets around the country. History of Television DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from India. K.M.V. Shenoy asks about the history of television, and the differences among broadcast, cable and satellite TV. A twenty-one-year-old American named Philo Farnsworth built the first working television receiver in nineteen twenty-seven. Many scientists around the world had made important discoveries that led to the development of television. But Philo Farnsworth had recognized as a boy that electrons could capture a picture sent as light and sound waves through the air. Over the years, the technology has changed and improved. But the idea behind broadcast television is still the same. TV stations send a powerful signal from a transmitting antenna. An antenna connected to a television set receives the signal. The problem with this system is that the receiver antenna has to be in line with the transmitting antenna. Mountains or tall buildings can interfere. One solution is cable television. This system began in the nineteen forties in Pennsylvania. Only a few television stations existed then, and they were in large cities. People in small towns could not receive the signals. So a store owner put an antenna on top of a pole and placed it on a nearby mountain. This antenna received the television signal. Wires led from the antenna to the store. The cable brought clear pictures to the television sets inside. Later, the idea of cable television spread to cities, to provide people with more stations to watch. Today, people can watch hundreds of stations. And another way to receive them is with a satellite dish antenna. A small round device the size of a pizza can receive signals from satellites high above the Earth. The antenna is connected to a special receiver which connects to the television set. Some broadcasts over satellite can be watched free of charge. But the others cost money, just like cable service. Engineers continue to develop new technologies to send and receive television. People who go to buy a TV now have more choices. Too many, some would say. It can be difficult to know the difference. But some people know they are not happy with a traditional television. So they choose a set that can receive high-definition TV. This produces clearer, larger pictures. This way, even if a show is not very good, at least you can see it better. Alison Krauss (MUSIC) HOST: That was some fiddle music played by Alison Krauss with Union Station, her band. Together they produce some of the best bluegrass, folk and country music recorded today. And they have a new album out. Faith Lapidus has our story. ANNCR: Alison Krauss got her start playing fiddle with Union Station. One day, another member of the band asked if she could sing. So she did. Here is a song called “Wouldn’t Be So Bad.” (MUSIC) Alison Krauss and Union Station have just released an album called “Lonely Runs Both Ways.” The name of this song is “Restless.” (MUSIC) Alison Krauss and Union Station have been collecting a lot of music awards in the past few years. In February, Allison Krauss won three more Grammys. She now has seventeen Grammy awards. That is more than any other female artist ever honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. We leave you with another song from "Lonely Runs Both Ways." This one is called "Unionhouse Branch." It shows just how much fun bluegrass music can be. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: December 10, 2004 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music by Alison Krauss… A question from India about television … But first, get ready for a ride! Hybrid Vehicles Hybrid vehicles are increasingly popular in the United States. Hybrids combine the usual internal combustion engine with a battery-operated electric motor. These automobiles produce their own electrical energy to keep the battery charged. Hybrids use less gasoline, so they save oil. And they pollute less, so they are friendlier to the environment. More from Gwen Outen. GWEN OUTEN: Hybrids are still a very small part of the market. But the most popular hybrid in the United States currently is the Toyota Prius [PRE-us]. Motor Trend magazine named the Prius its two thousand four car of the year. The Prius can run either on gasoline or electric power, or both together. Toyota says the Prius can travel more than twenty kilometers on a liter of gasoline. Other popular hybrids in the United States are the Honda Insight and the Honda Civic Hybrid. Their design is a little different from the Prius. Their electric motor cannot run the car alone. Higher gasoline prices might be helping to fuel the interest in hybrid vehicles, but most are small cars. Many Americans want bigger sport utility vehicles. Last year, Ford Motor Company came out with a hybrid version of an S.U.V. Like the Prius, the Ford Escape can run on either electricity or gasoline or both. The Escape is a small S.U.V. But it is much larger than the Prius and sits higher off the ground. However, both vehicles are built for only a driver and four passengers. That is not enough space for some people. So bigger hybrids are coming. In early two thousand five, Toyota is expected to have a full-size hybrid S.U.V. The Highlander will have three rows of seats and hold seven people. Lexus, the luxury car division of Toyota, plans to begin selling a hybrid S.U.V. next year also. And General Motors sells a full-size hybrid pickup truck, the Sierra, in several markets around the country. History of Television DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from India. K.M.V. Shenoy asks about the history of television, and the differences among broadcast, cable and satellite TV. A twenty-one-year-old American named Philo Farnsworth built the first working television receiver in nineteen twenty-seven. Many scientists around the world had made important discoveries that led to the development of television. But Philo Farnsworth had recognized as a boy that electrons could capture a picture sent as light and sound waves through the air. Over the years, the technology has changed and improved. But the idea behind broadcast television is still the same. TV stations send a powerful signal from a transmitting antenna. An antenna connected to a television set receives the signal. The problem with this system is that the receiver antenna has to be in line with the transmitting antenna. Mountains or tall buildings can interfere. One solution is cable television. This system began in the nineteen forties in Pennsylvania. Only a few television stations existed then, and they were in large cities. People in small towns could not receive the signals. So a store owner put an antenna on top of a pole and placed it on a nearby mountain. This antenna received the television signal. Wires led from the antenna to the store. The cable brought clear pictures to the television sets inside. Later, the idea of cable television spread to cities, to provide people with more stations to watch. Today, people can watch hundreds of stations. And another way to receive them is with a satellite dish antenna. A small round device the size of a pizza can receive signals from satellites high above the Earth. The antenna is connected to a special receiver which connects to the television set. Some broadcasts over satellite can be watched free of charge. But the others cost money, just like cable service. Engineers continue to develop new technologies to send and receive television. People who go to buy a TV now have more choices. Too many, some would say. It can be difficult to know the difference. But some people know they are not happy with a traditional television. So they choose a set that can receive high-definition TV. This produces clearer, larger pictures. This way, even if a show is not very good, at least you can see it better. Alison Krauss (MUSIC) HOST: That was some fiddle music played by Alison Krauss with Union Station, her band. Together they produce some of the best bluegrass, folk and country music recorded today. And they have a new album out. Faith Lapidus has our story. ANNCR: Alison Krauss got her start playing fiddle with Union Station. One day, another member of the band asked if she could sing. So she did. Here is a song called “Wouldn’t Be So Bad.” (MUSIC) Alison Krauss and Union Station have just released an album called “Lonely Runs Both Ways.” The name of this song is “Restless.” (MUSIC) Alison Krauss and Union Station have been collecting a lot of music awards in the past few years. In February, Allison Krauss won three more Grammys. She now has seventeen Grammy awards. That is more than any other female artist ever honored by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. We leave you with another song from "Lonely Runs Both Ways." This one is called "Unionhouse Branch." It shows just how much fun bluegrass music can be. (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Carlos Gutierrez, Nominee for Commerce Secretary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 10, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. President Bush says his choice for the next secretary of commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, understands business from bottom to top. Until his nomination, Mister Gutierrez was chief of the food company Kellogg. But, as the president noted, Mister Gutierrez took his first job there as a truck driver in Mexico City. Carlos Gutierrez is fifty-one years old. He was born in Cuba. He lived there until he was six. His parents exported pineapples from the island. However, the family members fled the communist takeover led by Fidel Castro. They came to the United States in nineteen sixty, but later moved to Mexico. That is where Mister Gutierrez started at Kellogg in nineteen seventy-five. He quickly rose to supervisory positions in the Latin American, Canadian, United States and Asian-Pacific divisions. In nineteen ninety-eight, he became president of the company. The next year he became chief executive officer. Mister Gutierrez is seen as a supporter of open trade. Under his leadership, Kellogg asked Congress to open United States markets to lower-priced foreign sugar. That has not happened. A Kellogg official called the current situation “the worst form of protectionism.” Kellogg is a major seller of processed food products. It is the world's largest maker of breakfast cereals. Mister Gutierrez won praise as head of Kellogg. Sales and profits increased. The price of Kellogg stock rose nearly one hundred percent. Mister Gutierrez expanded production in Mexico and closed the Kellogg factory in Battle Creek, Michigan. That is where the company started. The move saved money. But Michigan lost more than five hundred jobs. The company still has its headquarters in Battle Creek. Kellogg announced that James Jenness will be its next chairman and chief executive officer. Carlos Gutierrez must be confirmed by the Senate to replace Donald Evans, who resigned. Congress created the Department of Commerce in nineteen-oh-three. The budget this year is more than six thousand million dollars. The Commerce Department supervises trade and intellectual property rights in the United States. And it helps American businesses compete in world markets. The department also includes the Census Bureau and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Update on the Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 11, 1004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The United Nations is investigating reports that Rwandan soldiers attacked civilians last month in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The violations reportedly happened during a Rwandan military campaign against Hutu rebels in eastern Congo. People say armed men, thought to be Rwandans, attacked civilians and burned houses. Rwanda has repeatedly threatened to send troops across the border to kill Hutu extremists. Many of the Hutus fled to Congo after taking part in the killings in Rwanda in nineteen ninety-four. About eight hundred thousand minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The United Nations has condemned reports of Rwandan military operations in eastern Congo. On Tuesday, the Security Council called on Rwanda to immediately withdraw any troops it may have there. The council warned that it would consider actions against individuals who try to harm the peace process in Congo. Many Congolese blame the current situation on the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Congo, known as MONUC. Critics say many of the soldiers are poorly trained and lack the will, and the equipment, to do the job. There have even been reports of sex crimes against children by members of the peacekeeping force. On Wednesday, Rwanda said it had deployed troops along the border last month. But it denied sending them into Congo. Rwanda has criticized Congo and the United Nations for failing to disarm the Hutu fighters. The Congolese government has sent more troops to eastern Congo. Rwanda invaded Congo in nineteen ninety-six and nineteen ninety-eight. The second attack led to a five-year civil war in Congo. Several other countries in the area also got involved. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was called Zaire until nineteen ninety-seven. In two thousand two a peace agreement was signed. Rwandan troops left Congo. But since then, not much has been done to disarm the Hutu rebels, as called for by the peace agreement. The International Rescue Committee says the natural mineral wealth of Congo continues to be stolen. Basic health needs, water and schooling remain limited. Also, many families have been terrorized by armed groups. The International Rescue Committee said this week that close to four million people in Congo have died since nineteen ninety-eight as a result of the crisis. Most have died from hunger and disease. The committee says more U.N. troops are needed to disarm and arrest Rwandan Hutu fighters. It also says Congo is not receiving enough international aid. Congo is currently ruled by a temporary coalition government. Some signs of economic recovery have been reported since the war officially ended. President Joseph Kabila says general elections will take place next year. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. Broadcast: December 11, 1004 This is Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The United Nations is investigating reports that Rwandan soldiers attacked civilians last month in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The violations reportedly happened during a Rwandan military campaign against Hutu rebels in eastern Congo. People say armed men, thought to be Rwandans, attacked civilians and burned houses. Rwanda has repeatedly threatened to send troops across the border to kill Hutu extremists. Many of the Hutus fled to Congo after taking part in the killings in Rwanda in nineteen ninety-four. About eight hundred thousand minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. The United Nations has condemned reports of Rwandan military operations in eastern Congo. On Tuesday, the Security Council called on Rwanda to immediately withdraw any troops it may have there. The council warned that it would consider actions against individuals who try to harm the peace process in Congo. Many Congolese blame the current situation on the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Congo, known as MONUC. Critics say many of the soldiers are poorly trained and lack the will, and the equipment, to do the job. There have even been reports of sex crimes against children by members of the peacekeeping force. On Wednesday, Rwanda said it had deployed troops along the border last month. But it denied sending them into Congo. Rwanda has criticized Congo and the United Nations for failing to disarm the Hutu fighters. The Congolese government has sent more troops to eastern Congo. Rwanda invaded Congo in nineteen ninety-six and nineteen ninety-eight. The second attack led to a five-year civil war in Congo. Several other countries in the area also got involved. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was called Zaire until nineteen ninety-seven. In two thousand two a peace agreement was signed. Rwandan troops left Congo. But since then, not much has been done to disarm the Hutu rebels, as called for by the peace agreement. The International Rescue Committee says the natural mineral wealth of Congo continues to be stolen. Basic health needs, water and schooling remain limited. Also, many families have been terrorized by armed groups. The International Rescue Committee said this week that close to four million people in Congo have died since nineteen ninety-eight as a result of the crisis. Most have died from hunger and disease. The committee says more U.N. troops are needed to disarm and arrest Rwandan Hutu fighters. It also says Congo is not receiving enough international aid. Congo is currently ruled by a temporary coalition government. Some signs of economic recovery have been reported since the war officially ended. President Joseph Kabila says general elections will take place next year. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - William Faulkner, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 12, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: December 12, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we finish the story of the writer William Faulkner. He created an area and filled it with people of the American South. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-five, all seventeen books William Faulkner had written by then were not being published. Some of them could not be found even in stores that sold used books. The critic Malcolm Cowley says, Faulkner's "early novels had been praised too much, usually for the wrong reasons. His later and in many ways better novels had been criticized or simply not read. " Even those who liked his books were not always sure what he was trying to say. Faulkner never explained. And he did not give information about himself. He did not even correct the mistakes others made when they wrote about him. He did not care how his name was spelled: with or without a "u. " He said either way was all right with him. Once he finished a book he was not concerned about how it was presented to the public. Sometimes he did not even keep a copy of his book. He said, "I think I have written a lot and sent it off to be printed before I realized strangers might read it. " VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-six, Malcolm Cowley collected some of Faulkner's writings and wrote a report about him. The collection attempted to show what Faulkner was trying to do, and how each different book was part of a unified effort. Cowley agreed that Faulkner was an uneven writer. Yet, he said, the unevenness shows that Faulkner was willing to take risks, to explore new material, and new ways to talk about it. In nineteen-twenty-nine, in his novel “Sartoris,” Faulkner presented almost all the ideas he developed during the rest of his life. Soon after, he published the book he liked best, “The Sound and the Fury.” It was finished before “Sartoris,” but did not appear until six months later. VOICE ONE: In talking about “The Sound and the Fury,” Faulkner said he saw in his mind a dirty little girl playing in front of her house. From this small beginning, Faulkner developed a story about the Compson family, told in four different voices. Three of the voices are brothers: Benjy, who is mentally sick; Quentin, who kills himself, and Jason, a business failure. Each of them for different reasons mourns the loss of their sister, Caddie. Each has a different piece of the story. It is a story of sadness and loss, of the failure of an old Southern family to which the brothers belong. It also describes the private ideas of the brothers. To do this, Faulkner invents a different way of writing for each of them. Only the last part of the novel is told in the normal way. The other three parts move forward and back through time and space. VOICE TWO: The story also shows how the Compson family seems to cooperate in its failure. In doing so the family destroys what it wants to save. Quentin, in “The Sound and the Fury,” tries to pressure his sister to say that she is pregnant by him. He finds it better to say that a brother and sister had sex together than to admit that she had sex with one of the common town boys of Jefferson. Another brother, Jason, accuses others of stealing his money and causing his business to fail. At the same time, he is stealing from the daughter of his sister. Missus Compson, the mother in the family, says of God's actions: "It can't be simply to…hurt me. Whoever God is, he would not permit that. I'm a lady." VOICE ONE: Some of the people Faulkner creates, like Reverend Hightower in “Light in August,” live so much in the past that they are unable to face the present. Others seem to run from one danger to another, like young Bayard Sartoris, seeking his own destruction. These people exist, Faulkner says, "in that dream state in which you run without moving from a terror in which you cannot believe, toward a safety in which you have no…[belief]." As Malcolm Cowley shows, all of Faulkner's people, black or white, act in a similar way. They dig for gold after they have lost hope of finding it --like Henry Armstid in the novel, “The Hamlet.” They battle and survive a Mississippi flood for the reward of returning to state prison -- as the tall man did in the story "Old Man." They turn and face death at the hands of a mob -- like Joe Christmas does in the novel, “Light in August.” They act as if they will succeed when they know they will fail. (Music) VOICE TWO: Faulkner's next book, “As I Lay Dying,” was published in nineteen-thirty. It is similar to “The Sound and the Fury” in the way it is written and in the way it deals with loss. Again Faulkner uses a series of different voices to tell his story. The loss this time is the death of the family's mother. The family carries the body through flood and fire in an effort to get her body to Jefferson to be buried. Neither “As I Lay Dying” nor “The Sound and the Fury” was a great success. Faulkner did not earn much money from them. He was adding to his earnings by selling short stories and by working from time to time on movies in Hollywood. Then to earn more money, he wrote a book full of sex and violence. He called it “Sanctuary.” When the book was ready to be published, Faulkner went to New York and completely rewrote it. The changes were made after it was printed. So Faulkner had to pay for them himself. VOICE ONE: The main person in “Sanctuary” is a man called Popeye. He is a kind of mechanical man, a man, Faulkner says, without human eyes. Faulkner says he is a person with the depth of pressed metal. For Faulkner, Popeye represents everything that is wrong with modern society and its concern with economic capitalism. Popeye is a criminal, a man who "made money and had nothing he could do with it, spend it for. " He knows that alcohol will kill him like poison. He has no friends. He has never known a woman. In later books he appears as a member of the Snopes family. The Snopes are a group of killers and barn burners. They fear nothing, except nature. They love no one, except themselves. They cheat everyone, even the devil. They live in a private land without morals. Yet Flem Snopes ends as the president of the bank in Jefferson. Like Popeye, they gain the ownership and use of things, but they never really have them. Flem Snopes marries into a powerful family but his wife does not even have a name for him. She calls him "that man. " Faulkner says that nothing can be had without love. Love is the opposite of the desire for power. A person in one of Faulkner's stories says, "God created man, and he created the world for him to live in. And…He created the kind of world he would have wanted to live in if he had been a man. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: “Light in August” starts with the search by a woman, Lena Grove, for the man who promised to marry her. The story is also about two people who do not fit with other people. They are a black man named Joe Christmas, and a former minister John Hightower, who has lost his belief in God. Faulkner ties the three levels of individual psychology, social history, and tragedy into a whole. In nineteen-thirty-six, Faulkner followed “Light in August” with “Absalom, Absalom.” Many consider this his best novel. It is the story of Joseph Sutpen, who wants to start a famous Southern family after America's Civil War. It is told by four speakers, each trying to discover what the story means. The reader sees how the story changes with each telling, and that the "meanings" are created by individuals. He finds that creating stories is the way a human being finds meaning. Thus, “Absalom, Absalom” is also about itself, as a work of the mind of man. VOICE ONE: Faulkner's great writing days were over by the end of World War Two. Near the end of his life, Faulkner received many honors for his writing. The last, and best honor, was the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen-fifty. In a speech accepting the award, Faulkner spoke to young writers. It was a time of great fears about the atomic bomb. Faulkner said that he refused to accept the end of the human race. He said he believed that man will not only survive, he will rule. "Man is immortal," he said, "because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice and endurance. The writer's duty is to write about these things. " William Faulkner died of a heart attack in nineteen-sixty-two. He was sixty-five years old. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we finish the story of the writer William Faulkner. He created an area and filled it with people of the American South. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-five, all seventeen books William Faulkner had written by then were not being published. Some of them could not be found even in stores that sold used books. The critic Malcolm Cowley says, Faulkner's "early novels had been praised too much, usually for the wrong reasons. His later and in many ways better novels had been criticized or simply not read. " Even those who liked his books were not always sure what he was trying to say. Faulkner never explained. And he did not give information about himself. He did not even correct the mistakes others made when they wrote about him. He did not care how his name was spelled: with or without a "u. " He said either way was all right with him. Once he finished a book he was not concerned about how it was presented to the public. Sometimes he did not even keep a copy of his book. He said, "I think I have written a lot and sent it off to be printed before I realized strangers might read it. " VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-six, Malcolm Cowley collected some of Faulkner's writings and wrote a report about him. The collection attempted to show what Faulkner was trying to do, and how each different book was part of a unified effort. Cowley agreed that Faulkner was an uneven writer. Yet, he said, the unevenness shows that Faulkner was willing to take risks, to explore new material, and new ways to talk about it. In nineteen-twenty-nine, in his novel “Sartoris,” Faulkner presented almost all the ideas he developed during the rest of his life. Soon after, he published the book he liked best, “The Sound and the Fury.” It was finished before “Sartoris,” but did not appear until six months later. VOICE ONE: In talking about “The Sound and the Fury,” Faulkner said he saw in his mind a dirty little girl playing in front of her house. From this small beginning, Faulkner developed a story about the Compson family, told in four different voices. Three of the voices are brothers: Benjy, who is mentally sick; Quentin, who kills himself, and Jason, a business failure. Each of them for different reasons mourns the loss of their sister, Caddie. Each has a different piece of the story. It is a story of sadness and loss, of the failure of an old Southern family to which the brothers belong. It also describes the private ideas of the brothers. To do this, Faulkner invents a different way of writing for each of them. Only the last part of the novel is told in the normal way. The other three parts move forward and back through time and space. VOICE TWO: The story also shows how the Compson family seems to cooperate in its failure. In doing so the family destroys what it wants to save. Quentin, in “The Sound and the Fury,” tries to pressure his sister to say that she is pregnant by him. He finds it better to say that a brother and sister had sex together than to admit that she had sex with one of the common town boys of Jefferson. Another brother, Jason, accuses others of stealing his money and causing his business to fail. At the same time, he is stealing from the daughter of his sister. Missus Compson, the mother in the family, says of God's actions: "It can't be simply to…hurt me. Whoever God is, he would not permit that. I'm a lady." VOICE ONE: Some of the people Faulkner creates, like Reverend Hightower in “Light in August,” live so much in the past that they are unable to face the present. Others seem to run from one danger to another, like young Bayard Sartoris, seeking his own destruction. These people exist, Faulkner says, "in that dream state in which you run without moving from a terror in which you cannot believe, toward a safety in which you have no…[belief]." As Malcolm Cowley shows, all of Faulkner's people, black or white, act in a similar way. They dig for gold after they have lost hope of finding it --like Henry Armstid in the novel, “The Hamlet.” They battle and survive a Mississippi flood for the reward of returning to state prison -- as the tall man did in the story "Old Man." They turn and face death at the hands of a mob -- like Joe Christmas does in the novel, “Light in August.” They act as if they will succeed when they know they will fail. (Music) VOICE TWO: Faulkner's next book, “As I Lay Dying,” was published in nineteen-thirty. It is similar to “The Sound and the Fury” in the way it is written and in the way it deals with loss. Again Faulkner uses a series of different voices to tell his story. The loss this time is the death of the family's mother. The family carries the body through flood and fire in an effort to get her body to Jefferson to be buried. Neither “As I Lay Dying” nor “The Sound and the Fury” was a great success. Faulkner did not earn much money from them. He was adding to his earnings by selling short stories and by working from time to time on movies in Hollywood. Then to earn more money, he wrote a book full of sex and violence. He called it “Sanctuary.” When the book was ready to be published, Faulkner went to New York and completely rewrote it. The changes were made after it was printed. So Faulkner had to pay for them himself. VOICE ONE: The main person in “Sanctuary” is a man called Popeye. He is a kind of mechanical man, a man, Faulkner says, without human eyes. Faulkner says he is a person with the depth of pressed metal. For Faulkner, Popeye represents everything that is wrong with modern society and its concern with economic capitalism. Popeye is a criminal, a man who "made money and had nothing he could do with it, spend it for. " He knows that alcohol will kill him like poison. He has no friends. He has never known a woman. In later books he appears as a member of the Snopes family. The Snopes are a group of killers and barn burners. They fear nothing, except nature. They love no one, except themselves. They cheat everyone, even the devil. They live in a private land without morals. Yet Flem Snopes ends as the president of the bank in Jefferson. Like Popeye, they gain the ownership and use of things, but they never really have them. Flem Snopes marries into a powerful family but his wife does not even have a name for him. She calls him "that man. " Faulkner says that nothing can be had without love. Love is the opposite of the desire for power. A person in one of Faulkner's stories says, "God created man, and he created the world for him to live in. And…He created the kind of world he would have wanted to live in if he had been a man. " (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: “Light in August” starts with the search by a woman, Lena Grove, for the man who promised to marry her. The story is also about two people who do not fit with other people. They are a black man named Joe Christmas, and a former minister John Hightower, who has lost his belief in God. Faulkner ties the three levels of individual psychology, social history, and tragedy into a whole. In nineteen-thirty-six, Faulkner followed “Light in August” with “Absalom, Absalom.” Many consider this his best novel. It is the story of Joseph Sutpen, who wants to start a famous Southern family after America's Civil War. It is told by four speakers, each trying to discover what the story means. The reader sees how the story changes with each telling, and that the "meanings" are created by individuals. He finds that creating stories is the way a human being finds meaning. Thus, “Absalom, Absalom” is also about itself, as a work of the mind of man. VOICE ONE: Faulkner's great writing days were over by the end of World War Two. Near the end of his life, Faulkner received many honors for his writing. The last, and best honor, was the Nobel Prize for Literature in nineteen-fifty. In a speech accepting the award, Faulkner spoke to young writers. It was a time of great fears about the atomic bomb. Faulkner said that he refused to accept the end of the human race. He said he believed that man will not only survive, he will rule. "Man is immortal," he said, "because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice and endurance. The writer's duty is to write about these things. " William Faulkner died of a heart attack in nineteen-sixty-two. He was sixty-five years old. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Internews Works for Open Media
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 13, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. “Nothing raises more fear in a repressive government than challenges to the control of information. And nothing is more important to the development of a civil, democratic society.” These are the words of David Hoffman, the president of Internews. Mister Hoffman leads a non-profit organization that helps build media that are open and independent. Internews was created in California in nineteen eighty-two. By its count as of July, the group had trained thirty-two thousand media professions around the world. In Afghanistan, for example, Internews helped launch a network of more than twenty independent radio stations. Internews has also helped form the first independent broadcast media in Pakistan in sixty years. And it has trained what it says are the first media lawyers there. The group has also trained a number of female reporters in Pakistan. The same is true in the Middle East. In Africa, Internews is teaching journalists in Kenya and Nigeria how to report about H.I.V. and AIDS. The organization also supplies international news coverage of the trials related to the nineteen ninety-four killings in Rwanda. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is holding the trials in Tanzania. Major supporters of Internews include the United States Agency for International Development and the State Department. Others include the United Nations Development Program and the Open Society Institute. Internews has helped form national media organizations to seek laws for open media and to defend the rights of reporters. Internews International, a membership group of non-governmental organizations, is at work in more than forty countries. Internews had some of its biggest successes yet through its work in Georgia. The organization had been working with Rustavi-two. This is a small independent television station in Tbilisi. In November of two thousand three, its reports on cheating in parliamentary elections helped fuel huge protests. Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as president of Georgia. Today, Internews says Rustavi-two is an example for non-governmental stations throughout the Southern Caucasus. You can learn more about Internews at its Web site, internews.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA  - World of Babies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 13, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: December 13, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, we explore the world of babies. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: About four million babies are born each year in the United States. Some mothers give birth at home. But most babies are born in hospitals or birthing centers. Traditionally, new parents might have read a book or two about babies. But most of their advice probably came from their own parents. VOICE TWO: Today the newest, and smallest, Americans are at the heart of many industries. Some needs are still the same. Babies still need diapers to cover their bottoms. But diapers are just one thing on the shopping list. Babies and young children are big business. They have many needs, judging by one book from Parents Magazine. The book is called “Parents Baby Gear: Everything You Need to Clothe, Feed, Transport, Protect, Entertain and Care for Your Baby from Birth to Age Three." There is enough advice to fill more than one hundred seventy pages, from the right clothes to the right toys to the right car safety seats. There is even advice about how to choose a three-wheeled bicycle. VOICE ONE: Parents now have more choices of equipment to help keep their child safe. One example is the baby monitor. This device lets a parent listen to a child sleeping or playing in another part of the house. Another example is the automobile safety seat. In the past, babies often rode in the arms of adults. Or they wore adult seat belts. Now, all fifty states require that babies under eighteen months of age ride in safety seats to protect them. Some states require special seats for children up to a few years old. There are booster seats for older children who are still not big enough to wear seat belts. Safety seats have reduced the number of children killed or injured in road accidents. But special care is needed to make sure that the safety seat is placed correctly in a vehicle. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There is no shortage of advice about pregnancy and raising children. Radio and television programs and Web sites provide all kinds of advice. There are many books, magazines and videos. Parents can get suggestions from publications with names like “Parents,” “Parent and Child,” “Parenting” and “Exceptional Parenting.” A number of magazines in the United States began as small publications created at home by mothers. These women wanted to share information about having and raising children. VOICE ONE: Two teachers from the Washington, D.C., area started one such a publication in nineteen eighty-two. Deborah Benke and Ann Byrne each had young children at the time. They and some friends produced the first copies of Washington Parent from their homes. Educators, doctors and mental health experts wrote stories about caring for babies and children. Each month, someone produced a list of local events of interest to families. Soon libraries and stores asked for copies. So did doctors offices and hospitals. Over time, Washington Parent kept growing. Today, this publication started by friends is thick with stories, color pictures and advertisements. VOICE TWO: Not all publications for parents were started by mothers. In nineteen seventy-nine, Jack Bierman became interested in establishing a parents magazine for the Los Angeles area. At the time, Mister Bierman was studying journalism and heading a college newspaper. He was not a father yet. But he said friends with children showed him how hard it was for parents to get important safety advice. The next year, he and other writers started a publication. It was called Pony Ride: The Magazine for Parents in Southern California. It started small. It had just eleven pages. Mister Bierman had ten thousand copies published. He and his other writers took copies to libraries, stores and offices of children’s doctors. But there were still copies left. So Jack Bierman placed the remaining ones on cars. He knew that many of the cars belonged to parents. How did he know? He chose the parking area of the Los Angeles Zoo. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-three, Pony Ride was renamed. It took a more businesslike name: L.A. Parent. Two years later, Mister Bierman and other publishers established a trade group, Parenting Publications of America. More than one hundred local publications in the United States, Canada and Australia belong to this organization. The group brings publishers together to develop guidelines for their industry. Jack Bierman also created an organization that offers suggestions about children’s products. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Children also have lots they can read. The Children’s Book Council, a trade group, says four thousand to five thousand new children's books are published in the United States each year. These include picture books and young adult literature, and everything in between. Two books that have been popular for many years are “Pat the Bunny” and "Goodnight Moon." "Pat the Bunny," by Dorothy Kunhardt, contains soft material that feels like a real rabbit. A rabbit also stars in “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown. The rabbit is in bed. Before it goes to sleep, it says good night its room, the moon and more... (SOUND) VOICE ONE: In many homes, books compete for time with electronics. Even children too young for school often play computer games. Some games are designed to be educational. Some parents also buy videos like the “Baby Einstein” series. (SOUND) This German nursery rhyme is from a language video in the “Baby Einstein” series. But Americans are still buying many traditional toys for their children. The Toy Industry Association says dolls topped the popularity list of traditional toys in two thousand three. Then came toys for babies and children under school age. Arts, crafts, games, puzzles and sports and outdoor toys followed. VOICE TWO: Parents can choose to spend a lot of money on toys. Two little girls who live in Virginia are proof that children often like the simplest things best. Daisy Bracken is two years old. She plays with dolls and likes to throw balls. Fiona McMichael is three. She likes to pull her wagon around. She fills it with other toys. Then there is one-year-old Benjamin Watson of Encino, California. One of his favorite toys is very soft, but a lot bigger than him. Benjamin likes to play with the family dog, a yellow Labrador retriever named Crouton. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Benjamin's grandmother, also known as Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: Before we go, a correction to our program last week on books about the immigrant experience: We said that Sandra Cisneros was the only one of the four writers we talked about who was born in the United States. So was Francisco Goldman, although he also lived in Guatemala as a child. I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, we explore the world of babies. (SOUND) VOICE ONE: About four million babies are born each year in the United States. Some mothers give birth at home. But most babies are born in hospitals or birthing centers. Traditionally, new parents might have read a book or two about babies. But most of their advice probably came from their own parents. VOICE TWO: Today the newest, and smallest, Americans are at the heart of many industries. Some needs are still the same. Babies still need diapers to cover their bottoms. But diapers are just one thing on the shopping list. Babies and young children are big business. They have many needs, judging by one book from Parents Magazine. The book is called “Parents Baby Gear: Everything You Need to Clothe, Feed, Transport, Protect, Entertain and Care for Your Baby from Birth to Age Three." There is enough advice to fill more than one hundred seventy pages, from the right clothes to the right toys to the right car safety seats. There is even advice about how to choose a three-wheeled bicycle. VOICE ONE: Parents now have more choices of equipment to help keep their child safe. One example is the baby monitor. This device lets a parent listen to a child sleeping or playing in another part of the house. Another example is the automobile safety seat. In the past, babies often rode in the arms of adults. Or they wore adult seat belts. Now, all fifty states require that babies under eighteen months of age ride in safety seats to protect them. Some states require special seats for children up to a few years old. There are booster seats for older children who are still not big enough to wear seat belts. Safety seats have reduced the number of children killed or injured in road accidents. But special care is needed to make sure that the safety seat is placed correctly in a vehicle. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There is no shortage of advice about pregnancy and raising children. Radio and television programs and Web sites provide all kinds of advice. There are many books, magazines and videos. Parents can get suggestions from publications with names like “Parents,” “Parent and Child,” “Parenting” and “Exceptional Parenting.” A number of magazines in the United States began as small publications created at home by mothers. These women wanted to share information about having and raising children. VOICE ONE: Two teachers from the Washington, D.C., area started one such a publication in nineteen eighty-two. Deborah Benke and Ann Byrne each had young children at the time. They and some friends produced the first copies of Washington Parent from their homes. Educators, doctors and mental health experts wrote stories about caring for babies and children. Each month, someone produced a list of local events of interest to families. Soon libraries and stores asked for copies. So did doctors offices and hospitals. Over time, Washington Parent kept growing. Today, this publication started by friends is thick with stories, color pictures and advertisements. VOICE TWO: Not all publications for parents were started by mothers. In nineteen seventy-nine, Jack Bierman became interested in establishing a parents magazine for the Los Angeles area. At the time, Mister Bierman was studying journalism and heading a college newspaper. He was not a father yet. But he said friends with children showed him how hard it was for parents to get important safety advice. The next year, he and other writers started a publication. It was called Pony Ride: The Magazine for Parents in Southern California. It started small. It had just eleven pages. Mister Bierman had ten thousand copies published. He and his other writers took copies to libraries, stores and offices of children’s doctors. But there were still copies left. So Jack Bierman placed the remaining ones on cars. He knew that many of the cars belonged to parents. How did he know? He chose the parking area of the Los Angeles Zoo. VOICE ONE: In nineteen eighty-three, Pony Ride was renamed. It took a more businesslike name: L.A. Parent. Two years later, Mister Bierman and other publishers established a trade group, Parenting Publications of America. More than one hundred local publications in the United States, Canada and Australia belong to this organization. The group brings publishers together to develop guidelines for their industry. Jack Bierman also created an organization that offers suggestions about children’s products. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Children also have lots they can read. The Children’s Book Council, a trade group, says four thousand to five thousand new children's books are published in the United States each year. These include picture books and young adult literature, and everything in between. Two books that have been popular for many years are “Pat the Bunny” and "Goodnight Moon." "Pat the Bunny," by Dorothy Kunhardt, contains soft material that feels like a real rabbit. A rabbit also stars in “Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown. The rabbit is in bed. Before it goes to sleep, it says good night its room, the moon and more... (SOUND) VOICE ONE: In many homes, books compete for time with electronics. Even children too young for school often play computer games. Some games are designed to be educational. Some parents also buy videos like the “Baby Einstein” series. (SOUND) This German nursery rhyme is from a language video in the “Baby Einstein” series. But Americans are still buying many traditional toys for their children. The Toy Industry Association says dolls topped the popularity list of traditional toys in two thousand three. Then came toys for babies and children under school age. Arts, crafts, games, puzzles and sports and outdoor toys followed. VOICE TWO: Parents can choose to spend a lot of money on toys. Two little girls who live in Virginia are proof that children often like the simplest things best. Daisy Bracken is two years old. She plays with dolls and likes to throw balls. Fiona McMichael is three. She likes to pull her wagon around. She fills it with other toys. Then there is one-year-old Benjamin Watson of Encino, California. One of his favorite toys is very soft, but a lot bigger than him. Benjamin likes to play with the family dog, a yellow Labrador retriever named Crouton. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Benjamin's grandmother, also known as Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: Before we go, a correction to our program last week on books about the immigrant experience: We said that Sandra Cisneros was the only one of the four writers we talked about who was born in the United States. So was Francisco Goldman, although he also lived in Guatemala as a child. I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Risks of Too Much Vitamin E / Cord-Blood Stem Cells May Aid Adults with Leukemia / Dispute Over International Fusion-Reactor Project
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: we look at a dispute over a proposed nuclear energy project and how too much of something considered good for you may increase your risk of dying early. VOICE ONE: But first, a blood treatment offers hope to adults fighting the disease leukemia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two new studies show that tissue connecting an unborn child to its mother may help some adults with leukemia. At birth, blood from the umbilical cord of a baby contains stem cells. Research scientists say such cells can rebuild the natural defense system of an adult with the blood disorder. The defense system protects the body against disease. However, some treatments for leukemia can destroy this system. The researchers say their studies show that cord blood can restore the natural defenses. They say cord blood can be used when a more proven method of treatment is not possible. VOICE TWO: Umbilical cord stem cells are already used for children fighting leukemia. Until now, many researchers believed that cord blood could only help children or small adults. The two studies suggest that is no longer a problem. Cord blood is not as rich in stem cells as bone marrow. Bone marrow is the connective tissue that fills bones. Marrow produces much of a person's blood supply. Bone marrow currently is the substance most used to restore a person’s natural defenses against disease. VOICE ONE: For years, many doctors have chosen to replace destroyed adult bone marrow with healthy marrow. This process is called a bone marrow transplant. It can happen only under limited conditions. The patient's body must accept bone marrow from another person. The person providing healthy marrow is called the donor. For the transplant process to be successful, the patient and the donor usually must have similar tissues. But it is difficult to find a donor whose marrow the patient can use. Each year, doctors say most leukemia patients with a destroyed natural defense system die before the right donor can be found. Stem cells are unformed. They exist in the blood and within tissues that make blood. They grow inside a patient. They direct the production of all kinds of blood cells. That is how stem cells can rebuild a person’s natural defense system. VOICE TWO: The New England Journal of Medicine published both new studies about cord blood stem cells. One study was performed in Europe. The other was in the United States. Both involved hundreds of patients. Most patients in the studies were very sick. Many died over two or three years. But the European study showed that cord blood worked equally effectively as the best kind of marrow transplants. Both had a survival rate of about thirty-three percent. In the American study, the percentage of survivors helped by cord blood was almost as hopeful. VOICE ONE: Mary Laughlin of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine led the American study. She says all the survivors would have died without treatment. Cancer experts not involved in the either study expressed hope over the results. They noted the difficulty of leukemia patients in finding a donor similar enough for a bone marrow transplant to be successful. One blood expert, Pablo Rubenstein, noted another reason to consider cord blood treatment. He said stem cells in cord blood are less likely than adult bone marrow to cause a sickness called grant-versus-host disease. It strikes when the stem cells of the donor attack the patient's tissues and organs. VOICE TWO: The Institute of Medicine is a federal agency in Washington, D.C. It says patients may be able to find useful cord blood more easily than donor marrow. The Institute is studying ways to establish a national center for the supply of cord blood. About four million babies are born in the United States each year. After each birth, medical workers block off and cut the umbilical cord. Most cords are thrown away. Taking blood from them is safe and painless for mother and child. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The European Union says it is set to move forward with plans for a nuclear fusion reactor. E.U. officials agreed last month to continue seeking Japanese support to build the reactor in France. They also said the European Union is prepared to build it without Japan if negotiations fail. Later, Japanese officials criticized the European Union for talking about acting on its own. They urged the Europeans to continue talks with other countries involved in the project. The others are Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The project is called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER (EE-tur). It is expected to cost about thirteen thousand million dollars over the next thirty years. The European Union plans to pay for forty percent of the project. VOICE TWO: For years, scientists have said nuclear fusion could produce unlimited amounts of energy. Nuclear fusion is a natural process. It is the process that makes the sun and other stars shine. Nuclear fusion involves the central parts of small atoms such as hydrogen. Deep inside the sun, extreme heat and pressure cause the atoms to join together. This fusion of two hydrogen atoms forms a different element: helium. It also releases a large burst of energy. This is the heat and light produced by the sun. Nuclear fusion is different from the process used in nuclear power centers. That process is called nuclear fission. Fusion is the opposite of fission. VOICE ONE: Fusion creates energy by joining atoms together. Fission creates energy by splitting atoms apart. Fusion produces only a small amount of radioactive waste. Fission produces large amounts of highly radioactive waste that must be kept in containers for thousands of years. Supporters of the nuclear fusion process say it is safer than fission. They say a fusion reaction can be stopped easily. There is another reason people are excited about nuclear fusion. The process uses a fuel supply that is huge and low in cost. The fuel is a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. Deuterium is found in all the world’s oceans. It can be taken from the water easily and in almost endless amounts. Experts say about one-half kilogram of fusion fuel could produce as much energy as three and one-half million liters of oil. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people take vitamin supplements to improve their health. In the United States, pills containing Vitamin E are among the most popular. Americans spent seven hundred ten million dollars on Vitamin E last year. Recently, American researchers reported that Vitamin E supplements might do more harm than good. They said people who take large amounts of Vitamin E could be increasing their risk of dying early. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins University led the study. He presented the findings at a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. VOICE ONE: Doctor Miller and his team combined and examined the results of nineteen studies on the effects of Vitamin E. The studies involved almost one hundred thirty-six thousand people in North America, Europe and China. The researchers found no increased health risk from taking small amounts of Vitamin E. About thirty international units of Vitamin E are present in a single multivitamin pill. However, the team found an increased risk of dying among people who took four hundred international units a day or more. Their death rate was thirty-nine for every ten thousand persons in the combined studies. VOICE TWO: A supplement trade group, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, criticized the findings. It said the study greatly overstated their importance. Earlier studies had suggested that Vitamin E blocks the harmful effects of oxygen. That is why so many Americans take vitamin supplements to reduce their risk of heart disease and other disorders. Doctor Miller says his team believes there is no need for people to take large amounts of Vitamin E. He reportedly said people should get enough Vitamin E from the foods they eat. You can get up to ten international units of it from seeds, vegetable oils, olives, spinach and other green vegetables. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Brian Kim. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. Our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. Broadcast: December 14, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. On our program this week: we look at a dispute over a proposed nuclear energy project and how too much of something considered good for you may increase your risk of dying early. VOICE ONE: But first, a blood treatment offers hope to adults fighting the disease leukemia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Two new studies show that tissue connecting an unborn child to its mother may help some adults with leukemia. At birth, blood from the umbilical cord of a baby contains stem cells. Research scientists say such cells can rebuild the natural defense system of an adult with the blood disorder. The defense system protects the body against disease. However, some treatments for leukemia can destroy this system. The researchers say their studies show that cord blood can restore the natural defenses. They say cord blood can be used when a more proven method of treatment is not possible. VOICE TWO: Umbilical cord stem cells are already used for children fighting leukemia. Until now, many researchers believed that cord blood could only help children or small adults. The two studies suggest that is no longer a problem. Cord blood is not as rich in stem cells as bone marrow. Bone marrow is the connective tissue that fills bones. Marrow produces much of a person's blood supply. Bone marrow currently is the substance most used to restore a person’s natural defenses against disease. VOICE ONE: For years, many doctors have chosen to replace destroyed adult bone marrow with healthy marrow. This process is called a bone marrow transplant. It can happen only under limited conditions. The patient's body must accept bone marrow from another person. The person providing healthy marrow is called the donor. For the transplant process to be successful, the patient and the donor usually must have similar tissues. But it is difficult to find a donor whose marrow the patient can use. Each year, doctors say most leukemia patients with a destroyed natural defense system die before the right donor can be found. Stem cells are unformed. They exist in the blood and within tissues that make blood. They grow inside a patient. They direct the production of all kinds of blood cells. That is how stem cells can rebuild a person’s natural defense system. VOICE TWO: The New England Journal of Medicine published both new studies about cord blood stem cells. One study was performed in Europe. The other was in the United States. Both involved hundreds of patients. Most patients in the studies were very sick. Many died over two or three years. But the European study showed that cord blood worked equally effectively as the best kind of marrow transplants. Both had a survival rate of about thirty-three percent. In the American study, the percentage of survivors helped by cord blood was almost as hopeful. VOICE ONE: Mary Laughlin of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine led the American study. She says all the survivors would have died without treatment. Cancer experts not involved in the either study expressed hope over the results. They noted the difficulty of leukemia patients in finding a donor similar enough for a bone marrow transplant to be successful. One blood expert, Pablo Rubenstein, noted another reason to consider cord blood treatment. He said stem cells in cord blood are less likely than adult bone marrow to cause a sickness called grant-versus-host disease. It strikes when the stem cells of the donor attack the patient's tissues and organs. VOICE TWO: The Institute of Medicine is a federal agency in Washington, D.C. It says patients may be able to find useful cord blood more easily than donor marrow. The Institute is studying ways to establish a national center for the supply of cord blood. About four million babies are born in the United States each year. After each birth, medical workers block off and cut the umbilical cord. Most cords are thrown away. Taking blood from them is safe and painless for mother and child. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The European Union says it is set to move forward with plans for a nuclear fusion reactor. E.U. officials agreed last month to continue seeking Japanese support to build the reactor in France. They also said the European Union is prepared to build it without Japan if negotiations fail. Later, Japanese officials criticized the European Union for talking about acting on its own. They urged the Europeans to continue talks with other countries involved in the project. The others are Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The project is called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER (EE-tur). It is expected to cost about thirteen thousand million dollars over the next thirty years. The European Union plans to pay for forty percent of the project. VOICE TWO: For years, scientists have said nuclear fusion could produce unlimited amounts of energy. Nuclear fusion is a natural process. It is the process that makes the sun and other stars shine. Nuclear fusion involves the central parts of small atoms such as hydrogen. Deep inside the sun, extreme heat and pressure cause the atoms to join together. This fusion of two hydrogen atoms forms a different element: helium. It also releases a large burst of energy. This is the heat and light produced by the sun. Nuclear fusion is different from the process used in nuclear power centers. That process is called nuclear fission. Fusion is the opposite of fission. VOICE ONE: Fusion creates energy by joining atoms together. Fission creates energy by splitting atoms apart. Fusion produces only a small amount of radioactive waste. Fission produces large amounts of highly radioactive waste that must be kept in containers for thousands of years. Supporters of the nuclear fusion process say it is safer than fission. They say a fusion reaction can be stopped easily. There is another reason people are excited about nuclear fusion. The process uses a fuel supply that is huge and low in cost. The fuel is a heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. Deuterium is found in all the world’s oceans. It can be taken from the water easily and in almost endless amounts. Experts say about one-half kilogram of fusion fuel could produce as much energy as three and one-half million liters of oil. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many people take vitamin supplements to improve their health. In the United States, pills containing Vitamin E are among the most popular. Americans spent seven hundred ten million dollars on Vitamin E last year. Recently, American researchers reported that Vitamin E supplements might do more harm than good. They said people who take large amounts of Vitamin E could be increasing their risk of dying early. Edgar Miller of Johns Hopkins University led the study. He presented the findings at a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans, Louisiana. VOICE ONE: Doctor Miller and his team combined and examined the results of nineteen studies on the effects of Vitamin E. The studies involved almost one hundred thirty-six thousand people in North America, Europe and China. The researchers found no increased health risk from taking small amounts of Vitamin E. About thirty international units of Vitamin E are present in a single multivitamin pill. However, the team found an increased risk of dying among people who took four hundred international units a day or more. Their death rate was thirty-nine for every ten thousand persons in the combined studies. VOICE TWO: A supplement trade group, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, criticized the findings. It said the study greatly overstated their importance. Earlier studies had suggested that Vitamin E blocks the harmful effects of oxygen. That is why so many Americans take vitamin supplements to reduce their risk of heart disease and other disorders. Doctor Miller says his team believes there is no need for people to take large amounts of Vitamin E. He reportedly said people should get enough Vitamin E from the foods they eat. You can get up to ten international units of it from seeds, vegetable oils, olives, spinach and other green vegetables. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Brian Kim. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. Our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Mike Johanns, Nominee for U.S. Agriculture Secretary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 14, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns grew up on a farm. As he likes to say, everything in life has seemed easy since then. Now Mister Johanns is President Bush's choice for the next agriculture secretary. The president says Mister Johanns knows the needs of farmers. He says his nominee is a strong supporter of fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel that are made from farm products. And Mister Johanns has led farm delegations to a number of countries. Mike Johanns was born in Iowa. He is fifty-four years old. He was elected governor of Nebraska in nineteen ninety-eight. Voters in the Midwestern state re-elected him in two thousand two. As governor, he has sought to cut property taxes and to expand agricultural trade for his state. Mister Johanns must be confirmed by the Senate to replace Ann Veneman, who is resigning. Mizz Veneman has not had an easy time as agriculture secretary. Last December the first, and so far only, confirmed case of mad cow disease was found in the United States. The discovery in Washington state led more than thirty nations to ban imports of American beef. Also, bird flu spread among some chicken farms in parts of the United States. This was not the severe form of virus that has killed people in Southeast Asia. Still, the outbreak led several nations to ban imports of American chickens. In recent years, American farmers have also faced greater foreign competition. In fact, next year, the Agriculture Department expects imports of farm products into the United States to equal exports. This has not happened in almost fifty years. And the next agriculture secretary will have to deal with another threat: the risk of a terrorist attack on the nation's food supply. The Agriculture Department is responsible for areas of food safety and for agricultural research. It is also responsible for programs including farm loans and development. In addition, the department works to expand markets for American agricultural products. And it supervises national forests and other natural resources. Congress established the Department of Agriculture in eighteen sixty-two. The department is one of the largest in the government. It has over one hundred thousand employees. Its two thousand five budget is more than eighty thousand million dollars. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 15, 2004 - Pronunciation, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 15, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our conversation with Jim Tedder, the creator of VOA's online Pronunciation Guide. RS: It used to be that when announcers at VOA needed to know how to say the name of someone in the news, they would have to look it up in a file of index cards. AA: Then, about five years ago, Jim Tedder got the idea for a system to make this information available -- complete with audio -- to any user of the Internet. RS: Today Jim is still responsible for keeping the Pronunciation Guide stocked with the latest names in the news. But it's not always easy. JIM TEDDER: "This is kind of a funny example. When I go to the Urdu Service at VOA and ask for pronunciations about words from Pakistan, it usually starts an argument. If I ask for a single pronunciation, I'll get 10 different variations because I'm talking to someone from northern Pakistan or eastern Pakistan or western, or one tribe or another. So you have to sometimes just make a -- take a consensus and say 'OK, I'm aware of the fact that it's said 10 different ways. For consistency's sake, I'm going to enter it this way." AA: "Well, now, which brings us to a question from a listener of VOA News Now named Harry Wang in Shanghai who says -- and am I pronouncing that correctly, Shanghai?" JIM TEDDER: "That's one way to say it, sure. [laughter]" AA: "How should I say it?" RS: "What's the standard VOA way?" JIM TEDDER: "A little more 'shong' rather than 'shang,' but 'shang-hai' is fine." AA: "Well, he has noticed that some of our announcers on News Now apparently have switched between saying the word 'either,' e-i-t-h-e-r, they're pronouncing it either 'ee-ther' or 'eye-ther,' and he wants to know which is more correct or considered more acceptable by most Americans. And [he] goes on to say, 'Should it be the rule set by your station or just simply a personal preference?'" JIM TEDDER: "Well, this goes back to what we talked about earlier. It's a request that I think all human beings have, a desire, that somewhere there is an absolute that says 'this is right and this is wrong.' The truth is, having studied this for many years, no such standard exists. "When Mister Wang wrote to us -- and I appreciate him getting in touch, it's a very good question and I understand how it could be confusing for an international listener. If you go as I did -- upon reading his letter, immediately I went to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. "In this case, the largest one we have, the most complete, is the Third International Unabridged -- a huge, thick, heavy-to-carry-around book. And it gave, as I suspected, 'ee-ther comma eye-ther.' In other words, they're saying with a common word like this, it is said by some educated people as ee-ther; other educated people say eye-ther. They make no distinction that one is a better way to say it than the other." RS: "I think here, as a former foreign language teacher, I would prefer my students just to be consistent. I really wouldn't care which one they used. I just would prefer that they would be consistent the way they pronounce words." AA: "It's like the word 'often' [aw-fen] -- or 'awf-ten,' right? -- where you've got half the people say it one way and I remember seeing someone point out that, for the ones who say it one way, the others think they're illiterate and uneducated, and the same way vice versa. So which do you say? Do you say 'aw-fen' or 'awf-ten'?" JIM TEDDER: "I say 'aw-fen' and leave the t out, and the only reason I do is because that's what I was taught when I was in school. It's a habit that I have kept over the years. And I agree with you. When I was in school my teachers, my English teachers, would say 'don't say awf-ten; that's what uneducated, ignorant people say.' And I grew up believing that. "But, indeed, if you look at what the lexicographers say, they say 'no, we're not saying one is better than the other. We're saying both are said by intelligent, informed, interested people.' "So what happens for a foreign listener -- and it makes it more difficult in our language -- is, they have to be aware that one can say that word as aw-fen or awf-ten, and we hope that there's not confusion there, but I'm sure there is to some degree." RS: VOA's Jim Tedder was on the phone with us from his home, since he works evenings and we don't get to see him much. AA: Besides being one of the voices of Special English, Jim Tedder is the keeper of VOA's online Pronunciation Guide. That's where you'll find phonetic spellings and audio files to go with about five thousand names in the news. It's all free, and you can find it at voanews.com. RS: And if you go to voanews.com/wordmaster, you'll find our weekly segments going back to 1998. If you ever have a question, just as Harry Wang in SHONG-hai did -- write to word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast: December 15, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our conversation with Jim Tedder, the creator of VOA's online Pronunciation Guide. RS: It used to be that when announcers at VOA needed to know how to say the name of someone in the news, they would have to look it up in a file of index cards. AA: Then, about five years ago, Jim Tedder got the idea for a system to make this information available -- complete with audio -- to any user of the Internet. RS: Today Jim is still responsible for keeping the Pronunciation Guide stocked with the latest names in the news. But it's not always easy. JIM TEDDER: "This is kind of a funny example. When I go to the Urdu Service at VOA and ask for pronunciations about words from Pakistan, it usually starts an argument. If I ask for a single pronunciation, I'll get 10 different variations because I'm talking to someone from northern Pakistan or eastern Pakistan or western, or one tribe or another. So you have to sometimes just make a -- take a consensus and say 'OK, I'm aware of the fact that it's said 10 different ways. For consistency's sake, I'm going to enter it this way." AA: "Well, now, which brings us to a question from a listener of VOA News Now named Harry Wang in Shanghai who says -- and am I pronouncing that correctly, Shanghai?" JIM TEDDER: "That's one way to say it, sure. [laughter]" AA: "How should I say it?" RS: "What's the standard VOA way?" JIM TEDDER: "A little more 'shong' rather than 'shang,' but 'shang-hai' is fine." AA: "Well, he has noticed that some of our announcers on News Now apparently have switched between saying the word 'either,' e-i-t-h-e-r, they're pronouncing it either 'ee-ther' or 'eye-ther,' and he wants to know which is more correct or considered more acceptable by most Americans. And [he] goes on to say, 'Should it be the rule set by your station or just simply a personal preference?'" JIM TEDDER: "Well, this goes back to what we talked about earlier. It's a request that I think all human beings have, a desire, that somewhere there is an absolute that says 'this is right and this is wrong.' The truth is, having studied this for many years, no such standard exists. "When Mister Wang wrote to us -- and I appreciate him getting in touch, it's a very good question and I understand how it could be confusing for an international listener. If you go as I did -- upon reading his letter, immediately I went to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. "In this case, the largest one we have, the most complete, is the Third International Unabridged -- a huge, thick, heavy-to-carry-around book. And it gave, as I suspected, 'ee-ther comma eye-ther.' In other words, they're saying with a common word like this, it is said by some educated people as ee-ther; other educated people say eye-ther. They make no distinction that one is a better way to say it than the other." RS: "I think here, as a former foreign language teacher, I would prefer my students just to be consistent. I really wouldn't care which one they used. I just would prefer that they would be consistent the way they pronounce words." AA: "It's like the word 'often' [aw-fen] -- or 'awf-ten,' right? -- where you've got half the people say it one way and I remember seeing someone point out that, for the ones who say it one way, the others think they're illiterate and uneducated, and the same way vice versa. So which do you say? Do you say 'aw-fen' or 'awf-ten'?" JIM TEDDER: "I say 'aw-fen' and leave the t out, and the only reason I do is because that's what I was taught when I was in school. It's a habit that I have kept over the years. And I agree with you. When I was in school my teachers, my English teachers, would say 'don't say awf-ten; that's what uneducated, ignorant people say.' And I grew up believing that. "But, indeed, if you look at what the lexicographers say, they say 'no, we're not saying one is better than the other. We're saying both are said by intelligent, informed, interested people.' "So what happens for a foreign listener -- and it makes it more difficult in our language -- is, they have to be aware that one can say that word as aw-fen or awf-ten, and we hope that there's not confusion there, but I'm sure there is to some degree." RS: VOA's Jim Tedder was on the phone with us from his home, since he works evenings and we don't get to see him much. AA: Besides being one of the voices of Special English, Jim Tedder is the keeper of VOA's online Pronunciation Guide. That's where you'll find phonetic spellings and audio files to go with about five thousand names in the news. It's all free, and you can find it at voanews.com. RS: And if you go to voanews.com/wordmaster, you'll find our weekly segments going back to 1998. If you ever have a question, just as Harry Wang in SHONG-hai did -- write to word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - California Missions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 15, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the first attempts to settle what is now the western state of California. These attempts began with Spanish settlers who built twenty-one Catholic churches called missions. Our report is about those churches -- the missions of California. (SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in seventeen sixty-eight in Madrid, Spain. The king of Spain, Charles the Third, had recently received reports that worried him. The reports said Russian explorers were in the northern part of the territory called California. Spain had claimed most of that area more than two hundred years earlier. But Spain had no settlements in California. King Charles knew if the Russians began to settle the area, Spain might lose control of California forever. VOICE TWO: King Charles decided the best way to keep the Spanish claim to California was to build settlements there. California had good harbors for Spanish ships, good weather and good farmland. King Charles decided to order the creation of a series of small farming communities along the Pacific Ocean coast of California. The settlements would provide trade and grow into larger cities. Spanish citizens might want to settle there. Then the Spanish claim to California would be safe. VOICE ONE: But there was no one on the coast of California to begin the work. King Charles and his advisors decided that the farming settlements would begin with churches called missions. Missions were places where Roman Catholic religious leaders converted people to the Christian religion. They taught the religion to people who wanted to become members of the church. King Charles decided Roman Catholic priests would build the missions and settlements with the help of Native American Indians. The priests would teach the native people the Christian religion, the Spanish language and how to farm. A religious group within the Catholic Church called the Franciscans would build the settlements. The Franciscans chose a young priest named Junipero Serra to begin the work. VOICE TWO: Many history experts say the Spanish government and the Catholic Church could not have chosen a better person for the task than Junipero Serra. Junipero Serra was born in seventeen thirteen on the island of Mallorca, Spain. After he became a Franciscan priest, he taught at a university in Mallorca. Father Serra had always wanted to be a missionary. In seventeen forty-nine he sailed to Mexico to begin his life as a missionary. He spent several years studying the languages and customs of native people in Mexico. In seventeen sixty-eight he was given the job of building the first of the California missions near the present day city of San Diego. (SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS) VOICE ONE: Mission San Diego de Alcala began on July sixteenth, seventeen sixty-nine. But before the mission was completed, Father Serra decided to move it. He did not like the way Spanish soldiers mistreated the Native Americans. He wanted to keep them separate. He moved the mission to an area that is still called Mission Valley. The design of Mission San Diego de Alcala was similar to each of the missions that were built later. There was a large church building. A long wall formed a large square to the side and behind the church. Large rooms inside and along the wall served as bedrooms, cooking areas, workshops, and classrooms. Usually, the center of the large square was left open. A garden with flowers was planted there. VOICE TWO: Junipero Serra’s plan for the missions along the California coast was simple. Each would be about the same distance from each other. Members of the Franciscan religious group did not ride horses or travel in wagons. They walked. The missions were built about one day’s long walk from each other. This made it easier to travel, trade goods and share information. The missions begin with San Diego de Alcala in the south. They end with San Francisco Solano about one thousand fifty kilometers to the north. In time, the road from mission San Diego de Alcala to mission San Francisco Solano was given a name. The Spanish name is still used today. It is “El Camino Real.” It means the “The Royal Highway” or “The King’s Highway.” Most of that old road is now part of the California highway system. Millions of people use the road every day as they drive from San Diego to San Francisco. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people have criticized the mission system of settlement because it changed the way of life for the Native Americans in California. Critics say many Native Americans were forced to work at the missions. They say many were forced to become members of the Christian religion. And many were treated badly by Spanish soldiers and died because of mistreatment or disease. However, other experts say that Junipero Serra demanded that the priests and soldiers treat the Native Americans with respect. Many of the Native Americans accepted the Christian religion, learned to farm and helped the missions become valuable settlements. Many other Native Americans did not. Some did not want to change the way they lived so they moved away from the missions. Many Native Americans believed they would be forced into a new way of life. In seventeen seventy-six, a group of Indians attacked the San Diego mission and burned it. Eight months later, the mission was rebuilt where it still stands today. VOICE TWO: King Charles’s plan was a success. Settlements grew from the missions along the California coast. Some of those along El Camino Real became major cities -- San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, and San Francisco, to name only a few. Junipero Serra was responsible for building nine of the missions. One of these was Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo in the present city of Carmel. It became his headquarters and the headquarters for all of the California missions. In seventeen eighty-four, Junipero Serra died of tuberculosis at mission San Carlos. He was buried in the floor of the Mission San Carlos Church. (SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS) VOICE ONE: The missions of California faced difficult times during the eighteen hundreds. In eighteen twenty-two, California became part of Mexico, which had just won its independence from Spain. But the Mexican government could not pay the cost of keeping the missions. In eighteen thirty-four, the Mexican government sold much of the mission land and some of the buildings. Several missions remained part of the communities they helped to build. But many became little more than ruins. Some of the land and the missions were returned to the Catholic Church. In the eighteen forties, Mexico had trouble controlling the American settlers in California. In eighteen forty-six, the settlers declared California a republic. Less than two years later, the United States gained control of California during the Mexican War. During this period, the Catholic Church tried to keep control of the missions. They were only partly successful. However, in eighteen sixty-three President Abraham Lincoln signed a law that said all twenty-one missions in California would be returned to the Catholic Church. They have remained so ever since. VOICE TWO: Today, the people of California consider the missions a treasure. Eighteen of the twenty-one are still active Catholic churches. All of the missions are museums that teach the early history of California. Many visitors come to the missions to see the beautiful buildings. Several of the missions have become famous. One example is the Mission San Juan Capistrano. It was planned and built by Junipero Serra. Each year, on the same day, at almost the same hour, thousands of birds called swallows return to the mission. They return from their winter homes thousands of kilometers to the south. The swallows arrive on March nineteenth. They build nests and raise their young in the old mission. They leave on October twenty-third. One story says the birds have been late only once because of a storm at sea. Everyone agrees that Junipero Serra would have loved the beautiful swallows of Capistrano. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. Broadcast: December 15, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the first attempts to settle what is now the western state of California. These attempts began with Spanish settlers who built twenty-one Catholic churches called missions. Our report is about those churches -- the missions of California. (SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in seventeen sixty-eight in Madrid, Spain. The king of Spain, Charles the Third, had recently received reports that worried him. The reports said Russian explorers were in the northern part of the territory called California. Spain had claimed most of that area more than two hundred years earlier. But Spain had no settlements in California. King Charles knew if the Russians began to settle the area, Spain might lose control of California forever. VOICE TWO: King Charles decided the best way to keep the Spanish claim to California was to build settlements there. California had good harbors for Spanish ships, good weather and good farmland. King Charles decided to order the creation of a series of small farming communities along the Pacific Ocean coast of California. The settlements would provide trade and grow into larger cities. Spanish citizens might want to settle there. Then the Spanish claim to California would be safe. VOICE ONE: But there was no one on the coast of California to begin the work. King Charles and his advisors decided that the farming settlements would begin with churches called missions. Missions were places where Roman Catholic religious leaders converted people to the Christian religion. They taught the religion to people who wanted to become members of the church. King Charles decided Roman Catholic priests would build the missions and settlements with the help of Native American Indians. The priests would teach the native people the Christian religion, the Spanish language and how to farm. A religious group within the Catholic Church called the Franciscans would build the settlements. The Franciscans chose a young priest named Junipero Serra to begin the work. VOICE TWO: Many history experts say the Spanish government and the Catholic Church could not have chosen a better person for the task than Junipero Serra. Junipero Serra was born in seventeen thirteen on the island of Mallorca, Spain. After he became a Franciscan priest, he taught at a university in Mallorca. Father Serra had always wanted to be a missionary. In seventeen forty-nine he sailed to Mexico to begin his life as a missionary. He spent several years studying the languages and customs of native people in Mexico. In seventeen sixty-eight he was given the job of building the first of the California missions near the present day city of San Diego. (SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS) VOICE ONE: Mission San Diego de Alcala began on July sixteenth, seventeen sixty-nine. But before the mission was completed, Father Serra decided to move it. He did not like the way Spanish soldiers mistreated the Native Americans. He wanted to keep them separate. He moved the mission to an area that is still called Mission Valley. The design of Mission San Diego de Alcala was similar to each of the missions that were built later. There was a large church building. A long wall formed a large square to the side and behind the church. Large rooms inside and along the wall served as bedrooms, cooking areas, workshops, and classrooms. Usually, the center of the large square was left open. A garden with flowers was planted there. VOICE TWO: Junipero Serra’s plan for the missions along the California coast was simple. Each would be about the same distance from each other. Members of the Franciscan religious group did not ride horses or travel in wagons. They walked. The missions were built about one day’s long walk from each other. This made it easier to travel, trade goods and share information. The missions begin with San Diego de Alcala in the south. They end with San Francisco Solano about one thousand fifty kilometers to the north. In time, the road from mission San Diego de Alcala to mission San Francisco Solano was given a name. The Spanish name is still used today. It is “El Camino Real.” It means the “The Royal Highway” or “The King’s Highway.” Most of that old road is now part of the California highway system. Millions of people use the road every day as they drive from San Diego to San Francisco. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people have criticized the mission system of settlement because it changed the way of life for the Native Americans in California. Critics say many Native Americans were forced to work at the missions. They say many were forced to become members of the Christian religion. And many were treated badly by Spanish soldiers and died because of mistreatment or disease. However, other experts say that Junipero Serra demanded that the priests and soldiers treat the Native Americans with respect. Many of the Native Americans accepted the Christian religion, learned to farm and helped the missions become valuable settlements. Many other Native Americans did not. Some did not want to change the way they lived so they moved away from the missions. Many Native Americans believed they would be forced into a new way of life. In seventeen seventy-six, a group of Indians attacked the San Diego mission and burned it. Eight months later, the mission was rebuilt where it still stands today. VOICE TWO: King Charles’s plan was a success. Settlements grew from the missions along the California coast. Some of those along El Camino Real became major cities -- San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, and San Francisco, to name only a few. Junipero Serra was responsible for building nine of the missions. One of these was Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo in the present city of Carmel. It became his headquarters and the headquarters for all of the California missions. In seventeen eighty-four, Junipero Serra died of tuberculosis at mission San Carlos. He was buried in the floor of the Mission San Carlos Church. (SOUND OF CHURCH BELLS) VOICE ONE: The missions of California faced difficult times during the eighteen hundreds. In eighteen twenty-two, California became part of Mexico, which had just won its independence from Spain. But the Mexican government could not pay the cost of keeping the missions. In eighteen thirty-four, the Mexican government sold much of the mission land and some of the buildings. Several missions remained part of the communities they helped to build. But many became little more than ruins. Some of the land and the missions were returned to the Catholic Church. In the eighteen forties, Mexico had trouble controlling the American settlers in California. In eighteen forty-six, the settlers declared California a republic. Less than two years later, the United States gained control of California during the Mexican War. During this period, the Catholic Church tried to keep control of the missions. They were only partly successful. However, in eighteen sixty-three President Abraham Lincoln signed a law that said all twenty-one missions in California would be returned to the Catholic Church. They have remained so ever since. VOICE TWO: Today, the people of California consider the missions a treasure. Eighteen of the twenty-one are still active Catholic churches. All of the missions are museums that teach the early history of California. Many visitors come to the missions to see the beautiful buildings. Several of the missions have become famous. One example is the Mission San Juan Capistrano. It was planned and built by Junipero Serra. Each year, on the same day, at almost the same hour, thousands of birds called swallows return to the mission. They return from their winter homes thousands of kilometers to the south. The swallows arrive on March nineteenth. They build nests and raise their young in the old mission. They leave on October twenty-third. One story says the birds have been late only once because of a storm at sea. Everyone agrees that Junipero Serra would have loved the beautiful swallows of Capistrano. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Lack of Sleep Linked to Weight Gain
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 15, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. There are new findings that not enough sleep may cause people to gain weight. Researchers say a lack of sleep can produce hormonal changes that increase feelings of hunger. In one study, researchers in the United States examined information on more than one thousand people. The people had taken part in a long-term study of sleep disorders. Some people slept less than five hours a night. They had fifteen percent higher blood levels of a hormone called ghrelin than people who slept eight hours. And they had fifteen percent less of the hormone leptin. Experts say ghrelin helps make people feel hungry; leptin makes you feel full. The scientists say these hormonal changes may be a cause of obesity in Western societies. They note the combination that sleep restriction is common and food is widely available. The results were not affected by how much people exercised. People who are awake longer have more time to burn energy. But the researchers say loss of sleep may increase hunger especially for high-calorie foods, so people gain weight. Researchers from Stanford University in California and the University of Wisconsin did the study. They found that the best amount of sleep for weight control is seven-point-seven hours a night. The Public Library of Science published the findings in its journal Medicine. Internet users can read the full study, free of charge, at plos.org. Researchers at the University of Chicago did a smaller study, reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They found that people who slept just four hours a night for two nights had an eighteen percent reduction in leptin. And they had a twenty-eight percent increase in ghrelin. The young men in that study also appeared to want more sweet and starchy foods. Researchers from Columbia University in New York did a third study. They reported the findings at a meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. They found that people who got less than four hours of sleep a night were seventy-three percent more likely to be overweight. This was compared to people with seven to nine hours of sleep. The researchers say that for survival, the body may be designed to store more fat during times with less sleep. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #93 - Election of 1860
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. The American people faced the year eighteen sixty with mixed feelings of hope and fear. They had hope for the future, because they would be electing a new president. But they were fearful that even a new president could not hold the nation together. The states of the South were very close to leaving the union over the issue of slavery. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I tell about the critical election of eighteen sixty. VOICE TWO: After four years as president, James Buchanan decided not to run again. Buchanan was a Democrat. His party, like the nation, was split over slavery. Southern Democrats wanted the party to support slavery. Northern Democrats refused. The opposition Republican Party expected to gain votes from dissatisfied Democrats. Republicans had become stronger since the last presidential election in eighteen fifty-six. They felt their candidate would win in eighteen sixty. VOICE ONE: The Democratic nominating convention opened in April in Charleston, South Carolina. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois was the leading candidate. He had the support of a majority of convention delegates. But he did not have the two-thirds majority needed to win the nomination. Many Southern Democrats did not like Stephen Douglas. Some did not trust him. Others did not accept his policies on slavery. Douglas did not oppose slavery or the spread of slavery. However, he said no federal law could Make slavery legal in a territory where the people did not want it. This was his policy of 'popular sovereignty'. VOICE TWO: The Southern Democrats who opposed Stephen Douglas were led by William Yancey of Alabama. Yancey wanted to get a pro-slavery statement into the party's platform. He was sure Douglas would not accept the nomination based on such a platform. If Yancey failed to get the statement he wanted, he would take Southern Democrats out of the convention. . . And out of the party. The committee on resolutions considered three platforms. One platform declared that the people of a territory had the right to decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The second declared that the supreme court had that right. And the third declared that no one did -- that slavery was legal everywhere. VOICE ONE: William Yancey spoke to the convention in support of the pro-slavery platform. He said pro-slavery Democrats did not want to destroy the union. But he said someone had to make clear to anti-slavery Democrats that the union would be dissolved if the constitutional rights of slave owners were not honored. Yancey spoke of the danger of a great slave rebellion. He described it as a sleeping volcano that threatened the lives, property, and honor of the people of the south. He said the actions of the north might cause that volcano to explode. Another convention delegate answered Yancey's speech. He said Northern Democrats were tired of defending the interests of the South. "Now," he said, "Yancey tells us we must agree that slavery is right. He orders us to hide our faces and eat dirt. Gentlemen of the South," he said, "you mistake us. We will not do it!" VOICE TWO: In this atmosphere of tension, it was clear that a pro-slavery platform would not be approved. The Alabama delegation announced that, therefore, it must withdraw. The delegations from the other six states of the deep South -- Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas -- did the same. Those fifty men organized their own convention. They approved a pro-slavery platform, but did not nominate anyone for president. They agreed to meet again a few weeks later in Richmond, Virginia. The Northern Democrats postponed their nomination, too. They agreed to Meet again in Baltimore, Maryland. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention in Chicago, Illinois. There was no question who was the leading candidate. He was the best-known Republican in the country at that time: Senator William Seward of New York. The Republican platform seemed to contain something for everyone. For those opposed to slavery, the platform rejected the idea that slave owners had a constitutional right to take slaves into new territories. For foreign-born Americans, it supported their right to full citizenship. For manufacturers, it proposed a new tax on imports to protect American industry. And for those in the northwest, it called for free land for settlers, and federal aid to build roads and canals. Delegates approved the platform with loud cheers. They would return the next day to nominate their candidate for president. VOICE TWO: William Seward was sure he would win the nomination. If not on the first vote, he thought, then on the second. But there was some opposition to Seward. And his campaign organization failed to see its strength. The candidate of the opposition was Abraham Lincoln. The Republican convention voted three times. Lincoln gained support on each ballot. But neither he nor Seward received enough votes for the nomination. Then, before a fourth vote could be taken, a delegate from Ohio asked to speak. The big room became silent. "Mister chairman," he said, "I rise to announce the change of four votes of Ohio to Mister Lincoln. " That was enough to give Abraham Lincoln the Republican nomination for president. VOICE ONE: One month later, the Democrats re-opened their nominating convention. Most of the Southern Democrats who walked out of the first meeting came back. Many of their seats at the convention had been given to new delegates. So a new dispute arose over which delegates had the right to be there. A compromise plan split the seats between old and new delegates. But most of the Southerners rejected it. One by one, a majority of each Southern delegation walked out. The remaining Democrats then voted for a candidate. They chose Stephen Douglas. Southern Democrats nominated their own candidate, John Breckinridge of Kentucky. And a group called the Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell. VOICE TWO: The election campaign opened in the summer of eighteen sixty. Lincoln was not well-known. So the Republican Party published many books and pamphlets about him. They told the story of a poor farm boy who educated himself and, through hard work and honesty, had become a candidate for president. Lincoln's supporters organized a loud and colorful campaign, complete with marching bands and signs. Lincoln himself was silent. He said, "It has been my decision since becoming a candidate to make no speeches. I am here only to see you and to let you see me. " In fact, it was Lincoln's assistants who had advised him to say nothing. They believed he had said enough in the past to make clear his position on the important issues. VOICE ONE: Stephen Douglas, on the other hand, campaigned very hard. His health was poor. And he had trouble getting money. But that did not stop him from speaking in almost every state. Within a few weeks, however, Douglas recognized that he had no real hope of winning. His position on slavery had cost him all support in the South. Douglas believed that, of the other candidates, Abraham Lincoln had the best chance of winning the presidential election. He also believed pro-slavery extremists would use Lincoln's election as an excuse to take Southern states out of the union. So he turned his efforts to a campaign for the union itself. He said, "the election of a man to the presidency by the American people, under the constitution, is no reason for any attempt to dissolve this glorious nation. " VOICE TWO: Election day was November sixth. The popular vote was close between Lincoln and Douglas. But the electoral vote was not. Lincoln received one hundred eighty. Breckinridge received seventy-two. Bell received thirty-nine. And Douglas received just twelve. Abraham Lincoln would be the new president of the United States. He would enter office facing the most serious crisis in American history. For, before his inauguration, southern states finally acted on their threats. They began to leave the union. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Broadcast: December 16, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. The American people faced the year eighteen sixty with mixed feelings of hope and fear. They had hope for the future, because they would be electing a new president. But they were fearful that even a new president could not hold the nation together. The states of the South were very close to leaving the union over the issue of slavery. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I tell about the critical election of eighteen sixty. VOICE TWO: After four years as president, James Buchanan decided not to run again. Buchanan was a Democrat. His party, like the nation, was split over slavery. Southern Democrats wanted the party to support slavery. Northern Democrats refused. The opposition Republican Party expected to gain votes from dissatisfied Democrats. Republicans had become stronger since the last presidential election in eighteen fifty-six. They felt their candidate would win in eighteen sixty. VOICE ONE: The Democratic nominating convention opened in April in Charleston, South Carolina. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois was the leading candidate. He had the support of a majority of convention delegates. But he did not have the two-thirds majority needed to win the nomination. Many Southern Democrats did not like Stephen Douglas. Some did not trust him. Others did not accept his policies on slavery. Douglas did not oppose slavery or the spread of slavery. However, he said no federal law could Make slavery legal in a territory where the people did not want it. This was his policy of 'popular sovereignty'. VOICE TWO: The Southern Democrats who opposed Stephen Douglas were led by William Yancey of Alabama. Yancey wanted to get a pro-slavery statement into the party's platform. He was sure Douglas would not accept the nomination based on such a platform. If Yancey failed to get the statement he wanted, he would take Southern Democrats out of the convention. . . And out of the party. The committee on resolutions considered three platforms. One platform declared that the people of a territory had the right to decide if slavery would be legal or illegal. The second declared that the supreme court had that right. And the third declared that no one did -- that slavery was legal everywhere. VOICE ONE: William Yancey spoke to the convention in support of the pro-slavery platform. He said pro-slavery Democrats did not want to destroy the union. But he said someone had to make clear to anti-slavery Democrats that the union would be dissolved if the constitutional rights of slave owners were not honored. Yancey spoke of the danger of a great slave rebellion. He described it as a sleeping volcano that threatened the lives, property, and honor of the people of the south. He said the actions of the north might cause that volcano to explode. Another convention delegate answered Yancey's speech. He said Northern Democrats were tired of defending the interests of the South. "Now," he said, "Yancey tells us we must agree that slavery is right. He orders us to hide our faces and eat dirt. Gentlemen of the South," he said, "you mistake us. We will not do it!" VOICE TWO: In this atmosphere of tension, it was clear that a pro-slavery platform would not be approved. The Alabama delegation announced that, therefore, it must withdraw. The delegations from the other six states of the deep South -- Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas -- did the same. Those fifty men organized their own convention. They approved a pro-slavery platform, but did not nominate anyone for president. They agreed to meet again a few weeks later in Richmond, Virginia. The Northern Democrats postponed their nomination, too. They agreed to Meet again in Baltimore, Maryland. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party held its presidential nominating convention in Chicago, Illinois. There was no question who was the leading candidate. He was the best-known Republican in the country at that time: Senator William Seward of New York. The Republican platform seemed to contain something for everyone. For those opposed to slavery, the platform rejected the idea that slave owners had a constitutional right to take slaves into new territories. For foreign-born Americans, it supported their right to full citizenship. For manufacturers, it proposed a new tax on imports to protect American industry. And for those in the northwest, it called for free land for settlers, and federal aid to build roads and canals. Delegates approved the platform with loud cheers. They would return the next day to nominate their candidate for president. VOICE TWO: William Seward was sure he would win the nomination. If not on the first vote, he thought, then on the second. But there was some opposition to Seward. And his campaign organization failed to see its strength. The candidate of the opposition was Abraham Lincoln. The Republican convention voted three times. Lincoln gained support on each ballot. But neither he nor Seward received enough votes for the nomination. Then, before a fourth vote could be taken, a delegate from Ohio asked to speak. The big room became silent. "Mister chairman," he said, "I rise to announce the change of four votes of Ohio to Mister Lincoln. " That was enough to give Abraham Lincoln the Republican nomination for president. VOICE ONE: One month later, the Democrats re-opened their nominating convention. Most of the Southern Democrats who walked out of the first meeting came back. Many of their seats at the convention had been given to new delegates. So a new dispute arose over which delegates had the right to be there. A compromise plan split the seats between old and new delegates. But most of the Southerners rejected it. One by one, a majority of each Southern delegation walked out. The remaining Democrats then voted for a candidate. They chose Stephen Douglas. Southern Democrats nominated their own candidate, John Breckinridge of Kentucky. And a group called the Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell. VOICE TWO: The election campaign opened in the summer of eighteen sixty. Lincoln was not well-known. So the Republican Party published many books and pamphlets about him. They told the story of a poor farm boy who educated himself and, through hard work and honesty, had become a candidate for president. Lincoln's supporters organized a loud and colorful campaign, complete with marching bands and signs. Lincoln himself was silent. He said, "It has been my decision since becoming a candidate to make no speeches. I am here only to see you and to let you see me. " In fact, it was Lincoln's assistants who had advised him to say nothing. They believed he had said enough in the past to make clear his position on the important issues. VOICE ONE: Stephen Douglas, on the other hand, campaigned very hard. His health was poor. And he had trouble getting money. But that did not stop him from speaking in almost every state. Within a few weeks, however, Douglas recognized that he had no real hope of winning. His position on slavery had cost him all support in the South. Douglas believed that, of the other candidates, Abraham Lincoln had the best chance of winning the presidential election. He also believed pro-slavery extremists would use Lincoln's election as an excuse to take Southern states out of the union. So he turned his efforts to a campaign for the union itself. He said, "the election of a man to the presidency by the American people, under the constitution, is no reason for any attempt to dissolve this glorious nation. " VOICE TWO: Election day was November sixth. The popular vote was close between Lincoln and Douglas. But the electoral vote was not. Lincoln received one hundred eighty. Breckinridge received seventy-two. Bell received thirty-nine. And Douglas received just twelve. Abraham Lincoln would be the new president of the United States. He would enter office facing the most serious crisis in American history. For, before his inauguration, southern states finally acted on their threats. They began to leave the union. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #16: Where To Live?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 16, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our Foreign Student Series. Today, we discuss where to live once you are admitted to an American college or university. Housing policies differ. Some schools, for example, require students to live in a dormitory, at least for their first year. Dormitory buildings may have a thousand students, or just a few. Some are organized into suites. Suites have several bedrooms, a common living area and a bathroom. Six or more people may live in one suite. Other dorms have many rooms along a hallway, usually with two students in each room. A large bathroom may serve all the students on one floor. Many students say dormitories provide the best chance to get to know other students. And they generally cost less than apartments or other housing not owned by the school. Most universities have some separate dorms for males and females. Usually, however, males and females live in the same building. They may even live on the same floor and share the same bathroom. But usually they may not live in the same room unless they are married. At many schools, male students can join fraternities and female students can join sororities. These are social organizations. But members may also be able to live at a fraternity and sorority house. Edward Spencer is the associate vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Mister Spencer says it is important to understand the rules of the building in which you will live. He advises students to ask some questions before they decide about their housing. For example: Does the school provide any special kinds of food that the student may require? Are there private bathing areas in the dorms? Will the school provide a single room if a student requests one? Mister Spencer says some universities take special care to help foreign students in their housing. Virginia Tech, for example, changed its policy against candles in dorms. This way candles can be lit for ceremonial purposes. The university also keeps several dorms open all year. That means foreign students have a place to stay during vacation times. Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. All of our reports are online at voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Winter Solstice / A Question About a
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 17, 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from this year's top Grammy nominees … And a question from China about the meaning of a "hat trick." But first -- a little lesson in astronomy. Winter Solstice Next Tuesday is the December solstice. At twelve hours forty-two minutes Universal Time, the sun will reach the point farthest south on its path. Winter will officially begin for people in the northern half of the world, and summer for those in the south. Jim Tedder has more. JIM TEDDER: We do not usually think of the sun moving north to south in the sky, only east to west. But the movement northward and southward marks the change of seasons. The word solstice comes from Latin. It means that the sun is standing in place. The December solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is along this southern latitude. The June solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. That is about the same northern latitude as Havana, Cuba. On that day, around June twenty-first, the sun appears at its northernmost position in the sky. People who live at or near the equator are said to live in the "tropics." That is, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. These are simply lines drawn on a map to mark the area that receives sunlight directly overhead during the year. The distance between them is about two thousand five hundred kilometers. People who live along the equator experience fairly equal days and nights all year. Next Tuesday, here in Washington, we will have about nine and one-half hours of daylight. The farther north you travel, the longer the nights are. Reykjavik, Iceland, will have less than four hours of daylight. But in Murmansk, Russia, the sun will not rise at all on the day of the solstice. In fact, people there last saw the sun on December third. And they will not see it again until January seventh. Hat Trick DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from a listener in China named Reed. He often hears the expression "hat trick" used about football. He would like to know what this means. Football? We thought it came from ice hockey! Well, we discovered that the term "hat trick" really came from the British sport of cricket in the eighteen hundreds. The Oxford English Dictionary says a hat trick is when one bowler in cricket takes three wickets by three balls, usually one after another. Players often received a new hat from their team as a reward. The expression "hat trick" in cricket first appeared in print by the late eighteen seventies. Over the years, the term spread to other sports. For example, in horse racing, a hat trick is when a jockey wins three races in one day. In hockey and soccer football, a hat trick is when a player scores three goals in a single game. And just recently we saw the term used in a headline on a story about a game in American football. It was about a player who scored -- you guessed it -- three touchdowns. Hat trick is sometimes used in baseball when a player hits a single, double, triple and home run in one game. Yes, that is four things, but who's counting? Today people use “hat trick” to mean just about anything that comes in threes. Examples might include a lawyer who wins three cases one after another. Or a politician who has won three elections. So if you know someone who has made three victories of any kind, you can say that he or she has scored a hat trick. But there is another term we hear nowadays, a play on the word repeat: "Three-peat." Grammy Nominations The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has just announced the nominations for its yearly Grammy awards. The awards will be presented in February. The Grammys recognize excellent musical recordings and those who create them. Faith Lapidus tells us who has the most nominations this year. FAITH LAPIDUS: The artist with the most nominations for Grammy Awards this year is Kanye West. He is nominated for ten awards, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. That nominated song is on the nominated album, “College Dropout.” Here it is: “Jesus Walks.” (MUSIC) Usher has eight Grammy nominations. His best-selling album is the nominated “Confessions.” It has sold about seven million copies. Here is the top song from that album, “Yeah”. (MUSIC) Another artist with eight Grammy nominations is Alicia Keys. Her Best Album nomination is for “The Diary of Alicia Keys.” We leave you now with Alicia Keys singing a song from that album. It is nominated for best song: “If I Ain’t Got You.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: December 17, 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: Music from this year's top Grammy nominees … And a question from China about the meaning of a "hat trick." But first -- a little lesson in astronomy. Winter Solstice Next Tuesday is the December solstice. At twelve hours forty-two minutes Universal Time, the sun will reach the point farthest south on its path. Winter will officially begin for people in the northern half of the world, and summer for those in the south. Jim Tedder has more. JIM TEDDER: We do not usually think of the sun moving north to south in the sky, only east to west. But the movement northward and southward marks the change of seasons. The word solstice comes from Latin. It means that the sun is standing in place. The December solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is along this southern latitude. The June solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. That is about the same northern latitude as Havana, Cuba. On that day, around June twenty-first, the sun appears at its northernmost position in the sky. People who live at or near the equator are said to live in the "tropics." That is, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. These are simply lines drawn on a map to mark the area that receives sunlight directly overhead during the year. The distance between them is about two thousand five hundred kilometers. People who live along the equator experience fairly equal days and nights all year. Next Tuesday, here in Washington, we will have about nine and one-half hours of daylight. The farther north you travel, the longer the nights are. Reykjavik, Iceland, will have less than four hours of daylight. But in Murmansk, Russia, the sun will not rise at all on the day of the solstice. In fact, people there last saw the sun on December third. And they will not see it again until January seventh. Hat Trick DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from a listener in China named Reed. He often hears the expression "hat trick" used about football. He would like to know what this means. Football? We thought it came from ice hockey! Well, we discovered that the term "hat trick" really came from the British sport of cricket in the eighteen hundreds. The Oxford English Dictionary says a hat trick is when one bowler in cricket takes three wickets by three balls, usually one after another. Players often received a new hat from their team as a reward. The expression "hat trick" in cricket first appeared in print by the late eighteen seventies. Over the years, the term spread to other sports. For example, in horse racing, a hat trick is when a jockey wins three races in one day. In hockey and soccer football, a hat trick is when a player scores three goals in a single game. And just recently we saw the term used in a headline on a story about a game in American football. It was about a player who scored -- you guessed it -- three touchdowns. Hat trick is sometimes used in baseball when a player hits a single, double, triple and home run in one game. Yes, that is four things, but who's counting? Today people use “hat trick” to mean just about anything that comes in threes. Examples might include a lawyer who wins three cases one after another. Or a politician who has won three elections. So if you know someone who has made three victories of any kind, you can say that he or she has scored a hat trick. But there is another term we hear nowadays, a play on the word repeat: "Three-peat." Grammy Nominations The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has just announced the nominations for its yearly Grammy awards. The awards will be presented in February. The Grammys recognize excellent musical recordings and those who create them. Faith Lapidus tells us who has the most nominations this year. FAITH LAPIDUS: The artist with the most nominations for Grammy Awards this year is Kanye West. He is nominated for ten awards, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. That nominated song is on the nominated album, “College Dropout.” Here it is: “Jesus Walks.” (MUSIC) Usher has eight Grammy nominations. His best-selling album is the nominated “Confessions.” It has sold about seven million copies. Here is the top song from that album, “Yeah”. (MUSIC) Another artist with eight Grammy nominations is Alicia Keys. Her Best Album nomination is for “The Diary of Alicia Keys.” We leave you now with Alicia Keys singing a song from that album. It is nominated for best song: “If I Ain’t Got You.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. This program was written by Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Lenovo of China Moves Up in the Computer World with IBM Purchase
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 17, 2003 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Next year, if all goes as planned, the largest maker of personal computers in Asia will become the third largest in the world. Lenovo Group Limited of China is buying the personal computer business of the American company I.B.M. International Business Machines brought millions of people their first P.C.'s. Now it is getting out of the business of selling them. Aggressive competition in the industry has cut the profit in sales. The deal is worth one thousand seven hundred fifty million dollars. This includes five hundred million dollars in debt that Lenovo will take over from I.B.M. Lenovo will be third in worldwide sales behind the American companies Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Ten thousand I.B.M. employees will go to work for Lenovo. The American company already has thousands of employees in China. I.B.M. will hold a nineteen percent share in Lenovo. And I.B.M. will continue to offer services, the most profitable part of its personal computer business. I.B.M. helped create the market for personal computers in nineteen eighty-one with a machine that became very popular. The computer used an operating system made by a small company, Microsoft. Another small company provided the microprocessor, the brains of a computer. That was Intel. Intel and Microsoft grew highly profitable. But soon, less costly computers appeared. I.B.M. saw its market share shrink. In the end, it stopped making its personal computers itself. The Gartner research group estimates that I.B.M. had a five percent share of the world P.C. market this year. Lenovo had two percent. But it controls one-fourth of the Chinese market, the largest in Asia. Lenovo was formerly known as Legend Computer. Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began the company in nineteen eighty-four. Chinese companies are moving to expand their international business holdings. This purchase is one of the biggest yet. Lenovo will be able to use the I.B.M. name for five years. Lenovo will have the headquarters of its personal computer business in New York, with operations in Beijing and Raleigh, North Carolina. Stephen Ward will be the chief executive officer and Yang Yuanqing will be the chairman. Officials expect the deal to be made final by the middle of next year. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Google to Put Millions of Books on the Internet
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 18, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The Internet search company Google plans to put millions of library books online and make them searchable. This week, Google announced a project with the New York Public Library and the libraries of four universities. These are Stanford, Harvard and the University of Michigan in the United States and Oxford in England. Stanford University and the University of Michigan have agreed to let Google copy their full collections. Michigan put some of its seven million books on the Web this week. Its full collection is about six years away. The New York Public Library says it will only provide Google with materials no longer under copyright restrictions. Oxford will offer only books published before the twentieth century. And Harvard University will provide just forty thousand books at first. The project could take ten years or more. Some librarians say each book might cost about ten dollars to reproduce in digital form. Workers use scanner machines to take pictures of each page. Google says its users will see links in their search results page when there are books that relate to their search. For years libraries have been making electronic copies, especially of old and rare documents. But the process has often been slow. There are also legal issues. Google says it will show only a small part of library books protected by copyright. Users might see only pages that contain the words they searched for. The project will expand the Google Print program. This lets publishers make books and other information searchable online. Amazon-dot-com has a competing program. Google earns almost all its money through sales of advertising. Users see links to products and services next to their search results. People can click on these links to buy things or get more information. This week, Google won a ruling in a legal case brought by one of its advertisers, Geico, an automobile insurance company. Geico is not happy that links to competitors also appear when people search for information about the company. Geico called this an illegal use of its name. But a judge disagreed. Google is the most popular Internet search engine. The program currently searches more than eight thousand million Web pages. It is often praised for its ease of use and for finding the information that people want, generally in less than a second. Google faces its strongest competition from Yahoo and M.S.N., the Microsoft Network. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford graduate students, began Google in nineteen ninety-eight. The company sold its first shares of ownership to the public this year. Google says its library project will increase interest in books. It may also get more people into libraries to see the real thing. The American Library Association says visits are up one hundred percent since the Internet began to get popular ten years ago. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 18, 2004 I’m Steve Ember with In the News in VOA Special English. The Internet search company Google plans to put millions of library books online and make them searchable. This week, Google announced a project with the New York Public Library and the libraries of four universities. These are Stanford, Harvard and the University of Michigan in the United States and Oxford in England. Stanford University and the University of Michigan have agreed to let Google copy their full collections. Michigan put some of its seven million books on the Web this week. Its full collection is about six years away. The New York Public Library says it will only provide Google with materials no longer under copyright restrictions. Oxford will offer only books published before the twentieth century. And Harvard University will provide just forty thousand books at first. The project could take ten years or more. Some librarians say each book might cost about ten dollars to reproduce in digital form. Workers use scanner machines to take pictures of each page. Google says its users will see links in their search results page when there are books that relate to their search. For years libraries have been making electronic copies, especially of old and rare documents. But the process has often been slow. There are also legal issues. Google says it will show only a small part of library books protected by copyright. Users might see only pages that contain the words they searched for. The project will expand the Google Print program. This lets publishers make books and other information searchable online. Amazon-dot-com has a competing program. Google earns almost all its money through sales of advertising. Users see links to products and services next to their search results. People can click on these links to buy things or get more information. This week, Google won a ruling in a legal case brought by one of its advertisers, Geico, an automobile insurance company. Geico is not happy that links to competitors also appear when people search for information about the company. Geico called this an illegal use of its name. But a judge disagreed. Google is the most popular Internet search engine. The program currently searches more than eight thousand million Web pages. It is often praised for its ease of use and for finding the information that people want, generally in less than a second. Google faces its strongest competition from Yahoo and M.S.N., the Microsoft Network. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford graduate students, began Google in nineteen ninety-eight. The company sold its first shares of ownership to the public this year. Google says its library project will increase interest in books. It may also get more people into libraries to see the real thing. The American Library Association says visits are up one hundred percent since the Internet began to get popular ten years ago. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Margaret Sanger
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 19, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them. Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year. This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress. VOICE TWO: The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Three in the eastern state of New York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins. Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said he taught her to be an independent thinker. Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies. She was always tired and sick. Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become a nurse. Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because of their low position in society. Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem. Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor union organizer. She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism. Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in Nineteen-Thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the United States prepared to change women’s lives. VOICE TWO: At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession. But, she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote. She decided to continue working alone. One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, Nineteen-Fourteen. The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution. Sanger had an immediate goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail. VOICE ONE: The Woman Rebel became well-known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper. Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods. In August, Nineteen-Fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act. Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women’s issues. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women. While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her. VOICE ONE: Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in Nineteen-Sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One-hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail. With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one. Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. In the Nineteen-Thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the Nineteen-Twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents. Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements. VOICE ONE: Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In the Nineteen-Forty-Two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two. Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents. The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group. VOICE TWO: Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: December 19, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them. Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year. This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress. VOICE TWO: The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Three in the eastern state of New York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins. Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said he taught her to be an independent thinker. Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies. She was always tired and sick. Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become a nurse. Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because of their low position in society. Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem. Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor union organizer. She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism. Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in Nineteen-Thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the United States prepared to change women’s lives. VOICE TWO: At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession. But, she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote. She decided to continue working alone. One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, Nineteen-Fourteen. The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution. Sanger had an immediate goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail. VOICE ONE: The Woman Rebel became well-known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper. Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods. In August, Nineteen-Fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act. Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women’s issues. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women. While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her. VOICE ONE: Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in Nineteen-Sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One-hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail. With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one. Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. In the Nineteen-Thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the Nineteen-Twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents. Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements. VOICE ONE: Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In the Nineteen-Forty-Two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two. Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents. The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group. VOICE TWO: Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the Twentieth Century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Christmas Traditions and Music
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 20, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: December 20, 2004 (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely-celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely-celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. (MUSIC) Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas --he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas --he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Reports Show Some Conditions Worsening in Developing World
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 20, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Some new reports about conditions in developing countries offer little to celebrate. Carol Bellamy of UNICEF says half of the more than two thousand million children in the world "are growing up hungry and unhealthy." The United Nations Children’s Fund says the biggest threats are poverty, war and HIV/AIDS. The UNICEF report defines child poverty as the lack of at least one of seven services needed to survive, grow and develop. These are shelter, food, safe water, health care, clean living conditions, education and information. UNICEF and British researchers found that at least seven hundred million children lacked two or more of these services. The report also says almost half of all people killed in war since nineteen ninety have been children. And, in some African countries, the spread of AIDS has meant high child death rates and shorter life expectancy. UNICEF noted progress made under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a nineteen eighty-nine international treaty. But it says these gains are threatened in several areas. In fact, it says child poverty has also risen in some developed countries. Carol Bellamy, the head of UNICEF, says too many governments are making choices that "hurt childhood." The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported that at least five million children each year die because of hunger and poor nutrition. The F.A.O. says there were eight hundred fifty-two million hungry people in the world between two thousand and two thousand two. That number was up eighteen million from five years before. The F.A.O. says hunger costs developing countries thousands of millions of dollars a year in lost productivity and national earnings. Low wages were a subject for the International Labor Organization. This U.N. agency says half of all workers earn less than two dollars a day. The percentage is lower than in nineteen ninety. Still, the number of people is estimated at a record one thousand four hundred million. Foreign aid might help with jobs. Yet the group Oxfam International reported that the aid budgets of wealthy nations are half what they were in nineteen sixty. Next year, Britain will lead both the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the European Union. The government has promised to make the fight against world poverty one of its main goals. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - The Food and Drug Administration
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 21, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about America’s Food and Drug Administration. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration affects nearly every American every day. The F.D.A. is an agency of the federal government. It is responsible for enforcing the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and several other public health laws. The F.D.A. is responsible the safety of most food products and medicines. It guarantees that medical devices and biological products are safe and effective. It also guarantees the safety of beauty products and the country’s blood supply and beauty products. The F.D.A. supervises feed and drugs given to animals in the United States. It also is responsible for labeling -- the information included with products. All labels describing substances in a product must be truthful. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. has about nine thousand employees. They supervise the manufacture, import, transport, storage and sale of about one million-million dollars worth of products each year. This amount represents one-fourth of all money spent by American citizens each year. The agency makes rules for almost ninety-five thousand businesses in the United States. F.D.A. investigators inspect more than fifteen thousand manufacturing centers and farms each year. The investigators make sure that products are made correctly and labeled truthfully. Often, they will collect products for label inspections or testing by F.D.A. scientists. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration has several choices if a company is found violating any of the laws the agency enforces. F.D.A. officials can urge the company to correct the problem. Or, they can legally remove, or recall, a bad product from the marketplace. About three thousand products are recalled in the United States each year. In addition, F.D.A. investigators will seize products if they appear to be unfit for public use. About thirty thousand shipments of imported goods are seized at American ports every year. VOICE TWO: The federal government has not always been responsible for the quality of food and drugs in the United States. In the nineteenth century, American states were generally responsible for the safety of locally-made food and drugs. Then, Americans began pressuring federal officials to protect resources and set safety rules for the nation. The Bureau of Chemistry was made responsible for the food and drug supply. The chief chemist at the Bureau was Harvey Wiley. For more than twenty years, he called for a federal law to protect the public from unsafe foods. VOICE ONE: Finally, in nineteen-oh-six, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act into law. The measure became known as the Wiley Act. It banned the transport and sale of unclean or falsely labeled foods, drinks and drugs. In nineteen-twenty-seven, the Bureau of Chemistry was made into two separate agencies. One was the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. Later, its name was changed to the Food and Drug Administration. Today, the F.D.A. is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Since the Wiley Act, Congress has passed other laws to help the Food and Drug Administration carry out its work. Yet, it has become harder for the F.D.A. to control medicines within the past few years. One reason is off-label prescriptions. This is when doctors prescribe, or direct, patients to take medicines for unapproved uses. For example, some patients have been given antibiotic drugs to treat viruses, or anti-depression medicines for pain. It is not uncommon for a drug to effectively treat more than one sickness. Yet, the F.D.A. usually approves drugs to treat only one disorder. VOICE ONE: Recently, Knight Ridder newspapers investigated the issue of off-label drug prescriptions in the United States. It found that the number of off-label prescriptions increased nearly one hundred percent in five years. Off-label prescriptions are legal. Yet, the investigation estimated that at least eight thousand Americans became very sick after taking drugs for unapproved uses. Some officials blame drug manufacturers for the rise in off-label prescriptions. Sales people representing drug makers give free supplies of their products to doctors. In turn, the doctors give them to patients without knowing all the effects the drugs will have. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. does not test drugs before approving them for public use. Instead, it depends on drug manufacturers to prove the safety of their medicines. The manufacturers often negotiate with medical schools or private research groups to carry out tests. Drug companies reportedly pay millions of dollars to researchers for their results. The companies argue that they own the information because they paid for the tests. Yet, drug makers often are accused of only reporting findings that make their medicines look good. That means the public may never know about tests that find a drug useless or even dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The drug industry gives the Food and Drug Administration millions of dollars every year to speed the approval of medicines. Congress reached this agreement in the nineteen-nineties. Yet, critics say this situation makes it difficult for the F.D.A. to effectively supervise the drug industry. Doctor Richard Graham is a drug safety expert with the agency. Last month, he told a Senate committee that the F.D.A. poorly supervised the approval of the pain medicine Vioxx. Drug maker Merck withdrew Vioxx in September after a study showed that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Doctor Graham said his agency denied evidence Vioxx was unsafe. He also said the F.D.A. is unwilling to admit possible safety problems with drugs that it has already approved. VOICE TWO: Some members of Congress are calling for an independent federal agency to supervise drug safety after F.D.A. approval. The American Medical Association supports the idea. The group represents doctors in the United States. Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that drug maker Bayer knew one of its medicines could cause a muscle disorder. Bayer withdrew the drug, Baycol, in two-thousand-one. But the report said the company knew about the problem three years earlier. VOICE ONE: American lawmakers are considering measures that would require drug companies to publicly list their tests. The companies also could be required to release their findings on the Internet. Such possible measures led the drug industry to develop a plan of its own. A trade group says it will develop a method for its members to list their test results if they choose. However, some manufacturers oppose sharing details of their experiments because competitors could learn trade secrets. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. also faces problems controlling drugs from other countries. A new government report says more than forty percent of all Americans use at least one prescription drug. Sixteen percent are taking at least three. The cost of prescription drugs is rising fast. A growing number of state governments have launched programs to help Americans buy low-cost drugs from Canada and Europe. The states argue that American drug prices are unfair and harmful to state-assisted healthcare programs. VOICE ONE: The F.D.A. says it cannot guarantee the safety of medicines from foreign markets. It argues that some imported drugs may be not safe or effective. The Bush administration and American drug companies also oppose foreign imports. But, the American Medical Association supports the idea of imported drugs if the federal government can guarantee the safety of the medicines. Some lawmakers support price controls on prescription drugs. Others believe such controls would affect company profits needed for the development of new medicines. These are just some of the issues facing the Food and Drug Administration. This influential agency is expected to deal with these and many other concerns in the months to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. Our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. Broadcast: December 21, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we tell about America’s Food and Drug Administration. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration affects nearly every American every day. The F.D.A. is an agency of the federal government. It is responsible for enforcing the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and several other public health laws. The F.D.A. is responsible the safety of most food products and medicines. It guarantees that medical devices and biological products are safe and effective. It also guarantees the safety of beauty products and the country’s blood supply and beauty products. The F.D.A. supervises feed and drugs given to animals in the United States. It also is responsible for labeling -- the information included with products. All labels describing substances in a product must be truthful. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. has about nine thousand employees. They supervise the manufacture, import, transport, storage and sale of about one million-million dollars worth of products each year. This amount represents one-fourth of all money spent by American citizens each year. The agency makes rules for almost ninety-five thousand businesses in the United States. F.D.A. investigators inspect more than fifteen thousand manufacturing centers and farms each year. The investigators make sure that products are made correctly and labeled truthfully. Often, they will collect products for label inspections or testing by F.D.A. scientists. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration has several choices if a company is found violating any of the laws the agency enforces. F.D.A. officials can urge the company to correct the problem. Or, they can legally remove, or recall, a bad product from the marketplace. About three thousand products are recalled in the United States each year. In addition, F.D.A. investigators will seize products if they appear to be unfit for public use. About thirty thousand shipments of imported goods are seized at American ports every year. VOICE TWO: The federal government has not always been responsible for the quality of food and drugs in the United States. In the nineteenth century, American states were generally responsible for the safety of locally-made food and drugs. Then, Americans began pressuring federal officials to protect resources and set safety rules for the nation. The Bureau of Chemistry was made responsible for the food and drug supply. The chief chemist at the Bureau was Harvey Wiley. For more than twenty years, he called for a federal law to protect the public from unsafe foods. VOICE ONE: Finally, in nineteen-oh-six, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act into law. The measure became known as the Wiley Act. It banned the transport and sale of unclean or falsely labeled foods, drinks and drugs. In nineteen-twenty-seven, the Bureau of Chemistry was made into two separate agencies. One was the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. Later, its name was changed to the Food and Drug Administration. Today, the F.D.A. is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Since the Wiley Act, Congress has passed other laws to help the Food and Drug Administration carry out its work. Yet, it has become harder for the F.D.A. to control medicines within the past few years. One reason is off-label prescriptions. This is when doctors prescribe, or direct, patients to take medicines for unapproved uses. For example, some patients have been given antibiotic drugs to treat viruses, or anti-depression medicines for pain. It is not uncommon for a drug to effectively treat more than one sickness. Yet, the F.D.A. usually approves drugs to treat only one disorder. VOICE ONE: Recently, Knight Ridder newspapers investigated the issue of off-label drug prescriptions in the United States. It found that the number of off-label prescriptions increased nearly one hundred percent in five years. Off-label prescriptions are legal. Yet, the investigation estimated that at least eight thousand Americans became very sick after taking drugs for unapproved uses. Some officials blame drug manufacturers for the rise in off-label prescriptions. Sales people representing drug makers give free supplies of their products to doctors. In turn, the doctors give them to patients without knowing all the effects the drugs will have. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. does not test drugs before approving them for public use. Instead, it depends on drug manufacturers to prove the safety of their medicines. The manufacturers often negotiate with medical schools or private research groups to carry out tests. Drug companies reportedly pay millions of dollars to researchers for their results. The companies argue that they own the information because they paid for the tests. Yet, drug makers often are accused of only reporting findings that make their medicines look good. That means the public may never know about tests that find a drug useless or even dangerous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The drug industry gives the Food and Drug Administration millions of dollars every year to speed the approval of medicines. Congress reached this agreement in the nineteen-nineties. Yet, critics say this situation makes it difficult for the F.D.A. to effectively supervise the drug industry. Doctor Richard Graham is a drug safety expert with the agency. Last month, he told a Senate committee that the F.D.A. poorly supervised the approval of the pain medicine Vioxx. Drug maker Merck withdrew Vioxx in September after a study showed that the drug increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Doctor Graham said his agency denied evidence Vioxx was unsafe. He also said the F.D.A. is unwilling to admit possible safety problems with drugs that it has already approved. VOICE TWO: Some members of Congress are calling for an independent federal agency to supervise drug safety after F.D.A. approval. The American Medical Association supports the idea. The group represents doctors in the United States. Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that drug maker Bayer knew one of its medicines could cause a muscle disorder. Bayer withdrew the drug, Baycol, in two-thousand-one. But the report said the company knew about the problem three years earlier. VOICE ONE: American lawmakers are considering measures that would require drug companies to publicly list their tests. The companies also could be required to release their findings on the Internet. Such possible measures led the drug industry to develop a plan of its own. A trade group says it will develop a method for its members to list their test results if they choose. However, some manufacturers oppose sharing details of their experiments because competitors could learn trade secrets. VOICE TWO: The F.D.A. also faces problems controlling drugs from other countries. A new government report says more than forty percent of all Americans use at least one prescription drug. Sixteen percent are taking at least three. The cost of prescription drugs is rising fast. A growing number of state governments have launched programs to help Americans buy low-cost drugs from Canada and Europe. The states argue that American drug prices are unfair and harmful to state-assisted healthcare programs. VOICE ONE: The F.D.A. says it cannot guarantee the safety of medicines from foreign markets. It argues that some imported drugs may be not safe or effective. The Bush administration and American drug companies also oppose foreign imports. But, the American Medical Association supports the idea of imported drugs if the federal government can guarantee the safety of the medicines. Some lawmakers support price controls on prescription drugs. Others believe such controls would affect company profits needed for the development of new medicines. These are just some of the issues facing the Food and Drug Administration. This influential agency is expected to deal with these and many other concerns in the months to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jill Moss. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. Our engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for Science in the News in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Simple Mousetrap
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 21, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Today we tell about a way to kill mice without spending a lot of money. It is a simple but effective kind of mousetrap. An agriculture expert in West Africa once wrote about a method used by some local farmers. This expert in Mali said his gardener set four traps with this method -- and caught one hundred fifty mice in just one night. The report appeared in a newsletter from Educational Concerns for Hunger Development, or ECHO, an organization in the United States. The trap is easy to make. You need a twenty liter container that is empty and uncovered. You can use a plastic or metal bucket. Dig a hole in the ground and place the container inside. The top should be level with the surface of the ground. Fill the container with water to within eight centimeters of the top. Add small pieces of grain wastes. These should float on the water. Also put some wastes on the ground near the trap. During the night, mice will come out to eat the grain wastes. They will fall into the trap. If you do not have a container, dig a hole about forty centimeters wide and thirty centimeters deep. Spread hard clay or concrete on the walls of the hole. This will prevent the water from leaking away. If you do not have enough grain to float on the water, you can try another way. Stretch two pieces of cloth over the top of the container or the hole in the ground. Leave a small opening where the pieces of cloth meet. Put a little grain on the cloth. When mice walk onto the cloth to eat, they will slide through the opening and drown in the water. At one time or another, most farmers have problems with mice. This is especially true of grain farmers. Mice eat a lot of grain. They also carry diseases. People can get sick from eating or touching grain that mice have gotten into. There are other ways that farmers can deal with these problems. One way is to use grain storage buildings specially designed to keep mice out. Another way is to use poisons to kill the mice. However, both of these methods can be costly. Farmers must buy the materials to build the grain storage buildings. Or they must buy the chemical poisons to kill the mice. But these poisons can also be dangerous to other living things -- including the farmers who use them. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Wireless Internet Connection
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 22, 2004 (MUSIC) George Antheil Broadcast: December 22, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. The Internet computer communications system permits anyone with a computer to search for information almost anywhere in the world. This method of communication began with computers linked to telephones. Now, computers can link to the Internet without telephones. Today we tell about “Wireless Fidelity” or the Wi-Fi method of communicating with the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our report begins during World War Two in nineteen forty-two. It involves a famous and beautiful movie actress, Hedy Lamarr, and a music composer, George Antheil. They invented a method of quickly changing radio frequencies. Radio frequencies that are quickly changed cannot be intercepted or blocked by the enemy. Mizz Lamarr and Mister Antheil believed this method of communication would make it harder for the enemy to detect radio-guided underwater weapons used to sink enemy ships. They gave the idea to the United States Navy. Navy officials believed the idea was important and guarded it as a national secret. But they never used the invention because it would have been very difficult to develop. However, the United States government gave Mizz Lamarr and Mister Antheil legal protection for their idea. This idea later became known as “spread spectrum technology.” It remained a secret until nineteen eighty-five. In the last several years, this old idea has become the most modern method of communication involving computers and telephones. It is called Wireless Fidelity, or Wi-Fi. VOICE TWO: Wi-Fi is a method of communication between computers without the use of wires. This is how it works. One computer has a very small, low-power radio transmitter and receiver device. It communicates with a device called a router that is attached to a second computer. The second computer is linked to the Internet in the traditional way by telephone. The router sends and receives signals to and from both computers. The first computer must be within several meters of the router for the system to work. Routers can be placed almost anywhere. Usually, a network of routers covers a large area. As a result, a person with a small laptop computer can use the machine to link with the Internet at any place that has a router. Wi-Fi still uses Mizz Lamarr’s and Mister Antheil’s idea. It uses several frequencies at the same time. This prevents interference and produces a clear radio signal. Experts say Wi-Fi is the fastest growing part of the computer industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the very recent past, if you wanted to connect with the Internet computer system, you had to link with a telephone. It is now possible to link with the Internet in almost any place that has Wi-Fi equipment. Wi-Fi connections can be found in most major airports in the United States. People traveling through airports on business trips can use their computers while waiting for their flights. They can use this link to send and receive business information. This service is free in most American airports. All the person has to do is turn on his or her laptop computer and have the computer search for the Wi-Fi link. Most modern laptop computers search for the nearest Wi-Fi link as soon as they are turned on. The computer produces a message telling the owner if it has found a Wi-Fi link and how strong the signal is. VOICE TWO: Several major hotel companies around the world now have Wi-Fi links. These links are found in hotel rooms or a special area of the hotel. The hotels provide this as a service to guests who are staying at the hotel. They might provide guests with a special number for their computer to use the Wi-Fi link. Other hotels provide a good, strong link that can be used by anyone who has a laptop that can communicate with the router signal. Industry experts say thousands of hotels, motels, and businesses around the United States are providing Wi-Fi connections. This is very important for people who travel a great deal on business. In fact, many major cities around the world are already providing the service. Most cities are planning to make a huge Wi-Fi link that will let people use their laptop computers almost anywhere in the city. Many cities already have Wi-Fi or will in the near future. They include the American cities of San Francisco, California; Saint Louis, Missouri and Washington, D.C. They also include, London, England; Brussels, Belgium; Paris, France; Taipei, Taiwan and Pune, India. The list of cities planning to provide Wi-Fi is very long. VOICE ONE: Wi-Fi links are usually free in public places. Many cities and towns provide Wi-Fi in their public libraries. Some coffee houses and eating places in the United States also provide free Wi-Fi service. However, if you are using the service you are usually expected to buy food or a cup of coffee. A modern laptop computer should connect to a Wi-Fi signal very quickly. However, if the person using the laptop has problems with the signal, most businesses that provide the service will help connect to the link. Many businesses will provide written information that tells how to connect with their link. Business owners have learned that a Wi-Fi service brings people into the business. And, if the Wi-Fi link is good, they may stay longer and spend more money while they work. An example is a hotel company that provides a good link for business travelers. This would make all the company’s hotels more popular with business travelers. VOICE TWO: Wi-Fi is becoming extremely popular in the United States. Industry experts say that more than sixty-four million Wi-Fi systems are expected to be sold this year. This is an increase from twenty-four million in two thousand two. More than eight and one half million American homes have Wi-Fi equipment. Experts say this is expected to increase to twenty-eight million homes in two thousand eight. Wi-Fi systems are not costly and easy to link with a home computer. Laptop computers with Wi-Fi equipment can then be used in almost any room in the house. This also makes it possible for more than one person in the family to use the home computer system at the same time. For example, a mother can use the home computer in her office while a child uses a laptop to do his schoolwork in his room. VOICE ONE: Industry studies show that seventy-seven percent of home Wi-Fi users also want to connect other devices to their computer. These include devices for copying music. Experts say Wi-Fi technology is also changing the way and the amount of time people use computers and the Internet. For example, many people use their Wi-Fi connected laptops to pay bills when they are in their home office. They look for cooking instructions on the Internet when they are in the kitchen. Or they watch a movie on their computer late at night in the living room. The experts say the future will include much more use of Wi-Fi technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Computer industry experts warn that Wi-Fi users should be very careful when using this exciting technology. They say users should not send important or secret business information without good security. The industry experts say many public places that provide Wi-Fi links do not provide information security. They say anyone can copy everything you send or receive if the computer does not have a security system. Many places leave security technology turned off to make it easier for people to find and use the Wi-Fi link. The experts say important information should never been sent or received in a public Wi-Fi link without good computer security. VOICE ONE: Industry experts say Wi-Fi has increased sales of laptop computers. Laptops that can link with Wi-Fi are now more than thirty percent of the sales of new computers in the United States. And, Wi-Fi equipment is selling well because it can be placed in older computers and is low in cost. Computer experts say Wi-Fi technology will continue to grow as the industry improves this method of communication. They say that the laptop computer linked to Wi-Fi will truly make the Internet part of daily life in the very near future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. The Internet computer communications system permits anyone with a computer to search for information almost anywhere in the world. This method of communication began with computers linked to telephones. Now, computers can link to the Internet without telephones. Today we tell about “Wireless Fidelity” or the Wi-Fi method of communicating with the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our report begins during World War Two in nineteen forty-two. It involves a famous and beautiful movie actress, Hedy Lamarr, and a music composer, George Antheil. They invented a method of quickly changing radio frequencies. Radio frequencies that are quickly changed cannot be intercepted or blocked by the enemy. Mizz Lamarr and Mister Antheil believed this method of communication would make it harder for the enemy to detect radio-guided underwater weapons used to sink enemy ships. They gave the idea to the United States Navy. Navy officials believed the idea was important and guarded it as a national secret. But they never used the invention because it would have been very difficult to develop. However, the United States government gave Mizz Lamarr and Mister Antheil legal protection for their idea. This idea later became known as “spread spectrum technology.” It remained a secret until nineteen eighty-five. In the last several years, this old idea has become the most modern method of communication involving computers and telephones. It is called Wireless Fidelity, or Wi-Fi. VOICE TWO: Wi-Fi is a method of communication between computers without the use of wires. This is how it works. One computer has a very small, low-power radio transmitter and receiver device. It communicates with a device called a router that is attached to a second computer. The second computer is linked to the Internet in the traditional way by telephone. The router sends and receives signals to and from both computers. The first computer must be within several meters of the router for the system to work. Routers can be placed almost anywhere. Usually, a network of routers covers a large area. As a result, a person with a small laptop computer can use the machine to link with the Internet at any place that has a router. Wi-Fi still uses Mizz Lamarr’s and Mister Antheil’s idea. It uses several frequencies at the same time. This prevents interference and produces a clear radio signal. Experts say Wi-Fi is the fastest growing part of the computer industry. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the very recent past, if you wanted to connect with the Internet computer system, you had to link with a telephone. It is now possible to link with the Internet in almost any place that has Wi-Fi equipment. Wi-Fi connections can be found in most major airports in the United States. People traveling through airports on business trips can use their computers while waiting for their flights. They can use this link to send and receive business information. This service is free in most American airports. All the person has to do is turn on his or her laptop computer and have the computer search for the Wi-Fi link. Most modern laptop computers search for the nearest Wi-Fi link as soon as they are turned on. The computer produces a message telling the owner if it has found a Wi-Fi link and how strong the signal is. VOICE TWO: Several major hotel companies around the world now have Wi-Fi links. These links are found in hotel rooms or a special area of the hotel. The hotels provide this as a service to guests who are staying at the hotel. They might provide guests with a special number for their computer to use the Wi-Fi link. Other hotels provide a good, strong link that can be used by anyone who has a laptop that can communicate with the router signal. Industry experts say thousands of hotels, motels, and businesses around the United States are providing Wi-Fi connections. This is very important for people who travel a great deal on business. In fact, many major cities around the world are already providing the service. Most cities are planning to make a huge Wi-Fi link that will let people use their laptop computers almost anywhere in the city. Many cities already have Wi-Fi or will in the near future. They include the American cities of San Francisco, California; Saint Louis, Missouri and Washington, D.C. They also include, London, England; Brussels, Belgium; Paris, France; Taipei, Taiwan and Pune, India. The list of cities planning to provide Wi-Fi is very long. VOICE ONE: Wi-Fi links are usually free in public places. Many cities and towns provide Wi-Fi in their public libraries. Some coffee houses and eating places in the United States also provide free Wi-Fi service. However, if you are using the service you are usually expected to buy food or a cup of coffee. A modern laptop computer should connect to a Wi-Fi signal very quickly. However, if the person using the laptop has problems with the signal, most businesses that provide the service will help connect to the link. Many businesses will provide written information that tells how to connect with their link. Business owners have learned that a Wi-Fi service brings people into the business. And, if the Wi-Fi link is good, they may stay longer and spend more money while they work. An example is a hotel company that provides a good link for business travelers. This would make all the company’s hotels more popular with business travelers. VOICE TWO: Wi-Fi is becoming extremely popular in the United States. Industry experts say that more than sixty-four million Wi-Fi systems are expected to be sold this year. This is an increase from twenty-four million in two thousand two. More than eight and one half million American homes have Wi-Fi equipment. Experts say this is expected to increase to twenty-eight million homes in two thousand eight. Wi-Fi systems are not costly and easy to link with a home computer. Laptop computers with Wi-Fi equipment can then be used in almost any room in the house. This also makes it possible for more than one person in the family to use the home computer system at the same time. For example, a mother can use the home computer in her office while a child uses a laptop to do his schoolwork in his room. VOICE ONE: Industry studies show that seventy-seven percent of home Wi-Fi users also want to connect other devices to their computer. These include devices for copying music. Experts say Wi-Fi technology is also changing the way and the amount of time people use computers and the Internet. For example, many people use their Wi-Fi connected laptops to pay bills when they are in their home office. They look for cooking instructions on the Internet when they are in the kitchen. Or they watch a movie on their computer late at night in the living room. The experts say the future will include much more use of Wi-Fi technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Computer industry experts warn that Wi-Fi users should be very careful when using this exciting technology. They say users should not send important or secret business information without good security. The industry experts say many public places that provide Wi-Fi links do not provide information security. They say anyone can copy everything you send or receive if the computer does not have a security system. Many places leave security technology turned off to make it easier for people to find and use the Wi-Fi link. The experts say important information should never been sent or received in a public Wi-Fi link without good computer security. VOICE ONE: Industry experts say Wi-Fi has increased sales of laptop computers. Laptops that can link with Wi-Fi are now more than thirty percent of the sales of new computers in the United States. And, Wi-Fi equipment is selling well because it can be placed in older computers and is low in cost. Computer experts say Wi-Fi technology will continue to grow as the industry improves this method of communication. They say that the laptop computer linked to Wi-Fi will truly make the Internet part of daily life in the very near future. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – Safety Questions About Drugs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 22, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. Several pain medicines in the United States have been linked to an increase in heart attacks and strokes. Pfizer Drug Company says a new study shows that high levels of Celebrex increase the risk of heart attack. Celebrex is a popular pain medicine for people who suffer from the bone disease arthritis. The company says it will continue to sell Celebrex. But, it will halt all media advertisements about the drug. The company also says it will continue to market Celebrex directly to doctors. Sales people from drug companies often give free supplies of medicines to doctors. Doctors often give them to their patients. A recent study has also raised safety questions about the pain medicine naproxen, sold as Aleve. A study by the National Institutes of Health says the drug can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The Bayer Group drug company makes Aleve. People can buy the drug in stores without an order or prescription from their doctor. Patients can also take a prescription form of the drug. The United States Food and Drug Administration says it is too early to say what action might be taken on Celebrex and Aleve. The agency can legally remove, or recall, a harmful product from the marketplace. Or a drug company can withdraw a product. This happened in September when Merck and Company stopped selling its popular arthritis pain medicine called Vioxx. A study by Merck showed that heart attacks were almost two times as common among Vioxx users as among those who did not take the drug. The recall of Vioxx has led to criticism about the F.D.A. Richard Graham is a drug safety expert with the agency. Last month, he told a Senate committee that the F.D.A. poorly supervised the approval of Vioxx. Doctor Graham said his agency denied evidence that Vioxx was unsafe. He also said the F.D.A. is unwilling to admit possible safety problems with drugs that it has already approved. Safety concerns about Vioxx, Celebrex and Aleve may lead doctors to consider another form of pain treatment. Two new studies show that traditional Chinese acupuncture eased the suffering of people with pain in their knees caused by arthritis. Acupuncture involves placing thin needles in the skin at special parts of the body. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-21-5-1.cfm
* Headline: December 22, 2004 - Lida Baker: Five New Year's Resolutions for English Learners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker suggests five resolutions for people who want to improve their English in the New Year. LIDA BAKER: "My first resolution that I would recommend people make is to spend a certain amount of time listening to English -- and it can be five minutes a day or it can be 10 minutes a week or it can be whatever suits a person's work schedule, life schedule or whatever. But it's really important to set goals and to stick to them. And it would be very helpful if people had Internet access to do this, because what I'm going to recommend is listening to sites that have scripts included. " RS: "What do you do if you don't have access to a computer, how can you listen better? LIDA BAKER: "Well, almost everyone all over the world has access to pop music. And one of my resolutions would be to spend time listening to English music. The advantage of listening to music is that it's a really wonderful way to work on your pronunciation, because you get a feeling for the stress and the rhythm of the language when you're singing. And also music is full of idioms, so it's a terrific way to learn colloquial vocabulary and to work on your pronunciation. And a third advantage of listening to music is that it's really easy to remember. "So for people who have access only to a radio, even they can do something to improve their English just by listening to pop music. And I might add, if you do have access to the Internet, there are lots of Internet sites that will give you the lyrics to pop songs. Do a search, type 'music' or 'songs' plus 'lyrics,' and you'll find sites where you can type in the name of the song and it will give you the lyrics to the song. RS: "So spend a little bit more time listening, or have a goal for listening. Listen to English music. What else?" LIDA BAKER: "Something else I tell my students, and they're always surprised when I tell them this, is read children's books." AA: "That makes sense, though." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. Why do you say that?" RS: "Well, few words." AA: "It's simpler." RS: "Direct, simple. Lots of pictures." LIDA BAKER: "There you go." RS: "That puts it in a context." LIDA BAKER: "There you go. And the other thing is, you can find children's books at all levels. If you were a total beginner in English, you start with books that have just a few words on the page and lots of pictures, and you can work your way up to books that have relatively speaking more text and fewer illustrations. But again, children's books are very motivating. To this day I enjoy reading the books that I read to my daughter when she was a little girl." AA: "So now we've got the listening to the radio, listening to music, going online and looking for scripts of programs to go with the audio, reading children's books. What's your next resolution?" LIDA BAKER: "Learn a new word every day. And if you don't have time to do it every day, do it every other day. Again, pick a realistic goal. Choose your word, look up the meaning, but then don't stop there. Look at the examples in the dictionary for how the word is used. Is it used as a noun? Is it a verb? Is it used to talk about people? If it's an adjective, does it have a positive meaning or a negative meaning? So look for what's called the connotation of the word. And then, when you're sitting in your car, or you're walking to the bus stop or sitting on the bus, practice. Put the word into your own sentences. Think of ways that you could use that word. "And so now we come to our last resolution, which in a way is the most difficult one, because my last resolution would be, even if it's only very occasionally, talk to native speakers every chance you get." AA: Lida Baker from the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, with five New Year's resolutions that people can make to improve their English. RS: Before we go, as we come to the end of another year, we note the passing of Mary Newton Bruder, the linguist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known as The Grammar Lady. She dedicated her life to helping people improve their grammar. We are grateful for her contributions to Wordmaster. Mary Newton Bruder died in August at the age of sixty-four. RS: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And Internet users can read and listen to all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: Wishing you all the best this holiday season, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast: December 22, 2004 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: English teacher Lida Baker suggests five resolutions for people who want to improve their English in the New Year. LIDA BAKER: "My first resolution that I would recommend people make is to spend a certain amount of time listening to English -- and it can be five minutes a day or it can be 10 minutes a week or it can be whatever suits a person's work schedule, life schedule or whatever. But it's really important to set goals and to stick to them. And it would be very helpful if people had Internet access to do this, because what I'm going to recommend is listening to sites that have scripts included. " RS: "What do you do if you don't have access to a computer, how can you listen better? LIDA BAKER: "Well, almost everyone all over the world has access to pop music. And one of my resolutions would be to spend time listening to English music. The advantage of listening to music is that it's a really wonderful way to work on your pronunciation, because you get a feeling for the stress and the rhythm of the language when you're singing. And also music is full of idioms, so it's a terrific way to learn colloquial vocabulary and to work on your pronunciation. And a third advantage of listening to music is that it's really easy to remember. "So for people who have access only to a radio, even they can do something to improve their English just by listening to pop music. And I might add, if you do have access to the Internet, there are lots of Internet sites that will give you the lyrics to pop songs. Do a search, type 'music' or 'songs' plus 'lyrics,' and you'll find sites where you can type in the name of the song and it will give you the lyrics to the song. RS: "So spend a little bit more time listening, or have a goal for listening. Listen to English music. What else?" LIDA BAKER: "Something else I tell my students, and they're always surprised when I tell them this, is read children's books." AA: "That makes sense, though." LIDA BAKER: "Yeah. Why do you say that?" RS: "Well, few words." AA: "It's simpler." RS: "Direct, simple. Lots of pictures." LIDA BAKER: "There you go." RS: "That puts it in a context." LIDA BAKER: "There you go. And the other thing is, you can find children's books at all levels. If you were a total beginner in English, you start with books that have just a few words on the page and lots of pictures, and you can work your way up to books that have relatively speaking more text and fewer illustrations. But again, children's books are very motivating. To this day I enjoy reading the books that I read to my daughter when she was a little girl." AA: "So now we've got the listening to the radio, listening to music, going online and looking for scripts of programs to go with the audio, reading children's books. What's your next resolution?" LIDA BAKER: "Learn a new word every day. And if you don't have time to do it every day, do it every other day. Again, pick a realistic goal. Choose your word, look up the meaning, but then don't stop there. Look at the examples in the dictionary for how the word is used. Is it used as a noun? Is it a verb? Is it used to talk about people? If it's an adjective, does it have a positive meaning or a negative meaning? So look for what's called the connotation of the word. And then, when you're sitting in your car, or you're walking to the bus stop or sitting on the bus, practice. Put the word into your own sentences. Think of ways that you could use that word. "And so now we come to our last resolution, which in a way is the most difficult one, because my last resolution would be, even if it's only very occasionally, talk to native speakers every chance you get." AA: Lida Baker from the American Language Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, with five New Year's resolutions that people can make to improve their English. RS: Before we go, as we come to the end of another year, we note the passing of Mary Newton Bruder, the linguist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known as The Grammar Lady. She dedicated her life to helping people improve their grammar. We are grateful for her contributions to Wordmaster. Mary Newton Bruder died in August at the age of sixty-four. RS: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And Internet users can read and listen to all of our segments at voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: Wishing you all the best this holiday season, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #94 - Secession, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 23, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: December 23, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election held in November, eighteen-sixty. When he took office several months later, he faced the most serious crisis in American history. For the southern states had finally acted on their earlier threats. They had begun to leave the Union over the issue of slavery. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell about this critical time in the United States. VOICE TWO: The southern states did not want Abraham Lincoln to win the election of eighteen-sixty. Lincoln was a Republican. And the Republican Party opposed slavery. Lincoln never said he wanted to end slavery in the south. He did not believe anyone had the right to do so. Yet he did not want to see slavery spread to other parts of the United States. Lincoln told southerners: "You think slavery is right and should be extended. While we think it is wrong and should be limited. That, I suppose, is the trouble. It surely is the only important difference between us." VOICE ONE: Pro-slavery extremists felt this difference was enough. And they were sure Lincoln and his Republicans would soon win control of Congress and the Supreme Court. Before long, they thought, the Constitution would be changed. Slavery would become illegal everywhere. Even if this did not happen, southerners were worried. Unless slavery could spread, they said, the slave population in the south would become too large. In time, blacks and whites would battle for control. One or the other would be destroyed. So even before the presidential election, southerners began discussing what they would do if Abraham Lincoln won. VOICE TWO: Early in October, the governor of South Carolina, William Gist, wrote letters to the governors of other southern states. He said they should agree on what action to take if Lincoln became president. Gist said South Carolina would call a state convention as soon as the election results were made official. If any state decided to leave the Union, he said, South Carolina would follow. If no other state decided to leave, then South Carolina would secede by itself. Governor Gist received mixed answers. Two states -- Alabama and Mississippi -- said they would not secede alone. But they said they would join others that made this decision. Two more states -- Louisiana and Georgia -- said they would not secede unless the north acted against them. And one state -- North Carolina -- said it had not yet decided what to do. No southern governor, except William Gist of South Carolina, seemed willing to lead the south out of the Union. VOICE ONE: Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November sixth, eighteen-sixty. South Carolina exploded with excitement at the news. To many of the people there, Lincoln's victory was a signal that ended the state's ties to the Union. To them, it was the beginning of southern independence. Both United States Senators from South Carolina resigned. So did a federal judge and the collector of federal taxes. United States flags were lowered. State flags were raised in their place. The state legislature agreed to open a convention on December seventeenth. The convention would make the final decision on leaving the Union. Several other southern states did the same. VOICE TWO: This idea of leaving the Union -- secession -- split north and south just as much as slavery. Southerners claimed they had the right to secede peacefully. Northerners disagreed. They said secession was treason. They said it would lead to civil war. In the months before Lincoln's inauguration, President James Buchanan tried to deal with the situation. First he proposed a convention of all the states. The purpose of the convention would be to work out differences between north and south. The southern members of Buchanan's cabinet rejected this idea. The second proposal was a strong policy statement on secession. The statement would include an opinion by the attorney general. It said the government could use force, if necessary, to keep states in the Union. The southern cabinet members rejected this idea, too. VOICE ONE: President Buchanan had to settle for a moderate policy statement on secession. It said the president could send troops into a state to help federal marshals enforce the rulings of federal courts. But if federal judges resigned, there would be no federal court rulings to enforce. Therefore, to send troops to a state where federal officers had resigned -- such as South Carolina -- would be an act of war against the state. And only Congress had the constitutional power to declare war. Buchanan accepted this statement. He was only too happy to let Congress decide what to do. VOICE TWO: There was little chance that Congress could do anything. Congressmen from both north and south already had made decisions that could not, and would not, be changed easily. Most of the congressmen from states in the deep south supported secession. They did not want to remain in the Union. Many congressmen from states in the north had been elected because they promised to keep slavery from spreading to the western territories. They did not plan to break their promises. A few lawmakers hoped President Buchanan, in his yearly message to Congress, might propose a compromise. VOICE ONE: Buchanan began by denouncing northern Abolitionists. He said they were responsible for the present problem. Their interference, he said, had created a great fear of slave rebellions in the south. Then Buchanan called on the south to accept the election of Abraham Lincoln. He said the election of a citizen to the office of president should not be a reason for dissolving the Union. Buchanan declared that the constitution gave no state the right to leave. But, he admitted, if a state did secede, there was little the federal government could do. "The fact is," Buchanan said, "that our Union rests upon public opinion. It can never be held together by the blood of its citizens in civil war. If it cannot live in the hearts of its people, then it must one day die." VOICE TWO: Buchanan proposed to Congress that it offer a constitutional amendment on the question of slavery. He said the amendment should recognize the right to own slaves as property in states where slavery was permitted. It should protect this right in all territories until the territories became states. And it should end all state laws that interfered with the return of escaped slaves to their owners. No one liked President Buchanan's message to Congress. Northerners did not like his declaration of federal weakness in the face of secession. Southerners did not like his declaration that secession was unconstitutional. The message did nothing to change the situation. Soon after it was read to Congress, South Carolina opened its secession convention. VOICE ONE: Delegates to the convention would make the final decision if South Carolina would remain in the Union or secede. There was little question how they would vote. A committee wrote a secession resolution. The resolution said simply that the people of South Carolina were ending the agreement of seventeen-eighty-eight in which the state had approved the constitution of the United States. It said the Union existing between South Carolina and the United States of America was being dissolved. The committee offered the resolution to the convention on December twentieth, eighteen-sixty. There was no debate. The delegates voted immediately. No one voted against it. VOICE TWO: South Carolina had seceded. But what must it do now. There was the problem of property in South Carolina owned by the federal government. The convention continued to meet to work out details of South Carolina's new position in the world. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election held in November, eighteen-sixty. When he took office several months later, he faced the most serious crisis in American history. For the southern states had finally acted on their earlier threats. They had begun to leave the Union over the issue of slavery. I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell about this critical time in the United States. VOICE TWO: The southern states did not want Abraham Lincoln to win the election of eighteen-sixty. Lincoln was a Republican. And the Republican Party opposed slavery. Lincoln never said he wanted to end slavery in the south. He did not believe anyone had the right to do so. Yet he did not want to see slavery spread to other parts of the United States. Lincoln told southerners: "You think slavery is right and should be extended. While we think it is wrong and should be limited. That, I suppose, is the trouble. It surely is the only important difference between us." VOICE ONE: Pro-slavery extremists felt this difference was enough. And they were sure Lincoln and his Republicans would soon win control of Congress and the Supreme Court. Before long, they thought, the Constitution would be changed. Slavery would become illegal everywhere. Even if this did not happen, southerners were worried. Unless slavery could spread, they said, the slave population in the south would become too large. In time, blacks and whites would battle for control. One or the other would be destroyed. So even before the presidential election, southerners began discussing what they would do if Abraham Lincoln won. VOICE TWO: Early in October, the governor of South Carolina, William Gist, wrote letters to the governors of other southern states. He said they should agree on what action to take if Lincoln became president. Gist said South Carolina would call a state convention as soon as the election results were made official. If any state decided to leave the Union, he said, South Carolina would follow. If no other state decided to leave, then South Carolina would secede by itself. Governor Gist received mixed answers. Two states -- Alabama and Mississippi -- said they would not secede alone. But they said they would join others that made this decision. Two more states -- Louisiana and Georgia -- said they would not secede unless the north acted against them. And one state -- North Carolina -- said it had not yet decided what to do. No southern governor, except William Gist of South Carolina, seemed willing to lead the south out of the Union. VOICE ONE: Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November sixth, eighteen-sixty. South Carolina exploded with excitement at the news. To many of the people there, Lincoln's victory was a signal that ended the state's ties to the Union. To them, it was the beginning of southern independence. Both United States Senators from South Carolina resigned. So did a federal judge and the collector of federal taxes. United States flags were lowered. State flags were raised in their place. The state legislature agreed to open a convention on December seventeenth. The convention would make the final decision on leaving the Union. Several other southern states did the same. VOICE TWO: This idea of leaving the Union -- secession -- split north and south just as much as slavery. Southerners claimed they had the right to secede peacefully. Northerners disagreed. They said secession was treason. They said it would lead to civil war. In the months before Lincoln's inauguration, President James Buchanan tried to deal with the situation. First he proposed a convention of all the states. The purpose of the convention would be to work out differences between north and south. The southern members of Buchanan's cabinet rejected this idea. The second proposal was a strong policy statement on secession. The statement would include an opinion by the attorney general. It said the government could use force, if necessary, to keep states in the Union. The southern cabinet members rejected this idea, too. VOICE ONE: President Buchanan had to settle for a moderate policy statement on secession. It said the president could send troops into a state to help federal marshals enforce the rulings of federal courts. But if federal judges resigned, there would be no federal court rulings to enforce. Therefore, to send troops to a state where federal officers had resigned -- such as South Carolina -- would be an act of war against the state. And only Congress had the constitutional power to declare war. Buchanan accepted this statement. He was only too happy to let Congress decide what to do. VOICE TWO: There was little chance that Congress could do anything. Congressmen from both north and south already had made decisions that could not, and would not, be changed easily. Most of the congressmen from states in the deep south supported secession. They did not want to remain in the Union. Many congressmen from states in the north had been elected because they promised to keep slavery from spreading to the western territories. They did not plan to break their promises. A few lawmakers hoped President Buchanan, in his yearly message to Congress, might propose a compromise. VOICE ONE: Buchanan began by denouncing northern Abolitionists. He said they were responsible for the present problem. Their interference, he said, had created a great fear of slave rebellions in the south. Then Buchanan called on the south to accept the election of Abraham Lincoln. He said the election of a citizen to the office of president should not be a reason for dissolving the Union. Buchanan declared that the constitution gave no state the right to leave. But, he admitted, if a state did secede, there was little the federal government could do. "The fact is," Buchanan said, "that our Union rests upon public opinion. It can never be held together by the blood of its citizens in civil war. If it cannot live in the hearts of its people, then it must one day die." VOICE TWO: Buchanan proposed to Congress that it offer a constitutional amendment on the question of slavery. He said the amendment should recognize the right to own slaves as property in states where slavery was permitted. It should protect this right in all territories until the territories became states. And it should end all state laws that interfered with the return of escaped slaves to their owners. No one liked President Buchanan's message to Congress. Northerners did not like his declaration of federal weakness in the face of secession. Southerners did not like his declaration that secession was unconstitutional. The message did nothing to change the situation. Soon after it was read to Congress, South Carolina opened its secession convention. VOICE ONE: Delegates to the convention would make the final decision if South Carolina would remain in the Union or secede. There was little question how they would vote. A committee wrote a secession resolution. The resolution said simply that the people of South Carolina were ending the agreement of seventeen-eighty-eight in which the state had approved the constitution of the United States. It said the Union existing between South Carolina and the United States of America was being dissolved. The committee offered the resolution to the convention on December twentieth, eighteen-sixty. There was no debate. The delegates voted immediately. No one voted against it. VOICE TWO: South Carolina had seceded. But what must it do now. There was the problem of property in South Carolina owned by the federal government. The convention continued to meet to work out details of South Carolina's new position in the world. That will be our story next week. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #17: Support Services
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 23, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. This week in our Foreign Student Series, we examine support services for students who come to the United States to study. We will use a major university in the Midwest for our example. More than three thousand foreign students attend the University of Wisconsin at its campus in Madison. Most are in graduate programs; twenty-eight percent are undergraduates. Marilee Sushoreba is the programs coordinator for International Student Services. She says her office organizes a special meeting for new students from other countries at the beginning of each semester. This meeting provides information about classes, social clubs and health services. It is also a chance to help students get to know the city of Madison and the University of Wisconsin. Students can meet with an adviser anytime during the school year. The advisers try to help the students feel at ease at the university. They also explain the rules and laws that govern student life. Workers in the International Student Services office organize a number of programs throughout the school year. These are meant to help foreign students feel more at home in the United States. For example, one program links foreign students with American students. The hope is that they can help each other and also learn about their different cultures. Another program sends foreign students to speak in local schools and at meetings of community organizations. The students talk about their homeland and discuss other subjects. Most American colleges and universities have a similar office to serve students from other nations. These offices can help guide students through the legal steps to come to the United States. Later, they can provide support to help the students become involved in school life and make American friends. Yet that job is not always easy. Students from one country or group may want to spend most of their free time with each other. But Marilee Sushoreba at the University of Wisconsin says she tries to let students know they have someplace to go if they need help. Internet users can learn more about American colleges and universities at educationusa.state.gov. Listen for part eighteen of our Foreign Student Series next week. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Christmas in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 24, 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic, in VOA Special English. Broadcast: December 24, 2004 DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic, in VOA Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas show this week: Church music written by a friend of Special English...And a question about how and why Americans celebrate Christmas. Why Americans Celebrate Christmas DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ethiopia. Hailu Kassa asks how and why Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is December twenty-fifth. But Americans who celebrate the holiday begin preparing long before. They buy gifts for their families and friends. Many make their homes look special. They put colorful lights in the windows and on the outside of their houses. They put branches from evergreen trees on the doors. Almost every home where Americans celebrate Christmas has a Christmas tree. They buy a real evergreen tree, or a man-made one. They cover it with lights and small objects made of glass, metal, paper or wood. Tradition says that a kind old man called Santa Claus travels to every house the night before Christmas. He leaves gifts of toys for the children. Family members leave gifts covered with pretty paper for each other under the Christmas tree. Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. They may go to church or visit friends or family members. They may eat a special holiday meal. Or they may take part in holiday activities for sick or homeless people. Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. They believe he was the son of God. Americans of other religions generally do not celebrate Christmas. However, many send holiday cards or gifts to their Christian friends. Some Americans do not observe Christmas as a religious holiday, but they decorate their homes with lights and a tree. Some people think that the religious meaning of Christmas has been lost. They say people spend too much time buying gifts for the holiday instead of attending church and thinking about the religious meaning of Christmas. These Americans want to put more religion back in Christmas. This often involves holiday observances in public places. Some people object, however. They point out that the Constitution establishes a separation of religion and government. A similar problem takes place in American public schools. It concerns singing Christmas songs. This year, the New York Times newspaper reported about a religious music ban declared by a school district in the state of New Jersey. Many community groups criticized the decision. Christians said the schools were trying to take Christmas music away from children. Other people supported the ban. They said that singing Christmas songs would exclude or offend people of other religions in the community. Still others suggested that the schools include holiday songs from all the different religions. This way students would be learning about other cultures as well as their own. One school district in the western state of Washington has published rules for holiday time. The schools in the town of Lake Washington say they include the beliefs and music of all groups in the community. Teachers say they are teaching about all religious holidays, not celebrating them. Still, many Americans like to listen to Christmas music. They may listen to songs about Santa Claus or the Christmas tree. Many people also attend church during the Christmas holiday and listen to songs sung by a choir. This year, Willis Kirk released a new album of Christian church music. He is a jazz musician and an educator. He has played with famous musicians such as Wes Montgomery, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. He is also the father of VOA Special English writer, Cynthia Kirk. Here is Cynthia to tell us about her father’s music. Rejoice, Rejoice! CYNTHIA KIRK: Willis Kirk’s new recording is called, “Rejoice, Rejoice – A Modern Oratorio.” It is a musical story about the events leading to the day that Christians believe was the return to life of Jesus Christ. Willis Kirk wrote all the songs on the album. He calls it a collection of spiritual, gospel, jazz, rap and western classical songs. It includes a large choir, a storyteller and an orchestra. My father calls the Oratorio, “a creation of the spiritual soul in music.” The creation of this work dates from nineteen sixty-eight. My father was asked to perform a jazz religious service for a university in Indiana. But not everyone at the university liked the result. They thought the songs were not traditional enough for a religious service. So he stopped work for a while, but finally finished. Here is one of my father’s favorite songs on the album, called “My Jesus Lives.” (MUSIC) Another song on the album is called “Hallelujah.” The storyteller speaks in rap when the Christian Bible says Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. My father said he wrote “Hallelujah” to show that rap music is universal and can even be used to tell a story in Christian music. (MUSIC) This next song is an example of the individual performances on the album. Everett Greene sings “I’m Going to Wash my Soul.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with the title song on the album. It is called “Rejoice, Rejoice.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Christmas AMERICAN MOSAIC program. Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was also the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas show this week: Church music written by a friend of Special English...And a question about how and why Americans celebrate Christmas. Why Americans Celebrate Christmas DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ethiopia. Hailu Kassa asks how and why Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is December twenty-fifth. But Americans who celebrate the holiday begin preparing long before. They buy gifts for their families and friends. Many make their homes look special. They put colorful lights in the windows and on the outside of their houses. They put branches from evergreen trees on the doors. Almost every home where Americans celebrate Christmas has a Christmas tree. They buy a real evergreen tree, or a man-made one. They cover it with lights and small objects made of glass, metal, paper or wood. Tradition says that a kind old man called Santa Claus travels to every house the night before Christmas. He leaves gifts of toys for the children. Family members leave gifts covered with pretty paper for each other under the Christmas tree. Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. They may go to church or visit friends or family members. They may eat a special holiday meal. Or they may take part in holiday activities for sick or homeless people. Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. They believe he was the son of God. Americans of other religions generally do not celebrate Christmas. However, many send holiday cards or gifts to their Christian friends. Some Americans do not observe Christmas as a religious holiday, but they decorate their homes with lights and a tree. Some people think that the religious meaning of Christmas has been lost. They say people spend too much time buying gifts for the holiday instead of attending church and thinking about the religious meaning of Christmas. These Americans want to put more religion back in Christmas. This often involves holiday observances in public places. Some people object, however. They point out that the Constitution establishes a separation of religion and government. A similar problem takes place in American public schools. It concerns singing Christmas songs. This year, the New York Times newspaper reported about a religious music ban declared by a school district in the state of New Jersey. Many community groups criticized the decision. Christians said the schools were trying to take Christmas music away from children. Other people supported the ban. They said that singing Christmas songs would exclude or offend people of other religions in the community. Still others suggested that the schools include holiday songs from all the different religions. This way students would be learning about other cultures as well as their own. One school district in the western state of Washington has published rules for holiday time. The schools in the town of Lake Washington say they include the beliefs and music of all groups in the community. Teachers say they are teaching about all religious holidays, not celebrating them. Still, many Americans like to listen to Christmas music. They may listen to songs about Santa Claus or the Christmas tree. Many people also attend church during the Christmas holiday and listen to songs sung by a choir. This year, Willis Kirk released a new album of Christian church music. He is a jazz musician and an educator. He has played with famous musicians such as Wes Montgomery, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. He is also the father of VOA Special English writer, Cynthia Kirk. Here is Cynthia to tell us about her father’s music. Rejoice, Rejoice! CYNTHIA KIRK: Willis Kirk’s new recording is called, “Rejoice, Rejoice – A Modern Oratorio.” It is a musical story about the events leading to the day that Christians believe was the return to life of Jesus Christ. Willis Kirk wrote all the songs on the album. He calls it a collection of spiritual, gospel, jazz, rap and western classical songs. It includes a large choir, a storyteller and an orchestra. My father calls the Oratorio, “a creation of the spiritual soul in music.” The creation of this work dates from nineteen sixty-eight. My father was asked to perform a jazz religious service for a university in Indiana. But not everyone at the university liked the result. They thought the songs were not traditional enough for a religious service. So he stopped work for a while, but finally finished. Here is one of my father’s favorite songs on the album, called “My Jesus Lives.” (MUSIC) Another song on the album is called “Hallelujah.” The storyteller speaks in rap when the Christian Bible says Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. My father said he wrote “Hallelujah” to show that rap music is universal and can even be used to tell a story in Christian music. (MUSIC) This next song is an example of the individual performances on the album. Everett Greene sings “I’m Going to Wash my Soul.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with the title song on the album. It is called “Rejoice, Rejoice.” (MUSIC) DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Christmas AMERICAN MOSAIC program. Our program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was also the producer. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL ENGLISH CHRISTMAS DAY SPECIAL- White Christmas by Songwriter Irving Berlin
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 25, 2004 This is Steve Ember with a VOA Special English holiday program. (MUSIC) Music fills the air. Colorful lights shine brightly in windows. Children and adults open gifts from loved ones and friends. These are all Christmas traditions. Another tradition is snow, at least in the northern part of the world where Christmas comes a few days after the start of winter. In many places, a blanket of clean white snow covers the ground on Christmas Day. This is what is meant by a "White Christmas." Of course, many places do not get snow at Christmas. In fact, they may be very warm this time of year. People who like snow, but live where it is warm, can only dream of having a white Christmas. American songwriter Irving Berlin captured these feelings in his song, "White Christmas." It is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Over the years, hundreds of singers and musicians have recorded "White Christmas." But the version most people still know best was sung by Bing Crosby. (MUSIC) Songwriter Irving Berlin was born in Russia in eighteen-eighty-eight. He did not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. He was Jewish. (MUSIC) But his song celebrates an idea of peace and happiness that anyone, anywhere -- snowy or not -- can enjoy. To all of you, best wishes this holiday season from all of us in VOA Special English. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 25, 2004 This is Steve Ember with a VOA Special English holiday program. (MUSIC) Music fills the air. Colorful lights shine brightly in windows. Children and adults open gifts from loved ones and friends. These are all Christmas traditions. Another tradition is snow, at least in the northern part of the world where Christmas comes a few days after the start of winter. In many places, a blanket of clean white snow covers the ground on Christmas Day. This is what is meant by a "White Christmas." Of course, many places do not get snow at Christmas. In fact, they may be very warm this time of year. People who like snow, but live where it is warm, can only dream of having a white Christmas. American songwriter Irving Berlin captured these feelings in his song, "White Christmas." It is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Over the years, hundreds of singers and musicians have recorded "White Christmas." But the version most people still know best was sung by Bing Crosby. (MUSIC) Songwriter Irving Berlin was born in Russia in eighteen-eighty-eight. He did not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. He was Jewish. (MUSIC) But his song celebrates an idea of peace and happiness that anyone, anywhere -- snowy or not -- can enjoy. To all of you, best wishes this holiday season from all of us in VOA Special English. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Remembering Five Special People
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 26, 2004 (MUSIC) Broadcast: December 26, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five special people who died during the past year. We start with actor Christopher Reeve. He became a hero in real life as well as in the movies. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five special people who died during the past year. We start with actor Christopher Reeve. He became a hero in real life as well as in the movies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Christopher Reeve became famous as “Superman” in the movies about the comic-book hero who flew through the air and saved people’s lives. But Mister Reeve may be remembered longest for his activities during the last part of his life. He was thrown from a horse during a horseback-riding competition in nineteen ninety-five. He broke his neck and was unable to move his body. He was even unable to breathe for long periods without mechanical help. But later, he exercised hard on special equipment. Doctors expressed great surprise at the progress he made long after his injury. He also was a strong activist for medical research. He urged scientists to work to cure disabilities caused by back and neck injuries and disease. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve was born in New York City in nineteen fifty-two. After college, he studied acting at the Juilliard School of the Performing Arts in New York. Mister Reeve first acted in a Broadway play in nineteen seventy-six. Then he became “Superman.” The movie was a huge success when it opened in nineteen seventy-eight. Mister Reeve starred in three more “Superman” films. Critics praised his performances in a number of other movies and plays. VOICE ONE: Mister Reeve continued acting even after his riding accident. He appeared in an award-winning television movie in nineteen ninety-eight. In “Rear Window”, he played a man in a wheelchair who watches a murder in a nearby building. Most recently, Christopher Reeve directed a television film and wrote two books. He died October tenth at age fifty-two. He had suffered a severe infection resulting from his inability to move. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Do you recognize that voice? Many Americans, especially older ones, would. Julia Child was welcomed into homes across the United States for years through her television show, “The French Chef.” Julia Child was not French, however. She was born Julia McWilliams in Pasadena, California in nineteen twelve. After college, Julia went to work for the United States’ intelligence agency, then called the Office of Strategic Services. World War Two was going on and Julia wanted to be a spy. The O.S.S. put Julia to work in Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. VOICE ONE: There, she met Paul Child, another O.S.S. worker. They married in nineteen forty-six and later moved to Paris, France. Julia began taking classes at the famous cooking school, Cordon Bleu. She became friends with two French students, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. In time, the three began a cooking school of their own. The Childs returned to America after about ten years. Julia kept working with her French friends to write a cookbook. The women wrote what is probably the most famous French cookbook in English. “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was published in nineteen sixty-one. It was written for the average person. And the recipes called for products that could be found easily in American food stores. VOICE TWO: Julia Child was asked to talk about the book on a television show in Boston, Massachusetts. Instead, she cooked on the show. The television station asked Child to create her own cooking show. “The French Chef” was first broadcast in nineteen sixty-three. It became the longest running show on American public television, with more than two hundred episodes. Part of the show’s popularity was Julia Child’s friendly personality. She made mistakes while cooking and she did not try to hide them. “The French Chef,” died in Montecito, California, on August thirteenth. She would have been ninety-two years old on August fifteenth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Poet Mattie Stepanek lived for only thirteen years. But he had an important effect on the world. Former President Jimmy Carter praised the young boy as “the most extraordinary person” he had ever known. Mattie Stepanek lived in Rockville, Maryland. He suffered from a rare form of a muscle-weakening disease called muscular dystrophy. This same disease had killed his three brothers when Mattie died on June twenty-second. Mattie’s goal in life was to help bring peace to the world. At age three, he was already writing poetry. He began writing after one of his brothers died. A publisher printed two hundred copies of his collected poems in two thousand one. The book was called “Heartsongs.” Before long, people across the country wanted copies. He wrote four more books of poetry. They have sold more than one million copies. VOICE TWO: Mattie appeared on television programs and became famous. But he was a very sick boy. He had to use a wheelchair to get around. Mattie spent a lot of time in hospitals. Yet he never seemed sad or angry. Here Mattie Stepanek reads from his poem “About Things That Matter.” (POEM) ”A person by my name and being existed With a strong spirit and an eternal mindset To become a peacemaker for all By sharing the things that really matter.” VOICE ONE: A very successful business leader also died this year. Estee (es-stay) Lauder died April twenty-fourth at the age of ninety-seven. She had sold beauty products for more than seventy years. Her business, the Estee Lauder Companies, began on the streets of New York City. She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, New York. Her parents had come to America from Hungary. They did not have much money. But they did have a beautiful daughter. Estee’s uncle was a chemist. Together, they worked to develop skin care creams in the nineteen-twenties when Estee was still a teenager. She took her products to New York City and stopped women on the street. She let them try the creams for free, calling the products “jars of hope.” VOICE TWO: Soon, young Estee was selling the products to large stores that sold things to wealthy women. She wrote powerful marketing messages such as “I have the secrets” or “start the New Year with a new face.” She also used many smart sales tricks. Estee Mentzer married Joseph Lauder in nineteen thirty. He became her business partner. Estee Lauder once said, “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” In nineteen ninety-five, she decided she had worked long enough, so she retired. Today, her two sons and a grandson lead the Estee Lauder Companies. The business is worth about ten thousand million dollars. It employs more than twenty thousand people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Singer Robert Merrill lived a long and musical life. He died at home in New York State on October twenty-third. Records say he was either eighty-five or eighty-seven years old. For thirty years, his rich baritone voice rang out at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Mister Merrill recorded popular music as well as opera music. He also played a leading part in the musical play “Fiddler on the Roof.” Robert Merrill took pleasure in New York City life. He often traveled on the underground subway train to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. For many years, he sang America’s national song at the opening game of the New York Yankees baseball team. VOICE TWO: Mister Merrill was born in the Brooklyn area of New York in about nineteen seventeen. As a young man he worked in a poorly paid job in the area of New York where clothing is made. One day, he heard singers preparing for a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Metropolitan Opera. On that day, the young man decided what he wanted to do with his life. Robert Merrill worked and studied hard at his music. He sang at weddings and in hotels. In nineteen forty-five, the Metropolitan Opera hired Robert Merrill. His first performance was in “La Traviata.” He sang more than five hundred performances of operas there during his long life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Christopher Reeve became famous as “Superman” in the movies about the comic-book hero who flew through the air and saved people’s lives. But Mister Reeve may be remembered longest for his activities during the last part of his life. He was thrown from a horse during a horseback-riding competition in nineteen ninety-five. He broke his neck and was unable to move his body. He was even unable to breathe for long periods without mechanical help. But later, he exercised hard on special equipment. Doctors expressed great surprise at the progress he made long after his injury. He also was a strong activist for medical research. He urged scientists to work to cure disabilities caused by back and neck injuries and disease. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve was born in New York City in nineteen fifty-two. After college, he studied acting at the Juilliard School of the Performing Arts in New York. Mister Reeve first acted in a Broadway play in nineteen seventy-six. Then he became “Superman.” The movie was a huge success when it opened in nineteen seventy-eight. Mister Reeve starred in three more “Superman” films. Critics praised his performances in a number of other movies and plays. VOICE ONE: Mister Reeve continued acting even after his riding accident. He appeared in an award-winning television movie in nineteen ninety-eight. In “Rear Window”, he played a man in a wheelchair who watches a murder in a nearby building. Most recently, Christopher Reeve directed a television film and wrote two books. He died October tenth at age fifty-two. He had suffered a severe infection resulting from his inability to move. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Do you recognize that voice? Many Americans, especially older ones, would. Julia Child was welcomed into homes across the United States for years through her television show, “The French Chef.” Julia Child was not French, however. She was born Julia McWilliams in Pasadena, California in nineteen twelve. After college, Julia went to work for the United States’ intelligence agency, then called the Office of Strategic Services. World War Two was going on and Julia wanted to be a spy. The O.S.S. put Julia to work in Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. VOICE ONE: There, she met Paul Child, another O.S.S. worker. They married in nineteen forty-six and later moved to Paris, France. Julia began taking classes at the famous cooking school, Cordon Bleu. She became friends with two French students, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. In time, the three began a cooking school of their own. The Childs returned to America after about ten years. Julia kept working with her French friends to write a cookbook. The women wrote what is probably the most famous French cookbook in English. “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was published in nineteen sixty-one. It was written for the average person. And the recipes called for products that could be found easily in American food stores. VOICE TWO: Julia Child was asked to talk about the book on a television show in Boston, Massachusetts. Instead, she cooked on the show. The television station asked Child to create her own cooking show. “The French Chef” was first broadcast in nineteen sixty-three. It became the longest running show on American public television, with more than two hundred episodes. Part of the show’s popularity was Julia Child’s friendly personality. She made mistakes while cooking and she did not try to hide them. “The French Chef,” died in Montecito, California, on August thirteenth. She would have been ninety-two years old on August fifteenth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Poet Mattie Stepanek lived for only thirteen years. But he had an important effect on the world. Former President Jimmy Carter praised the young boy as “the most extraordinary person” he had ever known. Mattie Stepanek lived in Rockville, Maryland. He suffered from a rare form of a muscle-weakening disease called muscular dystrophy. This same disease had killed his three brothers when Mattie died on June twenty-second. Mattie’s goal in life was to help bring peace to the world. At age three, he was already writing poetry. He began writing after one of his brothers died. A publisher printed two hundred copies of his collected poems in two thousand one. The book was called “Heartsongs.” Before long, people across the country wanted copies. He wrote four more books of poetry. They have sold more than one million copies. VOICE TWO: Mattie appeared on television programs and became famous. But he was a very sick boy. He had to use a wheelchair to get around. Mattie spent a lot of time in hospitals. Yet he never seemed sad or angry. Here Mattie Stepanek reads from his poem “About Things That Matter.” (POEM) ”A person by my name and being existed With a strong spirit and an eternal mindset To become a peacemaker for all By sharing the things that really matter.” VOICE ONE: A very successful business leader also died this year. Estee (es-stay) Lauder died April twenty-fourth at the age of ninety-seven. She had sold beauty products for more than seventy years. Her business, the Estee Lauder Companies, began on the streets of New York City. She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Queens, New York. Her parents had come to America from Hungary. They did not have much money. But they did have a beautiful daughter. Estee’s uncle was a chemist. Together, they worked to develop skin care creams in the nineteen-twenties when Estee was still a teenager. She took her products to New York City and stopped women on the street. She let them try the creams for free, calling the products “jars of hope.” VOICE TWO: Soon, young Estee was selling the products to large stores that sold things to wealthy women. She wrote powerful marketing messages such as “I have the secrets” or “start the New Year with a new face.” She also used many smart sales tricks. Estee Mentzer married Joseph Lauder in nineteen thirty. He became her business partner. Estee Lauder once said, “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” In nineteen ninety-five, she decided she had worked long enough, so she retired. Today, her two sons and a grandson lead the Estee Lauder Companies. The business is worth about ten thousand million dollars. It employs more than twenty thousand people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Singer Robert Merrill lived a long and musical life. He died at home in New York State on October twenty-third. Records say he was either eighty-five or eighty-seven years old. For thirty years, his rich baritone voice rang out at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Mister Merrill recorded popular music as well as opera music. He also played a leading part in the musical play “Fiddler on the Roof.” Robert Merrill took pleasure in New York City life. He often traveled on the underground subway train to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. For many years, he sang America’s national song at the opening game of the New York Yankees baseball team. VOICE TWO: Mister Merrill was born in the Brooklyn area of New York in about nineteen seventeen. As a young man he worked in a poorly paid job in the area of New York where clothing is made. One day, he heard singers preparing for a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Metropolitan Opera. On that day, the young man decided what he wanted to do with his life. Robert Merrill worked and studied hard at his music. He sang at weddings and in hotels. In nineteen forty-five, the Metropolitan Opera hired Robert Merrill. His first performance was in “La Traviata.” He sang more than five hundred performances of operas there during his long life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - The Year in Economic News, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 24, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Today we look back at some of the stories from two thousand four. We start with new developments at Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of home loans in the United States. The chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines, retired this week. The chief financial officer at the company, Timothy Howard, resigned. A few months ago, a government agency accused Fannie Mae of misreporting its financial condition. The agency is called the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. A report suggested that company officials may have tried to make Fannie Mae appear more profitable so they could receive extra pay. Mister Raines and Mister Howard both defended the company before Congress. But last week the Securities and Exchange Commission found that Fannie Mae had violated rules for reporting its costs and earnings. Now the company will have to restate its earnings since two thousand one. It is expected to report up to nine thousand million dollars in losses. This is about one-third of its profit during that period. Fannie Mae buys home loans from banks. It then sells investments based on those loans, in a market worth almost eight million million dollars. Investigations of Fannie Mae continue. Earlier this year we also reported on the legal troubles of businesswoman Martha Stewart. She became rich and famous for her advice about home design. But in March a jury found her guilty of lying about a sale of some private stock and interfering in a federal investigation. In October she started a five-month sentence in a federal prison in West Virginia. Since then, NBC television has announced plans for a new show starring Martha Stewart. That is, after she gets out of prison. The price of stock in the company she started, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has increased sharply in recent months. Another story this year involved the United States trade deficit. The widest measure of international trade, the current account deficit, reached record levels. Still, the increase from July to September was smaller than economists had expected over the three-month period before. But deficits and the drop in the value of the dollar remained important issues for the United States and its trade allies. We will continue our look back at two thousand four next week. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Freezing Food
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 27, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Freezing can keep food fresh and safe to eat. Freezing lowers the food temperature below zero degrees Celsius. That is the point where water turns to ice. To start the freezing process, it is important to lower the temperature to between minus fifteen and minus twenty degrees Celsius as quickly as possible. The faster the freezing process, the fresher the taste of the food. Fruits and vegetables can be spread out inside the freezer. Once the food is frozen, it should be placed in containers and then stored at a temperature of about minus twenty degrees Celsius. Fruits are usually not cooked before they are frozen. This allows them to keep their fresh taste. The simplest way to prepare fruits is to cut them up and place them in a container inside the freezer. In some cases it is better to permit the fruit to freeze before putting it in the container. This will keep it from sticking to the container. This is called the “dry pack” method. The second way is the “wet pack” method. The fruit is prepared along with some of its liquid or juice. You can add some sugar to fruits that are naturally juicy. The sugar sweetens the fruit and brings out its natural juices. Vegetables are either cooked or blanched before freezing. Blanching means placing the vegetables in boiling water for a few minutes and then quickly placing them into very cold water. Blanching slows down the natural chemical aging process. All extra water should be removed before placing the vegetables into containers and freezing. Most foods can be stored frozen for up to one year. Most freezers operate on electricity, although some work with kerosene and even solar energy as power sources. One problem is how to protect frozen food if the power suddenly stops. Generally, frozen food can be left unfrozen for twenty-four hours before it must either be eaten or thrown away. In hot climates, the amount of time may be only a few hours. Once foods have been unfrozen, they should not be frozen again. There is a danger of food poisoning if food is frozen more than once. You can get more information about freezing food from Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. (www.vita.org.) Next week, learn about canning food. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - New Year Traditions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 27, 2004 (THEME) Broadcast: December 27, 2004 (THEME) VOICE ONE: On December thirty-first, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about New Year celebrations and traditions on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: On December thirty-first, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about New Year celebrations and traditions on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is December thirty-first in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten…nine…eight…” A huge glass New Year’s Ball falls through the darkness. Someone says the ball looks like thousands of burning stars. Someone else say it looks like a huge, bright piece of snow. When the ball reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. They dance. They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship called “Auld Lang Syne.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, people arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They say “ooh” and “aah” when the electric company turns on the thousands of little lights in the ball. Then everyone waits for the beautiful object to fall. Families and friends attend this event together. People who have not met talk as if they had known each other all their lives. Many in the crowd jump around to keep warm. VOICE ONE: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on top of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball was dropped from the top of the building for the first time. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen-forty-two and nineteen-forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square. They observed a moment of silence. After that, bells rang from a vehicle in Times Square. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People do not pay to attend the Times Square celebration. But other New Year’s Eve celebrations can be costly. Many Americans observe the holiday at public eating and drinking places. Some people like to see the New Year arrive while traveling by boat. For example, people in Chicago, Illinois can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. In San Diego, California, a ship company offers New Year’s Eve on the Pacific Ocean. It costs more than one-hundred dollars for each person. Other Americans have parties at home and invite all their friends. Many of these events are noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noisemakers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to music. Other Americans spend a quiet evening at home. They drink Champagne at midnight to welcome the New Year. Here, the Persuasions sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE TWO: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred-twenty American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in nineteen-seventy-six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. People in Boston can choose among two-hundred-fifty performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky over Boston Harbor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Some of the top university teams play in these games. The most famous of these Bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE TWO: Another famous parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. VOICE ONE: Sometimes families invite friends to visit them on New Year’s Day. They serve drinks and food at these open houses and wish everyone a good year. In some parts of the country, American children and adults still follow an ancient custom on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. Americans borrowed this tradition from ancient peoples in what is now Britain and Europe. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. Some people wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, men and women who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do celebrate the New Year, we wish you a very happy one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is December thirty-first in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten…nine…eight…” A huge glass New Year’s Ball falls through the darkness. Someone says the ball looks like thousands of burning stars. Someone else say it looks like a huge, bright piece of snow. When the ball reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. They dance. They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship called “Auld Lang Syne.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, people arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They say “ooh” and “aah” when the electric company turns on the thousands of little lights in the ball. Then everyone waits for the beautiful object to fall. Families and friends attend this event together. People who have not met talk as if they had known each other all their lives. Many in the crowd jump around to keep warm. VOICE ONE: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on top of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball was dropped from the top of the building for the first time. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen-forty-two and nineteen-forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square. They observed a moment of silence. After that, bells rang from a vehicle in Times Square. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People do not pay to attend the Times Square celebration. But other New Year’s Eve celebrations can be costly. Many Americans observe the holiday at public eating and drinking places. Some people like to see the New Year arrive while traveling by boat. For example, people in Chicago, Illinois can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. In San Diego, California, a ship company offers New Year’s Eve on the Pacific Ocean. It costs more than one-hundred dollars for each person. Other Americans have parties at home and invite all their friends. Many of these events are noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noisemakers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to music. Other Americans spend a quiet evening at home. They drink Champagne at midnight to welcome the New Year. Here, the Persuasions sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE TWO: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred-twenty American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in nineteen-seventy-six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. People in Boston can choose among two-hundred-fifty performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky over Boston Harbor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Some of the top university teams play in these games. The most famous of these Bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE TWO: Another famous parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. VOICE ONE: Sometimes families invite friends to visit them on New Year’s Day. They serve drinks and food at these open houses and wish everyone a good year. In some parts of the country, American children and adults still follow an ancient custom on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. Americans borrowed this tradition from ancient peoples in what is now Britain and Europe. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. Some people wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, men and women who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do celebrate the New Year, we wish you a very happy one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - The Year in Space
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 29, 2004 VOICE ONE: Cassini image of Saturn Broadcast: December 29, 2004 VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the major space stories of the past year. We begin with the landing of two American vehicles that were sent to explore the surface of the planet Mars. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the major space stories of the past year. We begin with the landing of two American vehicles that were sent to explore the surface of the planet Mars. VOICE ONE: On January third, two thousand four, the United States successfully landed the first of two exploration vehicles on Mars. The device is named “Spirit.” It landed safely on target in an area of Mars called the Gusev Crater. Exactly three weeks later, a similar exploration rover named “Opportunity” landed almost half way around the planet in an area called Meridiani Planum. Both vehicles began sending back exciting information. The information included extremely good photographs. NASA officials announced that anyone who could link with the Internet communications system could see the new photographs taken by the rovers. VOICE TWO: Very quickly, millions of people began linking with NASA to see the photographs. NASA announced a new record. On February nineteenth, NASA reported it had received more than six thousand million “hits” to its Internet Web site. A hit is recorded for every piece of information a computer user receives from a Web site. All of these hits were to see the NASA photographs taken by the two Mars exploration vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. On March third, scientists at the American space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California again received exciting news from Mars. Opportunity had sent back good evidence that liquid water once was an important part of the environment of Mars. Earlier this month, both Spirit and Opportunity sent back more evidence of water on Mars. One scientist said it was the best evidence of water yet received from the rovers. On January third, two thousand four, the United States successfully landed the first of two exploration vehicles on Mars. The device is named “Spirit.” It landed safely on target in an area of Mars called the Gusev Crater. Exactly three weeks later, a similar exploration rover named “Opportunity” landed almost half way around the planet in an area called Meridiani Planum. Both vehicles began sending back exciting information. The information included extremely good photographs. NASA officials announced that anyone who could link with the Internet communications system could see the new photographs taken by the rovers. VOICE TWO: Very quickly, millions of people began linking with NASA to see the photographs. NASA announced a new record. On February nineteenth, NASA reported it had received more than six thousand million “hits” to its Internet Web site. A hit is recorded for every piece of information a computer user receives from a Web site. All of these hits were to see the NASA photographs taken by the two Mars exploration vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. On March third, scientists at the American space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California again received exciting news from Mars. Opportunity had sent back good evidence that liquid water once was an important part of the environment of Mars. Earlier this month, both Spirit and Opportunity sent back more evidence of water on Mars. One scientist said it was the best evidence of water yet received from the rovers. NASA scientists have said the evidence of water suggests that life may have once been possible on the Red Planet. VOICE ONE: Both the Spirit and Opportunity rovers continue to send back valuable information. They have done so for almost one year now. That is well past the planned working life NASA scientists expected of the two rovers. Spirit has had some problems with its right front wheel. NASA experts have solved this problem by driving the rover backwards and not using that wheel. Opportunity also continues to send back huge amounts of information about the surface of Mars. NASA officials say Opportunity continues to work as well now as it did the day it landed on the Red Planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On July first, the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft arrived at the planet Saturn. It flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet. It reached Saturn after almost seven years. It had traveled more than three thousand million kilometers through space. It did not take long for Cassini to start making discoveries. Cassini took photographs of Saturn’s giant moon Titan in its first few days of orbit. These photographs provided details of Titan’s surface that had never been seen before. NASA officials said the photographs showed Titan has a thick atmosphere that usually looks white in photographs. However Cassini has special cameras that can see though the giant moon’s atmosphere to study the surface. These photographs show very unusual features. NASA officials said it will take a great deal of study to understand the surface of Titan. VOICE ONE: The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. The exploration of Titan is exciting for many scientists. Titan is very large -- even larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. Plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan. On December twenty-fourth, the Huygens part of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft separated from the larger spacecraft. The Huygens instrument is expected to enter the atmosphere of Titan on January fourteenth.It will descend to the surface of the huge moon by parachute. NASA scientists hope the Huygens instrument will provide more information about Titan. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On April twenty-first, a Russian Soyuz Eight space vehicle linked up with the International Space Station. The Soyuz space vehicle delivered Commander Gennady Padalka and Science Officer Mike Fincke. They became the ninth International Space Station Crew. For six months, the two men lived and worked on the International Space Station. Science Officer Fincke completed one hundred percent of the twenty-four research experiments that had been planned for his stay on the station. VOICE ONE: During their mission, Cosmonaut Padalka and Astronaut Fincke received two Russian Progress cargo supply ships. They also left the safety of the station four times to work in space. Their work in space included gathering test materials that had been in space for more than two years. They placed radio equipment and new navigation equipment needed for the arrival of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle next year. The unmanned space vehicle will carry equipment and supplies from Earth to the International Space Station. VOICE TWO: International Space Station Crew number ten arrived in October a few days before Commander Padalka and Science Officer Fincke returned to Earth. They are American Commander Leroy Chiao and Russian Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov. They are to prepare the space station for the arrival of the first Space Shuttle to visit the station since the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all of the news from space during the past year was good news. On September eighth, a spacecraft named Genesis entered Earth’s atmosphere high above the Western United States. It was traveling at speeds of more than eleven kilometers a second. The spacecraft was supposed to deploy a parachute at almost thirty kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The device failed and the parachute was not deployed. The two hundred sixty million dollar spacecraft crashed in the desert in the state of Utah. It hit the ground at a speed of more than three hundred kilometers an hour. It hit so hard that it buried itself half underground. The Genesis spacecraft had been in an orbit almost one and one half million kilometers from the Earth for the past three years. Its purpose was to collect extremely small pieces of material from the Sun. Some of the material weighs no more than a few grains of salt. VOICE TWO: At first, scientists who were working with Genesis believed it had been destroyed in the crash. However, in October they reported finding a large amount of material within the Genesis scientific collectors. This material was gathered from deep space. The NASA Genesis team says the material will provide information about the beginning and development of our solar system. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On December eighth, NASA completed placing the three main engines in the Space Shuttle Discovery. The work was completed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. NASA is preparing the shuttle Discovery for its Return to Flight program. Plans call for Discovery to be ready for launch in May, two thousand five. Discovery and its seven-person crew will fly to the International Space Station. One of the main tasks for the crew will be to test new flight safety plans. These tests will include inspecting the space shuttle and testing methods to repair possible damage. The new safety measures were the result of the accident that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew on February first, two thousand three. That accident was caused by safety problems and damage to the Columbia during its launch. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say returning the Space Shuttle Discovery to flight is the first step in renewing human exploration of space. NASA hopes the flight of Discovery will be the first of many attempts to reach new exploration goals. Two of these goals are returning to the Moon and flying humans to the surface of Mars and returning them safely. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. NASA scientists have said the evidence of water suggests that life may have once been possible on the Red Planet. VOICE ONE: Both the Spirit and Opportunity rovers continue to send back valuable information. They have done so for almost one year now. That is well past the planned working life NASA scientists expected of the two rovers. Spirit has had some problems with its right front wheel. NASA experts have solved this problem by driving the rover backwards and not using that wheel. Opportunity also continues to send back huge amounts of information about the surface of Mars. NASA officials say Opportunity continues to work as well now as it did the day it landed on the Red Planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On July first, the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft arrived at the planet Saturn. It flew into orbit from below the famous rings that circle the planet. It reached Saturn after almost seven years. It had traveled more than three thousand million kilometers through space. It did not take long for Cassini to start making discoveries. Cassini took photographs of Saturn’s giant moon Titan in its first few days of orbit. These photographs provided details of Titan’s surface that had never been seen before. NASA officials said the photographs showed Titan has a thick atmosphere that usually looks white in photographs. However Cassini has special cameras that can see though the giant moon’s atmosphere to study the surface. These photographs show very unusual features. NASA officials said it will take a great deal of study to understand the surface of Titan. VOICE ONE: The study of Titan is one of the major goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. The exploration of Titan is exciting for many scientists. Titan is very large -- even larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto. Scientists are very interested in Titan because it is the only known moon in our solar system to have an atmosphere. Plans call for Cassini to make more than seventy orbits around Saturn. Forty-five of these will include passing close to Titan. On December twenty-fourth, the Huygens part of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft separated from the larger spacecraft. The Huygens instrument is expected to enter the atmosphere of Titan on January fourteenth.It will descend to the surface of the huge moon by parachute. NASA scientists hope the Huygens instrument will provide more information about Titan. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On April twenty-first, a Russian Soyuz Eight space vehicle linked up with the International Space Station. The Soyuz space vehicle delivered Commander Gennady Padalka and Science Officer Mike Fincke. They became the ninth International Space Station Crew. For six months, the two men lived and worked on the International Space Station. Science Officer Fincke completed one hundred percent of the twenty-four research experiments that had been planned for his stay on the station. VOICE ONE: During their mission, Cosmonaut Padalka and Astronaut Fincke received two Russian Progress cargo supply ships. They also left the safety of the station four times to work in space. Their work in space included gathering test materials that had been in space for more than two years. They placed radio equipment and new navigation equipment needed for the arrival of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle next year. The unmanned space vehicle will carry equipment and supplies from Earth to the International Space Station. VOICE TWO: International Space Station Crew number ten arrived in October a few days before Commander Padalka and Science Officer Fincke returned to Earth. They are American Commander Leroy Chiao and Russian Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov. They are to prepare the space station for the arrival of the first Space Shuttle to visit the station since the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all of the news from space during the past year was good news. On September eighth, a spacecraft named Genesis entered Earth’s atmosphere high above the Western United States. It was traveling at speeds of more than eleven kilometers a second. The spacecraft was supposed to deploy a parachute at almost thirty kilometers above the surface of the Earth. The device failed and the parachute was not deployed. The two hundred sixty million dollar spacecraft crashed in the desert in the state of Utah. It hit the ground at a speed of more than three hundred kilometers an hour. It hit so hard that it buried itself half underground. The Genesis spacecraft had been in an orbit almost one and one half million kilometers from the Earth for the past three years. Its purpose was to collect extremely small pieces of material from the Sun. Some of the material weighs no more than a few grains of salt. VOICE TWO: At first, scientists who were working with Genesis believed it had been destroyed in the crash. However, in October they reported finding a large amount of material within the Genesis scientific collectors. This material was gathered from deep space. The NASA Genesis team says the material will provide information about the beginning and development of our solar system. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On December eighth, NASA completed placing the three main engines in the Space Shuttle Discovery. The work was completed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in the state of Florida. NASA is preparing the shuttle Discovery for its Return to Flight program. Plans call for Discovery to be ready for launch in May, two thousand five. Discovery and its seven-person crew will fly to the International Space Station. One of the main tasks for the crew will be to test new flight safety plans. These tests will include inspecting the space shuttle and testing methods to repair possible damage. The new safety measures were the result of the accident that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew on February first, two thousand three. That accident was caused by safety problems and damage to the Columbia during its launch. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say returning the Space Shuttle Discovery to flight is the first step in renewing human exploration of space. NASA hopes the flight of Discovery will be the first of many attempts to reach new exploration goals. Two of these goals are returning to the Moon and flying humans to the surface of Mars and returning them safely. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Helping Depressed Mothers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 29, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report. A mental health researcher who has studied depressed mothers in Pakistan plans an effort next year to help them. Doctor Atif Rahman is in the Department of Child Psychiatry at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital in England. Doctor Rahman led a team that linked depression in women with lower weight in their babies during the first year of life. The team studied six hundred thirty-two women from small villages in Rawalpindi. The women were in good physical health and in the last three months of pregnancy. The study identified one hundred sixty of the women, or one in four, as depressed. They had lost interest and pleasure in normal life. They always felt sad or tired. They had problems eating or sleeping. They felt guilty and thought about killing themselves. The researchers compared these women with one hundred sixty others who were not depressed. Health workers then weighed and measured the babies of both groups at birth. Re-examinations took place at two, six and twelve months of age. The health workers also re-examined the mental health of the mothers. Babies whose mothers remained depressed grew less than the babies of the other women. The babies of the depressed mothers were also more likely to get sick with diarrhea. The findings appeared in September in Archives of General Psychiatry. Earlier studies showed that ten to fifteen percent of pregnant women and new mothers in Western nations suffer from depression. Other studies in South Asia have found that depression affects almost two times as many women in developing countries. Conditions in poor countries can make it more difficult to care for a baby. Doctor Rahman says depression can make it even more difficult for a mother to do things such as boil water to kill harmful organisms. For ten years, Pakistan has employed what are called "lady health workers." These women visit new mothers for up to a year. The workers offer advice about things like health and cleanliness. Now Doctor Rahman wants to add special support for depressed mothers. The idea is that the health worker will listen to the mother's problems and suggest some easy things at first that she can do for her baby. The program will be tested for three years to see how well it succeeds. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-28-5-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – Growing Carrots
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 28, 2004 I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Carrots are grown on farms and in small family gardens throughout the world. They are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They have a pleasing taste. And, they contain a lot of carotene which the body changes into Vitamin A. When people think about carrots, they usually create a mental picture of a long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. But, carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange. For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are white. For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it, and turn it over. Then, mix some dead plant material or animal waste. Do not add any additional chemical fertilizers. Weather, soil condition, and age affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights, and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing great tasting carrots. Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early they will not have enough sugar. However, carrots loose their sweetness if you wait too long to remove them from the ground. The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste. Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as you do during the summer months. If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed. Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to meat in stews. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground. Our reports are on the Internet at voaspecialenglish.com and our e-mail address is special@voanews.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. I'm Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-28-6-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - 2004 Year in Science: Tsunami / SARS / Bird Flu / H.I.V. and AIDS / The Little People of Flores / Drug Safety
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 28, 04 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we look back at the major science stories of two-thousand-four. We look at safety questions about some popular medicines and struggles against SARS, bird flu and other diseases. VOICE ONE: We also tell about the bones of small human-like creatures found in Indonesia. But first, a look at the powerful tsunami Sunday that killed tens of thousands of people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People in many countries are recovering from the effects of a powerful earthquake Sunday in the Indian Ocean. The underwater earthquake created huge waves that struck coastal areas from Indonesia to Somalia. The earthquake caused a series of huge, destructive ocean waves, also called a tsunami. In the Japanese language, the word tsunami means “harbor wave.” Earthquakes are a major cause of tsunamis. But landslides on the ocean floor also can cause huge ocean waves. Other causes are exploding volcanoes and even explosions. Experts say a tsunami can travel as fast as seven hundred twenty five kilometers an hour. And, the waves can be more than thirty meters high as they move toward land. VOICE TWO: Tsunamis can form near the center of an earthquake and travel out in all directions. This means they can affect countries thousands of kilometers from each other. Tsunamis are most common in the Pacific Ocean. Japan has had the most tsunamis. In the past hundreds of years, one hundred thousand people have been killed by tsunamis in Japan. Six years ago, more than two thousand people died when a tsunami struck Papua New Guinea. American scientists say the earthquake in the Indian Ocean Sunday reached nine-point-zero on the Richter system of earthquake measurement. They say it also was the fifth strongest earthquake measured since nineteen-hundred. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another major story of two-thousand-four was the progress being made against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS is a kind of lung infection. It may cause higher than normal body temperature. Patients have difficulty breathing. Their body wastes become soft and watery. SARS is caused by a coronavirus. Some members of the coronavirus family can cause the common cold. The first case of SARS was reported in southern China two years ago. Since then, the disease has infected eight-thousand people in almost thirty countries. It killed more than seven hundred seventy of them. VOICE TWO: Research scientists in several countries are attempting to develop medicines to prevent SARS. This month, Chinese researchers reported success in the first human test of a preventative vaccine for the disease. The test involved thirty-six healthy people. Half received a small amount of experimental SARS inactivated vaccine. The others received a stronger version of the medicine. The researchers said all thirty-six people produced antibodies for fighting the disease. Those taking the vaccine suffered minor side effects, such as a higher than normal temperature. Chinese media say at least ten different kinds of SARS vaccines are being developed. In the United States, tests of an experimental vaccine have begun at the National Institutes of Health, near Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another medical story this year involved a virus experts say is more deadly than SARS. It is bird flu. This year, the bird flu virus killed at least thirty-two people in Thailand and Vietnam. The World Health Organization says that almost all the victims got the bird flu from infected chickens. Millions of chickens and other birds have been destroyed across Asia to prevent the disease from spreading. Health experts fear the bird flu virus will change into a kind that can move from person to person and spread throughout the world. Recently, a W.H.O. official warned that the virus could infect up to thirty percent of the human population. Shigeru Omi also said bird flu could kill between two million and seven million people. He noted that some experts believe that up to fifty million people could die. VOICE TWO: This month, the World Health Organization held a meeting to discuss efforts to develop a vaccine to prevent infection by the bird flu virus. Health officials from around the world met in Switzerland. They said experts are concerned about the recent appearance of the virus and infection rates. They warned of a possible pandemic. A pandemic is when a disease spreads around the world. Scientists are developing two vaccines based on the current bird flu virus in Asia. Testing both of these within a year will cost about thirteen million dollars each. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another major story is one of the biggest health threats of all. The United Nations reports that about thirty-nine million people around the world are living with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. That is up from almost thirty seven million two years ago. This year, about three million people died of causes linked to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Five million became infected. These numbers are the highest yet. Southern Africa remains the most severely affected area. More than sixty percent of all people with H.I.V. live there. The islands of the Caribbean Sea have the next highest rate. VOICE TWO: Almost half of all people infected with H.I.V. are women and girls. And, the virus is spreading faster among women than men in most areas. U-N officials say East Asia has the sharpest increase in the number of women infected with H.I.V. in the past two years. AIDS experts say women are at greater risk because it is physically easier for the female body to become infected during sex. They also say many women cannot demand that their partners use protection. And marriage is no protection if the husband has had sex with someone who is infected. These reasons often combine with sexual violence, a lack of money or education for women. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another story this year was the discovery of ancient bones in Indonesia. The bones were found last year in a cave on the island of Flores. A team of Australian and Indonesian scientists reported the discovery in October. The scientists say the bones represent a new kind of human-like creature. They say the creatures stood just less than one meter tall and lived as recently as twelve thousand years ago. Some experts said the discovery could change the known history of human beings on earth. VOICE TWO: Recently, an Indonesian scientist, Teuku Jacob, borrowed most of the bones for study. He says the bones came from human beings with small bodies, not a new creature. Indonesians had been searching in the Flores area in the nineteen seventies, but stopped their work because of a lack of money. Now, Australian scientists who found the bones fear the Indonesians will keep them and limit who can study them in the future. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another story this year was the withdrawal of the pain medicine Vioxx. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved Vioxx five years ago. But in September, Merck and Company stopped selling it following a long-term study. The study suggested that people who used Vioxx had an increased chance of heart attacks and strokes. One recent study found that Vioxx users were nearly three times more likely to suffer a heart attack than people taking a similar drug called Celebrex. America’s National Cancer Institute stopped another study this month because Celebrex was found to increase the risk of heart attack. And, a separate study raised safety questions about the pain medicine naproxen, sold as Aleve. The United States Food and Drug Administration says it is too early to say what action might be taken on Celebrex and Alleve. The agency can legally remove, or recall, a harmful product from the marketplace. Or a company can withdraw its product. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #95 - Secession, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 30, 2004 (MUSIC) Abraham Lincoln Broadcast: December 30, 2004 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) South Carolina withdrew from the United States on December twentieth, eighteen-sixty. It withdrew because a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, had been elected president. The Republican Party wanted to stop slavery from spreading into the western territories. Southern states believed they had a constitutional right to take property, including slaves, anywhere. They also feared that any interference with slavery would end their way of life. I'm Larry West. Today, Frank Oliver and I tell what happened after South Carolina seceded from the Union. VOICE TWO: South Carolina faced several problems after it seceded. The most serious problem was what to do with property owned by the federal government. There were several United States forts in and around the Port of Charleston. Fort Moultrie had fewer than seventy soldiers. Castle Pinckney had only one. And Fort Sumter, which was still being built, had none. The commander of the forts asked for more men. Without them, he said, he could not defend the forts. The army refused. It told the commander to defend the forts as best he could. He was told to do nothing that might cause South Carolina to attack. If South Carolina attacked, or planned to attack, then he could move his men into the fort that would be easiest to defend. That would probably be the new one, Fort Sumter. VOICE ONE: The governor of South Carolina planned to stop any movement of federal troops. He ordered state soldiers to stop every boat in Charleston Harbor. They were to permit no United States troops to reach Fort Sumter. If any boat carrying troops refused to stop, the state soldiers were to sink it and seize the fort. Six days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the commander of Charleston's forts decided to move his men to Fort Sumter. They would move as soon as it was dark. The federal troops crossed the port in small boats. The state soldiers did not see them. The governor was furious when he learned what had happened. He demanded that the federal troops leave Fort Sumter. The commander said they would stay. The governor then ordered state soldiers to seize the other two forts in Charleston Harbor. And he ordered the state flag raised over all other federal property in the city. VOICE TWO: President James Buchanan, who would leave office in just a few months, was forced to deal with the situation. His cabinet was deeply divided on the issue. The southerners wanted him to recognize South Carolina and order all federal troops out of Charleston Harbor. The northerners said he must not give up any federal property or rights. The President agreed to meet with three representatives from South Carolina. They had come to Washington to negotiate the future of federal property in their state. The Attorney General said the meeting was a mistake. "These gentlemen," he said, "claim to be ambassadors of South Carolina. This is foolish. They cannot be ambassadors. They are law-breakers, traitors, and should be arrested. You cannot negotiate with them." VOICE ONE: The Attorney General and the Secretary of State threatened to resign if President Buchanan gave in to South Carolina's demands. The President finally agreed not to give in. He said he would keep federal troops in Charleston Harbor. And he said Fort Sumter would be defended against all hostile action. On the last day of eighteen-sixty, he ordered two-hundred troops and extra supplies sent to Fort Sumter. The war department wanted to keep the operation secret. So the troops and supplies were put on a fast civilian ship, instead of a slower warship. It was thought that a civilian ship could get into Charleston Harbor before state forces could act. But a southern Senator learned of the operation. He warned the governor of South Carolina. When the ship arrived in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina soldiers were waiting. VOICE TWO: The soldiers lit a cannon and fired a warning shot. The ship refused to stop. Other cannons then opened fire. The commander of federal troops at Fort Sumter had a difficult decision to make. He had received permission to defend the fort, if attacked. But his orders said nothing about defending ships. He knew that if he opened fire, the United States and South Carolina would be at war. The decision was made for him. South Carolina's cannons finally hit the ship. The ship slowed, then turned back to sea. It returned north with all the troops and supplies. VOICE ONE: The commander of Fort Sumter sent a message to the governor of South Carolina. "Your forces," he wrote, "fired this morning on a civilian ship flying the flag of my government. Since I have not been informed that South Carolina declared war on the United States, I can only believe that this hostile act was done without your knowledge or permission. For this reason -- and only this -- I did not fire on your guns." If, the commander said, the governor had approved the shelling, it would be an act of war. And he would be forced to close the Port of Charleston. No ship would be permitted to enter or leave. The governor's answer came back within hours. He said South Carolina was now independent. He said the attempt by the United States to strengthen its force at Fort Sumter was clearly an act of aggression. And he demanded that the commander surrender. VOICE TWO: During the crisis over Fort Sumter, Congress tried to find a compromise that might prevent war. Lawmakers proposed a new line across the country. South of the line, slavery would be permitted. North of the line, slavery would be illegal. Many Republicans supported the proposal, even though the Republican Party opposed the spread of slavery into the western territories. One Republican, however, rejected the idea completely. He was Abraham Lincoln, who would take office as President in March. Lincoln said there could be no compromise on extending slavery. "If there is," he said, "then all our hard work is lost. If trouble comes, it is better to let it come now than at some later time." VOICE ONE: The trouble would come soon. One by one, the states of the south seceded. By February first, eighteen sixty-one, six states had followed South Carolina out of the Union. A few days later, representatives from the states met in Montgomery, Alabama. Their job was to create a new nation. It would be an independent republic called the Confederate States of America. The convention approved a constitution for the new nation. The document was like the Constitution of the United States, but with major changes. The southern constitution gave greater importance to the rights of states. And it said there could be no laws against slavery. The convention named former United States Senator Jefferson Davis to be president of the Confederate States of America. Davis did not want civil war. But he was not afraid of it. He said: "Our separation from the old Union is complete. The time for compromise has passed. Should others try to change our decision with force, they will smell southern gunpowder and feel the steel of southern swords." VOICE TWO: Jefferson Davis left his farm in Mississippi to become President of the Confederate States of America on February eleventh. On that same day, Abraham Lincoln left his home in Illinois to become President of the United States. As Lincoln got on the train that would take him to Washington, he said: "I now leave, not knowing when -- or whether ever -- I may return. The task before me is greater than that which rested upon our first president. Without the help of God, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Let us hope that all yet will be well." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) South Carolina withdrew from the United States on December twentieth, eighteen-sixty. It withdrew because a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, had been elected president. The Republican Party wanted to stop slavery from spreading into the western territories. Southern states believed they had a constitutional right to take property, including slaves, anywhere. They also feared that any interference with slavery would end their way of life. I'm Larry West. Today, Frank Oliver and I tell what happened after South Carolina seceded from the Union. VOICE TWO: South Carolina faced several problems after it seceded. The most serious problem was what to do with property owned by the federal government. There were several United States forts in and around the Port of Charleston. Fort Moultrie had fewer than seventy soldiers. Castle Pinckney had only one. And Fort Sumter, which was still being built, had none. The commander of the forts asked for more men. Without them, he said, he could not defend the forts. The army refused. It told the commander to defend the forts as best he could. He was told to do nothing that might cause South Carolina to attack. If South Carolina attacked, or planned to attack, then he could move his men into the fort that would be easiest to defend. That would probably be the new one, Fort Sumter. VOICE ONE: The governor of South Carolina planned to stop any movement of federal troops. He ordered state soldiers to stop every boat in Charleston Harbor. They were to permit no United States troops to reach Fort Sumter. If any boat carrying troops refused to stop, the state soldiers were to sink it and seize the fort. Six days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the commander of Charleston's forts decided to move his men to Fort Sumter. They would move as soon as it was dark. The federal troops crossed the port in small boats. The state soldiers did not see them. The governor was furious when he learned what had happened. He demanded that the federal troops leave Fort Sumter. The commander said they would stay. The governor then ordered state soldiers to seize the other two forts in Charleston Harbor. And he ordered the state flag raised over all other federal property in the city. VOICE TWO: President James Buchanan, who would leave office in just a few months, was forced to deal with the situation. His cabinet was deeply divided on the issue. The southerners wanted him to recognize South Carolina and order all federal troops out of Charleston Harbor. The northerners said he must not give up any federal property or rights. The President agreed to meet with three representatives from South Carolina. They had come to Washington to negotiate the future of federal property in their state. The Attorney General said the meeting was a mistake. "These gentlemen," he said, "claim to be ambassadors of South Carolina. This is foolish. They cannot be ambassadors. They are law-breakers, traitors, and should be arrested. You cannot negotiate with them." VOICE ONE: The Attorney General and the Secretary of State threatened to resign if President Buchanan gave in to South Carolina's demands. The President finally agreed not to give in. He said he would keep federal troops in Charleston Harbor. And he said Fort Sumter would be defended against all hostile action. On the last day of eighteen-sixty, he ordered two-hundred troops and extra supplies sent to Fort Sumter. The war department wanted to keep the operation secret. So the troops and supplies were put on a fast civilian ship, instead of a slower warship. It was thought that a civilian ship could get into Charleston Harbor before state forces could act. But a southern Senator learned of the operation. He warned the governor of South Carolina. When the ship arrived in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina soldiers were waiting. VOICE TWO: The soldiers lit a cannon and fired a warning shot. The ship refused to stop. Other cannons then opened fire. The commander of federal troops at Fort Sumter had a difficult decision to make. He had received permission to defend the fort, if attacked. But his orders said nothing about defending ships. He knew that if he opened fire, the United States and South Carolina would be at war. The decision was made for him. South Carolina's cannons finally hit the ship. The ship slowed, then turned back to sea. It returned north with all the troops and supplies. VOICE ONE: The commander of Fort Sumter sent a message to the governor of South Carolina. "Your forces," he wrote, "fired this morning on a civilian ship flying the flag of my government. Since I have not been informed that South Carolina declared war on the United States, I can only believe that this hostile act was done without your knowledge or permission. For this reason -- and only this -- I did not fire on your guns." If, the commander said, the governor had approved the shelling, it would be an act of war. And he would be forced to close the Port of Charleston. No ship would be permitted to enter or leave. The governor's answer came back within hours. He said South Carolina was now independent. He said the attempt by the United States to strengthen its force at Fort Sumter was clearly an act of aggression. And he demanded that the commander surrender. VOICE TWO: During the crisis over Fort Sumter, Congress tried to find a compromise that might prevent war. Lawmakers proposed a new line across the country. South of the line, slavery would be permitted. North of the line, slavery would be illegal. Many Republicans supported the proposal, even though the Republican Party opposed the spread of slavery into the western territories. One Republican, however, rejected the idea completely. He was Abraham Lincoln, who would take office as President in March. Lincoln said there could be no compromise on extending slavery. "If there is," he said, "then all our hard work is lost. If trouble comes, it is better to let it come now than at some later time." VOICE ONE: The trouble would come soon. One by one, the states of the south seceded. By February first, eighteen sixty-one, six states had followed South Carolina out of the Union. A few days later, representatives from the states met in Montgomery, Alabama. Their job was to create a new nation. It would be an independent republic called the Confederate States of America. The convention approved a constitution for the new nation. The document was like the Constitution of the United States, but with major changes. The southern constitution gave greater importance to the rights of states. And it said there could be no laws against slavery. The convention named former United States Senator Jefferson Davis to be president of the Confederate States of America. Davis did not want civil war. But he was not afraid of it. He said: "Our separation from the old Union is complete. The time for compromise has passed. Should others try to change our decision with force, they will smell southern gunpowder and feel the steel of southern swords." VOICE TWO: Jefferson Davis left his farm in Mississippi to become President of the Confederate States of America on February eleventh. On that same day, Abraham Lincoln left his home in Illinois to become President of the United States. As Lincoln got on the train that would take him to Washington, he said: "I now leave, not knowing when -- or whether ever -- I may return. The task before me is greater than that which rested upon our first president. Without the help of God, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Let us hope that all yet will be well." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Larry West and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #18: Alcohol Ban at University of Oklahoma
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 30, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about foreign students at American colleges and universities. Students at American colleges are on winter holiday until early next year. Many young people are making plans to attend celebrations in honor of New Year. At this time of year, parents of college students worry about how young people use alcoholic drinks. Parents also worry about alcohol use at school. This is our subject today. American education officials have been concerned for years about how students use alcohol. Some of it has had deadly results. For example, a student at the University of Oklahoma died in September following a fraternity party. His blood alcohol level was five times the legal limit. Such extreme use of alcohol is known as “binge drinking.” It means having four to five drinks in less than one hour. Studies have found a link between binge drinking and parties at college fraternity houses. Reports say the deaths of one thousand four hundred college students in the United States last year were linked to alcohol use. College officials say dangerous drinking has taken place at colleges for many years. But they still have not found a way to stop it. Now, the University of Oklahoma at Norman has decided to ban the use of alcohol. The ban goes into effect on January eighteenth. It affects all twenty two thousand students at the University, including the one thousand six hundred foreign students attending this year. Parents of students will be told if their child is found with any kind of alcohol. The students also will take part in an alcohol education program. A second violation of the rule will result in punishment. The student will be suspended from school after three violations. All new students will be required to complete an alcohol education program. And the University of Oklahoma will cooperate with the local police force to stop parties where binge drinking takes place. University President David Boren says the goal of the plan is to reduce dangerous drinking by students and to develop a successful program that other schools can follow. For more information about the alcohol ban and admission information for the University of Oklahoma, go to its web site at www.ou.edu. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: December 30, 2004 This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about foreign students at American colleges and universities. Students at American colleges are on winter holiday until early next year. Many young people are making plans to attend celebrations in honor of New Year. At this time of year, parents of college students worry about how young people use alcoholic drinks. Parents also worry about alcohol use at school. This is our subject today. American education officials have been concerned for years about how students use alcohol. Some of it has had deadly results. For example, a student at the University of Oklahoma died in September following a fraternity party. His blood alcohol level was five times the legal limit. Such extreme use of alcohol is known as “binge drinking.” It means having four to five drinks in less than one hour. Studies have found a link between binge drinking and parties at college fraternity houses. Reports say the deaths of one thousand four hundred college students in the United States last year were linked to alcohol use. College officials say dangerous drinking has taken place at colleges for many years. But they still have not found a way to stop it. Now, the University of Oklahoma at Norman has decided to ban the use of alcohol. The ban goes into effect on January eighteenth. It affects all twenty two thousand students at the University, including the one thousand six hundred foreign students attending this year. Parents of students will be told if their child is found with any kind of alcohol. The students also will take part in an alcohol education program. A second violation of the rule will result in punishment. The student will be suspended from school after three violations. All new students will be required to complete an alcohol education program. And the University of Oklahoma will cooperate with the local police force to stop parties where binge drinking takes place. University President David Boren says the goal of the plan is to reduce dangerous drinking by students and to develop a successful program that other schools can follow. For more information about the alcohol ban and admission information for the University of Oklahoma, go to its web site at www.ou.edu. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Music For Celebrating the New Year / Two Listener Questions about the Old Year
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 31, 2004 Times Square, NY Eve Broadcast: December 31, 2004 (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in V.O.A. Special English. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in V.O.A. Special English. (MUSIC) This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week: Music for celebrating the beginning of a new year...and two listener questions that involve the final hours of the old year...a night commonly called New Year’s Eve. Drinking Age HOST: Tonight is New Year’s Eve. Many people will attend New Year’s parties where they will drink alcohol. A listener in Vietnam wrote to ask why a person in the United States must be at least twenty-one years old to do this legally. Nguyen Hoang Phong noted that eighteen years is the legal age for drinking alcohol in most countries. Here is Faith Lapidus with our answer. ANNCR: Discussing the drinking age in the United States can lead to an argument. I will try to explain both sides of this issue. In nineteen-eighty-four, Congress passed a measure called the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. President Ronald Reagan signed the measure into law. It bars people in the United States from drinking alcohol unless they are twenty-one years of age or older. States must obey the law or risk losing federal money for building roads and road repairs. The measure was the result of work by several lawmakers and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Last July, that group and members of Congress celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the law. They praised the measure as one of the most effective anti-drunk driving laws ever passed. They said that twenty-thousand lives have been saved since its passage. However, some opponents of the measure say it did not save anyone. They say young people who want to drink will find a way to get alcohol. They also reject the number of young people reportedly saved by the law. They say fewer young people are drinking now than twenty yeas ago. Other people say the National Minimum Drinking Age Act is not fair. They say a young person can join the military and fight in a war at age eighteen. However, they are still not permitted to drink alcohol until they are twenty-one. Many Americans would like to change the law to make eighteen the age when a person can drink alcohol. But just as many want to keep the drinking age at twenty-one. The question of a legal drinking age involves ideas of freedom, responsibility, religion, politics and the rights of parents. It is a question that will be argued in the United States for many years to come. New Year’s Eve Ball Drop HOST: Our second listener question this week also comes from Vietnam. Le van Thanh wants to know about a big ball seen dropping at a famous New Year’s celebration in the United States. The ball drops down a flagpole during the final minute of the year. When it reaches the bottom, a new year will have arrived. That ball dropping ceremony takes place every New Year’s Eve at Times Square in New York City. This New Year’s tradition began in nineteen oh four. But the tradition of dropping a time ball reportedly began in the eighteen hundreds in England. Lowering a ball was a popular way of telling the time so that ships at sea could make sure they had the correct time. Time balls were used in many ports during the nineteenth century. In the early nineteen hundreds, the New York Times newspaper owned a building in the Times Square area. The company began holding New Year’s celebrations on top of the building. The first celebration in nineteen oh four included a fireworks display. Three years later, officials added a time ball to count down the seconds to the New Year. The ball lowering has continued every year since then, except for two years during World War Two. Crowds still gathered in Times Square for the event in nineteen forty-two and nineteen forty-three. But they observed a minute of silence followed by the sound of bells. The first New Year’s Eve ball weighed more than three hundred kilograms and measured almost one and one-half meters around. It was made of iron and wood and covered with one-hundred lights. The ball used last year weighed almost five-hundred kilograms and measured almost two meters in diameter. It was covered with almost one thousand four hundred moving mirrors. The lighted ball drops twenty-three meters in sixty seconds. Many years ago, the only people who could watch it drop were those who went to Times Square to celebrate. Today, New York City officials say the ball drop has become an international sign of the New Year. They say satellite technology now makes it possible for more than one thousand million people around the world to watch the event in Times Square each year. Auld Lang Syne (MUSIC) HOST: That is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called “Auld Lang Syne.” It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: Auld Lang Syne is a Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends. The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since” or “the good old days.” The song’s message is to forget about the past and look with hope to the new year. Here, it is sung by Billy Joel. (MUSIC) No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Burns was published in seventeen-ninety-six. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later. Today, “Auld Lang Syne” is heard in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve, as the clock strikes twelve and we enter a new year. We leave you now with “Auld Lang Syne” played by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra. But before we go, all of us in Special English want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special AMERICAN MOSAIC program for New Year’s Eve. This show was written by Marilyn Christiano, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who also was the producer. Our engineer was Wayne Shorter. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, V.O.A. Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, V.O.A.’s radio magazine in Special English. This is Bob Doughty. On our show this week: Music for celebrating the beginning of a new year...and two listener questions that involve the final hours of the old year...a night commonly called New Year’s Eve. Drinking Age HOST: Tonight is New Year’s Eve. Many people will attend New Year’s parties where they will drink alcohol. A listener in Vietnam wrote to ask why a person in the United States must be at least twenty-one years old to do this legally. Nguyen Hoang Phong noted that eighteen years is the legal age for drinking alcohol in most countries. Here is Faith Lapidus with our answer. ANNCR: Discussing the drinking age in the United States can lead to an argument. I will try to explain both sides of this issue. In nineteen-eighty-four, Congress passed a measure called the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. President Ronald Reagan signed the measure into law. It bars people in the United States from drinking alcohol unless they are twenty-one years of age or older. States must obey the law or risk losing federal money for building roads and road repairs. The measure was the result of work by several lawmakers and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Last July, that group and members of Congress celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the law. They praised the measure as one of the most effective anti-drunk driving laws ever passed. They said that twenty-thousand lives have been saved since its passage. However, some opponents of the measure say it did not save anyone. They say young people who want to drink will find a way to get alcohol. They also reject the number of young people reportedly saved by the law. They say fewer young people are drinking now than twenty yeas ago. Other people say the National Minimum Drinking Age Act is not fair. They say a young person can join the military and fight in a war at age eighteen. However, they are still not permitted to drink alcohol until they are twenty-one. Many Americans would like to change the law to make eighteen the age when a person can drink alcohol. But just as many want to keep the drinking age at twenty-one. The question of a legal drinking age involves ideas of freedom, responsibility, religion, politics and the rights of parents. It is a question that will be argued in the United States for many years to come. New Year’s Eve Ball Drop HOST: Our second listener question this week also comes from Vietnam. Le van Thanh wants to know about a big ball seen dropping at a famous New Year’s celebration in the United States. The ball drops down a flagpole during the final minute of the year. When it reaches the bottom, a new year will have arrived. That ball dropping ceremony takes place every New Year’s Eve at Times Square in New York City. This New Year’s tradition began in nineteen oh four. But the tradition of dropping a time ball reportedly began in the eighteen hundreds in England. Lowering a ball was a popular way of telling the time so that ships at sea could make sure they had the correct time. Time balls were used in many ports during the nineteenth century. In the early nineteen hundreds, the New York Times newspaper owned a building in the Times Square area. The company began holding New Year’s celebrations on top of the building. The first celebration in nineteen oh four included a fireworks display. Three years later, officials added a time ball to count down the seconds to the New Year. The ball lowering has continued every year since then, except for two years during World War Two. Crowds still gathered in Times Square for the event in nineteen forty-two and nineteen forty-three. But they observed a minute of silence followed by the sound of bells. The first New Year’s Eve ball weighed more than three hundred kilograms and measured almost one and one-half meters around. It was made of iron and wood and covered with one-hundred lights. The ball used last year weighed almost five-hundred kilograms and measured almost two meters in diameter. It was covered with almost one thousand four hundred moving mirrors. The lighted ball drops twenty-three meters in sixty seconds. Many years ago, the only people who could watch it drop were those who went to Times Square to celebrate. Today, New York City officials say the ball drop has become an international sign of the New Year. They say satellite technology now makes it possible for more than one thousand million people around the world to watch the event in Times Square each year. Auld Lang Syne (MUSIC) HOST: That is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called “Auld Lang Syne.” It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: Auld Lang Syne is a Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends. The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since” or “the good old days.” The song’s message is to forget about the past and look with hope to the new year. Here, it is sung by Billy Joel. (MUSIC) No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Burns was published in seventeen-ninety-six. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later. Today, “Auld Lang Syne” is heard in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve, as the clock strikes twelve and we enter a new year. We leave you now with “Auld Lang Syne” played by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra. But before we go, all of us in Special English want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special AMERICAN MOSAIC program for New Year’s Eve. This show was written by Marilyn Christiano, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who also was the producer. Our engineer was Wayne Shorter. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Be sure to include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, V.O.A. Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, V.O.A.’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-12/a-2004-12-30-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Year in Economic News, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 31, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Russian oil company, Yukos, continued its legal battle with the Russian government in two-thousand-four. The government reported this year that Yukos owed more than twenty-seven thousand million dollars in taxes. Russian officials ordered Yukos to pay the debt by selling one of its businesses – Yuganskneftegaz. It is the main oil producing business of Yukos. Yukos sought protection from its creditors in a court in the United States. Judge Letitia Clark barred the sale of Yuganskneftegaz for ten days. She also barred Russia’s largest natural gas company, Gazprom, from buying the company. But within days, a Russian business, the Baikal Finance Group, bought Yuganskneftegaz. The group paid about nine thousand three hundred million dollars. Soon after, officials of Baikal Finance Group offered to sell their company to the Russian company Rosneft Oil. Last week, it was announced that Gazprom would join with Rosneft in January. The Russian government is the majority owner of Gazprom. Lawyers for Yukos say the offer to buy Yuganskneftegaz is illegal. They say Gazprom is using companies it controls to seize the most valuable part of Yukos. A decision was reached in another court case last week. The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg ruled against Microsoft Corporation in a dispute with the European Union. The court ordered Microsoft to pay about six hundred sixty-six million dollars. It also ordered the company to change the way its sells software products in Europe. Software is the group of commands that makes a computer work. Microsoft connects its software products to its operating system, Windows. About ninety percent of all computers use Windows. The European Commission on Competition ruled in March that combining, or bundling, software was unfair. It ordered Microsoft to provide a version of Windows without other Microsoft software products. The company is appealing the ruling. And, we started the year by reporting on the decreasing value of the American dollar. Since then, the dollar has dropped to a record low against the main money in Europe, the euro. The dollar also has lost about four percent of its value against the Japanese yen. Experts say the falling value of the dollar makes American exports less costly. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. Broadcast: December 31, 2004 I’m Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Russian oil company, Yukos, continued its legal battle with the Russian government in two-thousand-four. The government reported this year that Yukos owed more than twenty-seven thousand million dollars in taxes. Russian officials ordered Yukos to pay the debt by selling one of its businesses – Yuganskneftegaz. It is the main oil producing business of Yukos. Yukos sought protection from its creditors in a court in the United States. Judge Letitia Clark barred the sale of Yuganskneftegaz for ten days. She also barred Russia’s largest natural gas company, Gazprom, from buying the company. But within days, a Russian business, the Baikal Finance Group, bought Yuganskneftegaz. The group paid about nine thousand three hundred million dollars. Soon after, officials of Baikal Finance Group offered to sell their company to the Russian company Rosneft Oil. Last week, it was announced that Gazprom would join with Rosneft in January. The Russian government is the majority owner of Gazprom. Lawyers for Yukos say the offer to buy Yuganskneftegaz is illegal. They say Gazprom is using companies it controls to seize the most valuable part of Yukos. A decision was reached in another court case last week. The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg ruled against Microsoft Corporation in a dispute with the European Union. The court ordered Microsoft to pay about six hundred sixty-six million dollars. It also ordered the company to change the way its sells software products in Europe. Software is the group of commands that makes a computer work. Microsoft connects its software products to its operating system, Windows. About ninety percent of all computers use Windows. The European Commission on Competition ruled in March that combining, or bundling, software was unfair. It ordered Microsoft to provide a version of Windows without other Microsoft software products. The company is appealing the ruling. And, we started the year by reporting on the decreasing value of the American dollar. Since then, the dollar has dropped to a record low against the main money in Europe, the euro. The dollar also has lost about four percent of its value against the Japanese yen. Experts say the falling value of the dollar makes American exports less costly. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Gwen Outen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - January 2, 2003: Foreign Student Series #16 >Dorm or Apartment?
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w dot VOA special english dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) Today, we discuss where to live. Most American colleges permit foreign students to live in college housing or housing not owned by the university, such as an apartment. College housing is usually in a building called a dormitory, or dorm for short. Many foreign students say the dorms are less costly than apartments. They say dorms offer quiet study areas and areas for social activities or sports. They say dorms are close to places they go every day, like the library, computer center and classrooms. They also say that living in the dorm provides the best chance to get to know other students. Dormitories may have as few as twelve students or as many as one-thousand. Some dorms are organized into areas called suites. Suites have several bedrooms, a large living area and a bathroom. Six or more people may live in one suite. Other dorms have many rooms along a hallway. Two students usually live in each room. On each floor is a large bathroom for all the students who live on that floor. Sometimes there is also a kitchen for preparing food. In most universities, males and females live in the same dorm. They may even live on the same floor. But they usually may not live in the same room or suite. Most universities have some separate dorms for men and women. Edward Spencer is the chief housing officer at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He says some universities are willing to change policies so foreign students can live in the dorms. For example, Virginia Tech changed its policy banning candles in the dorms so that foreign students could hold ceremonies that require them. Mister Spencer says foreign students should ask questions of university officials before deciding where to live. For example: Does the university provide special kinds of food the student may require? Will the university provide a single room if the student requests it? Do any of the dorms have private bathing areas? Mister Spencer says it is important to understand the rules of the building in which you will live. This V-O-A Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - 1988 Election / George H.W. Bush / End of Berlin Wall
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 2, 2003 (THEME) George H.W. Bush Broadcast: January 2, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the presidential election of Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. VOICE ONE: America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan, was one of the most popular. During his eight years in office, many Americans did well financially. Many felt more secure about the future of the nation and the world. The threat of nuclear war did not seem so strong or frightening. American law does not permit presidents to serve more than two terms. So, in Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, the country prepared to elect a new one. VOICE TWO: There were three main candidates for the Republican Party nomination. They were George Bush, Robert Dole, and Pat Robertson. Bush had just served eight years as vice-president. Dole was the top Republican in the Senate. Robertson was a very conservative Christian who had a nation-wide television program. George Bush gained from Ronald Reagan's popularity. Reagan's successes were seen as Bush's successes, too. Neither Robert Dole nor Pat Robertson won enough votes in local primary elections to threaten Bush. He was nominated on the first vote at the party convention. The delegates accepted his choice for vice president, Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. VOICE ONE: Eight candidates competed for the Democratic Party's nomination.One was Michael Dukakis. He was governor of Massachusetts. Another was Jesse Jackson. He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. He had competed for the nomination four years earlier. In Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, Jesse Jackson received about twenty-five percent of the votes in local primary elections. But he did not win his party's nomination. Delegates at the convention chose Governor Dukakis, instead. For vice president,they chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For a time after the party conventions, public opinion studies showed that a majority of Americans would vote for Dukakis. Then, however, Dukakis began to lose popularity. Political observers said he campaigned too long in his home area before starting the nationql campaign. Dukakis also suffered from criticism from George Bush. Bush attacked his record as governor. He said Dukakis had not been severe enough with criminals. He said Dukakis would weaken America’s military power and he accused Dukakis of not protecting the environment. VOICE ONE: Governor Dukakis made charges of his own. He accused Bush of not telling the truth about his part in what was called the Iran-Contra case. He said Bush knew that the government had sold weapons to Iran in exchange for Iran's support in winning the release of American hostages in Lebanon. And he said Bush knew that the money received for the weapons was being used,illegally, to aid Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He also criticized Bush for being part of an administration that reduced social services to poor people and old people. VOICE TWO: Television played a large part in the campaign of Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. Each candidate made a number of short television films. Some of these political advertisements were strong, bitter attacks on the other candidate. Sometimes it seemed the candidates spent as much time on negative campaign advertisements as they did on advertisements that made themselves look good. In the end, Bush's campaign was more effective. He succeeded in making Dukakis look weak on crime and military issues. He succeeded in making himself look stronger and more decisive. On Election Day in November, Bush defeated Dukakis by almost seven-million popular votes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Bush was sworn-in on January Twentieth, Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. In his inaugural speech he said: BUSH: "No president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference, if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made -- not of gold and silk,but of better hearts and finer souls -- if he can do these things, then he must ... We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do." VOICE TWO: George Bush had led a life that prepared him for public service and leadership. His father had served as a United States senator. When America entered World War Two, George decided to join the Navy. He became a pilot of bomber planes. He was just eighteen years old -- at that time the youngest pilot the Navy ever had.He fought against the Japanese in the Pacific battle area. He completed many dangerous bombing raids. He was shot down once and was rescued by an American submarine. VOICE ONE: George came home from the war as a hero. He became a university student and got married. He and his wife, Barbara, then moved to Texas where he worked in the oil business. He ran for the United States Senate in Nineteen-Sixty-Four, and lost. Two years later,he was elected to the House of Representatives. He ran for the Senate again in Nineteen-Seventy, and lost again. But by that time, he had gained recognition. Over the next eight years, he was appointed to a series of government positions. He was ambassador to the United Nations. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was America's representative in China before the two countries had diplomatic relations. And he was head of the Central Intelligence Agency. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Eighty, Bush competed against Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for president. He lost. But the party chose him to be its vice presidential candidate. Bush gained more power in the position than many earlier vice presidents.After two terms, he felt ready to lead the nation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new president took seven foreign trips during his first year in office. Observers said his visit to Europe in the spring was especially successful. President Bush met with the leaders of the other countries in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He proposed a major agreement on reducing troops and non-nuclear weapons in Europe. The Soviet Union called this proposal a serious and important step in the right direction. VOICE TWO: In June, the government of China crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing. President Bush ordered some restrictions against China to protest the situation. Many critics, however, felt that this action was not strong enough. Unlike in China, communist governments in central and eastern Europe were not able to prevent the coming of democracy. Since Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had permitted members of the Warsaw Alliance to experiment with political and economic reforms. Reforms were not enough,however. One after the other, these countries rejected communism. Communist governments were removed from office in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. VOICE ONE: In the middle of the summer, President Bush visited Hungary and Poland. Both nations were trying to reform their economies. Both were suffering from severe problems as they changed from a centrally-controlled economy to an economy controlled by free market forces. President Bush promised America's advice and financial help. For almost fifty years, the United States had led the struggle against communism around the world. Now, many of its former enemies needed help. VOICE TWO: In the autumn of Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, there was a dramatic expression of the changes taking place in the world. On November Ninth, East Germany opened the wall that had divided it from the West since Nineteen-Sixty-One. Within days, citizens and soldiers began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended almost fifty years of fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. All over the world, people renewed their hopes and dreams of living in peace. And former enemies looked to the United States to lead the way. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the presidential election of Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. VOICE ONE: America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan, was one of the most popular. During his eight years in office, many Americans did well financially. Many felt more secure about the future of the nation and the world. The threat of nuclear war did not seem so strong or frightening. American law does not permit presidents to serve more than two terms. So, in Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, the country prepared to elect a new one. VOICE TWO: There were three main candidates for the Republican Party nomination. They were George Bush, Robert Dole, and Pat Robertson. Bush had just served eight years as vice-president. Dole was the top Republican in the Senate. Robertson was a very conservative Christian who had a nation-wide television program. George Bush gained from Ronald Reagan's popularity. Reagan's successes were seen as Bush's successes, too. Neither Robert Dole nor Pat Robertson won enough votes in local primary elections to threaten Bush. He was nominated on the first vote at the party convention. The delegates accepted his choice for vice president, Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana. VOICE ONE: Eight candidates competed for the Democratic Party's nomination.One was Michael Dukakis. He was governor of Massachusetts. Another was Jesse Jackson. He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. He had competed for the nomination four years earlier. In Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, Jesse Jackson received about twenty-five percent of the votes in local primary elections. But he did not win his party's nomination. Delegates at the convention chose Governor Dukakis, instead. For vice president,they chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For a time after the party conventions, public opinion studies showed that a majority of Americans would vote for Dukakis. Then, however, Dukakis began to lose popularity. Political observers said he campaigned too long in his home area before starting the nationql campaign. Dukakis also suffered from criticism from George Bush. Bush attacked his record as governor. He said Dukakis had not been severe enough with criminals. He said Dukakis would weaken America’s military power and he accused Dukakis of not protecting the environment. VOICE ONE: Governor Dukakis made charges of his own. He accused Bush of not telling the truth about his part in what was called the Iran-Contra case. He said Bush knew that the government had sold weapons to Iran in exchange for Iran's support in winning the release of American hostages in Lebanon. And he said Bush knew that the money received for the weapons was being used,illegally, to aid Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He also criticized Bush for being part of an administration that reduced social services to poor people and old people. VOICE TWO: Television played a large part in the campaign of Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. Each candidate made a number of short television films. Some of these political advertisements were strong, bitter attacks on the other candidate. Sometimes it seemed the candidates spent as much time on negative campaign advertisements as they did on advertisements that made themselves look good. In the end, Bush's campaign was more effective. He succeeded in making Dukakis look weak on crime and military issues. He succeeded in making himself look stronger and more decisive. On Election Day in November, Bush defeated Dukakis by almost seven-million popular votes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Bush was sworn-in on January Twentieth, Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. In his inaugural speech he said: BUSH: "No president, no government can teach us to remember what is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to lead this government can help make a difference, if he can celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made -- not of gold and silk,but of better hearts and finer souls -- if he can do these things, then he must ... We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to do." VOICE TWO: George Bush had led a life that prepared him for public service and leadership. His father had served as a United States senator. When America entered World War Two, George decided to join the Navy. He became a pilot of bomber planes. He was just eighteen years old -- at that time the youngest pilot the Navy ever had.He fought against the Japanese in the Pacific battle area. He completed many dangerous bombing raids. He was shot down once and was rescued by an American submarine. VOICE ONE: George came home from the war as a hero. He became a university student and got married. He and his wife, Barbara, then moved to Texas where he worked in the oil business. He ran for the United States Senate in Nineteen-Sixty-Four, and lost. Two years later,he was elected to the House of Representatives. He ran for the Senate again in Nineteen-Seventy, and lost again. But by that time, he had gained recognition. Over the next eight years, he was appointed to a series of government positions. He was ambassador to the United Nations. He was chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was America's representative in China before the two countries had diplomatic relations. And he was head of the Central Intelligence Agency. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Eighty, Bush competed against Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for president. He lost. But the party chose him to be its vice presidential candidate. Bush gained more power in the position than many earlier vice presidents.After two terms, he felt ready to lead the nation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The new president took seven foreign trips during his first year in office. Observers said his visit to Europe in the spring was especially successful. President Bush met with the leaders of the other countries in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He proposed a major agreement on reducing troops and non-nuclear weapons in Europe. The Soviet Union called this proposal a serious and important step in the right direction. VOICE TWO: In June, the government of China crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing. President Bush ordered some restrictions against China to protest the situation. Many critics, however, felt that this action was not strong enough. Unlike in China, communist governments in central and eastern Europe were not able to prevent the coming of democracy. Since Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had permitted members of the Warsaw Alliance to experiment with political and economic reforms. Reforms were not enough,however. One after the other, these countries rejected communism. Communist governments were removed from office in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. VOICE ONE: In the middle of the summer, President Bush visited Hungary and Poland. Both nations were trying to reform their economies. Both were suffering from severe problems as they changed from a centrally-controlled economy to an economy controlled by free market forces. President Bush promised America's advice and financial help. For almost fifty years, the United States had led the struggle against communism around the world. Now, many of its former enemies needed help. VOICE TWO: In the autumn of Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, there was a dramatic expression of the changes taking place in the world. On November Ninth, East Germany opened the wall that had divided it from the West since Nineteen-Sixty-One. Within days, citizens and soldiers began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended almost fifty years of fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. All over the world, people renewed their hopes and dreams of living in peace. And former enemies looked to the United States to lead the way. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 3, 2003: Top Movies, Books and Music of 2002
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VO-A’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and recordings of the year two-thousand-two. Most Popular Books of 2002 Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VO-A’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and recordings of the year two-thousand-two. Most Popular Books of 2002 HOST: The newspaper U-S-A Today recently listed the most popular books of last year in the United States. It creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Shep O’Neal tells us about a few of these books. ANNCR: The most popular book on the list is “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by British writer Joanne Rowling (ROE-ling). It is the fourth book in an extremely popular series of stories for children. The books tell about an English boy named Harry Potter who learns that he has magical powers. They describe the adventures of Harry and his friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry is usually in danger from an evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. So far, Harry has defeated him each time they have met. Joanne Rowling says she will write seven “Harry Potter” books, one for each year he spends at Hogwarts School. The fifth book is expected to be published later this year. The second most popular book of two-thousand-two is called “A Painted House.” It was written by American legal expert John Grisham. Mister Grisham is well known for writing stories about lawyers. “A Painted House” is a different kind of book for him. It is about a family’s ability to survive on a farm in the southern state of Arkansas in the nineteen-fifties. The story is told by seven-year-old Luke Chandler, who sees a murder on the farm. Critics say the book includes wonderful descriptions of life on a farm and examines the relationships between the boy and his parents and grandparents. HOST: The newspaper U-S-A Today recently listed the most popular books of last year in the United States. It creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Shep O’Neal tells us about a few of these books. ANNCR: The most popular book on the list is “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” by British writer Joanne Rowling (ROE-ling). It is the fourth book in an extremely popular series of stories for children. The books tell about an English boy named Harry Potter who learns that he has magical powers. They describe the adventures of Harry and his friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry is usually in danger from an evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. So far, Harry has defeated him each time they have met. Joanne Rowling says she will write seven “Harry Potter” books, one for each year he spends at Hogwarts School. The fifth book is expected to be published later this year. The second most popular book of two-thousand-two is called “A Painted House.” It was written by American legal expert John Grisham. Mister Grisham is well known for writing stories about lawyers. “A Painted House” is a different kind of book for him. It is about a family’s ability to survive on a farm in the southern state of Arkansas in the nineteen-fifties. The story is told by seven-year-old Luke Chandler, who sees a murder on the farm. Critics say the book includes wonderful descriptions of life on a farm and examines the relationships between the boy and his parents and grandparents. U-S-A Today says the third most popular book in the United States last year was “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold. This story is also told by a child, but this child has been murdered. Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon tells about her life and death. The book shows how her family and friends are affected by her death. Critics say “The Lovely Bones” is about how people heal and find a way to connect to each other after a great tragedy. Most Popular Movies of 2002 HOST: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The two most popular movies last year were fantasy stories about heroes with special powers who battle the forces of evil. The movie that earned the most money in ticket sales around the world last year was “Spider-Man.” It has earned more than eight-hundred-million dollars since it opened in May. The movie is about a quiet teenage boy named Peter Parker who is bitten by a genetically engineered spider. This changes his body. He becomes extremely strong and fast, and has special powers, like a spider. He can climb up walls and jump from one tall building to another. Peter uses these powers to help people. He hides this secret from everyone as he battles the evil Green Goblin, who in normal life is the father of his best friend. The second most popular movie around the world in two-thousand-two opened in December of two-thousand-one. “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” also has earned more than eight-hundred-million dollars around the world, but in a longer period of time than “Spider-Man.” Its story was first told in a book by British writer J.R.R. Tolkein. The story tells about a place called Middle Earth where a battle is about to start between the forces of good and evil. Frodo Baggins, a human-like creature called a hobbit, is the hero of the story. Frodo must take a magic ring back to where it was made and destroy it so that the forces of evil will be defeated. “Fellowship of the Ring” is the first of three books that tell about his journey. The movie is also the first of three that will show the struggles of Frodo Baggins and his allies to save their world. U-S-A Today says the third most popular book in the United States last year was “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold. This story is also told by a child, but this child has been murdered. Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon tells about her life and death. The book shows how her family and friends are affected by her death. Critics say “The Lovely Bones” is about how people heal and find a way to connect to each other after a great tragedy. Most Popular Movies of 2002 HOST: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The two most popular movies last year were fantasy stories about heroes with special powers who battle the forces of evil. The movie that earned the most money in ticket sales around the world last year was “Spider-Man.” It has earned more than eight-hundred-million dollars since it opened in May. The movie is about a quiet teenage boy named Peter Parker who is bitten by a genetically engineered spider. This changes his body. He becomes extremely strong and fast, and has special powers, like a spider. He can climb up walls and jump from one tall building to another. Peter uses these powers to help people. He hides this secret from everyone as he battles the evil Green Goblin, who in normal life is the father of his best friend. The second most popular movie around the world in two-thousand-two opened in December of two-thousand-one. “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” also has earned more than eight-hundred-million dollars around the world, but in a longer period of time than “Spider-Man.” Its story was first told in a book by British writer J.R.R. Tolkein. The story tells about a place called Middle Earth where a battle is about to start between the forces of good and evil. Frodo Baggins, a human-like creature called a hobbit, is the hero of the story. Frodo must take a magic ring back to where it was made and destroy it so that the forces of evil will be defeated. “Fellowship of the Ring” is the first of three books that tell about his journey. The movie is also the first of three that will show the struggles of Frodo Baggins and his allies to save their world. Both “Spider-Man” and “Lord of the Rings” were produced by major movie companies which spent a lot of money to make them. One popular American movie called “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” has earned more than two-hundred-million dollars so far. It was made by a small independent group that did not have much money to spend. It is the most popular independent American movie ever made. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a very funny movie about an American girl whose family came from Greece. It shows what happens when she decides to marry a man who is not Greek. Movie critics say it is popular because it is one of the few movies today that people of all ages can enjoy. People say they like the movie because the family is similar to everyone’s family, whether they are Greek or not. Most Popular Recorndings of 2002 HOST: Each December, Billboard Magazine lists the most popular albums, records and performers of the year. Mary Tillotson tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: Billboard magazine says the top album of two-thousand-two was recorded by rap music artist Eminem. It is called “The Eminem Show.” Here is a song from that album, “Without Me.” (MUSIC) Billboard says the male rock group Nickelback recorded the top single record of two-thousand-two. Here is that song, “How You Remind Me.” (MUSIC) Both “Spider-Man” and “Lord of the Rings” were produced by major movie companies which spent a lot of money to make them. One popular American movie called “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” has earned more than two-hundred-million dollars so far. It was made by a small independent group that did not have much money to spend. It is the most popular independent American movie ever made. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is a very funny movie about an American girl whose family came from Greece. It shows what happens when she decides to marry a man who is not Greek. Movie critics say it is popular because it is one of the few movies today that people of all ages can enjoy. People say they like the movie because the family is similar to everyone’s family, whether they are Greek or not. Most Popular Recorndings of 2002 HOST: Each December, Billboard Magazine lists the most popular albums, records and performers of the year. Mary Tillotson tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: Billboard magazine says the top album of two-thousand-two was recorded by rap music artist Eminem. It is called “The Eminem Show.” Here is a song from that album, “Without Me.” (MUSIC) Billboard says the male rock group Nickelback recorded the top single record of two-thousand-two. Here is that song, “How You Remind Me.” (MUSIC) Billboard says the second most popular song of the year was recorded by the top female recording artist of two-thousand-two. We leave you now with that song by Ashanti. It is called “Foolish.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwasi Smith. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Billboard says the second most popular song of the year was recorded by the top female recording artist of two-thousand-two. We leave you now with that song by Ashanti. It is called “Foolish.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwasi Smith. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Second Hottest Year
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Temperatures around the world continue to rise. United Nations scientists say they believe two-thousand-two was one of the warmest years ever measured. The scientists also say they expect the coming years will get even hotter. The U-N’s World Meteorological Organization reports that last year was the second warmest since record keeping began in eighteen-sixty. Nineteen-ninety-eight remains the warmest year ever measured. Ken Davidson is the director of the World Meteorological Organization’s World Climate Program. He says the ten warmest years all happened after nineteen-eighty-seven. Of those ten, nine happened after nineteen-ninety. He says the rate of temperature increase over the past twenty-five years is greater than that over the past one-thousand years. Mister Davidson says the organization agrees with scientific findings that global warming is happening as a result of human activities. He says one reason for the higher temperatures is the expansion of cities. Studies show that cities are hotter than other areas. Mister Davidson says another influence is the release of carbon dioxide and other industrial gases. Industrial gases have been shown to increase temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere. The new report says many areas experienced unusual weather in two-thousand-two. Most of Asia, for example, was warmer than usual. India had unusually high temperatures in April and May. The extremely hot weather caused hundreds of deaths. There also were extremely dry conditions across India. Parts of Africa experienced unusually heavy rains. Yet other areas in Africa had unusually dry weather. A severe ocean storm hit South Korea in August. It set a new national record for rainfall. In central Europe, more than one-hundred people died in flooding caused by heavy rainfall in September. The flooding also resulted in thousands of millions of dollars in property damage. Yet large parts of North and South America had extremely dry weather. The World Meteorological Organization also reported that a moderate El Nino weather system in the Pacific Ocean is expected to last until about April. The system has been bringing warmer weather to the eastern Pacific Ocean since the middle of last year. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: 1998 Wordmaster Programs
* Byline: 

 You're almost there -- just one more click to find the texts of programs from our first year 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 6, 2002: Harlem
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Mural at East 104th Street (THEME) VOICE ONE: It was home to the great jazz performers Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, poet Langston Hughes, and civil rights activist Malcolm X. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the area of New York City known as Harlem in our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: 116th Street It was home to the great jazz performers Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, poet Langston Hughes, and civil rights activist Malcolm X. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the area of New York City known as Harlem in our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Harlem is a community in the northern part of Manhattan in New York City. Harlem is known throughout the world as the center of African American culture. African American writers, musicians, artists and performers settled there during the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. This period of artistic expression is known as the Harlem Renaissance. Renaissance means re-birth. Later, however, Harlem experienced increased crime and difficult economic conditions. Now the community is in the process of great improvements. Many people are calling it Harlem’s Second Renaissance. VOICE TWO: The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce promotes economic development in the community. Lloyd Williams is director of the organization. Mister Williams says that the recent re-birth of the community is very different from the Harlem Renaissance of the nineteen-twenties. He says this Renaissance is about housing and economic development. Harlem’s economy is growing at a fast rate. Workers are rebuilding houses that are falling apart or were simply forgotten. Businesses are being built on almost every main street in Harlem’s major business center. Recent reports show crime rates have decreased sharply. Many people had once moved away because of crime and poor conditions. Now people are coming back to live in Harlem. Real estate agents say it costs less to live in Harlem than in most other areas of Manhattan. People like Harlem because of its lower prices, the interesting details on the houses, the large beautiful parks, and its many cultural events. Former President Bill Clinton opened an office in Harlem in two-thousand-one. Harlem is a community in the northern part of Manhattan in New York City. Harlem is known throughout the world as the center of African American culture. African American writers, musicians, artists and performers settled there during the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. This period of artistic expression is known as the Harlem Renaissance. Renaissance means re-birth. Later, however, Harlem experienced increased crime and difficult economic conditions. Now the community is in the process of great improvements. Many people are calling it Harlem’s Second Renaissance. VOICE TWO: The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce promotes economic development in the community. Lloyd Williams is director of the organization. Mister Williams says that the recent re-birth of the community is very different from the Harlem Renaissance of the nineteen-twenties. He says this Renaissance is about housing and economic development. Harlem’s economy is growing at a fast rate. Workers are rebuilding houses that are falling apart or were simply forgotten. Businesses are being built on almost every main street in Harlem’s major business center. Recent reports show crime rates have decreased sharply. Many people had once moved away because of crime and poor conditions. Now people are coming back to live in Harlem. Real estate agents say it costs less to live in Harlem than in most other areas of Manhattan. People like Harlem because of its lower prices, the interesting details on the houses, the large beautiful parks, and its many cultural events. Former President Bill Clinton opened an office in Harlem in two-thousand-one. VOICE ONE: One of Harlem’s greatest economic improvements is the opening of a huge shopping and entertainment center. It is called Harlem USA. It opened in two-thousand-one. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone provided financial loans for Harlem USA. Five-hundred-fifty-million dollars was spent on Harlem USA and several other projects to renew the community. For many years nationally known businesses would not open stores in Harlem. The opening of Harlem USA has changed that.Many people of Harlem are happy that national businesses finally recognize that their community should have the same fine stores as other communities. However, activists are worried about the small businesses that have remained in Harlem through the difficult times. These businesses are said to be the spirit of Harlem. Yet, they have not been offered loans to help their businesses. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone says an increase in shoppers and visitors to the area will help the small businesses. VOICE TWO: Long before there was Harlem USA, Harlem was just farmland. Dutch people settled in Harlem in sixteen-fifty-eight. They named it after a city in the Netherlands. In eighteen-thirty-seven the New York and Harlem Railroad Company completed a railroad link from Harlem to lower Manhattan. Rich immigrant families became interested in living in Harlem. Newly developed, high-priced homes were being built on the land. Harlem had become one of the finest areas of the city for white people. This changed in nineteen-oh-one, when a black real estate agent named Philip Payton influenced white landowners to rent their property to black families. Harlem quickly became the largest African American community in the United States. (MUSIC: “DROP ME OFF IN HARLEM"/Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald) VOICE ONE: Musician Duke Ellington and singer Ella Fitzgerald were among many blacks who became well known during the Harlem Renaissance. White people began to note the sudden increase of black culture that was happening there. The rich writings of James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neal Hurston and others are as important to the Harlem Renaissance as the music of that time. Here is a recording of poet Langston Hughes reading his poem “I Too.” (LANGSTON HUGHES) VOICE TWO: Harlem continues to be known throughout the world for its importance in the arts. For example, the Dance Theater of Harlem was founded in nineteen-sixty-nine by former New York City Ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell. Mister Mitchell says he wanted to provide new chances for young people in the mostly black and Hispanic community following the murder of civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior. The Dance Theater of Harlem has performed throughout the United States and in many other countries. VOICE ONE: Another artistic treasure is the Boys Choir of Harlem. Its founder and musical director is Walter Turnbull. In nineteen-sixty-eight twenty boys came to a Harlem church to form a singing group or choir. Over the years the choir has grown in size and skill. Now there are two-hundred-fifty members. The group has received international praise for performances of classical music, gospel and spirituals, show tunes, jazz and popular songs. Listen as the Boys Choir of Harlem sing “Heroes.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The famous Apollo Theater in Harlem opened in nineteen-fourteen. From the nineteen-thirties to the nineteen-seventies, the Apollo was the center of black entertainment in New York City and northeastern America. Musicians, singers, dancers and people who told funny stories performed there. People traveled from different parts of the United States to compete at the Apollo Theater’s famous Amateur Night. Amateur Night is a competition for nonprofessional performers. Some winners later became well known performers. Past winners of the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night competition include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Sarah Vaughn and the Jackson Five. VOICE ONE: The Apollo Theater has recently received some needed repairs. The theater is producing great performances again. A show called “Harlem Song” told the history of Harlem through music, dance, and historic pictures. Here is a song from the show. It is called “One Word.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today Harlem is still a mostly African American community. However, people of other ethnic groups live there too. Irish, Italian, Dominican, Haitian, Puerto Rican, West African, and other people live side by side. Harlem is a community that has seen the worst of economic times. Yet its citizens maintain a welcoming spirit. Harlem is one of the most popular places for visitors to New York City. While Harlem is proud of its rich history as the center of African American culture, the community moves toward the future. Experts say Harlem has much to look forward to in its Second Renaissance. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: One of Harlem’s greatest economic improvements is the opening of a huge shopping and entertainment center. It is called Harlem USA. It opened in two-thousand-one. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone provided financial loans for Harlem USA. Five-hundred-fifty-million dollars was spent on Harlem USA and several other projects to renew the community. For many years nationally known businesses would not open stores in Harlem. The opening of Harlem USA has changed that.Many people of Harlem are happy that national businesses finally recognize that their community should have the same fine stores as other communities. However, activists are worried about the small businesses that have remained in Harlem through the difficult times. These businesses are said to be the spirit of Harlem. Yet, they have not been offered loans to help their businesses. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone says an increase in shoppers and visitors to the area will help the small businesses. VOICE TWO: Long before there was Harlem USA, Harlem was just farmland. Dutch people settled in Harlem in sixteen-fifty-eight. They named it after a city in the Netherlands. In eighteen-thirty-seven the New York and Harlem Railroad Company completed a railroad link from Harlem to lower Manhattan. Rich immigrant families became interested in living in Harlem. Newly developed, high-priced homes were being built on the land. Harlem had become one of the finest areas of the city for white people. This changed in nineteen-oh-one, when a black real estate agent named Philip Payton influenced white landowners to rent their property to black families. Harlem quickly became the largest African American community in the United States. (MUSIC: “DROP ME OFF IN HARLEM"/Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald) VOICE ONE: Musician Duke Ellington and singer Ella Fitzgerald were among many blacks who became well known during the Harlem Renaissance. White people began to note the sudden increase of black culture that was happening there. The rich writings of James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neal Hurston and others are as important to the Harlem Renaissance as the music of that time. Here is a recording of poet Langston Hughes reading his poem “I Too.” (LANGSTON HUGHES) VOICE TWO: Harlem continues to be known throughout the world for its importance in the arts. For example, the Dance Theater of Harlem was founded in nineteen-sixty-nine by former New York City Ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell. Mister Mitchell says he wanted to provide new chances for young people in the mostly black and Hispanic community following the murder of civil rights leader Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior. The Dance Theater of Harlem has performed throughout the United States and in many other countries. VOICE ONE: Another artistic treasure is the Boys Choir of Harlem. Its founder and musical director is Walter Turnbull. In nineteen-sixty-eight twenty boys came to a Harlem church to form a singing group or choir. Over the years the choir has grown in size and skill. Now there are two-hundred-fifty members. The group has received international praise for performances of classical music, gospel and spirituals, show tunes, jazz and popular songs. Listen as the Boys Choir of Harlem sing “Heroes.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The famous Apollo Theater in Harlem opened in nineteen-fourteen. From the nineteen-thirties to the nineteen-seventies, the Apollo was the center of black entertainment in New York City and northeastern America. Musicians, singers, dancers and people who told funny stories performed there. People traveled from different parts of the United States to compete at the Apollo Theater’s famous Amateur Night. Amateur Night is a competition for nonprofessional performers. Some winners later became well known performers. Past winners of the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night competition include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Sarah Vaughn and the Jackson Five. VOICE ONE: The Apollo Theater has recently received some needed repairs. The theater is producing great performances again. A show called “Harlem Song” told the history of Harlem through music, dance, and historic pictures. Here is a song from the show. It is called “One Word.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today Harlem is still a mostly African American community. However, people of other ethnic groups live there too. Irish, Italian, Dominican, Haitian, Puerto Rican, West African, and other people live side by side. Harlem is a community that has seen the worst of economic times. Yet its citizens maintain a welcoming spirit. Harlem is one of the most popular places for visitors to New York City. While Harlem is proud of its rich history as the center of African American culture, the community moves toward the future. Experts say Harlem has much to look forward to in its Second Renaissance. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – January 6, 2003: UN Study of Vaccines
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Vaccines are special medicines to prevent diseases. They are usually given to children by injection. They have prevented millions of deaths around the world. However, a new report says children in rich countries are getting most of the world’s vaccines. The World Health Organization, World Bank, and the U-N Children’s Fund, UNICEF, released the joint study in November. It says that vaccinations are a powerful, low cost way to prevent the spread of diseases. However, the study found that twenty-five percent of the world’s children lack protection from common, preventable diseases. For example, only fifty percent of children in countries in southern Africa are vaccinated during the first years of life against diseases like tuberculosis, measles, tetanus and whooping cough. In some of the poorest developing countries, fewer than five percent of children are vaccinated against these diseases. Officials say many developing countries are not able to buy vaccines used in industrial countries. In fact, UNICEF, the single largest buyer of vaccines for children, also has problems finding needed medicines. This is because demand for vaccines is higher than the supply in the world market. Daniel Tarantola heads the vaccine program for the World Health Organization. He says one way to solve the shortage problem is by having developing nations manufacture their own vaccines. This, he says, would also help lower the cost of treatments in poor countries. Doctor Tarantola believes the market for vaccines in developing countries could be huge. This is because more than one-hundred-thirty-million children are born in developing countries each year. The report says wealthy countries need to provide poor nations with more aid money to help prevent the spread of diseases. Every year, industrial nations give more than one-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars in aid for vaccination programs. An extra two-hundred-fifty-million dollars a year would pay for major vaccines for at least another ten-million children. An additional one-hundred-million dollars a year would cover the cost of newer kinds of vaccines for those same children. Such new vaccines protect against diseases like Hepatitis B, which causes more than five-hundred-thousand deaths a year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 5, 2003: Henry Ford, Part 1
* Byline: 

 (THEME) Anncr: The first Ford and the ten millionth (THEME) Anncr: People in America -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person was important in the history of the United States. Today Steve Ember and Frank Oliver begin the story of industrialist Henry Ford. (Theme) VOICE 1: Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile. But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until eighteen-ninety-six. That was eleven years after two Germans -- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz -- developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the factory system that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many manufacturers used this system before Ford. What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better. Others made cars. Henry Ford made better cars. And he sold them for less money. Others built car factories. Henry Ford built the biggest factory of its time. And he made the whole factory a moving production line. Henry Ford had great skills in making machines work. He also had great skills as an organizer. His efforts produced a huge manufacturing company. But those same efforts almost ruined the company he built. VOICE 2: Henry Ford was born on a farm in the state of Michigan on July thirtieth, eighteen-sixty-three. The farm was near the city of Detroit. Henry was always interested in machines. He was always experimenting with them. He enjoyed fixing clocks. And he helped repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left the family farm. He went to Detroit to learn more about machines. In eighteen-seventy-nine, when Henry began work in Detroit, the city was a center of industrial development. Travelers could tell they were near Detroit by the cloud of smoke that hung over the city. Detroit was a center of iron and steel making. Nearby mines of lead and salt brought chemical companies to the city. And Detroit's copper and brass business was the largest in the world. One thing Henry Ford learned in Detroit was to have the right tool to do the job. It was something he would never forget. Voice one : after three years in Detroit, Henry returned to his family farm. He remained on the farm until he was thirty years old. But he was not a real farmer. He was a machine man. A nearby farmer, for example, had bought a small steam engine to be used in farming. The machine did not work correctly. Henry agreed to try to fix it. At the end of just one day, Henry knew everything about the machine. And he made it work again. Henry remembered that time as the happiest in his life. He said: "I was paid three dollars a day, and had eighty-three days of steady work. I have never been better satisfied with myself. " Another thing that made those days happy was meeting a young woman. Her name was Clara Jane Bryant. Years later Henry said: "I knew in half an hour she was the one for me." They were married in eighteen-eighty-eight, on Clara's twenty-second birthday. VOICE 2: Henry and Clara lived on a farm near Detroit. But, still, Henry was not a real farmer. He grew some food in a small garden. And he kept a few animals. But he made money mostly by selling trees from his farm. And he continued to fix farm equipment. It was really machines that he loved. In eighteen-ninety-one, Henry visited Detroit. There he saw a machine called the "Silent Otto." It was a device powered by gasoline. It had been developed by a German, Nikolaus August Otto. He was one of the men who had worked with Gottlieb Daimler, who developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. The Silent Otto did not move. But Henry saw immediately that if the machine could be put on wheels, it would move by itself. He returned home to Clara with an idea to build such a machine. He was sure he could do it. But the machine would need electricity to make the engine work. And Henry had not learned enough about electricity. So he took a job with an electric power company in Detroit. Henry, his wife Clara, and his young son Edsel moved to the city. VOICE 1: While Henry worked for the power company, he and a few other men developed a small engine. In June, eighteen-ninety-six, Henry had his first automobile. He called it a "quadricycle." It looked like two bicycles, side by side. It had thin tires like a bicycle. And it had a bicycle seat. In eighteen-ninety-nine, Henry resigned from the power company to work on his automobile. He won the support of a small group of rich men who formed the Detroit Automobile Company. By the start of nineteen-oh-one, however, the company had failed. Another man might have decided that the automobile business was not the best business for him. He might have stopped. Henry Ford was just getting started. VOICE 2: In the early days of the automobile, almost every carmaker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car. Ford's most famous race was his first. It also was the last race in which he drove the car himself. The race was in nineteen-oh-one, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered. And all withdrew, except two. The Winton. And Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began. The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the champion. His name appeared in newspapers. His fame began to spread. VOICE 1: Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. He left soon after, however, because he could not agree with the investors. He had no trouble finding new ones. Henry continued to build racing cars. His most famous cars of the time were the "Arrow" and the "Nine-Ninety-Nine. " Both won races. And they helped make the name Henry Ford more famous. Henry used what he learned from racing to develop a better engine. In nineteen-oh-three, he was ready to start building cars for the public. On July fifteenth, nineteen-oh-three, a man named doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. VOICE 2: The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number of requests for Ford cars. By the end of March, nineteen-oh-four, almost six-hundred Ford cars had been sold. The company had earned almost one-hundred-thousand dollars. Sales were so great that a new factory had to be found. At the start of nineteen-oh-five, the Ford Motor Company was producing twenty-five cars each day. It employed three-hundred men. The company produced several kinds of cars. First there was the Model A. Then there were the Model B, Model C and Model F. They were just a little different from the Model A -- one of Ford's most famous cars. Ford's Model K car was for wealthy buyers. One of the company's investors was sure the future of the automobile industry was in this costly car. Henry Ford did not agree. He was sure the future of the automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public. He said then, and many times after, "I want to make a car that anybody can buy." VOICE 2: These conflicting beliefs led to a battle for control of the company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the investors who wanted to make costly cars. He was then free to make the low-cost car he believed in. The story shows the way Henry's mind worked. When he thought he was correct, he was willing to invest his efforts and his money. Earlier, he had walked away from the business of making cars when he could not control the business. Now he had the money to buy the stock of those who disagreed with him. VOICE 1: In nineteen-oh-seven, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one." That was what Henry Ford wanted. To reach his goal, his life took many interesting turns. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman. People in America -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person was important in the history of the United States. Today Steve Ember and Frank Oliver begin the story of industrialist Henry Ford. (Theme) VOICE 1: Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile. But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until eighteen-ninety-six. That was eleven years after two Germans -- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz -- developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. Many people believe Henry Ford invented the factory system that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many manufacturers used this system before Ford. What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better. Others made cars. Henry Ford made better cars. And he sold them for less money. Others built car factories. Henry Ford built the biggest factory of its time. And he made the whole factory a moving production line. Henry Ford had great skills in making machines work. He also had great skills as an organizer. His efforts produced a huge manufacturing company. But those same efforts almost ruined the company he built. VOICE 2: Henry Ford was born on a farm in the state of Michigan on July thirtieth, eighteen-sixty-three. The farm was near the city of Detroit. Henry was always interested in machines. He was always experimenting with them. He enjoyed fixing clocks. And he helped repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left the family farm. He went to Detroit to learn more about machines. In eighteen-seventy-nine, when Henry began work in Detroit, the city was a center of industrial development. Travelers could tell they were near Detroit by the cloud of smoke that hung over the city. Detroit was a center of iron and steel making. Nearby mines of lead and salt brought chemical companies to the city. And Detroit's copper and brass business was the largest in the world. One thing Henry Ford learned in Detroit was to have the right tool to do the job. It was something he would never forget. Voice one : after three years in Detroit, Henry returned to his family farm. He remained on the farm until he was thirty years old. But he was not a real farmer. He was a machine man. A nearby farmer, for example, had bought a small steam engine to be used in farming. The machine did not work correctly. Henry agreed to try to fix it. At the end of just one day, Henry knew everything about the machine. And he made it work again. Henry remembered that time as the happiest in his life. He said: "I was paid three dollars a day, and had eighty-three days of steady work. I have never been better satisfied with myself. " Another thing that made those days happy was meeting a young woman. Her name was Clara Jane Bryant. Years later Henry said: "I knew in half an hour she was the one for me." They were married in eighteen-eighty-eight, on Clara's twenty-second birthday. VOICE 2: Henry and Clara lived on a farm near Detroit. But, still, Henry was not a real farmer. He grew some food in a small garden. And he kept a few animals. But he made money mostly by selling trees from his farm. And he continued to fix farm equipment. It was really machines that he loved. In eighteen-ninety-one, Henry visited Detroit. There he saw a machine called the "Silent Otto." It was a device powered by gasoline. It had been developed by a German, Nikolaus August Otto. He was one of the men who had worked with Gottlieb Daimler, who developed the first gasoline-powered automobile. The Silent Otto did not move. But Henry saw immediately that if the machine could be put on wheels, it would move by itself. He returned home to Clara with an idea to build such a machine. He was sure he could do it. But the machine would need electricity to make the engine work. And Henry had not learned enough about electricity. So he took a job with an electric power company in Detroit. Henry, his wife Clara, and his young son Edsel moved to the city. VOICE 1: While Henry worked for the power company, he and a few other men developed a small engine. In June, eighteen-ninety-six, Henry had his first automobile. He called it a "quadricycle." It looked like two bicycles, side by side. It had thin tires like a bicycle. And it had a bicycle seat. In eighteen-ninety-nine, Henry resigned from the power company to work on his automobile. He won the support of a small group of rich men who formed the Detroit Automobile Company. By the start of nineteen-oh-one, however, the company had failed. Another man might have decided that the automobile business was not the best business for him. He might have stopped. Henry Ford was just getting started. VOICE 2: In the early days of the automobile, almost every carmaker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car. Ford's most famous race was his first. It also was the last race in which he drove the car himself. The race was in nineteen-oh-one, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered. And all withdrew, except two. The Winton. And Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began. The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the champion. His name appeared in newspapers. His fame began to spread. VOICE 1: Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. He left soon after, however, because he could not agree with the investors. He had no trouble finding new ones. Henry continued to build racing cars. His most famous cars of the time were the "Arrow" and the "Nine-Ninety-Nine. " Both won races. And they helped make the name Henry Ford more famous. Henry used what he learned from racing to develop a better engine. In nineteen-oh-three, he was ready to start building cars for the public. On July fifteenth, nineteen-oh-three, a man named doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. VOICE 2: The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number of requests for Ford cars. By the end of March, nineteen-oh-four, almost six-hundred Ford cars had been sold. The company had earned almost one-hundred-thousand dollars. Sales were so great that a new factory had to be found. At the start of nineteen-oh-five, the Ford Motor Company was producing twenty-five cars each day. It employed three-hundred men. The company produced several kinds of cars. First there was the Model A. Then there were the Model B, Model C and Model F. They were just a little different from the Model A -- one of Ford's most famous cars. Ford's Model K car was for wealthy buyers. One of the company's investors was sure the future of the automobile industry was in this costly car. Henry Ford did not agree. He was sure the future of the automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public. He said then, and many times after, "I want to make a car that anybody can buy." VOICE 2: These conflicting beliefs led to a battle for control of the company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the investors who wanted to make costly cars. He was then free to make the low-cost car he believed in. The story shows the way Henry's mind worked. When he thought he was correct, he was willing to invest his efforts and his money. Earlier, he had walked away from the business of making cars when he could not control the business. Now he had the money to buy the stock of those who disagreed with him. VOICE 1: In nineteen-oh-seven, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one." That was what Henry Ford wanted. To reach his goal, his life took many interesting turns. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 4, 2003: Kenya’s New President
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Mwai Kibaki was sworn-in this week as president of Kenya. He won sixty-three percent of the vote in the Kenyan presidential election last Friday. Mister Kibaki was the candidate of an alliance of opposition groups called the National Rainbow Coalition. His election is widely considered an important victory for democracy in Kenya. Mister Kibaki replaces Daniel Arap Moi, who was Kenyan president for twenty-four years. Mister Moi led the Kenya African National Union, known as KANU. His party had been in power since Kenya gained independence from Britain in nineteen-sixty-three. It was the only party permitted in Kenya until nineteen-ninety-one. Constitutional changes put other parties on the ballot and limited Presidents to two terms in office. On Monday, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Nairobi to watch Mister Kibaki get sworn-in. Some people shouted at Mister Moi during the ceremony. Mister Moi listened quietly as Mister Kibaki noted the failings of his government. The new President said there has been what he called “a wide disconnect” between the people and the government. He said he believes that governments exist to serve the people, not the people to serve the government. Mister Kibaki’s main opponent in the election was Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta. President Moi supported Uhuru Kenyatta as the KANU candidate in the election last week. Mister Kenyatta won only thirty-percent of the vote. Kenya’s new leader is a former economist. He served ten years as vice president under Mister Moi. Then, he spent more than ten years in the political opposition. Mister Kibaki lost as a candidate for President in nineteen-ninety-two and nineteen-ninety-seven. KANU was accused of cheating in both elections to stay in power. Kenya has the largest economy in East Africa. But wasteful use of public money and dishonesty in government have weakened the economy in recent years. Many of the country’s thirty-million people survive on one dollar a day. The economic situation has hurt foreign investment. Many people blame Daniel Arap Moi for the problems. President Moi was praised for keeping Kenya peaceful when conflicts started in other parts of Africa. However, he was criticized for his oppressive rule. Mister Moi demanded loyalty from citizens and jailed those who dissented. His picture was on streets, airports, schools and Kenyan money. Many Kenyans expect a lot from Mister Kibaki and his government. He has said he wants to end dishonesty in government and help the poor. Some observers fear that the new government will not be able to force real change. They say many of those leading the National Rainbow Coalition were KANU members a short time ago. Others say Mister Kibaki’s attempts at reform may cause tensions. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - January 7, 2003: Developments in 2002
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some of the major science stories of the year two-thousand-two. We tell about hormone replacement research, an ancient burial box, a genetic map of rice, the spread of the disease AIDS and the smallpox vaccine debate. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last year, American government researchers halted a national women’s health study because they found harmful effects from hormone replacement therapy, or H-R-T. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. This period of life is called menopause. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems like heart disease. Recent studies have disagreed, however. The latest study was the largest ever carried out to investigate the effects of H-R-T on healthy older women. The study involved more than sixteen-thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. Half of the women took a pill containing the hormones estrogen and progestin. The others took an inactive substance. After five years, the women taking the hormones were twenty-six percent more likely to develop breast cancer than the others. The hormones also increased the chances of heart attacks by twenty-nine percent and strokes by forty-one percent. The hormone treatment was also found to reduce the number of broken bones and colon cancers. But officials at the National Institutes of Health decided to stop the study three years early because they believed the hormones were doing more harm than good. The researchers said more testing is needed to see if other kinds of hormone replacement therapy have similar effects. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: History and religious experts were excited last year about the discovery of an ancient box that might be the oldest historic evidence of Jesus. The box reportedly held the bones of a man said to the brother of Jesus, called James. The burial box belongs to a private collector in Israel. It contains a message written in the ancient Aramaic language. It says “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” An expert on ancient languages, Andre Lemaire, examined the box and wrote a study about it. He said the box was evidence of Jesus. But other experts have questioned his findings. They say the box is real and is two-thousand years old. They also say that the first part of the writing is real. But they say that the writing that means “brother of Jesus” was placed on the box at a later time and is not even in the Aramaic language. The experts do not think the dispute will be settled until the Israeli government carries out a more complete examination. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Another major science story from last year involved efforts to identify all the genes found in rice. In April, two teams of scientists published separate reports about the genetic information for rice plants. It was the first time scientists had mapped the genes of an important crop. The scientists say this genetic information could lead to improved kinds of rice and better rice production in developing countries. They also expect the information to be useful in improving other grains, such as corn and wheat. Rice feeds more than half the people in the world. But weather conditions, disease and insects can restrict its production. That may change because of efforts by the two scientific teams. One group was led by Jun Yu of the Beijing Genomics Institute in China and the University of Washington in Seattle. The scientists studied the rice most commonly grown in China, called indica rice. They said they have identified more than ninety percent of the genes in indica rice. The other scientists work for the Syngenta Company based in Switzerland. They did the research at the company’s Torrey Mesa Research Institute in La Jolla, California. They created a map of a short-grain rice grown in warm areas of the world, called japonica. Syngenta says its map is more than ninety-nine percent complete and ninety-nine percent correct. One expert said the rice genome could prove to be more important in the next few years than the human genome because more people depend on rice than any other crop. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Another important science story last year involved the increase in the number of people suffering from the disease AIDS. A United Nations report estimated that forty-two-million people are infected with the AIDS virus, also called H-I-V. Nearly thirty-nine-million of those infected are adults. More than nineteen-million of them are women. U-N officials said many women were infected with H-I-V by having sex with infected men. Studies have found that H-I-V passes more easily from men to women than from women to men. The main reason for the rise in infected women is the AIDS crisis in southern Africa. Fifty-eight percent of infected adults there are women. The report says this is one cause for the drop in agricultural production in several African countries. Women do much of the work on family farms in parts of Africa. U-N officials say more than fourteen-million people are at risk of starvation in six African countries. They are Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The U-N also reported rising infection rates among women in North Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean Sea area. The report shows that Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the world’s fastest growing population of people with H-I-V. In Asia and the Pacific Ocean area, more than seven-million people now have H-I-V. More than one-million people in China are infected. And almost four-million have the AIDS virus in India. The United Nations says the fight against AIDS needs at least ten-thousand-million dollars a year by two-thousand-five. The spending now is three-thousand-million dollars a year. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Another top science story last year was the debate about the vaccine medicine to prevent the disease smallpox. Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Smallpox can damage the brain and other body organs. It kills about thirty percent of the people who get it. There is no treatment. The vaccine ended the threat of smallpox around the world in nineteen-seventy-seven. But now, American officials fear that terrorists may have the virus and could use it in a biological attack. In December, President Bush announced a plan to protect the American people from smallpox. The plan will first give the vaccine to those serving in the military forces, health care workers and emergency workers. The vaccine would then be offered to the public in two-thousand-four. Experts say each person would decide if he or she wants the vaccine. However, the smallpox vaccine can be dangerous. It can even kill. The vaccine is a live virus similar to the one that causes smallpox. The vaccine can spread throughout a person’s body and cause infection. Records from the nineteen-sixties show that one or two people died for every one-million people who received the vaccine. Nine others suffered brain infections and more than one-hundred people developed severe skin infections. Hundreds of other people developed other health problems. Medical experts believe that even more people would suffer such reactions today. This is because many more people have weakened body defense systems against disease. These include cancer patients who have been treated with chemotherapy drugs, people infected with the AIDS virus and those with skin diseases like eczema. Doctors say the current smallpox vaccine has not been tested on children and may not be safe for them. Many health professionals have criticized President Bush’s decision to offer the vaccine to the public. They say the threat of becoming sick from the vaccine is greater than that from the disease unless a real terrorist attack takes place. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — January 7, 2003: Ways to Improve Rice
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Rice is the world’s most important crop. Much has been done to increase its productivity. Modern genetic science has tried to change the genes of rice to improve it. However, traditional methods for growing rice also have been very successful. Today, we show that both methods for improving crops are needed. Recently, Ray Wu of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and other researchers tried to create a kind of rice that is able to grow in difficult conditions. They discovered genes from the e-coli bacterium that help plants make a special sugar called trehalose (TREE-hal-ohs). The sugar is believed to help organisms remain healthy in difficult or dry conditions. The Cornell team engineered genes of basmati rice to accept the gene that helps form the special sugar. The team reported that the genetically engineered basmati rice was able to survive in salty soil, at low temperatures and during dry periods. The scientists say the new rice will be able to feed people even during periods of dry weather and in areas with increasingly salty water. However, not all genetic change is produced by combining genes from very different organisms. Olga Linares of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has shown that traditional agricultural methods remain important. She reported to the National Academy of Sciences that a new rice would have been impossible without traditionally grown African rice. There are two kinds of rice in the world – Asian rice and African rice. Mizz Linares notes that about eighty percent of the rice grown in Africa is Asian rice. Only fifteen percent is native African rice. However, researchers at the West African Rice Development Association in Ivory Coast were able to combine African rice with Asian rice to create what is called a hybrid. The new rice plant is called NERICA, or “New Rice for Africa.” The new rice is able to survive difficult conditions, like long periods of dry weather. The plants also produce more rice and can help increase food production. In southern African countries, food production has decreased since the nineteen-sixties. Many experts see NERICA rice as a way to solve that problem. Yet, NERICA would not have been possible if farmers in Senegal had not continued growing their traditional crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – January 8, 2003: Drugs for High Blood Pressure
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from high blood pressure, including about fifty-million Americans. High blood pressure is the main cause of heart failure and strokes, and can lead to heart attacks. Medicines called diuretics, or water pills, have been used to treat high blood pressure for many years. They do so by helping reduce water and sodium in the body. Diuretics increase the flow of urine, the body’s liquid waste. A new study shows that diuretics treat high blood pressure better than newer and more costly medicines. Diuretics also prevented heart failure and strokes slightly better than the costly drugs. Diuretics cost only about ten cents for each pill. This compares with almost two dollars a pill for one of the costly medicines in the study. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland organized the study. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results in December. The research began in nineteen-ninety-four. More than forty-two-thousand people in more than six-hundred hospitals took part. It was the largest study of blood pressure treatment ever carried out in the United States. There were many more women, blacks and Hispanics in the latest study than in earlier studies. The average age of the patients was sixty-seven. They all had high blood pressure. They also had at least one other health problem that might lead to heart disease. The patients took one of three kinds of drugs. One drug was a diuretic. The other medicines were newer and much more costly. One was a drug called a calcium channel blocker. The other was an ACE inhibitor. Researchers studied the patients’ progress for an average of five years. All the medicines lowered blood pressure. But the diuretic reduced the risk of problems including heart trouble and strokes better than the other drugs. Doctors have been ordering diuretics for their patients for more than fifty years. But new drugs developed in the past twenty years reduced the popularity of diuretics. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the more costly drugs after major studies. However, those studies did not compare the newer drugs to diuretics. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - January 8, 2003: Space in 2002
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Galileo spacecraft (NASA) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the important space news of the past year. ((THEME)) The Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off, creating billows of smoke and steam on its way into space earlier this yearCourtesy: NASA This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the important space news of the past year. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The year two-thousand-two saw the end of the working life of one of the most successful spacecraft ever launched from Earth. On October eighteenth, nineteen-eighty-nine, the American space agency launched a spacecraft named Galileo from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It weighed two-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-three kilograms. Galileo carried more than twenty science instruments and cameras to explore the planet Jupiter and its moons. Galileo would not arrive in the area near Jupiter for six years. But it began sending valuable information to scientists on Earth before then. Galileo was the first spacecraft to fly near two huge space rocks called asteroids. It flew near the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. And in July of nineteen-ninety-three, Galileo aimed its powerful cameras to photograph the crash of the comet named Shoemaker-Levy with the planet Jupiter. It sent back photographs of the huge explosions caused by the comet. Galileo began working near Jupiter in December of nineteen-ninety-five. VOICE TWO: Last month, NASA scientists began receiving some of the last recorded scientific information from Galileo. For some days, however, NASA officials thought that perhaps Galileo was no longer useful. In early November, Galileo had moved closer to Jupiter than ever before. The radiation from Jupiter damaged Galileo’s recording equipment. However, NASA scientists used radio signals to carefully repair the damage. Galileo once again began to broadcast the recordings of scientific information it had made about its last and closest flight near Jupiter. VOICE ONE: Galileo has been working for five years longer than its designers had planned. It was expected to have a working life of about two years. Yet, it was still doing useful work at the end of last year. Galileo has sent back thousands of photographs of Jupiter and its moons Europa and Io. It also has sent back huge amounts of recorded scientific information. Galileo has provided scientists with information about the atmosphere of these moons. It also found possible evidence of an underground ocean on the moon Europa. Scientists believe there may even be some kind of life in the underground ocean. Galileo also made photographs of huge volcanoes exploding on the moon Io. Galileo has been an extremely useful scientific instrument. However its long and useful working life will soon come to an end. Galileo has almost used up the supply of fuel it uses for pointing its radio equipment toward Earth and for controlling its flight path. While it can still be controlled, scientists have put it on a path that will cause it to crash into Jupiter next September. This flight path prevents Galileo from crashing into the moon Europa where it might damage any possible life in the underground ocean. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Also last year, NASA scientists made the final tests on two vehicles that will soon explore the surface of the planet Mars. The vehicles are two Mars Exploration Rovers. NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft also made news last year. It arrived in orbit around Mars in October of two-thousand-one. Its useful work began in February, two-thousand-two. That is when the Mars Odyssey began sending back the first images. They are part of a two-year plan to make the most complete maps ever made of the surface of Mars. In May, the Mars Odyssey surprised scientists by finding huge amounts of ice water just under the surface. It did this using several of the special instruments on the spacecraft. William Boynton is the chief researcher for the Mars Odyssey. Mister Boynton says the evidence supplied by Mars Odyssey shows much more ice than was expected. The water ice was found near the red planet’s south pole. And, scientists say the discovery of this amount of water is just the beginning of huge amounts of important information that will be supplied by the Mars Odyssey in the future. VOICE ONE: In October, NASA began releasing Mars Odyssey information and photographs to the scientists of the world. Stephen Saunders is the Odyssey project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Saunders says that scientists who study Mars consider the release of the Mars Odyssey information to be extremely valuable. He says the information is free to any scientists who can use a computer to link with the Internet communications system. Mars Odyssey information is available on your computer by linking with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The address is WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV. The address again is WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Only five space shuttle flights took place during two-thousand-two. No flights were made between June nineteenth and October seventh. NASA temporarily suspended the launch of its shuttle spacecraft because of fuel line damage to the main engines of the shuttles Atlantis and Discovery. These are two of the four vehicles that take astronauts into space and to the International Space Station. James Hartsfield is a spokesman for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He said NASA’s main concern was the possibility that a piece of metal in the fuel line would separate and move into the engine area. This would damage the engine and cause it to shut down. The shuttles began flying again after a long investigation and many repairs to the shuttle fuel lines. VOICE ONE: The flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in June made news with the return of the fourth crew of the International Space Station. Two of the crew members set a record for Americans in space. American astronauts Carl Walz and Dan Bursch had been members of the Space Station’s crew for one-hundred-ninety-six days. This record added to Astronaut Walz’s time in space for a total of two-hundred-thirty-one days. That is more than any other American astronaut. Cosmonaut Valery Korzun, Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev and NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson worked on the International Space Station for one-hundred-eighty-five days. They returned to Earth on December seventh on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. That flight was the one-hundred-twelfth successful shuttle flight into space. VOICE TWO: Four of the space shuttle flights last year were launched to take new crew members, scientific experiments, food, supplies and new parts to the International Space Station. These flights greatly expanded the size and power of the Space Station. The first flight to the Space Station took place in April. The shuttle delivered a thirteen-meter long part called the S-Zero Truss. It now serves to hold together the major parts of the space station. The December flight of the Endeavour carried more than one-thousand-nine-hundred kilograms o equipment to the Space Station. NASA plans seven shuttle flights this year. Six will go to the International Space Station. These flights will continue to expand and place equipment on the Space Station. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia made the first shuttle flight of the year in March. The seven astronauts completed a ten-day flight to renew and rebuild the Hubble Space Telescope. After the flight, NASA officials said the crew of Columbia had made the Hubble into a much more valuable space science instrument. It is now doing ten times more work than it could before. The space telescope immediately began sending back hundreds of photographs of space objects millions of light years away. NASA plans one more flight to provide service to the Hubble Space Telescope. That flight is expected to take place in two-thousand-four. NASA plans to use the Hubble until two-thousand-ten. At that time, NASA scientists will decide if the Hubble will return to Earth or be raised to a high orbit where it cannot fall back to Earth. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The year two-thousand-two saw the end of the working life of one of the most successful spacecraft ever launched from Earth. On October eighteenth, nineteen-eighty-nine, the American space agency launched a spacecraft named Galileo from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It weighed two-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-three kilograms. Galileo carried more than twenty science instruments and cameras to explore the planet Jupiter and its moons. Galileo would not arrive in the area near Jupiter for six years. But it began sending valuable information to scientists on Earth before then. Galileo was the first spacecraft to fly near two huge space rocks called asteroids. It flew near the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. And in July of nineteen-ninety-three, Galileo aimed its powerful cameras to photograph the crash of the comet named Shoemaker-Levy with the planet Jupiter. It sent back photographs of the huge explosions caused by the comet. Galileo began working near Jupiter in December of nineteen-ninety-five. VOICE TWO: Last month, NASA scientists began receiving some of the last recorded scientific information from Galileo. For some days, however, NASA officials thought that perhaps Galileo was no longer useful. In early November, Galileo had moved closer to Jupiter than ever before. The radiation from Jupiter damaged Galileo’s recording equipment. However, NASA scientists used radio signals to carefully repair the damage. Galileo once again began to broadcast the recordings of scientific information it had made about its last and closest flight near Jupiter. VOICE ONE: Galileo has been working for five years longer than its designers had planned. It was expected to have a working life of about two years. Yet, it was still doing useful work at the end of last year. Galileo has sent back thousands of photographs of Jupiter and its moons Europa and Io. It also has sent back huge amounts of recorded scientific information. Galileo has provided scientists with information about the atmosphere of these moons. It also found possible evidence of an underground ocean on the moon Europa. Scientists believe there may even be some kind of life in the underground ocean. Galileo also made photographs of huge volcanoes exploding on the moon Io. Galileo has been an extremely useful scientific instrument. However its long and useful working life will soon come to an end. Galileo has almost used up the supply of fuel it uses for pointing its radio equipment toward Earth and for controlling its flight path. While it can still be controlled, scientists have put it on a path that will cause it to crash into Jupiter next September. This flight path prevents Galileo from crashing into the moon Europa where it might damage any possible life in the underground ocean. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Also last year, NASA scientists made the final tests on two vehicles that will soon explore the surface of the planet Mars. The vehicles are two Mars Exploration Rovers. NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft also made news last year. It arrived in orbit around Mars in October of two-thousand-one. Its useful work began in February, two-thousand-two. That is when the Mars Odyssey began sending back the first images. They are part of a two-year plan to make the most complete maps ever made of the surface of Mars. In May, the Mars Odyssey surprised scientists by finding huge amounts of ice water just under the surface. It did this using several of the special instruments on the spacecraft. William Boynton is the chief researcher for the Mars Odyssey. Mister Boynton says the evidence supplied by Mars Odyssey shows much more ice than was expected. The water ice was found near the red planet’s south pole. And, scientists say the discovery of this amount of water is just the beginning of huge amounts of important information that will be supplied by the Mars Odyssey in the future. VOICE ONE: In October, NASA began releasing Mars Odyssey information and photographs to the scientists of the world. Stephen Saunders is the Odyssey project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Saunders says that scientists who study Mars consider the release of the Mars Odyssey information to be extremely valuable. He says the information is free to any scientists who can use a computer to link with the Internet communications system. Mars Odyssey information is available on your computer by linking with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The address is WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV. The address again is WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Only five space shuttle flights took place during two-thousand-two. No flights were made between June nineteenth and October seventh. NASA temporarily suspended the launch of its shuttle spacecraft because of fuel line damage to the main engines of the shuttles Atlantis and Discovery. These are two of the four vehicles that take astronauts into space and to the International Space Station. James Hartsfield is a spokesman for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He said NASA’s main concern was the possibility that a piece of metal in the fuel line would separate and move into the engine area. This would damage the engine and cause it to shut down. The shuttles began flying again after a long investigation and many repairs to the shuttle fuel lines. VOICE ONE: The flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in June made news with the return of the fourth crew of the International Space Station. Two of the crew members set a record for Americans in space. American astronauts Carl Walz and Dan Bursch had been members of the Space Station’s crew for one-hundred-ninety-six days. This record added to Astronaut Walz’s time in space for a total of two-hundred-thirty-one days. That is more than any other American astronaut. Cosmonaut Valery Korzun, Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev and NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson worked on the International Space Station for one-hundred-eighty-five days. They returned to Earth on December seventh on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. That flight was the one-hundred-twelfth successful shuttle flight into space. VOICE TWO: Four of the space shuttle flights last year were launched to take new crew members, scientific experiments, food, supplies and new parts to the International Space Station. These flights greatly expanded the size and power of the Space Station. The first flight to the Space Station took place in April. The shuttle delivered a thirteen-meter long part called the S-Zero Truss. It now serves to hold together the major parts of the space station. The December flight of the Endeavour carried more than one-thousand-nine-hundred kilograms o equipment to the Space Station. NASA plans seven shuttle flights this year. Six will go to the International Space Station. These flights will continue to expand and place equipment on the Space Station. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia made the first shuttle flight of the year in March. The seven astronauts completed a ten-day flight to renew and rebuild the Hubble Space Telescope. After the flight, NASA officials said the crew of Columbia had made the Hubble into a much more valuable space science instrument. It is now doing ten times more work than it could before. The space telescope immediately began sending back hundreds of photographs of space objects millions of light years away. NASA plans one more flight to provide service to the Hubble Space Telescope. That flight is expected to take place in two-thousand-four. NASA plans to use the Hubble until two-thousand-ten. At that time, NASA scientists will decide if the Hubble will return to Earth or be raised to a high orbit where it cannot fall back to Earth. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 9, 2003: George H.W. Bush / International Affairs
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with The Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue telling about the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush. He was elected the forty-first president of the United States in nineteen-eighty-eight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union ended under the administration of President George Bush. This very tense period had lasted more than forty years. The invention of weapons that could kill millions of people at one time increased worldwide fears during this period. The world was changing greatly however, during the late nineteen-eighties. The Soviet Union was dying. VOICE TWO: On November ninth, nineteen-eighty-nine, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall for the first time since it had been built. This wall had divided Communist East Germany from the West since nineteen-sixty-one. Citizens and soldiers soon began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended much of the fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. Tensions continued to ease as Communist rule in most of the former Soviet countries ended by the early nineteen-nineties. Fifteen republics had belonged to the Soviet Union. By the end of nineteen-ninety-one, most had declared their independence. President Bush recognized all the former Soviet republics. They became a very loosely formed coalition called the Commonwealth of Independent States. Countries that had considered the United States the enemy looked to it to lead the way to peace. VOICE ONE: As the Soviet Union was dying, President Bush repeatedly negotiated with Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. In the spring of nineteen-ninety, for example, their meeting in the United States resulted in an important agreement. It called for each side to destroy most of its chemical weapons. The two men also agreed to improve trade and economic relations. The American and Soviet presidents met in July, nineteen-ninety-one, in Moscow. There, the two leaders signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, called START ONE. This treaty called for both the Soviet Union and the United States to reduce their supply of long-range nuclear bombs and missiles. Each promised to decrease its supply by about one-third over seven years. START ONE became the first agreement between the two powers that ordered cuts in supplies of existing nuclear weapons. VOICE TWO: In September nineteen-ninety-one, President Bush said the United States would remove most of its short-range nuclear weapons from service. He also said the United States would destroy many of these weapons. The next month, the Soviet nations announced the same actions. On December twenty-fifth, Mikhail Gorbachev officially resigned as Soviet president. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ended. As president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin became the most important leader of the former Soviet Republics. President Bush and President Yeltsin signed another arms treaty in January, nineteen-ninety-three. This START TWO agreement provided for reducing long-range nuclear weapons to half the number planned for START ONE. Cuts were to be made over seven years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Bush ordered American forces into battle two times during his administration. These conflicts were not linked to disputes with Communist governments. In December nineteen-eighty-nine, he sent troops to Panama. The goal was to oust the dictator, General Manuel Antonio Noriega. Noriega had refused to honor election results that showed another candidate had been elected president of Panama. The United States also wanted Noriega on illegal drug charges. In addition, President Bush said he sent troops in to protect thirty-five-thousand Americans living in the Central American nation. American soldiers easily defeated Noriega’s forces. He was taken to the United States for trial. The United States then supported the presidency of Guillermo Endara, who had officially won the presidential election in Panama. VOICE TWO: In August nineteen-ninety, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States and other nations were receiving much of their oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The United Nations declared a resolution clearly threatening war on Iraq unless it withdrew from Kuwait by January fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-one. But Iraq failed to obey. President Bush succeeded in forming a coalition with thirty-eight other countries against Iraq. The coalition wanted to free Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Iraq. President Bush sent hundreds of thousands of American troops into the effort. VOICE ONE: The Persian Gulf War began in Iraq on January seventeenth, nineteen-ninety-one. At first, the coalition bombed Iraqi targets in Iraq and Kuwait. The bombing destroyed or damaged many important centers. On February twenty-sixth, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to leave Kuwait. The order came too late. The Iraqis were surrounded. Major ground attacks on Iraq and Kuwait defeated Saddam Hussein’s forces in a little more than four days. Only about three-hundred-seventy coalition troops died in the Persian Gulf War. Some military experts say as many as one-hundred-thousand Iraqi fighters may have been killed in the fighting. Others say far fewer Iraqi soldiers died. However, thousands of civilians were thought to have died in Iraq and Kuwait. Kuwait suffered severe damage. But it was free. VOICE TWO: After the war Saddam Hussein still controlled his country. Years later, some Americans continued to criticize the Bush Administration for not trying to oust the Iraqi leader. They believed President Bush should have urged that coalition forces try to capture the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. After the war ended, Kurdish people in northern Iraq fought to oust the Iraqi leader. So did Shi-ite Muslims in southern Iraq. These groups suffered crushing defeat. VOICE ONE: The defeated Kurds fled to Iran, Turkey, and the northern Iraqi mountains. Thousands of Kurds died or suffered from war injuries, disease, and starvation. In April, President Bush ordered American troops to work with other coalition nations to give humanitarian aid to the refugees. The troops established refugee camps for the Kurds. As time passed, Iraqi soldiers and aircraft continued to attack Kurds in the north and Shi-ite Muslims in the south. Coalition forces led by the United States established safety areas in northern and southern Iraq. Years later, these “no fly” areas still restricted Iraqi military air activity. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Bush also ordered American military troops to join other troops in Somalia. By late nineteen-ninety-two, lack of rain and continuing civil war had caused widespread suffering there. Opposing armed ethnic groups were keeping Somalis from receiving food and other aid supplies. American soldiers helped in the effort to get aid to the starving people. VOICE ONE: The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, was signed in late nineteen-ninety-two. It called for the United States and Mexico to remove taxes and other trade barriers. Mexico and Canada agreed to take similar action. NAFTA became effective in nineteen-ninety-four, after George Bush had left office. Some people feared that NAFTA would hurt millions of workers. Others praised President Bush for supporting the agreement. VOICE TWO: By the third year of his four-year term, President Bush’s international activities had made him an extremely popular president. It seemed he would be easily re-elected in nineteen-ninety two. Historians often say, however, that political situations can change quickly. That is what happened to America’s forty-first president. Economic problems and other issues inside the United States began to seriously damage the great popularity of George Herbert Walker Bush. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of The Making of A Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with The Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue telling about the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush. He was elected the forty-first president of the United States in nineteen-eighty-eight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union ended under the administration of President George Bush. This very tense period had lasted more than forty years. The invention of weapons that could kill millions of people at one time increased worldwide fears during this period. The world was changing greatly however, during the late nineteen-eighties. The Soviet Union was dying. VOICE TWO: On November ninth, nineteen-eighty-nine, East Germany opened the Berlin Wall for the first time since it had been built. This wall had divided Communist East Germany from the West since nineteen-sixty-one. Citizens and soldiers soon began tearing it down. The fall of the Berlin Wall ended much of the fear and tension between democratic nations and the Soviet Union. Tensions continued to ease as Communist rule in most of the former Soviet countries ended by the early nineteen-nineties. Fifteen republics had belonged to the Soviet Union. By the end of nineteen-ninety-one, most had declared their independence. President Bush recognized all the former Soviet republics. They became a very loosely formed coalition called the Commonwealth of Independent States. Countries that had considered the United States the enemy looked to it to lead the way to peace. VOICE ONE: As the Soviet Union was dying, President Bush repeatedly negotiated with Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. In the spring of nineteen-ninety, for example, their meeting in the United States resulted in an important agreement. It called for each side to destroy most of its chemical weapons. The two men also agreed to improve trade and economic relations. The American and Soviet presidents met in July, nineteen-ninety-one, in Moscow. There, the two leaders signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, called START ONE. This treaty called for both the Soviet Union and the United States to reduce their supply of long-range nuclear bombs and missiles. Each promised to decrease its supply by about one-third over seven years. START ONE became the first agreement between the two powers that ordered cuts in supplies of existing nuclear weapons. VOICE TWO: In September nineteen-ninety-one, President Bush said the United States would remove most of its short-range nuclear weapons from service. He also said the United States would destroy many of these weapons. The next month, the Soviet nations announced the same actions. On December twenty-fifth, Mikhail Gorbachev officially resigned as Soviet president. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ended. As president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin became the most important leader of the former Soviet Republics. President Bush and President Yeltsin signed another arms treaty in January, nineteen-ninety-three. This START TWO agreement provided for reducing long-range nuclear weapons to half the number planned for START ONE. Cuts were to be made over seven years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Bush ordered American forces into battle two times during his administration. These conflicts were not linked to disputes with Communist governments. In December nineteen-eighty-nine, he sent troops to Panama. The goal was to oust the dictator, General Manuel Antonio Noriega. Noriega had refused to honor election results that showed another candidate had been elected president of Panama. The United States also wanted Noriega on illegal drug charges. In addition, President Bush said he sent troops in to protect thirty-five-thousand Americans living in the Central American nation. American soldiers easily defeated Noriega’s forces. He was taken to the United States for trial. The United States then supported the presidency of Guillermo Endara, who had officially won the presidential election in Panama. VOICE TWO: In August nineteen-ninety, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States and other nations were receiving much of their oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The United Nations declared a resolution clearly threatening war on Iraq unless it withdrew from Kuwait by January fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-one. But Iraq failed to obey. President Bush succeeded in forming a coalition with thirty-eight other countries against Iraq. The coalition wanted to free Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from invasion by Iraq. President Bush sent hundreds of thousands of American troops into the effort. VOICE ONE: The Persian Gulf War began in Iraq on January seventeenth, nineteen-ninety-one. At first, the coalition bombed Iraqi targets in Iraq and Kuwait. The bombing destroyed or damaged many important centers. On February twenty-sixth, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to leave Kuwait. The order came too late. The Iraqis were surrounded. Major ground attacks on Iraq and Kuwait defeated Saddam Hussein’s forces in a little more than four days. Only about three-hundred-seventy coalition troops died in the Persian Gulf War. Some military experts say as many as one-hundred-thousand Iraqi fighters may have been killed in the fighting. Others say far fewer Iraqi soldiers died. However, thousands of civilians were thought to have died in Iraq and Kuwait. Kuwait suffered severe damage. But it was free. VOICE TWO: After the war Saddam Hussein still controlled his country. Years later, some Americans continued to criticize the Bush Administration for not trying to oust the Iraqi leader. They believed President Bush should have urged that coalition forces try to capture the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. After the war ended, Kurdish people in northern Iraq fought to oust the Iraqi leader. So did Shi-ite Muslims in southern Iraq. These groups suffered crushing defeat. VOICE ONE: The defeated Kurds fled to Iran, Turkey, and the northern Iraqi mountains. Thousands of Kurds died or suffered from war injuries, disease, and starvation. In April, President Bush ordered American troops to work with other coalition nations to give humanitarian aid to the refugees. The troops established refugee camps for the Kurds. As time passed, Iraqi soldiers and aircraft continued to attack Kurds in the north and Shi-ite Muslims in the south. Coalition forces led by the United States established safety areas in northern and southern Iraq. Years later, these “no fly” areas still restricted Iraqi military air activity. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: President Bush also ordered American military troops to join other troops in Somalia. By late nineteen-ninety-two, lack of rain and continuing civil war had caused widespread suffering there. Opposing armed ethnic groups were keeping Somalis from receiving food and other aid supplies. American soldiers helped in the effort to get aid to the starving people. VOICE ONE: The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, was signed in late nineteen-ninety-two. It called for the United States and Mexico to remove taxes and other trade barriers. Mexico and Canada agreed to take similar action. NAFTA became effective in nineteen-ninety-four, after George Bush had left office. Some people feared that NAFTA would hurt millions of workers. Others praised President Bush for supporting the agreement. VOICE TWO: By the third year of his four-year term, President Bush’s international activities had made him an extremely popular president. It seemed he would be easily re-elected in nineteen-ninety two. Historians often say, however, that political situations can change quickly. That is what happened to America’s forty-first president. Economic problems and other issues inside the United States began to seriously damage the great popularity of George Herbert Walker Bush. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of The Making of A Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - January 9, 2003: Foreign Student Series #17 >Teaching Assistants
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. Today, we discuss one way foreign students earn money while attending graduate school. They can work as teaching assistants. Teaching assistants are known as T-A’s for short. They usually work about twenty hours each week. They are paid to help college professors teach large numbers of students in lower level classes. Generally, the professor gives a talk or lecture to all the students in a large class one or two times a week. The teaching assistant leads another, smaller, class each week. The teaching assistant gives tests and reads any homework or reports the students may be required to write. T-A’s also meet with individual students seeking help. They attend teaching meetings. And they help organize laboratory equipment if they are helping to teach a science class. Most American colleges and universities must honor legal requirements when employing international students as teaching assistants. One of these is that the T-A must speak good English. Many university departments require all T-A’s from non-native English speaking countries to take one of two English speaking tests. One of these is the Test of Spoken English, or TSE. It is offered by the Educational Testing Service. Foreign students can take the test before they arrive in the United States. The other test is the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit, known as the SPEAK test. The college or university usually gives this test to make sure that students will be able to understand the foreign teaching assistant. For example, the University of West Virginia in Morgantown uses foreign teaching assistants. The university requires a good score on either test before an international student is permitted to teach. The university also suggests that foreign graduate students give a short talk to a group of people to make sure they will be understood. Foreign graduate students whose English is not good enough are given duties that do not require communication with students. They are expected to get the necessary help to improve their spoken English. Information about becoming a teaching assistant can be found on the Internet web sites of the universities that offer such positions. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-08-4-1.cfm
* Headline: January 9, 2003 - Sentence Structure
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": January 9, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we meet an English teacher who plays our program to his students, much to our delight. RS: What's surprising is that Brian Backman teaches right here in America, and his students are mostly native-born English speakers. Brian teaches at Anacortes High School in Washington State, in the Pacific Northwest. AA: His special interest is sentence structure. So we thought this would be a good chance to go over some of the basics. RS: One kind of phrase that Brian Backman finds his students sometimes have trouble with is called a participial phrase. BACKMAN: "A participial phrase is simply where you take a verb and you use it as an adjective to describe a noun in your sentence. And that causes some problems sometimes because students throw that into a sentence without understanding that it's got to modify something, like an adjective modifies a noun. Let's say you take a sentence like 'Reading a magazine, my dog ran up and began to lick my face.' That sentence makes it sound like the dog is reading the magazine, when what the writer intended to say is 'I was reading a magazine when the dog came up and licked my face.' So 'reading a magazine' is called a participial phrase -- it's a verb, an action, but it describes a person, in this case the person reading the magazine." AA: So how would he recommend his students rewrite a sentence like that? BACKMAN: "I would look at that sentence and I would probably say 'While I was reading a magazine, my dog ran up and began to lick my face.' You could also say 'Reading a magazine, I was licked in the face by my dog.' You get into a little bit of passive voice there, which isn't terrible, but you just don't want to overdue too much of that." RS: ... or start every sentence the typical way, with the subject. That, Brian Backman tells his students, can sound boring. BACKMAN: "So by having some ways of starting a sentence -- for example, with a participle, it adds some action to the sentence and it also adds some variety. You could also put the participle after the verb. For example, 'Joe, laughing at a joke, almost choked on his pizza.' I could have started it with 'Laughing at a joke, Joe almost choked on his pizza.' And that's the kind of thing writers do, is they play around with their sentences and they understand where things go and where things are clear and where they're not clear, and it just gives you more variety. It also shows you the amazing thing about the English sentence is, there are so many different ways of saying the same thing." RS: Yet, some ways that sound perfectly fine in spoken English might seem too casual in writing. Brian Backman runs into this issue with his students. BACKMAN: "You want them to be able to capture that power of spoken language, that freshness that we have, that colloquial quality of the English language, but you also want them to write standard English. And it's oftentimes this struggle of getting them to understand when you write a sentence it has to be understood by somebody who can't ask you a question. So it has to be clear, the syntax has to be clear, read it aloud, make sure there's only one meaning based on what you wrote, and not some unintended meaning or some silly meaning like the dangling modifier or dangling participle. But still you don't want it to sound like a computer wrote it, or a bureaucrat wrote it. You want it to still be your sentence." AA: "Now, for the 11 years that you've been teaching English, that's sort of tracked the time of the rise of electronic mail communication, e-mail, instant messaging, and this sort of language that we've seen spring up of kids writing back-and-forth in a very sort of abbreviated shorthand. Are you seeing that creeping into their writing at all?" BACKMAN: "I think probably because students write a lot of e-mail and things like that, and instant messaging, they tend to condense the language. Some English teachers see that as a bad thing, I see it as enlivening the language, really, because it's adding new words and a freshness to our language. Just like, you know, students have forever been using slang. Some of those slang terms and phrases we use today, without even realizing that at one time they were slang and they were seen as non-standard English, and I see it as something that's constantly enlivening our language. And that's the great thing about English is we don't have an academy like the French do." AA: But he says it's a challenge to get students to know when it's OK to use slang and when it's not. BACKMAN: "We talk about audience, think about who you're writing to, whether it's a speech or whether it's a piece of writing, an essay, think about who your audience is and make it appropriate. And that's just a lesson that I have to continue to reiterate to students, that you just cannot talk the same way to everybody. And that's a problem, because in our culture we've become more comfortable with speaking to everybody the same." RS: Brian Backman teaches at Anacortes High School, north of Seattle. He's written a book called "Building Sentence Skills: Tools for Writing the Amazing English Sentence," published just this week by Teacher Created Materials. AA: Brian found our program on our Web site, and you can too. It's voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": January 9, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we meet an English teacher who plays our program to his students, much to our delight. RS: What's surprising is that Brian Backman teaches right here in America, and his students are mostly native-born English speakers. Brian teaches at Anacortes High School in Washington State, in the Pacific Northwest. AA: His special interest is sentence structure. So we thought this would be a good chance to go over some of the basics. RS: One kind of phrase that Brian Backman finds his students sometimes have trouble with is called a participial phrase. BACKMAN: "A participial phrase is simply where you take a verb and you use it as an adjective to describe a noun in your sentence. And that causes some problems sometimes because students throw that into a sentence without understanding that it's got to modify something, like an adjective modifies a noun. Let's say you take a sentence like 'Reading a magazine, my dog ran up and began to lick my face.' That sentence makes it sound like the dog is reading the magazine, when what the writer intended to say is 'I was reading a magazine when the dog came up and licked my face.' So 'reading a magazine' is called a participial phrase -- it's a verb, an action, but it describes a person, in this case the person reading the magazine." AA: So how would he recommend his students rewrite a sentence like that? BACKMAN: "I would look at that sentence and I would probably say 'While I was reading a magazine, my dog ran up and began to lick my face.' You could also say 'Reading a magazine, I was licked in the face by my dog.' You get into a little bit of passive voice there, which isn't terrible, but you just don't want to overdue too much of that." RS: ... or start every sentence the typical way, with the subject. That, Brian Backman tells his students, can sound boring. BACKMAN: "So by having some ways of starting a sentence -- for example, with a participle, it adds some action to the sentence and it also adds some variety. You could also put the participle after the verb. For example, 'Joe, laughing at a joke, almost choked on his pizza.' I could have started it with 'Laughing at a joke, Joe almost choked on his pizza.' And that's the kind of thing writers do, is they play around with their sentences and they understand where things go and where things are clear and where they're not clear, and it just gives you more variety. It also shows you the amazing thing about the English sentence is, there are so many different ways of saying the same thing." RS: Yet, some ways that sound perfectly fine in spoken English might seem too casual in writing. Brian Backman runs into this issue with his students. BACKMAN: "You want them to be able to capture that power of spoken language, that freshness that we have, that colloquial quality of the English language, but you also want them to write standard English. And it's oftentimes this struggle of getting them to understand when you write a sentence it has to be understood by somebody who can't ask you a question. So it has to be clear, the syntax has to be clear, read it aloud, make sure there's only one meaning based on what you wrote, and not some unintended meaning or some silly meaning like the dangling modifier or dangling participle. But still you don't want it to sound like a computer wrote it, or a bureaucrat wrote it. You want it to still be your sentence." AA: "Now, for the 11 years that you've been teaching English, that's sort of tracked the time of the rise of electronic mail communication, e-mail, instant messaging, and this sort of language that we've seen spring up of kids writing back-and-forth in a very sort of abbreviated shorthand. Are you seeing that creeping into their writing at all?" BACKMAN: "I think probably because students write a lot of e-mail and things like that, and instant messaging, they tend to condense the language. Some English teachers see that as a bad thing, I see it as enlivening the language, really, because it's adding new words and a freshness to our language. Just like, you know, students have forever been using slang. Some of those slang terms and phrases we use today, without even realizing that at one time they were slang and they were seen as non-standard English, and I see it as something that's constantly enlivening our language. And that's the great thing about English is we don't have an academy like the French do." AA: But he says it's a challenge to get students to know when it's OK to use slang and when it's not. BACKMAN: "We talk about audience, think about who you're writing to, whether it's a speech or whether it's a piece of writing, an essay, think about who your audience is and make it appropriate. And that's just a lesson that I have to continue to reiterate to students, that you just cannot talk the same way to everybody. And that's a problem, because in our culture we've become more comfortable with speaking to everybody the same." RS: Brian Backman teaches at Anacortes High School, north of Seattle. He's written a book called "Building Sentence Skills: Tools for Writing the Amazing English Sentence," published just this week by Teacher Created Materials. AA: Brian found our program on our Web site, and you can too. It's voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 10, 2003: Mystery Writer Patricia Cornwell on Jack the Ripper / Question About Golden Globe Awards / Music from the Film 'Standing in the Shadows of Motown'
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Some of the Funk Brothers.(Photo - standingintheshadowsofmotown.com) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some American rock and roll music ... Answer a question about show business awards ... And tell about a new book that claims to solve an old murder mystery. Jack The Ripper Book HOST: A murderer walked the nighttime streets of London, England, in eighteen-eighty-eight. He killed at least five women. Newspapers called him Jack the Ripper. He was never caught. And he wrote letters to the London newspapers and police in which he laughed at their efforts to catch him. Many people have tried to discover who Jack the Ripper was. They have written books about the murders, and offered many ideas about the killer. But no one has been able to prove their claims. Now, an American writer has used modern methods to investigate the crimes. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Patricia Cornwell writes best-selling mystery books. She has also worked with scientists who investigate evidence from real crimes. Mizz Cornwell says she has found the evidence to prove who Jack the Ripper was. Patricia Cornwell spent several million dollars of her own money in the effort to discover who committed the murders claimed by Jack the Ripper. She hired scientists, hand-writing experts, art experts, history experts and criminal investigators. She scientifically examined the letters Jack the Ripper sent to newspapers and police. And, she examined hundreds of letters written by the man she claims to have been Jack the Ripper. Patricia Cornwell says she is one-hundred percent sure that Jack the Ripper was a famous British artist named Walter Sickert. She claims to have found enough evidence to prove it. She has detailed all of this evidence in a new book, “Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed.” The book tells the life story of Walter Sickert, and shows why he could have been Jack the Ripper. A top investigator for Britain’s Scotland Yard police organization said Mizz Cornwell’s evidence would be good enough to try Mister Sickert for the murders if he were still alive. Critics have commented on her work. Some say it is possible that she has discovered the real Jack the Ripper. Others disagree. They say the evidence is still not complete. They say her work only places Walter Sickert among a group of suspects. Experts say the question may never really be answered to satisfy everyone interested in the Jack the Ripper murders. But they also say Patricia Cornwell’s new book creates more interesting questions about a very old mystery. Golden Globe Awards HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Joseph asks about the Golden Globe Awards that are given to the best movies and television programs. The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association present the Golden Globe Awards every year. The Foreign Press Association is a group of international reporters who work in Hollywood, California. They broadcast and write about American entertainment for their home countries. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association presented the first Golden Globes in nineteen-forty-four. The group decided to give the awards every year before the Academy Awards ceremony so the awards would not be influenced by the Academy winners. The Golden Globe award is a statue of a golden world circled by a piece of motion picture film. At first, the association gave awards for best motion picture, leading actor, leading actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and director. Later, it added other awards, such as best screenplay, best music and best foreign language film. It also increased the number of awards by giving separate ones for dramatic movies and for comedies or musicals. In nineteen-fifty-five, the Golden Globes expanded to include awards for television. They honored best television drama shows, comedy shows, actors, actresses, and directors. American television began broadcasting the Golden Globe awards ceremony in nineteen-sixty-two. Today, about ninety members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association vote to decide the Golden Globe winners. Show business experts say the Golden Globe awards influence the motion picture Academy Awards each year. The Academy Award nominations are announced after the Golden Globe winners have been chosen. The Golden Globe Award nominees were announced last month. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Los Angeles on January nineteenth. The ceremony will be broadcast on television in one-hundred-twenty-five countries. 'Standing In The Shadows of Motown' HOST: You probably have never heard of a group of musicians called the Funk Brothers. Yet they played on more hit records than the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley combined. Mary Tillotson tells us about them. ANNCR: The Funk Brothers were the musicians who played rhythm and blues music of the nineteen-sixties that was called Motown. They played on hundreds of recordings by singers like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Supremes, the Four Tops and Stevie Wonder. A new movie tells about the Funk Brothers. It is called “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.” The group has also released an album of music from the movie. The Funk Brothers play while young singers perform several famous Motown songs, like this one, “Heat Wave,” by Joan Osborne. (MUSIC) Six of the Funk Brothers have died. But in the movie, seven remaining musicians tell about their lives and how they created the famous Motown sounds. Ben Harper sings this famous Motown song, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” (MUSIC) We leave you know with another song from “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.” Here is Chaka Khan and Montell Jordan singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some American rock and roll music ... Answer a question about show business awards ... And tell about a new book that claims to solve an old murder mystery. Jack The Ripper Book HOST: A murderer walked the nighttime streets of London, England, in eighteen-eighty-eight. He killed at least five women. Newspapers called him Jack the Ripper. He was never caught. And he wrote letters to the London newspapers and police in which he laughed at their efforts to catch him. Many people have tried to discover who Jack the Ripper was. They have written books about the murders, and offered many ideas about the killer. But no one has been able to prove their claims. Now, an American writer has used modern methods to investigate the crimes. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Patricia Cornwell writes best-selling mystery books. She has also worked with scientists who investigate evidence from real crimes. Mizz Cornwell says she has found the evidence to prove who Jack the Ripper was. Patricia Cornwell spent several million dollars of her own money in the effort to discover who committed the murders claimed by Jack the Ripper. She hired scientists, hand-writing experts, art experts, history experts and criminal investigators. She scientifically examined the letters Jack the Ripper sent to newspapers and police. And, she examined hundreds of letters written by the man she claims to have been Jack the Ripper. Patricia Cornwell says she is one-hundred percent sure that Jack the Ripper was a famous British artist named Walter Sickert. She claims to have found enough evidence to prove it. She has detailed all of this evidence in a new book, “Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed.” The book tells the life story of Walter Sickert, and shows why he could have been Jack the Ripper. A top investigator for Britain’s Scotland Yard police organization said Mizz Cornwell’s evidence would be good enough to try Mister Sickert for the murders if he were still alive. Critics have commented on her work. Some say it is possible that she has discovered the real Jack the Ripper. Others disagree. They say the evidence is still not complete. They say her work only places Walter Sickert among a group of suspects. Experts say the question may never really be answered to satisfy everyone interested in the Jack the Ripper murders. But they also say Patricia Cornwell’s new book creates more interesting questions about a very old mystery. Golden Globe Awards HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Joseph asks about the Golden Globe Awards that are given to the best movies and television programs. The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association present the Golden Globe Awards every year. The Foreign Press Association is a group of international reporters who work in Hollywood, California. They broadcast and write about American entertainment for their home countries. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association presented the first Golden Globes in nineteen-forty-four. The group decided to give the awards every year before the Academy Awards ceremony so the awards would not be influenced by the Academy winners. The Golden Globe award is a statue of a golden world circled by a piece of motion picture film. At first, the association gave awards for best motion picture, leading actor, leading actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and director. Later, it added other awards, such as best screenplay, best music and best foreign language film. It also increased the number of awards by giving separate ones for dramatic movies and for comedies or musicals. In nineteen-fifty-five, the Golden Globes expanded to include awards for television. They honored best television drama shows, comedy shows, actors, actresses, and directors. American television began broadcasting the Golden Globe awards ceremony in nineteen-sixty-two. Today, about ninety members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association vote to decide the Golden Globe winners. Show business experts say the Golden Globe awards influence the motion picture Academy Awards each year. The Academy Award nominations are announced after the Golden Globe winners have been chosen. The Golden Globe Award nominees were announced last month. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Los Angeles on January nineteenth. The ceremony will be broadcast on television in one-hundred-twenty-five countries. 'Standing In The Shadows of Motown' HOST: You probably have never heard of a group of musicians called the Funk Brothers. Yet they played on more hit records than the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley combined. Mary Tillotson tells us about them. ANNCR: The Funk Brothers were the musicians who played rhythm and blues music of the nineteen-sixties that was called Motown. They played on hundreds of recordings by singers like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Supremes, the Four Tops and Stevie Wonder. A new movie tells about the Funk Brothers. It is called “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.” The group has also released an album of music from the movie. The Funk Brothers play while young singers perform several famous Motown songs, like this one, “Heat Wave,” by Joan Osborne. (MUSIC) Six of the Funk Brothers have died. But in the movie, seven remaining musicians tell about their lives and how they created the famous Motown sounds. Ben Harper sings this famous Motown song, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” (MUSIC) We leave you know with another song from “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.” Here is Chaka Khan and Montell Jordan singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – January 10, 2003: Wildlife Reacting to Climate Changes
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. American scientists say rising temperatures on Earth’s surface are forcing animals and plants to move to cooler areas and make other changes. Their studies found that warmer weather is causing many kinds of wildlife to leave their native environments. They also found that such natural events as tree flowering and long-distance travel by birds are now happening earlier in the year. Nature magazine reported the findings. The scientists say the result of these changes could be environmental damage and local losses of wildlife. They also warn that some creatures could disappear completely. Plants and animals have always had to react to changing environments. However, the climate is now changing faster than ever before. Many scientists blame heat-trapping industrial gases for the warmer weather. Camille Parmesan (PAR-meh-zahn) is a biologist at the University of Texas at Austin. She organized one of the studies with economist Gary Yohe (YO-ee) of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut . They examined other studies that followed the movements of about one-thousand-seven-hundred kinds of wildlife over many years. They used mathematical programs to make sure that only the best information was studied. Their most detailed effort involved ninety-nine kinds of birds, insects and plants in North America and Europe. They found that the territory where these plants and animals live has moved north by an average of six kilometers every ten years. In Europe, some butterflies now live as much as one-hundred kilometers to the north because of changes linked to higher temperatures. Professors Parmesan and Yohe used similar methods to examine one-hundred-seventy-two kinds of wildlife. They examined the timing of events in the spring, such as the appearance of flowers and the reproduction of animals. They found that these events happened an average of two days earlier than normal every ten years. In the second study, scientists at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, examined wildlife and climate information from one-hundred-forty-three studies. They found that about eighty percent of the creatures studied had made changes because of warmer weather. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 12, 2002: Henry Ford, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (Theme) Anncr: 1938: A motorist starts a Model T with a crank handle, before the days of the self-starting engine.(Photo - Ben Shahn/Library of Congress) (Theme) Anncr: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Frank Oliver complete the story of industrialist Henry Ford. (Theme) VOICE 1: In nineteen-oh-three, a doctor in Detroit, Michigan, bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. That sale was the beginning of Henry Ford's dream. He wanted to build good, low-priced cars for the general public. As he said many times: "I want to make a car that anybody can buy." To keep prices low, Henry Ford decided that he would build just one kind of car. He called it the Model T. VOICE 2: The Model T was ready for sale in October nineteen-oh-eight. The Model T cost eight-hundred-fifty dollars. It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the Model T. So did farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the Model T. They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model T's were built in the first few years. The public wanted the car. And Henry Ford made more and more. VOICE 1: To make the Model T, Ford built the largest factory of its time. Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when they needed them. Other factories moved some parts to the workers. But Ford was the first to design his factory completely around this system. Production rose sharply. As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen-sixteen, the price had dropped to three-hundred forty-five dollars. The last step in Ford's production success was to raise his workers' pay. His workers had always earned about two-dollars for ten hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at other factories. With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changed jobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He raised wages to five dollars a day. VOICE 2: That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became popular with car buyers in nineteen-thirteen when he gave back fifty dollars to each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford was demonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages, they became better buyers. And if manufactures sold more products, they could lower prices and still earn money. This system worked for Ford because people continued to demand his Model T. And they had the money to buy it. But what would happen when people no longer wanted the Model T, or did not have the money. VOICE 1: In nineteen-nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with the other people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained complete control of the company. The investors did not do badly, however. An investment of ten-thousand dollars when the company was first established produced a return of twenty-five-million dollars. A few years later, another group of investors offered Ford one-thousand-million dollars for the company. But he was not interested in selling. He wanted complete control of the company that had his name. In a sense, Henry Ford was the company. VOICE 2: Henry's son, Edsel, was named president of the company before nineteen-twenty. No one truly believed that Edsel was running the company. Whatever Edsel said, people believed he was speaking for his father. In nineteen-twenty-three, fifty-seven percent of the cars produced in America were Model T Fords. About half the cars produced in the world were Fords. Taxicabs in Hong Kong. Most of the cars in south America. Never before -- or since -- has one car company so controlled world car production. VOICE 1: The success of the Ford Motor Company permitted Henry Ford to work on other projects. He became a newspaper publisher. He bought a railway. He built airplanes. He helped build a hospital. He even ran for the United States Senate. Some of Henry's projects were almost unbelievable. For example, he tried to end World War One by sailing to Europe with a group of peace supporters. VOICE 2: While Henry Ford enjoyed his success, a dangerous situation was developing. Other companies began to sell what only Ford had been selling: good, low-priced cars. Ford's biggest competitor was the General Motors Company. General Motors produced the Chevrolet automobile. Ford's Model T was still a dependable car. But it had not changed in years. People said the Model T engine was too loud. They said it was too slow. The Chevrolet, however, had a different look every year. And you could pay for one over a long period of time. Ford demanded full payment at the time of sale. Ford's share of the car market began to fall. VOICE 1: Everyone at Ford agreed that the Model T must go. Henry Ford disagreed. And it was his decision that mattered. Finally, in nineteen-twenty-six, even Henry admitted that the age of the Model T was over. A new Ford was needed. A year later, the Model T was gone. Strangely enough, people mourned its end. They did not want to buy it anymore. But they recognized that the Model T was the last of the first cars in the brave new world of automobile development. The success of Ford's new cars did not last long. After nineteen-thirty, Ford would always be second to General Motors. VOICE 2: In nineteen-twenty-nine, the United States suffered a great economic recession. Many businesses failed. Millions of people lost their jobs. In nineteen-thirty-one, the Ford Motor Company sold only half as many cars as it had the year before. It lost thirty-seven-million dollars. Working conditions at Ford grew worse. In nineteen-thirty-two, hungry, unemployed men marched near the Ford factory. Police, firefighters and Ford security guards tried to stop them with sticks, high-pressure water and guns. Four of the marchers died, and twenty were wounded. Newspapers all over the United States condemned the police, firefighters and security guards for attacking unarmed men. And to Make a bad situation worse, Ford dismissed all workers who attended funeral services for the dead. VOICE 1: More violence was to come. For several years, automobile workers had been attempting to form a labor union. Union leaders negotiated first with America's two other major automobile makers: the Chrysler company and General Motors. Those companies quickly agreed to permit a union in their factories. That left Ford alone to fight against the union. And fight he did. VOICE 2: In nineteen-thirty-seven, union organizers were passing out pamphlets to workers at the Ford factory. Company security guards struck. They were led by the chief of security, Harry Bennett. Harry Bennett knew nothing about cars. But he did know what Henry Ford wanted done. And he did it. Bennett's power came from Henry. The only person who might have had the power to stop Bennett was Henry's son, Edsel, who was president of the company. But Edsel himself was fighting Henry and his unwillingness to change. Bennett's power in the company continued to grow. His violence against the union of automobile workers also grew. The Ford Motor Company did not agree to negotiate with the union until nineteen-forty-one. Henry Ford accepted an agreement. If he had not, his company would have lost millions of dollars in government business. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-three, Edsel Ford died. With Edsel gone, Henry again became president of the Ford Motor Company. It was difficult to know if Henry or Harry Bennett was running the company. America was at war. And Henry was eighty years old, too old to deal with the problems of wartime production. And Bennett knew nothing at all about production. So Henry's grandson, also Henry Ford, was recalled from the Navy to run the company. Young Henry's first act was to dismiss Harry Bennett. VOICE 2: Old Henry Ford retired from business. His thoughts were in the past. He died in his sleep in nineteen-forty-seven, at the age of eighty-three. Henry Ford was not the first man whose name was given to an automobile. But his name-- more than any other -- was linked to that machine. And his dream changed the lives of millions of people. Some still wonder if Henry Ford was a simple man who seemed difficult, or a difficult man who seemed simple. No one, however questions the fact that he made the automobile industry one of the great industries in the world. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman. People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person important in the history of the United States. Today, Steve Ember and Frank Oliver complete the story of industrialist Henry Ford. (Theme) VOICE 1: In nineteen-oh-three, a doctor in Detroit, Michigan, bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company. That sale was the beginning of Henry Ford's dream. He wanted to build good, low-priced cars for the general public. As he said many times: "I want to make a car that anybody can buy." To keep prices low, Henry Ford decided that he would build just one kind of car. He called it the Model T. VOICE 2: The Model T was ready for sale in October nineteen-oh-eight. The Model T cost eight-hundred-fifty dollars. It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on. Doctors bought the Model T. So did farmers. Even criminals. They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation. Americans loved the Model T. They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model T's were built in the first few years. The public wanted the car. And Henry Ford made more and more. VOICE 1: To make the Model T, Ford built the largest factory of its time. Inside the factory, car parts moved to the workers exactly when they needed them. Other factories moved some parts to the workers. But Ford was the first to design his factory completely around this system. Production rose sharply. As production rose, Ford lowered prices. By nineteen-sixteen, the price had dropped to three-hundred forty-five dollars. The last step in Ford's production success was to raise his workers' pay. His workers had always earned about two-dollars for ten hours of work. That was the same daily rate as at other factories. With wages the same everywhere, factory workers often changed jobs. Henry Ford wanted loyal workers who would remain. He raised wages to five dollars a day. VOICE 2: That made Henry Ford popular with working men. He became popular with car buyers in nineteen-thirteen when he gave back fifty dollars to each person who had bought a Ford car. Henry Ford was demonstrating his idea that if workers received good wages, they became better buyers. And if manufactures sold more products, they could lower prices and still earn money. This system worked for Ford because people continued to demand his Model T. And they had the money to buy it. But what would happen when people no longer wanted the Model T, or did not have the money. VOICE 1: In nineteen-nineteen, Henry was involved in a dispute with the other people who owned stock in the Ford Motor Company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the other investors. He gained complete control of the company. The investors did not do badly, however. An investment of ten-thousand dollars when the company was first established produced a return of twenty-five-million dollars. A few years later, another group of investors offered Ford one-thousand-million dollars for the company. But he was not interested in selling. He wanted complete control of the company that had his name. In a sense, Henry Ford was the company. VOICE 2: Henry's son, Edsel, was named president of the company before nineteen-twenty. No one truly believed that Edsel was running the company. Whatever Edsel said, people believed he was speaking for his father. In nineteen-twenty-three, fifty-seven percent of the cars produced in America were Model T Fords. About half the cars produced in the world were Fords. Taxicabs in Hong Kong. Most of the cars in south America. Never before -- or since -- has one car company so controlled world car production. VOICE 1: The success of the Ford Motor Company permitted Henry Ford to work on other projects. He became a newspaper publisher. He bought a railway. He built airplanes. He helped build a hospital. He even ran for the United States Senate. Some of Henry's projects were almost unbelievable. For example, he tried to end World War One by sailing to Europe with a group of peace supporters. VOICE 2: While Henry Ford enjoyed his success, a dangerous situation was developing. Other companies began to sell what only Ford had been selling: good, low-priced cars. Ford's biggest competitor was the General Motors Company. General Motors produced the Chevrolet automobile. Ford's Model T was still a dependable car. But it had not changed in years. People said the Model T engine was too loud. They said it was too slow. The Chevrolet, however, had a different look every year. And you could pay for one over a long period of time. Ford demanded full payment at the time of sale. Ford's share of the car market began to fall. VOICE 1: Everyone at Ford agreed that the Model T must go. Henry Ford disagreed. And it was his decision that mattered. Finally, in nineteen-twenty-six, even Henry admitted that the age of the Model T was over. A new Ford was needed. A year later, the Model T was gone. Strangely enough, people mourned its end. They did not want to buy it anymore. But they recognized that the Model T was the last of the first cars in the brave new world of automobile development. The success of Ford's new cars did not last long. After nineteen-thirty, Ford would always be second to General Motors. VOICE 2: In nineteen-twenty-nine, the United States suffered a great economic recession. Many businesses failed. Millions of people lost their jobs. In nineteen-thirty-one, the Ford Motor Company sold only half as many cars as it had the year before. It lost thirty-seven-million dollars. Working conditions at Ford grew worse. In nineteen-thirty-two, hungry, unemployed men marched near the Ford factory. Police, firefighters and Ford security guards tried to stop them with sticks, high-pressure water and guns. Four of the marchers died, and twenty were wounded. Newspapers all over the United States condemned the police, firefighters and security guards for attacking unarmed men. And to Make a bad situation worse, Ford dismissed all workers who attended funeral services for the dead. VOICE 1: More violence was to come. For several years, automobile workers had been attempting to form a labor union. Union leaders negotiated first with America's two other major automobile makers: the Chrysler company and General Motors. Those companies quickly agreed to permit a union in their factories. That left Ford alone to fight against the union. And fight he did. VOICE 2: In nineteen-thirty-seven, union organizers were passing out pamphlets to workers at the Ford factory. Company security guards struck. They were led by the chief of security, Harry Bennett. Harry Bennett knew nothing about cars. But he did know what Henry Ford wanted done. And he did it. Bennett's power came from Henry. The only person who might have had the power to stop Bennett was Henry's son, Edsel, who was president of the company. But Edsel himself was fighting Henry and his unwillingness to change. Bennett's power in the company continued to grow. His violence against the union of automobile workers also grew. The Ford Motor Company did not agree to negotiate with the union until nineteen-forty-one. Henry Ford accepted an agreement. If he had not, his company would have lost millions of dollars in government business. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-three, Edsel Ford died. With Edsel gone, Henry again became president of the Ford Motor Company. It was difficult to know if Henry or Harry Bennett was running the company. America was at war. And Henry was eighty years old, too old to deal with the problems of wartime production. And Bennett knew nothing at all about production. So Henry's grandson, also Henry Ford, was recalled from the Navy to run the company. Young Henry's first act was to dismiss Harry Bennett. VOICE 2: Old Henry Ford retired from business. His thoughts were in the past. He died in his sleep in nineteen-forty-seven, at the age of eighty-three. Henry Ford was not the first man whose name was given to an automobile. But his name-- more than any other -- was linked to that machine. And his dream changed the lives of millions of people. Some still wonder if Henry Ford was a simple man who seemed difficult, or a difficult man who seemed simple. No one, however questions the fact that he made the automobile industry one of the great industries in the world. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 13, 2003: Homeless
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: No one knows exactly how many Americans do not have a permanent place to live. This homelessness continues although many efforts are being made to end it. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The problem of homeless people is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Homelessness continues to be one of the most important problems facing America. The most recent national population study said about one-hundred-seventy-thousand people do not have a place to live. But some experts say about two-million people in the United States have no homes. They say officials who count the population cannot find many people who live on the streets. Experts say homelessness is a temporary crisis for most people. But it is a continuing condition for others. VOICE TWO: The United States Conference of Mayors is an organization seeking to improve community life. The group recently studied twenty-five cities. It released a report last month. The study said eighteen of the cities reported an increased number of requests by homeless people for places to stay during the past year. These requests for emergency shelter increased an average of nineteen percent. This was the largest increase in ten years. Officials in all of the cities said they expected that requests for emergency shelter and food assistance will increase again during this year. The amount of time people spent without a home also increased last year in most of the cities. The study showed that the largest groups of homeless people are single men and families with children. A very small percentage are young people who have run away from home. VOICE ONE: Homeless people living on the streets suffer from the heat, cold, hunger and the threat of crime. In Chicago, Illinois, for example, a number of homeless people have frozen to death in the city’s poorest areas over the years. Government and social welfare experts have been trying for years to solve the problem of homelessness. But as experts dispute how to do this, the crisis grows larger. For example, the homeless population of San Francisco, California has increased by more than thirty-three percent in the past two years. San Francisco has more than seven-thousand people with no place to live. VOICE TWO: On the opposite coast, New York City also has a large homeless population. Each winter officials must deal with the risk of many of them freezing to death. The city responded to such a crisis two years ago. Officials launched an emergency housing program. Its goal was to provide homeless families with temporary living space in apartment buildings. But the problem grew. Temporary living space became long-term living space. About twenty-five percent of New York City’s homeless families now live in these apartments. A number of the buildings have conditions that threaten safety. New York has spent millions of dollars on the program. Yet most of its homeless families still have no place to escape from the cold. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Most experts say Americans are homeless for a number of reasons. One reason is economics. The nation’s economy is not growing. At the same time, housing costs are high. Many workers have lost their jobs and cannot find new jobs. However, many homeless people do have jobs. The study by the Conference of Mayors found that more than twenty percent of homeless people had jobs. But these people did not earn enough money to pay for housing. Or they had to spend all their money on medical treatment for AIDS or other diseases. Experts say some people are homeless by choice. They choose to live outside normal social groups. These people usually have lost connections with their family and friends. Many suffer from mental illness. Or, they may be dependent on alcohol or drugs. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Homelessness in America began to develop into a widespread problem in the nineteen-seventies. That was when health officials in many states decided to move about four-hundred-thousand patients suffering from mental illness out of hospitals. Many of these people could not care for themselves without help. Many could not get or keep a job. And there were not enough local mental health programs to help them. Soon many former mental patients were living on the streets. The federal government has estimated that almost forty percent of homeless adults show signs of serious mental problems. VOICE ONE: Today, many private groups work to help homeless people. For example, a religious organization called the Salvation Army operates throughout the nation. It offers food and many services. It has emergency shelters that provide overnight sleeping space for many people in need. Communities and other private social agencies also offer these kinds of shelters. However, some homeless people refuse to spend the night in shelters. Some people do not want to obey the shelter rules. Others are afraid they will get diseases in the shelters. Still other people stay out of shelters because they fear being robbed or attacked. Some homeless people think it is safer to live on the streets. However, in recent years, many people who live on the streets have been attacked and killed. VOICE TWO: Activist groups say homeless people are victims of crime far more often than they cause crime. Many members of the public, however, fear the homeless. They do not want to have homeless people near them. They say these people are dirty and they smell bad. They say homeless people often ask them for money and then insult or threaten them if they refuse. Some communities traditionally have shown concern for the homeless. But some of these cities are beginning to limit or reject the homeless. For example, the city of Santa Monica, California has had a friendly policy toward the homeless. But recently the community enacted two new laws aimed at limiting the presence of homeless people. Many Santa Monica citizens said the community was becoming a center for thousands of people they could not care for. Reports from around the nation say Santa Monica is not alone in passing or strengthening measures against the homeless. Media reports say the growing number of homeless in many areas has affected other Americans’ feelings toward them. Many people are showing less sympathy for the homeless than in the past. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Experts say there may be about ten-thousand homeless people in the nation’s capital. One old woman said she had to leave her home when she could not make the payments. She spends her time pushing a cart with wheels around the streets of Washington, D-C. This cart holds old clothes, many paper containers and a toy animal. The old woman says that when she lost her home, she lost everything important to her in life. Anthony Williams is the mayor of Washington, D-C. He said a major effort is needed to solve this problem. The effort must include additional federal money for housing, job training, drug treatment and mental health services. He said many agencies and organizations must work together to help homeless people improve their lives. VOICE TWO: The United States Conference of Mayors recently called for action by the Bush Administration, Congress, state and local governments, private organizations and all Americans. The mayors called on Congress to increase aid to the homeless as part of an effort to end homelessness within ten years. They called on Congress and the Administration to enact a national housing program which would provide jobs for tens of thousands of people. They called on Congress to improve federal anti-hunger programs. And they urged all Americans to give their time, money and food to help fight hunger and homelessness. The mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, Thomas Menino, said the world’s richest and most powerful nation must find a way to meet the needs of all its people. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – January 13, 2003: World Hunger Crisis
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. International experts are concerned about a growing humanitarian crisis – world hunger. Last year, the World Food Program fed more than seventy-seven-million people in eighty-two countries. Many of the people who received food aid are refugees and people forced to leave their homes because of conflict. This year, the humanitarian organization estimates an additional twenty-five-million people will need food aid. Several problems have caused the world hunger crisis. These include severe dry weather and conflicts within and between countries. The World Food Program says starvation is a problem in parts of Asia, Central America and the Middle East. However, the hardest hit area is Africa. Officials estimates about forty-million people on that continent alone are threatened with starvation. Trevor Rowe is a spokesman for the World Food Program. He says people in Ethiopia and Eritrea are facing starvation because of dry weather and a continuing war along their shared border. Severe dry weather conditions, or drought, have left fields unfertile. This lack of rain has also halted crop production in southern Africa. People in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi are also suffering from starvation. The World Food Program calls this area of Africa the “hunger belt.” Emergency efforts to ease the hunger crisis in southern Africa began nine months ago. By the end of last year, the World Food Program had given more than two-hundred-seventy-thousand metric tons of food to the six countries. However, food shipments could soon be halted if the World Food Program does not receive more money. Officials say the aid program in southern Africa needs about two-hundred-million dollars through March. The World Food Program is urging the international community to give more money. Officials say help is especially important now because early signs point to another possible drought in southern Africa this year. Mister Rowe says the disease AIDS in Africa is making the hunger crisis even worse. People are extremely weakened by the disease. So they cannot farm and they cannot take care of themselves. Mister Rowe says hunger and disease are linked. He describes the situation in Africa as a crisis within a crisis. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 11, 2003: North Korean Nuclear Crisis
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. North Korea has officially withdrawn from an international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. North Korea blamed its decision on the United States. It says the administration of President Bush plans to crush North Korea in a nuclear attack. The decision increases tensions in the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear activities. Last month, North Korea announced that it would re-start its nuclear center at Yongbyon. American officials fear the Yongbyon center could be used to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea said Friday that it has no immediate plans to make such weapons. It said the country’s nuclear activities would be limited to peaceful purposes, such as producing electric power. North Korea also rejected a call made by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United Nations agency wanted North Korea to re-admit inspectors. North Korea expelled the inspectors last week. It accused the United States of using the agency as a tool for carrying out hostile policy toward North Korea. Several nations have condemned North Korea’s decision. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said North Korea’s action has worsened the crisis. He called an emergency meeting of his national security team. The foreign minister of France said the U-N Security Council must now consider North Korea’s decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. China and Russia also expressed deep concern. An American arms control official said North Korea’s decision to withdraw from the treaty came as no surprise. Under Secretary of State John Bolton said North Korea was already violating the agreement. Mister Bolton said the United States has clearly expressed that it has no hostile aims toward North Korea. He said American officials want to settle the nuclear issue through diplomatic and peaceful methods. He also said the United States wants North Korea to honor existing treaties. Tensions about North Korea’s nuclear program started to increase in October. That is when American diplomat James Kelly said that North Korean officials admitted operating a secret nuclear weapons program. That would violate a nineteen-ninety-four agreement with the United States. North Korea has demanded direct talks with the United States about the nuclear issue. However, the two countries do not have diplomatic relations. Late this week, North Korea sent two officials to meet with America’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson. In the past, he led a number of diplomatic efforts for former President Bill Clinton. Mister Richardson now is governor of the American state of New Mexico. Governor Richardson says he is not an official negotiator, but has expressed a willingness to help. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk and George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – January 14, 2003: Campaign to End Polio
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Tricycles like this one are fitted with hand pedals ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the deadly disease polio and efforts to end it around the world. ((THEME)) (VOA Photo - Rosanne Skirble) This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the deadly disease polio and efforts to end it around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: People do not usually celebrate a disease. But recently, in the northern Nigerian village of Rogo, men and women gathered for a special ceremony. The celebration launched National Immunization Days in Nigeria. This is a government-organized campaign to give polio vaccine medicine to more than forty-million Nigerian children under age five. The message of the men and women singing at the event is simple: Parents, give your children the polio vaccine medicine. If you do not, you hurt yourselves and them. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Efforts to end polio around the world started in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, four international aid groups launched a campaign to end polio by two-thousand-five. The groups are the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the private group Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The campaign is called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. It has been very successful. Over the past fourteen years, the number of new polio infections around the world has dropped by more than ninety-nine percent. VOICE ONE: When the campaign first started, more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand new cases of polio were reported. In two-thousand-one, however, there were just four-hundred-eighty-three new cases. The disease used to infect people in one-hundred-twenty-five countries. Now it is found in fewer than ten countries. Most of these remaining cases are in parts of the world where getting the polio vaccine to children has been difficult. India, Pakistan and Nigeria currently have the most new cases of polio. These nations share conditions that support the spread of the disease. They include low rates of vaccination, unclean living conditions, weak public health systems, and large crowded populations. Nigeria, for example, has the largest population in Africa – more than one-hundred-twenty-million people. VOICE TWO: This is why the Nigerian government holds National Immunization Days several times a year. During these special campaigns, trained health workers bring the polio vaccine to children in every house in every village throughout the country. In some countries, medical teams find it difficult to vaccinate children against polio. This is because communities are far from cities, or in areas where travel is difficult. Conflicts are also a problem in some countries. Sometimes travel is not permitted or areas are too dangerous to enter. These workers in Nigeria, however, were lucky. They were able to bring the polio vaccine to all the country’s villages. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It can affect people at any age. However, it usually affects children under age three. The virus enters through the mouth and then grows inside the throat and intestines. It can spread quickly through communities in drinking water infected with human waste. It can also be passed through human touch, such as kissing an infected person. Signs of polio include a high temperature, stomach sickness, and pain in the head and neck. Once the poliovirus becomes established in the intestines, it can spread to the blood and nervous system. When this happens, victims can become paralyzed. They lose the ability to move. This paralysis is almost always permanent. In very serious cases, the paralysis can lead to death because victims are not able to breathe. VOICE TWO: Stephen Cochi (CO-chee) heads international vaccination efforts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. He says that one in two-hundred polio-infected children in high-risk populations will become permanently paralyzed. The other children will become carriers of the virus and may spread the disease to other people. There is no cure for polio, so the best treatment is prevention. A few drops of a powerful vaccine medicine will protect a child for life. The vaccine must be given four times over several years to be fully effective. VOICE ONE: The effects of polio can revisit some victims later in life. This is called post-polio syndrome, or P-P-S. This condition affects polio survivors about thirty-five years after their first polio attack. Currently, there are about twenty-million polio survivors around the world. Signs of the condition include muscle weakness, pain in the head, neck and back, tiredness, and trouble sleeping, breathing and swallowing. There is no cure for P-P-S. However, rest and less physical activity can help treat the condition. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-fifties, American scientists Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed medicines that prevented polio. Before these first vaccines were discovered, thousands of children got the disease every year. Today, however, vaccine medicine has made polio rare. In the United States, the vaccine is injected into the body. However, in developing countries, the vaccine is usually given by drops in the mouth. This method is more effective for developing countries because so many children need to be treated. Some young people, like this one in Nigeria, do not like taking the medicine. ((SOUNDS: CHILD CRYING)) VOICE ONE: Health officials hope to halt the spread of polio in Nigeria. The World Health Organization will declare the country polio-free after three years of no new cases. This depends on the success of the government’s vaccination campaign. Over the past four years, more than two-hundred-thousand people have taken part in National Immunization Days in Nigeria. These trained health workers usually work in teams of two people. The teams bring the vaccine to children in villages. They also look for signs of possible new cases. This kind of work permits medical experts to study the virus and its development. Any information about new polio cases is sent to an important health laboratory in Africa. It is part of a special system of more than one-hundred similar laboratories around the world. VOICE TWO: This system of laboratories is the most complete for any disease. Health officials use the system to examine the genetic form of the polio virus and study how it spreads through populations. This information helps health workers give polio vaccines to children who live in the exact area where the disease started. Officials say the campaign to end polio by two-thousand-five has been very successful. However, some problems have developed. One problem is finding well-trained people to give the vaccines and investigate individual polio cases as they develop. The international laboratory system has eased this problem. Officials say it has helped build closer ties between public officials and health workers around the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Since the polio campaign began fourteen years ago, two-thousand-million children in ninety-four countries have been vaccinated. In two-thousand-one alone, the vaccine was given to five-hundred-seventy-five-million children. The World Health Organization estimates the international polio campaign will cost about three-thousand-million dollars during the next three years. Currently, plans to gain about two-hundred-seventy-five-million dollars of that amount are moving forward. Support has come from governments, international agencies and many private aid groups, such as Rotary International. This organization has given more money than any other private group. Rotary International has given almost five-hundred-million dollars. It has promised to raise about eighty-million dollars by the end of this year. This is a lot of money. However, Rotary International says that no price is too high to pay to end polio on Earth. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: People do not usually celebrate a disease. But recently, in the northern Nigerian village of Rogo, men and women gathered for a special ceremony. The celebration launched National Immunization Days in Nigeria. This is a government-organized campaign to give polio vaccine medicine to more than forty-million Nigerian children under age five. The message of the men and women singing at the event is simple: Parents, give your children the polio vaccine medicine. If you do not, you hurt yourselves and them. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Efforts to end polio around the world started in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, four international aid groups launched a campaign to end polio by two-thousand-five. The groups are the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the private group Rotary International and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The campaign is called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. It has been very successful. Over the past fourteen years, the number of new polio infections around the world has dropped by more than ninety-nine percent. VOICE ONE: When the campaign first started, more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand new cases of polio were reported. In two-thousand-one, however, there were just four-hundred-eighty-three new cases. The disease used to infect people in one-hundred-twenty-five countries. Now it is found in fewer than ten countries. Most of these remaining cases are in parts of the world where getting the polio vaccine to children has been difficult. India, Pakistan and Nigeria currently have the most new cases of polio. These nations share conditions that support the spread of the disease. They include low rates of vaccination, unclean living conditions, weak public health systems, and large crowded populations. Nigeria, for example, has the largest population in Africa – more than one-hundred-twenty-million people. VOICE TWO: This is why the Nigerian government holds National Immunization Days several times a year. During these special campaigns, trained health workers bring the polio vaccine to children in every house in every village throughout the country. In some countries, medical teams find it difficult to vaccinate children against polio. This is because communities are far from cities, or in areas where travel is difficult. Conflicts are also a problem in some countries. Sometimes travel is not permitted or areas are too dangerous to enter. These workers in Nigeria, however, were lucky. They were able to bring the polio vaccine to all the country’s villages. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It can affect people at any age. However, it usually affects children under age three. The virus enters through the mouth and then grows inside the throat and intestines. It can spread quickly through communities in drinking water infected with human waste. It can also be passed through human touch, such as kissing an infected person. Signs of polio include a high temperature, stomach sickness, and pain in the head and neck. Once the poliovirus becomes established in the intestines, it can spread to the blood and nervous system. When this happens, victims can become paralyzed. They lose the ability to move. This paralysis is almost always permanent. In very serious cases, the paralysis can lead to death because victims are not able to breathe. VOICE TWO: Stephen Cochi (CO-chee) heads international vaccination efforts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. He says that one in two-hundred polio-infected children in high-risk populations will become permanently paralyzed. The other children will become carriers of the virus and may spread the disease to other people. There is no cure for polio, so the best treatment is prevention. A few drops of a powerful vaccine medicine will protect a child for life. The vaccine must be given four times over several years to be fully effective. VOICE ONE: The effects of polio can revisit some victims later in life. This is called post-polio syndrome, or P-P-S. This condition affects polio survivors about thirty-five years after their first polio attack. Currently, there are about twenty-million polio survivors around the world. Signs of the condition include muscle weakness, pain in the head, neck and back, tiredness, and trouble sleeping, breathing and swallowing. There is no cure for P-P-S. However, rest and less physical activity can help treat the condition. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-fifties, American scientists Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed medicines that prevented polio. Before these first vaccines were discovered, thousands of children got the disease every year. Today, however, vaccine medicine has made polio rare. In the United States, the vaccine is injected into the body. However, in developing countries, the vaccine is usually given by drops in the mouth. This method is more effective for developing countries because so many children need to be treated. Some young people, like this one in Nigeria, do not like taking the medicine. ((SOUNDS: CHILD CRYING)) VOICE ONE: Health officials hope to halt the spread of polio in Nigeria. The World Health Organization will declare the country polio-free after three years of no new cases. This depends on the success of the government’s vaccination campaign. Over the past four years, more than two-hundred-thousand people have taken part in National Immunization Days in Nigeria. These trained health workers usually work in teams of two people. The teams bring the vaccine to children in villages. They also look for signs of possible new cases. This kind of work permits medical experts to study the virus and its development. Any information about new polio cases is sent to an important health laboratory in Africa. It is part of a special system of more than one-hundred similar laboratories around the world. VOICE TWO: This system of laboratories is the most complete for any disease. Health officials use the system to examine the genetic form of the polio virus and study how it spreads through populations. This information helps health workers give polio vaccines to children who live in the exact area where the disease started. Officials say the campaign to end polio by two-thousand-five has been very successful. However, some problems have developed. One problem is finding well-trained people to give the vaccines and investigate individual polio cases as they develop. The international laboratory system has eased this problem. Officials say it has helped build closer ties between public officials and health workers around the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Since the polio campaign began fourteen years ago, two-thousand-million children in ninety-four countries have been vaccinated. In two-thousand-one alone, the vaccine was given to five-hundred-seventy-five-million children. The World Health Organization estimates the international polio campaign will cost about three-thousand-million dollars during the next three years. Currently, plans to gain about two-hundred-seventy-five-million dollars of that amount are moving forward. Support has come from governments, international agencies and many private aid groups, such as Rotary International. This organization has given more money than any other private group. Rotary International has given almost five-hundred-million dollars. It has promised to raise about eighty-million dollars by the end of this year. This is a lot of money. However, Rotary International says that no price is too high to pay to end polio on Earth. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — January 14, 2003: World Coffee Prices
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. World coffee prices have dropped by almost fifty percent over the last three years. They are at their lowest level in thirty years. Low prices are affecting about twenty-five-million coffee growers. Most of them have small farms. Coffee is an important crop for the developing economies of Latin America, central Africa and southeast Asia. However, the international aid organization Oxfam says that coffee growers are getting less for their crop even as the world market has grown. Oxfam says producers receive less than ten percent of the income created in the world coffee market. World coffee production has grown by about two-hundred percent since nineteen-fifty. New growing methods have caused part of this increase. Farmers have traditionally grown coffee under the cover of trees, often fruit trees. Trees protect the coffee plants from too much sun and provide fertilizer. Fruit trees also can provide another crop for coffee farms. However, the introduction of chemical fertilizers and more productive kinds of coffee plants have changed the traditional methods. Now, many coffee farmers grow their crop in full sun and use man-made fertilizers. The result is a larger crop and what appears to be too much coffee on the world market. The World Bank has suggested that farmers use traditional methods of growing coffee. It has also studied production methods that permit better prices and continued development. It calls this “sustainable coffee.” The World Bank says that sustainable coffee requires more investment in coffee production methods. In October, the World Bank announced the first international price insurance for small coffee producers. Price insurance is financial protection that farmers buy. It protects them from losing money on insured crops. The insurance will help two-hundred-fifty coffee growers in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Nicaragua, and companies from Sweden and Switzerland provided support for the project. The World Bank also says that people in rich countries should be willing to buy what is called “fair trade coffee.” That is coffee sold by growers who observe rules on record-keeping, growing methods and safe working conditions. These coffees cost more, but may help protect coffee growers in developing economies. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – New Pill Camera Examines Intestines
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many millions of people around the world suffer from problems of the small intestine. Bleeding from abnormal growths and other disorders affect an estimated nineteen-million people in the United States alone. But the problems have been difficult to identify because it is hard for doctors to examine this organ. Now, however, a new device is giving doctors a better look at the small intestine. An Israeli company developed the Given Diagnostic System. It examines the stomach and small intestine. The manufacturer says about eight-hundred medical centers around the world now have this equipment. The patient swallows a small device called the M2A imaging capsule. It is about the size of a normal medicine pill. The device contains an extremely small, color video camera. It passes through the patient’s stomach and small intestine. As it moves, the camera takes more than fifty-thousand pictures of these organs. A receiver around the patient’s abdomen records the images. The camera works for about six to eight hours. Then it passes naturally out of the body. Patients do not have to stay in a hospital during the examination. Later, the video images are downloaded into a computer so the doctor can examine them and find any problems. Several experts have praised this new medical tool to examine patients. They say it shows the small intestine better than X-rays or a method called endoscopy (en-DOS-co-py). Endoscopy uses a long thin tube with a small camera on the end. Doctors place the tube down a patient’s throat all the way to the small intestine. The camera looks for growths or other problems. But endoscopes cannot reach all the way through the six meters of the small intestine. Endoscopy also requires medicine to ease pain or to put the patient to sleep. This examination must be done in a hospital. Experts say the new M2A system does not cause the patient pain or bad side effects. However, the small camera can not take pictures of the whole large intestine. So it cannot replace an examination called colonoscopy. And, people who may have a blockage in their intestines cannot be tested with the new method. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: January 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many millions of people around the world suffer from problems of the small intestine. Bleeding from abnormal growths and other disorders affect an estimated nineteen-million people in the United States alone. But the problems have been difficult to identify because it is hard for doctors to examine this organ. Now, however, a new device is giving doctors a better look at the small intestine. An Israeli company developed the Given Diagnostic System. It examines the stomach and small intestine. The manufacturer says about eight-hundred medical centers around the world now have this equipment. The patient swallows a small device called the M2A imaging capsule. It is about the size of a normal medicine pill. The device contains an extremely small, color video camera. It passes through the patient’s stomach and small intestine. As it moves, the camera takes more than fifty-thousand pictures of these organs. A receiver around the patient’s abdomen records the images. The camera works for about six to eight hours. Then it passes naturally out of the body. Patients do not have to stay in a hospital during the examination. Later, the video images are downloaded into a computer so the doctor can examine them and find any problems. Several experts have praised this new medical tool to examine patients. They say it shows the small intestine better than X-rays or a method called endoscopy (en-DOS-co-py). Endoscopy uses a long thin tube with a small camera on the end. Doctors place the tube down a patient’s throat all the way to the small intestine. The camera looks for growths or other problems. But endoscopes cannot reach all the way through the six meters of the small intestine. Endoscopy also requires medicine to ease pain or to put the patient to sleep. This examination must be done in a hospital. Experts say the new M2A system does not cause the patient pain or bad side effects. However, the small camera can not take pictures of the whole large intestine. So it cannot replace an examination called colonoscopy. And, people who may have a blockage in their intestines cannot be tested with the new method. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 15, 2003: Potomac River
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Harper's Ferry(Photo - David T. Gilbert/National Park Service) ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Join us today as we travel along the Potomac River in the eastern United States. The Potomac is one of America’s most historic waterways. ((SOUND: River noises) Towpath(Photo - Steve Ember) This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Join us today as we travel along the Potomac River in the eastern United States. The Potomac is one of America’s most historic waterways. ((SOUND: River noises) VOICE ONE: The Potomac River flows more than six-hundred kilometers from the Allegheny Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic Ocean coast. The river flows through West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. It also flows through the United States capital, Washington, D-C. The Potomac is the wildest river in the world that flows through a heavily populated area. It supplies water for more than eighty percent of the four-million people who live in the Washington area. Millions of people use the river and the land nearby for recreational activities. These include boating, fishing, hiking and bird watching. The area is home to important birds such as the great blue heron and the American bald eagle. The Potomac River has played an important part in American history. For example, America’s first President, George Washington, lived for many years along the Potomac in Virginia. He urged that the river be developed to link Americans with the West. VOICE TWO: We will explore the Potomac River in a small boat called a canoe that we move through the water using sticks called paddles. Our trip will take seven or eight days. The boat has only enough space for two or three people. But we will not be alone on the water. Other canoes float nearby. (Photo - Avery A. Drake Jr./U.S. Geological Survey) VOICE ONE: The Potomac River flows more than six-hundred kilometers from the Allegheny Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, on the Atlantic Ocean coast. The river flows through West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. It also flows through the United States capital, Washington, D-C. The Potomac is the wildest river in the world that flows through a heavily populated area. It supplies water for more than eighty percent of the four-million people who live in the Washington area. Millions of people use the river and the land nearby for recreational activities. These include boating, fishing, hiking and bird watching. The area is home to important birds such as the great blue heron and the American bald eagle. The Potomac River has played an important part in American history. For example, America’s first President, George Washington, lived for many years along the Potomac in Virginia. He urged that the river be developed to link Americans with the West. VOICE TWO: We will explore the Potomac River in a small boat called a canoe that we move through the water using sticks called paddles. Our trip will take seven or eight days. The boat has only enough space for two or three people. But we will not be alone on the water. Other canoes float nearby. We start in the calm waters of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. A guide in the boat next to us says people lived here fifteen-thousand years ago. The Potomac River was a meeting place for American Indians long before Europeans arrived. The Indians gathered to trade food and furs. Today, people often find objects that the Indians left behind. VOICE ONE: We work hard to paddle our canoe, and are happy to stop and rest at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. During the nineteenth century, this village was an important transportation center for the river, a smaller waterway and a railroad. At Harpers Ferry, the Potomac flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here it meets the Shenandoah River. From our boat we can see the water flowing toward huge rocks. Green trees cover the mountains on either side. Round white clouds hang low against a blue sky. It looks very peaceful. VOICE TWO: But this area is not known for peace. In eighteen-fifty-nine, the United States was close to civil war between the northern and southern states. The federal government had a weapons center at Harpers Ferry. John Brown, a militant who was against slavery, decided to raid it. Historians believe he did this to provide slaves with weapons for a rebellion. John Brown and eighteen of his supporters captured the weapons center. However, federal troops recaptured the center the next day. John Brown was later hanged. But his name was made famous forever by American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson wrote that although Brown had died, his spirit would march on. VOICE ONE: Harpers Ferry became a national historical park in nineteen-forty-four. Today the park welcomes visitors who come to learn about life along the river. The park also operates a program to restore an important bird, the peregrine falcon, to the area. About fifty years ago, the use of the insect-killing chemical D-D-T had almost killed all these large birds. D-D-T was banned in nineteen-seventy-two. Wildlife experts now bring baby peregrines from the Chesapeake Bay area. Then they place the birds in rocky areas high above the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry. Central part of the Potomac We start in the calm waters of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. A guide in the boat next to us says people lived here fifteen-thousand years ago. The Potomac River was a meeting place for American Indians long before Europeans arrived. The Indians gathered to trade food and furs. Today, people often find objects that the Indians left behind. VOICE ONE: We work hard to paddle our canoe, and are happy to stop and rest at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. During the nineteenth century, this village was an important transportation center for the river, a smaller waterway and a railroad. At Harpers Ferry, the Potomac flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here it meets the Shenandoah River. From our boat we can see the water flowing toward huge rocks. Green trees cover the mountains on either side. Round white clouds hang low against a blue sky. It looks very peaceful. VOICE TWO: But this area is not known for peace. In eighteen-fifty-nine, the United States was close to civil war between the northern and southern states. The federal government had a weapons center at Harpers Ferry. John Brown, a militant who was against slavery, decided to raid it. Historians believe he did this to provide slaves with weapons for a rebellion. John Brown and eighteen of his supporters captured the weapons center. However, federal troops recaptured the center the next day. John Brown was later hanged. But his name was made famous forever by American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson wrote that although Brown had died, his spirit would march on. VOICE ONE: Harpers Ferry became a national historical park in nineteen-forty-four. Today the park welcomes visitors who come to learn about life along the river. The park also operates a program to restore an important bird, the peregrine falcon, to the area. About fifty years ago, the use of the insect-killing chemical D-D-T had almost killed all these large birds. D-D-T was banned in nineteen-seventy-two. Wildlife experts now bring baby peregrines from the Chesapeake Bay area. Then they place the birds in rocky areas high above the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry. The baby birds wear a device that sends signals telling where there are. The devices let wildlife experts follow the birds’ movements. They hope that before too long, many peregrines again will fly in these skies. VOICE TWO: Most of the time we paddle smoothly over the Potomac. But sometimes the river is wild. George Washington understood that the Potomac was difficult to travel on, even for much bigger boats than ours. He proposed a waterway to avoid dangerous places on the river. But he did not live to see it built. Washington died in seventeen-ninety-nine. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was built more than twenty-five years later. VOICE ONE: Over the years, continued flooding from the Potomac damaged the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Today it no longer carries goods. Instead, the C-and-O Canal is a national park. Kayaks and barges float on the waterway, passing through devices called locks. The locks close off the canal and use special gates to raise or lower the boats. They do this by raising or lowering the water level. The area between the Potomac River and the canal is called a towpath. The towpath extends about three-hundred kilometers from Washington, D-C, to Cumberland, Maryland. Today we see families walking their dogs along the towpath. Other people are running or riding their bicycles. Still others are fishing. VOICE TWO: Now we are getting close to Washington, D-C. Here the river begins to look dangerous. Signs warn boats away from the twenty-four kilometers of the Potomac Gorge. So we leave our canoe to walk along the towpath. Water moves fast in the gorge. There are many rocks and waterfalls. The gorge begins above a large waterfall called Great Falls. Here the water drops to sea level. The gorge then extends to Theodore Roosevelt Island, named for America’s twenty-sixth president. Here we get a quick look at a blue heron. This beautiful bird stands for a minute on a rock on one long, thin leg. An eagle spreads its wide wings in the sky, but does not land. Lower Potomac The baby birds wear a device that sends signals telling where there are. The devices let wildlife experts follow the birds’ movements. They hope that before too long, many peregrines again will fly in these skies. VOICE TWO: Most of the time we paddle smoothly over the Potomac. But sometimes the river is wild. George Washington understood that the Potomac was difficult to travel on, even for much bigger boats than ours. He proposed a waterway to avoid dangerous places on the river. But he did not live to see it built. Washington died in seventeen-ninety-nine. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was built more than twenty-five years later. VOICE ONE: Over the years, continued flooding from the Potomac damaged the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Today it no longer carries goods. Instead, the C-and-O Canal is a national park. Kayaks and barges float on the waterway, passing through devices called locks. The locks close off the canal and use special gates to raise or lower the boats. They do this by raising or lowering the water level. The area between the Potomac River and the canal is called a towpath. The towpath extends about three-hundred kilometers from Washington, D-C, to Cumberland, Maryland. Today we see families walking their dogs along the towpath. Other people are running or riding their bicycles. Still others are fishing. VOICE TWO: Now we are getting close to Washington, D-C. Here the river begins to look dangerous. Signs warn boats away from the twenty-four kilometers of the Potomac Gorge. So we leave our canoe to walk along the towpath. Water moves fast in the gorge. There are many rocks and waterfalls. The gorge begins above a large waterfall called Great Falls. Here the water drops to sea level. The gorge then extends to Theodore Roosevelt Island, named for America’s twenty-sixth president. Here we get a quick look at a blue heron. This beautiful bird stands for a minute on a rock on one long, thin leg. An eagle spreads its wide wings in the sky, but does not land. VOICE ONE: We take land transportation to follow the river into America’s capital. Washington, D-C was built on a low wetland area in eighteen-hundred. The British burned the city in eighteen-twelve. But Americans soon rebuilt it. While in Washington, we decide to continue our trip on the Potomac River in a larger boat for visitors. This will take us past George Washington’s home in Virginia. He helped design the big white house, called Mount Vernon. George Washington and his wife, Martha, are buried on the property. Today we see sheep and goats eating grass on the hill between the back of the house and the river. This sight probably looks about the same as it did when George Washington supervised his beautiful riverside farm. After passing Mount Vernon, we end our trip on the Potomac River as it flows toward the Chesapeake Bay. By now, we have a deep feeling for the beauty of the river. But the beauty always exists under threat. VOICE TWO: Over the centuries, industry, agriculture and human development severely damaged the environment of the Potomac River. By the nineteen-seventies, people described the river’s condition as sickening. Then Congress passed the Clean Water Act in nineteen-seventy-two. The river has been improved greatly since then. Still, coal mines in West Virginia drop harmful acids into the water. Waste material from the Anacostia River floats on the Potomac. Sediment material that falls to the bottom prevents traffic on some areas of the river. Pesticides and fertilizers pollute the water. Many environmental activists worry especially about the building of new homes and businesses along the Potomac. VOICE ONE: The Potomac River faces many environmental problems as a result of population growth and its resulting pressures on land and water resources. The river flows through land controlled by developers, private owners and state and local governments. These groups often have conflicting ideas about what is good and bad for the river. Several organizations work to protect and improve the Potomac River and the land near it. The Potomac Conservancy is one of them. It carries out a land protection program, develops land and water restoration projects, and provides education programs for adults and young people. VOICE TWO: We have enjoyed our trip on the Potomac River. The trip was sometimes peaceful and sometimes exciting. We learned a lot about the river and its history. We hope that Americans will always take good care of their historic Potomac River. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: We take land transportation to follow the river into America’s capital. Washington, D-C was built on a low wetland area in eighteen-hundred. The British burned the city in eighteen-twelve. But Americans soon rebuilt it. While in Washington, we decide to continue our trip on the Potomac River in a larger boat for visitors. This will take us past George Washington’s home in Virginia. He helped design the big white house, called Mount Vernon. George Washington and his wife, Martha, are buried on the property. Today we see sheep and goats eating grass on the hill between the back of the house and the river. This sight probably looks about the same as it did when George Washington supervised his beautiful riverside farm. After passing Mount Vernon, we end our trip on the Potomac River as it flows toward the Chesapeake Bay. By now, we have a deep feeling for the beauty of the river. But the beauty always exists under threat. VOICE TWO: Over the centuries, industry, agriculture and human development severely damaged the environment of the Potomac River. By the nineteen-seventies, people described the river’s condition as sickening. Then Congress passed the Clean Water Act in nineteen-seventy-two. The river has been improved greatly since then. Still, coal mines in West Virginia drop harmful acids into the water. Waste material from the Anacostia River floats on the Potomac. Sediment material that falls to the bottom prevents traffic on some areas of the river. Pesticides and fertilizers pollute the water. Many environmental activists worry especially about the building of new homes and businesses along the Potomac. VOICE ONE: The Potomac River faces many environmental problems as a result of population growth and its resulting pressures on land and water resources. The river flows through land controlled by developers, private owners and state and local governments. These groups often have conflicting ideas about what is good and bad for the river. Several organizations work to protect and improve the Potomac River and the land near it. The Potomac Conservancy is one of them. It carries out a land protection program, develops land and water restoration projects, and provides education programs for adults and young people. VOICE TWO: We have enjoyed our trip on the Potomac River. The trip was sometimes peaceful and sometimes exciting. We learned a lot about the river and its history. We hope that Americans will always take good care of their historic Potomac River. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: January 16, 2003 - Lida Baker: Reduced Forms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": January 16, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, English teacher Lida Baker explains some of the shortcuts that work their way into conversational American speech. RS: They're called reduced forms, or reductions. And, since it was noon when we spoke to Lida, she served up the perfect lunchtime example: BAKER: "So tell me, jeet yet?" RS: "No we haven't eaten yet (laughter)." BAKER: "See, you understood what I said, 'jeet.' Now if we were to pronounce that the way it's written, we would say 'did you eat yet?' But in rapid, spoken English, the 'did you' gets reduced. Do you see how the nature of the consonants changes, it's not 'did you,' it's 'juh' Let's suppose that you had already eaten lunch, so I could ask you 'hoodjeet with with?'" RS: "Who did you eat with?" BAKER: "That's right. Whadja eet?" RS: "'What did you eat?' to translate." BAKER: "Right. The reductions occur in words that are not stressed. So going back over those three examples, which admittedly are rather extreme -- and we'll go back and look at a few cases that are less extreme -- notice that it's the auxiliary verb, which is 'did,' and the pronoun 'you' gets reduced, and the word 'eat,' which is the verb in this sentence, is the stressed word. The word 'yet' is unstressed; it's an adverb. So it comes out 'jeet yet?' Now let me give you some examples of reductions that occur frequently, or even all the time. One example would be the preposition 'to,' which we normally in spoken language pronounce 'ta,' 'I hafta go,' 'I hafta,' right? Haf-ta. It's not 'to.' Same thing with the word 'you.' How does that get reduced?" RS: "Ya." BAKER: "That's right, it becomes 'ya.' So instead of 'how are you doing,' we say 'how ya doin'?" AA: "You drop the g on doing." BAKER: "We drop the g. So that would be -- remember, there are two changes that occur in pronunciation when forms are reduced. One is that consonants change or disappear, and other one is that there's a change in the vowel quality. So 'how ya doin',' the word 'are' disappeared all together, the 'you' changed to 'ya' and on the word 'doing' the g dropped." RS: "It would sound really strange if I would say in casual conversation, 'how are you doing?'" AA: "Unless you're talking to someone who's hard of hearing or you know doesn't understand the language very well." BAKER: "Yeah, it would be very unnatural. Think of other forms like 'gotta.' 'I gotta go.' We don't say 'I have got to go.' The word 'have' drops, 'got to' becomes 'gotta.' Notice 'got to,' when we pronounce them together, the 't' in American English changes to a ‘d.’ So there's a example of where, as I said before, consonant quality changes." RS: "And we see this with 'going to,' 'I'm gonna go.'" BAKER: "And very interesting, because most of my students, even at a low intermediate level, are familiar with 'gonna.' They've heard it so many times in movies and in songs and so on, so much so that I'll receive essays where the students have written g-o-n-n-a. But what I'm teaching people is academic English, and so I have to teach them that it's not OK to write reduced forms. It's OK to say them, but you shouldn't write them." AA: "So is any of this related to social class or to education?" BAKER: "I think the use of reduced forms is tied more to the situation. You'll find that when people are talking with their friends in a more casual situation, where we're feeling more relaxed, we tend to use more reduced forms -- because, one of the reasons that we do reduce forms, that we do have so many reductions in our speech, is that it's just much easier to pronounce words. Whenever we pronounce consonants, the mouth has to be in a certain position, and to move from one position to another requires a certain amount of muscular effort." RS: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center of the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes textbooks for English learners. AA: You'll find our previous Wordmaster segments with Lida on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "What You Gonna Do"/The Jeanette Williams Band Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": January 16, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, English teacher Lida Baker explains some of the shortcuts that work their way into conversational American speech. RS: They're called reduced forms, or reductions. And, since it was noon when we spoke to Lida, she served up the perfect lunchtime example: BAKER: "So tell me, jeet yet?" RS: "No we haven't eaten yet (laughter)." BAKER: "See, you understood what I said, 'jeet.' Now if we were to pronounce that the way it's written, we would say 'did you eat yet?' But in rapid, spoken English, the 'did you' gets reduced. Do you see how the nature of the consonants changes, it's not 'did you,' it's 'juh' Let's suppose that you had already eaten lunch, so I could ask you 'hoodjeet with with?'" RS: "Who did you eat with?" BAKER: "That's right. Whadja eet?" RS: "'What did you eat?' to translate." BAKER: "Right. The reductions occur in words that are not stressed. So going back over those three examples, which admittedly are rather extreme -- and we'll go back and look at a few cases that are less extreme -- notice that it's the auxiliary verb, which is 'did,' and the pronoun 'you' gets reduced, and the word 'eat,' which is the verb in this sentence, is the stressed word. The word 'yet' is unstressed; it's an adverb. So it comes out 'jeet yet?' Now let me give you some examples of reductions that occur frequently, or even all the time. One example would be the preposition 'to,' which we normally in spoken language pronounce 'ta,' 'I hafta go,' 'I hafta,' right? Haf-ta. It's not 'to.' Same thing with the word 'you.' How does that get reduced?" RS: "Ya." BAKER: "That's right, it becomes 'ya.' So instead of 'how are you doing,' we say 'how ya doin'?" AA: "You drop the g on doing." BAKER: "We drop the g. So that would be -- remember, there are two changes that occur in pronunciation when forms are reduced. One is that consonants change or disappear, and other one is that there's a change in the vowel quality. So 'how ya doin',' the word 'are' disappeared all together, the 'you' changed to 'ya' and on the word 'doing' the g dropped." RS: "It would sound really strange if I would say in casual conversation, 'how are you doing?'" AA: "Unless you're talking to someone who's hard of hearing or you know doesn't understand the language very well." BAKER: "Yeah, it would be very unnatural. Think of other forms like 'gotta.' 'I gotta go.' We don't say 'I have got to go.' The word 'have' drops, 'got to' becomes 'gotta.' Notice 'got to,' when we pronounce them together, the 't' in American English changes to a ‘d.’ So there's a example of where, as I said before, consonant quality changes." RS: "And we see this with 'going to,' 'I'm gonna go.'" BAKER: "And very interesting, because most of my students, even at a low intermediate level, are familiar with 'gonna.' They've heard it so many times in movies and in songs and so on, so much so that I'll receive essays where the students have written g-o-n-n-a. But what I'm teaching people is academic English, and so I have to teach them that it's not OK to write reduced forms. It's OK to say them, but you shouldn't write them." AA: "So is any of this related to social class or to education?" BAKER: "I think the use of reduced forms is tied more to the situation. You'll find that when people are talking with their friends in a more casual situation, where we're feeling more relaxed, we tend to use more reduced forms -- because, one of the reasons that we do reduce forms, that we do have so many reductions in our speech, is that it's just much easier to pronounce words. Whenever we pronounce consonants, the mouth has to be in a certain position, and to move from one position to another requires a certain amount of muscular effort." RS: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center of the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes textbooks for English learners. AA: You'll find our previous Wordmaster segments with Lida on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "What You Gonna Do"/The Jeanette Williams Band 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 16, 2003: From Bush to Clinton, Election of 1992
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we begin telling about Bill Clinton, America’s forty-second president. He led the United States for eight years. He acted on many important issues that affected the United States and other countries. President Clinton also had to defend himself against accusations of dishonesty and sexual wrongdoing. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-one, many Americans felt happier and more secure than they had in years. Worries about nuclear war had eased. The United States had led a coalition of allies to victory in the Persian Gulf War. In a little more than four days, the coalition freed Kuwait from invaders from Iraq and deeply damaged the Iraqi military. Republican President George Bush had won huge popularity after successfully leading the war effort. Most political experts believed President Bush would easily be re-elected in nineteen-ninety-two. VOICE TWO: President Bush’s popularity fell, however, as many people lost their jobs. Unemployment climbed to its highest rate since nineteen-eighty-four. Economic growth slowed to recession levels. The federal government was deeply in debt after years of borrowing to pay for its programs. The opposition Democratic Party correctly believed it had a good chance to elect a president in nineteen-ninety-two. It placed its hopes for winning the White House on Arkansas Governor William Jefferson Clinton. VOICE ONE: The future president was born William Jefferson Blythe on August nineteenth, nineteen-forty-six, in Hope, Arkansas. His parents were William Jefferson Blythe and Virginia Blythe. Bill’s father was a traveling salesman. His father had died in a car accident three months before Bill was born. At age two, Bill was sent to live with his grandparents while his mother studied to become a nurse. Bill’s mother married Roger Clinton when Bill was four years old. The family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in nineteen-fifty-three. Bill officially changed his name to William Jefferson Clinton at age fifteen. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton’s new father, Roger Clinton, drank too much alcohol. Bill’s life at home was unpleasant at times. However, he did well in school and liked it very much. He also developed a strong early interest in politics. He competed for many offices while in high school. In nineteen-sixty-three, Bill Clinton met President John F. Kennedy. Bill was visiting Washington, D.C. as a delegate for a citizenship training program. President Kennedy provided the young Bill Clinton with a strong example of leadership. Bill continued his education at Georgetown University in Washington. He graduated in nineteen-sixty-eight. Excellence in his studies won him a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in Oxford, England. He spent two years there before entering Yale University Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: At Yale, Bill fell in love with another Yale law student. Hillary Rodham of Park Ridge, Illinois shared his deep interest in politics and public service. They were married in October of nineteen-seventy-five. Their daughter Chelsea was born in nineteen-eighty. Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas after completing law school. He soon entered politics as a Democrat, narrowly losing an election for Congress. Later, Arkansas citizens elected him attorney general -- the top law official for the state. In nineteen-seventy-eight, he became the Democratic Party candidate for governor. He easily defeated his Republican opponent. He was the youngest man ever elected governor of Arkansas. VOICE TWO: While Bill Clinton was governor, the federal government operated a holding center for Cuban refugees in Arkansas. Rioting among these Cubans hurt his chances for re-election. Governor Clinton’s opponent said he should have done more to get the government to hold the Cubans someplace else. Mister Clinton also supported unpopular new taxes. Bill Clinton was defeated in his effort to be re-elected governor of Arkansas in nineteen-eighty. He deeply regretted this loss. He promised himself he would again be governor. Bill Clinton gained his goal in the election two years later. He continued to serve as governor of Arkansas until nineteen-ninety-two. VOICE ONE: Education in Arkansas improved under the leadership of Governor Clinton. Many more students graduated from Arkansas high schools. The number of students entering college also rose. The state began requiring examinations for teachers. It also increased their pay. Mister Clinton started health centers in public schools. And he expanded Head Start programs to help prepare poor children to begin school. While governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton also served in national organizations for governors and Democratic Party leaders. He became well known as a moderate Democrat. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety one, William Jefferson Clinton announced he would compete for the Democratic nomination for president . Former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas and former California Governor Edmund Brown, Junior were his main opponents for the nomination. However, Paul Tsongas later suspended his campaign for lack of money. Mister Clinton won a big lead over Mister Brown in state nominating elections. Democrats met for their national nominating convention in New York City in July, nineteen-ninety-two. They named Bill Clinton as their candidate for president. He chose Senator Al Gore of Tennessee to be his vice president in the election. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party nominated President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term. Texas businessman Ross Perot competed as an independent. His vice presidential candidate was a former top Navy officer, James Stockdale. President Bush talked about his foreign policy successes during the campaign. He said he would cut taxes. He said Bill Clinton would raise taxes. Many Americans, however, remembered that President Bush had raised taxes after promising not to do this. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton criticized President Bush mostly about important domestic issues in the United States. He said the president had failed to deal with the slow economy and high unemployment. President Bush answered that the Democrats controlled Congress. He said the Democrats defeated most of his domestic proposals.Ross Perot criticized both Republican President Bush and Democratic candidate Clinton. Mister Perot said neither man considered the importance of the huge federal debt. VOICE ONE: Bill Clinton and Al Gore won the nineteen-ninety-two presidential election. They received about forty-five-million votes. President Bush and Mister Quayle had about thirty-nine million votes. About eighteen-million people voted for Mister Perot and Mister Stockdale. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton became America’s forty-second president on January twentieth, nineteen-ninety-three. At age forty-six, he was the third youngest person ever elected president. At his swearing-in ceremony, the new president said there was no longer division between foreign and domestic issues. Listen to these words from President Bill Clinton’s swearing-in-speech: CLINTON: "The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world’s arms race -- they affect us all. Today, as an old order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism’s collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.” VOICE ONE: Even as President Clinton took office, critics were accusing him of wrongdoing. There were questions about sexual relationships outside his marriage. Other accusations involved an investment he and Missus Clinton had made years before. In nineteen-seventy-eight they had bought land in Arkansas to sell for holiday homes. President Clinton denied any dishonorable actions. But the criticism and suspicion of America’s forty-second president continued. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we begin telling about Bill Clinton, America’s forty-second president. He led the United States for eight years. He acted on many important issues that affected the United States and other countries. President Clinton also had to defend himself against accusations of dishonesty and sexual wrongdoing. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-one, many Americans felt happier and more secure than they had in years. Worries about nuclear war had eased. The United States had led a coalition of allies to victory in the Persian Gulf War. In a little more than four days, the coalition freed Kuwait from invaders from Iraq and deeply damaged the Iraqi military. Republican President George Bush had won huge popularity after successfully leading the war effort. Most political experts believed President Bush would easily be re-elected in nineteen-ninety-two. VOICE TWO: President Bush’s popularity fell, however, as many people lost their jobs. Unemployment climbed to its highest rate since nineteen-eighty-four. Economic growth slowed to recession levels. The federal government was deeply in debt after years of borrowing to pay for its programs. The opposition Democratic Party correctly believed it had a good chance to elect a president in nineteen-ninety-two. It placed its hopes for winning the White House on Arkansas Governor William Jefferson Clinton. VOICE ONE: The future president was born William Jefferson Blythe on August nineteenth, nineteen-forty-six, in Hope, Arkansas. His parents were William Jefferson Blythe and Virginia Blythe. Bill’s father was a traveling salesman. His father had died in a car accident three months before Bill was born. At age two, Bill was sent to live with his grandparents while his mother studied to become a nurse. Bill’s mother married Roger Clinton when Bill was four years old. The family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in nineteen-fifty-three. Bill officially changed his name to William Jefferson Clinton at age fifteen. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton’s new father, Roger Clinton, drank too much alcohol. Bill’s life at home was unpleasant at times. However, he did well in school and liked it very much. He also developed a strong early interest in politics. He competed for many offices while in high school. In nineteen-sixty-three, Bill Clinton met President John F. Kennedy. Bill was visiting Washington, D.C. as a delegate for a citizenship training program. President Kennedy provided the young Bill Clinton with a strong example of leadership. Bill continued his education at Georgetown University in Washington. He graduated in nineteen-sixty-eight. Excellence in his studies won him a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in Oxford, England. He spent two years there before entering Yale University Law School in New Haven, Connecticut. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: At Yale, Bill fell in love with another Yale law student. Hillary Rodham of Park Ridge, Illinois shared his deep interest in politics and public service. They were married in October of nineteen-seventy-five. Their daughter Chelsea was born in nineteen-eighty. Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas after completing law school. He soon entered politics as a Democrat, narrowly losing an election for Congress. Later, Arkansas citizens elected him attorney general -- the top law official for the state. In nineteen-seventy-eight, he became the Democratic Party candidate for governor. He easily defeated his Republican opponent. He was the youngest man ever elected governor of Arkansas. VOICE TWO: While Bill Clinton was governor, the federal government operated a holding center for Cuban refugees in Arkansas. Rioting among these Cubans hurt his chances for re-election. Governor Clinton’s opponent said he should have done more to get the government to hold the Cubans someplace else. Mister Clinton also supported unpopular new taxes. Bill Clinton was defeated in his effort to be re-elected governor of Arkansas in nineteen-eighty. He deeply regretted this loss. He promised himself he would again be governor. Bill Clinton gained his goal in the election two years later. He continued to serve as governor of Arkansas until nineteen-ninety-two. VOICE ONE: Education in Arkansas improved under the leadership of Governor Clinton. Many more students graduated from Arkansas high schools. The number of students entering college also rose. The state began requiring examinations for teachers. It also increased their pay. Mister Clinton started health centers in public schools. And he expanded Head Start programs to help prepare poor children to begin school. While governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton also served in national organizations for governors and Democratic Party leaders. He became well known as a moderate Democrat. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety one, William Jefferson Clinton announced he would compete for the Democratic nomination for president . Former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas and former California Governor Edmund Brown, Junior were his main opponents for the nomination. However, Paul Tsongas later suspended his campaign for lack of money. Mister Clinton won a big lead over Mister Brown in state nominating elections. Democrats met for their national nominating convention in New York City in July, nineteen-ninety-two. They named Bill Clinton as their candidate for president. He chose Senator Al Gore of Tennessee to be his vice president in the election. VOICE ONE: The Republican Party nominated President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term. Texas businessman Ross Perot competed as an independent. His vice presidential candidate was a former top Navy officer, James Stockdale. President Bush talked about his foreign policy successes during the campaign. He said he would cut taxes. He said Bill Clinton would raise taxes. Many Americans, however, remembered that President Bush had raised taxes after promising not to do this. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton criticized President Bush mostly about important domestic issues in the United States. He said the president had failed to deal with the slow economy and high unemployment. President Bush answered that the Democrats controlled Congress. He said the Democrats defeated most of his domestic proposals.Ross Perot criticized both Republican President Bush and Democratic candidate Clinton. Mister Perot said neither man considered the importance of the huge federal debt. VOICE ONE: Bill Clinton and Al Gore won the nineteen-ninety-two presidential election. They received about forty-five-million votes. President Bush and Mister Quayle had about thirty-nine million votes. About eighteen-million people voted for Mister Perot and Mister Stockdale. VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton became America’s forty-second president on January twentieth, nineteen-ninety-three. At age forty-six, he was the third youngest person ever elected president. At his swearing-in ceremony, the new president said there was no longer division between foreign and domestic issues. Listen to these words from President Bill Clinton’s swearing-in-speech: CLINTON: "The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the world’s arms race -- they affect us all. Today, as an old order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism’s collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.” VOICE ONE: Even as President Clinton took office, critics were accusing him of wrongdoing. There were questions about sexual relationships outside his marriage. Other accusations involved an investment he and Missus Clinton had made years before. In nineteen-seventy-eight they had bought land in Arkansas to sell for holiday homes. President Clinton denied any dishonorable actions. But the criticism and suspicion of America’s forty-second president continued. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - January 16, 2003: Foreign Student Series #18 >Military Colleges
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This week, we report about military education. One American military college that welcomes foreign students is the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. It is often called V-M-I. The students are called cadets. One-thousand-three-hundred cadets are attending V-M-I this year. V-M-I is a four-year military college for men and women. It considers the learning of self-control to be an important part of a college education. At V-M-I, new cadets learn from older ones. One thing the older cadets teach is the honor system. Cadets must not lie, cheat or steal. They also must not accept lying, cheating or stealing from any other cadet. Cadets who violate the honor system are expelled. Chuck Steenburgh is with the office of public affairs at V-M-I. He says international students come to V-M-I for the military environment. This year, forty-three men and women from seventeen foreign countries are attending V-M-I. They study business, engineering, computer science, and other subjects. The cost is about twenty-four-thousand dollars a year. Another American military college that welcomes foreign students is The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina. It also accepts both men and women for a four-year program. There are about one-thousand-nine-hundred undergraduate students at The Citadel. Public affairs officer Patricia McArver says the college offers a traditional military education. But, she says, only thirty-eight per cent of its graduates enter the military after graduation. She says international students attend The Citadel to study in a structured environment.This year, The Citadel has fifty-seven international students from twenty-seven countries. They are studying mainly business, science, computer science, mathematics and engineering. It costs almost twenty-thousand dollars to attend The Citadel for the first year. After that, the cost drops to about sixteen-thousand dollars. You can use a computer to get more information about these American military colleges on their Internet Web sites. V-M-I’s address is w-w-w dot v-m-i dot e-d-u.(www.vmi.edu) The Citadel can be found at w-w-w dot c-i-t-a-d-e-l dot e-d-u.(www.citadel.edu) This V-O-A Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 17, 2003: Music by the Wallflowers / A Question About the Escape Artist Houdini / Theater and Film Director Julie Taymor
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by the group called the Wallflowers ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by the group called the Wallflowers ... Answer a question about the famous escape artist called Houdini ... And tell about a very creative theater and film director. Julie Taymor HOST: Julie Taymor is an American theater and film director. She is best known for her work with puppetry -- an art form that uses large dolls and other objects in theatrical performances. Mizz Taymor has been involved in the theater for almost thirty years. Mary Tillotson tells us about her. ANNCR: Answer a question about the famous escape artist called Houdini ... And tell about a very creative theater and film director. Julie Taymor HOST: Julie Taymor is an American theater and film director. She is best known for her work with puppetry -- an art form that uses large dolls and other objects in theatrical performances. Mizz Taymor has been involved in the theater for almost thirty years. Mary Tillotson tells us about her. ANNCR: Julie Taymor began producing plays as a child at her home near Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating in nineteen-seventy-four. She also studied theater and puppetry in Japan, Indonesia, and Eastern Europe. In the early nineteen-nineties, she directed a version of Igor Stravinsky’s opera, “Oedipus Rex,” for the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan. She won an Emmy Award for the American television broadcast of the opera. Julie Taymor became internationally known for her production of the Walt Disney Company’s Broadway musical play, “The Lion King.” In nineteen-ninety-eight, Mizz Taymor won several Tony Awards for her work on that show. She received one award for designing the unusual costumes worn by actors to represent the many different animal creatures in the play. Mizz Taymor’s work on the project also made her the first woman ever to win a Tony Award for directing a Broadway musical. “The Lion King” is still one of the most popular musicals on Broadway. Mizz Taymor directed her first major film in nineteen-ninety-nine. It was the movie “Titus.” The story was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “Titus Andronicus.” The film was not an economic success. But critics praised it as one of the finest films made from a Shakespearean play. In the movie, Julie Taymor used puppets, strange costumes and other special effects to tell Shakespeare’s story of a fallen general. Mizz Taymor used everything from child’s toys to the Roman Coliseum to tell the story. And she used the play’s violence to create sympathy for its victims. Julie Taymor’s latest project was directing the movie “Frida,” about the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The movie opened in November. Critics say that Julie Taymor has succeeded in bringing Frida Kahlo’s art to life. Several critics have called “Frida” one of the best films of last year. Houdini HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia. Desmanto Herman asks about the life of the world famous escape artist and magician known as Houdini. Houdini’s real name was Erik Weisz. He was born in Budapest, Hungary in eighteen-seventy-four. He came to the United States with his family as a child. He became a circus performer. Then he settled in New York City in eighteen-eighty-two. He chose the stage name Harry Houdini to honor a famous French magician named Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Houdini began offering money to anyone who could successfully keep him locked up. And so he became famous for escaping from ropes, handcuffs and different kinds of locked containers. For example, he would be tied up with locked chains and placed in a box that was tied with a rope. The box was dropped underwater from a boat. Houdini would return to the boat after he escaped from the box. Or, Houdini would be tied into an “escape proof” jacket called a strait jacket and suspended twenty-three meters above the ground by his feet. He would then free himself from the strait jacket. Thousands of people paid to watch these escape acts. Usually Houdini left no evidence of how he was able to make the escape. However, many people watched his escape from the strait jacket. Experts say Houdini was successful because of his great physical strength and skill with locks. He also studied, practiced and exercised for many hours to prepare for his acts. For his underwater act, for example, he would hold his breath underwater in the bathtub for up to four minutes. Houdini also did magic tricks. For example, in nineteen-eighteen, he made an elephant disappear from the stage of a theater in New York City. It was the largest object ever made to disappear at that time. He also invented many magic tricks. Houdini appeared in five movies from nineteen-sixteen to nineteen-twenty-three. He wrote several of them. Houdini is the only magician to make five movies, and the first to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in California. Experts say he would have made more films had he lived longer. Harry Houdini died in nineteen-twenty-six of an infected appendix. Today, people who want to learn about Harry Houdini and his magic can visit the Houdini Historical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. This is the city where he lived as a child. The Wallflowers HOST: The popular rock group called the Wallflowers has released a new album. Shep O’Neal tells about “Red Letter Days” and plays a few songs from the new recording. ANNCR: “Red Letter Days” is the Wallflowers’ fourth album. Jakob Dylan is the band’s lead singer, songwriter and guitar player. He says he started writing the songs for the new album while the band was performing after the release of an earlier album. Here is “When You’re On Top” from “Red Letter Days.” (MUSIC) The other members of the Wallflowers were excited about the new songs. So, they decided to test some of them in private recordings while they were still traveling. Jakob Dylan says the band would play anywhere they could find a power source. Here, the Wallflowers perform “Closer To You.” (MUSIC) The Wallflowers have been recording albums together for ten years. But Jakob Dylan says they sometimes forgot what was important to them. He says recording “Red Letter Days” has been a good lesson. He says the band has re-discovered its true goals. We leave you now with another song from the Wallflowers latest album. It is called “Here in Pleasantville.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Julie Taymor began producing plays as a child at her home near Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating in nineteen-seventy-four. She also studied theater and puppetry in Japan, Indonesia, and Eastern Europe. In the early nineteen-nineties, she directed a version of Igor Stravinsky’s opera, “Oedipus Rex,” for the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan. She won an Emmy Award for the American television broadcast of the opera. Julie Taymor became internationally known for her production of the Walt Disney Company’s Broadway musical play, “The Lion King.” In nineteen-ninety-eight, Mizz Taymor won several Tony Awards for her work on that show. She received one award for designing the unusual costumes worn by actors to represent the many different animal creatures in the play. Mizz Taymor’s work on the project also made her the first woman ever to win a Tony Award for directing a Broadway musical. “The Lion King” is still one of the most popular musicals on Broadway. Mizz Taymor directed her first major film in nineteen-ninety-nine. It was the movie “Titus.” The story was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “Titus Andronicus.” The film was not an economic success. But critics praised it as one of the finest films made from a Shakespearean play. In the movie, Julie Taymor used puppets, strange costumes and other special effects to tell Shakespeare’s story of a fallen general. Mizz Taymor used everything from child’s toys to the Roman Coliseum to tell the story. And she used the play’s violence to create sympathy for its victims. Julie Taymor’s latest project was directing the movie “Frida,” about the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The movie opened in November. Critics say that Julie Taymor has succeeded in bringing Frida Kahlo’s art to life. Several critics have called “Frida” one of the best films of last year. Houdini HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia. Desmanto Herman asks about the life of the world famous escape artist and magician known as Houdini. Houdini’s real name was Erik Weisz. He was born in Budapest, Hungary in eighteen-seventy-four. He came to the United States with his family as a child. He became a circus performer. Then he settled in New York City in eighteen-eighty-two. He chose the stage name Harry Houdini to honor a famous French magician named Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin. Houdini began offering money to anyone who could successfully keep him locked up. And so he became famous for escaping from ropes, handcuffs and different kinds of locked containers. For example, he would be tied up with locked chains and placed in a box that was tied with a rope. The box was dropped underwater from a boat. Houdini would return to the boat after he escaped from the box. Or, Houdini would be tied into an “escape proof” jacket called a strait jacket and suspended twenty-three meters above the ground by his feet. He would then free himself from the strait jacket. Thousands of people paid to watch these escape acts. Usually Houdini left no evidence of how he was able to make the escape. However, many people watched his escape from the strait jacket. Experts say Houdini was successful because of his great physical strength and skill with locks. He also studied, practiced and exercised for many hours to prepare for his acts. For his underwater act, for example, he would hold his breath underwater in the bathtub for up to four minutes. Houdini also did magic tricks. For example, in nineteen-eighteen, he made an elephant disappear from the stage of a theater in New York City. It was the largest object ever made to disappear at that time. He also invented many magic tricks. Houdini appeared in five movies from nineteen-sixteen to nineteen-twenty-three. He wrote several of them. Houdini is the only magician to make five movies, and the first to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in California. Experts say he would have made more films had he lived longer. Harry Houdini died in nineteen-twenty-six of an infected appendix. Today, people who want to learn about Harry Houdini and his magic can visit the Houdini Historical Center in Appleton, Wisconsin. This is the city where he lived as a child. The Wallflowers HOST: The popular rock group called the Wallflowers has released a new album. Shep O’Neal tells about “Red Letter Days” and plays a few songs from the new recording. ANNCR: “Red Letter Days” is the Wallflowers’ fourth album. Jakob Dylan is the band’s lead singer, songwriter and guitar player. He says he started writing the songs for the new album while the band was performing after the release of an earlier album. Here is “When You’re On Top” from “Red Letter Days.” (MUSIC) The other members of the Wallflowers were excited about the new songs. So, they decided to test some of them in private recordings while they were still traveling. Jakob Dylan says the band would play anywhere they could find a power source. Here, the Wallflowers perform “Closer To You.” (MUSIC) The Wallflowers have been recording albums together for ten years. But Jakob Dylan says they sometimes forgot what was important to them. He says recording “Red Letter Days” has been a good lesson. He says the band has re-discovered its true goals. We leave you now with another song from the Wallflowers latest album. It is called “Here in Pleasantville.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – January 17, 2003: Orangutan Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Orangutans are great apes that live in coastal jungles on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. A team of international scientists has found evidence that some orangutans have developed their own culture. They found evidence that orangutan groups have different ways to communicate, eat and use tools. The findings suggest that the animals’ early ancestors may have created their own culture as early as fourteen-million years ago. That is when orangutans and other great apes last had a common ancestor. Earlier studies had shown that great ape culture had been in existence for up to seven-million years. For scientists, culture is the ability to invent and learn ways of doing things. These methods must not be the direct result of biology or the environment. They are learned from others and passed on to individuals. Science magazine published the study about orangutans. The scientists collected evidence from years of observations in six areas on Borneo and Sumatra. The scientists found that the animals demonstrated a total of twenty-four signs of cultural activity. Several actions were demonstrated in some orangutan groups, but not others. For example, members of some groups make a kissing noise by tightening their mouths and sucking in air. Some groups use leaves to clean themselves or protect their hands from sharp objects. Yet other groups use leaves to crush insects or gather water. The scientists found that some of the animals use sticks as tools to remove insects from holes in trees. Other orangutans use sticks to remove seeds from fruit or to touch their bodies. The study also found that some orangutan groups play a sport for fun. The animals climb up a dead tree and ride on the tree as it falls down. They hold onto another tree just before the dead tree hits the ground. Other orangutans often watch this activity. For years, scientists thought that only humans had cultures. However, evidence for socially-learned traditions among animals is increasing. The best evidence came from a study of chimpanzees in Africa in nineteen-ninety-nine. Scientists say the growing amount of evidence about animal culture reduces the differences between humans and animals and between culture and nature. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Orangutans are great apes that live in coastal jungles on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. A team of international scientists has found evidence that some orangutans have developed their own culture. They found evidence that orangutan groups have different ways to communicate, eat and use tools. The findings suggest that the animals’ early ancestors may have created their own culture as early as fourteen-million years ago. That is when orangutans and other great apes last had a common ancestor. Earlier studies had shown that great ape culture had been in existence for up to seven-million years. For scientists, culture is the ability to invent and learn ways of doing things. These methods must not be the direct result of biology or the environment. They are learned from others and passed on to individuals. Science magazine published the study about orangutans. The scientists collected evidence from years of observations in six areas on Borneo and Sumatra. The scientists found that the animals demonstrated a total of twenty-four signs of cultural activity. Several actions were demonstrated in some orangutan groups, but not others. For example, members of some groups make a kissing noise by tightening their mouths and sucking in air. Some groups use leaves to clean themselves or protect their hands from sharp objects. Yet other groups use leaves to crush insects or gather water. The scientists found that some of the animals use sticks as tools to remove insects from holes in trees. Other orangutans use sticks to remove seeds from fruit or to touch their bodies. The study also found that some orangutan groups play a sport for fun. The animals climb up a dead tree and ride on the tree as it falls down. They hold onto another tree just before the dead tree hits the ground. Other orangutans often watch this activity. For years, scientists thought that only humans had cultures. However, evidence for socially-learned traditions among animals is increasing. The best evidence came from a study of chimpanzees in Africa in nineteen-ninety-nine. Scientists say the growing amount of evidence about animal culture reduces the differences between humans and animals and between culture and nature. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 19, 2003: Susan B. Anthony
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) In the eighteen-fifties, women in the United States began to try to gain the same rights as men. One woman was a leader in the campaign to gain women the right to vote. I'm Stan Busby. VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today we tell about a fighter for rights for women, Susan B. Anthony. (Theme) VOICE 1: In seventeen-seventy-six, a new nation declared its freedom from Britain. The Declaration of Independence was the document written to express the reasons for seeking that freedom. It stated that all men were created equal. It said that all men had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. VOICE 2: Not every citizen of the new United States of America had one important right, however. That was the right to vote. At first, the only people permitted to vote in the United States were white men who owned property and could read. By eighteen-sixty, most white male citizens over the age of twenty-one had the right to vote. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution gave black male citizens the right to vote. These amendments were passed in eighteen-sixty-eight and eighteen-seventy. VOICE 1: Women were not really full citizens in America in the eighteen-hundreds. They had no economic independence. For example, everything a woman owned when she got married belonged to her husband. If a married woman worked, the money she made belonged to her husband. In addition, women had no political power. They did not have the right to vote. In the eighteen-fifties, women organized in an effort to gain voting rights. Their campaign was called the women's suffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote. American women sought to gain that right for more than seventy years. VOICE 2: One of the leaders of the movement was Susan B. Anthony of Massachusetts. Miss Anthony was a teacher. She believed that women needed economic and personal independence. She also believed that there was no hope for social improvement in the United States until women were given the same rights as men. The rights included the right to vote in public elections. VOICE 1: Susan B. Anthony was born in eighteen-twenty. Her parents were members of the Quaker religion. She became one too. The Quakers believed that the rights of women should be honored. They were the first religious group where women shared the leadership with men. VOICE 2: As a young woman, Susan had strong beliefs about justice and equality for women and for black people. And she was quick to speak out against what she believed was not just. Many young men wanted to marry her. But she could not consider marrying a man who was not as intelligent as she. She once said: "I can never understand why intelligent girls should want to marry fools just to get married. Many are willing to do so. But I am not.” She did meet some young men who were intelligent. But it always seemed that they expected women to be their servants, not their equals. VOICE 1: Susan B. Anthony became a school teacher in New York state. She realized that women could never become full citizens without some political power. They could never get such power until they got the right to vote. She went from town to town in New York state trying to get women interested in their right to vote. But they did not seem interested. Miss Anthony felt this was because women were not able to do anything for themselves. They had no money, or property of their own. The struggle seemed long and hard. She said: VOICE 2: "As I went from town to town, I understood more and more the evil we must fight. The evil is that women cannot change anything as long as they must depend on men for their very lives. Women cannot change anything until they themselves are independent. They cannot be free until they have the legal right to own property and to keep the money they make by working.” VOICE 1: Miss Anthony went to every city, town and village in New York state. She organized meetings in schools, churches, and public places. Everywhere she went, she carried pamphlets urging rights for women. She urged the lawmakers of New York to change the state law and give women the right to own property. Her campaign in New York failed at that time. But elsewhere the struggle for women's rights was making progress. VOICE 2: In eighteen-fifty-one, Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Missus Stanton also supported equal rights for women. Missus Stanton had many children. She needed to remain at home to raise her large family. Miss Anthony, however, was not married. She was free to travel, to speak, and to organize for the women's rights movement. The two women cooperated in leading the fight to gain rights for women in the United States. Their first important success came in eighteen-sixty when New York finally approved a married woman's law. For the first time in New York, a married woman could own property. And, she had a right to the money she was paid for work she did. At last, Miss Anthony's campaign was beginning to show results. The campaign spread to other states. VOICE 1: The end of the American Civil War in eighteen-sixty-five freed Negroes from slavery. Susan B. Anthony felt that there was still much to be done to get full freedom -- for Negroes and also for women. She began to campaign for the right for Negroes and women to vote. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was approved in eighteen-sixty-eight. It gave Negro men the right to vote. But it did not give women the right to vote. VOICE 2: Susan B. Anthony led efforts to have voting rights for women included in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Her efforts were not successful. Then Miss Anthony decided to test the legal basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. She did this during the presidential election of eighteen-seventy-two. On election day, Miss Anthony led a group of women to vote in Rochester, New York. Two weeks later, Miss Anthony was arrested. She was charged with voting although she had no legal right to do so. VOICE 1: Before her trial, Susan B. Anthony traveled around New York state. She spoke to many groups about the injustice of denying women the right to vote. She said: VOICE 2: "Our Democratic, Republican government is based on the idea that every person shall have a voice and a vote in making the laws and putting them to work. It is we, the people -- all the people -- not just white men or men only, who formed this nation. We formed it to get liberty not just for half of us -- not just for half of our children -- but for all, for women as well as men. "Is the right to vote a necessary right of citizens. To my mind, it is a most important right. Without it, all other rights are nothing.” VOICE 1: Susan B. Anthony was tried and found guilty of violating the law. She was ordered to pay one-hundred dollars as a punishment. She said the law was wrong. She refused to pay. Miss Anthony then led efforts to gain voting rights for women through a new amendment to the Constitution. She traveled across the country to campaign for such an amendment until she was seventy-five years old. In nineteen-oh-four, she spoke to a committee of the United States Senate for the last time. The committee was discussing the proposal for an amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew it would not come while she was alive. VOICE 2: Susan B. Anthony died in nineteen-oh-six at the age of eighty-six. Thirteen years later, in nineteen-nineteen, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment stated that the right to vote shall not be denied because of a person's sex. The amendment had to be approved by three-fourths of the states. It won final approval on August twenty-sixth, nineteen-twenty. It was called the Anthony Amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony. (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Stan Busby. VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) In the eighteen-fifties, women in the United States began to try to gain the same rights as men. One woman was a leader in the campaign to gain women the right to vote. I'm Stan Busby. VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Today we tell about a fighter for rights for women, Susan B. Anthony. (Theme) VOICE 1: In seventeen-seventy-six, a new nation declared its freedom from Britain. The Declaration of Independence was the document written to express the reasons for seeking that freedom. It stated that all men were created equal. It said that all men had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. VOICE 2: Not every citizen of the new United States of America had one important right, however. That was the right to vote. At first, the only people permitted to vote in the United States were white men who owned property and could read. By eighteen-sixty, most white male citizens over the age of twenty-one had the right to vote. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution gave black male citizens the right to vote. These amendments were passed in eighteen-sixty-eight and eighteen-seventy. VOICE 1: Women were not really full citizens in America in the eighteen-hundreds. They had no economic independence. For example, everything a woman owned when she got married belonged to her husband. If a married woman worked, the money she made belonged to her husband. In addition, women had no political power. They did not have the right to vote. In the eighteen-fifties, women organized in an effort to gain voting rights. Their campaign was called the women's suffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote. American women sought to gain that right for more than seventy years. VOICE 2: One of the leaders of the movement was Susan B. Anthony of Massachusetts. Miss Anthony was a teacher. She believed that women needed economic and personal independence. She also believed that there was no hope for social improvement in the United States until women were given the same rights as men. The rights included the right to vote in public elections. VOICE 1: Susan B. Anthony was born in eighteen-twenty. Her parents were members of the Quaker religion. She became one too. The Quakers believed that the rights of women should be honored. They were the first religious group where women shared the leadership with men. VOICE 2: As a young woman, Susan had strong beliefs about justice and equality for women and for black people. And she was quick to speak out against what she believed was not just. Many young men wanted to marry her. But she could not consider marrying a man who was not as intelligent as she. She once said: "I can never understand why intelligent girls should want to marry fools just to get married. Many are willing to do so. But I am not.” She did meet some young men who were intelligent. But it always seemed that they expected women to be their servants, not their equals. VOICE 1: Susan B. Anthony became a school teacher in New York state. She realized that women could never become full citizens without some political power. They could never get such power until they got the right to vote. She went from town to town in New York state trying to get women interested in their right to vote. But they did not seem interested. Miss Anthony felt this was because women were not able to do anything for themselves. They had no money, or property of their own. The struggle seemed long and hard. She said: VOICE 2: "As I went from town to town, I understood more and more the evil we must fight. The evil is that women cannot change anything as long as they must depend on men for their very lives. Women cannot change anything until they themselves are independent. They cannot be free until they have the legal right to own property and to keep the money they make by working.” VOICE 1: Miss Anthony went to every city, town and village in New York state. She organized meetings in schools, churches, and public places. Everywhere she went, she carried pamphlets urging rights for women. She urged the lawmakers of New York to change the state law and give women the right to own property. Her campaign in New York failed at that time. But elsewhere the struggle for women's rights was making progress. VOICE 2: In eighteen-fifty-one, Susan B. Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Missus Stanton also supported equal rights for women. Missus Stanton had many children. She needed to remain at home to raise her large family. Miss Anthony, however, was not married. She was free to travel, to speak, and to organize for the women's rights movement. The two women cooperated in leading the fight to gain rights for women in the United States. Their first important success came in eighteen-sixty when New York finally approved a married woman's law. For the first time in New York, a married woman could own property. And, she had a right to the money she was paid for work she did. At last, Miss Anthony's campaign was beginning to show results. The campaign spread to other states. VOICE 1: The end of the American Civil War in eighteen-sixty-five freed Negroes from slavery. Susan B. Anthony felt that there was still much to be done to get full freedom -- for Negroes and also for women. She began to campaign for the right for Negroes and women to vote. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was approved in eighteen-sixty-eight. It gave Negro men the right to vote. But it did not give women the right to vote. VOICE 2: Susan B. Anthony led efforts to have voting rights for women included in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Her efforts were not successful. Then Miss Anthony decided to test the legal basis of the Fourteenth Amendment. She did this during the presidential election of eighteen-seventy-two. On election day, Miss Anthony led a group of women to vote in Rochester, New York. Two weeks later, Miss Anthony was arrested. She was charged with voting although she had no legal right to do so. VOICE 1: Before her trial, Susan B. Anthony traveled around New York state. She spoke to many groups about the injustice of denying women the right to vote. She said: VOICE 2: "Our Democratic, Republican government is based on the idea that every person shall have a voice and a vote in making the laws and putting them to work. It is we, the people -- all the people -- not just white men or men only, who formed this nation. We formed it to get liberty not just for half of us -- not just for half of our children -- but for all, for women as well as men. "Is the right to vote a necessary right of citizens. To my mind, it is a most important right. Without it, all other rights are nothing.” VOICE 1: Susan B. Anthony was tried and found guilty of violating the law. She was ordered to pay one-hundred dollars as a punishment. She said the law was wrong. She refused to pay. Miss Anthony then led efforts to gain voting rights for women through a new amendment to the Constitution. She traveled across the country to campaign for such an amendment until she was seventy-five years old. In nineteen-oh-four, she spoke to a committee of the United States Senate for the last time. The committee was discussing the proposal for an amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew it would not come while she was alive. VOICE 2: Susan B. Anthony died in nineteen-oh-six at the age of eighty-six. Thirteen years later, in nineteen-nineteen, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The amendment stated that the right to vote shall not be denied because of a person's sex. The amendment had to be approved by three-fourths of the states. It won final approval on August twenty-sixth, nineteen-twenty. It was called the Anthony Amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony. (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Stan Busby. VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 20, 2003: Learning English
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people around the world choose English as the first foreign language they want to study. It is the most widely taught foreign language in the world. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about teaching and learning English on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people around the world want to learn English or improve their skills in the language. There are many reasons for this. Some people plan to move to the United States. Others want to visit America or another English-speaking country. Still other people need to know English for work in their home nations. Many international businesses today require knowledge of the language. VOICE TWO: The United States Department of State supports English teaching activities in foreign nations. Its Office of English Language Programs helps other countries train their teachers in American English. The goal is to help foreign teachers offer English to their students. Experts plan, hold and support a number of programs. These include language schools in universities, education ministries and community centers. VOICE ONE: The Voice of America is currently broadcasting two series of English-teaching programs. One teaches general English. The other offers help with English used in business. You can hear these programs before our Special English broadcasts. Our listeners say Special English helps them learn and improve their English. We write and broadcast news and feature stories in a way that foreign listeners can understand. We use a limited number of words. We use short, clear sentences. Our announcers read these programs slower than regular English. There are several ways you can use Special English to improve your English. You can record Special English programs and study them later. If you have a computer, you can listen to these programs on our Internet Web Site, w-w-w-dot v-o-a specialenglish dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) You can also print the texts of most of these programs from the Web site. When you feel ready, you can listen to VOA’s programs in regular English. Or download scripts from the VOA Web site, w-w-w-dot v-o-a news dot com. (www.voanews.com) VOICE TWO: Watching American television programs and movies also are good ways to develop language skills. Reading newspapers and magazines in English helps, too. You can also ask English-speaking people to help you improve you pronunciation, or how words are said. Read aloud to them. Ask them to correct you. You can also find a number of programs for learning English on your computer. Some are free. Others, like a program called GlobalEnglish, require payment. Two-million people have learned or improved their English with GlobalEnglish. It offers both general and business English. Some lessons are for beginners. Others are for those who already know at least some of the language. You can try examples of its program on the GlobalEnglish Web site, w-w-w dot g-l-o-b-a-l-e-n-g-l-i-s-h dot com. (www.globalenglish.com) ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: An international organization called TESOL helps people learn English in a number of ways. TESOL, spelled T-E-S-O-L, is a shorter way of saying Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. About fourteen-thousand members belong to this education organization. Its headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia. TESOL has many related offices throughout the world. Some of the largest are in South America, Japan and Egypt. Mary Lou McCloskey is TESOL’s president. She says students learn English well if they have several major needs. VOICE TWO: Mizz McCloskey says a student needs an important and useful purpose for studying English. A person who must communicate in an English-speaking country will try hard to succeed. So will a person who must know English at work. For example, she tells about a taxi driver who speaks eight languages. She says he is very intelligent. But she also says he probably speaks all those languages because he needs to in his job. Mizz McCloskey says students also need the chance to use English once they learn it. Repeating words and groups of words helps establish them in a person’s memory. Another need is a helpful learning environment. The TESOL president describes this environment as one in which both the teacher and teaching materials are effective. VOICE ONE: For example, a good teacher speaks slowly to students. The teacher says each word clearly and separately. The teacher uses the most common English word for an object. To do this, the teacher might say the word “car” instead of “automobile” or “vehicle.” The teacher uses sentences that are short, simple and direct. This should also be true of written material. The TESOL president says teachers use a number of methods to help students learn English. For example, a teacher can communicate the meaning of a word by using comparisons. A teacher may use motion and other body language to demonstrate meaning. Students can develop skills by working in small groups or writing on a blackboard on the wall. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Experts say children under age twelve usually say foreign words better than adults as they learn a language. Children sound more natural. Like musicians, they have a “good ear” for pronunciation. But Mizz McCloskey says older learners can gain the same ease with English. She suggests that learning songs helps people pronounce English sounds and words. For example, one of her students could not pronounce the letter “L.” Then the student listened repeatedly and sang the American song, “Lollipop.” Soon she could clearly say her “L’s.” The TESOL president said learning songs also makes English words easier to remember. The use of words that sound alike can also help people learn. VOICE ONE: Many teachers and students say English can be difficult to learn. It has more words than any other language. The biggest dictionaries contain about six-hundred-thousand words. Many people who come to the United States from foreign countries have already studied English. They may have done very well. But when they arrive here, they may not understand much of what they hear or read. English learned in classrooms sometimes seems very different from every-day spoken English. Studies show that it can take several years of living in the United States while studying English for a foreign person to speak the language well. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Donna Kinerney (Kih-NEAR-nee) leads an adult-education program in English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, near Washington, D-C. This program is supervised by the Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools. It is the second largest ESOL program in the state. It serves about twelve-thousand students each year. ESOL teachers work with students on grammar – the ways sentences are formed. But Mizz Kinerney says cultural differences are partly to blame for the difficulty of learning a new language. So the Montgomery County program also places great importance on learning to speak and write English in common situations. Many other language programs in the United States also do this. VOICE ONE: For example, students in the Montgomery County program learn phrases they will need when they seek to find a job. In the process, they also learn the correct forms of verbs, or action words. Students in the program learn how to call for emergency help. They learn to ask how to find a doctor. They learn to complete papers required by their children’s schools. They learn what to ask their children’s teachers. They learn how to get a permit to drive a car. Each process helps the students deal with a new situation as it develops their English skills. VOICE TWO: Maria Neves-Silva (NEH-vase-SEEL-vah) is a twenty-one-year-old dancer from Recife, Brazil. She recently spent a year in New York City taking part in a cultural program. Mizz Neves-Silva advises others to try hard to make themselves understood in the United States. She says she has learned that most Americans are happy to help others speak English. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people around the world choose English as the first foreign language they want to study. It is the most widely taught foreign language in the world. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about teaching and learning English on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people around the world want to learn English or improve their skills in the language. There are many reasons for this. Some people plan to move to the United States. Others want to visit America or another English-speaking country. Still other people need to know English for work in their home nations. Many international businesses today require knowledge of the language. VOICE TWO: The United States Department of State supports English teaching activities in foreign nations. Its Office of English Language Programs helps other countries train their teachers in American English. The goal is to help foreign teachers offer English to their students. Experts plan, hold and support a number of programs. These include language schools in universities, education ministries and community centers. VOICE ONE: The Voice of America is currently broadcasting two series of English-teaching programs. One teaches general English. The other offers help with English used in business. You can hear these programs before our Special English broadcasts. Our listeners say Special English helps them learn and improve their English. We write and broadcast news and feature stories in a way that foreign listeners can understand. We use a limited number of words. We use short, clear sentences. Our announcers read these programs slower than regular English. There are several ways you can use Special English to improve your English. You can record Special English programs and study them later. If you have a computer, you can listen to these programs on our Internet Web Site, w-w-w-dot v-o-a specialenglish dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) You can also print the texts of most of these programs from the Web site. When you feel ready, you can listen to VOA’s programs in regular English. Or download scripts from the VOA Web site, w-w-w-dot v-o-a news dot com. (www.voanews.com) VOICE TWO: Watching American television programs and movies also are good ways to develop language skills. Reading newspapers and magazines in English helps, too. You can also ask English-speaking people to help you improve you pronunciation, or how words are said. Read aloud to them. Ask them to correct you. You can also find a number of programs for learning English on your computer. Some are free. Others, like a program called GlobalEnglish, require payment. Two-million people have learned or improved their English with GlobalEnglish. It offers both general and business English. Some lessons are for beginners. Others are for those who already know at least some of the language. You can try examples of its program on the GlobalEnglish Web site, w-w-w dot g-l-o-b-a-l-e-n-g-l-i-s-h dot com. (www.globalenglish.com) ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: An international organization called TESOL helps people learn English in a number of ways. TESOL, spelled T-E-S-O-L, is a shorter way of saying Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. About fourteen-thousand members belong to this education organization. Its headquarters are in Alexandria, Virginia. TESOL has many related offices throughout the world. Some of the largest are in South America, Japan and Egypt. Mary Lou McCloskey is TESOL’s president. She says students learn English well if they have several major needs. VOICE TWO: Mizz McCloskey says a student needs an important and useful purpose for studying English. A person who must communicate in an English-speaking country will try hard to succeed. So will a person who must know English at work. For example, she tells about a taxi driver who speaks eight languages. She says he is very intelligent. But she also says he probably speaks all those languages because he needs to in his job. Mizz McCloskey says students also need the chance to use English once they learn it. Repeating words and groups of words helps establish them in a person’s memory. Another need is a helpful learning environment. The TESOL president describes this environment as one in which both the teacher and teaching materials are effective. VOICE ONE: For example, a good teacher speaks slowly to students. The teacher says each word clearly and separately. The teacher uses the most common English word for an object. To do this, the teacher might say the word “car” instead of “automobile” or “vehicle.” The teacher uses sentences that are short, simple and direct. This should also be true of written material. The TESOL president says teachers use a number of methods to help students learn English. For example, a teacher can communicate the meaning of a word by using comparisons. A teacher may use motion and other body language to demonstrate meaning. Students can develop skills by working in small groups or writing on a blackboard on the wall. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Experts say children under age twelve usually say foreign words better than adults as they learn a language. Children sound more natural. Like musicians, they have a “good ear” for pronunciation. But Mizz McCloskey says older learners can gain the same ease with English. She suggests that learning songs helps people pronounce English sounds and words. For example, one of her students could not pronounce the letter “L.” Then the student listened repeatedly and sang the American song, “Lollipop.” Soon she could clearly say her “L’s.” The TESOL president said learning songs also makes English words easier to remember. The use of words that sound alike can also help people learn. VOICE ONE: Many teachers and students say English can be difficult to learn. It has more words than any other language. The biggest dictionaries contain about six-hundred-thousand words. Many people who come to the United States from foreign countries have already studied English. They may have done very well. But when they arrive here, they may not understand much of what they hear or read. English learned in classrooms sometimes seems very different from every-day spoken English. Studies show that it can take several years of living in the United States while studying English for a foreign person to speak the language well. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Donna Kinerney (Kih-NEAR-nee) leads an adult-education program in English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, near Washington, D-C. This program is supervised by the Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools. It is the second largest ESOL program in the state. It serves about twelve-thousand students each year. ESOL teachers work with students on grammar – the ways sentences are formed. But Mizz Kinerney says cultural differences are partly to blame for the difficulty of learning a new language. So the Montgomery County program also places great importance on learning to speak and write English in common situations. Many other language programs in the United States also do this. VOICE ONE: For example, students in the Montgomery County program learn phrases they will need when they seek to find a job. In the process, they also learn the correct forms of verbs, or action words. Students in the program learn how to call for emergency help. They learn to ask how to find a doctor. They learn to complete papers required by their children’s schools. They learn what to ask their children’s teachers. They learn how to get a permit to drive a car. Each process helps the students deal with a new situation as it develops their English skills. VOICE TWO: Maria Neves-Silva (NEH-vase-SEEL-vah) is a twenty-one-year-old dancer from Recife, Brazil. She recently spent a year in New York City taking part in a cultural program. Mizz Neves-Silva advises others to try hard to make themselves understood in the United States. She says she has learned that most Americans are happy to help others speak English. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – January 20, 2003: AIDS Drug Coalition
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new international coalition has been launched to help fight AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. The new International H-I-V Treatment Access Coalition will help provide anti-retroviral drugs to people in poor countries. This medicine helps prevent H-I-V from developing in the body. These drugs have been used in rich countries since nineteen-ninety-six. They have resulted in a sharp drop in H-I-V and AIDS sickness and death in those countries. Coalition officials say poor countries in the developing world must now have the same drugs. Coalition officials say no single organization can successfully spread anti-AIDS drugs around the world. Instead, a united group effort is required. The coalition plans to work together to share information about successful treatment programs in developing countries. It will also establish programs to buy the medicines and train health care workers about the drugs. The coalition says the price of anti-retroviral drugs is now decreasing. A one-year treatment used to cost ten-thousand dollars for one person. Today, it is less than three-hundred dollars. This is still a high price for people in developing countries. However, coalition officials say more aid money is now being used to pay for the drugs. In addition, many governments have reduced import taxes on medicines. Coalition officials say this political and humanitarian support must now be expanded to make treatment a reality for all people with H-I-V and AIDS. The World Health Organization estimates more than forty-million people have the disease. More than ninety-five percent live in poor and developing countries. Last year, nearly all of the more than three-million AIDS deaths were victims from these same poor countries. The W-H-O says only about five percent of the people living with H-I-V in developing countries use anti-retroviral drugs. Coalition officials say their goal is to increase the number of patients on AIDS drugs during the next three years. The International H-I-V Treatment Access Coalition has fifty-six members. They include governments, public health organizations, businesses, health researchers, humanitarian groups, victims, and their supporters. The W-H-O will supervise coalition efforts from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-17-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 18, 2003: Illinois Governor Cancels Death Sentences
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Last Saturday, the top official in the American state of Illinois canceled court orders to execute one-hundred-sixty-seven prisoners. Illinois Governor George Ryan reduced most of the sentences to life in prison. He said he had no other choice because his state’s system of executing criminals is not fair. A day earlier, Governor Ryan pardoned four other prisoners who were sentenced to die. He said the four men had been tortured by police and forced to admit to crimes they did not do. Governor Ryan said he supported a state’s right to execute dangerous criminals when he took office four years ago. However, his position began to change after studies found that thirteen prisoners sentenced to death in Illinois should be released. The studies identified mistakes in the way those prisoners were tried. They also found new evidence that cleared some prisoners of charges. Three years ago, Governor Ryan suspended all executions in the state. He said he could not risk sending innocent people to death. He then formed a committee to do study Illinois’s use of the death sentence and suggest reforms. The committee also examined many death penalty cases. The group found questions about the fairness of the sentencing. It said some of the prisoners were given bad legal advice. It also discovered wrongdoing by police officers. The committee proposed eighty-five reforms. But Illinois’s legislature has yet to act on the reforms. Governor Ryan criticized lawmakers for failing to approve them. The United States Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in nineteen-seventy-two. However, most states and the federal government have renewed the punishment. Governor Ryan’s action has increased debate about the issue. About seventy-percent of the American public are said to support the death penalty. Yet many people question the fairness of the system and its ability to separate the innocent from the guilty. Death penalty opponents hope that what happened in Illinois will influence other states. Opponents such as Amnesty International already have begun pressuring other governors and President Bush to reject the death penalty. Amnesty International says the punishment is no longer used in most countries. Many supporters of the death penalty have condemned the Illinois Governor. They accused him of using his action last week to cover up problems during his term as governor. Political opponents also have linked him to wrongdoing. George Ryan’s term in office ended on Monday. The state’s new governor says Governor Ryan’s decision was a big mistake. Already, government lawyers in the Chicago area have asked the state’s highest court to re-consider the death sentence for ten prisoners affected by the decision. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Last Saturday, the top official in the American state of Illinois canceled court orders to execute one-hundred-sixty-seven prisoners. Illinois Governor George Ryan reduced most of the sentences to life in prison. He said he had no other choice because his state’s system of executing criminals is not fair. A day earlier, Governor Ryan pardoned four other prisoners who were sentenced to die. He said the four men had been tortured by police and forced to admit to crimes they did not do. Governor Ryan said he supported a state’s right to execute dangerous criminals when he took office four years ago. However, his position began to change after studies found that thirteen prisoners sentenced to death in Illinois should be released. The studies identified mistakes in the way those prisoners were tried. They also found new evidence that cleared some prisoners of charges. Three years ago, Governor Ryan suspended all executions in the state. He said he could not risk sending innocent people to death. He then formed a committee to do study Illinois’s use of the death sentence and suggest reforms. The committee also examined many death penalty cases. The group found questions about the fairness of the sentencing. It said some of the prisoners were given bad legal advice. It also discovered wrongdoing by police officers. The committee proposed eighty-five reforms. But Illinois’s legislature has yet to act on the reforms. Governor Ryan criticized lawmakers for failing to approve them. The United States Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in nineteen-seventy-two. However, most states and the federal government have renewed the punishment. Governor Ryan’s action has increased debate about the issue. About seventy-percent of the American public are said to support the death penalty. Yet many people question the fairness of the system and its ability to separate the innocent from the guilty. Death penalty opponents hope that what happened in Illinois will influence other states. Opponents such as Amnesty International already have begun pressuring other governors and President Bush to reject the death penalty. Amnesty International says the punishment is no longer used in most countries. Many supporters of the death penalty have condemned the Illinois Governor. They accused him of using his action last week to cover up problems during his term as governor. Political opponents also have linked him to wrongdoing. George Ryan’s term in office ended on Monday. The state’s new governor says Governor Ryan’s decision was a big mistake. Already, government lawyers in the Chicago area have asked the state’s highest court to re-consider the death sentence for ten prisoners affected by the decision. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – January 21, 2002 : Smoking
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Artwork by a student in Yavapai County, Arizona(Image - cdc.gov) ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the health effects of smoking tobacco products. We also offer advice about how to stop smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that almost five-million people around the world die each year from the effects of smoking. That number is increasing. W-H-O officials say tobacco use will kill more than eight-million people a year by two-thousand-twenty if nothing is done to control the problem. In the United States, more than forty-six-million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. This year, an estimated four-hundred-forty-thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking also has been linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for about eighty-seven percent of all lung cancers in the United States. The group adds that smoking is a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than forty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: American government health experts say smoking affects not only the smoker. Women who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems. Pregnant women who smoke are at risk of having a baby who weighs less than normal. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of early death and may suffer from a number of health disorders. Experts say tobacco smoke also affects the health of people who do not smoke. Smokers may harm the health of family members and people at work when they breathe out smoke from cigarettes. This is called “second-hand smoke.” Tobacco smoke causes an estimated three-thousand non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer each year. Tobacco smoke also causes lung infections in as many as three-hundred-thousand American children each year. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Nicotine is the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again, forcing the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or the illegal drug cocaine. So experts say it is better not to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. However, most smokers find that is difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. People who use menthol cigarettes can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other cigarettes. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous. VOICE TWO: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. In two-thousand-one, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting smoking-related diseases. In fact, some people who use low tar or low nicotine cigarettes often smoke more. The report found no evidence that changes in cigarette design and production during the past fifty years have improved public health. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members and others who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several products designed to help end a smoker’s dependency on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. For example, smokers can place small, specially treated pieces of material on their skin. They can chew or swallow other products that contain nicotine. Or they can breathe small amounts of nicotine through their nose or mouth. VOICE ONE: A drug to fight depression has proved effective for many smokers. Depression is the mental condition that causes extreme sadness and hopelessness. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug works by increasing levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. Studies have shown that Zyban reduces the urge to smoke for some people. There is strong evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: We have some other ideas to help you stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people are smoking. If you drink alcohol, you probably will need to stop drinking temporarily. Many people lose their inner strength when they drink alcohol. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the health effects of smoking tobacco products. We also offer advice about how to stop smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that almost five-million people around the world die each year from the effects of smoking. That number is increasing. W-H-O officials say tobacco use will kill more than eight-million people a year by two-thousand-twenty if nothing is done to control the problem. In the United States, more than forty-six-million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. This year, an estimated four-hundred-forty-thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking also has been linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for about eighty-seven percent of all lung cancers in the United States. The group adds that smoking is a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than forty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: American government health experts say smoking affects not only the smoker. Women who smoke cigarettes during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems. Pregnant women who smoke are at risk of having a baby who weighs less than normal. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of early death and may suffer from a number of health disorders. Experts say tobacco smoke also affects the health of people who do not smoke. Smokers may harm the health of family members and people at work when they breathe out smoke from cigarettes. This is called “second-hand smoke.” Tobacco smoke causes an estimated three-thousand non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer each year. Tobacco smoke also causes lung infections in as many as three-hundred-thousand American children each year. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Nicotine is the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again, forcing the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or the illegal drug cocaine. So experts say it is better not to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. However, most smokers find that is difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. People who use menthol cigarettes can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other cigarettes. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous. VOICE TWO: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. In two-thousand-one, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting smoking-related diseases. In fact, some people who use low tar or low nicotine cigarettes often smoke more. The report found no evidence that changes in cigarette design and production during the past fifty years have improved public health. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members and others who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several products designed to help end a smoker’s dependency on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. For example, smokers can place small, specially treated pieces of material on their skin. They can chew or swallow other products that contain nicotine. Or they can breathe small amounts of nicotine through their nose or mouth. VOICE ONE: A drug to fight depression has proved effective for many smokers. Depression is the mental condition that causes extreme sadness and hopelessness. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug works by increasing levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. Studies have shown that Zyban reduces the urge to smoke for some people. There is strong evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: We have some other ideas to help you stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people are smoking. If you drink alcohol, you probably will need to stop drinking temporarily. Many people lose their inner strength when they drink alcohol. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – January 21, 2003: Solar Food Dryers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Drying food is a simple, low-cost way to keep food safe for eating. Drying removes water that small organisms use to break down food into other substances. Some of these substances may be poisonous to humans. A device that uses the sun is a good way to dry food. There are several kinds of solar dryers. The easiest to build is called the direct dryer. The sun shines directly on the food being dried. The direct dryer is a box with holes in it so that air can enter and leave the box. It has a cover made of clear glass or plastic. When the sun shines into the box, heat is produced. The heat is trapped inside the box and cannot escape back through the cover. The heat dries the food. The solar dryer works better if the sides of the box are black. This is because dark colors hold heat while light colors reflect it. One way to make the sides black is to use wood that has been blackened by fire. If you use black paint instead, be sure the paint contains no lead. Lead is poisonous to people, especially children. The box can be made of almost any material such as wood, concrete or sheet metal. The dryer should be two meters long, one meter wide and twenty-three to thirty centimeters deep. The sides and bottom should have additional material, called insulation, to keep the heat from escaping. The surface on which the food is placed should permit air to enter from below and pass through to the food. A surface made of wires with small square openings works very well. You should use wire with the largest openings or squares that do not allow the food to fall through. Air that comes in from below the wire surface will also carry away water evaporated from the food as it dries. A direct dryer will dry most vegetables in two-and-one-half to four hours at temperatures from forty-three to sixty-three degrees Celsius. Fruits take longer, from four to six hours at the same temperatures. Solar food drying is fast, safe, and low-cost. It is also healthy because nutrients such as Vitamin C are kept in the food. Solar dried food also tastes and looks good. You can get more information about solar food dryers from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its Web address: w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. (www.vita.org) This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 22, 2003: Albert Einstein
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about a scientist who changed the way we understand the universe, Albert Einstein. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In the year Nineteen-Oh-Five, Albert Einstein published some important papers in a German scientific magazine. They included one of the most important scientific documents in history. It was filled with mathematics. It explained what came to be called his “Special Theory of Relativity.” Ten years later he expanded it to a “General Theory of Relativity.” Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity are about the basic ideas we use to describe natural happenings. They are about time, space, mass, movement, and gravity. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in Eighteen-Seventy-Nine. His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the religion’s rules. Albert was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction -- to the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things. VOICE ONE: Albert did not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison. One story says Albert told his Uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. “You are looking for someone,” he said, “but you do not know who. Call him X. Find him by using the mathematical tools of algebra and geometry.” VOICE TWO: Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus when all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with friends he thought about things such as: “What would happen if people could travel at the speed of light?” Albert decided that he wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He attended the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated with honors, but could not get a teaching job. So he began working for the Swiss government as an inspector of patents for new inventions. The job was not demanding. He had a lot of time to think about some of his scientific theories. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called “thought experiments” to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By Nineteen-Oh-Five, he had formed his ideas into theories that he published. In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons. This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory. Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter. The most important of Albert Einstein’s theories published that year became known as his “Special Theory of Relativity.” He said the speed of light is always the same -- almost three-hundred-thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change. And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in relation to an object or an event. VOICE TWO: Imagine two space vehicles with a scientist travelling in each one. One spaceship is red. One is blue. Except for color, both spaceships are exactly alike. They pass one another far out in space. Neither scientist feels that his ship is moving. To each, it seems that the other ship is moving, not his. As they pass at high speed, the scientist in each ship measures how long it takes a beam of light to travel from the floor to the top of his spaceship, hit a mirror and return to the floor. Each spaceship has a window that lets each scientist see the experiment of the other. VOICE ONE: They begin their experiments at exactly the same moment. The scientist in the blue ship sees his beam of light go straight up and come straight down. But he sees that the light beam in the red ship does not do this. The red ship is moving so fast that the beam does not appear to go straight up. It forms a path up and down that looks like an upside down “V”. The scientist in the red ship would see exactly the same thing as he watched the experiment by the other scientist. He could say that time passed more slowly in the other ship. Each scientist would be correct, because the passing of time is linked to the position of the observer. Each scientist also would see that the other spaceship was shorter than his own. The higher the speeds the spaceships were travelling, the shorter the other ship would appear. And although the other ship would seem shorter, its mass would increase. It would seem to get heavier. The ideas were difficult to accept. Yet other scientists did experiments to prove that Einstein’s theory was correct. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work on another theory. It described what he called his “General Theory of Relativity.” It expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed. This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in Nineteen-Oh-Five. Einstein said that an object loses mass when it gives off light, which is a kind of energy. He believed that matter and energy were different forms of the same thing. That was the basis of his famous mathematical statement E equals m-c squared (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). This statement or formula explained that a great amount of energy could come from a small piece of matter. It explained how the sun could give off heat and light for millions of years. This formula also led to the discovery of atomic energy. VOICE ONE: In his general theory of relativity, Einstein said that gravity, like time, is not always the same. Gravity changes as observers speed up or slow down. He also said that gravity from very large objects, such as stars, could turn the path of light waves that passed nearby. This seemed unbelievable. But in Nineteen-Nineteen, British scientists confirmed his theory when the sun was completely blocked during a solar eclipse. Albert Einstein immediately became famous around the world. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. This scientific law explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces. The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and television. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler came to power in Nineteen-Thirty-Three.He moved to the United States to continue his research. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein became a citizen of the United States in Nineteen-Forty. VOICE ONE: Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand. Albert Einstein opposed wars. Yet he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine to advise him that the United States should develop an atomic bomb before Germany did. Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life working on what he called a “unified field theory.” He hoped to find a common mathematical statement that could tie together all the different parts of physics. He did not succeed. Albert Einstein died in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. He was seventy-six years old. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about a scientist who changed the way we understand the universe, Albert Einstein. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In the year Nineteen-Oh-Five, Albert Einstein published some important papers in a German scientific magazine. They included one of the most important scientific documents in history. It was filled with mathematics. It explained what came to be called his “Special Theory of Relativity.” Ten years later he expanded it to a “General Theory of Relativity.” Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity are about the basic ideas we use to describe natural happenings. They are about time, space, mass, movement, and gravity. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, in Eighteen-Seventy-Nine. His father owned a factory that made electrical devices. His mother enjoyed music and books. His parents were Jewish but they did not observe many of the religion’s rules. Albert was a quiet child who spent much of his time alone. He was slow to talk and had difficulty learning to read. When Albert was five years old, his father gave him a compass. The child was filled with wonder when he discovered that the compass needle always pointed in the same direction -- to the north. He asked his father and his uncle what caused the needle to move. Their answers about magnetism and gravity were difficult for the boy to understand. Yet he spent a lot of time thinking about them. He said later that he felt something hidden had to be behind things. VOICE ONE: Albert did not like school. The German schools of that time were not pleasant. Students could not ask questions. Albert said he felt as if he were in prison. One story says Albert told his Uncle Jacob how much he hated school, especially mathematics. His uncle told him to solve mathematical problems by pretending to be a policeman. “You are looking for someone,” he said, “but you do not know who. Call him X. Find him by using the mathematical tools of algebra and geometry.” VOICE TWO: Albert learned to love mathematics. He was studying the complex mathematics of calculus when all his friends were still studying simple mathematics. Instead of playing with friends he thought about things such as: “What would happen if people could travel at the speed of light?” Albert decided that he wanted to teach mathematics and physics. He attended the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He graduated with honors, but could not get a teaching job. So he began working for the Swiss government as an inspector of patents for new inventions. The job was not demanding. He had a lot of time to think about some of his scientific theories. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: From the time he was a boy, Albert Einstein had performed what he called “thought experiments” to test his ideas. He used his mind as a laboratory. By Nineteen-Oh-Five, he had formed his ideas into theories that he published. In one paper he said that light travels both in waves and in particles, called photons. This idea is an important part of what is called the quantum theory. Another paper was about the motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or gas. It confirmed the atomic theory of matter. The most important of Albert Einstein’s theories published that year became known as his “Special Theory of Relativity.” He said the speed of light is always the same -- almost three-hundred-thousand kilometers a second. Where the light is coming from or who is measuring it does not change the speed. However, he said, time can change. And mass can change. And length can change. They depend on where a person is in relation to an object or an event. VOICE TWO: Imagine two space vehicles with a scientist travelling in each one. One spaceship is red. One is blue. Except for color, both spaceships are exactly alike. They pass one another far out in space. Neither scientist feels that his ship is moving. To each, it seems that the other ship is moving, not his. As they pass at high speed, the scientist in each ship measures how long it takes a beam of light to travel from the floor to the top of his spaceship, hit a mirror and return to the floor. Each spaceship has a window that lets each scientist see the experiment of the other. VOICE ONE: They begin their experiments at exactly the same moment. The scientist in the blue ship sees his beam of light go straight up and come straight down. But he sees that the light beam in the red ship does not do this. The red ship is moving so fast that the beam does not appear to go straight up. It forms a path up and down that looks like an upside down “V”. The scientist in the red ship would see exactly the same thing as he watched the experiment by the other scientist. He could say that time passed more slowly in the other ship. Each scientist would be correct, because the passing of time is linked to the position of the observer. Each scientist also would see that the other spaceship was shorter than his own. The higher the speeds the spaceships were travelling, the shorter the other ship would appear. And although the other ship would seem shorter, its mass would increase. It would seem to get heavier. The ideas were difficult to accept. Yet other scientists did experiments to prove that Einstein’s theory was correct. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Ten years after his paper on the special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein finished work on another theory. It described what he called his “General Theory of Relativity.” It expanded his special theory to include the motion of objects that are gaining speed. This theory offered new ideas about gravity and the close relationship between matter and energy. It built on the ideas about mass he had expressed in Nineteen-Oh-Five. Einstein said that an object loses mass when it gives off light, which is a kind of energy. He believed that matter and energy were different forms of the same thing. That was the basis of his famous mathematical statement E equals m-c squared (energy equals mass times the speed of light squared). This statement or formula explained that a great amount of energy could come from a small piece of matter. It explained how the sun could give off heat and light for millions of years. This formula also led to the discovery of atomic energy. VOICE ONE: In his general theory of relativity, Einstein said that gravity, like time, is not always the same. Gravity changes as observers speed up or slow down. He also said that gravity from very large objects, such as stars, could turn the path of light waves that passed nearby. This seemed unbelievable. But in Nineteen-Nineteen, British scientists confirmed his theory when the sun was completely blocked during a solar eclipse. Albert Einstein immediately became famous around the world. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was given to him, not for his theories of relativity, but for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. This scientific law explained how and why some metals give off electrons after light falls on their surfaces. The discovery led to the development of modern electronics, including radio and television. VOICE TWO: Albert Einstein taught in Switzerland and Germany. He left Germany when Adolph Hitler came to power in Nineteen-Thirty-Three.He moved to the United States to continue his research. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Einstein became a citizen of the United States in Nineteen-Forty. VOICE ONE: Einstein was a famous man, but you would not have known that by looking at him. His white hair was long and wild. He wore old clothes. He showed an inner joy when he was playing his violin or talking about his work. Students and friends said he had a way of explaining difficult ideas using images that were easy to understand. Albert Einstein opposed wars. Yet he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine to advise him that the United States should develop an atomic bomb before Germany did. Einstein spent the last twenty-five years of his life working on what he called a “unified field theory.” He hoped to find a common mathematical statement that could tie together all the different parts of physics. He did not succeed. Albert Einstein died in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. He was seventy-six years old. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - January 22, 2003 : Fast Food
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The McDonald’s fast-food company is facing legal action by people who say its food made them fat and sick. In New York City, legal action was recently brought against McDonald’s and four other fast-food companies. The lawsuits charge that these companies have not warned people that this kind of food could be harmful. About one-hundred-seventy-thousand American fast-food restaurants sell food that is high in fat, sugar and calories. They include potatoes cooked in oil and meat sandwiches called hamburgers. The restaurants also serve sweet soft drinks. One man charged that this kind of food damaged his health. He said he had heart attacks and developed the disease diabetes. Several families say their children got fat on fast food and also developed diabetes. One of these teenagers weighs one-hundred-eighty kilograms. Experts say Americans are now the fattest people in the world. Two years ago, the top government doctor reported an increase in the number of Americans who are too fat. David Satcher said almost sixty percent of American adults weigh too much. Doctor Satcher also said thirteen percent of American children are too fat. He said the fast-food industry, schools and government agencies should change their policies. He said extreme overweight could become the nation’s leading cause of preventable death. A report published by the Center for the Public Interest says Americans spend about half their food budgets on meals eaten outside the home. Many eating places have increased the size of their servings. And it is difficult to know the amount of fat and nutrients in the food served in restaurants. Processed foods sold in food stores are required to include this information. The food industry spends large amounts of money on advertisements to get people to buy their products. In nineteen-ninety-eight, for example, McDonald’s spent about one-thousand-million dollars on ways to increase its business. McDonald’s and Hershey Foods have given money to an international food organization to set up an Internet Web site. The goal is to get children to exercise more. But critics say the food industry is not doing enough to protect the public’s health. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. --- News update: On January 22, a federal judge dismissed a civil action brought against McDonald's by a lawyer for some young, overweight New Yorkers. Judge Robert Sweet said that if people know or should know they might gain weight or suffer health problems, then they cannot blame the company if they eat large amounts of "supersized McDonald's products." At the same time, though, he said the young people might have a better case if they could show that "the dangers of McDonald's products were not commonly well known and thus that McDonald's had a duty toward its customers." The judge said Chicken McNuggets, for example, "rather than being merely chicken fried in a pan, are a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook." McDonald's released a statement on January 24 that it uses "the same chicken suppliers that stock grocery store shelves and kitchens across America." The statement, reported by the New York Times, said McNuggets "are made from marinated, boneless, white and dark meat with no fillers. The chicken is then battered and breaded and cooked in vegetable oil." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION – January 23, 2003: Clinton's First Term
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: January 1993, celebrating inauguration.(Photo - Smithsonian Institution) ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with The Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we continue telling about Bill Clinton, America’s forty-second president. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Bill Clinton began his first term as president of the United States in January of nineteen-ninety-three. During his terms in office, he appointed more women and minority members to serve in government than any earlier president. Mister Clinton became the first Democratic president in twenty-five years to name associate justices to the United States Supreme Court. He chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to serve on America’s highest court. Mizz Ginsburg was only the second woman named to the court. VOICE TWO: Members of President Clinton’s own Democratic Party controlled Congress for the first two years of his presidency. Still, Congress failed to consider a major administration proposal. The plan was meant to reform the health care system to provide health care for all Americans. Bill Clinton had promised during his presidential campaign to help more Americans receive health care. A committee led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, proposed the new administration plan. But Congress did not act on the proposal. Lawmakers decided it was too costly and too difficult to administer. VOICE ONE: Congress did pass some Clinton legislation during his first term. For example, legislators enacted his proposal to fight crime. This measure included a crime prevention program and increased law enforcement. It also provided money for building more prisons. Lawmakers also passed Mister Clinton’s budgets for nineteen-ninety-three and nineteen-ninety-four. The budgets reduced federal spending. VOICE TWO: President Clinton’s relations with Congress became more difficult after the nineteen-ninety-four midterm elections. Voters throughout the country elected the first majority Republican Congress in forty years. Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Republican-led Congress passed measures to reform social welfare in America. Mister Clinton also wanted to reform America’s aid system. But he stopped Congress from cutting what he believed was too much money for some programs. These included help for education, poor people and old people needing medical care. The economy had slowed to recession level during the administration of President George Bush. Under Mister Clinton the economy grew slowly at first. Then it recovered more quickly. Business earnings grew. New jobs were created. The economic crisis was ended. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Mister Clinton had to deal with terrorism against the United States very early in his presidency. On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, Islamic terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. They placed explosives in a car parked under the building. The huge explosion killed six people. More than one-thousand others were injured. Repair of the damaged building cost millions of dollars. The government later captured and tried the bombers. VOICE TWO: Terrorism again struck the United States in nineteen-ninety-five. On April nineteenth, a dissident American former soldier placed explosives that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. One-hundred-sixty-eight people died in the bombing. It was the most serious incident of terrorism on home territory in United States history. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was captured soon after the explosion. Another former soldier also was seized later in connection with the bombing. Many Americans praised Mister Clinton for the way he led the nation after this tragedy. VOICE ONE: President Bill Clinton also had to deal with a number of foreign relations crises. For example, President Bush had sent American troops to Somalia in nineteen-ninety-two. The troops were taking food to thousands of starving Somalis. The people were suffering because of lack of rain and a civil war. Fighting among ethnic groups was preventing the people from receiving food and other aid supplies. Then the United Nations took control of the aid efforts. President Clinton made American soldiers part of the U-N force. In nineteen-ninety-three, eighteen American soldiers were killed in Mogadishu. They died in a battle with supporters of a local group leader. Mister Clinton ordered American troops to leave Somalia after Congress demanded their withdrawal. VOICE TWO: American foreign policy was more successful in other areas. For example, President Clinton helped return the first democratically elected leader of Haiti to office. In nineteen-ninety-one, military officers in Haiti had ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The new rulers established a military dictatorship. Thousands of Haitian refugees tried to flee to the United States by boat. In nineteen-ninety-four, President Clinton threatened to use military force against the dictators if they did not let President Aristide return to power. The dictators surrendered power. Mister Aristide again became president of Haiti. VOICE ONE: Some of Mister Clinton’s most important foreign policy decisions involved the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, formerly a republic of Yugoslavia. A civil war began in Bosnia-Herzegovina in nineteen-ninety-two. Bosnian Serb rebels were trying to oust the mainly Muslim government. The United Nations sent peacekeepers to Bosnia. Mister Clinton ordered the United States Air Force to aid Bosnian Muslims under attack and try to stop Serb aggression. In late nineteen-ninety-five, Mister Clinton helped organize a meeting of the warring sides in the Bosnian civil war. They signed a peace plan that included a cease-fire. The plan called for NATO troops to help guard the cease-fire. The president sent American troops to aid in this effort. VOICE TWO: Mister Clinton gained one of the major foreign policy goals of his first administration in November of nineteen-ninety-three. Congress approved NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement called for ending most import taxes among the United States, Canada and Mexico. This was to be done over the next fifteen years. The agreement also called for ending restrictions on the flow of goods, services and investment among the three countries. President Clinton had another trade policy success the following year. Congress expanded GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The expansion permitted cuts in import taxes on thousands of products. They included electronics, wood products and metals. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: While Mister Clinton led the nation, he also had to defend his past. In the late nineteen-seventies, Mister and Missus Clinton had invested in the Whitewater Development Corporation in Arkansas. By the time Bill Clinton became president, others involved with this company were in legal trouble. Critics said President Clinton also had acted illegally. One accuser was a former judge in Little Rock, Arkansas. He owned a savings and loan company that received federal money. This man said Bill Clinton had secretly pressured him to make illegal loans to help the Whitewater company. President Clinton denied the accusation. VOICE TWO: Some people suspected that Hillary Rodham Clinton was responsible for wrongdoing years earlier when she working as a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas. In January, nineteen-ninety-four, Mister Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a lawyer to lead an independent investigation of the Clintons’ activities. She named Robert Fiske, a Republican. But critics charged that Mister Fiske was too friendly to the Clinton Administration. In August, three federal judges replaced him with lawyer Kenneth Starr, also a Republican. VOICE ONE: Some Americans expressed anger at the president about the Whitewater case. Others dismissed the accusations as political attacks. Opinion studies in spring and summer of nineteen-ninety-six showed that many Americans would vote to re-elect their president in November. They said they wanted Bill Clinton to serve as president for four more years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program of The Making of a Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with The Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we continue telling about Bill Clinton, America’s forty-second president. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Bill Clinton began his first term as president of the United States in January of nineteen-ninety-three. During his terms in office, he appointed more women and minority members to serve in government than any earlier president. Mister Clinton became the first Democratic president in twenty-five years to name associate justices to the United States Supreme Court. He chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to serve on America’s highest court. Mizz Ginsburg was only the second woman named to the court. VOICE TWO: Members of President Clinton’s own Democratic Party controlled Congress for the first two years of his presidency. Still, Congress failed to consider a major administration proposal. The plan was meant to reform the health care system to provide health care for all Americans. Bill Clinton had promised during his presidential campaign to help more Americans receive health care. A committee led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, proposed the new administration plan. But Congress did not act on the proposal. Lawmakers decided it was too costly and too difficult to administer. VOICE ONE: Congress did pass some Clinton legislation during his first term. For example, legislators enacted his proposal to fight crime. This measure included a crime prevention program and increased law enforcement. It also provided money for building more prisons. Lawmakers also passed Mister Clinton’s budgets for nineteen-ninety-three and nineteen-ninety-four. The budgets reduced federal spending. VOICE TWO: President Clinton’s relations with Congress became more difficult after the nineteen-ninety-four midterm elections. Voters throughout the country elected the first majority Republican Congress in forty years. Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Republican-led Congress passed measures to reform social welfare in America. Mister Clinton also wanted to reform America’s aid system. But he stopped Congress from cutting what he believed was too much money for some programs. These included help for education, poor people and old people needing medical care. The economy had slowed to recession level during the administration of President George Bush. Under Mister Clinton the economy grew slowly at first. Then it recovered more quickly. Business earnings grew. New jobs were created. The economic crisis was ended. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Mister Clinton had to deal with terrorism against the United States very early in his presidency. On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, Islamic terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. They placed explosives in a car parked under the building. The huge explosion killed six people. More than one-thousand others were injured. Repair of the damaged building cost millions of dollars. The government later captured and tried the bombers. VOICE TWO: Terrorism again struck the United States in nineteen-ninety-five. On April nineteenth, a dissident American former soldier placed explosives that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. One-hundred-sixty-eight people died in the bombing. It was the most serious incident of terrorism on home territory in United States history. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was captured soon after the explosion. Another former soldier also was seized later in connection with the bombing. Many Americans praised Mister Clinton for the way he led the nation after this tragedy. VOICE ONE: President Bill Clinton also had to deal with a number of foreign relations crises. For example, President Bush had sent American troops to Somalia in nineteen-ninety-two. The troops were taking food to thousands of starving Somalis. The people were suffering because of lack of rain and a civil war. Fighting among ethnic groups was preventing the people from receiving food and other aid supplies. Then the United Nations took control of the aid efforts. President Clinton made American soldiers part of the U-N force. In nineteen-ninety-three, eighteen American soldiers were killed in Mogadishu. They died in a battle with supporters of a local group leader. Mister Clinton ordered American troops to leave Somalia after Congress demanded their withdrawal. VOICE TWO: American foreign policy was more successful in other areas. For example, President Clinton helped return the first democratically elected leader of Haiti to office. In nineteen-ninety-one, military officers in Haiti had ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The new rulers established a military dictatorship. Thousands of Haitian refugees tried to flee to the United States by boat. In nineteen-ninety-four, President Clinton threatened to use military force against the dictators if they did not let President Aristide return to power. The dictators surrendered power. Mister Aristide again became president of Haiti. VOICE ONE: Some of Mister Clinton’s most important foreign policy decisions involved the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, formerly a republic of Yugoslavia. A civil war began in Bosnia-Herzegovina in nineteen-ninety-two. Bosnian Serb rebels were trying to oust the mainly Muslim government. The United Nations sent peacekeepers to Bosnia. Mister Clinton ordered the United States Air Force to aid Bosnian Muslims under attack and try to stop Serb aggression. In late nineteen-ninety-five, Mister Clinton helped organize a meeting of the warring sides in the Bosnian civil war. They signed a peace plan that included a cease-fire. The plan called for NATO troops to help guard the cease-fire. The president sent American troops to aid in this effort. VOICE TWO: Mister Clinton gained one of the major foreign policy goals of his first administration in November of nineteen-ninety-three. Congress approved NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement called for ending most import taxes among the United States, Canada and Mexico. This was to be done over the next fifteen years. The agreement also called for ending restrictions on the flow of goods, services and investment among the three countries. President Clinton had another trade policy success the following year. Congress expanded GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The expansion permitted cuts in import taxes on thousands of products. They included electronics, wood products and metals. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: While Mister Clinton led the nation, he also had to defend his past. In the late nineteen-seventies, Mister and Missus Clinton had invested in the Whitewater Development Corporation in Arkansas. By the time Bill Clinton became president, others involved with this company were in legal trouble. Critics said President Clinton also had acted illegally. One accuser was a former judge in Little Rock, Arkansas. He owned a savings and loan company that received federal money. This man said Bill Clinton had secretly pressured him to make illegal loans to help the Whitewater company. President Clinton denied the accusation. VOICE TWO: Some people suspected that Hillary Rodham Clinton was responsible for wrongdoing years earlier when she working as a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas. In January, nineteen-ninety-four, Mister Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint a lawyer to lead an independent investigation of the Clintons’ activities. She named Robert Fiske, a Republican. But critics charged that Mister Fiske was too friendly to the Clinton Administration. In August, three federal judges replaced him with lawyer Kenneth Starr, also a Republican. VOICE ONE: Some Americans expressed anger at the president about the Whitewater case. Others dismissed the accusations as political attacks. Opinion studies in spring and summer of nineteen-ninety-six showed that many Americans would vote to re-elect their president in November. They said they wanted Bill Clinton to serve as president for four more years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program of The Making of a Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - January 23, 2003: Foreign Student Series #19 >Agriculture Studies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. We continue our series of reports about how students from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. Today, we tell about universities that teach agricultural science. The United States Department of Education says there are more than two-thousand-four-hundred American colleges and universities. About one-hundred of these four-year schools began as public agricultural colleges, and continue to teach agriculture. They are called land grant colleges or universities. Federal land grants supported the building of most of the major state universities in the United States. The idea of the land grant college was developed more than one-hundred years ago by Congressman Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont. In eighteen-sixty-two, he wrote legislation to create such a college in each state. The name land grant came from the kind of aid provided by the federal government. It gave each state thousands of hectares of land. The money earned by the land was to be used to support the college. The federal government wanted people in each state to learn better ways to farm. Mister Morrill and others saw a need for universities to teach agriculture science to improve what was then an important national industry. A later law helped agricultural colleges develop new ideas in farm science. It created an agriculture experiment center at each land grant college to help farmers solve problems. One land grant school is the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. About four-thousand students from other countries now attend Penn State. It costs between twenty-eight-thousand and thirty-four-thousand dollars a year to attend. Officials say it is possible for graduate students to get financial aid by working for the university as a teaching or research assistant. Almost two-hundred international students are studying this year in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State. All but five are graduate students. University officials say most international students in the College of Agricultural Sciences are from Africa, Asia and Europe. They are studying animal science, plant science, forestry, economics, and food science. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: January 23, 2003 - Fast Talk
* Byline: 

 DATE= TYPE=English Programs Feature NUMBER=7- TITLE=WORDMASTER - Fast Talk/Deborah Tannen BYLINE=Arditti/Skirble TELEPHONE=619-0927 DATELINE=Washington EDITOR=Ted Landphair CONTENT= Attention: English language learning AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some fast talk with linguist and author Deborah Tannen. RS: Recently, she wrote an article in the Washington Post that criticizes a trend in American TV and film toward faster dialogue. Hollywood apparently thinks fast talkers sound smarter -- not to mention more like the young people producers want to appeal to. AA: But Deborah Tannen says faster is harder for a lot of people to understand. She says that all over the world, speakers from some regions tend to speak more slowly than those from other regions. Research has found that those who speak slower are stereotyped as stupid. But fast talkers can seem pushy. TAPE: CUT 1 – 3:54 TANNEN: “You can see this in the United States, where people from New York City in particular and the Northeast in general tend to speak somewhat more quickly, and it’s one of several things that I think leads us to be perceived as aggressive when we speak to people from other parts of the country. The Midwest would be an example of a place where people speak somewhat more slowly. New England would be another example, and the South would be another example. Although the particular manner of speaking will be different in each part of the country, those three parts are similar in that they would speak more slowly than people from the Northeast. But that’s not to say a New Englander and a Southerner are alike in other ways. We have I guess, a stereotype of a taciturn person from New England. We don’t think of the Southerners as being taciturn. They’re very verbal; they talk a lot. But they don’t get to the point as quickly as a person from New York might get.” RS: “So would the fast-paced speech that we’re hearing on TV and on radio and among teen-agers, would you consider this a fad?” TANNEN: “It seems that all of us, the older we get, the slower we speak. In the past, teen-agers might aspire to sound serious like adults. Now we’ve got adults trying to sound like teen-agers. And we’ve got the media -- the television, the advertisements, the movies -- trying to be cool and make everybody think that this is a person I want to be like by sounding more like teen-agers. There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal where they were reporting on this fact that dialogue on television now is faster. They interviewed the producer of a very popular cable show called ‘Gilmore Girls.’ And it’s about two young women, one is 30, one is 15 -- but they’re like teen-agers. It’s mother-daughter, but they’re really more like friends. And the producer said whereas traditionally one page of a script would be a minute, they figure twenty to twenty-two seconds. And they reported that they might redo a scene 30, 35 times trying to shave off just a couple of seconds and get it right. "In fact, I’m wondering if many of your listeners who listen to American shows might not be having more trouble and wondering ‘maybe it’s my English?’ Since my article came out, I’ve been receiving dozens of letters and e-mails from people saying ‘I thought it was me, I thought I was losing my hearing, I thought I was getting old and couldn’t think anymore.’” AA: “Well, the irony is that the American population is getting older -- ” TANNEN: “Yes! Yes!” AA: “And yet the TV industry is aiming for the folks with lots of money -- which actually, the older folks have the money -- but they’re aiming for the younger folks.” TANNEN: “You are so right. And all the people that are writing to me are asking why, why are they forgetting us and playing to the kids when we’re the ones who have more money, more disposable income to spend. But it shouldn’t be all about money, anyway.” RS: “Do you have any suggestions of how to cope with someone who speaks rather quickly.” TANNEN: “One thing I would say is, we all have to overcome our hesitance about interrupting a person and telling them we’re having trouble understanding. As many non-native speakers know, often when you have trouble understanding, the person will just speak louder. But I would really encourage people if they are having trouble to say something. It won’t be taken as an insult. It’s really taken usually as a compliment. It means I really want to understand what you’re saying.” RS: Deborah Tannen is a linguistics professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Her last book, "I Only Say This Because I Love You," examined the speech patterns in family relationships. She also wrote the best-seller "You Just Don’t Understand," about how men and women communicate. AA: To help you better communicate in English, go to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. You can download audio files and scripts. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: January 23, 2003 - Deborah Tannen: Fast Talk
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast on Coast": January 23, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some fast talk with linguist and author Deborah Tannen. RS: Recently, she wrote an article in the Washington Post that criticizes a trend in American TV and film toward faster dialogue. Hollywood apparently thinks fast talkers sound smarter -- not to mention more like the young people producers want to appeal to. AA: But Deborah Tannen says faster is harder for a lot of people to understand. She says that all over the world, speakers from some regions tend to speak more slowly than those from other regions. Research has found that those who speak slower are stereotyped as stupid. But fast talkers can seem pushy. TANNEN: “You can see this in the United States, where people from New York City in particular and the Northeast in general tend to speak somewhat more quickly, and it’s one of several things that I think leads us to be perceived as aggressive when we speak to people from other parts of the country. The Midwest would be an example of a place where people speak somewhat more slowly. New England would be another example, and the South would be another example. "Although the particular manner of speaking will be different in each part of the country, those three parts are similar in that they would speak more slowly than people from the Northeast. But that’s not to say a New Englander and a Southerner are alike in other ways. We have I guess, a stereotype of a taciturn person from New England. We don’t think of the Southerners as being taciturn. They’re very verbal; they talk a lot. But they don’t get to the point as quickly as a person from New York might get.” RS: “So would the fast-paced speech that we’re hearing on TV and on radio and among teen-agers, would you consider this a fad?” TANNEN: “It seems that all of us, the older we get, the slower we speak. In the past, teen-agers might aspire to sound serious like adults. Now we’ve got adults trying to sound like teen-agers. And we’ve got the media -- the television, the advertisements, the movies -- trying to be cool and make everybody think that this is a person I want to be like by sounding more like teen-agers. "There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal where they were reporting on this fact that dialogue on television now is faster. They interviewed the producer of a very popular cable show called ‘Gilmore Girls.' And the producer said whereas traditionally one page of a script would be a minute, they figure twenty to twenty-two seconds. And they reported that they might redo a scene 30, 35 times trying to shave off just a couple of seconds and get it right. "In fact, I’m wondering if many of your listeners who listen to American shows might not be having more trouble and wondering ‘maybe it’s my English?’ Since my article came out, I’ve been receiving dozens of letters and e-mails from people saying ‘I thought it was me, I thought I was losing my hearing, I thought I was getting old and couldn’t think anymore.’” AA: “Well, the irony is that the American population is getting older -- ” TANNEN: “Yes! Yes!” AA: “And yet the TV industry is aiming for the folks with lots of money -- which actually, the older folks have the money -- but they’re aiming for the younger folks.” TANNEN: “You are so right. And all the people that are writing to me are asking why, why are they forgetting us and playing to the kids when we’re the ones who have more money, more disposable income to spend. But it shouldn’t be all about money, anyway.” RS: “Do you have any suggestions of how to cope with someone who speaks rather quickly.” TANNEN: “One thing I would say is, we all have to overcome our hesitance about interrupting a person and telling them we’re having trouble understanding. As many non-native speakers know, often when you have trouble understanding, the person will just speak louder. But I would really encourage people if they are having trouble to say something. It won’t be taken as an insult. It’s really taken usually as a compliment. It means I really want to understand what you’re saying.” RS: Deborah Tannen is a linguistics professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Her last book, "I Only Say This Because I Love You," examined the speech patterns in family relationships. She also wrote the best-seller "You Just Don’t Understand," about how men and women communicate. AA: To help you better communicate in English, go to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. You can download audio files and scripts. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast on Coast": January 23, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some fast talk with linguist and author Deborah Tannen. RS: Recently, she wrote an article in the Washington Post that criticizes a trend in American TV and film toward faster dialogue. Hollywood apparently thinks fast talkers sound smarter -- not to mention more like the young people producers want to appeal to. AA: But Deborah Tannen says faster is harder for a lot of people to understand. She says that all over the world, speakers from some regions tend to speak more slowly than those from other regions. Research has found that those who speak slower are stereotyped as stupid. But fast talkers can seem pushy. TANNEN: “You can see this in the United States, where people from New York City in particular and the Northeast in general tend to speak somewhat more quickly, and it’s one of several things that I think leads us to be perceived as aggressive when we speak to people from other parts of the country. The Midwest would be an example of a place where people speak somewhat more slowly. New England would be another example, and the South would be another example. "Although the particular manner of speaking will be different in each part of the country, those three parts are similar in that they would speak more slowly than people from the Northeast. But that’s not to say a New Englander and a Southerner are alike in other ways. We have I guess, a stereotype of a taciturn person from New England. We don’t think of the Southerners as being taciturn. They’re very verbal; they talk a lot. But they don’t get to the point as quickly as a person from New York might get.” RS: “So would the fast-paced speech that we’re hearing on TV and on radio and among teen-agers, would you consider this a fad?” TANNEN: “It seems that all of us, the older we get, the slower we speak. In the past, teen-agers might aspire to sound serious like adults. Now we’ve got adults trying to sound like teen-agers. And we’ve got the media -- the television, the advertisements, the movies -- trying to be cool and make everybody think that this is a person I want to be like by sounding more like teen-agers. "There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal where they were reporting on this fact that dialogue on television now is faster. They interviewed the producer of a very popular cable show called ‘Gilmore Girls.' And the producer said whereas traditionally one page of a script would be a minute, they figure twenty to twenty-two seconds. And they reported that they might redo a scene 30, 35 times trying to shave off just a couple of seconds and get it right. "In fact, I’m wondering if many of your listeners who listen to American shows might not be having more trouble and wondering ‘maybe it’s my English?’ Since my article came out, I’ve been receiving dozens of letters and e-mails from people saying ‘I thought it was me, I thought I was losing my hearing, I thought I was getting old and couldn’t think anymore.’” AA: “Well, the irony is that the American population is getting older -- ” TANNEN: “Yes! Yes!” AA: “And yet the TV industry is aiming for the folks with lots of money -- which actually, the older folks have the money -- but they’re aiming for the younger folks.” TANNEN: “You are so right. And all the people that are writing to me are asking why, why are they forgetting us and playing to the kids when we’re the ones who have more money, more disposable income to spend. But it shouldn’t be all about money, anyway.” RS: “Do you have any suggestions of how to cope with someone who speaks rather quickly.” TANNEN: “One thing I would say is, we all have to overcome our hesitance about interrupting a person and telling them we’re having trouble understanding. As many non-native speakers know, often when you have trouble understanding, the person will just speak louder. But I would really encourage people if they are having trouble to say something. It won’t be taken as an insult. It’s really taken usually as a compliment. It means I really want to understand what you’re saying.” RS: Deborah Tannen is a linguistics professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Her last book, "I Only Say This Because I Love You," examined the speech patterns in family relationships. She also wrote the best-seller "You Just Don’t Understand," about how men and women communicate. AA: To help you better communicate in English, go to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. You can download audio files and scripts. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 24, 2003: New Music from Sheryl Crow / Question About How Americans Prepare for Retirement / Wireless Phones Rule!
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: A wireless telephone from the early twentieth century. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play some music from Sheryl Crow ... August 14, 1935: President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play some music from Sheryl Crow ... Answer a question about preparing for retirement ... And tell about the popularity of cell phones. Cell Phones HOST: Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in eighteen-seventy-six. He might recognize the telephone we use today. But he might not like what we do with it. In most industrial countries, it seems as if almost everyone carries a small device they call a mobile, cellular or cell phone. (RINGING CELL PHONE) Answer a question about preparing for retirement ... And tell about the popularity of cell phones. Cell Phones HOST: Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in eighteen-seventy-six. He might recognize the telephone we use today. But he might not like what we do with it. In most industrial countries, it seems as if almost everyone carries a small device they call a mobile, cellular or cell phone. (RINGING CELL PHONE) Uh, just a moment, that is my cell phone. Hello? No, not now, I am doing American Mosaic. Could you call me later? Just a minute. Uh, Mary Tillitson tells us more about this most modern telephone. No, I will call back later. It will have to wait. Not now. Please call later! ANNCR: Doug Johnson was only playing a joke just now. He did not really get a telephone call. But cell phone calls have become an increasing problem these days because so many people now own these phones. Communication industry experts say about forty-six-million Americans used cell phones five years ago. That number now is closer to one-hundred-twenty-million. Today it is even possible to use a cell phone linked to a satellite from anywhere on Earth. So you can pay money to use a cell phone in foreign countries while traveling. In most industrial countries, you can see hundreds of people each day walking on the street talking on their cell phones. You see them in eating places. You hear their cell phones ring in theaters, at business meetings and even at weddings. People use them while driving in automobiles. Experts say many accidents are caused by people who do not pay full attention to their driving. They are too busy talking on their cell phones. In the United States, forty-one state governments are debating legislation to make it illegal to drive a vehicle and talk on a cell phone at the same time. Almost everyone agrees that people should be more thoughtful when they use a cell phone in public. They should not talk too loudly. And they should turn off their cell phone when it might cause problems for others. (RINGING CELL PHONE) Er, excuse me, I have a cell phone call. Uh, that is all the cell phone information I had now anyway. Hello? Hello? Yes. This is really a bad time, call again later … Pensions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Liang Qinyu asks about pension plans in America. A pension is the money a worker or his or her family receives when the worker retires, is unable to work, or dies. The money comes from personal savings, the government’s Social Security program, and private pension plans offered through a place of employment. Federal law requires businesses to give pension rights to all people who have worked for the company for a set number of years. The United States Department of Labor has an office called the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. Its job is to supervise pension plans in the United States. The federal government’s Social Security program is the largest retirement program in the United States. It was established in nineteen-thirty-five. Under the plan, workers pay a little more than six percent of their wages each month into Social Security. Their employers do the same. Most self-employed workers also pay a percent of their wages into Social Security. People will receive payments after they retire for as long as they live. The Social Security program is popular in America. But it was never meant to fully support someone in retirement. Especially today, money received through Social Security is not enough to provide for most people’s needs. This is why many Americans also have personal savings or a pension or both. Most government pensions are paid with money from workers and their agencies. Most company pension plans are paid the same way. Self-employed workers can establish an independent pension plan through a bank or insurance company. People who work for companies that do not offer pensions can do the same. Workers pay a percent of money every month to the plan. They receive payments after they retire. People usually retire at about the age of sixty-five. However, some Americans find that they do not enjoy retirement. Or they do not have enough money to retire. So they continue working until they are older. Cheryl Crow HOST: American singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow has already won many music industry awards. Last week, she won an American Music Award as favorite female pop or rock and roll artist. Three songs on her latest album have been nominated for Grammy Awards. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Sheryl Crow’s latest album is called “C’mon, C’mon”. She helped write many of its songs. She wrote this one with her sister and recorded it with country rock singer Don Henley. “It’s So Easy” is nominated for a Grammy Award as best pop collaboration with vocals. (MUSIC) Sheryl Crow says the album is her attempt to produce songs similar to those from the nineteen-seventies and eighties. The song “Steve McQueen” honors a movie actor who represented rebellion. It is nominated for a Grammy award as best female rock vocal performance. (MUSIC) Still another song by Sheryl Crow is nominated for a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance. She says this song is a social comment about how time passes and cannot be made to return. We leave you now with Sheryl Crow singing her third Grammy-nominated song this year, “Soak Up the Sun.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Mattlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Uh, just a moment, that is my cell phone. Hello? No, not now, I am doing American Mosaic. Could you call me later? Just a minute. Uh, Mary Tillitson tells us more about this most modern telephone. No, I will call back later. It will have to wait. Not now. Please call later! ANNCR: Doug Johnson was only playing a joke just now. He did not really get a telephone call. But cell phone calls have become an increasing problem these days because so many people now own these phones. Communication industry experts say about forty-six-million Americans used cell phones five years ago. That number now is closer to one-hundred-twenty-million. Today it is even possible to use a cell phone linked to a satellite from anywhere on Earth. So you can pay money to use a cell phone in foreign countries while traveling. In most industrial countries, you can see hundreds of people each day walking on the street talking on their cell phones. You see them in eating places. You hear their cell phones ring in theaters, at business meetings and even at weddings. People use them while driving in automobiles. Experts say many accidents are caused by people who do not pay full attention to their driving. They are too busy talking on their cell phones. In the United States, forty-one state governments are debating legislation to make it illegal to drive a vehicle and talk on a cell phone at the same time. Almost everyone agrees that people should be more thoughtful when they use a cell phone in public. They should not talk too loudly. And they should turn off their cell phone when it might cause problems for others. (RINGING CELL PHONE) Er, excuse me, I have a cell phone call. Uh, that is all the cell phone information I had now anyway. Hello? Hello? Yes. This is really a bad time, call again later … Pensions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Liang Qinyu asks about pension plans in America. A pension is the money a worker or his or her family receives when the worker retires, is unable to work, or dies. The money comes from personal savings, the government’s Social Security program, and private pension plans offered through a place of employment. Federal law requires businesses to give pension rights to all people who have worked for the company for a set number of years. The United States Department of Labor has an office called the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. Its job is to supervise pension plans in the United States. The federal government’s Social Security program is the largest retirement program in the United States. It was established in nineteen-thirty-five. Under the plan, workers pay a little more than six percent of their wages each month into Social Security. Their employers do the same. Most self-employed workers also pay a percent of their wages into Social Security. People will receive payments after they retire for as long as they live. The Social Security program is popular in America. But it was never meant to fully support someone in retirement. Especially today, money received through Social Security is not enough to provide for most people’s needs. This is why many Americans also have personal savings or a pension or both. Most government pensions are paid with money from workers and their agencies. Most company pension plans are paid the same way. Self-employed workers can establish an independent pension plan through a bank or insurance company. People who work for companies that do not offer pensions can do the same. Workers pay a percent of money every month to the plan. They receive payments after they retire. People usually retire at about the age of sixty-five. However, some Americans find that they do not enjoy retirement. Or they do not have enough money to retire. So they continue working until they are older. Cheryl Crow HOST: American singer and songwriter Sheryl Crow has already won many music industry awards. Last week, she won an American Music Award as favorite female pop or rock and roll artist. Three songs on her latest album have been nominated for Grammy Awards. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Sheryl Crow’s latest album is called “C’mon, C’mon”. She helped write many of its songs. She wrote this one with her sister and recorded it with country rock singer Don Henley. “It’s So Easy” is nominated for a Grammy Award as best pop collaboration with vocals. (MUSIC) Sheryl Crow says the album is her attempt to produce songs similar to those from the nineteen-seventies and eighties. The song “Steve McQueen” honors a movie actor who represented rebellion. It is nominated for a Grammy award as best female rock vocal performance. (MUSIC) Still another song by Sheryl Crow is nominated for a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance. She says this song is a social comment about how time passes and cannot be made to return. We leave you now with Sheryl Crow singing her third Grammy-nominated song this year, “Soak Up the Sun.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Mattlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – January 24, 2003: Illegal Destruction of Indonesian Forests
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Two environmental groups blame dishonesty among Indonesian officials for the continued destruction of the country’s forests. Their report says illegal tree cutting is threatening the native environment of rare animals, including the orangutan. It says the illegal operations are harming large areas of rainforest, including those protected by the Indonesian government. The Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak released the report. Telapak is an environmental group based in Indonesia. The Environmental Investigation Agency operates in several countries. The two groups say Indonesia controls ten percent of the world’s tropical rainforests. They say illegal operations to remove trees are causing large areas of forest to disappear. Environmental Investigation Agency director Dave Currey says the illegal operations are completely out of control. He says the Indonesian government offered to stop tree cutting in the country’s national parks three years ago. Since then, he says, the problem has worsened. The two groups say illegal activities are to blame for the loss of more than sixteen-thousand square kilometers of forest each year. They say studies have shown that more than seventy percent of all wood processed in Indonesia comes from illegal logging operations. The groups note that Indonesia has laws that ban such activities. But they say that dishonest judges and political leaders enable tree-cutters to buy protection from legal action. The groups examined the situation in the Tanjung Puting (TAHNG-joong POOT-ing) National Park on the island of Borneo. The area is home to world famous centers to protect orangutans. The groups found thousands of cubic meters of trees being cut at illegal processing centers in the park. They say some of the wood came from rare kinds of trees. The new report praises Indonesia’s government for establishing treaties to limit the international trade in illegal wood products. However, it says the government has not done enough to deal with problems within Indonesia. The report says the government risks having one of its most valuable natural resources removed in order to supply rare woods to other countries. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – January 27, 2003: Capital Punishment
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Thirty-eight of the fifty American states have laws permitting them to execute people found guilty of capital crimes. These crimes include murder, kidnapping and other actions that result in the deaths of others. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We discuss the debate about capital punishment on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is one of the most widely debated issues in the United States today. Opponents say this death sentence is too severe. They say it is often unfair. Others say that people who kill should die for their crime. In nineteen-seventy-two, the Supreme Court of the United States banned executions. The high court based its decision on two amendments to the Constitution. The court ruled that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment because of the way the states enforced it. But the decision left open the possibility that the Supreme Court might accept capital punishment in the future. The decision meant this could happen if people were executed only for some crimes, under limited conditions. VOICE TWO: The high court ruled on the subject again in nineteen-seventy-six. It approved the right of states to make new laws permitting the death sentence. Many states enacted the new laws. Their measures satisfied Supreme Court requirements. More than eight-hundred men and women have been executed in the United states since nineteen-seventy-six. Almost three-hundred of them were in the state of Texas. Last year, seventy-one people were executed in the United States. Thirty-three of these people died in the state of Texas. One study shows that about seventy-percent of Americans support the death sentence. But debate is growing. This is especially true after recent events in the state of Illinois. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Since nineteen-seventy-seven, twelve prisoners have been put to death in Illinois. But courts canceled the punishment of thirteen others. They did so after considering new evidence. Three years ago, the governor of Illinois, George Ryan, decided the state could take no more chances that it might execute people who were not guilty. He suspended all executions in the state until the death penalty system could be studied. Governor Ryan established a committee of legal experts and other citizens to do this. After a two-year study, the committee raised questions about the fairness of sentencing. It said some prisoners were given bad legal advice. It also discovered wrongdoing by police officers. The committee suggested eighty-five reforms. They included measures to improve collecting and presenting evidence in cases that involved the death penalty. The group said the death penalty should be ended if these changes were not made. But Illinois lawmakers have not enacted any of the measures containing the committee’s proposals. VOICE TWO: Mister Ryan left the office of governor earlier this month. Before doing so, he pardoned four men. He said police had tortured them into falsely admitting guilt. Each man had spent at least twelve years waiting to be executed. Such prisoners are kept in a special place, called death row. Its conditions are more severe than those in other prison areas. On January eleventh, two days before he left office, Governor Ryan cancelled court orders to execute all one-hundred-sixty-seven people condemned to death in Illinois. He reduced most of the sentences to life in prison. He said the death penalty system in Illinois is not fair. He said the system cannot separate the innocent from the guilty. Many Americans who oppose capital punishment praised the governor’s action. They said they hope it will influence other states. Many leaders of foreign countries also praised the action. The execution of criminals continues to be a dispute between the United States and other democratic nations. VOICE ONE: A new governor took office in Illinois earlier this month. Rod Blagojevich (bla-GOY-vitch) says suspending the executions was a mistake. Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to act against ten people whose sentences were reduced. Mister Devine says these people should return to death row. Last year, the state of Maryland also suspended executions. But the new governor says he will renew the death penalty. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In recent years, scientific examination of human cells has made legal evidence far more exact. This D-N-A testing has shown that some innocent people have been wrongly found guilty of murder. About ten years ago, a United States House of Representatives committee reported about the death sentence. At that time, it said sixty-eight people had been released from death row because they were wrongly sentenced. Some organizations that oppose the death penalty say more than one-hundred people have been found innocent after being sentenced to die. A new play called “The Exonerated” tells about six of these people. The play is being produced in New York City and several other cities. VOICE ONE: Civil rights leaders, university professors and other critics denounce the death penalty as cruel. They also say some studies show that executing killers does not stop other people from committing similar crimes. Some studies say government lawyers seek the death penalty more often for accused African Americans than for white people. Several studies say the race of the victim is important. They say more black people get the death sentence for killing white people than do black people who kill other blacks. VOICE TWO: Ira Robbins is a law professor at the American University in Washington, D-C. He says bad legal representation damages the death penalty system. A judge often appoints lawyers to defend poor people accused of capital crimes. But many of these lawyers receive very low pay. Mister Robbins says they often fail to spend enough time on capital cases. He says they often do not present evidence that could help the people they are defending. In addition, courts in some states are far more likely to use the death sentence than others. For example, Texas has put to death far more people than any other state. VOICE ONE: President Bush is a former governor of Texas. He supports the death penalty. And many law-enforcement officials and other legal experts also support it. For example, in Illinois, Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine says the criminal justice system needs the death sentence. He says executing people found guilty of terrible crimes helps prevent others from doing the same. Death penalty supporters note that courts work hard to administer justice. They say the courts have the right to order the punishment they believe is correct. Some courts hear cases for weeks, even months, before making a decision. VOICE TWO: Death penalty supporters point to the cost of imprisoning someone for life. Some states pay forty-thousand dollars each year to keep a criminal in prison. They say cost is especially important because many people found guilty of murder are young. Supporters of capital punishment recently have formed groups to research its effect. Members include professors, social scientists and many others.They do not believe that racial prejudice against African Americans influences sentencing. They also question the number of reportedly innocent people freed from death row. Death penalty supporters say technical mistakes during their trials saved many of these accused killers. Many families of murder victims also support the death penalty. They say they suffer because the killers of their loved ones are permitted to live. VOICE ONE: The Amnesty International human rights group says most nations in the world do not use the death penalty. It says the United States is on the wrong side of history on this important human rights issue. The organization has urged all of America’s states to end capital punishment. But many legal experts say this will never happen. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Thirty-eight of the fifty American states have laws permitting them to execute people found guilty of capital crimes. These crimes include murder, kidnapping and other actions that result in the deaths of others. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We discuss the debate about capital punishment on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is one of the most widely debated issues in the United States today. Opponents say this death sentence is too severe. They say it is often unfair. Others say that people who kill should die for their crime. In nineteen-seventy-two, the Supreme Court of the United States banned executions. The high court based its decision on two amendments to the Constitution. The court ruled that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment because of the way the states enforced it. But the decision left open the possibility that the Supreme Court might accept capital punishment in the future. The decision meant this could happen if people were executed only for some crimes, under limited conditions. VOICE TWO: The high court ruled on the subject again in nineteen-seventy-six. It approved the right of states to make new laws permitting the death sentence. Many states enacted the new laws. Their measures satisfied Supreme Court requirements. More than eight-hundred men and women have been executed in the United states since nineteen-seventy-six. Almost three-hundred of them were in the state of Texas. Last year, seventy-one people were executed in the United States. Thirty-three of these people died in the state of Texas. One study shows that about seventy-percent of Americans support the death sentence. But debate is growing. This is especially true after recent events in the state of Illinois. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Since nineteen-seventy-seven, twelve prisoners have been put to death in Illinois. But courts canceled the punishment of thirteen others. They did so after considering new evidence. Three years ago, the governor of Illinois, George Ryan, decided the state could take no more chances that it might execute people who were not guilty. He suspended all executions in the state until the death penalty system could be studied. Governor Ryan established a committee of legal experts and other citizens to do this. After a two-year study, the committee raised questions about the fairness of sentencing. It said some prisoners were given bad legal advice. It also discovered wrongdoing by police officers. The committee suggested eighty-five reforms. They included measures to improve collecting and presenting evidence in cases that involved the death penalty. The group said the death penalty should be ended if these changes were not made. But Illinois lawmakers have not enacted any of the measures containing the committee’s proposals. VOICE TWO: Mister Ryan left the office of governor earlier this month. Before doing so, he pardoned four men. He said police had tortured them into falsely admitting guilt. Each man had spent at least twelve years waiting to be executed. Such prisoners are kept in a special place, called death row. Its conditions are more severe than those in other prison areas. On January eleventh, two days before he left office, Governor Ryan cancelled court orders to execute all one-hundred-sixty-seven people condemned to death in Illinois. He reduced most of the sentences to life in prison. He said the death penalty system in Illinois is not fair. He said the system cannot separate the innocent from the guilty. Many Americans who oppose capital punishment praised the governor’s action. They said they hope it will influence other states. Many leaders of foreign countries also praised the action. The execution of criminals continues to be a dispute between the United States and other democratic nations. VOICE ONE: A new governor took office in Illinois earlier this month. Rod Blagojevich (bla-GOY-vitch) says suspending the executions was a mistake. Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to act against ten people whose sentences were reduced. Mister Devine says these people should return to death row. Last year, the state of Maryland also suspended executions. But the new governor says he will renew the death penalty. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In recent years, scientific examination of human cells has made legal evidence far more exact. This D-N-A testing has shown that some innocent people have been wrongly found guilty of murder. About ten years ago, a United States House of Representatives committee reported about the death sentence. At that time, it said sixty-eight people had been released from death row because they were wrongly sentenced. Some organizations that oppose the death penalty say more than one-hundred people have been found innocent after being sentenced to die. A new play called “The Exonerated” tells about six of these people. The play is being produced in New York City and several other cities. VOICE ONE: Civil rights leaders, university professors and other critics denounce the death penalty as cruel. They also say some studies show that executing killers does not stop other people from committing similar crimes. Some studies say government lawyers seek the death penalty more often for accused African Americans than for white people. Several studies say the race of the victim is important. They say more black people get the death sentence for killing white people than do black people who kill other blacks. VOICE TWO: Ira Robbins is a law professor at the American University in Washington, D-C. He says bad legal representation damages the death penalty system. A judge often appoints lawyers to defend poor people accused of capital crimes. But many of these lawyers receive very low pay. Mister Robbins says they often fail to spend enough time on capital cases. He says they often do not present evidence that could help the people they are defending. In addition, courts in some states are far more likely to use the death sentence than others. For example, Texas has put to death far more people than any other state. VOICE ONE: President Bush is a former governor of Texas. He supports the death penalty. And many law-enforcement officials and other legal experts also support it. For example, in Illinois, Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine says the criminal justice system needs the death sentence. He says executing people found guilty of terrible crimes helps prevent others from doing the same. Death penalty supporters note that courts work hard to administer justice. They say the courts have the right to order the punishment they believe is correct. Some courts hear cases for weeks, even months, before making a decision. VOICE TWO: Death penalty supporters point to the cost of imprisoning someone for life. Some states pay forty-thousand dollars each year to keep a criminal in prison. They say cost is especially important because many people found guilty of murder are young. Supporters of capital punishment recently have formed groups to research its effect. Members include professors, social scientists and many others.They do not believe that racial prejudice against African Americans influences sentencing. They also question the number of reportedly innocent people freed from death row. Death penalty supporters say technical mistakes during their trials saved many of these accused killers. Many families of murder victims also support the death penalty. They say they suffer because the killers of their loved ones are permitted to live. VOICE ONE: The Amnesty International human rights group says most nations in the world do not use the death penalty. It says the United States is on the wrong side of history on this important human rights issue. The organization has urged all of America’s states to end capital punishment. But many legal experts say this will never happen. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Sam Cooke
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 26, 2003 (Theme) VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about black singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: It has been years since that song was a hit. Yet it is still popular today. The song is called "You Send Me." It was written and sung by a young singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. During the late nineteen-fifties and early sixties, Sam Cooke was one of the biggest stars in the music industry. His smooth voice and musical style were popular with both blacks and whites. Although Sam Cooke died years ago, his influence still is present in today's music. VOICE 2: Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in nineteen-thirty-one. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a minister in a Baptist church. Sam started singing religious music when he was only fifteen years old. When he was nineteen, he became the lead singer of a famous gospel singing group called the Soul Stirrers. In nineteen-fifty, he began writing and recording for the Soul Stirrers. During his six years with the group, Cooke brought his own kind of expression to gospel music. He became gospel music's biggest star. His good looks and singing abilities made him very popular among women, both young and old. Here is Sam Cooke with the soul stirrers, singing, "Touch the Hem of his Garment." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Although Sam Cooke was a star with the soul stirrers, he wanted to sing other kinds of music. So, he decided to sing popular music instead. Cooke's decision to "cross over" to pop music shocked many blacks. That was because making such a change was not as easy then as it is today. Racial tensions were high between blacks and whites in the nineteen fifties. And gospel music was popular among black people. It was considered an important part of black culture. The company that recorded the soul stirrers' records urged him not to start singing pop music. They thought it would offend the group's fans. VOICE 2: Cooke, however, wanted to sing to all groups of people. He wanted to express his racial identity without offending whites. At that time, most records by black artists were not played on radio stations that had white listeners. So, he left the gospel music world where he was extremely popular with blacks. But the move was not a mistake. He soon became a big star singing pop music. Sam Cooke's first pop record was released by a small company, keen, in nineteen-fifty-seven. It was "You Send Me. " It was a huge success. It sold one-million-seven-hundred-thousand copies in the first year alone. It is one of his most memorable recordings. Here is the first version he recorded of that song. It was made to show Cooke's ability to sing. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Sam Cooke had a voice that was unlike any the public had ever heard. His voice was soft, yet intense. He made singing seem effortless. Cooke was also a wise businessman. In nineteen-fifty-nine, he became the first black artist to establish his own record company, SAR Records. He wrote most of his own material. And, he owned the rights to his songs through his music publishing company, Kags Music. Very few blacks at that time were able to control their musical profession in such a way. And, without such business control, they lost money. Here is another hit by Sam Cooke, when he was with the Keen Record Company, called "Wonderful World." (MUSIC) VOICE 2: In nineteen-sixty, Sam Cooke signed an agreement with a major record company, RCA. Such a move is common today. But, a move from an independent black-owned record company to a major record company was something few black artists were able to do then. Cooke had a number of big hits at RCA. In this song, Sam Cooke uses a call-and-answer form of musical expression that started in the black church. The song is called, "Bring It on Home to Me." (MUSIC) In nineteen-sixty-two, Sam Cooke recorded a song for RCA about a popular new dance step, the Twist. The song is called "Twistin' the Night Away." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: In December nineteen-sixty-four, Sam Cooke's life was suddenly cut short. He was shot and killed at a hotel during a visit to Los Angeles. He was thirty-three years old. His death shocked his fans. Thousands of people gathered at his funeral. Two of Cooke's last songs were released after he died. One of the songs is called "A Change Is Gonna Come." It is a powerful song that combines gospel and pop music. The song is like many of Sam Cooke's that made him so popular as a singer and songwriter. It is about never losing hope. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another people in American program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: January 26, 2003 (Theme) VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about black singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: It has been years since that song was a hit. Yet it is still popular today. The song is called "You Send Me." It was written and sung by a young singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. During the late nineteen-fifties and early sixties, Sam Cooke was one of the biggest stars in the music industry. His smooth voice and musical style were popular with both blacks and whites. Although Sam Cooke died years ago, his influence still is present in today's music. VOICE 2: Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in nineteen-thirty-one. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a minister in a Baptist church. Sam started singing religious music when he was only fifteen years old. When he was nineteen, he became the lead singer of a famous gospel singing group called the Soul Stirrers. In nineteen-fifty, he began writing and recording for the Soul Stirrers. During his six years with the group, Cooke brought his own kind of expression to gospel music. He became gospel music's biggest star. His good looks and singing abilities made him very popular among women, both young and old. Here is Sam Cooke with the soul stirrers, singing, "Touch the Hem of his Garment." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Although Sam Cooke was a star with the soul stirrers, he wanted to sing other kinds of music. So, he decided to sing popular music instead. Cooke's decision to "cross over" to pop music shocked many blacks. That was because making such a change was not as easy then as it is today. Racial tensions were high between blacks and whites in the nineteen fifties. And gospel music was popular among black people. It was considered an important part of black culture. The company that recorded the soul stirrers' records urged him not to start singing pop music. They thought it would offend the group's fans. VOICE 2: Cooke, however, wanted to sing to all groups of people. He wanted to express his racial identity without offending whites. At that time, most records by black artists were not played on radio stations that had white listeners. So, he left the gospel music world where he was extremely popular with blacks. But the move was not a mistake. He soon became a big star singing pop music. Sam Cooke's first pop record was released by a small company, keen, in nineteen-fifty-seven. It was "You Send Me. " It was a huge success. It sold one-million-seven-hundred-thousand copies in the first year alone. It is one of his most memorable recordings. Here is the first version he recorded of that song. It was made to show Cooke's ability to sing. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Sam Cooke had a voice that was unlike any the public had ever heard. His voice was soft, yet intense. He made singing seem effortless. Cooke was also a wise businessman. In nineteen-fifty-nine, he became the first black artist to establish his own record company, SAR Records. He wrote most of his own material. And, he owned the rights to his songs through his music publishing company, Kags Music. Very few blacks at that time were able to control their musical profession in such a way. And, without such business control, they lost money. Here is another hit by Sam Cooke, when he was with the Keen Record Company, called "Wonderful World." (MUSIC) VOICE 2: In nineteen-sixty, Sam Cooke signed an agreement with a major record company, RCA. Such a move is common today. But, a move from an independent black-owned record company to a major record company was something few black artists were able to do then. Cooke had a number of big hits at RCA. In this song, Sam Cooke uses a call-and-answer form of musical expression that started in the black church. The song is called, "Bring It on Home to Me." (MUSIC) In nineteen-sixty-two, Sam Cooke recorded a song for RCA about a popular new dance step, the Twist. The song is called "Twistin' the Night Away." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: In December nineteen-sixty-four, Sam Cooke's life was suddenly cut short. He was shot and killed at a hotel during a visit to Los Angeles. He was thirty-three years old. His death shocked his fans. Thousands of people gathered at his funeral. Two of Cooke's last songs were released after he died. One of the songs is called "A Change Is Gonna Come." It is a powerful song that combines gospel and pop music. The song is like many of Sam Cooke's that made him so popular as a singer and songwriter. It is about never losing hope. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another people in American program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-24-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Cloth Filters Fight Cholera
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 27, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Researchers have discovered a simple answer to a huge problem in developing countries. They have found that cholera and other deadly organisms can be removed from drinking water with simple cloth filters. Pouring water from rivers or lakes through several thicknesses of cloth can trap tiny organisms that contain the cholera bacteria. Researchers discovered this fact during a three-year study in Bangladesh. American and Bangladeshi scientists went to sixty-five small villages in a country where cholera is a major health problem. They tested the use of saris as cloth filters. A sari is the traditional clothing worn by most women in Bangladesh. People in one group of villages used cloth from old saris, folded eight times, as a filter for their drinking water. People in another group of villages used modern nylon filters for their water. People in the other villages continued to gather water in traditional ways, without using filters. About forty-four-thousand people were studied in each of the three groups of villages. Rita Colwell from the University of Maryland at College Park helped lead the study. She said the people in the villages using filters from old saris had the lowest number of cases of cholera. The researchers also found that almost ninety-nine percent of cholera bacteria could be filtered out with the sari cloth. Mizz Colwell said that cloth from old saris worked best because it has been washed repeatedly. She said the space between the threads of the material narrows when the cloth is washed so it traps smaller particles. Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by bacteria. It can develop in the body in less than five days. It can quickly lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, and a loss of bodily fluids. Death is possible if treatment is not given quickly. Children under age five are most at risk. In two-thousand-one, the World Health Organization reported almost two-hundred-thousand cases of cholera in fifty-eight countries. About three-thousand people died from the disease. Cholera spreads quickly in developing countries. People get the disease by drinking water or eating food that contains the bacteria. The disease is most often found in areas where there is unclean water and ineffective human waste removal systems. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-24-5-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 25, 2003: Anti-War Demonstrations
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Last Saturday, people around the world demonstrated against President Bush’s plan to take military action against Iraq. Protests took place in the United States, Japan, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. There were other demonstrations in Russia, France, Britain, Argentina and Mexico. The largest demonstration took place in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands of people gathered in front of the United States Capitol building to hear speeches and to march. People came from all around the country and stood in very cold weather to take part in the demonstration. It was the largest antiwar demonstration since the period of the Vietnam War. Thousands of people attended similar demonstrations in San Francisco, California, and other American cities. A coalition of activists organized the demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco. The activists hoped the protests would show that many Americans were opposed to war. President Bush says Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and plans to use them against the United States. American officials have warned Saddam Hussein to disarm or face serious action. Iraq says it does hot have such weapons. In November, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution ordering Iraq to prove it does not have weapons of mass destruction. It sent U-N inspectors to Iraq to search for banned nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The inspectors say Iraq is not fully cooperating. They are preparing to release their first major report to the U-N about their findings on Monday. President Bush could order a military attack if he declares Iraq in violation of U-N resolutions. He says he has the right to attack even without U-N support. The United States and its main ally, Britain, are sending thousands of troops to the Persian Gulf in preparation for a military attack. American activists want a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis. They say a war would kill thousands of Iraqi civilians and further weaken the American economy. They also say it would be dangerous American foreign policy to order a first strike attack against another country. Many demonstrators in Washington criticized the Bush administration for rushing into war. They said Mister Bush has not yet proved his case for leading a military attack against Iraq. They said the U-N weapons inspectors should be given more time to do their work. Some anti-war activists said President Bush’s real goal for going to war is to take control of the oil fields in Iraq. A small group of people in Washington protested in support of military action against Iraq. They said the best way to help the Iraqi people is to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Experts say public opinion in the United States is still divided on the issue. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Last Saturday, people around the world demonstrated against President Bush’s plan to take military action against Iraq. Protests took place in the United States, Japan, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. There were other demonstrations in Russia, France, Britain, Argentina and Mexico. The largest demonstration took place in Washington, D.C. Tens of thousands of people gathered in front of the United States Capitol building to hear speeches and to march. People came from all around the country and stood in very cold weather to take part in the demonstration. It was the largest antiwar demonstration since the period of the Vietnam War. Thousands of people attended similar demonstrations in San Francisco, California, and other American cities. A coalition of activists organized the demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco. The activists hoped the protests would show that many Americans were opposed to war. President Bush says Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and plans to use them against the United States. American officials have warned Saddam Hussein to disarm or face serious action. Iraq says it does hot have such weapons. In November, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution ordering Iraq to prove it does not have weapons of mass destruction. It sent U-N inspectors to Iraq to search for banned nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The inspectors say Iraq is not fully cooperating. They are preparing to release their first major report to the U-N about their findings on Monday. President Bush could order a military attack if he declares Iraq in violation of U-N resolutions. He says he has the right to attack even without U-N support. The United States and its main ally, Britain, are sending thousands of troops to the Persian Gulf in preparation for a military attack. American activists want a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis. They say a war would kill thousands of Iraqi civilians and further weaken the American economy. They also say it would be dangerous American foreign policy to order a first strike attack against another country. Many demonstrators in Washington criticized the Bush administration for rushing into war. They said Mister Bush has not yet proved his case for leading a military attack against Iraq. They said the U-N weapons inspectors should be given more time to do their work. Some anti-war activists said President Bush’s real goal for going to war is to take control of the oil fields in Iraq. A small group of people in Washington protested in support of military action against Iraq. They said the best way to help the Iraqi people is to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Experts say public opinion in the United States is still divided on the issue. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - January 28, 2003 : Public Library of Science on the Internet / West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melting / Eating Fish May Lower Risk of Stroke
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a way to make important research information free to people around the world. We tell about a study that says eating fish may prevent strokes. And we tell about new research in Antarctica. ((THEME)) (Photo - University of Washington/John Stone) This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a way to make important research information free to people around the world. We tell about a study that says eating fish may prevent strokes. And we tell about new research in Antarctica. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A group of leading scientists wants to permit people all over the world to use important research information without having to pay for it. Harold Varmus is leading the effort to create the Public Library of Science. Doctor Varmus is a former Nobel Prize winner in medicine. He is the president of the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is also the former director of America’s National Institutes of Health near Washington, D-C. The Public Library of Science will offer the latest scientific information on the Internet. The results of scientific research will be useful to scientists, doctors, students and the general public. VOICE TWO: This information is usually published in major scientific journals like Science and Nature. Some experts believe that scientific publications are entering a new period. Today, information can be published on the Internet’s World Wide Web. This greatly reduces the cost of publishing a journal. Many scientists believe that it is now time to use electronic publishing to permit everyone to use the latest knowledge and research. Currently, researchers present their work to major scientific publications. Institutions and individuals pay for the right to read that information. The Public Library of Science will ask researchers to pay about one-thousand-five-hundred dollars to present their research. Other scientists would investigate and confirm the research. Then, the information would be put on the World Wide Web for free. VOICE ONE: The policy of the Public Library of Science will permit all kinds of scientific knowledge to be used as long as the name of the researcher is provided. The policy is based on that of the GenBank library of genetic research. GenBank is operated by the National Institutes of Health. Scientific organizations around the world add to the GenBank information every day. Researchers can use it freely and immediately. This has been an important aid in the fast progress of gene research. VOICE TWO: Many people think that researchers will want to send their work to the Public Library of Science. They believe that one of the reasons is because it is such a good cause. Such a free scientific resource will permit scientists in poor countries and students all over the world to learn about the newest scientific developments. Supporters of the project also point out that the people who pay taxes will no longer have to pay two times to read research. Taxpayers pay nearly forty-thousand-million dollars for scientific research each year. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in San Francisco, California, has given nine-million dollars for the project. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland also supports the Public Library of Science. The organization says it will pay the extra costs involved in developing the project. VOICE ONE: However, the success of the project depends on how many scientists seek to publish their research in the Public Library of Science. Many younger researchers may not want to risk publishing in such a resource. These scientists may believe they need the recognition that famous scientific journals provide. Yet, established scientists may see the Public Library of Science as a way to help the cause of science. Many scientists agree that sharing and cooperation are important values in science. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. An American study has shown that eating a small amount of fish every month can reduce the risk of stroke. The study showed that men who ate seafood even once a month cut their risk of the most common kind of stroke. Over the years, many studies have shown that eating fish is important for good health. Those studies showed that people who eat fish reduce their risk of stroke and heart attack. People in Iceland and Japan, for example, eat more fish on average than other people. People in those countries also have the world’s lowest death rates from stroke and heart disease. VOICE ONE: The new study is surprising because it shows that eating even small amounts of fish appears to produce the health effect. The National Institutes of Health provided money for the study. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. Doctors at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts carried out the study. They studied the diets of more than forty-thousand men during a twelve-year period. The men were asked how often they ate fish. They also were asked about the kinds of seafood they ate. The Harvard team found that eating fish had a protective effect against ischemic (eh-SKEE-mic) strokes. An ischemic stroke is caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the brain. This is the most common kind of stroke. Eighty percent of all strokes are caused by a blockage. Ischemic strokes often result in death. They also are a leading cause of severe disability in many western countries. VOICE TWO: Albert Ascherio (as-CARE-ee-yo) was a member of the Harvard team. He says the study found that men who ate fish a few times a month had almost half the risk of stroke compared with men who never ate fish. However, there was no evidence that eating fish more than a few times a month reduced a man’s risk of stroke even more. Eating fish a few times a month was just as good as eating fish almost every day. The doctors say fish helps because its fatty acids make the blood flow more freely. They say this helps to prevent blockages in the blood flow. The doctors say eating different kinds of seafood is the best plan of action. They say men should include fish in their diet to reduce the risk of stroke. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: A new report says a huge piece of Antarctic ice has been melting and releasing water into the world’s oceans for the past ten-thousand years. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet covers five-hundred-eighty-thousand square kilometers. The report warns that the ice sheet could disappear in seven-thousand years if the melting continues at its current rate. It says this might raise sea levels around the world by about five meters. John Stone from the University of Washington wrote the report. He warns that a quick or sudden melting of the ice sheet could cause serious problems for some islands and coastal areas. VOICE TWO: Mister Stone’s team measured chemicals found in rocks on seven mountains in Antarctica. The tops of these mountains were completely covered by ice ten-thousand years ago. As the ice began to melt away, radiation from deep space started hitting the rocks. This changed the chemical formation in the mountains. The scientists could estimate how old the rocks were by studying the chemicals. Ten-thousand years ago, large areas of ice had nearly all melted across Europe and in North America. The new study shows that the huge area of ice in West Antarctica was just starting to melt by then.The new report was published in Science magazine. VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, another group of scientists completed a rare, over-land trip to Antarctica’s southern most point. The scientists traveled almost one-thousand-three-hundred kilometers to the South Pole. Along the way, they removed pieces of ice from the ground and collected other information. The scientists plan to compare this evidence with other ice cores gathered from other parts of Antarctica. From this, they hope to get a better understanding of the continent’s climate and the effect of rising temperatures. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter and George Grow. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: A group of leading scientists wants to permit people all over the world to use important research information without having to pay for it. Harold Varmus is leading the effort to create the Public Library of Science. Doctor Varmus is a former Nobel Prize winner in medicine. He is the president of the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is also the former director of America’s National Institutes of Health near Washington, D-C. The Public Library of Science will offer the latest scientific information on the Internet. The results of scientific research will be useful to scientists, doctors, students and the general public. VOICE TWO: This information is usually published in major scientific journals like Science and Nature. Some experts believe that scientific publications are entering a new period. Today, information can be published on the Internet’s World Wide Web. This greatly reduces the cost of publishing a journal. Many scientists believe that it is now time to use electronic publishing to permit everyone to use the latest knowledge and research. Currently, researchers present their work to major scientific publications. Institutions and individuals pay for the right to read that information. The Public Library of Science will ask researchers to pay about one-thousand-five-hundred dollars to present their research. Other scientists would investigate and confirm the research. Then, the information would be put on the World Wide Web for free. VOICE ONE: The policy of the Public Library of Science will permit all kinds of scientific knowledge to be used as long as the name of the researcher is provided. The policy is based on that of the GenBank library of genetic research. GenBank is operated by the National Institutes of Health. Scientific organizations around the world add to the GenBank information every day. Researchers can use it freely and immediately. This has been an important aid in the fast progress of gene research. VOICE TWO: Many people think that researchers will want to send their work to the Public Library of Science. They believe that one of the reasons is because it is such a good cause. Such a free scientific resource will permit scientists in poor countries and students all over the world to learn about the newest scientific developments. Supporters of the project also point out that the people who pay taxes will no longer have to pay two times to read research. Taxpayers pay nearly forty-thousand-million dollars for scientific research each year. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in San Francisco, California, has given nine-million dollars for the project. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland also supports the Public Library of Science. The organization says it will pay the extra costs involved in developing the project. VOICE ONE: However, the success of the project depends on how many scientists seek to publish their research in the Public Library of Science. Many younger researchers may not want to risk publishing in such a resource. These scientists may believe they need the recognition that famous scientific journals provide. Yet, established scientists may see the Public Library of Science as a way to help the cause of science. Many scientists agree that sharing and cooperation are important values in science. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. An American study has shown that eating a small amount of fish every month can reduce the risk of stroke. The study showed that men who ate seafood even once a month cut their risk of the most common kind of stroke. Over the years, many studies have shown that eating fish is important for good health. Those studies showed that people who eat fish reduce their risk of stroke and heart attack. People in Iceland and Japan, for example, eat more fish on average than other people. People in those countries also have the world’s lowest death rates from stroke and heart disease. VOICE ONE: The new study is surprising because it shows that eating even small amounts of fish appears to produce the health effect. The National Institutes of Health provided money for the study. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. Doctors at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts carried out the study. They studied the diets of more than forty-thousand men during a twelve-year period. The men were asked how often they ate fish. They also were asked about the kinds of seafood they ate. The Harvard team found that eating fish had a protective effect against ischemic (eh-SKEE-mic) strokes. An ischemic stroke is caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the brain. This is the most common kind of stroke. Eighty percent of all strokes are caused by a blockage. Ischemic strokes often result in death. They also are a leading cause of severe disability in many western countries. VOICE TWO: Albert Ascherio (as-CARE-ee-yo) was a member of the Harvard team. He says the study found that men who ate fish a few times a month had almost half the risk of stroke compared with men who never ate fish. However, there was no evidence that eating fish more than a few times a month reduced a man’s risk of stroke even more. Eating fish a few times a month was just as good as eating fish almost every day. The doctors say fish helps because its fatty acids make the blood flow more freely. They say this helps to prevent blockages in the blood flow. The doctors say eating different kinds of seafood is the best plan of action. They say men should include fish in their diet to reduce the risk of stroke. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: A new report says a huge piece of Antarctic ice has been melting and releasing water into the world’s oceans for the past ten-thousand years. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet covers five-hundred-eighty-thousand square kilometers. The report warns that the ice sheet could disappear in seven-thousand years if the melting continues at its current rate. It says this might raise sea levels around the world by about five meters. John Stone from the University of Washington wrote the report. He warns that a quick or sudden melting of the ice sheet could cause serious problems for some islands and coastal areas. VOICE TWO: Mister Stone’s team measured chemicals found in rocks on seven mountains in Antarctica. The tops of these mountains were completely covered by ice ten-thousand years ago. As the ice began to melt away, radiation from deep space started hitting the rocks. This changed the chemical formation in the mountains. The scientists could estimate how old the rocks were by studying the chemicals. Ten-thousand years ago, large areas of ice had nearly all melted across Europe and in North America. The new study shows that the huge area of ice in West Antarctica was just starting to melt by then.The new report was published in Science magazine. VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, another group of scientists completed a rare, over-land trip to Antarctica’s southern most point. The scientists traveled almost one-thousand-three-hundred kilometers to the South Pole. Along the way, they removed pieces of ice from the ground and collected other information. The scientists plan to compare this evidence with other ice cores gathered from other parts of Antarctica. From this, they hope to get a better understanding of the continent’s climate and the effect of rising temperatures. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter and George Grow. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - January 28, 2003: Genetically Engineered Salmon
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A number of companies are expected to seek approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration to produce genetically engineered animals. However, a recent report questions whether the F-D-A can supervise the production of such animals. For example, Aqua Bounty Farms is a company based in Waltham, Massachusetts. It has developed a kind of salmon that grows much faster than natural salmon. It will be among the first companies to seek F-D-A approval for a bio-engineered fish. Many environmentalists oppose the fast-growing salmon. They fear that such fish could endanger natural salmon if they escape into the wild. A public policy group, the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, released a new study on the issue. The study says the F-D-A may not be able to legally supervise bio-engineered fish under existing law. The F-D-A has said current laws permit it to supervise foods and drugs. A top administrator says that should be enough. Current law considers the genetically engineered salmon to be a “new animal drug.” Yet, the F-D-A may not be able to ban a bio-engineered animal if it is a threat to the environment. The report says this is a weakness in the current food and drug laws. It also presents another legal possibility. The F-D-A’s power to supervise such animals as “drugs” could be cancelled in the courts. Aqua Bounty Farms has made many details of their research public. However, the company has done more than the law requires. Current food and drug laws make the approval process for genetically engineered animals secret. The secrecy protects the rights of companies that develop the new animals. However, it also prevents public comment on the new animals. The report raises other questions as well. It says that the F-D-A may not have the resources to supervise animals that are genetically engineered to be used as food or to produce drugs. The resources of the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Fisheries Service may be needed for effective supervision. The Pew Initiative report does not oppose genetically engineered animals. It says there could be good results from such animals. But there also could be risks. The report is meant only to suggest possible legal problems in supervising production of these animals. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Three New Moons Found Near Neptune / Shuttle Flight / Asteroid Has Same Orbit as Earth
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 29, 2003 (THEME) One of the new moons.(Image - Matt Holman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Broadcast: January 29, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a space rock that has the same orbit around the sun as Earth. We tell about three new moons discovered near the planet Neptune. We tell about the launch of two new satellites. And we tell about the current flight of the space shuttle Columbia. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The space shuttle Columbia was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January sixteenth. The seven crew members include the first astronaut from Israel. Columbia is expected to return to the Kennedy Space Center on February first after sixteen days in space. Columbia took into orbit eighty science experiments. These include a study of Earth and space science and advanced technology development. Other experiments deal with cancer cell research and astronaut health and safety. One experiment includes two special cameras built in Israel. They are being used to measure the amount of dust in the desert and in the atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. University scientists in Tel Aviv were interested in learning how clouds of dust affect weather. Columbia’s crew formed two teams because of the large number of experiments. This permitted work to be performed twenty-four hours each day while the Columbia is in space. Most of the experiments were carried into orbit in the SPACEHAB research module. This large, round vehicle fits inside the Columbia’s cargo area. VOICE TWO: The SPACEHAB was designed as a very modern scientific vehicle. It is two times the size of former scientific study areas carried by the space shuttles. This new size permits four members of Columbia’s crew to work in the SPACEHAB at the same time. It also permits the shuttle crews to carry larger and more difficult scientific experiments into space. The SPACEHAB vehicle also has new and improved life support systems. These include temperature controls and better control of the environment inside the shuttle. The new SPACEHAB also carries new high-speed communications equipment. This permits scientists on Earth to better control and observe the experiments. NASA says the new SPACEHAB laboratory means that new and exciting experiments can be done in space. VOICE ONE: Thousands of young students from six countries are closely watching the experiments on Columbia. The students are part of the Space Technology and Research Students program, called STARS. This program permits experiments designed by students to be taken into space on shuttle flights. Students worked for the past two years developing the experiments that were carried on Columbia. These experiments were designed by students from the United States, Japan, China, Australia, Israel and Liechtenstein. Each of the students’ experiments needs to be done in space where there is a lack of gravity. For example, students in Japan believe that a small fish called the Medaka will develop faster in an environment with no gravity. They think this is true because the small fish would have to expend less energy to swim while in space. Students from Australia called their experiment “Astrospiders in Space.” They want to learn if a spider would build a different kind of web in space than it would on Earth. They want to learn if the shape and material of the web would be different because of a lack of gravity. VOICE TWO: Chinese students designed an experiment that tests the idea that young silkworms, or larvae, would develop differently in an environment with no gravity. Students from the United States designed an experiment to see if ants would create tunnels more slowly in space than on Earth. Students from Israel studied the growth and structure of crystal fibers developed within a chemical. They want to see if the fibers would grow differently with a lack of gravity. And, students from Liechtenstein designed an experiment with carpenter bees. They want to learn if a lack of gravity would cause eating, working and social changes among the bees. Liechtenstein’s government has been so excited about the experiment that they issued a special postage stamp to honor their students. Results of the experiments are not expected until the students study the information collected in space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NASA successfully placed two new satellites in orbit around the Earth on January twelfth. One is called the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite, or ICESat. The other is the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer, called CHIPS. Both satellites were launched on the same rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A NASA spokesman said the ICESat satellite will be carefully moved to a height of six-hundred kilometers above the Earth to its final orbital position. The ICESat satellite is the newest in a series of satellites used to observe the Earth. ICESat will observe the increase or decrease in large areas of ice around the world. It will provide information about Earth’s climate system. It will also observe climate change and changes in sea level. VOICE TWO: The CHIPS satellite will study the gas and dust in space. Scientists believe this gas and dust are the building materials that make up stars and planets. The CHIPS satellite weighs only sixty-kilograms. It is about the size of a large suitcase. It will orbit above Earth at about five-hundred-ninety kilometers and is expected to work for about one year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Space scientists have discovered three new moons that orbit the planet Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun in our solar system. There are now eleven known moons around Neptune. The discovery was announced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team of astronomers was led by scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and the National Research Council of Canada. Each moon is about thirty or forty kilometers around. Scientists found the moons by using two telescopes, one in Chile and one in the American state of Hawaii. VOICE TWO: Another moon-like object is also in the news. NASA scientists say the first space rock discovered to orbit the sun in almost the same orbit as Earth came close to Earth this month. The space rock, or asteroid, was discovered about one year ago. It is called Asteroid Two-Thousand-Two A-A-Two-Nine. The asteroid is only about sixty meters across. It never comes closer to our planet than five-point-eight million kilometers. However the asteroid is extremely unusual. It comes near Earth on one side and then escapes to travel along our planet’s orbit around the sun. It then approaches Earth from the other side and then it goes back again. It takes almost one-hundred years to make this trip. VOICE ONE: Paul Chodas is a space scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Chodas discovered the asteroid’s unusual orbit. He says the Earth moves near the asteroid, and their combined gravity forces the asteroid to speed up and move away. In ninety-five years, the asteroid will have traveled all the way around the orbit until it nears the Earth from behind. A similar reaction with gravity from both the Earth and sun will then push the asteroid back into a slower obit and the action will be repeated. Don Yeomans is the manager of NASA’s Near Earth Objects program. He says there is no danger of a crash between the Earth and the asteroid. He says the asteroid and Earth take turns moving toward each other, but they never get too close. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And this space news story: President Bush has awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to American astronaut William Shepherd. Mister Shepherd was the first astronaut to command a crew on the International Space Station. As the commander of Expedition One, Mister Shepherd and the two other members of his crew spent one-hundred-forty-one days in space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a space rock that has the same orbit around the sun as Earth. We tell about three new moons discovered near the planet Neptune. We tell about the launch of two new satellites. And we tell about the current flight of the space shuttle Columbia. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The space shuttle Columbia was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January sixteenth. The seven crew members include the first astronaut from Israel. Columbia is expected to return to the Kennedy Space Center on February first after sixteen days in space. Columbia took into orbit eighty science experiments. These include a study of Earth and space science and advanced technology development. Other experiments deal with cancer cell research and astronaut health and safety. One experiment includes two special cameras built in Israel. They are being used to measure the amount of dust in the desert and in the atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. University scientists in Tel Aviv were interested in learning how clouds of dust affect weather. Columbia’s crew formed two teams because of the large number of experiments. This permitted work to be performed twenty-four hours each day while the Columbia is in space. Most of the experiments were carried into orbit in the SPACEHAB research module. This large, round vehicle fits inside the Columbia’s cargo area. VOICE TWO: The SPACEHAB was designed as a very modern scientific vehicle. It is two times the size of former scientific study areas carried by the space shuttles. This new size permits four members of Columbia’s crew to work in the SPACEHAB at the same time. It also permits the shuttle crews to carry larger and more difficult scientific experiments into space. The SPACEHAB vehicle also has new and improved life support systems. These include temperature controls and better control of the environment inside the shuttle. The new SPACEHAB also carries new high-speed communications equipment. This permits scientists on Earth to better control and observe the experiments. NASA says the new SPACEHAB laboratory means that new and exciting experiments can be done in space. VOICE ONE: Thousands of young students from six countries are closely watching the experiments on Columbia. The students are part of the Space Technology and Research Students program, called STARS. This program permits experiments designed by students to be taken into space on shuttle flights. Students worked for the past two years developing the experiments that were carried on Columbia. These experiments were designed by students from the United States, Japan, China, Australia, Israel and Liechtenstein. Each of the students’ experiments needs to be done in space where there is a lack of gravity. For example, students in Japan believe that a small fish called the Medaka will develop faster in an environment with no gravity. They think this is true because the small fish would have to expend less energy to swim while in space. Students from Australia called their experiment “Astrospiders in Space.” They want to learn if a spider would build a different kind of web in space than it would on Earth. They want to learn if the shape and material of the web would be different because of a lack of gravity. VOICE TWO: Chinese students designed an experiment that tests the idea that young silkworms, or larvae, would develop differently in an environment with no gravity. Students from the United States designed an experiment to see if ants would create tunnels more slowly in space than on Earth. Students from Israel studied the growth and structure of crystal fibers developed within a chemical. They want to see if the fibers would grow differently with a lack of gravity. And, students from Liechtenstein designed an experiment with carpenter bees. They want to learn if a lack of gravity would cause eating, working and social changes among the bees. Liechtenstein’s government has been so excited about the experiment that they issued a special postage stamp to honor their students. Results of the experiments are not expected until the students study the information collected in space. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: NASA successfully placed two new satellites in orbit around the Earth on January twelfth. One is called the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite, or ICESat. The other is the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer, called CHIPS. Both satellites were launched on the same rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A NASA spokesman said the ICESat satellite will be carefully moved to a height of six-hundred kilometers above the Earth to its final orbital position. The ICESat satellite is the newest in a series of satellites used to observe the Earth. ICESat will observe the increase or decrease in large areas of ice around the world. It will provide information about Earth’s climate system. It will also observe climate change and changes in sea level. VOICE TWO: The CHIPS satellite will study the gas and dust in space. Scientists believe this gas and dust are the building materials that make up stars and planets. The CHIPS satellite weighs only sixty-kilograms. It is about the size of a large suitcase. It will orbit above Earth at about five-hundred-ninety kilometers and is expected to work for about one year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Space scientists have discovered three new moons that orbit the planet Neptune, the eighth planet from the sun in our solar system. There are now eleven known moons around Neptune. The discovery was announced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team of astronomers was led by scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and the National Research Council of Canada. Each moon is about thirty or forty kilometers around. Scientists found the moons by using two telescopes, one in Chile and one in the American state of Hawaii. VOICE TWO: Another moon-like object is also in the news. NASA scientists say the first space rock discovered to orbit the sun in almost the same orbit as Earth came close to Earth this month. The space rock, or asteroid, was discovered about one year ago. It is called Asteroid Two-Thousand-Two A-A-Two-Nine. The asteroid is only about sixty meters across. It never comes closer to our planet than five-point-eight million kilometers. However the asteroid is extremely unusual. It comes near Earth on one side and then escapes to travel along our planet’s orbit around the sun. It then approaches Earth from the other side and then it goes back again. It takes almost one-hundred years to make this trip. VOICE ONE: Paul Chodas is a space scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Chodas discovered the asteroid’s unusual orbit. He says the Earth moves near the asteroid, and their combined gravity forces the asteroid to speed up and move away. In ninety-five years, the asteroid will have traveled all the way around the orbit until it nears the Earth from behind. A similar reaction with gravity from both the Earth and sun will then push the asteroid back into a slower obit and the action will be repeated. Don Yeomans is the manager of NASA’s Near Earth Objects program. He says there is no danger of a crash between the Earth and the asteroid. He says the asteroid and Earth take turns moving toward each other, but they never get too close. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And this space news story: President Bush has awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to American astronaut William Shepherd. Mister Shepherd was the first astronaut to command a crew on the International Space Station. As the commander of Expedition One, Mister Shepherd and the two other members of his crew spent one-hundred-forty-one days in space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – January 29, 2003: Alcohol and Heart Attacks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study says drinking beer, wine or other alcoholic drinks several times a week can help prevent heart attacks in men. Kenneth Mukamal (MUCK-a-mal) of Harvard University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts led the study. It said men who drank moderate amounts of alcohol three or more times a week were about thirty percent less likely to have a heart attack than non-drinkers. The kind of alcoholic drink did not appear important. Doctor Mukamal says drinking even a little alcohol several times a week can protect the heart.The study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center completed the study. They developed their findings from a twelve-year study of almost forty-thousand men. The men were ages forty to seventy-five. The researchers recorded how much alcohol the men drank and how often. They noted the kind of alcohol and whether the men drank it with meals. They also considered other facts. These included the men’s ages, use of tobacco, physical activity and whether their parents had heart disease. Doctor Mukamal says there are several reasons for the results of the study. Alcohol usually raises levels of H-D-L, the so-called good kind of cholesterol. In addition, alcohol affects the body’s reaction to the hormone insulin. Insulin helps control sugar in the blood. And alcohol may improve how the body processes blood sugar. Alcohol also affects two important blood processes. This may help prevent blockages in blood vessels that cause heart attacks. Earlier studies show moderate alcohol use also could help prevent heart attacks in women. But too much alcohol is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. However, not all doctors agree that drinking alcohol is a good way to prevent heart attacks. The head of preventive medicine at Columbia University in New York City says medicines currently in use can help prevent heart attacks. Ira Goldberg says people can take these medicines without the risk of diseases linked to alcohol. Drinking too much alcohol is bad for the health. It can cause liver problems. And it can lead to deadly accidents while driving or operating machinery. In addition, some people become dependent on alcohol. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 30, 2002: Clinton Second Term
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with The Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the second administration of Bill Clinton, America’s forty-second president. He was elected in nineteen-ninety-two and re-elected four years later. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The first term in office for President Bill Clinton was coming to an end in the summer of nineteen-ninety-six. His record was like that of many other American presidents in the past. He had gained some successes with Congress and in foreign policy. He also had suffered some failures. This president, however, had a personal concern that other presidents had not had. Investigations were continuing into possible wrongdoing by Mister and Missus Clinton. The main accusations were connected to their financial activities in Arkansas during the nineteen-eighties. VOICE TWO: Americans, however, seemed far more interested in the nation’s economy. It had improved during Mister Clinton’s first term in office. Americans were getting jobs. They were spending money. Investing in the stock market traditionally had been an activity mainly for rich people. Now many other people were buying stocks, too. Opinion studies showed that Bill Clinton was a popular president. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party met in Chicago, Illinois for its nominating convention in August of nineteen-ninety-six. Mister Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated as the party’s candidates without opposition. The Republican Party held its nominating convention in San Diego, California that summer. It chose former Senator Robert Dole of Kansas to compete for president. Senator Dole had resigned from the Senate to compete for the nomination. Former Congressman and Cabinet official Jack Kemp of New York received the nomination for vice president. VOICE TWO: Senator Dole was a hero during World War Two. Later he served four terms in the House of Representatives from Kansas. He was elected to the Senate in nineteen-sixty-eight and re-elected four more times. Businessman Ross Perot had competed in the presidential election four years earlier as an independent. He again declared himself a candidate of the Reform Party. During the campaign, President Clinton pointed to his successes during his first term. They included an improved economy, increased wages for low-paid workers and gun control measures. Mister Dole criticized President Clinton for spending too much federal money. President Clinton answered that he had stopped Congress from cutting too much money from programs like Medicare. That is the government program that helps pay the medical expenses of older people. VOICE ONE: President Clinton and Vice President Gore won the election. They received almost forty-seven-and-one-half-million votes. Senator Dole and Mister Kemp received about thirty-nine million votes. Ross Perot received about eight-million votes. President Clinton was the first Democratic president to be re-elected to a second term since Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen-thirty-six. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton began his second term as president of the United States on January twentieth, nineteen-ninety-seven. On that day, President Clinton gave the last inaugural speech of an American president in the twentieth century. He said, “We must keep our old democracy forever young.” Mister Clinton also spoke of racial separation in the nation. He said it had been a continued terrible problem in American history. He urged that America become one unified nation. CLINTON: “The divide of race has been America’s constant curse. And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different.” VOICE ONE: Mister Clinton continued to appoint women and minority members to important jobs. In nineteen-ninety-six he nominated the first woman ever to serve as secretary of state. Madeleine Albright had served as the United States permanent representative to the United Nations during Mister Clinton’s first administration. Later Mister Clinton named Bill Richardson as the permanent representative to the United Nations. Mister Richardson is Hispanic. Norman Mineta became the first Asian-American appointed to the Cabinet. The president named Mister Mineta secretary of commerce. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party had kept control of both houses of Congress as a result of the ninety-ninety-six elections. This Republican Congress and the Democratic president had different ideas about the budget. In nineteen-ninety-seven they reached a compromise. They agreed to a plan to end the deficit by two-thousand-two. But the nation did not have to wait until then. The economy in nineteen-ninety-eight was so strong that the government had seventy-thousand-million dollars more than its budget. This was the first federal budget surplus since nineteen-sixty-nine. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Foreign relations took much of President’s Clinton time during his second term. He visited China in nineteen-ninety-eight. He urged Chinese leaders to permit more democracy in their country. In August of that year, bombs placed by terrorists destroyed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Hundreds of people were killed. American intelligence experts blamed the attacks on Osama bin Laden, a Saudi businessman and suspected terrorist. President Clinton ordered missile strikes against camps in Afghanistan suspected of being under Mister bin Laden’s command. American missiles also destroyed a factory in Sudan. The factory had been suspected of producing nerve gas for terrorists. However, the factory owner said his company produced medicines. The United States later freed property and money of the factory owner that it had seized. VOICE TWO: Later in nineteen-ninety-eight, President Clinton ordered American forces to launch missile strikes against military and industrial centers in Iraq. United Nations officials feared the centers contained or could produce nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The U-N had ordered Iraq to cooperate with inspectors searching for weapons. But Iraq refused to cooperate. The next year, Mister Clinton deployed American aircraft and missiles as part of a NATO military campaign against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. NATO was trying to stop attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw their troops. NATO stopped the bombing and sent an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo. The United States sent seven-thousand troops to the force. VOICE ONE: In October of nineteen-ninety-eight, Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed a document of understanding at the White House. The Wye Memorandum developed from nine days of negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in eastern Maryland. It called for Israeli forces to withdraw from some West Bank areas. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and special diplomat Dennis Ross traveled often to the Middle East. They tried to help Israel and the Palestinians continue their peace efforts. In two-thousand-one, Mister Clinton tried to get Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sign a peace agreement. Mister Clinton met with the two men for many hours in the Washington area. Reports said they came close to a settlement. But the negotiations ended without an agreement. Violence increased soon afterward. Palestinians declared a new uprising against Israel. VOICE TWO: One of President Clinton’s major actions during his second term was helping establish permanent normal trade relations with China. Congress passed a bill enacting this in two-thousand. The president said the measure would help democracy grow in China. He also said it would help create jobs in the United States. Mister Clinton supported expansion of NATO as well as more free trade. He also worked for a worldwide campaign against the trade of illegal drugs. Historians say President Bill Clinton will be remembered for reaching out to the international community. But he will also be remembered for being charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. We will tell about that next week. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with The Making of a Nation, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the second administration of Bill Clinton, America’s forty-second president. He was elected in nineteen-ninety-two and re-elected four years later. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The first term in office for President Bill Clinton was coming to an end in the summer of nineteen-ninety-six. His record was like that of many other American presidents in the past. He had gained some successes with Congress and in foreign policy. He also had suffered some failures. This president, however, had a personal concern that other presidents had not had. Investigations were continuing into possible wrongdoing by Mister and Missus Clinton. The main accusations were connected to their financial activities in Arkansas during the nineteen-eighties. VOICE TWO: Americans, however, seemed far more interested in the nation’s economy. It had improved during Mister Clinton’s first term in office. Americans were getting jobs. They were spending money. Investing in the stock market traditionally had been an activity mainly for rich people. Now many other people were buying stocks, too. Opinion studies showed that Bill Clinton was a popular president. VOICE ONE: The Democratic Party met in Chicago, Illinois for its nominating convention in August of nineteen-ninety-six. Mister Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated as the party’s candidates without opposition. The Republican Party held its nominating convention in San Diego, California that summer. It chose former Senator Robert Dole of Kansas to compete for president. Senator Dole had resigned from the Senate to compete for the nomination. Former Congressman and Cabinet official Jack Kemp of New York received the nomination for vice president. VOICE TWO: Senator Dole was a hero during World War Two. Later he served four terms in the House of Representatives from Kansas. He was elected to the Senate in nineteen-sixty-eight and re-elected four more times. Businessman Ross Perot had competed in the presidential election four years earlier as an independent. He again declared himself a candidate of the Reform Party. During the campaign, President Clinton pointed to his successes during his first term. They included an improved economy, increased wages for low-paid workers and gun control measures. Mister Dole criticized President Clinton for spending too much federal money. President Clinton answered that he had stopped Congress from cutting too much money from programs like Medicare. That is the government program that helps pay the medical expenses of older people. VOICE ONE: President Clinton and Vice President Gore won the election. They received almost forty-seven-and-one-half-million votes. Senator Dole and Mister Kemp received about thirty-nine million votes. Ross Perot received about eight-million votes. President Clinton was the first Democratic president to be re-elected to a second term since Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen-thirty-six. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Bill Clinton began his second term as president of the United States on January twentieth, nineteen-ninety-seven. On that day, President Clinton gave the last inaugural speech of an American president in the twentieth century. He said, “We must keep our old democracy forever young.” Mister Clinton also spoke of racial separation in the nation. He said it had been a continued terrible problem in American history. He urged that America become one unified nation. CLINTON: “The divide of race has been America’s constant curse. And each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different.” VOICE ONE: Mister Clinton continued to appoint women and minority members to important jobs. In nineteen-ninety-six he nominated the first woman ever to serve as secretary of state. Madeleine Albright had served as the United States permanent representative to the United Nations during Mister Clinton’s first administration. Later Mister Clinton named Bill Richardson as the permanent representative to the United Nations. Mister Richardson is Hispanic. Norman Mineta became the first Asian-American appointed to the Cabinet. The president named Mister Mineta secretary of commerce. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party had kept control of both houses of Congress as a result of the ninety-ninety-six elections. This Republican Congress and the Democratic president had different ideas about the budget. In nineteen-ninety-seven they reached a compromise. They agreed to a plan to end the deficit by two-thousand-two. But the nation did not have to wait until then. The economy in nineteen-ninety-eight was so strong that the government had seventy-thousand-million dollars more than its budget. This was the first federal budget surplus since nineteen-sixty-nine. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Foreign relations took much of President’s Clinton time during his second term. He visited China in nineteen-ninety-eight. He urged Chinese leaders to permit more democracy in their country. In August of that year, bombs placed by terrorists destroyed the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Hundreds of people were killed. American intelligence experts blamed the attacks on Osama bin Laden, a Saudi businessman and suspected terrorist. President Clinton ordered missile strikes against camps in Afghanistan suspected of being under Mister bin Laden’s command. American missiles also destroyed a factory in Sudan. The factory had been suspected of producing nerve gas for terrorists. However, the factory owner said his company produced medicines. The United States later freed property and money of the factory owner that it had seized. VOICE TWO: Later in nineteen-ninety-eight, President Clinton ordered American forces to launch missile strikes against military and industrial centers in Iraq. United Nations officials feared the centers contained or could produce nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. The U-N had ordered Iraq to cooperate with inspectors searching for weapons. But Iraq refused to cooperate. The next year, Mister Clinton deployed American aircraft and missiles as part of a NATO military campaign against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. NATO was trying to stop attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. Yugoslav military leaders agreed to withdraw their troops. NATO stopped the bombing and sent an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo. The United States sent seven-thousand troops to the force. VOICE ONE: In October of nineteen-ninety-eight, Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed a document of understanding at the White House. The Wye Memorandum developed from nine days of negotiations at the Wye River Plantation in eastern Maryland. It called for Israeli forces to withdraw from some West Bank areas. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and special diplomat Dennis Ross traveled often to the Middle East. They tried to help Israel and the Palestinians continue their peace efforts. In two-thousand-one, Mister Clinton tried to get Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to sign a peace agreement. Mister Clinton met with the two men for many hours in the Washington area. Reports said they came close to a settlement. But the negotiations ended without an agreement. Violence increased soon afterward. Palestinians declared a new uprising against Israel. VOICE TWO: One of President Clinton’s major actions during his second term was helping establish permanent normal trade relations with China. Congress passed a bill enacting this in two-thousand. The president said the measure would help democracy grow in China. He also said it would help create jobs in the United States. Mister Clinton supported expansion of NATO as well as more free trade. He also worked for a worldwide campaign against the trade of illegal drugs. Historians say President Bill Clinton will be remembered for reaching out to the international community. But he will also be remembered for being charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. We will tell about that next week. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - January 30, 2003: Foreign Student Series #20 >MBA
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. We continue our reports about how people from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. Today, we tell about a popular graduate degree. It is known as the M-B-A. The letters represent the words “Master of Business Administration.” M-B-A students learn to deal with all kinds of business situations. They learn to solve business problems. They develop skills needed by many different companies. M-B-A programs teach students about subjects including economics. They also teach about the structure of organizations and about finance, marketing and policy. Students then do more study in areas that interest them. It usually takes two years to get an M-B-A degree if you attend school full time. Many programs permit students to take classes while they work. These programs take longer to complete. Business is one of the most popular study areas for foreign students in the United States. To be admitted to an M-B-A program, foreign students must have a bachelor’s degree. They must show a clear understanding of English by doing well on the test of English as a foreign language. Most students also take the Graduate Management Admission Test. Most of the one-thousand-five-hundred M-B-A graduate programs around the world use these test scores. The University of Maryland University College in Adelphi offers an M-B-A program for people who wish to study part-time. Students can choose to complete all the requirements by computer. Or they can do the work both on-line and by attending traditional classes. Many foreign students attend the M-B-A program at the University of Maryland University College. To get more information using a computer, go the university’s Web site, w-w-w dot u-m-u-c dot e-d-u.(www.umuc.edu) Information about other M-B-A programs is on a Web site called m-b-a dot com. The address is w-w-w dot m-b-a dot com. (www.mba.com) Or you could attend a meeting of the Graduate Management Admission Council. These M-B-A Forums are held one day each year in cities in several areas of the world. Representatives of business colleges explain programs and answer questions from people interested in studying business. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: January 30, 2003 - Slangman: Hand-Related Terms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": January 30, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- Slangman David Burke is on hand in Los Angeles to give us a hand with some handy slang. Get the idea of this week's topic? Well, you've got to hand it to that Slangman, always careful about his health. Just listen to his New Year's resolution: SLANGMAN: "Dear diary: on one hand, I want to make the resolution to stop eating junk food. But on the other hand I love it so much! Now this expression is actually a two-part expression: 'on one hand' and then 'on the other hand.' You can't say one without the other. So when you say 'on one hand' it means first I need to consider the positive reasons. Then when you say 'on the other hand,' it means next I need to consider the negative reasons. So on one hand I want to make the resolution to stop eating junk food -- which is food that's not good for you -- but on the other hand I love it so much, and chocolate is my favorite food group ... hands down. (laughter)" RS: "That makes it difficult." SLANGMAN: "Yes it does, because 'hands down' means 100 percent. OK, I'll try my hand at eating only healthy foods. Now when you 'try your hand' at something, it simply means to try something that's usually physical, where you would need your hands, but it could also be at something non-physical. So I'll try my hand at eating only healthy food. I'll make sure not to have any candy -- especially chocolate -- on hand." RS: "Oh, chocolate on hand." AA: "Not literally." SLANGMAN: "Not literally on your hand but 'on hand' simply means available. So I'll make sure not to have any candy, especially chocolate -- my favorite -- on hand, so I can avoid it. I know myself like the back of my hand; if it's in my house, I'll eat it. This has got to be one of the strangest expressions." RS: "It certainly is." SLANGMAN: "I always thought this even when I was a kid. To know something like the back of one's hand, it just means to know something very well. But how many of us really know the back of our hands." RS: "Or the front of our hands, for that matter." SLANGMAN: "I can't even describe the back of my hand to you. But even so we still say that. So I 'know myself like the back of my hand,' however well that is, who knows, but it's a common expression. Well, actually I do remember reading a handout that says that chocolate has certain properties that can actually prevent tooth decay. Now a 'handout' is anything that is written that has helpful information that you hand out, or give, to someone. It also means a donation of money, in fact, that you would give to a poor person. 'I'm going to give that person a handout.'" AA: "Now is it true that it can prevent tooth decay, or is it just good for you in other ways?" SLANGMAN: "No, my dentist actually told me that chocolate can prevent tooth decay. And I even heard on the news about two months ago, they said it can even reduce your risk of getting cancer. How about that? Well so, on one hand it may actually be very handy to have chocolate on hand. When something is very 'handy,' it means it's very convenient. So on one hand, which we already learned, it may actually be very handy -- convenient -- to have chocolate on hand. On the other hand, my teeth would be fabulous but I would be too fat to move." RS: "That would be a problem." SLANGMAN: "That could be a problem. Then people would probably want to 'lend me a hand' and 'wait on me hand-and-foot,' which is another strange expression. It means to act like my servant and bring me anything I need. Well, I would have people 'eating out of my hand.' And that means people doing anything I want." RS: "Not necessarily eat out of your hand." AA: "No." SLANGMAN: "Oh wait, that's just too 'underhanded.' This is an interesting expression. That means dishonest, it's like stealing something while covering what you're stealing with your hand. And now that I'm done reading my New Year's resolution, you're welcome to give me a hand. (clapping) Thank you. This is another interesting expression, because depending on the context it means two different things. If you give someone a hand, it can either mean you're applauding for them or it means you're helping them. So, oftentimes we see on TV shows when a host is introducing an actor, an actress, a famous person, they'll say 'OK let's give these people a hand,' let's applaud them. But if the context is different, and these two people are having trouble doing something, and then we hear 'let's give them a hand,' it means let's help them. So it all depends on the context." AA: Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. Can't wait to get your hands on books and other materials to learn slang? Then visit David's Web site -- slangman.com. Our address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Keep Your Hands to Yourself"/The Calling Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": January 30, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- Slangman David Burke is on hand in Los Angeles to give us a hand with some handy slang. Get the idea of this week's topic? Well, you've got to hand it to that Slangman, always careful about his health. Just listen to his New Year's resolution: SLANGMAN: "Dear diary: on one hand, I want to make the resolution to stop eating junk food. But on the other hand I love it so much! Now this expression is actually a two-part expression: 'on one hand' and then 'on the other hand.' You can't say one without the other. So when you say 'on one hand' it means first I need to consider the positive reasons. Then when you say 'on the other hand,' it means next I need to consider the negative reasons. So on one hand I want to make the resolution to stop eating junk food -- which is food that's not good for you -- but on the other hand I love it so much, and chocolate is my favorite food group ... hands down. (laughter)" RS: "That makes it difficult." SLANGMAN: "Yes it does, because 'hands down' means 100 percent. OK, I'll try my hand at eating only healthy foods. Now when you 'try your hand' at something, it simply means to try something that's usually physical, where you would need your hands, but it could also be at something non-physical. So I'll try my hand at eating only healthy food. I'll make sure not to have any candy -- especially chocolate -- on hand." RS: "Oh, chocolate on hand." AA: "Not literally." SLANGMAN: "Not literally on your hand but 'on hand' simply means available. So I'll make sure not to have any candy, especially chocolate -- my favorite -- on hand, so I can avoid it. I know myself like the back of my hand; if it's in my house, I'll eat it. This has got to be one of the strangest expressions." RS: "It certainly is." SLANGMAN: "I always thought this even when I was a kid. To know something like the back of one's hand, it just means to know something very well. But how many of us really know the back of our hands." RS: "Or the front of our hands, for that matter." SLANGMAN: "I can't even describe the back of my hand to you. But even so we still say that. So I 'know myself like the back of my hand,' however well that is, who knows, but it's a common expression. Well, actually I do remember reading a handout that says that chocolate has certain properties that can actually prevent tooth decay. Now a 'handout' is anything that is written that has helpful information that you hand out, or give, to someone. It also means a donation of money, in fact, that you would give to a poor person. 'I'm going to give that person a handout.'" AA: "Now is it true that it can prevent tooth decay, or is it just good for you in other ways?" SLANGMAN: "No, my dentist actually told me that chocolate can prevent tooth decay. And I even heard on the news about two months ago, they said it can even reduce your risk of getting cancer. How about that? Well so, on one hand it may actually be very handy to have chocolate on hand. When something is very 'handy,' it means it's very convenient. So on one hand, which we already learned, it may actually be very handy -- convenient -- to have chocolate on hand. On the other hand, my teeth would be fabulous but I would be too fat to move." RS: "That would be a problem." SLANGMAN: "That could be a problem. Then people would probably want to 'lend me a hand' and 'wait on me hand-and-foot,' which is another strange expression. It means to act like my servant and bring me anything I need. Well, I would have people 'eating out of my hand.' And that means people doing anything I want." RS: "Not necessarily eat out of your hand." AA: "No." SLANGMAN: "Oh wait, that's just too 'underhanded.' This is an interesting expression. That means dishonest, it's like stealing something while covering what you're stealing with your hand. And now that I'm done reading my New Year's resolution, you're welcome to give me a hand. (clapping) Thank you. This is another interesting expression, because depending on the context it means two different things. If you give someone a hand, it can either mean you're applauding for them or it means you're helping them. So, oftentimes we see on TV shows when a host is introducing an actor, an actress, a famous person, they'll say 'OK let's give these people a hand,' let's applaud them. But if the context is different, and these two people are having trouble doing something, and then we hear 'let's give them a hand,' it means let's help them. So it all depends on the context." AA: Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. Can't wait to get your hands on books and other materials to learn slang? Then visit David's Web site -- slangman.com. Our address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Keep Your Hands to Yourself"/The Calling 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 31, 2003: Rap Music from Nelly / Newest NBA Star: Yao Ming of China / Question About the Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Bermuda Triange: There's even a game. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music from a rap singer named Nelly ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music from a rap singer named Nelly ... Answer a question about the mysterious Bermuda Triangle ... And tell about a young professional basketball player from China. Yao Ming HOST: If you were seven-feet-six-inches tall – that is two-point-two-nine meters -- what would you do for living? If you can play basketball, and you are from China, and your name is Yao Ming, you might become the newest sports star in the National Basketball Association. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Yao Ming is still working on his English skills. He usually has to speak to reporters and fans with the help of a translator. But he needs no help on the basketball court. In November, he scored twenty points in twenty-three minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers team. Last year, the Houston Rockets professional basketball team chose Yao Ming as the number one new player. The owner of the Rockets team said choosing Yao would be the biggest sports story of all time. The twenty-two-year-old Chinese man has become very popular with American basketball fans. He has become well known for his hard work and his efforts to improve. It has not been easy. Yao Ming is learning to play professional basketball, speak a new language and live in a new country. Yao says he has just really started to learn. Yao Ming did not come to the United States by himself. His mother came with him. She cooks the foods he likes best -- pork chops and chicken soup. Yao says this helps, but he still misses his home in China. Sports reporters and basketball fans ask him a lot of questions. He is quick to answer some of these. He likes American coffee very much. But he does not like the huge amount of vehicle traffic in the city where he lives, Houston, Texas. Yao Ming’s success has expanded international interest in American basketball. For example, eleven Chinese television and radio stations broadcast the game played January seventeenth between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers. More than five-hundred-million people in China enjoyed the game. Yao Ming and the Rockets won that game. Yao Ming scored ten points, had ten rebounds and blocked six of the Lakers’ shots. Sports experts say Yao Ming will likely be chosen the best new basketball player of the year. Bermuda Triange HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Guesstar Langstang asks about a mysterious area called the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is also called Devil’s Triangle. It is an imaginary area in the Atlantic Ocean. It extends more than one-million square kilometers between the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida and the island of Puerto Rico. Drawing an imaginary line to link these three places creates the three sides of a triangle. The mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle is that the area seems to be extremely dangerous to airplanes and ships. Some people believe that at least fifty ships and twenty planes have disappeared there during the past one-hundred years. The earliest recorded disappearance of an American ship in the area took place in nineteen-eighteen. But the incident that first suggested the danger of the Bermuda Triangle was the disappearance of five American Navy planes in nineteen-forty-five. The planes carried fourteen crewmen on a normal training flight. They never returned. A plane sent to search for them also disappeared. No wreckage was ever found. Newspaper reporters and other writers called the planes the Lost Patrol. They began trying to explain the tragic events. Some of the explanations were strange. One writer said there were powerful forces under the water. These forces interfered with communication devices and caused planes to crash and ships to sink. Another writer said creatures from outer space guarded the area. These creatures pulled the planes and ships to another planet. Larry Kusche has written books about the Lost Patrol and the Bermuda Triangle. He says the explanation is much simpler. He says the American Navy planes disappeared in nineteen-forty-five for several reasons. The lead pilot was lost. He was flying in bad weather. And he was low on fuel. Other critics also say the Bermuda Triangle stories are false. They say most of the events that took place in the area can be explained scientifically. And they say most of the accidents linked to the Bermuda Triangle did not happen there. Critics say only about five real accidents happened within the triangle’s borders. The United States Coast Guard agrees. It says the stories about the Bermuda Triangle are mostly science fiction and should not be taken seriously. Nelly HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will present its yearly Grammy Music Awards on February twenty-third. One musician nominated for several awards is a young man called Nelly. Marry Tillitson tells us more. VOICE ONE: Nelly’s real name is Cornell Haynes, Junior. He was born in nineteen-seventy-eight. He grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri. During high school, he and his friends formed a rap music group called the Saint Lunatics. The group was popular in the local area. But it could not find a record company to produce an album. So the group members decided Nelly would have a better chance at success if he sang alone. His first album was “Country Grammar.” It was released in two-thousand. It was nominated for four Grammy awards. This song helped make the album a huge seller. It is called “Ride With Me.” (MUSIC) Nelly says the name of his latest record describes what he considers to be a perfect world. The songs are about having fun, playing music and being with friends. The first song describes a city where everyone is rich and happy. The name of the city, song and album is “Nellyville.” (MUSIC) “Nellyville” is nominated for two Grammy awards -- album of the year and best rap music album. The most popular song on the record is also nominated for best rap performance by a male artist. We leave you now with that song, “Hot in Herre.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson, I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Answer a question about the mysterious Bermuda Triangle ... And tell about a young professional basketball player from China. Yao Ming HOST: If you were seven-feet-six-inches tall – that is two-point-two-nine meters -- what would you do for living? If you can play basketball, and you are from China, and your name is Yao Ming, you might become the newest sports star in the National Basketball Association. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Yao Ming is still working on his English skills. He usually has to speak to reporters and fans with the help of a translator. But he needs no help on the basketball court. In November, he scored twenty points in twenty-three minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers team. Last year, the Houston Rockets professional basketball team chose Yao Ming as the number one new player. The owner of the Rockets team said choosing Yao would be the biggest sports story of all time. The twenty-two-year-old Chinese man has become very popular with American basketball fans. He has become well known for his hard work and his efforts to improve. It has not been easy. Yao Ming is learning to play professional basketball, speak a new language and live in a new country. Yao says he has just really started to learn. Yao Ming did not come to the United States by himself. His mother came with him. She cooks the foods he likes best -- pork chops and chicken soup. Yao says this helps, but he still misses his home in China. Sports reporters and basketball fans ask him a lot of questions. He is quick to answer some of these. He likes American coffee very much. But he does not like the huge amount of vehicle traffic in the city where he lives, Houston, Texas. Yao Ming’s success has expanded international interest in American basketball. For example, eleven Chinese television and radio stations broadcast the game played January seventeenth between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers. More than five-hundred-million people in China enjoyed the game. Yao Ming and the Rockets won that game. Yao Ming scored ten points, had ten rebounds and blocked six of the Lakers’ shots. Sports experts say Yao Ming will likely be chosen the best new basketball player of the year. Bermuda Triange HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Guesstar Langstang asks about a mysterious area called the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is also called Devil’s Triangle. It is an imaginary area in the Atlantic Ocean. It extends more than one-million square kilometers between the island of Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida and the island of Puerto Rico. Drawing an imaginary line to link these three places creates the three sides of a triangle. The mystery surrounding the Bermuda Triangle is that the area seems to be extremely dangerous to airplanes and ships. Some people believe that at least fifty ships and twenty planes have disappeared there during the past one-hundred years. The earliest recorded disappearance of an American ship in the area took place in nineteen-eighteen. But the incident that first suggested the danger of the Bermuda Triangle was the disappearance of five American Navy planes in nineteen-forty-five. The planes carried fourteen crewmen on a normal training flight. They never returned. A plane sent to search for them also disappeared. No wreckage was ever found. Newspaper reporters and other writers called the planes the Lost Patrol. They began trying to explain the tragic events. Some of the explanations were strange. One writer said there were powerful forces under the water. These forces interfered with communication devices and caused planes to crash and ships to sink. Another writer said creatures from outer space guarded the area. These creatures pulled the planes and ships to another planet. Larry Kusche has written books about the Lost Patrol and the Bermuda Triangle. He says the explanation is much simpler. He says the American Navy planes disappeared in nineteen-forty-five for several reasons. The lead pilot was lost. He was flying in bad weather. And he was low on fuel. Other critics also say the Bermuda Triangle stories are false. They say most of the events that took place in the area can be explained scientifically. And they say most of the accidents linked to the Bermuda Triangle did not happen there. Critics say only about five real accidents happened within the triangle’s borders. The United States Coast Guard agrees. It says the stories about the Bermuda Triangle are mostly science fiction and should not be taken seriously. Nelly HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will present its yearly Grammy Music Awards on February twenty-third. One musician nominated for several awards is a young man called Nelly. Marry Tillitson tells us more. VOICE ONE: Nelly’s real name is Cornell Haynes, Junior. He was born in nineteen-seventy-eight. He grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri. During high school, he and his friends formed a rap music group called the Saint Lunatics. The group was popular in the local area. But it could not find a record company to produce an album. So the group members decided Nelly would have a better chance at success if he sang alone. His first album was “Country Grammar.” It was released in two-thousand. It was nominated for four Grammy awards. This song helped make the album a huge seller. It is called “Ride With Me.” (MUSIC) Nelly says the name of his latest record describes what he considers to be a perfect world. The songs are about having fun, playing music and being with friends. The first song describes a city where everyone is rich and happy. The name of the city, song and album is “Nellyville.” (MUSIC) “Nellyville” is nominated for two Grammy awards -- album of the year and best rap music album. The most popular song on the record is also nominated for best rap performance by a male artist. We leave you now with that song, “Hot in Herre.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson, I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – January 31, 2003: Pollution Stations to Test for Biological Attacks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Workers in the United States have begun deploying a new system to test for biological weapons. The system, called Bio-Watch, would provide early warning if smallpox, anthrax or other deadly organisms are released into the air. Bush administration officials say new equipment will be put in many of the three-thousand air quality measuring centers nationwide. These centers are operated by the Environmental Protection Agency to measure air pollution. The officials say reports of anything unusual would lead to additional tests. They say results of the new early warning system would be confirmed within twenty-four hours. Administration officials say the system could help save thousands of people during a possible biological weapons attack. They say it would give the government more time to treat attack victims and protect others before it is too late. Terrorism experts have warned that a small airplane could release anthrax or other germs over a crowd of people. Thousands of people could become sick. Yet it could take days for the government to discover what happened. Officials say the early warning system is not linked to a new terrorist threat. They say the system was tested last year at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. If unusual organisms are discovered at the observation centers, the test results would be sent to a public health laboratory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operates one-hundred-twenty of these laboratories. Laboratory scientists would test the organisms using a method called polymerase chain reaction, or P-C-R. These tests examine the genetic structure of an organism and quickly identify it. P-C-R tests are considered better than hand-held devices often used by emergency crews. Such devices often falsely report the presence of an organism. American officials say the federal government will pay one-million dollars to improve the equipment at the air quality centers. Officials expect the new system will cost one-million dollars each year to operate in each city. Officials say the system would not be able to identify biological agents released in closed areas or the spread of such organisms through the mail. The new Bio-Watch system began operating in New York City recently. It will expand across the nation. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 3, 2003: Songs About States
* Byline: 

 (Theme) VOICE 1: Rocky Mountains (Theme) VOICE 1: Almost every state in America has an official song. However, songwriters have written many beautiful, unofficial songs to describe the state they love best. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. We play songs about American states on our report today on the VOA Special English program, this is America. (Theme) VOICE 1: One of the most famous songs about an American state is from the Broadway musical play "Oklahoma!" Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote it in nineteen-forty-three. The play is about farmers and cowboys living in a territory in the American West in the early nineteen-hundreds. At the end of the play, they celebrate when their territory becomes a state. Here, Nelson Eddy sings "Oklahoma": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Texas is America's second largest state in land area. It is famous for oil wells, cattle, and cowboys. Many people believe that everything is bigger, better, and brighter in Texas. Songwriters have written more songs about Texas than about any other state. Bob Wills sings one of them here. It is called "Deep in the Heart of Texas": (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Many people think America's southern states have a special beauty and history. And there are more songs about southern states than about states in any other part of the country. One of the most beautiful is about the state of Georgia. It is called "Georgia on my Mind. " Hoagy Carmichael wrote it. Ray Charles made it famous. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: In the early nineteen-seventies, John Denver wrote and performed many popular songs. Two were about the states he liked best. Both have tall mountains. One state is West Virginia, which is actually in the eastern part of the country. John Denver said West Virginia is so beautiful that it is "almost heaven." Here he sings "Take Me Home, Country Roads": (MUSIC) VOICE 1: John Denver also loved the western state of Colorado, because of the Rocky Mountains there. He sings about a young man who discovers the mountains of Colorado. The experience changes his life. The song is called "Rocky Mountain High": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Many people love the states in the northeastern United States. This is the area called New England. These states are especially beautiful in autumn when the leaves on the trees change from green ... to yellow ... red ... and orange. They also are beautiful in winter when the land is covered with snow. Here Billie Holiday sings about the beauty of one New England state in the song, "Moonlight in Vermont": (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Some people love the state of New York best. Of course, many people want to live in the nation's biggest and most exciting city, New York. Yet others love the rest of the state, too, better than any other place. Carmen McRae sings about this in the song, "New York State of Mind": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: We do not want to forget America's middle western states, even though there are not as many songs about them. There is one popular song about the middle-western state of Indiana. It is called "Back Home Again in Indiana." Errol garner plays it: (MUSIC) VOICE 1: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America. Almost every state in America has an official song. However, songwriters have written many beautiful, unofficial songs to describe the state they love best. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. We play songs about American states on our report today on the VOA Special English program, this is America. (Theme) VOICE 1: One of the most famous songs about an American state is from the Broadway musical play "Oklahoma!" Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote it in nineteen-forty-three. The play is about farmers and cowboys living in a territory in the American West in the early nineteen-hundreds. At the end of the play, they celebrate when their territory becomes a state. Here, Nelson Eddy sings "Oklahoma": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Texas is America's second largest state in land area. It is famous for oil wells, cattle, and cowboys. Many people believe that everything is bigger, better, and brighter in Texas. Songwriters have written more songs about Texas than about any other state. Bob Wills sings one of them here. It is called "Deep in the Heart of Texas": (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Many people think America's southern states have a special beauty and history. And there are more songs about southern states than about states in any other part of the country. One of the most beautiful is about the state of Georgia. It is called "Georgia on my Mind. " Hoagy Carmichael wrote it. Ray Charles made it famous. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: In the early nineteen-seventies, John Denver wrote and performed many popular songs. Two were about the states he liked best. Both have tall mountains. One state is West Virginia, which is actually in the eastern part of the country. John Denver said West Virginia is so beautiful that it is "almost heaven." Here he sings "Take Me Home, Country Roads": (MUSIC) VOICE 1: John Denver also loved the western state of Colorado, because of the Rocky Mountains there. He sings about a young man who discovers the mountains of Colorado. The experience changes his life. The song is called "Rocky Mountain High": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Many people love the states in the northeastern United States. This is the area called New England. These states are especially beautiful in autumn when the leaves on the trees change from green ... to yellow ... red ... and orange. They also are beautiful in winter when the land is covered with snow. Here Billie Holiday sings about the beauty of one New England state in the song, "Moonlight in Vermont": (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Some people love the state of New York best. Of course, many people want to live in the nation's biggest and most exciting city, New York. Yet others love the rest of the state, too, better than any other place. Carmen McRae sings about this in the song, "New York State of Mind": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: We do not want to forget America's middle western states, even though there are not as many songs about them. There is one popular song about the middle-western state of Indiana. It is called "Back Home Again in Indiana." Errol garner plays it: (MUSIC) VOICE 1: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – February 3, 2003: WHO Director-General Named
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. South Korean doctor Jong Wook Lee has been named the new director-general of the World Health Organization. He will replace former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland who is leaving in July after five years in office. Doctor Lee’s nomination was announced last month at W-H-O headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization’s thirty-two member supervisory committee chose him from a group of five candidates. The full one-hundred-ninety-two-nation World Health Assembly must approve his nomination in May. Doctor Lee will be the first South Korean to lead the U-N agency, which has a yearly budget of more than one-thousand-million dollars. He has worked for the World Health Organization for nineteen years and is currently the head of its anti-tuberculosis program. Jong Wook Lee said his main goal will be fighting health problems in Africa, especially AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. He also praised Doctor Brundtland’s work over the past few years to fight infectious diseases and diseases caused by smoking. He said these programs will continue. But, Doctor Lee added that the W-H-O will soon face new health problems around the world. He says that the agency must take a position on new technologies, such as genetic copying or cloning. Doctor Lee will be the sixth director-general of the W-H-O since the U-N health agency was established in nineteen-forty-eight. Other W-H-O heads have been from Canada, Brazil, Denmark and Japan. Doctor Brundtland was the first woman to lead the World Health Organization. Supporters say she will be remembered most for her efforts to reduce tobacco use around the world. Doctor Brundtland argued that tobacco is a major preventable cause of millions of deaths each year. She worked hard to prove that smoking was a leading cause of slow economic growth and development in poor nations. W-H-O member countries are expected to approve the organization’s first ever treaty on tobacco during its yearly meeting in May. The World Health Organization leads the international fight against deadly diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis. The agency is also responsible for setting international requirements for medicines, health care and food safety. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. South Korean doctor Jong Wook Lee has been named the new director-general of the World Health Organization. He will replace former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland who is leaving in July after five years in office. Doctor Lee’s nomination was announced last month at W-H-O headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization’s thirty-two member supervisory committee chose him from a group of five candidates. The full one-hundred-ninety-two-nation World Health Assembly must approve his nomination in May. Doctor Lee will be the first South Korean to lead the U-N agency, which has a yearly budget of more than one-thousand-million dollars. He has worked for the World Health Organization for nineteen years and is currently the head of its anti-tuberculosis program. Jong Wook Lee said his main goal will be fighting health problems in Africa, especially AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. He also praised Doctor Brundtland’s work over the past few years to fight infectious diseases and diseases caused by smoking. He said these programs will continue. But, Doctor Lee added that the W-H-O will soon face new health problems around the world. He says that the agency must take a position on new technologies, such as genetic copying or cloning. Doctor Lee will be the sixth director-general of the W-H-O since the U-N health agency was established in nineteen-forty-eight. Other W-H-O heads have been from Canada, Brazil, Denmark and Japan. Doctor Brundtland was the first woman to lead the World Health Organization. Supporters say she will be remembered most for her efforts to reduce tobacco use around the world. Doctor Brundtland argued that tobacco is a major preventable cause of millions of deaths each year. She worked hard to prove that smoking was a leading cause of slow economic growth and development in poor nations. W-H-O member countries are expected to approve the organization’s first ever treaty on tobacco during its yearly meeting in May. The World Health Organization leads the international fight against deadly diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis. The agency is also responsible for setting international requirements for medicines, health care and food safety. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-31-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – February 2, 2003: W. E. B. Du Bois
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: 1904(Photo - J.E. Purdy/Library of Congress) (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about W. E. B. Du Bois. He was an African-American writer, teacher and protest leader. VOICE ONE: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois fought for civil rights for black people in the United States. During the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties, he was the person most responsible for the changes in conditions for black people in American society. He also was responsible for changes in the way they thought about themselves. William Du Bois was the son of free blacks who lived in a northern state. His mother was Mary Burghardt. His father was Alfred Du Bois. His parents had never been slaves. Nor were their parents. William was born into this free and independent African-American family in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: William's mother felt that ability and hard work would lead to success. She urged him to seek an excellent education. In the early part of the century, it was not easy for most black people to get a good education. But William had a good experience in school. His intelligence earned him the respect of other students. He moved quickly through school. It was in those years in school that William Du Bois learned what he later called the secret of his success. His secret, he said, was to go to bed every night at ten o'clock. VOICE ONE: After high school, William decided to attend Fisk University, a college for black students in Nashville, Tennessee. He thought that going to school in a southern state would help him learn more about the life of most black Americans. Most black people lived in the south in those days. He soon felt the effects of racial prejudice. He found that poor, uneducated white people judged themselves better than he was because they were white and he was black. From that time on, William Du Bois opposed all kinds of racial prejudice. He never missed a chance to express his opinions about race relations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Du Bois went to excellent colleges, Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts and the University of Berlin in Germany. He received his doctorate degree in history from Harvard in Eighteen-Ninety-Five. His book, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study was published four years later. It was the first study of a black community in the United States. He became a professor of economics and history at Atlanta University in Eighteen Ninety-Seven. He remained there until Nineteen-Ten. William Du Bois had believed that education and knowledge could help solve the race problem. But racial prejudice in the United States was causing violence. Mobs of whites killed blacks. Laws provided for separation of the races. Race riots were common. The situation in the country made Mister Du Bois believe that social change could happen only through protest. VOICE ONE: Mister Du Bois's belief in the need for protest clashed with the ideas of the most influential black leader of the time, Booker T. Washington. Mister Washington urged black people to accept unfair treatment for a time. He said they would improve their condition through hard work and economic gain. He believed that in this way blacks would win the respect of whites. Mister Du Bois attacked this way of thinking in his famous book, "The Souls of Black Folk." The book was a collection of separate pieces he had written. It was published in Nineteen-Oh-Three. In the very beginning of "The Souls of Black Folk" he expressed the reason he felt the book was important: VOICE THREE: "Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." VOICE TWO: Later in the book, Mister Du Bois explained the struggle blacks, or Negroes as they then were called, faced in America: VOICE THREE: "One ever feels his twoness -- an American, a Negro: two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideas in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. ... He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face." VOICE ONE: W. E. B. Du Bois charged that Booker Washington's plan would not free blacks from oppression, but would continue it. The dispute between the two leaders divided blacks into two groups – the "conservative" supporters of Mister Washington and his "extremist" opponents. In Nineteen-Oh-Five, Mister Du Bois established the Niagara Movement to oppose Mister Washington. He and other black leaders called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. The organization did not last long. Disputes among its members and a campaign against it by Booker T. Washington kept it from growing. Yet the Niagara Movement led to the creation in Nineteen-Oh-Nine of an organization that would last, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Du Bois became director of research for the organization. He also became editor of the N-A-A-C-P magazine, "The Crisis." VOICE TWO: W. E. B. Du Bois felt that it was good for blacks to be linked through culture and spirit to the home of their ancestors. Throughout his life he was active in the Pan-African movement. Pan-Africanism was the belief that all people who came from Africa had common interests and should work together in their struggle for freedom. Mister Du Bois believed black Americans should support independence for African nations that were European colonies. He believed that once African nations were free of European control they could be markets for products and services made by black Americans. He believed that blacks should develop a separate "group economy." A separate market system, he said, could be a weapon for fighting economic injustice against blacks and for improving their poor living conditions. Mister Du Bois also called for the development of black literature and art. He urged the readers of the N-A-A-C-P magazine, "The Crisis," to see beauty in black. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, W. E. B. Du Bois resigned from his position at The Crisis” magazine. It was during the severe economic depression in the United States. He charged that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supported the interests of successful blacks. He said the organization was not concerned with the problems of poorer blacks. Mister Du Bois returned to Atlanta University, where he had taught before. He remained there as a professor for the next ten years. During this period, he wrote about his involvement in both the African and the African-American struggles for freedom. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Four, Mister Du Bois returned to the N-A-A-C-P in a research position. Four years later he left after another disagreement with the organization. He became more and more concerned about politics. He wrote: VOICE THREE: "As...a citizen of the world as well as of the United States of America, I claim the right to know and think and tell the truth as I see it. I believe in Socialism as well as Democracy. I believe in Communism wherever and whenever men are wise and good enough to achieve it; but I do not believe that all nations will achieve it in the same way or at the same time. I despise men and nations which judge human beings by their color, religious beliefs or income. ... I hate War." VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty, W. E. B. Du Bois became an official of the Peace Information Center. The organization made public the work other nations were doing to support peace in the world. The United States government accused the group of supporting the Soviet Union and charged its officials with acting as foreign agents. A federal judge found Mister Du Bois not guilty. But most Americans continued to consider him a criminal. He was treated as if he did not exist. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, at the age of Ninety-Two, Mister Du Bois joined the Communist party of the United States. Then he and his second wife moved to Ghana in west Africa. He gave up his American citizenship a year later. He died in Ghana on August Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Sixty-Three. His death was announced the next day to a huge crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands of blacks and whites had gathered for the March on Washington to seek improved civil rights in the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois had helped make that march possible. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Chakarian and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week to another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about W. E. B. Du Bois. He was an African-American writer, teacher and protest leader. VOICE ONE: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois fought for civil rights for black people in the United States. During the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties, he was the person most responsible for the changes in conditions for black people in American society. He also was responsible for changes in the way they thought about themselves. William Du Bois was the son of free blacks who lived in a northern state. His mother was Mary Burghardt. His father was Alfred Du Bois. His parents had never been slaves. Nor were their parents. William was born into this free and independent African-American family in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: William's mother felt that ability and hard work would lead to success. She urged him to seek an excellent education. In the early part of the century, it was not easy for most black people to get a good education. But William had a good experience in school. His intelligence earned him the respect of other students. He moved quickly through school. It was in those years in school that William Du Bois learned what he later called the secret of his success. His secret, he said, was to go to bed every night at ten o'clock. VOICE ONE: After high school, William decided to attend Fisk University, a college for black students in Nashville, Tennessee. He thought that going to school in a southern state would help him learn more about the life of most black Americans. Most black people lived in the south in those days. He soon felt the effects of racial prejudice. He found that poor, uneducated white people judged themselves better than he was because they were white and he was black. From that time on, William Du Bois opposed all kinds of racial prejudice. He never missed a chance to express his opinions about race relations. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: William Du Bois went to excellent colleges, Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts and the University of Berlin in Germany. He received his doctorate degree in history from Harvard in Eighteen-Ninety-Five. His book, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study was published four years later. It was the first study of a black community in the United States. He became a professor of economics and history at Atlanta University in Eighteen Ninety-Seven. He remained there until Nineteen-Ten. William Du Bois had believed that education and knowledge could help solve the race problem. But racial prejudice in the United States was causing violence. Mobs of whites killed blacks. Laws provided for separation of the races. Race riots were common. The situation in the country made Mister Du Bois believe that social change could happen only through protest. VOICE ONE: Mister Du Bois's belief in the need for protest clashed with the ideas of the most influential black leader of the time, Booker T. Washington. Mister Washington urged black people to accept unfair treatment for a time. He said they would improve their condition through hard work and economic gain. He believed that in this way blacks would win the respect of whites. Mister Du Bois attacked this way of thinking in his famous book, "The Souls of Black Folk." The book was a collection of separate pieces he had written. It was published in Nineteen-Oh-Three. In the very beginning of "The Souls of Black Folk" he expressed the reason he felt the book was important: VOICE THREE: "Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." VOICE TWO: Later in the book, Mister Du Bois explained the struggle blacks, or Negroes as they then were called, faced in America: VOICE THREE: "One ever feels his twoness -- an American, a Negro: two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideas in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. ... He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face." VOICE ONE: W. E. B. Du Bois charged that Booker Washington's plan would not free blacks from oppression, but would continue it. The dispute between the two leaders divided blacks into two groups – the "conservative" supporters of Mister Washington and his "extremist" opponents. In Nineteen-Oh-Five, Mister Du Bois established the Niagara Movement to oppose Mister Washington. He and other black leaders called for complete political, civil and social rights for black Americans. The organization did not last long. Disputes among its members and a campaign against it by Booker T. Washington kept it from growing. Yet the Niagara Movement led to the creation in Nineteen-Oh-Nine of an organization that would last, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Du Bois became director of research for the organization. He also became editor of the N-A-A-C-P magazine, "The Crisis." VOICE TWO: W. E. B. Du Bois felt that it was good for blacks to be linked through culture and spirit to the home of their ancestors. Throughout his life he was active in the Pan-African movement. Pan-Africanism was the belief that all people who came from Africa had common interests and should work together in their struggle for freedom. Mister Du Bois believed black Americans should support independence for African nations that were European colonies. He believed that once African nations were free of European control they could be markets for products and services made by black Americans. He believed that blacks should develop a separate "group economy." A separate market system, he said, could be a weapon for fighting economic injustice against blacks and for improving their poor living conditions. Mister Du Bois also called for the development of black literature and art. He urged the readers of the N-A-A-C-P magazine, "The Crisis," to see beauty in black. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, W. E. B. Du Bois resigned from his position at The Crisis” magazine. It was during the severe economic depression in the United States. He charged that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supported the interests of successful blacks. He said the organization was not concerned with the problems of poorer blacks. Mister Du Bois returned to Atlanta University, where he had taught before. He remained there as a professor for the next ten years. During this period, he wrote about his involvement in both the African and the African-American struggles for freedom. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Four, Mister Du Bois returned to the N-A-A-C-P in a research position. Four years later he left after another disagreement with the organization. He became more and more concerned about politics. He wrote: VOICE THREE: "As...a citizen of the world as well as of the United States of America, I claim the right to know and think and tell the truth as I see it. I believe in Socialism as well as Democracy. I believe in Communism wherever and whenever men are wise and good enough to achieve it; but I do not believe that all nations will achieve it in the same way or at the same time. I despise men and nations which judge human beings by their color, religious beliefs or income. ... I hate War." VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty, W. E. B. Du Bois became an official of the Peace Information Center. The organization made public the work other nations were doing to support peace in the world. The United States government accused the group of supporting the Soviet Union and charged its officials with acting as foreign agents. A federal judge found Mister Du Bois not guilty. But most Americans continued to consider him a criminal. He was treated as if he did not exist. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, at the age of Ninety-Two, Mister Du Bois joined the Communist party of the United States. Then he and his second wife moved to Ghana in west Africa. He gave up his American citizenship a year later. He died in Ghana on August Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Sixty-Three. His death was announced the next day to a huge crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands of blacks and whites had gathered for the March on Washington to seek improved civil rights in the United States. W. E. B. Du Bois had helped make that march possible. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Chakarian and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week to another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-01/a-2003-01-31-5-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - February 1, 2003: Bush’s State of the Union Speech
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. President Bush gave his State of the Union message to American lawmakers and the nation Tuesday. Some observers say it was the most important speech of Mister Bush’s presidency. His comments were designed to prepare the United States for a possible war and build support for his administration and its policies. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. President Bush gave his State of the Union message to American lawmakers and the nation Tuesday. Some observers say it was the most important speech of Mister Bush’s presidency. His comments were designed to prepare the United States for a possible war and build support for his administration and its policies. The president explained his reasons for possible military action against Iraq. He said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has failed to obey United Nations demands to disarm. Mister Bush also said there is evidence of ties between Iraq and terror groups. He said the Iraqi leader wants weapons of great destruction to control, threaten and attack his opponents. The President announced that Secretary of State Colin Powell will present proof next week to the U-N Security Council. He said Mister Powell would give information about Iraq’s illegal weapons programs, its efforts to hide those weapons from U-N inspectors and Iraq’s links to terrorists. Mister Bush said the United States will continue working with the U-N before taking any military action in Iraq. But he warned that Saddam Hussein would be disarmed by force if he does not disarm peacefully. The president said the Iraqi issue and North Korea’s nuclear activities require different plans of action. He said his administration is working with other countries to find a peaceful way to end the dispute with North Korea. Mister Bush also spoke about a number of other subjects. He announced plans for a major campaign to fight the disease AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean area. He asked Congress to approve fifteen-thousand-million dollars for the program over the next five years. The president discussed some issues that affect the everyday lives of Americans. Mister Bush proposed health care reforms and new national security measures. He also urged Congress to approve his plan to cut taxes. He said his first goal is to improve the American economy. Public opinion studies have shown that most Americans do not approve of the way Mister Bush is dealing with the economy. The top elected official in Washington State gave the opposition Democratic Party’s official reaction to the State of the Union message. Governor Gary Locke said the President’s economic plan would weaken America’s economic future and create permanent deficits in government spending. He also urged Mister Bush to continue dealing with world problems by working with other countries. The Gallop organization asked four-hundred-forty Americans for their opinions before and after the President’s speech. Before the speech, forty-seven percent said Mister Bush had made a strong case for military action against Iraq. After the speech, that number rose to sixty-seven percent. This VOA Special English report, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. The president explained his reasons for possible military action against Iraq. He said Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has failed to obey United Nations demands to disarm. Mister Bush also said there is evidence of ties between Iraq and terror groups. He said the Iraqi leader wants weapons of great destruction to control, threaten and attack his opponents. The President announced that Secretary of State Colin Powell will present proof next week to the U-N Security Council. He said Mister Powell would give information about Iraq’s illegal weapons programs, its efforts to hide those weapons from U-N inspectors and Iraq’s links to terrorists. Mister Bush said the United States will continue working with the U-N before taking any military action in Iraq. But he warned that Saddam Hussein would be disarmed by force if he does not disarm peacefully. The president said the Iraqi issue and North Korea’s nuclear activities require different plans of action. He said his administration is working with other countries to find a peaceful way to end the dispute with North Korea. Mister Bush also spoke about a number of other subjects. He announced plans for a major campaign to fight the disease AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean area. He asked Congress to approve fifteen-thousand-million dollars for the program over the next five years. The president discussed some issues that affect the everyday lives of Americans. Mister Bush proposed health care reforms and new national security measures. He also urged Congress to approve his plan to cut taxes. He said his first goal is to improve the American economy. Public opinion studies have shown that most Americans do not approve of the way Mister Bush is dealing with the economy. The top elected official in Washington State gave the opposition Democratic Party’s official reaction to the State of the Union message. Governor Gary Locke said the President’s economic plan would weaken America’s economic future and create permanent deficits in government spending. He also urged Mister Bush to continue dealing with world problems by working with other countries. The Gallop organization asked four-hundred-forty Americans for their opinions before and after the President’s speech. Before the speech, forty-seven percent said Mister Bush had made a strong case for military action against Iraq. After the speech, that number rose to sixty-seven percent. This VOA Special English report, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA - Coverage
* Byline: 

 Seven astronauts died when the shuttle Columbia broke apart high above Texas on February 1, minutes before it was to land. The crew included the first Israeli in space and an Indian-born engineer. Seven astronauts died when the shuttle Columbia broke apart high above Texas on February 1, minutes before it was to land. The crew included the first Israeli in space and an Indian-born engineer. We will have a 15-minute report Wednesday on Explorations. For other VOA coverage, click here. We will have a 15-minute report Wednesday on Explorations. For other VOA coverage, click here. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 4, 2003: Hepatitis
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about five forms of hepatitis, a viral disease that attacks the liver. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Very different viruses that spread through body waste or body fluids cause hepatitis. Different kinds of hepatitis can only be identified by tests that show infection-fighting molecules, called antibodies, in the blood. All hepatitis viruses attack and destroy liver cells. At one time, only developing nations suffered severe health problems caused by the hepatitis viruses. Today, scientists have identified five viruses that cause hepatitis. These viral diseases have become a major health problem for all nations and social groups. VOICE TWO: Hepatitis A is a virus that infects people who come in contact with waste from an infected person. It is usually spread through human waste in food or water. It is believed to be one of the oldest known diseases. It is in the same group of viruses that causes polio. The hepatitis A virus causes fever, tiredness, and pain. It also causes problems with the stomach and intestines making it difficult to eat or process food. The skin of a person infected with hepatitis A may turn yellow because the person’s liver does not work normally. Hepatitis A can spread quickly, affecting tens of thousands of people. However, the disease is deadly in less than one percent of cases. Many people can have the antibodies to this disease and yet never become sick from it. In the United States, hepatitis A is decreasing because of preventive measures. There is a vaccine medicine that can prevent the disease. Some states require that children be vaccinated for the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The second form of the disease is hepatitis B. This virus is more dangerous than virus A. Hepatitis B is one of a group of viruses that include herpes and smallpox. The hepatitis B virus also has been linked to liver cancer. For this reason, the World Health Organization considers the hepatitis B vaccine to be the first vaccine against a cancer in humans. Hepatitis B is spread when blood or body fluids of an infected person enter the body of another person. The disease can spread quickly through sex. It also can spread among people who share needles to inject drugs into the blood. It also can be transferred through blood products. It can even be spread through fluids from the nose or mouth. In the United States, children are now vaccinated against hepatitis B at an early age. This has helped to control the spread of the disease in this country. Around the world, however, three-hundred-fifty-million people are believed to be severely infected with the hepatitis B virus. About one-million people die from the disease every year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A third form of hepatitis is even more deadly. Hepatitis C belongs to a group of viruses that includes yellow fever and West Nile virus. It is spread mainly by direct contact with infected human blood. Health experts say the main causes of infection have been infected blood given to patients during operations and medical needles that have not been cleaned correctly. People who share needles used to inject drugs into the blood can infect each other. The disease is also spread through sex. Hepatitis C is dangerous because about eighty percent of those who become infected with the virus develop a severe form of the disease. More than ten percent of those who show effects of the disease develop severe liver damage. As many as five percent of those people develop liver cancer. VOICE ONE: There is no vaccine to prevent hepatitis C. Several blood tests can show if the virus is present. Hepatitis C has become a major problem in industrial and developing countries. The World Health Organization estimates that about one-hundred-seventy-million people are infected around the world. The highest infection rates are in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and the western Pacific. VOICE TWO: In the United States, hepatitis C remains a great concern. Last year, the National Institutes of Health reported on developments in the treatment of the C virus. The report found that at least four-million Americans have the disease. Hepatitis C was first observed in nineteen-seventy-four. At the time it was considered an unusual kind of hepatitis. The disease was not officially recognized until nineteen-eighty-nine. The spread of the disease was largely brought under control by nineteen-ninety-two because of medical testing of blood and tissue products. Until that time, many people became infected when they received some kinds of blood products. VOICE ONE: The N-I-H study discovered high numbers of infected people in some groups, including homeless people and prisoners. Between fifteen and fifty percent of the people in these groups are believed to be infected. People who inject illegal drugs are another high-risk group. So are people with the blood disease hemophilia who received blood products before nineteen-ninety-two. These groups have the highest percentage of infected people. Death documents suggest that as many as twelve-thousand people die of hepatitis C every year in America. The N-I-H report states that treatment with two drugs used together appears to help infected patients. The drugs are ribavirin and interferon. Interferon is also known to fight some cancers. However, interferon and ribavirin are costly and require careful medical support. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Two other forms of hepatitis viruses have been linked to liver disease. Hepatitis D can only infect people who have already been infected with hepatitis B. It also spreads in the same way as hepatitis B. The hepatitis D virus greatly increases the chance of severe liver damage. The World Health Organization says that ten-million people around the world are infected with hepatitis D. The organization says the disease is spreading in places where hepatitis B is present. However, medical scientists have not done much research on the virus because it has been identified only recently. VOICE ONE: The fifth kind of virus is hepatitis E. It is spread in the same way as hepatitis A -- through contact with infected human waste. This often happens when human waste pollutes water supplies. In developing countries, outbreaks of hepatitis caused by infected water are now suspected to be hepatitis E rather than hepatitis A. Hepatitis E was first recognized as a separate disease from hepatitis A in nineteen-eighty. VOICE TWO: Studies have shown that the E virus shares qualities of several very different viruses. It can also infect many kinds of animals including pigs, cows and monkeys. It is possible that the disease can be spread from animals to humans. There is no vaccine for hepatitis E. No medicine currently exists to treat the disease. Hepatitis E can cause liver damage like the other forms of hepatitis. It may cause death in up to four percent of severe cases. However, it is very dangerous for pregnant women. The death rate among pregnant women is twenty percent. Hepatitis E is not known in the United States. But it has caused outbreaks in Asia, Africa, and Mexico. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There is no cure for any form of hepatitis. Vaccination can greatly reduce the risk of severe infection from the A and B virus. The only way to protect against infection is to avoid contact with the viruses. Experts say people should avoid any kind of injection with dirty needles or medical instruments. They should also avoid sexual contact with people who may be at risk. Food and water supplies should be protected from pollution by human waste. Also, blood supplies must be tested for the viruses. People who are in high-risk groups or who have had the disease should not give blood or blood products. Experts say careful preventive measures are the only way to control the spread of the hepatitis viruses. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by George Grow. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — February 4, 2003: Resistant Weeds
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Agriculture around the world depends on chemicals that control the growth of unwanted plants. Poisons that generally affect only unwanted plants, or weeds, are called herbicides. However, many herbicides are losing their ability to kill weeds. Scientists have known for years that weeds develop resistance to herbicides. Now, a growing number of weeds are developing resistance to the world’s most popular weed killer. The American company Monsanto makes the herbicide. Its trade name is Roundup. Roundup has been developed for use with genetically engineered crops. These crops are called Roundup Ready. Growers can put the herbicide directly on the crop. It kills all unwanted plants. Yet, the crop remains unharmed. Corn, cotton and soybeans have all been genetically engineered to be Roundup Ready. The use of these two products together greatly simplifies crop raising for farmers in many countries. About seventy-five percent of all soybeans and sixty-five percent of all cotton grown in America is Roundup Ready. However, some experts say that herbicide-resistant weeds could cause serious problems. Resistant weeds could quickly overgrow a field, destroying the crop. Some experts say this is already happening in areas of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey. Normally, farmers grow different crops in a field from year to year. This method is called rotation. It reduces the possibility that weeds or insects will become resistant to chemicals. Yet, only one herbicide is needed for all Roundup Ready crops. Herbicide-resistant weeds could ruin all Roundup Ready crops on a farm. Scientists developed another kind of genetically engineered corn to resist insects. It is called B-T corn. Currently, the Environment Protection Agency requires farmers who grow B-T corn to plant other kinds of corn in nearby fields. This measure is meant to keep insects from developing resistance to B-T corn. However, no rule exists for Roundup Ready crops. Experts from Monsanto say only about four kinds of weeds have shown resistance to Roundup. This is a very small number of cases. Some other herbicides are not effective against as many as seventy kinds of weeds. However, the number of resistant weeds has increased every year. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – February 5, 2003: Vitamin D
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. For many years, scientists have known that people need Vitamin D. The body needs the vitamin to have normal levels of the elements calcium and phosphorus. Vitamin D helps the body use calcium to develop and strengthen bones and teeth. Studies show that lack of the vitamin is linked to an increased risk of broken bones. Extra Vitamin D may help prevent such breaks. Health experts have traditionally believed that short periods of sunlight each day could provide enough Vitamin D. This is because human skin changes sunlight into Vitamin D. The body then can store this substance. Recently, however, experts have warned that many people may not be getting enough Vitamin D. They say this is especially true of people who live in northern areas of the world. People who stay in their home, school or office for most of the day also may not be getting enough Vitamin D. The Harvard University School of Public Health is in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts. It says researchers studied patients who entered a Boston hospital. The study showed that fifty-seven percent of these patients lacked enough Vitamin D. Some doctors now are telling patients to get at least a few minutes of sunshine every day. However, too much sunlight can cause skin cancers. So people who stay in the sun longer should use products to protect their skin. People can also get Vitamin D in pills or food. Only a few foods naturally contain a lot of Vitamin D, however. They include fish and fish oils. The vitamin is also added to foods like milk and some cereals. Scientists believe Vitamin D may also be important for health in other ways. The Harvard School of Public Health says research suggests a link between low vitamin D and increased risk of some cancers. These include cancer of the part of the intestine called the colon. Vitamin D also may protect against heart disease. Last year, researchers studied almost ten-thousand older women. They were taking part in research on the bone-thinning disease, osteoporosis. Some of the women took Vitamin D pills. Others did not. The women who took the vitamin had about a thirty percent lower risk of dying of heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 5, 2003: Computer Viruses
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Computer viruses are harmful computer programs that can destroy information on a computer or cause the computer to stop. Today we tell about a recent virus attack and how you can protect your computer from such attacks. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Internet communications system permits millions of computer users around the world to link together for business and enjoyment. Private citizens, businesses and governments use the Internet. Anyone using the Internet can find information about many different subjects in many different languages in only a few minutes. The Internet is the fastest, most modern and best communications tool ever invented. However, the Internet also makes it possible for one person to damage or slow thousands of computers that are linked to it. They can do this by writing computer instructions that cause damage. Or they make the computer fill itself with so much useless information that it stops working. VOICE TWO: On January twenty-fourth, a kind of computer virus called a “worm” was released to infect the Internet. A worm is a computer instruction that makes copies of itself and sends copies to other computers. This worm sent copies of itself to computers across the Internet. The worm temporarily damaged millions of computers around the world. It slowed large groups of computers called networks. For example, one large American banking company had to close about thirteen-thousand of its money machines. People could no longer get their money from the bank’s machines using their plastic cards. A major international airline could not sell tickets using the Internet because the worm made its computers fail. Emergency service workers in the western American City of Seattle, Washington could not answer emergency calls because the worm caused their computers to fail. VOICE ONE: Computer experts named the worm “W-Thirty-Two-Slammer.” They said the worm caused a problem for the Internet that was similar to when there are too many cars on a road in a large city. This kind of vehicle problem is called a traffic jam. The Slammer worm caused an information jam. The experts believe the worm was first released in Asia. An American computer expert said evidence seemed to show the virus first appeared in Hong Kong. A government computer team in Hong Kong is working to find who released the new virus. South Korea may have been the worst affected nation in the January twenty-fourth attack. On January twenty-seventh, a spokesman for South Korea’s Information and Communication Ministry said computer communications on the Internet were almost back to normal. The ministry also said experts were working to find where the computer virus came from. Computer experts in China and Taiwan also reported problems with the worm. Computers in Japan suffered some problems. But they were mostly limited to some schools and companies. By the morning of January twenty-eighth, computer experts around the world had stopped the worm or made their computer systems safe against the Slammer. Experts believe the worm cost computer networks many millions of dollars in delays, lost business, and the loss of work usually done on a computer. VOICE TWO: The person who wrote the instructions that created the Slammer worm attacked computers that use the Microsoft computer system. Microsoft quickly provided the necessary computer instructions to make its system safe and prevent the Slammer worm from attacking other computers. The kind of program that made the Microsoft system safe is called a “patch” or “update.” Microsoft says it wants to improve the speed of future updates or patches for computer users linked to the Internet. Computer experts say the Internet has become extremely important every day in every area of the world. They say businesses, local governments and private citizens everywhere are using the Internet as an important part of their business or daily life. The experts say some businesses could no longer exist without the Internet. However, many businesses, local governments and private citizens have failed to learn how to protect their computers from viruses or worm attacks. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Sophos P-L-C is a computer company in Britain that makes programs that protect computers against viruses and worms. It is the fourth largest anti-virus company. Recently, Sophos company officials warned computer users against many new viruses and worms. The officials said recent evidence shows that some people are working hard to make illegal computer programs. The Sophos company said this in a newspaper report printed in Singapore on January fourteenth, only ten days before the Slammer worm attack. VOICE TWO: Graham Cluley is a computer expert with the Sophos company. He says computer security companies expect more viruses and worms this year. He says virus writers want to create the next super virus or worm. These can be easily spread by electronic mail or from a computer communications method called Instant Messaging. Mister Cluley said this kind of virus or worm causes the greatest problems. The Sophos Company experts say about eighty-thousand computer viruses are now known to exist. The experts say about six-hundred new computer viruses are released into the Internet each month. Mister Cluley says nine of last year’s ten most damaging viruses were spread by electronic mail to computers that use Microsoft Windows as their operating system. A company called F-Secure also makes computer security programs. Its experts say new kinds of computer attacks will be aimed at damaging millions of computers very quickly. This kind of attack is called a “flash worm.” It would be able to infect millions of computers in less than fifteen minutes. An F-Secure company computer expert says it is just a matter of time before someone tries to infect the Internet with such a program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Computer experts say many private citizens, businesses and local governments are not concerned about computer security until they suffer a damaging attack. Such an attack can cost computer users a great deal of money in lost business, lost information or damaged computer equipment. They say the attack can be more costly than providing good communications security. The experts say that using a computer anti-virus program is the first step in protecting a business or private computer. An anti-virus program searches the computer for, and guards against, viruses. It also inspects incoming e-mail and new programs for viruses. The experts say that many good computer companies produce anti-virus protection programs. Most companies that offer anti-virus programs also provide new information called “updates” to protect against new viruses or worms as they appear. VOICE TWO: An American company called McAfee Security produces a popular anti-virus protection program. Company officials say a good anti-virus program is only the first step in computer security. The company lists a number of things computer users can also do to help protect their computers. For example, do not open any file attached to electronic mail if it comes from an unknown person or place. Delete electronic mail from unknown people. Make copies of all important documents and keep them in a safe place. This should be done often to protect valuable information. VOICE ONE: Computer experts agree that everyone should refuse computer information from strangers. They also agree that users must be extremely careful when copying any kind of information from the Internet to their computer’s memory. All experts agree that doing these things is better than suffering a virus or worm attack. The Internet is fun, educational and a great business tool. But because of computer virus attacks, safety is extremely important. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Computer viruses are harmful computer programs that can destroy information on a computer or cause the computer to stop. Today we tell about a recent virus attack and how you can protect your computer from such attacks. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Internet communications system permits millions of computer users around the world to link together for business and enjoyment. Private citizens, businesses and governments use the Internet. Anyone using the Internet can find information about many different subjects in many different languages in only a few minutes. The Internet is the fastest, most modern and best communications tool ever invented. However, the Internet also makes it possible for one person to damage or slow thousands of computers that are linked to it. They can do this by writing computer instructions that cause damage. Or they make the computer fill itself with so much useless information that it stops working. VOICE TWO: On January twenty-fourth, a kind of computer virus called a “worm” was released to infect the Internet. A worm is a computer instruction that makes copies of itself and sends copies to other computers. This worm sent copies of itself to computers across the Internet. The worm temporarily damaged millions of computers around the world. It slowed large groups of computers called networks. For example, one large American banking company had to close about thirteen-thousand of its money machines. People could no longer get their money from the bank’s machines using their plastic cards. A major international airline could not sell tickets using the Internet because the worm made its computers fail. Emergency service workers in the western American City of Seattle, Washington could not answer emergency calls because the worm caused their computers to fail. VOICE ONE: Computer experts named the worm “W-Thirty-Two-Slammer.” They said the worm caused a problem for the Internet that was similar to when there are too many cars on a road in a large city. This kind of vehicle problem is called a traffic jam. The Slammer worm caused an information jam. The experts believe the worm was first released in Asia. An American computer expert said evidence seemed to show the virus first appeared in Hong Kong. A government computer team in Hong Kong is working to find who released the new virus. South Korea may have been the worst affected nation in the January twenty-fourth attack. On January twenty-seventh, a spokesman for South Korea’s Information and Communication Ministry said computer communications on the Internet were almost back to normal. The ministry also said experts were working to find where the computer virus came from. Computer experts in China and Taiwan also reported problems with the worm. Computers in Japan suffered some problems. But they were mostly limited to some schools and companies. By the morning of January twenty-eighth, computer experts around the world had stopped the worm or made their computer systems safe against the Slammer. Experts believe the worm cost computer networks many millions of dollars in delays, lost business, and the loss of work usually done on a computer. VOICE TWO: The person who wrote the instructions that created the Slammer worm attacked computers that use the Microsoft computer system. Microsoft quickly provided the necessary computer instructions to make its system safe and prevent the Slammer worm from attacking other computers. The kind of program that made the Microsoft system safe is called a “patch” or “update.” Microsoft says it wants to improve the speed of future updates or patches for computer users linked to the Internet. Computer experts say the Internet has become extremely important every day in every area of the world. They say businesses, local governments and private citizens everywhere are using the Internet as an important part of their business or daily life. The experts say some businesses could no longer exist without the Internet. However, many businesses, local governments and private citizens have failed to learn how to protect their computers from viruses or worm attacks. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Sophos P-L-C is a computer company in Britain that makes programs that protect computers against viruses and worms. It is the fourth largest anti-virus company. Recently, Sophos company officials warned computer users against many new viruses and worms. The officials said recent evidence shows that some people are working hard to make illegal computer programs. The Sophos company said this in a newspaper report printed in Singapore on January fourteenth, only ten days before the Slammer worm attack. VOICE TWO: Graham Cluley is a computer expert with the Sophos company. He says computer security companies expect more viruses and worms this year. He says virus writers want to create the next super virus or worm. These can be easily spread by electronic mail or from a computer communications method called Instant Messaging. Mister Cluley said this kind of virus or worm causes the greatest problems. The Sophos Company experts say about eighty-thousand computer viruses are now known to exist. The experts say about six-hundred new computer viruses are released into the Internet each month. Mister Cluley says nine of last year’s ten most damaging viruses were spread by electronic mail to computers that use Microsoft Windows as their operating system. A company called F-Secure also makes computer security programs. Its experts say new kinds of computer attacks will be aimed at damaging millions of computers very quickly. This kind of attack is called a “flash worm.” It would be able to infect millions of computers in less than fifteen minutes. An F-Secure company computer expert says it is just a matter of time before someone tries to infect the Internet with such a program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Computer experts say many private citizens, businesses and local governments are not concerned about computer security until they suffer a damaging attack. Such an attack can cost computer users a great deal of money in lost business, lost information or damaged computer equipment. They say the attack can be more costly than providing good communications security. The experts say that using a computer anti-virus program is the first step in protecting a business or private computer. An anti-virus program searches the computer for, and guards against, viruses. It also inspects incoming e-mail and new programs for viruses. The experts say that many good computer companies produce anti-virus protection programs. Most companies that offer anti-virus programs also provide new information called “updates” to protect against new viruses or worms as they appear. VOICE TWO: An American company called McAfee Security produces a popular anti-virus protection program. Company officials say a good anti-virus program is only the first step in computer security. The company lists a number of things computer users can also do to help protect their computers. For example, do not open any file attached to electronic mail if it comes from an unknown person or place. Delete electronic mail from unknown people. Make copies of all important documents and keep them in a safe place. This should be done often to protect valuable information. VOICE ONE: Computer experts agree that everyone should refuse computer information from strangers. They also agree that users must be extremely careful when copying any kind of information from the Internet to their computer’s memory. All experts agree that doing these things is better than suffering a virus or worm attack. The Internet is fun, educational and a great business tool. But because of computer virus attacks, safety is extremely important. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION – Clinton Legal Problems
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 6, 2003 (THEME) <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:74054| height="152" width="113" alt="President Clinton balances a "Budget" book in one hand and Monica Lewinsky in the other as he walks a tightrope in this 1998 cartoon by the late Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block.(Image - Library of Congress)" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/loc.gov_clinton_5feb03_150_se.jpg" border="0"> President Clinton balances a "Budget" book in one hand and Monica Lewinsky in the other as he walks a tightrope in this 1998 cartoon by the late Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block.(Image - Library of Congress) Broadcast: February 6, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we continue telling about America’s forty-second president, Bill Clinton. He became only the second American president to be charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For years, critics of Bill Clinton had accused him of financial wrongdoing before he became president. Some critics also accused his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons denied any dishonest actions. However, unconfirmed reports repeatedly said that they were involved in illegal business activities in Arkansas during the nineteen-eighties. In January of nineteen-ninety-four, the president asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent lawyer to lead an investigation. Mizz Reno named a Republican lawyer. However, some people said this man was too friendly to the Clinton administration. He was replaced by Kenneth Starr, also a Republican. VOICE TWO: Congress also investigated the president during his two terms in office. For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee began an investigation in nineteen-ninety-five. The majority of Judiciary Committee members reported that the evidence did not show Mister Clinton responsible for a crime. But the majority belonged to his political party, the Democrats. Suspicion of the president continued. The main cause of the suspicion developed from a financial investment made years earlier. Bill and Hillary Clinton had bought land in Arkansas in nineteen-seventy-eight. The Clintons formed the Whitewater Development Corporation with Susan and James McDougal. The goal was to sell holiday homes on a river. However, the company did poorly. VOICE ONE: James McDougal also owned a loan company. Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, did legal work for this company. The company failed during the nineteen-eighties. James McDougal and Susan McDougal were found guilty of wrongdoing in connection with the loan company. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s business connection to the McDougals in the Whitewater Company helped make the Clintons targets of suspicion. VOICE TWO: A former judge also became linked to legal questions about the Whitewater Corporation. David Hale owned a savings and loan company that received public money. In nineteen-ninety-six, Mister Hale said Bill Clinton had pressured him to loan money to Susan McDougal about eleven years earlier. The Whitewater Development Corporation received some of that money. Mister Clinton was governor of Arkansas at the time. So such an action would have been illegal. Bill Clinton denied the accusation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Investigators asked Missus Clinton several times for records of her legal work for James McDougal during the nineteen-eighties. Officials wanted to know how much time she had spent on legal advice for his loan company. She said she could not find the records. Then, in January of nineteen-ninety-six, the records appeared in the White House. Missus Clinton could not explain their presence. Bill and Hillary Clinton continued to deny wrongdoing. Some Americans did not believe them. Others, however, said Kenneth Starr was wasting millions of dollars on his investigation. They said Mister Starr was acting against the president for political reasons. Media reports said Mister Starr had offered shorter prison sentences to David Hale and others involved with Whitewater if they cooperated with his investigation. Defenders of the president said this meant these people had good reason to lie. Investigators said such offers are common. Other media reports said David Hale had received large amounts of money from a conservative organization that had strongly criticized Mister Clinton. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The president was threatened with removal from office after a sexual relationship with a young woman became public. It started when a former Arkansas state employee named Paula Corbin Jones took legal action against President Clinton in nineteen-ninety-four. She charged that he had asked her for sex while he was governor of Arkansas. A federal judge dismissed her case for lack of evidence. But Missus Jones appealed the case. Her lawyers wanted to prove that Mister Clinton had had sex with several female workers. They suspected these included a young woman, Monica Lewinsky, who had worked as a White House assistant. They believed Mizz Lewinsky had sexual relations with President Clinton between nineteen-ninety-five and nineteen-ninety-seven. VOICE ONE : Kenneth Starr was still investigating the Whitewater case early in nineteen-ninety-eight. He received permission to include Mizz Lewinsky in his investigation. A former friend of Mizz Lewinsky had given Mister Starr tape recordings of her telephone calls with the young woman. On the recordings, Monica Lewinsky talked about her relationship with the president. Earlier, Mizz Lewinsky and Mister Clinton had separately answered questions from lawyers representing Paula Jones. Both Mister Clinton and Mizz Lewinsky denied having a sexual relationship. In January of nineteen-ninety-eight, Mister Clinton also denied publicly that he had a sexual relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. VOICE TWO: Six months later, Mister Clinton agreed to answer questions before a federal investigating jury. He told the grand jury about his relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. This meant he had lied during earlier official questioning. That night, the president admitted on national television that he had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was wrong. He told the nation his actions were a personal failure. But he denied trying to get her to lie about the relationship. Kenneth Starr sent his final report to the House of Representatives. The report suggested that Mister Clinton may have committed impeachable crimes in trying to hide his relationship with the young woman. VOICE ONE: In December, the House of Representatives impeached President William Jefferson Clinton. This meant the Senate would hold a trial and decide if he was guilty. If found guilty, Mister Clinton would be removed from office, as required by the Constitution. Only one other president had ever been impeached. In eighteen-sixty-eight, the House of Representatives had brought charges against President Andrew Johnson. The Senate had failed by one vote to remove him from office. VOICE TWO: The House of Representatives approved two charges against President Clinton to send to the Senate. One charge accused him of lying during the official investigation of his relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. The other accused him of trying to hide evidence. Mister Clinton still had two years left to serve as president. Opinion studies showed the American public wanted him to finish his term. Two-thirds of the people asked said they opposed removing him from office. VOICE ONE: The Senate decided Mister Clinton’s future in February of nineteen-ninety-nine. The one-hundred senators held a trial to consider the charges and decide if Mister Clinton should be removed from office. The trial required sixty-seven votes for a judgment of guilt on each charge. The Senators voted Mister Clinton not guilty on one charge. They evenly divided their votes on the other charge. Bill Clinton remained president of the United States. But the forty-second president had hoped to be remembered for his leadership and the progress made during his administration. Instead, many people said he will be remembered for the charges against him. In October, nineteen-ninety-nine, Kenneth Starr resigned as the independent investigator. An assistant, Robert Ray, completed a final report on the Whitewater investigation. He issued his report in September, two-thousand. No charges were brought against the Clintons. The report said there was not enough evidence to prove any wrongdoing by President or Missus Clinton. Political experts disagree about what place in history William Jefferson Clinton will occupy. But the experts agree that Mister Clinton’s influence on the United States will be debated for many years to come. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we continue telling about America’s forty-second president, Bill Clinton. He became only the second American president to be charged and tried for wrongdoing by Congress. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For years, critics of Bill Clinton had accused him of financial wrongdoing before he became president. Some critics also accused his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons denied any dishonest actions. However, unconfirmed reports repeatedly said that they were involved in illegal business activities in Arkansas during the nineteen-eighties. In January of nineteen-ninety-four, the president asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent lawyer to lead an investigation. Mizz Reno named a Republican lawyer. However, some people said this man was too friendly to the Clinton administration. He was replaced by Kenneth Starr, also a Republican. VOICE TWO: Congress also investigated the president during his two terms in office. For example, the Senate Judiciary Committee began an investigation in nineteen-ninety-five. The majority of Judiciary Committee members reported that the evidence did not show Mister Clinton responsible for a crime. But the majority belonged to his political party, the Democrats. Suspicion of the president continued. The main cause of the suspicion developed from a financial investment made years earlier. Bill and Hillary Clinton had bought land in Arkansas in nineteen-seventy-eight. The Clintons formed the Whitewater Development Corporation with Susan and James McDougal. The goal was to sell holiday homes on a river. However, the company did poorly. VOICE ONE: James McDougal also owned a loan company. Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, did legal work for this company. The company failed during the nineteen-eighties. James McDougal and Susan McDougal were found guilty of wrongdoing in connection with the loan company. Bill and Hillary Clinton’s business connection to the McDougals in the Whitewater Company helped make the Clintons targets of suspicion. VOICE TWO: A former judge also became linked to legal questions about the Whitewater Corporation. David Hale owned a savings and loan company that received public money. In nineteen-ninety-six, Mister Hale said Bill Clinton had pressured him to loan money to Susan McDougal about eleven years earlier. The Whitewater Development Corporation received some of that money. Mister Clinton was governor of Arkansas at the time. So such an action would have been illegal. Bill Clinton denied the accusation. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Investigators asked Missus Clinton several times for records of her legal work for James McDougal during the nineteen-eighties. Officials wanted to know how much time she had spent on legal advice for his loan company. She said she could not find the records. Then, in January of nineteen-ninety-six, the records appeared in the White House. Missus Clinton could not explain their presence. Bill and Hillary Clinton continued to deny wrongdoing. Some Americans did not believe them. Others, however, said Kenneth Starr was wasting millions of dollars on his investigation. They said Mister Starr was acting against the president for political reasons. Media reports said Mister Starr had offered shorter prison sentences to David Hale and others involved with Whitewater if they cooperated with his investigation. Defenders of the president said this meant these people had good reason to lie. Investigators said such offers are common. Other media reports said David Hale had received large amounts of money from a conservative organization that had strongly criticized Mister Clinton. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The president was threatened with removal from office after a sexual relationship with a young woman became public. It started when a former Arkansas state employee named Paula Corbin Jones took legal action against President Clinton in nineteen-ninety-four. She charged that he had asked her for sex while he was governor of Arkansas. A federal judge dismissed her case for lack of evidence. But Missus Jones appealed the case. Her lawyers wanted to prove that Mister Clinton had had sex with several female workers. They suspected these included a young woman, Monica Lewinsky, who had worked as a White House assistant. They believed Mizz Lewinsky had sexual relations with President Clinton between nineteen-ninety-five and nineteen-ninety-seven. VOICE ONE : Kenneth Starr was still investigating the Whitewater case early in nineteen-ninety-eight. He received permission to include Mizz Lewinsky in his investigation. A former friend of Mizz Lewinsky had given Mister Starr tape recordings of her telephone calls with the young woman. On the recordings, Monica Lewinsky talked about her relationship with the president. Earlier, Mizz Lewinsky and Mister Clinton had separately answered questions from lawyers representing Paula Jones. Both Mister Clinton and Mizz Lewinsky denied having a sexual relationship. In January of nineteen-ninety-eight, Mister Clinton also denied publicly that he had a sexual relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. VOICE TWO: Six months later, Mister Clinton agreed to answer questions before a federal investigating jury. He told the grand jury about his relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. This meant he had lied during earlier official questioning. That night, the president admitted on national television that he had had a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that was wrong. He told the nation his actions were a personal failure. But he denied trying to get her to lie about the relationship. Kenneth Starr sent his final report to the House of Representatives. The report suggested that Mister Clinton may have committed impeachable crimes in trying to hide his relationship with the young woman. VOICE ONE: In December, the House of Representatives impeached President William Jefferson Clinton. This meant the Senate would hold a trial and decide if he was guilty. If found guilty, Mister Clinton would be removed from office, as required by the Constitution. Only one other president had ever been impeached. In eighteen-sixty-eight, the House of Representatives had brought charges against President Andrew Johnson. The Senate had failed by one vote to remove him from office. VOICE TWO: The House of Representatives approved two charges against President Clinton to send to the Senate. One charge accused him of lying during the official investigation of his relationship with Mizz Lewinsky. The other accused him of trying to hide evidence. Mister Clinton still had two years left to serve as president. Opinion studies showed the American public wanted him to finish his term. Two-thirds of the people asked said they opposed removing him from office. VOICE ONE: The Senate decided Mister Clinton’s future in February of nineteen-ninety-nine. The one-hundred senators held a trial to consider the charges and decide if Mister Clinton should be removed from office. The trial required sixty-seven votes for a judgment of guilt on each charge. The Senators voted Mister Clinton not guilty on one charge. They evenly divided their votes on the other charge. Bill Clinton remained president of the United States. But the forty-second president had hoped to be remembered for his leadership and the progress made during his administration. Instead, many people said he will be remembered for the charges against him. In October, nineteen-ninety-nine, Kenneth Starr resigned as the independent investigator. An assistant, Robert Ray, completed a final report on the Whitewater investigation. He issued his report in September, two-thousand. No charges were brought against the Clintons. The report said there was not enough evidence to prove any wrongdoing by President or Missus Clinton. Political experts disagree about what place in history William Jefferson Clinton will occupy. But the experts agree that Mister Clinton’s influence on the United States will be debated for many years to come. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - February 6, 2003: Foreign Student Series #21 >Landmark, a College for People with Learning Disabilities
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today we continue our series for foreign students who want to study in the United States. We tell about an American college for students with learning problems. It is Landmark College in the northeastern state of Vermont. It was started in nineteen-eighty-four by an expert in educating people who suffer learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities often cannot think about just one thing for any period of time. Nor can they sit without moving for more than a few minutes. These and other problems interfere with their learning in school. It is difficult for them to complete their education. Many experts believe that learning disabilities are caused by chemical problems in the brain. Whatever the cause, officials at Landmark College say they can help. Landmark College prepares students to continue their education successfully at other colleges. Officials say ninety percent of the students go on to other schools after they finish at Landmark. Students may study at Landmark for one, two or three years. Or they may take summer classes only. The teaching at Landmark is different from teaching at other colleges. Teachers use methods planned especially for the students. For example, they may divide a large task into many small ones. Students learn each one, then put them together as a whole. Classes at Landmark are small. There are between eight and twelve students in each class. The college develops an education plan for each student. And each student has one special teacher who helps him or her study. This individual supervision is costly. A student pays almost forty-thousand dollars a year to attend Landmark College. This includes the cost of food and living at the school. Students may ask to be considered for financial help. Three-hundred-sixty students attend Landmark College. This includes students from about twelve foreign countries. The college offers English classes and other services for international students. You can get more information about Landmark College by using a computer. The Internet address is w-w-w dot l-a-n-d-m-a-r-k-c-o-l-l-e-g-e dot o-r-g. (www.landmarkcollege.org) Or you can write to the Admissions Office, Landmark College, River Road South, Putney, Vermont, zero-five-three-four-six, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 6, 2003 - Trademarking 'Freedom of Expression'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 6, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- meet Kembrew McLeod. He's an assistant professor of communications [studies] at the University of Iowa. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 6, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- meet Kembrew McLeod. He's an assistant professor of communications [studies] at the University of Iowa. A few years ago, Mr. McLeod registered a trademark, which means he bought the rights to exclusive commercial use of a certain graphic design or, in this case, a phrase. There's nothing so unusual about that. Businesses trademark slogans all the time. What is unusual is that the trademark Mr. McLeod registered is "freedom of expression." RS: The first person to point out the irony in this is Kembrew McLeod himself: owning the phrase "freedom of expression" means the power to restrict freedom of expression. Recently his lawyer sent the big telecommunications giant A-T- and-T a letter warning the company against using the trademark in an advertisement. McLEOD: "A trademark basically gives the owner of the trademark a monopoly over the use of that image, phrase, whatever the trademark is." RS: "But how can you trademark a common expression?" McLEOD: "I'd like to turn that question around to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which is the entity that gave me the trademark 'freedom of expression.' Because initially when I first applied for it, it was primarily just a test. It was, you know, this little socially conscious prank in which I wanted to see if the U.S.P.T.O. would give someone a monopoly right over the use of 'freedom of expression.' "Fortunately for me as a critic, but unfortunately for every other American citizen, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office didn't see the idea of someone owning 'freedom of expression' (as being) morally, socially or political unsettling, and they gave it to me." AA: "Did anyone call you and say why do you want to own freedom of expression?" McLEOD: "No, you just have to demonstrate that the mark has been used in commerce, and Freedom of Expression is the name of a publication that I've been putting out for eight years." AA: "So you now own the rights to one of our basic American freedoms?" McLEOD: "Yes." AA: "Are you doing this to sort of protect it from big business? What are you doing with ‘freedom of expression,’ how are you keeping it safe?" McLEOD: "First of all, I kind of joke that we're lucky at least that I trademarked ‘freedom of expression’ before Disney did. But the main reason is it's a very kind of, not shocking in the most extreme sense, but it's a way of kind of making people snap to attention, pay attention to the way in which much of our culture has been privatized. Our basic grammar and syntax of popular culture has been trademarked." RS: "What do you hope happens because of this exercise?" McLEOD: "Basically, without doing this, without creating this kind of spectacle, there's no way that I would have been able to get -- well, push my agenda, push my concerns to the front and have it run as the lead story, a story about intellectual property law, run as the lead story on local news, which typically covers either crime or farm crises in Iowa or whatever." AA: "And how old are you?" McLEOD: "I'm thirty-two." AA: "Thirty-two, you've taken on A-T-and-T. Have you heard from them yet?" McLEOD: "I haven't heard from my lawyer yet. They did already have a prepared statement, though, about me, that I'm a self-proclaimed prankster and this is just a frivolous exercise, blah, blah, blah." RS: "In defense of the trademark, isn't there -- there must be a reason to have a trademark to begin with. So are you saying that this is just out of balance?" McLEOD: "Yes. I'm an artist -- I'm a filmmaker -- and a lot of my friends are writers, and I'm a writer also. I make money off royalties and a lot of my friends do. I don't want to destroy (the) system. That would basically keep friends and other people like me from making money from their art. "I don't see a problem with copyright and trademark in theory, but the problem is the way it's been used and applied by big companies in a way that overreaches the original intent -- for instance, trademark. So an artist that decides to incorporate a Disney character in a satirical way in their art, there are many examples of artists who have received cease-and-desist letters from Disney. "And the whole point of trademark is basically to avoid confusion in the marketplace. We don't want consumers to be confused about whether or not they are picking up the authentic Tide detergent, washing detergent, or not. That's why trademarks exist." AA: "Has anyone come to you so far and said 'we want to start something called Freedom of Expression, may we have your permission or buy a license from you?'" McLEOD: "Yes. There's a skateboard company that came to me. I guess they were doing a search on the Patent and Trademark Office Web site and found that I had trademarked ‘freedom of expression,’ and they wanted to print T-shirts that say ‘freedom of expression.’" RS: And you know what -- he told them go right ahead. Kembrew McLeod is an assistant professor in the Department of Communications Studies at the University of Iowa. AA: He's lent his trademark certificate to an exhibit called "Illegal Art," on display this month in a Chicago gallery. You can see a copy of it on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And feel free to express yourself by e-mail -- our address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. A few years ago, Mr. McLeod registered a trademark, which means he bought the rights to exclusive commercial use of a certain graphic design or, in this case, a phrase. There's nothing so unusual about that. Businesses trademark slogans all the time. What is unusual is that the trademark Mr. McLeod registered is "freedom of expression." RS: The first person to point out the irony in this is Kembrew McLeod himself: owning the phrase "freedom of expression" means the power to restrict freedom of expression. Recently his lawyer sent the big telecommunications giant A-T- and-T a letter warning the company against using the trademark in an advertisement. McLEOD: "A trademark basically gives the owner of the trademark a monopoly over the use of that image, phrase, whatever the trademark is." RS: "But how can you trademark a common expression?" McLEOD: "I'd like to turn that question around to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which is the entity that gave me the trademark 'freedom of expression.' Because initially when I first applied for it, it was primarily just a test. It was, you know, this little socially conscious prank in which I wanted to see if the U.S.P.T.O. would give someone a monopoly right over the use of 'freedom of expression.' "Fortunately for me as a critic, but unfortunately for every other American citizen, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office didn't see the idea of someone owning 'freedom of expression' (as being) morally, socially or political unsettling, and they gave it to me." AA: "Did anyone call you and say why do you want to own freedom of expression?" McLEOD: "No, you just have to demonstrate that the mark has been used in commerce, and Freedom of Expression is the name of a publication that I've been putting out for eight years." AA: "So you now own the rights to one of our basic American freedoms?" McLEOD: "Yes." AA: "Are you doing this to sort of protect it from big business? What are you doing with ‘freedom of expression,’ how are you keeping it safe?" McLEOD: "First of all, I kind of joke that we're lucky at least that I trademarked ‘freedom of expression’ before Disney did. But the main reason is it's a very kind of, not shocking in the most extreme sense, but it's a way of kind of making people snap to attention, pay attention to the way in which much of our culture has been privatized. Our basic grammar and syntax of popular culture has been trademarked." RS: "What do you hope happens because of this exercise?" McLEOD: "Basically, without doing this, without creating this kind of spectacle, there's no way that I would have been able to get -- well, push my agenda, push my concerns to the front and have it run as the lead story, a story about intellectual property law, run as the lead story on local news, which typically covers either crime or farm crises in Iowa or whatever." AA: "And how old are you?" McLEOD: "I'm thirty-two." AA: "Thirty-two, you've taken on A-T-and-T. Have you heard from them yet?" McLEOD: "I haven't heard from my lawyer yet. They did already have a prepared statement, though, about me, that I'm a self-proclaimed prankster and this is just a frivolous exercise, blah, blah, blah." RS: "In defense of the trademark, isn't there -- there must be a reason to have a trademark to begin with. So are you saying that this is just out of balance?" McLEOD: "Yes. I'm an artist -- I'm a filmmaker -- and a lot of my friends are writers, and I'm a writer also. I make money off royalties and a lot of my friends do. I don't want to destroy (the) system. That would basically keep friends and other people like me from making money from their art. "I don't see a problem with copyright and trademark in theory, but the problem is the way it's been used and applied by big companies in a way that overreaches the original intent -- for instance, trademark. So an artist that decides to incorporate a Disney character in a satirical way in their art, there are many examples of artists who have received cease-and-desist letters from Disney. "And the whole point of trademark is basically to avoid confusion in the marketplace. We don't want consumers to be confused about whether or not they are picking up the authentic Tide detergent, washing detergent, or not. That's why trademarks exist." AA: "Has anyone come to you so far and said 'we want to start something called Freedom of Expression, may we have your permission or buy a license from you?'" McLEOD: "Yes. There's a skateboard company that came to me. I guess they were doing a search on the Patent and Trademark Office Web site and found that I had trademarked ‘freedom of expression,’ and they wanted to print T-shirts that say ‘freedom of expression.’" RS: And you know what -- he told them go right ahead. Kembrew McLeod is an assistant professor in the Department of Communications Studies at the University of Iowa. AA: He's lent his trademark certificate to an exhibit called "Illegal Art," on display this month in a Chicago gallery. You can see a copy of it on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And feel free to express yourself by e-mail -- our address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 7, 2003: Music by Michelle Branch / Question About Foreign Language Study in US / Museum of American Financial History
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by Michelle Branch ... Answer a question about which foreign languages American students study ... And tell about a museum in New York City that celebrates capitalism. Museum of Financial History HOST: The Museum of American Financial History in New York City is the only independent public museum of capitalism in the nation. It tells the story of America’s economic system. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The Museum of American Financial History helps people learn about the financial history of the United States. The museum opened in nineteen-eighty-eight in the Standard Oil Building, near Wall Street, the financial center of the country. About thirty-five-thousand people visit the museum each year. Half of them are school children. The museum shows the history of Wall Street and the American stock market. It also tells about famous American businessmen and women. The museum tells about the bad days in America’s financial life as well as the good times. For example, there are brightly colored stock ownership documents from failed businesses. These certificates show ownership of one share of stock in companies including Enron, ImClone Systems and WorldCom. Investors in these companies once made lots of money. The certificates were highly valued. Now they are almost worthless except to collectors. The museum received many of these stock certificates from a company called Scripophily (skrih-POFF-a-lee)-dot-com. Scripophily buys and sells collectible stock and bond certificates on the Internet. A popular museum exhibit shows the events of October twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-nine. On that day, the American stock market crashed. Many investors lost all their money. The crash started the Great Depression. Visitors at the museum can see the list of falling stock prices. The museum also is showing the most valuable piece of paper money that the United States ever produced. This paper money was worth one-hundred-thousand dollars. It was printed in nineteen-thirty-four. It was used to send money between Federal Reserve banks. Today, the highest valued paper money in America is the one-hundred-dollar bill. The government stopped printing bills of larger amounts to try to prevent illegal financial activities. A statue of John D. Rockefeller looks over the museum’s exhibits. Mister Rockefeller was one of America’s richest businessmen. He started the Standard Oil Company in eighteen-seventy. His headquarters once was in the building that now is home to the Museum of American Financial History. Foreign Language Study HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Jessica asks if students are required to learn a foreign language in the United States, and if so, which ones are the most popular. Foreign language study starts at a very young age for many students in America. A recent report by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages says some students start language training at age six. States do not require foreign language training this early in education. But many students choose to study languages in elementary school. The most popular languages for young students are Spanish, French and German. Almost seven-million students in public secondary schools in the United States are studying a foreign language. This is about thirty-four percent of students at the junior high and high school level. These students are from twelve to seventeen years old. Nearly seventy percent of students studying a foreign language at this level choose Spanish. French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian are also popular. There is also a growing interest in the Arabic language in the United States. Each state sets its own requirements for foreign language study at the junior high and high school level. Many students graduate high school with at least two years of foreign language study. Some study a foreign language for four years. There are different foreign language requirements at colleges and universities. Some universities require students to have had several years of language education in high school. In addition, many colleges and universities require students to complete at least two years of foreign language study before graduating. Two years ago, the United States government passed legislation to help states increase foreign language study for all public school students. State and local education agencies can request money to help establish, improve or expand foreign language study. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages says interest in the program is huge. The council says this proves that young Americans are ready and willing to learn foreign languages. Michelle Branch HOST: Female singer-songwriters are very popular in the United States. These young women sing, write their own songs and play their own musical instruments. Mary Tillotson tells us about one of them. ANNCR: Michelle Branch has been singing for as long as she can remember. Michelle was born in the southwestern state of Arizona in nineteen-eighty-three. She was raised in the town of Sedona. Michelle began playing the guitar when she was fourteen years old. A short time later, she began writing her own songs and performing in the Sedona area. Michelle started recording songs for her first album, “The Spirit Room,” two years ago. That album has sold more than one-million copies. Here is a song from “The Spirit Room.” It is called “Everywhere.” (MUSIC) Michelle Branch also performs on the album “Shaman” by Carlos Santana. Her hit song from that album is called “The Game of Love.” (MUSIC) Last month, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced nominations for its Grammy Awards. The awards will be presented February twenty-third. Michelle Branch was one of five nominees for the award of Best New Artist. We leave you now with her song “Goodbye to You.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by Michelle Branch ... Answer a question about which foreign languages American students study ... And tell about a museum in New York City that celebrates capitalism. Museum of Financial History HOST: The Museum of American Financial History in New York City is the only independent public museum of capitalism in the nation. It tells the story of America’s economic system. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The Museum of American Financial History helps people learn about the financial history of the United States. The museum opened in nineteen-eighty-eight in the Standard Oil Building, near Wall Street, the financial center of the country. About thirty-five-thousand people visit the museum each year. Half of them are school children. The museum shows the history of Wall Street and the American stock market. It also tells about famous American businessmen and women. The museum tells about the bad days in America’s financial life as well as the good times. For example, there are brightly colored stock ownership documents from failed businesses. These certificates show ownership of one share of stock in companies including Enron, ImClone Systems and WorldCom. Investors in these companies once made lots of money. The certificates were highly valued. Now they are almost worthless except to collectors. The museum received many of these stock certificates from a company called Scripophily (skrih-POFF-a-lee)-dot-com. Scripophily buys and sells collectible stock and bond certificates on the Internet. A popular museum exhibit shows the events of October twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-nine. On that day, the American stock market crashed. Many investors lost all their money. The crash started the Great Depression. Visitors at the museum can see the list of falling stock prices. The museum also is showing the most valuable piece of paper money that the United States ever produced. This paper money was worth one-hundred-thousand dollars. It was printed in nineteen-thirty-four. It was used to send money between Federal Reserve banks. Today, the highest valued paper money in America is the one-hundred-dollar bill. The government stopped printing bills of larger amounts to try to prevent illegal financial activities. A statue of John D. Rockefeller looks over the museum’s exhibits. Mister Rockefeller was one of America’s richest businessmen. He started the Standard Oil Company in eighteen-seventy. His headquarters once was in the building that now is home to the Museum of American Financial History. Foreign Language Study HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Jessica asks if students are required to learn a foreign language in the United States, and if so, which ones are the most popular. Foreign language study starts at a very young age for many students in America. A recent report by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages says some students start language training at age six. States do not require foreign language training this early in education. But many students choose to study languages in elementary school. The most popular languages for young students are Spanish, French and German. Almost seven-million students in public secondary schools in the United States are studying a foreign language. This is about thirty-four percent of students at the junior high and high school level. These students are from twelve to seventeen years old. Nearly seventy percent of students studying a foreign language at this level choose Spanish. French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian are also popular. There is also a growing interest in the Arabic language in the United States. Each state sets its own requirements for foreign language study at the junior high and high school level. Many students graduate high school with at least two years of foreign language study. Some study a foreign language for four years. There are different foreign language requirements at colleges and universities. Some universities require students to have had several years of language education in high school. In addition, many colleges and universities require students to complete at least two years of foreign language study before graduating. Two years ago, the United States government passed legislation to help states increase foreign language study for all public school students. State and local education agencies can request money to help establish, improve or expand foreign language study. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages says interest in the program is huge. The council says this proves that young Americans are ready and willing to learn foreign languages. Michelle Branch HOST: Female singer-songwriters are very popular in the United States. These young women sing, write their own songs and play their own musical instruments. Mary Tillotson tells us about one of them. ANNCR: Michelle Branch has been singing for as long as she can remember. Michelle was born in the southwestern state of Arizona in nineteen-eighty-three. She was raised in the town of Sedona. Michelle began playing the guitar when she was fourteen years old. A short time later, she began writing her own songs and performing in the Sedona area. Michelle started recording songs for her first album, “The Spirit Room,” two years ago. That album has sold more than one-million copies. Here is a song from “The Spirit Room.” It is called “Everywhere.” (MUSIC) Michelle Branch also performs on the album “Shaman” by Carlos Santana. Her hit song from that album is called “The Game of Love.” (MUSIC) Last month, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced nominations for its Grammy Awards. The awards will be presented February twenty-third. Michelle Branch was one of five nominees for the award of Best New Artist. We leave you now with her song “Goodbye to You.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Chicago Climate Exchange
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 7, 2003 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A private North American group has launched an effort to reduce and trade releases of industrial gases linked to the warming of the Earth. This is the first time that businesses operating in more than one industry have agreed to use a market-based system to reduce industrial gas emissions. The group plans to begin trading emissions credits later this year. Several companies and the American city of Chicago, Illinois, announced the program last month. It is called the Chicago Climate Exchange, or C-C-X. Members of the group include DuPont, Ford Motor Company, International Paper, and Motorola. Each member of the C-C-X has agreed to reduce its release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by four percent over the next four years. Members will receive credit for emissions reductions above four percent. They can sell or trade these credits to other members that have trouble meeting this goal. Richard Sandor is the chairman of the C-C-X. He praised the companies forming the group for demonstrating leadership. He said they believe that an active way to deal with global warming helps everyone. The group said its members want to reduce costs they may face from future rules on greenhouse gas emissions. Trading credits may help businesses find the most cost-effective methods to reduce pollution. Members also hope to improve their public image on environmental issues. One member of the Chicago Climate Exchange is American Electric Power. It the biggest owner of electric power producers in the United States. Company officials say they hope their company’s membership will demonstrate the ability of the C-C-X to grow. American Electric Power expects to reduce its release of industrial emissions through a number of actions. They include improving the effectiveness of power stations and use of renewable energy. The company also will purchase credits directly from the program. The C-C-X will supervise this program for industrial emissions, planting forests or farm products that use carbon dioxide, and other projects in North America. Companies in Brazil also will be invited to join the program. About one-hundred other businesses have expressed interest in joining. Officials expect a second group of members to be announced in about three months. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 10, 2003: Dating
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United States has millions of unmarried adults. Many would like to go out socially and have fun with someone they like. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of how people meet and date is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: February fourteenth is Valentine’s Day. On that day, many Americans send cards or buy presents for people who are important in their lives. Valentine’s Day gives lovers a chance to express their feelings. However, millions of people in the United States are alone. They are not married or involved in a close relationship. Some of these people wish they could find someone to date. They wish they could celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special person. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to find someone to date. Some people meet at work. Others meet by chance in a public place. Still others visit places where other single people go. Or they can use businesses that help organize dates. Many men and women find dates through services they find on the Internet computer system. The purpose of dating is to have fun. Sometimes people who date develop a close relationship. Some people decide to live together, yet remain unmarried. Others decide to get married. In the past, young people in America usually lived with their parents until they got married. Today, some still do. Yet most young people live a more independent life. They have a job. They travel. They rent or own their own apartment or house. They wait longer to get married. While waiting, they date. VOICE ONE: Often a friend will plan a meeting between two unmarried people who do not know each other. The friend thinks the two people will like each other. This is called a “blind date.” The people involved are not blind. They just have never seen each other. However, most unmarried people have to find their own dates. Many go to public eating, drinking or dancing places. Every city in America has them. Some places are popular with young people. Others are for older people. Many Americans, however, want to go where they are sure they can meet people with similar interests. For example, they may go to a bookstore. Some bookstores in America serve coffee and food. Many offer special programs and social activities for single people. Other singles join health clubs or sports teams to get exercise and to meet people. Or, they may join groups for people who like to take long walks in the woods. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some public eating and drinking places help plan dates for single people. At several such places in New York City, people can write answers to a series of questions about themselves. Then other people read the answers. If someone likes the answers, an employee sets up a date. This service costs a small amount of money. A restaurant called Drip Café started using this system when it opened in New York in nineteen-ninety-six. Since then, the Drip Café has helped many people find someone to date. It was the first restaurant and date-organizing place in a group called DateCafes. There are similar cafes in several other American cities. VOICE ONE: Some businesses help single people meet other people. For example, Great Expectations has been organizing dates for about twenty-five years. It started in San Francisco, California. The company sends millions of letters a year to people throughout the country. The letters explain how the system works. A company called Brief Encounters serves single people in Washington, D-C, and Baltimore, Maryland. Its meetings provide quick introductions for small groups of men and women. At these events, people meet members of the opposite sex for only a few minutes.A man and a woman sit at a table across from each other. They talk for six minutes until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write their reactions on paper. They write the names of the people they liked best. Then they give these notes to a Brief Encounters employee. Within twenty-four hours the people seeking dates receive the names and telephone numbers of the people who liked them. VOICE TWO: A group called SpeedDating also provides fast introductions for single people. It is one of a number of dating services organized by religious organizations. Many young people are in a room. One man and one woman meet and talk for seven minutes. Then they meet and talk to other people. An international Jewish education center started these groups. They began in Los Angeles, California. The service now has spread to many American cities and to other countries. Some people seeking dates do not like making hurried choices. But others praise this method. They say it prevents spending long hours with someone who is not very interesting. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many American newspapers and magazines publish messages from people seeking someone to date. The messages are called “personal want ads” or simply “personals.” This is the usual kind of message in a personal ad: “Nice looking woman, thirty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship.” Men who want to meet this woman write to the newspaper or magazine. They describe themselves and their interests. The woman reads the letters. Then she decides if she wants to meet any of the men. VOICE TWO: There also are telephone dating services in many cities. A person calls a telephone dating service and leaves a message on a recording machine. For example, a man describes himself and the kind of woman he hopes to meet. He describes what kind of relationship he would like. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. If two people enjoy these telephone messages, they can make plans to meet. Some telephone services let people speak directly to others they might want to date. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of Americans seek someone to date through services they find on the Internet. People start by communicating with strangers. Sometimes the strangers become friends. They might decide to meet. Then they might decide to date. They may even decide to get married. A business called Match-dot-com is a leader in organizing dates through the Internet. It has millions of members. Members can get lists of people their age who live nearby. Some people identify themselves, while others do not. Many send pictures electronically. The goal is for people to get to know each other through electronic mail. Then, they can decide to meet and date. VOICE TWO: Match-dot-com began in nineteen-ninety-five. It says its service has led to more than one-thousand-three-hundred weddings. Many other members have formed close relationships. For example, a teacher in the Washington, D-C area ended her marriage a few years ago. She had not dated much until she met a computer expert through Match-dot-com. However, many people believe there is the possibility of danger in any situation when strangers meet. Some women say they do not want to meet a man through a computer dating service. They are afraid that a man may not be the kind of person he claims to be. Some people praise businesses that help organize dates. Others say they wish they could meet people by chance. No one method of finding someone to date works for everyone. VOICE ONE: When single people finally get together, what do they do on a date? People of all ages like to do many of the same things. They go to restaurants or night clubs. They go to movies, museums and concerts. They watch sporting events, or play sports themselves. Dating in America can be fun. It is also a serious business. Why? One woman gave this answer: "People are always looking for the perfect relationship," she says. "No matter how old they are, they are always looking for this thing called 'love'. And love is sometimes hard to find." VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United States has millions of unmarried adults. Many would like to go out socially and have fun with someone they like. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of how people meet and date is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: February fourteenth is Valentine’s Day. On that day, many Americans send cards or buy presents for people who are important in their lives. Valentine’s Day gives lovers a chance to express their feelings. However, millions of people in the United States are alone. They are not married or involved in a close relationship. Some of these people wish they could find someone to date. They wish they could celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special person. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to find someone to date. Some people meet at work. Others meet by chance in a public place. Still others visit places where other single people go. Or they can use businesses that help organize dates. Many men and women find dates through services they find on the Internet computer system. The purpose of dating is to have fun. Sometimes people who date develop a close relationship. Some people decide to live together, yet remain unmarried. Others decide to get married. In the past, young people in America usually lived with their parents until they got married. Today, some still do. Yet most young people live a more independent life. They have a job. They travel. They rent or own their own apartment or house. They wait longer to get married. While waiting, they date. VOICE ONE: Often a friend will plan a meeting between two unmarried people who do not know each other. The friend thinks the two people will like each other. This is called a “blind date.” The people involved are not blind. They just have never seen each other. However, most unmarried people have to find their own dates. Many go to public eating, drinking or dancing places. Every city in America has them. Some places are popular with young people. Others are for older people. Many Americans, however, want to go where they are sure they can meet people with similar interests. For example, they may go to a bookstore. Some bookstores in America serve coffee and food. Many offer special programs and social activities for single people. Other singles join health clubs or sports teams to get exercise and to meet people. Or, they may join groups for people who like to take long walks in the woods. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some public eating and drinking places help plan dates for single people. At several such places in New York City, people can write answers to a series of questions about themselves. Then other people read the answers. If someone likes the answers, an employee sets up a date. This service costs a small amount of money. A restaurant called Drip Café started using this system when it opened in New York in nineteen-ninety-six. Since then, the Drip Café has helped many people find someone to date. It was the first restaurant and date-organizing place in a group called DateCafes. There are similar cafes in several other American cities. VOICE ONE: Some businesses help single people meet other people. For example, Great Expectations has been organizing dates for about twenty-five years. It started in San Francisco, California. The company sends millions of letters a year to people throughout the country. The letters explain how the system works. A company called Brief Encounters serves single people in Washington, D-C, and Baltimore, Maryland. Its meetings provide quick introductions for small groups of men and women. At these events, people meet members of the opposite sex for only a few minutes.A man and a woman sit at a table across from each other. They talk for six minutes until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write their reactions on paper. They write the names of the people they liked best. Then they give these notes to a Brief Encounters employee. Within twenty-four hours the people seeking dates receive the names and telephone numbers of the people who liked them. VOICE TWO: A group called SpeedDating also provides fast introductions for single people. It is one of a number of dating services organized by religious organizations. Many young people are in a room. One man and one woman meet and talk for seven minutes. Then they meet and talk to other people. An international Jewish education center started these groups. They began in Los Angeles, California. The service now has spread to many American cities and to other countries. Some people seeking dates do not like making hurried choices. But others praise this method. They say it prevents spending long hours with someone who is not very interesting. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many American newspapers and magazines publish messages from people seeking someone to date. The messages are called “personal want ads” or simply “personals.” This is the usual kind of message in a personal ad: “Nice looking woman, thirty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship.” Men who want to meet this woman write to the newspaper or magazine. They describe themselves and their interests. The woman reads the letters. Then she decides if she wants to meet any of the men. VOICE TWO: There also are telephone dating services in many cities. A person calls a telephone dating service and leaves a message on a recording machine. For example, a man describes himself and the kind of woman he hopes to meet. He describes what kind of relationship he would like. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. If two people enjoy these telephone messages, they can make plans to meet. Some telephone services let people speak directly to others they might want to date. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of Americans seek someone to date through services they find on the Internet. People start by communicating with strangers. Sometimes the strangers become friends. They might decide to meet. Then they might decide to date. They may even decide to get married. A business called Match-dot-com is a leader in organizing dates through the Internet. It has millions of members. Members can get lists of people their age who live nearby. Some people identify themselves, while others do not. Many send pictures electronically. The goal is for people to get to know each other through electronic mail. Then, they can decide to meet and date. VOICE TWO: Match-dot-com began in nineteen-ninety-five. It says its service has led to more than one-thousand-three-hundred weddings. Many other members have formed close relationships. For example, a teacher in the Washington, D-C area ended her marriage a few years ago. She had not dated much until she met a computer expert through Match-dot-com. However, many people believe there is the possibility of danger in any situation when strangers meet. Some women say they do not want to meet a man through a computer dating service. They are afraid that a man may not be the kind of person he claims to be. Some people praise businesses that help organize dates. Others say they wish they could meet people by chance. No one method of finding someone to date works for everyone. VOICE ONE: When single people finally get together, what do they do on a date? People of all ages like to do many of the same things. They go to restaurants or night clubs. They go to movies, museums and concerts. They watch sporting events, or play sports themselves. Dating in America can be fun. It is also a serious business. Why? One woman gave this answer: "People are always looking for the perfect relationship," she says. "No matter how old they are, they are always looking for this thing called 'love'. And love is sometimes hard to find." VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 9, 2003: Woody Guthrie, Part One
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we begin a two-part story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. He wrote songs about common people and social issues in the nineteen-thirties. His music influenced many people. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Imagine you are in America in the nineteen-thirties. A train passes through the countryside. It is night time. And the only sound that can be heard is the long, lonely whistle coming from the train’s engine. Inside the train’s boxcars are groups of men sitting or lying on the floors. The men are dirty, and their clothing is torn. In one boxcar, a short man with long, curly brown hair is playing a guitar and singing. His name is Woody Guthrie. He is singing a song about men who look for work as they travel from town to town. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in nineteen-twelve in the American state of Oklahoma. The Guthrie family lived in a small farming town called Okemah. Woody’s father, Charles, was a businessman who bought and sold land. Woody’s mother, Nora, was a school teacher. She also liked to play the piano and sing. When Woody was young, his mother sang him songs she had learned as a girl. These songs told stories about love and death and difficult times. VOICE ONE: Woody’s early years were happy ones. But his life began to change when he was only ten years old. One day, his sister, Clara, spilled oil on her dress and accidentally set herself on fire. She died the next day. Woody never forgot her death. As time passed, Woody’s mother began acting strangely. She lost control over her actions and speech. Many people thought she was insane. Because of this, the Guthrie family became more private as they attempted to hide Nora’s problems. The loss of his daughter and his wife’s suffering ruined Charles Guthrie. He began drinking alcohol. His business soon failed. The Guthrie family left Okemah and lived in several towns in Oklahoma and Texas. Young Woody often had to work instead of attending school because his family was poor. VOICE TWO: The first musical instrument Woody learned to play was the harmonica. He learned to play the harmonica by watching an old man play the instrument. Woody learned how to play the guitar by watching his father’s brother play. In the nineteen-twenties, Woody was living in the town of Pampa, Texas. Pampa was known as a “boom town” because it had grown quickly after oil was discovered nearby. On weekends, Woody joined other young men to play music at dances in the town. Years later, Woody described what singing meant to him: “When you sing a song, it reaches out and enters people’s ears. It makes them jump up and down, and sing it with you. The best part about singing is that you can sing what you think. You can tell all kinds of stories in a song, and put your ideas across to another person.” VOICE ONE: Woody liked to communicate with other people through his music. Yet he did not like to say much about himself. One reason for this was that he did not want people to know that his mother was in a hospital for insane people. Nora Guthrie suffered from Huntington’s Chorea, a disease that destroys the brain and nervous system. Woody knew that someday he also might develop the disease. He was seventeen years old when his mother died, in nineteen-twenty-nine. That was the year when the economy of the United States began to slow down. Over the next several years, many Americans lost their jobs. The period became known as the Great Depression. In Pampa, the oil fields dried up. Farms in many areas failed because little or no rain fell for several years. The land became so dry that wind easily blew away the top soil. These areas of Texas, Oklahoma and other states became known as the Dust Bowl. VOICE TWO: Like many other people, Woody Guthrie left Pampa to travel around Texas and the Southwest looking for work. He often made trips by train. But because he had no money, he would jump on the train’s boxcars and ride for free. This was often dangerous, because guards on the train would throw the men off or arrest them. However, Woody found this life exciting. One of the first songs he wrote was about leaving home and fleeing the Dust Bowl. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Woody Guthrie married Mary Jennings in nineteen-thirty-three. They had three children. Three years later, Woody left his family and traveled to California. He met many kinds of people during his travels. He also learned songs from many different parts of the country. Yet what affected him most was the suffering he saw. He said, “When I saw hard-working people suffering under debts, sickness and worries, I knew there was plenty to make up songs about.” VOICE TWO: In California, Woody earned money by playing his guitar and singing. Later, he began performing on a radio program with a friend, Maxine Crissman. She was called Lefty Lou. They had one of the most popular radio programs in Los Angeles. They sang songs Woody had written about social issues. His best songs were about the troubles Americans faced during the Depression. This song is about the dangers of coal mining. It is called “The Dying Miner.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-eight, Woody Guthrie left the radio program to travel around California. He found that conditions had become worse for many people who had lost their land and fled the Dust Bowl. Most of these “Dust Bowl refugees” could only find seasonal farm work like gathering fruit from trees. Farm owners did not pay these workers much money. The workers lived in camps that were often dirty and had no running water. Hunger and sickness were widespread. The people in the camps seemed to have lost all hope of improving their lives. Woody wrote a song about them called “Dust Bowl Refugees.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The oppression and bad conditions in the workers’ camps made Woody Guthrie angry. He began helping labor organizers establish unions to help the workers. Next week, we tell about how he traveled to New York City and became a well-known musician. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Audrius Regis. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we begin a two-part story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. He wrote songs about common people and social issues in the nineteen-thirties. His music influenced many people. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Imagine you are in America in the nineteen-thirties. A train passes through the countryside. It is night time. And the only sound that can be heard is the long, lonely whistle coming from the train’s engine. Inside the train’s boxcars are groups of men sitting or lying on the floors. The men are dirty, and their clothing is torn. In one boxcar, a short man with long, curly brown hair is playing a guitar and singing. His name is Woody Guthrie. He is singing a song about men who look for work as they travel from town to town. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in nineteen-twelve in the American state of Oklahoma. The Guthrie family lived in a small farming town called Okemah. Woody’s father, Charles, was a businessman who bought and sold land. Woody’s mother, Nora, was a school teacher. She also liked to play the piano and sing. When Woody was young, his mother sang him songs she had learned as a girl. These songs told stories about love and death and difficult times. VOICE ONE: Woody’s early years were happy ones. But his life began to change when he was only ten years old. One day, his sister, Clara, spilled oil on her dress and accidentally set herself on fire. She died the next day. Woody never forgot her death. As time passed, Woody’s mother began acting strangely. She lost control over her actions and speech. Many people thought she was insane. Because of this, the Guthrie family became more private as they attempted to hide Nora’s problems. The loss of his daughter and his wife’s suffering ruined Charles Guthrie. He began drinking alcohol. His business soon failed. The Guthrie family left Okemah and lived in several towns in Oklahoma and Texas. Young Woody often had to work instead of attending school because his family was poor. VOICE TWO: The first musical instrument Woody learned to play was the harmonica. He learned to play the harmonica by watching an old man play the instrument. Woody learned how to play the guitar by watching his father’s brother play. In the nineteen-twenties, Woody was living in the town of Pampa, Texas. Pampa was known as a “boom town” because it had grown quickly after oil was discovered nearby. On weekends, Woody joined other young men to play music at dances in the town. Years later, Woody described what singing meant to him: “When you sing a song, it reaches out and enters people’s ears. It makes them jump up and down, and sing it with you. The best part about singing is that you can sing what you think. You can tell all kinds of stories in a song, and put your ideas across to another person.” VOICE ONE: Woody liked to communicate with other people through his music. Yet he did not like to say much about himself. One reason for this was that he did not want people to know that his mother was in a hospital for insane people. Nora Guthrie suffered from Huntington’s Chorea, a disease that destroys the brain and nervous system. Woody knew that someday he also might develop the disease. He was seventeen years old when his mother died, in nineteen-twenty-nine. That was the year when the economy of the United States began to slow down. Over the next several years, many Americans lost their jobs. The period became known as the Great Depression. In Pampa, the oil fields dried up. Farms in many areas failed because little or no rain fell for several years. The land became so dry that wind easily blew away the top soil. These areas of Texas, Oklahoma and other states became known as the Dust Bowl. VOICE TWO: Like many other people, Woody Guthrie left Pampa to travel around Texas and the Southwest looking for work. He often made trips by train. But because he had no money, he would jump on the train’s boxcars and ride for free. This was often dangerous, because guards on the train would throw the men off or arrest them. However, Woody found this life exciting. One of the first songs he wrote was about leaving home and fleeing the Dust Bowl. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Woody Guthrie married Mary Jennings in nineteen-thirty-three. They had three children. Three years later, Woody left his family and traveled to California. He met many kinds of people during his travels. He also learned songs from many different parts of the country. Yet what affected him most was the suffering he saw. He said, “When I saw hard-working people suffering under debts, sickness and worries, I knew there was plenty to make up songs about.” VOICE TWO: In California, Woody earned money by playing his guitar and singing. Later, he began performing on a radio program with a friend, Maxine Crissman. She was called Lefty Lou. They had one of the most popular radio programs in Los Angeles. They sang songs Woody had written about social issues. His best songs were about the troubles Americans faced during the Depression. This song is about the dangers of coal mining. It is called “The Dying Miner.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-eight, Woody Guthrie left the radio program to travel around California. He found that conditions had become worse for many people who had lost their land and fled the Dust Bowl. Most of these “Dust Bowl refugees” could only find seasonal farm work like gathering fruit from trees. Farm owners did not pay these workers much money. The workers lived in camps that were often dirty and had no running water. Hunger and sickness were widespread. The people in the camps seemed to have lost all hope of improving their lives. Woody wrote a song about them called “Dust Bowl Refugees.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The oppression and bad conditions in the workers’ camps made Woody Guthrie angry. He began helping labor organizers establish unions to help the workers. Next week, we tell about how he traveled to New York City and became a well-known musician. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Audrius Regis. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – February 10, 2003: President Bush’s AIDS Proposal
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. President Bush has announced a new program to help fight AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. If approved by Congress, the plan will provide fifteen-thousand-million dollars over the next five years. The money will pay for AIDS drugs, education, doctors and special laboratories. Most of the money will be spent in fourteen countries that have about fifty percent of all H-I-V and AIDS cases around the world. Twelve of the nations are in Africa. They are Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The plan will also include AIDS projects in Haiti and Guyana in the Caribbean. The World Health Organization estimates that forty-two-million people are infected with H-I-V or AIDS around the world. Seventy percent of the victims are in southern Africa. President Bush announced the program during his State of the Union message in January. The plan is designed to provide drugs for two-million AIDS patients. It will provide care for ten-million patients and for children whose parents died from the disease. It will also support education efforts to help stop the disease from spreading. Administration officials say half of the fifteen-thousand-million dollars will be used for treatment. One-third will be spent on prevention. This includes programs to teach people about the use of protective condoms during sex. The remaining money will be used to care for patients. Some AIDS activists criticized the president’s plan. They say the plan does not include countries where AIDS is spreading quickly, such as China and India. Other people criticized the plan for not working more closely with international groups, such as the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The goal of this organization is to guarantee that money from rich countries is used to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Under the Bush plan, the Global Fund would receive only about one-thousand-million dollars. White House officials say President Bush wants to give money directly to countries that are best prepared to develop large prevention, care and treatment programs quickly. They say the President’s plan is a major change in policy for the Administration and an important step in the right direction. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - February 8, 2003: Powell’s Presentation to the UN
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In The News. This week, American Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the Bush administration’s most detailed argument for immediate action against Iraq. Mister Powell gave the United Nations Security Council what had been secret information gathered by American intelligence. He said the information provides undeniable evidence that Iraq is hiding banned weapons from U-N inspectors. He also said Iraq’s failure to disarm violates U-N Resolution fourteen-forty-one. The measure requires Iraq to declare all its weapons of great destruction or face serious actions. Mister Powell said the importance of the United Nations itself is in danger if the Council fails to act. The presentation included satellite pictures that were said to show active chemical weapons storage areas in Iraq. Mister Powell played a recording of what he said were Iraqi military officers discussing ways to trick U-N inspectors. Another tape was said to contain the voices of two Iraqi officers discussing orders not to talk about nerve agents. He also presented what he said was intelligence that Iraq is attempting to hide its missile production from the U-N. Mister Powell accused Iraq of supporting and protecting Palestinian terrorists. For the first time, he also discussed American evidence that Iraq has links to the al-Qaida terror group. He said Iraq has provided a safe area and chemical and biological weapons training for operatives of Abu Musab Zarqawi. He is reported to have close ties with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Mister Powell said the Zarqawi group was responsible for killing American aid official Lawrence Foley in Jordan last year. He also said the group’s members have been operating freely in Baghdad for the past eight months. The Security Council invited the Iraqi ambassador to the U-N to provide official reaction to Mister Powell’s presentation. Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri denied all of the American accusations. He said Iraq has no weapons of great destruction. He suggested that evidence presented by Mister Powell had been created to build support for war. The Security Council remains divided on how to deal with the Iraqi situation. The foreign ministers of China, France and Russia all say they want the U-N weapons inspections to continue. All three countries have the power to veto a resolution approving force against Iraq. Only British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed strong support for Mister Powell. Mister Straw said calls for more inspections serve no purpose because Saddam Hussein clearly will not cooperate. The weapons inspections continue in Iraq. The chief U-N weapons inspectors return to Baghdad this weekend for talks with Iraqi officials. The chief inspectors will meet again with the Security Council next Friday. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In The News. This week, American Secretary of State Colin Powell presented the Bush administration’s most detailed argument for immediate action against Iraq. Mister Powell gave the United Nations Security Council what had been secret information gathered by American intelligence. He said the information provides undeniable evidence that Iraq is hiding banned weapons from U-N inspectors. He also said Iraq’s failure to disarm violates U-N Resolution fourteen-forty-one. The measure requires Iraq to declare all its weapons of great destruction or face serious actions. Mister Powell said the importance of the United Nations itself is in danger if the Council fails to act. The presentation included satellite pictures that were said to show active chemical weapons storage areas in Iraq. Mister Powell played a recording of what he said were Iraqi military officers discussing ways to trick U-N inspectors. Another tape was said to contain the voices of two Iraqi officers discussing orders not to talk about nerve agents. He also presented what he said was intelligence that Iraq is attempting to hide its missile production from the U-N. Mister Powell accused Iraq of supporting and protecting Palestinian terrorists. For the first time, he also discussed American evidence that Iraq has links to the al-Qaida terror group. He said Iraq has provided a safe area and chemical and biological weapons training for operatives of Abu Musab Zarqawi. He is reported to have close ties with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Mister Powell said the Zarqawi group was responsible for killing American aid official Lawrence Foley in Jordan last year. He also said the group’s members have been operating freely in Baghdad for the past eight months. The Security Council invited the Iraqi ambassador to the U-N to provide official reaction to Mister Powell’s presentation. Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri denied all of the American accusations. He said Iraq has no weapons of great destruction. He suggested that evidence presented by Mister Powell had been created to build support for war. The Security Council remains divided on how to deal with the Iraqi situation. The foreign ministers of China, France and Russia all say they want the U-N weapons inspections to continue. All three countries have the power to veto a resolution approving force against Iraq. Only British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed strong support for Mister Powell. Mister Straw said calls for more inspections serve no purpose because Saddam Hussein clearly will not cooperate. The weapons inspections continue in Iraq. The chief U-N weapons inspectors return to Baghdad this weekend for talks with Iraqi officials. The chief inspectors will meet again with the Security Council next Friday. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 11, 2003: Multiple Sclerosis
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Arrow points to a lesion that be seen at the second month on a magnetization transfer map.(Images - National Institutes of Health) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease multiple sclerosis. VOICE ONE: Multiple sclerosis is not very easy to say. Those who suffer from the disease may also have difficulty naming it. One of the chief signs of multiple sclerosis is losing the ability to speak clearly. It is estimated that more than one-million people around the world suffer from multiple sclerosis, which also is called M-S. M-S is a disease of the brain and spinal cord. The cause of the disease is not known. In patients with the disease, the covering of the nerves is destroyed. This temporarily blocks signals that pass through the nerves to the muscles of the body and back to the brain. M-S especially affects the ability to see, the sense of touch and the use of the arms and legs. Most forms of the disease are described as progressive. This means that the disease gets worse as time passes. VOICE TWO: The central nervous system of the body includes the brain and the spinal cord. The system contains millions of nerve cells joined together by long thin fibers, like wires. Electric signals start in nerve cells and travel along these fibers to and from the brain. A fatty substance called myelin covers and protects the fibers. Myelin works in the same way that protective coverings work on electric wires. In patients with M-S, the myelin becomes infected. It swells, or grows larger, and loses its connection with the nerve fibers. As time passes, the unconnected myelin is destroyed. Hardened tissue called scar tissue then forms over the nerve fibers. The process of hardening is called sclerosis. The word is from Latin and means scar. The many areas of hardened or scar tissue give the disease its name. VOICE ONE: In people with M-S, when nerve signals reach a damaged area, some of the signals are blocked or delayed from traveling to or from the brain. This results in problems in different places throughout the body. These problems may appear and then disappear, sometimes resulting in long periods when there are no problems at all. Or, they may happen more and more often and become worse. Doctors do not know what causes this process. Health experts say the disease affects women two times as often as men. And the experts say the average age of people found to have the disease is between twenty and forty years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For many years, doctors believed that the cause of multiple sclerosis was environmental. They believed this because a majority of those suffering from the disease lived in northern Europe and the northern half of the United States. In recent years, however, they have changed their beliefs about the causes of M-S. Studies support the theory that there are several causes of multiple sclerosis, instead of a single gene problem or one environmental cause. The studies appear to show that genetic problems are involved in making people likely to get the disease. The studies also appear to show that environmental causes such as viruses or bacteria also may be involved. However, researchers have not identified just what those causes might be. Another likely cause is a problem within the body’s defense system, when the defense system misunderstands signals and attacks the body. VOICE ONE: Multiple sclerosis is different from many other diseases. The signs or symptoms of the disease are not always the same. Sometimes symptoms of M-S appear and then disappear for a long time. For example, one of the symptoms is a lack of feeling in one part of the body or another. Two other symptoms of the disease are muscle weakness or tiredness. However, these signs also could be caused by other health problems that are not M-S. Other signs include a loss of the ability to move normally, or a loss of balance. A person suffering from M-S also may have difficulty seeing well or speaking clearly. VOICE TWO: Doctors who suspect a patient has M-S must carry out a number of tests and study the patient’s history of health problems. Signs of M-S can depend on where the nerve scars are in the body’s central nervous system. And some of these signs are not always easy to see. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is one way to tell if a patient has multiple sclerosis. The test, also known as M-R-I, involves studying the magnetic signals from all the cells in the body. An M-R-I can show if there are scars from M-S along a patient’s nerves. A doctor can use this test to tell if a patient might have the disease, as well as by studying the patient’s medical history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are five main kinds of multiple sclerosis. The first kind is called Benign. This is the form of M-S that is not progressive. In ten to fifteen percent of M-S patients, the symptoms are moderate and not severe. The problems do not grow worse. They do not lead to a person becoming permanently disabled. The second kind of M-S is called Relapsing-Remitting. About eighty-five percent of M-S patients begin with this form of the disease. More than half of M-S patients have this form at any one time. These patients have one or two major M-S-related problems every one to three years. Then they have periods with no signs of the disease. The symptoms appear suddenly and last a few weeks or months before slowly disappearing. However, the signs of the disease may become worse each time they appear. VOICE TWO: The third kind of M-S is called Primary Progressive. In this form of M-S, the signs of the disease appear and begin to grow worse, with no periods of disappearance. About ten to fifteen percent of patients begin their struggle with M-S this way. The fourth kind of M-S is called Secondary Progressive. This form of the disease affects about fifty percent of those with the Relapse-Remitting form of M-S. It begins to affect them several years after they have had Relapse-Remitting M-S. When the disease changes to Secondary Progressive, the disease begins to grow worse and worse. The fifth kind of M-S is called Progressive Relapsing. It is the worst form of multiple sclerosis. New signs of M-S can appear while existing ones grow worse. This form of the disease is rare. It affects only five percent of M-S cases. VOICE ONE: Scientists say multiple sclerosis does not appear to be passed from parents to children. However, it does appear to be found in families. As many as twenty percent of people with M-S have at least one affected family member. And, people whose close family members have the disease have as much as a forty percent chance of also developing M-S. It does not appear that one gene is responsible for M-S. Instead, several genes may increase the possibility that a person will develop M-S. Common viruses or bacteria may also increase the chances that some people will develop the disease. As with many diseases, early discovery and treatment can make a major difference in a person’s life. VOICE TWO: M-S does not always result in severe disability. Many people are able to live normal lives. There is no cure for multiple sclerosis. However, there are new treatments for M-S that ease the symptoms of the disease. Some new treatments also can slow the progression of the disease.Several kinds of drugs are used to treat M-S. Some drugs reduce the swelling in nerve tissue. Drugs known as beta interferons also are used to treat M-S. Interferons are genetically engineered copies of proteins found naturally in the body. These proteins help fight viral infections and help the body’s defense system against disease. Some M-S patients inject these beta interferon drugs. However, this treatment is very costly. And some patients develop side effects. Scientists around the world are working to develop new treatments for M-S. Researchers in the United States are carrying out more than twelve studies of possible treatments. Doctors are hopeful that new treatments will help patients with multiple sclerosis in the future. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease multiple sclerosis. VOICE ONE: Multiple sclerosis is not very easy to say. Those who suffer from the disease may also have difficulty naming it. One of the chief signs of multiple sclerosis is losing the ability to speak clearly. It is estimated that more than one-million people around the world suffer from multiple sclerosis, which also is called M-S. M-S is a disease of the brain and spinal cord. The cause of the disease is not known. In patients with the disease, the covering of the nerves is destroyed. This temporarily blocks signals that pass through the nerves to the muscles of the body and back to the brain. M-S especially affects the ability to see, the sense of touch and the use of the arms and legs. Most forms of the disease are described as progressive. This means that the disease gets worse as time passes. VOICE TWO: The central nervous system of the body includes the brain and the spinal cord. The system contains millions of nerve cells joined together by long thin fibers, like wires. Electric signals start in nerve cells and travel along these fibers to and from the brain. A fatty substance called myelin covers and protects the fibers. Myelin works in the same way that protective coverings work on electric wires. In patients with M-S, the myelin becomes infected. It swells, or grows larger, and loses its connection with the nerve fibers. As time passes, the unconnected myelin is destroyed. Hardened tissue called scar tissue then forms over the nerve fibers. The process of hardening is called sclerosis. The word is from Latin and means scar. The many areas of hardened or scar tissue give the disease its name. VOICE ONE: In people with M-S, when nerve signals reach a damaged area, some of the signals are blocked or delayed from traveling to or from the brain. This results in problems in different places throughout the body. These problems may appear and then disappear, sometimes resulting in long periods when there are no problems at all. Or, they may happen more and more often and become worse. Doctors do not know what causes this process. Health experts say the disease affects women two times as often as men. And the experts say the average age of people found to have the disease is between twenty and forty years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: For many years, doctors believed that the cause of multiple sclerosis was environmental. They believed this because a majority of those suffering from the disease lived in northern Europe and the northern half of the United States. In recent years, however, they have changed their beliefs about the causes of M-S. Studies support the theory that there are several causes of multiple sclerosis, instead of a single gene problem or one environmental cause. The studies appear to show that genetic problems are involved in making people likely to get the disease. The studies also appear to show that environmental causes such as viruses or bacteria also may be involved. However, researchers have not identified just what those causes might be. Another likely cause is a problem within the body’s defense system, when the defense system misunderstands signals and attacks the body. VOICE ONE: Multiple sclerosis is different from many other diseases. The signs or symptoms of the disease are not always the same. Sometimes symptoms of M-S appear and then disappear for a long time. For example, one of the symptoms is a lack of feeling in one part of the body or another. Two other symptoms of the disease are muscle weakness or tiredness. However, these signs also could be caused by other health problems that are not M-S. Other signs include a loss of the ability to move normally, or a loss of balance. A person suffering from M-S also may have difficulty seeing well or speaking clearly. VOICE TWO: Doctors who suspect a patient has M-S must carry out a number of tests and study the patient’s history of health problems. Signs of M-S can depend on where the nerve scars are in the body’s central nervous system. And some of these signs are not always easy to see. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is one way to tell if a patient has multiple sclerosis. The test, also known as M-R-I, involves studying the magnetic signals from all the cells in the body. An M-R-I can show if there are scars from M-S along a patient’s nerves. A doctor can use this test to tell if a patient might have the disease, as well as by studying the patient’s medical history. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are five main kinds of multiple sclerosis. The first kind is called Benign. This is the form of M-S that is not progressive. In ten to fifteen percent of M-S patients, the symptoms are moderate and not severe. The problems do not grow worse. They do not lead to a person becoming permanently disabled. The second kind of M-S is called Relapsing-Remitting. About eighty-five percent of M-S patients begin with this form of the disease. More than half of M-S patients have this form at any one time. These patients have one or two major M-S-related problems every one to three years. Then they have periods with no signs of the disease. The symptoms appear suddenly and last a few weeks or months before slowly disappearing. However, the signs of the disease may become worse each time they appear. VOICE TWO: The third kind of M-S is called Primary Progressive. In this form of M-S, the signs of the disease appear and begin to grow worse, with no periods of disappearance. About ten to fifteen percent of patients begin their struggle with M-S this way. The fourth kind of M-S is called Secondary Progressive. This form of the disease affects about fifty percent of those with the Relapse-Remitting form of M-S. It begins to affect them several years after they have had Relapse-Remitting M-S. When the disease changes to Secondary Progressive, the disease begins to grow worse and worse. The fifth kind of M-S is called Progressive Relapsing. It is the worst form of multiple sclerosis. New signs of M-S can appear while existing ones grow worse. This form of the disease is rare. It affects only five percent of M-S cases. VOICE ONE: Scientists say multiple sclerosis does not appear to be passed from parents to children. However, it does appear to be found in families. As many as twenty percent of people with M-S have at least one affected family member. And, people whose close family members have the disease have as much as a forty percent chance of also developing M-S. It does not appear that one gene is responsible for M-S. Instead, several genes may increase the possibility that a person will develop M-S. Common viruses or bacteria may also increase the chances that some people will develop the disease. As with many diseases, early discovery and treatment can make a major difference in a person’s life. VOICE TWO: M-S does not always result in severe disability. Many people are able to live normal lives. There is no cure for multiple sclerosis. However, there are new treatments for M-S that ease the symptoms of the disease. Some new treatments also can slow the progression of the disease.Several kinds of drugs are used to treat M-S. Some drugs reduce the swelling in nerve tissue. Drugs known as beta interferons also are used to treat M-S. Interferons are genetically engineered copies of proteins found naturally in the body. These proteins help fight viral infections and help the body’s defense system against disease. Some M-S patients inject these beta interferon drugs. However, this treatment is very costly. And some patients develop side effects. Scientists around the world are working to develop new treatments for M-S. Researchers in the United States are carrying out more than twelve studies of possible treatments. Doctors are hopeful that new treatments will help patients with multiple sclerosis in the future. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – February 11, 2003: Threats to Bananas
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Recently, some concerns have been raised about the health of the world’s banana plants. A number of media reports have said that bananas may completely disappear. Some claim that this could happen in as little as ten years. Bananas are one of the world’s most important food crops. They are also the fourth most valuable export. Bananas do not grow from seeds. Instead, they grow from existing plants. Bananas are threatened by disease because all the plants on a farm are copies of each other. They all share the same genetic weaknesses. For example, the Cavendish banana is most popular in American markets. It is an important export crop. However, some kinds of fungus organisms easily infect the Cavendish. Black Sigatoka disease affects the leaves of Cavendish banana plants. The disease is controlled on large farms by putting chemicals on the plant’s leaves. Farmers put anti-fungal chemicals on their crops up to once a week. Another fungal disease is more serious. Panama disease attacks the roots of the banana plant. There is no chemical treatment for this disease. Infected plants must be destroyed. Panama disease has affected crops in Southeast Asia, Australia and South Africa. There is concern that it may spread to bananas grown in the Americas. This could threaten an important export product for Central and South America. The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain supports research on bananas. The group has headquarters in France and other offices in the major banana-growing areas of the world. The group says that more research must be done to develop improved kinds of bananas. The group says that fungal diseases mainly affect only one kind of banana. In fact, there are five-hundred different kinds of bananas. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says the Cavendish banana represents only ten percent of world production. The U-N agency says farmers should grow different kinds of bananas. This protects against diseases that affect only one kind. Experts warn that disease may cause the Cavendish banana to disappear. This has already happened to one popular banana because of its genetic weakness against disease. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – February 12, 2003: Surviving Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The American Cancer Society says one-million-three-hundred-thousand Americans develop cancer every year. Doctors say many cancer patients are living longer today than in the past. Sixty-two percent of cancer patients in the United States now survive five years after learning they have the disease. In the nineteen-eighties, only fifty-two percent were alive after five years. About nine-million Americans are cancer survivors. Some survivors do not show any signs of the disease. They are cured of cancer. But about one-million Americans with cancer are able to live generally normal lives. Their cancer is under control because they are taking new kinds of drugs. Scientists were able to develop these new drugs because of the increased knowledge of genetics in recent years. Scientists created these drugs to target the genetic defects that make cells cancerous. One such drug is called Gleevec. Doctors mainly use Gleevec to treat a cancer of the blood called chronic myelogenous (my-a-LOE-jen-us) leukemia. This disease destroys the ability of the body to produce healthy blood cells. The Federal Food and Drug Administration approved Gleevec in two-thousand-one. It is the first drug that directly turns off the signal of a protein known to cause a kind of cancer. The F-D-A also has approved drugs that interfere with proteins linked to other cancers. But those drugs do not affect the proteins directly responsible for a disease, as Gleevec does. Another new drug is called Revimid. It is being used in special studies to treat people with the blood cancer called multiple myeloma. This cancer attacks a kind of white blood cell found in bone marrow. As the cancer grows, it destroys normal bone tissue. Some patients are taking Revimid because other drugs are no longer effective. Revimid appears to lower the resistance of the disease to treatment. Patients taking this drug do not seem to suffer as many unpleasant side effects as with other drugs. Many patients and their doctors are thankful that new drugs are helping cancer survivors stay alive. Some experts, however, express concern. They say scientists should make a greater effort to develop permanent cancer cures. One expert said the most important goal in cancer research should be to prevent the disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS- February 12, 2003: Columbia Accident
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - February 13, 2003: 1990s
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen-nineties. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many experts describe the nineteen-nineties as one of the best periods in United States history. During almost all that time, America was at peace. The frightening and costly military competition with the Soviet Union had ended. The threat of a nuclear attack seemed greatly reduced, if not gone. Military officials said America’s defenses were strong. The economy improved from poor to very good. Inflation was low. So was unemployment. Production was high. Scientists and engineers made major progress in medicine and technology. The Internet computer system created a new world of communications. VOICE TWO: America grew by almost thirty-three-million people during the nineteen-nineties. This is the most the United States has ever grown during a ten-year period. Some minority groups are growing faster than the white population. For the first time in seventy years, one in ten Americans was born in another country. During the past ten years, there was a huge increase in immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. More than two-hundred-eighty-million people lived in the United States by the end of the twentieth century. This population was getting older, however, and needing more costly health care. And, America had other problems in the nineteen-nineties. Some people feared crime in the streets. People were shot and killed in offices and schools. Divisions grew between rich people and poor people. Racial tensions remained high. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Congress impeached the president of the United States. President Clinton was accused of lying to courts about a sexual relationship with a young woman who worked in the White House. Bill Clinton was found not guilty. Still, the trial and the events leading to it caused deep concern among some Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American families changed in the nineteen-nineties. More people ended their marriages. The rate of these divorces increased. So did the percentage of children living with only one parent. Children in such families were more likely to be poor or get into trouble. Many American children did not live with their parents at all. The number of children living with grandparents increased greatly. Test scores and national studies during the nineteen-nineties showed that many public school students were not learning as they should. The nation needed more and better teachers. VOICE TWO: Racial divisions in America were a continuing and serious problem. In nineteen-ninety-one, an African American man named Rodney King was fleeing from police in Los Angeles, California. The police had chased his speeding car for miles before stopping him. They say he reacted violently when they tried to seize him. Police officers beat and kicked Mister King as he lay on the ground. A man who lived nearby filmed the beating with a video camera. He took the video to a local television station. Soon people all over the country were watching the police repeatedly striking Rodney King. The four white police officers were arrested for their actions. They were tried outside Los Angeles at their request. A jury in a nearby wealthy, conservative community found them not guilty. Within a short time, angry African Americans began rioting on the streets of Los Angeles. The unrest lasted three days. Fifty-five people died in the violence. More than two-thousand others were injured. One thousand buildings lay in ruins. VOICE ONE: Another major court trial divided black people and white people. O.J. Simpson had been a football hero and an actor. In nineteen-ninety-four, Simpson was accused of killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a male friend of hers. Simpson is African-American. Nicole Brown Simpson was white. Many legal experts believed the case against him was strong. Still, the mainly African American jury judged him not guilty. Later, a mainly white jury found him guilty in a civil damage case. Studies showed that white people believed Mister Simpson had killed his former wife and her friend. Black people thought he was not guilty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-nineties, scientists worked to map the position of all the genes in the human body. Research on this human genome map progressed slowly at first. Then it speeded up. The goal was to help scientists study human health and disease. The discovery was expected to change the way some diseases are treated. Since nineteen-eighty, doctors had made important progress in treating diseases like cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s disease. But they still could not cure them. They hoped treatments developed from knowledge of human genes would help. Computer technology also had progressed greatly in the nineteen-eighties. During the next ten years computers became even more important in American life. People depended on computers both at work and at home. They used the Internet to send electronic messages, get information and buy all kinds of products. They completed and sent their income tax forms. They read newspapers and books. They even listened to music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans continued to attend classical music concerts and operas. However, many more people enjoyed popular music. One popular music form was called rap. Rap music is spoken quickly rather than sung to the music of recorded rhythms. Some rap songs suggest violent actions. Others contain sexual suggestions that many people found offensive. But rap music was very popular with many young people. So was a form of rock music called grunge. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-nineties, Americans watched traditional television programs as well as new kinds of shows. Millions of people liked weekly dramas like “E-R” that takes place in a busy hospital emergency room. A program called “Law and Order” tells about the work of police officers, lawyers and judges. “N-Y-P-D Blue” shows the work of police officers in New York City. A show called “Seinfeld” also told about life in New York City. But this program was very funny. “Seinfeld” was the most popular television show of the decade. Another funny and popular show was the animated series called “The Simpsons.” Cable television stations also grew in popularity. One of the most popular was M-T-V. It showed music videos and other programs for young people. At the movies, Americans saw popular films like “Titanic.” It told about the sinking of the famous passenger ship on its first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-twelve. Two young people are shown falling in love during this tragic event. Another popular film was “Jurassic Park.” It brought ancient, frightening dinosaurs to life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As usual, Americans enjoyed sports. Public interest in baseball decreased sharply, however, after a players’ strike in nineteen-ninety-four. The strike cancelled the championship World Series games that year. In nineteen-ninety-eight, interest in baseball increased when two great players competed to hit the most home runs. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire helped restore the popularity of baseball. In basketball, experts say Michael Jordan became the best player in history. He led the Chicago Bulls team to win many championships. VOICE TWO: As the nineteen-nineties ended, some experts worried about computers making the change to the year two-thousand. They feared that computer failures might cause serious problems for everyday life. But midnight of December thirty-first passed with only a few incidents of computer trouble. Millions of people celebrated the beginning of a new century and another one-thousand years. Life in the nineteen-nineties had been good for many Americans. They hoped for even better days to come. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen-nineties. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many experts describe the nineteen-nineties as one of the best periods in United States history. During almost all that time, America was at peace. The frightening and costly military competition with the Soviet Union had ended. The threat of a nuclear attack seemed greatly reduced, if not gone. Military officials said America’s defenses were strong. The economy improved from poor to very good. Inflation was low. So was unemployment. Production was high. Scientists and engineers made major progress in medicine and technology. The Internet computer system created a new world of communications. VOICE TWO: America grew by almost thirty-three-million people during the nineteen-nineties. This is the most the United States has ever grown during a ten-year period. Some minority groups are growing faster than the white population. For the first time in seventy years, one in ten Americans was born in another country. During the past ten years, there was a huge increase in immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. More than two-hundred-eighty-million people lived in the United States by the end of the twentieth century. This population was getting older, however, and needing more costly health care. And, America had other problems in the nineteen-nineties. Some people feared crime in the streets. People were shot and killed in offices and schools. Divisions grew between rich people and poor people. Racial tensions remained high. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Congress impeached the president of the United States. President Clinton was accused of lying to courts about a sexual relationship with a young woman who worked in the White House. Bill Clinton was found not guilty. Still, the trial and the events leading to it caused deep concern among some Americans. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American families changed in the nineteen-nineties. More people ended their marriages. The rate of these divorces increased. So did the percentage of children living with only one parent. Children in such families were more likely to be poor or get into trouble. Many American children did not live with their parents at all. The number of children living with grandparents increased greatly. Test scores and national studies during the nineteen-nineties showed that many public school students were not learning as they should. The nation needed more and better teachers. VOICE TWO: Racial divisions in America were a continuing and serious problem. In nineteen-ninety-one, an African American man named Rodney King was fleeing from police in Los Angeles, California. The police had chased his speeding car for miles before stopping him. They say he reacted violently when they tried to seize him. Police officers beat and kicked Mister King as he lay on the ground. A man who lived nearby filmed the beating with a video camera. He took the video to a local television station. Soon people all over the country were watching the police repeatedly striking Rodney King. The four white police officers were arrested for their actions. They were tried outside Los Angeles at their request. A jury in a nearby wealthy, conservative community found them not guilty. Within a short time, angry African Americans began rioting on the streets of Los Angeles. The unrest lasted three days. Fifty-five people died in the violence. More than two-thousand others were injured. One thousand buildings lay in ruins. VOICE ONE: Another major court trial divided black people and white people. O.J. Simpson had been a football hero and an actor. In nineteen-ninety-four, Simpson was accused of killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a male friend of hers. Simpson is African-American. Nicole Brown Simpson was white. Many legal experts believed the case against him was strong. Still, the mainly African American jury judged him not guilty. Later, a mainly white jury found him guilty in a civil damage case. Studies showed that white people believed Mister Simpson had killed his former wife and her friend. Black people thought he was not guilty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-nineties, scientists worked to map the position of all the genes in the human body. Research on this human genome map progressed slowly at first. Then it speeded up. The goal was to help scientists study human health and disease. The discovery was expected to change the way some diseases are treated. Since nineteen-eighty, doctors had made important progress in treating diseases like cancer, AIDS and Parkinson’s disease. But they still could not cure them. They hoped treatments developed from knowledge of human genes would help. Computer technology also had progressed greatly in the nineteen-eighties. During the next ten years computers became even more important in American life. People depended on computers both at work and at home. They used the Internet to send electronic messages, get information and buy all kinds of products. They completed and sent their income tax forms. They read newspapers and books. They even listened to music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans continued to attend classical music concerts and operas. However, many more people enjoyed popular music. One popular music form was called rap. Rap music is spoken quickly rather than sung to the music of recorded rhythms. Some rap songs suggest violent actions. Others contain sexual suggestions that many people found offensive. But rap music was very popular with many young people. So was a form of rock music called grunge. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-nineties, Americans watched traditional television programs as well as new kinds of shows. Millions of people liked weekly dramas like “E-R” that takes place in a busy hospital emergency room. A program called “Law and Order” tells about the work of police officers, lawyers and judges. “N-Y-P-D Blue” shows the work of police officers in New York City. A show called “Seinfeld” also told about life in New York City. But this program was very funny. “Seinfeld” was the most popular television show of the decade. Another funny and popular show was the animated series called “The Simpsons.” Cable television stations also grew in popularity. One of the most popular was M-T-V. It showed music videos and other programs for young people. At the movies, Americans saw popular films like “Titanic.” It told about the sinking of the famous passenger ship on its first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-twelve. Two young people are shown falling in love during this tragic event. Another popular film was “Jurassic Park.” It brought ancient, frightening dinosaurs to life. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As usual, Americans enjoyed sports. Public interest in baseball decreased sharply, however, after a players’ strike in nineteen-ninety-four. The strike cancelled the championship World Series games that year. In nineteen-ninety-eight, interest in baseball increased when two great players competed to hit the most home runs. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire helped restore the popularity of baseball. In basketball, experts say Michael Jordan became the best player in history. He led the Chicago Bulls team to win many championships. VOICE TWO: As the nineteen-nineties ended, some experts worried about computers making the change to the year two-thousand. They feared that computer failures might cause serious problems for everyday life. But midnight of December thirty-first passed with only a few incidents of computer trouble. Millions of people celebrated the beginning of a new century and another one-thousand years. Life in the nineteen-nineties had been good for many Americans. They hoped for even better days to come. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: February 13, 2003 - Relationship Names
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 13, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- labeling love. On this eve of Valentine's Day, the romance holiday, we introduce you to a couple of architects from New York City. They built a relationship but didn't know what to name it. RS: Madeline Schwartzman and Jeffrey Miles met at the Graduate School of Architecture at Yale University in 1986. MUSIC: "Mad About You"/Belinda Carlisle RS: This song was popular that year. At first the terms "boyfriend and girlfriend" worked fine for Maddy and Jeff. But after a few years, practical matters intruded. Jeff wasn't sure how to list Maddy as his beneficiary on benefit forms at work. MILES: "When they came to relationship, what do you put? So I used to put 'lover.' When I'd get back the completed official forms, they obviously couldn't recognize that in their officialese, so they would always change it to 'partner.'" RS: "You like that word?" SCHWARTZMAN: "I think it's too generic." AA: "You know the thing with partner, too, is that it really has changed in common usage, where now because gays and lesbians use that to refer to their partners -- " RS: "And it also has a business connotation." AA: "Right, and now you hear people more when they talk about a partner in the business sense, they will specify 'this is my business partner,' just to avoid any, you know, confusion." SCHWARTZMAN: "It's interesting that you bring that up. If I may back up to 'lover,' one other thing that happened with lover is -- if I may Jeff tell this story -- is, he had a business meeting and it turned out they discussed that I had gone to high school at Horace Mann, and so Jeff said 'my lover went to Horace Mann' and the man he was talking to said 'oh, my lover went to Horace Mann too, what's his name?' But 'partner,' Jeff and I did an architecture job together ... " MILES: "Yes, and we were partners on that project, but of course we were partners in love also. So that worked at all different levels at that point in time." RS: "So you've been together for about seventeen years -- " SCHWARTZMAN: "Yes." RS: "Correct? And over those seventeen years, you've had to introduce each other. Did that seem to be a problem?" MILES: "You know, it was a self-imposed hardship. Maddy and I could have gotten married anytime, but we resisted for whatever reasons, and after awhile, yes, it was kind of awkward and actually kind of annoying, too, to have to explain who we were to each other in sentences rather than one word, because it just shows how limited some of these terms are for people with this ambiguous legal situation that we had." SCHWARTZMAN: "You have to start to qualify 'boyfriend' -- boyfriend of how long? So then it was like 'boyfriend of eight years,' 'boyfriend of ten years.' But then right about 'boyfriend of fifteen years,' people started getting annoyed and saying 'you can't call him your boyfriend after fifteen years." AA: "So is it really that it wasn't your problem so much as everyone else's. Is this sort of a societal -- I mean, do we need another term?" MILES: "Maybe this is the point of the whole terminology, to herd people towards eventually doing what we decided to do, get married, because now it's so simple. We're 'husband and wife,' legally, up and down, left and right. Maybe this whole thing is some sort of -- the lack of terminology is a way to kind of move people through the romance pipeline." RS: "Let's just sum up here and run through some of the names that you called yourselves -- willingly or unwillingly -- through the last seventeen years." SCHWARTZMAN: "'Boyfriend and girlfriend,' 'long-term boyfriend.'" MILES: "'Significant other' -- that was in the late eighties." SCHWARTZMAN: "'The guy I live with.'" MILES: "The woman I live with." SCHWARTZMAN: "The guy I lived with for sixteen years." MILES: "Partner." SCHWARTZMAN: "Then I started to say 'my guy.'" MILES: "'Lover.'" SCHWARTZMAN: "Then it was just 'Jeff.'" MILES: "Oh, and we never really took on too much, but the 'fiance' thing, we sometimes used that. That was recently." SCHWARTZMAN: "We had a reputation now for so long, so many people knew us that we could just say 'Jeff.' We didn't have to explain it anymore. Almost everybody knew and they stopped bothering us. I think that's why we got married." MILES: "In fact, a lot of people I've talked to said 'oh, we thought you were married.' So, after a while everything kind of comes together, fuses into one." SCHWARTZMAN: "Even my father thought, when I said 'now you have a son-in-law,' he said 'I always thought of Jeff as my son-in-law.'" AA: "Aw." SCHWARTZMAN: "Yeah, it was sweet." AA: And when the time came to make it official, Madeline Schwartzman and Jeffrey Miles didn't tell anyone. They simply went down to a clerk at city hall in Manhattan two weeks ago and became ... newlyweds. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Mad About You" Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 13, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- labeling love. On this eve of Valentine's Day, the romance holiday, we introduce you to a couple of architects from New York City. They built a relationship but didn't know what to name it. RS: Madeline Schwartzman and Jeffrey Miles met at the Graduate School of Architecture at Yale University in 1986. MUSIC: "Mad About You"/Belinda Carlisle RS: This song was popular that year. At first the terms "boyfriend and girlfriend" worked fine for Maddy and Jeff. But after a few years, practical matters intruded. Jeff wasn't sure how to list Maddy as his beneficiary on benefit forms at work. MILES: "When they came to relationship, what do you put? So I used to put 'lover.' When I'd get back the completed official forms, they obviously couldn't recognize that in their officialese, so they would always change it to 'partner.'" RS: "You like that word?" SCHWARTZMAN: "I think it's too generic." AA: "You know the thing with partner, too, is that it really has changed in common usage, where now because gays and lesbians use that to refer to their partners -- " RS: "And it also has a business connotation." AA: "Right, and now you hear people more when they talk about a partner in the business sense, they will specify 'this is my business partner,' just to avoid any, you know, confusion." SCHWARTZMAN: "It's interesting that you bring that up. If I may back up to 'lover,' one other thing that happened with lover is -- if I may Jeff tell this story -- is, he had a business meeting and it turned out they discussed that I had gone to high school at Horace Mann, and so Jeff said 'my lover went to Horace Mann' and the man he was talking to said 'oh, my lover went to Horace Mann too, what's his name?' But 'partner,' Jeff and I did an architecture job together ... " MILES: "Yes, and we were partners on that project, but of course we were partners in love also. So that worked at all different levels at that point in time." RS: "So you've been together for about seventeen years -- " SCHWARTZMAN: "Yes." RS: "Correct? And over those seventeen years, you've had to introduce each other. Did that seem to be a problem?" MILES: "You know, it was a self-imposed hardship. Maddy and I could have gotten married anytime, but we resisted for whatever reasons, and after awhile, yes, it was kind of awkward and actually kind of annoying, too, to have to explain who we were to each other in sentences rather than one word, because it just shows how limited some of these terms are for people with this ambiguous legal situation that we had." SCHWARTZMAN: "You have to start to qualify 'boyfriend' -- boyfriend of how long? So then it was like 'boyfriend of eight years,' 'boyfriend of ten years.' But then right about 'boyfriend of fifteen years,' people started getting annoyed and saying 'you can't call him your boyfriend after fifteen years." AA: "So is it really that it wasn't your problem so much as everyone else's. Is this sort of a societal -- I mean, do we need another term?" MILES: "Maybe this is the point of the whole terminology, to herd people towards eventually doing what we decided to do, get married, because now it's so simple. We're 'husband and wife,' legally, up and down, left and right. Maybe this whole thing is some sort of -- the lack of terminology is a way to kind of move people through the romance pipeline." RS: "Let's just sum up here and run through some of the names that you called yourselves -- willingly or unwillingly -- through the last seventeen years." SCHWARTZMAN: "'Boyfriend and girlfriend,' 'long-term boyfriend.'" MILES: "'Significant other' -- that was in the late eighties." SCHWARTZMAN: "'The guy I live with.'" MILES: "The woman I live with." SCHWARTZMAN: "The guy I lived with for sixteen years." MILES: "Partner." SCHWARTZMAN: "Then I started to say 'my guy.'" MILES: "'Lover.'" SCHWARTZMAN: "Then it was just 'Jeff.'" MILES: "Oh, and we never really took on too much, but the 'fiance' thing, we sometimes used that. That was recently." SCHWARTZMAN: "We had a reputation now for so long, so many people knew us that we could just say 'Jeff.' We didn't have to explain it anymore. Almost everybody knew and they stopped bothering us. I think that's why we got married." MILES: "In fact, a lot of people I've talked to said 'oh, we thought you were married.' So, after a while everything kind of comes together, fuses into one." SCHWARTZMAN: "Even my father thought, when I said 'now you have a son-in-law,' he said 'I always thought of Jeff as my son-in-law.'" AA: "Aw." SCHWARTZMAN: "Yeah, it was sweet." AA: And when the time came to make it official, Madeline Schwartzman and Jeffrey Miles didn't tell anyone. They simply went down to a clerk at city hall in Manhattan two weeks ago and became ... newlyweds. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Mad About You" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - February 13, 2003: Foreign Student Series #22 >Harvard University
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. Today, we tell about the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, Harvard University. Harvard University began in sixteen-thirty-six in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. The area was an English colony settled mainly by Puritans who did not agree with the Anglican Church in England. The university was named after a Puritan religious leader, John Harvard. He gave the college four-hundred books when he died. Today, Harvard has more than ninety libraries containing more than twelve-million books. The university includes Harvard College, Radcliffe College, and ten graduate schools. Its medical college, law school and business school are among the best in the country. It also offers graduate programs in government, education, religion and science. Many years ago, Harvard students were all white men. Most of them were from rich families from northeastern states. That has changed. This year, about thirty-three percent of the first-year students at Harvard are from minority groups. These include African Americans, Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans. Almost fifty percent of first-year students are women. Today, most Harvard students are not rich, although it is very costly to study there. It costs more than thirty-five-thousand dollars for one year for tuition, room, food and personal expenses. Most of the students at Harvard have loans, financial aid or jobs that help pay for their education. Many experts consider Harvard to be the best university in the United States. It is very difficult to be accepted to study there. More than nineteen-thousand high school students applied to attend Harvard as undergraduates last year. About one-thousand-six-hundred of them began studying there in September. More than nineteen-thousand undergraduate and graduate students are studying at Harvard this year. More than three-thousand are from outside the United States. Most of the foreign students are from Asia or Europe. Most are studying for graduate degrees. The Harvard International Office helps meet the needs of foreign students. To find out more about Harvard, you can go to the university’s Internet Web site. The address is w-w-w dot h-a-r-v-a-r-d dot e-d-u. (www.harvard.edu) This V-O-A Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 14, 2003: 'Reality Television' / Question from India About Columbia Shuttle Astronaut Kalpana Chawla / Music for Valentine's Day
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Astronaut Kalpana Chawla aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. NASA Photo (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play some music for Valentine’s Day... Answer a question about American astronaut Kalpana Chawla... And tell about a new kind of popular Amerian television program. Reality Television HOST: Many Americans have been watching a new kind of entertainment. It is called “reality television.” There are many kinds of reality television programs. Each week, people who are not famous compete in unusual situations. Some try to win money by answering questions on game shows. Others compete to see who is the best singer. Still others try to meet someone to marry. Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: One of the most popular reality television shows right now is called “American Idol.” The program searches for the best young singers of popular songs. Three entertainment professionals judge the young singers. One judge on the program gives sharp criticism or high praise. The winning singer receives a recording agreement and becomes famous. Another popular reality show is called “Survivor.” It observes people as they struggle through severe conditions in different areas of the world. A new series of “Survivor” started this week. One team of women and one team of men were taken to the Amazon jungle in South America. They face dangers from nature and from the other competitors. They get little food or sleep. One-by-one, those declared the weakest are forced to leave. The last one to remain wins one-million dollars. Producer Mark Barnett says twenty-million people watch “Survivor.” He says people in one-hundred countries have seen the show and it is influencing popular culture. A popular reality game show is called “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” The competitors answer a series of questions with the goal of winning one-million dollars. “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” is seen in one-hundred countries. Some reality shows have been criticized. One of these is called “Joe Millionaire.” A group of young women competed on this show to win the love of a young man. They were told that the man had been given fifty-million dollars by his family. The women did not know that the man is not really rich. He is worker who earns low pay. Television critics are not sure why these programs are so popular. Some say the viewers want to know what happens each week to people who are just like them. Some critics say reality television may lose popularity as one show copies another. But producers say that more reality television shows are likely to be made as long as the demand for them continues. Kalpana Chawla HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Sampath asks about Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-born American astronaut who was one of the seven people killed on the space shuttle Columbia. Kalpana Chawla was responsible for more than twelve scientific experiments on the sixteen-day flight of the Columbia. It was her second trip into space. She first flew on a space shuttle in nineteen-ninety-seven. She described earth as very beautiful, and said she wished everyone could see it as she had. Kalpana Chawla was born forty-one years ago in Karnal, about one-hundred-thirty kilometers north of New Delhi. Her friends say she always wanted to fly. She moved to the United States in the nineteen-eighties, after graduating from Punjab Engineering College. She continued to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Texas in Arlington and the University of Colorado at Boulder. She became an astronaut in nineteen-ninety-four. After Mizz Chawla became an American citizen, she continued to communicate with students at her school in her hometown. Every year, she invited two of them to visit her at the American space agency. Students say she told them to follow their dreams, and that she would help them if their dreams could not come true in India. Hundreds of students had gathered at the school when the Columbia astronauts were expected to return to Earth. They prayed together when they learned the news that the shuttle had broken apart. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-born woman in space. But she told Indian reporters that she did not feel Indian when flying. She said that looking at the stars made her feel that she was from the solar system, not from one area of land on Earth. Millions of people in India, the United States and other nations mourned the loss of Kalpana Chawla and the other six Columbia astronauts. President Bush spoke about their lives and their work at a memorial service last week in Texas. He said the American space program would continue so that their scientific work would not be lost. Valentine’s Day Music HOST: Today, February fourteenth, is Valentine’s Day in the United States. The holiday is named for Saint Valentine, an early Christian churchman who reportedly helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. The ancient Romans also celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two-thousand years ago. So Valentine’s Day has been a special day for people in love for a very long time. ANNCR: Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day by sending cards and gifts such as flowers and candy. Men and women may go out to a restaurant for a special meal. Sometimes a man will propose marriage to the woman he loves on Valentine’s Day. Some people plan to have their weddings on Valentine’s Day. The music of love is important on Valentine’s Day. Here is a song that attempts to describe the feeling. It is called “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.” It is sung by Andy Williams. (MUSIC) This next famous love song is sung by rock and roll great Elvis Presley. It is called ”Love Me Tender.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with another love song popular on Valentine’s Day. “My Funny Valentine” was written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. Ella Fitzgerald sings it. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play some music for Valentine’s Day... Answer a question about American astronaut Kalpana Chawla... And tell about a new kind of popular Amerian television program. Reality Television HOST: Many Americans have been watching a new kind of entertainment. It is called “reality television.” There are many kinds of reality television programs. Each week, people who are not famous compete in unusual situations. Some try to win money by answering questions on game shows. Others compete to see who is the best singer. Still others try to meet someone to marry. Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: One of the most popular reality television shows right now is called “American Idol.” The program searches for the best young singers of popular songs. Three entertainment professionals judge the young singers. One judge on the program gives sharp criticism or high praise. The winning singer receives a recording agreement and becomes famous. Another popular reality show is called “Survivor.” It observes people as they struggle through severe conditions in different areas of the world. A new series of “Survivor” started this week. One team of women and one team of men were taken to the Amazon jungle in South America. They face dangers from nature and from the other competitors. They get little food or sleep. One-by-one, those declared the weakest are forced to leave. The last one to remain wins one-million dollars. Producer Mark Barnett says twenty-million people watch “Survivor.” He says people in one-hundred countries have seen the show and it is influencing popular culture. A popular reality game show is called “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” The competitors answer a series of questions with the goal of winning one-million dollars. “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” is seen in one-hundred countries. Some reality shows have been criticized. One of these is called “Joe Millionaire.” A group of young women competed on this show to win the love of a young man. They were told that the man had been given fifty-million dollars by his family. The women did not know that the man is not really rich. He is worker who earns low pay. Television critics are not sure why these programs are so popular. Some say the viewers want to know what happens each week to people who are just like them. Some critics say reality television may lose popularity as one show copies another. But producers say that more reality television shows are likely to be made as long as the demand for them continues. Kalpana Chawla HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Sampath asks about Kalpana Chawla, the Indian-born American astronaut who was one of the seven people killed on the space shuttle Columbia. Kalpana Chawla was responsible for more than twelve scientific experiments on the sixteen-day flight of the Columbia. It was her second trip into space. She first flew on a space shuttle in nineteen-ninety-seven. She described earth as very beautiful, and said she wished everyone could see it as she had. Kalpana Chawla was born forty-one years ago in Karnal, about one-hundred-thirty kilometers north of New Delhi. Her friends say she always wanted to fly. She moved to the United States in the nineteen-eighties, after graduating from Punjab Engineering College. She continued to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Texas in Arlington and the University of Colorado at Boulder. She became an astronaut in nineteen-ninety-four. After Mizz Chawla became an American citizen, she continued to communicate with students at her school in her hometown. Every year, she invited two of them to visit her at the American space agency. Students say she told them to follow their dreams, and that she would help them if their dreams could not come true in India. Hundreds of students had gathered at the school when the Columbia astronauts were expected to return to Earth. They prayed together when they learned the news that the shuttle had broken apart. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-born woman in space. But she told Indian reporters that she did not feel Indian when flying. She said that looking at the stars made her feel that she was from the solar system, not from one area of land on Earth. Millions of people in India, the United States and other nations mourned the loss of Kalpana Chawla and the other six Columbia astronauts. President Bush spoke about their lives and their work at a memorial service last week in Texas. He said the American space program would continue so that their scientific work would not be lost. Valentine’s Day Music HOST: Today, February fourteenth, is Valentine’s Day in the United States. The holiday is named for Saint Valentine, an early Christian churchman who reportedly helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. The ancient Romans also celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two-thousand years ago. So Valentine’s Day has been a special day for people in love for a very long time. ANNCR: Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day by sending cards and gifts such as flowers and candy. Men and women may go out to a restaurant for a special meal. Sometimes a man will propose marriage to the woman he loves on Valentine’s Day. Some people plan to have their weddings on Valentine’s Day. The music of love is important on Valentine’s Day. Here is a song that attempts to describe the feeling. It is called “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.” It is sung by Andy Williams. (MUSIC) This next famous love song is sung by rock and roll great Elvis Presley. It is called ”Love Me Tender.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with another love song popular on Valentine’s Day. “My Funny Valentine” was written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. Ella Fitzgerald sings it. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – February 14, 2003: Freedom Fuel Proposal
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. President Bush has offered a plan to speed development of technology that uses hydrogen as fuel. His goal is increased production of vehicles, homes and businesses powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Mister Bush says he hopes that children born this year will drive hydrogen-powered cars in the future. He says his plan would reduce pollution and America’s dependence on oil from other countries. Yet experts say the plan would be successful only if major cost and technology problems can be solved. The President announced the plan in his State of the Union message in January. He wants Congress to approve more than one-thousand-million dollars for the program. That would include money to develop the systems needed to make, store and transport hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electric power production. Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. Hydrogen is a colorless gas. On Earth, it is present in large amounts in natural gas, coal, plants and water. By weight, hydrogen produces the highest energy levels of any known fuel. When burned in an engine, hydrogen releases no harmful pollution into the environment. When powering a fuel cell, the only waste is water. However, hydrogen is difficult to store. It also burns easily. The American space agency has used fuel cells to produce electricity since the nineteen-sixties. More recently, some automobile makers have tested hydrogen-powered vehicles. However, hydrogen is four times as costly to produce as gasoline, the fuel commonly used in cars and trucks. In addition, fuel cells are now ten times more costly than traditional gasoline-burning engines. The President’s plan seeks to lower that cost enough to make fuel cell cars cost almost the same as gasoline-powered vehicles by two-thousand-ten. The plan also would support methods to produce hydrogen from renewable energy, nuclear energy and coal. Fuel cell research and development businesses welcomed the President’s proposal. Environmental groups also have praised the plan. They say hydrogen technology can reduce industrial gases linked to global warming. However, some critics say the plan is a way to avoid criticism over Bush administration policies designed to support oil production. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - February 15, 2003: NATO Dispute
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program In The News. NATO had to deal this week with a serious disagreement that led to questions about the future of the North Atlantic alliance. At issue was the United States' request for NATO to begin planning to defend Turkey in case of war with Iraq. Three other members -- France, Germany and Belgium -- moved to block that request. As a result, Turkey called on other members to honor Article Four of the North Atlantic Treaty. Turkey borders Iraq. Article Four requires alliance members to meet if any member feels threatened. Emergency meetings took place at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Nineteen nations belong to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That treaty says an armed attack against one or more member nations will be considered an attack against them all. After World War Two, the nations of western Europe could not defend themselves. The Soviet Union had seized control of countries in the east. People feared that the Soviets might use force to gain control of western Europe as well. Twelve nations came together. They signed the North Atlantic Treaty in nineteen-forty-nine. Among these were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and Iceland. So were Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. Greece and Turkey signed the treaty in nineteen-fifty-one. West Germany signed in nineteen-fifty-four, then Spain in nineteen-eighty-two. A united Germany replaced West Germany in nineteen-ninety. And, NATO got its newest members in nineteen-ninety-nine: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. New governments came to power in eastern Europe during the nineteen-eighties. In nineteen-ninety, the leaders of NATO and the Communist nations of the Warsaw Pact agreed not to use military force against each other. The next year the Warsaw Pact broke up. So did the Soviet Union. A short time later, NATO created the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. It included members of NATO and the former Warsaw Pact alliance. NATO military training and planning operations now include several non-NATO countries. In the nineteen-nineties, NATO signed security cooperation agreements with twenty-six non-NATO countries. This program is known as the Partnership for Peace. It is supervised by the nations of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The members of this council include Russia and Ukraine. In the past few years, NATO has developed independent cooperative relations with both of them. NATO officials say the goal of NATO has changed over the years. What started as a defensive alliance has become an organization aimed at supporting increased cooperation among nations. But some national leaders question this now, in light of the divisions over military aid to Turkey. This In the News program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 16, 2003: Woody Guthrie, Part Two
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we complete our story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. VOICE ONE: Woody Guthrie grew up in Oklahoma and Texas during the nineteen-twenties. A short time later, many farms in these states failed. Extreme dry weather ruined the soil. This area became known as the Dust Bowl. Like many people, Woody left for California to find work. However, many people could only find work on farms gathering fruit or other crops. These workers often lived in camps with poor conditions. Woody visited these farm worker camps. He played his guitar and sang songs he wrote that described the conditions at the camp he was visiting. VOICE TWO: Labor union organizers in California found Woody Guthrie useful to their cause. They urged him to go to New York City to make recordings of his songs. Woody liked the idea and left California for New York City in nineteen-forty. There he met Alan Lomax, an expert on America’s traditional music. Lomax worked for the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He collected and recorded traditional American folk music. When he heard Woody sing, Lomax knew he had found a true singer of American folk music. VOICE ONE: Alan Lomax recorded many of Woody’s songs for the Library of Congress. He also helped Woody find work in New York. One company agreed to record some of Woody’s songs. The record he made was called “Dust Bowl Ballads.” The songs told stories of people who had lost their land. Many music critics praised Woody and the songs he wrote. Lomax also helped Woody get a job with CBS Radio. He sang and played folk music on a radio program that was broadcast across the United States. VOICE TWO: Woody and several other musicians joined together to write political protest songs. One of these was Pete Seeger. Woody wrote performed with a group called the Almanac Singers. Later, some members of the group formed the folk singing group called the Weavers. It was during this time in New York that Woody wrote what became his most famous song, “This Land is Your Land.” He described the beauty and richness of America that he had seen during his travels. He believed America should be a place that belongs to rich and poor people alike. The first version of his song expressed opposition to private property. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-one, the Interior Department asked Woody Guthrie to write songs supporting the building of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state. He wrote twenty-six songs in a month. The best known of these is “Roll On Columbia.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Woody Guthrie wrote a book about his early life in Oklahoma and Texas. It was published in nineteen-forty-three. He called it “Bound for Glory.” He described his childhood, and the pain of watching his mother slowly becoming insane. He also wrote about his travels and the needy people he saw in many parts of America. One book critic wrote: “Someday, people are going to wake up and realize that Woody Guthrie and his songs are a national treasure, like the Yellowstone or Yosemite parks.” VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Woody joined America’s Merchant Marine. The Merchant Marine transported soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Later, Woody served in the Army. He returned to New York when the war ended. Woody’s wife had left him a few years earlier. In nineteen-forty-five, he married Marjorie Mazia. She was a dancer with the Martha Graham dance group. Woody and Marjorie had a daughter named Cathy Ann. In nineteen-fifty, Woody began writing songs for children. These became very popular. Here is one called “Riding in My Car.” It shows his sense of fun and humor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One day, while Woody and Marjorie were away, a fire started in their house. Their daughter Cathy Ann was severely burned. She died the next day. Woody was crushed by her death. He remembered how his sister had died the same way. He was never the same after Cathy Ann died. He had trouble earning money. He began drinking alcohol. Woody and Marjorie had several more children after Cathy Ann’s death. But their marriage ended. Woody Guthrie began noting something strange about himself. He found that the words he wrote often did not make sense. And he had sudden attacks of uncontrollable shaking. In nineteen-fifty-two, doctors confirmed his worst fears. He had Huntington’s Chorea, the same disease of the brain and nervous system that had killed his mother. Woody Guthrie was forty years old. VOICE ONE: There was no treatment for the disease. His condition got worse. In nineteen-fifty-four, Woody Guthrie traveled one more time across America. He wanted to see the places where he had lived and the workers’ camps where he had sung. Old friends had trouble recognizing him. Instead of a young man full of life, they saw an old man who could not speak clearly or control his shaking. Finally, he entered a hospital because he could no longer care for himself. But while he seemed to be forgotten, his music was not. By the late nineteen-fifties, folk music became popular again in the United States. More Americans began listening and playing the songs of Woody Guthrie. Young folk singers, like Bob Dylan, came to New York to visit Woody in the hospital. Dylan and others copied the way Woody sang and played the guitar. And like Woody, they wrote protest songs that called for social and political justice. VOICE TWO: Woody Guthrie remained in the hospital until he died in nineteen-sixty-seven. His family and friends visited him each week. In the last years of his life, Woody could hardly speak. But his family and friends knew he still believed in the causes he had sung and written about all his life. They knew this because when they sang his songs, Woody’s eyes would become brighter and his defiant spirit would shine through. (MUSIC: HARD TRAVELIN’) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we complete our story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. VOICE ONE: Woody Guthrie grew up in Oklahoma and Texas during the nineteen-twenties. A short time later, many farms in these states failed. Extreme dry weather ruined the soil. This area became known as the Dust Bowl. Like many people, Woody left for California to find work. However, many people could only find work on farms gathering fruit or other crops. These workers often lived in camps with poor conditions. Woody visited these farm worker camps. He played his guitar and sang songs he wrote that described the conditions at the camp he was visiting. VOICE TWO: Labor union organizers in California found Woody Guthrie useful to their cause. They urged him to go to New York City to make recordings of his songs. Woody liked the idea and left California for New York City in nineteen-forty. There he met Alan Lomax, an expert on America’s traditional music. Lomax worked for the United States Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He collected and recorded traditional American folk music. When he heard Woody sing, Lomax knew he had found a true singer of American folk music. VOICE ONE: Alan Lomax recorded many of Woody’s songs for the Library of Congress. He also helped Woody find work in New York. One company agreed to record some of Woody’s songs. The record he made was called “Dust Bowl Ballads.” The songs told stories of people who had lost their land. Many music critics praised Woody and the songs he wrote. Lomax also helped Woody get a job with CBS Radio. He sang and played folk music on a radio program that was broadcast across the United States. VOICE TWO: Woody and several other musicians joined together to write political protest songs. One of these was Pete Seeger. Woody wrote performed with a group called the Almanac Singers. Later, some members of the group formed the folk singing group called the Weavers. It was during this time in New York that Woody wrote what became his most famous song, “This Land is Your Land.” He described the beauty and richness of America that he had seen during his travels. He believed America should be a place that belongs to rich and poor people alike. The first version of his song expressed opposition to private property. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-one, the Interior Department asked Woody Guthrie to write songs supporting the building of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Washington state. He wrote twenty-six songs in a month. The best known of these is “Roll On Columbia.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Woody Guthrie wrote a book about his early life in Oklahoma and Texas. It was published in nineteen-forty-three. He called it “Bound for Glory.” He described his childhood, and the pain of watching his mother slowly becoming insane. He also wrote about his travels and the needy people he saw in many parts of America. One book critic wrote: “Someday, people are going to wake up and realize that Woody Guthrie and his songs are a national treasure, like the Yellowstone or Yosemite parks.” VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Woody joined America’s Merchant Marine. The Merchant Marine transported soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. Later, Woody served in the Army. He returned to New York when the war ended. Woody’s wife had left him a few years earlier. In nineteen-forty-five, he married Marjorie Mazia. She was a dancer with the Martha Graham dance group. Woody and Marjorie had a daughter named Cathy Ann. In nineteen-fifty, Woody began writing songs for children. These became very popular. Here is one called “Riding in My Car.” It shows his sense of fun and humor. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One day, while Woody and Marjorie were away, a fire started in their house. Their daughter Cathy Ann was severely burned. She died the next day. Woody was crushed by her death. He remembered how his sister had died the same way. He was never the same after Cathy Ann died. He had trouble earning money. He began drinking alcohol. Woody and Marjorie had several more children after Cathy Ann’s death. But their marriage ended. Woody Guthrie began noting something strange about himself. He found that the words he wrote often did not make sense. And he had sudden attacks of uncontrollable shaking. In nineteen-fifty-two, doctors confirmed his worst fears. He had Huntington’s Chorea, the same disease of the brain and nervous system that had killed his mother. Woody Guthrie was forty years old. VOICE ONE: There was no treatment for the disease. His condition got worse. In nineteen-fifty-four, Woody Guthrie traveled one more time across America. He wanted to see the places where he had lived and the workers’ camps where he had sung. Old friends had trouble recognizing him. Instead of a young man full of life, they saw an old man who could not speak clearly or control his shaking. Finally, he entered a hospital because he could no longer care for himself. But while he seemed to be forgotten, his music was not. By the late nineteen-fifties, folk music became popular again in the United States. More Americans began listening and playing the songs of Woody Guthrie. Young folk singers, like Bob Dylan, came to New York to visit Woody in the hospital. Dylan and others copied the way Woody sang and played the guitar. And like Woody, they wrote protest songs that called for social and political justice. VOICE TWO: Woody Guthrie remained in the hospital until he died in nineteen-sixty-seven. His family and friends visited him each week. In the last years of his life, Woody could hardly speak. But his family and friends knew he still believed in the causes he had sung and written about all his life. They knew this because when they sang his songs, Woody’s eyes would become brighter and his defiant spirit would shine through. (MUSIC: HARD TRAVELIN’) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – February 17, 2003: Lymphatic Filariasis
* Byline: 

 This the VOA Special English Development Report. Researchers have discovered a successful new treatment to fight lymphatic filariasis around the world. This disease is commonly known as elephantiasis. It is the leading cause of permanent or long-term disabilities in developing countries. More than one-hundred-twenty-million people in eighty countries have been infected with lymphatic filariasis. Most of the victims are in poor nations in Africa, Asia, South America and islands of the Pacific Ocean. A parasite organism causes the disease. Signs of the disease include huge enlargement of the legs, arms, breasts and reproductive organs. Lymphatic filariasis is spread to humans through the bite of a mosquito insect infected with the parasite. Once infected, humans can pass the parasite back to mosquitoes when bitten again. Researchers began studying how the parasite is spread several years ago. Jim Kazura of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio led the research. He said killing the adult female parasite would prevent the development of new parasites in either humans or mosquitoes. To test this theory, scientists created a special medicine to kill the female parasite. Scientists have tested the drug in the laboratory. But its effectiveness on humans has not been confirmed until now. Doctor Kazura and his team of researchers tested the drug recently in Papua New Guinea. They gave the drug to two-thousand-five-hundred people living in unpopulated areas of the country. The people were injected with the drug every year for four years. Scientists found that the spread of lymphatic filariasis dropped by more than ninety-five percent. They also discovered that the treatment reduced the enlargement of the arms, legs and reproductive organs. Doctors had thought this was a permanent condition. The study’s results were published in December in the New England Journal of Medicine. A separate opinion by an independent doctor was also included. It said Doctor Kazura’s research proves that a World Health Organization campaign to end lymphatic filariasis is possible. The WHO campaign was launched in nineteen-ninety-seven. Health officials hope to end the disease around the world by the year twenty-twenty. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 17, 2003: Women in Congress
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many years ago, a popular saying in America was, “A woman’s place is in the home.” But today, many people believe a woman’s place is in the United States House of Representatives and Senate. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Women in Congress is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: More than half the people of voting age in the United States are female. But only fourteen percent of lawmakers in the current one-hundred-eighth Congress are women. There are one-hundred United States senators. Fourteen of them are women. There are four-hundred-thirty-five member of the House of Representatives. Fifty-nine women serve as voting members in the House. Still, political experts say these women are gaining power and influence. The Congressional Quarterly publication recently told about twenty-six female members of Congress. The publication told about their lives and how they voted on important issues during the last Congress. VOICE TWO: Several women have important positions of power in the current Congress. Representative Nancy Pelosi is a Democrat from the state of California. She is the first woman ever to serve as minority leader in the House of Representatives. This is the highest Congressional leadership position ever held by a woman. California voters first elected Mizz Pelosi to the House of Representatives in nineteen-eighty-seven. In the last Congress, she was the top Democrat on the House Select Intelligence committee. VOICE ONE: Republican Deborah Pryce of the state of Ohio leads the House of Representatives Republican Conference. The job of conference chairman is the fourth most important in the Republican Party. Mizz Pryce is the first female to hold such an important job in about thirty years. The conference plans communications for Republicans in the House.Among United States senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is vice chairman of the Republican Party Caucus. The caucus plans communications for Senate Republicans. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland is secretary of the Senate Democratic Party caucus. Other women in Congress are leaders of House and Senate committees or subcommitees. Only two women have led standing Senate committees in the past. But this year, two Republican women from Maine have these responsibilities. Senator Susan Collins leads the Governmental Affairs Committee. Senator Olympia J. Snowe heads the Small Business Committee. VOICE TWO: All but five American states have elected women to Congress. In the current Congress, voters in three states have elected women to both seats in the Senate. Both Republican Senators from Maine are women. Washington state has elected two Democratic women to the Senate. They are Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. The two Democratic Senators from California also are women. They are Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. (FINE-stine) Two other women from California made history when they were elected to the House of Representatives in November. Democrats Loretta Sanchez and her sister Linda are the first sisters elected to serve in Congress at the same time. VOICE ONE: The women in Congress hold widely different opinions about issues. Some are liberal or moderate. Others are conservative. But they are similar in one way. Their work in Congress is generally not limited to traditional women’s issues like education and health care. For example, Senator Hutchison is known for her work on America’s defense and foreign policies. So is Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It has not been easy for women to gain recognition as legislators. Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio has served the longest of any Democratic woman in the House of Representatives. Mizz Kaptur has written a book about women in Congress. Historically, few women have served in Congress. Over the years, only thirty-three women have been elected to the Senate. One-hundred-eighty-nine women have served in the House. For years, many Americans disapproved of women who spoke in public about disputed issues. Many women who were mothers also limited themselves. For example, Mizz Kaptur says most women did not compete for Congressional office until their children were grown. This has kept many of them from gaining years of service in Congress. Legislators with seniority can lead committees. This means they command great power in the legislative process. VOICE ONE: Still, women have played an important part among America’s lawmakers. Montana became the first state to elect a woman to Congress in nineteen-sixteen. Jeannette Rankin, a Republican, served one term in the House of Representatives. Many years later, in nineteen-forty, Montana voters again sent Mizz Rankin to the House. She earned both praise and blame for her opposition to war. Jeannette Rankin voted against the United States entering both the First World War and the Second World War. She was the only legislator to oppose each war. A Republican Congresswoman from Ohio took the opposite position on war. Representative Frances Bolton served in the House of Representatives from nineteen-forty to nineteen-sixty-nine. Mizz Bolton urged equal rights for women. One of these was the right to serve in the military. VOICE TWO: Margaret Chase Smith is another Republican legislator who supported an unpopular position. She was the only woman ever elected to both the House of Representatives and the Senate. She served in the Senate from nineteen-forty-nine to nineteen-seventy-three.In nineteen-fifty, Mizz Smith made an important speech in the Senate. She severely criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. Senator McCarthy had made false charges against a number of public and military officials and entertainers. He falsely accused them of being Communists or sympathizing with Communists. In nineteen-sixty-four, Margaret Chase Smith competed for the Republican party’s nomination for president. She became the first woman ever to campaign for president in a major political party. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people believe women now serving in the Senate may compete to become the country’s first female president. Some people say it will be Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Democratic senator from New York was elected in two-thousand. She is the wife of former President Bill Clinton. During the nineteen-nineties, Mizz Clinton proposed a plan to improve health care in the United States. Congress never voted on the plan. But her efforts helped establish Hillary Clinton as a serious politician. VOICE TWO: Republican Elizabeth Hanford Dole was elected to the Senate from North Carolina last November. Mizz Dole served in the administrations of six presidents over the years. She served as a Cabinet member two times. She also headed the American Red Cross for eight years. Her husband is former Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole. Mizz Dole unsuccessfully competed for the Republican presidential nomination for the two-thousand election. When she withdrew from competition, she spoke of the difficulty of raising money for her campaign. Political experts said many people who might have given money to Missus Dole did not help her. They feared she could not possibly win because she is a woman. VOICE ONE: Senator Barbara Mikulski has served the longest of any woman in the Senate. She was first elected in nineteen-eighty-six. She has helped other women in Congress. Senator Mikulski believes women representatives and senators need all the help they can get. Former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would agree. In nineteen-seventy-two, she became the first African American woman to compete for the Democratic presidential nomination. She says two facts reduced her effectiveness as a legislator. One was that she is an African American. The other was that she is a woman. Of the two, Mizz Chisholm says the most important limitation was being a woman. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - February 18, 2003: Genetically Engineered Pigs Sold Without Approval
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Food in the United States can include genetically engineered crops. No genetically engineered animals, however, have yet been approved by the government to be eaten. But federal officials announced that some experimental pigs might have entered the food supply. The food safety officials said there appeared to be no danger, though, if people ate meat from these animals. The pigs were born during research at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The researchers wanted to create a pig that could produce more milk. So they took genetic material from a cow and put it into pigs. The scientists also designed a gene to improve the ability of baby pigs to process milk. The goal of the research was to create a faster-growing pig. These experiments began in two-thousand-one. They ended this January. In all, the pigs gave birth to three-hundred-eighty-six babies. The researchers sold these piglets to an animal seller, who then may have sold them for use as food. The Illinois researchers told federal officials that the animals did not possess any changed genes from their parents. For this reason, the scientists said they believed they could sell the young pigs to market. The Food and Drug Administration, however, says the researchers were supposed to destroy the animals to keep them out of the food supply. The F-D-A said it did not have enough information to confirm that no engineered genes were passed on to the piglets. Even so, agency officials said the scientific evidence they had suggested there was no risk to public health. Still, the case has added to the issue over genetically engineered foods. Critics say there may be unknown risks. A few years ago, some corn called StarLink entered the American food supply without approval. Scientists gave this corn a protein poisonous to some insects that attack corn crops. But this protein was not shown to break down easily in the human stomach. So the government approved StarLink for animals but not for people. Some people said they got sick after they ate food products made with the StarLink. But the producer of the corn noted that government reports said no link was proven. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-15-6-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 18, 2003: First Aid
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson, with science in the news, VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about some emergency medical methods known commonly as first aid. (Theme) VOICE ONE: First aid is the kind of medical care given to a victim of an accident or sudden sickness before trained medical help can arrive. First aid methods generally are easy to carry out and can be taught to people of all ages. Learning them is important. Knowing how to treat someone in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death. VOICE TWO: Each year, thousands of people die after eating or drinking poison substances. Experts say most accidental poisonings happen in or near the home. And most are caused by substances commonly used at home -- medicines, insect poisons, or cleaning fluids. There are several common signs of poisoning -- a sudden feeling of pain or sickness, burns in the area of the mouth, or an unusual smell coming from a person's mouth. Health experts generally advise poison victims to drink water or milk. They say, however, to never give liquids to someone who is not awake or to those having a violent reaction to the poison. Next, seek help from trained medical experts. Save material expelled from the mouth for doctors to examine. Save the container of the suspected poison to answer questions the doctors may have. The container may also describe the substance that halts the poison's effects. Use this substance without delay. VOICE ONE: The American red cross says all homes should have at least three substances to deal with poisoning. One, syrup of ipecac, is a fluid that helps the body expel material from the stomach. Another, activated charcoal, lessens the danger of poisons. The other material, epsom salts, helps to speed the release of body wastes. All three should be used only on the advice of a medical expert. VOICE TWO: The red cross says expulsion of material from the stomach -- vomiting -- sometimes may be started if medical advice is delayed. But it says vomiting should be used only when it is known the victim took too much of what is called a general poison, such as a medicine. The experts say never cause vomiting if the victim was poisoned by a petroleum product or by a substance that was a strong acid or a strong alkali. These victims should be taken to a medical center as soon a possible. (music) VOICE ONE: Many emergency medical methods are simple and easy to carry out. For example, several years ago, a five-year-old boy in the American state of Massachusetts was playing with a young friend. Suddenly the friend stopped breathing. A piece of candy was stuck in her throat. The boy remembered a television program where the same thing had happened. He also remembered what people on the television program did to help the person who had stopped breathing. The boy quickly used the same method on his friend. The candy flew out of the girl's throat. She was breathing again. The young boy had saved his friend's life. VOICE TWO: The simple method used by the five-year-old boy is called the Heimlich maneuver. It was developed by an American doctor, Henry Heimlich. The Heimlich maneuver can be done in several different ways. If a choking victim is sitting or standing, you should stand directly behind him. Put your arms around the victim's waist. Make one of your hands into the shape of a ball, and place it over the top part of the stomach, below the ribs. Next, put one hand over the other and push in and upward sharply. Repeat the method until the object is expelled. A choking victim who is on the floor and not awake should be rolled on his or her back. Place the bottom of one hand over the upper part of the stomach. Put the other hand over it and push in quickly with an upward movement. Repeat this until the object is expelled. (Music) VOICE ONE: A method called cardiopulmonary resuscitation -- CPR -- can save the victims of heart attacks, drowning and shock. These people are suffering what is called cardiac arrest. C-P-R is designed to increase the natural ability of a person's heart and lungs. Experts say it greatly increases the chances that a heart attack victim will survive. If you see a victim of cardiac arrest, first position the victim's head and neck so that the air passages are not blocked. If the person is not breathing, start a method called mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Press shut the victim's nose as you place your mouth over the victim's mouth. Blow into the victim's lungs. The first two such breaths should last about one-and-one-half seconds each. VOICE TWO: If there is no heart beat, attempt to re-start the victim's heart by pushing down on the victim's chest. Place one hand over the other, and push firmly on the victim's breast bone. Push down the person's chest about five centimeters, at a rate of about eighty to one-hundred times each minute. If you are working alone, you must do both jobs. Breathe two times into the victim's mouth for every fifteen times you push down on the chest. (Music) VOICE ONE: Health experts say even the smallest cut in the skin lets bacteria enter the body. So they urge correct treatment of all wounds. If the bleeding is not serious, the wound should be cleaned with soap and water. Then, cover the wound with a clean cloth, gauze or other kind of dressing. If the bleeding does not stop quickly or if the wound is large, put pressure directly on the wound. Place a clean cloth on the wound and hold it firmly in place. A hand may be used if a cloth cannot immediately be found. If this does not stop the bleeding, push the supplying blood vessel against a nearby bone. This still may not stop all the bleeding. So, also put pressure directly on the wound. There are two places, or points, on each side of the body where pressure is most often useful. If an arm or hand is bleeding, the pressure point is on the inner part of the upper arm, between the elbow and the shoulder. Bleeding from a leg wound can be slowed by pressure to the blood vessel at the front, inner part of the upper leg. VOICE TWO: If an arm or leg is seriously damaged, a device called a tourniquet may be used to stop the bleeding. It should be used only when bleeding threatens the victim's life. A tourniquet may be made with any flat material about fifty millimeters wide. It could be a piece of cloth, or a belt. However, a rope or wire should not be used because they damage the skin. Place the material around the arm or leg, between the wound and the body, and tie the ends together. Then, put a stick in the tied knot. Turn the stick slowly until the flow of blood stops. The stick can be held in place by another piece of cloth. A tourniquet may be left in place for one or two hours without causing damage. VOICE ONE: When a wound is thought to be infected, let the victim rest. Physical activity can spread the infection. If medical help is delayed, treat the wound with a mixture of salt and water. Add nine-and-one-half milliliters of salt to each liter of boiled water. Place a clean cloth in the mixture. Then, remove the extra water from the warm cloth and put the cloth on the wound. Be careful not to burn the skin. VOICE TWO: The first aid methods described in our report can be done by persons with no medical education. But experts say some training is desirable. This will help make sure the techniques are done safely and effectively. First aid skills are taught in many parts of the world by groups such as the red cross or red crescent. To learn more, talk with health experts in your area. (Theme) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written and produced by George grow. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 19, 2003: White Sands National Monument
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Oryx(Photos - National Park Service) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Mary Tillotson with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the world’s great natural wonders, White Sands National Monument. It is in the southwestern American state of New Mexico. Nature has created huge moving hills of pure white sand. (THEME) VOICE ONE: At White Sands National Monument, winds have formed great hills of sand called dunes. The sand dunes cover more than seventy-thousand hectares of desert. It is one of the largest sand dune fields in the United States. The bright white sand dunes are always changing, always moving, like waves on the ocean. Driven by strong winds, the sand moves and covers everything in its path. It is like a huge sea of sand. VOICE TWO: The sand dunes have created an extreme environment. Plants and animals struggle to survive. A few kinds of plants grow quickly to survive burial by the moving sand dunes. Several kinds of small animals have become white in color in order to hide in the sand. White Sands National Monument protects a large part of this dune field. It also protects the plants and animals that live there. More than five-hundred-thousand people visit White Sands National Monument each year. They climb on the dunes and observe the moving sea of sand. VOICE ONE: You may wonder how all this sand arrived in the area. To understand that, you would have to travel back in time two-hundred-fifty-million years. An inland ocean once covered the area. The minerals calcium and sulfur were at the bottom of the ocean. Over time, the water slowly disappeared. The calcium and sulfur remained. The minerals formed gypsum rock. Then, seventy-million years ago, the Earth’s surface, or crust, pushed upward. The rocks formed two groups of mountains. Later, the crust pulled apart. The area between the mountains broke and fell down. It formed a half-circle shape of a bowl. This bowl of rock is known as the Tularosa Basin. VOICE TWO: About twenty-four-thousand years ago, it rained a great deal in the area. The rain filled the Tularosa Basin and formed Lake Otero. The rain and snow that washed down the mountains into Lake Otero carried gypsum with it. Later, Lake Otero almost completely dried up. Gypsum remained. A strong wind moved into the area. It blew across the land for thousands of years. Pieces of gypsum broke off. The wind wore them away to a size small enough to pick up and carry for short distances. Wherever the wind dropped sand, dunes formed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The sand dunes at White Sands National Monument are unusual because they are made of gypsum. Gypsum sand is different from common sand. Most sand is made of quartz, a hard silicon crystal. Gypsum sand is made of softer calcium sulfate. It dissolves easily in water. So it is rarely found in the form of sand dunes. Most gypsum would be carried away by rivers to the sea. But the Tularosa Basin is enclosed. No rivers flow out of it. So water with dissolved gypsum has nowhere to go. Gypsum sand is being made all the time. The dunes continue to form and move under the influence of water and wind. Water continues to wash down from the mountains carrying dissolved gypsum into the Tularosa Basin. Wind continues to blow across the Basin carrying the gypsum. The gypsum sand grains crash into each other. The crash creates tiny lines or scratches on the surface of the sand. These scratches change the way light shines off the surface. This makes the sand appear white. The sand dunes look like great masses of bright white snow. But they are not cold and wet. It only rains about eighteen centimeters each year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are four kinds of sand dunes at White Sands National Monument. Some of the dunes are small and fast-moving. They are called dome dunes because they are shaped like a half-circle. Few if any plants grow on them. These dunes move the fastest, up to twelve meters a year. Other dunes are called transverse dunes. They form in long lines across the dune field. They can grow to be one-hundred-twenty meters thick and eighteen meters high. Another kind of dunes are barchan dunes. They form in areas with strong winds but a limited supply of sand. These dunes have sand in three parts, like a body in the center and two arms on the sides. The sand in the two arms moves faster than the sand in the center. Parabolic dunes are the opposite of barchan dunes. They form when plants hold sand in the outer parts of the dune but the center of the dune continues to move. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may wonder how anything can live in this extreme environment of a white sand desert. There is not much rain. The heat in summer is intense. The sand lacks nutrients. Yet almost four-hundred kinds of animals live in White Sands National Monument. Many of them are birds or insects. There are also twenty-six kinds of reptiles, including rattlesnakes and lizards. And there are more than forty kinds of mammals. They include rabbits, foxes and coyotes. Scientists know that plants and animals often change to be able to live in extreme environments. For example, they change color to protect themselves from enemies. Many of the animals that live in the sand dunes have become white. So it is difficult to see the animals in the sand. There is another reason why you may not be able to see the animals. Many of them remain underground during the day when it is very hot. They come out at night when it is cooler. You may be able to see their footprints. VOICE TWO: Plants do grow in the White Sands dune field. But even plants that grow in most deserts have trouble surviving. A major reason is that the dunes bury any plants in their way as they move across the desert. Yet, a few plants have developed techniques to avoid being buried by moving sand. For example, some plants grow taller and their roots grow deeper into the sand. The soaptree yucca plant can make its stem grow longer to keep its leaves above the sand. The plant grows up to thirty centimeters a year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is about twenty-four kilometers southeast of the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the visitor center at the entrance of the park, you can find out about special activities and guided walks. From the visitor center, you can drive about thirteen kilometers into the center of the dunes. It is like driving on a lonely white planet. Along the way there is information that tells about the natural history of the white sands. You can also explore the dunes on foot. There are four marked trails. Signs along the trail tell about the plants growing in the sand. You can see some unusual and beautiful plants and flowers growing in the sand dunes. But you may not remove or destroy any plants or animals at White Sands. You can even camp there overnight. But you must be careful. It is easy to get lost in the waves of moving sand especially during sandstorms. There is no water to drink. The temperature can rise to thirty-eight degrees Celsius in summer. There is no shelter from the sun’s rays. VOICE TWO: There is another reason to be careful at White Sands National Monument. The White Sands Missile Range completely surrounds the park. It covers one-million hectares. The missile range was first used as a military weapons testing area after World War Two. It was used to test rockets that were captured from the German armed forces. The missile range continues to be an important testing area for experimental weapons and space technology. These tests take place about two times a week. For safety reasons, both the park and the road from it south to Las Cruces, New Mexico may be closed for an hour or two while tests are taking place. VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is part of America’s National Parks System. The park system includes more than three-hundred-seventy protected areas. White Sands National Monument is just one of the more unusual examples of America’s natural and cultural treasures. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Mary Tillotson with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the world’s great natural wonders, White Sands National Monument. It is in the southwestern American state of New Mexico. Nature has created huge moving hills of pure white sand. (THEME) VOICE ONE: At White Sands National Monument, winds have formed great hills of sand called dunes. The sand dunes cover more than seventy-thousand hectares of desert. It is one of the largest sand dune fields in the United States. The bright white sand dunes are always changing, always moving, like waves on the ocean. Driven by strong winds, the sand moves and covers everything in its path. It is like a huge sea of sand. VOICE TWO: The sand dunes have created an extreme environment. Plants and animals struggle to survive. A few kinds of plants grow quickly to survive burial by the moving sand dunes. Several kinds of small animals have become white in color in order to hide in the sand. White Sands National Monument protects a large part of this dune field. It also protects the plants and animals that live there. More than five-hundred-thousand people visit White Sands National Monument each year. They climb on the dunes and observe the moving sea of sand. VOICE ONE: You may wonder how all this sand arrived in the area. To understand that, you would have to travel back in time two-hundred-fifty-million years. An inland ocean once covered the area. The minerals calcium and sulfur were at the bottom of the ocean. Over time, the water slowly disappeared. The calcium and sulfur remained. The minerals formed gypsum rock. Then, seventy-million years ago, the Earth’s surface, or crust, pushed upward. The rocks formed two groups of mountains. Later, the crust pulled apart. The area between the mountains broke and fell down. It formed a half-circle shape of a bowl. This bowl of rock is known as the Tularosa Basin. VOICE TWO: About twenty-four-thousand years ago, it rained a great deal in the area. The rain filled the Tularosa Basin and formed Lake Otero. The rain and snow that washed down the mountains into Lake Otero carried gypsum with it. Later, Lake Otero almost completely dried up. Gypsum remained. A strong wind moved into the area. It blew across the land for thousands of years. Pieces of gypsum broke off. The wind wore them away to a size small enough to pick up and carry for short distances. Wherever the wind dropped sand, dunes formed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The sand dunes at White Sands National Monument are unusual because they are made of gypsum. Gypsum sand is different from common sand. Most sand is made of quartz, a hard silicon crystal. Gypsum sand is made of softer calcium sulfate. It dissolves easily in water. So it is rarely found in the form of sand dunes. Most gypsum would be carried away by rivers to the sea. But the Tularosa Basin is enclosed. No rivers flow out of it. So water with dissolved gypsum has nowhere to go. Gypsum sand is being made all the time. The dunes continue to form and move under the influence of water and wind. Water continues to wash down from the mountains carrying dissolved gypsum into the Tularosa Basin. Wind continues to blow across the Basin carrying the gypsum. The gypsum sand grains crash into each other. The crash creates tiny lines or scratches on the surface of the sand. These scratches change the way light shines off the surface. This makes the sand appear white. The sand dunes look like great masses of bright white snow. But they are not cold and wet. It only rains about eighteen centimeters each year. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are four kinds of sand dunes at White Sands National Monument. Some of the dunes are small and fast-moving. They are called dome dunes because they are shaped like a half-circle. Few if any plants grow on them. These dunes move the fastest, up to twelve meters a year. Other dunes are called transverse dunes. They form in long lines across the dune field. They can grow to be one-hundred-twenty meters thick and eighteen meters high. Another kind of dunes are barchan dunes. They form in areas with strong winds but a limited supply of sand. These dunes have sand in three parts, like a body in the center and two arms on the sides. The sand in the two arms moves faster than the sand in the center. Parabolic dunes are the opposite of barchan dunes. They form when plants hold sand in the outer parts of the dune but the center of the dune continues to move. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You may wonder how anything can live in this extreme environment of a white sand desert. There is not much rain. The heat in summer is intense. The sand lacks nutrients. Yet almost four-hundred kinds of animals live in White Sands National Monument. Many of them are birds or insects. There are also twenty-six kinds of reptiles, including rattlesnakes and lizards. And there are more than forty kinds of mammals. They include rabbits, foxes and coyotes. Scientists know that plants and animals often change to be able to live in extreme environments. For example, they change color to protect themselves from enemies. Many of the animals that live in the sand dunes have become white. So it is difficult to see the animals in the sand. There is another reason why you may not be able to see the animals. Many of them remain underground during the day when it is very hot. They come out at night when it is cooler. You may be able to see their footprints. VOICE TWO: Plants do grow in the White Sands dune field. But even plants that grow in most deserts have trouble surviving. A major reason is that the dunes bury any plants in their way as they move across the desert. Yet, a few plants have developed techniques to avoid being buried by moving sand. For example, some plants grow taller and their roots grow deeper into the sand. The soaptree yucca plant can make its stem grow longer to keep its leaves above the sand. The plant grows up to thirty centimeters a year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is about twenty-four kilometers southeast of the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the visitor center at the entrance of the park, you can find out about special activities and guided walks. From the visitor center, you can drive about thirteen kilometers into the center of the dunes. It is like driving on a lonely white planet. Along the way there is information that tells about the natural history of the white sands. You can also explore the dunes on foot. There are four marked trails. Signs along the trail tell about the plants growing in the sand. You can see some unusual and beautiful plants and flowers growing in the sand dunes. But you may not remove or destroy any plants or animals at White Sands. You can even camp there overnight. But you must be careful. It is easy to get lost in the waves of moving sand especially during sandstorms. There is no water to drink. The temperature can rise to thirty-eight degrees Celsius in summer. There is no shelter from the sun’s rays. VOICE TWO: There is another reason to be careful at White Sands National Monument. The White Sands Missile Range completely surrounds the park. It covers one-million hectares. The missile range was first used as a military weapons testing area after World War Two. It was used to test rockets that were captured from the German armed forces. The missile range continues to be an important testing area for experimental weapons and space technology. These tests take place about two times a week. For safety reasons, both the park and the road from it south to Las Cruces, New Mexico may be closed for an hour or two while tests are taking place. VOICE ONE: White Sands National Monument is part of America’s National Parks System. The park system includes more than three-hundred-seventy protected areas. White Sands National Monument is just one of the more unusual examples of America’s natural and cultural treasures. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – February 19, 2003: Addiction and Girls
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A study in the United States finds that girls and young women use tobacco, drugs and alcohol for different reasons than boys. It says young males generally use alcohol or drugs for excitement. Or they think it will make them more popular. Young females, however, may hope to feel happier or reduce tension or lose weight. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York released the findings. The center chairman, Joseph Califano, says prevention programs are often developed more for males. He called for programs designed for girls and young women. There are physical, psychological and social effects from smoking, drinking and using drugs. The report says some of these may happen more quickly and severely in females. For example, it says they are more likely to become dependent on tobacco than males who smoke just as many cigarettes. And it says females have a greater risk of brain damage from too much alcohol. The report notes general reductions in substance use by young Americans. But it says girls in many cases have caught up with boys in rates of use. Here are some other findings: Girls and young women who drink coffee are much likelier to smoke and drink alcohol -- and to start sooner -- than those who do not drink coffee. The report calls caffeine a "little known" warning sign. Girls who do unhealthy things to lose weight drink more alcohol than those who do not diet -- even though alcohol can cause weight gain. Also, even girls who do healthy things to lose weight smoke more than those not on diets. Puberty is a time of higher risk of substance use by girls, especially those whose bodies change early. Other times are when girls rise from elementary to middle school, from middle to high school, and from high school to college. And, girls who move often from one home or community to another are at greater risk than boys. The report lists a number of warning signs to watch for. These include depression and too much concern about appearance. The study also reminds parents and other adults that they set examples -- good or bad -- by their own actions. More than one-thousand-two-hundred girls and young women answered questions as part of the study. Most who talk with their parents about substance use said these talks made them less likely to smoke, drink or use drugs. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - February 20, 2003: Foreign Student Series #23 >Johnson & Wales University
* Byline: Written by Nancy Steinbach

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. You can find the series at voaspecialenglish dot com. Today, we tell about one of the most unusual universities in the United States. Johnson and Wales University is in Providence, Rhode Island. It also has branches in Norfolk, Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; Miami, Florida; and Denver Colorado. Students can also study at Johnson and Wales in Goteborg, Sweden. A new campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, will begin to accept students in two-thousand-four. Gertrude Johnson and May Wales began the university as a business school in nineteen-fourteen. Now, students also study food service management, travel services, hotel management, marketing and other subjects. Many study business subjects from the time they enter the university. They also get work experience as part of their education. Professors supervise second-year students as they work in businesses that are owned by the university. These include farms, stores and hotels. More than fifteen-thousand students attend Johnson and Wales University. More than one-thousand of them are from outside the United States. They come from ninety-two countries. University officials say most are studying international travel and recreation services. Johnson and Wales University has an office in Istanbul, Turkey. Workers from that office travel to schools all over the world and talk about the university. They help students with their applications and other paper work. And they provide information about how to get financial aid. International students pay more than twenty-five-thousand dollars a year to attend Johnson and Wales University in Providence. An International Center helps new students find places to live and provides many other services. The university also offers classes that teach English as a second language. Johnson and Wales University is on the Internet at www.jwu.edu. Or you can write to International Admissions, Johnson and Wales University, Eight Abbott Park Place, Providence, Rhode Island, 02903, USA. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #233 – Election of 2000
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 20, 2003 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we tell about the presidential election of two-thousand. It was an event that few Americans would soon forget. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In the year two-thousand, the United States was preparing to elect a new president. Bill Clinton would finish his second term as president in January, two-thousand-one. The Constitution prevented him from competing for a third term. This meant Mister Clinton’s Democratic Party needed to choose a new candidate for president. The Democratic Party nominated Vice President Al Gore. Mister Gore had served almost eight years as vice president under President Clinton. Mister Gore chose Senator Joseph Lieberman of the state of Connecticut to compete for vice president. Mister Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in nineteen-eighty-eight. He was the first Jewish person ever nominated for one of America’s top positions. VOICE TWO: Al Gore was born in Washington, D.C. in nineteen-forty-eight. His father was a United States senator from the state of Tennessee. Young Al Gore grew up in Washington and in Carthage, Tennessee, where his family had a farm. Al Gore studied government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated in nineteen-sixty-nine. His father opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam. But Al joined the Army during the war. He spent about six months of his service as a reporter in Vietnam. VOICE ONE: Back in civilian life, Mister Gore again worked as a reporter. Later he studied religion and then law. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in nineteen-seventy-six. He became known for supporting nuclear arms control and protecting the environment. Mister Gore was elected to the United States Senate in nineteen-eighty-four. He was re-elected six years later. He tried and failed to become the Democratic candidate for president in nineteen-eighty-eight. Four years later Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination. Mister Clinton chose Mister Gore as his vice presidential candidate. As vice president, Al Gore was praised for his work on the environment, technology and foreign relations. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party nominated a son of former President George Bush. They chose Governor George W. Bush of Texas as their candidate for president. Richard Cheney, a former secretary of defense, was chosen to compete for vice president. George W. Bush was born in the state of Texas in nineteen-forty-six. He is the oldest child of former President Bush. The younger Mister Bush is often called “W” because his name is so similar to that of his father. George W. Bush grew up in the Texas cities of Midland and Houston. He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He studied business as a graduate student at Harvard University. George W. Bush was a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Later he worked in the oil and gas industry. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty-eight, Mister Bush worked on his father’s successful campaign for president. Later George W. Bush was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team. He was elected governor of Texas in nineteen-ninety-four. He was re-elected four years later by a large majority. At Governor Bush’s urging, Texas legislators enacted measures to improve public schools. However, critics charged that public education in Texas was still very poor. And they said the state’s criminal justice policies supported by Mister Bush were too severe. For example, Texas executes more criminals than any other state. VOICE TWO: Presidential candidates Gore and Bush disagreed on most major issues. For example, Al Gore said women should have the right to end unwanted pregnancies. He supported gun control and restrictions on tobacco sales. He supported higher wages for the lowest paid workers. Governor Bush opposed him on these issues. Governor Bush supported a plan to provide public money for students to attend private schools. And he supported investing taxes on government retirement money in private retirement plans. Mister Gore opposed these measures. VOICE ONE: Several other candidates also ran for president in the November Seventh election. They represented small political parties. For example, activist Ralph Nader was the candidate of the Green Party. He criticized large corporations for having too much influence in America. Conservative Patrick Buchanan ran as the Reform Party candidate. Opinion studies showed that the race between the Republican and Democratic candidates was extremely close. VOICE TWO: On November seventh, two-thousand, more than one-hundred-million people voted for either Mister Gore or Mister Bush. In this popular vote, Al Gore received more votes than George W. Bush. The final vote would show that Mister Gore received about five-hundred-forty-thousand more votes than Mister Bush. But that alone did not make Mister Gore president of the United States. Americans do not vote directly for their presidents. They vote for electors to represent them in the Electoral College. The Electoral College then elects the president. Each state has at least three electors. The states with the most population have the most electors and the most electoral votes. In general, the candidate with the most votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes. There are five-hundred-thirty-eight electors in the electoral college. To become president, a candidate must win two-hundred-seventy electoral votes. Neither Mister Gore nor Mister Bush had received that many electoral votes. No winner was declared because of the situation in the state of Florida. VOICE ONE: Florida had enough electoral votes to make either candidate the winner. The big southern state counted almost six-million votes on November seventh. Mister Bush had slightly more votes than Mister Gore. But the election was still not over. Florida State law calls for a recount when the difference in votes between two candidates is less than one-half of one percent of the votes. This meant Florida had to count the votes again. State recounts normally involve the governor. But the Florida governor said he would not be involved. That is because Governor Jeb Bush is a brother of George W. Bush. VOICE TWO: The election in Florida involved several problems. Some voting machines counted the votes incorrectly. Some African Americans said election workers prevented them from voting. And, many supporters of Mister Gore in one area believed they had voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan by mistake. The names of Mister Buchanan and Al Gore were next to one another on the ballot. Democrats charged that the ballot design was illegal. But Republicans say Democratic officials never objected. VOICE ONE: Almost three weeks after the election, Florida declared Mister Bush the winner of the state’s twenty-five electoral votes. Florida election officials said Mister Bush won the popular vote in Florida by five-hundred-thirty-seven votes. That total was out of six-million ballots. But the election was still not over. Mister Gore and supporters in Florida protested the results. They asked the courts to reconsider because of what they called the many voting problems. The Florida Supreme Court ordered the disputed ballots counted again. This could have given Florida’s electoral votes to Mister Gore. The votes could have made him president. VOICE TWO: Bush campaign officials quickly appealed to the United States Supreme Court. A majority of the high court justices declared the Florida court ruling unconstitutional. They said Florida law did not explain how officials should judge the ballots. They ruled that the disputed ballots should not be re-counted. The Supreme Court justices said not enough time remained to settle the problem before the Electoral College held its required meeting. On December Eighteenth, two-thousand, Electoral College members met in each state capital. They made the election official. George W. Bush became the forty-third president of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of The Making of a Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Broadcast: February 20, 2003 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today we tell about the presidential election of two-thousand. It was an event that few Americans would soon forget. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In the year two-thousand, the United States was preparing to elect a new president. Bill Clinton would finish his second term as president in January, two-thousand-one. The Constitution prevented him from competing for a third term. This meant Mister Clinton’s Democratic Party needed to choose a new candidate for president. The Democratic Party nominated Vice President Al Gore. Mister Gore had served almost eight years as vice president under President Clinton. Mister Gore chose Senator Joseph Lieberman of the state of Connecticut to compete for vice president. Mister Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in nineteen-eighty-eight. He was the first Jewish person ever nominated for one of America’s top positions. VOICE TWO: Al Gore was born in Washington, D.C. in nineteen-forty-eight. His father was a United States senator from the state of Tennessee. Young Al Gore grew up in Washington and in Carthage, Tennessee, where his family had a farm. Al Gore studied government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated in nineteen-sixty-nine. His father opposed American involvement in the war in Vietnam. But Al joined the Army during the war. He spent about six months of his service as a reporter in Vietnam. VOICE ONE: Back in civilian life, Mister Gore again worked as a reporter. Later he studied religion and then law. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in nineteen-seventy-six. He became known for supporting nuclear arms control and protecting the environment. Mister Gore was elected to the United States Senate in nineteen-eighty-four. He was re-elected six years later. He tried and failed to become the Democratic candidate for president in nineteen-eighty-eight. Four years later Bill Clinton won the Democratic presidential nomination. Mister Clinton chose Mister Gore as his vice presidential candidate. As vice president, Al Gore was praised for his work on the environment, technology and foreign relations. VOICE TWO: The Republican Party nominated a son of former President George Bush. They chose Governor George W. Bush of Texas as their candidate for president. Richard Cheney, a former secretary of defense, was chosen to compete for vice president. George W. Bush was born in the state of Texas in nineteen-forty-six. He is the oldest child of former President Bush. The younger Mister Bush is often called “W” because his name is so similar to that of his father. George W. Bush grew up in the Texas cities of Midland and Houston. He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He studied business as a graduate student at Harvard University. George W. Bush was a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Later he worked in the oil and gas industry. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty-eight, Mister Bush worked on his father’s successful campaign for president. Later George W. Bush was one of the owners of the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team. He was elected governor of Texas in nineteen-ninety-four. He was re-elected four years later by a large majority. At Governor Bush’s urging, Texas legislators enacted measures to improve public schools. However, critics charged that public education in Texas was still very poor. And they said the state’s criminal justice policies supported by Mister Bush were too severe. For example, Texas executes more criminals than any other state. VOICE TWO: Presidential candidates Gore and Bush disagreed on most major issues. For example, Al Gore said women should have the right to end unwanted pregnancies. He supported gun control and restrictions on tobacco sales. He supported higher wages for the lowest paid workers. Governor Bush opposed him on these issues. Governor Bush supported a plan to provide public money for students to attend private schools. And he supported investing taxes on government retirement money in private retirement plans. Mister Gore opposed these measures. VOICE ONE: Several other candidates also ran for president in the November Seventh election. They represented small political parties. For example, activist Ralph Nader was the candidate of the Green Party. He criticized large corporations for having too much influence in America. Conservative Patrick Buchanan ran as the Reform Party candidate. Opinion studies showed that the race between the Republican and Democratic candidates was extremely close. VOICE TWO: On November seventh, two-thousand, more than one-hundred-million people voted for either Mister Gore or Mister Bush. In this popular vote, Al Gore received more votes than George W. Bush. The final vote would show that Mister Gore received about five-hundred-forty-thousand more votes than Mister Bush. But that alone did not make Mister Gore president of the United States. Americans do not vote directly for their presidents. They vote for electors to represent them in the Electoral College. The Electoral College then elects the president. Each state has at least three electors. The states with the most population have the most electors and the most electoral votes. In general, the candidate with the most votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes. There are five-hundred-thirty-eight electors in the electoral college. To become president, a candidate must win two-hundred-seventy electoral votes. Neither Mister Gore nor Mister Bush had received that many electoral votes. No winner was declared because of the situation in the state of Florida. VOICE ONE: Florida had enough electoral votes to make either candidate the winner. The big southern state counted almost six-million votes on November seventh. Mister Bush had slightly more votes than Mister Gore. But the election was still not over. Florida State law calls for a recount when the difference in votes between two candidates is less than one-half of one percent of the votes. This meant Florida had to count the votes again. State recounts normally involve the governor. But the Florida governor said he would not be involved. That is because Governor Jeb Bush is a brother of George W. Bush. VOICE TWO: The election in Florida involved several problems. Some voting machines counted the votes incorrectly. Some African Americans said election workers prevented them from voting. And, many supporters of Mister Gore in one area believed they had voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan by mistake. The names of Mister Buchanan and Al Gore were next to one another on the ballot. Democrats charged that the ballot design was illegal. But Republicans say Democratic officials never objected. VOICE ONE: Almost three weeks after the election, Florida declared Mister Bush the winner of the state’s twenty-five electoral votes. Florida election officials said Mister Bush won the popular vote in Florida by five-hundred-thirty-seven votes. That total was out of six-million ballots. But the election was still not over. Mister Gore and supporters in Florida protested the results. They asked the courts to reconsider because of what they called the many voting problems. The Florida Supreme Court ordered the disputed ballots counted again. This could have given Florida’s electoral votes to Mister Gore. The votes could have made him president. VOICE TWO: Bush campaign officials quickly appealed to the United States Supreme Court. A majority of the high court justices declared the Florida court ruling unconstitutional. They said Florida law did not explain how officials should judge the ballots. They ruled that the disputed ballots should not be re-counted. The Supreme Court justices said not enough time remained to settle the problem before the Electoral College held its required meeting. On December Eighteenth, two-thousand, Electoral College members met in each state capital. They made the election official. George W. Bush became the forty-third president of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of The Making of a Nation was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Grammys / Award-Winning Children's Literature / Study Finds Internet Top Source of Information for Americans
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 21, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: February 21, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music nominated for a Grammy Award ... Tell about a new study of Internet use in the United States ... And report about the winners of two awards for the best children’s books. Newberry & Caldecott Award Winners HOST: Each year, the American Library Association presents awards for the best books for children. The Newbery and Caldecott awards honor excellence in writing and art in children’s literature. The winners were announced at a meeting of the association last month. Shep O’Neal tells us about them. ANNCR: A thirteen-year-old boy living in fourteenth century England is the hero of the book that won the Newbery Award for writing. The book is called “Crispin: The Cross of Lead.” Crispin is accused of murder and must run away from his village. A juggler becomes his protector and teacher. Crispin was a teenager seven-hundred-years ago. Yet he was searching for freedom like many young people today. The head of the committee that names the Newbery Award winner says readers can “see, hear, smell, taste and feel” Crispin’s world. The book was written by Avi, a popular American writer who uses only one name. Avi is from New York City. He says he was not a good student in school. He did not start writing stories for children until he had children of his own. He says it takes about one year for him to write one book. Avi urges his young readers to “Listen and watch the world around you. Do not be satisfied with answers others give you. Work to get answers on your own. Understand why you believe things.” The Caldecott Medal for the best artwork in children’s books in the United States went to Eric Rohmann. Mister Rohmann wrote and drew the pictures for the book “My Friend Rabbit.” In the story, a mouse shares a new toy airplane with his friend the rabbit. The airplane lands in a tree. So the rabbit gets an elephant, a crocodile and a hippopotamus to help rescue the plane. All of these animals fall on and off the pages in a very funny story for young children. Mister Rohmann made the pictures for the story with woodcuts. To make a woodcut, the artist cuts designs or pictures in wood. The artist prints the pictures on paper and then paints them. The head of the Caldecott Award committee says the pictures show a lot of energy and bright colors. One group of children said the eyes of the animals tell a lot of the story. UCLA Internet Study HOST: A recent university study asked more than two-thousand Americans who use computers where they get most of their information. The answer may surprise you. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: The University of California at Los Angeles did the study. It says about sixty-one percent of the people said the Internet was their most important source of information. The other answers were books, newspapers, television, radio and magazines. Jeffrey Cole is the Director of the UCLA Center for Communications Policy. He says the Internet has become the most popular information source after existing for only about eight years as a communications tool. Mister Cole says this is the third year that UCLA has done the study. It is the first time the Internet was the top answer. Mister Cole said people are able to gather information much quicker now than in the past. He said this may be the main reason for the increased use of the Internet as an information-gathering tool. However, the UCLA study also showed a decrease in the number of people who trust the information they find on the Internet. Two years ago, fifty-eight percent of those questioned said they believed the information on the Internet was true. In the latest study, only about fifty-three percent of the people said they would trust information from the Internet. Mister Cole says this could be a problem for Internet information in the future. How long will it be before people no longer value what they learn on the Internet? The study showed the Internet is extremely popular and is continuing to grow. About seventy percent of Americans now use the Internet. Sixty percent of them are linked to the Internet at home. That is an increase of more than thirteen percent in only two years. The study also showed that almost thirty percent of Americans do not use the Internet. Their main reason is not understanding the technology. Some people say they are afraid to try using the Internet. The UCLA report also showed that the Internet continues to grow as an important business and professional tool. It said that most Internet users are happy with it. The users said they are most satisfied to be able to communicate with other people very quickly. The Grammy Awards HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Dare Omosowon wants to know about the Grammy Awards that will be presented on Sunday. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has presented Grammy Awards every year since nineteen-fifty-eight. The awards recognize excellent recordings and those who create them. The award is a small statue shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Eighteen-thousand members of the Recording Academy choose the best work each year. Awards are given for spoken word albums and for many kinds of music, including jazz, classical, country, rap, and rhythm and blues. One of the most important Grammy Awards is for “Album of the Year”. The award goes to the recording artist and to the album’s producers and engineers. This year, the Dixie Chicks’ album “Home” is nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy. Here is a song from that album, “Long Time Gone.” (MUSIC) Another album nominated for this Grammy Award is “The Eminem Show” by Eminem. A third nominated album is “Come Away with Me” by Norah Jones. Here is a song from that album, “Shoot the Moon”. (MUSIC) The fourth nominated album is by Nelly. It is called “Nellyville. And the final album nominated for “Album of the Year” is by Bruce Springsteen. We leave you now with the title song from the album, “The Rising.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Karen Leggett, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Jim Harmon. And our producer was Paul Thompson. We play some music nominated for a Grammy Award ... Tell about a new study of Internet use in the United States ... And report about the winners of two awards for the best children’s books. Newberry & Caldecott Award Winners HOST: Each year, the American Library Association presents awards for the best books for children. The Newbery and Caldecott awards honor excellence in writing and art in children’s literature. The winners were announced at a meeting of the association last month. Shep O’Neal tells us about them. ANNCR: A thirteen-year-old boy living in fourteenth century England is the hero of the book that won the Newbery Award for writing. The book is called “Crispin: The Cross of Lead.” Crispin is accused of murder and must run away from his village. A juggler becomes his protector and teacher. Crispin was a teenager seven-hundred-years ago. Yet he was searching for freedom like many young people today. The head of the committee that names the Newbery Award winner says readers can “see, hear, smell, taste and feel” Crispin’s world. The book was written by Avi, a popular American writer who uses only one name. Avi is from New York City. He says he was not a good student in school. He did not start writing stories for children until he had children of his own. He says it takes about one year for him to write one book. Avi urges his young readers to “Listen and watch the world around you. Do not be satisfied with answers others give you. Work to get answers on your own. Understand why you believe things.” The Caldecott Medal for the best artwork in children’s books in the United States went to Eric Rohmann. Mister Rohmann wrote and drew the pictures for the book “My Friend Rabbit.” In the story, a mouse shares a new toy airplane with his friend the rabbit. The airplane lands in a tree. So the rabbit gets an elephant, a crocodile and a hippopotamus to help rescue the plane. All of these animals fall on and off the pages in a very funny story for young children. Mister Rohmann made the pictures for the story with woodcuts. To make a woodcut, the artist cuts designs or pictures in wood. The artist prints the pictures on paper and then paints them. The head of the Caldecott Award committee says the pictures show a lot of energy and bright colors. One group of children said the eyes of the animals tell a lot of the story. UCLA Internet Study HOST: A recent university study asked more than two-thousand Americans who use computers where they get most of their information. The answer may surprise you. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: The University of California at Los Angeles did the study. It says about sixty-one percent of the people said the Internet was their most important source of information. The other answers were books, newspapers, television, radio and magazines. Jeffrey Cole is the Director of the UCLA Center for Communications Policy. He says the Internet has become the most popular information source after existing for only about eight years as a communications tool. Mister Cole says this is the third year that UCLA has done the study. It is the first time the Internet was the top answer. Mister Cole said people are able to gather information much quicker now than in the past. He said this may be the main reason for the increased use of the Internet as an information-gathering tool. However, the UCLA study also showed a decrease in the number of people who trust the information they find on the Internet. Two years ago, fifty-eight percent of those questioned said they believed the information on the Internet was true. In the latest study, only about fifty-three percent of the people said they would trust information from the Internet. Mister Cole says this could be a problem for Internet information in the future. How long will it be before people no longer value what they learn on the Internet? The study showed the Internet is extremely popular and is continuing to grow. About seventy percent of Americans now use the Internet. Sixty percent of them are linked to the Internet at home. That is an increase of more than thirteen percent in only two years. The study also showed that almost thirty percent of Americans do not use the Internet. Their main reason is not understanding the technology. Some people say they are afraid to try using the Internet. The UCLA report also showed that the Internet continues to grow as an important business and professional tool. It said that most Internet users are happy with it. The users said they are most satisfied to be able to communicate with other people very quickly. The Grammy Awards HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Dare Omosowon wants to know about the Grammy Awards that will be presented on Sunday. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has presented Grammy Awards every year since nineteen-fifty-eight. The awards recognize excellent recordings and those who create them. The award is a small statue shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Eighteen-thousand members of the Recording Academy choose the best work each year. Awards are given for spoken word albums and for many kinds of music, including jazz, classical, country, rap, and rhythm and blues. One of the most important Grammy Awards is for “Album of the Year”. The award goes to the recording artist and to the album’s producers and engineers. This year, the Dixie Chicks’ album “Home” is nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy. Here is a song from that album, “Long Time Gone.” (MUSIC) Another album nominated for this Grammy Award is “The Eminem Show” by Eminem. A third nominated album is “Come Away with Me” by Norah Jones. Here is a song from that album, “Shoot the Moon”. (MUSIC) The fourth nominated album is by Nelly. It is called “Nellyville. And the final album nominated for “Album of the Year” is by Bruce Springsteen. We leave you now with the title song from the album, “The Rising.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Karen Leggett, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Jim Harmon. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-20-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – International Year of Fresh Water
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 21, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Everywhere, water use is increasing. Humans already use fifty-four percent of all the fresh water in rivers, lakes and underground. There are some estimates that this rate will reach seventy percent by two-thousand-twenty-five. Fresh water is necessary for life on Earth. People need water for everyday activities and to produce food. Water also is important for energy production and the health of Earth’s environmental systems. The United Nations is organizing a series of events to increase concern about water issues. U-N officials have declared two-thousand-three the International Year of Fresh Water. A goal of the campaign is to build support for policies to use water more wisely. Another goal is to get more people to use water in ways that will not hurt the environment. The world population is more than six-thousand-million people. More than one-thousand-million lack safe drinking water. More than two-thousand-million suffer from diseases linked to dirty water. And, more than two-thousand-million live without waste-treatment systems. Water was one of the issues discussed at the U-N Millennium Summit two years ago. Leaders said they would work to cut the number of people without safe drinking water in half by two-thousand-fifteen. Officials renewed that goal last year at the Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa. They also promised to cut in half the number of people without safe systems to treat waste by two-thousand-fifteen. Nitin Desai directs the U-N Office for Economic and Social Affairs. He says success in these goals will require major changes in the ways people use water. He says water reforms have to be linked to changes in policies for land use, human settlement, agriculture, industry and energy. Next month, the World Water Forum will meet in Kyoto, Japan. Officials plan to release the first U-N report on world water development. This report will examine the world’s water problems. And it will offer suggestions on ways to meet future water demands. Experts say international reaction to the U-N report will be an important test of the political desire to solve the water crisis. There is a U-N Web site on water issues: w-w-w dot wateryear-two-thousand-three-dot o-r-g (www.wateryear2003.org). This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-20-5-1.cfm
* Headline: Linking and Blending in American English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- another lesson with Lida, our friend Lida Baker from the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. This time she explains two features of pronunciation that help create the sound of American English -- linking and blending. BAKER: "Linking refers to the situation where you have a word that ends in a consonant and the next word starts with a vowel. And when that happens in English, we don't put any pause between the two words, but instead we link them or connect them so that they sound like one word. And a lot of times when this happens, it's in, for example, two-word verbs -- where you have a verb followed by a preposition, so something like 'come over' becomes 'comeover.'" RS: "Comeover to my house." BAKER: "Right. There's a lot of examples I can give you that start with the word 'shut.' For example, 'shut up' becomes 'shutup.'" RS: "Not very nice." AA: "No." BAKER: "Not very nice. 'Shut out' -- 'shutout.'" RS: "Keep someone away." BAKER: "'Shut in' -- 'shutin.'" AA: "Someone who stays home all the time." BAKER: "And what do we do when the water is running?" AA: "Shut off." BAKER: "'Shutoff,' right. So all of those are examples of words that end in consonants -- the 't' sound -- and the next word starts with a vowel. So we run them together and they sound like one word. Here's a great example where you have a whole sentence where one word ends in a consonant and the next one starts in a vowel: 'put it in a box.' Imagine how that sounds to a person who is learning English. They can read it: 'put-it-in-a-box.' But when we're talking fast, that's not how we say it, right? We say 'putitinabox.'" RS: "It sounds like 'pudding in a box,' that you eat." BAKER: "There you go, and it would be very confusing for someone learning English to try to tell those two things apart. Now, linking also occurs when you have words that end in vowels and the next word begins with a vowel. And in that case, we sometimes insert like a little 'y' sound or a little 'w' sound between them. So an example of that would be something like 'the end of.' That's what we would read. But we say 'thee-YEN-dov." RS: "Thee-YEN-dov the year." AA: "Thee-YEN-dov the book." BAKER: "Right. And here are some phrases where there's a little 'w' sound between the two words: 'you are late.'" RS: "You're late." BAKER: "You can contract it and say 'you're' but you can also say 'yew-whar, yew-whar, yew-whaaar.' Hear that 'w'?" AA: "Uh-huh." BAKER: "Or 'show-wus, show-wus.' Or 'how-whar you?' It's actually not that hard for people to understand this second case of linking between vowels, but it's the consonant-to-vowel situation where sometimes it's very hard to tell where one word starts and the other word ends. "Now, blending means that when you have a word that ends in a sound and the next word starts with the very same sound -- and then it's again very hard to tell where one word ends and the next one starts. So, for example, 'bad day,' 'badday.' 'June ninth, Juneninth,' 'hot tea, hottea.' And then there are some very common ones like 'phone number,' 'left turn,' 'orangejuice.' What do you think that is?" RS: "Orange juice." BAKER: "Right, very hard to separate the two words. And you know you can tell how normal it is when you hear it done unnaturally. I went to a choir rehearsal to hear this big professional choir rehearsing. They were working on 'America the Beautiful.' And the director told them to put a little separation between every word. So what came out was something like this: 'Oh beautiful-uh for spacious-uh skies-uh.' You see how unnatural that sounds?" RS: "But you're saying it. When you sing it, it sounds a lot different." AA: "How did it sound when they sang it?" BAKER: "He told them to sing it that way, because he wanted the audience to be able to make out every word. So he had them over-enunciate on purpose." AA: "Did it sound OK?" BAKER: "Well, it made it very easy when they were singing to understand the words, yes. But you would never talk that way. You would say: 'Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,' not 'for amber-uh waves-uh of grain-uh.'" AA: Author and English teacher Lida Baker suggests one way to learn the differences between written and spoken American English is through the Internet -- by listening and reading along with radio scripts. You'll find our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- another lesson with Lida, our friend Lida Baker from the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. This time she explains two features of pronunciation that help create the sound of American English -- linking and blending. BAKER: "Linking refers to the situation where you have a word that ends in a consonant and the next word starts with a vowel. And when that happens in English, we don't put any pause between the two words, but instead we link them or connect them so that they sound like one word. And a lot of times when this happens, it's in, for example, two-word verbs -- where you have a verb followed by a preposition, so something like 'come over' becomes 'comeover.'" RS: "Comeover to my house." BAKER: "Right. There's a lot of examples I can give you that start with the word 'shut.' For example, 'shut up' becomes 'shutup.'" RS: "Not very nice." AA: "No." BAKER: "Not very nice. 'Shut out' -- 'shutout.'" RS: "Keep someone away." BAKER: "'Shut in' -- 'shutin.'" AA: "Someone who stays home all the time." BAKER: "And what do we do when the water is running?" AA: "Shut off." BAKER: "'Shutoff,' right. So all of those are examples of words that end in consonants -- the 't' sound -- and the next word starts with a vowel. So we run them together and they sound like one word. Here's a great example where you have a whole sentence where one word ends in a consonant and the next one starts in a vowel: 'put it in a box.' Imagine how that sounds to a person who is learning English. They can read it: 'put-it-in-a-box.' But when we're talking fast, that's not how we say it, right? We say 'putitinabox.'" RS: "It sounds like 'pudding in a box,' that you eat." BAKER: "There you go, and it would be very confusing for someone learning English to try to tell those two things apart. Now, linking also occurs when you have words that end in vowels and the next word begins with a vowel. And in that case, we sometimes insert like a little 'y' sound or a little 'w' sound between them. So an example of that would be something like 'the end of.' That's what we would read. But we say 'thee-YEN-dov." RS: "Thee-YEN-dov the year." AA: "Thee-YEN-dov the book." BAKER: "Right. And here are some phrases where there's a little 'w' sound between the two words: 'you are late.'" RS: "You're late." BAKER: "You can contract it and say 'you're' but you can also say 'yew-whar, yew-whar, yew-whaaar.' Hear that 'w'?" AA: "Uh-huh." BAKER: "Or 'show-wus, show-wus.' Or 'how-whar you?' It's actually not that hard for people to understand this second case of linking between vowels, but it's the consonant-to-vowel situation where sometimes it's very hard to tell where one word starts and the other word ends. "Now, blending means that when you have a word that ends in a sound and the next word starts with the very same sound -- and then it's again very hard to tell where one word ends and the next one starts. So, for example, 'bad day,' 'badday.' 'June ninth, Juneninth,' 'hot tea, hottea.' And then there are some very common ones like 'phone number,' 'left turn,' 'orangejuice.' What do you think that is?" RS: "Orange juice." BAKER: "Right, very hard to separate the two words. And you know you can tell how normal it is when you hear it done unnaturally. I went to a choir rehearsal to hear this big professional choir rehearsing. They were working on 'America the Beautiful.' And the director told them to put a little separation between every word. So what came out was something like this: 'Oh beautiful-uh for spacious-uh skies-uh.' You see how unnatural that sounds?" RS: "But you're saying it. When you sing it, it sounds a lot different." AA: "How did it sound when they sang it?" BAKER: "He told them to sing it that way, because he wanted the audience to be able to make out every word. So he had them over-enunciate on purpose." AA: "Did it sound OK?" BAKER: "Well, it made it very easy when they were singing to understand the words, yes. But you would never talk that way. You would say: 'Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,' not 'for amber-uh waves-uh of grain-uh.'" AA: Author and English teacher Lida Baker suggests one way to learn the differences between written and spoken American English is through the Internet -- by listening and reading along with radio scripts. You'll find our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- First broadcast on February 20, 2003 First broadcast on February 20, 2003 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 23, 2003: Eleanor Creesy
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about Eleanor Creesy. She helped to guide one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The name Eleanor Creesy is almost unknown today. But in the middle Eighteen-Hundreds she was a famous woman. Those were the days of wooden sailing ships. It was a time before ships had engines. Cloth sails were used to catch the wind to move a ship through the water. A ship that sailed from New York to San Francisco had to travel around the bottom of South America. Such a trip could take two-hundred days to complete. Not all ships completed the trip. The high winds and angry seas in this area of the world created deadly storms. Ships often sank. No one could survive the freezing waters in this dangerous area if the ship went down. VOICE TWO: One-hundred-fifty years ago, women did not receive much education. Most women were expected to learn to read and write. But they almost never held positions of great responsibility. Eleanor Creesy was different. She was the navigator for a ship. A navigator is responsible for guiding a ship safely from one port to another. Eleanor’s father taught her to navigate. She wanted to learn this difficult skill because she liked the mathematics involved. A navigator also had to know how to use a complex instrument called a sextant. It was used to gather information about the Sun, moon, and some stars to find a ship’s position at sea. Eleanor married a captain of a ship, Josiah Perkins Creesy, in Eighteen-Forty-One. It was not unusual for a ship captain to take his wife with him on long trips. A captain’s wife often acted as a nurse, which Eleanor did. But she did a lot more. Josiah Creesy quickly learned that his wife was an extremely good navigator. Eleanor was the navigator on each ship that Josiah commanded during all their years at sea. They were husband and wife, but they also enjoyed working together. VOICE ONE: Eleanor and Josiah Creesy are forever linked to one of the most famous ships in American history. That ship is the Flying Cloud. It was designed and built at the shipyard of Donald McKay in the eastern city of Boston. Grinell, Minturn and Company bought it. Captain Creesy worked for Grinell, Minturn. Company officials chose him to be the captain of the new ship. The Flying Cloud was a new kind of ship. The front was very narrow and sharp. This helped it cut through the water. The ship itself was narrow and long. This also added to its speed. A New York newspaper wrote a story about the ship when it was new. The paper said it was extremely beautiful. The world soon learned it was one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. The large number of sails the Flying Cloud could carry increased the speed of the ship. It usually carried at least twenty-one large sails. The crew often added many more to increase the speed. VOICE TWO: It was the second day of June, Eighteen-Fifty-One. Goods and passengers had been loaded on the Flying Cloud. The ship quietly sailed out of New York City on its way to San Francisco. Very quickly it became evident the ship was special. Part of Eleanor Creesy’s work was to find out how far the ship had traveled each day. This involved doing complex mathematics and usually took Eleanor several hours. The first time she completed her work, she could not believe the results. She did the mathematics again, carefully looking for mistakes. There were none. The ship had traveled almost four-hundred-eighty kilometers in twenty-four hours. This was an extremely fast speed. Few ships had ever sailed this fast. VOICE ONE: The captain of a ship keeps a written record of each day’s events when a ship is at sea. This record is called a ship’s log. On May Fifteenth, just seventeen days after leaving New York, Captain Creesy wrote this in the Flying Cloud’s log: “We have passed the Equator in two days less time than ever before. We have traveled five-thousand-nine-hundred and nine kilometers in seventeen days!” As the Flying Cloud sailed south, each day was extremely exciting. As it neared the South Atlantic, however, storms began to cause great concern. For Eleanor Creesy to learn the correct position of the ship each day, she had to be able to see the Sun, the moon or stars. This was impossible when the ship entered an area of storms. It was then that her greatest skill as a navigator became extremely important. VOICE TWO: When bad weather prevented navigators from seeing the Sun, moon or stars, they had to use a method called “dead reckoning” to find the ship’s position. Dead reckoning is not exact. A navigator would take the last known position of the ship, then add the ship’s speed. The navigator also had to add any movement of the ship to the side caused by waves or the wind. But this information was only a guess. Even a good navigator could be wrong by many kilometers. If a ship was sailing in the middle of the ocean, a navigator could make mistakes using dead reckoning and no harm would be done. However, when a ship was near land, dead reckoning became extremely dangerous. The ship might be much closer to land than the navigator knew. In a storm, the ship could be driven on to land and severely damaged or sunk. Using dead reckoning near the southern most area of South America called for an expert. The Flying Cloud was near land at the end of the South American continent. Eleanor Creesy used all her skill to find a safe path for the huge ship. VOICE ONE: Captain Creesy was responsible for the safety of the Flying Cloud, the passengers and crew. He would be blamed for any serious accident. Most captains did their own navigating. Perhaps no other captain sailing at that time would think to have a woman do this extremely important work. However, Josiah Creesy never questioned his wife’s sailing directions. He would often stand on the deck of his ship, in the cold rain and fierce winds. He would shout below to Missus Creesy and ask for a new sailing direction. She would quickly do the work required for a new dead reckoning direction and pass the information to her husband. Captain Creesy would give the orders to turn the big ship. VOICE TWO: The storm began to grow. The crew put out the fires used for heat and cooking. Fire was a great danger at sea. No fires were ever permitted on a ship during a storm. Not even lamps were lit. Everyone ate cold food. The temperatures were now near freezing. Hour after hour Eleanor Creesy worked to find the ship’s dead reckoning position. When the storm ended, the crew of the Flying Cloud could see the very southern coast of South America…a place called Tierra del Fuego. They could see the snow-covered mountains and huge amounts of blue ice. It was an area of deadly beauty. And, it was only eight kilometers away. Eleanor Creesy had guided the ship perfectly. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: The Flying Cloud sailed north toward San Francisco traveling at speeds no one thought possible. On July Thirty-First, the ship traveled six-hundred and one kilometers in only twenty-four hours. No ship had ever sailed that far in one day. The Flying Cloud had set a world record. That record belonged to the ship, the crew, the captain and the navigator. On August Thirty-first, the Flying Cloud sailed into San Francisco Bay. The Flying Cloud had set a record for sailing from New York to San Francisco. It made the trip in eighty-nine days, and twenty-one hours. Newspapers across the country spread the news. Josiah and Eleanor Creesy were famous. Newspapers wrote stories about them and their beautiful ship. People wanted to meet them. But soon the two were back at sea. Two years later Captain Creesy and his wife again took the Flying Cloud from New York to San Francisco. This time they made the trip in eighty-nine days, eight hours. This record would stand unbroken for more than one-hundred years. VOICE TWO: Josiah and Eleanor Creesy went on to sail in other ships. They continued to work as a team until they left the sea in Eighteen-Sixty-Four. They retired to their home in Massachusetts. Captain Josiah Creesy died in June of Eighteen-Seventy-One. His wife lived until the beginning of the new century. She died at the age of eighty-five, in August of Nineteen-Hundred. Eleanor Creesy is remembered by anyone who loves the history of the sea. She is honored for her great skill as navigator of the Flying Cloud, one of the fastest sailing ships the world has ever seen. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about Eleanor Creesy. She helped to guide one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The name Eleanor Creesy is almost unknown today. But in the middle Eighteen-Hundreds she was a famous woman. Those were the days of wooden sailing ships. It was a time before ships had engines. Cloth sails were used to catch the wind to move a ship through the water. A ship that sailed from New York to San Francisco had to travel around the bottom of South America. Such a trip could take two-hundred days to complete. Not all ships completed the trip. The high winds and angry seas in this area of the world created deadly storms. Ships often sank. No one could survive the freezing waters in this dangerous area if the ship went down. VOICE TWO: One-hundred-fifty years ago, women did not receive much education. Most women were expected to learn to read and write. But they almost never held positions of great responsibility. Eleanor Creesy was different. She was the navigator for a ship. A navigator is responsible for guiding a ship safely from one port to another. Eleanor’s father taught her to navigate. She wanted to learn this difficult skill because she liked the mathematics involved. A navigator also had to know how to use a complex instrument called a sextant. It was used to gather information about the Sun, moon, and some stars to find a ship’s position at sea. Eleanor married a captain of a ship, Josiah Perkins Creesy, in Eighteen-Forty-One. It was not unusual for a ship captain to take his wife with him on long trips. A captain’s wife often acted as a nurse, which Eleanor did. But she did a lot more. Josiah Creesy quickly learned that his wife was an extremely good navigator. Eleanor was the navigator on each ship that Josiah commanded during all their years at sea. They were husband and wife, but they also enjoyed working together. VOICE ONE: Eleanor and Josiah Creesy are forever linked to one of the most famous ships in American history. That ship is the Flying Cloud. It was designed and built at the shipyard of Donald McKay in the eastern city of Boston. Grinell, Minturn and Company bought it. Captain Creesy worked for Grinell, Minturn. Company officials chose him to be the captain of the new ship. The Flying Cloud was a new kind of ship. The front was very narrow and sharp. This helped it cut through the water. The ship itself was narrow and long. This also added to its speed. A New York newspaper wrote a story about the ship when it was new. The paper said it was extremely beautiful. The world soon learned it was one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. The large number of sails the Flying Cloud could carry increased the speed of the ship. It usually carried at least twenty-one large sails. The crew often added many more to increase the speed. VOICE TWO: It was the second day of June, Eighteen-Fifty-One. Goods and passengers had been loaded on the Flying Cloud. The ship quietly sailed out of New York City on its way to San Francisco. Very quickly it became evident the ship was special. Part of Eleanor Creesy’s work was to find out how far the ship had traveled each day. This involved doing complex mathematics and usually took Eleanor several hours. The first time she completed her work, she could not believe the results. She did the mathematics again, carefully looking for mistakes. There were none. The ship had traveled almost four-hundred-eighty kilometers in twenty-four hours. This was an extremely fast speed. Few ships had ever sailed this fast. VOICE ONE: The captain of a ship keeps a written record of each day’s events when a ship is at sea. This record is called a ship’s log. On May Fifteenth, just seventeen days after leaving New York, Captain Creesy wrote this in the Flying Cloud’s log: “We have passed the Equator in two days less time than ever before. We have traveled five-thousand-nine-hundred and nine kilometers in seventeen days!” As the Flying Cloud sailed south, each day was extremely exciting. As it neared the South Atlantic, however, storms began to cause great concern. For Eleanor Creesy to learn the correct position of the ship each day, she had to be able to see the Sun, the moon or stars. This was impossible when the ship entered an area of storms. It was then that her greatest skill as a navigator became extremely important. VOICE TWO: When bad weather prevented navigators from seeing the Sun, moon or stars, they had to use a method called “dead reckoning” to find the ship’s position. Dead reckoning is not exact. A navigator would take the last known position of the ship, then add the ship’s speed. The navigator also had to add any movement of the ship to the side caused by waves or the wind. But this information was only a guess. Even a good navigator could be wrong by many kilometers. If a ship was sailing in the middle of the ocean, a navigator could make mistakes using dead reckoning and no harm would be done. However, when a ship was near land, dead reckoning became extremely dangerous. The ship might be much closer to land than the navigator knew. In a storm, the ship could be driven on to land and severely damaged or sunk. Using dead reckoning near the southern most area of South America called for an expert. The Flying Cloud was near land at the end of the South American continent. Eleanor Creesy used all her skill to find a safe path for the huge ship. VOICE ONE: Captain Creesy was responsible for the safety of the Flying Cloud, the passengers and crew. He would be blamed for any serious accident. Most captains did their own navigating. Perhaps no other captain sailing at that time would think to have a woman do this extremely important work. However, Josiah Creesy never questioned his wife’s sailing directions. He would often stand on the deck of his ship, in the cold rain and fierce winds. He would shout below to Missus Creesy and ask for a new sailing direction. She would quickly do the work required for a new dead reckoning direction and pass the information to her husband. Captain Creesy would give the orders to turn the big ship. VOICE TWO: The storm began to grow. The crew put out the fires used for heat and cooking. Fire was a great danger at sea. No fires were ever permitted on a ship during a storm. Not even lamps were lit. Everyone ate cold food. The temperatures were now near freezing. Hour after hour Eleanor Creesy worked to find the ship’s dead reckoning position. When the storm ended, the crew of the Flying Cloud could see the very southern coast of South America…a place called Tierra del Fuego. They could see the snow-covered mountains and huge amounts of blue ice. It was an area of deadly beauty. And, it was only eight kilometers away. Eleanor Creesy had guided the ship perfectly. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: The Flying Cloud sailed north toward San Francisco traveling at speeds no one thought possible. On July Thirty-First, the ship traveled six-hundred and one kilometers in only twenty-four hours. No ship had ever sailed that far in one day. The Flying Cloud had set a world record. That record belonged to the ship, the crew, the captain and the navigator. On August Thirty-first, the Flying Cloud sailed into San Francisco Bay. The Flying Cloud had set a record for sailing from New York to San Francisco. It made the trip in eighty-nine days, and twenty-one hours. Newspapers across the country spread the news. Josiah and Eleanor Creesy were famous. Newspapers wrote stories about them and their beautiful ship. People wanted to meet them. But soon the two were back at sea. Two years later Captain Creesy and his wife again took the Flying Cloud from New York to San Francisco. This time they made the trip in eighty-nine days, eight hours. This record would stand unbroken for more than one-hundred years. VOICE TWO: Josiah and Eleanor Creesy went on to sail in other ships. They continued to work as a team until they left the sea in Eighteen-Sixty-Four. They retired to their home in Massachusetts. Captain Josiah Creesy died in June of Eighteen-Seventy-One. His wife lived until the beginning of the new century. She died at the age of eighty-five, in August of Nineteen-Hundred. Eleanor Creesy is remembered by anyone who loves the history of the sea. She is honored for her great skill as navigator of the Flying Cloud, one of the fastest sailing ships the world has ever seen. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – February 24, 2003: Hispanics in America
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: In the United States, the population of Hispanics is growing fast into America's largest minority group. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Today we report on Hispanics in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: "La Bomba"/Los Lobos) VOICE ONE: Hispanics come from or have ancestors from Spanish-speaking countries. The term Hispanic or Latino describes an ethnic group. Hispanics can be white, black or Latin-American Indian, or a mixture or races. Experts who study communities point out that Hispanics from different countries often have different cultures. Between nineteen-ninety and two-thousand, the Hispanic population in America increased fifty-eight percent. That was more than any other minority group. Recently the Census Bureau estimated that thirty-seven million Hispanics lived in America in two-thousand-one. That was thirteen percent of the population. Just over thirty-six million people were black or African American. However, when the population counters added people of mixed race, that number grew to thirty-seven-point-seven million. VOICE TWO: In little more than one year, from April two-thousand to July two-thousand-one, the number of Hispanics increased four-point-seven percent. This included babies, immigrants and some people here illegally. The African American population grew by just one-point-five percent. During this same period, Asian Americans increased by almost four percent, to twelve-point-five-million. America’s white, non-Hispanic population grew by three-tenths of one percent. Most Hispanics live in the southern and southwestern states. But they have settled in many cities across the country. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, Texas, had the largest numbers in the two-thousand Census. Many of those in New York are from the United States territory of Puerto Rico. In Los Angeles, America's second-largest city, half the people are Hispanic, mostly of Mexican ancestry. VOICE ONE: The roots of Hispanic life in the United States are deep and historic. California, on the Pacific coast, was formerly ruled by Spain and then Mexico. Americans captured California during the Mexican American War in the eighteen-forties. Mexico lost half its land under the treaty that ended the war. Not only California but all or part of six other states grew on this land. Today, among all the fifty states, California has the most people. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles recently announced that the majority of babies born in the state are now Latino. In the words of one researcher, "The future of California looks very much like its nineteenth-century past." VOICE TWO: The largest number of Hispanics in the United States are of Mexican ancestry, followed by people from Puerto Rico. Hispanics also come here from other parts of the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Spain. Hispanics are taking an increasing part in American life. They bring new food, new music and new customs. Religion -- traditionally of the Roman Catholic Church -- is also an important part of family life. VOICE ONE: Hispanics in America are politicians, teachers, engineers, doctors, business leaders and lawyers -- although none has yet reached the Supreme Court. They are actors, artists, writers, poets and musicians. Hispanics like Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan are among popular entertainers. At the same time, though, many Hispanics are poor. There are large numbers of unskilled laborers and farm workers. There are those who struggle with two or three jobs to make a better life for themselves and their children. VOICE TWO: Some African Americans worry about the growth of the Hispanic population. Hispanics have joined the competition for jobs, housing and social aid. Some African Americans see this as unfair, because blacks have struggled hundreds of years for better living conditions in a country that once kept them as slaves. But there are issues of common concern to black and Hispanic groups. Both, for example, oppose government efforts to end special minority-admissions programs by colleges and universities. Also, no group likes to see itself treated unfairly or insulted. Hollywood is one target of criticism by Hispanic activists. They say there are not enough Latinos in television or film -- and when they do appear, it is often as criminals or housekeepers. VOICE ONE: Some experts say it will take years to know how the big increase in the Hispanic population will affect the nation. For one thing, not all who immigrate here become citizens. That means they cannot vote. And then there are the ones here illegally. Immigration officials recently estimated that the United States had seven-million illegal immigrants in January two-thousand. The report said sixty-nine percent of them came from Mexico, up from fifty-eight percent in nineteen-ninety. Still, Hispanics hope to gain more political influence. Some groups already have -- Cuban Americans in Florida, for example. VOICE TWO: More than forty years ago, many Cubans left their island after Fidel Castro took control and established a Communist government. Over time, hundreds of thousands followed. They became extremely successful in business and other professions. Cuban Americans are only four percent of America’s Hispanic population. Yet they exercise strong influence. This was apparent a few years ago in the dispute over a six-year-old Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez. His mother tried to take him to Florida on a small boat at the end of nineteen-ninety-nine, but drowned. Elian was rescued. Relatives in Miami wanted him to live with them. His mother and father had ended their relationship. The administration of President Bill Clinton, however, supported the right of Elian's father to raise him in Cuba. Cuban Americans in Miami protested. Finally, armed federal agents seized the boy. Courts upheld the decision, and Elian went home with his father. But his story captured the interest of the American public. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Because of the large Hispanic population, Spanish is sometimes called America's second language. There is also a mixture of English and Spanish called Spanglish. This version is especially popular with young Hispanics. Spanglish is working its way into popular culture, in music and television shows. But some Spanish language experts see Spanglish as a threat to Spanish culture. One professor says that if Hispanics choose to speak their first language, then they should speak it in its pure form. VOICE TWO: Language is an issue for Hispanics in America. There have been tensions in some states over laws that declare English an official language. There is also debate over bilingual education in schools that receive public money. In California, for example, until recent years, schools taught Spanish-speaking children first in Spanish. Only later, sometimes years later, did the children enter classes taught in English. Opponents said bilingual education slowed the progress of Hispanic children. In nineteen-ninety-eight, Californians rejected this bilingual system. They voted to replace it with one year of intensive preparation in English. VOICE ONE: Many activists protested this new system as unfair. The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund brought legal action. So did other organizations. But courts upheld the measure. Other states have faced similar arguments over bilingual education. In any case, educators agree that more must be done to help Hispanic students get a better education. Many of these young people leave high school without finishing. In places like Los Angeles, many turn to the criminal life of street gangs. Only sixteen-percent of Hispanic high school graduates in America finish four years of college by the age of twenty-nine. VOICE TWO: Activists are working to increase that number. For example, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities represents three-hundred-forty schools. In a recent letter to President Bush, association leader Antonio Flores urged increased federal spending for these schools. The Pew Hispanic Center is a research organization at the University of Southern California. The goal is to improve understanding of the Hispanic population in the United States. Recently the center reported that education levels among Latino immigrants have increased sharply over the past thirty years. It says educational gains are extremely important if millions of Hispanics are to improve their lives in America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In the United States, the population of Hispanics is growing fast into America's largest minority group. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Today we report on Hispanics in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: "La Bomba"/Los Lobos) VOICE ONE: Hispanics come from or have ancestors from Spanish-speaking countries. The term Hispanic or Latino describes an ethnic group. Hispanics can be white, black or Latin-American Indian, or a mixture or races. Experts who study communities point out that Hispanics from different countries often have different cultures. Between nineteen-ninety and two-thousand, the Hispanic population in America increased fifty-eight percent. That was more than any other minority group. Recently the Census Bureau estimated that thirty-seven million Hispanics lived in America in two-thousand-one. That was thirteen percent of the population. Just over thirty-six million people were black or African American. However, when the population counters added people of mixed race, that number grew to thirty-seven-point-seven million. VOICE TWO: In little more than one year, from April two-thousand to July two-thousand-one, the number of Hispanics increased four-point-seven percent. This included babies, immigrants and some people here illegally. The African American population grew by just one-point-five percent. During this same period, Asian Americans increased by almost four percent, to twelve-point-five-million. America’s white, non-Hispanic population grew by three-tenths of one percent. Most Hispanics live in the southern and southwestern states. But they have settled in many cities across the country. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, Texas, had the largest numbers in the two-thousand Census. Many of those in New York are from the United States territory of Puerto Rico. In Los Angeles, America's second-largest city, half the people are Hispanic, mostly of Mexican ancestry. VOICE ONE: The roots of Hispanic life in the United States are deep and historic. California, on the Pacific coast, was formerly ruled by Spain and then Mexico. Americans captured California during the Mexican American War in the eighteen-forties. Mexico lost half its land under the treaty that ended the war. Not only California but all or part of six other states grew on this land. Today, among all the fifty states, California has the most people. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles recently announced that the majority of babies born in the state are now Latino. In the words of one researcher, "The future of California looks very much like its nineteenth-century past." VOICE TWO: The largest number of Hispanics in the United States are of Mexican ancestry, followed by people from Puerto Rico. Hispanics also come here from other parts of the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Spain. Hispanics are taking an increasing part in American life. They bring new food, new music and new customs. Religion -- traditionally of the Roman Catholic Church -- is also an important part of family life. VOICE ONE: Hispanics in America are politicians, teachers, engineers, doctors, business leaders and lawyers -- although none has yet reached the Supreme Court. They are actors, artists, writers, poets and musicians. Hispanics like Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Gloria Estefan are among popular entertainers. At the same time, though, many Hispanics are poor. There are large numbers of unskilled laborers and farm workers. There are those who struggle with two or three jobs to make a better life for themselves and their children. VOICE TWO: Some African Americans worry about the growth of the Hispanic population. Hispanics have joined the competition for jobs, housing and social aid. Some African Americans see this as unfair, because blacks have struggled hundreds of years for better living conditions in a country that once kept them as slaves. But there are issues of common concern to black and Hispanic groups. Both, for example, oppose government efforts to end special minority-admissions programs by colleges and universities. Also, no group likes to see itself treated unfairly or insulted. Hollywood is one target of criticism by Hispanic activists. They say there are not enough Latinos in television or film -- and when they do appear, it is often as criminals or housekeepers. VOICE ONE: Some experts say it will take years to know how the big increase in the Hispanic population will affect the nation. For one thing, not all who immigrate here become citizens. That means they cannot vote. And then there are the ones here illegally. Immigration officials recently estimated that the United States had seven-million illegal immigrants in January two-thousand. The report said sixty-nine percent of them came from Mexico, up from fifty-eight percent in nineteen-ninety. Still, Hispanics hope to gain more political influence. Some groups already have -- Cuban Americans in Florida, for example. VOICE TWO: More than forty years ago, many Cubans left their island after Fidel Castro took control and established a Communist government. Over time, hundreds of thousands followed. They became extremely successful in business and other professions. Cuban Americans are only four percent of America’s Hispanic population. Yet they exercise strong influence. This was apparent a few years ago in the dispute over a six-year-old Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez. His mother tried to take him to Florida on a small boat at the end of nineteen-ninety-nine, but drowned. Elian was rescued. Relatives in Miami wanted him to live with them. His mother and father had ended their relationship. The administration of President Bill Clinton, however, supported the right of Elian's father to raise him in Cuba. Cuban Americans in Miami protested. Finally, armed federal agents seized the boy. Courts upheld the decision, and Elian went home with his father. But his story captured the interest of the American public. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Because of the large Hispanic population, Spanish is sometimes called America's second language. There is also a mixture of English and Spanish called Spanglish. This version is especially popular with young Hispanics. Spanglish is working its way into popular culture, in music and television shows. But some Spanish language experts see Spanglish as a threat to Spanish culture. One professor says that if Hispanics choose to speak their first language, then they should speak it in its pure form. VOICE TWO: Language is an issue for Hispanics in America. There have been tensions in some states over laws that declare English an official language. There is also debate over bilingual education in schools that receive public money. In California, for example, until recent years, schools taught Spanish-speaking children first in Spanish. Only later, sometimes years later, did the children enter classes taught in English. Opponents said bilingual education slowed the progress of Hispanic children. In nineteen-ninety-eight, Californians rejected this bilingual system. They voted to replace it with one year of intensive preparation in English. VOICE ONE: Many activists protested this new system as unfair. The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund brought legal action. So did other organizations. But courts upheld the measure. Other states have faced similar arguments over bilingual education. In any case, educators agree that more must be done to help Hispanic students get a better education. Many of these young people leave high school without finishing. In places like Los Angeles, many turn to the criminal life of street gangs. Only sixteen-percent of Hispanic high school graduates in America finish four years of college by the age of twenty-nine. VOICE TWO: Activists are working to increase that number. For example, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities represents three-hundred-forty schools. In a recent letter to President Bush, association leader Antonio Flores urged increased federal spending for these schools. The Pew Hispanic Center is a research organization at the University of Southern California. The goal is to improve understanding of the Hispanic population in the United States. Recently the center reported that education levels among Latino immigrants have increased sharply over the past thirty years. It says educational gains are extremely important if millions of Hispanics are to improve their lives in America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – February 24, 2003: Female Genital Cutting
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Activists for the rights of women have declared a yearly observance to oppose the cutting of female sex organs. This tradition is followed mostly in Africa. February sixth is to be observed as what organizers call an International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation. Delegates at a conference in Ethiopia marked the first observance this month. They condemned the cutting as a form of torture. The wives of the presidents of Burkina Faso, Guinea, Nigeria and Mali took part in the conference. The World Health Organization estimates that one-hundred-thirty-million girls and women have experienced some form of cutting. The cutting involves removing part or all of the female genitals. The United Nations Children’s Fund called on world leaders to end this tradition by two-thousand-ten. UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy said that each year an estimated two-million girls are at risk of cutting. She said laws against it need to be put in place and enforced. About half the fifty-three countries in Africa have banned the tradition. But it continues. The cutting is usually done without any medicine for the pain. Infections can result from the use of dirty cutting tools. Severe bleeding can lead to shock and death. Cutting can also interfere with pregnancy and birth. And medical experts say it can affect the mental health of women by interfering with normal sexual desire. The age at which the cutting is performed differs from culture to culture. It is usually done between the ages of four and twelve. The reasons for doing it also differ from place to place. Some cultures see it as a normal process based on love and a wish to protect. Other cultures see it as part of the path to becoming a woman. Africa is not the only place where female genital cutting takes place. The tradition is also common in some Middle Eastern countries. Some Muslim groups in Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and India also do it. Efforts to end cutting face resistance from women who see no harm in this tradition. They defend its cultural value. No matter where it happens, though, activists say it violates the human rights of girls and women. They say it is important in the campaign against cutting to educate not only females but also boys and men about this issue. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Iraq War Plans and Protests
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 22, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Planning for a possible war against Iraq continued this week. So did anti-war protests. These included a march on Thursday by thousands of people in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Last Saturday millions of people protested in Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada. People in the Middle East and other nations also held demonstrations. Technology has given activists a new way to organize worldwide protests against war. Many protesters were responding to a campaign for peaceful demonstrations organized on the Internet. In the United States, a coalition of groups is asking people to protest electronically to the White House and Congress next week. The national director of an organization called "Win Without War" called for a “virtual protest” on Wednesday. The organizers want people to send their opinions to national leaders by e-mail, telephone and fax machines. At the United Nations this week, the United States and Britain worked on a second resolution on Iraq to propose in the Security Council. Officials said it could contain a date by which Iraqi President Saddam Hussein must obey the November resolution to disarm or face military action. President Bush has said the United States might lead a coalition to act without a second resolution. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said this week that United States forces are ready if Mister Bush orders an attack. More than one-hundred-thousand American and British troops were reported in the Persian Gulf area. Also this week, NATO approved the deployment of some defensive weapons to Turkey before a possible war. Talks continued about the use of Turkish bases by American troops. With bases in Turkey, up to forty-thousand troops could invade Iraq by land from the north. France, Russia and China continued to oppose armed intervention in Iraq. They want to let U-N weapons inspectors finish looking for chemical, biological or nuclear programs. These three nations are permanent members of the Security Council. So any one of them could veto a resolution. France’s President Jacques Chirac said another U-N resolution is not needed at this time. Germany also wants diplomatic efforts to continue. The Germans said they might withdraw their peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan if a war in Iraq worsens tensions in the area. Germany and the Netherlands currently hold joint command of almost five-thousand international peacekeepers around Kabul. Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized countries that want more time for U-N inspections. He said these countries fear taking responsibility for a possible war. President Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice also criticized calls to extend U-N weapons inspections. She said these calls have weakened pressure against Saddam Hussein. This VOA Special English In the News was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 25, 2003: Premature Births, Fast Food and Dolly the Sheep
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT— February 25, 2003: US-EU Dispute over Genetically Modified Foods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The Bush administration has been trying to get the European Union to accept new genetically engineered crops. The administration has talked about bringing a case to the World Trade Organization. Earlier this month, however, officials said the administration had decided not to bring a case at least for now. For one thing, they said the Iraq situation had made it harder to gather top administration officials to discuss trade. For another, a White House official told the New York Times that this was not a good time to risk angering European allies. But in recent days there have been conflicting reports about the possibility of legal action. An Agriculture Department trade adviser said no decision had been made. The European Union stopped approving new genetically engineered crops in nineteen-ninety-eight. It does not ban imports of already approved products from the United States. However, these products must say that they contain "genetically modified" material. American critics of the European policy say such products should not have to be specially marked. They point to studies that show such crops are safe. United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has argued that genetically engineered foods could ease starvation in Africa. Some developing countries have refused to accept such food aid. One fear is that Europe will reject their food exports if they use genetically engineered seed. Mister Zoellick went so far as to call the European position "immoral" -- a charge E-U officials rejected. Public opinion is also an issue. Many Europeans do not want to buy genetically engineered foods. Many stores will not sell them. Americans generally do not know if the foods they eat contain such crops. E-U officials have expressed concern about how these crops might effect the environment. There are other issues as well. Genetically engineered seed costs more. E-U officials have questioned the profitability. In two-thousand-one, the European Union created new rules for approving genetically engineered organisms. Top E-U food safety and agricultural officials say they do not oppose genetically changed products. They say they are only finishing a long process of creating rules for production and sale. E-U officials said now would not be a good time for the Bush administration to try to force the issue. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT  -- Cancer and Children
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: February 26, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Most children who die of cancer are in developing nations. British researchers say only ten percent of children with cancer in these countries survive. They say many more could be saved if their countries had the resources needed to find cancers and treat them. Around the world, about one-hundred-sixty-six thousand children under age fifteen are found each year to have cancer. The researchers say eighty-four percent of these cases are found in developing countries. But many others go unnoticed. Children from industrial countries who do get cancer also have a much better chance to survive. For example, more than seventy percent in countries like Britain and the United States are alive after five years. An organization called Cancer Research United Kingdom announced these numbers to mark International Childhood Cancer Day on February fifteenth. The purpose of the event is to educate the public and raise money for children with cancer. Cancer Research U-K says fifty-four percent of cancer cases among children strike in Asia. Also, more than half of all child cancer deaths happen in Asia. Africa has twenty-percent of childhood cancer cases and twenty-five percent of the deaths. Vaskar Saha of Cancer Research U-K is a childhood cancer expert. Professor Saha called for an international campaign against childhood cancer similar to the campaign against AIDS. The goal would be to increase the supply and reduce the cost of drugs to treat cancer in developing countries. Earlier this month, world trade negotiators agreed to continue to look for ways to cut drug prices for developing nations. Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells. Drug companies say they have improved this treatment in recent years while reducing harmful side effects. But many developing countries cannot pay for chemotherapy drugs. Another way to fight cancer is to cut out the diseased cells. A third way is to use radiation to target cancer cells. Scientists say most cancers are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental conditions. There are warning signs of childhood cancer. These can include a white spot in the eye, unusual growths, weight loss and tiredness. Unexplained bleeding, pain and high body temperature are other possible signs. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 26, 2003: Lewis and Clark
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the Special English program Explorations. Today we begin a series of four programs that celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the most famous exploration in the history of the United States. The trip is still known by the names of the two men who led the group -- Lewis and Clark. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today, it is possible to drive an automobile from Saint Louis, Missouri to Astoria, Oregon and back again in a few days. It is easy to drive using the Interstate highway system. That same trip took Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and the members of their group two years, four months and nine days. They left Saint Louis on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four and arrived back in the city on September twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six. They traveled almost thirteen-thousand kilometers. VOICE TWO: Today, a trip across the United States really takes very little planning. You can buy airplane tickets. Or you can buy a few maps that show the Interstate highway system, get in your car and go. Two hundred years ago, however, such a trip was extremely dangerous. It took months of planning. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of more than thirty people into huge areas of land that had never been explored. They left on this exploration from the city of Saint Louis, on the Missouri River. Today, Saint Louis is a huge modern city. The day Lewis and Clark left on the exploration, Saint Louis was the end of civilization. No one knew what lay ahead. They did not know what kind of animals they would see. They did not know if there were tall mountains or huge rivers. However, they did know that they might see fierce Indian tribes. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were the first educated white Americans to travel across the land that would become the United States. History experts today say the Lewis and Clark trip was one of the most important events in American history. They also agree that no two men could have done a better job or been more successful. The two men added greatly to the knowledge of the American northwest. Clark’s maps provided information about huge areas that had been unknown. VOICE TWO: William Clark drew excellent maps. Meriwether Lewis wrote about the birds, fish and animals the group observed. He described about one-hundred different kinds of animals. Of these, eleven birds, two fish and eleven mammals had not been recorded before. Lewis also wrote about plants and trees that scientists had never seen. Modern scientists say his information is still good. They say Lewis was extremely careful and provided valuable information for the time. They say he wrote more like a scientist of today than one of his own century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On January eighteenth, eighteen-oh-three, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress for the money to pay for a group of explorers to travel to the Pacific Ocean. On the two-hundredth anniversary of that day, the United States began celebrating the Lewis and Clark journey. The celebration took place where the idea for the famous trip may have begun – at the famous home of President Thomas Jefferson called Monticello. It is near the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. More than three-thousand-five hundred people attended the celebration. They included more than two-hundred American Indians representing more than forty tribes. VOICE TWO: The celebration was called “Jefferson’s West: A Lewis and Clark Exposition.” It included a six-day series of talks, demonstrations, performances and social events at Monticello. Events were also held at the University of Virginia and other places near Charlottesville. The celebration included a special display of objects connected to the Lewis and Clark exploration. These objects can be seen at Monticello during the next year. These objects include pieces from Monticello’s collections, objects on loan from other institutions and objects made by modern American Indian artists. Many were collected by the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition and brought back to President Jefferson. VOICE ONE: Recently, President George Bush signed a special document announcing the two-hundredth-anniversary celebration of the Lewis and Clark exploration. President Bush asked all Americans to observe the event with special activities that honor the work of Lewis and Clark. He also directed federal agencies to cooperate with each other, the states and American Indian tribes to tell the story of Lewis and Clark. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is impossible to list all the events that will honor the work of Lewis and Clark. The explorers passed through many areas that became large cities or small towns. Most of these cities and towns have planned events to observe the anniversary. One of the largest will take place in Saint Louis, Missouri. Lewis and Clark began their exploration from that city. Only three months before the exploration began, the United States had bought a huge area of land from France and Spain. That area of land was called the Louisiana Purchase. The two-hundredth anniversary of that event will also be observed in Saint Louis. The king of Spain, the president of France and the president of the United States have been invited to the celebration. So have the governors of those states created out of the area of land bought in the Louisiana Purchase. VOICE ONE: Another special event will be held near the city of Greenwood, South Dakota. Lewis and Clark first met the members of the Yankton Sioux Indian tribe near this place. Members of the modern Yankton Sioux will provide many special events that show their tribe’s culture and arts. Members of the tribe will tell visitors about their history. VOICE TWO: When Lewis and Clark reached an area that is now called Great Falls in the state of Montana, they had to carry their boats for many kilometers over land. This event will be celebrated in modern Great Falls, Montana with thirty-four days of special events. The events begin on June first, two-thousand-five. One of the events will be a Plains Indian Culture Day with American Indian arts, singing, and dancing. Experts in a traditional Indian Village will talk about Lewis and Clark. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Both Lewis and Clark wrote about the trip every day in books called journals. On November seventh, eighteen-oh-five, Lewis and Clark and their group were traveling down the great Columbia River. That day, William Clark wrote in his journal: “Ocean in View…Oh the Joy!” The group had reached the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River now separates the states of Washington and Oregon. The group landed first on what would become the Washington state side of the river. Here, they voted to cross over to what became the state of Oregon. A few kilometers from the great river they built a small group of buildings. They would live there for the winter. They named it Fort Clatsop. A copy of the little buildings the group used is now the Fort Clatsop National Memorial. The little fort will hold special events during the anniversary celebrations. The buildings are near the city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors can see how the Lewis and Clark group lived during the time they spent there. There will also be ceremonies to observe new memorials to the Lewis and Clark expedition near Fort Clatsop. A number of special events are planned beginning November twenty-fourth, two-thousand-five. VOICE TWO: On September twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six, the Lewis and Clark exploration ended where it began in Saint Louis, Missouri. The National Park Service and a special commission of the states of Missouri and Illinois will recreate the arrival of Lewis and Clark in Saint Louis. There will be special programs at the place the group landed. The president of the United States will be invited to attend the ceremonies. VOICE ONE: Between now and two-thousand-six, many newspaper and magazine stories will be written about Lewis and Clark. New books have already been published and are popular. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you too can take part in observing the two-hundredth anniversary of this famous exploration. Many areas on the Internet now celebrate the trip. Ask your computer to search for Lewis and Clark. L-E-W-I-S and C-L-A-R-K. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week as we tell the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the American Northwest on EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the Special English program Explorations. Today we begin a series of four programs that celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the most famous exploration in the history of the United States. The trip is still known by the names of the two men who led the group -- Lewis and Clark. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today, it is possible to drive an automobile from Saint Louis, Missouri to Astoria, Oregon and back again in a few days. It is easy to drive using the Interstate highway system. That same trip took Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and the members of their group two years, four months and nine days. They left Saint Louis on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four and arrived back in the city on September twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six. They traveled almost thirteen-thousand kilometers. VOICE TWO: Today, a trip across the United States really takes very little planning. You can buy airplane tickets. Or you can buy a few maps that show the Interstate highway system, get in your car and go. Two hundred years ago, however, such a trip was extremely dangerous. It took months of planning. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of more than thirty people into huge areas of land that had never been explored. They left on this exploration from the city of Saint Louis, on the Missouri River. Today, Saint Louis is a huge modern city. The day Lewis and Clark left on the exploration, Saint Louis was the end of civilization. No one knew what lay ahead. They did not know what kind of animals they would see. They did not know if there were tall mountains or huge rivers. However, they did know that they might see fierce Indian tribes. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were the first educated white Americans to travel across the land that would become the United States. History experts today say the Lewis and Clark trip was one of the most important events in American history. They also agree that no two men could have done a better job or been more successful. The two men added greatly to the knowledge of the American northwest. Clark’s maps provided information about huge areas that had been unknown. VOICE TWO: William Clark drew excellent maps. Meriwether Lewis wrote about the birds, fish and animals the group observed. He described about one-hundred different kinds of animals. Of these, eleven birds, two fish and eleven mammals had not been recorded before. Lewis also wrote about plants and trees that scientists had never seen. Modern scientists say his information is still good. They say Lewis was extremely careful and provided valuable information for the time. They say he wrote more like a scientist of today than one of his own century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On January eighteenth, eighteen-oh-three, President Thomas Jefferson asked Congress for the money to pay for a group of explorers to travel to the Pacific Ocean. On the two-hundredth anniversary of that day, the United States began celebrating the Lewis and Clark journey. The celebration took place where the idea for the famous trip may have begun – at the famous home of President Thomas Jefferson called Monticello. It is near the city of Charlottesville, Virginia. More than three-thousand-five hundred people attended the celebration. They included more than two-hundred American Indians representing more than forty tribes. VOICE TWO: The celebration was called “Jefferson’s West: A Lewis and Clark Exposition.” It included a six-day series of talks, demonstrations, performances and social events at Monticello. Events were also held at the University of Virginia and other places near Charlottesville. The celebration included a special display of objects connected to the Lewis and Clark exploration. These objects can be seen at Monticello during the next year. These objects include pieces from Monticello’s collections, objects on loan from other institutions and objects made by modern American Indian artists. Many were collected by the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition and brought back to President Jefferson. VOICE ONE: Recently, President George Bush signed a special document announcing the two-hundredth-anniversary celebration of the Lewis and Clark exploration. President Bush asked all Americans to observe the event with special activities that honor the work of Lewis and Clark. He also directed federal agencies to cooperate with each other, the states and American Indian tribes to tell the story of Lewis and Clark. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is impossible to list all the events that will honor the work of Lewis and Clark. The explorers passed through many areas that became large cities or small towns. Most of these cities and towns have planned events to observe the anniversary. One of the largest will take place in Saint Louis, Missouri. Lewis and Clark began their exploration from that city. Only three months before the exploration began, the United States had bought a huge area of land from France and Spain. That area of land was called the Louisiana Purchase. The two-hundredth anniversary of that event will also be observed in Saint Louis. The king of Spain, the president of France and the president of the United States have been invited to the celebration. So have the governors of those states created out of the area of land bought in the Louisiana Purchase. VOICE ONE: Another special event will be held near the city of Greenwood, South Dakota. Lewis and Clark first met the members of the Yankton Sioux Indian tribe near this place. Members of the modern Yankton Sioux will provide many special events that show their tribe’s culture and arts. Members of the tribe will tell visitors about their history. VOICE TWO: When Lewis and Clark reached an area that is now called Great Falls in the state of Montana, they had to carry their boats for many kilometers over land. This event will be celebrated in modern Great Falls, Montana with thirty-four days of special events. The events begin on June first, two-thousand-five. One of the events will be a Plains Indian Culture Day with American Indian arts, singing, and dancing. Experts in a traditional Indian Village will talk about Lewis and Clark. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Both Lewis and Clark wrote about the trip every day in books called journals. On November seventh, eighteen-oh-five, Lewis and Clark and their group were traveling down the great Columbia River. That day, William Clark wrote in his journal: “Ocean in View…Oh the Joy!” The group had reached the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia River now separates the states of Washington and Oregon. The group landed first on what would become the Washington state side of the river. Here, they voted to cross over to what became the state of Oregon. A few kilometers from the great river they built a small group of buildings. They would live there for the winter. They named it Fort Clatsop. A copy of the little buildings the group used is now the Fort Clatsop National Memorial. The little fort will hold special events during the anniversary celebrations. The buildings are near the city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors can see how the Lewis and Clark group lived during the time they spent there. There will also be ceremonies to observe new memorials to the Lewis and Clark expedition near Fort Clatsop. A number of special events are planned beginning November twenty-fourth, two-thousand-five. VOICE TWO: On September twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six, the Lewis and Clark exploration ended where it began in Saint Louis, Missouri. The National Park Service and a special commission of the states of Missouri and Illinois will recreate the arrival of Lewis and Clark in Saint Louis. There will be special programs at the place the group landed. The president of the United States will be invited to attend the ceremonies. VOICE ONE: Between now and two-thousand-six, many newspaper and magazine stories will be written about Lewis and Clark. New books have already been published and are popular. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you too can take part in observing the two-hundredth anniversary of this famous exploration. Many areas on the Internet now celebrate the trip. Ask your computer to search for Lewis and Clark. L-E-W-I-S and C-L-A-R-K. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week as we tell the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of the American Northwest on EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - February 27, 2003: Foreign Student Series #24: Orange Coast Community College
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. Today, we report on one of the largest community colleges in the United States as we continue our Foreign Student Series. This series tells about how to attend an American college or university. Students generally attend a community college for two years. Orange Coast College is in southern California, in the city of Costa Mesa -- between Los Angeles and San Diego. The school has about twenty-four-thousand students. It offers more than one-hundred programs to train students for jobs. It also prepares students who want to complete their studies at a four-year college or university. Foreign students who want to attend Orange Coast College must earn a score of at least five-hundred on the written Test of English as a Foreign Language. They must score at least one-hundred-seventy-three on the computer TOEFL. Foreign students must also take tests in English and mathematics once they arrive. Each student has an adviser to help choose which classes to take. The total cost to attend Orange Coast College for one year is about thirteen-thousand dollars. This includes three-thousand dollars for classes. Housing and food cost seven-thousand dollars. The rest of the cost is for books and other supplies and health insurance. Orange Coast College does not provide housing for its students. Foreign students can use the International Student Center at the school to find local families to live with. The center also helps foreign students prepare any necessary documents, choose activities and plan for trips. Since nineteen-ninety-five, more than five-thousand-five-hundred foreign students have attended Orange Coast College. Many come from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but students have come from more than ninety countries in all. College officials say most foreign students are in programs to train for work. Others are preparing to attend a four-year college or university. Many are studying business or computer science. Orange Coast College is on the Internet at www.occ.cccd.edu. And our Foreign Student Series is on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #1 – February 27, 2003: Introduction
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we begin the series of more than two-hundred programs about American history. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each week at this time we will tell a story from the history of the United States of America. THE MAKING OF A NATION is really a series of lessons. These lessons include ancient history, modern history, exploration, revolution, politics, civil war, industrial expansion and modern technology. Our first program in the series tells about the first people who came to the Western Hemisphere. The story will continue to show what happened as time passed. What is news today will become history tomorrow. And that history becomes a new and important part of THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE TWO: THE MAKING OF A NATION answers questions about American history. How was the United States formed? Why was it necessary for loyal citizens to rebel against one nation and form a new nation with different laws? What was missing in their older form of government that would cause them to begin a rebellion? We explain how a group of farmers, businessmen and lawyers could write a document called the Constitution of the United States. And we explain why that document is still extremely important today. The answers to those questions and the writing of the Constitution resulted in the creation of the United States of America. The Constitution of the United States has been used by more than one government as a guide to creating a modern democracy. VOICE ONE: In other programs, we explain why it was necessary for those who formed the United States to include laws that guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We tell why they thought it was important to guarantee every citizen the right to write, print and publish material on any subject. And we explain why they felt there was a need to include a law that guaranteed a person the right to a fair and public trial if that person was charged with a crime. VOICE TWO: The American Revolution was fought for several reasons. One of the most important was the idea that citizens of a country should have a voice in its decisions. The men who led the revolt against Britain wanted to be able to vote. They agreed that a citizen should have a voice in the government that ruled his country. British citizens in the American colonies paid taxes but had no representative in the British Parliament. This lack of representation caused a growing anger in the American colonies. When the men who led the revolt against Britain formed a new government they made sure that all free men who owned land and paid taxes were permitted to vote. More importantly they decided that any free citizen could be a candidate for public office. Our series of programs explains this idea. These programs describe the elections of each American president. We tell why some candidates were successful and why others failed. We also tell about mistakes that were made when the United States was created. The greatest mistake was slavery. We tell about slavery and the pain and suffering it caused for all those involved. We tell of the great Civil War that was fought to keep the United States united and to end slavery. We also tell how election laws were changed to permit any citizen over the age of eighteen to vote in local and national elections. VOICE ONE: Many of our programs tell about the ideas and issues that had a great effect on the United States. But most importantly, we tell about the people who worked with these ideas and issues to make the United States a successful nation. We tell about George Washington. He began life as a farmer. He became a military commander and the first president of the United States. He became a soldier because his country needed him. He became president because the citizens of the new country wanted him as their leader. When his time as president was over, George Washington gave up power and once again became a farmer and a private citizen. We tell about Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the beautiful words of the Declaration of Independence. That document told the world that the people in this new country would no longer answer to a European ruler. VOICE TWO: Some of the men who formed the United States into a nation during the seventeen-hundreds were well educated and wealthy. Abraham Lincoln was not. He was proof that in a nation of equal laws, a poor man could rise to become the president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln became president during the eighteen-sixties when several southern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the United States. We tell how President Lincoln dealt with the terrible Civil War that almost split the country apart. VOICE ONE: One of our programs deals with a speech that President Lincoln gave in the little town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A great battle had been fought there. President Lincoln had been asked to come to Gettysburg to say a few words at the dedication of a military burial place. What he said that day became one of the most famous speeches in the English language. President Lincoln’s speech honored the young men who had died on that bloody battlefield. He also told the world why the terrible war was being fought and why it was so important. Listen to the first sentence of his famous speech. In only a few words, President Lincoln explained the idea that was, and is still, so important to each citizen of the United States. VOICE THREE: "Four Score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” You can hear all of President Lincoln’s famous words in our program about his speech at Gettysburg. We tell how he wrote the speech. And we tell about the sadness he felt because he believed his few words had been a failure. The story of the famous Gettysburg Address is only one of several programs that tell the story of Abraham Lincoln. VOICE TWO: THE MAKING OF A NATION includes programs about many different subjects. We tell about culture. We tell about social changes. For example, we tell about a time called the Roaring Twenties. They were the years from nineteen-twenty to nineteen-twenty nine. It was a time when young men and women began to change some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. The Roaring Twenties were years of revolution in social values among some Americans. Movies were new and exciting. Music was changing. And newspapers were printing as many as five editions a day to present the latest news. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, radios could be found in most American homes. And a young pilot named Charles Lindbergh flew a small plane from the United States to an airport near Paris, France. He became a world hero for flying alone across the Atlantic Ocean. VOICE ONE: The Roaring Twenties ended with a crash. That crash was the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. The economic crisis was called the Great Depression. The MAKING OF A NATION explains what caused this depression. We tell how millions of Americans were without work. We tell the sad story of people who lost their jobs, their homes and their hope for the future. We tell how this great economic failure affected Americans and the rest of the world. VOICE TWO: We also tell about the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt. He was elected to office with a promise that he would bring the United States out of the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt served longer than any other president in American history. We tell about the elections and administrations of the presidents elected since that time. We tell about World War One, World War Two and other wars. And we tell about the social, cultural and historic events that were important to the growth of the United States as a nation. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember.The first of more than two-hundred programs in this series begins next week at this time. We tell about the first humans to come to the Western Hemisphere. Join us for this special story on THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we begin the series of more than two-hundred programs about American history. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each week at this time we will tell a story from the history of the United States of America. THE MAKING OF A NATION is really a series of lessons. These lessons include ancient history, modern history, exploration, revolution, politics, civil war, industrial expansion and modern technology. Our first program in the series tells about the first people who came to the Western Hemisphere. The story will continue to show what happened as time passed. What is news today will become history tomorrow. And that history becomes a new and important part of THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE TWO: THE MAKING OF A NATION answers questions about American history. How was the United States formed? Why was it necessary for loyal citizens to rebel against one nation and form a new nation with different laws? What was missing in their older form of government that would cause them to begin a rebellion? We explain how a group of farmers, businessmen and lawyers could write a document called the Constitution of the United States. And we explain why that document is still extremely important today. The answers to those questions and the writing of the Constitution resulted in the creation of the United States of America. The Constitution of the United States has been used by more than one government as a guide to creating a modern democracy. VOICE ONE: In other programs, we explain why it was necessary for those who formed the United States to include laws that guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We tell why they thought it was important to guarantee every citizen the right to write, print and publish material on any subject. And we explain why they felt there was a need to include a law that guaranteed a person the right to a fair and public trial if that person was charged with a crime. VOICE TWO: The American Revolution was fought for several reasons. One of the most important was the idea that citizens of a country should have a voice in its decisions. The men who led the revolt against Britain wanted to be able to vote. They agreed that a citizen should have a voice in the government that ruled his country. British citizens in the American colonies paid taxes but had no representative in the British Parliament. This lack of representation caused a growing anger in the American colonies. When the men who led the revolt against Britain formed a new government they made sure that all free men who owned land and paid taxes were permitted to vote. More importantly they decided that any free citizen could be a candidate for public office. Our series of programs explains this idea. These programs describe the elections of each American president. We tell why some candidates were successful and why others failed. We also tell about mistakes that were made when the United States was created. The greatest mistake was slavery. We tell about slavery and the pain and suffering it caused for all those involved. We tell of the great Civil War that was fought to keep the United States united and to end slavery. We also tell how election laws were changed to permit any citizen over the age of eighteen to vote in local and national elections. VOICE ONE: Many of our programs tell about the ideas and issues that had a great effect on the United States. But most importantly, we tell about the people who worked with these ideas and issues to make the United States a successful nation. We tell about George Washington. He began life as a farmer. He became a military commander and the first president of the United States. He became a soldier because his country needed him. He became president because the citizens of the new country wanted him as their leader. When his time as president was over, George Washington gave up power and once again became a farmer and a private citizen. We tell about Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the beautiful words of the Declaration of Independence. That document told the world that the people in this new country would no longer answer to a European ruler. VOICE TWO: Some of the men who formed the United States into a nation during the seventeen-hundreds were well educated and wealthy. Abraham Lincoln was not. He was proof that in a nation of equal laws, a poor man could rise to become the president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln became president during the eighteen-sixties when several southern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the United States. We tell how President Lincoln dealt with the terrible Civil War that almost split the country apart. VOICE ONE: One of our programs deals with a speech that President Lincoln gave in the little town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A great battle had been fought there. President Lincoln had been asked to come to Gettysburg to say a few words at the dedication of a military burial place. What he said that day became one of the most famous speeches in the English language. President Lincoln’s speech honored the young men who had died on that bloody battlefield. He also told the world why the terrible war was being fought and why it was so important. Listen to the first sentence of his famous speech. In only a few words, President Lincoln explained the idea that was, and is still, so important to each citizen of the United States. VOICE THREE: "Four Score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” You can hear all of President Lincoln’s famous words in our program about his speech at Gettysburg. We tell how he wrote the speech. And we tell about the sadness he felt because he believed his few words had been a failure. The story of the famous Gettysburg Address is only one of several programs that tell the story of Abraham Lincoln. VOICE TWO: THE MAKING OF A NATION includes programs about many different subjects. We tell about culture. We tell about social changes. For example, we tell about a time called the Roaring Twenties. They were the years from nineteen-twenty to nineteen-twenty nine. It was a time when young men and women began to change some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. The Roaring Twenties were years of revolution in social values among some Americans. Movies were new and exciting. Music was changing. And newspapers were printing as many as five editions a day to present the latest news. By the end of the Roaring Twenties, radios could be found in most American homes. And a young pilot named Charles Lindbergh flew a small plane from the United States to an airport near Paris, France. He became a world hero for flying alone across the Atlantic Ocean. VOICE ONE: The Roaring Twenties ended with a crash. That crash was the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. The economic crisis was called the Great Depression. The MAKING OF A NATION explains what caused this depression. We tell how millions of Americans were without work. We tell the sad story of people who lost their jobs, their homes and their hope for the future. We tell how this great economic failure affected Americans and the rest of the world. VOICE TWO: We also tell about the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt. He was elected to office with a promise that he would bring the United States out of the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt served longer than any other president in American history. We tell about the elections and administrations of the presidents elected since that time. We tell about World War One, World War Two and other wars. And we tell about the social, cultural and historic events that were important to the growth of the United States as a nation. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember.The first of more than two-hundred programs in this series begins next week at this time. We tell about the first humans to come to the Western Hemisphere. Join us for this special story on THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 28, 2003: Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' Manuscript Goes on the Road / Singer Eva Cassidy / Question About What to See and Do in Oklahoma City
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by Eva Cassidy ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by Eva Cassidy ... Answer a question about Oklahoma City ... And report about a famous book by Jack Kerouac. Kerouac Manuscript Tour HOST: “On The Road," the book by Jack Kerouac, was first published in nineteen-fifty-seven. Since then, it has sold more than three-million copies. It has been translated into twenty-five languages. It is often called a defining work of a group of writers during the nineteen-fifties known as “The Beat Generation.” Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Answer a question about Oklahoma City ... And report about a famous book by Jack Kerouac. Kerouac Manuscript Tour HOST: “On The Road," the book by Jack Kerouac, was first published in nineteen-fifty-seven. Since then, it has sold more than three-million copies. It has been translated into twenty-five languages. It is often called a defining work of a group of writers during the nineteen-fifties known as “The Beat Generation.” Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: “On The Road” is the story of two young men as they travel back and forth across the United States. The young men are Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity. They and many of the other people who appear in the book are said to be similar to Jack Kerouac and his many unusual friends. Listen as the writer himself reads from “On the Road”: KEROUAC: "There he goes, Dean Moriarity, ragged in a moth eaten overcoat that he brought specially for the freezing temperatures of the East. Walking off alone, the last I saw of him, he rounded a corner of Seventh Avenue. Eyes on the street ahead, intent to it again. Gone!” Jack Kerouac worked intensively for three weeks when he was ready to put "On the Road" on paper. He typed it on several long pieces that he connected to form a continuous document. It rolls out to thirty-six-meters long. Two years ago, American businessman Jim Irsay bought the original “On the Road” for more than two-million dollars. He paid more than had ever been paid for a literary manuscript. Mister Irsay wanted the manuscript to travel across America in the years before two-thousand-seven -- the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. The document can be seen today at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It will remain there until May. Then it will begin its travels across the United States. Stops will include Lowell, Massachusetts; Orlando, Florida; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tour organizer Myra Barshoff says “On the Road” may even travel outside the country. She is now trying to organize showings in Britain and Japan. Jack Kerouac wrote other books. But he had trouble with all the fame that "On the Road" brought him. He drank heavily. Jack Kerouac died in nineteen-sixty-nine. He was forty-seven years old. “On The Road” is the story of two young men as they travel back and forth across the United States. The young men are Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity. They and many of the other people who appear in the book are said to be similar to Jack Kerouac and his many unusual friends. Listen as the writer himself reads from “On the Road”: KEROUAC: "There he goes, Dean Moriarity, ragged in a moth eaten overcoat that he brought specially for the freezing temperatures of the East. Walking off alone, the last I saw of him, he rounded a corner of Seventh Avenue. Eyes on the street ahead, intent to it again. Gone!” Jack Kerouac worked intensively for three weeks when he was ready to put "On the Road" on paper. He typed it on several long pieces that he connected to form a continuous document. It rolls out to thirty-six-meters long. Two years ago, American businessman Jim Irsay bought the original “On the Road” for more than two-million dollars. He paid more than had ever been paid for a literary manuscript. Mister Irsay wanted the manuscript to travel across America in the years before two-thousand-seven -- the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. The document can be seen today at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It will remain there until May. Then it will begin its travels across the United States. Stops will include Lowell, Massachusetts; Orlando, Florida; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tour organizer Myra Barshoff says “On the Road” may even travel outside the country. She is now trying to organize showings in Britain and Japan. Jack Kerouac wrote other books. But he had trouble with all the fame that "On the Road" brought him. He drank heavily. Jack Kerouac died in nineteen-sixty-nine. He was forty-seven years old. Oklahoma City HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Margie Cao Trang in Ho Chi Minh City has a question about Oklahoma City. She wants to know what a visitor to America can see and do there. Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city in the state of Oklahoma, in the south central United States. More than one-million people live in the area. It is one of the centers of oil production in America. Visitors to Oklahoma City can ride a water taxi boat through a new area of stores and eating places called Bricktown. They can also visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. There is also the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Visitors can explore through thousands of plants over at the Myriad Botanical Gardens. You can walk up a vine-covered mountain and under a waterfall. Outside the city is the Read Ranch. Visitors can ride on wagons to an Old West frontier town. They can watch horse races at nearby Remington Park. And they can enjoy live shows and fifty rides at the Frontier City Amusement Park. Yet, Oklahoma City is also known for something terrible that happened. On April nineteenth, nineteen-ninety-five, a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. A former American soldier named Timothy McVeigh was executed for the attack. The city has built a memorial that includes parts of the destroyed building. Visitors enter the memorial area through a gate on the east side. This gate represents the time of nine-oh-one in the morning, just before the explosion. Visitors leave through the western gate which represents the time of nine-oh-three and the lives that were changed forever. Between the two gates is a reflecting pool and one-hundred-sixty-eight empty chairs -- one for each person killed. A tree that survived the bombing stands nearby. There is also the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center. This building contains a museum. It also contains a public policy research center that studies terrorism and political violence. Eva Cassidy HOST: Singer Eva Cassidy died more than six years ago. Not too many people knew about her then. But fame has now come to a life cut short by cancer. The story from Phoebe Zimmerman. ANNCR: Eva Cassidy became serious about music when she was nine. Her father taught her how to play the guitar. Eva would practice for hours. She could also sing many kinds of music: folk, pop, blues, jazz, gospel. Years later, a friend brought her to a studio to record some music. Eva Cassidy went on to form a band and perform around Washington, D.C, where she was born. One of her favorite songs was “Oh, Had I a Golden Thread.” (MUSIC) During the summer of nineteen-ninety-six, Eva Cassidy learned she had melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Her friends organized a concert to honor her. Although very weak, Eva performed “What a Wonderful World.” She recorded this version earlier that year for her album “Live at Blues Alley.” (MUSIC) Eva Cassidy died in nineteen-ninety-six, at the age of thirty-three. Music critics said she was close to reaching a national audience at the time of her death. Now her music has gone not just national but international. "Songbird," an album released in nineteen-ninety-eight, became a top seller in Britain. Another album, "Imagine," came out last year. It includes this song by Eva Cassidy which we leave you with: “I Can Only Be Me.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tony Pollock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Oklahoma City HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Margie Cao Trang in Ho Chi Minh City has a question about Oklahoma City. She wants to know what a visitor to America can see and do there. Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city in the state of Oklahoma, in the south central United States. More than one-million people live in the area. It is one of the centers of oil production in America. Visitors to Oklahoma City can ride a water taxi boat through a new area of stores and eating places called Bricktown. They can also visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. There is also the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Visitors can explore through thousands of plants over at the Myriad Botanical Gardens. You can walk up a vine-covered mountain and under a waterfall. Outside the city is the Read Ranch. Visitors can ride on wagons to an Old West frontier town. They can watch horse races at nearby Remington Park. And they can enjoy live shows and fifty rides at the Frontier City Amusement Park. Yet, Oklahoma City is also known for something terrible that happened. On April nineteenth, nineteen-ninety-five, a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. A former American soldier named Timothy McVeigh was executed for the attack. The city has built a memorial that includes parts of the destroyed building. Visitors enter the memorial area through a gate on the east side. This gate represents the time of nine-oh-one in the morning, just before the explosion. Visitors leave through the western gate which represents the time of nine-oh-three and the lives that were changed forever. Between the two gates is a reflecting pool and one-hundred-sixty-eight empty chairs -- one for each person killed. A tree that survived the bombing stands nearby. There is also the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center. This building contains a museum. It also contains a public policy research center that studies terrorism and political violence. Eva Cassidy HOST: Singer Eva Cassidy died more than six years ago. Not too many people knew about her then. But fame has now come to a life cut short by cancer. The story from Phoebe Zimmerman. ANNCR: Eva Cassidy became serious about music when she was nine. Her father taught her how to play the guitar. Eva would practice for hours. She could also sing many kinds of music: folk, pop, blues, jazz, gospel. Years later, a friend brought her to a studio to record some music. Eva Cassidy went on to form a band and perform around Washington, D.C, where she was born. One of her favorite songs was “Oh, Had I a Golden Thread.” (MUSIC) During the summer of nineteen-ninety-six, Eva Cassidy learned she had melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Her friends organized a concert to honor her. Although very weak, Eva performed “What a Wonderful World.” She recorded this version earlier that year for her album “Live at Blues Alley.” (MUSIC) Eva Cassidy died in nineteen-ninety-six, at the age of thirty-three. Music critics said she was close to reaching a national audience at the time of her death. Now her music has gone not just national but international. "Songbird," an album released in nineteen-ninety-eight, became a top seller in Britain. Another album, "Imagine," came out last year. It includes this song by Eva Cassidy which we leave you with: “I Can Only Be Me.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tony Pollock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – February 28, 2003: Leatherback Turtle Disappearing
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists have appealed for international cooperation to protect leatherback sea turtles. The scientists say the world’s leatherback population has dropped more than ninety percent over the past twenty years. They warn that leatherback turtles around the world will disappear if current fishing methods continue. Leatherbacks are the world’s largest turtles. They can grow more than two meters long and weigh more than four-hundred kilograms. But they do not have hard, protective shells like most turtles. Their backs are covered with oily, ribbed skin. Leatherbacks are able to dive almost a kilometer below the ocean surface in search for food. They have survived for millions of years -- since the time of the dinosaurs. The scientists presented their findings at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Delegates met earlier this month in Denver, Colorado. Larry Crowder of Duke University told the meeting that leatherbacks are quickly disappearing. He warned that the creatures could disappear within the next ten to thirty years. Leatherback turtles usually mate every other year. The females swim thousands of kilometers to warm breeding areas. They leave their eggs on the beach at night, then return to the ocean. Many people gather on beaches to watch this event. For years, experts thought leatherback turtles were safe because they are found in a number of countries. However, recent studies are forcing experts to re-examine this idea. In nineteen-eighty-eight, scientists found that more than one-thousand-three-hundred turtles left their eggs on the Pacific beaches of Costa Rica. Ten years later, that number fell to just one-hundred-seventeen turtles. Scientists blame fishing for the sharp drop in the number of turtles. Leatherbacks and other sea creatures get caught in fishing lines. They drown. Or they can be pulled into fishing boats and killed. In the United States, the federal government and some states have restricted or banned long fishing lines. Scientists say fixing the problem will require efforts by governments and by the fishing industry. They are calling for new fishing agreements to save the leatherback turtles. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: February 27, 2003 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 27, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we catch up with some listener mail. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": February 27, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we catch up with some listener mail. RS: ... starting with Azmul Haque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who writes: "We catch so many things, but what is the meaning of a 'Catch 22 situation'?" AA: It's true. We catch a ball, catch a fish, catch a cold. But here's what the American Heritage Dictionary has to say about "Catch 22": 1. A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions. RS: 2. A situation or predicament characterized by absurdity or senselessness. AA: And 3. A contradictory or self-defeating course of action. RS: The expression comes from a book published in 1961, the war novel "Catch 22" by the late author Joseph Heller. Heller himself flew many bombing missions during World War Two. The main character in his book is a flier named Yossarian. AA: Yossarian is obsessed with the fear of dying and doesn't want to fly anymore. He's angry that his commander -- hoping for a promotion to general -- keeps raising the number of missions his unit must fly. RS: Here's the scene from the 1970 movie "Catch 22" in which Yossarian -- played by actor Alan Arkin -- appeals to a military doctor to ground him: YOSSARIAN: I'm crazy! DOCTOR: "Who says so?" YOSSARIAN: "Ask anybody. Ask Nately, Dobbs -- hey, Orr, Orr, tell him. ORR: "Tell him what?" YOSSARIAN: "Am I crazy?" ORR: "He's crazy, doc. He won't fly with me. I take good care of him, but he won't. He's crazy, all right." YOSSARIAN: "Is Orr crazy?" DOCTOR: "Of course he is. He has to be if he keeps flying after all the close calls he's had." YOSSARIAN: "Then why can't you ground him." DOCTOR: "I can but first he has to ask me." YOSSARIAN: "That's all he's got to do to be grounded." DOCTOR: "That's all." YOSSARIAN: "Then you can ground him?" DOCTOR: "No, then I cannot ground him. There's a catch." YOSSARIAN: "A catch?" DOCTOR: "Sure, Catch 22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy, so I can't ground him." YOSSARIAN: "OK, let me see if I got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore and I have to keep flying." DOCTOR: "You got it -- that's Catch 22." YOSSARIAN: That's some catch, that Catch 22. DOCTOR: "The best there is." RS: And the same could be said for the expression itself. It caught on during the 1960s as many Americans opposed their country's involvement in the Vietnam War. AA: Azmul Haque in Dhaka also asks another question: What's the meaning of "huffing and puffing." RS: That's simple: Imagine yourself doing something really strenuous -- like shoveling all that snow we've been having here in Washington. Your heart races, You start breathing heavily, so heavily that it's hard to talk. That's huffing and puffing. AA: Next, a question from Helen Wong in the Chinese city of Wuhan. She would like to know what "second-guess" means, as used in this sentence: "While the court was skeptical about the wisdom of the copyright extension, seven justices believed it was not their role to second-guess [Congress]." When you "second-guess" someone else's decision, it means you presume to know better. RS: It's not a positive expression, since it's hard to imagine many people would appreciate being second-guessed. AA: Song Xiaolu in Shanghai has this question: "Why do American women like to call a man a 'beefcake' or 'stud muffin' if he is well-built with muscles? Why 'cake' and 'muffin'?" RS: After all, cakes and muffins are baked goods. Well, the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang dates "beefcake" back to 1949. The term started out to describe -- quote -- "photographs or motion pictures of partially clad muscular men." It was suggested by the existing term "cheesecake" to describe pictures of women. AA: As for "studmuffin," the Dictionary of American Slang by the late Robert Chapman dates that term to students in the 1980s, and defined as "an attractive young man." But "stud" by itself was in use as a term of virility by the early 1900s. AA: Now here's another question, from a listener by the e-mail address of Marshield: "What does 'a flip answer' mean?" For that we turn to a special guest: ANU GARG: "A flip answer is something irreverent or something which is not serious. You might give a flip answer to a question when you are not really wanting to give a serious answer." RS: That's Anu Garg, the man behind the internationally popular online service called A.Word.A.Day. You'll hear lots more words next Thursday when he's our guest on Wordmaster. AA: Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: ... starting with Azmul Haque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, who writes: "We catch so many things, but what is the meaning of a 'Catch 22 situation'?" AA: It's true. We catch a ball, catch a fish, catch a cold. But here's what the American Heritage Dictionary has to say about "Catch 22": 1. A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions. RS: 2. A situation or predicament characterized by absurdity or senselessness. AA: And 3. A contradictory or self-defeating course of action. RS: The expression comes from a book published in 1961, the war novel "Catch 22" by the late author Joseph Heller. Heller himself flew many bombing missions during World War Two. The main character in his book is a flier named Yossarian. AA: Yossarian is obsessed with the fear of dying and doesn't want to fly anymore. He's angry that his commander -- hoping for a promotion to general -- keeps raising the number of missions his unit must fly. RS: Here's the scene from the 1970 movie "Catch 22" in which Yossarian -- played by actor Alan Arkin -- appeals to a military doctor to ground him: YOSSARIAN: I'm crazy! DOCTOR: "Who says so?" YOSSARIAN: "Ask anybody. Ask Nately, Dobbs -- hey, Orr, Orr, tell him. ORR: "Tell him what?" YOSSARIAN: "Am I crazy?" ORR: "He's crazy, doc. He won't fly with me. I take good care of him, but he won't. He's crazy, all right." YOSSARIAN: "Is Orr crazy?" DOCTOR: "Of course he is. He has to be if he keeps flying after all the close calls he's had." YOSSARIAN: "Then why can't you ground him." DOCTOR: "I can but first he has to ask me." YOSSARIAN: "That's all he's got to do to be grounded." DOCTOR: "That's all." YOSSARIAN: "Then you can ground him?" DOCTOR: "No, then I cannot ground him. There's a catch." YOSSARIAN: "A catch?" DOCTOR: "Sure, Catch 22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy, so I can't ground him." YOSSARIAN: "OK, let me see if I got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore and I have to keep flying." DOCTOR: "You got it -- that's Catch 22." YOSSARIAN: That's some catch, that Catch 22. DOCTOR: "The best there is." RS: And the same could be said for the expression itself. It caught on during the 1960s as many Americans opposed their country's involvement in the Vietnam War. AA: Azmul Haque in Dhaka also asks another question: What's the meaning of "huffing and puffing." RS: That's simple: Imagine yourself doing something really strenuous -- like shoveling all that snow we've been having here in Washington. Your heart races, You start breathing heavily, so heavily that it's hard to talk. That's huffing and puffing. AA: Next, a question from Helen Wong in the Chinese city of Wuhan. She would like to know what "second-guess" means, as used in this sentence: "While the court was skeptical about the wisdom of the copyright extension, seven justices believed it was not their role to second-guess [Congress]." When you "second-guess" someone else's decision, it means you presume to know better. RS: It's not a positive expression, since it's hard to imagine many people would appreciate being second-guessed. AA: Song Xiaolu in Shanghai has this question: "Why do American women like to call a man a 'beefcake' or 'stud muffin' if he is well-built with muscles? Why 'cake' and 'muffin'?" RS: After all, cakes and muffins are baked goods. Well, the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang dates "beefcake" back to 1949. The term started out to describe -- quote -- "photographs or motion pictures of partially clad muscular men." It was suggested by the existing term "cheesecake" to describe pictures of women. AA: As for "studmuffin," the Dictionary of American Slang by the late Robert Chapman dates that term to students in the 1980s, and defined as "an attractive young man." But "stud" by itself was in use as a term of virility by the early 1900s. AA: Now here's another question, from a listener by the e-mail address of Marshield: "What does 'a flip answer' mean?" For that we turn to a special guest: ANU GARG: "A flip answer is something irreverent or something which is not serious. You might give a flip answer to a question when you are not really wanting to give a serious answer." RS: That's Anu Garg, the man behind the internationally popular online service called A.Word.A.Day. You'll hear lots more words next Thursday when he's our guest on Wordmaster. AA: Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 2, 2003: Doctor Seuss
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: (THEME) ANNCR: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today we tell about one of the most successful writers of children’s books. Sarah Long and Steve Ember tell about Doctor Seuss. VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss was the name used by Theodor Seuss Geisel. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine humorous words, funny pictures, and social opinion. Mister Geisel also illustrated his books with pictures of funny creatures and plants. He did not receive training in art. Yet he created the pictures for most of his books. The Doctor Seuss books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words. And they like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, Thing Two, Little Cindy-Lou Who, and Sam-I-Am. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in Nineteen-Oh-Four. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He spent a year studying literature at Oxford University in England. Mister Geisel returned to the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He hoped to become a writer of serious literature. During this time the United States was in an economic decline known as the Great Depression. This forced Mister Geisel to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. He found work as a creator of advertising campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew cartoons for popular magazines including Life and Vanity Fair. Cartoons are humorous pictures with words. VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss wrote his first book for children in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. It is called "And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street." A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years he wrote more than forty children's books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. By the middle Nineteen-Fifties, Doctor Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. He had a strong desire to help children. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used rhyming words, words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. In the book Hop on Pop, he presented two words. Then he used them in simple sentences like this. Day. Play. We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, Dr. Seuss wrote "The Cat in the Hat." He used less than two-hundred-twenty-five words to write the book. This was an estimate of the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read. The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It is more like a human. It walks on two legs instead of four. It wears a tall, red and white hat. A big red bow is around its neck. And it talks. As the cat entertains the children it creates complete disorder in the house. The book was an immediate success. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best. Listen as Ray Freeman reads from "The Cat in the Hat." VOICE THREE: The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!" Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all. So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit. And then something went BUMP! How that bump made us jump! We looked! Then we saw him step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat! And he said to us, "Why do you sit there like that? I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!" VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss was very concerned that some children were not learning to read. The success of "The Cat in the Hat" made him want to write more books for children. He started a series called Beginner Books. Beginner Books remain well-liked among children today. The series includes such titles as "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories," "Fox in Socks," and "The Lorax." In Nineteen-Sixty Doctor Seuss was urged by a book publisher to write a book using less than fifty words. And he did. The book is called "Green Eggs and Ham." It is one of Doctor Seuss' most popular books. In the book a creature named Sam-I-Am tries to get another creature to eat an unusual meal, green eggs and ham. Here is part of the story read by seven-year-old Miko Prescott. (TAPE) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Sixty, Doctor Seuss wrote the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It is about an extremely unkind man called the Grinch. He tries to stop Christmas from arriving in a village called Whoville. He steals all the Christmas gifts and food in the village while everyone is sleeping. Yet Christmas comes anyway. The people of Whoville are happy although they have no gifts. By the end of the story, the Grinch becomes a kind person. In this story Doctor Seuss gives the message that Christmas is about more than receiving gifts. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was later produced for television. It first was shown in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. It continues to be a very popular holiday program. Here is a song from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It is called "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Mister Geisel won a Pulitzer Prize for children's literature. At that time he had been writing children's books for almost fifty years. He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents. In Nineteen-Eighty-Six, Doctor Seuss wrote "You're Only Old Once." It was his first book written for adults. It talks about getting old. His last book was written in Nineteen-Ninety. It was called "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" VOICE TWO: Theodor Seuss Geisel died in Nineteen-Ninety-One. He was eighty-seven years old. Doctor Seuss's influence remains through the books he wrote and illustrated. Millions of copies of them have been sold worldwide. Experts say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said "I do not write for children. I write for people." People continue to honor Doctor Seuss. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March second. Each year on that day the National Education Association calls for every child and every community in America to celebrate reading. This program is called "Read Across America." (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today we tell about one of the most successful writers of children’s books. Sarah Long and Steve Ember tell about Doctor Seuss. VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss was the name used by Theodor Seuss Geisel. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine humorous words, funny pictures, and social opinion. Mister Geisel also illustrated his books with pictures of funny creatures and plants. He did not receive training in art. Yet he created the pictures for most of his books. The Doctor Seuss books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words. And they like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, Thing Two, Little Cindy-Lou Who, and Sam-I-Am. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in Nineteen-Oh-Four. He graduated from Dartmouth College in Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He spent a year studying literature at Oxford University in England. Mister Geisel returned to the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He hoped to become a writer of serious literature. During this time the United States was in an economic decline known as the Great Depression. This forced Mister Geisel to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. He found work as a creator of advertising campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew cartoons for popular magazines including Life and Vanity Fair. Cartoons are humorous pictures with words. VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss wrote his first book for children in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. It is called "And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street." A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years he wrote more than forty children's books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. By the middle Nineteen-Fifties, Doctor Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. He had a strong desire to help children. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used rhyming words, words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish. In the book Hop on Pop, he presented two words. Then he used them in simple sentences like this. Day. Play. We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, Dr. Seuss wrote "The Cat in the Hat." He used less than two-hundred-twenty-five words to write the book. This was an estimate of the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read. The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It is more like a human. It walks on two legs instead of four. It wears a tall, red and white hat. A big red bow is around its neck. And it talks. As the cat entertains the children it creates complete disorder in the house. The book was an immediate success. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best. Listen as Ray Freeman reads from "The Cat in the Hat." VOICE THREE: The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day. I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two. And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!" Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all. So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit! And we did not like it. Not one little bit. And then something went BUMP! How that bump made us jump! We looked! Then we saw him step in on the mat! We looked! And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat! And he said to us, "Why do you sit there like that? I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny. But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!" VOICE ONE: Doctor Seuss was very concerned that some children were not learning to read. The success of "The Cat in the Hat" made him want to write more books for children. He started a series called Beginner Books. Beginner Books remain well-liked among children today. The series includes such titles as "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories," "Fox in Socks," and "The Lorax." In Nineteen-Sixty Doctor Seuss was urged by a book publisher to write a book using less than fifty words. And he did. The book is called "Green Eggs and Ham." It is one of Doctor Seuss' most popular books. In the book a creature named Sam-I-Am tries to get another creature to eat an unusual meal, green eggs and ham. Here is part of the story read by seven-year-old Miko Prescott. (TAPE) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Sixty, Doctor Seuss wrote the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It is about an extremely unkind man called the Grinch. He tries to stop Christmas from arriving in a village called Whoville. He steals all the Christmas gifts and food in the village while everyone is sleeping. Yet Christmas comes anyway. The people of Whoville are happy although they have no gifts. By the end of the story, the Grinch becomes a kind person. In this story Doctor Seuss gives the message that Christmas is about more than receiving gifts. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was later produced for television. It first was shown in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. It continues to be a very popular holiday program. Here is a song from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It is called "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Mister Geisel won a Pulitzer Prize for children's literature. At that time he had been writing children's books for almost fifty years. He was honored for the education and enjoyment his books provided American children and their parents. In Nineteen-Eighty-Six, Doctor Seuss wrote "You're Only Old Once." It was his first book written for adults. It talks about getting old. His last book was written in Nineteen-Ninety. It was called "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" VOICE TWO: Theodor Seuss Geisel died in Nineteen-Ninety-One. He was eighty-seven years old. Doctor Seuss's influence remains through the books he wrote and illustrated. Millions of copies of them have been sold worldwide. Experts say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said "I do not write for children. I write for people." People continue to honor Doctor Seuss. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March second. Each year on that day the National Education Association calls for every child and every community in America to celebrate reading. This program is called "Read Across America." (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - March 3, 2003: 'Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta'
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: It has a long history in American music. Yet only in recent years has much effort been made to understand Latin jazz. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Mary Tillotson. Now, a traveling museum show aims to help more Americans recognize this form of jazz as part of their culture and history. “Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta” is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-forties, the music of Cuban, Mexican and other Latin musicians became very popular in the United States. But Latin jazz had begun to develop here by the late eighteen-hundreds. Music experts note the influence on some early twentieth-century jazz and blues songs. These include “St. Louis Blues” by W.C. Handy and “New Orleans Blues” by Jelly Roll Morton. Today -- with Hispanics now estimated to be America's largest minority group -- college music students are learning more about Latin jazz. Cultural centers are forming Latin jazz orchestras. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington opened a traveling museum show in October. It is called "Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta" -- the Perfect Combination. This exhibit teaches about the history of Latin jazz in the United States and the Caribbean. The walls of the show are brightly colored and rounded like conga drums. Information is printed in English and Spanish. There are pictures of musicians and singers from as far back as nineteen-ten. Behind glass are instruments once played by great performers: timbale drums that belonged to Tito Puente, congas played by Poncho Sanchez, the famous bent trumpet of Dizzy Gillespie. Visitors can make their own music with a conga drum, maracas and other tools of Latin jazz. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-forties, musicians Mario Bauza, Frank Grillo, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo began to combine American jazz with Cuban music. Several names were used to describe this new form, names like Afro-Cuban jazz, Cubop and Latin jazz. Frank Grillo was called "Machito." He and Mario Bauza formed Machito and his Afro-Cubans. The group first performed the song “Tanga” in nineteen-forty-three. It is widely considered the first piece of Afro-Cuban jazz. (CUT ONE – “TANGA”, CDJ-7538) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-six, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, an African American, wanted a conga player for his bebop jazz band. He asked his friend Mario Bauza for help. They had played together in Cab Calloway's band. Bauza presented Chano Pozo, a percussionist who had just arrived in New York from Cuba and did not speak English. Chano Pozo was killed one year later. He and Dizzy Gillespie wrote many songs in their short time together. Their mix of Cuban beats and bebop jazz remained an important part of Latin jazz. Music experts see this song, “Manteca,” as a perfect example of "Cubop." (CUT TWO – “MANTECA”, CDJ-7538) VOICE ONE: One of the best-known names in Latin jazz is Tito Puente. He died in two-thousand at the age of seventy-seven. This musician of Puerto Rican ancestry became famous as a percussionist and vibraphonist. Audiences loved his energy. Tito Puente was also a bandleader and a composer and arranger of music. Here he plays timbales in a nineteen-fifty-seven recording of his song “Mambo Beat.” (CUT THREE – “MAMBO BEAT”, CDJ-7538) VOICE TWO: Another big influence in Latin jazz in America was Cal Tjader, a vibraphone player of Swedish ancestry. He was especially popular during the nineteen-sixties. Cal Tjader recorded the popular Cubop song “Guachi Guaro” in nineteen-sixty-four. He renamed his version “Soul Sauce.” (CUT FOUR-“Soul Sauce (Guachi Guaro)”, CDJ-7538) VOIVE ONE: The traditions of Latin jazz remain strong. Today some musicians are exploring the Cuban bolero, a kind of love song made popular during the nineteen-fifties. Here is a nineteen-ninety-eight recording of David Sanchez playing “Los Aretes de la Luna.” (CUT FIVE- “Los Aretes de la Luna”, CDJ-7538) VOICE TWO: “Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta” had its first showing in Washington, D.C. Next comes Flushing, New York, beginning in April. The show is to end in two-thousand-six after stops in twelve cities in the United States and in the Caribbean. The exhibit Web site is smithsonianlatinjazz -- all one word -- smithsonianlatinjazz dot o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It has a long history in American music. Yet only in recent years has much effort been made to understand Latin jazz. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Mary Tillotson. Now, a traveling museum show aims to help more Americans recognize this form of jazz as part of their culture and history. “Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta” is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-forties, the music of Cuban, Mexican and other Latin musicians became very popular in the United States. But Latin jazz had begun to develop here by the late eighteen-hundreds. Music experts note the influence on some early twentieth-century jazz and blues songs. These include “St. Louis Blues” by W.C. Handy and “New Orleans Blues” by Jelly Roll Morton. Today -- with Hispanics now estimated to be America's largest minority group -- college music students are learning more about Latin jazz. Cultural centers are forming Latin jazz orchestras. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington opened a traveling museum show in October. It is called "Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta" -- the Perfect Combination. This exhibit teaches about the history of Latin jazz in the United States and the Caribbean. The walls of the show are brightly colored and rounded like conga drums. Information is printed in English and Spanish. There are pictures of musicians and singers from as far back as nineteen-ten. Behind glass are instruments once played by great performers: timbale drums that belonged to Tito Puente, congas played by Poncho Sanchez, the famous bent trumpet of Dizzy Gillespie. Visitors can make their own music with a conga drum, maracas and other tools of Latin jazz. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen-forties, musicians Mario Bauza, Frank Grillo, Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo began to combine American jazz with Cuban music. Several names were used to describe this new form, names like Afro-Cuban jazz, Cubop and Latin jazz. Frank Grillo was called "Machito." He and Mario Bauza formed Machito and his Afro-Cubans. The group first performed the song “Tanga” in nineteen-forty-three. It is widely considered the first piece of Afro-Cuban jazz. (CUT ONE – “TANGA”, CDJ-7538) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-six, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, an African American, wanted a conga player for his bebop jazz band. He asked his friend Mario Bauza for help. They had played together in Cab Calloway's band. Bauza presented Chano Pozo, a percussionist who had just arrived in New York from Cuba and did not speak English. Chano Pozo was killed one year later. He and Dizzy Gillespie wrote many songs in their short time together. Their mix of Cuban beats and bebop jazz remained an important part of Latin jazz. Music experts see this song, “Manteca,” as a perfect example of "Cubop." (CUT TWO – “MANTECA”, CDJ-7538) VOICE ONE: One of the best-known names in Latin jazz is Tito Puente. He died in two-thousand at the age of seventy-seven. This musician of Puerto Rican ancestry became famous as a percussionist and vibraphonist. Audiences loved his energy. Tito Puente was also a bandleader and a composer and arranger of music. Here he plays timbales in a nineteen-fifty-seven recording of his song “Mambo Beat.” (CUT THREE – “MAMBO BEAT”, CDJ-7538) VOICE TWO: Another big influence in Latin jazz in America was Cal Tjader, a vibraphone player of Swedish ancestry. He was especially popular during the nineteen-sixties. Cal Tjader recorded the popular Cubop song “Guachi Guaro” in nineteen-sixty-four. He renamed his version “Soul Sauce.” (CUT FOUR-“Soul Sauce (Guachi Guaro)”, CDJ-7538) VOIVE ONE: The traditions of Latin jazz remain strong. Today some musicians are exploring the Cuban bolero, a kind of love song made popular during the nineteen-fifties. Here is a nineteen-ninety-eight recording of David Sanchez playing “Los Aretes de la Luna.” (CUT FIVE- “Los Aretes de la Luna”, CDJ-7538) VOICE TWO: “Latin Jazz: La Combinacion Perfecta” had its first showing in Washington, D.C. Next comes Flushing, New York, beginning in April. The show is to end in two-thousand-six after stops in twelve cities in the United States and in the Caribbean. The exhibit Web site is smithsonianlatinjazz -- all one word -- smithsonianlatinjazz dot o-r-g. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – March 1, 2003: Africa-France Summit
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In the News. This year’s Africa-France Summit was the largest ever held. Fifty-two African countries were represented at the meeting in Paris last week. All but ten were represented by a head of state or government. Somalia was the only country in Africa not invited. Somalia does not have a recognized government. Iraq was a major issue during the Africa-France Summit. The leaders approved a declaration against any rush to military action in Iraq. Their declaration said disarming that country is the shared goal of the international community. The document called for the use of force only if all other methods fail. The leaders said a war in Iraq would cause serious problems in the Middle East, Africa and the world. They expressed support for the United Nations weapons inspection process in Iraq. They called for those inspections to continue. France is one of the five permanent members of the U-N Security Council. The others are Britain, Russia, China and the United States. The council has fifteen members in all. A permanent member can veto any resolution. That would include the new one sought by the United States and Britain to clear the way for war. However, a resolution can also be defeated if nine members of the council vote against it. At the Africa-France summit were leaders from three non-permanent members of the Security Council. The votes of Cameroon, Angola and Guinea could be important to French efforts to prevent a war in Iraq. This was the twenty-second Africa-France Summit held since nineteen-seventy-three. The top issues at the meeting were peace and security in Africa, development and the fight against international terrorism. Last year's meeting was held in Cameroon. France organizes the summit to discuss issues affecting African countries. France was a colonial ruler in Africa and still has influence on the continent. France promised renewed political and economic cooperation with Africa. The delegates discussed an economic rescue plan developed by African leaders. Other issues discussed included the AIDS crisis. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan announced a new high-level committee to help prevent the spread of the disease in Africa. The leaders also discussed the war in Ivory Coast and repression in Zimbabwe. France dismissed criticism about its decision to invite Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. He attended even though the European Union has ordered a travel ban against him. The president of Ivory Coast was invited but did not attend. That country has had civil war since September. France urged the warring groups to honor a French-led peace agreement. The war has wrecked the economy in Ivory Coast and threatened peace in West Africa. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-02/a-2003-02-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - World Social Forum
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report Organizers of the World Social Forum have chosen India as the meeting place in two-thousand-four. The conference has taken place in Brazil since it began three years ago. Last year, Indian activists organized a South Asian Social Forum in Gujarat state. The number of delegates, observers, and reporters at the World Social Forum has increased each year. Organizers said more than one-hundred-thousand people gathered in Porto Alegre this year. The meeting took place in Brazil at the end of January at the same time as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. That is a yearly meeting of international business and political leaders. Activists organized the social forum because they wanted an international gathering of anti-poverty campaigners. They also wanted a better way to protest than to march outside the World Economic Forum. Supporters of free trade argue that such economic policies could help all nations. But the social activists say the rules of international trade and finance do not do enough to help the poor. This year, Brazil’s new president Luis Inacio Lula Da Silva spoke to both gatherings. In Porto Alegre, the former labor organizer spoke of hungry children and his promise to feed everyone in Brazil. In Davos, Mister Da Silva asked the leaders to help end severe poverty in the southern part of the world. Organizers of the social forum say it is designed to build friendships among activists. Delegates discussed ideas and projects in small groups. They could hear speakers translated into French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. Organizers chose as the central idea for this year’s meeting, “Another World is Possible.” For six days people discussed everything from ways to increase women’s rights to methods to protect water quality. Ethnic minorities called for an end to racism and for protection of native languages and cultures. Israeli and Palestinian activists met to develop a joint peace declaration. At the same time, though, other Jewish campaigners said there was an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish atmosphere in Porto Alegre. On the last day, there was a protest march against war in Iraq and against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. Some say the World Social Forum is less an event than a process. Organizers say the desired result is free and open debate of ideas, not choosing a leader or approving a final declaration. This Development Report was written by Onka Dekker. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - March 4, 2003: DNA Anniversary; Genetic Engineering
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This week, we look back at a major discovery in genetics. And we examine some of the issues created by genetic engineering. (THEME) Detail from a photograph by Vittorio Luzzati in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This week, we look back at a major discovery in genetics. And we examine some of the issues created by genetic engineering. (THEME) VOICE ONE: February twenty-eighth marked an important anniversary. On that day fifty years ago, American scientist James Watson and British scientist Francis Crick told people about a discovery. The two young scientists had found the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid -- better known as D-N-A. Every cell in every living thing contains D-N-A. This self-reproducing molecule carries the information to make living things from one generation to the next. VOICE TWO: James Watson and Francis Crick worked at Cambridge University in England. They found that each molecule of D-N-A is in the shape of a double helix. Imagine climbing the steps of a ladder. But this ladder does not go straight up. Instead, it turns to the right, around and around itself. That is what a double helix looks like. D-N-A is made up of genes. Researchers tell us that our bodies have about thirty-thousand genes. Think of these as sets of building plans. Genes are carried on lengths of D-N-A called chromosomes. Almost every human cell has forty-six chromosomes. Half come from our mothers, half from our fathers. VOICE ONE: February twenty-eighth marked an important anniversary. On that day fifty years ago, American scientist James Watson and British scientist Francis Crick told people about a discovery. The two young scientists had found the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid -- better known as D-N-A. Every cell in every living thing contains D-N-A. This self-reproducing molecule carries the information to make living things from one generation to the next. VOICE TWO: James Watson and Francis Crick worked at Cambridge University in England. They found that each molecule of D-N-A is in the shape of a double helix. Imagine climbing the steps of a ladder. But this ladder does not go straight up. Instead, it turns to the right, around and around itself. That is what a double helix looks like. D-N-A is made up of genes. Researchers tell us that our bodies have about thirty-thousand genes. Think of these as sets of building plans. Genes are carried on lengths of D-N-A called chromosomes. Almost every human cell has forty-six chromosomes. Half come from our mothers, half from our fathers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The chemicals that make up D-N-A are nucleic acids. There are just four kinds: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. These nucleic acids -- represented by the letters A, T, G and C -- are called bases. Scientists say human chromosomes have about three-thousand-million pairs of these bases. Each step of the double helix is a base made up of two kinds of nucleic acid. How these bases are organized along the ladder provides the information stored in genes. This information directs the making of proteins, the materials that build cells. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: There was great competition to find the secret of life. This was before scientists had today's computers. Francis Crick and James Watson made mistakes. But in April nineteen-fifty-three Nature magazine published a one-page letter in which they described the structure of D-N-A. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The chemicals that make up D-N-A are nucleic acids. There are just four kinds: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine. These nucleic acids -- represented by the letters A, T, G and C -- are called bases. Scientists say human chromosomes have about three-thousand-million pairs of these bases. Each step of the double helix is a base made up of two kinds of nucleic acid. How these bases are organized along the ladder provides the information stored in genes. This information directs the making of proteins, the materials that build cells. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: There was great competition to find the secret of life. This was before scientists had today's computers. Francis Crick and James Watson made mistakes. But in April nineteen-fifty-three Nature magazine published a one-page letter in which they described the structure of D-N-A. At first, the world did not react. Several years later, scientists proved that D-N-A can copy itself. In nineteen-sixty-two, James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. They shared it with Maurice Wilkins, a British scientist who also studied D-N-A. VOICE ONE: Today, James Watson and Francis Crick are investigating new areas of science. Mister Crick works at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He now explores the biology of people’s brains. In fact, he and another researcher published a study on this subject in February in Nature Neuroscience magazine. Mister Watson has been president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York, for twenty-five years. During the nineteen-nineties, he also served as the first chief of the Human Genome Project. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand, President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the completion of this project. The human genome map describes a person’s full genetic structure. This map will help scientists to study the mysteries of health and to fight disease. Understanding the D-N-A molecule has opened up new areas of research. As Francis Crick and James Watson say, the possibilities are endless. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE Looking back, both scientists agree they never would have made their discovery without luck and help. One person whose work they used was a British chemist. Her name was Rosalind Franklin. Rosalind Franklin had investigated the shape of D-N-A molecules. She hit them with X-rays. As she recorded images, one of them showed a molecule in the shape of an X. It provided strong evidence of the structure of D-N-A as a double helix. VOICE TWO Maurice Wilkins worked with Rosalind Franklin, but they were not friends. He did not tell her that he showed the picture -- known as Photograph Fifty-One -- to James Watson. Mister Watson and Mister Crick said nothing about this picture in their famous paper. Some say that, because she was a woman, Rosalind Franklin never got as much recognition as she should have for her research. She might have shared the Nobel Prize with Watson, Crick and Wilkins. But Nobels only go to living people. Rosalind Franklin died of cancer of the ovaries in nineteen-fifty-eight, at the age of thirty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many of the possibilities for D-N-A research involve genetic engineering, including the creation of clones -- genetic copies of organisms. The birth of Dolly the sheep in nineteen-ninety-six caused excitement. But some see her death recently as a warning of the risks of cloning. Others, though, say cloning may help scientists improve animal productivity and find cures for human diseases. VOICE TWO: Animal doctors ended Dolly's life on February fourteenth at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. She suffered from progressive lung disease. She was six-and-a-half years old. Some sheep live to be eleven and twelve years old. Dolly’s main creator, Ian Wilmut, said the lung disease was not connected with her being a clone. Doctors said other sheep on the same farm also developed the same disease. Dolly was not only the largest mammal ever cloned. She was also the first to be cloned from a cell taken from an adult animal. In other cases, researchers worked from undeveloped cells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Dolly's birth followed years of research and hundreds of failed attempts. Many animals died during these experiments, including ones malformed at birth. Mister Wilmut and a Roslin Institute team performed the successful process. To create Dolly, they replaced the genetic material in a sheep egg with D-N-A taken from the udder of a six-year-old female sheep. In the laboratory, the scientists got the egg to divide and grow. No biological father was involved. The scientists presented Dolly to the world in nineteen-ninety-seven. They named her after Dolly Parton, the American country singer. VOICE TWO: Dolly the sheep lived inside most of the time for security reasons. But she became a mother the more traditional way. With the help of a Welsh ram, she gave birth to four lambs -- three of them at once. But in nineteen-ninety-nine, the scientists discovered that her cells looked like the cells of a older sheep. Last year Dolly developed arthritis in the joints of one of her legs, a common condition of aging. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Since the birth of Dolly, scientists have cloned other mammals including monkeys, pigs and goats. Some researchers began to talk openly about cloning humans. But other experts argued that there is too much risk. A number of countries banned human cloning. In Washington last week, a bill to make human cloning a serious crime passed the House of Representatives and went to the Senate. VOICE TWO: Many countries permit cloning of cells from human tissue for research. The hope is that this could lead to cures for diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Doctors say cloning might also help them find cures for diabetes and cystic fibrosis. But in the United States, President Bush has restricted the use of cloned human embryos in research. Scientists may work only with a limited number of existing lines of cells. Many people who support the ban say it is wrong to create life just to destroy it. Other concerns include the risk of damage in cloned babies. VOICE ONE: In American industry, some companies produce cloned animals to sell, but as yet not with approval to sell for food. Scientists say cloned pigs might solve the shortage of human organs needed for transplant. Pigs and people are biologically similar. So pigs may provide kidneys, hearts and other organs. Cloning could also provide a simpler, cheaper way to reproduce farm animals. People may want to reproduce pets that have died. Clones could also help save endangered animals such as the African wild cat from disappearing. This was one of the hopes for cc, a housecat cloned in Texas. VOICE TWO: Scientific progress, however, often creates moral issues. Some religious groups have not taken a position on cloning. Others hope to influence the debate. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, opposes cloning, while other Christian groups are divided. (THEME) Science in the News was written by Jill Moss and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. At first, the world did not react. Several years later, scientists proved that D-N-A can copy itself. In nineteen-sixty-two, James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. They shared it with Maurice Wilkins, a British scientist who also studied D-N-A. VOICE ONE: Today, James Watson and Francis Crick are investigating new areas of science. Mister Crick works at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. He now explores the biology of people’s brains. In fact, he and another researcher published a study on this subject in February in Nature Neuroscience magazine. Mister Watson has been president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York, for twenty-five years. During the nineteen-nineties, he also served as the first chief of the Human Genome Project. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand, President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the completion of this project. The human genome map describes a person’s full genetic structure. This map will help scientists to study the mysteries of health and to fight disease. Understanding the D-N-A molecule has opened up new areas of research. As Francis Crick and James Watson say, the possibilities are endless. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE Looking back, both scientists agree they never would have made their discovery without luck and help. One person whose work they used was a British chemist. Her name was Rosalind Franklin. Rosalind Franklin had investigated the shape of D-N-A molecules. She hit them with X-rays. As she recorded images, one of them showed a molecule in the shape of an X. It provided strong evidence of the structure of D-N-A as a double helix. VOICE TWO Maurice Wilkins worked with Rosalind Franklin, but they were not friends. He did not tell her that he showed the picture -- known as Photograph Fifty-One -- to James Watson. Mister Watson and Mister Crick said nothing about this picture in their famous paper. Some say that, because she was a woman, Rosalind Franklin never got as much recognition as she should have for her research. She might have shared the Nobel Prize with Watson, Crick and Wilkins. But Nobels only go to living people. Rosalind Franklin died of cancer of the ovaries in nineteen-fifty-eight, at the age of thirty-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many of the possibilities for D-N-A research involve genetic engineering, including the creation of clones -- genetic copies of organisms. The birth of Dolly the sheep in nineteen-ninety-six caused excitement. But some see her death recently as a warning of the risks of cloning. Others, though, say cloning may help scientists improve animal productivity and find cures for human diseases. VOICE TWO: Animal doctors ended Dolly's life on February fourteenth at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. She suffered from progressive lung disease. She was six-and-a-half years old. Some sheep live to be eleven and twelve years old. Dolly’s main creator, Ian Wilmut, said the lung disease was not connected with her being a clone. Doctors said other sheep on the same farm also developed the same disease. Dolly was not only the largest mammal ever cloned. She was also the first to be cloned from a cell taken from an adult animal. In other cases, researchers worked from undeveloped cells. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Dolly's birth followed years of research and hundreds of failed attempts. Many animals died during these experiments, including ones malformed at birth. Mister Wilmut and a Roslin Institute team performed the successful process. To create Dolly, they replaced the genetic material in a sheep egg with D-N-A taken from the udder of a six-year-old female sheep. In the laboratory, the scientists got the egg to divide and grow. No biological father was involved. The scientists presented Dolly to the world in nineteen-ninety-seven. They named her after Dolly Parton, the American country singer. VOICE TWO: Dolly the sheep lived inside most of the time for security reasons. But she became a mother the more traditional way. With the help of a Welsh ram, she gave birth to four lambs -- three of them at once. But in nineteen-ninety-nine, the scientists discovered that her cells looked like the cells of a older sheep. Last year Dolly developed arthritis in the joints of one of her legs, a common condition of aging. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Since the birth of Dolly, scientists have cloned other mammals including monkeys, pigs and goats. Some researchers began to talk openly about cloning humans. But other experts argued that there is too much risk. A number of countries banned human cloning. In Washington last week, a bill to make human cloning a serious crime passed the House of Representatives and went to the Senate. VOICE TWO: Many countries permit cloning of cells from human tissue for research. The hope is that this could lead to cures for diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Doctors say cloning might also help them find cures for diabetes and cystic fibrosis. But in the United States, President Bush has restricted the use of cloned human embryos in research. Scientists may work only with a limited number of existing lines of cells. Many people who support the ban say it is wrong to create life just to destroy it. Other concerns include the risk of damage in cloned babies. VOICE ONE: In American industry, some companies produce cloned animals to sell, but as yet not with approval to sell for food. Scientists say cloned pigs might solve the shortage of human organs needed for transplant. Pigs and people are biologically similar. So pigs may provide kidneys, hearts and other organs. Cloning could also provide a simpler, cheaper way to reproduce farm animals. People may want to reproduce pets that have died. Clones could also help save endangered animals such as the African wild cat from disappearing. This was one of the hopes for cc, a housecat cloned in Texas. VOICE TWO: Scientific progress, however, often creates moral issues. Some religious groups have not taken a position on cloning. Others hope to influence the debate. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, opposes cloning, while other Christian groups are divided. (THEME) Science in the News was written by Jill Moss and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - March 4, 2003: Curing Meat
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. People discovered long ago how to dry meat to keep it safe for a long time. This process called curing interferes with the growth of bacteria. Curing meat is a traditional method used by many cultures. It can be done with some common chemicals. The most common is sodium chloride -- salt. Some very harmful bacteria, like salmonella, can be controlled with low levels of salt. But other kinds of bacteria can require high levels of salt or high drying temperatures to control. The simplest way to cure meat is to put it into a lot of rough salt for several days. This method provided meat for the sailors who came to the New World with Christopher Columbus. Another method requires meat to be kept in a salty liquid, called brine, for several days. The meat is then hung out to dry. Traditionally, this kind of curing is done during cold winter months. Meat begins to break down at temperatures warmer that five degrees Celsius. Today, the meat processing industry speeds up the curing process. Curing factories inject salty liquid directly into the meat. Then hot air dries the meat quickly at temperatures of thirty-five to forty degrees. Cured meat becomes gray. But people discovered that another common chemical, nitrate, can prevent this. Nitrate is added to most cured meats. However, the United States Food and Drug Administration limits the amounts. That is because nitrates can react with proteins to form chemicals that cause cancer in laboratory animals. Curing does not destroy all the organisms known to infect uncooked meat. The Trichinella worm, for example, causes the infection trichinellosis (TRICK-a-NELL-o-sis). Scientists at the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say curing does not completely kill the trichinella worm. They say it is killed by cooking meat to seventy-seven degrees Celsius. Curing is an important method to preserve meat. Cooking cured meat can provide extra safety to prevent the possibility of infection. In any case, cured meats may contain a lot of salt. Doctors advise people with high blood pressure and heart disease to limit how much salt they eat. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - March 6, 2003: Foreign Student Series #25 >USC
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. We continue our series of reports about how students from others countries can attend an American college or university. This week, we tell about the university in the United States that has the largest number of foreign students. That is the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, on the west coast. The school is known as U-S-C for short. Almost six-thousand students from outside the United States attended U-S-C last year. That was out of a student population of more than twenty-nine-thousand. The foreign students came from one-hundred-seventeen nations. Almost half were from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and South Korea. Large numbers of students from India, Japan, Canada, Thailand and Indonesia also attend the University of Southern California. Los Angeles is the second largest city in America. It is home to Hollywood. U-S-C is located in the south central part of Los Angeles. Most foreign students who attend U-S-C have already completed a four-year bachelor's degree. These graduate students mainly study engineering, computer science and business. Most undergraduate foreign students at U-S-C study business, computer science, music and engineering. The cost for an undergraduate at the University of Southern California is about thirty-nine-thousand dollars for one year. That includes classes, housing, food and insurance. Graduate students pay a little less, about thirty-three-thousand. Financial aid for an international graduate student is normally in the form a job as a research or teaching assistant. First-year undergraduates are considered for some financial aid, but to pay for their classes only. U-S-C has offices in four Asian cities to provide people with information about the school. These offices are located in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Taipei and Tokyo. They help parents of U-S-C students communicate with the university. They also hold meetings to get local students interested in attending the school. You can get more information on the Internet at the university’s Web site: www.usc.edu. Our foreign student series will continue next Thursday. You can find the programs we have broadcast so far at our Web site: voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - March 5, 2003: Ephedra
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Officials in the United States have warned against the use of products that contain the Chinese plant ephedra. Many people who buy these products hope to lose weight or gain strength. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson called for new warnings on ephedra products. The warnings would say that heart attacks, strokes, seizures and deaths have been reported. Mister Thompson also suggested that he might seek to ban these products. Manufacturers say the products are safe when used as directed. The industry estimates that, in nineteen-ninety-nine, about twelve-million people in the United States used ephedra. Ephedra is a traditional herb also called ma huang. The active substance in it is a stimulant called ephedrine. A stimulant increases energy in the body. Last Friday, federal health officials released a report by Rand, the policy and research organization. The report says the few studies done on the effects of ephedrine on athletic performance found almost no improvement. It says there is evidence that such products may increase short-term weight loss. But the Rand report says this evidence is limited, and no long-term studies have been done. The early release of the report followed the death last month of a pitcher in Major League baseball. Steve Bechler of the Baltimore Orioles was twenty-three years old. He suffered heatstroke during training in Florida. Heatstroke can stop the body’s organs. Mister Bechler had exercised in high temperatures. He had also been taking ephedrine. A medical examiner said this played a part in the heatstroke, but was not the only cause. The International Olympic Committee and several professional sports organizations ban ephedra products. After Mister Bechler died, North American baseball banned them in its minor leagues but not the majors, at least for now. United States law says new drugs must be proven safe and effective. But current law does not consider products like ephedra as drugs. Instead, they are called dietary supplements -- food aids. More than half of Americans take supplements including vitamins and minerals. The government, though, limits marketing claims. These products must say they are not meant to treat, cure or prevent any disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 5, 2003: Lewis and Clark, Part 1
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: Lewis is pictured on the right. (THEME) ANNCR: This is Mary Tillotson with the VOA Special English program Explorations. A celebration has begun in the United States that will continue until September of two-thousand-six. The celebration honors the two-hundredth anniversary of the most famous exploration in American history. Today, and for the next two weeks, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell the story of a group of explorers. They left their families and friends to enter unexplored areas of the American Northwest. These explorers faced heat, cold, lack of food, dangerous rivers and fierce Indian tribes. They traveled almost thirteen-thousand kilometers across areas that would later become the northwestern United States. Their trip is still known by the names of the two men who led the group -- Lewis and Clark. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The story of the Lewis and Clark exploration begins back in time on June twentieth, eighteen-oh-three. A young man, Meriwether Lewis, has just received a letter from the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Meriwether Lewis is a captain in the United States army. He also serves as President Jefferson's private secretary. He is twenty-eight years old. The letter from President Jefferson says Captain Lewis will lead a group of men to explore the area from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson's letter is long. It tells Captain Lewis to draw maps of the areas in which he travels. It tells him to record a day-by-day history of his trip. And it tells him to collect plants and animals he finds. President Jefferson says Mister Lewis is to write about the different tribes of Indians he meets. Lewis is to report about their languages, their clothing and their culture. The letter asks Lewis to return with as much information as possible about this unknown land. VOICE ONE: In the early eighteen-hundreds, much of the land that would later become the United States was unexplored. Many people believed that ancient animals like huge dinosaurs could still live in the far West. Other stories told of strange and terrible people in these unexplored areas. President Jefferson wanted Lewis to confirm or prove false as many of these stories as possible. The president also wanted him to find the best and fastest way to travel across the far western lands. President Jefferson wanted many other questions answered. Lewis was to learn if it was possible to send trade goods by land to the Pacific coast. He was to learn if it were possible to take a boat west across the country to the Pacific Ocean. Many people believed this was possible. This idea was called the northwest passage. People thought the northwest passage would be a river or several rivers that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Explorers just had to find it. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson knew that any trip to the far West would be extremely dangerous. Those taking part could expect years of hard work. They would lack food and water. They would face dangerous Indians and have little medical help. There would be severe weather. It was possible that such a group of explorers would never return. President Jefferson chose Lewis to lead the trip because he was sure Lewis would succeed. Meriwether Lewis and President Jefferson had spent a lot of time together. President Jefferson had great respect for Lewis. He knew Captain Lewis was a strong man who had a good education. Lewis was also a successful army officer and a good leader. And, probably most important, he was a skilled hunter who was used to living outdoors for long periods of time. VOICE ONE: Lewis knew that such a trip would be extremely difficult and dangerous. He knew that he needed another person who could lead the group if he became injured or died. He requested President Jefferson's permission to ask a friend to help him. Lewis' friend was William Clark. Clark was an excellent leader, and was good at making maps. Lewis wrote a letter to Clark and offered him the job. Clark accepted. The two men decided to share the responsibility of command. They decided to be equal in all things. Lewis and Clark had known each other for several years. They had served in the army together. Each trusted the other's abilities. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson then sent Lewis to the city of Philadelphia. There, scientists began to teach him about modern scientific methods. He learned about plants. He learned how to tell where he was on the planet by using the stars and the sun. He learned about the different kinds of animals. He also studied with a doctor, Benjamin Rush, who taught him about emergency care of the sick or wounded and about different kinds of medicine. Doctor Rush helped Lewis gather the medical supplies that would be needed for the trip. VOICE ONE: William Clark began to choose the men they would lead across the country to the Pacific Ocean. He made sure the men understood the dangers they would face. Clark and Lewis agreed that they needed men who could add some skill to the group. They agreed they wanted men who had lived much of their lives outdoors. They wanted some good hunters. They needed others who knew how to use small boats. They also needed some men who could work with wood, and others who could work with metals. They needed a few who could repair weapons and some who could cook. Most importantly, they looked for men who could best survive the hard days ahead. Most of the men Clark chose were soldiers. Each man prepared for the trip with five months of training. In the winter of eighteen-oh-three, the group came together at a place they called Camp Wood. Camp Wood was north of a small village named Saint Louis in what would later become the state of Missouri. They began buying the last of the supplies they would need. And they began preparing the three boats they would use on the first part of their trip. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark called their group of thirty-two men the Corps of Discovery. Their exploration began May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four. Another group of soldiers would join the Corps of Discovery for the first part of their trip. The soldiers would return after the first winter with reports for President Jefferson about what the explorers had discovered. They left Fort Wood and traveled north on the Missouri River. It was extremely hard work from the very beginning. Their three boats were not traveling with the flow of the river, but against it. At times, they passed ropes to the shore and the men pulled the boats. Several times the ropes broke. It was difficult and dangerous work. The largest of their three boats was almost seventeen meters long. This boat was called the Discovery. It carried most of their supplies, including medicine, food, scientific instruments, weapons and gifts of friendship for the Indian tribes the explorers hoped to meet. VOICE ONE: Lewis and Clark and the men with them immediately saw the great beauty of the land. This great natural beauty was something they would write about time and again each day during their travels. Slowly, the explorers made their way north up the Missouri River. They passed the area that in the future would be Kansas City. They continued north and passed the area that would become the city of Omaha, in the future state of Nebraska. As each day passed, both Lewis and Clark wrote about what they saw. Clark made maps of the land and the river. VOICE TWO: Near the present city of Sioux City, in the state of Iowa, Sergeant Charles Floyd became sick and within a few days died. The members of the Corps of Discovery buried him not far from the river. Today, a monument stands where he was buried. The Corps of Discovery again continued north in their boats on the Missouri River. They passed through what would become the state of South Dakota. Here, for the first time they met members of the Lakota called the Teton Sioux. The Teton Sioux were very fierce and war like. They demanded Lewis and Clark give them one of the boats. The two leaders refused. The Sioux threatened to kill all of the group. The Corps of Discovery prepared for a fight. But it never came. The Sioux changed their minds. Clark wrote of the Teton Sioux that they were tall and nice- looking people. He said their clothing was beautifully made with many colors and designs. He said the men were proud and fierce. VOICE ONE: Soon, the Corps of Discovery passed into what would become the state of North Dakota. It was now growing late in the year. The weather was becoming colder. At a place they named Fort Mandan they quickly cut trees and made temporary homes for the winter. The Missouri River began to turn to ice. Some days it was too cold to hunt animals for food. On the seventeenth of December, eighteen-oh-four, William Clark wrote in his book, "At night the temperature fell to seventy-four degrees below freezing." The Corps of Discovery would stay in Fort Mandan for five months. During the winter the explorers planned for their trip to the Pacific. That will be our story next time. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week when we continue our story of Lewis and Clark on the Explorations program, in Special English, on the Voice of America. This is Mary Tillotson with the VOA Special English program Explorations. A celebration has begun in the United States that will continue until September of two-thousand-six. The celebration honors the two-hundredth anniversary of the most famous exploration in American history. Today, and for the next two weeks, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell the story of a group of explorers. They left their families and friends to enter unexplored areas of the American Northwest. These explorers faced heat, cold, lack of food, dangerous rivers and fierce Indian tribes. They traveled almost thirteen-thousand kilometers across areas that would later become the northwestern United States. Their trip is still known by the names of the two men who led the group -- Lewis and Clark. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The story of the Lewis and Clark exploration begins back in time on June twentieth, eighteen-oh-three. A young man, Meriwether Lewis, has just received a letter from the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Meriwether Lewis is a captain in the United States army. He also serves as President Jefferson's private secretary. He is twenty-eight years old. The letter from President Jefferson says Captain Lewis will lead a group of men to explore the area from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson's letter is long. It tells Captain Lewis to draw maps of the areas in which he travels. It tells him to record a day-by-day history of his trip. And it tells him to collect plants and animals he finds. President Jefferson says Mister Lewis is to write about the different tribes of Indians he meets. Lewis is to report about their languages, their clothing and their culture. The letter asks Lewis to return with as much information as possible about this unknown land. VOICE ONE: In the early eighteen-hundreds, much of the land that would later become the United States was unexplored. Many people believed that ancient animals like huge dinosaurs could still live in the far West. Other stories told of strange and terrible people in these unexplored areas. President Jefferson wanted Lewis to confirm or prove false as many of these stories as possible. The president also wanted him to find the best and fastest way to travel across the far western lands. President Jefferson wanted many other questions answered. Lewis was to learn if it was possible to send trade goods by land to the Pacific coast. He was to learn if it were possible to take a boat west across the country to the Pacific Ocean. Many people believed this was possible. This idea was called the northwest passage. People thought the northwest passage would be a river or several rivers that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Explorers just had to find it. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson knew that any trip to the far West would be extremely dangerous. Those taking part could expect years of hard work. They would lack food and water. They would face dangerous Indians and have little medical help. There would be severe weather. It was possible that such a group of explorers would never return. President Jefferson chose Lewis to lead the trip because he was sure Lewis would succeed. Meriwether Lewis and President Jefferson had spent a lot of time together. President Jefferson had great respect for Lewis. He knew Captain Lewis was a strong man who had a good education. Lewis was also a successful army officer and a good leader. And, probably most important, he was a skilled hunter who was used to living outdoors for long periods of time. VOICE ONE: Lewis knew that such a trip would be extremely difficult and dangerous. He knew that he needed another person who could lead the group if he became injured or died. He requested President Jefferson's permission to ask a friend to help him. Lewis' friend was William Clark. Clark was an excellent leader, and was good at making maps. Lewis wrote a letter to Clark and offered him the job. Clark accepted. The two men decided to share the responsibility of command. They decided to be equal in all things. Lewis and Clark had known each other for several years. They had served in the army together. Each trusted the other's abilities. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson then sent Lewis to the city of Philadelphia. There, scientists began to teach him about modern scientific methods. He learned about plants. He learned how to tell where he was on the planet by using the stars and the sun. He learned about the different kinds of animals. He also studied with a doctor, Benjamin Rush, who taught him about emergency care of the sick or wounded and about different kinds of medicine. Doctor Rush helped Lewis gather the medical supplies that would be needed for the trip. VOICE ONE: William Clark began to choose the men they would lead across the country to the Pacific Ocean. He made sure the men understood the dangers they would face. Clark and Lewis agreed that they needed men who could add some skill to the group. They agreed they wanted men who had lived much of their lives outdoors. They wanted some good hunters. They needed others who knew how to use small boats. They also needed some men who could work with wood, and others who could work with metals. They needed a few who could repair weapons and some who could cook. Most importantly, they looked for men who could best survive the hard days ahead. Most of the men Clark chose were soldiers. Each man prepared for the trip with five months of training. In the winter of eighteen-oh-three, the group came together at a place they called Camp Wood. Camp Wood was north of a small village named Saint Louis in what would later become the state of Missouri. They began buying the last of the supplies they would need. And they began preparing the three boats they would use on the first part of their trip. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark called their group of thirty-two men the Corps of Discovery. Their exploration began May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four. Another group of soldiers would join the Corps of Discovery for the first part of their trip. The soldiers would return after the first winter with reports for President Jefferson about what the explorers had discovered. They left Fort Wood and traveled north on the Missouri River. It was extremely hard work from the very beginning. Their three boats were not traveling with the flow of the river, but against it. At times, they passed ropes to the shore and the men pulled the boats. Several times the ropes broke. It was difficult and dangerous work. The largest of their three boats was almost seventeen meters long. This boat was called the Discovery. It carried most of their supplies, including medicine, food, scientific instruments, weapons and gifts of friendship for the Indian tribes the explorers hoped to meet. VOICE ONE: Lewis and Clark and the men with them immediately saw the great beauty of the land. This great natural beauty was something they would write about time and again each day during their travels. Slowly, the explorers made their way north up the Missouri River. They passed the area that in the future would be Kansas City. They continued north and passed the area that would become the city of Omaha, in the future state of Nebraska. As each day passed, both Lewis and Clark wrote about what they saw. Clark made maps of the land and the river. VOICE TWO: Near the present city of Sioux City, in the state of Iowa, Sergeant Charles Floyd became sick and within a few days died. The members of the Corps of Discovery buried him not far from the river. Today, a monument stands where he was buried. The Corps of Discovery again continued north in their boats on the Missouri River. They passed through what would become the state of South Dakota. Here, for the first time they met members of the Lakota called the Teton Sioux. The Teton Sioux were very fierce and war like. They demanded Lewis and Clark give them one of the boats. The two leaders refused. The Sioux threatened to kill all of the group. The Corps of Discovery prepared for a fight. But it never came. The Sioux changed their minds. Clark wrote of the Teton Sioux that they were tall and nice- looking people. He said their clothing was beautifully made with many colors and designs. He said the men were proud and fierce. VOICE ONE: Soon, the Corps of Discovery passed into what would become the state of North Dakota. It was now growing late in the year. The weather was becoming colder. At a place they named Fort Mandan they quickly cut trees and made temporary homes for the winter. The Missouri River began to turn to ice. Some days it was too cold to hunt animals for food. On the seventeenth of December, eighteen-oh-four, William Clark wrote in his book, "At night the temperature fell to seventy-four degrees below freezing." The Corps of Discovery would stay in Fort Mandan for five months. During the winter the explorers planned for their trip to the Pacific. That will be our story next time. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week when we continue our story of Lewis and Clark on the Explorations program, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #2 - March 6, 2003: First Peoples
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we present the first in our series of history programs. We tell about the first peoples to arrive in what would become North America. (MUSIC: MANDAREE SINGERS) VOICE ONE: Scientists and history experts say the first people to ever come to the western hemisphere arrived between fifteen-thousand and thirty-five-thousand years ago. They may have come in several different groups. No one is really sure who they were or where they lived before. Experts say the best possible answer about where they came from is northern Asia. Most experts believe they crossed to the western hemisphere from the part of Russia now called Siberia. The first people came to the new world in a time of fierce cold. Much of the northern part of the world was covered in ice. Because of this, the oceans were hundreds of meters lower than they are now. Scientists believe this made it possible to walk across the area that is now the Bering Sea. For a moment, let us follow a family group as it begins to cross the area that is now the Bering Sea. The time is more than twenty-thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The hunter watched the small group of animals. It had been several days since he had last killed an animal for food. The hunter's family had not much left to eat. It was the responsibility of the men to provide the food. Today they must get meat or their families would not survive. The fierce cold added to the sharp hunger that the hunter felt. He was dressed from head to foot in heavy animal skins to protect against the cold. VOICE ONE: The hunter was several kilometers from the animals. The animals had moved slowly during the night toward the rising sun. They had been moving in this direction for several days. They were also looking for food. The hunter knew there was not much for them to eat in this area. He knew the animals would keep moving. The hunter's people had always followed animals for food. But they had never followed them this far toward the rising sun. The hunter looked behind him. He could see the women and children far behind. He picked up his weapon and moved forward. VOICE TWO: Later, the men killed two animals. It was enough to feed all their people for perhaps two days. That night as they cooked the meat, the hunter thought about turning back to the land behind them. The hunter knew that area well. But the hunting had been poor for a long time. This was the first group of animals they had been able to follow any length of time. It was not a large group of animals but there were enough to follow. He decided that in the morning they could continue toward the rising sun. They would stay with this herd of animals. He knew his family had little choice. Follow them and live. Or go back and perhaps die from of a lack of food. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is just a story. But it could be true. Scientists believe such hunters followed animals east across what is now the Bering Sea. It is only about eighty kilometers from Siberia to what is now the American state of Alaska. Eighty kilometers would not be a long trip for ancient people following animal herds. Scientists have done new genetic tests on large populations of people. They show that about ninety-five percent of all native peoples in the western hemisphere came from the same family group. The scientists say this family may have crossed into the west about twenty-thousand years ago. This family group would have grown and divided during the next several thousand years. Over time, they would have spread out and explored most of the land that is North, Central and South America. VOICE TWO: Many of those early peoples stayed in the far northern parts of the American continents. They were already used to living in the extreme cold. They knew how to survive. Today members of a tribe called the Yuit still live near the Bering Sea in Alaska. Other tribes live in the Arctic areas of northern Canada. These include several different tribes of the Inuit. Many of these people of the far North still hunt wild animals for much of their food. VOICE ONE: The early settlers in North America were not able to immediately travel south. Huge amounts of ice stopped them. Experts believe the early settlers lived in the far north for about two-thousand years before they began to move south. One expert says it could have taken only five-hundred years for the early Indians to settle all of the western hemisphere from southern Canada to the end of South America. VOICE TWO: Scientists say it is more likely that the movement took several thousand years. But in time these people spread out over the western hemisphere. They became thousands of different tribes with many languages...from the Inuit in the far north, to the Yahgan people near the end of South America. One group was the Maya of Mexico. They learned to read and write their language and build huge stone buildings that can still be seen today. The Inca of Peru also built stone buildings that are extremely beautiful. Some Indians still live much the same as they always have. An example is the Bora tribe that lives deep in the Amazon area of South America. Other native peoples settled across the land that would later become the United States. (BRIDGE MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The earliest evidence of the existence of ancient Indians in North America was found in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. A worker found the bones of an animal sticking out of the ground. The bones were much larger than normal. Experts were called. The experts learned that the bones were from an animal that is no longer found in North America. The experts also found the stone points of weapons that were used to kill this animal. Since then experts have found many similar areas with animal bones and weapon points. The experts believe most of these finds are between ten-thousand and eleven-thousand-five-hundred years old. VOICE TWO: The experts agree that these stone weapon points are very similar to weapons that have been found in the far northern parts of Siberia. They say this helps prove the idea that the first settlers in North America came from North Eastern Asia. Near the small town of Clovis in the western state of New Mexico, experts found a new kind of stone weapon point. They named it the Clovis point. These points have been made very sharp by cutting away some of the stone from the sides. Experts say this kind of stone point is only found in America. The earliest ones were made about eleven-thousand-five hundred years ago. Experts say at the time, this kind of stone point was the most modern weapon of its time. They were a great improvement over the older kind of stone point. VOICE ONE: Many of the larger animals that were hunted by the early Indians began to die off with the end of the ice age. The Indians were forced to hunt smaller animals. In a period of several thousand years, the first peoples moved and settled across the land that would become the United States. Some settled in the forest land of the east, like the Iroquois. Some lived in the southern desert like the Apache. Some settled in the open country of middle America like the Lakota. And others settled in the American northwest like the Nez Perce. These tribes and several hundred others had lived in the western part of the world many thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived. Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in Fourteen-Ninety-Two. People in Europe did not know at that time that this land existed. VOICE TWO: When Columbus landed, several million people lived in the area between the far north of North America to the end of land in South America. These included large groups and small. Most had their own culture, language and religion. Many were extremely fierce. Some were very peaceful. Some were hunters. Others were farmers. Some built huge cities of stone. Others lived in simple homes made from animal skins or wood from trees. Their ways of living would change forever when European explorers found their land. The story of these explorers -- next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we present the first in our series of history programs. We tell about the first peoples to arrive in what would become North America. (MUSIC: MANDAREE SINGERS) VOICE ONE: Scientists and history experts say the first people to ever come to the western hemisphere arrived between fifteen-thousand and thirty-five-thousand years ago. They may have come in several different groups. No one is really sure who they were or where they lived before. Experts say the best possible answer about where they came from is northern Asia. Most experts believe they crossed to the western hemisphere from the part of Russia now called Siberia. The first people came to the new world in a time of fierce cold. Much of the northern part of the world was covered in ice. Because of this, the oceans were hundreds of meters lower than they are now. Scientists believe this made it possible to walk across the area that is now the Bering Sea. For a moment, let us follow a family group as it begins to cross the area that is now the Bering Sea. The time is more than twenty-thousand years ago. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The hunter watched the small group of animals. It had been several days since he had last killed an animal for food. The hunter's family had not much left to eat. It was the responsibility of the men to provide the food. Today they must get meat or their families would not survive. The fierce cold added to the sharp hunger that the hunter felt. He was dressed from head to foot in heavy animal skins to protect against the cold. VOICE ONE: The hunter was several kilometers from the animals. The animals had moved slowly during the night toward the rising sun. They had been moving in this direction for several days. They were also looking for food. The hunter knew there was not much for them to eat in this area. He knew the animals would keep moving. The hunter's people had always followed animals for food. But they had never followed them this far toward the rising sun. The hunter looked behind him. He could see the women and children far behind. He picked up his weapon and moved forward. VOICE TWO: Later, the men killed two animals. It was enough to feed all their people for perhaps two days. That night as they cooked the meat, the hunter thought about turning back to the land behind them. The hunter knew that area well. But the hunting had been poor for a long time. This was the first group of animals they had been able to follow any length of time. It was not a large group of animals but there were enough to follow. He decided that in the morning they could continue toward the rising sun. They would stay with this herd of animals. He knew his family had little choice. Follow them and live. Or go back and perhaps die from of a lack of food. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is just a story. But it could be true. Scientists believe such hunters followed animals east across what is now the Bering Sea. It is only about eighty kilometers from Siberia to what is now the American state of Alaska. Eighty kilometers would not be a long trip for ancient people following animal herds. Scientists have done new genetic tests on large populations of people. They show that about ninety-five percent of all native peoples in the western hemisphere came from the same family group. The scientists say this family may have crossed into the west about twenty-thousand years ago. This family group would have grown and divided during the next several thousand years. Over time, they would have spread out and explored most of the land that is North, Central and South America. VOICE TWO: Many of those early peoples stayed in the far northern parts of the American continents. They were already used to living in the extreme cold. They knew how to survive. Today members of a tribe called the Yuit still live near the Bering Sea in Alaska. Other tribes live in the Arctic areas of northern Canada. These include several different tribes of the Inuit. Many of these people of the far North still hunt wild animals for much of their food. VOICE ONE: The early settlers in North America were not able to immediately travel south. Huge amounts of ice stopped them. Experts believe the early settlers lived in the far north for about two-thousand years before they began to move south. One expert says it could have taken only five-hundred years for the early Indians to settle all of the western hemisphere from southern Canada to the end of South America. VOICE TWO: Scientists say it is more likely that the movement took several thousand years. But in time these people spread out over the western hemisphere. They became thousands of different tribes with many languages...from the Inuit in the far north, to the Yahgan people near the end of South America. One group was the Maya of Mexico. They learned to read and write their language and build huge stone buildings that can still be seen today. The Inca of Peru also built stone buildings that are extremely beautiful. Some Indians still live much the same as they always have. An example is the Bora tribe that lives deep in the Amazon area of South America. Other native peoples settled across the land that would later become the United States. (BRIDGE MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The earliest evidence of the existence of ancient Indians in North America was found in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. A worker found the bones of an animal sticking out of the ground. The bones were much larger than normal. Experts were called. The experts learned that the bones were from an animal that is no longer found in North America. The experts also found the stone points of weapons that were used to kill this animal. Since then experts have found many similar areas with animal bones and weapon points. The experts believe most of these finds are between ten-thousand and eleven-thousand-five-hundred years old. VOICE TWO: The experts agree that these stone weapon points are very similar to weapons that have been found in the far northern parts of Siberia. They say this helps prove the idea that the first settlers in North America came from North Eastern Asia. Near the small town of Clovis in the western state of New Mexico, experts found a new kind of stone weapon point. They named it the Clovis point. These points have been made very sharp by cutting away some of the stone from the sides. Experts say this kind of stone point is only found in America. The earliest ones were made about eleven-thousand-five hundred years ago. Experts say at the time, this kind of stone point was the most modern weapon of its time. They were a great improvement over the older kind of stone point. VOICE ONE: Many of the larger animals that were hunted by the early Indians began to die off with the end of the ice age. The Indians were forced to hunt smaller animals. In a period of several thousand years, the first peoples moved and settled across the land that would become the United States. Some settled in the forest land of the east, like the Iroquois. Some lived in the southern desert like the Apache. Some settled in the open country of middle America like the Lakota. And others settled in the American northwest like the Nez Perce. These tribes and several hundred others had lived in the western part of the world many thousands of years before the first Europeans arrived. Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in Fourteen-Ninety-Two. People in Europe did not know at that time that this land existed. VOICE TWO: When Columbus landed, several million people lived in the area between the far north of North America to the end of land in South America. These included large groups and small. Most had their own culture, language and religion. Many were extremely fierce. Some were very peaceful. Some were hunters. Others were farmers. Some built huge cities of stone. Others lived in simple homes made from animal skins or wood from trees. Their ways of living would change forever when European explorers found their land. The story of these explorers -- next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 7, 2003: Design Chosen for World Trade Center Site / Questions from Nigeria About U.S. History / Country Singer Johnny PayCheck Remembered
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Studio Daniel Libeskind design for World Trade Center site (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We remember country singer Johnny PayCheck ... THINK design for World Trade Center site Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We remember country singer Johnny PayCheck ... Answer a few questions about American history ... And report about a new design for Ground Zero in New York City. New Design for Ground Zero HOST: On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, terrorist hijackers flew two passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. Two-thousand-eight-hundred people died as the two tallest buildings in the city fell to the ground. Now officials have chosen a design to rebuild the area that people have come to know as Ground Zero. Mary Tillotson has the details. ANNCR: Answer a few questions about American history ... And report about a new design for Ground Zero in New York City. New Design for Ground Zero HOST: On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, terrorist hijackers flew two passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. Two-thousand-eight-hundred people died as the two tallest buildings in the city fell to the ground. Now officials have chosen a design to rebuild the area that people have come to know as Ground Zero. Mary Tillotson has the details. ANNCR: The winning design calls for a collection of modern glass office buildings. One would be the tallest building in the world. This pointed tower would include gardens inside. It would rise five-hundred-forty-one meters -- or one-thousand-seven-hundred-seventy-six feet. Seventeen-seventy-six was the year America declared its independence from Britain. In the center of the design is an empty space, the huge hole where the ruins of Ground Zero burned for several weeks. The design is such that every September eleventh, a line of sunlight will shine into this area as a special honor. It will shine from eight-forty-six in the morning, the time the first plane hit, until ten-twenty-eight a.m., the time the second tower fell. Daniel Libeskind [LEEB-skind] is the architect who designed the winning proposal. Mister Libeskind says he wanted to keep the center area as a memorial to the brave men and women who died on September eleventh. A wall that held firm against the waters of the Hudson River will stand as part of the memorial. Daniel Libeskind is a Polish-born American. His offices are based in Germany. Thirty years ago, as an architecture student in New York, he watched the World Trade Center being built. Officials chose his plan over a design for two tall buildings. Some thought these looked too much like the towers that fell. The Libeskind proposal is estimated to cost more than three-hundred-million dollars to build. Officials told him that his imagination and ideas have brought hope to a city still recovering from what happened. However, planners warn that economic pressures and other issues may force changes. A separate competition to design a memorial on the ground where the fallen towers once stood will begin later this year. The Making Of A Nation HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Oluseyi Joel Ogunbode of Osun State asks about Martin Luther King, Christopher Columbus and the American holiday, the Fourth of July. These questions are easy to answer in a simple way. Martin Luther King was a black American who led the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Christopher Columbus was an early European explorer in this part of the world. And the Fourth of July is America's independence day. But these answers do not really say much about Martin Luther King, Christopher Columbus and the Fourth of July. And we do not have the time to answer them all fully here. To get these answers, you should listen to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. It is broadcast each Thursday. THE MAKING OF A NATION answers many questions about American history. How was the United States formed? Why was it necessary for citizens to rebel against one nation -- Britain -- and create another? What is the American Constitution? How and when was it written? Why is this document still important today? In other programs, THE MAKING OF A NATION explains the rights of Americans. It tells about the mistakes they have made, and the wars they have fought. Programs describe social changes, the elections of presidents, the period of slavery, and much more. So, if you are interested in the answers to these and other questions about the United States, listen to THE MAKING OF A NATION on Thursdays. There are more than two-hundred programs in the series. And the series has just started again. Next week, it will tell about the first Europeans to arrive in what they called the New World. The story will continue each week -- all the way until the twenty-first century! Johnny PayCheck HOST: Country singer and songwriter Johnny PayCheck has died in Nashville, Tennessee. He was sixty-four years old and had been in poor health. As Jim Tedder tells us, he recorded seventy record albums and had more than twenty hit songs. ANNCR: Johnny PayCheck was born Donald Eugene Lytle, in the north central state of Ohio. He learned to play guitar as a child. At fifteen he ran away from home and later joined the Navy. He moved to Nashville in nineteen-fifty-nine. Johnny PayCheck lived life hard. He spent two years in prison for hitting a Navy officer. Years later he recorded "Eleven Months and Twenty-Nine Days," the length of his suspended jail sentence for another crime. (MUSIC) In nineteen-eighty-five, in Ohio, Johnny PayCheck shot and wounded a man in the head. While in prison he performed with a visitor, singer Merle Haggard. Here they sing “I Can’t Hold Myself In Line.” (MUSIC) That prison term was cut short after two years. Johnny PayCheck worked hard to clean up his life. Today he is most widely remembered for a song from nineteen-seventy-seven. We leave you with Johnny PayCheck singing “Take This Job and Shove It.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. The winning design calls for a collection of modern glass office buildings. One would be the tallest building in the world. This pointed tower would include gardens inside. It would rise five-hundred-forty-one meters -- or one-thousand-seven-hundred-seventy-six feet. Seventeen-seventy-six was the year America declared its independence from Britain. In the center of the design is an empty space, the huge hole where the ruins of Ground Zero burned for several weeks. The design is such that every September eleventh, a line of sunlight will shine into this area as a special honor. It will shine from eight-forty-six in the morning, the time the first plane hit, until ten-twenty-eight a.m., the time the second tower fell. Daniel Libeskind [LEEB-skind] is the architect who designed the winning proposal. Mister Libeskind says he wanted to keep the center area as a memorial to the brave men and women who died on September eleventh. A wall that held firm against the waters of the Hudson River will stand as part of the memorial. Daniel Libeskind is a Polish-born American. His offices are based in Germany. Thirty years ago, as an architecture student in New York, he watched the World Trade Center being built. Officials chose his plan over a design for two tall buildings. Some thought these looked too much like the towers that fell. The Libeskind proposal is estimated to cost more than three-hundred-million dollars to build. Officials told him that his imagination and ideas have brought hope to a city still recovering from what happened. However, planners warn that economic pressures and other issues may force changes. A separate competition to design a memorial on the ground where the fallen towers once stood will begin later this year. The Making Of A Nation HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Oluseyi Joel Ogunbode of Osun State asks about Martin Luther King, Christopher Columbus and the American holiday, the Fourth of July. These questions are easy to answer in a simple way. Martin Luther King was a black American who led the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Christopher Columbus was an early European explorer in this part of the world. And the Fourth of July is America's independence day. But these answers do not really say much about Martin Luther King, Christopher Columbus and the Fourth of July. And we do not have the time to answer them all fully here. To get these answers, you should listen to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. It is broadcast each Thursday. THE MAKING OF A NATION answers many questions about American history. How was the United States formed? Why was it necessary for citizens to rebel against one nation -- Britain -- and create another? What is the American Constitution? How and when was it written? Why is this document still important today? In other programs, THE MAKING OF A NATION explains the rights of Americans. It tells about the mistakes they have made, and the wars they have fought. Programs describe social changes, the elections of presidents, the period of slavery, and much more. So, if you are interested in the answers to these and other questions about the United States, listen to THE MAKING OF A NATION on Thursdays. There are more than two-hundred programs in the series. And the series has just started again. Next week, it will tell about the first Europeans to arrive in what they called the New World. The story will continue each week -- all the way until the twenty-first century! Johnny PayCheck HOST: Country singer and songwriter Johnny PayCheck has died in Nashville, Tennessee. He was sixty-four years old and had been in poor health. As Jim Tedder tells us, he recorded seventy record albums and had more than twenty hit songs. ANNCR: Johnny PayCheck was born Donald Eugene Lytle, in the north central state of Ohio. He learned to play guitar as a child. At fifteen he ran away from home and later joined the Navy. He moved to Nashville in nineteen-fifty-nine. Johnny PayCheck lived life hard. He spent two years in prison for hitting a Navy officer. Years later he recorded "Eleven Months and Twenty-Nine Days," the length of his suspended jail sentence for another crime. (MUSIC) In nineteen-eighty-five, in Ohio, Johnny PayCheck shot and wounded a man in the head. While in prison he performed with a visitor, singer Merle Haggard. Here they sing “I Can’t Hold Myself In Line.” (MUSIC) That prison term was cut short after two years. Johnny PayCheck worked hard to clean up his life. Today he is most widely remembered for a song from nineteen-seventy-seven. We leave you with Johnny PayCheck singing “Take This Job and Shove It.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – March 7, 2003: Coral Reef Systems Threatened
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Environmental experts are concerned about the world’s coral reefs. A recent study found that twenty-seven percent of all coral reef systems have been destroyed. Experts believe higher ocean temperatures and activities by people are to blame. The study warns that sixty percent of the reef systems could be permanently lost if nothing is done to stop the problem. Corals are groups of small organisms called polyps. These polyps live within a skeleton made of a substance called limestone. Corals are found in warm waters. Millions of corals grow together to form coral reefs. Coral reefs are some of the oldest natural systems in the world. The reefs support many kinds of sea life. They can be to important to local and national economies. The reefs also protect coastal communities in storms. The World Wildlife Fund paid for the independent report. The group warns that the destruction of coral reefs will result in severe losses to the world economy. Peter Bryant works with the Endangered Seas Program of the World Wildlife Fund. Mister Bryant notes that most of the reef systems are in developing countries. He says the presence of coral reefs produces money for many economies. Coral reefs support fishing activities and protect inland waterways. They also have become popular stops for travelers. Many people like to swim underwater to see coral reefs. Mister Bryant estimates that the world’s coral reefs are worth thirty-thousand-million dollars a year. The largest in the world is the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of northeastern Australia. Coral reefs also are found in waters off the Philippines, Indonesia, the Caribbean islands, the United States and South America. Corals are even important for medical research. Mister Bryant says more than half of all new cancer drug studies involve sea creatures. For example, he notes there is a reef in the Caribbean with organisms that form the basis of the AIDS drug A-Z-T. The World Wildlife Fund say coral reefs should be declared protected areas. That way, human activities could be more closely supervised. The group says governments must take responsibility for the future of their coastal communities. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Environmental experts are concerned about the world’s coral reefs. A recent study found that twenty-seven percent of all coral reef systems have been destroyed. Experts believe higher ocean temperatures and activities by people are to blame. The study warns that sixty percent of the reef systems could be permanently lost if nothing is done to stop the problem. Corals are groups of small organisms called polyps. These polyps live within a skeleton made of a substance called limestone. Corals are found in warm waters. Millions of corals grow together to form coral reefs. Coral reefs are some of the oldest natural systems in the world. The reefs support many kinds of sea life. They can be to important to local and national economies. The reefs also protect coastal communities in storms. The World Wildlife Fund paid for the independent report. The group warns that the destruction of coral reefs will result in severe losses to the world economy. Peter Bryant works with the Endangered Seas Program of the World Wildlife Fund. Mister Bryant notes that most of the reef systems are in developing countries. He says the presence of coral reefs produces money for many economies. Coral reefs support fishing activities and protect inland waterways. They also have become popular stops for travelers. Many people like to swim underwater to see coral reefs. Mister Bryant estimates that the world’s coral reefs are worth thirty-thousand-million dollars a year. The largest in the world is the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of northeastern Australia. Coral reefs also are found in waters off the Philippines, Indonesia, the Caribbean islands, the United States and South America. Corals are even important for medical research. Mister Bryant says more than half of all new cancer drug studies involve sea creatures. For example, he notes there is a reef in the Caribbean with organisms that form the basis of the AIDS drug A-Z-T. The World Wildlife Fund say coral reefs should be declared protected areas. That way, human activities could be more closely supervised. The group says governments must take responsibility for the future of their coastal communities. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 6, 2003 - Anu Garg: A.Word.A.Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 6, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- our guest is Anu Garg, the man behind a popular e-mail service called A.Word.A.Day. Broadcast: March 6, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- our guest is Anu Garg, the man behind a popular e-mail service called A.Word.A.Day. RS: And for the past nine years, that's exactly what subscribers have gotten for free: Monday through Friday, one word a day, not just defined, but complete with a full "biography." AA: Anu Garg talked to us from Seattle, Washington, where part of his home doubles as his office, a space filled with dictionaries and other books on words. RS: He says he developed a passion for the English language as a young boy in his native India. GARG: "I learned it when I was in sixth grade. My mother tongue is Hindi. But what I found interesting was English has a lot of words from Hindi, and later on I discovered that it has words from almost all the languages in the world." AA: "I'm curious [about] a couple of examples of Hindi words in English." GARG: "A lot of common words like shampoo, what you do to your hair in the morning. It came from Hindi, 'champee.' In Hindi 'champee' means to massage the head. Words like jungle or guru or nirvana -- a lot of words from Hindi, or ultimately from Sanskrit." RS: "So how many people from how many countries are now receiving their daily lexicon from you?" GARG: "Right now there are about five-hundred-and-fifty-thousand subscribers. They are in more than two-hundred countries." AA: "That's basically the entire world." GARG: "Yeah, almost -- including as far away as Antarctica." RS: "How are you able to connect with them on a daily basis?" GARG: "I have found ways to conserve time. For example, I don't watch TV and I just enjoy it so much, it doesn't feel like I work, I feel like I'm just having fun playing." RS: "Do you have another job that you get paid to do, or is this something that has become a source of income, too?" GARG: "My background is in computer science, and I was working as a computer engineer until last year. Now I am a full-time writer. My book has come out and fortunately it has been doing very well, and I get royalties from the book. I have some paying subscribers, people who sign up to receive mailings without advertisements, and also people who contribute voluntarily." AA: "So now can you take us through a typical day -- when do you begin and how do you find your word of the day?" GARG: "There is no typical day. I feel like an explorer discovering new fossils or new gems every day. Every morning I wake up and open the dictionary and I find new words. Sometimes I'm reading a book and I'll find an unusual or interesting word and I will make note. And eventually they build up. On a typical day I will be reading e-mail, responding to some of the e-mails, taking care of the Web site, making sure hackers can't hack in, playing with my daughter, answering her questions. 'So Daddy, tell me, why do we call a dog a dog?' So I say 'OK, let's look it up.'" AA: "And what did you find?" GARG: "Well, 'dog' came from Old English, 'docga.' Currently the English language has about five-hundred-thousand words, but new words are coming into the language every day." AA: "And five-hundred-thousand makes it larger than any other language out there." GARG: "Yes, English has the largest word stock of any language, and not only new words are coming in, but the existing words, they change shades of meanings." RS: "Do you have a favorite word, or is it just so hard to pick among all these children." GARG: "I find that all words are fascinating. You have to find their histories to see how they came about." RS: "Come on, give me a favorite." GARG: "One word that really resonates with people is 'mondegreen.' A mondegreen is when you mishear something. A lot of songs, when we hear, we mishear them. There is one song, a lot of people hear it as "there is a bathroom on the right.'" MUSIC: "Bad Moon Rising"/Creedence Clearwater Revival RS: In this 1969 classic by John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, the phrase is not "there's a bathroom on the right." The phrase is, "there's a bad moon on the rise." The song is called "Bad Moon Rising." AA: To learn how to sign up for A.Word.A.Day, you can go to Anu Garg's Web site. It's wordsmith dot o-r-g. And he's collected some of his words into a book called "A Word A Day." RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: And for the past nine years, that's exactly what subscribers have gotten for free: Monday through Friday, one word a day, not just defined, but complete with a full "biography." AA: Anu Garg talked to us from Seattle, Washington, where part of his home doubles as his office, a space filled with dictionaries and other books on words. RS: He says he developed a passion for the English language as a young boy in his native India. GARG: "I learned it when I was in sixth grade. My mother tongue is Hindi. But what I found interesting was English has a lot of words from Hindi, and later on I discovered that it has words from almost all the languages in the world." AA: "I'm curious [about] a couple of examples of Hindi words in English." GARG: "A lot of common words like shampoo, what you do to your hair in the morning. It came from Hindi, 'champee.' In Hindi 'champee' means to massage the head. Words like jungle or guru or nirvana -- a lot of words from Hindi, or ultimately from Sanskrit." RS: "So how many people from how many countries are now receiving their daily lexicon from you?" GARG: "Right now there are about five-hundred-and-fifty-thousand subscribers. They are in more than two-hundred countries." AA: "That's basically the entire world." GARG: "Yeah, almost -- including as far away as Antarctica." RS: "How are you able to connect with them on a daily basis?" GARG: "I have found ways to conserve time. For example, I don't watch TV and I just enjoy it so much, it doesn't feel like I work, I feel like I'm just having fun playing." RS: "Do you have another job that you get paid to do, or is this something that has become a source of income, too?" GARG: "My background is in computer science, and I was working as a computer engineer until last year. Now I am a full-time writer. My book has come out and fortunately it has been doing very well, and I get royalties from the book. I have some paying subscribers, people who sign up to receive mailings without advertisements, and also people who contribute voluntarily." AA: "So now can you take us through a typical day -- when do you begin and how do you find your word of the day?" GARG: "There is no typical day. I feel like an explorer discovering new fossils or new gems every day. Every morning I wake up and open the dictionary and I find new words. Sometimes I'm reading a book and I'll find an unusual or interesting word and I will make note. And eventually they build up. On a typical day I will be reading e-mail, responding to some of the e-mails, taking care of the Web site, making sure hackers can't hack in, playing with my daughter, answering her questions. 'So Daddy, tell me, why do we call a dog a dog?' So I say 'OK, let's look it up.'" AA: "And what did you find?" GARG: "Well, 'dog' came from Old English, 'docga.' Currently the English language has about five-hundred-thousand words, but new words are coming into the language every day." AA: "And five-hundred-thousand makes it larger than any other language out there." GARG: "Yes, English has the largest word stock of any language, and not only new words are coming in, but the existing words, they change shades of meanings." RS: "Do you have a favorite word, or is it just so hard to pick among all these children." GARG: "I find that all words are fascinating. You have to find their histories to see how they came about." RS: "Come on, give me a favorite." GARG: "One word that really resonates with people is 'mondegreen.' A mondegreen is when you mishear something. A lot of songs, when we hear, we mishear them. There is one song, a lot of people hear it as "there is a bathroom on the right.'" MUSIC: "Bad Moon Rising"/Creedence Clearwater Revival RS: In this 1969 classic by John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, the phrase is not "there's a bathroom on the right." The phrase is, "there's a bad moon on the rise." The song is called "Bad Moon Rising." AA: To learn how to sign up for A.Word.A.Day, you can go to Anu Garg's Web site. It's wordsmith dot o-r-g. And he's collected some of his words into a book called "A Word A Day." RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 10, 2003: New Orleans and Mardi Gras
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: New Orleans, Louisiana, is a city famous for its music, food and history. It is also famous for the wild celebration that comes just before Lent, the Christian season leading to the holiday of Easter. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Mardi Gras and New Orleans -- today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: “WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN”) VOICE ONE: New Orleans has just celebrated Mardi Gras. This huge party takes place each March or February. The name "Mardis Gras" is French. It means “Fat Tuesday." That is the official day of the celebration. But people start almost two weeks early. Visitors to Mardi Gras enjoy as much food and fun as they can before the Lenten season. That is when Christians traditionally are supposed to avoid pleasure. Hundreds of thousands of people attend Mardi Gras. They eat, drink and dance. They celebrate art, drama, building design and history. They celebrate the music of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. VOICE TWO: Huge crowds line the streets during Mardi Gras. Many social groups hold parades. Some of the huge moving floats carry up to two-hundred-fifty people. Floats by designer Blaine Kern express the spirit of Mardi Gras. He has created and produced most of the two- and three-level floats in Mardi Gras parades since nineteen-forty-seven. Mister Kern created almost seven-hundred Mardi Gras floats this year in New Orleans. Some of the most famous show the family of King Kong, the huge gorilla of movie fame. VOICE ONE: Mister Kern is seventy-two years old. At age nineteen, he created a wall painting at a hospital. It showed the history of medicine. One of the hospital’s doctors was organizing a Mardi Gras parade at the time. The doctor saw Mister Kern’s work and hired him to produce eleven floats for his parade. Mister Kern received three-thousand dollars for the work. Today a Blaine Kern float can cost thirty-thousand dollars. His company creates floats for parades and amusement parks around the world. But he says, “Mardi Gras is my life.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: There are days of parades and parties during Mardi Gras. Riders on the parade floats wear colorful clothes. Bird feathers top hats that stand a meter tall. Beautiful, sometimes strange, masks cover the faces of people on the floats. These people throw cups and necklaces to the crowds of people who watch the parades. Traditionally, those who catch these objects treasure them. During Mardi Gras, police are in the crowds in case things get too wild. Some people drink too much at parties or in the streets. Some push to get a closer look at parades. But those who take part in the celebrations every year say there is very little fighting. One visitor to New Orleans describes most of the people at Mardi Gras as “harmless and very happy.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: New Orleans history is just as filled with adventure as the Mardi Gras. Several tribes of American Indians lived in what is now New Orleans before Europeans arrived. The city was established in seventeen-eighteen. The Louisiana Territory was a French colony then. The city was named for the Duke of Orleans, the ruler of France at that time. The city lies along the Mississippi River. The river flows past until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, one-hundred-sixty kilometers away. VOICE TWO: The first area settled in New Orleans was the Vieux Carre’. This is now commonly called the French Quarter. After the city was established, roads and simple houses were built quickly. Government buildings and a church were added around the Place D’Armes, now called Jackson Square. Ships brought people from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. They were store owners, wealthy businessmen, exiles, criminals -- and slaves. The people found low wetlands, clouds of biting mosquitoes and hard living conditions. VOICE ONE: Survival was a struggle. Settlers had to deal with floods, disease and food shortages. But they stayed. And they developed a society that was almost a copy of French culture. In seventeen-sixty-two, the people of New Orleans discovered that they no longer lived in a French colony. The French king had given Louisiana to his cousin, the king of Spain. Wealthy Spaniards continued the cultural life begun by the French. French and Spanish families became linked through marriage. The sons and daughters of these unions are called Creoles. VOICE TWO: A fire in seventeen-eighty-eight and another fire six years later left New Orleans in ashes. But the city was rebuilt. Much of it was rebuilt in the Spanish way. Earthen bricks were covered with a mixture of lime, sand and water. The new homes had flower gardens surrounded by walls. They had iron balconies on the upper level. In eighteen-hundred, France secretly regained control of the Louisiana Territory. Then, three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States. Most people living in New Orleans were not happy. They considered Americans to be people without culture. VOICE ONE: Americans were not welcome in the Vieux Carre’. So they built their own New Orleans north of it. They put large, beautiful homes in what is now the Garden District. Over time the older groups began to need the money and business skills of the Americans. The Americans wanted the warmth and life of the old city. Both groups were forced to join in a continuing battle against windstorms, floods and diseases such as yellow fever. Soon they developed a spirit of unity. VOICE TWO: By eighteen-forty, New Orleans was the fourth largest city in America. For a time, it was the richest city in the country. It was called the “Paris of America.” Rich cotton and sugarcane farmers built huge homes along the Mississippi River outside New Orleans. They also kept smaller homes in the city. They stayed there while attending the opera, the theater and festivals. The celebration of Mardi Gras became an important social event. Through the years it got bigger and better. VOICE ONE: High-spirited living ended with the American Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. Louisiana and the other slave-holding states of the South lost the war. New Orleans suffered as federal troops from the North controlled the city. But, by nineteen-hundred, New Orleans was growing again. People from Ireland, Germany and Italy had arrived. They added their culture, food and traditions to the already exciting mix. Engineers made the Mississippi River deeper so bigger ships could reach the city. New Orleans became a busy port. Engineers also pumped water out of wetlands where yellow-fever mosquitoes lived. This helped end the threat of the deadly disease. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Today about a half-million people live in New Orleans. As of the two-thousand population count, New Orleans was thirty-first among American cities. But the city had lost two-point-five percent of its population in ten years. As in many other cities, people in New Orleans face problems. There are not enough jobs. There is not enough money for schools and roads. There is too much crime. But there has been improvement. Crime rates were a lot higher ten years ago. The city also has groups at work to deal with racial divisions. Two out of three people are black. Most of the others are white. Citizens have fought hard to save the beauty of the past. The French Quarter is the oldest part of the city. It remains the heart of New Orleans. VOICE ONE: The central business area has modern office buildings. It also has one of the biggest indoor sports centers in the world. Almost one-hundred-thousand people can watch events inside the Louisiana Superdome. And the city has a new museum to honor D-Day -- the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach in France during World War Two. New Orleans is a modern international port. Yet some areas can make you feel like you are in the eighteen-hundreds. Old paddle-wheel steamboats still travel up and down the Mississippi River. In town, old electric streetcars take visitors along Saint Charles Street. They go by the large homes of early American settlers. Nearby are the modern buildings of two universities: Tulane and Loyola. VOICE TWO: Throughout the year, not just during Mardi Gras, the sounds of New Orleans music spill into the streets. On Bourbon Street, the music and the crowds seem like a huge celebration that never ends. The most traditional old-time jazz is played at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter. As they say in New Orleans, it is the kind of jazz that gets your blood moving. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in America on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: New Orleans, Louisiana, is a city famous for its music, food and history. It is also famous for the wild celebration that comes just before Lent, the Christian season leading to the holiday of Easter. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Mardi Gras and New Orleans -- today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: “WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN”) VOICE ONE: New Orleans has just celebrated Mardi Gras. This huge party takes place each March or February. The name "Mardis Gras" is French. It means “Fat Tuesday." That is the official day of the celebration. But people start almost two weeks early. Visitors to Mardi Gras enjoy as much food and fun as they can before the Lenten season. That is when Christians traditionally are supposed to avoid pleasure. Hundreds of thousands of people attend Mardi Gras. They eat, drink and dance. They celebrate art, drama, building design and history. They celebrate the music of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. VOICE TWO: Huge crowds line the streets during Mardi Gras. Many social groups hold parades. Some of the huge moving floats carry up to two-hundred-fifty people. Floats by designer Blaine Kern express the spirit of Mardi Gras. He has created and produced most of the two- and three-level floats in Mardi Gras parades since nineteen-forty-seven. Mister Kern created almost seven-hundred Mardi Gras floats this year in New Orleans. Some of the most famous show the family of King Kong, the huge gorilla of movie fame. VOICE ONE: Mister Kern is seventy-two years old. At age nineteen, he created a wall painting at a hospital. It showed the history of medicine. One of the hospital’s doctors was organizing a Mardi Gras parade at the time. The doctor saw Mister Kern’s work and hired him to produce eleven floats for his parade. Mister Kern received three-thousand dollars for the work. Today a Blaine Kern float can cost thirty-thousand dollars. His company creates floats for parades and amusement parks around the world. But he says, “Mardi Gras is my life.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: There are days of parades and parties during Mardi Gras. Riders on the parade floats wear colorful clothes. Bird feathers top hats that stand a meter tall. Beautiful, sometimes strange, masks cover the faces of people on the floats. These people throw cups and necklaces to the crowds of people who watch the parades. Traditionally, those who catch these objects treasure them. During Mardi Gras, police are in the crowds in case things get too wild. Some people drink too much at parties or in the streets. Some push to get a closer look at parades. But those who take part in the celebrations every year say there is very little fighting. One visitor to New Orleans describes most of the people at Mardi Gras as “harmless and very happy.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: New Orleans history is just as filled with adventure as the Mardi Gras. Several tribes of American Indians lived in what is now New Orleans before Europeans arrived. The city was established in seventeen-eighteen. The Louisiana Territory was a French colony then. The city was named for the Duke of Orleans, the ruler of France at that time. The city lies along the Mississippi River. The river flows past until it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, one-hundred-sixty kilometers away. VOICE TWO: The first area settled in New Orleans was the Vieux Carre’. This is now commonly called the French Quarter. After the city was established, roads and simple houses were built quickly. Government buildings and a church were added around the Place D’Armes, now called Jackson Square. Ships brought people from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. They were store owners, wealthy businessmen, exiles, criminals -- and slaves. The people found low wetlands, clouds of biting mosquitoes and hard living conditions. VOICE ONE: Survival was a struggle. Settlers had to deal with floods, disease and food shortages. But they stayed. And they developed a society that was almost a copy of French culture. In seventeen-sixty-two, the people of New Orleans discovered that they no longer lived in a French colony. The French king had given Louisiana to his cousin, the king of Spain. Wealthy Spaniards continued the cultural life begun by the French. French and Spanish families became linked through marriage. The sons and daughters of these unions are called Creoles. VOICE TWO: A fire in seventeen-eighty-eight and another fire six years later left New Orleans in ashes. But the city was rebuilt. Much of it was rebuilt in the Spanish way. Earthen bricks were covered with a mixture of lime, sand and water. The new homes had flower gardens surrounded by walls. They had iron balconies on the upper level. In eighteen-hundred, France secretly regained control of the Louisiana Territory. Then, three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States. Most people living in New Orleans were not happy. They considered Americans to be people without culture. VOICE ONE: Americans were not welcome in the Vieux Carre’. So they built their own New Orleans north of it. They put large, beautiful homes in what is now the Garden District. Over time the older groups began to need the money and business skills of the Americans. The Americans wanted the warmth and life of the old city. Both groups were forced to join in a continuing battle against windstorms, floods and diseases such as yellow fever. Soon they developed a spirit of unity. VOICE TWO: By eighteen-forty, New Orleans was the fourth largest city in America. For a time, it was the richest city in the country. It was called the “Paris of America.” Rich cotton and sugarcane farmers built huge homes along the Mississippi River outside New Orleans. They also kept smaller homes in the city. They stayed there while attending the opera, the theater and festivals. The celebration of Mardi Gras became an important social event. Through the years it got bigger and better. VOICE ONE: High-spirited living ended with the American Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. Louisiana and the other slave-holding states of the South lost the war. New Orleans suffered as federal troops from the North controlled the city. But, by nineteen-hundred, New Orleans was growing again. People from Ireland, Germany and Italy had arrived. They added their culture, food and traditions to the already exciting mix. Engineers made the Mississippi River deeper so bigger ships could reach the city. New Orleans became a busy port. Engineers also pumped water out of wetlands where yellow-fever mosquitoes lived. This helped end the threat of the deadly disease. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Today about a half-million people live in New Orleans. As of the two-thousand population count, New Orleans was thirty-first among American cities. But the city had lost two-point-five percent of its population in ten years. As in many other cities, people in New Orleans face problems. There are not enough jobs. There is not enough money for schools and roads. There is too much crime. But there has been improvement. Crime rates were a lot higher ten years ago. The city also has groups at work to deal with racial divisions. Two out of three people are black. Most of the others are white. Citizens have fought hard to save the beauty of the past. The French Quarter is the oldest part of the city. It remains the heart of New Orleans. VOICE ONE: The central business area has modern office buildings. It also has one of the biggest indoor sports centers in the world. Almost one-hundred-thousand people can watch events inside the Louisiana Superdome. And the city has a new museum to honor D-Day -- the Allied invasion of Normandy Beach in France during World War Two. New Orleans is a modern international port. Yet some areas can make you feel like you are in the eighteen-hundreds. Old paddle-wheel steamboats still travel up and down the Mississippi River. In town, old electric streetcars take visitors along Saint Charles Street. They go by the large homes of early American settlers. Nearby are the modern buildings of two universities: Tulane and Loyola. VOICE TWO: Throughout the year, not just during Mardi Gras, the sounds of New Orleans music spill into the streets. On Bourbon Street, the music and the crowds seem like a huge celebration that never ends. The most traditional old-time jazz is played at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter. As they say in New Orleans, it is the kind of jazz that gets your blood moving. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in America on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – March 10, 2003: World Food Program
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations World Food Program is forty years old this year. It began as an experiment to provide food aid to nations affected by natural disasters. The United Nations established the World Food Program in nineteen-sixty-three. Since then, the program has spent more than twenty-seven-thousand-million dollars on food assistance. More than eighty countries receive aid from the W-F-P. The World Food Program says that around the world, more than eight-hundred-million people go to bed hungry. That is one out of seven people. Yet it says there is enough food for every man, woman and child to live healthy and productive lives. The World Food Program specializes in food aid. It often works with other U-N groups. One is the Food and Agriculture Organization. This agency provides expert technical assistance to farmers and other producers. Another agency is the International Fund for Agricultural Development, which provides financial assistance. All three U-N agencies are based in Rome. They combine their knowledge to fight world hunger. The World Food Program depends on money, food and other assistance provided mostly by governments but also companies and individuals. It also works with international aid groups and non-governmental organizations to carry out its programs. A committee of thirty-six member states governs the World Food Program. The U-N secretary general and the leader of the Food and Agriculture Organization appoint the head of this committee every five years. The World Food Program aims to meet emergency needs after events like floods, earthquakes or deadly storms. It provides food to nations that face severe shortages. The agency also supports social and economic development in poor countries. It works with women in an effort to make sure they get enough food assistance. And the W-F-P provides poor children with meals so they can attend school. The W-F-P is the world’s largest international food aid organization. Agency officials say that in two-thousand-one, seventy-seven-million people ate food from the United Nations World Food Program. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 9, 2003: Zora Neale Hurston
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Zora Neale Hurston. She was one of the most recognized black women writers. She wrote seven books and more than one-hundred short stories, plays and articles for magazines. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Zora Neale Hurston was born in eighteen-ninety-one in Notasulga, Alabama. A short time later, her family moved to Eatonville, a small town in central Florida. All of the people of Eatonville were African-American. The town shaped Hurston’s life and her writing. As a child, she would listen closely to the stories told by the adults in the town. Several of her books take place in communities very similar to Eatonville. The people she wrote about in her books are very similar to people she knew there. Zora was born at a time of racial tensions between blacks and whites in the southern United States. But she never felt angry about being black. In her stories, she described Eatonville as a place where black Americans could live as they pleased. Zora Neale Hurston was known for her ability to tell a story. Storytelling is an important part of many cultural traditions. African-American storytelling is a strong family tradition that dates back hundreds of years. It is a way for people to establish their identities in often unfriendly areas as they struggle to hold their communities together. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Zora Neale Hurston was the fifth of eight children. Zora’s mother was a schoolteacher. Her father was a builder and a church preacher. He also became the mayor of Eatonville. Zora’s mother died in nineteen-oh-four, when Zora was thirteen years old. Her mother’s death severely affected Zora’s life. She was rejected by her father and his second wife. Zora was forced to take care of herself. She left Eatonville and moved north when she was fourteen years old. She worked for a traveling theater company. She also worked as a maid, cleaning the homes of white people. One of her employers recognized Zora’s abilities. She made it possible for her to attend high school in Baltimore, Maryland. Zora was twenty-six years old when she began high school. But she said she was only sixteen. Throughout her life, she often said she was younger than she really was. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighteen, Zora Neale Hurston attended Howard University in Washington, DC. She studied with Alain Locke. He was a professor of philosophy and an expert on black culture. She earned money by working as a maid and doing other work. Hurston published her first short stories at Howard University. Her stories were about black folklore and life in Eatonville. She won prizes for her writings that were published in newspapers and magazines. The early nineteen-twenties marked the beginning of Zora Neale Hurston’s life as a writer. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-twenty-five, Hurston traveled to New York City. This was during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem is a famous area in New York. The Harlem Renaissance was a period in which black artists explored their culture and showed pride in their race. This was expressed in literature, music and other art forms. Hurston and her stories about Eatonville became important during the Harlem Renaissance. She met other young black writers of the time, such as poet Langston Hughes. Hurston became the first black student to attend Barnard College in New York. She studied with anthropologist Franz Boas. She became interested in anthropology -- the study of the origin, development and actions of humans. Boas recognized Hurston’s storytelling ability and deep interest in the black culture of the South. He urged her to do more research there. VOICE ONE: Hurston received financial support for most of her research from a wealthy woman in New York named Charlotte Osgood Mason. During the next several years, Hurston traveled in Florida and the Caribbean to collect and write stories about what she saw. She learned about the traditions of the people she met. She spoke with men and women, young and old, collecting their stories in their own words. She wanted to keep the language exactly as they told it. Many of the stories were like those she had heard as a child. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirty-six, Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti with a financial award from the Guggenheim Foundation. The Caribbean people accepted her as one of them. They spoke with her freely, even about religious traditions. In Haiti, she learned a great deal about the voodoo religion. Hurston published two important collections of stories based on her research. They were “Mules and Men” and “Tell My Horse.” Both examined the voodoo religion. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Zora Neale Hurston published her first book, “Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” in nineteen-thirty-four. The story takes place in a small Florida town. It is about two people similar to her parents. Her second book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” was published three years later. It is widely considered her most important work. She wrote the book in seven weeks while she was traveling in Haiti. It is the story of a black woman’s search for happiness and her true identity, during twenty-five years and three marriages. In nineteen-forty-two, Hurston published a story about her own life, called “Dust Tracks on a Road.” But the book was widely criticized. Literary experts said it was full of false information. Others said it added to the mystery surrounding the writer.Hurston’s last two novels were the biblical story “Moses, Man of the Mountain” and “Seraph on the Suwanee.” This was the only book she wrote about white people. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Zora Neale Hurston’s stories were about the pain-filled and sometimes magical world that surrounded blacks in the South. The stories tell about faith, love, family, slavery, race and community. They also include humor. Hurston was well known for her writing. She also became known for her outspoken opinions, her clothing and the great pride she had in herself and her race.She was married three times. But she found it impossible to settle down. Her husbands usually expected her to give up her writing. But she said that was the one thing she could not do. VOICE ONE: Hurston received praise for her work by both blacks and whites. But not everyone enjoyed her work. Some of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance criticized her for writing about black culture instead of relations between the races. Many blacks also rejected Hurston’s political ideas and her support for racial separation laws in the South. Hurston, however, made no apologies for her work. She said the richness of black culture existed to be enjoyed, celebrated and made into literature. VOICE TWO: During the late nineteen-forties, she began to publish less and less. She was arrested and charged with sexual wrongdoing with a ten-year-old boy. The charges were later dropped, but the event affected her work and her life.In nineteen-fifty, Hurston returned to Florida. Although her work was quite popular, she was unable to make a living with her writing. In her later years, she worked as a teacher, a librarian and as maid. In nineteen-fifty-nine, Hurston suffered a stroke and entered a nursing home in Fort Pierce, Florida. She died there a year later and was buried in an unmarked grave. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Today, Zora Neale Hurston has not been forgotten. She influenced other African-American female writers, including Alice Walker. Because of Walker’s efforts, Hurston’s work was rediscovered in the nineteen-seventies. During the nineteen-nineties, her book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” sold more than one-million copies. Many young people in American schools are reading the book. In addition, two of Hurston’s plays have been produced. New books have been written about her. And her work and life are the subject of many studies, conferences and festivals. In nineteen-seventy-three, Alice Walker placed a marker in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Hurston is believed to be buried. The stone reads, “Zora Neale Hurston, A Genius of the South.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Zora Neale Hurston. She was one of the most recognized black women writers. She wrote seven books and more than one-hundred short stories, plays and articles for magazines. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Zora Neale Hurston was born in eighteen-ninety-one in Notasulga, Alabama. A short time later, her family moved to Eatonville, a small town in central Florida. All of the people of Eatonville were African-American. The town shaped Hurston’s life and her writing. As a child, she would listen closely to the stories told by the adults in the town. Several of her books take place in communities very similar to Eatonville. The people she wrote about in her books are very similar to people she knew there. Zora was born at a time of racial tensions between blacks and whites in the southern United States. But she never felt angry about being black. In her stories, she described Eatonville as a place where black Americans could live as they pleased. Zora Neale Hurston was known for her ability to tell a story. Storytelling is an important part of many cultural traditions. African-American storytelling is a strong family tradition that dates back hundreds of years. It is a way for people to establish their identities in often unfriendly areas as they struggle to hold their communities together. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Zora Neale Hurston was the fifth of eight children. Zora’s mother was a schoolteacher. Her father was a builder and a church preacher. He also became the mayor of Eatonville. Zora’s mother died in nineteen-oh-four, when Zora was thirteen years old. Her mother’s death severely affected Zora’s life. She was rejected by her father and his second wife. Zora was forced to take care of herself. She left Eatonville and moved north when she was fourteen years old. She worked for a traveling theater company. She also worked as a maid, cleaning the homes of white people. One of her employers recognized Zora’s abilities. She made it possible for her to attend high school in Baltimore, Maryland. Zora was twenty-six years old when she began high school. But she said she was only sixteen. Throughout her life, she often said she was younger than she really was. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighteen, Zora Neale Hurston attended Howard University in Washington, DC. She studied with Alain Locke. He was a professor of philosophy and an expert on black culture. She earned money by working as a maid and doing other work. Hurston published her first short stories at Howard University. Her stories were about black folklore and life in Eatonville. She won prizes for her writings that were published in newspapers and magazines. The early nineteen-twenties marked the beginning of Zora Neale Hurston’s life as a writer. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-twenty-five, Hurston traveled to New York City. This was during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem is a famous area in New York. The Harlem Renaissance was a period in which black artists explored their culture and showed pride in their race. This was expressed in literature, music and other art forms. Hurston and her stories about Eatonville became important during the Harlem Renaissance. She met other young black writers of the time, such as poet Langston Hughes. Hurston became the first black student to attend Barnard College in New York. She studied with anthropologist Franz Boas. She became interested in anthropology -- the study of the origin, development and actions of humans. Boas recognized Hurston’s storytelling ability and deep interest in the black culture of the South. He urged her to do more research there. VOICE ONE: Hurston received financial support for most of her research from a wealthy woman in New York named Charlotte Osgood Mason. During the next several years, Hurston traveled in Florida and the Caribbean to collect and write stories about what she saw. She learned about the traditions of the people she met. She spoke with men and women, young and old, collecting their stories in their own words. She wanted to keep the language exactly as they told it. Many of the stories were like those she had heard as a child. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirty-six, Hurston traveled to Jamaica and Haiti with a financial award from the Guggenheim Foundation. The Caribbean people accepted her as one of them. They spoke with her freely, even about religious traditions. In Haiti, she learned a great deal about the voodoo religion. Hurston published two important collections of stories based on her research. They were “Mules and Men” and “Tell My Horse.” Both examined the voodoo religion. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Zora Neale Hurston published her first book, “Jonah’s Gourd Vine,” in nineteen-thirty-four. The story takes place in a small Florida town. It is about two people similar to her parents. Her second book, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” was published three years later. It is widely considered her most important work. She wrote the book in seven weeks while she was traveling in Haiti. It is the story of a black woman’s search for happiness and her true identity, during twenty-five years and three marriages. In nineteen-forty-two, Hurston published a story about her own life, called “Dust Tracks on a Road.” But the book was widely criticized. Literary experts said it was full of false information. Others said it added to the mystery surrounding the writer.Hurston’s last two novels were the biblical story “Moses, Man of the Mountain” and “Seraph on the Suwanee.” This was the only book she wrote about white people. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Zora Neale Hurston’s stories were about the pain-filled and sometimes magical world that surrounded blacks in the South. The stories tell about faith, love, family, slavery, race and community. They also include humor. Hurston was well known for her writing. She also became known for her outspoken opinions, her clothing and the great pride she had in herself and her race.She was married three times. But she found it impossible to settle down. Her husbands usually expected her to give up her writing. But she said that was the one thing she could not do. VOICE ONE: Hurston received praise for her work by both blacks and whites. But not everyone enjoyed her work. Some of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance criticized her for writing about black culture instead of relations between the races. Many blacks also rejected Hurston’s political ideas and her support for racial separation laws in the South. Hurston, however, made no apologies for her work. She said the richness of black culture existed to be enjoyed, celebrated and made into literature. VOICE TWO: During the late nineteen-forties, she began to publish less and less. She was arrested and charged with sexual wrongdoing with a ten-year-old boy. The charges were later dropped, but the event affected her work and her life.In nineteen-fifty, Hurston returned to Florida. Although her work was quite popular, she was unable to make a living with her writing. In her later years, she worked as a teacher, a librarian and as maid. In nineteen-fifty-nine, Hurston suffered a stroke and entered a nursing home in Fort Pierce, Florida. She died there a year later and was buried in an unmarked grave. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Today, Zora Neale Hurston has not been forgotten. She influenced other African-American female writers, including Alice Walker. Because of Walker’s efforts, Hurston’s work was rediscovered in the nineteen-seventies. During the nineteen-nineties, her book “Their Eyes Were Watching God” sold more than one-million copies. Many young people in American schools are reading the book. In addition, two of Hurston’s plays have been produced. New books have been written about her. And her work and life are the subject of many studies, conferences and festivals. In nineteen-seventy-three, Alice Walker placed a marker in Fort Pierce, Florida, where Hurston is believed to be buried. The stone reads, “Zora Neale Hurston, A Genius of the South.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - March 8, 2003: Arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Last Saturday, Pakistani and American intelligence officials arrested a top al-Qaeda leader. They seized Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at a home in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. American officials took the al-Qaida operations chief for questioning somewhere outside Pakistan. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is third in the organization, behind Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. American officials have connected Mister Mohammed to al Qaeda groups in Asia, Europe and the United States. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to have planned the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed three-thousand people. Mister Mohammed spent time with some of the September eleventh hijackers and has taken credit for organizing the attacks. Officials also have linked him to other attacks and plots. One is the nineteen-ninety-three bombing of the World Trade Center. Another is a failed plot two years later to destroy eleven American passenger planes over the Pacific Ocean. Mister Mohammed has also been linked to the bombing in Bali last year, and the bombing of a Jewish holy place in Tunisia. And experts on al Qaeda say he ordered the killing early last year of American reporter Daniel Pearl. The American State Department offered twenty-five-million dollars for information leading to the arrest of Mister Mohammed. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had almost been captured last week in Quetta, Pakistan. Officials there arrested a suspected al-Qaeda member, but said Mister Mohammed had escaped. Officials say they used the captured suspect to locate him. They found Mister Mohammed at the home of Ahmed Abdul Qadoos. Mister Qadoos is a member of Jamaat Islami, Pakistan's largest religious political party. Officials identified a third man arrested as a Saudi named Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi. He is believed to have paid some of the September eleventh hijackers. The United States made attempts to seize Mister Mohammed after the September eleventh attacks. Intelligence officials said they continued to receive information about him from his ongoing communication with al-Qaeda members around the world. In recent weeks, officials are said to have gotten useful information about his activities from captured suspects. Intelligence officials said they learned that Mister Mohammed was planning attacks on bridges, fuel stations and hotels in New York and Washington. That information led the Bush administration to raise the terrorism danger level in the United States last month. The danger level was reduced last week, the day before the arrest of Mister Mohammed. American officials said the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed could lead to others, possibly including Osama bin Laden. But they said they are concerned that the arrest could also lead to more al Qaeda violence. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Last Saturday, Pakistani and American intelligence officials arrested a top al-Qaeda leader. They seized Khalid Shaikh Mohammed at a home in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. American officials took the al-Qaida operations chief for questioning somewhere outside Pakistan. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is third in the organization, behind Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. American officials have connected Mister Mohammed to al Qaeda groups in Asia, Europe and the United States. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is believed to have planned the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon killed three-thousand people. Mister Mohammed spent time with some of the September eleventh hijackers and has taken credit for organizing the attacks. Officials also have linked him to other attacks and plots. One is the nineteen-ninety-three bombing of the World Trade Center. Another is a failed plot two years later to destroy eleven American passenger planes over the Pacific Ocean. Mister Mohammed has also been linked to the bombing in Bali last year, and the bombing of a Jewish holy place in Tunisia. And experts on al Qaeda say he ordered the killing early last year of American reporter Daniel Pearl. The American State Department offered twenty-five-million dollars for information leading to the arrest of Mister Mohammed. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had almost been captured last week in Quetta, Pakistan. Officials there arrested a suspected al-Qaeda member, but said Mister Mohammed had escaped. Officials say they used the captured suspect to locate him. They found Mister Mohammed at the home of Ahmed Abdul Qadoos. Mister Qadoos is a member of Jamaat Islami, Pakistan's largest religious political party. Officials identified a third man arrested as a Saudi named Mustafa Ahmed al-Hisawi. He is believed to have paid some of the September eleventh hijackers. The United States made attempts to seize Mister Mohammed after the September eleventh attacks. Intelligence officials said they continued to receive information about him from his ongoing communication with al-Qaeda members around the world. In recent weeks, officials are said to have gotten useful information about his activities from captured suspects. Intelligence officials said they learned that Mister Mohammed was planning attacks on bridges, fuel stations and hotels in New York and Washington. That information led the Bush administration to raise the terrorism danger level in the United States last month. The danger level was reduced last week, the day before the arrest of Mister Mohammed. American officials said the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed could lead to others, possibly including Osama bin Laden. But they said they are concerned that the arrest could also lead to more al Qaeda violence. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - March 11, 2003: Results of First Major AIDS Vaccine Test / Evidence of Four-Winged Dinosaur Found in China
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This week -- a test of an AIDS vaccine produces some mixed results that scientists call surprising. Scientists find evidence of a four-winged dinosaur in China. And we tell you the one invention that some Americans say they could not live without. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An experimental drug had no effect in general in the first major test of a vaccine to prevent AIDS. But the news was not all bad. The researchers say the product Aidsvax seemed to show promise in blacks and Asians. Africa has suffered the worst from AIDS. The crisis in Asia grows. The vaccine, though, was designed to fight the forms of HIV common to North America and Europe. A company in California, VaxGen, tested Aidsvax to see if it could protect people from H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. One group of people took Aidsvax. A smaller group took a placebo, an inactive substance. In the end, the researchers found only about four percent fewer cases of infection among those who had taken the Aidsvax. VOICE TWO: Four percent would not be good enough to gain approval for widespread use. But VaxGen reported much higher protection rates in blacks and Asians. In the United States, black people have about half the new cases of H-I-V each year. Only two percent of blacks in the study who took the vaccine became infected with H-I-V. This compared with an infection rate of more than eight-percent in blacks given the placebo. The vaccine protected Asians and people of mixed race almost as well. But the study found no effect on whites including Hispanics. VOICE ONE: Some experts say genetic differences may be the explanation. Others say the results could be misleading. That is because the study included only a small percentage of minorities. Five-hundred blacks, Asians and other non-whites took part. In all, the study involved more than five-thousand men at high risk of H-I-V infection and three-hundred high-risk women. The study took place in the United States, including Puerto Rico, and in Canada and the Netherlands. The people received seven injections over a period of three years. VOICE TWO: Aidsvax uses a copy of a protein found on the surface of the H-I-V virus. This antigen called g-p-one-twenty is the same protein that helps the virus join with cells of the body’s defense system. These defenses normally produce antibodies to fight infections. Aidsvax was designed to start this reaction in the hope to fight off any future H-I-V infection. The World Health Organization says more research on the vaccine is needed. Anthony Fauci [FOW-chee] directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. He said his agency would test blood cells of people from the study. Institute researchers want to identify what blood cell parts protect against the infection. In nineteen-ninety-four, the institute decided not to support a large trial of the experimental vaccine. So VaxGen was formed to carry out the work. Doctor Fauci praised the company for its study. So did the director of AIDS vaccine research for the Joint United Nations Program on H-I-V/AIDS. Jose Esparza said this is the first time a vaccine has been shown to protect humans. Doctor Esparza said more tests -- especially in Africa -- are extremely important. VOICE ONE: The publication "The Scientist" says nineteen other vaccines against AIDS currently are being prepared for tests on people. One product being tested in London and Kenya is showing promise. Scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Nairobi developed it after research on sex workers in Nairobi. These workers are in continual danger of getting H-I-V but have not become infected. And, later this year, the VaxGen company is expected to announce results of testing on a vaccine in Thailand that is similar to Aidsvax. VOICE TWO: H-I-V stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is carried in body fluids. It can spread between people through sex or by sharing infected needles or other sharp devices. It can also spread from mother to baby. AIDS is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It robs the body of its protections against disease. Experts agree that science is making progress against AIDS, a disease first identified twenty years ago. So far, there is no cure, but there are medicines that can suppress the virus. But while experiments continue, millions become infected and millions die. U-N AIDS estimates there were more than four-million new H-I-V infections worldwide last year -- and three-million deaths. An estimated forty-two-million people were living with the virus. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This is Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmerman in Washington. A discovery in China may give us a better idea how flight began. Scientists found evidence of a one-meter-long animal they call Microraptor gui. This dinosaur lived nearly one-hundred-thirty-million years ago. The fossil remains show it had four legs with wings on each of them. Feathers covered these wings as on modern birds. Microraptor gui also had a long feathered tail. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say this is the first dinosaur ever found with this kind of body structure. They discovered the fossil evidence in Liaoning Province, north of Beijing. VOICE TWO: Experts widely accept the idea that dinosaurs are ancestors of modern birds. Some birds, after all, do look like little dinosaurs. What is not clear, however, is exactly where Microraptor gui fits into the historical development of birds and dinosaurs. The discovery in China has renewed debate over how dinosaurs might have developed into birds. One theory suggests that dinosaurs learned it was easier to travel from tree to tree if they used their wings. Another theory says they used their wings to gain running speed to take off from the ground. This is called the "ground-up" theory. VOICE ONE: Microraptor gui might have had trouble running and beating its wings at the same time. Its wings, remember, were on its legs. So its design would seem to support the tree-to-tree theory of flight. However, the Chinese scientists say the creature probably did not fly simply by beating its wings. They believe it used both sets of wings to glide, without power, from tree to tree. That is how modern flying squirrels travel through the air. VOICE TWO: A separate finding, though, supports the ground-up theory and adds to the debate over the birth of flight. An American biologist studied modern African birds called chukars. Chukars do not fly very well. They live on the ground and have legs that could be mistaken for those of a small dinosaur. Kenneth Dial of the University of Montana carried out a series of experiments. He discovered that chukars use their wings to break up airflow around their bodies as they run up hills. This helps them keep their feet on the ground. Mister Dial says small, feathered dinosaurs might have used this same method to climb trees to escape danger and later fly. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What do you think is the one invention that Americans would not want to live without? A computer? Maybe an automobile? Some Americans were asked to name the one invention that is most important in their daily life. They had five choices – the toothbrush, the car, the personal computer, the wireless telephone or the fast-cooking microwave oven. VOICE ONE: The toothbrush received more votes than any other invention. Almost half the adults questioned said they could not live without the small brush they use to clean their teeth everyday. One-third of the young people questioned agreed. The toothbrush is not even a modern invention. It is credited to the Chinese in the late fifteenth century. VOICE TWO: Cars came in second place, followed by computers, mobile telephones and microwave ovens. Four-hundred teen-agers and more than one-thousand adults answered these questions. It was part of a project by the Lemelson-M-I-T Program. Inventor Jerome Lemelson wanted young people to express new ideas and create new technology. VOICE ONE: The people questioned for this year's report were also asked about events they believe possible in their lifetimes. Many said they believe cars powered by the sun will replace gasoline-powered cars. And most said they believe science may be able to invent a cure for cancer. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss and Karen Leggett. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This week -- a test of an AIDS vaccine produces some mixed results that scientists call surprising. Scientists find evidence of a four-winged dinosaur in China. And we tell you the one invention that some Americans say they could not live without. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An experimental drug had no effect in general in the first major test of a vaccine to prevent AIDS. But the news was not all bad. The researchers say the product Aidsvax seemed to show promise in blacks and Asians. Africa has suffered the worst from AIDS. The crisis in Asia grows. The vaccine, though, was designed to fight the forms of HIV common to North America and Europe. A company in California, VaxGen, tested Aidsvax to see if it could protect people from H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. One group of people took Aidsvax. A smaller group took a placebo, an inactive substance. In the end, the researchers found only about four percent fewer cases of infection among those who had taken the Aidsvax. VOICE TWO: Four percent would not be good enough to gain approval for widespread use. But VaxGen reported much higher protection rates in blacks and Asians. In the United States, black people have about half the new cases of H-I-V each year. Only two percent of blacks in the study who took the vaccine became infected with H-I-V. This compared with an infection rate of more than eight-percent in blacks given the placebo. The vaccine protected Asians and people of mixed race almost as well. But the study found no effect on whites including Hispanics. VOICE ONE: Some experts say genetic differences may be the explanation. Others say the results could be misleading. That is because the study included only a small percentage of minorities. Five-hundred blacks, Asians and other non-whites took part. In all, the study involved more than five-thousand men at high risk of H-I-V infection and three-hundred high-risk women. The study took place in the United States, including Puerto Rico, and in Canada and the Netherlands. The people received seven injections over a period of three years. VOICE TWO: Aidsvax uses a copy of a protein found on the surface of the H-I-V virus. This antigen called g-p-one-twenty is the same protein that helps the virus join with cells of the body’s defense system. These defenses normally produce antibodies to fight infections. Aidsvax was designed to start this reaction in the hope to fight off any future H-I-V infection. The World Health Organization says more research on the vaccine is needed. Anthony Fauci [FOW-chee] directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. He said his agency would test blood cells of people from the study. Institute researchers want to identify what blood cell parts protect against the infection. In nineteen-ninety-four, the institute decided not to support a large trial of the experimental vaccine. So VaxGen was formed to carry out the work. Doctor Fauci praised the company for its study. So did the director of AIDS vaccine research for the Joint United Nations Program on H-I-V/AIDS. Jose Esparza said this is the first time a vaccine has been shown to protect humans. Doctor Esparza said more tests -- especially in Africa -- are extremely important. VOICE ONE: The publication "The Scientist" says nineteen other vaccines against AIDS currently are being prepared for tests on people. One product being tested in London and Kenya is showing promise. Scientists at the University of Oxford and the University of Nairobi developed it after research on sex workers in Nairobi. These workers are in continual danger of getting H-I-V but have not become infected. And, later this year, the VaxGen company is expected to announce results of testing on a vaccine in Thailand that is similar to Aidsvax. VOICE TWO: H-I-V stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is carried in body fluids. It can spread between people through sex or by sharing infected needles or other sharp devices. It can also spread from mother to baby. AIDS is Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It robs the body of its protections against disease. Experts agree that science is making progress against AIDS, a disease first identified twenty years ago. So far, there is no cure, but there are medicines that can suppress the virus. But while experiments continue, millions become infected and millions die. U-N AIDS estimates there were more than four-million new H-I-V infections worldwide last year -- and three-million deaths. An estimated forty-two-million people were living with the virus. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This is Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmerman in Washington. A discovery in China may give us a better idea how flight began. Scientists found evidence of a one-meter-long animal they call Microraptor gui. This dinosaur lived nearly one-hundred-thirty-million years ago. The fossil remains show it had four legs with wings on each of them. Feathers covered these wings as on modern birds. Microraptor gui also had a long feathered tail. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say this is the first dinosaur ever found with this kind of body structure. They discovered the fossil evidence in Liaoning Province, north of Beijing. VOICE TWO: Experts widely accept the idea that dinosaurs are ancestors of modern birds. Some birds, after all, do look like little dinosaurs. What is not clear, however, is exactly where Microraptor gui fits into the historical development of birds and dinosaurs. The discovery in China has renewed debate over how dinosaurs might have developed into birds. One theory suggests that dinosaurs learned it was easier to travel from tree to tree if they used their wings. Another theory says they used their wings to gain running speed to take off from the ground. This is called the "ground-up" theory. VOICE ONE: Microraptor gui might have had trouble running and beating its wings at the same time. Its wings, remember, were on its legs. So its design would seem to support the tree-to-tree theory of flight. However, the Chinese scientists say the creature probably did not fly simply by beating its wings. They believe it used both sets of wings to glide, without power, from tree to tree. That is how modern flying squirrels travel through the air. VOICE TWO: A separate finding, though, supports the ground-up theory and adds to the debate over the birth of flight. An American biologist studied modern African birds called chukars. Chukars do not fly very well. They live on the ground and have legs that could be mistaken for those of a small dinosaur. Kenneth Dial of the University of Montana carried out a series of experiments. He discovered that chukars use their wings to break up airflow around their bodies as they run up hills. This helps them keep their feet on the ground. Mister Dial says small, feathered dinosaurs might have used this same method to climb trees to escape danger and later fly. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: What do you think is the one invention that Americans would not want to live without? A computer? Maybe an automobile? Some Americans were asked to name the one invention that is most important in their daily life. They had five choices – the toothbrush, the car, the personal computer, the wireless telephone or the fast-cooking microwave oven. VOICE ONE: The toothbrush received more votes than any other invention. Almost half the adults questioned said they could not live without the small brush they use to clean their teeth everyday. One-third of the young people questioned agreed. The toothbrush is not even a modern invention. It is credited to the Chinese in the late fifteenth century. VOICE TWO: Cars came in second place, followed by computers, mobile telephones and microwave ovens. Four-hundred teen-agers and more than one-thousand adults answered these questions. It was part of a project by the Lemelson-M-I-T Program. Inventor Jerome Lemelson wanted young people to express new ideas and create new technology. VOICE ONE: The people questioned for this year's report were also asked about events they believe possible in their lifetimes. Many said they believe cars powered by the sun will replace gasoline-powered cars. And most said they believe science may be able to invent a cure for cancer. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss and Karen Leggett. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - March 11, 2003: Trade in Genetically Engineered Crops, Part 1
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Genetic engineering of crops has spread quickly since the first products of the early nineteen-nineties. Different nations develop such crops to meet different needs. As a result, the policies of some countries conflict with the policies of others. The International Food Policy Research Institute is a private organization in Washington. In January, the group released a report that discusses the policies many countries have put in place. The report also discusses the problems of international trade in genetically engineered crops. It says nine international organizations are currently competing to set rules for different areas of food safety. These groups include agricultural and health agencies of the United Nations. The World Trade Organization is also among them. Some countries are more likely than others to approve and market genetically changed foods. The report says Canada, Japan, Mexico and the United States approve most newly engineered crops. Australia, the European Union and New Zealand, however, have delayed approvals in recent years because of concerns among citizens. One issue is the use of special markings to let people know that a product has been genetically engineered. Some countries permit manufacturers to decide. Other nations require all products that contain more than one to five percent of genetically changed material to say so. The International Food Policy Research Institute says six nations have the most established policies. These are Australia, Britain, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. The differences in policies are a good example of how difficult it is to develop international rules for genetically changed crops. Countries that do not require special markings may suffer in markets where the public desires such information. Also, the process for approving new genetically engineered crops has increased the time it takes for these products to come to market. The United States, for example, has lost almost all its market for corn exports to the European Union. E-U officials have not approved new crops of genetically changed corn since nineteen-ninety-seven. At the same time, Argentina has exported huge amounts of such corn that already has E-U approval. Next week, we will continue to examine international trade in genetically changed crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 12, 2003: Lewis and Clark, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Statue in the birthplace of Sacajawea, Lemhi County, Idaho.(Photo - sacajaweahome.com) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we continue our story of Lewis and Clark. Their exploration in the early eighteen-hundreds led to the opening of the American West. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week we told how President Thomas Jefferson suggested the trip to his private secretary Meriwether Lewis. The president said Lewis and a group of men should travel northwest up the Missouri River as far as possible and then continue west to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers were to report about the land, people, animals and plants they found. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to join the group. Clark accepted and the two men agreed to act as equal leaders of the group they named the Corps of Discovery. Their trip began on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It was one-hundred-sixty-four days into the trip. Lewis and Clark had traveled about two-thousand-four-hundred-twenty kilometers when they were stopped by the cold winter weather. They named their winter home Fort Mandan. Mandan was the name of an Indian tribe that lived nearby. VOICE ONE: At Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French Canadian hunter Toussaint Charbonneau. He was living with the Indians. He asked to join the Corps of Discovery. He also asked if his Indian wife could come too. Her name was Sacagawea. She was pregnant. Lewis and Clark agreed to let them join their group for two reasons. The first was that Charbonneau spoke several Indian languages. The second concerned Sacagawea. She came from the Shoshoni tribe that lived near the Rocky Mountains in the far West. She had been captured as a young girl by another Indian tribe. Lewis and Clark knew that no Indian war group ever traveled with women. They knew that Sacagawea's presence with them would show Indians that the Corps of Discovery did not want to fight. Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February eleventh, eighteen-oh-five. The baby, too, would make the long trip to the Pacific Ocean. He was the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery. VOICE TWO: In early April, the Corps of Discovery prepared to travel west. The smaller group of soldiers that had aided them during their trip to Fort Mandan prepared to return south to Saint Louis. The soldiers took the larger of the three boats the group had used to follow the Missouri River. They also took Lewis and Clark's first maps, animals, plants and reports to President Jefferson. These reports provided much detail about the land and what was on it. For example, Lewis used more than one-thousand words to tell about one bird. Today, visitors to President Jefferson's home in the southeastern state of Virginia can see many things collected by Lewis and Clark. Animal heads and weapons made by the Mandan Indian tribe are among them. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery again moved up the Missouri River as soon as the warm weather of spring began to return. Lewis wrote of seeing thousands of animals: American bison, deer, huge elk and very fast antelope. Lewis saw thousands of animals all feeding together. VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark soon decided to leave behind important information, plants and things collected from Indians. They were having problems carrying everything they were gathering. They also decided to leave extra food behind. They did this by digging a deep hole and burying everything to protect it from animals. They would do this again and again on their way west. They would collect everything on their return trip. VOICE ONE: The explorers soon reached an area where a series of waterfalls blocked passage on the river. This area is near the modern city of Great Falls, Montana. Here, the Corps of Discovery pulled the boats from the water and took them over land to the river. They carried the boats almost thirty kilometers. To make the trip easier, they made wooden wheels for their boats. Later they buried the wheels with more food and things they had collected. VOICE TWO: On July twenty-fifth, eighteen-oh five, Meriwether Lewis and two other men saw a small river that was flowing to the west. All rivers before had flowed east or southeast. Lewis correctly guessed he had reached the line that divides the North American continent. Rain falling to the west of the imaginary line becomes rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean. Rain that falls to the east of the line forms rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Meriwether Lewis became the first American to cross this continental line. At that point, Lewis could tell from the huge mountains he saw ahead that they would find no waterway across the continent. A lot of the trip would have to be over land. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis met two Shoshoni Indian women in this same area. About sixty men from the tribe quickly arrived riding horses. They were dressed and painted for war. It was something that few white men ever saw -- a Shoshoni war party prepared to fight. Lewis made peace signs. There was no trouble. VOICE TWO: Two days later, Clark arrived with the main group. The Corps of Discovery met with the Indians. At the meeting, Sacagawea began to cry as she looked at the Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait. Cameahwait was her brother. She had not seen him since she was kidnapped many years before. Lewis and Clark could communicate with the Shoshoni Indians. But it was not easy. Sacagawea would listen to the Shoshoni. She would then speak to her husband, Charbonneau, in the Hidatsa language. He would speak in French to a soldier in the group, Francis Labiche, who then spoke in English to Lewis. It took a long time, but it worked. The Corps of Discovery decided to leave the boats and continue west on horses. Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark trade for horses. She also helped them find an Indian guide to lead them. His name was Toby. It was already the month of September when they reached the high mountains. It was also extremely cold. The explorers began to suffer from a severe lack of food. They were forced to kill and eat several of their horses. VOICE ONE: In October they found the huge Columbia River. High winds and rain slowed the group's progress. On November seventh, they reached the Pacific Ocean. Clark recorded that five-hundred-fifty-four days had passed since they left their camp at Wood River near Saint Louis. They had travelled six-thousand-six-hundred-forty-eight kilometers. VOICE TWO: For several days the Corps of Discovery camped in an area that is now the extreme southern part of the state of Washington. But the hunting was poor. Indians told them the hunting would be better across the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark decided to hold a vote and let the Corps of Discovery decide. The Corps of Discovery voted to move south across the river into what is now the state of Oregon. William Clark's black slave York and the Indian guide Sacagawea were included in the vote. History experts say this was the first free, democratic election west of the Rocky Mountains. And they say it was the first time in American history that a black slave and a woman voted in a free election. VOICE ONE: The explorers quickly built a camp of wooden buildings on the Columbia River. They would stay there during the winter months between eighteen-oh-five and eighteen-oh-six. They named the buildings Fort Clatsop. "Clatsop" was the name of a nearby group of friendly Indians. The area of Fort Clatsop is very near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors to that area today can walk through a copy of Fort Clatsop that was built in nineteen-fifty-five. VOICE TWO: The group stayed at Fort Clatsop for four months. It rained all but twelve days. During the long winter months, the explorers hunted and preserved food. They used animal skins to make new clothes and shoes. They also studied the Indians, fish, animals and lands near the area of the fort. Clark made extremely good maps of the area. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were prepared for their return trip to Saint Louis. That will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, Explorations. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week on the Voice of America as we finish our story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we continue our story of Lewis and Clark. Their exploration in the early eighteen-hundreds led to the opening of the American West. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week we told how President Thomas Jefferson suggested the trip to his private secretary Meriwether Lewis. The president said Lewis and a group of men should travel northwest up the Missouri River as far as possible and then continue west to the Pacific Ocean. The explorers were to report about the land, people, animals and plants they found. Lewis asked his friend William Clark to join the group. Clark accepted and the two men agreed to act as equal leaders of the group they named the Corps of Discovery. Their trip began on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It was one-hundred-sixty-four days into the trip. Lewis and Clark had traveled about two-thousand-four-hundred-twenty kilometers when they were stopped by the cold winter weather. They named their winter home Fort Mandan. Mandan was the name of an Indian tribe that lived nearby. VOICE ONE: At Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark met French Canadian hunter Toussaint Charbonneau. He was living with the Indians. He asked to join the Corps of Discovery. He also asked if his Indian wife could come too. Her name was Sacagawea. She was pregnant. Lewis and Clark agreed to let them join their group for two reasons. The first was that Charbonneau spoke several Indian languages. The second concerned Sacagawea. She came from the Shoshoni tribe that lived near the Rocky Mountains in the far West. She had been captured as a young girl by another Indian tribe. Lewis and Clark knew that no Indian war group ever traveled with women. They knew that Sacagawea's presence with them would show Indians that the Corps of Discovery did not want to fight. Sacagawea gave birth to her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, on February eleventh, eighteen-oh-five. The baby, too, would make the long trip to the Pacific Ocean. He was the youngest member of the Corps of Discovery. VOICE TWO: In early April, the Corps of Discovery prepared to travel west. The smaller group of soldiers that had aided them during their trip to Fort Mandan prepared to return south to Saint Louis. The soldiers took the larger of the three boats the group had used to follow the Missouri River. They also took Lewis and Clark's first maps, animals, plants and reports to President Jefferson. These reports provided much detail about the land and what was on it. For example, Lewis used more than one-thousand words to tell about one bird. Today, visitors to President Jefferson's home in the southeastern state of Virginia can see many things collected by Lewis and Clark. Animal heads and weapons made by the Mandan Indian tribe are among them. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery again moved up the Missouri River as soon as the warm weather of spring began to return. Lewis wrote of seeing thousands of animals: American bison, deer, huge elk and very fast antelope. Lewis saw thousands of animals all feeding together. VOICE TWO: Lewis and Clark soon decided to leave behind important information, plants and things collected from Indians. They were having problems carrying everything they were gathering. They also decided to leave extra food behind. They did this by digging a deep hole and burying everything to protect it from animals. They would do this again and again on their way west. They would collect everything on their return trip. VOICE ONE: The explorers soon reached an area where a series of waterfalls blocked passage on the river. This area is near the modern city of Great Falls, Montana. Here, the Corps of Discovery pulled the boats from the water and took them over land to the river. They carried the boats almost thirty kilometers. To make the trip easier, they made wooden wheels for their boats. Later they buried the wheels with more food and things they had collected. VOICE TWO: On July twenty-fifth, eighteen-oh five, Meriwether Lewis and two other men saw a small river that was flowing to the west. All rivers before had flowed east or southeast. Lewis correctly guessed he had reached the line that divides the North American continent. Rain falling to the west of the imaginary line becomes rivers that flow to the Pacific Ocean. Rain that falls to the east of the line forms rivers that flow to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Meriwether Lewis became the first American to cross this continental line. At that point, Lewis could tell from the huge mountains he saw ahead that they would find no waterway across the continent. A lot of the trip would have to be over land. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis met two Shoshoni Indian women in this same area. About sixty men from the tribe quickly arrived riding horses. They were dressed and painted for war. It was something that few white men ever saw -- a Shoshoni war party prepared to fight. Lewis made peace signs. There was no trouble. VOICE TWO: Two days later, Clark arrived with the main group. The Corps of Discovery met with the Indians. At the meeting, Sacagawea began to cry as she looked at the Shoshoni chief, Cameahwait. Cameahwait was her brother. She had not seen him since she was kidnapped many years before. Lewis and Clark could communicate with the Shoshoni Indians. But it was not easy. Sacagawea would listen to the Shoshoni. She would then speak to her husband, Charbonneau, in the Hidatsa language. He would speak in French to a soldier in the group, Francis Labiche, who then spoke in English to Lewis. It took a long time, but it worked. The Corps of Discovery decided to leave the boats and continue west on horses. Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark trade for horses. She also helped them find an Indian guide to lead them. His name was Toby. It was already the month of September when they reached the high mountains. It was also extremely cold. The explorers began to suffer from a severe lack of food. They were forced to kill and eat several of their horses. VOICE ONE: In October they found the huge Columbia River. High winds and rain slowed the group's progress. On November seventh, they reached the Pacific Ocean. Clark recorded that five-hundred-fifty-four days had passed since they left their camp at Wood River near Saint Louis. They had travelled six-thousand-six-hundred-forty-eight kilometers. VOICE TWO: For several days the Corps of Discovery camped in an area that is now the extreme southern part of the state of Washington. But the hunting was poor. Indians told them the hunting would be better across the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark decided to hold a vote and let the Corps of Discovery decide. The Corps of Discovery voted to move south across the river into what is now the state of Oregon. William Clark's black slave York and the Indian guide Sacagawea were included in the vote. History experts say this was the first free, democratic election west of the Rocky Mountains. And they say it was the first time in American history that a black slave and a woman voted in a free election. VOICE ONE: The explorers quickly built a camp of wooden buildings on the Columbia River. They would stay there during the winter months between eighteen-oh-five and eighteen-oh-six. They named the buildings Fort Clatsop. "Clatsop" was the name of a nearby group of friendly Indians. The area of Fort Clatsop is very near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. Visitors to that area today can walk through a copy of Fort Clatsop that was built in nineteen-fifty-five. VOICE TWO: The group stayed at Fort Clatsop for four months. It rained all but twelve days. During the long winter months, the explorers hunted and preserved food. They used animal skins to make new clothes and shoes. They also studied the Indians, fish, animals and lands near the area of the fort. Clark made extremely good maps of the area. Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and the other members of the Corps of Discovery were prepared for their return trip to Saint Louis. That will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, Explorations. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Our program today was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Join us again next week on the Voice of America as we finish our story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – March 12, 2003: Sugar and Diet
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Sugar comes naturally in foods such as fruit. Sugar is also added to many processed foods and drinks. Now an international report warns people to limit the sugar they eat to no more than ten percent of their daily calories. Calories are a measure of the heat energy in food. Thirty experts prepared the report for the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Both of these are United Nations agencies. The report says fifty-six-and-a-half million deaths were reported worldwide in two-thousand-one. The experts blamed sixty percent of these deaths on diseases influenced at least in part by diet. These include heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. The report urges people to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and less salt. And it calls for a limit in the amount of saturated and trans fats in the diet. Food products often identify trans fats by the term "partially hydrogenated." The food industry, however, criticized the report. In the United States, the National Soft Drink Association says research has found no link between sugar and severe overweight. The group says restricting foods does not work -- people want banned foods all the more. The food industry points out that people gain weight when they take in more energy than they use each day. In the United States, about one-third of all adults are now considered severely overweight. Children have grown heavier, too. Last September, the Institute of Medicine -- part of the National Academy of Sciences -- set a suggested limit for added sugars. The institute said no more than twenty-five percent of total calories should come from these sweeteners. At the same time, it also increased its suggested daily amount of exercise to one hour. The international report gives the same advice. The experts also note that diseases linked to diet and a lack of exercise have spread beyond rich countries. This has happened as many developing countries have made economic gains. When people move into cities, they may eat more foods high in added sugars and fat. And when people earn more, they are more likely to buy a car. That means less exercise if driving replaces walking or riding a bicycle. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #3 - March 13, 2003: Europeans Arrive
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about how and why European explorers arrived in North America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The first Europeans arrived about two-thousand years ago in the area now called North America. A Norse explorer, Leif Erickson, sailed his boat from Greenland around the northeastern coast of the continent. He returned home to Greenland to tell others about the new country. He called it "Vinland." A few settlements were created following his explorations. Experts digging in eastern Canada thirty years ago found a village of houses just like those found in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. But the Norsemen did not develop any permanent settlements in North America. VOICE TWO: About Ten-Hundred, Europe was beginning a period of great change. One reason was the religious wars known as the crusades. These wars were efforts by Europeans who were mainly Roman Catholic Christians. They wanted to force Muslims out of what is now the Middle East. The crusades began at the end of the Eleventh Century. They continued for about two-hundred years. The presence of European armies in the Middle East increased trade which was controlled by businessmen in Venice and other Italian city-states. The businessmen were earning large profits by transporting and supplying the warring armies. When the European crusaders returned home, they brought with them some new and useful products. The products included spices, perfumes, silk cloth, steel products and drugs. Such products became highly valued all over Europe. Increased trade resulted which led to the growth of towns. It also created a large number of rich European businessmen. The European nations were growing. They developed armies and governments. These had to be paid for by taxes from the people. By the fifteenth century, European countries were ready to explore new parts of the world. VOICE ONE: The first explorers were the Portuguese. By Fourteen-Hundred, they wanted to control the Eastern spice trade. European businessmen did not want to continue paying Venetian and Arab traders for their costly spices. They wanted to set up trade themselves. If they could sail to Asia directly for these products, the resulting trade would bring huge profits. The leader of Portugal's exploration efforts was Prince Henry, a son of King John the first. He was interested in sea travel and exploration. So he became known as Henry the Navigator. Prince Henry brought experts to his country and studied the sciences involved in exploration. He built an observatory to study the stars. Portuguese sea captains led their ships around the west coast of Africa hoping to find a path to India and East Asia. They finally found the end of the African continent, the area called the Cape of Good Hope. VOICE TWO: It took the Portuguese only about fifty years to take control of the spice trade. They established trading colonies in Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and China. Improvements in technology helped them succeed. One improvement was a new kind of ship. It could sail more easily through ocean storms and winds. Other inventions like the compass permitted them to sail out of sight of land. The Portuguese also armed their ships with modern cannon. They used these weapons to battle Muslim and East Asian traders. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The other European nations would not permit Portugal to control this trade for long, however. Spain's Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to provide ships, crew and supplies for an exploration by an Italian seaman, Christopher Columbus. Columbus thought the shortest way to reach the East was to sail west across the Atlantic ocean. He was right. But he also was wrong. He believed the world was much smaller than it is. He did not imagine the existence of other lands and another huge ocean area between Europe and East Asia. VOICE TWO: Columbus and a crew of eighty-eight men left Spain on August third, Fourteen-Ninety-Two in three ships. On October Twelfth, they stood on land again on an island that Columbus named San Salvador. He explored it, and the nearby islands of what is now known as Cuba and Hispaniola. He believed they were part of the coast of East Asia, which was called the Indies. He called the people he found there Indians. Columbus left about forty men on the island to build a fort from the wood of one of the ships. He returned to Spain with captured natives, birds, plants and gold. Columbus was considered a national hero when he reached Spain in March, Fourteen-Ninety-Three. VOICE ONE: Columbus returned across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean area five months later. This time, he had many more men and all the animals and equipment needed to start a colony on Hispaniola. He found that the protective fort built by his men had been destroyed by fire. Columbus did not find any of his men. Seven months later, Columbus sent five ships back to Spain. They carried Indians to be sold as slaves. Columbus also sailed back to Spain leaving behind some settlers who were not happy with conditions. Christopher Columbus made another trip in Fourteen-Ninety-Eight, with six ships. This time he saw the coast of South America. The settlers were so unhappy with conditions in the new colony, Columbus was sent back to Spain as a prisoner. Spain's rulers pardoned him. In Fifteen-Oh-Two, Columbus made his final voyage to what some were calling the new world. He stayed on the island of Jamaica until he returned home in Fifteen-Oh-Four. VOICE TWO: During all his trips, Columbus explored islands and waterways, searching for a passage to the Indies. He never found it. He also did not find spices or great amounts of gold. Yet he always believed that he had found the Indies. He refused to recognize that it was really a new world. Evidence of this was all around him -- strange plants that were not known in either Europe or Asia and a different people who did not understand any language spoken in the East. Columbus' voyages, however, opened up the new world. Others later explored all of North America. VOICE ONE: You may be wondering about the name of this new land. If Christopher Columbus was the first European to attempt to settle the new world, why is it called "America?" The answer lies with the name of an Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci. He visited the coast of South America in Fourteen-Ninety-Nine. He wrote stories about his experiences that were widely read in Europe. In Fifteen-Oh-Seven, a German mapmaker read Vespucci's stories. He decided that the writer had discovered the new world and suggested that it be called America in his honor. So it was. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Spanish explorers sought to find gold and power in the New World. They also wanted to expand belief in what they considered to be the true religion, Christianity. The first of these Spanish explorers was Juan Ponce de Leon. He landed on North America in Fifteen-Thirteen. He explored the eastern coast of what is now the southern state of Florida. He was searching for a special kind of water that people in Europe believed existed. They believed that this water could make old people young again. Ponce de Leon never found it. VOICE ONE: Also in Fifteen-Thirteen, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean. In Fifteen-Nineteen, Hernan Cortes landed an army in Mexico and destroyed the empire of the Aztec Indians. That same year Ferdinand Magellan began his three-year voyage around the world. And in the Fifteen-Thirties, Francisco Pizarro destroyed the Inca Indian empire in Peru. VOICE TWO: Ten years later, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had marched as far north as the central American state of Kansas and west to the Grand Canyon. About the same time, Hernan de Soto reached the Mississippi River. Fifty years after Columbus first landed in San Salvador, Spain claimed a huge area of America. The riches of these new lands made Spain the greatest power in Europe. But other nations refused to accept Spain's claim to rights in the new world. Explorers from England, France and Holland also were traveling to North America. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - March 13, 2003: Foreign Student Series #26 > MIT
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Today, in week twenty-six of our Foreign Student Series, we tell about an American university that is famous for training scientists. That is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known as M-I-T. It is in the Northeast, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. M-I-T has more than nine-hundred professors and nearly ten-thousand students. It is organized into schools of study. One is the School of Architecture and Planning. Two others are the schools of Engineering and Science. M-I-T also has a School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. And it has the Sloan School of Management and a College of Health Sciences and Technology. M-I-T is difficult to get into. Almost eleven-thousand students wanted to study in its undergraduate programs in two-thousand-two. The school offered admission to just sixteen percent of them. More than sixteen-thousand other students applied for graduate school at M-I-T. Twenty-one percent of them received admission. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has close to three-thousand foreign students. They come from more than one-hundred countries. Most are graduate students. China sends the largest number of foreign students to M-I-T. Three-hundred-thirty-five Chinese students are studying there. More than one-hundred-eighty students are from India, and about the same number are from South Korea. France and Britain each sent more than one-hundred students to M-I-T this year. Most of the foreign students at M-I-T study engineering. Others study business, the sciences, mathematics, architecture, writing and political science. The cost to attend M-I-T for one year is almost forty-thousand dollars. That includes classes, housing, food and books. The university does offer financial aid. Detailed information about aid for foreign undergraduates can be found on the university’s Web site. The address is mit-dot-edu. Individual departments decide on financial aid for international graduate students. Such aid is normally in the form of a job as a research or teaching assistant. Again, the Web site is mit-dot-edu. And at the Special English Web site you can find the other programs in our series for students who want to study in America. That address is voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 14, 2003: Remembering 'Mr. Rogers' / Country Music ... by a Russian Group / Listener Question About St. Patrick's Day
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Image from the American-Russian film, 'The Ballad of Bering Strait.' (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play music by the group Bering Strait ... Answer a listener’s question about Saint Patrick’s Day ... And remember a well-loved American television performer. Mr. Rogers HOST: That is the voice of Fred Rogers. He was a very special friend to American children. He died of cancer last month at the age of seventy-four. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Fred Rogers’ program was broadcast on America’s public television stations for thirty years. It was called “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Fred Rogers stopped filming new programs two years ago. But repeats of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” can still be seen in many parts of the country. The program was made especially for children between the ages of two and five. Fred Rogers talked very slowly and explained ideas very carefully. He will be best remembered for the gentle ideas he taught children. Fred Rogers told children to be kind. He told them to be open to new ideas. He explained that they should like themselves because they were special and important. He told them to always use their imaginations. He told them it was important to always help others. He helped them to understand their feelings. Fred Rogers worked in television for almost fifty years. He always believed that television could be used to improve the lives of children. Fred Rogers once said he hoped his program would make children want to turn off the television and go play games or read books. He wanted the program to help them form new ideas. The subjects discussed on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” were important to children. One program was about going to school for the first time. Another was about different musical instruments. Other programs showed how much fun it is to go to the circus or to see animals at the zoo. Many programs showed children how important it is to learn new things. Fred Rogers appeared in about one-thousand “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” programs. Critics say Mister Rogers will be remembered as the special friend of children. They say he was kind and gentle but also showed children a quiet strength. They say that his programs are still popular on television because the children watching always know that Mister Rogers is a person they can trust. St. Patrick's Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Kano State, Nigeria. Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim asks about the Saint Patrick’s Day holiday. Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March seventeenth. It is a religious holiday in Ireland. It is the day when the Irish people honor the man who brought the Roman Catholic religion to Ireland more than one-thousand years ago. Saint Patrick’s Day is not an official holiday in the United States. But a lot of people celebrate it anyway. They show the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some put green color in their hair or on their faces. Some public eating places serve beer that is colored green. The city of Chicago, Illinois even puts green color in its river. Many Americans eat the traditional Irish food, corned beef and cabbage. And they enjoy parties and parades. Saint Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in the United States about two-hundred-fifty years ago in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts. Those celebrations involved only people whose families had come to the United States from Ireland. Today, Americans who are not Irish also celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Some cities have Saint Patrick’s Day parades. An old story says this tradition began in New York City in seventeen-sixty-two. Some members of the New York State military guard had been born in Ireland. They decided to march to breakfast on Saint Patrick’s Day. These parades spread throughout the country as more people from Ireland came to live in the United States. Many Irish immigrants settled in big cities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders. They were able to stop work in the city for a day so they could hold a parade on Saint Patrick’s Day. Today, New York City’s parade is the biggest in the world. About one-hundred-fifty-thousand people march for eight kilometers along Fifth Avenue. Thousands of others gather on the street to watch the parade. Many of these Americans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day. Bering Strait HOST: American music is very popular around the world. In almost any country you can find people who love jazz, blues, hip-hop, rap, blue grass and country and western music. Phoebe Zimmermann tells how one kind of American music affected six young people from Russia. ANNCR: The two women and four men are members of the band called Bering Strait. They were all born in the city of Obninsk, Russia. Natasha Borzilova is the band’s lead singer. She says the group members began playing country and western songs when they were children because they loved that kind of music. They became very good musicians. Listen to their recording of “Jagged Edge of a Broken Heart.” (MUSIC) In the early nineteen-nineties, the members of Bering Strait visited Nashville, Tennesee, the center of American country and western music. They worked on their music for five years in the United States before a major record company wanted to record them. They finally released their first album last year. One song on that album was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for best country instrumental performance. The song is “Bearing Straight.” (MUSIC) Natasha Borzilova says living and working in the United States has been difficult for the band members. They miss their families in Russia. And at times she would just like to tell everyone in America to speak Russian. Sometimes the band does just that during live performances. They sing a Russian folk song to the rhythm of American blue grass country music. We leave you now with that song, “Porushka-Paranya.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. And our producer was Lawan Davis. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play music by the group Bering Strait ... Answer a listener’s question about Saint Patrick’s Day ... And remember a well-loved American television performer. Mr. Rogers HOST: That is the voice of Fred Rogers. He was a very special friend to American children. He died of cancer last month at the age of seventy-four. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Fred Rogers’ program was broadcast on America’s public television stations for thirty years. It was called “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Fred Rogers stopped filming new programs two years ago. But repeats of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” can still be seen in many parts of the country. The program was made especially for children between the ages of two and five. Fred Rogers talked very slowly and explained ideas very carefully. He will be best remembered for the gentle ideas he taught children. Fred Rogers told children to be kind. He told them to be open to new ideas. He explained that they should like themselves because they were special and important. He told them to always use their imaginations. He told them it was important to always help others. He helped them to understand their feelings. Fred Rogers worked in television for almost fifty years. He always believed that television could be used to improve the lives of children. Fred Rogers once said he hoped his program would make children want to turn off the television and go play games or read books. He wanted the program to help them form new ideas. The subjects discussed on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” were important to children. One program was about going to school for the first time. Another was about different musical instruments. Other programs showed how much fun it is to go to the circus or to see animals at the zoo. Many programs showed children how important it is to learn new things. Fred Rogers appeared in about one-thousand “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” programs. Critics say Mister Rogers will be remembered as the special friend of children. They say he was kind and gentle but also showed children a quiet strength. They say that his programs are still popular on television because the children watching always know that Mister Rogers is a person they can trust. St. Patrick's Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Kano State, Nigeria. Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim asks about the Saint Patrick’s Day holiday. Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March seventeenth. It is a religious holiday in Ireland. It is the day when the Irish people honor the man who brought the Roman Catholic religion to Ireland more than one-thousand years ago. Saint Patrick’s Day is not an official holiday in the United States. But a lot of people celebrate it anyway. They show the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some put green color in their hair or on their faces. Some public eating places serve beer that is colored green. The city of Chicago, Illinois even puts green color in its river. Many Americans eat the traditional Irish food, corned beef and cabbage. And they enjoy parties and parades. Saint Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in the United States about two-hundred-fifty years ago in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts. Those celebrations involved only people whose families had come to the United States from Ireland. Today, Americans who are not Irish also celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Some cities have Saint Patrick’s Day parades. An old story says this tradition began in New York City in seventeen-sixty-two. Some members of the New York State military guard had been born in Ireland. They decided to march to breakfast on Saint Patrick’s Day. These parades spread throughout the country as more people from Ireland came to live in the United States. Many Irish immigrants settled in big cities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders. They were able to stop work in the city for a day so they could hold a parade on Saint Patrick’s Day. Today, New York City’s parade is the biggest in the world. About one-hundred-fifty-thousand people march for eight kilometers along Fifth Avenue. Thousands of others gather on the street to watch the parade. Many of these Americans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day. Bering Strait HOST: American music is very popular around the world. In almost any country you can find people who love jazz, blues, hip-hop, rap, blue grass and country and western music. Phoebe Zimmermann tells how one kind of American music affected six young people from Russia. ANNCR: The two women and four men are members of the band called Bering Strait. They were all born in the city of Obninsk, Russia. Natasha Borzilova is the band’s lead singer. She says the group members began playing country and western songs when they were children because they loved that kind of music. They became very good musicians. Listen to their recording of “Jagged Edge of a Broken Heart.” (MUSIC) In the early nineteen-nineties, the members of Bering Strait visited Nashville, Tennesee, the center of American country and western music. They worked on their music for five years in the United States before a major record company wanted to record them. They finally released their first album last year. One song on that album was recently nominated for a Grammy Award for best country instrumental performance. The song is “Bearing Straight.” (MUSIC) Natasha Borzilova says living and working in the United States has been difficult for the band members. They miss their families in Russia. And at times she would just like to tell everyone in America to speak Russian. Sometimes the band does just that during live performances. They sing a Russian folk song to the rhythm of American blue grass country music. We leave you now with that song, “Porushka-Paranya.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. And our producer was Lawan Davis. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – March 14, 2003: Water-Resistant Material Copies Lotus Plant
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Lotus plants and the pure white flower they produce have spiritual meaning in some Asian religions. The lotus has also appealed to scientists for its ability to resist water and stay clean. Now, Turkish scientists say they have discovered a low-cost way to make a plastic material that acts like the lotus. The Turkish group studied the chemical structure of leaves from the plant called the sacred lotus. They wanted to recreate the ability of lotus leaves to resist water. Water drops normally flatten and spread out when they fall on a surface. But the rough surface of lotus leaves prevents this from happening. When water drops hit the surface of the lotus leaf, they stay round. As a result, the water drops roll off the leaves. Dirt rolls off with the water. That makes the plant self-cleaning. The Turkish scientists say the process they developed is easy to reproduce. They believe it could have many uses in the future. The water-resistant substance could be added to the outsides of airplanes. This could help prevent the formation of ice on the wings in winter. Heavy ice is a serious danger for airplanes. The substance could be put on ships to help them break through icy waters more easily. The scientists say the protective covering they created could also be used to keep water off clothing. It could protect antennas from snow and ice. These can interfere with the operation of radios and other electronic systems. It could even protect traffic signs from weather damage. The Turkish group described its findings in a report in Science magazine. The scientists are from Koc University in Istanbul and Kocaeli University in Izmit. They created their material from a simple, common plastic. It is called isotactic polypropylene. The scientists broke down this plastic with an organic solvent. A solvent is a liquid that breaks down other substances. Then, the researchers added other chemicals to the mixture. They let the liquid harden on a glass surface. The liquid formed a thin plastic. Under a microscope, this new plastic looks like a combination of sticks and balls. The scientists say water drops form small balls on the new plastic, just as they would on lotus leaves. Other scientists have praised the findings of the Turkish team. They say the discovery shows a simple way to protect surfaces from water damage. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 13, 2003 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": March 13, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- questions and more questions! RS: Listener Ahmed Mustaque sends this question by e-mail from somewhere in cyberspace: "Could you please tell me about the word 'being.'" AA: "Being" is used as a verb when you talk about a continuous situation. For instance, the Irish-born playwright Oscar Wilde wrote a comedy called "The Importance of Being Earnest." RS: It can also mean something that exists -- like a human being. There it's used as a noun. And it can modify a noun. When people say "for the time being," "being" serves as an adjective. AA: "For the time being" means "for now," the present time -- in other words, until something changes. Some people also use "being" in place of "because" or "since," as in the phrase "being as how ... " RS: Now, being as how we don't have much time, we move on to a question that should resound with teachers everywhere. It's from Dianne Gray in Moscow. She's new to English teaching, and we've answered some of her questions before. AA: Recently Dianne was invited to help a group of four new students. Her question: "How can these students be corrected as a group (if so) without embarrassing anyone?" RS: Well, as it turned out, Dianne answered her own question this time. She wrote back to say: "What I did with my new group of students was to ask them how they feel comfortable about being corrected as a group. They said I should just correct them and they would not get upset. So, we're trying that." AA: Next a question from a listener in Bangladesh who's also written us before. Azmul Haque in Dhaka asks us to explain what’s called an oxymoron. RS That word -- which comes to us from Greek -- is a combination of words that seem to make no sense being together, yet, despite the contradiction people use them. AA: Here are some examples: "healthy tan," "jumbo shrimp," "working vacation," "peace force" and "pretty ugly." RS: These examples come from the "Top 20" at oxymoronlist.com. Number 20, by the way, is "government organization." MUSIC: "Mister Ed"/Theme from 1960s TV show AA: And now, the most unusual question we've ever gotten. A listener in China would like to know what we Americans say to a horse to urge it to move faster. RS: "In my country,” writes Pan Runzhou in Shanghai, “people utter the sound like jar~jar~jar~". AA: Well, for an answer we turn to a horse expert, Nancy Smart at Longevity Farm in Maryland: SMART: "Actually this is kind of an interesting question, because we don't say much. If we say anything, we cluck at them [sound] -- you know, click, click, click, click. But really mostly the way we ask our horses to go faster is with our legs and our seats and our hands, non-verbal aids. If I'm asking my horse to move from a walk to a trot, I'll just squeeze gently with my calves, and he will move into a trot." AA: "Do you ever use the expression 'whoa Nelly!'" SMART: "Never. Never. I know what it means -- it means 'stop horse.' But it's not something that I've ever in my life used." RS: Nancy Smart, accomplished equestrian and -- until she retired from VOA last year -- our editor on Wordmaster. But while serious riders like Nancy may bridle at the term "whoa Nelly!" it is used as slang ... to tell a PERSON to slow down, like if someone is talking too fast or coming on too strong. AA: And while you're talking like a make-believe cowboy, you might also say that you've got to "giddy up and go!" And that's what we've got to do. Catch us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Back in the Saddle Again"/Gene Autry (first recorded in 1939) Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": March 13, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- questions and more questions! RS: Listener Ahmed Mustaque sends this question by e-mail from somewhere in cyberspace: "Could you please tell me about the word 'being.'" AA: "Being" is used as a verb when you talk about a continuous situation. For instance, the Irish-born playwright Oscar Wilde wrote a comedy called "The Importance of Being Earnest." RS: It can also mean something that exists -- like a human being. There it's used as a noun. And it can modify a noun. When people say "for the time being," "being" serves as an adjective. AA: "For the time being" means "for now," the present time -- in other words, until something changes. Some people also use "being" in place of "because" or "since," as in the phrase "being as how ... " RS: Now, being as how we don't have much time, we move on to a question that should resound with teachers everywhere. It's from Dianne Gray in Moscow. She's new to English teaching, and we've answered some of her questions before. AA: Recently Dianne was invited to help a group of four new students. Her question: "How can these students be corrected as a group (if so) without embarrassing anyone?" RS: Well, as it turned out, Dianne answered her own question this time. She wrote back to say: "What I did with my new group of students was to ask them how they feel comfortable about being corrected as a group. They said I should just correct them and they would not get upset. So, we're trying that." AA: Next a question from a listener in Bangladesh who's also written us before. Azmul Haque in Dhaka asks us to explain what’s called an oxymoron. RS That word -- which comes to us from Greek -- is a combination of words that seem to make no sense being together, yet, despite the contradiction people use them. AA: Here are some examples: "healthy tan," "jumbo shrimp," "working vacation," "peace force" and "pretty ugly." RS: These examples come from the "Top 20" at oxymoronlist.com. Number 20, by the way, is "government organization." MUSIC: "Mister Ed"/Theme from 1960s TV show AA: And now, the most unusual question we've ever gotten. A listener in China would like to know what we Americans say to a horse to urge it to move faster. RS: "In my country,” writes Pan Runzhou in Shanghai, “people utter the sound like jar~jar~jar~". AA: Well, for an answer we turn to a horse expert, Nancy Smart at Longevity Farm in Maryland: SMART: "Actually this is kind of an interesting question, because we don't say much. If we say anything, we cluck at them [sound] -- you know, click, click, click, click. But really mostly the way we ask our horses to go faster is with our legs and our seats and our hands, non-verbal aids. If I'm asking my horse to move from a walk to a trot, I'll just squeeze gently with my calves, and he will move into a trot." AA: "Do you ever use the expression 'whoa Nelly!'" SMART: "Never. Never. I know what it means -- it means 'stop horse.' But it's not something that I've ever in my life used." RS: Nancy Smart, accomplished equestrian and -- until she retired from VOA last year -- our editor on Wordmaster. But while serious riders like Nancy may bridle at the term "whoa Nelly!" it is used as slang ... to tell a PERSON to slow down, like if someone is talking too fast or coming on too strong. AA: And while you're talking like a make-believe cowboy, you might also say that you've got to "giddy up and go!" And that's what we've got to do. Catch us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Back in the Saddle Again"/Gene Autry (first recorded in 1939) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - March 17, 2003: Academy Awards
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: On March twenty-third, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Los Angeles, California, for the seventy-fifth Academy Awards ceremony. It is a night of excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch them. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. The Academy Awards is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC FROM "CHICAGO") On March twenty-third, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Los Angeles, California, for the seventy-fifth Academy Awards ceremony. It is a night of excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch them. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. The Academy Awards is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC FROM "CHICAGO") VOICE ONE: Sunday will be the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as Best Foreign Language Film. They are from Mexico, China, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. VOICE ONE: Sunday will be the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing to win Academy Awards. Five movies were nominated as Best Foreign Language Film. They are from Mexico, China, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands. For the first time, actors and filmmakers from Spanish-speaking countries received several Academy Award nominations. Filmmakers from Mexico and Spain received ten nominations, including Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. VOICE ONE: The movie musical “Chicago” received the most Academy Award nominations. “Chicago” received thirteen nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director. “Chicago” is a version of a Broadway musical play of the same name. It takes place in that city during the nineteen-twenties. It is about two female performers who are sent to prison for murder. But it is not a serious movie. It has lots of exciting music, singing and dancing. VOICE TWO: The movie “Gangs of New York” is also competing for Best Picture. It received ten nominations. It is a violent story about ethnic conflict in New York City during the eighteen-sixties. A film called “The Hours” received nine nominations, including Best Picture. It is based on a book about one day in the lives of three women during different periods of the twentieth century. Two American women deal with illness and the demands of family and friends. Their lives are linked with the life and work of the famous British writer Virginia Woolf. VOICE ONE: “The Pianist” is the fourth movie nominated for Best Picture. It received six other Academy Award nominations. The film tells the true story of the survival of a Jewish musician in Warsaw, Poland, under Nazi occupation during World War Two. The last movie nominated for Best Picture is “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” It is a story about a struggle to save the world from the forces of evil. It is the second of three movies in the “Lord of the Rings” series. These are based on the books by British writer J-R-R Tolkien about an imaginary Middle-earth. The movie is competing for six Academy Awards. VOICE TWO: A small movie studio called Miramax Films was extremely successful last year. Miramax is based in New York City, unlike the large studios that are based in Hollywood. Miramax produced or co-produced several of the top movies last year. These include “Chicago,” “The Hours,” and “Gangs of New York.” Films produced by Miramax received a total of forty Academy Award nominations. This is the most for any film studio since nineteen-forty. (MUSIC FROM "THE HOURS") VOICE ONE: Last year was also an important year for actresses. Critics say movies had many more strong performances by women than in other years. Julianne Moore became the first performer in ten years to receive nominations in two categories. She was nominated for Best Actress for her role as a woman who discovers a secret about her husband in “Far From Heaven.” She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in “The Hours.” She plays a wife and mother who struggles with feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress in “The Hours.” She plays writer Virginia Woolf who battles mental illness while writing one of her most famous books. Mexican-born Salma Hayek also received a Best Actress nomination for portraying a famous person. She plays the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the movie “Frida.” Another Best Actress nominee is Renee Zellweger, who sings and dances in “Chicago.” And Diane Lane was nominated for playing a wife who has a sexual relationship with a younger man in the movie “Unfaithful.” Actress Meryl Streep also made history last year. She received her thirteenth nomination, the most of any performer in American motion picture history. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for playing a real-life magazine writer in “Adaptation.” VOICE TWO: Jack Nicholson received his twelfth acting nomination, more than any other male actor. He was nominated for Best Actor in the movie “About Schmidt.” He plays an insurance salesman whose life changes when he retires from his job and his wife dies. Michael Caine was nominated for Best Actor for playing a British reporter in Vietnam in the movie “The Quiet American. Daniel Day-Lewis received a nomination for playing a violent gang leader in “Gangs of New York.” Nicholas Cage was honored for playing a troubled movie screenwriter and his twin brother in “Adaptation.” And the young actor Adrien Brody is the fifth Best Actor nominee. He plays the Jewish musician who hides from the Nazis in Poland during World War Two in "The Pianist." (MUSIC FROM 'THE PIANIST') VOICE ONE: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. About six-thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in nineteen-twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy began presenting awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. In nineteen-fifty-one, a woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. Some people said the reporter and the librarian named the statue Oscar. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this. She said she named the Oscars in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE TWO: The process of choosing award winners begins with members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work they do. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. The awards are presented every spring. The ceremony on Sunday will be held in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the ceremonies. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. Some movie stars make statements to waiting reporters. Others hurry inside the theater. VOICE ONE: During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They cry. They laugh. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. Only a few hundred invited guests can attend the awards presentation. But hundreds of millions of people in the United States and other countries watch the Academy Awards show on television. Thousands of Americans in almost forty cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Sunday will be the seventy-fifth Academy Awards presentation. The American film industry will honor some of its best. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC FROM "CHICAGO") VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. For the first time, actors and filmmakers from Spanish-speaking countries received several Academy Award nominations. Filmmakers from Mexico and Spain received ten nominations, including Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. VOICE ONE: The movie musical “Chicago” received the most Academy Award nominations. “Chicago” received thirteen nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director. “Chicago” is a version of a Broadway musical play of the same name. It takes place in that city during the nineteen-twenties. It is about two female performers who are sent to prison for murder. But it is not a serious movie. It has lots of exciting music, singing and dancing. VOICE TWO: The movie “Gangs of New York” is also competing for Best Picture. It received ten nominations. It is a violent story about ethnic conflict in New York City during the eighteen-sixties. A film called “The Hours” received nine nominations, including Best Picture. It is based on a book about one day in the lives of three women during different periods of the twentieth century. Two American women deal with illness and the demands of family and friends. Their lives are linked with the life and work of the famous British writer Virginia Woolf. VOICE ONE: “The Pianist” is the fourth movie nominated for Best Picture. It received six other Academy Award nominations. The film tells the true story of the survival of a Jewish musician in Warsaw, Poland, under Nazi occupation during World War Two. The last movie nominated for Best Picture is “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” It is a story about a struggle to save the world from the forces of evil. It is the second of three movies in the “Lord of the Rings” series. These are based on the books by British writer J-R-R Tolkien about an imaginary Middle-earth. The movie is competing for six Academy Awards. VOICE TWO: A small movie studio called Miramax Films was extremely successful last year. Miramax is based in New York City, unlike the large studios that are based in Hollywood. Miramax produced or co-produced several of the top movies last year. These include “Chicago,” “The Hours,” and “Gangs of New York.” Films produced by Miramax received a total of forty Academy Award nominations. This is the most for any film studio since nineteen-forty. (MUSIC FROM "THE HOURS") VOICE ONE: Last year was also an important year for actresses. Critics say movies had many more strong performances by women than in other years. Julianne Moore became the first performer in ten years to receive nominations in two categories. She was nominated for Best Actress for her role as a woman who discovers a secret about her husband in “Far From Heaven.” She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in “The Hours.” She plays a wife and mother who struggles with feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Actress in “The Hours.” She plays writer Virginia Woolf who battles mental illness while writing one of her most famous books. Mexican-born Salma Hayek also received a Best Actress nomination for portraying a famous person. She plays the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo in the movie “Frida.” Another Best Actress nominee is Renee Zellweger, who sings and dances in “Chicago.” And Diane Lane was nominated for playing a wife who has a sexual relationship with a younger man in the movie “Unfaithful.” Actress Meryl Streep also made history last year. She received her thirteenth nomination, the most of any performer in American motion picture history. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for playing a real-life magazine writer in “Adaptation.” VOICE TWO: Jack Nicholson received his twelfth acting nomination, more than any other male actor. He was nominated for Best Actor in the movie “About Schmidt.” He plays an insurance salesman whose life changes when he retires from his job and his wife dies. Michael Caine was nominated for Best Actor for playing a British reporter in Vietnam in the movie “The Quiet American. Daniel Day-Lewis received a nomination for playing a violent gang leader in “Gangs of New York.” Nicholas Cage was honored for playing a troubled movie screenwriter and his twin brother in “Adaptation.” And the young actor Adrien Brody is the fifth Best Actor nominee. He plays the Jewish musician who hides from the Nazis in Poland during World War Two in "The Pianist." (MUSIC FROM 'THE PIANIST') VOICE ONE: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. About six-thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in nineteen-twenty-seven to support the film industry. The Academy began presenting awards in nineteen-twenty-nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. In nineteen-fifty-one, a woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. Some people said the reporter and the librarian named the statue Oscar. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this. She said she named the Oscars in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE TWO: The process of choosing award winners begins with members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work they do. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. The awards are presented every spring. The ceremony on Sunday will be held in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the ceremonies. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. Some movie stars make statements to waiting reporters. Others hurry inside the theater. VOICE ONE: During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They cry. They laugh. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. Only a few hundred invited guests can attend the awards presentation. But hundreds of millions of people in the United States and other countries watch the Academy Awards show on television. Thousands of Americans in almost forty cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Sunday will be the seventy-fifth Academy Awards presentation. The American film industry will honor some of its best. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. (MUSIC FROM "CHICAGO") VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – March 17, 2003: Drug Trade in Developing Countries
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Trade in illegal drugs is harming the economies of developing nations. That is the warning contained in a recent report by the International Narcotics Control Board, or I-N-C-B. The I-N-C-B is an independent part of the United Nations. The agency, based in Vienna, examines to see if countries obey international treaties against illegal drugs. The report says the drug economy traps people in poverty in developing countries. This creates serious social problems. The illegal drug trade can lead to higher crime, weaker governments and damaged political systems. The U-N drug control agency argues against the idea that countries can grow wealthy by producing illegal drugs. Such a belief, it says, is false and dangerous. Growing and processing illegal drugs can provide jobs for farmers and laboratory workers. However, the control board warns that these economic gains are only short-term. It says farmers who grow illegal crops earn just one percent of the money spent by drug users. Ninety-nine percent of the profits go to the people who transport and sell the drugs around the world. Most of that money is made in developed countries. Philip Emafo heads the International Narcotics Control Board. He says Colombia is an example of a country where economic growth dropped as the farming of coca plants to produce cocaine increased. Mister Emafo says the same situation happened in Afghanistan. Economic growth decreased as the growing of poppy plants to make opium increased sharply in the early nineteen-nineties. By comparison, the report says countries have improved their economies when they cut drug production. The narcotics control board also warns that easing drug laws in Western countries can send misleading messages to the rest of the world. Recently, Britain decided to ease punishments against people found with the cannabis plant. Philip Emafo, the board president, says the decision could cause young people to believe that smoking marijuana is acceptable. Governments, he says, should not be influenced by a minority of citizens who want to make drug use legal. To help fight the illegal drug trade, the U-N agency calls for more international aid for farmers. The money would help farmers change from growing drug-related crops to growing legal ones. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 16, 2003: Thomas Edison
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around the world. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison’s major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the Eighteen-Hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the Twentieth Century. His inventions made possible the progress of technology. It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light. These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions. VOICE TWO: Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen-forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented. At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator. He later worked in many different places. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election. VOICE ONE: In the summer months of eighteen-sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device. The company paid him forty-thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time. This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions. Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a “big trick” about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and it would be invented. VOICE TWO: Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy. He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in Nineteen-Seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions. The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions. Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music. Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen-seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound. VOICE TWO: The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again…the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important. Before the electric light was invented, light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light. Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful.He and his employees began work on the electric light. VOICE ONE: An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament. Time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked. At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not have electricity. There was no need for it. Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry. VOICE TWO: Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film. When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen- hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything…a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison’s motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called “The Great Train Robbery.” It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. “The Great Train Robbery” started the huge, motion picture industry. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains. Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of researchers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen-twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States. Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen-thirty-one. In the months before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one-thousand-ninety-three. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, Sarah Long and Bob Doughty tell about the inventor Thomas Alva Edison. He had a major effect on the lives of people around the world. Thomas Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison’s major inventions were designed and built in the last years of the Eighteen-Hundreds. However, most of them had their greatest effect in the Twentieth Century. His inventions made possible the progress of technology. It is extremely difficult to find anyone living today who has not been affected in some way by Thomas Edison. Most people on Earth have seen some kind of motion picture or heard some kind of sound recording. And almost everyone has at least seen an electric light. These are only three of the many devices Thomas Edison invented or helped to improve. People living in this century have had easier and more enjoyable lives because of his inventions. VOICE TWO: Thomas Alva Edison was born on February eleventh, eighteen-forty-seven in the small town of Milan, Ohio. He was the youngest of seven children. Thomas Edison was self-taught. He went to school for only three months. His teacher thought he could not learn because he had a mental problem. But young Tom Edison could learn. He learned from books and he experimented. At the age of ten, he built his own chemical laboratory. He experimented with chemicals and electricity. He built a telegraph machine and quickly learned to send and receive telegraph messages. At the time, sending electric signals over wires was the fastest method of sending information long distances. At the age of sixteen, he went to work as a telegraph operator. He later worked in many different places. He continued to experiment with electricity. When he was twenty-one, he sent the United States government the documents needed to request the legal protection for his first invention. The government gave him his first patent on an electric device he called an Electrographic Vote Recorder. It used electricity to count votes in an election. VOICE ONE: In the summer months of eighteen-sixty-nine, the Western Union Telegraph Company asked Thomas Edison to improve a device that was used to send financial information. It was called a stock printer. Mister Edison very quickly made great improvements in the device. The company paid him forty-thousand dollars for his effort. That was a lot of money for the time. This large amount of money permitted Mister Edison to start his own company. He announced that the company would improve existing telegraph devices and work on new inventions. Mister Edison told friends that his new company would invent a minor device every ten days and produce what he called a “big trick” about every six months. He also proposed that his company would make inventions to order. He said that if someone needed a device to do some kind of work, just ask and it would be invented. VOICE TWO: Within a few weeks Thomas Edison and his employees were working on more than forty different projects. They were either new inventions or would lead to improvements in other devices. Very quickly he was asking the United States government for patents to protect more than one hundred devices or inventions each year. He was an extremely busy man. But then Thomas Edison was always very busy. He almost never slept more than four or five hours a night. He usually worked eighteen hours each day because he enjoyed what he was doing. He believed no one really needed much sleep. He once said that anyone could learn to go without sleep. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Thomas Edison did not enjoy taking to reporters. He thought it was a waste of time. However, he did talk to a reporter in Nineteen-Seventeen. He was seventy years old at the time and still working on new devices and inventions. The reporter asked Mister Edison which of his many inventions he enjoyed the most. He answered quickly, the phonograph. He said the phonograph was really the most interesting. He also said it took longer to develop a machine to reproduce sound than any other of his inventions. Thomas Edison told the reporter that he had listened to many thousands of recordings. He especially liked music by Brahms, Verdi and Beethoven. He also liked popular music. Many of the recordings that Thomas Edison listened to in nineteen-seventeen can still be enjoyed today. His invention makes it possible for people around the world to enjoy the same recorded sound. VOICE TWO: The reporter also asked Thomas Edison what was the hardest invention to develop. He answered quickly again…the electric light. He said that it was the most difficult and the most important. Before the electric light was invented, light was provided in most homes and buildings by oil or natural gas. Both caused many fires each year. Neither one produced much light. Mister Edison had seen a huge and powerful electric light. He believed that a smaller electric light would be extremely useful.He and his employees began work on the electric light. VOICE ONE: An electric light passes electricity through material called a filament or wire. The electricity makes the filament burn and produce light. Thomas Edison and his employees worked for many months to find the right material to act as the filament. Time after time a new filament would produce light for a few moments and then burn up. At last Mister Edison found that a carbon fiber produced light and lasted a long time without burning up. The electric light worked. At first, people thought the electric light was extremely interesting but had no value. Homes and businesses did not have electricity. There was no need for it. Mister Edison started a company that provided electricity for electric lights for a small price each month. The small company grew slowly at first. Then it expanded rapidly. His company was the beginning of the electric power industry. VOICE TWO: Thomas Edison also was responsible for the very beginnings of the movie industry. While he did not invent the idea of the motion picture, he greatly improved the process. He also invented the modern motion picture film. When motion pictures first were shown in the late eighteen- hundreds, people came to see movies of almost anything…a ship, people walking on the street, new automobiles. But in time, these moving pictures were no longer interesting. In nineteen-oh-three, an employee of Thomas Edison’s motion picture company produced a movie with a story. It was called “The Great Train Robbery.” It told a simple story of a group of western criminals who steal money from a train. Later they are killed by a group of police in a gun fight. The movie was extremely popular. “The Great Train Robbery” started the huge, motion picture industry. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Thomas Alva Edison is remembered most for the electric light, his phonograph and his work with motion pictures. However, he also invented several devices that greatly improved the telephone. He improved several kinds of machines called generators that produced electricity. He improved batteries that hold electricity. He worked on many different kinds of electric motors including those for electric trains. Mister Edison also is remembered for making changes in the invention process. He moved from the Nineteenth Century method of an individual doing the inventing to the Twentieth Century method using a team of researchers. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirteen, a popular magazine at the time called Thomas Edison the most useful man in America. In nineteen-twenty-eight, he received a special medal of honor from the Congress of the United States. Thomas Edison died on January sixth, nineteen-thirty-one. In the months before his death he was still working very hard. He had asked the government for legal protection for his last invention. It was patent number one-thousand-ninety-three. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - March 15, 2003: Serbian Prime Minister Murdered
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was murdered Wednesday. He was shot outside the government headquarters in Belgrade and died in a hospital. Mister Djindjic was fifty years old. By Thursday officials had arrested fifty-six people. Emergency measures gave the military the same powers as the police to arrest suspects. Serb officials said they suspected an organized crime group known as the Zemun clan. Officials say Mister Djindjic was about to arrest the leader of the group, Milorad Lukovic, and other members suspected of war crimes. Mister Lukovic -- a former secret police chief loyal to Slobodan Milosevic -- had changed sides and supported the efforts of Mister Djindjic to oust the Yugoslav president. Zoran Djindjic led a movement that brought democracy to the former Yugoslavia. Slobodan Milosevic ruled the country for thirteen years. Voters ousted him in elections in two-thousand. His nationalist policies had incited ethnic conflicts. Wars took place in the former Yugoslavia republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In nineteen-ninety-nine, an American-led bombing campaign ended attacks by Mister Milosevic against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. That Serbian province is now under United Nations control. Enemies disliked Mister Djindjic for sending Slobodan Milosevic to trial by the war crimes court in The Hague. Mister Djindjic had recently promised the West that he would try to arrest former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. Political murders became common toward the end of Mister Milosevic’s rule and continued afterward. Criminal groups sought control of the economy and the government. Zoran Djindjic had many enemies in Serbia. They included ousted communist and nationalist leaders. Last month a truck tried to hit his car on the way to the Belgrade airport. The prime minister blamed that incident on organized crime. Mister Djindjic’s main political opponent, Vojislav Kostunica, could now seek the job of prime minister of Serbia. Mister Kostunica served as president of Yugoslavia after Mister Milosevic. But he left office as the country became a looser federation of its two republics. In fact, Yugoslavia is now called Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian government has appointed deputy prime minister Nebojsa Covic as temporary replacement for Mister Djindjic. Other politicians who could become prime minister do not have as much international support as Mister Djindjic had. There are fears of renewed violence, and fears that nationalists could return to power. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - UN Lowers Population Growth Estimates / Tobacco Control Treaty / U.S. Science Talent Search Winners
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - March 18, 2003: Trade in Genetically Engineered Crops, Part 2
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. We continue our look at the influence of genetically engineered crops on agricultural trade. Last week, we discussed how policy differences can lead to changes in export trade. We noted that such crops have helped Argentina, for example, greatly increase its trade with Europe. In two-thousand, Argentina grew twenty-three percent of the world’s genetically engineered crops. In fact, just four countries produced ninety-nine percent of all the genetically engineered crops that year. Canada and China were also among them. But the United States produced the most of all. More countries now take part in the market for what are called biotechnology or transgenic crops. However, a few countries control huge parts of some markets. Genetically engineered soybeans are an example. In two-thousand, six countries supplied one-hundred-sixteen nations. Those six countries controlled most of the market. Developing countries may see genetically engineered crops as a way to increase food production. By growing them, developing nations could supply their own food needs. However, a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington says this goal is not realistic. The report says developing nations could harm their natural resources by trying to produce enough crops to reach food security. Developing countries do produce and use most of the world supply of some crops. These include rice, millet, cassava, sweet potatoes and bananas. Yet scientists have engineered few kinds of these crops. Instead, most of the investment has gone into canola, corn, cotton and soybeans. Developed nations that support transgenic research have been able to increase production and exports. Public opinion, of course, is divided about genetically engineered products. But the Food and Agriculture Organization supports agricultural policies that bring together genetic and other technologies. The United Nations agency says current investment in research is aimed toward richer nations. The F-A-O says it wants to make sure developing nations gain more. Next week, we will explore how some countries are sharing agricultural technology with farmers in Africa. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #4 – March 20, 2003: First European Settlers
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the first permanent English settlements in North America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World, although it was too weak to do this openly at first. But Queen Elizabeth of England supported such explorations as early as the Fifteen-Seventies. Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts. He did not establish any lasting settlement. He died as he was returning to England. Gilbert's half brother Sir Walter Raleigh continued his work. Raleigh sent a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America. He called the land Virginia to honor England's unmarried Queen Elizabeth. In Fifteen-Eighty-Five, about one-hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast of the present day state of North Carolina. These settlers returned to England a year later. Another group went to Roanoke the next year. This group included a number of women and children. But the supply ships Raleigh sent to the colony failed to arrive. When help got there in Fifteen-Ninety, none of the settlers could be found. History experts still are not sure what happened. Some research suggests that at least some of the settlers became part of the Indian tribe that lived in the area. VOICE TWO: One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack of the Spanish Navy against England in Fifteen-Eighty-Eight. King Phillip of Spain had decided to invade England. But the small English ships combined with a fierce storm defeated the huge Spanish fleet. As a result, Spain was no longer able to block English exploration. England discovered that supporting colonies so far away was extremely costly. So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do this. It was not until after her death in Sixteen-Oh-Three that England began serious efforts to start colonies in America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Sixteen-Oh-Six, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groups permission to establish colonies in Virginia,the area claimed by England. Companies were organized to carry out the move. The London Company sent one-hundred settlers to Virginia in Sixteen-Oh-Six. The group landed there in May, Sixteen-Oh-Seven and founded Jamestown. It was the first permanent English colony in the new world. The colony seemed about to fail from the start. The settlers did not plant their crops in time so they soon had no food. Their leaders lacked the farming and building skills needed to survive on the land. More than half the settlers died during the first winter. VOICE TWO: The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing about living in such a wild place. They wanted the settlers to search for gold, and explore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East. One settler knew this was wrong. His name was Captain John Smith. He helped the colonists build houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians. Still, the Jamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, lack of food and Indian attacks. The London Company sent six-thousand settlers to Virginia between Sixteen-Oh-Six and Sixteen-Twenty-Two. More than four--thousand died during that time. VOICE ONE: History experts say that all the settlers surely would have died without the help of the local Powhatan Indians. The Indians gave the settlers food. They taught them how to live in the forest. And the Powhatan Indians showed the settlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building. The settlers accepted the Indians' help. Then, however, the settlers took whatever else they wanted by force. In Sixteen-Twenty-Two, the local Indians attacked the settlers for interfering with Indian land. Three-hundred-forty settlers died. The colonists answered the attack by destroying the Indian tribes living along Virginia's coast. Slowly, the settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by Sixteen-Twenty-Four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop, tobacco. VOICE TWO: The other early English settlements in North America were much to the north of Virginia, in the present state of Massachusetts. The people who settled there left England for different reasons than those who settled in Jamestown. The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money for English businesses. The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religious freedom. VOICE ONE: King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman Catholic Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant religion in England. It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, however, was similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church. Not all Protestants liked this. Some wanted to leave the Anglican Church and form religious groups of their own. In Sixteen-Oh-Six, members of one such group in the town of Scrooby did separate from the Anglican Church. About one-hundred-twenty-five people left England for Holland. They found problems there too, so they decided to move again...to the new world. These people were called Pilgrims, because that is the name given to people who travel for religious purposes. VOICE TWO: About thirty-five Pilgrims were among the passengers on a ship called the Mayflower in Sixteen-Twenty. It left England to go to Virginia. But the Mayflower never reached Virginia. Instead, it landed to the north, on Cape Cod Bay. The group decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown. The Pilgrims and the others on the Mayflower saw a need for rules that would help them live together peacefully. They believed they were not under English control since they did not land in Virginia. So they wrote a plan of government, called the Mayflower Compact. It was the first such plan ever developed in the new world. They elected a man called William Bradford as the first governor of their Plymouth colony. We know about the first thirty years of the Plymouth colony because William Bradford described it in his book, Of Plymouth Plantation. As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth ied the first winter. The survivors were surprised to find an Indian who spoke English. His name was Squanto. He had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and had lived in England before returning to his people. The Pilgrims believed Squanto was sent to them from God. He made t possible for them to communicate with the native people. He showed them the best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them. He provided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive. The settlers invited the Indians to a feast in the month of November to celebrate their successes and to thank Squanto for his help. Americans remember that celebration every year when they observe the Thanksgiving holiday. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England. One large group was called the Puritans. Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans did not agree with the Anglican Church. But they did not want to separate from it. The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy. Their desire for this change made them unwelcome in England. The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in Sixteen-Thirty. By the end of that summer, one-thousand Puritans had landed in the northeastern part of the new country. The new English King, Charles, had given permission for them to settle the Massachusetts Bay area. VOICE TWO: The Puritans began leaving England in large groups. Between Sixteen-Thirty and Sixteen-Forty, twenty-thousand sailed for New England. They risked their lives on the dangerous trip. They wanted to live among people who believed as they did, people who honored the rules of the Bible. Puritans believed that the Bible was the word of God. The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people in the new world. They were America's native Indians. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Voice of America Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the first permanent English settlements in North America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World, although it was too weak to do this openly at first. But Queen Elizabeth of England supported such explorations as early as the Fifteen-Seventies. Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts. He did not establish any lasting settlement. He died as he was returning to England. Gilbert's half brother Sir Walter Raleigh continued his work. Raleigh sent a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America. He called the land Virginia to honor England's unmarried Queen Elizabeth. In Fifteen-Eighty-Five, about one-hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast of the present day state of North Carolina. These settlers returned to England a year later. Another group went to Roanoke the next year. This group included a number of women and children. But the supply ships Raleigh sent to the colony failed to arrive. When help got there in Fifteen-Ninety, none of the settlers could be found. History experts still are not sure what happened. Some research suggests that at least some of the settlers became part of the Indian tribe that lived in the area. VOICE TWO: One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack of the Spanish Navy against England in Fifteen-Eighty-Eight. King Phillip of Spain had decided to invade England. But the small English ships combined with a fierce storm defeated the huge Spanish fleet. As a result, Spain was no longer able to block English exploration. England discovered that supporting colonies so far away was extremely costly. So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do this. It was not until after her death in Sixteen-Oh-Three that England began serious efforts to start colonies in America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Sixteen-Oh-Six, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groups permission to establish colonies in Virginia,the area claimed by England. Companies were organized to carry out the move. The London Company sent one-hundred settlers to Virginia in Sixteen-Oh-Six. The group landed there in May, Sixteen-Oh-Seven and founded Jamestown. It was the first permanent English colony in the new world. The colony seemed about to fail from the start. The settlers did not plant their crops in time so they soon had no food. Their leaders lacked the farming and building skills needed to survive on the land. More than half the settlers died during the first winter. VOICE TWO: The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing about living in such a wild place. They wanted the settlers to search for gold, and explore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East. One settler knew this was wrong. His name was Captain John Smith. He helped the colonists build houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians. Still, the Jamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, lack of food and Indian attacks. The London Company sent six-thousand settlers to Virginia between Sixteen-Oh-Six and Sixteen-Twenty-Two. More than four--thousand died during that time. VOICE ONE: History experts say that all the settlers surely would have died without the help of the local Powhatan Indians. The Indians gave the settlers food. They taught them how to live in the forest. And the Powhatan Indians showed the settlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building. The settlers accepted the Indians' help. Then, however, the settlers took whatever else they wanted by force. In Sixteen-Twenty-Two, the local Indians attacked the settlers for interfering with Indian land. Three-hundred-forty settlers died. The colonists answered the attack by destroying the Indian tribes living along Virginia's coast. Slowly, the settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by Sixteen-Twenty-Four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop, tobacco. VOICE TWO: The other early English settlements in North America were much to the north of Virginia, in the present state of Massachusetts. The people who settled there left England for different reasons than those who settled in Jamestown. The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money for English businesses. The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religious freedom. VOICE ONE: King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman Catholic Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant religion in England. It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, however, was similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church. Not all Protestants liked this. Some wanted to leave the Anglican Church and form religious groups of their own. In Sixteen-Oh-Six, members of one such group in the town of Scrooby did separate from the Anglican Church. About one-hundred-twenty-five people left England for Holland. They found problems there too, so they decided to move again...to the new world. These people were called Pilgrims, because that is the name given to people who travel for religious purposes. VOICE TWO: About thirty-five Pilgrims were among the passengers on a ship called the Mayflower in Sixteen-Twenty. It left England to go to Virginia. But the Mayflower never reached Virginia. Instead, it landed to the north, on Cape Cod Bay. The group decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown. The Pilgrims and the others on the Mayflower saw a need for rules that would help them live together peacefully. They believed they were not under English control since they did not land in Virginia. So they wrote a plan of government, called the Mayflower Compact. It was the first such plan ever developed in the new world. They elected a man called William Bradford as the first governor of their Plymouth colony. We know about the first thirty years of the Plymouth colony because William Bradford described it in his book, Of Plymouth Plantation. As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth ied the first winter. The survivors were surprised to find an Indian who spoke English. His name was Squanto. He had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and had lived in England before returning to his people. The Pilgrims believed Squanto was sent to them from God. He made t possible for them to communicate with the native people. He showed them the best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them. He provided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive. The settlers invited the Indians to a feast in the month of November to celebrate their successes and to thank Squanto for his help. Americans remember that celebration every year when they observe the Thanksgiving holiday. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England. One large group was called the Puritans. Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans did not agree with the Anglican Church. But they did not want to separate from it. The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy. Their desire for this change made them unwelcome in England. The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in Sixteen-Thirty. By the end of that summer, one-thousand Puritans had landed in the northeastern part of the new country. The new English King, Charles, had given permission for them to settle the Massachusetts Bay area. VOICE TWO: The Puritans began leaving England in large groups. Between Sixteen-Thirty and Sixteen-Forty, twenty-thousand sailed for New England. They risked their lives on the dangerous trip. They wanted to live among people who believed as they did, people who honored the rules of the Bible. Puritans believed that the Bible was the word of God. The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people in the new world. They were America's native Indians. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Voice of America Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - March 20, 2003: Foreign Student Series #27 >Purdue University
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports for students around the world who want to attend a college or university in the United States. This week, we tell about a university known for its agricultural and engineering programs. The school is Purdue University. It is in the city of West Lafayette, Indiana, in the part of America known as the Midwest. Purdue began as an agricultural college more than two-hundred years ago. It was named for a local business leader, John Purdue. He gave the school one-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars to get started. Classes began at Purdue in eighteen-seventy-four. At that time, the college had six teachers and thirty-nine students. Purdue has grown a great deal since then. Today, the university offers more than five-hundred areas of study. It has many different colleges. In addition to agriculture and engineering, these include business, education, technology and veterinary medicine. Professors also do research and direct student progress in the university's graduate schools. This year, Purdue University has more than thirty-eight-thousand students at its main campus. More than five-thousand of these students are from outside the United States. They are from one-hundred-thirty countries in all. The largest number of students -- one-thousand-thirty -- are from India. Next is China, with more than seven-hundred students at Purdue. Other nations with more than one-hundred students at Purdue this year are South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia. Almost two-thirds of the foreign students are in graduate programs. Most are studying agriculture, engineering, science and business. Graduate students pay about the same as undergraduates to attend Purdue. The cost is about twenty-five-thousand dollars for one year. That includes classes, housing, food, books and travel costs. The university does not offer aid to international students before they arrive for classes. Students may get some loans after they begin their studies. You can get more information about Purdue University at its Web site. The address is purdue dot e-d-u. Purdue is spelled P-U-R-D-U-E. This was week number twenty-seven of our Foreign Student Series. You can find the other programs on our Web site: voaspecialenglish dot com. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 19, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists are investigating a mysterious kind of pneumonia. They call it Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. Most of the cases have been among health care workers in Hong Kong, Hanoi and Singapore. These workers were directly involved in the care of people infected with the disease. Family members of those infected have also gotten sick. Several people have died. Some people have been covering their nose and mouth with masks to try to avoid infection. But the World Health Organization -- the W-H-O -- says the disease does not spread easily. Experts say it requires close contact. They say the sickness may be passed in body fluids, including the fluid released when a person coughs or sneezes. The W-H-O declared SARS a worldwide health threat on Saturday. But, as of Wednesday, the United Nations agency said there is no need to restrict travel to any country. Still, health officials are concerned that people who travel on airplanes could spread Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome to more countries. Some airports in Asia and the Pacific have been testing passengers for signs of the disease. The main signs of the disease are a body temperature of more than thirty-eight degrees Celsius, a cough, and breathing difficulties. On Wednesday the W-H-O said officials were investigating reported cases in Canada, mainland China, Taiwan, Germany, Hong Kong and Singapore. There were also reports in Slovenia, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Kingdom. Some experts say they believe the sickness is a new form of influenza. It appears to resist traditional antibiotic medicines. The W-H-O has brought together laboratories in ten countries to identify the cause and develop a treatment. The agency reports that SARS was first recognized in Hanoi on February twenty-sixth. A hospital in the Vietnamese capital admitted an American businessman. It was not known where he had become infected. The man was later moved to a hospital in Hong Kong where he died. Health workers at both hospitals also became sick. One died. The W-H-O says Chinese officials have provided a report on more than three-hundred cases of what may be the same or a related disease. The pneumonia began in Guangdong province, in southern China, in November. It is now said to be under control. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 19, 2003: Lewis and Clark, Part 3
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith, with the VOA Special English program Explorations. Today we finish the story of Lewis and Clark and the land they explored in the American Northwest. We also tell about plans to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of their exploration. ((THEME) VOICE ONE: We have told how Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of men and one woman across the American Northwest. The group was known as the Corps of Discovery. They began their trip on May fourteenth, eighteen-oh-four, in Saint Louis, near the central part of the country. It was more than one year before they reached the Pacific coast near the Columbia River. They had traveled by river, horse and foot more than six-thousand-six-hundred kilometers. VOICE TWO: President Thomas Jefferson asked Lewis to lead an exploration of the northwestern part of the country. He wanted Lewis to learn as much about the land, people, animals and plants as he could. Jefferson asked that Lewis write about the progress of his group each day. Lewis and Clark kept very careful records. Often, Lewis would use more than one-thousand words to tell about an animal or a bird. Both men drew maps and pictures of what they saw. VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. The group suffered a lot during that winter. It was not very cold, but it was always wet. It rained almost every day during the winter months between eighteen-oh-five and eighteen-oh-six. Lewis wrote that everything got wet and stayed wet. Many of the men became sick. The men had little to do except hunt for food. They also made new clothing from animal skins for the return home. VOICE TWO: William Clark organized most of the hunting during the long winter months. At the same time, he worked on his second map. The map showed where the group had been since it left the area that now is the north central state of North Dakota. It showed their travels all the way from there to Fort Clatsop on the West Coast. Clark drew a correct picture of the American West for the first time. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis stayed inside Fort Clatsop and wrote, day after day, of the things they found. He wrote information about one-hundred different animals they had seen. Of these, eleven birds, two fish, and eleven mammals had not been recorded before. He also wrote about plants and trees. He had never seen many of these before. Neither had modern science known about them. He tried to make his reports scientific. Modern scientists say his information is still good. They say he was extremely careful and provided valuable information for the time. Experts say Lewis wrote more like a scientist of today than one of his own century. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE TWO: On March twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six, the explorers left Fort Clatsop and started back up the Columbia River. Progress was slow as the Corps of Discovery climbed higher toward the mountains. They traded with Indians for horses. In the month of May they stayed with a tribe called the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce said it would not be possible for the explorers to cross the mountains then. The snow was still too deep. Lewis did not agree. The group went forward. They found the Nez Perce were right. The snow was several meters deep. They were forced to stop and return down the mountain. The Nez Perce agreed to provide guides to take them through the mountains. The Corps of Discovery finally crossed the mountains in the last days of June. VOICE ONE: Lewis divided the Corps of Discovery when they left the mountains. He wanted three different groups to go three different ways to learn more about the land. Lewis and his group soon found Indians. They were members of the Piegan tribe, part of the Blackfeet, a war-like group. At first the Indians were friendly. Then, one tried to take a gun from one of the men. A fight began. Two Indians were killed. It was the only time during the trip that any fighting took place between native Americans and the Corps of Discovery. The fight forced Lewis's group to leave the area very quickly. VOICE TWO: The three groups met again in August of eighteen-oh-six. Traveling on the rivers was easier that in the beginning of their trip. The explorers now were going in the same direction as the current. They were in a hurry to get home. They had been away for two years and five months. Each minute they traveled brought them closer to their homes, their families and friends. On September third, they saw several men traveling on the river. They learned that President Jefferson had been re-elected and was still president of the United States. VOICE ONE: A few days later, one member of the group asked Lewis and Clark if he could remain behind. He wanted to go with a group of fur traders that was returning to the area of the Yellowstone River. His name was John Colter. Colter returned up the river and into the wild land. Later Colter became the first American to see the Yellowstone Valley, which became the first national park, Yellowstone. He also became famous as one of the first mountain men in American history to open the way to the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: The Corps of Discovery reached Saint Louis on September twenty-third, eighteen-oh-six. They had very little food or supplies left, but they were back. Large celebrations were held in the small town. Lewis and Clark learned that most people believed they were dead. Lewis immediately wrote a long report to President Jefferson and placed it in the mail. A few days later President Jefferson knew they had arrived home safely and their trip had been a great success. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE TWO: Experts today say the Lewis and Clark trip was one of the most important events in American history. They also agree that no two men could have done a better job or been more successful. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark added greatly to the knowledge of the American Northwest. Clark's maps provided information about huge areas that had been unknown. Lewis discovered and told about one-hundred-seventy-eight new plants, most of them from the far West. He also found one-hundred-twenty-two different kinds of animals that had been recorded. There was also one great failure, however. Lewis and Clark were not able to find a way to reach the Pacific Ocean using rivers. There was no northwest passage that could be used by boats. VOICE ONE: The Lewis and Clark expedition was also a political success. It helped the United States make a legal claim to a huge amount of land that had been bought by President Jefferson from France. The United States bought the land just as the Corps of Discovery began its trip. This land is now the middle part of the United States. It was called the Louisiana Territory. President Jefferson wanted the future United States to include this land, and all other land between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Now it is almost two-hundred years since the Corps of Discovery made its historic trip. The United States has many plans to celebrate. Some celebrations will continue until the year two-thousand six. Committees in the cities, towns and states that Lewis and Clark passed through are planning the anniversary celebrations. The National Park Service is also preparing special events. New books have been published, newspaper stories written and television programs produced about Lewis and Clark. And the public is once again discovering the writings of the two men who led the Corps of Discovery. Critics say the word pictures that Lewis created are as clear today as when they were written. VOICE ONE: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were the first educated white Americans to travel across the land that would become the United States. They wrote about things the American public had ever seen before. They saw Native Americans before the Indians were influenced by other cultures. Their success had a lasting influence. They showed Americans it was possible to travel across the country and settle in the far West. Lewis and Clark's exploration was the beginning of the American campaign to settle that far away, wild land. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another Explorations program, in Special English, here on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 25, 2003: Helen Keller Quarter / Crime Scene Investigations / Frank Sinatra Music
* Byline: 

  Photo: United States Mint (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we play some songs sung by Frank Sinatra...tell about scientific crime scene investigations...and report about a new American coin. Helen Keller Quarter HOST: The United States government agency that produces the nation’s money has organized a program to honor each of the fifty states in the country. The United States Mint is producing a special twenty-five coin for each state. And each state can choose what or whom to show on its coin. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The United States Mint Fifty State Quarters Program began in January nineteen-ninety-nine as a ten-year project. A state design is shown on one side of each quarter. The other side continues to show the picture of the first American president, George Washington. A recent quarter produced in this program honors the southern state of Alabama. Alabama’s state quarter was the twenty-second quarter produced because Alabama became the twenty-second state in eighteen-nineteen. The Alabama quarter honors writer and activist Helen Keller who was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama in eighteen-eighty. Helen lost her sight and hearing as a result of a serious disease when she was nineteen months old. The teacher Anne Sullivan helped Helen Keller learn to talk using her fingers. She also taught her to read and write. Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in nineteen-oh-four. She traveled to thirty-nine countries and wrote letters to five American presidents to improve the lives of blind and deaf people. She published many articles and books before her death in nineteen-sixty-eight. She became famous in part because of the stage plays and movies made about her life. The coin honoring her is the first one produced in the United States that includes words written in the language of the blind called Braille. Under the picture of Helen Keller on the coin is the saying “Spirit of Courage.” Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman said Helen Keller lived a life of courage that continues to help people all over the world. To learn more about the life of Helen Keller, listen to the Special English program “People In America” on Sunday. Real Life C.S.I HOST: Two of the most popular television programs in the United States right now are called “C.S.I.” and “C.S.I: Miami.” The letters represent the words “Crime Scene Investigation.” Every week, the investigators on the shows solve one or two murders using scientific methods to gather and study evidence. Such investigators are important in solving crimes like murder in real life, too. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Crime scene investigators examine the area where a murder has taken place. They remove blood, hairs, the murder weapon or any things that the killer has left behind. They examine them in a laboratory using high-tech machines and medical tests. The police use this information to discover who committed the crime. Sometimes, however, poor work by the C.S.I team makes it difficult to prove that a person committed the crime. Forensic scientist Henry Lee became famous in nineteen-ninety-five when he spoke at the trial of O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles, California. Mister Simpson was found innocent of killing his former wife Nicole and a male friend. Mister Lee says the murders could have been solved right away if the investigators had not washed Nicole Simpson’s body. He says that genetic studies should have been done on the blood found on her body and the bloody fingerprint on her arm. Henry Lee says the training for crime scene investigators is still very local and differs from place to place. He and other experts believe that C.S.I. teams need more education about how to deal with a crime scene scientifically. They also need to know how to use the newest scientific tests and devices. That is the kind of training offered at the new National Crime Scene Training Center at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Officials say the program is designed to give crime laboratory workers the skills needed to gather evidence and scientifically examine it correctly. They say it is important for everyone involved in a real life investigation to do their jobs correctly so that no mistakes will be made. Frank Sinatra HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Aboh Ekoja asks about American singer Frank Sinatra. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in the eastern city of Hoboken, New Jersey in nineteen-fifteen. He began singing professionally in the nineteen-thirties. He sang with the top dance bands of the time, including the band led by Tommy Dorsey. In nineteen-forty, they recorded the song “I’ll Never Smile Again”. It was the first number one single ever listed by Billboard Magazine. (MUSIC) Frank Sinatra won many awards for his singing, including Grammy Awards. But he was not just a singer. He had his own television show, and he acted in more than fifty movies. In nineteen-fifty-three, he won an Academy Award for his serious acting part in the movie “From Here to Eternity.” He also sang in many movies, such as “Pal Joey” and “Guys and Dolls.” Recently, one of his recordings was used in the movie “What Women Want.” It was “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” (MUSIC) Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack in nineteen-ninety-eight. He will always be remembered as one of the world’s greatest singers. We leave you now with one of his most famous songs, “It Was a Very Good Year.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Ricardo Barnez. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we play some songs sung by Frank Sinatra...tell about scientific crime scene investigations...and report about a new American coin. Helen Keller Quarter HOST: The United States government agency that produces the nation’s money has organized a program to honor each of the fifty states in the country. The United States Mint is producing a special twenty-five coin for each state. And each state can choose what or whom to show on its coin. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The United States Mint Fifty State Quarters Program began in January nineteen-ninety-nine as a ten-year project. A state design is shown on one side of each quarter. The other side continues to show the picture of the first American president, George Washington. A recent quarter produced in this program honors the southern state of Alabama. Alabama’s state quarter was the twenty-second quarter produced because Alabama became the twenty-second state in eighteen-nineteen. The Alabama quarter honors writer and activist Helen Keller who was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama in eighteen-eighty. Helen lost her sight and hearing as a result of a serious disease when she was nineteen months old. The teacher Anne Sullivan helped Helen Keller learn to talk using her fingers. She also taught her to read and write. Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in nineteen-oh-four. She traveled to thirty-nine countries and wrote letters to five American presidents to improve the lives of blind and deaf people. She published many articles and books before her death in nineteen-sixty-eight. She became famous in part because of the stage plays and movies made about her life. The coin honoring her is the first one produced in the United States that includes words written in the language of the blind called Braille. Under the picture of Helen Keller on the coin is the saying “Spirit of Courage.” Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman said Helen Keller lived a life of courage that continues to help people all over the world. To learn more about the life of Helen Keller, listen to the Special English program “People In America” on Sunday. Real Life C.S.I HOST: Two of the most popular television programs in the United States right now are called “C.S.I.” and “C.S.I: Miami.” The letters represent the words “Crime Scene Investigation.” Every week, the investigators on the shows solve one or two murders using scientific methods to gather and study evidence. Such investigators are important in solving crimes like murder in real life, too. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Crime scene investigators examine the area where a murder has taken place. They remove blood, hairs, the murder weapon or any things that the killer has left behind. They examine them in a laboratory using high-tech machines and medical tests. The police use this information to discover who committed the crime. Sometimes, however, poor work by the C.S.I team makes it difficult to prove that a person committed the crime. Forensic scientist Henry Lee became famous in nineteen-ninety-five when he spoke at the trial of O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles, California. Mister Simpson was found innocent of killing his former wife Nicole and a male friend. Mister Lee says the murders could have been solved right away if the investigators had not washed Nicole Simpson’s body. He says that genetic studies should have been done on the blood found on her body and the bloody fingerprint on her arm. Henry Lee says the training for crime scene investigators is still very local and differs from place to place. He and other experts believe that C.S.I. teams need more education about how to deal with a crime scene scientifically. They also need to know how to use the newest scientific tests and devices. That is the kind of training offered at the new National Crime Scene Training Center at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Officials say the program is designed to give crime laboratory workers the skills needed to gather evidence and scientifically examine it correctly. They say it is important for everyone involved in a real life investigation to do their jobs correctly so that no mistakes will be made. Frank Sinatra HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Aboh Ekoja asks about American singer Frank Sinatra. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in the eastern city of Hoboken, New Jersey in nineteen-fifteen. He began singing professionally in the nineteen-thirties. He sang with the top dance bands of the time, including the band led by Tommy Dorsey. In nineteen-forty, they recorded the song “I’ll Never Smile Again”. It was the first number one single ever listed by Billboard Magazine. (MUSIC) Frank Sinatra won many awards for his singing, including Grammy Awards. But he was not just a singer. He had his own television show, and he acted in more than fifty movies. In nineteen-fifty-three, he won an Academy Award for his serious acting part in the movie “From Here to Eternity.” He also sang in many movies, such as “Pal Joey” and “Guys and Dolls.” Recently, one of his recordings was used in the movie “What Women Want.” It was “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” (MUSIC) Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack in nineteen-ninety-eight. He will always be remembered as one of the world’s greatest singers. We leave you now with one of his most famous songs, “It Was a Very Good Year.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Ricardo Barnez. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: March 19, 2003 - Slangman: Stress-Related Terms
* Byline: 

 (Recorded March 19, earlier in the day of the outbreak of war in Iraq, for "Coast to Coast") AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we offer a few minutes of relief with a look at some stress-related slang. RS: We got on the phone to Los Angeles to our friend David Burke, better known to our listeners as Slangman. He read us a letter from his 80-year-old mother. An imaginary letter, that is -- although he really does have an 80-year-old mother. AA: Anyway, it seems that Slangmom was feeling "stressed out," but not by the current tensions in the world. SLANGMAN: "'Stressed out' is slang for tense and nervous. We also just say 'stressed.' And by the way, do you know what stressed spelled backwards is? RS: "What's that." SLANGMAN: "Stressed spells desserts." RS: "That's a positive note." SLANGMAN: "Which is something that certainly does not make me stressed out at all. Anyway, here is the letter I received from my mother. She says, 'This weekend I went on a date with a man your Aunt Ruth introduced me to. Well, I was on pins and needles waiting for him to arrive.' 'Pins and needles' means excited and nervous, you get a feeling that you're apprehensive, which just means very nervous. 'After an hour of waiting and waiting, I was flipping out.' It simply means to get very upset, you 'flip out.' "So, 'I was flipping out because you know that nothing gets my goat more than when someone is late.' To 'get someone's goat' -- the kind of visual that must create in someone's head has nothing to do with what it means, which is to get angry. So, 'nothing gets my goat more than when someone is late. Well, I opened the door, and he could tell I was on the edge' -- that's getting very close to being angry -- 'and he said "what's eating you?"'" RS: "What's the matter with you." SLANGMAN: "Right. It's like a mosquito eating at you, it's very annoying. So, what's making you so annoyed and upset? So I told him it rubs me the wrong way when people are late.' Well, to 'rub someone the wrong way' simply means to annoy them, to make them angry. 'I know I'm just being touchy' -- if you're touchy, you're overly sensitive -- 'I know I'm being touchy, but it really pushes my buttons.' That simply means make me angry like it always does; it's something that I always react negatively to. It 'pushes my buttons.' 'The worst of it was he seemed like such a creep and he was wearing orange socks.' RS: "Oh my goodness." SLANGMAN: "'I'm serious, and I'm not yanking your chain.' To yank someone's chain means to tease someone, to joke with someone." AA: "Doesn't it also mean to sort of incite. 'Quit yanking my chain.' Well, it's like yanking the chain on a dog, I suppose, it just makes him angry." SLANGMAN: "Exactly. When you 'yank someone's chain,' it can either be jokingly -- for example, 'Oh, Avi, stop yanking my chain' or if I say to you 'Avi, stop yanking my chain!' it depends on the delivery. That means 'hey, really, stop it, you're really annoying me.' 'So, I thought I should get a grip.' Well, getting a grip simply means to become controlled, to get control of your emotions, become calm, 'get a grip.' 'So we went to a little restaurant around the corner but I kept looking over my shoulder.' And that's what you do when you're nervous about getting noticed by someone, either you may know or even someone you don't know that could cause you harm, either physically or even emotionally by making fun of you.' "So in this case, my mother is saying 'I kept looking over my shoulder hoping that no one would see me with him. Well, by the end of dinner, I thought I was going to lose it.' What does 'it' represent? Control of your emotions or your temper. 'Because he never stopped talking. He was freaking me out.' It means to make somebody very, very upset. 'So I finally said to him, "Will you please, please take a chill pill."'" RS: "Calm down." SLANGMAN: "Calm down. So, 'unfortunately the man drove me up the wall from the very beginning." RS: "Not literally." SLANGMAN: "That's another thing I love about these expressions and these idioms, when you take them literally, I mean they're so strange -- 'what's eating you,' 'it rubs me the wrong way,' 'pushes my buttons,' well, another one: 'the man drove me up the wall.' Then my mother continues and says, 'Listen, I have to run. I'm going to your Aunt Ruth's house to walk up one side of her and down the other.' Have you guys heard that one before?" AA: "No." RS: "I can imagine what it means." SLANGMAN: "I love this expression. When you say to someone 'I'm going to walk up one side of her and down the other,' that means you are really angry and you are going to do some serious reprimanding. And then, of course, my mother ends it with, 'Kiss, kiss, hug hug, none other than, Slangmom." AA: ... also known as Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. You can learn about Slangman's English teaching materials at his Web site, slangman.com. RS: We're at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Studies: Aspirin May Lower Colon Cancer Risk / 50-Year-Old Mystery Over Picture of the Moon
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 25, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: March 25, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program Science in the News. VOICE TWO: This week, we tell about findings that aspirin may lower the risk of colon cancer. And we report on a fifty-year-old mystery involving a picture of the moon. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Researchers have shown that aspirin can reduce the threat that a person will develop growths in the intestines. These growths, called polyps, can lead to cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published two studies of people at risk for colorectal cancers. The colon is also known as the large intestine. The colon extends to the rectum, the last part of the digestive tube. Most polyps in these areas never become cancerous. But most cancers in these areas begin as polyps. Doctors cannot tell which ones are dangerous. So they urge people to have polyps removed. One of the new studies is based on examinations of five-hundred patients who had colorectal cancer in the past. For the study, half took a regular, three-hundred-twenty-five-milligram aspirin each day. The other half took an inactive substance, a placebo, but did not know it was inactive. VOICE TWO: After a year, seventeen percent of the people who took the aspirin had developed new polyps. This compared to twenty-seven percent of those in the placebo group. The study ended early because the results seemed so clear. Robert Sandler of the University of North Carolina led this study. John Baron of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in the city of Lebanon, New Hampshire, led the other one. That study involved more than one-thousand people with a history of polyps but not cancer. After three years, thirty-eight percent of those who took a low-strength aspirin had developed polyps. This compared to forty-seven percent of those who took a placebo. For some reason, the eighty-one-milligram low-strength aspirin did better than regular aspirin. Forty-five percent of those who took the higher strength aspirin had polyps. Both kinds, though, reduced the threat of large polyps. VOICE ONE: Doctors are not sure of all the ways that aspirin works. But they do know it lowers the production of prostaglandin. Growths and cancers contain high levels of this natural substance. Many people already take one low-strength or regular aspirin daily to reduce their risk of heart attack. Experts praised the studies but urged people not to depend on aspirin to prevent colorectal cancer. They say people should be tested, especially those older than fifty and those with the disease in their family. Most cancers of this kind can be cured if found early. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Research seems to continually find possible new uses for aspirin. Aspirin is one of the world's oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs. It is a common treatment for headaches, colds and flu. It also reduces other kinds of pain, such as pain in bone joints caused by arthritis. In addition, aspirin prevents tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. They can cause heart attacks or strokes. A drug like aspirin is said to have been used in ancient Greece. More than two-thousand-four-hundred years ago, Hippocrates told his patients to ease pain by chewing the outer part of the willow tree. This bark contains the chemical salicylic acid. VOICE ONE: In the seventeen-hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce a sick person's high body temperature. In eighteen-sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied the salicylic acid found in willow bark. They created acetyl salicylic acid. They called it aspirin, for the spirea plant which also contains the natural chemical. Aspirin first was made into its present pill form a century ago. In nineteen-eighty-two, British scientist Sir John Vane shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for his discoveries about aspirin. He found that aspirin blocks the body from making prostaglandins. Some cause pain and swelling in damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the kidneys, heart and blood vessels work well. The problem with aspirin is that it works against all prostaglandins -- good and bad. So, while aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues, it also can harm the lining of the stomach and small intestine. VOICE TWO: Doctors do not believe aspirin is safe for everyone. They do not believe pregnant women should take the drug. And, they say children should not take aspirin. Children who take aspirin for a sickness like flu or chicken pox may develop a serious disease called Reye's syndrome. Even with its problems, aspirin is still considered one of the most valuable drugs ever discovered. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This is Phoebe Zimmermann with Bob Doughty in Washington. Some mysteries in science take on a life of their own. Recently, there was news that a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California solved a fifty-year-old mystery. It involved an event that happened on November fifteenth, nineteen-fifty-three. A man named Leon Stuart of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was taking pictures of the moon. Mister Stuart was not a professional astronomer. He was a medical doctor. But he loved to examine the sky. Early that morning he had a camera attached to a telescope. Suddenly, he saw a bright light on the moon. He estimated that he saw it for eight seconds or more. He took a picture. VOICE TWO: Leon Stuart reported what he saw to the publication The Strolling Astronomer. He was sure he had captured a fireball as a piece of space rock struck the moon with great energy. Experts were not so sure. Some dismissed the picture. No one could find evidence on the surface of the moon. Time passed, and so did Mister Stuart. He has been dead more than thirty years. He never found out what it was that he had captured on film. Astronomers named it "Stuart's Event." VOICE ONE: Bonnie Buratti is a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Several years ago, she learned about the event observed by Leon Stuart in nineteen-fifty-three. She became interested. So Mizz Buratti and an assistant, Lane Johnson, studied pictures of the moon taken since then. These included pictures from the NASA spaceship Clementine which photographed the moon in nineteen-ninety-four. The two also studied the picture taken by Mister Stuart. They estimated that an object about twenty-meters across had hit the moon. They estimated it would leave a crater hole in the surface between one and two kilometers across. VOICE TWO: Bonnie Buratti and Lane Johnson have just had their findings published in the space science magazine Icarus. They offered evidence that Leon Stuart had taken the first and only picture of an object striking the moon. They said they found a fresh crater exactly where Mister Stuart had photographed the bright light. In recent weeks many publications, including the New York Times, reported the findings. Mizz Buratti called the crater "a very good candidate." Soon, however, some experts began to question that. John Westfall is the science editor for the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers. He is also a geography professor at San Francisco State University. Mister Westfall examined pictures taken of the moon on five different dates. Two of the pictures were taken before nineteen-fifty-three. VOICE ONE: John Westfall discovered that the crater in the study had existed before nineteen-fifty-three. In other words, what Leon Stuart saw could not have caused it. Mister Westfall also told VOA that the crater is not in the place where Leon Stuart had seen the light. Sky and Telescope magazine confirmed the findings by Mister Westfall. Bonnie Buratti now agrees that what she found is not connected to "Stuart's Event." But what is more important, she told Sky and Telescope, is to find that out. Science does solve mysteries. But there are times when further scientific work finds that explanations are just not correct. This leaves some mysteries for future scientists to solve. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Jerilyn Watson and Mario Ritter, who also produced our program. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program Science in the News. VOICE TWO: This week, we tell about findings that aspirin may lower the risk of colon cancer. And we report on a fifty-year-old mystery involving a picture of the moon. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Researchers have shown that aspirin can reduce the threat that a person will develop growths in the intestines. These growths, called polyps, can lead to cancer. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published two studies of people at risk for colorectal cancers. The colon is also known as the large intestine. The colon extends to the rectum, the last part of the digestive tube. Most polyps in these areas never become cancerous. But most cancers in these areas begin as polyps. Doctors cannot tell which ones are dangerous. So they urge people to have polyps removed. One of the new studies is based on examinations of five-hundred patients who had colorectal cancer in the past. For the study, half took a regular, three-hundred-twenty-five-milligram aspirin each day. The other half took an inactive substance, a placebo, but did not know it was inactive. VOICE TWO: After a year, seventeen percent of the people who took the aspirin had developed new polyps. This compared to twenty-seven percent of those in the placebo group. The study ended early because the results seemed so clear. Robert Sandler of the University of North Carolina led this study. John Baron of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in the city of Lebanon, New Hampshire, led the other one. That study involved more than one-thousand people with a history of polyps but not cancer. After three years, thirty-eight percent of those who took a low-strength aspirin had developed polyps. This compared to forty-seven percent of those who took a placebo. For some reason, the eighty-one-milligram low-strength aspirin did better than regular aspirin. Forty-five percent of those who took the higher strength aspirin had polyps. Both kinds, though, reduced the threat of large polyps. VOICE ONE: Doctors are not sure of all the ways that aspirin works. But they do know it lowers the production of prostaglandin. Growths and cancers contain high levels of this natural substance. Many people already take one low-strength or regular aspirin daily to reduce their risk of heart attack. Experts praised the studies but urged people not to depend on aspirin to prevent colorectal cancer. They say people should be tested, especially those older than fifty and those with the disease in their family. Most cancers of this kind can be cured if found early. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Research seems to continually find possible new uses for aspirin. Aspirin is one of the world's oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs. It is a common treatment for headaches, colds and flu. It also reduces other kinds of pain, such as pain in bone joints caused by arthritis. In addition, aspirin prevents tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. They can cause heart attacks or strokes. A drug like aspirin is said to have been used in ancient Greece. More than two-thousand-four-hundred years ago, Hippocrates told his patients to ease pain by chewing the outer part of the willow tree. This bark contains the chemical salicylic acid. VOICE ONE: In the seventeen-hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce a sick person's high body temperature. In eighteen-sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied the salicylic acid found in willow bark. They created acetyl salicylic acid. They called it aspirin, for the spirea plant which also contains the natural chemical. Aspirin first was made into its present pill form a century ago. In nineteen-eighty-two, British scientist Sir John Vane shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for his discoveries about aspirin. He found that aspirin blocks the body from making prostaglandins. Some cause pain and swelling in damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the kidneys, heart and blood vessels work well. The problem with aspirin is that it works against all prostaglandins -- good and bad. So, while aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues, it also can harm the lining of the stomach and small intestine. VOICE TWO: Doctors do not believe aspirin is safe for everyone. They do not believe pregnant women should take the drug. And, they say children should not take aspirin. Children who take aspirin for a sickness like flu or chicken pox may develop a serious disease called Reye's syndrome. Even with its problems, aspirin is still considered one of the most valuable drugs ever discovered. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This is Phoebe Zimmermann with Bob Doughty in Washington. Some mysteries in science take on a life of their own. Recently, there was news that a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California solved a fifty-year-old mystery. It involved an event that happened on November fifteenth, nineteen-fifty-three. A man named Leon Stuart of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was taking pictures of the moon. Mister Stuart was not a professional astronomer. He was a medical doctor. But he loved to examine the sky. Early that morning he had a camera attached to a telescope. Suddenly, he saw a bright light on the moon. He estimated that he saw it for eight seconds or more. He took a picture. VOICE TWO: Leon Stuart reported what he saw to the publication The Strolling Astronomer. He was sure he had captured a fireball as a piece of space rock struck the moon with great energy. Experts were not so sure. Some dismissed the picture. No one could find evidence on the surface of the moon. Time passed, and so did Mister Stuart. He has been dead more than thirty years. He never found out what it was that he had captured on film. Astronomers named it "Stuart's Event." VOICE ONE: Bonnie Buratti is a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Several years ago, she learned about the event observed by Leon Stuart in nineteen-fifty-three. She became interested. So Mizz Buratti and an assistant, Lane Johnson, studied pictures of the moon taken since then. These included pictures from the NASA spaceship Clementine which photographed the moon in nineteen-ninety-four. The two also studied the picture taken by Mister Stuart. They estimated that an object about twenty-meters across had hit the moon. They estimated it would leave a crater hole in the surface between one and two kilometers across. VOICE TWO: Bonnie Buratti and Lane Johnson have just had their findings published in the space science magazine Icarus. They offered evidence that Leon Stuart had taken the first and only picture of an object striking the moon. They said they found a fresh crater exactly where Mister Stuart had photographed the bright light. In recent weeks many publications, including the New York Times, reported the findings. Mizz Buratti called the crater "a very good candidate." Soon, however, some experts began to question that. John Westfall is the science editor for the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers. He is also a geography professor at San Francisco State University. Mister Westfall examined pictures taken of the moon on five different dates. Two of the pictures were taken before nineteen-fifty-three. VOICE ONE: John Westfall discovered that the crater in the study had existed before nineteen-fifty-three. In other words, what Leon Stuart saw could not have caused it. Mister Westfall also told VOA that the crater is not in the place where Leon Stuart had seen the light. Sky and Telescope magazine confirmed the findings by Mister Westfall. Bonnie Buratti now agrees that what she found is not connected to "Stuart's Event." But what is more important, she told Sky and Telescope, is to find that out. Science does solve mysteries. But there are times when further scientific work finds that explanations are just not correct. This leaves some mysteries for future scientists to solve. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Jerilyn Watson and Mario Ritter, who also produced our program. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – National Zoo / Wild-Animal Care in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 24, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: March 24, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE One of America’s best-known animal parks is the National Zoo in Washington, D-C. But recent animal deaths there have caused Congress to order an investigation. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Zoos in the United States is our subject this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Like millions of American women, Marie Galloway goes to work each morning. Mizz Galloway works in the nation's capital. Her job is to care for elephants. She manages the four Asian elephants at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park -- the National Zoo. As she works, Marie Galloway shows no fear. Her huge responsibilities increased in two-thousand-one. Kandula [KAHN-du-lah] weighed almost one-hundred-fifty kilograms at birth. During his first year, the elephant keepers taught him twenty commands. VOICE TWO: Big crowds stand in line to see Kandula and his mother, Shanthi. Unlike many other zoos, the National Zoo does not ask people to pay. Most of its money is from the federal government. Friends of the zoo also give. About three-thousand animals live on sixty-six hectares of land. They represent more than four-hundred species. Congress created the zoo in eighteen-eighty-nine. VOICE ONE: Each year about three-million people visit the National Zoo in Washington. But zoo administrators are currently facing criticism. Recently, some animals have died. These included a pygmy hippopotamus, a Massai giraffe, two zebras and two red pandas. Red pandas are a distant relative of the giant panda, and are also threatened with disappearing from the Earth. Congress ordered an independent investigation of the deaths. Also, the Department of Agriculture will now make unannounced visits. Zoos normally get inspected each year. But department officials reportedly believed that the document that established the National Zoo did not require that many visits. Lucy Spelman says she welcomes surprise visits by experts. Doctor Spelman heads the National Zoo. She became director in two-thousand, at the age of thirty-seven. She rose to head veterinarian the year before her appointment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which also operates a system of museums. Lawrence Small is head of the Smithsonian. He blames a large population of older animals at the National Zoo for some of the deaths. Mister Small also blames mistakes by workers. For example, the red pandas ate poison that workers put out to kill rats. Mistakes may have also played a part in the deaths of other rare animals during the past three years. These deaths took place at the zoo and its research center in Virginia. They included three Eld’s deer. These rare animals died after two separate attacks by dogs. Wayne Pacelle is an official of the Humane Society of the United States. He says the National Zoo needs more supervision. He expressed satisfaction that the zoo will be under closer watch. VOICE ONE: The National Zoo is a member of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. More than two-hundred-eight zoos, wildlife parks and other centers belong to this association. The group carries out inspections every five years. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association last inspected the National Zoo in January. Association officials set a meeting for later this week to consider the results. VOICE TWO: Changes have already started at the National Zoo. Director Lucy Spelman now must approve all chemicals used. Animal doctors will supervise the control of rats. And officials have created the new position of general curator to supervise daily operations at the zoo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors a month gather to see the two Chinese giant pandas at the National Zoo. Tian Tian [tee-YEN tee-YEN] is the male and Mei Xiang [may SHONG] is the female. These big, furry black-and-white creatures roll around in the grass. They play. They climb trees. They eat bamboo. All the while they seem to study their visitors as carefully as the visitors study them. China has loaned the pandas to the National Zoo for ten years. They arrived in two-thousand to replace others that had died. The hope is that they will reproduce. A baby would be an important addition. Giant pandas come from the mountains of central China. Only about one-thousand currently survive in the wild. China has about one-hundred-twenty others in panda-reproduction centers. An estimated twenty more live in zoos outside China. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: America’s first zoo opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in eighteen-fifty-nine. Today about fifty-million people visit zoos in this country each year. “Let’s go to the zoo!” is an expression many parents of young children know all too well. What visitors find when they arrive has changed over the years. At one time, zoo animals lived in small, box-like cages. There was nothing except the animal, its food and its waste. The Bronx Zoo in New York City led the way to better conditions. It designed exhibits to provide more freedom for its animals. The idea to create settings more like nature has spread to other zoos in America. For example, some -- like the Saint Louis Zoo in Missouri -- permit birds to fly freely, although inside buildings. VOICE ONE: Out West, one of the leading American zoos is the one in San Diego, in Southern California. Three giant pandas live there, including Hua Mei [hwa may] -- one of the few born at a zoo in the United States. The San Diego Zoo is also known for its koalas. These brown, furry animals from Australia are much smaller than the pandas but also highly popular. Yet, back home, some Australian states fear that koalas may die out. Several years ago, the San Diego Zoo started a program to protect endangered animals and their natural areas. Other parks and wildlife groups are also involved in this project. VOICE TWO: The San Diego Zoological Society operates the zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. More than two-thousand animals share about seven-hundred-thirty hectares of land at the Wild Animal Park. Experts have praised the park as a center for protection of rare animals. For example, the Wild Animal Park has helped save the California condor. With its wings spread, this huge bird measures three meters across. In nineteen-eighty-seven, researchers captured the last known California condors in the wild. They took the birds to the Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Today, more than one-hundred-fifty California condors are alive. Some have been freed in unpopulated areas of northern and southern California and the state of Arizona. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, a visitor to California saw a condor. Someone told the man how experts had rescued the birds from dying out. "It is a good thing we have zoos," the man answered. But not everyone would agree. Some people believe it is wrong to keep animals in zoos. They say most of the animals in zoos are not endangered. So they question the need for programs to breed these animals in captivity. For one thing, critics say some animals can die early in zoos. VOICE TWO: One group with criticism is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. It says zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals in lonely conditions, far from their natural homes. PETA notes that zoos differ in quality. It says animals often have little chance for excitement or exercise. Animals may bite at the bars of a cage, or walk back and forth for long periods of time. PETA says animals in zoos are sometimes beaten or mistreated in other ways. Such groups argue that zoos seek animals that are "crowd pleasers" because entertainment is what visitors want most. VOICE ONE: The recent deaths at the National Zoo in Washington may add to the criticism. But zookeepers in America say they do a lot more these days than simply put animals on show. Many visitors are likely to agree, especially those old enough to remember what zoos used to be like. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE One of America’s best-known animal parks is the National Zoo in Washington, D-C. But recent animal deaths there have caused Congress to order an investigation. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Zoos in the United States is our subject this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Like millions of American women, Marie Galloway goes to work each morning. Mizz Galloway works in the nation's capital. Her job is to care for elephants. She manages the four Asian elephants at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park -- the National Zoo. As she works, Marie Galloway shows no fear. Her huge responsibilities increased in two-thousand-one. Kandula [KAHN-du-lah] weighed almost one-hundred-fifty kilograms at birth. During his first year, the elephant keepers taught him twenty commands. VOICE TWO: Big crowds stand in line to see Kandula and his mother, Shanthi. Unlike many other zoos, the National Zoo does not ask people to pay. Most of its money is from the federal government. Friends of the zoo also give. About three-thousand animals live on sixty-six hectares of land. They represent more than four-hundred species. Congress created the zoo in eighteen-eighty-nine. VOICE ONE: Each year about three-million people visit the National Zoo in Washington. But zoo administrators are currently facing criticism. Recently, some animals have died. These included a pygmy hippopotamus, a Massai giraffe, two zebras and two red pandas. Red pandas are a distant relative of the giant panda, and are also threatened with disappearing from the Earth. Congress ordered an independent investigation of the deaths. Also, the Department of Agriculture will now make unannounced visits. Zoos normally get inspected each year. But department officials reportedly believed that the document that established the National Zoo did not require that many visits. Lucy Spelman says she welcomes surprise visits by experts. Doctor Spelman heads the National Zoo. She became director in two-thousand, at the age of thirty-seven. She rose to head veterinarian the year before her appointment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which also operates a system of museums. Lawrence Small is head of the Smithsonian. He blames a large population of older animals at the National Zoo for some of the deaths. Mister Small also blames mistakes by workers. For example, the red pandas ate poison that workers put out to kill rats. Mistakes may have also played a part in the deaths of other rare animals during the past three years. These deaths took place at the zoo and its research center in Virginia. They included three Eld’s deer. These rare animals died after two separate attacks by dogs. Wayne Pacelle is an official of the Humane Society of the United States. He says the National Zoo needs more supervision. He expressed satisfaction that the zoo will be under closer watch. VOICE ONE: The National Zoo is a member of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. More than two-hundred-eight zoos, wildlife parks and other centers belong to this association. The group carries out inspections every five years. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association last inspected the National Zoo in January. Association officials set a meeting for later this week to consider the results. VOICE TWO: Changes have already started at the National Zoo. Director Lucy Spelman now must approve all chemicals used. Animal doctors will supervise the control of rats. And officials have created the new position of general curator to supervise daily operations at the zoo. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors a month gather to see the two Chinese giant pandas at the National Zoo. Tian Tian [tee-YEN tee-YEN] is the male and Mei Xiang [may SHONG] is the female. These big, furry black-and-white creatures roll around in the grass. They play. They climb trees. They eat bamboo. All the while they seem to study their visitors as carefully as the visitors study them. China has loaned the pandas to the National Zoo for ten years. They arrived in two-thousand to replace others that had died. The hope is that they will reproduce. A baby would be an important addition. Giant pandas come from the mountains of central China. Only about one-thousand currently survive in the wild. China has about one-hundred-twenty others in panda-reproduction centers. An estimated twenty more live in zoos outside China. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: America’s first zoo opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in eighteen-fifty-nine. Today about fifty-million people visit zoos in this country each year. “Let’s go to the zoo!” is an expression many parents of young children know all too well. What visitors find when they arrive has changed over the years. At one time, zoo animals lived in small, box-like cages. There was nothing except the animal, its food and its waste. The Bronx Zoo in New York City led the way to better conditions. It designed exhibits to provide more freedom for its animals. The idea to create settings more like nature has spread to other zoos in America. For example, some -- like the Saint Louis Zoo in Missouri -- permit birds to fly freely, although inside buildings. VOICE ONE: Out West, one of the leading American zoos is the one in San Diego, in Southern California. Three giant pandas live there, including Hua Mei [hwa may] -- one of the few born at a zoo in the United States. The San Diego Zoo is also known for its koalas. These brown, furry animals from Australia are much smaller than the pandas but also highly popular. Yet, back home, some Australian states fear that koalas may die out. Several years ago, the San Diego Zoo started a program to protect endangered animals and their natural areas. Other parks and wildlife groups are also involved in this project. VOICE TWO: The San Diego Zoological Society operates the zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. More than two-thousand animals share about seven-hundred-thirty hectares of land at the Wild Animal Park. Experts have praised the park as a center for protection of rare animals. For example, the Wild Animal Park has helped save the California condor. With its wings spread, this huge bird measures three meters across. In nineteen-eighty-seven, researchers captured the last known California condors in the wild. They took the birds to the Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Today, more than one-hundred-fifty California condors are alive. Some have been freed in unpopulated areas of northern and southern California and the state of Arizona. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, a visitor to California saw a condor. Someone told the man how experts had rescued the birds from dying out. "It is a good thing we have zoos," the man answered. But not everyone would agree. Some people believe it is wrong to keep animals in zoos. They say most of the animals in zoos are not endangered. So they question the need for programs to breed these animals in captivity. For one thing, critics say some animals can die early in zoos. VOICE TWO: One group with criticism is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. It says zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals in lonely conditions, far from their natural homes. PETA notes that zoos differ in quality. It says animals often have little chance for excitement or exercise. Animals may bite at the bars of a cage, or walk back and forth for long periods of time. PETA says animals in zoos are sometimes beaten or mistreated in other ways. Such groups argue that zoos seek animals that are "crowd pleasers" because entertainment is what visitors want most. VOICE ONE: The recent deaths at the National Zoo in Washington may add to the criticism. But zookeepers in America say they do a lot more these days than simply put animals on show. Many visitors are likely to agree, especially those old enough to remember what zoos used to be like. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – March 23, 2003: Samuel Gompers
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about one of the country’s greatest labor leaders, Samuel Gompers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Samuel Gompers was born in London, England in eighteen-fifty. His parents were poor people who had moved to England from the Netherlands to seek a better life. Sam was a very good student. However, when he was ten-years-old, he was forced to quit school and go to work to help feed the family. He was the oldest of five sons. Like his father, Sam became a tobacco cigar maker. He liked the cigar-making industry because it had a group of members. During meetings, workers could talk about their problems. This is where young Sam began to develop an interest in labor issues. VOICE TWO: But life was difficult for the Gompers family in London, even with both Sam and his father working. They soon decided to move to the United States to again try to make a better life for themselves. In eighteen-sixty-three, the Gompers family got on a ship and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Seven weeks later, the ship arrived in New York City. The Gompers settled in a poor part of New York where many immigrants lived. VOICE ONE: Sam soon learned that life in America was not easy. At that time, most people worked many hours each day for little money. They worked making goods in factories. Often these factories had poor working conditions. New York was known for these so-called “sweatshops.” Whole families, including young children, worked fourteen hours a day in sweatshops for just enough money to stay alive. Sam hated the sweatshops and refused to work there. Instead, he and his father became cigar makers again. Soon Sam joined the Cigarmakers International Union. In those days, labor unions were not strong or permanent. They did little to help workers in their struggle for better working conditions and a better life. Sam believed this needed to change. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sam Gompers was married at the age of seventeen. He became a father one year later. He earned a living making cigars in shops around New York City. Employers recognized him as a skilled and valuable worker. The men he worked with recognized him as an effective labor activist. Sam also became a student of socialism. In eighteen-seventy-three, he started working for an old German socialist, David Hirsch. Most of Mister Hirsch’s workers were also socialists from Germany. These men became Samuel Gompers’ teachers. They taught him much about trade unions. One teacher was Karl Laurrell, who had been the leader in Europe of the International Workingman’s Association. Mister Laurrell taught Sam Gompers what labor unity meant. He also taught him about “collective bargaining.” This is how representatives of labor groups meet with the people they work for and negotiate an agreement. For example, labor and management might negotiate for more money, fewer hours and cleaner working places for workers. VOICE ONE: In time, Samuel Gompers used his knowledge of labor issued to help cigar makers throughout New York form a single, representative union. It was called the Cigarmakers’ Local Number One-Hundred-Forty-Four. Each cigar shop in New York had its own small union that elected a representative to sit on the council of a larger union. In eighteen-seventy-five, this council elected Mister Gompers as president of Cigarmakers’ Local Number One-Hundred-Forty-Four. The union’s constitution was like the constitution of a democratic government. All people in the union had a representative voice. Experts say the organizing of Cigarmakers’ Local Number One-Hundred-Forty-Four was the beginning of the American labor movement. VOICE TWO: Sam Gompers believed that one day all working men and women could belong to organized trade unions. He believed workers should not be forced to sell their labor at too low a price. He also believed each person must have the power to improve his or her own life. A person can get this power by joining with others in a union. He believed a democratic trade union can speak and act for all its workers. This is the same way a democratic government speaks for the people because voters elect officials to represent them. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Labor organizations began to grow stronger in America during the late nineteenth century. At the same time, Sam Gompers started to speak of new ideas. He dreamed of bringing all trade unions together into one big, nation-wide organization that could speak with one voice for workers throughout the country. In eighteen-eighty-one, Mister Gompers was sent as the delegate of the cigar makers union to a conference of unions. The delegates agreed to organize an alliance called the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. The alliance held yearly meeting of national union and local labor councils. It was designed to educate the public on worker issues, prepare labor-related legislation, and pressure Congress to approve such bills. Sam Gompers was an officer in the alliance for five years. VOICE TWO: During that time, he worked for several measures to improve the lives of workers and children. These included proposals to reduce the work day to eight hours, limit child labor and require children to attend school. He soon learned, however, that the alliance of unions had neither the money nor the power to do much more than talk about these issues. So, in eighteen-eighty-six, Sam Gompers helped organize a new union for all labor unions. It was called the American Federation of Labor. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Sam Gompers was elected president of the American Federation of Labor in eighteen-eighty-six. He held that position, except for one year, for thirty-eight years until he died. In eighteen-ninety, the A-F-L represented two-hundred-fifty-thousand workers. Two years later, the number had grown to more than one-million workers. Under his leadership, the A-F-L grew from a few struggling labor unions to become the major organization within the labor movement in the United States. VOICE TWO: As leader of the A-F-L, Mister Gompers had enemies both within and outside the labor movement. Some opponents believed Mister Gompers was more interested in personal power than in improving the rights of workers. They believed his ideas about strikes and collective bargaining could not stop big business. They believed the American Federation of Labor was a conservative organization designed to serve skilled workers only. Other opponents considered Sam Gompers a foreign-born troublemaker who wanted to destroy property rights. At the same time, opponents in industry and business feared that the labor leader was demanding too much for workers. They said his talk violated the law, and that he excited workers and urged them to strike. VOICE ONE: Sam Gompers was not troubled by any of these attacks. He argued that because there was freedom of speech in America, he would not be afraid to speak freely. He said that no one hated strikes more than he did because workers suffered the most in a strike. However, he said that in a democracy, strikes were necessary. After a strike, he said, businessmen and workers understood each other better and this was good for the nation. He said, “I hope the day will never come when the workers surrender their right to strike.” Sam Gompers also had an interest in international labor issues. At the end of World War One, he attended the Versailles Treaty negotiations. He was helpful in creating the International Labor Organization under the League of Nations. He also supported trade unionism in Mexico. VOICE TWO: Samuel Gompers died in nineteen-twenty-four. He is remembered as “the grand old man of labor.” He worked during his whole life for one cause – improving the rights of workers. He led the fight for shorter working hours, higher pay, safe and clean working conditions and democracy in the workplace. In nineteen-fifty-five, the American Federation of Labor joined with the Congress of Industrial Organization to form the A-F-L-C-I-O. This organization has become an influential part of American economic and political life. It has also helped improve the lives of millions of American workers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about one of the country’s greatest labor leaders, Samuel Gompers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Samuel Gompers was born in London, England in eighteen-fifty. His parents were poor people who had moved to England from the Netherlands to seek a better life. Sam was a very good student. However, when he was ten-years-old, he was forced to quit school and go to work to help feed the family. He was the oldest of five sons. Like his father, Sam became a tobacco cigar maker. He liked the cigar-making industry because it had a group of members. During meetings, workers could talk about their problems. This is where young Sam began to develop an interest in labor issues. VOICE TWO: But life was difficult for the Gompers family in London, even with both Sam and his father working. They soon decided to move to the United States to again try to make a better life for themselves. In eighteen-sixty-three, the Gompers family got on a ship and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Seven weeks later, the ship arrived in New York City. The Gompers settled in a poor part of New York where many immigrants lived. VOICE ONE: Sam soon learned that life in America was not easy. At that time, most people worked many hours each day for little money. They worked making goods in factories. Often these factories had poor working conditions. New York was known for these so-called “sweatshops.” Whole families, including young children, worked fourteen hours a day in sweatshops for just enough money to stay alive. Sam hated the sweatshops and refused to work there. Instead, he and his father became cigar makers again. Soon Sam joined the Cigarmakers International Union. In those days, labor unions were not strong or permanent. They did little to help workers in their struggle for better working conditions and a better life. Sam believed this needed to change. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sam Gompers was married at the age of seventeen. He became a father one year later. He earned a living making cigars in shops around New York City. Employers recognized him as a skilled and valuable worker. The men he worked with recognized him as an effective labor activist. Sam also became a student of socialism. In eighteen-seventy-three, he started working for an old German socialist, David Hirsch. Most of Mister Hirsch’s workers were also socialists from Germany. These men became Samuel Gompers’ teachers. They taught him much about trade unions. One teacher was Karl Laurrell, who had been the leader in Europe of the International Workingman’s Association. Mister Laurrell taught Sam Gompers what labor unity meant. He also taught him about “collective bargaining.” This is how representatives of labor groups meet with the people they work for and negotiate an agreement. For example, labor and management might negotiate for more money, fewer hours and cleaner working places for workers. VOICE ONE: In time, Samuel Gompers used his knowledge of labor issued to help cigar makers throughout New York form a single, representative union. It was called the Cigarmakers’ Local Number One-Hundred-Forty-Four. Each cigar shop in New York had its own small union that elected a representative to sit on the council of a larger union. In eighteen-seventy-five, this council elected Mister Gompers as president of Cigarmakers’ Local Number One-Hundred-Forty-Four. The union’s constitution was like the constitution of a democratic government. All people in the union had a representative voice. Experts say the organizing of Cigarmakers’ Local Number One-Hundred-Forty-Four was the beginning of the American labor movement. VOICE TWO: Sam Gompers believed that one day all working men and women could belong to organized trade unions. He believed workers should not be forced to sell their labor at too low a price. He also believed each person must have the power to improve his or her own life. A person can get this power by joining with others in a union. He believed a democratic trade union can speak and act for all its workers. This is the same way a democratic government speaks for the people because voters elect officials to represent them. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Labor organizations began to grow stronger in America during the late nineteenth century. At the same time, Sam Gompers started to speak of new ideas. He dreamed of bringing all trade unions together into one big, nation-wide organization that could speak with one voice for workers throughout the country. In eighteen-eighty-one, Mister Gompers was sent as the delegate of the cigar makers union to a conference of unions. The delegates agreed to organize an alliance called the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. The alliance held yearly meeting of national union and local labor councils. It was designed to educate the public on worker issues, prepare labor-related legislation, and pressure Congress to approve such bills. Sam Gompers was an officer in the alliance for five years. VOICE TWO: During that time, he worked for several measures to improve the lives of workers and children. These included proposals to reduce the work day to eight hours, limit child labor and require children to attend school. He soon learned, however, that the alliance of unions had neither the money nor the power to do much more than talk about these issues. So, in eighteen-eighty-six, Sam Gompers helped organize a new union for all labor unions. It was called the American Federation of Labor. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Sam Gompers was elected president of the American Federation of Labor in eighteen-eighty-six. He held that position, except for one year, for thirty-eight years until he died. In eighteen-ninety, the A-F-L represented two-hundred-fifty-thousand workers. Two years later, the number had grown to more than one-million workers. Under his leadership, the A-F-L grew from a few struggling labor unions to become the major organization within the labor movement in the United States. VOICE TWO: As leader of the A-F-L, Mister Gompers had enemies both within and outside the labor movement. Some opponents believed Mister Gompers was more interested in personal power than in improving the rights of workers. They believed his ideas about strikes and collective bargaining could not stop big business. They believed the American Federation of Labor was a conservative organization designed to serve skilled workers only. Other opponents considered Sam Gompers a foreign-born troublemaker who wanted to destroy property rights. At the same time, opponents in industry and business feared that the labor leader was demanding too much for workers. They said his talk violated the law, and that he excited workers and urged them to strike. VOICE ONE: Sam Gompers was not troubled by any of these attacks. He argued that because there was freedom of speech in America, he would not be afraid to speak freely. He said that no one hated strikes more than he did because workers suffered the most in a strike. However, he said that in a democracy, strikes were necessary. After a strike, he said, businessmen and workers understood each other better and this was good for the nation. He said, “I hope the day will never come when the workers surrender their right to strike.” Sam Gompers also had an interest in international labor issues. At the end of World War One, he attended the Versailles Treaty negotiations. He was helpful in creating the International Labor Organization under the League of Nations. He also supported trade unionism in Mexico. VOICE TWO: Samuel Gompers died in nineteen-twenty-four. He is remembered as “the grand old man of labor.” He worked during his whole life for one cause – improving the rights of workers. He led the fight for shorter working hours, higher pay, safe and clean working conditions and democracy in the workplace. In nineteen-fifty-five, the American Federation of Labor joined with the Congress of Industrial Organization to form the A-F-L-C-I-O. This organization has become an influential part of American economic and political life. It has also helped improve the lives of millions of American workers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 21, 2003: Oscar Nominated Songs / A Question About U.S. Immigration / Children's Literature in Spanish
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 21, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some songs nominated for an Academy Award ... Answer a listener’s question about the government office that deals with immigration ... And report about children’s literature in Spanish. Immigration Service HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from the United Arab Emirates. Samatar Abdi Hirsi asks about the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service also known as the I-N-S. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was responsible for helping foreigners who enter the country legally and for removing those who enter illegally. But the I-N-S no longer exists. On March first, its job of helping immigrants was moved to the new Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services within the new Department of Homeland Security. Government officials say that the creation of a new agency that helps immigrants is designed to increase the quality of services for foreigners who are in the United States legally. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services is known as the B-C-I-S. About fifteen-thousand people work there. Its director reports to the Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security. B-C-I-S services include helping refugees seeking asylum, supervising people who become American citizens and providing employment documents for foreigners in the United States. Most of the other services that were provided by the I-N-S will be carried out by two new agencies in the Department of Homeland Security. One is the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This agency brings together about fourteen-thousand workers. These include investigators and law enforcement officials of the I-N-S, Customs Service and Federal Protective Services. This agency was designed to strengthen law enforcement by uniting investigation work that had been done by several agencies. The other new agency is the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Its thirty-thousand workers include agricultural inspectors and inspectors from the I-N-S, Customs Service and Border Patrol. This bureau will supervise the movement of goods and people across the nation’s borders. It will guarantee the inspection of goods and enforce border laws. Hispanic Children's Books HOST: Millions of Spanish-speaking people live in the United States. Many of them are children. Spanish-language publishing is expanding to serve these people. Steve Ember has this report on children’s literature in Spanish. ANNCR: Lulu Delacre (duh-LAHK-ra) was born in Puerto Rico. She began drawing pictures and hearing stories as a young child. As an adult living in the United States, she wanted to write children’s books that would celebrate the stories and traditions of her childhood. Mizz Delacre says she started writing books in Spanish and English for children like her own, born to Hispanic parents in the United States. She wanted to help these children know and enjoy their personal history. Now Mizz Delacre says she believes it is just as important for non-Latino children to learn about the Latino boys and girls in their schools and communities. Lulu Delacre has written a book of Puerto Rican stories called “Shake it Morena!” She has written another book called “Salsa Stories” that has stories about food. Now she has won both the Pura Belpre and the Americas Awards. For ten years, the Americas Award has honored writers of children’s books that honestly show Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. The Pura Belpre Award honors a Latino or Latina writer whose work celebrates the Latino experience. This award is named for Pura Belpre. She was the first Latina librarian at the New York City Public Library. Across the United States, people come to libraries to read and borrow books for free. Ina Rimpau is a librarian in the state of New Jersey. She is very interested in making sure that Spanish-speaking children have books to read in their own language. She says it is very popular to publish the same book in both English and Spanish. Children who speak English read the books with their Spanish-speaking parents or grandparents. English-speaking adults often use children’s books to help them learn Spanish. Mizz Rimpau says it is important for children to keep the language and traditions of their family. But she says it is also important for Americans to learn other languages. Oscar-Nominated Songs HOST: People who make movies will be honored Sunday in Los Angeles, California. That is when the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents its yearly awards, the Oscars. The movie industry will honor the best work of directors, actors, technical experts and songwriters. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the nominations for best song. ANNCR: Five songs written for movies have been nominated for the Academy Award for best original song. One is from the movie “Frida”. Caetano Veloso and Lila Downs sing “Burn It Blue.” (MUSIC) Another song nominated for an Oscar this year is “Father and Daughter” from the movie “The Wild Thornberrys.” A third nominated song is from the movie “Gangs of New York.” The group U-2 sings “Hands That Built America.” (MUSIC) The fourth nominated song is called “Lose Yourself” from the movie “Eight Mile.” We leave you with the final song nominated as best original song from a movie. It is from the movie “Chicago.” Renee Zellwegger and Catherine Zeta-Jones sing “I Move On.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail address is mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Please include your name and mailing address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - March 27, 2003: Shiites in Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. On Tuesday, British forces outside Basra, in southern Iraq, reported signs of a civilian rebellion against the rule of Saddam Hussein. Iraq called the charges "lies." Basra is the second largest city in Iraq, after the capital. The British fired artillery at Iraqi forces in the city who they said were shelling civilians. Wednesday, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said he believed there was what he called a "limited form of uprising." But Arab television had conflicting reports. Some coalition officials have been hopeful that Iraqi civilians in the south would attack troops loyal to the president. The majority of the people in southern Iraq are Shiite Muslims. Shiites are the largest minority group in Islam. However, Shiites are the majority of the population in Iraq. Yet they are not represented in the government. Saddam Hussein and his officials are Sunni, as are most Muslims. The Shiites often come into conflict with the ruling Baath party. Outside of Baghdad, Shiites live mainly in the southern "no-fly" area. The United States and Britain established this area to protect the Shiites after the nineteen-ninety-one Gulf war. Shiites have said the United States and its allies must help them gain power in Iraq. Yet Shiite leaders do not completely trust the United States. They remember what happened during and after the Gulf War twelve years ago. The United States urged the Iraqi opposition to rebel. The Shiites did that shortly after the war. But they were poorly equipped. They received no American help. Iraqi forces quickly crushed the rebellion. The Republican Guards killed thousands of Shiites. Many Shiites have not welcomed American troops back into Iraq. The United States knows that the memory of that failed rebellion is one of the main reasons why. Iraq's main Shiite opposition group is based in Iran. The leader of that group says coalition forces are welcome as long as they help Iraqis oust Saddam Hussein. But after that, he says, they must leave. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - March 26, 2003: Kurds
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. American troops are now in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. The United States has a military commander for northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. He says the command has been established to work with military and humanitarian aid organizations within both areas. The United States military would not say if the American troops will use their positions to attack Iraqi forces from the north. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan says his country wants to send troops to provide security in northern Iraq. But President Bush says American officials have made it clear they expect Turkish troops not to enter the area. Mister Bush says the United States is working with the Kurds. He says the goal is to make sure no incident happens that would give Turkey, in his words, "an excuse to go into northern Iraq." Both Turkish and Kurdish officials denied reports that Turkey has already sent special forces. About twenty percent of the people in Turkey and Iraq are Kurdish. Their desire for a homeland has created a long and violent history with governments in both countries. Kurds are mountain people. They live in Iran and Armenia in addition to Iraq and Turkey. Some also live in Syria. Kurds are mainly Sunni Muslims. After World War One, Turkey signed a treaty with the victorious Allies that led to the end of the Ottoman Empire. This treaty in nineteen-twenty called for an independent Kurdish state. But another treaty three years later said nothing about Kurdish independence. That treaty led to modern Turkey. Over the years, Turkey, Iraq and Iran have all suppressed attempts by Kurds to govern themselves. Thousands of Kurds have been killed, and many more left as refugees. In nineteen-eighty-four, Kurds in southeastern Turkey established the Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the P-K-K. This group and others carried out attacks in southeastern Turkey and elsewhere. In nineteen-ninety-five, Turkey attacked P-K-K camps in northern Iraq. Then, in nineteen-ninety-nine, Turkey captured the group's leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya. He was tried and sentenced to death. Later Turkey reduced the sentence to life in prison. In February of two-thousand, after fifteen years of war, the P-K-K announced an end to its campaign of violence. Last April the group changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress. But Turkey and the United States still call it a terrorist organization. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – March 25, 2003: Geneva Conventions
* Byline: 

 This is a Special English background report about the Geneva Conventions. Iraqi television has shown a videotape of American soldiers captured in southern Iraq. The soldiers were being questioned by Iraqis. Iraqi television also showed the bodies of several American soldiers who had been killed. The video was also broadcast outside Iraq by the Arabic television network al-Jazeera. In Washington, American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Iraq of trying to use the capture for propaganda purposes. He said showing the video on Iraqi television violates international laws about the treatment of prisoners of war. These laws are called the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions have governed the treatment of prisoners of war for more than fifty years. In nineteen-forty-nine, hundreds of diplomats met in Geneva, Switzerland. They established a set of humanitarian rules for the treatment and protection of people caught up in war. These included the treatment of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war as well as the protection of civilians. The diplomats agreed on four conventions. Today, about one-hundred-ninety countries honor the Geneva Conventions. American officials say broadcasting the Iraqi video violates Article thirteen of the Geneva Conventions. Article thirteen says prisoners of war must be treated humanely at all times. It bans any unlawful act causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war. And prisoners of war must be protected against acts of violence, insults and public curiosity. Iraq’s defense minister reportedly said his country will obey the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of American and British prisoners. The international human rights group Amnesty International called on the news media to honor the rights of captured soldiers on both sides of the conflict. American television news broadcasts have shown pictures of surrendered and captured Iraqi troops.Experts say technology has changed since nineteen-forty-nine. When the Geneva Conventions were established, television did not broadcast live from areas of war. However, the experts say the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions still must be obeyed today. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – March 22, 2003: Saddam Hussein
* Byline: 

 This is VOA Special English Background Report on Iraq's leader. When Saddam Hussein was born in April of nineteen-thirty-seven, it did not seem likely he would someday rule the country. His father died before Saddam was born. So did an older brother. The family lived in the Tikrit area, north of Baghdad. Published reports tell of a poor and depressed mother and childhood years spent with relatives who mistreated him. By the late nineteen-fifties, Saddam Hussein was a young revolutionary. He helped try to kill Abdul Kareem Kassem, the Iraqi dictator. After that, he fled to Syria and Egypt, but later returned home and went to prison. While there, he was elected to the National Command of the Baath Party. He escaped from prison in the late nineteen-sixties and rose to power with the support of other Arab nationalists. On July sixteenth, nineteen-seventy-nine, he replaced Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr as president of Iraq. The new leader promised a more modern Iraq, but he also became known for repressing political opponents. Saddam Hussein proposed the most complete self-government plan ever offered to the Kurdish people in northern Iraq. Yet he expelled many Kurds from their homes and destroyed all the Kurdish villages along a border area with Iran. In nineteen-eighty, Iraq invaded Iran. Among the issues was Iranian support for Iraqi Kurdish rebels. During the war, Saddam Hussein's troops killed thousands of Kurds in the north with chemical weapons. The eight years of war deeply damaged Iraq's economy. In nineteen-ninety, Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait. An American-led coalition attacked Iraq the following January. The war began with thirty-nine days of bombing. Then came four days of ground war, before Iraq withdrew from Kuwait. The United Nations punished Iraq with severe economic restrictions. The U-N also told Iraq to end its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. Now, twelve years later, there is another war in the Persian Gulf. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-5-1.cfm
* Headline: War in Iraq [reports from March-May 2003]
* Byline: 

 May 15, 2003: Iraqi Schools May 3, 2003: American Troops to Leave Saudi Arabia April April 19, 2003: First Meeting to Form a New Iraqi Government April 12, 2003: Iraq War Update April 11, 2003: Iraqi Oil April 10, 2003: Aid Efforts in Iraq April 9, 2003: Future Iraqi Government April 8, 2003: Media Coverage of Iraq War April 7, 2003: Rebuilding Iraq April 6, 2003: Baath Party April 5, 2003: Baghdad April 4, 2003: Women in the Military April 3, 2003: Jihad and Other Terms April 2, 2003: Laws of War, Rules of Engagement April 1, 2003: Afghanistan / Iraq March March 31, 2003: International Criminal Court March 30, 2003: Oil-for-Food Program March 29, 2003: Russia/Iraq March 28, 2003: Iraqi Fighters March 27, 2003: Shiites in Iraq March 26, 2003: Kurds March 25, 2003: Geneva Conventions March 24, 2003: International Aid for Iraq March 23, 2003: Level of Fighting Increases March 22, 2003: Saddam Hussein 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-6-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #5 – March 27, 2003:  American Indians
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about early native Americans. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe that the native peoples of America came here thousands of years ago during the last Ice Age. These people settled the land from the cold northern areas to the extreme end of South America. As the groups of people settled different parts of the land, they developed their own languages, their own cultures and their own religions. Each group's story is important in the history of the Americas. However, it is perhaps the tribes of the central part of the United States that are most recognized. They will be our story today. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Oh-Four, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark led a group of explorers to the Pacific Ocean. They were the first educated Americans to see some of the native tribes of the Great Plains. And they were the first white people these Native American people had ever seen. When the group of explorers neared the eastern side of the great Rocky Mountains, they met with a tribe of Indians called the Shoshoni. Merriwether Lewis was the first to see them. Let us imagine we are with Merriwether Lewis near the Rocky Mountains almost two-hundred years ago. Across a small hill, a group of sixty Shoshoni men are riding toward us. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first thing we see is that these men are ready for war. Each is armed with a bow and arrows. Some carry long poles with a sharp knife on the end. They are riding very fast. Some horses seem to be without riders. But a closer look shows that the men are hanging off the sides, or under the horses neck. They are using the horses' bodies as protection. The horses are painted with many different designs that use blue, black, red or other colors. Later we learn that each design has a special meaning for the man who owns the horse. Each one tells a story. For example, the man riding one horse is a leader during battle. Another has killed an enemy in battle. One of the designs protects the horse and rider. VOICE TWO As they come nearer, the Shoshoni group sees that we are not ready for war. They slow their horses but are still very careful. Merriwether Lewis holds up a open hand as a sign of peace. The leader of the Shoshoni does the same. They come closer. The Shoshoni are dressed in clothes made from animal skin. Most of these skins are from deer or the American buffalo. The shirts they wear have many designs, and tell stories like the designs on the horses. One shows a man has fought in a battle. Another shows a man has been in many raids to capture horses. Still another shows the man saved the life of a friend. Captain Lewis smiles at these men. He again makes a hand sign that means peace. The signs are now returned. Lewis and the Shoshoni chief can not speak each other's language. They can communicate using hand signs. VOICE TWO: One young Shoshoni man comes near. He drops to the ground from his horse. He is tall and looks strong. His hair is black in color and long. He wears one long bird feather in the back of his hair. Some of his hair is held in place by animal fur. His arms have been painted with long lines. We learn that each line represents a battle. There are many lines. But we leave the Shoshoni without him adding another one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Shoshoni were only one of many tribes of native people who lived in the Great Plains area. The life, culture and society of these tribes developed because of the land that was their home. The Great Plains today is still huge. Even in a car, traveling at one-hundred kilometers an hour, it can take two long days of driving to cross the Great Plains. The plains reach from several hundred kilometers north in Canada across the middle of the continent to Mexico in the south. In the East, the Great Plains begin near the Mississippi River and go west to the huge Rocky Mountains. It is the center of the United States. There are big rivers here ...deserts...and mountains. Other areas are so flat that a person can see for hundreds of kilometers. Millions of kilometers of this land were once covered by a thick ocean of grass. VOICE TWO: The grass provided food for an animal that made possible the culture of the Indians of the Great Plains. The grass fed the bison, the American buffalo. The buffalo was the center of native Indian culture in the Great Plains. The huge animal provided meat for the Indians. But it was much more than just food. It was an important part of the religion of most of the native people in the Great Plains. The Lakota tribe is one of the people of the Great Plains. The Lakota are sometimes called the Sioux. They believed that everything necessary to life was within the buffalo. Another Plains tribe, the Blackfeet, called the animal, "My home and my protection." VOICE ONE: The back of the huge buffalo provided thick skin that was used to make homes for the Plains Indians. Other parts were made into clothing. Still other parts became warm blankets. Buffalo bones were made into tools. Nothing of the animal was wasted. No one knows how many buffalo were in North America when Merriwether Lewis first met the Shoshoni. But experts say it was probably between sixty-million to seventy-five-million. VOICE TWO: Another animal also helped make possible the Indian cultures of the Great Plains. Native Americans first called these animals mystery dogs. Or big dogs. They had no word for this animal in their language. We know it as the horse. No horses existed in North America before the Spanish arrived in the Fifteen-Hundreds in what is now the southern part of the United States. Native peoples hunted, moved and traveled by foot. Traveling long distances was difficult, so was hunting buffalo. The horse greatly changed the life of all the people of the Great Plains. It gave them a method of travel. It provided a way to carry food and equipment. It made it easier and safer to follow and hunt the buffalo. The horse made it possible to attack an enemy far away and return safely. The number of horses owned became the measure of a tribe's wealth. VOICE ONE: Spanish settlers rode horses to the small town of Santa Fe in what is now the southwestern state of New Mexico. They arrived there in about the year Sixteen-Oh-Nine. It is not known how native peoples in Santa Fe got the first horses in the country. Perhaps they traded for them. Perhaps they captured them in an attack. Many tribes soon were trading and capturing horses. By the Seventeen-Fifties, all the tribes of the Great Plains had horses. They had became experts at raising, training and riding horses. They became experts at horse medicine. Each Indian of the Great Plains could ride a horse by the age of five. As an adult, a young man would have a special horse for work. Another horse would be trained for hunting. And another would be trained for war. An Indian warrior's success depended upon how closely he and his horses worked together. VOICE TWO: George Catlin was an artist who traveled a great deal in the early American west. He painted many beautiful pictures of American Indians. Mister Catlin said the Plains Indian was the greatest horse rider the world has ever known. He said the moment an Indian rider laid a hand on his horse, he became part of the animal. VOICE ONE: The buffalo and horse were extremely important to the Plains Indian. Because the horse made hunting easier, more time could be spent on things like art. The Plains Indians began to make designs on their clothing, and on special blankets their horses wore. Even common objects were painted with designs. VOICE TWO: The coming of white settlers to the Great Plains was the beginning of the end of the buffalo and horse culture of the American Indians. Settlers did not want buffalo destroying their crops. The buffalo were killed. By the year Eighteen-Eighty-Five, the Indians of the Great Plains were mostly restricted to area of land called reservations. VOICE ONE: Many of the Great Plains tribes that survive today work hard to keep their traditional cultures. They produce art, music, and clothing. They keep alive the memory of these people who added greatly to the history of America. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-26-7-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Tenement Museum
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 26, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about an unusual museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller, unusual museums in New York City. It lets visitors see and experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was one of the first tenements in New York City. It was built in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” A “tenement” building holds many rooms where different families lived. The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the Eighteen-Hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived. Later, many immigrant families were able to improve their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them “apartment” buildings or “flats” instead. VOICE TWO: History experts say that more than half of the people in New York City lived in tenements in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one-hundred square meters of living space often divided into three rooms. The tenement building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of space families had to live in. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window to the outside. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. There was no running water, no toilets, showers or baths. Six areas where people left their body wastes were in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of many diseases in such buildings. Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the Eighteen-Nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in Nineteen-Oh-Five, and electric power in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. But they refused to make any more required improvements. They closed the building in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. The rooms remained closed until Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, although the street level of the building continued to be used as stores until Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. In the Nineteen-Nineties, the building was declared a National Historic Place protected by the federal government. VOICE ONE: In recent years, museum officials have been researching the history of the building and its twenty apartments. Museum researchers found more than one-thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there during the years. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, old metal money and pieces of cloth. They have also learned the histories of many of the seven-thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they have spoken with and recorded the memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children. VOICE ONE(cont): The museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during four time periods in the building’s history. These four apartments are what visitors see when they go to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We are entering the apartment of the Gumpertz (GUM-perts) family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the Eighteen-Seventies. On October seventh, Eighteen-Seventy-Four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left behind his wife Nathalie (NA-ta-lee) and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making dresses in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school. VOICE ONE: The Gumpertz apartment in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her work space. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing. VOICE TWO: This next apartment we see belonged to the Italian Baldizzi (bal-DEETS-ee) family during the period known as the Great Depression. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria (ro-SAR-ee-ya) and their two children moved to the Orchard Street tenement in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. They quickly became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. For example, every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the Jewish holy day. Josephine Baldizzi remembers those long ago days. Here is a recording of her voice as she tells how she felt each week after seeing Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning to her to turn on the lights: JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI: "It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory.” VOICE ONE: This third apartment belonged to the Rogarshevsky (RO-ga-shef-skee) family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street sometime between Nineteen-Seven and Nineteen-Ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. In this apartment, we can see some of the tools used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in Nineteen-Eighteen. The table in the apartment is set with models of the kinds of foods that would have been eaten after Abraham’s funeral. The foods include hard boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death. Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem that Nathalie Gumpertz had so many years earlier. What could she do to support her family? She got the owner of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street to let her clean and do other work in the building in exchange for rent. VOICE TWO: The fourth apartment is an example of living history. It can be visited on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino (Con-FEE-no) family in Nineteen-Sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino had come to New York from what was the Ottoman Empire but now is part of Greece. They were Sephardic Jews, Jews who had been born in North African and Middle Eastern countries. Visitors are welcomed here by a living history actress who plays the thirteen-year-old daughter Victoria Confino. She will tell about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song: VICTORIA CONFINO: "Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish. We call it Judeo Espagnol, and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew -- a lot of languages mixed up all together.” VOICE ONE: Museum officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to provide its visitors with a usable past. They want visitors to use the stories of the people who lived in the building to start discussions about issues from the past that are important today. Examples of these kinds of problems include those of immigrants and single mothers who must deal with poor living conditions and find ways to build new lives. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum has been trying to explore ways to help solve modern problems through understanding history. It is cooperating with other international historic places around the world to do this. The District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum labor camp in Siberia, and Project Remember in Argentina are part of the project. Others are the Terazin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Work House in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer is Keith Holmes. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: March 26, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about an unusual museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller, unusual museums in New York City. It lets visitors see and experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was one of the first tenements in New York City. It was built in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. The word “tenement” comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” A “tenement” building holds many rooms where different families lived. The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the Eighteen-Hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived. Later, many immigrant families were able to improve their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them “apartment” buildings or “flats” instead. VOICE TWO: History experts say that more than half of the people in New York City lived in tenements in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one-hundred square meters of living space often divided into three rooms. The tenement building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of space families had to live in. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window to the outside. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. There was no running water, no toilets, showers or baths. Six areas where people left their body wastes were in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of many diseases in such buildings. Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the Eighteen-Nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in Nineteen-Oh-Five, and electric power in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. But they refused to make any more required improvements. They closed the building in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. The rooms remained closed until Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, although the street level of the building continued to be used as stores until Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. In the Nineteen-Nineties, the building was declared a National Historic Place protected by the federal government. VOICE ONE: In recent years, museum officials have been researching the history of the building and its twenty apartments. Museum researchers found more than one-thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there during the years. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, old metal money and pieces of cloth. They have also learned the histories of many of the seven-thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they have spoken with and recorded the memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children. VOICE ONE(cont): The museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during four time periods in the building’s history. These four apartments are what visitors see when they go to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We are entering the apartment of the Gumpertz (GUM-perts) family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the Eighteen-Seventies. On October seventh, Eighteen-Seventy-Four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left behind his wife Nathalie (NA-ta-lee) and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making dresses in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school. VOICE ONE: The Gumpertz apartment in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her work space. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing. VOICE TWO: This next apartment we see belonged to the Italian Baldizzi (bal-DEETS-ee) family during the period known as the Great Depression. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria (ro-SAR-ee-ya) and their two children moved to the Orchard Street tenement in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. They quickly became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. For example, every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the Jewish holy day. Josephine Baldizzi remembers those long ago days. Here is a recording of her voice as she tells how she felt each week after seeing Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning to her to turn on the lights: JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI: "It made me very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. And I can still see her till today—the vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory.” VOICE ONE: This third apartment belonged to the Rogarshevsky (RO-ga-shef-skee) family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street sometime between Nineteen-Seven and Nineteen-Ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. In this apartment, we can see some of the tools used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in Nineteen-Eighteen. The table in the apartment is set with models of the kinds of foods that would have been eaten after Abraham’s funeral. The foods include hard boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death. Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem that Nathalie Gumpertz had so many years earlier. What could she do to support her family? She got the owner of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street to let her clean and do other work in the building in exchange for rent. VOICE TWO: The fourth apartment is an example of living history. It can be visited on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino (Con-FEE-no) family in Nineteen-Sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino had come to New York from what was the Ottoman Empire but now is part of Greece. They were Sephardic Jews, Jews who had been born in North African and Middle Eastern countries. Visitors are welcomed here by a living history actress who plays the thirteen-year-old daughter Victoria Confino. She will tell about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song: VICTORIA CONFINO: "Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish. We call it Judeo Espagnol, and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew -- a lot of languages mixed up all together.” VOICE ONE: Museum officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to provide its visitors with a usable past. They want visitors to use the stories of the people who lived in the building to start discussions about issues from the past that are important today. Examples of these kinds of problems include those of immigrants and single mothers who must deal with poor living conditions and find ways to build new lives. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum has been trying to explore ways to help solve modern problems through understanding history. It is cooperating with other international historic places around the world to do this. The District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum labor camp in Siberia, and Project Remember in Argentina are part of the project. Others are the Terazin Memorial in the Czech Republic, the Work House in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer is Keith Holmes. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Baseball, Puerto Rico and 'Year of the Blues'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 28, 2003 (THEME) <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:74205| height="150" width="119" alt="W.C. Handy, "Father of the blues"" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/W_C_Handy_LOC_27Mar03_se_gif.gif" border="0"> W.C. Handy, "Father of the blues" Broadcast: March 28, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: the Major League baseball season opens... We answer a listener’s question about Puerto Rico... And, we play some music in honor of the "Year of the Blues." Another Baseball Season HOST: The Major League Baseball season opens in the United States on Sunday. Millions of Americans are happy about the start of the baseball season. For the next seven months, people of all ages will be attending the games. Others will listen to them on the radio and watch them on television. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Perhaps no other sport has become as deeply rooted in American life as baseball. And none has created so many popular traditions. There are many poems, songs, books and films about the sport. Famous players of the past and present are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Major League Baseball officials are continually exploring ways to add to these traditions. This year, for example, the Opening Day game was to be played in Tokyo, Japan. The Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners were to play two games this week before flying back to the United States. However, American baseball officials decided last week to cancel the two games because of the threat of war in Iraq. Officials made the decision after President Bush announced that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had to leave country or face military action by the United States. Bud Selig (SEE-lig) is Major League Baseball’s top official. He said it would be unfair for the players and other employees to be away from their families at this time. Baseball officials say the cancelled games will be played in the United States later this season. This year, Major League Baseball is offering something new for computer users. It plans to show one-thousand games directly on the Internet. This is the first time that officials have offered a full season of games. Major League Baseball offered its first live production of a single game on the Internet in August of last year. This year, plans call for forty-five games to be shown each week. Computer users will be able to watch games that do not involve their local team. Local games can be seen ninety minutes after play ends. The new service will cost about fifteen dollars a month or eighty dollars for the complete season. Individual games cost about three dollars a game. You can find out more by going to Major League Baseball’s Web site. The address is m-l-b-dot-com. Puerto Rico HOST: Our question this week comes from China. VOA listener Zhiwen wants to know about the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Puerto Rico is an island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. Spanish and English are the languages of its four-million people. Puerto Ricans are American citizens. They must obey American laws. But they govern themselves. They do not pay federal income tax. Puerto Ricans can serve in the American military. However, they cannot vote in national elections. Their congressional delegate in Washington cannot vote either. Still, Puerto Rico has close ties, especially with New York. That city has a big Puerto Rican population. Puerto Rico means "rich port" in Spanish. Spain gave up the island in eighteen-ninety-eight after the Spanish-American War. The United States declared Puerto Rico an American territory. Then, in nineteen-fifty-two, Puerto Rico became a commonwealth with a constitution that provides for self-government. Puerto Ricans have voted three times to remain a commonwealth. But some want their island to become the fifty-first American state. Still others want their own nation. In the nineteen-fifties, Puerto Rican nationalists tried to kill President Harry Truman and later wounded five congressmen. Three years ago, Puerto Rico elected its first female governor, Sila Calderon. During her campaign, she promised to end more than sixty years of American Navy exercises on the nearby island of Vieques. Many Puerto Ricans said these artillery and bombing exercises hurt economic development. They also worried for the environment -- and their lives. The cancer rate among the people who live on Vieques is higher than the Puerto Rican average. In nineteen-ninety-nine, two bombs missed their targets. A security guard was killed. Protests followed. Puerto Ricans have succeeded in their goal for Vieques. The Navy plans to leave the island in May. Clean-up is expected to take years. But something new has come to Vieques. A big hotel opened last month. It is expected to become the top employer on the island. Year of the Blues HOST: Congress has declared two-thousand-three the “Year of the Blues.” This declaration honors an influential form of American music. Special music events and education programs will take place throughout the year. As Phoebe Zimmerman reports, the goal is to spread the word about blues music and its history. ANNCR: To "feel blue" means to feel sad. Music has "blue notes" that sound sad. Blues music is rooted in the experience of American blacks. Songs tell about hard work, lost love, bad marriages and bad feelings. Two-thousand-three is the Year of the Blues in honor of musician W-C Handy. He did not invent it, but he became known as the father of the blues. One-hundred years ago, in nineteen-oh-three, W-C Handy began to collect and publish some of the first blues music. He also wrote his own. One of his most popular songs was “The Memphis Blues.” Here it is, performed by Louis Armstrong. (MUSIC) Blues music has influenced other forms, such as country, rock and roll, folk and jazz. Musicians like B-B-King, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker gained fame in the blues tradition. And not just men. Here is Bessie Smith performing “Any Woman’s Blues.” (MUSIC) Though still popular, blues music has not been taught much in American schools. Several music organizations hope to change that with new teaching materials to use during the Year of the Blues. They say young people should know the roots of much of the music they listen to today. And the influence of the blues has spread beyond America. We leave you with a song by Britain's Rolling Stones. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Please join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Cynthia Kirk and George Grow. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: the Major League baseball season opens... We answer a listener’s question about Puerto Rico... And, we play some music in honor of the "Year of the Blues." Another Baseball Season HOST: The Major League Baseball season opens in the United States on Sunday. Millions of Americans are happy about the start of the baseball season. For the next seven months, people of all ages will be attending the games. Others will listen to them on the radio and watch them on television. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: Perhaps no other sport has become as deeply rooted in American life as baseball. And none has created so many popular traditions. There are many poems, songs, books and films about the sport. Famous players of the past and present are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Major League Baseball officials are continually exploring ways to add to these traditions. This year, for example, the Opening Day game was to be played in Tokyo, Japan. The Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners were to play two games this week before flying back to the United States. However, American baseball officials decided last week to cancel the two games because of the threat of war in Iraq. Officials made the decision after President Bush announced that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had to leave country or face military action by the United States. Bud Selig (SEE-lig) is Major League Baseball’s top official. He said it would be unfair for the players and other employees to be away from their families at this time. Baseball officials say the cancelled games will be played in the United States later this season. This year, Major League Baseball is offering something new for computer users. It plans to show one-thousand games directly on the Internet. This is the first time that officials have offered a full season of games. Major League Baseball offered its first live production of a single game on the Internet in August of last year. This year, plans call for forty-five games to be shown each week. Computer users will be able to watch games that do not involve their local team. Local games can be seen ninety minutes after play ends. The new service will cost about fifteen dollars a month or eighty dollars for the complete season. Individual games cost about three dollars a game. You can find out more by going to Major League Baseball’s Web site. The address is m-l-b-dot-com. Puerto Rico HOST: Our question this week comes from China. VOA listener Zhiwen wants to know about the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States. Puerto Rico is an island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. Spanish and English are the languages of its four-million people. Puerto Ricans are American citizens. They must obey American laws. But they govern themselves. They do not pay federal income tax. Puerto Ricans can serve in the American military. However, they cannot vote in national elections. Their congressional delegate in Washington cannot vote either. Still, Puerto Rico has close ties, especially with New York. That city has a big Puerto Rican population. Puerto Rico means "rich port" in Spanish. Spain gave up the island in eighteen-ninety-eight after the Spanish-American War. The United States declared Puerto Rico an American territory. Then, in nineteen-fifty-two, Puerto Rico became a commonwealth with a constitution that provides for self-government. Puerto Ricans have voted three times to remain a commonwealth. But some want their island to become the fifty-first American state. Still others want their own nation. In the nineteen-fifties, Puerto Rican nationalists tried to kill President Harry Truman and later wounded five congressmen. Three years ago, Puerto Rico elected its first female governor, Sila Calderon. During her campaign, she promised to end more than sixty years of American Navy exercises on the nearby island of Vieques. Many Puerto Ricans said these artillery and bombing exercises hurt economic development. They also worried for the environment -- and their lives. The cancer rate among the people who live on Vieques is higher than the Puerto Rican average. In nineteen-ninety-nine, two bombs missed their targets. A security guard was killed. Protests followed. Puerto Ricans have succeeded in their goal for Vieques. The Navy plans to leave the island in May. Clean-up is expected to take years. But something new has come to Vieques. A big hotel opened last month. It is expected to become the top employer on the island. Year of the Blues HOST: Congress has declared two-thousand-three the “Year of the Blues.” This declaration honors an influential form of American music. Special music events and education programs will take place throughout the year. As Phoebe Zimmerman reports, the goal is to spread the word about blues music and its history. ANNCR: To "feel blue" means to feel sad. Music has "blue notes" that sound sad. Blues music is rooted in the experience of American blacks. Songs tell about hard work, lost love, bad marriages and bad feelings. Two-thousand-three is the Year of the Blues in honor of musician W-C Handy. He did not invent it, but he became known as the father of the blues. One-hundred years ago, in nineteen-oh-three, W-C Handy began to collect and publish some of the first blues music. He also wrote his own. One of his most popular songs was “The Memphis Blues.” Here it is, performed by Louis Armstrong. (MUSIC) Blues music has influenced other forms, such as country, rock and roll, folk and jazz. Musicians like B-B-King, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker gained fame in the blues tradition. And not just men. Here is Bessie Smith performing “Any Woman’s Blues.” (MUSIC) Though still popular, blues music has not been taught much in American schools. Several music organizations hope to change that with new teaching materials to use during the Year of the Blues. They say young people should know the roots of much of the music they listen to today. And the influence of the blues has spread beyond America. We leave you with a song by Britain's Rolling Stones. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Please join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Cynthia Kirk and George Grow. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – March 28, 2003: Iraqi Fighters
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Iraq's army has help from several groups of fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein. These groups are also called militias or paramilitaries. They have been strongly resisting American and British troops in southern and central Iraq. They also work to suppress any uprisings by Iraqis. Coalition officials say the strong resistance from these groups in southern and central Iraq has surprised them. They say they expected the irregulars to mostly stay near Baghdad to protect the capital. Irregulars are fighters who do not belong to a group organized like a traditional -- or regular -- army. They often use methods of guerrilla warfare. One is to wear civilian clothes to carry out surprise attacks. Irregulars in Iraq have also dressed as soldiers and killed coalition troops during false surrenders. Another method is to hide among civilian populations. On Tuesday, American Marines captured a hospital that had been used as a base in the city of An-Nasiriyah. Inside, they showed reporters large amounts of weapons and chemical protection equipment. American military commanders say the fighters must be dealt with to stop the attacks against coalition troops. They say special operations and other forces will work to defeat these groups. One group is called Fedayeen Saddam. One meaning for this name in Arabic is "those willing to sacrifice themselves for Saddam." The president's older son, Uday, established the group in the middle of the nineteen-nineties. Fedayeen members have killed and tortured Iraqis to suppress opposition. Allied commanders say they will not permit such groups to stop the offensive toward Baghdad. They also say they will do all they can to avoid hurting civilians in the effort. American and British forces must also deal with the regular Iraqi military. This includes the Republican Guard. Its thousands of soldiers are more trained and better equipped than other troops. There is also the Special Republican Guard, under Qusay Saddam, the president's younger son. Its job is to serve as a last line of defense around Baghdad. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: March 27, 2003 - Rhetoric of War
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": March 27, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster – the rhetoric of war. RS: Professor Amos Kiewe is director of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University in New York State. He says research on the rhetoric of war shows that the language conforms to a pattern. KIEWE: “That no matter who is the president or whatever the war may be, it is primarily the rhetoric of patriotism, it is the rhetoric of values -- in the sense that patriotism is a value -- and it is the rhetoric that often functions by creating a dichotomy between 'us' and 'them.'" AA: "Now, interestingly, the one thing you don't tend to hear in American rhetoric is the sort of, I guess, the colorful or more graphic language that you hear, for example, in Saddam's speech on television [broadcast March 24] in which he talked about cutting the throats of the enemy." KIEWE: "That is correct. And here you are talking about things that are not universal but are very cultural, and that may explain why it gets to be a bit more vicious, if you wish, whereas our is more measured." RS: "You're talking about Western rhetoric." KIEWE: "Yes, Western and American rhetoric of war. I think that that is out of character for us to talk about cutting other people's throats or seeing blood flow in the street. That clearly does not come from our historical experience." AA: "Now I suppose some would argue that when you keep emotion out of what you're saying, when you refer to injuries to civilians as 'collateral damage' or terms like that, that you are ... " RS: "Distancing yourself." AA: " -- distancing yourself from it and putting a cold cover over what you are really talking about." KIEWE: "It is indeed part of the motivation, because language is the perspective, is the window through which we see reality. So if you use the language that distances, then language is metaphorical and it allows you to be somewhat detached from the harshness, the reality, the brutality of war. But in another culture, that would be the opposite. They may use embellished language precisely to do the opposite, to generate hatred or to generate support that could not be possible with logical language." AA: "Now let me ask you a question, as the images have been coming from Iraq of dead American soldiers and prisoners and so forth, have you detected any change in the political rhetoric coming from politicians or from military leaders? Has there been a different tone in reaction to public reaction to these images?" KIEWE: "Not yet. I was thinking about this, and I was waiting to see. But I think that, at least Democrats who oppose the war, are careful not to be quick to now criticize the President three, four, five days into the war, only because for the last three days we have seen prisoners of war. I think that they are cautious. Not that they are not seeing it or feeling it, but they are being cautious. "I would say that the only place where I see this affecting is the media, the vehicle that actually carries the pictures. The time given by major networks to the story of the dead and the prisoners of war -- that tells me that there is a lot of sensitivity to any individual who has been killed or who has been imprisoned. And this kind of sensitivity can change public opinion." AA: "And if you could just describe the sort of language you're hearing in these interviews, how the families are responding to having members either killed or taken prisoner." KIEWE: "It's fairly interesting and it's fairly consistent, and it is in a way a reflection of the rhetoric of war that we started focusing on earlier. The parents, in particular, are proud of their kids, whether they have been killed or been imprisoned. 'They were good kids,' is the statement. 'They are brave.' 'They're good Americans,' 'they believe in this country,' 'they're patriotic.' The same language that you hear, on the one hand, from the President and the political elite is reflected in the language of the families." RS: Amos Kiewe, director of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University, speaking to us earlier this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": March 27, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster – the rhetoric of war. RS: Professor Amos Kiewe is director of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University in New York State. He says research on the rhetoric of war shows that the language conforms to a pattern. KIEWE: “That no matter who is the president or whatever the war may be, it is primarily the rhetoric of patriotism, it is the rhetoric of values -- in the sense that patriotism is a value -- and it is the rhetoric that often functions by creating a dichotomy between 'us' and 'them.'" AA: "Now, interestingly, the one thing you don't tend to hear in American rhetoric is the sort of, I guess, the colorful or more graphic language that you hear, for example, in Saddam's speech on television [broadcast March 24] in which he talked about cutting the throats of the enemy." KIEWE: "That is correct. And here you are talking about things that are not universal but are very cultural, and that may explain why it gets to be a bit more vicious, if you wish, whereas our is more measured." RS: "You're talking about Western rhetoric." KIEWE: "Yes, Western and American rhetoric of war. I think that that is out of character for us to talk about cutting other people's throats or seeing blood flow in the street. That clearly does not come from our historical experience." AA: "Now I suppose some would argue that when you keep emotion out of what you're saying, when you refer to injuries to civilians as 'collateral damage' or terms like that, that you are ... " RS: "Distancing yourself." AA: " -- distancing yourself from it and putting a cold cover over what you are really talking about." KIEWE: "It is indeed part of the motivation, because language is the perspective, is the window through which we see reality. So if you use the language that distances, then language is metaphorical and it allows you to be somewhat detached from the harshness, the reality, the brutality of war. But in another culture, that would be the opposite. They may use embellished language precisely to do the opposite, to generate hatred or to generate support that could not be possible with logical language." AA: "Now let me ask you a question, as the images have been coming from Iraq of dead American soldiers and prisoners and so forth, have you detected any change in the political rhetoric coming from politicians or from military leaders? Has there been a different tone in reaction to public reaction to these images?" KIEWE: "Not yet. I was thinking about this, and I was waiting to see. But I think that, at least Democrats who oppose the war, are careful not to be quick to now criticize the President three, four, five days into the war, only because for the last three days we have seen prisoners of war. I think that they are cautious. Not that they are not seeing it or feeling it, but they are being cautious. "I would say that the only place where I see this affecting is the media, the vehicle that actually carries the pictures. The time given by major networks to the story of the dead and the prisoners of war -- that tells me that there is a lot of sensitivity to any individual who has been killed or who has been imprisoned. And this kind of sensitivity can change public opinion." AA: "And if you could just describe the sort of language you're hearing in these interviews, how the families are responding to having members either killed or taken prisoner." KIEWE: "It's fairly interesting and it's fairly consistent, and it is in a way a reflection of the rhetoric of war that we started focusing on earlier. The parents, in particular, are proud of their kids, whether they have been killed or been imprisoned. 'They were good kids,' is the statement. 'They are brave.' 'They're good Americans,' 'they believe in this country,' 'they're patriotic.' The same language that you hear, on the one hand, from the President and the political elite is reflected in the language of the families." RS: Amos Kiewe, director of the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University, speaking to us earlier this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - March 23, 2003: Level of Fighting Increases
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Military action in Iraq has reached a new level. The military commanders leading "Operation Iraqi Freedom" are now using intense bombing and missile attacks on Iraqi targets. VOA reporter Alex Belida says the military has decided to use a heavy bombing campaign. The campaign is being called “shock and awe.” The decision to use the “shock and awe” campaign was made after efforts failed to force the Iraqi leadership to surrender. United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s government is beginning to lose its hold on power. The American Defense Department hopes that intense air strikes will cause the government to surrender. The American military is using radio broadcasts, communications with Iraqi commanders and printed materials dropped from airplanes. Reports say hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have surrendered. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld says he thinks that more Iraqis will surrender as military activity increases. However, one high-level Defense Department official says there has been some resistance. The official said not all Iraqis may welcome American and British troops. For the first time, United States Army General Tommy Franks spoke to reporters Saturday about the conflict in Iraq. General Franks heads the United States Central Command. He planned the strikes against Iraq with Mister Rumsfeld. General Franks said war in Iraq “will be unlike any other in history.” He said such high-technology weapons have never been combined with such a large armed force. General Franks said the military action is designed to remove President Saddam Hussein from power. Another goal, he said, was to control Iraqi weapons of great destruction. General Franks said he was sure these weapons exist in Iraq. However, he said he did not know how long it would take to identify and control the weapons. General Franks is fifty-seven-years old. He has been in the Army since he was twenty years old. He served in Vietnam and received three medals. In nineteen-seventy-one, he finished studies in business at the University of Texas. He continued serving in the army, where he commanded troops in Germany in the nineteen-eighties. He took part in the Gulf War. Later in the nineteen-nineties, he commanded troops in South Korea. General Franks became commander-in-chief of the United States Central Command in June of two-thousand. His friends include King Abdullah of Jordan and the presidents of Egypt and Pakistan. Tommy Franks was born in nineteen-forty-five in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. He grew up in Midland, Texas. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - March 24, 2003: International Aid for Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report about international efforts to provide aid to the people of Iraq. International aid groups have already begun to help. The International Committee of the Red Cross is in Iraq. Red Cross officials have visited hospitals in Baghdad to help treat wounded Iraqi citizens. The Red Cross has also provided medical supplies and other equipment, such as devices needed to make clean water for hospitals. Red Cross teams are also working in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. They are providing aid for several hundred of the thousands of Kurds near the Iranian border. A Red Cross spokesman said their teams already have helped about six-hundred people in the north. The Red Cross spokesman also said the organization has already placed supplies on trucks in several countries. The trucks are ready to transport aid to where it is needed. The Red Cross spokesman said that no aid trucks have crossed the Iraqi border since the fighting began. The spokesman also said his organization would be negotiating with countries involved in the conflict in an effort to provide a continuing supply of needed aid. Aid workers are also preparing refugee camps along the borders of Iraq. They say most people seeking aid have been foreign workers, and not Iraqi citizens. The aid workers said most of these people have gathered near the Jordanian town of Ruweishid, about forty kilometers west of the border with Iraq. The foreign workers were being been helped back to their home countries. Aid officials say they are ready for more refugees but their real concern is providing food for those still in Iraq. The United Nations oil-for-food program supplied almost sixty percent of the food needed for the Iraqi people. The U-N suspended the program when its workers left Iraq March seventeenth. U-N officials say they plan to begin a huge humanitarian effort to aid the country, including huge amounts of food. Other countries are also making plans to send help. The United States said last week that it is immediately sending two-hundred-thousand tons of grain to Iraq. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - America at War
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE This week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA -- America at war. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with Steve Ember. (THEME) VOICE TWO: After the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one, something new appeared in America. Suddenly, people saw National Guard troops deployed at airports and other places. Many Americans commented on how unusual it was to see armed soldiers in public. Soldiers are generally barred from duties as police or security forces in America. The writers of the Constitution feared that the government might use the military to suppress opposition. But the events of September eleventh were themselves new. Hijackers had just used airplanes to kill three-thousand people at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Since then, National Guard troops have helped protect other possible targets. Last week, the California National Guard set up a lab to test for chemical or biological weapons at the Academy Awards in Hollywood. VOICE ONE: The National Guard is a reserve organization of the Army and Air Force. Most of these part-time soldiers hold civilian jobs. These men and women are often called "citizen soldiers" or "weekend warriors." State governments use National Guard members to help during events like floods, earthquakes and riots. The federal government also deploys them to serve in wars, including the war in Iraq. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Who serves in America’s military? There are laborers and office workers. Doctors and lawyers. Engineers and musicians. They belong to different races, ethnic groups and religions. But all share one thing in common. They have all volunteered. They were not ordered to serve. The United States first went to war in seventeen-seventy-five, a year before its independence. The Revolutionary War between the American colonists and the British continued for several years. In seventeen-ninety, Congress defeated a proposal for every able man to take part in the military. America chose to have a volunteer army during peacetime. But in times of war, the military could hold a draft. VOICE ONE: During the eighteen-sixties, both the federal government and the Confederate states of the South drafted men to fight in the Civil War. For World War One, in the early nineteen-hundreds, the United States drafted almost three-million men. For World War Two, about ten-million were called to duty. That draft began in nineteen-forty, even as the United States resisted entry into the war. Then came December seventh, nineteen-forty-one. Japan launched a surprise attack on the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next war came in nineteen-fifty. North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The United Nations Security Council ordered military action to aid the South. The United States drafted about two-million men. The Korean War lasted three years. VOICE TWO: Then came Vietnam. The United States fought to defend the south from the Communist forces in the north. The American military drafted almost two-million men between nineteen-sixty five and nineteen-seventy-three. As the war went on, it became increasingly unpopular in America. Anti-war activists protested in the streets and on college campuses. They protested at the White House, the Capitol and many other places. Some of this anger centered on the way men were being drafted. There were charges of unfairness. College students, for example, were not called to active duty. VOICE ONE: Some Americans refused to fight. Young men burned their draft documents in public. Some draft resisters went to prison. Many fled to Canada. In nineteen-sixty-nine, public pressure forced a change in the rules for the draft. The military started a lottery system -- in other words, a game of chance -- based on birth dates. Officials said this would be a fair way to decide who might end up in Vietnam. Today, eighteen-year-old men are required to sign up for possible service in case of a new draft. But the military depends on volunteers to join the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. These include thousands of women. About fifteen percent of the military is now female. Some have died in battle. But women still cannot serve as fighting soldiers. Debate continues over the idea of women in combat. VOICE TWO: Some people disapprove of an all-volunteer military. Charles Rangel fought in Korea. Today Mister Rangel is a congressman from New York, a Democrat. He says too many of those responsible for America's defense are poor and members of minority groups. Mister Rangel, who is black, points to a congressional vote last year to give President Bush permission to use force against Iraq. He says only a few of those who voted for the resolution even have children in the military. And all but one of those children, he adds, are officers. In January, Mister Rangel proposed to renew the draft. He says all Americans should share the worries and risks of military service. The Defense Department opposes the idea of a new draft. It argues that minorities have moved up in the military. It also says they are represented in numbers similar to their numbers in society. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In recent months, many American families have said goodbye to a husband and father, or a wife and mother, called to service. These families must learn to deal with their new situation. For example, a businessman in Arlington, Virginia, belongs to the National Guard. A few weeks ago, the military ordered him to active duty. His service pay is not nearly as much as he received as a civilian. His wife says she is not sure she can earn enough money to make their house payment each month. Congress has recently moved to help troops in the Persian Gulf with costs at home, including child care. A young teacher and Marine from Miami, Florida, was just told to get ready for duty outside the country. He worries that his two-year-old son will not recognize him when he comes back. Or, as the man says, IF he comes back. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-ninety-one Persian Gulf War, the news media criticized American military restrictions on reporters. This time the Defense Department tried something new. It placed more than five-hundred reporters from around the world with forces in the Gulf. "Embedded" is the official term. The reporters -- including two from VOA-TV -- received special training from the military. They must also obey the orders of commanding officers. VOICE ONE: Embedded correspondents have provided live reports from troops under fire and on the move. Embedding should provide a more complete, and truthful, recording of events. That is the reasoning. But some reporters said this new system would also give the government a better chance to control their work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As Americans watched the war in Iraq develop, public opinion studies found that at least seven out of ten people supported it. But big protests also took place in New York and other major American cities. In recent months, more than ninety cities passed resolutions that said the money for the war should go for social programs instead. These cities included Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: But thousands of people who support the war have held their own demonstrations around the country. Even some Americans who oppose the war say they want to show support for their troops. Even Hollywood, with its many proud liberals, appeared conflicted. Last week, at the Academy Awards, filmmaker Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the war in Iraq. Some people in the audience welcomed his comments with cheers, but others booed in disapproval. In any case, it is hard to argue with the words of a retired farmer from Chesterton, Indiana. Almost sixty years ago, he lied about his age so he could join the Navy and fight in World War Two. Today, he says, “I think most people in this country believe the best war is one that is over.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report on life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: March 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE This week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA -- America at war. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with Steve Ember. (THEME) VOICE TWO: After the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one, something new appeared in America. Suddenly, people saw National Guard troops deployed at airports and other places. Many Americans commented on how unusual it was to see armed soldiers in public. Soldiers are generally barred from duties as police or security forces in America. The writers of the Constitution feared that the government might use the military to suppress opposition. But the events of September eleventh were themselves new. Hijackers had just used airplanes to kill three-thousand people at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Since then, National Guard troops have helped protect other possible targets. Last week, the California National Guard set up a lab to test for chemical or biological weapons at the Academy Awards in Hollywood. VOICE ONE: The National Guard is a reserve organization of the Army and Air Force. Most of these part-time soldiers hold civilian jobs. These men and women are often called "citizen soldiers" or "weekend warriors." State governments use National Guard members to help during events like floods, earthquakes and riots. The federal government also deploys them to serve in wars, including the war in Iraq. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Who serves in America’s military? There are laborers and office workers. Doctors and lawyers. Engineers and musicians. They belong to different races, ethnic groups and religions. But all share one thing in common. They have all volunteered. They were not ordered to serve. The United States first went to war in seventeen-seventy-five, a year before its independence. The Revolutionary War between the American colonists and the British continued for several years. In seventeen-ninety, Congress defeated a proposal for every able man to take part in the military. America chose to have a volunteer army during peacetime. But in times of war, the military could hold a draft. VOICE ONE: During the eighteen-sixties, both the federal government and the Confederate states of the South drafted men to fight in the Civil War. For World War One, in the early nineteen-hundreds, the United States drafted almost three-million men. For World War Two, about ten-million were called to duty. That draft began in nineteen-forty, even as the United States resisted entry into the war. Then came December seventh, nineteen-forty-one. Japan launched a surprise attack on the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next war came in nineteen-fifty. North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The United Nations Security Council ordered military action to aid the South. The United States drafted about two-million men. The Korean War lasted three years. VOICE TWO: Then came Vietnam. The United States fought to defend the south from the Communist forces in the north. The American military drafted almost two-million men between nineteen-sixty five and nineteen-seventy-three. As the war went on, it became increasingly unpopular in America. Anti-war activists protested in the streets and on college campuses. They protested at the White House, the Capitol and many other places. Some of this anger centered on the way men were being drafted. There were charges of unfairness. College students, for example, were not called to active duty. VOICE ONE: Some Americans refused to fight. Young men burned their draft documents in public. Some draft resisters went to prison. Many fled to Canada. In nineteen-sixty-nine, public pressure forced a change in the rules for the draft. The military started a lottery system -- in other words, a game of chance -- based on birth dates. Officials said this would be a fair way to decide who might end up in Vietnam. Today, eighteen-year-old men are required to sign up for possible service in case of a new draft. But the military depends on volunteers to join the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. These include thousands of women. About fifteen percent of the military is now female. Some have died in battle. But women still cannot serve as fighting soldiers. Debate continues over the idea of women in combat. VOICE TWO: Some people disapprove of an all-volunteer military. Charles Rangel fought in Korea. Today Mister Rangel is a congressman from New York, a Democrat. He says too many of those responsible for America's defense are poor and members of minority groups. Mister Rangel, who is black, points to a congressional vote last year to give President Bush permission to use force against Iraq. He says only a few of those who voted for the resolution even have children in the military. And all but one of those children, he adds, are officers. In January, Mister Rangel proposed to renew the draft. He says all Americans should share the worries and risks of military service. The Defense Department opposes the idea of a new draft. It argues that minorities have moved up in the military. It also says they are represented in numbers similar to their numbers in society. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In recent months, many American families have said goodbye to a husband and father, or a wife and mother, called to service. These families must learn to deal with their new situation. For example, a businessman in Arlington, Virginia, belongs to the National Guard. A few weeks ago, the military ordered him to active duty. His service pay is not nearly as much as he received as a civilian. His wife says she is not sure she can earn enough money to make their house payment each month. Congress has recently moved to help troops in the Persian Gulf with costs at home, including child care. A young teacher and Marine from Miami, Florida, was just told to get ready for duty outside the country. He worries that his two-year-old son will not recognize him when he comes back. Or, as the man says, IF he comes back. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-ninety-one Persian Gulf War, the news media criticized American military restrictions on reporters. This time the Defense Department tried something new. It placed more than five-hundred reporters from around the world with forces in the Gulf. "Embedded" is the official term. The reporters -- including two from VOA-TV -- received special training from the military. They must also obey the orders of commanding officers. VOICE ONE: Embedded correspondents have provided live reports from troops under fire and on the move. Embedding should provide a more complete, and truthful, recording of events. That is the reasoning. But some reporters said this new system would also give the government a better chance to control their work. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As Americans watched the war in Iraq develop, public opinion studies found that at least seven out of ten people supported it. But big protests also took place in New York and other major American cities. In recent months, more than ninety cities passed resolutions that said the money for the war should go for social programs instead. These cities included Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: But thousands of people who support the war have held their own demonstrations around the country. Even some Americans who oppose the war say they want to show support for their troops. Even Hollywood, with its many proud liberals, appeared conflicted. Last week, at the Academy Awards, filmmaker Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the war in Iraq. Some people in the audience welcomed his comments with cheers, but others booed in disapproval. In any case, it is hard to argue with the words of a retired farmer from Chesterton, Indiana. Almost sixty years ago, he lied about his age so he could join the Navy and fight in World War Two. Today, he says, “I think most people in this country believe the best war is one that is over.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report on life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Jackie Robinson
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 30, 2003 (THEME) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about a man who changed professional baseball in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was the first black man to play in modern Major League baseball. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, many Americans still believed that people of different races should not mix. In some parts of the country, blacks and whites lived in separate areas and went to separate schools. Blacks who tried to change the system risked being beaten or killed. Blacks were not permitted to play on professional baseball teams or in any other major league sport. No black man had played for a major league baseball team since Eighteen-Eighty-Four. In that year, American baseball organizations agreed to bar blacks. That began changing when Jackie Robinson played his first game for New York's Brooklyn Dodgers on April Fifteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson grew up in a family of five children in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles. His father had left. His mother did not earn much money, so Jackie Robinson learned to make his own way in life. It was in California that Jackie Robinson first learned the ugliness of racial hatred. White families who did not want to live near them repeatedly tried to force them to move away. Jackie Robinson established himself early as an athlete. He was a star player while attending the University of California at Los Angeles. Jackie won honors in baseball, basketball, football and track. He was named to the All-American football team. He was considered the best athlete on America's west coast. Jackie Robinson left college early because of financial problems. He joined the United States Army in Nineteen-Forty-One, during the second World War. He became a lieutenant after boxing champion Joe Louis pushed for Robinson to be trained as an officer. However, after three years, Robinson was dismissed from the army because he objected to a racial order. He refused to move to the back of a bus. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Five, there were not many jobs open to a black man, even someone who had attended college. Robinson wanted to play professional baseball. Blacks, however, were not permitted to play in the major leagues. So, he decided to play with the Negro Baseball League. The Negro League teams were started in the Nineteen-Twenties to give black people a place to play baseball. Many of the best baseball players in the United States played in the Negro Leagues before white professional teams began accepting black players. The skills and records of black ball players were as good as major league white players. It was a hard life for Negro League players. They took long trips by bus. They changed clothes in farmhouses and shared bath water with teammates. Many eating places did not serve food to blacks. They had to eat outside or on the road. And they were not permitted to sleep at hotels for whites. Many players slept on the bus. VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs. It was one of the most famous baseball teams in the Negro League. But, he was unhappy in the Negro League because of the difficult life there. In a statement from the book “The History of Baseball, Nineteen-Oh-Seven,” actor Ossie Davis expresses hope for change in the sport. OSSIE DAVIS: "Baseball should be taken seriously by the colored player -- and in this effort of his great ability will open the avenue in the near future wherein he may walk hand in hand with the opposite race in the greatest of all American games -- baseball." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Five, Jackie Robinson signed an agreement with Branch Rickey to play for the Dodgers. Rickey was president of the team. He wanted to find a black player who could deal with the insults and racial pressure he would face in the league. He wanted a black player who would show restraint at all times. Rickey thought Jackie Robinson was good enough as a player and strong enough as a person to succeed. He made Robinson promise that he would never show his anger on the baseball field. Jackie Robinson accepted that condition. He said: JACKIE ROBINSON: "I knew that I was going to be somewhat out front and perhaps, I would have to take a lot of abuse. I knew that this was bigger than any one individual and I would have to do whatever I possibly could to control myself." VOICE TWO: Some observers said that Jackie Robinson was not the best player in the Negro Leagues. Others said that he was chosen for his communications skills and educational level and because he was an established sports star. VOICE TWO: David Faulkner wrote a book about Robinson's life. It is called “Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham.” In it, he talks about the end of racial divisions in baseball. DAVID FAULKNER: "For many years, there had been an active campaign against segregated baseball led by Negro newspaper editors and, strangely enough, by the Communist party, which from the middle Nineteen-Thirties on, had actively campaigned against segregated baseball. There were a number of pending bills in different legislatures challenging fair employment practices. By Nineteen-Forty-Five, there was a lot of heat in a lot of different areas -- professional baseball was certainly feeling that. Robinson in a sense was the right person at the right time." VOICE ONE: Shortly after Jackie Robinson signed the agreement with the Dodgers, he married Rachel Isum. They had three children. It was important to Branch Rickey that Jackie Robinson be married. He thought that the public would accept Robinson more quickly if he was married. He thought that it would lessen the fears of white men that white women would find Robinson desirable. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers' minor league Canadian team, the Montreal Royals. During that time, Branch Rickey tested Robinson's ability to deal with racial pressure he would face in the major league. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Jackie Robinson became the first black to play modern major league baseball. He played for the Dodger's major league team, New York's Brooklyn Dodgers. In doing so, the pressure increased. He received death threats on and off the field. During games, pitchers threw the ball at his head. Several teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. And, some of his own team members tried to have him banned from the team. It was not easy for Robinson on road trips, either. He was never permitted to stay at the same hotels or eat in the same places as his white team members. VOICE ONE: Jackie Robinson had difficulty on and off the baseball field, but he did not let that interfere with his game. He was a great player and leader, winning the National League's Most Valuable Player award in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. He also led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six league championships and to baseball's World Series Championship in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. Jackie Robinson helped show that blacks and whites could live, work and play together. He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint. Robinson's success opened the door for other black athletes to play on all-white professional teams. Soon, other blacks began to appear on major-league teams. By the end of the Nineteen-Fifties, every major league team had black and Hispanic players. VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in Nineteen-Fifty-Six at the age of thirty-seven. He became a businessman, a political activist and a strong supporter of civil rights. In Nineteen-Sixty-Two, Jackie Robinson was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, an honor given only to baseball's best players. He died in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He was fifty-three years old. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: March 30, 2003 (THEME) ANNOUNCER: Welcome to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about a man who changed professional baseball in the United States. Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was the first black man to play in modern Major League baseball. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After World War Two, many Americans still believed that people of different races should not mix. In some parts of the country, blacks and whites lived in separate areas and went to separate schools. Blacks who tried to change the system risked being beaten or killed. Blacks were not permitted to play on professional baseball teams or in any other major league sport. No black man had played for a major league baseball team since Eighteen-Eighty-Four. In that year, American baseball organizations agreed to bar blacks. That began changing when Jackie Robinson played his first game for New York's Brooklyn Dodgers on April Fifteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson grew up in a family of five children in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles. His father had left. His mother did not earn much money, so Jackie Robinson learned to make his own way in life. It was in California that Jackie Robinson first learned the ugliness of racial hatred. White families who did not want to live near them repeatedly tried to force them to move away. Jackie Robinson established himself early as an athlete. He was a star player while attending the University of California at Los Angeles. Jackie won honors in baseball, basketball, football and track. He was named to the All-American football team. He was considered the best athlete on America's west coast. Jackie Robinson left college early because of financial problems. He joined the United States Army in Nineteen-Forty-One, during the second World War. He became a lieutenant after boxing champion Joe Louis pushed for Robinson to be trained as an officer. However, after three years, Robinson was dismissed from the army because he objected to a racial order. He refused to move to the back of a bus. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Five, there were not many jobs open to a black man, even someone who had attended college. Robinson wanted to play professional baseball. Blacks, however, were not permitted to play in the major leagues. So, he decided to play with the Negro Baseball League. The Negro League teams were started in the Nineteen-Twenties to give black people a place to play baseball. Many of the best baseball players in the United States played in the Negro Leagues before white professional teams began accepting black players. The skills and records of black ball players were as good as major league white players. It was a hard life for Negro League players. They took long trips by bus. They changed clothes in farmhouses and shared bath water with teammates. Many eating places did not serve food to blacks. They had to eat outside or on the road. And they were not permitted to sleep at hotels for whites. Many players slept on the bus. VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs. It was one of the most famous baseball teams in the Negro League. But, he was unhappy in the Negro League because of the difficult life there. In a statement from the book “The History of Baseball, Nineteen-Oh-Seven,” actor Ossie Davis expresses hope for change in the sport. OSSIE DAVIS: "Baseball should be taken seriously by the colored player -- and in this effort of his great ability will open the avenue in the near future wherein he may walk hand in hand with the opposite race in the greatest of all American games -- baseball." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Five, Jackie Robinson signed an agreement with Branch Rickey to play for the Dodgers. Rickey was president of the team. He wanted to find a black player who could deal with the insults and racial pressure he would face in the league. He wanted a black player who would show restraint at all times. Rickey thought Jackie Robinson was good enough as a player and strong enough as a person to succeed. He made Robinson promise that he would never show his anger on the baseball field. Jackie Robinson accepted that condition. He said: JACKIE ROBINSON: "I knew that I was going to be somewhat out front and perhaps, I would have to take a lot of abuse. I knew that this was bigger than any one individual and I would have to do whatever I possibly could to control myself." VOICE TWO: Some observers said that Jackie Robinson was not the best player in the Negro Leagues. Others said that he was chosen for his communications skills and educational level and because he was an established sports star. VOICE TWO: David Faulkner wrote a book about Robinson's life. It is called “Great Time Coming: The Life of Jackie Robinson from Baseball to Birmingham.” In it, he talks about the end of racial divisions in baseball. DAVID FAULKNER: "For many years, there had been an active campaign against segregated baseball led by Negro newspaper editors and, strangely enough, by the Communist party, which from the middle Nineteen-Thirties on, had actively campaigned against segregated baseball. There were a number of pending bills in different legislatures challenging fair employment practices. By Nineteen-Forty-Five, there was a lot of heat in a lot of different areas -- professional baseball was certainly feeling that. Robinson in a sense was the right person at the right time." VOICE ONE: Shortly after Jackie Robinson signed the agreement with the Dodgers, he married Rachel Isum. They had three children. It was important to Branch Rickey that Jackie Robinson be married. He thought that the public would accept Robinson more quickly if he was married. He thought that it would lessen the fears of white men that white women would find Robinson desirable. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers' minor league Canadian team, the Montreal Royals. During that time, Branch Rickey tested Robinson's ability to deal with racial pressure he would face in the major league. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Jackie Robinson became the first black to play modern major league baseball. He played for the Dodger's major league team, New York's Brooklyn Dodgers. In doing so, the pressure increased. He received death threats on and off the field. During games, pitchers threw the ball at his head. Several teams threatened not to play against the Dodgers. And, some of his own team members tried to have him banned from the team. It was not easy for Robinson on road trips, either. He was never permitted to stay at the same hotels or eat in the same places as his white team members. VOICE ONE: Jackie Robinson had difficulty on and off the baseball field, but he did not let that interfere with his game. He was a great player and leader, winning the National League's Most Valuable Player award in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. He also led the Brooklyn Dodgers to six league championships and to baseball's World Series Championship in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. Jackie Robinson helped show that blacks and whites could live, work and play together. He became a national hero to both black and white Americans because of his skill, bravery and restraint. Robinson's success opened the door for other black athletes to play on all-white professional teams. Soon, other blacks began to appear on major-league teams. By the end of the Nineteen-Fifties, every major league team had black and Hispanic players. VOICE TWO: Jackie Robinson retired from baseball in Nineteen-Fifty-Six at the age of thirty-seven. He became a businessman, a political activist and a strong supporter of civil rights. In Nineteen-Sixty-Two, Jackie Robinson was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame, an honor given only to baseball's best players. He died in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He was fifty-three years old. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. The announcers were Shirley Griffith and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-03/a-2003-03-28-5-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - March 29, 2003: Russia / Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Background Report. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin again called on the United States to end the war in Iraq. He said the only way to solve what he called "the Iraqi problem" is to renew diplomatic efforts. But Russia has its own diplomatic problem with the United States. This involves reported sales of military equipment to Iraq by Russian companies. The Bush administration says one company sold devices that could interfere with positioning signals from satellites. American-led forces use these signals to guide bombs and missiles. The United States says two other Russian companies sold anti-tank missiles and devices that help soldiers see at night. Bush administration officials say they had tried for months to get the Russian government to act. Then, last Sunday, the United States went public with its protests. The next day, Presidents Bush and Putin discussed the issue by telephone. Mister Putin said his government had investigated the reports of military sales. He dismissed the accusations. Later, the Russian president said the dispute could damage relations with the United States. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States had just given Russia new intelligence information. He told Congress that this evidence about military sales had been gathered since the war began. Mister Powell said Russia promised to fully investigate the new information. He said the issue, if not settled, could become what he called a "major difficulty" in American-Russian relations. In the past, American officials have described better relations with Russia as an important success for the administration. But Russia is not part of what the administration calls the "coalition of the willing" in the fight to disarm Iraq and remove its leader, Saddam Hussein. On Friday, President Putin said the world faces its most serious crisis since the end of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union. He said countries must act to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Iraq. In Iraq Friday, the first ships arrived with aid in the port of Umm Qasr. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Preeclampsia Study / A World Tuberculosis Campaign / Research About 'Spiritual Realities'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 1, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program Science in the News. VOICE TWO: This week -- new findings about the cause of a dangerous condition during pregnancy ... a new campaign to fight tuberculosis ... and a report on the winner of a big prize for research about "spiritual realities." (THEME) VOICE ONE: Scientists have linked a protein to the condition during pregnancy called preeclampsia [PRE-ee-CLAMP-see-ah]. Preeclampsia limits the flow of blood and oxygen to the baby. This disease affects between five and eight percent of pregnancies. It is the leading cause of death for pregnant women around the world. It is also a major cause of death in newborn babies in developing countries. That is because, as treatment to save the mother, babies are often delivered before they have fully developed. What causes preeclampsia has been a mystery with much debate. Earlier studies linked the placenta to the disease. The placenta is the organ that unites the mother with the baby and provides air and food. However, questions remained about what happened within the placenta to cause preeclampsia. VOICE TWO: This new study looked for the molecular structure of the condition. Researchers at the Harvard School of Medicine and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston did the study. They compared gene activity in the placentas of healthy pregnant women to those of women with preeclampsia. The researchers discovered that the women with preeclampsia produced more of one kind of protein. The name is soluble f-m-s-like tyrosine kinase one -- or, simply, S-F-L-T-one. Early in pregnancy, the placenta makes proteins to keep it growing along with the baby. Normally, the blood supply to the placenta increases to provide more oxygen and nutrients. In preeclampsia, however, that blood supply is reduced. VOICE ONE: S-F-L-T-one is known to restrict the growth of blood vessels. This protein is believed to halt the growth of the placenta later in a normal pregnancy. But in preeclampsia cases, researchers suspect that the body makes too much of the protein too soon. As a result, they say, extra S-F-L-T-one spills into the mother’s blood. In the study, these high amounts of the protein fell after birth. The researchers injected S-F-L-T-one into pregnant laboratory rats. They found that these animals did, in fact, develop signs of preeclampsia. The findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Health experts say the discovery could lead to new ways to identify and treat preeclampsia. VOICE TWO: Preeclampsia is also called toxemia. It generally happens after the twentieth week of pregnancy. Signs include high blood pressure and swelling of blood in the hands and feet and the face. Another sign is high levels of protein in the urine. Also, a woman may produce less liquid body waste. Other signs can include head and stomach pain, sudden weight gain, nausea, and flashing lights in the eyes. Doctors say women with preeclampsia should rest. Treatment may also include medicines to control blood pressure and prevent seizures. But experts say early delivery of the baby is often the best treatment. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. (MUSIC) The World Health Organization has started a yearlong campaign to fight tuberculosis. This campaign began with the observance of World Tuberculosis Day on March twenty-fourth. W-H-O officials have three goals. One is to educate people about tuberculosis. Another is to urge people to get tested if they see signs of the disease. And the third goal is to get people to seek treatment if they are infected. Tuberculosis is a disease caused by a bacteria that attacks the lungs but can also spread. Each year, two-million people die from T-B. Eight-million become sick. Developing countries suffer the most. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of the world’s population is infected with the T-B bacteria. However, most people never get the disease. Tuberculosis becomes active in only about ten percent of those infected. Still, in nineteen-ninety-three the W-H-O declared T-B a "global emergency." H-I-V has quickened the spread of tuberculosis. People with AIDS lose their body's defense system. Infected people can spread tuberculosis germs from their mouth when they cough or sneeze, when they spit, or even when they talk. Signs of the disease include coughing and a high body temperature. A person with active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt the progression of the disease. The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that T-B patients take all their medicine. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course, or DOTS. Health officials are working hard to expand it around the world. One aim is to fight the spread of drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. The W-H-O said last week that more than ten-million tuberculosis patients have now been successfully treated under DOTS. It says China and India have made a lot of progress in expanding their programs. Together these countries have almost forty percent of all T-B cases. However, the W-H-O says T-B continues to spread out of control in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. VOICE ONE: Currently, only about a third of all tuberculosis cases are discovered and treated within the DOTS program. Health exerts hope to greatly increase that number. They also hope to raise cure rates to eighty-five percent. By doing this, officials believe the number of deaths caused by tuberculosis could be cut in half by two-thousand ten. More than sixty countries planned major events to observe World Tuberculosis Day last week. The main message of this year’s W-H-O campaign was: “DOTS cured me – it will cure you too.” Health officials said they wanted to point out the success of the program and show the need to expand it. This effort includes what the W-H-O calls “T-B ambassadors.” These are people who have been cured and now share their stories with others. Officials say former patients like these make the best activists. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: An American who worked to develop an area of study called environmental ethics has won a major award. Holmes Rolston the Third is the winner of what was formerly called the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. It is now called the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. It is one of the world's richest awards, worth more than one-million dollars. British businessman John Templeton established the yearly award in nineteen-seventy-two to honor people for their work in religion. Other winners have included Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Mother Teresa. VOICE ONE: Holmes Rolston is considered a leading voice for protecting Earth’s environment as a religious duty. He is a Christian clergyman and a professor of philosophy at Colorado State University. Both his father and grandfather were clergymen. Mister Rolston was born in the state of Virginia in nineteen-thirty-two. He grew up in an area where he says people loved both nature and their religion. He studied physics and mathematics at Davidson College in North Carolina. Later he received a doctorate in theology and religious studies from the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. He also continued his search for a better understanding of nature. VOICE TWO: Mister Rolston became recognized for something he published in Ethics magazine in nineteen-seventy-five. He questioned the idea that nature was free of value, and that all value was created by humans. Mister Rolston argued that nature contains values independently of humans. He also said nature should be treated with honor, as a gift from God. In nineteen-seventy-nine, he helped to start the magazine Environmental Ethics. Today, it is a leading publication on this subject of values and the environment. He also has written a number of books. Holmes Rolston says he will use the money from the Templeton Prize to create a teaching position at Davidson College. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Jill Moss and George Grow, and was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - April 1, 2003: Afghanistan / Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. American troops are at war in two places -- Iraq and Afghanistan. In October of two-thousand-one, President Bush ordered strikes on Osama bin Laden's al Qaida organization and the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. This followed the al Qaida terrorist attacks against the United States at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September eleventh. By late December, the Taliban no longer held power in Kabul. A Western-supported government took its place. But fighting continues as troops search for remaining members of al Qaida and the Taliban. On Saturday, gunmen killed two American soldiers in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. The soldiers came under surprise attack as they inspected a school. These were the first American deaths in fighting in Afghanistan since December. The attack wounded a third American soldier and three Afghan soldiers. Also, there have been rocket attacks for almost two weeks against American and other forces of the coalition in the war on terrorism. A coalition spokesman in Afghanistan says the attacks may be connected to the war in Iraq. The International Security Assistance Force in Kabul says two rockets were fired at its bases on Sunday. A German spokesman for the force said the attacks appeared better planned than others so far. No one was hurt and damage was minor. Officials say they suspect fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar carried out the attacks. The rebel commander has threatened to overthrow the current government in Kabul and expel foreign troops from Afghanistan. Also on Sunday, two coalition bases came under attack, one near the border with Pakistan, the other south of Kabul. No damage was reported. Troops have not been the only targets. Last week, in southern Afghanistan, armed men killed a Red Cross water engineer. The killing worried other aid and development workers in Afghanistan. American-led forces say they completed two operations this month against the Taliban and al-Qaida. One took place in the Samighar mountains of Kandahar province in the south. The second took place in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. Officials say troops seized a number of suspects and several large supplies of weapons. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: March 30, 2003: Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. On Friday, the United Nations Security Council voted to approve a resolution restarting the oil-for-food program for Iraq. However, the Security Council made some changes to the resolution that created the program. The Security Council gave U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan more power to administer the operations of the plan for the next forty-five days. The oil-for-food program permits Iraq to use part of its oil profits to buy food and medicine. It provides food for sixty-percent of Iraq’s population of more than twenty-seven million people. The U-N temporarily halted the program on March seventeenth. On that date, the Secretary General Annan ordered the withdrawal of all U-N employees from Iraq. The new resolution gives the U-N Secretary-General the power to reconsider sales agreements that already have been approved. It permits Mister Annan to seek new sales agreements for medical supplies. It also provides for new places to receive emergency supplies. The resolution must be re-approved in forty-five days. Germany’s Ambassador to the U-N, Gunter Pleuger, leads the committee that supervises the oil-for-food program. He said he was satisfied with the new resolution. He said the resolution includes requirements for occupying countries involved in the war. It also calls for much more aid for the Iraqi people. All fifteen members of the Security Council voted for the resolution. Ambassador Pleuger also noted that the resolution did not give the U-N secretary-general the power to negotiate future oil-sales agreements. He said the goal of the current agreement was to provide aid that was already meant for the Iraqi people. The oil-for-food program was started by a Security Council resolution in April, nineteen-ninety-five. The U-N established the Office of the Iraq Programme in October, nineteen-ninety-seven. The oil-for-food program has approved more than forty-four-thousand-million dollars in sales agreements since it began. Almost twenty-seven-thousand-million dollars in aid has been transported to Iraq. More than ten-thousand million dollars in aid is waiting to be sent to the country. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: March 31, 2003: International Criminal Court
* Byline: 

 This is a Special English background report. Last month, eighteen judges were sworn in as members of the new International Criminal Court. The ceremonies took place March eleventh in the Dutch Parliament at The Hague. The court’s task will be to provide justice for those accused of mass murder, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The purpose of the International Criminal Court is to provide victims with somewhere to go to seek justice when national systems fail. The idea of an International Criminal Court began after World War Two with the trials of Nazi and Japanese war criminals. The idea gained support during United Nations trials of those accused of crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Legal experts say the Geneva Conventions control how prisoners of war are freed or held for trial. Eighty-nine nations so far have signed documents supporting the court. These nations do NOT include China, Russia, India, Iraq and the United States. The United States opposes the International Criminal Court. It says it plans to deal with accused war criminals itself rather than permitting trials by any international court. Legal experts say the United States could hold trials of suspected war criminals using the military justice system or by using traditional courts. In either system, military officers would try the prisoner. United States law permits such a court to enforce a sentence of death for those found guilty of serious crimes. American military officers have been told to collect details of crimes in Iraq such as killing or torturing prisoners of war. The Bush Administration already has a list of about twelve Iraqi officials including Saddam Hussein and his two sons who may be charged with crimes. Military experts have said two-hundred party leaders and security officials could also be included. President Bush has said such war criminals will be captured and judged severely. The administration has ruled out trails in the International Criminal Court. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: April 1, 2003: Afghanistan/Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. American troops are at war in two places -- Iraq and Afghanistan. In October of two-thousand-one, President Bush ordered strikes on Osama bin Laden's al Qaida organization and the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan. This followed the al Qaida terrorist attacks against the United States at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September eleventh. By late December, the Taliban no longer held power in Kabul. A Western-supported government took its place. But fighting continues as troops search for remaining members of al Qaida and the Taliban. On Saturday, gunmen killed two American soldiers in the southern Afghan province of Helmand. The soldiers came under surprise attack as they inspected a school. These were the first American deaths in fighting in Afghanistan since December. The attack wounded a third American soldier and three Afghan soldiers. Also, there have been rocket attacks for almost two weeks against American and other forces of the coalition in the war on terrorism. A coalition spokesman in Afghanistan says the attacks may be connected to the war in Iraq. The International Security Assistance Force in Kabul says two rockets were fired at its bases on Sunday. A German spokesman for the force said the attacks appeared better planned than others so far. No one was hurt and damage was minor. Officials say they suspect fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar carried out the attacks. The rebel commander has threatened to overthrow the current government in Kabul and expel foreign troops from Afghanistan. Also on Sunday, two coalition bases came under attack, one near the border with Pakistan, the other south of Kabul. No damage was reported. Troops have not been the only targets. Last week, in southern Afghanistan, armed men killed a Red Cross water engineer. The killing worried other aid and development workers in Afghanistan. American-led forces say they completed two operations this month against the Taliban and al-Qaida. One took place in the Samighar mountains of Kandahar province in the south. The second took place in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan. Officials say troops seized a number of suspects and several large supplies of weapons. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: April 2, 2003: Laws of War, Rules of Engagement
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Among nations there are laws of war. These are based on international agreements developed over many years. Among soldiers there are rules of engagement. These are the rules that govern when soldiers can shoot at the enemy. Military lawyers and commanders design rules of engagement for each conflict. The rules may change as conditions change. Rules of engagement are not made public. But the United States says its soldiers all know what they are. On Monday, American troops killed seven Iraqi women and children in a vehicle at a military roadblock near Najaf. American military officials say the troops had fired warning shots but the driver did not stop. The shooting was under investigation. But officials said it appeared that the troops followed the rules of engagement to protect themselves. On Saturday a bomber had killed four American soldiers at a similar roadblock not far away. Some reports said the rules of engagement for vehicle searches changed as a result. A spokesman for the United States Central Command, however, said no such change was ordered. The spokesman said troops always have the right to defend themselves. But they must make every effort to warn civilians and keep them away from danger. News reports say the rules of engagement in Iraq include a ban on weapons fire in civilian areas or near religious buildings. Allied forces have accused Iraqi troops of placing military vehicles near schools and religious buildings to avoid attack. Some reports say coalition forces have eased the rules and may now fire at Iraqi troops even if they are near a school. The United States and Iraq have each accused the other of violating international laws of war. Such rules include protections for prisoners under the Geneva Conventions. They also include a ban on attacks by soldiers dressed as civilians. Iraqi officials say they must use methods like this to help their country defend itself. The laws of war ban other actions, such as false surrenders. They also ban targeting civilians as well as starting attacks that would likely result in civilian deaths and injuries. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-02-5-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 2, 2003: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: NASA Picture of Red Cloud in Jupiter's Atmosphere (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about an American astronaut who makes beautiful photographs of space and Earth from the International Space Station. We also tell about a recently discovered dark spot on the planet Jupiter. We report about efforts to produce low cost fuel. And we tell about a new space telescope to be launched April eighteenth. (THEME) NASA Astronaut Don Pettit This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about an American astronaut who makes beautiful photographs of space and Earth from the International Space Station. We also tell about a recently discovered dark spot on the planet Jupiter. We report about efforts to produce low cost fuel. And we tell about a new space telescope to be launched April eighteenth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The American Space Agency, NASA, expects to launch a new space telescope on April eighteenth. It will go into space on a Delta Two rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The new telescope is called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility. It will permit space scientists to see objects that are too cold, distant or covered by dust or clouds for other telescopes to see. The telescope searches the universe for objects that can only be seen by an infrared device that can see infrared light. Infrared light can not be seen by the human eye. British scientist Sir William Herschel discovered infrared radiation in eighteen-hundred. He did this by measuring the temperatures in the colors of solar light as they passed through a piece of glass called a prism. The area just beyond the visible red produced the highest temperature in his experiment. That is the area where there is no visible light. The discovery showed for the first time that there are forms of light which we cannot see with our eyes. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say the new telescope will make about twenty-thousand observations a year. It will look for the infrared radiation given off by objects deep in space. Earth’s atmosphere blocks the infrared radiation of such objects. The telescope can also see objects that are hidden in space by dust clouds or gas. The Space Infrared Telescope Facility will be the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. It will permit scientists to see into areas of space that are hidden from other telescopes. NASA says the telescope should be able to operate for about thirty months. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists have known for many years that if you mix oxygen and hydrogen fuel you can produce electric power. The device that does this is called a fuel cell. Oxygen and hydrogen are two of the most common elements found in nature. Combining oxygen and hydrogen in a fuel cell produces power without producing harmful waste. The only waste produced by a fuel cell is water. This waste product is so clean that astronauts on the space shuttle drink the water produced by fuel cells. The space shuttles are among the few devices that use fuel cells. NASA scientists are working on problems that must be solved before fuel cells will become common. When that happens, almost any device that needs electric power will be able to use a fuel cell. Fuel cells might be used to power cars, trucks, small computers and even the popular telephones that people carry with them. VOICE TWO: Several companies have already produced automobiles that are powered by fuel cells. However they are very costly to make. Another difficult problem with fuel cells is the extreme temperatures they produce. Fuel cells made today produce temperatures of one-thousand degrees Celsius. Because of this extreme heat, special materials must be used to build fuel cells. VOICE ONE: The Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials is part of the University of Houston. Researchers there hope to make a kind of fuel cell that will produce less than half the amount of heat produced by fuel cells used today. The Texas center says producing a fuel cell that can operate at cooler temperatures will be less costly. Researchers like those at the Texas Center are working on six different kinds of fuel cells. Each uses a different method to combine the hydrogen fuel with the oxygen to produce power. All the major automobile companies are developing fuel cell vehicles. They will test several kinds of fuel cells until they find the best one. In January, President Bush asked Congress to approve more than one-thousand-million dollars to help develop this new technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have been watching a huge object on the planet Jupiter for more than one-hundred years. It is a huge, long-lasting storm called the Great Red Spot. Scientists used to think it was the largest thing on Jupiter. However, images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have found something at least as large. NASA scientists are calling this new object the Great Dark Spot. Bob West is a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says he was completely surprised when he saw the dark object. He says it is dark cloud two times as big as Earth. It is moving around Jupiter’s North Pole. VOICE ONE: Mister West says he first saw evidence of the dark spot in an ultraviolet picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in nineteen-ninety-seven. But it only appeared in one image out of many that were taken by the Hubble over several years. Mister West says he did not know what the dark spot was then. Now he knows. He says the Cassini spacecraft could see Jupiter’s North Pole when it passed the large planet in two-thousand on its way to Saturn. Mister West said photographs sent by Cassini showed the dark spot moving in a circle and changing shape. He says the Cassini spacecraft was able to observe the huge cloud for eleven weeks. VOICE TWO: Mister West says the Cassini observations show that the Great Dark Spot and the Great Red Spot are very different. He says the Great Red Spot is deep within the atmosphere of Jupiter. It is a high pressure storm system far below Jupiter’s clouds. The Great Dark Spot is very high in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Mister West says the Great Dark Spot is trapped by fast-moving winds that circle Jupiter’s North Pole. The winds act like a wall, keeping the Great Dark Spot moving in one place. Mister West says that something similar can be found over Earth’s South Pole. Fast-moving winds there keep the ozone hole near the South Pole. Mister West says observing the Great Dark Spot could help scientists understand how these winds control huge objects. He says he would be very happy to have more pictures of Jupiter’s Great Dark Spot. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American Astronaut Don Pettit is extremely happy to be a member of the crew of the International Space Station. Mister Pettit has been living and working on the space station since November twenty-fifth, two-thousand. He is a member of the Expedition Six crew and the science officer. Most of the time Mister Pettit is involved in scientific experiments on the space station. However, when he is not working Mister Pettit likes to take photographs. Don Pettit says he always sees something interesting out the window of the space station. He takes photographs of distant stars, galaxies, and the Earth. In the past several weeks, he has been photographing auroras. Auroras are colorful lights in the sky. They are caused by electrons and protons from space that hit Earth’s atmosphere. This action produces red and green colors from oxygen and blue colors from nitrogen. These colors can been seen from Earth in the Northern Hemisphere. They are often called the Northern Lights. VOICE TWO: Mister Pettit says the auroras move slowly across the sky. He says they seem like huge crawling objects that are forever changing. They move, come and go. Sometimes they are topped by huge red structures shaped like feathers. Mister Pettit says the International Space Station flew through an aurora over Canada last January. He said, “The station was surrounded by a red fog. Just below were green rivers of light. I wanted to reach out the window and touch the light. But of course I could not.” VOICE ONE: The auroras are not all Mister Pettit has photographed. He has seen meteors or space rocks fall apart when they hit Earth’s atmosphere. He has also seen satellites and other man-made objects that have been left in space. Mister Pettit recently took some beautiful pictures of stars in the Southern Hemisphere. The stars are called the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Coal Sack Nebula and the Southern Cross. If you have a computer, you can see some of Astronaut Pettit’s photographs. Go to the Web site www.science.nasa.gov. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The American Space Agency, NASA, expects to launch a new space telescope on April eighteenth. It will go into space on a Delta Two rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The new telescope is called the Space Infrared Telescope Facility. It will permit space scientists to see objects that are too cold, distant or covered by dust or clouds for other telescopes to see. The telescope searches the universe for objects that can only be seen by an infrared device that can see infrared light. Infrared light can not be seen by the human eye. British scientist Sir William Herschel discovered infrared radiation in eighteen-hundred. He did this by measuring the temperatures in the colors of solar light as they passed through a piece of glass called a prism. The area just beyond the visible red produced the highest temperature in his experiment. That is the area where there is no visible light. The discovery showed for the first time that there are forms of light which we cannot see with our eyes. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say the new telescope will make about twenty-thousand observations a year. It will look for the infrared radiation given off by objects deep in space. Earth’s atmosphere blocks the infrared radiation of such objects. The telescope can also see objects that are hidden in space by dust clouds or gas. The Space Infrared Telescope Facility will be the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. It will permit scientists to see into areas of space that are hidden from other telescopes. NASA says the telescope should be able to operate for about thirty months. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Scientists have known for many years that if you mix oxygen and hydrogen fuel you can produce electric power. The device that does this is called a fuel cell. Oxygen and hydrogen are two of the most common elements found in nature. Combining oxygen and hydrogen in a fuel cell produces power without producing harmful waste. The only waste produced by a fuel cell is water. This waste product is so clean that astronauts on the space shuttle drink the water produced by fuel cells. The space shuttles are among the few devices that use fuel cells. NASA scientists are working on problems that must be solved before fuel cells will become common. When that happens, almost any device that needs electric power will be able to use a fuel cell. Fuel cells might be used to power cars, trucks, small computers and even the popular telephones that people carry with them. VOICE TWO: Several companies have already produced automobiles that are powered by fuel cells. However they are very costly to make. Another difficult problem with fuel cells is the extreme temperatures they produce. Fuel cells made today produce temperatures of one-thousand degrees Celsius. Because of this extreme heat, special materials must be used to build fuel cells. VOICE ONE: The Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials is part of the University of Houston. Researchers there hope to make a kind of fuel cell that will produce less than half the amount of heat produced by fuel cells used today. The Texas center says producing a fuel cell that can operate at cooler temperatures will be less costly. Researchers like those at the Texas Center are working on six different kinds of fuel cells. Each uses a different method to combine the hydrogen fuel with the oxygen to produce power. All the major automobile companies are developing fuel cell vehicles. They will test several kinds of fuel cells until they find the best one. In January, President Bush asked Congress to approve more than one-thousand-million dollars to help develop this new technology. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have been watching a huge object on the planet Jupiter for more than one-hundred years. It is a huge, long-lasting storm called the Great Red Spot. Scientists used to think it was the largest thing on Jupiter. However, images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have found something at least as large. NASA scientists are calling this new object the Great Dark Spot. Bob West is a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says he was completely surprised when he saw the dark object. He says it is dark cloud two times as big as Earth. It is moving around Jupiter’s North Pole. VOICE ONE: Mister West says he first saw evidence of the dark spot in an ultraviolet picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in nineteen-ninety-seven. But it only appeared in one image out of many that were taken by the Hubble over several years. Mister West says he did not know what the dark spot was then. Now he knows. He says the Cassini spacecraft could see Jupiter’s North Pole when it passed the large planet in two-thousand on its way to Saturn. Mister West said photographs sent by Cassini showed the dark spot moving in a circle and changing shape. He says the Cassini spacecraft was able to observe the huge cloud for eleven weeks. VOICE TWO: Mister West says the Cassini observations show that the Great Dark Spot and the Great Red Spot are very different. He says the Great Red Spot is deep within the atmosphere of Jupiter. It is a high pressure storm system far below Jupiter’s clouds. The Great Dark Spot is very high in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Mister West says the Great Dark Spot is trapped by fast-moving winds that circle Jupiter’s North Pole. The winds act like a wall, keeping the Great Dark Spot moving in one place. Mister West says that something similar can be found over Earth’s South Pole. Fast-moving winds there keep the ozone hole near the South Pole. Mister West says observing the Great Dark Spot could help scientists understand how these winds control huge objects. He says he would be very happy to have more pictures of Jupiter’s Great Dark Spot. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: American Astronaut Don Pettit is extremely happy to be a member of the crew of the International Space Station. Mister Pettit has been living and working on the space station since November twenty-fifth, two-thousand. He is a member of the Expedition Six crew and the science officer. Most of the time Mister Pettit is involved in scientific experiments on the space station. However, when he is not working Mister Pettit likes to take photographs. Don Pettit says he always sees something interesting out the window of the space station. He takes photographs of distant stars, galaxies, and the Earth. In the past several weeks, he has been photographing auroras. Auroras are colorful lights in the sky. They are caused by electrons and protons from space that hit Earth’s atmosphere. This action produces red and green colors from oxygen and blue colors from nitrogen. These colors can been seen from Earth in the Northern Hemisphere. They are often called the Northern Lights. VOICE TWO: Mister Pettit says the auroras move slowly across the sky. He says they seem like huge crawling objects that are forever changing. They move, come and go. Sometimes they are topped by huge red structures shaped like feathers. Mister Pettit says the International Space Station flew through an aurora over Canada last January. He said, “The station was surrounded by a red fog. Just below were green rivers of light. I wanted to reach out the window and touch the light. But of course I could not.” VOICE ONE: The auroras are not all Mister Pettit has photographed. He has seen meteors or space rocks fall apart when they hit Earth’s atmosphere. He has also seen satellites and other man-made objects that have been left in space. Mister Pettit recently took some beautiful pictures of stars in the Southern Hemisphere. The stars are called the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Coal Sack Nebula and the Southern Cross. If you have a computer, you can see some of Astronaut Pettit’s photographs. Go to the Web site www.science.nasa.gov. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-02-6-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #6 - April 3, 2003: Settlers & Indians Clash
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with the MAKING OF A NATION, a V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our story today is a sad one. It is the story of a clash of peoples, religions, ideas, and cultures. It is a story of strongly held ideas and a lack of compromise. It is the story of the relations between Europeans and the natives who had lived for thousands of years in the area we now call North America. VOICE TWO: Many different native American groups lived on the east coast of what would become United States. They spoke many different languages. Some were farmers, some were hunters. Some fought many wars, others were peaceful. These groups are called tribes. Their names are known to most Americans...the Senecas, the Mohawks, the Seminole, the Cherokee to name only a few. VOICE ONE: These tribes had developed their own cultures many years before the first European settlers arrived. Each had a kind of religion, a strong spiritual belief. Many tribes shared a similar one. The Indians on the east coast shared a highly developed system of trade. Researchers say different tribes of native Americans traded goods all across the country. VOICE TWO: The first recorded meetings between Europeans and the natives of the east coast took place in the Fifteen Hundreds. Fishermen from France and the Basque area of Spain crossed the Atlantic Ocean. They searched for whales along the east coast of North America. They made temporary camps along the coast. They often traded with the local Indians. The Europeans often paid Indians to work for them. Both groups found this to be a successful relationship. Several times different groups of fishermen tried to establish a permanent settlement on the coast, but the severe winters made it impossible. These fishing camps were only temporary. VOICE ONE: The first permanent settlers in New England began arriving in Sixteen-Twenty. They wanted to live in peace with the Indians. They needed to trade with them for food. The settlers also knew that a battle would result in their own, quick defeat because they were so few in number. Yet, problems began almost immediately. Perhaps the most serious was the different way the American Indians and the Europeans thought about land. This difference created problems that would not be solved during the next several hundred years. VOICE TWO: Land was extremely important to the European settlers. In England, and most other countries, land meant wealth. Owning large amounts of land meant a person had great wealth and political power. Many of the settlers in this new country could never have owned land in Europe. They were too poor. And they belonged to minority religious groups. When they arrived in the new country, they discovered no one seemed to own the huge amounts of land. Companies in England needed to find people willing to settle in the new country. So they offered land to anyone who would take the chance of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. For many, it was a dream come true. It was a way to improve their lives. The land gave them a chance to become wealthy and powerful. VOICE ONE: American Indians believed no person could own land. They believed, however, that anyone could use it. Anyone who wanted to live on and grow crops on a piece of land was able to do so. The American Indians lived within nature. They lived very well without working very hard. They were able to do this because they understood the land and their enviornment. They did not try to change the land. They might farm in an area for a few years. Then they would move on. They permitted the land on which they had farmed to become wild again. They might hunt on one area of land for some time, but again they would move on. They hunted only what they could eat, so the numbers of animals continued to increase. The Indians understood nature and made it work for them. VOICE TWO: The first Europeans to settle in New England in the northeastern part of America were few in number. They wanted land. The Indians did not fear them. There was enough land for everyone to use and plant crops. It was easy to live together. The Indians helped the settlers by teaching them how to plant crops and survive on the land. But the Indians did not understand that the settlers were going to keep the land. This idea was foreign to the Indians. It was like to trying to own the air, or the clouds. As the years passed, more and more settlers arrived, and took more and more land. They cut down trees. They built fences to keep people and animals out. They demanded that the Indians stay off their land. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Religion was another problem between the settlers and the Indians. The settlers in New England were very serious about their Christian religion. They thought it was the one true faith and all people should believe in it. They soon learned that the Indians were not interested in learning about it or changing their beliefs. Many settlers came to believe that Native Americans could not be trusted because they were not Christians. The settler groups began to fear the Indians. They thought of the Indians as a people who were evil because they had no religion. The settlers told the Indians they must change and become Christians. The Indians did not understand why they should change anything. VOICE TWO: The European settlers failed to understand that the Native American Indians were extremely religious people with a strong belief in unseen powers. The Indians lived very close to nature. They believed that all things in the universe depend on each other. All native tribes had ceremonies that honored a creator of nature. American Indians recognized the work of the creator of the world in their everyday life. VOICE ONE: Other events also led to serious problems between the Native Americans and the settlers. One serious problem was disease. The settlers brought sickness with them from Europe. For example, the disease smallpox was well known in Europe. Some people carried the bacteria that caused smallpox, although they did not suffer the sickness itself. Smallpox was unknown to Native Americans. Their bodies' defense systems could not fight against smallpox. It killed whole tribes. And, smallpox was only one such disease. There were many others. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The first meetings between settlers and Native Americans were the same in almost every European settlement on the east coast of America. The two groups met as friends. They would begin by trading for food and other goods. In time, however, something would happen to cause a crisis. Perhaps a settler would demand that an Indian stay off the settler's land. Perhaps a settler, or Indian, was killed. Fear would replace friendship. One side or the other would answer what they believed was an attack. A good example of this is the violent clash called King Philip's War. VOICE ONE: Matacom was a leader of the Wampanoag tribe that lived in the northernmost colonies. He was known to the English as King Philip. Without the help of his tribe, the first European settlers in that area might not have survived their first winter. The Wampanoag Indians provided them with food. They taught the settlers how to plant corn and other food crops. The two groups were very friendly for several years. As the years passed, however, fear and a lack of understanding increased. Matacom's brother died of a European disease. Matacom blamed the settlers. He also saw how the increasing numbers of settlers were changing the land. He believed they were destroying it. VOICE TWO: One small crisis after another led to the killing of a Christian Indian who lived with the settlers. The settlers answered this by killing three Indians. A war quickly followed. It began in Sixteen-Seventy-Five and continued for almost two years. It was an extremly cruel war. Men, women and children on both sides were killed. Researchers believe more than six-hundred settlers were killed. They also say as many as three-thousand Native Americans died in the violence. VOICE ONE: History experts say the tribe of Indians called the Narraganset were the true victims of King Philip's War. The Narraganset were not involved in the war. They did not support one group or the other. However, the settlers killed almost all the Narraganset Indians because they had learned to fear all Indians. This fear, lack of understanding and the failure to compromise were not unusual. They strongly influenced the European settlers relations with Native Americans in all areas of the new country. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - April 3, 2003: Jihad and Other Terms
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Background Report. Iraqis are being urged to lead a "jihad" against American and British forces. Iraq's information minister went on state television Tuesday to read what he said was a statement from President Saddam Hussein. The statement described the war in Iraq as a conflict between Islam and its enemies. It described jihad as a duty for Iraqis, and the act of dying for the religion as a way to reach heaven. This heavily religious message surprised some people. For many years, Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath Party kept religion separate from government. Jihad means "struggle" in Arabic. In some cases it is defined as "holy war." But Islamic experts say jihad also can mean a nonviolent struggle or a struggle within oneself to become a better person. Calls for jihad in Iraq have reached beyond the country's borders. Arab men from a number of countries have gathered in Syria, for example. They wait for a chance to cross the border. But some Arab governments do not want their people to join the war in Iraq. The men who want to fight in Iraq say they are going to fight what they call “infidels.” In English, a common meaning of infidel is a person who does not accept the majority religion. Among some Muslims, infidel has come to mean anyone who does not accept Islam. Islamic experts say the first people to talk about a holy war were the Christian crusaders in Europe during the Middle Ages. Iraqis have accused the United States and Britain of leading a new crusade by invading Iraq. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns that began a thousand years ago. European Christians set out to capture Jerusalem from Muslim control. The Crusaders failed to establish lasting control over that city. What they did establish, however, was lasting hatred. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 4, 2003: Movie Music from 'Chicago' / Listener's Question About State Names / National Poetry Month
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – Women in the Military
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Women have served in some way in every one of America’s conflicts since the War of Independence in the seventeen-hundreds. The first American service women taken prisoner were captured in the eighteen-hundreds during the Civil War. Since the war in Iraq began, at least three American women have been captured or listed as missing. This week, an Iraqi led American rescuers to one of them in a hospital. Nineteen-year-old Army Private Jessica Lynch is now resting at a hospital in Germany. She was held prisoner for more than a week after a group of Army supply trucks took a wrong turn. Private Lynch is reported to have fought the Iraqis who captured her. Today, women are fifteen percent of the armed forces, or about one in six members. In the Iraq war, they fly helicopters, launch missiles and drop bombs. Others guard Iraqi prisoners or -- as in the case of Private Lynch -- transport supplies in trucks. More than forty-thousand American women served during the nineteen-ninety-one Persian Gulf War. That was seven percent of the United States forces deployed, more than ever before, but women were kept out of the fighting. In nineteen-ninety-four, the administration of President Bill Clinton reduced the job restrictions on women in the military. That opened more than ninety percent of all jobs to women. There are still areas of unequal treatment. For example, women cannot fight as ground troops on the front lines of battle. They cannot join Special Forces either. At the same time, there are other issues to deal with. Last week, the chief of the Air Force said he will replace four top officers of the Air Force Academy in Colorado. This follows charges that officers punished women who had reported sex attacks at the military college. Members of Congress have criticized the situation. On Thursday, Air Force officials said they would work closely with Congress to learn all the facts. The officials also said they would work on the academy to create a better atmosphere for women. This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Women have served in some way in every one of America’s conflicts since the War of Independence in the seventeen-hundreds. The first American service women taken prisoner were captured in the eighteen-hundreds during the Civil War. Since the war in Iraq began, at least three American women have been captured or listed as missing. This week, an Iraqi led American rescuers to one of them in a hospital. Nineteen-year-old Army Private Jessica Lynch is now resting at a hospital in Germany. She was held prisoner for more than a week after a group of Army supply trucks took a wrong turn. Private Lynch is reported to have fought the Iraqis who captured her. Today, women are fifteen percent of the armed forces, or about one in six members. In the Iraq war, they fly helicopters, launch missiles and drop bombs. Others guard Iraqi prisoners or -- as in the case of Private Lynch -- transport supplies in trucks. More than forty-thousand American women served during the nineteen-ninety-one Persian Gulf War. That was seven percent of the United States forces deployed, more than ever before, but women were kept out of the fighting. In nineteen-ninety-four, the administration of President Bill Clinton reduced the job restrictions on women in the military. That opened more than ninety percent of all jobs to women. There are still areas of unequal treatment. For example, women cannot fight as ground troops on the front lines of battle. They cannot join Special Forces either. At the same time, there are other issues to deal with. Last week, the chief of the Air Force said he will replace four top officers of the Air Force Academy in Colorado. This follows charges that officers punished women who had reported sex attacks at the military college. Members of Congress have criticized the situation. On Thursday, Air Force officials said they would work closely with Congress to learn all the facts. The officials also said they would work on the academy to create a better atmosphere for women. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: April 3, 2003 - Lida Baker: War and English Teaching
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 3, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster -- it's time for our monthly visit with English teacher Lida Baker. She writes textbooks and she teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. Today Lida offers some advice for English teachers who are looking for ways to use the war in Iraq as a teaching opportunity. LIDA BAKER: "Now, in a reading class, of course you could have students reading the news each night or do it in class. The articles could be used for the purpose of learning vocabulary, summarizing. Actually, stories about disasters and wars -- news events that carry on for a period of days or in this case weeks and hopefully not months -- are wonderful for learning vocabulary because in order to learn new words, we have to repeat them a lot, we have to see them in a variety of contexts. So reading the news about the war would be an excellent way for students to improve their vocabulary." AA: Lida Baker says there's also a variety of activities that students could do in a writing class. LIDA BAKER: "If students are doing journals, they could write in their journals their feelings and their responses to what they're hearing in the news. By the way, this is an excellent way of channeling students' feelings into something that enhances their language learning. Have them write down these strong feelings that they're having about what they're seeing on television and reading about in the newspaper. So students can do journals about the war, they can write essays where they're presenting their point of view and supporting their point of view with facts and examples and other kinds of evidence. "In a speaking class, you have the opportunity to set up debates where students are presenting both sides, both points of view -- for the war and against the war. AA: "And in which case the teacher would serve sort of as what -- " BAKER: "As a moderator." AA: "A neutral person, without a position?" BAKER: "Absolutely. I really do not think it is appropriate for a teacher to present her point of view about the war -- especially not at the beginning of a lesson. It's OK, I think, to do it at the very, very end, after students have written or said whatever they want about the topic. But for a teacher -- especially in an English as a second language situation, where students generally come from cultures where it's unthinkable for a student to disagree with a teacher or contradict a teacher -- it wouldn't be right for a teacher to present her point of view up front. Because then students would feel intimidated about saying how they feel. So it would be, I think, a wrong way for a teacher to use her power or her authority to do that. " I suppose I would not hesitate at the very end of the activity to politely say how I feel, but I wouldn't do it at the beginning. I wouldn't want to impinge on students’ freedom of expression in the classroom, or for them to think that because I'm their teacher that they're obligated to agree with me." AA: Lida Baker says formal debates are just one of the options if teachers or students want to bring up the war in class. Students could also form small discussion groups in the classroom. Lida Baker says in a situation like that, she would walk around to serve not just as a moderator but also as a language consultant. LIDA BAKER: "If students are sitting in small groups, talking about their views, and they need a word or they don't know how to say something, then I'm right there to help them form their thoughts, express their feelings, find the words that they need in order to continue their discussion." AA: Author and English teacher Lida Baker from the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. Rosanne Skirble is back with me next week. I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 3, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster -- it's time for our monthly visit with English teacher Lida Baker. She writes textbooks and she teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. Today Lida offers some advice for English teachers who are looking for ways to use the war in Iraq as a teaching opportunity. LIDA BAKER: "Now, in a reading class, of course you could have students reading the news each night or do it in class. The articles could be used for the purpose of learning vocabulary, summarizing. Actually, stories about disasters and wars -- news events that carry on for a period of days or in this case weeks and hopefully not months -- are wonderful for learning vocabulary because in order to learn new words, we have to repeat them a lot, we have to see them in a variety of contexts. So reading the news about the war would be an excellent way for students to improve their vocabulary." AA: Lida Baker says there's also a variety of activities that students could do in a writing class. LIDA BAKER: "If students are doing journals, they could write in their journals their feelings and their responses to what they're hearing in the news. By the way, this is an excellent way of channeling students' feelings into something that enhances their language learning. Have them write down these strong feelings that they're having about what they're seeing on television and reading about in the newspaper. So students can do journals about the war, they can write essays where they're presenting their point of view and supporting their point of view with facts and examples and other kinds of evidence. "In a speaking class, you have the opportunity to set up debates where students are presenting both sides, both points of view -- for the war and against the war. AA: "And in which case the teacher would serve sort of as what -- " BAKER: "As a moderator." AA: "A neutral person, without a position?" BAKER: "Absolutely. I really do not think it is appropriate for a teacher to present her point of view about the war -- especially not at the beginning of a lesson. It's OK, I think, to do it at the very, very end, after students have written or said whatever they want about the topic. But for a teacher -- especially in an English as a second language situation, where students generally come from cultures where it's unthinkable for a student to disagree with a teacher or contradict a teacher -- it wouldn't be right for a teacher to present her point of view up front. Because then students would feel intimidated about saying how they feel. So it would be, I think, a wrong way for a teacher to use her power or her authority to do that. " I suppose I would not hesitate at the very end of the activity to politely say how I feel, but I wouldn't do it at the beginning. I wouldn't want to impinge on students’ freedom of expression in the classroom, or for them to think that because I'm their teacher that they're obligated to agree with me." AA: Lida Baker says formal debates are just one of the options if teachers or students want to bring up the war in class. Students could also form small discussion groups in the classroom. Lida Baker says in a situation like that, she would walk around to serve not just as a moderator but also as a language consultant. LIDA BAKER: "If students are sitting in small groups, talking about their views, and they need a word or they don't know how to say something, then I'm right there to help them form their thoughts, express their feelings, find the words that they need in order to continue their discussion." AA: Author and English teacher Lida Baker from the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. Rosanne Skirble is back with me next week. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Emily Dickinson
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 6, 2003 ANNCR: People in America – a program in Special English about famous Americans of the past. Now, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson. VOICE ONE: Because I could not stop for Death — He kindly stopped for me – The carriage held but just ourselves And immortality. VOICE TWO: The words are by American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in eighteen-eighty-six. During her life, she published only about ten poems. Four years after her death, a few more poems were published. But her complete work did not appear until nineteen-fifty-five. VOICE ONE: I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you -- Nobody – Too? VOICE TWO: Emily Dickinson has become part of our language without really being part of our history. Some see her as the last poet of an early American tradition. Others see her as the first modern American poet. Each reader seems to find a different Emily Dickinson. She remains as mysterious as she was when she was alive. VOICE ONE: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -- VOICE TWO: The truth about Emily Dickinson has been difficult to discover. Few people of her time knew who she was or what she was doing. The main facts about her life are these. She was born December tenth, eighteen-thirty, in the small Massachusetts town of Amherst. She lived and died in the same house where she was born. Emily received a good education. She studied philosophy, the Latin language, and the science of plants and rocks. Emily's parents were important people in Amherst. Many famous visitors came to their house, and Emily met them. Her father was a well-known lawyer who was elected to Congress for one term. Mister Dickinson believed that women should be educated. But he also believed that women should not use their education to work outside the home. He felt their one and only task was to care for their husband and children. Emily once said: “He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they upset the mind. " Emily wrote more than one-thousand-seven-hundred poems. There are three books of her letters. And there are many books about her life. Some of her best work was written in the four years between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen-sixty-two. VOICE ONE: I live with Him -- I see his face -- I go no more away For Visitor -- or Sundown-- Death's single privacy Dreams -- are well -- but Waking's better, If One wake at Morn -- If One wake at Midnight – better -- Dreaming -- of the Dawn -- This is my letter to the World That never wrote to me-- The simple News that Nature told-- With tender Majesty VOICE TWO: In those years, Emily seems to have found her "voice" as a poet. She settled into forms she used for the rest of her life. The forms are similar to those of religious music used during her lifetime. But her choice of words was unusual. She wrote that her dictionary was her best friend. Other influences were the English poet, William Shakespeare; the Christian holy book, the Bible; and the forces of nature. VOICE ONE: I dreaded that first robin so, But he is mastered now, And I'm accustomed to him grown-- He hurts a little though I dared not meet the daffodils, For fear their yellow gown Would pierce me with a fashion So foreign to my own. I could not bear the bees should come, I wished they'd stay away In those dim countries where they go: What word had they for me? VOICE TWO: Throughout her life, Emily asked men for advice. And then she did not follow what they told her. As a child, there was her father. Later there was her father's law partner, and a churchman she met in the city of Philadelphia. Another man who helped her was the writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson had written a magazine story giving advice to young, unpublished writers. Emily wrote to him when she was in her early thirties. She included a few poems. Higginson wrote back and later visited Emily in Amherst. In the next few years, Emily sent him many more poems. But he did not have them published, and admitted that he did not understand Emily's poetry. VOICE ONE: 'Tis not that dying hurts us so -- 'Tis living hurts us more; But dying is a different way, A kind behind the door -- VOICE TWO: Some historians wish that Emily's poems had reached the best American writers of her day: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. These men could have over-looked her strange way of living to see only her ability. Historians also say it is possible that Emily chose to write to someone like Higginson so she would not be understood. VOICE ONE: To hear an oriole sing May be a common thing Or only a divine It is not the bird Who sings the same unheard, As unto crowd. VOICE TWO: So little is known about Emily's life that many writers have created a life for her. They talk about the things that interest them as if they interested Emily, too. But one writer says part of the joy in studying Emily is what we cannot know. Emily herself said, "I never try to lift the words which I cannot hold. " VOICE ONE: I cannot live with you, It would be life, And life is over there Behind the shelf So we must keep apart, You there, I here, With just the door ajar That oceans are, And prayer, And that pale sustenance, Despair! VOICE TWO: Emily Dickinson sewed the pages of her poems together with thread and put them away. She also seems to have sewed her life together and put it away, too. Step by step, she withdrew from the world. As she grew older, she saw fewer visitors, and rarely left her house. The time of Emily's withdrawal was also the time of the American Civil War. The events that changed America's history, however, did not touch her. She died in eighteen-eighty-six, at the age of fifty-five, completely unknown to the world. No one wrote about Emily Dickinson's poems while she was alive. Yet, more than one-hundred years since her death, she has come to be seen as one of America's greatest poets. VOICE ONE: The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will contain With ease -- and you beside. VOICE TWO: After Emily died, her sister Lavinia found Emily's poems locked away. Lavinia wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and demanded that the poems be published. Higginson agreed. And a few of Emily's poems about nature were published. Slowly, more and more of her poems were published. Readers soon learned that she was much more than a nature poet. In her life, Emily was an opponent of organized religion. Yet she often wrote about religion. She rarely left home. Yet she often wrote about faraway places. She lived quietly. Yet she wrote that life passes quickly and should be lived to the fullest. Will we ever know more about the life of Emily Dickinson? As she told a friend once: "In a life that stopped guessing, you and I should not feel at home. " We have the poems. And for most readers, they are enough. VOICE ONE: Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit – Life ANNCR: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. This program was written by Richard Thorman. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Listen again next week at this same time on VOA for another story of People in America. This is Shirley Griffith. Broadcast: April 6, 2003 ANNCR: People in America – a program in Special English about famous Americans of the past. Now, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson. VOICE ONE: Because I could not stop for Death — He kindly stopped for me – The carriage held but just ourselves And immortality. VOICE TWO: The words are by American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in eighteen-eighty-six. During her life, she published only about ten poems. Four years after her death, a few more poems were published. But her complete work did not appear until nineteen-fifty-five. VOICE ONE: I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you -- Nobody – Too? VOICE TWO: Emily Dickinson has become part of our language without really being part of our history. Some see her as the last poet of an early American tradition. Others see her as the first modern American poet. Each reader seems to find a different Emily Dickinson. She remains as mysterious as she was when she was alive. VOICE ONE: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -- VOICE TWO: The truth about Emily Dickinson has been difficult to discover. Few people of her time knew who she was or what she was doing. The main facts about her life are these. She was born December tenth, eighteen-thirty, in the small Massachusetts town of Amherst. She lived and died in the same house where she was born. Emily received a good education. She studied philosophy, the Latin language, and the science of plants and rocks. Emily's parents were important people in Amherst. Many famous visitors came to their house, and Emily met them. Her father was a well-known lawyer who was elected to Congress for one term. Mister Dickinson believed that women should be educated. But he also believed that women should not use their education to work outside the home. He felt their one and only task was to care for their husband and children. Emily once said: “He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they upset the mind. " Emily wrote more than one-thousand-seven-hundred poems. There are three books of her letters. And there are many books about her life. Some of her best work was written in the four years between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen-sixty-two. VOICE ONE: I live with Him -- I see his face -- I go no more away For Visitor -- or Sundown-- Death's single privacy Dreams -- are well -- but Waking's better, If One wake at Morn -- If One wake at Midnight – better -- Dreaming -- of the Dawn -- This is my letter to the World That never wrote to me-- The simple News that Nature told-- With tender Majesty VOICE TWO: In those years, Emily seems to have found her "voice" as a poet. She settled into forms she used for the rest of her life. The forms are similar to those of religious music used during her lifetime. But her choice of words was unusual. She wrote that her dictionary was her best friend. Other influences were the English poet, William Shakespeare; the Christian holy book, the Bible; and the forces of nature. VOICE ONE: I dreaded that first robin so, But he is mastered now, And I'm accustomed to him grown-- He hurts a little though I dared not meet the daffodils, For fear their yellow gown Would pierce me with a fashion So foreign to my own. I could not bear the bees should come, I wished they'd stay away In those dim countries where they go: What word had they for me? VOICE TWO: Throughout her life, Emily asked men for advice. And then she did not follow what they told her. As a child, there was her father. Later there was her father's law partner, and a churchman she met in the city of Philadelphia. Another man who helped her was the writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson had written a magazine story giving advice to young, unpublished writers. Emily wrote to him when she was in her early thirties. She included a few poems. Higginson wrote back and later visited Emily in Amherst. In the next few years, Emily sent him many more poems. But he did not have them published, and admitted that he did not understand Emily's poetry. VOICE ONE: 'Tis not that dying hurts us so -- 'Tis living hurts us more; But dying is a different way, A kind behind the door -- VOICE TWO: Some historians wish that Emily's poems had reached the best American writers of her day: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. These men could have over-looked her strange way of living to see only her ability. Historians also say it is possible that Emily chose to write to someone like Higginson so she would not be understood. VOICE ONE: To hear an oriole sing May be a common thing Or only a divine It is not the bird Who sings the same unheard, As unto crowd. VOICE TWO: So little is known about Emily's life that many writers have created a life for her. They talk about the things that interest them as if they interested Emily, too. But one writer says part of the joy in studying Emily is what we cannot know. Emily herself said, "I never try to lift the words which I cannot hold. " VOICE ONE: I cannot live with you, It would be life, And life is over there Behind the shelf So we must keep apart, You there, I here, With just the door ajar That oceans are, And prayer, And that pale sustenance, Despair! VOICE TWO: Emily Dickinson sewed the pages of her poems together with thread and put them away. She also seems to have sewed her life together and put it away, too. Step by step, she withdrew from the world. As she grew older, she saw fewer visitors, and rarely left her house. The time of Emily's withdrawal was also the time of the American Civil War. The events that changed America's history, however, did not touch her. She died in eighteen-eighty-six, at the age of fifty-five, completely unknown to the world. No one wrote about Emily Dickinson's poems while she was alive. Yet, more than one-hundred years since her death, she has come to be seen as one of America's greatest poets. VOICE ONE: The brain is wider than the sky, For, put them side by side, The one the other will contain With ease -- and you beside. VOICE TWO: After Emily died, her sister Lavinia found Emily's poems locked away. Lavinia wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and demanded that the poems be published. Higginson agreed. And a few of Emily's poems about nature were published. Slowly, more and more of her poems were published. Readers soon learned that she was much more than a nature poet. In her life, Emily was an opponent of organized religion. Yet she often wrote about religion. She rarely left home. Yet she often wrote about faraway places. She lived quietly. Yet she wrote that life passes quickly and should be lived to the fullest. Will we ever know more about the life of Emily Dickinson? As she told a friend once: "In a life that stopped guessing, you and I should not feel at home. " We have the poems. And for most readers, they are enough. VOICE ONE: Surgeons must be very careful When they take the knife! Underneath their fine incisions Stirs the Culprit – Life ANNCR: You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. This program was written by Richard Thorman. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Listen again next week at this same time on VOA for another story of People in America. This is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: April 5, 2003: Baghdad
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. The history of Iraq dates back thousands of years. The ancient land area now known as modern Iraq was once considered Mesopotamia. Its civilization, rich in tradition and culture, is one of the oldest in the world. The capital, Baghdad, was built in seven-sixty-two along the Tigris River. To the west is the great Euphrates River. In earlier centuries, trade and business along these two waterways helped build Baghdad into a major economic center in the Arab world. Baghdad was built in a circle. Three walls with a common center divided the city. The innermost wall surrounded the living area of the early rulers. The second circular wall enclosed the military. The outer wall of Baghdad surrounded the homes of the local population. Today, only parts of the walls remain. Baghdad has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Almost five-million people live in the capital today. The center of the city includes several government buildings, huge monuments, and many presidential palaces with underground passages. Baghdad is the center of air, road and railroad transportation in Iraq. It is the leading manufacturing city in the country. Baghdad has oil refineries, food-processing companies and cloth and leather factories. The city also has three universities. Baghdad has many historical structures. One is the ruins of the last remaining of the famous gates of Baghdad. Other important archeological structures include several Muslim religious buildings and a thirteenth-century university. Baghdad also has a museum holding one of the world’s biggest collections of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian art. Coalition forces are concerned these historical structures could be damaged or destroyed during fighting. In addition, many coalition troops and Iraqi civilians could be killed in street fighting. American military officials believe the Iraqi Republican Guard might use Baghdad civilians to protect areas targeted by coalition fire. Military officials also fear Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might use chemical or biological weapons in Baghdad. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Holocaust Museum Tenth Anniversary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: In April of nineteen-ninety-three, an unusual museum in Washington, D.C., opened its doors. Since then, almost nineteen-million people have visited. I’m Steve Ember with Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: The tenth anniversary of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is our report this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some museums in America’s capital are filled with artworks. Others teach about the history of the nation, the planet, even the skies. More than nine-million people a year make the Air and Space Museum the most visited museum in the world. Down the street, the Holocaust Museum serves a different purpose. Its job is to keep terrible memories alive. VOICE TWO: The museum honors the six-million Jews killed in what Nazi Germany called the "Final Solution." The museum also honors the millions of other people murdered by the Nazis before and during World War Two. Religious and political dissidents, Gypsies, homosexuals, prisoners of war. The mentally and physically disabled. The list goes on. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party came to power in nineteen-thirty-three. Anger remained over Germany's loss in World War One. The economy was bad. There was social unrest. Hitler gained support as he blamed the problems on Jews and others. Germany, he said, needed "racial purity." Hate grew into a system of murder. This spread as Germany occupied other countries in Europe. The Nazis built camps where they killed people with poison gas and burned the bodies. A holocaust is a great fire. The fires burned until Hitler killed himself and Germany lost the war in nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-seventy-eight, American President Jimmy Carter established a Holocaust Memorial Commission. The next year, this group proposed to create a permanent memorial in Washington. The federal government provided land across from the Washington Monument. Planners had to decide the best way to remember the Holocaust and its victims. The work was difficult and emotional. It took years. The museum opened on April twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three. It operates through the cooperation of the government and a private organization. A number of events are planned to observe the tenth anniversary. These include a special exhibit to open in June. It will show original notebooks, journals and other writings of Anne Frank. Some will be shown outside The Netherlands for the first time. VOICE TWO: Anne Frank was a young German girl. She and her family fled to The Netherlands in nineteen-thirty-three. Until she was eleven years old, she lived a normal life. But then Germany occupied The Netherlands. Jews lost all rights. After awhile, the Frank family went into hiding. For two years, Anne recorded in her diary the events of her life in hiding. Then her family was discovered. Anne died of typhus fever in a Nazi camp. Only her father survived. In nineteen-forty-seven, Otto Frank had his daughter's writings published as a book. "The Diary of Anne Frank" has been translated into many languages. It is one of the most widely read pieces of literature in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Holocaust Museum has a permanent collection of eight-thousand objects and a library with millions of documents. The museum has also recorded the stories of more than seven-thousand people who lived through the Holocaust. Plus, there is a list with the names of one-hundred-seventy-two-thousand survivors and their families. These people come from all fifty states and seventy-four countries. Many have visited the museum. VOICE TWO: As we take a tour along three floors of the building, we travel back in time. We see how the Nazis began to mistreat Jewish people and other minorities. Movie images show how this grew and grew. We pass by uniforms that prisoners wore in the concentration camps. A railroad car brings to mind the trains that the Germans used to carry innocent people to slave labor or death. In another area, shoes lie one on top of another, on top of another. Shoes of victims. A milk container recovered in Warsaw, Poland, after the war looks as it must have sixty years ago. VOICE ONE: But what it held were personal stories, documents and other materials about the Jewish people in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Germans crowded thousands together into an area of the Polish capital. Many starved to death or died of disease. Others lived only long enough to be sent to death camps. Later this month, the Holocaust Museum will hold a “Days of Remembrance” observance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This event will honor those who rebelled against the Nazis. The rebellion began sixty years ago. Although they faced a powerful army, some survived. VOICE TWO: An exhibit called “The Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto ” tells about Jews in Kaunas, Lithuania. Their story was partly reconstructed from objects they, too, hid. They secretly wrote of their treatment under the German occupation. They left drawings, pictures and other artifacts. More than a half-century later, we can still hear their voices. We can still see their belongings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some things in the museum are not for children to see. But there are special exhibits for children. People can also see exhibits online. Each month, three-hundred-thousand people visit the museum’s Web site. The address is u-s-h-m-m dot o-r-g (www.ushmm.org). You can learn, for example, about the German-owned passenger ship called the Saint Louis. It left Hamburg on May thirteenth, nineteen-thirty-nine. It carried more than nine-hundred people. But these were not the usual passengers on a German ship of those days. Almost all were German Jews. They were trying to escape from their country. At first, no nation would accept them, including the United States. Later, several European nations admitted some of the refugees. But about two-hundred people were captured and died in camps after Germany invaded those countries. VOICE TWO: The Holocaust Museum lends some of its exhibits to other museums and to libraries, colleges and community centers around the country. One of these exhibits tells about a businessman with close ties to the Nazis. Oskar Schindler got permission to use Jewish prisoners as laborers in his factory in Poland. This saved them from the hands of the Nazis. American director Steven Spielberg made a movie about Oskar Schindler. "Schindler's List" came out in nineteen-ninety-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people use the Holocaust Museum for study. John Wiernicki [WERE-nick-kee] is a historian who lives in the Washington area. Mister Wiernicki wrote a book called “War in the Shadow of Auschwitz.” The Nazis used that camp, built in the Polish village of Oswiecim, to kill more than one-million people from across Europe. VOICE TWO: John Wiernicki was a teen-ager in Poland when the Nazis arrived in his homeland in nineteen-thirty-nine. He joined the Polish Home Army, a resistance group. In nineteen-forty-three, Mister Wiernicki -- who is not Jewish -- was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Later the Germans moved him to Buchenwald-Ohrdruf, another camp. He escaped while on work duty in the forest. Today, a museum photograph of that camp shows Allied soldiers who freed the surviving prisoners. The soldiers are looking at the many bodies of the dead. John Wiernicki says he could not have written his book without his research at the museum. He says the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum helps people learn about a time that nobody should ever forget. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA Broadcast: April 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: In April of nineteen-ninety-three, an unusual museum in Washington, D.C., opened its doors. Since then, almost nineteen-million people have visited. I’m Steve Ember with Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: The tenth anniversary of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is our report this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some museums in America’s capital are filled with artworks. Others teach about the history of the nation, the planet, even the skies. More than nine-million people a year make the Air and Space Museum the most visited museum in the world. Down the street, the Holocaust Museum serves a different purpose. Its job is to keep terrible memories alive. VOICE TWO: The museum honors the six-million Jews killed in what Nazi Germany called the "Final Solution." The museum also honors the millions of other people murdered by the Nazis before and during World War Two. Religious and political dissidents, Gypsies, homosexuals, prisoners of war. The mentally and physically disabled. The list goes on. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party came to power in nineteen-thirty-three. Anger remained over Germany's loss in World War One. The economy was bad. There was social unrest. Hitler gained support as he blamed the problems on Jews and others. Germany, he said, needed "racial purity." Hate grew into a system of murder. This spread as Germany occupied other countries in Europe. The Nazis built camps where they killed people with poison gas and burned the bodies. A holocaust is a great fire. The fires burned until Hitler killed himself and Germany lost the war in nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-seventy-eight, American President Jimmy Carter established a Holocaust Memorial Commission. The next year, this group proposed to create a permanent memorial in Washington. The federal government provided land across from the Washington Monument. Planners had to decide the best way to remember the Holocaust and its victims. The work was difficult and emotional. It took years. The museum opened on April twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three. It operates through the cooperation of the government and a private organization. A number of events are planned to observe the tenth anniversary. These include a special exhibit to open in June. It will show original notebooks, journals and other writings of Anne Frank. Some will be shown outside The Netherlands for the first time. VOICE TWO: Anne Frank was a young German girl. She and her family fled to The Netherlands in nineteen-thirty-three. Until she was eleven years old, she lived a normal life. But then Germany occupied The Netherlands. Jews lost all rights. After awhile, the Frank family went into hiding. For two years, Anne recorded in her diary the events of her life in hiding. Then her family was discovered. Anne died of typhus fever in a Nazi camp. Only her father survived. In nineteen-forty-seven, Otto Frank had his daughter's writings published as a book. "The Diary of Anne Frank" has been translated into many languages. It is one of the most widely read pieces of literature in the world. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Holocaust Museum has a permanent collection of eight-thousand objects and a library with millions of documents. The museum has also recorded the stories of more than seven-thousand people who lived through the Holocaust. Plus, there is a list with the names of one-hundred-seventy-two-thousand survivors and their families. These people come from all fifty states and seventy-four countries. Many have visited the museum. VOICE TWO: As we take a tour along three floors of the building, we travel back in time. We see how the Nazis began to mistreat Jewish people and other minorities. Movie images show how this grew and grew. We pass by uniforms that prisoners wore in the concentration camps. A railroad car brings to mind the trains that the Germans used to carry innocent people to slave labor or death. In another area, shoes lie one on top of another, on top of another. Shoes of victims. A milk container recovered in Warsaw, Poland, after the war looks as it must have sixty years ago. VOICE ONE: But what it held were personal stories, documents and other materials about the Jewish people in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Germans crowded thousands together into an area of the Polish capital. Many starved to death or died of disease. Others lived only long enough to be sent to death camps. Later this month, the Holocaust Museum will hold a “Days of Remembrance” observance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This event will honor those who rebelled against the Nazis. The rebellion began sixty years ago. Although they faced a powerful army, some survived. VOICE TWO: An exhibit called “The Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto ” tells about Jews in Kaunas, Lithuania. Their story was partly reconstructed from objects they, too, hid. They secretly wrote of their treatment under the German occupation. They left drawings, pictures and other artifacts. More than a half-century later, we can still hear their voices. We can still see their belongings. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some things in the museum are not for children to see. But there are special exhibits for children. People can also see exhibits online. Each month, three-hundred-thousand people visit the museum’s Web site. The address is u-s-h-m-m dot o-r-g (www.ushmm.org). You can learn, for example, about the German-owned passenger ship called the Saint Louis. It left Hamburg on May thirteenth, nineteen-thirty-nine. It carried more than nine-hundred people. But these were not the usual passengers on a German ship of those days. Almost all were German Jews. They were trying to escape from their country. At first, no nation would accept them, including the United States. Later, several European nations admitted some of the refugees. But about two-hundred people were captured and died in camps after Germany invaded those countries. VOICE TWO: The Holocaust Museum lends some of its exhibits to other museums and to libraries, colleges and community centers around the country. One of these exhibits tells about a businessman with close ties to the Nazis. Oskar Schindler got permission to use Jewish prisoners as laborers in his factory in Poland. This saved them from the hands of the Nazis. American director Steven Spielberg made a movie about Oskar Schindler. "Schindler's List" came out in nineteen-ninety-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people use the Holocaust Museum for study. John Wiernicki [WERE-nick-kee] is a historian who lives in the Washington area. Mister Wiernicki wrote a book called “War in the Shadow of Auschwitz.” The Nazis used that camp, built in the Polish village of Oswiecim, to kill more than one-million people from across Europe. VOICE TWO: John Wiernicki was a teen-ager in Poland when the Nazis arrived in his homeland in nineteen-thirty-nine. He joined the Polish Home Army, a resistance group. In nineteen-forty-three, Mister Wiernicki -- who is not Jewish -- was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Later the Germans moved him to Buchenwald-Ohrdruf, another camp. He escaped while on work duty in the forest. Today, a museum photograph of that camp shows Allied soldiers who freed the surviving prisoners. The soldiers are looking at the many bodies of the dead. John Wiernicki says he could not have written his book without his research at the museum. He says the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum helps people learn about a time that nobody should ever forget. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – April 8, 2003: Media Coverage of Iraq War
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. As in other wars, there have been journalists killed along with soldiers and civilians in Iraq. This war, though, marks a test of a new American military program to place reporters with troops. They are called embedded. There are hundreds of journalists traveling with American and British troops in Iraq. The United States military says it does not influence the work of embedded journalists. But there are rules designed to prevent compromises in the security and battle plans of coalition forces. Some people say it is not possible for embedded reporters to be neutral and fair. Journalists say they do the best they can. Many independent journalists are also covering the war. Some critics around the world argue that American media coverage has been cleansed of the real violence of the war. They say American news organizations, especially television broadcasters, are not willing to show the dead and wounded. At the same time, there was also criticism when Iraqi television showed dead Americans and prisoners. The United States accused Iraq of violating international rules of war. Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television was also criticized when it broadcast the same images around the world. Even some American news reports have angered top officials of the Defense Department. Last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers denounced comments reportedly made by field commanders. The commanders were reported as saying there were not enough forces and supplies in Iraq. They were said to have criticized the war plan as well. Some retired generals now advising American television news shows have made similar criticisms. General Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the criticisms were wrong and harmful to American troops in Iraq. The general also criticized the media for reporting dissent without naming the dissenters. Secretary Rumsfeld said all top American commanders had approved the war plan. And, he said they had all they needed to carry it out. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - April 5, 2003: Baghdad
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. The history of Iraq dates back thousands of years. The ancient land area now known as modern Iraq was once considered Mesopotamia. Its civilization, rich in tradition and culture, is one of the oldest in the world. The capital, Baghdad, was built in seven-sixty-two along the Tigris River. To the west is the great Euphrates River. In earlier centuries, trade and business along these two waterways helped build Baghdad into a major economic center in the Arab world. Baghdad was built in a circle. Three walls with a common center divided the city. The innermost wall surrounded the living area of the early rulers. The second circular wall enclosed the military. The outer wall of Baghdad surrounded the homes of the local population. Today, only parts of the walls remain. Baghdad has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. Almost five-million people live in the capital today. The center of the city includes several government buildings, huge monuments, and many presidential palaces with underground passages. Baghdad is the center of air, road and railroad transportation in Iraq. It is the leading manufacturing city in the country. Baghdad has oil refineries, food-processing companies and cloth and leather factories. The city also has three universities. Baghdad has many historical structures. One is the ruins of the last remaining of the famous gates of Baghdad. Other important archeological structures include several Muslim religious buildings and a thirteenth-century university. Baghdad also has a museum holding one of the world’s biggest collections of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian art. Coalition forces are concerned these historical structures could be damaged or destroyed during fighting. In addition, many coalition troops and Iraqi civilians could be killed in street fighting. American military officials believe the Iraqi Republican Guard might use Baghdad civilians to protect areas targeted by coalition fire. Military officials also fear Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might use chemical or biological weapons in Baghdad. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - April 7, 2003: Rebuilding Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Food, clean water, medicine, electric power, fuel and other kinds of aid are already greatly needed in Iraq. The war is not over, yet international debate has already begun about the best method of aiding the Iraqi people. Some experts say the cost of helping Iraq will be similar to the rebuilding of Europe after World War Two. They say that rebuilding Iraq could cost as much as one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. This would include helping a new government begin its work as well as rebuilding airports, schools, roads, oil wells and repairing other war related damage. This amount of money could mean huge profits for companies willing to help rebuild Iraq. Several European countries and businesses have already expressed interest in the job. Some American companies are already working in Iraq. They are quickly rebuilding Iraqi ports and putting out oil field fires. Some members of the Bush Administration say that American businesses should have the first chance to re build Iraq because the United States paid most of the war costs. President Bush has said the American government and private American companies will help Iraq become a free, democratic country with a healthy, growing economy. The Bush administration has chosen Former American Army general Jay Garner to lead the effort to form a new Iraqi government. He is aided in this effort by exiled Iraqi leaders. Other members of his group include diplomats, retired military officers and several British officials. The group meets almost every day in Kuwait. Group members reportedly agree that future aid programs should make use of United Nations agencies that have experience in such work. Members of the planning group also agree to involve the United Nations World Food Program. The U-N Food Program has the ability to move food quickly to the place where it is needed the most. Critics have said it would be a mistake for the United States to restrict other countries from helping to rebuild Iraq. The critics say the United States may be seen as nothing more than an occupying military force if it tries to act without international help. They say this could create more problems in the area. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - April 6, 2003: Baath Party
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. The Baath Party has had complete control over politics in Iraq since nineteen-sixty-eight. The Baath Party began in the Syrian capital of Damascus in the nineteen-forties. The word Baath appears to mean rebirth. The party developed as a movement of Arab nationalism. It also claimed to have Socialist ideas about economic policy. The Baath Party has been present in Iraq for more than fifty-years. Current Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is said to have joined the party in nineteen-fifty-seven. But the party began to play a much larger part in the politics of Iraq in the nineteen-sixties. In nineteen-sixty-three, Baath party members and army officers killed then-president General Abdul Karim Qasim and seized power. However, the Baath party did not take complete control of Iraqi politics at that time. The country’s military leaders during this period had the government take control of major industries. General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr overthrew the government in nineteen-sixty-eight. At that time the Baath Party took complete control of Iraq. General al-Bakr was from Tikrit, also the hometown of Saddam Hussein By nineteen-seventy-five, Mister Saddam was a powerful leader of the party. He negotiated an agreement with the Shah of Iran which ended Iranian support for ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq. The Kurds had been seeking greater political independence since nineteen-sixty-one. Periods of fighting between Kurds and Iraqis have continued since then. Saddam Hussein took power in July of nineteen-seventy-nine. General al-Bakr reportedly resigned because of his health. As president, Mister Saddam became the head of the Revolutionary Command Council. This small group rules Iraq. All members of the Council are chosen from party leadership positions from around Iraq. The United States and coalition forces soon may end the rule of the Baath party in Iraq. Yet, that will not end the party’s influence in the Middle East. President Bashar al-Asad of Syria is secretary-general of the Baath Party in his country. The Baath party is part of the National Progressive Front. The N-P-F is the ruling coalition in Syria’s legislative body, the People’s Council. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 8, 2003: SARS Update / Low-Cost Test for Cervical Cancer / Christopher Reeve Update
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program Science in the News. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report on severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS ... A study supports a low-cost way to save women in poor countries from cervical cancer ... And a new device may offer hope for paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve and others who cannot breathe on their own. (THEME) VOICE ONE: World health officials are continuing efforts to identify the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS. As of late last week, about eighty people around the world had died from the mysterious influenza-like sickness. Forty-six of the victims lived in China. More than two-thousand people have been infected with the disease. The largest number of cases are in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam. However, the disease has also been reported in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Officials say the number of cases continues to grow and the disease still appears to be spreading around the world. VOICE TWO: Health officials are trying to stop the spread of SARS. Last week, the World Health Organization released a warning against traveling to Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. This is the first time the W-H-O has issued a travel warning because of an infectious disease. Each day, the W-H-O is reconsidering the warning for possible changes. Scientists from around the world are trying to understand the disease. Last week, W-H-O experts traveled to China’s Guangdong Province where they suspect SARS first started last year. The team will study the biology of the virus that causes the disease. They also want to know if other viruses or diseases might worsen SARS or speed its spread. This is the first time U-N health experts have been given permission to visit Guangdong since the disease was first announced. China has been criticized for delaying reports about new cases and hiding information about the disease from the public. VOICE ONE: So far, there is no medicine to treat or prevent SARS. Officials first thought that particles from an infected person’s mouth spread SARS through the air. Now, however, they suspect the disease is spreading environmentally, through water or human waste systems, for example. However, until this can be proved, officials can only give guarded advice on how to prevent and treat the disease. SARS is similar to other severe breathing infections. Early signs include fever, headache, body pains and a tired feeling. After about one week, patients may develop a cough and have trouble breathing. Last week, Carlo Urbani, the World Health Organization doctor who first discovered SARS, became one of its victims. The Italian doctor worked for public health programs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. He first identified the disease in an American businessman at a hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. Doctor Urbani was forty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. (MUSIC) Every year, as many as three-hundred-thousand women around the world die from cancer of the cervix. That is more than from any other kind of cancer. The cervix is part of the female reproductive system. It is the opening at the end of the uterus. Cervical cancers develop slowly, usually over a period of ten or twenty years. There are tests that can find the disease early enough to save a woman's life. In one common test, called a Pap smear, laboratory workers examine questionable cells under a microscope. Many national health systems, though, do not have money for Pap smears or other such tests. As a result, most of the women who die from cervical cancer are in developing countries. But researchers believe they have now proven a low-cost way to prevent cervical cancer. It requires one simple visit with a trained health worker. VOICE ONE: This is how it works: First, the health worker washes the cervix with a mixture of vinegar and water. Vinegar, or acetic acid, is a liquid commonly used in foods and as a cleaner. Doctors have known for a long time that vinegar make lesions on the cervix white. Lesions are small areas of abnormal cells. The white lesions are easy to see with a light. Next, the medical worker uses liquid carbon dioxide to freeze the lesions. The freezing kills cancer cells before they can fully develop. American and Thai doctors tested the treatment method in Thailand. They sent twelve trained health workers to farming villages. The workers tested six-thousand woman with the vinegar wash. The tests found lesions in thirteen percent of the women. Most agreed to immediate treatment with this method. One year later, the researchers tested those women again with the vinegar wash. They found that almost ninety-five percent of the women had no more lesions. Doctor Paul Blumenthal from Johns Hopkins University led the study. He says almost all of the women treated said they had not felt only minor or moderate pain during the process. The women in the study were between the ages of thirty and forty-five. VOICE TWO: The researchers reported their findings in the British medical journal The Lancet. Doctor Blumenthal says similar research is currently being done on four-thousand women in Ghana. Researchers hope to prove that over time, this is the most economic way to prevent cervical cancer. Vinegar and cotton balls to wash the cervix are easy to find. So are tanks of liquid carbon dioxide. These are used in bottling factories like Coca-Cola and Pepsi operations. Carbon dioxide costs less than the nitrous oxide used by Western doctors. Health workers also need a simple instrument called a speculum to examine the cervix. Doctor Blumenthal says the biggest cost is to train the workers. VOICE ONE: Research over several years is still needed to show how effective this method will prove in lowering rates of cervical cancer. Longer research will also show any possible risks from what doctors call "overtreatment." Health workers are trained to freeze areas that turn white with the vinegar. They do not take cells to study under a microscope. So they do not know if the lesions they froze were pre-cancerous or something harmless. Even so, doctors say that in countries with poor health systems, this method is better than no treatment at all. VOICE TWO: Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by a virus, called the human papillomavirus, or H-P-V. Women can get the virus if they have sex with someone who is already infected. Doctors warn that testing for the virus is important. That is because infections caused by human papillomavirus often produce no signs that can be easily seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Eight years ago, American actor Christopher Reeve was thrown from a horse during a riding competition. Mister Reeve broke his neck. He could no longer move from the neck down. Since then, he has breathed with a respirator machine. In February, doctors performed an operation with the hope that he and others with similar injuries might not need respirators in the future. The doctors placed small electrical devices in his diaphragm muscle. The experimental system sends bursts of electricity to the muscle and nerves that pass through the diaphragm. As a result, the muscle decreases in size. Air enters the lungs. As the muscle expands again, the lungs expel air -- just like normal breathing. The doctors worked with a long, thin instrument -- a laparoscope -- through small holes in the chest. Wires link the electrodes to a small battery power pack outside the body. A team in Ohio from University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University developed this method. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve is fifty years old. He is best known as Superman in four movies. His Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation says the risks and costs of the experimental treatment are lower than those of current methods. At a press conference, Mister Reeve said the new device let him breathe on his own for up to fifteen minutes at a time. He described what it was like to escape the noise of the respirator. It was the first time he had heard his own breathing since nineteen-ninety-five. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by Jill Moss and George Grow, and was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program Science in the News. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report on severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS ... A study supports a low-cost way to save women in poor countries from cervical cancer ... And a new device may offer hope for paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve and others who cannot breathe on their own. (THEME) VOICE ONE: World health officials are continuing efforts to identify the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome, known as SARS. As of late last week, about eighty people around the world had died from the mysterious influenza-like sickness. Forty-six of the victims lived in China. More than two-thousand people have been infected with the disease. The largest number of cases are in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam. However, the disease has also been reported in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Officials say the number of cases continues to grow and the disease still appears to be spreading around the world. VOICE TWO: Health officials are trying to stop the spread of SARS. Last week, the World Health Organization released a warning against traveling to Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. This is the first time the W-H-O has issued a travel warning because of an infectious disease. Each day, the W-H-O is reconsidering the warning for possible changes. Scientists from around the world are trying to understand the disease. Last week, W-H-O experts traveled to China’s Guangdong Province where they suspect SARS first started last year. The team will study the biology of the virus that causes the disease. They also want to know if other viruses or diseases might worsen SARS or speed its spread. This is the first time U-N health experts have been given permission to visit Guangdong since the disease was first announced. China has been criticized for delaying reports about new cases and hiding information about the disease from the public. VOICE ONE: So far, there is no medicine to treat or prevent SARS. Officials first thought that particles from an infected person’s mouth spread SARS through the air. Now, however, they suspect the disease is spreading environmentally, through water or human waste systems, for example. However, until this can be proved, officials can only give guarded advice on how to prevent and treat the disease. SARS is similar to other severe breathing infections. Early signs include fever, headache, body pains and a tired feeling. After about one week, patients may develop a cough and have trouble breathing. Last week, Carlo Urbani, the World Health Organization doctor who first discovered SARS, became one of its victims. The Italian doctor worked for public health programs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. He first identified the disease in an American businessman at a hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. Doctor Urbani was forty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. (MUSIC) Every year, as many as three-hundred-thousand women around the world die from cancer of the cervix. That is more than from any other kind of cancer. The cervix is part of the female reproductive system. It is the opening at the end of the uterus. Cervical cancers develop slowly, usually over a period of ten or twenty years. There are tests that can find the disease early enough to save a woman's life. In one common test, called a Pap smear, laboratory workers examine questionable cells under a microscope. Many national health systems, though, do not have money for Pap smears or other such tests. As a result, most of the women who die from cervical cancer are in developing countries. But researchers believe they have now proven a low-cost way to prevent cervical cancer. It requires one simple visit with a trained health worker. VOICE ONE: This is how it works: First, the health worker washes the cervix with a mixture of vinegar and water. Vinegar, or acetic acid, is a liquid commonly used in foods and as a cleaner. Doctors have known for a long time that vinegar make lesions on the cervix white. Lesions are small areas of abnormal cells. The white lesions are easy to see with a light. Next, the medical worker uses liquid carbon dioxide to freeze the lesions. The freezing kills cancer cells before they can fully develop. American and Thai doctors tested the treatment method in Thailand. They sent twelve trained health workers to farming villages. The workers tested six-thousand woman with the vinegar wash. The tests found lesions in thirteen percent of the women. Most agreed to immediate treatment with this method. One year later, the researchers tested those women again with the vinegar wash. They found that almost ninety-five percent of the women had no more lesions. Doctor Paul Blumenthal from Johns Hopkins University led the study. He says almost all of the women treated said they had not felt only minor or moderate pain during the process. The women in the study were between the ages of thirty and forty-five. VOICE TWO: The researchers reported their findings in the British medical journal The Lancet. Doctor Blumenthal says similar research is currently being done on four-thousand women in Ghana. Researchers hope to prove that over time, this is the most economic way to prevent cervical cancer. Vinegar and cotton balls to wash the cervix are easy to find. So are tanks of liquid carbon dioxide. These are used in bottling factories like Coca-Cola and Pepsi operations. Carbon dioxide costs less than the nitrous oxide used by Western doctors. Health workers also need a simple instrument called a speculum to examine the cervix. Doctor Blumenthal says the biggest cost is to train the workers. VOICE ONE: Research over several years is still needed to show how effective this method will prove in lowering rates of cervical cancer. Longer research will also show any possible risks from what doctors call "overtreatment." Health workers are trained to freeze areas that turn white with the vinegar. They do not take cells to study under a microscope. So they do not know if the lesions they froze were pre-cancerous or something harmless. Even so, doctors say that in countries with poor health systems, this method is better than no treatment at all. VOICE TWO: Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by a virus, called the human papillomavirus, or H-P-V. Women can get the virus if they have sex with someone who is already infected. Doctors warn that testing for the virus is important. That is because infections caused by human papillomavirus often produce no signs that can be easily seen. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Eight years ago, American actor Christopher Reeve was thrown from a horse during a riding competition. Mister Reeve broke his neck. He could no longer move from the neck down. Since then, he has breathed with a respirator machine. In February, doctors performed an operation with the hope that he and others with similar injuries might not need respirators in the future. The doctors placed small electrical devices in his diaphragm muscle. The experimental system sends bursts of electricity to the muscle and nerves that pass through the diaphragm. As a result, the muscle decreases in size. Air enters the lungs. As the muscle expands again, the lungs expel air -- just like normal breathing. The doctors worked with a long, thin instrument -- a laparoscope -- through small holes in the chest. Wires link the electrodes to a small battery power pack outside the body. A team in Ohio from University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University developed this method. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve is fifty years old. He is best known as Superman in four movies. His Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation says the risks and costs of the experimental treatment are lower than those of current methods. At a press conference, Mister Reeve said the new device let him breathe on his own for up to fifteen minutes at a time. He described what it was like to escape the noise of the respirator. It was the first time he had heard his own breathing since nineteen-ninety-five. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by Jill Moss and George Grow, and was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT - April 9, 2003: Future Iraqi Government
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. There are questions and concerns about what kind of government Iraq will have once the fighting ends. One of the main issues is what part the United Nations will play in Iraq after the war. British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants the United Nations to have a major part. President Bush says the U-N should help rebuild the country. But he rejects U-N involvement in forming a new government in Baghdad. The two leaders met in Northern Ireland to discuss their positions. American officials say the coalition that has given, in their words, "life and blood to liberate Iraq" has earned the right to take a leading role. What does Kofi Annan think? The secretary-general says the United Nations has much experience with organizing political change in nations after wars. Mister Annan says the U-N should be involved in the effort in Iraq. He has named U-N administrator Rafeeuddin Ahmed as a special adviser to organize the U-N's Iraq policy. There is suspicion among Arabs about what plans the United States and Britain might have for Iraq in the future. The Arabs are not alone. The leaders of Russia, France and Germany have invited Kofi Annan to join them at a meeting later this week. That meeting is in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. Russia, France and Germany led opposition within the United Nations to a war against Iraq. The fighting began March twentieth. President Bush and other American officials have said the government in Iraq after the war will be controlled by Iraqis. First, though, plans call for a team led by retired United States Army General Jay Garner to have administrative responsibility. This group is to supervise the re-establishment of an Iraqi government and make sure Iraqis receive humanitarian aid. At the same time, there would be preparations for a temporary Iraqi government to begin its work. A few days ago, hundreds of Iraqi fighters opposed to Saddam Hussein arrived in southern Iraq to join the war effort. An opposition group, the Iraqi National Congress, organized the fighters. That group, based in London, is led by Ahmad Chalabi. He left Iraq more than forty years ago. Mister Chalabi wants to play a major part in the Iraqi leadership after the war. In Washington, though, he has received more support from the Defense Department than from the State Department or the White House. President Bush has said that Iraqi exiles can play a part in the new Iraq. But he says local citizens must govern their country. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 9, 2003: Death Valley
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program Explorations. Today we visit one of America’s great national parks. It is a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as this place is, its name provides evidence of very real danger. Come with us as we visit Death Valley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. There are mountains that reach more than three-thousand meters into the sky. There is a place called Badwater that is the lowest area of land in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it would be eighty-six meters below the level of the ocean. Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley. The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty-seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy-four degrees Celsius. The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past. It will continue to kill those who do not honor this extreme climate. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful. VOICE TWO: Death Valley is a good example of the violence of nature. It contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe (U-BE-HE-BE) Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black. Other areas of rock look as if some huge creature violently broke and twisted the Earth to create unusual, sometimes frightening shapes. In other parts of Death Valley there are lines in the rock that show clearly that this area was deep under an ocean for many thousands of years. Much of the Valley is flat and extremely dry. In fact, scientists believe it is the driest place in the United States. In some areas the ground is nothing but salt. Nothing grows in this salted ground. VOICE ONE: However, it would be wrong to think that nothing lives in Death Valley. The Valley is full of life. Wild flowers grow very quickly after a little rain. Some desert plants can send their roots down more than eighteen meters to reach water deep in the ground. Many kinds of birds live in Death Valley. So do mammals and reptiles. You might see the small dog-like animal called the coyote or wild sheep called bighorns. Other animals include the desert jackrabbit, the desert tortoise or turtle and a large reptile called a chuckwalla. Many kinds of snakes live in the Valley, including one called the sidewinder rattlesnake. It is an extremely poisonous snake with long sharp teeth called fangs. Death Valley is a huge place. It extends more than two-hundred-twenty-five kilometers across the southern part of the state of California, and across the border with the state of Nevada. Death Valley is part of the Great Mojave Desert. VOICE TWO: The area was named by a woman in eighteen-forty-nine. That was the year after [correct] gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people from other parts of the country traveled to the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. Many people were not careful. They made bad choices or wrong decisions. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat. The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains to the west of the Valley. Slowly, they began to suffer from a lack of food.To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, “Good-bye, Death Valley.” The name has never been changed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty’s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat. The main building is very large. It was built in nineteen-twenty-nine in one of the few areas of the Valley that has water. The castle is named for Walter Scott, called Scotty by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believed him. But it was not really the truth. Scotty was not a very honest man. Some years earlier, he had asked several people to invest in a gold mine he had in Death Valley. One of the men he asked to invest was a businessman from Chicago, Illinois named Albert Johnson. Mister Johnson invested in Scotty’s mine. In nineteen-oh-five, he traveled to Death Valley to see the mine. Scotty put Mister Johnson on a horse and took him far into the mountains. Many people believe that while they were on this trip, Scotty told Mister Johnson the truth: There was no mine. There was no gold. VOICE TWO: Albert Johnson suffered from extremely poor health. He had been in a severe accident a few years before. Doctors did not believe he would live much longer. However, something happened on his trip with Scotty. When Albert Johnson returned from the mountains, he felt better than he had in several years. Perhaps he felt better because of the clean mountain air. Perhaps it was the good food Scotty cooked. Or it may have been the funny stories Scotty told that improved Mister Johnson’s health. Whatever it was, Albert Johnson fell in love with Death Valley. He and Scotty became lifelong friends. Soon after, Albert Johnson began building a home on the western edge of Death Valley. He did not live there all the time. But Scotty did. And, he told everyone the huge house was his -- bought and paid for with the money from his gold mine. Scotty told everyone that Albert Johnson, his friend from Chicago, came to visit sometimes. Mister Johnson never told anyone it was just a story made up by Death Valley Scotty. VOICE ONE: Albert Johnson lived another thirty years -- many more years than the doctors thought he would. Some years before he died, in nineteen-forty-eight, Albert Johnson signed documents that said Walter Scott could live in the house until he died. Scotty died in nineteen-fifty-four. He is buried on a small hill near the house. In nineteen-seventy, the National Park Service bought Scotty’s Castle. It has since become one of the most popular areas to visit in Death Valley National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than seven-hundred-thousand people visit Death Valley each year. Many people come for just a day. Buses bring visitors from the famous city of Las Vegas, Nevada. They ride around the park in their bus, visit several places and are back in their Las Vegas hotel by night. However, many other visitors stay in the park. The most popular area to stay in is Furnace Creek. Furnace Creek is the largest area of human activity within Death Valley National Park. There is a hotel. There are also camping areas where people put up temporary cloth homes, called tents. Visitors who arrive in huge motor homes can also find a place to park their vehicles. VOICE ONE: The famous Furnace Creek Inn is a beautiful hotel that was built of stone more than seventy-five years ago. The inn is built on a low hill. The main public room in the hotel has large windows that look far out over Death Valley. Hotel guests gather near these large windows in the evening to watch the sun make long shadows on the floor of the Valley and on the far mountains. This beautiful image seems to change each minute. The sun slowly turns the Valley a gold color that deepens to a soft brown, then changes to a dark red. As night comes, the mountains turn a dark purple color, then black. Usually, visitors are very quiet when this event takes place. A few try to photograph it. But the Valley is too huge to capture in a photograph. Most visitors watch this natural beauty and leave with only the memory of sunset at beautiful Death Valley National Park. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for Explorations, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program Explorations. Today we visit one of America’s great national parks. It is a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as this place is, its name provides evidence of very real danger. Come with us as we visit Death Valley. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. There are mountains that reach more than three-thousand meters into the sky. There is a place called Badwater that is the lowest area of land in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it would be eighty-six meters below the level of the ocean. Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley. The air temperature during the summer has been as high as fifty-seven degrees Celsius. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as seventy-four degrees Celsius. The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past. It will continue to kill those who do not honor this extreme climate. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful. VOICE TWO: Death Valley is a good example of the violence of nature. It contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe (U-BE-HE-BE) Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide. In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black. Other areas of rock look as if some huge creature violently broke and twisted the Earth to create unusual, sometimes frightening shapes. In other parts of Death Valley there are lines in the rock that show clearly that this area was deep under an ocean for many thousands of years. Much of the Valley is flat and extremely dry. In fact, scientists believe it is the driest place in the United States. In some areas the ground is nothing but salt. Nothing grows in this salted ground. VOICE ONE: However, it would be wrong to think that nothing lives in Death Valley. The Valley is full of life. Wild flowers grow very quickly after a little rain. Some desert plants can send their roots down more than eighteen meters to reach water deep in the ground. Many kinds of birds live in Death Valley. So do mammals and reptiles. You might see the small dog-like animal called the coyote or wild sheep called bighorns. Other animals include the desert jackrabbit, the desert tortoise or turtle and a large reptile called a chuckwalla. Many kinds of snakes live in the Valley, including one called the sidewinder rattlesnake. It is an extremely poisonous snake with long sharp teeth called fangs. Death Valley is a huge place. It extends more than two-hundred-twenty-five kilometers across the southern part of the state of California, and across the border with the state of Nevada. Death Valley is part of the Great Mojave Desert. VOICE TWO: The area was named by a woman in eighteen-forty-nine. That was the year after [correct] gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people from other parts of the country traveled to the gold mining areas in California. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did. Many people were not careful. They made bad choices or wrong decisions. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were few plants for their work animals to eat. The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains to the west of the Valley. Slowly, they began to suffer from a lack of food.To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the Valley. As they left, one woman looked back and said, “Good-bye, Death Valley.” The name has never been changed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Almost everyone who visits Death Valley visits a huge house called Scotty’s Castle. The building design is Spanish, with high thick walls to provide protection from the fierce heat. The main building is very large. It was built in nineteen-twenty-nine in one of the few areas of the Valley that has water. The castle is named for Walter Scott, called Scotty by his friends. He was a gold miner. He told everyone that he built the house with money he made from his gold mine. Many people believed him. But it was not really the truth. Scotty was not a very honest man. Some years earlier, he had asked several people to invest in a gold mine he had in Death Valley. One of the men he asked to invest was a businessman from Chicago, Illinois named Albert Johnson. Mister Johnson invested in Scotty’s mine. In nineteen-oh-five, he traveled to Death Valley to see the mine. Scotty put Mister Johnson on a horse and took him far into the mountains. Many people believe that while they were on this trip, Scotty told Mister Johnson the truth: There was no mine. There was no gold. VOICE TWO: Albert Johnson suffered from extremely poor health. He had been in a severe accident a few years before. Doctors did not believe he would live much longer. However, something happened on his trip with Scotty. When Albert Johnson returned from the mountains, he felt better than he had in several years. Perhaps he felt better because of the clean mountain air. Perhaps it was the good food Scotty cooked. Or it may have been the funny stories Scotty told that improved Mister Johnson’s health. Whatever it was, Albert Johnson fell in love with Death Valley. He and Scotty became lifelong friends. Soon after, Albert Johnson began building a home on the western edge of Death Valley. He did not live there all the time. But Scotty did. And, he told everyone the huge house was his -- bought and paid for with the money from his gold mine. Scotty told everyone that Albert Johnson, his friend from Chicago, came to visit sometimes. Mister Johnson never told anyone it was just a story made up by Death Valley Scotty. VOICE ONE: Albert Johnson lived another thirty years -- many more years than the doctors thought he would. Some years before he died, in nineteen-forty-eight, Albert Johnson signed documents that said Walter Scott could live in the house until he died. Scotty died in nineteen-fifty-four. He is buried on a small hill near the house. In nineteen-seventy, the National Park Service bought Scotty’s Castle. It has since become one of the most popular areas to visit in Death Valley National Park. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: More than seven-hundred-thousand people visit Death Valley each year. Many people come for just a day. Buses bring visitors from the famous city of Las Vegas, Nevada. They ride around the park in their bus, visit several places and are back in their Las Vegas hotel by night. However, many other visitors stay in the park. The most popular area to stay in is Furnace Creek. Furnace Creek is the largest area of human activity within Death Valley National Park. There is a hotel. There are also camping areas where people put up temporary cloth homes, called tents. Visitors who arrive in huge motor homes can also find a place to park their vehicles. VOICE ONE: The famous Furnace Creek Inn is a beautiful hotel that was built of stone more than seventy-five years ago. The inn is built on a low hill. The main public room in the hotel has large windows that look far out over Death Valley. Hotel guests gather near these large windows in the evening to watch the sun make long shadows on the floor of the Valley and on the far mountains. This beautiful image seems to change each minute. The sun slowly turns the Valley a gold color that deepens to a soft brown, then changes to a dark red. As night comes, the mountains turn a dark purple color, then black. Usually, visitors are very quiet when this event takes place. A few try to photograph it. But the Valley is too huge to capture in a photograph. Most visitors watch this natural beauty and leave with only the memory of sunset at beautiful Death Valley National Park. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for Explorations, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #7 - Colonial Expansion: New England, Middle Colonies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 10, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the movement of European settlers throughout northeastern America. And we tell how the separate colonies developed in this area. VOICE ONE: The Puritans were one of the largest groups from England to settle in the northeastern area called Massachusetts. They began arriving in Sixteen-Thirty. The Puritans had formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in England. The King had given the company an area of land between the Charles and Merrimack Rivers. The Puritans were Protestants who did not agree with the Anglican Church. The Puritans wanted to change the church to make it more holy. They were able to live as they wanted in Massachusetts. Soon they became the largest religious group. By Sixteen-Ninety, fifty-thousand people were living in Massachusetts. Puritans thought their religion was the only true religion and everyone should believe in it. They also believed that church leaders should lead the local government, and all people in the colony should pay to support the Puritan church. The Puritans thought it was the job of government leaders to tell people what to believe. Some people did not agree with the Puritans who had become leaders of the colony. One of those who disagreed was a Puritan minister named Roger WIlliams. VOICE TWO: Roger Williams believed as all Puritans did that other European religions were wrong. He thought the native Indian religions were wrong too. But he did not believe in trying to force others to agree with him. He thought that it was a sin to punish or kill anyone in the name of Christianity. And he thought that only church members should pay to support their church. Roger Williams began speaking and writing about his ideas. He wrote a book saying it was wrong to punish people for having different beliefs. Then he said that the European settlers were stealing the Indians' land. He said the King of England had no right to permit people to settle on land that was not his, but belonged to the Indians. The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony forced Roger Williams to leave the colony in Sixteen-Thirty-Six. He traveled south. He bought land from local Indians and started a city, Providence. The Parliament in England gave him permission to establish a new colony, Rhode Island, with Providence as its capital. As a colony, Rhode Island accepted people of all religious beliefs, including Catholics, Quakers, Jews and even people who denied the existence of God. Roger Williams also believed that governments should have no connection to a church. This idea of separating church and state was very new. Later it became one of the most important of all America's governing ideas. VOICE ONE: Other colonies were started by people who left Massachusetts to seek land. One was Connecticut. A group led by Puritan minister Thomas Hooker left Boston in Sixteen-Thirty-Six and went west. They settled near the Connecticut River. Others soon joined them. Other groups from Massachusetts traveled north to find new homes. The King of England had given two friends a large piece of land in the north. The friends divided it. John Mason took what later became the colony of New Hampshire. Ferdinando Gorges took the area that later became the state of Maine. It never became a colony, however. It remained a part of Massachusetts until after the United States was created. VOICE TWO: The area known today as New York State was settled by the Dutch. They called it New Netherland. Their country was the Netherlands. It was a great world power, with colonies all over the world. A business called the Dutch West India Company owned most of the colonies. The Dutch claimed American land because of explorations by Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Netherlands. The land the Dutch claimed was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglican tobacco farmers in the south. The Dutch were not interested in settling the territory. They wanted to earn money. The Dutch West India Company built trading posts on the rivers claimed by the Netherlands. People in Europe wanted to buy goods made from the skins of animals trapped there. In Sixteen-Twenty-Six, the Dutch West India Company bought two islands from the local Indians. The islands are Manhattan Island and Long Island. Traditional stories say the Dutch paid for the islands with some trade goods worth about twenty-four dollars. The Dutch West India Company tried to find people to settle in America. But few Dutch wanted to leave Europe. So the colony welcomed people from other colonies, and other countries. These people built a town on Manhattan Island. They called it New Amsterdam. It was soon full of people who had arrived on ships from faraway places. It was said you could hear as many as eighteen different languages spoken in New Amsterdam. In Sixteen-Fifty-Five, the governor of New Netherland took control of a nearby Swedish colony on Delaware Bay. In Sixteen-Sixty-Four, the English did the same to the Dutch. The English seized control of New Amsterdam and called it New York. That ended Dutch control of the territory that now is the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. VOICE ONE: Most of the Dutch in New Amsterdam did not leave. The English permitted everyone to stay. They let the Dutch have religious freedom. The Dutch were just not in control any more. The Duke of York owned the area now. He was the brother of King Charles the Second of England. The King gave some of the land near New York to two friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley. They called it New Jersey, after the English island where Carteret was born. The two men wrote a plan of government for their colony. It created an assembly that represented the settlers. It provided for freedom of religion. Men could vote in New Jersey whatever their religion. Soon, people from all parts of Europe were living in New Jersey. Then King Charles took control of the area. He sent a royal governor to rule. But the colonists were permitted to make their own laws through the elected assembly. The King of England did the same in each colony he controlled. He collected taxes from the people who lived there, but permitted them to govern themselves. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: One religious group that was not welcome in England was the Quakers. Quakers call themselves Friends. They believe that each person has an inner light that leads them to God. Quakers believe they do not need a religious leader to tell them what is right. So, they had no clergy. Quakers believe that all people are equal. The Quakers in England refused to recognize the King as more important than anyone else. They also refused to pay taxes to support the Anglican Church. Quakers believe that it is always wrong to kill. So they would not fight even when they were forced to join the army. They also refuse to promise loyalty to a king or government or flag or anyone but God. The English did not like the Quakers for all these reasons. Many Quakers wanted to leave England, but they were not welcome in most American colonies. One Quaker changed this. His name was William Penn. VOICE ONE: William Penn was not born a Quaker. He became one as a young man. His father was an Anglican, and a good friend of the King. King Charles borrowed money from William's father. When his father died, William Penn asked that the debt be paid with land in America. In Sixteen-Eighty-One, the King gave William Penn land which the King's Council named Pennsylvania, meaning Penn's woods. The Quakers now had their own colony. It was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglicans in the south. William Penn said the colony should be a place where everyone could live by Quaker ideas. That meant treating all people as equals and honoring all religions. It also meant that anyone could be elected. In most other colonies, people could believe any religion, but they could not vote or hold office unless they were a member of the majority church. In Pennsylvania, all religions were equal. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Broadcast: April 10, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the movement of European settlers throughout northeastern America. And we tell how the separate colonies developed in this area. VOICE ONE: The Puritans were one of the largest groups from England to settle in the northeastern area called Massachusetts. They began arriving in Sixteen-Thirty. The Puritans had formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in England. The King had given the company an area of land between the Charles and Merrimack Rivers. The Puritans were Protestants who did not agree with the Anglican Church. The Puritans wanted to change the church to make it more holy. They were able to live as they wanted in Massachusetts. Soon they became the largest religious group. By Sixteen-Ninety, fifty-thousand people were living in Massachusetts. Puritans thought their religion was the only true religion and everyone should believe in it. They also believed that church leaders should lead the local government, and all people in the colony should pay to support the Puritan church. The Puritans thought it was the job of government leaders to tell people what to believe. Some people did not agree with the Puritans who had become leaders of the colony. One of those who disagreed was a Puritan minister named Roger WIlliams. VOICE TWO: Roger Williams believed as all Puritans did that other European religions were wrong. He thought the native Indian religions were wrong too. But he did not believe in trying to force others to agree with him. He thought that it was a sin to punish or kill anyone in the name of Christianity. And he thought that only church members should pay to support their church. Roger Williams began speaking and writing about his ideas. He wrote a book saying it was wrong to punish people for having different beliefs. Then he said that the European settlers were stealing the Indians' land. He said the King of England had no right to permit people to settle on land that was not his, but belonged to the Indians. The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony forced Roger Williams to leave the colony in Sixteen-Thirty-Six. He traveled south. He bought land from local Indians and started a city, Providence. The Parliament in England gave him permission to establish a new colony, Rhode Island, with Providence as its capital. As a colony, Rhode Island accepted people of all religious beliefs, including Catholics, Quakers, Jews and even people who denied the existence of God. Roger Williams also believed that governments should have no connection to a church. This idea of separating church and state was very new. Later it became one of the most important of all America's governing ideas. VOICE ONE: Other colonies were started by people who left Massachusetts to seek land. One was Connecticut. A group led by Puritan minister Thomas Hooker left Boston in Sixteen-Thirty-Six and went west. They settled near the Connecticut River. Others soon joined them. Other groups from Massachusetts traveled north to find new homes. The King of England had given two friends a large piece of land in the north. The friends divided it. John Mason took what later became the colony of New Hampshire. Ferdinando Gorges took the area that later became the state of Maine. It never became a colony, however. It remained a part of Massachusetts until after the United States was created. VOICE TWO: The area known today as New York State was settled by the Dutch. They called it New Netherland. Their country was the Netherlands. It was a great world power, with colonies all over the world. A business called the Dutch West India Company owned most of the colonies. The Dutch claimed American land because of explorations by Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Netherlands. The land the Dutch claimed was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglican tobacco farmers in the south. The Dutch were not interested in settling the territory. They wanted to earn money. The Dutch West India Company built trading posts on the rivers claimed by the Netherlands. People in Europe wanted to buy goods made from the skins of animals trapped there. In Sixteen-Twenty-Six, the Dutch West India Company bought two islands from the local Indians. The islands are Manhattan Island and Long Island. Traditional stories say the Dutch paid for the islands with some trade goods worth about twenty-four dollars. The Dutch West India Company tried to find people to settle in America. But few Dutch wanted to leave Europe. So the colony welcomed people from other colonies, and other countries. These people built a town on Manhattan Island. They called it New Amsterdam. It was soon full of people who had arrived on ships from faraway places. It was said you could hear as many as eighteen different languages spoken in New Amsterdam. In Sixteen-Fifty-Five, the governor of New Netherland took control of a nearby Swedish colony on Delaware Bay. In Sixteen-Sixty-Four, the English did the same to the Dutch. The English seized control of New Amsterdam and called it New York. That ended Dutch control of the territory that now is the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware. VOICE ONE: Most of the Dutch in New Amsterdam did not leave. The English permitted everyone to stay. They let the Dutch have religious freedom. The Dutch were just not in control any more. The Duke of York owned the area now. He was the brother of King Charles the Second of England. The King gave some of the land near New York to two friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley. They called it New Jersey, after the English island where Carteret was born. The two men wrote a plan of government for their colony. It created an assembly that represented the settlers. It provided for freedom of religion. Men could vote in New Jersey whatever their religion. Soon, people from all parts of Europe were living in New Jersey. Then King Charles took control of the area. He sent a royal governor to rule. But the colonists were permitted to make their own laws through the elected assembly. The King of England did the same in each colony he controlled. He collected taxes from the people who lived there, but permitted them to govern themselves. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: One religious group that was not welcome in England was the Quakers. Quakers call themselves Friends. They believe that each person has an inner light that leads them to God. Quakers believe they do not need a religious leader to tell them what is right. So, they had no clergy. Quakers believe that all people are equal. The Quakers in England refused to recognize the King as more important than anyone else. They also refused to pay taxes to support the Anglican Church. Quakers believe that it is always wrong to kill. So they would not fight even when they were forced to join the army. They also refuse to promise loyalty to a king or government or flag or anyone but God. The English did not like the Quakers for all these reasons. Many Quakers wanted to leave England, but they were not welcome in most American colonies. One Quaker changed this. His name was William Penn. VOICE ONE: William Penn was not born a Quaker. He became one as a young man. His father was an Anglican, and a good friend of the King. King Charles borrowed money from William's father. When his father died, William Penn asked that the debt be paid with land in America. In Sixteen-Eighty-One, the King gave William Penn land which the King's Council named Pennsylvania, meaning Penn's woods. The Quakers now had their own colony. It was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglicans in the south. William Penn said the colony should be a place where everyone could live by Quaker ideas. That meant treating all people as equals and honoring all religions. It also meant that anyone could be elected. In most other colonies, people could believe any religion, but they could not vote or hold office unless they were a member of the majority church. In Pennsylvania, all religions were equal. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – April 10, 2003: Aid Efforts in Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Even as Iraqis celebrated in Baghdad, fighting continued in parts of the city and other areas of Iraq. The situation has slowed humanitarian aid efforts. On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross restarted its work in Baghdad after a one-day suspension. But the Red Cross expressed concern about widespread attacks and stealing in the capital. The suspension followed the killing Tuesday of a Canadian Red Cross worker in gunfire between American and Iraqi forces. In the hospitals in Baghdad, there are many wounded, but few supplies to care for them. Red Cross workers took supplies to one hospital in the city earlier this week. But a Red Cross spokeswoman said the Medical City Hospital had no water or power. Only a few operating rooms could be used. Another agency, Medecins sans Frontieres -- Doctors without Borders -- has been assisting at al-Kindi General Hospital in Baghdad. The group has had some success in getting supplies into Iraq. There were difficulties, though, for the World Health Organization. The United Nations agency said thirty-eight tons of its medical supplies were delayed in Jordan. In southern Iraq, two Australian ships with tons of wheat were too large to enter the port at Umm Qasr. So engineers have been working to widen the waterway. The first British aid ship arrived last week. British troops have brought water to the city and nearby Safwan. Some thirsty people fought each other for the water. In northern Iraq, the U-N World Food Program has said food supplies will be gone in about three weeks. Among other problems, the U-N says two-hundred-sixty-six-thousand people in the north have left their homes in search of safety. A few days ago, the United States added more money for international efforts to buy food for Iraqis. Officials say the additional money will be enough to feed the more than twenty-million people of Iraq for almost a month. The United Nations has renewed its international appeal for more than two-thousand-million dollars for emergency humanitarian aid to Iraq. In Washington, United States officials debated how to provide aid in Iraq when the fighting is over. Some at the State Department and the Agency for International Development want civilian aid workers involved. They say they fear that other governments and international aid organizations will not want to work with the military. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: April 10, 2003 - 'Word Bursts'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 10, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- a way to find out what people are talking about. First, though, a story. (SOUNDS OF RUSHING WATER) RS: Imagine a waterway. Fish rush by. Lots and lots of different fish. A computer program counts how many of each kind of fish there are. Now imagine that each kind of fish is really a word. What the computer program counts, then, is how often each different word appears. AA: A computer scientist named Jon Kleinberg has developed one such program. He's an associate professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The software does more than just count words. With enough computer power, it could analyze huge amounts of electronic content. For instance, what's on all the front pages of all the English-language newspapers on the Internet. RS: Day after day, it could track the frequency of use for each word. When certain words start to get used a lot more often, say, this week than last week -- "word bursts," they're called -- that's a signal. It suggests that these words are suddenly topical. Jon Kleinberg says these “word bursts” reveal what is on people's minds. KLEINBERG: "One of the things that's going on the Web is that there's not just mainstream media -- so things like the New York Times' homepage, CNN's homepage -- but there are also tens of thousands of people who maintain these online journals." RS: These journals are called "Web logs" -- or simply "blogs" -- and they have become, Jon Kleinberg says, a new type of medium. "They're the same kind of populist sort of commentary and discussion that we got with personal homepages early on in the Web, and they're now doing that for current events and for news. And by watching what these people talk about, that's a very good leading indicator of trends that people, for example, on the Web are aware of." AA: Jon Kleinberg has also looked backward for trends -- for example, in the online archives of State of the Union speeches by U-S presidents. Words that appeared with particular increases in frequency tended to correspond to historical trends -- not a surprise, he says. KLEINBERG: "So in the 1930s we have words like 'banks,' 'depression,' 'recovery,' in the 1940s we have words like 'war' and 'atomic,' and then in the '50s words like 'Korea,' 'communist.' The point is, that's an example where we believe we know what we're going to be seeing. It's a way of sanity-checking what's happening, so that we can then try it on things where we don't necessarily know what to expect." RS: "For example?" KLEINBERG: "One thing which surprised me -- and this was still in the context even of State of the Union addresses -- is that once we get to the 1980s, words that have to do with historical events in the '80s get mixed in a lot more with particular rhetorical devices. So, sudden increases in words like 'communities' and 'American' and 'patriotism.' So we find that with the increasing dominance of professional speechwriting, we have certain words that simply were appearing every single year. And that's something which one sort of may have thought about at an intuitive level, but it shows up extremely strongly when one does this frequency analysis. So it's a way of quantitatively verifying a shift in the language used in speechwriting, for example." RS: "Do you see anything in this work that tells us a little bit about who we are as Americans? Because you see the frequency of words, does it tell us -- " AA: "Where we're heading?" RS: "Where we're heading, or where we've been?" KLEINBERG: "I'm certainly heartened by all of the activity and things like the Web log community, which is really, I think, supplementing the mainstream news media with this very large additional set of outlets for opinions and commentary and expression. It's creating an extremely vibrant community, and I think that's an exciting development, certainly -- and something that one can, again, hopefully track by being aware of the current topics of interest as manifested through choices of words." AA: "Doesn't that just sort of feed on itself or create kind of a loop, where you know what words are on the rise so you start using them more?" KLEINBERG: "There is this interesting feedback going on, that as you become explicitly aware of this notion of popularity, you -- right, it feeds back on itself. One thing that helps alleviate that is this notion of 'burstiness' as being about change, not just about frequency. So we aren't just finding the most frequent words, but the words that are changing most sharply. So once something becomes popular, the fact that people continue using it no longer contributes to its change. It already is popular." RS: "What about new words in the language?" KLEINBERG: "At the moment methods like this are very good for catching the sudden appearance of coinages of new words in online media, simply because we have access to all that data. But I think this is something that could be used retrospectively to go back through books or newspapers over hundreds of years, trying to find the rise of words that are now quite common." RS: In the long run, Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University says, the goal is to develop computer search engines that can catch ideas that are on the rise, and not just words. AA: You'll find all of our words on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 10, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- a way to find out what people are talking about. First, though, a story. (SOUNDS OF RUSHING WATER) RS: Imagine a waterway. Fish rush by. Lots and lots of different fish. A computer program counts how many of each kind of fish there are. Now imagine that each kind of fish is really a word. What the computer program counts, then, is how often each different word appears. AA: A computer scientist named Jon Kleinberg has developed one such program. He's an associate professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The software does more than just count words. With enough computer power, it could analyze huge amounts of electronic content. For instance, what's on all the front pages of all the English-language newspapers on the Internet. RS: Day after day, it could track the frequency of use for each word. When certain words start to get used a lot more often, say, this week than last week -- "word bursts," they're called -- that's a signal. It suggests that these words are suddenly topical. Jon Kleinberg says these “word bursts” reveal what is on people's minds. KLEINBERG: "One of the things that's going on the Web is that there's not just mainstream media -- so things like the New York Times' homepage, CNN's homepage -- but there are also tens of thousands of people who maintain these online journals." RS: These journals are called "Web logs" -- or simply "blogs" -- and they have become, Jon Kleinberg says, a new type of medium. "They're the same kind of populist sort of commentary and discussion that we got with personal homepages early on in the Web, and they're now doing that for current events and for news. And by watching what these people talk about, that's a very good leading indicator of trends that people, for example, on the Web are aware of." AA: Jon Kleinberg has also looked backward for trends -- for example, in the online archives of State of the Union speeches by U-S presidents. Words that appeared with particular increases in frequency tended to correspond to historical trends -- not a surprise, he says. KLEINBERG: "So in the 1930s we have words like 'banks,' 'depression,' 'recovery,' in the 1940s we have words like 'war' and 'atomic,' and then in the '50s words like 'Korea,' 'communist.' The point is, that's an example where we believe we know what we're going to be seeing. It's a way of sanity-checking what's happening, so that we can then try it on things where we don't necessarily know what to expect." RS: "For example?" KLEINBERG: "One thing which surprised me -- and this was still in the context even of State of the Union addresses -- is that once we get to the 1980s, words that have to do with historical events in the '80s get mixed in a lot more with particular rhetorical devices. So, sudden increases in words like 'communities' and 'American' and 'patriotism.' So we find that with the increasing dominance of professional speechwriting, we have certain words that simply were appearing every single year. And that's something which one sort of may have thought about at an intuitive level, but it shows up extremely strongly when one does this frequency analysis. So it's a way of quantitatively verifying a shift in the language used in speechwriting, for example." RS: "Do you see anything in this work that tells us a little bit about who we are as Americans? Because you see the frequency of words, does it tell us -- " AA: "Where we're heading?" RS: "Where we're heading, or where we've been?" KLEINBERG: "I'm certainly heartened by all of the activity and things like the Web log community, which is really, I think, supplementing the mainstream news media with this very large additional set of outlets for opinions and commentary and expression. It's creating an extremely vibrant community, and I think that's an exciting development, certainly -- and something that one can, again, hopefully track by being aware of the current topics of interest as manifested through choices of words." AA: "Doesn't that just sort of feed on itself or create kind of a loop, where you know what words are on the rise so you start using them more?" KLEINBERG: "There is this interesting feedback going on, that as you become explicitly aware of this notion of popularity, you -- right, it feeds back on itself. One thing that helps alleviate that is this notion of 'burstiness' as being about change, not just about frequency. So we aren't just finding the most frequent words, but the words that are changing most sharply. So once something becomes popular, the fact that people continue using it no longer contributes to its change. It already is popular." RS: "What about new words in the language?" KLEINBERG: "At the moment methods like this are very good for catching the sudden appearance of coinages of new words in online media, simply because we have access to all that data. But I think this is something that could be used retrospectively to go back through books or newspapers over hundreds of years, trying to find the rise of words that are now quite common." RS: In the long run, Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University says, the goal is to develop computer search engines that can catch ideas that are on the rise, and not just words. AA: You'll find all of our words on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 11, 2003: Music by Le Tigre / Question About How Space Shuttles Were Named / Windows by Frank Lloyd Wright
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play music from the group called “Le Tigre” ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play music from the group called “Le Tigre” ... Answer a listener’s question about how American space shuttles were named ... And report about a new exhibit of windows from the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright Windows HOST: Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most important building designers of the twentieth century. Now, some of the colored glass windows from his buildings are being shown at a museum in Washington, D.C. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Frank Lloyd Wright completed almost five-hundred buildings. Most of them were private houses. He also developed a completely new kind of window. It combined clear glass with squares, rectangles, triangles and circles of brightly colored glass. Wright called the colored glass windows in his buildings “light screens.” From eighteen-eighty-five through nineteen-twenty-three, Wright designed more than four-thousand colored glass windows. They were used in almost one-hundred completed buildings. These special windows were designed to unite the inside of the buildings with the natural environment outside. A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery shows forty-eight of these stained glass windows. The show also includes some of Wright’s drawings, architectural models and photographs. The exhibit is called “Light Screens: The Leaded Glass of Frank Lloyd Wright.” The windows are from different periods of Wright’s work. Some of the largest and most exciting were designed in the early nineteen-hundreds. Some of these windows include images of balloons and American flags. Wright used glass in bright colors like red, blue, yellow, green and black. He also designed windows that were made of what he called “dancing” triangles of glass. All of the windows in the exhibit were removed from buildings in the past. They were provided by private collectors and other museums. Elizabeth Broun [broon] is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum that supervises the Renwick Gallery. She says Frank Lloyd Wright is an extremely important person in the story of twentieth century American culture, architecture and design. If you have a computer you can see some of the windows in the Renwick Gallery exhibit. The Web site address is www dot wright light screens dot com. Wright light screens is all one word. It is spelled w-r-i-g-h-t-l-i-g-h-t-s-c-r-e-e-n-s (www.wrightlightscreens.com). And you can learn more about the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright on the Special English program People in America on Sunday. Shuttle Names HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Semaku Fasinu asks us to explain how the American space shuttles got their names, and why the spacecraft is called a shuttle. The dictionary says the word “shuttle” means travel again and again over an established path by a vehicle such as an airplane. Scientists were using the word to describe space transportation as early as nineteen-fifty-two. Wernher von Braun wrote about using a shuttle craft to move men and materials between a rocket ship and space station. Since then, American space scientists have used the term to describe movement of goods and people between Earth and outer space. The American space agency NASA first used the word shuttle in nineteen-sixty-eight to describe a craft that would orbit the Earth and return astronauts home. President Richard Nixon announced the development of the space shuttle in nineteen-seventy-two. Each craft was to make one-hundred trips in space. The first space shuttle was to have been called Constitution. But a national campaign among the fans of the "Star Trek” television show influenced the government to change the name to Enterprise. Enterprise was the name of the space ship in that television show. NASA decided to officially choose the names of the shuttles that would be built later. Officials decided to name the shuttles after historic ships of explorers throughout history. For example, the shuttle Columbia was named for one of the first Navy ships to sail completely around the world. The shuttle Discovery was named for two historic ships. One ship was led by Henry Hudson when he discovered Hudson Bay. The other was James Cook’s ship which explored the Hawaiian Islands, southern Alaska and western Canada. The Atlantis space shuttle was named for a scientific research ship operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. The Challenger was named for a British naval research ship that explored the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Following the destruction of the Challenger in nineteen-eighty-six, NASA held a contest for American school children to name the replacement shuttle. The name chosen was Endeavor, after the first ship commanded by James Cook. Le Tigre HOST: The New York-based music group Le Tigre was formed in nineteen-ninety-nine by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman. Mizz Hanna is one of the creators of the “Riot Grrrl” [girl] women’s rights art and music movement of the nineteen-nineties. Le Tigre’s sound is clearly influenced by that movement. Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: The music of Le Tigre combines the loud, hostile guitar of punk music with electronic drums, piano and other aggressive sounds. The words of Le Tigre’s songs deal with the political issues of everyday life. Here is a song from the band’s first album, called “Le Tigre.” The song is called “What’s Yr [your] Take on Cassavetes.” It is about the difficulty of enjoying the work of an artist if you disagree with his politics. (MUSIC) Bass guitar player JD Samson became a member of the band when it recorded a second album, called “Feminist Sweepstakes.” This song from that album deals with surviving childhood sexual abuse. It is called “Keep On Livin’.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with another song from “Feminist Sweepstakes.” It is called “Le Tigre Tour Theme.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Answer a listener’s question about how American space shuttles were named ... And report about a new exhibit of windows from the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright Windows HOST: Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most important building designers of the twentieth century. Now, some of the colored glass windows from his buildings are being shown at a museum in Washington, D.C. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Frank Lloyd Wright completed almost five-hundred buildings. Most of them were private houses. He also developed a completely new kind of window. It combined clear glass with squares, rectangles, triangles and circles of brightly colored glass. Wright called the colored glass windows in his buildings “light screens.” From eighteen-eighty-five through nineteen-twenty-three, Wright designed more than four-thousand colored glass windows. They were used in almost one-hundred completed buildings. These special windows were designed to unite the inside of the buildings with the natural environment outside. A new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery shows forty-eight of these stained glass windows. The show also includes some of Wright’s drawings, architectural models and photographs. The exhibit is called “Light Screens: The Leaded Glass of Frank Lloyd Wright.” The windows are from different periods of Wright’s work. Some of the largest and most exciting were designed in the early nineteen-hundreds. Some of these windows include images of balloons and American flags. Wright used glass in bright colors like red, blue, yellow, green and black. He also designed windows that were made of what he called “dancing” triangles of glass. All of the windows in the exhibit were removed from buildings in the past. They were provided by private collectors and other museums. Elizabeth Broun [broon] is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum that supervises the Renwick Gallery. She says Frank Lloyd Wright is an extremely important person in the story of twentieth century American culture, architecture and design. If you have a computer you can see some of the windows in the Renwick Gallery exhibit. The Web site address is www dot wright light screens dot com. Wright light screens is all one word. It is spelled w-r-i-g-h-t-l-i-g-h-t-s-c-r-e-e-n-s (www.wrightlightscreens.com). And you can learn more about the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright on the Special English program People in America on Sunday. Shuttle Names HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Semaku Fasinu asks us to explain how the American space shuttles got their names, and why the spacecraft is called a shuttle. The dictionary says the word “shuttle” means travel again and again over an established path by a vehicle such as an airplane. Scientists were using the word to describe space transportation as early as nineteen-fifty-two. Wernher von Braun wrote about using a shuttle craft to move men and materials between a rocket ship and space station. Since then, American space scientists have used the term to describe movement of goods and people between Earth and outer space. The American space agency NASA first used the word shuttle in nineteen-sixty-eight to describe a craft that would orbit the Earth and return astronauts home. President Richard Nixon announced the development of the space shuttle in nineteen-seventy-two. Each craft was to make one-hundred trips in space. The first space shuttle was to have been called Constitution. But a national campaign among the fans of the "Star Trek” television show influenced the government to change the name to Enterprise. Enterprise was the name of the space ship in that television show. NASA decided to officially choose the names of the shuttles that would be built later. Officials decided to name the shuttles after historic ships of explorers throughout history. For example, the shuttle Columbia was named for one of the first Navy ships to sail completely around the world. The shuttle Discovery was named for two historic ships. One ship was led by Henry Hudson when he discovered Hudson Bay. The other was James Cook’s ship which explored the Hawaiian Islands, southern Alaska and western Canada. The Atlantis space shuttle was named for a scientific research ship operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. The Challenger was named for a British naval research ship that explored the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Following the destruction of the Challenger in nineteen-eighty-six, NASA held a contest for American school children to name the replacement shuttle. The name chosen was Endeavor, after the first ship commanded by James Cook. Le Tigre HOST: The New York-based music group Le Tigre was formed in nineteen-ninety-nine by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman. Mizz Hanna is one of the creators of the “Riot Grrrl” [girl] women’s rights art and music movement of the nineteen-nineties. Le Tigre’s sound is clearly influenced by that movement. Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: The music of Le Tigre combines the loud, hostile guitar of punk music with electronic drums, piano and other aggressive sounds. The words of Le Tigre’s songs deal with the political issues of everyday life. Here is a song from the band’s first album, called “Le Tigre.” The song is called “What’s Yr [your] Take on Cassavetes.” It is about the difficulty of enjoying the work of an artist if you disagree with his politics. (MUSIC) Bass guitar player JD Samson became a member of the band when it recorded a second album, called “Feminist Sweepstakes.” This song from that album deals with surviving childhood sexual abuse. It is called “Keep On Livin’.” (MUSIC) We leave you now with another song from “Feminist Sweepstakes.” It is called “Le Tigre Tour Theme.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: BACKGROUND REPORT – April 11, 2003: Iraqi Oil
* Byline: 

 This is a VOA Special English Background Report. Most of the money needed to rebuild Iraq after the war will likely come from its major export -- oil. American Vice President Dick Cheney says Iraq could produce up to three-and-a-half million barrels of oil a day by the end of this year. This would be a fifty percent increase from last year. First, though, Mister Cheney said Iraq needs international help to get its fields to pump oil again. Already, the American company Kellogg Brown and Root has gone into southern Iraq to shut down burning wells in the Rumaila field. Traditionally, Iraq has kept its oil industry under national control. International oil companies are not sure if they will be welcomed in the future. There is also a question whether agreements that were signed by the government of Saddam Hussein will still be honored. Several years ago, the Irish company Petrel Resources negotiated a plan to explore parts of Iraq’s western desert. But United Nations restrictions against Iraq have prevented the company from drilling. Also, Russia's biggest oil company, Lukoil, says it has an agreement to explore Iraq’s West Qurna field. In any case, an increase in Iraqi oil production would affect the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Currently, Saudi Arabia leads the eleven-member group in exports. The Saudis produce about seven-and-a-half million barrels a day. Iraq, however, has the ability to pump an estimated eight-million barrels a day. This makes Iraq the only possible competitor to Saudi Arabia. OPEC supplies about forty percent of the world's oil. Experts believe OPEC would fall apart if production by Iraq reached the levels of Saudi Arabia. Such an increase in supply would cause world oil prices to drop. And that, the experts say, would cause financial, economic and social problems among OPEC members. Another question is, who has the right to sell Iraq's oil? At the moment, the United Nations is in control. But the current period of the U-N oil-for food program ends in June. The Security Council must either suspend the program or extend it again. The United States says it went to war to disarm Iraq and free its people. Many opponents of the war, however, do not believe those were the only reasons. They argue that since America is the world's biggest user of oil, that is what this war is really about. The United States has proposed to set up a group mostly of Iraqis to supervise Iraq's oil ministry. American officials say international experts could give advice. But they say all of Iraq's natural resources should be used to help its people. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Iraq War Update
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 12, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. American officials on Friday declared the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein "gone." Military officials promised to deal with anarchy in Baghdad and other cities, but war efforts moved north. Iraqi soldiers in the northern city of Mosul surrendered Friday. Mosul is Iraq’s third largest city. United States military officials say a large force of the Iraqi army surrendered to American troops and their Kurdish allies. People in Mosul celebrated. But there was theft and disorder in the city. Also, tensions have increased between Arabs and Kurds there. Arabs are about sixty-five percent of the population of Mosul. The capture of Mosul left Tikrit a remaining target for American forces in the north. Tikrit is Saddam Hussein’s hometown. Some reports suggested that members of his family might be hiding there. Also in the north, American forces moved to take control of Kirkuk and the oilfields around it. Allied Kurdish troops captured the city Thursday. The United States agreed to let Turkey send military observers to join American forces in that city. Turkey threatened to intervene if Kurds were permitted to remain in control. Secretary of State Colin Powell promised that Kurdish fighters would leave Kirkuk. Turkey fears that Kurds in northern Iraq might try to set up an independent state. The fear is that this would set an example for the large Kurdish population across the border in southern Turkey. Kurdish political leaders say they do not seek independence. They say they want to remain part of a united Iraq. American forces in Iraq continue to face resistance. Military officials say the end of Saddam Hussein’s control does not lessen the dangers faced by coalition troops or Iraqi civilians. Officials say Arabs from other countries have entered Iraq to fight against the Americans. Iraqis are short of food, medicine and clean water. Even hospitals have been targets of stealing. The International Red Cross urged coalition forces to return order in Baghdad so hospitals can receive medical supplies. There was also lawlessness in the south. Five bank robbers were reported killed Friday in a gunbattle with British troops in Basra. Basra is the second-largest city in Iraq. An American-led temporary government is expected to begin work in Baghdad within two weeks. Plans call for the team to organize aid programs and work to rebuild the capital and set up a democratic government. The Bush administration has said the United Nations will take part in the efforts to rebuild Iraq, but will not lead them. As of Friday, after more than three weeks of war, no one could still say for sure what has happened to Saddam Hussein or his two sons. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Supreme Court / Affirmative Action
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 14, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Legal experts call it America's most important debate on affirmative action in twenty-five years. Colleges and universities say they have a right to consider race when they choose students. The Supreme Court will decide. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann, with the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (CROWD NOISE) On April first, thousands of demonstrators marched outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. They came from as far away as California. Most came to support affirmative action. Black students and others shouted and waved signs. They called on the nation's highest court to keep affirmative action programs in place. (SOUND FROM COURTROOM) Inside the court, the nine justices heard arguments in two cases brought by white students against the University of Michigan. VOICE ONE: "Affirmative action" is the name for programs to help members of minority groups and women in education and employment. Opponents say it puts race and ethnicity ahead of ability. They call that unfair. If that is true, supporters answer, then so is special treatment given to children of the wealthy and politically connected. Colleges and universities throughout the country have programs to help black, Hispanic and Native American students get admitted. But pressure has grown to end such programs especially at schools that receive public money. Whites who oppose affirmative action say it unfairly reduces their chances to attend the nation's most competitive schools. They say admissions policies should be race-neutral. Minorities and others say affirmative action helps balance a student population. This diversity, they say, creates a better learning environment for all students. They say studies have shown that if such programs are banned, colleges would accept fewer minorities. Critics say diversity has not been shown to provide an educational benefit to students. In any case, they say diversity is not an interest required of government. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The cases before the Supreme Court started in nineteen-ninety-seven. Three white students brought two separate actions against the University of Michigan. Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher had been denied admission to the undergraduate program two years earlier. Barbara Grutter was rejected by the Michigan law school. They investigated, and found that African Americans and other minorities were admitted with lower scores than whites. They argued that this violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of nineteen-sixty-four. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal treatment under the law. The Civil Rights Act says organizations that get federal money cannot make decisions based on a person’s race. Both these laws had been written mainly to help black people seek fair treatment. VOICE ONE: The University of Michigan does not deny that it uses race among other considerations when it chooses students. The policy at the university and its law school gives extra credit to minority students. It gives twenty points out of the university’s one-hundred-fifty point system to African-Americans, Hispanics or Native Americans. Points are also awarded to all students based on where they live, as well as their athletic ability, test scores and grades. The university says academic performance gets the most points. But critics say race is the most decisive measure of all. For two hours on April first, the nine Supreme Court justices heard legal arguments in these two cases. They aggressively questioned the lawyers for the university and for the white students denied admission. They also heard from the top lawyer for the Bush administration. The administration has intervened to oppose the Michigan program. President Bush calls it a quota system based on race. The president says there are better methods to gain diversity in higher education. Californians voted in nineteen-ninety-six to end affirmative action in state government, including education. Public systems in California, Texas and Florida currently admit students who are in the top percentages of their high school classes. But even this method has its critics. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Affirmative action in the United States grew out of the civil rights movement of the nineteen-sixties. Such programs are designed to guarantee that minority groups and women can compete equally with whites and men. Civil rights leaders say affirmative action has helped minorities and women enter colleges and get good jobs they would likely have been denied in the past. Some programs seek to remove barriers so that all people may compete equally. Others have been designed to guarantee that an established number of women and minorities are chosen for jobs or a place in school. Designers of such programs have to be careful, though. In nineteen-seventy-eight, the Supreme Court banned establishing quotas in affirmative action programs. The court ruled in what was known as the Bakke case. VOICE ONE: Allan Bakke, a white man, wanted to attend medical school at the University of California at Davis. He was rejected twice. But the school had accepted minority students with lower scores. A quota system saved sixteen spaces for minorities out of a total of one-hundred students admitted. Allan Bakke said judging him based on his race violated the Constitution. The Supreme Court agreed. It ruled that colleges could consider race in admissions. But it said race could not be the only consideration. VOICE TWO: The Bakke case, however, split the Supreme Court five-to-four. Since then, the justices have been divided in their opinions in other affirmative action cases. But since Bakke the court has not revisited the issue of school admissions. Michigan says its programs do not violate Bakke because they do not use quotas. The limits established in the Bakke case were meant to guarantee that providing greater chances for minorities did the least possible harm to others. But the case did little to settle the issue of affirmative action. The debate has only intensified over the past twenty-five years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Observers of the Supreme Court have been trying to guess how the justices will rule in the Michigan cases. Four members are considered most likely to vote against the university. That is based on past conservative decisions. The four are Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Four justices with records of more liberal opinions are considered most likely to support the university. These four are John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. If this guesswork is correct, then Justice Sandra Day O’Connor would have the fifth and deciding vote. Her vote has decided past race-related cases. Justice O'Connor has taken positions in the political center. She generally has rejected policies that treat races differently. But she also has not been willing to end them completely. VOICE TWO: Before the arguments on April first, the court received hundreds of documents from businesses, politicians and military officials. These groups urged the court not to end affirmative action. During the hearing, a majority of the nine justices did express concerns about ending affirmative action. They talked about what could happen if fewer minorities receive higher education. It could even affect the nation's defense, if the military has fewer college-educated minorities to become officers. Justice O’Connor noted that most affirmative action programs approved by the court in the past were for set periods of time. Several other justices suggested that the University of Michigan use other methods to establish racial balance. Justices Scalia and Thomas suggested that Michigan might even avoid the need for affirmative action if it lowered its admissions standards. VOICE ONE: What the Supreme Court decides could affect the future of affirmative action policies nationwide. The decision is expected in June. (THEME) Our program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – April 14, 2003: UNESCO Literacy Campaign
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations has launched a new ten-year campaign to increase literacy around the world. People with literacy skills can read and write. People who are not able to read and write are considered illiterate. There are currently about eight-hundred-sixty-million illiterate people around the world. That is one out of every five adults over age fifteen. Two-thirds of them are women. In addition, more than one-hundred-thirteen-million children do not attend school and are failing to learn to read and write. The main message of the U-N campaign is “Literacy as Freedom.” Deputy U-N Secretary General Louise Frechette launched the campaign in February during a special ceremony at U-N headquarters in New York City. She said that literacy is needed for a healthy, fair and successful world. She also noted the importance of education for girls and women to improve conditions in developing countries. That is why the first two years of the campaign will be aimed at improving the literacy of females. The U-N Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will supervise the campaign. UNESCO head Koichiro Matsuura says the push for worldwide literacy is linked to human rights. He believes that literacy can help improve development and economic growth in poor countries. The wife of President Bush, Laura Bush, was also present to launch the campaign. She said the United States plans to invest more than three-hundred-million dollars to support education in schools around the world. An estimated one-hundred-million dollars of that money will be spent in Africa. About seventy percent of the world’s illiterate adults live in South and West Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The United Nations hopes the new campaign will help increase world literacy by fifty percent by the year two-thousand-fifteen. This is just one of six goals set during a world education meeting in Dakar, Senegal in two-thousand. However, officials say seventy-nine countries are currently at risk of not meeting the literacy goal. The U-N says the literacy campaign will be a huge test. But it will also be an important chance to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – April 13, 2003: Frank Lloyd Wright
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright shows his model for what would become New York City's Guggenheim Museum to Baroness Hilla Rebay and Solomon Guggenheim, 1947.(Photo - Library of Congress) (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about the life and work of the greatest American building designer of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright. (THEME) Frank Lloyd Wright's first project in the San Francisco Bay Area was the Hanna Honeycomb House in Palo Alto.(Photo - National Park Service) I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about the life and work of the greatest American building designer of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for more than seventy years. He did most of his work from Nineteen--Hundred through the Nineteen-Fifties. He designed houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and office buildings. Critics say Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most creative architects. One critic said his ideas were fifty years ahead of the time in which he lived. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Eighteen--Sixty-Seven in the middle western state of Wisconsin. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In Eighteen-Eighty-Seven, he went to the city of Chicago. He got a job in the office of the famous architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Several years later, Wright established his own building design business. He began by designing homes for people living in and near Chicago. These homes were called "prairie houses." VOICE ONE: Prairie houses were long and low. They seemed to grow out of the ground. They were built of wood and other natural materials. The indoors expanded to the outdoors by extending the floor. This created what seemed like a room without walls or a roof. In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Wright designed one prairie house, called the Willits House, in the town of Highland Park. The house was shaped like a cross. It was built around a huge fireplace. The rooms were designed so they seemed to flow into each other. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Chicago can see another of Wright's prairie houses. It is called the Robie House. It looks like a series of long, low rooms on different levels. The rooms seem to float over the ground. Wright designed everything in the house, including the furniture and floor coverings. Wright's prairie houses had a great influence on home design in America. Even today, one-hundred-years later, his prairie houses appear very modern. VOICE ONE: In the Nineteen-Thirties, Wright developed what he called "Usonian" houses. Usonia was his name for a perfect, democratic United States of America. Usonian houses were planned to be low cost. Wright designed them for the American middle class. These are the majority of Americans who are neither very rich nor very poor. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that all middle class families in America should be able to own a house that was designed well. He believed that the United States could not be a true democracy if people did not own their own house on their own piece of land. VOICE TWO: Usonian houses were built on a flat base of concrete. The base was level with the ground. Wright believed that was better and less costly than the common method of digging a hole in the ground for the base. Low-cost houses based on the Usonian idea became very popular in America in the Nineteen-Fifties. Visitors can see one of Wright's Usonian homes near Washington, D. C. It is the Pope-Leighy House in Alexandria, Virginia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright believed in spreading his ideas to young building designers. In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, he established a school called the Taliesin Fellowship. Architectural students paid to live and work with him. During the summer, they worked at his home near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright called this house "Taliesin." That is a Welsh name meaning "shining brow." It was built of stone and wood into the top of a hill. During the winter, they worked at Taliesin West. This was Wright’s home and architecture office near Phoenix, Arizona. Wright and his students started building it in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven in the Sonoran Desert. VOICE TWO: Taliesin West is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of organic architecture taking root in the desert. He believed that architecture should have life and spirit. He said a building should appear to grow naturally and easily from its base into its surroundings. Selecting the best place to put a building became a most important first step in the design process. Frank Lloyd Wright had discovered the beauty of the desert in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven when he was asked to help with the design of the Arizona Biltmore hotel. He continued to return to the desert with his students to escape the harsh winters in Wisconsin. Ten years later he found a perfect place for his winter home and school. He bought about three-hundred hectares of desert land at the foot of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale, Arizona. Wright said, “ I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear sun-filled air, by the stark geometry of the mountains.” He wanted everyone who visited Taliesin West to feel this same sense of place. VOICE ONE: His architecture students helped him gather rocks and sand from the desert floor to use as building materials. They began a series of buildings that became home, office and school. Wright kept working on and changing what he called a building made of many buildings for twenty years. Today, Taliesin West has many low stone buildings linked together by walkways and courtyards. It is still very much alive with activity. About seventy people live, work and study there. Guides take visitors through what is one of America’s most important cultural treasures. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Wright designed a house near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a fine example of his idea of organic architecture. The house is called "Fallingwater." It sits on huge rocks next to a small river. It extends over a waterfall. From one part of the house, a person can step down a stairway over the water. "Fallingwater" is so unusual and so beautiful that it came to represent modern American architecture. One critic calls it the greatest house of the Twentieth century. Like Taliesin West, "Fallingwater" is open to the public. VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright also is famous for designing imaginative public buildings. In Nineteen-Oh-Four, he designed an office building for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo, New York. The offices were organized around a tall open space. At the top was a glass roof to let sunlight into the center. In the late Nineteen--Thirties, Wright designed an office building for the Johnson Wax Company in Racine, Wisconsin. It also had one great room without traditional walls or windows. The outside of the building was made of smooth, curved brick and glass. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Three, Frank Lloyd Wright designed one of his most famous projects: the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York City. The building was completed in Nineteen-Sixty, the year following his death. The Guggenheim is unusual because it is a circle. Inside the museum, a walkway rises in a circle from the lowest floor almost to the top. Visitors move along this walkway to see the artwork on the walls. The Guggenheim museum was very different from Wright's other designs. It even violated one of his own rules of design: the Guggenheim's shape is completely different from any of the buildings around it. VOICE ONE: When Wright was a very old man, he designed the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, near San Francisco. The Civic Center project was one of his most imaginative designs. It is a series of long buildings between two hills. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture is life itself taking form. “Therefore,” he said, “it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today, or ever will be lived.” Frank Lloyd Wright died in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, in Phoenix, Arizona. He was ninety-one years old. His buildings remain a record of the best of American Twentieth Century culture. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for more than seventy years. He did most of his work from Nineteen--Hundred through the Nineteen-Fifties. He designed houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and office buildings. Critics say Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most creative architects. One critic said his ideas were fifty years ahead of the time in which he lived. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Eighteen--Sixty-Seven in the middle western state of Wisconsin. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In Eighteen-Eighty-Seven, he went to the city of Chicago. He got a job in the office of the famous architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Several years later, Wright established his own building design business. He began by designing homes for people living in and near Chicago. These homes were called "prairie houses." VOICE ONE: Prairie houses were long and low. They seemed to grow out of the ground. They were built of wood and other natural materials. The indoors expanded to the outdoors by extending the floor. This created what seemed like a room without walls or a roof. In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Wright designed one prairie house, called the Willits House, in the town of Highland Park. The house was shaped like a cross. It was built around a huge fireplace. The rooms were designed so they seemed to flow into each other. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Chicago can see another of Wright's prairie houses. It is called the Robie House. It looks like a series of long, low rooms on different levels. The rooms seem to float over the ground. Wright designed everything in the house, including the furniture and floor coverings. Wright's prairie houses had a great influence on home design in America. Even today, one-hundred-years later, his prairie houses appear very modern. VOICE ONE: In the Nineteen-Thirties, Wright developed what he called "Usonian" houses. Usonia was his name for a perfect, democratic United States of America. Usonian houses were planned to be low cost. Wright designed them for the American middle class. These are the majority of Americans who are neither very rich nor very poor. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that all middle class families in America should be able to own a house that was designed well. He believed that the United States could not be a true democracy if people did not own their own house on their own piece of land. VOICE TWO: Usonian houses were built on a flat base of concrete. The base was level with the ground. Wright believed that was better and less costly than the common method of digging a hole in the ground for the base. Low-cost houses based on the Usonian idea became very popular in America in the Nineteen-Fifties. Visitors can see one of Wright's Usonian homes near Washington, D. C. It is the Pope-Leighy House in Alexandria, Virginia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright believed in spreading his ideas to young building designers. In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, he established a school called the Taliesin Fellowship. Architectural students paid to live and work with him. During the summer, they worked at his home near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright called this house "Taliesin." That is a Welsh name meaning "shining brow." It was built of stone and wood into the top of a hill. During the winter, they worked at Taliesin West. This was Wright’s home and architecture office near Phoenix, Arizona. Wright and his students started building it in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven in the Sonoran Desert. VOICE TWO: Taliesin West is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of organic architecture taking root in the desert. He believed that architecture should have life and spirit. He said a building should appear to grow naturally and easily from its base into its surroundings. Selecting the best place to put a building became a most important first step in the design process. Frank Lloyd Wright had discovered the beauty of the desert in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven when he was asked to help with the design of the Arizona Biltmore hotel. He continued to return to the desert with his students to escape the harsh winters in Wisconsin. Ten years later he found a perfect place for his winter home and school. He bought about three-hundred hectares of desert land at the foot of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale, Arizona. Wright said, “ I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear sun-filled air, by the stark geometry of the mountains.” He wanted everyone who visited Taliesin West to feel this same sense of place. VOICE ONE: His architecture students helped him gather rocks and sand from the desert floor to use as building materials. They began a series of buildings that became home, office and school. Wright kept working on and changing what he called a building made of many buildings for twenty years. Today, Taliesin West has many low stone buildings linked together by walkways and courtyards. It is still very much alive with activity. About seventy people live, work and study there. Guides take visitors through what is one of America’s most important cultural treasures. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Wright designed a house near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a fine example of his idea of organic architecture. The house is called "Fallingwater." It sits on huge rocks next to a small river. It extends over a waterfall. From one part of the house, a person can step down a stairway over the water. "Fallingwater" is so unusual and so beautiful that it came to represent modern American architecture. One critic calls it the greatest house of the Twentieth century. Like Taliesin West, "Fallingwater" is open to the public. VOICE ONE: Frank Lloyd Wright also is famous for designing imaginative public buildings. In Nineteen-Oh-Four, he designed an office building for the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo, New York. The offices were organized around a tall open space. At the top was a glass roof to let sunlight into the center. In the late Nineteen--Thirties, Wright designed an office building for the Johnson Wax Company in Racine, Wisconsin. It also had one great room without traditional walls or windows. The outside of the building was made of smooth, curved brick and glass. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Three, Frank Lloyd Wright designed one of his most famous projects: the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York City. The building was completed in Nineteen-Sixty, the year following his death. The Guggenheim is unusual because it is a circle. Inside the museum, a walkway rises in a circle from the lowest floor almost to the top. Visitors move along this walkway to see the artwork on the walls. The Guggenheim museum was very different from Wright's other designs. It even violated one of his own rules of design: the Guggenheim's shape is completely different from any of the buildings around it. VOICE ONE: When Wright was a very old man, he designed the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, near San Francisco. The Civic Center project was one of his most imaginative designs. It is a series of long buildings between two hills. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture is life itself taking form. “Therefore,” he said, “it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today, or ever will be lived.” Frank Lloyd Wright died in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, in Phoenix, Arizona. He was ninety-one years old. His buildings remain a record of the best of American Twentieth Century culture. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and Marilyn Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — New Agricultural Organization for Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soon a new organization will be established to help agricultural development in Africa. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation will be set up in Nairobi, Kenya. It will start operations in September, two-thousand-three. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation is not designed to make a profit. It represents an important kind of organization involved in the worldwide trade of genetically changed crops. The Rockefeller Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development are involved in the African Agricultural Technology Foundation. Several major agricultural companies also will support the effort. Monsanto, Dupont and Dow Agro Sciences L-L-C are American companies. Syngenta is a Swiss company that will also take part. The president of the Rockefeller Foundation announced the formation of the A-A-T-F in Washington, D-C in March. Gordon Conway said the organization is an experiment. He said he hopes that the A-A-T-F will work with governments, companies, non-government organizations and research centers. He said it will negotiate between those who own sales rights to agricultural technology and Africans who want to use the technology. Sales rights are an important issue for companies that develop agricultural technology. Without enforcement of their sales rights, agricultural technology companies could not make a profit from their products which are costly to develop. Eugene Terry of Sierra Leone will be the director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation. He served as the director general of the West Africa Rice Development Association. He has also advised the World Bank. Mister Terry said in a presentation that one goal of the A-A-T-F is to support laws protecting sales rights. He also said it should help bring new agricultural technologies to market. Many countries do not have trade agreements with nations that produce products developed through new agricultural technologies. Countries like the United States and Switzerland develop many of the genetically changed crops and the products used with them. Organizations like the A-A-T-F are meant to serve as a link between these industrial nations and developing nations seeking improved agricultural technology. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - World Cancer Rates / Campaign to Reduce Environmental Dangers to Children / Next WHO Chief
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 15, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a warning about world cancer rates ... a campaign to reduce environmental dangers to children ... and a report on the next leader of the World Health Organization. (THEME) VOICE ONE: By two-thousand-twenty, cancer rates worldwide could increase by fifty percent. That warning comes in a new report from experts at the World Health Organization. But they say there are things people and governments can do to reduce this increase. The World Cancer Report says there could be fifteen-million new cases of cancer in two-thousand-twenty. That compares to ten-million people who developed a cancerous growth in two-thousand. More than sixty percent of them died. The warning about a possible big increase in cancer rates is based mainly on two things. Populations continue to get older; cancer risk increases with age. Also, smoking and other unhealthy activities -- like eating foods high in fat and calories -- are on the rise. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand, the report says, cancers were responsible for twelve percent of deaths from all causes worldwide. Cancer has traditionally been thought of as a disease of rich countries. But the report says more than fifty percent of all people with cancer now live in developing countries. In fact, poor countries have higher death rates because they lack the resources to find and treat cancers early. The World Cancer Report says one-third of cancers can be cured, while another third can be prevented. It describes tobacco as the most important cancer risk that can be avoided. Cigarette smokers have a twenty to thirty times higher chance of lung cancer than people who do not smoke. Tobacco also increases the risk of other forms of cancer as well as other diseases and conditions. For example, women who smoke during pregnancy may have babies with low birth weight. Even people who do not smoke can get sick if they breathe too much of other people's tobacco smoke. In all, the W-H-O says about one-hundred-million people died from tobacco-related diseases during the twentieth century. VOICE ONE: The World Cancer Report says the most common cancers around the world are lung and breast cancer. Each year, more than one-million people develop lung cancer. A similar number develop breast cancer. More than nine-hundred-thousand people develop colorectal cancers. More than eight-hundred-thousand develop stomach cancer. And, more than five-hundred-thousand develop liver cancer. The leading cause of cancer death is lung cancer. It is responsible for seventeen percent of cancer deaths. Stomach cancer is second, followed by liver cancer. Yet stomach cancer rates worldwide are dropping. Why? The report says the main reason is the invention of the refrigerator. Cold storage avoids the need to use salt to keep fish and meat fresh. The report notes that countries that like lots of salty foods have more stomach cancer. Another reason for the drop is the fact that people in many countries can now buy fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the year. VOICE TWO: The International Agency for Research on Cancer, in Lyons, France, prepared the report. The agency is part of the World Health Organization. The W-H-O itself is part of the United Nations. The World Cancer Report calls on governments, health experts and the public to take action to reduce the increase in cancer deaths. For one thing, it urges governments to provide medicine that can protect against infections. The report says viruses and bacteria cause up to twenty-three per cent of cancers in developing countries. In developed countries, its says, that number is only about eight percent. Viruses like hepatitis B and C can lead to liver cancer. Another virus, the human papilloma virus, can cause cervical cancer. And the bacteria Helicobacter pylori can cause stomach cancer. The World Cancer Report also urges government to support medical examinations that can find curable cancers early. It notes that early discovery especially with diseases like cervical and breast cancer increases the chances for prevention or cure. VOICE ONE: Most cancers are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental conditions. But there are steps that might help people lower their risk. The World Cancer Report says one thing is to get physical activity. Another is to eat healthy foods. Experts say eating a lot of fruits and vegetables can reduce the chances of developing some kinds of cancers. The report says many countries should urge their people to eat locally grown vegetables and fruit, and avoid foods high in fat. At the same time, schools should teach about the importance of exercise and the dangers of cigarettes and high-fat foods. The report also calls on national cancer control programs to make sure governments provide information to help people make healthy changes in their lives. More information about the World Cancer Report can be found on the World Health Organization Web site. That address is w-w-w dot w-h-o dot i-n-t. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization marked World Health Day on April seventh. International events organized for that day centered on one main message -- protecting healthy environments for children. The W-H-O estimates that more than five-million children die each year of diseases related to their environments. The agency called on U-N member states and non-governmental organizations to take stronger steps to reduce the dangers. The W-H-O says simple measures can prevent child deaths from road accidents, malaria, diarrhea and breathing disorders. Many of these conditions are linked to unsafe drinking water, dirty living conditions and air pollution. VOICE ONE: Children are at greater risk than adults from chemicals and other environmental dangers, including germs. Children use more food, air and water than adults do in relation to their body weight. Their bodies are also weaker. And, as the W-H-O points out, they lack the knowledge and experience of adults to understand the dangers around them. The head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, launched the international campaign in New Delhi. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan marked World Health Day with a message in which he urged countries to improve conditions for children. Mister Annan also urged U-N members to join the Healthy Environments for Children Alliance. This group was organized last year during the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, South Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In July, Gro Harlem Brundtland leaves office after five years as director-general of the World Health Organization in Geneva. Named to replace the former Norwegian prime minister is a W-H-O doctor from South Korea. The full one-hundred-ninety-two-nation World Health Assembly must approve the nomination of Jong Wook Lee in May. Doctor Lee has worked for the World Health Organization for nineteen years. He currently heads the anti-tuberculosis program. Jong Wook Lee said his main goal will be to fight health problems in Africa, especially AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. He praised Doctor Brundtland’s work over the past few years to fight infectious diseases and diseases caused by smoking. He said these programs will continue. But, Doctor Lee says the W-H-O must also take a position on new technologies, such as cloning. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization has a yearly budget of more than one-thousand-million dollars. The United Nations established the agency in nineteen-forty-eight. Doctor Lee will be the sixth director-general. Others have been from Canada, Brazil, Denmark and Japan. Doctor Brundtland became the first woman as director-general. The World Health Organization leads efforts against diseases -- such as the newly discovered Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. It also sets international requirements for medicines, health care and food safety. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jill Moss, and was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 16, 2003: National Wildlife Refuge System
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Caribou in the Arctic refuge.(Photo - Fish and Wildlife Service) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about an American government agency that protects animals and plants. The National Wildlife Refuge System is celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary this year. (THEME) One of the places where America's national bird, the bald eagle, can call home: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.(Photo - Fish and Wildlife Service) This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about an American government agency that protects animals and plants. The National Wildlife Refuge System is celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary this year. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-three, the twenty-sixth president of the United States heard about a small island in the state of Florida that had many birds. President Theodore Roosevelt was told that hunters were killing most of the pelicans on the island. He soon decided the nation should protect these beautiful water birds. President Roosevelt declared the island the first federal protection area for birds. This refuge was named the Pelican Island Reservation. It was established on a very small piece of land in the Indian River Lagoon, near the Atlantic Ocean. The island became the first protected area in what later would become the huge National Wildlife Refuge System. VOICE TWO: Today the Wildlife Refuge System is the world’s largest land network for managed and protected wildlife. The refuge system is part of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Among other duties, the system enforces the Endangered Species Act. This law protects wildlife threatened with disappearing from Earth. Wildlife refuges also help the environment. They help protect wetlands that control flooding and pollution. In November, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D-C, will celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System. An exhibition will tell about the protection programs, activities and beautiful sights in the wildlife refuges. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-three, the twenty-sixth president of the United States heard about a small island in the state of Florida that had many birds. President Theodore Roosevelt was told that hunters were killing most of the pelicans on the island. He soon decided the nation should protect these beautiful water birds. President Roosevelt declared the island the first federal protection area for birds. This refuge was named the Pelican Island Reservation. It was established on a very small piece of land in the Indian River Lagoon, near the Atlantic Ocean. The island became the first protected area in what later would become the huge National Wildlife Refuge System. VOICE TWO: Today the Wildlife Refuge System is the world’s largest land network for managed and protected wildlife. The refuge system is part of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Among other duties, the system enforces the Endangered Species Act. This law protects wildlife threatened with disappearing from Earth. Wildlife refuges also help the environment. They help protect wetlands that control flooding and pollution. In November, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D-C, will celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the National Wildlife Refuge System. An exhibition will tell about the protection programs, activities and beautiful sights in the wildlife refuges. VOICE ONE: The refuge system has five-hundred-forty centers. They cover more than thirty-eight-million hectares of land and water. Most are open to the public. More than thirty-five-million people visit them every year. Visitors can fish and hunt at more than half of these wildlife centers. Activists say the refuge system is one of the nation’s greatest successes in protecting nature. National wildlife refuges exist in all fifty states and twelve American territories and possessions. Almost all the refuges contain water. Many of these refuges have national parks in their territory. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt served as president from nineteen-oh-one to nineteen-oh-nine. During that time he created fifty-one bird refuges in seventeen states and three territories. He also created five national parks and one-hundred-fifty national forests. Historians say it is especially interesting that President Roosevelt did this. The energetic former soldier was known for hunting large animals. But he also believed that wildlife protection was important. He said Americans should increase the value of their land for the people who come after them. History remembers him as one of America’s most important activists for wildlife. VOICE ONE: Before President Roosevelt declared Pelican Island a wildlife refuge, both Florida and the federal government had tried to protect America’s wildlife. Congress had enacted two laws aimed at wildlife protection. In eighteen-sixty-nine, the lawmakers created a protected area in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska. The goal was to give fur seals a safe place to have their babies. VOICE ONE: The refuge system has five-hundred-forty centers. They cover more than thirty-eight-million hectares of land and water. Most are open to the public. More than thirty-five-million people visit them every year. Visitors can fish and hunt at more than half of these wildlife centers. Activists say the refuge system is one of the nation’s greatest successes in protecting nature. National wildlife refuges exist in all fifty states and twelve American territories and possessions. Almost all the refuges contain water. Many of these refuges have national parks in their territory. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Theodore Roosevelt served as president from nineteen-oh-one to nineteen-oh-nine. During that time he created fifty-one bird refuges in seventeen states and three territories. He also created five national parks and one-hundred-fifty national forests. Historians say it is especially interesting that President Roosevelt did this. The energetic former soldier was known for hunting large animals. But he also believed that wildlife protection was important. He said Americans should increase the value of their land for the people who come after them. History remembers him as one of America’s most important activists for wildlife. VOICE ONE: Before President Roosevelt declared Pelican Island a wildlife refuge, both Florida and the federal government had tried to protect America’s wildlife. Congress had enacted two laws aimed at wildlife protection. In eighteen-sixty-nine, the lawmakers created a protected area in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska. The goal was to give fur seals a safe place to have their babies. In eighteen-ninety-four, Congress made it illegal to harm wildlife inside the huge Yellowstone National Park in the western part of the country. In nineteen-oh-one, a Florida law prevented shooting birds on Pelican Island for their feathers. But people disobeyed this law until President Roosevelt intervened. Some animals were already threatened with disappearance when President Roosevelt took the first step toward a national conservation agency. For example, many bison had lived in the western part of the country. But by the nineteenth century, hunters had killed hundreds of thousands of these big animals. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, most Americans agree that the wildlife protection system is important. Still, the system always faces problems. Currently, one important issue is whether to permit oil exploration in the nation’s largest refuge, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. President Bush and some lawmakers believe the United States must have the oil. Others say drilling in the wildlife refuge would produce very little oil. And they say the process would harm a beautiful wild area and the animals that live there. Last week, the House of Representatives approved oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate had rejected the drilling plan last month. Money is always a problem for the wildlife refuge system. It is costly to protect areas where plants and animals reproduce or grow. Sometimes private companies help support the National Wildlife Refuge System. For example, a large energy provider called the Southern Company is giving the system one-hundred-thousand dollars. The money will help restore living areas for a number of kinds of birds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The story of America’s first federal protection area for birds began in eighteen-eighty-one. A young man from Germany settled in Sebastian, a town on the east coast of Florida. Paul Kroegel could see Pelican Island from his house. He could see the pelicans with their long, light colored necks and brown bodies. He could see egrets and many other kinds of birds and animals that lived on the island. But he also saw great numbers of the birds being shot. Most of the hunters were not sportsmen. They wanted the birds’ feathers to sell. Women of those days loved to wear hats covered with feathers. At times, feathers were more valuable than gold. Mister Kroegel wanted to save the island’s birds before they all died out. So he sailed to the island and stood guard with a gun in his hand. VOICE TWO: Many bird experts visited Pelican Island. One of these was Frank Chapman, chief of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He discovered that the island was the last area on Florida’s east coast for brown pelicans to lay their eggs. Mister Chapman immediately sought help from the Florida Audubon Society, an organization that protects birds. The organization hired Mister Kroegel and three other guards to protect Pelican Island’s birds from hunters. But two of the guards were murdered while carrying out their duties. Mister Chapman and another bird expert told President Roosevelt about the situation. Soon the island and nearby lands had federal protection. Paul Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager. VOICE ONE: Over the years the birds on Pelican Island have survived many threats. Human activities on the water produced waves that reduced the island’s shorelines. The island decreased to half its size. In nineteen-sixty-eight, the refuge was expanded to protect nearby islands and wetlands. In two-thousand, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies and businesses provided money to restore the refuge. Mangrove trees and plants natural to the area replaced plant life that did not belong there. A lake was added. Experts restored tidal wetlands and a forest. VOICE TWO: To protect the island, visitors now watch the birds from the new Centennial Trail on nearby land. The new walking path was built to honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the Pelican Island Reservation and the National Wildlife Refuge System. A tower also has been added so people can look at Pelican Island from above. Not long ago, a visitor was watching the island late in the day. Many huge birds were spreading their wings and floating against the darkening sky. The visitor said she will never forget that sight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Explorations, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. In eighteen-ninety-four, Congress made it illegal to harm wildlife inside the huge Yellowstone National Park in the western part of the country. In nineteen-oh-one, a Florida law prevented shooting birds on Pelican Island for their feathers. But people disobeyed this law until President Roosevelt intervened. Some animals were already threatened with disappearance when President Roosevelt took the first step toward a national conservation agency. For example, many bison had lived in the western part of the country. But by the nineteenth century, hunters had killed hundreds of thousands of these big animals. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Today, most Americans agree that the wildlife protection system is important. Still, the system always faces problems. Currently, one important issue is whether to permit oil exploration in the nation’s largest refuge, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. President Bush and some lawmakers believe the United States must have the oil. Others say drilling in the wildlife refuge would produce very little oil. And they say the process would harm a beautiful wild area and the animals that live there. Last week, the House of Representatives approved oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate had rejected the drilling plan last month. Money is always a problem for the wildlife refuge system. It is costly to protect areas where plants and animals reproduce or grow. Sometimes private companies help support the National Wildlife Refuge System. For example, a large energy provider called the Southern Company is giving the system one-hundred-thousand dollars. The money will help restore living areas for a number of kinds of birds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The story of America’s first federal protection area for birds began in eighteen-eighty-one. A young man from Germany settled in Sebastian, a town on the east coast of Florida. Paul Kroegel could see Pelican Island from his house. He could see the pelicans with their long, light colored necks and brown bodies. He could see egrets and many other kinds of birds and animals that lived on the island. But he also saw great numbers of the birds being shot. Most of the hunters were not sportsmen. They wanted the birds’ feathers to sell. Women of those days loved to wear hats covered with feathers. At times, feathers were more valuable than gold. Mister Kroegel wanted to save the island’s birds before they all died out. So he sailed to the island and stood guard with a gun in his hand. VOICE TWO: Many bird experts visited Pelican Island. One of these was Frank Chapman, chief of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He discovered that the island was the last area on Florida’s east coast for brown pelicans to lay their eggs. Mister Chapman immediately sought help from the Florida Audubon Society, an organization that protects birds. The organization hired Mister Kroegel and three other guards to protect Pelican Island’s birds from hunters. But two of the guards were murdered while carrying out their duties. Mister Chapman and another bird expert told President Roosevelt about the situation. Soon the island and nearby lands had federal protection. Paul Kroegel was hired as the first national wildlife refuge manager. VOICE ONE: Over the years the birds on Pelican Island have survived many threats. Human activities on the water produced waves that reduced the island’s shorelines. The island decreased to half its size. In nineteen-sixty-eight, the refuge was expanded to protect nearby islands and wetlands. In two-thousand, the Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies and businesses provided money to restore the refuge. Mangrove trees and plants natural to the area replaced plant life that did not belong there. A lake was added. Experts restored tidal wetlands and a forest. VOICE TWO: To protect the island, visitors now watch the birds from the new Centennial Trail on nearby land. The new walking path was built to honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the Pelican Island Reservation and the National Wildlife Refuge System. A tower also has been added so people can look at Pelican Island from above. Not long ago, a visitor was watching the island late in the day. Many huge birds were spreading their wings and floating against the darkening sky. The visitor said she will never forget that sight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Explorations, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - April 17, 2003: Colonial Expansion >The South
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we finish the story about the first thirteen American colonies. We tell about how the southern colonies developed. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The most northern of the southern colonies was Maryland. The King of England, Charles the First, gave the land between Virginia and Pennsylvania to George Calvert in Sixteen-Thirty-Two. George Calvert was also called Lord Baltimore. He was a Roman Catholic. George Calvert wanted to start a colony because of religious problems in England. Catholics could not openly observe their religion. They also had to pay money to the government because they did not belong to the Anglican Church which was the Church of England. George Calvert never saw the colony that was called Maryland. He died soon after he received the documents. His son Cecil Calvert became the next Lord Baltimore, and received all the land. He had the power to collect taxes, fight wars, make laws and create courts in Maryland. Cecil Calvert named his brother Leonard as the colony's first governor. Cecil Calvert believed that English Catholics could live in peace in Maryland with people who believed in Protestant religions. So he urged Catholics to leave England. To get more settlers, he permitted them to own their farms and gave them some power in local politics. Some Catholics did go to Maryland, but not as many as expected. Protestants were in the majority. In Sixteen-Forty-Nine, Lord Baltimore accepted a Toleration Act passed by the local government. It guaranteed freedom of religion ... but only for Christians. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: King Charles the Second of England gave away more land in America in Sixteen-Sixty-Three. This time, he gave to eight English lords the land known as Carolina. It extended south from Virginia into an area known as Florida. Spain controlled Florida. Spain also claimed the southern part of Carolina. Spanish, French and English settlers had tried to live in that area earlier. But they were not successful. But the eight new owners promised forty hectares of land to anyone who would go to Carolina to live. They also promised religious freedom. The first successful Carolina settlers left England in Sixteen-Seventy. They built a town in an area where two rivers met. They called it Charles Town, for King Charles. Spanish ships attacked the port city many times, but the settlers kept them away. The settlers planted all kinds of crops to see what would grow best. They found rice was just right for the hot wet land. Their pigs and cattle did so well that settlers in Carolina started selling meat to the West Indies. Many of Charles Town's settlers came from Barbados, a port used in the West Indies slave trade. The settlers began buying black slaves to help grow the rice. By Seventeen-Eight, more blacks than whites lived in southern Carolina. The work of slaves made possible a successful economy. VOICE ONE: Northern Carolina grew much more slowly than the southern part of the colony. Many settlers to this area were from nearby Virginia. People who did not agree with the Anglican Church were not welcome in Virginia. Some of them moved south to the northern part of Carolina. History experts say that the area that became North Carolina may have been the most democratic of all the colonies. The people generally did not get involved in each others lives. They permitted each other to live in peace. They faced danger together from pirates who made the North Carolina coast their headquarters. Experts say the people in northern Carolina were independent thinkers. In Sixteen-Seventy-Seven, some of them rebelled against England. They did not like England's Navigation Acts. These laws forced people in Carolina to pay taxes to England on goods sold to other colonies. Some northern Carolina settlers refused to pay this tax. They even set up their own government and tried to break free of England. But the English soldiers in the colonies stopped the rebellion by arresting its leader. The differences between the people of northern Carolina and southern Carolina became too great. The owners of the colony divided Carolina into two parts in Seventeen-Twelve. VOICE TWO: The last English colony founded in the New World was Georgia. It was established in Seventeen-Thirty-Two, under King George the Second. Georgia was the idea of a man named James Oglethorpe. He wanted to solve the debtor problem in England. Debtors are people who cannot re-pay money they owe. At that time, debtors were placed in prison. This made it impossible for them to earn the money needed to pay their debts. Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony where debtors could go instead of going to prison. He wanted it to be a place where people could have good lives. But not many debtors wanted to go to Georgia. The people who settled there were much like the people in the other colonies. They did not agree with all of Oglethorpe's ideas. They wanted to do things he did not believe were right -- like drinking alcohol and owning slaves. The settlers won in the end. They did not accept Oglethorpe's ideas about how they should live. Life was not easy in Georgia. Spaniards and pirates captured ships of all nations along the coast. Spain controlled Florida and also claimed Georgia and the Carolinas. Border fights were common. Oglethorpe lost all his money trying to establish Georgia. King George took control of the colony in Seventeen-Fifty-Two. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As all these new colonies were being established nearby, the colony of Virginia was growing. A way of life was developing there that was very different from that found in the north. Most people in Virginia at this time were members of the Church of England. Religion was not as important a part of their lives as it was to the people in the north. In the New England colonies, the clergy were considered the most important people in town. In the southern colonies, rich land owners were more important. People in Virginia did not live in towns, as people did in Massachusetts. They lived along rivers on small farms or on large farms called plantations. Living on a river made it easy to send goods to other nations by ship. Virginians were sending large amounts of tobacco to England on those ships. It was the crop that earned them the most money. VOICE TWO: Growing tobacco destroys the elements in the soil that support plant life. After a few years, nothing grows well on land that has been planted with tobacco. A farmer has to stop planting anything on the land every few years. That means he needs a lot of land. He also needs many workers. So tobacco farmers in Virginia began to buy land and workers. At first, they bought the services of poor people who had no money or jobs. These people were called indentured servants. They made an agreement to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years. Then they were freed to work for themselves. In Sixteen-Nineteen, a Dutch ship brought some Africans to Jamestown. They had been kidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship's captain. He sold them to the Virginia settlers. Those first blacks may have been treated like indentured servants. Later, however, colonists decided to keep them as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers. Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away. Blacks could not. They had no place to go. Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia that made it legal to keep black people as slaves. By Seventeen-Fifty, there were more Africans in Virginia than any other group. VOICE ONE: History experts continue to debate if slavery caused prejudice in America or prejudice caused slavery. No one knows the answer. Most Europeans of the seventeenth century felt they were better than African people. The reasons for this included the Africans' different customs, religion and the black color of their skin. Europeans believed the color black represented danger and death. Slavery in the American south affected the history of the United States for many years. It divided the people and led to a great civil war. But slavery did not start in America. That will be our story next week. VOICE TWO: This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - April 17, 2003: Foreign Student Series >Summary
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We have been broadcasting a series of reports for foreign students who want to attend college in the United States. This is the final program in the series. We hope these reports have helped students think about their goals and have provided ways to reach them. Our programs explained the kinds of colleges and universities in the United States. We told how to get information about them and how to apply for admission. We discussed admissions tests and how to prepare for them. We reported about the high cost of attending an American university and told about possible places to seek financial aid. We talked about the legal documents that are needed before a student can travel to the United States to attend college. We explained the new laws affecting some foreign students. These new laws have taken effect as a result of the terrorist attacks in the United States in two-thousand-one. We discussed the possibility of using the computer to take classes at an American college without leaving home. We also described some American universities that have a large number of foreign students, such as the University of Southern California and Purdue University. In other programs, we told about some American colleges that are not as well known. Landmark College, for example, teaches students with learning disabilities. The Citadel provides a military education. Johnson and Wales University offers business studies. We provided information about community colleges, agricultural colleges and the Masters of Business Administration degree. We also explained other information important to students considering an American college. One example is the need for student health insurance. We reported about working as a teaching assistant. We discussed living in college housing. And we told the difference between an American college and a university. All these reports can be found on the Internet by going to the Special English Web site. The address is www.voaspecialenglish.com. We hope you will continue to listen to the Education Report for more information about education in the United States. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - April 16, 2003: Shingles
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say the vaccine medicine that can prevent the disease chicken pox may also provide protection against a painful nerve condition called shingles. Shingles is also known as herpes zoster. It is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox. The virus remains in the body’s nerve cells after the chicken pox disappears. Shingles develops if the virus becomes active again many years later. It is not clear why this happens. Medical researchers think a temporary weakness in the body’s defense system may permit the virus to move along nerves to the skin. Most people who suffer shingles are more than fifty years old. People with weakened defense systems against disease are also more likely than others to develop shingles. The first sign of shingles is a burning pain on the skin. The skin becomes red after a few days and enlarged areas appear. These swollen areas become hard. Then they disappear after a few weeks. These skin blisters are not a problem unless they appear on the face near the eyes. However, the pain continues after the skin is healed. The pain can continue for months or even years. This is why doctors consider shingles a serious health problem. As many as one-million people in the United States develop shingles every year. Doctors treat it with pills or pain- killing substances placed on the skin. But these treatments are not always effective. Chicken pox was common among American children until the vaccine was approved in nineteen-ninety-five. Researchers for the company that makes the vaccine says the virus used in the medicine appears less likely than the natural virus to remain in the body’s nerve cells. This could mean that children who get the vaccine for chicken pox may be less likely than others to develop shingles later in life. Some researchers think the vaccine seems to increase the ability of the body’s defense system to suppress the virus. Now, a large study is taking place to test if a stronger chicken pox vaccine can prevent shingles in healthy adults, or at least reduce the pain. The study involves more than thirty-eight-thousand people over the age of sixty. The results are expected next year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: April 17, 2003 - War in American English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 17, 2003 HOST: Each Thursday our Wordmasters talk about American English. Filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble this week is VOA's Adam Phillips. He looks at some of the marks that wars have left on the language we use in the United States. Adam spoke with Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at Stanford University in California who focuses on how Americans talk. NUNBERG: "War has always had a special kind of language, particularly in the West, since the middle of the 19th century. It's a mix of bureaucratic and technical jargon and euphemism. If you just look at the words that begin with B, World War Two gave the American language items like 'beachhead,' 'blitz,' 'blockbuster,' 'battle wagon' for a battleship, 'bloodbath' for a scene of carnage, 'bogie' for an enemy airplane. Go to F and you get 'foxhole' and 'firepower,' 'flak,' which denoted originally anti-aircraft fire but now is used for criticism of any kind, as in 'she caught a lot of flak for that remark she made.' "Since Vietnam, there have been fewer and fewer permanent contributions to the language coming from warfare, maybe because the wars have been short. And similarly words from earlier wars are often forgotten. My students at Stanford, none of them remember the origin of 'hearts and minds.' That came in in the 1960s during the Vietnam War when Americans were talking about the necessity of 'winning the hearts and minds' of the Vietnamese people, and rapidly became an ironic phrase -- to the point where in 1974 an anti-Vietnam War documentary called "Hearts and Minds" won the Academy Award, the Oscar." PHILLIPS: "I'd be interested to know about how public relations, as it sort of exists in American culture now, has affected the evolution of language connected with this current Gulf War." NUNBERG: "Public relations in one form or another has been a part of war language since the middle of the 19th century, when the modern war correspondent and the military press office first appeared. It assumed its present importance really around the time of the First World War, when the word 'propaganda,' which had been around a long time and particularly as a name for the Catholic Church, their efforts to propagate their views, became associated with political language. And 'propaganda' really entered the general American vocabulary around that time. "The Second World War saw the introduction of a new phrase, 'psychological warfare,' which was sort of like propaganda but directed more specifically at military aims. So this has been going around for a long time and there are similar phrases now. The insistence on the part of the administration that the Iraq war be called a 'liberation' instead of an 'invasion' is one example. Not that it is or isn't a liberation, but that the word 'invasion' -- which was perfectly reasonable as a way of describing the American invasion of Normandy in 1944 -- is now regarded as insufficiently explanatory of American aims." PHILLIPS: "Any phrases that you think will catch on and stay with us for awhile, or is it just too early to tell?" NUNBERG: "I think it's too early to tell. I think it's unlikely that this war will leave much of a mark on the language, just because other conflicts of this sort -- the first Gulf War, the Somalia intervention and so forth in recent years -- haven't been around long enough or affected the lives, the everyday lives of enough Americans to really leave a mark on their language in the way the Second World War did -- when millions of Americans were in uniform, everybody had a son or a brother or a cousin overseas and the daily lives of Americans were affected in every regard by the war." AP: I've been talking to Geoffrey Nunberg, a Stanford University linguist and a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Professor Nunberg is also the author of a book called "The Way We Talk Now." This is Adam Phillips. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 17, 2003 HOST: Each Thursday our Wordmasters talk about American English. Filling in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble this week is VOA's Adam Phillips. He looks at some of the marks that wars have left on the language we use in the United States. Adam spoke with Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at Stanford University in California who focuses on how Americans talk. NUNBERG: "War has always had a special kind of language, particularly in the West, since the middle of the 19th century. It's a mix of bureaucratic and technical jargon and euphemism. If you just look at the words that begin with B, World War Two gave the American language items like 'beachhead,' 'blitz,' 'blockbuster,' 'battle wagon' for a battleship, 'bloodbath' for a scene of carnage, 'bogie' for an enemy airplane. Go to F and you get 'foxhole' and 'firepower,' 'flak,' which denoted originally anti-aircraft fire but now is used for criticism of any kind, as in 'she caught a lot of flak for that remark she made.' "Since Vietnam, there have been fewer and fewer permanent contributions to the language coming from warfare, maybe because the wars have been short. And similarly words from earlier wars are often forgotten. My students at Stanford, none of them remember the origin of 'hearts and minds.' That came in in the 1960s during the Vietnam War when Americans were talking about the necessity of 'winning the hearts and minds' of the Vietnamese people, and rapidly became an ironic phrase -- to the point where in 1974 an anti-Vietnam War documentary called "Hearts and Minds" won the Academy Award, the Oscar." PHILLIPS: "I'd be interested to know about how public relations, as it sort of exists in American culture now, has affected the evolution of language connected with this current Gulf War." NUNBERG: "Public relations in one form or another has been a part of war language since the middle of the 19th century, when the modern war correspondent and the military press office first appeared. It assumed its present importance really around the time of the First World War, when the word 'propaganda,' which had been around a long time and particularly as a name for the Catholic Church, their efforts to propagate their views, became associated with political language. And 'propaganda' really entered the general American vocabulary around that time. "The Second World War saw the introduction of a new phrase, 'psychological warfare,' which was sort of like propaganda but directed more specifically at military aims. So this has been going around for a long time and there are similar phrases now. The insistence on the part of the administration that the Iraq war be called a 'liberation' instead of an 'invasion' is one example. Not that it is or isn't a liberation, but that the word 'invasion' -- which was perfectly reasonable as a way of describing the American invasion of Normandy in 1944 -- is now regarded as insufficiently explanatory of American aims." PHILLIPS: "Any phrases that you think will catch on and stay with us for awhile, or is it just too early to tell?" NUNBERG: "I think it's too early to tell. I think it's unlikely that this war will leave much of a mark on the language, just because other conflicts of this sort -- the first Gulf War, the Somalia intervention and so forth in recent years -- haven't been around long enough or affected the lives, the everyday lives of enough Americans to really leave a mark on their language in the way the Second World War did -- when millions of Americans were in uniform, everybody had a son or a brother or a cousin overseas and the daily lives of Americans were affected in every regard by the war." AP: I've been talking to Geoffrey Nunberg, a Stanford University linguist and a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. Professor Nunberg is also the author of a book called "The Way We Talk Now." This is Adam Phillips. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – April 18, 2003: Earth Day 2003
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. On April twenty-second, millions of Americans and people around the world will observe the thirty-third anniversary of Earth Day. Across the United States, people will attend events to show their support for protecting the Earth’s environment. Earth Day is a yearly call for people to work together to save the planet. The first Earth Day took place in the United States on April twenty-second, nineteen-seventy. Former Senator Gaylord Nelson started Earth Day because he believed few public officials were concerned about the environment. He organized a nationwide effort to educate people about environmental issues. Twenty-million Americans took part. The first Earth Day helped make the environment an important issue. It led to the passage of important laws in the United States. These included the clean air and clean water acts and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Experts say the environment in the United States is better than it was thirty-three years ago. There are stronger laws and better technologies. However, experts say major threats around the world remain. For example, air and water pollution are still serious problems in many countries. The human population is putting more pressure on land and water supplies. The destruction of forests threatens some rare kinds of plants and animals. And, scientists say that burning some fuels is causing a dangerous warming of the Earth.This year’s Earth Day message is “Water for Life.” There are many Internet sites you can visit to learn ways to help protect the Earth. For example, the World Wildlife Fund suggests joining the Conservation Action Network. It is a free service that helps people establish new legislation, policies and programs designed to care for the planet. Conservation Action Network activists already have had many environmental successes. For example, the network helped stop Russians from hunting beluga whales. The group also worked to pass legislation to protect the Galapagos Islands. And, it helped pass a bill that has increased protection of tigers and rhinoceroses. The World Wildlife Fund also suggests smaller ways you can help the planet every day. The group’s Internet Web address is w-w-w dot worldwildlife dot org. Worldwildlife is all one word. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver and George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 18, 2003: Cowgirl Hall of Fame, Transylvania, The Jewels and the Orioles
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we play some doo-wop music... answer a listener’s question about places in the United States called "Transylvania" ... and -- you've heard of cowboys? Come with us to a special place for cowgirls! Cowgirl Hall of Fame HOST: The United States is home to many halls of fame -- museums that honor famous people. Some examples are the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Today, Shep O’Neal tells us about another hall of fame, this one in Texas. ANNCR: The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame honors women of the American West. It started in nineteen-seventy-five and moved to Fort Worth nine years ago. It opened a new building last summer. The National Cowgirl Museum is an important place for experts to study the history of the women of the Western United States. The museum includes a research library and more than three-thousand rare pictures. Some of the women honored in the Hall of Fame helped settle the West. Others told its story in different ways. Visitors learn about the lives of women like Sacajawea, the main Indian guide to nineteenth-century explorers Lewis and Clark. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the series of “Little House on the Prairie" books. And Georgia O’Keefe, who painted the beauty of the West. Other areas of the museum tell about the kinds of jobs done by cowgirls. One shows cowgirls who performed in rodeos. A second examines the lives of women who worked on ranches. A third explains the cowgirl’s influence on American culture. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame adds new members every year. Last year, it honored five modern cowgirls. One takes part in horse racing, another was a top rodeo star. The third works in the movie industry, and the fourth started the American Quarter Horse Association. The fifth recent honoree is Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona, in the Southwest. In nineteen-eighty-one, she became the first woman to join the Supreme Court. Justice O'Connor and the other women honored by the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, received a medal. That, along with a special pair of cowgirl boots! Transylvania HOST: Our VOA listener question comes from Romania this week. John Tripon lives in the area called Transylvania. He wants to know how some places in the United States came to have this name, too. One is Transylvania University in the state of Kentucky. Another is Transylvania County, in North Carolina. Transylvania -- the Romanian one -- is famous for the stories about Dracula, a local ruler hundreds of years ago. In eighteen-ninety-seven, British author Bram Stoker wrote the book "Dracula." This horror story, and the movies based on it, have kept the belief alive that Dracula was a vampire. Some people believe vampires live forever by drinking the blood of human victims. Some history experts say the real Dracula killed many of his enemies and may have drunk their blood. But as for being a vampire, well ... Anyway, Transylvania simply means "the land beyond the forest." In Latin, “trans” means "across" and "sylvania" means "woods." Transylvania University officials in Kentucky say the school got its name from the area where early settlers established it. That was in seventeen-eighty. A land company at the time called the wooded area Transylvania. Today, that area is in the city of Lexington, Kentucky. Transylvania County in North Carolina got its name in eighteen-sixty-one from the beautiful forests in the area. Today, two large forests lie within its borders. Pisgah National Forest covers more than thirty-three-thousand hectares of the county. The Nantahala National Forest covers two-thousand hectares. North Carolina officials see beyond just the trees. They point out that Transylvania County also has more than two-hundred-fifty waterfalls within its woods. The Jewels and the Orioles HOST: The Jewels and the Orioles are two groups that began singing more than fifty years ago. They recently performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D-C. Steve Ember tells us about them. ANNCR: The Jewels and the Orioles first became well-known in the late nineteen-forties. They sang a kind of popular rock and roll music called “doo wop.” The Jewels began singing when they were four high school girls in Washington, D-C. They met musician Bo Didley who helped them get their songs recorded. Soon soul singer James Brown invited the group to perform with him. The Jewels have performed with the “Godfather of Soul” throughout the United States, Canada, Jamaica and Mexico. Here they sing their hit song “Hearts of Stone.” (MUSIC) Five young men in Baltimore, Maryland, formed the Orioles. They recorded their first big hit in nineteen-forty-nine. “It’s Too Soon to Know” sold one-million copies. The Orioles have appeared with other famous singers. These include the Four Tops, the Supremes, Jackie Wilson, Paul Anka, Frank Sinatra and Connie Francis. In nineteen-ninety-three, they sang at President Clinton’s inauguration. Two years later, they were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fifty years ago, the Orioles recorded their biggest hit, “Crying in the Chapel.” (MUSIC) You may wonder why this kind of music is called “doo wop.” It is because the background singers sing nonsense words to support the melody sung by the lead singer. Listen to the background singers on this famous song, “When You Dance” by the Turbans. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we play some doo-wop music... answer a listener’s question about places in the United States called "Transylvania" ... and -- you've heard of cowboys? Come with us to a special place for cowgirls! Cowgirl Hall of Fame HOST: The United States is home to many halls of fame -- museums that honor famous people. Some examples are the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Today, Shep O’Neal tells us about another hall of fame, this one in Texas. ANNCR: The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame honors women of the American West. It started in nineteen-seventy-five and moved to Fort Worth nine years ago. It opened a new building last summer. The National Cowgirl Museum is an important place for experts to study the history of the women of the Western United States. The museum includes a research library and more than three-thousand rare pictures. Some of the women honored in the Hall of Fame helped settle the West. Others told its story in different ways. Visitors learn about the lives of women like Sacajawea, the main Indian guide to nineteenth-century explorers Lewis and Clark. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the series of “Little House on the Prairie" books. And Georgia O’Keefe, who painted the beauty of the West. Other areas of the museum tell about the kinds of jobs done by cowgirls. One shows cowgirls who performed in rodeos. A second examines the lives of women who worked on ranches. A third explains the cowgirl’s influence on American culture. The Cowgirl Hall of Fame adds new members every year. Last year, it honored five modern cowgirls. One takes part in horse racing, another was a top rodeo star. The third works in the movie industry, and the fourth started the American Quarter Horse Association. The fifth recent honoree is Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona, in the Southwest. In nineteen-eighty-one, she became the first woman to join the Supreme Court. Justice O'Connor and the other women honored by the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, received a medal. That, along with a special pair of cowgirl boots! Transylvania HOST: Our VOA listener question comes from Romania this week. John Tripon lives in the area called Transylvania. He wants to know how some places in the United States came to have this name, too. One is Transylvania University in the state of Kentucky. Another is Transylvania County, in North Carolina. Transylvania -- the Romanian one -- is famous for the stories about Dracula, a local ruler hundreds of years ago. In eighteen-ninety-seven, British author Bram Stoker wrote the book "Dracula." This horror story, and the movies based on it, have kept the belief alive that Dracula was a vampire. Some people believe vampires live forever by drinking the blood of human victims. Some history experts say the real Dracula killed many of his enemies and may have drunk their blood. But as for being a vampire, well ... Anyway, Transylvania simply means "the land beyond the forest." In Latin, “trans” means "across" and "sylvania" means "woods." Transylvania University officials in Kentucky say the school got its name from the area where early settlers established it. That was in seventeen-eighty. A land company at the time called the wooded area Transylvania. Today, that area is in the city of Lexington, Kentucky. Transylvania County in North Carolina got its name in eighteen-sixty-one from the beautiful forests in the area. Today, two large forests lie within its borders. Pisgah National Forest covers more than thirty-three-thousand hectares of the county. The Nantahala National Forest covers two-thousand hectares. North Carolina officials see beyond just the trees. They point out that Transylvania County also has more than two-hundred-fifty waterfalls within its woods. The Jewels and the Orioles HOST: The Jewels and the Orioles are two groups that began singing more than fifty years ago. They recently performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D-C. Steve Ember tells us about them. ANNCR: The Jewels and the Orioles first became well-known in the late nineteen-forties. They sang a kind of popular rock and roll music called “doo wop.” The Jewels began singing when they were four high school girls in Washington, D-C. They met musician Bo Didley who helped them get their songs recorded. Soon soul singer James Brown invited the group to perform with him. The Jewels have performed with the “Godfather of Soul” throughout the United States, Canada, Jamaica and Mexico. Here they sing their hit song “Hearts of Stone.” (MUSIC) Five young men in Baltimore, Maryland, formed the Orioles. They recorded their first big hit in nineteen-forty-nine. “It’s Too Soon to Know” sold one-million copies. The Orioles have appeared with other famous singers. These include the Four Tops, the Supremes, Jackie Wilson, Paul Anka, Frank Sinatra and Connie Francis. In nineteen-ninety-three, they sang at President Clinton’s inauguration. Two years later, they were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fifty years ago, the Orioles recorded their biggest hit, “Crying in the Chapel.” (MUSIC) You may wonder why this kind of music is called “doo wop.” It is because the background singers sing nonsense words to support the melody sung by the lead singer. Listen to the background singers on this famous song, “When You Dance” by the Turbans. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – April 19, 2003: First Meeting to Form a New Iraqi Government
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. On Tuesday, Iraqi political and religious leaders met for the first time to discuss how to form a new government in Iraq. The talks were held near the southern city of Ur – believed to be the oldest known city in civilization. More than seventy Shiite and Sunni Muslim community leaders, exiled Iraqi activists, tribal leaders and ethnic Kurds took part in the talks. The delegates gathered in tents at Tallil Air Base. British, American and Polish diplomats supervised the heavily guarded meeting. The Iraqis called for an end to the violence and widespread stealing that have taken place since Saddam Hussein’s government was defeated by an American-led military force. The goal of the meeting was to take the first steps to form a new Iraqi government in which all citizens are represented. The delegates released a thirteen-point statement following the meeting. The statement said how they plan to establish a federal system with leaders chosen by the Iraqi people -- not by outside forces. The statement said the new Iraqi government would be based on the rule of law, democracy, nonviolence and inclusion of all groups, including women. Now that fighting has ended throughout most of Iraq, the country is being temporarily administered by the United States. Retired General Jay Garner will supervise the rebuilding under General Tommy Franks, the commander of American forces in Iraq. President Bush’s special representative, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the delegates the United States does not plan to rule Iraq. He said American officials want Iraq to establish its own democratic system based on national traditions and values. However, the design of such a government remains unclear. About sixty percent of Iraq’s twenty-four-million people are Shiite. Yet, Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-controlled Baath Party repressed them for more than thirty years. Now, at least five Iraqi Shiite groups are competing for influence in Iraq. Among them is the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq. This Iranian-based exile group boycotted the talks to protest temporary American military rule. Thousands of supporters of the group and other Iraqis protested the talks in nearby Nasiriyah. Ahmed Chalabi, head of another Iraqi exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, also did not attend the meeting. He sent a delegate in his place. The United States has met with this exiled group in the past about a possible Iraqi government. Some people believe the United States wants Mister Chalabi to be the new leader of Iraq. During the talks, delegates disagreed about how big a part religion would play in the country’s new political structure. They did agree on the need for future talks. The next in a series of similar meetings will take place next week. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - April 20, 2003: Douglas MacArthur
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about one of the most unusual and successful American military leaders, General Douglas MacArthur. (THEME) VOICE ONE: General Douglas MacArthur was a most unusual man. He was extremely intelligent and very demanding. He expected his orders to be followed exactly. Yet he had problems all his life following the orders of those who were his commanders. Douglas MacArthur was very intelligent and could remember things that others would easily forget. He could design battle plans that left the enemy no choice other than surrender and defeat. His battle plans defeated the enemy and saved as many of his own men as possible. At other times, he would make simple mistakes that made him appear stupid. He often said things that showed he felt important. Many people made jokes about him. Some of his soldiers sang songs that made fun of him. Others believed he was the best general ever to serve in the United States military. General Douglas MacArthur was extremely brave in battle, sometimes almost foolish. It often seemed as if he believed he could not be killed. He won him every medal and honor the United States can give a soldier. However, at the end of his life, he rejected war and warned American political leaders to stay away from armed conflict. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthur was born to be a soldier. His father, Arthur MacArthur, was a hero of the American Civil War and continued to serve in the army after the war ended in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. He became the top officer of the army in Nineteen-Oh-Six. Douglas was born on an Army base near the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas in January, Eighteen-Eighty. He grew up on army bases where his father served. He said the first sounds he could remember as a child were those of the Army ... the sounds of horns, drums and soldiers marching. VOICE ONE: There was never any question about what Douglas MacArthur would do with his life. He would join the army. He wanted to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The Academy is a university that trains officers for the United States Army. School officials rejected him two times before he was accepted. He finished his four years at West Point as the best student in his class. VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthur began his service in the Army by traveling to several Asian countries including Japan, and to the Philippines, then an American territory. He also served at several small bases in the United States. He became a colonel when World War One began. He led troops on very dangerous attacks against the enemy. He won many honors for his bravery and leadership. After that war, he served as head of the West Point Military Academy. He became a general. During the Nineteen-Thirties, President Herbert Hoover appointed him Chief of Staff of the Army, one of the most important jobs in the American military. In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, General MacArthur was appointed military advisor to the Philippines. He was to help the government build an army for defense purposes as the Philippines began planning for independence. He had retired from the army. He was the chief military advisor to the Philippine military forces when the United States entered World War Two in December, Nineteen-Forty-One. VOICE ONE: Japanese aggression in the Pacific developed very quickly. Japanese troops began arriving in the Philippines on December Eleventh, Nineteen-Forty-One. The fighting was extremely fierce. The Japanese were defeating the Philippine and American forces. General MacArthur had been recalled to active duty by President Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines to command American forces in the South Pacific. General MacArthur finally agreed to leave for Australia before the Philippines surrendered to Japan. But he made a promise to the Philippine people. He said, "I shall return." VOICE TWO: Military history experts continue to study General MacArthur's decisions during World War Two. He won battle after battle in the South Pacific area. Often, he would pass islands with strong enemy forces, cut off their supplies and leave them with no chance to fight. In Nineteen-Forty-Four, he returned to the Philippines ... with an army that defeated the Japanese. VOICE ONE: MacArthur was chosen to accept the Japanese surrender in September, Nineteen-Forty-Five. He was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the leader of the occupation forces that would rule Japan. As an American soldier, he had to follow the orders of the government in Washington. But in Japan, General MacArthur ruled like a dictator. VOICE TWO: The Japanese expected severe punishment. They saw MacArthur as a very conservative ruler who would make Japan suffer. MacArthur did charge some Japanese leaders with war crimes. But he did not try to punish the Japanese people. General MacArthur told the Japanese they must change, both politically and socially. He began with education. Before the war, female children in Japan received little if any education. MacArthur said education would be for everyone, including girls and women. He said women must have the right to vote in elections, and be permitted to hold political office. He said Japanese women would now have the same legal rights as men. And he said that every person had the same legal protection under the law. VOICE ONE: General MacArthur told the Japanese people they were now free to form political parties. And he ended the idea of an official government religion. Religion would be a matter of individual choice. He also said the Japanese government would no longer be controlled by a few powerful people. MacArthur told Japan it would now be ruled by a parliament that was freely elected by the people. He helped the people of Japan write a new constitution for a democratic form of government. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On June Twenty-Fifth, Nineteen-Fifty, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Within two days, the United States decided to send armed forces to aid South Korea. Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of the United Nations forces in South Korea. As the weeks passed, the North Korean army forced the South Korean Army and its allies to retreat to the southern city of Pusan. Many military experts said South Korea was lost. General MacArthur did not agree. He wanted to attack from the sea, deep behind the enemy troops at the city of Inchon. MacArthur said the enemy would not be prepared. Most other military leaders believed this would be extremely dangerous. American Marines did attack Inchon September Fifteenth. It was a complete success. MacArthur had been right. VOICE ONE: General MacArthur often disagreed with political leaders. President Truman warned him several times not to disagree with government policy. General MacArthur continued to disagree and told reporters when he did. He often gave orders that were not approved by the president. MacArthur called for a total victory in Korea. He wanted to defeat communism in East Asia. He wanted to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and block Chinese ports. President Truman and his military advisers were concerned World War Three would start. In April, Nineteen-Fifty-One President Truman replaced MacArthur as head of the U.N. forces in Korea. Douglas MacArthur went home to the United States. It was the first time he had been there in more than fifteen years. He was honored as a returning hero. He was invited to speak before Congress. There was a huge parade to honor him in New York City. VOICE TWO: General MacArthur retired again. Some political leaders wanted him to compete for some political office, perhaps for president. Instead, he lived a quiet life with his wife and son. He died at the age of eighty-four on April fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-Four. Today, many Americans have forgotten Douglas MacArthur. However, the people of the Philippines built a statue to honor him for keeping his promise to return. And, many Japanese visitors go to General MacArthur's burial place in Norfolk, Virginia, to remember what he did for Japan. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - April 21, 2003: Botswana Ecotourism Project
* Byline: 

  Photos - Conservation International This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An ancient community in Botswana has launched a new program that will help development in that southern African country. The Bukakhwe (Bu-KA-kweh) San Bushmen have opened a center for visitors called Gudigwa (goo-DEE-gwa) Camp. The project will teach visitors from other countries about the ancient San culture and protect wild animals living in the area. This kind of project is called ecotourism. Traditional San Hut in Botswana This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An ancient community in Botswana has launched a new program that will help development in that southern African country. The Bukakhwe (Bu-KA-kweh) San Bushmen have opened a center for visitors called Gudigwa (goo-DEE-gwa) Camp. The project will teach visitors from other countries about the ancient San culture and protect wild animals living in the area. This kind of project is called ecotourism. The San culture dates back thousands of years. The people support themselves by hunting and eating locally grown plants. Bukakhwe hunters, or Bushmen, are considered experts at searching for animals. They have the ability to discover the movements of animals from marks left in the sand. Bukakhwe leaders hope to protect and continue their traditions through the Gudigwa Camp. Sixteen people will be able to visit the camp at one time. They will stay in grass huts modeled after traditional San Bushmen shelters. Local community members will take visitors on walks. They will teach the visitors about San culture, using plants for medicine, gathering water during the dry season and traditional storytelling, songs and dance. The international environmental group Conservation International and the organization Wilderness Safaris helped the Bukakhwe Bushmen launch Gudigwa Camp. The project is fully owned by the Bushmen. All money made from the camp will be reinvested into community development projects. The goal of the camp is to reduce pressure on wild animals in Botswana’s Okavango (Oh-ka-VAN-go) area by providing other ways for the Bukakhwe people to earn money. Hunting, increased human settlements and more farm animals have threatened many of the area’s rare animals. Among the threatened animals are the African elephant, the African wild dog and wild birds. Pelonomi Venson (Pee-la-NO-May VIN-son) is the Minister for Environment, Wildlife and Tourism in Botswana. She says Gudigwa Camp is a socially responsible project that is good for everyone. The community, she says, will be able to continue its ancient customs. Visitors will experience the rich culture of the Bukakhwe San Bushmen. And the wild animals in northeastern Botswana will be protected. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. The San culture dates back thousands of years. The people support themselves by hunting and eating locally grown plants. Bukakhwe hunters, or Bushmen, are considered experts at searching for animals. They have the ability to discover the movements of animals from marks left in the sand. Bukakhwe leaders hope to protect and continue their traditions through the Gudigwa Camp. Sixteen people will be able to visit the camp at one time. They will stay in grass huts modeled after traditional San Bushmen shelters. Local community members will take visitors on walks. They will teach the visitors about San culture, using plants for medicine, gathering water during the dry season and traditional storytelling, songs and dance. The international environmental group Conservation International and the organization Wilderness Safaris helped the Bukakhwe Bushmen launch Gudigwa Camp. The project is fully owned by the Bushmen. All money made from the camp will be reinvested into community development projects. The goal of the camp is to reduce pressure on wild animals in Botswana’s Okavango (Oh-ka-VAN-go) area by providing other ways for the Bukakhwe people to earn money. Hunting, increased human settlements and more farm animals have threatened many of the area’s rare animals. Among the threatened animals are the African elephant, the African wild dog and wild birds. Pelonomi Venson (Pee-la-NO-May VIN-son) is the Minister for Environment, Wildlife and Tourism in Botswana. She says Gudigwa Camp is a socially responsible project that is good for everyone. The community, she says, will be able to continue its ancient customs. Visitors will experience the rich culture of the Bukakhwe San Bushmen. And the wild animals in northeastern Botswana will be protected. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Pulitzer Prizes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 21, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each year, Pulitzer Prizes are given for the best American newspaper reporting. They are also given for books, drama, poetry and music. This year's winners were announced earlier this month. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember, with the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) Columbia University in New York City has awarded Pulitzer Prizes since nineteen-seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary in eighteen-forty-seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. In eighteen-eighty-three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. Soon it sold more copies than any other newspaper in the country. VOICE ONE: Mister Pulitzer died in nineteen-eleven. He left two-million dollars to Columbia University. Part of this money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. He wanted the rest of the money to be used as prizes for the best writing in the United States. This year, Columbia University gave fourteen awards to newspapers and reporters for excellence in journalism during two-thousand-two. The judges -- including journalists and professors from around the country -- also honored seven people for their work in the arts. VOICE TWO: Six of the largest daily newspapers in the United States won most of the journalism awards. Two of these newspapers -- the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post -- won three Pulitzer prizes each. Last year, many Pulitzer awards went to reports about the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Others honored the American-led war that followed in Afghanistan. Winners this year dealt with a number of different subjects. VOICE ONE: Alan Miller and Kevin Sack of the Los Angeles Times, in California, won the prize for national reporting. They wrote a four-part series about a military airplane that takes off and lands like a helicopter. Forty-five Marine pilots have died in crashes of this kind of plane, called the Harrier. Congress launched an investigation of the safety of this plane after the series appeared. The two other winners at the Los Angeles Times were a feature writer and a photographer. Sonia Nazario wrote about the travels of a boy from Honduras. The child was searching for his mother in the United States. Don Bartletti photographed young people from Central America as they traveled north. He followed them through many dangers as they tried to enter the United States illegally. VOICE TWO: A husband and wife who report together from Mexico City won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan work for the Washington Post. They risked their lives to get information for a series of reports about conditions in the Mexican criminal justice system. Colbert King of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Mister King says he tries to speak for the young, the poor and minority groups who feel they lack power in the city. Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer for criticism. He writes about films. He is known for his strong opinions. Mister Hunter is the first movie critic to win the prize in criticism since nineteen-seventy-five. VOICE ONE: The Boston Globe in Massachusetts won the public-service award for its reports about sexual abuse by local Roman Catholic clergymen. The stories in the Globe showed that church leaders had done nothing to stop crimes against children and other church members. In the end, the top leader for the area, Cardinal Bernard Law, resigned. Another newspaper in Massachusetts, this one published in the small city of Lawrence, also won a Pulitzer. The Eagle-Tribune won for its skill in reporting on the drowning of four boys in a river. The prize for breaking news recognizes work done as an event happens. VOICE TWO: Cornelia Grumman of the Chicago Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. The judges honored what they described as her "powerful" opinion writing against death sentences in Illinois. Earlier this month, the Illinois legislature approved measures designed to reform -- but not end -- the death-penalty system in that state. Another Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism was Diana Sugg [suhg] of the Baltimore Sun in Maryland. She received the award for reporting about a special area of public interest. Mizz Sugg is a medical writer. The judges honored her reporting about the human side of modern health care as well as its technology. One of her most memorable stories told about family members who stayed with dying loved ones in hospital emergency rooms. VOICE ONE: The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. The Journal was honored for its efforts to explain the recent failures of major American companies such as the energy trader Enron. Clifford Levy [LEE-vee] of the New York Times earned the Pulitzer for his investigative reporting. He wrote a series of stories about conditions for thousands of the mentally sick. They live in adult homes supervised by the state of New York. Some of these people had died, and Mister Levy wanted to find out why. He discovered that poorly prepared workers acted as caretakers. He also discovered financial wrongdoing in the program. VOICE TWO: Out West, dramatic pictures of forest fires earned a Pulitzer for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. Wildfires struck the state last spring and summer. And, in the Northwest, David Horsey [HOR-see] of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in Washington state was honored for his editorial cartoons. He received his second Pulitzer Prize in four years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Among the prizes awarded in the arts, one went to a writer who has currently been reporting on the war in Iraq for the Washington Post. Rich Atkinson won the prize for a history book that he wrote about World War Two. It is called “An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942 (through) 1943.” It tells about Allied victories over the Germans in North Africa. Mister Atkinson writes that these victories helped the United States become a major military power. VOICE TWO: Another author, Samantha Power, won a Pulitzer Prize for her book called “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” Her work criticizes the American response to events that have taken place since the Holocaust in World War Two. Her experience includes reporting in nineteen-ninety-three on the war in Bosnia. Robert Caro [CA- (like in cat) roh] won a Pulitzer Prize for his third book about former President Lyndon Johnson. The book “Master of the Senate" tells about Johnson while he served as a senator and Senate majority leader. Mister Caro also won a Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-seventy-five. VOICE ONE: The Pulitzer for poetry went to Paul Muldoon for his ninth collection. Mister Muldoon was born in Northern Ireland, near the village of Moy. His prize-winning book is called “Moy Sand and Gravel.” He teaches creative writing at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. Jeffrey Eugenides [eu-JEH-ni-dees] won the fiction award for his novel “Middlesex," about a Greek family over a period of many years. One of the characters, a girl, discovers at the age of fourteen that she may be a boy. This is the third novel by Mister Eugenides. Nilo Cruz won the Pulitzer for drama for his play “Anna in the Tropics.” It takes place in a little town in the state of Florida in nineteen-twenty-nine. Many of the townspeople work in a cigar factory. The workers are threatened with the loss of their traditions. Mister Cruz was born in Cuba. He teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. VOICE TWO: Among the Pulitzer Prizes awarded this year, one was directly related to the September eleventh attacks on New York and Washington. A musical piece that honors the three-thousand people killed in the World Trade Center earned a Pulitzer for composer John Adams. The piece is called “On the Transmigration of Souls.” It mixes a reading of victims’ names with orchestral music and the voices of children and adults. The piece, however, has not been released commercially. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: April 21, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each year, Pulitzer Prizes are given for the best American newspaper reporting. They are also given for books, drama, poetry and music. This year's winners were announced earlier this month. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember, with the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) Columbia University in New York City has awarded Pulitzer Prizes since nineteen-seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary in eighteen-forty-seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. In eighteen-eighty-three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. Soon it sold more copies than any other newspaper in the country. VOICE ONE: Mister Pulitzer died in nineteen-eleven. He left two-million dollars to Columbia University. Part of this money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. He wanted the rest of the money to be used as prizes for the best writing in the United States. This year, Columbia University gave fourteen awards to newspapers and reporters for excellence in journalism during two-thousand-two. The judges -- including journalists and professors from around the country -- also honored seven people for their work in the arts. VOICE TWO: Six of the largest daily newspapers in the United States won most of the journalism awards. Two of these newspapers -- the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post -- won three Pulitzer prizes each. Last year, many Pulitzer awards went to reports about the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Others honored the American-led war that followed in Afghanistan. Winners this year dealt with a number of different subjects. VOICE ONE: Alan Miller and Kevin Sack of the Los Angeles Times, in California, won the prize for national reporting. They wrote a four-part series about a military airplane that takes off and lands like a helicopter. Forty-five Marine pilots have died in crashes of this kind of plane, called the Harrier. Congress launched an investigation of the safety of this plane after the series appeared. The two other winners at the Los Angeles Times were a feature writer and a photographer. Sonia Nazario wrote about the travels of a boy from Honduras. The child was searching for his mother in the United States. Don Bartletti photographed young people from Central America as they traveled north. He followed them through many dangers as they tried to enter the United States illegally. VOICE TWO: A husband and wife who report together from Mexico City won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan work for the Washington Post. They risked their lives to get information for a series of reports about conditions in the Mexican criminal justice system. Colbert King of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Mister King says he tries to speak for the young, the poor and minority groups who feel they lack power in the city. Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer for criticism. He writes about films. He is known for his strong opinions. Mister Hunter is the first movie critic to win the prize in criticism since nineteen-seventy-five. VOICE ONE: The Boston Globe in Massachusetts won the public-service award for its reports about sexual abuse by local Roman Catholic clergymen. The stories in the Globe showed that church leaders had done nothing to stop crimes against children and other church members. In the end, the top leader for the area, Cardinal Bernard Law, resigned. Another newspaper in Massachusetts, this one published in the small city of Lawrence, also won a Pulitzer. The Eagle-Tribune won for its skill in reporting on the drowning of four boys in a river. The prize for breaking news recognizes work done as an event happens. VOICE TWO: Cornelia Grumman of the Chicago Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. The judges honored what they described as her "powerful" opinion writing against death sentences in Illinois. Earlier this month, the Illinois legislature approved measures designed to reform -- but not end -- the death-penalty system in that state. Another Pulitzer Prize winner in journalism was Diana Sugg [suhg] of the Baltimore Sun in Maryland. She received the award for reporting about a special area of public interest. Mizz Sugg is a medical writer. The judges honored her reporting about the human side of modern health care as well as its technology. One of her most memorable stories told about family members who stayed with dying loved ones in hospital emergency rooms. VOICE ONE: The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. The Journal was honored for its efforts to explain the recent failures of major American companies such as the energy trader Enron. Clifford Levy [LEE-vee] of the New York Times earned the Pulitzer for his investigative reporting. He wrote a series of stories about conditions for thousands of the mentally sick. They live in adult homes supervised by the state of New York. Some of these people had died, and Mister Levy wanted to find out why. He discovered that poorly prepared workers acted as caretakers. He also discovered financial wrongdoing in the program. VOICE TWO: Out West, dramatic pictures of forest fires earned a Pulitzer for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. Wildfires struck the state last spring and summer. And, in the Northwest, David Horsey [HOR-see] of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in Washington state was honored for his editorial cartoons. He received his second Pulitzer Prize in four years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Among the prizes awarded in the arts, one went to a writer who has currently been reporting on the war in Iraq for the Washington Post. Rich Atkinson won the prize for a history book that he wrote about World War Two. It is called “An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942 (through) 1943.” It tells about Allied victories over the Germans in North Africa. Mister Atkinson writes that these victories helped the United States become a major military power. VOICE TWO: Another author, Samantha Power, won a Pulitzer Prize for her book called “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” Her work criticizes the American response to events that have taken place since the Holocaust in World War Two. Her experience includes reporting in nineteen-ninety-three on the war in Bosnia. Robert Caro [CA- (like in cat) roh] won a Pulitzer Prize for his third book about former President Lyndon Johnson. The book “Master of the Senate" tells about Johnson while he served as a senator and Senate majority leader. Mister Caro also won a Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-seventy-five. VOICE ONE: The Pulitzer for poetry went to Paul Muldoon for his ninth collection. Mister Muldoon was born in Northern Ireland, near the village of Moy. His prize-winning book is called “Moy Sand and Gravel.” He teaches creative writing at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. Jeffrey Eugenides [eu-JEH-ni-dees] won the fiction award for his novel “Middlesex," about a Greek family over a period of many years. One of the characters, a girl, discovers at the age of fourteen that she may be a boy. This is the third novel by Mister Eugenides. Nilo Cruz won the Pulitzer for drama for his play “Anna in the Tropics.” It takes place in a little town in the state of Florida in nineteen-twenty-nine. Many of the townspeople work in a cigar factory. The workers are threatened with the loss of their traditions. Mister Cruz was born in Cuba. He teaches at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. VOICE TWO: Among the Pulitzer Prizes awarded this year, one was directly related to the September eleventh attacks on New York and Washington. A musical piece that honors the three-thousand people killed in the World Trade Center earned a Pulitzer for composer John Adams. The piece is called “On the Transmigration of Souls.” It mixes a reading of victims’ names with orchestral music and the voices of children and adults. The piece, however, has not been released commercially. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Africa Malaria Day 2003 / Study: Apes 'Critically Endangered'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 22, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report about malaria -- a major killer of children in Africa. Also, a warning about the future of Africa's apes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Friday is Africa Malaria Day. The message of this year's observance is simple: "Roll Back Malaria, Protect Women and Children!" Each year, malaria kills more than one-million people. Some estimates put the number at up to almost three-million. Most of the deaths are in Africa. Most of the victims are children. The World Health Organization estimates that one African child dies every thirty seconds from this disease. Each year, hundreds of millions of African children get malaria. The signs include high body temperature, diarrhea, head pain and uncontrollable shaking. Those who do survive a severe case often suffer from learning problems or brain damage. Mosquitoes spread malaria. The insects carry a sickness-causing organism made of just one cell. This parasite enters the blood of people bitten by mosquitoes. There are different malaria parasites in the world. Most malaria infections south of the Sahara Desert are caused by the Plasmodium falciparum (plas-MO-dee-um fall-SIP-ah-rum) parasite. This kind produces the most severe and life-threatening form of the disease. There are drugs to treat malaria. One is chloroquine (KLOR-oh-kwine). This widely used medicine, however, has lost its effectiveness in most parts of Africa. Over the past few decades, the falciparum parasite has developed resistance to chloroquine. VOICE TWO: One of the best ways to prevent malaria is to sleep under mosquito nets that are treated with a chemical that kills the insects. But these nets must be sprayed two times a year. African governments and private companies are now working together to develop chemicals that last for four years. Also, some African governments have cut taxes on these nets. Experts say some of the best nets are being made right in Africa. Insecticide-treated nets are important not just for children but also for pregnant women. Malaria is a leading cause of death during pregnancy. Women are more likely to get malaria when they become pregnant. The disease can produce a lack of iron in the mother’s blood. Also, pregnant women with malaria are more likely to have babies with low birth weight. VOICE ONE: Economists estimate that Africa loses about twelve-thousand-million dollars a year because of malaria. African scientists are working to fight this disease. Still, almost eighty percent of all the reports written about malaria include experts from outside Africa. But there is a project to change the situation. This three-year-old project is called the Multilaterial Initiative on Malaria -- or simply, MIM. MIM uses money from private companies, international organizations and governments to pay for research in Africa by Africans. MIM has supported thirty-seven investigators in twenty-four African countries. VOICE TWO: Last November, more than one-thousand-two-hundred people attended a Pan-African meeting on malaria. It took place in Tanzania. The delegates included Doctor Ebrahim Samba, director of the Africa Regional Office of the World Health Organization. He said African countries must spend more of their own money to lead the war against malaria. Doctor Samba said money to buy weapons should be used to fight malaria instead. African scientists say they need to be able to earn more money. They need more and better laboratories. And they need more chances to get high-level training at local universities. There is often money for Africans to study in countries outside of the continent. But the students often end up staying in those countries. This makes it clear that young African scientists need more and better reasons to come back home. VOICE ONE: Africa Malaria Day this Friday will start this year's campaign to fight the disease. The Roll Back Malaria campaign was first launched in nineteen-ninety-eight. Two years later, in Nigeria, forty-four African heads of state and their representatives met in Abuja to discuss the situation. They agreed to set a target to cut the number of malaria cases in Africa in half by two-thousand-ten. Organizers of this year’s Africa Malaria Day want African leaders to renew their support for the Abuja Declaration. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. A researcher says efforts to protect gorillas and chimpanzees in West Africa have failed. He says the population of apes in the wild appears to be decreasing at a fast rate. Peter Walsh of Princeton University in New Jersey led an international team of researchers. The American magazine Nature published their findings. The team studied gorillas and chimpanzees in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Eighty percent of the animals live in those two countries. Researchers say this is because Gabon and Republic of Congo still have a lot of forest areas. Chimpanzees makes their nests in trees. That is where they sleep. Gorillas use leaves and branches to make their nests on the ground. VOICE ONE: The scientists counted nests during a period of four years. They compared the number with a study done in the early nineteen-eighties. They found a fifty-six percent drop. The report says hunting is responsible for some of the loss of apes. This was expected. The scientists, however, say they were surprised by how much the Ebola virus had also affected the ape population. The scientists believe thousands of apes may have been died in outbreaks of Ebola. In one area, the virus appears to have cut the ape population by more than ninety percent since nineteen-ninety-one. Ebola is one reason why trade in what is called bushmeat is a danger not just to the rare animals that are hunted. People can get Ebola if they eat or come in contact with an ape infected with the virus. VOICE TWO: Peter Walsh and his researchers used their findings to consider the future of apes -- the closest relatives to humans. They say the number of wild apes could drop at least eighty percent in western Africa in the next thirty-three years. But Mister Walsh says that may be too conservative. The percentage is based on the current rate of decrease. Mister Walsh says the death rate might be increasing. If nothing is done, he warns that gorillas and chimpanzees could disappear from western equatorial Africa within the next ten years. Mister Walsh and his team have suggested steps toward saving the apes. Currently, the World Conservation Union lists apes as endangered. The researchers want the organization to declare gorillas and chimpanzees "critically endangered." This action would support expanded measures to protect gorillas and chimpanzees. Peter Walsh is also calling for more field research into the spread of Ebola. To do that, he is urging the United States and the European Union to each provide ten-million dollars in emergency spending. And he and his research team are calling for ways to influence governments in Africa to do more to protect apes. The scientists say industrial nations should tie aid and debt cancellation to environmental performance. VOICE ONE: Some researchers, however, are not ready to accept the findings by Peter Walsh and his team. John Oates is a scientist at the City University of New York. He wrote the World Conservation Union’s nineteen-ninety-six action plan for African apes. He questions if the most recent method of study provides a true picture of the level of danger to the animals. Mister Oates says the researchers should have studied chimpanzees and gorillas separately. He also says populations of apes should be examined across Africa before they are declared critically endangered. The study team whose results appeared in Nature was made up of researchers from Gabon, Spain, Britain and the United States. A government official in Gabon told a Nature reporter that chimpanzees and gorillas already are protected there. The environmental official also described the population of apes as, in his words, "quite stable recently." (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss and Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Next week: a special report about SARS. What's next, now that scientists have identified the virus that causes this new lung disease. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Dairy Goat Production
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 22, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Goats have provided meat and milk for people longer than sheep or cows. More people use milk products from goats than from cows. There are more than four-hundred-sixty-million goats in the world. They produce more than four-million tons of milk and more than one-million tons of meat every year. Goat milk improves the diet of many families around the world. In addition, goats are friendly animals. They can be cared for by children. There are several ways to help goats produce more and better milk. One way is to give goats high-protein plants like alfalfa, groundnut grasses, and vegetable leaves to eat. The covering of rice is also high in protein. Providing a special diet for goats is better than letting the animals find their own food all the time. All goats should have covered shelters where they can escape the rain and extremely hot or cold weather. If the goat shelter has a metal roof, it should be painted white so that heat from the sun is reflected. There should be plenty of fresh air inside the shelter. Goats with horns seem to survive better in the heat than goats without horns. Goats enjoy exercise and need to move around. When goats are inside a shelter, there should be at least two-and-one-half square meters of space for each adult animal. When they are outside, a fenced-off area should allow about forty square meters for each animal. Fences should be about one-and-one-half meters to two meters high. Make sure the wire fence is the right height for young goats. Some wire fences can be dangerous for young goats because their horns can become trapped. Many of the same methods used to keep cows healthy can also be used with goats. In fact, sometimes young cows cannot drink too much of their mother’s milk because they get sick. Instead, they are given goat’s milk to drink. You can get more information about raising milk-producing goats from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization based in the United States that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its Web address, www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. Broadcast: April 22, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Goats have provided meat and milk for people longer than sheep or cows. More people use milk products from goats than from cows. There are more than four-hundred-sixty-million goats in the world. They produce more than four-million tons of milk and more than one-million tons of meat every year. Goat milk improves the diet of many families around the world. In addition, goats are friendly animals. They can be cared for by children. There are several ways to help goats produce more and better milk. One way is to give goats high-protein plants like alfalfa, groundnut grasses, and vegetable leaves to eat. The covering of rice is also high in protein. Providing a special diet for goats is better than letting the animals find their own food all the time. All goats should have covered shelters where they can escape the rain and extremely hot or cold weather. If the goat shelter has a metal roof, it should be painted white so that heat from the sun is reflected. There should be plenty of fresh air inside the shelter. Goats with horns seem to survive better in the heat than goats without horns. Goats enjoy exercise and need to move around. When goats are inside a shelter, there should be at least two-and-one-half square meters of space for each adult animal. When they are outside, a fenced-off area should allow about forty square meters for each animal. Fences should be about one-and-one-half meters to two meters high. Make sure the wire fence is the right height for young goats. Some wire fences can be dangerous for young goats because their horns can become trapped. Many of the same methods used to keep cows healthy can also be used with goats. In fact, sometimes young cows cannot drink too much of their mother’s milk because they get sick. Instead, they are given goat’s milk to drink. You can get more information about raising milk-producing goats from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization based in the United States that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its Web address, www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #9 - April 24, 2003: Slavery
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about slavery, and how it affected the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Slavery is one person controlling or owning another. Some history experts say it began following the development of farming about ten-thousand years ago. People forced prisoners of war to work for them. Other slaves were criminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed. Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what is now Iraq more than five-thousand years ago. Slavery also existed among people in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It expanded as trade and industry increased. This increase created a demand for a labor force to produce goods for export. Slaves did most of the work. Most ancient people thought of slavery as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time. Few saw it as evil or unfair. In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners and become citizens. In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products that were in demand. Sugar was one of these products. Italians established large sugar farms beginning around the twelfth century. They used slaves from Russia and other parts of Europe to do the work. By the year Thirteen-Hundred, African blacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves. They were bought or captured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years. By the Fifteen-Hundreds, Spain and Portugal had American colonies. The Europeans made native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies. Most of the Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment. So the Spanish and Portuguese began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves. France, Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies. VOICE TWO: England's southern colonies in North America developed a farm economy that could not survive without slave labor. Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations. These large farms produced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton and tobacco. Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family. That family lived in a large house, usually facing a river. Many separate buildings were needed on a plantation. For example, a building was needed for cooking. And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such as furniture that were used on the plantation. The plantation business was farming. So there also were barns for animals and buildings for holding and drying crops. There was a house to smoke meat so could be kept safely. And there was a place on the river from which goods were sent to England on ships. VOICE ONE: The plantation owner controlled the farm and saw that it earned money. He supervised, fed and clothed the people living on it, including the slaves. Big plantations might have two-hundred slaves. They worked in the fields on crops that would be sold or eaten by the people who lived on the plantation. They also raised animals for meat and milk. Field slaves worked very long and hard. They worked each day from the time the sun rose until it set. Many of these slaves lived in extremely poor conditions in small houses with no heat or furniture. Sometimes, five or ten people lived together in one room. House slaves usually lived in the owner's house. They did the cooking and cleaning in the house. House slaves worked fewer hours than field slaves, but were more closely supervised by the owner and his family. VOICE TWO: Laws approved in the southern colonies made it illegal for slaves to marry, own property, or earn their freedom. These laws also did not permit slaves to be educated, or even to learn to read. But some owners permitted their slaves to earn their freedom, or gave them money for good work. Other owners punished slaves to get them to work. These punishments included beatings, withholding food and threatening to sell members of a slave's family. Some plantation owners executed slaves suspected of serious crimes by hanging them or burning them alive. History experts say that people who were rich enough to own many slaves became leaders in their local areas. They were members of the local governments. They attended meetings of the legislatures in the capitals of their colonies usually two times a year. Slaveowners had the time and the education to greatly influence political life in the southern colonies...because the hard work on their farms was done by slaves. VOICE ONE: Today, most people in the world condemn slavery. That was not true in the early years of the American nation. Many Americans thought slavery was evil, but necessary. Yet owning slaves was common among the richer people in the early Seventeen-Hundreds. Many of the leaders in the colonies who fought for American independence owned slaves. This was true in the Northern colonies as well as the Southern ones. One example is the famous American diplomat, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin. He owned slaves for thirty years and sold them at his general store. But his ideas about slavery changed during his long life. Benjamin Franklin started the first schools to teach blacks and later argued for their freedom. VOICE TWO: Slavery did not become a force in the northern colonies mainly because of economic reasons. Cold weather and poor soil could not support such a farm economy as was found in the South. As a result, the North came to depend on manufacturing and trade. Trade was the way colonists got the English goods they needed. It was also the way to earn money by selling products found in the new world. New England became a center for such trade across the seas. The people who lived there became shipbuilders so they could send the products to England. They used local wood to build the ships. They also sold wood and wood products. They became businessmen carrying goods around the world. The New England shipbuilding towns near the Atlantic ocean grew quickly as a result. The largest of these towns was Boston, Massachusetts. By Seventeen-Twenty, it had more than ten-thousand people. Only two towns in England were larger: London and Bristol. More than twenty-five percent of the men in Boston had invested in shipping or worked in it. Ship captains and businessmen held most of the public offices. VOICE ONE: The American colonies traded goods such as whale oil, ginger, iron, wood, and rum, an alcoholic drink made from sugarcane. Ships carried these goods from the New England colonies to Africa. There, they were traded for African people. The Africans had been captured by enemy tribesmen and sold to African slave traders. The New England boat captains would buy as many as they could put on their ships. The conditions on these ships were very cruel. The Africans were put in so tightly they could hardly move. Some were chained. Many killed themselves rather than live under such conditions. Others died of sicknesses they developed on the ship. Yet many did survive the trip, and became slaves in the southern colonies, or in the Caribbean islands. Black slaves were needed to work on Caribbean sugar plantations. The southern American colonies needed them to work on the tobacco and rice plantations. By Seventeen-Fifty, almost twenty-five percent of the total number of people in the American colonies were black slaves. From the Fifteen-Hundreds to the Eighteen-Hundreds, Europeans sent about twelve-million black slaves from Africa to America. Almost two-million of them died on the way. VOICE TWO: History experts say English ships carried the greatest number of Africans into slavery. One slave ship captain came to hate what he was doing, and turned to religion. His name was John Newton. He stopped taking part in slave trade and became a leader in the Anglican Church. He is famous for having written this song, "Amazing Grace". (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell about slavery, and how it affected the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Slavery is one person controlling or owning another. Some history experts say it began following the development of farming about ten-thousand years ago. People forced prisoners of war to work for them. Other slaves were criminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed. Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what is now Iraq more than five-thousand years ago. Slavery also existed among people in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It expanded as trade and industry increased. This increase created a demand for a labor force to produce goods for export. Slaves did most of the work. Most ancient people thought of slavery as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time. Few saw it as evil or unfair. In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners and become citizens. In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products that were in demand. Sugar was one of these products. Italians established large sugar farms beginning around the twelfth century. They used slaves from Russia and other parts of Europe to do the work. By the year Thirteen-Hundred, African blacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves. They were bought or captured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years. By the Fifteen-Hundreds, Spain and Portugal had American colonies. The Europeans made native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies. Most of the Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment. So the Spanish and Portuguese began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves. France, Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies. VOICE TWO: England's southern colonies in North America developed a farm economy that could not survive without slave labor. Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations. These large farms produced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton and tobacco. Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family. That family lived in a large house, usually facing a river. Many separate buildings were needed on a plantation. For example, a building was needed for cooking. And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such as furniture that were used on the plantation. The plantation business was farming. So there also were barns for animals and buildings for holding and drying crops. There was a house to smoke meat so could be kept safely. And there was a place on the river from which goods were sent to England on ships. VOICE ONE: The plantation owner controlled the farm and saw that it earned money. He supervised, fed and clothed the people living on it, including the slaves. Big plantations might have two-hundred slaves. They worked in the fields on crops that would be sold or eaten by the people who lived on the plantation. They also raised animals for meat and milk. Field slaves worked very long and hard. They worked each day from the time the sun rose until it set. Many of these slaves lived in extremely poor conditions in small houses with no heat or furniture. Sometimes, five or ten people lived together in one room. House slaves usually lived in the owner's house. They did the cooking and cleaning in the house. House slaves worked fewer hours than field slaves, but were more closely supervised by the owner and his family. VOICE TWO: Laws approved in the southern colonies made it illegal for slaves to marry, own property, or earn their freedom. These laws also did not permit slaves to be educated, or even to learn to read. But some owners permitted their slaves to earn their freedom, or gave them money for good work. Other owners punished slaves to get them to work. These punishments included beatings, withholding food and threatening to sell members of a slave's family. Some plantation owners executed slaves suspected of serious crimes by hanging them or burning them alive. History experts say that people who were rich enough to own many slaves became leaders in their local areas. They were members of the local governments. They attended meetings of the legislatures in the capitals of their colonies usually two times a year. Slaveowners had the time and the education to greatly influence political life in the southern colonies...because the hard work on their farms was done by slaves. VOICE ONE: Today, most people in the world condemn slavery. That was not true in the early years of the American nation. Many Americans thought slavery was evil, but necessary. Yet owning slaves was common among the richer people in the early Seventeen-Hundreds. Many of the leaders in the colonies who fought for American independence owned slaves. This was true in the Northern colonies as well as the Southern ones. One example is the famous American diplomat, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin. He owned slaves for thirty years and sold them at his general store. But his ideas about slavery changed during his long life. Benjamin Franklin started the first schools to teach blacks and later argued for their freedom. VOICE TWO: Slavery did not become a force in the northern colonies mainly because of economic reasons. Cold weather and poor soil could not support such a farm economy as was found in the South. As a result, the North came to depend on manufacturing and trade. Trade was the way colonists got the English goods they needed. It was also the way to earn money by selling products found in the new world. New England became a center for such trade across the seas. The people who lived there became shipbuilders so they could send the products to England. They used local wood to build the ships. They also sold wood and wood products. They became businessmen carrying goods around the world. The New England shipbuilding towns near the Atlantic ocean grew quickly as a result. The largest of these towns was Boston, Massachusetts. By Seventeen-Twenty, it had more than ten-thousand people. Only two towns in England were larger: London and Bristol. More than twenty-five percent of the men in Boston had invested in shipping or worked in it. Ship captains and businessmen held most of the public offices. VOICE ONE: The American colonies traded goods such as whale oil, ginger, iron, wood, and rum, an alcoholic drink made from sugarcane. Ships carried these goods from the New England colonies to Africa. There, they were traded for African people. The Africans had been captured by enemy tribesmen and sold to African slave traders. The New England boat captains would buy as many as they could put on their ships. The conditions on these ships were very cruel. The Africans were put in so tightly they could hardly move. Some were chained. Many killed themselves rather than live under such conditions. Others died of sicknesses they developed on the ship. Yet many did survive the trip, and became slaves in the southern colonies, or in the Caribbean islands. Black slaves were needed to work on Caribbean sugar plantations. The southern American colonies needed them to work on the tobacco and rice plantations. By Seventeen-Fifty, almost twenty-five percent of the total number of people in the American colonies were black slaves. From the Fifteen-Hundreds to the Eighteen-Hundreds, Europeans sent about twelve-million black slaves from Africa to America. Almost two-million of them died on the way. VOICE TWO: History experts say English ships carried the greatest number of Africans into slavery. One slave ship captain came to hate what he was doing, and turned to religion. His name was John Newton. He stopped taking part in slave trade and became a leader in the Anglican Church. He is famous for having written this song, "Amazing Grace". (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - 200th Anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 23, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the French Emperor Napoleon’s sale of a huge amount of land to American President Thomas Jefferson. We explain the famous sale and tell about some of the celebrations planned for the two-hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our story begins around eighteen-hundred in the southern city of New Orleans. New Orleans is a huge natural port. The great Mississippi River moves past New Orleans to the sea. Boats took wood, fur, wheat, corn, cattle and other goods and products from far up the Mississippi down the river for sale and transport. New Orleans was a busy place where businesses earned good profits. Spain owned New Orleans and a huge area of land known as Louisiana. In eighteen-hundred, Spain gave the land to France in a secret treaty. But Spain continued to govern the area. Spain had given American businessmen permission to use the port of New Orleans and its storage buildings to store goods for export. However, in eighteen-oh-two, the Spanish government withdrew that permission. VOICE TWO: The Spanish government soon restored permission for Americans to use the port. However, this event caused a great deal of concern to many Americans. One of the people most concerned was the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. President Jefferson knew that whichever country controlled New Orleans could control the future of business on the Mississippi. The Mississippi River was extremely important to the young United States. The Mississippi meant jobs, business, and new settlements. VOICE ONE: In France at this same time, the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was planning to extend his control in the Caribbean and in the Louisiana territory. President Jefferson did not want Napoleon ruling land in North America. He felt the French presence was a threat to peace in the United States. He quickly decided to send special diplomats to France. Their job was to ask Napoleon if he would be willing to sell the city of New Orleans and nearby French territory. President Jefferson chose James Monroe as a special negotiator among the diplomats. Before sailing, Monroe met with the President and Secretary of State James Madison. They discussed several plans in an effort to make a deal with the French Emperor. President Jefferson told James Monroe to ask for a treaty permitting American ships and business to freely use the port if Napoleon refused to sell New Orleans or any French territory. VOICE TWO: Napoleon’s plans for the Caribbean and Louisiana were changing. His troops had suffered a defeat on the French island colony now known as Haiti. The French troops were forced to sail home. Napoleon decided that it was no longer a good idea to invade the island again or place troops in his American territory. It would be too costly, and he needed his troops in Europe. Napoleon quickly lost interest in expanding French colonies in the Americas. When James Monroe arrived in Paris, he never even had a chance to offer the American position. Napoleon had decided to sell everything to the Americans. He told his finance minister to give up Louisiana -- all of it. Napoleon needed money for a war with Britain. He offered to sell the Louisiana territory for fifteen-million dollars. The Americans agreed. Both sides agreed to the sale on April thirtieth, eighteen-oh-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An old story is told about Napoleon’s decision to sell Louisiana. We do not know if the story is true but we will repeat it anyway. Napoleon was sitting in his bathtub, talking with his brothers. They argued strongly against the sale. One brother said the land would make the United States too powerful. Another brother said France could use the land in the future. The men argued. Napoleon became angry and threw some of his bath water at his brothers. He said the question was settled. The land would be sold. VOICE TWO: Napoleon’s brothers may have been right. The price of fifteen-million dollars may seem like a lot of money. However, it is not a lot of money if you look at a map and see what French Louisiana was. It was much more than just the port city of New Orleans. It was more than two-million-one-hundred-thousand square kilometers of land. At fifteen-million dollars, the United States paid only a few cents for each hectare of land. The Louisiana Purchase included all the land west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The sale increased the size of the United States by two times. Today, this area includes all or part of fifteen American states. They are Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. VOICE ONE: At first, President Jefferson thought Congress might have to change the United States Constitution to make the Louisiana Purchase legal. However the sale was so popular that this idea was soon forgotten. The United States Congress met on October seventeenth, eighteen-oh-three. Only a few members opposed the sale. The Senate approved the sale treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. American and French diplomats signed the first sale documents in the city of New Orleans in December, eighteen-oh-three. On this date the United States took control of what was called the lower part of the Louisiana Purchase. Diplomats signed the documents in a building called the Cabildo. They signed the documents in a room called the “Sala Capitular.” It is still a popular place to visit today. History experts have made the room look much like it did the day the famous event took place. Diplomats signed the documents giving the United States control of the upper Louisiana Purchase in March, eighteen-oh-four. That ceremony took place in the city of Saint Louis in what became the state of Missouri. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Louisiana and other states have begun celebrating the two-hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Louisiana plans yearlong celebrations. They include special exhibits, events, theater performances, films, dancing and a musical event called “The Louisiana Purchase Opera.” It will be performed in New Orleans in October. Many other cities that were built on land that was part of the agreement are also celebrating the Louisiana Purchase. In the old Louisiana state capitol building in Baton Rouge is a special display of many of the documents that were signed as part of the Louisiana Purchase treaty. One is signed by James Monroe who led the American delegation to France. He later became America' s fifth president. VOICE ONE: One of the largest celebrations will take place in the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Saint Louis is also one of the many cities celebrating the two-hundredth anniversary of the famous Lewis and Clark exploration of the West. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their group began their exploration from Saint Louis. The documents of the Louisiana Purchase were signed only three months before their famous trip began. They traveled through much of the land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Saint Louis will hold an event called the “Three Flags Ceremony” on March fourteenth, two-thousand-four. The ceremony honors the flags of the United States, France and Spain. The ceremony will celebrate the signing of the documents giving the United States control of the upper part of the Louisiana Purchase. President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and King Juan Carlos of Spain will be invited to the ceremony. Military bands, exhibits, and Native American arts, music and dancers will be included in the celebration. VOICE TWO: Experts say the Louisiana Purchase was one of the most important land sales in history. Experts also say it was one of the most important events to take place in the history of the young United States. That sale helped the small United States to grow into the large and powerful nation that it is today. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: April 23, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the French Emperor Napoleon’s sale of a huge amount of land to American President Thomas Jefferson. We explain the famous sale and tell about some of the celebrations planned for the two-hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our story begins around eighteen-hundred in the southern city of New Orleans. New Orleans is a huge natural port. The great Mississippi River moves past New Orleans to the sea. Boats took wood, fur, wheat, corn, cattle and other goods and products from far up the Mississippi down the river for sale and transport. New Orleans was a busy place where businesses earned good profits. Spain owned New Orleans and a huge area of land known as Louisiana. In eighteen-hundred, Spain gave the land to France in a secret treaty. But Spain continued to govern the area. Spain had given American businessmen permission to use the port of New Orleans and its storage buildings to store goods for export. However, in eighteen-oh-two, the Spanish government withdrew that permission. VOICE TWO: The Spanish government soon restored permission for Americans to use the port. However, this event caused a great deal of concern to many Americans. One of the people most concerned was the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. President Jefferson knew that whichever country controlled New Orleans could control the future of business on the Mississippi. The Mississippi River was extremely important to the young United States. The Mississippi meant jobs, business, and new settlements. VOICE ONE: In France at this same time, the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was planning to extend his control in the Caribbean and in the Louisiana territory. President Jefferson did not want Napoleon ruling land in North America. He felt the French presence was a threat to peace in the United States. He quickly decided to send special diplomats to France. Their job was to ask Napoleon if he would be willing to sell the city of New Orleans and nearby French territory. President Jefferson chose James Monroe as a special negotiator among the diplomats. Before sailing, Monroe met with the President and Secretary of State James Madison. They discussed several plans in an effort to make a deal with the French Emperor. President Jefferson told James Monroe to ask for a treaty permitting American ships and business to freely use the port if Napoleon refused to sell New Orleans or any French territory. VOICE TWO: Napoleon’s plans for the Caribbean and Louisiana were changing. His troops had suffered a defeat on the French island colony now known as Haiti. The French troops were forced to sail home. Napoleon decided that it was no longer a good idea to invade the island again or place troops in his American territory. It would be too costly, and he needed his troops in Europe. Napoleon quickly lost interest in expanding French colonies in the Americas. When James Monroe arrived in Paris, he never even had a chance to offer the American position. Napoleon had decided to sell everything to the Americans. He told his finance minister to give up Louisiana -- all of it. Napoleon needed money for a war with Britain. He offered to sell the Louisiana territory for fifteen-million dollars. The Americans agreed. Both sides agreed to the sale on April thirtieth, eighteen-oh-three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An old story is told about Napoleon’s decision to sell Louisiana. We do not know if the story is true but we will repeat it anyway. Napoleon was sitting in his bathtub, talking with his brothers. They argued strongly against the sale. One brother said the land would make the United States too powerful. Another brother said France could use the land in the future. The men argued. Napoleon became angry and threw some of his bath water at his brothers. He said the question was settled. The land would be sold. VOICE TWO: Napoleon’s brothers may have been right. The price of fifteen-million dollars may seem like a lot of money. However, it is not a lot of money if you look at a map and see what French Louisiana was. It was much more than just the port city of New Orleans. It was more than two-million-one-hundred-thousand square kilometers of land. At fifteen-million dollars, the United States paid only a few cents for each hectare of land. The Louisiana Purchase included all the land west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. The sale increased the size of the United States by two times. Today, this area includes all or part of fifteen American states. They are Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. VOICE ONE: At first, President Jefferson thought Congress might have to change the United States Constitution to make the Louisiana Purchase legal. However the sale was so popular that this idea was soon forgotten. The United States Congress met on October seventeenth, eighteen-oh-three. Only a few members opposed the sale. The Senate approved the sale treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. American and French diplomats signed the first sale documents in the city of New Orleans in December, eighteen-oh-three. On this date the United States took control of what was called the lower part of the Louisiana Purchase. Diplomats signed the documents in a building called the Cabildo. They signed the documents in a room called the “Sala Capitular.” It is still a popular place to visit today. History experts have made the room look much like it did the day the famous event took place. Diplomats signed the documents giving the United States control of the upper Louisiana Purchase in March, eighteen-oh-four. That ceremony took place in the city of Saint Louis in what became the state of Missouri. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Louisiana and other states have begun celebrating the two-hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Louisiana plans yearlong celebrations. They include special exhibits, events, theater performances, films, dancing and a musical event called “The Louisiana Purchase Opera.” It will be performed in New Orleans in October. Many other cities that were built on land that was part of the agreement are also celebrating the Louisiana Purchase. In the old Louisiana state capitol building in Baton Rouge is a special display of many of the documents that were signed as part of the Louisiana Purchase treaty. One is signed by James Monroe who led the American delegation to France. He later became America' s fifth president. VOICE ONE: One of the largest celebrations will take place in the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. Saint Louis is also one of the many cities celebrating the two-hundredth anniversary of the famous Lewis and Clark exploration of the West. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their group began their exploration from Saint Louis. The documents of the Louisiana Purchase were signed only three months before their famous trip began. They traveled through much of the land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Saint Louis will hold an event called the “Three Flags Ceremony” on March fourteenth, two-thousand-four. The ceremony honors the flags of the United States, France and Spain. The ceremony will celebrate the signing of the documents giving the United States control of the upper part of the Louisiana Purchase. President George Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and King Juan Carlos of Spain will be invited to the ceremony. Military bands, exhibits, and Native American arts, music and dancers will be included in the celebration. VOICE TWO: Experts say the Louisiana Purchase was one of the most important land sales in history. Experts also say it was one of the most important events to take place in the history of the young United States. That sale helped the small United States to grow into the large and powerful nation that it is today. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Human Genome Project Completed
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 23, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists are finished with the Human Genome Project. Mapping the position of every human gene is a major step in the history of science. Last week, officials announced the completion of the effort to identify all the chemical pieces in D-N-A. That is the genetic material that shapes life. The work involved scientists at sixteen research centers around the world. They finished in time for the fiftieth anniversary this month of another important discovery -- how D-N-A is structured. D-N-A is deoxyribonucleic acid. The project had been expected to take two more years. It began in nineteen-ninety. The human genome is a map of our genetic structure. This structure is built from more than three-thousand-million chemical pieces linked together. The pieces are organized into genes, an estimated thirty-thousand of them. This chain decides such things as physical appearance -- like hair color, eye color and height -- but also much more. Genes can make a person more or less likely than others to suffer diseases such as diabetes or some kinds of cancer. This genetic map will guide scientists as they study the mysteries of health and disease. Scientists hope to speed up progress to develop genetic treatments. These new treatments could fight some diseases on the level of cells and genes. Three years ago, a ceremony took place at the White House to announce what was called a "working draft" of the human genome. But at that time the project was only eighty-five percent complete. Today, scientists have filled in most of the information that was missing three years ago. They have also put the parts of the genome in order. Scientists say that about one percent of the map is impossible to finish until they develop new technologies. They consider the parts that are still missing to be of little importance. Yet some scientists say they would have liked to see these parts done before officials declared the end of the project. Other scientists are already using the genome. One such project is to make a map of common genetic changes. The goal is to show genes linked to diseases like asthma, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – April 24, 2003: Teacher Certification
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. For many years American colleges and universities have prepared the nation’s teachers. Students who want to teach must study special subjects toward that goal. They work in public schools while being supervised by other teachers. They take state examinations. If they succeed, they are officially certified or approved to be public school teachers. The Bush Administration now supports a new organization that seeks to expand certification. This group is called the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. It says its new system will let good non-traditional teachers be certified if they meet its requirements. The Department of Education established the board last year. The goal is to remove barriers to getting more good teachers. In just a few years, American public schools will be educating three-million more children. Recent college graduates can be considered for the new program. So can people in other jobs who want to become teachers. Others are retired people and currently uncertified public school teachers. Still others are teachers in private and special schools who seek official recognition of their skills. A number of long-established education groups object to the new system. They say it will devalue the skills of teachers certified under the current system. Critics say teachers certified under the new system may lack important classroom skills. But Education Secretary Rod Paige says the new process will make sure that nontraditional teachers are well prepared. He says the Administration’s education program requires this. People seeking to enter the program as beginning teachers must perform well on examinations. They also must gain preparation in the classroom. The program’s next step is called master teacher certification. It recognizes excellent educators already working in schools. Teachers will take tests measuring their knowledge of subject material. They also must document the progress of their students. One state, Pennsylvania, already has recognized the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. Another state, New Hampshire, is considering approving the new certification process. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - April 25, 2003: California's Water Problems
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. United Nations officials have declared two-thousand-three the International Year of Fresh Water. Everywhere, water use is increasing. Today, we look at how one area is dealing with the problem. The southwestern United States faces a water problem. Human development and years of less than average rainfall are to blame. Years ago, the city of Los Angeles, California got its water from the Los Angeles River. Today, the river is dry for much of the year. The water that once flowed there now comes from ground wells. They provide fifteen percent of the city’s water. Half of the city’s water comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The rest comes from the Colorado River, east of Los Angeles. Part of that supply was reduced at the end of December. The problem started when California began using more than its share of water from the Colorado River. Other western states became concerned and informed the federal government. The government ordered California to agree on a plan to reduce the amount of Colorado River water it uses. There was no agreement, so some of the water supplies were cut. However, Los Angeles officials say their city has enough additional supplies and the reduction is not a threat. Local officials have urged people to use less water so future needs are met. The water company offers free toilets designed to use less water. The water company’s pricing system also is meant to reduce waste. When the use of water increases, so does the price. Los Angeles officials also are exploring other ideas. The cost of removing salt from seawater has dropped fifty percent in the past ten years. However, this desalinated seawater still costs three times as much as other water supplies. The officials believe that desalinated seawater will be more competitive as the price of other water supplies increases. The city plans to build a new desalination center by the year two-thousand-ten. Much of central and southern California is desert. The state’s rich farming areas depend on water from irrigation systems to keep their soil productive. Agriculture is a thirty-thousand-million dollar industry in the state. Agriculture also uses more than eighty percent of California’s clean water supplies. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. United Nations officials have declared two-thousand-three the International Year of Fresh Water. Everywhere, water use is increasing. Today, we look at how one area is dealing with the problem. The southwestern United States faces a water problem. Human development and years of less than average rainfall are to blame. Years ago, the city of Los Angeles, California got its water from the Los Angeles River. Today, the river is dry for much of the year. The water that once flowed there now comes from ground wells. They provide fifteen percent of the city’s water. Half of the city’s water comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The rest comes from the Colorado River, east of Los Angeles. Part of that supply was reduced at the end of December. The problem started when California began using more than its share of water from the Colorado River. Other western states became concerned and informed the federal government. The government ordered California to agree on a plan to reduce the amount of Colorado River water it uses. There was no agreement, so some of the water supplies were cut. However, Los Angeles officials say their city has enough additional supplies and the reduction is not a threat. Local officials have urged people to use less water so future needs are met. The water company offers free toilets designed to use less water. The water company’s pricing system also is meant to reduce waste. When the use of water increases, so does the price. Los Angeles officials also are exploring other ideas. The cost of removing salt from seawater has dropped fifty percent in the past ten years. However, this desalinated seawater still costs three times as much as other water supplies. The officials believe that desalinated seawater will be more competitive as the price of other water supplies increases. The city plans to build a new desalination center by the year two-thousand-ten. Much of central and southern California is desert. The state’s rich farming areas depend on water from irrigation systems to keep their soil productive. Agriculture is a thirty-thousand-million dollar industry in the state. Agriculture also uses more than eighty percent of California’s clean water supplies. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Helen Keller, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 27, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: April 27, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen-eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the South during the American civil war. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child. Until she was a year-and-one half old, Helen Keller was just like any other child. She was very active. She began walking and talking early. Then, nineteen months after she was born, Helen became very sick. It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf. The doctor could not do anything for her. Her bright, happy world now was filled with silence and darkness. VOICE TWO: From that time until she was almost seven years old, Helen could communicate only by making signs with her hands. But she learned how to be active in her silent, dark environment. The young child had strong desires. She knew what she wanted to do. No one could stop her from doing it. More and more, she wanted to communicate with others. Making simple signs with her hands was not enough. Something was ready to explode inside of her because she could not make people understand her. She screamed and struggled when her mother tried to control her. VOICE ONE: When Helen was six, her father learned about a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. The doctor had successfully treated people who were blind. Helen's parents took her on the train to Baltimore. But the doctor said he could do nothing to help Helen. He suggested the Kellers get a teacher for the blind who could teach Helen to communicate. A teacher arrived from the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston. Her name was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind. But she had regained her sight. At Perkins, she had learned the newest methods of teaching the blind. VOICE TWO: Anne Sullivan began by teaching Helen that everything had a name. The secret to the names was the letters that formed them. The job was long and difficult. Helen had to learn how to use her hands and fingers to speak for her. But she was not yet ready to learn. First, she had to be taught how to obey, and how to control her anger. Miss Sullivan was quick to understand this. She wrote to friends in Boston about her experiences teaching Helen. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: “The first night I arrived I gave Helen a doll. As she felt the doll with one hand I slowly formed the letters, d-o-l-l with my fingers in her other hand. Helen looked in wonder and surprise as she felt my hand. Then she formed the letters in my hand just as I had done in hers. She was quick to learn, but she was also quick in anger. For seven years, no one had taught her self-control. Instead of continuing to learn, she picked up the doll and threw it on the floor. She was this way in almost everything she did. Even at the table, while eating, she did exactly as she pleased. She even put her hands in our plates and ate our food. The second morning, I would not let her put her hand on my plate. The family became troubled and left the room. I closed the door and continued to eat. Helen was on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull the chair out from under me. This continued for half an hour or so. Then she got up from the floor and came to find out what I was doing. Suddenly she hit me. Every time she did this I hit her hand. After a few minutes of this, she went to her place at the table and began to eat with her fingers. I gave her a spoon to eat with. She threw it on the floor. I forced her to get out of her chair to pick the spoon up. At last, after two hours, she sat down and ate like other people. I had to teach her to obey. But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished. So I asked them to let me move with Helen into a small one-room house nearby. The first day Helen was away from her family she kicked and screamed most of the time. That night I could not make her get into bed. We struggled, but I held her down on the bed. Luckily, I was stronger than she. The next morning I expected more of the same, but to my surprise she was calm, even peaceful. Two weeks later, she had become a gentle child. She was ready to learn. My job now was pleasant. Helen learned quickly. Now I could lead and shape her intelligence. We spent all day together. I formed words in her hand, the names of everything we touched. But she had no idea what the words meant. As time passed, she learned how to sew clothes and make things. Every day we visited the farm animals and searched for eggs in the chicken houses. All the time, I was busy forming letters and words in her hand with my fingers. Then one day, about a month after I arrived, we were walking outside. Something important happened. We heard someone pumping water. I put Helen's hand under the cool water and formed the word w-a-t-e-r in her other hand. W-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r. I formed the word again and again in her hand. Helen looked straight up at the sky as if a lost memory or thought of some kind was coming back to her. Suddenly, the whole mystery of language seemed clear to her. I could see that the word w-a-t-e-r meant something wonderful and cool that flowed over her hand. The word became alive for her. It awakened her spirit, gave it light and hope. She ran toward the house. I ran after her. One by one she touched things and asked their name. I told her. She went on asking for names and more names.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From that time on Helen left the house each day, searching for things to learn. Each new name brought new thoughts. Everything she touched seemed alive. One day, Helen remembered a doll she had broken. She searched everywhere for the pieces. She tried to put the pieces together but could not. She understood what she had done and was not happy. Miss Sullivan taught Helen many things -- to read and write, and even to use a typewriter. But most important, she taught Helen how to think. VOICE TWO: For the next three years, Helen learned more and more new words. All day Miss Sullivan kept touching Helen's hand, spelling words that gave Helen a language. In time, Helen showed she could learn foreign languages. She learned Latin, Greek, French and German. Helen was able to learn many things, not just languages. She was never willing to leave a problem unfinished, even difficult problems in mathematics. One time, Miss Sullivan suggested leaving a problem to solve until the next day. But Helen wanted to keep trying. She said, "I think it will make my mind stronger to do it now.” VOICE ONE: Helen traveled a lot with her family or alone with Miss Sullivan. In eighteen-eighty-eight, Helen, her mother and Miss Sullivan went to Boston, Massachusetts. They visited the Perkins Institution where Miss Sullivan had learned to teach. They stayed for most of the summer at the home of family friends near the Atlantic Ocean. In Helen's first experience with the ocean, she was caught by a wave and pulled under the water. Miss Sullivan rescued her. When Helen recovered, she demanded, "Who put salt in the water?" VOICE TWO: Three years after Helen started to communicate with her hands, she began to learn to speak as other people did. She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word. Only one who is deaf can understand the loving way I talked to my dolls, to the stones, to birds and animals. Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command. " Those first days when Helen Keller developed the ability to talk were wonderful. But they proved to be just the beginning of her many successes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the first part of the story of Helen Keller. It was written by Katherine Clarke. Your narrators were Sarah Long, Ray Freeman and Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen-eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the South during the American civil war. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child. Until she was a year-and-one half old, Helen Keller was just like any other child. She was very active. She began walking and talking early. Then, nineteen months after she was born, Helen became very sick. It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf. The doctor could not do anything for her. Her bright, happy world now was filled with silence and darkness. VOICE TWO: From that time until she was almost seven years old, Helen could communicate only by making signs with her hands. But she learned how to be active in her silent, dark environment. The young child had strong desires. She knew what she wanted to do. No one could stop her from doing it. More and more, she wanted to communicate with others. Making simple signs with her hands was not enough. Something was ready to explode inside of her because she could not make people understand her. She screamed and struggled when her mother tried to control her. VOICE ONE: When Helen was six, her father learned about a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. The doctor had successfully treated people who were blind. Helen's parents took her on the train to Baltimore. But the doctor said he could do nothing to help Helen. He suggested the Kellers get a teacher for the blind who could teach Helen to communicate. A teacher arrived from the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston. Her name was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind. But she had regained her sight. At Perkins, she had learned the newest methods of teaching the blind. VOICE TWO: Anne Sullivan began by teaching Helen that everything had a name. The secret to the names was the letters that formed them. The job was long and difficult. Helen had to learn how to use her hands and fingers to speak for her. But she was not yet ready to learn. First, she had to be taught how to obey, and how to control her anger. Miss Sullivan was quick to understand this. She wrote to friends in Boston about her experiences teaching Helen. (MUSIC) VOICE THREE: “The first night I arrived I gave Helen a doll. As she felt the doll with one hand I slowly formed the letters, d-o-l-l with my fingers in her other hand. Helen looked in wonder and surprise as she felt my hand. Then she formed the letters in my hand just as I had done in hers. She was quick to learn, but she was also quick in anger. For seven years, no one had taught her self-control. Instead of continuing to learn, she picked up the doll and threw it on the floor. She was this way in almost everything she did. Even at the table, while eating, she did exactly as she pleased. She even put her hands in our plates and ate our food. The second morning, I would not let her put her hand on my plate. The family became troubled and left the room. I closed the door and continued to eat. Helen was on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull the chair out from under me. This continued for half an hour or so. Then she got up from the floor and came to find out what I was doing. Suddenly she hit me. Every time she did this I hit her hand. After a few minutes of this, she went to her place at the table and began to eat with her fingers. I gave her a spoon to eat with. She threw it on the floor. I forced her to get out of her chair to pick the spoon up. At last, after two hours, she sat down and ate like other people. I had to teach her to obey. But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished. So I asked them to let me move with Helen into a small one-room house nearby. The first day Helen was away from her family she kicked and screamed most of the time. That night I could not make her get into bed. We struggled, but I held her down on the bed. Luckily, I was stronger than she. The next morning I expected more of the same, but to my surprise she was calm, even peaceful. Two weeks later, she had become a gentle child. She was ready to learn. My job now was pleasant. Helen learned quickly. Now I could lead and shape her intelligence. We spent all day together. I formed words in her hand, the names of everything we touched. But she had no idea what the words meant. As time passed, she learned how to sew clothes and make things. Every day we visited the farm animals and searched for eggs in the chicken houses. All the time, I was busy forming letters and words in her hand with my fingers. Then one day, about a month after I arrived, we were walking outside. Something important happened. We heard someone pumping water. I put Helen's hand under the cool water and formed the word w-a-t-e-r in her other hand. W-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r. I formed the word again and again in her hand. Helen looked straight up at the sky as if a lost memory or thought of some kind was coming back to her. Suddenly, the whole mystery of language seemed clear to her. I could see that the word w-a-t-e-r meant something wonderful and cool that flowed over her hand. The word became alive for her. It awakened her spirit, gave it light and hope. She ran toward the house. I ran after her. One by one she touched things and asked their name. I told her. She went on asking for names and more names.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: From that time on Helen left the house each day, searching for things to learn. Each new name brought new thoughts. Everything she touched seemed alive. One day, Helen remembered a doll she had broken. She searched everywhere for the pieces. She tried to put the pieces together but could not. She understood what she had done and was not happy. Miss Sullivan taught Helen many things -- to read and write, and even to use a typewriter. But most important, she taught Helen how to think. VOICE TWO: For the next three years, Helen learned more and more new words. All day Miss Sullivan kept touching Helen's hand, spelling words that gave Helen a language. In time, Helen showed she could learn foreign languages. She learned Latin, Greek, French and German. Helen was able to learn many things, not just languages. She was never willing to leave a problem unfinished, even difficult problems in mathematics. One time, Miss Sullivan suggested leaving a problem to solve until the next day. But Helen wanted to keep trying. She said, "I think it will make my mind stronger to do it now.” VOICE ONE: Helen traveled a lot with her family or alone with Miss Sullivan. In eighteen-eighty-eight, Helen, her mother and Miss Sullivan went to Boston, Massachusetts. They visited the Perkins Institution where Miss Sullivan had learned to teach. They stayed for most of the summer at the home of family friends near the Atlantic Ocean. In Helen's first experience with the ocean, she was caught by a wave and pulled under the water. Miss Sullivan rescued her. When Helen recovered, she demanded, "Who put salt in the water?" VOICE TWO: Three years after Helen started to communicate with her hands, she began to learn to speak as other people did. She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word. Only one who is deaf can understand the loving way I talked to my dolls, to the stones, to birds and animals. Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command. " Those first days when Helen Keller developed the ability to talk were wonderful. But they proved to be just the beginning of her many successes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the first part of the story of Helen Keller. It was written by Katherine Clarke. Your narrators were Sarah Long, Ray Freeman and Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Palestinians Agree on a New Government
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 26, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and his new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, have agreed on a new cabinet for the governing Palestinian Authority. The agreement was announced Wednesday at Mister Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah. A compromise was reached after an intense dispute between the Palestinian leader and his new reformist prime minister. They disagreed on how much power to share and who would be in the new cabinet. And they could not agree on who would be head of security. Mister Abbas wanted former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan in the position. Mister Arafat did not. European and Arab leaders pressured Mister Arafat to accept Mohammed Dahlan’s appointment. The Palestinian leader refused. Mister Dahlan is former security chief in Gaza. Mister Arafat dismissed him last year. Some say his political base threatens Mister Arafat’s political control. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sent Egyptian diplomat Omar Suleiman to help end the dispute. In a final compromise, Mister Abbas named many Arafat loyalists to top positions in the cabinet. Mister Arafat permitted Mister Abbas to keep his job as interior minister. And Mister Arafat agreed to let Mohammed Dahlan become security chief. These two positions are considered the most important to easing Palestinian violence. Mister Arafat remains president of the Palestinian Authority. The dispute threatened American plans to restart Middle East peace efforts. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have promised greater efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the United States and Israel did not want to deal with Mister Arafat as the main negotiator. They hoped that Mister Abbas and his new cabinet would reduce Mister Arafat’s power in the Palestinian Authority, giving them someone new to negotiate with. Observers say the power struggle between Mister Arafat and Mister Abbas shows that the Palestinian president still holds enough power to block reform. The Bush administration said it would release a Middle East peace plan when a new Palestinian government was officially in place. The so-called roadmap to peace was approved in December by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. It calls for compromises by both sides that would progress to a resolution of all disputes and an independent Palestinian state in three years. Israel is seeking changes in the plan. The new cabinet must be confirmed by the Palestinian legislature. The full list of twenty-four cabinet members is to be released later. American Secretary of State Colin Powell is to travel to the area next month to seek approval for the plan. He also is expected to go to Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria to discuss how Arab nations can support the plan. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: April 24, 2003 - Pronunciation in American English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 24, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- we answer some questions we've gotten about how to pronounce words in American English. RS: We'll start with a question from an American expatriate in Thailand. Bob Wildman writes, "Listening to VOA helps me keep up with the current state of the American language." He tutors some students in English, so he gets a little worried when he hears things that clash with his own usage. AA: Bob writes: "Where I come from (the Midwestern U.S.) the word 'protest' is stressed in the first syllable as a noun and on the second syllable as a verb. Ditto for words like 'combat,' 'suspect,' and many others. But I frequently hear VOA newsreaders say something like: '500 people were PROtesting outside the U.S. Embassy' instead of '500 people were proTESTING outside the U.S. Embassy.' ... Is this first/second syllable stress distinction falling out of American English?" RS: We checked with Dennis Baron, head of the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Baron says patterns of stress are indeed shifting with some pairs of words. Case in point: You can pro-TEST all you want, but often people will say "PRO-test" for both the noun and the verb. AA: Another question -- Snowman, a listener in China, wants to know why the "p" in the word "spread" is pronounced like a "b." Professor Baron says this has to do with the nature of sounds that are "voiced" -- that is, they vibrate the larynx, versus those that do not. BARON: "If you put your finger on your throat when you pronounce the 'p' and the 'b' sounds, you can actually feel the vibration with the 'b.' And what's happening in the word 'spread' is that the 'p,' which is without voice, it's voiceless, is picking up some voicing from the sound that follows it, the 'r' sound, and that's why it sounds to some people like a 'b.'" RS: Here's a different example. Take the word spelled l-a-t-e-r. In natural conversation, English speakers do not pronounce it "lay-ter." They say "lay-der." BARON: "It's almost like a 'd.' Pronouncing it with a very precise 't' sounds ... too correct." AA: In other words, wrong. Professor Baron says this is why it's important to listen to native speakers -- whether in real-life, on radio or TV, or in the movies -- to hear how they pronounce words in the course of natural, connected speech. BARON: "Schoolbook language learning tends to give you only a very limited slice of the language, and so the big focus on language learning now is to try to put yourself in natural language situations rather than artificial ones -- preferably interactive ones, so that you could actually be talking with a speaker of the language or writing back and forth to a speaker of the language, so that you're not simply an observer but are a participant in the interaction." AA: "And I suppose what makes all of this harder is that there are no national, official rules for how you say 'in-SUR-ance' versus 'IN-sur-ance' or 're-SEARCH-er' versus 'RE-search-er.'" BARON: "Exactly. We don't have an academy, we don't have a group of people who ratify or establish correctness." RS: "The pronunciation police." BARON: "We don't have the pronunciation police or anything like that. And as a result there's a concern to be correct, but there's also a sense that people don't want to be corrected. So it's a social issue, correctness, rather than a legislative one." RS: "Exactly. And prejudice, of course ... " BARON: "Prejudice can arise. There was a commercial, an advertisement [ad-VER-tis-ment] for a vocabulary improvement tape that they were trying to sell people, and the phrase that they used -- a very ominous voice comes on saying, 'People judge you by the words you use.'" AA: "Well, not to judge you, but you said 'ad-VER-tis-ment' and yet I've always pronounced that 'ad-ver-TISE-ment' because that's how it looks." BARON: "'Ad-ver-TISE-ment'? I would say 'AD-ver-tise-ment' or 'ad-VER-tis-ment." RS: "Let's go on. I'm going to stop you two. (laughter)" BARON: "And you're saying 'ad-ver-TISE-ment'? Talk about stress over stress!" RS: Dennis Baron is a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois and the author of several books. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - April 28, 2003: Route 66
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: John Steinbeck (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is called “The Mother Road.” “The Main Street of America.” It extends from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. We tell about Route Sixty-Six and efforts to protect this important road on the VOA Special English program, This is America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The idea for Route Sixty-Six started in the state of Oklahoma. Citizens wanted to link their state with states to the east and west. By the nineteen-twenties, federal officials wanted to connect state roads to provide a shorter, faster way across the country. So a plan was developed to connect existing state roads into one long national road. United States Highway Sixty-Six opened in nineteen-twenty-six. It was one of America’s first national road systems. It crossed eight American states. It was three-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers long. People soon began calling Route Sixty-Six "the main street of America." Route Sixty-Six became the most famous road in America. The road extended through the centers of many American cities and towns. It crossed deserts, mountains, valleys and rivers. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-thirties, Americans suffered through the Great Depression. Many poor farm families in the state of Oklahoma lost their farms because of severe dry weather. So they traveled west to California on Route Sixty-Six in search of a better life. In nineteen-thirty-nine, American writer John Steinbeck wrote a book called "The Grapes of Wrath" about these people. VOICE ONE: In the book, John Steinbeck wrote: "Sixty-Six -- the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map ... over the red lands and the gray lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys.” Steinbeck wrote: "Sixty-Six is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land … Sixty-Six is the mother road, the road of flight." VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-six, an American songwriter and his wife drove across the country to Los Angeles. Bobby Troup wrote a song about his trip on Route Sixty-Six. He wrote that people could have fun traveling on the road. The song said people could "get their kicks" on Route-Sixty-Six. When he arrived in Los Angeles, Bobby Troup took the song to Nat King Cole. Cole recorded the song. It became a huge hit. Here is Nat King Cole’s daughter, Natalie Cole, singing "Route Sixty-Six." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen-fifties, many American families began to explore the western part of the country during their holidays. They enjoyed travelling on Route Sixty-Six. In the nineteen-sixties, Americans watched a popular television show called "Route Sixty-Six." It was about two young men driving across the country. Route Sixty-Six represented the spirit of movement and excitement. The television show was filmed in cities and towns across America. Yet only a few shows were filmed on the real Route Sixty-Six. VOICE TWO: Also in the nineteen-sixties, the federal government began building huge road systems through a number of states. Cars and trucks could travel at very high speeds. People started driving on these new interstate highways instead of on Route Sixty-Six. In nineteen-sixty-two, parts of Route Sixty-Six were closed because they were in bad condition. Then in nineteen-eighty-five, Route Sixty-Six was officially removed from the national highway system. During the past few years, however, people living near the old Route Sixty-Six have formed organizations. They have succeeded in saving parts of the road. They also are saving hundreds of eating places, places to stay and interesting places to visit along the way. VOICE ONE: Michael Wallis is one of America’s top experts on Route Sixty-Six. He wrote a book called "Route Sixty-Six: The Mother Road." Mister Wallis has lived in seven of the eight states that Route Sixty-Six crosses. He and his wife Suzanne have led groups of visitors on two-week bus trips on Route Sixty-Six. Mister Wallis says there has been a huge increase in interest in Route Sixty-Six from Americans and people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now it is our turn to take a trip on Route Sixty-Six. We will have to search for it at times. Many parts of it have new names or numbers. Some parts of it are included in other interstate highways. Our trip begins in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is America’s third largest city. It has almost three-million people. From Chicago, the road goes southwest through many small towns in Illinois. One of them is Springfield, the home of America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. Now we drive through Saint Louis, Missouri, a city of more than three-hundred-thousand people. Saint Louis is called "the gateway to the West." Missouri has many natural wonders. One of the most famous on Route Sixty-Six is Meramec Caverns in Stanton. VOICE ONE: The next part of our drive takes us for a very short time through the state of Kansas. Then we enter the state of Oklahoma. Michael Wallis says Oklahoma remains the heart and soul of Route Sixty-Six. That is because there are more kilometers of the road in Oklahoma than in any other state. In Claremore, Oklahoma, a statue honors a famous American, Will Rogers. Will Rogers was born in Claremore. He became a popular actor, radio broadcaster and newspaper writer in the nineteen-twenties and thirties. We pass through many historic towns in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma City, we can visit the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. And in Clinton, we can see the Route Sixty-Six Museum. It is the first official museum that tells the complete history of the road and its importance to America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we drive through the northern part of the state of Texas. The area is called the Texas panhandle. We stop near the town of Amarillo to look at an unusual kind of art that celebrates Route Sixty-Six. It is called Cadillac Ranch. A Cadillac is a large, costly American automobile. Cadillac Ranch has ten Cadillac cars half buried in the ground. Stanley Marsh, a rich farmer and art collector, created it to honor America’s roads. Continuing west, we travel through the states of New Mexico and Arizona. We pass through some of the most beautiful country in the Southwest. Petrified Forest National Park is one of the wonders of Arizona. Trees that are millions of years old have been turned to stone in unusual shapes. North of Route Sixty-Six is the Painted Desert. It is named for the colorful red and yellow sand and rocks. VOICE ONE: We continue on our trip driving on a winding road up and down the Black Mountains. We arrive at the town of Oatman, Arizona. Long ago, Oatman was a rich gold-mining town. But everyone left the town when the mining ended. Today Oatman still looks like it did in the past. Now we enter the state of California. We pass through the Mojave Desert, some mountains and several interesting towns. But Route Sixty-Six becomes lost among the large road systems of Los Angeles. This "main street of America" ends at the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. VOICE TWO: Jim Conkle is a historian of Route Sixty-Six. This week, he is beginning a trip on the historic road. He is leading a group of vehicles that will travel from Santa Monica to Chicago. The trip will last sixty-six days. Mister Conkle will place signs along Route Sixty-Six to point out interesting, unusual and historic places. The signs say “Roadside Attraction.” They will serve as a road map for future travelers who want to know where to stop to learn about the history of Route Sixty-Six. Mister Conkle’s goal is to raise concern about protecting America’s most famous road. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, This is America. It is called “The Mother Road.” “The Main Street of America.” It extends from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. We tell about Route Sixty-Six and efforts to protect this important road on the VOA Special English program, This is America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The idea for Route Sixty-Six started in the state of Oklahoma. Citizens wanted to link their state with states to the east and west. By the nineteen-twenties, federal officials wanted to connect state roads to provide a shorter, faster way across the country. So a plan was developed to connect existing state roads into one long national road. United States Highway Sixty-Six opened in nineteen-twenty-six. It was one of America’s first national road systems. It crossed eight American states. It was three-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers long. People soon began calling Route Sixty-Six "the main street of America." Route Sixty-Six became the most famous road in America. The road extended through the centers of many American cities and towns. It crossed deserts, mountains, valleys and rivers. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-thirties, Americans suffered through the Great Depression. Many poor farm families in the state of Oklahoma lost their farms because of severe dry weather. So they traveled west to California on Route Sixty-Six in search of a better life. In nineteen-thirty-nine, American writer John Steinbeck wrote a book called "The Grapes of Wrath" about these people. VOICE ONE: In the book, John Steinbeck wrote: "Sixty-Six -- the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map ... over the red lands and the gray lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys.” Steinbeck wrote: "Sixty-Six is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land … Sixty-Six is the mother road, the road of flight." VOICE TWO: In nineteen-forty-six, an American songwriter and his wife drove across the country to Los Angeles. Bobby Troup wrote a song about his trip on Route Sixty-Six. He wrote that people could have fun traveling on the road. The song said people could "get their kicks" on Route-Sixty-Six. When he arrived in Los Angeles, Bobby Troup took the song to Nat King Cole. Cole recorded the song. It became a huge hit. Here is Nat King Cole’s daughter, Natalie Cole, singing "Route Sixty-Six." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the nineteen-fifties, many American families began to explore the western part of the country during their holidays. They enjoyed travelling on Route Sixty-Six. In the nineteen-sixties, Americans watched a popular television show called "Route Sixty-Six." It was about two young men driving across the country. Route Sixty-Six represented the spirit of movement and excitement. The television show was filmed in cities and towns across America. Yet only a few shows were filmed on the real Route Sixty-Six. VOICE TWO: Also in the nineteen-sixties, the federal government began building huge road systems through a number of states. Cars and trucks could travel at very high speeds. People started driving on these new interstate highways instead of on Route Sixty-Six. In nineteen-sixty-two, parts of Route Sixty-Six were closed because they were in bad condition. Then in nineteen-eighty-five, Route Sixty-Six was officially removed from the national highway system. During the past few years, however, people living near the old Route Sixty-Six have formed organizations. They have succeeded in saving parts of the road. They also are saving hundreds of eating places, places to stay and interesting places to visit along the way. VOICE ONE: Michael Wallis is one of America’s top experts on Route Sixty-Six. He wrote a book called "Route Sixty-Six: The Mother Road." Mister Wallis has lived in seven of the eight states that Route Sixty-Six crosses. He and his wife Suzanne have led groups of visitors on two-week bus trips on Route Sixty-Six. Mister Wallis says there has been a huge increase in interest in Route Sixty-Six from Americans and people around the world. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now it is our turn to take a trip on Route Sixty-Six. We will have to search for it at times. Many parts of it have new names or numbers. Some parts of it are included in other interstate highways. Our trip begins in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is America’s third largest city. It has almost three-million people. From Chicago, the road goes southwest through many small towns in Illinois. One of them is Springfield, the home of America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. Now we drive through Saint Louis, Missouri, a city of more than three-hundred-thousand people. Saint Louis is called "the gateway to the West." Missouri has many natural wonders. One of the most famous on Route Sixty-Six is Meramec Caverns in Stanton. VOICE ONE: The next part of our drive takes us for a very short time through the state of Kansas. Then we enter the state of Oklahoma. Michael Wallis says Oklahoma remains the heart and soul of Route Sixty-Six. That is because there are more kilometers of the road in Oklahoma than in any other state. In Claremore, Oklahoma, a statue honors a famous American, Will Rogers. Will Rogers was born in Claremore. He became a popular actor, radio broadcaster and newspaper writer in the nineteen-twenties and thirties. We pass through many historic towns in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma City, we can visit the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. And in Clinton, we can see the Route Sixty-Six Museum. It is the first official museum that tells the complete history of the road and its importance to America. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we drive through the northern part of the state of Texas. The area is called the Texas panhandle. We stop near the town of Amarillo to look at an unusual kind of art that celebrates Route Sixty-Six. It is called Cadillac Ranch. A Cadillac is a large, costly American automobile. Cadillac Ranch has ten Cadillac cars half buried in the ground. Stanley Marsh, a rich farmer and art collector, created it to honor America’s roads. Continuing west, we travel through the states of New Mexico and Arizona. We pass through some of the most beautiful country in the Southwest. Petrified Forest National Park is one of the wonders of Arizona. Trees that are millions of years old have been turned to stone in unusual shapes. North of Route Sixty-Six is the Painted Desert. It is named for the colorful red and yellow sand and rocks. VOICE ONE: We continue on our trip driving on a winding road up and down the Black Mountains. We arrive at the town of Oatman, Arizona. Long ago, Oatman was a rich gold-mining town. But everyone left the town when the mining ended. Today Oatman still looks like it did in the past. Now we enter the state of California. We pass through the Mojave Desert, some mountains and several interesting towns. But Route Sixty-Six becomes lost among the large road systems of Los Angeles. This "main street of America" ends at the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. VOICE TWO: Jim Conkle is a historian of Route Sixty-Six. This week, he is beginning a trip on the historic road. He is leading a group of vehicles that will travel from Santa Monica to Chicago. The trip will last sixty-six days. Mister Conkle will place signs along Route Sixty-Six to point out interesting, unusual and historic places. The signs say “Roadside Attraction.” They will serve as a road map for future travelers who want to know where to stop to learn about the history of Route Sixty-Six. Mister Conkle’s goal is to raise concern about protecting America’s most famous road. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, This is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - April 28, 2003: Superadobe Homes
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A building designer in the United States has developed small, rounded homes called “superadobes." They are made from earth strengthened with cement and wire. The design of the homes is based on Iranian desert architecture. Nader Khalili was born in Iran. He used to design tall office buildings. He now has an organization in California known as the Cal-Earth Institute. Mister Khalili says five unskilled workers can build a two-person superadobe in less than one day. To begin, they mark a six-meter circle on the ground. Then they dig out the earth in the circle to a half-meter deep. The dirt must have some water in it. The moist earth is mixed with a small amount of loose cement and put into sandbags. Then the bags are placed around and around the inside edge of the hole, to a height of about three-and-a-half meters. Barbed wire placed between each level of the bags helps hold them in place. In time, the plastic sandbags will dissolve in the sun and disappear. Mister Khalili says wood can be used as a border for doors and windows during the building process. After the structure dries, though, the wood should be removed. A mixture of earth and grass spread outside and inside of the home help finish the structure. The inside can also be painted with a mixture of milk and linseed oil to reduce the smell of earth. A fireplace can be added for heat and cooking. Water and electric power can also be added. Mister Khalili says temperatures inside are usually a lot cooler than outside. Heat escapes through an opening in the top. Windows also help keep the structure cool. Tests have shown that the homes can be strong enough to survive earthquakes. But the superadobes have critics. Some say the design is old and that newer housing technologies may offer better solutions in developing countries. Critics also say that some of the designs may last only about three years. Nader Khalili says his homes can be built for less than two-hundred dollars anywhere in the world. He argues that they offer economical housing in emergency situations. United Nations officials say such homes could be used in refugee camps. Even the American space agency, NASA, has shown interest in superadobes -- for future colonies in space. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 29, 2003: SARS
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a special report about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the lung disease known as SARS. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In early February, an organism somehow crossed from mainland China to the busy island of Hong Kong. Silently it spread. Some people it spread to then traveled. They went to Hanoi, Singapore, Toronto and other places. The people got sick. Some of them died. So did some of the people who had been around them. Soon an international effort by scientists identified the cause. Yet the race to control this new disease is a striking story that continues to develop day by day. VOICE TWO: Doctors describe SARS as an usual form of pneumonia. Pneumonia is a general term. It is used for many different kinds of lung infections. SARS may cause several kinds of reactions. These include fever, diarrhea, a dry cough and difficulty breathing. It is caused by a newly discovered member of a family of viruses. Scientists discovered the cause faster than many thought possible. As of last week, the number of cases had gone above four-thousand, with more than two-hundred-fifty deaths. However, most of the cases by far were in mainland China and Hong Kong. Third came Singapore with one-hundred-eighty-nine cases as of April twenty-third. Canada was next with one-hundred-forty. There are diseases far more deadly, of course. Yet SARS has shown how quickly a viral infection can spread around the world, thanks to modern air transportation. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization has led the efforts to identify and control SARS. The W-H-O is part of the United Nations. The health agency has worked to find the starting points of the disease. It has also identified some people who seem to have an unusual ability to infect others. Such people have been called “supercarriers.” Supercarrier is not a scientific term. But "index case" is. An index case is the first person linked to an outbreak of infection. Medical investigators look for such people in each area where a disease appears. The W-H-O has identified several index cases in the outbreak of SARS. VOICE TWO: The outbreak started in Foshan City in Guangdong province on November sixteenth, two-thousand-two. The W-H-O and Chinese officials agree about that. At the time, no one knew what the sickness was. Chinese officials did not tell the W-H-O about the outbreak until February eleventh. The Chinese reported that three-hundred-five people had become infected with SARS in Guangdong province. They also reported that one-hundred of those people were health care workers. The Chinese officials said five people died. The W-H-O then looked at seven cases that had been reported in Hong Kong. Three of the people were from Singapore and two from Canada. Another was from mainland China and the seventh lived in Hong Kong. All seven had at least one thing in common. They had all stayed on the ninth floor of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong in the second half of February. Among them was Johnny Cheng, a Chinese-American businessman. Mister Cheng later traveled to Hanoi. He became sick and entered the French Hospital in the Vietnamese capital. He was so sick that the hospital decided to send him for treatment back in Hong Kong, where Mister Cheng died. VOICE ONE: The first doctor to recognize SARS was Carlo Urbani, an Italian based in Hanoi for the World Health Organization. Doctor Urbani had treated patients for an unusual form of pneumonia. One of the patients was Johnny Cheng. The businessman arrived at the French Hospital on February twenty-sixth. Within a short time, seven people who had cared for him also became sick. By March tenth, twenty-two workers in the French Hospital had SARS. On March twelfth, the W-H-O gave a worldwide warning about this unusual form of pneumonia. The outbreak had officially been recognized. Later, Carlo Urbani himself developed SARS. One month after he told the world about the disease, Doctor Urbani died at a hospital in Thailand. He was forty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On March twenty-third, a team from the W-H-O arrived in Beijing to discuss the situation with Chinese officials. At this point there were strong theories about the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but no confirmation. The next day brought news of a major development at the top public health laboratory in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, announced that SARS was caused by a new kind of coronavirus. Some members of the coronavirus family are among the many viruses that cause the common cold. Finding the cause of SARS was only the first task for eleven top laboratories around the world. Now scientists could begin work on a test to show if people are infected with the virus. VOICE ONE: By the beginning of April, it was clear that China had more cases of SARS than the world knew. On April second, the W-H-O announced that it would send a team immediately to Guangdong province, where SARS first appeared. On the same day, the organization warned that people should consider not traveling to Hong Kong or Guangdong. This was the first time the W-H-O had given a travel warning about a disease. Normally governments give such warnings. The World Health Organization has extended its travel advice. Last week the W-H-O urged people to postpone travel to Beijing and Shanxi Province in China and to Toronto, Canada. VOICE TWO: Also last week, Chinese leaders dismissed the country's health minister and the mayor of Beijing. The government was under increasing international pressure to tell more about the SARS outbreak. For example, information about patients at military hospitals had not been shared with the W-H-O. Health officials admitted that SARS had spread to several provinces. They said China had more than one-thousand cases not reported before. Chinese officials have closed schools in Beijing for at least two weeks, until May seventh or later, as part of the containment effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The race to identify the genes of the coronavirus that causes SARS went extremely fast. Canadian researchers had the new virus mapped by early April. On April fourteenth, the American Centers for Disease Control said its team had found some genetic markers not found by the Canadians. At about the same time, the Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, told the W-H-O that it had developed important parts for a SARS test. A German company would make the test itself. But the institute said it would offer the test to laboratories that cooperate with the W-H-O. Chinese scientists have done their own studies of the coronavirus genes. The scientists examined the virus in the blood of patients from the Guangdong and Beijing areas. They found the virus already changing -- viruses change to survive. But the scientists in China said more tests were needed to learn if it was getting more dangerous or less dangerous. VOICE TWO: Scientists have also been working to identify the ways that SARS is spread. They believe one major way is through fluids expelled from the nose and mouth when a person sneezes or coughs. American officials say the virus may even be spread by touching objects that have infectious material on them, and then touching your face. In Hong Kong, officials said leaking waste pipes may have helped spread the virus through an apartment building where three-hundred people got infected. Health officials say people who have been with family members or others who have traveled to infected areas should watch for signs of infection. These include a body temperature higher than thirty-eight degrees Celsius, pain or difficulty breathing. VOICE ONE: Scientists now know what it was that crossed from mainland China into Hong Kong sometime in February. But they also know that viral infections are much more difficult to treat than those caused by bacteria. Like any mystery, there is more to learn about SARS. However, health officials point out the good news so far. That is, most people who develop this new disease get better in about a week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a special report about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the lung disease known as SARS. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In early February, an organism somehow crossed from mainland China to the busy island of Hong Kong. Silently it spread. Some people it spread to then traveled. They went to Hanoi, Singapore, Toronto and other places. The people got sick. Some of them died. So did some of the people who had been around them. Soon an international effort by scientists identified the cause. Yet the race to control this new disease is a striking story that continues to develop day by day. VOICE TWO: Doctors describe SARS as an usual form of pneumonia. Pneumonia is a general term. It is used for many different kinds of lung infections. SARS may cause several kinds of reactions. These include fever, diarrhea, a dry cough and difficulty breathing. It is caused by a newly discovered member of a family of viruses. Scientists discovered the cause faster than many thought possible. As of last week, the number of cases had gone above four-thousand, with more than two-hundred-fifty deaths. However, most of the cases by far were in mainland China and Hong Kong. Third came Singapore with one-hundred-eighty-nine cases as of April twenty-third. Canada was next with one-hundred-forty. There are diseases far more deadly, of course. Yet SARS has shown how quickly a viral infection can spread around the world, thanks to modern air transportation. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization has led the efforts to identify and control SARS. The W-H-O is part of the United Nations. The health agency has worked to find the starting points of the disease. It has also identified some people who seem to have an unusual ability to infect others. Such people have been called “supercarriers.” Supercarrier is not a scientific term. But "index case" is. An index case is the first person linked to an outbreak of infection. Medical investigators look for such people in each area where a disease appears. The W-H-O has identified several index cases in the outbreak of SARS. VOICE TWO: The outbreak started in Foshan City in Guangdong province on November sixteenth, two-thousand-two. The W-H-O and Chinese officials agree about that. At the time, no one knew what the sickness was. Chinese officials did not tell the W-H-O about the outbreak until February eleventh. The Chinese reported that three-hundred-five people had become infected with SARS in Guangdong province. They also reported that one-hundred of those people were health care workers. The Chinese officials said five people died. The W-H-O then looked at seven cases that had been reported in Hong Kong. Three of the people were from Singapore and two from Canada. Another was from mainland China and the seventh lived in Hong Kong. All seven had at least one thing in common. They had all stayed on the ninth floor of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong in the second half of February. Among them was Johnny Cheng, a Chinese-American businessman. Mister Cheng later traveled to Hanoi. He became sick and entered the French Hospital in the Vietnamese capital. He was so sick that the hospital decided to send him for treatment back in Hong Kong, where Mister Cheng died. VOICE ONE: The first doctor to recognize SARS was Carlo Urbani, an Italian based in Hanoi for the World Health Organization. Doctor Urbani had treated patients for an unusual form of pneumonia. One of the patients was Johnny Cheng. The businessman arrived at the French Hospital on February twenty-sixth. Within a short time, seven people who had cared for him also became sick. By March tenth, twenty-two workers in the French Hospital had SARS. On March twelfth, the W-H-O gave a worldwide warning about this unusual form of pneumonia. The outbreak had officially been recognized. Later, Carlo Urbani himself developed SARS. One month after he told the world about the disease, Doctor Urbani died at a hospital in Thailand. He was forty-six years old. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On March twenty-third, a team from the W-H-O arrived in Beijing to discuss the situation with Chinese officials. At this point there were strong theories about the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but no confirmation. The next day brought news of a major development at the top public health laboratory in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, announced that SARS was caused by a new kind of coronavirus. Some members of the coronavirus family are among the many viruses that cause the common cold. Finding the cause of SARS was only the first task for eleven top laboratories around the world. Now scientists could begin work on a test to show if people are infected with the virus. VOICE ONE: By the beginning of April, it was clear that China had more cases of SARS than the world knew. On April second, the W-H-O announced that it would send a team immediately to Guangdong province, where SARS first appeared. On the same day, the organization warned that people should consider not traveling to Hong Kong or Guangdong. This was the first time the W-H-O had given a travel warning about a disease. Normally governments give such warnings. The World Health Organization has extended its travel advice. Last week the W-H-O urged people to postpone travel to Beijing and Shanxi Province in China and to Toronto, Canada. VOICE TWO: Also last week, Chinese leaders dismissed the country's health minister and the mayor of Beijing. The government was under increasing international pressure to tell more about the SARS outbreak. For example, information about patients at military hospitals had not been shared with the W-H-O. Health officials admitted that SARS had spread to several provinces. They said China had more than one-thousand cases not reported before. Chinese officials have closed schools in Beijing for at least two weeks, until May seventh or later, as part of the containment effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The race to identify the genes of the coronavirus that causes SARS went extremely fast. Canadian researchers had the new virus mapped by early April. On April fourteenth, the American Centers for Disease Control said its team had found some genetic markers not found by the Canadians. At about the same time, the Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, told the W-H-O that it had developed important parts for a SARS test. A German company would make the test itself. But the institute said it would offer the test to laboratories that cooperate with the W-H-O. Chinese scientists have done their own studies of the coronavirus genes. The scientists examined the virus in the blood of patients from the Guangdong and Beijing areas. They found the virus already changing -- viruses change to survive. But the scientists in China said more tests were needed to learn if it was getting more dangerous or less dangerous. VOICE TWO: Scientists have also been working to identify the ways that SARS is spread. They believe one major way is through fluids expelled from the nose and mouth when a person sneezes or coughs. American officials say the virus may even be spread by touching objects that have infectious material on them, and then touching your face. In Hong Kong, officials said leaking waste pipes may have helped spread the virus through an apartment building where three-hundred people got infected. Health officials say people who have been with family members or others who have traveled to infected areas should watch for signs of infection. These include a body temperature higher than thirty-eight degrees Celsius, pain or difficulty breathing. VOICE ONE: Scientists now know what it was that crossed from mainland China into Hong Kong sometime in February. But they also know that viral infections are much more difficult to treat than those caused by bacteria. Like any mystery, there is more to learn about SARS. However, health officials point out the good news so far. That is, most people who develop this new disease get better in about a week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - April 29, 2003: Treadle Pumps
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In many places, farms require a system to move water to fields where it is needed. For many small farms, a treadle [TRE-dul] pump may be the answer. A treadle pump uses leg power to force water up from the ground. Treadle is spelled T-R-E-A-D-L-E. Here is how it works. A treadle pump is designed kind of like the engine in a car. Pistons move up and down inside cylinders to create suction force. With a treadle, this force pulls water from one place and moves it to another. There are many different designs for a treadle pump. But all have two cylinders. These can be made from lengths of pipe. The surface of the sliding piece inside can be made of rubber or leather. A stick is attached to move the piece up and down. The piston must fit closely inside the pipe, but must also be able to move along its length. Two openings are cut into the bottom of each pipe. These openings control the force of each piston. Valves are placed in the openings. Valves are like doors that open only one way. When the piston goes up, one valve opens. The force of suction takes water into the pipe. When the piston moves down, it forces the water out of the pipe. The same force opens the other valve and carries water to where it is needed. The easiest design is to use two long pieces of wood to stand on to operate the pistons. The operator stands above the pump and pushes down on one piston with one foot while the other piston rises. This movement is much like walking. Treadle pumps can be made with common parts. Companies in many countries also sell them for prices between ten and twenty-five American dollars. These human-powered pumps can lift water several meters. They can pump water from underground supplies or lift water from rivers to higher ground. But treadle pumps do have limits. They cannot lift water from deep underground supplies. Also, treadle pumps lose about ten percent of their power for every kilometer above sea level. So they are not effective in high mountain areas. Still, for many small farms, treadle pumps can increase production with less effort. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says treadle pumps can help farmers improve crops and increase profits. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In many places, farms require a system to move water to fields where it is needed. For many small farms, a treadle [TRE-dul] pump may be the answer. A treadle pump uses leg power to force water up from the ground. Treadle is spelled T-R-E-A-D-L-E. Here is how it works. A treadle pump is designed kind of like the engine in a car. Pistons move up and down inside cylinders to create suction force. With a treadle, this force pulls water from one place and moves it to another. There are many different designs for a treadle pump. But all have two cylinders. These can be made from lengths of pipe. The surface of the sliding piece inside can be made of rubber or leather. A stick is attached to move the piece up and down. The piston must fit closely inside the pipe, but must also be able to move along its length. Two openings are cut into the bottom of each pipe. These openings control the force of each piston. Valves are placed in the openings. Valves are like doors that open only one way. When the piston goes up, one valve opens. The force of suction takes water into the pipe. When the piston moves down, it forces the water out of the pipe. The same force opens the other valve and carries water to where it is needed. The easiest design is to use two long pieces of wood to stand on to operate the pistons. The operator stands above the pump and pushes down on one piston with one foot while the other piston rises. This movement is much like walking. Treadle pumps can be made with common parts. Companies in many countries also sell them for prices between ten and twenty-five American dollars. These human-powered pumps can lift water several meters. They can pump water from underground supplies or lift water from rivers to higher ground. But treadle pumps do have limits. They cannot lift water from deep underground supplies. Also, treadle pumps lose about ten percent of their power for every kilometer above sea level. So they are not effective in high mountain areas. Still, for many small farms, treadle pumps can increase production with less effort. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says treadle pumps can help farmers improve crops and increase profits. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 30, 2003: Mysterious Creatures
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Many people in America’s Pacific Northwest believe in the existence of an animal that is half human and half ape. Other people have reportedly seen a huge creature in a famous lake in Scotland. Today we tell about these and several other mysterious creatures. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-eight a young man named Jerry Crew was on his way to work. Mister Crew worked for the Wallace Construction Company in Humboldt County, northern California. Mister Crew drove large construction equipment for the company. It had rained for the past several days and the area where the construction vehicles were kept was very wet and muddy. VOICE TWO: As Jerry Crew walked toward the vehicle he would drive that day, he saw something extremely unusual. What he saw frightened him. There, in the mud, were footprints -- footprints that were almost ten times larger than a normal human foot. Newspaper reporters found out about the huge footprints. They talked to Mister Crew and took pictures of the footprints. They published stories all over California. One newspaper story called the creature that made the prints “Bigfoot.” VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-seven a man named Roger Patterson used a small movie camera to take pictures of an ape-like creature moving from a clear area into a forest. Many people said this proved Bigfoot was real. The movie pictures showed a large ape-like creature walking on two large feet. Over the years, books and magazine stories were printed about Bigfoot using photographs from Mister Patterson’s film. Large groups of people spent their holiday time searching forests for Bigfoot. Many people worked long hours in an effort to prove that Bigfoot exists. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand-two a man named Ray Wallace died of heart failure. He was the man who owned the Wallace Construction Company where the mystery creature’s foot prints first appeared. Soon after Mister Wallace’s death, his family told reporters that Mister Wallace had invented Bigfoot. They told how he had made huge feet out of wood and tied them to his shoes. They said Ray Wallace left the footprints that Jerry Crew found. They said Ray Wallace had done this as a joke. The Wallace family said the joke became bigger and bigger. They said Ray Wallace just could not stop. He was having too much fun. For example, in nineteen-sixty-seven he dressed his wife in a monkey suit with large feet. Ray Wallace and Roger Patterson filmed her walking into the woods. That film became famous among people who really believed the creature existed. VOICE ONE: Our story about Ray Wallace and his joke should end here. But the Bigfoot story has not died with Ray Wallace. Many people say the Wallace family is lying. They say Ray Wallace never made the footprints. They say there really is a Bigfoot creature. They say someday someone will find the creature. These people plan to continue their search for Bigfoot. Several organizations of people are still searching for the creature. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can find many stories about Bigfoot. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People have always been afraid of large areas of water, sometimes with good reason. Crocodiles and alligators have attacked people in rivers and lakes. That still happens in several areas of the world. But many people in many different countries tell of other huge creatures that live in deep lakes. In the United States, some people say a creature called Champ is living in Lake Champlain, in New York state. These beliefs are not new. More than two-hundred years ago reports began about a creature named Selma seen in a lake in Norway. Other reports are very recent. In nineteen-ninety-seven someone took video pictures of some kind of creature in Lake Van in eastern Turkey. But the most famous creature that reportedly lives in a very deep lake is the Loch Ness Monster, called Nessie. Many people believe Nessie lives in Loch Ness in the highlands of Scotland. Loch Ness is the largest freshwater lake in Britain. It is about thirty-seven kilometers long and about two kilometers wide. Special equipment shows it is as much as two-hundred-fifty meters deep. The first written record of Nessie appeared in the year five-hundred-sixty-five. A Catholic religious leader named Saint Columba reportedly made the creature disappear after it threatened several people. VOICE ONE: Few people visited the Loch Ness area until the nineteen-thirties. In nineteen-thirty-three a man and woman claimed to have seen a huge animal in the water. It looked like nothing they had ever seen before. In nineteen-thirty-four Robert Wilson took a photograph of an unusual looking animal he said he saw in Loch Ness. The photograph and a story were printed in the London Daily Mail newspaper. That photograph provided the best evidence of the creature for the next sixty years. It showed an animal with a long neck sticking out of the water. It looked like some kind of ancient dinosaur.Doctor Wilson’s photograph can be seen in books, magazine stories and on many Internet Web sites about the famous Loch Ness Monster. Over the years, scientists have investigated Loch Ness. They have used special equipment to search the deep lake. These include special underwater cameras and sound equipment. Nothing of great importance has ever been found. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-three a man named Christian Spurling admitted that he made the monster in the famous photograph. Mister Spurling said this as he was dying. He said it began as a joke with his brother and father. His brother really took the famous photograph. Then they asked Robert Wilson to take the photograph to the newspapers. The Loch Ness Monster became extremely famous after the photograph was printed. Thousands of people came to Loch Ness each year in hopes that they too would see the famous creature. Each year about one-hundred-thirty people report that they have seen Nessie or at least something unusual in the lake. Loch Ness has hotels, museums, and boat trips that provide holidays for people hoping to see the Loch Ness Monster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people believe in the truth of the stories about Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster and other creatures. Research scientists say that it is not good science to dismiss all claims of unusual animals. For example, many scientists dismissed reports of an animal we now know as the gorilla until scientists studied one in eighteen-forty-seven. In nineteen-twelve reports of a huge, fierce, meat-eating lizard were confirmed. Today we know this to be the famous Komodo dragon that lives on a few islands of Indonesia. It is the largest lizard in the world. In nineteen-thirty-eight fishermen caught a strange- looking fish. Scientists recognized it as a fish they had only seen as a fossil. They thought the fish had disappeared from the Earth millions of years ago. The fish is called a coelacanth (SEE-la-canth). Coelacanths are unusual but they are still very much alive. VOICE TWO: Scientists say reports from people who claim to have seen unusual creatures are interesting. Photographs reportedly taken of such creatures are also interesting. However reports and photographs are not scientific evidence. Researchers say some claims have led to real scientific research. However, no one has found the body of Bigfoot or Nessie or the many other creatures reported by people around the world. Scientists must have a live animal or the body of such a creature to prove that animals like Nessie or Bigfoot really exist. Even the bones would be valuable evidence to study. Scientists must take detailed photographs. They must study the blood, hair, teeth, and genetic material of the animal. VOICE ONE: So we have no scientific news to report about any of the mysterious creatures that live on land or in deep lakes. If we do find good scientific information about these creatures we will report it. Until then, visiting the northwestern part of the United States or Scotland’s Loch Ness is still a great holiday -- even if you do not see anything unusual. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Many people in America’s Pacific Northwest believe in the existence of an animal that is half human and half ape. Other people have reportedly seen a huge creature in a famous lake in Scotland. Today we tell about these and several other mysterious creatures. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-eight a young man named Jerry Crew was on his way to work. Mister Crew worked for the Wallace Construction Company in Humboldt County, northern California. Mister Crew drove large construction equipment for the company. It had rained for the past several days and the area where the construction vehicles were kept was very wet and muddy. VOICE TWO: As Jerry Crew walked toward the vehicle he would drive that day, he saw something extremely unusual. What he saw frightened him. There, in the mud, were footprints -- footprints that were almost ten times larger than a normal human foot. Newspaper reporters found out about the huge footprints. They talked to Mister Crew and took pictures of the footprints. They published stories all over California. One newspaper story called the creature that made the prints “Bigfoot.” VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-seven a man named Roger Patterson used a small movie camera to take pictures of an ape-like creature moving from a clear area into a forest. Many people said this proved Bigfoot was real. The movie pictures showed a large ape-like creature walking on two large feet. Over the years, books and magazine stories were printed about Bigfoot using photographs from Mister Patterson’s film. Large groups of people spent their holiday time searching forests for Bigfoot. Many people worked long hours in an effort to prove that Bigfoot exists. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand-two a man named Ray Wallace died of heart failure. He was the man who owned the Wallace Construction Company where the mystery creature’s foot prints first appeared. Soon after Mister Wallace’s death, his family told reporters that Mister Wallace had invented Bigfoot. They told how he had made huge feet out of wood and tied them to his shoes. They said Ray Wallace left the footprints that Jerry Crew found. They said Ray Wallace had done this as a joke. The Wallace family said the joke became bigger and bigger. They said Ray Wallace just could not stop. He was having too much fun. For example, in nineteen-sixty-seven he dressed his wife in a monkey suit with large feet. Ray Wallace and Roger Patterson filmed her walking into the woods. That film became famous among people who really believed the creature existed. VOICE ONE: Our story about Ray Wallace and his joke should end here. But the Bigfoot story has not died with Ray Wallace. Many people say the Wallace family is lying. They say Ray Wallace never made the footprints. They say there really is a Bigfoot creature. They say someday someone will find the creature. These people plan to continue their search for Bigfoot. Several organizations of people are still searching for the creature. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can find many stories about Bigfoot. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People have always been afraid of large areas of water, sometimes with good reason. Crocodiles and alligators have attacked people in rivers and lakes. That still happens in several areas of the world. But many people in many different countries tell of other huge creatures that live in deep lakes. In the United States, some people say a creature called Champ is living in Lake Champlain, in New York state. These beliefs are not new. More than two-hundred years ago reports began about a creature named Selma seen in a lake in Norway. Other reports are very recent. In nineteen-ninety-seven someone took video pictures of some kind of creature in Lake Van in eastern Turkey. But the most famous creature that reportedly lives in a very deep lake is the Loch Ness Monster, called Nessie. Many people believe Nessie lives in Loch Ness in the highlands of Scotland. Loch Ness is the largest freshwater lake in Britain. It is about thirty-seven kilometers long and about two kilometers wide. Special equipment shows it is as much as two-hundred-fifty meters deep. The first written record of Nessie appeared in the year five-hundred-sixty-five. A Catholic religious leader named Saint Columba reportedly made the creature disappear after it threatened several people. VOICE ONE: Few people visited the Loch Ness area until the nineteen-thirties. In nineteen-thirty-three a man and woman claimed to have seen a huge animal in the water. It looked like nothing they had ever seen before. In nineteen-thirty-four Robert Wilson took a photograph of an unusual looking animal he said he saw in Loch Ness. The photograph and a story were printed in the London Daily Mail newspaper. That photograph provided the best evidence of the creature for the next sixty years. It showed an animal with a long neck sticking out of the water. It looked like some kind of ancient dinosaur.Doctor Wilson’s photograph can be seen in books, magazine stories and on many Internet Web sites about the famous Loch Ness Monster. Over the years, scientists have investigated Loch Ness. They have used special equipment to search the deep lake. These include special underwater cameras and sound equipment. Nothing of great importance has ever been found. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-three a man named Christian Spurling admitted that he made the monster in the famous photograph. Mister Spurling said this as he was dying. He said it began as a joke with his brother and father. His brother really took the famous photograph. Then they asked Robert Wilson to take the photograph to the newspapers. The Loch Ness Monster became extremely famous after the photograph was printed. Thousands of people came to Loch Ness each year in hopes that they too would see the famous creature. Each year about one-hundred-thirty people report that they have seen Nessie or at least something unusual in the lake. Loch Ness has hotels, museums, and boat trips that provide holidays for people hoping to see the Loch Ness Monster. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people believe in the truth of the stories about Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster and other creatures. Research scientists say that it is not good science to dismiss all claims of unusual animals. For example, many scientists dismissed reports of an animal we now know as the gorilla until scientists studied one in eighteen-forty-seven. In nineteen-twelve reports of a huge, fierce, meat-eating lizard were confirmed. Today we know this to be the famous Komodo dragon that lives on a few islands of Indonesia. It is the largest lizard in the world. In nineteen-thirty-eight fishermen caught a strange- looking fish. Scientists recognized it as a fish they had only seen as a fossil. They thought the fish had disappeared from the Earth millions of years ago. The fish is called a coelacanth (SEE-la-canth). Coelacanths are unusual but they are still very much alive. VOICE TWO: Scientists say reports from people who claim to have seen unusual creatures are interesting. Photographs reportedly taken of such creatures are also interesting. However reports and photographs are not scientific evidence. Researchers say some claims have led to real scientific research. However, no one has found the body of Bigfoot or Nessie or the many other creatures reported by people around the world. Scientists must have a live animal or the body of such a creature to prove that animals like Nessie or Bigfoot really exist. Even the bones would be valuable evidence to study. Scientists must take detailed photographs. They must study the blood, hair, teeth, and genetic material of the animal. VOICE ONE: So we have no scientific news to report about any of the mysterious creatures that live on land or in deep lakes. If we do find good scientific information about these creatures we will report it. Until then, visiting the northwestern part of the United States or Scotland’s Loch Ness is still a great holiday -- even if you do not see anything unusual. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - April 30, 2003: Tea May Help Fight Infection
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say drinking tea may help strengthen the body’s defense system against infection. Doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, did the study. The team studied a chemical found in black, green, oolong and pekoe tea. This chemical is an amino acid called L-theanine. The scientists say it may increase the strength of gamma delta T cells. That's the letter T, not the drink. Gamma delta T cells are part of the body’s defenses. First, the researchers mixed some of these cells with antigens found in the amino acid. Antigens help the body react to infection. Then the scientists added some bacteria. Within twenty-four hours, the cells produced a lot of interferon, a substance that fights infection. Cells not mixed with the antigens did not produce interferon. In the second part of the study, eleven people drank five to six cups of black tea every day. Ten other people drank the same amount of instant coffee. That is dried coffee mixed with hot water. Two weeks later, and again two weeks after that, the researchers tested the blood of all twenty-one people. They also looked at what happened when they added bacteria to the blood cells. They found that the tea drinkers produced five times more interferon after they started drinking tea. The coffee drinkers did not produce interferon. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Institutes of Health and the Arthritis Foundation provided money for the research. Doctor Jack Bukowski led the study. He says the antigens added to the gamma delta T cells were responsible for the increased reaction to the bacteria. He says the study also showed that the cells were able to remember the bacteria and fight them again the next time. Earlier research already has found that tea can help prevent heart disease and cancer. Doctor Bukowski says the new study must be repeated with more people. If the findings are confirmed, he says, then tea drinking might also help protect against bacterial infections. He says the amino acid L-theanine could be removed from tea and used as a drug to strengthen the body's defenses. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say drinking tea may help strengthen the body’s defense system against infection. Doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, did the study. The team studied a chemical found in black, green, oolong and pekoe tea. This chemical is an amino acid called L-theanine. The scientists say it may increase the strength of gamma delta T cells. That's the letter T, not the drink. Gamma delta T cells are part of the body’s defenses. First, the researchers mixed some of these cells with antigens found in the amino acid. Antigens help the body react to infection. Then the scientists added some bacteria. Within twenty-four hours, the cells produced a lot of interferon, a substance that fights infection. Cells not mixed with the antigens did not produce interferon. In the second part of the study, eleven people drank five to six cups of black tea every day. Ten other people drank the same amount of instant coffee. That is dried coffee mixed with hot water. Two weeks later, and again two weeks after that, the researchers tested the blood of all twenty-one people. They also looked at what happened when they added bacteria to the blood cells. They found that the tea drinkers produced five times more interferon after they started drinking tea. The coffee drinkers did not produce interferon. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Institutes of Health and the Arthritis Foundation provided money for the research. Doctor Jack Bukowski led the study. He says the antigens added to the gamma delta T cells were responsible for the increased reaction to the bacteria. He says the study also showed that the cells were able to remember the bacteria and fight them again the next time. Earlier research already has found that tea can help prevent heart disease and cancer. Doctor Bukowski says the new study must be repeated with more people. If the findings are confirmed, he says, then tea drinking might also help protect against bacterial infections. He says the amino acid L-theanine could be removed from tea and used as a drug to strengthen the body's defenses. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - May 1, 2003: SARS and Overseas Study
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 1, 2003 (In the May 1 script, the Council on International Educational Exchange was misidentified as another organization, the Institute of International Education. A corrected version follows.) This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In recent years, more and more students from the United States have attended programs in other countries during college. More than one-hundred-fifty-thousand students were overseas in two-thousand-one. After the September eleventh attacks, there were fears of terrorism. The war in Iraq added to concerns about travel. Now comes the new lung infection SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. A number of American colleges and universities have asked students to return home from affected areas. China is the nation hardest hit by the disease. Some schools are not sure what to advise. They worry that students may become infected on airplanes if they fly home. Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, was among the first schools to ask students to come home. Most returned to the United States in early April. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is another school that wanted students to return. Some schools have already changed plans for the coming summer and fall because of SARS. The Council on International Educational Exchange in New York City organizes programs for students from many colleges and universities. It closed its program in Beijing. Institute officials said at least one teacher at the university where the program operates had SARS. Another organization, the Institute of International Education, still has students in China and Hong Kong. Yet another organization, the American Councils for International Education, sends students to countries of the former Soviet Union. This organization is based in Washington. It says SARS has not damaged its programs. One of its directors, Carl Herrin, calls SARS "a local issue” that affects students mostly where the disease exists. Mister Herrin also says he expects no permanent damage to foreign study programs as a result of September eleventh. The Institute of International Education agrees. It did a study last year. The group found that just as many American students -- or more -- wanted to go overseas after the attacks as before. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: May 1, 2003 (In the May 1 script, the Council on International Educational Exchange was misidentified as another organization, the Institute of International Education. A corrected version follows.) This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In recent years, more and more students from the United States have attended programs in other countries during college. More than one-hundred-fifty-thousand students were overseas in two-thousand-one. After the September eleventh attacks, there were fears of terrorism. The war in Iraq added to concerns about travel. Now comes the new lung infection SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. A number of American colleges and universities have asked students to return home from affected areas. China is the nation hardest hit by the disease. Some schools are not sure what to advise. They worry that students may become infected on airplanes if they fly home. Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, was among the first schools to ask students to come home. Most returned to the United States in early April. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is another school that wanted students to return. Some schools have already changed plans for the coming summer and fall because of SARS. The Council on International Educational Exchange in New York City organizes programs for students from many colleges and universities. It closed its program in Beijing. Institute officials said at least one teacher at the university where the program operates had SARS. Another organization, the Institute of International Education, still has students in China and Hong Kong. Yet another organization, the American Councils for International Education, sends students to countries of the former Soviet Union. This organization is based in Washington. It says SARS has not damaged its programs. One of its directors, Carl Herrin, calls SARS "a local issue” that affects students mostly where the disease exists. Mister Herrin also says he expects no permanent damage to foreign study programs as a result of September eleventh. The Institute of International Education agrees. It did a study last year. The group found that just as many American students -- or more -- wanted to go overseas after the attacks as before. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-04/a-2003-04-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 1, 2003: French and Indian War
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the conflicts among the nations in Europe during the eighteenth century and how they affected North America. VOICE ONE: During the Eighteenth Century, Spain, France and Britain controlled land in North America. Spain controlled Florida. France was powerful in the northern and central areas. Britain controlled the east. All three nations knew they could not exist together peacefully in North America. The situation could only be settled by war. The powerful European nations already were fighting each other for land and money all over the world. These small wars continued for more than one-hundred years. They were called King William's War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War and the French and Indian War. VOICE TWO: The French and Indian War was fought to decide if Britain or France would be the strong power in North America. France and its colonists and Indian allies fought against Britain, its colonists and Indian allies. The war began with conflicts about land. French explorers had been the first Europeans in the areas around the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. France had sent traders and trappers to these territories and had established trading centers there. Britain claimed the same land. When the king gave land in North America to someone, the land was considered to extend from east coast to west coast, even though no one knew where the west coast was. The land along the east coast had become crowded, and settlers were moving west. White people were destroying the Indians' hunting areas. And Indians became worried that they would lose the use of their land. VOICE ONE: The Indian tribes may have been able to resist the people moving west if they had been united. But their own conflicts kept the Indian groups apart. When Britain and France started fighting each other, some Indians helped the British. Others helped the French. The French settlers lived mainly in what was called New France. Today it is part of Canada. Life there was different from life in the British colonies to the south. There was no religious freedom, for example. All settlers in French territories had to be French and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. So, many French people who belonged to Protestant churches settled in the British colonies. France also did not like the fact that the British paid the Indians high prices for animal furs. France was more interested in the fur trade than in settling the land. The British hurt the French traders' business when they bought fur from the Indians. VOICE TWO: One of the French trading forts was built in the area where the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is today. The French called it Fort Duquesne (Doo-kane). The British claimed it was in Virginia and that the land belonged to them. In Seventeen-Fifty-Four, the governor of Virginia sent a twenty-one-year-old colonist named George Washington to tell the French to get out. This was the same George Washington who would later become the first President of the United States. The French refused to leave Fort Duquesne. So Washington and one-hundred-fifty men tried to force them out. They attacked a group of Fenchmen and killed ten of them. The French and Indian War had begun. VOICE ONE: British troops under the command of General Edward Braddock joined George Washington at Fort Duquesne. The British general expected to fight the way battles were fought in Europe. There, troops lined up on open fields and fired their weapons as they marched toward each other. The French and Indians did not fight this way. They hid in the woods. They wore clothes that made them difficult to see. They shot at the British from behind trees. The British had more troops than the other side. But the French and Indians won the battle of Fort Duquesne. General Braddock was killed. VOICE TWO: Most of the French and Indian War was fought along two lakes in an area of New York state near the border with Canada. One was Lake George. The other, Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain north of Lake George. It reaches almost all the way to the city of Montreal in Canada. These lakes provided the best way to move troops and supplies during the French and Indian war. Few roads existed in North America at that time. The military force which controlled the lakes and rivers controlled much of North America. VOICE ONE: The French had military bases in the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The British had military bases along New York's Hudson River. The area between them became the great battle ground. Fighting increased after the British defeated the French near Lake George in the last months of Seventeen-Fifty-Five. The French then built a new military base to control Lake Champlain and the surrounding area. The French military base was at the southern end of Lake Champlain. They built a strong camp, the kind called a fort. hey called it Fort Carillon [car-ee-own]. The fort would control Lake Champlain and the area needed to reach the northern part of Lake George. The fort was designed to provide a strong defense against attack. The French built two big walls of logs, several meters apart. The area between the walls was filled with dirt. Later, a strong stone front was added. Troops inside the walls were well protected. The British built a similar fort at the southern end of Lake George. They called it Fort William Henry. VOICE TWO: France sent one of its best military commanders to take command of its troops in America. His name was the Marquis de Montcalm. General Montcalm attacked several British forts in Seventeen-Fifty-Seven. One of these was Fort William Henry on Lake George. The British commander was forced to surrender. General Montcalm promised that the British troops would be treated fairly if they surrendered. But the Indian allies of the French did not honor the surrender agreement. They began to kill British soldiers and settlers. No one is sure how many people died. It could have been more than one-thousand. VOICE ONE: In Seventeen Fifty-Eight, a strong British force attacked Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain. General Montcalm was the French commander. Fort Carillon was strong enough that the smaller French force was able to defeat the bigger British force. The British withdrew, but attacked again the next year. This time the British commander was General Jeffery Amhurst. Amhurst was successful. The British defeated the French. They changed the name of Fort Carillon to Fort Ticonderoga. It became an important military center in the French and Indian War. Fort Ticonderoga would also become important later, during America's war for independence . VOICE TWO: The French and Indian war ended after the British defeated the French in Quebec. Britain and France signed a treaty ending the war in Paris in Seventeen Sixty-Three. The British had won the French and Indian War. They took control of the lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now claimed all the land from the east coast of North America to the Mississippi River. Everything west of that river belonged to Spain. France gave all its western lands to Spain to keep the British out. Indians still controlled most of the western lands, except for some Spanish colonies in Texas and New Mexico. VOICE TWO: Today, you can still visit the two forts htat were so important in the French and Indian War. Little of the orginial buildings have survived. However, both have been re-built using the original designs. The area surrounding both forts is very beautiful, including the two lakes, Lake George and Lake Champlain. Many people spend their holidays in this area enjoying the outdoors. The area includes one of America's national historical parks, Saratoga. It also inludes the Lake George Beach State Park. Few people who visit the area stop to remember the terrible fighting that took place there two-hundred fifty years ago. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the conflicts among the nations in Europe during the eighteenth century and how they affected North America. VOICE ONE: During the Eighteenth Century, Spain, France and Britain controlled land in North America. Spain controlled Florida. France was powerful in the northern and central areas. Britain controlled the east. All three nations knew they could not exist together peacefully in North America. The situation could only be settled by war. The powerful European nations already were fighting each other for land and money all over the world. These small wars continued for more than one-hundred years. They were called King William's War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War and the French and Indian War. VOICE TWO: The French and Indian War was fought to decide if Britain or France would be the strong power in North America. France and its colonists and Indian allies fought against Britain, its colonists and Indian allies. The war began with conflicts about land. French explorers had been the first Europeans in the areas around the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. France had sent traders and trappers to these territories and had established trading centers there. Britain claimed the same land. When the king gave land in North America to someone, the land was considered to extend from east coast to west coast, even though no one knew where the west coast was. The land along the east coast had become crowded, and settlers were moving west. White people were destroying the Indians' hunting areas. And Indians became worried that they would lose the use of their land. VOICE ONE: The Indian tribes may have been able to resist the people moving west if they had been united. But their own conflicts kept the Indian groups apart. When Britain and France started fighting each other, some Indians helped the British. Others helped the French. The French settlers lived mainly in what was called New France. Today it is part of Canada. Life there was different from life in the British colonies to the south. There was no religious freedom, for example. All settlers in French territories had to be French and belong to the Roman Catholic Church. So, many French people who belonged to Protestant churches settled in the British colonies. France also did not like the fact that the British paid the Indians high prices for animal furs. France was more interested in the fur trade than in settling the land. The British hurt the French traders' business when they bought fur from the Indians. VOICE TWO: One of the French trading forts was built in the area where the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is today. The French called it Fort Duquesne (Doo-kane). The British claimed it was in Virginia and that the land belonged to them. In Seventeen-Fifty-Four, the governor of Virginia sent a twenty-one-year-old colonist named George Washington to tell the French to get out. This was the same George Washington who would later become the first President of the United States. The French refused to leave Fort Duquesne. So Washington and one-hundred-fifty men tried to force them out. They attacked a group of Fenchmen and killed ten of them. The French and Indian War had begun. VOICE ONE: British troops under the command of General Edward Braddock joined George Washington at Fort Duquesne. The British general expected to fight the way battles were fought in Europe. There, troops lined up on open fields and fired their weapons as they marched toward each other. The French and Indians did not fight this way. They hid in the woods. They wore clothes that made them difficult to see. They shot at the British from behind trees. The British had more troops than the other side. But the French and Indians won the battle of Fort Duquesne. General Braddock was killed. VOICE TWO: Most of the French and Indian War was fought along two lakes in an area of New York state near the border with Canada. One was Lake George. The other, Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain north of Lake George. It reaches almost all the way to the city of Montreal in Canada. These lakes provided the best way to move troops and supplies during the French and Indian war. Few roads existed in North America at that time. The military force which controlled the lakes and rivers controlled much of North America. VOICE ONE: The French had military bases in the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The British had military bases along New York's Hudson River. The area between them became the great battle ground. Fighting increased after the British defeated the French near Lake George in the last months of Seventeen-Fifty-Five. The French then built a new military base to control Lake Champlain and the surrounding area. The French military base was at the southern end of Lake Champlain. They built a strong camp, the kind called a fort. hey called it Fort Carillon [car-ee-own]. The fort would control Lake Champlain and the area needed to reach the northern part of Lake George. The fort was designed to provide a strong defense against attack. The French built two big walls of logs, several meters apart. The area between the walls was filled with dirt. Later, a strong stone front was added. Troops inside the walls were well protected. The British built a similar fort at the southern end of Lake George. They called it Fort William Henry. VOICE TWO: France sent one of its best military commanders to take command of its troops in America. His name was the Marquis de Montcalm. General Montcalm attacked several British forts in Seventeen-Fifty-Seven. One of these was Fort William Henry on Lake George. The British commander was forced to surrender. General Montcalm promised that the British troops would be treated fairly if they surrendered. But the Indian allies of the French did not honor the surrender agreement. They began to kill British soldiers and settlers. No one is sure how many people died. It could have been more than one-thousand. VOICE ONE: In Seventeen Fifty-Eight, a strong British force attacked Fort Carillon on Lake Champlain. General Montcalm was the French commander. Fort Carillon was strong enough that the smaller French force was able to defeat the bigger British force. The British withdrew, but attacked again the next year. This time the British commander was General Jeffery Amhurst. Amhurst was successful. The British defeated the French. They changed the name of Fort Carillon to Fort Ticonderoga. It became an important military center in the French and Indian War. Fort Ticonderoga would also become important later, during America's war for independence . VOICE TWO: The French and Indian war ended after the British defeated the French in Quebec. Britain and France signed a treaty ending the war in Paris in Seventeen Sixty-Three. The British had won the French and Indian War. They took control of the lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now claimed all the land from the east coast of North America to the Mississippi River. Everything west of that river belonged to Spain. France gave all its western lands to Spain to keep the British out. Indians still controlled most of the western lands, except for some Spanish colonies in Texas and New Mexico. VOICE TWO: Today, you can still visit the two forts htat were so important in the French and Indian War. Little of the orginial buildings have survived. However, both have been re-built using the original designs. The area surrounding both forts is very beautiful, including the two lakes, Lake George and Lake Champlain. Many people spend their holidays in this area enjoying the outdoors. The area includes one of America's national historical parks, Saratoga. It also inludes the Lake George Beach State Park. Few people who visit the area stop to remember the terrible fighting that took place there two-hundred fifty years ago. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 2, 2003: Music in Memory of Nina Simone / Michael Jordan Retires Again / Question About Taxes in America
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (Photo by Javier Collados, April 2003) (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about American taxes ... Play music in memory of singer and pianist Nina Simone ... And report about the retirement of a world famous American athlete. Michael Jordan Retires Again HOST: Ten years ago, Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls. At the time, he said he might consider returning to basketball one day. Michael Jordan did return to the game -- not once, but twice. Last month, he retired for the third time. Shep O-Neal reports. ANNCR: Michael Jordan is widely considered basketball’s best player ever. He became known as Air Jordan. He seemed to fly through the air with the ball. He also gained wide notice by helping to sell products. Businesses paid him tens of millions of dollars. Michael Jordan attended the University of North Carolina. He joined the Chicago Bulls in nineteen-eighty-four. He led the Bulls to six world championships during his thirteen years with the team. Michael Jordan first retired from the Bulls in nineteen-ninety-three. He played baseball for a short time, but returned to the team in nineteen-ninety-four. He retired again five years later. He said it was time to do something else. But he could not end his relationship with basketball. Michael Jordan became president of operations for the Washington Wizards, the team in the nation's capital. But the Wizards were not a very good team. So Michael Jordan decided to help by playing again. His involvement as a player brought more people to watch the games. But the Wizards did not reach the playoffs in the two years that Michael Jordan played with them. He plans to continue as president of basketball operations for the Wizards. He says his experience playing with the team will help him in that job. For example, he is in a better position to decide who should play on the team in the future. Michael Jordan is forty years old now. He says it was fun to be around the young players. He says playing again helped him understand how the game has changed. Taxation in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Mike Li asks about taxes paid by Americans and by those who are not citizens. People who live in the United States but are not citizens pay taxes only on the money they earn in this country. How much they pay depends on how they earn that money. It also depends on any tax treaty between the United States and the person's home country. Non-citizens also have to pay sales tax on goods they purchase, just like most Americans do. American citizens pay other kinds of taxes, too, such as those taken by the state where they live. At the city and county level, they usually pay tax on property they own. The federal government also taxes some property and money left when someone dies. And it taxes earnings on the sale of a house and other investments. Americans pay a social security tax that is used to pay retired workers. They also must pay federal income tax on the money they earn. Americans usually have to report their income and pay their tax by April fifteenth. The federal tax agency is known as the I-R-S -- the Internal Revenue Service. But most American workers do not wait until April fifteenth to pay all their taxes. This is because part of the tax is taken out for the I-R-S each time a worker is paid. If more is withheld than a person owes come April fifteenth, then the government gives the extra money back. The federal income tax rate is not the same for everyone. People who earn a lot of money pay taxes at a higher rate than those who earn little. Those who earn very little do not pay any tax. But even people who earn the same amount of money do not always pay the same tax. This is because of the many different tax laws. The government uses these laws for economic and social purposes. For example, people who borrow money to buy a house often pay less tax than people who rent a home. Homeowners subtract the interest they pay on their loan from their taxable income. Yet critics say America's tax laws are much too complex. Also, many Americans agree with President Bush who says taxes are too high. Others, however, argue that tax cuts are not a good idea at a time of a weak economy and the war in Iraq to pay for. Nina Simone (MUSIC) HOST: Singer and pianist Nina Simone combined spiritual, jazz and protest songs. She died last week at her home in France at the age of seventy. Steve Ember tells us about her. ANNCR: Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon, one of eight children of an African American family in North Carolina. She began to play piano at three years old. Her parents were poor. So a white woman her mother worked for paid for her early music lessons. In the early nineteen-fifties, she studied classical piano at the Juilliard School in New York. Later she found work at drinking places. One bar owner told her he wanted a singer, not a pianist. So she began singing while she played. She changed her name to Nina Simone to hide what she was doing from her parents. One of the songs she often played was “Love Me Or Leave Me.” (MUSIC) Her first big success came in nineteen-fifty nine, when she recorded, “I Loves You, Porgy," from George Gershwin’s musical, “Porgy and Bess.” (MUSIC) In the nineteen-sixties, she began to write protest songs during the rise of the civil rights movement. Later, she recorded songs in just about every style and performed with symphony orchestras. Nina Simone left the United States in nineteen-seventy-three. She said she was angry about the treatment of blacks in America. And she said Europeans gave her more respect. She lived in the Caribbean and Africa before settling in Europe. In recent years, her songs have become popular again. One of her most remembered hits is “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about American taxes ... Play music in memory of singer and pianist Nina Simone ... And report about the retirement of a world famous American athlete. Michael Jordan Retires Again HOST: Ten years ago, Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls. At the time, he said he might consider returning to basketball one day. Michael Jordan did return to the game -- not once, but twice. Last month, he retired for the third time. Shep O-Neal reports. ANNCR: Michael Jordan is widely considered basketball’s best player ever. He became known as Air Jordan. He seemed to fly through the air with the ball. He also gained wide notice by helping to sell products. Businesses paid him tens of millions of dollars. Michael Jordan attended the University of North Carolina. He joined the Chicago Bulls in nineteen-eighty-four. He led the Bulls to six world championships during his thirteen years with the team. Michael Jordan first retired from the Bulls in nineteen-ninety-three. He played baseball for a short time, but returned to the team in nineteen-ninety-four. He retired again five years later. He said it was time to do something else. But he could not end his relationship with basketball. Michael Jordan became president of operations for the Washington Wizards, the team in the nation's capital. But the Wizards were not a very good team. So Michael Jordan decided to help by playing again. His involvement as a player brought more people to watch the games. But the Wizards did not reach the playoffs in the two years that Michael Jordan played with them. He plans to continue as president of basketball operations for the Wizards. He says his experience playing with the team will help him in that job. For example, he is in a better position to decide who should play on the team in the future. Michael Jordan is forty years old now. He says it was fun to be around the young players. He says playing again helped him understand how the game has changed. Taxation in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Mike Li asks about taxes paid by Americans and by those who are not citizens. People who live in the United States but are not citizens pay taxes only on the money they earn in this country. How much they pay depends on how they earn that money. It also depends on any tax treaty between the United States and the person's home country. Non-citizens also have to pay sales tax on goods they purchase, just like most Americans do. American citizens pay other kinds of taxes, too, such as those taken by the state where they live. At the city and county level, they usually pay tax on property they own. The federal government also taxes some property and money left when someone dies. And it taxes earnings on the sale of a house and other investments. Americans pay a social security tax that is used to pay retired workers. They also must pay federal income tax on the money they earn. Americans usually have to report their income and pay their tax by April fifteenth. The federal tax agency is known as the I-R-S -- the Internal Revenue Service. But most American workers do not wait until April fifteenth to pay all their taxes. This is because part of the tax is taken out for the I-R-S each time a worker is paid. If more is withheld than a person owes come April fifteenth, then the government gives the extra money back. The federal income tax rate is not the same for everyone. People who earn a lot of money pay taxes at a higher rate than those who earn little. Those who earn very little do not pay any tax. But even people who earn the same amount of money do not always pay the same tax. This is because of the many different tax laws. The government uses these laws for economic and social purposes. For example, people who borrow money to buy a house often pay less tax than people who rent a home. Homeowners subtract the interest they pay on their loan from their taxable income. Yet critics say America's tax laws are much too complex. Also, many Americans agree with President Bush who says taxes are too high. Others, however, argue that tax cuts are not a good idea at a time of a weak economy and the war in Iraq to pay for. Nina Simone (MUSIC) HOST: Singer and pianist Nina Simone combined spiritual, jazz and protest songs. She died last week at her home in France at the age of seventy. Steve Ember tells us about her. ANNCR: Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon, one of eight children of an African American family in North Carolina. She began to play piano at three years old. Her parents were poor. So a white woman her mother worked for paid for her early music lessons. In the early nineteen-fifties, she studied classical piano at the Juilliard School in New York. Later she found work at drinking places. One bar owner told her he wanted a singer, not a pianist. So she began singing while she played. She changed her name to Nina Simone to hide what she was doing from her parents. One of the songs she often played was “Love Me Or Leave Me.” (MUSIC) Her first big success came in nineteen-fifty nine, when she recorded, “I Loves You, Porgy," from George Gershwin’s musical, “Porgy and Bess.” (MUSIC) In the nineteen-sixties, she began to write protest songs during the rise of the civil rights movement. Later, she recorded songs in just about every style and performed with symphony orchestras. Nina Simone left the United States in nineteen-seventy-three. She said she was angry about the treatment of blacks in America. And she said Europeans gave her more respect. She lived in the Caribbean and Africa before settling in Europe. In recent years, her songs have become popular again. One of her most remembered hits is “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – May 2, 2003: North American Pollution Report
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A new study has both good news and bad news about pollution in North America. It found that industrial releases into the environment dropped five percent between nineteen-ninety-five and two-thousand. The report shows that some of North America’s largest polluters reduced their pollution during this period. But not so with smaller polluters. From nineteen-ninety-eight to two-thousand, smaller polluters put thirty-two percent more chemicals into the air, ground and water. This finding is based on a group of fifteen-thousand industrial centers across North America. These facilities release up to one-hundred tons of chemicals a year. They represent the majority of polluters in the United States and Canada. The study also examined three-thousand-six-hundred facilities that release more than one-hundred tons of chemicals a year. These polluters reported a seven-percent reduction in pollutants between nineteen-ninety-eight and two-thousand. However, they still were responsible for ninety percent of the total pollution. Industrial polluters include factories, electric power stations, chemical producers, mines and places that treat dangerous wastes. The report is from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. This group was established as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The commission found more than three-point-three million tons of chemicals released into the environment in two-thousand. Some of these chemicals have been linked to cancer. Others cause developmental or reproductive problems. The report says more than one-third of the releases in two-thousand came from five American states and the Canadian province of Ontario. The five states were Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana. The commission notes that Mexico has not required polluters to report their chemical releases, but is developing such a system. Victor Shantora is acting head of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. He says it is sad to see such a large number of facilities releasing more pollution into the environment. He says small polluters might not make as much news as large ones, but their effect is being felt throughout North America. This Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Prisons
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 5, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Crime in the United States has decreased in recent years. One problem now is what to do about crowded prisons. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: The criminal justice system is our report this week the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A new report says more than two-million people were in prisons and jails in the United States at the end of June two-thousand-two. That is the most ever. The country already had among the highest rates of imprisonment in the world. The government report says about four-and-a-half-million others were on probation or parole last year. People on probation have not been sentenced to jail. Instead, they are under court supervision. People on parole have been freed from prison. They must obey restrictions and also report to officials for supervision. The Bureau of Justice Statistics prepared the report. The report shows that, as of last year, one in every thirty-two people in the nation had been found guilty of a crime. The United States has a national population of two-hundred-ninety-million people. VOICE TWO: The number of prisoners in America has increased by four-hundred percent since the middle of the nineteen-eighties. Nationally, the rate of violent crime has decreased to its lowest level in the thirty years it has been measured. During those years, so-called “get tough” laws have provided longer sentences for some offenses, including drug crimes. Two-thirds of the prisoners in the United States are in federal or state prisons. Local jails hold the other one-third. People found guilty of serious crimes usually are sentenced to prisons. People awaiting trial or sentenced for lesser offenses usually are held in jails. There are different kinds of prisons. Prisoners who are not considered a danger to others may be sent to a minimum-security prison without many restrictions. The most dangerous prisoners are sent to maximum-security prisons where life is extremely controlled. VOICE ONE: Over the years, the United States has made prison reforms. Today, corrections experts and prison-reform activists propose more changes. For example, they say more job training may help keep prisoners from returning to jail once they are freed. There were record numbers of prisoners last year. But the Bureau of Justice Statistics says the growth rate of imprisonment had already leveled off by then. It calls the rise of imprisonment during the nineteen-eighties and nineties “dramatic.” VOICE TWO: Half the states have acted against overcrowding. Big states like California and Texas have released thousands of prisoners to save money and space. Critics of the criminal justice system say long prison sentences are not necessarily making society safer. But the Supreme Court recently upheld a “three strikes” law in California. This law affects people found guilty of three crimes. The law orders that they serve from twenty-five years to life in prison. This is true even if their third crime was considered minor. In the case that reached the Supreme Court, the third crime was stealing golf equipment. One more thing about California: The state just reported a four-percent increase in major crimes last year. Murders in the biggest population centers, though down from ten years ago, were up eleven percent from the year before. VOICE ONE: Some criminal justice officials say the increase in federal prisoners in the United States is of special concern. In two-thousand-two, federal prisons held almost one-hundred-sixty-two-thousand people. This is the first time the federal system has had more prisoners than any of the fifty states. This happened partly because the Federal Bureau of Prisons took control of prisoners formerly held by the District of Columbia. But, also, Congress has expanded the federal prison system. Congress has added many drug offenses to the list of federal crimes. VOICE TWO: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is among those who say the country has too many people in jail. Justice Kennedy also says prison terms are often too long. He criticizes policies where state legislatures establish sentences that judges cannot change. Such required sentences have increased in number in recent years. Mister Kennedy says these sentences are sometimes severe and unjust. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans are guaranteed "equal justice before the law," in the words of the Constitution. But there is debate about the equality of the criminal justice system toward the poor and especially members of minority groups. About twelve percent of African American males between the ages of twenty and thirty-four were in prison or jail last year. By comparison, four percent of Hispanics, and less than two percent of white males, were behind bars. Bureau of Justice Statistics official Allen Beck says the rate for young black males has been going up in recent years. Mister Beck says the bureau’s new report shows the highest rate measured. In any case, men of all groups are about fifteen times more likely than women to go to prison. But an increasing number of women are jailed these days. The number of female prisoners grows at an average rate of more than five percent a year. The rate among males averages less than four percent. VOICE TWO: Drug offenders are a major reason for America’s huge prisoner population. The Sentencing Project is an activist group for criminal-justice improvements. It says about sixty percent of federal and more than twenty percent of state prisoners are in for drug crimes. Recently a number of states have taken steps to change their drug policies. They are considering sending drug users to treatment programs instead of prison. These programs are aimed at ending the use of drugs. They also are meant to reduce the number of people in prison. Arizona and California have approved drug-treatment centers for non-dangerous drug offenders. Kansas also is considering a new drug law. It would require non-violent drug offenders to be treated for up to eighteen months. Supporters of the law say it would remove the need for almost two-hundred prison beds by the end of next year. VOICE ONE: New York State has some of the nation’s most severe drug laws. A person can be sentenced to at least fifteen years, and up to life, in prison for having or selling drugs The international organization Human Rights Watch is based in New York. It criticizes the state's drug laws. It says these laws have led to the unnecessary jailing of non-dangerous drug offenders. It says the laws have taken parents away from thousands of children. Governor George Pataki has been considering changes in the state's drug laws. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Reducing sentences for crimes would surely lower America’s rate of imprisonment. So would keeping nonviolent, first-time drug offenders out of jail. But many officials say reduced sentences would lead to an increase in crime. They say the public would be in danger. Experts argue about how much drug treatment programs cost as compared with jailing. Some say treatment is far cheaper. Others disagree. Nola Foulston is a local law enforcement official in the Wichita, Kansas, area. She also is an official of the National District Attorneys Association. Mizz Foulston says she believes the yearly operation of drug treatment centers could cost a little less than jail. But she worries about drug offenders living free. Mizz Foulston says they have much higher risk of returning to drugs than if they are behind bars. VOICE ONE: Some stories do end happily. Bob is fifty-five years old. He took cocaine for more than twenty years. During that time he served three jail terms. Each time he left jail he quickly became dependent on the drug again. Several years ago, a judge ordered Bob to enter a drug-treatment center. Center workers closely supervised his every move for a year. He received intensive treatment and advising about his life. Bob has a job now. He also is studying at night at a local college. He says, “No more drugs -- ever … and I am never going back to jail.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: May 1, 2003 - 'The Language Police,' Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 1, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER we discuss a new book: "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn." RS: The author is Diane Ravitch, a historian of education and a professor at New York University. She was appointed assistant secretary of education for research in 1991 when George W. Bush's father was president. Then Bill Clinton appointed her to an agency that supervises national testing. AA: Through her work, Diane Ravitch learned that publishers develop what are known as "bias and sensitivity guidelines.” Her position is that publishers use these guidelines to censor and sanitize tests and textbooks. RAVITCH: "I had trouble obtaining many of those that I eventually obtained. And I ended up with something like, oh, 32 single-spaced pages of words that you're not supposed to use. So, for example, you're not supposed to use the word 'cult' or 'fanatic' or 'extremist' or 'dogma.' These are all considered ethnocentric words. You're not supposed to use the expression 'The Founding Fathers.' This is considered a sexist statement. Any word that has the word 'man' or the three letters M-A-N, whether it's 'manpower' or 'businessman,' these are banned words. Two of the publishers say that you mustn't say 'the elderly,' so you replace that with 'older persons.'" AA: "I read from your book that 'slave' is no longer an acceptable word." RAVITCH: "Right, the word 'slave' is supposed to be replaced by the expression 'enslaved person.' And I had a discussion the other day with an African American talk show host, and we agreed that this is what you would call a distinction without a difference, because neither of these is a voluntary condition. No one chooses to be a slave, just as no one chooses to be an enslaved person, and it's really a linguistic nonsense issue, as far as I'm concerned." AA: "I've heard it said that conservatives get upset about ideas and liberals get upset about words." RAVITCH: "That's exactly the divide that I found, that conservatives were eager to ban certain topics. For instance, the mention of divorce or the separation of family. They also objected to stories about disobedient children or they objected to stories about crime that goes unpunished, whereas liberals were concerned about any words that reflected on women as being in let's say a wifely role or appearing as a nurse or a secretary or a teacher or in a role that they just didn't want women portrayed in. The irony is all of this to me is that language does change, language does evolve, and many of the terms that are in this glossary of banned words have disappeared just through the natural evolution of language. "Our language, the English language and particularly American English, is very dynamic in the sense that words enter our language that are new, they come about through technological change and social change, and then other words, older words simply disappear." RS: "If a student of English as a foreign language were to read a history or a literature textbook written for an American audience, what kind of impression would he or she come out with?" RAVITCH: "If they were reading a textbook that was prepared for high school, it would be extremely, I don't know, mixed up in terms of genre. There would be items about science, about global warming, about social studies, and at a certain point you would not get any sense of what is the American literary tradition. You would not know who are considered the greatest American writers because there would be no distinction made between, let's say, an essay written by a 16-year-old somewhere, a piece of a television script from a recent TV program, some sort of encyclopedia-type article, and then maybe some classics mixed in." RS: "Is this because we can't sell textbooks or we can't make tests that can be approved by a committee?" RAVITCH: "This whole situation has come about because we have this practice across the country of statewide textbook adoptions. So if a publisher wants to sell textbooks in today's marketplace, they must attempt to sell in California and Texas, which are the two biggest states, they have the largest number of students, and so the worst thing for a textbook publisher is controversy. And so they remove whatever might be offensive to people who might have strong views, either on the right or on the left. The result of this situation is that there has been enormous concentration in the textbook industry. We now have four huge corporations that dominate about eighty percent of the textbook market." AA: Historian Diane Ravitch. Her latest book is "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn." And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 1, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER we discuss a new book: "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn." RS: The author is Diane Ravitch, a historian of education and a professor at New York University. She was appointed assistant secretary of education for research in 1991 when George W. Bush's father was president. Then Bill Clinton appointed her to an agency that supervises national testing. AA: Through her work, Diane Ravitch learned that publishers develop what are known as "bias and sensitivity guidelines.” Her position is that publishers use these guidelines to censor and sanitize tests and textbooks. RAVITCH: "I had trouble obtaining many of those that I eventually obtained. And I ended up with something like, oh, 32 single-spaced pages of words that you're not supposed to use. So, for example, you're not supposed to use the word 'cult' or 'fanatic' or 'extremist' or 'dogma.' These are all considered ethnocentric words. You're not supposed to use the expression 'The Founding Fathers.' This is considered a sexist statement. Any word that has the word 'man' or the three letters M-A-N, whether it's 'manpower' or 'businessman,' these are banned words. Two of the publishers say that you mustn't say 'the elderly,' so you replace that with 'older persons.'" AA: "I read from your book that 'slave' is no longer an acceptable word." RAVITCH: "Right, the word 'slave' is supposed to be replaced by the expression 'enslaved person.' And I had a discussion the other day with an African American talk show host, and we agreed that this is what you would call a distinction without a difference, because neither of these is a voluntary condition. No one chooses to be a slave, just as no one chooses to be an enslaved person, and it's really a linguistic nonsense issue, as far as I'm concerned." AA: "I've heard it said that conservatives get upset about ideas and liberals get upset about words." RAVITCH: "That's exactly the divide that I found, that conservatives were eager to ban certain topics. For instance, the mention of divorce or the separation of family. They also objected to stories about disobedient children or they objected to stories about crime that goes unpunished, whereas liberals were concerned about any words that reflected on women as being in let's say a wifely role or appearing as a nurse or a secretary or a teacher or in a role that they just didn't want women portrayed in. The irony is all of this to me is that language does change, language does evolve, and many of the terms that are in this glossary of banned words have disappeared just through the natural evolution of language. "Our language, the English language and particularly American English, is very dynamic in the sense that words enter our language that are new, they come about through technological change and social change, and then other words, older words simply disappear." RS: "If a student of English as a foreign language were to read a history or a literature textbook written for an American audience, what kind of impression would he or she come out with?" RAVITCH: "If they were reading a textbook that was prepared for high school, it would be extremely, I don't know, mixed up in terms of genre. There would be items about science, about global warming, about social studies, and at a certain point you would not get any sense of what is the American literary tradition. You would not know who are considered the greatest American writers because there would be no distinction made between, let's say, an essay written by a 16-year-old somewhere, a piece of a television script from a recent TV program, some sort of encyclopedia-type article, and then maybe some classics mixed in." RS: "Is this because we can't sell textbooks or we can't make tests that can be approved by a committee?" RAVITCH: "This whole situation has come about because we have this practice across the country of statewide textbook adoptions. So if a publisher wants to sell textbooks in today's marketplace, they must attempt to sell in California and Texas, which are the two biggest states, they have the largest number of students, and so the worst thing for a textbook publisher is controversy. And so they remove whatever might be offensive to people who might have strong views, either on the right or on the left. The result of this situation is that there has been enormous concentration in the textbook industry. We now have four huge corporations that dominate about eighty percent of the textbook market." AA: Historian Diane Ravitch. Her latest book is "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn." And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Skin Disorders
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 6, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today, we talk about some disorders of the skin, and ways to treat them. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Skin. It is the largest organ of the body. The first barrier to the outside. It keeps out many harmful bacteria and other things. Of course, it also keeps in all the things we need inside our bodies. The skin helps control body temperature. Glands on the skin release fluid to cool the body when it gets too hot. When a person gets too cold, blood vessels in the skin narrow. This helps to trap heat inside the body. VOICE TWO: Yet, like other organs of the body, the skin can have problems. Almost any teenager can tell you the most common disorder: acne. Acne is connected to hormones and how they affect the oil glands of the skin. The skin gets its oil, called sebum, from the sebaceous glands. Each gland connects to a passage of extremely small hairs. The sebum travels through these passages. The oil reaches the surface of the skin through little holes, called pores. Sometimes, the sebum, hair and cells of the pores block these openings. This is how acne starts. Bacteria can grow in a blocked pore. The bacteria produce chemicals and enzymes. White blood cells -- infection fighters -- travel to the area. All this leads to a growth on the skin, a pimple. This becomes red, hot and often painful. VOICE ONE: Some people think eating chocolate or oily foods causes acne. Others blame dirty skin or nervous tension. Yet researchers tell us none of these cause acne. So what does? Doctors are not sure. But they have some ideas. For one thing, they know that hormones called androgens play a part. Androgens cause the sebaceous glands to grow and make more oil. Young people will not be happy about this next fact. Androgens increase when boys and girls enter their teenage years. VOICE TWO: There are several treatments for acne. Mild cases are generally treated with medicines for use directly on the skin. These often contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. People with more serious acne may be given antibiotics to take by mouth. Or they might use a combination of pills and creams. One of the drugs used to treat the most severe forms of acne is called isotretinoin. It is normally taken for about five months. Isotretinoin has been shown to cure acne in ninety percent of people who use it. However, isotretinoin and another acne medicine called Accutane can cause serious problems in some cases. If used during pregnancy, for example, they can harm the fetus. VOICE ONE: Skin experts say there are simple ways to help prevent acne outbreaks. One is to touch your face as little as possible, so as not to add oils or put pressure on the skin. Another good idea is to avoid the urge to burst pimples. This can leave permanent marks on the skin. Doctors also say to avoid strong soaps, and to be gentle as you wash and dry your skin. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: There are other skin problems far more serious than acne. There are several kinds of skin cancer, for example.Skin cancer is often the result of time spent in the sun. Light and heat from the sun can change the chemicals in the skin. The sun produces ultraviolet radiation that causes the skin to burn and, over time, develop cancer. The most serious skin cancer is melanoma. It begins in the cells that produce skin color. Melanomas can develop anywhere, but are usually found on the back and the shoulders. Most melanomas are black or brown. They can look like other kinds of growths. But they are the deadliest form of skin cancer. So it is important to watch for signs that can help identify melanoma. Treating it early can make the difference between life and death. People should see a doctor immediately if they find a growth of a strange shape, with uneven sides or edges that are not straight. Or a growth of different colors. Or a growth larger than six millimeters. VOICE ONE: The usual treatment for melanoma is an operation to remove the growth. The surgery is often followed by drugs to kill any cancer cells that remain. Doctors may also order radiation treatment. Radiation kills cancer cells and shrinks cancerous growths.There are experimental treatments for melanoma, as well. Researchers are working on ways to genetically change white blood cells. The goal to help the body increase its own efforts to destroy the cancer. Researchers are also working on a possible melanoma vaccine. It would not prevent the disease like traditional vaccines. Instead, it would help the body fight the cancer in a way similar to the genetic treatment. However, the best thing is to reduce the chances that you might ever get melanoma. Doctors tell people to limit the amount of time they spend in sunlight. They also suggest wearing hats and other protective clothes. And, they urge people to use products that help protect the skin from the sun. VOICE TWO: Yet there are times when doctors use ultraviolet light to treat some skin problems -- like psoriasis, for example. Psoriasis creates raised areas of skin that are dry and itchy. They are found most often on the elbows, knees and head. But psoriasis can spread to cover larger areas. It usually begins before age twenty or after fifty. The newest research shows that psoriasis is most likely a disorder that causes the body’s defense system to produce too many skin cells. There is no cure, but there are treatments that can improve the condition. One involves the use of ultraviolet light in the doctor's office to reduce swelling and slow skin cell production. This is sometimes used in combination with a drug called psoralen. Psoriasis seems to pass down from parent to child. Scientists are searching for a possible gene linked to this condition. VOICE ONE: Another skin disorder is atopic dermatitis, commonly called eczema. It creates areas of skin that itch and become rough like leather. Eczema is most common in babies. At least half of those cases clear up within a few years. But, in adults, this painful condition generally never goes away completely. People with eczema often also suffer from allergic conditions like asthma and seasonal hay fever. Like psoriasis, there is no cure for eczema. But there are treatments with steroid drugs and also some newly developed kinds without steroids. Environmental conditions can also play a part. That is why doctors often advise people with eczema not to use cleaners that contain soap, which can make skin dry. Even water can cause dry skin, which can make eczema worse. So can temperature changes and stress. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Some skin disorders do not cause any physical pain. But, they can cause emotional pain by how they affect the appearance of the skin. Vitiligo [vit-i-LIE-go], for example, is the destruction of the pigment cells. This disease causes areas of the skin to lose all color. Even the hairs turn white. For some people, the white spots of vitiligo appear only in one or two areas. Others find pigment loss on just one side of their bodies. Most people, however, develop many such areas all over their skin. Around the world, as many as fifty-million people have vitiligo. It affects all races and both sexes. Doctors do not know the cause. However, as with some other skin disorders, they suspect that the body’s immune system is involved. VOICE ONE: To treat vitiligo, some patients receive psoralen and ultraviolet light. A number of steroid drugs can also help, especially when started early in the disease. Doctors may also wish to operate to treat severe cases of vitiligo. However, these are considered experimental treatments. The newest kind of operation involves the removal of a very small piece of healthy skin from the patient. The skin is placed in a substance that helps it grow more pigment cells. These new cells are then placed in the areas where the patient needs pigment. Vitiligo can cause extreme changes in a person’s appearance. That is why there are mental health professionals and also support groups that can help people who have this disease of the skin. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English Program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 6, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today, we talk about some disorders of the skin, and ways to treat them. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Skin. It is the largest organ of the body. The first barrier to the outside. It keeps out many harmful bacteria and other things. Of course, it also keeps in all the things we need inside our bodies. The skin helps control body temperature. Glands on the skin release fluid to cool the body when it gets too hot. When a person gets too cold, blood vessels in the skin narrow. This helps to trap heat inside the body. VOICE TWO: Yet, like other organs of the body, the skin can have problems. Almost any teenager can tell you the most common disorder: acne. Acne is connected to hormones and how they affect the oil glands of the skin. The skin gets its oil, called sebum, from the sebaceous glands. Each gland connects to a passage of extremely small hairs. The sebum travels through these passages. The oil reaches the surface of the skin through little holes, called pores. Sometimes, the sebum, hair and cells of the pores block these openings. This is how acne starts. Bacteria can grow in a blocked pore. The bacteria produce chemicals and enzymes. White blood cells -- infection fighters -- travel to the area. All this leads to a growth on the skin, a pimple. This becomes red, hot and often painful. VOICE ONE: Some people think eating chocolate or oily foods causes acne. Others blame dirty skin or nervous tension. Yet researchers tell us none of these cause acne. So what does? Doctors are not sure. But they have some ideas. For one thing, they know that hormones called androgens play a part. Androgens cause the sebaceous glands to grow and make more oil. Young people will not be happy about this next fact. Androgens increase when boys and girls enter their teenage years. VOICE TWO: There are several treatments for acne. Mild cases are generally treated with medicines for use directly on the skin. These often contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. People with more serious acne may be given antibiotics to take by mouth. Or they might use a combination of pills and creams. One of the drugs used to treat the most severe forms of acne is called isotretinoin. It is normally taken for about five months. Isotretinoin has been shown to cure acne in ninety percent of people who use it. However, isotretinoin and another acne medicine called Accutane can cause serious problems in some cases. If used during pregnancy, for example, they can harm the fetus. VOICE ONE: Skin experts say there are simple ways to help prevent acne outbreaks. One is to touch your face as little as possible, so as not to add oils or put pressure on the skin. Another good idea is to avoid the urge to burst pimples. This can leave permanent marks on the skin. Doctors also say to avoid strong soaps, and to be gentle as you wash and dry your skin. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: There are other skin problems far more serious than acne. There are several kinds of skin cancer, for example.Skin cancer is often the result of time spent in the sun. Light and heat from the sun can change the chemicals in the skin. The sun produces ultraviolet radiation that causes the skin to burn and, over time, develop cancer. The most serious skin cancer is melanoma. It begins in the cells that produce skin color. Melanomas can develop anywhere, but are usually found on the back and the shoulders. Most melanomas are black or brown. They can look like other kinds of growths. But they are the deadliest form of skin cancer. So it is important to watch for signs that can help identify melanoma. Treating it early can make the difference between life and death. People should see a doctor immediately if they find a growth of a strange shape, with uneven sides or edges that are not straight. Or a growth of different colors. Or a growth larger than six millimeters. VOICE ONE: The usual treatment for melanoma is an operation to remove the growth. The surgery is often followed by drugs to kill any cancer cells that remain. Doctors may also order radiation treatment. Radiation kills cancer cells and shrinks cancerous growths.There are experimental treatments for melanoma, as well. Researchers are working on ways to genetically change white blood cells. The goal to help the body increase its own efforts to destroy the cancer. Researchers are also working on a possible melanoma vaccine. It would not prevent the disease like traditional vaccines. Instead, it would help the body fight the cancer in a way similar to the genetic treatment. However, the best thing is to reduce the chances that you might ever get melanoma. Doctors tell people to limit the amount of time they spend in sunlight. They also suggest wearing hats and other protective clothes. And, they urge people to use products that help protect the skin from the sun. VOICE TWO: Yet there are times when doctors use ultraviolet light to treat some skin problems -- like psoriasis, for example. Psoriasis creates raised areas of skin that are dry and itchy. They are found most often on the elbows, knees and head. But psoriasis can spread to cover larger areas. It usually begins before age twenty or after fifty. The newest research shows that psoriasis is most likely a disorder that causes the body’s defense system to produce too many skin cells. There is no cure, but there are treatments that can improve the condition. One involves the use of ultraviolet light in the doctor's office to reduce swelling and slow skin cell production. This is sometimes used in combination with a drug called psoralen. Psoriasis seems to pass down from parent to child. Scientists are searching for a possible gene linked to this condition. VOICE ONE: Another skin disorder is atopic dermatitis, commonly called eczema. It creates areas of skin that itch and become rough like leather. Eczema is most common in babies. At least half of those cases clear up within a few years. But, in adults, this painful condition generally never goes away completely. People with eczema often also suffer from allergic conditions like asthma and seasonal hay fever. Like psoriasis, there is no cure for eczema. But there are treatments with steroid drugs and also some newly developed kinds without steroids. Environmental conditions can also play a part. That is why doctors often advise people with eczema not to use cleaners that contain soap, which can make skin dry. Even water can cause dry skin, which can make eczema worse. So can temperature changes and stress. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Some skin disorders do not cause any physical pain. But, they can cause emotional pain by how they affect the appearance of the skin. Vitiligo [vit-i-LIE-go], for example, is the destruction of the pigment cells. This disease causes areas of the skin to lose all color. Even the hairs turn white. For some people, the white spots of vitiligo appear only in one or two areas. Others find pigment loss on just one side of their bodies. Most people, however, develop many such areas all over their skin. Around the world, as many as fifty-million people have vitiligo. It affects all races and both sexes. Doctors do not know the cause. However, as with some other skin disorders, they suspect that the body’s immune system is involved. VOICE ONE: To treat vitiligo, some patients receive psoralen and ultraviolet light. A number of steroid drugs can also help, especially when started early in the disease. Doctors may also wish to operate to treat severe cases of vitiligo. However, these are considered experimental treatments. The newest kind of operation involves the removal of a very small piece of healthy skin from the patient. The skin is placed in a substance that helps it grow more pigment cells. These new cells are then placed in the areas where the patient needs pigment. Vitiligo can cause extreme changes in a person’s appearance. That is why there are mental health professionals and also support groups that can help people who have this disease of the skin. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English Program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - May 6, 2003: Tree Nuts
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Nuts that grow on trees are an important part of the diet in many cultures. They also provide an important export product for many nations. The United States is the world’s largest exporter of tree nuts. About forty-three percent of tree nuts grown in America are exported. The United States grows more than ten percent of the world’s tree nut supply. The world’s most popular tree nut is the almond. The United States is expected to grow over five-hundred-thousand metric tons of almonds this year. The second largest grower, Spain, is expected to produce about one-fifth of that amount. Next in popularity is the walnut. The two largest producers of this crop are the United States and China. China does not export much of its production. This year the United States will export about one-third of the walnuts it grows. Another major tree nut in the export market is the filbert, or hazelnut. Turkey is by far the biggest producer of this nut, followed by Italy and Spain. Other economically important tree nuts include brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, pistachios and kola nuts. Many of these nuts need warm, wet climates to grow. Brazil nuts and cashews, for example, are major exports for countries with tropical climates. Not surprisingly, Brazil is the largest producer of Brazil nuts. India is by far the largest producer of cashews. Vietnam and Brazil are also large exporters. Tree nuts are excellent products for export. They are easily stored. They can also be processed in the country that grows them. Some tree nuts, though, require extra processing. Cashews are a good example. Cashews must be removed from their shell and cooked. Without processing, cashews are poisonous. They can cause severe reactions if eaten or even touched. Exporting processed cashews creates jobs where the nuts are grown. It also adds to the export value of the product. For example, the World Bank helped farmers in Brazil's Rio Grande do Norte area develop a processing center for cashews. This project began in the late nineteen-eighties. Today, the center employs twenty-five local people. It permits farmers to grow and market good quality cashews. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 3, 2003: American Troops to Leave Saudi Arabia
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The United States says it will withdraw all combat forces from Saudi Arabia by the end of August. American officials will move the troops and military aircraft from Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base to nearby Qatar. American Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz made the announcement Tuesday at a news conference in Riyadh. They said American forces can now leave Saudi Arabia because Iraq is no longer a threat to the area. Mister Rumsfeld said the withdrawal is part of an effort to reposition American forces in the Persian Gulf area, following the military victory in Iraq. The United States and Saudi Arabia agreed to the withdrawal. The two countries say they plan to continue close military relations. About four-hundred American troops will remain in Saudi Arabia to train the Saudi military. The withdrawal began Monday. The United States moved its major air operations center at Prince Sultan Air Base to the al-Udeid air base in Qatar. American commanders used both bases to lead the air war over Iraq. The withdrawal of about ten-thousand American troops is designed to ease tensions. Saudi Arabia has Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina. Many Muslims oppose the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. They say non-Muslims should not be welcome in land that is holy to Muslims. Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi, has noted the American military presence in Saudi Arabia. He said this was a reason for the attacks against the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The American military presence in Saudi Arabia began after the Persian Gulf war in nineteen-ninety-one. The Prince Sultan Air Base was used for American planes guarding the area over southern Iraq where Iraqi military flights were banned. However, tensions between the Saudis and Americans have increased over the years. Twenty-four American soldiers died in two separate terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in nineteen-ninety-five and nineteen-ninety-six. Also, fifteen of the nineteen hijackers in the September eleventh terrorist attacks were identified as Saudi citizens. Saudi rulers quietly agreed to America’s requests for support during the recent military campaign in Iraq. But they tried to suppress the news that they let Americans use their bases. The war was unpopular among the Saudi people. American officials say the military withdrawal will help ease political pressure on the Saudi royal family. Saudi rulers have faced demands from outside and inside the country to reform the country’s political and educational system. Saudi officials said the withdrawal of American soldiers would clear the way for a series of democratic reforms. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – May 4, 2003: Helen Keller, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America - a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week we tell about someone who was important in the history of the United States. This week we finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf. (THEME) VOICE ONE: We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days. VOICE TWO: "One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. ‘What is it?’ I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time. . . Nothing in all the world was like this.” " VOICE ONE: Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. VOICE TWO: "One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm. "I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. "Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me. . . It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the Braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands. The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind. During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote. VOICE TWO: "My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. "I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. "To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages." VOICE ONE: All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings. To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older. She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words. She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm. She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth. Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch. When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music. She also liked to go to museums. She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material. What did Helen Keller think of herself? What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing? This is what she wrote as a young girl: VOICE TWO: "Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'There is joy in forgetting one's self.’ And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun ... the music in others' ears my symphony ... the smile on others' lips my happiness." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Helen Keller was tall and strong. When she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others. Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems. The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties. Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her. VOICE TWO: "It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful. My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch." VOICE ONE: Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have just heard the last part of the story of Helen Keller. Our Special English program was written by Katherine Clarke and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America - a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week we tell about someone who was important in the history of the United States. This week we finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf. (THEME) VOICE ONE: We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days. VOICE TWO: "One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. ‘What is it?’ I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time. . . Nothing in all the world was like this.” " VOICE ONE: Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. VOICE TWO: "One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me, had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunderstorm. "I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. "Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me. . . It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with joy to feel the solid earth under my feet." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the Braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands. The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind. During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote. VOICE TWO: "My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. "I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. "To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages." VOICE ONE: All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings. To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older. She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words. She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm. She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth. Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch. When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music. She also liked to go to museums. She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material. What did Helen Keller think of herself? What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing? This is what she wrote as a young girl: VOICE TWO: "Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'There is joy in forgetting one's self.’ And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun ... the music in others' ears my symphony ... the smile on others' lips my happiness." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Helen Keller was tall and strong. When she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others. Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems. The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties. Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her. VOICE TWO: "It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful. My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch." VOICE ONE: Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have just heard the last part of the story of Helen Keller. Our Special English program was written by Katherine Clarke and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-05-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – May 5, 2003: Ceramic Water Purifier
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year more than two-million people die from diseases caused by drinking dirty water. That is the estimate of the World Health Organization. Dirty water is a leading killer in developing countries. Most of the victims are children. Diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and infectious hepatitis are all spread through unclean water by bacteria or viruses. Malaria, river blindness and dengue fever are spread by insects that lay their eggs in drinking water or live around water resources. There are systems designed to make dirty water safe to drink. A group called Potters for Peace has developed a low-cost system for use by families. Potters for Peace is a non-governmental organization based in the United States and active in Central America. The system this group developed is called the Ceramic Water Purifier. The purifier is a round container with a filter inside made of porous clay. Clay is hard earth. A process called firing strengthens it with intense heat. Porous means it still lets water flow through. But the clay acts as a filter. It traps harmful organisms. Also, the clay filter is painted with a substance called colloidal silver. Colloidal silver kills bacteria. It is used in water purification systems in many aircraft. The purifier sits inside a larger container that catches and stores water as it flows through the filter. This larger container also protects the purifier from damage. The filter is supposed to be cleaned about once a month to make sure water is still able to flow through. Potters for Peace suggests that users replace the filter after a year. Ceramic water purifiers are being used in developing countries around the world. They first became popular in Ecuador and Guatemala. Today they are being used throughout Central and South America, and in parts of Africa and Asia. Ceramic water purifiers can help communities meet their water needs. But Potters for Peace says they can also help communities earn money. With a little training, local artists can produce and sell the containers that hold the purifier. You can find out more about the Ceramic Water Purifier at the Potters for Peace Web site. That address is w-w-w-dot-p-o-t-p-a-z-dot-o-r-g. Again, p-o-t-p-a-z-dot-o-r-g. (www.potpaz.org) This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Travelers Blood Clots
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 7, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. People who travel on long trips should know about a condition that can develop deep inside the legs. This condition is called deep vein thrombosis. A thrombosis is a blood clot, a condition where some blood thickens and blocks the flow. Clots develop in the legs when blood cannot move easily back to the heart. Doctors say this can happen when a person sits too long in one place. Blood clots can kill if they move to the heart and lungs and cause what is known as a pulmonary embolism. Recently an American television reporter, David Bloom, died as he covered the war in Iraq. Medical experts believe a clot formed in his leg because he slept every night in a very small space inside a military vehicle. Mister Bloom had felt pain behind the knee. Military doctors had urged him to seek treatment. Finally the clot moved to the artery leading to his lungs. Oxygen could no longer reach the heart. Such blood clots are a risk for people who travel in airplanes, trains, motorcycles, buses and cars. Doctors say some people have an increased risk. These include people who have had clots in the past, as well as pregnant women and those who take birth control pills. People who are overweight and those with heart disease or cancer also may have a greater risk. Others include people being treated with estrogen, and those who have had a recent operation. The experts say the chances of a clot also increase if a person does not drink enough water. They say travelers who sit for hours should drink plenty of water -- not liquids that contain alcohol or caffeine. Another thing to do is to increase the blood flow to the legs. This could mean wearing support stockings or taking an aspirin a few hours before the trip. Also, people should not sit for a long time with their knees pressed back against their seat. Walk around every hour or so. Or at least make sure to move the feet and legs. Doctors say anyone who has pain, swelling or red skin on a leg during or after a long trip may have a blood clot. Signs that a clot may have already reached the lungs include chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing and a fast heart rate. Anyone with these signs should seek examination by a doctor immediately. In many cases, the condition can be treated with drugs that thin the blood and prevent clots from moving through the body. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: May 7, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. People who travel on long trips should know about a condition that can develop deep inside the legs. This condition is called deep vein thrombosis. A thrombosis is a blood clot, a condition where some blood thickens and blocks the flow. Clots develop in the legs when blood cannot move easily back to the heart. Doctors say this can happen when a person sits too long in one place. Blood clots can kill if they move to the heart and lungs and cause what is known as a pulmonary embolism. Recently an American television reporter, David Bloom, died as he covered the war in Iraq. Medical experts believe a clot formed in his leg because he slept every night in a very small space inside a military vehicle. Mister Bloom had felt pain behind the knee. Military doctors had urged him to seek treatment. Finally the clot moved to the artery leading to his lungs. Oxygen could no longer reach the heart. Such blood clots are a risk for people who travel in airplanes, trains, motorcycles, buses and cars. Doctors say some people have an increased risk. These include people who have had clots in the past, as well as pregnant women and those who take birth control pills. People who are overweight and those with heart disease or cancer also may have a greater risk. Others include people being treated with estrogen, and those who have had a recent operation. The experts say the chances of a clot also increase if a person does not drink enough water. They say travelers who sit for hours should drink plenty of water -- not liquids that contain alcohol or caffeine. Another thing to do is to increase the blood flow to the legs. This could mean wearing support stockings or taking an aspirin a few hours before the trip. Also, people should not sit for a long time with their knees pressed back against their seat. Walk around every hour or so. Or at least make sure to move the feet and legs. Doctors say anyone who has pain, swelling or red skin on a leg during or after a long trip may have a blood clot. Signs that a clot may have already reached the lungs include chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing and a fast heart rate. Anyone with these signs should seek examination by a doctor immediately. In many cases, the condition can be treated with drugs that thin the blood and prevent clots from moving through the body. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Space Station Crew Returns / Mars Exploration Rovers / GALEX Satellite / White Knight and Space Ship One
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. We have news about two exploration devices that will land on Mars. We tell about a new aircraft that can take passengers into space. We tell about a new device now in orbit that can see thousands of millions of years back in time. And we tell about the safe return to Earth of the crew of the International Space Station. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and American astronauts Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit have returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station. They landed Sunday in Kazakhstan. Astronaut Bowersox told reporters everything was fine after what he called a normal return to Earth. However, their Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed about four-hundred kilometers from the place where it was expected to land. Search planes found the spacecraft, but could not land in the area. The space crew waited several hours for helicopters that flew them to the Kazakh capital, Astana. Then they were flown to Russia’s Star City space training center near Moscow. They will spend at least two weeks there for medical tests and to learn how to deal with gravity after more than five months in space. VOICE TWO: The three men left the Earth on November twenty-third, two-thousand-two. Their trip back was the first time American astronauts returned to Earth in a Russian spacecraft. This is because the American Space Shuttles have not been in operation since the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost in February. The three were replaced in the International Space Station by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, the Expedition Seven commander, and American astronaut Ed Lu. He is the crew’s new flight engineer and NASA science officer. They arrived at the Space Station on April twenty-eighth. Malenchenko and Lu will be the crew of the space station until October. They have already begun a series of scientific and educational activities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced the successful launch of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite. The explorer was launched April twenty-eighth, near Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was carried into orbit by a Pegasus rocket that was launched from a jet aircraft. It will begin its research work in about one month. VOICE TWO: The GALEX (GAL-ex) satellite carries equipment that will be used to observe more than one-million galaxies. A galaxy is a large system of stars. The explorer satellite will make these observations for the next twenty-eight months. Some of the galaxies it will observe are millions of light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light can travel in one year. Light travels at almost three-hundred-million meters per second. Because of the great distances involved, GALEX will be observing and photographing events that took place thousands or even millions of years ago. The satellite will help space scientists learn when the stars we see today were formed. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the universe began almost fourteen-thousand-million years ago with a huge explosion, called the “Big Bang.” Galaxies began to appear as the fireball of hydrogen and helium gas expanded and cooled. Recent observations suggest most stars in the universe were formed about eight to ten-thousand-million years ago. The GALEX satellite was designed to investigate this idea and to find out why the stars were formed. The most important part of the satellite is a fifty-centimeter telescope. It is equipped with several devices that permit it to gather images of galaxies. The devices will study the light from the galaxies to measure their shape, brightness and size. The GALEX satellite will also permit scientists to gather information about when carbon, oxygen and other chemical elements were created inside burning stars. VOICE TWO: Christopher Martin is the chief research scientist for the project. He is also an astrophysics professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Mister Martin says the GALEX satellite will provide the first important map of a universe of galaxies. He says researchers will be able to observe how some of these galaxies were formed. Mister Martin says this information will bring us closer to understanding how our own galaxy was created. The GALEX will also make the first complete study of the sky beyond our own galaxy. Information gathered will be shared with all space scientists. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many of us here on Earth would immediately accept the chance to fly into space even if it was only for a few minutes. This may be possible if airplane designer Burt Rutan (ru-TAN) is successful with his new aircraft called White Knight and Space Ship One. Burt Rutan is a world famous designer of aircraft. He designed the Voyager -- the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world with only the fuel it carried. That flight took place between December fourteenth and December twenty-third, nineteen-eighty-six. VOICE TWO: Mister Rutan has now designed an aircraft that carries his Space Ship One rocket plane. The aircraft is named the White Knight. It is designed to fly as high as sixteen-thousand meters. At this height, it will release the Space Ship One rocket plane. Space Ship One’s pilot will slow the plane and point the nose almost straight up. He will then fire the plane’s rockets. The rocket plane will reach speeds of three-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers an hour as it flies into space about one-hundred kilometers above the Earth. This is an area of space called sub-orbital. Sub-orbital means the craft has left Earth’s atmosphere, but is not high enough to orbit Earth. Space Ship One will then immediately return to Earth. The flight will take only about ninety minutes. Mister Rutan says final tests are now being done on the Space Ship One craft. The White Knight aircraft that will carry the rocket flew for the first time in August, two-thousand-two. VOICE ONE: Burt Rutan says he would like to fly the craft into space for the first time before December seventeenth. That is the one-hundredth anniversary of the first powered aircraft flight by the Wright Brothers. Mister Rutan says the flight will only carry one person. But he has plans to carry as many as three people into space in the near future. He says it will be the first privately financed flight into space. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: NASA has chosen the areas where two exploring devices will land on the surface of the planet Mars early next year. The two areas are called the Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum. The Gusev Crater is a huge area that scientists say appears to have once been a lake. The Meridiani Planum holds an iron oxide mineral that usually forms when there is liquid water. Both the Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum are south of the Martian equator. However the two landing areas are about halfway around the planet from each other. VOICE ONE: Peter Theisinger (TIE-sing-er) is the manager for the project. He says a huge amount of research was done before choosing the two areas. He says the areas were chosen because they offered the best possible chance of finding water on Mars. Photographs and measurements from two NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars provided scientists and engineers with details of the two areas. The two spacecraft showed powerful evidence of past liquid water. Water is extremely important to any human exploration of Mars in the future. VOICE TWO: The two exploring devices that will soon be on their way to Mars are called the Mars Exploration Rovers. They are similar devices that can move across the Martian surface. Both will be controlled by scientists here on Earth. Each rover carries several scientific devices. Each will be launched to Mars on a Boeing Delta Two rocket. The first rover flight will be launched between May thirtieth and June Sixteenth. The second rover will be launched between June twenty-fifth and July twelfth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: May 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. We have news about two exploration devices that will land on Mars. We tell about a new aircraft that can take passengers into space. We tell about a new device now in orbit that can see thousands of millions of years back in time. And we tell about the safe return to Earth of the crew of the International Space Station. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and American astronauts Ken Bowersox and Don Pettit have returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station. They landed Sunday in Kazakhstan. Astronaut Bowersox told reporters everything was fine after what he called a normal return to Earth. However, their Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed about four-hundred kilometers from the place where it was expected to land. Search planes found the spacecraft, but could not land in the area. The space crew waited several hours for helicopters that flew them to the Kazakh capital, Astana. Then they were flown to Russia’s Star City space training center near Moscow. They will spend at least two weeks there for medical tests and to learn how to deal with gravity after more than five months in space. VOICE TWO: The three men left the Earth on November twenty-third, two-thousand-two. Their trip back was the first time American astronauts returned to Earth in a Russian spacecraft. This is because the American Space Shuttles have not been in operation since the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost in February. The three were replaced in the International Space Station by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, the Expedition Seven commander, and American astronaut Ed Lu. He is the crew’s new flight engineer and NASA science officer. They arrived at the Space Station on April twenty-eighth. Malenchenko and Lu will be the crew of the space station until October. They have already begun a series of scientific and educational activities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced the successful launch of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite. The explorer was launched April twenty-eighth, near Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was carried into orbit by a Pegasus rocket that was launched from a jet aircraft. It will begin its research work in about one month. VOICE TWO: The GALEX (GAL-ex) satellite carries equipment that will be used to observe more than one-million galaxies. A galaxy is a large system of stars. The explorer satellite will make these observations for the next twenty-eight months. Some of the galaxies it will observe are millions of light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light can travel in one year. Light travels at almost three-hundred-million meters per second. Because of the great distances involved, GALEX will be observing and photographing events that took place thousands or even millions of years ago. The satellite will help space scientists learn when the stars we see today were formed. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe the universe began almost fourteen-thousand-million years ago with a huge explosion, called the “Big Bang.” Galaxies began to appear as the fireball of hydrogen and helium gas expanded and cooled. Recent observations suggest most stars in the universe were formed about eight to ten-thousand-million years ago. The GALEX satellite was designed to investigate this idea and to find out why the stars were formed. The most important part of the satellite is a fifty-centimeter telescope. It is equipped with several devices that permit it to gather images of galaxies. The devices will study the light from the galaxies to measure their shape, brightness and size. The GALEX satellite will also permit scientists to gather information about when carbon, oxygen and other chemical elements were created inside burning stars. VOICE TWO: Christopher Martin is the chief research scientist for the project. He is also an astrophysics professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Mister Martin says the GALEX satellite will provide the first important map of a universe of galaxies. He says researchers will be able to observe how some of these galaxies were formed. Mister Martin says this information will bring us closer to understanding how our own galaxy was created. The GALEX will also make the first complete study of the sky beyond our own galaxy. Information gathered will be shared with all space scientists. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many of us here on Earth would immediately accept the chance to fly into space even if it was only for a few minutes. This may be possible if airplane designer Burt Rutan (ru-TAN) is successful with his new aircraft called White Knight and Space Ship One. Burt Rutan is a world famous designer of aircraft. He designed the Voyager -- the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world with only the fuel it carried. That flight took place between December fourteenth and December twenty-third, nineteen-eighty-six. VOICE TWO: Mister Rutan has now designed an aircraft that carries his Space Ship One rocket plane. The aircraft is named the White Knight. It is designed to fly as high as sixteen-thousand meters. At this height, it will release the Space Ship One rocket plane. Space Ship One’s pilot will slow the plane and point the nose almost straight up. He will then fire the plane’s rockets. The rocket plane will reach speeds of three-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers an hour as it flies into space about one-hundred kilometers above the Earth. This is an area of space called sub-orbital. Sub-orbital means the craft has left Earth’s atmosphere, but is not high enough to orbit Earth. Space Ship One will then immediately return to Earth. The flight will take only about ninety minutes. Mister Rutan says final tests are now being done on the Space Ship One craft. The White Knight aircraft that will carry the rocket flew for the first time in August, two-thousand-two. VOICE ONE: Burt Rutan says he would like to fly the craft into space for the first time before December seventeenth. That is the one-hundredth anniversary of the first powered aircraft flight by the Wright Brothers. Mister Rutan says the flight will only carry one person. But he has plans to carry as many as three people into space in the near future. He says it will be the first privately financed flight into space. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: NASA has chosen the areas where two exploring devices will land on the surface of the planet Mars early next year. The two areas are called the Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum. The Gusev Crater is a huge area that scientists say appears to have once been a lake. The Meridiani Planum holds an iron oxide mineral that usually forms when there is liquid water. Both the Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum are south of the Martian equator. However the two landing areas are about halfway around the planet from each other. VOICE ONE: Peter Theisinger (TIE-sing-er) is the manager for the project. He says a huge amount of research was done before choosing the two areas. He says the areas were chosen because they offered the best possible chance of finding water on Mars. Photographs and measurements from two NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars provided scientists and engineers with details of the two areas. The two spacecraft showed powerful evidence of past liquid water. Water is extremely important to any human exploration of Mars in the future. VOICE TWO: The two exploring devices that will soon be on their way to Mars are called the Mars Exploration Rovers. They are similar devices that can move across the Martian surface. Both will be controlled by scientists here on Earth. Each rover carries several scientific devices. Each will be launched to Mars on a Boeing Delta Two rocket. The first rover flight will be launched between May thirtieth and June Sixteenth. The second rover will be launched between June twenty-fifth and July twelfth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #11 - May 9, 2003: American/British Relations After the French and Indian War
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about relations between the American colonies and Britain after the French and Indian War about two-hundred-fifty years ago. VOICE ONE: The French and Indian War was one part of a world conflict between Britain and France. It was fought to decide which of the two powerful nations would rule North America. The British defeated the French in North America in Seventeen-Sixty-Three. As a result, it took control of lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now was responsible for almost two-million people in the thirteen American colonies and sixty-thousand French speaking people in Canada. In addition to political and economic responsibilities, Britain had to protect all these colonists from different groups of Indians. This would cost a lot of money. Britain already had spent a lot of money sending troops and material to the colonies to fight the French and Indian War. It believed the American colonists should now help pay for that war. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The colonists in America in Seventeen-Sixty-Three were very different from those who had settled there more than one-hundred years before. They had different ideas. They had come to consider their colonial legislatures as smaller -- but similar -- to the Parliament in Britain. These little parliaments had helped them rule themsleves for more than one-hundred years. The colonists began to feel that their legislatures should also have the powers that the British Parliament had. VOICE ONE: The situation had changed in England too. In Seventeen-Oh-Seven, the nation became officially known as Great Britain. Its king no longer controlled Parliament as he had in the early sixteen-hundreds. Then, the king decided all major questions, especially those concerning the colonies. But power had moved from the king to the Parliament. It was the legislature that decided major questions by the time of the French and Indian War, especially the power to tax. The parliaments in the colonies began to believe that they should have this power of taxation, too. VOICE TWO: The first English settlers in America considered themsleves citizens of England. They had crossed a dangerous ocean to create a little England in a new place, to trade with the mother country and to spread their religion. By Seventeen-Sixty-Three, however, the colonists thought of themselves as Americans. Many of their families had been in North America for fifty to one-hundred years. They had cleared the land, built homes, fought Indians and made lives for themselves far away from Britain. They had different everyday concerns than the people in Britain. Their way of life was different, too. They did not want anyone else to tell them how to govern themselves. VOICE ONE: The British, however, still believed that the purpose of a colony was to serve the mother country. The government treated colonists differently from citizens at home. It demanded special taxes from them. It also ordered them to feed British troops and let them live in their houses. Britain claimed that the soldiers were in the colonies to protect the people. The people asked, "From whom?" As long as the French were nearby in Canada, the colonists needed the protection of the British army and navy. After the French were gone -- following their defeat in the French and Indian War -- the colonists felt they no longer needed British military protection. VOICE TWO: The British government demanded that the colonists pay higher and higher taxes. One reason was that the British government wanted to show the colonists that it was in control. Another reason was that Britain was having money problems. Foreign wars had left it with big debts. The British thought the colonists should help pay some of these debts, especially those resulting from the French and Indian War. The American colonists might have agreed, but they wanted to have a say in the decision. They wanted the right to vote about their own taxes, like the people living in Britain. But no colonists were permitted to serve in the British Parliament. So they protested that they were being taxed without being represented. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Seventeen-Sixty-Four, the British Parliament approved the Sugar Act. This legislation placed taxes on sugar, coffee, wines and other products imported to America in large amounts. It increased by two times the taxes on European products sent to the colonies through Britain. The British government also approved new measures aimed at enforcing all trade laws. And it decided to restrict the printing of paper money in the colonies. The American colonists opposed all these new laws. Yet they could not agree about how to resist. Colonial assemblies approved protests against the laws, but the protest actions were all different and had no real effect. Business groups tried to orgnize boycotts of goods. But these were not very succcessful...until the British government approved another tax in Seventeen-Sixty-Five: a tax on stamps. VOICE TWO: The Stamp Act probably angered more American colonists than any earlier tax. It said the colonists had to buy a British stamp for every piece of printed paper they used. That meant they would be taxed for every piece of a newspaper, every document, even every playing card. The colonists refused to pay. Colonial assemblies approved resolutions suggesting that the British Parliament had no right to tax the colonies at all. Some colonists were so angry that they attacked British stamp agents. History experts say the main reason the colonists were angry was because Britain had rejected the idea of 'no taxation without representation'. Almost no colonist wanted to be independent of Britain at that time. Yet all of them valued their local self-rule and their rights as British citizens. They considered the Stamp Act to be the worst in a series of violations of these rights. VOICE ONE: The American colonists refused to obey the Stamp Act. They also refused to buy British goods. Almost one-thousand store owners signed non-importation agreements. This cost British businessmen so much money that they demaded that the government end the Stamp Act. Parliament finally cancelled the law in Seventeen-Sixty-Six. The colonists immediately ended their ban against British goods. VOICE TWO: The same day that Parliament cancelled the Stamp Act, however, it approved the Declaratory Act. This was a statement saying the colonies existed to serve Britain, and that Britain could approve any law it wanted. Most American colonists considered this statement to be illegal. History experts say this shows how separated the colonies had become from Britain. Colonial assemblies were able to approve their own laws, but only with the permission of the British Parliament. The colonists, however, considered the work of their assemblies as their own form of self-rule. VOICE ONE: Britain ended the Stamp Act but did not stop demanding taxes. In Seventeen-Sixty-Seven, Parliament approved a series of new taxes called the Townshend Acts. These were named after the government official who proposed them. The Townshend Acts placed taxes on glass, tea, lead, paints and paper imported into the colonies. The American colonists rejected the Townshend Acts and started a new boycott of British goods. They also made efforts to increase manufacturing in the colonies. By the end of Seventeen-Sixty-Nine, they had reduced by half the amount of goods imported from Britain. The colonies also began to communicate with each other about their problems. VOICE TWO: In Seventeen-Sixty-Eight, the Massachusetts General Court sent a letter to the legislatures of the other colonies. It said the Townshend Acts violated the colonists' natural and constitutional rights. When news of the letter reached London, British officials ordered the colonial governor of Massachusetts to dismiss the legislature. Then they moved four-thousand British troops into Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts -- and the biggest city in the American colonies. VOICE ONE: The people of Boston hated the British soldiers. The soldiers were controlling their streets and living in their houses. This tension led to violence. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, A VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about relations between the American colonies and Britain after the French and Indian War about two-hundred-fifty years ago. VOICE ONE: The French and Indian War was one part of a world conflict between Britain and France. It was fought to decide which of the two powerful nations would rule North America. The British defeated the French in North America in Seventeen-Sixty-Three. As a result, it took control of lands that had been claimed by France. Britain now was responsible for almost two-million people in the thirteen American colonies and sixty-thousand French speaking people in Canada. In addition to political and economic responsibilities, Britain had to protect all these colonists from different groups of Indians. This would cost a lot of money. Britain already had spent a lot of money sending troops and material to the colonies to fight the French and Indian War. It believed the American colonists should now help pay for that war. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The colonists in America in Seventeen-Sixty-Three were very different from those who had settled there more than one-hundred years before. They had different ideas. They had come to consider their colonial legislatures as smaller -- but similar -- to the Parliament in Britain. These little parliaments had helped them rule themsleves for more than one-hundred years. The colonists began to feel that their legislatures should also have the powers that the British Parliament had. VOICE ONE: The situation had changed in England too. In Seventeen-Oh-Seven, the nation became officially known as Great Britain. Its king no longer controlled Parliament as he had in the early sixteen-hundreds. Then, the king decided all major questions, especially those concerning the colonies. But power had moved from the king to the Parliament. It was the legislature that decided major questions by the time of the French and Indian War, especially the power to tax. The parliaments in the colonies began to believe that they should have this power of taxation, too. VOICE TWO: The first English settlers in America considered themsleves citizens of England. They had crossed a dangerous ocean to create a little England in a new place, to trade with the mother country and to spread their religion. By Seventeen-Sixty-Three, however, the colonists thought of themselves as Americans. Many of their families had been in North America for fifty to one-hundred years. They had cleared the land, built homes, fought Indians and made lives for themselves far away from Britain. They had different everyday concerns than the people in Britain. Their way of life was different, too. They did not want anyone else to tell them how to govern themselves. VOICE ONE: The British, however, still believed that the purpose of a colony was to serve the mother country. The government treated colonists differently from citizens at home. It demanded special taxes from them. It also ordered them to feed British troops and let them live in their houses. Britain claimed that the soldiers were in the colonies to protect the people. The people asked, "From whom?" As long as the French were nearby in Canada, the colonists needed the protection of the British army and navy. After the French were gone -- following their defeat in the French and Indian War -- the colonists felt they no longer needed British military protection. VOICE TWO: The British government demanded that the colonists pay higher and higher taxes. One reason was that the British government wanted to show the colonists that it was in control. Another reason was that Britain was having money problems. Foreign wars had left it with big debts. The British thought the colonists should help pay some of these debts, especially those resulting from the French and Indian War. The American colonists might have agreed, but they wanted to have a say in the decision. They wanted the right to vote about their own taxes, like the people living in Britain. But no colonists were permitted to serve in the British Parliament. So they protested that they were being taxed without being represented. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Seventeen-Sixty-Four, the British Parliament approved the Sugar Act. This legislation placed taxes on sugar, coffee, wines and other products imported to America in large amounts. It increased by two times the taxes on European products sent to the colonies through Britain. The British government also approved new measures aimed at enforcing all trade laws. And it decided to restrict the printing of paper money in the colonies. The American colonists opposed all these new laws. Yet they could not agree about how to resist. Colonial assemblies approved protests against the laws, but the protest actions were all different and had no real effect. Business groups tried to orgnize boycotts of goods. But these were not very succcessful...until the British government approved another tax in Seventeen-Sixty-Five: a tax on stamps. VOICE TWO: The Stamp Act probably angered more American colonists than any earlier tax. It said the colonists had to buy a British stamp for every piece of printed paper they used. That meant they would be taxed for every piece of a newspaper, every document, even every playing card. The colonists refused to pay. Colonial assemblies approved resolutions suggesting that the British Parliament had no right to tax the colonies at all. Some colonists were so angry that they attacked British stamp agents. History experts say the main reason the colonists were angry was because Britain had rejected the idea of 'no taxation without representation'. Almost no colonist wanted to be independent of Britain at that time. Yet all of them valued their local self-rule and their rights as British citizens. They considered the Stamp Act to be the worst in a series of violations of these rights. VOICE ONE: The American colonists refused to obey the Stamp Act. They also refused to buy British goods. Almost one-thousand store owners signed non-importation agreements. This cost British businessmen so much money that they demaded that the government end the Stamp Act. Parliament finally cancelled the law in Seventeen-Sixty-Six. The colonists immediately ended their ban against British goods. VOICE TWO: The same day that Parliament cancelled the Stamp Act, however, it approved the Declaratory Act. This was a statement saying the colonies existed to serve Britain, and that Britain could approve any law it wanted. Most American colonists considered this statement to be illegal. History experts say this shows how separated the colonies had become from Britain. Colonial assemblies were able to approve their own laws, but only with the permission of the British Parliament. The colonists, however, considered the work of their assemblies as their own form of self-rule. VOICE ONE: Britain ended the Stamp Act but did not stop demanding taxes. In Seventeen-Sixty-Seven, Parliament approved a series of new taxes called the Townshend Acts. These were named after the government official who proposed them. The Townshend Acts placed taxes on glass, tea, lead, paints and paper imported into the colonies. The American colonists rejected the Townshend Acts and started a new boycott of British goods. They also made efforts to increase manufacturing in the colonies. By the end of Seventeen-Sixty-Nine, they had reduced by half the amount of goods imported from Britain. The colonies also began to communicate with each other about their problems. VOICE TWO: In Seventeen-Sixty-Eight, the Massachusetts General Court sent a letter to the legislatures of the other colonies. It said the Townshend Acts violated the colonists' natural and constitutional rights. When news of the letter reached London, British officials ordered the colonial governor of Massachusetts to dismiss the legislature. Then they moved four-thousand British troops into Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts -- and the biggest city in the American colonies. VOICE ONE: The people of Boston hated the British soldiers. The soldiers were controlling their streets and living in their houses. This tension led to violence. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - May 8, 2003: Teacher of the Year
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A schoolteacher from the American state of Alabama will spend the next year as an international ambassador for education. Betsy Rogers was just chosen Teacher of the Year in the United States. President Bush honored her last week at the White House. As Teacher of the Year, Missus Rogers will travel around the country and elsewhere to urge better continuing training for teachers. Betsy Rogers has taught for twenty-two years. She teaches first and second grade at a very small school near Birmingham, Alabama. The school is called Leeds Elementary. Her students, ages five through seven, are mostly poor. To Betsy Rogers, the possibilities of education are endless. She urges other teachers never to decide that a student simply cannot learn something. Instead, she urges teachers to try new methods of explanation. Missus Rogers says one of the main problems of schools that serve the poor is that they simply do not get enough money. She also wishes more teachers would work with poor children. She and her husband moved to a farm near Leeds Elementary in the early nineteen-eighties. They wanted their two sons to know poor children and those of other races. She has taught at the school ever since. Betsy Rogers uses art, music and cooking as part of her daily teaching. She got the school to start a program where teachers follow students through the first and second grade. That way, the teachers can measure the children’s progress. This method is called “looping.” Other schools in Alabama now use this method. Missus Rogers also takes an interest in her students’ lives beyond the classroom. She attends their parties and sports events. To communicate with the whole family, she even sends e-mail to parents. Betsy Rogers was chosen for the national honor from among Teachers of the Year named by the fifty states. The Council of Chief State School Officers organizes the competition. Missus Rogers graduated in nineteen-seventy-four from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In the past five years, she has completed three more educational programs. She has earned the title of Doctor of Education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A schoolteacher from the American state of Alabama will spend the next year as an international ambassador for education. Betsy Rogers was just chosen Teacher of the Year in the United States. President Bush honored her last week at the White House. As Teacher of the Year, Missus Rogers will travel around the country and elsewhere to urge better continuing training for teachers. Betsy Rogers has taught for twenty-two years. She teaches first and second grade at a very small school near Birmingham, Alabama. The school is called Leeds Elementary. Her students, ages five through seven, are mostly poor. To Betsy Rogers, the possibilities of education are endless. She urges other teachers never to decide that a student simply cannot learn something. Instead, she urges teachers to try new methods of explanation. Missus Rogers says one of the main problems of schools that serve the poor is that they simply do not get enough money. She also wishes more teachers would work with poor children. She and her husband moved to a farm near Leeds Elementary in the early nineteen-eighties. They wanted their two sons to know poor children and those of other races. She has taught at the school ever since. Betsy Rogers uses art, music and cooking as part of her daily teaching. She got the school to start a program where teachers follow students through the first and second grade. That way, the teachers can measure the children’s progress. This method is called “looping.” Other schools in Alabama now use this method. Missus Rogers also takes an interest in her students’ lives beyond the classroom. She attends their parties and sports events. To communicate with the whole family, she even sends e-mail to parents. Betsy Rogers was chosen for the national honor from among Teachers of the Year named by the fifty states. The Council of Chief State School Officers organizes the competition. Missus Rogers graduated in nineteen-seventy-four from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. In the past five years, she has completed three more educational programs. She has earned the title of Doctor of Education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 8, 2003 - 'The Language Police,' Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 8, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster -- a response to the issues we raised last week when we talked about a new book called "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn." RS: The author, Diane Ravitch, says educational publishers -- pressured by all kinds of groups and by consolidation within their own industry -- have gone too far with what are called "bias and sensitivity guidelines." AA: This week, we hear from the other side, the major publishers of textbooks for kindergarten through twelfth grade. Steve Driesler is executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. DRIESLER: "I think the most important thing that your listeners need to understand is that the textbooks that are published today are published to the designs and specifications of what our customers want and demand. Textbook publishers, particularly in the 20 adoption states -- those are the states that have some centralized system of reviewing and approving or disapproving textbooks for purchase within that state, and we're talking about states like California and Texas and Florida. And they specify, and sometimes with great detail, what they want and what they don't want in their textbooks. "And the publisher then has one of two options: either they publish a book that the customer wants and will purchase, and will get approved in those states and in those markets, or they don't. And since you're talking about states -- nearly half the states in the country but probably in terms of the purchasing power probably over half the books that are purchased, the market reality is that you've got to listen to your customers and produce books that they tell you that they want." AA: "Now what about the power and influence of what Diane Ravitch calls 'pressure groups' -- both on the right and the left politically -- which she contends are pressuring the customers, the schools, and I guess then the publishers, to -- in her words -- 'censor' and 'sanitize' their language of anything that seems even remotely controversial"? DRIESLER: "Well, I think she's right in terms that there are pressure groups out there. Remember, we live in a democratic society, a very pluralistic diverse democratic society, and so, yes, groups from the left, groups from the right, interest groups representing race, religion, ethnicity, gender, all often times want to have a say in the textbooks that their children use and that are purchased with their tax dollars." RS: "The result, she contends in her book, is sometimes that the book becomes unreadable in some senses, that there are words or euphemisms that are used for words that are not natural. Do you have some of those words there?" AA: "I'm looking through the back of her book. Here's a glossary of banned words -- 'backward country,' banned as ethnocentric when referring to cultural differences. 'Backwoodsman,' banned as sexist, replace with 'pioneer.' 'Ball and chain,' banned as sexist, replace with 'spouse,' 'wife,' 'partner.' Now I could see, if I were writing a textbook, I wouldn't want to refer to a spouse, a wife, as a 'ball and chain.' Clearly that would be sexist. (laughter)" DRIESLER: "That would probably be a little bit offensive to some people." RS: "But how do you react to -- I mean, is it true that there are these word lists?" DRIESLER: "Well, again, each publisher decides how they're going to deal with this. But yes there are -- you know, the publishers are in a situation, quite bluntly, where they're sort of dammed if they do and damned if they don't. If they used words like 'backwoodsman' or 'ball and chain' or whatever those other words were that you just read off to me -- " AA: "Even the word 'hut' here, you're supposed to use 'small houses' instead, because huts could be construed as ethnocentric, according to this one publisher's guidelines." DRIESLER: "Then some parent or parent groups go to a board of education meeting and they complain that their child felt discriminated against because the country of their ethnic origin was described as 'backwoods' or 'backwards,' and people living in 'huts,' and that it didn't really reflect the true richness of the culture of that country. So if they make those changes to solve the sensitivity or to be sensitive to the complaints of that group, then Miss Ravitch comes along and complains that it's censorship." AA: Steve Driesler, executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find all of our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 8, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster -- a response to the issues we raised last week when we talked about a new book called "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn." RS: The author, Diane Ravitch, says educational publishers -- pressured by all kinds of groups and by consolidation within their own industry -- have gone too far with what are called "bias and sensitivity guidelines." AA: This week, we hear from the other side, the major publishers of textbooks for kindergarten through twelfth grade. Steve Driesler is executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. DRIESLER: "I think the most important thing that your listeners need to understand is that the textbooks that are published today are published to the designs and specifications of what our customers want and demand. Textbook publishers, particularly in the 20 adoption states -- those are the states that have some centralized system of reviewing and approving or disapproving textbooks for purchase within that state, and we're talking about states like California and Texas and Florida. And they specify, and sometimes with great detail, what they want and what they don't want in their textbooks. "And the publisher then has one of two options: either they publish a book that the customer wants and will purchase, and will get approved in those states and in those markets, or they don't. And since you're talking about states -- nearly half the states in the country but probably in terms of the purchasing power probably over half the books that are purchased, the market reality is that you've got to listen to your customers and produce books that they tell you that they want." AA: "Now what about the power and influence of what Diane Ravitch calls 'pressure groups' -- both on the right and the left politically -- which she contends are pressuring the customers, the schools, and I guess then the publishers, to -- in her words -- 'censor' and 'sanitize' their language of anything that seems even remotely controversial"? DRIESLER: "Well, I think she's right in terms that there are pressure groups out there. Remember, we live in a democratic society, a very pluralistic diverse democratic society, and so, yes, groups from the left, groups from the right, interest groups representing race, religion, ethnicity, gender, all often times want to have a say in the textbooks that their children use and that are purchased with their tax dollars." RS: "The result, she contends in her book, is sometimes that the book becomes unreadable in some senses, that there are words or euphemisms that are used for words that are not natural. Do you have some of those words there?" AA: "I'm looking through the back of her book. Here's a glossary of banned words -- 'backward country,' banned as ethnocentric when referring to cultural differences. 'Backwoodsman,' banned as sexist, replace with 'pioneer.' 'Ball and chain,' banned as sexist, replace with 'spouse,' 'wife,' 'partner.' Now I could see, if I were writing a textbook, I wouldn't want to refer to a spouse, a wife, as a 'ball and chain.' Clearly that would be sexist. (laughter)" DRIESLER: "That would probably be a little bit offensive to some people." RS: "But how do you react to -- I mean, is it true that there are these word lists?" DRIESLER: "Well, again, each publisher decides how they're going to deal with this. But yes there are -- you know, the publishers are in a situation, quite bluntly, where they're sort of dammed if they do and damned if they don't. If they used words like 'backwoodsman' or 'ball and chain' or whatever those other words were that you just read off to me -- " AA: "Even the word 'hut' here, you're supposed to use 'small houses' instead, because huts could be construed as ethnocentric, according to this one publisher's guidelines." DRIESLER: "Then some parent or parent groups go to a board of education meeting and they complain that their child felt discriminated against because the country of their ethnic origin was described as 'backwoods' or 'backwards,' and people living in 'huts,' and that it didn't really reflect the true richness of the culture of that country. So if they make those changes to solve the sensitivity or to be sensitive to the complaints of that group, then Miss Ravitch comes along and complains that it's censorship." AA: Steve Driesler, executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find all of our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 9, 2003 (THEME) Camilo Jose Vergara at his exhibitVOA Photo Broadcast: May 9, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, Luette and Molly Frost, mother and daughter were protesting in Washington,D.C.VOA Photo - S.Ho HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about Mother’s Day ... Play music by the group Fleetwood Mac ... And report about a contest for a September eleventh memorial in New York City. World Trade Center Memorial Competition HOST: Officials in New York City have announced an international competition to design a memorial to honor those who died at the World Trade Center. The memorial is part of a larger plan for the rebuilding of the area. Shas more. We answer a listener’s question about Mother’s Day ... Play music by the group Fleetwood Mac ... And report about a contest for a September eleventh memorial in New York City. World Trade Center Memorial Competition HOST: Officials in New York City have announced an international competition to design a memorial to honor those who died at the World Trade Center. The memorial is part of a larger plan for the rebuilding of the area. Shas more. ANNCR: The seven buildings known as the World Trade Center complex in New York City were built between nineteen-sixty-two and nineteen-seventy-three. The buildings known as the Twin Towers were the tallest in the world at the time they were finished. On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, a terrorist bomb exploded in the parking area below the World Trade Center. Six people were killed. Thousands were injured. The bomb damaged the buildings but people were able to return to work three weeks later. On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, hijackers flew two passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers. The attacks caused huge explosions that started fires in the buildings. Pieces fell all over the area. The Twin Towers fell down. Five other buildings in the World Trade Center were also destroyed. Almost three-thousand people were killed. The international competition to honor those killed is open to anyone over the age of eighteen. The competition will be carried out in two parts. The first designs must be sent to the judging committee by June thirtieth. The judges will select five to further develop their designs. The judges will announce a winner later this year. The fourteen judges on the committee include designer Maya Lin, architecture professor Enrique Norton, and Paula Grant-Berry. Her husband was among those killed. Officials say they are seeking the most creative designs for the memorial to honor all those who died. Anyone seeking to take part in the competition must register by May twenty-ninth. The cost is twenty-five dollars. To register for the competition, you must use the form found on the Memorial Competition Web site. It provides all the necessary information about the contest and how to send in the design. That address is www.wtcsitememorial.org. Again, the address is wtcsitememorial -- that's all one word -- dot o-r-g. Mother’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from two different people. Nguyen Than Duc of Vietnam and Ibrahim Abdulkarim of Nigeria both ask about the American holiday, Mother’s Day. This Sunday, May eleventh, is Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, but not always on the same day. Some history experts say the holiday comes from ancient spring festivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother's Day began in the seventeenth century in Britain. The writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace. Mother’s Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor her mother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held the ceremony on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Later, she and others wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day. President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a day of public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. It became popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy tot their mothers on Mother’s Day. Today, children of all ages still give their mothers special gifts on Mother’s Day. Older children may travel to visit their mothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with a message of love. Or they send flowers. They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wish them a happy day. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for American telephone companies. Fleetwood Mac HOST: You probably remember the band Fleetwood Mac from its hit records twenty years ago. Well, the band has released its first album of new songs in sixteen years. Steve Ember tells us about the album, called “Say You Will.” ANNCR: Fleetwood Mac has produced a big album. There are eighteen songs on “Say You Will.” Singer Stevie Nicks joked that a person needs two days to listen to it. She and guitar player Lindsey Buckingham met as teenagers. They recorded an album together before joining Fleetwood Mac in nineteen-seventy-four. The two musicians are famous for the stormy love relationship they once had. The album closes with goodbye songs that they wrote about each other years ago. Hers is called “Goodbye Baby.” (MUSIC) Nicks and Buckingham says they balance each other musically. However, part of the balance comes from much argument. Nicks says the music would be uninteresting if everything went smoothly. Here is another song Stevie Nicks wrote about her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham. It is called “Thrown Down.” (MUSIC) Fleetwood Mac has sold more than seventy-million records since its creation. Mick Fleetwood is the only member who has been in the band from the beginning. He plays the drums. John McVie is also an early member. He plays bass. We leave you now with the new album’s title song, “Say You Will.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. ANNCR: The seven buildings known as the World Trade Center complex in New York City were built between nineteen-sixty-two and nineteen-seventy-three. The buildings known as the Twin Towers were the tallest in the world at the time they were finished. On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, a terrorist bomb exploded in the parking area below the World Trade Center. Six people were killed. Thousands were injured. The bomb damaged the buildings but people were able to return to work three weeks later. On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, hijackers flew two passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers. The attacks caused huge explosions that started fires in the buildings. Pieces fell all over the area. The Twin Towers fell down. Five other buildings in the World Trade Center were also destroyed. Almost three-thousand people were killed. The international competition to honor those killed is open to anyone over the age of eighteen. The competition will be carried out in two parts. The first designs must be sent to the judging committee by June thirtieth. The judges will select five to further develop their designs. The judges will announce a winner later this year. The fourteen judges on the committee include designer Maya Lin, architecture professor Enrique Norton, and Paula Grant-Berry. Her husband was among those killed. Officials say they are seeking the most creative designs for the memorial to honor all those who died. Anyone seeking to take part in the competition must register by May twenty-ninth. The cost is twenty-five dollars. To register for the competition, you must use the form found on the Memorial Competition Web site. It provides all the necessary information about the contest and how to send in the design. That address is www.wtcsitememorial.org. Again, the address is wtcsitememorial -- that's all one word -- dot o-r-g. Mother’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from two different people. Nguyen Than Duc of Vietnam and Ibrahim Abdulkarim of Nigeria both ask about the American holiday, Mother’s Day. This Sunday, May eleventh, is Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, but not always on the same day. Some history experts say the holiday comes from ancient spring festivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother's Day began in the seventeenth century in Britain. The writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace. Mother’s Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor her mother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held the ceremony on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Later, she and others wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day. President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a day of public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. It became popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy tot their mothers on Mother’s Day. Today, children of all ages still give their mothers special gifts on Mother’s Day. Older children may travel to visit their mothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with a message of love. Or they send flowers. They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wish them a happy day. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for American telephone companies. Fleetwood Mac HOST: You probably remember the band Fleetwood Mac from its hit records twenty years ago. Well, the band has released its first album of new songs in sixteen years. Steve Ember tells us about the album, called “Say You Will.” ANNCR: Fleetwood Mac has produced a big album. There are eighteen songs on “Say You Will.” Singer Stevie Nicks joked that a person needs two days to listen to it. She and guitar player Lindsey Buckingham met as teenagers. They recorded an album together before joining Fleetwood Mac in nineteen-seventy-four. The two musicians are famous for the stormy love relationship they once had. The album closes with goodbye songs that they wrote about each other years ago. Hers is called “Goodbye Baby.” (MUSIC) Nicks and Buckingham says they balance each other musically. However, part of the balance comes from much argument. Nicks says the music would be uninteresting if everything went smoothly. Here is another song Stevie Nicks wrote about her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham. It is called “Thrown Down.” (MUSIC) Fleetwood Mac has sold more than seventy-million records since its creation. Mick Fleetwood is the only member who has been in the band from the beginning. He plays the drums. John McVie is also an early member. He plays bass. We leave you now with the new album’s title song, “Say You Will.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Goldman Environmental Prize
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 9, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Seven activists are this year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Foundation awards. The winners received their one-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollar prizes at a ceremony in San Francisco, California. The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest program that honors local environmental activists. Each year, experts choose the winners from six parts of the world. This year, two people share the prize for Islands and Island Nations. Eileen Kampakuta Brown and Eileen Wani Wingfield are Aborigines, the native people of Australia. They lead a campaign to block the building of a nuclear waste center in the desert in southern Australia where they live. Julia Bonds of the United States is the winner of the Goldman Prize for North America. She has worked to stop the mountaintop removal method of coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. Mizz Bonds is the daughter of a coal miner. For Africa, the Goldman Prize winner is forest protection activist Odigha Odigha of Nigeria. Mister Odigha helped establish a temporary ban on the cutting down of trees in Cross River State. An activist from the Philippines won the Goldman Prize for Asia. Von Hernandez organized campaigns to end the burning of waste. Such burning releases poisons into the air. The Philippines became the first country to ban the activity. Maria Elena Foronda Farro is a community organizer in Peru. She won the Goldman Prize for Central and South America for her efforts to stop pollution by Peru’s fishmeal industry. She formed alliances among community activists, fishmeal producers and the government to make the industry operate more cleanly. The Goldman Prize for Europe went to Pedro Arrojo-Agudo of Spain. Mister Arrojo leads efforts to change government policies on water management in Spain. He seeks to end the system of blocking and re-directing the flow of Spanish rivers. Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the Goldman Environmental Prize in nineteen-ninety. The purpose of the Goldman Foundation awards is to show the difference that each person can make to help the environment. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 10, 2003: Shuttle Investigation
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program, In the News. Investigators say they now believe they know what caused the American space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. The chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Admiral Harold Gehman, announced the committee’s "working" theory during a news conference Tuesday in Houston, Texas. Columbia broke apart February first as it flew two-hundred-thousand kilometers over the state of Texas. It was flying toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle came apart. Since then, all space shuttle flights have been grounded while investigators search for the cause of the accident. Investigators have studied evidence from almost fifty-thousand pieces of the shuttle. Most of it fell over east Texas and Louisiana. Thousands of people helped in the recovery effort. After three months of investigating, the board members say they have a better understanding of the events leading up to the accident. Evidence recovered so far supports the belief that the spacecraft was damaged during lift-off on January sixteenth. Photographs taken during the launch show that a piece of foam insulation fell off the external fuel tank and struck Columbia’s left wing. Investigators believe that the foam struck heat-resistant carbon panels on the front edge of the wing, opening a hole. They noted that an object that came off of the shuttle during its second day in orbit also suggests evidence of a hole. Investigators believe that shortly after re-entry, extremely hot gas entered through the hole in the wing. A recording device tied to hundreds of sensors within the spacecraft helped investigators follow the path of the hot gas inside the wing. The gas melted the wing frame within seconds, causing it to bend. Finally, the shuttle rolled and spun out of control, breaking up high above Earth. Within fifteen minutes, all communication with Columbia stopped. The board is examining many possible reasons for what may have weakened the strong carbon panels along the shuttle’s wing. They are considering manufacturing problems, the age of the shuttles and poor administration of the shuttle program. NASA officials have begun planning for the return to shuttle flights, possibly early next year. Board members say repeated incidents of foam insulation breaking away from the external fuel tanks must be fixed before the shuttles can fly again. Board chairman Harold Gehman says they may never prove the wing was damaged by the foam insulation. He says more tests need to be done before any final conclusions can be made. Investigators will suggest ways to make the shuttle program safer in their final report in a few months. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English program, In the News. Investigators say they now believe they know what caused the American space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere. The chairman of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Admiral Harold Gehman, announced the committee’s "working" theory during a news conference Tuesday in Houston, Texas. Columbia broke apart February first as it flew two-hundred-thousand kilometers over the state of Texas. It was flying toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle came apart. Since then, all space shuttle flights have been grounded while investigators search for the cause of the accident. Investigators have studied evidence from almost fifty-thousand pieces of the shuttle. Most of it fell over east Texas and Louisiana. Thousands of people helped in the recovery effort. After three months of investigating, the board members say they have a better understanding of the events leading up to the accident. Evidence recovered so far supports the belief that the spacecraft was damaged during lift-off on January sixteenth. Photographs taken during the launch show that a piece of foam insulation fell off the external fuel tank and struck Columbia’s left wing. Investigators believe that the foam struck heat-resistant carbon panels on the front edge of the wing, opening a hole. They noted that an object that came off of the shuttle during its second day in orbit also suggests evidence of a hole. Investigators believe that shortly after re-entry, extremely hot gas entered through the hole in the wing. A recording device tied to hundreds of sensors within the spacecraft helped investigators follow the path of the hot gas inside the wing. The gas melted the wing frame within seconds, causing it to bend. Finally, the shuttle rolled and spun out of control, breaking up high above Earth. Within fifteen minutes, all communication with Columbia stopped. The board is examining many possible reasons for what may have weakened the strong carbon panels along the shuttle’s wing. They are considering manufacturing problems, the age of the shuttles and poor administration of the shuttle program. NASA officials have begun planning for the return to shuttle flights, possibly early next year. Board members say repeated incidents of foam insulation breaking away from the external fuel tanks must be fixed before the shuttles can fly again. Board chairman Harold Gehman says they may never prove the wing was damaged by the foam insulation. He says more tests need to be done before any final conclusions can be made. Investigators will suggest ways to make the shuttle program safer in their final report in a few months. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 11, 2003: Irving Berlin
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Irving Berlin. He wrote the words and music for some of the most popular songs of the twentieth century. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Irving Berlin lived to be one-hundred-one years old. He died in nineteen-eighty-nine. During his long life, he wrote more than one-thousand songs. Many of his songs have become timeless additions to America's popular culture. Irving Berlin's music helped spread that popular culture throughout the world. Berlin was born in Russia. But he captured the feeling, the people and the customs of his new country. And he put those ideas to music. Another composer, Jerome Kern, once said of Irving Berlin: "He has no place in American music. He is American music." VOICE TWO: Most American children grow up hearing and singing some of Irving Berlin's songs. Two of the best known are linked to Christian religious holidays. They are "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade." Many Americans think the perfect Christmas Day on December twenty-fifth should be cold and snowy. Irving Berlin thought so, too. He wrote "White Christmas" in nineteen-thirty-nine. It was sung in the movie "Holiday Inn" in nineteen-forty-two. "White Christmas" became one of the best-selling songs of all time. Here is Bing Crosby singing his famous version of "White Christmas." ((CUT 1: WHITE CHRISTMAS)) VOICE ONE: lrving Berlin's song for the Easter holiday captures another American tradition. "Easter Parade" is about a tradition in New York City. There, on Easter morning, people walk up and down Fifth Avenue after church services to enjoy the spring weather. Women wear new hats and dresses. Berlin wrote the song for a musical play in nineteen-thirty-three. It was the main song in the musical film "Easter Parade" in nineteen-forty-eight. Here is Judy Garland singing "Easter Parade." ((CUT 2: EASTER PARADE)) VOICE TWO: Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in eighteen--eighty-eight in the Russian village of Temun. He was the youngest of eight children. His family was Jewish. They fled Russia because of religious oppression. The Baline family came to America in eighteen--ninety-three. They did not have much money. They moved into an area of New York City where many other poor Jewish immigrants had settled when they moved to the United States. Israel's father died when the boy was eight years old. The young boy left his home to find work. First, he got a job helping a blind street singer. Then he began earning money by singing on the streets of New York. Later, he got a job singing while serving people their food in a restaurant. Israel taught himself to play the piano. But he could play only the black keys. VOICE ONE: Soon Israel began writing his own songs. He never learned to read or write music. He wrote his songs by playing the notes with one finger on the piano. An assistant wrote down the notes on sheets of paper. When the songwriter's first song was published, his name was spelled wrong. Israel Baline had become I. Berlin. Israel thought the name sounded more American. So he re-named himself Irving Berlin. Between nineteen-twelve and nineteen-sixteen, Irving Berlin wrote more than one-hundred-eighty songs. By the time he was in his late twenties, his songs were famous around the world. VOICE TWO: Berlin became an American citizen in nineteen-eighteen. A few months later, he was ordered into military service. The United States was fighting in World War One. Berlin was asked to write songs for a musical about life in the military. He called the show "Yip Yip Yaphank." All of the performers in the show were soldiers. Many of the songs became popular. After he served in the army, Berlin returned to New York. He formed his own music publishing company. He also established a theater for his musical shows near Broadway. VOICE ONE: Irving Berlin loved America for giving a poor immigrant a chance to succeed. He expressed his thanks for this success in his songs. One of these songs is "God Bless America." He wrote the song in nineteen-eighteen. But it did not become popular until Kate Smith sang it in nineteen-thirty-nine. She sang the song to celebrate Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One. Many people feel "God Bless America" is the unofficial national song of the United States. Berlin gave all money he earned from "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. Here is Kate Smith singing "God Bless America." ((CUT 3: GOD BLESS AMERICA)) VOICE TWO: The United States entered World War Two in nineteen-forty-one. Berlin agreed to write and produce a musical show called "This is the Army." It was a musical about life in the military. All the performers were soldiers. The show was performed in many cities across the United States. It helped increase support for America's part in the war. It earned ten- million dollars for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. "This is the Army" also was performed for the American troops at military bases around the world. Irving Berlin appeared in most of these performances. He sang the song he had written earlier. The song is about what he had hated most about being in the army. Here, Irving Berlin sings "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." ((CUT #4:OH, HOW I HATE TO GET UP IN THE MORNING)) VOICE ONE: After the war, Berlin continued to write songs for movies and plays. He wrote songs for more than fifteen movies from the nineteen-thirties to the nineteen-fifties. Many of the songs were used in movies starring the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Here is Fred Astaire singing a song that appeared in several movies, "Puttin’ on the Ritz." (MUSIC CUT #5: PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ)) VOICE TWO: Irving Berlin also wrote the music for seventeen Broadway plays from the nineteen-twenties to nineteen-fifty. His most successful Broadway musical was “Annie Get Your Gun” in nineteen-forty-six. Irving Berlin retired in nineteen-sixty--two after his last Broadway musical, "Mister President," failed. He died in nineteen-eighty-nine. But the songs that he gave America will be played and sung for many years to come. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Irving Berlin. He wrote the words and music for some of the most popular songs of the twentieth century. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Irving Berlin lived to be one-hundred-one years old. He died in nineteen-eighty-nine. During his long life, he wrote more than one-thousand songs. Many of his songs have become timeless additions to America's popular culture. Irving Berlin's music helped spread that popular culture throughout the world. Berlin was born in Russia. But he captured the feeling, the people and the customs of his new country. And he put those ideas to music. Another composer, Jerome Kern, once said of Irving Berlin: "He has no place in American music. He is American music." VOICE TWO: Most American children grow up hearing and singing some of Irving Berlin's songs. Two of the best known are linked to Christian religious holidays. They are "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade." Many Americans think the perfect Christmas Day on December twenty-fifth should be cold and snowy. Irving Berlin thought so, too. He wrote "White Christmas" in nineteen-thirty-nine. It was sung in the movie "Holiday Inn" in nineteen-forty-two. "White Christmas" became one of the best-selling songs of all time. Here is Bing Crosby singing his famous version of "White Christmas." ((CUT 1: WHITE CHRISTMAS)) VOICE ONE: lrving Berlin's song for the Easter holiday captures another American tradition. "Easter Parade" is about a tradition in New York City. There, on Easter morning, people walk up and down Fifth Avenue after church services to enjoy the spring weather. Women wear new hats and dresses. Berlin wrote the song for a musical play in nineteen-thirty-three. It was the main song in the musical film "Easter Parade" in nineteen-forty-eight. Here is Judy Garland singing "Easter Parade." ((CUT 2: EASTER PARADE)) VOICE TWO: Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in eighteen--eighty-eight in the Russian village of Temun. He was the youngest of eight children. His family was Jewish. They fled Russia because of religious oppression. The Baline family came to America in eighteen--ninety-three. They did not have much money. They moved into an area of New York City where many other poor Jewish immigrants had settled when they moved to the United States. Israel's father died when the boy was eight years old. The young boy left his home to find work. First, he got a job helping a blind street singer. Then he began earning money by singing on the streets of New York. Later, he got a job singing while serving people their food in a restaurant. Israel taught himself to play the piano. But he could play only the black keys. VOICE ONE: Soon Israel began writing his own songs. He never learned to read or write music. He wrote his songs by playing the notes with one finger on the piano. An assistant wrote down the notes on sheets of paper. When the songwriter's first song was published, his name was spelled wrong. Israel Baline had become I. Berlin. Israel thought the name sounded more American. So he re-named himself Irving Berlin. Between nineteen-twelve and nineteen-sixteen, Irving Berlin wrote more than one-hundred-eighty songs. By the time he was in his late twenties, his songs were famous around the world. VOICE TWO: Berlin became an American citizen in nineteen-eighteen. A few months later, he was ordered into military service. The United States was fighting in World War One. Berlin was asked to write songs for a musical about life in the military. He called the show "Yip Yip Yaphank." All of the performers in the show were soldiers. Many of the songs became popular. After he served in the army, Berlin returned to New York. He formed his own music publishing company. He also established a theater for his musical shows near Broadway. VOICE ONE: Irving Berlin loved America for giving a poor immigrant a chance to succeed. He expressed his thanks for this success in his songs. One of these songs is "God Bless America." He wrote the song in nineteen-eighteen. But it did not become popular until Kate Smith sang it in nineteen-thirty-nine. She sang the song to celebrate Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One. Many people feel "God Bless America" is the unofficial national song of the United States. Berlin gave all money he earned from "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. Here is Kate Smith singing "God Bless America." ((CUT 3: GOD BLESS AMERICA)) VOICE TWO: The United States entered World War Two in nineteen-forty-one. Berlin agreed to write and produce a musical show called "This is the Army." It was a musical about life in the military. All the performers were soldiers. The show was performed in many cities across the United States. It helped increase support for America's part in the war. It earned ten- million dollars for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. "This is the Army" also was performed for the American troops at military bases around the world. Irving Berlin appeared in most of these performances. He sang the song he had written earlier. The song is about what he had hated most about being in the army. Here, Irving Berlin sings "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." ((CUT #4:OH, HOW I HATE TO GET UP IN THE MORNING)) VOICE ONE: After the war, Berlin continued to write songs for movies and plays. He wrote songs for more than fifteen movies from the nineteen-thirties to the nineteen-fifties. Many of the songs were used in movies starring the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Here is Fred Astaire singing a song that appeared in several movies, "Puttin’ on the Ritz." (MUSIC CUT #5: PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ)) VOICE TWO: Irving Berlin also wrote the music for seventeen Broadway plays from the nineteen-twenties to nineteen-fifty. His most successful Broadway musical was “Annie Get Your Gun” in nineteen-forty-six. Irving Berlin retired in nineteen-sixty--two after his last Broadway musical, "Mister President," failed. He died in nineteen-eighty-nine. But the songs that he gave America will be played and sung for many years to come. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - May 12, 2003: Water Storage Systems
* Byline: 

  This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, millions of people in Bangladesh drink ground water that has been polluted by naturally high levels of arsenic poison. Finding safe drinking water in that country can be a problem. However, International Development Enterprises has a low-cost answer. This non-governmental organization has developed technology to harvest rainwater. People around the world have been harvesting rainwater for centuries. It is a safe, dependable source of drinking water. Unlike ground water, rainwater contains no minerals or salts and is free of chemical treatments. Best of all, it is free. The rainwater harvesting system created by International Development Enterprises uses pipes to collect water from the tops of buildings. The pipes stretch from the buildings to a two-meter tall storage tank made of metal. At the top of the tank is a so-called “first-flush” device made of wire screen. This barrier prevents dirt and leaves in the water from falling inside the tank. A fitted cover sits over the “first-flush” device. It protects the water inside the tank from evaporating. The cover also prevents mosquito insects from laying eggs in the water. Inside the tank is a low cost plastic bag that collects the water. The bag sits inside another plastic bag similar to those used to hold grains. The two bags are supported inside the metal tank. All total, the water storage system can hold up to three-thousand-five-hundred liters of water. International Development Enterprises says the inner bags may need to be replaced every two to three years. However, if the bags are not damaged by sunlight, they could last even longer. International Development Enterprises says the water harvesting system should be built on a raised structure to prevent insects from eating into it at the bottom. The total cost to build this rainwater harvesting system is about forty dollars. However, International Development Enterprises expects the price to drop over time. The group says one tank can provide a family of five with enough rainwater to survive a five-month dry season. International Development Enterprises has more information at its Web site, w-w-w-dot-i-d-e-o-r-g-dot-o-r-g (www.ideorg.org). This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - May 12, 2003: State Budgets
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American states are struggling with their worst financial problems in about sixty years. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. Today we report about money troubles in the fifty states on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: American states are facing hard financial times. They are struggling with their worst money problems since World War Two. Their main support, the federal government, is paying for damages caused by the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The federal government is paying for protection against further attacks. It is paying for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The states say all this leaves them without the money they need to provide for their citizens’ needs. States depend on federal money for help called grants-in-aid. The states then are responsible for helping their local governments and agencies. VOICE ONE: The states lack thousands of millions of dollars at a time when their citizens need help the most. The American economy is weak. Last month, for example, the unemployment rate reached its highest level so far this year. Many companies are closing. Or they have suspended workers. Millions of Americans have lost money in retirement plans and stock-market investments. Millions of others have no insurance plan for financial help for medical needs. The states also have more people to care for these days. The national population count of two-thousand showed that only the District of Columbia did not gain population. Some states, like Nevada, grew at a huge rate. In some areas the recent arrival of many people from foreign nations has greatly increased demand for social services. New York, America’s most heavily populated city, is under intense pressure to provide for poor people. So is Los Angeles, California, the second most populous city. VOICE TWO: The states’ lack of money shows itself in many ways. For example, some teachers in the state of Oklahoma are cleaning schools and preparing food. The educational system cannot pay for cleaning workers or cooks. Big states like Texas and California are releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are ended. Over just two years, students are paying almost twenty percent more to attend state colleges in Nebraska. And the state has stopped providing health care for almost twenty-five- thousand mothers who are poor. Other states are closing parks. They are cutting the operating hours of libraries. Roads are not being repaired. Some public transportation has been withdrawn. A small town in Michigan is considering selling space on their police cars for sales messages. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The states currently face cutting about seventy-five thousand million dollars from their budgets. That is for this year and next year. In the future many states will need more money for almost all their services. They must provide their growing populations with roads, education and social services. They must help provide for health and health centers. States also must try to make their citizens safe from terrorist attacks. State officials say the federal government has given them many security responsibilities. But they say there is not enough money to pay for them. In some states, for example, police and fire forces are being reduced. This is true although these officials are the first to respond in case of terrorism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Every American state has an organization that makes laws. All the states except one have a senate and a house of state representatives, delegates or assembly members. Only Nebraska has one just legislative house. Most states' agencies ask the governor for the money they want. For example, the motor vehicle department asks for whatever amount it needs to operate. The governor considers all such requests. The governor then proposes a state budget and sends it to the legislature. VOICE ONE: Lawmakers must decide about all the proposed amounts. The legislators debate. Usually, they must compromise. This is often a painful process. But after awhile they pass a budget. This measure goes to the governor to sign or reject. VOICE TWO: States receive income from other sources besides the federal government. States tax tobacco products, cars and individual and company incomes. They tax gifts, payments to workers and the use of natural resources. But almost forty states are saying they expected too much money from these sources. The law requires most states to pass a budget by the end of June. The budget must be balanced. States usually get help from federal tax returns. But last year they did not get this help. If this happens again, experts say many states are in deep trouble. VOICE ONE: Twenty-seven states cannot raise the money they have budgeted. Thirty-four states are having to spend more money than they planned. Most blame this on health care programs, especially those for the poor. Many federal programs make costly requirements of states for health care. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act says states must help poor people who need long-term medical care. This is costly. VOICE TWO: Common solutions exist for the problem of too little money for too many public needs. One is to raise state taxes. Another is to borrow money. The eastern state of Massachusetts has been facing financial crisis. It expects to fall three-thousand-million dollars short of its budget for two-thousand-four. Massachusetts’ money problems are the worst in ten years. Still, legislators say there is little chance tax increases will pass this year. The budget cuts that some lawmakers have called for demonstrate the limitations that may affect state citizens. Between three-thousand and five-thousand state workers could be suspended. Colleges and universities could lose one-hundred-seventy million dollars in aid. Massachusetts provides reduced drug costs for eighty-thousand old people. This program could be reduced by ninety-seven-million dollars. VOICE ONE: As you might expect, angry activists immediately condemned the proposals. They point to the suffering they say the cuts would cause old people, sick people and students. Angry people throughout the country are demanding a solution to their states’ money problems. Some public officials believe they have found a way to deal with the problems. They believe gambling – games of chance -- can rescue state budgets. For years, many public officials wanted to ban or severely limit gambling. Some said games of chance were immoral. Others worried because gambling can become an addiction – something people cannot control. Gambling addicts sometimes lose all their money, causing deep harm to their families and society. But a growing number of states are using gambling to help their financial problems. VOICE TWO: Gambling in the United States is estimated to be about a fifty-thousand-million-dollar business. Recently about half the states have decided to try to get some of this money for their services. For many years states taxed gambling to limit or end it. Now, states want gambling so they can tax it for profit.Supporters see gambling as a way to raise money for better schools and better teachers. They believe it can make their states richer and more productive. They see gambling as a rescue for people in need. VOICE ONE: Some state lawmakers have proposed more gambling clubs and expansion of state competitions called lotteries. They also are trying to get bigger payments from American Indian gambling clubs. Gambling provides important financial help for many tribes. Indians are permitted to operate these clubs under a nineteen-eighty-eight act of Congress. VOICE TWO: The Maryland House of Delegates has rejected a slot-machine proposal by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Junior. But the delegates also voted to study placing these machines at horse-racing centers in the future. Players put metal money—coins – into slot machines. In return, they get a chance to win more money. A Maryland delegate who opposes slot-machines at the racing centers says they are a bad influence. He says this is true especially for poor people. This legislator believes increasing chances to gamble make poor people even more poor. VOICE ONE: Economists argue about gambling and taxes and loans to correct states’ financial problems. One expert says there is only one solution. For the states to recover financially, he says the whole nation must make a strong economic recovery. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in America on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American states are struggling with their worst financial problems in about sixty years. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. Today we report about money troubles in the fifty states on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: American states are facing hard financial times. They are struggling with their worst money problems since World War Two. Their main support, the federal government, is paying for damages caused by the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The federal government is paying for protection against further attacks. It is paying for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The states say all this leaves them without the money they need to provide for their citizens’ needs. States depend on federal money for help called grants-in-aid. The states then are responsible for helping their local governments and agencies. VOICE ONE: The states lack thousands of millions of dollars at a time when their citizens need help the most. The American economy is weak. Last month, for example, the unemployment rate reached its highest level so far this year. Many companies are closing. Or they have suspended workers. Millions of Americans have lost money in retirement plans and stock-market investments. Millions of others have no insurance plan for financial help for medical needs. The states also have more people to care for these days. The national population count of two-thousand showed that only the District of Columbia did not gain population. Some states, like Nevada, grew at a huge rate. In some areas the recent arrival of many people from foreign nations has greatly increased demand for social services. New York, America’s most heavily populated city, is under intense pressure to provide for poor people. So is Los Angeles, California, the second most populous city. VOICE TWO: The states’ lack of money shows itself in many ways. For example, some teachers in the state of Oklahoma are cleaning schools and preparing food. The educational system cannot pay for cleaning workers or cooks. Big states like Texas and California are releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are ended. Over just two years, students are paying almost twenty percent more to attend state colleges in Nebraska. And the state has stopped providing health care for almost twenty-five- thousand mothers who are poor. Other states are closing parks. They are cutting the operating hours of libraries. Roads are not being repaired. Some public transportation has been withdrawn. A small town in Michigan is considering selling space on their police cars for sales messages. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The states currently face cutting about seventy-five thousand million dollars from their budgets. That is for this year and next year. In the future many states will need more money for almost all their services. They must provide their growing populations with roads, education and social services. They must help provide for health and health centers. States also must try to make their citizens safe from terrorist attacks. State officials say the federal government has given them many security responsibilities. But they say there is not enough money to pay for them. In some states, for example, police and fire forces are being reduced. This is true although these officials are the first to respond in case of terrorism. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Every American state has an organization that makes laws. All the states except one have a senate and a house of state representatives, delegates or assembly members. Only Nebraska has one just legislative house. Most states' agencies ask the governor for the money they want. For example, the motor vehicle department asks for whatever amount it needs to operate. The governor considers all such requests. The governor then proposes a state budget and sends it to the legislature. VOICE ONE: Lawmakers must decide about all the proposed amounts. The legislators debate. Usually, they must compromise. This is often a painful process. But after awhile they pass a budget. This measure goes to the governor to sign or reject. VOICE TWO: States receive income from other sources besides the federal government. States tax tobacco products, cars and individual and company incomes. They tax gifts, payments to workers and the use of natural resources. But almost forty states are saying they expected too much money from these sources. The law requires most states to pass a budget by the end of June. The budget must be balanced. States usually get help from federal tax returns. But last year they did not get this help. If this happens again, experts say many states are in deep trouble. VOICE ONE: Twenty-seven states cannot raise the money they have budgeted. Thirty-four states are having to spend more money than they planned. Most blame this on health care programs, especially those for the poor. Many federal programs make costly requirements of states for health care. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act says states must help poor people who need long-term medical care. This is costly. VOICE TWO: Common solutions exist for the problem of too little money for too many public needs. One is to raise state taxes. Another is to borrow money. The eastern state of Massachusetts has been facing financial crisis. It expects to fall three-thousand-million dollars short of its budget for two-thousand-four. Massachusetts’ money problems are the worst in ten years. Still, legislators say there is little chance tax increases will pass this year. The budget cuts that some lawmakers have called for demonstrate the limitations that may affect state citizens. Between three-thousand and five-thousand state workers could be suspended. Colleges and universities could lose one-hundred-seventy million dollars in aid. Massachusetts provides reduced drug costs for eighty-thousand old people. This program could be reduced by ninety-seven-million dollars. VOICE ONE: As you might expect, angry activists immediately condemned the proposals. They point to the suffering they say the cuts would cause old people, sick people and students. Angry people throughout the country are demanding a solution to their states’ money problems. Some public officials believe they have found a way to deal with the problems. They believe gambling – games of chance -- can rescue state budgets. For years, many public officials wanted to ban or severely limit gambling. Some said games of chance were immoral. Others worried because gambling can become an addiction – something people cannot control. Gambling addicts sometimes lose all their money, causing deep harm to their families and society. But a growing number of states are using gambling to help their financial problems. VOICE TWO: Gambling in the United States is estimated to be about a fifty-thousand-million-dollar business. Recently about half the states have decided to try to get some of this money for their services. For many years states taxed gambling to limit or end it. Now, states want gambling so they can tax it for profit.Supporters see gambling as a way to raise money for better schools and better teachers. They believe it can make their states richer and more productive. They see gambling as a rescue for people in need. VOICE ONE: Some state lawmakers have proposed more gambling clubs and expansion of state competitions called lotteries. They also are trying to get bigger payments from American Indian gambling clubs. Gambling provides important financial help for many tribes. Indians are permitted to operate these clubs under a nineteen-eighty-eight act of Congress. VOICE TWO: The Maryland House of Delegates has rejected a slot-machine proposal by Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Junior. But the delegates also voted to study placing these machines at horse-racing centers in the future. Players put metal money—coins – into slot machines. In return, they get a chance to win more money. A Maryland delegate who opposes slot-machines at the racing centers says they are a bad influence. He says this is true especially for poor people. This legislator believes increasing chances to gamble make poor people even more poor. VOICE ONE: Economists argue about gambling and taxes and loans to correct states’ financial problems. One expert says there is only one solution. For the states to recover financially, he says the whole nation must make a strong economic recovery. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in America on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 13, 2003: Warning About Body Weight and Cancer / Diet and Disease Prevention / Polio Update / Discovery About a Disorder that Makes Children 'Old Too Early'
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- a new warning about body weight and the risk of cancer. Also, experts come out with a report on diet and the prevention of disease. Later, a polio update, and a discovery about a rare condition that makes children old too early. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Scientists have provided fat people with yet another reason to lose weight -- cancer. A major new study from the American Cancer Society says obesity greatly increases the risk of some cancers. The researchers say the condition is linked to about ninety-thousand cancer deaths in the United States each year. And, the scientists say that the risk of cancer death rises as the weight increases. The sixteen year study involved nine-hundred-thousand Americans. None had cancer at the start of the study. All were overweight based on a measurement method that compares height and weight. For example, a woman who is one-hundred-sixty-two centimeters tall and seventy-eight kilograms would be considered fat. A one-hundred-eighty-two centimeter tall man would be too heavy at more than one-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: The researchers found that the fattest men increased their risk of death from cancer by fifty-two percent over men of normal weight. For the heaviest women, the increase was sixty-two percent. The study found that some cancers are more likely to affect fat people than other cancers. For example, the researchers say an extremely heavy woman is six times more likely to die from cancer of the uterus than a woman of normal weight. Severely obese men increase their risk of death from liver cancer by four times compared to men who are not fat. Obesity in women also increases their risk of death from breast, cervix and ovary cancer. Men who are too heavy also die of prostate and stomach cancer at a higher rate than men of normal weight. And the heightened risk of several other cancers is the same for heavy people of both sexes. VOICE ONE: The study does not provide a reason for the link between cancer and overweight. But, researchers suspect hormones are involved. For example, lead researcher Eugenia Calle [kal] says too much fat can interfere with insulin activity. She says this could increase the risk of colon cancer, among others. Mizz Calle says that it is important to make the public understand how dangerous obesity is. She says it is similar to the risks caused by smoking tobacco. Her work was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: International health and agriculture experts have released a new study on diet, nutrition and exercise. The report is expected to serve as a starting point for developing a world plan to fight deadly diseases. Thirty independent experts worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization for more than two years. The study is called “Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases.” The report estimates that in two-thousand-one, chronic diseases caused almost sixty percent of the fifty-six-million total deaths for the year. Such sicknesses include heart problems, cancer, diabetes, obesity, weak bones and disease of the teeth and mouth. To fight the rising number of deaths from chronic diseases, the report proposes a diet low in fats, sugars and salt yet high in vegetables and fruits. In addition, it suggests people get regular physical activity. VOICE ONE: Experts believe few people in the world are eating the suggested amounts of fruits and vegetables. They say about seventy-five percent of a person’s daily diet should include carbohydrates, or foods like rice, grain, potatoes and bread. Foods high in protein, such as beans and meat, should make up about fifteen percent of one’s diet. The remaining ten percent should include foods high in natural sugars. The head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, says the majority of chronic disease cases are in the developing world. She says that history has shown even the simplest changes in diet and physical activity can be effective in a short amount of time. However, she says these changes need to be put in place throughout national populations. Doctor Brundtland notes that most developing countries do not have the resources in their health systems. They also cannot pay for the growing number of health cases caused by chronic diseases. The report is the first world policy answer to the problems caused by poor diets and a lack of exercise. Doctor Brundtland says that long-term progress toward a change in population health will take time. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. (MUSIC BRIDGE) More than eighty percent of all new cases of polio are now found in a single country – India. Most new cases of the disease are in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. So far this year, Uttar Pradesh has had more than nine-hundred new cases. There were two-hundred-sixteen new cases reported in the state in all of last year. Only seven countries in the world are still infected by the virus that causes poliomyelitis, the full name of the disease. They are India, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. The polio virus can spread quickly. It is spread through human waste. This is yet another reason why it is important to wash hands as a way to reduce the spread of infection. Polio starts with a high body temperature, tiredness and pain in the head, neck, arms or legs. People with polio often become paralyzed. They become unable to move their arms or legs. Sometimes they die. VOICE ONE: Polio can be prevented with a vaccine. The immunization is usually given to babies. The best vaccine is a liquid that is swallowed. The World Health Organization started a very successful program in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children who are nine to twelve years old learn all about childhood vaccinations and diseases in school. Each child is then responsible for five or six babies in the community to make sure a health worker vaccinates them. The children visit the babies and their mothers regularly. They write down any problems and keep a record of the immunizations. One class of children checked on one-hundred-sixty-four babies in their community. Ninety-nine percent of these babies received their immunizations. This compared to national rates of thirty to fifty percent. The project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now being expanded to more schools. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: American and French scientists have linked a damaged gene to a rare disease that speeds up aging in children. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria [pro-JEER-ia] Syndrome causes young people to age up to ten times faster than normal. Victims lose their hair and usually die of heart disease or brain problems around age thirteen. Progeria is a Greek word meaning “old too early.” No cure is known. Doctor Francis Collins of the National Human Genome Research Institute near Washington D-C led the American-based study. Researchers examined the genes of twenty progeria victims and their parents. They found that eighteen children had the imperfect gene. Around the same time, scientists in Marseilles, France, identified the same imperfect gene in two other progeria victims. The results of their independent studies were published in the magazines Science and Nature in April. VOICE ONE: Genes are carried on chromosomes. Almost every human cell has forty-six chromosomes. There are hundreds of genes in each chromosome. The imperfect gene that causes the disease produces an abnormal protein called lamin [LAY-min] A. The protein takes over the formation of the nucleus of cells. In time, these cells die, which weakens the ability of tissues to redevelop. This causes aging to take place. Researchers believe their discovery will lead to a deeper understanding of heart conditions that kill millions of older adults. They say that historically, major discoveries linked to other rare conditions have led to progress in medical treatments and drugs. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Caty Weaver, Jill Moss and Karen Leggett. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English Program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- a new warning about body weight and the risk of cancer. Also, experts come out with a report on diet and the prevention of disease. Later, a polio update, and a discovery about a rare condition that makes children old too early. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Scientists have provided fat people with yet another reason to lose weight -- cancer. A major new study from the American Cancer Society says obesity greatly increases the risk of some cancers. The researchers say the condition is linked to about ninety-thousand cancer deaths in the United States each year. And, the scientists say that the risk of cancer death rises as the weight increases. The sixteen year study involved nine-hundred-thousand Americans. None had cancer at the start of the study. All were overweight based on a measurement method that compares height and weight. For example, a woman who is one-hundred-sixty-two centimeters tall and seventy-eight kilograms would be considered fat. A one-hundred-eighty-two centimeter tall man would be too heavy at more than one-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: The researchers found that the fattest men increased their risk of death from cancer by fifty-two percent over men of normal weight. For the heaviest women, the increase was sixty-two percent. The study found that some cancers are more likely to affect fat people than other cancers. For example, the researchers say an extremely heavy woman is six times more likely to die from cancer of the uterus than a woman of normal weight. Severely obese men increase their risk of death from liver cancer by four times compared to men who are not fat. Obesity in women also increases their risk of death from breast, cervix and ovary cancer. Men who are too heavy also die of prostate and stomach cancer at a higher rate than men of normal weight. And the heightened risk of several other cancers is the same for heavy people of both sexes. VOICE ONE: The study does not provide a reason for the link between cancer and overweight. But, researchers suspect hormones are involved. For example, lead researcher Eugenia Calle [kal] says too much fat can interfere with insulin activity. She says this could increase the risk of colon cancer, among others. Mizz Calle says that it is important to make the public understand how dangerous obesity is. She says it is similar to the risks caused by smoking tobacco. Her work was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: International health and agriculture experts have released a new study on diet, nutrition and exercise. The report is expected to serve as a starting point for developing a world plan to fight deadly diseases. Thirty independent experts worked with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization for more than two years. The study is called “Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases.” The report estimates that in two-thousand-one, chronic diseases caused almost sixty percent of the fifty-six-million total deaths for the year. Such sicknesses include heart problems, cancer, diabetes, obesity, weak bones and disease of the teeth and mouth. To fight the rising number of deaths from chronic diseases, the report proposes a diet low in fats, sugars and salt yet high in vegetables and fruits. In addition, it suggests people get regular physical activity. VOICE ONE: Experts believe few people in the world are eating the suggested amounts of fruits and vegetables. They say about seventy-five percent of a person’s daily diet should include carbohydrates, or foods like rice, grain, potatoes and bread. Foods high in protein, such as beans and meat, should make up about fifteen percent of one’s diet. The remaining ten percent should include foods high in natural sugars. The head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, says the majority of chronic disease cases are in the developing world. She says that history has shown even the simplest changes in diet and physical activity can be effective in a short amount of time. However, she says these changes need to be put in place throughout national populations. Doctor Brundtland notes that most developing countries do not have the resources in their health systems. They also cannot pay for the growing number of health cases caused by chronic diseases. The report is the first world policy answer to the problems caused by poor diets and a lack of exercise. Doctor Brundtland says that long-term progress toward a change in population health will take time. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. (MUSIC BRIDGE) More than eighty percent of all new cases of polio are now found in a single country – India. Most new cases of the disease are in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. So far this year, Uttar Pradesh has had more than nine-hundred new cases. There were two-hundred-sixteen new cases reported in the state in all of last year. Only seven countries in the world are still infected by the virus that causes poliomyelitis, the full name of the disease. They are India, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. The polio virus can spread quickly. It is spread through human waste. This is yet another reason why it is important to wash hands as a way to reduce the spread of infection. Polio starts with a high body temperature, tiredness and pain in the head, neck, arms or legs. People with polio often become paralyzed. They become unable to move their arms or legs. Sometimes they die. VOICE ONE: Polio can be prevented with a vaccine. The immunization is usually given to babies. The best vaccine is a liquid that is swallowed. The World Health Organization started a very successful program in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children who are nine to twelve years old learn all about childhood vaccinations and diseases in school. Each child is then responsible for five or six babies in the community to make sure a health worker vaccinates them. The children visit the babies and their mothers regularly. They write down any problems and keep a record of the immunizations. One class of children checked on one-hundred-sixty-four babies in their community. Ninety-nine percent of these babies received their immunizations. This compared to national rates of thirty to fifty percent. The project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now being expanded to more schools. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: American and French scientists have linked a damaged gene to a rare disease that speeds up aging in children. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria [pro-JEER-ia] Syndrome causes young people to age up to ten times faster than normal. Victims lose their hair and usually die of heart disease or brain problems around age thirteen. Progeria is a Greek word meaning “old too early.” No cure is known. Doctor Francis Collins of the National Human Genome Research Institute near Washington D-C led the American-based study. Researchers examined the genes of twenty progeria victims and their parents. They found that eighteen children had the imperfect gene. Around the same time, scientists in Marseilles, France, identified the same imperfect gene in two other progeria victims. The results of their independent studies were published in the magazines Science and Nature in April. VOICE ONE: Genes are carried on chromosomes. Almost every human cell has forty-six chromosomes. There are hundreds of genes in each chromosome. The imperfect gene that causes the disease produces an abnormal protein called lamin [LAY-min] A. The protein takes over the formation of the nucleus of cells. In time, these cells die, which weakens the ability of tissues to redevelop. This causes aging to take place. Researchers believe their discovery will lead to a deeper understanding of heart conditions that kill millions of older adults. They say that historically, major discoveries linked to other rare conditions have led to progress in medical treatments and drugs. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Caty Weaver, Jill Moss and Karen Leggett. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English Program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - May 13, 2003: Bees and Beekeeping, Part 1
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Most people have heard the sound of bees among flowers. Bees live almost everywhere in the world -- except the arctic areas. Many kinds of agriculture depend on these small, social insects. Without bees, fruit and nut growers as well as many other farmers would not have a crop. There are more than twenty-thousand kinds of bees. But only honey bees make enough honey for people to use. Honey bees are highly organized social insects. They work together in a group called a colony. Each colony lives in a hive. It contains one queen bee -- she lays all the eggs from which the members of the colony come. Each colony has only a few hundred males, called drones. The majority of all bees in a colony are workers, which are all females. Bees even have a special stomach, called a honey stomach. It is used to store sweet fluid that the bees gather from flowers. Bees also have long hairs on their body and legs. These hairs capture pollen as bees go from flower to flower. Some of the pollen is taken back to the hive. However, some is passed to the next flower. This is how many plants are fertilized. Pollen is the reproductive material of plants. Many important agricultural crops depend on bees for fertilization. Inside their hives, bees store sweet fluid from flowers, called nectar, and also pollen. They may even gather nectar from some other kinds of insects. These kinds of nectar are also stored in the hive. Bees have organs that produce a fatty substance called wax. They use wax to build structures in the hive that hold eggs and store honey. Bees make honey through a process. They add liquid from their own mouths to the nectar they have stored in the hive. The liquid breaks down the nectar into simple sugars. As the honey is stored, it dries. It becomes thicker and darker. Honey can be very thin and light in color or dark and thick. How the honey looks depends on the kinds of flowers used by the bees. However, most honey is the easily recognized golden color. Although bees are often thought of as honey-makers, they provide a surprising number of products. Also, their greatest economic value is in fertilizing crops -- not in making golden, sweet honey. Next week, we will tell about important products provided by bees. We will also tell about problems in beekeeping. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Most people have heard the sound of bees among flowers. Bees live almost everywhere in the world -- except the arctic areas. Many kinds of agriculture depend on these small, social insects. Without bees, fruit and nut growers as well as many other farmers would not have a crop. There are more than twenty-thousand kinds of bees. But only honey bees make enough honey for people to use. Honey bees are highly organized social insects. They work together in a group called a colony. Each colony lives in a hive. It contains one queen bee -- she lays all the eggs from which the members of the colony come. Each colony has only a few hundred males, called drones. The majority of all bees in a colony are workers, which are all females. Bees even have a special stomach, called a honey stomach. It is used to store sweet fluid that the bees gather from flowers. Bees also have long hairs on their body and legs. These hairs capture pollen as bees go from flower to flower. Some of the pollen is taken back to the hive. However, some is passed to the next flower. This is how many plants are fertilized. Pollen is the reproductive material of plants. Many important agricultural crops depend on bees for fertilization. Inside their hives, bees store sweet fluid from flowers, called nectar, and also pollen. They may even gather nectar from some other kinds of insects. These kinds of nectar are also stored in the hive. Bees have organs that produce a fatty substance called wax. They use wax to build structures in the hive that hold eggs and store honey. Bees make honey through a process. They add liquid from their own mouths to the nectar they have stored in the hive. The liquid breaks down the nectar into simple sugars. As the honey is stored, it dries. It becomes thicker and darker. Honey can be very thin and light in color or dark and thick. How the honey looks depends on the kinds of flowers used by the bees. However, most honey is the easily recognized golden color. Although bees are often thought of as honey-makers, they provide a surprising number of products. Also, their greatest economic value is in fertilizing crops -- not in making golden, sweet honey. Next week, we will tell about important products provided by bees. We will also tell about problems in beekeeping. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Tuberculosis
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 14, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. One-third of all the people in the world are infected with tuberculosis, or TB, a disease caused by bacteria in the lungs. Each year, eight-million infected people become sick with the disease. Someone dies of TB every fifteen seconds -- more than two-million deaths a year. But it does not have to be this way. Let us imagine a young mother in a poor community in India. She has been coughing a lot during the past two weeks. Sometimes she coughs up blood, and it hurts when she coughs. But she has three small children and a husband to care for. She has all the signs of tuberculosis. Yet she believes she cannot take time to see a doctor. So she just keeps on coughing. Every time she coughs, though, the germs spread through the air. Her children, her husband and other people breathe that air. They too may become infected. Sometimes the bacteria begin to grow right away, and a newly infected person develops active tuberculosis. This happens mostly in people whose bodies are not strong enough to fight disease. These include young children, old people and people already sick with other diseases. Even in strong and healthy people, the bacteria stay in the body and can become active later. STOP TB is an international project to fight this ancient disease. One goal is to expand the use of the most successful treatment method known. The method is called DOTS, for Directly Observed Therapy, Short-course. This means people who have TB see a health care worker every day, or several times a week, to receive their medicine. Health officials say ten million patients around the world have been cured by DOTS. In India alone, fifty-thousand people start DOTS every month. There are skin tests to tell if a person is infected with TB. Doctors urge people to go for treatment right away if they have had a cough for more than two weeks, if they sometimes cough up blood, and if their chest hurts when they cough. Up to six months of treatment may be needed. It is important to kill all the TB bacteria in a person’s body. Bacteria that survive can develop resistance to drugs -- a growing problem with bacterial infections in general. So this is why doctors want to make sure people take all their medicine. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. Broadcast: May 14, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. One-third of all the people in the world are infected with tuberculosis, or TB, a disease caused by bacteria in the lungs. Each year, eight-million infected people become sick with the disease. Someone dies of TB every fifteen seconds -- more than two-million deaths a year. But it does not have to be this way. Let us imagine a young mother in a poor community in India. She has been coughing a lot during the past two weeks. Sometimes she coughs up blood, and it hurts when she coughs. But she has three small children and a husband to care for. She has all the signs of tuberculosis. Yet she believes she cannot take time to see a doctor. So she just keeps on coughing. Every time she coughs, though, the germs spread through the air. Her children, her husband and other people breathe that air. They too may become infected. Sometimes the bacteria begin to grow right away, and a newly infected person develops active tuberculosis. This happens mostly in people whose bodies are not strong enough to fight disease. These include young children, old people and people already sick with other diseases. Even in strong and healthy people, the bacteria stay in the body and can become active later. STOP TB is an international project to fight this ancient disease. One goal is to expand the use of the most successful treatment method known. The method is called DOTS, for Directly Observed Therapy, Short-course. This means people who have TB see a health care worker every day, or several times a week, to receive their medicine. Health officials say ten million patients around the world have been cured by DOTS. In India alone, fifty-thousand people start DOTS every month. There are skin tests to tell if a person is infected with TB. Doctors urge people to go for treatment right away if they have had a cough for more than two weeks, if they sometimes cough up blood, and if their chest hurts when they cough. Up to six months of treatment may be needed. It is important to kill all the TB bacteria in a person’s body. Bacteria that survive can develop resistance to drugs -- a growing problem with bacterial infections in general. So this is why doctors want to make sure people take all their medicine. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Karen Leggett. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Iraq Museum Antiquities
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 14, 2003 (THEME) Baghdad museum during looting Broadcast: May 14, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about efforts to recover archeological treasures that were stolen from the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad, Iraq. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad is working to recover and repair thousands of stolen and broken objects. These ancient objects from Iraq’s past were taken soon after the United States-led coalition ousted the government of Saddam Hussein. The museum’s losses include many valuable artworks and objects. No one knows exactly how many objects are missing. A first estimate of one-hundred-seventy-thousand missing objects has been reduced. But museum officials say many thousands have disappeared or been broken. Last week, teams of American investigators recovered more than seven-hundred ancient objects and thousands of documents that had been missing from the museum’s collection. Some of them had been placed in underground protected areas before the American invasion. VOICE TWO: Officials say the museum still has some of its most treasured objects. For example, it still has the burial containers of kings of the ancient city of Ur. Muslims, Jews and Christians recognize Ur as the birthplace of Abraham. Abraham was the ancestor of both the Arab and the Jewish peoples. Experts say the museum also has artworks showing male cows from the ancient kingdom of Assyria. Museum officials had placed them in a secure place before the war began. Some stolen pieces also have been returned. For example, a young Iraqi man saw crowds stealing and breaking objects at the museum. He left and returned with a truck. He and two family members removed a number of objects for safekeeping. They include a statue of an ancient Assyrian king. It is damaged but can be restored. Some objects that were returned, however, have proved to be only copies of ancient pieces. They were being sold in the museum gift store. VOICE ONE: Experts say many major treasures are missing. Many are from Sumer, an ancient area in southern Mesopotamia, now southeastern Iraq. These objects are between four-thousand and five-thousand years old. They include a life-size statue of a Sumerian king. Also missing is a statue of a head of a woman, a drinking cup and a musical instrument. The instrument includes the golden head of a male cow. Robbers also took the head of a marble statue of the Greek god Apollo and a large object of ivory that represents an Assyrian god. VOICE TWO: For years, archeologists considered the Baghdad museum one of the finest in the world. Its collection includes objects from eleven-thousand years ago. But the most important objects are from ancient Mesopotamia. The area now includes most of Iraq and parts of Syria and Turkey. The major part of Mesopotamia was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Scientists say Mesopotamia was the birthplace of civilization. Mesopotamia was invaded by a number of peoples. They include the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Parthians, Arabs, Ottomans and the British. Most recently, the United States-led military coalition entered Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein’s government. VOICE ONE: Crowds celebrated the end of Saddam’s rule by breaking statues and other objects in public places. Crowds also stole objects from Saddam’s homes and from government buildings. At first, such looters were blamed for all the losses to the National Museum of Antiquities. But United Nations experts say professional art thieves may also be responsible. Officials of the U-N Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO -- say some thefts apparently were well planned. Archeologist McGuire Gibson of the University of Chicago in Illinois believes professional art thieves entered the museum first. He says they took the most important objects. After that, he says looters followed the professionals. VOICE TWO: For example, thieves left a copy of the prologue, or introduction, to an ancient document called the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi ruled the kingdom of Babylonia thousands of years ago. His code is one of the earliest written collections of laws. Apparently the introduction to the code was not stolen because it was not the true object. But the thieves broke off and carried away heads from valuable statues from an ancient city called Hatra. VOICE ONE: Robbers also took a valuable collection of cuneiform tablets called the Sippar Library. The collection contains pieces of stone with cuneiform writing. Cuneiform developed from the oldest form of writing. The library describes life in Mesopotamia over thousands of years. It includes prayers, stories and scientific information. The stone tablets tell about the stars, planets and other heavenly bodies. One story describes the creation of the world. Iraqi archeologists discovered the library in nineteen-eighty-six. It was in the wreckage of the Temple of Sippar, not far from Baghdad. They found about eight-hundred tablets in good condition. This was the first discovery of its kind ever made. It was the oldest complete library ever found in the place where it was developed. But experts fear that the ancient stone tablets may not have survived. VOICE TWO: Museum officials in Baghdad have only incomplete records to help them decide exactly what is missing. The museum was closed for ten years after the Persian Gulf war in nineteen-ninety-one. During that time, records were lost. Although lists are incomplete, officials know that some objects were taken before the most recent war. Some were taken during the last war. Iraqi officials say members of Saddam Hussein’s government stole from the collection during the nineteen-nineties. VOICE ONE: Many Iraqi archeologists and museum officials criticize the American military for the recent losses. They say the forces that entered Baghdad and other cities did nothing to prevent looting. American troops did not begin guarding the National Museum of Antiquities until days after the crowds entered and wrecked the museum. Before the war, American and UNESCO experts had communicated with the American State Department and Defense Department. The experts described cultural and archeological areas in Iraq that needed protection. The goal was to make sure they were not bombed or robbed. But coalition commanders say they lacked enough troops to guard museums in Iraq. They also say soldiers are not trained to control crowds. Some experts do not blame the soldiers. Instead, they say the Bush Administration should have provided more support to protect Iraq’s treasures. VOICE TWO: Today, many organizations are cooperating to restore the missing objects. Coalition soldiers and local guards are trying hard to keep valuable artworks from leaving the country. Muslim clergymen are urging citizens to return stolen objects. Reports say some missing artworks are being sold illegally on international markets. Others apparently are being offered for sale on Internet Web sites. UNESCO has asked other countries to watch for objects taken from Baghdad. Officials in Jordan responded by finding and returning many museum pieces. The worldwide police organization Interpol also is looking for stolen objects. So are a number of federal agents from the United States. In Baghdad, a United States Marine Corps reserve officer is investigating the thefts at the museum. In civilian life, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos works as a government lawyer in New York City. VOICE ONE: Archeologist McGuire Gibson believes experts everywhere can help restore the National Museum of Antiquities. He says they should search their own records for descriptions of objects the museum had shown. These artworks then could be listed on the Internet. Antiquities experts, foreign museums and governments are acting to block the sale of stolen treasures. At a meeting in London two weeks ago, representatives of some of the world’s leading museums promised to help restore Iraq’s cultural treasures. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about efforts to recover archeological treasures that were stolen from the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad, Iraq. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad is working to recover and repair thousands of stolen and broken objects. These ancient objects from Iraq’s past were taken soon after the United States-led coalition ousted the government of Saddam Hussein. The museum’s losses include many valuable artworks and objects. No one knows exactly how many objects are missing. A first estimate of one-hundred-seventy-thousand missing objects has been reduced. But museum officials say many thousands have disappeared or been broken. Last week, teams of American investigators recovered more than seven-hundred ancient objects and thousands of documents that had been missing from the museum’s collection. Some of them had been placed in underground protected areas before the American invasion. VOICE TWO: Officials say the museum still has some of its most treasured objects. For example, it still has the burial containers of kings of the ancient city of Ur. Muslims, Jews and Christians recognize Ur as the birthplace of Abraham. Abraham was the ancestor of both the Arab and the Jewish peoples. Experts say the museum also has artworks showing male cows from the ancient kingdom of Assyria. Museum officials had placed them in a secure place before the war began. Some stolen pieces also have been returned. For example, a young Iraqi man saw crowds stealing and breaking objects at the museum. He left and returned with a truck. He and two family members removed a number of objects for safekeeping. They include a statue of an ancient Assyrian king. It is damaged but can be restored. Some objects that were returned, however, have proved to be only copies of ancient pieces. They were being sold in the museum gift store. VOICE ONE: Experts say many major treasures are missing. Many are from Sumer, an ancient area in southern Mesopotamia, now southeastern Iraq. These objects are between four-thousand and five-thousand years old. They include a life-size statue of a Sumerian king. Also missing is a statue of a head of a woman, a drinking cup and a musical instrument. The instrument includes the golden head of a male cow. Robbers also took the head of a marble statue of the Greek god Apollo and a large object of ivory that represents an Assyrian god. VOICE TWO: For years, archeologists considered the Baghdad museum one of the finest in the world. Its collection includes objects from eleven-thousand years ago. But the most important objects are from ancient Mesopotamia. The area now includes most of Iraq and parts of Syria and Turkey. The major part of Mesopotamia was between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Scientists say Mesopotamia was the birthplace of civilization. Mesopotamia was invaded by a number of peoples. They include the Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Parthians, Arabs, Ottomans and the British. Most recently, the United States-led military coalition entered Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein’s government. VOICE ONE: Crowds celebrated the end of Saddam’s rule by breaking statues and other objects in public places. Crowds also stole objects from Saddam’s homes and from government buildings. At first, such looters were blamed for all the losses to the National Museum of Antiquities. But United Nations experts say professional art thieves may also be responsible. Officials of the U-N Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO -- say some thefts apparently were well planned. Archeologist McGuire Gibson of the University of Chicago in Illinois believes professional art thieves entered the museum first. He says they took the most important objects. After that, he says looters followed the professionals. VOICE TWO: For example, thieves left a copy of the prologue, or introduction, to an ancient document called the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi ruled the kingdom of Babylonia thousands of years ago. His code is one of the earliest written collections of laws. Apparently the introduction to the code was not stolen because it was not the true object. But the thieves broke off and carried away heads from valuable statues from an ancient city called Hatra. VOICE ONE: Robbers also took a valuable collection of cuneiform tablets called the Sippar Library. The collection contains pieces of stone with cuneiform writing. Cuneiform developed from the oldest form of writing. The library describes life in Mesopotamia over thousands of years. It includes prayers, stories and scientific information. The stone tablets tell about the stars, planets and other heavenly bodies. One story describes the creation of the world. Iraqi archeologists discovered the library in nineteen-eighty-six. It was in the wreckage of the Temple of Sippar, not far from Baghdad. They found about eight-hundred tablets in good condition. This was the first discovery of its kind ever made. It was the oldest complete library ever found in the place where it was developed. But experts fear that the ancient stone tablets may not have survived. VOICE TWO: Museum officials in Baghdad have only incomplete records to help them decide exactly what is missing. The museum was closed for ten years after the Persian Gulf war in nineteen-ninety-one. During that time, records were lost. Although lists are incomplete, officials know that some objects were taken before the most recent war. Some were taken during the last war. Iraqi officials say members of Saddam Hussein’s government stole from the collection during the nineteen-nineties. VOICE ONE: Many Iraqi archeologists and museum officials criticize the American military for the recent losses. They say the forces that entered Baghdad and other cities did nothing to prevent looting. American troops did not begin guarding the National Museum of Antiquities until days after the crowds entered and wrecked the museum. Before the war, American and UNESCO experts had communicated with the American State Department and Defense Department. The experts described cultural and archeological areas in Iraq that needed protection. The goal was to make sure they were not bombed or robbed. But coalition commanders say they lacked enough troops to guard museums in Iraq. They also say soldiers are not trained to control crowds. Some experts do not blame the soldiers. Instead, they say the Bush Administration should have provided more support to protect Iraq’s treasures. VOICE TWO: Today, many organizations are cooperating to restore the missing objects. Coalition soldiers and local guards are trying hard to keep valuable artworks from leaving the country. Muslim clergymen are urging citizens to return stolen objects. Reports say some missing artworks are being sold illegally on international markets. Others apparently are being offered for sale on Internet Web sites. UNESCO has asked other countries to watch for objects taken from Baghdad. Officials in Jordan responded by finding and returning many museum pieces. The worldwide police organization Interpol also is looking for stolen objects. So are a number of federal agents from the United States. In Baghdad, a United States Marine Corps reserve officer is investigating the thefts at the museum. In civilian life, Colonel Matthew Bogdanos works as a government lawyer in New York City. VOICE ONE: Archeologist McGuire Gibson believes experts everywhere can help restore the National Museum of Antiquities. He says they should search their own records for descriptions of objects the museum had shown. These artworks then could be listed on the Internet. Antiquities experts, foreign museums and governments are acting to block the sale of stolen treasures. At a meeting in London two weeks ago, representatives of some of the world’s leading museums promised to help restore Iraq’s cultural treasures. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #12 - May 15, 2003: Road to Revolution
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the start of the American colonies' war for independence from Britain in the late Seventeen-Hundreds. VOICE ONE: The road to revolution lasted several years. The most serious events began in Seventeen-Seventy. War began five years later. Relations between Britain and its American colonists were most tense in the colony of Massachusetts. There were protests against the British policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament. To prevent trouble, thousands of British soldiers were sent to Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts. On March Fifth, Seventeen-Seventy, tension led to violence. This is what happened. VOICE TWO: It was the end of winter, and the weather was very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. (SOUNDS: GUNSHOTS) Five colonists were killed. The incident became known as the Boston Massacre. VOICE ONE: The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers were tried in court for murder. Most were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament cancelled most of its taxes. Only the tax on tea remained. This eased some of the tensions, for a while. Imports of British goods increased. The colonists seemed satisfied with the situation, until a few years later. That is when the Massachusetts colony once again became involved in a dispute with Britain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The trouble started because the British government wanted to help improve the business of the British East India Company. That company organized all the trade between India and other countries ruled by Britain. By Seventeen-Seventy-Three, the company had become weak. The British government decided to permit it to sell tea directly to the American colonies. The colonies would still have to pay a tea tax to Britain. The Americans did not like the new plan. They felt they were being forced to buy their tea from only one company. VOICE ONE: Officials in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New York sent the East India Company's ships back to Britain. In Massachusetts, things were different. The British governor there wanted to collect the tea tax and enforce the law. When the ships arrived in Boston, some colonists tried to block their way. The ships remained just outside the harbor without unloading their goods. On the night of December Sixteenth, Seventeen-Seventy-Three, a group of colonists went out in a small boat. They got on a British ship and threw all the tea into the water. The colonists were dressed as American Indians so the British would not recognize them, but the people of Boston knew who they were. A crowd gathered to cheer them. That incident -- the night when British tea was thrown into Boston harbor -- became known as the Boston Tea Party. VOICE TWO: Destroying the tea was a serious crime. The British government was angry. Parliament reacted to the Boston Tea Party by punishing the whole colony of Massachusetts for the actions of a few men. It approved a series of laws that once again changed relations between the colony and Britain. One of these laws closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Other laws strengthened the power of the British governor and weakened the power of local colonial officials. In June, Seventeen-Seventy-Four, the colony of Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the other colonies to consider joint action against Britain. VOICE ONE: This meeting of colonial delegates was called the First Continental Congress. It was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September, Seventeen-Seventy-Four. All the colonies except one was represented. The southern colony of Georgia did not send a delegate. The delegates agreed that the British Parliament had no right to control trade with the American colonies or to make any laws that affected them. They said the people of the colonies must have the right to take part in any legislative group that made laws for them. VOICE TWO: The First Continental Congress approved a series of documents that condemned all British actions in the American colonies after Seventeen-Sixty-Three. It approved a Massachusetts proposal saying that the people could use weapons to defend their rights. It also organized a Continental Association to boycott British goods and to stop all exports to any British colony or to Britain itself. Local committees were created to enforce the boycott. One of the delegates to this First Continental Congress was John Adams of Massachusetts. Many years later, he said that by the time the meeting was held, the American revolution had already begun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Britain's King George the Second announced that the New England colonies were in rebellion. Parliament made the decision to use troops against Massachusetts in January, Seventeen-Seventy-Five. The people of Massachusetts formed a provincial assembly and began training men to fight. Soon, groups of armed men were doing military exercises in towns all around Massachusetts and in other colonies, too. VOICE TWO: British officers received their orders in April, eventeen-Seventy-Five. By that time, the colonists had been gathering weapons in the town of Concord, about thirty kilometers west of Boston. The British forces were ordered to seize the weapons. But the colonists knew they were coming and were prepared. Years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about what happened. The poem tells about the actions of Paul Revere, one of three men who helped warn the colonial troops that the British were coming: (Excerpt from "Paul Revere's Ride") Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-Five hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march by land or sea form the town tonight Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the North Church tower as a signal light. One if by land Two if by sea And I on the opposite shore will be Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm For the country folk to be up and to arm." VOICE ONE: When the British reached the town of Lexington, they found it protected by about seventy colonial troops. These troops were called "Minute Men" because they had been trained to fight with only a minute's warning. Guns were fired. Eight colonists were killed. No one knows who fired the first shot in that first battle of the American revolution. Each side accused the other. But the meaning was very clear. It was called "the shot heard round the world." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From Lexington, the British marched to Concord, where they destroyed whatever supplies the colonists had not been able to save. Other colonial troops rushed to the area. A battle at Concord's north bridge forced the British to march back to Boston. It was the first day of America's war for independence. When it was over, almost three-hundred British troops had been killed. ewer than one-hundred Americans had died. VOICE ONE: The British troops had marched in time with their drummers and pipers. The musicians had played a song called "Yankee Doodle." The British invented the song to insult the Americans. They said a Yankee Doodle was a man who did not know how to fight. After the early battles of the revolution, the Americans said they were glad to be Yankee Doodles. (MUSIC: "Yankee Doodle") VOICE TWO: Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts government organized a group that captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York state. The other colonies began sending troops to help. And another joint colonial meeting was called: the Second Continental Congress. That will be our story next week. VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the start of the American colonies' war for independence from Britain in the late Seventeen-Hundreds. VOICE ONE: The road to revolution lasted several years. The most serious events began in Seventeen-Seventy. War began five years later. Relations between Britain and its American colonists were most tense in the colony of Massachusetts. There were protests against the British policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament. To prevent trouble, thousands of British soldiers were sent to Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts. On March Fifth, Seventeen-Seventy, tension led to violence. This is what happened. VOICE TWO: It was the end of winter, and the weather was very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. (SOUNDS: GUNSHOTS) Five colonists were killed. The incident became known as the Boston Massacre. VOICE ONE: The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers were tried in court for murder. Most were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament cancelled most of its taxes. Only the tax on tea remained. This eased some of the tensions, for a while. Imports of British goods increased. The colonists seemed satisfied with the situation, until a few years later. That is when the Massachusetts colony once again became involved in a dispute with Britain. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The trouble started because the British government wanted to help improve the business of the British East India Company. That company organized all the trade between India and other countries ruled by Britain. By Seventeen-Seventy-Three, the company had become weak. The British government decided to permit it to sell tea directly to the American colonies. The colonies would still have to pay a tea tax to Britain. The Americans did not like the new plan. They felt they were being forced to buy their tea from only one company. VOICE ONE: Officials in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New York sent the East India Company's ships back to Britain. In Massachusetts, things were different. The British governor there wanted to collect the tea tax and enforce the law. When the ships arrived in Boston, some colonists tried to block their way. The ships remained just outside the harbor without unloading their goods. On the night of December Sixteenth, Seventeen-Seventy-Three, a group of colonists went out in a small boat. They got on a British ship and threw all the tea into the water. The colonists were dressed as American Indians so the British would not recognize them, but the people of Boston knew who they were. A crowd gathered to cheer them. That incident -- the night when British tea was thrown into Boston harbor -- became known as the Boston Tea Party. VOICE TWO: Destroying the tea was a serious crime. The British government was angry. Parliament reacted to the Boston Tea Party by punishing the whole colony of Massachusetts for the actions of a few men. It approved a series of laws that once again changed relations between the colony and Britain. One of these laws closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Other laws strengthened the power of the British governor and weakened the power of local colonial officials. In June, Seventeen-Seventy-Four, the colony of Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the other colonies to consider joint action against Britain. VOICE ONE: This meeting of colonial delegates was called the First Continental Congress. It was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September, Seventeen-Seventy-Four. All the colonies except one was represented. The southern colony of Georgia did not send a delegate. The delegates agreed that the British Parliament had no right to control trade with the American colonies or to make any laws that affected them. They said the people of the colonies must have the right to take part in any legislative group that made laws for them. VOICE TWO: The First Continental Congress approved a series of documents that condemned all British actions in the American colonies after Seventeen-Sixty-Three. It approved a Massachusetts proposal saying that the people could use weapons to defend their rights. It also organized a Continental Association to boycott British goods and to stop all exports to any British colony or to Britain itself. Local committees were created to enforce the boycott. One of the delegates to this First Continental Congress was John Adams of Massachusetts. Many years later, he said that by the time the meeting was held, the American revolution had already begun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Britain's King George the Second announced that the New England colonies were in rebellion. Parliament made the decision to use troops against Massachusetts in January, Seventeen-Seventy-Five. The people of Massachusetts formed a provincial assembly and began training men to fight. Soon, groups of armed men were doing military exercises in towns all around Massachusetts and in other colonies, too. VOICE TWO: British officers received their orders in April, eventeen-Seventy-Five. By that time, the colonists had been gathering weapons in the town of Concord, about thirty kilometers west of Boston. The British forces were ordered to seize the weapons. But the colonists knew they were coming and were prepared. Years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about what happened. The poem tells about the actions of Paul Revere, one of three men who helped warn the colonial troops that the British were coming: (Excerpt from "Paul Revere's Ride") Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-Five hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march by land or sea form the town tonight Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the North Church tower as a signal light. One if by land Two if by sea And I on the opposite shore will be Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm For the country folk to be up and to arm." VOICE ONE: When the British reached the town of Lexington, they found it protected by about seventy colonial troops. These troops were called "Minute Men" because they had been trained to fight with only a minute's warning. Guns were fired. Eight colonists were killed. No one knows who fired the first shot in that first battle of the American revolution. Each side accused the other. But the meaning was very clear. It was called "the shot heard round the world." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From Lexington, the British marched to Concord, where they destroyed whatever supplies the colonists had not been able to save. Other colonial troops rushed to the area. A battle at Concord's north bridge forced the British to march back to Boston. It was the first day of America's war for independence. When it was over, almost three-hundred British troops had been killed. ewer than one-hundred Americans had died. VOICE ONE: The British troops had marched in time with their drummers and pipers. The musicians had played a song called "Yankee Doodle." The British invented the song to insult the Americans. They said a Yankee Doodle was a man who did not know how to fight. After the early battles of the revolution, the Americans said they were glad to be Yankee Doodles. (MUSIC: "Yankee Doodle") VOICE TWO: Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts government organized a group that captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York state. The other colonies began sending troops to help. And another joint colonial meeting was called: the Second Continental Congress. That will be our story next week. VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – May 15, 2003: Iraqi Schools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States Agency for International Development, U-S-A-I-D, has begun a project to rebuild education in Iraq. Some Iraqi schools have started again following the American-led war in that country. Nuria Hatem (VOA photo - L. Kassman) This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States Agency for International Development, U-S-A-I-D, has begun a project to rebuild education in Iraq. Some Iraqi schools have started again following the American-led war in that country. The project is called RISE, for the Revitalization of Iraqi Schools and Stabilization of Education. U-S-A-I-D chose a company called Creative Associates International of Washington, D.C., to lead the efforts. Other organizations will join the project. The first duty of Creative Associates will be to provide schools with materials. The organization says improving Iraqi schools will mean improving teaching and expanding schools. A team will work with Iraqi teachers. These teachers then are to train others. In five areas of Iraq, special projects will be launched for educating girls. Other projects will deal with the needs of older students and young people who are out of school. Iraqi organizations based in the United States will help provide basic services. Creative Associates received a one-year, one-million-dollar order to begin work in Iraq. The company handles similar projects in other nations including Afghanistan. U-S-A-I-D says the goal of the United States government is to make sure Iraqi children are prepared for the new school year beginning in September. Iraq has about six-thousand schools for its youngest children. American officials say many schools were in poor condition before the war. Others were damaged during the war, and during the looting that followed the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In the Babel Secondary School for Girls in Baghdad, for example, most books, desks, pipes and lighting devices were stolen or wrecked. All the school’s new science equipment was broken. School director Nuria Hatem says the teaching system and the books must be changed. She says the influence of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party on school subjects must be removed. Khalida al Qubaisi directs another school in Baghdad. Missus Qubaisi says teachers have been limited in subject material. She says even writing work often had to be about Saddam. Now, she says, students are free to write about many subjects. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. The project is called RISE, for the Revitalization of Iraqi Schools and Stabilization of Education. U-S-A-I-D chose a company called Creative Associates International of Washington, D.C., to lead the efforts. Other organizations will join the project. The first duty of Creative Associates will be to provide schools with materials. The organization says improving Iraqi schools will mean improving teaching and expanding schools. A team will work with Iraqi teachers. These teachers then are to train others. In five areas of Iraq, special projects will be launched for educating girls. Other projects will deal with the needs of older students and young people who are out of school. Iraqi organizations based in the United States will help provide basic services. Creative Associates received a one-year, one-million-dollar order to begin work in Iraq. The company handles similar projects in other nations including Afghanistan. U-S-A-I-D says the goal of the United States government is to make sure Iraqi children are prepared for the new school year beginning in September. Iraq has about six-thousand schools for its youngest children. American officials say many schools were in poor condition before the war. Others were damaged during the war, and during the looting that followed the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In the Babel Secondary School for Girls in Baghdad, for example, most books, desks, pipes and lighting devices were stolen or wrecked. All the school’s new science equipment was broken. School director Nuria Hatem says the teaching system and the books must be changed. She says the influence of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party on school subjects must be removed. Khalida al Qubaisi directs another school in Baghdad. Missus Qubaisi says teachers have been limited in subject material. She says even writing work often had to be about Saddam. Now, she says, students are free to write about many subjects. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – May 16, 2003: Earthquake Warning System
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in the United States have developed a computer program that they say could provide an early warning of major earthquakes. The new system is designed to give a warning seconds before an earthquake strikes. That may not sound like very long. However, it could give people time to get under a table or take shelter someplace else. The flow of electric power or gas could be cut. Air traffic controllers could warn away pilots. Even so-called "smart buildings" could be designed to get ready. Richard Allen of the University of Wisconsin and Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology developed the program. They call it the Earthquake Alarm System. A report published in Science magazine describes it. The system uses a mathematical program to measure information collected by instruments deployed across the Los Angeles area. Southern California already has more than one-hundred-fifty seismic stations that measure movements within the ground. The information they collect is sent to a high-speed computer. The two scientists are still developing their system. But Professor Allen says it could be put in place in other areas after testing is completed. An earthquake shakes the ground with two kinds of waves. The new system uses information from a low-energy wave that moves quickly but causes little damage. Experts call this the P-wave. The slower but stronger S-wave is the main threat to life and property. Japan already has a system based on P-waves. There, the warnings are used to slow down high-speed bullet trains. Other countries have warning systems that measure S-waves. The new system is designed to estimate the strength of the earthquake once the shaking starts. Areas directly above the center of the earthquake would have the least warning. Distant places might have as long as forty seconds. The scientists are still testing their proposed system in the Los Angeles area. Professor Allen notes that an early warning system for earthquakes would require a major campaign of public education. Then, too, is the problem of the possibility of false alarms. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in the United States have developed a computer program that they say could provide an early warning of major earthquakes. The new system is designed to give a warning seconds before an earthquake strikes. That may not sound like very long. However, it could give people time to get under a table or take shelter someplace else. The flow of electric power or gas could be cut. Air traffic controllers could warn away pilots. Even so-called "smart buildings" could be designed to get ready. Richard Allen of the University of Wisconsin and Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology developed the program. They call it the Earthquake Alarm System. A report published in Science magazine describes it. The system uses a mathematical program to measure information collected by instruments deployed across the Los Angeles area. Southern California already has more than one-hundred-fifty seismic stations that measure movements within the ground. The information they collect is sent to a high-speed computer. The two scientists are still developing their system. But Professor Allen says it could be put in place in other areas after testing is completed. An earthquake shakes the ground with two kinds of waves. The new system uses information from a low-energy wave that moves quickly but causes little damage. Experts call this the P-wave. The slower but stronger S-wave is the main threat to life and property. Japan already has a system based on P-waves. There, the warnings are used to slow down high-speed bullet trains. Other countries have warning systems that measure S-waves. The new system is designed to estimate the strength of the earthquake once the shaking starts. Areas directly above the center of the earthquake would have the least warning. Distant places might have as long as forty seconds. The scientists are still testing their proposed system in the Los Angeles area. Professor Allen notes that an early warning system for earthquakes would require a major campaign of public education. Then, too, is the problem of the possibility of false alarms. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 16, 2003: 'Trading Spaces' / Question About Rainbows / Singer Kelly Clarkson
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Rainbow (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a listener’s question about rainbows ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a listener’s question about rainbows ... Play music by singer Kelly Clarkson ... And report about a popular American television show. Trading Spaces HOST: Would you like to re-design a room in a friend’s house? Paint the walls, build new furniture and maybe work on an art project or two? Would you like to do so even if you knew your friend was changing a room in your house too? That is what happens on a very popular American television show called “Trading Spaces.” Phoebe Zimmermann tells about it. ANNCR: On a recent show, one homeowner jumped on the friend who has changed her living room. As they both fell to the floor, the homeowner yelled that she hates the color brown. That is the color her friend painted on the walls. Such actions by homeowners on “Trading Spaces” are not unusual. Some people cry, some laugh and some get angry about the changes made to their homes. “Trading Spaces” is in its third season on the cable television network TLC. American producers took the idea for the show from a British program called “Changing Rooms.” The show works with two teams of homeowners whose houses are very near each other. The homeowners move into each other’s homes for two days. The homeowners work with one of the eight “Trading Spaces” designers. They all have very different ideas about home design. Each team is given one-thousand dollars to spend on the room. And they share the help of a carpenter who can build things. The host of the show is stage performer Paige Davis. She makes sure everybody follows the rules. Both rooms must be completed by the end of the second day. Sometimes the homeowners are forced to work all night to finish the room. Mizz Davis also makes sure the designers do not spend more than their budget. And, Paige Davis often has to play the judge when disputes arise between designers and homeowners. And, the arguing can get pretty intense! Listen: VOICE ONE: “Are you sure we can’t think of something else? ‘Cause I just think the girls really were against animal print. And I know it was not intended to be animal print. VOICE TWO: “It is not an animal print!” VOICE ONE: “I know it’s Gottlieb! And, I love you, but I just ... I cannot appreciate Gottlieb!” Sometimes the design results are beautiful. Sometimes they are horrible. But the show is always surprising. This may be a reason for its popularity. The show has about fifteen-million viewers each week. The television network TLC has released a book about the show that is selling very well. And it produced two videos of old programs for viewers who can not wait to see the shows again. Rainbows HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Liu asks how a rainbow is formed. Is its perfect circle shaped by the air or sunlight? A rainbow is a circle of colors that appears in the sky when sunlight shines on raindrops. The sunlight and water work together to form rainbows. Think of sunlight flowing out in many lines, called rays. The rays are an equal distance from each other. The light energy of the rays acts similar to waves. The light waves have different lengths. Sunlight is made up of several wave lengths. People see the mix of lengths as what is called white light. But things change when a ray of white light hits a raindrop. That is when the colors that make up white light slow to different speeds. The light bends as it enters the raindrop. Shorter wavelengths bend more sharply. This bending separates the white light into colors, each color weakening as it moves into the next color. The light rays turn or bend again when they come out of the raindrop. This continuous bending through an area of raindrops is what makes the rainbow a perfect circle. You will not always see a rainbow when it rains while the sun shines. The sun must be in the right position over the horizon. And remember to turn your back to the sun when you look toward the sky. A rainbow will never appear in the path between you and the sun. If you are on the ground, you will only see a part of the rainbow. This is because the earth blocks the rest of the circle. You can see the whole circle if you are flying high in a plane when a rainbow happens. The shadow of the plane would be in the center. Rainbows hold an important place in the traditional stories and beliefs that make up many cultures. For example, in ancient Greek stories, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow. She would travel over rainbows to carry messages from the gods to humans. Other cultures say the rainbow represents a bridge between life and death. Still others see the rainbow as a sign of good things to come. And, there is always the rainbow’s famous “pot of gold.” That ancient European story says if you can travel to the end of the rainbow, you will find gold there. But, of course, that is impossible! The rainbow is for our eyes only! Kelly Clarkson HOST: Another popular television show in the United States today is called “American Idol.” It is a search to find the best new singers. The winner last year recently released her first album. Kelly Clarkson’s record “Thankful” quickly became the most popular in the country. Shep O’Neal tells us about her and plays some of her songs. ANNCR: Kelly Clarkson is twenty years old. She grew up in the western state of Texas dreaming of becoming a professional singer. She heard about a new show where non-professional singers compete for a chance at a recording agreement. She sang for “American Idol” and got on the show. Listen now to the voice that won her that chance. Here she sings “A Moment Like This.” (MUSIC) Kelly Clarkson then sang before millions of television viewers every week and was judged on her singing ability. She won the competition. She also won many fans who are buying her record in large numbers. Here is a song she sings with another “American Idol” competitor, Tamyra Gray. The good friends perform “You Thought Wrong.” (MUSIC) Kelly Clarkson wrote “You Thought Wrong” and several other songs on the album. We leave you now with a song that probably expresses how Kelly Clarkson has been feeling lately. It is called “Thankful.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Play music by singer Kelly Clarkson ... And report about a popular American television show. Trading Spaces HOST: Would you like to re-design a room in a friend’s house? Paint the walls, build new furniture and maybe work on an art project or two? Would you like to do so even if you knew your friend was changing a room in your house too? That is what happens on a very popular American television show called “Trading Spaces.” Phoebe Zimmermann tells about it. ANNCR: On a recent show, one homeowner jumped on the friend who has changed her living room. As they both fell to the floor, the homeowner yelled that she hates the color brown. That is the color her friend painted on the walls. Such actions by homeowners on “Trading Spaces” are not unusual. Some people cry, some laugh and some get angry about the changes made to their homes. “Trading Spaces” is in its third season on the cable television network TLC. American producers took the idea for the show from a British program called “Changing Rooms.” The show works with two teams of homeowners whose houses are very near each other. The homeowners move into each other’s homes for two days. The homeowners work with one of the eight “Trading Spaces” designers. They all have very different ideas about home design. Each team is given one-thousand dollars to spend on the room. And they share the help of a carpenter who can build things. The host of the show is stage performer Paige Davis. She makes sure everybody follows the rules. Both rooms must be completed by the end of the second day. Sometimes the homeowners are forced to work all night to finish the room. Mizz Davis also makes sure the designers do not spend more than their budget. And, Paige Davis often has to play the judge when disputes arise between designers and homeowners. And, the arguing can get pretty intense! Listen: VOICE ONE: “Are you sure we can’t think of something else? ‘Cause I just think the girls really were against animal print. And I know it was not intended to be animal print. VOICE TWO: “It is not an animal print!” VOICE ONE: “I know it’s Gottlieb! And, I love you, but I just ... I cannot appreciate Gottlieb!” Sometimes the design results are beautiful. Sometimes they are horrible. But the show is always surprising. This may be a reason for its popularity. The show has about fifteen-million viewers each week. The television network TLC has released a book about the show that is selling very well. And it produced two videos of old programs for viewers who can not wait to see the shows again. Rainbows HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Liu asks how a rainbow is formed. Is its perfect circle shaped by the air or sunlight? A rainbow is a circle of colors that appears in the sky when sunlight shines on raindrops. The sunlight and water work together to form rainbows. Think of sunlight flowing out in many lines, called rays. The rays are an equal distance from each other. The light energy of the rays acts similar to waves. The light waves have different lengths. Sunlight is made up of several wave lengths. People see the mix of lengths as what is called white light. But things change when a ray of white light hits a raindrop. That is when the colors that make up white light slow to different speeds. The light bends as it enters the raindrop. Shorter wavelengths bend more sharply. This bending separates the white light into colors, each color weakening as it moves into the next color. The light rays turn or bend again when they come out of the raindrop. This continuous bending through an area of raindrops is what makes the rainbow a perfect circle. You will not always see a rainbow when it rains while the sun shines. The sun must be in the right position over the horizon. And remember to turn your back to the sun when you look toward the sky. A rainbow will never appear in the path between you and the sun. If you are on the ground, you will only see a part of the rainbow. This is because the earth blocks the rest of the circle. You can see the whole circle if you are flying high in a plane when a rainbow happens. The shadow of the plane would be in the center. Rainbows hold an important place in the traditional stories and beliefs that make up many cultures. For example, in ancient Greek stories, Iris was the goddess of the rainbow. She would travel over rainbows to carry messages from the gods to humans. Other cultures say the rainbow represents a bridge between life and death. Still others see the rainbow as a sign of good things to come. And, there is always the rainbow’s famous “pot of gold.” That ancient European story says if you can travel to the end of the rainbow, you will find gold there. But, of course, that is impossible! The rainbow is for our eyes only! Kelly Clarkson HOST: Another popular television show in the United States today is called “American Idol.” It is a search to find the best new singers. The winner last year recently released her first album. Kelly Clarkson’s record “Thankful” quickly became the most popular in the country. Shep O’Neal tells us about her and plays some of her songs. ANNCR: Kelly Clarkson is twenty years old. She grew up in the western state of Texas dreaming of becoming a professional singer. She heard about a new show where non-professional singers compete for a chance at a recording agreement. She sang for “American Idol” and got on the show. Listen now to the voice that won her that chance. Here she sings “A Moment Like This.” (MUSIC) Kelly Clarkson then sang before millions of television viewers every week and was judged on her singing ability. She won the competition. She also won many fans who are buying her record in large numbers. Here is a song she sings with another “American Idol” competitor, Tamyra Gray. The good friends perform “You Thought Wrong.” (MUSIC) Kelly Clarkson wrote “You Thought Wrong” and several other songs on the album. We leave you now with a song that probably expresses how Kelly Clarkson has been feeling lately. It is called “Thankful.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 15, 2003 - Cursing in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 15, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- curse words in American English. RS: We can't say them on the air, but a listener in Sokoto, Nigeria, Paul Ezeani, would like us to talk about them. So we found an expert who has dedicated his career to studying the role of cursing in America. AA: Timothy Jay is in the Psychology Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Professor Jay points out that while freedom of speech is protected under the U-S Constitution, there are increasing restrictions on language. JAY: "We have the freedom of speech, right, the First Amendment, but then you can't sexually harass someone, you can't use racial language to discriminate against them, you can't produce obscene speech, you can't use indecent speech -- those are kind of laws that we have about the workplace and school." RS: So when it's OK to curse, what words do Americans choose, we asked Professor Jay. JAY: "The obscenities that we have in our culture are hundreds of years old, you know, the Anglo-Saxon words, and we can chase those all the way back to the time of Chaucer. So those are pretty stable. What does change is slang, and slang becomes obsolete and exhausts itself, and we make up new kinds of sexual slang. "What's happened in our country over the last hundred years is we've shifted from a focus on profanity and blasphemy, which are religious words -- either an indifference toward religion or an attack on religion -- we've shifted away from that to focus more on words about sexuality. Most of what we think about obscenity has to do with sexual acts or sexual deviance. So that's the shift, probably along with the decline of the church in modern societies." AA: "Now there's certainly a lot more cursing around us nowadays, it seems -- you turn on the TV, you turn on the radio, you hear words you never would have heard, you know, ten or twenty years ago." RS: "Is there more permissiveness in our society, and perhaps in our media." JAY: "Well, media standards have changed. It think it's harder to answer the permissiveness question because at the same time we have more explicit media we also have things like sexual harassment and voice mail being monitored and e-mail being monitored. So I don't think we're becoming more permissive, but I think the media that we consume is becoming more explicit. "I think a lot of this begins in the late '60s, where you've got the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the Vietnam War, a shift in the standards for producing movies. Now we have cable TV and satellite. So all of these media are competing with each other for our interest at night, and when one person turns up the steam, then so does the other. That's what we're seeing every year now." AA: "So money, maybe it comes down to." JAY: "Yeah, I think that's the other side of this, is to look at this again as power and also, you know, big corporations who make a lot of money kind of setting the standards but playing with the standards at the same time." RS: "What is the student of English as a foreign language to do, to learn when and when not to use profanity?" JAY: "That's a good question. My sister was a teacher in English-as-a-second language programs out in Los Angeles for a long time, and these kind of questions about sexuality and body parts and taboos isn't part of the curriculum, for some good reasons I guess. But the women she taught would always ask her after class. But, you know, there's plenty of slang books. I think people learning English as a second language also pick it up in the media, they pick it up in records." AA: "I've got to ask you, do you ever use profanity or swear words in your lectures, other than when you're talking about these words as words?" JAY: "Yeah, I do, for two reasons. One, I do it sometimes for surprise. And then, in my -- I just finished a class on language and censorship, and to really to get them talking, I have to break down these barriers and traditions in the classroom. And still, I mean here in 2003, many of my students just won't talk about it, they just won't use this kind of language." RS: Timothy Jay is a psychology professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, in North Adams, Massachusetts. His books include "Why We Curse," "Cursing in America" and "What to Do When Your Students Talk Dirty." AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare"/Gladys Knight and the Pips Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 15, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- curse words in American English. RS: We can't say them on the air, but a listener in Sokoto, Nigeria, Paul Ezeani, would like us to talk about them. So we found an expert who has dedicated his career to studying the role of cursing in America. AA: Timothy Jay is in the Psychology Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Professor Jay points out that while freedom of speech is protected under the U-S Constitution, there are increasing restrictions on language. JAY: "We have the freedom of speech, right, the First Amendment, but then you can't sexually harass someone, you can't use racial language to discriminate against them, you can't produce obscene speech, you can't use indecent speech -- those are kind of laws that we have about the workplace and school." RS: So when it's OK to curse, what words do Americans choose, we asked Professor Jay. JAY: "The obscenities that we have in our culture are hundreds of years old, you know, the Anglo-Saxon words, and we can chase those all the way back to the time of Chaucer. So those are pretty stable. What does change is slang, and slang becomes obsolete and exhausts itself, and we make up new kinds of sexual slang. "What's happened in our country over the last hundred years is we've shifted from a focus on profanity and blasphemy, which are religious words -- either an indifference toward religion or an attack on religion -- we've shifted away from that to focus more on words about sexuality. Most of what we think about obscenity has to do with sexual acts or sexual deviance. So that's the shift, probably along with the decline of the church in modern societies." AA: "Now there's certainly a lot more cursing around us nowadays, it seems -- you turn on the TV, you turn on the radio, you hear words you never would have heard, you know, ten or twenty years ago." RS: "Is there more permissiveness in our society, and perhaps in our media." JAY: "Well, media standards have changed. It think it's harder to answer the permissiveness question because at the same time we have more explicit media we also have things like sexual harassment and voice mail being monitored and e-mail being monitored. So I don't think we're becoming more permissive, but I think the media that we consume is becoming more explicit. "I think a lot of this begins in the late '60s, where you've got the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the Vietnam War, a shift in the standards for producing movies. Now we have cable TV and satellite. So all of these media are competing with each other for our interest at night, and when one person turns up the steam, then so does the other. That's what we're seeing every year now." AA: "So money, maybe it comes down to." JAY: "Yeah, I think that's the other side of this, is to look at this again as power and also, you know, big corporations who make a lot of money kind of setting the standards but playing with the standards at the same time." RS: "What is the student of English as a foreign language to do, to learn when and when not to use profanity?" JAY: "That's a good question. My sister was a teacher in English-as-a-second language programs out in Los Angeles for a long time, and these kind of questions about sexuality and body parts and taboos isn't part of the curriculum, for some good reasons I guess. But the women she taught would always ask her after class. But, you know, there's plenty of slang books. I think people learning English as a second language also pick it up in the media, they pick it up in records." AA: "I've got to ask you, do you ever use profanity or swear words in your lectures, other than when you're talking about these words as words?" JAY: "Yeah, I do, for two reasons. One, I do it sometimes for surprise. And then, in my -- I just finished a class on language and censorship, and to really to get them talking, I have to break down these barriers and traditions in the classroom. And still, I mean here in 2003, many of my students just won't talk about it, they just won't use this kind of language." RS: Timothy Jay is a psychology professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, in North Adams, Massachusetts. His books include "Why We Curse," "Cursing in America" and "What to Do When Your Students Talk Dirty." AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Daddy Could Swear, I Declare"/Gladys Knight and the Pips 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 18, 2003: R. Buckminster Fuller
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about an unusual man who had many abilities, Richard Buckminster Fuller. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Building designer. Engineer. Inventor. Thinker. Poet. Not five people. Just one: Richard Buckminster Fuller. "Bucky" Fuller, as he was known, was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentieth century. His aim in life was to make the human race a success in the universe. Bucky Fuller spent most of his life searching for new ideas. He also searched for unusual connections between existing ideas. He described himself in these words: "A complete, future-thinking design-science explorer." Fuller believed deeply in technology. Through technology, he said, people can do anything they need to do. VOICE TWO: R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen-eighty-three at the age of eighty-seven. During his long life, he discussed his idea about technology and human survival. He called his idea "dymaxion." It came from three words. Dynamic, meaning a force. Maximum, meaning the most. And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge. Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more with less. Everything he did was guided by this idea. He designed a dymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world. But he probably is known best for another invention -- the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is a round building made of many straight-sided pieces. Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words. This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideas and designs. His designs were way ahead of his time. They still are. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in eighteen-ninety-five. Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyes did not point straight ahead. So, his world was filled with masses of color without clear shapes. When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct the problem. Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people's faces. He could see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees. He never lost his joy at the beauty he discovered in the world. As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything. He was a very independent thinker at an early age. His refusal to accept other people’s ideas and rules continued as he grew older. One result was that he never completed his university studies. He was expelled two times from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought his time was better spent having fun than studying. Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning. He proved this when he joined the American navy during World War One. VOICE TWO: In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications and electronics engineering. He loved this world of modern technology. Soon after he joined the navy, he designed new rescue equipment. It helped save the lives of some pilots during training. Fuller's good navy record won him a short-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was there he first developed two ideas that were important for the rest of his life. While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed much less than buildings, yet were able to do much more. He decided better designs could also help humans do more, using fewer materials. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett. Their daughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later. Bucky was a very emotional man, as well as an intellectual one. He loved his little daughter. She was the wonder of his world. Then Alexandra became very sick. The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet. She died at the age of four. Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything he could to save her. His sorrow overcame him. He began to drink too much alcohol. Yet he continued to work hard. Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight building material. He was not a successful businessman, however. And the company began to fail. He was dismissed by the owners. It was nineteen-twenty-seven. His wife had just given birth to another baby girl. They were living in Chicago, Illinois. He had no job and no money. He felt he was a complete failure. VOICE TWO: Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along lake Michigan. He stood silently on the shore. He considered killing himself. Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not have the right to kill himself. He said he had felt something inside him that day. He called it the Greater Intelligence or God. It told him he belonged to the universe. So Bucky Fuller decided to live. And he would live the way he thought best. He promised to spend his remaining years in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier. This began his great creative period. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Fuller's first design was the dymaxion house. It was not built at the place it would stand. It was built in a factory, then moved. It did not cost much to build. And it did not look like a traditional house in America. Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center. Its walls were made of glass. It contained everything needed for people to live. Power came from the sun. Water was cleaned and re-used. Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car. It looked a little like the body of an airplane. It had three wheels instead of four. It could go as fast as one-hundred-eighty kilometers an hour. It carried up to twelve passengers. Several companies were interested in building and selling Fuller's house and car. But his designs were so different, so extreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects. So the dymaxion house -- which could have provided low-cost housing for everyone -- was never built. And the dymaxion car -- which could have provided safe, pollution-free transportation using little gasoline -- was never produced. VOICE TWO: Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less. He had an idea for another building design. It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material. He began looking for the perfect shape. Fuller found it in nature. It appeared in the shapes of organic compounds and metals. The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid. To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other. The connecting piece has eight sides. Together, these two shapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure. The structure can be covered with any kind of material. And it can stand without any supports inside. Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome. It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed. VOICE ONE: After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built, industry began to understand the value of the design. Today, there are about one-hundred-thousand different large and small geodesic domes in use around the world. However, no one yet has acted on one of Fuller's ideas for the geodesic dome. There are no limits to the size of a geodesic dome. So Fuller proposed using them over cities or over areas that had severe weather. A geodesic dome that size would make it possible to have complete control over the environment inside it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most of Bucky Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money. A lot of what he did earn he spent travelling around the world. He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet. He called the planet "Spaceship Earth." Humans, he said, are astronauts on Spaceship Earth. They are travelling one-hundred-thousand kilometers an hour around the sun. He said the Earth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only if people living on it know how to operate it correctly. People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship. They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them. Buckminster Fuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use of natural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about an unusual man who had many abilities, Richard Buckminster Fuller. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Building designer. Engineer. Inventor. Thinker. Poet. Not five people. Just one: Richard Buckminster Fuller. "Bucky" Fuller, as he was known, was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentieth century. His aim in life was to make the human race a success in the universe. Bucky Fuller spent most of his life searching for new ideas. He also searched for unusual connections between existing ideas. He described himself in these words: "A complete, future-thinking design-science explorer." Fuller believed deeply in technology. Through technology, he said, people can do anything they need to do. VOICE TWO: R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen-eighty-three at the age of eighty-seven. During his long life, he discussed his idea about technology and human survival. He called his idea "dymaxion." It came from three words. Dynamic, meaning a force. Maximum, meaning the most. And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge. Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more with less. Everything he did was guided by this idea. He designed a dymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world. But he probably is known best for another invention -- the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is a round building made of many straight-sided pieces. Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words. This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideas and designs. His designs were way ahead of his time. They still are. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in eighteen-ninety-five. Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyes did not point straight ahead. So, his world was filled with masses of color without clear shapes. When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct the problem. Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people's faces. He could see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees. He never lost his joy at the beauty he discovered in the world. As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything. He was a very independent thinker at an early age. His refusal to accept other people’s ideas and rules continued as he grew older. One result was that he never completed his university studies. He was expelled two times from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought his time was better spent having fun than studying. Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning. He proved this when he joined the American navy during World War One. VOICE TWO: In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications and electronics engineering. He loved this world of modern technology. Soon after he joined the navy, he designed new rescue equipment. It helped save the lives of some pilots during training. Fuller's good navy record won him a short-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was there he first developed two ideas that were important for the rest of his life. While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed much less than buildings, yet were able to do much more. He decided better designs could also help humans do more, using fewer materials. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett. Their daughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later. Bucky was a very emotional man, as well as an intellectual one. He loved his little daughter. She was the wonder of his world. Then Alexandra became very sick. The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet. She died at the age of four. Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything he could to save her. His sorrow overcame him. He began to drink too much alcohol. Yet he continued to work hard. Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight building material. He was not a successful businessman, however. And the company began to fail. He was dismissed by the owners. It was nineteen-twenty-seven. His wife had just given birth to another baby girl. They were living in Chicago, Illinois. He had no job and no money. He felt he was a complete failure. VOICE TWO: Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along lake Michigan. He stood silently on the shore. He considered killing himself. Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not have the right to kill himself. He said he had felt something inside him that day. He called it the Greater Intelligence or God. It told him he belonged to the universe. So Bucky Fuller decided to live. And he would live the way he thought best. He promised to spend his remaining years in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier. This began his great creative period. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Fuller's first design was the dymaxion house. It was not built at the place it would stand. It was built in a factory, then moved. It did not cost much to build. And it did not look like a traditional house in America. Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center. Its walls were made of glass. It contained everything needed for people to live. Power came from the sun. Water was cleaned and re-used. Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car. It looked a little like the body of an airplane. It had three wheels instead of four. It could go as fast as one-hundred-eighty kilometers an hour. It carried up to twelve passengers. Several companies were interested in building and selling Fuller's house and car. But his designs were so different, so extreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects. So the dymaxion house -- which could have provided low-cost housing for everyone -- was never built. And the dymaxion car -- which could have provided safe, pollution-free transportation using little gasoline -- was never produced. VOICE TWO: Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less. He had an idea for another building design. It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material. He began looking for the perfect shape. Fuller found it in nature. It appeared in the shapes of organic compounds and metals. The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid. To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other. The connecting piece has eight sides. Together, these two shapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure. The structure can be covered with any kind of material. And it can stand without any supports inside. Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome. It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed. VOICE ONE: After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built, industry began to understand the value of the design. Today, there are about one-hundred-thousand different large and small geodesic domes in use around the world. However, no one yet has acted on one of Fuller's ideas for the geodesic dome. There are no limits to the size of a geodesic dome. So Fuller proposed using them over cities or over areas that had severe weather. A geodesic dome that size would make it possible to have complete control over the environment inside it. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Most of Bucky Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money. A lot of what he did earn he spent travelling around the world. He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet. He called the planet "Spaceship Earth." Humans, he said, are astronauts on Spaceship Earth. They are travelling one-hundred-thousand kilometers an hour around the sun. He said the Earth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only if people living on it know how to operate it correctly. People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship. They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them. Buckminster Fuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use of natural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 17, 2003: Riyadh Bombing Attacks
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. At least thirty-four people were killed in three bombing attacks in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Monday. More than two-hundred people were injured in the attacks. The bombers drove vehicles carrying explosives into compounds home to Americans and other foreigners. The dead included eight Americans. American officials warned of the possibility of more attacks to come, including in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said fifteen Saudis carried out the bombings Monday. Nine of the attackers also died. American intelligence officials said it appeared to be the work of al-Qaeda terrorists. Crown Prince Abdullah said the attackers have no "Islamic or human values." President Bush blamed what he called "killers whose only faith is hatred." The attacks happened shortly before American Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Saudi Arabia. State Department officials urged Americans to leave the country. Other Westerners also prepared to leave. Thirty-five-thousand Americans were among the foreign workers in Saudi Arabia. Relations with Saudi Arabia were damaged by the terrorist attacks in the United States on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers involved in the September eleventh attacks were Saudi. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden also was born in Saudi Arabia. Bush administration officials have said Saudi Arabia has done little to stop terrorism. But after Monday's bombings there were promises of cooperation. Federal officials from the United States are in Saudi Arabia to help investigate the bombings. But the United States and Saudi Arabia have clashed over past terror investigations. That happened after a nineteen-ninety-six attack on an American military housing compound. American officials criticized Saudi restrictions on their efforts to gather evidence. Some officials say the relationship between Saudi police and American investigators has since gotten better. Saudi officials, for example, have dealt openly with accusations that they did not increase security enough before the attacks. American intelligence officials had feared an attack was coming. The American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, said the Saudis did not act on American requests to increase security around the Riyadh compounds. Saudi officials denied that they ignored the requests. But they agreed there were security problems and promised to improve security measures. Earlier this month, the United States announced plans to withdraw most of the five-thousand troops based in Saudi Arabia by August. Their presence on land holy to Muslims increased anti-American feelings among Arabs. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – May 19, 2003: Worker Safety
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report by the International Labor Organization says about two-million people a year die from accidents and diseases linked to their jobs. That is more than five-thousand people every day. The victims include twelve-thousand children killed each year at work. The labor agency estimates that job-related injuries, diseases and deaths cost the world economy more than one-million-million dollars a year. The International Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. The report estimates that each year about two-hundred-seventy-million people suffer accidents on the job. Also, about one-hundred-sixty million cases of work-related sickness are reported. The agency says most work-related accidents and diseases could be prevented if international safety rules were followed. Jukka Takala heads the Safe Work Program for the International Labor Organization. He says work-related deaths, accidents and diseases have dropped in industrialized nations. This is because better prevention efforts and emergency services are in place. In addition, Mister Takala says many of the most dangerous jobs have been exported from industrialized nations to developing countries. The riskiest jobs in poor nations are in leading industries like farming, fishing and mining. The International Labor Organization says a lack of safety training and poor reading skills lead to high death rates. Many workers die from fires or from being around dangerous materials. Chemicals and other harmful substances kill three-hundred-forty-thousand workers a year. Mister Takala says the causes of job-related deaths differ around the world. In Southeast Asia and China, for example, accidents are the biggest cause of death. In southern Africa and India, however, a big cause of work-related deaths are diseases caused in many cases by dirty conditions and spread from one worker to another. Internationally, almost one-third of all work-related deaths are caused by cancer. Mister Takala says most of these cases are in industrialized nations. The causes include chemicals and dangerous substances like asbestos and even cigarette smoke in the workplace. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report by the International Labor Organization says about two-million people a year die from accidents and diseases linked to their jobs. That is more than five-thousand people every day. The victims include twelve-thousand children killed each year at work. The labor agency estimates that job-related injuries, diseases and deaths cost the world economy more than one-million-million dollars a year. The International Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. The report estimates that each year about two-hundred-seventy-million people suffer accidents on the job. Also, about one-hundred-sixty million cases of work-related sickness are reported. The agency says most work-related accidents and diseases could be prevented if international safety rules were followed. Jukka Takala heads the Safe Work Program for the International Labor Organization. He says work-related deaths, accidents and diseases have dropped in industrialized nations. This is because better prevention efforts and emergency services are in place. In addition, Mister Takala says many of the most dangerous jobs have been exported from industrialized nations to developing countries. The riskiest jobs in poor nations are in leading industries like farming, fishing and mining. The International Labor Organization says a lack of safety training and poor reading skills lead to high death rates. Many workers die from fires or from being around dangerous materials. Chemicals and other harmful substances kill three-hundred-forty-thousand workers a year. Mister Takala says the causes of job-related deaths differ around the world. In Southeast Asia and China, for example, accidents are the biggest cause of death. In southern Africa and India, however, a big cause of work-related deaths are diseases caused in many cases by dirty conditions and spread from one worker to another. Internationally, almost one-third of all work-related deaths are caused by cancer. Mister Takala says most of these cases are in industrialized nations. The causes include chemicals and dangerous substances like asbestos and even cigarette smoke in the workplace. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - May 19, 2003: Overseas Adoptions
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every year, thousands of Americans take a child into their home that was born in another country. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. International adoption is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Many husbands and wives in this country want a child, but may not be able to have one. Or, such married couples may want to add an adopted child to their other children. Single Americans may also want to become parents. But since the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies, the number of babies and young children who can be adopted in this country has greatly decreased. Today, many people are going overseas to adopt a foreign child. VOICE ONE: East Asia, eastern Europe and Latin America have become adoption centers for Americans. For example, thousands of Americans have adopted children from China, Russia, South Korea, Guatemala or Romania. More than sixteen-thousand children were brought here from those and other countries during nineteen-ninety-nine. The next year, the State Department says more than eighteen-thousand foreign children were adopted and brought here from all foreign countries. VOICE TWO: Thousands of children in America grow up in temporary family homes. Or, they live in group homes. Many are older children or children who have health problems. But the public demand for children to adopt is mainly for healthy babies and very young children. Today, there are no longer great numbers of such children to meet that demand. About thirty years ago, American women got the right to choose to end their pregnancies. This has made changes in adoption in the United States. VOICE ONE: American society also has changed beliefs about who will make a good parent. Years ago, few single people or couples older than about forty could adopt. Today, it is much more common for single people to adopt. Some couples of the same sex are adopting children. People who are no longer young also can adopt. Laws about adoptions within the United States differ from state to state. Prospective adoptive parents -- people who want to adopt -- are asked to show that they can provide a safe and loving home. Then they wait until an adoption agency finds a child for them. Sometimes people wait years. Other adoptions happen much more quickly. Costs differ greatly. Some estimates say the average may be about ten-thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: Adoptions also take place without the services of an agency. In a private adoption, a lawyer or doctor connects a pregnant woman with people seeking a child. But sometimes this does not guarantee a baby to adopt. For a time after the birth, biological parents are permitted to change their decision to surrender their child. Sometimes people wait a long time for a baby. Then they learn that a birth parent has decided to raise the child after all. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many adoption agencies in the United States also handle overseas adoptions. These adoptions often involve direct relinquishment. This means the biological parents may be dead. Or, they may have already surrendered their child to an orphanage. The new parents then may take the child directly home to the United States. Like most adoptions within the United States, overseas adoptions take time. They may take many months, or more than a year. Adoption agencies and the Department of State have a number of requirements for people wanting to adopt overseas. A social worker must make a home study of the prospective parents. The goal is to make sure the home and family will be good for the child. For example, the prospective parent must show ability to provide financial support. They also are investigated to see if they obey the law. Many overseas adoption centers require prospective parents to make two trips. On the first, the people meet and spend time with a child. On the second, they complete the legal adoption process. Parents also are advised to repeat the adoption process in the United States when they return. Foreign adoptions can be costly. For example, some people have paid thirty-thousand dollars to adopt a Russian child. The total amount depends on travel expenses. VOICE TWO: China has become the major source of foreign adoptions by Americans. China’s population policy calls for only one child per family. As a result, many parents surrender children -- mostly daughters -- for adoption. Adoptions by foreigners became legal in China in nineteen-ninety-two. Americans adopt more than five-thousand children a year from China. But there is a problem now because of the spread of SARS. By late last week more than two-hundred-seventy people had died of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. More than five-thousand had become infected. On May fifteenth, the China Center of Adoption Affairs postponed mailing documents to prospective parents to travel to China. It also said those who already have travel plans made should do their best to delay their trip. The center placed its notice on its Web site. The agency said it hopes to avoid the spread of SARS infection that might be caused by the flow of people. VOICE ONE: Normally, Americans who want to adopt in China must visit the United States Consulate in Guangzhou. That city is in Guangdong Province, where SARS is believed to have begun in November. The consulate is the only American diplomatic office in China that processes travel documents for adopted children. Many people wanting to adopt have gone to China even with the recent travel warnings to stay away because of SARS. Agencies said few prospective parents had cancelled flights to China for next month. Deep desire for a child urged many people forward. There were comments like, “There is no way I would not do everything I can to bring my child home.” But that was before the announcement last week by the China Center of Adoption Affairs. An extended suspension on travel for foreign adoptions would hurt the Chinese as well as the prospective parents. China wants homes for the children. It also receives thousands of dollars in adoption costs. And, adoptive parents provide business for hotels and stores in Guangzhou. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some children adopted overseas suffer from physical and mental problems. Experts say it is extremely important for adoptive parents to watch their children’s health and development carefully. The United States has about twelve centers established especially to meet this need. One such place is the International Adoption Center at the INOVA hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. It offers a number of services to adoptive parents. Foreign agencies often present adoptive parents with medical records and videotape of a child. A Center doctor can meet with families before they go overseas to adopt. The doctor can study these records and discuss possible problems. The doctor also can examine the child after the adoption is completed. VOICE ONE: Experts say children who have been in large orphanages often develop more slowly than others. Children in groups also have a bigger risk of infections. They may have diseases that children’s doctors in the United States do not usually see or treat. For example, the children may have an intestinal disorder called parasites. VOICE TWO: Clearly, adopting an overseas child demands loving parents who are willing to take some chances. Kevin and Edie McGee of Millersville, Maryland, are such a couple. They had been trying for ten years to have a baby. Then, a few weeks ago, they went to China. There they met their fourteen-month-old daughter. They adopted and re-named young Min An An. But, back home, Missus McGee developed a sickness that may have been SARS. Now she has recovered completely. On May eleventh, the McGee family celebrated an American holiday with their adopted baby, Madeline. It was Edie McGee’s first Mother’s Day as a mother. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every year, thousands of Americans take a child into their home that was born in another country. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. International adoption is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Many husbands and wives in this country want a child, but may not be able to have one. Or, such married couples may want to add an adopted child to their other children. Single Americans may also want to become parents. But since the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies, the number of babies and young children who can be adopted in this country has greatly decreased. Today, many people are going overseas to adopt a foreign child. VOICE ONE: East Asia, eastern Europe and Latin America have become adoption centers for Americans. For example, thousands of Americans have adopted children from China, Russia, South Korea, Guatemala or Romania. More than sixteen-thousand children were brought here from those and other countries during nineteen-ninety-nine. The next year, the State Department says more than eighteen-thousand foreign children were adopted and brought here from all foreign countries. VOICE TWO: Thousands of children in America grow up in temporary family homes. Or, they live in group homes. Many are older children or children who have health problems. But the public demand for children to adopt is mainly for healthy babies and very young children. Today, there are no longer great numbers of such children to meet that demand. About thirty years ago, American women got the right to choose to end their pregnancies. This has made changes in adoption in the United States. VOICE ONE: American society also has changed beliefs about who will make a good parent. Years ago, few single people or couples older than about forty could adopt. Today, it is much more common for single people to adopt. Some couples of the same sex are adopting children. People who are no longer young also can adopt. Laws about adoptions within the United States differ from state to state. Prospective adoptive parents -- people who want to adopt -- are asked to show that they can provide a safe and loving home. Then they wait until an adoption agency finds a child for them. Sometimes people wait years. Other adoptions happen much more quickly. Costs differ greatly. Some estimates say the average may be about ten-thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: Adoptions also take place without the services of an agency. In a private adoption, a lawyer or doctor connects a pregnant woman with people seeking a child. But sometimes this does not guarantee a baby to adopt. For a time after the birth, biological parents are permitted to change their decision to surrender their child. Sometimes people wait a long time for a baby. Then they learn that a birth parent has decided to raise the child after all. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many adoption agencies in the United States also handle overseas adoptions. These adoptions often involve direct relinquishment. This means the biological parents may be dead. Or, they may have already surrendered their child to an orphanage. The new parents then may take the child directly home to the United States. Like most adoptions within the United States, overseas adoptions take time. They may take many months, or more than a year. Adoption agencies and the Department of State have a number of requirements for people wanting to adopt overseas. A social worker must make a home study of the prospective parents. The goal is to make sure the home and family will be good for the child. For example, the prospective parent must show ability to provide financial support. They also are investigated to see if they obey the law. Many overseas adoption centers require prospective parents to make two trips. On the first, the people meet and spend time with a child. On the second, they complete the legal adoption process. Parents also are advised to repeat the adoption process in the United States when they return. Foreign adoptions can be costly. For example, some people have paid thirty-thousand dollars to adopt a Russian child. The total amount depends on travel expenses. VOICE TWO: China has become the major source of foreign adoptions by Americans. China’s population policy calls for only one child per family. As a result, many parents surrender children -- mostly daughters -- for adoption. Adoptions by foreigners became legal in China in nineteen-ninety-two. Americans adopt more than five-thousand children a year from China. But there is a problem now because of the spread of SARS. By late last week more than two-hundred-seventy people had died of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. More than five-thousand had become infected. On May fifteenth, the China Center of Adoption Affairs postponed mailing documents to prospective parents to travel to China. It also said those who already have travel plans made should do their best to delay their trip. The center placed its notice on its Web site. The agency said it hopes to avoid the spread of SARS infection that might be caused by the flow of people. VOICE ONE: Normally, Americans who want to adopt in China must visit the United States Consulate in Guangzhou. That city is in Guangdong Province, where SARS is believed to have begun in November. The consulate is the only American diplomatic office in China that processes travel documents for adopted children. Many people wanting to adopt have gone to China even with the recent travel warnings to stay away because of SARS. Agencies said few prospective parents had cancelled flights to China for next month. Deep desire for a child urged many people forward. There were comments like, “There is no way I would not do everything I can to bring my child home.” But that was before the announcement last week by the China Center of Adoption Affairs. An extended suspension on travel for foreign adoptions would hurt the Chinese as well as the prospective parents. China wants homes for the children. It also receives thousands of dollars in adoption costs. And, adoptive parents provide business for hotels and stores in Guangzhou. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some children adopted overseas suffer from physical and mental problems. Experts say it is extremely important for adoptive parents to watch their children’s health and development carefully. The United States has about twelve centers established especially to meet this need. One such place is the International Adoption Center at the INOVA hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. It offers a number of services to adoptive parents. Foreign agencies often present adoptive parents with medical records and videotape of a child. A Center doctor can meet with families before they go overseas to adopt. The doctor can study these records and discuss possible problems. The doctor also can examine the child after the adoption is completed. VOICE ONE: Experts say children who have been in large orphanages often develop more slowly than others. Children in groups also have a bigger risk of infections. They may have diseases that children’s doctors in the United States do not usually see or treat. For example, the children may have an intestinal disorder called parasites. VOICE TWO: Clearly, adopting an overseas child demands loving parents who are willing to take some chances. Kevin and Edie McGee of Millersville, Maryland, are such a couple. They had been trying for ten years to have a baby. Then, a few weeks ago, they went to China. There they met their fourteen-month-old daughter. They adopted and re-named young Min An An. But, back home, Missus McGee developed a sickness that may have been SARS. Now she has recovered completely. On May eleventh, the McGee family celebrated an American holiday with their adopted baby, Madeline. It was Edie McGee’s first Mother’s Day as a mother. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 20, 2003: Vitamins
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Bees and Beekeeping, Part 2 - May 20, 2003
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week we talked about how bees make honey. However, bees produce a number of useful materials. Beeswax is another. World production is more than ten thousand tons a year. Yet, this is much less than the total honey production, which is more than one-million tons per year. Bees need to eat about three kilograms of honey, or more, to produce less than one half of a kilogram of wax. The beauty industry uses a lot of beeswax. It provides a base for skin products and skin medicines. Candles used for lighting and religious ceremonies are made of beeswax. And woodworkers mix it with oils to protect wood surfaces. Leatherworkers use beeswax to protect leather from water. Beekeepers may be the biggest users of beeswax. They use it to make structures called foundations. Bees build hives by adding wax to the foundations. Bees keep honey, food and their young in these structures. Surprisingly, the poison from a bee sting is a valuable product. Worker bees have a sting that can inject poison. In some people, a bee sting causes their throat or tongue to swell up. This reaction can cause death. Sometimes, treatment with bee poison can help reduce such reactions. In North and South America, Asia and Europe, tiny creatures called mites can destroy hives. The mites suck the blood of bees. Wax moths are insects that eat wax in the hive. There are also diseases caused by bacteria: European and American foulbrood. The bacteria that cause these diseases attack and destroy young bees. Beekeepers in the warm areas of the Americas also must be concerned about Africanized bees. African bees were brought to South America to improve honey production. They quickly spread out of control. Today, they have mixed with European honey bee populations raised in the Americas. Africanized honey bees are very aggressive. They have killed animals and people. In the Seventies, they became known as “killer bees.” Africanized bees are not really “killer bees,” but they must be treated with special care. All these problems add to the cost of keeping bees. But beekeeping remains mostly low cost and very important to agriculture -- as we will see next week. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week we talked about how bees make honey. However, bees produce a number of useful materials. Beeswax is another. World production is more than ten thousand tons a year. Yet, this is much less than the total honey production, which is more than one-million tons per year. Bees need to eat about three kilograms of honey, or more, to produce less than one half of a kilogram of wax. The beauty industry uses a lot of beeswax. It provides a base for skin products and skin medicines. Candles used for lighting and religious ceremonies are made of beeswax. And woodworkers mix it with oils to protect wood surfaces. Leatherworkers use beeswax to protect leather from water. Beekeepers may be the biggest users of beeswax. They use it to make structures called foundations. Bees build hives by adding wax to the foundations. Bees keep honey, food and their young in these structures. Surprisingly, the poison from a bee sting is a valuable product. Worker bees have a sting that can inject poison. In some people, a bee sting causes their throat or tongue to swell up. This reaction can cause death. Sometimes, treatment with bee poison can help reduce such reactions. In North and South America, Asia and Europe, tiny creatures called mites can destroy hives. The mites suck the blood of bees. Wax moths are insects that eat wax in the hive. There are also diseases caused by bacteria: European and American foulbrood. The bacteria that cause these diseases attack and destroy young bees. Beekeepers in the warm areas of the Americas also must be concerned about Africanized bees. African bees were brought to South America to improve honey production. They quickly spread out of control. Today, they have mixed with European honey bee populations raised in the Americas. Africanized honey bees are very aggressive. They have killed animals and people. In the Seventies, they became known as “killer bees.” Africanized bees are not really “killer bees,” but they must be treated with special care. All these problems add to the cost of keeping bees. But beekeeping remains mostly low cost and very important to agriculture -- as we will see next week. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS — May 21, 2003: Mount Everest Climb Anniversary
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Fifty years ago, two mountain climbers became the first to reach the top of Mount Everest. Today, we tell about efforts to climb the tallest mountain on Earth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Mount Everest is at the border of Nepal and Tibet. It was named for Sir George Everest, who recorded the mountain’s location in eighteen-forty-one. In the past fifty years, about ten-thousand people have tried to climb to the top of the world's highest mountain. About one-thousand-two-hundred mountain climbers have succeeded. However, about two-hundred people have died trying to reach the summit, eight-thousand-eight-hundred-fifty meters high. They all battled freezing temperatures. Winds up to one-hundred-sixty-kilometers per hour. Dangerous mountain paths. And they all risked developing a serious illness caused by lack of oxygen. All for the chance to reach the top of the world. VOICE TWO: The first and most famous of the climbers to disappear on Mount Everest was George Mallory. The British schoolteacher was a member of the first three trips by foreigners to the mountain. In nineteen-twenty-one, Mallory was part of the team sent by the British Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Club. The team was to create the first map of the area and find a possible path to the top of the great mountain. Mallory also was a member of the first Everest climbing attempt in nineteen-twenty-two. But the attempt was canceled after a storm caused a giant mass of snow to slide down the mountain, killing seven native ethnic Sherpa guides. VOICE ONE: Mallory was invited back to Everest as lead climber of another expedition in nineteen-twenty-four. On June fourth, Mallory and team member Andrew Irvine left their base camp for the team's final attempt to reach the mountaintop. The climbing team had great hopes of success for the two men. A few days earlier, expedition leader Edward Norton had reached a record height of eight-thousand-five-hundred-seventy-three meters before he turned back. VOICE TWO: Mallory and Irvine were using bottled oxygen. Mallory believed that was the only way they would have the energy and speed to climb the last three-hundred meters to the top and return safely. Team member Noel Odell saw Mallory and Irvine climbing high on the mountain the following day. He said they had just climbed one of the most difficult rocks on the northeast path. He said they were moving toward the top when clouds hid them. He never saw them again. The disappearance of Mallory and Irvine on Mount Everest remains among the greatest exploration mysteries of the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the next twenty-nine years, teams from Britain made seven more attempts to climb Everest. Until the early nineteen-fifties, teams from Britain were the only foreign climbers given permission to climb Mount Everest. On May twenty-ninth, nineteen-fifty-three, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to reach the summit of Everest. The two were part of a British team lead by Jon Hunt. They had made a difficult climb from the southeast, through recently-opened Nepalese territory. Edmund Hillary was a bee keeper from New Zealand. It was his second trip to Everest. He had been on the first exploratory trip to the mountain that had mapped the way up from the southern side. Tenzing Norgay was a native Nepalese Sherpa. He was the first Sherpa to become interested in mountain climbing. His climb with Hillary was his seventh attempt to reach the top. VOICE TWO: Hillary said that his first reaction on reaching the top of Mount Everest was a happy feeling that he had “no more steps to cut." The two men planted a stick holding the flags of Britain, Nepal, India and the United Nations. Hillary took a picture of Norgay. They looked out over the north side into Tibet for any signs that Mallory or Irvine had been there before them. Then they began the long and difficult trip back down. The success of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay led to many new attempts on the mountain. Today, Everest has been climbed from all of its sides and from most of its possible paths. VOICE ONE: To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that first successful climb, the sons of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay took part in a climb to the top of Mount Everest last May. Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay were part of a team that included Brent Bishop. He is the son of Barry Bishop, who was among the first Americans to reach the top of Mount Everest in nineteen-sixty-three. National Geographic Magazine paid for the anniversary climb and made a film about it. The film also tells about the culture and climbing ability of the Sherpa people. They have played an important part in the success of climbers who have reached the top of Mount Everest. The film was recently shown on the National Geographic television station. There is also a new exhibit of photographs about the historic climb at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria made another historic Everest climb in nineteen-seventy-eight. The two men were the first to reach the summit without using bottled oxygen. Messner said when he reached the top he felt like a single giant lung. At the time, scientists believed that a person at the top of the mountain would only have enough oxygen to sleep. Scientists believed that Messner and Habeler would die without oxygen. Scientists now know that two conditions make climbing at heights over eight-thousand meters extremely difficult. The first is the lack of oxygen in the extremely thin air. The second is the low barometric air pressure. VOICE ONE: Today, scientists say a person lowered onto the top of the mountain would live no more than ten minutes. Climbers can survive above eight-thousand meters because they spend months climbing on the mountain to get used to the conditions. Several things have made climbing Everest today easier than it was for the first climbers. These include modern equipment and clothing. They also include information gained from earlier climbs and scientific studies. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-three, a record one-hundred-twenty-nine people climbed Mount Everest. Many were inexperienced climbers. In recent years, some expert climbers have begun leading guided trips up the mountain. Some people have paid as much as sixty-five-thousand dollars for the chance to climb Everest. In nineteen-ninety-six, Everest had its greatest tragedy. A record ten people died on the mountain in one day. Two of the world's best climbers were among those killed. Three guided groups were trying to reach the summit of the mountain that day. Several books by climbers have described the incident and the dangerous mountain conditions. The best known is “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer. The book sold many copies around the world and increased the interest in climbing Mount Everest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Climbing to the top of Mount Everest is a major victory for any person, but imagine if the climber could not see. Two years ago, the first blind man successfully reached the top of Everest. Erik Weihenmayer (WINE-may-er) was a thirty-two-year-old American. He climbed to the summit with the help of his team. Each member of the team wore bells on his clothes for Weihenmayer to hear. They also called out warnings to help him cross dangerous areas. It took the group more than two months to reach the summit. The National Federation of the Blind helped pay for the climb. VOICE TWO: Weihenmayer already had climbed several of the world’s tallest mountains. He said he often told himself that he could not fail to reach the top of Everest. Failing would confirm that mountain climbing is a sport only for people who can see. Historians may consider that the most successful climb of Mount Everest in history, and not just because of Weihenmayer. A record nineteen climbers from his team reached the summit. So did the oldest man ever to climb Mount Everest. He was sixty-four-year-old Sherman Bull. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Linda Burchill and Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Fifty years ago, two mountain climbers became the first to reach the top of Mount Everest. Today, we tell about efforts to climb the tallest mountain on Earth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Mount Everest is at the border of Nepal and Tibet. It was named for Sir George Everest, who recorded the mountain’s location in eighteen-forty-one. In the past fifty years, about ten-thousand people have tried to climb to the top of the world's highest mountain. About one-thousand-two-hundred mountain climbers have succeeded. However, about two-hundred people have died trying to reach the summit, eight-thousand-eight-hundred-fifty meters high. They all battled freezing temperatures. Winds up to one-hundred-sixty-kilometers per hour. Dangerous mountain paths. And they all risked developing a serious illness caused by lack of oxygen. All for the chance to reach the top of the world. VOICE TWO: The first and most famous of the climbers to disappear on Mount Everest was George Mallory. The British schoolteacher was a member of the first three trips by foreigners to the mountain. In nineteen-twenty-one, Mallory was part of the team sent by the British Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Club. The team was to create the first map of the area and find a possible path to the top of the great mountain. Mallory also was a member of the first Everest climbing attempt in nineteen-twenty-two. But the attempt was canceled after a storm caused a giant mass of snow to slide down the mountain, killing seven native ethnic Sherpa guides. VOICE ONE: Mallory was invited back to Everest as lead climber of another expedition in nineteen-twenty-four. On June fourth, Mallory and team member Andrew Irvine left their base camp for the team's final attempt to reach the mountaintop. The climbing team had great hopes of success for the two men. A few days earlier, expedition leader Edward Norton had reached a record height of eight-thousand-five-hundred-seventy-three meters before he turned back. VOICE TWO: Mallory and Irvine were using bottled oxygen. Mallory believed that was the only way they would have the energy and speed to climb the last three-hundred meters to the top and return safely. Team member Noel Odell saw Mallory and Irvine climbing high on the mountain the following day. He said they had just climbed one of the most difficult rocks on the northeast path. He said they were moving toward the top when clouds hid them. He never saw them again. The disappearance of Mallory and Irvine on Mount Everest remains among the greatest exploration mysteries of the last century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the next twenty-nine years, teams from Britain made seven more attempts to climb Everest. Until the early nineteen-fifties, teams from Britain were the only foreign climbers given permission to climb Mount Everest. On May twenty-ninth, nineteen-fifty-three, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to reach the summit of Everest. The two were part of a British team lead by Jon Hunt. They had made a difficult climb from the southeast, through recently-opened Nepalese territory. Edmund Hillary was a bee keeper from New Zealand. It was his second trip to Everest. He had been on the first exploratory trip to the mountain that had mapped the way up from the southern side. Tenzing Norgay was a native Nepalese Sherpa. He was the first Sherpa to become interested in mountain climbing. His climb with Hillary was his seventh attempt to reach the top. VOICE TWO: Hillary said that his first reaction on reaching the top of Mount Everest was a happy feeling that he had “no more steps to cut." The two men planted a stick holding the flags of Britain, Nepal, India and the United Nations. Hillary took a picture of Norgay. They looked out over the north side into Tibet for any signs that Mallory or Irvine had been there before them. Then they began the long and difficult trip back down. The success of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay led to many new attempts on the mountain. Today, Everest has been climbed from all of its sides and from most of its possible paths. VOICE ONE: To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that first successful climb, the sons of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay took part in a climb to the top of Mount Everest last May. Peter Hillary and Jamling Norgay were part of a team that included Brent Bishop. He is the son of Barry Bishop, who was among the first Americans to reach the top of Mount Everest in nineteen-sixty-three. National Geographic Magazine paid for the anniversary climb and made a film about it. The film also tells about the culture and climbing ability of the Sherpa people. They have played an important part in the success of climbers who have reached the top of Mount Everest. The film was recently shown on the National Geographic television station. There is also a new exhibit of photographs about the historic climb at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria made another historic Everest climb in nineteen-seventy-eight. The two men were the first to reach the summit without using bottled oxygen. Messner said when he reached the top he felt like a single giant lung. At the time, scientists believed that a person at the top of the mountain would only have enough oxygen to sleep. Scientists believed that Messner and Habeler would die without oxygen. Scientists now know that two conditions make climbing at heights over eight-thousand meters extremely difficult. The first is the lack of oxygen in the extremely thin air. The second is the low barometric air pressure. VOICE ONE: Today, scientists say a person lowered onto the top of the mountain would live no more than ten minutes. Climbers can survive above eight-thousand meters because they spend months climbing on the mountain to get used to the conditions. Several things have made climbing Everest today easier than it was for the first climbers. These include modern equipment and clothing. They also include information gained from earlier climbs and scientific studies. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-three, a record one-hundred-twenty-nine people climbed Mount Everest. Many were inexperienced climbers. In recent years, some expert climbers have begun leading guided trips up the mountain. Some people have paid as much as sixty-five-thousand dollars for the chance to climb Everest. In nineteen-ninety-six, Everest had its greatest tragedy. A record ten people died on the mountain in one day. Two of the world's best climbers were among those killed. Three guided groups were trying to reach the summit of the mountain that day. Several books by climbers have described the incident and the dangerous mountain conditions. The best known is “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer. The book sold many copies around the world and increased the interest in climbing Mount Everest. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Climbing to the top of Mount Everest is a major victory for any person, but imagine if the climber could not see. Two years ago, the first blind man successfully reached the top of Everest. Erik Weihenmayer (WINE-may-er) was a thirty-two-year-old American. He climbed to the summit with the help of his team. Each member of the team wore bells on his clothes for Weihenmayer to hear. They also called out warnings to help him cross dangerous areas. It took the group more than two months to reach the summit. The National Federation of the Blind helped pay for the climb. VOICE TWO: Weihenmayer already had climbed several of the world’s tallest mountains. He said he often told himself that he could not fail to reach the top of Everest. Failing would confirm that mountain climbing is a sport only for people who can see. Historians may consider that the most successful climb of Mount Everest in history, and not just because of Weihenmayer. A record nineteen climbers from his team reached the summit. So did the oldest man ever to climb Mount Everest. He was sixty-four-year-old Sherman Bull. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Linda Burchill and Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - May 21, 2003: Quarantine
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Quarantine is the restriction of movement in an effort to stop the spread of infection. It is one of the weapons being used against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Quarantine has a long history. It began in the fourteenth century as a way to protect against diseases that sailors could spread as they traveled the world. Ships that arrived in Venice, Italy, from areas infected with bubonic plague had to stay outside the port for forty days. This separation was called quarantine, from a word in Latin that means forty. Officials in France and Italy at that time also created a system that separated the general population from people thought to be infected. European officials used quarantines to stop the spread of tuberculosis and cholera in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Victims were taken to special hospitals built outside cities. American officials have also used quarantines. One example was in eighteen-ninety-three when smallpox infected many people in the city of Muncie, Indiana. Armed guards stood outside quarantine areas. No one was permitted to leave or enter. Violators were jailed. Another example was exiling people with leprosy to the Hawaiian island of Molokai. About eight-thousand people were sent there until legislation banned this kind of separation in nineteen-sixty-nine. The power to quarantine an area in the United States was left to local officials until the late eighteen-hundreds. The federal government became involved when cholera and yellow fever struck large numbers of people. Congress approved the first Federal Quarantine Legislation in eighteen-seventy-eight. Today, the responsibility for establishing quarantines is held by a government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States Public Health Service has the power to examine people or animals suspected of carrying diseases that can be spread to others. Last month President Bush added to the list of diseases that could result in quarantines. The diseases on the list include cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola -- and, now, SARS. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Quarantine is the restriction of movement in an effort to stop the spread of infection. It is one of the weapons being used against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Quarantine has a long history. It began in the fourteenth century as a way to protect against diseases that sailors could spread as they traveled the world. Ships that arrived in Venice, Italy, from areas infected with bubonic plague had to stay outside the port for forty days. This separation was called quarantine, from a word in Latin that means forty. Officials in France and Italy at that time also created a system that separated the general population from people thought to be infected. European officials used quarantines to stop the spread of tuberculosis and cholera in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Victims were taken to special hospitals built outside cities. American officials have also used quarantines. One example was in eighteen-ninety-three when smallpox infected many people in the city of Muncie, Indiana. Armed guards stood outside quarantine areas. No one was permitted to leave or enter. Violators were jailed. Another example was exiling people with leprosy to the Hawaiian island of Molokai. About eight-thousand people were sent there until legislation banned this kind of separation in nineteen-sixty-nine. The power to quarantine an area in the United States was left to local officials until the late eighteen-hundreds. The federal government became involved when cholera and yellow fever struck large numbers of people. Congress approved the first Federal Quarantine Legislation in eighteen-seventy-eight. Today, the responsibility for establishing quarantines is held by a government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States Public Health Service has the power to examine people or animals suspected of carrying diseases that can be spread to others. Last month President Bush added to the list of diseases that could result in quarantines. The diseases on the list include cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola -- and, now, SARS. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #13 - Second Continental Congress / Declaration of Independence
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 22, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: May 22, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American revolution against Britain in the late seventeen-hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Battles had been fought between Massachusetts soldiers and British military forces in the towns of Lexington and Concord. Yet war had not been declared. Even so, citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight. This was the first question faced by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Who was going to organize these men into an army? Delegates to the Congress decided that the man for the job was George Washington. He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. He was thought to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. Washington accepted the position. But he said he would not take any money for leading the new Continental Army. Washington left Philadelphia for Boston to take command of the soldiers there. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Britain. They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. The king would not even read the message. You may wonder: Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight? The answer is that most members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from Britain. They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British empire. But that was not to be. VOICE ONE: Two days after the Congress appointed George Washington as army commander, colonists and British troops fought the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills: Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston. Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill one night in June, Seventeen-Seventy-Five. By morning, the hill was filled with troops. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them: Do not fire until you see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes. VOICE TWO: The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder. The British captured Breed's Hill. More than one-thousand had been killed or wounded in the attempt. The Americans lost about four-hundred. That battle greatly reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. And the Continental Congress approved a declaration condemning everything the British had done since Seventeen-Sixty-Three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American colonists fought several battles against British troops during Seventeen-Seventy-Five. Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. The colonists feared these soldiers and hated Britain for using them. At about the same time, Thomas Paine published a little document that had a great effect on the citizens of America. He named it, "Common Sense." It attacked King George, as well as the idea of government by kings. It called for independence. About one-hundred-fifty-thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in America. Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Continental Congress began to act. It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. On June Seventh, delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution for independence. VOICE TWO: The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. Signing such a document would make delegates to the Continental Congress traitors to Britain. They would be killed if captured by the British. The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. One member of the commitee was the Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. He had already written a report criticizing the British form of government. So the other committee members asked him to prepare the new document. They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. It took him seventeen days to complete the document that the delegates approved on July Fourth, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. It was America's Declaration of Independence. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jefferson's document was divided into two parts. The first part explained the right of any people to revolt. It also described the ideas the Americans used to create a new, republican form of government. The Declaration of Independence begins this way: ANNOUNCER: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. VOICE ONE: Jefferson continued by saying that all people are equal in the eyes of God. Therefore, governments can exist only by permission of the people they govern. He wrote: ANNOUNCER: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. VOICE ONE: The next part states why the American colonies decided to separate from Britain: ANNOUNCER: That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. VOICE ONE: This is why the Americans were rebelling against England. The British believed the Americans were violating their law. Jefferson rejected this idea. He claimed that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. He and others believed a natural law exists that is more powerful than a king. The idea of a natural law had been developed by British and French philosophers more than one-hundred years earlier. Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. In later years, however, he said he did not re-read these ideas while he was writing the declaration. He said the words came straight from his heart. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second part of the Declaration lists twenty-seven complaints by the American colonies against the British government. The major ones concerned British taxes on Americans and the presence of British troops in the colonies. After the list of complaints, Jefferson wrote this strong statement of independence: ANNOUNCER: That these united colnies are and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection betwen them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states they have the full power to levy war, conduct peace, contract alliances, establish commerce and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. VOICE TWO: The last statement of the Declaration of Independence was meant to influence the delegates into giving strong support for that most serious step -- revolution: ANNOUNCER: And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Shep O’Neal read the Declaration of Independence. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American revolution against Britain in the late seventeen-hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Battles had been fought between Massachusetts soldiers and British military forces in the towns of Lexington and Concord. Yet war had not been declared. Even so, citizen soldiers in each of the thirteen American colonies were ready to fight. This was the first question faced by the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Who was going to organize these men into an army? Delegates to the Congress decided that the man for the job was George Washington. He had experience fighting in the French and Indian War. He was thought to know more than any other colonist about being a military commander. Washington accepted the position. But he said he would not take any money for leading the new Continental Army. Washington left Philadelphia for Boston to take command of the soldiers there. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the Second Continental Congress made one more attempt to prevent war with Britain. They sent another message to King George. They asked him to consider their problems and try to find a solution. The king would not even read the message. You may wonder: Why would the delegates try to prevent war if the people were ready to fight? The answer is that most members of the Congress -- and most of the colonists -- were not yet ready to break away from Britain. They continued to believe they could have greater self-government and still be part of the British empire. But that was not to be. VOICE ONE: Two days after the Congress appointed George Washington as army commander, colonists and British troops fought the first major battle of the American Revolution. It was called the Battle of Bunker Hill, although it really involved two hills: Bunker and Breed's. Both are just across the Charles River from the city of Boston. Massachusetts soldiers dug positions on Breed's Hill one night in June, Seventeen-Seventy-Five. By morning, the hill was filled with troops. The British started to attack from across the river. The Americans had very little gunpowder. They were forced to wait until the British had crossed the river and were almost on top of them before they fired their guns. Their commander reportedly told them: Do not fire until you see the whites of the British soldiers' eyes. VOICE TWO: The British climbed the hill. The Americans fired. A second group climbed the hill. The Americans fired again. The third time, the British reached the top, but the Americans were gone. They had left because they had no more gunpowder. The British captured Breed's Hill. More than one-thousand had been killed or wounded in the attempt. The Americans lost about four-hundred. That battle greatly reduced whatever hope was left for a negotiated settlement. King George declared the colonies to be in open rebellion. And the Continental Congress approved a declaration condemning everything the British had done since Seventeen-Sixty-Three. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The American colonists fought several battles against British troops during Seventeen-Seventy-Five. Yet the colonies were still not ready to declare war. Then, the following year, the British decided to use Hessian soldiers to fight against the colonists. Hessians were mostly German mercenaries who fought for anyone who paid them. The colonists feared these soldiers and hated Britain for using them. At about the same time, Thomas Paine published a little document that had a great effect on the citizens of America. He named it, "Common Sense." It attacked King George, as well as the idea of government by kings. It called for independence. About one-hundred-fifty-thousand copies of "Common Sense" were sold in America. Everyone talked about it. As a result, the Continental Congress began to act. It opened American ports to foreign shipping. It urged colonists to establish state governments and to write constitutions. On June Seventh, delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed a resolution for independence. VOICE TWO: The resolution was not approved immediately. Declaring independence was an extremely serious step. Signing such a document would make delegates to the Continental Congress traitors to Britain. They would be killed if captured by the British. The delegates wanted the world to understand what they were doing, and why. So they appointed a committee to write a document giving the reasons for their actions. One member of the commitee was the Virginian, Thomas Jefferson. He had already written a report criticizing the British form of government. So the other committee members asked him to prepare the new document. They said he was the best writer in the group. They were right. It took him seventeen days to complete the document that the delegates approved on July Fourth, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. It was America's Declaration of Independence. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jefferson's document was divided into two parts. The first part explained the right of any people to revolt. It also described the ideas the Americans used to create a new, republican form of government. The Declaration of Independence begins this way: ANNOUNCER: When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. VOICE ONE: Jefferson continued by saying that all people are equal in the eyes of God. Therefore, governments can exist only by permission of the people they govern. He wrote: ANNOUNCER: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. VOICE ONE: The next part states why the American colonies decided to separate from Britain: ANNOUNCER: That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. VOICE ONE: This is why the Americans were rebelling against England. The British believed the Americans were violating their law. Jefferson rejected this idea. He claimed that the British treatment of the American colonies violated the natural laws of God. He and others believed a natural law exists that is more powerful than a king. The idea of a natural law had been developed by British and French philosophers more than one-hundred years earlier. Jefferson had studied these philosophers in school. In later years, however, he said he did not re-read these ideas while he was writing the declaration. He said the words came straight from his heart. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The second part of the Declaration lists twenty-seven complaints by the American colonies against the British government. The major ones concerned British taxes on Americans and the presence of British troops in the colonies. After the list of complaints, Jefferson wrote this strong statement of independence: ANNOUNCER: That these united colnies are and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection betwen them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states they have the full power to levy war, conduct peace, contract alliances, establish commerce and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. VOICE TWO: The last statement of the Declaration of Independence was meant to influence the delegates into giving strong support for that most serious step -- revolution: ANNOUNCER: And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Shep O’Neal read the Declaration of Independence. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - May 22, 2003: Tutoring
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Traditionally, children in the United States have often gotten help with schoolwork from parents, grandparents and older sisters and brothers. This still happens. But many students today also get help from tutors. The National Tutoring Association says the number of these private teachers has increased greatly in the past ten years. Some are paid. Others give their time. A tutoring project in Chicago, Illinois, for example, offers free tutoring to poor children. Some high school students help other students for free. Younger students may do this “peer tutoring” as well. Tutors are often professional teachers. Or, they may be experts in the subjects they tutor. For example, a scientist may tutor a student having trouble with biology. Many tutors charge between ten and fifty dollars per hour. Students are often tutored at home. Others go to learning centers for help with schoolwork. Many centers have very small classes. One teacher may work with just three students. Or, students can be tutored on their computers. Some lessons on the Internet provide direct voice communication with teachers. Several reasons may explain the increase in the popularity of tutoring in America. In many homes, both parents work. They may not have much time to help children with schoolwork. Also, the American education system has become much more competitive. Students take many tests. Schools must have high scores on some statewide tests if they are to receive government money. So classroom teaching may progress too fast for some children, as teachers try to prepare students for what might be tested. Also, students in their last years of high school take tests required for college. At that time, the students may hire tutors. Or they may attend learning centers to improve their scores. Some parents choose tutoring because they worry that their children simply are not learning enough in school. Or, their children may want more difficult work than their schools provide. A woman who has tutored extensively in the Washington, D.C., area says even a little additional help can sometimes make a big difference in a student’s life. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 22, 2003 - Imagination in Writing
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 22, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some views about encouraging creative writers in American schools. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 22, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some views about encouraging creative writers in American schools. RS: Virginia Monseau [mon-SO] teaches future English teachers. She's a professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio and outgoing editor of English Journal, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. AA: Professor Monseau writes this month about the role of imagination in the curriculum. She tells us that, in her opinion, American culture does not place enough value on imagination in children, especially older ones, and she says this is reflected in many classrooms. MONSEAU: "On the one hand, certainly creativity and imagination would involve inventing stories where you write creatively to invent characters, to invent plot lines and so on. And usually, as far as children and curriculum go, we allow children to do that in the early grades. But, for me, I think there are other ways that we can look at it as well. "Students don't have to be inventing monsters and flying brooms, a la Harry Potter, that sort of thing, because a lot of children, I think, are very intimidated by that sort of thing and if they're invited to write that way would really be, I think, a little frightened of their ability to do -- whether they could that kind of thing. "Just encouraging students to see in a work of literature a connection to their lives, for example. Encouraging them to take an unusual perspective on something they read, whether it's a story or a poem or whatever. Those are some of the ways that I define imaginative work in the classroom." RS: "And how, in that classroom, can you make use of students who speak English as a foreign language?" MONSEAU: "I think, you know, drawing on or allowing students to draw on their experience. We all have experiences that we can draw on, and if we're reading literature, for example, I think literature does help us make sense of our lives, regardless of what culture we are familiar with or we belong to. So I think that even students who don't have English as their first language, in reading a piece of literature, could still discuss it in that way, by connecting it to their own lives." AA: According to Professor Monseau, one reason imagination isn't encouraged more is the increasing use of standardized tests to hold teachers and schools accountable for student progress. MONSEAU: "I think where standardized tests are concerned, yes, it does take away a lot of freedom that teachers might wish they had, because the way the tests are graded is such that structure is really an important element of the scoring process, and I don't know whether you know about the controversial issue of the five-paragraph theme that permeates ... " AA: "Please talk about that a little bit." MONSEAU: "I think many teachers still feel comfortable when they're teaching writing, teaching students to write five-paragraph essays, meaning an introductory paragraph, three points that you make as part of the body of the piece and then a concluding paragraph. "It's a very canned, cut-and-dried way of approaching writing and in many ways it totally stifles any divergent thinking, because students immediately think about their three points that they're going to have and what they're going to say about those three particular points. And then in the concluding paragraph they just tell the reader what they already told them in drawing it together. "If you teach that to the exclusion of any other way of writing, it can make for some very dry -- and, believe me, I've read so many of those I can tell you -- that they all sound alike and there's really no voice, no writer, no person behind the writing." RS: "So what you're saying here is that you may start off with this, but expand from there." MONSEAU: "You do, and I agree that students need to understand that there is a structure to a piece of writing, at least in the beginning, as long as they can move beyond that. I find in teaching college students to write in our freshman composition classes, it is very hard sometimes to break students out of that mold because they've been so used to writing in that way for the last four years as part of their high school work. And when they get to college they have a rude awakening many times, because they realize that they are required to think and that the content of their paper should be their thoughts and not what everyone else has said about this particular topic. "The sad thing is, I think, that students are not taught that there are so many different ways of writing and that it all depends upon your audience and your purpose. That's one of the things that gets back to the imagination aspect of it. You know, it's sort of like, who are you writing to, first of all, and why are you writing this piece. What are you trying to get across, and what is it going to take for you to do that." AA: Virginia Monseau is a professor of English and secondary education at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, and is herself a former high school English teacher. RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Imagination"/The Quotations RS: Virginia Monseau [mon-SO] teaches future English teachers. She's a professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio and outgoing editor of English Journal, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. AA: Professor Monseau writes this month about the role of imagination in the curriculum. She tells us that, in her opinion, American culture does not place enough value on imagination in children, especially older ones, and she says this is reflected in many classrooms. MONSEAU: "On the one hand, certainly creativity and imagination would involve inventing stories where you write creatively to invent characters, to invent plot lines and so on. And usually, as far as children and curriculum go, we allow children to do that in the early grades. But, for me, I think there are other ways that we can look at it as well. "Students don't have to be inventing monsters and flying brooms, a la Harry Potter, that sort of thing, because a lot of children, I think, are very intimidated by that sort of thing and if they're invited to write that way would really be, I think, a little frightened of their ability to do -- whether they could that kind of thing. "Just encouraging students to see in a work of literature a connection to their lives, for example. Encouraging them to take an unusual perspective on something they read, whether it's a story or a poem or whatever. Those are some of the ways that I define imaginative work in the classroom." RS: "And how, in that classroom, can you make use of students who speak English as a foreign language?" MONSEAU: "I think, you know, drawing on or allowing students to draw on their experience. We all have experiences that we can draw on, and if we're reading literature, for example, I think literature does help us make sense of our lives, regardless of what culture we are familiar with or we belong to. So I think that even students who don't have English as their first language, in reading a piece of literature, could still discuss it in that way, by connecting it to their own lives." AA: According to Professor Monseau, one reason imagination isn't encouraged more is the increasing use of standardized tests to hold teachers and schools accountable for student progress. MONSEAU: "I think where standardized tests are concerned, yes, it does take away a lot of freedom that teachers might wish they had, because the way the tests are graded is such that structure is really an important element of the scoring process, and I don't know whether you know about the controversial issue of the five-paragraph theme that permeates ... " AA: "Please talk about that a little bit." MONSEAU: "I think many teachers still feel comfortable when they're teaching writing, teaching students to write five-paragraph essays, meaning an introductory paragraph, three points that you make as part of the body of the piece and then a concluding paragraph. "It's a very canned, cut-and-dried way of approaching writing and in many ways it totally stifles any divergent thinking, because students immediately think about their three points that they're going to have and what they're going to say about those three particular points. And then in the concluding paragraph they just tell the reader what they already told them in drawing it together. "If you teach that to the exclusion of any other way of writing, it can make for some very dry -- and, believe me, I've read so many of those I can tell you -- that they all sound alike and there's really no voice, no writer, no person behind the writing." RS: "So what you're saying here is that you may start off with this, but expand from there." MONSEAU: "You do, and I agree that students need to understand that there is a structure to a piece of writing, at least in the beginning, as long as they can move beyond that. I find in teaching college students to write in our freshman composition classes, it is very hard sometimes to break students out of that mold because they've been so used to writing in that way for the last four years as part of their high school work. And when they get to college they have a rude awakening many times, because they realize that they are required to think and that the content of their paper should be their thoughts and not what everyone else has said about this particular topic. "The sad thing is, I think, that students are not taught that there are so many different ways of writing and that it all depends upon your audience and your purpose. That's one of the things that gets back to the imagination aspect of it. You know, it's sort of like, who are you writing to, first of all, and why are you writing this piece. What are you trying to get across, and what is it going to take for you to do that." AA: Virginia Monseau is a professor of English and secondary education at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, and is herself a former high school English teacher. RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Imagination"/The Quotations 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 23, 2003: New Hampshire Rock Formation / A Question about the United States Symbol / Singer Kem
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: One of the places where America's national bird, the bald eagle, can call home: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida.(Photo - Fish and Wildlife Service) (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about the American eagle ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about the American eagle ... Play music by KEM ... And report about a natural disaster in New England. The Old Man Of The Mountain HOST: The people in the American state of New Hampshire are mourning the loss of a state treasure. A famous rock formation called the Old Man of the Mountain suddenly crashed to the ground early this month. For years, the rock formation was said to represent New Hampshire and its people. Shep O’Neal has more about this natural wonder. ANNCR: The Old Man of the Mountain represented New Hampshire for two centuries. However, the rock formation was a lot older. State officials say it was created by a series of natural events than began about two-hundred-million years ago. The Old Man of the Mountain was made of five separate areas of granite rock. The rock formation was on the side of a mountain, three-hundred-sixty-five meters above a lake. When seen from far away, the rocks looked like the face of a man. The face was twelve meters tall, from the top of the head to the chin. Many people traveled to the small New Hampshire town of Franconia Notch to see this natural wonder. The Old Man also was the subject of a number of stories and poems. In the nineteenth century, New Hampshire Congressman Daniel Webster compared the rocks to a sign that a craftsman used to show the product he made. He wrote “in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.” The people of New Hampshire felt that the Old Man represented their firmness and independence. New Hampshire officials put images of the rock formation on the state’s road signs and vehicle license plates. The United States Treasury Department even put the image on pieces of money. In recent years, New Hampshire officials found that water and ice were breaking the rocks. Workers used metal wires and sticky materials to hold the Old Man together. Yet its sudden disappearance shocked many people. Crowds gathered at Franconia Notch to look at what remains of the mountain. Some people have attempted to sell pieces of rock said to be from the Old Man of the Mountain. New Hampshire officials said such sales are illegal and that the rocks belong to the government. The state now is asking for suggestions about the future of the Old Man. A few people have suggested a campaign to rebuild the famous rock formation. The American Eagle HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A listener asks why the eagle is the symbol of the United States. The men who founded the United States of America decided in seventeen-eighty-two that the bald eagle would represent the country. They chose the eagle because of its long life, great strength, good looks and because it was believed to exist only in North America. The eagle was also seen as a symbol of freedom and bravery. The eagle became the national symbol of the country when the American leaders approved the design of the Great Seal of the United States. The picture in the center of the Great Seal is a bald eagle. This is the story. After the thirteen British colonies in North America voted to declare their independence, their leaders decided they needed an official drawing, or seal. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson formed a committee to design one. The only part of their work accepted by the American Congress was the statement in Latin of “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning “From many, one.” It was not until six years later, in seventeen-eighty-two, that Congress approved a drawing for the seal by artist Charles Thomson. It showed an eagle carrying symbols representing the power of peace and war. And it was not until seventeen-eighty-seven that the American bald eagle was officially approved as the symbol of the United States. It took so long to decide because many people did not agree that the eagle should represent the new country. Benjamin Franklin was disappointed in the choice. He called the eagle a dishonest animal that steals food from other birds. Mister Franklin supported the turkey as the national bird because he said it was a true native of the country. Most Americans today agree with President John Kennedy’s comments about the national symbol. He said that the beauty and independence of the eagle correctly represents the strength and freedom of the United States. Kem HOST: Last year, a singer called Kem independently released his first album. It sold more than ten-thousand copies before he signed an agreement with a major record company. Steve Ember tells us more about Kem. ANNCR: Kem is a singer, songwriter and producer. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He taught himself to play the piano when he was five years old. His first album is called Kemistry. He no longer has to sell it on his own. The major record company Motown Records recently released the album. Here is Kem singing “Love Calls.” (MUSIC) Music critics and fans praise Kem for his soulful songs. They like the meaningful words he writes. And they like the way he sings those words with feeling. Listen as Kem sings “I’m Missin’ Your Love.” (MUSIC) Kem sings with the choir in the church he attends. He says staying spiritually connected has helped him to be successful. We leave you now with the song “Brotha Man” by Kem from his album Kemistry. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Wayne Shorter. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Play music by KEM ... And report about a natural disaster in New England. The Old Man Of The Mountain HOST: The people in the American state of New Hampshire are mourning the loss of a state treasure. A famous rock formation called the Old Man of the Mountain suddenly crashed to the ground early this month. For years, the rock formation was said to represent New Hampshire and its people. Shep O’Neal has more about this natural wonder. ANNCR: The Old Man of the Mountain represented New Hampshire for two centuries. However, the rock formation was a lot older. State officials say it was created by a series of natural events than began about two-hundred-million years ago. The Old Man of the Mountain was made of five separate areas of granite rock. The rock formation was on the side of a mountain, three-hundred-sixty-five meters above a lake. When seen from far away, the rocks looked like the face of a man. The face was twelve meters tall, from the top of the head to the chin. Many people traveled to the small New Hampshire town of Franconia Notch to see this natural wonder. The Old Man also was the subject of a number of stories and poems. In the nineteenth century, New Hampshire Congressman Daniel Webster compared the rocks to a sign that a craftsman used to show the product he made. He wrote “in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.” The people of New Hampshire felt that the Old Man represented their firmness and independence. New Hampshire officials put images of the rock formation on the state’s road signs and vehicle license plates. The United States Treasury Department even put the image on pieces of money. In recent years, New Hampshire officials found that water and ice were breaking the rocks. Workers used metal wires and sticky materials to hold the Old Man together. Yet its sudden disappearance shocked many people. Crowds gathered at Franconia Notch to look at what remains of the mountain. Some people have attempted to sell pieces of rock said to be from the Old Man of the Mountain. New Hampshire officials said such sales are illegal and that the rocks belong to the government. The state now is asking for suggestions about the future of the Old Man. A few people have suggested a campaign to rebuild the famous rock formation. The American Eagle HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A listener asks why the eagle is the symbol of the United States. The men who founded the United States of America decided in seventeen-eighty-two that the bald eagle would represent the country. They chose the eagle because of its long life, great strength, good looks and because it was believed to exist only in North America. The eagle was also seen as a symbol of freedom and bravery. The eagle became the national symbol of the country when the American leaders approved the design of the Great Seal of the United States. The picture in the center of the Great Seal is a bald eagle. This is the story. After the thirteen British colonies in North America voted to declare their independence, their leaders decided they needed an official drawing, or seal. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson formed a committee to design one. The only part of their work accepted by the American Congress was the statement in Latin of “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning “From many, one.” It was not until six years later, in seventeen-eighty-two, that Congress approved a drawing for the seal by artist Charles Thomson. It showed an eagle carrying symbols representing the power of peace and war. And it was not until seventeen-eighty-seven that the American bald eagle was officially approved as the symbol of the United States. It took so long to decide because many people did not agree that the eagle should represent the new country. Benjamin Franklin was disappointed in the choice. He called the eagle a dishonest animal that steals food from other birds. Mister Franklin supported the turkey as the national bird because he said it was a true native of the country. Most Americans today agree with President John Kennedy’s comments about the national symbol. He said that the beauty and independence of the eagle correctly represents the strength and freedom of the United States. Kem HOST: Last year, a singer called Kem independently released his first album. It sold more than ten-thousand copies before he signed an agreement with a major record company. Steve Ember tells us more about Kem. ANNCR: Kem is a singer, songwriter and producer. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He taught himself to play the piano when he was five years old. His first album is called Kemistry. He no longer has to sell it on his own. The major record company Motown Records recently released the album. Here is Kem singing “Love Calls.” (MUSIC) Music critics and fans praise Kem for his soulful songs. They like the meaningful words he writes. And they like the way he sings those words with feeling. Listen as Kem sings “I’m Missin’ Your Love.” (MUSIC) Kem sings with the choir in the church he attends. He says staying spiritually connected has helped him to be successful. We leave you now with the song “Brotha Man” by Kem from his album Kemistry. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Wayne Shorter. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Doppler Radar
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 23, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Broadcast: May 23, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Doppler radar is an increasingly important tool to study weather. It is named after a physical effect first reported by an Austrian scientist, Christian Doppler. In eighteen-forty-two, he described how movement seems to influence the rate at which energy waves are produced. Doppler found that the number of sound waves from a moving object would increase as the object came closer to an observer. The frequency would decrease as the object moved away. This became known as the Doppler effect. You may have experienced it, for example, as a train goes by. As the train moves closer, the sound -- or pitch -- seems higher. As the train moves away, the pitch seems lower. The number of sound waves that reach your ear in a given amount of time influences what you hear. In this case, the train moves a lot slower than the sound waves it produces. The waves that move out in the direction of travel get pushed together. So, to the observer, the frequency increases. Behind the train, sound waves become spread out, so the frequency decreases. In reality, the sound of the train stayed the same. This effect happens with light and radio waves, too. The ideas described by Christian Doppler are important to modern science. For example, they help scientists estimate the age of stars and the distance from Earth. Doppler radar can tell more about storm systems than older radars could. Scientists hope to continue to improve the technology to warn people about severe storms. These can form suddenly -- like the tornadoes that tear across parts of the United States. Weather scientists use radar systems to send out radio waves at moving objects, such as snowfall or raindrops in a storm. The radio waves hit the objects and return to the receiver. The period of time in between helps to show the storm’s position and strength. But Doppler radar also measures changes in the frequency of the radio waves. This shows the direction and speed of winds. A computer combines all the measurements with a map, so scientists can follow the storm. In recent years, information from Doppler radar has come into widespread use in the United States. Scientists say this has helped to improve the reporting of severe weather. This Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. Doppler radar is an increasingly important tool to study weather. It is named after a physical effect first reported by an Austrian scientist, Christian Doppler. In eighteen-forty-two, he described how movement seems to influence the rate at which energy waves are produced. Doppler found that the number of sound waves from a moving object would increase as the object came closer to an observer. The frequency would decrease as the object moved away. This became known as the Doppler effect. You may have experienced it, for example, as a train goes by. As the train moves closer, the sound -- or pitch -- seems higher. As the train moves away, the pitch seems lower. The number of sound waves that reach your ear in a given amount of time influences what you hear. In this case, the train moves a lot slower than the sound waves it produces. The waves that move out in the direction of travel get pushed together. So, to the observer, the frequency increases. Behind the train, sound waves become spread out, so the frequency decreases. In reality, the sound of the train stayed the same. This effect happens with light and radio waves, too. The ideas described by Christian Doppler are important to modern science. For example, they help scientists estimate the age of stars and the distance from Earth. Doppler radar can tell more about storm systems than older radars could. Scientists hope to continue to improve the technology to warn people about severe storms. These can form suddenly -- like the tornadoes that tear across parts of the United States. Weather scientists use radar systems to send out radio waves at moving objects, such as snowfall or raindrops in a storm. The radio waves hit the objects and return to the receiver. The period of time in between helps to show the storm’s position and strength. But Doppler radar also measures changes in the frequency of the radio waves. This shows the direction and speed of winds. A computer combines all the measurements with a map, so scientists can follow the storm. In recent years, information from Doppler radar has come into widespread use in the United States. Scientists say this has helped to improve the reporting of severe weather. This Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS  – May 24, 2003: Indonesian Offensive in Aceh
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 This is the VOA Special English program, In the News. On Monday, Indonesian troops launched an offensive against rebels in the northern province of Aceh. The rebels are members of the Free Aceh Movement, called GAM. Aceh is on the northern edge of Sumatra island. President Megawati Sukarnoputri ordered the military operation in Aceh after peace talks in Tokyo failed on Sunday. The government in Jakarta had demanded the rebels cancel their demands for independence and accept Indonesia’s offer of greater self-rule in the province. But the rebels refused to accept the offer. Tensions have increased in recent weeks between GAM and Indonesian security forces. President Megawati ordered martial law in Aceh, giving the military wide powers. The government blames the rebels for burning almost two-hundred schools in Aceh. The rebels blame the government. More than thirty-five thousand Indonesian troops have been sent to the province to search for about five-thousand rebels. Thousands of civilians fled their homes. The government had threatened military action in Aceh for weeks. It said GAM rebels have repeatedly violated a December cease-fire agreement. But the rebels say government troops are the main offenders. Human rights groups have accused both sides of torture, sexual attacks and disappearances. The rebels have been seeking independence since nineteen-seventy-six. About twelve-thousand people have died since the conflict began. Most were civilians. Many people believed the December peace deal would end the conflict. It called for an immediate cease-fire, a withdrawal of troops and elections to put in place an Acehnese legislature to begin the process of self-rule. In return, the rebels agreed to stop seeking independence and disarm. But neither side carried out its part of the deal. The rebels say the government continues to break its promises for self-rule. To ease tensions, the government offered Aceh special self-rule in January. It also agreed to give Aceh greater religious freedom and greater profit sharing of Aceh’s natural resources. But there has been little development and the majority of the more than four-million people in the province remain poor. Northern Aceh is home to several natural gas fields operated by the American oil company, Exxon-Mobil. The rebels say the government profits from the area’s natural resources but provides little to the province in return. The government has been concerned about Aceh especially since East Timor gained independence in nineteen-ninety-nine. President Megawati has promised to keep Indonesia unified. The United States, Australia and the United Nations this week urged the rebels and the Indonesian government to return to negotiations. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 25, 2003 - Clara Barton
* Byline: Written by Jerilyn Watson

 (THEME): VOICE ONE:: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about a woman who spent her life caring for others, Clara Barton.: (THEME) VOICE ONE: Clara Barton was a small woman. Yet she made a big difference in many lives. Today her work continues to be important to thousands of people in trouble.: Clara Barton was an unusual woman for her time. She was born on Christmas day, December Twenty-Fifth, Eighteen-Twenty-One. In those days, most women were expected to marry, have children and stay home to take care of them. Barton, however, became deeply involved in the world.: By the time of her death in Nineteen-Twelve, she had begun a revolution that led to the right of women to do responsible work for society. As a nurse, she cared for thousands of wounded soldiers. She began the American Red Cross. And, she successfully urged the American government to accept the Geneva Convention. That treaty established standards for conditions for soldiers injured or captured during wartime.: VOICE TWO:: Clara Barton really began her life of caring for the sick when she was only eleven years old. She lived with her family on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. One of her brothers, David, was seriously injured while helping build a barn. For two years, Clara Barton took care of David until he was healed.: Most eleven-year-old girls would have found the job impossible. But Clara felt a great need to help. And she was very good at it. She also seemed to feel most safe when she was at home with her mother and father, or riding a horse on her family's land.: As a young child, Clara had great difficulty studying and making friends at school. Her four brothers and sisters were much older than she. Several of them were teachers. For most of Clara's early years, she was taught at home. She finished school at age fifteen. Then she went to work in her brother David's clothing factory. The factory soon burned, leaving her without a job.: VOICE ONE:: Clara Barton decided to teach school. In Eighteen Thirty-Six, she passed the teacher's test and began teaching near her home in North Oxford, Massachusetts. She became an extremely popular and respected teacher.: After sixteen years of teaching, she realized she did not know all she wanted to know. She wanted more education. Very few universities accepted women in those days. So Clara went to a special school for girls in Massachusetts. While in that school, she became interested in public education.: VOICE TWO:: After she graduated, a friend suggested she try to establish the first public school in the state of New Jersey. Officials there seemed to think that education was only for children whose parents had enough money to pay for private schools.: The officials did not want Barton to start a school for poor people. But she offered to teach without pay for three months. She told the officials that they could decide after that if she had been successful. They gave her an old building with poor equipment. And they gave her six very active little boys to teach.: At the end of five weeks, the school was too small for the number of children who wanted to attend. By the end of the year, the town built her a bigger, better school. They had to give her more space. She then had six-hundred students in the school.: ((MUSIC BRIDGE)): VOICE ONE:: Within a year, Clara Barton had lost her voice. She had to give up teaching. She moved to Washington, D.C. to begin a new job writing documents for the United States government.: Clara Barton started her life as a nurse during the early days of the Civil War in Eighteen Sixty-One. One day, she went to the train center in Washington to meet a group of soldiers from Massachusetts. Many of them had been her friends. She began taking care of their wounds.: Not long after, she left her office job. She became a full-time nurse for the wounded on their way from the fields of battle to the hospital.: Soon, Barton recognized that many more lives could be saved if the men had medical help immediately after they were hurt. Army rules would not permit anyone except male soldiers to be on the battlefield. But Barton took her plans for helping the wounded to a high army official. He approved her plans.: VOICE TWO:: Barton and a few other women worked in the battle areas around Washington. She heard about the second fierce battle at Bull Run in the nearby state of Virginia. She got into a railroad car and traveled there.: Bull Run must have been a fearful sight. Northern forces were losing a major battle there. Everywhere Barton looked lay wounded and dying men.: Day and night she worked to help the suffering. When the last soldier had been placed on a train, Barton finally left. She was just in time to escape the southern army. She escaped by riding a horse, a skill she gained as a young girl.: ((MUSIC BRIDGE)): VOICE ONE:: For four years, Clara Barton was at the front lines of the bloodiest battles in the war between the north and the south. She was there at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Charleston. She was there at Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Richmond. She cleaned the wounds of badly injured soldiers. She eased the pain of the dying. And she fed those who survived.: When she returned to Washington, Clara Barton found she was a hero. She had proved that women could work in terrible conditions. She made people understand that women could provide good medical care. She also showed that nursing was an honorable profession.: After the war ended, Barton's doctor sent her to Europe to rest. Instead of resting, she met with representatives of the International Red Cross. The organization had been established in Eighteen-Sixty-Three to offer better treatment for people wounded or captured during wars. She was told that the United States was the only major nation that refused to join.: VOICE TWO:: Barton began planning a campaign to create an American Red Cross. Before she could go home, though, the war between France and Prussia began in Eighteen-Seventy.: Again, Clara Barton went to the fields of battle to nurse the wounded. After a while her eyes became infected. The woman of action was ordered to remain quiet for months in a dark room, or become blind.: When she returned to the United States she again suffered a serious sickness. She used the time in a hospital to write letters in support of an American Red Cross organization.: ((MUSIC BRIDGE)): VOICE ONE:: In Eighteen-Eighty-One, Barton's campaign proved successful. The United States Congress signed the World's Treaty of the International Red Cross. This established the American Chapter of the Red Cross. Clara Barton had reached one of her major goals in life.: The next year she successfully urged Congress to accept the Geneva Convention. This treaty set the international rules for treatment of soldiers wounded or captured in war.: For twenty-five years, Clara Barton continued as the president of the American Red Cross. Under her guidance, the organization helped people in all kinds of trouble. She directed the aid efforts for victims of floods in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Galveston, Texas. She led Red Cross workers in Florida during a outbreak of the disease Yellow Fever. And she helped during periods when people were starving in Russia and Armenia.: VOICE TWO:: Clara Barton retired when she was in her middle eighties. For her last home, she chose a huge old building near Washington, D.C. The building had been used for keeping Red Cross equipment and then as her office. It was made with material saved from aid centers built after the flood in Johnstown.: In that house on the Potomac River, Clara Barton lived her remaining days. She died after a life of service to others in April, Nineteen-Twelve, at age ninety.: She often said, "You must never so much as think if you like it or not, if it is bearable or not. You must never think of anything except the need --- and how to meet it.": (THEME)): VOICE ONE:: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Ray Freeman.: VOICE TWO:: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME): VOICE ONE:: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about a woman who spent her life caring for others, Clara Barton.: (THEME) VOICE ONE: Clara Barton was a small woman. Yet she made a big difference in many lives. Today her work continues to be important to thousands of people in trouble.: Clara Barton was an unusual woman for her time. She was born on Christmas day, December Twenty-Fifth, Eighteen-Twenty-One. In those days, most women were expected to marry, have children and stay home to take care of them. Barton, however, became deeply involved in the world.: By the time of her death in Nineteen-Twelve, she had begun a revolution that led to the right of women to do responsible work for society. As a nurse, she cared for thousands of wounded soldiers. She began the American Red Cross. And, she successfully urged the American government to accept the Geneva Convention. That treaty established standards for conditions for soldiers injured or captured during wartime.: VOICE TWO:: Clara Barton really began her life of caring for the sick when she was only eleven years old. She lived with her family on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. One of her brothers, David, was seriously injured while helping build a barn. For two years, Clara Barton took care of David until he was healed.: Most eleven-year-old girls would have found the job impossible. But Clara felt a great need to help. And she was very good at it. She also seemed to feel most safe when she was at home with her mother and father, or riding a horse on her family's land.: As a young child, Clara had great difficulty studying and making friends at school. Her four brothers and sisters were much older than she. Several of them were teachers. For most of Clara's early years, she was taught at home. She finished school at age fifteen. Then she went to work in her brother David's clothing factory. The factory soon burned, leaving her without a job.: VOICE ONE:: Clara Barton decided to teach school. In Eighteen Thirty-Six, she passed the teacher's test and began teaching near her home in North Oxford, Massachusetts. She became an extremely popular and respected teacher.: After sixteen years of teaching, she realized she did not know all she wanted to know. She wanted more education. Very few universities accepted women in those days. So Clara went to a special school for girls in Massachusetts. While in that school, she became interested in public education.: VOICE TWO:: After she graduated, a friend suggested she try to establish the first public school in the state of New Jersey. Officials there seemed to think that education was only for children whose parents had enough money to pay for private schools.: The officials did not want Barton to start a school for poor people. But she offered to teach without pay for three months. She told the officials that they could decide after that if she had been successful. They gave her an old building with poor equipment. And they gave her six very active little boys to teach.: At the end of five weeks, the school was too small for the number of children who wanted to attend. By the end of the year, the town built her a bigger, better school. They had to give her more space. She then had six-hundred students in the school.: ((MUSIC BRIDGE)): VOICE ONE:: Within a year, Clara Barton had lost her voice. She had to give up teaching. She moved to Washington, D.C. to begin a new job writing documents for the United States government.: Clara Barton started her life as a nurse during the early days of the Civil War in Eighteen Sixty-One. One day, she went to the train center in Washington to meet a group of soldiers from Massachusetts. Many of them had been her friends. She began taking care of their wounds.: Not long after, she left her office job. She became a full-time nurse for the wounded on their way from the fields of battle to the hospital.: Soon, Barton recognized that many more lives could be saved if the men had medical help immediately after they were hurt. Army rules would not permit anyone except male soldiers to be on the battlefield. But Barton took her plans for helping the wounded to a high army official. He approved her plans.: VOICE TWO:: Barton and a few other women worked in the battle areas around Washington. She heard about the second fierce battle at Bull Run in the nearby state of Virginia. She got into a railroad car and traveled there.: Bull Run must have been a fearful sight. Northern forces were losing a major battle there. Everywhere Barton looked lay wounded and dying men.: Day and night she worked to help the suffering. When the last soldier had been placed on a train, Barton finally left. She was just in time to escape the southern army. She escaped by riding a horse, a skill she gained as a young girl.: ((MUSIC BRIDGE)): VOICE ONE:: For four years, Clara Barton was at the front lines of the bloodiest battles in the war between the north and the south. She was there at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Charleston. She was there at Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Richmond. She cleaned the wounds of badly injured soldiers. She eased the pain of the dying. And she fed those who survived.: When she returned to Washington, Clara Barton found she was a hero. She had proved that women could work in terrible conditions. She made people understand that women could provide good medical care. She also showed that nursing was an honorable profession.: After the war ended, Barton's doctor sent her to Europe to rest. Instead of resting, she met with representatives of the International Red Cross. The organization had been established in Eighteen-Sixty-Three to offer better treatment for people wounded or captured during wars. She was told that the United States was the only major nation that refused to join.: VOICE TWO:: Barton began planning a campaign to create an American Red Cross. Before she could go home, though, the war between France and Prussia began in Eighteen-Seventy.: Again, Clara Barton went to the fields of battle to nurse the wounded. After a while her eyes became infected. The woman of action was ordered to remain quiet for months in a dark room, or become blind.: When she returned to the United States she again suffered a serious sickness. She used the time in a hospital to write letters in support of an American Red Cross organization.: ((MUSIC BRIDGE)): VOICE ONE:: In Eighteen-Eighty-One, Barton's campaign proved successful. The United States Congress signed the World's Treaty of the International Red Cross. This established the American Chapter of the Red Cross. Clara Barton had reached one of her major goals in life.: The next year she successfully urged Congress to accept the Geneva Convention. This treaty set the international rules for treatment of soldiers wounded or captured in war.: For twenty-five years, Clara Barton continued as the president of the American Red Cross. Under her guidance, the organization helped people in all kinds of trouble. She directed the aid efforts for victims of floods in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Galveston, Texas. She led Red Cross workers in Florida during a outbreak of the disease Yellow Fever. And she helped during periods when people were starving in Russia and Armenia.: VOICE TWO:: Clara Barton retired when she was in her middle eighties. For her last home, she chose a huge old building near Washington, D.C. The building had been used for keeping Red Cross equipment and then as her office. It was made with material saved from aid centers built after the flood in Johnstown.: In that house on the Potomac River, Clara Barton lived her remaining days. She died after a life of service to others in April, Nineteen-Twelve, at age ninety.: She often said, "You must never so much as think if you like it or not, if it is bearable or not. You must never think of anything except the need --- and how to meet it.": (THEME)): VOICE ONE:: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Ray Freeman.: VOICE TWO:: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 27, 2003: Blood Pressure / Eating Study / Dinosaur Diets
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- experts take a new look at blood pressure ... a study of laboratory mice looks at the health effects of eating every other day ... and, we tell about evidence that some dinosaurs ate members of their own species. (THEME) VOICE ONE: American medical experts have a warning for many people who think their blood pressure is normal. They say these people are really in danger of developing high blood pressure, also called hypertension. The information is in a new report by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. That is part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the report and new guidelines from the experts. VOICE TWO: Until now, doctors had considered a blood pressure of one-hundred-twenty over eighty to be normal. But the new guidelines say people start to increase their chances of heart disease or stroke at readings as low as one-hundred-fifteen over seventy-five. It also says those chances go up one-hundred percent for each increase of twenty systolic points and ten diastolic points. The systolic is the number on the top. The diastolic is the number on the bottom. The guidelines say normal blood pressure is now considered under one-hundred-twenty over eighty. People are still considered to have high blood pressure with a reading of one-hundred-forty over ninety. But, now, those with readings in between are to be considered prehypertensive -- at risk for developing high blood pressure. VOICE ONE: Blood pressure is the force of the blood against the walls of the arteries as it moves through the body. The amount of force depends on the strength and rate of the heart movement, the amount of blood in the body and the health of the arteries. Blood pressure is measured with a device placed around the arm or leg. The results are reported in millimeters of mercury. The systolic pressure -- the higher value -- is created by the movement of the heart muscle. It is also created by the reaction of the large artery as the blood moves through. The second number is called the diastolic pressure. It measures the resistance of all the small arteries in the body and the load the heart must work against. High blood pressure has been called the silent killer. Many people do not know they have it until a serious health problem appears. High blood pressure damages the arteries in a way that provides less room for blood to flow. This continues to increase the pressure. High blood pressure can cause heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. It can also cause vision problems by damaging the retina at the back of the eye. VOICE TWO: The medical experts who wrote the new report say they want people to act to improve their health before high blood pressure can develop. People can reduce their blood pressure if they stop cigarette smoking, reduce the amount of alcohol they drink, lose weight, eat less salt and exercise thirty minutes a day. Blood pressure generally increases with age. The experts say even people with normal readings at age fifty-five have a ninety percent chance of developing high blood pressure later in life. They say these people, too, should stop smoking and should exercise and eat more fruits, vegetables and other healthy, low-fat foods to control their blood pressure. Sometimes these life changes do not reduce blood pressure enough. Doctors can treat high blood pressure with a number of drugs. The new report says this treatment should be aggressive, and may include the use of more than one drug at a time. But the experts also say people with prehypertension do not need drugs -- they just need to take steps now that will improve their future health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. I'm Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann in Washington. A study by the National Institute on Aging has found that mice that ate every other day appeared to improve their resistance to diabetes and brain damage. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists now plan a study to see if fasting would work as well for people, too. The team studied three groups of mice. One group was fed as normal. Another group was fed thirty percent less food daily than normal. The mice in the third group were permitted to eat as much as they wanted – but only every other day. The mice fed less food daily lost a lot of their body weight. But the mice that ate every other day weighed about the same as the mice fed normally. That is because, once provided food, the mice that fasted ate as many calories as the mice that ate as normal. VOICE TWO: Even so, the scientists found that the fasting mice had lower blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels compared with the other groups. This suggests that the mice that fasted were less likely to develop diabetes. Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce insulin or use insulin correctly. At the end of the experiment, the scientists injected all three groups of mice with a chemical. This chemical damages nerve cells in a part of the brain, the hippocampus. The hippocampus is important for learning and memory. In humans, nerve cells in this area are destroyed by Alzheimer’s, a brain disease mostly in older people. The scientists found that the nerve cells of the mice that ate every other day were more resistant to damage by the chemical than those of the other mice. VOICE ONE: Doctor Mark Mattson led the study. He says he believes going without food puts mild stress on cells throughout the body. He says the cells react by increasing their ability to deal with more severe stress, like the effect of exercise. Doctor Mattson said an earlier study showed that fasting appeared to help mice live longer. Still, he says more research is needed to learn the full effect that missing meals may have on health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have discovered evidence that a dinosaur that lived in Madagascar more than sixty-five-million years ago ate members of its own species. Scientists already had evidence that dinosaurs ate plants and other kinds of dinosaurs. This new research supports the idea that there were also dinosaurs that ate other members of their species -- cannibals, in other words. Dinosaurs first appeared more than two-hundred-twenty-million years ago. They died out about sixty-five million years ago. The different species of dinosaurs were different in size. The largest dinosaur was more than twenty meters long, while the smallest was about the size of a chicken. VOICE ONE: Raymond Rogers of Macalester College in the American state of Minnesota led the team. Nature magazine reported the findings. The scientists dug up fossil bones of two Majungatholus atopus dinosaurs in Madagascar. These remains show deep teeth marks that the researchers say could only have been made by another Majungatholus. These large creatures had sharp teeth like knives. Several years ago, the same group of researchers discovered a head bone from this kind of dinosaur. They found that the teeth of that skull fit exactly into the marks on the recently discovered fossil bones. However, the scientists could not establish if the Majungatholus was likely to have killed its victims, or simply fed on the remains. The team also studied the teeth of other meat-eating pre-historic animals found on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of East Africa. None of the teeth matched the marks on the two recently discovered fossil bones. VOICE TWO: An earlier discovery suggested that a kind of small dinosaur found in the American Southwest may have eaten its young. But the team led by Raymond Rogers notes in a letter to Nature that there have been recent questions about that evidence. Professor Rogers says the evidence found by his team is clear. He says that when Majungatholus was alive, food on Madagascar may have been hard to find. As a result, he says, the species likely turned to cannibalism to survive. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Jill Moss and Cynthia Kirk, and our program was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- experts take a new look at blood pressure ... a study of laboratory mice looks at the health effects of eating every other day ... and, we tell about evidence that some dinosaurs ate members of their own species. (THEME) VOICE ONE: American medical experts have a warning for many people who think their blood pressure is normal. They say these people are really in danger of developing high blood pressure, also called hypertension. The information is in a new report by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. That is part of the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the report and new guidelines from the experts. VOICE TWO: Until now, doctors had considered a blood pressure of one-hundred-twenty over eighty to be normal. But the new guidelines say people start to increase their chances of heart disease or stroke at readings as low as one-hundred-fifteen over seventy-five. It also says those chances go up one-hundred percent for each increase of twenty systolic points and ten diastolic points. The systolic is the number on the top. The diastolic is the number on the bottom. The guidelines say normal blood pressure is now considered under one-hundred-twenty over eighty. People are still considered to have high blood pressure with a reading of one-hundred-forty over ninety. But, now, those with readings in between are to be considered prehypertensive -- at risk for developing high blood pressure. VOICE ONE: Blood pressure is the force of the blood against the walls of the arteries as it moves through the body. The amount of force depends on the strength and rate of the heart movement, the amount of blood in the body and the health of the arteries. Blood pressure is measured with a device placed around the arm or leg. The results are reported in millimeters of mercury. The systolic pressure -- the higher value -- is created by the movement of the heart muscle. It is also created by the reaction of the large artery as the blood moves through. The second number is called the diastolic pressure. It measures the resistance of all the small arteries in the body and the load the heart must work against. High blood pressure has been called the silent killer. Many people do not know they have it until a serious health problem appears. High blood pressure damages the arteries in a way that provides less room for blood to flow. This continues to increase the pressure. High blood pressure can cause heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. It can also cause vision problems by damaging the retina at the back of the eye. VOICE TWO: The medical experts who wrote the new report say they want people to act to improve their health before high blood pressure can develop. People can reduce their blood pressure if they stop cigarette smoking, reduce the amount of alcohol they drink, lose weight, eat less salt and exercise thirty minutes a day. Blood pressure generally increases with age. The experts say even people with normal readings at age fifty-five have a ninety percent chance of developing high blood pressure later in life. They say these people, too, should stop smoking and should exercise and eat more fruits, vegetables and other healthy, low-fat foods to control their blood pressure. Sometimes these life changes do not reduce blood pressure enough. Doctors can treat high blood pressure with a number of drugs. The new report says this treatment should be aggressive, and may include the use of more than one drug at a time. But the experts also say people with prehypertension do not need drugs -- they just need to take steps now that will improve their future health. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. I'm Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann in Washington. A study by the National Institute on Aging has found that mice that ate every other day appeared to improve their resistance to diabetes and brain damage. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists now plan a study to see if fasting would work as well for people, too. The team studied three groups of mice. One group was fed as normal. Another group was fed thirty percent less food daily than normal. The mice in the third group were permitted to eat as much as they wanted – but only every other day. The mice fed less food daily lost a lot of their body weight. But the mice that ate every other day weighed about the same as the mice fed normally. That is because, once provided food, the mice that fasted ate as many calories as the mice that ate as normal. VOICE TWO: Even so, the scientists found that the fasting mice had lower blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels compared with the other groups. This suggests that the mice that fasted were less likely to develop diabetes. Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce insulin or use insulin correctly. At the end of the experiment, the scientists injected all three groups of mice with a chemical. This chemical damages nerve cells in a part of the brain, the hippocampus. The hippocampus is important for learning and memory. In humans, nerve cells in this area are destroyed by Alzheimer’s, a brain disease mostly in older people. The scientists found that the nerve cells of the mice that ate every other day were more resistant to damage by the chemical than those of the other mice. VOICE ONE: Doctor Mark Mattson led the study. He says he believes going without food puts mild stress on cells throughout the body. He says the cells react by increasing their ability to deal with more severe stress, like the effect of exercise. Doctor Mattson said an earlier study showed that fasting appeared to help mice live longer. Still, he says more research is needed to learn the full effect that missing meals may have on health. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have discovered evidence that a dinosaur that lived in Madagascar more than sixty-five-million years ago ate members of its own species. Scientists already had evidence that dinosaurs ate plants and other kinds of dinosaurs. This new research supports the idea that there were also dinosaurs that ate other members of their species -- cannibals, in other words. Dinosaurs first appeared more than two-hundred-twenty-million years ago. They died out about sixty-five million years ago. The different species of dinosaurs were different in size. The largest dinosaur was more than twenty meters long, while the smallest was about the size of a chicken. VOICE ONE: Raymond Rogers of Macalester College in the American state of Minnesota led the team. Nature magazine reported the findings. The scientists dug up fossil bones of two Majungatholus atopus dinosaurs in Madagascar. These remains show deep teeth marks that the researchers say could only have been made by another Majungatholus. These large creatures had sharp teeth like knives. Several years ago, the same group of researchers discovered a head bone from this kind of dinosaur. They found that the teeth of that skull fit exactly into the marks on the recently discovered fossil bones. However, the scientists could not establish if the Majungatholus was likely to have killed its victims, or simply fed on the remains. The team also studied the teeth of other meat-eating pre-historic animals found on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of East Africa. None of the teeth matched the marks on the two recently discovered fossil bones. VOICE TWO: An earlier discovery suggested that a kind of small dinosaur found in the American Southwest may have eaten its young. But the team led by Raymond Rogers notes in a letter to Nature that there have been recent questions about that evidence. Professor Rogers says the evidence found by his team is clear. He says that when Majungatholus was alive, food on Madagascar may have been hard to find. As a result, he says, the species likely turned to cannibalism to survive. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach, Jill Moss and Cynthia Kirk, and our program was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Bees and Beekeeping, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 27, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Bees not only produce honey and wax, they also provide an important service to farmers. Many crops require bees to pollinate them. Bees gather sweet liquid called nectar from flowers. As they do this, the reproductive material of the flowers, pollen, sticks to the bee. Pollen travels from plant to plant this way. More than ninety different fruits, vegetables, nuts and seed crops depend on bees for reproduction. Also, many flowers grown for their beauty need bees to pollinate them. In the United States, the secretary of agriculture appoints industry leaders to the National Honey Board. This group provides production information about the honey and beekeeping business. One report used by the board studies the use of bees to pollinate crops. The report says bees pollinated about fourteen-thousand-six-hundred million dollars in crops in two-thousand. Selling the services of bees as pollinators is also an important business. In the state of California, the almond-growing industry has required more bee colonies for pollination. The valuable nuts are an increasing export crop for California. Bees pollinate almost all almond and apple trees. Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, celery and onions require bee pollination. Experts say even crops that do not require bee pollination can be increased with the help of bees. Also, the quality of many crops depends on the amount of pollination they receive. Crops like apples can grow unevenly if bees do not provide enough pollen for good reproduction. Pollinated crops supply much of the vegetable fats in the human diet. As much as one-third of all food products are directly or indirectly linked to bee pollinated crops. Bee pollination is a central activity in the food supply chain. The United States is estimated to have more than two-million-five-hundred-thousand colonies used to pollinate crops. Between two and four colonies are needed to pollinate one hectare of most crops. Farmers pay between forty and seventy dollars for the use of each colony. Today, many beekeepers see pollination as a more important activity than producing honey. Many farmers see bee pollination as a good investment because it improves the quality and productivity of their crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Broadcast: May 27, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Bees not only produce honey and wax, they also provide an important service to farmers. Many crops require bees to pollinate them. Bees gather sweet liquid called nectar from flowers. As they do this, the reproductive material of the flowers, pollen, sticks to the bee. Pollen travels from plant to plant this way. More than ninety different fruits, vegetables, nuts and seed crops depend on bees for reproduction. Also, many flowers grown for their beauty need bees to pollinate them. In the United States, the secretary of agriculture appoints industry leaders to the National Honey Board. This group provides production information about the honey and beekeeping business. One report used by the board studies the use of bees to pollinate crops. The report says bees pollinated about fourteen-thousand-six-hundred million dollars in crops in two-thousand. Selling the services of bees as pollinators is also an important business. In the state of California, the almond-growing industry has required more bee colonies for pollination. The valuable nuts are an increasing export crop for California. Bees pollinate almost all almond and apple trees. Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, celery and onions require bee pollination. Experts say even crops that do not require bee pollination can be increased with the help of bees. Also, the quality of many crops depends on the amount of pollination they receive. Crops like apples can grow unevenly if bees do not provide enough pollen for good reproduction. Pollinated crops supply much of the vegetable fats in the human diet. As much as one-third of all food products are directly or indirectly linked to bee pollinated crops. Bee pollination is a central activity in the food supply chain. The United States is estimated to have more than two-million-five-hundred-thousand colonies used to pollinate crops. Between two and four colonies are needed to pollinate one hectare of most crops. Farmers pay between forty and seventy dollars for the use of each colony. Today, many beekeepers see pollination as a more important activity than producing honey. Many farmers see bee pollination as a good investment because it improves the quality and productivity of their crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Memorial Day and Military Memorials
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 26, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: May 26, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. It is the national holiday when Americans honor the military men and women who died in battle. Visitors to Washington, D-C, can see major memorials to these men and women. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The story of these memorials is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. It is the national holiday when Americans honor the military men and women who died in battle. Visitors to Washington, D-C, can see major memorials to these men and women. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The story of these memorials is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That music is called "Taps." It is played at military funerals to honor soldiers who have died. The sound of "Taps" is heard at cemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its war dead. The Memorial Day holiday started in eighteen-sixty-eight. The purpose was to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between America's Northern and Southern states. Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day. People used flowers and ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killed during the war. Today, Memorial Day honors the men and women who died in all of America's wars. VOICE TWO: The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is the largest and most famous national burial place in the United States. It covers more than two-hundred hectares of rolling hills. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That music is called "Taps." It is played at military funerals to honor soldiers who have died. The sound of "Taps" is heard at cemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its war dead. The Memorial Day holiday started in eighteen-sixty-eight. The purpose was to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between America's Northern and Southern states. Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day. People used flowers and ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killed during the war. Today, Memorial Day honors the men and women who died in all of America's wars. VOICE TWO: The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is the largest and most famous national burial place in the United States. It covers more than two-hundred hectares of rolling hills. Up and down the hills are lines of simple white stones marking the graves. These are the burial places of more than two-hundred-thousand men and women who served in the military, and members of their families. Those laid to rest at Arlington include military and political leaders, cabinet officers and Supreme Court judges. Not all served in the military; some were buried there as an honor. VOICE ONE: Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One is William Howard Taft. He was president in the early nineteen-hundreds. The other is John Kennedy. He was president in the early nineteen-sixties. He was murdered during his first term in office. A memorial flame burns at President Kennedy's burial place. More people have visited his grave than any other in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of Jan Scruggs. Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After the war, which ended in nineteen-seventy-five, he was deeply troubled. He and others felt that American soldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten. So, he organized efforts to build a monument to honor them. He wanted to put on the monument the name of every American who died or was missing in the Vietnam War. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a national competition. The veterans group invited American artists to create a memorial to help unite the nation after the Vietnam War had divided it. Eight famous designers and artists were the judges. They judged more than one-thousand-four-hundred designs. They chose the design of Maya Lin. Mizz Lin was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls. The memorial opened in nineteen-eighty-two. VOICE TWO: The two black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They form a wide letter V. As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you. Cut into the walls are the names of more than fifty-eight-thousand Americans who died or are still missing. The names are listed in the order that the soldiers died. The earliest are from the late nineteen-fifties. Those who died together are remembered together. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names. VOICE ONE: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in Washington. Every year about one-and-a-half million people visit. People who go there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place. Almost any time of day, you can see people looking at the name of a family member or a friend who died in Vietnam. Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it. They rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper. In this way, they are able to take part of the memorial home with them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, veterans of the Korean War pressed for a memorial of their own. Congress approved the idea. In July nineteen-ninety-five, the Korean War Veterans Memorial opened. It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It honors the men and women who served -- and those who died -- in the Korean War from nineteen-fifty to nineteen-fifty-three. VOICE ONE: The Korean War has been called "the last foot soldier's war." So, the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking. Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters tall. The soldiers appear to be moving up a hill toward a large American flag. The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts. On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway. It shows the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. It shows images of more than two-thousand-four-hundred support troops. These include nurses, cooks and truck drivers. The faces were reproduced from photographs taken during the war. VOICE TWO: The last part of the memorial is the Pool of Remembrance. This round pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces who died, or who were wounded, captured, or missing in the war. The number totals more than two-million. Cut into the wall above the pool is the simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Work has begun on a National World War Two Memorial in Washington. But for now the newest war memorial in the capital area has a long name. It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It is very different from the other memorials. It recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's wars. More than two-million women have served, or currently serve, in the American military forces. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in nineteen-eighty-six to honor women in the military. A retired Air Force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial. The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost twenty-two million dollars. VOICE TWO: The women's military memorial opened in October nineteen-ninety-seven. It is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial. It is a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle. In front of the memorial, two-hundred jets of water meet in a pool. The designers say this fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. The memorial also has information about military women on a computer. It includes names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two-hundred-fifty-thousand military women. VOICE ONE: General Vaught said it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been recognized. She said the Women in Military Service for America Memorial will help tell a story that has never been told before. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Up and down the hills are lines of simple white stones marking the graves. These are the burial places of more than two-hundred-thousand men and women who served in the military, and members of their families. Those laid to rest at Arlington include military and political leaders, cabinet officers and Supreme Court judges. Not all served in the military; some were buried there as an honor. VOICE ONE: Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One is William Howard Taft. He was president in the early nineteen-hundreds. The other is John Kennedy. He was president in the early nineteen-sixties. He was murdered during his first term in office. A memorial flame burns at President Kennedy's burial place. More people have visited his grave than any other in the United States. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of Jan Scruggs. Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After the war, which ended in nineteen-seventy-five, he was deeply troubled. He and others felt that American soldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten. So, he organized efforts to build a monument to honor them. He wanted to put on the monument the name of every American who died or was missing in the Vietnam War. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a national competition. The veterans group invited American artists to create a memorial to help unite the nation after the Vietnam War had divided it. Eight famous designers and artists were the judges. They judged more than one-thousand-four-hundred designs. They chose the design of Maya Lin. Mizz Lin was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls. The memorial opened in nineteen-eighty-two. VOICE TWO: The two black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They form a wide letter V. As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you. Cut into the walls are the names of more than fifty-eight-thousand Americans who died or are still missing. The names are listed in the order that the soldiers died. The earliest are from the late nineteen-fifties. Those who died together are remembered together. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names. VOICE ONE: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in Washington. Every year about one-and-a-half million people visit. People who go there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place. Almost any time of day, you can see people looking at the name of a family member or a friend who died in Vietnam. Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it. They rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper. In this way, they are able to take part of the memorial home with them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, veterans of the Korean War pressed for a memorial of their own. Congress approved the idea. In July nineteen-ninety-five, the Korean War Veterans Memorial opened. It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It honors the men and women who served -- and those who died -- in the Korean War from nineteen-fifty to nineteen-fifty-three. VOICE ONE: The Korean War has been called "the last foot soldier's war." So, the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking. Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters tall. The soldiers appear to be moving up a hill toward a large American flag. The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts. On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway. It shows the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. It shows images of more than two-thousand-four-hundred support troops. These include nurses, cooks and truck drivers. The faces were reproduced from photographs taken during the war. VOICE TWO: The last part of the memorial is the Pool of Remembrance. This round pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces who died, or who were wounded, captured, or missing in the war. The number totals more than two-million. Cut into the wall above the pool is the simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Work has begun on a National World War Two Memorial in Washington. But for now the newest war memorial in the capital area has a long name. It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It is very different from the other memorials. It recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's wars. More than two-million women have served, or currently serve, in the American military forces. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in nineteen-eighty-six to honor women in the military. A retired Air Force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial. The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost twenty-two million dollars. VOICE TWO: The women's military memorial opened in October nineteen-ninety-seven. It is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial. It is a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle. In front of the memorial, two-hundred jets of water meet in a pool. The designers say this fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. The memorial also has information about military women on a computer. It includes names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two-hundred-fifty-thousand military women. VOICE ONE: General Vaught said it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been recognized. She said the Women in Military Service for America Memorial will help tell a story that has never been told before. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-27-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Low-Cost Computers in Thailand
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 26, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The government of Thailand has a new program to sell as many as one million low-cost computers to the public. Thailand's minister of information, communication and technology, Surapong Suebwonglee [SUE-ray-pong su-EB-wong-lee], developed the campaign. Mister Surapong reportedly had read a story about low-cost technology in the United States. The story was about the American store Wal-Mart selling computers for around two-hundred dollars. Britain's Financial Times newspaper says Mister Surapong later learned that the price did not include the monitor. But he decided to make computers something people without much money could buy. He called on local computer makers for help. Under the program, the machines will cost between about two-hundred-fifty and four-hundred-fifty dollars. This is about half the price of the least expensive computer now on sale in Thailand. Costs are low because older technology will be used. However, Mister Surapong says each machine will be able to connect to the Internet. In addition, people may be able to buy newer technology for their computers. The machines will run on the Linux operating system. Linus Torvalds created this program while studying at the University of Helsinki in Finland. He made the system free to the public in nineteen-ninety-four. Computer programmers around the world have since added improvements to the Linux operating system. Mister Surapong says the goal of the campaign is to help more people learn about computers. This, he says, will help make Thailand more economically competitive. A loan program has been set up to help buyers pay for their computer. Recently, thousands of Thais waited for hours in the heat on the first day to pay money toward the purchase of a laptop or desktop computer. But some were not happy with what they found. They said the computers were not powerful enough for their needs, or in some cases did not have floppy disk or CD-ROM drives included. The information technology minister says the campaign is aimed at people who want to buy their first computer. He says people who want better machines can buy them from a store. Officials expect the first shipment of computers on July first. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-27-5-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Computer Spam
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 28, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: May 28, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the growing problem of receiving unwanted sales messages on your computer’s electronic mail. VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the growing problem of receiving unwanted sales messages on your computer’s electronic mail. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Twenty-five years ago, a man named Gary Thuerk worked for a company called Digital Equipment. One day he used his computer to send the same message to three-hundred-ninety-seven other computers. These computers all were linked to an electronic network called Arpanet. The Arpanet computer system was used to aid communication among scientists, researchers and government officials. The message sent by Gary Thuerk told about the products his company was selling. Many of the people who got the message became angry. But several others used their computers to tell him they were interested in receiving information about Digital Equipment’s products. This was the very beginning of what computer users now call “spam.” VOICE TWO: I suppose we should explain the word “spam.” SPAM is the name of a food product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation in Austin, Minnesota. SPAM is processed pork meat. It is sold in small blue cans in more than forty-one countries around the world. The Hormel Corporation has produced this popular food product since nineteen-thirty-seven. The word “SPAM” was the winning name in a contest the company held to name the new pork meat product. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Twenty-five years ago, a man named Gary Thuerk worked for a company called Digital Equipment. One day he used his computer to send the same message to three-hundred-ninety-seven other computers. These computers all were linked to an electronic network called Arpanet. The Arpanet computer system was used to aid communication among scientists, researchers and government officials. The message sent by Gary Thuerk told about the products his company was selling. Many of the people who got the message became angry. But several others used their computers to tell him they were interested in receiving information about Digital Equipment’s products. This was the very beginning of what computer users now call “spam.” VOICE TWO: I suppose we should explain the word “spam.” SPAM is the name of a food product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation in Austin, Minnesota. SPAM is processed pork meat. It is sold in small blue cans in more than forty-one countries around the world. The Hormel Corporation has produced this popular food product since nineteen-thirty-seven. The word “SPAM” was the winning name in a contest the company held to name the new pork meat product. VOICE ONE: Computer users who receive unwanted electronic information call this kind of electronic mail “spam.” Computer users named it spam because of a funny joke on a popular British television program called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” In one program, a group of people was sitting in an eating place that served only the processed meat called SPAM. Every time they tried to say something, another group of people would sing, very loudly, “SPAM—SPAM—SPAM, Wonderful SPAM.” This interfered with people’s conversations in the same way that e-mail spam makes computer communication more difficult. Computer users began using the word to mean unwanted electronic information they did not ask for and did not want. The Hormel Corporation has kept a sense of humor about this use of its product’s name. Company officials say they do not care. Hormel sells more than six-million cans of their pork meat every year. VOICE TWO: The use of electronic spam to sell products has become a major problem for many computer users. A recent study showed that most computer users receive about one-hundred unwanted electronic mail messages or spam each week. Some people receive much more. We even have a spam problem in Special English. We receive more than twenty e-mail messages from our listeners around the world each day. That is about six-hundred messages a month. We are happy to receive these messages. However, we receive even more spam e-mail from around the world – about thirty-five messages each day. That is about one-thousand each month. Many of these messages are written in foreign languages. They are advertisements for products from other countries. We can remove much of the spam very quickly. However we must read some of these messages to make sure they are not messages from our listeners. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It would be difficult to count all of the spam sent across the Internet computer communications system each day. Some experts estimate that more than seven-thousand-million spam messages are sent around the world each day. Some experts say more than half of all e-mail sent is spam. One company that deals with huge amounts of spam is America Online, a major Internet service provider in the United States and several other countries. A-O-L says it uses special electronic programs to block spam that comes into its communications system. A-O-L says it blocks more than two-thousand-million spam e-mail messages each day. The A-O-L company is only one of many Internet service providers that face the same problem. Internet service providers must buy larger and more powerful computers in an effort to deal with this huge amount of electronic mail. The cost is paid by everyone who uses a computer linked to the Internet. VOICE TWO: Many companies send sales information or advertising on the Internet to people who are interested in receiving it. This information tries to influence people to buy almost any product or service possible. The products include shoes, clothing and food. You may open your electronic mail and find information about how to buy medicine, cheap airline tickets, books, sexual products and, of course, computers and computer products. There may also be offers for investment deals, bank loans and special holidays. Many companies who want to send a great deal of advertising might use the services of a “spammer.” A spammer is a person or company that uses computers to send out millions of copies of the same sales information. Spammers find e-mail addresses from Web sites, newsgroups and “chat rooms” where people send messages to each other. VOICE ONE: Most spam is sent by companies who are trying to get you to buy their products. Some of these are honest companies that offer good products or services for a fair price. These companies can offer their products at a cheaper price than you might find in a store. However, much of the spam on the Internet is sent by criminals who are trying to sell products that do not exist or offer services they will not provide. They are only interested in stealing your money. Some of these messages want you to buy special medicines that will improve your sexual performance. Or they want to give you something for free. When you answer their spam you find you are expected to send them money and receive a gift. One country in Africa has become famous for the number of criminals who try every known trick to separate people from their money. VOICE TWO: Recently, American Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that more than one-hundred-thirty people have been arrested for criminal activity using the Internet.These criminals cheated people out of large amounts of money. Much of this money was taken from people who had answered a spam e-mail offering a product or a service. They paid for the product and received nothing. Mister Ashcroft told reporters that these criminals are cheating the public out of millions of dollars each year. He also said the government is increasing its efforts to stop this kind of crime. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Spam has become a major problem for many computer users. Many angry people have begun to fight back. Among these are private citizens, Internet service provider companies and several state governments. The federal government is also considering anti-spam legislation. The state of Virginia approved an anti-spam law in April. It is now illegal to send large amounts of spam to the citizens of Virginia without a correct return address. The new law says people can be sent to jail for as much as five years if they violate the law. VOICE TWO: Many states have approved laws that say spam messages must include a way to tell the sender that the sales information is not wanted. This request usually tells the spammer not to send any more information to this address. Several states also have laws that say the spam must include a written statement saying the message is advertising. Or it must say the message advertises sexual products. This permits the person who receives the spam to remove it immediately. Several companies have now begun selling computer programs that will block spam. One computer industry expert says these programs are successful. However, people who send spam are busy working to develop ways to defeat the anti-spamming programs. VOICE ONE: Last week, the United States Federal Trade Commission told Congress there is no quick method to solve the problem of the huge amount of spam. There is no solution to the increased cost of spam. Trade Commission officials said solving the spam problem will take a cooperative effort involving new technology, new laws and action by private citizens. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Computer users who receive unwanted electronic information call this kind of electronic mail “spam.” Computer users named it spam because of a funny joke on a popular British television program called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” In one program, a group of people was sitting in an eating place that served only the processed meat called SPAM. Every time they tried to say something, another group of people would sing, very loudly, “SPAM—SPAM—SPAM, Wonderful SPAM.” This interfered with people’s conversations in the same way that e-mail spam makes computer communication more difficult. Computer users began using the word to mean unwanted electronic information they did not ask for and did not want. The Hormel Corporation has kept a sense of humor about this use of its product’s name. Company officials say they do not care. Hormel sells more than six-million cans of their pork meat every year. VOICE TWO: The use of electronic spam to sell products has become a major problem for many computer users. A recent study showed that most computer users receive about one-hundred unwanted electronic mail messages or spam each week. Some people receive much more. We even have a spam problem in Special English. We receive more than twenty e-mail messages from our listeners around the world each day. That is about six-hundred messages a month. We are happy to receive these messages. However, we receive even more spam e-mail from around the world – about thirty-five messages each day. That is about one-thousand each month. Many of these messages are written in foreign languages. They are advertisements for products from other countries. We can remove much of the spam very quickly. However we must read some of these messages to make sure they are not messages from our listeners. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It would be difficult to count all of the spam sent across the Internet computer communications system each day. Some experts estimate that more than seven-thousand-million spam messages are sent around the world each day. Some experts say more than half of all e-mail sent is spam. One company that deals with huge amounts of spam is America Online, a major Internet service provider in the United States and several other countries. A-O-L says it uses special electronic programs to block spam that comes into its communications system. A-O-L says it blocks more than two-thousand-million spam e-mail messages each day. The A-O-L company is only one of many Internet service providers that face the same problem. Internet service providers must buy larger and more powerful computers in an effort to deal with this huge amount of electronic mail. The cost is paid by everyone who uses a computer linked to the Internet. VOICE TWO: Many companies send sales information or advertising on the Internet to people who are interested in receiving it. This information tries to influence people to buy almost any product or service possible. The products include shoes, clothing and food. You may open your electronic mail and find information about how to buy medicine, cheap airline tickets, books, sexual products and, of course, computers and computer products. There may also be offers for investment deals, bank loans and special holidays. Many companies who want to send a great deal of advertising might use the services of a “spammer.” A spammer is a person or company that uses computers to send out millions of copies of the same sales information. Spammers find e-mail addresses from Web sites, newsgroups and “chat rooms” where people send messages to each other. VOICE ONE: Most spam is sent by companies who are trying to get you to buy their products. Some of these are honest companies that offer good products or services for a fair price. These companies can offer their products at a cheaper price than you might find in a store. However, much of the spam on the Internet is sent by criminals who are trying to sell products that do not exist or offer services they will not provide. They are only interested in stealing your money. Some of these messages want you to buy special medicines that will improve your sexual performance. Or they want to give you something for free. When you answer their spam you find you are expected to send them money and receive a gift. One country in Africa has become famous for the number of criminals who try every known trick to separate people from their money. VOICE TWO: Recently, American Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that more than one-hundred-thirty people have been arrested for criminal activity using the Internet.These criminals cheated people out of large amounts of money. Much of this money was taken from people who had answered a spam e-mail offering a product or a service. They paid for the product and received nothing. Mister Ashcroft told reporters that these criminals are cheating the public out of millions of dollars each year. He also said the government is increasing its efforts to stop this kind of crime. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Spam has become a major problem for many computer users. Many angry people have begun to fight back. Among these are private citizens, Internet service provider companies and several state governments. The federal government is also considering anti-spam legislation. The state of Virginia approved an anti-spam law in April. It is now illegal to send large amounts of spam to the citizens of Virginia without a correct return address. The new law says people can be sent to jail for as much as five years if they violate the law. VOICE TWO: Many states have approved laws that say spam messages must include a way to tell the sender that the sales information is not wanted. This request usually tells the spammer not to send any more information to this address. Several states also have laws that say the spam must include a written statement saying the message is advertising. Or it must say the message advertises sexual products. This permits the person who receives the spam to remove it immediately. Several companies have now begun selling computer programs that will block spam. One computer industry expert says these programs are successful. However, people who send spam are busy working to develop ways to defeat the anti-spamming programs. VOICE ONE: Last week, the United States Federal Trade Commission told Congress there is no quick method to solve the problem of the huge amount of spam. There is no solution to the increased cost of spam. Trade Commission officials said solving the spam problem will take a cooperative effort involving new technology, new laws and action by private citizens. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-27-6-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - May 28, 2003: WHO Approves Anti-Tobacco Agreement
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Saturday is World No Tobacco Day. This yearly observance is part of the efforts to reduce a major threat to public health. Those efforts took a big step last week at the World Health Organization in Geneva. All one-hundred-ninety-two members of the W-H-O approved a treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is the first international treaty negotiated by the World Health Organization, part of the United Nations. To bring the treaty into effect, at least forty countries must now accept it as law. The treaty would require countries to ban or restrict advertising and other efforts by tobacco companies to market their products. It would require that health warnings cover at least thirty percent of the surface of a pack of cigarettes. It would require that all the materials used to make tobacco products be listed on the package. The treaty also urges governments to strengthen indoor-air laws, place high taxes on tobacco and act to stop illegal trade in cigarettes. The W-H-O says tobacco now kills about five-million people each year. It says ten-million people could die each year from tobacco by twenty-twenty. Most will be in developing countries. Smoking rates are increasing in many developing countries. Smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases. It also harms the unborn children of pregnant women. Even people who do not use tobacco can die if they continually breathe tobacco smoke in the air. Four years of negotiation led to the tobacco-control treaty. The next step is for countries to sign the treaty and have their governments approve it. Delegates from the European Union, China and Japan, among others, said their governments would move soon to act on the agreement. What the United States will do next is not clear. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said officials in Washington are studying the document. Congress would have to change tobacco laws before the treaty could take effect in the United States. A big question is how far the government could go to restrict tobacco advertising and not violate the Constitution. This question had led the United States to try to get out of some parts of the treaty. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Saturday is World No Tobacco Day. This yearly observance is part of the efforts to reduce a major threat to public health. Those efforts took a big step last week at the World Health Organization in Geneva. All one-hundred-ninety-two members of the W-H-O approved a treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is the first international treaty negotiated by the World Health Organization, part of the United Nations. To bring the treaty into effect, at least forty countries must now accept it as law. The treaty would require countries to ban or restrict advertising and other efforts by tobacco companies to market their products. It would require that health warnings cover at least thirty percent of the surface of a pack of cigarettes. It would require that all the materials used to make tobacco products be listed on the package. The treaty also urges governments to strengthen indoor-air laws, place high taxes on tobacco and act to stop illegal trade in cigarettes. The W-H-O says tobacco now kills about five-million people each year. It says ten-million people could die each year from tobacco by twenty-twenty. Most will be in developing countries. Smoking rates are increasing in many developing countries. Smoking causes lung cancer and other diseases. It also harms the unborn children of pregnant women. Even people who do not use tobacco can die if they continually breathe tobacco smoke in the air. Four years of negotiation led to the tobacco-control treaty. The next step is for countries to sign the treaty and have their governments approve it. Delegates from the European Union, China and Japan, among others, said their governments would move soon to act on the agreement. What the United States will do next is not clear. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said officials in Washington are studying the document. Congress would have to change tobacco laws before the treaty could take effect in the United States. A big question is how far the government could go to restrict tobacco advertising and not violate the Constitution. This question had led the United States to try to get out of some parts of the treaty. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #14 - American Revolution: Whose Side Are You On?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 29, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: May 29, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late Seventeen-Hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Delegates to the American Continental Congress approved and signed a declaration of independence on July Fourth, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. The new country called the United States of America was at war with Britain. Yet not everyone in the former colonies agreed on the decision. No one knows for sure how many Americans remained loyal to Great Britain. The Massachusetts political leader, John Adams, thought about thirty-three percent of the colonists supported independence, thirty-three percent supported Britain, and thirty-three percent supported neither side. Most history experts today think that about twenty per cent of the colonists supported Britain. They say the others were neutral or supported whichever side seemed to be winning. VOICE TWO: As many as thirty-thousand Americans fought for the British during the war. Others helped Britain by reporting the movements of American rebel troops. Who supported Britain? They included people appointed to their jobs by the king, religious leaders of the Anglican Church, and people with close business connections in Britain. Many members of minority groups remined loyal to the king because they needed his protection against local majority groups. Other people were loyal because they did not want change or because they believed that independence would not improve their lives. Some thought the actions of the British government were not bad enough to make a rebellion necessary. Others did not believe that the rebels could win a war against such a powerful nation as Britain. VOICE ONE: Native American Indians did not agree among themselves about the revolution. Congress knew it had to make peace with the Indians as soon as the war started, or American troops might have to fight them and the British at the same time. To prevent trouble, American officials tried to stop settlers from moving onto Indian lands. In some places, the Indians joined the Americans, but generally they supported the British. They expected the British to win. They saw the war as a chance to force the Americans to leave their lands. At times, the Indians fought on the side of the British, but left when the British seemed to be losing the battle. Choosing to fight for the British proved to be a mistake. When the war was over, the Americans felt they owed the Indians nothing. VOICE TWO: Black slaves in the colonies also were divided about what side to join during the American Revolution. Thousands fought for the British, because that side offered them freedom if they served in the army or navy. Some American states also offered to free slaves who served, and hundreds of free blacks fought on the American side. Many slaves, however, felt their chances for freedom were better with the British. Details are not exact, but history experts say more blacks probably joined the British in the North than in the South. VOICE ONE: At least five-thousand African-Americans served with the colonial American forces. Most had no choice. They were slaves, and their owners took them to war or sent them to replace their sons. Others felt that a nation built on freedom might share some of that freedom with them. In the South, many slave owners kept their slaves at home. Later in the war, every man was needed, although most slaves did not fight. Instead, they drove wagons and carried supplies. Many African-Americans also served in the American navy. Blacks who served in the colonial army and navy were not separated from whites. Black and white men fought side by side during the American Revolution. History experts say, however, that most black slaves spent the war as they had always lived: working on their owners' farms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American rebels called themselves patriots. They called British supporters Tories. Patriots often seized Tories' property to help pay for the war. They also kidnapped Tories' slaves to be used as laborers for the army. Many Tories were forced from towns in which they had lived all their lives. Some were tortured or hanged. In New Jersey, Tories and patriots fought one another with guns, and sometimes burned each other's houses and farms. VOICE ONE: Some history experts say the American Revolution was really the nation's first civil war. The revolution divided many families. Perhaps the most famous example was the family of Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence. His son William was governor of the colony of New Jersey. He supported the king. Political disagreement about the war tore apart this father and son for the rest of their lives. VOICE TWO: Different ideas about the war existed among the patriots, too. That is because the colonies did not really think of themselves as one nation. They saw themselves as independent states trying to work together toward a goal. People from Massachusetts, for example, thought Pennsylvania was a strange place filled with strange people. Southerners did not like people from the North. And people who lived in farm areas did not communicate easily with people who lived in coastal towns and cities. This meant that the Continental Congress could not order the states to do anything they did not want to do. Congress could not demand that the states provide money for the war. It could only ask for their help. George Washington, the top general, could not take men into the army. He could only wait for the states to send them. History experts say George Washington showed that he was a good politician by the way he kept Congress and the thirteen states supporting him throughout the war. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As the people of America did not agree about the war, the people of Britain did not agree about it, either. Many supported the government's decision to fight. They believed that the war was necessary to rescue loyalists from the patriots. Others did not think Britain should fight the Americans, because the Americans had not invaded or threatened their country. They believed that Britain should leave the colonies alone to do as they wished. King George was not able to do this, however. He supported the war as a way to continue his power in the world, and to rescue British honor in the eyes of other national leaders. Whichever side British citizens were on, there was no question that the war was causing severe problems in Britain. British businessmen could no longer trade with the American colonies. Prices increased. Taxes did, too. And young men were forced to serve in the royal navy. VOICE TWO: At the start of the war, the British believed that the rebellion was led by a few extremists in New England. They thought the other colonies would surrender if that area could be surrounded and controlled. So, they planned to separate New England from the other colonies by taking command of the Hudson River Valley. They changed this plan after they were defeated in the Battle of Saratoga in New York state. Later, they planned to capture major cities and control the coast from Maine in the north to Georgia in the south. They failed to do this, although they did occupy New York city for the whole war, and at times had control over Philadelphia and Charleston. VOICE ONE: The British experienced many problems fighting the war. Their troops were far from home, across a wide ocean. It was difficult to bring in more forces and supplies, and it took a long time. As the war continued, American ships became more skilled at attacking British ships at sea. The colonial army had problems, too. Congress never had enough money. Sometimes, it could not send General Washington the things he needed. Often, the states did not send what they were supposed to. Americans were not always willing to take part in the war. They were poorly trained as soldiers and would promise to serve for only a year or so. VOICE TWO: The political and economic developments of the American Revolution concerned not just the Americans and the British. European nations were watching the events in America very closely. Those events, and the reactions in Europe, will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we continue the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late Seventeen-Hundreds. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Delegates to the American Continental Congress approved and signed a declaration of independence on July Fourth, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. The new country called the United States of America was at war with Britain. Yet not everyone in the former colonies agreed on the decision. No one knows for sure how many Americans remained loyal to Great Britain. The Massachusetts political leader, John Adams, thought about thirty-three percent of the colonists supported independence, thirty-three percent supported Britain, and thirty-three percent supported neither side. Most history experts today think that about twenty per cent of the colonists supported Britain. They say the others were neutral or supported whichever side seemed to be winning. VOICE TWO: As many as thirty-thousand Americans fought for the British during the war. Others helped Britain by reporting the movements of American rebel troops. Who supported Britain? They included people appointed to their jobs by the king, religious leaders of the Anglican Church, and people with close business connections in Britain. Many members of minority groups remined loyal to the king because they needed his protection against local majority groups. Other people were loyal because they did not want change or because they believed that independence would not improve their lives. Some thought the actions of the British government were not bad enough to make a rebellion necessary. Others did not believe that the rebels could win a war against such a powerful nation as Britain. VOICE ONE: Native American Indians did not agree among themselves about the revolution. Congress knew it had to make peace with the Indians as soon as the war started, or American troops might have to fight them and the British at the same time. To prevent trouble, American officials tried to stop settlers from moving onto Indian lands. In some places, the Indians joined the Americans, but generally they supported the British. They expected the British to win. They saw the war as a chance to force the Americans to leave their lands. At times, the Indians fought on the side of the British, but left when the British seemed to be losing the battle. Choosing to fight for the British proved to be a mistake. When the war was over, the Americans felt they owed the Indians nothing. VOICE TWO: Black slaves in the colonies also were divided about what side to join during the American Revolution. Thousands fought for the British, because that side offered them freedom if they served in the army or navy. Some American states also offered to free slaves who served, and hundreds of free blacks fought on the American side. Many slaves, however, felt their chances for freedom were better with the British. Details are not exact, but history experts say more blacks probably joined the British in the North than in the South. VOICE ONE: At least five-thousand African-Americans served with the colonial American forces. Most had no choice. They were slaves, and their owners took them to war or sent them to replace their sons. Others felt that a nation built on freedom might share some of that freedom with them. In the South, many slave owners kept their slaves at home. Later in the war, every man was needed, although most slaves did not fight. Instead, they drove wagons and carried supplies. Many African-Americans also served in the American navy. Blacks who served in the colonial army and navy were not separated from whites. Black and white men fought side by side during the American Revolution. History experts say, however, that most black slaves spent the war as they had always lived: working on their owners' farms. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American rebels called themselves patriots. They called British supporters Tories. Patriots often seized Tories' property to help pay for the war. They also kidnapped Tories' slaves to be used as laborers for the army. Many Tories were forced from towns in which they had lived all their lives. Some were tortured or hanged. In New Jersey, Tories and patriots fought one another with guns, and sometimes burned each other's houses and farms. VOICE ONE: Some history experts say the American Revolution was really the nation's first civil war. The revolution divided many families. Perhaps the most famous example was the family of Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence. His son William was governor of the colony of New Jersey. He supported the king. Political disagreement about the war tore apart this father and son for the rest of their lives. VOICE TWO: Different ideas about the war existed among the patriots, too. That is because the colonies did not really think of themselves as one nation. They saw themselves as independent states trying to work together toward a goal. People from Massachusetts, for example, thought Pennsylvania was a strange place filled with strange people. Southerners did not like people from the North. And people who lived in farm areas did not communicate easily with people who lived in coastal towns and cities. This meant that the Continental Congress could not order the states to do anything they did not want to do. Congress could not demand that the states provide money for the war. It could only ask for their help. George Washington, the top general, could not take men into the army. He could only wait for the states to send them. History experts say George Washington showed that he was a good politician by the way he kept Congress and the thirteen states supporting him throughout the war. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As the people of America did not agree about the war, the people of Britain did not agree about it, either. Many supported the government's decision to fight. They believed that the war was necessary to rescue loyalists from the patriots. Others did not think Britain should fight the Americans, because the Americans had not invaded or threatened their country. They believed that Britain should leave the colonies alone to do as they wished. King George was not able to do this, however. He supported the war as a way to continue his power in the world, and to rescue British honor in the eyes of other national leaders. Whichever side British citizens were on, there was no question that the war was causing severe problems in Britain. British businessmen could no longer trade with the American colonies. Prices increased. Taxes did, too. And young men were forced to serve in the royal navy. VOICE TWO: At the start of the war, the British believed that the rebellion was led by a few extremists in New England. They thought the other colonies would surrender if that area could be surrounded and controlled. So, they planned to separate New England from the other colonies by taking command of the Hudson River Valley. They changed this plan after they were defeated in the Battle of Saratoga in New York state. Later, they planned to capture major cities and control the coast from Maine in the north to Georgia in the south. They failed to do this, although they did occupy New York city for the whole war, and at times had control over Philadelphia and Charleston. VOICE ONE: The British experienced many problems fighting the war. Their troops were far from home, across a wide ocean. It was difficult to bring in more forces and supplies, and it took a long time. As the war continued, American ships became more skilled at attacking British ships at sea. The colonial army had problems, too. Congress never had enough money. Sometimes, it could not send General Washington the things he needed. Often, the states did not send what they were supposed to. Americans were not always willing to take part in the war. They were poorly trained as soldiers and would promise to serve for only a year or so. VOICE TWO: The political and economic developments of the American Revolution concerned not just the Americans and the British. European nations were watching the events in America very closely. Those events, and the reactions in Europe, will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Graduations
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 29, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. May and June are the months when most graduation ceremonies take place in the United States. Young people traditionally take part in ceremonies as they finish high school or college. But some are as young as four or five years old. These children are honored for finishing pre-school or kindergarten programs. Still others may be students completing their education in their old age. Every year, men and women older than age seventy or eighty receive diplomas or degrees. These documents are evidence that they have graduated. Traditionally, the school’s directors present the diplomas or degrees. Also, the graduates often wear traditional caps and gowns over their clothing. Most graduation ceremonies in the United States have a speaker who presents the commencement address. For example, President Bush recently spoke at the University of South Carolina. Mister Bush used the speech as a chance to propose a free trade area in the Middle East. Vice President Dick Cheney spoke to graduates of the Agricultural School at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He told students that he had not studied enough when he was first in college. But he said that he received a second chance to finish his studies and graduate. He called America “the country of second chances.” Former President Bill Clinton spoke to students at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi. Mister Clinton told them he wanted them to do well in life. But he said he also wanted them to do good. Actors and other entertainers also are popular graduation speakers. For example, comic actor Bill Cosby spoke to students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Actor Michael J. Fox spoke to medical school graduates of the University of Miami in Florida. He urged them to care deeply about research. Mister Fox has Parkinson’s disease. Many colleges and universities have their own graduation traditions. For example, graduates of the United States Naval Academy throw their military hats in the air. This custom celebrates their becoming Navy or Marine Corps officers. Guests at the ceremonies at the school in Annapolis, Maryland, then are welcome to take the hats home. This Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 30, 2003: Tony Awards/ Model-Rocket Competition / Question About Boeing
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about the American company Boeing... (Photo - Joan Marcus) Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a listener’s question about the American company Boeing... Play music nominated for the Tony Award ... And report about a student science contest. Rocket Contest HOST: The world’s largest model rocket competition for secondary students was held May tenth in the eastern state of Virginia. More than eight-hundred teams took part in test-flight competitions throughout the United States. Those contests narrowed the number of finalists to one-hundred teams. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The National Association of Rocketry and the Aerospace Industries Association organized the competition. The student teams were asked to design, build and fly a model rocket. The rocket could not weigh more than about one-thousand-five-hundred grams at the time of take-off. It also had to carry two eggs and an electronic distance reader during the flight. To win the competition, the rocket had to travel at least four-hundred-fifty-seven meters into the air. At that height, a parachute needed to open to help slow the rocket’s fall back to earth. The two eggs had to land undamaged. Students from Boonsboro High School in the eastern state of Maryland won the competition. The three-member team said luck and a few prayers had a lot to do with their success. The second place team was from Washington, D.C. A group of students from the western town of Edward, Colorado, came in third. The top five teams and their schools divided fifty-nine-thousand dollars in prize money. Organizers designed the competition to honor the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, one-hundred years ago. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled, powered flight in history on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. The event launched a new industry for the world and a new business for the brothers. The organizers of the model rocket competition also hoped the event would build student interest in technical professions, such as aerospace engineering. The head of the Aerospace Industries Association, John Douglass, says he expects many older workers in the profession to retire in the coming years. This, he says, will create a demand for young minds needed to design and build new products. More importantly, however, Mister Douglass said he wanted students to learn that science can be fun. The Boeing Company HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bentre Province, Vietnam. Nguyen Trong Tuyen would like some information about Boeing -- the largest aerospace company in the world. William Boeing started the company in nineteen-sixteen with the help of Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt. At that time, twenty-eight people worked for the airplane maker. Today, the company employs more than one-hundred-sixty-thousand people in seventy countries. Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago in two-thousand-one. Last year, the company earned more than fifty-thousand-million dollars. Boeing has built fourteen-thousand passenger planes. It builds seven different kinds. The smallest plane can carry about one-hundred people. The largest can hold over five-hundred. Boeing estimates that each day, three-million people fly on its passenger planes. Next year it plans to launch a new service for high-speed, Internet-based communication to airplanes in flight. Passengers could use this technology to communicate over the Internet with people on the ground. Boeing is also one of the top makers of military planes and defense systems. The planes include tankers used to refuel military aircraft in flight. The company also manufactures Apache helicopters and F-fifteen fighter planes. It has sold military aircraft to more than twenty countries. Boeing is also involved in space technology. It builds and launches satellites. It helped create the International Space Station. And it manufactured NASA space shuttles. Tony Awards HOST: On Sunday, June eighth, the Tony Award ceremony will honor the best stage plays on Broadway in New York City. Shirley Griffith tells us about these awards. ANNCR: The Tony Awards are the work of a group called the American Theater Wing. The group began as a way for theater people to help in the war effort during World War One. It continued this work during World War Two. Later, the Theater Wing helped returning soldiers. It opened a school to train people to work in the theater. And it began presenting the Tony Awards to honor the best Broadway plays. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, a producer, director and American Theater Wing official. The name “Tony” is short for Antoinette, so the awards became known as the Tonys. The first Tonys were given in nineteen-forty-seven. The awards are presented to many people who work on Broadway shows -- actors, directors, set designers, clothing designers and music composers. Tony Awards are also given for best dramatic play and best musical play of the year. This year, four shows are nominated for Best Musical. “Movin’ Out” is a story told entirely through dances performed to the music of Billy Joel, the American singer, songwriter and pianist. Here is the title song: (MUSIC) Another nominated musical is the French play “Amour.” It is no longer on Broadway. A third nominated musical is “A Year With Frog and Toad," a play for children. The final nominee for best musical is called “Hairspray.” This play was first a movie. It is the story of an overweight teenage girl living in the state of Maryland in the nineteen-sixties. Here she sings “Good Morning, Baltimore.” (MUSIC) To hear more music from “Hairspray,” and learn more about the show, listen this Sunday to the Special English program This is America. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Vosco Volaritch. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Play music nominated for the Tony Award ... And report about a student science contest. Rocket Contest HOST: The world’s largest model rocket competition for secondary students was held May tenth in the eastern state of Virginia. More than eight-hundred teams took part in test-flight competitions throughout the United States. Those contests narrowed the number of finalists to one-hundred teams. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The National Association of Rocketry and the Aerospace Industries Association organized the competition. The student teams were asked to design, build and fly a model rocket. The rocket could not weigh more than about one-thousand-five-hundred grams at the time of take-off. It also had to carry two eggs and an electronic distance reader during the flight. To win the competition, the rocket had to travel at least four-hundred-fifty-seven meters into the air. At that height, a parachute needed to open to help slow the rocket’s fall back to earth. The two eggs had to land undamaged. Students from Boonsboro High School in the eastern state of Maryland won the competition. The three-member team said luck and a few prayers had a lot to do with their success. The second place team was from Washington, D.C. A group of students from the western town of Edward, Colorado, came in third. The top five teams and their schools divided fifty-nine-thousand dollars in prize money. Organizers designed the competition to honor the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, one-hundred years ago. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled, powered flight in history on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. The event launched a new industry for the world and a new business for the brothers. The organizers of the model rocket competition also hoped the event would build student interest in technical professions, such as aerospace engineering. The head of the Aerospace Industries Association, John Douglass, says he expects many older workers in the profession to retire in the coming years. This, he says, will create a demand for young minds needed to design and build new products. More importantly, however, Mister Douglass said he wanted students to learn that science can be fun. The Boeing Company HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bentre Province, Vietnam. Nguyen Trong Tuyen would like some information about Boeing -- the largest aerospace company in the world. William Boeing started the company in nineteen-sixteen with the help of Navy engineer George Conrad Westervelt. At that time, twenty-eight people worked for the airplane maker. Today, the company employs more than one-hundred-sixty-thousand people in seventy countries. Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago in two-thousand-one. Last year, the company earned more than fifty-thousand-million dollars. Boeing has built fourteen-thousand passenger planes. It builds seven different kinds. The smallest plane can carry about one-hundred people. The largest can hold over five-hundred. Boeing estimates that each day, three-million people fly on its passenger planes. Next year it plans to launch a new service for high-speed, Internet-based communication to airplanes in flight. Passengers could use this technology to communicate over the Internet with people on the ground. Boeing is also one of the top makers of military planes and defense systems. The planes include tankers used to refuel military aircraft in flight. The company also manufactures Apache helicopters and F-fifteen fighter planes. It has sold military aircraft to more than twenty countries. Boeing is also involved in space technology. It builds and launches satellites. It helped create the International Space Station. And it manufactured NASA space shuttles. Tony Awards HOST: On Sunday, June eighth, the Tony Award ceremony will honor the best stage plays on Broadway in New York City. Shirley Griffith tells us about these awards. ANNCR: The Tony Awards are the work of a group called the American Theater Wing. The group began as a way for theater people to help in the war effort during World War One. It continued this work during World War Two. Later, the Theater Wing helped returning soldiers. It opened a school to train people to work in the theater. And it began presenting the Tony Awards to honor the best Broadway plays. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, a producer, director and American Theater Wing official. The name “Tony” is short for Antoinette, so the awards became known as the Tonys. The first Tonys were given in nineteen-forty-seven. The awards are presented to many people who work on Broadway shows -- actors, directors, set designers, clothing designers and music composers. Tony Awards are also given for best dramatic play and best musical play of the year. This year, four shows are nominated for Best Musical. “Movin’ Out” is a story told entirely through dances performed to the music of Billy Joel, the American singer, songwriter and pianist. Here is the title song: (MUSIC) Another nominated musical is the French play “Amour.” It is no longer on Broadway. A third nominated musical is “A Year With Frog and Toad," a play for children. The final nominee for best musical is called “Hairspray.” This play was first a movie. It is the story of an overweight teenage girl living in the state of Maryland in the nineteen-sixties. Here she sings “Good Morning, Baltimore.” (MUSIC) To hear more music from “Hairspray,” and learn more about the show, listen this Sunday to the Special English program This is America. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Vosco Volaritch. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Losses of Big Fish
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 30, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in Canada say big ocean fish have almost disappeared from the world since the start of industrial fishing in the nineteen-fifties. The scientists found that populations of large fish like tuna, swordfish and cod have dropped by ninety percent in the past fifty years. The study took ten years. The researchers gathered records from fishing businesses and governments around the world. The magazine Nature published the findings. The scientists say the common method called longline fishing is especially damaging to populations of large fish. This method involves many fishing lines connected to one boat. These wires can be close to one-hundred kilometers long. They hold thousands of sharp metal hooks to catch fish. Longline fishing is especially common in the Japanese fishing industry. Records showed that Japanese boats used to catch about ten fish for every one-hundred hooks. The study says longline fishing boats now might catch one fish per hundred hooks. Modern methods also include the use of satellites and underwater radar to find fish. The scientists say industrial fishing can destroy groups of fish much faster than in the past. The study suggests that whole populations can disappear almost completely from new fishing areas within ten to fifteen years. Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia led the study with Boris Worm of Dalhousie and the University of Kiel in Germany. Mister Worm says the destruction could lead to a complete re-organization of ocean life systems. Mister Meyers says the decreased numbers of large fish is not the only worry. He says even populations that are able to reproduce do not get the chance to live long enough to grow as big as their ancestors. He says not only are there fewer big fish, they are smaller than those of the past. American government scientists say even with the best efforts to protect fish populations, decreases are to be expected. Fishing industry groups say the study makes the situation seem worse than it is. They say programs are in place to help repopulate big fish where numbers are low. And they say there have already been some improvements. Last year, many countries signed a declaration in South Africa to work toward the recovery of fishing areas by two-thousand-fifteen. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. Broadcast: May 30, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in Canada say big ocean fish have almost disappeared from the world since the start of industrial fishing in the nineteen-fifties. The scientists found that populations of large fish like tuna, swordfish and cod have dropped by ninety percent in the past fifty years. The study took ten years. The researchers gathered records from fishing businesses and governments around the world. The magazine Nature published the findings. The scientists say the common method called longline fishing is especially damaging to populations of large fish. This method involves many fishing lines connected to one boat. These wires can be close to one-hundred kilometers long. They hold thousands of sharp metal hooks to catch fish. Longline fishing is especially common in the Japanese fishing industry. Records showed that Japanese boats used to catch about ten fish for every one-hundred hooks. The study says longline fishing boats now might catch one fish per hundred hooks. Modern methods also include the use of satellites and underwater radar to find fish. The scientists say industrial fishing can destroy groups of fish much faster than in the past. The study suggests that whole populations can disappear almost completely from new fishing areas within ten to fifteen years. Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia led the study with Boris Worm of Dalhousie and the University of Kiel in Germany. Mister Worm says the destruction could lead to a complete re-organization of ocean life systems. Mister Meyers says the decreased numbers of large fish is not the only worry. He says even populations that are able to reproduce do not get the chance to live long enough to grow as big as their ancestors. He says not only are there fewer big fish, they are smaller than those of the past. American government scientists say even with the best efforts to protect fish populations, decreases are to be expected. Fishing industry groups say the study makes the situation seem worse than it is. They say programs are in place to help repopulate big fish where numbers are low. And they say there have already been some improvements. Last year, many countries signed a declaration in South Africa to work toward the recovery of fishing areas by two-thousand-fifteen. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-29-5-1.cfm
* Headline: May 29, 2003 - Slangman: Insults
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 29, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- Slangman David Burke is with us from Los Angeles to have some fun with insults in American English. RS: It seems our buddy Slangman has gotten another outrageous -- and totally fictitious -- letter from his mother, an 80-year-old widow whose sister likes to set her up on dates (that much is true!) SLANGMAN: " 'My dear son, Slangman. I'm never going to trust your Aunt Ruth again. I agreed to go on a date with her butcher. I should have known it would be a mistake when she described him as having a "great personality."' (Laughter) I love this description for someone. If someone is not attractive, they have a -- " RS: "Great personality!" SLANGMAN: "'And he was nothing but a bean pole with chicken legs.'" RS: "Oh, that's great." SLANGMAN: "Now a bean pole is a pole you would put in the ground and then you would try to put the bean stalk around this very thin pole. That's how you make the beans grow. Now if a man is described as having chicken legs, that's not good. A lot of guys who work out with weights, they forget their legs, and they're considered as having chicken legs, because a chicken is big with little teeny legs. 'Well, I looked like a tub of lard next to him.' Now a tub of lard -- lard is fat, and somebody who is fat is considered a tub of lard, or we even say in slang a 'fatso.' Again, another mild insult." AA: "Well, that's not so mild, gosh, if you called someone a fatso." SLANGMAN: "If you refer to the person as that, but not letting that person hear what you're saying -- " RS: "Exactly." SLANGMAN: " ... it would be mild. But any of these insults, you don't really want to say to a person, because they're offensive. But they're not terribly, terribly offensive." RS: "No, they're not terribly offensive, but then again you should be cautioned not to direct these directly at someone, to call them a tub of lard or a fatso. It wouldn't be taken too ... " SLANGMAN: "No, I don't think -- you definitely wouldn't want to say that to a person." RS: "You can say them about yourself." SLANGMAN: "Oh, exactly, that's why she says 'I looked like a tub of lard next to him,' as opposed to 'he was a tub of lard.' 'Well, the moment I saw him, I thought, "What a loser!"' -- a really popular term, has been [around] for a long time. It's someone without any good qualities. And of course nowadays what younger people do, and even not so young, we take the thumb and the first finger and make the L and hold it up to our forehead. Now you can do that at the same time as saying 'loser!' "'I wanted to be fair, but it was clear he was a stuffed shirt just like all the other stuck-up people in that restaurant.' Now a 'stuffed shirt' -- someone who is pretentious. And 'stuck-up' also is the same thing. It means someone who is pretentious and we say 'full of themselves,' full of pride, full of bragging. They're 'full of themselves' or they're 'stuck up.' Anyway, 'the moment we sat down, he didn't stop talking about himself and his success -- what a yacker!' To yack means to talk and talk and talk and talk -- much like I'm doing now, I'm yacking. 'And he thought he was an expert on every subject.' Now what do we call someone who thinks he or she is an expert on every subject?" AA: "A smarty-pants?" SLANGMAN: "Very good. A smarty-pants -- and a know-it-all." AA: "Oh, OK, sure!" SLANGMAN: "Know-it-all. It's actually know ... it ... all, but we pronounce it know-it-all. It means someone who thinks he or she knows it all. 'Well, finally after dinner, I suggested we go dancing. He didn't want to. So I suggested we go out for coffee. He didn't want to. Well, your Aunt Ruth should know that I would never want to be with someone who is a party-pooper,' someone who doesn't want to have a good time, who rejects every suggestion about doing something fun -- that's a party-pooper. "'Your aunt can be such a dummy sometimes.' Dummy is -- it's really mildly insulting, but we say it with affection. And dummy is very different from idiot. An idiot is really, it's ... " AA: "Idiot is harsher than dummy." SLANGMAN: "Exactly, it has more weight behind it. 'Well, I finally told Mister Wonderful I had to get home to sleep because I was babysitting my 10 grandchildren in the morning. That seemed to scare him off.' Now this is interesting, 'Mister Wonderful.' In English we tend to use more sarcasm than any other language I know of. So, of course, she's not really thinking 'Mister Wonderful,' she's thinking 'Mister Horrible.' But she's saying 'Mister Wonderful.' 'Listen, I have to run. Talk to you soon, my Slangman. Love, Slangmom." RS: That was Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles, with another tale from Slangmom. You can learn about his English teaching materials at his Web site, slangman.com. Just a warning, his newest book is called "The Slangman Guide to DIRTY ENGLISH." AA: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com . With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "(You Know It All) Smarty"/Bing Crosby (1937) Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 29, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- Slangman David Burke is with us from Los Angeles to have some fun with insults in American English. RS: It seems our buddy Slangman has gotten another outrageous -- and totally fictitious -- letter from his mother, an 80-year-old widow whose sister likes to set her up on dates (that much is true!) SLANGMAN: " 'My dear son, Slangman. I'm never going to trust your Aunt Ruth again. I agreed to go on a date with her butcher. I should have known it would be a mistake when she described him as having a "great personality."' (Laughter) I love this description for someone. If someone is not attractive, they have a -- " RS: "Great personality!" SLANGMAN: "'And he was nothing but a bean pole with chicken legs.'" RS: "Oh, that's great." SLANGMAN: "Now a bean pole is a pole you would put in the ground and then you would try to put the bean stalk around this very thin pole. That's how you make the beans grow. Now if a man is described as having chicken legs, that's not good. A lot of guys who work out with weights, they forget their legs, and they're considered as having chicken legs, because a chicken is big with little teeny legs. 'Well, I looked like a tub of lard next to him.' Now a tub of lard -- lard is fat, and somebody who is fat is considered a tub of lard, or we even say in slang a 'fatso.' Again, another mild insult." AA: "Well, that's not so mild, gosh, if you called someone a fatso." SLANGMAN: "If you refer to the person as that, but not letting that person hear what you're saying -- " RS: "Exactly." SLANGMAN: " ... it would be mild. But any of these insults, you don't really want to say to a person, because they're offensive. But they're not terribly, terribly offensive." RS: "No, they're not terribly offensive, but then again you should be cautioned not to direct these directly at someone, to call them a tub of lard or a fatso. It wouldn't be taken too ... " SLANGMAN: "No, I don't think -- you definitely wouldn't want to say that to a person." RS: "You can say them about yourself." SLANGMAN: "Oh, exactly, that's why she says 'I looked like a tub of lard next to him,' as opposed to 'he was a tub of lard.' 'Well, the moment I saw him, I thought, "What a loser!"' -- a really popular term, has been [around] for a long time. It's someone without any good qualities. And of course nowadays what younger people do, and even not so young, we take the thumb and the first finger and make the L and hold it up to our forehead. Now you can do that at the same time as saying 'loser!' "'I wanted to be fair, but it was clear he was a stuffed shirt just like all the other stuck-up people in that restaurant.' Now a 'stuffed shirt' -- someone who is pretentious. And 'stuck-up' also is the same thing. It means someone who is pretentious and we say 'full of themselves,' full of pride, full of bragging. They're 'full of themselves' or they're 'stuck up.' Anyway, 'the moment we sat down, he didn't stop talking about himself and his success -- what a yacker!' To yack means to talk and talk and talk and talk -- much like I'm doing now, I'm yacking. 'And he thought he was an expert on every subject.' Now what do we call someone who thinks he or she is an expert on every subject?" AA: "A smarty-pants?" SLANGMAN: "Very good. A smarty-pants -- and a know-it-all." AA: "Oh, OK, sure!" SLANGMAN: "Know-it-all. It's actually know ... it ... all, but we pronounce it know-it-all. It means someone who thinks he or she knows it all. 'Well, finally after dinner, I suggested we go dancing. He didn't want to. So I suggested we go out for coffee. He didn't want to. Well, your Aunt Ruth should know that I would never want to be with someone who is a party-pooper,' someone who doesn't want to have a good time, who rejects every suggestion about doing something fun -- that's a party-pooper. "'Your aunt can be such a dummy sometimes.' Dummy is -- it's really mildly insulting, but we say it with affection. And dummy is very different from idiot. An idiot is really, it's ... " AA: "Idiot is harsher than dummy." SLANGMAN: "Exactly, it has more weight behind it. 'Well, I finally told Mister Wonderful I had to get home to sleep because I was babysitting my 10 grandchildren in the morning. That seemed to scare him off.' Now this is interesting, 'Mister Wonderful.' In English we tend to use more sarcasm than any other language I know of. So, of course, she's not really thinking 'Mister Wonderful,' she's thinking 'Mister Horrible.' But she's saying 'Mister Wonderful.' 'Listen, I have to run. Talk to you soon, my Slangman. Love, Slangmom." RS: That was Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles, with another tale from Slangmom. You can learn about his English teaching materials at his Web site, slangman.com. Just a warning, his newest book is called "The Slangman Guide to DIRTY ENGLISH." AA: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com . With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "(You Know It All) Smarty"/Bing Crosby (1937) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 31, 2003: United Nations Troops Sent to Congo
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program, In the News. The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution to send an emergency military force to the eastern Ituri area of the Democratic Republic of Congo. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the measure earlier this month to end ethnic violence in the main town of Bunia. France will lead the U-N force of about one-thousand-four-hundred troops. Half of the troops will be French. Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Britain, Canada and South Africa have said they will also take part. The United States says it will not send troops, but will consider requests for financial aid. The first troops are to arrive in Congo next week. The emergency peacekeeping effort is designed to stop ethnic violence in Ituri. Opposing Lendu and Hema tribal armies are fighting for control of Bunia. The fighting has killed at least four-hundred people in recent weeks. Many of the dead were civilians. U-N aid official Carolyn McAskie recently returned from the area. She says the violence in Ituri province is widespread. She says ethnic leaders are inciting hatred. Men, women and children have been killed. Others have had their arms or legs cut off. Many women have been sexually attacked. She says most of the citizens of Bunia have fled the city to U-N military camps or to poorly equipped refugee camps. The latest violence follows the withdrawal of Ugandan forces earlier this month from Bunia. The withdrawal was part of a U-N led peace agreement reached in December. The recent fighting is part of a larger civil war in Congo that began in nineteen-ninety-eight. More than three-million people have died since the war began.The war involved opposing Congolese rebel armies with support from troops from five countries. Uganda and Rwanda had occupying armies in eastern Congo. Foreign forces have withdrawn from Congo under a series of peace deals. Rebels and the government signed a power-sharing agreement in December. But eastern Congo still remains a battle area. About seven-hundred U-N troops from Uruguay are currently in Ituri. But they have been unable to stop the fighting around Bunia. The French-led troops will work with the peacekeepers to protect the airport, refugees and people in the city. Rwanda and Uganda support the U-N deployment. The force will be deployed only until September. It would then be replaced by about one-thousand U-N peacekeepers from Bangladesh. Some observers have compared the situation in Congo to a smaller version of the mass ethnic killings in Rwanda in nineteen-ninety-four. The United Nations was criticized for not doing enough to stop the killings of more than five-hundred-thousand Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-05/a-2003-05-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 1, 2003: John Coltrane
* Byline: 

 (THEME) He was one of the greatest saxophone players of all time. He wrote jazz music. He recorded new versions of popular songs. And, he helped make modern jazz popular. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about musician John Coltrane. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Coltrane was born in the state of North Carolina in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. He was raised in the small farm town of High Point. Both of his grandfathers were clergymen. As a young boy, he spent a great deal of time listening to the music of the black Southern church. Coltrane's father sewed clothes. He played several musical instruments for his own enjoyment. The young Coltrane grew up in a musical environment. He discovered jazz by listening to the recordings of such jazz greats as Count Basie and Lester Young. VOICE TWO: When John was thirteen, he asked his mother to buy him a saxophone. People realized almost immediately that the young man could play the instrument very well. John learned by listening to recordings of the great jazz saxophone players, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker. John and his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Nineteen-Forty-Three. He studied music for a short time at the Granoff Studios and at the Ornstein School of Music. VOICE ONE: John Coltrane served for a year in a Navy band in Hawaii. When he returned, he began playing saxophone in several small bands. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Coltrane joined trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie's band. Seven years later, Coltrane joined the jazz group of another trumpet player, Miles Davis. The group included piano player Red Garland, double bass player Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. VOICE TWO: Coltrane began experimenting with new ways to write and perform jazz music. He explored many new ways of playing the saxophone. Some people did not like this new sound. They did not understand it. Others said it was an expression of modern soul. They said it represented an important change. Jazz performers, composers and other musicians welcomed this change. During the Nineteen-Fifties, Coltrane used drugs and alcohol. He became dependent on drugs. Band leaders dismissed him because of his drug use. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, Coltrane stopped using drugs. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, John Coltrane recorded the first album of his own music. The album is called "Giant Steps." Here is the title song from that album. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Coltrane also recorded another famous song with a larger jazz band. The band included Milt Jackson on vibes, Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Connie Kay on drums. Here is their recording of "Stairway to the Stars." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty, Coltrane left Miles Davis and organized his own jazz group. He was joined by McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. This group became famous around the world. John Coltrane's most famous music was recorded during this period. One song is called "My Favorite Things." Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein had written the song for the Broadway musical "The Sound of Music." Jazz critics say Coltrane's version is one of the best jazz recordings ever made. The record became very popular. It led many more people to become interested in jazz. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Critics say Coltrane's versions of other popular songs influenced all jazz music writing. One of these was a song called "Summertime." It was written by Du Bose Heyward and George Gershwin for the opera "Porgy and Bess." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, Coltrane married pianist Alice McCloud who later became a member of his band. He stopped using alcohol, and became religious. He wrote a song to celebrate his religious experience. The song is more than thirty minutes long. It is called "A Love Supreme." Here is part of the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Coltrane was one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world. He was famous in Europe and Japan, as well as in the United States. He was always trying to produce a sound that no one had produced before. Some of the sounds he made were beautiful. Others were like loud screams. Miles Davis said that Coltrane was the loudest, fastest saxophone player that ever lived. Many people could not understand his music. But they listened anyway. Coltrane never made his music simpler to become more popular. Coltrane continued to perform and record even as he suffered from liver cancer. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven at the age of forty in Long Island, New York. VOICE ONE: Experts say John Coltrane continues to influence modern jazz. Some critics say one of Coltrane's most important influences on jazz was his use of musical ideas from other cultures, including India, Africa and Latin America. Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker Magazine wrote about Coltrane the year after his death: "People said they heard the dark night ... in Coltrane's wildest music. But what they really heard was a heroic ... voice at the mercy of its own power." (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) He was one of the greatest saxophone players of all time. He wrote jazz music. He recorded new versions of popular songs. And, he helped make modern jazz popular. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about musician John Coltrane. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: John Coltrane was born in the state of North Carolina in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. He was raised in the small farm town of High Point. Both of his grandfathers were clergymen. As a young boy, he spent a great deal of time listening to the music of the black Southern church. Coltrane's father sewed clothes. He played several musical instruments for his own enjoyment. The young Coltrane grew up in a musical environment. He discovered jazz by listening to the recordings of such jazz greats as Count Basie and Lester Young. VOICE TWO: When John was thirteen, he asked his mother to buy him a saxophone. People realized almost immediately that the young man could play the instrument very well. John learned by listening to recordings of the great jazz saxophone players, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker. John and his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Nineteen-Forty-Three. He studied music for a short time at the Granoff Studios and at the Ornstein School of Music. VOICE ONE: John Coltrane served for a year in a Navy band in Hawaii. When he returned, he began playing saxophone in several small bands. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Coltrane joined trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie's band. Seven years later, Coltrane joined the jazz group of another trumpet player, Miles Davis. The group included piano player Red Garland, double bass player Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. VOICE TWO: Coltrane began experimenting with new ways to write and perform jazz music. He explored many new ways of playing the saxophone. Some people did not like this new sound. They did not understand it. Others said it was an expression of modern soul. They said it represented an important change. Jazz performers, composers and other musicians welcomed this change. During the Nineteen-Fifties, Coltrane used drugs and alcohol. He became dependent on drugs. Band leaders dismissed him because of his drug use. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, Coltrane stopped using drugs. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, John Coltrane recorded the first album of his own music. The album is called "Giant Steps." Here is the title song from that album. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Coltrane also recorded another famous song with a larger jazz band. The band included Milt Jackson on vibes, Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Connie Kay on drums. Here is their recording of "Stairway to the Stars." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty, Coltrane left Miles Davis and organized his own jazz group. He was joined by McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. This group became famous around the world. John Coltrane's most famous music was recorded during this period. One song is called "My Favorite Things." Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein had written the song for the Broadway musical "The Sound of Music." Jazz critics say Coltrane's version is one of the best jazz recordings ever made. The record became very popular. It led many more people to become interested in jazz. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Critics say Coltrane's versions of other popular songs influenced all jazz music writing. One of these was a song called "Summertime." It was written by Du Bose Heyward and George Gershwin for the opera "Porgy and Bess." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, Coltrane married pianist Alice McCloud who later became a member of his band. He stopped using alcohol, and became religious. He wrote a song to celebrate his religious experience. The song is more than thirty minutes long. It is called "A Love Supreme." Here is part of the song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Coltrane was one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world. He was famous in Europe and Japan, as well as in the United States. He was always trying to produce a sound that no one had produced before. Some of the sounds he made were beautiful. Others were like loud screams. Miles Davis said that Coltrane was the loudest, fastest saxophone player that ever lived. Many people could not understand his music. But they listened anyway. Coltrane never made his music simpler to become more popular. Coltrane continued to perform and record even as he suffered from liver cancer. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven at the age of forty in Long Island, New York. VOICE ONE: Experts say John Coltrane continues to influence modern jazz. Some critics say one of Coltrane's most important influences on jazz was his use of musical ideas from other cultures, including India, Africa and Latin America. Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker Magazine wrote about Coltrane the year after his death: "People said they heard the dark night ... in Coltrane's wildest music. But what they really heard was a heroic ... voice at the mercy of its own power." (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Musical Play 'Hairspray' - June 2, 2003
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Kerry Butler (Penny Pingleton), Laura Bell Bundy (Amber Von Tussle), Marissa Jaret Winokur (Tracy Turnblad) with members of the cast. Production photography by Paul Kolnik (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Tony Awards for the best plays on Broadway in New York City will be presented on June eighth. One extremely popular play received thirteen nominations. They include best musical and best performances by an actor and actress in a musical. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. Today we tell about and play music from “Hairspray” on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The play “Hairspray” is a musical version of a funny movie written and directed by John Waters in nineteen-eighty-eight. It is about rock and roll music and relations between black and white teenagers. It takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, during the civil rights movement of the nineteen-sixties. The musical “Hairspray” opened on Broadway last year. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote the music. “Hairspray” is a funny show about teenagers and the music they liked. The main character is a teenage girl named Tracy Turnblad. She lives in Baltimore in nineteen-sixty-two. Tracy is a big girl. She is overweight. She also has “big hair.” She wears her hair in a high hairstyle that was popular back then. She keeps it in place using hairspray. Tracy loves music. And she loves to dance. After school, she and her friends watch other teenagers dance on a popular local television show, the "Corny Collins Show." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tracy’s dream comes true. She is chosen to be one of the dancers on the show. She likes one of the male dancers, Link Larkin. He sings a love song to Tracy. Matthew Morrison sings “It Takes Two.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tracy becomes very popular after appearing on the television show. The owner of a clothing store for large women wants to make Tracy a model for his clothing. Tracy wants her mother, Edna Turnblad, to help her become famous. Edna is also a very large woman. She works at home washing other people’s clothes. She does not like to leave her house. Tracy tells her mother she must take part in all of the excitement of life. Marissa Janet Winokur [wi-NO-cur], as Tracy, sings “Welcome to the Sixties.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother, looks unusual. She also has a very unusual voice. That is because she is played by a large male actor, Harvey Fierstein [FIRE-steen], who is dressed like a woman. Listen as Edna sings about her love for her husband, Wilbur. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All the dancers on the "Corny Collins Show" are white. However, once a month, the show permits black teenagers to dance on the show. Motormouth Maybelle, who owns a record store, organizes and leads that show. Tracy believes that black teenagers and white teenagers should be able to dance together on the show all the time. She and Motormouth organize a civil rights demonstration. But it turns into a riot and the protesters are arrested. Later they are released from jail. Motormouth sings about her own struggle for equal rights. Mary Bond Davis sings “I Know Where I’ve Been.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The television show organizes a contest called “Miss Teenage Hairspray.” The people at the event vote for the teenage girl they like best. The event is broadcast on television across the country. The broadcast is paid for by a company that makes hairspray. All of the girls in the contest use the product to keep their large hair styles in place. Clarke Thorell as Corny Collins sings about hairspray. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The “Miss Teenage Hairspray” contest includes a dance competition. All of the teenagers, both black and white, join Tracy in the contest. They dance together for the first time on nationwide television. They all sing “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. The Tony Awards for the best plays on Broadway in New York City will be presented on June eighth. One extremely popular play received thirteen nominations. They include best musical and best performances by an actor and actress in a musical. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. Today we tell about and play music from “Hairspray” on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The play “Hairspray” is a musical version of a funny movie written and directed by John Waters in nineteen-eighty-eight. It is about rock and roll music and relations between black and white teenagers. It takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, during the civil rights movement of the nineteen-sixties. The musical “Hairspray” opened on Broadway last year. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote the music. “Hairspray” is a funny show about teenagers and the music they liked. The main character is a teenage girl named Tracy Turnblad. She lives in Baltimore in nineteen-sixty-two. Tracy is a big girl. She is overweight. She also has “big hair.” She wears her hair in a high hairstyle that was popular back then. She keeps it in place using hairspray. Tracy loves music. And she loves to dance. After school, she and her friends watch other teenagers dance on a popular local television show, the "Corny Collins Show." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tracy’s dream comes true. She is chosen to be one of the dancers on the show. She likes one of the male dancers, Link Larkin. He sings a love song to Tracy. Matthew Morrison sings “It Takes Two.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Tracy becomes very popular after appearing on the television show. The owner of a clothing store for large women wants to make Tracy a model for his clothing. Tracy wants her mother, Edna Turnblad, to help her become famous. Edna is also a very large woman. She works at home washing other people’s clothes. She does not like to leave her house. Tracy tells her mother she must take part in all of the excitement of life. Marissa Janet Winokur [wi-NO-cur], as Tracy, sings “Welcome to the Sixties.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edna Turnblad, Tracy’s mother, looks unusual. She also has a very unusual voice. That is because she is played by a large male actor, Harvey Fierstein [FIRE-steen], who is dressed like a woman. Listen as Edna sings about her love for her husband, Wilbur. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: All the dancers on the "Corny Collins Show" are white. However, once a month, the show permits black teenagers to dance on the show. Motormouth Maybelle, who owns a record store, organizes and leads that show. Tracy believes that black teenagers and white teenagers should be able to dance together on the show all the time. She and Motormouth organize a civil rights demonstration. But it turns into a riot and the protesters are arrested. Later they are released from jail. Motormouth sings about her own struggle for equal rights. Mary Bond Davis sings “I Know Where I’ve Been.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The television show organizes a contest called “Miss Teenage Hairspray.” The people at the event vote for the teenage girl they like best. The event is broadcast on television across the country. The broadcast is paid for by a company that makes hairspray. All of the girls in the contest use the product to keep their large hair styles in place. Clarke Thorell as Corny Collins sings about hairspray. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The “Miss Teenage Hairspray” contest includes a dance competition. All of the teenagers, both black and white, join Tracy in the contest. They dance together for the first time on nationwide television. They all sing “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – June 2, 2003: The Smile Train
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of children around the world suffer from an easily corrected medical condition called cleft lip. A cleft is a separation in the lip of the mouth. Children can also suffer from cleft palate. That is a separation in the top of the mouth or the soft tissue in the back of the mouth. Cleft lip or palate normally develops in the early weeks of pregnancy. Asian children are among those in which the condition is seen most often. Males have the condition more often than females. Researchers believe that genetic material passed on to children from their parents may cause cleft lip or palate. Environmental things like drugs, sickness, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy may also cause the condition. A simple operation often performed between the first nine and eighteen months of life can repair this condition. Doctors say that without it, children in developing countries are more likely to suffer a life of poor nutrition, condemnation and separation from their communities. The Smile Train is among the groups at work to end this problem. This non-governmental organization is based in the United States. It provides local doctors in developing countries with training and equipment needed to perform cleft operations. In Pakistan, for example, The Smile Train has given Allied Hospital at the Punjab Medical College gifts of money, equipment and training. The aid will help Pakistan reduce its cleft lip and palate population – which the group says may be the fourth highest in the world. The organization has also provided equipment and training to Malaysia’s medical community. The Smile Train says over one-thousand children are born with a cleft condition each year in Malaysia. And in Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Smile Train has given the University Clinic Center in Sarajevo aid to improve its cleft care for poor children. The Smile Train provides services and programs in more than fifty countries. The organization was started in nineteen-ninety-nine. Every year since then, it has provided free cleft operations to more than thirty-five-thousand children around the world. Local doctors do the operations which take as little as forty-five-minutes. The Smile Train pays for the operations with money it collects. It says the average cost is about two-hundred-fifty dollars. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of children around the world suffer from an easily corrected medical condition called cleft lip. A cleft is a separation in the lip of the mouth. Children can also suffer from cleft palate. That is a separation in the top of the mouth or the soft tissue in the back of the mouth. Cleft lip or palate normally develops in the early weeks of pregnancy. Asian children are among those in which the condition is seen most often. Males have the condition more often than females. Researchers believe that genetic material passed on to children from their parents may cause cleft lip or palate. Environmental things like drugs, sickness, smoking and alcohol use during pregnancy may also cause the condition. A simple operation often performed between the first nine and eighteen months of life can repair this condition. Doctors say that without it, children in developing countries are more likely to suffer a life of poor nutrition, condemnation and separation from their communities. The Smile Train is among the groups at work to end this problem. This non-governmental organization is based in the United States. It provides local doctors in developing countries with training and equipment needed to perform cleft operations. In Pakistan, for example, The Smile Train has given Allied Hospital at the Punjab Medical College gifts of money, equipment and training. The aid will help Pakistan reduce its cleft lip and palate population – which the group says may be the fourth highest in the world. The organization has also provided equipment and training to Malaysia’s medical community. The Smile Train says over one-thousand children are born with a cleft condition each year in Malaysia. And in Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Smile Train has given the University Clinic Center in Sarajevo aid to improve its cleft care for poor children. The Smile Train provides services and programs in more than fifty countries. The organization was started in nineteen-ninety-nine. Every year since then, it has provided free cleft operations to more than thirty-five-thousand children around the world. Local doctors do the operations which take as little as forty-five-minutes. The Smile Train pays for the operations with money it collects. It says the average cost is about two-hundred-fifty dollars. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS--Tobacco news / The Campaign against Polio / The Stock Market and Earthquakes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 3, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: June 3, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Steve Ember, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- a call for moviemakers to get cigarettes out of their films ... tobacco companies win a legal victory in the United States ... a change in the campaign against polio ... and, researchers find something in common between stock markets and earthquakes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Have you seen a movie recently? How many people in that movie were smoking? And how many of those smokers were heroes in the movie? The World Health Organization says young people are sixteen times more likely to think smoking is a good thing if they see actors smoke. The W-H-O estimates that tobacco kills five-million people a year, and that number grows. The W-H-O says companies that make cigarettes use movies to sell more tobacco, especially to young people. In many countries, including India and the United States, it is illegal to try to sell tobacco on television. But it is legal to show smoking and cigarettes in the movies. The W-H-O studied tobacco use in movies made in India. VOICE TWO: The study says Indian movies are seen by two-hundred-fifty million young people in India. Indian movies are also seen outside India on satellite television. Shahrukh Khan, Ajay Devgan and Sanjay Dutt are three of the most popular Indian actors today. They are often seen smoking on the screen and in their personal lives. The W-H-0 study says tobacco companies have found a friend in Indian movies. It says tobacco companies even give famous actors a free lifetime supply of cigarettes. These actors often have good-looking bodies. The study says that makes young people think smoking will be good for their health. For this year’s World No Tobacco Day on May thirty-first, the W-H-O urged moviemakers all over the world -- as well as clothing marketers in the fashion industry -- to stop making tobacco look like such a good thing. The W-H-O says it wants moviemakers to stop permitting movies to be used as what it calls “vehicles of death and disease.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The largest tobacco companies in the United States recently won a victory in a major legal case. An appeals court dismissed a huge judgment against them in the southern state of Florida. In two-thousand a jury had ordered the tobacco companies to pay cigarette smokers one-hundred-forty-five-thousand-million dollars. It was the largest damage award in American history. Jury members found the tobacco companies responsible for the sicknesses of as many as seven-hundred-thousand people in Florida. The jury said the tobacco companies lied to the public about the health dangers of smoking. The trial lasted almost two years. VOICE TWO: The tobacco companies appealed. They said the smokers and their problems were too different to be included in one claim, called a class action. Three judges of a Florida appeals court agreed. The judges said each of the smokers had a different experience and each one will require separate legal action. The appeals court also said the judgment violated state law because the amount of money awarded would ruin the companies. The judges called what happened at the trial level unfair. The smokers have other ways to appeal the loss of the jury award. Lawyers also have the right to separate the legal claims and bring them as individual cases. VOICE ONE: Tobacco company officials praised the Florida ruling as the best legal development for the industry in the past ten years. And they say they hope it will help them defeat other legal actions they currently face in other states. For example, in March, a judge ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris to pay a ten-thousand-million dollar judgment in the state of Illinois. The judge found that the company tricked smokers to believe that so-called "light" cigarettes are less harmful than others. Philip Morris has appealed the ruling. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: World health leaders have changed the way they are going to fight polio this year and next. The changes are part of the effort to end new cases of the disease by two-thousand-five. Polio is caused by a bacteria that is spread in human waste. The disease can make victims unable to move their arms and legs. Some people die. The disease can spread quickly within communities. The World Health Organization says the spread of polio has already been stopped in ninety-three countries. It says campaigns to vaccinate children will now only target thirteen countries where polio remains a threat. These include India, Nigeria and Pakistan. These three countries have ninety-nine percent of the world’s polio cases. Polio is also found in Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. Experts consider six other countries at high risk of re-infection because of the threat nearby. The countries are Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nepal and Sudan. VOICE ONE: Health officials plan fifty-one polio vaccination campaigns in the thirteen countries this year. During such campaigns, thousands of health workers travel all over the country to give vaccine to children under the age of five. There was a reduction in the number of special vaccination days in India last year. Experts note that polio cases increased sharply in the north and spread to other areas after that. Polio cannot be cured, but it can be prevented. Health experts say children need to get the polio vaccine several times to receive full protection against the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Large movements in the stock market appear to have something in common with earthquakes. Researchers have found a mathematical similarity. They believe their finding could help financial experts estimate the chances of a big drop in stock prices -- a market crash. The study appears in the British publication Nature. Researchers in the United States did the study. Xavier Gabaix is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. He worked with physicists from Boston University. The team studied about one-hundred-million sales and purchases on world financial markets between nineteen-nine-four and nineteen-ninety-six. VOICE ONE: The researchers found a mathematical system in the information. They identified patterns known as "power laws." These power laws describe mathematical relationships between the rate of large and small events. One such law is used to estimate the chances that a powerful earthquake will strike. The researchers found that financial markets follow a pattern similar to one found in nature. The study demonstrated that the number of stocks traded each day, the number of trades and the changes in price follow power laws. The team observed this for the market as a whole and for individual stocks. For example, the number of days when the price of a stock moves by one percent will be eight times the number of days when it moves by two percent. The number of days when the stock price moves by two percent will be eight times the number of days when it moves by four percent. This, in turn, will be eight times the number of days when the price moves by eight percent. And the pattern continues. The researchers say the actions of large traders in the market produce this power law when they trade stock under pressure. VOICE TWO: Xavier Gabaix says the findings do not mean experts will be able to say for sure when a change will happen, or which direction the change will go. In any case, the researchers say there is little way to prevent a market crash. Mister Gabaix says the forces that create the power laws in the stock market are extremely strong. Eugene Stanley of Boston University notes that the Japanese design buildings that can survive earthquakes. "We need to do the same thing in economics," he says. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Steve Ember, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- a call for moviemakers to get cigarettes out of their films ... tobacco companies win a legal victory in the United States ... a change in the campaign against polio ... and, researchers find something in common between stock markets and earthquakes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Have you seen a movie recently? How many people in that movie were smoking? And how many of those smokers were heroes in the movie? The World Health Organization says young people are sixteen times more likely to think smoking is a good thing if they see actors smoke. The W-H-O estimates that tobacco kills five-million people a year, and that number grows. The W-H-O says companies that make cigarettes use movies to sell more tobacco, especially to young people. In many countries, including India and the United States, it is illegal to try to sell tobacco on television. But it is legal to show smoking and cigarettes in the movies. The W-H-O studied tobacco use in movies made in India. VOICE TWO: The study says Indian movies are seen by two-hundred-fifty million young people in India. Indian movies are also seen outside India on satellite television. Shahrukh Khan, Ajay Devgan and Sanjay Dutt are three of the most popular Indian actors today. They are often seen smoking on the screen and in their personal lives. The W-H-0 study says tobacco companies have found a friend in Indian movies. It says tobacco companies even give famous actors a free lifetime supply of cigarettes. These actors often have good-looking bodies. The study says that makes young people think smoking will be good for their health. For this year’s World No Tobacco Day on May thirty-first, the W-H-O urged moviemakers all over the world -- as well as clothing marketers in the fashion industry -- to stop making tobacco look like such a good thing. The W-H-O says it wants moviemakers to stop permitting movies to be used as what it calls “vehicles of death and disease.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The largest tobacco companies in the United States recently won a victory in a major legal case. An appeals court dismissed a huge judgment against them in the southern state of Florida. In two-thousand a jury had ordered the tobacco companies to pay cigarette smokers one-hundred-forty-five-thousand-million dollars. It was the largest damage award in American history. Jury members found the tobacco companies responsible for the sicknesses of as many as seven-hundred-thousand people in Florida. The jury said the tobacco companies lied to the public about the health dangers of smoking. The trial lasted almost two years. VOICE TWO: The tobacco companies appealed. They said the smokers and their problems were too different to be included in one claim, called a class action. Three judges of a Florida appeals court agreed. The judges said each of the smokers had a different experience and each one will require separate legal action. The appeals court also said the judgment violated state law because the amount of money awarded would ruin the companies. The judges called what happened at the trial level unfair. The smokers have other ways to appeal the loss of the jury award. Lawyers also have the right to separate the legal claims and bring them as individual cases. VOICE ONE: Tobacco company officials praised the Florida ruling as the best legal development for the industry in the past ten years. And they say they hope it will help them defeat other legal actions they currently face in other states. For example, in March, a judge ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris to pay a ten-thousand-million dollar judgment in the state of Illinois. The judge found that the company tricked smokers to believe that so-called "light" cigarettes are less harmful than others. Philip Morris has appealed the ruling. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: World health leaders have changed the way they are going to fight polio this year and next. The changes are part of the effort to end new cases of the disease by two-thousand-five. Polio is caused by a bacteria that is spread in human waste. The disease can make victims unable to move their arms and legs. Some people die. The disease can spread quickly within communities. The World Health Organization says the spread of polio has already been stopped in ninety-three countries. It says campaigns to vaccinate children will now only target thirteen countries where polio remains a threat. These include India, Nigeria and Pakistan. These three countries have ninety-nine percent of the world’s polio cases. Polio is also found in Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. Experts consider six other countries at high risk of re-infection because of the threat nearby. The countries are Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nepal and Sudan. VOICE ONE: Health officials plan fifty-one polio vaccination campaigns in the thirteen countries this year. During such campaigns, thousands of health workers travel all over the country to give vaccine to children under the age of five. There was a reduction in the number of special vaccination days in India last year. Experts note that polio cases increased sharply in the north and spread to other areas after that. Polio cannot be cured, but it can be prevented. Health experts say children need to get the polio vaccine several times to receive full protection against the disease. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Large movements in the stock market appear to have something in common with earthquakes. Researchers have found a mathematical similarity. They believe their finding could help financial experts estimate the chances of a big drop in stock prices -- a market crash. The study appears in the British publication Nature. Researchers in the United States did the study. Xavier Gabaix is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. He worked with physicists from Boston University. The team studied about one-hundred-million sales and purchases on world financial markets between nineteen-nine-four and nineteen-ninety-six. VOICE ONE: The researchers found a mathematical system in the information. They identified patterns known as "power laws." These power laws describe mathematical relationships between the rate of large and small events. One such law is used to estimate the chances that a powerful earthquake will strike. The researchers found that financial markets follow a pattern similar to one found in nature. The study demonstrated that the number of stocks traded each day, the number of trades and the changes in price follow power laws. The team observed this for the market as a whole and for individual stocks. For example, the number of days when the price of a stock moves by one percent will be eight times the number of days when it moves by two percent. The number of days when the stock price moves by two percent will be eight times the number of days when it moves by four percent. This, in turn, will be eight times the number of days when the price moves by eight percent. And the pattern continues. The researchers say the actions of large traders in the market produce this power law when they trade stock under pressure. VOICE TWO: Xavier Gabaix says the findings do not mean experts will be able to say for sure when a change will happen, or which direction the change will go. In any case, the researchers say there is little way to prevent a market crash. Mister Gabaix says the forces that create the power laws in the stock market are extremely strong. Eugene Stanley of Boston University notes that the Japanese design buildings that can survive earthquakes. "We need to do the same thing in economics," he says. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT— BSE in Canada
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In late May, Canada reported that one cow in the province of Alberta had been infected with a deadly disease that can infect humans. It is called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B-S-E. The media often call it “mad cow disease.” B-S-E affects the brain and nervous system of cattle. A form of the disease, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, infects people. Currently, Canadian officials are investigating the incident. It is only the second case of B-S-E in Canada. The first was in nineteen-ninety-three. B-S-E was first observed in Britain in nineteen-eighty-six. It spread to other countries in Europe. Millions of cattle were destroyed because of the disease. Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease is believed to have killed more than one-hundred people in Europe. The victims may have eaten infected meat. B-S-E is cause by a protein called a prion. The protein is made by a gene. However, sometimes the gene produces a deformed kind of prion. This deformed protein appears to be infectious. The disease-causing prions can spread when an animal eats the infected tissue of another animal. The brain or nervous system becomes infected. It may take two to eight years for the disease to appear, but the result is always death. Expert say the best way to prevent B-S-E is to keep animal parts out of farm animal food. The infected cow had been killed January thirty-first. Someone thought it looked sick. Officials say the cow was not processed as food for people. Its head was taken for tests. Months later tissue from the cow was sent to Britain for more testing. B-S-E was then found. The Canadian government announced the findings on May twentieth. Meat from the cow had been used to make pet food for dogs. Officials have ordered a recall of that pet food. Also, cattle on a total of seventeen farms are being observed. Already, more than one-hundred cattle have been destroyed and tested. Hundreds more may be killed. The effects of B-S-E on the cattle industry can be severe. The United States, Japan and other countries have banned Canadian beef. Canada is the world’s tenth largest beef producer. Economic affects do not stop at the border of a country where B-S-E appears. The stocks of companies that use beef also lose value. This can affect investors in many countries. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Preparing for a Walk In Space
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 4, 2003 (THEME) NASA Astronaut Don Pettit Broadcast: June 4, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how astronauts prepare to leave the safety of the International Space Station and work outside in the very dangerous environment of space. VOICE ONE: This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how astronauts prepare to leave the safety of the International Space Station and work outside in the very dangerous environment of space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: All astronauts who have worn protective clothing and left a spacecraft to work in space have told about the beautiful sights they see. While working in space they can see most of the Earth as their orbit carries them around our planet. In the stillness of space, it is easy to forget that they are traveling at several thousand kilometers an hour. The great beauty they see makes it easy to forget that they are working in an extremely dangerous environment. VOICE TWO: American Astronaut Don Pettit recently returned to Earth as a member of crew number six of the International Space Station. He returned to Earth with American Astronaut Ken Bowersox and Russian Cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin. Mister Pettit was the International Space Station science officer. He and the other crewmembers spent almost six months in space. During that time Mister Pettit wrote several reports for the American space agency about his experiences. One of the most interesting reports is about what the crew members must do to prepare to leave the space station and work safely in space. Doug Johnson reads the words of American Astronaut Don Pettit. (THEME) VOICE ONE: All astronauts who have worn protective clothing and left a spacecraft to work in space have told about the beautiful sights they see. While working in space they can see most of the Earth as their orbit carries them around our planet. In the stillness of space, it is easy to forget that they are traveling at several thousand kilometers an hour. The great beauty they see makes it easy to forget that they are working in an extremely dangerous environment. VOICE TWO: American Astronaut Don Pettit recently returned to Earth as a member of crew number six of the International Space Station. He returned to Earth with American Astronaut Ken Bowersox and Russian Cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin. Mister Pettit was the International Space Station science officer. He and the other crewmembers spent almost six months in space. During that time Mister Pettit wrote several reports for the American space agency about his experiences. One of the most interesting reports is about what the crew members must do to prepare to leave the space station and work safely in space. Doug Johnson reads the words of American Astronaut Don Pettit. VOICE PETTIT: Have you ever seen a movie about crewmembers on a spacecraft who have to go outside to fight evil creatures or repair a hole in their spacecraft? They quickly put on their space suits and leave the ship in just a few seconds. Well, maybe in the distant future we may be able to do it that quickly. However, getting ready to leave the safety of the International Space Station can take as long as one week. Nothing happens fast while preparing for a trip outside the space station. The first thing you must know is that no mistakes can be made. Space is an extremely dangerous environment. Making a mistake in space is not like making a mistake on a school test. A mistake in space can cost you your life. The major problem with preparing to go outside is the huge amount of work that must be completed. There are many small details but each is very important. For example, many rubber rings are placed between each part of the space suit as it is linked together. Each of these rubber rings helps prevent air from leaking out of the protecting clothing. Each of these rings is very important and must be inspected. Damaged rings must be replaced. VOICE ONE: Don Pettit says the first major job that must be performed is cleaning the small room that is the link between the space station and outside. The astronauts are careful about cleaning the room because they do not want anything to move into space by accident. A forgotten tool or object could cause severe damage or block their work. This small room is called an airlock. It has two doors -- one to the inside of the space station and the other to the outside and space. But as Astronaut Pettit explains, leaving the space station is still several days away. He explains how the space suit is carefully put together. VOICE PETTIT: The space suit comes in many parts. We keep it in a special case. We have a huge book that lists all of the parts and each of the tasks that must be done. It takes a great deal of time to read each step that must be performed and to attend to each detail. First, there are the batteries that will supply the electric power to the equipment in the suit. The batteries supply power for the lights on the helmet that covers the astronaut’s head and a video camera on the helmet. Another battery supplies heat to the special gloves that cover the hands. The heat is needed to protect our hands from the fierce cold of space. The many batteries are inspected and connected to the power supply of the space station. It can take several hours for the batteries to receive the full amount of electricity. You do not want to be outside and have a battery fail. Next we work on the equipment that will permit us to breathe. All humans produce carbon dioxide when they breathe. This natural gas must be taken out of the air supply we carry. A special device in the breathing equipment takes the carbon dioxide out of the air. This device has a special chemical that must be heated in an oven for about fourteen hours before it can be used. This is an extremely important job. Each piece of equipment, each device, each link must be inspected. When the testing and inspecting are done, we put on the space suit for more tests. The book has a list of tests that must now be performed. Everything is carefully tested following the instructions in the book. If everything works as it should, the tests and inspections are complete. VOICE TWO: In the movies, an astronaut puts on his space suit and is ready to go. As Don Pettit says, it is not that simple for real astronauts. It is impossible for one person to put on all the necessary protective clothing before going into space. Everyone needs help. Don Pettit says that like most tasks in the International Space Station, putting on a space suit is a team effort. VOICE PETTIT: At the beginning of a space walk day, we ride an exercise bicycle. We do this wearing a breathing device that provides one-hundred percent oxygen. The atmosphere inside the space station is the same as that on Earth. The atmosphere is twenty percent oxygen and eighty percent nitrogen. Air pressure inside the space station is the same as it is on Earth. However the space suit we must wear outside does not have the same air pressure. If there were any nitrogen in our bodies it would cause severe problems if we quickly went from one air pressure to the other. This problem is called “the bends.” Deep-sea divers must deal with the same problem. So, we breathe one-hundred percent oxygen until it forces all of the nitrogen from our bodies. We will continue to breathe only oxygen while we are in the space suit. Now we begin the task of putting on the space suit. A crewmember helps with the many connections, links, locks and other equipment on the space suit. Many of the connections make a nice clicking sound when they are linked together correctly. We carefully listen for that sound. Our lives depend on it. Like all of our other jobs, putting on the space suit is done using our list of instructions. Nothing is left to chance. Getting dressed in a space suit takes about six hours from the time you start in the morning to the time you are ready to open the door and step out into space. VOICE ONE: The crewmember who is helping the astronaut with the many parts of the space suit has one last job to perform. The astronaut going outside is fitted with a special device that is linked to the back of the space suit. This device is filled with high-pressure nitrogen gas. It permits the astronaut to fly back to the space station if he were to accidentally move too far away from the spacecraft. Moving too far away from the space station without this device would be a deadly mistake. Nothing could be done to bring the astronaut back to the space station. The crewmember now helps the others safely enter the room that will permit them to enter space. Again, everything is tested. Then the door to the International Space Station is tightly closed and locked. Don Pettit explains what happens next. VOICE PETTIT: Slowly, the air inside the little room is released into space. After all of the air is gone, the door to space is opened. My first time going outside, the door would not open completely. It just would not open. After all the work we did getting ready we thought we might have to go back inside. We could even see the extremely bright light of the sun showing through the small opening on the edge of the door. It was only a small piece of rubber that kept the door from opening. At the last moment, it did open and we stepped out into space. It really was worth the hard work. Working outside the space station is a beautiful experience. However, if this were a movie about chasing bad guys in space, I am afraid they would have gotten away long before we were ready. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. Doug Johnson was the voice of Astronaut Don Pettit. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE PETTIT: Have you ever seen a movie about crewmembers on a spacecraft who have to go outside to fight evil creatures or repair a hole in their spacecraft? They quickly put on their space suits and leave the ship in just a few seconds. Well, maybe in the distant future we may be able to do it that quickly. However, getting ready to leave the safety of the International Space Station can take as long as one week. Nothing happens fast while preparing for a trip outside the space station. The first thing you must know is that no mistakes can be made. Space is an extremely dangerous environment. Making a mistake in space is not like making a mistake on a school test. A mistake in space can cost you your life. The major problem with preparing to go outside is the huge amount of work that must be completed. There are many small details but each is very important. For example, many rubber rings are placed between each part of the space suit as it is linked together. Each of these rubber rings helps prevent air from leaking out of the protecting clothing. Each of these rings is very important and must be inspected. Damaged rings must be replaced. VOICE ONE: Don Pettit says the first major job that must be performed is cleaning the small room that is the link between the space station and outside. The astronauts are careful about cleaning the room because they do not want anything to move into space by accident. A forgotten tool or object could cause severe damage or block their work. This small room is called an airlock. It has two doors -- one to the inside of the space station and the other to the outside and space. But as Astronaut Pettit explains, leaving the space station is still several days away. He explains how the space suit is carefully put together. VOICE PETTIT: The space suit comes in many parts. We keep it in a special case. We have a huge book that lists all of the parts and each of the tasks that must be done. It takes a great deal of time to read each step that must be performed and to attend to each detail. First, there are the batteries that will supply the electric power to the equipment in the suit. The batteries supply power for the lights on the helmet that covers the astronaut’s head and a video camera on the helmet. Another battery supplies heat to the special gloves that cover the hands. The heat is needed to protect our hands from the fierce cold of space. The many batteries are inspected and connected to the power supply of the space station. It can take several hours for the batteries to receive the full amount of electricity. You do not want to be outside and have a battery fail. Next we work on the equipment that will permit us to breathe. All humans produce carbon dioxide when they breathe. This natural gas must be taken out of the air supply we carry. A special device in the breathing equipment takes the carbon dioxide out of the air. This device has a special chemical that must be heated in an oven for about fourteen hours before it can be used. This is an extremely important job. Each piece of equipment, each device, each link must be inspected. When the testing and inspecting are done, we put on the space suit for more tests. The book has a list of tests that must now be performed. Everything is carefully tested following the instructions in the book. If everything works as it should, the tests and inspections are complete. VOICE TWO: In the movies, an astronaut puts on his space suit and is ready to go. As Don Pettit says, it is not that simple for real astronauts. It is impossible for one person to put on all the necessary protective clothing before going into space. Everyone needs help. Don Pettit says that like most tasks in the International Space Station, putting on a space suit is a team effort. VOICE PETTIT: At the beginning of a space walk day, we ride an exercise bicycle. We do this wearing a breathing device that provides one-hundred percent oxygen. The atmosphere inside the space station is the same as that on Earth. The atmosphere is twenty percent oxygen and eighty percent nitrogen. Air pressure inside the space station is the same as it is on Earth. However the space suit we must wear outside does not have the same air pressure. If there were any nitrogen in our bodies it would cause severe problems if we quickly went from one air pressure to the other. This problem is called “the bends.” Deep-sea divers must deal with the same problem. So, we breathe one-hundred percent oxygen until it forces all of the nitrogen from our bodies. We will continue to breathe only oxygen while we are in the space suit. Now we begin the task of putting on the space suit. A crewmember helps with the many connections, links, locks and other equipment on the space suit. Many of the connections make a nice clicking sound when they are linked together correctly. We carefully listen for that sound. Our lives depend on it. Like all of our other jobs, putting on the space suit is done using our list of instructions. Nothing is left to chance. Getting dressed in a space suit takes about six hours from the time you start in the morning to the time you are ready to open the door and step out into space. VOICE ONE: The crewmember who is helping the astronaut with the many parts of the space suit has one last job to perform. The astronaut going outside is fitted with a special device that is linked to the back of the space suit. This device is filled with high-pressure nitrogen gas. It permits the astronaut to fly back to the space station if he were to accidentally move too far away from the spacecraft. Moving too far away from the space station without this device would be a deadly mistake. Nothing could be done to bring the astronaut back to the space station. The crewmember now helps the others safely enter the room that will permit them to enter space. Again, everything is tested. Then the door to the International Space Station is tightly closed and locked. Don Pettit explains what happens next. VOICE PETTIT: Slowly, the air inside the little room is released into space. After all of the air is gone, the door to space is opened. My first time going outside, the door would not open completely. It just would not open. After all the work we did getting ready we thought we might have to go back inside. We could even see the extremely bright light of the sun showing through the small opening on the edge of the door. It was only a small piece of rubber that kept the door from opening. At the last moment, it did open and we stepped out into space. It really was worth the hard work. Working outside the space station is a beautiful experience. However, if this were a movie about chasing bad guys in space, I am afraid they would have gotten away long before we were ready. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. Doug Johnson was the voice of Astronaut Don Pettit. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - June 4, 2003: SARS in Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Research from China has shown that some animals eaten as food can carry the SARS virus. SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the Center for Disease Control in the city of Shenzhen made the discovery. They worked together to test the idea that animals could carry the virus that causes the deadly lung disease. They bought eight different kinds of animals at a live animal market in the southern province of Guangdong. In the laboratory, the scientists tested the animals for evidence of the virus. They found the SARS virus in the one raccoon dog they tested. They also found the virus in all six of the small animals known as masked palm civets that they tested. Civets are a popular food in southern China during winter. The virus was in the solid waste of all the civets, and in the sputum of four of the six. Sputum is a liquid substance from the mouth. In addition, the scientists found signs of the virus in the blood of a third kind of small animal, a badger. The scientists mapped the genes of the viruses taken from two of the civets. They found the viruses to be ninety-nine percent the same as those taken from people with SARS. The only difference was that the animal SARS virus has twenty-nine more amino acids. Professor Yuen Kwok Yung at Hong Kong University says it is unlikely that people could get the disease if they eat animals that are cooked well. Professor Yuen says activities such as raising, killing and handling infected animals are more likely to spread the virus from animals to people. There is a theory that the virus jumped from animals to people in Guangdong last November. Research from Guangdong shows that more than thirty percent of the people infected with SARS there last year worked in food preparation. However, the new study does not show if wild animals naturally carry the SARS virus. The scientists say more research is needed to discover how the animals they purchased from the market became infected. They say it is possible that the animals ate other creatures that were infected with the virus. Or they could have become infected from each other. Scientists say it is also possible that the animals became infected from humans. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Research from China has shown that some animals eaten as food can carry the SARS virus. SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the Center for Disease Control in the city of Shenzhen made the discovery. They worked together to test the idea that animals could carry the virus that causes the deadly lung disease. They bought eight different kinds of animals at a live animal market in the southern province of Guangdong. In the laboratory, the scientists tested the animals for evidence of the virus. They found the SARS virus in the one raccoon dog they tested. They also found the virus in all six of the small animals known as masked palm civets that they tested. Civets are a popular food in southern China during winter. The virus was in the solid waste of all the civets, and in the sputum of four of the six. Sputum is a liquid substance from the mouth. In addition, the scientists found signs of the virus in the blood of a third kind of small animal, a badger. The scientists mapped the genes of the viruses taken from two of the civets. They found the viruses to be ninety-nine percent the same as those taken from people with SARS. The only difference was that the animal SARS virus has twenty-nine more amino acids. Professor Yuen Kwok Yung at Hong Kong University says it is unlikely that people could get the disease if they eat animals that are cooked well. Professor Yuen says activities such as raising, killing and handling infected animals are more likely to spread the virus from animals to people. There is a theory that the virus jumped from animals to people in Guangdong last November. Research from Guangdong shows that more than thirty percent of the people infected with SARS there last year worked in food preparation. However, the new study does not show if wild animals naturally carry the SARS virus. The scientists say more research is needed to discover how the animals they purchased from the market became infected. They say it is possible that the animals ate other creatures that were infected with the virus. Or they could have become infected from each other. Scientists say it is also possible that the animals became infected from humans. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #15 - Victory and Independence
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 5, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late Seventeen-Seventies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is December, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. British General William Howe has decided to stop fighting during the cold winter months. The general is in New York. He has already established control of a few areas near the city, including Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey. General George Washington and the Continental Army are on the other side of the Delaware River. The Americans are cold and hungry. They have few weapons. Washington knows that if Howe attacks, the British will be able to go all the way to Philadelphia. They will then control two of America's most important cities. He decides to attack. His plan is for three groups of troops to cross the Delaware River separately. All three will join together at Trenton. Then they will attack Princeton and New Brunswick. Washington wants to surprise the enemy early in the morning the day after the Christmas holiday, December Twenty-Sixth. VOICE TWO: On Christmas night, two-thousand-four-hundred soldiers of the Continental Army get into small boats. They cross the partly-frozen Delaware River. The crossing takes longer than Washington thought it would. The troops are four hours late. hey will not be able to surprise the enemy at sunrise. Yet, after marching to Trenton, Washington's troops do surprise the Hessian mercenaries who are in position there. The enemy soldiers run into buildings to get away. The Americans use annons to blow up the buildings. Soon, the enemy surrenders. Washington's army has captured Trenton. A few days later, he marches his captured prisoners through the streets of the city of Philadelphia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Washington's victory at Trenton changed the way Americans felt about the war. Before the battle, the rebels had been defeated in New York. They were beginning to lose faith in their commander. Now that faith returned. Congress increased Washington's powers, making it possible for the fight for independence to continue. Another result of the victory at Trenton was that more men decided to join the army. It now had ten-thousand soldiers. This new Continental Army, however, lost battles during the summmer to General Howe's forces near the Chesapeake Bay. And in August, Seventeen-Seventy-Seven, General Howe captured Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: Following these losses, Washington led the army to the nearby area called Valley Forge. They would stay there for the winter. His army was suffering. Half the men had no shoes, clothes, or blankets. They were almost starving. They built houses out of logs, but the winter was very cold and they almost froze. Many suffered from diseases such as smallpox and typhus. Some died. General Washington and other officers were able to get food from the surrounding area to help most of the men survive the winter. By the spring of Seventeen-Seventy-Eight, they were ready to fight again. VOICE ONE: General Howe was still in Philadelphia. History experts say it is difficult to understand this British military leader. At times, he was a good commander and a brave man. At other times, he stayed in the safety of the cities, instead of leading his men to fight. General Howe was not involved in the next series of important battles of the American Revolution, however. The lead part now went to General John Burgoyne. His plan was to capture the Hudson River Valley in New York state and separate New England from the other colonies. This, the British believed, would make it easy to capture the other colonies. The plan did not succeed. American General Benedict Arnold defeated the Britsh troops in New York. General Burgoyne had expected help from General Howe, but did not get it. Burgoyne was forced to surrender at the town of Saratoga. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOIE TWO: The American victory at Saratoga was an extremely important one. It ended the British plan to separate New England from the other colonies. It also showed European nations that the new country might really be able to win its revolutionary war. This was something that France, especially, had wanted ever since being defeated by the British earlier in the French and Indian War. The French government had been supplying the Americans secretly through the work of America's minister to France, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was popular with the French people and with French government officials. He helped gain French sympathy for the American cause. VOICE ONE: After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the war on the American side. The government recognized American independence. The two nations signed military and political treaties. France and Britain were at war once again. The British immediately sent a message to America's Continental Congress. They offered to change everything so relations would be as they had been in Seventeen-Sixty-Three. The Americans rejected the offer. The war would be fought to the end. In Seventeen-Seventy-Nine, Spain entered the war against the British. And the next year, the British were also fighting the Dutch to stop their trade with America. VOICE TWO: The French now sent gunpowder, soldiers, officers, and ships to the Americans. However, neither side made much progress in the war for the next two years. By Seventeen-Eighty, the British had moved their military forces to the American South. They quickly gained control of South Carolina and Georgia, but the Americans prevented them from taking control of North Carolina. After that, the British commander moved his troops to Yorktown, Virginia. The commander's name was Lord Charles Cornwallis. Both he and George Washington had about eight-thousand troops when they met near Yorktown. Cornwallis was expecting more troops to arrive on British ships. What he did not know was that French ships were on their way to Yorktown, too. Their commander was Admiral Francois Comte de Grasse. De Grasse met some of the British ships that Cornwallis was expecting, and he defeated them. The French ships then moved into the Chesapeake Bay, near Yorktown. VOICE ONE: The Americans and the French began attacking with cannons. Then they fought the British soldiers hand-to-hand. Cornwallis knew he had no chance to win without more troops. He surrendered to George Washington on October Seventeenth, Seventeen-Eighty-One. The war was over. American and French forces had captured or killed one-half of the British troops in America. The surviving British troops left Yorktown playing a popular British song called, "The World Turned Upside Down." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: How were the Americans able to defeat the most powerful nation in the world? Historians give several reasons: The Americans were fighting at home, while the British had to bring troops and supplies from across a wide ocean. British officers made mistakes, especially General William Howe. His slowness to take action at the start of the war made it possible for the Americans to survive during two difficult winters. Another reason was the help the Americans received from the French. Also, the British public had stopped supporting the long and costly war. Finally, history experts say America might not have won without the leadership of George Washington. He was honest, brave, and sure that the Americans could win. He never gave up hope that he would reach that goal. VOICE ONE: The peace treaty ending the American Revolution was signed in Paris in Seventeen-Eighty-Three. The independence of the United States was recognized. Western and northern borders were set. Thirteen colonies were free. Now, they had to become one nation. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Broadcast: June 5, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of the American Revolution against Britain in the late Seventeen-Seventies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is December, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. British General William Howe has decided to stop fighting during the cold winter months. The general is in New York. He has already established control of a few areas near the city, including Trenton and Princeton in New Jersey. General George Washington and the Continental Army are on the other side of the Delaware River. The Americans are cold and hungry. They have few weapons. Washington knows that if Howe attacks, the British will be able to go all the way to Philadelphia. They will then control two of America's most important cities. He decides to attack. His plan is for three groups of troops to cross the Delaware River separately. All three will join together at Trenton. Then they will attack Princeton and New Brunswick. Washington wants to surprise the enemy early in the morning the day after the Christmas holiday, December Twenty-Sixth. VOICE TWO: On Christmas night, two-thousand-four-hundred soldiers of the Continental Army get into small boats. They cross the partly-frozen Delaware River. The crossing takes longer than Washington thought it would. The troops are four hours late. hey will not be able to surprise the enemy at sunrise. Yet, after marching to Trenton, Washington's troops do surprise the Hessian mercenaries who are in position there. The enemy soldiers run into buildings to get away. The Americans use annons to blow up the buildings. Soon, the enemy surrenders. Washington's army has captured Trenton. A few days later, he marches his captured prisoners through the streets of the city of Philadelphia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Washington's victory at Trenton changed the way Americans felt about the war. Before the battle, the rebels had been defeated in New York. They were beginning to lose faith in their commander. Now that faith returned. Congress increased Washington's powers, making it possible for the fight for independence to continue. Another result of the victory at Trenton was that more men decided to join the army. It now had ten-thousand soldiers. This new Continental Army, however, lost battles during the summmer to General Howe's forces near the Chesapeake Bay. And in August, Seventeen-Seventy-Seven, General Howe captured Philadelphia. VOICE TWO: Following these losses, Washington led the army to the nearby area called Valley Forge. They would stay there for the winter. His army was suffering. Half the men had no shoes, clothes, or blankets. They were almost starving. They built houses out of logs, but the winter was very cold and they almost froze. Many suffered from diseases such as smallpox and typhus. Some died. General Washington and other officers were able to get food from the surrounding area to help most of the men survive the winter. By the spring of Seventeen-Seventy-Eight, they were ready to fight again. VOICE ONE: General Howe was still in Philadelphia. History experts say it is difficult to understand this British military leader. At times, he was a good commander and a brave man. At other times, he stayed in the safety of the cities, instead of leading his men to fight. General Howe was not involved in the next series of important battles of the American Revolution, however. The lead part now went to General John Burgoyne. His plan was to capture the Hudson River Valley in New York state and separate New England from the other colonies. This, the British believed, would make it easy to capture the other colonies. The plan did not succeed. American General Benedict Arnold defeated the Britsh troops in New York. General Burgoyne had expected help from General Howe, but did not get it. Burgoyne was forced to surrender at the town of Saratoga. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOIE TWO: The American victory at Saratoga was an extremely important one. It ended the British plan to separate New England from the other colonies. It also showed European nations that the new country might really be able to win its revolutionary war. This was something that France, especially, had wanted ever since being defeated by the British earlier in the French and Indian War. The French government had been supplying the Americans secretly through the work of America's minister to France, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was popular with the French people and with French government officials. He helped gain French sympathy for the American cause. VOICE ONE: After the American victory at Saratoga, the French decided to enter the war on the American side. The government recognized American independence. The two nations signed military and political treaties. France and Britain were at war once again. The British immediately sent a message to America's Continental Congress. They offered to change everything so relations would be as they had been in Seventeen-Sixty-Three. The Americans rejected the offer. The war would be fought to the end. In Seventeen-Seventy-Nine, Spain entered the war against the British. And the next year, the British were also fighting the Dutch to stop their trade with America. VOICE TWO: The French now sent gunpowder, soldiers, officers, and ships to the Americans. However, neither side made much progress in the war for the next two years. By Seventeen-Eighty, the British had moved their military forces to the American South. They quickly gained control of South Carolina and Georgia, but the Americans prevented them from taking control of North Carolina. After that, the British commander moved his troops to Yorktown, Virginia. The commander's name was Lord Charles Cornwallis. Both he and George Washington had about eight-thousand troops when they met near Yorktown. Cornwallis was expecting more troops to arrive on British ships. What he did not know was that French ships were on their way to Yorktown, too. Their commander was Admiral Francois Comte de Grasse. De Grasse met some of the British ships that Cornwallis was expecting, and he defeated them. The French ships then moved into the Chesapeake Bay, near Yorktown. VOICE ONE: The Americans and the French began attacking with cannons. Then they fought the British soldiers hand-to-hand. Cornwallis knew he had no chance to win without more troops. He surrendered to George Washington on October Seventeenth, Seventeen-Eighty-One. The war was over. American and French forces had captured or killed one-half of the British troops in America. The surviving British troops left Yorktown playing a popular British song called, "The World Turned Upside Down." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: How were the Americans able to defeat the most powerful nation in the world? Historians give several reasons: The Americans were fighting at home, while the British had to bring troops and supplies from across a wide ocean. British officers made mistakes, especially General William Howe. His slowness to take action at the start of the war made it possible for the Americans to survive during two difficult winters. Another reason was the help the Americans received from the French. Also, the British public had stopped supporting the long and costly war. Finally, history experts say America might not have won without the leadership of George Washington. He was honest, brave, and sure that the Americans could win. He never gave up hope that he would reach that goal. VOICE ONE: The peace treaty ending the American Revolution was signed in Paris in Seventeen-Eighty-Three. The independence of the United States was recognized. Western and northern borders were set. Thirteen colonies were free. Now, they had to become one nation. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Today's MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - SARS in Animals
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 4, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Research from China has shown that some animals eaten as food can carry the SARS virus. SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the Center for Disease Control in the city of Shenzhen made the discovery. They worked together to test the idea that animals could carry the virus that causes the deadly lung disease. They bought eight different kinds of animals at a live animal market in the southern province of Guangdong. In the laboratory, the scientists tested the animals for evidence of the virus. They found the SARS virus in the one raccoon dog they tested. They also found the virus in all six of the small animals known as masked palm civets that they tested. Civets are a popular food in southern China during winter. The virus was in the solid waste of all the civets, and in the sputum of four of the six. Sputum is a liquid substance from the mouth. In addition, the scientists found signs of the virus in the blood of a third kind of small animal, a badger. The scientists mapped the genes of the viruses taken from two of the civets. They found the viruses to be ninety-nine percent the same as those taken from people with SARS. The only difference was that the animal SARS virus has twenty-nine more amino acids. Professor Yuen Kwok Yung at Hong Kong University says it is unlikely that people could get the disease if they eat animals that are cooked well. Professor Yuen says activities such as raising, killing and handling infected animals are more likely to spread the virus from animals to people. There is a theory that the virus jumped from animals to people in Guangdong last November. Research from Guangdong shows that more than thirty percent of the people infected with SARS there last year worked in food preparation. However, the new study does not show if wild animals naturally carry the SARS virus. The scientists say more research is needed to discover how the animals they purchased from the market became infected. They say it is possible that the animals ate other creatures that were infected with the virus. Or they could have become infected from each other. Scientists say it is also possible that the animals became infected from humans. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: June 4, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Research from China has shown that some animals eaten as food can carry the SARS virus. SARS is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the Center for Disease Control in the city of Shenzhen made the discovery. They worked together to test the idea that animals could carry the virus that causes the deadly lung disease. They bought eight different kinds of animals at a live animal market in the southern province of Guangdong. In the laboratory, the scientists tested the animals for evidence of the virus. They found the SARS virus in the one raccoon dog they tested. They also found the virus in all six of the small animals known as masked palm civets that they tested. Civets are a popular food in southern China during winter. The virus was in the solid waste of all the civets, and in the sputum of four of the six. Sputum is a liquid substance from the mouth. In addition, the scientists found signs of the virus in the blood of a third kind of small animal, a badger. The scientists mapped the genes of the viruses taken from two of the civets. They found the viruses to be ninety-nine percent the same as those taken from people with SARS. The only difference was that the animal SARS virus has twenty-nine more amino acids. Professor Yuen Kwok Yung at Hong Kong University says it is unlikely that people could get the disease if they eat animals that are cooked well. Professor Yuen says activities such as raising, killing and handling infected animals are more likely to spread the virus from animals to people. There is a theory that the virus jumped from animals to people in Guangdong last November. Research from Guangdong shows that more than thirty percent of the people infected with SARS there last year worked in food preparation. However, the new study does not show if wild animals naturally carry the SARS virus. The scientists say more research is needed to discover how the animals they purchased from the market became infected. They say it is possible that the animals ate other creatures that were infected with the virus. Or they could have become infected from each other. Scientists say it is also possible that the animals became infected from humans. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - June 5, 2003: Summer School
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Students in American schools generally attend classes from August or September until the following May or June. After that, most educational systems provide summer school. Traditionally, if students had to attend summer school, it meant they had failed in their required schoolwork. They had to study in the summer so they could move on to the next grade in school. For example, a high school student who could not complete the requirements of a biology course would repeat the course in summer school. Today, summer school still can mean repeating failed schoolwork. But many students now choose to attend classes during summers. For example, public high school students in Nashville, Tennessee, can study during summer school for college entrance examinations. Many summer-school courses around the nation are popular. For example, about half of the two-thousand-four-hundred students at a high school in Illinois usually attend summer classes. These students at Evanston Township High School take subjects including art, theater and computer science. If they are old enough, they can learn to drive a car. In subjects like chemistry, students must quickly learn material normally taught during a full school year. But summer-school official Debbie Mohica says many students like to complete some of their required high school subjects this way. Then, she says, they can elect to take other classes during the school year. Colleges, universities and private organizations also operate summer school classes. Students at Harvard University, for example, can choose from hundreds of summer courses. Students at Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, can take courses including science and languages. Or, they can study something less traditional, like “Music and Politics.” This course examines how music can express political policies, protest or resistance. Of course, there are many young people who have other ideas about how to spend their summer break. But a Washington, D-C, area mother and educator notes that competition for honors in school has increased in recent years. She says, “Going to school can be a valuable way for young people to spend a summer.” This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Students in American schools generally attend classes from August or September until the following May or June. After that, most educational systems provide summer school. Traditionally, if students had to attend summer school, it meant they had failed in their required schoolwork. They had to study in the summer so they could move on to the next grade in school. For example, a high school student who could not complete the requirements of a biology course would repeat the course in summer school. Today, summer school still can mean repeating failed schoolwork. But many students now choose to attend classes during summers. For example, public high school students in Nashville, Tennessee, can study during summer school for college entrance examinations. Many summer-school courses around the nation are popular. For example, about half of the two-thousand-four-hundred students at a high school in Illinois usually attend summer classes. These students at Evanston Township High School take subjects including art, theater and computer science. If they are old enough, they can learn to drive a car. In subjects like chemistry, students must quickly learn material normally taught during a full school year. But summer-school official Debbie Mohica says many students like to complete some of their required high school subjects this way. Then, she says, they can elect to take other classes during the school year. Colleges, universities and private organizations also operate summer school classes. Students at Harvard University, for example, can choose from hundreds of summer courses. Students at Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, can take courses including science and languages. Or, they can study something less traditional, like “Music and Politics.” This course examines how music can express political policies, protest or resistance. Of course, there are many young people who have other ideas about how to spend their summer break. But a Washington, D-C, area mother and educator notes that competition for honors in school has increased in recent years. She says, “Going to school can be a valuable way for young people to spend a summer.” This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 6, 2003: Music in memory of singer and songwriter June Carter Cash / A question about differences between British and American English / A discovery that a Virginia farm may sit on a historic Native American village
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a question from three listeners about the English language ... Play music in memory of June Carter Cash ... And report about a historic discovery in the state of Virginia. Indian Village Site HOST: This summer, professors and students from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, will take part in five weeks of field study on a farm in the state of Virginia. They will be looking for evidence of a people ruled by a great American Indian chief. Shep O'Neal explains. ANNCR: Lynn and Bob Ripley bought a house and some farmland in Gloucester County, Virginia, in nineteen-ninety-six. They soon began to find pieces of glass and arrowheads on the surface of their fields and other areas of the farm. Lynn Ripley kept the items she found, only because they were part of the farm’s history. She collected thousands of pieces. The Ripleys later told their story to two local researchers they met. These archeologists asked to see the things Lynn had been keeping. They were surprised to find that the objects were more than three-hundred years old. Some came from Indians who had lived in the area in the seventeenth century. Others were similar to objects used by English settlers in the area. After further study, researchers told the Ripleys they could be living on land that was part a seventeenth century Indian village called Werowocomoco. The village was the center of life for about fifteen-thousand Native Americans who lived in the area. It was ruled by Chief Powhatan, father of the famous Indian woman known as Pocahontas. Old stories from American history say that Pocahontas became friends with English settlers who arrived in sixteen-oh-seven. The stories say that she saved the life of one of them, Captain John Smith. History experts say that all this probably did not happen. But it is true that Pocahontas and her father, Chief Powhatan, did live near the English settlement of Jamestown at that time. Pocahontas may not have saved Captain Smith’s life, but she did marry an Englishman, John Rolfe. She also visited England with him before she died. The professors from William and Mary are working with Native Americans in Virginia and the state government to study the Ripleys' land. This summer, they will search for signs of Indian houses and areas of village activity. The researchers hope the work will increase their understanding of the importance of the village as the center of Native American life in early Virginia. British and American English HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from three listeners in China, Vietnam and India. They all want to know about differences between American and British English. Language experts say that spoken English was almost the same in the American colonies and Britain two-hundred years ago. Americans began to change the sound of their speech after the Revolutionary War in seventeen-seventy-six. They wanted to make it different to separate themselves from the British in language, in the same way they separated themselves from the British government. Some American leaders proposed major changes in the language. Benjamin Franklin wanted a whole new system of spelling. His reforms were not accepted. But his ideas did influence others. One was Noah Webster. Webster wrote language books for schools. He believed the United States should have a system of its own language as well as government. Webster published a dictionary of the American language in eighteen-twenty-eight. It established rules for speaking and spelling the words used in American English. Webster wrote that all words should be said in the order of the letters that spell them. This is why Americans use the letters “e-r” to end many words instead of the British “r-e.” He spelled the word “center,” for example, “c-e-n-t-e-r,” instead of the British “c-e-n-t-r-e.” Noah Webster said every part of a word should be spoken. That is why Americans say “sec-re-ta-ry” instead of “sec-re’try,” as the British do. Webster’s rule for saying every part of a word made American English easier for foreign settlers to learn. They learned to say "waist-coat," for example, the way it is spelled instead of the British “wes-kit." The different languages of many people who came to the United States also helped make American and British English different. Many of their foreign words and expressions became part of English as Americans speak it. Sometimes Americans and British people do not understand each other because of different word meanings. For example, the word “jumper” in Britain means a sweater. In the United States, it is a dress. The British word “brolly” is an “umbrella” in America. And the British call potato chips “crisps.” All of these differences led British writer George Bernard Shaw to joke that Britain and America are two countries separated by the same language! June Carter Cash HOST: Singer and songwriter June Carter Cash died last month in Nashville, Tennessee, following a heart operation. She was seventy-three years old. She was well known as the wife of country star Johnny Cash. But she was also a member of one of the most important families in country music. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: June Carter was part of what became known as the First Family of Country Music. In nineteen-twenty-seven, two years before she was born, the Carter family made some of the first recordings in country music. June Carter performed with her family on the radio, then later with her mother and sisters at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. She sang, played the autoharp and told funny stories. June Carter studied acting in New York and appeared on television and in the movies. But she is perhaps best known for her abilities as a songwriter. One of her most famous songs -- co-written with Merle Kilgore -- is about falling in love with her husband, Johnny Cash. Here he sings what became one of his most successful songs, "Ring of Fire." (MUSIC) June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash recorded many songs together. They won two Grammy awards. Here they sing one of their Grammy winning songs, “Jackson”: (MUSIC) June Carter Cash also won a Grammy for her record album “Press On” in nineteen-ninety-nine. We leave you now with a song from that album, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Caty Weaver. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a question from three listeners about the English language ... Play music in memory of June Carter Cash ... And report about a historic discovery in the state of Virginia. Indian Village Site HOST: This summer, professors and students from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, will take part in five weeks of field study on a farm in the state of Virginia. They will be looking for evidence of a people ruled by a great American Indian chief. Shep O'Neal explains. ANNCR: Lynn and Bob Ripley bought a house and some farmland in Gloucester County, Virginia, in nineteen-ninety-six. They soon began to find pieces of glass and arrowheads on the surface of their fields and other areas of the farm. Lynn Ripley kept the items she found, only because they were part of the farm’s history. She collected thousands of pieces. The Ripleys later told their story to two local researchers they met. These archeologists asked to see the things Lynn had been keeping. They were surprised to find that the objects were more than three-hundred years old. Some came from Indians who had lived in the area in the seventeenth century. Others were similar to objects used by English settlers in the area. After further study, researchers told the Ripleys they could be living on land that was part a seventeenth century Indian village called Werowocomoco. The village was the center of life for about fifteen-thousand Native Americans who lived in the area. It was ruled by Chief Powhatan, father of the famous Indian woman known as Pocahontas. Old stories from American history say that Pocahontas became friends with English settlers who arrived in sixteen-oh-seven. The stories say that she saved the life of one of them, Captain John Smith. History experts say that all this probably did not happen. But it is true that Pocahontas and her father, Chief Powhatan, did live near the English settlement of Jamestown at that time. Pocahontas may not have saved Captain Smith’s life, but she did marry an Englishman, John Rolfe. She also visited England with him before she died. The professors from William and Mary are working with Native Americans in Virginia and the state government to study the Ripleys' land. This summer, they will search for signs of Indian houses and areas of village activity. The researchers hope the work will increase their understanding of the importance of the village as the center of Native American life in early Virginia. British and American English HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from three listeners in China, Vietnam and India. They all want to know about differences between American and British English. Language experts say that spoken English was almost the same in the American colonies and Britain two-hundred years ago. Americans began to change the sound of their speech after the Revolutionary War in seventeen-seventy-six. They wanted to make it different to separate themselves from the British in language, in the same way they separated themselves from the British government. Some American leaders proposed major changes in the language. Benjamin Franklin wanted a whole new system of spelling. His reforms were not accepted. But his ideas did influence others. One was Noah Webster. Webster wrote language books for schools. He believed the United States should have a system of its own language as well as government. Webster published a dictionary of the American language in eighteen-twenty-eight. It established rules for speaking and spelling the words used in American English. Webster wrote that all words should be said in the order of the letters that spell them. This is why Americans use the letters “e-r” to end many words instead of the British “r-e.” He spelled the word “center,” for example, “c-e-n-t-e-r,” instead of the British “c-e-n-t-r-e.” Noah Webster said every part of a word should be spoken. That is why Americans say “sec-re-ta-ry” instead of “sec-re’try,” as the British do. Webster’s rule for saying every part of a word made American English easier for foreign settlers to learn. They learned to say "waist-coat," for example, the way it is spelled instead of the British “wes-kit." The different languages of many people who came to the United States also helped make American and British English different. Many of their foreign words and expressions became part of English as Americans speak it. Sometimes Americans and British people do not understand each other because of different word meanings. For example, the word “jumper” in Britain means a sweater. In the United States, it is a dress. The British word “brolly” is an “umbrella” in America. And the British call potato chips “crisps.” All of these differences led British writer George Bernard Shaw to joke that Britain and America are two countries separated by the same language! June Carter Cash HOST: Singer and songwriter June Carter Cash died last month in Nashville, Tennessee, following a heart operation. She was seventy-three years old. She was well known as the wife of country star Johnny Cash. But she was also a member of one of the most important families in country music. Steve Ember has more. ANNCR: June Carter was part of what became known as the First Family of Country Music. In nineteen-twenty-seven, two years before she was born, the Carter family made some of the first recordings in country music. June Carter performed with her family on the radio, then later with her mother and sisters at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. She sang, played the autoharp and told funny stories. June Carter studied acting in New York and appeared on television and in the movies. But she is perhaps best known for her abilities as a songwriter. One of her most famous songs -- co-written with Merle Kilgore -- is about falling in love with her husband, Johnny Cash. Here he sings what became one of his most successful songs, "Ring of Fire." (MUSIC) June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash recorded many songs together. They won two Grammy awards. Here they sing one of their Grammy winning songs, “Jackson”: (MUSIC) June Carter Cash also won a Grammy for her record album “Press On” in nineteen-ninety-nine. We leave you now with a song from that album, “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” (MUSIC) This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a gift. Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and mailing address. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Caty Weaver. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-05-5-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – June 6, 2003:  EPA Chief Resigns
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The chief of the United States Environmental Protection Agency has announced her resignation. Christine Todd Whitman says she will leave office on June twenty-seventh. Missus Whitman was serving as governor of New Jersey when President Bush chose her as E-P-A administrator. The United States Senate confirmed her nomination in January of two-thousand-one. Among her major successes was to order the company, General Electric, to pay to remove poisonous chemical waste from an eastern river. Two General Electric factories along the Hudson River released the waste into the water for many years. Missus Whitman also won approval for new rules to help cut pollutants created by the use of diesel fuel. However, she found herself in a difficult situation when President Bush rejected the Kyoto treaty on global warming in two-thousand-one. She had said the president would keep a campaign promise to act on carbon dioxide releases by power stations. But Mister Bush said he could not support the treaty at a time of economic weakness and an energy crisis. The E-P-A head faced a lot of criticism at times. For example, critics say the E-P-A failed to quickly and fully deal with the environmental damage from the terrorist attacks on New York City on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Missus Whitman is leaving without completing work on a major environmental proposal by the administration. The Clear Skies measure is designed to reduce the release of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury from power production centers. Still, Missus Whitman says she is pleased with the record of the Environmental Protection Agency during her time there. She says she wants to return to New Jersey and spend more time with her husband. President Bush praised her as a tireless fighter for new policies for cleaner air, purer water and better protected land. And he called her a trusted friend and adviser. The Bush administration reportedly is considering several possible replacements for Christine Whitman. The possible nominees are said to include John Engler, the former governor of Michigan, and Josephine Cooper. She is the president and chief executive officer of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The chief of the United States Environmental Protection Agency has announced her resignation. Christine Todd Whitman says she will leave office on June twenty-seventh. Missus Whitman was serving as governor of New Jersey when President Bush chose her as E-P-A administrator. The United States Senate confirmed her nomination in January of two-thousand-one. Among her major successes was to order the company, General Electric, to pay to remove poisonous chemical waste from an eastern river. Two General Electric factories along the Hudson River released the waste into the water for many years. Missus Whitman also won approval for new rules to help cut pollutants created by the use of diesel fuel. However, she found herself in a difficult situation when President Bush rejected the Kyoto treaty on global warming in two-thousand-one. She had said the president would keep a campaign promise to act on carbon dioxide releases by power stations. But Mister Bush said he could not support the treaty at a time of economic weakness and an energy crisis. The E-P-A head faced a lot of criticism at times. For example, critics say the E-P-A failed to quickly and fully deal with the environmental damage from the terrorist attacks on New York City on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Missus Whitman is leaving without completing work on a major environmental proposal by the administration. The Clear Skies measure is designed to reduce the release of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury from power production centers. Still, Missus Whitman says she is pleased with the record of the Environmental Protection Agency during her time there. She says she wants to return to New Jersey and spend more time with her husband. President Bush praised her as a tireless fighter for new policies for cleaner air, purer water and better protected land. And he called her a trusted friend and adviser. The Bush administration reportedly is considering several possible replacements for Christine Whitman. The possible nominees are said to include John Engler, the former governor of Michigan, and Josephine Cooper. She is the president and chief executive officer of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-05-6-1.cfm
* Headline: June 5, 2003 - International Newcomers' Academy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 5, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- it's the end of another school year in America, which explains why our guest had time to talk to us. RS: Sandra Madriaga supervises an intensive English program in the local school system in Evansville, Indiana. The program, called the International Newcomers' Academy, started in January 2000. It's for middle and high school students. Buses take them to spend part of each school day at a central middle school or high school to learn English. AA: Twenty-four-thousand students attend the public schools in Evansville. About two-hundred of them speak English as a second language. That's a small number, yet Sandra Madriaga says it was large enough that local educators had to do something to meet the needs of immigrant students. MADRIAGA: "Our immigrant population here in the Midwest was changing rapidly. And locally, where we didn't have an immigrant population about 10 years ago, it started increasing, and more and more immigrants started coming. And while we do have a Hispanic population here, we also have a large Russian population, which is a little bit unusual for the state of Indiana. We have Chinese, we have some Pakistani and, like I said, quite a few Hispanics." AA: "So now you've just wrapped up another school year. Tell us what were some of the things the students learned this year." MADRIAGA: "Well, in the state of Indiana, and actually throughout the nation, we now have what's called English language proficiency standards. And this is something that is rather new in the United States and it is based on some legislation called No Child Left Behind, where every state has to come up with some standards. The way it applies to the immigrant students is that our immigrant population has to meet those same rigorous academic standards." RS: "What is the difference between what they can learn in the classroom with their peers and what they can learn in an intensive center?" MADRIAGA: "In a regular education program they are competing in a sense against students that have all the language skills that they're lacking. By coming to the academy, we take each child where they are and we assess when they enter the academy what their proficiency skills are. And then we design a program that's going to help them be able to exit from the International Newcomers' Academy and go into the regular ed program within a year or two years." RS: "Now what happens to elementary school children? I see you talk about middle school and high school." MADRIAGA: "In elementary school we have itinerant ESL instructors who travel around from building to building and serve the students in a one-on-one pullout program. We generally are able to meet with the student maybe three times a week and maybe for 40 minutes a day during those three visits. With the intensive program it is a daily three-hour program." RS: "Let me ask you a question here. I think that a lot of our listeners would be interested in knowing, what is the key to learning English quickly? You run an intensive program, what's the key there?" MADRIAGA: "I think something that you really need to dwell on is vocabulary, vocabulary development. If they can get some audio tapes, listen to audio tapes, get the pronunciation down. When you learn a new word, maybe keep a notebook of what that word means. In some cases I think something that was very successful for my students this year is we made flash cards. Many of them are very visual learners and that helped them with the spelling as well. So we would put the vocabulary word on one side and the definition and the part of speech on the other side. "And then we would work with writing sentences and also trying to find those words in other parts of their life. I know at one time this year we had a whole unit on space vocabulary, and then the Columbia disaster happened -- " AA: "The shuttle ... " MADRIAGA: "The shuttle, so then they brought in newspapers and so forth, and so that was, you know, a real good application for the things that we had studied, that in fact these are not isolated words but really have application throughout their whole life." AA: "Now what about American idioms -- how do you introduce kids to those and to acronyms, abbreviations?" MADRIAGA: "That's really hard. I know that every week I'd put one idiom up on the board that was just kind of a fun thing that we would try to use throughout the week. We had things like 'floating on a cloud' or to be 'on cloud nine.'" AA: "Meaning to be happy." MADRIAGA: "To be happy, right." RS: And one of the things that made the students happy was to learn the meaning of not just common idioms but also common educational jargon: MADRIAGA: "When their first report cards came out, and at the bottom of the report card it had 'GPA' -- which stands for grade point average -- they didn't have any idea what a GPA was and why they heard other American students talking about the GPA." AA: Sandra Madriaga, talking about the International Newcomers' Academy in Evansville, Indiana. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 5, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- it's the end of another school year in America, which explains why our guest had time to talk to us. RS: Sandra Madriaga supervises an intensive English program in the local school system in Evansville, Indiana. The program, called the International Newcomers' Academy, started in January 2000. It's for middle and high school students. Buses take them to spend part of each school day at a central middle school or high school to learn English. AA: Twenty-four-thousand students attend the public schools in Evansville. About two-hundred of them speak English as a second language. That's a small number, yet Sandra Madriaga says it was large enough that local educators had to do something to meet the needs of immigrant students. MADRIAGA: "Our immigrant population here in the Midwest was changing rapidly. And locally, where we didn't have an immigrant population about 10 years ago, it started increasing, and more and more immigrants started coming. And while we do have a Hispanic population here, we also have a large Russian population, which is a little bit unusual for the state of Indiana. We have Chinese, we have some Pakistani and, like I said, quite a few Hispanics." AA: "So now you've just wrapped up another school year. Tell us what were some of the things the students learned this year." MADRIAGA: "Well, in the state of Indiana, and actually throughout the nation, we now have what's called English language proficiency standards. And this is something that is rather new in the United States and it is based on some legislation called No Child Left Behind, where every state has to come up with some standards. The way it applies to the immigrant students is that our immigrant population has to meet those same rigorous academic standards." RS: "What is the difference between what they can learn in the classroom with their peers and what they can learn in an intensive center?" MADRIAGA: "In a regular education program they are competing in a sense against students that have all the language skills that they're lacking. By coming to the academy, we take each child where they are and we assess when they enter the academy what their proficiency skills are. And then we design a program that's going to help them be able to exit from the International Newcomers' Academy and go into the regular ed program within a year or two years." RS: "Now what happens to elementary school children? I see you talk about middle school and high school." MADRIAGA: "In elementary school we have itinerant ESL instructors who travel around from building to building and serve the students in a one-on-one pullout program. We generally are able to meet with the student maybe three times a week and maybe for 40 minutes a day during those three visits. With the intensive program it is a daily three-hour program." RS: "Let me ask you a question here. I think that a lot of our listeners would be interested in knowing, what is the key to learning English quickly? You run an intensive program, what's the key there?" MADRIAGA: "I think something that you really need to dwell on is vocabulary, vocabulary development. If they can get some audio tapes, listen to audio tapes, get the pronunciation down. When you learn a new word, maybe keep a notebook of what that word means. In some cases I think something that was very successful for my students this year is we made flash cards. Many of them are very visual learners and that helped them with the spelling as well. So we would put the vocabulary word on one side and the definition and the part of speech on the other side. "And then we would work with writing sentences and also trying to find those words in other parts of their life. I know at one time this year we had a whole unit on space vocabulary, and then the Columbia disaster happened -- " AA: "The shuttle ... " MADRIAGA: "The shuttle, so then they brought in newspapers and so forth, and so that was, you know, a real good application for the things that we had studied, that in fact these are not isolated words but really have application throughout their whole life." AA: "Now what about American idioms -- how do you introduce kids to those and to acronyms, abbreviations?" MADRIAGA: "That's really hard. I know that every week I'd put one idiom up on the board that was just kind of a fun thing that we would try to use throughout the week. We had things like 'floating on a cloud' or to be 'on cloud nine.'" AA: "Meaning to be happy." MADRIAGA: "To be happy, right." RS: And one of the things that made the students happy was to learn the meaning of not just common idioms but also common educational jargon: MADRIAGA: "When their first report cards came out, and at the bottom of the report card it had 'GPA' -- which stands for grade point average -- they didn't have any idea what a GPA was and why they heard other American students talking about the GPA." AA: Sandra Madriaga, talking about the International Newcomers' Academy in Evansville, Indiana. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS  - June 7, 2003: Middle East Summit
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In the News. On Wednesday, the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers met in Aqaba, Jordan, and promised to work for peace. Both sides have accepted an American-led plan for the Middle East known as the roadmap to peace. President Bush led the talks in Aqaba at the home of Jordan’s King Abdullah. The roadmap to peace was approved in December by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. It calls for compromises by both sides. It is designed to end a Palestinian uprising against Israel and bring progress toward an independent Palestinian state in three years. Attacks by Palestinians have killed more than seven-hundred-fifty Israelis since two-thousand. More than two-thousand Palestinians have been killed during the same period. President Bush met separately in Aqaba with Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, then all three met together. After the meeting, they made public statements. Mister Abbas and Mister Sharon agreed that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not be settled by violence or by military action. Mister Abbas called for an end to armed resistance against Israeli occupation. And he promised strong action against incitement and hatred against Israel. Mister Sharon agreed to work toward the creation of a democratic Palestinian state. And he promised to remove Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza that were established without government approval. President Bush said it was a good beginning. The issue of Israeli settlements is one of the most serious disputes. The Palestinians want the Israelis to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza. These were seized in the Six Day War in nineteen-sixty-seven. An estimated two-hundred-thousand Israelis live there. Mister Sharon’s government has agreed to remove some Israeli settlements built in those territories. But he wants to keep others. Stopping settlement building is a major part of the peace plan. On Wednesday, thousands of Israelis opposed to the peace plan demonstrated in Jerusalem to stop the government from removing the settlements. Both sides, however, say the plan does not go far enough to establish peace. Israelis wanted Mister Abbas to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And Palestinians wanted Mister Sharon to remove all settlements. The majority of Palestinians say they want peace. But many reject the plan because it fails to deal with ending Israeli violence against Palestinians, the issue of Palestinian refugees and the dispute over Jerusalem. Palestinian militant groups have said they will not stop attacks against Israelis until Israel stops occupying Palestinian land. On Friday Hamas ended talks with Mister Abbas. Mister Abbas has appealed to the groups to give negotiations with Israel a chance to succeed. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 8, 2003: Anne Morrow Lindbergh
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She was a famous pilot and writer. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the wife of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh. She flew airplanes with him as his co-pilot. She wrote more than ten books of memories, fiction, poetry and essays. Critics have called her books “small works of art.” Anne Spencer Morrow was born in Nineteen-Oh-Six in Englewood, New Jersey. Her father was a very rich banker. He later became the American ambassador to Mexico. Her mother was an educator and poet. Anne went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She wanted to become a writer. She won two major prizes from the college for her writing. VOICE TWO: Anne Morrow was a quiet, shy and small young woman when she met Charles Lindbergh in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He was staying with her family in Mexico City. The twenty-five year old man was tall and good-looking. Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous people in the world. He had just become the first person to fly a plane alone across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. Two years later, Anne and Charles Lindbergh were married. Reports about their marriage were on the front pages of newspapers around the world. VOICE ONE: After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh, Anne became a pilot. She learned to plan an airplane flight as a navigator, operate a radio and fly a plane. She began making many long airplane flights with her husband In Nineteen-Thirty, she became the first woman in the United States to get a pilot’s license to fly a glider, which does not have an engine. That same year, the Lindberghs set a speed record for flying across the United States. They flew from Los Angeles, California to New York City in fourteen hours and forty-five minutes. Anne Lindbergh was seven months pregnant at the time. The Lindberghs explored new ways to fly around the world. They flew almost fifty-thousand kilometers over five continents. Anne and Charles Lindbergh were famous around the world. They seemed to enjoy the greatest luck that any young people could have. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Then in Nineteen-Thirty-Two something terrible happened. The Lindbergh’s first baby, twenty-month-old Charles, was kidnapped from their home in New Jersey. The body of the baby was discovered more than ten weeks later. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested, tried, found guilty and executed for the crime. There were a huge number of press reports about the case. Newspapers called it “The Crime of the Century.” After the trial, the Lindberghs found it difficult to live in the United States. There were threats on the life of their second child. And there were too many newspaper stories about them. So Anne and Charles Lindbergh moved to Europe in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. Four years later they moved back to the United States. VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh never fully recovered from the death of her first child. Yet, she and her husband had five more children. She continued flying. In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, she became the first woman to win the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Gold Medal. She was honored for her exploration, research and discovery. Anne Lindbergh began writing to ease her sadness. She wrote several books about the flights with her husband. Her first book was “North to the Orient” in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. She wrote about their flight in a single-engine airplane over Canada and Alaska to Japan and China. This is what she wrote about landing in northern Canada and jumping out of the plane: VOICE THREE: “Then two little Eskimo boys came up shyly and followed me about. Their bright eyes shone under their caps as they searched my face and costume curiously. ‘You see,’ said one of the traders, ‘You’re the first white woman they’ve ever seen. There’s never been one here before.’ ” VOICE TWO: Three years later Anne Lindbergh wrote “Listen! The Wind.” It was about the Lindberghs’ fifty-thousand kilometer flight. It became very popular. One critic said it described the poetry of flight as no other book on flying had ever done. In Nineteen-Forty, Anne Lindbergh wrote a book called “The Wave of the Future.” She wrote it while Europe was fighting World War Two. She wrote that she did not support communism or fascism. But she said they were unavoidable. She wrote that she hoped the United States could avoid entering the conflict. And, in a letter, she wrote that she was beginning to feel that the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was a very great man. Her husband had become unpopular for expressing similar beliefs. Many people criticized the book. Missus Lindbergh later admitted that both she and her husband failed to see the worst evils of the Nazi system. She stopped writing for many years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh began writing again in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. She wrote a book called “Gift from the Sea.” It was about women’s search for meaning in their lives. “Gift from the Sea” was one of the most popular books in America. It has sold more than one million copies and has influenced many women. In “Gift from the Sea”, Missus Lindbergh wrote about the many different kinds of pressures that women face. She wrote that women who are wives and mothers have many different interests and duties. They must be able to deal with their husband, children, friends, home and community. She found it difficult for women to balance all these duties and still make a place for themselves. Yet she said that women must try to find a balance in their lives. VOICE TWO: In “Gift from the Sea,” Anne Lindbergh described how women had to perform many jobs that pulled them in different directions like a circus performer. VOICE THREE: “What circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame. Look at us. We run a tight rope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now! This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.” VOICE ONE: Anne Lindbergh found that one answer to this problem was to be alone. The book described how she spent time by herself on an island by the sea. She studied the sea shells she found. And she made her life simpler. During the Nineteen-Seventies, Anne Lindbergh wrote several more books about the happy and sad events of her life. One of these is called “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead.” She wrote about the joy of flying. She also wrote about the pain she and her husband felt after the body of their baby son was discovered. VOICE THREE: “We sleep badly and wake up and talk. I dreamed right along as I was thinking – all of one piece, no relief. I was walking down a suburban street seeing other people’s children and I stopped to see one in a carriage and I thought it was a sweet child, but I was looking for my child in his face. And I realized, in the dream, that I would do that forever.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Charles Lindbergh died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four at the age of seventy-two. The next year, the readers of Good Housekeeping magazine voted Anne Morrow Lindbergh one of the ten women in the world they liked the most. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, Missus Lindbergh was invited to join the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was honored for her success as a pilot. Anne Morrow Lindbergh died at her home in Vermont in Two-Thousand-One. She was ninety-four years old. Many people have been influenced by the way she dealt with both happiness and sadness. They respect the way she lived life to the fullest. And they like the advice about living that they find in her books. VOICE THREE: “If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly in those moments.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. Our reader was Sarah Long. And our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. She was a famous pilot and writer. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the wife of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh. She flew airplanes with him as his co-pilot. She wrote more than ten books of memories, fiction, poetry and essays. Critics have called her books “small works of art.” Anne Spencer Morrow was born in Nineteen-Oh-Six in Englewood, New Jersey. Her father was a very rich banker. He later became the American ambassador to Mexico. Her mother was an educator and poet. Anne went to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She wanted to become a writer. She won two major prizes from the college for her writing. VOICE TWO: Anne Morrow was a quiet, shy and small young woman when she met Charles Lindbergh in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He was staying with her family in Mexico City. The twenty-five year old man was tall and good-looking. Charles Lindbergh was one of the most famous people in the world. He had just become the first person to fly a plane alone across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. Two years later, Anne and Charles Lindbergh were married. Reports about their marriage were on the front pages of newspapers around the world. VOICE ONE: After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh, Anne became a pilot. She learned to plan an airplane flight as a navigator, operate a radio and fly a plane. She began making many long airplane flights with her husband In Nineteen-Thirty, she became the first woman in the United States to get a pilot’s license to fly a glider, which does not have an engine. That same year, the Lindberghs set a speed record for flying across the United States. They flew from Los Angeles, California to New York City in fourteen hours and forty-five minutes. Anne Lindbergh was seven months pregnant at the time. The Lindberghs explored new ways to fly around the world. They flew almost fifty-thousand kilometers over five continents. Anne and Charles Lindbergh were famous around the world. They seemed to enjoy the greatest luck that any young people could have. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Then in Nineteen-Thirty-Two something terrible happened. The Lindbergh’s first baby, twenty-month-old Charles, was kidnapped from their home in New Jersey. The body of the baby was discovered more than ten weeks later. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested, tried, found guilty and executed for the crime. There were a huge number of press reports about the case. Newspapers called it “The Crime of the Century.” After the trial, the Lindberghs found it difficult to live in the United States. There were threats on the life of their second child. And there were too many newspaper stories about them. So Anne and Charles Lindbergh moved to Europe in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. Four years later they moved back to the United States. VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh never fully recovered from the death of her first child. Yet, she and her husband had five more children. She continued flying. In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, she became the first woman to win the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Gold Medal. She was honored for her exploration, research and discovery. Anne Lindbergh began writing to ease her sadness. She wrote several books about the flights with her husband. Her first book was “North to the Orient” in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. She wrote about their flight in a single-engine airplane over Canada and Alaska to Japan and China. This is what she wrote about landing in northern Canada and jumping out of the plane: VOICE THREE: “Then two little Eskimo boys came up shyly and followed me about. Their bright eyes shone under their caps as they searched my face and costume curiously. ‘You see,’ said one of the traders, ‘You’re the first white woman they’ve ever seen. There’s never been one here before.’ ” VOICE TWO: Three years later Anne Lindbergh wrote “Listen! The Wind.” It was about the Lindberghs’ fifty-thousand kilometer flight. It became very popular. One critic said it described the poetry of flight as no other book on flying had ever done. In Nineteen-Forty, Anne Lindbergh wrote a book called “The Wave of the Future.” She wrote it while Europe was fighting World War Two. She wrote that she did not support communism or fascism. But she said they were unavoidable. She wrote that she hoped the United States could avoid entering the conflict. And, in a letter, she wrote that she was beginning to feel that the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was a very great man. Her husband had become unpopular for expressing similar beliefs. Many people criticized the book. Missus Lindbergh later admitted that both she and her husband failed to see the worst evils of the Nazi system. She stopped writing for many years. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anne Morrow Lindbergh began writing again in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. She wrote a book called “Gift from the Sea.” It was about women’s search for meaning in their lives. “Gift from the Sea” was one of the most popular books in America. It has sold more than one million copies and has influenced many women. In “Gift from the Sea”, Missus Lindbergh wrote about the many different kinds of pressures that women face. She wrote that women who are wives and mothers have many different interests and duties. They must be able to deal with their husband, children, friends, home and community. She found it difficult for women to balance all these duties and still make a place for themselves. Yet she said that women must try to find a balance in their lives. VOICE TWO: In “Gift from the Sea,” Anne Lindbergh described how women had to perform many jobs that pulled them in different directions like a circus performer. VOICE THREE: “What circus act we women perform every day of our lives. It puts the trapeze artist to shame. Look at us. We run a tight rope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now! This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.” VOICE ONE: Anne Lindbergh found that one answer to this problem was to be alone. The book described how she spent time by herself on an island by the sea. She studied the sea shells she found. And she made her life simpler. During the Nineteen-Seventies, Anne Lindbergh wrote several more books about the happy and sad events of her life. One of these is called “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead.” She wrote about the joy of flying. She also wrote about the pain she and her husband felt after the body of their baby son was discovered. VOICE THREE: “We sleep badly and wake up and talk. I dreamed right along as I was thinking – all of one piece, no relief. I was walking down a suburban street seeing other people’s children and I stopped to see one in a carriage and I thought it was a sweet child, but I was looking for my child in his face. And I realized, in the dream, that I would do that forever.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Charles Lindbergh died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four at the age of seventy-two. The next year, the readers of Good Housekeeping magazine voted Anne Morrow Lindbergh one of the ten women in the world they liked the most. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, Missus Lindbergh was invited to join the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She was honored for her success as a pilot. Anne Morrow Lindbergh died at her home in Vermont in Two-Thousand-One. She was ninety-four years old. Many people have been influenced by the way she dealt with both happiness and sadness. They respect the way she lived life to the fullest. And they like the advice about living that they find in her books. VOICE THREE: “If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly in those moments.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. Our reader was Sarah Long. And our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - June 9, 2003: WHO Measles Campaign
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization is asking nations for an extra two-hundred-million dollars to fight measles in developing countries. The request was made last month during a meeting of the one-hundred-ninety-two member World Health Assembly. The W-H-O says that each year almost seven-hundred-fifty-thousand children die from measles. That is out of more than thirty million cases. Yet, it can be prevented with a vaccine medicine given early in life. Measles is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It attacks the skin surface and the body’s defense system. The disease can spread through liquid from the nose and throat of an infected person. People can also become sick by breathing infected particles in the air. The W-H-O and the United Nations Children’s Fund say they plan to use the requested money over the next three years to fight measles in forty-five countries. Most are in Africa, where health officials say more than half of all deaths from measles happen. W-H-O officials say this new campaign could prevent more than two-million deaths in Africa alone over the next ten years. Danny Tarantola (tah-RAHN-to-lah) is the director of vaccines at the World Health Organization. He says this campaign would offer children two chances to be vaccinated. The first would be at nine months of age. The vaccine would be given through the established health care system of each nation. The second chance would be three or four years later through additional vaccination programs. The W-H-O campaign would pay for the vaccine, safe injection materials, cooling equipment and trained workers to supervise vaccination programs. The W-H-O says this campaign would help the United Nations reach two of its health goals. The first goal is to reduce by two-thirds the death rate of children under age five by two-thousand-ten. The second goal is to cut the number of measles deaths in half from nineteen-ninety-nine levels. Officials hope to do this within the next two years. The W-H-O says that of all health interventions, measles vaccination carries one of the highest health returns for the money spent. The health agency says one amount of measles vaccine costs just twenty-five cents, one-quarter of an American dollar. And that includes safe injection equipment. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization is asking nations for an extra two-hundred-million dollars to fight measles in developing countries. The request was made last month during a meeting of the one-hundred-ninety-two member World Health Assembly. The W-H-O says that each year almost seven-hundred-fifty-thousand children die from measles. That is out of more than thirty million cases. Yet, it can be prevented with a vaccine medicine given early in life. Measles is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It attacks the skin surface and the body’s defense system. The disease can spread through liquid from the nose and throat of an infected person. People can also become sick by breathing infected particles in the air. The W-H-O and the United Nations Children’s Fund say they plan to use the requested money over the next three years to fight measles in forty-five countries. Most are in Africa, where health officials say more than half of all deaths from measles happen. W-H-O officials say this new campaign could prevent more than two-million deaths in Africa alone over the next ten years. Danny Tarantola (tah-RAHN-to-lah) is the director of vaccines at the World Health Organization. He says this campaign would offer children two chances to be vaccinated. The first would be at nine months of age. The vaccine would be given through the established health care system of each nation. The second chance would be three or four years later through additional vaccination programs. The W-H-O campaign would pay for the vaccine, safe injection materials, cooling equipment and trained workers to supervise vaccination programs. The W-H-O says this campaign would help the United Nations reach two of its health goals. The first goal is to reduce by two-thirds the death rate of children under age five by two-thousand-ten. The second goal is to cut the number of measles deaths in half from nineteen-ninety-nine levels. Officials hope to do this within the next two years. The W-H-O says that of all health interventions, measles vaccination carries one of the highest health returns for the money spent. The health agency says one amount of measles vaccine costs just twenty-five cents, one-quarter of an American dollar. And that includes safe injection equipment. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Weddings
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 9, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Almost two-and-one-half-million marriages are performed each year in the United States. June is one of the most popular months for these wedding ceremonies. I’m Steve Ember with Doug Johnson. Today we report about weddings on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The music you just heard is called “Trumpet Voluntary.” Every year, many Americans hear this music during their marriage ceremonies. They are among almost five-million Americans who become husband and wife each year. Some of these people will have a traditional wedding ceremony in a religious center, a hotel or a social club. These couples may invite hundreds of people to their celebrations. VOICE ONE: Other couples will have a simple ceremony. They will invite only close family members and friends. They may not have the money to spend on a big wedding. Or they may want to save money for a wedding trip to a faraway place or to help them buy a house. Americans get married in different ways. But the meaning of all these weddings is the same. The wedding couple -- the bride and groom -- traditionally promise to spend the rest of their lives together. VOICE TWO: Big weddings have created a huge business in the United States. A big wedding requires lots of special clothing, flowers, food preparation, photographs and music. Traditionally, the bride’s parents plan and pay for the wedding. Sometimes the groom’s parents share this responsibility. Today many Americans are older when they get married. So they often organize and pay for their own weddings. VOICE ONE: There are many wedding traditions in the United States. But many ceremonies share common customs. The bride often wears a long white dress and a white head-covering called a veil. Some brides wear four other traditional things: Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. And something blue. These four things are supposed to bring her good luck. She and the groom accept each other as husband and wife. Traditionally, they promise to love and honor each other always. The groom places a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the bride’s left hand. In some ceremonies, the bride places a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the groom’s left hand. The person performing the ceremony declares them husband and wife. Then the bride and groom kiss. VOICE TWO: Many couples ask for special music at their weddings. Some currently requested popular songs for weddings include “Ribbon in the Sky," written and sung by Stevie Wonder. A musician who plays the organ at a Bethesda, Maryland, Roman Catholic religious center says he is often asked to play special music. He says wedding couples at the church often request classics like “Hornpipe” from “Water Music” by George Frideric Handel. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach also is a popular choice of wedding couples. Listen now to Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Couples planning their weddings can get advice in many different ways. They can ask their married friends. They can study magazines published especially for people getting married. Couples may hire a wedding planner to help them with their preparations. For example, the planner helps the bride find a wedding dress. The planner helps find a place for the party after the ceremony. This person organizes the food, the music and all the details for the party. VOICE TWO: Couples also can use the Internet computer system to prepare for their wedding. The bride and groom can use the Internet to communicate with family members and friends who will take part in the celebration. They can look at pictures of wedding clothes. They can choose flowers. They can decide where to hold the wedding party, and what foods and drinks will be served. They can study where to take their trip after the wedding. This trip is called the “honeymoon.” They can buy airplane tickets and decide on a hotel. VOICE ONE: Some couples who are planning a wedding also establish their own Web sites. This way, they can provide needed information to people invited to the wedding from distant places. The Web site advises guests about places to stay and things to do in the area. It provides maps showing how to reach the place where the wedding will be. It can help them find the place where the wedding dinner will be served. VOICE TWO: Wedding guests traditionally give gifts to the bride and groom. Computer technology also is making it easier for guests to find the perfect gift. Sometimes guests can do this without leaving home. For example, people who are getting married can go to a store and choose gifts they would like to receive. These include things for their home like dishes and cooking equipment. The store can print a list of all these things. This list also can be found on the Internet. Guests can buy a gift at the store or on the Internet and have it sent to the couple. VOICE ONE: Sometimes the bride and groom give gifts to their guests. These gifts may be small baskets filled with candy and little bottles of wine. The baskets may contain objects that will help guests remember the wedding celebration. For example, a bride from New York City loves chocolate candy. Her gift baskets included large chocolate candies in the shape of hearts. The couple’s names and the date of their wedding ceremony were written on the candies. There is another way that guests can remember a wedding. There are small cameras that do not cost much and are used to take only about twenty or thirty pictures. Many couples give such a camera to each group of guests at the party after the ceremony. The guests take pictures of all the other guests sitting around their table. Later, the wedding couple or their families develop the film and send copies of these pictures to all the guests. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sometimes people have simple weddings so they can take a costly trip. Many travel companies offer trips for the wedding couple to faraway places. For example, a bride and groom can enjoy a wedding trip to a historic castle in Britain. Or they can sail to islands in the Caribbean Sea on a large ship. Some people have nontraditional weddings. They may have their wedding at home, sometimes in a garden if the weather is nice. Friends may provide food and play music for the party after the ceremony. Other couples are married by a judge in a public building. VOICE ONE: Still other couples choose a special place for their wedding ceremony. For example, a young American bride and her Brazilian husband were married recently in a historic home owned by the Audubon Naturalist Society. The huge home, called Woodend, is in Chevy Chase, Maryland. John Russell Pope designed the home in the nineteen-twenties for a wealthy couple. Pope was the designer of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D-C. VOICE TWO: Many couples plan weddings that include traditions from their cultures. For example, one recent bride is from Shanghai, China. She is finishing graduate studies in the United States. The groom is an American lawyer. Their ceremony honored both his Jewish religious traditions and her Chinese customs. A Protestant clergyman in the state of Maryland has performed hundreds of wedding ceremonies over the years. He advises couples to remember that their wedding takes place in a single day. But he says their feelings for one another must last a lifetime. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: June 9, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Almost two-and-one-half-million marriages are performed each year in the United States. June is one of the most popular months for these wedding ceremonies. I’m Steve Ember with Doug Johnson. Today we report about weddings on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The music you just heard is called “Trumpet Voluntary.” Every year, many Americans hear this music during their marriage ceremonies. They are among almost five-million Americans who become husband and wife each year. Some of these people will have a traditional wedding ceremony in a religious center, a hotel or a social club. These couples may invite hundreds of people to their celebrations. VOICE ONE: Other couples will have a simple ceremony. They will invite only close family members and friends. They may not have the money to spend on a big wedding. Or they may want to save money for a wedding trip to a faraway place or to help them buy a house. Americans get married in different ways. But the meaning of all these weddings is the same. The wedding couple -- the bride and groom -- traditionally promise to spend the rest of their lives together. VOICE TWO: Big weddings have created a huge business in the United States. A big wedding requires lots of special clothing, flowers, food preparation, photographs and music. Traditionally, the bride’s parents plan and pay for the wedding. Sometimes the groom’s parents share this responsibility. Today many Americans are older when they get married. So they often organize and pay for their own weddings. VOICE ONE: There are many wedding traditions in the United States. But many ceremonies share common customs. The bride often wears a long white dress and a white head-covering called a veil. Some brides wear four other traditional things: Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. And something blue. These four things are supposed to bring her good luck. She and the groom accept each other as husband and wife. Traditionally, they promise to love and honor each other always. The groom places a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the bride’s left hand. In some ceremonies, the bride places a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the groom’s left hand. The person performing the ceremony declares them husband and wife. Then the bride and groom kiss. VOICE TWO: Many couples ask for special music at their weddings. Some currently requested popular songs for weddings include “Ribbon in the Sky," written and sung by Stevie Wonder. A musician who plays the organ at a Bethesda, Maryland, Roman Catholic religious center says he is often asked to play special music. He says wedding couples at the church often request classics like “Hornpipe” from “Water Music” by George Frideric Handel. Music by Johann Sebastian Bach also is a popular choice of wedding couples. Listen now to Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Couples planning their weddings can get advice in many different ways. They can ask their married friends. They can study magazines published especially for people getting married. Couples may hire a wedding planner to help them with their preparations. For example, the planner helps the bride find a wedding dress. The planner helps find a place for the party after the ceremony. This person organizes the food, the music and all the details for the party. VOICE TWO: Couples also can use the Internet computer system to prepare for their wedding. The bride and groom can use the Internet to communicate with family members and friends who will take part in the celebration. They can look at pictures of wedding clothes. They can choose flowers. They can decide where to hold the wedding party, and what foods and drinks will be served. They can study where to take their trip after the wedding. This trip is called the “honeymoon.” They can buy airplane tickets and decide on a hotel. VOICE ONE: Some couples who are planning a wedding also establish their own Web sites. This way, they can provide needed information to people invited to the wedding from distant places. The Web site advises guests about places to stay and things to do in the area. It provides maps showing how to reach the place where the wedding will be. It can help them find the place where the wedding dinner will be served. VOICE TWO: Wedding guests traditionally give gifts to the bride and groom. Computer technology also is making it easier for guests to find the perfect gift. Sometimes guests can do this without leaving home. For example, people who are getting married can go to a store and choose gifts they would like to receive. These include things for their home like dishes and cooking equipment. The store can print a list of all these things. This list also can be found on the Internet. Guests can buy a gift at the store or on the Internet and have it sent to the couple. VOICE ONE: Sometimes the bride and groom give gifts to their guests. These gifts may be small baskets filled with candy and little bottles of wine. The baskets may contain objects that will help guests remember the wedding celebration. For example, a bride from New York City loves chocolate candy. Her gift baskets included large chocolate candies in the shape of hearts. The couple’s names and the date of their wedding ceremony were written on the candies. There is another way that guests can remember a wedding. There are small cameras that do not cost much and are used to take only about twenty or thirty pictures. Many couples give such a camera to each group of guests at the party after the ceremony. The guests take pictures of all the other guests sitting around their table. Later, the wedding couple or their families develop the film and send copies of these pictures to all the guests. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Sometimes people have simple weddings so they can take a costly trip. Many travel companies offer trips for the wedding couple to faraway places. For example, a bride and groom can enjoy a wedding trip to a historic castle in Britain. Or they can sail to islands in the Caribbean Sea on a large ship. Some people have nontraditional weddings. They may have their wedding at home, sometimes in a garden if the weather is nice. Friends may provide food and play music for the party after the ceremony. Other couples are married by a judge in a public building. VOICE ONE: Still other couples choose a special place for their wedding ceremony. For example, a young American bride and her Brazilian husband were married recently in a historic home owned by the Audubon Naturalist Society. The huge home, called Woodend, is in Chevy Chase, Maryland. John Russell Pope designed the home in the nineteen-twenties for a wealthy couple. Pope was the designer of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D-C. VOICE TWO: Many couples plan weddings that include traditions from their cultures. For example, one recent bride is from Shanghai, China. She is finishing graduate studies in the United States. The groom is an American lawyer. Their ceremony honored both his Jewish religious traditions and her Chinese customs. A Protestant clergyman in the state of Maryland has performed hundreds of wedding ceremonies over the years. He advises couples to remember that their wedding takes place in a single day. But he says their feelings for one another must last a lifetime. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Changing Soybean Market
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 10, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. It is hard to imagine that a small seed like the soybean could be so important. But it is a big export crop for many countries. At the same time, soybeans are in great demand. We may think of wheat and corn as the most valuable crops. Of course, they remain very important. But in many ways, the soybean is even more valuable. The soybean is high in protein and carbohydrates. Its fat can be made into oil. Soybeans are used to make food for people and farm animals. Per hectare of land, the soybean can produce ten times more protein than beef cattle. These are some of the reasons why soybeans have become one of the three major crops. The United States Department of Agriculture studies the world’s crop production. It released a report in February. The report provides information that goes back more than twenty years. It also estimates what world markets will be like up to two-thousand-twelve. The report says that the use of soybeans has increased for more than twenty years. The amount of exported soybeans is about equal to wheat. Corn remains the biggest export crop. But, soybean prices remain about two times as high as those of wheat and corn. Soybean prices have remained strong in America because crop surpluses are never very great. In the mid-nineteen-eighties, corn and wheat surpluses were extremely large. Prices dropped sharply. Today, soybean surpluses are as small as they have ever been in relation to the amount used. Yet, world competition is strong. In years past, soybeans from the United States filled the world market. Today, Argentina and Brazil have equaled the United States in soybean exports. The European Union and China are major importers. The Department of Agriculture expects South American production to continue to grow. It expects Brazil to become the world’s biggest soybean exporter in a few years. This is because Brazil is increasing the amount of land used for crops at a high rate. Some experts worry that soybeans may not remain a competitive crop for the United States. They think that American farmers may begin to import soybean products to feed their animals. This new competition also could drive prices lower. Yet, the government estimates that demand in the United States will continue to increase -- protecting prices. With expanding markets everywhere, the little soybean is a big part of the world agricultural market. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Broadcast: June 10, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. It is hard to imagine that a small seed like the soybean could be so important. But it is a big export crop for many countries. At the same time, soybeans are in great demand. We may think of wheat and corn as the most valuable crops. Of course, they remain very important. But in many ways, the soybean is even more valuable. The soybean is high in protein and carbohydrates. Its fat can be made into oil. Soybeans are used to make food for people and farm animals. Per hectare of land, the soybean can produce ten times more protein than beef cattle. These are some of the reasons why soybeans have become one of the three major crops. The United States Department of Agriculture studies the world’s crop production. It released a report in February. The report provides information that goes back more than twenty years. It also estimates what world markets will be like up to two-thousand-twelve. The report says that the use of soybeans has increased for more than twenty years. The amount of exported soybeans is about equal to wheat. Corn remains the biggest export crop. But, soybean prices remain about two times as high as those of wheat and corn. Soybean prices have remained strong in America because crop surpluses are never very great. In the mid-nineteen-eighties, corn and wheat surpluses were extremely large. Prices dropped sharply. Today, soybean surpluses are as small as they have ever been in relation to the amount used. Yet, world competition is strong. In years past, soybeans from the United States filled the world market. Today, Argentina and Brazil have equaled the United States in soybean exports. The European Union and China are major importers. The Department of Agriculture expects South American production to continue to grow. It expects Brazil to become the world’s biggest soybean exporter in a few years. This is because Brazil is increasing the amount of land used for crops at a high rate. Some experts worry that soybeans may not remain a competitive crop for the United States. They think that American farmers may begin to import soybean products to feed their animals. This new competition also could drive prices lower. Yet, the government estimates that demand in the United States will continue to increase -- protecting prices. With expanding markets everywhere, the little soybean is a big part of the world agricultural market. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - US Plan to Fight AIDS / HIV Rates Down in Some African Cities / Treating Malaria
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 10, 2003 (THEME) (Photos - World Health Organization) Broadcast: June 10, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- a look at developments in the fight against AIDS ... and, later, some advice about how to protect against malaria. Rakiya Madaki, responsible for a clinic near Abuja, Nigeria, shows how to work chemicals into a net.(Photo - World Health Organization) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: Today -- a look at developments in the fight against AIDS ... and, later, some advice about how to protect against malaria. (THEME) VOICE ONE: President Bush has signed legislation to help prevent and treat AIDS in twelve African countries and two Caribbean countries. The president said the United States has a moral duty to take action against the disease. He compared American efforts to fight AIDS to the United States' rebuilding of Europe after World War Two. President Bush first announced what he called an Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief during his State of the Union speech in January. The plan calls for fifteen-thousand-million dollars in spending over five years. Congress must approve the yearly amounts. Eighty percent of the money is to go to treatment and care. Twenty percent will go to prevention activities. Of that share, one-third must be spent on programs that teach only abstinence, the traditional idea not to have sex before marriage. Some health groups do not like the fact that organizations that teach abstinence-only will get money. Other groups do not want any of the money to go to organizations that also provide abortions to end unwanted pregnancies. The White House negotiated a compromise in the final law passed by Congress. Organizations that provide abortions may still receive money to fight AIDS as long as they record exactly how all the money is spent. Special protection is needed to handle the insecticide.(Photo - World Health Organization) (THEME) VOICE ONE: President Bush has signed legislation to help prevent and treat AIDS in twelve African countries and two Caribbean countries. The president said the United States has a moral duty to take action against the disease. He compared American efforts to fight AIDS to the United States' rebuilding of Europe after World War Two. President Bush first announced what he called an Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief during his State of the Union speech in January. The plan calls for fifteen-thousand-million dollars in spending over five years. Congress must approve the yearly amounts. Eighty percent of the money is to go to treatment and care. Twenty percent will go to prevention activities. Of that share, one-third must be spent on programs that teach only abstinence, the traditional idea not to have sex before marriage. Some health groups do not like the fact that organizations that teach abstinence-only will get money. Other groups do not want any of the money to go to organizations that also provide abortions to end unwanted pregnancies. The White House negotiated a compromise in the final law passed by Congress. Organizations that provide abortions may still receive money to fight AIDS as long as they record exactly how all the money is spent. VOICE TWO: The African countries to receive aid include Botswana, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique and Namibia. The others are Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The two Caribbean countries are Guyana and Haiti.Peter Piot, director of the United Nations AIDS program, strongly praised the legislation. But Doctor Piot says there is still a long way to go for nations to increase spending to the levels needed to prevent and treat AIDS. He says ninety-five percent of the people with AIDS do not receive medicines that can save their lives. President Bush signed the bill in late May before he traveled to Evian, France, for the yearly Group of Eight Summit. He said every day of delay means eight-thousand more AIDS deaths in Africa and fourteen-thousand more infections. Mister Bush and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia discussed AIDS, among other issues. The leaders agreed to strengthen the United Nations program called the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than twenty million people with AIDS have died over the past twenty years. But a new report shows that rates of infection are falling in cities in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The report is from the United States Census Bureau and the Agency for International Development. This is the first time since AIDS was first discovered twenty years ago that rates of infection are dropping in sub-Saharan Africa. The study also found that the increase in H-I-V rates has slowed in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, the Republic of Congo and Senegal. U-N AIDS program director Peter Piot expressed hope in comments published in the Boston Globe newspaper. But he said it is too early to call the findings a victory. He added, however, that the reductions among young people in some cities -- such as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Lusaka, Zambia -- likely show the effects of prevention efforts there. VOICE TWO: AIDS is caused by H-I-V which stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is carried in body fluids. It can spread when people have sex or share needles used for taking drugs. H-I-V can also spread from mother to baby. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. When people have AIDS, their bodies are not able to protect them against other diseases. There is no cure for AIDS, but there are medicines to control the virus. There are also ways to fight the spread of the disease. Nine percent or almost one-out-of-ten of all AIDS cases in the world are in Ethiopia. Many different programs in that country tell people how to prevent the spread of AIDS. For the past three years, a Washington-based organization called D-K-T International has printed advice on shopping carts, buses and umbrellas. It has also put the messages on radio and television. The messages tell about abstinence as a way to prevent AIDS. They urge people to remain loyal to their partner if they do have a sexual relationship. D-K-T also passed out sixty-seven million condoms in Ethiopia last year. Men wear condoms during sex as a way to prevent the creation of babies and the spread of disease. VOICE ONE: A health worker with D-K-T in Ethiopia says many girls find it difficult to talk about sex or condoms. That may be changing, though, in part because of the group's radio programs. It began these programs in two-thousand, directed to populations that live away from cities. The characters, like one named "Ebissa," have everyday problems and talk easily about ways to plan their families and prevent AIDS. One listener said the program influenced her to visit a health care worker and not have more children. A nurse said more people asked for family planning services after hearing about them on the radio. These services help people to decide if, and when, they want to start a family or have more children. D-K-T also worked with the Ethiopian military to make a movie about protecting families from H-I-V and AIDS. All soldiers began to receive condoms and information about AIDS when they returned home from duty outside Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Evangelical Church and the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council also offer prevention services. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Malaria is a major killer in developing countries. The World Health Organization says more than three-hundred million people get severe cases of malaria each year. At least one-million die. Most of these deaths happen in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. And most of the victims are children. Experts say one of the most successful ways to prevent malaria is to sleep under a net treated with chemicals that kill the insects that carry malaria. Malaria is spread through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes. They leave an organism, a one-celled parasite, inside a person’s body. Malaria can be cured but it is a long and difficult process. It is easier to prevent malaria. VOICE ONE: Mosquitoes are most active at night. It is most important that children and women who may be pregnant or plan to become pregnant sleep under treated nets. Children do not have the protection that adults sometimes have to fight the disease. Women are more likely to get malaria when they become pregnant. The disease can produce a lack of iron in the mother's blood. Also, pregnant women with malaria are more likely to have babies with low birth weight. International health organizations and some governments are trying to make sure that it is easy to get nets that are good quality and do not cost too much. The net should hang from a wall or roof and cover the bed or sleeping mat. The bottom of the net should be placed under the bed or mat so mosquitoes cannot get inside. For people who sleep outside, the nets can be tied to sticks or a tree. Nets need to be treated again with insecticide at least once a year or after they have been washed three times. Insecticides are the chemicals that kill the mosquitoes. The nets should not be washed in rivers or lakes. The chemicals can get into the water and kill small fish. Water used for washing a net should be put into the ground away from animals or people. VOICE ONE: A good time to treat the net is just before the rainy season. Sometimes there are health centers or other places that will treat nets. Nets can also be treated at home. The net must sit in a pan of water mixed with chemicals. You should wear gloves so your hands do not touch the chemical. Any of the water and chemicals left after treating the net can be used to treat curtains for windows and doors. Health experts say it is important to use the treated net every night of the year, even if you do not hear mosquitoes. (THEME) SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: The African countries to receive aid include Botswana, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique and Namibia. The others are Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The two Caribbean countries are Guyana and Haiti.Peter Piot, director of the United Nations AIDS program, strongly praised the legislation. But Doctor Piot says there is still a long way to go for nations to increase spending to the levels needed to prevent and treat AIDS. He says ninety-five percent of the people with AIDS do not receive medicines that can save their lives. President Bush signed the bill in late May before he traveled to Evian, France, for the yearly Group of Eight Summit. He said every day of delay means eight-thousand more AIDS deaths in Africa and fourteen-thousand more infections. Mister Bush and the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia discussed AIDS, among other issues. The leaders agreed to strengthen the United Nations program called the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: More than twenty million people with AIDS have died over the past twenty years. But a new report shows that rates of infection are falling in cities in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The report is from the United States Census Bureau and the Agency for International Development. This is the first time since AIDS was first discovered twenty years ago that rates of infection are dropping in sub-Saharan Africa. The study also found that the increase in H-I-V rates has slowed in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, the Republic of Congo and Senegal. U-N AIDS program director Peter Piot expressed hope in comments published in the Boston Globe newspaper. But he said it is too early to call the findings a victory. He added, however, that the reductions among young people in some cities -- such as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Lusaka, Zambia -- likely show the effects of prevention efforts there. VOICE TWO: AIDS is caused by H-I-V which stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is carried in body fluids. It can spread when people have sex or share needles used for taking drugs. H-I-V can also spread from mother to baby. AIDS is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. When people have AIDS, their bodies are not able to protect them against other diseases. There is no cure for AIDS, but there are medicines to control the virus. There are also ways to fight the spread of the disease. Nine percent or almost one-out-of-ten of all AIDS cases in the world are in Ethiopia. Many different programs in that country tell people how to prevent the spread of AIDS. For the past three years, a Washington-based organization called D-K-T International has printed advice on shopping carts, buses and umbrellas. It has also put the messages on radio and television. The messages tell about abstinence as a way to prevent AIDS. They urge people to remain loyal to their partner if they do have a sexual relationship. D-K-T also passed out sixty-seven million condoms in Ethiopia last year. Men wear condoms during sex as a way to prevent the creation of babies and the spread of disease. VOICE ONE: A health worker with D-K-T in Ethiopia says many girls find it difficult to talk about sex or condoms. That may be changing, though, in part because of the group's radio programs. It began these programs in two-thousand, directed to populations that live away from cities. The characters, like one named "Ebissa," have everyday problems and talk easily about ways to plan their families and prevent AIDS. One listener said the program influenced her to visit a health care worker and not have more children. A nurse said more people asked for family planning services after hearing about them on the radio. These services help people to decide if, and when, they want to start a family or have more children. D-K-T also worked with the Ethiopian military to make a movie about protecting families from H-I-V and AIDS. All soldiers began to receive condoms and information about AIDS when they returned home from duty outside Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Evangelical Church and the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council also offer prevention services. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Malaria is a major killer in developing countries. The World Health Organization says more than three-hundred million people get severe cases of malaria each year. At least one-million die. Most of these deaths happen in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. And most of the victims are children. Experts say one of the most successful ways to prevent malaria is to sleep under a net treated with chemicals that kill the insects that carry malaria. Malaria is spread through the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes. They leave an organism, a one-celled parasite, inside a person’s body. Malaria can be cured but it is a long and difficult process. It is easier to prevent malaria. VOICE ONE: Mosquitoes are most active at night. It is most important that children and women who may be pregnant or plan to become pregnant sleep under treated nets. Children do not have the protection that adults sometimes have to fight the disease. Women are more likely to get malaria when they become pregnant. The disease can produce a lack of iron in the mother's blood. Also, pregnant women with malaria are more likely to have babies with low birth weight. International health organizations and some governments are trying to make sure that it is easy to get nets that are good quality and do not cost too much. The net should hang from a wall or roof and cover the bed or sleeping mat. The bottom of the net should be placed under the bed or mat so mosquitoes cannot get inside. For people who sleep outside, the nets can be tied to sticks or a tree. Nets need to be treated again with insecticide at least once a year or after they have been washed three times. Insecticides are the chemicals that kill the mosquitoes. The nets should not be washed in rivers or lakes. The chemicals can get into the water and kill small fish. Water used for washing a net should be put into the ground away from animals or people. VOICE ONE: A good time to treat the net is just before the rainy season. Sometimes there are health centers or other places that will treat nets. Nets can also be treated at home. The net must sit in a pan of water mixed with chemicals. You should wear gloves so your hands do not touch the chemical. Any of the water and chemicals left after treating the net can be used to treat curtains for windows and doors. Health experts say it is important to use the treated net every night of the year, even if you do not hear mosquitoes. (THEME) SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - June 11, 2003: Longitude
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how people learned an important piece of information necessary for safely sailing on the oceans. It is called longitude. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about how people learned an important piece of information necessary for safely sailing on the oceans. It is called longitude. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On a foggy October night in 1707, four English navy ships hit rocks in the Atlantic Ocean and sank. Two-thousand men drowned. The ships had been sailing in the thick fog for twelve days. There was no sure way to know where they were. The commander of the ships had been worried that they could hit rocks if they were not careful. He asked his navigators for their opinion on their location in the ocean. The navigators did not really know. They told the commander they thought they were west of a small island near the coast of northwestern France. They were wrong. Instead, they sailed onto rocks near a small group of islands southwest of England's Atlantic coast. The navigators' lack of knowledge led to the loss of four ships and two-thousand lives. VOICE TWO: When people began sailing out of sight of land, sailors did not know how to tell where they were on the open sea. Land travelers can look at a mountain,or a river, or an object that shows them where they are in relation to where they came from. On the ocean, however, there is no sign to tell a sailor where he is. The most important device for knowing directions on the ocean is a compass. A compass is a device containing a metal object that points toward the magnetic north pole. This shows navigators the direction of north, and therefore also south, east, and west. But sailors need more information to sail safely on the open sea. VOICE ONE: Most maps of the world show lines that are not on the Earth's surface. One line is the equator. It is an imaginary line around the widest part of the Earth. There are similar lines both north and south of the equator. These circles become smaller and smaller toward the north pole and the south pole. These lines, or circles, are parallel - meaning that they are equally distant from each other at any point around the world. These lines show what is called latitude. A navigator can know the latitude of his ship by observing the location of stars, where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, and what time of year it is. With this information he knows where his ship is in relation to the north or south pole and the equator. VOICE TWO: Still, there is one more important piece of information necessary for safely sailing the oceans. For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude. The lines of longitude go the other way from latitude lines. They stretch from the north pole to the south pole, and back again in great circles of the same size. All of the lines of longitude meet at the top and bottom of the world. In her book, Longitude, writer Dava Sobel tells the story about longitude and how the problem of knowing it was solved. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For centuries, the great scientists of the world struggled to develop a way to learn longitude. To learn longitude at any place requires knowledge about time. A navigator needs to know what time it is on his ship and also the time at another place of known longitude - at the very same moment. The Earth takes twenty-four hours to complete one full turn or revolution of three-hundred-sixty degrees. One hour marks one twenty-fourth of a turn, or fifteen degrees. So each hour's time difference between the ship and the starting point marks a ship's progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. Those fifteen degrees of longitude mark a distance traveled. At the equator, where the Earth is widest, fifteen degrees stretches about one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers. North or south of that line, however, the distance value of each degree decreases. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time all around the world. But in measuring distance, one degree shrinks from about one-hundred-nine kilometers at the Equator to nothing at the north and south poles. VOICE TWO: For many centuries, navigators hoped they could find longitude by observing the movement of stars at night. During the day, the sun provided information about the time on a ship, and its direction. However, it did not provide necessary information about the time somewhere else. In the Sixteenth century, one astronomer suggested that navigators could observe the moon as it passed in front of different known stars to tell longitude. But, there was not enough information about the stars to use this method effectively. Astronomers could not tell exactly where the moon would be from one night or day to the next. Yet it seemed to those seeking to solve the longitude problem that the only solution was in the moon and stars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the Seventeenth Century, English astronomers began a major effort to map the stars and their relationship to the moon as it passed across the sky. Royal Astronomer John Flamsteed worked at this task for forty years. The next Royal Astronomer, Edmund Halley, spent another forty years gathering information about the moon's orbit. After many years of gathering the necessary information, it became possible to learn longitude by observing the stars and the moon. In Seventeen-Sixty- Six, Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne published the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris. It contained all the necessary information about the moon and stars that sailors would need to help them learn their longitude. This new method was not simple. A navigator had to use complex observing instruments to note the position of the moon and stars. Then he had to seek the correct information in the Nautical Almanac about the moon and stars at that time of night or day. The final step in the process was to take the mathematical information from the book, link it to the current information and solve the resulting problem. This took an average of four hours to do. VOICE TWO: While scientists were studying the stars and moon to solve the longitude problem, a man named John Harrison was working on another project. He was trying to build a clock that would help sailors learn longitude. His task also was difficult and complex. Mister Harrison had to develop a clock that was not affected by the movement of a ship on the ocean or changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure. He began developing his clock in 1730. It took five years to complete. The complex device weighed thirty-four kilograms. Several years later, Mister Harrison built a second clock. It was smaller, but weighed more than the first. Mister Harrison was not satisfied and began working on yet another device. Twenty years later, he completed a device that was smaller than the first two, and weighed less. But, still Mister Harrison was not satisfied. Two years later, in 1757, he produced a small clock that he could hold in his hand. The clock could tell the correct time in two places, meeting the requirements for learning longitude on the sea. VOICE ONE: For many years after Mister Harrison's work was completed, the idea of using a clock to learn longitude was rejected. However, that opinion changed when manufacturers learned how to make better and less costly versions of Mister Harrison's clocks. The clocks became known as chronometers. By 1815, five-thousand chronometers were in use on ships sailing the world's oceans. The complex documents and mathematical work were no longer necessary. Almost any sailor could tell what his longitude was by simply looking at a clock. The world had changed. VOICE TWO: John Harrison's clocks can be seen today at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The first three are still operating, showing the correct time. To look at them is to see the simple solution to a problem that worried people for many centuries. Today, the solution to the problem is so common that it is difficult to understand that there was a problem at all. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Alaby. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: On a foggy October night in 1707, four English navy ships hit rocks in the Atlantic Ocean and sank. Two-thousand men drowned. The ships had been sailing in the thick fog for twelve days. There was no sure way to know where they were. The commander of the ships had been worried that they could hit rocks if they were not careful. He asked his navigators for their opinion on their location in the ocean. The navigators did not really know. They told the commander they thought they were west of a small island near the coast of northwestern France. They were wrong. Instead, they sailed onto rocks near a small group of islands southwest of England's Atlantic coast. The navigators' lack of knowledge led to the loss of four ships and two-thousand lives. VOICE TWO: When people began sailing out of sight of land, sailors did not know how to tell where they were on the open sea. Land travelers can look at a mountain,or a river, or an object that shows them where they are in relation to where they came from. On the ocean, however, there is no sign to tell a sailor where he is. The most important device for knowing directions on the ocean is a compass. A compass is a device containing a metal object that points toward the magnetic north pole. This shows navigators the direction of north, and therefore also south, east, and west. But sailors need more information to sail safely on the open sea. VOICE ONE: Most maps of the world show lines that are not on the Earth's surface. One line is the equator. It is an imaginary line around the widest part of the Earth. There are similar lines both north and south of the equator. These circles become smaller and smaller toward the north pole and the south pole. These lines, or circles, are parallel - meaning that they are equally distant from each other at any point around the world. These lines show what is called latitude. A navigator can know the latitude of his ship by observing the location of stars, where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, and what time of year it is. With this information he knows where his ship is in relation to the north or south pole and the equator. VOICE TWO: Still, there is one more important piece of information necessary for safely sailing the oceans. For many centuries, scientists, astronomers and inventors searched for a way to tell longitude. The lines of longitude go the other way from latitude lines. They stretch from the north pole to the south pole, and back again in great circles of the same size. All of the lines of longitude meet at the top and bottom of the world. In her book, Longitude, writer Dava Sobel tells the story about longitude and how the problem of knowing it was solved. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For centuries, the great scientists of the world struggled to develop a way to learn longitude. To learn longitude at any place requires knowledge about time. A navigator needs to know what time it is on his ship and also the time at another place of known longitude - at the very same moment. The Earth takes twenty-four hours to complete one full turn or revolution of three-hundred-sixty degrees. One hour marks one twenty-fourth of a turn, or fifteen degrees. So each hour's time difference between the ship and the starting point marks a ship's progress of fifteen degrees of longitude to the east or west. Those fifteen degrees of longitude mark a distance traveled. At the equator, where the Earth is widest, fifteen degrees stretches about one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers. North or south of that line, however, the distance value of each degree decreases. One degree of longitude equals four minutes of time all around the world. But in measuring distance, one degree shrinks from about one-hundred-nine kilometers at the Equator to nothing at the north and south poles. VOICE TWO: For many centuries, navigators hoped they could find longitude by observing the movement of stars at night. During the day, the sun provided information about the time on a ship, and its direction. However, it did not provide necessary information about the time somewhere else. In the Sixteenth century, one astronomer suggested that navigators could observe the moon as it passed in front of different known stars to tell longitude. But, there was not enough information about the stars to use this method effectively. Astronomers could not tell exactly where the moon would be from one night or day to the next. Yet it seemed to those seeking to solve the longitude problem that the only solution was in the moon and stars. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the Seventeenth Century, English astronomers began a major effort to map the stars and their relationship to the moon as it passed across the sky. Royal Astronomer John Flamsteed worked at this task for forty years. The next Royal Astronomer, Edmund Halley, spent another forty years gathering information about the moon's orbit. After many years of gathering the necessary information, it became possible to learn longitude by observing the stars and the moon. In Seventeen-Sixty- Six, Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne published the Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris. It contained all the necessary information about the moon and stars that sailors would need to help them learn their longitude. This new method was not simple. A navigator had to use complex observing instruments to note the position of the moon and stars. Then he had to seek the correct information in the Nautical Almanac about the moon and stars at that time of night or day. The final step in the process was to take the mathematical information from the book, link it to the current information and solve the resulting problem. This took an average of four hours to do. VOICE TWO: While scientists were studying the stars and moon to solve the longitude problem, a man named John Harrison was working on another project. He was trying to build a clock that would help sailors learn longitude. His task also was difficult and complex. Mister Harrison had to develop a clock that was not affected by the movement of a ship on the ocean or changes in temperature or atmospheric pressure. He began developing his clock in 1730. It took five years to complete. The complex device weighed thirty-four kilograms. Several years later, Mister Harrison built a second clock. It was smaller, but weighed more than the first. Mister Harrison was not satisfied and began working on yet another device. Twenty years later, he completed a device that was smaller than the first two, and weighed less. But, still Mister Harrison was not satisfied. Two years later, in 1757, he produced a small clock that he could hold in his hand. The clock could tell the correct time in two places, meeting the requirements for learning longitude on the sea. VOICE ONE: For many years after Mister Harrison's work was completed, the idea of using a clock to learn longitude was rejected. However, that opinion changed when manufacturers learned how to make better and less costly versions of Mister Harrison's clocks. The clocks became known as chronometers. By 1815, five-thousand chronometers were in use on ships sailing the world's oceans. The complex documents and mathematical work were no longer necessary. Almost any sailor could tell what his longitude was by simply looking at a clock. The world had changed. VOICE TWO: John Harrison's clocks can be seen today at the Old Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The first three are still operating, showing the correct time. To look at them is to see the simple solution to a problem that worried people for many centuries. Today, the solution to the problem is so common that it is difficult to understand that there was a problem at all. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Alaby. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Another Danger of Hormone Replacement Therapy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 11, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. New research has found another danger of hormone replacement therapy. The therapy studied involved the hormone progestin mixed with the hormone estrogen. Women's bodies stop producing estrogen at about age fifty. This period of life is called menopause. Until recently, medical experts believed that estrogen and progestin could protect older women from heart disease, breast cancer and memory loss. But last year American researchers found that this therapy increased the chance of breast cancer and heart problems. The researchers halted a national women's health study early. Now, related research shows that the same therapy increases the chance of memory loss and brain damage in women over age sixty-five. The study found two times the chance of the condition called dementia, compared to women who took an inactive substance. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results. It also published findings of an increase in the chance of a stroke. All these findings are from the Women's Health Initiative by the National Institutes of Health. This involved the largest and most scientific study ever done to test the effect of hormone replacement on disease prevention. More than sixteen-thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine took part. The research involved a drug called Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. The lead researcher of the new study says the results show there is no reason for an older woman to take this kind of therapy. Researchers continue to study the effects of estrogen alone. Medical experts now say women should use hormone replacement therapy only to ease signs of menopause, such as feeling what are called hot flashes. They say women should use it for no more than two years. They note that women can protect their health as they get older with exercise and, if needed, with other drugs. The maker of Prempro, Wyeth, provided the drug for the study. The company has added the new findings to its product information. But it says the importance to younger women is unclear. Wyeth said it is well known that the risk of dementia increases with age. It says that today most users of hormone therapy are younger, newly menopausal women. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: June 11, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. New research has found another danger of hormone replacement therapy. The therapy studied involved the hormone progestin mixed with the hormone estrogen. Women's bodies stop producing estrogen at about age fifty. This period of life is called menopause. Until recently, medical experts believed that estrogen and progestin could protect older women from heart disease, breast cancer and memory loss. But last year American researchers found that this therapy increased the chance of breast cancer and heart problems. The researchers halted a national women's health study early. Now, related research shows that the same therapy increases the chance of memory loss and brain damage in women over age sixty-five. The study found two times the chance of the condition called dementia, compared to women who took an inactive substance. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the results. It also published findings of an increase in the chance of a stroke. All these findings are from the Women's Health Initiative by the National Institutes of Health. This involved the largest and most scientific study ever done to test the effect of hormone replacement on disease prevention. More than sixteen-thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine took part. The research involved a drug called Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. The lead researcher of the new study says the results show there is no reason for an older woman to take this kind of therapy. Researchers continue to study the effects of estrogen alone. Medical experts now say women should use hormone replacement therapy only to ease signs of menopause, such as feeling what are called hot flashes. They say women should use it for no more than two years. They note that women can protect their health as they get older with exercise and, if needed, with other drugs. The maker of Prempro, Wyeth, provided the drug for the study. The company has added the new findings to its product information. But it says the importance to younger women is unclear. Wyeth said it is well known that the risk of dementia increases with age. It says that today most users of hormone therapy are younger, newly menopausal women. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #16 - Transition to Constitution
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 12, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Frank Oliver. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs with the Special English history program THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Change has always been part of the history of the United States. Yet there has been very little national conflict. In more than two-hundred years, only one civil war was fought. In that war, during the Eighteen-Sixties, Northern states and Southern states fought against each other. Their bitter argument involved the right of the South to leave the Union and to deal with issues -- especially the issue of slavery -- in its own way. VOICE TWO: America's civil war lasted four years. Six-hundred-thousand men were killed or wounded. In the end, the slaves were freed, and the Union was saved. Abraham Lincoln was president during the civil war. He said the southern states did not have the right to leave the Union.Lincoln firmly believed that the Union of states was permanent under the Constitution. In fact, he noted, one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. His main goal was to save what the Constitution had created. VOICE ONE: One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government and guarantees the rights of all citizens. Its power is greater than any president,court, or legislature. In the coming weeks, we will tell the story of the United States Constitution. We will describe the drama of its birth in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. And we will describe the national debate over its approval. Before we do, however, we want to tell how that document provides for change without changing the basic system of government. VOICE TWO: If you ask Americans about their Constitution, they probably will talk about the Bill of Rights. These are the first ten changes, or amendments, to the Constitution. They contain the rights of all people in the United States. They have the most direct effect on people's lives. Among other things, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press. It also establishes rules to guarantee that a person suspected of a crime is treated fairly. VOICE ONE: The Bill of Rights was not part of the document signed at the convention in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. The delegates believed that political freedoms were basic human rights. So, some said it was not necessary to express such rights in a Constitution. Most Americans, however, wanted their rights guaranteed in writing. That is why most states approved the new Constitution only on condition that a Bill of Rights would be added. This was done, and the amendments became law in Seventeen-Ninety-One. VOICE TWO: One early amendment involved the method of choosing a president and vice president. In America's first presidential elections, the man who received the most votes became president. The man who received the second highest number of votes became vice president. It became necessary to change the Constitution, however, afters separate political parties developed. Then ballots had to show the names of each candidate for president and vice president. VOICE ONE: There were no other amendments for sixty years. The next one was born in the blood of civil war. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That document freed the slaves in the states that were rebelling against the Union. It was not until after Lincoln was murdered, however, that the states approved the Thirteenth Amendment to ban slavery everywhere in the country. The Fourteenth Amendment, approved in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight, said no state could limit the rights of any citizen. And the Fifteenth, approved two years later, said a person's right to vote could not be denied because of his race, color, or former condition of slavery. VOICE TWO: By the Eighteen-Nineties, the federal government needed more money than it was receiving from taxes on imports. It wanted to establish a tax on earnings. It took twenty years to win approval for the Sixteenth Amendment. The amendment permits the government to collect income taxes. Another amendment proposed in the early Nineteen-Hundreds was designed to change the method of electing United States Senators. or more than one-hundred years, Senators were elected by the legislatures of their states. The Seventeenth Amendment, approved in Nineteen-Thirteen, gave the people the right to elect Senators directly. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Nineteen, the states approved an amendment to ban the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Alcohol was prohibited. It could not be produced or sold legally anywhere in the United States. The amendment, however, did not stop the flow of alcohol. Criminal organizations found many ways to produce and sell it illegally. Finally, after thirteen years, Americans decided that Prohibition had failed. It had caused more problems than it had solved. So, in Nineteen-Thirty-Three, the states approved another Constitutional amendment to end the ban on alcohol. VOICE TWO: Other amendments in the Twentieth century include one that gives women the right to vote. It became part of the Constitution in Nineteen-Twenty. Another amendment limits a president to two four-year terms in office. And the Twenty-Sixth Amendment gives the right to vote to all persons who are at least eighteen years old. The Twenty-Seventh Amendment has one of the strangest stories of any amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment establishes a rule for increasing the pay of Senators and Representatives. It says there must be an election between the time Congress votes to increase its pay and the time the pay raise goes into effect. The amendment was first proposed in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. Like all amendments, it needed to be approved by three-fourths of the states. This did not happen until Nineteen-Ninety-Two. So, one of the first amendments to be proposed was the last amendment to become law. VOICE ONE: The twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution have not changed the basic system of goverment in the United States. The government still has three separate and equal parts: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The three parts balance each other. No part is greater than another. The first American states had no strong central government when they fought their war of independence from Britain in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. They cooperated under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The agreement provided for a Congress. But the Congress had few powers. Each state governed itself. VOICE TWO: When the war ended, the states owed millions of dollars to their soldiers. They also owed money to European nations that had supported the Americans against Britain. The new United States had no national money to pay the debts. There was an American dollar. But not everyone used it. And it did not have the same value everywhere. The situation led to economic ruin for many people. They could not pay the money they owed. They lost their property. They were put in prison. Militant groups took action to help them. They interfered with tax collectors. They terrorized judges and burned court buildings. VOICE ONE: The situation was especially bad in the northeast part of the country. In Massachusetts, a group led by a former soldier tried to seize guns and ammunition from the state military force. Shays' Rebellion, as it was called, was stopped. But from north to south, Americans were increasingly worried and frightened. Would the violence continue? Would the situation get worse? VOICE TWO: Many Americans distrusted the idea of a strong central government. After all, they had just fought a war to end British rule. Yet Americans of different ages, education, and social groups felt that something had to be done. If not, the new nation would fail before it had a chance to succeed. These were the opinions and feelings that led, in time, to the writing of the United States Constitution. That will be our story in the coming weeks of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Christine Johnson. I'm Frank Oliver. VOICE TWO: And I'm Tony Riggs. Join us again next time for another Special English program about the history of the United States. Broadcast: June 12, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Frank Oliver. VOICE TWO: And this is Tony Riggs with the Special English history program THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Change has always been part of the history of the United States. Yet there has been very little national conflict. In more than two-hundred years, only one civil war was fought. In that war, during the Eighteen-Sixties, Northern states and Southern states fought against each other. Their bitter argument involved the right of the South to leave the Union and to deal with issues -- especially the issue of slavery -- in its own way. VOICE TWO: America's civil war lasted four years. Six-hundred-thousand men were killed or wounded. In the end, the slaves were freed, and the Union was saved. Abraham Lincoln was president during the civil war. He said the southern states did not have the right to leave the Union.Lincoln firmly believed that the Union of states was permanent under the Constitution. In fact, he noted, one of the reasons for establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. His main goal was to save what the Constitution had created. VOICE ONE: One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government and guarantees the rights of all citizens. Its power is greater than any president,court, or legislature. In the coming weeks, we will tell the story of the United States Constitution. We will describe the drama of its birth in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. And we will describe the national debate over its approval. Before we do, however, we want to tell how that document provides for change without changing the basic system of government. VOICE TWO: If you ask Americans about their Constitution, they probably will talk about the Bill of Rights. These are the first ten changes, or amendments, to the Constitution. They contain the rights of all people in the United States. They have the most direct effect on people's lives. Among other things, the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech, religion, and the press. It also establishes rules to guarantee that a person suspected of a crime is treated fairly. VOICE ONE: The Bill of Rights was not part of the document signed at the convention in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. The delegates believed that political freedoms were basic human rights. So, some said it was not necessary to express such rights in a Constitution. Most Americans, however, wanted their rights guaranteed in writing. That is why most states approved the new Constitution only on condition that a Bill of Rights would be added. This was done, and the amendments became law in Seventeen-Ninety-One. VOICE TWO: One early amendment involved the method of choosing a president and vice president. In America's first presidential elections, the man who received the most votes became president. The man who received the second highest number of votes became vice president. It became necessary to change the Constitution, however, afters separate political parties developed. Then ballots had to show the names of each candidate for president and vice president. VOICE ONE: There were no other amendments for sixty years. The next one was born in the blood of civil war. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That document freed the slaves in the states that were rebelling against the Union. It was not until after Lincoln was murdered, however, that the states approved the Thirteenth Amendment to ban slavery everywhere in the country. The Fourteenth Amendment, approved in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight, said no state could limit the rights of any citizen. And the Fifteenth, approved two years later, said a person's right to vote could not be denied because of his race, color, or former condition of slavery. VOICE TWO: By the Eighteen-Nineties, the federal government needed more money than it was receiving from taxes on imports. It wanted to establish a tax on earnings. It took twenty years to win approval for the Sixteenth Amendment. The amendment permits the government to collect income taxes. Another amendment proposed in the early Nineteen-Hundreds was designed to change the method of electing United States Senators. or more than one-hundred years, Senators were elected by the legislatures of their states. The Seventeenth Amendment, approved in Nineteen-Thirteen, gave the people the right to elect Senators directly. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Nineteen, the states approved an amendment to ban the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol. Alcohol was prohibited. It could not be produced or sold legally anywhere in the United States. The amendment, however, did not stop the flow of alcohol. Criminal organizations found many ways to produce and sell it illegally. Finally, after thirteen years, Americans decided that Prohibition had failed. It had caused more problems than it had solved. So, in Nineteen-Thirty-Three, the states approved another Constitutional amendment to end the ban on alcohol. VOICE TWO: Other amendments in the Twentieth century include one that gives women the right to vote. It became part of the Constitution in Nineteen-Twenty. Another amendment limits a president to two four-year terms in office. And the Twenty-Sixth Amendment gives the right to vote to all persons who are at least eighteen years old. The Twenty-Seventh Amendment has one of the strangest stories of any amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment establishes a rule for increasing the pay of Senators and Representatives. It says there must be an election between the time Congress votes to increase its pay and the time the pay raise goes into effect. The amendment was first proposed in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. Like all amendments, it needed to be approved by three-fourths of the states. This did not happen until Nineteen-Ninety-Two. So, one of the first amendments to be proposed was the last amendment to become law. VOICE ONE: The twenty-seven amendments added to the Constitution have not changed the basic system of goverment in the United States. The government still has three separate and equal parts: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The three parts balance each other. No part is greater than another. The first American states had no strong central government when they fought their war of independence from Britain in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. They cooperated under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The agreement provided for a Congress. But the Congress had few powers. Each state governed itself. VOICE TWO: When the war ended, the states owed millions of dollars to their soldiers. They also owed money to European nations that had supported the Americans against Britain. The new United States had no national money to pay the debts. There was an American dollar. But not everyone used it. And it did not have the same value everywhere. The situation led to economic ruin for many people. They could not pay the money they owed. They lost their property. They were put in prison. Militant groups took action to help them. They interfered with tax collectors. They terrorized judges and burned court buildings. VOICE ONE: The situation was especially bad in the northeast part of the country. In Massachusetts, a group led by a former soldier tried to seize guns and ammunition from the state military force. Shays' Rebellion, as it was called, was stopped. But from north to south, Americans were increasingly worried and frightened. Would the violence continue? Would the situation get worse? VOICE TWO: Many Americans distrusted the idea of a strong central government. After all, they had just fought a war to end British rule. Yet Americans of different ages, education, and social groups felt that something had to be done. If not, the new nation would fail before it had a chance to succeed. These were the opinions and feelings that led, in time, to the writing of the United States Constitution. That will be our story in the coming weeks of THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Christine Johnson. I'm Frank Oliver. VOICE TWO: And I'm Tony Riggs. Join us again next time for another Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - June 12, 2003: Commission Finds Poor Writing in U.S. Schools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A report by educators in the United States says students in American schools and colleges need to write better. The National Commission on Writing in America’s Schools and Colleges produced the report. The commission includes university leaders, public school officials, teachers and writing experts. A private organization, the College Board, established the commission. The report says writing helps people think more clearly and is necessary for educational and professional success. But it says many schools are not giving enough attention to writing. It says students are getting fewer writing projects from their teachers. Many teachers say they have too many students and not enough time to grade their work. The commission found that most fourth-grade students spend less than three hours a week writing. It says they spend many more hours watching television. It says about two-thirds of the nation’s twelfth-grade students write a three-page paper less often than once a month in their English classes. And seventy-five percent of high school seniors never receive a writing project in history or social studies classes. Further, recent studies found that more than fifty-percent of students in their first year of college could not put together information well enough to be communicated clearly to someone else. And the report said most of the writing contained language mistakes. Twenty years ago, the government released a report about problems in the educational system in the United States. A reform movement followed, but most efforts were put into teaching reading and math. Experts say that is changing now, because employers and teachers are deeply concerned about the writing skills of American students. Programs are increasing throughout the nation to aid teachers. And both of the major college-entrance tests, the S-A-T and the A-C-T, are being changed to include writing tests. The commission’s report is to be followed by a five-year campaign led by former Senator Bob Kerrey to put its suggestions into effect. The campaign will urge lawmakers and educators to increase writing programs in schools. The commission also calls on educators and businesses to work together to develop technology to help teach writing and measure writing quality. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 12, 2003 - Advertising to Latinos
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 12, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- finding the right language to speak to what is now the nation's largest minority group. RS: According to the Census Bureau, the United States has 37 million people of Hispanic or Latino origin -- about 13 percent of the population. Hispanic and Latino are both names for people from Spanish-speaking cultures. Marketing consultant David Perez says of those 37 million, about one-third speak Spanish mostly, another third are bilingual; the rest prefer English. AA: Mister Perez, whose father is Bolivian, says generally those who prefer English -- like himself -- are born and raised here. Yet he says it's the Spanish speakers who get most of the attention of advertisers. To change that, he's helped start an industry group called the New Generation Latino Consortium. PEREZ: "Language has always gotten overlaid with the Hispanic market, there was always the assumption, 'Well, it's Spanish language.' And what we as a group have come together to say, well, that's not the only Hispanic market in the U.S. In fact, the largest segment of the Hispanic population in the U.S. is U.S.-born, bilingual or English dominant, and that is a population that has been largely ignored. RS: David Perez says young people often speak Spanish with their parents, but English with their siblings, friends and co-workers. Then there's something else they speak. PEREZ: "What is a very American phenomenon -- and this might be interesting to your listeners in South America -- is what we term Spanglish, the use of English and Spanish intertwined into communication. And you see that a lot with Puerto Ricans and people in New York and certainly in Mexican communities out in the Southwest. Many folks in South America really don't like the mixing of the two. They'll either say to you 'speak to me in Spanish or speak to me in English -- don't mix them up.' But yet for the young people it's a real personal expression." AA: "So let's talk a little bit about how Spanglish and Spanish and English play out in advertising, when companies are trying to reach that 'Hispanic audience' -- and we're talking about obviously people from Mexico to South America to Cuba and elsewhere -- how do they know which language to use and what sort of things do they put together?" PEREZ: "Well, first you have to start with segmenting your market -- who's the target. If you're trying to reach that middle kind of bilingual person, we've used examples in the past where you can use Spanish words in, say, a print ad -- one or two words in Spanish sprinkled in lets you know, one, we're targeting you and, two, when it's done correctly, really connects more on an emotional level. It's rarely effective to try to force a Spanglish ad. If it's forced, it comes across as inauthentic and phony." RS: "Now, this marketing could be in newspapers or magazines or on the radio or television -- what are some of the trends that you're seeing?" PEREZ: "Well, traditionally, when people thought of Hispanic marketing or advertising, it was exclusively in Spanish language media. And the new trend, and part of what the New Generation Latino Consortium is about, is trying to break that mold, which says not all Latinos consume only Spanish language media. And many of these new generation Latinos consume much less Spanish language media -- they're watching MTV and 'The Simpsons' and reading People magazine and all these other types of media properties. So the trend is now to start to use English language media targeted to these Latinos but in a culturally relevant manner." RS: "Explain that, please." AA: "Is there an example?" PEREZ: "Well, one example was the Super Bowl last year -- this year. Levi's ran a spot -- they were introducing a new design of jeans -- and it was this boy walking down the street with these really rubbery looking legs, kind of dancing down the street. It was shot in Mexico. And the soundtrack of the music was Molotov, which is a Mexican alternative rock band. There was very little -- I don't even know if there was any English language voiceover at all, but there was certainly some English copy. But for anybody who's a young Latino, who is of the culture, immediately recognized that that ad was for them." AA: "Now, does a commercial like that risk alienating people in the audience who are not Latino?" PEREZ: "Well, again, it wasn't in Spanish, but it was -- the other issue that's happening now is very much, is African American culture has been the key driver of popular culture in America over the last 10 to 15 years. Now Latino culture is really taking that position of being THE popular driver. Everything kind of Latin is hot -- from [actress] Salma Hayek to J. Lo [singer/actress Jennifer Lopez] to [singer] Christina Aguilera to on and on and on, and becoming of interest and popular to mainstream America." RS: David Perez is president of Lumina Americas, a marketing and consulting firm based in New York. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Beautiful"/Christina Aguilera Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 12, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- finding the right language to speak to what is now the nation's largest minority group. RS: According to the Census Bureau, the United States has 37 million people of Hispanic or Latino origin -- about 13 percent of the population. Hispanic and Latino are both names for people from Spanish-speaking cultures. Marketing consultant David Perez says of those 37 million, about one-third speak Spanish mostly, another third are bilingual; the rest prefer English. AA: Mister Perez, whose father is Bolivian, says generally those who prefer English -- like himself -- are born and raised here. Yet he says it's the Spanish speakers who get most of the attention of advertisers. To change that, he's helped start an industry group called the New Generation Latino Consortium. PEREZ: "Language has always gotten overlaid with the Hispanic market, there was always the assumption, 'Well, it's Spanish language.' And what we as a group have come together to say, well, that's not the only Hispanic market in the U.S. In fact, the largest segment of the Hispanic population in the U.S. is U.S.-born, bilingual or English dominant, and that is a population that has been largely ignored. RS: David Perez says young people often speak Spanish with their parents, but English with their siblings, friends and co-workers. Then there's something else they speak. PEREZ: "What is a very American phenomenon -- and this might be interesting to your listeners in South America -- is what we term Spanglish, the use of English and Spanish intertwined into communication. And you see that a lot with Puerto Ricans and people in New York and certainly in Mexican communities out in the Southwest. Many folks in South America really don't like the mixing of the two. They'll either say to you 'speak to me in Spanish or speak to me in English -- don't mix them up.' But yet for the young people it's a real personal expression." AA: "So let's talk a little bit about how Spanglish and Spanish and English play out in advertising, when companies are trying to reach that 'Hispanic audience' -- and we're talking about obviously people from Mexico to South America to Cuba and elsewhere -- how do they know which language to use and what sort of things do they put together?" PEREZ: "Well, first you have to start with segmenting your market -- who's the target. If you're trying to reach that middle kind of bilingual person, we've used examples in the past where you can use Spanish words in, say, a print ad -- one or two words in Spanish sprinkled in lets you know, one, we're targeting you and, two, when it's done correctly, really connects more on an emotional level. It's rarely effective to try to force a Spanglish ad. If it's forced, it comes across as inauthentic and phony." RS: "Now, this marketing could be in newspapers or magazines or on the radio or television -- what are some of the trends that you're seeing?" PEREZ: "Well, traditionally, when people thought of Hispanic marketing or advertising, it was exclusively in Spanish language media. And the new trend, and part of what the New Generation Latino Consortium is about, is trying to break that mold, which says not all Latinos consume only Spanish language media. And many of these new generation Latinos consume much less Spanish language media -- they're watching MTV and 'The Simpsons' and reading People magazine and all these other types of media properties. So the trend is now to start to use English language media targeted to these Latinos but in a culturally relevant manner." RS: "Explain that, please." AA: "Is there an example?" PEREZ: "Well, one example was the Super Bowl last year -- this year. Levi's ran a spot -- they were introducing a new design of jeans -- and it was this boy walking down the street with these really rubbery looking legs, kind of dancing down the street. It was shot in Mexico. And the soundtrack of the music was Molotov, which is a Mexican alternative rock band. There was very little -- I don't even know if there was any English language voiceover at all, but there was certainly some English copy. But for anybody who's a young Latino, who is of the culture, immediately recognized that that ad was for them." AA: "Now, does a commercial like that risk alienating people in the audience who are not Latino?" PEREZ: "Well, again, it wasn't in Spanish, but it was -- the other issue that's happening now is very much, is African American culture has been the key driver of popular culture in America over the last 10 to 15 years. Now Latino culture is really taking that position of being THE popular driver. Everything kind of Latin is hot -- from [actress] Salma Hayek to J. Lo [singer/actress Jennifer Lopez] to [singer] Christina Aguilera to on and on and on, and becoming of interest and popular to mainstream America." RS: David Perez is president of Lumina Americas, a marketing and consulting firm based in New York. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Beautiful"/Christina Aguilera 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT -  Green Transportation Festival
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 13, 2003: This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Energy saving vehicles were part of the Green Transportation Festival in Washington, D.C., last month. The vehicles shown are designed to reduce America’s dependence on oil and help the environment. The festival takes place in several American cities. There are exhibits of cars, buses and motorized bicycles at the festivals. Most of them use little gas or use another kind of fuel such as biodiesel, electricity, hydrogen, natural gas or propane. People are also urged to consider simpler ways of getting around, such as walking, biking and using public transportation systems. Personal transportation vehicles, called scooters, are also gaining interest. These methods all avoid or reduce the use of gasoline and diesel fuel, which are made from oil. Individuals, students and carmakers took part in the festival. They wanted to show people what their so-called “green” vehicles could do. Teams of students competed for prizes. The United States has less than five-percent of the world’s population. But it uses about twenty-five percent of the world’s oil. More than half of the nation’s oil is imported. Most of it goes to transportation. But festival organizers say progress in technology is making it possible for Americans to reduce their dependence on oil for transportation. That is because the kinds of energy-saving vehicles are increasing. Hybrid vehicles, for example, combine a gasoline engine and an electric motor. There are thousands on the road today. They can reduce gasoline use by as much as fifty-percent. Vehicles powered by biodiesel fuel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen or natural gas can reduce oil use by as much as ninety-nine percent. Festival organizers say that efforts to reduce oil imports in the United States would also have important environmental and public health benefits. The burning of oil as fuel is responsible for a large share of the gases blamed for changes in the world climate. When gasoline is burned in cars, it also pollutes the air. This leads to breathing problems, cancer and other health problems. Organizers say that strong public demand for hybrids and vehicles that use other kinds of fuels could force carmakers to produce more such vehicles. That is the goal of the Green Transportation Festival. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. Broadcast: June 13, 2003: This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Energy saving vehicles were part of the Green Transportation Festival in Washington, D.C., last month. The vehicles shown are designed to reduce America’s dependence on oil and help the environment. The festival takes place in several American cities. There are exhibits of cars, buses and motorized bicycles at the festivals. Most of them use little gas or use another kind of fuel such as biodiesel, electricity, hydrogen, natural gas or propane. People are also urged to consider simpler ways of getting around, such as walking, biking and using public transportation systems. Personal transportation vehicles, called scooters, are also gaining interest. These methods all avoid or reduce the use of gasoline and diesel fuel, which are made from oil. Individuals, students and carmakers took part in the festival. They wanted to show people what their so-called “green” vehicles could do. Teams of students competed for prizes. The United States has less than five-percent of the world’s population. But it uses about twenty-five percent of the world’s oil. More than half of the nation’s oil is imported. Most of it goes to transportation. But festival organizers say progress in technology is making it possible for Americans to reduce their dependence on oil for transportation. That is because the kinds of energy-saving vehicles are increasing. Hybrid vehicles, for example, combine a gasoline engine and an electric motor. There are thousands on the road today. They can reduce gasoline use by as much as fifty-percent. Vehicles powered by biodiesel fuel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen or natural gas can reduce oil use by as much as ninety-nine percent. Festival organizers say that efforts to reduce oil imports in the United States would also have important environmental and public health benefits. The burning of oil as fuel is responsible for a large share of the gases blamed for changes in the world climate. When gasoline is burned in cars, it also pollutes the air. This leads to breathing problems, cancer and other health problems. Organizers say that strong public demand for hybrids and vehicles that use other kinds of fuels could force carmakers to produce more such vehicles. That is the goal of the Green Transportation Festival. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 13, 2003: $20 Bill Gets Colorful New Look / Question About the History of the Stars and Stripes / Music from Kindred the Family Soul
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a question about the history of the American flag ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We answer a question about the history of the American flag ... Play music from the group Kindred the Family Soul ... And report about new government efforts against criminals who print false money. New Twenty Dollar Bill HOST: Criminals often print false money. This kind of criminal activity is a big problem in many countries around the world. The United States will soon begin printing money that will be very difficult to copy. Steve Ember explains. ANNCR: Play music from the group Kindred the Family Soul ... And report about new government efforts against criminals who print false money. New Twenty Dollar Bill HOST: Criminals often print false money. This kind of criminal activity is a big problem in many countries around the world. The United States will soon begin printing money that will be very difficult to copy. Steve Ember explains. ANNCR: The United States government recently announced new efforts to halt the printing of false money. This kind of criminal activity is called counterfeiting. The government says about forty-four-million dollars in counterfeit money was produced last year. Experts say modern computers and printing methods have made counterfeiting easier than ever before. Government officials recently showed the public a new design for the American paper money most often illegally copied. That is the twenty-dollar bill. The announcement was part of an education program to help make sure people all over the world know about the new money and understand its security designs. One of these security designs is the use of different colors. American money has always been mostly green. For the first time in history the new twenty-dollar bill will be blue and orange as well as green. The new bill will also have a device called a security thread inside the paper. The thread can be easily seen if the money is held up to the light. And a special colored number twenty will be printed in the lower right side of the bill. This number changes color when the bill is moved. A picture of American President Andrew Jackson will still be printed on the front of the new twenty-dollar bill. However, his picture can also be seen if you hold the bill up to the light. It is printed again using a method called a watermark inside the paper. The United States Treasury Department says the new twenty-dollar bill will be in public use later this year. New fifty and one-hundred dollar bills will be printed next year and the year after. New ten-dollar and five-dollar notes are also being considered. However, officials say they have no plans to change the American one and two-dollar bills. Flag Day HOST: The United States government recently announced new efforts to halt the printing of false money. This kind of criminal activity is called counterfeiting. The government says about forty-four-million dollars in counterfeit money was produced last year. Experts say modern computers and printing methods have made counterfeiting easier than ever before. Government officials recently showed the public a new design for the American paper money most often illegally copied. That is the twenty-dollar bill. The announcement was part of an education program to help make sure people all over the world know about the new money and understand its security designs. One of these security designs is the use of different colors. American money has always been mostly green. For the first time in history the new twenty-dollar bill will be blue and orange as well as green. The new bill will also have a device called a security thread inside the paper. The thread can be easily seen if the money is held up to the light. And a special colored number twenty will be printed in the lower right side of the bill. This number changes color when the bill is moved. A picture of American President Andrew Jackson will still be printed on the front of the new twenty-dollar bill. However, his picture can also be seen if you hold the bill up to the light. It is printed again using a method called a watermark inside the paper. The United States Treasury Department says the new twenty-dollar bill will be in public use later this year. New fifty and one-hundred dollar bills will be printed next year and the year after. New ten-dollar and five-dollar notes are also being considered. However, officials say they have no plans to change the American one and two-dollar bills. Flag Day HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from two listeners, Kasem Phumphong in Chainat Province, Thailand, and Song Bin in Guizhou Province, China. They would like to know about the American flag. This is a good time to answer that question because June fourteenth is Flag Day. It is the anniversary of the day America's first lawmakers approved the design of a new flag for a new nation. The United States of America began as thirteen British colonies. Each colony had its own flag. But the colonists fought under a common flag during the Revolutionary War against Britain. It looked a lot like the American flag today. It had thirteen red and white stripes for the thirteen colonies. It had a square blue area in the upper left corner. Inside the blue area were the red cross and white lines of the British flag. On July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six, the American colonists declared their independence. The United States of America was born. The Continental Congress of the new nation approved a new flag on June fourteenth, seventeen-seventy-seven. The thirteen red and white stripes remained. Thirteen white stars replaced the British flag inside the blue area. The thirteen stars represented, in the words of Congress, "a new constellation." In eighteen-eighteen, Congress approved a law that said a new star would be added to the flag for each new state that joined the union. Today, there are fifty states, and fifty white stars in the blue area of the flag. Francis Hopkinson, a delegate to the Continental Congress, said he designed the flag. Most historians accept his claim. Just about every American knows the story that a woman named Betsy Ross made the first American flag. Betsy Ross was a sewing expert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the official flag maker for the Pennsylvania navy. In eighteen-seventy, the grandson of Betsy Ross, William Canby, wrote a paper about her. He wrote that when he was eleven years old, his grandmother told him the story of how she made the first United States flag. She said a committee led by George Washington visited her in June of seventeen-seventy-six. The men asked Betsy Ross to make a flag based on a design they gave her. The stars had six points but Missus Ross suggested that stars with five points would be easier to sew. No proof has ever been found to confirm this telling of what happened. But we think it makes a nice story! Kindred the Family Soul HOST: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is home to many performers in the music industry. They include singers Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass, and Jill Scott. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the latest success from Philadelphia. ANNCR: Singers and songwriters Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon are partners in music. They are also husband and wife. The two perform with a ten-piece band. They are called Kindred the Family Soul. Their first album, “Surrender to Love,” was released recently. Listen to a song from that album -- “Far Away.” (MUSIC) The members of Kindred the Family Soul bring influences from different kinds of music to their songs. These include soul, jazz, hip-hop, blues, folk and classic rock. The song “We” includes spoken words by guest artist Ursula Rucker. (MUSIC) Music critics say very good things about Kindred the Family Soul. They also say the band has a sound of its own. They say the group performs with the power and energy of popular soul bands of the nineteen-seventies such as Earth, Wind and Fire. We leave you with the title song from the album “Surrender to Love.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Rick Barmes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our VOA question this week comes from two listeners, Kasem Phumphong in Chainat Province, Thailand, and Song Bin in Guizhou Province, China. They would like to know about the American flag. This is a good time to answer that question because June fourteenth is Flag Day. It is the anniversary of the day America's first lawmakers approved the design of a new flag for a new nation. The United States of America began as thirteen British colonies. Each colony had its own flag. But the colonists fought under a common flag during the Revolutionary War against Britain. It looked a lot like the American flag today. It had thirteen red and white stripes for the thirteen colonies. It had a square blue area in the upper left corner. Inside the blue area were the red cross and white lines of the British flag. On July fourth, seventeen-seventy-six, the American colonists declared their independence. The United States of America was born. The Continental Congress of the new nation approved a new flag on June fourteenth, seventeen-seventy-seven. The thirteen red and white stripes remained. Thirteen white stars replaced the British flag inside the blue area. The thirteen stars represented, in the words of Congress, "a new constellation." In eighteen-eighteen, Congress approved a law that said a new star would be added to the flag for each new state that joined the union. Today, there are fifty states, and fifty white stars in the blue area of the flag. Francis Hopkinson, a delegate to the Continental Congress, said he designed the flag. Most historians accept his claim. Just about every American knows the story that a woman named Betsy Ross made the first American flag. Betsy Ross was a sewing expert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the official flag maker for the Pennsylvania navy. In eighteen-seventy, the grandson of Betsy Ross, William Canby, wrote a paper about her. He wrote that when he was eleven years old, his grandmother told him the story of how she made the first United States flag. She said a committee led by George Washington visited her in June of seventeen-seventy-six. The men asked Betsy Ross to make a flag based on a design they gave her. The stars had six points but Missus Ross suggested that stars with five points would be easier to sew. No proof has ever been found to confirm this telling of what happened. But we think it makes a nice story! Kindred the Family Soul HOST: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is home to many performers in the music industry. They include singers Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass, and Jill Scott. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the latest success from Philadelphia. ANNCR: Singers and songwriters Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon are partners in music. They are also husband and wife. The two perform with a ten-piece band. They are called Kindred the Family Soul. Their first album, “Surrender to Love,” was released recently. Listen to a song from that album -- “Far Away.” (MUSIC) The members of Kindred the Family Soul bring influences from different kinds of music to their songs. These include soul, jazz, hip-hop, blues, folk and classic rock. The song “We” includes spoken words by guest artist Ursula Rucker. (MUSIC) Music critics say very good things about Kindred the Family Soul. They also say the band has a sound of its own. They say the group performs with the power and energy of popular soul bands of the nineteen-seventies such as Earth, Wind and Fire. We leave you with the title song from the album “Surrender to Love.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Rick Barmes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - June 14, 2003: Liberia Peace Talks
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Negotiators met for a second day Friday to discuss ways to end the conflict in Liberia. The talks restarted Thursday after West African negotiators received guarantees from the warring sides that they would stop fighting. The negotiators have been meeting in Akosombo, Ghana, to agree on a permanent ceasefire. Mohamed Ibn Chambas has led the peace efforts. He told V-O-A that a ceasefire agreement would likely be signed on Saturday. Two rebel groups are battling forces loyal to President Charles Taylor. The talks had been delayed since an opening ceremony on June fourth in the Ghanaian capital, Accra. A rebel offensive in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, delayed the talks before they started. Then, a joint United Nations-Sierre Leone Court charged President Taylor with war crimes. Mister Taylor will not take part in the talks directly. He says the peace talks will not succeed unless the United Nations removes war crimes charges against him. The rebels say they are taking part in the talks in Ghana so they can demand Mister Taylor’s immediate resignation. The rebels have led a three-year campaign to oust the Liberian president. They had threatened to take Monrovia by force unless he resigned by this past Wednesday. Mister Taylor has offered to resign for peace, under some conditions. These include his demand that the U-N drop the charges brought against him last week by the Special Court in Sierre Leone. Mister Taylor is charged with aiding rebels across the border in Sierra Leone’s ten-year-old civil war. Mister Taylor was elected president of Liberia in nineteen-ninety-seven. He led his own rebellion eight years earlier. During that war, many peace deals were signed and broken. Mister Taylor now holds power with no real political opposition. But human rights groups have accused him of causing conflicts across West Africa. Rebels of the main group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, and a group known as Mode control at least two-thirds of Liberia. But they have been unable to reach Monrovia’s center. Their offensive into the capital stopped Tuesday, but it has created a humanitarian crisis. Most foreign aid workers have left Liberia. They say the fighting has displaced about one-hundred-thousand people. Refugees are gathered in shelters with little food or water. There are bodies in the streets and growing concern about the possible spread of the disease cholera. Liberia’s heath minister says as many as four-hundred people have died in the recent clashes between the rebels and the government. Liberia was founded in the early eighteen-hundreds by freed American slaves. But years of civil war and dishonest governments have weakened the country. The United States has called on Liberia to establish a government of national unity and hold new elections. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 15, 2003: Crazy Horse
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of a native American, Crazy Horse. He was a leader of the Lakota Indians. Some people call his tribe the Oglala Sioux. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's people belonged to one of seven great families who called themselves Lakota. The word Lakota means 'friends' or 'allies'. The Lakota people were hunters. They moved with the seasons. They moved through the great flat lands and the great mountains of the north-central United States. The Lakota depended on wild animals for food and clothing, and for the materials to make their tools and homes. They depended especially on the buffalo, the great hairy ox-like creature. Huge groups of buffalo ran free across their lands. VOICE TWO: Great changes came to the Indian territories during the middle eighteen-hundreds. The population of the United States was growing. Settlers left the cities of the East for the wide open spaces of the West. The settlers followed the railroads extending across the continent. More settlers moved West when gold was discovered in California in eighteen forty-nine. The ways of the settlers were not the ways of the Indians. The culture of the white people clashed with the culture of the red people...often in violence. The United States army was sent to move the Indians and protect the settlers. Many Indian tribes refused to move. Their lands, they said, contained the bones of their fathers and mothers. It was holy ground. They fought the soldiers. VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's tribe, the Lakota, had many powerful leaders and skilled warriors. Crazy Horse, himself, was greatly feared. The soldiers could not defeat him in battle. Most white people did not understand why the Lakota fought so hard. They knew little of the Indians' way of life. They did not know Crazy Horse at all. Much of what we have learned about Crazy Horse came from his own people. Even today, they still talk about him. To the Lakota, he was both a warrior...and a holy man. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: No one knows for sure when Crazy Horse was born. Perhaps around the year Eighteen-Forty. But we do know when he died. In Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, when he was in his middle thirties. There are no photographs of Crazy Horse. But it is said that he was not very tall. And his skin was lighter than most of the Lakota people. As a boy, Crazy Horse loved to listen to the teachings of the Lakota religion. His father was a holy man of the tribe - a medicine man. He taught the boy to honor all things, because all things had a life of their own. Not only people and animals had spirits, he said, but trees and rivers, as well. Above all was the Great Spirit. VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's father also told him that a man should be judged only by the goodness of his actions. So the boy tried hard to tell the truth at all times and not to speak badly of others. Crazy Horse learned to be a hunter. He could lie quietly for hours watching wild animals. When he killed a bird or a deer, he always sang a prayer of thanks and sorrow. He always gave the meat to the poor and to the families that had no hunters. That was what Lakota chiefs did. VOICE TWO: In time, Crazy Horse learned that the Indians were not alone in their world. He watched one day as tribesmen brought back the body of one of the chiefs, Conquering Bear. The chief had been shot many times by soldiers after a dispute over a white man's cow. Two times in the next few years, young Crazy Horse saw the burned remains of Indian villages. All the village people, including women and children, had been shot by soldiers. All these events helped shape the personality of the young Indian. Crazy Horse became very quiet. He would go away from his village and spend days alone. His people began to call him, "the strange one". The name Crazy Horse -- in the language of the Lakota -- meant "wild" horse. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When it was time for him to plan his future, his father took him high into the mountains. Together, they sang a prayer to the Great Spirit, a prayer like this: "Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have existed always, and before you there was no one. Stand close to the Earth that you may hear the voice I send. You, where the sun goes down, look at me! You, where the snow lives...you, where the day begins...you, where the summer lives...you, in the depths of the heavens, look at me! And you, Mother Earth. Give me eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. Only with your power can I face the winds." VOICE TWO: Crazy Horse stayed on the mountain by himself for three days and nights. He did not eat or drink. He prayed that the Great Spirit would send him a dream to show him how to live. Crazy Horse dreamed. He entered the world of truth and of the spirits of all things. The Lakota people called this "the real world". They believed our world was only an image of the real world. VOICE ONE: In his dream, Crazy Horse saw a man riding a horse through clouds of darkness and battle. Bullets flew around him, but did not hit him. The man wore a stone under one ear, and a bird feather in his hair. His body was painted with sharp white lines, like lightning. A light followed him, but it was sometimes covered by darkness. Crazy Horse understood the dream as a sign. He knew his people were entering a time of darkness. He dressed himself like the man in the dream, so that no bullets would hurt him. He would try to save his land for his people. He would try to protect their way of living. VOICE TWO: Crazy Horse prayed every day...as the sun rose, at noon, and as night came. He prayed whenever he had something difficult to do. The prayer songs would carry him back to the peace of "the real world". He would know the right thing to do. In the village, Crazy Horse did not keep things for himself. He even gave away his food. If others needed the food more, he would not eat at all. Crazy Horse spent much of his time with the children. He talked and joked with them. Yet his eyes looked through the children. He seemed to be thinking of something else. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse fought in more than twenty battles against the American army. He was never hit by an enemy's bullet. In battle, his mind was clear. "Be brave!" the young men would shout as they followed him into battle. "The Earth is all that lasts." But the Earth the Indians knew did not last. The government would take most of it. The army destroyed Indian villages, and captured those who would not surrender. VOICE TWO: Almost all the buffalo were gone, killed by white hunters. The people were hungry. Many Lakota and other Indians came to Crazy Horse for protection. The government sent a message to Crazy Horse. It said if he surrendered, his people could live and hunt on a part of the land that he chose. Crazy Horse and his people could fight no more. They accepted the government offer. They surrendered. The government, however, did not keep its promise to let them choose where they would live. Several months later, on September fifth, Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, Crazy Horse went to the army commander to make an angry protest. Guards arrested him. He struggled to escape. A soldier stabbed him with a knife. The great Lakota Indian chief died the next day. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, the tribe asked an artist to make a statue of Crazy Horse. The Indians wanted a huge statue cut into the side of a mountain. It would show Crazy Horse riding a running horse, pointing his arm to where the Earth meets the sky...to the lands of the Lakota people. The tribe told the artist: "We would like the white man to know the red man had great heroes, too." If you visit the mountain to see the statue, you may hear in the wind the song of an old man. He sings: "Crazy Horse, your people depend on you. Be brave. Defend your people!" (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Barbara Dash. It was produced by Mario Ritter. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of a native American, Crazy Horse. He was a leader of the Lakota Indians. Some people call his tribe the Oglala Sioux. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's people belonged to one of seven great families who called themselves Lakota. The word Lakota means 'friends' or 'allies'. The Lakota people were hunters. They moved with the seasons. They moved through the great flat lands and the great mountains of the north-central United States. The Lakota depended on wild animals for food and clothing, and for the materials to make their tools and homes. They depended especially on the buffalo, the great hairy ox-like creature. Huge groups of buffalo ran free across their lands. VOICE TWO: Great changes came to the Indian territories during the middle eighteen-hundreds. The population of the United States was growing. Settlers left the cities of the East for the wide open spaces of the West. The settlers followed the railroads extending across the continent. More settlers moved West when gold was discovered in California in eighteen forty-nine. The ways of the settlers were not the ways of the Indians. The culture of the white people clashed with the culture of the red people...often in violence. The United States army was sent to move the Indians and protect the settlers. Many Indian tribes refused to move. Their lands, they said, contained the bones of their fathers and mothers. It was holy ground. They fought the soldiers. VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's tribe, the Lakota, had many powerful leaders and skilled warriors. Crazy Horse, himself, was greatly feared. The soldiers could not defeat him in battle. Most white people did not understand why the Lakota fought so hard. They knew little of the Indians' way of life. They did not know Crazy Horse at all. Much of what we have learned about Crazy Horse came from his own people. Even today, they still talk about him. To the Lakota, he was both a warrior...and a holy man. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: No one knows for sure when Crazy Horse was born. Perhaps around the year Eighteen-Forty. But we do know when he died. In Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, when he was in his middle thirties. There are no photographs of Crazy Horse. But it is said that he was not very tall. And his skin was lighter than most of the Lakota people. As a boy, Crazy Horse loved to listen to the teachings of the Lakota religion. His father was a holy man of the tribe - a medicine man. He taught the boy to honor all things, because all things had a life of their own. Not only people and animals had spirits, he said, but trees and rivers, as well. Above all was the Great Spirit. VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse's father also told him that a man should be judged only by the goodness of his actions. So the boy tried hard to tell the truth at all times and not to speak badly of others. Crazy Horse learned to be a hunter. He could lie quietly for hours watching wild animals. When he killed a bird or a deer, he always sang a prayer of thanks and sorrow. He always gave the meat to the poor and to the families that had no hunters. That was what Lakota chiefs did. VOICE TWO: In time, Crazy Horse learned that the Indians were not alone in their world. He watched one day as tribesmen brought back the body of one of the chiefs, Conquering Bear. The chief had been shot many times by soldiers after a dispute over a white man's cow. Two times in the next few years, young Crazy Horse saw the burned remains of Indian villages. All the village people, including women and children, had been shot by soldiers. All these events helped shape the personality of the young Indian. Crazy Horse became very quiet. He would go away from his village and spend days alone. His people began to call him, "the strange one". The name Crazy Horse -- in the language of the Lakota -- meant "wild" horse. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: When it was time for him to plan his future, his father took him high into the mountains. Together, they sang a prayer to the Great Spirit, a prayer like this: "Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have existed always, and before you there was no one. Stand close to the Earth that you may hear the voice I send. You, where the sun goes down, look at me! You, where the snow lives...you, where the day begins...you, where the summer lives...you, in the depths of the heavens, look at me! And you, Mother Earth. Give me eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. Only with your power can I face the winds." VOICE TWO: Crazy Horse stayed on the mountain by himself for three days and nights. He did not eat or drink. He prayed that the Great Spirit would send him a dream to show him how to live. Crazy Horse dreamed. He entered the world of truth and of the spirits of all things. The Lakota people called this "the real world". They believed our world was only an image of the real world. VOICE ONE: In his dream, Crazy Horse saw a man riding a horse through clouds of darkness and battle. Bullets flew around him, but did not hit him. The man wore a stone under one ear, and a bird feather in his hair. His body was painted with sharp white lines, like lightning. A light followed him, but it was sometimes covered by darkness. Crazy Horse understood the dream as a sign. He knew his people were entering a time of darkness. He dressed himself like the man in the dream, so that no bullets would hurt him. He would try to save his land for his people. He would try to protect their way of living. VOICE TWO: Crazy Horse prayed every day...as the sun rose, at noon, and as night came. He prayed whenever he had something difficult to do. The prayer songs would carry him back to the peace of "the real world". He would know the right thing to do. In the village, Crazy Horse did not keep things for himself. He even gave away his food. If others needed the food more, he would not eat at all. Crazy Horse spent much of his time with the children. He talked and joked with them. Yet his eyes looked through the children. He seemed to be thinking of something else. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse fought in more than twenty battles against the American army. He was never hit by an enemy's bullet. In battle, his mind was clear. "Be brave!" the young men would shout as they followed him into battle. "The Earth is all that lasts." But the Earth the Indians knew did not last. The government would take most of it. The army destroyed Indian villages, and captured those who would not surrender. VOICE TWO: Almost all the buffalo were gone, killed by white hunters. The people were hungry. Many Lakota and other Indians came to Crazy Horse for protection. The government sent a message to Crazy Horse. It said if he surrendered, his people could live and hunt on a part of the land that he chose. Crazy Horse and his people could fight no more. They accepted the government offer. They surrendered. The government, however, did not keep its promise to let them choose where they would live. Several months later, on September fifth, Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, Crazy Horse went to the army commander to make an angry protest. Guards arrested him. He struggled to escape. A soldier stabbed him with a knife. The great Lakota Indian chief died the next day. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, the tribe asked an artist to make a statue of Crazy Horse. The Indians wanted a huge statue cut into the side of a mountain. It would show Crazy Horse riding a running horse, pointing his arm to where the Earth meets the sky...to the lands of the Lakota people. The tribe told the artist: "We would like the white man to know the red man had great heroes, too." If you visit the mountain to see the statue, you may hear in the wind the song of an old man. He sings: "Crazy Horse, your people depend on you. Be brave. Defend your people!" (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Barbara Dash. It was produced by Mario Ritter. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – World Refugee Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 16, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An Afghan refugee(UNHCR) Broadcast: June 16, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations refugee agency says the world had nearly twenty-million refugees and other "people of concern" as last year began. Twelve-million lived outside their own countries. The rest were asylum-seekers, refugees returning home and so-called internally displaced persons. These are people who have fled their homes but remain within their own country. Asia had the most refugees, followed by Africa and Europe. The total number of people of concern to the U-N agency was down by two-million from the year before. However, the situation remains a serious international problem. The United Nations defines refugees as people who fear being oppressed because of such things as their religion, nationality or race. They may also fear mistreatment because of their social group or political opinions. The U-N has declared this Friday, June twentieth, World Refugee Day. Organizers have centered this year’s campaign on young people. U-N officials say the goal is to provide young refugees with a sense of self-respect and value. In Australia, messages about the world’s refugees will be broadcast in many different languages. In Moldova, a Refugee Food Day and a "Rock for Refugees" music performance are planned. A writing and art competition for schoolchildren is planned in Greece. The U-N refugee agency said it would also negotiate with the government a joint policy paper for the protection of asylum-seeking children in the country. In Guinea, special plays and music shows are planned with performers from among refugees in the capital, Conakry. A film about young refugees will also be shown. Special events in Nicaragua include a discussion organized by three universities. Refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala have been invited to tell their stories. These are just a few of the events the U-N refugee agency has helped organize for this year’s World Refugee Day. To learn more about the world’s refugee problem, listen to V-O-A News Now which will broadcast stories all this week. V-O-A reporters around the world will explore issues that refugees and governments face. They will also tell about some of the places where the refugee crisis is most severe. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. The United Nations refugee agency says the world had nearly twenty-million refugees and other "people of concern" as last year began. Twelve-million lived outside their own countries. The rest were asylum-seekers, refugees returning home and so-called internally displaced persons. These are people who have fled their homes but remain within their own country. Asia had the most refugees, followed by Africa and Europe. The total number of people of concern to the U-N agency was down by two-million from the year before. However, the situation remains a serious international problem. The United Nations defines refugees as people who fear being oppressed because of such things as their religion, nationality or race. They may also fear mistreatment because of their social group or political opinions. The U-N has declared this Friday, June twentieth, World Refugee Day. Organizers have centered this year’s campaign on young people. U-N officials say the goal is to provide young refugees with a sense of self-respect and value. In Australia, messages about the world’s refugees will be broadcast in many different languages. In Moldova, a Refugee Food Day and a "Rock for Refugees" music performance are planned. A writing and art competition for schoolchildren is planned in Greece. The U-N refugee agency said it would also negotiate with the government a joint policy paper for the protection of asylum-seeking children in the country. In Guinea, special plays and music shows are planned with performers from among refugees in the capital, Conakry. A film about young refugees will also be shown. Special events in Nicaragua include a discussion organized by three universities. Refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala have been invited to tell their stories. These are just a few of the events the U-N refugee agency has helped organize for this year’s World Refugee Day. To learn more about the world’s refugee problem, listen to V-O-A News Now which will broadcast stories all this week. V-O-A reporters around the world will explore issues that refugees and governments face. They will also tell about some of the places where the refugee crisis is most severe. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - June 15, 2003: Graduations
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This time of year, ceremonies across the United States honor millions of students for completing their schoolwork. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. We tell about some graduation traditions and speeches in our report this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Spring and early summer are usually satisfying times for students who have completed the requirements of their schools. American high schools, colleges and universities hold ceremonies to honor these graduates. A school group often sings or plays at these events. Other musicians may also perform. School organization leaders and excellent students are recognized with awards. Clergy members sometimes lead opening and closing prayers. Many graduating classes present a gift to the school. Sometimes the students write a class song. (Photo - Tina Hager/White House) This time of year, ceremonies across the United States honor millions of students for completing their schoolwork. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. We tell about some graduation traditions and speeches in our report this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Spring and early summer are usually satisfying times for students who have completed the requirements of their schools. American high schools, colleges and universities hold ceremonies to honor these graduates. A school group often sings or plays at these events. Other musicians may also perform. School organization leaders and excellent students are recognized with awards. Clergy members sometimes lead opening and closing prayers. Many graduating classes present a gift to the school. Sometimes the students write a class song. For most students, the most important part of the ceremony is the awarding of documents showing that they have graduated. The school’s directors and teachers present these diplomas or degrees. VOICE ONE: Many traditions are linked to graduation. Graduates often wear special clothing including hats called mortarboards. These hats have a flat, square top covered with cloth. At some schools, students write on the hats. Some write the year of their graduation. Others write their own names or the names of boyfriends or girlfriends. Still others write funny sayings or the names of rock and roll groups they like. Some students draw pictures or paint on their hats. At many colleges and universities, graduates throw the mortarboards in the air after the ceremonies. Guests then can take home a hat if they like. VOICE TWO: Many high schools and colleges publish a yearbook. This book contains photos of the class members and memories of their school years. Students write good wishes in each other’s yearbooks. James Baker For most students, the most important part of the ceremony is the awarding of documents showing that they have graduated. The school’s directors and teachers present these diplomas or degrees. VOICE ONE: Many traditions are linked to graduation. Graduates often wear special clothing including hats called mortarboards. These hats have a flat, square top covered with cloth. At some schools, students write on the hats. Some write the year of their graduation. Others write their own names or the names of boyfriends or girlfriends. Still others write funny sayings or the names of rock and roll groups they like. Some students draw pictures or paint on their hats. At many colleges and universities, graduates throw the mortarboards in the air after the ceremonies. Guests then can take home a hat if they like. VOICE TWO: Many high schools and colleges publish a yearbook. This book contains photos of the class members and memories of their school years. Students write good wishes in each other’s yearbooks. Families honor their graduating members with gifts. They take pictures at the ceremonies. They attend special meals prepared for the graduates and their guests. At some colleges and universities, the graduates march to the center where the ceremonies will be held. Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, holds a huge such procession. Late last month, more than six-thousand graduates, teachers, parents and other guests marched down the school’s College Hill. Musicians played bagpipes and drums as they walked to the school’s commencement exercises. VOICE ONE: Another tradition at Brown is the presentation of honorary degrees. Most other American colleges also do this. They award degrees to people who have done excellent work in the arts, public service or science. Among those honored at Brown this year were actress and Brown graduate Laura Linney and Chinese dissident Xu Wenli. VOICE TWO: Large universities sometimes divide students into groups to receive their degrees. For example, one ceremony may be held for students who mainly studied biology. Another may be held for students whose major study area was music. The awarding of college degrees is an especially exciting moment for the graduates. At many schools they walk across a stage -- a raised structure -- to receive their degrees. Family members and friends shout as each name is read. An orchestra plays traditional graduation music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many American colleges invite someone well known to give the main commencement address, or speech. The schools invite government officials, including presidents of the United States. They invite scientists, actors, musicians, and artists. They invite educators and business leaders. Some schools invite foreign officials or religious leaders to talk to their graduates. For example, the Aga Khan has spoken several times at major American universities. He is the spiritual leader of millions of Shiite Ismaili Muslims. VOICE TWO: Over the years, American presidents have sometimes made history while giving graduation addresses. In nineteen-sixty three, John Kennedy spoke at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Great tension existed between the United States and the former Soviet Union at the time. President Kennedy noted that the two sides were producing many weapons. America’s thirty-fifth president said there was a better way to spend money. He said it could be used to fight poor living conditions, disease and lack of education. VOICE ONE: Later that year, Mister Kennedy was murdered. His vice president, Lyndon Johnson, followed him in office. President Johnson spoke to graduates of the University of Michigan in nineteen-sixty four. During his speech, historians say, he used the expression “Great Society” for the first time in public. This name later was given to social reform programs that his government established. This year, President Bush made a major policy proposal when he spoke to graduates of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. He suggested a free trade area in the Middle East. VOICE TWO: Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is a member of the opposition Democratic Party. He spoke at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. The school is the oldest private military college in the United States. It also serves civilian students. In his address, Senator Leahy expressed satisfaction that American-led military forces had freed the Iraqi people from a dictator. But he also said nations with powerful militaries have, in his words, “time and again, made tragic mistakes that led to their downfall.” Former Secretary of State James Baker also commented on the military. He praised United States forces for their performance in the recent war in Iraq. He spoke at graduation ceremonies at Texas A-and-M University in College Station, Texas. Mister Baker served as the nation’s top diplomat during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. As such, he helped organize the military coalition that defeated Iraq in the nineteen-ninety-one Persian Gulf War. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other speakers offered graduates personal advice. Writer Antwone Fisher spoke at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Mister Fisher urged his listeners to write about their lives and thoughts. He said they should do this even if they shared the writing only with family. He said, “You can make yourself live forever through writing.” Former Senator George Mitchell spoke at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Mister Mitchell won international praise after he negotiated a peace agreement in Northern Ireland in nineteen-ninety-eight. He advised graduates to work hard to help others. George Mitchell said he hoped that they could find a valuable goal. VOICE TWO: Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson spoke at the University of Wisconsin in Eu Claire. Mister Thompson told graduates that some of their plans would fail and some of their ideas would be wrong. But he said they needed only a few simple things to lead a good life: “A sound mind. A strong body. A loving heart ... " Graduates of New York University in New York City heard an address by their president, John Sexton. He commented on the long history of higher education. Mister Sexton said eighty-five human organizations have existed continually for more than five-hundred years. Seventy of these institutions, he said, were universities. VOICE ONE: Graduation marks an end to an important time in a student’s life. But the event also marks a beginning. Many graduates of American high schools and colleges will continue their education. Others will begin their working lives. As one former student said, “I worked hard in school. Now I am ready to find out what the rest of the world is like.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Families honor their graduating members with gifts. They take pictures at the ceremonies. They attend special meals prepared for the graduates and their guests. At some colleges and universities, the graduates march to the center where the ceremonies will be held. Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, holds a huge such procession. Late last month, more than six-thousand graduates, teachers, parents and other guests marched down the school’s College Hill. Musicians played bagpipes and drums as they walked to the school’s commencement exercises. VOICE ONE: Another tradition at Brown is the presentation of honorary degrees. Most other American colleges also do this. They award degrees to people who have done excellent work in the arts, public service or science. Among those honored at Brown this year were actress and Brown graduate Laura Linney and Chinese dissident Xu Wenli. VOICE TWO: Large universities sometimes divide students into groups to receive their degrees. For example, one ceremony may be held for students who mainly studied biology. Another may be held for students whose major study area was music. The awarding of college degrees is an especially exciting moment for the graduates. At many schools they walk across a stage -- a raised structure -- to receive their degrees. Family members and friends shout as each name is read. An orchestra plays traditional graduation music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many American colleges invite someone well known to give the main commencement address, or speech. The schools invite government officials, including presidents of the United States. They invite scientists, actors, musicians, and artists. They invite educators and business leaders. Some schools invite foreign officials or religious leaders to talk to their graduates. For example, the Aga Khan has spoken several times at major American universities. He is the spiritual leader of millions of Shiite Ismaili Muslims. VOICE TWO: Over the years, American presidents have sometimes made history while giving graduation addresses. In nineteen-sixty three, John Kennedy spoke at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Great tension existed between the United States and the former Soviet Union at the time. President Kennedy noted that the two sides were producing many weapons. America’s thirty-fifth president said there was a better way to spend money. He said it could be used to fight poor living conditions, disease and lack of education. VOICE ONE: Later that year, Mister Kennedy was murdered. His vice president, Lyndon Johnson, followed him in office. President Johnson spoke to graduates of the University of Michigan in nineteen-sixty four. During his speech, historians say, he used the expression “Great Society” for the first time in public. This name later was given to social reform programs that his government established. This year, President Bush made a major policy proposal when he spoke to graduates of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. He suggested a free trade area in the Middle East. VOICE TWO: Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is a member of the opposition Democratic Party. He spoke at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. The school is the oldest private military college in the United States. It also serves civilian students. In his address, Senator Leahy expressed satisfaction that American-led military forces had freed the Iraqi people from a dictator. But he also said nations with powerful militaries have, in his words, “time and again, made tragic mistakes that led to their downfall.” Former Secretary of State James Baker also commented on the military. He praised United States forces for their performance in the recent war in Iraq. He spoke at graduation ceremonies at Texas A-and-M University in College Station, Texas. Mister Baker served as the nation’s top diplomat during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. As such, he helped organize the military coalition that defeated Iraq in the nineteen-ninety-one Persian Gulf War. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Other speakers offered graduates personal advice. Writer Antwone Fisher spoke at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Mister Fisher urged his listeners to write about their lives and thoughts. He said they should do this even if they shared the writing only with family. He said, “You can make yourself live forever through writing.” Former Senator George Mitchell spoke at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Mister Mitchell won international praise after he negotiated a peace agreement in Northern Ireland in nineteen-ninety-eight. He advised graduates to work hard to help others. George Mitchell said he hoped that they could find a valuable goal. VOICE TWO: Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson spoke at the University of Wisconsin in Eu Claire. Mister Thompson told graduates that some of their plans would fail and some of their ideas would be wrong. But he said they needed only a few simple things to lead a good life: “A sound mind. A strong body. A loving heart ... " Graduates of New York University in New York City heard an address by their president, John Sexton. He commented on the long history of higher education. Mister Sexton said eighty-five human organizations have existed continually for more than five-hundred years. Seventy of these institutions, he said, were universities. VOICE ONE: Graduation marks an end to an important time in a student’s life. But the event also marks a beginning. Many graduates of American high schools and colleges will continue their education. Others will begin their working lives. As one former student said, “I worked hard in school. Now I am ready to find out what the rest of the world is like.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 17, 2003 (THEME) Plastic hairs, as seen by a scanning electron microscope.(Photo - Manchester University) Broadcast: June 17, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the World Health Organization gets new powers to act quickly against threats to international public health ... scientists create a material that might let you climb walls like Spider-Man someday ... and, advice about how to avoid travelers' blood clots. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the World Health Organization gets new powers to act quickly against threats to international public health ... scientists create a material that might let you climb walls like Spider-Man someday ... and, advice about how to avoid travelers' blood clots. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization no longer has to wait for a government to officially announce a health problem. New rules expand the ability of the W-H-O to intervene when a country faces a crisis that might spread. The agency can now use unofficial reports, such as news stories, to confirm an outbreak of disease. If necessary, the rules permit the W-H-O to send teams to investigate how severe the situation is. The teams could also make sure a country has done enough to control it. In addition, the new rules give the W-H-O the power to declare international health threats in the future, as it did with SARS. The health agency also wants an improved system of communication with officials in each country. VOICE TWO: All one-hundred-ninety-two member states of the W-H-O approved the new rules in a resolution during a meeting in Geneva last month. The World Health Organization is part of the United Nations. The resolution is part of an effort to rewrite the International Health Regulations. These were first published in nineteen-sixty-nine. The member states also urged the W-H-O to use the experiences and knowledge gained from the SARS crisis when it changes those rules. VOICE ONE: The W-H-O recognized the need for stronger international health rules after the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS began in southern China late last year. But the Chinese government did not officially confirm it until February. That gave the lung infection time to spread while it went unreported. As of last week, at least seven-hundred-eighty-nine people had died from SARS. More than eight-thousand-four-hundred had become infected. About sixty percent of all the victims have been in mainland China. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization will now be able to intervene even when a country denies it has a health problem. For years, health experts have called the legal structure that governs W-H-O action outdated and ineffective. The existing rules permitted the agency to collect information about diseases only after a government officially announced a crisis -- not before then. Also, the regulations currently require W-H-O members to report only three diseases. These are cholera, plague and yellow fever. The W-H-O is expected to complete reforms to the International Health Regulations in two-thousand-five. The U-N health agency will not gain any ability to punish a country that disobeys the new rules. Still, the SARS crisis has shown that the W-H-O can take steps on its own to contain the spread of a disease. For example, the agency made the decision to warn people not to travel to places affected by SARS. Last Thursday, in Beijing, high-level Chinese and W-H-O officials held their first joint news conference since the SARS outbreak began. Doctor David Heymann of the W-H-O said "excellent" measures were now in place to control and prevent SARS. This week the W-H-O holds a Global Conference on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Experts and public health officials are meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. A small lizard called a gecko has a wonderful ability. It can walk on all kinds of surfaces. It can even walk upside down. The feet of these small reptiles can stick to almost anything, wet or dry. They stick to surfaces even when there is no air. This means the force of air pressure, or suction, is not involved. Scientists are interested in the ability of the gecko and want to copy it. Now it seems they have. British and Russian researchers have developed a piece of sticky material that copies the ability of the gecko lizard. The first piece of this “gecko tape” is very small -- only one centimeter by one centimeter. However, a lot of research led to this new material. In two-thousand, researchers led by a professor at the University of California at Berkeley announced why gecko feet are so sticky. The answer surprised even expert engineers. VOICE TWO: The team found that the only explanation could be one suggested more than thirty years earlier. The team discovered work done by a German researcher in the nineteen-sixties. Uwe Hiller thought that a kind of atomic energy known as van der Waals forces was responsible. This kind of energy holds water molecules together. The team confirmed Hiller’s theory. Geckos have extremely small hairs -- called setae [see-tee] -- on the bottoms of their feet. Each hair ends in even smaller hairs. The team found that each hair produces a weak force to stick to a surface. VOICE ONE: The new research built on that discovery and took place at the University of Manchester, in England. It also involved scientists from the Institute for Microelectronics Technology in Russia. The publication Nature Materials published the research. The team created material covered with millions of tiny hairs made of plastic. The hairs are two-thousandths of a millimeter high. The researchers say the material has the same qualities as gecko feet. There is a problem, though. The tape can reattach only a few times before it loses its strength. Professor Robert Full led the Berkeley team that made the earlier discovery. He calls the new development very exciting. He says the uses for gecko tape are nearly unlimited. One possible use is to move computer parts in airless environments. VOICE TWO: Of course, it is not just the industrial uses that have caught the imagination of many people. Many hope to be able to walk on walls like the movie and comic book hero Spider-man. Professor Andre Geim is the director of the Manchester Center for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, where the gecko tape was made. Professor Geim says the researchers had the idea to produce a large enough amount to permit a student to hang out of a window. But he said it would cost too much money and not have scientific value. So the researchers limited themselves to a demonstration. They hung a fifteen-centimeter-high toy Spider-Man from a glass surface. So, while the gecko may have lost its mystery, the lizard is not about to share its power with anyone for now. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People who sit for hours on long trips should know about a condition called deep vein thrombosis. A thrombosis is a blood clot, a situation where some blood thickens and blocks the flow. Clots develop deep inside the legs when blood cannot move easily back to the heart. Blood clots can kill if they move to the heart and lungs. Doctors say some people have an increased risk of clots. These include people who have had clots in the past, as well as pregnant women and those who take birth control pills. People who are overweight and those with heart disease or cancer also may have a greater risk. Others include people being treated with estrogen, and those who have had a recent operation. VOICE TWO: Experts say travelers should drink plenty of water -- not liquids that contain alcohol or caffeine. Another thing to do is to increase the blood flow to the legs. This could mean wearing support stockings or taking an aspirin a few hours before the trip. Also, people should not sit for a long time with their knees pressed back against their seat. Walk around every hour or so. Or at least make sure to move the feet and legs. Doctors say anyone who has pain, swelling or red skin on a leg during or after a long trip may have a blood clot. Signs that a clot may have already reached the lungs include chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing and a fast heart rate. In many cases, the condition can be treated with drugs that thin the blood and prevent clots from moving through the body. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization no longer has to wait for a government to officially announce a health problem. New rules expand the ability of the W-H-O to intervene when a country faces a crisis that might spread. The agency can now use unofficial reports, such as news stories, to confirm an outbreak of disease. If necessary, the rules permit the W-H-O to send teams to investigate how severe the situation is. The teams could also make sure a country has done enough to control it. In addition, the new rules give the W-H-O the power to declare international health threats in the future, as it did with SARS. The health agency also wants an improved system of communication with officials in each country. VOICE TWO: All one-hundred-ninety-two member states of the W-H-O approved the new rules in a resolution during a meeting in Geneva last month. The World Health Organization is part of the United Nations. The resolution is part of an effort to rewrite the International Health Regulations. These were first published in nineteen-sixty-nine. The member states also urged the W-H-O to use the experiences and knowledge gained from the SARS crisis when it changes those rules. VOICE ONE: The W-H-O recognized the need for stronger international health rules after the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS began in southern China late last year. But the Chinese government did not officially confirm it until February. That gave the lung infection time to spread while it went unreported. As of last week, at least seven-hundred-eighty-nine people had died from SARS. More than eight-thousand-four-hundred had become infected. About sixty percent of all the victims have been in mainland China. VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization will now be able to intervene even when a country denies it has a health problem. For years, health experts have called the legal structure that governs W-H-O action outdated and ineffective. The existing rules permitted the agency to collect information about diseases only after a government officially announced a crisis -- not before then. Also, the regulations currently require W-H-O members to report only three diseases. These are cholera, plague and yellow fever. The W-H-O is expected to complete reforms to the International Health Regulations in two-thousand-five. The U-N health agency will not gain any ability to punish a country that disobeys the new rules. Still, the SARS crisis has shown that the W-H-O can take steps on its own to contain the spread of a disease. For example, the agency made the decision to warn people not to travel to places affected by SARS. Last Thursday, in Beijing, high-level Chinese and W-H-O officials held their first joint news conference since the SARS outbreak began. Doctor David Heymann of the W-H-O said "excellent" measures were now in place to control and prevent SARS. This week the W-H-O holds a Global Conference on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Experts and public health officials are meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. A small lizard called a gecko has a wonderful ability. It can walk on all kinds of surfaces. It can even walk upside down. The feet of these small reptiles can stick to almost anything, wet or dry. They stick to surfaces even when there is no air. This means the force of air pressure, or suction, is not involved. Scientists are interested in the ability of the gecko and want to copy it. Now it seems they have. British and Russian researchers have developed a piece of sticky material that copies the ability of the gecko lizard. The first piece of this “gecko tape” is very small -- only one centimeter by one centimeter. However, a lot of research led to this new material. In two-thousand, researchers led by a professor at the University of California at Berkeley announced why gecko feet are so sticky. The answer surprised even expert engineers. VOICE TWO: The team found that the only explanation could be one suggested more than thirty years earlier. The team discovered work done by a German researcher in the nineteen-sixties. Uwe Hiller thought that a kind of atomic energy known as van der Waals forces was responsible. This kind of energy holds water molecules together. The team confirmed Hiller’s theory. Geckos have extremely small hairs -- called setae [see-tee] -- on the bottoms of their feet. Each hair ends in even smaller hairs. The team found that each hair produces a weak force to stick to a surface. VOICE ONE: The new research built on that discovery and took place at the University of Manchester, in England. It also involved scientists from the Institute for Microelectronics Technology in Russia. The publication Nature Materials published the research. The team created material covered with millions of tiny hairs made of plastic. The hairs are two-thousandths of a millimeter high. The researchers say the material has the same qualities as gecko feet. There is a problem, though. The tape can reattach only a few times before it loses its strength. Professor Robert Full led the Berkeley team that made the earlier discovery. He calls the new development very exciting. He says the uses for gecko tape are nearly unlimited. One possible use is to move computer parts in airless environments. VOICE TWO: Of course, it is not just the industrial uses that have caught the imagination of many people. Many hope to be able to walk on walls like the movie and comic book hero Spider-man. Professor Andre Geim is the director of the Manchester Center for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, where the gecko tape was made. Professor Geim says the researchers had the idea to produce a large enough amount to permit a student to hang out of a window. But he said it would cost too much money and not have scientific value. So the researchers limited themselves to a demonstration. They hung a fifteen-centimeter-high toy Spider-Man from a glass surface. So, while the gecko may have lost its mystery, the lizard is not about to share its power with anyone for now. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People who sit for hours on long trips should know about a condition called deep vein thrombosis. A thrombosis is a blood clot, a situation where some blood thickens and blocks the flow. Clots develop deep inside the legs when blood cannot move easily back to the heart. Blood clots can kill if they move to the heart and lungs. Doctors say some people have an increased risk of clots. These include people who have had clots in the past, as well as pregnant women and those who take birth control pills. People who are overweight and those with heart disease or cancer also may have a greater risk. Others include people being treated with estrogen, and those who have had a recent operation. VOICE TWO: Experts say travelers should drink plenty of water -- not liquids that contain alcohol or caffeine. Another thing to do is to increase the blood flow to the legs. This could mean wearing support stockings or taking an aspirin a few hours before the trip. Also, people should not sit for a long time with their knees pressed back against their seat. Walk around every hour or so. Or at least make sure to move the feet and legs. Doctors say anyone who has pain, swelling or red skin on a leg during or after a long trip may have a blood clot. Signs that a clot may have already reached the lungs include chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing and a fast heart rate. In many cases, the condition can be treated with drugs that thin the blood and prevent clots from moving through the body. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Fertilizer, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 17, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Population growth and economic changes put pressure on farmers to make their fields more productive. As a result, the use of mineral fertilizer is expected to continue to increase. There are many different kinds of fertilizers. Many have been used since the very beginning of agriculture. Farms that raise animals have a ready-to-use fertilizer that comes from their daily operations. Organic fertilizer usually comes from animal waste, plant material or wastewater. But these are not all. Some crops fertilize the soil by themselves. Beans release nitrogen. Crops like alfalfa can be left to break down. But, these methods supply limited amounts of soil nutrients. Farmers, trade groups and policy organizations generally recognize that manufactured fertilizers are necessary. They say it is simply not possible to create enough food without them. Mineral fertilizers are not organic. The kind used most are nitrogen-based. Nitrogen from the air is mixed with hydrogen from natural gas. This process produces ammonia gas. Other nutrient elements are then added to the ammonia. Today, the biggest producer of nitrogen fertilizer by far is China. It produces more than twenty-one million tons a year. Another group of fertilizers is made from phosphorus. Crushing the mineral apatite produces this nutrient. Morocco, the United States and China are major producers of phosphorus. Potassium, or potash, provides a third important crop nutrient. Once, it was made by burning wood. But it is also present in mineral forms that can be mined. These substances are the basic products of the fertilizer industry. Mineral fertilizer may permit agriculture in places with fairly poor soil. It can also stop soil from becoming infertile. Fertilizer does not provide all the answers to productive agriculture, however. Experts say soil biology and biotechnology must also be studied. And they say farmers must consider environmental concerns and possible health dangers. Too much fertilizer can pollute groundwater and damage lakes, rivers and wetlands. But, fertilizer does increase crop productivity. Next week, we will talk more about the issues and the demands of the future. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Broadcast: June 17, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Population growth and economic changes put pressure on farmers to make their fields more productive. As a result, the use of mineral fertilizer is expected to continue to increase. There are many different kinds of fertilizers. Many have been used since the very beginning of agriculture. Farms that raise animals have a ready-to-use fertilizer that comes from their daily operations. Organic fertilizer usually comes from animal waste, plant material or wastewater. But these are not all. Some crops fertilize the soil by themselves. Beans release nitrogen. Crops like alfalfa can be left to break down. But, these methods supply limited amounts of soil nutrients. Farmers, trade groups and policy organizations generally recognize that manufactured fertilizers are necessary. They say it is simply not possible to create enough food without them. Mineral fertilizers are not organic. The kind used most are nitrogen-based. Nitrogen from the air is mixed with hydrogen from natural gas. This process produces ammonia gas. Other nutrient elements are then added to the ammonia. Today, the biggest producer of nitrogen fertilizer by far is China. It produces more than twenty-one million tons a year. Another group of fertilizers is made from phosphorus. Crushing the mineral apatite produces this nutrient. Morocco, the United States and China are major producers of phosphorus. Potassium, or potash, provides a third important crop nutrient. Once, it was made by burning wood. But it is also present in mineral forms that can be mined. These substances are the basic products of the fertilizer industry. Mineral fertilizer may permit agriculture in places with fairly poor soil. It can also stop soil from becoming infertile. Fertilizer does not provide all the answers to productive agriculture, however. Experts say soil biology and biotechnology must also be studied. And they say farmers must consider environmental concerns and possible health dangers. Too much fertilizer can pollute groundwater and damage lakes, rivers and wetlands. But, fertilizer does increase crop productivity. Next week, we will talk more about the issues and the demands of the future. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - June 18, 2003: Mars Rover Vehicles
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the latest efforts by America’s space agency to explore the planet Mars. The first of two Mars exploration vehicles was launched June tenth. Another Mars rover vehicle is expected to be launched June twenty-fifth. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the latest efforts by America’s space agency to explore the planet Mars. The first of two Mars exploration vehicles was launched June tenth. Another Mars rover vehicle is expected to be launched June twenty-fifth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our report about the launch of the Mars Exploration Rover begins with a nine-year-old girl named Sofi Collis. She was born in Siberia, Russia and lived in a home for children who have no parents. At age two, she was brought to the United States by Lauri Collis who became her mother. Sofi now lives in the southwestern city of Scottsdale, Arizona. Sofi Collis entered and won a contest to name the two Mars Exploration Rovers. Her suggestion was among ten-thousand names that were entered. The names of the two Mars Exploration vehicles became official on June eighth. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said the names suggested by Sofi Collis explain the task of the two NASA flights. The names are “Spirit” and “Opportunity.” VOICE TWO: At the naming ceremony, Sofi Collis read the reasons why she suggested the names. She said, “I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely. At night, I looked up at the sky and felt better. I dreamed I could fly there. In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for the “Spirit” and the “Opportunity.” VOICE ONE: Our report about the launch of the Mars Exploration Rover begins with a nine-year-old girl named Sofi Collis. She was born in Siberia, Russia and lived in a home for children who have no parents. At age two, she was brought to the United States by Lauri Collis who became her mother. Sofi now lives in the southwestern city of Scottsdale, Arizona. Sofi Collis entered and won a contest to name the two Mars Exploration Rovers. Her suggestion was among ten-thousand names that were entered. The names of the two Mars Exploration vehicles became official on June eighth. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said the names suggested by Sofi Collis explain the task of the two NASA flights. The names are “Spirit” and “Opportunity.” VOICE TWO: At the naming ceremony, Sofi Collis read the reasons why she suggested the names. She said, “I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely. At night, I looked up at the sky and felt better. I dreamed I could fly there. In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for the “Spirit” and the “Opportunity.” The Mars Exploration Rover named Spirit was launched Tuesday. But Sofi’s dream of flying has not ended. She now wants to become an astronaut. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Spirit rover was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA officials said the launch was almost perfect. Mars rover project manager Pete Theisinger said officials were extremely happy with the launch. Scientists on Earth will perform several tests during the next few months. The tests will inspect many of the rover’s systems. The scientists will have six chances to change or correct the flight path of the spacecraft. They may do this to make sure the rover arrives at the right place to begin landing. Plans call for the Spirit rover to land on Mars on January fourth, two-thousand-four. NASA has chosen two scientifically interesting landing areas for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers to explore the surface of Mars. The Spirit rover will land in an area that may have once been a lake. The area is called the Gusev Crater. It is fifteen degrees south of the Martian equator. The Opportunity rover will land on the opposite side of Mars at the end of January. It will land in an area called the Meridiani Planum. It is an area that shows evidence of minerals that usually form in liquid water. This is close to the Martian equator and halfway around the planet from the landing area of Spirit. Each Mars Exploration Rover will examine its landing area for evidence of past liquid water activity. Each will also look for past environmental conditions that could have supported life. NASA officials say the two areas are very different and will provide two kinds of evidence about liquid water in the history of Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ed Weiler is a NASA official for space science. Mister Weiler said landing on Mars is very difficult, especially on some parts of the planet. He said NASA officials had to choose areas that had scientific value when making the decision about where to land the rovers. He said they also had to consider the safety of the Mars rovers when choosing a landing area. Mister Weiler says NASA officials have done everything they can to make sure the rovers have the best chance of success. VOICE ONE: The Spirit and Opportunity rovers should enter the atmosphere of Mars next January. At first, they will slow down in the upper atmosphere of Mars using a flat protective device called a heat shield. The shield protects against the fierce heat caused by the great speed of the spacecraft. A parachute will then deploy to slow the spacecraft. Huge balloon air bags will deploy when it nears the surface of Mars. The balloons will cause the rovers to bounce along the ground until they slow down. The balloons will also protect the rovers. Experts say the rovers may bounce as many as twelve times and travel as far as one kilometer before they come to rest. When the spacecraft stop, the air will be released from the balloons. Then the spacecraft will open. This will bring the rovers into a standing position. The rovers will immediately begin using their cameras to broadcast pictures of the immediate area. It will then leave the spacecraft and move away to begin exploring the surface of Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spirit and Opportunity rovers each weigh about one-hundred-eighty kilograms. They are expected to travel as many as forty meters each Martian day. They are expected to last at least ninety Earth days but could continue longer depending on the condition of the two vehicles. One of the major problems the two rovers face is the extreme cold of the Martian night. The coldest atmospheric nighttime temperature they can expect is about one-hundred degrees below zero Celsius. Special heater devices will help keep the rover’s electronic and science equipment protected from the extreme cold. VOICE ONE: Each rover carries five scientific instruments. They also carry special tools that can cut away the surface of rocks. These tools are used to expose the inside of rocks for examination. Each rover carries special cameras. The rovers will take photographs of the minerals inside the rocks. The cameras will also be used to choose the most interesting rocks for inspection. The rovers also carry an instrument called the Thermal Emission Spectrometer. This instrument will examine the area to identify different kinds of minerals. A major goal of this device is to find unusual minerals that are formed by the action of water. The spectrometer will also be used with the rover’s camera to choose new areas to explore. VOICE TWO: The rovers also carry an instrument called the Mossbauer Spectrometer. It is used to examine rocks for evidence of minerals that contain iron. It will help scientists learn if water was part of the formation of these minerals. This device is a very small version of devices used by scientists to study rocks and soil on Earth. Another instrument carried by both rovers is called the Microscopic Imager. This device examines soil and rocks to find out how those rocks and soil were formed. For example, the size and shape of very small rocks and soil will show how they were moved and placed in the area being inspected. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The scientific devices and the cameras on the Spirit and Opportunity will provide photographs and measurements each day. Scientists will command the vehicles to go to rock and soil targets of interest and to study them. The first rock and soil studies will be near the landing areas. But later studies will be done as far from the landing areas as possible. During the three months of planned exploration the rovers are expected to travel almost one kilometer to search for evidence of water. NASA officials say that the equipment carried on each of the rovers is almost equal to a geologist – a scientific expert on soil and rocks. These mechanical geologists will move across the surface of Mars searching for the most interesting soil and rocks to examine. VOICE TWO: Cathy Weitz is a Mars Exploration Rover program scientist at NASA headquarters. She says the rovers are NASA’s effort to understand the importance of water on Mars. She says the rovers will be used to find rocks and soil that could provide evidence about wet environments in the history of the planet. Orlando Figueroa is the director of the Mars Exploration program at NASA. He says NASA sees the Spirit and Opportunity as the first steps in Mars exploration for the next ten years. He added that the rovers will provide the knowledge necessary for human exploration of Mars in the future. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. Audio assistance was provided by Sulaiman Tarawaley. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. The Mars Exploration Rover named Spirit was launched Tuesday. But Sofi’s dream of flying has not ended. She now wants to become an astronaut. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Spirit rover was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA officials said the launch was almost perfect. Mars rover project manager Pete Theisinger said officials were extremely happy with the launch. Scientists on Earth will perform several tests during the next few months. The tests will inspect many of the rover’s systems. The scientists will have six chances to change or correct the flight path of the spacecraft. They may do this to make sure the rover arrives at the right place to begin landing. Plans call for the Spirit rover to land on Mars on January fourth, two-thousand-four. NASA has chosen two scientifically interesting landing areas for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers to explore the surface of Mars. The Spirit rover will land in an area that may have once been a lake. The area is called the Gusev Crater. It is fifteen degrees south of the Martian equator. The Opportunity rover will land on the opposite side of Mars at the end of January. It will land in an area called the Meridiani Planum. It is an area that shows evidence of minerals that usually form in liquid water. This is close to the Martian equator and halfway around the planet from the landing area of Spirit. Each Mars Exploration Rover will examine its landing area for evidence of past liquid water activity. Each will also look for past environmental conditions that could have supported life. NASA officials say the two areas are very different and will provide two kinds of evidence about liquid water in the history of Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ed Weiler is a NASA official for space science. Mister Weiler said landing on Mars is very difficult, especially on some parts of the planet. He said NASA officials had to choose areas that had scientific value when making the decision about where to land the rovers. He said they also had to consider the safety of the Mars rovers when choosing a landing area. Mister Weiler says NASA officials have done everything they can to make sure the rovers have the best chance of success. VOICE ONE: The Spirit and Opportunity rovers should enter the atmosphere of Mars next January. At first, they will slow down in the upper atmosphere of Mars using a flat protective device called a heat shield. The shield protects against the fierce heat caused by the great speed of the spacecraft. A parachute will then deploy to slow the spacecraft. Huge balloon air bags will deploy when it nears the surface of Mars. The balloons will cause the rovers to bounce along the ground until they slow down. The balloons will also protect the rovers. Experts say the rovers may bounce as many as twelve times and travel as far as one kilometer before they come to rest. When the spacecraft stop, the air will be released from the balloons. Then the spacecraft will open. This will bring the rovers into a standing position. The rovers will immediately begin using their cameras to broadcast pictures of the immediate area. It will then leave the spacecraft and move away to begin exploring the surface of Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Spirit and Opportunity rovers each weigh about one-hundred-eighty kilograms. They are expected to travel as many as forty meters each Martian day. They are expected to last at least ninety Earth days but could continue longer depending on the condition of the two vehicles. One of the major problems the two rovers face is the extreme cold of the Martian night. The coldest atmospheric nighttime temperature they can expect is about one-hundred degrees below zero Celsius. Special heater devices will help keep the rover’s electronic and science equipment protected from the extreme cold. VOICE ONE: Each rover carries five scientific instruments. They also carry special tools that can cut away the surface of rocks. These tools are used to expose the inside of rocks for examination. Each rover carries special cameras. The rovers will take photographs of the minerals inside the rocks. The cameras will also be used to choose the most interesting rocks for inspection. The rovers also carry an instrument called the Thermal Emission Spectrometer. This instrument will examine the area to identify different kinds of minerals. A major goal of this device is to find unusual minerals that are formed by the action of water. The spectrometer will also be used with the rover’s camera to choose new areas to explore. VOICE TWO: The rovers also carry an instrument called the Mossbauer Spectrometer. It is used to examine rocks for evidence of minerals that contain iron. It will help scientists learn if water was part of the formation of these minerals. This device is a very small version of devices used by scientists to study rocks and soil on Earth. Another instrument carried by both rovers is called the Microscopic Imager. This device examines soil and rocks to find out how those rocks and soil were formed. For example, the size and shape of very small rocks and soil will show how they were moved and placed in the area being inspected. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The scientific devices and the cameras on the Spirit and Opportunity will provide photographs and measurements each day. Scientists will command the vehicles to go to rock and soil targets of interest and to study them. The first rock and soil studies will be near the landing areas. But later studies will be done as far from the landing areas as possible. During the three months of planned exploration the rovers are expected to travel almost one kilometer to search for evidence of water. NASA officials say that the equipment carried on each of the rovers is almost equal to a geologist – a scientific expert on soil and rocks. These mechanical geologists will move across the surface of Mars searching for the most interesting soil and rocks to examine. VOICE TWO: Cathy Weitz is a Mars Exploration Rover program scientist at NASA headquarters. She says the rovers are NASA’s effort to understand the importance of water on Mars. She says the rovers will be used to find rocks and soil that could provide evidence about wet environments in the history of the planet. Orlando Figueroa is the director of the Mars Exploration program at NASA. He says NASA sees the Spirit and Opportunity as the first steps in Mars exploration for the next ten years. He added that the rovers will provide the knowledge necessary for human exploration of Mars in the future. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. Audio assistance was provided by Sulaiman Tarawaley. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-17-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Parkinson’s Disease
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 18, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Broadcast: June 18, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Last month the Vatican confirmed that Pope John Paul has Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the nervous system. The eighty-three-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church is one of millions of people in the world with Parkinson's. The disease does not kill. Instead, it slowly damages the ability to move. Parkinson's disease affects an area of cells in the brain called the substantia nigra. The cells lose the ability to produce the chemical dopamine. The decrease in dopamine causes one or more signs of Parkinson’s. These include slowness of movement, shaking of an arm or leg, or severe difficulty in moving the arms and legs. Another symptom is difficulty walking and staying balanced. Other signs may include restricted or decreased movement of the face. People may swallow less often than normal. And they may have trouble forming words when they talk. Also, victims may feel extremely sad or worried. The disease is named after a British doctor, James Parkinson. He first described it in eighteen-seventeen. But he did not know the cause. We still do not know today. Medical research has developed treatments, however. One is the drug levadopa. It replaces the natural dopamine in the brain. Levadopa helps ease the signs of Parkinson's. But it does not prevent brain cell damage. Another treatment is to place electrical devices in the brain. These devices target cells that cause unwanted body movements. The most serious danger of this treatment is the possibility of a stroke. Another treatment possibility involves replacing damaged brain tissue. Early experiments used cells from embryos. However, these experiments caused debate among people who oppose the ending of unwanted pregnancies. President Bush blocked federal money for such research. Researchers have begun to work with genetically engineered cells, animal cells and cells from the human eye. All of these cells can be made to produce dopamine. Other experiments involve the naturally produced growth factor G-D-N-F. Researchers in the United States have tested it on a small group of people with Parkinson’s. The study found that dopamine levels increased in their brains, and arm and leg movement improved. Now the researchers are designing a larger study. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Last month the Vatican confirmed that Pope John Paul has Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the nervous system. The eighty-three-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church is one of millions of people in the world with Parkinson's. The disease does not kill. Instead, it slowly damages the ability to move. Parkinson's disease affects an area of cells in the brain called the substantia nigra. The cells lose the ability to produce the chemical dopamine. The decrease in dopamine causes one or more signs of Parkinson’s. These include slowness of movement, shaking of an arm or leg, or severe difficulty in moving the arms and legs. Another symptom is difficulty walking and staying balanced. Other signs may include restricted or decreased movement of the face. People may swallow less often than normal. And they may have trouble forming words when they talk. Also, victims may feel extremely sad or worried. The disease is named after a British doctor, James Parkinson. He first described it in eighteen-seventeen. But he did not know the cause. We still do not know today. Medical research has developed treatments, however. One is the drug levadopa. It replaces the natural dopamine in the brain. Levadopa helps ease the signs of Parkinson's. But it does not prevent brain cell damage. Another treatment is to place electrical devices in the brain. These devices target cells that cause unwanted body movements. The most serious danger of this treatment is the possibility of a stroke. Another treatment possibility involves replacing damaged brain tissue. Early experiments used cells from embryos. However, these experiments caused debate among people who oppose the ending of unwanted pregnancies. President Bush blocked federal money for such research. Researchers have begun to work with genetically engineered cells, animal cells and cells from the human eye. All of these cells can be made to produce dopamine. Other experiments involve the naturally produced growth factor G-D-N-F. Researchers in the United States have tested it on a small group of people with Parkinson’s. The study found that dopamine levels increased in their brains, and arm and leg movement improved. Now the researchers are designing a larger study. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL ENGLISH CONTEST - THIS WEEK ONLY
* Byline: 

 Saturday, June 21, is the last day to send an e-mail to special@voanews.com to tell us which of our programs you like best. Also tell us what other kinds of programs you would like to hear. Include your name, postal address and age. On the subject line, write "Contest." Two listeners will receive a small MP3 player with radio. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #17 - Writing the Constitution, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 19, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Each week at this time, we have a report on the history of the United States. One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government. It guarantees the rights of America's citizens. Its power is greater than any president, court, or legislature. It is the law of the land and the heart of the country. I'm Doug Johnson. Today, Richard Rael and I begin the story of the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO: The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. But they had to win their independence in a long war that followed. During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The union was a loose one. The Articles of Confederation did not organize a central government. They did not create courts or decide laws. They did not provide an executive to carry out the laws. All the Articles of Confederation did was to create a Congress. But it was a Congress with little power. It could only advise the separate thirteen states and ask them to do some things. It could not pass laws for the Union of states. The weakness of this system became clear soon after the war for independence ended. British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in Seventeen-Eighty-One. A messenger brought the Congress news of the victory. The Congress had no money. It could not even pay the messenger. So money had to be collected from each member of the Congress. VOICE ONE: Even before the war ended, three men called for a change in the loose confederation of states. They urged formation of a strong central government. Those three men were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. George Washington commanded America's troops during the revolution. He opposed the Articles of Confederation because they provided little support for his army. His soldiers often had no clothes or shoes or food. They had no medicines or blankets or bullets. During the war, Washington wrote many angry letters about the military situation. In one letter, he said: "Our sick soldiers are naked. Our healthy soldiers are naked. Our soldiers who have been captured by the British are naked!" VOICE TWO: General Washington's letters produced little action. The thirteen separate states refused to listen when he told them the war was a war of all the states. He learned they were more interested in themselves than in what his soldiers needed. After the war, there was much social, political, and economic disorder. General Washington saw once again that there was no hope for the United States under the Articles of Confederation. He wrote to a friend: "I do not believe we can exist as a nation unless there is a central government which will rule all the nation, just as a state government rules each state." VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton agreed. He was a young lawyer and an assistant to General Washington during the revolution. Even before the war ended, Hamilton called for a convention of the thirteen states to create a central government. He expressed his opinion in letters, speeches, and newspaper stories. Finally, there was James Madison. He saw the picture clearly. It was an unhappy picture. There were thirteen governments. And each tried to help itself at the cost of the others. Nine states had their own navy. Each had its own army. The states used these forces to protect themselves from each other. For example, the state of Virginia passed a law which said it could seize ships that did not pay taxes to the state. Virginia did not mean ships from England and Spain. It meant ships from Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. James Madison often said most of the new nation's political problems grew out of such commercial problems. VOICE TWO: In the Seventeen-Eighties, many people in America and Europe believed the United States was on the road to anarchy. One sign was the money system. There was no national money. Many Americans thought of money as the pounds and shillings of the British system. There was an American dollar. But it did not have the same value everywhere. In New York, the dollar was worth eight shillings. In South Carolina, it was worth more than thirty-two shillings. This situation was bad enough. Yet there also were all kinds of other coins used as money: French crowns, Spanish doubloons, European ducats. VOICE ONE: In Seventeen-Eighty-Six, representatives from Maryland and Virginia met to discuss opening land for new settlements along the Potomac River. The Potomac formed the border between those two states. The representatives agreed that the issue of settling new land was too big for just two states to decide. "Why not invite Delaware and Pennsylvania to help?" someone asked. Someone else said all the states should be invited. Then they could discuss all the problems that were giving the new nation so much trouble. The idea was accepted. And a convention was set for Annapolis, Maryland. VOICE TWO: The convention opened as planned. It was not much of a meeting. Representatives came from only five states. Four other states had chosen representatives, but they did not come. The remaining four states did not even choose representatives. The men who did meet at Annapolis, however, agreed it was a beginning. They agreed, too, that a larger convention should be called. They appointed the representative from New York, Alexander Hamilton, to put the agreement in writing. So Hamilton sent a message to the legislature of each state. He called for a convention in Philadelphia in May of the next year, Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. The purpose of the convention, he said, would be to write a constitution for the United States. VOICE ONE: Many people believed the convention would not succeed without George Washington. But General Washington did not want to go. He suffered from rheumatism. His mother and sister were sick. He needed to take care of business at his farm, Mount Vernon. And he already said he was not interested in public office. How would it look if -- as expected -- he was elected president of the convention? George Washington was the most famous man in America. Suppose only a few states sent representatives to the convention? Suppose it failed? Would he look foolish? Two close friends -- James Madison and Edmund Randolph -- urged General Washington to go to Philadelphia. He trusted them. So he said he would go as one of the representatives of Virginia. From that moment, it was clear the convention would be an important event. If George Washington would be there, it had to be important. VOICE TWO: The first man to arrive in Philadelphia for the convention was James Madison. Madison was thirty-five years old. He was short and was losing his hair. He was not a good speaker. But he always knew what he wanted to say. He had read everything that had been published in English about governments, from the governments of ancient Greece to those of his own time. Madison believed the United States needed a strong central government. He believed the governments of the thirteen states should be second to the central government. Madison knew he should not push his ideas too quickly, however. Many representatives at the convention were afraid of a strong central government. They did not trust central governments with too much power. So Madison planned his work quietly. He came to the convention with hundreds of books and papers. He was prepared to answer any question about government that any other representative might ask him. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Richard Rael . Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue our report on the United States Constitution. (THEME) Broadcast: June 19, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Each week at this time, we have a report on the history of the United States. One cannot truly understand the United States without understanding its Constitution. That political document describes America's system of government. It guarantees the rights of America's citizens. Its power is greater than any president, court, or legislature. It is the law of the land and the heart of the country. I'm Doug Johnson. Today, Richard Rael and I begin the story of the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO: The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. But they had to win their independence in a long war that followed. During that war, the colonies were united by an agreement called the Articles of Confederation. The union was a loose one. The Articles of Confederation did not organize a central government. They did not create courts or decide laws. They did not provide an executive to carry out the laws. All the Articles of Confederation did was to create a Congress. But it was a Congress with little power. It could only advise the separate thirteen states and ask them to do some things. It could not pass laws for the Union of states. The weakness of this system became clear soon after the war for independence ended. British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in Seventeen-Eighty-One. A messenger brought the Congress news of the victory. The Congress had no money. It could not even pay the messenger. So money had to be collected from each member of the Congress. VOICE ONE: Even before the war ended, three men called for a change in the loose confederation of states. They urged formation of a strong central government. Those three men were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. George Washington commanded America's troops during the revolution. He opposed the Articles of Confederation because they provided little support for his army. His soldiers often had no clothes or shoes or food. They had no medicines or blankets or bullets. During the war, Washington wrote many angry letters about the military situation. In one letter, he said: "Our sick soldiers are naked. Our healthy soldiers are naked. Our soldiers who have been captured by the British are naked!" VOICE TWO: General Washington's letters produced little action. The thirteen separate states refused to listen when he told them the war was a war of all the states. He learned they were more interested in themselves than in what his soldiers needed. After the war, there was much social, political, and economic disorder. General Washington saw once again that there was no hope for the United States under the Articles of Confederation. He wrote to a friend: "I do not believe we can exist as a nation unless there is a central government which will rule all the nation, just as a state government rules each state." VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton agreed. He was a young lawyer and an assistant to General Washington during the revolution. Even before the war ended, Hamilton called for a convention of the thirteen states to create a central government. He expressed his opinion in letters, speeches, and newspaper stories. Finally, there was James Madison. He saw the picture clearly. It was an unhappy picture. There were thirteen governments. And each tried to help itself at the cost of the others. Nine states had their own navy. Each had its own army. The states used these forces to protect themselves from each other. For example, the state of Virginia passed a law which said it could seize ships that did not pay taxes to the state. Virginia did not mean ships from England and Spain. It meant ships from Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. James Madison often said most of the new nation's political problems grew out of such commercial problems. VOICE TWO: In the Seventeen-Eighties, many people in America and Europe believed the United States was on the road to anarchy. One sign was the money system. There was no national money. Many Americans thought of money as the pounds and shillings of the British system. There was an American dollar. But it did not have the same value everywhere. In New York, the dollar was worth eight shillings. In South Carolina, it was worth more than thirty-two shillings. This situation was bad enough. Yet there also were all kinds of other coins used as money: French crowns, Spanish doubloons, European ducats. VOICE ONE: In Seventeen-Eighty-Six, representatives from Maryland and Virginia met to discuss opening land for new settlements along the Potomac River. The Potomac formed the border between those two states. The representatives agreed that the issue of settling new land was too big for just two states to decide. "Why not invite Delaware and Pennsylvania to help?" someone asked. Someone else said all the states should be invited. Then they could discuss all the problems that were giving the new nation so much trouble. The idea was accepted. And a convention was set for Annapolis, Maryland. VOICE TWO: The convention opened as planned. It was not much of a meeting. Representatives came from only five states. Four other states had chosen representatives, but they did not come. The remaining four states did not even choose representatives. The men who did meet at Annapolis, however, agreed it was a beginning. They agreed, too, that a larger convention should be called. They appointed the representative from New York, Alexander Hamilton, to put the agreement in writing. So Hamilton sent a message to the legislature of each state. He called for a convention in Philadelphia in May of the next year, Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. The purpose of the convention, he said, would be to write a constitution for the United States. VOICE ONE: Many people believed the convention would not succeed without George Washington. But General Washington did not want to go. He suffered from rheumatism. His mother and sister were sick. He needed to take care of business at his farm, Mount Vernon. And he already said he was not interested in public office. How would it look if -- as expected -- he was elected president of the convention? George Washington was the most famous man in America. Suppose only a few states sent representatives to the convention? Suppose it failed? Would he look foolish? Two close friends -- James Madison and Edmund Randolph -- urged General Washington to go to Philadelphia. He trusted them. So he said he would go as one of the representatives of Virginia. From that moment, it was clear the convention would be an important event. If George Washington would be there, it had to be important. VOICE TWO: The first man to arrive in Philadelphia for the convention was James Madison. Madison was thirty-five years old. He was short and was losing his hair. He was not a good speaker. But he always knew what he wanted to say. He had read everything that had been published in English about governments, from the governments of ancient Greece to those of his own time. Madison believed the United States needed a strong central government. He believed the governments of the thirteen states should be second to the central government. Madison knew he should not push his ideas too quickly, however. Many representatives at the convention were afraid of a strong central government. They did not trust central governments with too much power. So Madison planned his work quietly. He came to the convention with hundreds of books and papers. He was prepared to answer any question about government that any other representative might ask him. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Richard Rael . Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue our report on the United States Constitution. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - June 19, 2003: Bronx Guild
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A non-profit organization that holds educational adventure programs is operating a public high school in New York. The New York City Outward Bound Center is known for programs like rock-climbing trips. But last fall, the group launched a different kind of educational adventure. It opened what it calls The Bronx Guild: A New York City Outward Bound School. The school serves a poor area of the city. Almost eighty teen-agers have now completed their first year of high school, ninth grade, at Bronx Guild. New classes are to begin there each fall. The school will provide four years of study like other high schools. The Bronx Guild operates inside the existing Adlai E. Stevenson High School. The new school was started as part of a city education department program. The program calls for reorganizing large high schools with low student performance. Large schools have several thousand students. Instead, three-hundred to four-hundred young people are to attend new, smaller schools. Three private organizations provided thirty-million dollars to help make the changes possible. One goal at Bronx Guild is to aid students who did not receive the help they needed in big schools. Another is to show them the value of education. This year, students will begin working in areas that especially interest them. These apprenticeships mean learning a skill by doing it. For example, students interested in the environment might work in a city garden. Students will work on apprenticeships two or three days a week. But their schoolwork also includes preparation for college. Bronx Guild students began their school year in a non-traditional way. They climbed a tall wooden structure in the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York. Students on the ground held safety ropes attached to the climbers. The goal was to show that the young people could help and depend on each other. New York City Outward Bound began the Bronx Guild school after observing students who had attended educational adventure trips. The group says the activities helped the young people improve their lives. But they still had to return to their same large high schools. Outward Bound began its activities in New York City in nineteen-eighty-seven. Since then, organization officials say, twenty-five-thousand students have taken part. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A non-profit organization that holds educational adventure programs is operating a public high school in New York. The New York City Outward Bound Center is known for programs like rock-climbing trips. But last fall, the group launched a different kind of educational adventure. It opened what it calls The Bronx Guild: A New York City Outward Bound School. The school serves a poor area of the city. Almost eighty teen-agers have now completed their first year of high school, ninth grade, at Bronx Guild. New classes are to begin there each fall. The school will provide four years of study like other high schools. The Bronx Guild operates inside the existing Adlai E. Stevenson High School. The new school was started as part of a city education department program. The program calls for reorganizing large high schools with low student performance. Large schools have several thousand students. Instead, three-hundred to four-hundred young people are to attend new, smaller schools. Three private organizations provided thirty-million dollars to help make the changes possible. One goal at Bronx Guild is to aid students who did not receive the help they needed in big schools. Another is to show them the value of education. This year, students will begin working in areas that especially interest them. These apprenticeships mean learning a skill by doing it. For example, students interested in the environment might work in a city garden. Students will work on apprenticeships two or three days a week. But their schoolwork also includes preparation for college. Bronx Guild students began their school year in a non-traditional way. They climbed a tall wooden structure in the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York. Students on the ground held safety ropes attached to the climbers. The goal was to show that the young people could help and depend on each other. New York City Outward Bound began the Bronx Guild school after observing students who had attended educational adventure trips. The group says the activities helped the young people improve their lives. But they still had to return to their same large high schools. Outward Bound began its activities in New York City in nineteen-eighty-seven. Since then, organization officials say, twenty-five-thousand students have taken part. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 20, 2003: Question About Foods that Americans Like / Music from a New Album of Women in Jazz / Report on a Movie About a Spelling Competition
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: For some, ice cream is ALWAYS popular, not just on hot days. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Bob Doughty. On our program today, We answer a question about foods Americans like to eat ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Bob Doughty. On our program today, We answer a question about foods Americans like to eat ... We play music from a new album of women in jazz ... And we report on a new movie about a spelling contest. Spellbound Movie HOST: A spelling competition might not sound like the most exciting subject for a movie. But critics and the public have praised a new movie called “Spellbound.” The movie also has won many awards and was nominated for Best Documentary at the most recent Academy Awards. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The movie “Spellbound” was released in the United States last month during the seventy-sixth yearly National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C. It is the true story of eight young spelling champions from different parts of America. They competed with about two-hundred-forty other students at the national spelling competition in Washington in nineteen-ninety-nine. Students between the ages of eight and fifteen compete each year to be named the best speller in America. The National Spelling Bee may seem like a simple competition. An official reads a different word to each student. That student must say the word and spell it correctly. Those who misspell a word must leave the competition until only one student remains as champion. The champion wins twelve-thousand dollars. But this is not an easy contest. The students must spell very unusual and difficult words that almost no one has even heard of before. Words like “euonym” or “vivisepulture” or “succedaneum.” Jeff Blitz and Sean Welch made the movie “Spellbound.” It was their first movie. Mister Welch says the Spelling Bee is a celebration of education. Other people say their movie is a celebration of America. Some of the students in the documentary have rich parents who employ special spelling teachers. Others have parents who do not have a lot of money. One of the students in the movie is from Texas. Her parents came to America illegally from Mexico twenty years ago. Her father still does not speak much English. Two other students in the movie have parents who came from India. The eight students in the movie are very different from each other. But they all share a love of words. The movie shows the students and their parents at home, preparing for the contest and competing at the National Spelling Bee. There is a great deal of tension, pressure, surprise, happiness and sadness until only one speller remains as champion. But we will not tell you who wins. That would take all the suspense out of “Spellbound.” Food in America HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Meena Shukul in Uttar-Pradesh asks about the kinds of foods American people love to eat. Because so many different people live in the United States, many different foods are found here as well. Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Lebanese and Indian – these are just a few of the different foreign foods that Americans enjoy. Many Americans also love local foods that are special to their area of the country. In the southern state of Louisiana, people enjoy spicy Cajun and Creole foods. Creole uses traditional French cooking with Spanish, African, Native American and other influences. The city of New Orleans is known for its Creole, while Cajun is more popular in other areas. There are differences between the two kinds of cooking. Many have been lost, though, as Louisiana food has gained national appeal. In the middle of the United States, farmers grow wheat, corn and other grains. Corn boiled in water is especially popular here. But Americans everywhere like to eat corn that expands with a loud noise when heated -- popcorn. It is popular at movies. In the northern state of Wisconsin, farmers raise a lot of cows, so people eat a lot of milk products, like cheese. And in coastal states, especially, people love fresh seafood. In Maine, boiled lobster is popular with local citizens and travelers. This shellfish is caught in traps that are set on the bottom of the water. Some foods are enjoyed all over the country. These include pizza. This large, flat bread is usually round and covered with cheese, tomato sauce and other toppings. Another food is ice cream, a sweet frozen milk product. Fried potatoes cooked in oil are also popular, and often eaten with hamburgers. Really these are not made with ham from a pig, but with beef from a cow. Still another favorite is chocolate. Americans call foods without much health value “junk food." Junk food is one reason the number of overweight people in the United States and other countries has increased. Public health officials say more than sixty percent of American adults are overweight or obese. Not only do many people eat junk food, they also eat more food than they burn off as energy. This energy imbalance leads to weight gain. Officials are urging Americans to exercise more and to eat more fruits and vegetables in place of foods high in fats and sweeteners. Lady Sings The Blues HOST: Capital Records has released a new album that honors women in jazz. It is called “Lady Sings The Blues.” Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: “Lady Sings The Blues” has twenty-eight songs by some of the most popular women jazz singers of all time. These include Billie Holliday, Keely Smith, Rosemary Clooney, Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Here, Sarah Vaughn sings “Stormy Weather.” (MUSIC) Another singer heard on the new album is Ella Fitzgerald. She was known to millions of jazz fans as the “First Lady of Song.” Listen as she sings “Solitude.” (MUSIC) Record company officials say most of the sales of jazz music these days are of albums recorded by women. One of the most popular of these singers still recording today is Etta James. We leave you with one of the songs by Etta James included on “Lady Sings The Blues.” The song is called “Body and Soul.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. We play music from a new album of women in jazz ... And we report on a new movie about a spelling contest. Spellbound Movie HOST: A spelling competition might not sound like the most exciting subject for a movie. But critics and the public have praised a new movie called “Spellbound.” The movie also has won many awards and was nominated for Best Documentary at the most recent Academy Awards. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The movie “Spellbound” was released in the United States last month during the seventy-sixth yearly National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C. It is the true story of eight young spelling champions from different parts of America. They competed with about two-hundred-forty other students at the national spelling competition in Washington in nineteen-ninety-nine. Students between the ages of eight and fifteen compete each year to be named the best speller in America. The National Spelling Bee may seem like a simple competition. An official reads a different word to each student. That student must say the word and spell it correctly. Those who misspell a word must leave the competition until only one student remains as champion. The champion wins twelve-thousand dollars. But this is not an easy contest. The students must spell very unusual and difficult words that almost no one has even heard of before. Words like “euonym” or “vivisepulture” or “succedaneum.” Jeff Blitz and Sean Welch made the movie “Spellbound.” It was their first movie. Mister Welch says the Spelling Bee is a celebration of education. Other people say their movie is a celebration of America. Some of the students in the documentary have rich parents who employ special spelling teachers. Others have parents who do not have a lot of money. One of the students in the movie is from Texas. Her parents came to America illegally from Mexico twenty years ago. Her father still does not speak much English. Two other students in the movie have parents who came from India. The eight students in the movie are very different from each other. But they all share a love of words. The movie shows the students and their parents at home, preparing for the contest and competing at the National Spelling Bee. There is a great deal of tension, pressure, surprise, happiness and sadness until only one speller remains as champion. But we will not tell you who wins. That would take all the suspense out of “Spellbound.” Food in America HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Meena Shukul in Uttar-Pradesh asks about the kinds of foods American people love to eat. Because so many different people live in the United States, many different foods are found here as well. Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Lebanese and Indian – these are just a few of the different foreign foods that Americans enjoy. Many Americans also love local foods that are special to their area of the country. In the southern state of Louisiana, people enjoy spicy Cajun and Creole foods. Creole uses traditional French cooking with Spanish, African, Native American and other influences. The city of New Orleans is known for its Creole, while Cajun is more popular in other areas. There are differences between the two kinds of cooking. Many have been lost, though, as Louisiana food has gained national appeal. In the middle of the United States, farmers grow wheat, corn and other grains. Corn boiled in water is especially popular here. But Americans everywhere like to eat corn that expands with a loud noise when heated -- popcorn. It is popular at movies. In the northern state of Wisconsin, farmers raise a lot of cows, so people eat a lot of milk products, like cheese. And in coastal states, especially, people love fresh seafood. In Maine, boiled lobster is popular with local citizens and travelers. This shellfish is caught in traps that are set on the bottom of the water. Some foods are enjoyed all over the country. These include pizza. This large, flat bread is usually round and covered with cheese, tomato sauce and other toppings. Another food is ice cream, a sweet frozen milk product. Fried potatoes cooked in oil are also popular, and often eaten with hamburgers. Really these are not made with ham from a pig, but with beef from a cow. Still another favorite is chocolate. Americans call foods without much health value “junk food." Junk food is one reason the number of overweight people in the United States and other countries has increased. Public health officials say more than sixty percent of American adults are overweight or obese. Not only do many people eat junk food, they also eat more food than they burn off as energy. This energy imbalance leads to weight gain. Officials are urging Americans to exercise more and to eat more fruits and vegetables in place of foods high in fats and sweeteners. Lady Sings The Blues HOST: Capital Records has released a new album that honors women in jazz. It is called “Lady Sings The Blues.” Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: “Lady Sings The Blues” has twenty-eight songs by some of the most popular women jazz singers of all time. These include Billie Holliday, Keely Smith, Rosemary Clooney, Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Here, Sarah Vaughn sings “Stormy Weather.” (MUSIC) Another singer heard on the new album is Ella Fitzgerald. She was known to millions of jazz fans as the “First Lady of Song.” Listen as she sings “Solitude.” (MUSIC) Record company officials say most of the sales of jazz music these days are of albums recorded by women. One of the most popular of these singers still recording today is Etta James. We leave you with one of the songs by Etta James included on “Lady Sings The Blues.” The song is called “Body and Soul.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Cloud Study
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 20, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Broadcast: June 20, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists discovered something unusual when they examined some clouds over the center of the United States. These cirrus clouds remained from a severe storm in the Pacific Ocean. The high, cold clouds contained evidence of sea salt and frozen plankton organisms. Plankton are extremely small. A microscope is usually needed to see them. The scientists say the clouds carried the ocean particles more than one-thousand kilometers across the United States. They say this was the first time examples of microscopic marine life, like plankton, were seen inside ice crystals in the cirrus clouds of a hurricane. American scientists Kenneth Sassen, Patrick Arnott and David Starr described their findings in a report in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. The American Meteorological Society publishes that journal. The scientists used information gathered by sensing equipment in the states of Utah and Oklahoma. A research airplane gathered cloud particles over Oklahoma. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also provided information for the study. The clouds were left from Hurricane Nora. This strong storm developed in the eastern Pacific in September nineteen-ninety-seven. Nora formed near the coast of Panama and became stronger as it moved up the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. It lost strength as it crossed into California. Nora left an area of high clouds over the western United States. The clouds were filled with ice particles, or crystals. The report says these clouds appeared unusual. They produced circles of light over a wide area, including Utah and Oklahoma. The scientists used these clouds to study ice crystals formed around different particles. Different nuclei affect the growth and shape of ice crystals. Winds from the storm carried sea salt and other particles high into the upper atmosphere. There, the particles froze and became ice crystals. David Starr works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. He says understanding how ice crystals grow and take shape is important to understanding how they react to the sun. Mister Starr says these are important processes in Earth’s climate system. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. Scientists discovered something unusual when they examined some clouds over the center of the United States. These cirrus clouds remained from a severe storm in the Pacific Ocean. The high, cold clouds contained evidence of sea salt and frozen plankton organisms. Plankton are extremely small. A microscope is usually needed to see them. The scientists say the clouds carried the ocean particles more than one-thousand kilometers across the United States. They say this was the first time examples of microscopic marine life, like plankton, were seen inside ice crystals in the cirrus clouds of a hurricane. American scientists Kenneth Sassen, Patrick Arnott and David Starr described their findings in a report in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. The American Meteorological Society publishes that journal. The scientists used information gathered by sensing equipment in the states of Utah and Oklahoma. A research airplane gathered cloud particles over Oklahoma. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also provided information for the study. The clouds were left from Hurricane Nora. This strong storm developed in the eastern Pacific in September nineteen-ninety-seven. Nora formed near the coast of Panama and became stronger as it moved up the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. It lost strength as it crossed into California. Nora left an area of high clouds over the western United States. The clouds were filled with ice particles, or crystals. The report says these clouds appeared unusual. They produced circles of light over a wide area, including Utah and Oklahoma. The scientists used these clouds to study ice crystals formed around different particles. Different nuclei affect the growth and shape of ice crystals. Winds from the storm carried sea salt and other particles high into the upper atmosphere. There, the particles froze and became ice crystals. David Starr works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. He says understanding how ice crystals grow and take shape is important to understanding how they react to the sun. Mister Starr says these are important processes in Earth’s climate system. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - June 21, 2003: Iran's Nuclear Program
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. This week, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency met in Vienna to discuss a new report about Iran’s nuclear program. I-A-E-A Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wrote the report. It says Iran has failed to declare the importing, processing and storing of nuclear materials. Iran had promised to do so. Ali Salehi This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. This week, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency met in Vienna to discuss a new report about Iran’s nuclear program. I-A-E-A Director General Mohamed ElBaradei wrote the report. It says Iran has failed to declare the importing, processing and storing of nuclear materials. Iran had promised to do so. A statement Thursday by the thirty-five-member board called on Iran to fully cooperate and permit inspections of all its nuclear centers. The Bush administration wanted a stronger resolution by the I-A-E-A to condemn Iran’s actions. The administration accuses Iran of secretly working to develop nuclear weapons. American officials say they believe Iran is using a civilian nuclear energy program as a cover for a weapons program. The administration had led a diplomatic campaign to pressure Iran to agree to stronger inspections of its nuclear program. American I-A-E-A representative Kenneth Brill accused Iran of violating treaty rules and delaying nuclear inspections. Britain and Canada also criticized Iran for failing to declare its nuclear activities. But Non-Aligned countries, led by Malaysia, said Iran had been cooperative in its dealings with the I-A-E-A. An Iranian opposition group reported last year about the existence of two new nuclear production centers in Iran. The United States says Iran’s failure to provide that information shows it could have something to hide. Iran says its nuclear program is part of a peaceful energy program. It says the I-A-E-A report was influenced by the United States for political reasons. The Iranian representative to the I-A-E-A, Ali Salehi, listed failures by many other countries to meet conditions for nuclear inspections. Reports say most of what Iran is doing does not violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty was signed in nineteen-seventy by every country except Pakistan, India and Israel. The treaty permits governments to have almost any nuclear technology. But they must agree to use it for peaceful purposes and to place it under international observation. President Bush said this week that other countries must make it clear to Iran that they will not accept the building of a nuclear weapon. He said a nuclear-armed Iran would be dangerous. On Friday, Russia's energy minister said Russia will not send nuclear fuel to Iran until Iran's nuclear program is fully under I-A-E-A supervision. Another issue causing tension between the Bush administration and Iran is recent Iranian anti-government protests. These began last week and led to clashes between the demonstrators and government supporters. The demonstrators oppose Islamic rule and are demanding greater freedom. The protests have eased during the past few days. American officials expressed support for the protesters. Iran accused the United States of interfering. This VOA Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. A statement Thursday by the thirty-five-member board called on Iran to fully cooperate and permit inspections of all its nuclear centers. The Bush administration wanted a stronger resolution by the I-A-E-A to condemn Iran’s actions. The administration accuses Iran of secretly working to develop nuclear weapons. American officials say they believe Iran is using a civilian nuclear energy program as a cover for a weapons program. The administration had led a diplomatic campaign to pressure Iran to agree to stronger inspections of its nuclear program. American I-A-E-A representative Kenneth Brill accused Iran of violating treaty rules and delaying nuclear inspections. Britain and Canada also criticized Iran for failing to declare its nuclear activities. But Non-Aligned countries, led by Malaysia, said Iran had been cooperative in its dealings with the I-A-E-A. An Iranian opposition group reported last year about the existence of two new nuclear production centers in Iran. The United States says Iran’s failure to provide that information shows it could have something to hide. Iran says its nuclear program is part of a peaceful energy program. It says the I-A-E-A report was influenced by the United States for political reasons. The Iranian representative to the I-A-E-A, Ali Salehi, listed failures by many other countries to meet conditions for nuclear inspections. Reports say most of what Iran is doing does not violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The treaty was signed in nineteen-seventy by every country except Pakistan, India and Israel. The treaty permits governments to have almost any nuclear technology. But they must agree to use it for peaceful purposes and to place it under international observation. President Bush said this week that other countries must make it clear to Iran that they will not accept the building of a nuclear weapon. He said a nuclear-armed Iran would be dangerous. On Friday, Russia's energy minister said Russia will not send nuclear fuel to Iran until Iran's nuclear program is fully under I-A-E-A supervision. Another issue causing tension between the Bush administration and Iran is recent Iranian anti-government protests. These began last week and led to clashes between the demonstrators and government supporters. The demonstrators oppose Islamic rule and are demanding greater freedom. The protests have eased during the past few days. American officials expressed support for the protesters. Iran accused the United States of interfering. This VOA Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 22, 2003: Babe Ruth
* Byline: Written by Shelley Gollust

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Babe Ruth, America's greatest baseball player. Some say he was the greatest sports hero of all time. ((BRIDGE MUSIC) I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Babe Ruth, America's greatest baseball player. Some say he was the greatest sports hero of all time. ((BRIDGE MUSIC) VOICE ONE: George Herman Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland in eighteen-ninety-five. George's parents owned a bar where people came to drink alcohol. His mother died when he was very young. His father was killed in a street fight. Young George was forced to live on the streets of Baltimore. He stole things. He fought with other children. He got into trouble. At the age of eight, he was sent to live at Saint Mary's industrial school for boys. Catholic religious workers operated the school. The religious workers helped George to act better. And they taught him how to play baseball. VOICE TWO: By the age of eighteen, George was an excellent baseball player. In nineteen-fourteen, a teacher at the school wrote to a friend of his, Jack Dunn. Dunn was the manager of the Baltimore Orioles minor league baseball team. He was the one who decided who would play for the team. The teacher invited Dunn to see the young player. Dunn watched George pitch the baseball. He offered the young left-handed pitcher a job playing baseball for six months. He said the Baltimore Orioles team would pay George six-hundred-dollars. Jack Dunn had to take responsibility for the boy or George could not leave the school. Dunn decided to become George's legal parent. Jack Dunn and his new player arrived at the Orioles' baseball park. The older Orioles' players joked about the new young player. They called him, "Dunn's babe. " The young baseball player became known forever as Babe Ruth. VOICE ONE: That year, the Boston Red Sox baseball team bought the right to make Babe Ruth a player for their team. Ruth pitched for the Red Sox teams during the next two years. He became the best pitcher in the American baseball league. Then the Red Sox discovered that he could hit the ball even better than he could throw it. So Ruth became an outfielder instead of a pitcher. In nineteen-nineteen, he hit the ball out of the baseball park twenty-nine times. He hit more home runs than any other player that year. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-twenty, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth's contract to the famous New York Yankees baseball team. That year, Babe Ruth hit fifty-four home runs. This was more home runs than any other American League team hit that season. The next year, he hit fifty-nine home runs. Babe Ruth's baseball skill and friendly nature made him famous across the country and around the world. Many people came to the Yankee games just because they wanted to see Babe Ruth play. He helped the team earn a great deal of money. The Yankees built a new baseball stadium. Even today, Yankee stadium is known as "The house that Ruth built. " VOICE ONE: Baseball fans loved Babe Ruth because he was what some people called "larger than life. " Sports writer Paul Gallico wrote that Babe Ruth played ball in the same intense way that he lived his life. Gallico said that whenever Ruth hit a ball out of the baseball park the fans would become so excited that they were ready to break the seats. It was impossible to watch Ruth swing his bat without experiencing a strong emotion. In fact, in nineteen-twenty, a man reportedly died of excitement while watching Babe Ruth hit a home run. The name of Babe Ruth appeared so often in the newspapers that sports writers thought up new names for him. They called him "The Sultan of Swat." "The King of Clout." "The Babe. " They called him "Bambino. " Sometimes they shortened that name to "Bam. " VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth led the New York Yankees to seven championships, including four World Series titles. He hit more home runs than any other baseball player. In nineteen-twenty-seven, he hit sixty home runs. During his lifetime, he hit a total of seven-hundred-fourteen home runs. Before he became a power hitter, he had been among the best pitchers of his time. All these skills made Babe Ruth the greatest player baseball has ever had. In nineteen-thirty, Ruth earned eighty-thousand dollars. This was more money than the president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, earned that year. Reporters asked Ruth why he should be paid more than President Hoover. Ruth reportedly said, "Why not? I had a better year than he did." Ruth also earned money by permitting his name to be used on many products. A candy bar was named after him. "Baby Ruth" candy bars still are popular today. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Sometimes, Babe Ruth got into trouble on the baseball field. He often arrived late. He got angry often. He hit a baseball umpire. He had many disputes with the chief baseball official. In nineteen-twenty-one, the Yankees' manager suspended Ruth from playing. The next year, Ruth did the worst thing a baseball player could do. He left the field during a game to chase a fan who said something he did not like. He had to pay five-thousand dollars for violating the rules. VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth also got into trouble off the baseball field. He was a very large man who liked to have a good time. He ate too much. He drank too much alcohol. He played cards and lost money. He went to night clubs. He drove his car too fast. Some people were unhappy about the way he acted. In nineteen-twenty-two, New York State Senator Jimmy Walker appealed to Babe Ruth at a dinner of the baseball writers association. Mister Walker asked the great baseball star to be a better example to the children of America. Babe Ruth stood up with tears running down his face. He promised he would be a better person. He kept his promise. He was never in trouble again. VOICE one: Yet Babe Ruth continued to eat too much. In nineteen-twenty-five, he was returning on a train from baseball spring training in the south. He became hungry. He stopped at a train station. He reportedly ate twelve hot dog sandwiches. He drank eight bottles of soft drink. Ruth developed severe stomach problems. He was taken to a hospital in New York. Babe Ruth was so sick that doctors had to operate on him. He was in the hospital for seven weeks. Many Americans worried about him until he got well. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth loved children. In nineteen-twenty-six, a child named Johnny Sylvester lay in a hospital bed. He was very weak after an operation. His doctor thought that a visit from Johnny's hero might help the boy get better. So Babe Ruth came to the hospital. He wrote his name on a baseball and gave it to Johnny. He promised to hit a home run that afternoon for the boy. Babe Ruth kept his promise. In fact, he hit three home runs that day. VOICE ONE: There are many stories about Babe Ruth and his life. Experts do not agree about which ones are true. The most famous story about him concerns the nineteen-thirty-two World Series championship game. The Yankees were playing the Chicago Cubs in Chicago. Ruth was at bat getting ready to hit. The Cubs and their fans were trying to make Ruth angry. They insulted him. Ruth swung his bat and missed the first pitch. The crowd laughed at him. Ruth swung and missed the second pitch. The crowd made more noises. Then Ruth pointed his bat at the seats past the center field of the ball park. He showed the crowd where he would hit the next ball. And that was exactly where he hit the ball out of the park. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Ruth stopped playing baseball in nineteen-thirty-five. The next year he was one of the first five players to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. After he retired as a player, he wanted to be manager of a baseball team. But no such position was offered to him. Ruth died in nineteen-forty-eight of throat cancer. He was fifty-three years old. Babe Ruth is buried near New York City. People still come to visit his burial place. They leave things there: A Yankees baseball hat. A small American flag. A baseball. Americans leave these things to show that they have not forgotten the Babe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another people in American program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: George Herman Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland in eighteen-ninety-five. George's parents owned a bar where people came to drink alcohol. His mother died when he was very young. His father was killed in a street fight. Young George was forced to live on the streets of Baltimore. He stole things. He fought with other children. He got into trouble. At the age of eight, he was sent to live at Saint Mary's industrial school for boys. Catholic religious workers operated the school. The religious workers helped George to act better. And they taught him how to play baseball. VOICE TWO: By the age of eighteen, George was an excellent baseball player. In nineteen-fourteen, a teacher at the school wrote to a friend of his, Jack Dunn. Dunn was the manager of the Baltimore Orioles minor league baseball team. He was the one who decided who would play for the team. The teacher invited Dunn to see the young player. Dunn watched George pitch the baseball. He offered the young left-handed pitcher a job playing baseball for six months. He said the Baltimore Orioles team would pay George six-hundred-dollars. Jack Dunn had to take responsibility for the boy or George could not leave the school. Dunn decided to become George's legal parent. Jack Dunn and his new player arrived at the Orioles' baseball park. The older Orioles' players joked about the new young player. They called him, "Dunn's babe. " The young baseball player became known forever as Babe Ruth. VOICE ONE: That year, the Boston Red Sox baseball team bought the right to make Babe Ruth a player for their team. Ruth pitched for the Red Sox teams during the next two years. He became the best pitcher in the American baseball league. Then the Red Sox discovered that he could hit the ball even better than he could throw it. So Ruth became an outfielder instead of a pitcher. In nineteen-nineteen, he hit the ball out of the baseball park twenty-nine times. He hit more home runs than any other player that year. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-twenty, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth's contract to the famous New York Yankees baseball team. That year, Babe Ruth hit fifty-four home runs. This was more home runs than any other American League team hit that season. The next year, he hit fifty-nine home runs. Babe Ruth's baseball skill and friendly nature made him famous across the country and around the world. Many people came to the Yankee games just because they wanted to see Babe Ruth play. He helped the team earn a great deal of money. The Yankees built a new baseball stadium. Even today, Yankee stadium is known as "The house that Ruth built. " VOICE ONE: Baseball fans loved Babe Ruth because he was what some people called "larger than life. " Sports writer Paul Gallico wrote that Babe Ruth played ball in the same intense way that he lived his life. Gallico said that whenever Ruth hit a ball out of the baseball park the fans would become so excited that they were ready to break the seats. It was impossible to watch Ruth swing his bat without experiencing a strong emotion. In fact, in nineteen-twenty, a man reportedly died of excitement while watching Babe Ruth hit a home run. The name of Babe Ruth appeared so often in the newspapers that sports writers thought up new names for him. They called him "The Sultan of Swat." "The King of Clout." "The Babe. " They called him "Bambino. " Sometimes they shortened that name to "Bam. " VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth led the New York Yankees to seven championships, including four World Series titles. He hit more home runs than any other baseball player. In nineteen-twenty-seven, he hit sixty home runs. During his lifetime, he hit a total of seven-hundred-fourteen home runs. Before he became a power hitter, he had been among the best pitchers of his time. All these skills made Babe Ruth the greatest player baseball has ever had. In nineteen-thirty, Ruth earned eighty-thousand dollars. This was more money than the president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, earned that year. Reporters asked Ruth why he should be paid more than President Hoover. Ruth reportedly said, "Why not? I had a better year than he did." Ruth also earned money by permitting his name to be used on many products. A candy bar was named after him. "Baby Ruth" candy bars still are popular today. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Sometimes, Babe Ruth got into trouble on the baseball field. He often arrived late. He got angry often. He hit a baseball umpire. He had many disputes with the chief baseball official. In nineteen-twenty-one, the Yankees' manager suspended Ruth from playing. The next year, Ruth did the worst thing a baseball player could do. He left the field during a game to chase a fan who said something he did not like. He had to pay five-thousand dollars for violating the rules. VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth also got into trouble off the baseball field. He was a very large man who liked to have a good time. He ate too much. He drank too much alcohol. He played cards and lost money. He went to night clubs. He drove his car too fast. Some people were unhappy about the way he acted. In nineteen-twenty-two, New York State Senator Jimmy Walker appealed to Babe Ruth at a dinner of the baseball writers association. Mister Walker asked the great baseball star to be a better example to the children of America. Babe Ruth stood up with tears running down his face. He promised he would be a better person. He kept his promise. He was never in trouble again. VOICE one: Yet Babe Ruth continued to eat too much. In nineteen-twenty-five, he was returning on a train from baseball spring training in the south. He became hungry. He stopped at a train station. He reportedly ate twelve hot dog sandwiches. He drank eight bottles of soft drink. Ruth developed severe stomach problems. He was taken to a hospital in New York. Babe Ruth was so sick that doctors had to operate on him. He was in the hospital for seven weeks. Many Americans worried about him until he got well. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Babe Ruth loved children. In nineteen-twenty-six, a child named Johnny Sylvester lay in a hospital bed. He was very weak after an operation. His doctor thought that a visit from Johnny's hero might help the boy get better. So Babe Ruth came to the hospital. He wrote his name on a baseball and gave it to Johnny. He promised to hit a home run that afternoon for the boy. Babe Ruth kept his promise. In fact, he hit three home runs that day. VOICE ONE: There are many stories about Babe Ruth and his life. Experts do not agree about which ones are true. The most famous story about him concerns the nineteen-thirty-two World Series championship game. The Yankees were playing the Chicago Cubs in Chicago. Ruth was at bat getting ready to hit. The Cubs and their fans were trying to make Ruth angry. They insulted him. Ruth swung his bat and missed the first pitch. The crowd laughed at him. Ruth swung and missed the second pitch. The crowd made more noises. Then Ruth pointed his bat at the seats past the center field of the ball park. He showed the crowd where he would hit the next ball. And that was exactly where he hit the ball out of the park. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Ruth stopped playing baseball in nineteen-thirty-five. The next year he was one of the first five players to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. After he retired as a player, he wanted to be manager of a baseball team. But no such position was offered to him. Ruth died in nineteen-forty-eight of throat cancer. He was fifty-three years old. Babe Ruth is buried near New York City. People still come to visit his burial place. They leave things there: A Yankees baseball hat. A small American flag. A baseball. Americans leave these things to show that they have not forgotten the Babe. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another people in American program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 19, 2003 - Lida Baker: Encouraging English Learners to Talk in Class, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 19, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- encouraging English learners to talk in class. RS: We asked English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles how she gets conversation started among her students. The most important thing, she says, is that students must feel comfortable enough to talk. BAKER: " ... where it's OK for them to take the risk of making a mistake, and nobody's going to laugh at them and nobody is going to criticize them. So the first thing that the teacher needs to do, from the very first day of the term, is to try to create a classroom atmosphere where students feel relaxed and unthreatened. And the way to do that, of course, is to give students lots of praise and lots of rewards for the efforts that they make, to not view errors in language as evidence that the student is lazy or stupid. The first and most important thing in getting students to talk is the atmosphere that the teacher is able to establish in the classroom." RS: "And then, from there, you have to have something to talk about." BAKER: "Yeah. And it's definitely helpful if what the students are given to talk about is interesting. It should be appropriate to their age level, their level in school, what they're interested in, what is relevant to them. You know, what's the most important thing to kids in the sixth or seventh or eighth grade?" AA: "The opposite gender. (laughter)" BAKER: "Yeah, and their friends. A smart teacher is going to capitalize on the things that are important to her students and bring those into the classroom as topics for discussion. So students have to have something interesting to talk about. Now, beyond that, they have to have the tools for talking about that interesting topic. They have to have the vocabulary, they have to have the grammar. OK, for example, if they're talking about things they like to do in their free time, they have to know how to talk about the things they like. They need the language for saying 'I like,' 'I enjoy,' 'it's fun' -- you know, expressions of that sort, what we call functional language." RS: "Lida, let me ask you a question right here: What would be a good ice-breaker -- you walk into school on the first day, it's a conversation class, and nobody is talking." AA: "Nobody is conversing. What would you do to start a conversation?" BAKER: "Well, there are lots of techniques that you can use. Let me just tell you one activity that I like to use a lot. It's called 'find someone who....' This is one of the classics of the English language classroom. You make up a list of items pertaining to the students in the class, and then the students have to get up and mix around and find someone who matches each item on the list. So let me give you some examples: Find someone who has more than ten dollars in their wallet. Find someone who has an international driver's license. Find someone who didn't eat breakfast this morning. Find someone who has flown in a helicopter." RS: "So they have to ask questions." BAKER: "Right! And there are several advantages to an activity like this. First of all, well, from a teacher's point of view, you can modify it and use it at any level, from zero all the way up to the most proficient, any age group. It's a very flexible activity from the teacher's point of view. From the student's point of view, it has the advantage of the fact that everybody is standing up and moving around. "Movement -- if students are not restrained to having to sit in their seats, they're going to naturally loosen up. Something about sitting in seats, especially if they're being required to sit in rows, is very intimidating, is very classroom-like. So if you can design an activity that doesn't have that aura of 'classroom,' the regimentation, then the students are going to be more comfortable about doing it. In this 'find someone who...' activity, they're up and out of their seats, they're moving, which naturally helps them to relax. They have the opportunity to communicate with one another, but it's a very unexposed kind of activity. Nobody has to speak in front of the whole group, you see." RS: "It's informal." BAKER: "They're talking one-on-one. It's informal, exactly. So the activity is finite, it has a purpose, it's fun, the students are up and moving around, and it's non-threatening. And, it helps them to learn each other's names. Because when they find someone who has flown in a helicopter, what they have to do on their handout is write the name of the person that has done that." AA: Lida Baker writes English textbooks, when she's not teaching her own students in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. Next time she'll talk about how to get shy students to speak up. RS: And that's all for Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 19, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- encouraging English learners to talk in class. RS: We asked English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles how she gets conversation started among her students. The most important thing, she says, is that students must feel comfortable enough to talk. BAKER: " ... where it's OK for them to take the risk of making a mistake, and nobody's going to laugh at them and nobody is going to criticize them. So the first thing that the teacher needs to do, from the very first day of the term, is to try to create a classroom atmosphere where students feel relaxed and unthreatened. And the way to do that, of course, is to give students lots of praise and lots of rewards for the efforts that they make, to not view errors in language as evidence that the student is lazy or stupid. The first and most important thing in getting students to talk is the atmosphere that the teacher is able to establish in the classroom." RS: "And then, from there, you have to have something to talk about." BAKER: "Yeah. And it's definitely helpful if what the students are given to talk about is interesting. It should be appropriate to their age level, their level in school, what they're interested in, what is relevant to them. You know, what's the most important thing to kids in the sixth or seventh or eighth grade?" AA: "The opposite gender. (laughter)" BAKER: "Yeah, and their friends. A smart teacher is going to capitalize on the things that are important to her students and bring those into the classroom as topics for discussion. So students have to have something interesting to talk about. Now, beyond that, they have to have the tools for talking about that interesting topic. They have to have the vocabulary, they have to have the grammar. OK, for example, if they're talking about things they like to do in their free time, they have to know how to talk about the things they like. They need the language for saying 'I like,' 'I enjoy,' 'it's fun' -- you know, expressions of that sort, what we call functional language." RS: "Lida, let me ask you a question right here: What would be a good ice-breaker -- you walk into school on the first day, it's a conversation class, and nobody is talking." AA: "Nobody is conversing. What would you do to start a conversation?" BAKER: "Well, there are lots of techniques that you can use. Let me just tell you one activity that I like to use a lot. It's called 'find someone who....' This is one of the classics of the English language classroom. You make up a list of items pertaining to the students in the class, and then the students have to get up and mix around and find someone who matches each item on the list. So let me give you some examples: Find someone who has more than ten dollars in their wallet. Find someone who has an international driver's license. Find someone who didn't eat breakfast this morning. Find someone who has flown in a helicopter." RS: "So they have to ask questions." BAKER: "Right! And there are several advantages to an activity like this. First of all, well, from a teacher's point of view, you can modify it and use it at any level, from zero all the way up to the most proficient, any age group. It's a very flexible activity from the teacher's point of view. From the student's point of view, it has the advantage of the fact that everybody is standing up and moving around. "Movement -- if students are not restrained to having to sit in their seats, they're going to naturally loosen up. Something about sitting in seats, especially if they're being required to sit in rows, is very intimidating, is very classroom-like. So if you can design an activity that doesn't have that aura of 'classroom,' the regimentation, then the students are going to be more comfortable about doing it. In this 'find someone who...' activity, they're up and out of their seats, they're moving, which naturally helps them to relax. They have the opportunity to communicate with one another, but it's a very unexposed kind of activity. Nobody has to speak in front of the whole group, you see." RS: "It's informal." BAKER: "They're talking one-on-one. It's informal, exactly. So the activity is finite, it has a purpose, it's fun, the students are up and moving around, and it's non-threatening. And, it helps them to learn each other's names. Because when they find someone who has flown in a helicopter, what they have to do on their handout is write the name of the person that has done that." AA: Lida Baker writes English textbooks, when she's not teaching her own students in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. Next time she'll talk about how to get shy students to speak up. RS: And that's all for Wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – June 23, 2003: Solar Electric Light Fund
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Electric power has yet to reach some places in the world. In fact, a group called SELF estimates that about two-thousand-million people, or one in three, do not have electricity. This non-governmental organization is working to change the situation. SELF is short for the Solar Electric Light Fund. The organization is based in Washington. It provides communities and governments with solar electric systems. These systems use what is called photovoltaic technology to change sunlight into electricity. The group says solar electric systems can be set up quickly in any village anywhere in the world. And they are safe for the environment. A small solar electric system can feed a home, school or health center with several hours of electricity each day. Collectors placed on top of a building take in heat from the sun. This energy is then sent to a storage battery used to power equipment. A special charge controller is also needed to help direct the flow of electricity. SELF has solar electric programs in many developing countries. In South Africa, two schools along the country’s east coast use solar electric systems for lighting, televisions and computer centers. In the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific, SELF is working to bring electricity to twelve health centers in the eastern province of Temotu. The islands within this province are about three-hundred-fifty kilometers away from the rest of the nation. And in Brazil, scientists working in the Amazon rainforest use a solar electric system to power satellite communications equipment. Researchers communicate with other teams working in the rainforest. SELF says energy from the sun is the only dependable way to meet the electricity needs of poor villages. Many communities still use candles, batteries and fuel-powered lights at night. Health centers do not have power to keep medicines cold. Schools have no electricity for copy machines or computers. The group says solar energy, combined with wireless communications technology, can help bring less developed parts of the world into the twenty-first century. SELF is on the Internet at www.self.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Electric power has yet to reach some places in the world. In fact, a group called SELF estimates that about two-thousand-million people, or one in three, do not have electricity. This non-governmental organization is working to change the situation. SELF is short for the Solar Electric Light Fund. The organization is based in Washington. It provides communities and governments with solar electric systems. These systems use what is called photovoltaic technology to change sunlight into electricity. The group says solar electric systems can be set up quickly in any village anywhere in the world. And they are safe for the environment. A small solar electric system can feed a home, school or health center with several hours of electricity each day. Collectors placed on top of a building take in heat from the sun. This energy is then sent to a storage battery used to power equipment. A special charge controller is also needed to help direct the flow of electricity. SELF has solar electric programs in many developing countries. In South Africa, two schools along the country’s east coast use solar electric systems for lighting, televisions and computer centers. In the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific, SELF is working to bring electricity to twelve health centers in the eastern province of Temotu. The islands within this province are about three-hundred-fifty kilometers away from the rest of the nation. And in Brazil, scientists working in the Amazon rainforest use a solar electric system to power satellite communications equipment. Researchers communicate with other teams working in the rainforest. SELF says energy from the sun is the only dependable way to meet the electricity needs of poor villages. Many communities still use candles, batteries and fuel-powered lights at night. Health centers do not have power to keep medicines cold. Schools have no electricity for copy machines or computers. The group says solar energy, combined with wireless communications technology, can help bring less developed parts of the world into the twenty-first century. SELF is on the Internet at www.self.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Democratic Presidential Candidates
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 23, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: June 23, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Eight men and one woman are competing for the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in the two-thousand-four election. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: Today we tell about these candidates on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Senator John Edwards announces his intention to run for president, Thursday VOICE ONE: Eight men and one woman are competing for the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in the two-thousand-four election. I’m Steve Ember with Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: Today we tell about these candidates on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) The United States elects a president every four years. Currently Republicans control not just the White House but also both houses of Congress. So far, nine Democrats have entered the race for the chance to oppose President Bush next year. The candidates include Senators John Edwards, Bob Graham, John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun. Others include Representatives Richard Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich. Candidate Howard Dean is the former governor of Vermont. And, Al Sharpton is a Christian clergyman and a civil rights leader. VOICE ONE: There may be even more candidates. Retired Army General Wesley Clark may decide to run. So may Delaware Senator Joseph Biden. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has said she will not compete. Yet the public opinion testers at the Gallup Organization say Hillary Clinton has more support than any other Democrat. VOICE ONE (CONT): The party will start to choose it presidential candidate early next year. This will happen during local nominating elections and party meetings known as caucuses. This is the way both the Democratic and Republican parties have chosen their candidates since nineteen-seventy-two. Before then, few states held primary elections and party leaders controlled the nominating process. The first event is the Iowa Caucus in January. Those who fail to gain much support in Iowa and the votes that follow may end their campaigns. (BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Over the years, most people hoping to be president have been white, Protestant Christian males. Of the nine Democrats, Joseph Lieberman is Jewish. John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich are Roman Catholic. Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun are African American. The Gallup Poll recently asked some voters if they would vote for a woman for president. It also asked if they would vote for a member of a racial or religious minority. Nine out of ten of those questioned said “yes," if they liked that candidate. VOICE ONE: The Democratic candidates are now announcing their positions on issues like the economy and taxes, health care, education and the environment. Senators Lieberman, Kerry and Edwards voted to support the president's resolution to permit a war in Iraq. So did Representative Gephardt. Representative Kucinich and Senator Graham voted against it. Bob Graham said war in Iraq would damage the war on terrorism. He said the targets should be terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Howard Dean, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton have all criticized the war. VOICE TWO: The candidates held their first debate in May. Most media reports suggested that no candidate gained a clear victory. Yet communications researcher William Benoit says the candidates did not criticize each other as much as those reports made it seem. Mister Benoit is a professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He found that, mostly, the candidates attacked President Bush. But the professor says too much of that will not make a candidate stand out from the other Democrats. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bob Graham was born in nineteen-thirty-six. He is the oldest of the candidates. He was a Florida state representative, state senator and governor. Mister Graham is now serving his third term in the United States Senate. He has criticized the lack of discovery so far of the illegal weapons that the president said were a reason to attack Iraq. John Kerry received many honors for military service. He was a Navy officer during the Vietnam War. But later he opposed that war. In nineteen-eighty-four, Massachusetts voters elected him to the United States Senate. He is now serving his fourth term. Mister Kerry says Democrats must support making America safer and stronger if they are to win the presidency. VOICE TWO: Many Americans know Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman from the two-thousand election. He was the vice presidential candidate of Al Gore. Mister Lieberman has served fourteen years in the Senate. He is a strong supporter of the war on terrorism. But he has criticized other of the president's policies. He says, "The administration of George W. Bush has an old economic plan for a new economy." John Edwards of North Carolina is the youngest candidate for the Democratic nomination. He was born in nineteen-fifty-three. Mister Edwards is a former trial lawyer. He is in his first term as a senator. He served on the Select Committee on Intelligence. As president, he says he would try to enact a plan to reduce the cost that Americans pay for medicines. VOICE ONE: Carol Moseley Braun became the first African American woman in the Senate. Mizz Moseley Braun, a lawyer, was elected from the state of Illinois in nineteen-ninety-two. She served one term. Later she was ambassador to New Zealand. Mizz Moseley Braun sharply criticizes the Bush administration’s economic policies. Richard Gephardt of Missouri is the former Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives. He has served in the House for twenty-six years. He competed for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, he won the important Iowa caucus. Some political scientists expect him to do that again. Dick Gephardt proposes a new health care system for the United States. VOICE TWO: Representative Dennis Kucinich [coo-SIH-nich] of Ohio was the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. He became mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in nineteen-seventy-seven, at age thirty-one. If elected president, he says he would work to cancel the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed these anti-terrorist laws after the attacks on New York and Washington on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Mister Kucinich also opposes the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Howard Dean is a medical doctor. He served in the Vermont House of Representatives and later as lieutenant governor. He became governor in nineteen-ninety-one, when Governor Richard Snelling died. As president, Howard Dean says he would propose a plan that would provide health care for everyone in America. Reverend Al Sharpton has been in the clergy of the Pentecostal Church since age ten. He competed several times for public office in New York but never won. He has worked to change his image. Many people saw Al Sharpton as someone who incited racial and ethnic divisions. In nineteen-ninety-one he established a civil rights group called the National Action Network. Most recently he opposed the war in Iraq. VOICE TWO: In early June, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut said Mister Lieberman had the most support among the nine Democrats. Next came Mister Gephardt and Mister Kerry. Zogby International did a study of likely voters in the New Hampshire nominating election in January. That study found Mister Kerry in the lead, followed closely by Howard Dean. The study showed Mister Dean gaining popularity. VOICE ONE: President Bush has high public approval ratings, especially on the issues of terrorism and foreign policy. Recent opinion studies have found some drop, though. Still, a Zogby poll taken in early June found he would defeat a Democrat forty-four percent to thirty-seven percent if the election were held today. But pollster John Zogby says Democrats stand to gain if the issue is the economy or health care. In July of next year, the party will nominate its choices to oppose President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The Democratic National Convention will meet in Boston, Massachusetts. Election Day is November second, two-thousand-four. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) (THEME) The United States elects a president every four years. Currently Republicans control not just the White House but also both houses of Congress. So far, nine Democrats have entered the race for the chance to oppose President Bush next year. The candidates include Senators John Edwards, Bob Graham, John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun. Others include Representatives Richard Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich. Candidate Howard Dean is the former governor of Vermont. And, Al Sharpton is a Christian clergyman and a civil rights leader. VOICE ONE: There may be even more candidates. Retired Army General Wesley Clark may decide to run. So may Delaware Senator Joseph Biden. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has said she will not compete. Yet the public opinion testers at the Gallup Organization say Hillary Clinton has more support than any other Democrat. VOICE ONE (CONT): The party will start to choose it presidential candidate early next year. This will happen during local nominating elections and party meetings known as caucuses. This is the way both the Democratic and Republican parties have chosen their candidates since nineteen-seventy-two. Before then, few states held primary elections and party leaders controlled the nominating process. The first event is the Iowa Caucus in January. Those who fail to gain much support in Iowa and the votes that follow may end their campaigns. (BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Over the years, most people hoping to be president have been white, Protestant Christian males. Of the nine Democrats, Joseph Lieberman is Jewish. John Kerry and Dennis Kucinich are Roman Catholic. Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun are African American. The Gallup Poll recently asked some voters if they would vote for a woman for president. It also asked if they would vote for a member of a racial or religious minority. Nine out of ten of those questioned said “yes," if they liked that candidate. VOICE ONE: The Democratic candidates are now announcing their positions on issues like the economy and taxes, health care, education and the environment. Senators Lieberman, Kerry and Edwards voted to support the president's resolution to permit a war in Iraq. So did Representative Gephardt. Representative Kucinich and Senator Graham voted against it. Bob Graham said war in Iraq would damage the war on terrorism. He said the targets should be terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon. Howard Dean, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton have all criticized the war. VOICE TWO: The candidates held their first debate in May. Most media reports suggested that no candidate gained a clear victory. Yet communications researcher William Benoit says the candidates did not criticize each other as much as those reports made it seem. Mister Benoit is a professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He found that, mostly, the candidates attacked President Bush. But the professor says too much of that will not make a candidate stand out from the other Democrats. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Bob Graham was born in nineteen-thirty-six. He is the oldest of the candidates. He was a Florida state representative, state senator and governor. Mister Graham is now serving his third term in the United States Senate. He has criticized the lack of discovery so far of the illegal weapons that the president said were a reason to attack Iraq. John Kerry received many honors for military service. He was a Navy officer during the Vietnam War. But later he opposed that war. In nineteen-eighty-four, Massachusetts voters elected him to the United States Senate. He is now serving his fourth term. Mister Kerry says Democrats must support making America safer and stronger if they are to win the presidency. VOICE TWO: Many Americans know Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman from the two-thousand election. He was the vice presidential candidate of Al Gore. Mister Lieberman has served fourteen years in the Senate. He is a strong supporter of the war on terrorism. But he has criticized other of the president's policies. He says, "The administration of George W. Bush has an old economic plan for a new economy." John Edwards of North Carolina is the youngest candidate for the Democratic nomination. He was born in nineteen-fifty-three. Mister Edwards is a former trial lawyer. He is in his first term as a senator. He served on the Select Committee on Intelligence. As president, he says he would try to enact a plan to reduce the cost that Americans pay for medicines. VOICE ONE: Carol Moseley Braun became the first African American woman in the Senate. Mizz Moseley Braun, a lawyer, was elected from the state of Illinois in nineteen-ninety-two. She served one term. Later she was ambassador to New Zealand. Mizz Moseley Braun sharply criticizes the Bush administration’s economic policies. Richard Gephardt of Missouri is the former Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives. He has served in the House for twenty-six years. He competed for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-eighty-eight. At that time, he won the important Iowa caucus. Some political scientists expect him to do that again. Dick Gephardt proposes a new health care system for the United States. VOICE TWO: Representative Dennis Kucinich [coo-SIH-nich] of Ohio was the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. He became mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, in nineteen-seventy-seven, at age thirty-one. If elected president, he says he would work to cancel the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed these anti-terrorist laws after the attacks on New York and Washington on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Mister Kucinich also opposes the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Howard Dean is a medical doctor. He served in the Vermont House of Representatives and later as lieutenant governor. He became governor in nineteen-ninety-one, when Governor Richard Snelling died. As president, Howard Dean says he would propose a plan that would provide health care for everyone in America. Reverend Al Sharpton has been in the clergy of the Pentecostal Church since age ten. He competed several times for public office in New York but never won. He has worked to change his image. Many people saw Al Sharpton as someone who incited racial and ethnic divisions. In nineteen-ninety-one he established a civil rights group called the National Action Network. Most recently he opposed the war in Iraq. VOICE TWO: In early June, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Connecticut said Mister Lieberman had the most support among the nine Democrats. Next came Mister Gephardt and Mister Kerry. Zogby International did a study of likely voters in the New Hampshire nominating election in January. That study found Mister Kerry in the lead, followed closely by Howard Dean. The study showed Mister Dean gaining popularity. VOICE ONE: President Bush has high public approval ratings, especially on the issues of terrorism and foreign policy. Recent opinion studies have found some drop, though. Still, a Zogby poll taken in early June found he would defeat a Democrat forty-four percent to thirty-seven percent if the election were held today. But pollster John Zogby says Democrats stand to gain if the issue is the economy or health care. In July of next year, the party will nominate its choices to oppose President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The Democratic National Convention will meet in Boston, Massachusetts. Election Day is November second, two-thousand-four. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - UN Campaigns to End a Pregnancy-Related Disorder / 'Out of Africa' Theory Gets New Support / US Officials Deal with a Sickness Spread by Unusual Pets
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Fertilizer, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 24, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we described some different kinds of fertilizers. This week, we examine some of the issues involved in their use. Farmers know that nitrogen fertilizer helps plants grow faster and bigger. But, agricultural scientists say crops generally use only thirty to seventy percent of the nitrogen that is added to soil. Extra nitrogen can pollute ground water, rivers and lakes. This can cause water resources to become overgrown with algae. This organism uses up oxygen, killing fish and other water life. The World Health Organization says safe drinking water should contain no more than fifty milligrams per liter. Nitrogen in the soil can become a gas, nitrous oxide. This is mostly formed by microscopic organisms in the soil. Nitrous oxide is known as a greenhouse gas. It has been linked by many scientists to climate change. They say nitrous oxide can trap about three-hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide. The United States Environmental Protection Agency -- the E-P-A -- says increased use of fertilizers is one reason for an increase in nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. Some experts, though, say nitrogen in the form of ammonia has a greater ability to remain in the soil where plants can use it. Ammonia is a common material used to make fertilizers. These experts point out that nitrogen is everywhere. About seventy-eight percent of Earth’s atmosphere is nitrogen. Studies have shown that another kind of fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer, can add the metal cadmium to soil. The E-P-A has reported that cadmium and other poisonous substances can start to build up in soil over long periods of time. But the report says these substances did not increase beyond limits set by United States health agencies. Today, developed nations are using less fertilizer while developing nations are using more. Fertilizers can increase crops. And they can help farmers when the soil is not very good. But there are limits. The E-P-A advises farmers not to use too much fertilizer. The agency notes that in nineteen-eighty-nine, some farmers in the state of Nebraska began to measure the levels of nitrogen in their soil. Farmers who tested their soil used an average of one-third less fertilizer than those who did not. The testing helped the environment. But it also saved the farmers money. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Broadcast: June 24, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we described some different kinds of fertilizers. This week, we examine some of the issues involved in their use. Farmers know that nitrogen fertilizer helps plants grow faster and bigger. But, agricultural scientists say crops generally use only thirty to seventy percent of the nitrogen that is added to soil. Extra nitrogen can pollute ground water, rivers and lakes. This can cause water resources to become overgrown with algae. This organism uses up oxygen, killing fish and other water life. The World Health Organization says safe drinking water should contain no more than fifty milligrams per liter. Nitrogen in the soil can become a gas, nitrous oxide. This is mostly formed by microscopic organisms in the soil. Nitrous oxide is known as a greenhouse gas. It has been linked by many scientists to climate change. They say nitrous oxide can trap about three-hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide. The United States Environmental Protection Agency -- the E-P-A -- says increased use of fertilizers is one reason for an increase in nitrous oxide in the atmosphere. Some experts, though, say nitrogen in the form of ammonia has a greater ability to remain in the soil where plants can use it. Ammonia is a common material used to make fertilizers. These experts point out that nitrogen is everywhere. About seventy-eight percent of Earth’s atmosphere is nitrogen. Studies have shown that another kind of fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer, can add the metal cadmium to soil. The E-P-A has reported that cadmium and other poisonous substances can start to build up in soil over long periods of time. But the report says these substances did not increase beyond limits set by United States health agencies. Today, developed nations are using less fertilizer while developing nations are using more. Fertilizers can increase crops. And they can help farmers when the soil is not very good. But there are limits. The E-P-A advises farmers not to use too much fertilizer. The agency notes that in nineteen-eighty-nine, some farmers in the state of Nebraska began to measure the levels of nitrogen in their soil. Farmers who tested their soil used an average of one-third less fertilizer than those who did not. The testing helped the environment. But it also saved the farmers money. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - December 25, 2003: Space News
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Nicole Nichols with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we report about the most distant human-made object in the universe. We have three reports about the planet Mars. One tells about a beautiful photograph of our planet that was taken from Mars. We report about the planet Mars coming closer to Earth. And we begin with a report about the successful launch of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Nicole Nichols with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we report about the most distant human-made object in the universe. We have three reports about the planet Mars. One tells about a beautiful photograph of our planet that was taken from Mars. We report about the planet Mars coming closer to Earth. And we begin with a report about the successful launch of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The European Space Agency successfully launched the European Mars Express from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on June second. This is the first European Space Agency spacecraft to travel to another planet. It is expected to enter an orbit around Mars in December. It will then perform studies of the planet’s surface and atmosphere. It will also deploy a device called Beagle-Two. Beagle-Two is a small device that will land on the surface of Mars. The small lander has no power of its own. It will be released from the Mars Express on December twentieth. VOICE TWO: Beagle-Two will enter the Martian atmosphere on December twenty-fifth. Two parachutes will be deployed to slow the Beagle-Two. After landing, it will study the surface and look for possible signs of life, past and present. Reports from the European Space Agency said the Mars Express has deployed the devices that gather sunlight and change it into electric power. The report also said all of the spacecraft’s systems are working correctly. The Mars Express is traveling away from Earth at a speed of thirty kilometers a second. VOICE ONE: The European Space Agency successfully launched the European Mars Express from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on June second. This is the first European Space Agency spacecraft to travel to another planet. It is expected to enter an orbit around Mars in December. It will then perform studies of the planet’s surface and atmosphere. It will also deploy a device called Beagle-Two. Beagle-Two is a small device that will land on the surface of Mars. The small lander has no power of its own. It will be released from the Mars Express on December twentieth. VOICE TWO: Beagle-Two will enter the Martian atmosphere on December twenty-fifth. Two parachutes will be deployed to slow the Beagle-Two. After landing, it will study the surface and look for possible signs of life, past and present. Reports from the European Space Agency said the Mars Express has deployed the devices that gather sunlight and change it into electric power. The report also said all of the spacecraft’s systems are working correctly. The Mars Express is traveling away from Earth at a speed of thirty kilometers a second. VOICE ONE: Would you like to see what the Earth looks like from far away in space? NASA has answered that question with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The Global Surveyor is a NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars. It is sending back photographs and scientific information about the red planet. Recently, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California pointed the Global Surveyor’s cameras back at Earth. The photograph was taken on May eighth. The result is a beautiful photograph of our planet. The unusual photograph shows Earth surrounded by the darkness of space. It also shows a view of the giant planet Jupiter and some of its larger moons. VOICE TWO: The Earth is seen in the evening sky of Mars. The photograph shows only half of our planet. It looks like a ball cut in half. It is nighttime on the dark part of the planet that is facing away from the Sun. The part that can be seen is mostly blue and green with some brown color showing. The image is not clear, but you can tell the lighter colors are the land. The darker color blue is the ocean. The photograph shows that our planet, seen from space, is very beautiful. VOICE ONE: VOICE ONE: Would you like to see what the Earth looks like from far away in space? NASA has answered that question with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The Global Surveyor is a NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars. It is sending back photographs and scientific information about the red planet. Recently, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California pointed the Global Surveyor’s cameras back at Earth. The photograph was taken on May eighth. The result is a beautiful photograph of our planet. The unusual photograph shows Earth surrounded by the darkness of space. It also shows a view of the giant planet Jupiter and some of its larger moons. VOICE TWO: The Earth is seen in the evening sky of Mars. The photograph shows only half of our planet. It looks like a ball cut in half. It is nighttime on the dark part of the planet that is facing away from the Sun. The part that can be seen is mostly blue and green with some brown color showing. The image is not clear, but you can tell the lighter colors are the land. The darker color blue is the ocean. The photograph shows that our planet, seen from space, is very beautiful. VOICE ONE: Michael Malin is the chief scientist of Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, California. His company operates the camera on the Mars Global Surveyor. Mister Malin said taking this picture permitted scientists to look up from their work of exploring Mars and observe our Earth. For the first time, we can see our own planet as one among many, as part of our Solar System. The Mars Global Surveyor is one of the most successful explorations to Mars. It has been orbiting the red planet since September, nineteen-ninety-seven. It has examined all of the Martian surface and provided valuable information about the planet’s atmosphere and surface. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you too can see the Global Surveyor photograph of Earth. The address is www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/. Or you can go to our Special English Web site and follow our links. After you have looked at the picture of Earth, be sure to look at the many beautiful Global Surveyor photographs of Mars. VOICE ONE: The planet Mars has been in the news recently for several reasons. These include the successful launch of NASA’s first Mars Rover spacecraft two weeks ago and the launch of the European Space Agency Mars Express. However there is another reason Mars is in the news. NASA says that while you count slowly -- one…two…three…four -- the Earth became about thirty kilometers closer to the planet Mars. This is not a joke. Earth and Mars are quickly moving closer together. On August twenty-seventh, the two planets will only be fifty-six-million kilometers apart. The last time they were this close was sixty-thousand years ago. Fifty-six-million kilometers is very far if we measure distances on Earth. However, fifty-six million kilometers is really very close if it is measured by space scientists. Because the distance is closer this year, NASA, the European Space Agency and Japan are all sending spacecraft to Mars. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say Mars will become brighter and brighter between now and August. You will be able to see Mars very clearly from now until August. You can see it now in the morning sky. It is bright, steady and a very bright red color. Only Venus, which is closer to the sun, is brighter. In fact, on June first, Mars was already very bright. On August twenty-seventh it will be six times brighter. Anyone with a telescope, or other device that makes things appear closer, can get a clear view of the red planet. Many people who use small telescopes have already reported seeing the south polar cap of Mars. The area on the Martian South Pole is covered in frozen water and carbon dioxide. The Sun shines off this frozen area and makes it easier to see. VOICE ONE: Now, you have to get up very early to see Mars. Soon, however, it will be moving into the night sky. By the middle of July, Mars will rise in the east late at night. In late August it will appear as soon as the sun sets. Oh…and by the way…while you were listening to this report about Mars getting closer to Earth, NASA says we moved about two-thousand kilometers closer to Mars. VOICE TWO: Two spacecraft named Voyager were launched twenty-six years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Voyager Two was launched in August and Voyager One in September, nineteen-seventy-seven. Voyager One is now the most distant human-made object in the universe. Voyager Two is close behind. They continue to explore space and send back valuable information. Their job now is to send back information about the area where our Sun’s influence ends. This area is called the heliopause boundary. The Voyager spacecraft will study particles in this area of space that is not affected by the Sun. VOICE ONE: The heliopause boundary of space has never been reached by any spacecraft. The Voyagers may be the first to pass through this area. The heliopause boundary is thought to be between eight and twenty-four-thousand-million kilometers from the Sun. Sometime in the next ten years, the two spacecraft should cross an area scientists call the termination shock. This is where the energy force called solar winds produced by the Sun begin to slow and lose their effect. This will be the first evidence the Voyagers are nearing the heliopause boundary. The Voyagers should cross the heliopause ten to twenty years after reaching the area called termination shock. The voyagers have enough electrical power and fuel for at least another seventeen years. VOICE TWO: NASA’s Deep Space Network is the agency’s space communications system. The Deep Space Network has communications transmitters and receivers placed around the world. The Deep Space Network communicates each day with both the Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft. After the launch in nineteen-seventy-seven, the task of the Voyager spacecraft was to expand our knowledge of Jupiter and Saturn. Later, Voyager Two extended its working life by flying past Uranus and Neptune. It was the only spacecraft ever to fly past these distant planets. The Voyagers will continue to fly away from our solar system. In about forty-thousand years, Voyager One will move within one-point-six light years of a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis (ca-mel-a-PAR-da-lis). In about three-hundred-thousand years, Voyager Two will pass the star Sirius -- the brightest star in our sky. The Voyagers will continue to travel forever in the Milky Way Galaxy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Michael Malin is the chief scientist of Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, California. His company operates the camera on the Mars Global Surveyor. Mister Malin said taking this picture permitted scientists to look up from their work of exploring Mars and observe our Earth. For the first time, we can see our own planet as one among many, as part of our Solar System. The Mars Global Surveyor is one of the most successful explorations to Mars. It has been orbiting the red planet since September, nineteen-ninety-seven. It has examined all of the Martian surface and provided valuable information about the planet’s atmosphere and surface. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you too can see the Global Surveyor photograph of Earth. The address is www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/. Or you can go to our Special English Web site and follow our links. After you have looked at the picture of Earth, be sure to look at the many beautiful Global Surveyor photographs of Mars. VOICE ONE: The planet Mars has been in the news recently for several reasons. These include the successful launch of NASA’s first Mars Rover spacecraft two weeks ago and the launch of the European Space Agency Mars Express. However there is another reason Mars is in the news. NASA says that while you count slowly -- one…two…three…four -- the Earth became about thirty kilometers closer to the planet Mars. This is not a joke. Earth and Mars are quickly moving closer together. On August twenty-seventh, the two planets will only be fifty-six-million kilometers apart. The last time they were this close was sixty-thousand years ago. Fifty-six-million kilometers is very far if we measure distances on Earth. However, fifty-six million kilometers is really very close if it is measured by space scientists. Because the distance is closer this year, NASA, the European Space Agency and Japan are all sending spacecraft to Mars. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say Mars will become brighter and brighter between now and August. You will be able to see Mars very clearly from now until August. You can see it now in the morning sky. It is bright, steady and a very bright red color. Only Venus, which is closer to the sun, is brighter. In fact, on June first, Mars was already very bright. On August twenty-seventh it will be six times brighter. Anyone with a telescope, or other device that makes things appear closer, can get a clear view of the red planet. Many people who use small telescopes have already reported seeing the south polar cap of Mars. The area on the Martian South Pole is covered in frozen water and carbon dioxide. The Sun shines off this frozen area and makes it easier to see. VOICE ONE: Now, you have to get up very early to see Mars. Soon, however, it will be moving into the night sky. By the middle of July, Mars will rise in the east late at night. In late August it will appear as soon as the sun sets. Oh…and by the way…while you were listening to this report about Mars getting closer to Earth, NASA says we moved about two-thousand kilometers closer to Mars. VOICE TWO: Two spacecraft named Voyager were launched twenty-six years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Voyager Two was launched in August and Voyager One in September, nineteen-seventy-seven. Voyager One is now the most distant human-made object in the universe. Voyager Two is close behind. They continue to explore space and send back valuable information. Their job now is to send back information about the area where our Sun’s influence ends. This area is called the heliopause boundary. The Voyager spacecraft will study particles in this area of space that is not affected by the Sun. VOICE ONE: The heliopause boundary of space has never been reached by any spacecraft. The Voyagers may be the first to pass through this area. The heliopause boundary is thought to be between eight and twenty-four-thousand-million kilometers from the Sun. Sometime in the next ten years, the two spacecraft should cross an area scientists call the termination shock. This is where the energy force called solar winds produced by the Sun begin to slow and lose their effect. This will be the first evidence the Voyagers are nearing the heliopause boundary. The Voyagers should cross the heliopause ten to twenty years after reaching the area called termination shock. The voyagers have enough electrical power and fuel for at least another seventeen years. VOICE TWO: NASA’s Deep Space Network is the agency’s space communications system. The Deep Space Network has communications transmitters and receivers placed around the world. The Deep Space Network communicates each day with both the Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft. After the launch in nineteen-seventy-seven, the task of the Voyager spacecraft was to expand our knowledge of Jupiter and Saturn. Later, Voyager Two extended its working life by flying past Uranus and Neptune. It was the only spacecraft ever to fly past these distant planets. The Voyagers will continue to fly away from our solar system. In about forty-thousand years, Voyager One will move within one-point-six light years of a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis (ca-mel-a-PAR-da-lis). In about three-hundred-thousand years, Voyager Two will pass the star Sirius -- the brightest star in our sky. The Voyagers will continue to travel forever in the Milky Way Galaxy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Chinese Herbal Drug May Help with a Form of Dementia
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 25, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A small study in China suggests that an herbal medicine may improve the lives of people with a brain condition called vascular dementia. Victims of vascular dementia have problems with memory and thinking. Many cannot work or carry out everyday activities such as bathing or cooking. Vascular dementia is caused by small strokes in the brain. It generally affects between one and three percent of people. It is one of the most common forms of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors at the Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine did the study. They reported their findings at an Asia Pacific meeting of the American Heart Association. The Scientific Forum took place in Honolulu, Hawaii. The doctors were seeking a less costly way to treat vascular dementia than drugs now used. They also wanted to find a treatment that had few bad effects on patients. So they tested an herbal medicine that has been used in China for hundreds of years to treat dizziness and headaches. It called gastrodine compound granule. It comes from tall gastrodia tuber plants and six other herbs. And it is described as the first of some new herbal drugs to be tested in people as possible treatments for dementia. The study involved one-hundred-twenty people with mild vascular dementia following strokes. They were divided into two groups. One group took about three milligrams of gastrodine three times a day for twelve weeks. The second group took forty milligrams of a stroke treatment drug called Duxila three times a day for twelve weeks. The doctors reported that at the end of three months, both groups showed similar improvement in memory, mathematics and language. The group that took gastrodine had higher scores than the other group on a test of activities of daily living. The doctors say the gastrodine group also suffered fewer side effects of the treatment. In addition, the study found that the gastrodine may improve blood flow in the brain. But more studies are needed. About half the people in both groups did not improve at all. The researchers say studies with larger numbers of people and for longer periods of time will help show if gastrodine is a good choice to treat vascular dementia. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: June 25, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A small study in China suggests that an herbal medicine may improve the lives of people with a brain condition called vascular dementia. Victims of vascular dementia have problems with memory and thinking. Many cannot work or carry out everyday activities such as bathing or cooking. Vascular dementia is caused by small strokes in the brain. It generally affects between one and three percent of people. It is one of the most common forms of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors at the Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine did the study. They reported their findings at an Asia Pacific meeting of the American Heart Association. The Scientific Forum took place in Honolulu, Hawaii. The doctors were seeking a less costly way to treat vascular dementia than drugs now used. They also wanted to find a treatment that had few bad effects on patients. So they tested an herbal medicine that has been used in China for hundreds of years to treat dizziness and headaches. It called gastrodine compound granule. It comes from tall gastrodia tuber plants and six other herbs. And it is described as the first of some new herbal drugs to be tested in people as possible treatments for dementia. The study involved one-hundred-twenty people with mild vascular dementia following strokes. They were divided into two groups. One group took about three milligrams of gastrodine three times a day for twelve weeks. The second group took forty milligrams of a stroke treatment drug called Duxila three times a day for twelve weeks. The doctors reported that at the end of three months, both groups showed similar improvement in memory, mathematics and language. The group that took gastrodine had higher scores than the other group on a test of activities of daily living. The doctors say the gastrodine group also suffered fewer side effects of the treatment. In addition, the study found that the gastrodine may improve blood flow in the brain. But more studies are needed. About half the people in both groups did not improve at all. The researchers say studies with larger numbers of people and for longer periods of time will help show if gastrodine is a good choice to treat vascular dementia. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #18 - Writing the Constitution, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 26, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Each week at this time, we have a report on the history of the United States. In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to amend the Articles of Confederation which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document created America's system of government and recognized the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Doug Johnson and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: James Madison of Virginia was the first delegate to arrive for the convention in Philadelphia. Madison asked the other delegates from Virginia also to arrive early. He wanted to enter the convention with a plan for a strong central government. He was sure no other state would do this. Two Virginia delegates -- George Wythe and John Blair -- came early, as requested. Together, the three men worked on Madison's plan. VOICE ONE: The convention was to start on May Fourteenth. George Washington arrived the day before. He was welcomed outside Philadelphia by a military guard and the firing of cannons. Washington was the most famous man in America. He led the forces that won the war for independence from Britain. The first thing Washington did in Philadelphia was to visit Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was an important political leader in America. He also was chief of Pennsylvania's delegation to the convention. Franklin was then eighty-one years old. Age had weakened him. But his mind remained strong. Every important person who came to Philadelphia -- even the great General Washington -- visited Benjamin Franklin. VOICE TWO: On the first day of the convention, the delegates from Virginia went to the State House where the meeting would be held. They gathered in the room where America's Declaration of Independence was signed in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. The only other delegates there were from Pennsylvania. One was Robert Morris. He raised much of the money to fight the American Revolution. Another was Gouverneur Morris. The two men were not related. Another Pennsylvania delegate was James Wilson. He signed the Declaration of Independence and was a member of America's early Continental Congress. Like James Madison, James Wilson wanted a strong central government for the United States. VOICE ONE: The men from Pennsylvania and Virginia spent that first day talking. They agreed to meet again the next morning. Nobody seemed worried that there were no delegates from the other eleven states. After all, it took two weeks to ride a horse to Philadelphia from New Hampshire in the northeast. And it took as many as three weeks to get to Philadelphia from Georgia in the south. For a while, it seemed the other delegates would never arrive. But then they started coming one or two at a time. The delegates agreed to start the convention as soon as seven states were represented. VOICE TWO: New York sent three men. That was a surprise. Many people believed New York would refuse to send anyone at all. The governor of New York did not support the idea of a strong central government. But one of the New York delegates did. He was Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton served as an assistant to General George Washington during the revolution. He firmly believed the United States needed a strong central government. In fact, some people said he wanted the country ruled by a king. VOICE ONE: Day by day, more delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the convention. They included Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. John Lansing and Robert Yates of New York. Luther Martin and James McHenry of Maryland. Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. William Few and William Pierce of Georgia. David Brearly and Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire. Gunning Bedford and George Read of Delaware. Alexander Martin and William Blount of North Carolina. Fifty-five men in all from twelve states. Pennsylvania sent the most delegates -- eight. Rhode Island sent none. A few of the delegates were very old. But many were in their twenties or thirties. The average age of the delegates was just forty-three years. VOICE TWO: This respected group was missing two important persons -- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. At the time, Adams was serving as America's representative to Britain. Jefferson was serving as the representative to France. Both men expected to continue their service to the new nation. So both were extremely interested in the convention in Philadelphia. They exchanged letters with friends to learn what was happening. VOICE ONE: The convention did not have seven states represented until May Twenty-Fifth. On that day, it finally began its work. The delegates' first task was to name a clerk to write the reports of the meetings. They chose Major William Jackson. Major Jackson had asked George Washington to support him for the job. General Washington did so. But Major Jackson was not a good clerk. He wrote down few details of the convention. Luckily, however, James Madison did. From the moment the convention began, Madison kept careful records of everything everyone said. He never stopped writing. Other delegates took notes, including Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King. But their reports were short and not complete. If it were not for James Madison, we would know little of what happened at that historic meeting in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. VOICE TWO: Later, Madison explained how he did it. "I sat in front of the president of the convention. All the other delegates were on my right and on my left. I could hear everything the president said. I could hear all the words of every delegate. I made notes only I could understand. Then, at night in my room, I wrote out completely all the speeches and acts. I attended the convention every day. I was there as long as the delegates were meeting and talking." In his reports, Madison called himself "Mister M." He wrote down everything that was said, even the unfriendly things said by others about "Mister M." James Madison's full records of the convention were not published until thirty years later. VOICE ONE: The first important decision by the delegates was choosing a president for the convention. Several urged the others to name George Washington. The delegates agreed. Washington was their choice. George Washington then officially opened the convention with a short speech. He thanked the delegates for naming him president. But he said the honor was too great. He asked the delegates to forgive him if he made mistakes. After all, he said, he had never been chairman of a meeting before. With those words, George Washington sat down. And for the next four months, he spoke only when necessary. VOICE TWO: The first day of the convention ended well. The delegates agreed to name a small committee to write rules for the meetings. They quickly appointed three men. George Wythe of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. So far, the business of the convention was easy. The work was done in a friendly way. It was not long, however, before a serious dispute developed. The dispute was between the large states and the small states. How would they share power in a government of united states? Should states with bigger populations have more power than states with smaller populations? The dispute would sharply divide the delegates for the next four months. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: June 26, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Each week at this time, we have a report on the history of the United States. In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to amend the Articles of Confederation which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document created America's system of government and recognized the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Doug Johnson and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: James Madison of Virginia was the first delegate to arrive for the convention in Philadelphia. Madison asked the other delegates from Virginia also to arrive early. He wanted to enter the convention with a plan for a strong central government. He was sure no other state would do this. Two Virginia delegates -- George Wythe and John Blair -- came early, as requested. Together, the three men worked on Madison's plan. VOICE ONE: The convention was to start on May Fourteenth. George Washington arrived the day before. He was welcomed outside Philadelphia by a military guard and the firing of cannons. Washington was the most famous man in America. He led the forces that won the war for independence from Britain. The first thing Washington did in Philadelphia was to visit Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was an important political leader in America. He also was chief of Pennsylvania's delegation to the convention. Franklin was then eighty-one years old. Age had weakened him. But his mind remained strong. Every important person who came to Philadelphia -- even the great General Washington -- visited Benjamin Franklin. VOICE TWO: On the first day of the convention, the delegates from Virginia went to the State House where the meeting would be held. They gathered in the room where America's Declaration of Independence was signed in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. The only other delegates there were from Pennsylvania. One was Robert Morris. He raised much of the money to fight the American Revolution. Another was Gouverneur Morris. The two men were not related. Another Pennsylvania delegate was James Wilson. He signed the Declaration of Independence and was a member of America's early Continental Congress. Like James Madison, James Wilson wanted a strong central government for the United States. VOICE ONE: The men from Pennsylvania and Virginia spent that first day talking. They agreed to meet again the next morning. Nobody seemed worried that there were no delegates from the other eleven states. After all, it took two weeks to ride a horse to Philadelphia from New Hampshire in the northeast. And it took as many as three weeks to get to Philadelphia from Georgia in the south. For a while, it seemed the other delegates would never arrive. But then they started coming one or two at a time. The delegates agreed to start the convention as soon as seven states were represented. VOICE TWO: New York sent three men. That was a surprise. Many people believed New York would refuse to send anyone at all. The governor of New York did not support the idea of a strong central government. But one of the New York delegates did. He was Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton served as an assistant to General George Washington during the revolution. He firmly believed the United States needed a strong central government. In fact, some people said he wanted the country ruled by a king. VOICE ONE: Day by day, more delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the convention. They included Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. John Rutledge and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. John Lansing and Robert Yates of New York. Luther Martin and James McHenry of Maryland. Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. William Few and William Pierce of Georgia. David Brearly and Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire. Gunning Bedford and George Read of Delaware. Alexander Martin and William Blount of North Carolina. Fifty-five men in all from twelve states. Pennsylvania sent the most delegates -- eight. Rhode Island sent none. A few of the delegates were very old. But many were in their twenties or thirties. The average age of the delegates was just forty-three years. VOICE TWO: This respected group was missing two important persons -- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. At the time, Adams was serving as America's representative to Britain. Jefferson was serving as the representative to France. Both men expected to continue their service to the new nation. So both were extremely interested in the convention in Philadelphia. They exchanged letters with friends to learn what was happening. VOICE ONE: The convention did not have seven states represented until May Twenty-Fifth. On that day, it finally began its work. The delegates' first task was to name a clerk to write the reports of the meetings. They chose Major William Jackson. Major Jackson had asked George Washington to support him for the job. General Washington did so. But Major Jackson was not a good clerk. He wrote down few details of the convention. Luckily, however, James Madison did. From the moment the convention began, Madison kept careful records of everything everyone said. He never stopped writing. Other delegates took notes, including Alexander Hamilton and Rufus King. But their reports were short and not complete. If it were not for James Madison, we would know little of what happened at that historic meeting in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. VOICE TWO: Later, Madison explained how he did it. "I sat in front of the president of the convention. All the other delegates were on my right and on my left. I could hear everything the president said. I could hear all the words of every delegate. I made notes only I could understand. Then, at night in my room, I wrote out completely all the speeches and acts. I attended the convention every day. I was there as long as the delegates were meeting and talking." In his reports, Madison called himself "Mister M." He wrote down everything that was said, even the unfriendly things said by others about "Mister M." James Madison's full records of the convention were not published until thirty years later. VOICE ONE: The first important decision by the delegates was choosing a president for the convention. Several urged the others to name George Washington. The delegates agreed. Washington was their choice. George Washington then officially opened the convention with a short speech. He thanked the delegates for naming him president. But he said the honor was too great. He asked the delegates to forgive him if he made mistakes. After all, he said, he had never been chairman of a meeting before. With those words, George Washington sat down. And for the next four months, he spoke only when necessary. VOICE TWO: The first day of the convention ended well. The delegates agreed to name a small committee to write rules for the meetings. They quickly appointed three men. George Wythe of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York, and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina. So far, the business of the convention was easy. The work was done in a friendly way. It was not long, however, before a serious dispute developed. The dispute was between the large states and the small states. How would they share power in a government of united states? Should states with bigger populations have more power than states with smaller populations? The dispute would sharply divide the delegates for the next four months. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – June 26, 2003: Community Service by American Students
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of American students take part in service programs. They help people in their communities as part of their education. They work on projects like improving the environment and feeding homeless people. Many school systems in the United States now require students to do some kind of community service as part of their studies. Students involved in service projects help themselves as well as their communities. They learn about the needs of people and aid organizations. Some college administrators say public service may also help high school graduates gain acceptance to the college of their choice. Many schools in the United States offer courses in what is called service-learning. These educational programs teach methods to aid the community. Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois, is one of these schools. It has received national honors for its service-learning program. Students there were not doing well in their studies back when the program began in nineteen-ninety-seven. Teachers say doing community service has led many students to work harder in school. School officials say mathematics and reading skills have improved. Teachers try to link their classroom material with current community needs. For example, a history teacher talked about the issue of hunger in some American communities. After that, students helped at a food center for poor people. Students at Nicholas Senn High School come from seventy-five countries. They speak fifty languages. Even students who have just arrived from other nations perform community service. Wilkinson Junior High School in Middleburg, Florida, also has received national honors for its service-learning program. Its twelve- and thirteen-year-old students work on two major projects. They are helping to find the best ways to restore trees to an area of land that was used for mining titanium. They also test water from the nearby Saint John's River and report the results to local water officials. Public schools are not the only ones that require community service. Bishop Ireton High School is a private Roman Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia. In one project, students there organized programs for people who live in a retirement center near the school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of American students take part in service programs. They help people in their communities as part of their education. They work on projects like improving the environment and feeding homeless people. Many school systems in the United States now require students to do some kind of community service as part of their studies. Students involved in service projects help themselves as well as their communities. They learn about the needs of people and aid organizations. Some college administrators say public service may also help high school graduates gain acceptance to the college of their choice. Many schools in the United States offer courses in what is called service-learning. These educational programs teach methods to aid the community. Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois, is one of these schools. It has received national honors for its service-learning program. Students there were not doing well in their studies back when the program began in nineteen-ninety-seven. Teachers say doing community service has led many students to work harder in school. School officials say mathematics and reading skills have improved. Teachers try to link their classroom material with current community needs. For example, a history teacher talked about the issue of hunger in some American communities. After that, students helped at a food center for poor people. Students at Nicholas Senn High School come from seventy-five countries. They speak fifty languages. Even students who have just arrived from other nations perform community service. Wilkinson Junior High School in Middleburg, Florida, also has received national honors for its service-learning program. Its twelve- and thirteen-year-old students work on two major projects. They are helping to find the best ways to restore trees to an area of land that was used for mining titanium. They also test water from the nearby Saint John's River and report the results to local water officials. Public schools are not the only ones that require community service. Bishop Ireton High School is a private Roman Catholic school in Alexandria, Virginia. In one project, students there organized programs for people who live in a retirement center near the school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 26, 2003 - Lida Baker: Encouraging English Learners to Talk in Class, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 26, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we chat again with English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles about how to encourage English learners to speak up in class. RS: This week Lida focuses on very shy students. This is one of the techniques she uses to engage those who are especially reluctant to say anything in class: BAKER: "Probably the best activity for getting the students to talk is a paired activity or a small group activity where each person in the group has a different set of information and the students have to talk to each other, asking questions, to get the information that the other people have. "So let's say, for instance, that we have three students. They have to work together to fill out a calendar of, let's say, their teacher's weekly schedule. So each of them has a calendar and certain activities are filled in. But the activities that are filled in are different for each of the three people in the group. So what they then have to do is ask each other something like, 'What is Miss Baker doing Friday at 3 p.m.' Maybe Student A has that information, but Student A doesn't have the information on what Miss Baker is doing on Tuesday at 9 p.m., and so that student has to ask the other students in the group to fill in or provide that information." RS: "So they're talking and getting the information at the same time." BAKER: "Right. Now it feels like a game, but in fact what's happening in that activity [is this]: The students have to interact with one another. It's inherently built into the activity that they have to ask questions and provide each other with information, you see. So that is one of the best activities for getting students to talk." AA: "You have another example?" BAKER: "Oh, many more! Role plays are wonderful for getting students to talk, where you tell the students, let's see, you're in a bank, and you have gone into the bank to get some cash. And when the bank clerk gives you the cash that you asked for, you count it and you notice that she has given you ten dollars less than you asked for. Role play -- act out -- the scene in which you point out the error to the clerk, and try to resolve this situation." RS: Now that's an activity she uses for small groups. When she's working with her whole class, and it's time for students to answer questions, Lida Baker uses a deck of index cards. AA: Each card has a student's name written on it. She shuffles the deck, then pulls out one card after another. BAKER: "I want to make sure that everybody in the class gets the opportunity to speak, and I also want to prevent what happens so often that students who are not shy call out or shout out the answers and drown out everybody else." AA: "So you're calling on one person at a time." RS: "It's a crowd-control kind of thing." BAKER: "I call on the students -- when I take out that deck of cards, and I hold it up, and the students know it's card time, what that means is that this is not a time when you're allowed to shout out answers. You have to wait to be called on. But students have the option, if they don't want to answer the question or for whatever reason they don't want to respond, they're always allowed to pass. And I teach them the word 'pass,' and this is what makes the activity safe, that they know that they have the opportunity to be silent, if that's their choice. So it gives them a measure of control, you see, and that's why the activity is successful." AA: "And then you have to come up with some other activity to draw out the ones who keep passing, right?" BAKER: "That doesn't happen, because another technique that a smart teacher uses when you have people that are reticent to talk is that you -- first of all, the students don't see the names on those cards. So if an easy question comes up and I know that Jorge in the corner is feeling uncomfortable about talking in class, I might pretend that it's Jorge's name on the card -- " RS: "Sneaky." BAKER: " -- and give that easy question to Jorge, because I know -- RS: "He can answer it." BAKER: " -- that he's going to get it right. So I want to -- again, it's all about creating opportunities for students to succeed." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and she also writes textbooks for English learners. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Don't be shy about writing us! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "He's So Shy"/Pointer Sisters 1980 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 26, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we chat again with English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles about how to encourage English learners to speak up in class. RS: This week Lida focuses on very shy students. This is one of the techniques she uses to engage those who are especially reluctant to say anything in class: BAKER: "Probably the best activity for getting the students to talk is a paired activity or a small group activity where each person in the group has a different set of information and the students have to talk to each other, asking questions, to get the information that the other people have. "So let's say, for instance, that we have three students. They have to work together to fill out a calendar of, let's say, their teacher's weekly schedule. So each of them has a calendar and certain activities are filled in. But the activities that are filled in are different for each of the three people in the group. So what they then have to do is ask each other something like, 'What is Miss Baker doing Friday at 3 p.m.' Maybe Student A has that information, but Student A doesn't have the information on what Miss Baker is doing on Tuesday at 9 p.m., and so that student has to ask the other students in the group to fill in or provide that information." RS: "So they're talking and getting the information at the same time." BAKER: "Right. Now it feels like a game, but in fact what's happening in that activity [is this]: The students have to interact with one another. It's inherently built into the activity that they have to ask questions and provide each other with information, you see. So that is one of the best activities for getting students to talk." AA: "You have another example?" BAKER: "Oh, many more! Role plays are wonderful for getting students to talk, where you tell the students, let's see, you're in a bank, and you have gone into the bank to get some cash. And when the bank clerk gives you the cash that you asked for, you count it and you notice that she has given you ten dollars less than you asked for. Role play -- act out -- the scene in which you point out the error to the clerk, and try to resolve this situation." RS: Now that's an activity she uses for small groups. When she's working with her whole class, and it's time for students to answer questions, Lida Baker uses a deck of index cards. AA: Each card has a student's name written on it. She shuffles the deck, then pulls out one card after another. BAKER: "I want to make sure that everybody in the class gets the opportunity to speak, and I also want to prevent what happens so often that students who are not shy call out or shout out the answers and drown out everybody else." AA: "So you're calling on one person at a time." RS: "It's a crowd-control kind of thing." BAKER: "I call on the students -- when I take out that deck of cards, and I hold it up, and the students know it's card time, what that means is that this is not a time when you're allowed to shout out answers. You have to wait to be called on. But students have the option, if they don't want to answer the question or for whatever reason they don't want to respond, they're always allowed to pass. And I teach them the word 'pass,' and this is what makes the activity safe, that they know that they have the opportunity to be silent, if that's their choice. So it gives them a measure of control, you see, and that's why the activity is successful." AA: "And then you have to come up with some other activity to draw out the ones who keep passing, right?" BAKER: "That doesn't happen, because another technique that a smart teacher uses when you have people that are reticent to talk is that you -- first of all, the students don't see the names on those cards. So if an easy question comes up and I know that Jorge in the corner is feeling uncomfortable about talking in class, I might pretend that it's Jorge's name on the card -- " RS: "Sneaky." BAKER: " -- and give that easy question to Jorge, because I know -- RS: "He can answer it." BAKER: " -- that he's going to get it right. So I want to -- again, it's all about creating opportunities for students to succeed." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and she also writes textbooks for English learners. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Don't be shy about writing us! Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "He's So Shy"/Pointer Sisters 1980 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 27, 2003:  Steinway and Sons celebrates the 150th anniversary of its pianos / A question from China about American slang / A rare and foul smelling plant brings a crowd in Florida
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a question about American slang ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a question about American slang ... We listen to what music played on a Steinway piano sounds like ... And we report about a rare and foul smelling plant. Mister Stinky HOST: Crowds of people recently visited a garden center in Florida to see a rare plant put on a show. This Amorphophallus titanum [a-more-fo-FAIL-us TIE-tan-um) plant grows in the rain forests of Sumatra, Indonesia. People there call it a “corpse flower," since it smells like something died. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Workers and visitors at the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables, in the Miami area, call the plant “Mister Stinky." Many visitors held their noses when they gathered near. But some stayed close for hours to watch it bloom. Scientists say very few of its kind have ever flowered in the United States. Mister Stinky first developed a yellowish green flower. It looked like a bell that had been turned over. This flower grew to a height of more than two meters within three weeks. The Amorphophallus titanum flower is often called the world’s largest flower. But experts say it is really a collection of many smaller ones. The flower lives only about two or three days. The garden let the public know that Mister Stinky was about to flower for the third time since it went on show in June of nineteen-ninety-eight. Garden expert Craig Allen says the smell results from chemicals that heat the flower. These chemicals invite insects to provide pollen to the flower. Some plants, like orchids, have pleasant smells that get bees and other insects to pollinate them. But Mister Allen says that in the rainforest, the stinky plant might have to invite an insect from far away. A strong smell is a much better way to appeal to a carrion beetle, which looks for dead animals. Since that, as Mister Allen says, is pretty much what Mister Stinky smells like. In August of nineteen-ninety-nine, thousands of people smelled an Amorphorphallus titanum in California. The plant flowered at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The following spring, scientists at the garden produced seeds from the plant. As far as we know, Germany holds the record for the biggest smelly flower. Earlier this month, thousands of people saw an Amorphophallus titanum flower at the University of Bonn. It measured about two- and-one-half meters. Slang HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zhang Lui asks about slang. Slang is language that is different from the kind of speech that we are taught in school. Slang expresses ideas using new terms, or gives new meanings to old ones. One expert says good slang uses very few words to communicate a lot of meaning. Dictionaries say no is sure where the word "slang" itself came from, but some say it dates back to the seventeen-hundreds. American slang is born in the everyday speech of different groups. Television, movies and radio spread the new words or expressions to other groups. For example, black culture has given the language expressions such as to “bad mouth,” meaning to criticize someone. Teenage culture produces a lot of slang words, too. One is “mallie,” a person who spends a lot of time in shopping malls. People in business also have created slang expressions. One example is “red eye,” an all-night airplane flight from coast to coast. Most slang words disappear after a time. The phrase “right on,” for example, was often used in the nineteen-sixties and seventies to mean “that is correct” or “I agree.” Not many people use it these days. In nineteen-ninety-four, University of Tennessee professor Jonathan Lighter published the first book in a series called the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. It gave the meaning of slang words that start with the letter A through the letter G. Three years later, he published the second book. It begins with H and ends with O. It contains ten-thousand entries. These include slang terms that use names. Some are very unusual. One example is “Monet,” after the French painter Claude Monet. The word describes someone who looks good from far away but is not as good looking up close. The book also includes three pages of slang that use the name “Joe.” “Joe Lunchpail” is a working man. “Joe Sad” is someone who has no friends. Random House published the first two books. Now Oxford University Press has taken over the project. It plans to publish two more books to complete the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. The next one is expected in two-thousand-six. Steinway And Sons (MUSIC) HOST: That is pianist Arthur Rubenstein playing Schumann’s “Arabeske” on a Steinway piano. Steinway and Sons is one of the most famous makers of pianos in the world. The company is celebrating its one-hundred-fiftieth birthday this year. It is offering free tours of its factory in New York and holding special concerts at Carnegie Hall. It is also working with other companies to celebrate the anniversary. For example, the Steiff North America company is creating a toy to be known as Henry the Steinway Bear. Steve Ember tells us about Steinway and Sons. ANNCR: The story really begins three-hundred years ago in Italy when Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano. The story of Steinway and Sons begins in Seesen, Germany, in the eighteen-hundreds. Heinrich Steinwig owned a company that produced musical instruments. He and his family moved to the United States in eighteen-fifty. Heinrich changed his last name to Steinway to make it sound more American. The family started its own business in eighteen-fifty-three. It was an immediate success. Steinway and Sons won prizes at World’s Fairs for its new piano designs and sound. The company developed technical changes in the piano. In eighteen-seventy-five, Theodore Steinway created the modern grand piano. William Steinway helped establish the company’s fame. He brought pianists to the United States to play concerts on Steinway grand pianos. Since then, many famous piano performers have used Steinways. One of the most famous is Vladimir Horowitz. Here he plays a Steinway in a recording of Chopin’s Polonaise. (MUSIC) Today, Steinway produces about five-thousand pianos a year. The company says more than one-thousand concert pianists use Steinway pianos. These include Van Cliburn, Harry Connick Junior, Billy Joel, Diana Krall, James Levine, and Randy Newman. We leave you now with another of these Steinway artists, Roger Williams. Here, he plays “Autumn Leaves.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Roy Benson. And the producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. We listen to what music played on a Steinway piano sounds like ... And we report about a rare and foul smelling plant. Mister Stinky HOST: Crowds of people recently visited a garden center in Florida to see a rare plant put on a show. This Amorphophallus titanum [a-more-fo-FAIL-us TIE-tan-um) plant grows in the rain forests of Sumatra, Indonesia. People there call it a “corpse flower," since it smells like something died. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Workers and visitors at the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Coral Gables, in the Miami area, call the plant “Mister Stinky." Many visitors held their noses when they gathered near. But some stayed close for hours to watch it bloom. Scientists say very few of its kind have ever flowered in the United States. Mister Stinky first developed a yellowish green flower. It looked like a bell that had been turned over. This flower grew to a height of more than two meters within three weeks. The Amorphophallus titanum flower is often called the world’s largest flower. But experts say it is really a collection of many smaller ones. The flower lives only about two or three days. The garden let the public know that Mister Stinky was about to flower for the third time since it went on show in June of nineteen-ninety-eight. Garden expert Craig Allen says the smell results from chemicals that heat the flower. These chemicals invite insects to provide pollen to the flower. Some plants, like orchids, have pleasant smells that get bees and other insects to pollinate them. But Mister Allen says that in the rainforest, the stinky plant might have to invite an insect from far away. A strong smell is a much better way to appeal to a carrion beetle, which looks for dead animals. Since that, as Mister Allen says, is pretty much what Mister Stinky smells like. In August of nineteen-ninety-nine, thousands of people smelled an Amorphorphallus titanum in California. The plant flowered at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The following spring, scientists at the garden produced seeds from the plant. As far as we know, Germany holds the record for the biggest smelly flower. Earlier this month, thousands of people saw an Amorphophallus titanum flower at the University of Bonn. It measured about two- and-one-half meters. Slang HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zhang Lui asks about slang. Slang is language that is different from the kind of speech that we are taught in school. Slang expresses ideas using new terms, or gives new meanings to old ones. One expert says good slang uses very few words to communicate a lot of meaning. Dictionaries say no is sure where the word "slang" itself came from, but some say it dates back to the seventeen-hundreds. American slang is born in the everyday speech of different groups. Television, movies and radio spread the new words or expressions to other groups. For example, black culture has given the language expressions such as to “bad mouth,” meaning to criticize someone. Teenage culture produces a lot of slang words, too. One is “mallie,” a person who spends a lot of time in shopping malls. People in business also have created slang expressions. One example is “red eye,” an all-night airplane flight from coast to coast. Most slang words disappear after a time. The phrase “right on,” for example, was often used in the nineteen-sixties and seventies to mean “that is correct” or “I agree.” Not many people use it these days. In nineteen-ninety-four, University of Tennessee professor Jonathan Lighter published the first book in a series called the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. It gave the meaning of slang words that start with the letter A through the letter G. Three years later, he published the second book. It begins with H and ends with O. It contains ten-thousand entries. These include slang terms that use names. Some are very unusual. One example is “Monet,” after the French painter Claude Monet. The word describes someone who looks good from far away but is not as good looking up close. The book also includes three pages of slang that use the name “Joe.” “Joe Lunchpail” is a working man. “Joe Sad” is someone who has no friends. Random House published the first two books. Now Oxford University Press has taken over the project. It plans to publish two more books to complete the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. The next one is expected in two-thousand-six. Steinway And Sons (MUSIC) HOST: That is pianist Arthur Rubenstein playing Schumann’s “Arabeske” on a Steinway piano. Steinway and Sons is one of the most famous makers of pianos in the world. The company is celebrating its one-hundred-fiftieth birthday this year. It is offering free tours of its factory in New York and holding special concerts at Carnegie Hall. It is also working with other companies to celebrate the anniversary. For example, the Steiff North America company is creating a toy to be known as Henry the Steinway Bear. Steve Ember tells us about Steinway and Sons. ANNCR: The story really begins three-hundred years ago in Italy when Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano. The story of Steinway and Sons begins in Seesen, Germany, in the eighteen-hundreds. Heinrich Steinwig owned a company that produced musical instruments. He and his family moved to the United States in eighteen-fifty. Heinrich changed his last name to Steinway to make it sound more American. The family started its own business in eighteen-fifty-three. It was an immediate success. Steinway and Sons won prizes at World’s Fairs for its new piano designs and sound. The company developed technical changes in the piano. In eighteen-seventy-five, Theodore Steinway created the modern grand piano. William Steinway helped establish the company’s fame. He brought pianists to the United States to play concerts on Steinway grand pianos. Since then, many famous piano performers have used Steinways. One of the most famous is Vladimir Horowitz. Here he plays a Steinway in a recording of Chopin’s Polonaise. (MUSIC) Today, Steinway produces about five-thousand pianos a year. The company says more than one-thousand concert pianists use Steinway pianos. These include Van Cliburn, Harry Connick Junior, Billy Joel, Diana Krall, James Levine, and Randy Newman. We leave you now with another of these Steinway artists, Roger Williams. Here, he plays “Autumn Leaves.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Roy Benson. And the producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - June 27, 2003:   Whaling Commission Votes to Protect Whales
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The International Whaling Commission has voted to increase efforts to protect whales. Members forcefully debated the resolution. Twenty-five members voted for it, twenty voted against it. The vote was held in Berlin on the first day of the commission's yearly meeting. The measure calls for setting up a new protection committee within the whaling commission. The new group will offer guidelines on how to protect whales from threats. These include the danger created by hunters. Other threats include pollution, shipping activity and the use of sonar in the ocean. The sound produced by underwater radar can harm whales. The new committee is also to seek ways to stop the accidental drowning of whales. This can happen when whales get caught in fishing equipment. The measure also expands the commission's interests to include other ocean mammals, like dolphins and porpoises. The resolution does not give the future committee any enforcement power. Japan, Iceland and Norway led the opposition to the plan. They say it is an attempt to end whale hunting completely. The Japanese delegation said the decision could destroy the International Whaling Commission. Japan, Norway and Iceland all are threatening to boycott the advisory group. They argue that the new committee will be so deeply divided it will not perform effectively. Australia, Britain, Mexico and the United States were among the supporters of the measure. An American delegate described the measure as good governance. And, he said it should have been established earlier. The decision by the International Whaling Commission marks a change in the organization’s main purpose. It was set up in nineteen-forty-six to supervise the whale hunting industry. The commission would set limits on whale catches for members. During the next forty years, however, whale populations were greatly reduced. This led the commission to ban almost all whale hunting. The ban has remained in effect since nineteen-eighty-six. There are exceptions. Native communities are permitted to hunt whales for their own use. And, the commission permits some hunting for the stated purpose of scientific research. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The International Whaling Commission has voted to increase efforts to protect whales. Members forcefully debated the resolution. Twenty-five members voted for it, twenty voted against it. The vote was held in Berlin on the first day of the commission's yearly meeting. The measure calls for setting up a new protection committee within the whaling commission. The new group will offer guidelines on how to protect whales from threats. These include the danger created by hunters. Other threats include pollution, shipping activity and the use of sonar in the ocean. The sound produced by underwater radar can harm whales. The new committee is also to seek ways to stop the accidental drowning of whales. This can happen when whales get caught in fishing equipment. The measure also expands the commission's interests to include other ocean mammals, like dolphins and porpoises. The resolution does not give the future committee any enforcement power. Japan, Iceland and Norway led the opposition to the plan. They say it is an attempt to end whale hunting completely. The Japanese delegation said the decision could destroy the International Whaling Commission. Japan, Norway and Iceland all are threatening to boycott the advisory group. They argue that the new committee will be so deeply divided it will not perform effectively. Australia, Britain, Mexico and the United States were among the supporters of the measure. An American delegate described the measure as good governance. And, he said it should have been established earlier. The decision by the International Whaling Commission marks a change in the organization’s main purpose. It was set up in nineteen-forty-six to supervise the whale hunting industry. The commission would set limits on whale catches for members. During the next forty years, however, whale populations were greatly reduced. This led the commission to ban almost all whale hunting. The ban has remained in effect since nineteen-eighty-six. There are exceptions. Native communities are permitted to hunt whales for their own use. And, the commission permits some hunting for the stated purpose of scientific research. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - June 28, 2003: Supreme Court Upholds Use of Race at Universities
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. The Supreme Court says American colleges and universities can use race among other considerations to decide which students to accept. But the court also says there are limits to how much consideration schools should give to race in the admissions process. The high court ruled Monday in two separate cases that involved the University of Michigan and its law school. Three white students brought the actions. They said programs aimed at creating a racially balanced student population were unfair to whites. Jennifer Gratz and Patrick Hamacher had been denied admission to the undergraduate program. Barbara Grutter was rejected by the Michigan law school. They learned that African Americans and other minorities were admitted with lower scores than whites. They argued that this violated the Fourteen Amendment to the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of nineteen-sixty-four. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal treatment under the law. In a five-to-four vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the Michigan law school policies are constitutional. The court said those policies consider race in a narrow way and do not violate the constitutional right of equal protection. But in the second ruling, the court decided six to three that the Michigan undergraduate program violates the Constitution. This program gave blacks, Hispanics and American Indians twenty points toward the one-hundred points needed to guarantee admission. The court said this was unfair to white applicants. Opponents of affirmative action say such programs put race and ethnicity ahead of ability. They say admissions policies should be race-neutral. Supporters say affirmative action helps balance a student population. This diversity, they say, creates a better learning environment for everyone. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the majority opinion to uphold the policies of the Michigan law school. She provided the fifth and deciding vote. She also agreed with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and the four other justices who voted to strike down the undergraduate program. Many critics of affirmative action say they regret that the court did not go further to restrict racial preferences. Supporters call the rulings a victory in the struggle for racial diversity in American higher education. The two Michigan cases are the most important affirmative action rulings since what is known as the Bakke decision twenty-five years ago. The Supreme Court ruled then, as now, that schools could consider race but within limits. For one thing, Justice O'Connor says in the rulings this week that such policies must be limited in time. In her words, "The court expects that twenty-five years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." This VOA Special English program In the News was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Marilyn Monroe
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 29, 2003 ((THEME)) Broadcast: June 29, 2003 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: Johnny Grant hosts a Marilyn look-alike contest VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about movie star Marilyn Monroe. She died many years ago, yet still is one of the best known American women. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Her name at birth was Norma Jean Baker. Her life as a child was like a bad dream. She lived with a number of different people, and often was mistreated. At age sixteen Norma Jean married a sailor. But she soon ended that marriage. She changed her hair color from brown to shining gold. And she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. She wanted to be an actress. . . And she succeeded. She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies. Millions of people went to see them. By the time Norma Jean had reached the age of twenty-six, her beautiful face and body earned her a place as one of America's leading movie stars. But success and fame were not enough to make her happy. The troubles of her childhood days stayed with her. She drank too much alcohol. She took too many drugs. At the age of thirty-six, she took her own life. VOICE TWO: She has been dead since nineteen-sixty-two. Still, her fame continues to grow. People born long after she died are watching her movies on television. Objects that belonged to her bring huge prices at public sales. The Warner Brothers museum in Hollywood has the white dress she wore in one of her movies, "The Prince and the Showgirl. " People continue to talk about what they feel is her strange death. Some people believe she was murdered. Two investigations showed that she died as the result of too many drugs. VOICE ONE: Why is the public still so interested in a woman who died so many years ago? A number of reasons. Her exciting but tragic life. Her connections with well-known people. And her image as an especially desirable woman. In the nineteen-fifties, many Americans believed sex was a very private subject. People often severely judged those who were sexually appealing. Into this atmosphere burst Marilyn Monroe. As one critic said, her body was round in all the right places. She wore her clothes like skin. When she walked, she moved her lower body in a way that few other actresses had done. Her voice was soft and breathy. She soon became America's golden girl. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The story of Marilyn Monroe begins on June first, nineteen-twenty-six. Norma Jean was born that day in the West Coast city of Los Angeles, California. Her birthplace was not far from the Hollywood movie studios where she would someday be a star. Her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered from mental problems. Often the mother had to be treated in a hospital for long periods of time. Her daughter was sent to live with a number of different people. The actress later would describe her stays with these foster families as sometimes very unhappy. During the worst experiences, she would go to a movie theater. There the young Norma Jean escaped into the make-believe world of movies. She would act all the movie parts after she went to a movie. She told this to a long time friend, actor Ted Jordan, who later wrote a book about her. VOICE ONE: By the time she was seventeen, Marilyn was trying very hard to be a movie actress. She finally was able to get an actors' agent to help her. He got Twentieth Century Fox Company to give Marilyn parts in some movies it produced. Marilyn continued to change the way she had looked as Norma Jean. She had an operation to improve the appearance of her nose. Her eyes were made to appear larger. She began using a great deal of bright red lipstick on her mouth. Marilyn may have worked more to improve her appearance than to improve her performance in acting classes. Some people at Twentieth Century Fox said she did not like to work at all. She appeared in only one movie. And she had only one line to speak in that. The Fox movie company dismissed her. Soon, however, her agent got her a job at Columbia pictures. She appeared in a movie called "Ladies of the Chorus. " She sang two songs. Several critics praised her performance. But Columbia dismissed her. VOICE TWO: Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy. " It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their better efforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie. The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me. " Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide. That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE ONE: Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle. " Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve. " The movie, released in nineteen-fifty, was about . . . . A movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- a dumb blonde. In nineteen-fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." This performance at last won her widespread fame. Marilyn Monroe was now a lead actress, a star. VOICE TWO: Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen-fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies . . . "How To Marry a Millionaire. " "The Seven Year Itch. " "Bus Stop. " "Some Like it Hot. " Her part in "Some Like it Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh. Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money. Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie. She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio school in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her. VOICE ONE: But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell. " Few people thought of her as a serious actress. She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen-fifty-four she married again. Her husband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe Di Maggio. They were together for only a few months. Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen-sixty-one, after five years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs. She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming. By nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give.” She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her. VOICE 1: On August fourth, nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death. Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and directed by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about movie star Marilyn Monroe. She died many years ago, yet still is one of the best known American women. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Her name at birth was Norma Jean Baker. Her life as a child was like a bad dream. She lived with a number of different people, and often was mistreated. At age sixteen Norma Jean married a sailor. But she soon ended that marriage. She changed her hair color from brown to shining gold. And she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. She wanted to be an actress. . . And she succeeded. She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies. Millions of people went to see them. By the time Norma Jean had reached the age of twenty-six, her beautiful face and body earned her a place as one of America's leading movie stars. But success and fame were not enough to make her happy. The troubles of her childhood days stayed with her. She drank too much alcohol. She took too many drugs. At the age of thirty-six, she took her own life. VOICE TWO: She has been dead since nineteen-sixty-two. Still, her fame continues to grow. People born long after she died are watching her movies on television. Objects that belonged to her bring huge prices at public sales. The Warner Brothers museum in Hollywood has the white dress she wore in one of her movies, "The Prince and the Showgirl. " People continue to talk about what they feel is her strange death. Some people believe she was murdered. Two investigations showed that she died as the result of too many drugs. VOICE ONE: Why is the public still so interested in a woman who died so many years ago? A number of reasons. Her exciting but tragic life. Her connections with well-known people. And her image as an especially desirable woman. In the nineteen-fifties, many Americans believed sex was a very private subject. People often severely judged those who were sexually appealing. Into this atmosphere burst Marilyn Monroe. As one critic said, her body was round in all the right places. She wore her clothes like skin. When she walked, she moved her lower body in a way that few other actresses had done. Her voice was soft and breathy. She soon became America's golden girl. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The story of Marilyn Monroe begins on June first, nineteen-twenty-six. Norma Jean was born that day in the West Coast city of Los Angeles, California. Her birthplace was not far from the Hollywood movie studios where she would someday be a star. Her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered from mental problems. Often the mother had to be treated in a hospital for long periods of time. Her daughter was sent to live with a number of different people. The actress later would describe her stays with these foster families as sometimes very unhappy. During the worst experiences, she would go to a movie theater. There the young Norma Jean escaped into the make-believe world of movies. She would act all the movie parts after she went to a movie. She told this to a long time friend, actor Ted Jordan, who later wrote a book about her. VOICE ONE: By the time she was seventeen, Marilyn was trying very hard to be a movie actress. She finally was able to get an actors' agent to help her. He got Twentieth Century Fox Company to give Marilyn parts in some movies it produced. Marilyn continued to change the way she had looked as Norma Jean. She had an operation to improve the appearance of her nose. Her eyes were made to appear larger. She began using a great deal of bright red lipstick on her mouth. Marilyn may have worked more to improve her appearance than to improve her performance in acting classes. Some people at Twentieth Century Fox said she did not like to work at all. She appeared in only one movie. And she had only one line to speak in that. The Fox movie company dismissed her. Soon, however, her agent got her a job at Columbia pictures. She appeared in a movie called "Ladies of the Chorus. " She sang two songs. Several critics praised her performance. But Columbia dismissed her. VOICE TWO: Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy. " It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their better efforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie. The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me. " Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide. That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE ONE: Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle. " Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve. " The movie, released in nineteen-fifty, was about . . . . A movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- a dumb blonde. In nineteen-fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." This performance at last won her widespread fame. Marilyn Monroe was now a lead actress, a star. VOICE TWO: Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen-fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies . . . "How To Marry a Millionaire. " "The Seven Year Itch. " "Bus Stop. " "Some Like it Hot. " Her part in "Some Like it Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh. Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money. Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie. She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio school in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her. VOICE ONE: But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell. " Few people thought of her as a serious actress. She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen-fifty-four she married again. Her husband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe Di Maggio. They were together for only a few months. Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen-sixty-one, after five years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs. She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming. By nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give.” She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her. VOICE 1: On August fourth, nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death. Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and directed by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Digital Divide in Developing Nations
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 30, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Internet is a system of electronic communication. It helps people share information, communicate with family and friends, and start businesses. But these people must have use of a computer, and know how to use it. And they must have a connection, usually through a telephone line or an Internet center. All this costs money. For many poor people, a so-called “digital divide” exists. People who cannot connect to the Internet become poorer, while those who can become richer. The United Nations is working to solve this problem. In December, it will hold a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, called the World Summit on the Information Society. Political and business leaders will come together with delegates from non-governmental organizations, educational groups and others. They will discuss the fast-growing information technology industry and its effects on the world. U-N organizers say they hope the gathering will lead to a political declaration and action plan. The goal is to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations. A second conference, to examine progress, will take place in Tunisia in two-thousand-five. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan recently spoke to business leaders at a meeting in New York. Mister Annan urged them to take part in the World Summit on the Information Society. He told them that industry can play an important part in limiting technological differences between countries. He noted that some companies already support efforts to improve Internet skills among poor Americans. The U-N secretary general urged businesses to also look for projects in developing countries. Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, is one company that already does that. In nineteen-ninety-seven, Cisco began a special program to teach Internet technology skills to people around the world. Today, the Cisco Networking Academy has spread to one-hundred-forty-five nations. Mister Annan says more ideas like this are needed to close the digital divide. He says information technology is not a magic answer for poor nations, but it can lead to peace and development. He says news and information provided through the Internet helps build trade, employment, good government and democracy around the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Broadcast: June 30, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Internet is a system of electronic communication. It helps people share information, communicate with family and friends, and start businesses. But these people must have use of a computer, and know how to use it. And they must have a connection, usually through a telephone line or an Internet center. All this costs money. For many poor people, a so-called “digital divide” exists. People who cannot connect to the Internet become poorer, while those who can become richer. The United Nations is working to solve this problem. In December, it will hold a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, called the World Summit on the Information Society. Political and business leaders will come together with delegates from non-governmental organizations, educational groups and others. They will discuss the fast-growing information technology industry and its effects on the world. U-N organizers say they hope the gathering will lead to a political declaration and action plan. The goal is to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations. A second conference, to examine progress, will take place in Tunisia in two-thousand-five. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan recently spoke to business leaders at a meeting in New York. Mister Annan urged them to take part in the World Summit on the Information Society. He told them that industry can play an important part in limiting technological differences between countries. He noted that some companies already support efforts to improve Internet skills among poor Americans. The U-N secretary general urged businesses to also look for projects in developing countries. Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, is one company that already does that. In nineteen-ninety-seven, Cisco began a special program to teach Internet technology skills to people around the world. Today, the Cisco Networking Academy has spread to one-hundred-forty-five nations. Mister Annan says more ideas like this are needed to close the digital divide. He says information technology is not a magic answer for poor nations, but it can lead to peace and development. He says news and information provided through the Internet helps build trade, employment, good government and democracy around the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - The Gettysburg Address
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: June 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is one of the most important, and most beautiful, speeches ever given in the English language. I’m Steve Ember with Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is our report this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We begin in the summer of eighteen-sixty-three in Gettysburg, a little town in the state of Pennsylvania. Gettysburg was a small farming and market town back then. On July first, second and third, two huge armies clashed in Gettysburg. They fought in one of the most important battles of the American Civil War. Because of that battle, the little market town of Gettysburg became an extremely important part of American history. VOICE ONE: General Robert E. Lee led the Southern army of the Confederate states into Pennsylvania. He went into the North in hopes of winning a major victory -- a victory that might help the Confederate cause. Southern states, where slavery was legal, were trying to form their own country. They wanted the right to govern themselves. Northern states did not want to let them leave the Union. General George Gordon Mead’s Union Army was following the Confederates. The two armies met at Gettysburg in the fierce heat of summer in July of eighteen-sixty-three. Little Round Top, Cemetery Ridge, the Devil’s Den, Pickett’s Charge. American history books are filled with the names of places in and around Gettysburg where the soldiers fought. These are places where thousands of men died defending the idea of a United States of America. VOICE TWO: General Lee and the Confederate Army lost the great battle. They were forced to return to the South. Many more battles would be fought during the Civil War. Some were just as terrible as the one at Gettysburg. Yet few are remembered so well. Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent. And it was the subject of a speech given five months later by the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On November second of eighteen-sixty-three, David Wills of Gettysburg wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln. In the letter, Wills explained that the bodies of soldiers killed in the great battle had been moved to a special area and buried. He invited President Lincoln to attend ceremonies to honor the soldiers who had died defending the Union. Wills also explained that the main speaker that day would be Mister Edward Everett. He was the most famous speaker in the United States at that time. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln accepted the invitation. History experts say he may have done this for several reasons. President Lincoln may have decided that it was a good time to honor all those who had given their lives in the Civil War. He may also have seen the ceremony as a chance to say how important the war was. To him, it was important not just to save the union of states, but also to establish freedom and equality under the law. President Lincoln worked on the speech for some time. He wrote it himself, on White House paper. He arrived in Gettysburg by train the day before the ceremony. David Wills had invited the president to stay the night in his home. President Lincoln, Edward Everett and David Wills left the house for the new burial place the next morning. For a few moments, let us imagine that this is November nineteenth, eighteen-sixty-three. The weather is cool. There are clouds in the sky. It is almost noon. We have arrived at the new Gettysburg cemetery. Fifteen-thousand people have come to hear Edward Everett and Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For almost two hours, President Lincoln has been listening to the speech by Edward Everett. The great speaker's voice is powerful. He speaks of ancient burial ceremonies. He tells how the young soldiers who had died here should be honored. At last, Everett finishes. Moments later a man stands and announces: “Ladies and gentlemen, his excellency -- the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.” The president leaves his chair and walks slowly forward. The huge crowd becomes silent. Abraham Lincoln begins to speak. Listen now to the words read by Shep O'Neal. (GETTYSBURG ADDRESS) Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Political opponents of Abraham Lincoln immediately criticized the speech. But there was nothing unusual about that. Edward Everett, the great speaker, knew the critics were wrong. He knew he had heard a speech that expressed difficult thoughts and ideas clearly and simply. Everett also recognized the power and the beauty of Lincoln’s words. Later he wrote to the president. He said Lincoln had said in two minutes what he had tried to say in two hours. Newspapers throughout the United States quickly printed the presidential speech again and again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edward Everett asked President Lincoln if he could have a copy of the speech. The president wrote a copy and sent it to him. The Everett copy is one of five known copies that Lincoln wrote by hand. Today, two of those copies belong to the Library of Congress. One of them may be the copy that President Lincoln used when he gave the speech in Gettysburg. President Lincoln also made a copy for a soldier named Colonel Alexander Bliss. This copy hangs on a wall in the White House in the bedroom that was used by President Lincoln. The copy that Lincoln sent to Edward Everett is in the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield. A historian named George Bancroft also asked the president for a copy. That document now belongs to Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln wrote all five of these documents. The meaning of the speech is the same in each. However, some words are different. The version with the words most often used is the one made for Colonel Bliss that hangs in the White House. The speech is also carved into the stone walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D-C. Almost everyone who visits the memorial stands before the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln and reads the speech. VOICE ONE: Several years ago, the Library of Congress began a project to translate President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address into other languages. Versions in twenty-nine languages are on the Internet. These include Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Turkish. The address of the Web site is www.loc.gov. That is the the Library of Congress. Click on "Exhibitions," then go down to the link for the Gettysburg Address. There is also a link from the Special English Web site: www.voaspecialenglish.com. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: June 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is one of the most important, and most beautiful, speeches ever given in the English language. I’m Steve Ember with Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is our report this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We begin in the summer of eighteen-sixty-three in Gettysburg, a little town in the state of Pennsylvania. Gettysburg was a small farming and market town back then. On July first, second and third, two huge armies clashed in Gettysburg. They fought in one of the most important battles of the American Civil War. Because of that battle, the little market town of Gettysburg became an extremely important part of American history. VOICE ONE: General Robert E. Lee led the Southern army of the Confederate states into Pennsylvania. He went into the North in hopes of winning a major victory -- a victory that might help the Confederate cause. Southern states, where slavery was legal, were trying to form their own country. They wanted the right to govern themselves. Northern states did not want to let them leave the Union. General George Gordon Mead’s Union Army was following the Confederates. The two armies met at Gettysburg in the fierce heat of summer in July of eighteen-sixty-three. Little Round Top, Cemetery Ridge, the Devil’s Den, Pickett’s Charge. American history books are filled with the names of places in and around Gettysburg where the soldiers fought. These are places where thousands of men died defending the idea of a United States of America. VOICE TWO: General Lee and the Confederate Army lost the great battle. They were forced to return to the South. Many more battles would be fought during the Civil War. Some were just as terrible as the one at Gettysburg. Yet few are remembered so well. Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent. And it was the subject of a speech given five months later by the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On November second of eighteen-sixty-three, David Wills of Gettysburg wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln. In the letter, Wills explained that the bodies of soldiers killed in the great battle had been moved to a special area and buried. He invited President Lincoln to attend ceremonies to honor the soldiers who had died defending the Union. Wills also explained that the main speaker that day would be Mister Edward Everett. He was the most famous speaker in the United States at that time. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln accepted the invitation. History experts say he may have done this for several reasons. President Lincoln may have decided that it was a good time to honor all those who had given their lives in the Civil War. He may also have seen the ceremony as a chance to say how important the war was. To him, it was important not just to save the union of states, but also to establish freedom and equality under the law. President Lincoln worked on the speech for some time. He wrote it himself, on White House paper. He arrived in Gettysburg by train the day before the ceremony. David Wills had invited the president to stay the night in his home. President Lincoln, Edward Everett and David Wills left the house for the new burial place the next morning. For a few moments, let us imagine that this is November nineteenth, eighteen-sixty-three. The weather is cool. There are clouds in the sky. It is almost noon. We have arrived at the new Gettysburg cemetery. Fifteen-thousand people have come to hear Edward Everett and Abraham Lincoln. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For almost two hours, President Lincoln has been listening to the speech by Edward Everett. The great speaker's voice is powerful. He speaks of ancient burial ceremonies. He tells how the young soldiers who had died here should be honored. At last, Everett finishes. Moments later a man stands and announces: “Ladies and gentlemen, his excellency -- the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.” The president leaves his chair and walks slowly forward. The huge crowd becomes silent. Abraham Lincoln begins to speak. Listen now to the words read by Shep O'Neal. (GETTYSBURG ADDRESS) Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Political opponents of Abraham Lincoln immediately criticized the speech. But there was nothing unusual about that. Edward Everett, the great speaker, knew the critics were wrong. He knew he had heard a speech that expressed difficult thoughts and ideas clearly and simply. Everett also recognized the power and the beauty of Lincoln’s words. Later he wrote to the president. He said Lincoln had said in two minutes what he had tried to say in two hours. Newspapers throughout the United States quickly printed the presidential speech again and again. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edward Everett asked President Lincoln if he could have a copy of the speech. The president wrote a copy and sent it to him. The Everett copy is one of five known copies that Lincoln wrote by hand. Today, two of those copies belong to the Library of Congress. One of them may be the copy that President Lincoln used when he gave the speech in Gettysburg. President Lincoln also made a copy for a soldier named Colonel Alexander Bliss. This copy hangs on a wall in the White House in the bedroom that was used by President Lincoln. The copy that Lincoln sent to Edward Everett is in the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield. A historian named George Bancroft also asked the president for a copy. That document now belongs to Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. VOICE TWO: President Lincoln wrote all five of these documents. The meaning of the speech is the same in each. However, some words are different. The version with the words most often used is the one made for Colonel Bliss that hangs in the White House. The speech is also carved into the stone walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D-C. Almost everyone who visits the memorial stands before the huge statue of Abraham Lincoln and reads the speech. VOICE ONE: Several years ago, the Library of Congress began a project to translate President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address into other languages. Versions in twenty-nine languages are on the Internet. These include Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Turkish. The address of the Web site is www.loc.gov. That is the the Library of Congress. Click on "Exhibitions," then go down to the link for the Gettysburg Address. There is also a link from the Special English Web site: www.voaspecialenglish.com. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS-- Link to Jesus Doubted / Landmines / UN Fights Measles / A Measure to Control SARS
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 1, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: July 1, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- an update about a reported link between an ancient stone box and Jesus. A look at some technologies in the search for landmines. Also, we tell about a campaign to fight measles in children. And we examine the long history of one of the measures used to control SARS. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- an update about a reported link between an ancient stone box and Jesus. A look at some technologies in the search for landmines. Also, we tell about a campaign to fight measles in children. And we examine the long history of one of the measures used to control SARS. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Israeli investigators have disputed claims made last year that a stone box provides the oldest historical evidence of Jesus. The words “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" are written on the side of the box. The words are in Aramaic, a language spoken in the Middle East two-thousand years ago. The box is called an ossuary [OSH-oo-ar-y]. Two-thousand years ago, Jews used ossuaries to hold the remains of their dead. This box measures about fifty by thirty centimeters. It now belongs to a private collector in Israel. He said he purchased it from a dealer who told him it was found in an ancient burial area in Jerusalem. Recently, the Antiquities Authority in Israel completed an investigation of the limestone box. The government agency says the ossuary is ancient. However, it says the writing appears new. VOICE TWO: The Antiquities Authority asked a number of archeological experts to study the box. The experts say the writing cut through material that had built up on the ossuary since it was made. Gideon Avri was the chairman of the investigating committee. He says all of the members agreed with the findings. The box became famous late last year. The Biblical Archeology Review published a study by a French expert on ancient languages. Andre Lemaire said he had found nothing to dispute the idea that the box may have held the bones of Jesus’ brother. The New Testament, the Christian holy book, calls James a brother of Jesus. Jesus was a Jewish religious teacher. His life and the story of his return from death form the basis of Christianity. Christians believe Jesus is the son of God. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Landmines kill or injure as many as twenty-thousand people a year, by recent estimates of international groups. Millions of bombs are buried in at least ninety countries around the world. They remain long after conflicts have ended. Efforts are being made to clear them. However, the process is slow. Experts say that is mainly because of the technology being used. Rand, a research organization in the United States, released a study earlier this year of the different methods to find landmines. Currently, metal-sensing devices are widely used to search for landmines. This technology is old, however -- dating back to World War Two. It is still effective. But experts say landmine clearing is slowed because the equipment senses all kinds of metal, not just buried bombs. Also, some mines are made of plastic. There are newer methods to discover landmines. For example, an American-based company working to clear landmines in Afghanistan uses specially trained dogs. Dogs are able to smell chemical gases given off by explosives. But some experts say the animals cost too much. Raising and training just one dog can cost up to twenty-five-thousand dollars. Landmine removal experts have discovered that bees may also be able to detect explosives through the presence of gases. But the Rand report says the use of what it calls biological technology, such as dogs and bees, in this way is limited to dry environments. Experts are also using light and chemical techniques to test for gases released by landmines. And they are using such things as underground radar and X-ray equipment to aid their search. VOICE TWO: Some technologies are established. Others need additional research. The Rand report says no single method can sense all the kinds of mines in the different environments where they are buried. The group Human Rights Watch estimates that a single landmine costs between three and thirty dollars to make. Yet, removing that landmine can cost up to one-thousand dollars. Improved detection technology could help reduce this cost. Rand suggests a fifty-million-dollar program to research and test new landmine removal equipment. The program would last up to eight years. Any resulting device would likely combine several detection techniques. The Rand report says that without improved methods, it could take up to five-hundred years to clear the Earth of all the landmines that currently exist. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. (MUSIC BRIDGE) The World Health Organization says efforts to control the spread of SARS in China have succeeded, for now at least. The W-H-O ended its last travel warnings last week. Beijing was the only area in the world where this advice was still in effect. SARS is severe acute respiratory syndrome. The virus has sickened more than eight-thousand people and killed more than eight-hundred of them. Most of the cases have been in China, where the disease began last year. One of the steps taken in China and other countries to control SARS has been the use of quarantine. Quarantine is the restriction of movement in an effort to stop the spread of infection. There is a long history to the use of quarantine to protect public health. It began in the fourteenth century as a way to protect against diseases that sailors could spread as they traveled the world. Ships that arrived in Venice, Italy, from areas infected with bubonic plague had to stay outside the port for forty days. This separation was called quarantine, from a word in Latin that means forty. VOICE TWO: Officials in France and Italy at that time also created a system that separated the general population from people thought to be infected. European officials used quarantines to stop the spread of tuberculosis and cholera in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Victims were taken to special hospitals built outside cities. American officials have also used quarantines. One example was in eighteen-ninety-three when smallpox infected many people in the city of Muncie, Indiana. Armed guards stood outside quarantine areas. No one was permitted to leave or enter. Violators were jailed. Another example was exiling people with leprosy to the Hawaiian island of Molokai. About eight-thousand people were sent there until legislation banned this kind of separation in nineteen-sixty-nine. The power to quarantine an area in the United States was left to local officials until the late eighteen-hundreds. The federal government became involved when cholera and yellow fever struck large numbers of people. Congress approved the first Federal Quarantine Legislation in eighteen-seventy-eight. VOICE ONE: Today, the responsibility for establishing quarantines is held by a government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States Public Health Service has the power to examine people or animals suspected of carrying diseases that can be spread to others. There is a list of diseases that can result in quarantine. These include cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola. In April, President Bush added a new disease to that list -- SARS. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization has asked nations for an extra two-hundred-million dollars to fight measles in developing countries. The W-H-O says each year almost seven-hundred-fifty-thousand children die from measles. That is out of more than thirty million cases. Yet, it can be prevented with a vaccine medicine given early in life. Measles is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It attacks the skin surface and the body’s defense system. The disease can spread through liquid from the nose and throat of an infected person. People can also become sick by breathing infected particles in the air. The W-H-O and the United Nations Children’s Fund say they plan to use the requested money over the next three years to fight measles in forty-five countries. Most are in Africa. The W-H-O says that of all health interventions, measles vaccination carries one of the highest health returns for the money spent. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by George Grow, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Israeli investigators have disputed claims made last year that a stone box provides the oldest historical evidence of Jesus. The words “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" are written on the side of the box. The words are in Aramaic, a language spoken in the Middle East two-thousand years ago. The box is called an ossuary [OSH-oo-ar-y]. Two-thousand years ago, Jews used ossuaries to hold the remains of their dead. This box measures about fifty by thirty centimeters. It now belongs to a private collector in Israel. He said he purchased it from a dealer who told him it was found in an ancient burial area in Jerusalem. Recently, the Antiquities Authority in Israel completed an investigation of the limestone box. The government agency says the ossuary is ancient. However, it says the writing appears new. VOICE TWO: The Antiquities Authority asked a number of archeological experts to study the box. The experts say the writing cut through material that had built up on the ossuary since it was made. Gideon Avri was the chairman of the investigating committee. He says all of the members agreed with the findings. The box became famous late last year. The Biblical Archeology Review published a study by a French expert on ancient languages. Andre Lemaire said he had found nothing to dispute the idea that the box may have held the bones of Jesus’ brother. The New Testament, the Christian holy book, calls James a brother of Jesus. Jesus was a Jewish religious teacher. His life and the story of his return from death form the basis of Christianity. Christians believe Jesus is the son of God. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Landmines kill or injure as many as twenty-thousand people a year, by recent estimates of international groups. Millions of bombs are buried in at least ninety countries around the world. They remain long after conflicts have ended. Efforts are being made to clear them. However, the process is slow. Experts say that is mainly because of the technology being used. Rand, a research organization in the United States, released a study earlier this year of the different methods to find landmines. Currently, metal-sensing devices are widely used to search for landmines. This technology is old, however -- dating back to World War Two. It is still effective. But experts say landmine clearing is slowed because the equipment senses all kinds of metal, not just buried bombs. Also, some mines are made of plastic. There are newer methods to discover landmines. For example, an American-based company working to clear landmines in Afghanistan uses specially trained dogs. Dogs are able to smell chemical gases given off by explosives. But some experts say the animals cost too much. Raising and training just one dog can cost up to twenty-five-thousand dollars. Landmine removal experts have discovered that bees may also be able to detect explosives through the presence of gases. But the Rand report says the use of what it calls biological technology, such as dogs and bees, in this way is limited to dry environments. Experts are also using light and chemical techniques to test for gases released by landmines. And they are using such things as underground radar and X-ray equipment to aid their search. VOICE TWO: Some technologies are established. Others need additional research. The Rand report says no single method can sense all the kinds of mines in the different environments where they are buried. The group Human Rights Watch estimates that a single landmine costs between three and thirty dollars to make. Yet, removing that landmine can cost up to one-thousand dollars. Improved detection technology could help reduce this cost. Rand suggests a fifty-million-dollar program to research and test new landmine removal equipment. The program would last up to eight years. Any resulting device would likely combine several detection techniques. The Rand report says that without improved methods, it could take up to five-hundred years to clear the Earth of all the landmines that currently exist. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program Science in the News. I'm Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. (MUSIC BRIDGE) The World Health Organization says efforts to control the spread of SARS in China have succeeded, for now at least. The W-H-O ended its last travel warnings last week. Beijing was the only area in the world where this advice was still in effect. SARS is severe acute respiratory syndrome. The virus has sickened more than eight-thousand people and killed more than eight-hundred of them. Most of the cases have been in China, where the disease began last year. One of the steps taken in China and other countries to control SARS has been the use of quarantine. Quarantine is the restriction of movement in an effort to stop the spread of infection. There is a long history to the use of quarantine to protect public health. It began in the fourteenth century as a way to protect against diseases that sailors could spread as they traveled the world. Ships that arrived in Venice, Italy, from areas infected with bubonic plague had to stay outside the port for forty days. This separation was called quarantine, from a word in Latin that means forty. VOICE TWO: Officials in France and Italy at that time also created a system that separated the general population from people thought to be infected. European officials used quarantines to stop the spread of tuberculosis and cholera in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Victims were taken to special hospitals built outside cities. American officials have also used quarantines. One example was in eighteen-ninety-three when smallpox infected many people in the city of Muncie, Indiana. Armed guards stood outside quarantine areas. No one was permitted to leave or enter. Violators were jailed. Another example was exiling people with leprosy to the Hawaiian island of Molokai. About eight-thousand people were sent there until legislation banned this kind of separation in nineteen-sixty-nine. The power to quarantine an area in the United States was left to local officials until the late eighteen-hundreds. The federal government became involved when cholera and yellow fever struck large numbers of people. Congress approved the first Federal Quarantine Legislation in eighteen-seventy-eight. VOICE ONE: Today, the responsibility for establishing quarantines is held by a government agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States Public Health Service has the power to examine people or animals suspected of carrying diseases that can be spread to others. There is a list of diseases that can result in quarantine. These include cholera, diphtheria, infectious tuberculosis, plague, smallpox, yellow fever, and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola. In April, President Bush added a new disease to that list -- SARS. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The World Health Organization has asked nations for an extra two-hundred-million dollars to fight measles in developing countries. The W-H-O says each year almost seven-hundred-fifty-thousand children die from measles. That is out of more than thirty million cases. Yet, it can be prevented with a vaccine medicine given early in life. Measles is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It attacks the skin surface and the body’s defense system. The disease can spread through liquid from the nose and throat of an infected person. People can also become sick by breathing infected particles in the air. The W-H-O and the United Nations Children’s Fund say they plan to use the requested money over the next three years to fight measles in forty-five countries. Most are in Africa. The W-H-O says that of all health interventions, measles vaccination carries one of the highest health returns for the money spent. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by George Grow, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-06/a-2003-06-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — International Conference Looks at Agricultural Science and Technology
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 1, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, an international meeting in Sacramento, California, brought together agricultural, science and environmental officials. They attended the Ministerial Conference and Expo on Agricultural Science and Technology. The United States Department of Agriculture and the Agency for International Development organized the event. During the conference, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman presented a report written by her department. The report advises countries to support scientific discoveries in agriculture. It says greater productivity would improve economic growth and reduce hunger. The report identifies several technologies that researchers think will be important in twenty-first century agriculture. Genetic research is one area. Tools that work with single molecules -- nanotechnology -- may also help research on plants and animals. Another area is bioremediation. This is a process in which organisms could be used to remove pollution from the environment, like oil spills. And better ways to use and spread information through databases can help researchers around the world. The administrator of the Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, also spoke at the conference. He said agricultural productivity in many developing countries is not increasing, as it should. He said these countries should invest more in agricultural technology. Experts say developing nations invest less than one percent of their economic resources into agricultural research and development. Developed nations invest five percent. One-hundred-eleven nations took part in the ministerial conference. European Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler was not present. European Union agriculture ministers were meeting in Luxembourg. Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the conference in California. Large numbers of police enforced heavy security. No major violence was reported. By the end of the four days, police had arrested about seventy people. Some activists opposed the conference as an event to support big agriculture businesses. They demanded that more be done to feed the hungry. Others opposed bio-engineered food. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – July 2, 2003: St. John Archeology
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Nicole Nichols. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about discoveries of the past on the island of Saint John, in the United States Virgin Islands. Saint John covers forty-nine square kilometers of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico. (THEME) This is Nicole Nichols. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about discoveries of the past on the island of Saint John, in the United States Virgin Islands. Saint John covers forty-nine square kilometers of land between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico. (THEME) VOICE ONE: When many people think about the Virgin Islands, they think of a beautiful holiday place with bright sunshine and clear blue seas. But serious science is also taking place on Saint John. Archeologists have uncovered a ceremonial center near the waters of Saint John’s Cinnamon Bay. A tribal people called the Taino (Tah-EE-no) created the area. The Taino may have used this place for religious purposes hundreds of years ago. Near the ceremonial site, archeologists have found evidence of a fire from a slave rebellion that took place in seventeen-thirty-three. Another archeology project has just begun around Saint John -- a search for sunken ships. National Park Service archeologist Ken Wild designed the projects. Investigation into the island’s past has become a community effort on Saint John. Thousands of volunteers from the island and the United States mainland give their time to help. VOICE TWO: Some experts say the Taino were the first people Italian explorer Christopher Columbus saw when he came to the Americas in the fifteenth century. The Taino are believed to have lived on a number of other islands including the Bahamas, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Columbus led explorations for Spain in fourteen-ninety-two and fourteen-ninety-three. He wrote a record of his travels. He probably found the Taino people when he landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea, in what is now called the West Indies. It is unclear which island this was. However, many experts say it was in the Bahamas or Turks islands. Columbus said the Taino were friendly. He said they helped guide his crew around the islands. He also commented on the fact that they wore few clothes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Work to uncover the Taino ceremonial area began in nineteen-ninety-eight. That was three years after a huge ocean storm struck the island. The storm removed some of the sand between the archeological site and Cinnamon Bay. Experts recognized that the water would someday cover the site. Sand on the beach is continually being washed away. The ceremonial area contains levels of animal remains and clay containers for food. Some pieces of pottery have round holes in the bottom. Among some tribal groups in the Americas, this meant that the people had opened a space for the spirit to escape. VOICE TWO: Mister Wild says objects were placed in the ceremonial area during hundreds of years. He believes they were offerings to Taino ancestors or to very powerful gods. A road built by planters in the early eighteenth century over the area protected these objects for almost three-hundred years. Each object appears to be where someone placed it centuries ago. Objects closer to the surface have images with more detail than those below. Images on the pottery have noses similar to a bat, an animal that looks like a mouse with wings. The Tainos are thought to have considered the bat a holy creature. They believed it contained the spirits of the dead. VOICE ONE: The discoveries in Cinnamon Bay mark the first time a Taino ceremonial area has been recognized in the Caribbean. Historians and archeologists say the Taino raised crops and fished. They lived in round houses. They traveled between islands in huge canoes made from trees. The Taino appear to have had a well organized government system. Before Spanish settlers arrived, the Taino had a legend, a story repeated over time. It said people covered with clothes would someday make them slaves. Sadly, the legend came true. Colonists from Spain made the islanders work very hard and fed them little. The Spanish may also have brought diseases to the islanders. The native people died very quickly from these diseases. The protective systems of their bodies had no defenses against European diseases. VOICE TWO: Not many years after Columbus sailed into the area, the Taino population had sharply decreased. Spain gave independence to the island people in fifteen-forty-two. But by that time, few Taino remained alive. Some experts believe the Taino people disappeared several hundred years ago. Their population died out in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. But some Taino live today in Puerto Rico and the southern Caribbean islands near South America. Members a tribal group in Puerto Rico say their genetic material proves they are Taino. They live in a very large central mountain territory of the island. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An environmental activist from the state of Connecticut helped launch the archeological exploration at Cinnamon Bay. Investment banker S. Donald Sussman gave two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars for a year of digging. Most project money today comes from gifts. An organization called the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park helps the archeology. So do an island gift shop and other businesses. After a short training period, community volunteers from Saint John help find and clean objects from the past. So do visitors spending a holiday on the island. School children and people of all ages aid in the work. Volunteers give an average of about one-thousand hours a year to the archeology projects. VOICE TWO: Students from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York recently completed an intensive course in archeology on Saint John. They studied objects from the remains of an early cotton farm. This seventeenth-century plantation is near the site of the ceremonial area. In the eighteenth century, sugar grew on this same land. Working on the site gives students a chance to study the relationship between African slaves and European plantation owners. Several years ago Syracuse students uncovered the remains of a house for laborers. They also discovered a building that served as a home and storage area for the plantation owners. One level of the area shows evidence of a fire. The Syracuse experts say the burning took place during the Saint John slave rebellion of seventeen-thirty-three. VOICE ONE: After Christopher Columbus explored the area, people from England, France and Spain all fought to control Saint John. In seventeen-seventeen, settlers from Denmark bought the island from France. In seventeen-thirty-three, more than one-thousand African slaves worked on Saint John under Danish control. They worked on plantations that grew sugar, cotton and other crops. Lack of rain had caused a food shortage. The slaves raised their own food. But the crops failed. The people were starving to death. Their owners feared the slaves might rebel. So the owners established extremely restrictive and cruel laws. These laws threatened terrible punishments for even the smallest violations. VOICE TWO: The slaves were caught between starvation and the cruelty of the laws. They decided to fight back. They attacked and captured the local fort. They held out for six months. But finally, the Danish governor brought in additional forces from the French West Indies. They crushed the rebellion. Some of the slaves who were not captured killed themselves. They did so to prevent being tortured to death. Denmark owned Saint John until nineteen-seventeen. Then the United States bought the island. VOICE ONE: Syracuse University officials say the archeological work at Cinnamon Bay marks the first study of settlement in the area. They say the effort will add to increasing research about relations between Africans and Europeans in the area. Later this month, students from the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine, also will work on Saint John for one week. They will begin a comparison study of cultural changes in native Americans over the years. A recent visitor to Saint John said he went to the island to swim and enjoy the sunshine. But he said the most interesting part of his visit was seeing evidence of the island’s past. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: When many people think about the Virgin Islands, they think of a beautiful holiday place with bright sunshine and clear blue seas. But serious science is also taking place on Saint John. Archeologists have uncovered a ceremonial center near the waters of Saint John’s Cinnamon Bay. A tribal people called the Taino (Tah-EE-no) created the area. The Taino may have used this place for religious purposes hundreds of years ago. Near the ceremonial site, archeologists have found evidence of a fire from a slave rebellion that took place in seventeen-thirty-three. Another archeology project has just begun around Saint John -- a search for sunken ships. National Park Service archeologist Ken Wild designed the projects. Investigation into the island’s past has become a community effort on Saint John. Thousands of volunteers from the island and the United States mainland give their time to help. VOICE TWO: Some experts say the Taino were the first people Italian explorer Christopher Columbus saw when he came to the Americas in the fifteenth century. The Taino are believed to have lived on a number of other islands including the Bahamas, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Columbus led explorations for Spain in fourteen-ninety-two and fourteen-ninety-three. He wrote a record of his travels. He probably found the Taino people when he landed on an island in the Caribbean Sea, in what is now called the West Indies. It is unclear which island this was. However, many experts say it was in the Bahamas or Turks islands. Columbus said the Taino were friendly. He said they helped guide his crew around the islands. He also commented on the fact that they wore few clothes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Work to uncover the Taino ceremonial area began in nineteen-ninety-eight. That was three years after a huge ocean storm struck the island. The storm removed some of the sand between the archeological site and Cinnamon Bay. Experts recognized that the water would someday cover the site. Sand on the beach is continually being washed away. The ceremonial area contains levels of animal remains and clay containers for food. Some pieces of pottery have round holes in the bottom. Among some tribal groups in the Americas, this meant that the people had opened a space for the spirit to escape. VOICE TWO: Mister Wild says objects were placed in the ceremonial area during hundreds of years. He believes they were offerings to Taino ancestors or to very powerful gods. A road built by planters in the early eighteenth century over the area protected these objects for almost three-hundred years. Each object appears to be where someone placed it centuries ago. Objects closer to the surface have images with more detail than those below. Images on the pottery have noses similar to a bat, an animal that looks like a mouse with wings. The Tainos are thought to have considered the bat a holy creature. They believed it contained the spirits of the dead. VOICE ONE: The discoveries in Cinnamon Bay mark the first time a Taino ceremonial area has been recognized in the Caribbean. Historians and archeologists say the Taino raised crops and fished. They lived in round houses. They traveled between islands in huge canoes made from trees. The Taino appear to have had a well organized government system. Before Spanish settlers arrived, the Taino had a legend, a story repeated over time. It said people covered with clothes would someday make them slaves. Sadly, the legend came true. Colonists from Spain made the islanders work very hard and fed them little. The Spanish may also have brought diseases to the islanders. The native people died very quickly from these diseases. The protective systems of their bodies had no defenses against European diseases. VOICE TWO: Not many years after Columbus sailed into the area, the Taino population had sharply decreased. Spain gave independence to the island people in fifteen-forty-two. But by that time, few Taino remained alive. Some experts believe the Taino people disappeared several hundred years ago. Their population died out in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. But some Taino live today in Puerto Rico and the southern Caribbean islands near South America. Members a tribal group in Puerto Rico say their genetic material proves they are Taino. They live in a very large central mountain territory of the island. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An environmental activist from the state of Connecticut helped launch the archeological exploration at Cinnamon Bay. Investment banker S. Donald Sussman gave two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars for a year of digging. Most project money today comes from gifts. An organization called the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park helps the archeology. So do an island gift shop and other businesses. After a short training period, community volunteers from Saint John help find and clean objects from the past. So do visitors spending a holiday on the island. School children and people of all ages aid in the work. Volunteers give an average of about one-thousand hours a year to the archeology projects. VOICE TWO: Students from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York recently completed an intensive course in archeology on Saint John. They studied objects from the remains of an early cotton farm. This seventeenth-century plantation is near the site of the ceremonial area. In the eighteenth century, sugar grew on this same land. Working on the site gives students a chance to study the relationship between African slaves and European plantation owners. Several years ago Syracuse students uncovered the remains of a house for laborers. They also discovered a building that served as a home and storage area for the plantation owners. One level of the area shows evidence of a fire. The Syracuse experts say the burning took place during the Saint John slave rebellion of seventeen-thirty-three. VOICE ONE: After Christopher Columbus explored the area, people from England, France and Spain all fought to control Saint John. In seventeen-seventeen, settlers from Denmark bought the island from France. In seventeen-thirty-three, more than one-thousand African slaves worked on Saint John under Danish control. They worked on plantations that grew sugar, cotton and other crops. Lack of rain had caused a food shortage. The slaves raised their own food. But the crops failed. The people were starving to death. Their owners feared the slaves might rebel. So the owners established extremely restrictive and cruel laws. These laws threatened terrible punishments for even the smallest violations. VOICE TWO: The slaves were caught between starvation and the cruelty of the laws. They decided to fight back. They attacked and captured the local fort. They held out for six months. But finally, the Danish governor brought in additional forces from the French West Indies. They crushed the rebellion. Some of the slaves who were not captured killed themselves. They did so to prevent being tortured to death. Denmark owned Saint John until nineteen-seventeen. Then the United States bought the island. VOICE ONE: Syracuse University officials say the archeological work at Cinnamon Bay marks the first study of settlement in the area. They say the effort will add to increasing research about relations between Africans and Europeans in the area. Later this month, students from the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine, also will work on Saint John for one week. They will begin a comparison study of cultural changes in native Americans over the years. A recent visitor to Saint John said he went to the island to swim and enjoy the sunshine. But he said the most interesting part of his visit was seeing evidence of the island’s past. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Lightning Safety
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 2, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Lightning is the release of electrical energy in the sky. Lightning can start fires. It also can kill. During a storm, the normally neutral particles in clouds hit each other. They become electrically charged. As they flow toward each other, they form an electric spark of light. Some lightning is created between clouds. Other lightning is created within clouds. And some is created when negative charges from a cloud’s base move down to meet positive charges rising from Earth. Lightning that strikes the Earth carries one or more electrical discharges called strokes. The bright light seen in a flash of lightning is called a return stroke. Return strokes travel at the speed of light. They discharge about one-hundred-million volts of electricity. They heat the air to more than thirty-three-thousand degrees Celsius. Air heated by return strokes expands and produces the sound of thunder. About four-hundred people are struck by lightning each year in the United States alone. About one-hundred die. The electrical force of the lightning affects the heartbeat. Lightning can also stop the chest muscles or damage the breathing center in the brain. Experts tell people to seek the safety of a building or a hard-top vehicle any time they hear thunder, even if it is not raining. They say lightning can strike as far as sixteen kilometers away from any rainfall. Lightning can also travel sideways for up to the same distance. At least ten percent of lightning happens without clouds in the sky. Safety experts also say that people in a building should stay away from anything with wires or pipes that lead to the outside. The National Weather Service says if you plan to disconnect any electronic equipment, do so before the storm arrives. Do not use a wired telephone. Do not use water. All these can carry electricity. People who are outside should make sure they are not the tallest things around. Bend low to the ground, but do not lie down. Do not stand near a tree or any tall object. Stay out of -- and away from -- water. Get away from bicycles and other things made of metal. A car is safe, but do not touch any metal inside. Experts also say that a person who has been struck by lightning carries no electrical charge afterward. It is safe to begin emergency treatment. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: July 2, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Lightning is the release of electrical energy in the sky. Lightning can start fires. It also can kill. During a storm, the normally neutral particles in clouds hit each other. They become electrically charged. As they flow toward each other, they form an electric spark of light. Some lightning is created between clouds. Other lightning is created within clouds. And some is created when negative charges from a cloud’s base move down to meet positive charges rising from Earth. Lightning that strikes the Earth carries one or more electrical discharges called strokes. The bright light seen in a flash of lightning is called a return stroke. Return strokes travel at the speed of light. They discharge about one-hundred-million volts of electricity. They heat the air to more than thirty-three-thousand degrees Celsius. Air heated by return strokes expands and produces the sound of thunder. About four-hundred people are struck by lightning each year in the United States alone. About one-hundred die. The electrical force of the lightning affects the heartbeat. Lightning can also stop the chest muscles or damage the breathing center in the brain. Experts tell people to seek the safety of a building or a hard-top vehicle any time they hear thunder, even if it is not raining. They say lightning can strike as far as sixteen kilometers away from any rainfall. Lightning can also travel sideways for up to the same distance. At least ten percent of lightning happens without clouds in the sky. Safety experts also say that people in a building should stay away from anything with wires or pipes that lead to the outside. The National Weather Service says if you plan to disconnect any electronic equipment, do so before the storm arrives. Do not use a wired telephone. Do not use water. All these can carry electricity. People who are outside should make sure they are not the tallest things around. Bend low to the ground, but do not lie down. Do not stand near a tree or any tall object. Stay out of -- and away from -- water. Get away from bicycles and other things made of metal. A car is safe, but do not touch any metal inside. Experts also say that a person who has been struck by lightning carries no electrical charge afterward. It is safe to begin emergency treatment. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #19 - Writing the Constitution, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 3, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Shep O'Neal. Today, Blake Lanum and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: The story does not flow easily. The reason is a rule made by the delegates. From the beginning, they agreed that the convention had the right to change its decisions. The convention did not just discuss a proposal, vote on it, and move on to other issues. Any delegate could ask to re-discuss any proposal or any decision. And they often did. Every man who saw one of his ideas defeated brought it up again later. The same speeches that were made the first time were made again. So days, even weeks, passed between discussions of the same proposal. The story of the Philadelphia convention would be difficult to understand if we told about events day-by-day. So, we will put the calendar and the clock away, and tell how each major question was debated and settled. VOICE ONE: After the delegates agreed that the convention could change its decisions, they agreed on a rule of secrecy. Guards were placed at the doors of the State House. Newspaper reporters were not permitted inside. And delegates could not discuss convention business in public. The secrecy rule led people to get many strange ideas about the convention, especially in Europe. There, most people believed the convention was discussing how America could be ruled by a king. Europeans said a republican government worked in a small country, such as Switzerland, but not, they said, in a land as large as America. So some of them began talking about which European prince might be asked to become king of America. Some were sure it would be Prince Henry of Prussia. Others said it would be Prince Frederick Augustus, the second son of King George the Third of Britain. Without news reports from Philadelphia, even some Americans believed these stories. VOICE TWO: At the time of the convention, Thomas Jefferson was serving as America's representative to France. When he learned of the secrecy rule, he was angry. He believed strongly in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. More than forty years later, James Madison explained the decision behind the rule. Madison said that if the convention had been open to the public, no delegate would ever change his mind after speaking on an issue. To do so would mean he was wrong the first time he spoke. And no delegate would be willing to admit to the public that he had made a mistake. Madison said if the meetings had been open, the convention would have failed. VOICE ONE: Another rule helped the delegates speak freely. It was a method of debate called the Committee of the Whole. It may seem a foolish method. But it was useful then and still is today in legislatures. It is a way for people to discuss ideas, vote, and then change their minds. Their votes -- while in committee -- are not recorded permanently. To have the Philadelphia convention become a Committee of the Whole, the delegates needed to elect a chairman of the committee. They chose Nathaniel Gorham, a judge from Massachusetts. Each morning at ten o'clock, the convention met and declared it was sitting as a Committee of the Whole. George Washington then left the president's chair. Nathaniel Gorham took his place. Just before four o'clock in the afternoon, the Committee of the Whole declared it was sitting again as a convention. Judge Gorham stepped down, and General Washington took the chair. He declared that the convention would meet again the next morning. This process was repeated every day. VOICE TWO: On May Twenty-Ninth, the delegates heard the Virginia Plan. This was the plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia. The thirty-three-year-old governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, presented the plan. First, he spoke about America's existing plan of government, the Articles of Confederation. Governor Randolph praised the Articles and the men who wrote them. He called those men 'wise' and 'great'. But, he said, the Articles were written for thirteen states in a time of war. Something more was needed now for the new nation. Something permanent. VOICE ONE: Governor Randolph spoke of conditions in all the states. He told the delegates what they already knew was true. Government was breaking down in many parts of the country. As he presented the Virginia Plan, Edmund Randolph noted that its fifteen parts were just ideas. The state of Virginia, he said, did not want to force them on the convention. Yet the ideas should be discussed. Change them as you wish, he told the convention. But talk about them fully. Other delegates presented their own plans for discussion. We will talk about some of them in later programs. But from the beginning, the Virginia Plan had the most influence. For more than three months, delegates would debate each part, vote on it, then debate it again. The Virginia Plan formed the basis of discussion at the convention in Philadelphia. In the end, it formed the basis of the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO: The announced purpose of the convention was to change the Articles of Confederation to make them more effective. The Virginia Plan was not a plan of proposed changes. It was much more extreme. It was, in fact, a plan for a completely new central government. Debate on the Virginia Plan began May Thirtieth. Immediately, Edmund Randolph proposed an amendment. The plan, he noted, spoke of a federal union of states. But such a federation would not work. Instead, he said, America's central government should be a national government. It should contain a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary. VOICE ONE: For a few moments, there was complete silence. Many of the delegates seemed frozen in their chairs. Did they hear correctly? Most of them did not question the idea of a government with three separate parts. Several states already had such a system. But to create a central government that was 'national' and 'supreme'. . .what did these words mean exactly? What was the difference? The delegates debated the meaning of these words -- federal, national, supreme -- for many days. Both James Madison and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania tried to explain. Madison said a federal government acts on states. A national government acts directly on the people. Morris gave this explanation. A federal government is simply an agreement based on the good faith of those involved. A national government has a complete system of operation and its own powers. VOICE TWO: Pierce Butler of South Carolina wanted to know why a national government was necessary. Did the states need to be national? "But we are a nation!" John Dickinson of Delaware answered. "We are a nation although made of parts, or states." Gouverneur Morris continued. He spoke of the future when the delegates meeting in Philadelphia would be dead. Their children and grandchildren, he said, would stop thinking of themselves as citizens of Pennsylvania or New York or North Carolina. Instead, they would think of themselves as citizens of the United States. "This generation will die away," Morris said, "and be followed by a race of Americans." Morris declared that the states had to take second place to a national government with supreme power. "It is better to take a supreme government now," he said, "than a dictator twenty years from now. For come he must." In the end, the delegates approved the proposal for a national government. Next week, we will tell about the debate over a national executive, the part of the government that would enforce the laws. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Blake Lanum. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: July 3, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Shep O'Neal. Today, Blake Lanum and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: The story does not flow easily. The reason is a rule made by the delegates. From the beginning, they agreed that the convention had the right to change its decisions. The convention did not just discuss a proposal, vote on it, and move on to other issues. Any delegate could ask to re-discuss any proposal or any decision. And they often did. Every man who saw one of his ideas defeated brought it up again later. The same speeches that were made the first time were made again. So days, even weeks, passed between discussions of the same proposal. The story of the Philadelphia convention would be difficult to understand if we told about events day-by-day. So, we will put the calendar and the clock away, and tell how each major question was debated and settled. VOICE ONE: After the delegates agreed that the convention could change its decisions, they agreed on a rule of secrecy. Guards were placed at the doors of the State House. Newspaper reporters were not permitted inside. And delegates could not discuss convention business in public. The secrecy rule led people to get many strange ideas about the convention, especially in Europe. There, most people believed the convention was discussing how America could be ruled by a king. Europeans said a republican government worked in a small country, such as Switzerland, but not, they said, in a land as large as America. So some of them began talking about which European prince might be asked to become king of America. Some were sure it would be Prince Henry of Prussia. Others said it would be Prince Frederick Augustus, the second son of King George the Third of Britain. Without news reports from Philadelphia, even some Americans believed these stories. VOICE TWO: At the time of the convention, Thomas Jefferson was serving as America's representative to France. When he learned of the secrecy rule, he was angry. He believed strongly in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. More than forty years later, James Madison explained the decision behind the rule. Madison said that if the convention had been open to the public, no delegate would ever change his mind after speaking on an issue. To do so would mean he was wrong the first time he spoke. And no delegate would be willing to admit to the public that he had made a mistake. Madison said if the meetings had been open, the convention would have failed. VOICE ONE: Another rule helped the delegates speak freely. It was a method of debate called the Committee of the Whole. It may seem a foolish method. But it was useful then and still is today in legislatures. It is a way for people to discuss ideas, vote, and then change their minds. Their votes -- while in committee -- are not recorded permanently. To have the Philadelphia convention become a Committee of the Whole, the delegates needed to elect a chairman of the committee. They chose Nathaniel Gorham, a judge from Massachusetts. Each morning at ten o'clock, the convention met and declared it was sitting as a Committee of the Whole. George Washington then left the president's chair. Nathaniel Gorham took his place. Just before four o'clock in the afternoon, the Committee of the Whole declared it was sitting again as a convention. Judge Gorham stepped down, and General Washington took the chair. He declared that the convention would meet again the next morning. This process was repeated every day. VOICE TWO: On May Twenty-Ninth, the delegates heard the Virginia Plan. This was the plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia. The thirty-three-year-old governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, presented the plan. First, he spoke about America's existing plan of government, the Articles of Confederation. Governor Randolph praised the Articles and the men who wrote them. He called those men 'wise' and 'great'. But, he said, the Articles were written for thirteen states in a time of war. Something more was needed now for the new nation. Something permanent. VOICE ONE: Governor Randolph spoke of conditions in all the states. He told the delegates what they already knew was true. Government was breaking down in many parts of the country. As he presented the Virginia Plan, Edmund Randolph noted that its fifteen parts were just ideas. The state of Virginia, he said, did not want to force them on the convention. Yet the ideas should be discussed. Change them as you wish, he told the convention. But talk about them fully. Other delegates presented their own plans for discussion. We will talk about some of them in later programs. But from the beginning, the Virginia Plan had the most influence. For more than three months, delegates would debate each part, vote on it, then debate it again. The Virginia Plan formed the basis of discussion at the convention in Philadelphia. In the end, it formed the basis of the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO: The announced purpose of the convention was to change the Articles of Confederation to make them more effective. The Virginia Plan was not a plan of proposed changes. It was much more extreme. It was, in fact, a plan for a completely new central government. Debate on the Virginia Plan began May Thirtieth. Immediately, Edmund Randolph proposed an amendment. The plan, he noted, spoke of a federal union of states. But such a federation would not work. Instead, he said, America's central government should be a national government. It should contain a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary. VOICE ONE: For a few moments, there was complete silence. Many of the delegates seemed frozen in their chairs. Did they hear correctly? Most of them did not question the idea of a government with three separate parts. Several states already had such a system. But to create a central government that was 'national' and 'supreme'. . .what did these words mean exactly? What was the difference? The delegates debated the meaning of these words -- federal, national, supreme -- for many days. Both James Madison and Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania tried to explain. Madison said a federal government acts on states. A national government acts directly on the people. Morris gave this explanation. A federal government is simply an agreement based on the good faith of those involved. A national government has a complete system of operation and its own powers. VOICE TWO: Pierce Butler of South Carolina wanted to know why a national government was necessary. Did the states need to be national? "But we are a nation!" John Dickinson of Delaware answered. "We are a nation although made of parts, or states." Gouverneur Morris continued. He spoke of the future when the delegates meeting in Philadelphia would be dead. Their children and grandchildren, he said, would stop thinking of themselves as citizens of Pennsylvania or New York or North Carolina. Instead, they would think of themselves as citizens of the United States. "This generation will die away," Morris said, "and be followed by a race of Americans." Morris declared that the states had to take second place to a national government with supreme power. "It is better to take a supreme government now," he said, "than a dictator twenty years from now. For come he must." In the end, the delegates approved the proposal for a national government. Next week, we will tell about the debate over a national executive, the part of the government that would enforce the laws. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Blake Lanum. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – July 3, 2003: Foreign Students in the United States
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Foreign students are valuable to the United States. Many take part in important research. Most have to pay the full costs for their education. That helps universities meet their budgets. International students and their families put twelve-thousand-million dollars into the American economy last year. That number is from the Institute of International Education, based in New York. Now, many education officials say they are concerned that fewer students will come to the United States for the next school year. Classes begin in August or September. The officials base their concern partly on a decrease in students planning to attend intensive English programs during the summer. Just over half the schools in the American Association of Intensive English Programs were questioned for an online study in May. The members said they expected nineteen percent fewer students than last summer. They said they expected more than thirty percent fewer students than in the summer of two-thousand-one. The members said one reason for the expected decrease is slower and more restrictive United States action on travel documents. Security has increased since the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The schools also blamed the travel problems caused by the outbreak of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome. In recent years, an increasing number of students have come to the United States to study. The Institute of International Education says these students represent more than four percent of all students in American colleges and universities. It says the number of international students reached a record high of more than five-hundred-eighty-thousand last year. The largest number came from India. Before last year the largest number came from China. For some years now, it has been possible for students in other countries to get an American education without leaving home. Several schools offer academic degrees online. These include Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado, and the University of Phoenix in Arizona. George Washington University in Washington, D-C, is currently establishing an online program for members of the royal family in Saudi Arabia. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 4, 2003: Fourth of July Celebration
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. Today is the Fourth of July, a holiday in the United States. On our program: We answer a question about how Americans celebrate this holiday ... And we tell about a related celebration in Europe ... But first, we explain why this is an important day for Americans. American Independence Day HOST: The Fourth of July is an important holiday in the United States. It is the day Americans celebrate the anniversary of their declaration of independence from Britain. Nicole Nichols has the story. ANNCR: In the summer of seventeen-seventy-six, the American colonists were deeply divided. Almost one in three was loyal to Britain. They could not imagine a war for independence. Yet most were increasingly angry about what they considered unfair treatment by the British government. Britain taxed them without giving them representation. It also canceled any of their laws that it did not like. By June, the colonies were in open revolt. Some fighting had already taken place between colonial forces and British troops. The idea of independence was spreading. Delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia for a meeting of the Continental Congress. These delegates were divided, too. Some still hoped the colonies could reach an agreement with Britain. Others believed the colonies could gain their rights only by becoming independent. The Continental Congress agreed that a declaration of independence should be prepared. Thomas Jefferson led a committee chosen to write it. As they worked, the Congress continued to debate the question of independence. On July second, seventeen-seventy-six, the Congress took an official vote on the question. All the colonies except New York voted yes. The New York delegates said they were waiting for orders from home before voting. But they promised that their colony would also vote for independence. John Adams wrote to his wife later that day. He said that July second would become the official birthday of the new country. But he was wrong. It was July fourth that became American’s official Independence Day. That was the day the Continental Congress voted to approve the document. The Declaration of Independence blamed the British government for all the wrongs done to the colonies. It declared that governments have the right to exist only to protect the rights of their people. And it said the people have the right to change their government if it denies them their rights. July Fourth in Denmark HOST: Now you know why July fourth is celebrated as Independence Day in the United States. But it might surprise you to learn that America’s Independence Day is also celebrated in Denmark. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: From the middle eighteen-eighties until nineteen-hundred, one out of every ten people in Denmark moved to the United States. They were poor farmers seeking a new economy and a better life. Most settled in America’s Middle-West. In nineteen-twelve, these immigrants created an organization. The Danish-American Society bought land back home in Denmark, near Aalborg. That city is about two-hundred-fifty kilometers northwest of Copenhagen. The society gave the land to Denmark on the condition that America’s Independence Day would be celebrated there every year. Denmark’s ruler agreed. King Christian established a national park on the land. He said the park would represent the friendship between the two nations. That is why America’s Independence Day has been celebrated ever since at Ribald National Park and in the city of Aalborg. The celebrations were cancelled, however, during the years Nazi Germany occupied Denmark during World War Two. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of visitors have joined with Danes in the celebration at Ribald Park. American and Danish flags fly side by side. People eat American and Danish food. They listen to speeches. Speakers have included presidents and other famous Americans. Celebrations in nearby Aalborg extend over several days. Events this year began on Wednesday and will continue until Sunday. The festivities include fireworks, parties, picnics and concerts. The United States Air Forces in Europe Band is taking part this year. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida is to speak, along with officials from the American Embassy in Copenhagen and the Danish ambassador to the United States. Celebrating July Fourth in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zhang Cai asks what Americans do on Independence Day. The traditional thing is to gather family and friends outside in the warm summer air, to play sports and eat hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken -- all cooked on charcoal fires. Towns and cities hold parades. People young and old take part. One modern patriotic song has found its way into many July Fourth celebrations. It is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The U.S.A.” (MUSIC) As the sun goes down, the fireworks begin. In many cities and towns, people gather in open areas, such as a sports field or park. They watch bursts of bright colored stars and other shapes across the night sky. Many people consider fireworks to be the best part of any Fourth of July celebration. They say the exploding shells recall the Revolutionary War for independence that gave birth to the United States. We leave you now with a patriotic marching song heard at many Fourth of July fireworks shows. John Philip Sousa wrote it many years ago. It is “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Fourth of July program. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. Today is the Fourth of July, a holiday in the United States. On our program: We answer a question about how Americans celebrate this holiday ... And we tell about a related celebration in Europe ... But first, we explain why this is an important day for Americans. American Independence Day HOST: The Fourth of July is an important holiday in the United States. It is the day Americans celebrate the anniversary of their declaration of independence from Britain. Nicole Nichols has the story. ANNCR: In the summer of seventeen-seventy-six, the American colonists were deeply divided. Almost one in three was loyal to Britain. They could not imagine a war for independence. Yet most were increasingly angry about what they considered unfair treatment by the British government. Britain taxed them without giving them representation. It also canceled any of their laws that it did not like. By June, the colonies were in open revolt. Some fighting had already taken place between colonial forces and British troops. The idea of independence was spreading. Delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered in Philadelphia for a meeting of the Continental Congress. These delegates were divided, too. Some still hoped the colonies could reach an agreement with Britain. Others believed the colonies could gain their rights only by becoming independent. The Continental Congress agreed that a declaration of independence should be prepared. Thomas Jefferson led a committee chosen to write it. As they worked, the Congress continued to debate the question of independence. On July second, seventeen-seventy-six, the Congress took an official vote on the question. All the colonies except New York voted yes. The New York delegates said they were waiting for orders from home before voting. But they promised that their colony would also vote for independence. John Adams wrote to his wife later that day. He said that July second would become the official birthday of the new country. But he was wrong. It was July fourth that became American’s official Independence Day. That was the day the Continental Congress voted to approve the document. The Declaration of Independence blamed the British government for all the wrongs done to the colonies. It declared that governments have the right to exist only to protect the rights of their people. And it said the people have the right to change their government if it denies them their rights. July Fourth in Denmark HOST: Now you know why July fourth is celebrated as Independence Day in the United States. But it might surprise you to learn that America’s Independence Day is also celebrated in Denmark. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: From the middle eighteen-eighties until nineteen-hundred, one out of every ten people in Denmark moved to the United States. They were poor farmers seeking a new economy and a better life. Most settled in America’s Middle-West. In nineteen-twelve, these immigrants created an organization. The Danish-American Society bought land back home in Denmark, near Aalborg. That city is about two-hundred-fifty kilometers northwest of Copenhagen. The society gave the land to Denmark on the condition that America’s Independence Day would be celebrated there every year. Denmark’s ruler agreed. King Christian established a national park on the land. He said the park would represent the friendship between the two nations. That is why America’s Independence Day has been celebrated ever since at Ribald National Park and in the city of Aalborg. The celebrations were cancelled, however, during the years Nazi Germany occupied Denmark during World War Two. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of visitors have joined with Danes in the celebration at Ribald Park. American and Danish flags fly side by side. People eat American and Danish food. They listen to speeches. Speakers have included presidents and other famous Americans. Celebrations in nearby Aalborg extend over several days. Events this year began on Wednesday and will continue until Sunday. The festivities include fireworks, parties, picnics and concerts. The United States Air Forces in Europe Band is taking part this year. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida is to speak, along with officials from the American Embassy in Copenhagen and the Danish ambassador to the United States. Celebrating July Fourth in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zhang Cai asks what Americans do on Independence Day. The traditional thing is to gather family and friends outside in the warm summer air, to play sports and eat hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken -- all cooked on charcoal fires. Towns and cities hold parades. People young and old take part. One modern patriotic song has found its way into many July Fourth celebrations. It is Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The U.S.A.” (MUSIC) As the sun goes down, the fireworks begin. In many cities and towns, people gather in open areas, such as a sports field or park. They watch bursts of bright colored stars and other shapes across the night sky. Many people consider fireworks to be the best part of any Fourth of July celebration. They say the exploding shells recall the Revolutionary War for independence that gave birth to the United States. We leave you now with a patriotic marching song heard at many Fourth of July fireworks shows. John Philip Sousa wrote it many years ago. It is “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Fourth of July program. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Weather and Plant Growth Study
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 4, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Oregon Ivy, an Invasive Plant Broadcast: July 4, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in the United States say plant life has increased on Earth in the past twenty years. And they say in every area of plant growth the increase is the result of weather conditions. Eight scientists from across the United States did the study. The space agency NASA and the Department of Energy paid for it. The magazine Science published the findings. The researchers spent a year-and-a-half examining weather and satellite information. The information was recorded from nineteen-eighty-two to nineteen-ninety-nine. This period was one of the warmest on record. Researchers found that rainfall generally increased during this time. The satellites measured the amount of leaves on plants and the amount of sunlight taken in. The scientists used that information to estimate what is called net primary production. This is the total amount of carbon stored in land plants. Poppy plants begin to sprout in Afghanistan Scientists in the United States say plant life has increased on Earth in the past twenty years. And they say in every area of plant growth the increase is the result of weather conditions. Eight scientists from across the United States did the study. The space agency NASA and the Department of Energy paid for it. The magazine Science published the findings. The researchers spent a year-and-a-half examining weather and satellite information. The information was recorded from nineteen-eighty-two to nineteen-ninety-nine. This period was one of the warmest on record. Researchers found that rainfall generally increased during this time. The satellites measured the amount of leaves on plants and the amount of sunlight taken in. The scientists used that information to estimate what is called net primary production. This is the total amount of carbon stored in land plants. The scientists report a six percent increase in stored carbon since nineteen-eighty-two. They say gains were high in equatorial areas, especially around the Amazon River in South America. The report says that area alone had a one percent increase in net primary production. Ramakrishna Nemani of the University of Montana in Missoula led the study. He says reduced cloud cover led to the growth in the Amazon area. He says the lack of clouds permitted more sunlight to get through. More sunlight meant increases in photosynthesis. That is the process by which plants use energy from sunlight to produce the chemicals they need to grow. Northern Canada, the north-central United States and northern Europe were second in increased plant growth. Ramakrishna Nemani says a rise in temperatures helped plants there. All together, the report says twenty-five percent of areas of plant life on Earth experienced increases. But, the scientists also note increases in the number of people on Earth and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Study scientist Ranga Myneni of Boston University in Massachusetts says humans use about half the net primary production on Earth. And, he notes that world population grew by thirty-six percent during the period of time studied.This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. The scientists report a six percent increase in stored carbon since nineteen-eighty-two. They say gains were high in equatorial areas, especially around the Amazon River in South America. The report says that area alone had a one percent increase in net primary production. Ramakrishna Nemani of the University of Montana in Missoula led the study. He says reduced cloud cover led to the growth in the Amazon area. He says the lack of clouds permitted more sunlight to get through. More sunlight meant increases in photosynthesis. That is the process by which plants use energy from sunlight to produce the chemicals they need to grow. Northern Canada, the north-central United States and northern Europe were second in increased plant growth. Ramakrishna Nemani says a rise in temperatures helped plants there. All together, the report says twenty-five percent of areas of plant life on Earth experienced increases. But, the scientists also note increases in the number of people on Earth and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Study scientist Ranga Myneni of Boston University in Massachusetts says humans use about half the net primary production on Earth. And, he notes that world population grew by thirty-six percent during the period of time studied.This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 3, 2003 - English in Early America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 3, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER -- English in early America. It's a timely topic, as Americans get ready to celebrate the Fourth of July. On that day in seventeen-seventy-six the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. Jill Lepore is a history professor at Harvard University and author of the book, "A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States." LEPORE: "One of the chief dangers that political theorists in the eighteenth century perceived about founding an American republic -- that is, unifying these states -- was that Americans didn't really have that much in common with one another. Many Americans did not speak English as their first language, for instance. There were a lot of native French speakers, a huge number of native German speakers, all of the Africans, all of the Native American peoples that lived in the colonies. None of those people spoke English as a first language. Some African Americans did speak English as a first language." AA: "The Africans you referred to would be the slaves who were brought here." LEPORE: "Right, right. So there were a number of projects after the Revolution that were attempting to homogenize pronunciation. And Noah Webster was the chief architect of the plan that was most successful, which was to basically give every American the same spelling book." AA: "Let's talk a little more about Noah Webster. Who was he? What was his job?" LEPORE: "Webster was a New England farmer's son. He was born in 1758. He went to Yale [University.] He'd kind of just missed out on fighting in the Revolutionary War and was a little bit bitter about that. It was a heroic act of his generation. He, when he graduated, tried to become a schoolmaster. He had some law school training, he did a bunch of things. "Working as a schoolmaster and traveling a little bit -- really, as an itinerant schoolmaster, because he wasn't very successful -- he became quite appalled at the great differences in speech, in pronunciation, that he observed among Americans. He hadn't traveled very much out of New England until that point in his life. And he decided that what he ought to do, the service that he could do to his nation would be to homogenize American pronunciation." AA: "Without the Internet, without telephones, without all the instant messaging, how did he go about doing something like that?" LEPORE: "Well, he traveled a lot, he gave lecture tours -- in which he was heckled, because one of the things that he perceived was that New England pronunciation was the right pronunciation. And so when he traveled in the South, for instance, he considered it uncouth. He considered the pronunciation of Southerners to be wrong. So he had a difficult charge. But what -- the reason that he was so successful was he had a great niche to enter into, because American schoolchildren needed to read. "I mean, it was sort of even more of an urgent necessity in a democracy than it was when Americans were subjects of the English monarchy. And the only schoolbooks they had were English schoolbooks, where all the little stories and reading exercises were about how wonderful the king was. So sort of like, you know, Iraqis burning all their Saddam textbooks. I mean, Americans just didn't want these schoolbooks anymore, so they threw them all out. And they had nothing to use to teach their schoolchildren to read. So Webster wrote in 1783 'The American Spelling Book' and had it printed all across the colonies. And it became the spelling book by which generations of Americans learned to read. "All of the American distinctive spellings, like that we spell honor without the U or mimic without the K, these are all Websterisms. Webster introduced these to simplify spelling, but he also wanted his books to look different from English books. He thought that one way Americans would feel themselves to be American was if they picked up a newspaper and they could tell immediately that it was an American newspaper, because mimic wouldn't have a K, that this would just be a badge of our national identity." AA: "Now we've been talking about English as it was spoken in the early United States. There were some people, though, who wanted German to be the official language, did they not?" LEPORE: "There was, you know, kind of -- people, some had seriously suggested German as the national language. But there was also a discussion of whether French should be the national language, because France had come to our aid during the Revolutionary War and that it was more appropriate to be loyal to the French language than to the English language. People wanted to rid themselves of the English language. You know, people would say, well maybe Hebrew should be the American language, because we are a 'chosen people.' None of these proposals were very serious. But they were all indications of just how much up for grabs, to some degree, the idea of a national language was and how uncomfortable people really were with the idea of English being the American language." AA: Harvard University history professor Jill Lepore is the author of "A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Yankee Doodle Boy"/James Cagney 1942 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 3, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER -- English in early America. It's a timely topic, as Americans get ready to celebrate the Fourth of July. On that day in seventeen-seventy-six the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. Jill Lepore is a history professor at Harvard University and author of the book, "A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States." LEPORE: "One of the chief dangers that political theorists in the eighteenth century perceived about founding an American republic -- that is, unifying these states -- was that Americans didn't really have that much in common with one another. Many Americans did not speak English as their first language, for instance. There were a lot of native French speakers, a huge number of native German speakers, all of the Africans, all of the Native American peoples that lived in the colonies. None of those people spoke English as a first language. Some African Americans did speak English as a first language." AA: "The Africans you referred to would be the slaves who were brought here." LEPORE: "Right, right. So there were a number of projects after the Revolution that were attempting to homogenize pronunciation. And Noah Webster was the chief architect of the plan that was most successful, which was to basically give every American the same spelling book." AA: "Let's talk a little more about Noah Webster. Who was he? What was his job?" LEPORE: "Webster was a New England farmer's son. He was born in 1758. He went to Yale [University.] He'd kind of just missed out on fighting in the Revolutionary War and was a little bit bitter about that. It was a heroic act of his generation. He, when he graduated, tried to become a schoolmaster. He had some law school training, he did a bunch of things. "Working as a schoolmaster and traveling a little bit -- really, as an itinerant schoolmaster, because he wasn't very successful -- he became quite appalled at the great differences in speech, in pronunciation, that he observed among Americans. He hadn't traveled very much out of New England until that point in his life. And he decided that what he ought to do, the service that he could do to his nation would be to homogenize American pronunciation." AA: "Without the Internet, without telephones, without all the instant messaging, how did he go about doing something like that?" LEPORE: "Well, he traveled a lot, he gave lecture tours -- in which he was heckled, because one of the things that he perceived was that New England pronunciation was the right pronunciation. And so when he traveled in the South, for instance, he considered it uncouth. He considered the pronunciation of Southerners to be wrong. So he had a difficult charge. But what -- the reason that he was so successful was he had a great niche to enter into, because American schoolchildren needed to read. "I mean, it was sort of even more of an urgent necessity in a democracy than it was when Americans were subjects of the English monarchy. And the only schoolbooks they had were English schoolbooks, where all the little stories and reading exercises were about how wonderful the king was. So sort of like, you know, Iraqis burning all their Saddam textbooks. I mean, Americans just didn't want these schoolbooks anymore, so they threw them all out. And they had nothing to use to teach their schoolchildren to read. So Webster wrote in 1783 'The American Spelling Book' and had it printed all across the colonies. And it became the spelling book by which generations of Americans learned to read. "All of the American distinctive spellings, like that we spell honor without the U or mimic without the K, these are all Websterisms. Webster introduced these to simplify spelling, but he also wanted his books to look different from English books. He thought that one way Americans would feel themselves to be American was if they picked up a newspaper and they could tell immediately that it was an American newspaper, because mimic wouldn't have a K, that this would just be a badge of our national identity." AA: "Now we've been talking about English as it was spoken in the early United States. There were some people, though, who wanted German to be the official language, did they not?" LEPORE: "There was, you know, kind of -- people, some had seriously suggested German as the national language. But there was also a discussion of whether French should be the national language, because France had come to our aid during the Revolutionary War and that it was more appropriate to be loyal to the French language than to the English language. People wanted to rid themselves of the English language. You know, people would say, well maybe Hebrew should be the American language, because we are a 'chosen people.' None of these proposals were very serious. But they were all indications of just how much up for grabs, to some degree, the idea of a national language was and how uncomfortable people really were with the idea of English being the American language." AA: Harvard University history professor Jill Lepore is the author of "A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Yankee Doodle Boy"/James Cagney 1942 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – July 6, 2003: Sam Houston, Part 1
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell the story of Sam Houston. He was a congressman, senator, governor, president of the Republic of Texas and a hero. (THEME) I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell the story of Sam Houston. He was a congressman, senator, governor, president of the Republic of Texas and a hero. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United States was seventeen years old when Sam Houston was born in Virginia in seventeen-ninety-three. His father was a soldier during the Revolutionary War. After the war, he served as an officer in the state military forces of Virginia. Sam’s mother took care of the family farm while her husband was busy with his duties. Sam’s father died when the boy was fourteen years old. Sam’s mother had to sell the farm to pay the money her husband owed. She and the children moved west to Tennessee. VOICE TWO: Life in Tennessee was not easy. Missus Houston and her children had to build a house and clear trees off the land. Sam did not like such hard work. His mother and brothers decided that the boy was not meant to be a farmer. They sent him to a store to work. Sam did not like this job any better than farming. One morning, he failed to go to work. Sam was gone for weeks. Then his mother heard that he was living with the Cherokee Indians. Sam’s brothers found him at an Indian village. Sam refused to leave. He told his brothers that he loved the way the Indians lived. The Cherokee chief, Oolooteka, accepted Sam as his son. Sam was nineteen years old when he left the Indians to return to his own people. VOICE ONE: The United States and Britain had begun fighting the War of Eighteen-Twelve and Sam Houston wanted to fight for his country. He left to join the forces of General Andrew Jackson. Houston fought in a battle against a group of Creek Indians who supported the British. He was wounded in the leg. Later in the fighting, General Jackson asked for someone to lead an attack against the Indians. Houston jumped up and led the attack. He was hit by several bullets, and almost died. It was a long time before Houston was well again. The war ended before he could return to action. After several years as a peacetime soldier, the young officer received special orders from Washington, D.C. Some Cherokee chiefs had signed a treaty with the United States. The treaty said that all Cherokees must move west, to an area across the Mississippi River. VOICE TWO: Oolooteka, with whom Houston had lived, was not one of the chiefs who signed the treaty. He could not understand why he should honor the agreement. Houston’s job was to get Oolooteka to accept the treaty. Houston did not want to do this. He believed it was wrong. However, he also knew it was a soldier’s duty to obey orders. The Cherokees were glad to see Sam return. But they were sad when they learned why he had come. After much talk, Oolooteka finally agreed to leave the land. Houston had done his duty, but he was not pleased. Because of this and other reasons, he left the army when he was twenty-five years old. VOICE ONE: Sam Houston decided to become a lawyer. He went to Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, to study law. Houston completed eighteen months of study in just six months. He surprised everyone by passing the test required to become a lawyer. He opened a law office in a town near Nashville. Former General Andrew Jackson lived near the city, and Houston visited him often. They became close friends. Jackson was the political leader of Tennessee. He urged his young friend to enter politics. Houston accepted this invitation. Jackson’s support meant much to a political candidate in Tennessee. Houston was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He served in Congress for four years. Then, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States and Houston was elected governor of Tennessee. Houston had worked hard for Jackson. Many people believed that Houston would follow Jackson as president. VOICE TWO: But Houston had something else on his mind -- a young woman. She was Eliza Allen, the daughter of a friend. They decided to marry. For several months, they seemed happy. Then, something happened. Eliza left Sam and returned home. Houston never explained the reason for the break between them. He said only that it was painful and private. Houston resigned as governor and left Tennessee. VOICE ONE: Sam Houston traveled to Arkansas, where the Cherokee Indians were living. Chief Oolooteka welcomed him warmly. Houston attempted to forget his sadness by working hard. But work did not make him forget. Houston drank too much alcohol, and was drunk for months. Then he got a letter telling him his mother was sick. Houston went home. Before she died, Missus Houston told her son that she was sure of his strength and that he would succeed in life. VOICE TWO: Houston had received a letter from a group of New York City bankers. They wanted him to go to the western area called Texas. Houston liked this idea. Many Americans had been moving to Texas for the past few years. The area was then part of Mexico. However, the Mexican government had opened the area to Americans who wished to live there.Houston talked to the bankers, but got no immediate decision from them. He went to Washington to see President Jackson. The President offered him a job. He asked his friend to go to Texas to negotiate peace with the Comanche Indians. VOICE ONE: Houston moved to Texas in eighteen-thirty-two. He met with the Indians. The talks were successful, and the Indians agreed to have peace. People told him that a spirit of rebellion was spreading across Texas. The Mexican government had made a number of laws that the Texans did not believe were fair. Houston went to San Felipe de Austin, the capital of a colony of Americans. Stephen Austin had started the colony with Mexico’s permission and worked hard to make it a success. Austin feared that Houston had come to lead a struggle against Mexico. Austin did not believe that a war was necessary. He thought new leaders would come to power in Mexico. He believed they would make changes in the laws. Austin was partly right. The Mexican dictator, Anastasio Bustamante, was ousted. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power. VOICE TWO: The Texans called a meeting to write a letter to Santa Anna. They asked him to change the cruel laws ordered by Bustamante. Austin agreed to carry the letter to the new Mexican leader. Months after Austin left, the Texans learned that he had been arrested in Mexico City and put in prison. They now felt that Santa Anna was no better than Bustamante. Finally, the Mexican leader freed Austin and let him return to Texas. Austin now believed that peaceful methods would not help the Texans. VOICE ONE: The Texans held another meeting. There was a deep split among the delegates. Many believed the only answer was complete independence from Mexico. Others believed Texas should fight for a democratic Mexican government. After much debate, the delegates decided to try to keep Texas a Mexican state. They quickly wrote a new state constitution and agreed to meet again. A temporary governor was elected. Sam Houston was chosen commander-in-chief of the Texas Army. There was little time to get an army ready. Santa Anna’s forces already were in Texas, in San Antonio. A group of Texas volunteer soldiers wanted to go to San Antonio to fight the Mexicans. Houston opposed this idea. He believed the soldiers needed more training. However, the volunteer soldiers left for San Antonio. There was a violent five-day battle. The small Texas force won a surprise victory. VOICE TWO: Most Texans believed the war had been won. But Houston knew Santa Anna would not give up Texas so easily. Houston continued to build an army. Several Texas officers formed a small army and planned to attack Mexico without Houston’s permission. He believed the planned attack on Mexico was wrong, so he resigned. But before he did, he ordered Texans in San Antonio to destroy the old Spanish fort called the Alamo. Houston did not think the Alamo could be defended against a strong Mexican attack. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The United States was seventeen years old when Sam Houston was born in Virginia in seventeen-ninety-three. His father was a soldier during the Revolutionary War. After the war, he served as an officer in the state military forces of Virginia. Sam’s mother took care of the family farm while her husband was busy with his duties. Sam’s father died when the boy was fourteen years old. Sam’s mother had to sell the farm to pay the money her husband owed. She and the children moved west to Tennessee. VOICE TWO: Life in Tennessee was not easy. Missus Houston and her children had to build a house and clear trees off the land. Sam did not like such hard work. His mother and brothers decided that the boy was not meant to be a farmer. They sent him to a store to work. Sam did not like this job any better than farming. One morning, he failed to go to work. Sam was gone for weeks. Then his mother heard that he was living with the Cherokee Indians. Sam’s brothers found him at an Indian village. Sam refused to leave. He told his brothers that he loved the way the Indians lived. The Cherokee chief, Oolooteka, accepted Sam as his son. Sam was nineteen years old when he left the Indians to return to his own people. VOICE ONE: The United States and Britain had begun fighting the War of Eighteen-Twelve and Sam Houston wanted to fight for his country. He left to join the forces of General Andrew Jackson. Houston fought in a battle against a group of Creek Indians who supported the British. He was wounded in the leg. Later in the fighting, General Jackson asked for someone to lead an attack against the Indians. Houston jumped up and led the attack. He was hit by several bullets, and almost died. It was a long time before Houston was well again. The war ended before he could return to action. After several years as a peacetime soldier, the young officer received special orders from Washington, D.C. Some Cherokee chiefs had signed a treaty with the United States. The treaty said that all Cherokees must move west, to an area across the Mississippi River. VOICE TWO: Oolooteka, with whom Houston had lived, was not one of the chiefs who signed the treaty. He could not understand why he should honor the agreement. Houston’s job was to get Oolooteka to accept the treaty. Houston did not want to do this. He believed it was wrong. However, he also knew it was a soldier’s duty to obey orders. The Cherokees were glad to see Sam return. But they were sad when they learned why he had come. After much talk, Oolooteka finally agreed to leave the land. Houston had done his duty, but he was not pleased. Because of this and other reasons, he left the army when he was twenty-five years old. VOICE ONE: Sam Houston decided to become a lawyer. He went to Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, to study law. Houston completed eighteen months of study in just six months. He surprised everyone by passing the test required to become a lawyer. He opened a law office in a town near Nashville. Former General Andrew Jackson lived near the city, and Houston visited him often. They became close friends. Jackson was the political leader of Tennessee. He urged his young friend to enter politics. Houston accepted this invitation. Jackson’s support meant much to a political candidate in Tennessee. Houston was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He served in Congress for four years. Then, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States and Houston was elected governor of Tennessee. Houston had worked hard for Jackson. Many people believed that Houston would follow Jackson as president. VOICE TWO: But Houston had something else on his mind -- a young woman. She was Eliza Allen, the daughter of a friend. They decided to marry. For several months, they seemed happy. Then, something happened. Eliza left Sam and returned home. Houston never explained the reason for the break between them. He said only that it was painful and private. Houston resigned as governor and left Tennessee. VOICE ONE: Sam Houston traveled to Arkansas, where the Cherokee Indians were living. Chief Oolooteka welcomed him warmly. Houston attempted to forget his sadness by working hard. But work did not make him forget. Houston drank too much alcohol, and was drunk for months. Then he got a letter telling him his mother was sick. Houston went home. Before she died, Missus Houston told her son that she was sure of his strength and that he would succeed in life. VOICE TWO: Houston had received a letter from a group of New York City bankers. They wanted him to go to the western area called Texas. Houston liked this idea. Many Americans had been moving to Texas for the past few years. The area was then part of Mexico. However, the Mexican government had opened the area to Americans who wished to live there.Houston talked to the bankers, but got no immediate decision from them. He went to Washington to see President Jackson. The President offered him a job. He asked his friend to go to Texas to negotiate peace with the Comanche Indians. VOICE ONE: Houston moved to Texas in eighteen-thirty-two. He met with the Indians. The talks were successful, and the Indians agreed to have peace. People told him that a spirit of rebellion was spreading across Texas. The Mexican government had made a number of laws that the Texans did not believe were fair. Houston went to San Felipe de Austin, the capital of a colony of Americans. Stephen Austin had started the colony with Mexico’s permission and worked hard to make it a success. Austin feared that Houston had come to lead a struggle against Mexico. Austin did not believe that a war was necessary. He thought new leaders would come to power in Mexico. He believed they would make changes in the laws. Austin was partly right. The Mexican dictator, Anastasio Bustamante, was ousted. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna seized power. VOICE TWO: The Texans called a meeting to write a letter to Santa Anna. They asked him to change the cruel laws ordered by Bustamante. Austin agreed to carry the letter to the new Mexican leader. Months after Austin left, the Texans learned that he had been arrested in Mexico City and put in prison. They now felt that Santa Anna was no better than Bustamante. Finally, the Mexican leader freed Austin and let him return to Texas. Austin now believed that peaceful methods would not help the Texans. VOICE ONE: The Texans held another meeting. There was a deep split among the delegates. Many believed the only answer was complete independence from Mexico. Others believed Texas should fight for a democratic Mexican government. After much debate, the delegates decided to try to keep Texas a Mexican state. They quickly wrote a new state constitution and agreed to meet again. A temporary governor was elected. Sam Houston was chosen commander-in-chief of the Texas Army. There was little time to get an army ready. Santa Anna’s forces already were in Texas, in San Antonio. A group of Texas volunteer soldiers wanted to go to San Antonio to fight the Mexicans. Houston opposed this idea. He believed the soldiers needed more training. However, the volunteer soldiers left for San Antonio. There was a violent five-day battle. The small Texas force won a surprise victory. VOICE TWO: Most Texans believed the war had been won. But Houston knew Santa Anna would not give up Texas so easily. Houston continued to build an army. Several Texas officers formed a small army and planned to attack Mexico without Houston’s permission. He believed the planned attack on Mexico was wrong, so he resigned. But before he did, he ordered Texans in San Antonio to destroy the old Spanish fort called the Alamo. Houston did not think the Alamo could be defended against a strong Mexican attack. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 5, 2003: Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program, In the News. Palestinian militants are demanding that Israel free thousands of Palestinians or risk ending a cease-fire that started Sunday. A spokesman for the Palestinian group Hamas reportedly said failure to free all the prisoners would be, what he called, a serious violation of the truce. Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas made the prisoners a top issue at a meeting this week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Thursday, Israel freed thirty-three Palestinian prisoners. They included Suleiman Abu Mutlak, a top security officer. The Israeli Cabinet is expected to discuss more releases Sunday. The two leaders held private talks earlier this week in Jerusalem. It was the third meeting between the two men in recent weeks. They said the time has come for peace. They promised to continue efforts to end violence. The two sides renewed their support for an American-led peace plan for the Middle East known as the road map. President Bush launched the peace plan during a meeting with Mister Abbas and Mister Sharon in Jordan last month. As part of the plan, the West Bank and Gaza would return to Palestinian control. The agreement could lead to a Palestinian state by two-thousand-five. On Wednesday, Israeli forces turned over control of the West Bank city of Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority. That was called for under the road map. The peace plan requires Israeli troops to withdraw to positions held before the current Palestinian uprising began in September two-thousand. Top commanders met Tuesday and worked out the details of the security handover. The military said Israel would be in charge of security of Israelis, including settlers in nearby villages. The Palestinian security forces would be responsible for preventing terrorist attacks in areas under their responsibility. Last Sunday, Israeli and Palestinian officials carried out a similar change of security control in northern Gaza. The move permitted free movement of Palestinians in the area for the first time in three years. It followed promises by three Palestinian groups to suspend their attacks against Israelis. In talks Tuesday, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders also discussed creating committees to deal with security and finances. The committees were suspended during the current violence. They discussed permitting free movement of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. And officials say they discussed the issue of Palestinian prisoners. But differences remained between the two sides about how aggressively Mister Abbas should move against militant organizations. Israel says the Palestinian Authority must disarm terror groups. But Mister Abbas fears a civil war. He said he would rather negotiate an end to the violence. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 7, 2003: Doctors Without Borders
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. When a crisis develops in the world, Doctors Without Borders is usually there to help. This organization provides emergency care to victims of armed conflict, natural and manmade disasters, and fast-spreading diseases. The group also assists people who have no other way to receive health care. It trains local health workers, provides mental health care, and organizes nutrition and other programs. Doctors Without Borders is also known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres. A group of French doctors started the organization in nineteen-seventy-one. They said they felt strongly that race, religion and political beliefs should not prevent someone from receiving health care. They also said the medical needs of individuals were more important than national borders. Doctors Without Borders is also working to get medicines to poor people. It is involved in a new drug research organization announced last Thursday in Geneva. The effort is called the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. Research centers in Brazil, France, India, Kenya and Malaysia are also involved. The organizers say drug companies have forgotten about the diseases that affect millions of people in developing countries. Scientists will seek new drugs to treat diseases like sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis. Both are spread by insects. The initiative is to spend about two-hundred-fifty-million dollars over the next ten years to develop new treatments for these and other diseases. Medical professionals, administrators and engineers who give their services for free make it possible for Doctors Without Borders to operate. It has offices in eighteen countries, but has provided aid in more than eighty nations. This is with the help of local workers and more than two-thousand volunteers. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Doctors Without Borders won the Nobel Peace Prize. The group was recognized for its work in the conflicts in Kosovo and East Timor. But the kind of work that this humanitarian aid group and others do is not without cost. Last year, the head of operations for Doctors Without Borders in the Russian republic of Dagestan was kidnapped. Russian and local officials have been working to solve the case. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. When a crisis develops in the world, Doctors Without Borders is usually there to help. This organization provides emergency care to victims of armed conflict, natural and manmade disasters, and fast-spreading diseases. The group also assists people who have no other way to receive health care. It trains local health workers, provides mental health care, and organizes nutrition and other programs. Doctors Without Borders is also known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres. A group of French doctors started the organization in nineteen-seventy-one. They said they felt strongly that race, religion and political beliefs should not prevent someone from receiving health care. They also said the medical needs of individuals were more important than national borders. Doctors Without Borders is also working to get medicines to poor people. It is involved in a new drug research organization announced last Thursday in Geneva. The effort is called the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative. Research centers in Brazil, France, India, Kenya and Malaysia are also involved. The organizers say drug companies have forgotten about the diseases that affect millions of people in developing countries. Scientists will seek new drugs to treat diseases like sleeping sickness and leishmaniasis. Both are spread by insects. The initiative is to spend about two-hundred-fifty-million dollars over the next ten years to develop new treatments for these and other diseases. Medical professionals, administrators and engineers who give their services for free make it possible for Doctors Without Borders to operate. It has offices in eighteen countries, but has provided aid in more than eighty nations. This is with the help of local workers and more than two-thousand volunteers. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Doctors Without Borders won the Nobel Peace Prize. The group was recognized for its work in the conflicts in Kosovo and East Timor. But the kind of work that this humanitarian aid group and others do is not without cost. Last year, the head of operations for Doctors Without Borders in the Russian republic of Dagestan was kidnapped. Russian and local officials have been working to solve the case. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Travels in New England
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 7, 2003 (THEME) Enfield Shaker Museum, Enfield, New Hampshire. Broadcast: July 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: New England is an area of small states in the northeastern United States. A religious group called the Puritans established British colonies there in the sixteen-hundreds. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. Today we tell about New England on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: New England is an area of small states in the northeastern United States. A religious group called the Puritans established British colonies there in the sixteen-hundreds. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmerman. Today we tell about New England on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) Six of the fifty states form New England. They are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. New England is a place many people like to visit especially in the fall. That is when the leaves on the trees turn red, yellow and orange. The changing leaves are one of America’s most colorful natural shows. Many people also love New England for its mountains and rocky Atlantic Ocean coastlines. Four of the six New England states were among the first thirteen colonies of America. VOICE ONE: The Puritans were Protestant Christians who suffered persecution in Britain. They opposed the Church of England. In sixteen-twenty, they and other colonists settled Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts. It was the second permanent British colony in North America. The first was in Virginia. The Puritans were known as Pilgrims. American Indians helped the Pilgrims survive in their new land. Not only did the settlers survive, other colonies developed from Plymouth. Some of America’s earliest heroes came from New England. Men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock led the movement for independence from Britain. Their efforts helped lead to the formation of the United States in seventeen-seventy-six. VOICE TWO: Massachusetts has played an important part in the nation’s history. Six-million people live there today. The state has many marks from America’s Revolutionary period. The revolution against Britain began at the battle of Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts. The state has also given the country four presidents. John Adams was the second president. His son, John Quincy Adams, served as the sixth. John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president, was also born in Massachusetts. So was the forty-first, George Bush. His son, the forty-third president, was born in Connecticut. Massachusetts has beautiful countryside, mountains and ocean coast. The Boston area is the largest industrial area in New England. Boston is the state capital. The city is a historic cultural and trade center. VOICE ONE: People can get a good idea of the history by a visit to the Boston Freedom Trail. There are sixteen historic sites along the almost five kilometers of the trail. These include the site of the first public school in the United States. Students first attended the Boston Latin School in sixteen-thirty-five. Also along the trail is the Old North Church. In seventeen-seventy-five, lights placed in the church warned that British forces would soon attack. Boston is a major music center. During July, thousands of people sit in the open air to hear the Boston Pops orchestra play free concerts on a grassy area called the Esplanade. VOICE TWO: Boston is one of the historic ports of Massachusetts. Another, New Bedford, was a center of whale-hunting. The shores of Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are also popular. Lighthouses that guided ships at sea long ago still stand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rhode Island is America’s smallest state, by land size. One-million people live there. Many companies produce textiles and jewelry. The state is on Narragansett Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. Every summer, thousands of visitors fish, boat and water ski in the bay. Roger Williams established the major city of Providence in sixteen-thirty-six. He helped develop religious freedom in the United States. Rhode Island became the first colony to declare independence from Britain. In seventeen-seventy-four, Rhode Island banned the importation of slaves. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Rhode Island often follow the Cliff Walk in Newport. This walk of almost five kilometers provides a chance to see the Atlantic Ocean coast. Restless waves strike the sharp rocks on the shore. Newport is also famous for its music. Next month, artists including Dave Brubeck and Cassandra Wilson will perform at the JVC Jazz Festival. On now to New Hampshire: With mountains, lakes and coastline, the state offers many summer and winter activities. The White Mountains in northern New Hampshire, for example, provide fine skiing. In the fall, thousands of people come to New Hampshire to see the colorful leaves of its many kinds of trees. VOICE ONE: The largest city is Manchester, and the capital is Concord. In eighteen-forty-nine, New Hampshire enacted a law that permitted cities, towns and school systems to support libraries. It was the first law of its kind in the United States. Politics are also important in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Primary is especially important. Every four years, candidates seeking the nomination of their party for president campaign in this nominating election. A number of winners of the New Hampshire primary have become president. When it comes to nature, many people say a trip to Vermont is like a trip into the past. Trees cover most of the land. The state also has more than four-hundred lakes and smaller bodies of water. In summer, travelers can drive for kilometers on quiet country roads and see only farm animals, covered bridges and white churches. A popular summer event is the Vermont Mozart Festival on Knoll Farm at the town of Fayston. The farm is set among sugar maple trees. Vermont grows a lot of these trees which produce a sweet syrup. Most visitors take home at least a few containers of maple syrup from Vermont. VOICE TW0: Among other industries, workers in Vermont manufacture products including computer parts and machinery. And they mine granite. The center of state government is in Montpelier. Vermont’s many towns hold town meetings where citizens take part in local government. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Maine has more than one-million people and the largest land area of the New England states. Part of the state extends so far north, it is surrounded by two Canadian provinces. Like Vermont, Maine has big areas of wilderness. Forests grow on about ninety percent of its land. The forests provide trees for the wood products industry in Maine. City life is found in the capital, Augusta, and in Portland. Fishing villages line the Atlantic coast of Maine. Travelers can find many hotels and other places to stay near harbors and ocean inlets. Visitors enjoy seeing the Portland Head Light. This lighthouse is thirty-one meters tall. It was built in seventeen-ninety-one. As you might expect, Maine is known for its seafood. Rockland holds the Maine Lobster Festival each year. This festival to celebrate -- and eat -- the shellfish will take place July thirtieth through August third. VOICE TWO: More than three-million people live in Connecticut. It is a major center for travel, business and industry.In its early days, citizens of Connecticut colony lived under the rule of a legal document called the Fundamental Orders. Later, writers of the United States Constitution used the Orders as an example. Later still in Connecticut, the inventor Eli Whitney developed processes that took a step toward modern production methods. Insurance companies in Connecticut wrote the first policies to help protect against the expense of car and airplane accidents. Over the years, because of the many insurance companies, Hartford became known as the Insurance City. VOICE ONE: In that city, one can see the home of the writer Mark Twain. He wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Twain lived in Hartford during the late eighteen-hundreds. Travelers to Connecticut can also see the Mystic Seaport, in the city of Mystic. The Seaport looks like a whaling village of the eighteen-hundreds. A wooden ship with sails called the Charles W. Morgan seems to guard the port. It looks as if it could go to sea at any moment, guided by the spirits of whalers of centuries ago. VOICE TWO: The New England states are both historic and modern. They offer quiet countryside and ocean sights. They also offer energetic sports, lively music and many other activities. There is always something to see or do in New England. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THIS IS AMERICA was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another report on life in the United States in Special English, on the Voice of America. (THEME) Six of the fifty states form New England. They are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. New England is a place many people like to visit especially in the fall. That is when the leaves on the trees turn red, yellow and orange. The changing leaves are one of America’s most colorful natural shows. Many people also love New England for its mountains and rocky Atlantic Ocean coastlines. Four of the six New England states were among the first thirteen colonies of America. VOICE ONE: The Puritans were Protestant Christians who suffered persecution in Britain. They opposed the Church of England. In sixteen-twenty, they and other colonists settled Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts. It was the second permanent British colony in North America. The first was in Virginia. The Puritans were known as Pilgrims. American Indians helped the Pilgrims survive in their new land. Not only did the settlers survive, other colonies developed from Plymouth. Some of America’s earliest heroes came from New England. Men like Samuel Adams and John Hancock led the movement for independence from Britain. Their efforts helped lead to the formation of the United States in seventeen-seventy-six. VOICE TWO: Massachusetts has played an important part in the nation’s history. Six-million people live there today. The state has many marks from America’s Revolutionary period. The revolution against Britain began at the battle of Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts. The state has also given the country four presidents. John Adams was the second president. His son, John Quincy Adams, served as the sixth. John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president, was also born in Massachusetts. So was the forty-first, George Bush. His son, the forty-third president, was born in Connecticut. Massachusetts has beautiful countryside, mountains and ocean coast. The Boston area is the largest industrial area in New England. Boston is the state capital. The city is a historic cultural and trade center. VOICE ONE: People can get a good idea of the history by a visit to the Boston Freedom Trail. There are sixteen historic sites along the almost five kilometers of the trail. These include the site of the first public school in the United States. Students first attended the Boston Latin School in sixteen-thirty-five. Also along the trail is the Old North Church. In seventeen-seventy-five, lights placed in the church warned that British forces would soon attack. Boston is a major music center. During July, thousands of people sit in the open air to hear the Boston Pops orchestra play free concerts on a grassy area called the Esplanade. VOICE TWO: Boston is one of the historic ports of Massachusetts. Another, New Bedford, was a center of whale-hunting. The shores of Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard are also popular. Lighthouses that guided ships at sea long ago still stand. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Rhode Island is America’s smallest state, by land size. One-million people live there. Many companies produce textiles and jewelry. The state is on Narragansett Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. Every summer, thousands of visitors fish, boat and water ski in the bay. Roger Williams established the major city of Providence in sixteen-thirty-six. He helped develop religious freedom in the United States. Rhode Island became the first colony to declare independence from Britain. In seventeen-seventy-four, Rhode Island banned the importation of slaves. VOICE TWO: Visitors to Rhode Island often follow the Cliff Walk in Newport. This walk of almost five kilometers provides a chance to see the Atlantic Ocean coast. Restless waves strike the sharp rocks on the shore. Newport is also famous for its music. Next month, artists including Dave Brubeck and Cassandra Wilson will perform at the JVC Jazz Festival. On now to New Hampshire: With mountains, lakes and coastline, the state offers many summer and winter activities. The White Mountains in northern New Hampshire, for example, provide fine skiing. In the fall, thousands of people come to New Hampshire to see the colorful leaves of its many kinds of trees. VOICE ONE: The largest city is Manchester, and the capital is Concord. In eighteen-forty-nine, New Hampshire enacted a law that permitted cities, towns and school systems to support libraries. It was the first law of its kind in the United States. Politics are also important in New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Primary is especially important. Every four years, candidates seeking the nomination of their party for president campaign in this nominating election. A number of winners of the New Hampshire primary have become president. When it comes to nature, many people say a trip to Vermont is like a trip into the past. Trees cover most of the land. The state also has more than four-hundred lakes and smaller bodies of water. In summer, travelers can drive for kilometers on quiet country roads and see only farm animals, covered bridges and white churches. A popular summer event is the Vermont Mozart Festival on Knoll Farm at the town of Fayston. The farm is set among sugar maple trees. Vermont grows a lot of these trees which produce a sweet syrup. Most visitors take home at least a few containers of maple syrup from Vermont. VOICE TW0: Among other industries, workers in Vermont manufacture products including computer parts and machinery. And they mine granite. The center of state government is in Montpelier. Vermont’s many towns hold town meetings where citizens take part in local government. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Maine has more than one-million people and the largest land area of the New England states. Part of the state extends so far north, it is surrounded by two Canadian provinces. Like Vermont, Maine has big areas of wilderness. Forests grow on about ninety percent of its land. The forests provide trees for the wood products industry in Maine. City life is found in the capital, Augusta, and in Portland. Fishing villages line the Atlantic coast of Maine. Travelers can find many hotels and other places to stay near harbors and ocean inlets. Visitors enjoy seeing the Portland Head Light. This lighthouse is thirty-one meters tall. It was built in seventeen-ninety-one. As you might expect, Maine is known for its seafood. Rockland holds the Maine Lobster Festival each year. This festival to celebrate -- and eat -- the shellfish will take place July thirtieth through August third. VOICE TWO: More than three-million people live in Connecticut. It is a major center for travel, business and industry.In its early days, citizens of Connecticut colony lived under the rule of a legal document called the Fundamental Orders. Later, writers of the United States Constitution used the Orders as an example. Later still in Connecticut, the inventor Eli Whitney developed processes that took a step toward modern production methods. Insurance companies in Connecticut wrote the first policies to help protect against the expense of car and airplane accidents. Over the years, because of the many insurance companies, Hartford became known as the Insurance City. VOICE ONE: In that city, one can see the home of the writer Mark Twain. He wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Twain lived in Hartford during the late eighteen-hundreds. Travelers to Connecticut can also see the Mystic Seaport, in the city of Mystic. The Seaport looks like a whaling village of the eighteen-hundreds. A wooden ship with sails called the Charles W. Morgan seems to guard the port. It looks as if it could go to sea at any moment, guided by the spirits of whalers of centuries ago. VOICE TWO: The New England states are both historic and modern. They offer quiet countryside and ocean sights. They also offer energetic sports, lively music and many other activities. There is always something to see or do in New England. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THIS IS AMERICA was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for another report on life in the United States in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - WWOOF: World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 8, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Recently, a listener in Nigeria told us about an organization called World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms or WWOOF [pronounced woof]. This organization helps people learn about organic farms around the world by working on them as a kind of holiday. Sue Coppard started WWOOF in nineteen-seventy-one in England. She started by helping four people work for a weekend on an organic farm in the area called Sussex. Organic farms do not use chemical fertilizers or poisons to kill insects that might harm crops. Such farms require a lot of extra work. WWOOF links people who want to learn organic farming methods with farmers who need work done. The farmers provide their visitors with a place to sleep and food to eat. The visitors agree to work on the farm without being paid. Taking part in the program is commonly called WWOOFing. At first, the organization was called Working Weekends on Organic Farms. Later, it was called Willing Workers on Organic Farms. In two-thousand-two, World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms held its first international conference. WWOOF representatives tried to organize different national groups and establish rules for WWOOFers. There are about twenty national WWOOF organizations. They are in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Farms accepting visitors may also be in other countries. These are included on a list of WWOOF independents. Farms can be listed on the Internet. They pay about thirty to fifty dollars to be listed. World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms includes many different kinds of farms. WWOOF says on its Web site that the farms generally do not use chemicals or poisons. They may be large or small farms. They also may be linked to communities. Independent WWOOF farms may not be completely organic. WWOOFers should expect to work about six hours a day, six days a week. They might be asked to care for animals, plant crops, or do any other kind of farm work. WWOOF does not help with travel papers or work permits. It is important to discuss all details with host farms because workers are not paid and must know what to expect. You can learn more about World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms at its Web site, www.wwoof.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Depression
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 8, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Doug Johnson, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- we look at some recent news about depression. The findings appeared last month in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A new study finds that more than half of Americans with major depression seek treatment. Ten years ago, only one-in-three sought help. Yet many people who go for treatment do not receive enough care or the right care. In fact, the study says only twenty-one percent of all Americans with major depression get the kind of care that the government says they should. The researchers questioned more than nine-thousand people age eighteen and older. The year-long study began in February of two-thousand-one. Kathleen Merikangas is with the National Institute of Mental Health. She was one of the lead researchers of the study of depression in the United States. Mizz Merikangas says major depression is now the number one cause of disability in the general population across the world. She notes that heart disease was the leading cause of disability as recently as nineteen-ninety-six. Mizz Merikangas says about sixteen percent of Americans suffer major depression at some point in their lives. That is more than thirty-million people. She says around thirteen-million experienced depression last year. Those numbers are about the same as they were ten years ago. VOICE TWO: The study found that women have a fifty-six percent greater chance then men to become depressed at some time in their life. But this difference between men and women has gotten smaller over the years. Also, the study found that poor people and less-educated people have among the highest rates of depression. The researchers say depression is more common in people ages eighteen to forty-four than in people over the age of sixty. Mizz Merikangas says that is possibly because older people have learned to accept their situation and better deal with the realities of life. Most people who reported having depression in a given year said the sickness had a major affect on their lives. Mizz Merikangas says it can affect jobs, marriage, and parenting. Those with severe depression in the past year reported being unable to work or carry out other normal activities for an average of thirty-five days. VOICE ONE: Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School led the study. He says many doctors may not know about new treatments for depression. Professor Kessler says research has shown that the best treatment is a combination of medication and help from doctors in dealing with psychological problems. He says treatment should be based on the individual. That is because no treatment works for everyone. In the study, patients were considered to have been treated correctly if they met either of two requirements. If they received medicine, they received it for at least a month and met four times with a doctor. If they did not receive medicine, they met at least eight times for thirty minutes with a mental health expert. VOICE TWO: Another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported about the cost of depression in the workplace. The researchers estimate that lost productive time from depression adds at least thirty-one-thousand-million dollars a year in costs for employers. The researchers questioned more than one-thousand American workers by telephone over a two-month period last year. The study says workers without depression reported an average of one-and-a-half hours of lost productive time a week. But workers with depression reported more than five-and-a-half hours a week in lost productivity. The researchers say most of that time is lost through reduced performance while the employees are at work. Researchers from the AdvancePCS Center for Work and Health in Maryland led the study. Eli Lilly, the company that makes the antidepressant drug Prozac, provided money for the research. VOICE ONE: Many depressed people continue to go to work. But the researchers say these people do not perform at their normal level. Many are unable to think clearly or get along well with others in the workplace. Yet many people still avoid treatment because they do not want others to know they are depressed. Some people who do seek treatment stop their medicine before they are supposed to. Still others do not get enough medicine. And there are generally more doctors and other resources to help people who live in cities than those in less populated areas. VOICE TWO: Depression is often difficult to recognize. So it can often go untreated. Experts say many employers do not take the disorder as seriously as they would other sicknesses. The experts say interventions such as employee assistance programs and groups that help people deal with depression are ways to help. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Depression affects not just the mind but also the body. The symptoms include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, not wanting food and trouble sleeping. Depression has been linked to other disorders, including heart disease. Researchers now say the risk of death is three times greater in people who have heart attacks and later develop depression. That is compared to those who have heart attacks and do not develop depression. It is the same level of risk as from smoking. Depression can also run in families. Health experts say depression is the main reason people kill themselves. It is hard to tell if someone is depressed. Doctors do not always ask patients with possible symptoms. Researchers say doctors who do not have special training in mental health may not recognize the signs or do enough to treat them. Also, some health plans may limit the ability of patients to receive the expert care they need. VOICE TWO: Another report in the Journal of the American Medical Association deals with depression among doctors. It says that doctors often fail to recognize depression in themselves and seek treatment. Studies have found that doctors have a greater risk of suicide than the general population. Yet fewer doctors die from cancer and heart disease than the general population. Experts say that is because cigarette use dropped among doctors when they recognized the dangers of smoking. Researchers say all these findings show that depression must be taken more seriously. Doctor Thomas Insel [IN-suhl] is director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He notes that about thirty-thousand people a year in the United States kill themselves. That is almost twice the number as those killed by others. Doctor Insel says there is no scientific reason to treat mental disorders any differently than physical disorders. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: There are drugs that doctors use to treat depression. But in developing countries, not many people are able to get these antidepressants. Paul Bolton is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Mister Bolton says the drugs are too costly, have a lot of side effects and must be taken for a long time -- months to years. He says that in developing countries, the best medicine may be just to have people talk about their problems. VOICE TWO: Professor Bolton led a study of depression in Uganda. The Journal of the American Medical Association included the results in its special issue last month on depression. His team studied two-hundred-twenty-five Ugandan men and women. They went through four months of treatment. Each week they met in groups led by the researchers. The researchers found that eighty-six percent of the people had signs of major depression. After the therapy, only seven percent of the people still had those signs. Paul Bolton calls the early results very promising. He says he and his team still do not know what it was about this intervention that worked. Perhaps the important part was meeting in groups and talking. He says he feels this study has demonstrated that it is possible to have few resources and still be effective. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: July 8, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Doug Johnson, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- we look at some recent news about depression. The findings appeared last month in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. (THEME) VOICE ONE: A new study finds that more than half of Americans with major depression seek treatment. Ten years ago, only one-in-three sought help. Yet many people who go for treatment do not receive enough care or the right care. In fact, the study says only twenty-one percent of all Americans with major depression get the kind of care that the government says they should. The researchers questioned more than nine-thousand people age eighteen and older. The year-long study began in February of two-thousand-one. Kathleen Merikangas is with the National Institute of Mental Health. She was one of the lead researchers of the study of depression in the United States. Mizz Merikangas says major depression is now the number one cause of disability in the general population across the world. She notes that heart disease was the leading cause of disability as recently as nineteen-ninety-six. Mizz Merikangas says about sixteen percent of Americans suffer major depression at some point in their lives. That is more than thirty-million people. She says around thirteen-million experienced depression last year. Those numbers are about the same as they were ten years ago. VOICE TWO: The study found that women have a fifty-six percent greater chance then men to become depressed at some time in their life. But this difference between men and women has gotten smaller over the years. Also, the study found that poor people and less-educated people have among the highest rates of depression. The researchers say depression is more common in people ages eighteen to forty-four than in people over the age of sixty. Mizz Merikangas says that is possibly because older people have learned to accept their situation and better deal with the realities of life. Most people who reported having depression in a given year said the sickness had a major affect on their lives. Mizz Merikangas says it can affect jobs, marriage, and parenting. Those with severe depression in the past year reported being unable to work or carry out other normal activities for an average of thirty-five days. VOICE ONE: Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School led the study. He says many doctors may not know about new treatments for depression. Professor Kessler says research has shown that the best treatment is a combination of medication and help from doctors in dealing with psychological problems. He says treatment should be based on the individual. That is because no treatment works for everyone. In the study, patients were considered to have been treated correctly if they met either of two requirements. If they received medicine, they received it for at least a month and met four times with a doctor. If they did not receive medicine, they met at least eight times for thirty minutes with a mental health expert. VOICE TWO: Another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported about the cost of depression in the workplace. The researchers estimate that lost productive time from depression adds at least thirty-one-thousand-million dollars a year in costs for employers. The researchers questioned more than one-thousand American workers by telephone over a two-month period last year. The study says workers without depression reported an average of one-and-a-half hours of lost productive time a week. But workers with depression reported more than five-and-a-half hours a week in lost productivity. The researchers say most of that time is lost through reduced performance while the employees are at work. Researchers from the AdvancePCS Center for Work and Health in Maryland led the study. Eli Lilly, the company that makes the antidepressant drug Prozac, provided money for the research. VOICE ONE: Many depressed people continue to go to work. But the researchers say these people do not perform at their normal level. Many are unable to think clearly or get along well with others in the workplace. Yet many people still avoid treatment because they do not want others to know they are depressed. Some people who do seek treatment stop their medicine before they are supposed to. Still others do not get enough medicine. And there are generally more doctors and other resources to help people who live in cities than those in less populated areas. VOICE TWO: Depression is often difficult to recognize. So it can often go untreated. Experts say many employers do not take the disorder as seriously as they would other sicknesses. The experts say interventions such as employee assistance programs and groups that help people deal with depression are ways to help. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Depression affects not just the mind but also the body. The symptoms include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, not wanting food and trouble sleeping. Depression has been linked to other disorders, including heart disease. Researchers now say the risk of death is three times greater in people who have heart attacks and later develop depression. That is compared to those who have heart attacks and do not develop depression. It is the same level of risk as from smoking. Depression can also run in families. Health experts say depression is the main reason people kill themselves. It is hard to tell if someone is depressed. Doctors do not always ask patients with possible symptoms. Researchers say doctors who do not have special training in mental health may not recognize the signs or do enough to treat them. Also, some health plans may limit the ability of patients to receive the expert care they need. VOICE TWO: Another report in the Journal of the American Medical Association deals with depression among doctors. It says that doctors often fail to recognize depression in themselves and seek treatment. Studies have found that doctors have a greater risk of suicide than the general population. Yet fewer doctors die from cancer and heart disease than the general population. Experts say that is because cigarette use dropped among doctors when they recognized the dangers of smoking. Researchers say all these findings show that depression must be taken more seriously. Doctor Thomas Insel [IN-suhl] is director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He notes that about thirty-thousand people a year in the United States kill themselves. That is almost twice the number as those killed by others. Doctor Insel says there is no scientific reason to treat mental disorders any differently than physical disorders. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: There are drugs that doctors use to treat depression. But in developing countries, not many people are able to get these antidepressants. Paul Bolton is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Mister Bolton says the drugs are too costly, have a lot of side effects and must be taken for a long time -- months to years. He says that in developing countries, the best medicine may be just to have people talk about their problems. VOICE TWO: Professor Bolton led a study of depression in Uganda. The Journal of the American Medical Association included the results in its special issue last month on depression. His team studied two-hundred-twenty-five Ugandan men and women. They went through four months of treatment. Each week they met in groups led by the researchers. The researchers found that eighty-six percent of the people had signs of major depression. After the therapy, only seven percent of the people still had those signs. Paul Bolton calls the early results very promising. He says he and his team still do not know what it was about this intervention that worked. Perhaps the important part was meeting in groups and talking. He says he feels this study has demonstrated that it is possible to have few resources and still be effective. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – July 9, 2003: Grand Canyon
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a famous natural place, the Grand Canyon. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a famous natural place, the Grand Canyon. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In late September, Fifteen-Forty, a group of Spanish explorers led by Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to a stop. For weeks they had walked north across the great southwestern American desert. The land was dry. The sun was hot. They were searching for seven golden cities that they had been told about. There was not much to see on this land, just the far-away line where the sky meets the ground. Suddenly, they came to the edge of what seemed to be a huge cut in the Earth. There seemed to be no way to walk around this deep canyon. It stretched below them into the distance, to their left and right, as far as they could see. Below them and across from where they stood were strange shapes of yellow, red, brown and black rocks and stone. VOICE TWO: A small, muddy river appeared to be flowing at the bottom. Captain Cardenas ordered three of his soldiers to climb down the side of the canyon to see if they could find a way to cross to the other side. The three climbed about one-third of the way down. They found that the canyon was much deeper than they thought, so they climbed back up. Captain Cardenas and his group turned back to the south. Today, history recognizes them as the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River. They had reached a place that today is considered one of the most beautiful, strange, and interesting places in the world. VOICE ONE: In late September, Fifteen-Forty, a group of Spanish explorers led by Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to a stop. For weeks they had walked north across the great southwestern American desert. The land was dry. The sun was hot. They were searching for seven golden cities that they had been told about. There was not much to see on this land, just the far-away line where the sky meets the ground. Suddenly, they came to the edge of what seemed to be a huge cut in the Earth. There seemed to be no way to walk around this deep canyon. It stretched below them into the distance, to their left and right, as far as they could see. Below them and across from where they stood were strange shapes of yellow, red, brown and black rocks and stone. VOICE TWO: A small, muddy river appeared to be flowing at the bottom. Captain Cardenas ordered three of his soldiers to climb down the side of the canyon to see if they could find a way to cross to the other side. The three climbed about one-third of the way down. They found that the canyon was much deeper than they thought, so they climbed back up. Captain Cardenas and his group turned back to the south. Today, history recognizes them as the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River. They had reached a place that today is considered one of the most beautiful, strange, and interesting places in the world. VOICE ONE: European explorers did not return to the Grand Canyon for more than two centuries. Instead, native peoples continued to live there, as they had for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. In Seventeen-Seventy-Six, two Spanish clergymen were seeking a way to travel from Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, to Monterey, California on the west coast of North America. Father Francisco Escalante and another clergyman were unsuccessful in their search. However, they re-discovered the Grand Canyon. VOICE TWO: During the Nineteenth Century, the population of the United States was expanding rapidly to the west. The Grand Canyon was considered a barrier to travelers. Only two places had been found where the river is low enough to cross. As settlers moved west, the United States government wanted more information about western territories. Much of the Grand Canyon was unknown. The words “Unknown Territory” were written on maps that showed the area. VOICE ONE: In May, Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, Major John Wesley Powell and nine others began the first full exploration of the Colorado River. They put four wooden boats into the water at Green River Station in Wyoming. They began their trip to where the Green River joined the Colorado River. Major Powell wrote in his book that they were beginning “the trip down the Great Unknown”. Major Powell had served in the Union army during the American Civil War. He lost his right arm in a battle during the war. After the war he became a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University. He also studied paleontology, the science of life existing in different periods of Earth’s history. And he became expert in ethnology, the study of different cultures. He was the right person to explore the Grand Canyon. He was someone who could describe the geology of the area, as well as learn about the American Indians who had begun living in the canyon as many as nine-thousand years ago. Several of those tribes still consider the Grand Canyon their home. VOICE TWO: The geology of the Grand Canyon is like a history of the formation of the Earth. During millions of years, water, ice, and wind formed the canyon. Although the Grand Canyon is in the middle of a desert, water plays an important part in the way the land looks. The sun shines bright and hot almost every day. It makes the soil hard. When rain does come, it cannot sink into the soil. Instead it flows to the Colorado River. Often, heavy rains cause violent floods along small rivers and streams that flow into the Colorado. These floods move huge amounts of soil and sometimes stones as big as houses. All of this material falls into the river and then is pushed along by the rapidly flowing river. This way the river slowly digs itself deeper into the rock surface of the Earth. The Colorado has been doing this for millions of years. You can see in the sides of the Grand Canyon different kinds of rock at different levels. Each of the eighteen levels was formed during a different period of Earth’s history. VOICE ONE: The ancestor of the Colorado River began flowing about seventy-million years ago. After it began flowing, volcano explosions and other natural events changed the river’s path many times. About seventeen-million years ago, pressures deep in the Earth pushed up the land through which the river flowed. The river continued to flow through the area, cutting deeper into the rock. The Grand Canyon is twenty-nine kilometers across at the widest place, and more than one and one-half kilometers deep. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where the river flows today, the rock is almost two-thousand-million years old. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, not many people expected John Wesley Powell and his team of explorers to survive the trip through the Grand Canyon. No one had ever done it before. There are many dangers on the fast-moving river. Rocks hidden under the water can smash small boats. In places where the river is narrow, the water becomes violent as it rushes between high rock walls. Also, there are rapids of fast moving water in places where the river drops to a lower level. In some places, strong currents can push a boat into rocks in the water, or against the walls of the canyon. Major Powell knew the trip would be dangerous. When the boats came near a rapid, he and his crew would stop. Sometimes they decided to go through by rowing the boats with their oars, as they did in calm water. At other times they carried the boats and all their equipment around dangerous rapids. Major Powell wrote every day in a book about what they did and saw. This is how he described the difficulties of one day: VOICE THREE: “We carried the boats around rapids two times this morning... During the afternoon we ran a narrow part of the river, more than half a mile in length, narrow and rapid. We float on water that is flowing down a gliding plane. At the bottom of the narrow part of the river, the river turns sharply to the right, and the water rolls up against a rock that seems to be in the middle of the stream. We pull with all our power to the right, but it seems impossible to avoid being carried against the cliff, and we are carried up high on the waves – not against the rocks, for the water strikes us and we are pushed back and pass on with safety...” VOICE ONE: More than three months after starting, Major Powell and his group reached the end of the Grand Canyon. Three men had left the group earlier and were never seen again. Two of the men in the group continued down the river to the sea, becoming the first people known to have traveled the entire length of the Colorado River. VOICE TWO: Today, the Grand Canyon is in a national park. About five-million people visit it each year. They stop at its edge and look in wonder at a place that can create great emotions in those seeing it. Others walk down the many paths into the canyon. Some ride rubber boats down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. River guides are experts at taking the boats through the most violent rapids. This activity, called white-water rafting, is very popular. VOICE ONE: Generally, the trip takes about two weeks in boats that carry three or four people. Bigger boats with motors that carry about twenty people can make the trip in several days. As people float down the river, they see the many wonderful and strange shapes created by the forces of nature. They may see animals, such as bighorn sheep, and coyotes. They experience the excitement of traveling through white-water rapids, and sleeping under the stars. The sound of the river is always present, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. After several days traveling on and sleeping near the river as it flows through the Grand Canyon, many visitors say they feel their cares and worries leave them. Their concerns are replaced by a feeling of wonder about the canyon and the powers of nature. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: European explorers did not return to the Grand Canyon for more than two centuries. Instead, native peoples continued to live there, as they had for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. In Seventeen-Seventy-Six, two Spanish clergymen were seeking a way to travel from Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, to Monterey, California on the west coast of North America. Father Francisco Escalante and another clergyman were unsuccessful in their search. However, they re-discovered the Grand Canyon. VOICE TWO: During the Nineteenth Century, the population of the United States was expanding rapidly to the west. The Grand Canyon was considered a barrier to travelers. Only two places had been found where the river is low enough to cross. As settlers moved west, the United States government wanted more information about western territories. Much of the Grand Canyon was unknown. The words “Unknown Territory” were written on maps that showed the area. VOICE ONE: In May, Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, Major John Wesley Powell and nine others began the first full exploration of the Colorado River. They put four wooden boats into the water at Green River Station in Wyoming. They began their trip to where the Green River joined the Colorado River. Major Powell wrote in his book that they were beginning “the trip down the Great Unknown”. Major Powell had served in the Union army during the American Civil War. He lost his right arm in a battle during the war. After the war he became a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University. He also studied paleontology, the science of life existing in different periods of Earth’s history. And he became expert in ethnology, the study of different cultures. He was the right person to explore the Grand Canyon. He was someone who could describe the geology of the area, as well as learn about the American Indians who had begun living in the canyon as many as nine-thousand years ago. Several of those tribes still consider the Grand Canyon their home. VOICE TWO: The geology of the Grand Canyon is like a history of the formation of the Earth. During millions of years, water, ice, and wind formed the canyon. Although the Grand Canyon is in the middle of a desert, water plays an important part in the way the land looks. The sun shines bright and hot almost every day. It makes the soil hard. When rain does come, it cannot sink into the soil. Instead it flows to the Colorado River. Often, heavy rains cause violent floods along small rivers and streams that flow into the Colorado. These floods move huge amounts of soil and sometimes stones as big as houses. All of this material falls into the river and then is pushed along by the rapidly flowing river. This way the river slowly digs itself deeper into the rock surface of the Earth. The Colorado has been doing this for millions of years. You can see in the sides of the Grand Canyon different kinds of rock at different levels. Each of the eighteen levels was formed during a different period of Earth’s history. VOICE ONE: The ancestor of the Colorado River began flowing about seventy-million years ago. After it began flowing, volcano explosions and other natural events changed the river’s path many times. About seventeen-million years ago, pressures deep in the Earth pushed up the land through which the river flowed. The river continued to flow through the area, cutting deeper into the rock. The Grand Canyon is twenty-nine kilometers across at the widest place, and more than one and one-half kilometers deep. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where the river flows today, the rock is almost two-thousand-million years old. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, not many people expected John Wesley Powell and his team of explorers to survive the trip through the Grand Canyon. No one had ever done it before. There are many dangers on the fast-moving river. Rocks hidden under the water can smash small boats. In places where the river is narrow, the water becomes violent as it rushes between high rock walls. Also, there are rapids of fast moving water in places where the river drops to a lower level. In some places, strong currents can push a boat into rocks in the water, or against the walls of the canyon. Major Powell knew the trip would be dangerous. When the boats came near a rapid, he and his crew would stop. Sometimes they decided to go through by rowing the boats with their oars, as they did in calm water. At other times they carried the boats and all their equipment around dangerous rapids. Major Powell wrote every day in a book about what they did and saw. This is how he described the difficulties of one day: VOICE THREE: “We carried the boats around rapids two times this morning... During the afternoon we ran a narrow part of the river, more than half a mile in length, narrow and rapid. We float on water that is flowing down a gliding plane. At the bottom of the narrow part of the river, the river turns sharply to the right, and the water rolls up against a rock that seems to be in the middle of the stream. We pull with all our power to the right, but it seems impossible to avoid being carried against the cliff, and we are carried up high on the waves – not against the rocks, for the water strikes us and we are pushed back and pass on with safety...” VOICE ONE: More than three months after starting, Major Powell and his group reached the end of the Grand Canyon. Three men had left the group earlier and were never seen again. Two of the men in the group continued down the river to the sea, becoming the first people known to have traveled the entire length of the Colorado River. VOICE TWO: Today, the Grand Canyon is in a national park. About five-million people visit it each year. They stop at its edge and look in wonder at a place that can create great emotions in those seeing it. Others walk down the many paths into the canyon. Some ride rubber boats down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. River guides are experts at taking the boats through the most violent rapids. This activity, called white-water rafting, is very popular. VOICE ONE: Generally, the trip takes about two weeks in boats that carry three or four people. Bigger boats with motors that carry about twenty people can make the trip in several days. As people float down the river, they see the many wonderful and strange shapes created by the forces of nature. They may see animals, such as bighorn sheep, and coyotes. They experience the excitement of traveling through white-water rapids, and sleeping under the stars. The sound of the river is always present, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. After several days traveling on and sleeping near the river as it flows through the Grand Canyon, many visitors say they feel their cares and worries leave them. Their concerns are replaced by a feeling of wonder about the canyon and the powers of nature. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Mixed Results of Prostate Drug Test
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 9, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An American study has shown mixed results in testing the effects of a drug as a way to prevent cancer of the prostate gland in men. The drug is called finasteride. Finasteride is now used to reduce swollen prostate glands. It is also used in different amounts to prevent some hair loss. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute reported the results of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The nationwide study began in nineteen-ninety-three. Researchers gave either five milligrams of finasteride or an inactive substance to more than eighteen-thousand healthy men over the age of fifty-five. Seven years later, almost nine-thousand men were still involved in the study. A little less than half of them were taking finasteride. The others were still taking the inactive substance for comparison. The researchers found prostate cancer in eighteen percent of the men who took finasteride. This compared to twenty-four percent of the men in the other group. So, the chances of getting prostate cancer were found to be twenty-five percent lower in the finasteride group than for those who took the inactive substance. Researchers ended the study early because it had already shown the effects of the drug. They said these results show it is possible to prevent prostate cancer. But another finding of the study showed a possible danger. This finding involved just those men in the study who developed prostate cancer. About six percent of the men who took finasteride developed what appeared to be unusually aggressive cancers. In the comparison group, five percent of the men developed such growths. The researchers said this difference was seen within the first year of the study. They do not know the reason. One possibility is that the drug may prevent only those cancers that grow more slowly than usual. The researchers said more studies must be done to find out. Medical experts urged men to talk to their doctors about these results before they decide if they should take finasteride to prevent prostate cancer. Some said it may be that only men with especially high chances of getting the disease should use the drug for this purpose. Doctors say those at higher risk include black men and men with a family history of prostate cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: July 9, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An American study has shown mixed results in testing the effects of a drug as a way to prevent cancer of the prostate gland in men. The drug is called finasteride. Finasteride is now used to reduce swollen prostate glands. It is also used in different amounts to prevent some hair loss. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute reported the results of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The nationwide study began in nineteen-ninety-three. Researchers gave either five milligrams of finasteride or an inactive substance to more than eighteen-thousand healthy men over the age of fifty-five. Seven years later, almost nine-thousand men were still involved in the study. A little less than half of them were taking finasteride. The others were still taking the inactive substance for comparison. The researchers found prostate cancer in eighteen percent of the men who took finasteride. This compared to twenty-four percent of the men in the other group. So, the chances of getting prostate cancer were found to be twenty-five percent lower in the finasteride group than for those who took the inactive substance. Researchers ended the study early because it had already shown the effects of the drug. They said these results show it is possible to prevent prostate cancer. But another finding of the study showed a possible danger. This finding involved just those men in the study who developed prostate cancer. About six percent of the men who took finasteride developed what appeared to be unusually aggressive cancers. In the comparison group, five percent of the men developed such growths. The researchers said this difference was seen within the first year of the study. They do not know the reason. One possibility is that the drug may prevent only those cancers that grow more slowly than usual. The researchers said more studies must be done to find out. Medical experts urged men to talk to their doctors about these results before they decide if they should take finasteride to prevent prostate cancer. Some said it may be that only men with especially high chances of getting the disease should use the drug for this purpose. Doctors say those at higher risk include black men and men with a family history of prostate cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #20 - Writing The Constitution, Part 4
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 10, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Gordon Gaippe. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention heard details of the Virginia Plan. That was a fifteen-part plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia. The plan described a national governmment with a supreme legislature, executive, and judiciary. The convention debated the meaning of the words "national" and "supreme." Some delegates feared that such a central government would take away power from the states. But in the end, they approved the proposal. On June First, they began debate on the issue of a national executive. VOICE ONE: The Virginia Plan offered several points for discussion. It said the national executive should be chosen by the national legislature. The executive's job would be to carry out the laws made by the legislature. He would serve a number of years. He would be paid a small amount of money. These points served as a basis for debate. Over a period of several weeks, the delegates worked out details of the executive's position and powers. VOICE TWO: It seemed every delegate at the Philadelphia convention had something to say about the issue of a national executive. They had been thinking about it for some time. Almost every delegate was afraid to give the position extended powers. Almost no one wanted America's chief executive to become as powerful as a king. Still, many of the delegates had faith in the idea of a one-man executive. Others demanded an executive of three men. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued for the one-man executive. He said the position required energy and the ability to make decisions quickly. He said these would best be found in one man. Edmund Randolph of Virginia disagreed strongly. He said he considered a one-man executive as "the fetus of monarchy". John Dickinson of Delaware said he did not denounce the idea of monarchy, of having a government headed by a king. He said it was one of the best governments in the world. However, in America, he said, a king was "out of the question". The debate over the size of the national executive lasted a long time. Finally, the delegates voted. Seven state delegations voted for a one-man executive. Three voted against the idea. VOICE ONE: During the debate on size, other questions arose about the national executive. One question was the executive's term. Should he serve just once or could he be re-elected? Alexander Hamilton argued for a long term of office. He said if a president served only a year or two, America soon would have many former presidents. These men, he said, would fight for power. And that would be bad for the peace of the nation. Benjamin Franklin argued for re-election. The people, he said, were the rulers of a republic. And presidents were the servants of the people. If the people wanted to elect the same president again and again, they had the right to do this. VOICE TWO: Delegates debated two main proposals on the question. One was for a three-year term with re-election permitted. The other was for one seven-year term. The vote on the question was close. Five state delegations approved a term of seven years. Four voted no. The question came up again during the convention and was debated again. In the final document, the president's term was set at four years with re-election permitted. Next came the question of how to choose the national executive. VOICE ONE: It was a most difficult problem. The delegates debated, voted, re-debated, and re-voted a number of proposals. James Wilson proposed that the executive be elected by special representatives of the people called electors. The electors would be chosen from districts set up for this purpose. Several delegates disagreed. They said the people did not know enough to choose good electors. They said the plan would be too difficult to carry out and would cost too much money. One delegate proposed that the national executive be elected by the state governors. He said the governors of large states would have more votes than the governors of small states. Nobody liked this proposal, especially delegates from the small states. It was defeated. VOICE TWO: Another proposal was to have the national executive elected directly by the people. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was shocked by this idea. "The people do not understand these things," he said. "A few dishonest men can easily fool the people. The worst way to choose a president would be to have him elected by the people." So the delegates voted to have the national legislature appoint the national executive. Then they voted against this method. Instead, they said, let state legislatures name electors who would choose the executive. But the delegates changed their mind on this vote, too. They re-debated the idea of direct popular elections. The convention voted on the issue sixty times. In the end, it agreed that the national executive should be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. VOICE ONE: Now, someone said, we have decided how to choose the executive. But what are we to do if the executive does bad things after being appointed? We should have some way of dismissing him. Yes, the delegates agreed. It should be possible to impeach the executive, to try him, and if guilty, remove him from office. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania spoke in support of impeachment. A national executive, he said, may be influenced by a greater power to betray his trust. The delegates approved a proposal for removing a chief executive found guilty of bribery, treason, or other high crimes. VOICE TWO: The last major question about the national executive was the question of veto power over the national legislature. Not one delegate was willing to give the executive complete power to reject new laws. And yet they felt the executive should have some voice in the law-making process. If this were not done, they said, the position of executive would have little meaning. And the national legislature would have the power of a dictator. James Madison offered a solution: The executive should have the power to veto a law, Madison said. But his veto could be over-turned if most members of the legislature voted to pass the law again. VOICE ONE: The final convention document listed more details about the national executive, or president. For example, it said the president had to be born in the United States or a citizen at the time the Constitution was accepted. He must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years. He must be at least thirty-five years old. The executive would be paid. But his pay could not be increased or reduced during his term in office. He would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. And, from time to time, he would have to report to the national legislature on the state of the Union. VOICE TWO: The final document also gave the words by which a president would be sworn-in. Every four years -- for more than two-hundred years now -- each president has repeated this oath of office: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael. THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. Join us again next week at this time for another program about the United States Constitution. Broadcast: July 10, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Gordon Gaippe. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention heard details of the Virginia Plan. That was a fifteen-part plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia. The plan described a national governmment with a supreme legislature, executive, and judiciary. The convention debated the meaning of the words "national" and "supreme." Some delegates feared that such a central government would take away power from the states. But in the end, they approved the proposal. On June First, they began debate on the issue of a national executive. VOICE ONE: The Virginia Plan offered several points for discussion. It said the national executive should be chosen by the national legislature. The executive's job would be to carry out the laws made by the legislature. He would serve a number of years. He would be paid a small amount of money. These points served as a basis for debate. Over a period of several weeks, the delegates worked out details of the executive's position and powers. VOICE TWO: It seemed every delegate at the Philadelphia convention had something to say about the issue of a national executive. They had been thinking about it for some time. Almost every delegate was afraid to give the position extended powers. Almost no one wanted America's chief executive to become as powerful as a king. Still, many of the delegates had faith in the idea of a one-man executive. Others demanded an executive of three men. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued for the one-man executive. He said the position required energy and the ability to make decisions quickly. He said these would best be found in one man. Edmund Randolph of Virginia disagreed strongly. He said he considered a one-man executive as "the fetus of monarchy". John Dickinson of Delaware said he did not denounce the idea of monarchy, of having a government headed by a king. He said it was one of the best governments in the world. However, in America, he said, a king was "out of the question". The debate over the size of the national executive lasted a long time. Finally, the delegates voted. Seven state delegations voted for a one-man executive. Three voted against the idea. VOICE ONE: During the debate on size, other questions arose about the national executive. One question was the executive's term. Should he serve just once or could he be re-elected? Alexander Hamilton argued for a long term of office. He said if a president served only a year or two, America soon would have many former presidents. These men, he said, would fight for power. And that would be bad for the peace of the nation. Benjamin Franklin argued for re-election. The people, he said, were the rulers of a republic. And presidents were the servants of the people. If the people wanted to elect the same president again and again, they had the right to do this. VOICE TWO: Delegates debated two main proposals on the question. One was for a three-year term with re-election permitted. The other was for one seven-year term. The vote on the question was close. Five state delegations approved a term of seven years. Four voted no. The question came up again during the convention and was debated again. In the final document, the president's term was set at four years with re-election permitted. Next came the question of how to choose the national executive. VOICE ONE: It was a most difficult problem. The delegates debated, voted, re-debated, and re-voted a number of proposals. James Wilson proposed that the executive be elected by special representatives of the people called electors. The electors would be chosen from districts set up for this purpose. Several delegates disagreed. They said the people did not know enough to choose good electors. They said the plan would be too difficult to carry out and would cost too much money. One delegate proposed that the national executive be elected by the state governors. He said the governors of large states would have more votes than the governors of small states. Nobody liked this proposal, especially delegates from the small states. It was defeated. VOICE TWO: Another proposal was to have the national executive elected directly by the people. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was shocked by this idea. "The people do not understand these things," he said. "A few dishonest men can easily fool the people. The worst way to choose a president would be to have him elected by the people." So the delegates voted to have the national legislature appoint the national executive. Then they voted against this method. Instead, they said, let state legislatures name electors who would choose the executive. But the delegates changed their mind on this vote, too. They re-debated the idea of direct popular elections. The convention voted on the issue sixty times. In the end, it agreed that the national executive should be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. VOICE ONE: Now, someone said, we have decided how to choose the executive. But what are we to do if the executive does bad things after being appointed? We should have some way of dismissing him. Yes, the delegates agreed. It should be possible to impeach the executive, to try him, and if guilty, remove him from office. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania spoke in support of impeachment. A national executive, he said, may be influenced by a greater power to betray his trust. The delegates approved a proposal for removing a chief executive found guilty of bribery, treason, or other high crimes. VOICE TWO: The last major question about the national executive was the question of veto power over the national legislature. Not one delegate was willing to give the executive complete power to reject new laws. And yet they felt the executive should have some voice in the law-making process. If this were not done, they said, the position of executive would have little meaning. And the national legislature would have the power of a dictator. James Madison offered a solution: The executive should have the power to veto a law, Madison said. But his veto could be over-turned if most members of the legislature voted to pass the law again. VOICE ONE: The final convention document listed more details about the national executive, or president. For example, it said the president had to be born in the United States or a citizen at the time the Constitution was accepted. He must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years. He must be at least thirty-five years old. The executive would be paid. But his pay could not be increased or reduced during his term in office. He would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. And, from time to time, he would have to report to the national legislature on the state of the Union. VOICE TWO: The final document also gave the words by which a president would be sworn-in. Every four years -- for more than two-hundred years now -- each president has repeated this oath of office: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael. THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Christine Johnson. Join us again next week at this time for another program about the United States Constitution. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - July 10, 2003: Cyberschools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. About twenty-one-thousand young people in seventeen American states do not attend classes in school buildings. Instead, they receive their elementary and high school education by working from home on computers. The Center for Education Reform says the United States has sixty-seven public “cyberschools.” The center says that is about two times as many as two years ago. The money for students to attend a cyberschool comes from the public school systems where they live. Some experts say cyberschools receive money that should support traditional public schools. They also say it is difficult to know if students are learning well. Other experts praise electronic education for letting students work at their own speed. These people say cyberschools help students who were unhappy or unsuccessful in traditional schools. They say learning at home by computer ends long bus rides for children who live far from school. Whatever the judgment of cyberschools, they are growing in popularity. For example, a new cyberschool called Commonwealth Connections Academy will launch classes this fall. It will serve children in the state of Pennsylvania from ages five through thirteen. The state’s Department of Education gave the academy a three-year charter, an agreement permitting the school to operate. Teachers and a director will operate the academy’s educational program from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Academy experts in Baltimore, Maryland will manage subject materials and technical services. Connections Academy already has opened three cyberschools. The academy is a private company that is part of the Sylvan Learning Centers. The centers have been developing educational programs for more than twenty years. Children get free equipment for their online education. This includes a computer, printer, books and technical services. Parents and students communicate with teachers by telephone or by immediate message systems on their computers. Students at cyberschools usually do not know one another. But fifty-six such students who finished studies at Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School recently met for the first time. They were guests of honor at their graduation ceremony. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. About twenty-one-thousand young people in seventeen American states do not attend classes in school buildings. Instead, they receive their elementary and high school education by working from home on computers. The Center for Education Reform says the United States has sixty-seven public “cyberschools.” The center says that is about two times as many as two years ago. The money for students to attend a cyberschool comes from the public school systems where they live. Some experts say cyberschools receive money that should support traditional public schools. They also say it is difficult to know if students are learning well. Other experts praise electronic education for letting students work at their own speed. These people say cyberschools help students who were unhappy or unsuccessful in traditional schools. They say learning at home by computer ends long bus rides for children who live far from school. Whatever the judgment of cyberschools, they are growing in popularity. For example, a new cyberschool called Commonwealth Connections Academy will launch classes this fall. It will serve children in the state of Pennsylvania from ages five through thirteen. The state’s Department of Education gave the academy a three-year charter, an agreement permitting the school to operate. Teachers and a director will operate the academy’s educational program from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Academy experts in Baltimore, Maryland will manage subject materials and technical services. Connections Academy already has opened three cyberschools. The academy is a private company that is part of the Sylvan Learning Centers. The centers have been developing educational programs for more than twenty years. Children get free equipment for their online education. This includes a computer, printer, books and technical services. Parents and students communicate with teachers by telephone or by immediate message systems on their computers. Students at cyberschools usually do not know one another. But fifty-six such students who finished studies at Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School recently met for the first time. They were guests of honor at their graduation ceremony. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Listener Question About Silicon Valley /  Music by Lisa Marie Presley / Special English Contest Winners
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 11, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: July 11, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a question about an area known as Silicon Valley ... and we play music by Lisa Marie Presley ... But first, we tell about the results of a recent Special English listeners’ contest. Contest Results HOST: Special English recently held a contest for our listeners. Faith Lapidus tells us about the results and about the two top winners. ANNCR: During one week last month, we asked listeners to send us an e-mail. We asked them to tell us their name, address, age, the Special English program they like best and other kinds of programs they would like to hear. We received almost five-hundred e-mails from forty-nine countries during that week. The highest number, more than one-hundred-sixty, came from Special English listeners in China. Almost sixty e-mails came from listeners in Nigeria. We also received many messages from listeners in Vietnam, Japan, India and Iran. The large majority of listeners who sent e-mails are young people between the ages of twenty and forty. The most popular Special English program is our American history series, The Making of a Nation, followed by Science in the News. Our listeners also suggested many interesting ideas for programs that they would like to hear in the future. The Special English chief and editors enjoyed reading the e-mails. Choosing winners among all the interesting letters was very difficult. Finally, they chose the two winners. One winner is Dorjsuren Khurelbaatar from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He is a director of the Mongolian International Education Agency which sends Mongolian students to study in other countries. He has listened to VOA news and Special English broadcasts since nineteen-seventy-four. He wrote: “VOA helps me feel like a naturalized American.” The other winner is Joseph Oduntan of Osun State, Nigeria. He is a scientist and farmer who supervises an organic farming program in his country. He wrote: “All presentations of the different features of the VOA Special English program have been educative and excellent in all respects. The presenters are intelligent and hard working. I love them all for their good knowledge and love for Africa and her people.” We would like to thank all the listeners who sent e-mails for sharing their thoughts with us. We consider you all to be winners. Silicon Valey HOST: Our question this week comes from Chongqing, China. James Yang wants to know the story of California’s “Silicon Valley.” The name comes from the silicon material used to produce tiny electronic computer parts. The area of California that is called Silicon Valley is about seventy kilometers southeast of San Francisco. It is about forty kilometers long and about fifteen kilometers wide. You will not find the name Silicon Valley on any maps of California. But it is a very important place. There are thousands of high-technology companies in Silicon Valley today. The story begins with Stanford University near the city of Palo Alto. After World War Two, Stanford University was having financial problems. It also owned several thousand hectares of land that was not being used. A professor at Stanford did his best to solve the problem. His name was Frederick Terman. He learned that the university could not legally sell the land. The Stanford family made it legally impossible to sell any of the land when they gave it to the university. However, Mister Terman discovered there was nothing to prevent the university from permitting companies to pay the university to use the land.This idea led to the development of an area called Stanford Industrial Park. This business area was established in nineteen-fifty four. Several leading companies moved their offices there. These included the new Hewlett Packard electronics company. Successful businesses like Hewlett Packard influenced other companies to move into and near the Stanford Industrial Park. The area became known as Silicon Valley at the beginning of the computer age. In the early nineteen-seventies, a reporter named the area Silicon Valley in a series of stories for a publication called Electronic News. Young computer engineers with little money started companies in this area. Many of these companies are now large international businesses. One example is Apple Computers. Silicon Valley is a name that has become so popular today that it is often used to describe any area that is home to many electronics companies. But the first and most important Silicon Valley can still be found in California. Lisa Marie Presley HOST: American singer Elvis Presley is perhaps the most famous rock and roll artist of all time. Now his daughter Lisa Marie is recording her own music. Shep O’Neal tells us about her first album. ANNCR: It is called “To Whom It May Concern.” Lisa Marie Presley wrote the words to all the songs. She says all the songs are about her. She says they tell who she really is. This song is about her family and how she found her place in the world. It is called “Lights Out.” (MUSIC) Lisa Marie was nine years old when Elvis Presley died. She left high school before she graduated because she said school had no purpose for her. She says she has been looking for meaning in her life ever since. That is why she recorded these songs at the age of thirty-five. Here is another song from the album, “Sinking In.” (MUSIC) “To Whom It May Concern” has already sold at least five-hundred-thousand copies since it was released in the United States in April. Now, Lisa Marie Presley is performing its songs in concerts all over the country. We leave you with the title song from her album, “To Whom It May Concern.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We answer a question about an area known as Silicon Valley ... and we play music by Lisa Marie Presley ... But first, we tell about the results of a recent Special English listeners’ contest. Contest Results HOST: Special English recently held a contest for our listeners. Faith Lapidus tells us about the results and about the two top winners. ANNCR: During one week last month, we asked listeners to send us an e-mail. We asked them to tell us their name, address, age, the Special English program they like best and other kinds of programs they would like to hear. We received almost five-hundred e-mails from forty-nine countries during that week. The highest number, more than one-hundred-sixty, came from Special English listeners in China. Almost sixty e-mails came from listeners in Nigeria. We also received many messages from listeners in Vietnam, Japan, India and Iran. The large majority of listeners who sent e-mails are young people between the ages of twenty and forty. The most popular Special English program is our American history series, The Making of a Nation, followed by Science in the News. Our listeners also suggested many interesting ideas for programs that they would like to hear in the future. The Special English chief and editors enjoyed reading the e-mails. Choosing winners among all the interesting letters was very difficult. Finally, they chose the two winners. One winner is Dorjsuren Khurelbaatar from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He is a director of the Mongolian International Education Agency which sends Mongolian students to study in other countries. He has listened to VOA news and Special English broadcasts since nineteen-seventy-four. He wrote: “VOA helps me feel like a naturalized American.” The other winner is Joseph Oduntan of Osun State, Nigeria. He is a scientist and farmer who supervises an organic farming program in his country. He wrote: “All presentations of the different features of the VOA Special English program have been educative and excellent in all respects. The presenters are intelligent and hard working. I love them all for their good knowledge and love for Africa and her people.” We would like to thank all the listeners who sent e-mails for sharing their thoughts with us. We consider you all to be winners. Silicon Valey HOST: Our question this week comes from Chongqing, China. James Yang wants to know the story of California’s “Silicon Valley.” The name comes from the silicon material used to produce tiny electronic computer parts. The area of California that is called Silicon Valley is about seventy kilometers southeast of San Francisco. It is about forty kilometers long and about fifteen kilometers wide. You will not find the name Silicon Valley on any maps of California. But it is a very important place. There are thousands of high-technology companies in Silicon Valley today. The story begins with Stanford University near the city of Palo Alto. After World War Two, Stanford University was having financial problems. It also owned several thousand hectares of land that was not being used. A professor at Stanford did his best to solve the problem. His name was Frederick Terman. He learned that the university could not legally sell the land. The Stanford family made it legally impossible to sell any of the land when they gave it to the university. However, Mister Terman discovered there was nothing to prevent the university from permitting companies to pay the university to use the land.This idea led to the development of an area called Stanford Industrial Park. This business area was established in nineteen-fifty four. Several leading companies moved their offices there. These included the new Hewlett Packard electronics company. Successful businesses like Hewlett Packard influenced other companies to move into and near the Stanford Industrial Park. The area became known as Silicon Valley at the beginning of the computer age. In the early nineteen-seventies, a reporter named the area Silicon Valley in a series of stories for a publication called Electronic News. Young computer engineers with little money started companies in this area. Many of these companies are now large international businesses. One example is Apple Computers. Silicon Valley is a name that has become so popular today that it is often used to describe any area that is home to many electronics companies. But the first and most important Silicon Valley can still be found in California. Lisa Marie Presley HOST: American singer Elvis Presley is perhaps the most famous rock and roll artist of all time. Now his daughter Lisa Marie is recording her own music. Shep O’Neal tells us about her first album. ANNCR: It is called “To Whom It May Concern.” Lisa Marie Presley wrote the words to all the songs. She says all the songs are about her. She says they tell who she really is. This song is about her family and how she found her place in the world. It is called “Lights Out.” (MUSIC) Lisa Marie was nine years old when Elvis Presley died. She left high school before she graduated because she said school had no purpose for her. She says she has been looking for meaning in her life ever since. That is why she recorded these songs at the age of thirty-five. Here is another song from the album, “Sinking In.” (MUSIC) “To Whom It May Concern” has already sold at least five-hundred-thousand copies since it was released in the United States in April. Now, Lisa Marie Presley is performing its songs in concerts all over the country. We leave you with the title song from her album, “To Whom It May Concern.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Old Chemical Weapons in the Baltic Sea
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 11, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The Baltic Sea is home to thousands of tons of old chemical weapons. Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States captured these from Nazi Germany. The Allies thought the best thing to do was to sink them, sometimes on ships, after World War Two. Poisons like arsenic, sarin and mustard gas are among the weapons in the Baltic. Some bombs and shells under the sea date back to World War One. Scientists say damage caused by the water has permitted poisons to leak out of their containers. Some are mixing with sand and other sea material. Thick and sticky balls of mustard gas have formed. Fishing crews have pulled up bombs and shells. Some people have suffered chemical burns. Fishing boats do not always obey restricted areas. Nor do they always know where weapons are located. The Helsinki Commission is an intergovernmental group that supervises the Baltic Sea environment. The commission has published guidelines on how fishing boats can avoid risky areas. These also advise fishing crews what to do if they pull up weapons. Included is medical advice and information on how to clean boats after such an incident. But, the commission says the weapons do not harm the Baltic Sea in any measurable way. It says current information suggests there is no risk to plants or animals in the sea. And, it says there is no evidence that poisons have gotten into seafood for humans. The commission says the best way to deal with the weapons is to leave them alone. It says time will destroy what remains. It argues that attempts to remove or contain them are riskier than leaving them under the sea where they may be buried under sand. But not all scientists agree. Some say the situation is too risky to leave alone. Vadim Paka is the director of the Institute of Oceanography in Kaliningrad, Russia. He says any highly poisonous substance in the Baltic Sea system is dangerous. Mister Paka says the situation requires more study. He says failing to so could lead to tragedy. Other waters around the world also hold weapons. But some people say the Baltic Sea may be at greater risk. It is only fifty meters deep on average. And it is a major shipping area with many people living along its coasts. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 10, 2003 - 11th Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 10, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER -- a look at some of the ten-thousand new words and meanings in a popular American dictionary. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 10, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on WORDMASTER -- a look at some of the ten-thousand new words and meanings in a popular American dictionary. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary contains two-hundred-twenty-five-thousand definitions, if anyone's counting. It's updated yearly, but every ten years it goes through a major revision. Editors read through all sorts of publications to find material for the eleventh-edition Collegiate. They made sure people really use terms like "supermom." That's defined as "an exemplary mother, also a woman who performs the traditional duties of housekeeping and child-rearing while also having a full-time job." But when it comes to language, it's technology that cooks up lots of new vocabulary. "Pop-up," an old term, can now refer to advertisements that pop up on Web sites. There's "drag-and-drop" -- that's what you do when you pull a computer file across the screen. There's also "PDA," or personal digital assistant. As associate editor Tom Pitoniak explains, this refers to a small handheld device that's used especially to store and organize personal information, such as addresses, schedules and notes. PITONIAK: "With PDA, one thing that comes to mind there is really, it's a wireless device. These aren't just Internet, per se. When you really talk about a convergence -- which itself is one of the words that's developed a new sense -- you see that all of these things are intersecting to some extent. 'Convergence' is worth mentioning -- the merging of distinct technologies, industries or devices into a unified whole -- and really that's happened naturally with this eleventh edition, because when you buy the dictionary you also get a CD-ROM and a year's subscription to the Collegiate Web site." AA: "And what about, moving away from technology, since there are so many terms, what about other terms, from popular culture, or from -- what are some interesting words that leap off the pages?" PITONIAK: "I think some might be words like 'air rage' or 'supermom.'" AA: "'Air rage' is what exactly?" PITONIAK: "It's basically a behavior -- if you know 'road rage,' it's basically similar behavior in the air, passengers going berserk. Others would be 'supermodel,' is another one." AA: "Meaning a really high-paid model for clothing and fashion." PITONIAK: "'Dead presidents' -- slang for U.S. money in the form of bills." AA: "That's because our banknotes have pictures of dead presidents, old presidents on them." PITONIAK: "Exactly. We've also tried to include a lot of expanded coverage of phrases, because one thing we've been able to see from our Web site is that people want to know what phrases mean, and this is true of English language learners as well. So you'll see phrases like 'connect the dots.'" AA: "Which means?" PITONIAK: "To link some things together logically. Or to 'look daggers' at someone -- to look with sort of an aggressive or mean face. Or something that's a 'done deal,' been resolved." AA: "Let me ask you one last question here. Now to make room for some of these new words, I'm assuming you've had to take some older words out of the Collegiate. What are a couple of those words that you said goodbye to?" PITONIAK: "A couple would be 'record-changer,' for the old machines that played the vinyl LP's and put one on after the other. 'Portapak' was a combined videotape recorder and camera. And one that I'll just mention, too, quickly -- 'ten-cent store.' You wonder if there's a little bit of inflation going on there, since nowadays at least around here there's some discount stores called 'family dollar' or 'dollar value.' So you wonder if forty years from now we'll have 'dollar store' in there or it'll be coming out." AA: Tom Pitoniak is an associate editor at Merriam-Webster, in Springfield, Massachusetts, publishers of the new 11th Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. By the way, several companies use the name Webster on dictionaries. But Merriam-Webster actually traces its history back to the work of Noah Webster, publisher in 1806 of -- in the company's proud words -- "the first truly American dictionary." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And look us up on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Make Yourself Comfortable"/Andy Griffith with Jean Wilson 1955 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary contains two-hundred-twenty-five-thousand definitions, if anyone's counting. It's updated yearly, but every ten years it goes through a major revision. Editors read through all sorts of publications to find material for the eleventh-edition Collegiate. They made sure people really use terms like "supermom." That's defined as "an exemplary mother, also a woman who performs the traditional duties of housekeeping and child-rearing while also having a full-time job." But when it comes to language, it's technology that cooks up lots of new vocabulary. "Pop-up," an old term, can now refer to advertisements that pop up on Web sites. There's "drag-and-drop" -- that's what you do when you pull a computer file across the screen. There's also "PDA," or personal digital assistant. As associate editor Tom Pitoniak explains, this refers to a small handheld device that's used especially to store and organize personal information, such as addresses, schedules and notes. PITONIAK: "With PDA, one thing that comes to mind there is really, it's a wireless device. These aren't just Internet, per se. When you really talk about a convergence -- which itself is one of the words that's developed a new sense -- you see that all of these things are intersecting to some extent. 'Convergence' is worth mentioning -- the merging of distinct technologies, industries or devices into a unified whole -- and really that's happened naturally with this eleventh edition, because when you buy the dictionary you also get a CD-ROM and a year's subscription to the Collegiate Web site." AA: "And what about, moving away from technology, since there are so many terms, what about other terms, from popular culture, or from -- what are some interesting words that leap off the pages?" PITONIAK: "I think some might be words like 'air rage' or 'supermom.'" AA: "'Air rage' is what exactly?" PITONIAK: "It's basically a behavior -- if you know 'road rage,' it's basically similar behavior in the air, passengers going berserk. Others would be 'supermodel,' is another one." AA: "Meaning a really high-paid model for clothing and fashion." PITONIAK: "'Dead presidents' -- slang for U.S. money in the form of bills." AA: "That's because our banknotes have pictures of dead presidents, old presidents on them." PITONIAK: "Exactly. We've also tried to include a lot of expanded coverage of phrases, because one thing we've been able to see from our Web site is that people want to know what phrases mean, and this is true of English language learners as well. So you'll see phrases like 'connect the dots.'" AA: "Which means?" PITONIAK: "To link some things together logically. Or to 'look daggers' at someone -- to look with sort of an aggressive or mean face. Or something that's a 'done deal,' been resolved." AA: "Let me ask you one last question here. Now to make room for some of these new words, I'm assuming you've had to take some older words out of the Collegiate. What are a couple of those words that you said goodbye to?" PITONIAK: "A couple would be 'record-changer,' for the old machines that played the vinyl LP's and put one on after the other. 'Portapak' was a combined videotape recorder and camera. And one that I'll just mention, too, quickly -- 'ten-cent store.' You wonder if there's a little bit of inflation going on there, since nowadays at least around here there's some discount stores called 'family dollar' or 'dollar value.' So you wonder if forty years from now we'll have 'dollar store' in there or it'll be coming out." AA: Tom Pitoniak is an associate editor at Merriam-Webster, in Springfield, Massachusetts, publishers of the new 11th Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary. By the way, several companies use the name Webster on dictionaries. But Merriam-Webster actually traces its history back to the work of Noah Webster, publisher in 1806 of -- in the company's proud words -- "the first truly American dictionary." And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And look us up on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Make Yourself Comfortable"/Andy Griffith with Jean Wilson 1955 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Sam Houston, Part Two
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 13, 203 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Nicole Nichols with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we continue the story of Sam Houston, a Texas hero. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week, we reported on Sam Houston’s problems as commander-in-chief of the Texas army in eighteen-thirty-five. Texas belonged to Mexico at that time and had not yet become part of the United States. Several Texas officers organized a small army and planned to attack Mexico without Houston’s permission. These officers told their men they could have all the riches they could find in Mexico. Houston believed the planned attack on Mexico was wrong. So he resigned. But before he did, he ordered Texans in San Antonio to destroy the old Spanish fort called the Alamo. Houston did not think the Alamo could be defended against a strong Mexican attack. VOICE TWO: In February, eighteen-thirty-six, Texas representatives were preparing to meet. A few days before the meeting was to open, a message arrived from San Antonio. A Mexican army, led by President Santa Anna himself, was attacking about one-hundred-eighty Texans at the Alamo. Houston’s orders to destroy the fort had not been obeyed. Texas soldiers were spread across the area. There was no help to send to the Alamo. The representatives decided that they must write a declaration of independence from Mexico. The declaration was signed on March second. Two days later, Sam Houston was elected commander-in-chief of the military forces of the Texas Republic. VOICE ONE: Houston said he would leave immediately for San Antonio. In two days, his Texas army grew to five-hundred men. However, help came too late for the men at the Alamo. Santa Anna’s forces captured the fort and killed every fighter there. The Mexican leader said death would be the punishment for every Texan who opposed him. Texans soon learned he meant what he said.Santa Anna’s forces captured more than three-hundred Texas soldiers near the town of Goliad. The soldiers surrendered when the Mexicans offered to treat them as prisoners of war and return them to the United States. Yet the Texans never saw freedom. They were marched away from town and shot to death. VOICE TWO: Houston’s army continued to grow. However, few of his men were trained to fight. Houston decided his only hope was to withdraw until his soldiers were better trained and had more equipment. He marched his small force east, just ahead of Santa Anna’s soldiers. Santa Anna and his force of one-thousand-two-hundred soldiers had camped on a flat grassy area near the San Jacinto River. On April twenty-first, eighteen-thirty-six, Houston and his soldiers fought the battle that would decide the future of Texas. VOICE ONE: The Texans formed a long line across the north end of the field. Then, they began moving toward the Mexican camp. Only a few meters from the Mexican defenses, the Texans fired. They shouted “Remember the Alamo!” and attacked the Mexican soldiers. The battle of San Jacinto lasted only about twenty minutes. The Mexicans were completely defeated. Only six Texans were killed and twenty-four others wounded. One of the wounded was Sam Houston. The Texans killed or captured hundreds of enemy soldiers. But General Santa Anna could not be found. VOICE TWO: Houston ordered the Texans to find Santa Anna. If the Mexican leader escaped, he could lead another army against Texas. The next day, a group of Texans found a small, sad-looking Mexican soldier. The Texans almost let him go. But when they brought this soldier near the other Mexican prisoners, there were shouts of, “El Presidente!” It was Santa Anna. Many of Houston’s men wanted to kill the Mexican leader. But Houston knew Santa Anna was more valuable alive than dead. Santa Anna was ordered to sign an agreement recognizing the independence of Texas. The Mexican leader was returned home. And Sam Houston became a hero. The town of Houston, Texas was named in his honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The newly independent Lone Star Republic elected Sam Houston its first president in eighteen-thirty-six. He began to build a government. He appointed a cabinet. His government established courts and a mail service. However, there were many problems. Money had to be found to pay the costs of government. And there was trouble with the army. Soldiers were not happy with their food or their pay. Some threatened to overthrow the new government and attack Mexico. VOICE TWO: Houston visited the soldiers. He told them not to do anything that might hurt Texas. The soldiers obeyed. The Texas Congress approved a bill that would let the government borrow one-million dollars. Houston rejected the bill. He said only half this much was needed. After two years as president of the Republic of Texas, Houston had secured the safety of the border, established the money system and gained recognition by the United States government. Houston wanted Texas to become part of the United States. But northern states opposed statehood for Texas. They did so because of the dispute with the southern states over the question of slavery. As a new southern state, Texas would increase the number of states that supported slavery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-forty, Houston married Margaret Lea. They later had eight children. The next year, the people of Texas elected Sam Houston president again. At the time, the republic was deeply in debt. Houston ordered the Texas navy to return from Mexico. And he established the use of another kind of paper money, whose value was kept high. Mexican forces entered Texas again. Houston sent the Texas army against the Mexicans. The invaders were pushed back across the border. There was trouble with Mexico for the next several years. VOICE TWO: James Polk was elected president of the United States in eighteen-forty-four. Congress considered a resolution to make Texas a state. After much debate, the resolution was finally approved and signed into law. The Republic of Texas became the twenty-eighth state on December twenty-ninth, eighteen-forty-five. Sam Houston went to Washington to serve as one of the state’s first senators. He served as a United States senator for thirteen years. VOICE ONE: These were difficult times for the United States. The question of slavery was bitterly debated in Congress. The northern states demanded that slavery not be permitted in new states that joined the Union. The southern states demanded that slaves be permitted in the new states. In eighteen-fifty, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed a way to settle the differences. He urged both North and South to compromise to prevent the nation from being destroyed. His compromise was approved. Just four years later, however, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed a bill that would open all of the West to slavery. Sam Houston warned of terrible trouble if the bill passed. But it was approved. Houston was criticized in Texas for his opposition to it. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-fifty-nine, the people of Texas elected Sam Houston governor of the state. South Carolina proposed a meeting of southern states to discuss withdrawing from the United States. Most Texas lawmakers supported this action. However, Houston prevented Texas from sending representatives to the meeting. In eighteen-sixty-one, Abraham Lincoln became president of the United States. Many Texans still supported withdrawing from the United States. But Sam Houston urged his people to wait and see what kind of leader President Lincoln would be. Not all of them wanted to wait. Some called for a meeting to decide the future of Texas. VOICE ONE: But before that meeting took place, South Carolina and five other southern states withdrew from the United States. Houston again urged Texas not to withdraw. But delegates at the meeting voted to leave the Union. Then the delegates declared Texas independent, and voted to make it part of the new Confederate States of America. They also ordered all Texas officials to declare their loyalty to the Confederacy. Sam Houston refused. He said he loved Texas too much to bring civil war and bloodshed to the state. Houston was removed from office as governor. His public life was ended. He spent the next few years with his family and friends. Sam Houston died on July twenty-sixth, eighteen-sixty-three. The United States was in the middle of a bloody civil war. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Nicole Nichols. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: July 13, 203 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Nicole Nichols with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we continue the story of Sam Houston, a Texas hero. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week, we reported on Sam Houston’s problems as commander-in-chief of the Texas army in eighteen-thirty-five. Texas belonged to Mexico at that time and had not yet become part of the United States. Several Texas officers organized a small army and planned to attack Mexico without Houston’s permission. These officers told their men they could have all the riches they could find in Mexico. Houston believed the planned attack on Mexico was wrong. So he resigned. But before he did, he ordered Texans in San Antonio to destroy the old Spanish fort called the Alamo. Houston did not think the Alamo could be defended against a strong Mexican attack. VOICE TWO: In February, eighteen-thirty-six, Texas representatives were preparing to meet. A few days before the meeting was to open, a message arrived from San Antonio. A Mexican army, led by President Santa Anna himself, was attacking about one-hundred-eighty Texans at the Alamo. Houston’s orders to destroy the fort had not been obeyed. Texas soldiers were spread across the area. There was no help to send to the Alamo. The representatives decided that they must write a declaration of independence from Mexico. The declaration was signed on March second. Two days later, Sam Houston was elected commander-in-chief of the military forces of the Texas Republic. VOICE ONE: Houston said he would leave immediately for San Antonio. In two days, his Texas army grew to five-hundred men. However, help came too late for the men at the Alamo. Santa Anna’s forces captured the fort and killed every fighter there. The Mexican leader said death would be the punishment for every Texan who opposed him. Texans soon learned he meant what he said.Santa Anna’s forces captured more than three-hundred Texas soldiers near the town of Goliad. The soldiers surrendered when the Mexicans offered to treat them as prisoners of war and return them to the United States. Yet the Texans never saw freedom. They were marched away from town and shot to death. VOICE TWO: Houston’s army continued to grow. However, few of his men were trained to fight. Houston decided his only hope was to withdraw until his soldiers were better trained and had more equipment. He marched his small force east, just ahead of Santa Anna’s soldiers. Santa Anna and his force of one-thousand-two-hundred soldiers had camped on a flat grassy area near the San Jacinto River. On April twenty-first, eighteen-thirty-six, Houston and his soldiers fought the battle that would decide the future of Texas. VOICE ONE: The Texans formed a long line across the north end of the field. Then, they began moving toward the Mexican camp. Only a few meters from the Mexican defenses, the Texans fired. They shouted “Remember the Alamo!” and attacked the Mexican soldiers. The battle of San Jacinto lasted only about twenty minutes. The Mexicans were completely defeated. Only six Texans were killed and twenty-four others wounded. One of the wounded was Sam Houston. The Texans killed or captured hundreds of enemy soldiers. But General Santa Anna could not be found. VOICE TWO: Houston ordered the Texans to find Santa Anna. If the Mexican leader escaped, he could lead another army against Texas. The next day, a group of Texans found a small, sad-looking Mexican soldier. The Texans almost let him go. But when they brought this soldier near the other Mexican prisoners, there were shouts of, “El Presidente!” It was Santa Anna. Many of Houston’s men wanted to kill the Mexican leader. But Houston knew Santa Anna was more valuable alive than dead. Santa Anna was ordered to sign an agreement recognizing the independence of Texas. The Mexican leader was returned home. And Sam Houston became a hero. The town of Houston, Texas was named in his honor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The newly independent Lone Star Republic elected Sam Houston its first president in eighteen-thirty-six. He began to build a government. He appointed a cabinet. His government established courts and a mail service. However, there were many problems. Money had to be found to pay the costs of government. And there was trouble with the army. Soldiers were not happy with their food or their pay. Some threatened to overthrow the new government and attack Mexico. VOICE TWO: Houston visited the soldiers. He told them not to do anything that might hurt Texas. The soldiers obeyed. The Texas Congress approved a bill that would let the government borrow one-million dollars. Houston rejected the bill. He said only half this much was needed. After two years as president of the Republic of Texas, Houston had secured the safety of the border, established the money system and gained recognition by the United States government. Houston wanted Texas to become part of the United States. But northern states opposed statehood for Texas. They did so because of the dispute with the southern states over the question of slavery. As a new southern state, Texas would increase the number of states that supported slavery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-forty, Houston married Margaret Lea. They later had eight children. The next year, the people of Texas elected Sam Houston president again. At the time, the republic was deeply in debt. Houston ordered the Texas navy to return from Mexico. And he established the use of another kind of paper money, whose value was kept high. Mexican forces entered Texas again. Houston sent the Texas army against the Mexicans. The invaders were pushed back across the border. There was trouble with Mexico for the next several years. VOICE TWO: James Polk was elected president of the United States in eighteen-forty-four. Congress considered a resolution to make Texas a state. After much debate, the resolution was finally approved and signed into law. The Republic of Texas became the twenty-eighth state on December twenty-ninth, eighteen-forty-five. Sam Houston went to Washington to serve as one of the state’s first senators. He served as a United States senator for thirteen years. VOICE ONE: These were difficult times for the United States. The question of slavery was bitterly debated in Congress. The northern states demanded that slavery not be permitted in new states that joined the Union. The southern states demanded that slaves be permitted in the new states. In eighteen-fifty, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed a way to settle the differences. He urged both North and South to compromise to prevent the nation from being destroyed. His compromise was approved. Just four years later, however, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed a bill that would open all of the West to slavery. Sam Houston warned of terrible trouble if the bill passed. But it was approved. Houston was criticized in Texas for his opposition to it. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-fifty-nine, the people of Texas elected Sam Houston governor of the state. South Carolina proposed a meeting of southern states to discuss withdrawing from the United States. Most Texas lawmakers supported this action. However, Houston prevented Texas from sending representatives to the meeting. In eighteen-sixty-one, Abraham Lincoln became president of the United States. Many Texans still supported withdrawing from the United States. But Sam Houston urged his people to wait and see what kind of leader President Lincoln would be. Not all of them wanted to wait. Some called for a meeting to decide the future of Texas. VOICE ONE: But before that meeting took place, South Carolina and five other southern states withdrew from the United States. Houston again urged Texas not to withdraw. But delegates at the meeting voted to leave the Union. Then the delegates declared Texas independent, and voted to make it part of the new Confederate States of America. They also ordered all Texas officials to declare their loyalty to the Confederacy. Sam Houston refused. He said he loved Texas too much to bring civil war and bloodshed to the state. Houston was removed from office as governor. His public life was ended. He spent the next few years with his family and friends. Sam Houston died on July twenty-sixth, eighteen-sixty-three. The United States was in the middle of a bloody civil war. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Nicole Nichols. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Summer Camps
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 14, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Millions of American children attend summer camp. Some play sports. Others make music, learn to use a computer or take part in other activities. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Come along with us this week to summer camp, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Traditional American summer camps offer young people a chance to play many sports. These camps may be in the mountains. Or they may be in the woods, or at a lake. Other camps teach activities like painting or music. Or they teach computer programming or foreign languages. Children at all kinds of camps meet new friends. They learn new skills and develop independence. Some children go to camp during the day and return home at night. These places are called day camps. Children as young as four years old attend day camps. Others stay at camp all day and all night. Most children who attend overnight camp are between the ages of about six and sixteen. Children stay at an overnight camp for between one and eight weeks. Parents can pay less than one-hundred dollars a week for an overnight camp. Or they can pay more than seven-hundred dollars a week. VOICE TWO: Children from poor families might not have a chance to attend summer camp. The Fresh Air Fund is a well-known organization that gives children in New York City that chance. People around the country give money to support the Fresh Air Fund. Each summer, it serves about ten-thousand poor children from the city. It sends them to stay with families in the country or to five camps in New York State. VOICE ONE: Since eighteen-seventy-seven, the Fresh Air Fund has helped almost two-million of New York City's most needy children. These children do what they cannot do in the city. They breathe fresh air. They play on green grass. They swim in a lake. Some children begin to stay with the same family when they are very young and continue for a number of summers. Shaquille is an eight-year-old boy from the Bronx, a part of New York City. He has visited the same family in the state of Vermont for several summers. He especially enjoys playing and going to open-air activities with the family’s two children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Summer camps have become very important to millions of families. Many American women now work outside the home. Working parents need a place where their children can be cared for during the summer when they are not in school. Camps also help children develop independence. For most children, overnight camp is the only time during the year they are away from their parents. Camp lets them enjoy being with many other children. Campers live together in cloth tents or in wooden cabins. They eat meals together in a large dining room. VOICE ONE: But the first time at summer camp can sometimes be difficult. Children might not like the food. Or, they might not like to swim in a cold lake. They may not want to climb a hill on a hot day. Some new campers miss their parents very much. Also, some camps ban the use of electronic equipment and toys. Children who play electronic games and use wireless telephones may miss them. These children might enjoy a camp that permits these devices. But many families say their children need to learn more about nature. They say their children need a holiday from technology. VOICE TWO: The American Camping Association suggests that parents prepare children before sending them to camp. It advises parents to discuss what the camp will be like and what campers will need to know. For example, parents can show their children how to use a flashlight to find a bathroom at night. The American tradition of sending children to summer camp began more than one-hundred years ago. Frederick and Abigail Gunn started what was probably the first organized American camp. They operated a school for boys in the state of Connecticut. In eighteen-sixty-one, Mister and Missus Gunn took their students on a two-week trip. They walked to an area where they set up camp. The students fished, hunted and traveled by boat. VOICE ONE: Today, summer camps may be outdoor ones similar to those of Abigail and Frederick Gunn. For example, a camp in Forest Lake, Minnesota, centers its activities on nature. Campers at the Wildlife Science Center study the structure of groups, or packs, of wolves. But camps today may also be very different from those early fresh-air camps. For example, Pali Adventures summer camp in southern California offers several special interest camps in addition to more traditional ones. In one of these special camps, children twelve to sixteen years of age study food preparation with a professional chef. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are more than twelve-thousand camps in the United States. Some offer just one main activity. Children can play a single sport, like tennis, soccer, baseball or basketball. Young people who like the arts can learn about music, dance, art, acting or writing. Perhaps the best known camp for young artists is the Interlochen Arts Camp. It is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the state of Michigan. Its music program is especially well known. More than two-thousand young people are attending the arts camp this year. VOICE ONE: Camps that offer programs in science and environmental studies are popular, too. For example, the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, welcomes adults as well as children. Whole families can live together in a place like a real space station. They take part in activities similar to those carried out during space shuttle flights. There are also camps for older children who like wilderness adventure. Campers take long trips by bicycle or canoe. Or, they go rock climbing or ride horses. For example, since nineteen-forty-eight, boys and girls have explored the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Sanborn Western Camps. These are built more than two-thousand-six-hundred meters above sea level. Other summer camps in America help children learn about religion, help them lose weight, or help them develop their knowledge of technology. Thousands of young people attend computer camps in the United States. VOICE TWO: The nation also has many camps for sick or disabled children. At these camps, many children take part in traditional activities, but they also receive special medical care. Handi Kids in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, offers camp for children and young adults with physical or mental disorders. The campers enjoy water sports, arts, dance, music and other activities. A camp in the state of Connecticut offers fun for children with cancer and serious blood diseases. It is called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Actor Paul Newman started the first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in nineteen-eighty-eight. Since then others have been established in the United States and overseas. VOICE ONE: For many children in overnight camps across the United States, the day ends in a traditional way. They gather around the campfire to cook and eat a sweet dessert food called "s'mores." The campers cook marshmallows over the fire. They put the marshmallows and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. This food got its name because after campers eat one, they ask for "some more." As the fire dies down, the campers join in traditional songs like this one. (MUSIC) Chances are, the children will always remember the times they spent in the firelight at summer camp. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) Broadcast: July 14, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Millions of American children attend summer camp. Some play sports. Others make music, learn to use a computer or take part in other activities. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Come along with us this week to summer camp, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Traditional American summer camps offer young people a chance to play many sports. These camps may be in the mountains. Or they may be in the woods, or at a lake. Other camps teach activities like painting or music. Or they teach computer programming or foreign languages. Children at all kinds of camps meet new friends. They learn new skills and develop independence. Some children go to camp during the day and return home at night. These places are called day camps. Children as young as four years old attend day camps. Others stay at camp all day and all night. Most children who attend overnight camp are between the ages of about six and sixteen. Children stay at an overnight camp for between one and eight weeks. Parents can pay less than one-hundred dollars a week for an overnight camp. Or they can pay more than seven-hundred dollars a week. VOICE TWO: Children from poor families might not have a chance to attend summer camp. The Fresh Air Fund is a well-known organization that gives children in New York City that chance. People around the country give money to support the Fresh Air Fund. Each summer, it serves about ten-thousand poor children from the city. It sends them to stay with families in the country or to five camps in New York State. VOICE ONE: Since eighteen-seventy-seven, the Fresh Air Fund has helped almost two-million of New York City's most needy children. These children do what they cannot do in the city. They breathe fresh air. They play on green grass. They swim in a lake. Some children begin to stay with the same family when they are very young and continue for a number of summers. Shaquille is an eight-year-old boy from the Bronx, a part of New York City. He has visited the same family in the state of Vermont for several summers. He especially enjoys playing and going to open-air activities with the family’s two children. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Summer camps have become very important to millions of families. Many American women now work outside the home. Working parents need a place where their children can be cared for during the summer when they are not in school. Camps also help children develop independence. For most children, overnight camp is the only time during the year they are away from their parents. Camp lets them enjoy being with many other children. Campers live together in cloth tents or in wooden cabins. They eat meals together in a large dining room. VOICE ONE: But the first time at summer camp can sometimes be difficult. Children might not like the food. Or, they might not like to swim in a cold lake. They may not want to climb a hill on a hot day. Some new campers miss their parents very much. Also, some camps ban the use of electronic equipment and toys. Children who play electronic games and use wireless telephones may miss them. These children might enjoy a camp that permits these devices. But many families say their children need to learn more about nature. They say their children need a holiday from technology. VOICE TWO: The American Camping Association suggests that parents prepare children before sending them to camp. It advises parents to discuss what the camp will be like and what campers will need to know. For example, parents can show their children how to use a flashlight to find a bathroom at night. The American tradition of sending children to summer camp began more than one-hundred years ago. Frederick and Abigail Gunn started what was probably the first organized American camp. They operated a school for boys in the state of Connecticut. In eighteen-sixty-one, Mister and Missus Gunn took their students on a two-week trip. They walked to an area where they set up camp. The students fished, hunted and traveled by boat. VOICE ONE: Today, summer camps may be outdoor ones similar to those of Abigail and Frederick Gunn. For example, a camp in Forest Lake, Minnesota, centers its activities on nature. Campers at the Wildlife Science Center study the structure of groups, or packs, of wolves. But camps today may also be very different from those early fresh-air camps. For example, Pali Adventures summer camp in southern California offers several special interest camps in addition to more traditional ones. In one of these special camps, children twelve to sixteen years of age study food preparation with a professional chef. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: There are more than twelve-thousand camps in the United States. Some offer just one main activity. Children can play a single sport, like tennis, soccer, baseball or basketball. Young people who like the arts can learn about music, dance, art, acting or writing. Perhaps the best known camp for young artists is the Interlochen Arts Camp. It is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the state of Michigan. Its music program is especially well known. More than two-thousand young people are attending the arts camp this year. VOICE ONE: Camps that offer programs in science and environmental studies are popular, too. For example, the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, welcomes adults as well as children. Whole families can live together in a place like a real space station. They take part in activities similar to those carried out during space shuttle flights. There are also camps for older children who like wilderness adventure. Campers take long trips by bicycle or canoe. Or, they go rock climbing or ride horses. For example, since nineteen-forty-eight, boys and girls have explored the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Sanborn Western Camps. These are built more than two-thousand-six-hundred meters above sea level. Other summer camps in America help children learn about religion, help them lose weight, or help them develop their knowledge of technology. Thousands of young people attend computer camps in the United States. VOICE TWO: The nation also has many camps for sick or disabled children. At these camps, many children take part in traditional activities, but they also receive special medical care. Handi Kids in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, offers camp for children and young adults with physical or mental disorders. The campers enjoy water sports, arts, dance, music and other activities. A camp in the state of Connecticut offers fun for children with cancer and serious blood diseases. It is called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Actor Paul Newman started the first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in nineteen-eighty-eight. Since then others have been established in the United States and overseas. VOICE ONE: For many children in overnight camps across the United States, the day ends in a traditional way. They gather around the campfire to cook and eat a sweet dessert food called "s'mores." The campers cook marshmallows over the fire. They put the marshmallows and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. This food got its name because after campers eat one, they ask for "some more." As the fire dies down, the campers join in traditional songs like this one. (MUSIC) Chances are, the children will always remember the times they spent in the firelight at summer camp. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Oxfam
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 14, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. From time to time we examine different organizations involved in development and relief work around the world. This week we tell about Oxfam. Oxfam is an independent British organization. The group works in poor communities with local organizations. It says it tries to find permanent answers to poverty and suffering. It says every human being has the right to self-respect and a chance to succeed. Oxfam was formed in nineteen-forty-two. The organization was part of an effort in Britain to get food and medical supplies to starving people in Greece. At that time, Nazi Germans occupied the country. Allied forces had ordered a naval blockade in the Mediterranean. Groups formed in Britain to urge the government to let humanitarian aid get through. One of the groups was called the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. After World War Two, Oxfam decided to continue on and extend its aid to more than just war victims. It saw a need for humanitarian relief in all parts of the world. Today, Oxfam has programs in more than seventy developing countries. It says that in each case, it employs local people who know the issues affecting their communities. Oxfam also carries out education campaigns and policy work. It says it wants to make sure governments and international organizations understand the problems that face the world’s poor. Oxfam depends on money from supporters to operate. A committee governs the organization with the help of a lower-level group. The members of the two committees are not paid. A chief executive supervises the daily operations of Oxfam. Over the past fifty years, Oxfam has carried out numerous projects. It has helped communities to set up schools. The organization will pay for building classrooms and for equipment and teacher-training programs. Oxfam has helped communities improve their health services and water supplies. And it trains local people to teach others in their villages about cleanliness and healthy foods. Oxfam says poverty is not a fact of life but instead an injustice that must be overcome. For more than half a century, it has been working alongside other international aid organizations to help make this happen. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-13-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Bush Visits Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 12, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. President Bush was in Africa this week to discuss the AIDS crisis, trade, African conflicts and the war on terrorism. He traveled to Senegal, South Africa, Botswana and Uganda, with a final stop in Nigeria. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday in South Africa that President Bush would decide soon whether to send peacekeeping troops to Liberia to enforce a cease-fire. Rebels have been fighting forces loyal to Liberian President Charles Taylor in and around the capital, Monrovia. The recent fighting has killed hundreds of civilians and displaced thousands of others. Liberia has had conflict for much of the past fourteen years. The unrest has hurt the economy and left millions of people starving and homeless. President Bush has said the United States would work with the United Nations and West African countries to help end the fighting. But he said Mister Taylor must leave office first. Mister Taylor has said he will leave only after American soldiers arrive in the country, to avoid further unrest. The rebels have said that only Mister Taylor’s resignation would end the past four years of conflict. Nigeria has offered Mister Taylor exile. It also promised not to surrender him to face a war crimes trial in Sierra Leone, if he would stay out of Liberian politics. Mister Taylor is accused of supplying weapons to rebels across the border in Sierra Leone in return for diamonds. Negotiators meeting in Ghana Wednesday said West African nations plan to send one-thousand troops to Liberia within two weeks. Mister Powell said Mister Bush’s decision whether to send troops would be based on reports from American military advisers studying conditions there. Liberia has close economic and cultural ties with the United States. It was settled in the early eighteen-hundreds by freed American slaves. They lived on land bought by a group of white Americans for the purpose of returning freed slaves to Africa. U-N Secretary General Kofi Anan has repeatedly called on the United States to intervene in Liberia. He goes to Washington Monday to meet with President Bush to discuss the issue. The United States has negotiated agreements for military cooperation with several African governments and provides anti-terrorism aid to others. But much of President Bush’s trip centered on his fifteen-thousand-million dollar program to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Uganda and Botswana are two of the countries to receive aid. Uganda’s aggressive prevention and treatment programs have reduced the infection rate to about five-percent of the population. Botswana, however, has one of the highest rates in the world. Almost forty-percent of adults have H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. President Bush praised both countries for taking strong steps to deal with the AIDS crisis. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 15, 2003: Resistant Drugs / Protecting Pregnant Women from Malaria / An Iranian Tragedy
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (Photos - World Health Organization) (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report on the problem of drug resistance. We tell about ways to protect pregnant women from malaria. And, later: their dream was simply to look each other in the face -- the tragedy of two sisters from Iran. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Two diseases common in children in developing countries can be treated and prevented. Yet the fight against malaria and diarrhea has become a struggle for health workers. One of the main reasons is the incorrect use of medicines to treat these diseases. Diarrhea is an intestinal disease. It can be caused by food that has gone bad or was not cooked well, or by water that is not clean. It is a major killer of children under the age of five. Survivors often face problems with growth and development. Children may get diarrhea several times a year. As soon as they appear to have it, antibiotic medicines are often given. Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria. But experts say antibiotics are usually not the best treatment for diarrhea. In fact, using antibiotics when they are not really needed creates another problem -- anti-microbial resistance. Germs learn to fight medicines that are used too often. VOICE TWO: Diarrhea usually kills through the loss of water from the body. So it is important to get enough fluid. There are special powders to mix with water to help children regain their strength. One product is a solution of sodium and glucose called oral rehydration salts. Sodium and glucose are more commonly known as salt and sugar. As a result of this product, the World Health Organization says the death rate which had been five million a year has dropped sharply. Last year the W-H-O released oral rehydration salts with a new formula. The agency says the low-sodium, low-glucose formulation will reduce the severity of diarrhea and vomiting. A group called the Rehydration Project has more information on its Web site. The address is rehydrate dot o-r-g. Experts say breastfeeding reduces the risk of diarrhea in babies. And improving cleanliness in homes and communities -- such as washing hands before touching food -- can also help in prevention. VOICE ONE: The problem of anti-microbial resistance is even greater with malaria. Malaria kills seven-hundred thousand children a year. Most are in Africa. Malaria is caused by mosquito bites that inject a parasite organism into the body. In many countries, anti-malarial medicines are easy to find without a doctor's orders. People often take them as soon as they get a fever, just in case they might have malaria. For many years chloroquine [CHLO-roh-quin] has been used. But it has been used too often. The parasites that cause malaria are able to fight this medicine. In nineteen-ninety-one, a study at a hospital in Kenya looked at children who died of malaria. It found that the death rate for those treated with chloroquine was twenty-five percent. The death rate for those treated with other drugs was ten percent. Doctors say medicines that still work include a combination of chloroquine and a drug called pyrimethamine [py-ri-METH-a-mine]. VOICE TWO: There are even newer drugs. But because of the cost these are not yet widely used. Experts in the fight against anti-microbial resistance say people should ask questions about the medicines they are given. These experts say to take antibiotics only when a person knows the cause of a sickness -- and only when antibiotics would be the best way to cure it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In some parts of Africa, adults have developed immunity to the mosquito bites that cause malaria. This means they do not get sick. But for women who are pregnant, the parasite can still affect their unborn baby. It can lead to babies who do not weigh enough to live. The problem is even worse for pregnant women who also have the AIDS virus, H-I-V. They are likely to become very sick themselves. There are several ways to protect pregnant women from malaria. Researchers say nearly seventy-percent of pregnant women in Africa go to a health center or a doctor at least once while they are pregnant. The percentage of such visits is highest in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda and Kenya. It is lowest in Ethiopia and Niger. A medicine called SP, or sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, can be taken during the woman's medical visit. VOICE TWO: Doctors say all pregnant women in areas where malaria is a serious problem should take SP at least once after their unborn baby moves for the first time. Studies by the World Health Organization show that women who take SP at least two times during their pregnancy give birth to healthier babies. Experts say it is best to take SP once each month until the baby is born. It is also important for pregnant women to sleep under nets treated with chemicals that kill mosquitoes. Babies and children should also sleep under these nets. There are other ways to help protect pregnant women from malaria infection. Mosquitoes will come to places filled with water. So use dirt or rocks to fill in holes or other places where water might collect. Cut down bushes next to homes. And keep food containers covered. In two-thousand, many African leaders signed the Abuja Declaration to “roll back malaria.” The goal is to make sure that by two-thousand-five, sixty percent of pregnant women in Africa receive treatment to prevent malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ladan and Laleh Bijani wanted to live the rest of their lives normally. For twenty-nine years the Iranian sisters were joined at the head. Yet they were lawyers. They were famous. But what they wanted, they said, was to be able to look each other in the eyes without using a mirror. The Bijani sisters had separate brains but shared an important blood vessel in the head. Doctors in the past had told them an attempt at separation was too dangerous. But Raffles Hospital in Singapore agreed to form an international team of experts to help them reach their dream. VOICE TWO: The operation last week in Singapore was the first known attempt to separate adults joined at the head. It involved cutting and re-building the back part of the most important blood passage in the brain. The sagittal sinus vein extends from the forehead across the top to the back of the head. The doctors planned to give the vein to one of the twins and build a new one for the other with a vein taken from the leg. The hospital said Ladan and Laleh began to lose blood pressure after about fifty hours of surgery. The two sisters died of blood loss within ninety minutes of each other. People in Iran and Singapore cried at the news. VOICE ONE: Some family members did not agree with the decision to separate the twenty-nine-year-old sisters from Firouzabad, in southern Iran. But people who knew Ladan and Laleh say the two understood the chances. The doctors involved said the women knew the risks of possible brain damage and death. But the doctors also say that tests done before the operation showed a medical reason for the surgery. These found that the pressure inside the women's brains was two times what it should have been. The doctors said they felt that, sooner or later, the women's health would be in danger. VOICE TWO: Some doctors who were not involved in this case questioned the decision to operate. These doctors say patients in a situation like the Bijani sisters would not have wanted to believe the warnings. They would only have wanted to believe that the operation would succeed. Experts in medical ethics, though, say the doctors in Singapore appear to have acted correctly in their attempt to help the women. They say the hospital gathered a team that could do the operation and had a reasonable chance of success. In the end, they say, the decision had to come not from the doctors, but from the patients. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report on the problem of drug resistance. We tell about ways to protect pregnant women from malaria. And, later: their dream was simply to look each other in the face -- the tragedy of two sisters from Iran. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Two diseases common in children in developing countries can be treated and prevented. Yet the fight against malaria and diarrhea has become a struggle for health workers. One of the main reasons is the incorrect use of medicines to treat these diseases. Diarrhea is an intestinal disease. It can be caused by food that has gone bad or was not cooked well, or by water that is not clean. It is a major killer of children under the age of five. Survivors often face problems with growth and development. Children may get diarrhea several times a year. As soon as they appear to have it, antibiotic medicines are often given. Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria. But experts say antibiotics are usually not the best treatment for diarrhea. In fact, using antibiotics when they are not really needed creates another problem -- anti-microbial resistance. Germs learn to fight medicines that are used too often. VOICE TWO: Diarrhea usually kills through the loss of water from the body. So it is important to get enough fluid. There are special powders to mix with water to help children regain their strength. One product is a solution of sodium and glucose called oral rehydration salts. Sodium and glucose are more commonly known as salt and sugar. As a result of this product, the World Health Organization says the death rate which had been five million a year has dropped sharply. Last year the W-H-O released oral rehydration salts with a new formula. The agency says the low-sodium, low-glucose formulation will reduce the severity of diarrhea and vomiting. A group called the Rehydration Project has more information on its Web site. The address is rehydrate dot o-r-g. Experts say breastfeeding reduces the risk of diarrhea in babies. And improving cleanliness in homes and communities -- such as washing hands before touching food -- can also help in prevention. VOICE ONE: The problem of anti-microbial resistance is even greater with malaria. Malaria kills seven-hundred thousand children a year. Most are in Africa. Malaria is caused by mosquito bites that inject a parasite organism into the body. In many countries, anti-malarial medicines are easy to find without a doctor's orders. People often take them as soon as they get a fever, just in case they might have malaria. For many years chloroquine [CHLO-roh-quin] has been used. But it has been used too often. The parasites that cause malaria are able to fight this medicine. In nineteen-ninety-one, a study at a hospital in Kenya looked at children who died of malaria. It found that the death rate for those treated with chloroquine was twenty-five percent. The death rate for those treated with other drugs was ten percent. Doctors say medicines that still work include a combination of chloroquine and a drug called pyrimethamine [py-ri-METH-a-mine]. VOICE TWO: There are even newer drugs. But because of the cost these are not yet widely used. Experts in the fight against anti-microbial resistance say people should ask questions about the medicines they are given. These experts say to take antibiotics only when a person knows the cause of a sickness -- and only when antibiotics would be the best way to cure it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In some parts of Africa, adults have developed immunity to the mosquito bites that cause malaria. This means they do not get sick. But for women who are pregnant, the parasite can still affect their unborn baby. It can lead to babies who do not weigh enough to live. The problem is even worse for pregnant women who also have the AIDS virus, H-I-V. They are likely to become very sick themselves. There are several ways to protect pregnant women from malaria. Researchers say nearly seventy-percent of pregnant women in Africa go to a health center or a doctor at least once while they are pregnant. The percentage of such visits is highest in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda and Kenya. It is lowest in Ethiopia and Niger. A medicine called SP, or sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, can be taken during the woman's medical visit. VOICE TWO: Doctors say all pregnant women in areas where malaria is a serious problem should take SP at least once after their unborn baby moves for the first time. Studies by the World Health Organization show that women who take SP at least two times during their pregnancy give birth to healthier babies. Experts say it is best to take SP once each month until the baby is born. It is also important for pregnant women to sleep under nets treated with chemicals that kill mosquitoes. Babies and children should also sleep under these nets. There are other ways to help protect pregnant women from malaria infection. Mosquitoes will come to places filled with water. So use dirt or rocks to fill in holes or other places where water might collect. Cut down bushes next to homes. And keep food containers covered. In two-thousand, many African leaders signed the Abuja Declaration to “roll back malaria.” The goal is to make sure that by two-thousand-five, sixty percent of pregnant women in Africa receive treatment to prevent malaria. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Ladan and Laleh Bijani wanted to live the rest of their lives normally. For twenty-nine years the Iranian sisters were joined at the head. Yet they were lawyers. They were famous. But what they wanted, they said, was to be able to look each other in the eyes without using a mirror. The Bijani sisters had separate brains but shared an important blood vessel in the head. Doctors in the past had told them an attempt at separation was too dangerous. But Raffles Hospital in Singapore agreed to form an international team of experts to help them reach their dream. VOICE TWO: The operation last week in Singapore was the first known attempt to separate adults joined at the head. It involved cutting and re-building the back part of the most important blood passage in the brain. The sagittal sinus vein extends from the forehead across the top to the back of the head. The doctors planned to give the vein to one of the twins and build a new one for the other with a vein taken from the leg. The hospital said Ladan and Laleh began to lose blood pressure after about fifty hours of surgery. The two sisters died of blood loss within ninety minutes of each other. People in Iran and Singapore cried at the news. VOICE ONE: Some family members did not agree with the decision to separate the twenty-nine-year-old sisters from Firouzabad, in southern Iran. But people who knew Ladan and Laleh say the two understood the chances. The doctors involved said the women knew the risks of possible brain damage and death. But the doctors also say that tests done before the operation showed a medical reason for the surgery. These found that the pressure inside the women's brains was two times what it should have been. The doctors said they felt that, sooner or later, the women's health would be in danger. VOICE TWO: Some doctors who were not involved in this case questioned the decision to operate. These doctors say patients in a situation like the Bijani sisters would not have wanted to believe the warnings. They would only have wanted to believe that the operation would succeed. Experts in medical ethics, though, say the doctors in Singapore appear to have acted correctly in their attempt to help the women. They say the hospital gathered a team that could do the operation and had a reasonable chance of success. In the end, they say, the decision had to come not from the doctors, but from the patients. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - EU Lifts Ban on Genetically Modified Foods, but Adds Conditions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. On July second, the European Parliament agreed to let new genetically changed products enter the European Union. Several E-U nations temporarily halted the import of new genetically changed foods five years ago. The law approved this month makes an end to this action possible. However, it creates new requirements. Parliament voted in Brussels to expand the requirements to identify genetically changed products. Under the new rules, all foods that contain point-nine percent or more of genetically modified organisms must be labeled. Even foods produced with such material but without any in the final product must be labeled. So must all genetically changed animal feed. The European Union approved a number of genetically changed products in the nineteen-nineties. But some countries put in place an unofficial ban in nineteen-ninety-eight. The United States has repeatedly criticized the ban. On June twenty-sixth, Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman spoke to reporters. They said the United States would push forward with a case against the E-U in the World Trade Organization. Mister Zoellick said the E-U ban has hurt not only American farmers but also hungry people in Africa. He said "irresponsible" statements about food safety have caused some African countries to refuse American food aid. Mister Zoellick said a number of countries are joining the effort to end the E-U policy. He also pointed to studies that show genetically changed foods to be safe. The vote by the European Parliament has cleared the way to remove the ban. But this is not the end of the issue. The E-U is also requiring that full and complete records be kept on genetically changed products. The E-U calls this “traceablility.” It means that documents must show how genetically changed products moved through the food supply. American suppliers say the new E-U requirements are too costly. They say they are also concerned that Europeans will not want to buy foods labeled as genetically changed. There are no such requirements in the United States. European Union officials say the issue is not about safety. They say Europeans want to be able to choose what they eat. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - New Evidence for Mediterranean Diet
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 16, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A study done in Greece says people can live longer and healthier lives if they eat what is known as the Mediterranean diet. Foods included in this way of eating are vegetables, fruit, beans, fish, whole grains and olive oil. Such a diet generally gets about forty percent of its calories from olive oil and other fats that are considered healthy. Researchers from the University of Athens and Harvard University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts did the study. They published the results in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved twenty-two-thousand healthy people in Greece. They were between the ages of twenty and eighty-six. The researchers questioned each of them about what they ate and how much they took part in physical activity. The researchers gave them points for exercise and for each part of the Mediterranean diet they followed. People who ate vegetables, beans, fruit, nuts, whole grains and fish got higher numbers than people who did not eat these foods. People also received a point for drinking some alcohol -- about one glass of wine a day for women, two glasses for men. They got no points if they drank more or less than that. The study lasted for a period of four years. During that time, two-hundred-seventy-five people died. Thirty-five percent of those people died of cancer. Twenty percent died of heart disease. The researchers found that those who followed the Mediterranean diet were less likely to die than those who did not. Also, the followers of the Mediterranean diet were less likely to die of heart disease and cancer. And the study showed exercise to be important. The people who exercised at least one hour a day had a twenty-eight percent less chance of dying than those who did not exercise. The study also showed a link between following the Mediterranean diet and living to an old age. And it confirmed earlier studies that had suggested the effectiveness of such a diet. Researchers say it is not just one or two foods in the Mediterranean diet that make the difference -- it is all the foods together. So they say people should eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, beans and fish. They should use olive oil in their cooking. And they should exercise every day. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS -Space Digest
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. On our program today, we tell about the American space agency’s plans to help young students learn about science and mathematics. We tell about a young female scientist who works with the first living organisms to enter space. We report about a human-like mechanical device that may soon work in space. But first, we begin with a report about the launch of the second of two Mars exploration vehicles. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The American space agency, NASA, launched its second Mars Exploration Rover vehicle last Monday night from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft separated successfully from its rocket eighty-three minutes later, after it had flown out of Earth orbit. It is now on a path to Mars. The name of this exploration vehicle is “Opportunity.” The first exploration vehicle is called “Spirit.” It has traveled more than eighty-million kilometers since its launch June tenth. The launch of Opportunity came after two weeks of delays and postponements caused by bad weather and technical problems. VOICE TWO: NASA has chosen two scientifically interesting landing areas for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers to explore on the surface of Mars. Opportunity is to arrive at the area on Mars called Meridiani Planum on January twenty-fifth, two-thousand-four. The landing area shows evidence of minerals that usually form in liquid water. This is close to the Martian equator and halfway around the planet from the landing area for the Spirit rover. Spirit is expected to land in an area on Mars called the Gusev Crater three weeks before Opportunity. This is an area that may have once been a lake. It is fifteen degrees south of Mars’ equator. Each Mars Exploration Rover will examine its landing area for evidence of past liquid water activity. Each will also look for past environmental conditions that could have supported life. NASA officials say the two areas are very different and will provide two kinds of evidence about liquid water in the history of Mars. VOICE ONE: Pete Theisinger (TIE-sing-er) is the project manager for the Opportunity exploration rover vehicle. After its launch he said: “A major step is behind us. There are still very difficult parts of this flight ahead of us, but we have two spacecraft on the way to Mars, and that is wonderful.” VOICE TWO: Astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas have spent much of the summer testing mechanical machines that are similar to humans. Machines such as these are usually called robots. Because they will one day work in space, NASA has named them Robonauts. The Robonauts look something like humans. Each has a head, body, two arms and two hands. The Robonauts have been designed to work in space or on other planets as members of a team with living astronauts. Robonauts are controlled by an astronaut inside the space craft or by a person on Earth who uses radio signals to make the Robonaut perform its work. VOICE ONE: Robert Ambrose is the manager of the Robonaut project. He says two astronauts usually work together when they are outside a spacecraft. He says if the same two astronauts each work with a Robonaut controlled by another astronaut, they can do almost two times the amount of work. Mister Ambrose says each astronaut and a Robonaut would be a team. During the summer tests, NASA Astronaut Nancy Currie was the team leader of several Robonauts. Mizz Currie took part in a test to build a large structure made of aluminum. Mizz Currie and her Robonaut helpers built the structure several times. It took less time to build each time. When the job was complete, the team placed electric wires inside the structure. The Robonauts took the wire out of its package and placed it correctly in the structure. Mizz Currie connected the wires. VOICE TWO: Then the officials carried out an emergency test. They told Mizz Currie to take the necessary steps to remove a dangerous chemical from the protective clothing she would wear in space. She used a special brush to remove the chemical. Then, the Robonauts used the brush to remove the chemical from areas Mizz Currie could not reach. Mizz Currie said the tests were successful. She said astronauts will think about using teams of Robonauts to help in the future when they work outside their space craft. VOICE ONE: Long before astronauts first entered the International Space Station, organisms were already living there. These organisms can only be seen using a microscope. Most are harmless. However, some could be dangerous if not controlled. They could attack the space station and its crew.These first living space travelers are microbes. Microbes include viruses, bacteria and fungi. Monsi Roman is the chief microbiologist for the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems project. She works at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Mizz Roman says microbes were waiting for the first space station crew when they arrived. The microbes were attached to the station's equipment. They were left there by the people who had worked to make different parts of the space station. Mizz Roman says most microbes are not a threat. She says each microbe is different. Some microbes even help humans. For example, microbes help us digest our food. However, if some kinds are not controlled they can reproduce and eat many kinds of materials. VOICE TWO: The space station was designed and built using materials that can resist microbes. Temperature and the water in the space station’s atmosphere are controlled to slow or stop the growth of microbes. However Mizz Roman must work like a detective to find out what microbes will do in different situations and in different areas of the space station. She also works to make sure the microbes do not become a threat. To do this she closely studies the space station’s air supply and water system. Mizz Roman grew up on the island of Puerto Rico. She says she never dreamed she would be a scientist working to guarantee safe water and air for astronauts. She says working at NASA is great fun. She says the most exciting thing is watching the International Space Station develop from drawings on paper to a real home and work place in space. VOICE ONE: NASA has begun a major new education program. NASA announced its Explorer Schools Program recently at a meeting in Seattle, Washington. The purpose of the program is to interest young children in science and mathematics. NASA’s Education Enterprise supports the program in cooperation with the National Science Teachers Association. The program will be a three-year effort that links NASA and fifty NASA Explorer Schools across the United States. The fifty schools are in thirty states. Eighty percent of the schools are in areas where the people are economically poor. Seventy-five percent of the schools are in minority communities. Of the fifty schools, fifty-eight percent are in both poor and minority areas. VOICE TWO The NASA Explorer Schools Program will begin with a “back-to-school” program for teachers. Science and mathematics teachers will be invited to attend special classes at NASA centers. NASA experts will help the teachers learn new teaching tools to make science, mathematics and technology more enjoyable to students. The students will learn new things using classroom teaching linked with educational technology. For example, NASA Explorer Schools students will be able to talk to people in far away places. Guest speakers will appear in classrooms electronically with the use of digital technology. The schools will be able to do this with the help of special technology to help them talk to space explorers. Adena Williams Loston is NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education. She says NASA’s goal is to help children learn how exciting science and technology can be. NASA and the teachers will work together to make learning science and math more interesting and fun. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: July 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. On our program today, we tell about the American space agency’s plans to help young students learn about science and mathematics. We tell about a young female scientist who works with the first living organisms to enter space. We report about a human-like mechanical device that may soon work in space. But first, we begin with a report about the launch of the second of two Mars exploration vehicles. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The American space agency, NASA, launched its second Mars Exploration Rover vehicle last Monday night from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft separated successfully from its rocket eighty-three minutes later, after it had flown out of Earth orbit. It is now on a path to Mars. The name of this exploration vehicle is “Opportunity.” The first exploration vehicle is called “Spirit.” It has traveled more than eighty-million kilometers since its launch June tenth. The launch of Opportunity came after two weeks of delays and postponements caused by bad weather and technical problems. VOICE TWO: NASA has chosen two scientifically interesting landing areas for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers to explore on the surface of Mars. Opportunity is to arrive at the area on Mars called Meridiani Planum on January twenty-fifth, two-thousand-four. The landing area shows evidence of minerals that usually form in liquid water. This is close to the Martian equator and halfway around the planet from the landing area for the Spirit rover. Spirit is expected to land in an area on Mars called the Gusev Crater three weeks before Opportunity. This is an area that may have once been a lake. It is fifteen degrees south of Mars’ equator. Each Mars Exploration Rover will examine its landing area for evidence of past liquid water activity. Each will also look for past environmental conditions that could have supported life. NASA officials say the two areas are very different and will provide two kinds of evidence about liquid water in the history of Mars. VOICE ONE: Pete Theisinger (TIE-sing-er) is the project manager for the Opportunity exploration rover vehicle. After its launch he said: “A major step is behind us. There are still very difficult parts of this flight ahead of us, but we have two spacecraft on the way to Mars, and that is wonderful.” VOICE TWO: Astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas have spent much of the summer testing mechanical machines that are similar to humans. Machines such as these are usually called robots. Because they will one day work in space, NASA has named them Robonauts. The Robonauts look something like humans. Each has a head, body, two arms and two hands. The Robonauts have been designed to work in space or on other planets as members of a team with living astronauts. Robonauts are controlled by an astronaut inside the space craft or by a person on Earth who uses radio signals to make the Robonaut perform its work. VOICE ONE: Robert Ambrose is the manager of the Robonaut project. He says two astronauts usually work together when they are outside a spacecraft. He says if the same two astronauts each work with a Robonaut controlled by another astronaut, they can do almost two times the amount of work. Mister Ambrose says each astronaut and a Robonaut would be a team. During the summer tests, NASA Astronaut Nancy Currie was the team leader of several Robonauts. Mizz Currie took part in a test to build a large structure made of aluminum. Mizz Currie and her Robonaut helpers built the structure several times. It took less time to build each time. When the job was complete, the team placed electric wires inside the structure. The Robonauts took the wire out of its package and placed it correctly in the structure. Mizz Currie connected the wires. VOICE TWO: Then the officials carried out an emergency test. They told Mizz Currie to take the necessary steps to remove a dangerous chemical from the protective clothing she would wear in space. She used a special brush to remove the chemical. Then, the Robonauts used the brush to remove the chemical from areas Mizz Currie could not reach. Mizz Currie said the tests were successful. She said astronauts will think about using teams of Robonauts to help in the future when they work outside their space craft. VOICE ONE: Long before astronauts first entered the International Space Station, organisms were already living there. These organisms can only be seen using a microscope. Most are harmless. However, some could be dangerous if not controlled. They could attack the space station and its crew.These first living space travelers are microbes. Microbes include viruses, bacteria and fungi. Monsi Roman is the chief microbiologist for the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems project. She works at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Mizz Roman says microbes were waiting for the first space station crew when they arrived. The microbes were attached to the station's equipment. They were left there by the people who had worked to make different parts of the space station. Mizz Roman says most microbes are not a threat. She says each microbe is different. Some microbes even help humans. For example, microbes help us digest our food. However, if some kinds are not controlled they can reproduce and eat many kinds of materials. VOICE TWO: The space station was designed and built using materials that can resist microbes. Temperature and the water in the space station’s atmosphere are controlled to slow or stop the growth of microbes. However Mizz Roman must work like a detective to find out what microbes will do in different situations and in different areas of the space station. She also works to make sure the microbes do not become a threat. To do this she closely studies the space station’s air supply and water system. Mizz Roman grew up on the island of Puerto Rico. She says she never dreamed she would be a scientist working to guarantee safe water and air for astronauts. She says working at NASA is great fun. She says the most exciting thing is watching the International Space Station develop from drawings on paper to a real home and work place in space. VOICE ONE: NASA has begun a major new education program. NASA announced its Explorer Schools Program recently at a meeting in Seattle, Washington. The purpose of the program is to interest young children in science and mathematics. NASA’s Education Enterprise supports the program in cooperation with the National Science Teachers Association. The program will be a three-year effort that links NASA and fifty NASA Explorer Schools across the United States. The fifty schools are in thirty states. Eighty percent of the schools are in areas where the people are economically poor. Seventy-five percent of the schools are in minority communities. Of the fifty schools, fifty-eight percent are in both poor and minority areas. VOICE TWO The NASA Explorer Schools Program will begin with a “back-to-school” program for teachers. Science and mathematics teachers will be invited to attend special classes at NASA centers. NASA experts will help the teachers learn new teaching tools to make science, mathematics and technology more enjoyable to students. The students will learn new things using classroom teaching linked with educational technology. For example, NASA Explorer Schools students will be able to talk to people in far away places. Guest speakers will appear in classrooms electronically with the use of digital technology. The schools will be able to do this with the help of special technology to help them talk to space explorers. Adena Williams Loston is NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education. She says NASA’s goal is to help children learn how exciting science and technology can be. NASA and the teachers will work together to make learning science and math more interesting and fun. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 16, 2003: Writing The Constitution, Part 5
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Gordon Gaippe. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national executive. Delegates spent several weeks debating details of the position and powers. The delegates decided the executive would be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. They decided he could veto laws. And they decided he could be removed from office if found guilty of serious crimes. The delegates did not call the executive 'president'. That name for America's leader would be used later. However, we will use it now to make our story easier to understand. VOICE ONE: Another major issue debated by the convention was a national judiciary: a federal system of courts and judges. The delegates knew a lot about the issue. Thirty-four of them were lawyers. Eight were judges in their home states. One question hung heavy in the air. The states had their own system of courts and judges. Did the national government need them, too? VOICE TWO: Several delegates said no. Roger Sherman of Connecticut said existing state courts were enough. In addition, he said, a system of national courts would be too costly. John Rutledge of South Carolina opposed a national system of lower courts. But he argued for a national Supreme Court. The convention voted for both. There would be one Supreme Court and a system of lower courts. These national courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States. The system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws. VOICE ONE: The next question concerned the appointment of national judges. Some delegates believed judges should be appointed by the national legislature. Others believed they should be appointed by the president. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued in support of having one person name judges. He said experience showed that large bodies could not make appointments fairly or openly. John Rutledge disagreed strongly. By no means, he said, should the president appoint judges. He said that method looked too much like monarchy. Benjamin Franklin then told a funny little story. In Scotland, Franklin said, he understood that judges were appointed by lawyers. They always chose the very best lawyer to be a judge. Then they divided his business among themselves. VOICE TWO: The delegates voted on the issue. They agreed only to create a Supreme Court. Details of the system were left to the national legislature and the president. The legislature could decide how many judges would sit on the Supreme Court. The president would appoint the judges. The legislature could establish lower courts from time to time. The president would appoint those judges, too. VOICE ONE: Throughout the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, the Philadelphia convention based its debates on a plan of government offered by delegates from Virginia. But the Virginia Plan was not the only one offered. Another plan came from New Jersey. New Jersey delegate William Paterson presented the plan about a month after the convention began. The other delegates saw immediately that it was directly opposed to the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan talked of a national government. Under it, a national legislature, executive and judiciary would have supreme power over the states. The New Jersey Plan talked about a federal government. Under it, each state would keep its own independent powers over the union of states. VOICE TWO: The New Jersey Plan proposed some changes in the existing Articles of Confederation. It did not propose a completely new system of government. Under the New Jersey Plan, the federal government would have a legislature with just one house. Each state would have one vote in the legislature. Big states and little states would be equal. The federal government would have an executive of more than one person. It would not have a system of lower federal courts. And its powers would come from the states...not the people. VOICE ONE: Supporters of the New Jersey Plan then talked about the true purpose of the Philadelphia convention. They said the states had sent delegates to discuss changes in the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, they said, did not have the right to throw the Articles away. If the union under the Articles is radically wrong, one said, let us return to our states. Let our states give us more powers to negotiate. Let us not take these powers upon ourselves. VOICE TWO: Then James Wilson of Pennsylvania spoke. He explained his own idea about the purpose of the convention. Its instructions, he said, were to reach final agreement on nothing. But it could propose and discuss anything. Wilson also questioned the delegates' right to speak for the people. Is it not true, he said, that the opinions of one's friends are commonly mistaken for the opinions of the general population? He noted that some delegates firmly believed the people would never accept a national government. They would never give up their state's rights. Wilson was not so sure. "Why should a national government be unpopular?" he asked. "Has it less honor? Will each citizen enjoy under it less liberty or protection? Will a citizen of one state be respected less by becoming a citizen of the United States?" VOICE ONE: Edmund Randolph of Virginia spoke next. He said the convention had no choice but to establish a national government. It would be an act of treason not to do what was necessary to save the republic. And, he said, only a new, national government would work. "The present moment is the last moment for establishing a national government," Randolph said. "After this experiment, the people will lose all hope." VOICE TWO: Debate on the New Jersey Plan took place on Saturday, June Sixteenth. The following Monday, they heard yet another plan of government. It was offered by the delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had said little at the convention. On this day, he spoke for five hours. Hamilton said he did not offer his ideas as an official proposal. But he said they could be considered amendments to the Virginia Plan. Then he read the details. VOICE ONE: I would like to see in America, Hamilton said, one executive. He would be chosen by electors. He could veto any law, and his veto could not be over-turned. He would serve for life. Next, he said, the national legislature would have two houses. The upper house would be called the senate. The lower house would be called the assembly. Like the chief executive, senators would be chosen by electors for life. Members of the assembly would be elected directly by the people for a term of three years. Then Hamilton spoke about the states. Under his plan, the states would lose many of their existing rights and powers. State governors would be appointed by the national government. And states no longer could have their own military forces. Hamilton was sure America's existing form of government would not work when the country got bigger. He believed America should follow the British form of government. He called it the best in the world. VOICE TWO: No one stopped Hamilton during his long speech to argue or ask questions. Historians say this is surprising. Hamilton's ideas were extreme. His public support for the British government was unpopular. His statements were unacceptable to everyone at the convention. But the weather had been hot. The speech had been long. The delegates agreed to end their business for another day. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Gordon Gaippe. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national executive. Delegates spent several weeks debating details of the position and powers. The delegates decided the executive would be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. They decided he could veto laws. And they decided he could be removed from office if found guilty of serious crimes. The delegates did not call the executive 'president'. That name for America's leader would be used later. However, we will use it now to make our story easier to understand. VOICE ONE: Another major issue debated by the convention was a national judiciary: a federal system of courts and judges. The delegates knew a lot about the issue. Thirty-four of them were lawyers. Eight were judges in their home states. One question hung heavy in the air. The states had their own system of courts and judges. Did the national government need them, too? VOICE TWO: Several delegates said no. Roger Sherman of Connecticut said existing state courts were enough. In addition, he said, a system of national courts would be too costly. John Rutledge of South Carolina opposed a national system of lower courts. But he argued for a national Supreme Court. The convention voted for both. There would be one Supreme Court and a system of lower courts. These national courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States. The system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws. VOICE ONE: The next question concerned the appointment of national judges. Some delegates believed judges should be appointed by the national legislature. Others believed they should be appointed by the president. James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued in support of having one person name judges. He said experience showed that large bodies could not make appointments fairly or openly. John Rutledge disagreed strongly. By no means, he said, should the president appoint judges. He said that method looked too much like monarchy. Benjamin Franklin then told a funny little story. In Scotland, Franklin said, he understood that judges were appointed by lawyers. They always chose the very best lawyer to be a judge. Then they divided his business among themselves. VOICE TWO: The delegates voted on the issue. They agreed only to create a Supreme Court. Details of the system were left to the national legislature and the president. The legislature could decide how many judges would sit on the Supreme Court. The president would appoint the judges. The legislature could establish lower courts from time to time. The president would appoint those judges, too. VOICE ONE: Throughout the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, the Philadelphia convention based its debates on a plan of government offered by delegates from Virginia. But the Virginia Plan was not the only one offered. Another plan came from New Jersey. New Jersey delegate William Paterson presented the plan about a month after the convention began. The other delegates saw immediately that it was directly opposed to the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan talked of a national government. Under it, a national legislature, executive and judiciary would have supreme power over the states. The New Jersey Plan talked about a federal government. Under it, each state would keep its own independent powers over the union of states. VOICE TWO: The New Jersey Plan proposed some changes in the existing Articles of Confederation. It did not propose a completely new system of government. Under the New Jersey Plan, the federal government would have a legislature with just one house. Each state would have one vote in the legislature. Big states and little states would be equal. The federal government would have an executive of more than one person. It would not have a system of lower federal courts. And its powers would come from the states...not the people. VOICE ONE: Supporters of the New Jersey Plan then talked about the true purpose of the Philadelphia convention. They said the states had sent delegates to discuss changes in the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, they said, did not have the right to throw the Articles away. If the union under the Articles is radically wrong, one said, let us return to our states. Let our states give us more powers to negotiate. Let us not take these powers upon ourselves. VOICE TWO: Then James Wilson of Pennsylvania spoke. He explained his own idea about the purpose of the convention. Its instructions, he said, were to reach final agreement on nothing. But it could propose and discuss anything. Wilson also questioned the delegates' right to speak for the people. Is it not true, he said, that the opinions of one's friends are commonly mistaken for the opinions of the general population? He noted that some delegates firmly believed the people would never accept a national government. They would never give up their state's rights. Wilson was not so sure. "Why should a national government be unpopular?" he asked. "Has it less honor? Will each citizen enjoy under it less liberty or protection? Will a citizen of one state be respected less by becoming a citizen of the United States?" VOICE ONE: Edmund Randolph of Virginia spoke next. He said the convention had no choice but to establish a national government. It would be an act of treason not to do what was necessary to save the republic. And, he said, only a new, national government would work. "The present moment is the last moment for establishing a national government," Randolph said. "After this experiment, the people will lose all hope." VOICE TWO: Debate on the New Jersey Plan took place on Saturday, June Sixteenth. The following Monday, they heard yet another plan of government. It was offered by the delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had said little at the convention. On this day, he spoke for five hours. Hamilton said he did not offer his ideas as an official proposal. But he said they could be considered amendments to the Virginia Plan. Then he read the details. VOICE ONE: I would like to see in America, Hamilton said, one executive. He would be chosen by electors. He could veto any law, and his veto could not be over-turned. He would serve for life. Next, he said, the national legislature would have two houses. The upper house would be called the senate. The lower house would be called the assembly. Like the chief executive, senators would be chosen by electors for life. Members of the assembly would be elected directly by the people for a term of three years. Then Hamilton spoke about the states. Under his plan, the states would lose many of their existing rights and powers. State governors would be appointed by the national government. And states no longer could have their own military forces. Hamilton was sure America's existing form of government would not work when the country got bigger. He believed America should follow the British form of government. He called it the best in the world. VOICE TWO: No one stopped Hamilton during his long speech to argue or ask questions. Historians say this is surprising. Hamilton's ideas were extreme. His public support for the British government was unpopular. His statements were unacceptable to everyone at the convention. But the weather had been hot. The speech had been long. The delegates agreed to end their business for another day. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Gordon Gaippe and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – July 17, 2003: Alternative Education
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Some young people in the United States attend alternative schools. These are schools that offer subject material or teaching methods that are different from traditional public or private schools. Some parents choose alternative schools because they want an education planned especially for their children’s needs and strengths. The Marcus Garvey School, for example, is a private school in Los Angeles. It was established to help black families who were not happy with the schools in a poor area of the city. The school places importance on subject material related to African American culture. Student test scores are often two or more years above grade level. Music is at the center of studies at an alternative school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Many students at the Girard Academic Music Program Neighborhood School are also from poor families. They study the traditional subjects taught at other high schools. But they also read and write their own music. Almost all finish school. Most plan to go to college. Some students get an alternative education without leaving home. Online public and private schools offer a chance to learn by computer. For example, physical disabilities prevented a young man in Pennsylvania from attending his local high school. But he recently completed his high school requirements through an Internet school. Students in alternative schools may also have emotional or other problems that interfere with a traditional education. Many alternative schools that help such young people also provide them with a place to live. Students ages fourteen to eighteen at Rocky Mountain Academy near Sandpoint, Idaho, live in group housing. The college preparatory program includes what is known as adventure-based learning through outdoor education. In Texas, the Dallas area operates independent public schools for young people who have broken the law. These students are under the control of the Dallas County Juvenile Probation Department. About five-hundred students attend these schools. Officials say that once these young people are released from the criminal justice system, many go on to attend traditional schools. This VOA Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 18, 2003: Question About America's Volunteer Military / Hatfields and McCoys Sign Truce / Remembering Musician Herbie Mann
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and culture, plus your questions about American life. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- We remember jazz musician Herbie Mann ... And we answer a question about military service in America ... But first, have you ever heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys? Well, keep listening! Hatfield and McCoy Reunion HOST: One of the best-known family disputes in American history has officially ended. Members of the Hatfield and McCoy families have signed a treaty to end more than one-hundred years of disagreement. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: The dispute between these two families began in the eighteen-sixties. At that time, Randolph McCoy was head of the McCoy family in the southern state of Kentucky. Anderson Hatfield lived with his family across the state border in West Virginia. Each was a farmer. Each had at least thirteen children. History experts are not really sure how the dispute started. Some people say it began over tensions that developed during the American Civil War. Others believe bad feelings developed in eighteen-seventy-three when Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing a pig. Floyd Hatfield was later found innocent. But the fairness of the trial was questioned. The dispute between the two families turned violent in eighteen-eighty-two. Three sons of Randolph McCoy shot and killed Anderson Hatfield’s younger brother after he insulted one of them. The McCoys were arrested. But this did not satisfy Anderson Hatfield. He kidnapped and killed them as punishment for killing his brother. The McCoy family reacted. At least twelve people were killed during the violence that followed. Fighting between the Hatfields and McCoys ended in nineteen-hundred. Today, members of these two families say they hope any long-term effects of the dispute have ended as well. To celebrate this goodwill, Reo Hatfield proposed a treaty. He said that if the Hatfields and McCoys can settle their differences, other disputing people can as well. So, more than sixty members of the two families signed the treaty on June fourteenth. They gathered in Pikeville, Kentucky, the hometown of the McCoy family. The Hatfields came from Matewan, West Virginia. The governors of Kentucky and West Virginia declared June fourteenth “Hatfield and McCoy Reconciliation Day.” The two families have gathered on this day for the past four years to honor their family members and to remember their history together. American Military Forces HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dung Trung Nguyen writes: "Would you mind telling me if American citizens have been called up for military service these days? If I am not wrong, after the Vietnam War, universal military service in the States was abolished." What ended after the Vietnam War was not universal military service but the draft. Since nineteen-seventy-three, the United States military has been all-volunteer. Each person has chosen to join. Universal military service is a system that requires all able-bodied men, and sometimes women, to serve for a time. The United States has never done this. What the country has done during times of war or when it needed more troops is to hold drafts. A draft is a system of choosing people for required military service. During the war in Iraq, there was no draft but some people were called to active service. These were members of the military reserve. There are different ways to serve in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard or National Guard. The two most common ways are service in the regular forces or the reserves. Service in the regular forces means the military is a full-time job for as long as a person has agreed to serve. People who choose the reserves return to their civilian life after they finish their basic training. They continue training and meet with a reserve force near their home. Reservists may be called to active duty when the regular forces need them. Reserve soldiers took part in the fight for Baghdad. They also had other duties such as medical aid. These included medical professionals called to active duty by the Navy to serve on a hospital ship. The United States government still has the right to call on the public to fill the needs of the military in times of emergency. For this reason, when American men reach eighteen, they must list their name and address with the government in case there is ever another draft. Herbie Mann HOST: Jazz musician Herbie Mann died earlier this month of prostate cancer. He was seventy-three years old. Herbie Mann was one of the first jazz musicians to mix Brazilian, African and American music. Phoebe Zimmermann has more. ANNCR: Herbie Mann was born Herbert Solomon in Brooklyn, New York, in nineteen-thirty. He always wanted to play jazz. But he could not decide what instrument to use. He finally settled on the flute, an unusual choice for a jazz musician. Herbie Mann helped make the jazz flute a popular instrument. His first hit record was released in nineteen-sixty-two. It was called “Comin’ Home Baby.” (MUSIC: COMIN’ HOME BABY) At the same time, Herbie Mann became interested in Brazilian music. He went to Brazil and recorded with bossa nova musician Antonio Carlos Jobim. Jobim’s voice is on this recording of “One Note Samba.” (MUSIC: ONE NOTE SAMBA) Herbie Mann started playing his jazz music around the world in the nineteen-sixties. He traveled to Europe, Japan, Africa and Latin America. He continued to perform and record until his death. His last performance was in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May. We leave you now with another of Herbie Mann’s popular jazz recordings, “Memphis Underground.” (MUSIC: MEMPHIS UNDERGROUND) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Do you have a question about American life? Send it to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. If we use your question, you will receive a gift. So make sure to give your name and postal address. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our studio engineer was Vosco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and culture, plus your questions about American life. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- We remember jazz musician Herbie Mann ... And we answer a question about military service in America ... But first, have you ever heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys? Well, keep listening! Hatfield and McCoy Reunion HOST: One of the best-known family disputes in American history has officially ended. Members of the Hatfield and McCoy families have signed a treaty to end more than one-hundred years of disagreement. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: The dispute between these two families began in the eighteen-sixties. At that time, Randolph McCoy was head of the McCoy family in the southern state of Kentucky. Anderson Hatfield lived with his family across the state border in West Virginia. Each was a farmer. Each had at least thirteen children. History experts are not really sure how the dispute started. Some people say it began over tensions that developed during the American Civil War. Others believe bad feelings developed in eighteen-seventy-three when Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing a pig. Floyd Hatfield was later found innocent. But the fairness of the trial was questioned. The dispute between the two families turned violent in eighteen-eighty-two. Three sons of Randolph McCoy shot and killed Anderson Hatfield’s younger brother after he insulted one of them. The McCoys were arrested. But this did not satisfy Anderson Hatfield. He kidnapped and killed them as punishment for killing his brother. The McCoy family reacted. At least twelve people were killed during the violence that followed. Fighting between the Hatfields and McCoys ended in nineteen-hundred. Today, members of these two families say they hope any long-term effects of the dispute have ended as well. To celebrate this goodwill, Reo Hatfield proposed a treaty. He said that if the Hatfields and McCoys can settle their differences, other disputing people can as well. So, more than sixty members of the two families signed the treaty on June fourteenth. They gathered in Pikeville, Kentucky, the hometown of the McCoy family. The Hatfields came from Matewan, West Virginia. The governors of Kentucky and West Virginia declared June fourteenth “Hatfield and McCoy Reconciliation Day.” The two families have gathered on this day for the past four years to honor their family members and to remember their history together. American Military Forces HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dung Trung Nguyen writes: "Would you mind telling me if American citizens have been called up for military service these days? If I am not wrong, after the Vietnam War, universal military service in the States was abolished." What ended after the Vietnam War was not universal military service but the draft. Since nineteen-seventy-three, the United States military has been all-volunteer. Each person has chosen to join. Universal military service is a system that requires all able-bodied men, and sometimes women, to serve for a time. The United States has never done this. What the country has done during times of war or when it needed more troops is to hold drafts. A draft is a system of choosing people for required military service. During the war in Iraq, there was no draft but some people were called to active service. These were members of the military reserve. There are different ways to serve in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard or National Guard. The two most common ways are service in the regular forces or the reserves. Service in the regular forces means the military is a full-time job for as long as a person has agreed to serve. People who choose the reserves return to their civilian life after they finish their basic training. They continue training and meet with a reserve force near their home. Reservists may be called to active duty when the regular forces need them. Reserve soldiers took part in the fight for Baghdad. They also had other duties such as medical aid. These included medical professionals called to active duty by the Navy to serve on a hospital ship. The United States government still has the right to call on the public to fill the needs of the military in times of emergency. For this reason, when American men reach eighteen, they must list their name and address with the government in case there is ever another draft. Herbie Mann HOST: Jazz musician Herbie Mann died earlier this month of prostate cancer. He was seventy-three years old. Herbie Mann was one of the first jazz musicians to mix Brazilian, African and American music. Phoebe Zimmermann has more. ANNCR: Herbie Mann was born Herbert Solomon in Brooklyn, New York, in nineteen-thirty. He always wanted to play jazz. But he could not decide what instrument to use. He finally settled on the flute, an unusual choice for a jazz musician. Herbie Mann helped make the jazz flute a popular instrument. His first hit record was released in nineteen-sixty-two. It was called “Comin’ Home Baby.” (MUSIC: COMIN’ HOME BABY) At the same time, Herbie Mann became interested in Brazilian music. He went to Brazil and recorded with bossa nova musician Antonio Carlos Jobim. Jobim’s voice is on this recording of “One Note Samba.” (MUSIC: ONE NOTE SAMBA) Herbie Mann started playing his jazz music around the world in the nineteen-sixties. He traveled to Europe, Japan, Africa and Latin America. He continued to perform and record until his death. His last performance was in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May. We leave you now with another of Herbie Mann’s popular jazz recordings, “Memphis Underground.” (MUSIC: MEMPHIS UNDERGROUND) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Do you have a question about American life? Send it to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. If we use your question, you will receive a gift. So make sure to give your name and postal address. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our studio engineer was Vosco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Study Says Wind Power to Lead Growth in Renewable Energies in US, Canada
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 18, 2003: This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A study says wind power will lead the growth in the use of renewable energy in the United States and Canada over the next ten years. Renewable energy also includes forms like power from the sun. Navigant Consulting in the United States carried out the study. Energy companies helped pay for much of the research. The use of wind energy has grown in the United States, but remains less than one percent of all the energy produced. Lisa Frantzis led the study. She says the researchers expect additions of as much as one-thousand-five-hundred megawatts from wind power projects each year. That is about equal to the energy production of one nuclear power station. The study says there have been major improvements in the performance of all renewable energy technologies in the past twenty years. For example, the study reports a ninety percent drop in the price of electricity produced from wind. In the nineteen-eighties a kilowatt hour of wind power cost about thirty-eight cents. Now, a kilowatt hour is closer to three cents. The study found that government support must continue and grow to permit renewable energies to compete in the power industry. However, some renewable energy companies face criticism. In fact, wind energy producers usually have to deal with opposition from communities they try to enter. Currently, a wind energy company is trying to set up business in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. The Cape Wind company wants to place more than one-hundred windmills in nearby waters. The windmills are hundreds of meters tall. Cape Wind says the project could provide Cape Cod with seventy-five percent of its electricity needs. And, it would not create pollution. But, a number of people who live on or visit the Cape say they do not want the windmills. They say Cape Cod is a national treasure that should not be open to industry. They argue that building the windmills would hurt fish and birds in the area. And, they say it would hurt tourism. They say the windmills will ruin the beauty of looking out to sea from the coast. Environmental groups, however, look at the situation differently. They ague that a source of energy that does not cause pollution would protect natural environments like Cape Cod. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. Broadcast: July 18, 2003: This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A study says wind power will lead the growth in the use of renewable energy in the United States and Canada over the next ten years. Renewable energy also includes forms like power from the sun. Navigant Consulting in the United States carried out the study. Energy companies helped pay for much of the research. The use of wind energy has grown in the United States, but remains less than one percent of all the energy produced. Lisa Frantzis led the study. She says the researchers expect additions of as much as one-thousand-five-hundred megawatts from wind power projects each year. That is about equal to the energy production of one nuclear power station. The study says there have been major improvements in the performance of all renewable energy technologies in the past twenty years. For example, the study reports a ninety percent drop in the price of electricity produced from wind. In the nineteen-eighties a kilowatt hour of wind power cost about thirty-eight cents. Now, a kilowatt hour is closer to three cents. The study found that government support must continue and grow to permit renewable energies to compete in the power industry. However, some renewable energy companies face criticism. In fact, wind energy producers usually have to deal with opposition from communities they try to enter. Currently, a wind energy company is trying to set up business in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. The Cape Wind company wants to place more than one-hundred windmills in nearby waters. The windmills are hundreds of meters tall. Cape Wind says the project could provide Cape Cod with seventy-five percent of its electricity needs. And, it would not create pollution. But, a number of people who live on or visit the Cape say they do not want the windmills. They say Cape Cod is a national treasure that should not be open to industry. They argue that building the windmills would hurt fish and birds in the area. And, they say it would hurt tourism. They say the windmills will ruin the beauty of looking out to sea from the coast. Environmental groups, however, look at the situation differently. They ague that a source of energy that does not cause pollution would protect natural environments like Cape Cod. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 19, 2003: Bush and Blair Defend War in Iraq
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair this week defended their decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Mister Blair was in Washington Thursday to speak to both houses of Congress and meet with the president. The two leaders also held a news conference. Mister Bush and Mister Blair have been close allies on the war in Iraq. Now, they have been dealing with questions about their statements before the war that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear material. In recent days, Bush administration officials have worked to explain the decision to include a line in the president’s State of the Union speech in January. That is an important yearly speech that the president gives to Congress and the nation. In the speech, Mister Bush said the British government had learned that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Africa. Uranium can be used in a nuclear weapons program. But documents that appeared to provide evidence for this claim were later found to have been false. The Bush administration says the claim should not have been included in the speech. The documents were a series of letters reportedly between officials in Iraq and Niger. The letters suggested that Niger would supply uranium to Iraq in a form that could be used to produce nuclear weapons. After the Niger claim first appeared, the American Central Intelligence Agency sent a retired diplomat to Africa in February of last year to investigate. The diplomat, Joseph Wilson, says he found no evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. The U-N International Atomic Energy Agency had already declared the documents false. British intelligence, however, declared the information about Niger as evidence of Iraq’s illegal weapons program. Prime Minister Blair says he stands by the intelligence report. He says his government had separate sources for the information, and did not use the false documents. The C-I-A had the Niger claim removed from at least two other speeches. But the claim was kept in the State of the Union speech after administration officials noted that it came from British intelligence. The issue has resulted in new questions about the uses of intelligence leading up to the war. Some opposition Democrats charge that the Bush administration apparently tried to win support for the Iraq war by using questionable intelligence. C-I-A Director George Tenet has taken blame. He says the sentence should have been removed from the State of the Union speech. He answered questions this week during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. During the news conference on Thursday, Mister Bush said again that he still believes the former Iraq government possessed biological and chemical weapons, and wanted nuclear arms. The president said people must understand it will take time to get answers. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair this week defended their decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Mister Blair was in Washington Thursday to speak to both houses of Congress and meet with the president. The two leaders also held a news conference. Mister Bush and Mister Blair have been close allies on the war in Iraq. Now, they have been dealing with questions about their statements before the war that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear material. In recent days, Bush administration officials have worked to explain the decision to include a line in the president’s State of the Union speech in January. That is an important yearly speech that the president gives to Congress and the nation. In the speech, Mister Bush said the British government had learned that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Africa. Uranium can be used in a nuclear weapons program. But documents that appeared to provide evidence for this claim were later found to have been false. The Bush administration says the claim should not have been included in the speech. The documents were a series of letters reportedly between officials in Iraq and Niger. The letters suggested that Niger would supply uranium to Iraq in a form that could be used to produce nuclear weapons. After the Niger claim first appeared, the American Central Intelligence Agency sent a retired diplomat to Africa in February of last year to investigate. The diplomat, Joseph Wilson, says he found no evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. The U-N International Atomic Energy Agency had already declared the documents false. British intelligence, however, declared the information about Niger as evidence of Iraq’s illegal weapons program. Prime Minister Blair says he stands by the intelligence report. He says his government had separate sources for the information, and did not use the false documents. The C-I-A had the Niger claim removed from at least two other speeches. But the claim was kept in the State of the Union speech after administration officials noted that it came from British intelligence. The issue has resulted in new questions about the uses of intelligence leading up to the war. Some opposition Democrats charge that the Bush administration apparently tried to win support for the Iraq war by using questionable intelligence. C-I-A Director George Tenet has taken blame. He says the sentence should have been removed from the State of the Union speech. He answered questions this week during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. During the news conference on Thursday, Mister Bush said again that he still believes the former Iraq government possessed biological and chemical weapons, and wanted nuclear arms. The president said people must understand it will take time to get answers. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: July 17, 2003 - Slangman: Names Used in Slang
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 17, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- names used in slang. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 17, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- names used in slang. RS: Take "Johnny come lately." That's an opportunist who tries to gain from something started by others. AA: We certainly wouldn't call our buddy Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles a Johnny come lately. But we did ask him to put together a report about names used in slang ... RS: And what he did was put together a completely fictional interview with movie actress Reese Witherspoon. The only thing real about this story is that Reese Witherspoon is the star of a brand-new sequel to "Legally Blonde," a comedy in which she plays a young lawyer who becomes politically active. SLANGMAN: "Well, I want to welcome you to Slangman's Slang Hollywood Report. Yesterday I spoke with Reese Witherspoon over a cup of joe." RS: "A cup of joe." AA: "A cup of coffee." SLANGMAN: "A cup of coffee. A few years ago we didn't know Reese Witherspoon from Adam, we didn't know her at all. Now she's known as the star of the new movie 'Legally Blonde 2.' I told her that I don't mean to be a doubting Thomas (that's someone who's always very doubtful, doesn't believe anything), I don't mean to be a doubting Thomas but jeez Louise (now jeez Louise is an expression of surprise), but jeez Louise I really wondered if John Q. Public was ready for another movie. Now John Q. Public simply means the average person, John Q. Public." AA: "Right." SLANGMAN: "It could be anyone. I wondered if John Q. Public was ready for another movie about a former plain Jane. That's a woman who's not ugly, she's not pretty, she's just plain. So I wondered if they were ready for a movie about a plain Jane who grows up to be a rich, beautiful Jack of all trades." RS: "Someone who does everything." AA: "Or in this case, a Jill of all trades." SLANGMAN: "You know, that's interesting. For some reason some of these expressions we have -- for example, Joe Blow, which is an expression for men meaning anyone: 'Every Joe Blow thinks he can become president.'" RS: "There's not a Jill Blow." AA: "No, because it doesn't rhyme." SLANGMAN: "Right, there's no feminine form of that. So oftentimes we do use the masculine form, even though it refers to women. Well, now I mean there's nothing Reese's character can't do -- that's why she is a Jack of trades. In the movie, she tries to change some United States laws. Now, I don't know jack about politics." RS: "I don't know anything." SLANGMAN: "I don't know anything. It means absolutely nothing. I don't know jack about politics, but if someone asked me if one young girl could change the law, I'd say: 'No way ... '" RS: "Jose! (Laughter)" SLANGMAN: "Jose. Of course, that comes back to the rhyming slang, no way Jose. It means absolutely not. But Reese manages to get enough people to put their John Hancock -- " RS: "Their signature." SLANGMAN: "Their signature, because John Hancock -- one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence -- signed his name very largely, very big. So she got a lot of people to put their John Hancock on an important bill, resulting in a new United States law. True -- I'm not jacking you around. Now to jack someone around means to mislead them. "Well, I asked Reese the following question: You've made millions of dollars in the movies 'Legally Blonde' and 'Legally Blonde II,' what comes next. 'Well,' she responded, 'probably Uncle Sam.'" RS: "Uncle Sam." SLANGMAN: "Right, the tax man, the tax person, Uncle Sam. Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have, for Pete's sake." RS: "For Pete's sake." SLANGMAN: "Well, for Pete's sake is something you simply say out of amazement, out of surprise, out of frustration, out of disappointment. 'For Pete's sake, I broke my computer.' 'For Pete's sake, how are you!' So anything -- surprise, disappointment -- it's just another way to say, I have a lot of emotion here." AA: And that's what makes him the one and only Slangman, David Burke. In fact, his book "The Slangman Guide to Street Speak Two" has a whole chapter on names used in slang. You can find out more about his materials at slangman.com. RS: And you'll find our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: Take "Johnny come lately." That's an opportunist who tries to gain from something started by others. AA: We certainly wouldn't call our buddy Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles a Johnny come lately. But we did ask him to put together a report about names used in slang ... RS: And what he did was put together a completely fictional interview with movie actress Reese Witherspoon. The only thing real about this story is that Reese Witherspoon is the star of a brand-new sequel to "Legally Blonde," a comedy in which she plays a young lawyer who becomes politically active. SLANGMAN: "Well, I want to welcome you to Slangman's Slang Hollywood Report. Yesterday I spoke with Reese Witherspoon over a cup of joe." RS: "A cup of joe." AA: "A cup of coffee." SLANGMAN: "A cup of coffee. A few years ago we didn't know Reese Witherspoon from Adam, we didn't know her at all. Now she's known as the star of the new movie 'Legally Blonde 2.' I told her that I don't mean to be a doubting Thomas (that's someone who's always very doubtful, doesn't believe anything), I don't mean to be a doubting Thomas but jeez Louise (now jeez Louise is an expression of surprise), but jeez Louise I really wondered if John Q. Public was ready for another movie. Now John Q. Public simply means the average person, John Q. Public." AA: "Right." SLANGMAN: "It could be anyone. I wondered if John Q. Public was ready for another movie about a former plain Jane. That's a woman who's not ugly, she's not pretty, she's just plain. So I wondered if they were ready for a movie about a plain Jane who grows up to be a rich, beautiful Jack of all trades." RS: "Someone who does everything." AA: "Or in this case, a Jill of all trades." SLANGMAN: "You know, that's interesting. For some reason some of these expressions we have -- for example, Joe Blow, which is an expression for men meaning anyone: 'Every Joe Blow thinks he can become president.'" RS: "There's not a Jill Blow." AA: "No, because it doesn't rhyme." SLANGMAN: "Right, there's no feminine form of that. So oftentimes we do use the masculine form, even though it refers to women. Well, now I mean there's nothing Reese's character can't do -- that's why she is a Jack of trades. In the movie, she tries to change some United States laws. Now, I don't know jack about politics." RS: "I don't know anything." SLANGMAN: "I don't know anything. It means absolutely nothing. I don't know jack about politics, but if someone asked me if one young girl could change the law, I'd say: 'No way ... '" RS: "Jose! (Laughter)" SLANGMAN: "Jose. Of course, that comes back to the rhyming slang, no way Jose. It means absolutely not. But Reese manages to get enough people to put their John Hancock -- " RS: "Their signature." SLANGMAN: "Their signature, because John Hancock -- one of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence -- signed his name very largely, very big. So she got a lot of people to put their John Hancock on an important bill, resulting in a new United States law. True -- I'm not jacking you around. Now to jack someone around means to mislead them. "Well, I asked Reese the following question: You've made millions of dollars in the movies 'Legally Blonde' and 'Legally Blonde II,' what comes next. 'Well,' she responded, 'probably Uncle Sam.'" RS: "Uncle Sam." SLANGMAN: "Right, the tax man, the tax person, Uncle Sam. Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have, for Pete's sake." RS: "For Pete's sake." SLANGMAN: "Well, for Pete's sake is something you simply say out of amazement, out of surprise, out of frustration, out of disappointment. 'For Pete's sake, I broke my computer.' 'For Pete's sake, how are you!' So anything -- surprise, disappointment -- it's just another way to say, I have a lot of emotion here." AA: And that's what makes him the one and only Slangman, David Burke. In fact, his book "The Slangman Guide to Street Speak Two" has a whole chapter on names used in slang. You can find out more about his materials at slangman.com. RS: And you'll find our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – July 20, 2003: Nina Simone
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (Photo by Javier Collados, April 2003) (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about singer Nina Simone and play some of her music. She was also active in the civil rights movement of the nineteen-sixties. (CUT ONE - YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK - CDJ-3080) I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about singer Nina Simone and play some of her music. She was also active in the civil rights movement of the nineteen-sixties. (CUT ONE - YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK - CDJ-3080) VOICE ONE: Nina Simone wrote and performed the song you just heard. It is called “Young, Gifted and Black.” In the nineteen-sixties, a major black civil rights group declared it the national song of black people in America. Nina Simone was very young when her musical ability first appeared. She could play songs on the piano when she was three years old. She learned by listening to music and then searching for the correct piano keys. In a book about her life, Nina Simone wrote that everything that happened to her as a child involved music. She said her first memory was of her mother singing. She said her mother always sang Christian songs around the house. That influence shows up years later in the recording of “If You Pray Right” on Mizz Simone’s album “Baltimore.” (CUT TWO - IF YOU PRAY RIGHT - CDJ-3559) VOICE TWO: Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in nineteen-thirty-three in the southern town of Tryon, North Carolina. Her parents owned several businesses there. Her mother was also a Methodist minister. The family of ten lived in a big house and made good earnings. However, difficult economic times in the United States hurt the family’s businesses. The family had to move to smaller homes as their finances continued to shrink. VOICE ONE: In time, Eunice’s mother went to work cleaning house for a white woman in the town. The woman knew about Nina’s piano playing. She suggested that Missus Waymon send her daughter to a piano teacher for lessons. When Missus Waymon said the family did not have the money, her employer said she would pay for the girl’s first year of lessons. Nina Simone wrote that she grew to love her first piano teacher, a white woman from England. In fact, the teacher helped set up financial assistance for Nina’s lessons. Nina Simone also wrote about how much she liked her mother’s employer. She wrote that, as a child, she expected all white people to be as kind as they were. VOICE TWO: Eunice Waymon had her first public performance when she was eleven. Many people in the town had given money to help pay for lessons for the young pianist. Mizz Simone wrote that it was expected she would perform to show them what their money had produced. The performance was at the town hall. Eunice was at the piano. She looked at her parents just before she was to play. She saw them being forced from their seats in the front. A white family wanted to sit in their place. Her parents did not resist. The young girl stood up and spoke. She said no one would hear her play if her parents were not returned to their seats. They were and the concert began. VOICE ONE: Nina Simone wrote that her whole world changed in that moment. She said nothing was easy anymore. She wrote that racism became real for her like the turning on of a light. Nina Simone continued to stand up and speak out. One of her most famous songs expressed her anger about the treatment of black people in America. “Mississippi Goddam” was released in nineteen-sixty-three. Mizz Simone wrote the song in reaction to extreme violence against black Americans. The incidents included the murder of a civil rights activist in Mississippi and the killings of four young girls in Alabama. (CUT THREE – MISSISSIPPI GODDAM - CDJ-6572) VOICE TWO: Eunice Waymon graduated from high school at the top of her class in nineteen-fifty. She moved to New York City to attend the famous Juilliard School of Music. She had been awarded money to pay for one year at the school. After that first year, Eunice had to support herself financially. For a while she worked as a piano player for people studying singing. Then she learned of summer jobs in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that paid more money. She went to Atlantic City and got a job playing piano at a drinking place. On her second night, she was told had to sing also. Eunice had never sung in public before. Nina Simone later told a reporter that she decided just to try to sound like the famous singer Billie Holiday. She got the job. Nina Simone recorded a number of songs made famous by Billie Holiday. Some of Mizz Simone’s versions also became popular, like this song, “Don’t Explain.” (CUT FOUR - DON’T EXPLAIN - CDJ-6572) VOICE ONE: Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone because of the job at the drinking place. She said she changed her name because she did not want her parents to know what she was doing. But she could not hide her career for very long. In nineteen-fifty-eight, Nina Simone recorded her first album. It was called “Little Girl Blue.” One song became a top radio hit in America. It is “I Loves You, Porgy” from George Gershwin’s opera, “Porgy and Bess.” (CUT FIVE - I LOVES YOU, PORGY - CDJ-6572) VOICE TWO: Nina Simone became very active in the civil rights movement in the nineteen-sixties. She came to be known as a protest singer. She was also called the “High Priestess of Soul.” But she did not like either description. Nina Simone often said she hated to be linked with any one kind of music or message. She sang it all – blues, jazz, Christian spirituals, rock and roll and pop. Mizz Simone was married two times. She had a daughter, Lisa, who is also a singer. Nina Simone left the United States in nineteen-seventy-three. She said she was angry about the treatment of black people in America. She lived in the Caribbean and Africa before settling in France. She died there at the age of seventy in two-thousand-three. One of Nina Simone’s most popular songs was “I Put a Spell On You.” She took the title for the book she wrote about her life, published in nineteen-ninety-two. (INSTEAD OF THEME - CUT SIX - I PUT A SPELL ON YOU - CDJ-6572) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Nina Simone wrote and performed the song you just heard. It is called “Young, Gifted and Black.” In the nineteen-sixties, a major black civil rights group declared it the national song of black people in America. Nina Simone was very young when her musical ability first appeared. She could play songs on the piano when she was three years old. She learned by listening to music and then searching for the correct piano keys. In a book about her life, Nina Simone wrote that everything that happened to her as a child involved music. She said her first memory was of her mother singing. She said her mother always sang Christian songs around the house. That influence shows up years later in the recording of “If You Pray Right” on Mizz Simone’s album “Baltimore.” (CUT TWO - IF YOU PRAY RIGHT - CDJ-3559) VOICE TWO: Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in nineteen-thirty-three in the southern town of Tryon, North Carolina. Her parents owned several businesses there. Her mother was also a Methodist minister. The family of ten lived in a big house and made good earnings. However, difficult economic times in the United States hurt the family’s businesses. The family had to move to smaller homes as their finances continued to shrink. VOICE ONE: In time, Eunice’s mother went to work cleaning house for a white woman in the town. The woman knew about Nina’s piano playing. She suggested that Missus Waymon send her daughter to a piano teacher for lessons. When Missus Waymon said the family did not have the money, her employer said she would pay for the girl’s first year of lessons. Nina Simone wrote that she grew to love her first piano teacher, a white woman from England. In fact, the teacher helped set up financial assistance for Nina’s lessons. Nina Simone also wrote about how much she liked her mother’s employer. She wrote that, as a child, she expected all white people to be as kind as they were. VOICE TWO: Eunice Waymon had her first public performance when she was eleven. Many people in the town had given money to help pay for lessons for the young pianist. Mizz Simone wrote that it was expected she would perform to show them what their money had produced. The performance was at the town hall. Eunice was at the piano. She looked at her parents just before she was to play. She saw them being forced from their seats in the front. A white family wanted to sit in their place. Her parents did not resist. The young girl stood up and spoke. She said no one would hear her play if her parents were not returned to their seats. They were and the concert began. VOICE ONE: Nina Simone wrote that her whole world changed in that moment. She said nothing was easy anymore. She wrote that racism became real for her like the turning on of a light. Nina Simone continued to stand up and speak out. One of her most famous songs expressed her anger about the treatment of black people in America. “Mississippi Goddam” was released in nineteen-sixty-three. Mizz Simone wrote the song in reaction to extreme violence against black Americans. The incidents included the murder of a civil rights activist in Mississippi and the killings of four young girls in Alabama. (CUT THREE – MISSISSIPPI GODDAM - CDJ-6572) VOICE TWO: Eunice Waymon graduated from high school at the top of her class in nineteen-fifty. She moved to New York City to attend the famous Juilliard School of Music. She had been awarded money to pay for one year at the school. After that first year, Eunice had to support herself financially. For a while she worked as a piano player for people studying singing. Then she learned of summer jobs in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that paid more money. She went to Atlantic City and got a job playing piano at a drinking place. On her second night, she was told had to sing also. Eunice had never sung in public before. Nina Simone later told a reporter that she decided just to try to sound like the famous singer Billie Holiday. She got the job. Nina Simone recorded a number of songs made famous by Billie Holiday. Some of Mizz Simone’s versions also became popular, like this song, “Don’t Explain.” (CUT FOUR - DON’T EXPLAIN - CDJ-6572) VOICE ONE: Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone because of the job at the drinking place. She said she changed her name because she did not want her parents to know what she was doing. But she could not hide her career for very long. In nineteen-fifty-eight, Nina Simone recorded her first album. It was called “Little Girl Blue.” One song became a top radio hit in America. It is “I Loves You, Porgy” from George Gershwin’s opera, “Porgy and Bess.” (CUT FIVE - I LOVES YOU, PORGY - CDJ-6572) VOICE TWO: Nina Simone became very active in the civil rights movement in the nineteen-sixties. She came to be known as a protest singer. She was also called the “High Priestess of Soul.” But she did not like either description. Nina Simone often said she hated to be linked with any one kind of music or message. She sang it all – blues, jazz, Christian spirituals, rock and roll and pop. Mizz Simone was married two times. She had a daughter, Lisa, who is also a singer. Nina Simone left the United States in nineteen-seventy-three. She said she was angry about the treatment of black people in America. She lived in the Caribbean and Africa before settling in France. She died there at the age of seventy in two-thousand-three. One of Nina Simone’s most popular songs was “I Put a Spell On You.” She took the title for the book she wrote about her life, published in nineteen-ninety-two. (INSTEAD OF THEME - CUT SIX - I PUT A SPELL ON YOU - CDJ-6572) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 21, 2003: Habitat for Humanity
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations estimates that more than one-thousand-million people live in poor housing conditions. And that estimate is just for cities. In developing nations, that is about one out of four families. Habitat for Humanity is a group that is working to help change the situation. Millard and Linda Fuller, two Christian religious aid workers, started this organization in nineteen-seventy-six. Habitat for Humanity says it has built or improved more than one-hundred-fifty-thousand homes in eighty-seven countries. People give their time and skills to build homes. The group also accepts gifts of money and materials. Habitat for Humanity builds or improves homes for specially chosen “partner” families. Each partner family not only pays for its home, but also has to help build it. Habitat for Humanity does not make a profit when it sells a new home to a partner family. It says all monthly payments from the homeowner are used to finance other projects. Homes are also paid for with no-interest loans that can last from seven to thirty years. Habitat for Humanity is based in the southern American state of Georgia. Among its best known supporters are a famous local couple: former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn. The group also has affiliate offices around the world. These offices are run by local groups. Habitat says there are more than two-thousand offices in eighty-seven countries and all fifty states. Each affiliate plans and organizes the building of Habitat homes in their community. They also raise money for projects and choose partner families. Affiliate offices in the United States give ten percent of their budgets to headquarters. This money is used to pay for products in other countries. In two-thousand-one, Habitat for Humanity says, its affiliates gave more then nine-million dollars to support the international work. Families that wish to become partners go to their nearest affiliate and are chosen based on their level of need. Officials also consider a family’s willingness to help and its ability to repay a home loan. Habitat for Humanity says race and religion are not considered when choosing a partner family. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations estimates that more than one-thousand-million people live in poor housing conditions. And that estimate is just for cities. In developing nations, that is about one out of four families. Habitat for Humanity is a group that is working to help change the situation. Millard and Linda Fuller, two Christian religious aid workers, started this organization in nineteen-seventy-six. Habitat for Humanity says it has built or improved more than one-hundred-fifty-thousand homes in eighty-seven countries. People give their time and skills to build homes. The group also accepts gifts of money and materials. Habitat for Humanity builds or improves homes for specially chosen “partner” families. Each partner family not only pays for its home, but also has to help build it. Habitat for Humanity does not make a profit when it sells a new home to a partner family. It says all monthly payments from the homeowner are used to finance other projects. Homes are also paid for with no-interest loans that can last from seven to thirty years. Habitat for Humanity is based in the southern American state of Georgia. Among its best known supporters are a famous local couple: former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalyn. The group also has affiliate offices around the world. These offices are run by local groups. Habitat says there are more than two-thousand offices in eighty-seven countries and all fifty states. Each affiliate plans and organizes the building of Habitat homes in their community. They also raise money for projects and choose partner families. Affiliate offices in the United States give ten percent of their budgets to headquarters. This money is used to pay for products in other countries. In two-thousand-one, Habitat for Humanity says, its affiliates gave more then nine-million dollars to support the international work. Families that wish to become partners go to their nearest affiliate and are chosen based on their level of need. Officials also consider a family’s willingness to help and its ability to repay a home loan. Habitat for Humanity says race and religion are not considered when choosing a partner family. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – July 21, 2003: Supreme Court Ends Term
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court in Washington has ended its current term after ruling on a number of issues that affect American life. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week we tell about the court and some of its rulings on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Seven men and two women serve on the Supreme Court. Their duty is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the United States Constitution. The court often decides some of the most important issues in the country. Several cases brought the most interest during the term just ended. The justices ruled about sexual relations between people of the same sex. They ruled about the use of race in university admissions, and about Internet blocking in public libraries. And, among other issues, they dealt with the debate about how to treat sex criminals. VOICE TWO: When the Supreme Court hears a case, the justices listen to arguments by lawyers for each side. The justices question the lawyers to get more details. They read information about the case. They read how similar cases were decided. They discuss the case, and then they vote. A majority of the votes of the nine justices decides what will become the law of the land. One of the justices in the majority writes an opinion that explains the ruling. Once a final version is agreed, that justice also announces the decision in court. Others may write their own opinions in support of it. Justices who disagree write dissenting opinions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the cases this term involved two men arrested in Houston in nineteen-ninety-eight. They were found guilty of breaking a Texas law and ordered to pay a fine. They argued that the law violated their privacy and their right to equal protection under the Constitution. Last month the Supreme Court ruled, six-to-three, against the state of Texas. The justices decided that state laws that ban homosexual relations between adults violate the Constitution. After that, the Supreme Court acted on the case of a teen-ager in Kansas. He received a seventeen-year prison term in state court for sex with another boy. The justices cancelled the prison sentence and directed judges in Kansas to reconsider the case. Kansas officials say the ruling on the Texas law made a similar Kansas law unenforceable. Oklahoma and Missouri also have laws against homosexual relations, while several other states give some rights only to married people. VOICE TWO: Among those who disagreed with the court was the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Bill Frist. Senator Frist said he would support a constitutional amendment to prevent gay marriages. President Bush has said he opposes the idea of gay marriages. But he says he does not know if a constitutional amendment is needed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court also made important decisions last month about affirmative action. That is the name for programs to help members of minority groups and women in education and employment. White students rejected by the University of Michigan and its law school had brought two separate cases against diversity programs. They said these programs to create racial balance in the student population were unfair to whites. In the case of the law school, the court said colleges and universities can use race to help decide which students to accept, but along with other considerations. Five justices voted that the Constitution permits this. Four others voted against it. The court agreed with an opinion from twenty-five years ago that said diversity is an important state interest in university admissions. But the court also said it expects that twenty-five years from now, such use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary. It was a close vote. Civil rights activists welcomed the decision to uphold the law school program. But the court also said schools must limit the consideration they give to race. By a vote of six-to-three, the justices ruled against Michigan’s undergraduate program. This program gave blacks, Hispanics and American Indians extra points toward admission. The court said this was unfair to whites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Among other rulings, the justices dealt with the length of some prison sentences. One case involved a law in California for people found guilty of three serious crimes. This law requires a term of life in prison. Opponents argued that this sentence for a man found guilty of stealing as his most recent crime violates the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution bars cruel and unusual punishment. But the court decided five-to-four that, given the criminal history of the man who appealed, the California law is acceptable. Another ruling dealt with cases in which execution is a possible punishment. It said lower courts must consider claims that government lawyers purposely excluded blacks from juries. The justices also said defense lawyers must look for any evidence that might keep a jury from sentencing someone to death. VOICE ONE: The court also affirmed and extended time limits for what are called “Megan’s laws.” These are state laws named for a child who was murdered by a man with a history of sex offenses. The laws permit information such as pictures of offenders and where they live and work to be published after they serve their sentences. The goal is to warn other people. The Supreme Court ruled that these measures are acceptable under the Constitution. And the justices said that state officials did not have to prove first that former sex offenders are still dangerous. The court also said that such laws can now include sex criminals whose crimes took place before Megan’s laws were passed. VOICE TWO: Family and work also brought Supreme Court action this term. In nineteen-ninety-four, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. This law says most workers can take up to twelve weeks a year off work without pay to care for a family member. Workers can take an employer to court if they are unfairly dismissed. Now the justices have ruled that people can seek money damages when states violate the federal law. In other cases, the court has said states are protected from such action. The court also ruled on a case involving public libraries that receive federal money to offer Internet service. The justices decided that Congress can require the libraries to use programs that block offensive sexual material. The American Library Association had argued that such programs might also block important information. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Congress created the Supreme Court in seventeen-eighty-nine. The president appoints the justices with Senate approval. They serve for life. Currently the average age is close to seventy. The last opening on the court was almost ten years ago. The court normally begins its term in October. But this September the nine justices plan a special hearing on a new campaign finance law. They must decide if restrictions on raising money and on advertising violate the right of free speech. The Supreme Court is one of the three major divisions of government. In eighteen-oh-three, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the court could decide if laws passed by Congress were constitutional. Since then, the court has played an important part in examining actions taken by Congress as well as the president. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court has helped make major changes in American society. In eighteen-ninety-six, for example, the court said it was legal to have separate public places for blacks and whites. The court said this was legal as long as the places provided equal service. Many American schools used that decision as a way to permit racial separation for almost sixty years. VOICE ONE: But the Supreme Court can change its mind. In nineteen-fifty-four, the court said racial separation in schools did violate the Constitution. This ruling helped launch a major movement to gain racial equality for African Americans. Not all Supreme Court cases result in such historic decisions. But some of the rulings from the term just ended will surely be felt in American life into the future. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. The Supreme Court in Washington has ended its current term after ruling on a number of issues that affect American life. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week we tell about the court and some of its rulings on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Seven men and two women serve on the Supreme Court. Their duty is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the United States Constitution. The court often decides some of the most important issues in the country. Several cases brought the most interest during the term just ended. The justices ruled about sexual relations between people of the same sex. They ruled about the use of race in university admissions, and about Internet blocking in public libraries. And, among other issues, they dealt with the debate about how to treat sex criminals. VOICE TWO: When the Supreme Court hears a case, the justices listen to arguments by lawyers for each side. The justices question the lawyers to get more details. They read information about the case. They read how similar cases were decided. They discuss the case, and then they vote. A majority of the votes of the nine justices decides what will become the law of the land. One of the justices in the majority writes an opinion that explains the ruling. Once a final version is agreed, that justice also announces the decision in court. Others may write their own opinions in support of it. Justices who disagree write dissenting opinions. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: One of the cases this term involved two men arrested in Houston in nineteen-ninety-eight. They were found guilty of breaking a Texas law and ordered to pay a fine. They argued that the law violated their privacy and their right to equal protection under the Constitution. Last month the Supreme Court ruled, six-to-three, against the state of Texas. The justices decided that state laws that ban homosexual relations between adults violate the Constitution. After that, the Supreme Court acted on the case of a teen-ager in Kansas. He received a seventeen-year prison term in state court for sex with another boy. The justices cancelled the prison sentence and directed judges in Kansas to reconsider the case. Kansas officials say the ruling on the Texas law made a similar Kansas law unenforceable. Oklahoma and Missouri also have laws against homosexual relations, while several other states give some rights only to married people. VOICE TWO: Among those who disagreed with the court was the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Bill Frist. Senator Frist said he would support a constitutional amendment to prevent gay marriages. President Bush has said he opposes the idea of gay marriages. But he says he does not know if a constitutional amendment is needed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court also made important decisions last month about affirmative action. That is the name for programs to help members of minority groups and women in education and employment. White students rejected by the University of Michigan and its law school had brought two separate cases against diversity programs. They said these programs to create racial balance in the student population were unfair to whites. In the case of the law school, the court said colleges and universities can use race to help decide which students to accept, but along with other considerations. Five justices voted that the Constitution permits this. Four others voted against it. The court agreed with an opinion from twenty-five years ago that said diversity is an important state interest in university admissions. But the court also said it expects that twenty-five years from now, such use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary. It was a close vote. Civil rights activists welcomed the decision to uphold the law school program. But the court also said schools must limit the consideration they give to race. By a vote of six-to-three, the justices ruled against Michigan’s undergraduate program. This program gave blacks, Hispanics and American Indians extra points toward admission. The court said this was unfair to whites. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Among other rulings, the justices dealt with the length of some prison sentences. One case involved a law in California for people found guilty of three serious crimes. This law requires a term of life in prison. Opponents argued that this sentence for a man found guilty of stealing as his most recent crime violates the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution bars cruel and unusual punishment. But the court decided five-to-four that, given the criminal history of the man who appealed, the California law is acceptable. Another ruling dealt with cases in which execution is a possible punishment. It said lower courts must consider claims that government lawyers purposely excluded blacks from juries. The justices also said defense lawyers must look for any evidence that might keep a jury from sentencing someone to death. VOICE ONE: The court also affirmed and extended time limits for what are called “Megan’s laws.” These are state laws named for a child who was murdered by a man with a history of sex offenses. The laws permit information such as pictures of offenders and where they live and work to be published after they serve their sentences. The goal is to warn other people. The Supreme Court ruled that these measures are acceptable under the Constitution. And the justices said that state officials did not have to prove first that former sex offenders are still dangerous. The court also said that such laws can now include sex criminals whose crimes took place before Megan’s laws were passed. VOICE TWO: Family and work also brought Supreme Court action this term. In nineteen-ninety-four, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. This law says most workers can take up to twelve weeks a year off work without pay to care for a family member. Workers can take an employer to court if they are unfairly dismissed. Now the justices have ruled that people can seek money damages when states violate the federal law. In other cases, the court has said states are protected from such action. The court also ruled on a case involving public libraries that receive federal money to offer Internet service. The justices decided that Congress can require the libraries to use programs that block offensive sexual material. The American Library Association had argued that such programs might also block important information. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Congress created the Supreme Court in seventeen-eighty-nine. The president appoints the justices with Senate approval. They serve for life. Currently the average age is close to seventy. The last opening on the court was almost ten years ago. The court normally begins its term in October. But this September the nine justices plan a special hearing on a new campaign finance law. They must decide if restrictions on raising money and on advertising violate the right of free speech. The Supreme Court is one of the three major divisions of government. In eighteen-oh-three, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the court could decide if laws passed by Congress were constitutional. Since then, the court has played an important part in examining actions taken by Congress as well as the president. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court has helped make major changes in American society. In eighteen-ninety-six, for example, the court said it was legal to have separate public places for blacks and whites. The court said this was legal as long as the places provided equal service. Many American schools used that decision as a way to permit racial separation for almost sixty years. VOICE ONE: But the Supreme Court can change its mind. In nineteen-fifty-four, the court said racial separation in schools did violate the Constitution. This ruling helped launch a major movement to gain racial equality for African Americans. Not all Supreme Court cases result in such historic decisions. But some of the rulings from the term just ended will surely be felt in American life into the future. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - July 22, 2003:  Composting
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many farmers around the world are composting to improve their soil so they can produce better crops. Composting is the mixing of plant or animal wastes so they break down and produce simpler substances. Farmers add compost to their soils instead of burning the plant and animal wastes or throwing them away. Compost is an example of a natural organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers help to make soils rich so that they produce more crops for a longer time. During the growing season, plants take gases from the air such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They combine these gases with minerals from the soil. After the growing season ends, many parts of the plant die. Farmers gather a large amount of dead plant materials into small hills called compost piles. They may add animal wastes. They must add water so the materials will break down or decay. Soon the plants are attacked by insects and organisms including worms and bacteria. Oxygen helps the organisms change the plant materials more rapidly. The plants decay into a mixture that can be spread on the farmland where the crops are growing. The compost returns needed nutrients to the soil. Some rules need to be followed to produce the best quality compost. Good compost piles need water to speed the process of decay. Yet the piles should not be too wet or the plant material will be ruined. The temperature of the compost pile should not be too high or too low. The best temperature for a compost pile is about thirty to thirty-seven degrees Celsius. You can turn the pile over and over to help cool down the material. Turning the compost pile over adds more oxygen to the mixture which helps it decay. Sometimes small animals such as rats and mice like to eat the composting materials. This can be prevented if you add a thin amount of soil to the top of the compost pile. Farmers who use compost can increase the amount and quality of their crops. Computer users can find more information about composting from Volunteers in Technical Assistance or VITA. VITA is an organization based in the United States that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. VITA’s Internet address is www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many farmers around the world are composting to improve their soil so they can produce better crops. Composting is the mixing of plant or animal wastes so they break down and produce simpler substances. Farmers add compost to their soils instead of burning the plant and animal wastes or throwing them away. Compost is an example of a natural organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers help to make soils rich so that they produce more crops for a longer time. During the growing season, plants take gases from the air such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They combine these gases with minerals from the soil. After the growing season ends, many parts of the plant die. Farmers gather a large amount of dead plant materials into small hills called compost piles. They may add animal wastes. They must add water so the materials will break down or decay. Soon the plants are attacked by insects and organisms including worms and bacteria. Oxygen helps the organisms change the plant materials more rapidly. The plants decay into a mixture that can be spread on the farmland where the crops are growing. The compost returns needed nutrients to the soil. Some rules need to be followed to produce the best quality compost. Good compost piles need water to speed the process of decay. Yet the piles should not be too wet or the plant material will be ruined. The temperature of the compost pile should not be too high or too low. The best temperature for a compost pile is about thirty to thirty-seven degrees Celsius. You can turn the pile over and over to help cool down the material. Turning the compost pile over adds more oxygen to the mixture which helps it decay. Sometimes small animals such as rats and mice like to eat the composting materials. This can be prevented if you add a thin amount of soil to the top of the compost pile. Farmers who use compost can increase the amount and quality of their crops. Computer users can find more information about composting from Volunteers in Technical Assistance or VITA. VITA is an organization based in the United States that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. VITA’s Internet address is www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 22, 2003: U.S. Health Officials Require Food Makers to List Bad Kind of Fat / New Support for an Unusual Treatment for Heart Attack Victims / Happy Ending to a Car Crash 20 Years Ago
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- new American rules for food makers to tell if products contain a bad kind of fat ... New support for an unusual kind of treatment for heart attack victims ... And, the story of a man who finally spoke, almost twenty years after a car accident. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United States Food and Drug Administration will require food companies to list the amount of what are known as trans fats in their products. The new requirement will not go into effect until two-thousand-six. But it is expected to push food makers to reduce the levels of trans fatty acids in their products before that. Health experts say trans fats increase the chances of developing heart disease and other serious health problems. Studies have shown that trans fats increase the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood. At the same time, they decrease the amount of good cholesterol. Products that contain trans fats include many kinds of margarine, peanut butter, cookies, cereals, puddings, doughnuts and fried foods. Food producers use trans fats because they say food tastes better and stays fresh longer in stores. VOICE TWO: Trans fats are most commonly found in what are called partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. These are liquid oils that have been made into solids. Food products generally say if they contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. But public health officials say food makers have in a sense hidden the trans fats by not listing them separately. Saturated fats from animals also increase the amount of bad cholesterol. So finding saturated fats and trans fats together in foods can be especially dangerous. Some businesses in the United States are already trying to reduce the amount of trans fat they use. Last year, McDonald’s made news when it promised to use a new oil that would reduce the amount in its French fries, its fried potatoes. McDonald's has not yet made the change. Reports say tests continue. VOICE ONE: Experts say healthier fats cost more than trans fats. But several food companies in the United States have already begun to use them. The statement "no trans fat" now appears on some products. The Food and Drug Administration says knowing more about what is in foods will help people improve their health, and will also save millions of dollars in medical costs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Heart Association has given its support to an unusual treatment for people who have just had a heart attack. The treatment involves cooling the person's body after the heart has been restarted. The heart association says a lowered body temperature can help prevent brain damage in at least some patients. A heart attack causes the heart to stop pumping blood to the brain. Often, people who survive heart attacks that last longer than a few minutes suffer brain damage. The cooling treatment aims to lower a patient’s body temperature to about thirty-three degrees Celsius. The American Heart Association says the cooling should begin as soon as possible after the heart has been returned to normal pumping. Cooling heart patients is not new. For some time, doctors have lowered the temperatures of heart patients before operations. But, scientists say new studies show that cooling can also help patients AFTER their hearts have stopped. VOICE ONE: Doctor Jerry Nolan of the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England, was the lead researcher of the advisory statement. Doctor Nolan is also a chairman of the Advanced Life Support Task Force of the International Committee on Resuscitation. That group and the American Heart Association jointly released the advisory. It appeared first in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association, a private group. Doctor Nolan says the normal return of blood flow and oxygen to the brain causes a series of chemical reactions. This process can continue for as long as twenty-four hours, and cause swelling in the brain. Doctor Nolan says cooling the body slows the chemical reactions and limits the swelling. Doctor Nolan and his team supported their statement with two studies published last year. One took place in nine medical centers in Europe. Researchers in Australia carried out the other study at four hospitals in Melbourne. VOICE TWO: In Europe, medical workers placed patients on a special bed with a cover that blew cold air. Sometime they also used ice on the patients. The goal was to get a patient’s temperature to between thirty-two and thirty-four degrees Celsius within four hours of the return of a normal heart beat. Doctors kept the patient at that temperature for a full day. The study in Europe involved more than one-hundred-seventy patients. Half were cooled, half were not. Fifty-five percent of those who were cooled had good brain activity six months after treatment. Only thirty-nine percent of the other half had similar results. VOICE ONE: In Australia, emergency workers started the cooling before even they brought the heart attack victim to the hospital. The workers placed ice packs on the head and upper body. The use of ice continued in the hospital for twelve more hours. The ice lowered the patient’s temperature to thirty-three degrees Celsius. The Australian study found that twenty-one of forty-three patients who were cooled had good brain activity by the time of their release from the hospital. This was true for only nine of the thirty-four patients without the treatment. The advisory notes that the two studies involved only some kinds of patients. All had good blood pressure. There was detailed information about the time and length of their heart attacks. And, all had evidence of having gone into a coma after their attack. VOICE TWO: The American Health Association says it is not known if cooling may help other groups of heart attack patients. It also says more study is needed to learn the best ways to cool patients and how long they should remain that way. And, the advisory warns of a small increase in the risk of bleeding, infection and abnormal heart rhythm. Finally, Doctor Nolan warned people to resist what might be the natural urge to keep someone warm right after a heart attack. He says warming the person could do more harm than good. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A man in the American South has begun to talk again after nearly twenty years in a coma-like condition. Terry Wallis of Arkansas is thirty-nine years old. He was severely injured in a car accident in nineteen-eighty-four. The crash injured his brain and left him unable to move below the neck. Last month, he began talking. Doctors say Terry Wallis was in a coma at first. He was unconscious, unable to react to anything around him. Later, they described his condition as a persistent vegetative state. This is a situation in which a person is not aware of the environment, but his body continues to operate. The body may move and the eyes may open, but the person does not speak or obey commands. The patient may cry or laugh at times. The National Institutes of Health says a coma rarely continues for more than two to four weeks. Vegetative states may continue for years -- but almost twenty years is extremely unusual. VOICE TWO: Terry Wallis’s eyes have been open for years. He could eat. Sometimes, he communicated through sounds. For the past two years, doctors have been treating him with an antidepressant drug. They say it seems to have worked. Now, his family is slowly letting him know him that many things have changed since nineteen-eighty-four. Two of his grandparents have died. His baby daughter is now nineteen. Family members say he is trying to learn about modern technology. He has seen a cell phone and a laptop computer. They say he has started to read. And, Terry Wallis says he also wants to learn how to walk again -- for his daughter. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- new American rules for food makers to tell if products contain a bad kind of fat ... New support for an unusual kind of treatment for heart attack victims ... And, the story of a man who finally spoke, almost twenty years after a car accident. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United States Food and Drug Administration will require food companies to list the amount of what are known as trans fats in their products. The new requirement will not go into effect until two-thousand-six. But it is expected to push food makers to reduce the levels of trans fatty acids in their products before that. Health experts say trans fats increase the chances of developing heart disease and other serious health problems. Studies have shown that trans fats increase the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood. At the same time, they decrease the amount of good cholesterol. Products that contain trans fats include many kinds of margarine, peanut butter, cookies, cereals, puddings, doughnuts and fried foods. Food producers use trans fats because they say food tastes better and stays fresh longer in stores. VOICE TWO: Trans fats are most commonly found in what are called partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. These are liquid oils that have been made into solids. Food products generally say if they contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. But public health officials say food makers have in a sense hidden the trans fats by not listing them separately. Saturated fats from animals also increase the amount of bad cholesterol. So finding saturated fats and trans fats together in foods can be especially dangerous. Some businesses in the United States are already trying to reduce the amount of trans fat they use. Last year, McDonald’s made news when it promised to use a new oil that would reduce the amount in its French fries, its fried potatoes. McDonald's has not yet made the change. Reports say tests continue. VOICE ONE: Experts say healthier fats cost more than trans fats. But several food companies in the United States have already begun to use them. The statement "no trans fat" now appears on some products. The Food and Drug Administration says knowing more about what is in foods will help people improve their health, and will also save millions of dollars in medical costs. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Heart Association has given its support to an unusual treatment for people who have just had a heart attack. The treatment involves cooling the person's body after the heart has been restarted. The heart association says a lowered body temperature can help prevent brain damage in at least some patients. A heart attack causes the heart to stop pumping blood to the brain. Often, people who survive heart attacks that last longer than a few minutes suffer brain damage. The cooling treatment aims to lower a patient’s body temperature to about thirty-three degrees Celsius. The American Heart Association says the cooling should begin as soon as possible after the heart has been returned to normal pumping. Cooling heart patients is not new. For some time, doctors have lowered the temperatures of heart patients before operations. But, scientists say new studies show that cooling can also help patients AFTER their hearts have stopped. VOICE ONE: Doctor Jerry Nolan of the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England, was the lead researcher of the advisory statement. Doctor Nolan is also a chairman of the Advanced Life Support Task Force of the International Committee on Resuscitation. That group and the American Heart Association jointly released the advisory. It appeared first in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association, a private group. Doctor Nolan says the normal return of blood flow and oxygen to the brain causes a series of chemical reactions. This process can continue for as long as twenty-four hours, and cause swelling in the brain. Doctor Nolan says cooling the body slows the chemical reactions and limits the swelling. Doctor Nolan and his team supported their statement with two studies published last year. One took place in nine medical centers in Europe. Researchers in Australia carried out the other study at four hospitals in Melbourne. VOICE TWO: In Europe, medical workers placed patients on a special bed with a cover that blew cold air. Sometime they also used ice on the patients. The goal was to get a patient’s temperature to between thirty-two and thirty-four degrees Celsius within four hours of the return of a normal heart beat. Doctors kept the patient at that temperature for a full day. The study in Europe involved more than one-hundred-seventy patients. Half were cooled, half were not. Fifty-five percent of those who were cooled had good brain activity six months after treatment. Only thirty-nine percent of the other half had similar results. VOICE ONE: In Australia, emergency workers started the cooling before even they brought the heart attack victim to the hospital. The workers placed ice packs on the head and upper body. The use of ice continued in the hospital for twelve more hours. The ice lowered the patient’s temperature to thirty-three degrees Celsius. The Australian study found that twenty-one of forty-three patients who were cooled had good brain activity by the time of their release from the hospital. This was true for only nine of the thirty-four patients without the treatment. The advisory notes that the two studies involved only some kinds of patients. All had good blood pressure. There was detailed information about the time and length of their heart attacks. And, all had evidence of having gone into a coma after their attack. VOICE TWO: The American Health Association says it is not known if cooling may help other groups of heart attack patients. It also says more study is needed to learn the best ways to cool patients and how long they should remain that way. And, the advisory warns of a small increase in the risk of bleeding, infection and abnormal heart rhythm. Finally, Doctor Nolan warned people to resist what might be the natural urge to keep someone warm right after a heart attack. He says warming the person could do more harm than good. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A man in the American South has begun to talk again after nearly twenty years in a coma-like condition. Terry Wallis of Arkansas is thirty-nine years old. He was severely injured in a car accident in nineteen-eighty-four. The crash injured his brain and left him unable to move below the neck. Last month, he began talking. Doctors say Terry Wallis was in a coma at first. He was unconscious, unable to react to anything around him. Later, they described his condition as a persistent vegetative state. This is a situation in which a person is not aware of the environment, but his body continues to operate. The body may move and the eyes may open, but the person does not speak or obey commands. The patient may cry or laugh at times. The National Institutes of Health says a coma rarely continues for more than two to four weeks. Vegetative states may continue for years -- but almost twenty years is extremely unusual. VOICE TWO: Terry Wallis’s eyes have been open for years. He could eat. Sometimes, he communicated through sounds. For the past two years, doctors have been treating him with an antidepressant drug. They say it seems to have worked. Now, his family is slowly letting him know him that many things have changed since nineteen-eighty-four. Two of his grandparents have died. His baby daughter is now nineteen. Family members say he is trying to learn about modern technology. He has seen a cell phone and a laptop computer. They say he has started to read. And, Terry Wallis says he also wants to learn how to walk again -- for his daughter. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk, with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - July 23, 2003: New Test for West Nile Virus
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A medical company in Australia, PanBio, has developed a new test for West Nile virus. The test examines blood for what are called IgM antibodies. These are commonly found within the first few days of infection. Health officials say a second laboratory test is needed to confirm the results should the antibodies be discovered. Antibodies are proteins that the body produces to fight infection. Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration in Washington approved the test for use in the United States. The agency based its decision on a study of one-thousand patients. Researchers found that the PanBio test correctly identified IgM antibodies in up to ninety-nine percent of patients. Similar studies are also being done in Canada. The government there is expected to approve the test in the coming weeks. Carl Stubbings is senior vice president of PanBio's offices in the United States. He says the company has also organized a study at a hospital in Israel. And, he says future research is possible in France and Germany. West Nile virus started in Uganda in nineteen-thirty-seven. Populations in northern Africa have since developed resistance to the infection. However, this is not the case in North America and other parts of the world. The first cases of West Nile virus appeared in the United States in nineteen-ninety-nine. Last year more than four-thousand cases were reported in the country. More than two-hundred-eighty people died. Mexico, southern Europe and Canada are also dealing with the virus. And it has become a concern in Central America. West Nile virus spreads to humans through mosquito bites. The insects become infected when they feed on birds or other animals that carry the disease. Most people do not get sick from the virus. But children and adults over the age of fifty may develop serious problems. Signs of West Nile virus include head and body pain and fever. Severe cases can lead to coma or death. PanBio's new test for the disease takes about two hours. This is a huge reduction in the amount of time needed to identify an infected patient. Currently, tests for the disease usually take about two days to administer. Results can take up to two weeks. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 23, 2003: History of Radio
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. You are listening to our program today on a radio. Almost no communication would exist in the world without the electromagnetic waves that make radio possible. Today we explain the history of radio and tell how it works. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. You are listening to our program today on a radio. Almost no communication would exist in the world without the electromagnetic waves that make radio possible. Today we explain the history of radio and tell how it works. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our story begins in Britain in eighteen-seventy-three. A scientist named James Maxwell wrote a mathematical theory about a kind of energy. He called this energy electromagnetic waves. His theory said this kind of energy could pass unseen through the air. Mister Maxwell was not able to prove his idea. Other scientists could not prove it either until German scientist Heinrich Hertz tried an experiment in eighteen-eighty-seven. VOICE TWO: Mister Hertz’s experiment sounds very simple. He used two pieces of metal placed close together. He used electricity to make a spark jump between the two pieces of metal. He also built a simple receiver made of wire that was turned many times in a circle or looped. At the ends of the loop were small pieces of metal separated by a tiny amount of space. This receiver was placed several meters from the other device. Mister Hertz proved that Mister Maxwell’s idea was correct. Electromagnetic waves or energy passed through the air from one device to the other. VOICE ONE: Later, Mister Hertz demonstrated the experiment to his students in a classroom. One of the students asked what use might be made of this discovery. But Mister Hertz thought his discovery was of no use. He said it was interesting but had no value. He was wrong. His experiment was the very beginning of every kind of electronic communications we use today. In recognition of his work, the unit of frequency of a radio wave, one cycle per second, is named the hertz. VOICE TWO: Radio waves became known to scientists as Hertzian Waves. But the experiment was still of no use until Guglielmo Marconi improved on the device that created Hertzian Waves. He began his experiments in Italy in eighteen-ninety-four. Mister Marconi was soon able to transmit sound across a distance of several kilometers. He tried to interest Italian government officials in his discovery, but they were not interested. Mister Marconi traveled to Britain. His invention was well received there. In eighteen-ninety-seven, he established the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company. The company opened the world’s first radio factory in Chelmsford, England in eighteen-ninety-eight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Very quickly, people began sending and receiving radio messages across long distances using equipment made by Mister Marconi’s company. Ships at sea needed the device. Before Mister Marconi’s invention, they had no communication until they arrived in port. With radio, ships could call for help if they had trouble. They could send and receive information. All of Mister Marconi’s radios communicated using Morse code. It sounds like this. What you will hear are three letters. V-O-A. We will repeat, or send, each group of three letters two times. (MORSE CODE) An expert with Morse code could send and receive thirty or forty words a minute. Mister Marconi’s radio greatly increased the speed of communications. VOICE TWO: On December twenty-fourth, nineteen-oh-six, radio operators on ships in the Atlantic Ocean near the American coast began hearing strange things. At first it was violin music. Then they heard a human voice. The voice said “Have a Merry Christmas.” That voice belonged to a man named Reginald Fessenden. He had been working on producing a device that could transmit the human voice or music using radio. He decided to try it for the first time on December twenty-fourth. It was the first time a human voice had been heard on radio. VOICE ONE: Improvements in radio technology now came more quickly. Large companies became interested. Broadcasting equipment and radio receivers were improved. Fourteen years after Mister Fessenden’s voice was heard by radio operators at sea, the first real radio broadcast was transmitted. It came from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The radio program was transmitted on radio station K-D-K-A on the evening of November second, nineteen-twenty. The man speaking on the radio was Leo Rosenberg. He was announcing the early results of the presidential election between James Cox and Warren Harding. Within a year, the little radio station employed the world’s first full-time radio announcer. His name was Harold Arlin. K-D-K-A in Pittsburgh is still a successful radio station today. Oh, and Mister Harding won the presidential election! (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Those first K-D-K-A broadcasts led to the success of the radio industry. People began buying the first radios. Other companies decided radio could make a profit. Only four years after the first K-D-K-A broadcast, there were six-hundred radio stations in the United States. Radio stations also began to broadcast in other countries. Radio stations began selling “air time” as a way to pay their workers and to pay for needed equipment. A few minutes of air time were sold to different companies so they could tell about their products to the radio station’s listeners. This method of supporting radio and later television is still used today. VOICE ONE: Radio changed the way people thought and lived. It permitted almost everyone to hear news about important events at the same time. Political candidates could be heard by millions of listeners. The same songs were heard across the country. The work by British scientist James Maxwell and German scientist Heinrich Hertz led to the development of modern communications technology. This includes television broadcasts, satellite use, cellular telephones, radio-controlled toys, and much more. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we will explain electromagnetic waves. We will begin with Mister Hertz’s experiment. You can also try this experiment. It is very easy to do. First, move the controls on your radio to an area where no station is being received. Now, you will need a common nine-volt battery and a metal piece of money. Hold the battery near the radio and hit the top of the battery with the coin. You should hear a clicking noise on the radio. Your coin and battery are a very simple radio transmitter. This radio will not transmit very far. However, if you know a little of Morse code, you could communicate with this device. VOICE ONE: Electromagnetic energy travels almost like an ocean wave – up and down, up and down. It also travels at the speed of light -- two-hundred-ninety-nine-million-seven-hundred-ninety-two-thousand-four-hundred-fifty-eight meters each second. Scientists have learned how to separate radio waves into different lengths called frequencies. This permits many radio stations to broadcast at the same time and not interfere with each other. Most radio frequencies around the world are named after Heinrich Hertz. For example, one popular radio station in Washington, D-C broadcasts on six-hundred-thirty kilohertz. This is called a medium wave. The kilo means thousand. The hertz means cycles or waves per second. VOICE TWO: You may be hearing our broadcast on what is called short wave. These are frequencies between three-thousand and thirty-thousand-kilohertz. They are often called megahertz. Mega means a million. One megahertz is the same as one-thousand kilohertz. Short wave is good for broadcasting very long distances. The short wave signals bounce off the ionosphere that surrounds the Earth, back to the ground and then back to the ionosphere. Short wave can be heard for very long distances, but sometimes the signal is not clear. However, radio technology continues to improve. Today, V-O-A broadcasts to satellites in space that send the signal back to stations on the ground that transmit programs with a clear signal. It is even possible today to use a computer to link with thousands of radio stations around the world. We think Mister Hertz would be very proud of the little device he thought would never be of any use. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Our story begins in Britain in eighteen-seventy-three. A scientist named James Maxwell wrote a mathematical theory about a kind of energy. He called this energy electromagnetic waves. His theory said this kind of energy could pass unseen through the air. Mister Maxwell was not able to prove his idea. Other scientists could not prove it either until German scientist Heinrich Hertz tried an experiment in eighteen-eighty-seven. VOICE TWO: Mister Hertz’s experiment sounds very simple. He used two pieces of metal placed close together. He used electricity to make a spark jump between the two pieces of metal. He also built a simple receiver made of wire that was turned many times in a circle or looped. At the ends of the loop were small pieces of metal separated by a tiny amount of space. This receiver was placed several meters from the other device. Mister Hertz proved that Mister Maxwell’s idea was correct. Electromagnetic waves or energy passed through the air from one device to the other. VOICE ONE: Later, Mister Hertz demonstrated the experiment to his students in a classroom. One of the students asked what use might be made of this discovery. But Mister Hertz thought his discovery was of no use. He said it was interesting but had no value. He was wrong. His experiment was the very beginning of every kind of electronic communications we use today. In recognition of his work, the unit of frequency of a radio wave, one cycle per second, is named the hertz. VOICE TWO: Radio waves became known to scientists as Hertzian Waves. But the experiment was still of no use until Guglielmo Marconi improved on the device that created Hertzian Waves. He began his experiments in Italy in eighteen-ninety-four. Mister Marconi was soon able to transmit sound across a distance of several kilometers. He tried to interest Italian government officials in his discovery, but they were not interested. Mister Marconi traveled to Britain. His invention was well received there. In eighteen-ninety-seven, he established the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company. The company opened the world’s first radio factory in Chelmsford, England in eighteen-ninety-eight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Very quickly, people began sending and receiving radio messages across long distances using equipment made by Mister Marconi’s company. Ships at sea needed the device. Before Mister Marconi’s invention, they had no communication until they arrived in port. With radio, ships could call for help if they had trouble. They could send and receive information. All of Mister Marconi’s radios communicated using Morse code. It sounds like this. What you will hear are three letters. V-O-A. We will repeat, or send, each group of three letters two times. (MORSE CODE) An expert with Morse code could send and receive thirty or forty words a minute. Mister Marconi’s radio greatly increased the speed of communications. VOICE TWO: On December twenty-fourth, nineteen-oh-six, radio operators on ships in the Atlantic Ocean near the American coast began hearing strange things. At first it was violin music. Then they heard a human voice. The voice said “Have a Merry Christmas.” That voice belonged to a man named Reginald Fessenden. He had been working on producing a device that could transmit the human voice or music using radio. He decided to try it for the first time on December twenty-fourth. It was the first time a human voice had been heard on radio. VOICE ONE: Improvements in radio technology now came more quickly. Large companies became interested. Broadcasting equipment and radio receivers were improved. Fourteen years after Mister Fessenden’s voice was heard by radio operators at sea, the first real radio broadcast was transmitted. It came from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The radio program was transmitted on radio station K-D-K-A on the evening of November second, nineteen-twenty. The man speaking on the radio was Leo Rosenberg. He was announcing the early results of the presidential election between James Cox and Warren Harding. Within a year, the little radio station employed the world’s first full-time radio announcer. His name was Harold Arlin. K-D-K-A in Pittsburgh is still a successful radio station today. Oh, and Mister Harding won the presidential election! (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Those first K-D-K-A broadcasts led to the success of the radio industry. People began buying the first radios. Other companies decided radio could make a profit. Only four years after the first K-D-K-A broadcast, there were six-hundred radio stations in the United States. Radio stations also began to broadcast in other countries. Radio stations began selling “air time” as a way to pay their workers and to pay for needed equipment. A few minutes of air time were sold to different companies so they could tell about their products to the radio station’s listeners. This method of supporting radio and later television is still used today. VOICE ONE: Radio changed the way people thought and lived. It permitted almost everyone to hear news about important events at the same time. Political candidates could be heard by millions of listeners. The same songs were heard across the country. The work by British scientist James Maxwell and German scientist Heinrich Hertz led to the development of modern communications technology. This includes television broadcasts, satellite use, cellular telephones, radio-controlled toys, and much more. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Now we will explain electromagnetic waves. We will begin with Mister Hertz’s experiment. You can also try this experiment. It is very easy to do. First, move the controls on your radio to an area where no station is being received. Now, you will need a common nine-volt battery and a metal piece of money. Hold the battery near the radio and hit the top of the battery with the coin. You should hear a clicking noise on the radio. Your coin and battery are a very simple radio transmitter. This radio will not transmit very far. However, if you know a little of Morse code, you could communicate with this device. VOICE ONE: Electromagnetic energy travels almost like an ocean wave – up and down, up and down. It also travels at the speed of light -- two-hundred-ninety-nine-million-seven-hundred-ninety-two-thousand-four-hundred-fifty-eight meters each second. Scientists have learned how to separate radio waves into different lengths called frequencies. This permits many radio stations to broadcast at the same time and not interfere with each other. Most radio frequencies around the world are named after Heinrich Hertz. For example, one popular radio station in Washington, D-C broadcasts on six-hundred-thirty kilohertz. This is called a medium wave. The kilo means thousand. The hertz means cycles or waves per second. VOICE TWO: You may be hearing our broadcast on what is called short wave. These are frequencies between three-thousand and thirty-thousand-kilohertz. They are often called megahertz. Mega means a million. One megahertz is the same as one-thousand kilohertz. Short wave is good for broadcasting very long distances. The short wave signals bounce off the ionosphere that surrounds the Earth, back to the ground and then back to the ionosphere. Short wave can be heard for very long distances, but sometimes the signal is not clear. However, radio technology continues to improve. Today, V-O-A broadcasts to satellites in space that send the signal back to stations on the ground that transmit programs with a clear signal. It is even possible today to use a computer to link with thousands of radio stations around the world. We think Mister Hertz would be very proud of the little device he thought would never be of any use. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #22 - July 24, 2003: Writing the Constitution, Part 6
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national judiciary. Delegates approved a Supreme Court. And they agreed that the national legislature should establish a system of lower national courts. The national executive -- or president -- would appoint the judges. These courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States. The existing system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws. We also told how the convention heard different proposals for a national government. Virginia and New Jersey offered their plans. Alexander Hamilton of New York presented a third proposal. It would give the national government almost unlimited powers. Hamilton's ideas were not popular. After Hamiliton's five-hour speech, one delegate said, "Hamilton is praised by everybody. He is supported by no one." Delegates voted to reject the New Jersey Plan. They did not even vote on Hamilton's plan. From that time, all their discussions were about the plan presented by Virginia. VOICE ONE: The delegates began to discuss creation of a national legislature. This would be the most hotly debated issue of the convention. It forced out into the open the question of equal representation. Would small states and large states have an equal voice in the central government? One delegate described the situation this way. "Let us see the truth," he said. "This is a fight for power ... not for liberty. Small states may lose power to big states in a national legislature. But men living in small states will have just as much freedom as men living in big states." The issue brought the deepest emotions to the surface. One day, Gunning Bedford of Delaware looked straight at the delegates from the largest states. "Gentlemen!" he shouted. "I do not trust you. If you try to crush the small states, you will destroy the confederation. And if you do, the small states will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and give them justice." VOICE TWO: The debate on legislative representation -- big states against small states -- lasted for weeks that summer in Philadelphia. Delegates voted on proposals, then discussed other proposals, then voted again. By the beginning of July, they were no closer to agreement than they had been in May. As one delegate said: "It seems we are at the point where we cannot move one way or another." So the delegates did what large groups often do when they cannot reach agreement. They voted to create a committee. The purpose of the committee was to develop a compromise on representation in the national legislature. The so-called "Grand Committee" would work by itself for the next several days. The rest of the delegates would rest and enjoy themselves during the July Fourth holiday. VOICE ONE: July Fourth -- Independence Day. It was a national holiday in the United States. It marked the eleventh anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence from British rule. It was a day for parades, fireworks, and patriotic speeches. The celebration was especially important in Philadelphia. It was the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Now it was the city where a new nation was being created. Convention president George Washington led a group of delegates to a ceremony at a Philadelphia church. They heard a speech written especially for them. "Your country looks to you with both worry and hope," the speaker said. "Your country depends on your decisions. Your country believes that men such as you -- who led us in our war for independence -- will know how to plan a government that will be good for all Americans. "Surely," the speaker continued, "we have among us men who understand the science of government and who can find the answers to all our problems. Surely we have the ability to design a government that will protect the liberties we have won." VOICE TWO: The delegates needed to hear such words. Just a few days before, Benjamin Franklin had expressed his thoughts about the convention. He was not hopeful. Franklin said: "We seem to feel our own lack of political wisdom, since we have been running around in search of it. We went back to ancient history for examples of government. We examined different forms of republics which no longer exist. We also examined modern states all around Europe. But none of these constitutions, we found, work in our situation." Franklin urged the convention to ask for God's help. He said each meeting should begin with a prayer. Hugh Williamson of North Carolina quickly ended any discussion of Franklin's idea. His words were simple. The convention, he said, had no money to pay a minister to lead the delegates in prayer. VOICE ONE: The convention returned to its work on July Fifth. Delegates heard the report of the Grand Committee about representation in the national legislature. The report had two proposals. The Grand Committee said both must be accepted or both rejected. The report described a national legislature with two houses. The first proposal said representation in one house would be based on population. Each state would have one representative for every forty-thousand people in that state. The second proposal said representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of votes as the other states. VOICE TWO: The convention already had voted for a national legislature of two houses. It had not agreed, however, on the number of representatives each state would have in each house. Nor had it agreed on how those representatives would be elected. The proposals made by the Grand Committee on July Fifth were the same as those made by Roger Sherman of Connecticut a month earlier. In the future, they would be known as the "Great Compromise". Delegates debated the compromise for many days. They knew if they did not reach agreement, the convention would fail. Those were dark days in Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: Later, Luther Martin of Maryland noted that the newspapers reported how much the delegates agreed. But that was not the truth. "We were on the edge of breaking up," Martin said. "We were held together only by the strength of a hair." Delegates Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York had left the convention in protest. But George Mason of Virginia declared he would bury his bones in Philadelphia before he would leave without an agreement. Even George Washington was depressed. He wrote to Alexander Hamilton, who had returned to New York temporarily. "I am sorry you went away," Washington said. "Our discussions are now, if possible, worse than ever. There is little agreement on which a good government can be formed. I have lost almost all hope of seeing a successful end to the convention. And so I regret that I agreed to take part." VOICE TWO: During the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, the delegates argued long and hard about how much power to give a central government. But that question was not the most serious issue facing the convention. Many years later, James Madison explained. He said the most serious issue was deciding how the states would be represented and would vote in a national government. That question, he said, was the one which most threatened the writing of the Constitution. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention reached agreement on a national judiciary. Delegates approved a Supreme Court. And they agreed that the national legislature should establish a system of lower national courts. The national executive -- or president -- would appoint the judges. These courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States. The existing system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws. We also told how the convention heard different proposals for a national government. Virginia and New Jersey offered their plans. Alexander Hamilton of New York presented a third proposal. It would give the national government almost unlimited powers. Hamilton's ideas were not popular. After Hamiliton's five-hour speech, one delegate said, "Hamilton is praised by everybody. He is supported by no one." Delegates voted to reject the New Jersey Plan. They did not even vote on Hamilton's plan. From that time, all their discussions were about the plan presented by Virginia. VOICE ONE: The delegates began to discuss creation of a national legislature. This would be the most hotly debated issue of the convention. It forced out into the open the question of equal representation. Would small states and large states have an equal voice in the central government? One delegate described the situation this way. "Let us see the truth," he said. "This is a fight for power ... not for liberty. Small states may lose power to big states in a national legislature. But men living in small states will have just as much freedom as men living in big states." The issue brought the deepest emotions to the surface. One day, Gunning Bedford of Delaware looked straight at the delegates from the largest states. "Gentlemen!" he shouted. "I do not trust you. If you try to crush the small states, you will destroy the confederation. And if you do, the small states will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and give them justice." VOICE TWO: The debate on legislative representation -- big states against small states -- lasted for weeks that summer in Philadelphia. Delegates voted on proposals, then discussed other proposals, then voted again. By the beginning of July, they were no closer to agreement than they had been in May. As one delegate said: "It seems we are at the point where we cannot move one way or another." So the delegates did what large groups often do when they cannot reach agreement. They voted to create a committee. The purpose of the committee was to develop a compromise on representation in the national legislature. The so-called "Grand Committee" would work by itself for the next several days. The rest of the delegates would rest and enjoy themselves during the July Fourth holiday. VOICE ONE: July Fourth -- Independence Day. It was a national holiday in the United States. It marked the eleventh anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence from British rule. It was a day for parades, fireworks, and patriotic speeches. The celebration was especially important in Philadelphia. It was the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Now it was the city where a new nation was being created. Convention president George Washington led a group of delegates to a ceremony at a Philadelphia church. They heard a speech written especially for them. "Your country looks to you with both worry and hope," the speaker said. "Your country depends on your decisions. Your country believes that men such as you -- who led us in our war for independence -- will know how to plan a government that will be good for all Americans. "Surely," the speaker continued, "we have among us men who understand the science of government and who can find the answers to all our problems. Surely we have the ability to design a government that will protect the liberties we have won." VOICE TWO: The delegates needed to hear such words. Just a few days before, Benjamin Franklin had expressed his thoughts about the convention. He was not hopeful. Franklin said: "We seem to feel our own lack of political wisdom, since we have been running around in search of it. We went back to ancient history for examples of government. We examined different forms of republics which no longer exist. We also examined modern states all around Europe. But none of these constitutions, we found, work in our situation." Franklin urged the convention to ask for God's help. He said each meeting should begin with a prayer. Hugh Williamson of North Carolina quickly ended any discussion of Franklin's idea. His words were simple. The convention, he said, had no money to pay a minister to lead the delegates in prayer. VOICE ONE: The convention returned to its work on July Fifth. Delegates heard the report of the Grand Committee about representation in the national legislature. The report had two proposals. The Grand Committee said both must be accepted or both rejected. The report described a national legislature with two houses. The first proposal said representation in one house would be based on population. Each state would have one representative for every forty-thousand people in that state. The second proposal said representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of votes as the other states. VOICE TWO: The convention already had voted for a national legislature of two houses. It had not agreed, however, on the number of representatives each state would have in each house. Nor had it agreed on how those representatives would be elected. The proposals made by the Grand Committee on July Fifth were the same as those made by Roger Sherman of Connecticut a month earlier. In the future, they would be known as the "Great Compromise". Delegates debated the compromise for many days. They knew if they did not reach agreement, the convention would fail. Those were dark days in Philadelphia. VOICE ONE: Later, Luther Martin of Maryland noted that the newspapers reported how much the delegates agreed. But that was not the truth. "We were on the edge of breaking up," Martin said. "We were held together only by the strength of a hair." Delegates Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York had left the convention in protest. But George Mason of Virginia declared he would bury his bones in Philadelphia before he would leave without an agreement. Even George Washington was depressed. He wrote to Alexander Hamilton, who had returned to New York temporarily. "I am sorry you went away," Washington said. "Our discussions are now, if possible, worse than ever. There is little agreement on which a good government can be formed. I have lost almost all hope of seeing a successful end to the convention. And so I regret that I agreed to take part." VOICE TWO: During the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, the delegates argued long and hard about how much power to give a central government. But that question was not the most serious issue facing the convention. Many years later, James Madison explained. He said the most serious issue was deciding how the states would be represented and would vote in a national government. That question, he said, was the one which most threatened the writing of the Constitution. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – July 24, 2003: Vocational Education
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American educational experts are debating the future of vocational training. This kind of training provides job skills for high school students who often have no plans to go to college. The federal government first began to pay for this training in high schools in nineteen-seventeen. Skills like machine operation and wood-working helped many young people learn to support themselves. But over time, critics began to say that vocational training did not place enough importance on subjects like mathematics and reading. They said boys and girls -- including a lot from poor and minority families -- were sometimes directed toward such training unfairly. Critics said this denied the students the chances for more education and better paying jobs. In recent years, federal money for vocational education -- and student interest in it -- have both decreased. The United States Department of Education now says high schools should prepare every student for college -- even if the student chooses not to attend. The Bush administration budget for next year calls for cuts in money for vocational education. Education Department official Carol D’Amico says the department recognizes the importance of vocational education. But she says it also disapproves of training programs that are weak in traditional subjects. A federal law called “No Child Left Behind” now requires students across the country to take yearly examinations in these subjects. Many educators praise vocational training in New York. Frank Carucci is a union official with the United Federation of Teachers and a vocational education expert. Mister Carucci says the city’s Career and Technical Education programs offer more than preparation for jobs. He says creative teachers have found ways to teach basic subjects, and that the job skills taught can help students pay for college. Mister Carucci argues that the proposed cuts in spending would harm vocational programs. He says loss of such programs could mean that more students leave school before they complete their studies. Whatever happens to the vocational education budget, the debate about what is best for students is sure to continue. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: July 24, 2003 - Chicago Manual of Style
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 24, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a look at the book writers turn to settle questions of style. RS: University of Chicago Press is just out with the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, "the essential guide for writers, editors, and publishers." That's what it says on the front of the book. AA: Note that there's a comma after "editors." Some guides would have omitted the comma before the last item in a series. RS: And therein lies the difference between a style book and a grammar book, says Anita Samen, managing editor of the University of Chicago Press. SAMEN: "For example, if you are writing and following Chicago style in your writing, and you say 'as we discussed in chapter 4,' the C on 'chapter' would be lower-cased, not capitalized, because that's our style. This is not an issue of grammar." AA: "And that's what's so frustrating about this, when you've got a picky little style point and you go to four or five different style books -- " RS: "And they're all different." AA: "And they're all different." SAMEN: "No, you go to ours. [Laughter] But if you think about the origin of the manual, the manual originally was for people working in the proof room, so they could make sure that things that were published by the press were consistent in the way terms were handled. So that is how our particular style evolved." AA: "Well, let me ask you a question then -- why not a capital C?" SAMEN: "We tend to save capital letters to make them stand out. For example, the New York Times -- if you read the New York Times -- will talk about the Clinton administration or the Bush administration and they will capitalize the word administration. Our style, however, is to have it lower-cased." RS: "Now what is the difference between the 15th edition and, say, the 14th edition?" SAMEN: "Oh, many, many, many differences. The primary difference, I think, is the Manual always evolves with the times. And if you think about what has happened in the world between 1993, when the 14th edition came out, and 2003 -- for example, in 1993 when I worked at the Press, I did not have e-mail. I had a computer in my office, but people didn't use e-mail the way they do now. When we were thinking for this new edition what we would do with the terms e-mail and Web site, and how we would style those -- for example, Web site, one word or two, cap W or lower case. It is two words, with a cap W, because Web site came from World Wide Web. "E-mail is lower-case E, with a hyphen, and that actually is something now that I think about it, that may clarify the matter for non-native speakers of English. Because without the hyphen, just email, that may look like some word they're supposed to know but don't." AA: "Final question here -- what was the most controversial, the biggest bombshell change from the 14th edition to the 15th?" SAMEN: "Hmm. I would say adding electronic citations to our two chapters on citations. And our big debate was -- two debates, whether or not to advocate full URLs and whether or not to advocate adding access dates to the citations." AA: "URL is the Web address, the Uniform Resource Locator." SAMEN: "Yes, yes, and all that string of letters and the tildes and all that. And for awhile -- and we went both ways, and we actually drafted the chapters two different ways, and after a lot of discussion we decided to go with full URLs and access dates when either the discipline required adding them or when they gave useful information to the reader. How to handle URLs, I would say, generated the most conversation as we were preparing the fifteenth edition." RS: Anita Samen is managing editor of the University of Chicago Press, publishers of the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. AA: Now here's an example of a "full URL" in a formal citation -- http://www.voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: Or just type in voanews.com/wordmaster, and you'll get to us just the same. AA: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 24, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a look at the book writers turn to settle questions of style. RS: University of Chicago Press is just out with the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, "the essential guide for writers, editors, and publishers." That's what it says on the front of the book. AA: Note that there's a comma after "editors." Some guides would have omitted the comma before the last item in a series. RS: And therein lies the difference between a style book and a grammar book, says Anita Samen, managing editor of the University of Chicago Press. SAMEN: "For example, if you are writing and following Chicago style in your writing, and you say 'as we discussed in chapter 4,' the C on 'chapter' would be lower-cased, not capitalized, because that's our style. This is not an issue of grammar." AA: "And that's what's so frustrating about this, when you've got a picky little style point and you go to four or five different style books -- " RS: "And they're all different." AA: "And they're all different." SAMEN: "No, you go to ours. [Laughter] But if you think about the origin of the manual, the manual originally was for people working in the proof room, so they could make sure that things that were published by the press were consistent in the way terms were handled. So that is how our particular style evolved." AA: "Well, let me ask you a question then -- why not a capital C?" SAMEN: "We tend to save capital letters to make them stand out. For example, the New York Times -- if you read the New York Times -- will talk about the Clinton administration or the Bush administration and they will capitalize the word administration. Our style, however, is to have it lower-cased." RS: "Now what is the difference between the 15th edition and, say, the 14th edition?" SAMEN: "Oh, many, many, many differences. The primary difference, I think, is the Manual always evolves with the times. And if you think about what has happened in the world between 1993, when the 14th edition came out, and 2003 -- for example, in 1993 when I worked at the Press, I did not have e-mail. I had a computer in my office, but people didn't use e-mail the way they do now. When we were thinking for this new edition what we would do with the terms e-mail and Web site, and how we would style those -- for example, Web site, one word or two, cap W or lower case. It is two words, with a cap W, because Web site came from World Wide Web. "E-mail is lower-case E, with a hyphen, and that actually is something now that I think about it, that may clarify the matter for non-native speakers of English. Because without the hyphen, just email, that may look like some word they're supposed to know but don't." AA: "Final question here -- what was the most controversial, the biggest bombshell change from the 14th edition to the 15th?" SAMEN: "Hmm. I would say adding electronic citations to our two chapters on citations. And our big debate was -- two debates, whether or not to advocate full URLs and whether or not to advocate adding access dates to the citations." AA: "URL is the Web address, the Uniform Resource Locator." SAMEN: "Yes, yes, and all that string of letters and the tildes and all that. And for awhile -- and we went both ways, and we actually drafted the chapters two different ways, and after a lot of discussion we decided to go with full URLs and access dates when either the discipline required adding them or when they gave useful information to the reader. How to handle URLs, I would say, generated the most conversation as we were preparing the fifteenth edition." RS: Anita Samen is managing editor of the University of Chicago Press, publishers of the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. AA: Now here's an example of a "full URL" in a formal citation -- http://www.voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: Or just type in voanews.com/wordmaster, and you'll get to us just the same. AA: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – July 25, 2003: Fuel Cell Cost-Cutting
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Researchers say they have found a way to reduce the cost of some fuel cell production. The researchers are from Tufts University in the American state of Massachusetts. Fuel cells create heat and electric power without pollution. Fuel cell technology uses hydrogen to create electricity. Hydrogen gas passes over a metal, like platinum or gold. Electrons from the hydrogen separate to form electricity. Proton particles that remain in the atom combine with oxygen to form water. Some fuel cells require a lot of metal. And platinum costs even more than gold. Prices went up at the beginning of this year. That was after President Bush said the government would spend more than one-thousand-million dollars on fuel cell research. But the scientists from Tufts say their findings could save millions of dollars. Their work involved the agent that causes the chemical reaction used to make hydrogen. Normally that agent is about ten percent gold or other costly metal. The researchers used a chemical to slowly remove the gold from the agent. They discovered that the agent remained effective even after they removed ninety percent of the metal. Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos is a professor of chemical and biological engineering who led the work. She says it will help researchers find a way to produce clean energy from fuel cells in a cost effective way. Another scientist says they must continue research to learn if smaller amounts of costly metals will work in other fuel cell processes. The National Science Foundation provided money for the research. The findings appear in Science. That publication also reported about a new, less costly agent for making hydrogen. The report says scientists at the University of Wisconsin made the agent from tin, aluminum and nickel. They say the process works as well with these as it does with platinum and other metals that cost much more. Some automobile makers have tested hydrogen-powered vehicles. The American space agency has used fuel cells to produce electricity since the nineteen-sixties. But cost is an issue. Currently, hydrogen costs four times more to produce than gasoline. And fuel cells cost ten times more than traditional gasoline-burning engines. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 25, 2003:  Annie Lennox's New Album 'Bare' / Question About U.S. Chief Justice / Best Heroes (and Villains) in Film
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life -- and we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- New songs from Annie Lennox ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life -- and we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- New songs from Annie Lennox ... A question about the Chief Justice of the United States ... And -- find out who the best heroes are in films! Top Heroes in Film HOST: The American Film Institute has named the fifty greatest heroes in American movies. Shep O’Neal takes a look at some of them. ANNCR: The American Film Institute asked one-thousand-five-hundred actors, directors and critics to name the top heroes in American movies. A hero was defined as a character who shows morality, bravery and purpose. The top hero chosen is Atticus Finch, in the movie “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Actor Gregory Peck played a white lawyer in a racist southern town. He defends a black man wrongly accused of a crime. At home, Atticus Finch is a single father who teaches his two children about fairness and justice. Several top heroes on the list battle evil with lots of action. There is Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Another top hero is British spy James Bond, played by Sean Connery in “Doctor No.” Sean Connery is British, from Scotland, but the film was American made. Rick Blaine is not as famous a name as James Bond, but he too is a top hero. Humphrey Bogart played this part in the movie “Casablanca.” His character helps Resistance leaders escape the Nazi Germans in Morocco during World War Two. Actor Gary Cooper as lawman Will Kane is another movie hero. He kills the bad guy in a gunfight in the famous western movie “High Noon.” Two women are among the top ten movie heroes. Actress Sigourney Weaver, as Ellen Ripley, battles horrible creatures from outer space in “Alien.” And Jodie Foster plays Clarice Starling, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Her enemy is Hannibal Lecter, an insane criminal who kills and eats people. The American Film Institute also released a list of the fifty top villains – the most evil characters in movies. It may not surprise you that the top villain is Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Another top villain on the list is Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" movie “The Empire Strikes Back.” His frightening voice was provided by actor James Earl Jones. Several women also are among the top villains. They include the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, in the nineteen-thirty-nine movie “The Wizard of Oz.”The list of heroes and villains is part of the American Film Institute’s celebration of one-hundred years of American film. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Van Vu asks about the leader of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the United States. To understand this job, it is important to know some things about the Supreme Court. Congress created the court more than two-hundred years ago, as called for in the Constitution. The judicial division of the government has the power to decide legal disputes involving laws made by Congress. The judicial division includes the Supreme Court and lower courts. The main duty of the Supreme Court is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the Constitution. Most of the disputes the Supreme Court considers already have been judged in a lower court. The Supreme Court hears appeals of decisions made by lower courts that involved federal and state laws. All decisions made by the Supreme Court are final. Neither the president nor Congress can veto a Supreme Court decision. The president and members of Congress are elected every few years. They must base their actions at least in part on what the voters want. But Supreme Court justices are appointed for life by the president. Their loyalty, then, is not to voters but to the Constitution. Presidential nominations to the court must be approved by the Senate. The court has nine members: a chief justice and eight associate justices. The chief justice is also appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The Constitution gives just one job to the chief justice: to lead any presidential impeachment trials. However, the chief justice is considered the top officer of the court. The chief justice leads meetings where cases are discussed, and may choose the justices who write the court's opinions. The chief justice today is William Rehnquist. President Richard Nixon nominated him as an associate justice in nineteen-seventy-two. In nineteen-eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan nominated him chief justice. Mister Rehnquist has held that job ever since. Annie Lennox HOST: Annie Lennox became famous during the nineteen-eighties as lead singer of the rock group the Eurythmics. That group is no longer together. But last month Annie Lennox released her third independent album. Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: The name of the album is "Bare" -- as in without clothes, open to the world, breakable. Annie Lennox says the name also describes her feelings about herself. The songs are less angry, less robotic, than earlier music by Annie Lennox. The music on "Bare" seems lighter in spirit, more playful. The first song establishes an atmosphere. It is about life’s good things – right down to the air we breathe. It is called “A Thousand Beautiful Things.” (MUSIC) Annie Lennox launched “Bare” with a series of performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. She performed this song from the album in Washington. It is all about learning to accept lost love and not looking for happiness in holes along the road. It is called “Pavement Cracks.” (MUSIC) Music critics say the clear quality of Annie Lennox’s voice comes through in her newest album. We leave you now with a song that is perhaps the best example. It is called “The Saddest Song I’ve Got.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Today’s program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our studio engineer was Tony Pollack. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. A question about the Chief Justice of the United States ... And -- find out who the best heroes are in films! Top Heroes in Film HOST: The American Film Institute has named the fifty greatest heroes in American movies. Shep O’Neal takes a look at some of them. ANNCR: The American Film Institute asked one-thousand-five-hundred actors, directors and critics to name the top heroes in American movies. A hero was defined as a character who shows morality, bravery and purpose. The top hero chosen is Atticus Finch, in the movie “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Actor Gregory Peck played a white lawyer in a racist southern town. He defends a black man wrongly accused of a crime. At home, Atticus Finch is a single father who teaches his two children about fairness and justice. Several top heroes on the list battle evil with lots of action. There is Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Another top hero is British spy James Bond, played by Sean Connery in “Doctor No.” Sean Connery is British, from Scotland, but the film was American made. Rick Blaine is not as famous a name as James Bond, but he too is a top hero. Humphrey Bogart played this part in the movie “Casablanca.” His character helps Resistance leaders escape the Nazi Germans in Morocco during World War Two. Actor Gary Cooper as lawman Will Kane is another movie hero. He kills the bad guy in a gunfight in the famous western movie “High Noon.” Two women are among the top ten movie heroes. Actress Sigourney Weaver, as Ellen Ripley, battles horrible creatures from outer space in “Alien.” And Jodie Foster plays Clarice Starling, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Her enemy is Hannibal Lecter, an insane criminal who kills and eats people. The American Film Institute also released a list of the fifty top villains – the most evil characters in movies. It may not surprise you that the top villain is Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Another top villain on the list is Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" movie “The Empire Strikes Back.” His frightening voice was provided by actor James Earl Jones. Several women also are among the top villains. They include the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, in the nineteen-thirty-nine movie “The Wizard of Oz.”The list of heroes and villains is part of the American Film Institute’s celebration of one-hundred years of American film. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Van Vu asks about the leader of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the United States. To understand this job, it is important to know some things about the Supreme Court. Congress created the court more than two-hundred years ago, as called for in the Constitution. The judicial division of the government has the power to decide legal disputes involving laws made by Congress. The judicial division includes the Supreme Court and lower courts. The main duty of the Supreme Court is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the Constitution. Most of the disputes the Supreme Court considers already have been judged in a lower court. The Supreme Court hears appeals of decisions made by lower courts that involved federal and state laws. All decisions made by the Supreme Court are final. Neither the president nor Congress can veto a Supreme Court decision. The president and members of Congress are elected every few years. They must base their actions at least in part on what the voters want. But Supreme Court justices are appointed for life by the president. Their loyalty, then, is not to voters but to the Constitution. Presidential nominations to the court must be approved by the Senate. The court has nine members: a chief justice and eight associate justices. The chief justice is also appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The Constitution gives just one job to the chief justice: to lead any presidential impeachment trials. However, the chief justice is considered the top officer of the court. The chief justice leads meetings where cases are discussed, and may choose the justices who write the court's opinions. The chief justice today is William Rehnquist. President Richard Nixon nominated him as an associate justice in nineteen-seventy-two. In nineteen-eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan nominated him chief justice. Mister Rehnquist has held that job ever since. Annie Lennox HOST: Annie Lennox became famous during the nineteen-eighties as lead singer of the rock group the Eurythmics. That group is no longer together. But last month Annie Lennox released her third independent album. Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: The name of the album is "Bare" -- as in without clothes, open to the world, breakable. Annie Lennox says the name also describes her feelings about herself. The songs are less angry, less robotic, than earlier music by Annie Lennox. The music on "Bare" seems lighter in spirit, more playful. The first song establishes an atmosphere. It is about life’s good things – right down to the air we breathe. It is called “A Thousand Beautiful Things.” (MUSIC) Annie Lennox launched “Bare” with a series of performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. She performed this song from the album in Washington. It is all about learning to accept lost love and not looking for happiness in holes along the road. It is called “Pavement Cracks.” (MUSIC) Music critics say the clear quality of Annie Lennox’s voice comes through in her newest album. We leave you now with a song that is perhaps the best example. It is called “The Saddest Song I’ve Got.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Today’s program was written by Shelley Gollust, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our studio engineer was Tony Pollack. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 26, 2003: Congressional Report on Sept. 11 Attacks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. This week, a joint congressional committee released its final report about the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The report criticizes the way officials dealt with intelligence in the months before the attacks in New York and Washington. But the committee also found that intelligence agencies had no direct evidence of the plot. This is the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. This week, a joint congressional committee released its final report about the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. The report criticizes the way officials dealt with intelligence in the months before the attacks in New York and Washington. But the committee also found that intelligence agencies had no direct evidence of the plot. Hijackers flew two planes into the World Trade Center. A third hit the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Defense Department. A fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The September eleventh attacks killed three-thousand people. The report is based on a ten-month investigation last year by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Some findings were announced when the committees completed their investigation in December. But most of the details remained secret. Congressional members and intelligence agencies had been struggling over what information could be made public. A nine-hundred page version of the report was released Thursday. The report says that before the attacks a number of agencies had a great deal of information about Osama bin Laden's al Qaida group and the future hijackers. These agencies included the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. But the report says none of the intelligence showed exactly how, when or where the attacks would take place. Still, the report criticizes intelligence agencies for failing to share and act on information they had in the months before the attacks. It says they missed chances to deny entry to those involved in the plot, to observe their movements or to increase security in the United States. The report says American intelligence agencies received information as early as nineteen-ninety-four that terrorists were considering using airplanes in attacks. The document also says two of the September eleventh hijackers had many contacts with an F-B-I informant in California in two-thousand. It says the C-I-A knew the two men had ties to al-Qaida, but never shared the information with the F-B-I or put the men’s names on a terrorism watch list. The report offers nineteen suggestions. These include better cooperation among intelligence agencies and more aggressive efforts to investigate threats. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis. But much of the report’s information that deals with the Saudi government was not made public. The White House says information was withheld to protect national security interests. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham is a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He say the White House did not want to make an important ally look bad. But other committee members, including some Democrats, say they have no evidence of that. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is _______. Hijackers flew two planes into the World Trade Center. A third hit the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Defense Department. A fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The September eleventh attacks killed three-thousand people. The report is based on a ten-month investigation last year by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Some findings were announced when the committees completed their investigation in December. But most of the details remained secret. Congressional members and intelligence agencies had been struggling over what information could be made public. A nine-hundred page version of the report was released Thursday. The report says that before the attacks a number of agencies had a great deal of information about Osama bin Laden's al Qaida group and the future hijackers. These agencies included the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. But the report says none of the intelligence showed exactly how, when or where the attacks would take place. Still, the report criticizes intelligence agencies for failing to share and act on information they had in the months before the attacks. It says they missed chances to deny entry to those involved in the plot, to observe their movements or to increase security in the United States. The report says American intelligence agencies received information as early as nineteen-ninety-four that terrorists were considering using airplanes in attacks. The document also says two of the September eleventh hijackers had many contacts with an F-B-I informant in California in two-thousand. It says the C-I-A knew the two men had ties to al-Qaida, but never shared the information with the F-B-I or put the men’s names on a terrorism watch list. The report offers nineteen suggestions. These include better cooperation among intelligence agencies and more aggressive efforts to investigate threats. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudis. But much of the report’s information that deals with the Saudi government was not made public. The White House says information was withheld to protect national security interests. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham is a former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He say the White House did not want to make an important ally look bad. But other committee members, including some Democrats, say they have no evidence of that. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is _______. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 27, 2003: Cesar Chavez
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Nicole Nichols. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about one of the great labor activists, Cesar Chavez. He organized the first successful farm workers union in American history. (THEME) I’m Nicole Nichols. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about one of the great labor activists, Cesar Chavez. He organized the first successful farm workers union in American history. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez was born on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona in nineteen-twenty-seven. In the late nineteenth century, Cesario Chavez, Cesar’s grandfather, had started the Chavez family farm after escaping slavery on a Mexican farm. Cesar Chavez spent his earliest years on this farm. When he was ten years old, however, the economic conditions of the Great Depression forced his parents to give up the family farm. He then became a migrant farm worker along with the rest of his family. The Chavez family joined thousands of other farm workers who traveled around the state of California to harvest crops for farm owners. They traveled from place to place to harvest grapes, lettuce, beets and many other crops. They worked very hard and received little pay. These migrant workers had no permanent homes. They lived in dirty, crowded camps. They had no bathrooms, electricity or running water. Like the Chavez family, most of them came from Mexico. VOICE TWO: Because his family traveled from place to place, Cesar Chavez attended more than thirty schools as a child. He learned to read and write from his grandmother. Mama Tella also taught him about the Catholic religion. Religion later became an important tool for Mister Chavez. He used religion to organize Mexican farm workers who were Catholic. Cesar’s mother, Juana, taught him much about the importance of leading a non-violent life. His mother was one of the greatest influences on his use of non-violent methods to organize farm workers. His other influences were the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. Mister Chavez said his real education began when he met the Catholic leader Father Donald McDonnell. Cesar Chavez learned about the economics of farm workers from the priest. He also learned about Gandhi’s nonviolent political actions as well as those of other great nonviolent leaders throughout history. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-eight, Mister Chavez married Helena Fabela whom he met while working in the grape fields in central California. They settled in Sal Si Puedes. Later, while Mister Chavez worked for little or no money to organize farm workers, his wife harvested crops. In order to support their eight children, she worked under the same bad conditions that Mister Chavez was fighting against. There were other important influences in his life. In nineteen-fifty-two, Mister Chavez met Fred Ross, an organizer with a workers’ rights group called the Community Service Organization. Mister Chavez called Mister Ross the best organizer he ever met. Mister Ross explained how poor people could build power. Mister Chavez agreed to work for the Community Service Organization. VOICE TWO: Mister Chavez worked for the organization for about ten years. During that time, he helped more than five-hundred-thousand Latino citizens to vote. He also gained old-age retirement money for fifty-thousand Mexican immigrants. He served as the organization’s national director. However, in nineteen-sixty-two, he left the organization. He wanted to do more to help farm workers receive higher pay and better working conditions. He left his well paid job to start organizing farm workers into a union. Mister Chavez’s work affected many people. For example, the father of Mexican-American musician Zack de la Rocha spent time working as an art director for Mister Chavez. Much of the political music of de la Rocha’s group, Rage Against the Machine, was about workers’ rights, like this song, “Bomb Track.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It took Mister Chavez and Delores Huerta, another former C-S-O organizer, three years of hard work to build the National Farm Workers Association. Mister Chavez traveled from town to town to bring in new members. He held small meetings at workers’ houses to build support. The California-based organization held its first strike in nineteen-sixty-five. The National Farm Workers Association became nationally known when it supported a strike against grape growers. The group joined a strike organized by Filipino workers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. Mister Chavez knew that those who acted non-violently against violent action would gain popular support. Mister Chavez asked that the strikers remain non-violent even though the farm owners and their supporters sometimes used violence. VOICE TWO: One month after the strike began, the group began to boycott grapes. They decided to direct their action against one company, the Schenley Corporation. The union followed grape trucks and demonstrated wherever the grapes were taken. Later, union members and Filipino workers began a twenty-five day march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to gain support for the boycott. Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm Workers Association. It was the first such agreement between farm workers and growers in the United States. VOICE ONE: The union then began demonstrating against the Di Giorgio Corporation. It was one of the largest grape growers in California. Di Giorgio held a vote and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was chosen to represent the farm workers. But an investigation proved that the company and the Teamsters had cheated in the election. Another vote was held. Cesar Chavez agreed to combine his union with another and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was formed. The farm workers elected Mister Chavez’s union to represent them. Di Giorgio soon signed a labor agreement with the union. VOICE TWO: Mister Chavez often went for long periods without food to protest the conditions under which the farm workers were forced to do their jobs. Mister Chavez went on his first hunger strike, or fast, in nineteen-sixty-eight. He did not eat for twenty-five days. He was called a hero for taking this kind of personal action to support the farm workers. The union then took action against Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, the largest producer of table grapes in the United States. It organized a boycott against the company’s products. The boycott extended to all California table grapes. By nineteen-seventy, the company agreed to sign contracts. A number of other growers did as well. By this time the grape strike had lasted for five years. It was the longest strike and boycott in United States labor history. Cesar Chavez had built a nationwide coalition of support among unions, church groups, students, minorities and other Americans. VOICE ONE: By nineteen-seventy-three, the union had changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America. It called for another national boycott against grape growers as relations again became tense. By nineteen-seventy-five, a reported seventeen-million Americans were refusing to buy non-union grapes. The union’s hard work helped in getting the Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in California, under Governor Jerry Brown. It was the first law in the nation that protected the rights of farm workers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the nineteen-eighties, the U-F-W had helped tens of thousands of farm workers gain higher pay, medical care, retirement benefits and better working and living conditions. But relations between workers and growers in California worsened under a new state government. Boycotts were again organized against the grape industry. In nineteen-eighty-eight, at the age of sixty-one, Mister Chavez began another hunger strike. That fast lasted for thirty-six days and almost killed him. The fast was to protest the poisoning of grape workers and their children by the dangerous chemicals growers used to kill insects. VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez died in nineteen-ninety-three at the age of sixty-six. More than forty-thousand people attended his funeral. A year later, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. The United Farm Workers Union still fights for the rights of farm workers throughout the United States. Many schools, streets, parks, libraries and other public buildings have been named after Cesar Chavez. The great labor leader always believed in the words “Si se puede.” “It can be done.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English Program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another People in America Program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez was born on a small farm near Yuma, Arizona in nineteen-twenty-seven. In the late nineteenth century, Cesario Chavez, Cesar’s grandfather, had started the Chavez family farm after escaping slavery on a Mexican farm. Cesar Chavez spent his earliest years on this farm. When he was ten years old, however, the economic conditions of the Great Depression forced his parents to give up the family farm. He then became a migrant farm worker along with the rest of his family. The Chavez family joined thousands of other farm workers who traveled around the state of California to harvest crops for farm owners. They traveled from place to place to harvest grapes, lettuce, beets and many other crops. They worked very hard and received little pay. These migrant workers had no permanent homes. They lived in dirty, crowded camps. They had no bathrooms, electricity or running water. Like the Chavez family, most of them came from Mexico. VOICE TWO: Because his family traveled from place to place, Cesar Chavez attended more than thirty schools as a child. He learned to read and write from his grandmother. Mama Tella also taught him about the Catholic religion. Religion later became an important tool for Mister Chavez. He used religion to organize Mexican farm workers who were Catholic. Cesar’s mother, Juana, taught him much about the importance of leading a non-violent life. His mother was one of the greatest influences on his use of non-violent methods to organize farm workers. His other influences were the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior. Mister Chavez said his real education began when he met the Catholic leader Father Donald McDonnell. Cesar Chavez learned about the economics of farm workers from the priest. He also learned about Gandhi’s nonviolent political actions as well as those of other great nonviolent leaders throughout history. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-eight, Mister Chavez married Helena Fabela whom he met while working in the grape fields in central California. They settled in Sal Si Puedes. Later, while Mister Chavez worked for little or no money to organize farm workers, his wife harvested crops. In order to support their eight children, she worked under the same bad conditions that Mister Chavez was fighting against. There were other important influences in his life. In nineteen-fifty-two, Mister Chavez met Fred Ross, an organizer with a workers’ rights group called the Community Service Organization. Mister Chavez called Mister Ross the best organizer he ever met. Mister Ross explained how poor people could build power. Mister Chavez agreed to work for the Community Service Organization. VOICE TWO: Mister Chavez worked for the organization for about ten years. During that time, he helped more than five-hundred-thousand Latino citizens to vote. He also gained old-age retirement money for fifty-thousand Mexican immigrants. He served as the organization’s national director. However, in nineteen-sixty-two, he left the organization. He wanted to do more to help farm workers receive higher pay and better working conditions. He left his well paid job to start organizing farm workers into a union. Mister Chavez’s work affected many people. For example, the father of Mexican-American musician Zack de la Rocha spent time working as an art director for Mister Chavez. Much of the political music of de la Rocha’s group, Rage Against the Machine, was about workers’ rights, like this song, “Bomb Track.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It took Mister Chavez and Delores Huerta, another former C-S-O organizer, three years of hard work to build the National Farm Workers Association. Mister Chavez traveled from town to town to bring in new members. He held small meetings at workers’ houses to build support. The California-based organization held its first strike in nineteen-sixty-five. The National Farm Workers Association became nationally known when it supported a strike against grape growers. The group joined a strike organized by Filipino workers of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. Mister Chavez knew that those who acted non-violently against violent action would gain popular support. Mister Chavez asked that the strikers remain non-violent even though the farm owners and their supporters sometimes used violence. VOICE TWO: One month after the strike began, the group began to boycott grapes. They decided to direct their action against one company, the Schenley Corporation. The union followed grape trucks and demonstrated wherever the grapes were taken. Later, union members and Filipino workers began a twenty-five day march from Delano to Sacramento, California, to gain support for the boycott. Schenley later signed a labor agreement with the National Farm Workers Association. It was the first such agreement between farm workers and growers in the United States. VOICE ONE: The union then began demonstrating against the Di Giorgio Corporation. It was one of the largest grape growers in California. Di Giorgio held a vote and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was chosen to represent the farm workers. But an investigation proved that the company and the Teamsters had cheated in the election. Another vote was held. Cesar Chavez agreed to combine his union with another and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee was formed. The farm workers elected Mister Chavez’s union to represent them. Di Giorgio soon signed a labor agreement with the union. VOICE TWO: Mister Chavez often went for long periods without food to protest the conditions under which the farm workers were forced to do their jobs. Mister Chavez went on his first hunger strike, or fast, in nineteen-sixty-eight. He did not eat for twenty-five days. He was called a hero for taking this kind of personal action to support the farm workers. The union then took action against Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, the largest producer of table grapes in the United States. It organized a boycott against the company’s products. The boycott extended to all California table grapes. By nineteen-seventy, the company agreed to sign contracts. A number of other growers did as well. By this time the grape strike had lasted for five years. It was the longest strike and boycott in United States labor history. Cesar Chavez had built a nationwide coalition of support among unions, church groups, students, minorities and other Americans. VOICE ONE: By nineteen-seventy-three, the union had changed its name to the United Farm Workers of America. It called for another national boycott against grape growers as relations again became tense. By nineteen-seventy-five, a reported seventeen-million Americans were refusing to buy non-union grapes. The union’s hard work helped in getting the Agricultural Labor Relations Act passed in California, under Governor Jerry Brown. It was the first law in the nation that protected the rights of farm workers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the nineteen-eighties, the U-F-W had helped tens of thousands of farm workers gain higher pay, medical care, retirement benefits and better working and living conditions. But relations between workers and growers in California worsened under a new state government. Boycotts were again organized against the grape industry. In nineteen-eighty-eight, at the age of sixty-one, Mister Chavez began another hunger strike. That fast lasted for thirty-six days and almost killed him. The fast was to protest the poisoning of grape workers and their children by the dangerous chemicals growers used to kill insects. VOICE ONE: Cesar Chavez died in nineteen-ninety-three at the age of sixty-six. More than forty-thousand people attended his funeral. A year later, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. The United Farm Workers Union still fights for the rights of farm workers throughout the United States. Many schools, streets, parks, libraries and other public buildings have been named after Cesar Chavez. The great labor leader always believed in the words “Si se puede.” “It can be done.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English Program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Nicole Nichols. Join us again next week for another People in America Program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - July 21, 2003:  Itzhak Perlman
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC: Giovanni Viotti Violin Concerto No. 22 in A Minor) VOICE ONE: (MUSIC: Giovanni Viotti Violin Concerto No. 22 in A Minor) VOICE ONE: Many consider him the greatest concert violinist in the world. The music of Itzhak Perlman is our program today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. I’m Steve Ember. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in ninteen-forty-five. Today he lives in New York City. But his music has made him a citizen of the world. He has played in almost every major city. He has won fifteen Grammy awards for his recordings. He has also won four Emmys for his work with television. Itzhak Perlman suffered from polio at the age of four. The disease damaged his legs. Today he uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches on his arms. (MUSIC) But none of this stopped him from playing the violin. He began as a young child. He took his first lessons at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv. Very quickly, his teachers recognized that he had a special gift. At thirteen he went to the United Sates to appear on television. His playing earned him the financial aid to attend the Juilliard School in New York. In nineteen-sixty-four Itzhak Perlman won the Leventritt Competition in that city. His international fame had begun. (MUSIC) His music is full of power and strength. It can be sad or joyful, loud or soft. But critics say it is not the music alone that makes his playing so special. They say he is able to communicate the joy he feels in playing, and the emotions that great music can deliver. Anyone who has attended a performance by Itzhak Perlman will tell you that it is exciting to watch him play. His face changes as the music from his violin changes. He looks sad when the music seems sad. He smiles and closes his eyes when the music is light and happy. He often looks dark and threatening when the music seems dark and threatening. In nineteen-eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan honored Itzhak Perlman with a Medal of Liberty. In two-thousand, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Several major universities have awarded him honors. He continues to receive honors for his music. (MUSIC) Today, Itzhak Perlman is also busy leading orchestras. He appears on television. He teaches young musicians. He has worked with most of the top young violinists. He has recorded every major work for the violin, and has also recorded jazz, ragtime and Jewish folk music. Years ago a reporter asked Itzhak Perlman why he did not play the Violin Concerto in D Major by Beethoven. He answered that he would play it when he had more experience. He has since played it and recorded it several times. For a few moments, close your eyes and imagine you are in a theater. In front of us is the stage. To the left, Itzhak Perlman sits in his chair, near the conductor. The orchestra has already played the first two movements of Beethoven's D Major Concerto. The violin leads us to the third, and immediately announces the major theme. Listen now as Itzhak Perlman performs with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Carlo Maria Giulini is the conductor. (MUSIC: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. Many consider him the greatest concert violinist in the world. The music of Itzhak Perlman is our program today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. I’m Steve Ember. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Itzhak Perlman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, in ninteen-forty-five. Today he lives in New York City. But his music has made him a citizen of the world. He has played in almost every major city. He has won fifteen Grammy awards for his recordings. He has also won four Emmys for his work with television. Itzhak Perlman suffered from polio at the age of four. The disease damaged his legs. Today he uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches on his arms. (MUSIC) But none of this stopped him from playing the violin. He began as a young child. He took his first lessons at the Music Academy of Tel Aviv. Very quickly, his teachers recognized that he had a special gift. At thirteen he went to the United Sates to appear on television. His playing earned him the financial aid to attend the Juilliard School in New York. In nineteen-sixty-four Itzhak Perlman won the Leventritt Competition in that city. His international fame had begun. (MUSIC) His music is full of power and strength. It can be sad or joyful, loud or soft. But critics say it is not the music alone that makes his playing so special. They say he is able to communicate the joy he feels in playing, and the emotions that great music can deliver. Anyone who has attended a performance by Itzhak Perlman will tell you that it is exciting to watch him play. His face changes as the music from his violin changes. He looks sad when the music seems sad. He smiles and closes his eyes when the music is light and happy. He often looks dark and threatening when the music seems dark and threatening. In nineteen-eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan honored Itzhak Perlman with a Medal of Liberty. In two-thousand, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Several major universities have awarded him honors. He continues to receive honors for his music. (MUSIC) Today, Itzhak Perlman is also busy leading orchestras. He appears on television. He teaches young musicians. He has worked with most of the top young violinists. He has recorded every major work for the violin, and has also recorded jazz, ragtime and Jewish folk music. Years ago a reporter asked Itzhak Perlman why he did not play the Violin Concerto in D Major by Beethoven. He answered that he would play it when he had more experience. He has since played it and recorded it several times. For a few moments, close your eyes and imagine you are in a theater. In front of us is the stage. To the left, Itzhak Perlman sits in his chair, near the conductor. The orchestra has already played the first two movements of Beethoven's D Major Concerto. The violin leads us to the third, and immediately announces the major theme. Listen now as Itzhak Perlman performs with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Carlo Maria Giulini is the conductor. (MUSIC: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major) Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - July 28, 2003: Solar Cookers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day. It is often difficult to find wood for the fire. People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel. However, there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun. Solar cookers, or ovens, have been used for centuries. A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in seventeen-sixty-seven. Today, people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world. People use solar ovens to cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms. There are three kinds of solar ovens. The first is a box cooker. It is designed with a special wall that shines or reflects sunlight into the box. Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top of the cooker. A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food. The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker. It includes several flat walls, or panels, that directly reflect the sun’s light onto the food. The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat energy. People can build panel cookers quickly and with very few supplies. They do not cost much. In Kenya, for example, panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars. The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic cooker. It has rounded walls that aim sunlight directly into the bottom of the oven. Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens. However, these cookers are hard to make. They must be re-aimed often to follow the sun. Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and eye injuries if they are not used correctly. You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper. They will not catch fire. Paper burns at two-hundred-thirty-two degrees Celsius. A solar cooker never gets that hot. Solar ovens cook food at low temperatures over long periods of time. This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other things. To learn more about solar cooking, you can write to Solar Cookers International. The address is nineteen-nineteen Twenty-First Street, Sacramento, California, nine-five-eight-one-four, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet Web site. The address is www.solarcooking.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day. It is often difficult to find wood for the fire. People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel. However, there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun. Solar cookers, or ovens, have been used for centuries. A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in seventeen-sixty-seven. Today, people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world. People use solar ovens to cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms. There are three kinds of solar ovens. The first is a box cooker. It is designed with a special wall that shines or reflects sunlight into the box. Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top of the cooker. A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food. The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker. It includes several flat walls, or panels, that directly reflect the sun’s light onto the food. The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat energy. People can build panel cookers quickly and with very few supplies. They do not cost much. In Kenya, for example, panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars. The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic cooker. It has rounded walls that aim sunlight directly into the bottom of the oven. Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens. However, these cookers are hard to make. They must be re-aimed often to follow the sun. Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and eye injuries if they are not used correctly. You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper. They will not catch fire. Paper burns at two-hundred-thirty-two degrees Celsius. A solar cooker never gets that hot. Solar ovens cook food at low temperatures over long periods of time. This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other things. To learn more about solar cooking, you can write to Solar Cookers International. The address is nineteen-nineteen Twenty-First Street, Sacramento, California, nine-five-eight-one-four, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet Web site. The address is www.solarcooking.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 29, 2003: Nanotechnology
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Fun with nanotechnology: a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory created a nano-sized version of the laboratory's logo. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a special report on nanotechnology. It appears to be the next great area of scientific discovery. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nanotechnology gets its name from a measure of distance. A nanometer, or nano, is one-thousand-millionth of a meter. This is the level of size of atoms and molecules. Nanotechnologists work with materials this small. Some experts credit the idea to physicist Richard Feynman. In nineteen-fifty-nine, this Nobel Prize winner gave a speech. He called it “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” Mister Feynman discussed the theory that scientists could make devices smaller and smaller -- all the way down to the atomic level. He did not use the word nanotechnology, but for years this idea remained only a theory. VOICE TWO: At the time, no way existed to record structures the size of molecules. Not even electron microscopes could do the job. But as the nineteen-eighties began, two researchers found a way. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer worked at a laboratory in Zurich Switzerland. They worked for I-B-M, the American company International Business Machines. They invented what they called a scanning tunneling microscope. This permitted scientist to observe molecules and even atoms in greater detail than ever before. VOICE ONE: Once they could see microscopic structures, the next step for scientists was to find a way to create their own. By the middle of the nineteen-eighties, scientists had increased their research on carbon. They were interested in the ability to use this common element to make nano-sized structures. Carbon had already been engineered in chemical reactions to make long polycarbonite chains. Today, the result of carbon chemical engineering is everywhere -- in the form of plastic. Scientists in the eighties wanted to create nano structures from carbon atoms. In nineteen-eighty-five, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley succeeded. They aimed a laser at carbon. This powerful light caused some of the carbon to become a gas. The scientists cooled the gas to an extremely low temperature. Then they looked at the carbon material that remained. They found, among several kinds of carbon, a molecule of sixty atoms -- carbon sixty. VOICE TWO: Carbon sixty is a group of tightly connected carbon atoms that form a ball. It is a very strong structure. This is because all the atoms share any loose electrons that might take part in chemical reactions with other atoms. This kind of molecular carbon can also appear with different numbers of carbon atoms. There is also carbon seventy, for example. Research has shown that carbon nano-structures even happen in nature. Scientist have found carbon sixty and carbon seventy structures in rock. These kinds of molecular structures had been unknown to science. For their work, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in nineteen-ninety-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next nano-structure developed came in nineteen-ninety-three. Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima of the N-E-C company developed carbon nanotubes. These nano-sized objects are really six-sided atomic structures connected to form a tube. They are extremely strong. Scientists believe that someday nanotubes could replace the carbon graphite now used to make airplane parts. Soon after this discovery, researchers started to think about using nanotubes to build extremely small devices. On May first of this year I-B-M announced that it had made the world's smallest light. Researchers used a carbon nanotube attached to a silicon base. They sent electrical charges down the tube. The reaction between the particles produces an extremely small amount of light. I-B-M says the wavelength produced could be used in communications. VOICE TWO: Nanotubes are not the only form of nanotechnology. Scientists are studying many different materials. The British magazine the Economist reported that a company has developed a special kind of cloth using nanotechnology. This cloth made by Gorix is treated with gasses under heat. This process gives the cloth the ability to carry electricity like metal. The military is interested in such technology. Some researchers hope to develop what they call “smart cloth." Such cloth could transmit signals, record information or even change color. Clothing makers have already found civilian uses for cloth made with nanotechnology. Their kind of material has the ability to resist dirt and always look freshly pressed. VOICE ONE: Common products can be improved with nanotechnology. The sports equipment company Wilson has developed a new tennis ball using nano-science. The inside of the ball is covered with a thin layer of an extremely fine substance. A special clay with nano-sized particles makes the ball last longer and perform better. Today, the ball is used for the Davis Cup tennis competition. Indeed, the possibilities of nanotechnology appear endless. Some researchers hope to create nano-sized devices that will enter the body to fight disease or replace lost body parts. Engineers hope nanotechnology will help industry make materials atom by atom. They also hope to use nano-stuctures to create materials that are lighter and stronger than ever before. In electronics, we have already seen the work of nanotechnology. In two-thousand, the American company Intel announced that it had created a transistor only thirty nanometers in size. Transistors are small devices that control the flow of electrical current. As if this was not small enough, I-B-M announced that its scientists had created an even smaller transistor -- only four to eight nanometers thick. Experts say this kind of technology will permit computers in the future to store much larger amounts of information. Nanotechnologists have also been at work to develop brighter flat screens for such things as computers and wireless telephones. VOICE TWO: However, scientific claims can sometimes move faster than the science behind them. In November of two-thousand-one, a scientist claimed to have created the smallest transistor yet. Jan Hendrik Schon (yahn HEN-drick shern) said it was the width of one molecule. He and his team worked for Lucent Technologies at its Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. The company later ordered on investigation. The investigation found that some of the research came from earlier studies. It also found there was little evidence that the scientist developed what he had claimed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not everyone agrees that nanotechnology is a good idea. Bill Joy is chief scientist at Sun Microsystems in California. He says he fears that nanotechnology will be used for the war against terrorism. He says he believes it will be possible to develop microscopic robots that can build copies of themselves -- just like living creatures. He says such robots might change the balance of life on Earth. Such a danger as Bill Joy imagines has already caught the interest of writers and moviemakers. There's a new movie called "Prey," based on a book by Michael Crichton, that could help influence what some people think of nanotechnology. But supporters believe the current research will lead to great discoveries. Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley is one of them. He says he believes that people like Bill Joy are simply wrong. At the same time, there are also efforts to establish new centers to study the possible side effects of nanotechnology. There is concern, for example, about sicknesses in factory workers who may breathe extremely small particles. VOICE TWO: One thing is clear. Nanotechnology is receiving more financial support than ever. In two-thousand-one, the administration of President Bill Clinton spent about two-hundred-eighty million dollars as part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. For this year the Bush administration asked for more than seven-hundred-million dollars. The United States faces strong competition from the European Union and Japan. Clearly there are big expectations for this science of the very small. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a special report on nanotechnology. It appears to be the next great area of scientific discovery. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nanotechnology gets its name from a measure of distance. A nanometer, or nano, is one-thousand-millionth of a meter. This is the level of size of atoms and molecules. Nanotechnologists work with materials this small. Some experts credit the idea to physicist Richard Feynman. In nineteen-fifty-nine, this Nobel Prize winner gave a speech. He called it “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” Mister Feynman discussed the theory that scientists could make devices smaller and smaller -- all the way down to the atomic level. He did not use the word nanotechnology, but for years this idea remained only a theory. VOICE TWO: At the time, no way existed to record structures the size of molecules. Not even electron microscopes could do the job. But as the nineteen-eighties began, two researchers found a way. Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer worked at a laboratory in Zurich Switzerland. They worked for I-B-M, the American company International Business Machines. They invented what they called a scanning tunneling microscope. This permitted scientist to observe molecules and even atoms in greater detail than ever before. VOICE ONE: Once they could see microscopic structures, the next step for scientists was to find a way to create their own. By the middle of the nineteen-eighties, scientists had increased their research on carbon. They were interested in the ability to use this common element to make nano-sized structures. Carbon had already been engineered in chemical reactions to make long polycarbonite chains. Today, the result of carbon chemical engineering is everywhere -- in the form of plastic. Scientists in the eighties wanted to create nano structures from carbon atoms. In nineteen-eighty-five, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley succeeded. They aimed a laser at carbon. This powerful light caused some of the carbon to become a gas. The scientists cooled the gas to an extremely low temperature. Then they looked at the carbon material that remained. They found, among several kinds of carbon, a molecule of sixty atoms -- carbon sixty. VOICE TWO: Carbon sixty is a group of tightly connected carbon atoms that form a ball. It is a very strong structure. This is because all the atoms share any loose electrons that might take part in chemical reactions with other atoms. This kind of molecular carbon can also appear with different numbers of carbon atoms. There is also carbon seventy, for example. Research has shown that carbon nano-structures even happen in nature. Scientist have found carbon sixty and carbon seventy structures in rock. These kinds of molecular structures had been unknown to science. For their work, Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in nineteen-ninety-six. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The next nano-structure developed came in nineteen-ninety-three. Japanese scientist Sumio Iijima of the N-E-C company developed carbon nanotubes. These nano-sized objects are really six-sided atomic structures connected to form a tube. They are extremely strong. Scientists believe that someday nanotubes could replace the carbon graphite now used to make airplane parts. Soon after this discovery, researchers started to think about using nanotubes to build extremely small devices. On May first of this year I-B-M announced that it had made the world's smallest light. Researchers used a carbon nanotube attached to a silicon base. They sent electrical charges down the tube. The reaction between the particles produces an extremely small amount of light. I-B-M says the wavelength produced could be used in communications. VOICE TWO: Nanotubes are not the only form of nanotechnology. Scientists are studying many different materials. The British magazine the Economist reported that a company has developed a special kind of cloth using nanotechnology. This cloth made by Gorix is treated with gasses under heat. This process gives the cloth the ability to carry electricity like metal. The military is interested in such technology. Some researchers hope to develop what they call “smart cloth." Such cloth could transmit signals, record information or even change color. Clothing makers have already found civilian uses for cloth made with nanotechnology. Their kind of material has the ability to resist dirt and always look freshly pressed. VOICE ONE: Common products can be improved with nanotechnology. The sports equipment company Wilson has developed a new tennis ball using nano-science. The inside of the ball is covered with a thin layer of an extremely fine substance. A special clay with nano-sized particles makes the ball last longer and perform better. Today, the ball is used for the Davis Cup tennis competition. Indeed, the possibilities of nanotechnology appear endless. Some researchers hope to create nano-sized devices that will enter the body to fight disease or replace lost body parts. Engineers hope nanotechnology will help industry make materials atom by atom. They also hope to use nano-stuctures to create materials that are lighter and stronger than ever before. In electronics, we have already seen the work of nanotechnology. In two-thousand, the American company Intel announced that it had created a transistor only thirty nanometers in size. Transistors are small devices that control the flow of electrical current. As if this was not small enough, I-B-M announced that its scientists had created an even smaller transistor -- only four to eight nanometers thick. Experts say this kind of technology will permit computers in the future to store much larger amounts of information. Nanotechnologists have also been at work to develop brighter flat screens for such things as computers and wireless telephones. VOICE TWO: However, scientific claims can sometimes move faster than the science behind them. In November of two-thousand-one, a scientist claimed to have created the smallest transistor yet. Jan Hendrik Schon (yahn HEN-drick shern) said it was the width of one molecule. He and his team worked for Lucent Technologies at its Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. The company later ordered on investigation. The investigation found that some of the research came from earlier studies. It also found there was little evidence that the scientist developed what he had claimed. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not everyone agrees that nanotechnology is a good idea. Bill Joy is chief scientist at Sun Microsystems in California. He says he fears that nanotechnology will be used for the war against terrorism. He says he believes it will be possible to develop microscopic robots that can build copies of themselves -- just like living creatures. He says such robots might change the balance of life on Earth. Such a danger as Bill Joy imagines has already caught the interest of writers and moviemakers. There's a new movie called "Prey," based on a book by Michael Crichton, that could help influence what some people think of nanotechnology. But supporters believe the current research will lead to great discoveries. Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley is one of them. He says he believes that people like Bill Joy are simply wrong. At the same time, there are also efforts to establish new centers to study the possible side effects of nanotechnology. There is concern, for example, about sicknesses in factory workers who may breathe extremely small particles. VOICE TWO: One thing is clear. Nanotechnology is receiving more financial support than ever. In two-thousand-one, the administration of President Bill Clinton spent about two-hundred-eighty million dollars as part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. For this year the Bush administration asked for more than seven-hundred-million dollars. The United States faces strong competition from the European Union and Japan. Clearly there are big expectations for this science of the very small. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - July 29, 2003: Soil Conservation Methods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soil conservation efforts protect soil from wind and water that can blow or wash it away. Good soil produces food crops for both people and animals. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. For example, in parts of West Africa, studies have shown that grain harvests can be twenty per cent higher on fields protected by windbreaks compared to those without such protection. Windbreaks are effective when a wall of trees and other plants blocks the wind. The windbreaks should also limit violent motions of the wind to those areas closest to the windbreak. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty per cent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. Locally-grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. VITA is on the Internet at www.vita.org. This Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - July 30, 2003: Fats and Alzheimer's Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A medical study says foods rich in a kind of fat may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a slowly increasing brain disorder, usually found in older people. It affects about twelve-million people around the world. There is no cure. The researchers found that the people who ate fish at least once a week had a sixty percent lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s than those who did not. Oily fish like salmon have omega three fatty acids. This fat has been shown to reduce the chance of heart disease. Nuts and some kind of oils also contain this kind of fat. One of the researchers said these fatty acids are also found in brain cells and may protect them from Alzheimer’s. Researchers at the Rush-Presbyterian-Saint Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, carried out the new study of fats and Alzheimer’s. They published the results in the Archives of Neurology. The study involved more than eight-hundred people between the ages of sixty-five and ninety-four. None showed any signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers asked them about the foods they ate and followed them for about four years. By the end of the study, one-hundred-thirty-one, or sixteen percent, had developed Alzheimer’s disease. Victims of the disease lose the ability to take care of themselves. At first, they forget simple things, like where they put something, or a person’s name. They forget more and more as time passes. They do not recognize the faces of family members. Then they forget who they are. Finally, they remember nothing. Victims of Alzheimer’s die from the disease. But it is as if their brains die before their bodies. In February the researchers published other results from the same study. These showed that the people who ate a lot of animal fat had two times the chance of developing Alzheimer’s than those who ate small amounts. The researchers said all these findings confirm other studies that link Alzheimer’s disease and foods that increase the level of cholesterol in the blood. But they also said more research must be done to prove that this link exists. Until then, they said, people still have many good reasons to eat less animal fat and more fruits, vegetables and fish. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A medical study says foods rich in a kind of fat may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a slowly increasing brain disorder, usually found in older people. It affects about twelve-million people around the world. There is no cure. The researchers found that the people who ate fish at least once a week had a sixty percent lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s than those who did not. Oily fish like salmon have omega three fatty acids. This fat has been shown to reduce the chance of heart disease. Nuts and some kind of oils also contain this kind of fat. One of the researchers said these fatty acids are also found in brain cells and may protect them from Alzheimer’s. Researchers at the Rush-Presbyterian-Saint Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, carried out the new study of fats and Alzheimer’s. They published the results in the Archives of Neurology. The study involved more than eight-hundred people between the ages of sixty-five and ninety-four. None showed any signs of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers asked them about the foods they ate and followed them for about four years. By the end of the study, one-hundred-thirty-one, or sixteen percent, had developed Alzheimer’s disease. Victims of the disease lose the ability to take care of themselves. At first, they forget simple things, like where they put something, or a person’s name. They forget more and more as time passes. They do not recognize the faces of family members. Then they forget who they are. Finally, they remember nothing. Victims of Alzheimer’s die from the disease. But it is as if their brains die before their bodies. In February the researchers published other results from the same study. These showed that the people who ate a lot of animal fat had two times the chance of developing Alzheimer’s than those who ate small amounts. The researchers said all these findings confirm other studies that link Alzheimer’s disease and foods that increase the level of cholesterol in the blood. But they also said more research must be done to prove that this link exists. Until then, they said, people still have many good reasons to eat less animal fat and more fruits, vegetables and fish. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 20, 2003: Carl Sagan
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about American scientist Carl Sagan. He spent much of his life helping make space travel possible far out in the universe. He also helped people understand science. (THEME) This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about American scientist Carl Sagan. He spent much of his life helping make space travel possible far out in the universe. He also helped people understand science. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year is nineteen-forty-seven. Twelve-year-old Carl Sagan is standing outside a small house in the eastern city of Brooklyn, New York. It is dark. He is looking up at the sky. After a few minutes, he finds the spot for which he has been searching. It is a light red color in the night sky. Carl is looking at the planet Mars. Carl has just finished reading a book by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is the story of a man who travels from Earth to the planet Mars. He meets many strange and interesting creatures there. Some of them are very human. The name of the book is “The Princess of Mars.” It is just one of many books that Mister Burroughs wrote about travels to Mars. VOICE TWO: In “The Princess of Mars,” the man who travels to Mars can make the trip by looking at the planet for several minutes. He then is transported there by a strange force. Carl Sagan stands watching the red planet. He wishes he could travel across the dark, cold distance of space to the planet Mars. After a while, young Carl realizes this will not happen. He turns to enter his home. But in his mind he says, "Some day. . . Some day it will be possible to travel to Mars. " VOICE ONE: The year is nineteen-forty-seven. Twelve-year-old Carl Sagan is standing outside a small house in the eastern city of Brooklyn, New York. It is dark. He is looking up at the sky. After a few minutes, he finds the spot for which he has been searching. It is a light red color in the night sky. Carl is looking at the planet Mars. Carl has just finished reading a book by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is the story of a man who travels from Earth to the planet Mars. He meets many strange and interesting creatures there. Some of them are very human. The name of the book is “The Princess of Mars.” It is just one of many books that Mister Burroughs wrote about travels to Mars. VOICE TWO: In “The Princess of Mars,” the man who travels to Mars can make the trip by looking at the planet for several minutes. He then is transported there by a strange force. Carl Sagan stands watching the red planet. He wishes he could travel across the dark, cold distance of space to the planet Mars. After a while, young Carl realizes this will not happen. He turns to enter his home. But in his mind he says, "Some day. . . Some day it will be possible to travel to Mars. " VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan never had the chance to go to Mars. He died in December, nineteen-ninety-six. However,much of the work he did during his life helped make it possible for the American Pathfinder vehicle to land on Mars. It landed on July fourth, nineteen-ninety-seven. It soon began sending back to earth lots of information and thousands of pictures about the red planet. Carl Sagan's friends and family say he would have been extremely happy about the new information from Mars. They say he would have told as many people as possible about what Pathfinder helped us learn. VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan was a scientist. He was also a great teacher. He helped explain extremely difficult scientific ideas to millions of people in a way that made it easy to understand. He made difficult science sound like fun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen-thirty-four. Even as a child he wanted to be a scientist. He said it was a child's science book about stars that helped him decide to be a scientist. Mister Sagan said he read a book that told how our sun is a star that is very close to earth. The book also said that the stars in the night sky were also suns but very far away. Mister Sagan said that suddenly, this simple idea made the universe become much larger than just Brooklyn, New York. VOICE TWO: It should be no surprise to learn that Carl Sagan studied the stars and planets when he grew older. He did this at the University of Chicago. Later he taught astronomy at Harvard University and Cornell University. In the nineteen-fifties, Mister Sagan helped design mechanical devices for use on some of the first space flights. He also published two important scientific theories that were later confirmed by space flights. One theory was that Venus is extremely hot. The other was that Mars did not have a season when plants grew as scientists had believed. He said that the dark areas on Mars that were thought to be plants were really giant dust storms in the Martian atmosphere. VOICE ONE: Mister Sagan was deeply involved in American efforts to explore the planets in our solar system. He was a member of the team that worked on the voyage of Mariner Nine to Mars. It was launched in nineteen-seventy-one. Mariner Nine was the first space vehicle to orbit another planet. Mister Sagan helped choose the landing area for Viking One and Viking Two, the first space vehicles to successfully land on Mars. He also worked on Pioneer Two, the first space vehicle to investigate the planet Jupiter. And he worked on Pioneer Eleven, which flew past Jupiter and Saturn. VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan was a member of the scientific team that sent the Voyager One and Voyager Two space vehicles out of our solar system. He proposed the idea to put a message on the Voyager, on the chance that other beings will find the space vehicles in the distant future. Mister Sagan worked for many months on what to say in the message. It was an extremely difficult task. When the Voyager space vehicles left our solar system they carried messages that included greetings from people in many languages. They carried the sound of huge whales in our oceans. And they carried the sound of ninety minutes of many different kinds of music from people around the world. Carl Sagan had created a greeting from the planet Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan was an extremely successful scientist and university professor. He was also a successful writer. He wrote more than six-hundred scientific and popular papers during his life. And he wrote more than twelve books. In nineteen-seventy-eight, he won the Pulitzer Prize for one of them. It is called “The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.” He even helped write a work of science fiction in the nineteen-eighties. The book is called “Contact.” It is about the first meeting between beings from another world and the people of Earth. It was made into a popular movie. VOICE TWO: Perhaps Carl Sagan may best be remembered for his many appearances on television. He used television very effectively in his efforts to make science popular. He first became famous in nineteen-eighty when he appeared on a thirteen-part television series about science. The show was called “Cosmos." It explored many scientific subjects--from the atom to the universe. It was seen by four-hundred-million people in sixty countries. Mister Sagan wrote a popular book based on his television show. VOICE ONE: Millions of people saw Carl Sagan on television in the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties. He especially liked to talk about science and scientific discoveries on the late night television program "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Mister Sagan said he always tried to accept invitations to “The Tonight Show” because about ten-million people watched it, people who were not usually interested in science. On television, Mister Sagan was a good story-teller. He was able to explain complex scientific ideas in simple ways. He believed that increasing public excitement about science is a good way to get more public supporters. He said much of the money for science and scientific studies comes from the public, and people should know how their money is being spent. VOICE TWO: Some scientists criticized Carl Sagan because of his many appearances on television. They said he was not being serious enough about science. They said he was spending too much time appearing on television trying to make science popular. Other scientists valued his efforts to explain science. They said he communicated his message with joy and meaning. VOICE ONE: One of Carl Sagan's last books is called “The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human in Space. Mister Sagan said he got the idea for the book from a picture taken by the Voyager One space vehicle. As it passed the planet Neptune, Voyager turned its cameras back toward the distant Earth. Mister Sagan said. . . . “And there it was. Very small. The small blue dot in space with all of us. And you can't tell the difference between one nation and another. You can't even tell the difference between continents and oceans. He said, "I thought it had a great deal to say about the foolishness of the issues that divide us. I thought it said we need to care for each other. And we have to also preserve this small dot in space. It is the only home we have ever known. " VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan died December twentieth, nineteen-ninety-six in Seattle, Washington. He was being treated at a medical center there for a bone marrow disease. Carl Sagan was sixty-two years old. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan never had the chance to go to Mars. He died in December, nineteen-ninety-six. However,much of the work he did during his life helped make it possible for the American Pathfinder vehicle to land on Mars. It landed on July fourth, nineteen-ninety-seven. It soon began sending back to earth lots of information and thousands of pictures about the red planet. Carl Sagan's friends and family say he would have been extremely happy about the new information from Mars. They say he would have told as many people as possible about what Pathfinder helped us learn. VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan was a scientist. He was also a great teacher. He helped explain extremely difficult scientific ideas to millions of people in a way that made it easy to understand. He made difficult science sound like fun. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York in nineteen-thirty-four. Even as a child he wanted to be a scientist. He said it was a child's science book about stars that helped him decide to be a scientist. Mister Sagan said he read a book that told how our sun is a star that is very close to earth. The book also said that the stars in the night sky were also suns but very far away. Mister Sagan said that suddenly, this simple idea made the universe become much larger than just Brooklyn, New York. VOICE TWO: It should be no surprise to learn that Carl Sagan studied the stars and planets when he grew older. He did this at the University of Chicago. Later he taught astronomy at Harvard University and Cornell University. In the nineteen-fifties, Mister Sagan helped design mechanical devices for use on some of the first space flights. He also published two important scientific theories that were later confirmed by space flights. One theory was that Venus is extremely hot. The other was that Mars did not have a season when plants grew as scientists had believed. He said that the dark areas on Mars that were thought to be plants were really giant dust storms in the Martian atmosphere. VOICE ONE: Mister Sagan was deeply involved in American efforts to explore the planets in our solar system. He was a member of the team that worked on the voyage of Mariner Nine to Mars. It was launched in nineteen-seventy-one. Mariner Nine was the first space vehicle to orbit another planet. Mister Sagan helped choose the landing area for Viking One and Viking Two, the first space vehicles to successfully land on Mars. He also worked on Pioneer Two, the first space vehicle to investigate the planet Jupiter. And he worked on Pioneer Eleven, which flew past Jupiter and Saturn. VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan was a member of the scientific team that sent the Voyager One and Voyager Two space vehicles out of our solar system. He proposed the idea to put a message on the Voyager, on the chance that other beings will find the space vehicles in the distant future. Mister Sagan worked for many months on what to say in the message. It was an extremely difficult task. When the Voyager space vehicles left our solar system they carried messages that included greetings from people in many languages. They carried the sound of huge whales in our oceans. And they carried the sound of ninety minutes of many different kinds of music from people around the world. Carl Sagan had created a greeting from the planet Earth. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Carl Sagan was an extremely successful scientist and university professor. He was also a successful writer. He wrote more than six-hundred scientific and popular papers during his life. And he wrote more than twelve books. In nineteen-seventy-eight, he won the Pulitzer Prize for one of them. It is called “The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.” He even helped write a work of science fiction in the nineteen-eighties. The book is called “Contact.” It is about the first meeting between beings from another world and the people of Earth. It was made into a popular movie. VOICE TWO: Perhaps Carl Sagan may best be remembered for his many appearances on television. He used television very effectively in his efforts to make science popular. He first became famous in nineteen-eighty when he appeared on a thirteen-part television series about science. The show was called “Cosmos." It explored many scientific subjects--from the atom to the universe. It was seen by four-hundred-million people in sixty countries. Mister Sagan wrote a popular book based on his television show. VOICE ONE: Millions of people saw Carl Sagan on television in the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties. He especially liked to talk about science and scientific discoveries on the late night television program "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Mister Sagan said he always tried to accept invitations to “The Tonight Show” because about ten-million people watched it, people who were not usually interested in science. On television, Mister Sagan was a good story-teller. He was able to explain complex scientific ideas in simple ways. He believed that increasing public excitement about science is a good way to get more public supporters. He said much of the money for science and scientific studies comes from the public, and people should know how their money is being spent. VOICE TWO: Some scientists criticized Carl Sagan because of his many appearances on television. They said he was not being serious enough about science. They said he was spending too much time appearing on television trying to make science popular. Other scientists valued his efforts to explain science. They said he communicated his message with joy and meaning. VOICE ONE: One of Carl Sagan's last books is called “The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human in Space. Mister Sagan said he got the idea for the book from a picture taken by the Voyager One space vehicle. As it passed the planet Neptune, Voyager turned its cameras back toward the distant Earth. Mister Sagan said. . . . “And there it was. Very small. The small blue dot in space with all of us. And you can't tell the difference between one nation and another. You can't even tell the difference between continents and oceans. He said, "I thought it had a great deal to say about the foolishness of the issues that divide us. I thought it said we need to care for each other. And we have to also preserve this small dot in space. It is the only home we have ever known. " VOICE TWO: Carl Sagan died December twentieth, nineteen-ninety-six in Seattle, Washington. He was being treated at a medical center there for a bone marrow disease. Carl Sagan was sixty-two years old. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #23 - July 31, 2003: Writing the Constitution, Part 7
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told about the most serious question facing the convention in Philadelphia. It was the question of state representation in the national government. Would small states and large states have an equal voice? The convention could not agree on a plan. So it created a special committee to develop a compromise. The convention suspended its meetings for the July Fourth Independence Day holiday. But the special committee continued its work. When the convention re-opened, the delegates heard the committee's report. This was its proposal: The national legislature would have two houses. Representation in one house would be decided by population. Each state would have one representative for every forty-thousand people in that state. Representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of representatives as the other states. It was called "The Great Compromise." Delegates knew that the success or failure of the convention depended on this agreement. VOICE ONE: The debate between large states and small states lasted for weeks. The small states truly believed they would lose power to the large states in a national government. Several times, they threatened to leave the convention in protest. William Paterson of New Jersey, a small state, spoke. "Some of the assembled gentlemen have made it known that if the small states do not agree to a plan, the large states will form a union among themselves. Well, let them unite if they please! They cannot force others to unite." VOICE TWO: Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, old and in poor health, sat writing quietly during the debate. Now he asked that his words be heard. Franklin asked James Wilson, also of Pennsylvania, to read his statement. "Why," he asked, "do the small states think they will be swallowed if the big states have more representatives in the national legislature? There is no reason for this fear. The big states will gain nothing if they swallow up the small states. They know this. And so, I believe, they will not try." VOICE ONE: For a long time, the delegates could not agree on representation in the legislature. So they debated other parts of the proposal. One involved the names of the two houses of the legislature. The delegates used several names. Most, however, spoke of them simply as the First Branch and the Second Branch. We will speak of them by the names used today: the House of Representatives and the Senate. VOICE TWO: Next came the questions: Who could be elected to the House and Senate? Who would elect them? Delegates did not take long to decide the first question. Members of the House, they agreed, must be at least twenty-five years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for seven years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen. Members of the Senate must be at least thirty years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for nine years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen. VOICE ONE: How long would lawmakers serve? Roger Sherman of Connecticut thought representatives to the House should be elected every year. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts agreed. He thought a longer term would lead to a dictatorship. James Madison of Virginia protested. "It will take almost one year," he said, "just for lawmakers to travel to and from the seat of government!" Madison proposed a three-year term. But the delegates finally agreed on two years. There were many ideas about the term for senators. A few delegates thought they should be elected for life. In the end, the convention agreed on a Senate term of six years. VOICE TWO: Next came a debate about the lawmakers' pay. How much should they get? Or should they be paid at all? Some delegates thought the states should pay their representatives to the national legislature. Others said the national legislature should decide its own pay and take it from the national treasury. That idea, James Madison argued, was shameful. He thought the amount should be set by the Constitution. Again, Madison lost the argument. The Constitution says that lawmakers will be paid for their services and that the money will come from the national treasury. VOICE ONE: The question of who should elect the lawmakers raised an interesting issue. It concerned democracy. In Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, the word 'democracy' meant something very different from what it means today. To many of the men meeting in Philadelphia, it meant mob rule. To give power to the people was an invitation to anarchy. "The people," Roger Sherman declared, "should have as little to do as possible with the government." Elbridge Gerry said, "The evils we have seen around us flow from too much democracy." From such statements, one can see why the delegates sharply debated any proposal calling for the people to elect the national lawmakers. VOICE TWO: Sherman, Gerry, and others wanted the state legislatures to choose national lawmakers. George Mason of Virginia argued for popular elections. "The people will be represented," Mason said, "so they should choose their representatives." James Wilson agreed. "I wish to see the power of the government flow immediately from the lawful source of that power. . .the people." James Madison stated firmly that the people must elect at least one branch of the national legislature. That, he said, was a basic condition for free government. The majority of the convention agreed with Mason, Wilson, and Madison. The delegates agreed that members of the House of Representatives should be elected directly by the people. VOICE ONE: The convention now considered the method of choosing senators. Four ideas were proposed. Senators could be elected by the House, by the president, by the state legislatures, or by the people. Arguments 'for' and 'against' were similar to those for choosing representatives for the House. In the end, a majority of the delegates agreed that the state legislatures would choose the senators. And that is what the Constitution says. It remained that way for more than one-hundred years. In Nineteen-Thirteen, the states approved the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment permits the people to vote directly to elect the senators. VOICE TWO: Finally, the time came for the convention to face the issue of representation in the House and Senate. The large states wanted representation based on population. The small states wanted equal representation. The delegates had voted on the issue several times since the convention began. But both sides stood firm. Yet they knew they could not continue to vote forever, day after day. On July Fifth, the Grand Committee presented a two-part compromise based on Roger Sherman's ideas. The compromise provided something for large states and something for small states. It called for representation based on population in the House and equal representation in the Senate. The committee said both parts of the compromise must be accepted or both rejected. On July Sixteenth, the convention voted on the issue for the last time. It accepted the Great Compromise. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. (THEME) The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of the United States Constitution. That's THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told about the most serious question facing the convention in Philadelphia. It was the question of state representation in the national government. Would small states and large states have an equal voice? The convention could not agree on a plan. So it created a special committee to develop a compromise. The convention suspended its meetings for the July Fourth Independence Day holiday. But the special committee continued its work. When the convention re-opened, the delegates heard the committee's report. This was its proposal: The national legislature would have two houses. Representation in one house would be decided by population. Each state would have one representative for every forty-thousand people in that state. Representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of representatives as the other states. It was called "The Great Compromise." Delegates knew that the success or failure of the convention depended on this agreement. VOICE ONE: The debate between large states and small states lasted for weeks. The small states truly believed they would lose power to the large states in a national government. Several times, they threatened to leave the convention in protest. William Paterson of New Jersey, a small state, spoke. "Some of the assembled gentlemen have made it known that if the small states do not agree to a plan, the large states will form a union among themselves. Well, let them unite if they please! They cannot force others to unite." VOICE TWO: Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, old and in poor health, sat writing quietly during the debate. Now he asked that his words be heard. Franklin asked James Wilson, also of Pennsylvania, to read his statement. "Why," he asked, "do the small states think they will be swallowed if the big states have more representatives in the national legislature? There is no reason for this fear. The big states will gain nothing if they swallow up the small states. They know this. And so, I believe, they will not try." VOICE ONE: For a long time, the delegates could not agree on representation in the legislature. So they debated other parts of the proposal. One involved the names of the two houses of the legislature. The delegates used several names. Most, however, spoke of them simply as the First Branch and the Second Branch. We will speak of them by the names used today: the House of Representatives and the Senate. VOICE TWO: Next came the questions: Who could be elected to the House and Senate? Who would elect them? Delegates did not take long to decide the first question. Members of the House, they agreed, must be at least twenty-five years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for seven years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen. Members of the Senate must be at least thirty years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for nine years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen. VOICE ONE: How long would lawmakers serve? Roger Sherman of Connecticut thought representatives to the House should be elected every year. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts agreed. He thought a longer term would lead to a dictatorship. James Madison of Virginia protested. "It will take almost one year," he said, "just for lawmakers to travel to and from the seat of government!" Madison proposed a three-year term. But the delegates finally agreed on two years. There were many ideas about the term for senators. A few delegates thought they should be elected for life. In the end, the convention agreed on a Senate term of six years. VOICE TWO: Next came a debate about the lawmakers' pay. How much should they get? Or should they be paid at all? Some delegates thought the states should pay their representatives to the national legislature. Others said the national legislature should decide its own pay and take it from the national treasury. That idea, James Madison argued, was shameful. He thought the amount should be set by the Constitution. Again, Madison lost the argument. The Constitution says that lawmakers will be paid for their services and that the money will come from the national treasury. VOICE ONE: The question of who should elect the lawmakers raised an interesting issue. It concerned democracy. In Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, the word 'democracy' meant something very different from what it means today. To many of the men meeting in Philadelphia, it meant mob rule. To give power to the people was an invitation to anarchy. "The people," Roger Sherman declared, "should have as little to do as possible with the government." Elbridge Gerry said, "The evils we have seen around us flow from too much democracy." From such statements, one can see why the delegates sharply debated any proposal calling for the people to elect the national lawmakers. VOICE TWO: Sherman, Gerry, and others wanted the state legislatures to choose national lawmakers. George Mason of Virginia argued for popular elections. "The people will be represented," Mason said, "so they should choose their representatives." James Wilson agreed. "I wish to see the power of the government flow immediately from the lawful source of that power. . .the people." James Madison stated firmly that the people must elect at least one branch of the national legislature. That, he said, was a basic condition for free government. The majority of the convention agreed with Mason, Wilson, and Madison. The delegates agreed that members of the House of Representatives should be elected directly by the people. VOICE ONE: The convention now considered the method of choosing senators. Four ideas were proposed. Senators could be elected by the House, by the president, by the state legislatures, or by the people. Arguments 'for' and 'against' were similar to those for choosing representatives for the House. In the end, a majority of the delegates agreed that the state legislatures would choose the senators. And that is what the Constitution says. It remained that way for more than one-hundred years. In Nineteen-Thirteen, the states approved the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment permits the people to vote directly to elect the senators. VOICE TWO: Finally, the time came for the convention to face the issue of representation in the House and Senate. The large states wanted representation based on population. The small states wanted equal representation. The delegates had voted on the issue several times since the convention began. But both sides stood firm. Yet they knew they could not continue to vote forever, day after day. On July Fifth, the Grand Committee presented a two-part compromise based on Roger Sherman's ideas. The compromise provided something for large states and something for small states. It called for representation based on population in the House and equal representation in the Senate. The committee said both parts of the compromise must be accepted or both rejected. On July Sixteenth, the convention voted on the issue for the last time. It accepted the Great Compromise. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. (THEME) The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this same time, when we will continue the story of the United States Constitution. That's THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – July 31, 2003: 'High School Early College'
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In two-thousand-one, Bard College in New York State and the New York City Board of Education created an unusual school for the city. It is called Bard High School Early College. Now, two years later, Bard High School Early College has graduated its first students. Ninety-three young people received their high school diploma. But, at the same time, most also received a degree called an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. This means they have also completed two years of college work. Most of the students will enter four-year colleges in the fall. And most will be able to finish college early because they already have their Associate of Arts degree. This means they will also save money on their education. The Bard program is designed for students ready to start college work at around the age of sixteen. Its creators believe that many young people are prepared for college by that age. They believe this is true of average as well as top students. They believe that four years of high school can waste time. The best students in many traditional American high schools now study subjects taught on the college level. But every student at Bard is expected to do college-level work. Bard High School Early College is the first of more than one-hundred similar high schools to be established over time. They will be created partly with money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife will provide four-hundred-thousand dollars from their foundation to help start each school. The goal is to set up small schools that will give students from poor families a better chance for a college education. Experts say many young people who attend huge high schools in big cities do not learn much. Many drop out of school. Four of the new "high school early colleges" are to open this fall with Gates Foundation money. An educational group called the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation established the schools. Two are in New York City. The others are in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in Los Angeles, California. They will not award associate degrees. But they will support students doing college-level work. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – August 1, 2003: Dispute Over Water Levels Along the Missouri River
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Last month a judge ordered the United States Army Corps of Engineers to begin to lower water levels along the Missouri River. The federal judge threatened hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines each day the corps did not obey. Environmental groups want the water lowered by dams to protect some kinds of birds and fish. But the army engineers, who operate the dams, say they must keep the water deep enough for shipping. A judge in Nebraska late last year ordered them to do that. The engineers say the ruling last month to lower the river or face huge fines conflicts with that order. Last week, still another judge blocked the fines temporarily. That judge is to decide all the current legal actions concerning water levels on the Missouri River. The Missouri is the longest river in the United States, at a little more than four-thousand-kilometers. It begins in Montana and flows through North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. It ends in Missouri, where the waters enter the Mississippi River. For many years, the Army Corp of Engineers has operated major dams along the Missouri. Environmental groups want the engineers to change the way they operate the dams. Two kinds of birds on the federal list of endangered species live on small islands of sand in the river. These sandbars are underwater during nesting season under the current rules for the dams. The corps established these guidelines in nineteen-seventy-nine. At that time, the birds and a species of fish also at issue were not yet on the endangered list. Last year the National Research Council said the dam system has hurt the ecosystem. The council is a private group that advises Congress. Scientists called for some natural river flow to be re-established to help repair damage. But their report also called for a balance between environmental and economic goals. Critics of lowered water levels include shipping companies and farmers. These critics say the first job of the Army Corps of Engineers is to support shipping on the Missouri. They say changes could lead to flooded crops and homes. The army engineers have been working on a new water-control plan for fourteen years. They say the plan will be ready next year. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Last month a judge ordered the United States Army Corps of Engineers to begin to lower water levels along the Missouri River. The federal judge threatened hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines each day the corps did not obey. Environmental groups want the water lowered by dams to protect some kinds of birds and fish. But the army engineers, who operate the dams, say they must keep the water deep enough for shipping. A judge in Nebraska late last year ordered them to do that. The engineers say the ruling last month to lower the river or face huge fines conflicts with that order. Last week, still another judge blocked the fines temporarily. That judge is to decide all the current legal actions concerning water levels on the Missouri River. The Missouri is the longest river in the United States, at a little more than four-thousand-kilometers. It begins in Montana and flows through North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. It ends in Missouri, where the waters enter the Mississippi River. For many years, the Army Corp of Engineers has operated major dams along the Missouri. Environmental groups want the engineers to change the way they operate the dams. Two kinds of birds on the federal list of endangered species live on small islands of sand in the river. These sandbars are underwater during nesting season under the current rules for the dams. The corps established these guidelines in nineteen-seventy-nine. At that time, the birds and a species of fish also at issue were not yet on the endangered list. Last year the National Research Council said the dam system has hurt the ecosystem. The council is a private group that advises Congress. Scientists called for some natural river flow to be re-established to help repair damage. But their report also called for a balance between environmental and economic goals. Critics of lowered water levels include shipping companies and farmers. These critics say the first job of the Army Corps of Engineers is to support shipping on the Missouri. They say changes could lead to flooded crops and homes. The army engineers have been working on a new water-control plan for fourteen years. They say the plan will be ready next year. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-07/a-2003-07-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: July 31, 2003 - Patricia O'Conner: 'Woe Is I'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 31, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we talk with grammarian Patricia O'Conner. She's out with a second edition of "Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." The book first came out in 1996, and was a best seller. RS: It's easy to understand why some people fear grammar, what with endless debates over little points, like the correct use of the word "hopefully." Should we use it only as a simple adverb, as in "She looked at her lottery ticket hopefully" -- meaning "with hope"? AA: Or should we use it as a sentence adverb? That means it modifies the whole sentence: "Hopefully I'll win the lottery" -- meaning, "I hope." RS: Pat O'Conner took stock of how American English has changed in common usage over the past seven years. It forced her to reconsider some of her strongly held beliefs -- beliefs held just as strongly in some cases by her readers. O'CONNER: "I have to say that a couple of months ago I got one of those heart-rending, very touching letters from a reader of the original 'Woe Is I' telling me how grateful she was about my position on the word hopefully. And in the first edition I was more of a purist, and I felt that we shouldn't be using it as a sentence adverb. And she was so grateful to me for holding the fort on this very important issue. Of course, I had just finished writing the second edition of 'Woe Is I' where I change my mind on hopefully. And so I had to write her an abject letter of not only apology but self-justification." AA: "Now where do you stand today, seven years after your original edition, on using 'they' as a pronoun to modify a singular subject, as in 'Anyone ... ' Think of an example." O'CONNER: "Anyone who gets in has to show their ticket." AA: "How do you feel about that?" O'CONNER: "Well, I did a lot of soul-searching, I have to tell you, because -- believe it or not -- there are even newspapers around the country that have changed their style on that, and they're allowing the plurals 'they,' 'them' and 'their' to refer back to a non-specific, generic individual." AA: "To be gender-neutral." O'CONNER: "Yeah." AA: "But you're still against that." O'CONNER: "I'm still against it, and the reason is -- I can see there is a genuine gap in English and we do need a gender-neutral singular. We don't have one except for 'it.' The reason I didn't shift on that one is I think that's one of those elemental rules of grammar dealing with subject-verb agreement, and you can avoid it completely. 'Did anyone lose an umbrella?' instead of 'did anyone lose their umbrella?' 'If anyone calls, I'm out,' rather than 'if anyone calls, tell them I'm out.'" RS: "What was the hardest decision for you to make in this new, revised edition?" O'CONNER: "I think the one about they, them and their. It's just so universal. I do it myself." AA: "And yet we're supposed to follow what you say, not what you do? [Laughter]" O'CONNER: "I know, I know -- in writing. I think you can forgive a lot in conversation, don't you?" RS: "It's a more informal way of communicating, conversation." O'CONNER: "Right." AA: "Anyone can decide for themselves how they feel about it. [Laughter]" O'CONNER: "You could say 'people can decide for themselves." AA: "Now that's true." RS: Pat O'Conner's book "Woe Is I" now includes a chapter on language in the age of e-mail. She says people are writing more than ever. But that doesn't mean they're writing well. O'CONNER: "The stuff you read on the Internet and in your e-mail in-basket often is pretty disorganized, it's ungrammatical, it's badly punctuated, it's all upper-case, or it's all lower-case -- just because people don't realize that this is writing. It's not just another form of the telephone. It takes only a few seconds to reread your e-mail, but you'll probably find a little grammar mistake, a spelling mistake, a punctuation mistake, a couple of sentences that were run together that would be better if they were separated. Any number of little things like that." AA: "Got to ask you the last question, will your third edition be called "Woe Is Me" [laughter] based on common usage?" O'CONNER: "I don't think so. [Laughter]" RS: Pat O'Conner is author of "Woe Is I: A Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 31, 2003 - Patricia O'Conner: 'Woe Is I'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 31, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we talk with grammarian Patricia O'Conner. She's out with a second edition of "Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." The book first came out in 1996, and was a bestseller. Patricia O'Conner with her husband (and sometime co-author) Stewart Kellerman. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: July 31, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we talk with grammarian Patricia O'Conner. She's out with a second edition of "Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." The book first came out in 1996, and was a bestseller. RS: It's easy to understand why some people fear grammar, what with endless debates over little points, like the correct use of the word "hopefully." Should we use it only as a simple adverb, as in "She looked at her lottery ticket hopefully" -- meaning "with hope"? AA: Or should we use it as a sentence adverb? That means it modifies the whole sentence: "Hopefully I'll win the lottery" -- meaning, "I hope." RS: Pat O'Conner took stock of how American English has changed in common usage over the past seven years. It forced her to reconsider some of her strongly held beliefs -- beliefs held just as strongly, in some cases, by her readers. O'CONNER: "I have to say that a couple of months ago I got one of those heart-rending, very touching letters from a reader of the original 'Woe Is I' telling me how grateful she was about my position on the word hopefully. And in the first edition I was more of a purist, and I felt that we shouldn't be using it as a sentence adverb. And she was so grateful to me for holding the fort on this very important issue. Of course, I had just finished writing the second edition of 'Woe Is I' where I change my mind on hopefully. And so I had to write her an abject letter of not only apology but self-justification." AA: "Now where do you stand today, seven years after your original edition, on using 'they' as a pronoun to modify a singular subject, as in 'Anyone ... ' Think of an example." O'CONNER: "Anyone who gets in has to show their ticket." AA: "How do you feel about that?" O'CONNER: "Well, I did a lot of soul-searching, I have to tell you, because -- believe it or not -- there are even newspapers around the country that have changed their style on that, and they're allowing the plurals 'they,' 'them' and 'their' to refer back to a non-specific, generic individual." AA: "To be gender-neutral." O'CONNER: "Yeah." AA: "But you're still against that." O'CONNER: "I'm still against it, and the reason is -- I can see there is a genuine gap in English and we do need a gender-neutral singular. We don't have one except for 'it.' The reason I didn't shift on that one is I think that's one of those elemental rules of grammar dealing with subject-verb agreement, and you can avoid it completely. 'Did anyone lose an umbrella?' instead of 'did anyone lose their umbrella?' 'If anyone calls, I'm out,' rather than 'if anyone calls, tell them I'm out.'" RS: "What was the hardest decision for you to make in this new, revised edition?" O'CONNER: "I think the one about they, them and their. It's just so universal. I do it myself." AA: "And yet we're supposed to follow what you say, not what you do? [Laughter]" O'CONNER: "I know, I know -- in writing. I think you can forgive a lot in conversation, don't you?" RS: "It's a more informal way of communicating, conversation." O'CONNER: "Right." AA: "Anyone can decide for themselves how they feel about it. [Laughter]" O'CONNER: "You could say 'people can decide for themselves." AA: "Now that's true." RS: Pat O'Conner's book "Woe Is I" now includes a chapter on language in the age of e-mail. She says people are writing more than ever. But that doesn't mean they're writing well. O'CONNER: "The stuff you read on the Internet and in your e-mail in-basket often is pretty disorganized, it's ungrammatical, it's badly punctuated, it's all upper-case, or it's all lower-case -- just because people don't realize that this is writing. It's not just another form of the telephone. It takes only a few seconds to reread your e-mail, but you'll probably find a little grammar mistake, a spelling mistake, a punctuation mistake, a couple of sentences that were run together that would be better if they were separated. Any number of little things like that." AA: "Got to ask you the last question, will your third edition be called "Woe Is Me" [laughter] based on common usage?" O'CONNER: "I don't think so. [Laughter]" RS: Pat O'Conner is author of "Woe Is I: A Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: It's easy to understand why some people fear grammar, what with endless debates over little points, like the correct use of the word "hopefully." Should we use it only as a simple adverb, as in "She looked at her lottery ticket hopefully" -- meaning "with hope"? AA: Or should we use it as a sentence adverb? That means it modifies the whole sentence: "Hopefully I'll win the lottery" -- meaning, "I hope." RS: Pat O'Conner took stock of how American English has changed in common usage over the past seven years. It forced her to reconsider some of her strongly held beliefs -- beliefs held just as strongly, in some cases, by her readers. O'CONNER: "I have to say that a couple of months ago I got one of those heart-rending, very touching letters from a reader of the original 'Woe Is I' telling me how grateful she was about my position on the word hopefully. And in the first edition I was more of a purist, and I felt that we shouldn't be using it as a sentence adverb. And she was so grateful to me for holding the fort on this very important issue. Of course, I had just finished writing the second edition of 'Woe Is I' where I change my mind on hopefully. And so I had to write her an abject letter of not only apology but self-justification." AA: "Now where do you stand today, seven years after your original edition, on using 'they' as a pronoun to modify a singular subject, as in 'Anyone ... ' Think of an example." O'CONNER: "Anyone who gets in has to show their ticket." AA: "How do you feel about that?" O'CONNER: "Well, I did a lot of soul-searching, I have to tell you, because -- believe it or not -- there are even newspapers around the country that have changed their style on that, and they're allowing the plurals 'they,' 'them' and 'their' to refer back to a non-specific, generic individual." AA: "To be gender-neutral." O'CONNER: "Yeah." AA: "But you're still against that." O'CONNER: "I'm still against it, and the reason is -- I can see there is a genuine gap in English and we do need a gender-neutral singular. We don't have one except for 'it.' The reason I didn't shift on that one is I think that's one of those elemental rules of grammar dealing with subject-verb agreement, and you can avoid it completely. 'Did anyone lose an umbrella?' instead of 'did anyone lose their umbrella?' 'If anyone calls, I'm out,' rather than 'if anyone calls, tell them I'm out.'" RS: "What was the hardest decision for you to make in this new, revised edition?" O'CONNER: "I think the one about they, them and their. It's just so universal. I do it myself." AA: "And yet we're supposed to follow what you say, not what you do? [Laughter]" O'CONNER: "I know, I know -- in writing. I think you can forgive a lot in conversation, don't you?" RS: "It's a more informal way of communicating, conversation." O'CONNER: "Right." AA: "Anyone can decide for themselves how they feel about it. [Laughter]" O'CONNER: "You could say 'people can decide for themselves." AA: "Now that's true." RS: Pat O'Conner's book "Woe Is I" now includes a chapter on language in the age of e-mail. She says people are writing more than ever. But that doesn't mean they're writing well. O'CONNER: "The stuff you read on the Internet and in your e-mail in-basket often is pretty disorganized, it's ungrammatical, it's badly punctuated, it's all upper-case, or it's all lower-case -- just because people don't realize that this is writing. It's not just another form of the telephone. It takes only a few seconds to reread your e-mail, but you'll probably find a little grammar mistake, a spelling mistake, a punctuation mistake, a couple of sentences that were run together that would be better if they were separated. Any number of little things like that." AA: "Got to ask you the last question, will your third edition be called "Woe Is Me" [laughter] based on common usage?" O'CONNER: "I don't think so. [Laughter]" RS: Pat O'Conner is author of "Woe Is I: A Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English." And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 2, 2003: West African Peacekeepers to Go to Liberia
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In the News. West African countries say they will send peacekeeping troops to Liberia on Monday to help end the conflict there. The agreement was reached Thursday. It followed an emergency meeting in Ghana of the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS. About one-thousand-five-hundred Nigerian troops are to arrive in Liberia as the first part of the peacekeeping force. Ghana, Mali, Benin, Senegal and Togo agreed to provide three-thousand more troops later. The West African leaders also said President Charles Taylor is to leave Liberia within three days of the arrival of peacekeeping troops. The United States and other countries have demanded that he leave the country. Mister Taylor has accepted an offer of exile in Nigeria. Over the past few weeks, Mister Taylor has said several times that he would resign and leave Liberia. West African leaders arrived Friday in Monrovia, the capital, to negotiate Mister Taylor’s resignation. But reports said he was in Buchanan, in southeastern Liberia. His forces have been fighting rebels in that port city. West African leaders have been under pressure to speed the deployment of a peacekeeping force to Liberia. Two rebel groups have fought for the past three years to oust the president. Also, Mister Taylor is charged with war crimes. He is accused of supporting rebels across the border in Sierra Leone. The rebels in Liberia renewed their offensive against Mister Taylor's government in early June. They later signed a cease-fire agreement. But fighting has increased in the past two weeks. Aid groups say more than one-thousand civilians have died in the fighting. Thousands have been forced from their homes. The unrest has cut off supplies of food and clean water to Monrovia. That city has more than one million people. West African leaders have been talking about how to pay for a peacekeeping operation in Liberia. Military officials estimate a cost of more than one-hundred-million dollars to have peacekeeping troops in Liberia for six months. The United States already has promised to pay ten-million dollars to support the troops. The United States is under pressure to intervene. It has close ties with Liberia. Liberia was founded in eighteen-forty-seven as a homeland for freed American slaves. Earlier this week, the Bush administration proposed a resolution in the United Nations. The resolution calls for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force to Liberia. The United States also has directed three ships with Marines to Liberia. President Bush said the Marines would provide limited support for a joint force of West African and United Nations troops. But Mister Bush says Charles Taylor must leave the country and a cease-fire must be in place before that happens. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 3, 2003: Johnny Appleseed
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about a man known as Johnny Appleseed. Many people considered him a hero. (THEME) I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about a man known as Johnny Appleseed. Many people considered him a hero. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Johnny Appleseed was the name given to John Chapman. He planted large numbers of apple trees in what was the American wilderness two hundred years ago. Chapman grew trees and supplied apple seeds to settlers in the middle western Great Lakes area. Two centuries later, some of those trees still produce fruit. As a result of stories and poems about Chapman’s actions, Johnny Appleseed became an American hero. However, some of the stories told about Johnny Appleseed over the years may not have been really true. VOICE TWO: John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in seventeen-seventy-four. His father, Nathaniel Chapman, served in America’s war for independence. He fought British troops in the battle of Concord in seventeen-seventy-five. John was the second of three children. Little is known about his childhood. His mother Elizabeth became sick with tuberculosis and died a short time after the birth of her third child. In seventeen-eighty, Nathaniel Chapman married Lucy Cooley of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. John and his older sister moved to Longmeadow with their father and his new wife. This new marriage produced ten more children. VOICE ONE: When John Chapman was old enough to leave home, he asked his half-brother, Nathaniel, to come with him. They slowly traveled south and west from Massachusetts to the state of Pennsylvania. At that time, much of western Pennsylvania was undeveloped. Government records show that John lived in the Allegheny Mountains in seventeen-ninety-seven. He is said to have cleared land and planted apple seeds near a waterway. In a short time, the seeds grew to become trees that produced fruit. VOICE TWO: Pennsylvania was the first stop in what would become a life-long effort to plant apple trees. The reason for John Chapman’s life’s work is unknown. Some people said he loved to watch the flowers on apple trees grow and change into tasty fruit. Apples were an important food for the early settlers of North America. Apples offered something different in daily meals. They were easy to grow and store for use throughout the year. They could be eaten raw, cooked or dried for eating during the winter. And they could be made into other products, like apple butter and apple juice. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: After a few years, Chapman left the hills of western Pennsylvania and traveled west into the Ohio Valley. He transported sixteen bushels of apple seeds down the Ohio River in eighteen-oh-one. He planted apple seeds in several areas near a place called Licking Creek. Some of the seeds were planted on land owned by a farmer named Isaac Stedden. Chapman was careful about where he planted apple seeds. He did not leave them just anywhere. First, he would find rich, fertile land in an open area. Then, he cleared the land, carefully removing unwanted plants. Then, he planted his seeds in a straight line and built a fence around them. The fence helped to keep the young trees safe from animals. As the trees grew, he returned to repair the fence and care for the land. VOICE TWO: Chapman planted with thoughts about future markets for his crops. His trees often grew in land near settlements. He often sold his apple seeds to settlers. Sometimes, he gave away trees to needy settlers. When low on seeds, he returned east to Pennsylvania to get more. He got the seeds from apple presses -- machines used to make apples into a drink called apple cider. Before long, Chapman’s trees were growing in fields across Ohio. People began calling him Johnny Appleseed. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Johnny Appleseed was a small man with lots of energy. He had long dark hair. His eyes were black and bright. He never married. He lived very simply. For years, he traveled alone in the wilderness, without a gun or knife. He slept in the open air and did not wear shoes on his feet. Some people gave him clothing as payment for his apple trees. But sometimes he wore a large cloth bag or sack as clothing. The sack had holes for his head and arms. On his head, he wore a metal container for a hat. He also used this pot for cooking his food. People said he lived this way because he wanted to. He had enough money for shelter and clothes if he had wanted to buy these things. VOICE TWO: Johnny Appleseed looked like someone who was poor and had no home. Yet he was a successful businessman. He used his money to improve his apple business and help other people. He was famous for his gentleness and bravery. Both settlers and native Americans liked him. Everywhere he traveled, he was welcomed. Reports from that period suggest that some native Americans believed he was “touched by God.” Others called him a great medicine man. During his travels, some families asked Johnny to join them for a meal. He would never sit down until he was sure that their children had enough to eat. His diet was as simple as his clothing. He believed that it was wrong to kill and eat any creature for food. He believed that the soil produced everything necessary for humans. He also criticized people who wasted food. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: There are a number of other stories about Johnny Appleseed. Once a rattlesnake attempted to bite him while he slept. Johnny struck the creature, killing it. This was an action he said he always regretted. Another time, he was trapped in the wilderness during a severe snowstorm. He found shelter in an old tree that had fallen to the ground. In the tree, he discovered a mother bear and her cubs. He did not interfere with the animals, and left before they knew he was there. As the years passed, Johnny Appleseed decided to leave Ohio. He moved west into wilderness areas in what is now the state of Indiana. The woods were filled with bears, wolves and other wild animals. Yet he never hurt these creatures. VOICE TWO: Johnny Appleseed has sometimes been called the American Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis established a Roman Catholic group that cares for the poor and the sick. Saint Francis also is remembered for his love of animals and for honoring nature. John Chapman was a very religious man. He liked to read from the Christian holy book, the Bible. He was strongly influenced by the Swedish scientist and Christian thinker, Emanuel Swedenborg. Chapman belonged to the Church of New Jerusalem, a religious group based on Swedenborg’s teachings. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: In about eighteen-thirty, John Chapman got some land in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, he planted apple seedlings that grew and produced crops. He sold, traded and planted in other areas. Some reports said he also traveled to the nearby states of Kentucky and Illinois. His travels lasted more than forty years. It is estimated that, during his lifetime, he planted enough trees to cover an area of about two-hundred-sixty-thousand square kilometers. Over time, some adults said they remembered receiving presents from Johnny Appleseed when they were children. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-forty-five, John Chapman became sick and developed pneumonia during a visit to Fort Wayne. He died in the home of a friend, William Worth. Chapman was seventy years old. He was buried near Fort Wayne. The marker over his burial place reads, “He lived for others.” When word of Chapman’s death reached Washington, D-C, Senator Sam Houston of Texas made a speech honoring him. Houston praised Chapman’s work as a labor of love. He said people in the future would remember his life and work. Strangely, stories about Johnny Appleseed continued to spread to other areas, long after John Chapman died. Some people claimed they had seen Johnny Appleseed as far south as Texas. Others were sure that he planted trees as far west as California. Even today, some people still claim they are Johnny Appleseed. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Johnny Appleseed was the name given to John Chapman. He planted large numbers of apple trees in what was the American wilderness two hundred years ago. Chapman grew trees and supplied apple seeds to settlers in the middle western Great Lakes area. Two centuries later, some of those trees still produce fruit. As a result of stories and poems about Chapman’s actions, Johnny Appleseed became an American hero. However, some of the stories told about Johnny Appleseed over the years may not have been really true. VOICE TWO: John Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in seventeen-seventy-four. His father, Nathaniel Chapman, served in America’s war for independence. He fought British troops in the battle of Concord in seventeen-seventy-five. John was the second of three children. Little is known about his childhood. His mother Elizabeth became sick with tuberculosis and died a short time after the birth of her third child. In seventeen-eighty, Nathaniel Chapman married Lucy Cooley of Longmeadow, Massachusetts. John and his older sister moved to Longmeadow with their father and his new wife. This new marriage produced ten more children. VOICE ONE: When John Chapman was old enough to leave home, he asked his half-brother, Nathaniel, to come with him. They slowly traveled south and west from Massachusetts to the state of Pennsylvania. At that time, much of western Pennsylvania was undeveloped. Government records show that John lived in the Allegheny Mountains in seventeen-ninety-seven. He is said to have cleared land and planted apple seeds near a waterway. In a short time, the seeds grew to become trees that produced fruit. VOICE TWO: Pennsylvania was the first stop in what would become a life-long effort to plant apple trees. The reason for John Chapman’s life’s work is unknown. Some people said he loved to watch the flowers on apple trees grow and change into tasty fruit. Apples were an important food for the early settlers of North America. Apples offered something different in daily meals. They were easy to grow and store for use throughout the year. They could be eaten raw, cooked or dried for eating during the winter. And they could be made into other products, like apple butter and apple juice. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: After a few years, Chapman left the hills of western Pennsylvania and traveled west into the Ohio Valley. He transported sixteen bushels of apple seeds down the Ohio River in eighteen-oh-one. He planted apple seeds in several areas near a place called Licking Creek. Some of the seeds were planted on land owned by a farmer named Isaac Stedden. Chapman was careful about where he planted apple seeds. He did not leave them just anywhere. First, he would find rich, fertile land in an open area. Then, he cleared the land, carefully removing unwanted plants. Then, he planted his seeds in a straight line and built a fence around them. The fence helped to keep the young trees safe from animals. As the trees grew, he returned to repair the fence and care for the land. VOICE TWO: Chapman planted with thoughts about future markets for his crops. His trees often grew in land near settlements. He often sold his apple seeds to settlers. Sometimes, he gave away trees to needy settlers. When low on seeds, he returned east to Pennsylvania to get more. He got the seeds from apple presses -- machines used to make apples into a drink called apple cider. Before long, Chapman’s trees were growing in fields across Ohio. People began calling him Johnny Appleseed. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Johnny Appleseed was a small man with lots of energy. He had long dark hair. His eyes were black and bright. He never married. He lived very simply. For years, he traveled alone in the wilderness, without a gun or knife. He slept in the open air and did not wear shoes on his feet. Some people gave him clothing as payment for his apple trees. But sometimes he wore a large cloth bag or sack as clothing. The sack had holes for his head and arms. On his head, he wore a metal container for a hat. He also used this pot for cooking his food. People said he lived this way because he wanted to. He had enough money for shelter and clothes if he had wanted to buy these things. VOICE TWO: Johnny Appleseed looked like someone who was poor and had no home. Yet he was a successful businessman. He used his money to improve his apple business and help other people. He was famous for his gentleness and bravery. Both settlers and native Americans liked him. Everywhere he traveled, he was welcomed. Reports from that period suggest that some native Americans believed he was “touched by God.” Others called him a great medicine man. During his travels, some families asked Johnny to join them for a meal. He would never sit down until he was sure that their children had enough to eat. His diet was as simple as his clothing. He believed that it was wrong to kill and eat any creature for food. He believed that the soil produced everything necessary for humans. He also criticized people who wasted food. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: There are a number of other stories about Johnny Appleseed. Once a rattlesnake attempted to bite him while he slept. Johnny struck the creature, killing it. This was an action he said he always regretted. Another time, he was trapped in the wilderness during a severe snowstorm. He found shelter in an old tree that had fallen to the ground. In the tree, he discovered a mother bear and her cubs. He did not interfere with the animals, and left before they knew he was there. As the years passed, Johnny Appleseed decided to leave Ohio. He moved west into wilderness areas in what is now the state of Indiana. The woods were filled with bears, wolves and other wild animals. Yet he never hurt these creatures. VOICE TWO: Johnny Appleseed has sometimes been called the American Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis established a Roman Catholic group that cares for the poor and the sick. Saint Francis also is remembered for his love of animals and for honoring nature. John Chapman was a very religious man. He liked to read from the Christian holy book, the Bible. He was strongly influenced by the Swedish scientist and Christian thinker, Emanuel Swedenborg. Chapman belonged to the Church of New Jerusalem, a religious group based on Swedenborg’s teachings. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: In about eighteen-thirty, John Chapman got some land in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, he planted apple seedlings that grew and produced crops. He sold, traded and planted in other areas. Some reports said he also traveled to the nearby states of Kentucky and Illinois. His travels lasted more than forty years. It is estimated that, during his lifetime, he planted enough trees to cover an area of about two-hundred-sixty-thousand square kilometers. Over time, some adults said they remembered receiving presents from Johnny Appleseed when they were children. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-forty-five, John Chapman became sick and developed pneumonia during a visit to Fort Wayne. He died in the home of a friend, William Worth. Chapman was seventy years old. He was buried near Fort Wayne. The marker over his burial place reads, “He lived for others.” When word of Chapman’s death reached Washington, D-C, Senator Sam Houston of Texas made a speech honoring him. Houston praised Chapman’s work as a labor of love. He said people in the future would remember his life and work. Strangely, stories about Johnny Appleseed continued to spread to other areas, long after John Chapman died. Some people claimed they had seen Johnny Appleseed as far south as Texas. Others were sure that he planted trees as far west as California. Even today, some people still claim they are Johnny Appleseed. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 5, 2003: AIDS Update
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Phoebe Zimmermann, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report about the problems of social acceptance for people with the AIDS virus. And, new concerns about H-I-V infection rates in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: How would you react if you learned that someone in your family or your workplace has H-I-V? Human immunodeficiency virus causes the deadly disease AIDS. People who are infected must worry not only about their health. Often, they must also worry about how others will treat them. Experts say one reason is because AIDS involves blood, sickness and death. These are some of the most important, yet most difficult, parts of life for people to deal with. Another reason is because AIDS is often caused by actions that are unacceptable to many people. These include sexual relations before marriage or outside marriage, or between men. They also include the use of illegal drugs and shared needles. Some might see H-I-V infection as punishment for a person's actions. Or even as a crime itself. People with H-I-V may be unable to get or keep jobs -- or even to continue to live with their families. Often these bad feelings, this stigma, connected with AIDS is worse for women than for men. VOICE TWO: There are medicines that restrain the growth of H-I-V. Many people who are able to get these medicines continue to lead active lives. Yet acceptance may still escape them. Many international organizations have programs that seek to end the stigma connected with H-I-V and AIDS. These organizations say it is important that infected people continue to live and work in their communities. For one thing, there are economic reasons, since so many of them are of working age. These groups say government and business leaders must talk openly about AIDS. They say it is important to have messages on radio and television and elsewhere that talk about how the infection spreads. Such messages might tell people they cannot get H-I-V from toilet seats or if they shake hands. But experts say it is also important to warn people that they can get infected from unprotected sex even with just one person -- if that one person has H-I-V. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Employers in several countries are trying to help workers with H-I-V. The United States Agency for International Development paid for a study of programs for workers in the building trades in Vietnam. Construction workers are often young men who travel far from home to find work. They are among those especially likely to become infected with H-I-V. One program in Vietnam brought visiting health educators to talk with the construction workers. A second program trained some of the workers as “peer educators." They learned how to teach other workers about the dangers of AIDS. The study found more success in the peer education program than in the program with the visiting health educators. It also cost the companies less to train their own employees. Officials say the first goal of the program is to prevent workers from getting H-I-V and AIDS. The second goal is to change the ideas of employees toward people with AIDS. VOICE TWO: How employees feel about AIDS can affect how much work their company can do. In the words of one company director in Vietnam: "When there is one case of H-I-V in the company, people may not want to work with that person or ask to work in a different place.” So leaders of the building industry joined with the Ho Chi Minh City AIDS Committee and the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Union. They worked together to bring peer education to many construction places. The trained peer educators were often older and better educated than the other workers. They were already giving advice to the younger men. The organizers say all they needed was training to provide information about H-I-V. VOICE ONE: The peer educators taught other men how to say “no” if a friend suggested a visit to a sex worker. They passed out condoms. They urged their co-workers to reduce their number of sexual partners. And they urged them to get treated for any kind of infection they developed. The peer educators in Vietnam did not just talk. They also used songs and plays to communicate information about H-I-V. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In South Africa, the Eskom company has won awards for its H-I-V programs in the workplace. Eskom is one of the largest electric power companies in the world. A study of its employees showed that ninety percent worried that if they had H-I-V or AIDS, other people would say bad things about them. Eskom had health care workers in its workplaces. But many employees did not want to be seen with them. They worried that other people would think they were infected. So Eskom tried something else. A support group for employees with H-I-V and AIDS was formed. This group is called “asikhulume,” which means “let’s talk.” The people come from two Eskom workplaces. They help each other. But, with training, they also work to educate other employees. VOICE ONE: Mazwi Mngadi says he decided to talk about his infection so he could help others. He leads educational programs. He passes out condoms, and makes sure containers of them are in the workplaces. He talks to individual workers and their families. He passes out a small book about his own story. Mazwi Mngadi says he wants to make an example of himself. He says he wants other workers to see, in his words, "that you can still live your life even if you are H-I-V positive.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In the United States, health officials say they are concerned about a small increase last year in the number of people infected with H-I-V. This is the first increase in ten years. Since nineteen-ninety-three the numbers had gone down. Doctors found forty-two-thousand new cases of H-I-V in the United States last year. This was an increase of two percent from the year before. But officials say the infection rate increased more than seven percent among men who have sexual relations with other men. An H-I-V infection generally takes several years to become AIDS. But drugs that limit the spread of the virus have continued to reduce the number of deaths in the United States. About sixteen-thousand Americans with AIDS died last year. That was down six percent from two-thousand-one. VOICE ONE: Experts are not sure how to explain the increase in new infections. They say they fear that the people most likely to get H-I-V do not take the threat seriously. Some people may believe that medicines will solve any problems. Yet there is still no cure for AIDS, and no drugs to prevent it. Officials say the increase might also suggest a problem with treatment efforts. Some people cannot use new drugs developed for H-I-V because of side effects. And sometimes the virus becomes resistant to the drugs. The researchers say more work is needed to educate people about the threat of H-I-V and the danger of unprotected sexual relations. VOICE TWO: One of the aims of a new prevention campaign in the United States is also to increase H-I-V testing of pregnant women. The virus can spread from mother to child. Officials say many women still do not know about the treatment possibilities that exist to prevent that. Scientists also continue to work on new forms of protection, like the idea of a medicine for women to kill any H-I-V passed by a sexual partner. And, finally, this news -- organizers of the World AIDS Campaign have decided to center next year's events on "women and H-I-V/AIDS." Officials of the UNAIDS program say the last World AIDS Day organized around women took place in nineteen-ninety. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by Karen Leggett and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 5, 2003:  Growing Carrots
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Carrots are grown on farms and in small family gardens throughout the world. They are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They have a pleasing taste. And, they contain a lot of carotene which the body changes into Vitamin A. When people think about carrots, they usually create a mental picture of a long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. But, carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange. For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are white. For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it, and turn it over. Then, mix some dead plant material or animal waste. Do not add any additional chemical fertilizers. Weather, soil condition, and age affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights, and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing great tasting carrots. Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early they will not have enough sugar. However, carrots become wood-like and loose their sweetness if you wait too long to remove them from the ground. The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste. Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as you do during the summer months. If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed. Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to meat in stews. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Carrots are grown on farms and in small family gardens throughout the world. They are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They have a pleasing taste. And, they contain a lot of carotene which the body changes into Vitamin A. When people think about carrots, they usually create a mental picture of a long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. But, carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange. For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are white. For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it, and turn it over. Then, mix some dead plant material or animal waste. Do not add any additional chemical fertilizers. Weather, soil condition, and age affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights, and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing great tasting carrots. Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early they will not have enough sugar. However, carrots become wood-like and loose their sweetness if you wait too long to remove them from the ground. The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste. Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as you do during the summer months. If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed. Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to meat in stews. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Bob Bowen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 4, 2003: High School and College Reunions
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: School reunions are a chance for Americans to get together with people they may not have seen in years. Some have not seen each other in half a lifetime. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. We look at high school and college reunions this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Two women were attending a reunion of their high school class. They had not seen each other for more than forty years. Each had married and had children. Each had worked at several jobs. Yet they immediately told each other: "You have not changed at all!" And they were not alone. Reunions are a chance to go back in time, briefly, to relive days fresh out of school. There are ten-year reunions. Twenty-year reunions. Fifty-year unions. In any given year, thousands of Americans attend a high school or college reunion. VOICE TWO: People sometimes go long distances to get to these events. Some pay a lot of money to travel and stay in hotels. Just planning the visit can take time, especially if the person wants to do something special. Take the example of a woman from Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated many years ago from a high school near Chicago, Illinois. This summer, she decided to hold a smaller reunion of her own during her high school reunion. She wanted to gather several of her friends in the same hotel so they could talk as they had as teen-agers. The women were from all parts of the country. Her plan required several long-distance telephone calls and at least forty e-mail messages. But it was worth the time. The women visited the houses where they had lived while in high school. They remembered each other’s boyfriends and families. They stayed up late for two nights as they exchanged stories about their lives. It was like they were girls again. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Reunions can be a lot of fun, but also a lot of pressure. Sometimes people feel they must improve their appearance before they go to a reunion. This is true of both men and women. They may try to lose weight. They may change the color of their hair. Or they may buy costly new clothes. People may feel they have to prove to others how successful they are. Then, if they talk too much about their success, others accuse them of “bragging.” People at reunions often talk about their children and grandchildren. They may talk about them for a long time. Most people who are parents and grandparents also carry pictures. So it is common to overhear former classmates saying things like, “I think that baby looks just like you.” Or, “Oh, your granddaughter is beautiful!" VOICE TWO: People who attend high school and college reunions sometimes try to make business connections. They try to get former classmates to invest in their companies or buy their products. Some people ask old school friends for a job. Political candidates are no strangers to high school and college reunions. For example, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut attended Stamford High School in his state. He completed his studies in nineteen-sixty. Since then, he has attended seven of the eight class reunions. In January of this year, Senator Lieberman chose the school as the place to make an important announcement. He announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for president in two-thousand-four. Many members of his high school reunion committee took part in the event. VOICE ONE: There are all kinds of reunions. Former students organize many of them. People who have planned a reunion say it sometimes requires a year or more of hard work. But, this way, the people give their time to make the preparations. So it can cost less than a reunion organized by a business. But the former students can also hire a reunion planner. For example, a company called Reunions by Design organizes high school reunions in the eastern states of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It searches for members of a high school or college class. It places news of the coming reunion in newspapers and on the Internet. It mails invitations. It organizes hotel rooms for people who live far from the school. It also prints memory books. These books tell a little something about the lives of the former students, including where they now live and work. VOICE TWO: Many different kinds of reunions take place. Some may be formal and cost a lot. This kind usually takes place in a hotel. A big dinner is served. A band or orchestra usually plays. Other reunions are informal. This kind of party is often held in the high school or college itself. The people who went to school together share a meal. Then they may dance to music just as they did years before. Reunions can even take place in the home of one of the former students. That is what happened several years ago with the graduating class of nineteen-sixty-nine from Wellesley College. That is a women's school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Their classmate Hillary Rodham Clinton held the reunion in the White House while she was first lady. Missus Clinton is the wife of former President Bill Clinton. She is now a United States senator from New York. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many high school and college reunions take place at the same time as an event called homecoming. Schools plan this event to invite their graduates to return for a visit. Homecoming almost always is held in the fall.The schools plan events for the returning graduates. There usually is an important football game or other sports event that former students can attend. And there usually is a party called an open house. Teachers or professors welcome back their former students. VOICE TWO: Some activities are the same at all reunions. For example, people usually bring their old high school or college yearbooks. They look back through all the pictures of the people they went to school with. They read over the notes they wrote to each other back then. The usual message is something like, "Good luck. I will think of you in the future.” Former classmates at reunions look at the pictures and try to identify people as they look today. The main program is usually led by one or more speakers from the class. They tell jokes and remember stories about their classmates. They introduce former teachers. They introduce classmates who fell in love with other classmates and got married. Reunions are also famous as a second chance for love. VOICE ONE: The people who organize reunions may show films of when everyone was a teen-ager. If the students were in school a long time ago, they laugh at the clothes they wore. And there is something else people do at reunions. They almost always sing their school song. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mental health experts tell us that the high school and college years can be difficult for young people. They may feel they are not bright enough or good enough looking to succeed in life. A member of the graduating class of a high school in the Midwest made a videotape of some of the students at his class reunion. He asked them to respond to questions like “What do you remember most?” VOICE ONE: Those who spoke first said they thought the teachers were excellent. Or they said they learned a lot. Or they fell in love for the first time. But a woman who became a newspaper reporter in Colorado said she felt very unhappy in high school. She said she felt ugly, and that she would never succeed in life. After that, a number of other people admitted that they also felt that way as teen-agers. They said they were glad that was behind them now. VOICE TWO: Retired diplomat Patricia Barnett Brubaker lives in the state of Maryland. She has attended many reunions of her class at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She and her classmates always marched in a parade during ceremonies at their college reunions. But now they are more than eighty years old. So, at their sixtieth reunion, they rode in a car. Says Missus Brubaker: "I just thought it was wonderful that we got there." VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson -- who just got back from her high school reunion, where she was the woman with that small reunion of her own. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-04-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — August 4, 2003 : Storing Drinking Water
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Safe drinking water has always been rare and valuable. Throughout the world, drinking water has to be stored for periods of low rainfall. Tanks or other containers for water storage must be ready long before a dry season begins. For hundreds of years different kinds of materials have been used to build water storage containers. In many areas of the world, small lakes or reservoirs formed by dirt walls provide drinking water for villagers during the long dry season. In western Sudan, the thick part of the baobob tree is removed to store water collected during the short rainy season in that country. Bricks and concrete are among the modern materials used today to build storage containers for water. A solid rock can be used as the bottom of a water tank. However, a mixture of rock and soil should not be used. The soil will settle down, but the rock will not. The water will leak out. Ferro-cement structures are popular in some developing countries, especially in India. Ferro-cement is made by pouring a sand and cement mixture over a skeleton form made of steel rods, pipe, or chicken wire. It creates a structure that is lightweight yet keeps in water. The walls of ferro-cement structures are usually thin, which means that they can be used in building different shapes such as circles. Wood also can be used for water storage structures. Cypress, fir, pine and redwood are some of the kinds of trees that have been used. Wooden tanks do not require special care, although their average lifetime is shorter than tanks made with concrete or steel. Any chemicals used to keep the wood from being ruined must not be poisonous substances. Water in uncovered storage tanks or reservoirs can become unsafe. Small green plants called algae can grow in large amounts near the surface. The algae may help bacteria continue to grow, even if chemicals such as chlorine are added to the water to kill the bacteria. Uncovered water also can be polluted by birds, animals or humans. You can learn more about storing water for drinking through the Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. VITA is on the Internet at www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 6, 2003: E-Books
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: William Shakespeare (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a revolution in technology that could change the way many people read books. We tell about electronic books and what they could mean for the future. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a revolution in technology that could change the way many people read books. We tell about electronic books and what they could mean for the future. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For a few minutes, let us imagine that it is two o’clock in the morning. You can not sleep. You get out of bed and walk into the room where you keep your computer. You turn on the machine and slowly the blue light of the screen becomes brighter. You link your computer with the Internet communications system. Moments later you learn that you have no electronic mail. So you take a minute to read most of the world news. There seems to be nothing of interest. Then you remember reading about something called electronic books, or e-books. Maybe that might be interesting. You have the computer search for the word “e-book”. Immediately your computer and the Internet find a great many choices. You go to a Web site that offers free electronic books. A list of electronic books appears. Many were written by the man who may be the most famous writer in the English language -- William Shakespeare. As you look at the list of his works you see “Henry the Fifth.” You choose this famous play. And, there on your computer screen are the words of William Shakespeare. You begin to read: “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dared …” VOICE TWO: Within a few hours, you have read “Henry the Fifth.” Best of all, it cost you nothing. You have your computer save the Internet address of the free electronic book Web site. Soon you are off to sleep with dreams of the great play you have read. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The story we just told is not from the future. It is happening today. If you do not want to read the plays of William Shakespeare, you could read thousands of other electronic books. Perhaps we should explain just what an electronic book is. It is a book. But it appears on a computer screen, not printed on paper. E-books are not a new idea, but they are becoming more important, more interesting and easier to find. VOICE TWO: You can find free e-books many places on the Internet. One of the oldest and most successful Internet web sites is called “Project Gutenberg.” Its name honors German printer Johannes Gutenberg. He invented modern printing during the fourteen-hundreds. Project Gutenberg was the idea of Michael Hart. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, he was a computer scientist working at the University of Illinois. The university provided him with a large amount of money and a huge modern computer to use for his experiments. Michael Hart decided that the computer could be used to hold famous and important books. He decided that these would be free to anyone in the world who could link to the project with a computer. The first important document Mister Hart placed in the computer was the American Declaration of Independence. VOICE ONE: Since then, Mister Hart has been joined by hundreds of people who give their time to help place important books on the Internet. The idea is to bring information, books and other materials to the general public in a way that most people can easily search for read and use. More than six-thousand Project Gutenberg electronic books are now on the Internet. And they cost nothing to read. Anyone with a computer can copy them on to paper, or make an electronic copy to keep in their computer. It does not matter if you live in India, Japan, the United States, Italy or China. If you have a computer, you can link with Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg also offers many of its books in fifteen different languages. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have told about the thousands of free e-books you can find with your computer. These books are most often offered for free because they no longer carry the legal protection called a copyright. Copyright protection makes it illegal to sell, print or publish a person’s work without the permission of the writer and publisher. Books still under copyright protection can be found on the Internet, too. But you have to pay for them. Many companies sell electronic books on the Internet. You pay for them with your credit card number. Then you can electronically move your new book to your computer. Two of the book companies that offer e-books are Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. VOICE ONE: For example, Barnes and Noble is offering many e-books this summer. They include the very popular book about an American racehorse, called “Seabiscuit” by Laura Hillenbrand. This e-book costs about eight dollars. The company is also selling Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new book, “Living History.” This e-book costs seventeen dollars. Amazon-Dot-Com also sells many e-books, including another best-seller, Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” That e-book costs twelve dollars. Amazon also sells many kinds of science fiction books, including the popular “Star Trek” series. It also sells study guides which provide information about books and writers. And the company sells e-documents. The most popular ones are about computers, education, leadership, business and jobs. You can also find e-books on other serious subjects. For example, a company called “Science Week” sells e-books about cancer research, neurobiology, chemistry, and many more subjects. VOICE TWO: You need a computer that can link to the Internet to read an e-book. For some books you may also need special computer programs that help deal with e-books. These programs make the electronic information easier to copy and read. Two of these computer programs are Microsoft’s Reader and Adobe e-Book Reader. The companies that make both programs offer them for free. Several companies that offer e-books have special links that lead to these e-book reader programs. It only takes a few moments to copy these helpful programs to your computer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people do not like the idea of sitting in front of a computer to read a book. They like paper books better. You can easily take a paper book with you everywhere you go. For example, you can take it outside on a nice day and read it under a tree or while lying on a large chair. However, you can not take most computers outside on a nice day. So several companies have now made it possible to move an e-book’s information from your computer to a small electronic device that can be carried anywhere. The device is called an e-book appliance or e-book reader. It has a small screen about the same size as a page in a small book. Many of these devices hold as much as ten-thousand pages of information. That is the same as about ten large books. The more costly e-book readers also can play music, show photographs from an e-book and do other useful things. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: E-books may become even more popular in the near future. For example, a college student who begins a new school year usually must buy a book for each class. In the future, a trip to the bookstore might not be necessary. In a few minutes, the student could copy to his or her computer all the necessary books and other written material for each class. The student would also be able to copy books and class information into the small e-book reader that he or she carries to class. In the future, the use of e-books could change education on all levels. Many experts say the e-book revolution has already begun. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawaley. Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fifth” was read by Shep O’Neal. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: For a few minutes, let us imagine that it is two o’clock in the morning. You can not sleep. You get out of bed and walk into the room where you keep your computer. You turn on the machine and slowly the blue light of the screen becomes brighter. You link your computer with the Internet communications system. Moments later you learn that you have no electronic mail. So you take a minute to read most of the world news. There seems to be nothing of interest. Then you remember reading about something called electronic books, or e-books. Maybe that might be interesting. You have the computer search for the word “e-book”. Immediately your computer and the Internet find a great many choices. You go to a Web site that offers free electronic books. A list of electronic books appears. Many were written by the man who may be the most famous writer in the English language -- William Shakespeare. As you look at the list of his works you see “Henry the Fifth.” You choose this famous play. And, there on your computer screen are the words of William Shakespeare. You begin to read: “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all, The flat unraised spirits that have dared …” VOICE TWO: Within a few hours, you have read “Henry the Fifth.” Best of all, it cost you nothing. You have your computer save the Internet address of the free electronic book Web site. Soon you are off to sleep with dreams of the great play you have read. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The story we just told is not from the future. It is happening today. If you do not want to read the plays of William Shakespeare, you could read thousands of other electronic books. Perhaps we should explain just what an electronic book is. It is a book. But it appears on a computer screen, not printed on paper. E-books are not a new idea, but they are becoming more important, more interesting and easier to find. VOICE TWO: You can find free e-books many places on the Internet. One of the oldest and most successful Internet web sites is called “Project Gutenberg.” Its name honors German printer Johannes Gutenberg. He invented modern printing during the fourteen-hundreds. Project Gutenberg was the idea of Michael Hart. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, he was a computer scientist working at the University of Illinois. The university provided him with a large amount of money and a huge modern computer to use for his experiments. Michael Hart decided that the computer could be used to hold famous and important books. He decided that these would be free to anyone in the world who could link to the project with a computer. The first important document Mister Hart placed in the computer was the American Declaration of Independence. VOICE ONE: Since then, Mister Hart has been joined by hundreds of people who give their time to help place important books on the Internet. The idea is to bring information, books and other materials to the general public in a way that most people can easily search for read and use. More than six-thousand Project Gutenberg electronic books are now on the Internet. And they cost nothing to read. Anyone with a computer can copy them on to paper, or make an electronic copy to keep in their computer. It does not matter if you live in India, Japan, the United States, Italy or China. If you have a computer, you can link with Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg also offers many of its books in fifteen different languages. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We have told about the thousands of free e-books you can find with your computer. These books are most often offered for free because they no longer carry the legal protection called a copyright. Copyright protection makes it illegal to sell, print or publish a person’s work without the permission of the writer and publisher. Books still under copyright protection can be found on the Internet, too. But you have to pay for them. Many companies sell electronic books on the Internet. You pay for them with your credit card number. Then you can electronically move your new book to your computer. Two of the book companies that offer e-books are Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. VOICE ONE: For example, Barnes and Noble is offering many e-books this summer. They include the very popular book about an American racehorse, called “Seabiscuit” by Laura Hillenbrand. This e-book costs about eight dollars. The company is also selling Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new book, “Living History.” This e-book costs seventeen dollars. Amazon-Dot-Com also sells many e-books, including another best-seller, Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” That e-book costs twelve dollars. Amazon also sells many kinds of science fiction books, including the popular “Star Trek” series. It also sells study guides which provide information about books and writers. And the company sells e-documents. The most popular ones are about computers, education, leadership, business and jobs. You can also find e-books on other serious subjects. For example, a company called “Science Week” sells e-books about cancer research, neurobiology, chemistry, and many more subjects. VOICE TWO: You need a computer that can link to the Internet to read an e-book. For some books you may also need special computer programs that help deal with e-books. These programs make the electronic information easier to copy and read. Two of these computer programs are Microsoft’s Reader and Adobe e-Book Reader. The companies that make both programs offer them for free. Several companies that offer e-books have special links that lead to these e-book reader programs. It only takes a few moments to copy these helpful programs to your computer. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people do not like the idea of sitting in front of a computer to read a book. They like paper books better. You can easily take a paper book with you everywhere you go. For example, you can take it outside on a nice day and read it under a tree or while lying on a large chair. However, you can not take most computers outside on a nice day. So several companies have now made it possible to move an e-book’s information from your computer to a small electronic device that can be carried anywhere. The device is called an e-book appliance or e-book reader. It has a small screen about the same size as a page in a small book. Many of these devices hold as much as ten-thousand pages of information. That is the same as about ten large books. The more costly e-book readers also can play music, show photographs from an e-book and do other useful things. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: E-books may become even more popular in the near future. For example, a college student who begins a new school year usually must buy a book for each class. In the future, a trip to the bookstore might not be necessary. In a few minutes, the student could copy to his or her computer all the necessary books and other written material for each class. The student would also be able to copy books and class information into the small e-book reader that he or she carries to class. In the future, the use of e-books could change education on all levels. Many experts say the e-book revolution has already begun. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawaley. Shakespeare’s “Henry the Fifth” was read by Shep O’Neal. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT—August 6, 2003: Lance Armstrong/Fighting Cancer with Exercise
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American bicycle racer Lance Armstrong says he will attempt to set a record next year and win the Tour de France for the sixth time. Last month he won the race for the fifth year in a row. Only one other person, Miguel Indurain of Spain, has ever done that. For three weeks, Lance Armstrong raced more than three-thousand kilometers, up and down mountains and through the French countryside. He called this his most difficult year. But each time he makes sports history, he also makes medical history. As many people know by now, Lance Armstrong is a survivor of cancer. In 1997, doctors found cancer of the reproductive organs. The cancer had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors removed the affected testicle and operated on his brain as well. Later, they treated him with anti-cancer drugs. These drugs were powerful but had dangers of their own. Lance Armstrong says he survived because he had excellent doctors and because he truly believed he would get better. He also began to ride again as soon as his condition improved. Doctors say other cancer patients might also improve with physical activity. A Canadian researcher recently published a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. It shows that cancer patients who are physically active are less tired, have more energy and have improved chances of long-term survival. This kind of research goes against the belief that cancer patients need a lot of rest. As a result, more doctors and patients are coming to believe that what is needed is exercise. This will come as no surprise to Lance Armstrong. The thirty-one-year-old bicycle racer says it was his experience with cancer that really helped him win the Tour de France so many times. He says the disease tested him like nothing else could. Lance Armstrong says he wants to be remembered not for just winning many bicycle races. He says he wants people to remember that the winner was a cancer survivor. He says his victories send a message to all people who have ever had cancer. This message, he says, is that it is possible for them to return to what they were doing before -- and become even better. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American bicycle racer Lance Armstrong says he will attempt to set a record next year and win the Tour de France for the sixth time. Last month he won the race for the fifth year in a row. Only one other person, Miguel Indurain of Spain, has ever done that. For three weeks, Lance Armstrong raced more than three-thousand kilometers, up and down mountains and through the French countryside. He called this his most difficult year. But each time he makes sports history, he also makes medical history. As many people know by now, Lance Armstrong is a survivor of cancer. In 1997, doctors found cancer of the reproductive organs. The cancer had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors removed the affected testicle and operated on his brain as well. Later, they treated him with anti-cancer drugs. These drugs were powerful but had dangers of their own. Lance Armstrong says he survived because he had excellent doctors and because he truly believed he would get better. He also began to ride again as soon as his condition improved. Doctors say other cancer patients might also improve with physical activity. A Canadian researcher recently published a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. It shows that cancer patients who are physically active are less tired, have more energy and have improved chances of long-term survival. This kind of research goes against the belief that cancer patients need a lot of rest. As a result, more doctors and patients are coming to believe that what is needed is exercise. This will come as no surprise to Lance Armstrong. The thirty-one-year-old bicycle racer says it was his experience with cancer that really helped him win the Tour de France so many times. He says the disease tested him like nothing else could. Lance Armstrong says he wants to be remembered not for just winning many bicycle races. He says he wants people to remember that the winner was a cancer survivor. He says his victories send a message to all people who have ever had cancer. This message, he says, is that it is possible for them to return to what they were doing before -- and become even better. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC — August 8, 2003: Grammy-winning singer John Mayer looks ahead to the coming release of his next album / Question about electronic books / Come along with a group of people who listen in to what Americans are talking about
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life. Plus we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week: Music by John Mayer. And a question about e-books. But first, come along with some people who listen in to what Americans are talking about. Word of the Year HOST: Throughout the year, members of a small group in the United States keep their eyes and ears open for how Americans use their words. The purpose is not to look for ways to correct them. The purpose is to see what new words come into use, and how old words change. Then, in January, after a year's worth of observations, members of this group gather to vote. Jim Tedder takes it from there. ANNCR: The American Dialect Society is made up of language experts, researchers and teachers. They study how English is used in North America. One of the things they do is choose a word or phrase of the year. About sixty people voted this year. If nothing else, the yearly choices offer an idea of what Americans are thinking about. The two-thousand-two word of the year, for example, is “weapons of mass destruction.” This term, or W-M-D for short, describes nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Scientists and political experts have talked about weapons of mass destruction for years. But only more recently did other people start to use this term. This happened because of the situation with Iraq and fears of terrorism. Another word considered for the two-thousand-two honor was the new verb “google.” Google is a search engine on the Internet. People use it to find information. To google someone or something is to look for information on the Internet about that person or thing. Another computer word was also considered for word of the year. “Blog” is the short form of web log. Web logs are Internet sites that contain personal stories, comments and links to other sites. The American Dialect Society also considered the phrase “Amber alert” for its two-thousand-two word of the year. An Amber alert is an emergency public announcement when a child is kidnapped. Information is put on radio, television and the Internet to get the public to help in the search. The program began in nineteen-ninety-six. It started after a nine-year-old girl named Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in Texas. Since then, Amber alert programs have been put in place around the country. The phrase got a lot of use in March, when fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart was found alive. She had been kidnapped nine months before from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah. E-Books HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Karnataka, India. T. Basavanyappa asks by e-mail: “What is an e-book? An e-book is an electronic book. It is like any other book. Only, instead of words on paper, it is words on a screen. Anyone who uses the Internet can find e-books. It took us only a few minutes to find the works of an English writer you might have heard of: William Shakespeare. We also found the works of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. These e-books were free of cost. They are not under the protection of a copyright. A copyright makes it illegal to sell or copy a book without the permission of the writer or publisher. Many e-books do have copyright protection. These include electronic versions of newly published books. Steven King, the popular American writer of horror stories, even wrote a book that sold only as an e-book. One company says it offers more than two-hundred-thousand e-books online. Readers pay by credit card. As we said, it is easy to find e-books on the Internet. Just enter the word "e-books" into a search engine like Google. Or you might want to go to the Web site of an organization called Project Gutenburg. It offers thousands of books that can be read for free. The address is w-w-w dot g-u-t-e-n-b-e-r-g dot n-e-t. Again, that's g-u-t-e-n-b-e-r-g dot n-e-t. (www.gutenberg.net) In the coming years, the number of e-books is expected to continue to increase. Many now include music and images. And many come with links to other e-books on the same subject. Some people are happy to sit at their computer when they read an e-book. But others like to be able to carry a book with them. These people may want to buy an e-book reader. This is a small device that can link with a computer to load the contents of a book. Some will hold as many as ten large books. That way, you can go anywhere and never be without something to read. John Mayer HOST: John Mayer is preparing to release a new album next month. He is already performing some of the songs in his live shows. Here's Faith Lapidus with more about this popular singer and songwriter. ANNCR: John Mayer was born in nineteen-seventy-seven in Connecticut, in the American Northeast. By the age of fifteen, he was playing his guitar and performing in local blues clubs. After high school he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. But he left after one year. John Mayer says he recognized early that he was more interested in making music than he was in studying it. He released his first album in nineteen-ninety-nine. It was called “Inside Wants Out.” Here is one of the songs, “My Stupid Mouth.” (MUSIC) Critics like the sound of John Mayer’s music. Some fans say his voice makes their hearts smile. He won a Grammy Award this year for a song on his second album, “Room For Squares.” Here it is -- “Your Body Is A Wonderland.” (MUSIC) John Mayer likes to perform all over the country. He is said to have done one-hundred-eighty-eight live shows in one year. Last September he recorded a live performance in the southern city of Birmingham, Alabama. We leave you now with one of the songs from that show. It's called “Covered in Rain.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson -- who was also our producer. The studio engineer was Vosco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life. Plus we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week: Music by John Mayer. And a question about e-books. But first, come along with some people who listen in to what Americans are talking about. Word of the Year HOST: Throughout the year, members of a small group in the United States keep their eyes and ears open for how Americans use their words. The purpose is not to look for ways to correct them. The purpose is to see what new words come into use, and how old words change. Then, in January, after a year's worth of observations, members of this group gather to vote. Jim Tedder takes it from there. ANNCR: The American Dialect Society is made up of language experts, researchers and teachers. They study how English is used in North America. One of the things they do is choose a word or phrase of the year. About sixty people voted this year. If nothing else, the yearly choices offer an idea of what Americans are thinking about. The two-thousand-two word of the year, for example, is “weapons of mass destruction.” This term, or W-M-D for short, describes nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Scientists and political experts have talked about weapons of mass destruction for years. But only more recently did other people start to use this term. This happened because of the situation with Iraq and fears of terrorism. Another word considered for the two-thousand-two honor was the new verb “google.” Google is a search engine on the Internet. People use it to find information. To google someone or something is to look for information on the Internet about that person or thing. Another computer word was also considered for word of the year. “Blog” is the short form of web log. Web logs are Internet sites that contain personal stories, comments and links to other sites. The American Dialect Society also considered the phrase “Amber alert” for its two-thousand-two word of the year. An Amber alert is an emergency public announcement when a child is kidnapped. Information is put on radio, television and the Internet to get the public to help in the search. The program began in nineteen-ninety-six. It started after a nine-year-old girl named Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in Texas. Since then, Amber alert programs have been put in place around the country. The phrase got a lot of use in March, when fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart was found alive. She had been kidnapped nine months before from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah. E-Books HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Karnataka, India. T. Basavanyappa asks by e-mail: “What is an e-book? An e-book is an electronic book. It is like any other book. Only, instead of words on paper, it is words on a screen. Anyone who uses the Internet can find e-books. It took us only a few minutes to find the works of an English writer you might have heard of: William Shakespeare. We also found the works of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. These e-books were free of cost. They are not under the protection of a copyright. A copyright makes it illegal to sell or copy a book without the permission of the writer or publisher. Many e-books do have copyright protection. These include electronic versions of newly published books. Steven King, the popular American writer of horror stories, even wrote a book that sold only as an e-book. One company says it offers more than two-hundred-thousand e-books online. Readers pay by credit card. As we said, it is easy to find e-books on the Internet. Just enter the word "e-books" into a search engine like Google. Or you might want to go to the Web site of an organization called Project Gutenburg. It offers thousands of books that can be read for free. The address is w-w-w dot g-u-t-e-n-b-e-r-g dot n-e-t. Again, that's g-u-t-e-n-b-e-r-g dot n-e-t. (www.gutenberg.net) In the coming years, the number of e-books is expected to continue to increase. Many now include music and images. And many come with links to other e-books on the same subject. Some people are happy to sit at their computer when they read an e-book. But others like to be able to carry a book with them. These people may want to buy an e-book reader. This is a small device that can link with a computer to load the contents of a book. Some will hold as many as ten large books. That way, you can go anywhere and never be without something to read. John Mayer HOST: John Mayer is preparing to release a new album next month. He is already performing some of the songs in his live shows. Here's Faith Lapidus with more about this popular singer and songwriter. ANNCR: John Mayer was born in nineteen-seventy-seven in Connecticut, in the American Northeast. By the age of fifteen, he was playing his guitar and performing in local blues clubs. After high school he went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. But he left after one year. John Mayer says he recognized early that he was more interested in making music than he was in studying it. He released his first album in nineteen-ninety-nine. It was called “Inside Wants Out.” Here is one of the songs, “My Stupid Mouth.” (MUSIC) Critics like the sound of John Mayer’s music. Some fans say his voice makes their hearts smile. He won a Grammy Award this year for a song on his second album, “Room For Squares.” Here it is -- “Your Body Is A Wonderland.” (MUSIC) John Mayer likes to perform all over the country. He is said to have done one-hundred-eighty-eight live shows in one year. Last September he recorded a live performance in the southern city of Birmingham, Alabama. We leave you now with one of the songs from that show. It's called “Covered in Rain.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson -- who was also our producer. The studio engineer was Vosco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Study Finds Huge Drop in Caribbean Coral
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 8, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A new study shows an eighty percent decrease of hard coral in the Caribbean Sea over the past thirty years. Scientists from the University of East Anglia and the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, both in Britain, did the study. They published their findings in Science. Coral is made up of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of organisms called polyps. Each is covered with cells filled with poison. The coral uses the poison to defend itself and to capture its food. Hard coral is what covers reefs. Soft coral, like sponges and sea fans, live on hard coral. In the nineteen-seventies, hard coral covered about fifty percent of the average reef in the Caribbean. Today, the researchers say, the cover is down to ten percent. They say it appears nothing like this has happened before for at least three-thousand years. Ocean biologist Isabelle Cote took part in the study. She says the scientists knew there were serious problems with the Caribbean reef system, but what they found surprised them. They based their findings on sixty-five earlier studies that examined more than two-hundred-sixty areas of reef in the Caribbean Sea. At first, the scientists were trying to learn the amount of destruction that ocean storms had caused to coral reefs over the years. But the researchers decided they had to widen their study. Mizz Cote says they needed to be able to compare storm damage with damage from other forces. The study found that weather conditions have played a part in the decrease of Caribbean coral. But the scientists say human activity has been at least as equally destructive. Overfishing is one problem. Fish eat plants that live on coral. The fish help keep a balance in the plant life. When too many fish are caught, some plants may spread too fast and kill the coral. Pollution is also a problem. So too, they say, is the flow of soil into rivers that feed the sea. This includes soil from forests that have been cut down. For coral cells to build a reef takes tens of thousands of years. Scientists say healthy reefs are not only important for nature. The many different kinds of marine life may also provide materials for new medicines. The scientists who did the study say there are signs of recovery in some areas of the Caribbean. But they say they do not know if this new coral will be able to survive any better. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. Broadcast: August 8, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A new study shows an eighty percent decrease of hard coral in the Caribbean Sea over the past thirty years. Scientists from the University of East Anglia and the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, both in Britain, did the study. They published their findings in Science. Coral is made up of hundreds to hundreds of thousands of organisms called polyps. Each is covered with cells filled with poison. The coral uses the poison to defend itself and to capture its food. Hard coral is what covers reefs. Soft coral, like sponges and sea fans, live on hard coral. In the nineteen-seventies, hard coral covered about fifty percent of the average reef in the Caribbean. Today, the researchers say, the cover is down to ten percent. They say it appears nothing like this has happened before for at least three-thousand years. Ocean biologist Isabelle Cote took part in the study. She says the scientists knew there were serious problems with the Caribbean reef system, but what they found surprised them. They based their findings on sixty-five earlier studies that examined more than two-hundred-sixty areas of reef in the Caribbean Sea. At first, the scientists were trying to learn the amount of destruction that ocean storms had caused to coral reefs over the years. But the researchers decided they had to widen their study. Mizz Cote says they needed to be able to compare storm damage with damage from other forces. The study found that weather conditions have played a part in the decrease of Caribbean coral. But the scientists say human activity has been at least as equally destructive. Overfishing is one problem. Fish eat plants that live on coral. The fish help keep a balance in the plant life. When too many fish are caught, some plants may spread too fast and kill the coral. Pollution is also a problem. So too, they say, is the flow of soil into rivers that feed the sea. This includes soil from forests that have been cut down. For coral cells to build a reef takes tens of thousands of years. Scientists say healthy reefs are not only important for nature. The many different kinds of marine life may also provide materials for new medicines. The scientists who did the study say there are signs of recovery in some areas of the Caribbean. But they say they do not know if this new coral will be able to survive any better. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #24 — Writing the Constitution, Part 8
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention finally agreed on how states would be represented in the national government. There would be two houses in the national legislature. In one house -- the House of Representatives -- the number of representatives from each state would depend on the state's population. In the other house -- the Senate -- all states would have an equal number of representatives. The agreement on representation was known as the "Great Compromise." Not all the delegates in Philadelphia were pleased with it. But it saved the convention from failure. VOICE ONE: The debate on representation in the House raised an important issue. No one wanted to talk about it. But all the delegates knew they must discuss it. The issue was slavery. If representation was based on population, who would you count? Would you count just free people? Or would you count Negro slaves, too? There were thousands of slaves in the United States in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. Most lived in southern states. But many could be found in the north, too. And northern ship owners made a lot of money by importing slaves from Africa. VOICE TWO: The Articles of Confederation said nothing about slavery. Each state could decide to permit it or not. Massachusetts, for example, had made slavery illegal. Nine other states had stopped importing new slaves. Only three states -- Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- continued to import slaves. The issue was never easy to discuss. Some of the most important men in America owned slaves. They included George Washington and James Madison. No one wanted to insult these men. Yet the convention had to make some decisions about slavery. Slavery affected laws on trade and taxes, as well as the question of representation in Congress. VOICE ONE: During the debate, some delegates argued that slaves were property. They could not be counted for purposes of representation. Others argued that slaves were people and should be counted with everyone else. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania made an angry speech. "Slavery," he declared, "is an evil institution. It has caused great sadness and poverty in all the states where it is permitted." Charles Pinckney of South Carolina defended the existence of slavery in the United States. "In all ages," he said, "one half of mankind have been slaves." George Mason of Virginia, a slave owner, wanted to free all slaves. He said Virginia attempted to do this when it was a British colony. But he said the British government blocked Virginia's attempts. Mason blamed the problem on British businessmen who made money from slavery. VOICE TWO: Other delegates rose to denounce or defend slavery. But the convention had no power to rule on whether slavery was right or wrong. Everyone knew the convention would fail if it tried to write a Constitution that banned slavery. The southern states would never accept such a document. They would refuse to join the united states. Rufus King of Massachusetts said the convention should consider slavery only as a political matter. And that is what happened. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue. VOICE ONE: James Wilson of Pennsylvania, for example, proposed a method of counting each state's population for purposes of representation. All white persons and other free citizens would be counted as one each. Every five slaves would be counted only as three persons. This was called the 'three-fifths' rule. The delegates accepted it. The word 'slave' was never used in the Constitution. It simply used the words 'all other persons.' The 'three-fifths rule' remained law until the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. Alexander Hamilton said the three-fifths compromise was necessary. "Without it," he said, "no union could possibly have been formed." VOICE TWO: Slavery also became an issue when the convention began discussing the powers of the national legislature. Once again, the question was asked: Are slaves people? Or are they property? The answer would affect import taxes and the growth of new states. The convention accepted several compromises on these questions, too. It agreed that the national treasury could collect a tax of ten dollars for every imported slave. It also agreed that slaves could be imported until the year Eighteen-Oh-Eight. Then no new slaves could be brought into the country. Until then, each state had the power to make its own decisions about slavery. After Eighteen-Oh-Eight, the national government would make all decisions. VOICE ONE: As debate on a new Constitution continued through the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, several delegates asked an important question. Who would approve, or ratify, it? The state legislatures? The people? Or, as Gouverneur Morris proposed, one big national convention? As always, Elbridge Gerry opposed giving this power to the people. "The people," he said, "have the wildest ideas of government in the world." VOICE TWO: James Madison disagreed. He believed the people must ratify their new plan of government. Madison said, "I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a treaty and a constitution." Edmund Randolph of Virginia proposed that state conventions should consider the document prepared by the Philadelphia convention. They could offer amendments, he said. And then another general convention would decide on a final document. VOICE ONE: Gouverneur Morris agreed, but for another reason. He said, "I have long wished for another convention that would have the firmness to provide a strong central government. . .which we are afraid to do." James Madison hated the idea. Calling another general convention would mean the Philadelphia convention had failed. It would mean the end of all his hard work and hopes. When the debate was over, the delegates agreed that the people should ratify the new Constitution through conventions held in each state. VOICE TWO: Finally, the delegates had to decide how many 'yes' votes by states would be needed to ratify the Constitution. Any changes to the Articles of Confederation needed ratification by all thirteen states. The Philadelphia convention was called only to change those Articles. So all thirteen would have to approve. This, as several delegates noted, would be impossible. After all, Rhode Island never sent a representative to Philadelphia. It was sure to reject the Constitution. Also, as everyone knew, the Philadelphia convention went far past the point of changing the Articles of Confederation. The delegates wrote a completely new plan of government. They could agree to accept ratification by fewer than thirteen states. VOICE ONE: Delegates who supported a strong central government acted quickly. They raised the question of numbers. How many states were needed to ratify? By the end of the day, the convention had not decided. But many of the delegates must have met that night. Early the next day, the convention voted. And the number it agreed on was nine. The great convention in Philadelphia was nearing the end of its work. It needed only to write out its agreements in final form and sign the document. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: August 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Tony Riggs and I continue the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention finally agreed on how states would be represented in the national government. There would be two houses in the national legislature. In one house -- the House of Representatives -- the number of representatives from each state would depend on the state's population. In the other house -- the Senate -- all states would have an equal number of representatives. The agreement on representation was known as the "Great Compromise." Not all the delegates in Philadelphia were pleased with it. But it saved the convention from failure. VOICE ONE: The debate on representation in the House raised an important issue. No one wanted to talk about it. But all the delegates knew they must discuss it. The issue was slavery. If representation was based on population, who would you count? Would you count just free people? Or would you count Negro slaves, too? There were thousands of slaves in the United States in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. Most lived in southern states. But many could be found in the north, too. And northern ship owners made a lot of money by importing slaves from Africa. VOICE TWO: The Articles of Confederation said nothing about slavery. Each state could decide to permit it or not. Massachusetts, for example, had made slavery illegal. Nine other states had stopped importing new slaves. Only three states -- Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina -- continued to import slaves. The issue was never easy to discuss. Some of the most important men in America owned slaves. They included George Washington and James Madison. No one wanted to insult these men. Yet the convention had to make some decisions about slavery. Slavery affected laws on trade and taxes, as well as the question of representation in Congress. VOICE ONE: During the debate, some delegates argued that slaves were property. They could not be counted for purposes of representation. Others argued that slaves were people and should be counted with everyone else. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania made an angry speech. "Slavery," he declared, "is an evil institution. It has caused great sadness and poverty in all the states where it is permitted." Charles Pinckney of South Carolina defended the existence of slavery in the United States. "In all ages," he said, "one half of mankind have been slaves." George Mason of Virginia, a slave owner, wanted to free all slaves. He said Virginia attempted to do this when it was a British colony. But he said the British government blocked Virginia's attempts. Mason blamed the problem on British businessmen who made money from slavery. VOICE TWO: Other delegates rose to denounce or defend slavery. But the convention had no power to rule on whether slavery was right or wrong. Everyone knew the convention would fail if it tried to write a Constitution that banned slavery. The southern states would never accept such a document. They would refuse to join the united states. Rufus King of Massachusetts said the convention should consider slavery only as a political matter. And that is what happened. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue. VOICE ONE: James Wilson of Pennsylvania, for example, proposed a method of counting each state's population for purposes of representation. All white persons and other free citizens would be counted as one each. Every five slaves would be counted only as three persons. This was called the 'three-fifths' rule. The delegates accepted it. The word 'slave' was never used in the Constitution. It simply used the words 'all other persons.' The 'three-fifths rule' remained law until the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. Alexander Hamilton said the three-fifths compromise was necessary. "Without it," he said, "no union could possibly have been formed." VOICE TWO: Slavery also became an issue when the convention began discussing the powers of the national legislature. Once again, the question was asked: Are slaves people? Or are they property? The answer would affect import taxes and the growth of new states. The convention accepted several compromises on these questions, too. It agreed that the national treasury could collect a tax of ten dollars for every imported slave. It also agreed that slaves could be imported until the year Eighteen-Oh-Eight. Then no new slaves could be brought into the country. Until then, each state had the power to make its own decisions about slavery. After Eighteen-Oh-Eight, the national government would make all decisions. VOICE ONE: As debate on a new Constitution continued through the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, several delegates asked an important question. Who would approve, or ratify, it? The state legislatures? The people? Or, as Gouverneur Morris proposed, one big national convention? As always, Elbridge Gerry opposed giving this power to the people. "The people," he said, "have the wildest ideas of government in the world." VOICE TWO: James Madison disagreed. He believed the people must ratify their new plan of government. Madison said, "I consider the difference between a system founded on the legislatures only, and one founded on the people, to be the true difference between a treaty and a constitution." Edmund Randolph of Virginia proposed that state conventions should consider the document prepared by the Philadelphia convention. They could offer amendments, he said. And then another general convention would decide on a final document. VOICE ONE: Gouverneur Morris agreed, but for another reason. He said, "I have long wished for another convention that would have the firmness to provide a strong central government. . .which we are afraid to do." James Madison hated the idea. Calling another general convention would mean the Philadelphia convention had failed. It would mean the end of all his hard work and hopes. When the debate was over, the delegates agreed that the people should ratify the new Constitution through conventions held in each state. VOICE TWO: Finally, the delegates had to decide how many 'yes' votes by states would be needed to ratify the Constitution. Any changes to the Articles of Confederation needed ratification by all thirteen states. The Philadelphia convention was called only to change those Articles. So all thirteen would have to approve. This, as several delegates noted, would be impossible. After all, Rhode Island never sent a representative to Philadelphia. It was sure to reject the Constitution. Also, as everyone knew, the Philadelphia convention went far past the point of changing the Articles of Confederation. The delegates wrote a completely new plan of government. They could agree to accept ratification by fewer than thirteen states. VOICE ONE: Delegates who supported a strong central government acted quickly. They raised the question of numbers. How many states were needed to ratify? By the end of the day, the convention had not decided. But many of the delegates must have met that night. Early the next day, the convention voted. And the number it agreed on was nine. The great convention in Philadelphia was nearing the end of its work. It needed only to write out its agreements in final form and sign the document. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Tony Riggs. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT — August 7, 2003: Nontraditional Students
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In a few weeks, more than one million students in the United States will start their first year at a college or university. Traditionally, students complete high school in June and go on directly to college. Traditional students will not hold a job while they work toward a degree. They will depend on the financial support of their parents. Or, if they do hold a job, they will work only part time. During a recent school year, though, only about one in four college undergraduates in the United States could be considered "traditional." The National Center for Education Statistics says most students faced more difficult conditions. These nontraditional students were likely to be older than others. They worked full time. Some supported families. Nontraditional students are less likely to have earned a degree or still be in school after five years. They may not have enough money. They may have to seek loans or other aid to complete their education. This is true even at public colleges that cost less than private schools. And another tradition has changed. In nineteen-seventy, a little more than forty percent of undergraduates were female. Now a little more than forty percent of undergraduates are male. Nontraditional students may have trouble combining work and school. They may have difficulties getting child care. Older students who have been out of school for years may find it hard to study again. Some Americans try to solve these problems by attending two-year community colleges. These offer many classes on nights and weekends. Students can later go on to complete their studies at a four-year college if they choose. The Department of Education says about eleven-million people attend community colleges, including technical schools. These teach skills for jobs such as computer programmer or heating and air-conditioning technician. Still other people choose schools designed especially for working adults. Strayer University, for example, holds classes in twenty-three places in the United States. Students can also do all their work online by computer. Students can work toward undergraduate or graduate degrees. And, as at many other schools, they can also complete short programs of study. Instead of a degree, they receive a certificate upon completion. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-07-5-1.cfm
* Headline: August 7, 2003 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 7, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- time to catch up with some of our mail! Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 7, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- time to catch up with some of our mail! RS: Hammamy in China wants to know the Internet address for that new Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary we told you about a few weeks ago. AA: You can look up all the details about how to get a paid subscription at merriam-hyphen-webster dot com. That's M-E-R-R-I-A-M hyphen W-E-B-S-T-E-R dot com. RS: Next, Sampath in Karnataka, India, wants to know the meaning of "Catch-22." AA: First a little history: "Catch-22" was the title of a book from nineteen-sixty-one. It's a darkly humorous anti-war novel by American author Joseph Heller. RS: Hammamy in China wants to know the Internet address for that new Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary we told you about a few weeks ago. AA: You can look up all the details about how to get a paid subscription at merriam-hyphen-webster dot com. That's M-E-R-R-I-A-M hyphen W-E-B-S-T-E-R dot com. RS: Next, Sampath in Karnataka, India, wants to know the meaning of "Catch-22." AA: First a little history: "Catch-22" was the title of a book from nineteen-sixty-one. It's a darkly humorous anti-war novel by American author Joseph Heller. RS: So what does it mean? Just listen to this dialogue between a military flier who doesn't want to fly anymore, and the doctor who has the power to grant his wish. YOSSARIAN: I'm crazy! DOCTOR: "Who says so?" YOSSARIAN: "Ask anybody. Ask Nately, Dobbs -- hey, Orr, Orr, tell him. ORR: "Tell him what?" YOSSARIAN: "Am I crazy?" ORR: "He's crazy, doc. He won't fly with me. I take good care of him, but he won't. He's crazy, all right." YOSSARIAN: "Is Orr crazy?" DOCTOR: "Of course he is. He has to be if he keeps flying after all the close calls he's had." YOSSARIAN: "Then why can't you ground him." DOCTOR: "I can but first he has to ask me." YOSSARIAN: "That's all he's got to do to be grounded." DOCTOR: "That's all." YOSSARIAN: "Then you can ground him?" DOCTOR: "No, then I cannot ground him. There's a catch." YOSSARIAN: "A catch?" DOCTOR: "Sure, Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy, so I can't ground him." YOSSARIAN: "OK, let me see if I got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore and I have to keep flying." DOCTOR: "You got it -- that's Catch-22." YOSSARIAN: That's some catch, that Catch-22. DOCTOR: "The best there is." RS: We first played this clip from the old movie "Catch-22" back in February when another listener asked the same question. So, a Catch-22 situation is a situation that's not just absurd, but also impossible to deal with. AA: On now to Azat in Aktau, Kazakhstan. He says he finds our segments with Slangman David Burke entertaining. And he sends us a question. RS: "I have an expression that I would be glad if you could clarify. I beg your pardon if it is a little dirty. In what situations do you use the expression 'you bet your [we'll say bottom]'? And for what purpose?" AA: The purpose is for emphasis. Let's say another driver hits your car in a garage. You walk up, and the other driver says: "Is that your car?" RS: You might be tempted to answer: "You bet your ... bottom it is." You might also use this expression kiddingly with friends. But, as you say, it is a little off color and some people might be offended. AA: Here's a second question: "I often run into the word 'ain’t,' as in 'it ain't quite time, let's hang back.' I suspect that 'ain’t' is something like 'isn’t.' An American friend told me that it’s not correct, and I never heard him use it himself." RS: You're right, "ain't" means the same as "isn't," or "is not." But, as your friend pointed out, it's not standard English, but it's used informally. Now, that said, there are times when people who ordinarily wouldn't say "ain't" do say it. AA: "You ain't seen nothing yet" -- that's a famous expression meaning the best is yet to come. Or this saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That means leave well enough alone. RS: But, again, "ain't" is not standard English. So, should you be careful using it? You bet your -- AA: Next! Frank in China writes: "I've been learning English for almost 8 years. After all these years of study, I don't think my English level has improved greatly. So I want to ask your expertise how I can improve my English as soon as possible. My way of learning English is to read novels and some newspapers on the Internet, like USA TODAY, and to listen to radio stations like VOA and BBC. I can't find a better way to learn English. Tell me what I should do?" RS: Actually, what you're doing is what most English teachers would say you should be doing. You're getting lots of practice with English as it's used in real-life communications, not just in textbooks. Finding native speakers to practice with would help too, but of course that's not always possible. English teacher Anthea Tillyer once told us about an exercise where students practice by imitating an actor in a movie scene on video or DVD. You keep stopping the scene just before the actor speaks -- then YOU read the lines out loud! AA: Next, Daniel in Madrid responded to our recent interview with Diane Ravitch. In her book "The Language Police" she argues that American schoolbooks and tests are censored for the sake of political correctness. RS: Daniel writes, "Diane Ravitch can consider the guidelines used by publishers ridiculous or nonsensical. Frankly, I don’t think so. She should notice that these guidelines have been created to avoid offending people." AA: Next, we'd like to wish good luck to Mann Sok, a student from Cambodia who hopes to become a famous writer. We wish we could give you some advice. But if we knew the secret, we'd be famous writers ourselves! RS: And, we close with this from an English teacher in Iran named Ali: "I learn a lot from VOA. I would like you to include more programs on slang terms and other language-related topics. And I would like to thank all those who make this show possible." AA: Well, this show wouldn't be possible if it weren't for our listeners. So, a big thanks to all of you out there! RS: Send your e-mail to word@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. And, our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: So what does it mean? Just listen to this dialogue between a military flier who doesn't want to fly anymore, and the doctor who has the power to grant his wish. YOSSARIAN: I'm crazy! DOCTOR: "Who says so?" YOSSARIAN: "Ask anybody. Ask Nately, Dobbs -- hey, Orr, Orr, tell him. ORR: "Tell him what?" YOSSARIAN: "Am I crazy?" ORR: "He's crazy, doc. He won't fly with me. I take good care of him, but he won't. He's crazy, all right." YOSSARIAN: "Is Orr crazy?" DOCTOR: "Of course he is. He has to be if he keeps flying after all the close calls he's had." YOSSARIAN: "Then why can't you ground him." DOCTOR: "I can but first he has to ask me." YOSSARIAN: "That's all he's got to do to be grounded." DOCTOR: "That's all." YOSSARIAN: "Then you can ground him?" DOCTOR: "No, then I cannot ground him. There's a catch." YOSSARIAN: "A catch?" DOCTOR: "Sure, Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy, so I can't ground him." YOSSARIAN: "OK, let me see if I got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy anymore and I have to keep flying." DOCTOR: "You got it -- that's Catch-22." YOSSARIAN: That's some catch, that Catch-22. DOCTOR: "The best there is." RS: We first played this clip from the old movie "Catch-22" back in February when another listener asked the same question. So, a Catch-22 situation is a situation that's not just absurd, but also impossible to deal with. AA: On now to Azat in Aktau, Kazakhstan. He says he finds our segments with Slangman David Burke entertaining. And he sends us a question. RS: "I have an expression that I would be glad if you could clarify. I beg your pardon if it is a little dirty. In what situations do you use the expression 'you bet your [we'll say bottom]'? And for what purpose?" AA: The purpose is for emphasis. Let's say another driver hits your car in a garage. You walk up, and the other driver says: "Is that your car?" RS: You might be tempted to answer: "You bet your ... bottom it is." You might also use this expression kiddingly with friends. But, as you say, it is a little off color and some people might be offended. AA: Here's a second question: "I often run into the word 'ain’t,' as in 'it ain't quite time, let's hang back.' I suspect that 'ain’t' is something like 'isn’t.' An American friend told me that it’s not correct, and I never heard him use it himself." RS: You're right, "ain't" means the same as "isn't," or "is not." But, as your friend pointed out, it's not standard English, but it's used informally. Now, that said, there are times when people who ordinarily wouldn't say "ain't" do say it. AA: "You ain't seen nothing yet" -- that's a famous expression meaning the best is yet to come. Or this saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That means leave well enough alone. RS: But, again, "ain't" is not standard English. So, should you be careful using it? You bet your -- AA: Next! Frank in China writes: "I've been learning English for almost 8 years. After all these years of study, I don't think my English level has improved greatly. So I want to ask your expertise how I can improve my English as soon as possible. My way of learning English is to read novels and some newspapers on the Internet, like USA TODAY, and to listen to radio stations like VOA and BBC. I can't find a better way to learn English. Tell me what I should do?" RS: Actually, what you're doing is what most English teachers would say you should be doing. You're getting lots of practice with English as it's used in real-life communications, not just in textbooks. Finding native speakers to practice with would help too, but of course that's not always possible. English teacher Anthea Tillyer once told us about an exercise where students practice by imitating an actor in a movie scene on video or DVD. You keep stopping the scene just before the actor speaks -- then YOU read the lines out loud! AA: Next, Daniel in Madrid responded to our recent interview with Diane Ravitch. In her book "The Language Police" she argues that American schoolbooks and tests are censored for the sake of political correctness. RS: Daniel writes, "Diane Ravitch can consider the guidelines used by publishers ridiculous or nonsensical. Frankly, I don’t think so. She should notice that these guidelines have been created to avoid offending people." AA: Next, we'd like to wish good luck to Mann Sok, a student from Cambodia who hopes to become a famous writer. We wish we could give you some advice. But if we knew the secret, we'd be famous writers ourselves! RS: And, we close with this from an English teacher in Iran named Ali: "I learn a lot from VOA. I would like you to include more programs on slang terms and other language-related topics. And I would like to thank all those who make this show possible." AA: Well, this show wouldn't be possible if it weren't for our listeners. So, a big thanks to all of you out there! RS: Send your e-mail to word@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. And, our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS — August 9, 2003: New United States Restrictions on Foreign Travelers
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The United States has placed new travel restrictions on foreign airline passengers who have to change planes at American airports. Officials say the change in the rules is because of threats of terrorist attacks. The Department of Homeland Security announced the suspension of two programs. These programs permitted foreign travelers to wait for connections at American airports without the need for entry visas. The department says intelligence reports suggested that terrorists could be planning to use these programs to get into the country. The restrictions will affect travelers from all but twenty-seven nations. The new requirements will remain in effect for at least two months while officials study them. Travelers with connecting flights at American airports must now get a visa to enter the United States. The federal government says the restrictions will affect about six-hundred-thousand travelers around the world. Government officials say the threat of hijackings in the United States has increased. Recent warnings said teams of five men might try to hide weapons in electronic equipment or children’s toys. The warnings said they would try to seize control just before landing or just after takeoff and crash the planes into nearby targets. The attacks on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, involved planes hijacked after takeoff. Travelers affected by the new restrictions will now have to go to an American diplomatic office to request a visa. The American Travel Industry Association says the new security measures will stop many people from coming to the United States. The government says it wants to keep the doors to the country open, but must also work to keep the borders safe. Details of the new travel restrictions are on the Web site of the Department of Homeland Security. The address is w-w-w dot d-h-s dot g-o-v. Again, that's w-w-w dot d-h-s dot g-o-v. (www.dhs.gov) In addition, the department has warned officials at airports to examine radios and other electronic devices more closely. Officials said these could hide explosives. They also warned that common objects could hold unusual kinds of weapons. News reports this week said the administration has also sent security experts to countries in Europe and Asia to warn of possible attacks. Officials say terrorists may try to use heat-seeking missiles against passenger planes in Iraq, Greece, Turkey and the Philippines. The American experts are working with officials in those nations to increase security around airports. American officials say the threat in Iraq comes from forces loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. They link the threat in the other places to the al-Qaida group. This VOA Special English program In the News was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The United States has placed new travel restrictions on foreign airline passengers who have to change planes at American airports. Officials say the change in the rules is because of threats of terrorist attacks. The Department of Homeland Security announced the suspension of two programs. These programs permitted foreign travelers to wait for connections at American airports without the need for entry visas. The department says intelligence reports suggested that terrorists could be planning to use these programs to get into the country. The restrictions will affect travelers from all but twenty-seven nations. The new requirements will remain in effect for at least two months while officials study them. Travelers with connecting flights at American airports must now get a visa to enter the United States. The federal government says the restrictions will affect about six-hundred-thousand travelers around the world. Government officials say the threat of hijackings in the United States has increased. Recent warnings said teams of five men might try to hide weapons in electronic equipment or children’s toys. The warnings said they would try to seize control just before landing or just after takeoff and crash the planes into nearby targets. The attacks on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, involved planes hijacked after takeoff. Travelers affected by the new restrictions will now have to go to an American diplomatic office to request a visa. The American Travel Industry Association says the new security measures will stop many people from coming to the United States. The government says it wants to keep the doors to the country open, but must also work to keep the borders safe. Details of the new travel restrictions are on the Web site of the Department of Homeland Security. The address is w-w-w dot d-h-s dot g-o-v. Again, that's w-w-w dot d-h-s dot g-o-v. (www.dhs.gov) In addition, the department has warned officials at airports to examine radios and other electronic devices more closely. Officials said these could hide explosives. They also warned that common objects could hold unusual kinds of weapons. News reports this week said the administration has also sent security experts to countries in Europe and Asia to warn of possible attacks. Officials say terrorists may try to use heat-seeking missiles against passenger planes in Iraq, Greece, Turkey and the Philippines. The American experts are working with officials in those nations to increase security around airports. American officials say the threat in Iraq comes from forces loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. They link the threat in the other places to the al-Qaida group. This VOA Special English program In the News was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA — August 10, 2003: Katharine Graham
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Katharine Graham. She was the owner and publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Katharine Meyer Graham was once described as “the most powerful woman in America.” She was not a government official or elected representative. She owned and published the Washington Post newspaper. Under her leadership, it became one of the most important newspapers in the country. Katharine Meyer was born in New York City in Nineteen-Seventeen. She was the daughter of Eugene and Agnes Meyer. Her father was a successful investment banker. He became an important financial official. Her family was very rich. Katharine grew up in large houses in New York and Washington. Her parents were often away from home, traveling and working. Katharine was often lonely. Katherine Meyer graduated from the University of Chicago in Illinois in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. She got a job as a reporter for a newspaper in San Francisco, California. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Eugene Meyer had bought a failing newspaper, The Washington Post. It was the least successful of five newspapers in Washington. Katharine returned to Washington and got a job editing letters to the editor of her father’s newspaper. She married Philip Graham. He was a lawyer and former assistant to two Supreme Court justices. Mister Graham soon accepted a job at his wife’s father’s newspaper. In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Eugene Meyer left the newspaper to become the first president of the World Bank. Philip Graham became publisher of The Washington Post. VOICE ONE: Mister Graham improved The Washington Post. He bought Newsweek magazine and several television stations. He also established close ties with important political leaders. However, Mister Graham treated his wife badly. He made her feel unimportant. He had a sexual relationship with a young reporter. For many years, Mister Graham suffered from mental illness. He killed himself in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham had four children to raise and a newspaper to operate. At first, she was concerned only with finding a way to keep control of The Washington Post until her sons were old enough to supervise it. She was an insecure person. She did not think she had the ability to do an important job. She had no training in business or experience in operating a large company. In those days, it was unusual for a woman to be the head of a business. Women were expected to supervise only their homes and children. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham met with officials of The Post. She told them the paper would not be sold. She said it would remain in her family. She was elected president of The Washington Post Company. She had no idea about how to operate a newspaper. So she decided to learn. She began by hiring Benjamin Bradlee. He later became chief editor. Mister Bradlee improved the newspaper. He hired excellent reporters and editors. They began doing important investigative reporting. In Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, Missus Graham became publisher as well as president of The Washington Post Company. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Seventies, the Washington Post became famous around the world because of two major successes. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, The New York Times newspaper started publishing secret government documents about American involvement in the Vietnam War. They were known as the Pentagon Papers. The administration of President Richard Nixon appealed to the courts to stop the publication of the documents. It said publication would endanger national security. A temporary restraining order from a federal judge stopped The New York Times from publishing the documents. VOICE ONE: Washington Post reporters also got a copy of the Pentagon Papers. They also wanted to publish the documents. Missus Graham had to decide if the paper would publish the stories and risk possible punishment by the government. The newspaper’s lawyers advised her not to publish them. Yet she decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in the Washington Post. The Supreme Court finally decided the issue. They ruled against the judge’s order restraining publication of the Pentagon Papers. That ruling was considered a major success for freedom of the press. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The next year, in Nineteen-Seventy-Two, the Washington Post had another major success reporting on a different story. Five men had been arrested after breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office building. Reporters at The Post began an intense investigation of the break-in. The Post published a series of stories by two young reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. After much investigation, the reporters linked the Watergate break-in to President Nixon and his top advisers. Their stories proved that the Nixon administration directed a plot. Its goals were to illegally gather intelligence on the Democratic Party and dishonor opponents of the president. VOICE ONE: Missus Graham supported her reporters and editors through the long Watergate investigation. The Post published the stories even though government officials threatened Missus Graham and her company. The newspaper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in Nineteen-Seventy-Three for its Watergate reporting. The next year, President Nixon resigned from office. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham was recognized around the world as an important leader in newspaper publishing. She was the first woman to head a major American company. She successfully expanded The Washington Post Company to include newspaper, magazine, broadcast and cable companies. Katharine Graham played an important role in supporting women in the workforce. More women were employed at The Post and at Newsweek magazine. Missus Graham also was active in groups seeking to improve public education in Washington. She traveled around the country to make many public speeches about news media issues. She also traveled around the world to meet with foreign leaders. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham was well known for having dinner parties at her home in Washington. She invited the most important people in the city. An invitation to one of her parties was almost as valuable as an invitation to dinner at the White House. Missus Graham was a close friend of American and world leaders. Her friends included leaders in government, media, business and entertainment. They included presidents, prime ministers and princesses. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Donald Graham replaced his mother as publisher and the chief official of The Washington Post Company. At that time, the company was valued at almost two-thousand-million dollars. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: When she was eighty years old, Katharine Graham wrote a book about her life. It was called “Personal History.” She wrote about the struggles and tragedies of her life as well as the successes. She wrote about how she battled her own insecurities to move from a traditional job as homemaker to a position of power. Critics praised the book for its honesty. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. It was extremely popular. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham died of head injuries three years later after a fall. She was eighty-four. More than three-thousand people attended her funeral. They included many government and business leaders. Friends of Katharine Graham said she would be remembered as a woman who had an important influence on events in the United States and the world. They said she used her intelligence and bravery to improve the American media. And they said everyone who cares about a free press would greatly miss her. VOICE ONE(cont): Katharine Graham once wrote: “A world without newspapers would not be the same kind of world.” After her death, the employees of The Washington Post wrote: ”A world without Katharine Graham will not be the same at all.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Katharine Graham. She was the owner and publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Katharine Meyer Graham was once described as “the most powerful woman in America.” She was not a government official or elected representative. She owned and published the Washington Post newspaper. Under her leadership, it became one of the most important newspapers in the country. Katharine Meyer was born in New York City in Nineteen-Seventeen. She was the daughter of Eugene and Agnes Meyer. Her father was a successful investment banker. He became an important financial official. Her family was very rich. Katharine grew up in large houses in New York and Washington. Her parents were often away from home, traveling and working. Katharine was often lonely. Katherine Meyer graduated from the University of Chicago in Illinois in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. She got a job as a reporter for a newspaper in San Francisco, California. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Eugene Meyer had bought a failing newspaper, The Washington Post. It was the least successful of five newspapers in Washington. Katharine returned to Washington and got a job editing letters to the editor of her father’s newspaper. She married Philip Graham. He was a lawyer and former assistant to two Supreme Court justices. Mister Graham soon accepted a job at his wife’s father’s newspaper. In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Eugene Meyer left the newspaper to become the first president of the World Bank. Philip Graham became publisher of The Washington Post. VOICE ONE: Mister Graham improved The Washington Post. He bought Newsweek magazine and several television stations. He also established close ties with important political leaders. However, Mister Graham treated his wife badly. He made her feel unimportant. He had a sexual relationship with a young reporter. For many years, Mister Graham suffered from mental illness. He killed himself in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham had four children to raise and a newspaper to operate. At first, she was concerned only with finding a way to keep control of The Washington Post until her sons were old enough to supervise it. She was an insecure person. She did not think she had the ability to do an important job. She had no training in business or experience in operating a large company. In those days, it was unusual for a woman to be the head of a business. Women were expected to supervise only their homes and children. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham met with officials of The Post. She told them the paper would not be sold. She said it would remain in her family. She was elected president of The Washington Post Company. She had no idea about how to operate a newspaper. So she decided to learn. She began by hiring Benjamin Bradlee. He later became chief editor. Mister Bradlee improved the newspaper. He hired excellent reporters and editors. They began doing important investigative reporting. In Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, Missus Graham became publisher as well as president of The Washington Post Company. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Seventies, the Washington Post became famous around the world because of two major successes. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, The New York Times newspaper started publishing secret government documents about American involvement in the Vietnam War. They were known as the Pentagon Papers. The administration of President Richard Nixon appealed to the courts to stop the publication of the documents. It said publication would endanger national security. A temporary restraining order from a federal judge stopped The New York Times from publishing the documents. VOICE ONE: Washington Post reporters also got a copy of the Pentagon Papers. They also wanted to publish the documents. Missus Graham had to decide if the paper would publish the stories and risk possible punishment by the government. The newspaper’s lawyers advised her not to publish them. Yet she decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in the Washington Post. The Supreme Court finally decided the issue. They ruled against the judge’s order restraining publication of the Pentagon Papers. That ruling was considered a major success for freedom of the press. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The next year, in Nineteen-Seventy-Two, the Washington Post had another major success reporting on a different story. Five men had been arrested after breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office building. Reporters at The Post began an intense investigation of the break-in. The Post published a series of stories by two young reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. After much investigation, the reporters linked the Watergate break-in to President Nixon and his top advisers. Their stories proved that the Nixon administration directed a plot. Its goals were to illegally gather intelligence on the Democratic Party and dishonor opponents of the president. VOICE ONE: Missus Graham supported her reporters and editors through the long Watergate investigation. The Post published the stories even though government officials threatened Missus Graham and her company. The newspaper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in Nineteen-Seventy-Three for its Watergate reporting. The next year, President Nixon resigned from office. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham was recognized around the world as an important leader in newspaper publishing. She was the first woman to head a major American company. She successfully expanded The Washington Post Company to include newspaper, magazine, broadcast and cable companies. Katharine Graham played an important role in supporting women in the workforce. More women were employed at The Post and at Newsweek magazine. Missus Graham also was active in groups seeking to improve public education in Washington. She traveled around the country to make many public speeches about news media issues. She also traveled around the world to meet with foreign leaders. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham was well known for having dinner parties at her home in Washington. She invited the most important people in the city. An invitation to one of her parties was almost as valuable as an invitation to dinner at the White House. Missus Graham was a close friend of American and world leaders. Her friends included leaders in government, media, business and entertainment. They included presidents, prime ministers and princesses. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Donald Graham replaced his mother as publisher and the chief official of The Washington Post Company. At that time, the company was valued at almost two-thousand-million dollars. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: When she was eighty years old, Katharine Graham wrote a book about her life. It was called “Personal History.” She wrote about the struggles and tragedies of her life as well as the successes. She wrote about how she battled her own insecurities to move from a traditional job as homemaker to a position of power. Critics praised the book for its honesty. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. It was extremely popular. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham died of head injuries three years later after a fall. She was eighty-four. More than three-thousand people attended her funeral. They included many government and business leaders. Friends of Katharine Graham said she would be remembered as a woman who had an important influence on events in the United States and the world. They said she used her intelligence and bravery to improve the American media. And they said everyone who cares about a free press would greatly miss her. VOICE ONE(cont): Katharine Graham once wrote: “A world without newspapers would not be the same kind of world.” After her death, the employees of The Washington Post wrote: ”A world without Katharine Graham will not be the same at all.” (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — August 11, 2003: Double-Drum Sawdust Stove
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Sawdust is what remains after trees and logs are cut up into boards for building houses and other structures. In many parts of the world, sawdust is considered waste. It is thrown away or left for the rain to wash away. Sawdust is hard to burn, so it is not often thought of as a fuel. Yet it is possible to burn sawdust to provide heat or to cook food. One way is to build a stove from two large containers or drums. To build one, place a one-hundred liter drum inside a two-hundred-liter drum. The smaller drum is held in place by a false floor that connects to the larger drum. Three metal legs support the large drum. The legs hold the structure above the ground. Beneath the false floor is a space where the sawdust fuel is placed. There are holes in the false floor allowing air to pass through. As the sawdust burns, smoke passes from the small drum that does not have a cover to the larger drum that is covered. Pipes are placed in the wall of the outside drum to carry smoke outside. The space for the fuel and the holes in the pipes can be changed if more or less heat is desired. To make the fuel, place the sawdust inside a round, wooden container that is about one meter across. Leave a hole in the middle. Make the sawdust hard by hitting it over and over again with a stick or stone. Then remove the wooden container very carefully. The sawdust keeps the same shape it had when it was inside the wooden container. Place small pieces of paper into the hole. When the paper is lighted with fire from a match, the sawdust around it begins to burn. It is important that the sawdust be as dry as possible. With dry sawdust, this stove can heat a small room for six to eight hours. During the first two hours of burning, there is enough heat at the center of the cover on the larger drum to boil water or to cook food. In addition to sawdust, other kinds of waste from sawmills can be burned in the stove. You can get more information about this kind of stove from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA — Iwo Jima Statue
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 11, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 11, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: American artist Felix de Weldon created many large sculptures during his ninety-six years. His works can be found around the world. Among them is one of the largest free-standing bronze statues anywhere. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We tell how Felix de Weldon came to make this statue -- this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our story is about one moment in time. Really, one-four-hundredths of a second. That is the amount of time it took Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal to capture a historic image on film. The photograph shows six men and an American flag during a battle in World War Two. Joe Rosenthal took it on February twenty-third, nineteen-forty-five, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Japanese forces held the island. American Marines were trying to capture it. On the fourth day of battle, Marines fought to the top of Mount Suribachi, the tallest mountain on Iwo Jima. A small American flag was sent to the top. The Marines placed the flagpole in the ground. VOICE TWO: But the small flag could not be seen clearly far below. Commanding officers ordered the Marines to replace it with a much larger one. Joe Rosenthal wanted to make a picture of the event. So he took his camera and began to climb slowly up the mountain. When he reached the top, Marines were tying the larger flag to a heavy pole. Joe Rosenthal backed away from the group and began talking to another photographer. A minute later, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. “There it goes!” he said. He swung his camera up, following the movement of the flag, and pressed the button that took the picture. VOICE ONE: Six men are in the photograph. But only four of them are clearly seen. In the front is Harlon Block, a Marine from Yorktown, Texas. Next is John Bradley. His face is the only one in the picture. He was a Navy corpsman; his job was to treat the wounded. Also in the picture is Franklin Sousley, a Marine from Hilltop, Kentucky. And all the way at the left is Ira Hayes, a Marine, and an American Indian. The heavy pole holding the flag had just left his hand when the picture was taken. Behind these four men are two other Marines. They cannot be seen as clearly. They are Rene Gagnon of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Mike Strank. He lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but was born in Jarabenia, in what was then Czechoslovakia. VOICE TWO: The next day, Joe Rosenthal’s film went by airplane to the island of Guam where it was developed and printed. The pictures were given to Associated Press photo editor John Bodkin. It was his job to decide which ones to send to the United States. They would go on a machine that sent images by radio. As histories tell it, he looked and looked at the first photograph, and said: “This is one for all time.” Within minutes he sent the picture of the six men raising the flag to the Associated Press headquarters in New York. From there, the photograph went to newspapers across the United States. Most decided to print a huge copy on their front page. VOICE ONE: Most photo experts will tell you that the picture Joe Rosenthal made is almost perfect.. The camera catches the flag as it rises. The flagpole cuts across the photograph. Wind blows against the flag. The experts also say you must look at the picture as the American public saw it in nineteen-forty-five. The world had been at war for years. Victory was not yet certain. Many people worried about family members. Many had a deep fear of the enemy. The picture shows strength and courage. It suggests that six young men are working together to defeat the enemy. Joe Rosenthal’s photograph seemed to say: the battle may not be over, but we are winning. It was the very image of a future American victory. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In Washington, D.C., Felix de Weldon saw the photograph in the newspapers. Born in Austria, he came to the United States and was an artist in the Navy. Many years later he would say, “I had been an artist all my life. When I first saw it I recognized the power of this photograph. I could not take my eyes from it. I looked at the photograph for some hours and then began working.” Seventy-two hours later, Felix de Weldon had made a small statue of Joe Rosethal’s picture. Within days, members of Congress had seen the small statue. Many began to call for a huge statue. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Marine Corps to send home the men who had raised the flag. VOICE ONE: By then, however, it was too late. Mike Strank, Harlon Block and Franklin Sousley were dead. They were among the more than six-thousand Marines killed on Iwo Jima. Navy Corpsman John Bradley had been severely wounded. But he, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes returned to the United States. People said they were heroes. The three men said they had done nothing but help put up a flag. But Joe Rosenthal’s photograph was so powerful, nothing would change people's minds. Felix de Weldon soon made a life-size copy of the statue. He carefully copied the faces of the three survivors. He used all the photographs he could find for the three who had been killed. His statue helped pay for America’s war effort. The statue and the three survivors traveled from city to city to raise money. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Joe Rosenthal’s photograph became more and more famous. His work earned the Pulitzer Prize. There was public demand to put the image on a postal stamp. In July of nineteen-forty-five, the government agreed. More than one-hundred-thirty-seven-million were printed. People also demanded a huge statue of the six Marines. In nineteen-forty-six, Felix de Weldon started all over again. First he made a statue out of plaster. Then he used the plaster form as a guide to make the final statue out of bronze metal. Again, he called on the three survivors. Felix de Weldon wanted to make sure he had them correct. VOICE ONE: It took Felix de Weldon nine years to complete the statue. The memorial honors all members of the United States Marine Corps who died in battle since the American Revolution. On November tenth, nineteen-fifty-four, President Dwight Eisenhower led ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. The burial grounds are across the Potomac River from Washington. Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley attended the ceremonies. It was their last time together. Ira Hayes died three months later. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Millions of people have come to see the statue that Felix de Weldon made. It stands in a grassy area along a busy road at the edge of Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia. The statue weighs more than twenty-tons. Each man is almost ten meters tall. They seem about to move. Their bodies push forward as they struggle to raise the flag. Their clothes show the bones and muscles underneath. Their faces show the hard work. Many visitors say it is an emotional experience. People stand and look up at the six men. And, they take pictures, just as Joe Rosenthal did on February twenty-third, nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: John Bradley was the last to die of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima that day. He died in nineteen-ninety-four. Felix de Weldon died on June sixth, two-thousand-three. Joe Rosenthal is retired and lives in San Francisco, California. Soon after his photograph was published, some people began to dispute it. They said it did not show what really happened that day on Mount Suribachi. They suggested that Joe Rosenthal had placed everyone where he wanted them, and then took the photo. Joe Rosenthal says that is not true. Photography experts say it is easy to tell that the photo is real. They say no photographer would make a picture that hides almost all of the people’s faces. And they say no photographer would have two of the people nearly hidden. Decide for yourself. A copy of Joe Rosenthal’s photograph, and pictures of Felix de Weldon’s statue, are on our Web site. The address is voaspecialenglish dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com). (THEME) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Sulayman Tarawaley. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: American artist Felix de Weldon created many large sculptures during his ninety-six years. His works can be found around the world. Among them is one of the largest free-standing bronze statues anywhere. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. We tell how Felix de Weldon came to make this statue -- this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our story is about one moment in time. Really, one-four-hundredths of a second. That is the amount of time it took Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal to capture a historic image on film. The photograph shows six men and an American flag during a battle in World War Two. Joe Rosenthal took it on February twenty-third, nineteen-forty-five, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Japanese forces held the island. American Marines were trying to capture it. On the fourth day of battle, Marines fought to the top of Mount Suribachi, the tallest mountain on Iwo Jima. A small American flag was sent to the top. The Marines placed the flagpole in the ground. VOICE TWO: But the small flag could not be seen clearly far below. Commanding officers ordered the Marines to replace it with a much larger one. Joe Rosenthal wanted to make a picture of the event. So he took his camera and began to climb slowly up the mountain. When he reached the top, Marines were tying the larger flag to a heavy pole. Joe Rosenthal backed away from the group and began talking to another photographer. A minute later, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. “There it goes!” he said. He swung his camera up, following the movement of the flag, and pressed the button that took the picture. VOICE ONE: Six men are in the photograph. But only four of them are clearly seen. In the front is Harlon Block, a Marine from Yorktown, Texas. Next is John Bradley. His face is the only one in the picture. He was a Navy corpsman; his job was to treat the wounded. Also in the picture is Franklin Sousley, a Marine from Hilltop, Kentucky. And all the way at the left is Ira Hayes, a Marine, and an American Indian. The heavy pole holding the flag had just left his hand when the picture was taken. Behind these four men are two other Marines. They cannot be seen as clearly. They are Rene Gagnon of Manchester, New Hampshire, and Mike Strank. He lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, but was born in Jarabenia, in what was then Czechoslovakia. VOICE TWO: The next day, Joe Rosenthal’s film went by airplane to the island of Guam where it was developed and printed. The pictures were given to Associated Press photo editor John Bodkin. It was his job to decide which ones to send to the United States. They would go on a machine that sent images by radio. As histories tell it, he looked and looked at the first photograph, and said: “This is one for all time.” Within minutes he sent the picture of the six men raising the flag to the Associated Press headquarters in New York. From there, the photograph went to newspapers across the United States. Most decided to print a huge copy on their front page. VOICE ONE: Most photo experts will tell you that the picture Joe Rosenthal made is almost perfect.. The camera catches the flag as it rises. The flagpole cuts across the photograph. Wind blows against the flag. The experts also say you must look at the picture as the American public saw it in nineteen-forty-five. The world had been at war for years. Victory was not yet certain. Many people worried about family members. Many had a deep fear of the enemy. The picture shows strength and courage. It suggests that six young men are working together to defeat the enemy. Joe Rosenthal’s photograph seemed to say: the battle may not be over, but we are winning. It was the very image of a future American victory. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In Washington, D.C., Felix de Weldon saw the photograph in the newspapers. Born in Austria, he came to the United States and was an artist in the Navy. Many years later he would say, “I had been an artist all my life. When I first saw it I recognized the power of this photograph. I could not take my eyes from it. I looked at the photograph for some hours and then began working.” Seventy-two hours later, Felix de Weldon had made a small statue of Joe Rosethal’s picture. Within days, members of Congress had seen the small statue. Many began to call for a huge statue. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Marine Corps to send home the men who had raised the flag. VOICE ONE: By then, however, it was too late. Mike Strank, Harlon Block and Franklin Sousley were dead. They were among the more than six-thousand Marines killed on Iwo Jima. Navy Corpsman John Bradley had been severely wounded. But he, Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes returned to the United States. People said they were heroes. The three men said they had done nothing but help put up a flag. But Joe Rosenthal’s photograph was so powerful, nothing would change people's minds. Felix de Weldon soon made a life-size copy of the statue. He carefully copied the faces of the three survivors. He used all the photographs he could find for the three who had been killed. His statue helped pay for America’s war effort. The statue and the three survivors traveled from city to city to raise money. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Joe Rosenthal’s photograph became more and more famous. His work earned the Pulitzer Prize. There was public demand to put the image on a postal stamp. In July of nineteen-forty-five, the government agreed. More than one-hundred-thirty-seven-million were printed. People also demanded a huge statue of the six Marines. In nineteen-forty-six, Felix de Weldon started all over again. First he made a statue out of plaster. Then he used the plaster form as a guide to make the final statue out of bronze metal. Again, he called on the three survivors. Felix de Weldon wanted to make sure he had them correct. VOICE ONE: It took Felix de Weldon nine years to complete the statue. The memorial honors all members of the United States Marine Corps who died in battle since the American Revolution. On November tenth, nineteen-fifty-four, President Dwight Eisenhower led ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. The burial grounds are across the Potomac River from Washington. Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley attended the ceremonies. It was their last time together. Ira Hayes died three months later. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Millions of people have come to see the statue that Felix de Weldon made. It stands in a grassy area along a busy road at the edge of Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia. The statue weighs more than twenty-tons. Each man is almost ten meters tall. They seem about to move. Their bodies push forward as they struggle to raise the flag. Their clothes show the bones and muscles underneath. Their faces show the hard work. Many visitors say it is an emotional experience. People stand and look up at the six men. And, they take pictures, just as Joe Rosenthal did on February twenty-third, nineteen-forty-five. VOICE ONE: John Bradley was the last to die of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima that day. He died in nineteen-ninety-four. Felix de Weldon died on June sixth, two-thousand-three. Joe Rosenthal is retired and lives in San Francisco, California. Soon after his photograph was published, some people began to dispute it. They said it did not show what really happened that day on Mount Suribachi. They suggested that Joe Rosenthal had placed everyone where he wanted them, and then took the photo. Joe Rosenthal says that is not true. Photography experts say it is easy to tell that the photo is real. They say no photographer would make a picture that hides almost all of the people’s faces. And they say no photographer would have two of the people nearly hidden. Decide for yourself. A copy of Joe Rosenthal’s photograph, and pictures of Felix de Weldon’s statue, are on our Web site. The address is voaspecialenglish dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com). (THEME) VOICE TWO: Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Sulayman Tarawaley. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS — Preganancy Problems / Ebola Vaccine / New WHO Chief
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Grafting
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 12, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. We often think of agriculture as planting seeds and harvesting crops. But many crops do not come from seeds. Many kinds of trees and plants are grown from pieces cut from existing trees and plants. This is called grafting. Farmers cut branches or young growths called buds from one plant and place them on a related kind of plant. The branch or bud that is grafted is called a scion [SY-uhn]. The plant that accepts the graft is called root stock. Over time, the parts from the two plants grow together. The grafted plant begins to produce the leaves and fruit of the scion, not the root stock. A graft can be cut in several ways. For example, a cleft graft requires a scion with several buds on it. The bottom of the scion is cut in the shape of the letter V. A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion. The scion is then securely placed into the cut on the root stock. A growth medium is put on the joint to keep it wet and help the growth. Grafting can join scions with desirable qualities to root stock that is strong and resists disease and insects. Smaller trees can be grafted with older scions. The American Environmental Protection Agency says grafting can reduce the need for poisons on crops. The E-P-A found that grafting stronger plants cost less than using chemicals. Also, many poisons are dangerous to the environment and people. Agriculture could not exist as we know it without grafting. Many fruits and nuts have been improved this way. Some common fruit trees such as sweet cherries and McIntosh apples have to be grafted. Bing cherries, for example, are one of the most popular kinds of cherries. But a Bing cherry tree is not grown from seed. Branches that produce Bing cherries must be grafted onto root stock. All sweet cherries on the market are grown this way. And then there are seedless fruits like navel oranges and seedless watermelons. Have you ever wondered how farmers grow them? The answer is, through grafting. The grapefruit tree is another plant that depends on grafting to reproduce. Grapes, apples, pears and also flowers can be improved through grafting. In an age of high-technology agriculture, grafting is a low-technology method that remains extremely important. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Broadcast: August 12, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. We often think of agriculture as planting seeds and harvesting crops. But many crops do not come from seeds. Many kinds of trees and plants are grown from pieces cut from existing trees and plants. This is called grafting. Farmers cut branches or young growths called buds from one plant and place them on a related kind of plant. The branch or bud that is grafted is called a scion [SY-uhn]. The plant that accepts the graft is called root stock. Over time, the parts from the two plants grow together. The grafted plant begins to produce the leaves and fruit of the scion, not the root stock. A graft can be cut in several ways. For example, a cleft graft requires a scion with several buds on it. The bottom of the scion is cut in the shape of the letter V. A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion. The scion is then securely placed into the cut on the root stock. A growth medium is put on the joint to keep it wet and help the growth. Grafting can join scions with desirable qualities to root stock that is strong and resists disease and insects. Smaller trees can be grafted with older scions. The American Environmental Protection Agency says grafting can reduce the need for poisons on crops. The E-P-A found that grafting stronger plants cost less than using chemicals. Also, many poisons are dangerous to the environment and people. Agriculture could not exist as we know it without grafting. Many fruits and nuts have been improved this way. Some common fruit trees such as sweet cherries and McIntosh apples have to be grafted. Bing cherries, for example, are one of the most popular kinds of cherries. But a Bing cherry tree is not grown from seed. Branches that produce Bing cherries must be grafted onto root stock. All sweet cherries on the market are grown this way. And then there are seedless fruits like navel oranges and seedless watermelons. Have you ever wondered how farmers grow them? The answer is, through grafting. The grapefruit tree is another plant that depends on grafting to reproduce. Grapes, apples, pears and also flowers can be improved through grafting. In an age of high-technology agriculture, grafting is a low-technology method that remains extremely important. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS — August 13, 2003: Project Apollo, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Explorations -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. The nineteen-sixties were exciting times in space exploration. Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe look back at the first flights of the Apollo program designed to land humans on the moon. Explorations -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. The nineteen-sixties were exciting times in space exploration. Today, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe look back at the first flights of the Apollo program designed to land humans on the moon. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The decision to go to the moon was made in May, nineteen-sixty-one. President John Kennedy set the goal in a speech to Congress and the American people. He said he believed the United States, before the end of the nineteen-sixties, should land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. He said no other effort would be so important to the exploration of space. And he said no other effort would be so difficult or cost so much to do. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The decision to go to the moon was made in May, nineteen-sixty-one. President John Kennedy set the goal in a speech to Congress and the American people. He said he believed the United States, before the end of the nineteen-sixties, should land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. He said no other effort would be so important to the exploration of space. And he said no other effort would be so difficult or cost so much to do. VOICE TWO: At the time President Kennedy spoke, the Soviet space program seemed far ahead. The Soviet Union put the first satellite into Earth orbit. A Soviet spacecraft was the first to land instruments on the moon. And a Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was the first man in space. The United States had just sent an astronaut of its own into space for the first time. Alan Shepard made only a fifteen-minute flight in the little one-man Mercury spacecraft. But his flight gave Americans the feeling that the United States could pull ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race. There was great public support for President Kennedy's moon landing goal. And Congress was ready to spend the thousands of millions of dollars that a moon landing program would cost. VOICE ONE: Much happened in the months after America decided to go to the moon. VOICE TWO: At the time President Kennedy spoke, the Soviet space program seemed far ahead. The Soviet Union put the first satellite into Earth orbit. A Soviet spacecraft was the first to land instruments on the moon. And a Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, was the first man in space. The United States had just sent an astronaut of its own into space for the first time. Alan Shepard made only a fifteen-minute flight in the little one-man Mercury spacecraft. But his flight gave Americans the feeling that the United States could pull ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race. There was great public support for President Kennedy's moon landing goal. And Congress was ready to spend the thousands of millions of dollars that a moon landing program would cost. VOICE ONE: Much happened in the months after America decided to go to the moon. New space flight centers were built. Designs for launch rockets and spacecraft were agreed on. And a new spaceflight program -- Project Gemini -- was begun. Flights in the two-man Gemini spacecraft tested the men, equipment and methods to be used in the Apollo program to the moon. Gemini let astronauts learn about the dangers of radiation and the effects of being weightless during long flights. Astronauts learned to move their spacecraft into different orbits and to join with other spacecraft. VOICE TWO: While the Gemini program prepared astronauts for Apollo flights, NASA engineers were designing and building the Apollo spacecraft. It was really two spacecraft. One was a cone-shaped command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module. And they would return home in it. The second craft was a moon-landing vehicle. Two astronauts would ride in it from the orbiting command module to the moon's surface. Later, the landing vehicle would carry them back to the command module for the return trip to Earth. VOICE ONE: Engineers also were working on a huge new rocket for Apollo. It needed much more power than the rockets used to launch the one-man Mercury and the two-man Gemini flights. The Apollo rocket was called Saturn. Two Saturn rocket systems were built. One was the Saturn 1-B. It did not have enough power to reach the moon. But it could launch Apollo spacecraft on test flights around the Earth. The other was the Saturn five. It would be the one to launch astronauts to the moon. Saturn 1-B rockets launched six unmanned Apollo spacecraft. The test flights showed that all the rocket engines worked successfully. They also showed that the Apollo spacecraft could survive the launch and could re-enter Earth's atmosphere safely. VOICE TWO: By the end of nineteen-sixty-six, NASA officials considered the Apollo spacecraft ready for test flights by astronauts. Three astronauts were named for the first manned Apollo test flight. Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. Four weeks before the flight, the three men were in the command module at Cape Kennedy, Florida. They were testing equipment for the flight. Suddenly, fire broke out in the spacecraft. When rescuers got the door open, they found the flames had killed the three astronauts. Grissom, White and Chaffee were the first Americans to die in the space program. VOICE ONE: Engineers redesigned and rebuilt the Apollo command module. They designed a new door that could be opened more quickly. They improved the electrical wiring. And they used only materials that would not burn easily. By November nineteen-sixty-seven, the moon launch rocket, Saturn Five, was ready for a test flight. It thundered into space perfectly, pushing an unmanned Apollo spacecraft more than eighteen-thousand kilometers up into the atmosphere. VOICE TWO: The huge Saturn rocket, as tall as a thirty-six floor building, was the heaviest thing ever to leave Earth. It weighed more than two-million seven-hundred-thousand kilograms. The noise of its rockets was one of the loudest sounds ever made by humans. At the end of the test flight, the speed of the Apollo spacecraft was increased to forty-thousand kilometers an hour. That was the speed of a spacecraft returning from the moon. The spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere without damage. Apollo flights Five and Six tested the moon landing module and the Saturn Five rocket. VOICE ONE: Astronauts first flew in the Apollo spacecraft in October, nineteen-sixty-eight. Apollo Seven astronauts Walter Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele spent eleven days orbiting the Earth. They tested the spacecraft systems. And they broadcast, for the first time, live television pictures of men in orbit. Everything worked perfectly. VOICE TWO: The successful flight of Apollo Seven led NASA officials to send the next flight, Apollo Eight, to the moon. The launch was early on the morning of December twenty-first, nineteen-sixty-eight. Millions of people were watching on television. Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders were in the spacecraft at the top of the Saturn Five rocket. NASA officials counted down the seconds: five, four, three, two, one. The mighty engines fired. Slowly the giant rocket lifted off the Earth. VOICE ONE: Three hours later, NASA officials told the crew that everything was "okay" for what they called "TLI" or "trans-lunar injection. " This meant the Apollo Eight astronauts could fire the rocket that would send them from Earth orbit toward the moon. Less than three days later, Apollo Eight was orbiting the moon. The American spacecraft was just one-hundred-ten kilometers from its surface. On December twenty-fourth, the astronauts made a television broadcast to Earth. They described the moon's surface as a strange gray, lonely place. And, as they talked, people on Earth could see pictures of the moon on their television sets. Apollo Eight returned to Earth without problems. It landed in the Pacific Ocean near a waiting ship. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eight showed that humans could travel to the moon and return safely. The next step was to test the lunar landing craft. That was the job of the astronauts of Apollo Nine. James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. They spent ten days in Earth orbit during March, nineteen-sixty-nine. During the flight, they separated the lunar lander from the command module and flew it for eight hours. They tested all its systems. Then, they joined the two spacecraft together again, just as astronauts would do after a moon landing. Engineers decided that after Apollo Nine, one more test flight was needed. They wanted to test the landing module near the moon. So astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan did that during the flight of Apollo Ten. VOICE ONE: They reached the moon in May, nineteen-sixty-nine. Astronauts Stafford and Cernan entered the landing craft and separated it from the command ship. Stafford and Cernan flew the lander down to only thirteen kilometers from the moon. They described the moon during a radio and television broadcast. "It is like wet clay," they said. "Like a dry river bed in New Mexico or Arizona. It is a beautiful sight. " On May twenty-third, the lander rejoined the command module one-hundred kilometers above the moon. Apollo Ten started for home. The final testing was done. Apollo was ready to land on the moon. That will be our story next week. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo moon landing program. New space flight centers were built. Designs for launch rockets and spacecraft were agreed on. And a new spaceflight program -- Project Gemini -- was begun. Flights in the two-man Gemini spacecraft tested the men, equipment and methods to be used in the Apollo program to the moon. Gemini let astronauts learn about the dangers of radiation and the effects of being weightless during long flights. Astronauts learned to move their spacecraft into different orbits and to join with other spacecraft. VOICE TWO: While the Gemini program prepared astronauts for Apollo flights, NASA engineers were designing and building the Apollo spacecraft. It was really two spacecraft. One was a cone-shaped command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module. And they would return home in it. The second craft was a moon-landing vehicle. Two astronauts would ride in it from the orbiting command module to the moon's surface. Later, the landing vehicle would carry them back to the command module for the return trip to Earth. VOICE ONE: Engineers also were working on a huge new rocket for Apollo. It needed much more power than the rockets used to launch the one-man Mercury and the two-man Gemini flights. The Apollo rocket was called Saturn. Two Saturn rocket systems were built. One was the Saturn 1-B. It did not have enough power to reach the moon. But it could launch Apollo spacecraft on test flights around the Earth. The other was the Saturn five. It would be the one to launch astronauts to the moon. Saturn 1-B rockets launched six unmanned Apollo spacecraft. The test flights showed that all the rocket engines worked successfully. They also showed that the Apollo spacecraft could survive the launch and could re-enter Earth's atmosphere safely. VOICE TWO: By the end of nineteen-sixty-six, NASA officials considered the Apollo spacecraft ready for test flights by astronauts. Three astronauts were named for the first manned Apollo test flight. Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. Four weeks before the flight, the three men were in the command module at Cape Kennedy, Florida. They were testing equipment for the flight. Suddenly, fire broke out in the spacecraft. When rescuers got the door open, they found the flames had killed the three astronauts. Grissom, White and Chaffee were the first Americans to die in the space program. VOICE ONE: Engineers redesigned and rebuilt the Apollo command module. They designed a new door that could be opened more quickly. They improved the electrical wiring. And they used only materials that would not burn easily. By November nineteen-sixty-seven, the moon launch rocket, Saturn Five, was ready for a test flight. It thundered into space perfectly, pushing an unmanned Apollo spacecraft more than eighteen-thousand kilometers up into the atmosphere. VOICE TWO: The huge Saturn rocket, as tall as a thirty-six floor building, was the heaviest thing ever to leave Earth. It weighed more than two-million seven-hundred-thousand kilograms. The noise of its rockets was one of the loudest sounds ever made by humans. At the end of the test flight, the speed of the Apollo spacecraft was increased to forty-thousand kilometers an hour. That was the speed of a spacecraft returning from the moon. The spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere without damage. Apollo flights Five and Six tested the moon landing module and the Saturn Five rocket. VOICE ONE: Astronauts first flew in the Apollo spacecraft in October, nineteen-sixty-eight. Apollo Seven astronauts Walter Schirra, Walter Cunningham and Donn Eisele spent eleven days orbiting the Earth. They tested the spacecraft systems. And they broadcast, for the first time, live television pictures of men in orbit. Everything worked perfectly. VOICE TWO: The successful flight of Apollo Seven led NASA officials to send the next flight, Apollo Eight, to the moon. The launch was early on the morning of December twenty-first, nineteen-sixty-eight. Millions of people were watching on television. Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders were in the spacecraft at the top of the Saturn Five rocket. NASA officials counted down the seconds: five, four, three, two, one. The mighty engines fired. Slowly the giant rocket lifted off the Earth. VOICE ONE: Three hours later, NASA officials told the crew that everything was "okay" for what they called "TLI" or "trans-lunar injection. " This meant the Apollo Eight astronauts could fire the rocket that would send them from Earth orbit toward the moon. Less than three days later, Apollo Eight was orbiting the moon. The American spacecraft was just one-hundred-ten kilometers from its surface. On December twenty-fourth, the astronauts made a television broadcast to Earth. They described the moon's surface as a strange gray, lonely place. And, as they talked, people on Earth could see pictures of the moon on their television sets. Apollo Eight returned to Earth without problems. It landed in the Pacific Ocean near a waiting ship. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eight showed that humans could travel to the moon and return safely. The next step was to test the lunar landing craft. That was the job of the astronauts of Apollo Nine. James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart. They spent ten days in Earth orbit during March, nineteen-sixty-nine. During the flight, they separated the lunar lander from the command module and flew it for eight hours. They tested all its systems. Then, they joined the two spacecraft together again, just as astronauts would do after a moon landing. Engineers decided that after Apollo Nine, one more test flight was needed. They wanted to test the landing module near the moon. So astronauts Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan did that during the flight of Apollo Ten. VOICE ONE: They reached the moon in May, nineteen-sixty-nine. Astronauts Stafford and Cernan entered the landing craft and separated it from the command ship. Stafford and Cernan flew the lander down to only thirteen kilometers from the moon. They described the moon during a radio and television broadcast. "It is like wet clay," they said. "Like a dry river bed in New Mexico or Arizona. It is a beautiful sight. " On May twenty-third, the lander rejoined the command module one-hundred kilometers above the moon. Apollo Ten started for home. The final testing was done. Apollo was ready to land on the moon. That will be our story next week. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo moon landing program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — Public Library of Science
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 13, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Health news and other scientific information generally comes from research published in the professional literature. This includes publications such as Science and Nature, The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. Some people, though, have criticized this system because the publishers charge money to read the reports. Each year up to sixty-thousand research reports are published in the United States from projects funded by the government. Yet private publishers charge as much as fifty dollars to read the results of just one study over the Internet. To receive printed copies of weekly or monthly publications costs a lot more. Three years ago, a group of medical researchers organized into a group known as the Public Library of Science. They urged scientific publishers to permit the release of reports online without charge. More than thirty-thousand scientists from one-hundred-eighty countries signed a letter of support. The Public Library of Science says that some publishers did take steps. But, in general, the organizers say they were not satisfied. So the library decided to publish research on its own. It is now building a system to put medical findings on the Internet. Anyone will be able read the reports without having to pay anything. In October, the Public Library of Science, or PLOS, will begin its first series of computer publications. The first will be called PLOS Biology. PLOS Medicine is to follow in two-thousand-four. The aim is not to continue creating new online publications. The aim is to get existing publications that charge for their reports to begin offering them for free. Will the world’s best scientists send the Public Library of Science their best work to publish? No one really knows. But library officials say scientists have already begun to send them reports to consider for publication. The organizers say they are pleased with the quality. And they say they want to develop tools and materials that will help people who are not scientists to understand and enjoy science. The library is on the Internet at www.publiclibraryofscience.org. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: August 13, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Health news and other scientific information generally comes from research published in the professional literature. This includes publications such as Science and Nature, The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet. Some people, though, have criticized this system because the publishers charge money to read the reports. Each year up to sixty-thousand research reports are published in the United States from projects funded by the government. Yet private publishers charge as much as fifty dollars to read the results of just one study over the Internet. To receive printed copies of weekly or monthly publications costs a lot more. Three years ago, a group of medical researchers organized into a group known as the Public Library of Science. They urged scientific publishers to permit the release of reports online without charge. More than thirty-thousand scientists from one-hundred-eighty countries signed a letter of support. The Public Library of Science says that some publishers did take steps. But, in general, the organizers say they were not satisfied. So the library decided to publish research on its own. It is now building a system to put medical findings on the Internet. Anyone will be able read the reports without having to pay anything. In October, the Public Library of Science, or PLOS, will begin its first series of computer publications. The first will be called PLOS Biology. PLOS Medicine is to follow in two-thousand-four. The aim is not to continue creating new online publications. The aim is to get existing publications that charge for their reports to begin offering them for free. Will the world’s best scientists send the Public Library of Science their best work to publish? No one really knows. But library officials say scientists have already begun to send them reports to consider for publication. The organizers say they are pleased with the quality. And they say they want to develop tools and materials that will help people who are not scientists to understand and enjoy science. The library is on the Internet at www.publiclibraryofscience.org. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #25 - Writing the Constitution, Part 9
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 19, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Shep O’Neal and I complete the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention discussed the difficult issue of slavery. Slavery affected the decision on how to count the population for purposes of representation in Congress. It also affected the powers proposed for the Congress. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue. One compromise was the 'three-fifths' rule. The population would be counted every ten years to decide how many representatives each state would have. The delegates agreed that every five Negro slaves would be counted as three persons. Another compromise permitted states to import slaves until the year Eighteen-Oh-Eight. After that, no new slaves could be brought into the country. Many of the delegates in Philadelphia did not like these compromises. But they knew the compromises kept the southern states from leaving the convention. Without them, as one delegate said, no union could be formed. VOICE ONE: After all the debates, bitter arguments, and compromises, the delegates were nearing the end of their work. Four months had passed since the convention began. The weather had been hot. Emotions had been hot, too. But that was expected. For the men in Philadelphia were deciding the future of their country. Early in September, the convention appointed five men to a Committee of Style. It was their job to write the document containing all the convention's decisions. William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut was chairman of the committee. The other members were Alexander Hamilton of New York, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Rufus King of Massachusetts, and James Madison of Virginia. Of these five men, Gouverneur Morris was known for the beauty of his language. So Judge Johnson asked him to write the Constitution. VOICE TWO: The convention approved twenty-three parts, or articles, for the Constitution. Gouverneur Morris re-wrote them in a more simple form, so there were just seven. Article One describes the powers of the Congress. It explains how to count the population for purposes of representation. And it says who can become senators or representatives, and how long they can serve. Article Two describes the powers of the president. It explains who can be president. And it tells how he is to be elected. Article Three describes the powers of the federal judiciary. The first three articles provide a system of 'checks and balances'. The purpose is to prevent any of the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- from becoming too powerful. VOICE ONE: Article Four explains the rights and duties of the states under the new central government. Article Five provides a system for amending the Constitution. Article Six declares the Constitution to be the highest law of the land. And Article Seven simply says the Constitution will be established when nine states approve it. In addition to the seven articles, the Constitution contains an opening statement, or preamble. The convention prepared its own preamble. It began, "We the undersigned delegates of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts. . ." and so on. And it listed all thirteen states by name. VOICE TWO: The Committee of Style did not think it was a good idea to list each state. After all, Rhode Island never sent a delegate to Philadelphia. And no one knew for sure if every state would approve the Constitution. So, Gouverneur Morris wrote down instead, "We the People of the United States of America. . ." Those simple words solved the committee's problem. Who suspected they would cause angry debate during the fight to approve the Constitution? For they made clear that the power of the central government came not from the nation's states, but directly from its citizens. VOICE ONE: The rest of the preamble says why the Constitution was written. '... in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, guarantee peace at home, provide for the common defense, work for the well-being of all, and hold on to the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our children...'. The next step was to sign the document. VOICE TWO: On September Seventeenth, the delegates gathered for the last time. One might think all their business finally was done. But Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts rose to speak. "If it is not too late," he said, "I would like to make a change. We have agreed that one Congressman will represent every forty-thousand persons. I think that number should be thirty-thousand. Gorham's proposal could have caused a bitter argument. Then, suddenly, George Washington stood up. The delegates were surprised, because he had said little all summer. "Now," Washington said, "I must speak out in support of the proposed change. It will guarantee a greater voice in the government for the people of the nation."General Washington's influence was strong. Every delegate agreed to accept the change. VOICE ONE: Finally, it was time to sign the Constitution. It also was the last chance to speak against it. Many delegates did not like all parts of the Constitution. They stated their objections. Yet, they declared, for the good of the nation, they would sign. Several, however, refused to put their name on the Constitution. Edmund Randolph of Virginia said he could not sign the document because he believed it would not be approved. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts did believe the Constitution would be approved. And that, he said, would lead to civil war. So he would not sign. George Mason of Virginia also refused to sign, but he did not say why. He wrote his thoughts, instead. His chief reason for not signing: the Constitution did not directly guarantee the rights of citizens. The country would hear this argument again later. Many people agreed with Mason. The results were the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments became known as 'the Bill of Rights'. VOICE TWO: Randolph, Gerry, and Mason were the only delegates in Philadelphia who did not sign the Constitution. Four other delegates who opposed went home before the signing. They were Luther Martin and John Mercer of Maryland. And Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York. Nine men who supported the Constitution also went home early and did not sign. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. Caleb Strong of Massachusetts. William Houstoun and William Pierce of Georgia. Alexander Martin and William Davie of North Carolina. William Houston of New Jersey. George Wythe and James McClurg of Virginia. VOICE ONE: Few of the delegates in Philadelphia could be sure that enough states would approve the Constitution to make it the law of the land. And few could know then that Americans of the future would honor them as 'fathers' of the nation. But, as several said later, they wrote the best Constitution they could. Without it, the young nation would break apart. The United States of America would disappear before it had a chance to succeed. VOICE TWO: As the last delegates moved to the table to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin looked at a painting behind the president's chair. He spoke softly to the men around him. Franklin noted that it is difficult to paint a morning sun that appears different from an evening sun. "During the past four months of this convention," he said, "I have often looked at that painting. And I was never able to know if the picture showed a morning sun or an evening sun. But now, at last, I know. I am happy to say it is a morning sun, the beginning of a new day." (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: August 19, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In May of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen American states. Instead of changes, however, they wrote a completely new Constitution. That political document established America's system of government and guaranteed the rights of its citizens. It is still the law of the land. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Shep O’Neal and I complete the story of the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Last week, we told how the convention discussed the difficult issue of slavery. Slavery affected the decision on how to count the population for purposes of representation in Congress. It also affected the powers proposed for the Congress. The convention accepted several political compromises on the issue. One compromise was the 'three-fifths' rule. The population would be counted every ten years to decide how many representatives each state would have. The delegates agreed that every five Negro slaves would be counted as three persons. Another compromise permitted states to import slaves until the year Eighteen-Oh-Eight. After that, no new slaves could be brought into the country. Many of the delegates in Philadelphia did not like these compromises. But they knew the compromises kept the southern states from leaving the convention. Without them, as one delegate said, no union could be formed. VOICE ONE: After all the debates, bitter arguments, and compromises, the delegates were nearing the end of their work. Four months had passed since the convention began. The weather had been hot. Emotions had been hot, too. But that was expected. For the men in Philadelphia were deciding the future of their country. Early in September, the convention appointed five men to a Committee of Style. It was their job to write the document containing all the convention's decisions. William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut was chairman of the committee. The other members were Alexander Hamilton of New York, Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, Rufus King of Massachusetts, and James Madison of Virginia. Of these five men, Gouverneur Morris was known for the beauty of his language. So Judge Johnson asked him to write the Constitution. VOICE TWO: The convention approved twenty-three parts, or articles, for the Constitution. Gouverneur Morris re-wrote them in a more simple form, so there were just seven. Article One describes the powers of the Congress. It explains how to count the population for purposes of representation. And it says who can become senators or representatives, and how long they can serve. Article Two describes the powers of the president. It explains who can be president. And it tells how he is to be elected. Article Three describes the powers of the federal judiciary. The first three articles provide a system of 'checks and balances'. The purpose is to prevent any of the three branches of government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- from becoming too powerful. VOICE ONE: Article Four explains the rights and duties of the states under the new central government. Article Five provides a system for amending the Constitution. Article Six declares the Constitution to be the highest law of the land. And Article Seven simply says the Constitution will be established when nine states approve it. In addition to the seven articles, the Constitution contains an opening statement, or preamble. The convention prepared its own preamble. It began, "We the undersigned delegates of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts. . ." and so on. And it listed all thirteen states by name. VOICE TWO: The Committee of Style did not think it was a good idea to list each state. After all, Rhode Island never sent a delegate to Philadelphia. And no one knew for sure if every state would approve the Constitution. So, Gouverneur Morris wrote down instead, "We the People of the United States of America. . ." Those simple words solved the committee's problem. Who suspected they would cause angry debate during the fight to approve the Constitution? For they made clear that the power of the central government came not from the nation's states, but directly from its citizens. VOICE ONE: The rest of the preamble says why the Constitution was written. '... in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, guarantee peace at home, provide for the common defense, work for the well-being of all, and hold on to the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our children...'. The next step was to sign the document. VOICE TWO: On September Seventeenth, the delegates gathered for the last time. One might think all their business finally was done. But Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts rose to speak. "If it is not too late," he said, "I would like to make a change. We have agreed that one Congressman will represent every forty-thousand persons. I think that number should be thirty-thousand. Gorham's proposal could have caused a bitter argument. Then, suddenly, George Washington stood up. The delegates were surprised, because he had said little all summer. "Now," Washington said, "I must speak out in support of the proposed change. It will guarantee a greater voice in the government for the people of the nation."General Washington's influence was strong. Every delegate agreed to accept the change. VOICE ONE: Finally, it was time to sign the Constitution. It also was the last chance to speak against it. Many delegates did not like all parts of the Constitution. They stated their objections. Yet, they declared, for the good of the nation, they would sign. Several, however, refused to put their name on the Constitution. Edmund Randolph of Virginia said he could not sign the document because he believed it would not be approved. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts did believe the Constitution would be approved. And that, he said, would lead to civil war. So he would not sign. George Mason of Virginia also refused to sign, but he did not say why. He wrote his thoughts, instead. His chief reason for not signing: the Constitution did not directly guarantee the rights of citizens. The country would hear this argument again later. Many people agreed with Mason. The results were the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments became known as 'the Bill of Rights'. VOICE TWO: Randolph, Gerry, and Mason were the only delegates in Philadelphia who did not sign the Constitution. Four other delegates who opposed went home before the signing. They were Luther Martin and John Mercer of Maryland. And Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York. Nine men who supported the Constitution also went home early and did not sign. Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut. Caleb Strong of Massachusetts. William Houstoun and William Pierce of Georgia. Alexander Martin and William Davie of North Carolina. William Houston of New Jersey. George Wythe and James McClurg of Virginia. VOICE ONE: Few of the delegates in Philadelphia could be sure that enough states would approve the Constitution to make it the law of the land. And few could know then that Americans of the future would honor them as 'fathers' of the nation. But, as several said later, they wrote the best Constitution they could. Without it, the young nation would break apart. The United States of America would disappear before it had a chance to succeed. VOICE TWO: As the last delegates moved to the table to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin looked at a painting behind the president's chair. He spoke softly to the men around him. Franklin noted that it is difficult to paint a morning sun that appears different from an evening sun. "During the past four months of this convention," he said, "I have often looked at that painting. And I was never able to know if the picture showed a morning sun or an evening sun. But now, at last, I know. I am happy to say it is a morning sun, the beginning of a new day." (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC — August 15, 2003: A Question about Hip-Hop Music / Teenagers Honor Veterans / New American Plays
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life. Plus we answer your questions! (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week: A question about hip-hop music ... (Photo - Shepherd College) Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life. Plus we answer your questions! (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week: A question about hip-hop music ... And a report about a theater festival in the East. But first, come along to a town in the American West. A special history project has brought together people young and ... not-so-young. Veterans History Project HOST: In Bigfork, Montana, high school students have done some special things to honor local people who served in America’s wars. One year they even held a ceremony at a theater in town on Veterans Day, a national holiday in November. It all started when one teacher told her students to each find a war veteran and talk with that person. Phoebe Zimmermann has more. ANNCR: Popular rapper Marshall Mathers, better known as Eminem. And a report about a theater festival in the East. But first, come along to a town in the American West. A special history project has brought together people young and ... not-so-young. Veterans History Project HOST: In Bigfork, Montana, high school students have done some special things to honor local people who served in America’s wars. One year they even held a ceremony at a theater in town on Veterans Day, a national holiday in November. It all started when one teacher told her students to each find a war veteran and talk with that person. Phoebe Zimmermann has more. ANNCR: Nineteen-million war veterans live in the United States. Officials say about one-thousand-five-hundred die each day -- from old age, sickness or other causes. The Library of Congress in Washington wants to record as many of their stories as possible. The library especially wants young people and classes to talk to the veterans and write down their stories. Mary Sullivan is an English teacher in the western town of Bigfork, Montana. Around three-thousand people live there. Her students became excited when she told them to find veterans and talk to them. The students invited people in town to a special program honoring the veterans. The students read some of the stories they had been told. Students also paraded in the clothes that soldiers wore when they were in the military. And the high school band played the songs from the different armed services. Veterans who were watching the program suddenly stood up. Many had tears in their eyes. Students learned that veterans from different wars had very different feelings. Those in World War Two often felt much more strongly about what they had done than some of the veterans of the Vietnam War. Maureen Sullivan, the teacher's daughter, noticed that many World War Two veterans wore their old military clothes to the program. Vietnam veterans did not. One reason could be that during the war there were many protests in the United States. Many soldiers did not feel that the American people supported them or welcomed them home. Today studies show that the public has a much higher opinion of the military. The students in Bigfork wrote down every word of every talk with the veterans. Four students traveled to Washington, D.C., to give the reports directly to the Library of Congress. Teacher Mary Sullivan says the veterans project built a bridge between older and younger people in her town. One student said he heard stories his grandfather had never talked about before. When the boy asked his grandfather why he had never told them, the grandfather said no one had ever asked. Contemporary American Theater Festival Nineteen-million war veterans live in the United States. Officials say about one-thousand-five-hundred die each day -- from old age, sickness or other causes. The Library of Congress in Washington wants to record as many of their stories as possible. The library especially wants young people and classes to talk to the veterans and write down their stories. Mary Sullivan is an English teacher in the western town of Bigfork, Montana. Around three-thousand people live there. Her students became excited when she told them to find veterans and talk to them. The students invited people in town to a special program honoring the veterans. The students read some of the stories they had been told. Students also paraded in the clothes that soldiers wore when they were in the military. And the high school band played the songs from the different armed services. Veterans who were watching the program suddenly stood up. Many had tears in their eyes. Students learned that veterans from different wars had very different feelings. Those in World War Two often felt much more strongly about what they had done than some of the veterans of the Vietnam War. Maureen Sullivan, the teacher's daughter, noticed that many World War Two veterans wore their old military clothes to the program. Vietnam veterans did not. One reason could be that during the war there were many protests in the United States. Many soldiers did not feel that the American people supported them or welcomed them home. Today studies show that the public has a much higher opinion of the military. The students in Bigfork wrote down every word of every talk with the veterans. Four students traveled to Washington, D.C., to give the reports directly to the Library of Congress. Teacher Mary Sullivan says the veterans project built a bridge between older and younger people in her town. One student said he heard stories his grandfather had never talked about before. When the boy asked his grandfather why he had never told them, the grandfather said no one had ever asked. Contemporary American Theater Festival HOST: Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia. Every summer, it presents the newest American plays during the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Faith Lapidus tells us more. ANNCR: Historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near the Potomac River. The first Europeans arrived in the early seventeen-hundreds. Many of the first settlers were German. The main street in Shepherdstown is still called German Street. Shepherd College was established in eighteen-seventy-one to teach languages and science. The Contemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at the college every summer since nineteen-ninety-one. The festival presents new American plays during four weeks each summer. Many of the plays have never been performed before. One of the four plays presented this summer was called “Whores.” It was written by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. It is about a general from a Central American country. The general’s troops murdered four female American religious workers. The play takes place in the general’s imagination. The Contemporary American Theater Festival also presented the musical play “Wilder” by Erin Cressida Wilson. She is also an award-winning playwright, and a movie screenwriter. “Wilder” is a sad story about a teenage boy growing up in Denver, Colorado, during the economic depression in the nineteen-thirties. His parents are unable to take care of him, so they send him to live with other people. Another new play is called “The Last Schwartz” by Deborah Zoe Laufer. It is both funny and sad. Members of a family gather for the one-year anniversary of their father’s death. During the gathering, the brothers and sister tell many family secrets. The fourth play is called “Bright Ideas” by Eric Coble. It is a very funny play about a husband and wife who will do anything to make sure their three-year-old son attends the best pre-school. They will even carry out a murder! Many people from the Washington, D-C, area travel to Shepherdstown each summer for the theater festival. Ed Herendeen started the festival and continues as its producing director. He said the theater festival was a huge success this year. Two of the plays will be produced in New York City this autumn. HOST: Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia. Every summer, it presents the newest American plays during the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Faith Lapidus tells us more. ANNCR: Historic Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near the Potomac River. The first Europeans arrived in the early seventeen-hundreds. Many of the first settlers were German. The main street in Shepherdstown is still called German Street. Shepherd College was established in eighteen-seventy-one to teach languages and science. The Contemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at the college every summer since nineteen-ninety-one. The festival presents new American plays during four weeks each summer. Many of the plays have never been performed before. One of the four plays presented this summer was called “Whores.” It was written by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. It is about a general from a Central American country. The general’s troops murdered four female American religious workers. The play takes place in the general’s imagination. The Contemporary American Theater Festival also presented the musical play “Wilder” by Erin Cressida Wilson. She is also an award-winning playwright, and a movie screenwriter. “Wilder” is a sad story about a teenage boy growing up in Denver, Colorado, during the economic depression in the nineteen-thirties. His parents are unable to take care of him, so they send him to live with other people. Another new play is called “The Last Schwartz” by Deborah Zoe Laufer. It is both funny and sad. Members of a family gather for the one-year anniversary of their father’s death. During the gathering, the brothers and sister tell many family secrets. The fourth play is called “Bright Ideas” by Eric Coble. It is a very funny play about a husband and wife who will do anything to make sure their three-year-old son attends the best pre-school. They will even carry out a murder! Many people from the Washington, D-C, area travel to Shepherdstown each summer for the theater festival. Ed Herendeen started the festival and continues as its producing director. He said the theater festival was a huge success this year. Two of the plays will be produced in New York City this autumn. Hip-Hop Music HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Imo State, Nigeria. Eke Abraham wants to know about American hip-hop music. We went to VOA's own expert, Rod Murray, host of "Hip-Hop Connection." That's heard Saturdays at nineteen hours Universal Time on the English-to-Africa service. Rod says hip-hop is not just music but a whole culture that also includes dance and how people dress. Rap is the best known hip-hop music. It began about thirty years ago in the streets of New York City. One of the earliest songs was "Rapper’s Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. (MUSIC) Rap has spread internationally, far beyond its roots in the culture of young black males in New York. It is used not just for entertainment but also for social activism. In America, though, a lot of people have criticized rap songs about violence, drugs and mistreatment of women. There are some women in rap, especially since the late nineteen-eighties. Rod considers Missy Elliot the greatest. Here's her song "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)." (MUSIC) Right now, VOA's Rod Murray says the most popular rapper is the man who calls himself Fifty Cent. His album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" has sold more than two-million copies since it came out in February. And now, we leave you with Fifty Cent and "In Da Club." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. E-mail your questions about American life to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Make sure to include your name and postal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Karen Leggett and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Hip-Hop Music HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Imo State, Nigeria. Eke Abraham wants to know about American hip-hop music. We went to VOA's own expert, Rod Murray, host of "Hip-Hop Connection." That's heard Saturdays at nineteen hours Universal Time on the English-to-Africa service. Rod says hip-hop is not just music but a whole culture that also includes dance and how people dress. Rap is the best known hip-hop music. It began about thirty years ago in the streets of New York City. One of the earliest songs was "Rapper’s Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang. (MUSIC) Rap has spread internationally, far beyond its roots in the culture of young black males in New York. It is used not just for entertainment but also for social activism. In America, though, a lot of people have criticized rap songs about violence, drugs and mistreatment of women. There are some women in rap, especially since the late nineteen-eighties. Rod considers Missy Elliot the greatest. Here's her song "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)." (MUSIC) Right now, VOA's Rod Murray says the most popular rapper is the man who calls himself Fifty Cent. His album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" has sold more than two-million copies since it came out in February. And now, we leave you with Fifty Cent and "In Da Club." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. E-mail your questions about American life to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Make sure to include your name and postal address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Karen Leggett and Caty Weaver, who was also our producer. I hope you enjoyed our program! Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — U.S. Begins Chemical Weapons Burn
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. In the United States, the Army has started to destroy old chemical weapons at a base in the southern state of Alabama. The operation began last Saturday at a storage center near the city of Anniston. This is the first time the United States military has burned chemical weapons near a populated area. About thirty-five thousand people live within fifteen kilometers of the base. Environmental and civil rights groups appealed to a federal court in Washington to block the action. But a judge ruled that the opponents failed to show that the operation is a serious risk to the public. The Army is destroying shells, rockets and other weapons. These contain deadly chemicals such as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas. Workers will remove the chemicals and cut the weapons into pieces for burning at almost six-hundred degrees Celsius. The Army will also burn the chemicals when enough is collected in a storage tank. The Army says it expects the process to take seven years. Workers in Alabama handled ten rockets last weekend. But the Army said equipment problems delayed the operation early this week. An Army spokesman said there was no danger of a chemical release. The Army prepared for the burn, and dealt with legal opposition, for several years. Army officials are providing protective clothing and equipment to people who live near the base. Warning systems and escape plans have been established. Opponents, however, say they do not believe the burning is safe. And they say some schools have not yet received equipment to keep out dangerous chemicals if an accident happens. Army officials say they will carry out only limited burns until schools and community centers are fully protected. The military says destroying the old weapons is safer than storing them. About seven-hundred-thousand weapons have been stored at the base since the nineteen-sixties. They have been kept in concrete structures covered in earth. But Army officials say that some of the chemicals have begun to leak. The Army also has bases to burn chemical weapons in the state of Utah and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. But those bases are far from populated areas. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT — August 14, 2003: New Doctorate in Chicano Studies Offered in California
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The University of California will offer the nation's first doctoral program in Chicano studies. Chicanos are people of Mexican ancestry who live in the United States. Females are often called Chicanas. The program will begin in two-thousand-four at the campus in Santa Barbara, north of Los Angeles. Santa Barbara is one of ten campuses in the University of California system. Chicanos and other Hispanics have recently become the largest minority group in the United States. The Census Bureau estimates the numbers at just under thirty-nine-million as of July of last year. That was more than thirteen percent of the population. Hispanics live all over the country, but half live in California and Texas. Most Hispanics have family roots in Mexico. Chicano studies is not a new area in education. But the doctoral program at Santa Barbara will greatly expand the possibilities for the most intensive level of study. Ten years ago, the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at Santa Barbara had three teachers. Today it has twelve. They work with one-hundred-fifty students who have chosen Chicano studies as their major area of study. Many other students from outside the department also take courses there. A committee led by a former department head, Maria Herrera-Sobek, proposed that the university let students earn a doctorate, or P-h-D, in Chicano studies. The University of California also approved a master’s degree program. Other colleges in the United States also offer courses about the experience of Americans of Spanish-speaking heritage. But most of the students are undergraduates; they do not yet have a college degree. The University of Texas in Austin, for example, created a Center for Mexican-American Studies in nineteen-seventy. Students can earn an undergraduate degree that centers on public policy and cultural studies. The courses include Mexican American legal history and politics. The University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, Indiana, has a new set of courses in its Institute of Latino Studies. These will begin in September. The material in the new courses at Notre Dame will center on Mexican-Americans but also people of other Latin heritage. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-14-5-1.cfm
* Headline: August 14, 2003 - Sound of Silence
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 14, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- the sound of silence in American English. RS: If you're looking for clues to people's emotions, you could listen to what they say. You could also listen to what they don't say. That's the sort of research Emily Butler does. AA: She's working on her doctorate in psychology at Stanford University in California. Emily Butler is interested in how people regulate their emotions. She gives a classic example. BUTLER: "You're with acquaintances and someone makes some remarks that you find highly offensive, but you certainly don't want to get in a fight about it in that circumstance, and so you say nothing, or politely smile and nod as opposed to expressing your actual annoyance and anger and disgust or whatever." RS: "What message does that communicate to the person who made the remark?" BUTLER: "What I think we're finding in our research is that it depends a lot on the other person, the person who made the remark. Some will blithely go along having completely not noticed that the other person is suppressing something, and be completely happy with a smile and a nod. Someone a little more astute or who cares more about the connection to the person who's suppressing will likely pick up that there's something lacking in that response." RS: "How do you study these reactions?" BUTLER: "The work that I do, as I say, comes out of the research on emotion regulation, or the different ways that we go about controlling our emotions. And I've had women, young women, come to the lab -- women who haven't met before -- and the work that I do, we're collecting physiological measures as well as videotaping them, as well as asking them a bunch of questions. "So typically we would get them hooked up to the physiological recording, show them an upsetting film so that there's some emotional content to be regulated and to talk about, and then ask them to discuss the film amongst themselves. But just prior to the conversation, we secretly ask one of the women to try to hide her emotions during the interaction. And then we compare that to a pair of women where they're just asked to speak normally." AA: "And what did you find?" BUTLER: "Probably our central finding that's been replicated a few times is that when one women hides her emotions during the conversation, her partner's blood pressure goes through the roof." AA: "Oh my goodness!" BUTLER: "Yeah, and neither of them are very happy with the interaction. They tend not to want to have anything to do with each other again. And there's also some evidence that the woman who's doing the suppressing is also showing increased blood pressure, although it's not as big an effect or as robust as in the partner." RS: "Are they told afterwards that she was a plant [a faker]?" BUTLER: "Yes, very definitely, because we don't want to have these poor people to go away hating each other." AA: "So this would be like, if the other person says something like, ‘wasn’t that awful,' and then the other woman just sits there silently?" BUTLER: "Well, a typical -- I mean, that's exactly how the conversations go. And so one person says 'oh, I was so horrified, that was so upsetting.' And the other girl says, 'yeah, it was pretty bad, but I guess I've seen that kind of thing before, and I even thought it might be worse, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.' In this example, in this specific case that we're studying, it's more a lack of expected emotional content than an actual silence." AA: "Interesting, because I know it's -- to me, when I'm met with a silence, that's really awkward ... " RS: "It's very awkward, uncomfortable." AA: "Your first reaction is to try to fill the void." RS: "You think that's typically American, though, to always want to say something?" BUTLER: "Yes, definitely. North American culture is very quick to fill silences, and some other cultural groups actually find it rude and disruptive and can't figure out how to carry on a conversation, because of this non-stop noise [laughter] and that there's no time to ponder and construct the next, you know, contribution." RS: "What can students of English as a foreign language, someone coming into our country, learn from the kind of work you're doing?" BUTLER: "Well certainly, if they're coming from a cultural group that's less emotionally expressive than the North American norms, then the advice is, well, you can make life easier by being as expressive as you can, because I think our work does suggest that a typical North American partner is going to interpret lack of emotional expression in fairly negative terms." AA: "Even if it's unintended." BUTLER: "Exactly, because what we see -- like the women who have a suppressing partner, it's not blatant, they aren't saying, 'Oh, well, she wasn't showing any emotions.' But they do come away saying, 'well, it was just awkward, and she seemed kind of mean, and she made me kind of mad,' and things like that." AA: Emily Butler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Psychology Department at Stanford University in California. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The Sound of Silence"/Simon and Garfunkel Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 14, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- the sound of silence in American English. RS: If you're looking for clues to people's emotions, you could listen to what they say. You could also listen to what they don't say. That's the sort of research Emily Butler does. AA: She's working on her doctorate in psychology at Stanford University in California. Emily Butler is interested in how people regulate their emotions. She gives a classic example. BUTLER: "You're with acquaintances and someone makes some remarks that you find highly offensive, but you certainly don't want to get in a fight about it in that circumstance, and so you say nothing, or politely smile and nod as opposed to expressing your actual annoyance and anger and disgust or whatever." RS: "What message does that communicate to the person who made the remark?" BUTLER: "What I think we're finding in our research is that it depends a lot on the other person, the person who made the remark. Some will blithely go along having completely not noticed that the other person is suppressing something, and be completely happy with a smile and a nod. Someone a little more astute or who cares more about the connection to the person who's suppressing will likely pick up that there's something lacking in that response." RS: "How do you study these reactions?" BUTLER: "The work that I do, as I say, comes out of the research on emotion regulation, or the different ways that we go about controlling our emotions. And I've had women, young women, come to the lab -- women who haven't met before -- and the work that I do, we're collecting physiological measures as well as videotaping them, as well as asking them a bunch of questions. "So typically we would get them hooked up to the physiological recording, show them an upsetting film so that there's some emotional content to be regulated and to talk about, and then ask them to discuss the film amongst themselves. But just prior to the conversation, we secretly ask one of the women to try to hide her emotions during the interaction. And then we compare that to a pair of women where they're just asked to speak normally." AA: "And what did you find?" BUTLER: "Probably our central finding that's been replicated a few times is that when one women hides her emotions during the conversation, her partner's blood pressure goes through the roof." AA: "Oh my goodness!" BUTLER: "Yeah, and neither of them are very happy with the interaction. They tend not to want to have anything to do with each other again. And there's also some evidence that the woman who's doing the suppressing is also showing increased blood pressure, although it's not as big an effect or as robust as in the partner." RS: "Are they told afterwards that she was a plant [a faker]?" BUTLER: "Yes, very definitely, because we don't want to have these poor people to go away hating each other." AA: "So this would be like, if the other person says something like, ‘wasn’t that awful,' and then the other woman just sits there silently?" BUTLER: "Well, a typical -- I mean, that's exactly how the conversations go. And so one person says 'oh, I was so horrified, that was so upsetting.' And the other girl says, 'yeah, it was pretty bad, but I guess I've seen that kind of thing before, and I even thought it might be worse, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.' In this example, in this specific case that we're studying, it's more a lack of expected emotional content than an actual silence." AA: "Interesting, because I know it's -- to me, when I'm met with a silence, that's really awkward ... " RS: "It's very awkward, uncomfortable." AA: "Your first reaction is to try to fill the void." RS: "You think that's typically American, though, to always want to say something?" BUTLER: "Yes, definitely. North American culture is very quick to fill silences, and some other cultural groups actually find it rude and disruptive and can't figure out how to carry on a conversation, because of this non-stop noise [laughter] and that there's no time to ponder and construct the next, you know, contribution." RS: "What can students of English as a foreign language, someone coming into our country, learn from the kind of work you're doing?" BUTLER: "Well certainly, if they're coming from a cultural group that's less emotionally expressive than the North American norms, then the advice is, well, you can make life easier by being as expressive as you can, because I think our work does suggest that a typical North American partner is going to interpret lack of emotional expression in fairly negative terms." AA: "Even if it's unintended." BUTLER: "Exactly, because what we see -- like the women who have a suppressing partner, it's not blatant, they aren't saying, 'Oh, well, she wasn't showing any emotions.' But they do come away saying, 'well, it was just awkward, and she seemed kind of mean, and she made me kind of mad,' and things like that." AA: Emily Butler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Psychology Department at Stanford University in California. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The Sound of Silence"/Simon and Garfunkel 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA — Aaron Copland
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 17, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 17, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Dick Rael. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about Aaron Copland, one of America’s best modern music composers. VOICE ONE: I’m Dick Rael. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about Aaron Copland, one of America’s best modern music composers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aaron Copland wrote many kinds of music. He wrote music for the orchestra, piano, and voice. He wrote music for plays, movies and dance. Copland also was a conductor, pianist, speaker, teacher and author. Music critics say Copland taught Americans about themselves through his music. He used parts of many old traditional American folk songs in his work. He was influenced to do this after studying music in France. He said that composers there had a very French way of writing music. He said Americans had nothing like that in this country. So he decided to compose music that was truly American. VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland was born in nineteen-hundred in Brooklyn, New York. He was the youngest of five children. His parents had come to the United States from eastern Europe. They owned a store in Brooklyn. Aaron began playing the piano when he was a young child. He wrote his first song for his mother when he was eight years old. His dreams of becoming a composer began when he was young. When he was sixteen, he urged his parents to let him study composing with Rubin Goldmark. Goldmark had taught the composer George Gershwin. VOICE ONE: When he was in his early twenties, Copland went to Paris, France, where he studied music with Nadia Boulanger. She was one of the most important music teachers of the time. He returned to New York in nineteen-twenty-four. The famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, learned about Copland's music. Koussevitzky led the orchestra for the first performance of Copland's early work, "Music for the Theater," in nineteen-twenty-five. Koussevitzky also conducted Copland's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" in nineteen-twenty-seven. This work was unusual because Copland used ideas from jazz music in his concerto. VOICE TWO: Copland later wrote the music for two ballets about the American West. One was about the life of a famous gunfighter called Billy the Kid. Copland used music from American cowboy songs in this work. This piece from "Billy the Kid: Ballet Suite" is called "Street in a Frontier Town. " ("BILLY THE KID: STREET IN A FRONTIER TOWN") VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-two, the conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked Copland to write music about a great American, Abraham Lincoln. Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor America's sixteenth president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the American Civil War. He added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters. "Lincoln Portrait" has been performed many times in America. Many famous people have done the speaking part.Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was one of them. Here, actor James Earl Jones performs in Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." ("LINCOLN PORTRAIT") VOICE TWO: Also in nineteen-forty-two, the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked eighteen composers to write music expressing love for America. For the competition, Copland composed "Fanfare for the Common Man. " This music is played in America during many national events, including some presidential inaugurations. ("FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN") VOICE ONE: Experts say "Fanfare for the Common Man" was an example of Copland's change in direction during the nineteen-forties. He began writing music that was more easily understood and more popular. Copland wrote about this in nineteen-forty-one in his book, “Our New Music.” He wrote that a whole new public for music had developed as a result of the popularity of the radio and record player. He said that there was no reason to continue writing music as if these devices did not exist. So he decided to write music in a simpler way. VOICE TWO: Copland spread his ideas about music in other ways. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the many awards he received was the Pulitzer Prize. He won it in nineteen-forty-five for his famous music for a ballet called "Appalachian Spring." It is one of his most popular works. The last part of the ballet is based on a traditional song, "A Gift to be Simple." ("APPALACHIAN SPRING") VOICE ONE: Copland also wrote music for several major motion pictures. He won an Academy Award in nineteen-fifty for composing the music for the film, "The Heiress." Then, he began experimenting with what is called a twelve-tone system of composing. His music no longer was as easy to understand, or as popular. Copland stopped composing at the end of the nineteen-sixties. Yet he continued to be active as a conductor and speaker. In nineteen-eighty-two, Queens College of the City University of New York established the Aaron Copland School of Music. VOICE TWO: Copland was a strong supporter of liberal ideas. In the early nineteen-fifties, he and other famous writers, actors and intellectuals were accused of supporting communism. Public opinion changed, though. In nineteen-sixty-four, President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is America's highest award to civilians. Aaron Copland died in nineteen-ninety at the age of ninety. But his music lives on. ("SATURDAY NIGHT WALTZ") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Gary Spizler. I'm Dick Rael. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Aaron Copland wrote many kinds of music. He wrote music for the orchestra, piano, and voice. He wrote music for plays, movies and dance. Copland also was a conductor, pianist, speaker, teacher and author. Music critics say Copland taught Americans about themselves through his music. He used parts of many old traditional American folk songs in his work. He was influenced to do this after studying music in France. He said that composers there had a very French way of writing music. He said Americans had nothing like that in this country. So he decided to compose music that was truly American. VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland was born in nineteen-hundred in Brooklyn, New York. He was the youngest of five children. His parents had come to the United States from eastern Europe. They owned a store in Brooklyn. Aaron began playing the piano when he was a young child. He wrote his first song for his mother when he was eight years old. His dreams of becoming a composer began when he was young. When he was sixteen, he urged his parents to let him study composing with Rubin Goldmark. Goldmark had taught the composer George Gershwin. VOICE ONE: When he was in his early twenties, Copland went to Paris, France, where he studied music with Nadia Boulanger. She was one of the most important music teachers of the time. He returned to New York in nineteen-twenty-four. The famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, learned about Copland's music. Koussevitzky led the orchestra for the first performance of Copland's early work, "Music for the Theater," in nineteen-twenty-five. Koussevitzky also conducted Copland's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" in nineteen-twenty-seven. This work was unusual because Copland used ideas from jazz music in his concerto. VOICE TWO: Copland later wrote the music for two ballets about the American West. One was about the life of a famous gunfighter called Billy the Kid. Copland used music from American cowboy songs in this work. This piece from "Billy the Kid: Ballet Suite" is called "Street in a Frontier Town. " ("BILLY THE KID: STREET IN A FRONTIER TOWN") VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-two, the conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked Copland to write music about a great American, Abraham Lincoln. Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor America's sixteenth president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the American Civil War. He added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters. "Lincoln Portrait" has been performed many times in America. Many famous people have done the speaking part.Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was one of them. Here, actor James Earl Jones performs in Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." ("LINCOLN PORTRAIT") VOICE TWO: Also in nineteen-forty-two, the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked eighteen composers to write music expressing love for America. For the competition, Copland composed "Fanfare for the Common Man. " This music is played in America during many national events, including some presidential inaugurations. ("FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN") VOICE ONE: Experts say "Fanfare for the Common Man" was an example of Copland's change in direction during the nineteen-forties. He began writing music that was more easily understood and more popular. Copland wrote about this in nineteen-forty-one in his book, “Our New Music.” He wrote that a whole new public for music had developed as a result of the popularity of the radio and record player. He said that there was no reason to continue writing music as if these devices did not exist. So he decided to write music in a simpler way. VOICE TWO: Copland spread his ideas about music in other ways. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the many awards he received was the Pulitzer Prize. He won it in nineteen-forty-five for his famous music for a ballet called "Appalachian Spring." It is one of his most popular works. The last part of the ballet is based on a traditional song, "A Gift to be Simple." ("APPALACHIAN SPRING") VOICE ONE: Copland also wrote music for several major motion pictures. He won an Academy Award in nineteen-fifty for composing the music for the film, "The Heiress." Then, he began experimenting with what is called a twelve-tone system of composing. His music no longer was as easy to understand, or as popular. Copland stopped composing at the end of the nineteen-sixties. Yet he continued to be active as a conductor and speaker. In nineteen-eighty-two, Queens College of the City University of New York established the Aaron Copland School of Music. VOICE TWO: Copland was a strong supporter of liberal ideas. In the early nineteen-fifties, he and other famous writers, actors and intellectuals were accused of supporting communism. Public opinion changed, though. In nineteen-sixty-four, President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is America's highest award to civilians. Aaron Copland died in nineteen-ninety at the age of ninety. But his music lives on. ("SATURDAY NIGHT WALTZ") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Gary Spizler. I'm Dick Rael. VOICE TWO: And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS — August 16, 2003: Briton Charged in U.S. with Missile Sale
* Byline: 

 This is In the News, in VOA Special English. A London man faces charges that he tried to bring a missile into the United States. American officials say the missile was to be used to shoot down a passenger airplane. Federal officials arrested Hemant Lakhani on Tuesday in Newark, New Jersey. They describe him as an international arms dealer. They charged him with trying to sell arms without a permit and providing material support to terrorists. Mister Lakhani is sixty-eight years old, a British citizen born in India. His arrest followed eighteen months of investigation by American, British and Russian officials. The Russians told the Americans that Mister Lakhani had sought illegal arms from Russian crime groups. American investigators then began to observe his activities. They say they secretly recorded many discussions between him and another man. These recordings are at the center of the criminal case. Officials say the other man identified himself as a terrorist seeking missiles for a Somali group. But he was really an informer for the American government. American investigators say the two men discussed the purchase of a Russian surface-to-air missile. They say Mister Lakhani knew the shoulder-launched-missile was to be used to attack an airliner in the United States. The reported price for the missile was eighty-five-thousand dollars. Investigators say Mister Lakhani also promised to supply fifty more missiles for five-million dollars. They say he also expressed interest in buying tons of plastic explosive. Investigators say Mister Lakhani praised the September eleventh, two-thousand-one, attacks on the United States. He reportedly said Osama bin Laden was a "hero" who "did a good thing." Officials say Russian security officers fooled Mister Lakhani. They told him they were missile suppliers. Officials say Mister Lakhani thought the Russians had sold him a real missile. But investigators had disabled it. The missile was then brought by ship from Russia to the United States. Federal agents seized the missile on Tuesday. Two other men are charged with making financial plans for the deal. One is Yehuda Abraham, in his mid-seventies, the owner of a gem business based in New York. The other is a thirty-eight-year-old Indian citizen. Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed reportedly traveled to the United States this week from Malaysia. They and Mister Lakhani have not had a chance to answer the charges against them. More court hearings are set for next week. Last November suspected al Qaida members tried to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane with two missiles in Mombasa, Kenya. The worldwide market in illegal arms is said to have hundreds and possibly thousands of shoulder-launched missiles for sale. American military officials are willing to provide anti-missile technology to airline companies, but say the equipment costs a lot. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is In the News, in VOA Special English. A London man faces charges that he tried to bring a missile into the United States. American officials say the missile was to be used to shoot down a passenger airplane. Federal officials arrested Hemant Lakhani on Tuesday in Newark, New Jersey. They describe him as an international arms dealer. They charged him with trying to sell arms without a permit and providing material support to terrorists. Mister Lakhani is sixty-eight years old, a British citizen born in India. His arrest followed eighteen months of investigation by American, British and Russian officials. The Russians told the Americans that Mister Lakhani had sought illegal arms from Russian crime groups. American investigators then began to observe his activities. They say they secretly recorded many discussions between him and another man. These recordings are at the center of the criminal case. Officials say the other man identified himself as a terrorist seeking missiles for a Somali group. But he was really an informer for the American government. American investigators say the two men discussed the purchase of a Russian surface-to-air missile. They say Mister Lakhani knew the shoulder-launched-missile was to be used to attack an airliner in the United States. The reported price for the missile was eighty-five-thousand dollars. Investigators say Mister Lakhani also promised to supply fifty more missiles for five-million dollars. They say he also expressed interest in buying tons of plastic explosive. Investigators say Mister Lakhani praised the September eleventh, two-thousand-one, attacks on the United States. He reportedly said Osama bin Laden was a "hero" who "did a good thing." Officials say Russian security officers fooled Mister Lakhani. They told him they were missile suppliers. Officials say Mister Lakhani thought the Russians had sold him a real missile. But investigators had disabled it. The missile was then brought by ship from Russia to the United States. Federal agents seized the missile on Tuesday. Two other men are charged with making financial plans for the deal. One is Yehuda Abraham, in his mid-seventies, the owner of a gem business based in New York. The other is a thirty-eight-year-old Indian citizen. Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed reportedly traveled to the United States this week from Malaysia. They and Mister Lakhani have not had a chance to answer the charges against them. More court hearings are set for next week. Last November suspected al Qaida members tried to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane with two missiles in Mombasa, Kenya. The worldwide market in illegal arms is said to have hundreds and possibly thousands of shoulder-launched missiles for sale. American military officials are willing to provide anti-missile technology to airline companies, but say the equipment costs a lot. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA — Washington City Museum
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 18, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 18, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Washington, D.C., has many museums. Some examine Washington as a federal city. But a new museum tells the story of the nation’s capital and its people. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the City Museum this week on the VOA Special English program, This is America. VOICE ONE: Barbara Franco is director of the City Museum. She says visitors learn that Washington, D.C., is much more than just the historic buildings. D.C. means District of Columbia, the name of the larger federal area with Washington at the center. The museum tells about the people and events that helped shaped the capital. Five-hundred-thousand people live in the city. The City Museum is a thirty-million dollar project. It was created by the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. The Historical Society was founded in eighteen-ninety-four. VOICE TWO: The City Museum is inside the Carnegie Library building at Mount Vernon Square, in Washington’s newly redeveloped downtown area. The Carnegie Library was the city’s first public library. It was open from nineteen-oh-three until nineteen-seventy. The Carnegie Library was chosen for the museum because of its own history as a welcoming place. There was a time when laws could keep black people out of buildings. The Carnegie Library is one of the few public buildings in Washington that was never segregated. Barbara Franco says the City Museum is designed to be interactive. Doors open to different periods in Washington's history. Visitors pick up a speakerphone and listen to stories about the city. A film tells the history with hip-hop music and special effects. Pictures of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln speak and appear to jump out at you. VOICE ONE: The main room has many pictures and rare documents. Visitors can read the freedom papers of a former slave. A poster from eighty-sixty-five offers reward money to find the killer of President Lincoln. The killer was John Wilkes Booth, an actor who supported the Confederate states of the South. Booth was caught and killed before there could be a trial. But Barbara Franco says the most popular thing at the museum is a huge lighted floor map of Washington. The map was made from a satellite picture. Local visitors can find their home, or school, or anyplace else around the city. VOICE TWO: Around the map, the room is divided into time periods. These begin with the Piscataway Indians who settled the area four-thousand years ago. Visitors learn about Pierre L’Enfant, a French-born building designer who lived in America. L'Enfant designed the city of Washington in seventy-ninety-one, at the direction of George Washington, the nation's first president. And there was Alexander Shepherd. He was governor of Washington from eighteen-seventy-three to eighteen-seventy-four. He led an improvement campaign that included building streets and planting trees. But he left the city several million dollars in debt. There is also the story of James Wormley. His father was a slave. Yet in eighteen-seventy-one, after the Civil War, James Wormley opened one of the best hotels in the city. Barbara Franco says this success shows that African Americans played an important part in Washington's early history. But she notes that some of that progress was harmed because of future laws in America that treated blacks unfairly. VOICE ONE: Washington has more than one-hundred-twenty-five neighborhood communities. Visitors to the museum learn about areas such as Adams Morgan, Georgetown and Chinatown. Chinese immigrants established a community on Pennsylvania Avenue during the middle of the eighteen-hundreds. They were later forced out, but found a permanent home along H Street in Northwest Washington. The City Museum also deals with longstanding tensions over local control of Washington. Today, Washington has an elected mayor and city council. But citizens protest that while they have taxation, they have no voting representation in Congress. Some people think the solution is to make Washington the fifty-first state. The museum also explores the city's history of racial problems. Tensions were high during the slavery debates before the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. In nineteen-nineteen, race riots took place. Whites attacked black neighborhoods. In nineteen-sixty-eight, blacks rioted after the murder of Martin Luther King Junior in Memphis, Tennessee. During the nineteen-sixties, African Americans also protested racial inequality in schools. They worked to desegregate eating places and theaters. And they worked to end restrictive housing laws. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some streets in Washington are named after letters in the alphabet. U Street, for example, has a long and interesting history. In the early nineteen-hundreds, Greater U Street was the center of entertainment and business in Washington. U Street was part of the artistic movement of the nineteen-twenties and thirties known as the Harlem Renaissance. People heard some of the city’s best music along what became known as the black Broadway. Singer Bessie Smith played at the Howard Theater. So did a Washingtonian who became a famous orchestra leader, Duke Ellington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: U Street also was home to the Twelfth Street YMCA, a center for community activities and sports. YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association. The Twelfth Street "Y," as it was called, was the first black YMCA in the country. It was built in nineteen-twelve. Here was one of the few places where African Americans could find a home away from home and make life-long friends. Political activists met at the Y to organize marches to demand the same freedoms as white people. Teachers and professors lived at the Y because rooms there did not cost much. Writer Langston Hughes lived at the Twelfth Street Y when he wrote his first book in the nineteen-twenties. Listen now to a recording from the City Museum of a doctor and his wife: (ACTUALITY) MAN: "I probably wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for the Y. Because, as I can look back, I came to Washington, never been out of Texas, had less than five dollars after I paid the cab fare from Union Station to the Y -- now this was in January, snow was on the ground -- and here I am, they literally took me in." WOMAN: "The Y gave me my first job. That was my first time being away from home, where I took care of myself. I made friends back then, who are still my friends. I think being at the Y had an impression on my life." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As visitors explore the City Museum, they learn about the period when Marion Barry was mayor of Washington. He began as an activist seeking home rule for the District and civil rights. His popularity won him election to the school board, the city council and finally the mayor’s office. He served from nineteen-seventy-eight to nineteen-ninety. But there were mismanaged social programs, debt and repeated accusations of dishonesty in his administration. In nineteen-ninety, Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession. He resigned and served six months in prison. Then, in nineteen-ninety-four, Washington voters elected him to four more years as mayor. VOICE ONE: When people in Washington are tired of politics, they can turn to sports. Washington has a number of teams, although no Major League baseball team for more than thirty years. Yet, during segregation, even sports was no escape from racial realities. Negro League baseball teams were popular in the nineteen-thirties. But they could not play white teams. Sports centers for blacks often lacked equipment and space. Race also divided play areas for children. Listen to this recording from the City Museum: (ACTUALITY) WOMAN: "Only ten white children are using the spacious New York Avenue playground, while across the street a thousand Negro girls and five-hundred Negro boys at the Dunbar High School have no play space at all. Dark-skinned children peer wistfully through the fence at a well-equipped white playground in their neighborhood. Historian Constance Green." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, some government agencies and businesses have left Washington for nearby areas of Virginia and Maryland. Many whites fled the city after the nineteen-sixty-eight riots and the high crime rates of more recent years. So did a lot of blacks, especially wealthier ones. Today, some people are returning to Washington. There is a lot of building and redevelopment going on. City Museum director Barbara Franco hopes the new exhibits will get more people to explore what she says is the real museum -- Washington itself. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is America was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, This is America. VOICE ONE: Washington, D.C., has many museums. Some examine Washington as a federal city. But a new museum tells the story of the nation’s capital and its people. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the City Museum this week on the VOA Special English program, This is America. VOICE ONE: Barbara Franco is director of the City Museum. She says visitors learn that Washington, D.C., is much more than just the historic buildings. D.C. means District of Columbia, the name of the larger federal area with Washington at the center. The museum tells about the people and events that helped shaped the capital. Five-hundred-thousand people live in the city. The City Museum is a thirty-million dollar project. It was created by the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. The Historical Society was founded in eighteen-ninety-four. VOICE TWO: The City Museum is inside the Carnegie Library building at Mount Vernon Square, in Washington’s newly redeveloped downtown area. The Carnegie Library was the city’s first public library. It was open from nineteen-oh-three until nineteen-seventy. The Carnegie Library was chosen for the museum because of its own history as a welcoming place. There was a time when laws could keep black people out of buildings. The Carnegie Library is one of the few public buildings in Washington that was never segregated. Barbara Franco says the City Museum is designed to be interactive. Doors open to different periods in Washington's history. Visitors pick up a speakerphone and listen to stories about the city. A film tells the history with hip-hop music and special effects. Pictures of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln speak and appear to jump out at you. VOICE ONE: The main room has many pictures and rare documents. Visitors can read the freedom papers of a former slave. A poster from eighty-sixty-five offers reward money to find the killer of President Lincoln. The killer was John Wilkes Booth, an actor who supported the Confederate states of the South. Booth was caught and killed before there could be a trial. But Barbara Franco says the most popular thing at the museum is a huge lighted floor map of Washington. The map was made from a satellite picture. Local visitors can find their home, or school, or anyplace else around the city. VOICE TWO: Around the map, the room is divided into time periods. These begin with the Piscataway Indians who settled the area four-thousand years ago. Visitors learn about Pierre L’Enfant, a French-born building designer who lived in America. L'Enfant designed the city of Washington in seventy-ninety-one, at the direction of George Washington, the nation's first president. And there was Alexander Shepherd. He was governor of Washington from eighteen-seventy-three to eighteen-seventy-four. He led an improvement campaign that included building streets and planting trees. But he left the city several million dollars in debt. There is also the story of James Wormley. His father was a slave. Yet in eighteen-seventy-one, after the Civil War, James Wormley opened one of the best hotels in the city. Barbara Franco says this success shows that African Americans played an important part in Washington's early history. But she notes that some of that progress was harmed because of future laws in America that treated blacks unfairly. VOICE ONE: Washington has more than one-hundred-twenty-five neighborhood communities. Visitors to the museum learn about areas such as Adams Morgan, Georgetown and Chinatown. Chinese immigrants established a community on Pennsylvania Avenue during the middle of the eighteen-hundreds. They were later forced out, but found a permanent home along H Street in Northwest Washington. The City Museum also deals with longstanding tensions over local control of Washington. Today, Washington has an elected mayor and city council. But citizens protest that while they have taxation, they have no voting representation in Congress. Some people think the solution is to make Washington the fifty-first state. The museum also explores the city's history of racial problems. Tensions were high during the slavery debates before the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. In nineteen-nineteen, race riots took place. Whites attacked black neighborhoods. In nineteen-sixty-eight, blacks rioted after the murder of Martin Luther King Junior in Memphis, Tennessee. During the nineteen-sixties, African Americans also protested racial inequality in schools. They worked to desegregate eating places and theaters. And they worked to end restrictive housing laws. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Some streets in Washington are named after letters in the alphabet. U Street, for example, has a long and interesting history. In the early nineteen-hundreds, Greater U Street was the center of entertainment and business in Washington. U Street was part of the artistic movement of the nineteen-twenties and thirties known as the Harlem Renaissance. People heard some of the city’s best music along what became known as the black Broadway. Singer Bessie Smith played at the Howard Theater. So did a Washingtonian who became a famous orchestra leader, Duke Ellington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: U Street also was home to the Twelfth Street YMCA, a center for community activities and sports. YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association. The Twelfth Street "Y," as it was called, was the first black YMCA in the country. It was built in nineteen-twelve. Here was one of the few places where African Americans could find a home away from home and make life-long friends. Political activists met at the Y to organize marches to demand the same freedoms as white people. Teachers and professors lived at the Y because rooms there did not cost much. Writer Langston Hughes lived at the Twelfth Street Y when he wrote his first book in the nineteen-twenties. Listen now to a recording from the City Museum of a doctor and his wife: (ACTUALITY) MAN: "I probably wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for the Y. Because, as I can look back, I came to Washington, never been out of Texas, had less than five dollars after I paid the cab fare from Union Station to the Y -- now this was in January, snow was on the ground -- and here I am, they literally took me in." WOMAN: "The Y gave me my first job. That was my first time being away from home, where I took care of myself. I made friends back then, who are still my friends. I think being at the Y had an impression on my life." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As visitors explore the City Museum, they learn about the period when Marion Barry was mayor of Washington. He began as an activist seeking home rule for the District and civil rights. His popularity won him election to the school board, the city council and finally the mayor’s office. He served from nineteen-seventy-eight to nineteen-ninety. But there were mismanaged social programs, debt and repeated accusations of dishonesty in his administration. In nineteen-ninety, Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession. He resigned and served six months in prison. Then, in nineteen-ninety-four, Washington voters elected him to four more years as mayor. VOICE ONE: When people in Washington are tired of politics, they can turn to sports. Washington has a number of teams, although no Major League baseball team for more than thirty years. Yet, during segregation, even sports was no escape from racial realities. Negro League baseball teams were popular in the nineteen-thirties. But they could not play white teams. Sports centers for blacks often lacked equipment and space. Race also divided play areas for children. Listen to this recording from the City Museum: (ACTUALITY) WOMAN: "Only ten white children are using the spacious New York Avenue playground, while across the street a thousand Negro girls and five-hundred Negro boys at the Dunbar High School have no play space at all. Dark-skinned children peer wistfully through the fence at a well-equipped white playground in their neighborhood. Historian Constance Green." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, some government agencies and businesses have left Washington for nearby areas of Virginia and Maryland. Many whites fled the city after the nineteen-sixty-eight riots and the high crime rates of more recent years. So did a lot of blacks, especially wealthier ones. Today, some people are returning to Washington. There is a lot of building and redevelopment going on. City Museum director Barbara Franco hopes the new exhibits will get more people to explore what she says is the real museum -- Washington itself. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is America was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, This is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS — The Lives of Peter Safar and Louis Lasagna
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 19, 2003 (THEME) (Photo - ci.austin.tx.us) Broadcast: August 19, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the medical world loses two important doctors after long and successful careers. We tell about their lasting influences on medicine. VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the medical world loses two important doctors after long and successful careers. We tell about their lasting influences on medicine. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An American doctor who developed emergency first-aid methods used around the world had died. Peter Safar [SA-fer] was seventy-nine years old and had cancer. He died at his home near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Doctor Safar was known as "the father of C-P-R." CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It is a series of steps in an effort to restart a person's heart and lungs. Almost anyone can learn CPR. Peter Safar was born in Austria in nineteen-twenty-four. He briefly studied medicine at the University of Vienna and at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He trained in anesthesiology. He learned how to prevent pain from operations and other treatments. After he completed his training, he spent two years at the National Cancer Institute in Lima, Peru. VOICE TWO: Doctor Safar had wanted to become a surgeon. He wanted to perform operations. However, he came to believe that not enough was known about more basic life-saving methods. He began research in this field in the late nineteen-fifties. Doctor Safar perfected what is now called the ABCs of CPR. ABC is an easy way to remember, in order, the three steps of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. "A" is for airway. The first step is to clear the victim’s breathing passages. You press down on the top of the head with one hand and lift under the chin with the other. "B" stands for breathing. The rescuer closes the victim's nose with two fingers, then provides air mouth-to-mouth. The rescuer blows into the lungs with slow, full breaths -- in combination, if necessary, with step C. "C" is for circulation. This is done if the heart has stopped. The rescuer places one hand over the other on the middle of the victim's chest. Then, with fingers locked together, the rescuer presses down firmly and quickly. A series of compressions like this forces blood through the heart and to the brain. People who learn CPR are taught to pump at a rate of eighty to one-hundred compressions per minute. After fifteen compressions, the rescuer stops and gives two more full breaths to refill the lungs. Compressions and breaths continue until the heart has restarted or medical help has arrived. If the heart has started again but the victim still does not breathe normally, then only rescue breaths continue. The rescuer gives one breath every five seconds. CPR can be done by one person or two. The important thing is to begin CPR quickly. A victim can suffer permanent brain damage after four minutes without oxygen. A few minutes later the victim can die. CPR is used by emergency workers, but also by the general public. Groups like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies teach CPR. The training can be done in just a few hours. VOICE ONE: Peter Safar leaves behind his wife, Eva, along with two sons, and their five children. He earned the title of Distinguished Professor of Resuscitation Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. In nineteen-seventy-nine he established the International Resuscitation Research Center at the school. In nineteen-ninety-four it was renamed. It is now the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research. Doctor Safar had many other successes in medicine. He helped develop intensive care units in hospitals. These are where the sickest or most severely injured people are treated. Doctor Safar helped design the modern emergency-medical vehicle, along with training for the people who operate them. He was also a peace activist with groups such as Physicians for Social Responsibility. In later years, he researched the effects of cooling the bodies of people who have just survived a heart attack. There is evidence that immediate cooling may help prevent brain damage. Recent studies have added to this evidence. VOICE TWO: Doctor Safar knew tragically what could happen when the brain is starved of air. In nineteen-sixty-six, his only daughter, Elizabeth, suffered an asthma attack. She stopped breathing. Her heart also stopped. Doctor Safar was able to return her heartbeat and breathing. But the lack of oxygen had already destroyed her brain, and she died. Elizabeth Safar was eleven years old. Doctor Safar made it clear that he did not develop cardiopulmonary resuscitation by himself. He also named others who did important work. There is no way to know exactly how many people have been saved by this emergency first-aid. But each year millions more all over the world learn the ABCs of CPR. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another important doctor also died of cancer this month in the United States. His name was Louis Lasagna [la-ZHAN-ya], and he was eighty years old. He died in his hometown of Newton, Massachusetts. Doctor Lasagna was a professor of pharmacology -- the science of how drugs affect living systems. He taught at Tufts University, in Boston, Massachusetts. Some call him the father of pharmacology. One Tufts professor says Doctor Lasagna’s work is found almost everywhere in the day-to-day work of pharmacologists. His most influential work was an article that appeared in nineteen-fifty-four in the American Journal of Medicine. He wrote about a condition known as the "placebo effect." VOICE TWO: A placebo is substance, usually in pill form, that does not contain any medicine. Yet Louis Lasagna showed that sometimes people improve even when they receive placebos. Doctor Lasagna was concerned about the government process for approving drugs. He carried out a campaign to make approval more difficult. Doctor Lasagna argued that all drug testing should include the use placebos as a study control. Doctor Lasagna appeared before a congressional committee to answer questions about the issue. The Food and Drug Administration and the drug industry made some major reforms as a result. VOICE ONE: Today placebos are used throughout studies of experimental drugs. Some people in a study will receive the medicine being tested. Others will receive placebos. The people are not told which pill they are getting. At the end, the researchers compare the results from the two groups. They look to see if the drug being tested did any better or worse than the placebo. In nineteen-ninety-seven, the editor of the British magazine The Lancet honored Doctor Lasagna's article. The editor included it on a list of the world's twenty-seven most notable medical developments since the time of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was an influential Greek doctor who lived more than two-thousand years ago. VOICE TWO: Louis Lasagna was from New York City. He went to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Later, he returned to New York City to attend medical school at Columbia University. He received his degree in nineteen-forty-seven. Doctor Lasagna taught at top medical centers, including the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. And, his lessons went beyond just the science of medicine. Doctor Lasagna trained students to seek an emotional understanding of each patient. He believed it was important for doctors to remember that they treat human beings -- not diseases. He included that thinking when he wrote a new version of the Hippocratic Oath in nineteen-sixty-four. The Hippocratic Oath is the traditional promise that doctors make when they receive their degree from medical school. Louis Lasagna's version, which many schools accepted, calls on doctors to employ sympathy and understanding in dealing with the sick. The oath says doctors should recognize the reach of disease. They should recognize that sickness can hurt not only the patient, but the patient’s family and economic situation, too. Doctor Lasagna’s version also calls on doctors to work to prevent disease. It says prevention is always better than cure. Doctors Lasagna wrote a lot of other things, too, during his fifty-year career. These include two books that he wrote during the nineteen-sixties: "The Doctors' Dilemma" and "Life, Death and the Doctor." Louis Lasagna is survived by his wife, Helen Gersten, seven children and eight grandchildren. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An American doctor who developed emergency first-aid methods used around the world had died. Peter Safar [SA-fer] was seventy-nine years old and had cancer. He died at his home near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Doctor Safar was known as "the father of C-P-R." CPR is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It is a series of steps in an effort to restart a person's heart and lungs. Almost anyone can learn CPR. Peter Safar was born in Austria in nineteen-twenty-four. He briefly studied medicine at the University of Vienna and at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. He completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He trained in anesthesiology. He learned how to prevent pain from operations and other treatments. After he completed his training, he spent two years at the National Cancer Institute in Lima, Peru. VOICE TWO: Doctor Safar had wanted to become a surgeon. He wanted to perform operations. However, he came to believe that not enough was known about more basic life-saving methods. He began research in this field in the late nineteen-fifties. Doctor Safar perfected what is now called the ABCs of CPR. ABC is an easy way to remember, in order, the three steps of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. "A" is for airway. The first step is to clear the victim’s breathing passages. You press down on the top of the head with one hand and lift under the chin with the other. "B" stands for breathing. The rescuer closes the victim's nose with two fingers, then provides air mouth-to-mouth. The rescuer blows into the lungs with slow, full breaths -- in combination, if necessary, with step C. "C" is for circulation. This is done if the heart has stopped. The rescuer places one hand over the other on the middle of the victim's chest. Then, with fingers locked together, the rescuer presses down firmly and quickly. A series of compressions like this forces blood through the heart and to the brain. People who learn CPR are taught to pump at a rate of eighty to one-hundred compressions per minute. After fifteen compressions, the rescuer stops and gives two more full breaths to refill the lungs. Compressions and breaths continue until the heart has restarted or medical help has arrived. If the heart has started again but the victim still does not breathe normally, then only rescue breaths continue. The rescuer gives one breath every five seconds. CPR can be done by one person or two. The important thing is to begin CPR quickly. A victim can suffer permanent brain damage after four minutes without oxygen. A few minutes later the victim can die. CPR is used by emergency workers, but also by the general public. Groups like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies teach CPR. The training can be done in just a few hours. VOICE ONE: Peter Safar leaves behind his wife, Eva, along with two sons, and their five children. He earned the title of Distinguished Professor of Resuscitation Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. In nineteen-seventy-nine he established the International Resuscitation Research Center at the school. In nineteen-ninety-four it was renamed. It is now the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research. Doctor Safar had many other successes in medicine. He helped develop intensive care units in hospitals. These are where the sickest or most severely injured people are treated. Doctor Safar helped design the modern emergency-medical vehicle, along with training for the people who operate them. He was also a peace activist with groups such as Physicians for Social Responsibility. In later years, he researched the effects of cooling the bodies of people who have just survived a heart attack. There is evidence that immediate cooling may help prevent brain damage. Recent studies have added to this evidence. VOICE TWO: Doctor Safar knew tragically what could happen when the brain is starved of air. In nineteen-sixty-six, his only daughter, Elizabeth, suffered an asthma attack. She stopped breathing. Her heart also stopped. Doctor Safar was able to return her heartbeat and breathing. But the lack of oxygen had already destroyed her brain, and she died. Elizabeth Safar was eleven years old. Doctor Safar made it clear that he did not develop cardiopulmonary resuscitation by himself. He also named others who did important work. There is no way to know exactly how many people have been saved by this emergency first-aid. But each year millions more all over the world learn the ABCs of CPR. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another important doctor also died of cancer this month in the United States. His name was Louis Lasagna [la-ZHAN-ya], and he was eighty years old. He died in his hometown of Newton, Massachusetts. Doctor Lasagna was a professor of pharmacology -- the science of how drugs affect living systems. He taught at Tufts University, in Boston, Massachusetts. Some call him the father of pharmacology. One Tufts professor says Doctor Lasagna’s work is found almost everywhere in the day-to-day work of pharmacologists. His most influential work was an article that appeared in nineteen-fifty-four in the American Journal of Medicine. He wrote about a condition known as the "placebo effect." VOICE TWO: A placebo is substance, usually in pill form, that does not contain any medicine. Yet Louis Lasagna showed that sometimes people improve even when they receive placebos. Doctor Lasagna was concerned about the government process for approving drugs. He carried out a campaign to make approval more difficult. Doctor Lasagna argued that all drug testing should include the use placebos as a study control. Doctor Lasagna appeared before a congressional committee to answer questions about the issue. The Food and Drug Administration and the drug industry made some major reforms as a result. VOICE ONE: Today placebos are used throughout studies of experimental drugs. Some people in a study will receive the medicine being tested. Others will receive placebos. The people are not told which pill they are getting. At the end, the researchers compare the results from the two groups. They look to see if the drug being tested did any better or worse than the placebo. In nineteen-ninety-seven, the editor of the British magazine The Lancet honored Doctor Lasagna's article. The editor included it on a list of the world's twenty-seven most notable medical developments since the time of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was an influential Greek doctor who lived more than two-thousand years ago. VOICE TWO: Louis Lasagna was from New York City. He went to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Later, he returned to New York City to attend medical school at Columbia University. He received his degree in nineteen-forty-seven. Doctor Lasagna taught at top medical centers, including the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. And, his lessons went beyond just the science of medicine. Doctor Lasagna trained students to seek an emotional understanding of each patient. He believed it was important for doctors to remember that they treat human beings -- not diseases. He included that thinking when he wrote a new version of the Hippocratic Oath in nineteen-sixty-four. The Hippocratic Oath is the traditional promise that doctors make when they receive their degree from medical school. Louis Lasagna's version, which many schools accepted, calls on doctors to employ sympathy and understanding in dealing with the sick. The oath says doctors should recognize the reach of disease. They should recognize that sickness can hurt not only the patient, but the patient’s family and economic situation, too. Doctor Lasagna’s version also calls on doctors to work to prevent disease. It says prevention is always better than cure. Doctors Lasagna wrote a lot of other things, too, during his fifty-year career. These include two books that he wrote during the nineteen-sixties: "The Doctors' Dilemma" and "Life, Death and the Doctor." Louis Lasagna is survived by his wife, Helen Gersten, seven children and eight grandchildren. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — Heifer International
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 18, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. One of the biggest problems in developing countries is hunger. An organization called Heifer International is working to improve this situation. The organization sends needed farm animals to families and communities around the world. An American farmer, Dan West, developed the idea for Heifer International in the nineteen-thirties. Mister West was working in Spain where he discovered a need for cows. Many families were starving because of a civil war in that country. So Mister West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The first Heifer animals were sent in nineteen-forty-four. Since that time, more than four-million people in over one-hundred countries have had better lives because of Heifer animals. The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves and become self-supporting. It provides more than twenty kinds of animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs and cows. In one recent year Heifer International helped more than thirty-thousand families in forty-six countries. To receive a Heifer animal, groups must first explain their needs and goals. They must also make a plan which will allow them to become self-supporting. Local experts usually provide training. The organization says that animals must have food, water, shelter, health care, and the ability to reproduce. Without them, the animals will not remain healthy and productive. Heifer International also believes that groups must pass on some of their success to others in need. This belief guarantees that each person who takes part in the program also becomes a giver. Every family that receives a Heifer animal must agree to give that animal’s first female baby to other people in need. Families must also agree to pass on the skills and training they received from Heifer International. This concept of “passing on the gift” helps communities become self-supporting. You can learn more about Heifer International and how to request an animal. You can write to the organization at Heifer International, Post Office Box eight-zero-five-eight, Little Rock, Arkansas, seven-two-two-zero-three, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet web site at www.heifer.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Antimicrobial Drugs in Agriculture
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 19, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A study has found no serious effects after farmers in Denmark ended the use of antibiotics to increase growth in pigs and chickens. Many experts worry that too much use in food animals may add to the problem of antimicrobial resistance in humans. Bacteria develop resistance to drugs over time. The World Health Organization last week released a report by experts who studied the Danish example. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Denmark limited the use of drugs in food animals only to the treatment of infections. Farmers had given antibiotics to increase growth mainly in pigs and chickens. Since then, the W-H-O report says the experts found a big drop in the levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in these animals. The experts also found little, if any, increase in production costs. But the report says more studies are needed to learn how much of an effect all this will have on drug resistance in people. The report notes that cases of antimicrobial resistance in humans have been rare in Denmark. Makers of drugs used in animals say a bigger concern should be the overuse of antibiotics by doctors to treat infections in people. Antibiotics can be an effective way to treat dangerous kinds of bacteria like E. coli and salmonella in animals. But farmers may also feed small amounts to healthy cattle, chickens and pigs. These amounts are smaller than farmers would use to treat diseases. Low doses of the drugs cause farm animals to gain weight faster. Cattle and pigs develop fat more quickly. Farmers save money. They use less food and produce more meat. They may also lose fewer animals to disease. In two-thousand-one, the United States Agriculture Department released a report on the use of drugs for the purpose of growth. The Economic Research Service said ending this use would increase production costs for farmers. And that would mean higher prices for meat. But many scientists say they are concerned that drug-resistant bacteria may spread to humans and infect large numbers of people. In nineteen-ninety-nine the European Union banned the use of four kinds of drugs for growth purposes. This past June, McDonald’s also reacted to the concerns. The fast-food seller announced it would ask its meat suppliers to cut back their use of antibiotics except to treat disease. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS — Project Apollo, Part 2: Apollo 11
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 20, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 20, 2003 (THEME) ANNCR: Explorations -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) (Apollo Eleven Countdown) ANNCR: Explorations -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) (Apollo Eleven Countdown) A rocket launch countdown. A common sound in the nineteen-sixties. But this was not just another launch. It was the beginning of an historic event. It was the countdown for Apollo Eleven -- the space flight that would carry men to the first landing on the moon. (Countdown continues) The ground shook at Cape Kennedy, Florida the morning of July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty nine. The huge Saturn Five rocket moved slowly up into the sky. It rose perfectly. Someone on the launch crew spoke the words, "Good luck. And Godspeed. " Today, Steve Ember and Dick Rael tell the story of the flight of Apollo Eleven. VOICE ONE: In the spacecraft at the top of the speeding rocket were three American astronauts whose names soon would be known around the world. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spacecraft. He was a test pilot. He had flown earlier on one of the two-man Gemini space flights. Armstrong was a calm person, a man who talked very little. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was pilot of the moon lander vehicle. The astronauts gave it the name "Eagle." Aldrin had flown on the last of the Gemini flights. He also was a quiet man, except when he talked about space. Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module vehicle, "Columbia." He also had made a Gemini flight. He would wait in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored the surface. Collins was very popular and always ready with a smile. VOICE TWO: Two-and-one-half minutes after the Apollo Eleven launch, the first-stage rocket separated from the spacecraft. Twelve minutes later, the spacecraft reached orbit. Its speed was twenty-nine-thousand kilometers an hour. Its orbit was one-hundred-sixty-five kilometers above the Earth. This was the time for the crew to test all the spacecraft systems. Everything worked perfectly. So, the NASA flight director told them they were "go" for the moon. They fired the third-stage rocket. It increased the speed of the spacecraft to forty-thousand kilometers an hour. This was fast enough to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity. Apollo Eleven was on its way to the moon. In seventy-seven hours, if all went well, Apollo Eleven would be there. VOICE ONE: Halfway to the moon, the astronauts broadcast a color television program to Earth. The broadcast showed how the astronauts lived in the spacecraft. It showed their instruments, food storage, and details of how they moved and worked without gravity to give them weight. The television broadcast also showed the Earth behind Apollo Eleven. And it showed the moon growing larger in the blackness ahead. As hours passed, the pull of the moon's gravity grew stronger. Near the moon, the astronauts fired rockets to slow the spacecraft enough to put it into moon orbit. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eleven circled the moon while the crew prepared for the landing. Finally, spacecraft commander Armstrong and NASA flight controllers agreed it was time to separate the lander module "Eagle" from the command module "Columbia." Armstrong and Aldrin moved through the small opening between the two spacecraft. Then they moved Eagle away from Columbia. Armstrong reported, "The Eagle has wings!" The lunar module was ready. Men were about to land on the moon. On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixon gave federal government workers the day off to watch the moon landing on television. Around the world, five-hundred-million people watched the television report. Countless millions more listened on their radios. VOICE ONE: Armstrong and Aldrin fired the lander rocket engine. The firing slowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. It was in an area known as the "Sea of Tranquility. " The lunar lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward the airless surface of the moon. One-hundred-forty meters from the surface, the astronauts took control of the lander from the computer. They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing. The voices of Aldrin and Armstrong could be heard in short messages. "Forward. . . Forward. . . Good. Forty feet. Kicking up some dust. Big shadow. Drifting to the right a little. Contact light. Okay. Engine stop. " Armstrong reported, "Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed!" VOICE TWO: NASA's plan had called for the astronauts to test instruments, eat and then rest for four hours before leaving the Eagle. But Armstrong and Aldrin asked to cancel the four-hour sleep period. They wanted to go out onto the moon as soon as they could get ready. NASA controllers agreed. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult -- in Eagle's small space -- to get into space suits that would protect them on the moon's surface. VOICE ONE: Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door. Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At two hours fifty-six Greenwich Mean Time on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon. "That’s one small step for man," he said, "One giant leap for mankind." The world could see the history-making event on television. But the man who was closest to what was happening, Michael Collins, could only listen. He was orbiting the moon in the command module Columbia. It did not have a television receiver. VOICE TWO: Armstrong moved carefully away from the Eagle. He left the cold, black shadow of the lander and stepped into the blinding white light of the sun. On Earth, all was quiet. No sound came from televisions or radios. No one felt able to talk about what was happening. Armstrong began to describe what he saw. "The surface appears to be very, very fine grain, like a powder. I can kick it loosely with my toes. I can see footprints of my boots in the small, fine particles. No trouble to walk around.” VOICE ONE: Aldrin appeared on the ladder. Down he came, very slowly. Soon, both men were busy placing experiments to be left behind on the moon. They collected more than thirty kilograms of rock and soil to take back to Earth. They moved easily and quickly, because the moon's gravity is six times less than Earth's. Hours passed. Too soon, it was time to return to the Eagle. Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the lander. They rested for a while. Then they began to prepare to launch the lander for the return flight to the orbiting command module. VOICE TWO: Listeners on Earth heard the countdown from Tranquility Base. "Three, two, one. . . first stage engine on ascent. Proceed. Beautiful. Twenty-six. . . thirty-six feet per second up. Very smooth, very quiet ride." Eagle was flying. Man had been on the moon for twenty-one and one-half hours. Eagle moved into the orbit of the command module. It connected with Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined Collins in the command ship. They separated from Eagle and said good-bye to it. The lander had done its job well. VOICE ONE: Eight days after it started its voyage to the moon, Apollo Eleven splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Left behind on the moon were the footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin, an American flag and scientific equipment. Also left forever on the moon is a sign with these words: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon -- July, nineteen-sixty-nine A. D. We came in peace for all mankind. " (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Dick Rael. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo space flight program. A rocket launch countdown. A common sound in the nineteen-sixties. But this was not just another launch. It was the beginning of an historic event. It was the countdown for Apollo Eleven -- the space flight that would carry men to the first landing on the moon. (Countdown continues) The ground shook at Cape Kennedy, Florida the morning of July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty nine. The huge Saturn Five rocket moved slowly up into the sky. It rose perfectly. Someone on the launch crew spoke the words, "Good luck. And Godspeed. " Today, Steve Ember and Dick Rael tell the story of the flight of Apollo Eleven. VOICE ONE: In the spacecraft at the top of the speeding rocket were three American astronauts whose names soon would be known around the world. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins. Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spacecraft. He was a test pilot. He had flown earlier on one of the two-man Gemini space flights. Armstrong was a calm person, a man who talked very little. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was pilot of the moon lander vehicle. The astronauts gave it the name "Eagle." Aldrin had flown on the last of the Gemini flights. He also was a quiet man, except when he talked about space. Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module vehicle, "Columbia." He also had made a Gemini flight. He would wait in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored the surface. Collins was very popular and always ready with a smile. VOICE TWO: Two-and-one-half minutes after the Apollo Eleven launch, the first-stage rocket separated from the spacecraft. Twelve minutes later, the spacecraft reached orbit. Its speed was twenty-nine-thousand kilometers an hour. Its orbit was one-hundred-sixty-five kilometers above the Earth. This was the time for the crew to test all the spacecraft systems. Everything worked perfectly. So, the NASA flight director told them they were "go" for the moon. They fired the third-stage rocket. It increased the speed of the spacecraft to forty-thousand kilometers an hour. This was fast enough to escape the pull of the Earth's gravity. Apollo Eleven was on its way to the moon. In seventy-seven hours, if all went well, Apollo Eleven would be there. VOICE ONE: Halfway to the moon, the astronauts broadcast a color television program to Earth. The broadcast showed how the astronauts lived in the spacecraft. It showed their instruments, food storage, and details of how they moved and worked without gravity to give them weight. The television broadcast also showed the Earth behind Apollo Eleven. And it showed the moon growing larger in the blackness ahead. As hours passed, the pull of the moon's gravity grew stronger. Near the moon, the astronauts fired rockets to slow the spacecraft enough to put it into moon orbit. VOICE TWO: Apollo Eleven circled the moon while the crew prepared for the landing. Finally, spacecraft commander Armstrong and NASA flight controllers agreed it was time to separate the lander module "Eagle" from the command module "Columbia." Armstrong and Aldrin moved through the small opening between the two spacecraft. Then they moved Eagle away from Columbia. Armstrong reported, "The Eagle has wings!" The lunar module was ready. Men were about to land on the moon. On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixon gave federal government workers the day off to watch the moon landing on television. Around the world, five-hundred-million people watched the television report. Countless millions more listened on their radios. VOICE ONE: Armstrong and Aldrin fired the lander rocket engine. The firing slowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. It was in an area known as the "Sea of Tranquility. " The lunar lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward the airless surface of the moon. One-hundred-forty meters from the surface, the astronauts took control of the lander from the computer. They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area that might have caused a difficult landing. The voices of Aldrin and Armstrong could be heard in short messages. "Forward. . . Forward. . . Good. Forty feet. Kicking up some dust. Big shadow. Drifting to the right a little. Contact light. Okay. Engine stop. " Armstrong reported, "Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed!" VOICE TWO: NASA's plan had called for the astronauts to test instruments, eat and then rest for four hours before leaving the Eagle. But Armstrong and Aldrin asked to cancel the four-hour sleep period. They wanted to go out onto the moon as soon as they could get ready. NASA controllers agreed. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult -- in Eagle's small space -- to get into space suits that would protect them on the moon's surface. VOICE ONE: Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door. Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At two hours fifty-six Greenwich Mean Time on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon. "That’s one small step for man," he said, "One giant leap for mankind." The world could see the history-making event on television. But the man who was closest to what was happening, Michael Collins, could only listen. He was orbiting the moon in the command module Columbia. It did not have a television receiver. VOICE TWO: Armstrong moved carefully away from the Eagle. He left the cold, black shadow of the lander and stepped into the blinding white light of the sun. On Earth, all was quiet. No sound came from televisions or radios. No one felt able to talk about what was happening. Armstrong began to describe what he saw. "The surface appears to be very, very fine grain, like a powder. I can kick it loosely with my toes. I can see footprints of my boots in the small, fine particles. No trouble to walk around.” VOICE ONE: Aldrin appeared on the ladder. Down he came, very slowly. Soon, both men were busy placing experiments to be left behind on the moon. They collected more than thirty kilograms of rock and soil to take back to Earth. They moved easily and quickly, because the moon's gravity is six times less than Earth's. Hours passed. Too soon, it was time to return to the Eagle. Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the lander. They rested for a while. Then they began to prepare to launch the lander for the return flight to the orbiting command module. VOICE TWO: Listeners on Earth heard the countdown from Tranquility Base. "Three, two, one. . . first stage engine on ascent. Proceed. Beautiful. Twenty-six. . . thirty-six feet per second up. Very smooth, very quiet ride." Eagle was flying. Man had been on the moon for twenty-one and one-half hours. Eagle moved into the orbit of the command module. It connected with Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined Collins in the command ship. They separated from Eagle and said good-bye to it. The lander had done its job well. VOICE ONE: Eight days after it started its voyage to the moon, Apollo Eleven splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Left behind on the moon were the footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin, an American flag and scientific equipment. Also left forever on the moon is a sign with these words: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon -- July, nineteen-sixty-nine A. D. We came in peace for all mankind. " (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Dick Rael. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen again next week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as we continue the story of the Apollo space flight program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Adherence to Long-term Therapies Report
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 20, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization says medical progress against disease will have no effect if people fail to take their medicine. That may seem like common sense. But a W-H-O report says only about half of people in developed countries continue their treatments for serious medical conditions. Continuing treatment over a long period of time is known as adherence. Adherence rates are even lower in developing countries. The W-H-O released the report as part of an effort called the Adherence to Long-Term Therapies project. This project is a worldwide attempt to improve rates of treatment for sicknesses that last a long time. The report says more than fifty percent of all long-term diseases include mental disorders, H-I-V infection, tuberculosis and conditions that do not spread. These include cancer and heart disease. Experts say the percentage will rise to sixty-five percent of all the long-term diseases treated by two-thousand-twenty. Other long-term diseases discussed in the report include high blood pressure, depression, diabetes and asthma. The Adherence to Long-Term Therapies Project is the work of more than two-hundred-eighty scientists. They come from over forty countries. One goal of the project is to involve policy makers and health professionals in the search for better adherence rates. Another purpose is to support research about ways to improve adherence. Still another is to develop local programs to support patients. The W-H-O report says health care providers need training to judge a patient's ability to understand and continue with treatments. They need to give advice about how people can follow their treatments. And they need to examine the patient's progress at every chance. The report says patients need to be supported, not blamed. It says another way to improve adherence is to get the support of the patient's family and community. Research has shown that these are important influences on treatment. The W-H-O report says improving adherence to existing treatments may have better results than providing new medical technologies. It says better adherence is a low-cost way to improve the lives of people with long-term diseases. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: August 20, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization says medical progress against disease will have no effect if people fail to take their medicine. That may seem like common sense. But a W-H-O report says only about half of people in developed countries continue their treatments for serious medical conditions. Continuing treatment over a long period of time is known as adherence. Adherence rates are even lower in developing countries. The W-H-O released the report as part of an effort called the Adherence to Long-Term Therapies project. This project is a worldwide attempt to improve rates of treatment for sicknesses that last a long time. The report says more than fifty percent of all long-term diseases include mental disorders, H-I-V infection, tuberculosis and conditions that do not spread. These include cancer and heart disease. Experts say the percentage will rise to sixty-five percent of all the long-term diseases treated by two-thousand-twenty. Other long-term diseases discussed in the report include high blood pressure, depression, diabetes and asthma. The Adherence to Long-Term Therapies Project is the work of more than two-hundred-eighty scientists. They come from over forty countries. One goal of the project is to involve policy makers and health professionals in the search for better adherence rates. Another purpose is to support research about ways to improve adherence. Still another is to develop local programs to support patients. The W-H-O report says health care providers need training to judge a patient's ability to understand and continue with treatments. They need to give advice about how people can follow their treatments. And they need to examine the patient's progress at every chance. The report says patients need to be supported, not blamed. It says another way to improve adherence is to get the support of the patient's family and community. Research has shown that these are important influences on treatment. The W-H-O report says improving adherence to existing treatments may have better results than providing new medical technologies. It says better adherence is a low-cost way to improve the lives of people with long-term diseases. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #26 — Ratifying the Constitution
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 21, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) For the past several weeks, we told the story of the United States Constitution. We told how a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia in the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen states. Instead, they wrote a completely new plan of government. On September Seventeenth, the delegates finally approved and signed the document after four months of often bitter debate. Now, they had to get nine of the thirteen states to approve the Constitution. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell that story -- ratifying the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the Philadelphia convention had met in secret. They wanted to be able to debate proposals, and change their minds, without worrying about public reaction. Now, they were free to speak openly. Each had a copy of the new Constitution. Newspapers also got copies. They printed every word. Public reaction was great indeed. Arguments 'for' and 'against' were the same as those voiced by delegates to the convention: The Constitution would save the United States! The Constitution would create a dictator! VOICE ONE: The leaders who supported the new Constitution understood quickly that to win ratification, they must speak out. So, just a few weeks after the document was signed, they began writing statements supporting the proposed Constitution. Their statements appeared first in newspapers in New York. They were called the Federalist Papers. They were printed under the name of 'Publius'. But they were really written by three men: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Years later, historians said the Federalist Papers were the greatest explanation of the Constitution ever written. But in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, they had little effect on public opinion. VOICE TWO: The debate over the Constitution divided Americans into two groups. Those who supported it were known as Federalists. Those who opposed it were known as anti-Federalists. The anti-Federalists were not anti-American. They were important leaders who loved their country. They were governors, heroes of the Revolutionary War, and even a future president. Yet they distrusted the idea of a strong central government. Give too much power to the president, the Congress and the courts, they said, and citizens would no longer be free. They would lose the liberties gained in the war for independence from Britain. VOICE ONE: One anti-Federalist was Patrick Henry of Virginia. James Madison called him the most dangerous enemy of the Constitution. Patrick Henry and other anti-Federalists tried to create distrust and fear about the new plan of government. Farmers against city people. North against South. Small states against big states. An anti-Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia carried this commentary: "Citizens! You are lucky to live in Pennsylvania, where we have the best government in the world. Do not let this government be destroyed by the new Constitution. Do not let a few men -- men with great names -- seize control of your lives." One Federalist noted that it was easier to frighten the people than to teach them. VOICE TWO: There were both Federalists and anti-Federalists in the Continental Congress. The Congress had few powers. But it was the only central government the thirteen states had at that time. It met in New York City. The convention in Philadelphia had sent the Continental Congress a copy of the new Constitution. Within eight days, the Congress agreed that each state should organize a convention to discuss ratification. One by one, the states held their conventions. VOICE ONE: Delaware was the first state to ratify, early in December, Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. All the delegates voted to approve it. Pennsylvania was the next to ratify, also in December. New Jersey ratified the Constitution in December, followed by Georgia and Connecticut in January. That made five states. The Federalists needed just four more to win ratification. Massachusetts voted in early February. Delegates to the state convention wanted the Constitution amended to include guarantees to protect citizens' rights. They agreed to ratify if these guarantees were added later. VOICE TWO: Maryland ratified the Constitution at the end of April. There, a number of delegates included a letter of protest with their vote. They said if the proposed plan of government were not amended, the liberty and happiness of the people would be threatened. South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify, at the end of May. Just one more state and the new Constitution would become the law of the land. All eyes turned to Virginia. VOICE ONE: Virginia was the biggest of the thirteen states. At that time, its western border stretched all the way to the Mississippi River. One-fifth of all the people in America lived in Virginia. The men who attended the ratifying convention were among the most famous names in the nation: James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, Edmund Randolph and John Marshall. Thomas Jefferson was still in Paris, serving as America's representative to France. But others kept him informed of everything that happened at home. Jefferson wrote back that he liked most of the Constitution. But, he said, I do not like the fact that it does not contain a declaration of the rights of citizens. The most famous Virginian, George Washington, stayed at his farm, Mount Vernon. All during the month of June, however, riders brought him messages from the convention and carried messages back. VOICE TWO: For three weeks, the Virginia delegates argued about the Constitution. By the end of June, they were ready to vote. Patrick Henry, the outspoken anti-Federalist, asked to make a last statement. "If this convention approves the Constitution," Henry said, "I will feel that I fought for good reasons. . .and lost the fight. If this happens, I will wait and hope. I will hope that the spirit of the American Revolution is not lost. I will hope that this new plan of government is changed to protect the safety, the liberty, and the happiness of the American people." Then the convention voted. Virginia approved the Constitution. However, like Massachusetts, it added that the document must include a declaration of rights for the nation's people. VOICE ONE: Federalists in Virginia were proud. They thought their state was the ninth to ratify, the one that made the Constitution the law of the land. But they soon learned that New Hampshire had ratified a few days earlier. Virginia was number ten. That left three states: North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York. In a way, New York was the most important of all. If New York refused to join the union under the Constitution, it would be almost impossible for a central government to rule the nation. The twelve other states would be divided in two, geographically separated by New York state. VOICE TWO: The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton. They used their right to filibuster -- to make many long speeches -- to delay the vote. They wanted to wait to hear what Virginia would do. Early in July, they got the news. But New York's anti-Federalists kept up the fight for three more weeks. It was not until the end of July that New York finally ratified the Constitution. The vote was extremely close: thirty to twenty-seven. Like Massachusetts and Virginia, New York demanded a declaration of rights. VOICE ONE: The long struggle to give the United States a strong central government was over. It took four months to write a new Constitution. It took ten months to ratify it. The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. The last two states -- North Carolina and Rhode Island -- did not ratify it until many months after that date. Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania, who had signed the Declaration of Independence, wrote down eight words when he heard that the Constitution had been ratified. "It is done," he said, "we have become a nation." (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: August 21, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) For the past several weeks, we told the story of the United States Constitution. We told how a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia in the summer of Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. They planned to change the Articles of Confederation, which provided a loose union of the thirteen states. Instead, they wrote a completely new plan of government. On September Seventeenth, the delegates finally approved and signed the document after four months of often bitter debate. Now, they had to get nine of the thirteen states to approve the Constitution. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell that story -- ratifying the Constitution. VOICE TWO: Delegates to the Philadelphia convention had met in secret. They wanted to be able to debate proposals, and change their minds, without worrying about public reaction. Now, they were free to speak openly. Each had a copy of the new Constitution. Newspapers also got copies. They printed every word. Public reaction was great indeed. Arguments 'for' and 'against' were the same as those voiced by delegates to the convention: The Constitution would save the United States! The Constitution would create a dictator! VOICE ONE: The leaders who supported the new Constitution understood quickly that to win ratification, they must speak out. So, just a few weeks after the document was signed, they began writing statements supporting the proposed Constitution. Their statements appeared first in newspapers in New York. They were called the Federalist Papers. They were printed under the name of 'Publius'. But they were really written by three men: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. Years later, historians said the Federalist Papers were the greatest explanation of the Constitution ever written. But in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven, they had little effect on public opinion. VOICE TWO: The debate over the Constitution divided Americans into two groups. Those who supported it were known as Federalists. Those who opposed it were known as anti-Federalists. The anti-Federalists were not anti-American. They were important leaders who loved their country. They were governors, heroes of the Revolutionary War, and even a future president. Yet they distrusted the idea of a strong central government. Give too much power to the president, the Congress and the courts, they said, and citizens would no longer be free. They would lose the liberties gained in the war for independence from Britain. VOICE ONE: One anti-Federalist was Patrick Henry of Virginia. James Madison called him the most dangerous enemy of the Constitution. Patrick Henry and other anti-Federalists tried to create distrust and fear about the new plan of government. Farmers against city people. North against South. Small states against big states. An anti-Federalist newspaper in Philadelphia carried this commentary: "Citizens! You are lucky to live in Pennsylvania, where we have the best government in the world. Do not let this government be destroyed by the new Constitution. Do not let a few men -- men with great names -- seize control of your lives." One Federalist noted that it was easier to frighten the people than to teach them. VOICE TWO: There were both Federalists and anti-Federalists in the Continental Congress. The Congress had few powers. But it was the only central government the thirteen states had at that time. It met in New York City. The convention in Philadelphia had sent the Continental Congress a copy of the new Constitution. Within eight days, the Congress agreed that each state should organize a convention to discuss ratification. One by one, the states held their conventions. VOICE ONE: Delaware was the first state to ratify, early in December, Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. All the delegates voted to approve it. Pennsylvania was the next to ratify, also in December. New Jersey ratified the Constitution in December, followed by Georgia and Connecticut in January. That made five states. The Federalists needed just four more to win ratification. Massachusetts voted in early February. Delegates to the state convention wanted the Constitution amended to include guarantees to protect citizens' rights. They agreed to ratify if these guarantees were added later. VOICE TWO: Maryland ratified the Constitution at the end of April. There, a number of delegates included a letter of protest with their vote. They said if the proposed plan of government were not amended, the liberty and happiness of the people would be threatened. South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify, at the end of May. Just one more state and the new Constitution would become the law of the land. All eyes turned to Virginia. VOICE ONE: Virginia was the biggest of the thirteen states. At that time, its western border stretched all the way to the Mississippi River. One-fifth of all the people in America lived in Virginia. The men who attended the ratifying convention were among the most famous names in the nation: James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Monroe, Edmund Randolph and John Marshall. Thomas Jefferson was still in Paris, serving as America's representative to France. But others kept him informed of everything that happened at home. Jefferson wrote back that he liked most of the Constitution. But, he said, I do not like the fact that it does not contain a declaration of the rights of citizens. The most famous Virginian, George Washington, stayed at his farm, Mount Vernon. All during the month of June, however, riders brought him messages from the convention and carried messages back. VOICE TWO: For three weeks, the Virginia delegates argued about the Constitution. By the end of June, they were ready to vote. Patrick Henry, the outspoken anti-Federalist, asked to make a last statement. "If this convention approves the Constitution," Henry said, "I will feel that I fought for good reasons. . .and lost the fight. If this happens, I will wait and hope. I will hope that the spirit of the American Revolution is not lost. I will hope that this new plan of government is changed to protect the safety, the liberty, and the happiness of the American people." Then the convention voted. Virginia approved the Constitution. However, like Massachusetts, it added that the document must include a declaration of rights for the nation's people. VOICE ONE: Federalists in Virginia were proud. They thought their state was the ninth to ratify, the one that made the Constitution the law of the land. But they soon learned that New Hampshire had ratified a few days earlier. Virginia was number ten. That left three states: North Carolina, Rhode Island, and New York. In a way, New York was the most important of all. If New York refused to join the union under the Constitution, it would be almost impossible for a central government to rule the nation. The twelve other states would be divided in two, geographically separated by New York state. VOICE TWO: The Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton. They used their right to filibuster -- to make many long speeches -- to delay the vote. They wanted to wait to hear what Virginia would do. Early in July, they got the news. But New York's anti-Federalists kept up the fight for three more weeks. It was not until the end of July that New York finally ratified the Constitution. The vote was extremely close: thirty to twenty-seven. Like Massachusetts and Virginia, New York demanded a declaration of rights. VOICE ONE: The long struggle to give the United States a strong central government was over. It took four months to write a new Constitution. It took ten months to ratify it. The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. The last two states -- North Carolina and Rhode Island -- did not ratify it until many months after that date. Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania, who had signed the Declaration of Independence, wrote down eight words when he heard that the Constitution had been ratified. "It is done," he said, "we have become a nation." (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT — Teaching Fellows
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 21, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. New York City has the largest public school system in the United States. The city Department of Education operates one-thousand-two-hundred schools. Three years ago, the city badly needed more teachers. It especially needed good teachers to work in poor schools. To help deal with the teacher shortage, educators launched the New York City Teaching Fellows program. The program chose two-hundred-fifty people from other jobs to study to become classroom teachers. Today, more than three-thousand of these Teaching Fellows work in New York City schools. Most of them serve in the Bronx and Brooklyn areas of the city. They work in schools where students are performing poorly. Many of these Teaching Fellows teach mathematics, science or special education. Special education is for students who have learning disabilities or other problems. The schools have the greatest demand for teachers in these subjects. Teaching Fellows did not study education in college, like a lot of other teachers. They were lawyers, nurses, technology experts, business people and others. They prepare for their new occupation by taking intensive courses for about two months in the summer. During that time, they study educational ideas and methods. They also work in classrooms under supervision of people who have taught for years. They meet with advisors to discuss their progress. Then they begin work as teachers. While doing so, the Teaching Fellows also attend local universities to earn a master’s degree. These studies help them become accredited -- officially approved -- as teachers. Most of their expenses are paid through the program. The national service organization AmeriCorps also may help if its budget permits. Programs that put new teachers in classrooms faster than usual are spreading. Several communities have started them. For example, the city of Washington began a Teaching Fellows program in two-thousand-one. Many schools in the nation's capital have poor records and have needed teachers. Last fall, one-hundred Teaching Fellows were at work. At first, some school directors said they feared that the new teachers might not be well prepared. But officials say many school directors now want to consider hiring them. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC — Lily Tomlin receives a Prize / Celia Cruz Remembered / And the Story of Hot Dogs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 22, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 22, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life. Plus we answer your questions. (THEME) I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This week: What's the real story behind the hot dog. A listener wants to know! And a musical honor in memory of Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz. But first -- we tell about an honor of a different kind that's good for some laughs. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, a VOA Special English program about music and American life. Plus we answer your questions. (THEME) I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. This week: What's the real story behind the hot dog. A listener wants to know! And a musical honor in memory of Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz. But first -- we tell about an honor of a different kind that's good for some laughs. Lily Tomlin HOST: There are awards for lots of things. In America, there is even an award for being funny. But it is a serious award. It's presented by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Faith Lapidus tells us about the Mark Twain Award for American Humor. ANNCR: Mark Twain was a writer in the nineteenth century. He became famous for his critical humor about society. The Kennedy Center established the award in his name in nineteen-ninety-eight. It goes to a person whose lifetime of work is funny, but also examines political and social issues. This year Lily Tomlin won the award. Lily Tomlin has spent more than thirty years in comedy. In the nineteen-seventies, she appeared on the television show “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” During that time she created two of her best known characters. One is a five-year-old girl named Edith Ann who sits in a huge chair. The other is Ernestine the telephone operator. Listen now as she "calls" J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (SOUND) This performance was from Lily Tomlin’s nineteen-seventy-one comedy album “This is a Recording.” That record won a Grammy Award for best comedy performance. In nineteen-seventy-five, Lily Tomlin was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress. She was recognized for her part in the film “Nashville.” It was her first movie. Since then, she has appeared in many other films. Lily Tomlin also has been honored for her theatre work. She received a Tony Award in nineteen-seventy-seven for her one-person show, “Appearing Nitely.” She won her second Tony in nineteen-eighty-six in the Jane Wagner play “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.” And, if you watch the TV show "The West Wing" each week, you see her play an assistant to the president of the United States! History of the Hot Dog Host: Our VOA listener question this week comes by e-mail from Russia. Nadya and her father ask about the history of the hot dog. A hot dog is a long, thin sausage usually made of beef, pork or chicken. It is served on a roll of soft bread. Hot dogs are popular especially when people get together, like at sporting events. German immigrants brought this kind of sausage to America in the late eighteen-hundreds. One story widely told is that the name "hot dog" began with a cartoonist in New York in the early nineteen-hundreds. He drew dachshunds in rolls and wrote "get your hot dogs." A dachshund is a small German dog that looks like a sausage with legs. Supposedly he wrote this because he did not know how to spell "frankfurter." That is another name for long, thin sausage. Frankfurt is a German city. Well, as the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council now admits, this is not how the name hot dog was invented. Language experts in the United States worked hard in recent years to settle the question. One expert, Barry Popik [PAH-pik], found a popular song from eighteen-sixty. It showed that some people at that time had suspicions that sausage was made of dog meat. He found other evidence from the eighteen-nineties. Students at Yale University began to call the wagons that sold hot sausages in buns "dog wagons." Later, a story in the Yale Record talked about students eating "hot dogs." But the Web site worldwidewords-dot-o-r-g says the new research shows that the history is more complex than that. The term "hot dog" had already been invented not long before. It described a well-dressed young man. Over the years, this meaning has changed. Today a person who shows off is called a "hot dog." An American football player, for example, might dance around for the crowd after he catches a ball. But most hot dogs are for eating. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says Americans ate more than twenty-thousand million of them last year. Celia Cruz HOST: We do not usually play fast, happy music when we report about the death of someone. But how can we report about Celia Cruz and not play some of the beautiful music she gave the world? Celia Cruz died last month of brain cancer. She was seventy-eight years old. Steve Ember tells us more about her. ANNCR: You do not have to speak Spanish to enjoy the music of Celia Cruz. All you have to do is listen and smile. Celia Cruz sang songs that make you feel the warm sun of her native Cuba. Her music makes your feet want to dance. Listen for a moment to a song called "Contestacion al Marinero." (MUSIC) Celia Cruz was born in a poor area of Havana. She became well known in Cuba in the nineteen-fifties, after she won a radio contest for singers. Soon she was singing with the most famous big band in Cuba, La Sonora Matancera. Celia Cruz never stopped singing. She came to the United States when Cuba was no longer free. She never talked about political problems. She always let her music speak for her. Here she sings "Juancito Trucupey." (MUSIC) Celia Cruz always had a huge smile as she walked onto a stage. She would take the microphone and shout "Azuuuuuuuucar!" The people who came to hear her would scream the word back to her. "Azucar" means sugar in Spanish. Then the sweet music would begin. We must end our story now. But, first, imagine it is the nineteen-fifties. We are sitting at a table at the famous Tropicana Hotel in Havana. The lights on the stage become very bright. Celia Cruz walks to the microphone. The band members from La Sonora Matancera start to play. And Celia Cruz begins. We leave you with a song called "Yerbero Moderno." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Phoebe Zimmermann, sitting in for Doug Johnson. If you have a question about American life, send it to mosaic at www.voanews.com. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. So please include your name and postal address. You can also write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, USA. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Lily Tomlin HOST: There are awards for lots of things. In America, there is even an award for being funny. But it is a serious award. It's presented by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Faith Lapidus tells us about the Mark Twain Award for American Humor. ANNCR: Mark Twain was a writer in the nineteenth century. He became famous for his critical humor about society. The Kennedy Center established the award in his name in nineteen-ninety-eight. It goes to a person whose lifetime of work is funny, but also examines political and social issues. This year Lily Tomlin won the award. Lily Tomlin has spent more than thirty years in comedy. In the nineteen-seventies, she appeared on the television show “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” During that time she created two of her best known characters. One is a five-year-old girl named Edith Ann who sits in a huge chair. The other is Ernestine the telephone operator. Listen now as she "calls" J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (SOUND) This performance was from Lily Tomlin’s nineteen-seventy-one comedy album “This is a Recording.” That record won a Grammy Award for best comedy performance. In nineteen-seventy-five, Lily Tomlin was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress. She was recognized for her part in the film “Nashville.” It was her first movie. Since then, she has appeared in many other films. Lily Tomlin also has been honored for her theatre work. She received a Tony Award in nineteen-seventy-seven for her one-person show, “Appearing Nitely.” She won her second Tony in nineteen-eighty-six in the Jane Wagner play “The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.” And, if you watch the TV show "The West Wing" each week, you see her play an assistant to the president of the United States! History of the Hot Dog Host: Our VOA listener question this week comes by e-mail from Russia. Nadya and her father ask about the history of the hot dog. A hot dog is a long, thin sausage usually made of beef, pork or chicken. It is served on a roll of soft bread. Hot dogs are popular especially when people get together, like at sporting events. German immigrants brought this kind of sausage to America in the late eighteen-hundreds. One story widely told is that the name "hot dog" began with a cartoonist in New York in the early nineteen-hundreds. He drew dachshunds in rolls and wrote "get your hot dogs." A dachshund is a small German dog that looks like a sausage with legs. Supposedly he wrote this because he did not know how to spell "frankfurter." That is another name for long, thin sausage. Frankfurt is a German city. Well, as the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council now admits, this is not how the name hot dog was invented. Language experts in the United States worked hard in recent years to settle the question. One expert, Barry Popik [PAH-pik], found a popular song from eighteen-sixty. It showed that some people at that time had suspicions that sausage was made of dog meat. He found other evidence from the eighteen-nineties. Students at Yale University began to call the wagons that sold hot sausages in buns "dog wagons." Later, a story in the Yale Record talked about students eating "hot dogs." But the Web site worldwidewords-dot-o-r-g says the new research shows that the history is more complex than that. The term "hot dog" had already been invented not long before. It described a well-dressed young man. Over the years, this meaning has changed. Today a person who shows off is called a "hot dog." An American football player, for example, might dance around for the crowd after he catches a ball. But most hot dogs are for eating. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says Americans ate more than twenty-thousand million of them last year. Celia Cruz HOST: We do not usually play fast, happy music when we report about the death of someone. But how can we report about Celia Cruz and not play some of the beautiful music she gave the world? Celia Cruz died last month of brain cancer. She was seventy-eight years old. Steve Ember tells us more about her. ANNCR: You do not have to speak Spanish to enjoy the music of Celia Cruz. All you have to do is listen and smile. Celia Cruz sang songs that make you feel the warm sun of her native Cuba. Her music makes your feet want to dance. Listen for a moment to a song called "Contestacion al Marinero." (MUSIC) Celia Cruz was born in a poor area of Havana. She became well known in Cuba in the nineteen-fifties, after she won a radio contest for singers. Soon she was singing with the most famous big band in Cuba, La Sonora Matancera. Celia Cruz never stopped singing. She came to the United States when Cuba was no longer free. She never talked about political problems. She always let her music speak for her. Here she sings "Juancito Trucupey." (MUSIC) Celia Cruz always had a huge smile as she walked onto a stage. She would take the microphone and shout "Azuuuuuuuucar!" The people who came to hear her would scream the word back to her. "Azucar" means sugar in Spanish. Then the sweet music would begin. We must end our story now. But, first, imagine it is the nineteen-fifties. We are sitting at a table at the famous Tropicana Hotel in Havana. The lights on the stage become very bright. Celia Cruz walks to the microphone. The band members from La Sonora Matancera start to play. And Celia Cruz begins. We leave you with a song called "Yerbero Moderno." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Phoebe Zimmermann, sitting in for Doug Johnson. If you have a question about American life, send it to mosaic at www.voanews.com. We'll send you a gift if we use your question. So please include your name and postal address. You can also write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., 20237, USA. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – August: 22, 2003: Blackout in U.S., Canada
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Last week millions of people in the United States and Canada suddenly found themselves in a whole new environment. Electricity stopped flowing along thousands of kilometers of power lines. The blackout happened August fourteenth. It lasted for hours, and stretched across a huge area of the northeastern and midwestern United States. Among the cities darkened were New York; Detroit, Michigan; and Cleveland, Ohio. Toronto and Ottawa were the major Canadian cities affected. By Saturday, August sixteenth, power had returned almost everywhere. Economists say they expect no serious harm to the economy. Officials said it appeared to have all started with a series of power line failures near Cleveland in the two hours before the blackout. Experts say at least one warning system also failed. It was not clear how much that warning would have helped. But, some say power line operators might have been able to act to contain the outage. Officials said the failures created a series of sudden increases and decreases of power along lines throughout the rest of the system. Lines in other areas began to fail. Then, computers began to shut down whole power stations to protect them. This week the Bush administration announced it would investigate the blackout jointly with Canada. American Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said it was important to examine all the facts before placing blame. He said the investigation will involve hundreds of officials, power system operators and power companies. Some people say the Energy Department should not lead the investigation because its own policies may influence the findings. But a spokeswoman says the investigation will be independent and complete. The North American Electric Reliability Council also began its own investigation. That group was set up after a nineteen-sixty-five outage on the East Coast to make sure supplies are dependable. This was the largest blackout in American history. The last major one was in the West seven years ago. Officials have warned that the power system is getting old. Modern living demands more and more electricity. Experts say thousands of kilometers of new lines are needed. All this will cost lots of money. But that is not the only issue. Some communities have fought efforts to build new high-voltage lines across their land. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Waver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA — Ernest Hemingway Pt. 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 24, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 24, 2003 (THEME) VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Frank Oliver with People in America, a Special English program about people who were important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the life of writer Ernest Hemingway. (THEME) VOICE 1: "A Writer is always alone, always an outsider," Ernest Hemingway said. Others said that, of the many people he created in his books, Hemingway was his own best creation. Ernest Hemingway was born in eighteen-ninety-five. He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, near the middle western city of Chicago. He was the second child in a family of six. His father was a doctor. His mother liked to paint and play the piano. Each summer, the family travelled to their holiday home in northern Michigan. Ernest's father taught him how to catch fish, hunt, set up a camp and cook over a fire. At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper. He tried to write like a famous sports writer of that time, Ring Lardner. He developed his writing skills this way. VOICE 2: In nineteen-seventeen, Hemingway decided not to go to a university. The United States had just entered World War One and he wanted to join the army. But the army rejected him because his eyesight was not good enough. Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri. He reported news from the hospital, police headquarters, and the railroad station. One reporter remembered: "Hemingway liked to be where the action was. " The Kansas City Star demanded that its reporters write short sentences. It wanted reporters to see the unusual details in an incident. Hemingway quickly learned to do both. He worked for the newspaper only nine months before he joined the Red Cross to help on the battlefields of Europe. His job was to drive a red cross truck carrying wounded away from battle. VOICE 1: The Red Cross sent him to Italy. Soon he saw his first wounded when an arms factory in Milan exploded. Later, he was sent to the battle front. He went as close to the fighting as possible to see how he would act in the face of danger. Before long, he was seriously wounded. The war ended soon after he healed. Hemingway returned to the United States. Less than a year had passed since he went to Europe. But in that short time he had changed forever. He needed to write about what he had seen. VOICE 2: Ernest Hemingway left home for Chicago to prove to himself, and to his family, that he could earn a living from his writing. But, he ran out of money and began to write for a newspaper again. The Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star, liked his reports about life in Chicago and paid him well. VOICE 1: In Chicago, Hemingway met the writer Sherwood Anderson. Anderson was one of the first writers in America to write about the lives of common people. Hemingway saw that Anderson's stories showed life as it really was, the way Hemingway was trying to do. Anderson gave Hemingway advice about his writing. He told Hemingway to move to Paris, where living was less costly. He said Paris was full of young artists and writers from all over the world. In return for Anderson's kindness Hemingway wrote a book called the torrents of spring. It makes fun of Anderson and the way he wrote. There was something in Hemingway that could not say "thank you" to anyone. He had to believe he did everything for himself, even when he knew others helped him. VOICE 2: Hemingway decided to move to Paris. But before he did he married a woman he had recently met. Her name was Hadley Richardson. Paris was cold and gray when Hemingway and his new wife arrived in nineteen-twenty-one. They lived in one of the poorer parts of the city. Their rooms were small and had no running water. But the Toronto Star employed him as its European reporter, so there was enough money for the two of them to live. And the job gave Hemingway time to write his stories. VOICE 1: Hemingway enjoyed exploring Paris, making new friends, learning French customs and sports. Some new friends were artists and writers who had come to Paris in the nineteen-twenties. Among them were poet, Ezra Pound, and writers Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. They quickly saw that Hemingway was a good writer. They helped him publish his stories in the United States. He was thankful for their support at the time, but later denied that he had received help. As a reporter, Hemingway travelled all over Europe. He wrote about politics. He wrote about peace conferences and border disputes. And he wrote about sports, skiing and fishing. Later he would write about bull fighting in Spain. The Toronto Star was pleased with his work, and wanted more of his reports. But Hemingway was busy with his own writing. He said: "sometimes, I would start a new story and could not get it going. Then I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think. I would say to myself: 'all you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know. So finally, I would write a true sentence and go on from there. It was a wonderful feeling when I had worked well. " VOICE 2: Hemingway's first book of stories was called in our time. It included a story, called "big two hearted river," about the effect of war on a young man. It tells about the young man taking a long fishing trip in Michigan. Hemingway had learned from his father when he was a boy about living in the wild. The story is about two kinds of rivers. One is calm and clear. It is where the young man fishes. The other is dark. It is a swamp, a threatening place. The story shows the young man trying to forget his past. He is also trying to forget the war. Yet he never really speaks about it. The reader learns about the young man, not because Hemingway tells us what the young man thinks, but because he shows the young man learning about himself. "Big Two-Hearted River" is considered one of the best modern American stories. It is often published in collections of best writing. VOICE 1: After the book was published in nineteen-twenty-five, Hadley and Hemingway returned to the United States for the birth of their son. They quickly returned to Paris. Hemingway was working on a long story. He wanted to publish a novel so he would be recognized as a serious writer. And he wanted the money a novel would earn. The novel was called the sun also rises. It is about young Americans in Europe after World War One. The war had destroyed their dreams. And it had given them nothing to replace those dreams. The writer Gertrude Stein later called these people members of "The Lost Generation. " VOICE 2: The book was an immediate success. At the age of twenty-five Ernest Hemingway was famous. Many people, however, could not recognize Hemingway's art because they did not like what he wrote about. Hemingway's sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas city star newspaper. He wrote about what he knew and felt. He used few descriptive words. His statements were clear and easily understood. He had learned from earlier writers, like Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson. But Hemingway brought something new to his writing. He was able to paint in words what he saw and felt. In later books, sometimes he missed. Sometimes he even looked foolish. But when he was right he was almost perfect. VOICE 1: With the success of his novel, Hemingway became even more popular in Paris. Many people came to see him. One was an American woman, Pauline Pfeiffer. She became Hadley's friend. Then Pauline fell in love with Hemingway. Hemingway and Pauline saw each other secretly. One time, they went away together on a short trip. Years later, Hemingway wrote about returning home after that trip: "When I saw Hadley again, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling and the sun was on her lovely face. " But the marriage was over. Ernest Hemingway and Hadley separated. She kept their son. He agreed to give her money he earned from his books. In later years, he looked back at his marriage to Hadley as the happiest time of his life. (THEME) VOICE 2: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Frank Oliver. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for the final part of the story of Ernest Hemingway in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Frank Oliver with People in America, a Special English program about people who were important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the life of writer Ernest Hemingway. (THEME) VOICE 1: "A Writer is always alone, always an outsider," Ernest Hemingway said. Others said that, of the many people he created in his books, Hemingway was his own best creation. Ernest Hemingway was born in eighteen-ninety-five. He grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, near the middle western city of Chicago. He was the second child in a family of six. His father was a doctor. His mother liked to paint and play the piano. Each summer, the family travelled to their holiday home in northern Michigan. Ernest's father taught him how to catch fish, hunt, set up a camp and cook over a fire. At home in Oak Park, Ernest wrote for his school newspaper. He tried to write like a famous sports writer of that time, Ring Lardner. He developed his writing skills this way. VOICE 2: In nineteen-seventeen, Hemingway decided not to go to a university. The United States had just entered World War One and he wanted to join the army. But the army rejected him because his eyesight was not good enough. Ernest found a job with the Kansas City Star newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri. He reported news from the hospital, police headquarters, and the railroad station. One reporter remembered: "Hemingway liked to be where the action was. " The Kansas City Star demanded that its reporters write short sentences. It wanted reporters to see the unusual details in an incident. Hemingway quickly learned to do both. He worked for the newspaper only nine months before he joined the Red Cross to help on the battlefields of Europe. His job was to drive a red cross truck carrying wounded away from battle. VOICE 1: The Red Cross sent him to Italy. Soon he saw his first wounded when an arms factory in Milan exploded. Later, he was sent to the battle front. He went as close to the fighting as possible to see how he would act in the face of danger. Before long, he was seriously wounded. The war ended soon after he healed. Hemingway returned to the United States. Less than a year had passed since he went to Europe. But in that short time he had changed forever. He needed to write about what he had seen. VOICE 2: Ernest Hemingway left home for Chicago to prove to himself, and to his family, that he could earn a living from his writing. But, he ran out of money and began to write for a newspaper again. The Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Star, liked his reports about life in Chicago and paid him well. VOICE 1: In Chicago, Hemingway met the writer Sherwood Anderson. Anderson was one of the first writers in America to write about the lives of common people. Hemingway saw that Anderson's stories showed life as it really was, the way Hemingway was trying to do. Anderson gave Hemingway advice about his writing. He told Hemingway to move to Paris, where living was less costly. He said Paris was full of young artists and writers from all over the world. In return for Anderson's kindness Hemingway wrote a book called the torrents of spring. It makes fun of Anderson and the way he wrote. There was something in Hemingway that could not say "thank you" to anyone. He had to believe he did everything for himself, even when he knew others helped him. VOICE 2: Hemingway decided to move to Paris. But before he did he married a woman he had recently met. Her name was Hadley Richardson. Paris was cold and gray when Hemingway and his new wife arrived in nineteen-twenty-one. They lived in one of the poorer parts of the city. Their rooms were small and had no running water. But the Toronto Star employed him as its European reporter, so there was enough money for the two of them to live. And the job gave Hemingway time to write his stories. VOICE 1: Hemingway enjoyed exploring Paris, making new friends, learning French customs and sports. Some new friends were artists and writers who had come to Paris in the nineteen-twenties. Among them were poet, Ezra Pound, and writers Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. They quickly saw that Hemingway was a good writer. They helped him publish his stories in the United States. He was thankful for their support at the time, but later denied that he had received help. As a reporter, Hemingway travelled all over Europe. He wrote about politics. He wrote about peace conferences and border disputes. And he wrote about sports, skiing and fishing. Later he would write about bull fighting in Spain. The Toronto Star was pleased with his work, and wanted more of his reports. But Hemingway was busy with his own writing. He said: "sometimes, I would start a new story and could not get it going. Then I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think. I would say to myself: 'all you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know. So finally, I would write a true sentence and go on from there. It was a wonderful feeling when I had worked well. " VOICE 2: Hemingway's first book of stories was called in our time. It included a story, called "big two hearted river," about the effect of war on a young man. It tells about the young man taking a long fishing trip in Michigan. Hemingway had learned from his father when he was a boy about living in the wild. The story is about two kinds of rivers. One is calm and clear. It is where the young man fishes. The other is dark. It is a swamp, a threatening place. The story shows the young man trying to forget his past. He is also trying to forget the war. Yet he never really speaks about it. The reader learns about the young man, not because Hemingway tells us what the young man thinks, but because he shows the young man learning about himself. "Big Two-Hearted River" is considered one of the best modern American stories. It is often published in collections of best writing. VOICE 1: After the book was published in nineteen-twenty-five, Hadley and Hemingway returned to the United States for the birth of their son. They quickly returned to Paris. Hemingway was working on a long story. He wanted to publish a novel so he would be recognized as a serious writer. And he wanted the money a novel would earn. The novel was called the sun also rises. It is about young Americans in Europe after World War One. The war had destroyed their dreams. And it had given them nothing to replace those dreams. The writer Gertrude Stein later called these people members of "The Lost Generation. " VOICE 2: The book was an immediate success. At the age of twenty-five Ernest Hemingway was famous. Many people, however, could not recognize Hemingway's art because they did not like what he wrote about. Hemingway's sentences were short, the way he had been taught to write at the Kansas city star newspaper. He wrote about what he knew and felt. He used few descriptive words. His statements were clear and easily understood. He had learned from earlier writers, like Ring Lardner and Sherwood Anderson. But Hemingway brought something new to his writing. He was able to paint in words what he saw and felt. In later books, sometimes he missed. Sometimes he even looked foolish. But when he was right he was almost perfect. VOICE 1: With the success of his novel, Hemingway became even more popular in Paris. Many people came to see him. One was an American woman, Pauline Pfeiffer. She became Hadley's friend. Then Pauline fell in love with Hemingway. Hemingway and Pauline saw each other secretly. One time, they went away together on a short trip. Years later, Hemingway wrote about returning home after that trip: "When I saw Hadley again, I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her. She was smiling and the sun was on her lovely face. " But the marriage was over. Ernest Hemingway and Hadley separated. She kept their son. He agreed to give her money he earned from his books. In later years, he looked back at his marriage to Hadley as the happiest time of his life. (THEME) VOICE 2: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Frank Oliver. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for the final part of the story of Ernest Hemingway in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: August 21, 2003 — Slangman: Energy-Related Slang
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 21, 2003 AA: Slangman David Burke comes to us each month from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. BURKE: "Avi, when you wrote this e-mail to me, at first I thought, OK he's lost his mind. How much slang could there be in this category? There is a ton! So let's talk about a few expressions that have to do with energy and shortages and electricity. For some reason, in the United States, and I don't know if this is true around the world, if someone has a great idea -- and we see this on television or a cartoon or a cartoon strip -- what appears over their head?" SKIRBLE: "A bubble -- a light bulb!" BURKE: "A light bulb. There's the light bulb -- see, the light bulb just turned on." SKIRBLE: "I was thinking of the little, you know ..." ARDITTI: "Caption." SKIRBLE: "Caption -- thank you. Then the light bulb is over the head, that's the picture, the bigger picture." ARDITTI: "Your bubble got short-circuited." BURKE: "'To get short-circuited' -- that's a great one also. For example, 'our plans got short-circuited.' Well, in the world of electricity, if something gets short-circuited it stops working because electricity is running the wrong way or getting routed to the wrong place. Well, your plans can get short-circuited, which means they suddenly are no longer good, your plans have to change, they have been short-circuited. Here's another one, which we're not allowed to do here in Los Angeles now because of the energy shortage: the worst thing you could do is go out, leave your house and the lights are still on. We have an expression, what is that if someone is crazy?" ARDITTI: "Oh yeah ... " BURKE: "'The lights are on, but nobody's home.' (laughter) We wouldn't want that to happen, that's a really bad one." SKIRBLE: "You're not really aware of what's going on." BURKE: "Also, if the lights aren't working very well because of the electricity, it's a blackout. A blackout is where all the lights go off. In fact, if a person has too much to drink, they could experience a blackout also, which means fainting. "And, if all of a sudden you have a power outage as the elevator is going up, well, you could say this about someone: 'The elevator doesn't go quite up to the top,' which means that person isn't really very intelligent." ARDITTI: "Sort of 'in the dark.' That's a little different." BURKE: "To be 'in the dark' means you are unaware of what's happening." SKIRBLE: "You don't have a clue." BURKE: "Yes, another good expression. Not to have a clue and to be in the dark both mean 'I don't know what's going on. 'Tell me -- what happened yesterday at work? I'm in the dark, I don't have a clue.'" RS: And if that's the case -- say you're asking a co-worker about something that happened at work -- then what you don't want to hear is that the boss "pulled the plug" on that big project of yours. AA: To "pull the plug," of course, literally means to pull a power cord out of the electric socket. Figuratively it means to end something suddenly or let it die a merciful death. Now if that happens at work and you become really angry, your co-workers might describe you as having "blown a fuse." RS: One place you don't want to blow a fuse is at a "power lunch," where important people chew over important business along with their food. And what with all those influential men in their bright "power ties" and women in their "power suits," some might even find themselves "charged up." BURKE: "To be 'all charged up,' to be excited -- 'I get a real charge out of you,' that means I really get excited by you." SKIRBLE: "Aw ..." BURKE: "'I get a charge out of you.' Or what we say now, this is very common -- remember, these words did not exist before electricity, these are all brand-new slang -- brand new, over the last one-hundred years -- if we 'zap' something, it's in the microwave. 'Give it a zap.' My mother always says that. 'Just put it in the microwave and give it a zap.' If you're tired, you're on 'E' or 'I've run out of gas.'" MUSIC: "Running on Empty"/Jackson Browne AA: Fill up on Slangman again next week -- he'll answer some listener mail. In the meantime, David Burke says if you want to learn more about how Americans REALLY speak, check out his books on slang and idioms at slangman.com ... that's S-L-A-N-G-M-A-N dot com. RS: Or send your questions to Avi and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our address for e-mail is word@voanews.com. Time to run! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. [This segment originally aired on VOA News Now on Feb. 18, 2001, during the energy crisis in California.] Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 21, 2003 AA: Slangman David Burke comes to us each month from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. BURKE: "Avi, when you wrote this e-mail to me, at first I thought, OK he's lost his mind. How much slang could there be in this category? There is a ton! So let's talk about a few expressions that have to do with energy and shortages and electricity. For some reason, in the United States, and I don't know if this is true around the world, if someone has a great idea -- and we see this on television or a cartoon or a cartoon strip -- what appears over their head?" SKIRBLE: "A bubble -- a light bulb!" BURKE: "A light bulb. There's the light bulb -- see, the light bulb just turned on." SKIRBLE: "I was thinking of the little, you know ..." ARDITTI: "Caption." SKIRBLE: "Caption -- thank you. Then the light bulb is over the head, that's the picture, the bigger picture." ARDITTI: "Your bubble got short-circuited." BURKE: "'To get short-circuited' -- that's a great one also. For example, 'our plans got short-circuited.' Well, in the world of electricity, if something gets short-circuited it stops working because electricity is running the wrong way or getting routed to the wrong place. Well, your plans can get short-circuited, which means they suddenly are no longer good, your plans have to change, they have been short-circuited. Here's another one, which we're not allowed to do here in Los Angeles now because of the energy shortage: the worst thing you could do is go out, leave your house and the lights are still on. We have an expression, what is that if someone is crazy?" ARDITTI: "Oh yeah ... " BURKE: "'The lights are on, but nobody's home.' (laughter) We wouldn't want that to happen, that's a really bad one." SKIRBLE: "You're not really aware of what's going on." BURKE: "Also, if the lights aren't working very well because of the electricity, it's a blackout. A blackout is where all the lights go off. In fact, if a person has too much to drink, they could experience a blackout also, which means fainting. "And, if all of a sudden you have a power outage as the elevator is going up, well, you could say this about someone: 'The elevator doesn't go quite up to the top,' which means that person isn't really very intelligent." ARDITTI: "Sort of 'in the dark.' That's a little different." BURKE: "To be 'in the dark' means you are unaware of what's happening." SKIRBLE: "You don't have a clue." BURKE: "Yes, another good expression. Not to have a clue and to be in the dark both mean 'I don't know what's going on. 'Tell me -- what happened yesterday at work? I'm in the dark, I don't have a clue.'" RS: And if that's the case -- say you're asking a co-worker about something that happened at work -- then what you don't want to hear is that the boss "pulled the plug" on that big project of yours. AA: To "pull the plug," of course, literally means to pull a power cord out of the electric socket. Figuratively it means to end something suddenly or let it die a merciful death. Now if that happens at work and you become really angry, your co-workers might describe you as having "blown a fuse." RS: One place you don't want to blow a fuse is at a "power lunch," where important people chew over important business along with their food. And what with all those influential men in their bright "power ties" and women in their "power suits," some might even find themselves "charged up." BURKE: "To be 'all charged up,' to be excited -- 'I get a real charge out of you,' that means I really get excited by you." SKIRBLE: "Aw ..." BURKE: "'I get a charge out of you.' Or what we say now, this is very common -- remember, these words did not exist before electricity, these are all brand-new slang -- brand new, over the last one-hundred years -- if we 'zap' something, it's in the microwave. 'Give it a zap.' My mother always says that. 'Just put it in the microwave and give it a zap.' If you're tired, you're on 'E' or 'I've run out of gas.'" MUSIC: "Running on Empty"/Jackson Browne AA: Fill up on Slangman again next week -- he'll answer some listener mail. In the meantime, David Burke says if you want to learn more about how Americans REALLY speak, check out his books on slang and idioms at slangman.com ... that's S-L-A-N-G-M-A-N dot com. RS: Or send your questions to Avi and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our address for e-mail is word@voanews.com. Time to run! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. [This segment originally aired on VOA News Now on Feb. 18, 2001, during the energy crisis in California.] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS — Sergio Vieira de Mello
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 23, 2003 This is In the News, in VOA Special English. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber drove a truck filled with explosives into the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq. More than twenty people were killed and almost one-hundred others were wounded. The U-N’s top diplomat in Iraq was among those killed. Sergio Vieira de Mello was from Brazil. He was fifty-five years old. Mister Vieira de Mello was the U-N High Commissioner for Human Rights. He had been serving in Baghdad temporarily. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan had chosen him as his special representative to Iraq. Sergio Viera de Mello had the difficult job of organizing U-N efforts to rebuild civilian rule and extend humanitarian relief in Iraq. When he arrived in Iraq, he said his main goal was to protect the interests of the Iraqi people during the occupation led by the United States. He planned to leave Iraq next week and return to his job in Geneva, Switzerland. The Brazilian diplomat served with the U-N for more than thirty years. He was often sent to dangerous areas of the world. He led U-N efforts to rebuild troubled areas, including Kosovo and East Timor. Sergio Vieira de Mello was born in Rio de Janeiro in nineteen-forty-eight. He studied in Brazil and France. He received two doctorate degrees from the University of Paris. A native speaker of Portuguese, he also spoke English, French and Spanish. He joined the office of the U-N High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva in nineteen-sixty-nine. In the early nineteen-seventies, he served in Bangladesh and Cyprus. Then he was appointed the U-N-H-C-R representative in Mozambique. He served during the civil war that followed the country's independence from Portugal in nineteen-seventy-five. From nineteen-eighty-one to eighty-three, he was the top political adviser to the U-N peacekeepers in Lebanon. Later, after the mass killings in Rwanda, Mister Vieira de Mello served as the U-N humanitarian official there. He became the U-N’s top official in Kosovo in nineteen-ninety-nine. He served after United States bombing raids ended Serbian control in the province. Then he led U-N operations in East Timor. He helped rebuild the former Indonesian territory after violence followed its vote for independence. He led the U-N’s temporary administration that prepared East Timor for full independence last year. Diplomats from around the world mourned Sergio Vieira de Mello’s death. Kofi Annan said Mister Vieira de Mello served humanity, helped ease suffering and helped people rebuild their war-torn societies. People who knew the Brazilian diplomat said his leadership ability and feelings for people made him truly effective. Many U-N experts believed Mister Vieira de Mello would have one day become secretary general of the United Nations. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Shelley Gollust. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS — August 26, 2003: First Cloned Horse / International Earth Observation System / Changes at the Tropopause
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the horse family enters the world of cloning. Finding a system to help countries share their observations of Earth. And, scientists say human activity is raising a part of the atmosphere you may not even know we had. (THEME) I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the horse family enters the world of cloning. Finding a system to help countries share their observations of Earth. And, scientists say human activity is raising a part of the atmosphere you may not even know we had. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Sheep, pigs and other animals have all been copied through genetic engineering in recent years. Now scientists in Italy have cloned a horse for the first time. Not only that, this horse is an exact copy of the animal that gave birth to it. Clones such as Dolly the sheep were created with DNA from animals other than their birth mothers. Nature magazine published the details this month. The cloned horse arrived May twenty-eighth in the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona, Italy. Researcher Cesare Galli (KAYS-ah ray-GAH-lee) led the team. The scientists named the light brown horse Prometea. They named her after Prometheus. The ancient Greeks said Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. The scientists in Italy said that after two months Prometea was healthy and weighed more than one-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: Scientists were not sure what would happen if they tried to have a mother, in effect, give birth to herself. They thought a mother’s body had to recognize a fetus as different. They believed a pregnancy would fail if this did not happen. Prometea arrived as living proof that a horse, at least, can be born from its mother and at the same time be a genetic copy of its mother. The experiment means that scientists might be able to copy valuable race and show horses. But the process that led to Prometea was difficult. To create her, the team had to work with more than eight-hundred rebuilt embryos. VOICE ONE: The researchers took skin cells from a female Haflinger horse. They also took skin cells from a male Arabian horse. Then they removed the nucleus from each cell. The nucleus contains the DNA material, the complete genetic plans for an organism. Next, the researchers took a nucleus from either the female horse or the male horse and put it into an egg. They had collected the eggs from horses killed at a slaughterhouse and taken out the existing nucleus. With help in the laboratory, twenty-two of the eggs developed into embryos. The scientists then placed these embryos into female horses. Out of four pregnancies, only Prometea was born. She happened to be born to the same horse whose DNA was used in the embryo. VOICE TWO: It is too soon to know how cloning might affect the horse racing and breeding industries. Several officials who welcome the process point to the example of Funny Cide. This horse won two top races in the United States this year, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. But Funny Cide was neutered early in life to prevent him from reproducing. Cloning could give birth to copies of Funny Cide with his own DNA. Entering cloned horses into events, however, could be difficult. The international racing industry for top horses has rules against clones. Science could also use cloning to help save populations of endangered horses. These would include the Przewalski’s [sheh-VAL-skeez's] horse of Mongolia. VOICE ONE: Horses are members of the equine family. Until now, scientists have not had much luck with attempts at artificial reproduction of equines. A team at Texas A&M University in the United States was in a race with the Italians to clone the first horse. But the scientists in Italy cannot claim Prometea as the first cloned equine. Two weeks earlier, a mule named Idaho Gem arrived in the American Northwest. A mule is a mixture of a horse and a donkey. It all happened at the University of Idaho, in Moscow [MOSS-co], Idaho. Scientists led by Gordon Woods took DNA from a mule fetus and placed it into the egg of a female horse. Unlike the Italian team, they used eggs from live horses. The scientists used chemicals to cause the eggs to begin the normal process of dividing into embryos. Then they placed the embryos into female horses. They experimented with more than three-hundred embryos. From these, Idaho Gem was born. Then two more cloned mules arrived later. Most mules cannot reproduce. So cloning may offer another way to carry on their genes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From VOA Special English in Washington, this is Science in the News. (MUSIC) A committee of experts has been chosen to create a system for nations around the world to share observations of Earth. One official says this system could report about our planet just as the Hubble telescope looks at space. The committee was chosen in Washington during the recent Earth Observation Summit. Government ministers attended from more than thirty nations and the European Commission. Representatives of non-governmental organizations also attended the conference. The committee is to develop a plan by the end of two-thousand-four. The goal is to let nations and groups exchange information collected about areas like water and climate conditions. The United States organized the Earth Observation Summit. The plan for the system is within the Bush administration's newly released goals for research into climate change. VOICE ONE: Many countries collect information about the environment. This information comes from different systems. These include devices in the ocean as well as satellites in space. American satellites, for example, record information such as sea levels and changes in the amount of Arctic ice. Conrad Lautenbacher is director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He will serve on the committee that will form the plan. He is a retired vice admiral in the United States Navy. Admiral Lautenbacher says scientists have been interested in a shared observation system for many years. Officials say the new system could lead to such things as better crops. They say it could also save lives, by helping nations to keep better watch on the environment they share. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A study finds that human activities are a leading cause of an increase in the height of the tropopause. That is what separates the two lowest levels in our atmosphere. The troposause is between the troposphere and the stratosphere. Because of its position, scientists believe it can offer clues about warming in the lower atmosphere. The tropopause is about eight to sixteen kilometers above the surface of Earth. Studies show it has risen by a few hundred meters since nineteen-seventy-nine. Scientists say this increase does not directly affect Earth. But they say it shows that temperatures are rising in the troposphere below, while the stratosphere above is getting cooler. Under natural conditions, temperatures get warmer with height in the stratosphere, and cooler in the troposphere. Science magazine published the study. Benjamin Santer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States led the team. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research also took part. VOICE ONE: The study examined five possible reasons for the increased height of the tropopause. One was radiation from the sun. Another was volcanic activity. A third was the release of industrial gases that trap heat, such as carbon dioxide. The fourth was the release of sulfur dioxide gas. Finally they examined levels of ozone, a natural form of oxygen in the atmosphere. Computer experiments showed that ozone loss combined with industrial pollution caused more than eighty percent of the rise in the tropopause. The study says industrial gases have warmed the troposphere, while ozone loss has cooled the stratosphere. Scientists blame the loss of ozone largely on ozone-destroying chemicals. The researchers say the study provides more evidence that pollution is having an effect on the atmosphere and climate change. Earlier this year, Science magazine published findings about temperatures in the lowest reaches of the atmosphere. Scientists reported an increase of about two-tenths of one degree Celsius between nineteen-seventy-nine and nineteen-ninety-nine. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. Our producer was Mario Ritter. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Sheep, pigs and other animals have all been copied through genetic engineering in recent years. Now scientists in Italy have cloned a horse for the first time. Not only that, this horse is an exact copy of the animal that gave birth to it. Clones such as Dolly the sheep were created with DNA from animals other than their birth mothers. Nature magazine published the details this month. The cloned horse arrived May twenty-eighth in the Laboratory of Reproductive Technology in Cremona, Italy. Researcher Cesare Galli (KAYS-ah ray-GAH-lee) led the team. The scientists named the light brown horse Prometea. They named her after Prometheus. The ancient Greeks said Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. The scientists in Italy said that after two months Prometea was healthy and weighed more than one-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: Scientists were not sure what would happen if they tried to have a mother, in effect, give birth to herself. They thought a mother’s body had to recognize a fetus as different. They believed a pregnancy would fail if this did not happen. Prometea arrived as living proof that a horse, at least, can be born from its mother and at the same time be a genetic copy of its mother. The experiment means that scientists might be able to copy valuable race and show horses. But the process that led to Prometea was difficult. To create her, the team had to work with more than eight-hundred rebuilt embryos. VOICE ONE: The researchers took skin cells from a female Haflinger horse. They also took skin cells from a male Arabian horse. Then they removed the nucleus from each cell. The nucleus contains the DNA material, the complete genetic plans for an organism. Next, the researchers took a nucleus from either the female horse or the male horse and put it into an egg. They had collected the eggs from horses killed at a slaughterhouse and taken out the existing nucleus. With help in the laboratory, twenty-two of the eggs developed into embryos. The scientists then placed these embryos into female horses. Out of four pregnancies, only Prometea was born. She happened to be born to the same horse whose DNA was used in the embryo. VOICE TWO: It is too soon to know how cloning might affect the horse racing and breeding industries. Several officials who welcome the process point to the example of Funny Cide. This horse won two top races in the United States this year, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. But Funny Cide was neutered early in life to prevent him from reproducing. Cloning could give birth to copies of Funny Cide with his own DNA. Entering cloned horses into events, however, could be difficult. The international racing industry for top horses has rules against clones. Science could also use cloning to help save populations of endangered horses. These would include the Przewalski’s [sheh-VAL-skeez's] horse of Mongolia. VOICE ONE: Horses are members of the equine family. Until now, scientists have not had much luck with attempts at artificial reproduction of equines. A team at Texas A&M University in the United States was in a race with the Italians to clone the first horse. But the scientists in Italy cannot claim Prometea as the first cloned equine. Two weeks earlier, a mule named Idaho Gem arrived in the American Northwest. A mule is a mixture of a horse and a donkey. It all happened at the University of Idaho, in Moscow [MOSS-co], Idaho. Scientists led by Gordon Woods took DNA from a mule fetus and placed it into the egg of a female horse. Unlike the Italian team, they used eggs from live horses. The scientists used chemicals to cause the eggs to begin the normal process of dividing into embryos. Then they placed the embryos into female horses. They experimented with more than three-hundred embryos. From these, Idaho Gem was born. Then two more cloned mules arrived later. Most mules cannot reproduce. So cloning may offer another way to carry on their genes. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From VOA Special English in Washington, this is Science in the News. (MUSIC) A committee of experts has been chosen to create a system for nations around the world to share observations of Earth. One official says this system could report about our planet just as the Hubble telescope looks at space. The committee was chosen in Washington during the recent Earth Observation Summit. Government ministers attended from more than thirty nations and the European Commission. Representatives of non-governmental organizations also attended the conference. The committee is to develop a plan by the end of two-thousand-four. The goal is to let nations and groups exchange information collected about areas like water and climate conditions. The United States organized the Earth Observation Summit. The plan for the system is within the Bush administration's newly released goals for research into climate change. VOICE ONE: Many countries collect information about the environment. This information comes from different systems. These include devices in the ocean as well as satellites in space. American satellites, for example, record information such as sea levels and changes in the amount of Arctic ice. Conrad Lautenbacher is director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He will serve on the committee that will form the plan. He is a retired vice admiral in the United States Navy. Admiral Lautenbacher says scientists have been interested in a shared observation system for many years. Officials say the new system could lead to such things as better crops. They say it could also save lives, by helping nations to keep better watch on the environment they share. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A study finds that human activities are a leading cause of an increase in the height of the tropopause. That is what separates the two lowest levels in our atmosphere. The troposause is between the troposphere and the stratosphere. Because of its position, scientists believe it can offer clues about warming in the lower atmosphere. The tropopause is about eight to sixteen kilometers above the surface of Earth. Studies show it has risen by a few hundred meters since nineteen-seventy-nine. Scientists say this increase does not directly affect Earth. But they say it shows that temperatures are rising in the troposphere below, while the stratosphere above is getting cooler. Under natural conditions, temperatures get warmer with height in the stratosphere, and cooler in the troposphere. Science magazine published the study. Benjamin Santer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States led the team. Scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research also took part. VOICE ONE: The study examined five possible reasons for the increased height of the tropopause. One was radiation from the sun. Another was volcanic activity. A third was the release of industrial gases that trap heat, such as carbon dioxide. The fourth was the release of sulfur dioxide gas. Finally they examined levels of ozone, a natural form of oxygen in the atmosphere. Computer experiments showed that ozone loss combined with industrial pollution caused more than eighty percent of the rise in the tropopause. The study says industrial gases have warmed the troposphere, while ozone loss has cooled the stratosphere. Scientists blame the loss of ozone largely on ozone-destroying chemicals. The researchers say the study provides more evidence that pollution is having an effect on the atmosphere and climate change. Earlier this year, Science magazine published findings about temperatures in the lowest reaches of the atmosphere. Scientists reported an increase of about two-tenths of one degree Celsius between nineteen-seventy-nine and nineteen-ninety-nine. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. Our producer was Mario Ritter. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — August 25, 2003: Growing Tomatoes
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Plant scientists consider them fruit. Most other people think of them as vegetables. Whatever you call tomatoes, there are many different kinds of this popular and healthy food. Each plant can produce about four to seven kilograms of fruit. Growers can harvest a big crop with little space. Full plants with fruit take about eighty days to grow from seed. Cold weather can damage young plants, so they are often grown inside for four to six weeks. A tomato plant can grow several thick stems from its base. Only two or three stems should be kept. From the stems come smaller growths called suckers. New suckers that grow between the stems should be removed. There should be a full meter between plants with three stems, a little less for plants with two stems. There are two general groups of plants. Small tomato plants grow to about one meter. They can be planted rather close together. Some short kinds do not require special care and are often harvested by machines. Large tomato plants can grow over two meters tall. They also provide larger fruit. These plants need support. One method uses wires run along both sides of a row of plants. The wires help hold the suckers and fruit. The wiring is secured to strong posts on either side of the row. The wires are raised as the plants and fruit grow. People who grow only a few plants can place wire cages around each one. The cage can be made of wire fence material. The cage helps the plant grow taller and to produce a bigger crop. Tomatoes often need extra calcium, or the fruit may be ruined. Adding lime to the soil can prevent this problem. Dry conditions may also ruin fruit. Tomatoes need water regularly. The soil should never dry out completely. Dried grass or leaves placed around the plant can help keep the soil wet and control unwanted plants. Tomatoes are native to South America. The tomato is a member of the potato family. Like its relatives, the leaves of the plant are poisonous. Before the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, people only grew tomatoes as pretty plants. They called the bright red fruit a "love apple," but would not eat it. The North Carolina State University Web site has more about growing tomatoes. The address is www.ces.ncsu.edu. You can also find a link on our site, voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Plant scientists consider them fruit. Most other people think of them as vegetables. Whatever you call tomatoes, there are many different kinds of this popular and healthy food. Each plant can produce about four to seven kilograms of fruit. Growers can harvest a big crop with little space. Full plants with fruit take about eighty days to grow from seed. Cold weather can damage young plants, so they are often grown inside for four to six weeks. A tomato plant can grow several thick stems from its base. Only two or three stems should be kept. From the stems come smaller growths called suckers. New suckers that grow between the stems should be removed. There should be a full meter between plants with three stems, a little less for plants with two stems. There are two general groups of plants. Small tomato plants grow to about one meter. They can be planted rather close together. Some short kinds do not require special care and are often harvested by machines. Large tomato plants can grow over two meters tall. They also provide larger fruit. These plants need support. One method uses wires run along both sides of a row of plants. The wires help hold the suckers and fruit. The wiring is secured to strong posts on either side of the row. The wires are raised as the plants and fruit grow. People who grow only a few plants can place wire cages around each one. The cage can be made of wire fence material. The cage helps the plant grow taller and to produce a bigger crop. Tomatoes often need extra calcium, or the fruit may be ruined. Adding lime to the soil can prevent this problem. Dry conditions may also ruin fruit. Tomatoes need water regularly. The soil should never dry out completely. Dried grass or leaves placed around the plant can help keep the soil wet and control unwanted plants. Tomatoes are native to South America. The tomato is a member of the potato family. Like its relatives, the leaves of the plant are poisonous. Before the middle of the eighteen-hundreds, people only grew tomatoes as pretty plants. They called the bright red fruit a "love apple," but would not eat it. The North Carolina State University Web site has more about growing tomatoes. The address is www.ces.ncsu.edu. You can also find a link on our site, voaspecialenglish.com. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA —  National Park System
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 25, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: August 25, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Millions of people visit national parks in the United States, especially during summer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. America’s National Park System is our report this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last year, two-hundred-seventy-seven-million people visited America’s national parks. They went to walk, swim, climb, or just spend a few days in the open air. They went to enjoy the beauty and wonders of nature. Visitors have a wide choice of national parks. The United States has almost four-hundred protected areas. These include parks, monuments, historic places, rivers, trails, seashores and lakeshores. They cover almost thirty-four-million hectares. VOICE TWO: America’s first national park was Yellowstone, in the western state of Wyoming. It was the first national park in the world. Yellowstone was established in eighteen-seventy-two. But the idea of protecting areas from human development was proposed years earlier. American painter George Catlin offered the idea during the eighteen-thirties. Once Yellowstone opened, it became a place where wild animals and other natural resources could be protected. The government said the park was for all the people to enjoy, then and in the future. Today three-million people each year visit Yellowstone National Park, most of them during summer. VOICE ONE: Congress established the National Park service in nineteen-sixteen. A businessman from Chicago, Illinois, became the first director. He retired in nineteen-twenty-nine. This man, Stephen Mather, was very important to the success of the newborn Park Service. He added ten more national parks and nine more national monuments. The parks covered more than two times as much land as when the Park Service began. Other major expansions took place in the nineteen-thirties and around the middle of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Park Service has two main jobs. One is to protect America’s national parks. The other is to help visitors enjoy them. Some people think these two jobs conflict with each other. They say some of the problems of the parks are the result of too many people visiting them. For example, the many vehicles in national parks cause pollution and road damage. And the many visitors cause water and waste systems to have to work hard. VOICE ONE: Some national parks cost money to enter, but not very much. And parks that charge entry fees must share the money with parks that do not. That means they cannot keep all the money for things like repairs and improvements. For years the Park Service has said it does not have enough money to operate at its best. Sometimes visitors protest about conditions in the parks. For example, they say some roads and places to sleep have not been repaired as needed. Critics of the system say many parks lack enough employees. VOICE TWO: The National Park Service is part of the United States Department of the Interior. Last month, Interior Secretary Gale Norton reported to President Bush that the department has made progress in its work. Her report says America's national parks need almost five-thousand-million dollars worth of repairs and improvements. It says the president’s budgets have provided almost three-thousand-million dollars from last year through next year. VOICE ONE: The National Parks Conservation Association is a private group formed in nineteen-nineteen to help protect the park system. It attacked the report by Secretary Norton. The organization says President Bush has failed to keep his promise to restore and renew the national parks. It also denounced what it called an "aggressive push" to replace government employees in the Park Service with private workers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Money to support America's national parks comes from the federal government and visitors. It also comes from businesses and individuals through the National Park Foundation. Congress established this organization in nineteen-sixty-seven. The job of the foundation is to gather private support for America's national parks. In the nation’s capital, for instance, the Target Corporation provided money to help restore the Washington Monument. Another example is Kodak. That company supports photo competitions at national parks. And there is much to photograph. VOICE ONE: The national park system contains beautiful areas of nature. Visitors also can see American monuments and historic areas like battlefields. They can take part in open-air sports and other activities at the parks. Now, let us take you to a few of America's national parks. We begin in the East, in the state of Massachusetts, at the Cape Cod National Seashore. This protected area is sixty-four kilometers long. It became part of the national park system in nineteen-sixty-one. Visitors can enjoy a peaceful ocean environment. There are no stores or other businesses. Visitors can study the plants and animals in the area. They can swim at many beaches. One beach is close to where Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built radio towers in the early nineteen-hundreds. With this equipment, Marconi was able to send and receive radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean. VOICE TWO: Next we travel all the way down along the East Coast, to Florida. That state is home to the swamps of the Everglades. The Everglades National Park covers about six-hundred-thousand hectares. That is about one-fifth of the total area of wetlands. Saw grass grows in some of the park. Be careful -- it's very sharp, with teeth just like a saw. And it grows almost four meters tall! Look around and you also see raised areas, called tree islands. These support many different kinds of trees, including royal palms. A number of animals live in the Everglades National Park. Some, like deer and fish, also live in many other parks. But this is one of the places where you can also see alligators and crocodiles. These big, lizard-like creatures often look asleep. But they can move very suddenly and have many teeth. So better keep an eye on them! Florida panthers are also fast. This large, light brown cat hunts other animals. But Florida panthers are endangered. Very few remain in the Everglades. Scientists are working to save them. VOICE ONE: From Florida we travel to the Midwest. People from all over the world visit the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. These hills of sand line the shores of Lake Michigan, near Chicago. Lake Michigan is one of North America's five Great Lakes. The winds along the water built some of these dunes in ancient times. Others may be forming right now. Dunes are created when the winds drop loose sand along the shore. Some take the form of long, narrow hills. The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make music when people walk on them. Some of these sounds can be heard ten meters away. Visitors often say that the sand dunes "sing." People have fun climbing the dunes. They also like to swim and sail in Lake Michigan. But now, it's time to shake off this sand and head to the desert, in the American Southwest. (GRAND CANYON SUITE) VOICE TWO: Of all the national parks in America, one of the most famous and most beautiful is a huge hole in the ground. The Grand Canyon is in the state of Arizona. It extends four-hundred-fifty kilometers along the Colorado River. Visitors can stand on top and look over the edge. They can walk down into the canyon, or ride a mule. Visitors can also fly over in helicopters or small airplanes. And they can ride boats in the sometimes fast-moving waters of the Colorado River. VOICE ONE: Birdwatchers have about three-hundred kinds to watch for in the Grand Canyon. On the ground are beavers, sheep, elk, lizards, mountain lions, deer and -- yes -- snakes. So be sure to shake out your cowboy boots before you put them back on in the morning! The Grand Canyon is a world in itself. Colorful and silent. Peaceful. American composer Ferde Grofe captured this world. We leave you now with “Cloud Burst” from Grofe’s "Grand Canyon Suite.” (GRAND CANYON SUITE) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Millions of people visit national parks in the United States, especially during summer. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. America’s National Park System is our report this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last year, two-hundred-seventy-seven-million people visited America’s national parks. They went to walk, swim, climb, or just spend a few days in the open air. They went to enjoy the beauty and wonders of nature. Visitors have a wide choice of national parks. The United States has almost four-hundred protected areas. These include parks, monuments, historic places, rivers, trails, seashores and lakeshores. They cover almost thirty-four-million hectares. VOICE TWO: America’s first national park was Yellowstone, in the western state of Wyoming. It was the first national park in the world. Yellowstone was established in eighteen-seventy-two. But the idea of protecting areas from human development was proposed years earlier. American painter George Catlin offered the idea during the eighteen-thirties. Once Yellowstone opened, it became a place where wild animals and other natural resources could be protected. The government said the park was for all the people to enjoy, then and in the future. Today three-million people each year visit Yellowstone National Park, most of them during summer. VOICE ONE: Congress established the National Park service in nineteen-sixteen. A businessman from Chicago, Illinois, became the first director. He retired in nineteen-twenty-nine. This man, Stephen Mather, was very important to the success of the newborn Park Service. He added ten more national parks and nine more national monuments. The parks covered more than two times as much land as when the Park Service began. Other major expansions took place in the nineteen-thirties and around the middle of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The National Park Service has two main jobs. One is to protect America’s national parks. The other is to help visitors enjoy them. Some people think these two jobs conflict with each other. They say some of the problems of the parks are the result of too many people visiting them. For example, the many vehicles in national parks cause pollution and road damage. And the many visitors cause water and waste systems to have to work hard. VOICE ONE: Some national parks cost money to enter, but not very much. And parks that charge entry fees must share the money with parks that do not. That means they cannot keep all the money for things like repairs and improvements. For years the Park Service has said it does not have enough money to operate at its best. Sometimes visitors protest about conditions in the parks. For example, they say some roads and places to sleep have not been repaired as needed. Critics of the system say many parks lack enough employees. VOICE TWO: The National Park Service is part of the United States Department of the Interior. Last month, Interior Secretary Gale Norton reported to President Bush that the department has made progress in its work. Her report says America's national parks need almost five-thousand-million dollars worth of repairs and improvements. It says the president’s budgets have provided almost three-thousand-million dollars from last year through next year. VOICE ONE: The National Parks Conservation Association is a private group formed in nineteen-nineteen to help protect the park system. It attacked the report by Secretary Norton. The organization says President Bush has failed to keep his promise to restore and renew the national parks. It also denounced what it called an "aggressive push" to replace government employees in the Park Service with private workers. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Money to support America's national parks comes from the federal government and visitors. It also comes from businesses and individuals through the National Park Foundation. Congress established this organization in nineteen-sixty-seven. The job of the foundation is to gather private support for America's national parks. In the nation’s capital, for instance, the Target Corporation provided money to help restore the Washington Monument. Another example is Kodak. That company supports photo competitions at national parks. And there is much to photograph. VOICE ONE: The national park system contains beautiful areas of nature. Visitors also can see American monuments and historic areas like battlefields. They can take part in open-air sports and other activities at the parks. Now, let us take you to a few of America's national parks. We begin in the East, in the state of Massachusetts, at the Cape Cod National Seashore. This protected area is sixty-four kilometers long. It became part of the national park system in nineteen-sixty-one. Visitors can enjoy a peaceful ocean environment. There are no stores or other businesses. Visitors can study the plants and animals in the area. They can swim at many beaches. One beach is close to where Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built radio towers in the early nineteen-hundreds. With this equipment, Marconi was able to send and receive radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean. VOICE TWO: Next we travel all the way down along the East Coast, to Florida. That state is home to the swamps of the Everglades. The Everglades National Park covers about six-hundred-thousand hectares. That is about one-fifth of the total area of wetlands. Saw grass grows in some of the park. Be careful -- it's very sharp, with teeth just like a saw. And it grows almost four meters tall! Look around and you also see raised areas, called tree islands. These support many different kinds of trees, including royal palms. A number of animals live in the Everglades National Park. Some, like deer and fish, also live in many other parks. But this is one of the places where you can also see alligators and crocodiles. These big, lizard-like creatures often look asleep. But they can move very suddenly and have many teeth. So better keep an eye on them! Florida panthers are also fast. This large, light brown cat hunts other animals. But Florida panthers are endangered. Very few remain in the Everglades. Scientists are working to save them. VOICE ONE: From Florida we travel to the Midwest. People from all over the world visit the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. These hills of sand line the shores of Lake Michigan, near Chicago. Lake Michigan is one of North America's five Great Lakes. The winds along the water built some of these dunes in ancient times. Others may be forming right now. Dunes are created when the winds drop loose sand along the shore. Some take the form of long, narrow hills. The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make music when people walk on them. Some of these sounds can be heard ten meters away. Visitors often say that the sand dunes "sing." People have fun climbing the dunes. They also like to swim and sail in Lake Michigan. But now, it's time to shake off this sand and head to the desert, in the American Southwest. (GRAND CANYON SUITE) VOICE TWO: Of all the national parks in America, one of the most famous and most beautiful is a huge hole in the ground. The Grand Canyon is in the state of Arizona. It extends four-hundred-fifty kilometers along the Colorado River. Visitors can stand on top and look over the edge. They can walk down into the canyon, or ride a mule. Visitors can also fly over in helicopters or small airplanes. And they can ride boats in the sometimes fast-moving waters of the Colorado River. VOICE ONE: Birdwatchers have about three-hundred kinds to watch for in the Grand Canyon. On the ground are beavers, sheep, elk, lizards, mountain lions, deer and -- yes -- snakes. So be sure to shake out your cowboy boots before you put them back on in the morning! The Grand Canyon is a world in itself. Colorful and silent. Peaceful. American composer Ferde Grofe captured this world. We leave you now with “Cloud Burst” from Grofe’s "Grand Canyon Suite.” (GRAND CANYON SUITE) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT– Freezing Food
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 25, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Freezing can keep food fresh and safe to eat. Freezing lowers the food temperature below zero degrees Celsius. That is the point where water turns to ice. To start the freezing process, it is important to lower the temperature to between minus fifteen and minus twenty degrees Celsius as quickly as possible. The faster the freezing process, the fresher the taste of the food. Fruits and vegetables can be spread out inside the freezer. Once the food is frozen, it should be placed in containers and then stored at a temperature of about minus twenty degrees Celsius. Fruits are usually not cooked before they are frozen. This allows them to keep their fresh taste. The simplest way to prepare fruits is to cut them up and place them in a container inside the freezer. In some cases it is better to permit the fruit to freeze before putting it in the container. This will keep it from sticking to the container. This is called the “dry pack” method. The second way is the “wet pack” method. The fruit is prepared along with some of its liquid or juice. You can add some sugar to fruits that are naturally juicy. The sugar sweetens the fruit and brings out its natural juices. Vegetables are either cooked or blanched before freezing. Blanching means placing the vegetables in boiling water for a few minutes and then quickly placing them into very cold water. Blanching slows down the natural chemical aging process. All extra water should be removed before placing the vegetables into containers and freezing. Most foods can be stored frozen for up to one year. Most freezers operate on electricity, although some work with kerosene and even solar energy as power sources. One problem is how to protect frozen food if the power suddenly stops. Generally, frozen food can be left unfrozen for twenty-four hours before it must either be eaten or thrown away. In hot climates, the amount of time may be only a few hours. Once foods have been unfrozen, they should not be frozen again. There is a danger of food poisoning if food is frozen more than once. You can get more information about freezing food from Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. (www.vita.org.) Next week we tell about canning food. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — August 27, 2003: Animal Fats and  Breast Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization says more than one-million people this year will discover they have breast cancer. A new study suggests that young women who eat a lot of animal fat may increase their risk. Researchers at Harvard University near Boston, Massachusetts, published the findings in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They studied the health information of more than ninety-thousand women. These women were involved in the Nurses Health Study. They were between the ages of twenty-six and forty-six. The information was collected during the nineteen-nineties. Every two years, the researchers questioned the women about the foods they ate. Seven-hundred-fourteen of the women developed breast cancer during the eight years of the study. Here is what the researchers found: The women at highest risk were the ones who ate more red meat, cheese, ice cream and butter during their twenties, thirties and forties. Those who ate the most fat had a thirty-three percent greater chance of breast cancer than those who ate the least fat. The women with the greatest danger of developing breast cancer got twenty-three percent of their calories from animal fat. Those in the lowest risk group got only twelve percent of their calories from fat. Breast cancer can take years to develop. Experts say it is usually discovered at an age when a woman can no longer have children. This new study involved women still of child-bearing age. It showed that food eaten early in life may have an influence on the development of disease later on. The researchers said they hope the study will get more women to eat healthier foods earlier in their lives. But they said the study does not prove that animal fat causes cancer. Still, doctors think fat does increase levels of hormones like estrogen in the blood. Last week the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported the findings of another study involving weight and breast cancer. This study showed a much higher risk of breast cancer in older women who are severely overweight compared to those of normal weight. The researchers found that the cancer risk, and levels of estrogen in the blood, increased the more the women weighed. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization says more than one-million people this year will discover they have breast cancer. A new study suggests that young women who eat a lot of animal fat may increase their risk. Researchers at Harvard University near Boston, Massachusetts, published the findings in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They studied the health information of more than ninety-thousand women. These women were involved in the Nurses Health Study. They were between the ages of twenty-six and forty-six. The information was collected during the nineteen-nineties. Every two years, the researchers questioned the women about the foods they ate. Seven-hundred-fourteen of the women developed breast cancer during the eight years of the study. Here is what the researchers found: The women at highest risk were the ones who ate more red meat, cheese, ice cream and butter during their twenties, thirties and forties. Those who ate the most fat had a thirty-three percent greater chance of breast cancer than those who ate the least fat. The women with the greatest danger of developing breast cancer got twenty-three percent of their calories from animal fat. Those in the lowest risk group got only twelve percent of their calories from fat. Breast cancer can take years to develop. Experts say it is usually discovered at an age when a woman can no longer have children. This new study involved women still of child-bearing age. It showed that food eaten early in life may have an influence on the development of disease later on. The researchers said they hope the study will get more women to eat healthier foods earlier in their lives. But they said the study does not prove that animal fat causes cancer. Still, doctors think fat does increase levels of hormones like estrogen in the blood. Last week the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported the findings of another study involving weight and breast cancer. This study showed a much higher risk of breast cancer in older women who are severely overweight compared to those of normal weight. The researchers found that the cancer risk, and levels of estrogen in the blood, increased the more the women weighed. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS — August 27, 2003: Project Apollo, Part 3
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: (THEME) ANNCR: Explorations --- A program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) ANNCR: American astronauts in Apollo Eleven landed on the moon July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. A second landing was made four months later. Both flights were almost perfect. Everything worked as planned. Everyone expected the third moon-landing flight, Apollo Thirteen, would go as well as the first two. But it did not. Today, Shirley Griffith and Sarah Long tell you the story of Apollo Thirteen --- the flight that almost did not come home. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Apollo Thirteen roared into space on Thursday, April eleventh, nineteen-seventy. The time was thirteen-thirteen, one-thirteen p. m. local time. Navy captain James Lovell was commander of Apollo Thirteen. He had flown on Apollo Eight, the first flight to orbit the moon. The two other crew members were civilians -- John Swigert and Fred Haise. Apollo Thirteen was their first space flight. VOICE TWO: The Apollo Thirteen spacecraft was like the earlier Apollos. It had three major parts. One was the command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module and then ride back to Earth in it. It was the only part of the spacecraft that could survive the fiery return through the Earth's atmosphere. The lunar module was the second part. It would carry two of the astronauts to the moon's surface. It would later launch them from the moon to rejoin the command module. The third part of the Apollo spacecraft was the service module. It had a rocket engine that the astronauts fired to begin circling the moon. They fired it again to break out of moon orbit for the return flight to Earth. The service module carried tanks of oxygen for the flight, and the fuel cells that produced electricity and water the astronauts needed to survive. VOICE ONE: There was what seemed to be a minor problem during the ground tests before launch. Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen. The oxygen was the fuel that provided water and electricity for the command module. One of the oxygen tanks failed to empty normally during the ground test. Engineers had to boil off the remaining oxygen by turning on a heater in the tank. Commander Lovell said later he should have demanded the oxygen tank be replaced. But it seemed to be fixed. So no change was made. VOICE TWO: After launch, Apollo Thirteen sailed smoothly through space for two days. Controllers on the ground joked that the flight had gone so well they did not have enough to do. That changed a few hours later. The first sign of trouble was a tiny burst of light in the western sky over the United States. It looked like a far-away star had exploded. VOICE ONE: Near the space center in Houston, Texas, some amateur star-watchers were trying to see the Apollo spacecraft through telescopes. One of the group had fixed a telescope to a television set so that objects seen by the telescope appeared on the television screen. The spacecraft was too far away to be seen. But suddenly, a bright spot appeared on the television screen. Over the next ten minutes it grew into a white circle. The observers on the ground had no reason to believe the white spot they saw was made by the spacecraft. They thought it was a problem with the television. So they went home to bed. VOICE TWO: It was not a problem with their television. It was a serious problem with Apollo Thirteen. It happened a few minutes after the three astronauts completed a television broadcast to Earth. The astronauts heard a loud noise. The spacecraft shook. Warning lights came on. Swigert called to mission control, "Houston, we've had a problem here." The number two oxygen tank in the service module had exploded. The liquid oxygen escaped into space. It formed a huge gas ball that expanded rapidly. Sunlight made it glow. Within ten minutes, it was almost eighty kilometers across. Then it slowly disappeared. The cloud was the white spot the observers in Houston had seen on their television. VOICE ONE: The loss of one oxygen tank should not have been a major problem. Apollo had two oxygen tanks. So, if one failed, the other could be used. But the astronauts soon learned that the explosion had caused the other oxygen tank to leak. The astronauts were three-hundred-twenty-thousand kilometers from Earth with little oxygen, electricity and water. Their situation was extremely serious. No one knew if they could get the spacecraft back to Earth, or if they could survive long enough to return. VOICE TWO: The astronauts and the flight control center quickly decided that the lunar module could be theirlifeboat. It carried oxygen, water, electricity and food for two men for two days on the moon's surface. But there were three astronauts. And the trip back to Earth would take four days. The men greatly reduced their use of water, food and heat. And they turned off all the electrical devices they could. Back on Earth, space scientists and engineers worked around the clock to design and test new ideas to help the astronauts survive. VOICE ONE: Getting enough good air to breathe became the most serious problem. The carbon dioxide the astronauts breathed out was poisoning the air. The lunar module had a few devices for removing carbon dioxide. But there were not enough to remove all the carbon dioxide they created. Engineers on the ground designed a way the astronauts could connect air-cleaning devices from the command module to the air system in the lunar module. The astronauts made the connector from a plastic bag, cardboard and tape. It worked. Carbon dioxide was no longer a problem. VOICE TWO: Now the problem was how to get the astronauts back to Earth as quickly and safely as possible. They were more than two-thirds of the way to the moon on a flight path that would take them to a moon landing. They needed to change their flight path to take them around the moon and back toward Earth. They had to do this by firing the lunar module rocket engine for just the right amount of time. And they had to make this move without the equipment in the command module that kept the spacecraft on its flight path. Five hours after the explosion, flight controllers advised firing the rocket for thirty-five seconds. This sent the spacecraft around the moon instead of down to it. Two hours after Apollo Thirteen went around the moon, the astronauts fired the rocket for five minutes. This speeded up the spacecraft to reach Earth nine hours sooner. VOICE ONE: The lunar module was extremely uncomfortable. The astronauts had very little to drink and eat. But the cold was the worst part of the return trip. The temperature inside the lunar module was only a few degrees above freezing. It was too cold for them to sleep much. They used the electrical power in the lunar module to add electricity to the batteries of the command module. They would need the electrical power for their landing. VOICE TWO: The crew moved back to the command module a few hours before landing. They turned on the necessary equipment and broke away from the damaged service module. As the service module moved away, they saw for the first time the damage done by the exploding oxygen tank. Equipment was hanging from a huge hole in the side of the module. One hour before landing, Lovell, Swigert and Haise said thanks and goodbye to their lifeboat, the lunar module. They separated from it and sent it flying away from them. VOICE ONE: Now, the command module of Apollo Thirteen headed alone toward Earth. It fell through the atmosphere. Its parachutes opened, slowing its fall toward the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa. Ships and planes were waiting in the landing area. And thousands of millions of people around the world were watching the live television broadcast of the landing. People everywhere cheered as the cameras found the spacecraft floating downward beneath its three parachutes. They watched as it dropped softly into the water. The Apollo Thirteen astronauts were safely home. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and directed by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Sarah Long. This is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America when we finish the story of the Apollo moon landing program. Explorations --- A program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) ANNCR: American astronauts in Apollo Eleven landed on the moon July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. A second landing was made four months later. Both flights were almost perfect. Everything worked as planned. Everyone expected the third moon-landing flight, Apollo Thirteen, would go as well as the first two. But it did not. Today, Shirley Griffith and Sarah Long tell you the story of Apollo Thirteen --- the flight that almost did not come home. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Apollo Thirteen roared into space on Thursday, April eleventh, nineteen-seventy. The time was thirteen-thirteen, one-thirteen p. m. local time. Navy captain James Lovell was commander of Apollo Thirteen. He had flown on Apollo Eight, the first flight to orbit the moon. The two other crew members were civilians -- John Swigert and Fred Haise. Apollo Thirteen was their first space flight. VOICE TWO: The Apollo Thirteen spacecraft was like the earlier Apollos. It had three major parts. One was the command module. The astronauts would ride to the moon in the command module and then ride back to Earth in it. It was the only part of the spacecraft that could survive the fiery return through the Earth's atmosphere. The lunar module was the second part. It would carry two of the astronauts to the moon's surface. It would later launch them from the moon to rejoin the command module. The third part of the Apollo spacecraft was the service module. It had a rocket engine that the astronauts fired to begin circling the moon. They fired it again to break out of moon orbit for the return flight to Earth. The service module carried tanks of oxygen for the flight, and the fuel cells that produced electricity and water the astronauts needed to survive. VOICE ONE: There was what seemed to be a minor problem during the ground tests before launch. Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen. The oxygen was the fuel that provided water and electricity for the command module. One of the oxygen tanks failed to empty normally during the ground test. Engineers had to boil off the remaining oxygen by turning on a heater in the tank. Commander Lovell said later he should have demanded the oxygen tank be replaced. But it seemed to be fixed. So no change was made. VOICE TWO: After launch, Apollo Thirteen sailed smoothly through space for two days. Controllers on the ground joked that the flight had gone so well they did not have enough to do. That changed a few hours later. The first sign of trouble was a tiny burst of light in the western sky over the United States. It looked like a far-away star had exploded. VOICE ONE: Near the space center in Houston, Texas, some amateur star-watchers were trying to see the Apollo spacecraft through telescopes. One of the group had fixed a telescope to a television set so that objects seen by the telescope appeared on the television screen. The spacecraft was too far away to be seen. But suddenly, a bright spot appeared on the television screen. Over the next ten minutes it grew into a white circle. The observers on the ground had no reason to believe the white spot they saw was made by the spacecraft. They thought it was a problem with the television. So they went home to bed. VOICE TWO: It was not a problem with their television. It was a serious problem with Apollo Thirteen. It happened a few minutes after the three astronauts completed a television broadcast to Earth. The astronauts heard a loud noise. The spacecraft shook. Warning lights came on. Swigert called to mission control, "Houston, we've had a problem here." The number two oxygen tank in the service module had exploded. The liquid oxygen escaped into space. It formed a huge gas ball that expanded rapidly. Sunlight made it glow. Within ten minutes, it was almost eighty kilometers across. Then it slowly disappeared. The cloud was the white spot the observers in Houston had seen on their television. VOICE ONE: The loss of one oxygen tank should not have been a major problem. Apollo had two oxygen tanks. So, if one failed, the other could be used. But the astronauts soon learned that the explosion had caused the other oxygen tank to leak. The astronauts were three-hundred-twenty-thousand kilometers from Earth with little oxygen, electricity and water. Their situation was extremely serious. No one knew if they could get the spacecraft back to Earth, or if they could survive long enough to return. VOICE TWO: The astronauts and the flight control center quickly decided that the lunar module could be theirlifeboat. It carried oxygen, water, electricity and food for two men for two days on the moon's surface. But there were three astronauts. And the trip back to Earth would take four days. The men greatly reduced their use of water, food and heat. And they turned off all the electrical devices they could. Back on Earth, space scientists and engineers worked around the clock to design and test new ideas to help the astronauts survive. VOICE ONE: Getting enough good air to breathe became the most serious problem. The carbon dioxide the astronauts breathed out was poisoning the air. The lunar module had a few devices for removing carbon dioxide. But there were not enough to remove all the carbon dioxide they created. Engineers on the ground designed a way the astronauts could connect air-cleaning devices from the command module to the air system in the lunar module. The astronauts made the connector from a plastic bag, cardboard and tape. It worked. Carbon dioxide was no longer a problem. VOICE TWO: Now the problem was how to get the astronauts back to Earth as quickly and safely as possible. They were more than two-thirds of the way to the moon on a flight path that would take them to a moon landing. They needed to change their flight path to take them around the moon and back toward Earth. They had to do this by firing the lunar module rocket engine for just the right amount of time. And they had to make this move without the equipment in the command module that kept the spacecraft on its flight path. Five hours after the explosion, flight controllers advised firing the rocket for thirty-five seconds. This sent the spacecraft around the moon instead of down to it. Two hours after Apollo Thirteen went around the moon, the astronauts fired the rocket for five minutes. This speeded up the spacecraft to reach Earth nine hours sooner. VOICE ONE: The lunar module was extremely uncomfortable. The astronauts had very little to drink and eat. But the cold was the worst part of the return trip. The temperature inside the lunar module was only a few degrees above freezing. It was too cold for them to sleep much. They used the electrical power in the lunar module to add electricity to the batteries of the command module. They would need the electrical power for their landing. VOICE TWO: The crew moved back to the command module a few hours before landing. They turned on the necessary equipment and broke away from the damaged service module. As the service module moved away, they saw for the first time the damage done by the exploding oxygen tank. Equipment was hanging from a huge hole in the side of the module. One hour before landing, Lovell, Swigert and Haise said thanks and goodbye to their lifeboat, the lunar module. They separated from it and sent it flying away from them. VOICE ONE: Now, the command module of Apollo Thirteen headed alone toward Earth. It fell through the atmosphere. Its parachutes opened, slowing its fall toward the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa. Ships and planes were waiting in the landing area. And thousands of millions of people around the world were watching the live television broadcast of the landing. People everywhere cheered as the cameras found the spacecraft floating downward beneath its three parachutes. They watched as it dropped softly into the water. The Apollo Thirteen astronauts were safely home. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and directed by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Sarah Long. This is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America when we finish the story of the Apollo moon landing program. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT — August 28, 2003: More Male Teachers Wanted in the United States
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The National Education Association says the United States needs more male teachers. The association is the nation's largest teachers union. Last year its members approved a campaign to get more men to become educators. The United States has three-million teachers. The National Education Association says only twenty-six percent of them are men. And that number has decreased for the past twenty years. Today only about nine percent of teachers in elementary schools are men. More men do teach older students. Forty-one percent of teachers in secondary schools are male. But that is the lowest ever. Traditionally, the majority of teachers in the United States have been women. As a result, the National Education Association says some Americans believe that only women can teach. Also, the organization says teachers get less pay than people in other professions. So teaching may hold a lower social value than other jobs. The group says states with the highest pay generally have the highest numbers of male teachers. It says Michigan has the highest percentage of male teachers, thirty-seven percent. And that state is among the top five in teacher pay. There are other issues, too. Some men say they fear they might be accused of sexual wrongdoing. Many parents, though, say they would like more men to teach. Yet the group MenTeach says some schools make it difficult for men. MenTeach is a national program with headquarters in Minnesota. It tries to get more men to become teachers. A man from New Hampshire recently wrote to MenTeach. He said he has been a substitute teacher, but could not get a meeting about a permanent job. Another man, though, has had a different experience over the past three years. Angel Mercado teaches a class of six-year-olds in the United States territory of Puerto Rico. Mister Mercado says he loves working with young children. He says his mother was a big influence -- she is a retired teacher. A school counselor in the Washington area points out that many children have parents who divorced or never married. She says good male teachers could provide an example for children who do not have a father at home. Other educators say it is possible that some men might even be better than women at getting children to cooperate in the classroom. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION — August 28, 2003: New Nation / Bill of Rights
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Last week, we told how nine of America's first thirteen states ratified the Constitution. That was enough to make the new plan of government the law of the land. The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. I'm Richard Rael. Today, Shep O’Neal and I begin the story of the new nation. VOICE TWO: In Seventeen-Eighty-Nine, the population of the United States was about four million. The thirteen states had been loosely united for a short time, only about ten years. Before that, they were separate colonies of Britain. Because the colonies were separate, their people developed different ways of life. Their economies and traditions were different. As a result, Americans were fiercely independent. An emergency -- the crisis of the revolution -- brought them together. Together, they celebrated the Fourth of July, the day America declared its independence from Britain. Together, they fought British troops to make that declaration a political reality. Together, they joined under the Latin phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' -- one out of many. Yet when the war ended, the soldiers returned to their home states. They still thought of themselves as New Yorkers, or Virginians, or Marylanders. They did not consider themselves a national people. VOICE ONE: Americans of Seventeen-Eighty-Nine were sharply divided on the need for a national government. Many were afraid the new government would not survive. They feared the anarchy that would result if it failed. Others hoped it would fail. They wanted strong state governments, not a strong central government. For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success. The country had great natural resources. And its people were honest and hard-working. Also, in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine, the American economy was improving after the destruction of the Revolutionary War. Agriculture, trade, and ship building were coming back to life. Roads, bridges, and canals were being built to improve travel and communication. The country's economy had many problems, however. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the revolutionary army. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action. VOICE TWO: But before the new government could act, the old government had work to do. It had to decide where the capital city of the new nation would be. It also had to hold elections for president and Congress. First, the question of a capital. At the time the states ratified the new Constitution, the Continental Congress was meeting in New York City. And that is where it decided to place the new government. Later, the capital would be moved to Philadelphia for a while. Finally, it would be established at Washington, D-C. Next, the Continental Congress had to decide when the states would choose a president. It agreed on March Fourth, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. That was when the new Constitution would go into effect. VOICE ONE: The eleven states that ratified the Constitution chose electors to vote for a president. The result was not a surprise. They chose the hero of the Revolutionary War: George Washington. No one opposed the choice. Washington learned of his election while at his home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. He left for New York and was inaugurated there on April Thirtieth. Members of the new Congress also were elected on March Fourth. Now, for the first time, Americans had something many of them had talked about for years -- a working national government. There was much work to be done. The machinery of government was new, untested. Quick decisions were needed to keep the new nation alive and healthy. VOICE TWO: One of the first things the Congress did was to re-open debate on the Constitution itself. Several states had set a condition for approving the document. They said a Bill of Rights must be added to the Constitution, listing the rights of all citizens. When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates to the convention said a national bill was unnecessary. Others argued that the Constitution would be the highest law of the land, higher than state laws. So a national bill of rights was needed to guarantee the rights of the citizens of the new nation. Time proved this to be a wise decision. The Bill of Rights gave the Constitution a special strength. Many Americans consider the Bill of Rights to be the heart and spirit of the Constitution. VOICE ONE: What is this Bill of Rights that is so important to the citizens of the United States? It is contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The First Amendment is the basic statement of American freedoms. It protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America. It says Congress will make no law establishing an official religion. Nor will Congress interfere in the peoples' right to worship as they choose. The First Amendment also says Congress will not make laws restricting the peoples' right to gather peacefully and to make demands on the government. The Second Amendment guarantees the peoples' right to keep weapons as part of an organized militia. The Third Amendment says people may not be forced to let soldiers stay in their homes during peacetime. VOICE TWO: The Fourth through the Eighth Amendments all protect the peoples' rights in the criminal justice system. The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. If police want to search a suspect's house or papers, they must get special permission from a judge. The document from the judge must say exactly what police are looking for. And it must describe the place to be searched. VOICE ONE: The Fifth Amendment says no one can be put on trial for a serious crime unless a grand jury has first examined the evidence and agreed that a trial is needed. No one can be put on trial more than once on the same criminal charge. And no one can be forced to give evidence against himself in court. The Fifth Amendment also says no one can lose their freedom, property, or life except by the rules of law. And the government cannot take people's property for public use without paying them a fair price. VOICE TWO: The Sixth Amendment says all persons accused of crimes have the right to a fair and speedy public trial by a jury. This guarantees that people cannot be kept in prison for a long time unless a jury has found them guilty of a crime. The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the right of accused persons to be defended by a lawyer. It says they must be informed of the nature and cause of the charges against them. And it says they have the right to face and question their accusers. The Seventh Amendment guarantees a person's right to have a jury decide his legal dispute with another person. The Eighth Amendment bars all cruel and unusual punishments. The Ninth Amendment provides protection for other rights not stated directly in the Constitution. And the Tenth Amendment says any powers which the Constitution does not give to the national government belong to the states or to the people themselves. VOICE ONE: A majority of the states approved the Bill of Rights by the end of Seventeen-Ninety-One. As we have seen, these amendments limited the powers of the national government. As a result, many anti-Federalists ended their opposition. They accepted the new government. Many agreed to help with the job of building the new nation. President Washington wanted the best men -- Federalist or anti-Federalist -- to be in his administration. The new nation needed strong leadership. George Washington provided it. General Washington's work as the first president will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Carolyn Weaver. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Last week, we told how nine of America's first thirteen states ratified the Constitution. That was enough to make the new plan of government the law of the land. The Continental Congress declared that the Constitution would become effective the first Wednesday in March, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. I'm Richard Rael. Today, Shep O’Neal and I begin the story of the new nation. VOICE TWO: In Seventeen-Eighty-Nine, the population of the United States was about four million. The thirteen states had been loosely united for a short time, only about ten years. Before that, they were separate colonies of Britain. Because the colonies were separate, their people developed different ways of life. Their economies and traditions were different. As a result, Americans were fiercely independent. An emergency -- the crisis of the revolution -- brought them together. Together, they celebrated the Fourth of July, the day America declared its independence from Britain. Together, they fought British troops to make that declaration a political reality. Together, they joined under the Latin phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' -- one out of many. Yet when the war ended, the soldiers returned to their home states. They still thought of themselves as New Yorkers, or Virginians, or Marylanders. They did not consider themselves a national people. VOICE ONE: Americans of Seventeen-Eighty-Nine were sharply divided on the need for a national government. Many were afraid the new government would not survive. They feared the anarchy that would result if it failed. Others hoped it would fail. They wanted strong state governments, not a strong central government. For those who supported the national government, there were good reasons to hope for success. The country had great natural resources. And its people were honest and hard-working. Also, in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine, the American economy was improving after the destruction of the Revolutionary War. Agriculture, trade, and ship building were coming back to life. Roads, bridges, and canals were being built to improve travel and communication. The country's economy had many problems, however. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the revolutionary army. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action. VOICE TWO: But before the new government could act, the old government had work to do. It had to decide where the capital city of the new nation would be. It also had to hold elections for president and Congress. First, the question of a capital. At the time the states ratified the new Constitution, the Continental Congress was meeting in New York City. And that is where it decided to place the new government. Later, the capital would be moved to Philadelphia for a while. Finally, it would be established at Washington, D-C. Next, the Continental Congress had to decide when the states would choose a president. It agreed on March Fourth, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. That was when the new Constitution would go into effect. VOICE ONE: The eleven states that ratified the Constitution chose electors to vote for a president. The result was not a surprise. They chose the hero of the Revolutionary War: George Washington. No one opposed the choice. Washington learned of his election while at his home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. He left for New York and was inaugurated there on April Thirtieth. Members of the new Congress also were elected on March Fourth. Now, for the first time, Americans had something many of them had talked about for years -- a working national government. There was much work to be done. The machinery of government was new, untested. Quick decisions were needed to keep the new nation alive and healthy. VOICE TWO: One of the first things the Congress did was to re-open debate on the Constitution itself. Several states had set a condition for approving the document. They said a Bill of Rights must be added to the Constitution, listing the rights of all citizens. When the Constitution was written, a majority of the states already had their own bills of rights. So some delegates to the convention said a national bill was unnecessary. Others argued that the Constitution would be the highest law of the land, higher than state laws. So a national bill of rights was needed to guarantee the rights of the citizens of the new nation. Time proved this to be a wise decision. The Bill of Rights gave the Constitution a special strength. Many Americans consider the Bill of Rights to be the heart and spirit of the Constitution. VOICE ONE: What is this Bill of Rights that is so important to the citizens of the United States? It is contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The First Amendment is the basic statement of American freedoms. It protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America. It says Congress will make no law establishing an official religion. Nor will Congress interfere in the peoples' right to worship as they choose. The First Amendment also says Congress will not make laws restricting the peoples' right to gather peacefully and to make demands on the government. The Second Amendment guarantees the peoples' right to keep weapons as part of an organized militia. The Third Amendment says people may not be forced to let soldiers stay in their homes during peacetime. VOICE TWO: The Fourth through the Eighth Amendments all protect the peoples' rights in the criminal justice system. The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. If police want to search a suspect's house or papers, they must get special permission from a judge. The document from the judge must say exactly what police are looking for. And it must describe the place to be searched. VOICE ONE: The Fifth Amendment says no one can be put on trial for a serious crime unless a grand jury has first examined the evidence and agreed that a trial is needed. No one can be put on trial more than once on the same criminal charge. And no one can be forced to give evidence against himself in court. The Fifth Amendment also says no one can lose their freedom, property, or life except by the rules of law. And the government cannot take people's property for public use without paying them a fair price. VOICE TWO: The Sixth Amendment says all persons accused of crimes have the right to a fair and speedy public trial by a jury. This guarantees that people cannot be kept in prison for a long time unless a jury has found them guilty of a crime. The Sixth Amendment also guarantees the right of accused persons to be defended by a lawyer. It says they must be informed of the nature and cause of the charges against them. And it says they have the right to face and question their accusers. The Seventh Amendment guarantees a person's right to have a jury decide his legal dispute with another person. The Eighth Amendment bars all cruel and unusual punishments. The Ninth Amendment provides protection for other rights not stated directly in the Constitution. And the Tenth Amendment says any powers which the Constitution does not give to the national government belong to the states or to the people themselves. VOICE ONE: A majority of the states approved the Bill of Rights by the end of Seventeen-Ninety-One. As we have seen, these amendments limited the powers of the national government. As a result, many anti-Federalists ended their opposition. They accepted the new government. Many agreed to help with the job of building the new nation. President Washington wanted the best men -- Federalist or anti-Federalist -- to be in his administration. The new nation needed strong leadership. George Washington provided it. General Washington's work as the first president will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Carolyn Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC — New York's Central Park turns one-hundred-fifty / We answer a listener's question about holidays / The music of Mary Fahl.
* Byline: 

 Broacast: August 29, 2003 (THEME) Broacast: August 29, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life that also answers your questions. (THEME) This week, we answer a listener’s question about two American holidays... HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life that also answers your questions. (THEME) This week, we answer a listener’s question about two American holidays... and listen to music by Mary Fahl. But first...we tell about the most famous park in the United States. Central Park HOST: In eighteen-fifty-three, New York City bought a huge amount of land for a public park to be built in its center. This year, New York is celebrating the one-hundred-fiftieth birthday of Central Park. It was the first major city park in the United States. It still is the most famous. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: and listen to music by Mary Fahl. But first...we tell about the most famous park in the United States. Central Park HOST: In eighteen-fifty-three, New York City bought a huge amount of land for a public park to be built in its center. This year, New York is celebrating the one-hundred-fiftieth birthday of Central Park. It was the first major city park in the United States. It still is the most famous. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: Central Park contains more than three-hundred-forty hectares of land. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (VOX) designed the huge park. Their goal was to make a beautiful natural environment with lakes, woods and open areas for all the people of New York to enjoy. The area was mostly wetlands with no trees. The park builders reshaped the land with tons of soil and rock and millions of trees and plants. They created hills and lakes. They designed bridges, roads and paths. They added more than fifty statues, monuments and fountains of water. They completed their work in eighteen-seventy-eight. Later, playgrounds, baseball fields and an ice skating rink were built in the park. Today, Central Park also has a zoo, a carousel ride for children and a theater where plays and musical concerts are presented each summer. About twenty-five-million people visit Central Park each year. These include people from other areas of the United States and from foreign countries. Millions of people who live in New York love Central Park as a place to escape from their small apartments in high-rise buildings. Every day, people walk, run or ride bicycles along the paths in Central Park. Others walk their dogs, play baseball, row a boat on the lake or eat a meal on the grass. Bird-watchers can observe more than two-hundred kinds of birds in the park. Many people also use the park for special events. For example, some people choose one of the beautiful natural areas in the park as the perfect place to get married. Central Park is a place of peace, quiet and natural beauty that is surrounded by tall buildings and the noisy, crowded streets of New York. Some people call it the heart of the biggest city in America. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that “for millions of New Yorkers, Central Park is not just a park. It is our front yard. It is our picnic spot, our playground, our nature preserve… and our field of dreams.” Holidays Host: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Nuraddeen Hamza asks about the American holidays celebrated on September first and November eleventh of this year. This Monday, Americans will celebrate Labor Day. International Labor Day is May first. But the United States chose another day for its labor celebration. A New York labor leader is said to have suggested the first Monday in September be a holiday to honor labor. He said it was a nice time of the year for a celebration. He proposed public parades to show the strength of labor organizations. And he urged that people end the day with outdoor parties. New York City held the first American labor day celebration on September fifth, eighteen-eighty-two. The idea quickly spread throughout the country. Congress declared Labor Day a national holiday in eighteen-ninety-four. For many years, American workers used Labor Day to demonstrate for better conditions and pay. Over the years, however, their condition improved. Such demonstrations are no longer common. Now, Labor Day weekend for Americans is a time to celebrate the last warm days of summer. People enjoy outdoor activities and picnics. And for most American children, Labor Day means it is time for school to begin again. November eleventh is Veterans Day. It was first declared Armistice Day by President Woodrow Wilson in nineteen-nineteen. It was a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during World War One. Congress made it a national holiday in nineteen-twenty-six. The federal, state and local governments would close. All public schools would close too. Parades in almost every city honored the men and women who had helped bring peace to Europe. Armistice Day in nineteen-forty-five honored veterns of both World War One and World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. By then, almost six-million Americans had served in another military campaign—the Korean War. The number of veterans has continued to grow. On November eleventh of each year, America’s military veterans are remembered with ceremonies and parades across the nation. The president and other public officials speak at Veterans Day ceremonies. Everyone honors the men and women of the armed forces who have served their country in war and in peace. Mary Fahl HOST: Mary Fahl was the lead singer of a group called The October Project. That group only performed for a short time together during the nineteen-nineties. Now, Mary Fahl has a new CD of her own. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. ANNCR: Mary Fahl’s new CD is called “The Other Side of Time.” She helped write almost all the songs on the album. One of them was used in a recent movie about the American Civil War called “Gods and Generals.” The song is called “Going Home.” (GOING HOME) Another song on Mary Fahl’s new CD was recorded for a movie called “The Guys”. The movie is about New York City firefighters who were killed saving others during the attack on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. This song is called “The Dawning of the Day.” Fahl wrote new words for a traditional Irish melody. (THE DAWNING OF THE DAY) Critics say Mary Fahl’s voice is deep and rich and powerful. They say the music on her new album is beautiful. We leave you now with another song from Mary Fahl’s new CD, “The Other Side of Time.” This one is called “Dream of You.” (DREAM OF YOU) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Central Park contains more than three-hundred-forty hectares of land. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (VOX) designed the huge park. Their goal was to make a beautiful natural environment with lakes, woods and open areas for all the people of New York to enjoy. The area was mostly wetlands with no trees. The park builders reshaped the land with tons of soil and rock and millions of trees and plants. They created hills and lakes. They designed bridges, roads and paths. They added more than fifty statues, monuments and fountains of water. They completed their work in eighteen-seventy-eight. Later, playgrounds, baseball fields and an ice skating rink were built in the park. Today, Central Park also has a zoo, a carousel ride for children and a theater where plays and musical concerts are presented each summer. About twenty-five-million people visit Central Park each year. These include people from other areas of the United States and from foreign countries. Millions of people who live in New York love Central Park as a place to escape from their small apartments in high-rise buildings. Every day, people walk, run or ride bicycles along the paths in Central Park. Others walk their dogs, play baseball, row a boat on the lake or eat a meal on the grass. Bird-watchers can observe more than two-hundred kinds of birds in the park. Many people also use the park for special events. For example, some people choose one of the beautiful natural areas in the park as the perfect place to get married. Central Park is a place of peace, quiet and natural beauty that is surrounded by tall buildings and the noisy, crowded streets of New York. Some people call it the heart of the biggest city in America. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that “for millions of New Yorkers, Central Park is not just a park. It is our front yard. It is our picnic spot, our playground, our nature preserve… and our field of dreams.” Holidays Host: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Nuraddeen Hamza asks about the American holidays celebrated on September first and November eleventh of this year. This Monday, Americans will celebrate Labor Day. International Labor Day is May first. But the United States chose another day for its labor celebration. A New York labor leader is said to have suggested the first Monday in September be a holiday to honor labor. He said it was a nice time of the year for a celebration. He proposed public parades to show the strength of labor organizations. And he urged that people end the day with outdoor parties. New York City held the first American labor day celebration on September fifth, eighteen-eighty-two. The idea quickly spread throughout the country. Congress declared Labor Day a national holiday in eighteen-ninety-four. For many years, American workers used Labor Day to demonstrate for better conditions and pay. Over the years, however, their condition improved. Such demonstrations are no longer common. Now, Labor Day weekend for Americans is a time to celebrate the last warm days of summer. People enjoy outdoor activities and picnics. And for most American children, Labor Day means it is time for school to begin again. November eleventh is Veterans Day. It was first declared Armistice Day by President Woodrow Wilson in nineteen-nineteen. It was a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during World War One. Congress made it a national holiday in nineteen-twenty-six. The federal, state and local governments would close. All public schools would close too. Parades in almost every city honored the men and women who had helped bring peace to Europe. Armistice Day in nineteen-forty-five honored veterns of both World War One and World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. By then, almost six-million Americans had served in another military campaign—the Korean War. The number of veterans has continued to grow. On November eleventh of each year, America’s military veterans are remembered with ceremonies and parades across the nation. The president and other public officials speak at Veterans Day ceremonies. Everyone honors the men and women of the armed forces who have served their country in war and in peace. Mary Fahl HOST: Mary Fahl was the lead singer of a group called The October Project. That group only performed for a short time together during the nineteen-nineties. Now, Mary Fahl has a new CD of her own. Faith Lapidus tells us about it. ANNCR: Mary Fahl’s new CD is called “The Other Side of Time.” She helped write almost all the songs on the album. One of them was used in a recent movie about the American Civil War called “Gods and Generals.” The song is called “Going Home.” (GOING HOME) Another song on Mary Fahl’s new CD was recorded for a movie called “The Guys”. The movie is about New York City firefighters who were killed saving others during the attack on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. This song is called “The Dawning of the Day.” Fahl wrote new words for a traditional Irish melody. (THE DAWNING OF THE DAY) Critics say Mary Fahl’s voice is deep and rich and powerful. They say the music on her new album is beautiful. We leave you now with another song from Mary Fahl’s new CD, “The Other Side of Time.” This one is called “Dream of You.” (DREAM OF YOU) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — August 29, 2003: Bush Chooses Utah Governor to Head the Environmental Protection Agency
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. President Bush has nominated the governor of Utah, Mike Leavitt, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Christine Todd Whitman resigned as administrator and left office in June. Mister Leavitt, also a Republican, is fifty-two years old. He has served the longest of all the current governors in the United States. Utah voters first elected him to lead the western state in nineteen-ninety-two. He is in his third term. Mister Leavitt told the New York Times about two of the environmental efforts he considers among his most successful. One was his work with a group to reduce air pollution over the Grand Canyon in Arizona and other national parks. That effort involved thirteen states, thirteen Indian tribes and three federal agencies. He also noted a major cleanup effort recently completed to reclaim water from a copper mine near Salt Lake City. The governor brought together environmentalists, government officials and mining officials. As a result, he says, the project was completed in just five years. It also avoided the need to spend huge amounts of federal money. Among other environmental issues, the governor has opposed federal efforts to store nuclear waste in Utah. Mister Leavitt supports a set of ideas for protecting air, land and water. He and a former Democratic governor of Oregon put forward these ideas called "Enlibra." The Western Governors Association accepts Enlibra as its policy. Mister Leavitt has led that group. The ideas call for working together to seek a balance in environmental decisions. Mister Leavitt says the costs of programs must be weighed against the good they will do. The Utah governor is generally described as a moderate. Not everyone, though, is pleased with his record on the environment. A lot of environmental leaders say he has not done an especially good job. Critics point to the governor’s plan to build a major road through wetlands near the Great Salt Lake. A federal court stopped that project. Critics also say Mister Leavitt is too willing to permit the use of public lands for oil drilling, mining and tree-cutting. His nomination to become the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency requires approval by the Senate. The Senate plans to hold confirmation hearings in September. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. President Bush has nominated the governor of Utah, Mike Leavitt, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Christine Todd Whitman resigned as administrator and left office in June. Mister Leavitt, also a Republican, is fifty-two years old. He has served the longest of all the current governors in the United States. Utah voters first elected him to lead the western state in nineteen-ninety-two. He is in his third term. Mister Leavitt told the New York Times about two of the environmental efforts he considers among his most successful. One was his work with a group to reduce air pollution over the Grand Canyon in Arizona and other national parks. That effort involved thirteen states, thirteen Indian tribes and three federal agencies. He also noted a major cleanup effort recently completed to reclaim water from a copper mine near Salt Lake City. The governor brought together environmentalists, government officials and mining officials. As a result, he says, the project was completed in just five years. It also avoided the need to spend huge amounts of federal money. Among other environmental issues, the governor has opposed federal efforts to store nuclear waste in Utah. Mister Leavitt supports a set of ideas for protecting air, land and water. He and a former Democratic governor of Oregon put forward these ideas called "Enlibra." The Western Governors Association accepts Enlibra as its policy. Mister Leavitt has led that group. The ideas call for working together to seek a balance in environmental decisions. Mister Leavitt says the costs of programs must be weighed against the good they will do. The Utah governor is generally described as a moderate. Not everyone, though, is pleased with his record on the environment. A lot of environmental leaders say he has not done an especially good job. Critics point to the governor’s plan to build a major road through wetlands near the Great Salt Lake. A federal court stopped that project. Critics also say Mister Leavitt is too willing to permit the use of public lands for oil drilling, mining and tree-cutting. His nomination to become the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency requires approval by the Senate. The Senate plans to hold confirmation hearings in September. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 28, 2003 — Maritime-Related Terms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 28, 2003 SOUND: Seagulls, ship horn AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the catch of the day, terms from the sea. Lots of nautical expressions have washed ashore into everyday English. Alan Hartley researches them for the Oxford English Dictionary -- that is, when he's not supervising the loading of grain onto foreign ships in the Great Lakes. We called him at his office in Minnesota, and immediately made headway. HARTLEY: "When you make 'headway,' you're making progress forward. 'Way' is usually the forward motion of a ship. It could also be rearward motion, and that was called 'sternway.' But there are a lot of analogous terms in English that never made it into the general vocabulary. 'Headway' and 'sternway' are a good example of a pair, one of which made it and the other didn't.'" AA: Maritime metaphors lend themselves to all kinds of situations on land. Let's say you're making headway on that big project at work, going "full steam ahead." It's all "smooth sailing" toward that big promotion. Or so it seems. All of a sudden you're "weathering a storm." You reach the "end of your rope" (anchor rope, that is). You look for "safe harbor." You "go overboard" to make things better. The last thing you want is to "scuttle" your career and wind up "on the rocks," all because you've "run afoul" of the boss. HARTLEY: "If you encountered another ship accidentally, you got too close to it, maybe you got tangled in its anchor cable, in that case you have 'run afoul' of the other ship and had an accident, essentially." AA: "And today we might talk about to 'run afoul of the law.'" HARTLEY: "Sure, exactly. It's a very typical case of the extension into everyday English. And it shows that, you know, the word would be kicking around in nautical use for a few decades and gradually it would be picked up in general use." RS: "Some of these words I find interesting because I didn't even know that they were maritime words." HARTLEY: "Same for me. 'High and dry,' for instance, is something you say all the time. A ship got stuck on the mud flats or on a reef, the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry." RS: "Well, here's an expression I never associated with the seas, usually associated with my doctor. When I go to the doctor I really like to come out with a 'clean bill of health.'" HARTLEY: "Everybody does. And the crew of an old sailing ship would have felt the same way. It didn't mean quite the same thing then, but a ship on arriving at a port would have to be cleared by the local port authorities as having no communicable disease on board. And once they were cleared they got a 'clean bill of health.' Sometimes that took a long time. They would be in quarantine, which was a forty-day period. That's where the 'quarant' comes from." RS: "Do you have a favorite maritime expression?" HARTLEY: "The one that's maybe most striking to me is that phrase we use nowadays, the phrase 'to be taken aback.' A person is taken aback if he is surprised in a negative way, and that derives from an old sailing term in which if the ship were headed too close to the direction of the wind, the wind would strike the sails on the forward surface instead of the after -- or rear -- surface. "So if the wind got around too much toward the bow, toward the front of the ship, it could stop you in your tracks. But also, if you were taken aback hard enough, you could break the entire mast that the sail was suspended from. So it was a very dangerous and startling situation." AA: Nowadays, don't look to the sea for many new expressions. Alan Hartley points out that we're still using mostly terms from the days of sailing ships. HARTLEY: "A lot of the vocabulary that's developed since then is very technical, very specific to modern ships. It has very little application in everyday life." AA: Alan Hartley is a ship-loading superintendent in Minnesota and a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary. He's put together a list of nautical language for our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com Time to set sail! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Across the Sea"/Bobby Darin [This segment was first broadcast on August 8, 2002.] Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: August 28, 2003 SOUND: Seagulls, ship horn AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the catch of the day, terms from the sea. Lots of nautical expressions have washed ashore into everyday English. Alan Hartley researches them for the Oxford English Dictionary -- that is, when he's not supervising the loading of grain onto foreign ships in the Great Lakes. We called him at his office in Minnesota, and immediately made headway. HARTLEY: "When you make 'headway,' you're making progress forward. 'Way' is usually the forward motion of a ship. It could also be rearward motion, and that was called 'sternway.' But there are a lot of analogous terms in English that never made it into the general vocabulary. 'Headway' and 'sternway' are a good example of a pair, one of which made it and the other didn't.'" AA: Maritime metaphors lend themselves to all kinds of situations on land. Let's say you're making headway on that big project at work, going "full steam ahead." It's all "smooth sailing" toward that big promotion. Or so it seems. All of a sudden you're "weathering a storm." You reach the "end of your rope" (anchor rope, that is). You look for "safe harbor." You "go overboard" to make things better. The last thing you want is to "scuttle" your career and wind up "on the rocks," all because you've "run afoul" of the boss. HARTLEY: "If you encountered another ship accidentally, you got too close to it, maybe you got tangled in its anchor cable, in that case you have 'run afoul' of the other ship and had an accident, essentially." AA: "And today we might talk about to 'run afoul of the law.'" HARTLEY: "Sure, exactly. It's a very typical case of the extension into everyday English. And it shows that, you know, the word would be kicking around in nautical use for a few decades and gradually it would be picked up in general use." RS: "Some of these words I find interesting because I didn't even know that they were maritime words." HARTLEY: "Same for me. 'High and dry,' for instance, is something you say all the time. A ship got stuck on the mud flats or on a reef, the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry." RS: "Well, here's an expression I never associated with the seas, usually associated with my doctor. When I go to the doctor I really like to come out with a 'clean bill of health.'" HARTLEY: "Everybody does. And the crew of an old sailing ship would have felt the same way. It didn't mean quite the same thing then, but a ship on arriving at a port would have to be cleared by the local port authorities as having no communicable disease on board. And once they were cleared they got a 'clean bill of health.' Sometimes that took a long time. They would be in quarantine, which was a forty-day period. That's where the 'quarant' comes from." RS: "Do you have a favorite maritime expression?" HARTLEY: "The one that's maybe most striking to me is that phrase we use nowadays, the phrase 'to be taken aback.' A person is taken aback if he is surprised in a negative way, and that derives from an old sailing term in which if the ship were headed too close to the direction of the wind, the wind would strike the sails on the forward surface instead of the after -- or rear -- surface. "So if the wind got around too much toward the bow, toward the front of the ship, it could stop you in your tracks. But also, if you were taken aback hard enough, you could break the entire mast that the sail was suspended from. So it was a very dangerous and startling situation." AA: Nowadays, don't look to the sea for many new expressions. Alan Hartley points out that we're still using mostly terms from the days of sailing ships. HARTLEY: "A lot of the vocabulary that's developed since then is very technical, very specific to modern ships. It has very little application in everyday life." AA: Alan Hartley is a ship-loading superintendent in Minnesota and a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary. He's put together a list of nautical language for our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com Time to set sail! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Across the Sea"/Bobby Darin [This segment was first broadcast on August 8, 2002.] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS — Ten Commandments Dispute
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 30, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Many people have watched a dispute over the placement of a stone marker in the American state of Alabama. The marker represents the Ten Commandments -- rules for living that some religions say came directly from God. On Wednesday, workers removed the Ten Commandments monument from the center of a government building in Alabama. The workers acted on a court order from a federal judge. The judge had ruled that leaving the monument in a public place violated the United States Constitution. The Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, Roy Moore, put the stone marker in the state courthouse two years ago. Mister Moore is a Christian. He was known for his support of the Ten Commandments when the state’s voters elected him chief justice in two-thousand. The Ten Commandments are a list of rules for living. Christians, Jews, and Muslims honor these directives as the word of God. Lawyers representing several groups took legal action to have the Ten Commandments monument removed from the Alabama courthouse. They argued that putting it there was unconstitutional. Last year, Federal District Judge Myron Thompson ruled that the monument’s placement violated the First Amendment of the Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees that religion and government will be separate in America. Judge Thompson ordered the monument removed by August Twentieth. He said that it could be put in a private area in the courthouse. Chief Justice Moore appealed the judge’s ruling. He argued that America’s legal system is based on the Ten Commandments. He also said he has the constitutional right to recognize God. But a federal appeals court and the United States Supreme Court both rejected his appeals. Still, Chief Justice Moore decided to leave the monument where it was. But Alabama’s associate Supreme Court justices, the governor and the state’s lawyer disagreed. The eight judges voted last week to move the two and one-half ton marker. Alabama’s Judicial Inquiry Commission then suspended Chief Justice Moore on charges of violating court rules. The Court of the Judiciary could decide to punish or even remove him from the high court. Mister Moore has thirty days to answer the charges against him. Supporters of the monument’s removal say it is a great victory for the rule of law and the honor of religious choice. But Roy Moore and his supporters have said they will continue their fight to return it to the center of the courthouse. Under a nineteen-ninety-four federal appeals court ruling, signs with the Ten Commandments may not be placed in courthouses in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. In recent years, courts also rejected efforts to place similar signs in South Carolina and Kentucky. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-08/a-2003-08-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA — Ernest Hemingway, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: August 31, 2003 (Theme) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with People in America, a program about people who are important in the history of the United States. Today we present the second part of the story of ernest hemingway's life and writings. (Theme) VOICE ONE: At twenty-five, Hemingway was living in Paris. He was a famous writer. But the end of his first marriage made him want to leave the place where he had first become famous. Years later he said, "the city was never to be the same again. When I returned to it, I found it had changed as I had changed. Paris was never the same as when I was poor and very happy." VOICE TWO: Hemingway and his new wife returned to the United States in nineteen-twenty-eight. They settled in Key West, an island with a fishing port near the southern coast of Florida. Before leaving Paris, Hemingway sent a collection of his stories to New York to be published. The book of stories, called "men without women," was published soon after Hemingway arrived in Key West. One of the stories was called "The Killers. " In it, Hemingway used a discussion between two men to create a feeling of tension and coming violence. This was a new method of telling a story: Storyteller: Nick opened the door and went into the room. Ole andreson was lying on the bed with all his clothes on. He had been a heavyweight prizefighter and he was too long for the bed. He lay with his head on two pillows. He did not look at Nick. "What was it. " He asked. "I was up at Henry's," Nick said, "and two fellows came in and tied me up and the cook, and they said they were going to kill you. " It sounded silly when he said it. Ole Andreson said nothing, "they put us out in the kitchen," Nick went on. "They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper." Ole Andreson looked at the wall and did not say anything. "George thought I ought to come and tell you about it. " "There isn't anything I can do about it," Ole Andreson said. VOICE ONE: Any new book by Hemingway was an important event for readers. But stories like "The Killers" shocked many people. Some thought there was too much violence in his stories. Others said he only wrote about gunmen, soldiers, fighters, and drinkers. This kind of criticism made Hemingway angry. He felt that writers should not be judged by those who could not write a story. VOICE TWO: Hemingway was happy in Key West. In the morning he wrote, in the afternoon he fished, and at night he went to a public house and drank. One old fisherman said: "Hemingway was a man who talked slowly and very carefully. He asked a lot of questions. And he always wanted to get his information exactly right. " Hemingway and his wife Pauline had a child in Key West. Soon afterward he heard that his father had killed himself. Hemingway was shocked. He said, "my father taught me so much. He was the only one I really cared about. " When Hemingway returned to work there was a sadness about his writing that was not there before. His new book told about an American soldier who served with the Italian army during World War One. He meets an English nurse, and they fall in love. They flee from the army, but she dies during childbirth. Some of the events are taken from Hemingway's service in Italy. The book is called a farewell to arms. Part of the book talks about the defeat of the Italian army at a place called Caporetto: Storyteller: "At noon we were stuck in a muddy road about as nearly as we could figure, ten kilometres from udine. The rain had stopped during the forenoon and three times we had heard planes coming, seen them pass overhead, watched them go far to the left and heard them bombing on the main highroad. . . . "Later we were on a road that led to a river. There was a long line of abandoned trucks and carts on a road leading up to a bridge. No one was in sight. The river was high and the bridge had been blown up in the center; the stone arch was fallen into the river and the brown water was going over it. We went up the bank looking for a place to cross. . . . we did not see any troops; only abandoned trucks and stores. Along the river bank was nothing and no one but the wet brush and muddy ground. " VOICE ONE: A farewell to arms was very successful. It earned Hemingway a great deal of money. And it permitted him to travel. One place he visited was Spain, a country that he loved. He said, "I want to paint with words all the sights and sounds and smells of Spain. And if I can write any of it down truly, then it will represent all of Spain. " A book called Death in the Afternoon was the result. It describes the Spanish tradition of bull fighting. Hemingway believed that bull fighting was an art, just as much as writing was an art. And he believed it was a true test of a man's bravery, something that always concerned him. VOICE TWO: Hemingway also travelled to Africa. He had been asked to write a series of reports about African hunting. He said, "hunting in Africa is the kind of hunting I like. No riding in cars, just simple walking and feeling the grass under my feet. " The trip to Africa resulted in a book called the green hills of Africa and a number of stories. One story is among Hemingway's best. He said a writer saves some stories to write when he knows enough to write them well. The story is called "The Snows of Kilimanjaro. " It tells of Hemingway's fears about himself. It is about a writer who betrays his art for money and is unable to remain true to himself. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-six, the Civil War in Spain gave him a chance to return to Spain and test his bravery again. He agreed to write about the war for an American news organization. It was a dangerous job. One day, Hemingway and two other reporters were driving a car near a battlefield. The car carried two white flags. But rebel gunners thought the car was carrying enemy officers. Hemingway was almost killed. He said, "shells are all the same. If they do not hit you, there is no story. If they do hit you, then you do not have to write it. " The trip to Spain resulted in two works, a play called the Fifth Column, and the novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. The novel tells the story of an American who has chosen to fight against the fascists. He realizes that there are lies and injustice on his side, as well as the other. But he sees no hope except the victory of his side. During the fighting, he escapes his fear of death and of being alone. He finds that "he can live as full a life in seventy hours as in seventy years." The book was a great success. Hemingway enjoyed being famous. His second marriage was ending. He divorced Pauline and married reporter Martha gGllhorn. He had met Martha while they were working in Spain. They decided to live in Cuba, near the city of Havana. Their house looked out over the Caribbean Sea. But this marriage did not last long. Hemingway was changing. He began to feel that whatever he said was right. Martha went on long trips to be away from him. He drank heavily to forget his loneliness. VOICE TWO: When America entered World War Two, Hemingway went to Britain as a reporter. Later he took part in the invasion of Europe and the freeing of Paris. During the war, Hemingway met another reporter, Mary Walsh. In nineteen-forty-five, when his marriage to Martha was legally over, he married Mary. After the war, Hemingway began work on his last important book, the old man and the sea. It is the story of a Cuban fisherman who refuses to be defeated by nature. Hemingway said, "I was trying to show the experience of the fisherman so exactly and directly that it became part of the reader's experience." In nineteen-fifty-four, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature. But he was too sick to take part in the ceremony. VOICE ONE: Ernest Hemingway was sixty years old, but he said he felt like he was eight-six. And, even worse, he felt that he no longer was able to write. He seemed to be living the story about the writer who had sold his writing skill in order to make money. In nineteen-sixty-one, Ernest Hemingway killed himself. Among the papers he left was one that described what he liked best: "To stay in places and to leave. . . to trust, to distrust. . . to no longer believe and believe again. . . to watch the changes in the seasons. . . to be out in boats. . . to watch the snow come, to watch it go. . . to hear the rain. . . And to know where I can find what I want. " (Theme) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Broadcast: August 31, 2003 (Theme) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson with People in America, a program about people who are important in the history of the United States. Today we present the second part of the story of ernest hemingway's life and writings. (Theme) VOICE ONE: At twenty-five, Hemingway was living in Paris. He was a famous writer. But the end of his first marriage made him want to leave the place where he had first become famous. Years later he said, "the city was never to be the same again. When I returned to it, I found it had changed as I had changed. Paris was never the same as when I was poor and very happy." VOICE TWO: Hemingway and his new wife returned to the United States in nineteen-twenty-eight. They settled in Key West, an island with a fishing port near the southern coast of Florida. Before leaving Paris, Hemingway sent a collection of his stories to New York to be published. The book of stories, called "men without women," was published soon after Hemingway arrived in Key West. One of the stories was called "The Killers. " In it, Hemingway used a discussion between two men to create a feeling of tension and coming violence. This was a new method of telling a story: Storyteller: Nick opened the door and went into the room. Ole andreson was lying on the bed with all his clothes on. He had been a heavyweight prizefighter and he was too long for the bed. He lay with his head on two pillows. He did not look at Nick. "What was it. " He asked. "I was up at Henry's," Nick said, "and two fellows came in and tied me up and the cook, and they said they were going to kill you. " It sounded silly when he said it. Ole Andreson said nothing, "they put us out in the kitchen," Nick went on. "They were going to shoot you when you came in to supper." Ole Andreson looked at the wall and did not say anything. "George thought I ought to come and tell you about it. " "There isn't anything I can do about it," Ole Andreson said. VOICE ONE: Any new book by Hemingway was an important event for readers. But stories like "The Killers" shocked many people. Some thought there was too much violence in his stories. Others said he only wrote about gunmen, soldiers, fighters, and drinkers. This kind of criticism made Hemingway angry. He felt that writers should not be judged by those who could not write a story. VOICE TWO: Hemingway was happy in Key West. In the morning he wrote, in the afternoon he fished, and at night he went to a public house and drank. One old fisherman said: "Hemingway was a man who talked slowly and very carefully. He asked a lot of questions. And he always wanted to get his information exactly right. " Hemingway and his wife Pauline had a child in Key West. Soon afterward he heard that his father had killed himself. Hemingway was shocked. He said, "my father taught me so much. He was the only one I really cared about. " When Hemingway returned to work there was a sadness about his writing that was not there before. His new book told about an American soldier who served with the Italian army during World War One. He meets an English nurse, and they fall in love. They flee from the army, but she dies during childbirth. Some of the events are taken from Hemingway's service in Italy. The book is called a farewell to arms. Part of the book talks about the defeat of the Italian army at a place called Caporetto: Storyteller: "At noon we were stuck in a muddy road about as nearly as we could figure, ten kilometres from udine. The rain had stopped during the forenoon and three times we had heard planes coming, seen them pass overhead, watched them go far to the left and heard them bombing on the main highroad. . . . "Later we were on a road that led to a river. There was a long line of abandoned trucks and carts on a road leading up to a bridge. No one was in sight. The river was high and the bridge had been blown up in the center; the stone arch was fallen into the river and the brown water was going over it. We went up the bank looking for a place to cross. . . . we did not see any troops; only abandoned trucks and stores. Along the river bank was nothing and no one but the wet brush and muddy ground. " VOICE ONE: A farewell to arms was very successful. It earned Hemingway a great deal of money. And it permitted him to travel. One place he visited was Spain, a country that he loved. He said, "I want to paint with words all the sights and sounds and smells of Spain. And if I can write any of it down truly, then it will represent all of Spain. " A book called Death in the Afternoon was the result. It describes the Spanish tradition of bull fighting. Hemingway believed that bull fighting was an art, just as much as writing was an art. And he believed it was a true test of a man's bravery, something that always concerned him. VOICE TWO: Hemingway also travelled to Africa. He had been asked to write a series of reports about African hunting. He said, "hunting in Africa is the kind of hunting I like. No riding in cars, just simple walking and feeling the grass under my feet. " The trip to Africa resulted in a book called the green hills of Africa and a number of stories. One story is among Hemingway's best. He said a writer saves some stories to write when he knows enough to write them well. The story is called "The Snows of Kilimanjaro. " It tells of Hemingway's fears about himself. It is about a writer who betrays his art for money and is unable to remain true to himself. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-six, the Civil War in Spain gave him a chance to return to Spain and test his bravery again. He agreed to write about the war for an American news organization. It was a dangerous job. One day, Hemingway and two other reporters were driving a car near a battlefield. The car carried two white flags. But rebel gunners thought the car was carrying enemy officers. Hemingway was almost killed. He said, "shells are all the same. If they do not hit you, there is no story. If they do hit you, then you do not have to write it. " The trip to Spain resulted in two works, a play called the Fifth Column, and the novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. The novel tells the story of an American who has chosen to fight against the fascists. He realizes that there are lies and injustice on his side, as well as the other. But he sees no hope except the victory of his side. During the fighting, he escapes his fear of death and of being alone. He finds that "he can live as full a life in seventy hours as in seventy years." The book was a great success. Hemingway enjoyed being famous. His second marriage was ending. He divorced Pauline and married reporter Martha gGllhorn. He had met Martha while they were working in Spain. They decided to live in Cuba, near the city of Havana. Their house looked out over the Caribbean Sea. But this marriage did not last long. Hemingway was changing. He began to feel that whatever he said was right. Martha went on long trips to be away from him. He drank heavily to forget his loneliness. VOICE TWO: When America entered World War Two, Hemingway went to Britain as a reporter. Later he took part in the invasion of Europe and the freeing of Paris. During the war, Hemingway met another reporter, Mary Walsh. In nineteen-forty-five, when his marriage to Martha was legally over, he married Mary. After the war, Hemingway began work on his last important book, the old man and the sea. It is the story of a Cuban fisherman who refuses to be defeated by nature. Hemingway said, "I was trying to show the experience of the fisherman so exactly and directly that it became part of the reader's experience." In nineteen-fifty-four, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature. But he was too sick to take part in the ceremony. VOICE ONE: Ernest Hemingway was sixty years old, but he said he felt like he was eight-six. And, even worse, he felt that he no longer was able to write. He seemed to be living the story about the writer who had sold his writing skill in order to make money. In nineteen-sixty-one, Ernest Hemingway killed himself. Among the papers he left was one that described what he liked best: "To stay in places and to leave. . . to trust, to distrust. . . to no longer believe and believe again. . . to watch the changes in the seasons. . . to be out in boats. . . to watch the snow come, to watch it go. . . to hear the rain. . . And to know where I can find what I want. " (Theme) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA — Ravinia and Tanglewood Music Parks
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 1, 2003 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: September 1, 2003 VOICE ONE: This summer, many people have enjoyed music concerts at parks in the United States. Some of the world’s best musicians perform in the open air at these parks. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about two of America’s most famous open-air music parks on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) This summer, many people have enjoyed music concerts at parks in the United States. Some of the world’s best musicians perform in the open air at these parks. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we tell about two of America’s most famous open-air music parks on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: It is late summer at Ravinia Park, in the American Midwest, near Chicago, Illinois. The night is hot. But the wind cools the darkness. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is performing Symphony Number One by Johannes Brahms. Thousands of people are in the park. A husband and wife sit on the ground, far from where the music is coming. Their two little boys look at picture books. When the sky becomes dark, the boys sit close to their parents. Every so often, they all look up, beyond the trees, at the stars. The sound of the Brahms music surrounds them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As someone once said, "Music played outside, especially after dark, is one of the great pleasures of summer." Millions of Americans attend outdoor concerts each summer. The concerts are performed at parks across the country. VOICE ONE: It is late summer at Ravinia Park, in the American Midwest, near Chicago, Illinois. The night is hot. But the wind cools the darkness. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is performing Symphony Number One by Johannes Brahms. Thousands of people are in the park. A husband and wife sit on the ground, far from where the music is coming. Their two little boys look at picture books. When the sky becomes dark, the boys sit close to their parents. Every so often, they all look up, beyond the trees, at the stars. The sound of the Brahms music surrounds them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As someone once said, "Music played outside, especially after dark, is one of the great pleasures of summer." Millions of Americans attend outdoor concerts each summer. The concerts are performed at parks across the country. Some American music parks serve as the summer home for a city orchestra. At these parks, musicians may play well-known classical music, like the Brahms symphony. Or they may play folk music, jazz or popular music. VOICE ONE: Ravinia Festival park is about thirty kilometers north of Chicago. The park has a large area of open land where people sit on the ground. People also can sit inside, in a pavilion. The front and sides of this kind of building are open so everyone can see the performers. The music of some of the great composers floats out from the pavilion into the summer darkness. Listen as Betty Buckley sings "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by George Gershwin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People have been enjoying summer on this same land for almost a century. During the early nineteen-hundreds the area had a baseball field. There were rooms for eating and dancing. And there was an open-air theater. An early version of the present Ravinia Festival opened in nineteen-eleven. By nineteen-nineteen, it had become a summer home for some of the world’s great performers. Over the years visitors heard performances by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For people who liked jazz, there were Benny Goodman, Harry James and Lionel Hampton. VOICE ONE: The great economic Depression forced the Ravinia organization to close in nineteen-thirty-one. But several years later, businessmen formed the Ravinia Festival Corporation. They brought the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the park in nineteen-thirty-six. One of the most famous conductors to lead the symphony orchestra at Ravinia is James Levine (leh-VINE). He was appointed music director in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. He continued serving at Ravinia until nineteen-ninety-three. Ravinia’s fame has now spread far beyond the city of Chicago. There is good reason to believe that Ravinia will be offering summer music in the park for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another of America's most famous music parks is called Tanglewood. The Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood is in the Berkshire Mountains, in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra also performs at Tanglewood.Listen as John Williams leads the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus singers in the traditional spiritual, "Deep River." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tanglewood exists mainly because of Serge Koussevitsky (sairzh koo-suh-VIHT-skee). Born in Russia, he earned great success in Europe as a musician. He also formed his own orchestra. Then he came to the United States. Koussevitsky began leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in nineteen-twenty-four. His dream of presenting music in a beautiful mountain area came true in the middle nineteen-thirties. That is when he led the Boston orchestra in its first concerts at Tanglewood. Koussevitsky also helped open the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in nineteen-forty. The center has provided classes for some of America's most promising music students. One was Leonard Bernstein, remembered as one of the country's best composers and conductors. Bernstein himself later directed students at the music center. VOICE TWO: Another famous American composer, Aaron Copland, served as Koussevitsky's first assistant director at Tanglewood. The two men prepared programs of music written by composers hundreds of years earlier. They also prepared programs by modern composers who wrote pieces for the Boston Symphony. And the orchestra played the works of two composers Koussevitsky had helped make famous in Europe: Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. Over the years, Tanglewood has also won praise for presenting operas. Here is music from one of these traditional stories told through song: "Falstaff,” by Giuseppe Verdi. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Classical, jazz and folk music all are popular at Tanglewood. We leave you now with the music of Bill Crofut of the United States and Benjamin Luxon of England. They sing the American folk song "Simple Gifts" combined with the British "Lord of the Dance." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Some American music parks serve as the summer home for a city orchestra. At these parks, musicians may play well-known classical music, like the Brahms symphony. Or they may play folk music, jazz or popular music. VOICE ONE: Ravinia Festival park is about thirty kilometers north of Chicago. The park has a large area of open land where people sit on the ground. People also can sit inside, in a pavilion. The front and sides of this kind of building are open so everyone can see the performers. The music of some of the great composers floats out from the pavilion into the summer darkness. Listen as Betty Buckley sings "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by George Gershwin. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People have been enjoying summer on this same land for almost a century. During the early nineteen-hundreds the area had a baseball field. There were rooms for eating and dancing. And there was an open-air theater. An early version of the present Ravinia Festival opened in nineteen-eleven. By nineteen-nineteen, it had become a summer home for some of the world’s great performers. Over the years visitors heard performances by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For people who liked jazz, there were Benny Goodman, Harry James and Lionel Hampton. VOICE ONE: The great economic Depression forced the Ravinia organization to close in nineteen-thirty-one. But several years later, businessmen formed the Ravinia Festival Corporation. They brought the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the park in nineteen-thirty-six. One of the most famous conductors to lead the symphony orchestra at Ravinia is James Levine (leh-VINE). He was appointed music director in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. He continued serving at Ravinia until nineteen-ninety-three. Ravinia’s fame has now spread far beyond the city of Chicago. There is good reason to believe that Ravinia will be offering summer music in the park for many years to come. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another of America's most famous music parks is called Tanglewood. The Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood is in the Berkshire Mountains, in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra also performs at Tanglewood.Listen as John Williams leads the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus singers in the traditional spiritual, "Deep River." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Tanglewood exists mainly because of Serge Koussevitsky (sairzh koo-suh-VIHT-skee). Born in Russia, he earned great success in Europe as a musician. He also formed his own orchestra. Then he came to the United States. Koussevitsky began leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in nineteen-twenty-four. His dream of presenting music in a beautiful mountain area came true in the middle nineteen-thirties. That is when he led the Boston orchestra in its first concerts at Tanglewood. Koussevitsky also helped open the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in nineteen-forty. The center has provided classes for some of America's most promising music students. One was Leonard Bernstein, remembered as one of the country's best composers and conductors. Bernstein himself later directed students at the music center. VOICE TWO: Another famous American composer, Aaron Copland, served as Koussevitsky's first assistant director at Tanglewood. The two men prepared programs of music written by composers hundreds of years earlier. They also prepared programs by modern composers who wrote pieces for the Boston Symphony. And the orchestra played the works of two composers Koussevitsky had helped make famous in Europe: Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. Over the years, Tanglewood has also won praise for presenting operas. Here is music from one of these traditional stories told through song: "Falstaff,” by Giuseppe Verdi. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Classical, jazz and folk music all are popular at Tanglewood. We leave you now with the music of Bill Crofut of the United States and Benjamin Luxon of England. They sing the American folk song "Simple Gifts" combined with the British "Lord of the Dance." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS — Babies and Intelligence
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 2, 2003 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we discuss recent findings about how intelligence develops in babies. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The National Institute of Child Health and Development is an American government agency. Its goal is to discover which experiences can influence healthy development in humans. Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other humans. VOICE TWO: The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers. One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story. On the day the baby was born, the researchers tested to find out if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while inside his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby. The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again. VOICE ONE: Researchers in Finland have shown that babies can learn while they are asleep. They demonstrated that newborn babies can learn to identify different spoken sounds while sleeping. The Finnish researchers divided forty-five newborns into three groups. They used devices to measures the babies’ brain activity. The researchers played recordings of spoken sounds for up to one hour while the babies slept After this brief period, the researchers continued to play the recording to one group of babies during the night. The second group heard a different recording. The third group did not hear any recording. The researchers studied each baby’s brain activity. Those in the first group could identify the sounds in the morning and again at night. The other babies could not. The head of the study believes that babies can learn while asleep because the part of their brains called the cerebral cortex remains active at night. The cortex is very important for learning. This part of the brain is not active in adults while they sleep. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children. The study involved more than one-thousand-two-hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period. VOICE ONE: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of the mental condition called depression. The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear. These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another study suggests that babies who are bigger at birth generally are more intelligent later in life. It found that the intelligence of a child at seven years of age is directly linked to his or her weight at birth. Study organizers say this is probably because heavier babies received more nutrition during important periods of brain development before they were born. The study involved almost three-thousand-five-hundred children. Researchers in New York City used traditional tests to measure intelligence. Brothers and sisters were tested so that the effects of birth weight alone could be separated from the effects of diet or other considerations. The researchers found that children with higher birth weights generally did better on the intelligence tests. Also, the link between birth weight and intelligence later in life was stronger for boys than for girls. VOICE ONE: Another American study examined the development of very low birth weight babies. They were born early, before the end of the normal nine-month development period. Researchers in Cleveland, Ohio studied two-hundred-forty-two people who were born in the late Nineteen-Seventies. At birth, they weighed an average of one-thousand-one-hundred-seventy-nine grams. On average, they were born during the twenty-ninth week of pregnancy. By comparison, a pregnancy is considered full term at thirty-seven weeks. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the progress of those born early with other children over a twenty-year period. They found that the young people who had been very low birth weight babies were less likely to complete high school. They also did not perform as well on intelligence tests as other adults. However, the very low birth weight adults were less likely to use drugs or alcoholic drinks. They also were less likely to become pregnant before the age of twenty. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina. Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school. VOICE TWO: Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests. The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics. VOICE ONE: Recently, organizers of the Abecedarian Project completed another examination of the students who are now twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have graduated from college. The study is more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: September 2, 2003 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we discuss recent findings about how intelligence develops in babies. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The National Institute of Child Health and Development is an American government agency. Its goal is to discover which experiences can influence healthy development in humans. Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other humans. VOICE TWO: The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers. One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story. On the day the baby was born, the researchers tested to find out if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while inside his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby. The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again. VOICE ONE: Researchers in Finland have shown that babies can learn while they are asleep. They demonstrated that newborn babies can learn to identify different spoken sounds while sleeping. The Finnish researchers divided forty-five newborns into three groups. They used devices to measures the babies’ brain activity. The researchers played recordings of spoken sounds for up to one hour while the babies slept After this brief period, the researchers continued to play the recording to one group of babies during the night. The second group heard a different recording. The third group did not hear any recording. The researchers studied each baby’s brain activity. Those in the first group could identify the sounds in the morning and again at night. The other babies could not. The head of the study believes that babies can learn while asleep because the part of their brains called the cerebral cortex remains active at night. The cortex is very important for learning. This part of the brain is not active in adults while they sleep. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children. The study involved more than one-thousand-two-hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period. VOICE ONE: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of the mental condition called depression. The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear. These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another study suggests that babies who are bigger at birth generally are more intelligent later in life. It found that the intelligence of a child at seven years of age is directly linked to his or her weight at birth. Study organizers say this is probably because heavier babies received more nutrition during important periods of brain development before they were born. The study involved almost three-thousand-five-hundred children. Researchers in New York City used traditional tests to measure intelligence. Brothers and sisters were tested so that the effects of birth weight alone could be separated from the effects of diet or other considerations. The researchers found that children with higher birth weights generally did better on the intelligence tests. Also, the link between birth weight and intelligence later in life was stronger for boys than for girls. VOICE ONE: Another American study examined the development of very low birth weight babies. They were born early, before the end of the normal nine-month development period. Researchers in Cleveland, Ohio studied two-hundred-forty-two people who were born in the late Nineteen-Seventies. At birth, they weighed an average of one-thousand-one-hundred-seventy-nine grams. On average, they were born during the twenty-ninth week of pregnancy. By comparison, a pregnancy is considered full term at thirty-seven weeks. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the progress of those born early with other children over a twenty-year period. They found that the young people who had been very low birth weight babies were less likely to complete high school. They also did not perform as well on intelligence tests as other adults. However, the very low birth weight adults were less likely to use drugs or alcoholic drinks. They also were less likely to become pregnant before the age of twenty. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina. Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school. VOICE TWO: Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests. The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics. VOICE ONE: Recently, organizers of the Abecedarian Project completed another examination of the students who are now twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have graduated from college. The study is more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS — September 3, 2003: Project Apollo, Part 4
* Byline: 

 EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) (Photo - NASA) EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) The summer of nineteen-sixty-nine was a special time in history. That was when men from Earth -- American astronauts -- flew their Apollo Eleven spacecraft to the moon, landed and returned home safely. The world honored the astronauts as heroes. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first to land on the moon. But they were not the last. NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- launched six more Apollo flights. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell about the flights that followed Apollo Eleven to the moon. VOICE ONE: Alan Shepard. The summer of nineteen-sixty-nine was a special time in history. That was when men from Earth -- American astronauts -- flew their Apollo Eleven spacecraft to the moon, landed and returned home safely. The world honored the astronauts as heroes. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first to land on the moon. But they were not the last. NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- launched six more Apollo flights. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell about the flights that followed Apollo Eleven to the moon. VOICE ONE: Apollo Twelve lifted off only four months after the Apollo Eleven flight. Rain had fallen the night before. The clouds cleared, but more rain was expected. Space officials decided the weather was safe enough for them to launch the spacecraft. Thirty-six seconds after liftoff, lightning hit the huge Saturn Five rocket. The Apollo spacecraft lost electrical power to its control system. The astronauts worked calmly to get the power back on. Then lightning struck again. And power was lost again. The lightning, however, did not affect the Saturn rocket. The rocket continued to push the spacecraft on its path. The astronauts soon fixed the electrical problem. The situation returned to normal. Apollo Twelve could continue its flight to the moon. VOICE TWO: All three astronauts of Apollo Twelve were Navy fliers. Charles Conrad was the flight commander. Richard Gordon was pilot of the command module. Alan Bean was pilot of the moon lander. Charles Duke collects rock samples near Plum Crater; the Lunar Roving Vehicle is in the background.(Photo - John Young) Apollo Twelve lifted off only four months after the Apollo Eleven flight. Rain had fallen the night before. The clouds cleared, but more rain was expected. Space officials decided the weather was safe enough for them to launch the spacecraft. Thirty-six seconds after liftoff, lightning hit the huge Saturn Five rocket. The Apollo spacecraft lost electrical power to its control system. The astronauts worked calmly to get the power back on. Then lightning struck again. And power was lost again. The lightning, however, did not affect the Saturn rocket. The rocket continued to push the spacecraft on its path. The astronauts soon fixed the electrical problem. The situation returned to normal. Apollo Twelve could continue its flight to the moon. VOICE TWO: All three astronauts of Apollo Twelve were Navy fliers. Charles Conrad was the flight commander. Richard Gordon was pilot of the command module. Alan Bean was pilot of the moon lander. After four days, Apollo Twelve was near its landing area on the moon. It would land in an area called the Ocean of Storms. The Ocean of Storms was about two-thousand kilometers west of the place where Apollo Eleven had landed. Richard Gordon remained in the command module circling the moon. Charles Conrad and Alan Bean flew the lander craft to the surface. They came down near Surveyor Three, an unmanned spacecraft that had landed on the moon two years before. Surveyor had sent back six-thousand pictures of the moon before it stopped working. Conrad stepped out of the lander onto the moon. He described the surface as he walked away from the spacecraft. "Oh," he said, "is this soft! I don't sink in it too far." VOICE ONE: Alan Bean followed Charles Conrad to the surface. The two astronauts collected about thirty-five kilograms of rocks. They left five scientific instruments designed to send information back to Earth. And they visited the old Surveyor spacecraft. The two astronauts spent more than thirty-one hours on the moon. Then they returned to the orbiting command module and started back to Earth. They landed in the Pacific Ocean, only six kilometers from the ship that waited to rescue them. VOICE TWO: The next flight in America's Apollo space project -- Apollo Thirteen -- never landed on the moon. Three days after launch, an explosion damaged the spacecraft. The astronauts lost most of their oxygen. Harrison Schmitt stands next to a huge rock on the moon. After four days, Apollo Twelve was near its landing area on the moon. It would land in an area called the Ocean of Storms. The Ocean of Storms was about two-thousand kilometers west of the place where Apollo Eleven had landed. Richard Gordon remained in the command module circling the moon. Charles Conrad and Alan Bean flew the lander craft to the surface. They came down near Surveyor Three, an unmanned spacecraft that had landed on the moon two years before. Surveyor had sent back six-thousand pictures of the moon before it stopped working. Conrad stepped out of the lander onto the moon. He described the surface as he walked away from the spacecraft. "Oh," he said, "is this soft! I don't sink in it too far." VOICE ONE: Alan Bean followed Charles Conrad to the surface. The two astronauts collected about thirty-five kilograms of rocks. They left five scientific instruments designed to send information back to Earth. And they visited the old Surveyor spacecraft. The two astronauts spent more than thirty-one hours on the moon. Then they returned to the orbiting command module and started back to Earth. They landed in the Pacific Ocean, only six kilometers from the ship that waited to rescue them. VOICE TWO: The next flight in America's Apollo space project -- Apollo Thirteen -- never landed on the moon. Three days after launch, an explosion damaged the spacecraft. The astronauts lost most of their oxygen. They had to cancel the moon landing and use the moon lander as a lifeboat. Oxygen from the lander kept them alive during the long trip back to Earth. Apollo Fourteen was launched in January, nineteen-seventy-one. It landed in the hilly Fra Mauro area of the moon. Fra Mauro is a huge highlands east of Apollo Twelve's landing place. A large meteorite hit the area four-thousand-million years ago. The force of the crash spread material from deep inside the moon. Scientists wanted to study this material. They believed it would give them important information about the early history of the moon. VOICE ONE: The commander of the Apollo Fourteen flight was Alan Shepard. He had been the first American in space. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. One piece of equipment on Apollo Fourteen was a light-weight vehicle with two wheels. The astronauts used it to carry tools and cameras while they were on the moon. The vehicle made it possible for them to travel farther from the spacecraft to collect rocks and do experiments. They walked as far as three kilometers from the moon lander. Even with the two-wheeled vehicle, however, Shepard and Mitchell could not reach one of their goals -- a crater called Cone. They did not have enough oxygen to walk that far. They had to return to the lander. Apollo Twelve and Apollo Fourteen produced much new scientific information. And they increased the interest of scientists in the next Apollo flights to the moon. VOICE TWO: The last three flights would permit astronauts to stay much longer on the moon. They also would provide a vehicle with four wheels in which astronauts could ride. With such a vehicle, astronauts could explore a much larger area of the moon's surface. The vehicle was called a Lunar Rover. The lunar rover was powered by electricity. It could carry two astronauts more than thirty kilometers from the lander. It could carry more than one-hundred-ten kilograms of equipment. The Lunar Rover also had a television camera and an antenna for sending color television broadcasts back to Earth. VOICE ONE: David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin were the crew for Apollo Fifteen. They landed at Hadley Rille near the Apennine Mountains, northwest of the place where Apollo Eleven had landed. Scott and Irwin were the first to use the Lunar Rover vehicle. They made several trips from the landing area to study the surface of the moon. They gathered seventy-six kilos of moon rocks. And they placed a small satellite in lunar orbit before they returned to Earth. The Apollo Fifteen astronauts returned safely. Scientists were excited about the moon rocks the astronauts brought back. They named one of them "the Genesis Rock." It is believed to be more than four-thousand-million years old. Scientists say the rock was created very early in the life of the moon. Soil brought back contained bits of orange glass. Scientists said the glass came from material created as deep as three-hundred kilometers below the moon's surface. Astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke flew Apollo Sixteen to the moon in April, nineteen-seventy-two. Young and Duke landed southwest of the Apollo Eleven landing place. They spent forty-five hours on the moon. They collected rocks and set up scientific equipment. VOICE TWO: Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans made the last Apollo flight to the moon. That was in December, nineteen-seventy-two. Cernan and Schmitt landed in a valley almost directly north of the Apollo Eleven landing place. They spent seventy-five hours, in all, on the surface. More than twenty-two hours were spent working outside the lander. The astronauts made three trips in the lunar rover to take pictures and collect rocks. The astronauts also left many scientific devices that would continue to report information about the moon. Cernan and Schmitt lifted off the moon on December fourteenth. Just before leaving, they placed a metal sign on the surface. The sign was to remain forever. It said: "Here man completed his first exploration of the moon, December, nineteen-seventy-two. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind." VOICE ONE: Production of the Saturn Five rocket and the Apollo spacecraft ended with Apollo seventeen. America's manned explorations of the moon were completed. It was the end of a special time in human history. It had been the first time people moved beyond their small planet into the huge solar system. Now, once again, the moon was beyond human reach. (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of the United States' Apollo space flight program that sent people to the moon. This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. They had to cancel the moon landing and use the moon lander as a lifeboat. Oxygen from the lander kept them alive during the long trip back to Earth. Apollo Fourteen was launched in January, nineteen-seventy-one. It landed in the hilly Fra Mauro area of the moon. Fra Mauro is a huge highlands east of Apollo Twelve's landing place. A large meteorite hit the area four-thousand-million years ago. The force of the crash spread material from deep inside the moon. Scientists wanted to study this material. They believed it would give them important information about the early history of the moon. VOICE ONE: The commander of the Apollo Fourteen flight was Alan Shepard. He had been the first American in space. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. One piece of equipment on Apollo Fourteen was a light-weight vehicle with two wheels. The astronauts used it to carry tools and cameras while they were on the moon. The vehicle made it possible for them to travel farther from the spacecraft to collect rocks and do experiments. They walked as far as three kilometers from the moon lander. Even with the two-wheeled vehicle, however, Shepard and Mitchell could not reach one of their goals -- a crater called Cone. They did not have enough oxygen to walk that far. They had to return to the lander. Apollo Twelve and Apollo Fourteen produced much new scientific information. And they increased the interest of scientists in the next Apollo flights to the moon. VOICE TWO: The last three flights would permit astronauts to stay much longer on the moon. They also would provide a vehicle with four wheels in which astronauts could ride. With such a vehicle, astronauts could explore a much larger area of the moon's surface. The vehicle was called a Lunar Rover. The lunar rover was powered by electricity. It could carry two astronauts more than thirty kilometers from the lander. It could carry more than one-hundred-ten kilograms of equipment. The Lunar Rover also had a television camera and an antenna for sending color television broadcasts back to Earth. VOICE ONE: David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin were the crew for Apollo Fifteen. They landed at Hadley Rille near the Apennine Mountains, northwest of the place where Apollo Eleven had landed. Scott and Irwin were the first to use the Lunar Rover vehicle. They made several trips from the landing area to study the surface of the moon. They gathered seventy-six kilos of moon rocks. And they placed a small satellite in lunar orbit before they returned to Earth. The Apollo Fifteen astronauts returned safely. Scientists were excited about the moon rocks the astronauts brought back. They named one of them "the Genesis Rock." It is believed to be more than four-thousand-million years old. Scientists say the rock was created very early in the life of the moon. Soil brought back contained bits of orange glass. Scientists said the glass came from material created as deep as three-hundred kilometers below the moon's surface. Astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke flew Apollo Sixteen to the moon in April, nineteen-seventy-two. Young and Duke landed southwest of the Apollo Eleven landing place. They spent forty-five hours on the moon. They collected rocks and set up scientific equipment. VOICE TWO: Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans made the last Apollo flight to the moon. That was in December, nineteen-seventy-two. Cernan and Schmitt landed in a valley almost directly north of the Apollo Eleven landing place. They spent seventy-five hours, in all, on the surface. More than twenty-two hours were spent working outside the lander. The astronauts made three trips in the lunar rover to take pictures and collect rocks. The astronauts also left many scientific devices that would continue to report information about the moon. Cernan and Schmitt lifted off the moon on December fourteenth. Just before leaving, they placed a metal sign on the surface. The sign was to remain forever. It said: "Here man completed his first exploration of the moon, December, nineteen-seventy-two. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind." VOICE ONE: Production of the Saturn Five rocket and the Apollo spacecraft ended with Apollo seventeen. America's manned explorations of the moon were completed. It was the end of a special time in human history. It had been the first time people moved beyond their small planet into the huge solar system. Now, once again, the moon was beyond human reach. (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of the United States' Apollo space flight program that sent people to the moon. This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-02-5-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — Walking to Better Health
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Intense physical exercise is not the only way to better health. Studies show that walking several times a week can lower the risk of many diseases. They include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bone loss, arthritis and depression. Walking also can help you lose weight. Fast walking is good for the heart. It lowers the blood pressure. It raises the amount of good cholesterol in the blood. Researchers say walking can sharply reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack. Studies have also shown that walking for thirty minutes a day can delay and possibly prevent the development of type two diabetes. People who are overweight have an especially high risk to develop this disease. Walking strengthens the muscles and builds up the bones that they are attached to. Studies show that women who walked and took calcium decreased their risk of developing osteoporosis, or thinning of the bones. Walking can also help ease the pain of arthritis in areas where bones are joined. This is because walking strengthens the muscles around the bones. Walking several times a week is a good way to control weight and lose extra body fat. Studies show it can also help ease the sad feelings of depression. Experts say walking is one of the safest ways to exercise. There is a low risk of injuries. So it is good for people who are starting an exercise program for the first time and for older people. A walking program is easy to start. You should wear loose clothes and good shoes. There are shoes that are designed especially for lots of walking. Stretching is an important part of any exercise program. It helps prevent injury and muscle pain. You should stretch the muscles in your legs, arms and back before and after you walk. How fast should you walk? For the best effect, doctors say you should walk fast enough to cause you to breathe hard. Yet you should still be able to talk. Let your arms move freely while you walk. There are no rules to starting a walking program. You might walk short distances. Or you might walk up hills to strengthen your leg muscles. Health experts say you can gain the most from a walking program if you walk at about five kilometers an hour for thirty minutes a day. You should do this about five times a week. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. [First broadcast June 19, 2002] Broadcast: September 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Intense physical exercise is not the only way to better health. Studies show that walking several times a week can lower the risk of many diseases. They include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bone loss, arthritis and depression. Walking also can help you lose weight. Fast walking is good for the heart. It lowers the blood pressure. It raises the amount of good cholesterol in the blood. Researchers say walking can sharply reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack. Studies have also shown that walking for thirty minutes a day can delay and possibly prevent the development of type two diabetes. People who are overweight have an especially high risk to develop this disease. Walking strengthens the muscles and builds up the bones that they are attached to. Studies show that women who walked and took calcium decreased their risk of developing osteoporosis, or thinning of the bones. Walking can also help ease the pain of arthritis in areas where bones are joined. This is because walking strengthens the muscles around the bones. Walking several times a week is a good way to control weight and lose extra body fat. Studies show it can also help ease the sad feelings of depression. Experts say walking is one of the safest ways to exercise. There is a low risk of injuries. So it is good for people who are starting an exercise program for the first time and for older people. A walking program is easy to start. You should wear loose clothes and good shoes. There are shoes that are designed especially for lots of walking. Stretching is an important part of any exercise program. It helps prevent injury and muscle pain. You should stretch the muscles in your legs, arms and back before and after you walk. How fast should you walk? For the best effect, doctors say you should walk fast enough to cause you to breathe hard. Yet you should still be able to talk. Let your arms move freely while you walk. There are no rules to starting a walking program. You might walk short distances. Or you might walk up hills to strengthen your leg muscles. Health experts say you can gain the most from a walking program if you walk at about five kilometers an hour for thirty minutes a day. You should do this about five times a week. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. [First broadcast June 19, 2002] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — September 1, 2003: Canning Food
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 1, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. People have always had to find ways to keep food safe to eat. Methods to dry, smoke and salt food were invented thousands of years ago. The process of canning is much more recent. This storage method keeps food safe to eat for long periods of time. Today, canning is one of the most popular methods of storing food. Canning uses heat to kill bacteria and other micro-organisms that cause poisons to form in food. Canning also takes away the air that these organisms need to live. One popular method of canning uses a water bath. Clean fruits or vegetables are placed in glass bottles. The food can be put into the bottles either hot or cold. The cold method is used for soft fruits and vegetables that could lose their shape or taste. Firmer fruits and most vegetables are usually cooked. They take up less space in the bottles. After the food has been placed in glass bottles, boiling water is poured into the bottles to about three centimeters below the top. Then covers are placed on the bottles, but are not turned all the way. The bottles are placed in a large container filled with warm water that is then brought to a boil. The water must completely cover the bottles, from three to five centimeters over the top. When the water boils, any air in the bottles will be expelled. The boiling continues for several minutes. Then the bottles are allowed to cool. Finally, they are placed briefly into cold water. This makes a strong barrier to keep the air out. In other words, a vacuum is created. When the bottles are completely cool, notes can be placed on them to identify what is inside. The bottles can then be stored in a cool, dark place at a temperature of between four and twenty-one degrees Celsius. Canning allows your family to enjoy foods that might not come fresh throughout the year. It is also a good way to store food for six months to a year, or even several years, in case of an emergency. It does not cost much to continue canning every year once the equipment has been purchased. You can get more information about canning food from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. [First broadcast Oct. 11, 1999] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #28 — September 4, 2003: New Nation / George Washington
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) The United States Constitution went into effect March Fourth, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. The Constitution was the new nation's plan of government. There was much to be done to make it work. The machinery of government was new, untested. Strong leadership was needed. It was provided by the man chosen to be the new nation's first president: George Washington. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell the story of George Washington. VOICE TWO: Many historians believe there would never have been a United States without George Washington. He led the American people to victory in their war for independence from Britain. He kept the new nation united in the dangerous first years of its life. Washington had a strange power over the American people. His name still does. During his lifetime, he was honored for his courage and wisdom. After his death in Seventeen-Ninety-Nine, he became almost god-like. People forgot that he was human, that he had faults and made mistakes. For well over one hundred years, Americans found it difficult to criticize George Washington. He represented the spirit of America -- what was best about the country. VOICE ONE: Recent historians have painted a more realistic picture of Washington. They write about his weaknesses, as well as his strengths. But this has not reduced his greatness and importance in the making of the nation. The force of Washington's personality, and his influence, was extremely important at the Philadelphia convention that wrote the new Constitution. Had he not agreed to attend, some say, the convention would not have been held. Later, as the first president, he gave the new nation a good start in life. VOICE TWO: Washington was able to control political disputes among officials of the new government. He would not let such disputes damage the nation's unity. Washington often thought of the future. He wanted the first government to take the right steps. He said, some things may not seem important in the beginning, but later, they may have bad permanent results. It would be better, he felt, to start his administration right than to try to correct mistakes later. . .when it might be too late to do so. He hoped to act in such a way that future presidents could continue to build on what he began. VOICE ONE: Washington had clear, firm ideas about what was right and what was wrong. He loved justice. He also loved the republican form of government. Some people had difficulty seeing this part of the man. For Washington looked like an aristocrat. And, at times, he seemed to act like one. He attended many ceremonies. He often rode through the streets in a carriage pulled by six horses. His critics called him 'king'. Washington opposed rule by kings and dictators. He was shocked that some good people talked of having a monarchy in America. He was even more shocked that they did not understand the harm they were doing. VOICE TWO: Washington warned that this loose talk could lead to an attempt to establish a monarchy in the United States. A monarchy, he said, would be a great victory for the enemies of the United States. It would prove that Americans could not govern themselves. As president, Washington decided to do everything in his power to prevent the country from ever being ruled by a king or dictator. He wanted the people to have as much self-government as possible. Such government, Washington felt, meant a life of personal freedom and equal justice for the people. VOICE ONE: The Eighteenth century has been described as the age of reason and understanding for the rights of people. Washington was a man of his times. He said no one could feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than he did. He said it was his greatest hope that the policies of that time would bring to everyone those blessings which should be theirs. Washington was especially happy and proud that the United States would protect people against oppression for their religious beliefs. He did not care which god people worshipped. He felt that religious freedom was a right of every person. Good men, he said, are found all over the world. They can be followers of any religion. . .or no religion at all. Washington's feelings about racial oppression were as strong as his feelings about religious oppression. True, he owned Negro slaves. But he hated slavery. "There is not a man alive," he once said, "who wishes more truly than I to see a plan approved to end slavery." By his order, all his slaves were freed when he died. VOICE TWO: From the beginning, George Washington was careful to establish a good working relationship with the Congress. He did not attempt to take away any powers given to the Congress by the Constitution. By his actions, he confirmed the separation of powers of the three branches of the government, as proposed in the Constitution. The Congress, too, was ready to cooperate. It did not attempt to take away any powers given to the president by the Constitution. The Congress, for example, agreed that President Washington had the right to appoint his assistants. But Congress kept the right to approve them. VOICE ONE: Washington asked some of the nation's wisest and most able men to serve in the new government. For Secretary of State, he chose Thomas Jefferson. At the time, Jefferson was America's representative to France. While Congress was considering Jefferson's nomination, Washington heard of threatening events in France. He learned that a mob had captured the old prison called the Bastille. Washington was worried. The United States had depended on France for help during its war for independence. And it still needed French help. A crisis in France could be bad for America. The information Jefferson brought home would prove valuable if the situation in France got worse. Washington also thought Jefferson's advice would be useful in general, not just on French developments. VOICE TWO: For Secretary of the Treasury, Washington chose Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had served as one of Washington's assistants during the Revolutionary War. For Chief Justice of the United States, he chose John Jay. Jay helped write the Federalist Papers, which are considered the best explanation of the Constitution ever written. Two delegates to the Constitutional convention were named Associate Justices of the Supreme Court: James Wilson and John Rutledge. For Attorney General, Washington wanted a good lawyer and someone who supported the Constitution. He chose Edmund Randolph, of Virginia. It was Randolph who proposed the Virginia Plan to the Philadelphia convention. The plan became the basis for the national Constitution. Randolph refused to sign the document, because he did not believe it could be approved. But he worked later to help win Virginia's approval of the Constitution. VOICE ONE: President Washington named his assistants, and the Congress approved them. The president was ready to begin work on the nation's urgent problems. And there were many. One problem was Spain's control of the lower part of the Mississippi River. American farmers needed to use the river to transport their crops to market. But the Spanish governor in Louisiana closed the Mississippi to American boats. There also were problems with Britain. The United States had no commercial treaty with Britain. And Britain had sent no representative to the new American government. Equally urgent were the new nation's economic problems. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the American army in the war for independence. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action. Finding solutions would be the job of President Washington's Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Harold Braverman. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) The United States Constitution went into effect March Fourth, Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. The Constitution was the new nation's plan of government. There was much to be done to make it work. The machinery of government was new, untested. Strong leadership was needed. It was provided by the man chosen to be the new nation's first president: George Washington. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell the story of George Washington. VOICE TWO: Many historians believe there would never have been a United States without George Washington. He led the American people to victory in their war for independence from Britain. He kept the new nation united in the dangerous first years of its life. Washington had a strange power over the American people. His name still does. During his lifetime, he was honored for his courage and wisdom. After his death in Seventeen-Ninety-Nine, he became almost god-like. People forgot that he was human, that he had faults and made mistakes. For well over one hundred years, Americans found it difficult to criticize George Washington. He represented the spirit of America -- what was best about the country. VOICE ONE: Recent historians have painted a more realistic picture of Washington. They write about his weaknesses, as well as his strengths. But this has not reduced his greatness and importance in the making of the nation. The force of Washington's personality, and his influence, was extremely important at the Philadelphia convention that wrote the new Constitution. Had he not agreed to attend, some say, the convention would not have been held. Later, as the first president, he gave the new nation a good start in life. VOICE TWO: Washington was able to control political disputes among officials of the new government. He would not let such disputes damage the nation's unity. Washington often thought of the future. He wanted the first government to take the right steps. He said, some things may not seem important in the beginning, but later, they may have bad permanent results. It would be better, he felt, to start his administration right than to try to correct mistakes later. . .when it might be too late to do so. He hoped to act in such a way that future presidents could continue to build on what he began. VOICE ONE: Washington had clear, firm ideas about what was right and what was wrong. He loved justice. He also loved the republican form of government. Some people had difficulty seeing this part of the man. For Washington looked like an aristocrat. And, at times, he seemed to act like one. He attended many ceremonies. He often rode through the streets in a carriage pulled by six horses. His critics called him 'king'. Washington opposed rule by kings and dictators. He was shocked that some good people talked of having a monarchy in America. He was even more shocked that they did not understand the harm they were doing. VOICE TWO: Washington warned that this loose talk could lead to an attempt to establish a monarchy in the United States. A monarchy, he said, would be a great victory for the enemies of the United States. It would prove that Americans could not govern themselves. As president, Washington decided to do everything in his power to prevent the country from ever being ruled by a king or dictator. He wanted the people to have as much self-government as possible. Such government, Washington felt, meant a life of personal freedom and equal justice for the people. VOICE ONE: The Eighteenth century has been described as the age of reason and understanding for the rights of people. Washington was a man of his times. He said no one could feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than he did. He said it was his greatest hope that the policies of that time would bring to everyone those blessings which should be theirs. Washington was especially happy and proud that the United States would protect people against oppression for their religious beliefs. He did not care which god people worshipped. He felt that religious freedom was a right of every person. Good men, he said, are found all over the world. They can be followers of any religion. . .or no religion at all. Washington's feelings about racial oppression were as strong as his feelings about religious oppression. True, he owned Negro slaves. But he hated slavery. "There is not a man alive," he once said, "who wishes more truly than I to see a plan approved to end slavery." By his order, all his slaves were freed when he died. VOICE TWO: From the beginning, George Washington was careful to establish a good working relationship with the Congress. He did not attempt to take away any powers given to the Congress by the Constitution. By his actions, he confirmed the separation of powers of the three branches of the government, as proposed in the Constitution. The Congress, too, was ready to cooperate. It did not attempt to take away any powers given to the president by the Constitution. The Congress, for example, agreed that President Washington had the right to appoint his assistants. But Congress kept the right to approve them. VOICE ONE: Washington asked some of the nation's wisest and most able men to serve in the new government. For Secretary of State, he chose Thomas Jefferson. At the time, Jefferson was America's representative to France. While Congress was considering Jefferson's nomination, Washington heard of threatening events in France. He learned that a mob had captured the old prison called the Bastille. Washington was worried. The United States had depended on France for help during its war for independence. And it still needed French help. A crisis in France could be bad for America. The information Jefferson brought home would prove valuable if the situation in France got worse. Washington also thought Jefferson's advice would be useful in general, not just on French developments. VOICE TWO: For Secretary of the Treasury, Washington chose Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had served as one of Washington's assistants during the Revolutionary War. For Chief Justice of the United States, he chose John Jay. Jay helped write the Federalist Papers, which are considered the best explanation of the Constitution ever written. Two delegates to the Constitutional convention were named Associate Justices of the Supreme Court: James Wilson and John Rutledge. For Attorney General, Washington wanted a good lawyer and someone who supported the Constitution. He chose Edmund Randolph, of Virginia. It was Randolph who proposed the Virginia Plan to the Philadelphia convention. The plan became the basis for the national Constitution. Randolph refused to sign the document, because he did not believe it could be approved. But he worked later to help win Virginia's approval of the Constitution. VOICE ONE: President Washington named his assistants, and the Congress approved them. The president was ready to begin work on the nation's urgent problems. And there were many. One problem was Spain's control of the lower part of the Mississippi River. American farmers needed to use the river to transport their crops to market. But the Spanish governor in Louisiana closed the Mississippi to American boats. There also were problems with Britain. The United States had no commercial treaty with Britain. And Britain had sent no representative to the new American government. Equally urgent were the new nation's economic problems. Two major issues had to be settled. One was repayment of loans made to support the American army in the war for independence. The other was creation of a national money system. Both issues needed quick action. Finding solutions would be the job of President Washington's Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Harold Braverman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT — September 4, 2003: Home-Schooling
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A new school year has begun in America. But some children do not go to school. Instead, they learn at home, usually with their parents as teachers. Educational companies, libraries, school systems and the Internet provide families with teaching material. Homeschooling is increasingly popular. Homeschooling groups estimate that two-million children, around two percent, learn at home. The last government estimate was eight-hundred-fifty-thousand in nineteen-ninety-nine. Current numbers are not expected until next year. Some parents choose homeschooling because of their religious beliefs. Others say it provides more time for the family to be together. Many parents also believe homeschooling avoids problems of a lot of traditional schools. One problem is classes with too many students. Critics, though, say children need to attend school with other children to help them learn things like social skills. They also say that some homeschooled children do not get a very good education. All fifty states and the District of Columbia permit homeschooling. Some, however, require more preparation by parents or testing of children than others do. Homeschooling is as old as the country. In farm areas, people often lived far from a school. Then, in eighteen-fifty-two, the state of Massachusetts passed the first law to require children to attend school. The public education system grew. By the nineteen-sixties and seventies, however, some Americans believed that traditional education was not helping their children. So a number of parents began homeschooling. Homeschool expert Linda Dobson says some parents began to teach their children at home when some religious schools closed. This happened after changes in tax laws in the nineteen-eighties. Since then, she says, more people have joined the movement -- rich and poor, and people from many races, religions and political beliefs. There is even a National Home School Honor Society. Membership is based in part on the same tests that students take in school. Homeschooled children go to college and have also won top competitions. These include this year's National Geographic Bee. Fourteen-year-old James Williams knew that the Indian state of Goa is a former colony of Portugal. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC — September 5, 2003: The Music of Stephin Merritt / Relations Between Christians and Jews / Grandparents University
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (Photo - saveamericastreasures.org) (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life that also answers your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a listener’s question about different religions in America, and listen to music by Stephin Merritt. But first a report about an unusual kind of university. Grandparents University Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life that also answers your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a listener’s question about different religions in America, and listen to music by Stephin Merritt. But first a report about an unusual kind of university. Grandparents University HOST: Almost two-hundred-fifty young and older Americans have completed an unusual summer school at the University of Wisconsin. Older adults and their grandchildren studied together at the school’s Grandparents University. Grandmothers and grandfathers helped show the children what a university does. The grandparents helped the children recognize the value of a university education. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: One-hundred-sixteen grandparents and one-hundred-thirty grandchildren attended the yearly Grandparents University this summer. The children were ages seven to fourteen. For two days, young and older students attended classes and activities together. The program took place in the university’s center in the city of Madison, Wisconsin. Most students stayed in the school’s student housing. Those in the grandparents program could learn about subjects including archeology and food science. They could study fine arts or animal health. School officials say professors use words that children can understand during the classes. But they do not try to make the material easy.One summer school goal is to provide children with an idea of what they might want to become as adults. Their grandparents have chosen their life’s work. Many have already retired. But their grandchildren must make this decision in the future. At the end of the program, the old and young students take part in a graduation ceremony. They receive documents showing that they had completed their studies. Most of the grandparents say that studying at the University of Wisconsin is like returning to their younger days. Two-thirds of the grandparents attended that university. Most are from Wisconsin. But the grandchildren live all over the United States. Older adults also can take part in other courses at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. For example, Senior Academy offers studies in two living centers for older citizens in Madison. These classes are taught over a period of four weeks. This summer, Senior Academy students took part in a course called “Life History Services.” The students received help in sharpening their memories and learning to write their life stories. One popular course offered earlier this year told about the music of George Gershwin. Religious Freedom HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Ham wants to know about relations between Christians and Jews in the United States. Religion has been a major influence on American history. Many people came to America to escape religious hatred in other lands. The Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of religion to every American. This policy has helped Christians, Jews and people of other faiths live together peacefully. Recently, documents from the history of that religious freedom were celebrated at America’s oldest Jewish religious center. It is Touro Synagogue in Providence, Rhode Island. The Touro Synagogue was built in seventeen-sixty-three. Its first members were Jews from Spain and Portugal. They had fled from unfair treatment in South America and islands in the Caribbean. In nineteen-forty-six, the United States Congress approved a measure to protect the Synagogue as a national historic place. The Synagogue is important to history because the country’s first president wrote a letter to its members and visited the building. Every summer, people gather there to hear a reading of the letter that George Washington wrote in seventeen-ninety. That was more than a year before the United States accepted the Bill of Rights that guarantees religious freedom. On August seventeenth, a synagogue official named Moses Seixas (SAY shus) wrote a letter to President Washington. Mister Seixas was hoping the president would guarantee religious freedom in the new nation. He expressed this concern especially because people in other nations had treated Jews badly for centuries. President Washington’s letter said the Jewish people should continue to enjoy the good will of others in the United States. He wrote that every person should, in his words, sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. This year, for the fifty-sixth time, Touro Synagaogue invited several officials to read these documents. Providence Mayor David Cicilline ((Sis eh ‘LEE nee)) read the words of Moses Seixas. A retired United States Navy official, Barbara McGann, read President Washington’s reply. Today, visitors to Washington, D.C. can see both of these letters. The President’s letter also can also be seen at the Touro Synagogue in Newport. Stephin Merritt HOST: The Gothic Archies, the Sixths, the Future Bible Heroes, the Three Terrors and the Magnetic Fields. These are the names of some of the musical projects of New York songwriter Stephin Merritt. He has recorded thirteen albums under these names since nineteen-ninety-three. Shep o’Neal has more. ANNCR: Critics have said Stephin Merritt’s songwriting talents are similar to those of world famous composer Cole Porter. The words of his songs often represent unhappy people whose lovers are leaving, already gone, or have never really been present. They are dark, funny, and always smartly written and recorded. Stephin Merritt also mixes musical styles freely. He often moves from country songs to disco-pop to love songs popular during World War Two. Here he sings “Papa Was A Rodeo.” (MUSIC) Stephin Merritt’s most popular and critically well-received work is called “Sixty-Nine Love Songs.” The work is just that: sixty-nine love songs on three albums. His longtime friend and band manager is singer Claudia Gonson. She also performed on the album. Here she sings “Reno Dakota.” (MUSIC) Stephin Merritt is now working on a film musical with writer Daniel Handler. You can find out more about all of Mister Merritt’s projects at www.houseoftomorrow.com. We leave you now with Stephin Merritt singing “Busby Berkeley Dreams.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Do you have a question about American life? Write to us at American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Computer users can send questions to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to give your name and mailing address. This program was written by Bob Brumfield and Jeri Watson. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Almost two-hundred-fifty young and older Americans have completed an unusual summer school at the University of Wisconsin. Older adults and their grandchildren studied together at the school’s Grandparents University. Grandmothers and grandfathers helped show the children what a university does. The grandparents helped the children recognize the value of a university education. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: One-hundred-sixteen grandparents and one-hundred-thirty grandchildren attended the yearly Grandparents University this summer. The children were ages seven to fourteen. For two days, young and older students attended classes and activities together. The program took place in the university’s center in the city of Madison, Wisconsin. Most students stayed in the school’s student housing. Those in the grandparents program could learn about subjects including archeology and food science. They could study fine arts or animal health. School officials say professors use words that children can understand during the classes. But they do not try to make the material easy.One summer school goal is to provide children with an idea of what they might want to become as adults. Their grandparents have chosen their life’s work. Many have already retired. But their grandchildren must make this decision in the future. At the end of the program, the old and young students take part in a graduation ceremony. They receive documents showing that they had completed their studies. Most of the grandparents say that studying at the University of Wisconsin is like returning to their younger days. Two-thirds of the grandparents attended that university. Most are from Wisconsin. But the grandchildren live all over the United States. Older adults also can take part in other courses at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. For example, Senior Academy offers studies in two living centers for older citizens in Madison. These classes are taught over a period of four weeks. This summer, Senior Academy students took part in a course called “Life History Services.” The students received help in sharpening their memories and learning to write their life stories. One popular course offered earlier this year told about the music of George Gershwin. Religious Freedom HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Ham wants to know about relations between Christians and Jews in the United States. Religion has been a major influence on American history. Many people came to America to escape religious hatred in other lands. The Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of religion to every American. This policy has helped Christians, Jews and people of other faiths live together peacefully. Recently, documents from the history of that religious freedom were celebrated at America’s oldest Jewish religious center. It is Touro Synagogue in Providence, Rhode Island. The Touro Synagogue was built in seventeen-sixty-three. Its first members were Jews from Spain and Portugal. They had fled from unfair treatment in South America and islands in the Caribbean. In nineteen-forty-six, the United States Congress approved a measure to protect the Synagogue as a national historic place. The Synagogue is important to history because the country’s first president wrote a letter to its members and visited the building. Every summer, people gather there to hear a reading of the letter that George Washington wrote in seventeen-ninety. That was more than a year before the United States accepted the Bill of Rights that guarantees religious freedom. On August seventeenth, a synagogue official named Moses Seixas (SAY shus) wrote a letter to President Washington. Mister Seixas was hoping the president would guarantee religious freedom in the new nation. He expressed this concern especially because people in other nations had treated Jews badly for centuries. President Washington’s letter said the Jewish people should continue to enjoy the good will of others in the United States. He wrote that every person should, in his words, sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. This year, for the fifty-sixth time, Touro Synagaogue invited several officials to read these documents. Providence Mayor David Cicilline ((Sis eh ‘LEE nee)) read the words of Moses Seixas. A retired United States Navy official, Barbara McGann, read President Washington’s reply. Today, visitors to Washington, D.C. can see both of these letters. The President’s letter also can also be seen at the Touro Synagogue in Newport. Stephin Merritt HOST: The Gothic Archies, the Sixths, the Future Bible Heroes, the Three Terrors and the Magnetic Fields. These are the names of some of the musical projects of New York songwriter Stephin Merritt. He has recorded thirteen albums under these names since nineteen-ninety-three. Shep o’Neal has more. ANNCR: Critics have said Stephin Merritt’s songwriting talents are similar to those of world famous composer Cole Porter. The words of his songs often represent unhappy people whose lovers are leaving, already gone, or have never really been present. They are dark, funny, and always smartly written and recorded. Stephin Merritt also mixes musical styles freely. He often moves from country songs to disco-pop to love songs popular during World War Two. Here he sings “Papa Was A Rodeo.” (MUSIC) Stephin Merritt’s most popular and critically well-received work is called “Sixty-Nine Love Songs.” The work is just that: sixty-nine love songs on three albums. His longtime friend and band manager is singer Claudia Gonson. She also performed on the album. Here she sings “Reno Dakota.” (MUSIC) Stephin Merritt is now working on a film musical with writer Daniel Handler. You can find out more about all of Mister Merritt’s projects at www.houseoftomorrow.com. We leave you now with Stephin Merritt singing “Busby Berkeley Dreams.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Do you have a question about American life? Write to us at American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Computer users can send questions to mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to give your name and mailing address. This program was written by Bob Brumfield and Jeri Watson. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-04-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — September 5, 2003: Pollution Rule Eased for Older Power Plants
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The administration of President Bush has eased an air pollution rule for about seventeen-thousand older power stations and factories. Operators will have greater freedom to make changes without the need to add pollution control equipment. The administration eased a rule established in a law called the Clean Air Act. Environmental groups say the new rule will damage the environment and threaten public health. They also accuse the Bush administration of acting to please its political supporters in the energy industry. The acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Marianne Horinko, signed the new rule. She says it will increase fairness and dependability. She says it will not affect the protections of the Clean Air Act. President Bush's nominee to head the E-P-A, Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, awaits confirmation by the Senate. Industry officials said the old rule was unclear about when operators had to add pollution controls while making changes. The new rule is based on the cost of repairs, replacements or improvements to production equipment. This will be true even if the changes increase pollution. But the pollution still has to remain within current limits. Industry officials say operators will now be able to make improvements that had been too costly under the past requirements. The energy industry say such work will make power stations cleaner, and this will be good for the environment. Energy producers say electric service will also be less costly and more dependable. Last month a huge power outage affected New York City and other parts of the eastern United States and Canada. But the attorney general of New York State, Eliot Spitzer, calls the new rule illegal. He says it means Americans will breathe dirtier air and get more lung diseases. And he says it will increase environmental damage. Mister Spitzer said he would fight the change in court. The head of the American Lung Association, John Kirkwood, also condemned the new rule. He says huge amounts of scientific study have shown that air pollution causes health problems. He said E-P-A policy should be based on protecting public health, not improving industry profits. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The administration of President Bush has eased an air pollution rule for about seventeen-thousand older power stations and factories. Operators will have greater freedom to make changes without the need to add pollution control equipment. The administration eased a rule established in a law called the Clean Air Act. Environmental groups say the new rule will damage the environment and threaten public health. They also accuse the Bush administration of acting to please its political supporters in the energy industry. The acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Marianne Horinko, signed the new rule. She says it will increase fairness and dependability. She says it will not affect the protections of the Clean Air Act. President Bush's nominee to head the E-P-A, Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, awaits confirmation by the Senate. Industry officials said the old rule was unclear about when operators had to add pollution controls while making changes. The new rule is based on the cost of repairs, replacements or improvements to production equipment. This will be true even if the changes increase pollution. But the pollution still has to remain within current limits. Industry officials say operators will now be able to make improvements that had been too costly under the past requirements. The energy industry say such work will make power stations cleaner, and this will be good for the environment. Energy producers say electric service will also be less costly and more dependable. Last month a huge power outage affected New York City and other parts of the eastern United States and Canada. But the attorney general of New York State, Eliot Spitzer, calls the new rule illegal. He says it means Americans will breathe dirtier air and get more lung diseases. And he says it will increase environmental damage. Mister Spitzer said he would fight the change in court. The head of the American Lung Association, John Kirkwood, also condemned the new rule. He says huge amounts of scientific study have shown that air pollution causes health problems. He said E-P-A policy should be based on protecting public health, not improving industry profits. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-04-5-1.cfm
* Headline: September 4, 2003 — Lida Baker: Informality in the Classroom
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 4, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: As a new school year gets under way in the United States, English teacher Lida Baker joins us to talk about informality in the classroom. RS: She says students who come to America to study English in a college-level program are surprised to find that in many cases teachers are less formal than teachers in their own countries. BAKER: "One of the first things that happens is that the teacher tells students to call him or her by his first name. Call me Bob, call me Jim, call me Lida. The teacher will then ask the students what they want to be called, and most of them will follow the teacher's example and they'll have the teacher call them by their first names, even if this isn't customary in the country where they come from." RS: "Do they have a problem with that?" BAKER: "For some students, it kind of sticks in their throat to have to call their teacher by her first name, and some students never quite get around to feeling comfortable with that and will spend the entire ten weeks of the program that I work in calling me 'teacher,' which is fine. I don't discourage them from doing that. "Other things that students have reported to me as being surprising: the fact that teachers are very forthcoming about making jokes, and a lot of times they'll make jokes about themselves and about members of their own family. Teachers are very forthcoming, talking about themselves, their children, their dogs -- I like to talk about my dog all the time. My dog and my daughter. And I must tell you that students are very, very interested in these topics. They love hearing the details of my private life. [laughter]" RS: "And you like telling them, right?" BAKER: "Sure. It's a wonderful way of motivating students and getting them to feel good in the classroom. The style that we have here is more of a participatory one, one of sharing where the student's input is also valued and even expected. Another thing that students have to get used to when they come to study in this country is the fact that teachers expect them to raise their hands and ask questions. Sometimes, in fact, they don't even need to raise their hands. Students express surprise at the fact that a teacher might be talking and someone will interrupt without raising their hand to contradict the teacher or to challenge what the teacher has said." RS: "But being active in class, that's part of your grade in some classes." BAKER: "That's right. And teachers do not take offense -- most teachers don't take offense if you question something that they've just said and even if you challenge them and take an opposite point of view. That's considered part of the normal give-and-take in an American classroom." AA: "And starting on time, also, punctuality?" BAKER: "Well, punctuality is something that Americans are very, very fastidious about, and students coming to this country have to know that if a class begins at 8:30, you're expected to be there at 8:30. If you don't make it a point to show up on time, it conveys an attitude of disrespect to the person, to the professor -- or, if it's a job interview, to the person who's interviewing you. 'What's this, you're not even able to show up to class on time, so how can I trust you with something of even greater importance?' You see. So punctuality is very important in American culture, and this is something that I always explain to my students." AA: English teacher Lida Baker says one obvious difference between American classrooms and those in some other countries is how the classroom looks. BAKER: "Students coming here are sometimes surprised when they come into our classrooms that the chairs are not organized in rows. They might be organized in a circle or in a semi-circle, or there might be large tables in the classroom where students sit in groups around the table." RS: "So not only do things sound different, but they look different too." BAKER: "And there's a reason for this kind of classroom organization. It comes back to the idea that learning is a participatory activity. It is something that goes both ways, and it also imbeds the idea that students can learn from one another. And one final thing I want to point out about informality is -- actually there are couple of more things. Students might be surprised to see teachers wearing blue jeans and sandals in the classroom. And there is an expectation by American teachers that students will look them directly in the eyes, and this is an accommodation that students from some countries have to make. Because, in a lot of countries, when you want to show respect to somebody, you never look directly into their face." AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 4, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: As a new school year gets under way in the United States, English teacher Lida Baker joins us to talk about informality in the classroom. RS: She says students who come to America to study English in a college-level program are surprised to find that in many cases teachers are less formal than teachers in their own countries. BAKER: "One of the first things that happens is that the teacher tells students to call him or her by his first name. Call me Bob, call me Jim, call me Lida. The teacher will then ask the students what they want to be called, and most of them will follow the teacher's example and they'll have the teacher call them by their first names, even if this isn't customary in the country where they come from." RS: "Do they have a problem with that?" BAKER: "For some students, it kind of sticks in their throat to have to call their teacher by her first name, and some students never quite get around to feeling comfortable with that and will spend the entire ten weeks of the program that I work in calling me 'teacher,' which is fine. I don't discourage them from doing that. "Other things that students have reported to me as being surprising: the fact that teachers are very forthcoming about making jokes, and a lot of times they'll make jokes about themselves and about members of their own family. Teachers are very forthcoming, talking about themselves, their children, their dogs -- I like to talk about my dog all the time. My dog and my daughter. And I must tell you that students are very, very interested in these topics. They love hearing the details of my private life. [laughter]" RS: "And you like telling them, right?" BAKER: "Sure. It's a wonderful way of motivating students and getting them to feel good in the classroom. The style that we have here is more of a participatory one, one of sharing where the student's input is also valued and even expected. Another thing that students have to get used to when they come to study in this country is the fact that teachers expect them to raise their hands and ask questions. Sometimes, in fact, they don't even need to raise their hands. Students express surprise at the fact that a teacher might be talking and someone will interrupt without raising their hand to contradict the teacher or to challenge what the teacher has said." RS: "But being active in class, that's part of your grade in some classes." BAKER: "That's right. And teachers do not take offense -- most teachers don't take offense if you question something that they've just said and even if you challenge them and take an opposite point of view. That's considered part of the normal give-and-take in an American classroom." AA: "And starting on time, also, punctuality?" BAKER: "Well, punctuality is something that Americans are very, very fastidious about, and students coming to this country have to know that if a class begins at 8:30, you're expected to be there at 8:30. If you don't make it a point to show up on time, it conveys an attitude of disrespect to the person, to the professor -- or, if it's a job interview, to the person who's interviewing you. 'What's this, you're not even able to show up to class on time, so how can I trust you with something of even greater importance?' You see. So punctuality is very important in American culture, and this is something that I always explain to my students." AA: English teacher Lida Baker says one obvious difference between American classrooms and those in some other countries is how the classroom looks. BAKER: "Students coming here are sometimes surprised when they come into our classrooms that the chairs are not organized in rows. They might be organized in a circle or in a semi-circle, or there might be large tables in the classroom where students sit in groups around the table." RS: "So not only do things sound different, but they look different too." BAKER: "And there's a reason for this kind of classroom organization. It comes back to the idea that learning is a participatory activity. It is something that goes both ways, and it also imbeds the idea that students can learn from one another. And one final thing I want to point out about informality is -- actually there are couple of more things. Students might be surprised to see teachers wearing blue jeans and sandals in the classroom. And there is an expectation by American teachers that students will look them directly in the eyes, and this is an accommodation that students from some countries have to make. Because, in a lot of countries, when you want to show respect to somebody, you never look directly into their face." AA: Lida Baker writes textbooks for English learners and teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA — September 7, 2003: Rachel Carson
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: (THEME) ANNCR: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about scientist Rachel Carson. Her work started the environmental protection movement in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson was born on May Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Oh-Seven in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel’s father, Robert Carson was a salesman who invested in local land. He purchased twenty-six hectares of land to make a home for his family. The area was surrounded by fields, trees and streams. The Carson family enjoyed living in the beautiful, country environment. Rachel’s mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. She loved books. She also loved nature. Rachel was the youngest of three children. Her sister and brother were already in school when she was born. So Missus Carson was able to spend a lot of time with Rachel. She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel a deep love for books. Missus Carson became the most important influence on Rachel’s life. VOICE TWO: Rachel was a quiet child. She liked to read and to write poems and stories. She was very intelligent. At a very early age she decided she wanted to be a writer someday. Her first published story appeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old. Rachel went to the Pennsylvania College for Women. She studied English because she wanted to become a professional writer. Yet, she felt she did not have the imagination to write creative stories. She changed her area of study from English to science after she took a biology course that she liked. Her professors advised her not to study science. They said there was no future for a woman in science. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, Rachel graduated from college with high honors. She won a financial award to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, she earned a master’s degree in zoology, the scientific study of animals. She taught zoology at the University of Maryland for a few years. During the summers, she studied the ocean and its life forms at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. That is when she became interested in the mysteries of the sea. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rachel’s life changed greatly in the middle Nineteen-Thirties. Her father died suddenly in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. He left very little financial support for Rachel’s mother. It was during the economic decline in the United States called the Great Depression. Rachel now had to support her mother and herself. She needed more money than her teaching job could provide. She began part-time work for a federal government agency, the Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, D.C. One year later, Rachel’s sister died. Her sister was the the mother of two young girls. Rachel and her mother cared for the girls. Rachel now had to support her mother, two nieces and herself. Again, she needed a job with better pay. VOICE ONE: A full time job for a biologist opened at the United States Bureau of Fisheries. Rachel Carson was the only woman to try for the position. She had the highest score of all people competing for the job. Mizz Carson got the position in August, Nineteen-Thirty-Six. She was chosen to work in the office of the chief of the biology division. Her first job was to write a series of programs called “Romance Under the Waters.” The series was broadcast on radio for a year. She continued to write and edit publications for the Bureau of Fisheries for many years. The bureau was happy to have a scientist who was also an excellent writer. Rachel Carson provided information to the public in interesting and understandable ways. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty, the United States Bureau of Fisheries and the Biological Survey joined to become the Fish and Wildlife Service. Mizz Carson continued as one of the few women employed there as a scientist. The other women worked as office assistants. While she was working for the government, Mizz Carson wrote at night and on weekends. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven she wrote a report about sea life. It was called Undersea. It appeared in the magazine, Atlantic Monthly. An editor at a publishing house encouraged her to write a book about the sea for the general public. So she did. Her first book, Under the Sea Wind, was published in Nineteen-Forty-One. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Mizz Carson began working on another book, The Sea Around Us. It became her first best-selling book. Rachel Carson always researched carefully when she wrote. She gathered information from more than one thousand places to write The Sea Around Us. She also wrote letters to experts all over the world. The Sea Around Us was published in Nineteen-Fifty-One. It was number one on the best-seller list for more than a year. It won the National Book Award. The Sea Around Us made Rachel Carson famous. The money the book earned eased her financial responsibilities for the first time in years. In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, Mizz Carson was able to leave her job at the Fish and Wildlife Service and spend her time writing. Mizz Carson moved to a home on the coast of Maine. There she studied the ecology of the sea. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, was published in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. It told of the connection of all living creatures in areas where land and ocean meet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rachel Carson’s most famous book, Silent Spring, was published in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. The idea for the book developed from a suggestion from a friend. Rachel’s friend owned a protected area for birds. An airplane had flown over the area where the birds were kept and spread a powerful chemical called DDT. It was part of a project to control mosquitoes. Many songbirds and harmless insects were killed by the DDT. Mizz Carson and other scientists were very concerned about the harmful effects of DDT and other insect-killing chemicals called pesticides. After World War Two, these poisonous chemicals were widely used to control insects. Pesticides were sprayed almost everywhere including agricultural fields and communities. DDT and other pesticides had become popular with the public and the government because they were so effective. Manufacturing these chemicals had become a huge industry. VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson tried to get many magazines interested in publishing a report about the subject. However, none would agree to publish anything about such a disputed subject. They said no one wanted to hear that industrial companies could cause great ecological damage. Mizz Carson believed the public needed to know about this important issue. She decided to write a book about it. She collected facts from experts from all over the world. She gathered studies that showed the harmful effects of DDT, including declining bird populations and increased human cancers. In her book Silent Spring, Mizz Carson questioned the right of industrial companies to pollute without considering the effects on the environment. Mizz Carson argued that this kind of pollution would result in ever-decreasing populations of birds and other wildlife. She said this would lead to the loss of the wonderful sounds of nature. The chemical poisoning of the environment, she said, would cause a silent spring. VOICE TWO: The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen and other critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. They misunderstood the message of the book. Mizz Carson did not suggest that all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of these substances be given to biologists who could make informed decisions about the risks involved. Support for the book increased. By the end of Nineteen-Sixty-Two, there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing to control pesticides. Finally, in November, Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, the United States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in two years. Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced the government’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. She was fifty-six years old. VOICE ONE: Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in when she was a child. Education programs are offered there that teach children and adults about her environmental values. Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express the wonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influence continues through the activities of the environmental protection movement she started. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about scientist Rachel Carson. Her work started the environmental protection movement in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson was born on May Twenty-Seventh, Nineteen-Oh-Seven in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel’s father, Robert Carson was a salesman who invested in local land. He purchased twenty-six hectares of land to make a home for his family. The area was surrounded by fields, trees and streams. The Carson family enjoyed living in the beautiful, country environment. Rachel’s mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. She loved books. She also loved nature. Rachel was the youngest of three children. Her sister and brother were already in school when she was born. So Missus Carson was able to spend a lot of time with Rachel. She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel a deep love for books. Missus Carson became the most important influence on Rachel’s life. VOICE TWO: Rachel was a quiet child. She liked to read and to write poems and stories. She was very intelligent. At a very early age she decided she wanted to be a writer someday. Her first published story appeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old. Rachel went to the Pennsylvania College for Women. She studied English because she wanted to become a professional writer. Yet, she felt she did not have the imagination to write creative stories. She changed her area of study from English to science after she took a biology course that she liked. Her professors advised her not to study science. They said there was no future for a woman in science. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, Rachel graduated from college with high honors. She won a financial award to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, she earned a master’s degree in zoology, the scientific study of animals. She taught zoology at the University of Maryland for a few years. During the summers, she studied the ocean and its life forms at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. That is when she became interested in the mysteries of the sea. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rachel’s life changed greatly in the middle Nineteen-Thirties. Her father died suddenly in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. He left very little financial support for Rachel’s mother. It was during the economic decline in the United States called the Great Depression. Rachel now had to support her mother and herself. She needed more money than her teaching job could provide. She began part-time work for a federal government agency, the Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, D.C. One year later, Rachel’s sister died. Her sister was the the mother of two young girls. Rachel and her mother cared for the girls. Rachel now had to support her mother, two nieces and herself. Again, she needed a job with better pay. VOICE ONE: A full time job for a biologist opened at the United States Bureau of Fisheries. Rachel Carson was the only woman to try for the position. She had the highest score of all people competing for the job. Mizz Carson got the position in August, Nineteen-Thirty-Six. She was chosen to work in the office of the chief of the biology division. Her first job was to write a series of programs called “Romance Under the Waters.” The series was broadcast on radio for a year. She continued to write and edit publications for the Bureau of Fisheries for many years. The bureau was happy to have a scientist who was also an excellent writer. Rachel Carson provided information to the public in interesting and understandable ways. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty, the United States Bureau of Fisheries and the Biological Survey joined to become the Fish and Wildlife Service. Mizz Carson continued as one of the few women employed there as a scientist. The other women worked as office assistants. While she was working for the government, Mizz Carson wrote at night and on weekends. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven she wrote a report about sea life. It was called Undersea. It appeared in the magazine, Atlantic Monthly. An editor at a publishing house encouraged her to write a book about the sea for the general public. So she did. Her first book, Under the Sea Wind, was published in Nineteen-Forty-One. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Mizz Carson began working on another book, The Sea Around Us. It became her first best-selling book. Rachel Carson always researched carefully when she wrote. She gathered information from more than one thousand places to write The Sea Around Us. She also wrote letters to experts all over the world. The Sea Around Us was published in Nineteen-Fifty-One. It was number one on the best-seller list for more than a year. It won the National Book Award. The Sea Around Us made Rachel Carson famous. The money the book earned eased her financial responsibilities for the first time in years. In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, Mizz Carson was able to leave her job at the Fish and Wildlife Service and spend her time writing. Mizz Carson moved to a home on the coast of Maine. There she studied the ecology of the sea. Her next book, The Edge of the Sea, was published in Nineteen-Fifty-Five. It told of the connection of all living creatures in areas where land and ocean meet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Rachel Carson’s most famous book, Silent Spring, was published in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. The idea for the book developed from a suggestion from a friend. Rachel’s friend owned a protected area for birds. An airplane had flown over the area where the birds were kept and spread a powerful chemical called DDT. It was part of a project to control mosquitoes. Many songbirds and harmless insects were killed by the DDT. Mizz Carson and other scientists were very concerned about the harmful effects of DDT and other insect-killing chemicals called pesticides. After World War Two, these poisonous chemicals were widely used to control insects. Pesticides were sprayed almost everywhere including agricultural fields and communities. DDT and other pesticides had become popular with the public and the government because they were so effective. Manufacturing these chemicals had become a huge industry. VOICE ONE: Rachel Carson tried to get many magazines interested in publishing a report about the subject. However, none would agree to publish anything about such a disputed subject. They said no one wanted to hear that industrial companies could cause great ecological damage. Mizz Carson believed the public needed to know about this important issue. She decided to write a book about it. She collected facts from experts from all over the world. She gathered studies that showed the harmful effects of DDT, including declining bird populations and increased human cancers. In her book Silent Spring, Mizz Carson questioned the right of industrial companies to pollute without considering the effects on the environment. Mizz Carson argued that this kind of pollution would result in ever-decreasing populations of birds and other wildlife. She said this would lead to the loss of the wonderful sounds of nature. The chemical poisoning of the environment, she said, would cause a silent spring. VOICE TWO: The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen and other critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. They misunderstood the message of the book. Mizz Carson did not suggest that all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of these substances be given to biologists who could make informed decisions about the risks involved. Support for the book increased. By the end of Nineteen-Sixty-Two, there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing to control pesticides. Finally, in November, Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, the United States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in two years. Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced the government’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. She was fifty-six years old. VOICE ONE: Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in when she was a child. Education programs are offered there that teach children and adults about her environmental values. Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express the wonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influence continues through the activities of the environmental protection movement she started. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA — September 8, 2003: Music for Little People
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: It's easier to find songs for big people than for little people. But the market in children's music is growing. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about a company that makes music for children -- this week, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That's BB King, the great blues musician, and his famous black guitar he calls Lucille. The song is “Rainy Day Blues.” Later in the song, he asks children to play a game called “BB Says.” It is a little like a game that a parent would play with a small child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Babies learn about music from the simple songs that their mothers and fathers sing to them. When the children are older, their parents might teach them songs as part of a game. BB King's recording of “Rainy Day Blues” follows this tradition. Most of his fans, though, may not know about his recordings for children. They only know that he makes very popular blues recordings for adults. BB King recorded "Rainy Day Blues" for a company called Music for Little People. VOICE ONE: It all began when a man named Leib Ostrow was looking for music for his children. He searched in stores, looked through books and phoned toy companies. He could not find anything he really liked. So Mister Ostrow decided to begin a recording company of his own. He went to a bank and borrowed some money. He began the company in his home. He used the part of the house where most people keep their automobile. Soon he was recording music for children. Many parents thought it was a great idea. So did many recording artists. Music for Little People is located in northern California. It started as a mail-order business in nineteen-eighty-five. Today it is one of the largest children’s musical and educational companies in the United States. It has released more than eighty-five recordings. And it has won many awards. VOICE TWO: BB King is only one of the performers on Music for Little People. Others include country music stars Faith Hill and Charlie Daniels. There are also recordings by Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt, and the rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Los Lobos. The members of Los Lobos are from Los Angeles and are of Mexican ancestry. Their songs on Music for Little People are in both Spanish and English. In one recording they had the help of Lalo Guerrero, a Mexican-American singer. Listen for a moment as Lalo Guerrero and Los Lobos perform “La Bamba,” a traditional Mexican song. You may have heard it before. It was a very famous song in the nineteen-fifties. "La Bamba for Little People" begins with Lalo Guerrero telling everyone -- not just children -- to dance! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leib Ostrow, the man who started Music for Little People, says he wants children to hear good music by great performers from around the world. The company sells many different kinds of music. If a parent thinks a child might like rock music, they have it. If a parent wants music in French, Spanish, Swedish or Zulu -- they have that, too. There are religious songs, dance songs, slow songs, fast songs, songs from movies -- just about anything a child might like. Taj Mahal is another artist well known to fans of blues music. Here, he and Linda Tillery sing “Shake a Tail Feather.” This song won several awards, and was a nineteen-ninety-eight nominee for a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Recording. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dan and Kiley McMichael have a two-year-old daughter named Fiona. Fiona likes music. And, like most little children, Fiona wants to hear the same recordings over and over again. Her mother does not mind. She says she likes the Music for Little People as much as Fiona does. Here is one of the songs that Fiona likes. It tells a story about the power of music to calm the fears of a little boy. The group singing is Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa. The song is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawali. Music For Little People can be found on the Internet at mflp.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. We leave you now with a song called "Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash." It's performed by Native American singer Joanne Shenandoah. (MUSIC) (THEME) VOICE ONE: It's easier to find songs for big people than for little people. But the market in children's music is growing. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about a company that makes music for children -- this week, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That's BB King, the great blues musician, and his famous black guitar he calls Lucille. The song is “Rainy Day Blues.” Later in the song, he asks children to play a game called “BB Says.” It is a little like a game that a parent would play with a small child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Babies learn about music from the simple songs that their mothers and fathers sing to them. When the children are older, their parents might teach them songs as part of a game. BB King's recording of “Rainy Day Blues” follows this tradition. Most of his fans, though, may not know about his recordings for children. They only know that he makes very popular blues recordings for adults. BB King recorded "Rainy Day Blues" for a company called Music for Little People. VOICE ONE: It all began when a man named Leib Ostrow was looking for music for his children. He searched in stores, looked through books and phoned toy companies. He could not find anything he really liked. So Mister Ostrow decided to begin a recording company of his own. He went to a bank and borrowed some money. He began the company in his home. He used the part of the house where most people keep their automobile. Soon he was recording music for children. Many parents thought it was a great idea. So did many recording artists. Music for Little People is located in northern California. It started as a mail-order business in nineteen-eighty-five. Today it is one of the largest children’s musical and educational companies in the United States. It has released more than eighty-five recordings. And it has won many awards. VOICE TWO: BB King is only one of the performers on Music for Little People. Others include country music stars Faith Hill and Charlie Daniels. There are also recordings by Taj Mahal, Maria Muldaur, Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt, and the rock groups Red Hot Chili Peppers and Los Lobos. The members of Los Lobos are from Los Angeles and are of Mexican ancestry. Their songs on Music for Little People are in both Spanish and English. In one recording they had the help of Lalo Guerrero, a Mexican-American singer. Listen for a moment as Lalo Guerrero and Los Lobos perform “La Bamba,” a traditional Mexican song. You may have heard it before. It was a very famous song in the nineteen-fifties. "La Bamba for Little People" begins with Lalo Guerrero telling everyone -- not just children -- to dance! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Leib Ostrow, the man who started Music for Little People, says he wants children to hear good music by great performers from around the world. The company sells many different kinds of music. If a parent thinks a child might like rock music, they have it. If a parent wants music in French, Spanish, Swedish or Zulu -- they have that, too. There are religious songs, dance songs, slow songs, fast songs, songs from movies -- just about anything a child might like. Taj Mahal is another artist well known to fans of blues music. Here, he and Linda Tillery sing “Shake a Tail Feather.” This song won several awards, and was a nineteen-ninety-eight nominee for a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Recording. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Dan and Kiley McMichael have a two-year-old daughter named Fiona. Fiona likes music. And, like most little children, Fiona wants to hear the same recordings over and over again. Her mother does not mind. She says she likes the Music for Little People as much as Fiona does. Here is one of the songs that Fiona likes. It tells a story about the power of music to calm the fears of a little boy. The group singing is Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from South Africa. The song is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Suleiman Tarawali. Music For Little People can be found on the Internet at mflp.com. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. We leave you now with a song called "Three Sisters: Corn, Beans and Squash." It's performed by Native American singer Joanne Shenandoah. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — September 8, 2003: Small-Scale Bridge Building
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Bridges are an important part of transportation systems. They make it possible to travel over rivers and between hills or mountains. The most common kind of bridge is called a beam bridge. It is made of wood that has been specially treated. The treatment keeps the wood from aging and breaking apart. Carpenters, people with woodworking skills, can build beam bridges. Small beam bridges made from wood can be from three to fifteen meters long. The wood should be able to support about one-hundred kilograms for each square centimeter of area. Beam bridges can also be made from concrete. These can also be from three to fifteen meters long. Carpenters can also build beam bridges made from concrete because wooden forms need to be built. The forms decide the shapes of the concrete beams. But in addition to carpentry skills, people who build such bridges also must know how to mix cement with soil and water to form concrete. It is important not to remove the forms until the concrete has dried. Concrete beam bridges can take more weight than wood beam bridges, up to two-hundred kilograms for each square centimeter. A bridge going over a valley between two hills should be as long as the valley is wide. But a bridge crossing a river presents a more complex problem. The bridge must be high enough to be above the highest point water has reached during periods of flooding. If it is not, the bridge and its supporting structures can reduce the water flow of the river. If this happens, flooding may take place upstream from the bridge. Also, the water flowing under the bridge will travel faster. This may cause the soil holding the bridge in place to be washed away. Then the bridge may be damaged or destroyed. Bridges need to be inspected often to be sure they are not damaged. From time to time, wooden bridges need chemical treatments painted on the beams. Concrete bridges also need to be repaired if pieces of concrete fall out or become weak. You can get more information about building small bridges from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Bridges are an important part of transportation systems. They make it possible to travel over rivers and between hills or mountains. The most common kind of bridge is called a beam bridge. It is made of wood that has been specially treated. The treatment keeps the wood from aging and breaking apart. Carpenters, people with woodworking skills, can build beam bridges. Small beam bridges made from wood can be from three to fifteen meters long. The wood should be able to support about one-hundred kilograms for each square centimeter of area. Beam bridges can also be made from concrete. These can also be from three to fifteen meters long. Carpenters can also build beam bridges made from concrete because wooden forms need to be built. The forms decide the shapes of the concrete beams. But in addition to carpentry skills, people who build such bridges also must know how to mix cement with soil and water to form concrete. It is important not to remove the forms until the concrete has dried. Concrete beam bridges can take more weight than wood beam bridges, up to two-hundred kilograms for each square centimeter. A bridge going over a valley between two hills should be as long as the valley is wide. But a bridge crossing a river presents a more complex problem. The bridge must be high enough to be above the highest point water has reached during periods of flooding. If it is not, the bridge and its supporting structures can reduce the water flow of the river. If this happens, flooding may take place upstream from the bridge. Also, the water flowing under the bridge will travel faster. This may cause the soil holding the bridge in place to be washed away. Then the bridge may be damaged or destroyed. Bridges need to be inspected often to be sure they are not damaged. From time to time, wooden bridges need chemical treatments painted on the beams. Concrete bridges also need to be repaired if pieces of concrete fall out or become weak. You can get more information about building small bridges from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS — September 10, 2003: Columbia Investigation
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Seven astronauts and the Space Shuttle Columbia were lost in an accident February first. Today we tell about the results of the investigation to discover the cause of that terrible accident. (THEME) Debris fell from Shuttle Columbia during liftoff, 16 January 2003NASA photo This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Seven astronauts and the Space Shuttle Columbia were lost in an accident February first. Today we tell about the results of the investigation to discover the cause of that terrible accident. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Saturday morning, February first, two-thousand-three, was an exciting day at the Kennedy Space Center. American space agency officials, workers and family members of the seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia were waiting to watch the space vehicle land. The crew had performed a successful science flight in orbit around the Earth. They worked on their science experiments twenty-four hours a day during the sixteen-day flight. At eight-fifteen in the morning, the Space Shuttle Columbia and the crew of seven began entering Earth’s atmosphere. At eight-fifty-nine, NASA lost all information and communication with Columbia. The shuttle was flying six times faster than the speed of sound and sixty-two kilometers above the Earth. People in three states reported hearing an extremely loud noise and seeing fire in the sky. VOICE TWO: A television cameraman in the southwestern state of Texas was waiting for the Columbia to pass over his area. He pointed his camera in the area of the sky were the shuttle would be seen. The pictures he recorded showed a bright light and a long trail of white smoke. Columbia was breaking apart. Within minutes, NASA confirmed that something was terribly wrong. Within an hour, it announced the Columbia and its crew had been lost. Thousands of pieces of the shuttle fell in a huge area of the United States, including parts of the states of California, Arizona, Texas and Louisiana. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On August twenty-sixth, the special Columbia Accident Investigation Board reported on the causes of the February first accident. The committee’s thirteen members spent seven months gathering information for the report. The committee had more than one-hundred-twenty investigators to help them and more than four-hundred NASA engineers to explain technical information. The committee’s report says the main cause of the accident was a piece of light-weight protective material. This material came loose from the support structure that connects the shuttle to the large rocket it uses during launch. The object hit the edge of Columbia’s left wing with a strong force caused by the great speed of the shuttle. This created a small hole in the wing’s special protective material. This material is designed to provide protection against the fierce heat caused by the shuttle’s speed when it reenters Earth’s atmosphere. After its sixteen successful days in space, the shuttle began returning to Earth. When the shuttle began to fly into Earth’s atmosphere, extremely hot air passed through the hole and into the wing. This heat damaged the metal and caused the wing to fail. The shuttle went out of control and began to come apart. There was no possible way for the seven members of the crew to survive. VOICE TWO: The Columbia accident investigating committee’s report says the protective material hitting and damaging the wing was the main cause of the accident. The committee said the accident should never have been permitted to happen. It said NASA officials must accept much of the responsibility that led to the accident. The committee said the management system that controls NASA failed in several important jobs. When these tasks were linked together they created problems or failed to solve problems that led to the accident. The committee members said it is important to remember that the investigation of the accident was an investigation of the NASA system, not an investigation of individual people. VOICE ONE: The group’s report says NASA’s management team learned soon after Columbia’s launch that the protective material had hit the wing. NASA management members watched film of the incident several times. This was not the first time this had happened. This same kind of protective material had come loose before and hit other shuttles. NASA’s management decided it had not created a problem in the past and was not important this time. Officials decided that the material had not damaged the wing. The investigating committee asked why nothing was done to correct and prevent this from happening again as it had in the past. The report said correcting the problem of loose material during launch would have prevented the accident. VOICE TWO: After NASA learned that the material had hit the wing, several NASA workers suggested the Department of Defense use a special satellite to take photographs of the wing. The photographs could be studied to see if the wing had been damaged. The NASA workers asked for this kind of inspection three different times. The investigating committee said NASA’s management either took no action or blocked such an inspection. The committee also said the NASA workers who made the requests for the photographs had not made them to the correct management teams. Also, one of the requests did not suggest that this might be an important safety issue. The committee report said the requests were among eight chances that could have resulted in pictures of Columbia in space. These pictures might have provided evidence that the wing had been severely damaged. This could have led to actions that might have prevented the loss of the crew of Columbia and the shuttle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The members of the Columbia Accident Investigating Board said they believe human space fight must continue. The group also said the people who fly into space do so knowing that danger is always involved in such a flight. The committee said safety must be the first concern of all NASA workers. It said this is the only way to make acceptable the dangers of space travel. The committee’s report said NASA workers must feel they can go to their team managers with any safety concerns. The report also said the workers must know that managers will take the needed action to improve safety, or take the needed steps to investigate any possible safety problem. VOICE TWO: The investigating committee’s two-hundred-fifty page report ended with twenty-nine suggestions to improve safety for those who fly into space. One of these is the creation of an independent technical engineering group. This group would be responsible for investigating any safety threat that might harm a shuttle craft. The group would also identify and investigate anything that might create a danger to the shuttle system. It would also have the power to stop any launch if a problem became a safety issue or caused a threat to the crew or the shuttle. VOICE ONE: The committee also recommended a new training program for the Space Flight Mission Management Team. The new training would expand vehicle safety emergencies. The management team would train to deal with unexpected problems that might take place during future flights. The team would also train to work quickly in an emergency with support organizations within NASA and with the companies that build the equipment NASA uses on space craft. The committee members also recommended developing a new method of recording space shuttle launches. They said at least three cameras should be used to photograph the Space Shuttle launch. These cameras would record the shuttle from launch to the separation of the solid rocket booster. Experts would then carefully study this recorded information after each launch to look for possible damage to the shuttle. VOICE TWO: The committee also said the future of safe human space flight depends on good leadership. The group said the people of NASA must change. Safety must come first in all future launches. On Monday, NASA released a plan that includes the steps the agency is taking to obey each suggestion of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said these steps are already being carried out. He said NASA will work to return the three remaining space shuttles to flight as soon as safely possible. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Saturday morning, February first, two-thousand-three, was an exciting day at the Kennedy Space Center. American space agency officials, workers and family members of the seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia were waiting to watch the space vehicle land. The crew had performed a successful science flight in orbit around the Earth. They worked on their science experiments twenty-four hours a day during the sixteen-day flight. At eight-fifteen in the morning, the Space Shuttle Columbia and the crew of seven began entering Earth’s atmosphere. At eight-fifty-nine, NASA lost all information and communication with Columbia. The shuttle was flying six times faster than the speed of sound and sixty-two kilometers above the Earth. People in three states reported hearing an extremely loud noise and seeing fire in the sky. VOICE TWO: A television cameraman in the southwestern state of Texas was waiting for the Columbia to pass over his area. He pointed his camera in the area of the sky were the shuttle would be seen. The pictures he recorded showed a bright light and a long trail of white smoke. Columbia was breaking apart. Within minutes, NASA confirmed that something was terribly wrong. Within an hour, it announced the Columbia and its crew had been lost. Thousands of pieces of the shuttle fell in a huge area of the United States, including parts of the states of California, Arizona, Texas and Louisiana. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On August twenty-sixth, the special Columbia Accident Investigation Board reported on the causes of the February first accident. The committee’s thirteen members spent seven months gathering information for the report. The committee had more than one-hundred-twenty investigators to help them and more than four-hundred NASA engineers to explain technical information. The committee’s report says the main cause of the accident was a piece of light-weight protective material. This material came loose from the support structure that connects the shuttle to the large rocket it uses during launch. The object hit the edge of Columbia’s left wing with a strong force caused by the great speed of the shuttle. This created a small hole in the wing’s special protective material. This material is designed to provide protection against the fierce heat caused by the shuttle’s speed when it reenters Earth’s atmosphere. After its sixteen successful days in space, the shuttle began returning to Earth. When the shuttle began to fly into Earth’s atmosphere, extremely hot air passed through the hole and into the wing. This heat damaged the metal and caused the wing to fail. The shuttle went out of control and began to come apart. There was no possible way for the seven members of the crew to survive. VOICE TWO: The Columbia accident investigating committee’s report says the protective material hitting and damaging the wing was the main cause of the accident. The committee said the accident should never have been permitted to happen. It said NASA officials must accept much of the responsibility that led to the accident. The committee said the management system that controls NASA failed in several important jobs. When these tasks were linked together they created problems or failed to solve problems that led to the accident. The committee members said it is important to remember that the investigation of the accident was an investigation of the NASA system, not an investigation of individual people. VOICE ONE: The group’s report says NASA’s management team learned soon after Columbia’s launch that the protective material had hit the wing. NASA management members watched film of the incident several times. This was not the first time this had happened. This same kind of protective material had come loose before and hit other shuttles. NASA’s management decided it had not created a problem in the past and was not important this time. Officials decided that the material had not damaged the wing. The investigating committee asked why nothing was done to correct and prevent this from happening again as it had in the past. The report said correcting the problem of loose material during launch would have prevented the accident. VOICE TWO: After NASA learned that the material had hit the wing, several NASA workers suggested the Department of Defense use a special satellite to take photographs of the wing. The photographs could be studied to see if the wing had been damaged. The NASA workers asked for this kind of inspection three different times. The investigating committee said NASA’s management either took no action or blocked such an inspection. The committee also said the NASA workers who made the requests for the photographs had not made them to the correct management teams. Also, one of the requests did not suggest that this might be an important safety issue. The committee report said the requests were among eight chances that could have resulted in pictures of Columbia in space. These pictures might have provided evidence that the wing had been severely damaged. This could have led to actions that might have prevented the loss of the crew of Columbia and the shuttle. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The members of the Columbia Accident Investigating Board said they believe human space fight must continue. The group also said the people who fly into space do so knowing that danger is always involved in such a flight. The committee said safety must be the first concern of all NASA workers. It said this is the only way to make acceptable the dangers of space travel. The committee’s report said NASA workers must feel they can go to their team managers with any safety concerns. The report also said the workers must know that managers will take the needed action to improve safety, or take the needed steps to investigate any possible safety problem. VOICE TWO: The investigating committee’s two-hundred-fifty page report ended with twenty-nine suggestions to improve safety for those who fly into space. One of these is the creation of an independent technical engineering group. This group would be responsible for investigating any safety threat that might harm a shuttle craft. The group would also identify and investigate anything that might create a danger to the shuttle system. It would also have the power to stop any launch if a problem became a safety issue or caused a threat to the crew or the shuttle. VOICE ONE: The committee also recommended a new training program for the Space Flight Mission Management Team. The new training would expand vehicle safety emergencies. The management team would train to deal with unexpected problems that might take place during future flights. The team would also train to work quickly in an emergency with support organizations within NASA and with the companies that build the equipment NASA uses on space craft. The committee members also recommended developing a new method of recording space shuttle launches. They said at least three cameras should be used to photograph the Space Shuttle launch. These cameras would record the shuttle from launch to the separation of the solid rocket booster. Experts would then carefully study this recorded information after each launch to look for possible damage to the shuttle. VOICE TWO: The committee also said the future of safe human space flight depends on good leadership. The group said the people of NASA must change. Safety must come first in all future launches. On Monday, NASA released a plan that includes the steps the agency is taking to obey each suggestion of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said these steps are already being carried out. He said NASA will work to return the three remaining space shuttles to flight as soon as safely possible. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — September 10, 2003: WTO Drug Agreement
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Trade Organization has agreed to permit poorer nations to import low-cost drugs to fight diseases such as AIDS and malaria. World trade rules permit countries with their own drug industry to suspend patent rights in a public health emergency. The rules let those countries produce cheaper versions of drugs normally protected against copying. But the existing rules said nothing about the many developing countries without their own drug industry. The agreement changes world trade law. Nations unable to make the low-cost versions themselves will now have the right to import them. W-T-O members have been discussing the question for almost two years. The one-hundred-forty-six member General Council came to the agreement after days of debate. African nations appealed to the group. They said thousands of people were dying as the delegates were considering the issue. The agreement is designed to prevent any profit making by nations that would produce the cheaper generic drugs, such as Brazil and India. American drug companies had feared that low-cost copies of medicines would end up being sold in richer nations. The W-T-O says measures will be put in place to make sure low-cost drugs sold to poor countries are not also sold in richer ones. The American drug industry says the agreement will help poor nations while meeting demands that W-T-O members do more to fight deadly diseases like AIDS. W-T-O officials praised the agreement as historic. But a number of health groups criticized it. They say it places too many conditions on countries that would use the system. Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam said in a joint statement that the agreement does not provide what they called a "workable solution." The World Health Organization urged members of the World Trade Organization to put the plan into effect as soon as possible. But the new director-general of the W-H-O said the agreement will fail unless poor countries improve their health systems. Doctor Lee Jong-wook called the agreement a good development. But he told Reuters news agency that a lack of drugs is not the biggest problem. He said there are simply not enough doctors and nurses to do the job. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Trade Organization has agreed to permit poorer nations to import low-cost drugs to fight diseases such as AIDS and malaria. World trade rules permit countries with their own drug industry to suspend patent rights in a public health emergency. The rules let those countries produce cheaper versions of drugs normally protected against copying. But the existing rules said nothing about the many developing countries without their own drug industry. The agreement changes world trade law. Nations unable to make the low-cost versions themselves will now have the right to import them. W-T-O members have been discussing the question for almost two years. The one-hundred-forty-six member General Council came to the agreement after days of debate. African nations appealed to the group. They said thousands of people were dying as the delegates were considering the issue. The agreement is designed to prevent any profit making by nations that would produce the cheaper generic drugs, such as Brazil and India. American drug companies had feared that low-cost copies of medicines would end up being sold in richer nations. The W-T-O says measures will be put in place to make sure low-cost drugs sold to poor countries are not also sold in richer ones. The American drug industry says the agreement will help poor nations while meeting demands that W-T-O members do more to fight deadly diseases like AIDS. W-T-O officials praised the agreement as historic. But a number of health groups criticized it. They say it places too many conditions on countries that would use the system. Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam said in a joint statement that the agreement does not provide what they called a "workable solution." The World Health Organization urged members of the World Trade Organization to put the plan into effect as soon as possible. But the new director-general of the W-H-O said the agreement will fail unless poor countries improve their health systems. Doctor Lee Jong-wook called the agreement a good development. But he told Reuters news agency that a lack of drugs is not the biggest problem. He said there are simply not enough doctors and nurses to do the job. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS — September 9, 2003: Malaria Adds to Ethiopia's Troubles During a Food Crisis / How Much Lead in Children's Blood Is Safe? / Two Women and a Deadly Complication of Childbirth
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the problem of malaria in Ethiopia gets worse ... Questions about whether any amount of lead in children's blood is safe ... And a further look at a problem that can be deadly for women during childbirth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ethiopia faces new problems as it tries to fight the spread of malaria at the same time as a food crisis. The malaria parasite has become resistant to the medicines being given to kill it. Malaria is caused by a parasite insect that mosquitoes inject into the people they bite. The United Nations says there was a slow response to unexpected emergency needs in Ethiopia. Also, U-N agencies say there has been what they call a "lack of clarity" on who should receive free drugs. The problem is greatest in the Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region of Ethiopia. This highland area has not had a big problem with malaria in the past. Now the U-N says there are high death rates. Malaria was already one of the biggest killers in Ethiopia. Each year about one hundred-thousand people die of malaria in that country. U-N officials say the malaria crisis is expected to reach its height sometime this month. Ethiopia was already struggling with a lack of food because of dry weather. Now that rains have come, the World Food Program says the malaria crisis will affect harvests. It says the high risk of malaria in many parts of the country will limit the productivity of farmers. VOICE TWO: Diseases like malaria can be hard to identify when people are already sick from hunger. As a result, U-N officials say areas where people have malaria and diseases spread by dirty water are being wrongly reported as food crisis areas. Aid groups have intervened with shipments of food. But U-N officials say a good emergency reaction in the area of food aid is being threatened by a lack of support in health and other areas. They say more non-food help is needed to make sure water and health centers are clean and that people can get treatment. U-N officials say feeding centers are not able to provide the treatment that thousands of children need. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the number of deaths is unknown. Young children and pregnant women are at greatest risk of death from malaria. The U-N Children’s Fund says water supplies are being taken to areas around Ethiopia to help women and children. So is equipment to make dirty water safe. UNICEF estimates that more than four-million people are in urgent need of clean, safe water. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For years, scientists have known that lead can damage the brain. Lead is a soft metal with a number of industrial uses. It may be found in paint and fuel. Lead is especially dangerous to children. In the most severe cases, a child can die. In less severe cases, children can develop learning difficulties. Lead poisoning can be hard to recognize, except through blood tests. Blood tests can identify a problem early when it may be possible to treat. Lead is measured in micrograms per deciliter of blood. In the United States, federal officials consider levels below ten micrograms per deciliter acceptable. The government established this level in nineteen-ninety-one. Before nineteen-seventy, children were considered to have lead poisoning at levels above sixty micrograms per deciliter. By nineteen-eighty-five, officials had reduced that to twenty-five micrograms per deciliter. But a study reported earlier this year suggested that even the current level is not safe. In fact, in the study, levels below ten micrograms per deciliter appeared to cause the greatest damage to intelligence. VOICE TWO: Two scientists from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, reported the findings in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study followed one-hundred-seventy-two children from the Rochester, New York, area. Scientists did blood tests on the children a number of times between the ages of six months and five years. The children also took tests to measure their intelligence. The researchers say most of the damage to intelligence happened at blood levels below ten micrograms per deciliter. They found that higher levels produced only small additional reductions in intelligence. They also noted that the findings will need to be repeated in further studies. VOICE ONE: In the United States, lead has been banned from paint and fuel. As a result, levels of lead in children's blood have dropped more than eighty percent in the past thirty years. However, the researchers say lead poisoning is still a problem among children in poor families. Many of these children live in older housing, which is more likely to still contain lead paint. Lead particles can fall onto floors and onto children's toys. Children who touch lead dust can get the material in their systems if they put their hands into their mouths. Babies often put objects into their mouth, and can also get lead into their blood that way. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last month we talked about some of the problems that can happen during childbirth. One of the most serious is too much bleeding. To continue our report, we present the story of two new mothers: one from India, the other from Nicaragua. One story has a happy ending. The other does not. Together, they show the importance of knowing what to do in case there is a problem when a woman gives birth. VOICE ONE: From India, the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood tells the story of Sunita. She was pregnant with her second child. Her pregnancy, for the most part, was normal. Sunita gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But just after the baby arrived, Sunita became cold and could not move her body. A small loss of blood is normal during childbirth. But there was a large amount of blood around her body. The local health worker said Sunita needed to be taken to a hospital right away. It took an hour for the family to get ready to leave. When they arrived at the hospital hours later, it was too late. Sunita died of shock. She had lost too much blood. She was twenty-two years old. VOICE TWO: From the other side of the world, the Population Reference Bureau relates the story of Leonor in Nicaragua. The story was told by a visitor to a project that worked to improve birth care in several health centers in that country. Leonor was at her home in a small village. She was giving birth to her first child. A woman known as a traditional birth attendant was with her to help. This woman saw that the placenta had not come out within thirty minutes after the baby was born. The placenta is the organ that connects the baby to the mother's uterus by way of the umbilical cord. VOICE ONE: The woman assisting Leonor knew there was a problem. When the placenta does not come out, there is a risk of too much bleeding. The Population Reference Bureau says this problem is the leading cause of death among women during childbirth in Nicaragua. So Leonor’s brother walked to a highway near the village. He stopped a driver and rode to the local health center to get help. An emergency vehicle went to bring Leonor to the center. She arrived within ninety minutes of giving birth, and a doctor treated her immediately. Soon, Leonor was resting, and was able to breastfeed her baby son. VOICE TWO: Even if a woman has one pregnancy without problems, the next one could be different. This is why health experts say it is important for a skilled person to be present when a baby is born, to identify any problems quickly. And they say families should know when, where and how they will take the mother to get help if there are problems. The White Ribbon Alliance says that in every case the cord that connects the baby to the mother should be cut and tied. Cutting the umbilical cord helps the woman’s uterus get smaller, so there is less bleeding. And, finally, the alliance says new mothers should begin to breastfeed their babies immediately. A mother’s first milk is very healthy for newborns, and breastfeeding helps protect babies from disease. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- the problem of malaria in Ethiopia gets worse ... Questions about whether any amount of lead in children's blood is safe ... And a further look at a problem that can be deadly for women during childbirth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ethiopia faces new problems as it tries to fight the spread of malaria at the same time as a food crisis. The malaria parasite has become resistant to the medicines being given to kill it. Malaria is caused by a parasite insect that mosquitoes inject into the people they bite. The United Nations says there was a slow response to unexpected emergency needs in Ethiopia. Also, U-N agencies say there has been what they call a "lack of clarity" on who should receive free drugs. The problem is greatest in the Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region of Ethiopia. This highland area has not had a big problem with malaria in the past. Now the U-N says there are high death rates. Malaria was already one of the biggest killers in Ethiopia. Each year about one hundred-thousand people die of malaria in that country. U-N officials say the malaria crisis is expected to reach its height sometime this month. Ethiopia was already struggling with a lack of food because of dry weather. Now that rains have come, the World Food Program says the malaria crisis will affect harvests. It says the high risk of malaria in many parts of the country will limit the productivity of farmers. VOICE TWO: Diseases like malaria can be hard to identify when people are already sick from hunger. As a result, U-N officials say areas where people have malaria and diseases spread by dirty water are being wrongly reported as food crisis areas. Aid groups have intervened with shipments of food. But U-N officials say a good emergency reaction in the area of food aid is being threatened by a lack of support in health and other areas. They say more non-food help is needed to make sure water and health centers are clean and that people can get treatment. U-N officials say feeding centers are not able to provide the treatment that thousands of children need. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the number of deaths is unknown. Young children and pregnant women are at greatest risk of death from malaria. The U-N Children’s Fund says water supplies are being taken to areas around Ethiopia to help women and children. So is equipment to make dirty water safe. UNICEF estimates that more than four-million people are in urgent need of clean, safe water. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: For years, scientists have known that lead can damage the brain. Lead is a soft metal with a number of industrial uses. It may be found in paint and fuel. Lead is especially dangerous to children. In the most severe cases, a child can die. In less severe cases, children can develop learning difficulties. Lead poisoning can be hard to recognize, except through blood tests. Blood tests can identify a problem early when it may be possible to treat. Lead is measured in micrograms per deciliter of blood. In the United States, federal officials consider levels below ten micrograms per deciliter acceptable. The government established this level in nineteen-ninety-one. Before nineteen-seventy, children were considered to have lead poisoning at levels above sixty micrograms per deciliter. By nineteen-eighty-five, officials had reduced that to twenty-five micrograms per deciliter. But a study reported earlier this year suggested that even the current level is not safe. In fact, in the study, levels below ten micrograms per deciliter appeared to cause the greatest damage to intelligence. VOICE TWO: Two scientists from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, reported the findings in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study followed one-hundred-seventy-two children from the Rochester, New York, area. Scientists did blood tests on the children a number of times between the ages of six months and five years. The children also took tests to measure their intelligence. The researchers say most of the damage to intelligence happened at blood levels below ten micrograms per deciliter. They found that higher levels produced only small additional reductions in intelligence. They also noted that the findings will need to be repeated in further studies. VOICE ONE: In the United States, lead has been banned from paint and fuel. As a result, levels of lead in children's blood have dropped more than eighty percent in the past thirty years. However, the researchers say lead poisoning is still a problem among children in poor families. Many of these children live in older housing, which is more likely to still contain lead paint. Lead particles can fall onto floors and onto children's toys. Children who touch lead dust can get the material in their systems if they put their hands into their mouths. Babies often put objects into their mouth, and can also get lead into their blood that way. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Last month we talked about some of the problems that can happen during childbirth. One of the most serious is too much bleeding. To continue our report, we present the story of two new mothers: one from India, the other from Nicaragua. One story has a happy ending. The other does not. Together, they show the importance of knowing what to do in case there is a problem when a woman gives birth. VOICE ONE: From India, the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood tells the story of Sunita. She was pregnant with her second child. Her pregnancy, for the most part, was normal. Sunita gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But just after the baby arrived, Sunita became cold and could not move her body. A small loss of blood is normal during childbirth. But there was a large amount of blood around her body. The local health worker said Sunita needed to be taken to a hospital right away. It took an hour for the family to get ready to leave. When they arrived at the hospital hours later, it was too late. Sunita died of shock. She had lost too much blood. She was twenty-two years old. VOICE TWO: From the other side of the world, the Population Reference Bureau relates the story of Leonor in Nicaragua. The story was told by a visitor to a project that worked to improve birth care in several health centers in that country. Leonor was at her home in a small village. She was giving birth to her first child. A woman known as a traditional birth attendant was with her to help. This woman saw that the placenta had not come out within thirty minutes after the baby was born. The placenta is the organ that connects the baby to the mother's uterus by way of the umbilical cord. VOICE ONE: The woman assisting Leonor knew there was a problem. When the placenta does not come out, there is a risk of too much bleeding. The Population Reference Bureau says this problem is the leading cause of death among women during childbirth in Nicaragua. So Leonor’s brother walked to a highway near the village. He stopped a driver and rode to the local health center to get help. An emergency vehicle went to bring Leonor to the center. She arrived within ninety minutes of giving birth, and a doctor treated her immediately. Soon, Leonor was resting, and was able to breastfeed her baby son. VOICE TWO: Even if a woman has one pregnancy without problems, the next one could be different. This is why health experts say it is important for a skilled person to be present when a baby is born, to identify any problems quickly. And they say families should know when, where and how they will take the mother to get help if there are problems. The White Ribbon Alliance says that in every case the cord that connects the baby to the mother should be cut and tied. Cutting the umbilical cord helps the woman’s uterus get smaller, so there is less bleeding. And, finally, the alliance says new mothers should begin to breastfeed their babies immediately. A mother’s first milk is very healthy for newborns, and breastfeeding helps protect babies from disease. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Home Gardens, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 9, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. For many people, growing crops on a small piece of land is not a business. For them, a home garden may be an important part of a family's food supply. Or it is simply an enjoyable activity. This week, we will look at ways to grow and improve home gardens. Sunlight is a garden’s most basic need. A garden with unblocked sun from the south is best. A good place for a garden must have at least six hours of sunlight a day. Eight to ten hours is best. If the garden does not receive at least six hours of light during the growing season, it will not produce a good crop. The garden should not be near the base of a hill or near a wall. These will block sunlight. They also block fresh air that helps raise the temperature of the soil early in the growing season. Even if the soil of your garden is not too good, it can be improved. Excellent fertilizer can be made by using the method of composting. Composted food waste and other organic material can make poor soil dark and rich. Good garden soil must drain well. That means water does not build up and leave the soil too wet to support plants. Turning the soil and adding composted material helps with drainage and permits air to enter the soil. A garden must receive a good amount of water every week. Too little can, of course, be as harmful as too much. So the garden must be close to water pipes or a natural supply of water. After choosing the best place, and improved the soil by turning it and adding compost, you can prepare to plant. In the northern half of the world, planting season starts in March. In the southern half, it begins in November. Planting season is also a good time to add fertilizer to the soil. This will help the growth of seeds or young plants. Compost is itself a fertilizer. Experts at the North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension say fertilizer should be turned into the soil to a depth of eight to ten centimeters. This tilling permits rooting seeds or plants to use the nutrients immediately. Next week, we will look at how to plant seeds and how to aid the growth and development of crops. Is there an agricultural subject you would like to hear about? Tell us. Write to special@voanews.com or VOA Special English, Washington DC 20237 USA. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #29 - Alexander Hamilton, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 11, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Frank Oliver and I begin the story of Alexander Hamilton. He was the first secretary of the Treasury of the United States. He was one of the new nation's most important policy makers. And he was a leader in the creation of America's political party system. (THEME) VOICE TWO: The first government of the United States was weak. It had many debts and an empty treasury. Its support from the people was not firm. There was some question about its future. Many wondered if it would last. In a few years, however, there was a change. This change was produced in large part by the energy and imagination of one man, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton wanted to make the United States a strong and important nation. He wanted it to become the equal of the powerful nations of Europe. VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton firmly believed that no country could become a modern nation without industry. So, he carefully developed a program that would make the United States an industrial nation. He also organized the nation's finances. This was done by establishing government credit and a national bank. The bank increased the flow of money needed for investment. It fed the needs of business and commercial activity. The need for money had brought much of this activity to a stop. Finally, Hamilton took steps to protect American manufacturers from foreign competition. He did this by establishing a system of import taxes -- tariffs -- on some foreign goods brought into American ports. These import taxes forced foreign manufacturers to raise their prices. As a result, American manufacturers had much less competition in selling their products. VOICE TWO: Such a tariff system, Hamilton hoped, would strengthen American industry. He thought the United States should not have to depend on other nations for the things it needed. Such a system, he believed, would create a demand for all kinds of workers. It would increase immigration from other countries. And it would bring a new and greater demand for American farm products. Hamilton's financial program helped manufacturers. But it did not seem to do much for farmers. There was a loud protest, especially among farmers in the south. Everything he did, they said, helped the industrial and banking interests of the north. Yet the farmers had to pay more for the manufactured goods they needed. At the same time, they had to sell their crops at lower prices. VOICE ONE: Hamilton succeeded in getting Congress to approve his financial proposals. Yet his political victories brought him many enemies. And they started a Constitutional debate that continued throughout American history. The dispute involved this question: What exact powers do the government and the Congress have under the Constitution? VOICE TWO: Alexander Hamilton believed the Constitution gave the government a number of powers besides those written down. Otherwise, he said, the government could not work. For example, he believed that under the Constitution, the government had the right to start a national bank. It also had the right to put a tax on imported goods. Hamilton's opponents disagreed sharply. They did not give the words of the Constitution such a wide meaning. They said the government had just those powers that were clearly spelled out in the Constitution. . .and nothing more. If not, they said, the government could become dangerously powerful. VOICE ONE: These disputes, and others, helped shape the new United States. In future programs, we will tell more about Alexander Hamilton's influence on political developments. Now, however, we will tell a little about his private life. What kind of man was he? Where did he come from? How did his political and economic beliefs develop? There is much mystery about the early days of Alexander Hamilton. Some facts about his childhood and youth have been clearly established. Others have not. VOICE TWO: His mother was the daughter of French Huguenots who had settled in the West Indies. Her name was Rachel Lavien. Historians are not sure who his father was. One story says he may have been James Hamilton, a poor businessman from Scotland. Rachel Lavien lived with him after she left her husband. One thing is certain. His mother died when he was eleven years old. When she died, friends of the family found work for the boy on the island of Saint Croix -- then called Santa Cruz -- in the Virgin Islands. He was to be an assistant bookkeeper. He would learn how to keep financial records. VOICE ONE: Young Alexander was considered an unusual child. Other children played games. He talked about becoming a political leader in the North American colonies. He read every book that was given to him -- in English, Latin, and Greek. At a young age, he learned a great deal about business and economics. And he developed an ability to use words to communicate ideas clearly and powerfully. This ability to write started him on the path to a new life. VOICE TWO: A severe ocean storm hit the West Indies. Hamilton wrote a report about the storm for a newspaper called "The Royal Danish American Gazette." His story was so good that some of his friends decided to help him get a good education. They gave him money so he could attend a college in New York City. The boy's plan was to study medicine and return to Saint Croix as a doctor. VOICE ONE: When Hamilton arrived in New York, he tried to enter King's College, which would later be known as Columbia University. However, he did not have enough education to enter King's College. So he went to a lower school at Elizabethtown, in New Jersey. He was one of the most serious students at the school. He read his books until midnight. Then he got up early and went to a cemetery to continue reading where it was quiet. He wrote many papers. Each time, he tried to improve his style. After a year at Elizabethtown, he was accepted at King's College. VOICE TWO: At King's College, both teachers and students were surprised by Hamilton's intelligence and his clear way of writing and speaking. The problems of the American colonies were very much on the young man's mind. Hamilton protested against British rule. When colonists in the city of Boston seized a British ship and threw its cargo of tea into the water, Hamilton wrote a paper defending them. Then came the year Seventeen-Seventy-Six. The thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain. The declaration meant war. VOICE ONE: As a boy, Alexander Hamilton had written, "I want success. I would put my life in danger to win success, but not my character. I wish there were a war where I could show my strength." Now, war had come. The American Revolution gave Hamilton the chance to show his abilities. He wanted to be a great military leader. Instead, he became a valuable assistant to the commanding general, George Washington. In this job, he had to use all his political and communication skills to get money and supplies for the revolutionary army. Hamilton also would become an influential thinker, writer, and journalist. For many years, he wrote editorials for the newspaper he established, the "New York Evening Post." He also helped write the Federalist Papers with James Madison and John Jay. The Federalist Papers are considered the greatest explanation of the United States Constitution ever written. VOICE TWO: In addition to being a fine writer, Hamilton was a fine speaker, but only to small groups. He spoke the same way that he wrote: clearly, forcefully, and with knowledge. It was this ability that he used so well in the New York state convention that approved the Constitution. More than any other man, it was Alexander Hamilton who made the delegates to that convention change their minds and accept the document. After the new government was formed under the Constitution, Hamilton continued to play an important part in national politics. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Frank Oliver. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – September 11, 2003: U.S. School Population Growth
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. About one-in-four people age three and older in the United States is a student. The government says this new school year finds more than seventy-three-million students in nursery school through college. That is out of a national population of almost two-hundred-ninety million people. The Census Bureau estimates the number of elementary through high school students at more than fifty-three million. This is even more than there were in nineteen-sixty-nine. That was the year when the last of the "baby boom" children entered American schools. The baby boom was a major increase in childbirth in the United States. It began in nineteen-forty-six, after World War Two, and lasted until nineteen-sixty-four. Census Bureau studies help government agencies decide how much to spend for education. Educators say the school population growth means increased financial pressure on school systems. They need more money to help serve more students. The student population this fall should not be a surprise. The government says there was major growth in the student population during the nineteen-nineties. A new Census Bureau report says the number increased by about twenty percent during those years. This included kindergarten students, from about age five, up through college students. In some areas, school populations grew even more. For example, in the West, the state of Nevada had a seventy-six percent increase in students. That seemed natural enough. Nevada had the largest population growth of any state during the nineteen-nineties. Among other numbers, the Census Bureau says twenty-six percent of high school students work while attending school. And the agency reported a reduction in the number of students who leave high school before they complete their studies. The dropout rate fell from eleven percent in nineteen-ninety to just under ten percent in two-thousand. Another estimate says more children are attending private school now than in the past. Currently, about ten percent of all students of elementary or high school age go to private schools. And, the Census Bureau says ninety-eight percent of public schools in the United States are connected to the Internet. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 12, 2003: A question about baby boomers in America / Music from singer Lizz Wright's first album / Get ready for a ride -- Harley-Davidson turns 100
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- a question about baby boomers in America, and some music by Lizz Wright. But first -- get ready for a ride! Harley Davidson Anniversary HOST: The Harley-Davidson Motor Company recently celebrated an important birthday. Shep O’Neal has the details. ANNCR: As many as three-hundred-thousand people rode their Harley-Davidson motorcycles into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the last days of August. They came to the home of the famous motorcycle company to celebrate its one-hundredth year of production. There were speeches, music performances, dances -- even weddings. At least fourteen weddings took place among the Harley-Davidson riders who attended the celebration. The huge birthday party in Milwaukee was the end of a year-long anniversary celebration. Riders came from all over the United States and many other countries. Three-hundred Harley-Davidson owners flew in on a special flight from Japan. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company got its start in nineteen-oh-three. It was the idea of twenty-one-year-old William Harley and twenty-year-old Arthur Davidson. They began the company by building a machine that looked like a bicycle with a small engine. They only made three motorcycles that first year. Three years later, in nineteen-oh-six, they opened a factory with six workers. By nineteen-twenty, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle company in the world. More than two-thousand businesses sold Harleys in the United States and almost seventy other countries. Harley-Davidson has faced financial problems several times in its history. But it has always survived. This was often the result of the loyalty of people who would never ride any other motorcycle. Today, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company is one of the most successful companies in the United States. It produces more than two-hundred-forty-thousand motorcycles each year. And it sells all of them. The Baby Boom HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Akingbulugbe Ayo wants to know about the "baby boom." The baby boom is what Americans call the period between nineteen-forty-six and nineteen-sixty-four. The number of births in the United States increased sharply when the soldiers came home from World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-seven, about four-point-three-million babies arrived -- the most ever. Four-million births is around average for a year. Baby boomers are a big part of the population, seventy-seven million out of two-hundred-ninety million people. But the phrase baby boom describes more than just population growth. It also describes a period of change in American culture. Population experts say a law helped create the baby boom. The law gave soldiers who served in World War Two and the Korean War the financial support they needed to start families. It also provided education, training, loan guarantees, unemployment payments and other assistance for former soldiers. Millions received education and bought homes through the plan. During this time, television helped spread baby boom culture. This was the first generation to grow up with TV. It brought comedians like Milton Berle and Lucille Ball into people's homes. Cowboys in westerns like "Gunsmoke." Music by Elvis Presley and The Beatles. TV also let Americans watch the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, an anti-communist politician in the nineteen-fifties. Many baby boomers were less conservative than their parents. During the sixties and seventies, these young people had their own ideas about sex, drugs and rock-and-roll music. Baby boomers also became politically active. Some fought in Vietnam. But others protested the war, or found ways not to serve. America continues to feel the political and social effects of the baby boom. Bill Clinton was the first of his generation to become president. And the baby boom is big business. Companies make all sorts of products that promise to make people look and feel younger. Right now, many baby boomers are either planning their retirements or worrying about their teenage children. The youngest boomers are about to reach forty. The oldest are close to sixty. Some children of baby boomers already have grown children of their own. In the coming years, another baby boom is expected in America. Some population experts already call it the millenni-boom. Lizz Wright HOST: Lizz Wright was an unknown singer last year when she appeared at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in California. The audience and music critics loved her performance. This year she was back to perform songs from her first album. Steve Ember tells us more about Lizz Wright. ANNCR: Lizz Wright is twenty-three years old. She began singing in church when she was six. She sang with several choirs in high school, then studied music at Georgia State University in Atlanta. The university did not have a vocal jazz program. So she worked with small independent jazz bands to learn what she really wanted to do – sing jazz. Her first album is called “Salt.” Here she sings the Flora Purim classic “Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly.” (MUSIC) Lizz Wright wrote some of the songs on her album, including the title song. It honors the rhythm-and-blues singer Donny Hathaway who died in nineteen-seventy-nine. He killed himself at the age of thirty-three. (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from Lizz Wright’s album “Salt.” This is “Fire.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Mario Ritter and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Vasco Volarich. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- a question about baby boomers in America, and some music by Lizz Wright. But first -- get ready for a ride! Harley Davidson Anniversary HOST: The Harley-Davidson Motor Company recently celebrated an important birthday. Shep O’Neal has the details. ANNCR: As many as three-hundred-thousand people rode their Harley-Davidson motorcycles into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the last days of August. They came to the home of the famous motorcycle company to celebrate its one-hundredth year of production. There were speeches, music performances, dances -- even weddings. At least fourteen weddings took place among the Harley-Davidson riders who attended the celebration. The huge birthday party in Milwaukee was the end of a year-long anniversary celebration. Riders came from all over the United States and many other countries. Three-hundred Harley-Davidson owners flew in on a special flight from Japan. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company got its start in nineteen-oh-three. It was the idea of twenty-one-year-old William Harley and twenty-year-old Arthur Davidson. They began the company by building a machine that looked like a bicycle with a small engine. They only made three motorcycles that first year. Three years later, in nineteen-oh-six, they opened a factory with six workers. By nineteen-twenty, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle company in the world. More than two-thousand businesses sold Harleys in the United States and almost seventy other countries. Harley-Davidson has faced financial problems several times in its history. But it has always survived. This was often the result of the loyalty of people who would never ride any other motorcycle. Today, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company is one of the most successful companies in the United States. It produces more than two-hundred-forty-thousand motorcycles each year. And it sells all of them. The Baby Boom HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Akingbulugbe Ayo wants to know about the "baby boom." The baby boom is what Americans call the period between nineteen-forty-six and nineteen-sixty-four. The number of births in the United States increased sharply when the soldiers came home from World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-seven, about four-point-three-million babies arrived -- the most ever. Four-million births is around average for a year. Baby boomers are a big part of the population, seventy-seven million out of two-hundred-ninety million people. But the phrase baby boom describes more than just population growth. It also describes a period of change in American culture. Population experts say a law helped create the baby boom. The law gave soldiers who served in World War Two and the Korean War the financial support they needed to start families. It also provided education, training, loan guarantees, unemployment payments and other assistance for former soldiers. Millions received education and bought homes through the plan. During this time, television helped spread baby boom culture. This was the first generation to grow up with TV. It brought comedians like Milton Berle and Lucille Ball into people's homes. Cowboys in westerns like "Gunsmoke." Music by Elvis Presley and The Beatles. TV also let Americans watch the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, an anti-communist politician in the nineteen-fifties. Many baby boomers were less conservative than their parents. During the sixties and seventies, these young people had their own ideas about sex, drugs and rock-and-roll music. Baby boomers also became politically active. Some fought in Vietnam. But others protested the war, or found ways not to serve. America continues to feel the political and social effects of the baby boom. Bill Clinton was the first of his generation to become president. And the baby boom is big business. Companies make all sorts of products that promise to make people look and feel younger. Right now, many baby boomers are either planning their retirements or worrying about their teenage children. The youngest boomers are about to reach forty. The oldest are close to sixty. Some children of baby boomers already have grown children of their own. In the coming years, another baby boom is expected in America. Some population experts already call it the millenni-boom. Lizz Wright HOST: Lizz Wright was an unknown singer last year when she appeared at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl in California. The audience and music critics loved her performance. This year she was back to perform songs from her first album. Steve Ember tells us more about Lizz Wright. ANNCR: Lizz Wright is twenty-three years old. She began singing in church when she was six. She sang with several choirs in high school, then studied music at Georgia State University in Atlanta. The university did not have a vocal jazz program. So she worked with small independent jazz bands to learn what she really wanted to do – sing jazz. Her first album is called “Salt.” Here she sings the Flora Purim classic “Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly.” (MUSIC) Lizz Wright wrote some of the songs on her album, including the title song. It honors the rhythm-and-blues singer Donny Hathaway who died in nineteen-seventy-nine. He killed himself at the age of thirty-three. (MUSIC) We leave you with another song from Lizz Wright’s album “Salt.” This is “Fire.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Mario Ritter and Paul Thompson, who was also our producer. And our engineer was Vasco Volarich. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Study: Loss of Ozone Slows
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 12, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in the United States have reported some good news about the ozone in the atmosphere. Recent findings suggest that the destruction of ozone by pollution is slowing. Ozone is a form of oxygen. Its presence above Earth protects us from radiation from the sun. In one study, researchers examined information gathered by NASA space agency satellites and by equipment on Earth. The findings? In the words of Michael Newchurch of the University of Alabama: "This is the beginning of a recovery of the ozone layer." Mister Newchurch led the study. He says the atmosphere was losing about eight percent of the ozone layer per ten-year period since the late nineteen-seventies. In the last five years, though, that rate of loss has dropped by half. He says the atmosphere should start to gain ozone before long. He says a full recovery, however, is about fifty years away, as long as the Montreal Protocol remains in place. That is an international treaty from nineteen-eighty-seven to restore the ozone layer. The treaty restricts the use of a number of chemicals that destroy ozone, like chlorofluorocarbons, or C-F-C's. Wide use of C-F-C's began in the nineteen-thirties. They became popular coolants in devices such as refrigerators and air conditioners. C-F-C's remain in the atmosphere for years. Mister Newchurch says the study provides evidence that the Montreal Protocol is working by reducing C-F-C pollution. But the study found the ozone improvement only in the upper stratosphere. The scientists have not yet seen evidence of similar changes in the lower stratosphere. That holds most of the protective ozone. The Montreal Protocol also restricts the use of methyl bromide, a chemical to kill insects. Farmers and shippers are the main users. Natural sources of methyl bromide include oceans and some plants. Scientists say the bromine gas it produces is fifty times more destructive to ozone than chlorine gas from C-F-C's. Methyl bromide has never been used as widely as C-F-C's. But a separate study found a decrease in bromine gas levels in the atmosphere. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did the study. They reported a thirteen percent drop since nineteen-ninety-eight. The report is based on eight years of measurements taken at ten stations around the world. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: September 11, 2003 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 11, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some letters from listeners. Troops in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia in June 2001.(Photo - UN) Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 11, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: some letters from listeners. RS: From Russia, Natasha writes: "A friend of mine went to the US for her summer vacation. She's got 4 years of study at Moscow Linguistic University behind her and she's actually studying to be a teacher of English. But as she came to America she faced lots of problems with her English. And the most striking thing was that Americans didn't use the language she had learned at the university. "For example, almost all natives she mixed with said, 'There's a lot of people I know,' or 'How are you doin?' -- 'I'm good.' And her impulse was to follow the example, since we, students of a foreign language, want to sound as natural as possible and try to pick up whatever we hear from the natives. "So, my question is: Am I right thinking that there's a violation of grammar in the above mentioned examples? Or is it an instance of spoken American English, and my friend wins the bet?" AA: Actually, you're both right. Saying "there is a lot of people I know' is a grammatical mistake. It should be 'there ARE a lot of people I know," of course. But in speech, what you generally hear is "there's a lot of" -- for one thing, it's just easier to say. People tend to stick to the rules more in writing, especially if it's not to friends or loved ones. Same with "How are you doing?" That's OK written down. But to say it that way could sound too formal. "How ya doin'" is how we typically say it. And the typical answer is: "Fine, thanks," or "I'm fine" or "I'm good." RS: On to this from James Ho: "I'm one of your listeners in Taiwan and I want to thank you for producing such a quality show. Today I've got some questions that I'd like to ask" -- and he starts by asking about a statement that was quoted in an article in the Wall Street Journal, quote -- "'What is the likelihood of our forces serving under a blue-hatted UN leadership?' I couldn't find the meaning of 'blue-hatted,' even in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Does it mean 'peaceful'?" AA: You're on the right track. When the U-N sends a peacekeeping force, the soldiers wear light blue berets or helmets. Things are different, though, for what are known as multinational forces authorized, but not commanded, by the U-N. Those troops wear the color of headgear they normally wear in their national military. RS: James has another question, and again he quotes, this time from USA Today: "It's about trust," says the father looking each of his daughters square in the eye before they set off for an afternoon of shopping. Besides, they know what they can get away with and what they can't. Do they ever. Off they went, regrouping with their stay-at-home dad in the mall's food court three hours later to show off their booty." James would like to know what the sentences 'do they ever' and "off they went" mean. AA: Think of "do they ever" as sort of an exclamation point. In this case, the writer is emphasizing that the daughters know their father's limits. "Off they went" simply means to set off, to get going. RS: Next this e-mail: "Dear friend, I'm in love with American English, but please would you mind sending me some programs. It's my first time hearing VOA News. I am a Sudanese lady and l would like to learn more about English, because some people tell me that l speak good English, but my boyfriend tells me to have more classes in English. Best regards, Christine von Burkhard." AA: Welcome to VOA, Christine! To answer your question about our programs, the only way to get them is on the Internet. You'll find our scripts all the way back to 1998. And you can download MP3 and RealAudio files going back to July of 2001. The address is voanews.com/wordmaster. Good luck -- and let us know if you'd like us to talk to that boyfriend of yours! RS: Here's a letter of inspiration from "Mister English." At least that's his e-mail name. T. Basavanyappa writes us from a government school in Karnataka, India: "Dear Wordmaster. I am very curious about American English. It is very easy and interesting to learn and speak. Because it has simple spelling, grammar rules, structures, informal usages, etc. I need a program guide when Wordmaster is broadcast." AA: That's easy -- you can hear us each Thursday at this time right here on Coast to Coast. Now over to Azat Sultanov in Aktau, Kazakhstan. Recently we answered some of his questions about slang. "Now let me trouble you with another question," he writes. "Some time ago on one of the Talk to America shows I heard the description of 'baby boomer' attitude and 'trigger happy' with regard to some politicians. "What I dig of these terms is that a man who has a 'baby boomer attitude' encourages a birth rate increase and the man who is 'trigger happy' does not have to be persuaded or instigated much to make an impulsive act. Are these meanings correct?" RS: Azat, your definition for "trigger happy" is right on target! Literally or figuratively, it's someone who is likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Now, about the meaning of "baby boomer attitude" -- the baby boom is what we call the period after World War Two, from nineteen-forty-six to nineteen-sixty-four. America had a big increase in births. AA: The result: seventy-seven-million baby boomers today, or one in four Americans. Not surprisingly, a population group this large can have a big impact on a country's attitudes. Just what are the attitudes of baby boomers? We'll leave that for Mary Tillotson's guests to talk about on Talk to America. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site, again, is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: From Russia, Natasha writes: "A friend of mine went to the US for her summer vacation. She's got 4 years of study at Moscow Linguistic University behind her and she's actually studying to be a teacher of English. But as she came to America she faced lots of problems with her English. And the most striking thing was that Americans didn't use the language she had learned at the university. "For example, almost all natives she mixed with said, 'There's a lot of people I know,' or 'How are you doin?' -- 'I'm good.' And her impulse was to follow the example, since we, students of a foreign language, want to sound as natural as possible and try to pick up whatever we hear from the natives. "So, my question is: Am I right thinking that there's a violation of grammar in the above mentioned examples? Or is it an instance of spoken American English, and my friend wins the bet?" AA: Actually, you're both right. Saying "there is a lot of people I know' is a grammatical mistake. It should be 'there ARE a lot of people I know," of course. But in speech, what you generally hear is "there's a lot of" -- for one thing, it's just easier to say. People tend to stick to the rules more in writing, especially if it's not to friends or loved ones. Same with "How are you doing?" That's OK written down. But to say it that way could sound too formal. "How ya doin'" is how we typically say it. And the typical answer is: "Fine, thanks," or "I'm fine" or "I'm good." RS: On to this from James Ho: "I'm one of your listeners in Taiwan and I want to thank you for producing such a quality show. Today I've got some questions that I'd like to ask" -- and he starts by asking about a statement that was quoted in an article in the Wall Street Journal, quote -- "'What is the likelihood of our forces serving under a blue-hatted UN leadership?' I couldn't find the meaning of 'blue-hatted,' even in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Does it mean 'peaceful'?" AA: You're on the right track. When the U-N sends a peacekeeping force, the soldiers wear light blue berets or helmets. Things are different, though, for what are known as multinational forces authorized, but not commanded, by the U-N. Those troops wear the color of headgear they normally wear in their national military. RS: James has another question, and again he quotes, this time from USA Today: "It's about trust," says the father looking each of his daughters square in the eye before they set off for an afternoon of shopping. Besides, they know what they can get away with and what they can't. Do they ever. Off they went, regrouping with their stay-at-home dad in the mall's food court three hours later to show off their booty." James would like to know what the sentences 'do they ever' and "off they went" mean. AA: Think of "do they ever" as sort of an exclamation point. In this case, the writer is emphasizing that the daughters know their father's limits. "Off they went" simply means to set off, to get going. RS: Next this e-mail: "Dear friend, I'm in love with American English, but please would you mind sending me some programs. It's my first time hearing VOA News. I am a Sudanese lady and l would like to learn more about English, because some people tell me that l speak good English, but my boyfriend tells me to have more classes in English. Best regards, Christine von Burkhard." AA: Welcome to VOA, Christine! To answer your question about our programs, the only way to get them is on the Internet. You'll find our scripts all the way back to 1998. And you can download MP3 and RealAudio files going back to July of 2001. The address is voanews.com/wordmaster. Good luck -- and let us know if you'd like us to talk to that boyfriend of yours! RS: Here's a letter of inspiration from "Mister English." At least that's his e-mail name. T. Basavanyappa writes us from a government school in Karnataka, India: "Dear Wordmaster. I am very curious about American English. It is very easy and interesting to learn and speak. Because it has simple spelling, grammar rules, structures, informal usages, etc. I need a program guide when Wordmaster is broadcast." AA: That's easy -- you can hear us each Thursday at this time right here on Coast to Coast. Now over to Azat Sultanov in Aktau, Kazakhstan. Recently we answered some of his questions about slang. "Now let me trouble you with another question," he writes. "Some time ago on one of the Talk to America shows I heard the description of 'baby boomer' attitude and 'trigger happy' with regard to some politicians. "What I dig of these terms is that a man who has a 'baby boomer attitude' encourages a birth rate increase and the man who is 'trigger happy' does not have to be persuaded or instigated much to make an impulsive act. Are these meanings correct?" RS: Azat, your definition for "trigger happy" is right on target! Literally or figuratively, it's someone who is likely to shoot first and ask questions later. Now, about the meaning of "baby boomer attitude" -- the baby boom is what we call the period after World War Two, from nineteen-forty-six to nineteen-sixty-four. America had a big increase in births. AA: The result: seventy-seven-million baby boomers today, or one in four Americans. Not surprisingly, a population group this large can have a big impact on a country's attitudes. Just what are the attitudes of baby boomers? We'll leave that for Mary Tillotson's guests to talk about on Talk to America. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And our Web site, again, is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Septemer 13, 2003: IMF Aid Plan for Argentina
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. The International Monetary Fund has agreed to help Argentina refinance some of its debt. Argentine President Nestor Kirchner announced the deal Wednesday in Buenos Aires. The agreement is designed to help the country recover from its worst economic crisis. The three-year agreement will refinance twenty-one thousand-million dollars of debt owed to international lenders. This includes more than twelve-thousand-million dollars owed to the IMF. Most of the rest is owed to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. The agreement needs official approval by the IMF board which meets in Dubai on September nineteenth. The agreement came a day after Argentina failed to make a three-thousand-million dollar payment to the IMF. That was the largest single payment ever missed in the history of the IMF. Argentina says it repaid the money on Thursday. Argentina had been working for weeks on a deal to refinance the loan payments to the IMF. Argentina wanted more time to pay. Officials had criticized the IMF’s demands in return for the aid program. The IMF had demanded that Argentina pay private banks for money lost during the economic crisis at the end of two-thousand-one. The crisis led the government to devalue the peso. The IMF had also demanded that Argentina permit private utility companies to increase their rates. The agreement does not include either of these demands. IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler said the agreement is designed to help Argentina meet goals for growth, employment and social equity. He said it also would help the country’s banking system and increase lending needed to support recovery. In December of two-thousand-one, the IMF refused to extend loans to Argentina. It said the government had failed to control spending. Argentina declared itself unable to pay its huge public debt. The new agreement means Argentina can now begin to negotiate ways to restructure its ninety-thousand-million dollars of private debt. Hundreds of international creditors are owed money. After that, Argentina could again borrow on financial markets, which in turn would help the economy. The country's economic troubles were largely caused by too much spending by the government. The crisis in December of two-thousand-one deepened a recession. Argentines are still dealing with the crisis. Half of the country’s thirty-six million people are poor. And there are few jobs. Many Argentines blame dishonest government officials for the problems. Argentina's economy has shown some signs of recovery under President Nestor Kirchner. He took office earlier this year. He says further cuts demanded by the International Monetary Fund as part of economic reform would push the country back into recession. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 14, 2003: Bob Hope
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Bob Hope (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Dick Rael with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Bob Hope. He was one of the world’s most famous comedians. His life in show business lasted for more than seventy years. (THEME) I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Dick Rael with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Bob Hope. He was one of the world’s most famous comedians. His life in show business lasted for more than seventy years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Bob Hope was born in Eltham, England in nineteen-oh-three. His parents named him Leslie Townes Hope. Many years later, he began calling himself Bob. Leslie was the fifth of seven sons. He and his family moved to the United States in nineteen-oh-seven. They settled in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Leslie’s mother taught him how to sing. As a child, he had a good singing voice. Later in life, Bob Hope often said he never wanted to be anything but a funnyman. Leslie attended Cleveland public schools. He sold newspapers and worked for a meat market and a shoe store. After high school, he learned how to dance. He also showed an interest in the sport of boxing. VOICE TWO: When Bob Hope was eighteen years old, he asked his girlfriend to become his dance partner. They began appearing at local vaudeville theaters. Vaudeville was the most popular form of entertainment in the United States in the early nineteen-hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, dancers, comedians telling jokes and other acts. Bob Hope’s dance act with his girlfriend did not last long. A short time later, he heard that a Cleveland theater needed performers for a show with the famous actor Fatty Arbuckle. Hope developed a dance act with another friend, and they were chosen for the show. The team performed briefly as part of Arbuckle’s traveling vaudeville show. VOICE ONE: Later, Hope formed a song and dance team with George Byrne. They performed at theaters across the United States. The two men were offered work in a show on Broadway in New York City. But they did not stay very long. They left New York to change their act and start over again. They performed at a small theater in Pennsylvania. On opening night, Hope was asked to tell the crowd about future shows at the theater. The people liked the way he sounded. So did the supervisor of the theater. Hope then expanded his announcement to five minutes. Bob Hope started to perform by himself. He became skilled at standing in front of crowds and telling jokes, often very quickly. He collected jokes and told them during his performances. Hope did not wear special clothing or use tricks when performing. But he made funny expressions with his face to make people laugh. VOICE TWO: Bob Hope returned to Broadway in the nineteen-thirties. Theater critics and the public liked his performance in the musical “Roberta.” The show changed his life in more than one way. One day, another performer took Hope to meet a young singer who was also working in New York. Her name was Dolores Reade. She and Hope married in nineteen-thirty-four. They would stay together as husband and wife for the next sixty-nine years. After the musical “Roberta,” Bob Hope performed in a number of other Broadway shows. They included “Ziegfield Follies” and “Red, Hot and Blue.” Hope’s acting success led to his first major film, “The Big Broadcast of Nineteen-Thirty-Eight.” In the film, he and Shirley Ross sang a song called “Thanks for the Memory.” Many people think of Bob Hope when they hear this song. (TAPE CUT ONE: “Thanks for the Memory”) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-seven, Bob Hope agreed to do a series of radio programs called the “Woodbury Soap Show.” The next year, he agreed to do a radio show for another company that made Pepsodent toothpaste. His Tuesday night radio show soon became popular. Hope continued doing radio shows for almost twenty years. His success in radio led to a long-term relationship with a major film company, Paramount Pictures. The actors who worked in Hope’s films also made appearances on his radio shows. In all, Hope was the lead actor in more than fifty films. He also had small parts in fifteen others. Bob Hope never won an Academy Award for his acting. However, the American film industry did honor him five times. His series of films with actress Dorothy Lamour and singer Bing Crosby became world famous. Hope and Crosby were close friends. Here they sing a song from the movie “The Road to Morocco.” (TAPE CUT TWO: “Road to Morocco”) VOICE TWO: Bob Hope began performing on television in nineteen-fifty. He made a special program for N-B-C television. His show included a famous personality, a singer and a beautiful, young woman. Hope used this successful combination again and again. He decided to avoid all the work involved with a weekly television show. However, he continued making television specials every year until nineteen-ninety-five. VOICE ONE: For more than fifty years, Bob Hope traveled around the world, giving shows for members of America’s armed forces. It started in nineteen-forty-one when he and several other performers went to an air base in California. Later that year, the United States entered World War Two after Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Hope attempted to join the armed forces. He was told he could better serve his country as a performer, building support for the war effort. So he took a team of performers to bases around the country to perform his radio show. VOICE TWO: Hope and his team performed for millions of soldiers during World War Two. He performed almost all of his shows at bases across the United States, Europe and the South Pacific. Listen now to part of a show broadcast to soldiers after the war had ended. (TAPE CUT THREE:“The Bob Hope Radio Show” ) Hope began what was to become a Christmas tradition in nineteen-forty-eight. That is when he and his wife went to Germany to perform for troops involved in the Berlin Airlift. Later, he performed for American soldiers serving in South Korea, Vietnam and Lebanon. In nineteen-ninety, Hope and his wife performed for troops in Saudi Arabia. At the time, he was eighty-seven years old. VOICE ONE: Bob Hope was a friend to many American Presidents. He played golf with Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George Bush. Several presidents also honored the famous comedian. President John Kennedy gave Hope the Congressional Gold Medal. President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Medal of Freedom. United States Congress honored Hope four times. In nineteen-ninety-seven, Congress made him an honorary veteran of the armed forces. He was the first individual so honored in American history. The following year, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth made Hope an honorary knight. She recognized his work in films and his service to allied forces during World War Two. VOICE TWO: People in many countries celebrated Bob Hope’s birthday on May twenty-ninth, two-thousand-three. He was one-hundred years old. The celebrations included the naming of a famous area in Hollywood, California as Bob Hope Square. Sadly, Hope was too weak to attend. Two months later, he became sick and developed pneumonia. Bob Hope died at his California home on July twenty-seventh, two-thousand-three. (TAPE CUT FOUR: “Thanks for the Memory” INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Dick Rael. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Bob Hope was born in Eltham, England in nineteen-oh-three. His parents named him Leslie Townes Hope. Many years later, he began calling himself Bob. Leslie was the fifth of seven sons. He and his family moved to the United States in nineteen-oh-seven. They settled in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. Leslie’s mother taught him how to sing. As a child, he had a good singing voice. Later in life, Bob Hope often said he never wanted to be anything but a funnyman. Leslie attended Cleveland public schools. He sold newspapers and worked for a meat market and a shoe store. After high school, he learned how to dance. He also showed an interest in the sport of boxing. VOICE TWO: When Bob Hope was eighteen years old, he asked his girlfriend to become his dance partner. They began appearing at local vaudeville theaters. Vaudeville was the most popular form of entertainment in the United States in the early nineteen-hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, dancers, comedians telling jokes and other acts. Bob Hope’s dance act with his girlfriend did not last long. A short time later, he heard that a Cleveland theater needed performers for a show with the famous actor Fatty Arbuckle. Hope developed a dance act with another friend, and they were chosen for the show. The team performed briefly as part of Arbuckle’s traveling vaudeville show. VOICE ONE: Later, Hope formed a song and dance team with George Byrne. They performed at theaters across the United States. The two men were offered work in a show on Broadway in New York City. But they did not stay very long. They left New York to change their act and start over again. They performed at a small theater in Pennsylvania. On opening night, Hope was asked to tell the crowd about future shows at the theater. The people liked the way he sounded. So did the supervisor of the theater. Hope then expanded his announcement to five minutes. Bob Hope started to perform by himself. He became skilled at standing in front of crowds and telling jokes, often very quickly. He collected jokes and told them during his performances. Hope did not wear special clothing or use tricks when performing. But he made funny expressions with his face to make people laugh. VOICE TWO: Bob Hope returned to Broadway in the nineteen-thirties. Theater critics and the public liked his performance in the musical “Roberta.” The show changed his life in more than one way. One day, another performer took Hope to meet a young singer who was also working in New York. Her name was Dolores Reade. She and Hope married in nineteen-thirty-four. They would stay together as husband and wife for the next sixty-nine years. After the musical “Roberta,” Bob Hope performed in a number of other Broadway shows. They included “Ziegfield Follies” and “Red, Hot and Blue.” Hope’s acting success led to his first major film, “The Big Broadcast of Nineteen-Thirty-Eight.” In the film, he and Shirley Ross sang a song called “Thanks for the Memory.” Many people think of Bob Hope when they hear this song. (TAPE CUT ONE: “Thanks for the Memory”) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-seven, Bob Hope agreed to do a series of radio programs called the “Woodbury Soap Show.” The next year, he agreed to do a radio show for another company that made Pepsodent toothpaste. His Tuesday night radio show soon became popular. Hope continued doing radio shows for almost twenty years. His success in radio led to a long-term relationship with a major film company, Paramount Pictures. The actors who worked in Hope’s films also made appearances on his radio shows. In all, Hope was the lead actor in more than fifty films. He also had small parts in fifteen others. Bob Hope never won an Academy Award for his acting. However, the American film industry did honor him five times. His series of films with actress Dorothy Lamour and singer Bing Crosby became world famous. Hope and Crosby were close friends. Here they sing a song from the movie “The Road to Morocco.” (TAPE CUT TWO: “Road to Morocco”) VOICE TWO: Bob Hope began performing on television in nineteen-fifty. He made a special program for N-B-C television. His show included a famous personality, a singer and a beautiful, young woman. Hope used this successful combination again and again. He decided to avoid all the work involved with a weekly television show. However, he continued making television specials every year until nineteen-ninety-five. VOICE ONE: For more than fifty years, Bob Hope traveled around the world, giving shows for members of America’s armed forces. It started in nineteen-forty-one when he and several other performers went to an air base in California. Later that year, the United States entered World War Two after Japanese forces attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Hope attempted to join the armed forces. He was told he could better serve his country as a performer, building support for the war effort. So he took a team of performers to bases around the country to perform his radio show. VOICE TWO: Hope and his team performed for millions of soldiers during World War Two. He performed almost all of his shows at bases across the United States, Europe and the South Pacific. Listen now to part of a show broadcast to soldiers after the war had ended. (TAPE CUT THREE:“The Bob Hope Radio Show” ) Hope began what was to become a Christmas tradition in nineteen-forty-eight. That is when he and his wife went to Germany to perform for troops involved in the Berlin Airlift. Later, he performed for American soldiers serving in South Korea, Vietnam and Lebanon. In nineteen-ninety, Hope and his wife performed for troops in Saudi Arabia. At the time, he was eighty-seven years old. VOICE ONE: Bob Hope was a friend to many American Presidents. He played golf with Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George Bush. Several presidents also honored the famous comedian. President John Kennedy gave Hope the Congressional Gold Medal. President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Medal of Freedom. United States Congress honored Hope four times. In nineteen-ninety-seven, Congress made him an honorary veteran of the armed forces. He was the first individual so honored in American history. The following year, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth made Hope an honorary knight. She recognized his work in films and his service to allied forces during World War Two. VOICE TWO: People in many countries celebrated Bob Hope’s birthday on May twenty-ninth, two-thousand-three. He was one-hundred years old. The celebrations included the naming of a famous area in Hollywood, California as Bob Hope Square. Sadly, Hope was too weak to attend. Two months later, he became sick and developed pneumonia. Bob Hope died at his California home on July twenty-seventh, two-thousand-three. (TAPE CUT FOUR: “Thanks for the Memory” INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And I’m Dick Rael. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - National Folk Festival
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 15, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: September 15, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Thousands of people gathered recently for an event that celebrates the traditions of many of the groups that have come to America. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. We take you to the National Folk Festival on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (NATURAL SOUND) VOICE ONE: Music filled the air at the sixty-fifth National Folk Festival, held in Bangor, Maine. Maine is a small state on the northeastern Atlantic coast, on the border with Canada. The festival offers music from many lands. Crowds heard Yang Wei and Betty Xiang [shee-ONG] play ancient Chinese instruments. Los Camperos de Nati Cano performed Spanish mariachi music. Another group, Wylie and The Wild West, performed music of the American West. And there was lots more. (NATURAL SOUND) VOICE TWO: The crowds had five stages to choose from the entertainment. All this took place in Bangor’s Riverfront area. Many people sat on the grass under the hot sun. But breezes from off the Penobscot River cooled them. Visitors looked at handmade crafts for sale. Penobscot Indians, for example, sold objects carved from ash trees. Women from Maine showed knitted and woven clothing. They also sold sweets made from the syrup of the state’s maple trees. Festival goers could also choose foods from Greece, Ireland, China and many other cultures. The smell of food made people hungry. Seafood is one of the things that Maine is famous for, especially shellfish. People stood in long lines to buy rolls containing lobster. They also ate what seemed like tons of blueberries grown in Maine. (NATURAL SOUND) VOICE ONE: The National Folk Festival is a chance to show off many of the traditions that have become part of American culture. These include the traditions of the Indians who lived here first. The festival first took place in nineteen-thirty-four. It has taken place almost every year since then. At first, the National Folk Festival was held in the same city each year. As time passed, it became a traveling event. It now moves every fourth year. The National Council for Traditional Arts is the main organizer. The festival is free of charge. Financial support comes from businesses, individuals and collections at the event. VOICE TWO: Julia Olin is an official of the National Council for Traditional Arts. She praises the support that citizens in Maine have given the National Folk Festival. She points out that only about thirty-eight-thousand people live in the city of Bangor. But, last year, about eighty-thousand people attended the festival. Julia Olin says eight-hundred local citizens offered to work at this year’s festival. Some of these volunteers answered questions from visitors. Others served as "artist buddies" to assist the performers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now let us meet and listen to some of the artists who performed at the sixty-fifth National Folk Festival. Yang Wei and Betty Xiang, his wife, grew up in Shanghai. Yang Wei is an expert on the ancient Chinese instrument called a pipa (PEA-pah). This is a string instrument similar to a lute. Betty Xiang plays the erhu (er-WHO), a kind of violin. They have performed in the United States with cello player Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. They also have played at the Ravinia International Music Festival near Chicago. VOICE TWO: Yang Wei tells us about the two-thousand-year history of the pipa. He also talks about how his family arrived in the United States in nineteen-ninety-six. He says he and his wife and son knew little English at the time. He expresses pleasure that they can speak the language now. But now is the time for music. Here Yang Wei and Betty Xiang play “Rainbow Dance.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next, we meet the members of Los Camperos de Nati Cano. Their homes are in Los Angeles. Mariachi music came from Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Around eighteen-hundred, farmers and day laborers in Mexico began to develop mariachi music into its present form. Special guitars along with trumpets and violins produce the sweet and lively sound. VOICE TWO: "Los Camperos" means "The Countrymen." Nati Cano is a musician who came from a family of day laborers near Guadalajara, in western Mexico. He was born in nineteen-thirty-three. His father and grandfather also were musicians. He tells us that music helped them earn enough money to live. Nati Cano came to the United States in nineteen-sixty. His group, and others, have helped continue and develop mariachi music in California. Listen now as Los Camperos de Nati Cano perform "Se Me Hizo Facil." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next we meet Wylie and The Wild West. Their spirited cowboy music tells about life in the American West. Cows and horses are big subjects. Singer Wylie Gustafson should know. He owns a cattle farm. Every morning, he wakes up at five-thirty to feed his animals. His ranch is near the town of Dusty, in the northwestern state of Washington. Dusty has a population of eleven people. Wylie Gustafson has performed many times at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He also has appeared at the Original Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and other events. VOICE TWO: Wylie Gustafson is known for his yodeling. This form of singing jumps from normal sounds to extremely high notes. He says the tradition of the yodeling cowboy started in Hollywood movies of the nineteen-thirties. Today, he says, yodeling is very important to cowboy music. Listen as Wylie and The Wild West perform “Lonely Yukon Stars.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are many different kinds of music to listen to during the three days of the National Folk Festival. Robert Turner and the Silver Hearts Gospel Singers are from Indianapolis, Indiana. They perform Christian music in the African American tradition. Another group is called Sounds of Korea. Its members play drums and dance. But it's time we go. We leave you with some dance music. It's based on the Jewish folk music of eastern Europe, called klezmer. It's by the group the Klezmatics. (MUSIC: “New York Psycho Freylekhs”/The Klezmatics) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. The next National Folk Festival is August twenty-seventh to the twenty-ninth, two-thousand-four, in Bangor, Maine. Next week, listen for another report about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Thousands of people gathered recently for an event that celebrates the traditions of many of the groups that have come to America. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. We take you to the National Folk Festival on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (NATURAL SOUND) VOICE ONE: Music filled the air at the sixty-fifth National Folk Festival, held in Bangor, Maine. Maine is a small state on the northeastern Atlantic coast, on the border with Canada. The festival offers music from many lands. Crowds heard Yang Wei and Betty Xiang [shee-ONG] play ancient Chinese instruments. Los Camperos de Nati Cano performed Spanish mariachi music. Another group, Wylie and The Wild West, performed music of the American West. And there was lots more. (NATURAL SOUND) VOICE TWO: The crowds had five stages to choose from the entertainment. All this took place in Bangor’s Riverfront area. Many people sat on the grass under the hot sun. But breezes from off the Penobscot River cooled them. Visitors looked at handmade crafts for sale. Penobscot Indians, for example, sold objects carved from ash trees. Women from Maine showed knitted and woven clothing. They also sold sweets made from the syrup of the state’s maple trees. Festival goers could also choose foods from Greece, Ireland, China and many other cultures. The smell of food made people hungry. Seafood is one of the things that Maine is famous for, especially shellfish. People stood in long lines to buy rolls containing lobster. They also ate what seemed like tons of blueberries grown in Maine. (NATURAL SOUND) VOICE ONE: The National Folk Festival is a chance to show off many of the traditions that have become part of American culture. These include the traditions of the Indians who lived here first. The festival first took place in nineteen-thirty-four. It has taken place almost every year since then. At first, the National Folk Festival was held in the same city each year. As time passed, it became a traveling event. It now moves every fourth year. The National Council for Traditional Arts is the main organizer. The festival is free of charge. Financial support comes from businesses, individuals and collections at the event. VOICE TWO: Julia Olin is an official of the National Council for Traditional Arts. She praises the support that citizens in Maine have given the National Folk Festival. She points out that only about thirty-eight-thousand people live in the city of Bangor. But, last year, about eighty-thousand people attended the festival. Julia Olin says eight-hundred local citizens offered to work at this year’s festival. Some of these volunteers answered questions from visitors. Others served as "artist buddies" to assist the performers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now let us meet and listen to some of the artists who performed at the sixty-fifth National Folk Festival. Yang Wei and Betty Xiang, his wife, grew up in Shanghai. Yang Wei is an expert on the ancient Chinese instrument called a pipa (PEA-pah). This is a string instrument similar to a lute. Betty Xiang plays the erhu (er-WHO), a kind of violin. They have performed in the United States with cello player Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. They also have played at the Ravinia International Music Festival near Chicago. VOICE TWO: Yang Wei tells us about the two-thousand-year history of the pipa. He also talks about how his family arrived in the United States in nineteen-ninety-six. He says he and his wife and son knew little English at the time. He expresses pleasure that they can speak the language now. But now is the time for music. Here Yang Wei and Betty Xiang play “Rainbow Dance.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next, we meet the members of Los Camperos de Nati Cano. Their homes are in Los Angeles. Mariachi music came from Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Around eighteen-hundred, farmers and day laborers in Mexico began to develop mariachi music into its present form. Special guitars along with trumpets and violins produce the sweet and lively sound. VOICE TWO: "Los Camperos" means "The Countrymen." Nati Cano is a musician who came from a family of day laborers near Guadalajara, in western Mexico. He was born in nineteen-thirty-three. His father and grandfather also were musicians. He tells us that music helped them earn enough money to live. Nati Cano came to the United States in nineteen-sixty. His group, and others, have helped continue and develop mariachi music in California. Listen now as Los Camperos de Nati Cano perform "Se Me Hizo Facil." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Next we meet Wylie and The Wild West. Their spirited cowboy music tells about life in the American West. Cows and horses are big subjects. Singer Wylie Gustafson should know. He owns a cattle farm. Every morning, he wakes up at five-thirty to feed his animals. His ranch is near the town of Dusty, in the northwestern state of Washington. Dusty has a population of eleven people. Wylie Gustafson has performed many times at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He also has appeared at the Original Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada, and other events. VOICE TWO: Wylie Gustafson is known for his yodeling. This form of singing jumps from normal sounds to extremely high notes. He says the tradition of the yodeling cowboy started in Hollywood movies of the nineteen-thirties. Today, he says, yodeling is very important to cowboy music. Listen as Wylie and The Wild West perform “Lonely Yukon Stars.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: There are many different kinds of music to listen to during the three days of the National Folk Festival. Robert Turner and the Silver Hearts Gospel Singers are from Indianapolis, Indiana. They perform Christian music in the African American tradition. Another group is called Sounds of Korea. Its members play drums and dance. But it's time we go. We leave you with some dance music. It's based on the Jewish folk music of eastern Europe, called klezmer. It's by the group the Klezmatics. (MUSIC: “New York Psycho Freylekhs”/The Klezmatics) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. The next National Folk Festival is August twenty-seventh to the twenty-ninth, two-thousand-four, in Bangor, Maine. Next week, listen for another report about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Home Gardens, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 16, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we told how to choose a place for a home garden and how to prepare the soil. Now we discuss planting the seeds. Planting seeds directly into the ground can save time and effort over starting them in containers. First, though, you must till the garden. Digging and turning over the ground loosens the soil. Remove rocks or anything else that will block young plants or roots. Make sure the soil contains some water, but not too much. Seeds should be planted to a depth of about three to four times their length. If they are planted too deeply, they will not grow. Some vegetables, like carrots and lettuce, have very small seeds. This makes it difficult to space them evenly in a line. Combine small seeds with a little soil to make a mixture that is easy to spread. Use a tool to dig a straight row in the soil. Plant small seeds by pouring the mixture along the row. Then cover the seeds with enough soil to protect them from strong sun and to keep them cool and wet, but not too wet. When young seedlings come up, make sure they are spaced as directed by the seed manufacturer or an expert. Remove plants that are too close together. This process is called thinning. Remove extra plants when they have grown two sets of leaves. This may seem like a waste. But removing extra plants permits the rest to produce a bigger, healthier crop. You can plant larger seeds in groups of about five. By planting several seeds together, you can choose the best seedling and remove the others. This method is especially important if you are planting older seeds. The older the seeds, the more you must plant. Corn, eggplant, melons, squash and tomato seeds do best when planted in groups this way. Some plants do best when they are planted in wide rows. These rows can be from twenty-five to seventy-five centimeters wide. Spread the seeds around the wide row. Cover them lightly with soil. Onions, radishes, carrots, beets, lettuce, peas and beans grow best with this method. With some plants, wide rows can produce a larger crops and require less work. The closer grouping limits the space for weeds, or unwanted plants, to grow. Next week, we discuss how to care for and harvest crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our thanks to Larry Bass from the North Carolina State University Extension Service for his expert advice. Broadcast: September 16, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we told how to choose a place for a home garden and how to prepare the soil. Now we discuss planting the seeds. Planting seeds directly into the ground can save time and effort over starting them in containers. First, though, you must till the garden. Digging and turning over the ground loosens the soil. Remove rocks or anything else that will block young plants or roots. Make sure the soil contains some water, but not too much. Seeds should be planted to a depth of about three to four times their length. If they are planted too deeply, they will not grow. Some vegetables, like carrots and lettuce, have very small seeds. This makes it difficult to space them evenly in a line. Combine small seeds with a little soil to make a mixture that is easy to spread. Use a tool to dig a straight row in the soil. Plant small seeds by pouring the mixture along the row. Then cover the seeds with enough soil to protect them from strong sun and to keep them cool and wet, but not too wet. When young seedlings come up, make sure they are spaced as directed by the seed manufacturer or an expert. Remove plants that are too close together. This process is called thinning. Remove extra plants when they have grown two sets of leaves. This may seem like a waste. But removing extra plants permits the rest to produce a bigger, healthier crop. You can plant larger seeds in groups of about five. By planting several seeds together, you can choose the best seedling and remove the others. This method is especially important if you are planting older seeds. The older the seeds, the more you must plant. Corn, eggplant, melons, squash and tomato seeds do best when planted in groups this way. Some plants do best when they are planted in wide rows. These rows can be from twenty-five to seventy-five centimeters wide. Spread the seeds around the wide row. Cover them lightly with soil. Onions, radishes, carrots, beets, lettuce, peas and beans grow best with this method. With some plants, wide rows can produce a larger crops and require less work. The closer grouping limits the space for weeds, or unwanted plants, to grow. Next week, we discuss how to care for and harvest crops. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our thanks to Larry Bass from the North Carolina State University Extension Service for his expert advice. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 15, 2003: Working with Clay
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Clay is found almost everywhere in the world. It is formed by the action of wind and water on rocks over thousands of years. The rocks change in both chemical and physical ways. Chemically, elements like potassium and aluminum are added and taken away. Physically, the rocks break down into smaller and smaller pieces. After a long time, some of the rock changes to clay. Clay is important because it is used around the world to make containers of all kinds. Potters add water to soften the clay. This makes it easier to form into shapes by hand or by machine. Then it is fired in an extremely hot stove. The result is a container with a hard surface that will last for many years. In many countries, clay was formed from volcanoes. This kind of clay usually contains many minerals. So the fires to make containers from volcanic clay must be hotter than those used for non-volcanic clay. The fires may be as hot as one-thousand-four-hundred degrees Celsius. It is also important to dry the clay containers slowly. This means that the highest temperature should not be reached too fast. You can add materials to clay to gain desired results. For example, you can add sand to prevent tiny breaks or lines from forming in the finished product. But you should not use sand from the coasts of oceans. Instead, you should use sand from rivers or from other areas of land that are not near the sea. You can usually find good clay in low areas of islands or land, especially if volcanoes helped form the land. Clay often exists in fields covered with some water. The clay will be found about one meter below the ground. River banks often also have clay about one meter or less under the surface. You can recognize clay because it is very shiny when it is wet. You can also perform a test. Take some of the material and add enough water to it to make it seem like you are making bread. Then press it in your hand until it is about the size of an egg. It is probably clay if it holds together instead of falling apart when you stop pressing. You can learn more about working with clay from Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA's Web site is www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. [Rebroadcast from August 30, 1999] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 6, 2003: Remembering the Attacks of Sept. 11
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 6, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Thursday will mark two years since the attacks on the United States. On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, nineteen terrorists hijacked four airplanes on the East Coast. They crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. The area where the two towers stood is now called Ground Zero. A third plane hit the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Shankesville, Pennsylvania, after passengers began to resist. Three-thousand people were killed that Tuesday morning, most of them in New York. DNA tests on remains have yet to identify almost half the World Trade Center victims. Many Americans are attending memorials this month to honor the victims of September eleventh. Some people are visiting the areas where the attacks took place. Families of the victims say coming together helps them deal with the painful memories of that day. Other people say attending the memorials will help raise awareness of what happened. Many Americans say the attacks brought people closer together in a show of unity. Others say they became more fearful and suspicious of foreigners in the United States after the attacks. A civil rights group in Washington said reports of anti-Muslim incidents in the United States increased by fifteen-percent during the past year. The yearly report is from the Council on American Islamic Relations. The council noted a decrease, however, in reports of unreasonable searches and unfairness toward Muslim passengers on airplanes. This decrease took place from two-thousand-one to two-thousand two. Council leaders also noted nine successful trials of anti-Muslim hate crimes last year. The council's report criticizes federal policies established after the attacks. The report mostly deals with the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed the law in October of two-thousand-one to give federal officials more power to investigate terrorism. The public is generally seen as supportive of the act. But some cities have said it gives law enforcement agencies too much power and threatens civil rights. The Bush administration says the anti-terrorism measures are needed to prevent future attacks. In New York, lawmakers say only one-third of twenty-one-thousand-million dollars in promised federal aid has so far been paid. They say New York needs the money now to help its economy and to clean up the environment surrounding Ground Zero. At the same time, discussions, and disagreements, are taking place about the best way to remember the victims of September eleventh. Officials are also deciding the final design of the series of structures that will replace the World Trade Center towers. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: September 6, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Thursday will mark two years since the attacks on the United States. On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, nineteen terrorists hijacked four airplanes on the East Coast. They crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in New York City. The area where the two towers stood is now called Ground Zero. A third plane hit the Pentagon, the Defense Department headquarters across the Potomac River from Washington. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Shankesville, Pennsylvania, after passengers began to resist. Three-thousand people were killed that Tuesday morning, most of them in New York. DNA tests on remains have yet to identify almost half the World Trade Center victims. Many Americans are attending memorials this month to honor the victims of September eleventh. Some people are visiting the areas where the attacks took place. Families of the victims say coming together helps them deal with the painful memories of that day. Other people say attending the memorials will help raise awareness of what happened. Many Americans say the attacks brought people closer together in a show of unity. Others say they became more fearful and suspicious of foreigners in the United States after the attacks. A civil rights group in Washington said reports of anti-Muslim incidents in the United States increased by fifteen-percent during the past year. The yearly report is from the Council on American Islamic Relations. The council noted a decrease, however, in reports of unreasonable searches and unfairness toward Muslim passengers on airplanes. This decrease took place from two-thousand-one to two-thousand two. Council leaders also noted nine successful trials of anti-Muslim hate crimes last year. The council's report criticizes federal policies established after the attacks. The report mostly deals with the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed the law in October of two-thousand-one to give federal officials more power to investigate terrorism. The public is generally seen as supportive of the act. But some cities have said it gives law enforcement agencies too much power and threatens civil rights. The Bush administration says the anti-terrorism measures are needed to prevent future attacks. In New York, lawmakers say only one-third of twenty-one-thousand-million dollars in promised federal aid has so far been paid. They say New York needs the money now to help its economy and to clean up the environment surrounding Ground Zero. At the same time, discussions, and disagreements, are taking place about the best way to remember the victims of September eleventh. Officials are also deciding the final design of the series of structures that will replace the World Trade Center towers. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Treating Tuberculosis / Reports on Smoking / Possible Treatment for Diabetes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 16, 2003 (THEME) In Peru, a health worker supervises as a tuberculosis patient takes his medicine.(Photo - Jad Davenport/WHO) Broadcast: September 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- reports about tuberculosis ... smoking ... a new birth control pill ... and, from the mouth of a lizard, a possible treatment for diabetes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Very often, people who have tuberculosis do not take all their medicine. Maybe they get some side effect they do not like. Or they start to feel better. So they do not take their medicine for the full six months. The result is what doctors call multi-drug resistant T-B. The bacteria that caused the lung disease become stronger. People who develop this form must often spend two years on special drugs that cost a lot more. VOICE TWO: Mario Raviglione is director of T-B operations for the World Health Organization. He says countries that do a good job of controlling T-B with regular medicines do not have a big problem with the multi-drug resistant kind. He says Chile and Cuba are examples. Health experts say countries with the highest rates of multi-drug resistant T-B include Estonia, Yemen, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Pakistan and Sudan. Right now the problem is not as great in Africa. But experts worry that it could become much greater because H-I-V is so widespread. H-I-V is the virus that causes AIDS. The virus weakens the body's defenses against disease. VOICE ONE: The most successful treatment program for T-B is called DOTS, or Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course. A health care worker watches a patient take every dose of medicine. A six-month supply costs eleven dollars. When DOTS is followed correctly, experts say ninety-five percent of patients are cured. They say this is true even in the poorest countries. When a person with multi-drug resistant T-B coughs, it spreads the bacteria in the air. Now other people who breath the infected air can get sick. People infected with H-I-V are much more likely to become sick. Experts say H-I-V is the single biggest reason that a T-B infection becomes active tuberculosis. That is why health care organizations say it is important to fight both T-B and H-I-V together. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is also important to fight smoking and tuberculosis together. Researchers in India have shown a connection between people who smoke and people who get tuberculosis. Indian, British and Canadian researchers published their study in the British medical magazine, The Lancet. The study says smoking causes about seven-hundred-thousand deaths each year just in India. Most of the victims are men under seventy years old. The researchers say these men lost about twenty years of life because of smoking. Besides tuberculosis, people who smoke or breathe other people's smoke may get lung cancer, heart disease and other disorders. Tobacco is also dangerous to the unborn children of women who smoke during pregnancy. VOICE ONE: The study from India found that smokers were four times as likely to die from tuberculosis as non-smokers. The study looked at men who died of T-B before they were seventy years old. It found that nearly eighty percent had been smokers. The researchers say smoking can lead to tuberculosis whether a person smokes regular cigarettes or smaller, handmade ones known as bidis. Tuberculosis can sometimes stay in a person’s lungs for a long time without making them sick. This is called latent T-B. Smoking can cause latent T-B to become active. If tuberculosis has already damaged the lungs, experts say smoking will make that person feel even worse. If a person is being treated for T-B, smoking will also make the treatment take longer. VOICE TWO: Doctor Richard Chaisson is a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He says antibiotic medicines may be able to cure T-B in smokers. But smokers may continue to cough and have a hard time breathing even after their T-B is gone. Doctor Thomas Frieden is a tuberculosis researcher in New York City. He told the New York Times newspaper that Asian women are now the number one market for the tobacco industry. Tobacco companies use posters and other public messages to urge more women to smoke. World health officials worry that diseases caused by smoking will increase as more women start. These officials say countries should ban advertising messages for tobacco. VOICE ONE: The researchers in India studied men, because mostly men smoke in that country. This is true in most developing countries. But the situation is changing. A new report says young girls now smoke cigarettes almost as much as boys. The results also show that girls and boys use other tobacco products at similar rates. These include spit tobacco, bidis and water pipes. In fact, girls and boys often use these products at rates as high or higher than cigarettes. The findings are from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey. That study involved over one million young people from more than one-hundred-fifty countries. The report came out during a conference in Helsinki, Finland, last month. And, just last week, a study published in The Lancet said smoking killed almost five-million people in two-thousand. Researchers said most of the deaths were from heart and lung diseases. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a new birth control pill. It is called Seasonale. Drugs to prevent pregnancy have traditionally been designed for a normal menstrual cycle of twenty-eight days. But women who use Seasonale will have a period of bleeding about every three months instead. They will take pills that contain hormones for eighty-four days. Then for seven days they will take pills that contain no hormones. Their period will happen during this time. Seasonale is expected to go on sale at the end of October. It contains progestin and estrogen. Birth control drugs commonly use these two hormones. Barr Laboratories makes the new drug. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration says possible side effects of Seasonale are similar to those of traditional birth control drugs. These include an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Warnings on Seasonale say that smoking increases the possibility of serious side effects. Doctors say women who use birth control pills should not smoke. This is especially true of women older than thirty-five. The Federal and Drug Administration says women should discuss any use of birth control drugs with their doctors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Gila (HE-luh) monster is a poisonous lizard. It lives in the desert of the American Southwest and in Mexico. Gila monsters eat as few as four times a year. A chemical in the liquid produced in their mouth stops their hunger at other times. Now researchers say this chemical may also work in people, to treat diabetes. Two companies, Amylin Pharmaceutical and Eli Lilly, have made their own version. They call the experimental drug exenatide. VOICE ONE: People with diabetes have high levels of sugar in the blood. Their bodies lack insulin or cannot use this hormone effectively. Insulin helps the sugar, called glucose, enter cells for use as fuel. Too much glucose in the blood damages the kidneys, eyes and nerves. It stops blood flow to the legs. And it increases the chance of heart disease and stroke. VOICE TWO: The researchers tested exenatide on one-hundred-fifty-five patients with type two diabetes. Type two develops in adults and children when the body is not able to use the insulin it produces. The patients received two injections of exenatide every day for twenty-four weeks. The researchers say sugar levels dropped to within target levels in forty-four percent of the patients. These people also lost more than three kilograms each. The scientists say the chemical suppressed hunger. They say it also caused the body to produce insulin in reaction to high sugar levels. VOICE ONE: The researchers reported their work at the International Diabetes Federation Congress in Paris. If the drug passes more tests, the two companies say they could ask as early as next year for government approval. (THEME) SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- reports about tuberculosis ... smoking ... a new birth control pill ... and, from the mouth of a lizard, a possible treatment for diabetes. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Very often, people who have tuberculosis do not take all their medicine. Maybe they get some side effect they do not like. Or they start to feel better. So they do not take their medicine for the full six months. The result is what doctors call multi-drug resistant T-B. The bacteria that caused the lung disease become stronger. People who develop this form must often spend two years on special drugs that cost a lot more. VOICE TWO: Mario Raviglione is director of T-B operations for the World Health Organization. He says countries that do a good job of controlling T-B with regular medicines do not have a big problem with the multi-drug resistant kind. He says Chile and Cuba are examples. Health experts say countries with the highest rates of multi-drug resistant T-B include Estonia, Yemen, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Pakistan and Sudan. Right now the problem is not as great in Africa. But experts worry that it could become much greater because H-I-V is so widespread. H-I-V is the virus that causes AIDS. The virus weakens the body's defenses against disease. VOICE ONE: The most successful treatment program for T-B is called DOTS, or Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course. A health care worker watches a patient take every dose of medicine. A six-month supply costs eleven dollars. When DOTS is followed correctly, experts say ninety-five percent of patients are cured. They say this is true even in the poorest countries. When a person with multi-drug resistant T-B coughs, it spreads the bacteria in the air. Now other people who breath the infected air can get sick. People infected with H-I-V are much more likely to become sick. Experts say H-I-V is the single biggest reason that a T-B infection becomes active tuberculosis. That is why health care organizations say it is important to fight both T-B and H-I-V together. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: It is also important to fight smoking and tuberculosis together. Researchers in India have shown a connection between people who smoke and people who get tuberculosis. Indian, British and Canadian researchers published their study in the British medical magazine, The Lancet. The study says smoking causes about seven-hundred-thousand deaths each year just in India. Most of the victims are men under seventy years old. The researchers say these men lost about twenty years of life because of smoking. Besides tuberculosis, people who smoke or breathe other people's smoke may get lung cancer, heart disease and other disorders. Tobacco is also dangerous to the unborn children of women who smoke during pregnancy. VOICE ONE: The study from India found that smokers were four times as likely to die from tuberculosis as non-smokers. The study looked at men who died of T-B before they were seventy years old. It found that nearly eighty percent had been smokers. The researchers say smoking can lead to tuberculosis whether a person smokes regular cigarettes or smaller, handmade ones known as bidis. Tuberculosis can sometimes stay in a person’s lungs for a long time without making them sick. This is called latent T-B. Smoking can cause latent T-B to become active. If tuberculosis has already damaged the lungs, experts say smoking will make that person feel even worse. If a person is being treated for T-B, smoking will also make the treatment take longer. VOICE TWO: Doctor Richard Chaisson is a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He says antibiotic medicines may be able to cure T-B in smokers. But smokers may continue to cough and have a hard time breathing even after their T-B is gone. Doctor Thomas Frieden is a tuberculosis researcher in New York City. He told the New York Times newspaper that Asian women are now the number one market for the tobacco industry. Tobacco companies use posters and other public messages to urge more women to smoke. World health officials worry that diseases caused by smoking will increase as more women start. These officials say countries should ban advertising messages for tobacco. VOICE ONE: The researchers in India studied men, because mostly men smoke in that country. This is true in most developing countries. But the situation is changing. A new report says young girls now smoke cigarettes almost as much as boys. The results also show that girls and boys use other tobacco products at similar rates. These include spit tobacco, bidis and water pipes. In fact, girls and boys often use these products at rates as high or higher than cigarettes. The findings are from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey. That study involved over one million young people from more than one-hundred-fifty countries. The report came out during a conference in Helsinki, Finland, last month. And, just last week, a study published in The Lancet said smoking killed almost five-million people in two-thousand. Researchers said most of the deaths were from heart and lung diseases. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a new birth control pill. It is called Seasonale. Drugs to prevent pregnancy have traditionally been designed for a normal menstrual cycle of twenty-eight days. But women who use Seasonale will have a period of bleeding about every three months instead. They will take pills that contain hormones for eighty-four days. Then for seven days they will take pills that contain no hormones. Their period will happen during this time. Seasonale is expected to go on sale at the end of October. It contains progestin and estrogen. Birth control drugs commonly use these two hormones. Barr Laboratories makes the new drug. VOICE ONE: The Food and Drug Administration says possible side effects of Seasonale are similar to those of traditional birth control drugs. These include an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Warnings on Seasonale say that smoking increases the possibility of serious side effects. Doctors say women who use birth control pills should not smoke. This is especially true of women older than thirty-five. The Federal and Drug Administration says women should discuss any use of birth control drugs with their doctors. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Gila (HE-luh) monster is a poisonous lizard. It lives in the desert of the American Southwest and in Mexico. Gila monsters eat as few as four times a year. A chemical in the liquid produced in their mouth stops their hunger at other times. Now researchers say this chemical may also work in people, to treat diabetes. Two companies, Amylin Pharmaceutical and Eli Lilly, have made their own version. They call the experimental drug exenatide. VOICE ONE: People with diabetes have high levels of sugar in the blood. Their bodies lack insulin or cannot use this hormone effectively. Insulin helps the sugar, called glucose, enter cells for use as fuel. Too much glucose in the blood damages the kidneys, eyes and nerves. It stops blood flow to the legs. And it increases the chance of heart disease and stroke. VOICE TWO: The researchers tested exenatide on one-hundred-fifty-five patients with type two diabetes. Type two develops in adults and children when the body is not able to use the insulin it produces. The patients received two injections of exenatide every day for twenty-four weeks. The researchers say sugar levels dropped to within target levels in forty-four percent of the patients. These people also lost more than three kilograms each. The scientists say the chemical suppressed hunger. They say it also caused the body to produce insulin in reaction to high sugar levels. VOICE ONE: The researchers reported their work at the International Diabetes Federation Congress in Paris. If the drug passes more tests, the two companies say they could ask as early as next year for government approval. (THEME) SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 17, 2003: Mars and Astronomy
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Red Planet's Twin Peaks(photo courtesy NASA/JPL) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. The planet Mars came close to Earth in August, closer than it has been in the past sixty-thousand years. This event helped create a huge interest in the science of astronomy. (THEME) This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. The planet Mars came close to Earth in August, closer than it has been in the past sixty-thousand years. This event helped create a huge interest in the science of astronomy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People have always watched the beautiful night sky. Many ancient people of the world closely studied the stars for signs from their gods. The Mayan and Aztecs of Central America and Mexico built special tall buildings to observe the stars. The ancient people of Egypt, Greece, Italy, and China also studied the stars. The people who lived on the islands of the Pacific used the stars to find their way across huge areas of ocean. The people of Earth today still look to the stars for information -- not about ancient gods, but about the universe. Modern technology has made it possible to see objects in space that are thousands of millions of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: However, without technology you can see all of the same objects in the night sky that ancient people saw. There is a lot to see and study. It takes a little work and a little knowledge, but it is really very easy. If you live in the northern part of the world, you can search the night sky to the north and find Polaris the great North Star. VOICE ONE: People have always watched the beautiful night sky. Many ancient people of the world closely studied the stars for signs from their gods. The Mayan and Aztecs of Central America and Mexico built special tall buildings to observe the stars. The ancient people of Egypt, Greece, Italy, and China also studied the stars. The people who lived on the islands of the Pacific used the stars to find their way across huge areas of ocean. The people of Earth today still look to the stars for information -- not about ancient gods, but about the universe. Modern technology has made it possible to see objects in space that are thousands of millions of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: However, without technology you can see all of the same objects in the night sky that ancient people saw. There is a lot to see and study. It takes a little work and a little knowledge, but it is really very easy. If you live in the northern part of the world, you can search the night sky to the north and find Polaris the great North Star. Ancient people watched Polaris for a long time and discovered that it moves very little. It can always be found in the same place in the northern sky. Ancient people used the Polaris star to guide their ships across oceans. In the southern part of the world you can see in the night sky Alpha and Beta Centauri. They point the way to the beautiful group of stars called the Southern Cross. Ancient people used the Southern Cross to guide their ships. VOICE ONE: Ancient people who watched the night sky considered five great mysteries. These mysteries were objects that moved from place to place. Some of these objects seemed to move straight ahead. Others seemed to move in one direction for a while and then move back in the opposite direction. Some could be seen for a few months and then disappeared. But they did not seem to shine like other stars. Almost every ancient culture knew of these five mysteries. The ancient Greeks called them “planetes.” (PLAN-ee-teess).The word means wanderer -- one who moves from place to place with no home. On a dark, clear night, away from the lights of a city, you can still find the five wanderers using only your eyes. However they are no longer mysteries. Today we know them as Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and the closest planet to Earth, the red planet, Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the next planet beyond the Earth. Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen from Earth. It is about half the size of our planet. The ancient Romans named it after their god of war because of its red color. The surface of Mars is more like Earth than any other planet. However, because it is further from the sun than Earth, temperatures on Mars are much lower. Most of the time the temperatures are far below freezing. Plants and animals could not live now on Mars. However many scientists believe that such life may have existed long ago. American space agency exploration vehicles are now on their way to Mars to investigate this idea. They will search for water and evidence that life may have existed at one time. Experts believe that Mars will be the first planet humans will explore. VOICE ONE: On August twenty-seventh, Mars had traveled across space to within about fifty-six-million kilometers from Earth. You may think this is still a very great distance and it really is. However, to those who study the night sky this was a very close distance. It is closer than Mars has been for the past sixty-thousand years. As Mars moved closer to Earth, newspapers, television programs and computer Internet sites had many stories about Mars. NASA supplied beautiful photographs of the planet taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. One of the photographs shows the largest known volcano in our solar system, the huge Olympus Mons. NASA also supplied photos taken by cameras on the surface of Mars. Experts said anyone with some kind of observing device could get a close look at Mars. All they needed to do was look to the south at anytime between the setting of the sun and dawn. Mars would look closer, be brighter and could be seen much more clearly than ever before. They would even be able to see the polar ice at the bottom of the planet. VOICE TWO: Kelly Beatty is the editor of Sky and Telescope Magazine. Sky and Telescope is a magazine for people who study the night sky. Mister Beatty said many people have been buying telescopes to observe Mars. He said even less costly telescopes were selling quickly. He said these telescopes are good for observing Mars because the planet is so bright and easy to find. Sky and Telescope Magazine has a Web site on the Internet. The magazine lists many astronomy groups called clubs. Club members meet to enjoy the science of astronomy. These clubs began meeting more often as Mars came closer to Earth. Many told newspapers and television stations they would permit anyone to use their telescopes to get a close look at Mars. VOICE ONE: Kate Graham works for the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, in the western town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Mizz Graham sells tickets to people who want to ride to the top of Iron Mountain on special cars. Mizz Graham says more than four-hundred-fifty people made the trip at night to observe Mars on August twenty-seventh. Mizz Graham says the group used a large telescope to see the red planet. People who observed Mars from Iron Mountain were only a few of many thousands who wanted to see the planet. The Southern Cross Astronomical Society of Miami, Florida held a free public viewing of the red planet. Many similar groups around the world did the same. These groups helped millions of people to see Mars for the first time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mars is moving away from the Earth now. It is moving away at about nine-thousand kilometers an hour and gaining speed. By the end of September it will be moving away at a speed of about twenty-six-thousand kilometers an hour. That may sound very fast. However, it is a slow movement of an object in space. The experts say Mars is getting easier to see. This is because it rises earlier in the night sky and is not so bright. In late August, it did not look like the red planet. It was a very bright white color. After the moon, it was the brightest object in the night sky. It is still many times brighter than any other object in the night sky. Now, as it moves farther away, it is once again becoming the color red. People who look to the southeast will see the red planet without even trying. After dark it will be very near the moon. By the end of September it will begin to slowly lose the very bright color we see now. VOICE ONE: Experts suggest you try to observe the planet with some kind of telescope. It does not need to be costly. Even a cheap one will let you see some detail of the planet’s surface that will disappear by early October. A small telescope will let you see the darker and lighter red colored areas. You may also see the white color of the bright Martian south pole. The ice there is melting now. It is the middle of the Martian summer. With a good telescope you may even see the high, thin blue clouds of Mars. Or perhaps the yellow areas that are the great Martian deserts covered by sand. VOICE TWO: Mars is only one of the many interesting objects that can be seen at night. You can easily learn more about the sky, stars and planets. Most libraries have books that can teach anyone about the science of astronomy. You can also learn a great deal from the Internet. A good place to start is with Sky and Telescope Magazine. The magazine’s address is www.skyandtelescope.com. Sky and Telescope are all one word. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. Ancient people watched Polaris for a long time and discovered that it moves very little. It can always be found in the same place in the northern sky. Ancient people used the Polaris star to guide their ships across oceans. In the southern part of the world you can see in the night sky Alpha and Beta Centauri. They point the way to the beautiful group of stars called the Southern Cross. Ancient people used the Southern Cross to guide their ships. VOICE ONE: Ancient people who watched the night sky considered five great mysteries. These mysteries were objects that moved from place to place. Some of these objects seemed to move straight ahead. Others seemed to move in one direction for a while and then move back in the opposite direction. Some could be seen for a few months and then disappeared. But they did not seem to shine like other stars. Almost every ancient culture knew of these five mysteries. The ancient Greeks called them “planetes.” (PLAN-ee-teess).The word means wanderer -- one who moves from place to place with no home. On a dark, clear night, away from the lights of a city, you can still find the five wanderers using only your eyes. However they are no longer mysteries. Today we know them as Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and the closest planet to Earth, the red planet, Mars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the next planet beyond the Earth. Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen from Earth. It is about half the size of our planet. The ancient Romans named it after their god of war because of its red color. The surface of Mars is more like Earth than any other planet. However, because it is further from the sun than Earth, temperatures on Mars are much lower. Most of the time the temperatures are far below freezing. Plants and animals could not live now on Mars. However many scientists believe that such life may have existed long ago. American space agency exploration vehicles are now on their way to Mars to investigate this idea. They will search for water and evidence that life may have existed at one time. Experts believe that Mars will be the first planet humans will explore. VOICE ONE: On August twenty-seventh, Mars had traveled across space to within about fifty-six-million kilometers from Earth. You may think this is still a very great distance and it really is. However, to those who study the night sky this was a very close distance. It is closer than Mars has been for the past sixty-thousand years. As Mars moved closer to Earth, newspapers, television programs and computer Internet sites had many stories about Mars. NASA supplied beautiful photographs of the planet taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. One of the photographs shows the largest known volcano in our solar system, the huge Olympus Mons. NASA also supplied photos taken by cameras on the surface of Mars. Experts said anyone with some kind of observing device could get a close look at Mars. All they needed to do was look to the south at anytime between the setting of the sun and dawn. Mars would look closer, be brighter and could be seen much more clearly than ever before. They would even be able to see the polar ice at the bottom of the planet. VOICE TWO: Kelly Beatty is the editor of Sky and Telescope Magazine. Sky and Telescope is a magazine for people who study the night sky. Mister Beatty said many people have been buying telescopes to observe Mars. He said even less costly telescopes were selling quickly. He said these telescopes are good for observing Mars because the planet is so bright and easy to find. Sky and Telescope Magazine has a Web site on the Internet. The magazine lists many astronomy groups called clubs. Club members meet to enjoy the science of astronomy. These clubs began meeting more often as Mars came closer to Earth. Many told newspapers and television stations they would permit anyone to use their telescopes to get a close look at Mars. VOICE ONE: Kate Graham works for the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, in the western town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Mizz Graham sells tickets to people who want to ride to the top of Iron Mountain on special cars. Mizz Graham says more than four-hundred-fifty people made the trip at night to observe Mars on August twenty-seventh. Mizz Graham says the group used a large telescope to see the red planet. People who observed Mars from Iron Mountain were only a few of many thousands who wanted to see the planet. The Southern Cross Astronomical Society of Miami, Florida held a free public viewing of the red planet. Many similar groups around the world did the same. These groups helped millions of people to see Mars for the first time. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Mars is moving away from the Earth now. It is moving away at about nine-thousand kilometers an hour and gaining speed. By the end of September it will be moving away at a speed of about twenty-six-thousand kilometers an hour. That may sound very fast. However, it is a slow movement of an object in space. The experts say Mars is getting easier to see. This is because it rises earlier in the night sky and is not so bright. In late August, it did not look like the red planet. It was a very bright white color. After the moon, it was the brightest object in the night sky. It is still many times brighter than any other object in the night sky. Now, as it moves farther away, it is once again becoming the color red. People who look to the southeast will see the red planet without even trying. After dark it will be very near the moon. By the end of September it will begin to slowly lose the very bright color we see now. VOICE ONE: Experts suggest you try to observe the planet with some kind of telescope. It does not need to be costly. Even a cheap one will let you see some detail of the planet’s surface that will disappear by early October. A small telescope will let you see the darker and lighter red colored areas. You may also see the white color of the bright Martian south pole. The ice there is melting now. It is the middle of the Martian summer. With a good telescope you may even see the high, thin blue clouds of Mars. Or perhaps the yellow areas that are the great Martian deserts covered by sand. VOICE TWO: Mars is only one of the many interesting objects that can be seen at night. You can easily learn more about the sky, stars and planets. Most libraries have books that can teach anyone about the science of astronomy. You can also learn a great deal from the Internet. A good place to start is with Sky and Telescope Magazine. The magazine’s address is www.skyandtelescope.com. Sky and Telescope are all one word. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - September 17, 2003: Medical Emergencies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Would you recognize a medical emergency? The American College of Emergency Physicians says is it is important for everyone to know the warning signs. This group is a professional organization for doctors who work in hospital emergency departments. It says one of the warning signs to seek medical treatment is a sudden or severe pain that does not go away. This includes pain in the stomach, chest or head. Doctors say to seek treatment if you feel as though you have the worst headache you have ever had. It could mean internal bleeding from a broken artery in the head. Severe stomach pain could be a sign of appendicitis. Severe chest or back pain could be a sign of a heart attack. Another warning sign of a medical emergency is difficulty breathing. This could mean a heart condition, or a hole or blockage in a lung. Still another sign is a change in mental ability. A person who suddenly is confused, loses memory or cannot be awakened from sleep should be taken to a hospital immediately. These can be signs of a stroke or infection. The doctors say uncontrolled bleeding from any kind of wound calls for professional care. So does coughing or vomiting blood. Bringing up blood into the mouth suggests bleeding within the body. Extremely dark bowel movements can also be a sign of internal bleeding. Other signs of a medical emergency include losing consciousness or becoming dizzy and weak. These can mean a person is suffering a stroke or damage from a head injury. Another sign of a possible stroke is a sudden change in vision or speech. The emergency physicians group says if you or someone you know develops any of these signs, go to a hospital as soon as possible. It the words of its information, "Seconds Save Lives." The group also offers some suggestions about ways to prevent medical emergencies. One is to always use a seat belt in motor vehicles, or a helmet when bicycling. Another suggestion is to not smoke cigarettes. The doctors also suggest a sensible diet of healthy foods and not much alcohol. The American College of Emergency Physicians has other health advice on its Web site. The address is www.acep.org. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Would you recognize a medical emergency? The American College of Emergency Physicians says is it is important for everyone to know the warning signs. This group is a professional organization for doctors who work in hospital emergency departments. It says one of the warning signs to seek medical treatment is a sudden or severe pain that does not go away. This includes pain in the stomach, chest or head. Doctors say to seek treatment if you feel as though you have the worst headache you have ever had. It could mean internal bleeding from a broken artery in the head. Severe stomach pain could be a sign of appendicitis. Severe chest or back pain could be a sign of a heart attack. Another warning sign of a medical emergency is difficulty breathing. This could mean a heart condition, or a hole or blockage in a lung. Still another sign is a change in mental ability. A person who suddenly is confused, loses memory or cannot be awakened from sleep should be taken to a hospital immediately. These can be signs of a stroke or infection. The doctors say uncontrolled bleeding from any kind of wound calls for professional care. So does coughing or vomiting blood. Bringing up blood into the mouth suggests bleeding within the body. Extremely dark bowel movements can also be a sign of internal bleeding. Other signs of a medical emergency include losing consciousness or becoming dizzy and weak. These can mean a person is suffering a stroke or damage from a head injury. Another sign of a possible stroke is a sudden change in vision or speech. The emergency physicians group says if you or someone you know develops any of these signs, go to a hospital as soon as possible. It the words of its information, "Seconds Save Lives." The group also offers some suggestions about ways to prevent medical emergencies. One is to always use a seat belt in motor vehicles, or a helmet when bicycling. Another suggestion is to not smoke cigarettes. The doctors also suggest a sensible diet of healthy foods and not much alcohol. The American College of Emergency Physicians has other health advice on its Web site. The address is www.acep.org. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 19, 2003: Disney Weddings / Listener in Iran Asks, What is a Segway? / Warren Zevon's Farewell Album
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- a question about something called a Segway, and music in memory of Warren Zevon. But first – let’s go to a wedding! Disney Weddings Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week -- a question about something called a Segway, and music in memory of Warren Zevon. But first – let’s go to a wedding! Disney Weddings HOST: Each year, thousands of people get married at Disney theme parks around the world. The Disney Company says this is the place where dreams come true. Shep O'Neal tells us more. ANNCR: The most popular Disney theme park for a wedding is Disney World in Florida, in the southeastern United States. People from across the United States, Europe and Japan go there to get married. The lowest price someone can expect to pay for a simple Disney wedding is three-thousand dollars. This includes a short ceremony, followed by cake for as many as eight guests. The married couple also can stay several nights and visit the Disney World theme park for free during the day. For more money, Disney offers other wedding services. These include flowers, music, pictures, special transportation, event planning and entertainment. Mickey and Minnie Mouse can even visit a wedding party at a cost of several hundred dollars. Newly married husbands and wives often have their pictures taken with them. Such visits are popular among wedding crowds. Of course, Mickey and Minnie wear their own special wedding clothes. Disney weddings are often planned around an idea or theme from a Disney movie. The most popular theme wedding is the story of Cinderella. A young woman falls in love with a prince during a romantic dance. Sadly, she is forced to leave the dance before the prince learns her name. But, in the end, the two are reunited. During a Cinderella wedding, the bride and groom might ride to their marriage ceremony in a glass vehicle pulled by horses. Their wedding cake may be served on dishes shaped like castles. Special Disney love songs might be played when the newlyweds dance for the first time. And, fireworks might go off when they kiss. Not all Disney weddings are based on a theme. Company officials say more and more people are planning traditional weddings at Disney parks. Instead of a magical theme wedding, they say, people just want to gather their family and friends at a place where they can have fun together. Segway HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ahwaz, Iran. Saeed Ghasemzadeh wants to know what is a Segway. The full name is the Segway Human Transporter. Its inventor describes it as the world’s first self-balancing individual transport vehicle for short distance travel. The Segway looks like a long stick with two wheels. The stick has handles for a person to hold. The wheels are connected to a platform. The person stands on the platform and holds the handles. The transporter moves forward or backward when the person moves his or her body in that direction. The driver turns the handles to go left or right. The Segway has computers and gyroscope devices to make it move and balance. It is powered by batteries that are recharged with electricity. It can travel at a speed of nineteen kilometers an hour. Segway inventor Dean Kamen is president of the Deka (pronounced decca) Research and Development Company near Manchester, New Hampshire. He says the Segway was developed to replace cars in crowded city centers. He says it was designed to reduce pollution and solve other environmental problems in cities. However, it was not designed to travel on roads. Each Segway costs about five-thousand dollars. Dean Kamen announced the invention two years ago. But it was not for sale until this year. The Deka company says owners have been using the Segway to go to work and to replace short car trips. It also says police departments and other organizations have bought the transporter to use in their work. Most of the states have approved the use of Segways on sidewalks and bicycle paths. Some cities, though, have banned or restricted their use where people walk. Warren Zevon HOST: American singer and songwriter Warren Zevon died earlier this month of lung cancer. He was fifty-six years old. Warren Zevon lived for more than a year with the knowledge that he was dying. It became his goal to finish a new record album before that day came. Phoebe Zimmermann tells the story. ANNCR: Warren Zevon did many different jobs in the music business before he became famous. He wrote songs to sell products. He was a bandleader and piano player. He sang in clubs in the United States and Europe. Warren Zevon’s biggest hit was released in nineteen-seventy-eight: ”Werewolves of London.” (MUSIC) His final album is called "The Wind." It was released about one month before his death. The songs are about politics, lost love and sickness. Many of his friends in the music business appear with him on "The Wind." They include Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris and Jackson Browne. Warren Zevon wanted the album to be his way of saying goodbye. This song is called “Keep Me In Your Heart.” (MUSIC) Warren Zevon did not write the one song that talks most directly about dying. It was written by Bob Dylan. We leave you now with Warren Zevon singing “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door.” (MUSIC) HOST: Last week, America also lost one of its best-known country singers of all time, Johnny Cash. He was seventy-one. He rose to the top with songs that often told of his own struggles. Johnny Cash remained an important influence, years after his greatest fame. In fact, he appears in a current music video with a song by the rock group Nine Inch Nails. Listen next week for a full report about Johnny Cash. This is Doug Johnson. Send questions to mosaic@voanews.com. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach, and produced by Caty Weaver. Join us again for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. We leave you with one of Johnny Cash's most famous songs, "Cry, Cry, Cry." HOST: Each year, thousands of people get married at Disney theme parks around the world. The Disney Company says this is the place where dreams come true. Shep O'Neal tells us more. ANNCR: The most popular Disney theme park for a wedding is Disney World in Florida, in the southeastern United States. People from across the United States, Europe and Japan go there to get married. The lowest price someone can expect to pay for a simple Disney wedding is three-thousand dollars. This includes a short ceremony, followed by cake for as many as eight guests. The married couple also can stay several nights and visit the Disney World theme park for free during the day. For more money, Disney offers other wedding services. These include flowers, music, pictures, special transportation, event planning and entertainment. Mickey and Minnie Mouse can even visit a wedding party at a cost of several hundred dollars. Newly married husbands and wives often have their pictures taken with them. Such visits are popular among wedding crowds. Of course, Mickey and Minnie wear their own special wedding clothes. Disney weddings are often planned around an idea or theme from a Disney movie. The most popular theme wedding is the story of Cinderella. A young woman falls in love with a prince during a romantic dance. Sadly, she is forced to leave the dance before the prince learns her name. But, in the end, the two are reunited. During a Cinderella wedding, the bride and groom might ride to their marriage ceremony in a glass vehicle pulled by horses. Their wedding cake may be served on dishes shaped like castles. Special Disney love songs might be played when the newlyweds dance for the first time. And, fireworks might go off when they kiss. Not all Disney weddings are based on a theme. Company officials say more and more people are planning traditional weddings at Disney parks. Instead of a magical theme wedding, they say, people just want to gather their family and friends at a place where they can have fun together. Segway HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ahwaz, Iran. Saeed Ghasemzadeh wants to know what is a Segway. The full name is the Segway Human Transporter. Its inventor describes it as the world’s first self-balancing individual transport vehicle for short distance travel. The Segway looks like a long stick with two wheels. The stick has handles for a person to hold. The wheels are connected to a platform. The person stands on the platform and holds the handles. The transporter moves forward or backward when the person moves his or her body in that direction. The driver turns the handles to go left or right. The Segway has computers and gyroscope devices to make it move and balance. It is powered by batteries that are recharged with electricity. It can travel at a speed of nineteen kilometers an hour. Segway inventor Dean Kamen is president of the Deka (pronounced decca) Research and Development Company near Manchester, New Hampshire. He says the Segway was developed to replace cars in crowded city centers. He says it was designed to reduce pollution and solve other environmental problems in cities. However, it was not designed to travel on roads. Each Segway costs about five-thousand dollars. Dean Kamen announced the invention two years ago. But it was not for sale until this year. The Deka company says owners have been using the Segway to go to work and to replace short car trips. It also says police departments and other organizations have bought the transporter to use in their work. Most of the states have approved the use of Segways on sidewalks and bicycle paths. Some cities, though, have banned or restricted their use where people walk. Warren Zevon HOST: American singer and songwriter Warren Zevon died earlier this month of lung cancer. He was fifty-six years old. Warren Zevon lived for more than a year with the knowledge that he was dying. It became his goal to finish a new record album before that day came. Phoebe Zimmermann tells the story. ANNCR: Warren Zevon did many different jobs in the music business before he became famous. He wrote songs to sell products. He was a bandleader and piano player. He sang in clubs in the United States and Europe. Warren Zevon’s biggest hit was released in nineteen-seventy-eight: ”Werewolves of London.” (MUSIC) His final album is called "The Wind." It was released about one month before his death. The songs are about politics, lost love and sickness. Many of his friends in the music business appear with him on "The Wind." They include Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris and Jackson Browne. Warren Zevon wanted the album to be his way of saying goodbye. This song is called “Keep Me In Your Heart.” (MUSIC) Warren Zevon did not write the one song that talks most directly about dying. It was written by Bob Dylan. We leave you now with Warren Zevon singing “Knockin' on Heaven’s Door.” (MUSIC) HOST: Last week, America also lost one of its best-known country singers of all time, Johnny Cash. He was seventy-one. He rose to the top with songs that often told of his own struggles. Johnny Cash remained an important influence, years after his greatest fame. In fact, he appears in a current music video with a song by the rock group Nine Inch Nails. Listen next week for a full report about Johnny Cash. This is Doug Johnson. Send questions to mosaic@voanews.com. Our program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach, and produced by Caty Weaver. Join us again for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. We leave you with one of Johnny Cash's most famous songs, "Cry, Cry, Cry." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Pygmy Elephants of Borneo
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 19, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists have identified the elephants that live on the island of Borneo in Malaysia as separate from other Asian elephants. The group Worldwide Fund for Nature, or W-W-F, announced the finding. This follows genetic tests on waste from Borneo's Pygmy Elephants, as they are called. The Sabah Wildlife Department in Malaysia permitted researchers to collect droppings from forests on Borneo. They sent the material to Columbia University in New York City. There, the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology carried out the tests. Scientists compared the D-N-A to the genes of elephants that live in mainland Malaysia and in Sri Lanka, India and other Asian countries. The research shows that Borneo elephants were separated from other Asian elephants about three-hundred-thousand years ago. Some differences are easy to see. The Borneo elephants are smaller than other elephants. Their ears and tails make up a larger part of their bodies. And their tusks are straighter. Also, the chairman of the W-W-F program in Malaysia says the Borneo elephants are gentler compared to other Asian elephants. The group says the test results mean that the pygmy elephants of Borneo should be treated as their own kind. It says the elephants should not be permitted to reproduce with other Asian elephants. It says there should also be research into the reproductive rates of the Borneo elephants and survival of their young. The nature group notes a long-standing dispute about where the Borneo elephants came from. One theory is that their ancestors were gifts from the British East India Company to the Sultan of Sulu in the seventeenth century. The scientists, however, say the new findings reject the argument that humans brought the elephants to the island. The other theory is that the elephants could remain from a native population that traveled between Borneo and Sumatra. During the ice ages, more than ten-thousand years ago, sea levels were much lower. Land sometimes linked the two islands. The elephants could have been trapped on Borneo after the water rose again. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. Broadcast: September 19, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists have identified the elephants that live on the island of Borneo in Malaysia as separate from other Asian elephants. The group Worldwide Fund for Nature, or W-W-F, announced the finding. This follows genetic tests on waste from Borneo's Pygmy Elephants, as they are called. The Sabah Wildlife Department in Malaysia permitted researchers to collect droppings from forests on Borneo. They sent the material to Columbia University in New York City. There, the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology carried out the tests. Scientists compared the D-N-A to the genes of elephants that live in mainland Malaysia and in Sri Lanka, India and other Asian countries. The research shows that Borneo elephants were separated from other Asian elephants about three-hundred-thousand years ago. Some differences are easy to see. The Borneo elephants are smaller than other elephants. Their ears and tails make up a larger part of their bodies. And their tusks are straighter. Also, the chairman of the W-W-F program in Malaysia says the Borneo elephants are gentler compared to other Asian elephants. The group says the test results mean that the pygmy elephants of Borneo should be treated as their own kind. It says the elephants should not be permitted to reproduce with other Asian elephants. It says there should also be research into the reproductive rates of the Borneo elephants and survival of their young. The nature group notes a long-standing dispute about where the Borneo elephants came from. One theory is that their ancestors were gifts from the British East India Company to the Sultan of Sulu in the seventeenth century. The scientists, however, say the new findings reject the argument that humans brought the elephants to the island. The other theory is that the elephants could remain from a native population that traveled between Borneo and Sumatra. During the ice ages, more than ten-thousand years ago, sea levels were much lower. Land sometimes linked the two islands. The elephants could have been trapped on Borneo after the water rose again. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #30 - Alexander Hamilton, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 18, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Shep O’Neal and I continue the story of Alexander Hamilton. He was the top planner and policy maker under the first president of the United States, George Washington. VOICE TWO: As we said in our last program, young Alexander Hamilton wanted to be a military commander. He hoped to demonstrate his bravery by fighting in a war. So, when the thirteen American colonies rebelled against Britain in the Seventeen-Seventies, he joined a militia in New York state. It was not long before Hamilton met the commander-in-chief of American forces, George Washington. General Washington invited Hamilton to become one of his assistants. One of Hamilton's jobs was to get money and supplies for the army. He asked the thirteen state governments. He also asked the Congress, which had little political power at that time. He got almost no help from either. Hamilton felt the American system of government was too weak and disorganized. He did not like democracy, rule by the people. Instead, he liked aristocracy, rule by a rich upper class. VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton was a proud man. He was quick to criticize others. He even criticized George Washington. Once, during the war, he was late to a meeting with the general. Washington protested. Hamilton resigned. Washington was sorry. He had a high opinion of Hamilton's abilities. That is why he was willing to forget the incident and appoint Hamilton to the new Treasury Department. The job would be difficult. The new nation had to find ways to bring in money and pay what it owed. The new Constitution said the national government was responsible for re-paying the states' wartime loans. One way to get money was to borrow it. But no one wanted to lend money to the United States unless they were sure they would get it back. So, the Congress asked Treasury Secretary Hamilton to write a report about how to build up the government's credit. VOICE TWO: Hamilton's report said the government must pay back the full amount of all its debts. This caused a dispute. Many of the debts were in the form of government notes. The notes promised to pay someone for supplying food, clothing, and weapons to the rebel army. Some promised to pay soldiers for joining the army. The notes really were worth nothing, however. The wartime Congress had no money. People who got them lost hope of ever getting re-paid. So they sold them to anyone willing to pay even part of the value. Hamilton's plan would re-pay the full value of the notes to those who owned them last. This meant the people who first got the notes from the government would receive nothing. And the people who bought them at low cost would receive much more than they paid. VOICE ONE: Congressman James Madison of Virginia protested. He said the people who bought the notes at low cost should be paid. . .but not in full. Some of the money, he said, should go to those who got the notes in exchange for supplies or services. Madison made an emotional speech in Congress. He described the situation of former soldiers forced by hunger to sell their government notes for almost nothing. He noted that the Union was established to protect the people against such injustice. VOICE TWO: Hamilton said the purpose of his plan was greater than simply paying debts. He said it was a way to build up the nation's credit so it could borrow money more easily in the future. Hamilton believed that those who bought the notes had a right to earn money from them. These men took a chance that the worthless notes would be worth something, someday. The government could not deny them their profits. Many members of Congress felt sorry for the poor soldiers and their families. Yet they voted against Madison's proposal and supported Hamilton's plan. VOICE ONE: Hamilton's plan raised old fears. The agricultural south was sure he was trying to make the industrial north more powerful. Hamilton did not deny this. His purpose was to strengthen the nation. He believed all areas would be helped if industry and commerce were stronger. Still, to win support for his plan, Hamilton had to make a political deal with several Congressmen. They would support his financial plan. But he had to use his influence to get the capital of the United States moved. VOICE TWO: At that time, the capital was in the north, in New York City. Two Congressmen from Virginia wanted it in the south near their homes along the Potomac River. Several Congressmen from Pennsylvania agreed. But they said the capital first must be moved to Philadelphia, the biggest city in their state. And it must remain there ten years. Congress accepted this plan by a close vote. President Washington signed it. It was well-known that George Washington wanted the capital closer to his Virginia farm, Mount Vernon. Yet there is no evidence that he ever asked any member of Congress -- or anyone else -- to help get it moved there. VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton's plan to re-pay the nation's debts caused much protest. However, another one of his financial plans caused even more. It was his plan to create a national bank. Hamilton argued that there were central banks in Britain, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. He said the banks greatly helped those countries' commerce, industry, and agriculture. Hamilton said a central bank in the United States would increase the flow of money throughout the country. It would help the national government negotiate loans and collect taxes. VOICE TWO: Critics argued that a national bank would give too much power to a few rich men in the north. It would take control of state banks, on which southern farmers and small businessmen depended. It would increase the use of paper money, instead of gold and silver. James Madison led the opposition against Hamilton's plan in Congress. Madison believed the United States should not put all its wealth in one place. So, he proposed a system of many smaller banks in different parts of the country. He also argued that the idea of a central bank was unconstitutional. VOICE ONE: No one knew more about the American Constitution than James Madison. He was given credit for most of the ideas in it. Everyone respected his explanation of its wording. Madison noted that the Constitution gives Congress a number of powers, which are stated. Congress has no powers beyond this. For example, he said, Congress has the power to borrow money. But it is permitted to borrow money only to re-pay debts, to defend the country, and to provide for the general good of the people. Madison rejected the idea that the right to create a central bank came from the power to provide for the general good of the people. He said such an idea twisted the meaning and purpose of the Constitution. That, he said, was most dangerous. VOICE TWO: Madison's argument was powerful. Yet, once again, Hamilton won more Congressional support. He got enough votes to approve his proposal to establish a national bank. Still, President Washington had to sign the bill into law. He worried about the possibility that the bill was not Constitutional. So he asked three men for advice: Attorney General Edmund Randolph. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. And Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. VOICE ONE: Randolph had no firm answer. Jefferson agreed with Madison. Creating a national bank violated the Constitution. Hamilton, of course, disagreed. He said the Constitution gave the government certain powers, and named them. But it included others, without naming them. It did this so the government could put its powers to work and act like a government. Such was the purpose of the Constitution, Hamilton said. These arguments did not completely answer all of President Washington's questions. But he went ahead and signed the bill to establish a national bank in America. VOICE TWO: Hamilton and Jefferson came to disagree on most issues. Their struggle for power in the new government led to the creation of America's political party system. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: September 18, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Shep O’Neal and I continue the story of Alexander Hamilton. He was the top planner and policy maker under the first president of the United States, George Washington. VOICE TWO: As we said in our last program, young Alexander Hamilton wanted to be a military commander. He hoped to demonstrate his bravery by fighting in a war. So, when the thirteen American colonies rebelled against Britain in the Seventeen-Seventies, he joined a militia in New York state. It was not long before Hamilton met the commander-in-chief of American forces, George Washington. General Washington invited Hamilton to become one of his assistants. One of Hamilton's jobs was to get money and supplies for the army. He asked the thirteen state governments. He also asked the Congress, which had little political power at that time. He got almost no help from either. Hamilton felt the American system of government was too weak and disorganized. He did not like democracy, rule by the people. Instead, he liked aristocracy, rule by a rich upper class. VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton was a proud man. He was quick to criticize others. He even criticized George Washington. Once, during the war, he was late to a meeting with the general. Washington protested. Hamilton resigned. Washington was sorry. He had a high opinion of Hamilton's abilities. That is why he was willing to forget the incident and appoint Hamilton to the new Treasury Department. The job would be difficult. The new nation had to find ways to bring in money and pay what it owed. The new Constitution said the national government was responsible for re-paying the states' wartime loans. One way to get money was to borrow it. But no one wanted to lend money to the United States unless they were sure they would get it back. So, the Congress asked Treasury Secretary Hamilton to write a report about how to build up the government's credit. VOICE TWO: Hamilton's report said the government must pay back the full amount of all its debts. This caused a dispute. Many of the debts were in the form of government notes. The notes promised to pay someone for supplying food, clothing, and weapons to the rebel army. Some promised to pay soldiers for joining the army. The notes really were worth nothing, however. The wartime Congress had no money. People who got them lost hope of ever getting re-paid. So they sold them to anyone willing to pay even part of the value. Hamilton's plan would re-pay the full value of the notes to those who owned them last. This meant the people who first got the notes from the government would receive nothing. And the people who bought them at low cost would receive much more than they paid. VOICE ONE: Congressman James Madison of Virginia protested. He said the people who bought the notes at low cost should be paid. . .but not in full. Some of the money, he said, should go to those who got the notes in exchange for supplies or services. Madison made an emotional speech in Congress. He described the situation of former soldiers forced by hunger to sell their government notes for almost nothing. He noted that the Union was established to protect the people against such injustice. VOICE TWO: Hamilton said the purpose of his plan was greater than simply paying debts. He said it was a way to build up the nation's credit so it could borrow money more easily in the future. Hamilton believed that those who bought the notes had a right to earn money from them. These men took a chance that the worthless notes would be worth something, someday. The government could not deny them their profits. Many members of Congress felt sorry for the poor soldiers and their families. Yet they voted against Madison's proposal and supported Hamilton's plan. VOICE ONE: Hamilton's plan raised old fears. The agricultural south was sure he was trying to make the industrial north more powerful. Hamilton did not deny this. His purpose was to strengthen the nation. He believed all areas would be helped if industry and commerce were stronger. Still, to win support for his plan, Hamilton had to make a political deal with several Congressmen. They would support his financial plan. But he had to use his influence to get the capital of the United States moved. VOICE TWO: At that time, the capital was in the north, in New York City. Two Congressmen from Virginia wanted it in the south near their homes along the Potomac River. Several Congressmen from Pennsylvania agreed. But they said the capital first must be moved to Philadelphia, the biggest city in their state. And it must remain there ten years. Congress accepted this plan by a close vote. President Washington signed it. It was well-known that George Washington wanted the capital closer to his Virginia farm, Mount Vernon. Yet there is no evidence that he ever asked any member of Congress -- or anyone else -- to help get it moved there. VOICE ONE: Alexander Hamilton's plan to re-pay the nation's debts caused much protest. However, another one of his financial plans caused even more. It was his plan to create a national bank. Hamilton argued that there were central banks in Britain, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. He said the banks greatly helped those countries' commerce, industry, and agriculture. Hamilton said a central bank in the United States would increase the flow of money throughout the country. It would help the national government negotiate loans and collect taxes. VOICE TWO: Critics argued that a national bank would give too much power to a few rich men in the north. It would take control of state banks, on which southern farmers and small businessmen depended. It would increase the use of paper money, instead of gold and silver. James Madison led the opposition against Hamilton's plan in Congress. Madison believed the United States should not put all its wealth in one place. So, he proposed a system of many smaller banks in different parts of the country. He also argued that the idea of a central bank was unconstitutional. VOICE ONE: No one knew more about the American Constitution than James Madison. He was given credit for most of the ideas in it. Everyone respected his explanation of its wording. Madison noted that the Constitution gives Congress a number of powers, which are stated. Congress has no powers beyond this. For example, he said, Congress has the power to borrow money. But it is permitted to borrow money only to re-pay debts, to defend the country, and to provide for the general good of the people. Madison rejected the idea that the right to create a central bank came from the power to provide for the general good of the people. He said such an idea twisted the meaning and purpose of the Constitution. That, he said, was most dangerous. VOICE TWO: Madison's argument was powerful. Yet, once again, Hamilton won more Congressional support. He got enough votes to approve his proposal to establish a national bank. Still, President Washington had to sign the bill into law. He worried about the possibility that the bill was not Constitutional. So he asked three men for advice: Attorney General Edmund Randolph. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. And Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. VOICE ONE: Randolph had no firm answer. Jefferson agreed with Madison. Creating a national bank violated the Constitution. Hamilton, of course, disagreed. He said the Constitution gave the government certain powers, and named them. But it included others, without naming them. It did this so the government could put its powers to work and act like a government. Such was the purpose of the Constitution, Hamilton said. These arguments did not completely answer all of President Washington's questions. But he went ahead and signed the bill to establish a national bank in America. VOICE TWO: Hamilton and Jefferson came to disagree on most issues. Their struggle for power in the new government led to the creation of America's political party system. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-18-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - September 18, 2003: 'America's Legislators Back to School Week'
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. In the United States, the third week of September is the observance of what is called America's Legislators Back to School Week. This is a time for state lawmakers across the country to visit schools in the areas they represent. A main goal of the week is to help students understand how a democratic society makes laws. More than two-hundred-fifty-thousand young people are expected to meet and question state legislators. Eighteen educational and public service organizations help support the program. The National Conference of State Legislatures organizes it. Last year more than two-thousand legislators took part. The observance of America's Legislators Back to School Week started in six states in nineteen-ninety-nine. At that time, it took place on one day. Now all fifty states and Puerto Rico observe the event for a full week. Legislators say it lets them observe and build connections with schools. Another purpose is to get young people to take part in the political process. The National Conference of State Legislatures says that in nineteen-seventy-two, almost half of young people ages eighteen to twenty-four voted. But it says only thirty-three percent voted in the two-thousand elections. During their school visits, legislators tell about the pressures they face while deciding on issues. They explain how they negotiate and debate. They tell about how they must often compromise to pass legislation.Teaching materials for the visits contain suggestions for talking about the democratic process. The materials say that young people’s ideas can influence the legislative process. Special events take place during the back-to-school week. One event last year was a ceremony for students in Pasadena, Maryland. Students at the George Fox Middle School were honored for a report they put together. It dealt with a state project that they argued would harm the environment. Legislators who took part in the ceremony said the report influenced the state to change the project. Teachers like Herb Schaunaman in South Dakota have praise for the America’s Legislators Back to School Week. He said his class learned a lot about making laws from a visit by a state lawmaker. He said they learned far more than they would have from a book and lecture. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-18-5-1.cfm
* Headline: September 18, 2003 - Slangman: Food-Related Slang / 'Jack and the Beanstalk'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 18, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a fresh look at a topic we did with Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles five years ago this month: food-related slang. This time, he's whipped up one of his exclusive stories based on a children's classic -- namely, "Jack and the Beanstalk." SLANGMAN: "Once upon a time, there lived a woman who was as American as apple pie. She lived in The Big Apple." RS: "Where else." AA: "New York." SLANGMAN: "New York. With her only son Jack, the apple ... AA/RS/SLANGMAN: " ... of her eye!" SLANGMAN: "The most important thing to her. Unfortunately, she just couldn't cut the mustard in the working world. And to cut the mustard means to succeed. So she could not cut the mustard in the working world, and Jack was such a couch ... " RS: "Potato!" SLANGMAN: "Very good. A coach potato, a lazy person who does nothing but sit on the couch and usually just watch television. He was such a couch potato that there was no one to bring home the bacon, which means to earn money for food. For now, selling milk from their cow was their bread and butter, which means the only way they could earn money. But the cow they bought turned out to be a lemon, defective. [laughter] That's something you buy then you discover later that it just doesn't work." AA: "Like a car." SLANGMAN: "Right, we hear that a lot, especially of course with cars. If a car doesn't work after you bought it, it's a lemon. "But in this case, the cow was a lemon and stopped producing milk! They were certainly in a pickle -- a bad situation. I have no idea why we say that, although we do. That's the interesting thing about some of these expressions. If you ask an American 'why do you say that, where does it come from?' we don't know, we just use it. So, 'Jack,' said his mother. "I'm not going to sugar-coat this.' That means to tell it like it is, even though it may be painful for the other person to hear. Well, the mother said, 'We have to sell the cow.' 'Sell the cow?!' Jack exclaimed. 'Mother, I think your idea is half-baked!'" RS: "Not a great idea." SLANGMAN: "Right, not carefully considered. It's half-baked. But Jack's mother kept egging him on, which means pushed him to do something, to encourage him. And the next morning, Jack took the cow to the city to sell it. Well, on his way to the market, Jack was stopped by a man who said 'I'd like to buy your cow, and I'll give you five beans for it.' "And Jack said: 'What are you, some kind of a nut?' -- somebody who's crazy. We can say nutty. In fact, the movie 'The Nutty Professor' means the crazy professor. 'Ah, but these are magic beans!' said the man, 'and that's no baloney!' And baloney, which is ... " AA: "Processed meat." SLANGMAN: "Processed meat. I was going to say it's a food, but it simply means in this case nonsense, 'that's baloney.' The man told Jack that if he planted the beans, by the next morning they'd grow up tall, tall, tall and reach the sky. Well, since Jack really didn't know beans about ... SLANGMAN/RS: " ... beans!" SLANGMAN: "If you don't know beans about something, it means you don't know anything about it. Well, he did agree, and took the beans, then ran home to tell his mother the good news. When his mother discovered what Jack had done, she turned beet red. Now a beet is a vegetable that is really deep red. She turned beet red and went bananas, and threw the beans out the window. "When he woke up the next morning, to Jack's surprise, there was growing an enormous beanstalk. 'Hmm, I'll see where it goes,' thought Jack, and with that he stepped out of the window on to the beanstalk to climb up and up and up. "In the distance, he could see a big castle. When he walked in, Jack tried to stay as cool as a cucumber -- which means very calm, very relaxed. Well, it was difficult to stay as cool as a cucumber, because sitting there at the table was a giant who was rather beefy." AA: "A big guy." SLANGMAN: "A big guy. Big and muscular, that's beefy. And the giant was definitely what you would call a tough cookie, a stubborn and strict person. The giant placed a goose on the table and said, 'Lay three eggs!' and out came three golden eggs! "The giant took the eggs, and left the room. 'Wow!' thought Jack. 'If I borrow the goose, my mother and I will have no more money problems! This is going to be as easy as pie!' he thought. Which means something extremely easy to do, which is kind of strange because pie is not that easy to make. Have you ever tried to make a pie?" AA: "That's true." SLANGMAN: "So he climbed up the table and grabbed the goose. The giant came running after Jack. Jack quickly climbed all the way down the beanstalk, took an ax, and chopped it down. And that, my friends, is the whole enchilada." RS: "Enchilada." SLANGMAN: "That's a Mexican dish, meat and cheese, that's wrapped in a tortilla which is made of flour and water. 'The whole enchilada' -- that means that's the whole story." AA: For more of a taste of how you can learn English with help from Slangman David Burke, you can visit his Web site: slangman.com. Ours here is voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 18, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a fresh look at a topic we did with Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles five years ago this month: food-related slang. This time, he's whipped up one of his exclusive stories based on a children's classic -- namely, "Jack and the Beanstalk." SLANGMAN: "Once upon a time, there lived a woman who was as American as apple pie. She lived in The Big Apple." RS: "Where else." AA: "New York." SLANGMAN: "New York. With her only son Jack, the apple ... AA/RS/SLANGMAN: " ... of her eye!" SLANGMAN: "The most important thing to her. Unfortunately, she just couldn't cut the mustard in the working world. And to cut the mustard means to succeed. So she could not cut the mustard in the working world, and Jack was such a couch ... " RS: "Potato!" SLANGMAN: "Very good. A coach potato, a lazy person who does nothing but sit on the couch and usually just watch television. He was such a couch potato that there was no one to bring home the bacon, which means to earn money for food. For now, selling milk from their cow was their bread and butter, which means the only way they could earn money. But the cow they bought turned out to be a lemon, defective. [laughter] That's something you buy then you discover later that it just doesn't work." AA: "Like a car." SLANGMAN: "Right, we hear that a lot, especially of course with cars. If a car doesn't work after you bought it, it's a lemon. "But in this case, the cow was a lemon and stopped producing milk! They were certainly in a pickle -- a bad situation. I have no idea why we say that, although we do. That's the interesting thing about some of these expressions. If you ask an American 'why do you say that, where does it come from?' we don't know, we just use it. So, 'Jack,' said his mother. "I'm not going to sugar-coat this.' That means to tell it like it is, even though it may be painful for the other person to hear. Well, the mother said, 'We have to sell the cow.' 'Sell the cow?!' Jack exclaimed. 'Mother, I think your idea is half-baked!'" RS: "Not a great idea." SLANGMAN: "Right, not carefully considered. It's half-baked. But Jack's mother kept egging him on, which means pushed him to do something, to encourage him. And the next morning, Jack took the cow to the city to sell it. Well, on his way to the market, Jack was stopped by a man who said 'I'd like to buy your cow, and I'll give you five beans for it.' "And Jack said: 'What are you, some kind of a nut?' -- somebody who's crazy. We can say nutty. In fact, the movie 'The Nutty Professor' means the crazy professor. 'Ah, but these are magic beans!' said the man, 'and that's no baloney!' And baloney, which is ... " AA: "Processed meat." SLANGMAN: "Processed meat. I was going to say it's a food, but it simply means in this case nonsense, 'that's baloney.' The man told Jack that if he planted the beans, by the next morning they'd grow up tall, tall, tall and reach the sky. Well, since Jack really didn't know beans about ... SLANGMAN/RS: " ... beans!" SLANGMAN: "If you don't know beans about something, it means you don't know anything about it. Well, he did agree, and took the beans, then ran home to tell his mother the good news. When his mother discovered what Jack had done, she turned beet red. Now a beet is a vegetable that is really deep red. She turned beet red and went bananas, and threw the beans out the window. "When he woke up the next morning, to Jack's surprise, there was growing an enormous beanstalk. 'Hmm, I'll see where it goes,' thought Jack, and with that he stepped out of the window on to the beanstalk to climb up and up and up. "In the distance, he could see a big castle. When he walked in, Jack tried to stay as cool as a cucumber -- which means very calm, very relaxed. Well, it was difficult to stay as cool as a cucumber, because sitting there at the table was a giant who was rather beefy." AA: "A big guy." SLANGMAN: "A big guy. Big and muscular, that's beefy. And the giant was definitely what you would call a tough cookie, a stubborn and strict person. The giant placed a goose on the table and said, 'Lay three eggs!' and out came three golden eggs! "The giant took the eggs, and left the room. 'Wow!' thought Jack. 'If I borrow the goose, my mother and I will have no more money problems! This is going to be as easy as pie!' he thought. Which means something extremely easy to do, which is kind of strange because pie is not that easy to make. Have you ever tried to make a pie?" AA: "That's true." SLANGMAN: "So he climbed up the table and grabbed the goose. The giant came running after Jack. Jack quickly climbed all the way down the beanstalk, took an ax, and chopped it down. And that, my friends, is the whole enchilada." RS: "Enchilada." SLANGMAN: "That's a Mexican dish, meat and cheese, that's wrapped in a tortilla which is made of flour and water. 'The whole enchilada' -- that means that's the whole story." AA: For more of a taste of how you can learn English with help from Slangman David Burke, you can visit his Web site: slangman.com. Ours here is voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 20, 2003: World Trade Talks
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Countries of the World Trade Organization failed to reach agreement early this week after five days of talks in Cancun, Mexico. Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez halted the talks on Sunday after some delegates walked out. The delegates said wealthy countries did not make enough compromises to help poor nations. The one-hundred-forty-six members of the World Trade Organization began a new series of talks two years ago in Doha, Qatar. They called for an agreement by two-thousand-five to reduce trade barriers. The goal is to increase development in poorer nations. The United States and other wealthy nations say free trade has created jobs and wealth around the world. They say fewer trade barriers would increase that success. But developing nations say world trade rules help only major industrial nations and harm others. The meeting in Cancun included an alliance of developing countries led by Brazil, China and India. They called themselves the Group of Twenty-two. They came together to demand major compromises. The talks covered several issues. The biggest dispute is about aid to farmers. The European Union, the United States and others provide about three-thousand-million dollars a year to support farm exports. Developing nations want deep cuts in this farm aid. They say it forces them to lower their prices. They say the current situation makes it difficult for their farmers to compete in the world economy. But the W-T-O members could not agree whether to begin new talks on rules for foreign investment and competition. The E-U and Japan wanted to discuss these issues. But several developing countries refused. They said they must deal with these issues themselves, and not as part of the W-T-O negotiations. The European Union had made these issues a condition for cuts in its farm aid. American trade officials in Cancun had hoped the Europeans would accept proposals to set a date to end farm aid. The E-U has offered to work to reduce the aid, but not to end it completely. American Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the United States was prepared to make deep cuts in its own farm aid. But he said some countries were unwilling to negotiate other measures that the United States was seeking. These included cuts in taxes on imports of American goods. Mister Zoellick said the United States would continue to seek free trade agreements through the W-T-O or with individual nations. Governments around the world expressed regret that the talks in Cancun failed. But anti-free trade activists and developing countries celebrated. Trade officials are expected to meet at the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva in December to decide how to continue. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. Countries of the World Trade Organization failed to reach agreement early this week after five days of talks in Cancun, Mexico. Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez halted the talks on Sunday after some delegates walked out. The delegates said wealthy countries did not make enough compromises to help poor nations. The one-hundred-forty-six members of the World Trade Organization began a new series of talks two years ago in Doha, Qatar. They called for an agreement by two-thousand-five to reduce trade barriers. The goal is to increase development in poorer nations. The United States and other wealthy nations say free trade has created jobs and wealth around the world. They say fewer trade barriers would increase that success. But developing nations say world trade rules help only major industrial nations and harm others. The meeting in Cancun included an alliance of developing countries led by Brazil, China and India. They called themselves the Group of Twenty-two. They came together to demand major compromises. The talks covered several issues. The biggest dispute is about aid to farmers. The European Union, the United States and others provide about three-thousand-million dollars a year to support farm exports. Developing nations want deep cuts in this farm aid. They say it forces them to lower their prices. They say the current situation makes it difficult for their farmers to compete in the world economy. But the W-T-O members could not agree whether to begin new talks on rules for foreign investment and competition. The E-U and Japan wanted to discuss these issues. But several developing countries refused. They said they must deal with these issues themselves, and not as part of the W-T-O negotiations. The European Union had made these issues a condition for cuts in its farm aid. American trade officials in Cancun had hoped the Europeans would accept proposals to set a date to end farm aid. The E-U has offered to work to reduce the aid, but not to end it completely. American Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the United States was prepared to make deep cuts in its own farm aid. But he said some countries were unwilling to negotiate other measures that the United States was seeking. These included cuts in taxes on imports of American goods. Mister Zoellick said the United States would continue to seek free trade agreements through the W-T-O or with individual nations. Governments around the world expressed regret that the talks in Cancun failed. But anti-free trade activists and developing countries celebrated. Trade officials are expected to meet at the World Trade Organization headquarters in Geneva in December to decide how to continue. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 21, 2003: William Randolph Hearst
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about American publisher William Randolph Hearst. Mister Hearst created what was once the nation's largest newspaper organization. He bought newspapers in many areas of the United States. He spent millions of dollars to gain readers in sometimes shocking ways. He forever changed the American newspaper business. (THEME) VOICE ONE: William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. He was the only child of George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. His father became rich by developing mines. His mother was a philanthropist who gave her time and money to help others. Welcome to the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about American publisher William Randolph Hearst. Mister Hearst created what was once the nation's largest newspaper organization. He bought newspapers in many areas of the United States. He spent millions of dollars to gain readers in sometimes shocking ways. He forever changed the American newspaper business. (THEME) VOICE ONE: William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. He was the only child of George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. His father became rich by developing mines. His mother was a philanthropist who gave her time and money to help others. William Randolph Hearst had everything he wanted as a child. But, he was a rebel. In Eighteen-Eighty-Five, he was expelled from Harvard, one of the best universities in America, for playing a joke on a professor. George Hearst wanted his son to take control of developing the mines or the land he owned. But, William had other desires. He became interested in newspapers while at Harvard. He started working as a reporter for the New York World newspaper owned by Joseph Pulitzer. VOICE TWO: George Hearst owned the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. But he was more interested in politics than in newspaper publishing. In Eighteen-Eighty-Seven, George Hearst became a United States Senator. He gave control of the newspaper to his son William who was twenty-three. William Randolph Hearst wanted to create a newspaper that people would talk about. He worked long hours and put high energy into his newspaper. He employed some of the best reporters and writers he could find. And, he paid them the highest wages. Mister Hearst improved the appearance of his newspaper and bought modern equipment. He also improved relations with advertisers. Advertisers pay to have their products shown in newspapers to increase sales. Newspapers profit from the money paid by advertisers. News stories in the San Francisco Examiner were written with force, energy and excitement. Some stories were written to shock readers and affect them emotionally. However, the stories were simple and easy to read. Mister Hearst believed in doing whatever it took to get readers. His newspaper policy was: make the news complete...print all the news...shorten it if necessary...but get it in. That became the policy in newsrooms across America. VOICE ONE: By Eighteen-Ninety-One, the San Francisco Examiner had three times more readers and advertisers than when Mister Hearst took control of the newspaper. In less than five years, William Randolph Hearst made the new San Francisco Examiner a huge success. Mister Hearst repeated his success in New York City. He borrowed five-million dollars from his mother to purchase a second newspaper, the New York Journal. In his first two months, he increased the number of copies sold from thirty-thousand to one-hundred-thousand. Joseph Pulitzer was a very successful publisher in New York. Mister Hearst shared Mister Pulitzer's excitement and energy about the newspaper business. During the Eighteen-Nineties, Mister Hearst and Mister Pulitzer began a fierce newspaper war. Mister Hearst hired many reporters from Mister Pulitzer's New York World newspaper. He paid them more than two times as much as they had been earning. He also reduced the price of his newspaper below Mister Pulitzer's. VOICE TWO: Mister Hearst won readers by making the news more exciting and entertaining. He created a kind of newspaper reporting known today as "yellow journalism." News events were made to seem greater than they really were. His methods went beyond what would be accepted today in major newspapers. Critics said his newspapers were only for entertainment. Yet many other newspapers tried to copy his methods. Mister Hearst attacked big businesses and dishonest politicians in his newspapers. There were also reports about sex, murder and other crimes. His newspapers became a voice for working people and the poor. His influence grew across the nation through his newspapers and the magazines he bought or began. VOICE ONE: Many experts say Mister Hearst's reporting methods and his battle with Mister Pulitzer for readers led to the Spanish-American War. In Eighteen-Ninety-Eight, United States fought Spain to help the people of Cuba gain independence from Spain. Mister Hearst's newspapers had accused Spain of sinking the American battleship "Maine" and killing two-hundred-fifty sailors. This increased public support for the war. However, it still is not known how the ship sank. The war greatly increased readers for the Hearst publications. Mister Hearst's battle with competitors widened after the war. Some newspapers blamed him when President William McKinley was murdered in Nineteen-Oh-One. The assassination happened after one of the Hearst newspapers seemed to suggest killing Mister McKinley. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In the early Nineteen-Hundreds, William Randolph Hearst became deeply involved in politics. He represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from Nineteen-Oh-Three to Nineteen-Oh-Seven. In Nineteen-Oh-Four, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. He also failed in his campaigns to become governor of New York or mayor of New York City. Mister Hearst had hoped to change the way things were being done in New York City. He hoped to defeat dishonest New York City politicians who controlled the city at the time. Mister Hearst also campaigned against big business. He supported labor unions and government ownership of public utilities, railroads, and other big companies. And, he sought political reform and the return of economic competition in the country. VOICE ONE: Mister Hearst's opponents accused him of being disloyal to his country because of his support for Germany during the first years of World War One. He was opposed to American involvement in the war. Mister Hearst was sharply criticized for his political ideas. Many people refused to deal with him. Some hated him. His newspapers were banned in many communities. Mister Hearst strongly supported of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt for president in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. Then he became increasingly conservative and turned against President Roosevelt. He opposed American involvement in World War Two. He also led a fierce campaign against communism during the Nineteen-Thirties. Through the years, Mister Hearst continued to buy newspapers and magazines across the country and around the world. He also controlled a number of radio and television stations and a movie company. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: William Randolph Hearst and his wife Millicent were married in Nineteen-Oh-Three. They had five sons. She remained married to him until her death. However, Mister Hearst spent almost thirty-years of his life with Hollywood actress Marion Davies in San Simeon, California. They met in Nineteen-Seventeen and later lived together at San Simeon. He started a movie company to produce movies for her. Their relationship shocked the nation. Mister Hearst spent thirty-years and thirty-million dollars to build a huge home at San Simeon. It has one-hundred-sixty-five rooms. Mister Hearst and Marion Davies entertained many famous people there. He continually bought costly art objects to fill it. By Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Mister Hearst's heavy spending threatened to ruin his publishing organization. He was forced to sell much of his property and many art objects. The economic recovery after World War Two saved what was left of his media organization. VOICE ONE: When William Randolph Hearst died in Nineteen-Fifty-One, he still owned what was then the largest newspaper company in America. Today, the Hearst Corporation includes almost one-hundred separate businesses. They include newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and business media companies. The communications business William Randolph Hearst began continues to influence and inform people around the world. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) William Randolph Hearst had everything he wanted as a child. But, he was a rebel. In Eighteen-Eighty-Five, he was expelled from Harvard, one of the best universities in America, for playing a joke on a professor. George Hearst wanted his son to take control of developing the mines or the land he owned. But, William had other desires. He became interested in newspapers while at Harvard. He started working as a reporter for the New York World newspaper owned by Joseph Pulitzer. VOICE TWO: George Hearst owned the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. But he was more interested in politics than in newspaper publishing. In Eighteen-Eighty-Seven, George Hearst became a United States Senator. He gave control of the newspaper to his son William who was twenty-three. William Randolph Hearst wanted to create a newspaper that people would talk about. He worked long hours and put high energy into his newspaper. He employed some of the best reporters and writers he could find. And, he paid them the highest wages. Mister Hearst improved the appearance of his newspaper and bought modern equipment. He also improved relations with advertisers. Advertisers pay to have their products shown in newspapers to increase sales. Newspapers profit from the money paid by advertisers. News stories in the San Francisco Examiner were written with force, energy and excitement. Some stories were written to shock readers and affect them emotionally. However, the stories were simple and easy to read. Mister Hearst believed in doing whatever it took to get readers. His newspaper policy was: make the news complete...print all the news...shorten it if necessary...but get it in. That became the policy in newsrooms across America. VOICE ONE: By Eighteen-Ninety-One, the San Francisco Examiner had three times more readers and advertisers than when Mister Hearst took control of the newspaper. In less than five years, William Randolph Hearst made the new San Francisco Examiner a huge success. Mister Hearst repeated his success in New York City. He borrowed five-million dollars from his mother to purchase a second newspaper, the New York Journal. In his first two months, he increased the number of copies sold from thirty-thousand to one-hundred-thousand. Joseph Pulitzer was a very successful publisher in New York. Mister Hearst shared Mister Pulitzer's excitement and energy about the newspaper business. During the Eighteen-Nineties, Mister Hearst and Mister Pulitzer began a fierce newspaper war. Mister Hearst hired many reporters from Mister Pulitzer's New York World newspaper. He paid them more than two times as much as they had been earning. He also reduced the price of his newspaper below Mister Pulitzer's. VOICE TWO: Mister Hearst won readers by making the news more exciting and entertaining. He created a kind of newspaper reporting known today as "yellow journalism." News events were made to seem greater than they really were. His methods went beyond what would be accepted today in major newspapers. Critics said his newspapers were only for entertainment. Yet many other newspapers tried to copy his methods. Mister Hearst attacked big businesses and dishonest politicians in his newspapers. There were also reports about sex, murder and other crimes. His newspapers became a voice for working people and the poor. His influence grew across the nation through his newspapers and the magazines he bought or began. VOICE ONE: Many experts say Mister Hearst's reporting methods and his battle with Mister Pulitzer for readers led to the Spanish-American War. In Eighteen-Ninety-Eight, United States fought Spain to help the people of Cuba gain independence from Spain. Mister Hearst's newspapers had accused Spain of sinking the American battleship "Maine" and killing two-hundred-fifty sailors. This increased public support for the war. However, it still is not known how the ship sank. The war greatly increased readers for the Hearst publications. Mister Hearst's battle with competitors widened after the war. Some newspapers blamed him when President William McKinley was murdered in Nineteen-Oh-One. The assassination happened after one of the Hearst newspapers seemed to suggest killing Mister McKinley. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In the early Nineteen-Hundreds, William Randolph Hearst became deeply involved in politics. He represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from Nineteen-Oh-Three to Nineteen-Oh-Seven. In Nineteen-Oh-Four, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president. He also failed in his campaigns to become governor of New York or mayor of New York City. Mister Hearst had hoped to change the way things were being done in New York City. He hoped to defeat dishonest New York City politicians who controlled the city at the time. Mister Hearst also campaigned against big business. He supported labor unions and government ownership of public utilities, railroads, and other big companies. And, he sought political reform and the return of economic competition in the country. VOICE ONE: Mister Hearst's opponents accused him of being disloyal to his country because of his support for Germany during the first years of World War One. He was opposed to American involvement in the war. Mister Hearst was sharply criticized for his political ideas. Many people refused to deal with him. Some hated him. His newspapers were banned in many communities. Mister Hearst strongly supported of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt for president in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. Then he became increasingly conservative and turned against President Roosevelt. He opposed American involvement in World War Two. He also led a fierce campaign against communism during the Nineteen-Thirties. Through the years, Mister Hearst continued to buy newspapers and magazines across the country and around the world. He also controlled a number of radio and television stations and a movie company. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: William Randolph Hearst and his wife Millicent were married in Nineteen-Oh-Three. They had five sons. She remained married to him until her death. However, Mister Hearst spent almost thirty-years of his life with Hollywood actress Marion Davies in San Simeon, California. They met in Nineteen-Seventeen and later lived together at San Simeon. He started a movie company to produce movies for her. Their relationship shocked the nation. Mister Hearst spent thirty-years and thirty-million dollars to build a huge home at San Simeon. It has one-hundred-sixty-five rooms. Mister Hearst and Marion Davies entertained many famous people there. He continually bought costly art objects to fill it. By Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Mister Hearst's heavy spending threatened to ruin his publishing organization. He was forced to sell much of his property and many art objects. The economic recovery after World War Two saved what was left of his media organization. VOICE ONE: When William Randolph Hearst died in Nineteen-Fifty-One, he still owned what was then the largest newspaper company in America. Today, the Hearst Corporation includes almost one-hundred separate businesses. They include newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and business media companies. The communications business William Randolph Hearst began continues to influence and inform people around the world. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Improving Literacy Worldwide
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 22, 2003 This is Bob Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Literacy, by its most basic meaning, is the ability to read and write. The United Nations says world literacy rates improved from seventy percent in nineteen-eighty to eighty-percent in two-thousand. Yet recent estimates show that more than eight-hundred-sixty-million adults are illiterate. Two-thirds of them are women. In addition, the U-N says more than one-hundred-million children, mostly girls, cannot attend school. For more than fifty years, the right to education has been recognized within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In two-thousand a World Education Forum took place in Dakar, Senegal. Leaders of countries approved several goals to end illiteracy. These goals included free schooling for all children at the primary level. They also included an equal right to education for both girls and boys. The U-N children’s agency, UNICEF, says the progress made against illiteracy could be lost unless more action is taken immediately. In Africa, for example, UNICEF say millions of new teachers are needed to educate a growing number of students. Schools have lost many teachers because of the H-I-V virus and AIDS. UNICEF also says hunger and natural disasters have created huge refugee populations. And officials in some countries have to deal with repairing schools damaged or destroyed by conflicts. The goal of the U-N is to reduce illiteracy rates by half by two-thousand-fifteen. As part of this effort, it has declared two-thousand-three to two-thousand-twelve United Nations Literacy Decade. The message of the campaign is "literacy as freedom." The first World Literacy Day was observed on September eighth. Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded countries that higher literacy rates can help reduce poverty. He said greater literacy can also increase democratic development and strengthen economic growth. Mister Annan also spoke of the need for literacy as a way to improve the lives of women. He said this is why the first two years of the U-N campaign will pay special attention to women’s literacy issues. You can learn more about the United Nations Literacy Decade on the UNESCO Web site. The address is w-w-w dot u-n-e-s-c-o dot o-r-g. (www.unesco.org) This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Bob Cohen. Broadcast: September 22, 2003 This is Bob Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Literacy, by its most basic meaning, is the ability to read and write. The United Nations says world literacy rates improved from seventy percent in nineteen-eighty to eighty-percent in two-thousand. Yet recent estimates show that more than eight-hundred-sixty-million adults are illiterate. Two-thirds of them are women. In addition, the U-N says more than one-hundred-million children, mostly girls, cannot attend school. For more than fifty years, the right to education has been recognized within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In two-thousand a World Education Forum took place in Dakar, Senegal. Leaders of countries approved several goals to end illiteracy. These goals included free schooling for all children at the primary level. They also included an equal right to education for both girls and boys. The U-N children’s agency, UNICEF, says the progress made against illiteracy could be lost unless more action is taken immediately. In Africa, for example, UNICEF say millions of new teachers are needed to educate a growing number of students. Schools have lost many teachers because of the H-I-V virus and AIDS. UNICEF also says hunger and natural disasters have created huge refugee populations. And officials in some countries have to deal with repairing schools damaged or destroyed by conflicts. The goal of the U-N is to reduce illiteracy rates by half by two-thousand-fifteen. As part of this effort, it has declared two-thousand-three to two-thousand-twelve United Nations Literacy Decade. The message of the campaign is "literacy as freedom." The first World Literacy Day was observed on September eighth. Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded countries that higher literacy rates can help reduce poverty. He said greater literacy can also increase democratic development and strengthen economic growth. Mister Annan also spoke of the need for literacy as a way to improve the lives of women. He said this is why the first two years of the U-N campaign will pay special attention to women’s literacy issues. You can learn more about the United Nations Literacy Decade on the UNESCO Web site. The address is w-w-w dot u-n-e-s-c-o dot o-r-g. (www.unesco.org) This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Bob Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Penobscot Indians
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 22, 2003 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Native American tribes in the United States have treaties with the government. These treaties establish special rights for America's remaining Indians as nations within a nation. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We visit one of these, the Penobscot Nation, this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Penobscot Nation has three-thousand members. Most live in the state of Maine, in the far northeastern corner of the United States. Five-hundred of them live on Indian Island, in the middle of the Penobscot River. Homes stand on the edge of thick forests of many kinds of trees. Indian Island is not far from the Great North Woods. As you drive across the bridge to the island, one of the first buildings you notice is small and brown. In front stands the colorful statue of an Indian. This building is the Penobscot Nation Museum. Tribal historian James Neptune welcomes visitors inside. He directs the museum. As you step through the door, you feel as though you have entered the past. A world of traditional culture surrounds you. VOICE TWO: Among the items on display are baskets of all sizes. These containers are made from brown ash trees and sweet grass. A narrow wooden boat hangs from a wall. Penobscot Indians made this canoe in the late eighteen-hundreds. They used the outer part of birch trees. As you continue, you pass exhibits of walking sticks and ceremonial war clubs. There are also snow sticks. People use these to play a game in the snow. Tribal artists have carved beautiful designs into the objects in the exhibits. You see Penobscot drums and jewelry -- necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings. And there are the moccasins that Penobscots wore. These shoes are made of animal skin and trimmed with beads. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Neptune, the tribal historian, says a film will start soon. But it is hard to stop looking around. The objects in the museum describe a way of life that began thousands of year before European explorers arrived. Much of the Penobscot homeland once extended north to what is now Canada. In earlier spring times, the Indians followed the river to the Atlantic coast. They caught salmon and other fish. And they caught shellfish. When fall came, they hunted elk, moose, deer and smaller animals along the river. VOICE TWO: Over the years, life changed. Dams went up along the Penobscot River. Several dams now separate the Indians from the coast. Manufacturing began. Some animals and fish disappeared from along the river. In August, the United States Environmental Protection Agency made a decision that affects the Penobscot Nation. The case involves an unusual number of cancers among people on Indian Island. The tribe says it believes a paper company let dioxin, a poison waste, settle into the river. But the agency decided there is not enough pollution to order a cleanup. At last report the Penobscot Indians were considering an appeal. VOICE ONE: Many of the Indians work in low-paying industries. Others do not have any job. So the Penobscot Nation is trying to develop new industries. Government agencies have provided almost one-hundred-seventy-thousand dollars toward this goal. Some of this money will enable the Indians to explore, for example, the possibility of making and selling canoes. In the past, tribal people made the boats themselves. But they stopped many years ago. It required too much time and effort. It was easier to buy the canoes in a store. James Neptune estimates that to build one canoe by hand takes four-hundred hours. This does not include the time spent gathering materials from trees. Still, the Penobscots hope other people will want canoes handcrafted in the Indian tradition. VOICE TWO: Selling canoes is not the only hope. This November, voters in Maine will decide if Indian tribes can operate casino gambling in the state. A casino would be built outside tribal land. Many Indian tribes across America have become wealthy by operating games of chance. So this is an important issue for the Penobscot Nation. ((MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Penobscot Indians are American citizens. They must obey some of the laws of the state of Maine. But they also make rules for themselves. A tribal group governs the reservation and provides local services. A sagama (SAH gah MAH), or chief, heads this council. The Penobscot live on their own land. This land is in the same area where their ancestors lived. In the late seventeen-hundreds, Penobscot Indians helped General George Washington win the War of Independence from Britain. After that, the Penobscot were permitted to stay in Maine. In nineteen-eighty, an agreement with the government let the Indians buy back more of their homeland. VOICE TWO: Many Indians lost most of their original land when the newcomers settled America. The United States government made hundreds of agreements but often violated them. Many tribes were forced into areas where they could not meet their own needs. Thousands of people died of starvation and disease. In the sixteen-hundreds, other Indians invaded Penobscot territory in what is now Maine. After that, many Penobscot died of disease. A tribal history says it was probably smallpox brought by settlers from Europe. The Penobscot Indians also fought long wars with another tribe, the Mohawk Indians. VOICE ONE In sixteen-seventy-five, Indians in Maine began to fight against English settlers. These Indians supported French settlers. Other tribes allied with the English. France and England both wanted to claim North America. The Penobscot Indians joined two other Indian tribes in an alliance. This was called the Wabanaki Confederacy. The English allied with the Iroquois Indian Confederacy. The conflict between the English and the French, and the Indians on both sides, lasted almost one-hundred years. By the seventeen-sixties, the English had won. They gained a large amount of American land. The French and the Wabanaki Confereracy made peace with the English. Then, in seventeen-seventy-five, the American Revolution began. At that time, the Penobscot were still hostile to the English. The king of England governed the thirteen American colonies. The Indians helped the colonies defeat the English and become the United States of America. VOICE TWO: Maine did not become a separate state until eighteen-twenty. Before then, the Penobscot and other Indians made treaties with Massachusetts. These agreements dealt mainly with land, goods and services that Massachusetts was to provide. But the Indians said Massachusetts violated the treaties. In time, the Penobscot and other Maine Indians joined together to bring a court case. They claimed almost two-thirds of the territory of Maine. On October tenth, nineteen-eighty, President Jimmy Carter signed a measure. It gave the Indians more than eighty-one-million dollars. In exchange, the Indians ended their demand for two-thirds of Maine. They used much of the money to buy back some of their ancestral lands. VOICE ONE: Members of the Penobscot Nation have not forgotten where they come from. Only a few still speak the Penobscot language. But children can now study the language at Indian Island Elementary School. Traditional ceremonies also take place on the island. Visitors come to see members play drums, dance and tell stories. We leave you now with a story told by the people of this small nation within a nation. VOICE TWO: Long ago, a group of people lived along a stream of water. Then a huge frog arrived and drank most of the water in the stream. The people began to suffer. But after awhile, a hero with great power made himself into a giant. This man pulled up a big pine tree and struck the frog with it. The frog exploded. The water inside the frog fell into the hole created by the pine tree. It became a river. This river had a place where its waters ran over big white rocks. The people who lived there took their name from that place. The Penobscot are that people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. You can learn more from the Penobscot Web site: penobscotnation dot o-r-g. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: September 22, 2003 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Native American tribes in the United States have treaties with the government. These treaties establish special rights for America's remaining Indians as nations within a nation. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We visit one of these, the Penobscot Nation, this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Penobscot Nation has three-thousand members. Most live in the state of Maine, in the far northeastern corner of the United States. Five-hundred of them live on Indian Island, in the middle of the Penobscot River. Homes stand on the edge of thick forests of many kinds of trees. Indian Island is not far from the Great North Woods. As you drive across the bridge to the island, one of the first buildings you notice is small and brown. In front stands the colorful statue of an Indian. This building is the Penobscot Nation Museum. Tribal historian James Neptune welcomes visitors inside. He directs the museum. As you step through the door, you feel as though you have entered the past. A world of traditional culture surrounds you. VOICE TWO: Among the items on display are baskets of all sizes. These containers are made from brown ash trees and sweet grass. A narrow wooden boat hangs from a wall. Penobscot Indians made this canoe in the late eighteen-hundreds. They used the outer part of birch trees. As you continue, you pass exhibits of walking sticks and ceremonial war clubs. There are also snow sticks. People use these to play a game in the snow. Tribal artists have carved beautiful designs into the objects in the exhibits. You see Penobscot drums and jewelry -- necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings. And there are the moccasins that Penobscots wore. These shoes are made of animal skin and trimmed with beads. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: James Neptune, the tribal historian, says a film will start soon. But it is hard to stop looking around. The objects in the museum describe a way of life that began thousands of year before European explorers arrived. Much of the Penobscot homeland once extended north to what is now Canada. In earlier spring times, the Indians followed the river to the Atlantic coast. They caught salmon and other fish. And they caught shellfish. When fall came, they hunted elk, moose, deer and smaller animals along the river. VOICE TWO: Over the years, life changed. Dams went up along the Penobscot River. Several dams now separate the Indians from the coast. Manufacturing began. Some animals and fish disappeared from along the river. In August, the United States Environmental Protection Agency made a decision that affects the Penobscot Nation. The case involves an unusual number of cancers among people on Indian Island. The tribe says it believes a paper company let dioxin, a poison waste, settle into the river. But the agency decided there is not enough pollution to order a cleanup. At last report the Penobscot Indians were considering an appeal. VOICE ONE: Many of the Indians work in low-paying industries. Others do not have any job. So the Penobscot Nation is trying to develop new industries. Government agencies have provided almost one-hundred-seventy-thousand dollars toward this goal. Some of this money will enable the Indians to explore, for example, the possibility of making and selling canoes. In the past, tribal people made the boats themselves. But they stopped many years ago. It required too much time and effort. It was easier to buy the canoes in a store. James Neptune estimates that to build one canoe by hand takes four-hundred hours. This does not include the time spent gathering materials from trees. Still, the Penobscots hope other people will want canoes handcrafted in the Indian tradition. VOICE TWO: Selling canoes is not the only hope. This November, voters in Maine will decide if Indian tribes can operate casino gambling in the state. A casino would be built outside tribal land. Many Indian tribes across America have become wealthy by operating games of chance. So this is an important issue for the Penobscot Nation. ((MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Penobscot Indians are American citizens. They must obey some of the laws of the state of Maine. But they also make rules for themselves. A tribal group governs the reservation and provides local services. A sagama (SAH gah MAH), or chief, heads this council. The Penobscot live on their own land. This land is in the same area where their ancestors lived. In the late seventeen-hundreds, Penobscot Indians helped General George Washington win the War of Independence from Britain. After that, the Penobscot were permitted to stay in Maine. In nineteen-eighty, an agreement with the government let the Indians buy back more of their homeland. VOICE TWO: Many Indians lost most of their original land when the newcomers settled America. The United States government made hundreds of agreements but often violated them. Many tribes were forced into areas where they could not meet their own needs. Thousands of people died of starvation and disease. In the sixteen-hundreds, other Indians invaded Penobscot territory in what is now Maine. After that, many Penobscot died of disease. A tribal history says it was probably smallpox brought by settlers from Europe. The Penobscot Indians also fought long wars with another tribe, the Mohawk Indians. VOICE ONE In sixteen-seventy-five, Indians in Maine began to fight against English settlers. These Indians supported French settlers. Other tribes allied with the English. France and England both wanted to claim North America. The Penobscot Indians joined two other Indian tribes in an alliance. This was called the Wabanaki Confederacy. The English allied with the Iroquois Indian Confederacy. The conflict between the English and the French, and the Indians on both sides, lasted almost one-hundred years. By the seventeen-sixties, the English had won. They gained a large amount of American land. The French and the Wabanaki Confereracy made peace with the English. Then, in seventeen-seventy-five, the American Revolution began. At that time, the Penobscot were still hostile to the English. The king of England governed the thirteen American colonies. The Indians helped the colonies defeat the English and become the United States of America. VOICE TWO: Maine did not become a separate state until eighteen-twenty. Before then, the Penobscot and other Indians made treaties with Massachusetts. These agreements dealt mainly with land, goods and services that Massachusetts was to provide. But the Indians said Massachusetts violated the treaties. In time, the Penobscot and other Maine Indians joined together to bring a court case. They claimed almost two-thirds of the territory of Maine. On October tenth, nineteen-eighty, President Jimmy Carter signed a measure. It gave the Indians more than eighty-one-million dollars. In exchange, the Indians ended their demand for two-thirds of Maine. They used much of the money to buy back some of their ancestral lands. VOICE ONE: Members of the Penobscot Nation have not forgotten where they come from. Only a few still speak the Penobscot language. But children can now study the language at Indian Island Elementary School. Traditional ceremonies also take place on the island. Visitors come to see members play drums, dance and tell stories. We leave you now with a story told by the people of this small nation within a nation. VOICE TWO: Long ago, a group of people lived along a stream of water. Then a huge frog arrived and drank most of the water in the stream. The people began to suffer. But after awhile, a hero with great power made himself into a giant. This man pulled up a big pine tree and struck the frog with it. The frog exploded. The water inside the frog fell into the hole created by the pine tree. It became a river. This river had a place where its waters ran over big white rocks. The people who lived there took their name from that place. The Penobscot are that people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. You can learn more from the Penobscot Web site: penobscotnation dot o-r-g. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - The Equinox / Lasker Awards / Edward Teller's Life
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 23, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a timely look at an astronomical event ... a report on the winners of the Lasker Awards for medical research ... and, a look back at the life of atom-bomb scientist Edward Teller. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Two times every year, night and day are equal. The first equinox happens in late March, the second in late September. The equinox is the exact time when the path of the sun crosses the equator. This year the second equinox happens -- today! September twenty-third, at ten hours forty-seven Universal Time. Equinox is a Latin word. It means “equal night.” If you live in the southern half of the world, this week’s equinox marks the beginning of spring. If you live in the north, autumn has begun. Night will start to grow longer than day. VOICE TWO: Two times a year, the sun’s path reaches a point that is farthest from the equator. That is called the solstice. It happens in late June and in late December. Together these astronomical events, the equinox and the solstice, mark the beginning of the four seasons. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirty years of research has helped scientists to better understand the process that turns genes in the body "on" and "off." This process is called transcription. It is how cells "read" their genetic directions to build the different proteins needed to form life. The scientist most responsible for these discoveries is Robert Roeder (RAY-der) of Rockefeller University in New York. His work includes the genes of cancer and viruses such as H-I-V, the AIDS virus. For his work, Mister Roeder of is one of the winners this year of the Lasker Awards. The judges said his work will lead to new treatments that target tissues and genes. The Lasker Awards are among the highest scientific honors in the United States. This year's Lasker Award for clinical medical research is shared by two scientists at Imperial College in London. Marc Feldmann and Sir Ravinder Maini developed a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, a painful disease. The treatment is also for other diseases that cause the body’s defenses to attack normal tissue. VOICE TWO: There is also a Lasker Public Service Award. This year's winner is Christopher Reeve. The actor broke his neck when he was thrown from a horse in nineteen-ninety-five. The Lasker committee called his support for medical research and victims of disability "heroic." Mister Reeve is best known for the movies in which he played "Superman." Currently he is chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. He has been undergoing experimental treatments to help him breathe on his own. And he has been able to do some acting and directing. VOICE ONE: For those in medical science, the Laskers are often called America's version of the Nobel Prizes. Sixty-six Lasker winners have also received Nobels. The Lasker Awards are given each year by a private organization, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The program began in nineteen-forty-six. The awards for research both come with fifty-thousand dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the best known scientists in the United States died earlier this month. Edward Teller was ninety-five years old. He had suffered a stroke days before his death. Edward Teller was often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb," although stories about him say he did not like that name. Mister Teller helped develop the first nuclear weapons. Later, he was an activist for a strong national defense. VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary, in nineteen-oh-eight. His parents and teachers recognized at an early age that he was gifted in mathematics. Yet his father was unhappy when Edward said he wanted a job in mathematics. His father was a lawyer. He told his son that mathematicians had trouble earning money. So the young Edward Teller agreed to study chemistry. He went to Germany for his university education. But he later said that he "cheated." By that he meant that he studied mathematics, too. He completed his studies at the University of Leipzig in nineteen-thirty. Then Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power, and with them the increasing oppression of Jews and other minorities. Edward Teller and a number of other top scientists fled Germany. Mister Teller and his wife came to the United States in nineteen-thirty-five. They became American citizens. VOICE TWO: By the late nineteen-thirties, scientists were learning how to split atoms. This creates huge amounts of energy. American and other scientists were concerned that Germany would be the first to use atomic power as a weapon. In nineteen-thirty-nine, Edward Teller and other scientists urged Albert Einstein to warn the president about atomic power. Einstein’s warning to Franklin Roosevelt led to a secret program that developed the atomic bomb. This program was called the Manhattan Project. Edward Teller joined the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, in the American Southwest. There, he and other scientists developed the atomic bomb. Mister Teller was among the scientists who gathered to see the world’s first atomic explosion. In July of ninety-forty-five, a huge cloud shaped like a mushroom rose from the New Mexico desert. That August, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and later on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered within days to end almost four years of World War Two. VOICE ONE: After the war, Edward Teller went to work for the University of Chicago. Many scientists who helped develop the bomb wanted to return to civilian jobs. Some were troubled by moral issues. In recent years, Mister Teller wondered if the United States could have shown Japan the power of the atom without destroying cities. He said he regretted that he and other scientists did not seek to demonstrate the power of the bomb some other way. In nineteen-forty-nine, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. Now the United States faced its own threat of nuclear attack. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller believed the country needed a hydrogen fusion bomb for defense. President Harry Truman agreed. Mister Teller returned to Los Alamos and worked on the hydrogen bomb. A test took place in the Pacific Ocean in nineteen-fifty-two. Later, Mister Teller appeared at government hearings into accusations that Robert Oppenheimer was a Soviet spy. Mister Oppenheimer was the scientist who had directed the Manhattan Project. Teller did not question Oppenheimer’s loyalty, but he did question his judgment. In the end, Oppenheimer lost his security clearance to work on secret projects. And Teller's comments angered many other scientists for years to come. VOICE ONE: As the United States and the Soviet Union built more nuclear bombs, Edward Teller called for a second national laboratory. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory opened in California. Mister Teller worked as an advisor there. He served as director between nineteen-fifty-eight and nineteen-sixty. Then, he joined the University of California at Berkeley. In the nineteen-eighties, Edward Teller argued for a missile-defense system for the country. President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative. It called for satellites armed with lasers to destroy missiles headed for the United States. This program became known as Star Wars. Critics said it would cost too much and would not work. It was never built. But President Bush has renewed the idea of establishing a missile-defense system to protect the United States. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller died on September ninth at his home on the campus of Stanford University in California. He was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Until his last days, Edward Teller continued to support the idea of a system to defend the country against a danger he helped create. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: September 23, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Faith Lapidus and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a timely look at an astronomical event ... a report on the winners of the Lasker Awards for medical research ... and, a look back at the life of atom-bomb scientist Edward Teller. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Two times every year, night and day are equal. The first equinox happens in late March, the second in late September. The equinox is the exact time when the path of the sun crosses the equator. This year the second equinox happens -- today! September twenty-third, at ten hours forty-seven Universal Time. Equinox is a Latin word. It means “equal night.” If you live in the southern half of the world, this week’s equinox marks the beginning of spring. If you live in the north, autumn has begun. Night will start to grow longer than day. VOICE TWO: Two times a year, the sun’s path reaches a point that is farthest from the equator. That is called the solstice. It happens in late June and in late December. Together these astronomical events, the equinox and the solstice, mark the beginning of the four seasons. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thirty years of research has helped scientists to better understand the process that turns genes in the body "on" and "off." This process is called transcription. It is how cells "read" their genetic directions to build the different proteins needed to form life. The scientist most responsible for these discoveries is Robert Roeder (RAY-der) of Rockefeller University in New York. His work includes the genes of cancer and viruses such as H-I-V, the AIDS virus. For his work, Mister Roeder of is one of the winners this year of the Lasker Awards. The judges said his work will lead to new treatments that target tissues and genes. The Lasker Awards are among the highest scientific honors in the United States. This year's Lasker Award for clinical medical research is shared by two scientists at Imperial College in London. Marc Feldmann and Sir Ravinder Maini developed a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, a painful disease. The treatment is also for other diseases that cause the body’s defenses to attack normal tissue. VOICE TWO: There is also a Lasker Public Service Award. This year's winner is Christopher Reeve. The actor broke his neck when he was thrown from a horse in nineteen-ninety-five. The Lasker committee called his support for medical research and victims of disability "heroic." Mister Reeve is best known for the movies in which he played "Superman." Currently he is chairman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. He has been undergoing experimental treatments to help him breathe on his own. And he has been able to do some acting and directing. VOICE ONE: For those in medical science, the Laskers are often called America's version of the Nobel Prizes. Sixty-six Lasker winners have also received Nobels. The Lasker Awards are given each year by a private organization, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The program began in nineteen-forty-six. The awards for research both come with fifty-thousand dollars. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One of the best known scientists in the United States died earlier this month. Edward Teller was ninety-five years old. He had suffered a stroke days before his death. Edward Teller was often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb," although stories about him say he did not like that name. Mister Teller helped develop the first nuclear weapons. Later, he was an activist for a strong national defense. VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary, in nineteen-oh-eight. His parents and teachers recognized at an early age that he was gifted in mathematics. Yet his father was unhappy when Edward said he wanted a job in mathematics. His father was a lawyer. He told his son that mathematicians had trouble earning money. So the young Edward Teller agreed to study chemistry. He went to Germany for his university education. But he later said that he "cheated." By that he meant that he studied mathematics, too. He completed his studies at the University of Leipzig in nineteen-thirty. Then Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power, and with them the increasing oppression of Jews and other minorities. Edward Teller and a number of other top scientists fled Germany. Mister Teller and his wife came to the United States in nineteen-thirty-five. They became American citizens. VOICE TWO: By the late nineteen-thirties, scientists were learning how to split atoms. This creates huge amounts of energy. American and other scientists were concerned that Germany would be the first to use atomic power as a weapon. In nineteen-thirty-nine, Edward Teller and other scientists urged Albert Einstein to warn the president about atomic power. Einstein’s warning to Franklin Roosevelt led to a secret program that developed the atomic bomb. This program was called the Manhattan Project. Edward Teller joined the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, in the American Southwest. There, he and other scientists developed the atomic bomb. Mister Teller was among the scientists who gathered to see the world’s first atomic explosion. In July of ninety-forty-five, a huge cloud shaped like a mushroom rose from the New Mexico desert. That August, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and later on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered within days to end almost four years of World War Two. VOICE ONE: After the war, Edward Teller went to work for the University of Chicago. Many scientists who helped develop the bomb wanted to return to civilian jobs. Some were troubled by moral issues. In recent years, Mister Teller wondered if the United States could have shown Japan the power of the atom without destroying cities. He said he regretted that he and other scientists did not seek to demonstrate the power of the bomb some other way. In nineteen-forty-nine, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. Now the United States faced its own threat of nuclear attack. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller believed the country needed a hydrogen fusion bomb for defense. President Harry Truman agreed. Mister Teller returned to Los Alamos and worked on the hydrogen bomb. A test took place in the Pacific Ocean in nineteen-fifty-two. Later, Mister Teller appeared at government hearings into accusations that Robert Oppenheimer was a Soviet spy. Mister Oppenheimer was the scientist who had directed the Manhattan Project. Teller did not question Oppenheimer’s loyalty, but he did question his judgment. In the end, Oppenheimer lost his security clearance to work on secret projects. And Teller's comments angered many other scientists for years to come. VOICE ONE: As the United States and the Soviet Union built more nuclear bombs, Edward Teller called for a second national laboratory. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory opened in California. Mister Teller worked as an advisor there. He served as director between nineteen-fifty-eight and nineteen-sixty. Then, he joined the University of California at Berkeley. In the nineteen-eighties, Edward Teller argued for a missile-defense system for the country. President Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative. It called for satellites armed with lasers to destroy missiles headed for the United States. This program became known as Star Wars. Critics said it would cost too much and would not work. It was never built. But President Bush has renewed the idea of establishing a missile-defense system to protect the United States. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller died on September ninth at his home on the campus of Stanford University in California. He was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Until his last days, Edward Teller continued to support the idea of a system to defend the country against a danger he helped create. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Home Gardens, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 23, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Today we finish our series on home gardens. One of the hardest parts can be caring for young plants early in the growing season. If the weather gets unusually cold, cover the garden at night to avoid damage. Vegetable gardens need at least two-and-a-half centimeters of water each week. If the soil feels dry to a depth of about four or five centimeters, your garden needs water. Water early in the day. Use enough water to go deep in the soil. Soil with a lot of sand may need water more often. People love fresh vegetables. So do insects and animals. You can surround a small garden with wire fence material. This may not keep out birds or some digging animals, but it can reduce unwanted visitors. You can remove harmful insects by hand. If you want to use poisons, be extremely careful. Follow all the safety directions. There is another way to fight insects. Avoid planting a crop in the same place every year. Insects lay eggs in the soil, so they reappear yearly. Moving a crop from place to place in the garden can keep insects away from the plants they like to eat. To reduce garden work, spread eight to ten centimeters of mulch under and around vegetables. Mulch can be made of tree bark or almost any vegetable material -- even pages of newspaper. Mulch will help limit the growth of weeds and hold water in the soil. Mulch also provides fertilizer as it breaks down. You can talk to an agricultural adviser about other fertilizers to add to the soil. Harvest vegetables during the cool part of the morning if possible. Here is advice for some popular kinds: Harvest beans and peas when they have grown full, bright and green. Do not wait too long. Heads of broccoli should be harvested before any yellow flowers appear. More growth will develop later, for a continuous harvest. Some greens like collards, mustard and spinach produce more leaves after a first harvest. They will continue to grow all season. Pick green onions when they reach the desired size. Pick other onions when their top leaves turn yellow. A home garden can be hard work for several months. But a good crop is the best reward. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Thanks again to Larry Bass from the North Carolina State University Extension Service for his advice. And you can find all our reports on our Web site, voaspecialenglish dot com. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: September 23, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Today we finish our series on home gardens. One of the hardest parts can be caring for young plants early in the growing season. If the weather gets unusually cold, cover the garden at night to avoid damage. Vegetable gardens need at least two-and-a-half centimeters of water each week. If the soil feels dry to a depth of about four or five centimeters, your garden needs water. Water early in the day. Use enough water to go deep in the soil. Soil with a lot of sand may need water more often. People love fresh vegetables. So do insects and animals. You can surround a small garden with wire fence material. This may not keep out birds or some digging animals, but it can reduce unwanted visitors. You can remove harmful insects by hand. If you want to use poisons, be extremely careful. Follow all the safety directions. There is another way to fight insects. Avoid planting a crop in the same place every year. Insects lay eggs in the soil, so they reappear yearly. Moving a crop from place to place in the garden can keep insects away from the plants they like to eat. To reduce garden work, spread eight to ten centimeters of mulch under and around vegetables. Mulch can be made of tree bark or almost any vegetable material -- even pages of newspaper. Mulch will help limit the growth of weeds and hold water in the soil. Mulch also provides fertilizer as it breaks down. You can talk to an agricultural adviser about other fertilizers to add to the soil. Harvest vegetables during the cool part of the morning if possible. Here is advice for some popular kinds: Harvest beans and peas when they have grown full, bright and green. Do not wait too long. Heads of broccoli should be harvested before any yellow flowers appear. More growth will develop later, for a continuous harvest. Some greens like collards, mustard and spinach produce more leaves after a first harvest. They will continue to grow all season. Pick green onions when they reach the desired size. Pick other onions when their top leaves turn yellow. A home garden can be hard work for several months. But a good crop is the best reward. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Thanks again to Larry Bass from the North Carolina State University Extension Service for his advice. And you can find all our reports on our Web site, voaspecialenglish dot com. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – September 24, 2003: Urban Search and Rescue Teams
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about American rescue and recovery teams. They assist after explosions, earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters in many parts of the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is August seventeenth, nineteen-ninety-nine, in Izmit, Turkey. An earthquake measuring seven-point-four on the Richter Scale has killed at least seventeen-thousand people. Dogs are running through the remains of fallen buildings. The animals are seeking the smell of human beings trapped in the wreckage. At this time, however, it does not seem that any more people will be found alive. VOICE TWO: But then, German workers signal about a possible survivor. Experts from the United States also discover a twenty-seven-year-old woman alive in the ruins of a building. These workers are from the Fire and Rescue Department of Fairfax County, Virginia. They spend many hours moving wreckage out of the way. They reach the woman and five other people, still alive. Then they hear of a six-year-old boy who is still trapped under a fallen building. They hurry to help organize yet another rescue. VOICE ONE: Such intense and dangerous work is not unusual for the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force from Fairfax County, Virginia. Its members have saved people from fallen buildings in many places. The team has worked in Armenia, the Philippines, Mexico, Taiwan and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in addition to its home area near Washington, D.C. The Fairfax force is one of two groups that the United States government sends to help in disasters in other countries. It is also one of twenty-eight organizations deployed in disasters across the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. VOICE TWO: For example, Fairfax team members served on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, after terrorists attacked the United States. Hijacked airplanes struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Department of Defense near Washington, D-C. Another airplane crashed in Pennsylvania.More than three-thousand people were killed, including more than one-hundred-eighty people at the Pentagon. Many others were injured. The Fairfax County team was among the first groups to arrive at the Pentagon after the attack. So was the task force from nearby Montgomery County, Maryland. They arrived to find a huge fire, the remains of the airplane and people trapped in the building. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The dangerous duties of the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force always begin with bad news. Such news came from Africa on August seventh, nineteen-ninety-eight. Terrorists had bombed the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The explosions took place within minutes of each other. In Nairobi, the embassy building and many others in the area were severely damaged. Two-hundred-forty-seven people were later confirmed dead. Thousands more were hurt. Several workers were missing. VOICE TWO: Rescue Specialist Rex Strickland of the Fairfax task force was among Americans sent to Nairobi to help. Mister Strickland recorded the events. First, two United States government agencies organized deployment of the Fairfax force. They were the United States Agency for International Development and the Office of Foreign Disaster Aid. They acted after the American Ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, asked for help. At the time, the Fairfax task force had one-hundred-thirty members. Sixty-three of them were on a plane for Kenya the day after the attack. Another plane loaded with most of their equipment followed. VOICE ONE: The Fairfax search and rescue workers set up an operations center on embassy property. United States Marines guarded the area as the team members searched for survivors. During the first search, they found no survivors. But it took another day and a half to confirm that there was no one left alive in the wrecked embassy. The Fairfax team members worked day and night for eight days. They divided into two groups – one for day and one for night. Six experts worked on the wreckage at a time. They worked with one-hundred-seventy members of the Israeli Army Search and Rescue Team to recover bodies. They searched the embassy grounds and the area nearby. A French team of ten people also helped. VOICE TWO: Trained dogs and a camera called the SearchCam assisted the team members. The camera permitted them to see into spaces they could not enter. Experts removed the broken stone of the remains of the building with machines called Stanley breakers. At the same time, the Israelis used heavy equipment to remove wreckage. Local Kenyan citizens also offered to clear wreckage. Mister Strickland praised their help. He said they permitted the search and rescue workers to move on to other areas to look for victims. On August twelfth, five days after the bombing, the Israelis ended their work. The Americans stayed until August sixteenth. Then they left the country. An operations director said the work in Kenya was very difficult because they could not save anyone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fairfax County, Virginia and the Metro-Dade County Fire Department in Miami, Florida first formed urban search and rescue forces in the nineteen-eighties. These teams were trained especially for rescue work in fallen buildings. Today, the Federal Emergency Management Administration deploys twenty-eight such organizations. FEMA says the value of increasing America’s search and rescue abilities has been proven over time. It points to lives saved after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in nineteen-ninety-five. Another successful rescue effort was at the Northridge, California earthquake in nineteen-ninety-four. VOICE TWO: FEMA deploys search and rescue forces that have two teams. Each team requires thirty-one people, special equipment and dogs. Commanders plan the operations. Technical and structural experts work to make rescue attempts safe for the rescuers. Searchers look for victims, alive or dead. Rescuers try to pull the victims from the wreckage. Medical workers treat the injured. Dogs do an important part of the work of urban search and rescue teams. Dogs can move into areas that are too small or too dangerous for humans. Their sharp sense of smell finds victims. Then they signal their success to their handlers. Some dogs are taught to bark when they make a discovery. Others lie down. VOICE ONE: Dogs belonging to FEMA’s search and rescue teams are trained to meet national requirements. The dogs and their handlers must pass difficult examinations. If they succeed, they serve as Advanced Canine Teams. Advanced Canine Teams helped rescue efforts after the terrorist attack in New York City two years ago. On that deadly September eleventh, people and dogs worked together in the World Trade Center wreckage, and for days afterward. First, structural engineers examined the area. They decided where to explore first. Some structures were in danger of falling on victims or trapping rescuers. Next, experts in dangerous materials looked for airplane fuels and other dangerous fluids. Then their handlers commanded the dogs to search for trapped people or bodies. VOICE TWO: Three golden retrievers and a black Labrador retriever were among the dogs working through the wreckage. They belonged to Urban Search and Rescue Task Force Seven of Sacramento, California. The fifty-nine men and three women of the team had had only six hours to prepare for the dangerous work ahead. Once in New York, they started twenty-four-hour operations at the Tishman Center. This building had forty-seven levels. It fell soon after the two Trade Center towers. The Sacramento force supported New York City fire fighters and police. The Sacramento teams worked twenty-four-hours a day for ten days. They found no survivors. Still, they performed an important service. The rescue workers made sure that no one lay unaided and forgotten in the ruins. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about American rescue and recovery teams. They assist after explosions, earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters in many parts of the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is August seventeenth, nineteen-ninety-nine, in Izmit, Turkey. An earthquake measuring seven-point-four on the Richter Scale has killed at least seventeen-thousand people. Dogs are running through the remains of fallen buildings. The animals are seeking the smell of human beings trapped in the wreckage. At this time, however, it does not seem that any more people will be found alive. VOICE TWO: But then, German workers signal about a possible survivor. Experts from the United States also discover a twenty-seven-year-old woman alive in the ruins of a building. These workers are from the Fire and Rescue Department of Fairfax County, Virginia. They spend many hours moving wreckage out of the way. They reach the woman and five other people, still alive. Then they hear of a six-year-old boy who is still trapped under a fallen building. They hurry to help organize yet another rescue. VOICE ONE: Such intense and dangerous work is not unusual for the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force from Fairfax County, Virginia. Its members have saved people from fallen buildings in many places. The team has worked in Armenia, the Philippines, Mexico, Taiwan and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in addition to its home area near Washington, D.C. The Fairfax force is one of two groups that the United States government sends to help in disasters in other countries. It is also one of twenty-eight organizations deployed in disasters across the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. VOICE TWO: For example, Fairfax team members served on September eleventh, two-thousand-one, after terrorists attacked the United States. Hijacked airplanes struck the World Trade Center in New York City and the Department of Defense near Washington, D-C. Another airplane crashed in Pennsylvania.More than three-thousand people were killed, including more than one-hundred-eighty people at the Pentagon. Many others were injured. The Fairfax County team was among the first groups to arrive at the Pentagon after the attack. So was the task force from nearby Montgomery County, Maryland. They arrived to find a huge fire, the remains of the airplane and people trapped in the building. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The dangerous duties of the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force always begin with bad news. Such news came from Africa on August seventh, nineteen-ninety-eight. Terrorists had bombed the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The explosions took place within minutes of each other. In Nairobi, the embassy building and many others in the area were severely damaged. Two-hundred-forty-seven people were later confirmed dead. Thousands more were hurt. Several workers were missing. VOICE TWO: Rescue Specialist Rex Strickland of the Fairfax task force was among Americans sent to Nairobi to help. Mister Strickland recorded the events. First, two United States government agencies organized deployment of the Fairfax force. They were the United States Agency for International Development and the Office of Foreign Disaster Aid. They acted after the American Ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, asked for help. At the time, the Fairfax task force had one-hundred-thirty members. Sixty-three of them were on a plane for Kenya the day after the attack. Another plane loaded with most of their equipment followed. VOICE ONE: The Fairfax search and rescue workers set up an operations center on embassy property. United States Marines guarded the area as the team members searched for survivors. During the first search, they found no survivors. But it took another day and a half to confirm that there was no one left alive in the wrecked embassy. The Fairfax team members worked day and night for eight days. They divided into two groups – one for day and one for night. Six experts worked on the wreckage at a time. They worked with one-hundred-seventy members of the Israeli Army Search and Rescue Team to recover bodies. They searched the embassy grounds and the area nearby. A French team of ten people also helped. VOICE TWO: Trained dogs and a camera called the SearchCam assisted the team members. The camera permitted them to see into spaces they could not enter. Experts removed the broken stone of the remains of the building with machines called Stanley breakers. At the same time, the Israelis used heavy equipment to remove wreckage. Local Kenyan citizens also offered to clear wreckage. Mister Strickland praised their help. He said they permitted the search and rescue workers to move on to other areas to look for victims. On August twelfth, five days after the bombing, the Israelis ended their work. The Americans stayed until August sixteenth. Then they left the country. An operations director said the work in Kenya was very difficult because they could not save anyone. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Fairfax County, Virginia and the Metro-Dade County Fire Department in Miami, Florida first formed urban search and rescue forces in the nineteen-eighties. These teams were trained especially for rescue work in fallen buildings. Today, the Federal Emergency Management Administration deploys twenty-eight such organizations. FEMA says the value of increasing America’s search and rescue abilities has been proven over time. It points to lives saved after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in nineteen-ninety-five. Another successful rescue effort was at the Northridge, California earthquake in nineteen-ninety-four. VOICE TWO: FEMA deploys search and rescue forces that have two teams. Each team requires thirty-one people, special equipment and dogs. Commanders plan the operations. Technical and structural experts work to make rescue attempts safe for the rescuers. Searchers look for victims, alive or dead. Rescuers try to pull the victims from the wreckage. Medical workers treat the injured. Dogs do an important part of the work of urban search and rescue teams. Dogs can move into areas that are too small or too dangerous for humans. Their sharp sense of smell finds victims. Then they signal their success to their handlers. Some dogs are taught to bark when they make a discovery. Others lie down. VOICE ONE: Dogs belonging to FEMA’s search and rescue teams are trained to meet national requirements. The dogs and their handlers must pass difficult examinations. If they succeed, they serve as Advanced Canine Teams. Advanced Canine Teams helped rescue efforts after the terrorist attack in New York City two years ago. On that deadly September eleventh, people and dogs worked together in the World Trade Center wreckage, and for days afterward. First, structural engineers examined the area. They decided where to explore first. Some structures were in danger of falling on victims or trapping rescuers. Next, experts in dangerous materials looked for airplane fuels and other dangerous fluids. Then their handlers commanded the dogs to search for trapped people or bodies. VOICE TWO: Three golden retrievers and a black Labrador retriever were among the dogs working through the wreckage. They belonged to Urban Search and Rescue Task Force Seven of Sacramento, California. The fifty-nine men and three women of the team had had only six hours to prepare for the dangerous work ahead. Once in New York, they started twenty-four-hour operations at the Tishman Center. This building had forty-seven levels. It fell soon after the two Trade Center towers. The Sacramento force supported New York City fire fighters and police. The Sacramento teams worked twenty-four-hours a day for ten days. They found no survivors. Still, they performed an important service. The rescue workers made sure that no one lay unaided and forgotten in the ruins. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Anti-Aging Research
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 24, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. For many years, researchers have been studying ways to extend life and to improve health as people get older. They know that laboratory rats and other creatures live longer if they are fed a diet with fewer calories than normal. Scientists have found that enzymes called sirtuins (sir-TOO-ins) help cells repair damage and survive longer. David Sinclair of Harvard University calls sirtuins "guardians of the cell." Mister Sinclair has been looking for ways to strengthen this protection. He and his research team mixed some of the sirtuins with different molecules to test the effects. The molecule that reacted the most was resveratrol. Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts say this natural chemical lengthened the life of yeast cells. The researchers reported their findings this month in the publication Nature. One of the places resveratrol is found is in the skin of grapes. So, it is in wine. Red wine contains more of it than white wine. The Harvard researchers placed different amounts of resveratrol into dishes of yeast. They discovered that the smallest amount of the chemical appeared to have the greatest effect. They found that the yeast cells divided seventy percent more than normal. The researchers also exposed human cells to dangerous radiation. They found that the cells treated with resveratrol lived longer than those not treated. Tests have also been done on fruit flies and worms. The researchers say the chemical appears to have a similar effect. Fruit flies and worms have a lot in common with human biology. Studies are also planned on mice and monkeys. The researchers say they would like to extend human life by several years. They also want to make those last years of life healthier than they are now. Mister Sinclair says he drinks a glass of red wine a day. Studies have shown that wine can be good for the heart. But the scientist adds that the resveratrol is lost in the air within a day of opening a wine bottle. Also, large amounts of alcohol can cause liver damage, weight gain and other problems. Some experts like the idea of a drug that would copy the effects of a reduced-calorie diet as a way to extend life. But any drugs based on resveratrol are years away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: September 24, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. For many years, researchers have been studying ways to extend life and to improve health as people get older. They know that laboratory rats and other creatures live longer if they are fed a diet with fewer calories than normal. Scientists have found that enzymes called sirtuins (sir-TOO-ins) help cells repair damage and survive longer. David Sinclair of Harvard University calls sirtuins "guardians of the cell." Mister Sinclair has been looking for ways to strengthen this protection. He and his research team mixed some of the sirtuins with different molecules to test the effects. The molecule that reacted the most was resveratrol. Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts say this natural chemical lengthened the life of yeast cells. The researchers reported their findings this month in the publication Nature. One of the places resveratrol is found is in the skin of grapes. So, it is in wine. Red wine contains more of it than white wine. The Harvard researchers placed different amounts of resveratrol into dishes of yeast. They discovered that the smallest amount of the chemical appeared to have the greatest effect. They found that the yeast cells divided seventy percent more than normal. The researchers also exposed human cells to dangerous radiation. They found that the cells treated with resveratrol lived longer than those not treated. Tests have also been done on fruit flies and worms. The researchers say the chemical appears to have a similar effect. Fruit flies and worms have a lot in common with human biology. Studies are also planned on mice and monkeys. The researchers say they would like to extend human life by several years. They also want to make those last years of life healthier than they are now. Mister Sinclair says he drinks a glass of red wine a day. Studies have shown that wine can be good for the heart. But the scientist adds that the resveratrol is lost in the air within a day of opening a wine bottle. Also, large amounts of alcohol can cause liver damage, weight gain and other problems. Some experts like the idea of a drug that would copy the effects of a reduced-calorie diet as a way to extend life. But any drugs based on resveratrol are years away. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #31- Hamilton and Jefferson, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 25, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: September 25, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Ray Freeman and I tell about the beginning of the two-party political system in the United States. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Ray Freeman and I tell about the beginning of the two-party political system in the United States. VOICE TWO: George Washington became America's first president in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. He was the most famous man in the land. He commanded the forces of the American colonies in their successful rebellion against Britain. He was elected president without opposition. George Washington did not belong to a political party. There were no political parties in America at that time. This does not mean all Americans held the same political beliefs. They did not. But there were no established organizations that offered candidates for elections. Two such organizations began to take shape during President Washington's first administration. One was called the Federalists. Its leader was Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The other was called the Republicans. Its leader was Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Each group represented the political beliefs of its leader. VOICE ONE: Hamilton and the Federalists wanted a strong national government with a powerful president and courts. They supported policies that helped bankers and wealthy businessmen. They urged close economic and diplomatic ties with Britain. They did not like democracy, which they described as mob rule. The Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton was not the same as an earlier group also called Federalists. The word was used to describe those who supported the new American Constitution. Those who opposed the Constitution were known as anti-Federalists. Some early Federalists, like Hamilton, later became members of the Federalist Party. They were extremely powerful. They controlled the Congress during the presidency of George Washington. And they almost controlled Washington himself, through his dependence on Alexander Hamilton. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans supported the Constitution as a plan of government. But they did not think the Constitution gave the national government unlimited powers. They supported policies that helped the nation's farmers and small businessmen. They urged closer ties with the French people, who were rebelling against their king. And they demanded more rights, more democracy, for the people of the United States. VOICE ONE: The men who led these two groups were very different. Alexander Hamilton of the aristocratic Federalists was not born to an established, upper-class American family. He was born in the West Indies to a man and woman who were not married. However, Hamilton was educated in America. And he gained a place in society by marrying the daughter of a wealthy land owner in New York state. Money and position were important to Hamilton. He believed men of money and position should govern the nation. Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic Republicans could have been what Alexander Hamilton wanted to be. Through his mother, he was distantly related to British noblemen. And he liked fine food, wine, books, and music. But Jefferson had great respect for simple farmers and for the men who opened America's western lands to settlement. He believed they, too, had a right to govern the nation. VOICE TWO: Both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were loyal Americans. Yet they held completely opposing opinions on how America's government should operate. Their personal disagreements turned into a public dispute when they served in President Washington's cabinet. The two men did not argue directly in public, however. They fought their war of words in two newspapers. Both knew the power of the press. Jefferson, especially, felt the need for newspapers in a democracy. He believed they provided the only way for a large population to know the truth. He once said: "If I had to choose between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I would choose newspapers without a government." VOICE ONE: Hamilton already had experience in using newspapers for political purposes. During the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as an assistant to George Washington, the commander-in-chief. One of his jobs was to get money and supplies for the army. Hamilton asked the thirteen state governments. He also asked the Congress, which had little political power at that time. He got almost no help from either. Hamilton felt the new system of government under the Articles of Confederation was weak and disorganized. He did not think the states should have so much power. What America needed, he said, was a strong central government. Without it, the confederation would break apart. VOICE TWO: Hamilton expressed his opinions in several newspaper articles. He did not put his own name on the articles. He signed them, "The Continentalist." He soon became one of the strongest voices calling for a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation. This was the convention that finally met in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven and wrote the American Constitution. Hamilton was one of the delegates. Afterwards, he helped write a series of newspaper articles to win support for the Constitution. These were the "Federalist Papers," written together with James Madison and John Jay. VOICE ONE: When Hamilton became Treasury Secretary under President Washington, he continued to use the press. Only now, he was trying to win support for his own policies. Hamilton spoke through a newspaper called the "Gazette of the United States." Its editor was John Fenno. Jefferson won the support of several newspapers. But these were not part of his political movement. It was important, he felt, to have one newspaper speak for him. James Madison found it for him. It would be edited by Madison's old friend Philip Freneau. It would be called the "National Gazette." VOICE TWO: Most of the people who supported Hamilton lived in the cities of the northeast. They were the nation's bankers and big businessmen. They were lawyers, doctors, and clergymen. Jefferson respected Hamilton's political power. But he saw that Hamilton did not have a national organization of common people. In the Seventeen-Nineties, ninety percent of Americans were farmers, laborers, and small businessmen. They were bitter over government policies that always seemed to help bankers, big landowners, and wealthy businessmen. They had no political party to speak for them. These were the people Thomas Jefferson wanted to reach. VOICE ONE: Jefferson's task was big. Many of these Americans knew little of what was happening outside their local area. Many were not permitted to vote, because they did not own property. Jefferson looked at the situation in each state. Almost everywhere he found local political groups fighting against state laws that helped the rich. Here was what Jefferson needed. If these local groups could be brought together into a national party, the Federalists would finally have some organized opposition. Jefferson's party included rich men and poor men. They joined together to fight what they saw as a mis-use of power by Federalists in the national government. We will continue our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. VOICE TWO: George Washington became America's first president in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. He was the most famous man in the land. He commanded the forces of the American colonies in their successful rebellion against Britain. He was elected president without opposition. George Washington did not belong to a political party. There were no political parties in America at that time. This does not mean all Americans held the same political beliefs. They did not. But there were no established organizations that offered candidates for elections. Two such organizations began to take shape during President Washington's first administration. One was called the Federalists. Its leader was Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The other was called the Republicans. Its leader was Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Each group represented the political beliefs of its leader. VOICE ONE: Hamilton and the Federalists wanted a strong national government with a powerful president and courts. They supported policies that helped bankers and wealthy businessmen. They urged close economic and diplomatic ties with Britain. They did not like democracy, which they described as mob rule. The Federalist Party led by Alexander Hamilton was not the same as an earlier group also called Federalists. The word was used to describe those who supported the new American Constitution. Those who opposed the Constitution were known as anti-Federalists. Some early Federalists, like Hamilton, later became members of the Federalist Party. They were extremely powerful. They controlled the Congress during the presidency of George Washington. And they almost controlled Washington himself, through his dependence on Alexander Hamilton. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans supported the Constitution as a plan of government. But they did not think the Constitution gave the national government unlimited powers. They supported policies that helped the nation's farmers and small businessmen. They urged closer ties with the French people, who were rebelling against their king. And they demanded more rights, more democracy, for the people of the United States. VOICE ONE: The men who led these two groups were very different. Alexander Hamilton of the aristocratic Federalists was not born to an established, upper-class American family. He was born in the West Indies to a man and woman who were not married. However, Hamilton was educated in America. And he gained a place in society by marrying the daughter of a wealthy land owner in New York state. Money and position were important to Hamilton. He believed men of money and position should govern the nation. Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic Republicans could have been what Alexander Hamilton wanted to be. Through his mother, he was distantly related to British noblemen. And he liked fine food, wine, books, and music. But Jefferson had great respect for simple farmers and for the men who opened America's western lands to settlement. He believed they, too, had a right to govern the nation. VOICE TWO: Both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were loyal Americans. Yet they held completely opposing opinions on how America's government should operate. Their personal disagreements turned into a public dispute when they served in President Washington's cabinet. The two men did not argue directly in public, however. They fought their war of words in two newspapers. Both knew the power of the press. Jefferson, especially, felt the need for newspapers in a democracy. He believed they provided the only way for a large population to know the truth. He once said: "If I had to choose between a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I would choose newspapers without a government." VOICE ONE: Hamilton already had experience in using newspapers for political purposes. During the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as an assistant to George Washington, the commander-in-chief. One of his jobs was to get money and supplies for the army. Hamilton asked the thirteen state governments. He also asked the Congress, which had little political power at that time. He got almost no help from either. Hamilton felt the new system of government under the Articles of Confederation was weak and disorganized. He did not think the states should have so much power. What America needed, he said, was a strong central government. Without it, the confederation would break apart. VOICE TWO: Hamilton expressed his opinions in several newspaper articles. He did not put his own name on the articles. He signed them, "The Continentalist." He soon became one of the strongest voices calling for a convention to amend the Articles of Confederation. This was the convention that finally met in Philadelphia in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven and wrote the American Constitution. Hamilton was one of the delegates. Afterwards, he helped write a series of newspaper articles to win support for the Constitution. These were the "Federalist Papers," written together with James Madison and John Jay. VOICE ONE: When Hamilton became Treasury Secretary under President Washington, he continued to use the press. Only now, he was trying to win support for his own policies. Hamilton spoke through a newspaper called the "Gazette of the United States." Its editor was John Fenno. Jefferson won the support of several newspapers. But these were not part of his political movement. It was important, he felt, to have one newspaper speak for him. James Madison found it for him. It would be edited by Madison's old friend Philip Freneau. It would be called the "National Gazette." VOICE TWO: Most of the people who supported Hamilton lived in the cities of the northeast. They were the nation's bankers and big businessmen. They were lawyers, doctors, and clergymen. Jefferson respected Hamilton's political power. But he saw that Hamilton did not have a national organization of common people. In the Seventeen-Nineties, ninety percent of Americans were farmers, laborers, and small businessmen. They were bitter over government policies that always seemed to help bankers, big landowners, and wealthy businessmen. They had no political party to speak for them. These were the people Thomas Jefferson wanted to reach. VOICE ONE: Jefferson's task was big. Many of these Americans knew little of what was happening outside their local area. Many were not permitted to vote, because they did not own property. Jefferson looked at the situation in each state. Almost everywhere he found local political groups fighting against state laws that helped the rich. Here was what Jefferson needed. If these local groups could be brought together into a national party, the Federalists would finally have some organized opposition. Jefferson's party included rich men and poor men. They joined together to fight what they saw as a mis-use of power by Federalists in the national government. We will continue our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – September 25, 2003: Reading Recovery
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. More than one-million school children in the United States have gone through a program called Reading Recovery. The program is for six-year-olds who are struggling to learn to read. The Reading Recovery Council of North America says more than one-fifth of United States public schools with first grades use the program. The Reading Recovery method calls for a specially trained reading teacher to work with children one at a time. The lessons take a half-hour each school day. They employ reading, writing and the study of the letters of the alphabet. Reading Recovery came to the United States in nineteen-eighty-four. Education expert Marie (pronounced MAHR-ee) Clay of New Zealand developed the program. A number of other countries also use this method. Programs can differ from school to school. Reading Recovery lessons take place for twelve to twenty weeks. During the lessons, the teacher looks for ways that the child seems to learn best. Then the teacher works to help the student develop these strategies to solve problems in reading. The idea is for the student to continue to use and extend these strategies each time he or she reads. Reading Recovery students read many short books. Some of the books are written in a way similar to spoken language. Children also read and write stories or messages in their own words. The material gets harder with time. The lessons end when the student’s reading ability is within the average level of the class. The Reading Recovery Council of North America says eighty percent of students who finish the lessons can read and write within their class average. The council is a group with eleven-thousand members. The group named a new president this month. Mary Jackson is director of special programs for the Fort Bend public school system in Sugar Land, Texas. Mizz Jackson says more than ninety-nine percent of the Reading Recovery students in the schools passed the state reading examination. Some administrators may not like the higher cost of the Reading Recovery method compared to other interventions. Teachers, after all, work with only small numbers of first graders. But supporters say it saves money in the end. They say it helps prevent the sad results and expense of letting children fail in school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: September 25, 2003 - 'Field Guide to Gestures'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 25, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of non-verbal communication. Two writers, Melissa Wagner and Nancy Armstrong, have put together a book of one-hundred-eight gestures and their various, and sometimes multiple, meanings around the world. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: September 25, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of non-verbal communication. Two writers, Melissa Wagner and Nancy Armstrong, have put together a book of one-hundred-eight gestures and their various, and sometimes multiple, meanings around the world. RS: "Field Guide to Gestures" is the name of the book, and Melissa Wagner starts with one that Americans would immediately recognize as the sign for "OK." WAGNER: "Index finger and the thumb come together to make a ring, and then the three other fingers on the hand kind of splay out. And you might put that up and say 'OK' with a big smile, and you're really giving approval." AA: "We're doing it here in the studio." WAGNER: "I'm doing it too! In certain areas of the world, the OK symbol that we just discussed might actually mean something else. In Belgium or in France it might mean that you're worthless. Or it might mean zero. Or in Japan it might mean that you want your change in coins if you show the OK symbol, or what Americans know as the OK symbol, at the cash register. RS: "Field Guide to Gestures" is the name of the book, and Melissa Wagner starts with one that Americans would immediately recognize as the sign for "OK." WAGNER: "Index finger and the thumb come together to make a ring, and then the three other fingers on the hand kind of splay out. And you might put that up and say 'OK' with a big smile, and you're really giving approval." AA: "We're doing it here in the studio." WAGNER: "I'm doing it too! In certain areas of the world, the OK symbol that we just discussed might actually mean something else. In Belgium or in France it might mean that you're worthless. Or it might mean zero. Or in Japan it might mean that you want your change in coins if you show the OK symbol, or what Americans know as the OK symbol, at the cash register. "So around the world these things that Americans take for granted, and I suppose that we all take for granted, as being something that everyone understands, actually are just as difficult to learn as language." AA: "That's right, you don't want to be perceived as a 'loser.'" WAGNER: "[laughter] That's right! AA: "That's a fun little gesture -- why don't you describe the gesture to indicate that someone is a loser." WAGNER: "OK, either hand, both thumb and index finger out, and the other three fingers curled under. You're making kind of an L with your thumb and index finger. Raise that up to your head and put it on your forehead." RS: "Now what does it mean to be a loser?" WAGNER: "It means that you maybe have said something that is maybe dumb. It's more of a chiding gesture, where you're showing kind of joking disapproval." RS: "Tell us some more of the gestures in the book. What were the most obvious gestures that you recorded in your book?" AA: "And how did you collect your observations?" WAGNER: "Sure. Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so we actually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made it very accessible for anyone to be able to understand. And some of the other gestures that we covered that we were very interested in finding out the origins and meanings of, were things like what's known as 'the finger' here in the United States -- which is an insulting gesture that's often used by motorists. "And by 'the finger,’ I mean the middle finger on either hand is extended and the other fingers in the hand are kind of curled down. Here in the United States that's also referred to as 'flipping someone the bird.'" RS: "Well where did it come from?" WAGNER: "It actually has been around for thousands of years. It's referred to in classic, ancient Roman texts. In Latin it's known as 'digitus impudicus' -- indecent digit [laughter] which makes it sound quite noble." AA: "Yes, I'll have to remember that! [laughter]" WAGNER: "Right! There are certainly things that we don't really think of as being gestures that are also in the book. Like the handshake, for instance, which is a very typical greeting. And, you know, the most acceptable greeting here in the United States is a nice, firm handshake. We found out that that actually was brought over into this country from England. It kind of came about around the sixteenth century as a way to show the binding of a contract." RS: "After doing all this work, do you have a favorite gesture?" WAGNER: "I really enjoyed learning about the horns gesture -- this one's kind of hard to explain." RS: "Where you take two fingers and, like, make horns on your head?" WAGNER: "No -- your index and pinky fingers are held straight -- " RS: "Oh, OK." WAGNER: " -- and then your thumb comes down and holds the two middle fingers down." AA: "And that's the 'hook 'em horns,' isn't it? That's the Texas ... " RS: "That's right! It's the 'hook 'em horns,' so the Texas Longhorns -- " AA: "Which is a ... " RS: "Football team." WAGNER: "A football team, college -- " AA: "A college football team." WAGNER: " -- here in the United States. Also it was adopted by hard rockers." AA: "That's right!" WAGNER: "Rock-and-rollers would make this gesture at concerts or just kind of to show an affinity with each other. But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually mean your wife is cheating on you." RS: And, yes, there are more explicit gestures included in "Field Guide to Gestures," co-authored by Melissa Wagner. It's from Quirk Books complete with pictures and detailed instructions. AA If this were television, it'd be tempting to close with the "call me" sign -- thumb up, pinkie out, other fingers down, as if you're holding a telephone up to your ear. But Melissa says it's been used to the point of becoming a little obnoxious. RS: So we'll just point you to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, and tell you our e-mail address, word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. "So around the world these things that Americans take for granted, and I suppose that we all take for granted, as being something that everyone understands, actually are just as difficult to learn as language." AA: "That's right, you don't want to be perceived as a 'loser.'" WAGNER: "[laughter] That's right! AA: "That's a fun little gesture -- why don't you describe the gesture to indicate that someone is a loser." WAGNER: "OK, either hand, both thumb and index finger out, and the other three fingers curled under. You're making kind of an L with your thumb and index finger. Raise that up to your head and put it on your forehead." RS: "Now what does it mean to be a loser?" WAGNER: "It means that you maybe have said something that is maybe dumb. It's more of a chiding gesture, where you're showing kind of joking disapproval." RS: "Tell us some more of the gestures in the book. What were the most obvious gestures that you recorded in your book?" AA: "And how did you collect your observations?" WAGNER: "Sure. Nancy and I, neither one of us are anthropologists, so we actually relied on the research of a lot of other folks and kind of compiled it and made it very accessible for anyone to be able to understand. And some of the other gestures that we covered that we were very interested in finding out the origins and meanings of, were things like what's known as 'the finger' here in the United States -- which is an insulting gesture that's often used by motorists. "And by 'the finger,’ I mean the middle finger on either hand is extended and the other fingers in the hand are kind of curled down. Here in the United States that's also referred to as 'flipping someone the bird.'" RS: "Well where did it come from?" WAGNER: "It actually has been around for thousands of years. It's referred to in classic, ancient Roman texts. In Latin it's known as 'digitus impudicus' -- indecent digit [laughter] which makes it sound quite noble." AA: "Yes, I'll have to remember that! [laughter]" WAGNER: "Right! There are certainly things that we don't really think of as being gestures that are also in the book. Like the handshake, for instance, which is a very typical greeting. And, you know, the most acceptable greeting here in the United States is a nice, firm handshake. We found out that that actually was brought over into this country from England. It kind of came about around the sixteenth century as a way to show the binding of a contract." RS: "After doing all this work, do you have a favorite gesture?" WAGNER: "I really enjoyed learning about the horns gesture -- this one's kind of hard to explain." RS: "Where you take two fingers and, like, make horns on your head?" WAGNER: "No -- your index and pinky fingers are held straight -- " RS: "Oh, OK." WAGNER: " -- and then your thumb comes down and holds the two middle fingers down." AA: "And that's the 'hook 'em horns,' isn't it? That's the Texas ... " RS: "That's right! It's the 'hook 'em horns,' so the Texas Longhorns -- " AA: "Which is a ... " RS: "Football team." WAGNER: "A football team, college -- " AA: "A college football team." WAGNER: " -- here in the United States. Also it was adopted by hard rockers." AA: "That's right!" WAGNER: "Rock-and-rollers would make this gesture at concerts or just kind of to show an affinity with each other. But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually mean your wife is cheating on you." RS: And, yes, there are more explicit gestures included in "Field Guide to Gestures," co-authored by Melissa Wagner. It's from Quirk Books complete with pictures and detailed instructions. AA If this were television, it'd be tempting to close with the "call me" sign -- thumb up, pinkie out, other fingers down, as if you're holding a telephone up to your ear. But Melissa says it's been used to the point of becoming a little obnoxious. RS: So we'll just point you to our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster, and tell you our e-mail address, word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 26, 2003: Remembering Johnny Cash / Poet laureate Louise Gluck / Listener Asks Why Americans Never Elected a Woman President.
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Johnny Cash (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – we answer a listener who wants to know why a woman has never been elected president. And we remember the music of Johnny Cash. But first – meet America’s new poet laureate. New Poet Laureate Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – we answer a listener who wants to know why a woman has never been elected president. And we remember the music of Johnny Cash. But first – meet America’s new poet laureate. New Poet Laureate HOST: Next month America will get a new national poet. The next poet laureate is Louise Elisabeth Gluck (pronounced glick). She has won the Pulitzer Prize and many other honors. Bob Doughty tells more. ANNCR: Louise Gluck is the twelfth person to be named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Mizz Gluck is the third woman to serve in that position. It was created in nineteen-eighty-six. Before that the position had a different name. James Billington is the Librarian of Congress. He announced the appointment of Louise Gluck. Mister Billington says she will bring a strong, deep poetic voice to her work as poet laureate. The outgoing poet laureate is Billy Collins. Mister Collins served two terms. Each term is one year. Louise Gluck will receive thirty-five-thousand-dollars as poet laureate. She is to organize a poetry reading by others. She will also take part in programs next February and May. Mizz Gluck says she wants to recognize excellent works by young poets. She was also appointed this year to judge the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Louise Gluck started to write poetry as a young child. She was born in nineteen-forty-three in New York. There she attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. But she did not stay very long in either school. For the past twenty years she has taught at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She teaches English, poetry writing and modern poetry. She will continue to teach during her term as poet laureate. Mizz Gluck has written nine books of poetry. They include “The Seven Ages,” “Vita Nova” and “Ararat.” Her poem “The Wild Iris” won the Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-ninety-three. Here are the opening lines of “The Wild Iris” by Louise Gluck, read by Sarah Long. VOICE: “At the end of my suffering There was a door. Hear me out: that which you call death I remember. Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting. Then nothing. The weak sun Flickered over the dry surface. It is terrible to survive As consciousness Buried in the dark earth.” Female President HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Ethiopia. Theodros Solomon in Arsi asks why the United States has never had a female president. The Constitution says anyone born in America can become president. Several women have tried. In eighteen-seventy-two and eighteen-ninety-two, Victoria Woodhull was a candidate of the Equal Rights Party. Over the years other women presidential candidates have included, among the most recent, Leonora Fulani of the American New Alliance Party. But these women were all nominated by small parties and really had no chance to win. Just this week, Carol Moseley Braun officially launched her campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president in next year's election. In nineteen-ninety-two she made history as the first black woman elected to the Senate. Now she is the only woman among ten Democratic candidates. Historians say a woman did act as president for a short time, in nineteen-nineteen. Edith Galt Wilson was the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. He was very sick for about six months. During that time, Missus Wilson controlled who saw her husband and when. She read all his documents and decided which would go to the president to consider. She later wrote that her husband’s doctor thought this would be a way to help him regain his health. President Wilson left office when his term ended in nineteen-twenty-one. Today, experts say it is not a question if Americans will elect a woman president, but when. Some expect the Democratic Party to nominate New York Senator Hillary Clinton within the next ten years. And North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole is named as a possible presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Johnny Cash (MUSIC – "Cry, Cry, Cry") HOST: The music of Johnny Cash lives on in the more than fifty-million records he sold during his lifetime. Johnny Cash died earlier this month at the age of seventy-one. He had suffered for years from the effects of diabetes. Faith Lapidus remembers his life and his music. ANNCR: Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas, in the South, in nineteen-thirty-two. His father was a cotton farmer. As a boy, Johnny Cash helped on the farm. He also sang on local radio. After high school he joined the Air Force. He was sent to Germany, where he began to write songs, including one of his greatest hits, “Folsom Prison Blues.” (MUSIC) Johnny Cash signed with a record company after he left the Air Force. Here is "I Walk the Line," his nineteen-fifty-six release which sold two-million copies. (MUSIC) Johnny Cash often sang about his inner struggles. His music could be as dark as the clothes that earned him the name "the man in black." For years he had problems with alcohol and drugs. A lot of people thought he had been in prison. But he only spent one night in jail. In all, Johnny Cash recorded more then one-thousand-five-hundred songs -- and not just country music. He also sang religious songs, rock-and-roll and blues. He won eleven Grammy awards. And he is honored in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley is the only other singer with that honor. Johnny Cash continued to record until the very end of his life. Last month, he received an MTV Music Award for his performance in a current video. In it, he sings a song by the rock group Nine Inch Nails. We leave you now with Johnny Cash singing “Hurt.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Next month America will get a new national poet. The next poet laureate is Louise Elisabeth Gluck (pronounced glick). She has won the Pulitzer Prize and many other honors. Bob Doughty tells more. ANNCR: Louise Gluck is the twelfth person to be named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Mizz Gluck is the third woman to serve in that position. It was created in nineteen-eighty-six. Before that the position had a different name. James Billington is the Librarian of Congress. He announced the appointment of Louise Gluck. Mister Billington says she will bring a strong, deep poetic voice to her work as poet laureate. The outgoing poet laureate is Billy Collins. Mister Collins served two terms. Each term is one year. Louise Gluck will receive thirty-five-thousand-dollars as poet laureate. She is to organize a poetry reading by others. She will also take part in programs next February and May. Mizz Gluck says she wants to recognize excellent works by young poets. She was also appointed this year to judge the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Louise Gluck started to write poetry as a young child. She was born in nineteen-forty-three in New York. There she attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. But she did not stay very long in either school. For the past twenty years she has taught at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She teaches English, poetry writing and modern poetry. She will continue to teach during her term as poet laureate. Mizz Gluck has written nine books of poetry. They include “The Seven Ages,” “Vita Nova” and “Ararat.” Her poem “The Wild Iris” won the Pulitzer Prize in nineteen-ninety-three. Here are the opening lines of “The Wild Iris” by Louise Gluck, read by Sarah Long. VOICE: “At the end of my suffering There was a door. Hear me out: that which you call death I remember. Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting. Then nothing. The weak sun Flickered over the dry surface. It is terrible to survive As consciousness Buried in the dark earth.” Female President HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Ethiopia. Theodros Solomon in Arsi asks why the United States has never had a female president. The Constitution says anyone born in America can become president. Several women have tried. In eighteen-seventy-two and eighteen-ninety-two, Victoria Woodhull was a candidate of the Equal Rights Party. Over the years other women presidential candidates have included, among the most recent, Leonora Fulani of the American New Alliance Party. But these women were all nominated by small parties and really had no chance to win. Just this week, Carol Moseley Braun officially launched her campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president in next year's election. In nineteen-ninety-two she made history as the first black woman elected to the Senate. Now she is the only woman among ten Democratic candidates. Historians say a woman did act as president for a short time, in nineteen-nineteen. Edith Galt Wilson was the wife of President Woodrow Wilson. He was very sick for about six months. During that time, Missus Wilson controlled who saw her husband and when. She read all his documents and decided which would go to the president to consider. She later wrote that her husband’s doctor thought this would be a way to help him regain his health. President Wilson left office when his term ended in nineteen-twenty-one. Today, experts say it is not a question if Americans will elect a woman president, but when. Some expect the Democratic Party to nominate New York Senator Hillary Clinton within the next ten years. And North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole is named as a possible presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Johnny Cash (MUSIC – "Cry, Cry, Cry") HOST: The music of Johnny Cash lives on in the more than fifty-million records he sold during his lifetime. Johnny Cash died earlier this month at the age of seventy-one. He had suffered for years from the effects of diabetes. Faith Lapidus remembers his life and his music. ANNCR: Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas, in the South, in nineteen-thirty-two. His father was a cotton farmer. As a boy, Johnny Cash helped on the farm. He also sang on local radio. After high school he joined the Air Force. He was sent to Germany, where he began to write songs, including one of his greatest hits, “Folsom Prison Blues.” (MUSIC) Johnny Cash signed with a record company after he left the Air Force. Here is "I Walk the Line," his nineteen-fifty-six release which sold two-million copies. (MUSIC) Johnny Cash often sang about his inner struggles. His music could be as dark as the clothes that earned him the name "the man in black." For years he had problems with alcohol and drugs. A lot of people thought he had been in prison. But he only spent one night in jail. In all, Johnny Cash recorded more then one-thousand-five-hundred songs -- and not just country music. He also sang religious songs, rock-and-roll and blues. He won eleven Grammy awards. And he is honored in both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley is the only other singer with that honor. Johnny Cash continued to record until the very end of his life. Last month, he received an MTV Music Award for his performance in a current video. In it, he sings a song by the rock group Nine Inch Nails. We leave you now with Johnny Cash singing “Hurt.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I hope you enjoyed our program. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – World Parks Congress
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 26, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Environment Report. Three-thousand activists, scientists, community leaders and government officials attended the fifth World Parks Congress. The ten-day conference ended last week in Durban, South Africa. It is held every ten years by the World Conservation Union. Delegates learned of success in meeting a goal to expand protected areas. More than ten percent of the surface of Earth is now officially protected. A World Conservation Union official said this progress was the result of agreements at the last congress, in Caracas, Venezuela. But an official of Conservation International called the system far from complete. He said tropical islands especially face a severe threat from expanding populations of humans. Less than one percent of the area of the world's oceans is protected. Delegates approved thirty-two proposals in the Durban Accord and Action Plan. The measures are designed to support three basic ideas. One is the importance of gaining the cooperation of people who live near protected areas. Another is the recognition that protected areas do more than protect species. They also provide services to the environment like clean water. And the third idea is to recognize that administrators of protected areas need guidance, training and other tools to reach their goals. Some nations announced plans to increase the amount of protected areas. Madagascar announced plans for a major increase. Senegal declared its first protected areas for fisheries and other marine life. And the Brazilian state of Amapa said it is linking protected areas to form a new ten-million kilometer area. It will cover the world’s largest tropical rainforest park, and will be a little larger than Portugal. Other announcements were also made in Durban. South Africa, for example, said it would excuse protected areas from land taxes. This past April, South Africa announced plans to establish five new national parks. Other groups at the meeting promised money, supplies or technical expertise for conservation efforts. The World Conservation Union, the Nature Conservancy and WWF International announced a joint effort against forest fires. They call it a Global Fire Partnership. They say it aims to prevent the kind of destructive fires that happened earlier this year in North America, Europe and other areas of the world. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Islamic Court in Nigeria Frees Woman
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 27, 2003 From VOA Special English, this is Steve Ember with In the News. This week an Islamic court in northern Nigeria freed a woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for illegal sexual relations. Four of the five judges voted to cancel the sentence against Amina Lawal. They said there were problems with her trial. The Shariah Court of Appeals in the town of Katsina announced the final judgment in the case on Thursday. Amina Lawal is thirty-one years old. She gave birth to a girl two years after she ended her marriage. She was charged with having sex with a man other than her husband. Adultery is punishable by death under Islamic law known as Sharia. Mizz Lawal would have been buried up to her neck in sand and executed by stoning. Sharia is observed in twelve of Nigeria’s thirty-six states. It is based on the teachings of the Koran, the Islamic holy book. An Islamic court found Amina Lawal guilty in March of two-thousand-two. International human rights groups condemned the ruling. So did women's groups in Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo called for mercy. Last week, Brazil offered Mizz Lawal asylum. Judges rejected her first appeal in August of two-thousand-two. On Thursday, however, the Sharia appeals court supported her. The court said she did not understand the charges against her and did not have enough chance to defend herself. The court also said rules for trying such cases had not been followed. Mizz Lawal said the man she identified as her sexual partner had promised to marry her. Yahaya Mohammed said he was innocent. He was not charged, but could also have faced death by stoning. Mizz Lawal was the second Nigerian woman condemned to death for adultery under Islamic law. The first also had her sentence overturned on appeal. Twelve states approved Sharia in northern Nigeria when the country returned from military to civilian rule in nineteen-ninety-nine. The law is not used in cases involving Christians. But the practice of Islamic law in those states has led to violence between Christians and Muslims. The clashes have killed more than three-thousand people. Many countries use Shariah in family cases. But only a few, like Saudi Arabia and Iran, use it in criminal cases. Afghanistan used it under Taliban rule. Many Muslims in northern Nigeria have welcomed Sharia. They say it is an important part of their religion and helps prevent crime. But human rights groups and other critics call the system severe and unfair. They say it is out of place in a democratic republic. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa, one-hundred-twenty million. Some groups have urged President Obasanjo to help end the practice of Sharia. So far Mister Obasanjo, a Christian, has not taken action against Sharia courts. But he has promised that no stoning will be carried out in Nigeria. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Madam C.J. Walker
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 28, 2003 (Theme) Broadcast: September 28, 2003 (Theme) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Madam C. J.Walker. She was a businesswoman, the first female African American to become very rich. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Madam C. J.Walker. She was a businesswoman, the first female African American to become very rich. (Theme) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-hundreds, life for most African-Americans was very difficult. Mobs of white people attacked and killed black people. It was legal to separate groups of people by race. Women, both black and white, did not have the same rights as men. Black women worked very long hours for little wages. They worked mostly as servants or farm workers. Or they washed clothes. Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years. She then started her own business of developing and selling hair-care products for black women. Madam Walker, however, did more than build a successful business. Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty. Her business also gave work to many black women. And, she helped other people, especially black artists and civil rights supporters. She said, "My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself. I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others. " VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker was very poor for most of her life. She was born Sarah Breedlove in the southern state of Louisiana in eighteen-sixty-seven. Her parents were former slaves. The family lived and worked on a cotton farm along the Mississippi River. Cotton was a crop that grew well in the rich, dark soil near the river. Most children of slaves did not go to school. They had to work. By the time Sarah was five years old, she was picking cotton in the fields with her family. She also helped her mother and sister earn money by washing clothes for white people. There was no water or machine to wash clothes in their home. The water from the Mississippi River was too dirty. So, they used rainwater. Sarah helped her mother and sister carry water to fill big wooden containers. They heated the water over the fire. Then they rubbed the clothes on flat pieces of wood, squeezed out the water and hung each piece to dry. It was hard work. The wet clothes were heavy, and the soap had lye in it. Lye is a strong substance that cleaned the clothes well. But it hurt people's skin. VOICE ONE: When Sarah was seven years old, her parents died of the disease yellow fever. She and her sister moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams. They had a daughter after they were married for three years. They named their daughter Lelia. Two years later, Moses McWilliams died in an accident. Sarah was alone with her baby. She decided to move to Saint Louis, Missouri. She had heard that washerwomen earned more money there. Sarah washed clothes all day. At night, she went to school to get the education she had missed as a child. She also made sure that her daughter Lelia went to school. Sarah saved enough money to send Lelia to college. Sarah began to think about how she was going to continue to earn money in the future. What was she going to do when she grew old and her back grew weak? She also worried about her hair. It was dry and broken. Her hair was falling out in some places on her head. Sarah tried different products to improve her hair but nothing worked. Then she got an idea. If she could create a hair product that worked for her, she could start her own business. VOICE TWO: At the age of thirty-seven, Sarah invented a mixture that helped her hair and made curly hair straight. Some people believe that Sarah studied the hair product she used and added her own "secret" substance. But Sarah said she invented the mixture with God's help. By solving her hair problem, she had found a way to improve her life. Sarah decided to move west to Denver, Colorado. She did not want to compete with companies in Saint Louis that made hair-care products. For the first time in her life, Sarah left the area along the Mississippi River where she was born. Sarah found a job in Denver as a cook. She cooked and washed clothes during the day. At night she worked on her hair products. She tested them on herself and on her friends. The products helped their hair. Sarah began selling her products from house to house. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-six, she married Charles Joseph Walker. He was a newspaperman who had become her friend and adviser. From then on, Sarah used the name madam C. J. Walker. Madam Walker organized women to sell her hair treatment. She established Walker schools of beauty culture throughout the country to train the saleswomen. The saleswomen became known as "Walker Agents. " They became popular in black communities throughout the United States. Madam Walker worked hard at her business. She traveled to many American cities to help sell her products. She also traveled to the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Panama, and Cuba. Her products had become popular there too. (Theme) VOICE ONE: In the early nineteen-hundreds, life for most African-Americans was very difficult. Mobs of white people attacked and killed black people. It was legal to separate groups of people by race. Women, both black and white, did not have the same rights as men. Black women worked very long hours for little wages. They worked mostly as servants or farm workers. Or they washed clothes. Madam C. J. Walker worked as a washerwoman for twenty years. She then started her own business of developing and selling hair-care products for black women. Madam Walker, however, did more than build a successful business. Her products helped women have a better sense of their own beauty. Her business also gave work to many black women. And, she helped other people, especially black artists and civil rights supporters. She said, "My object in life is not simply to make money for myself or to spend it on myself. I love to use a part of what I make in trying to help others. " VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker was very poor for most of her life. She was born Sarah Breedlove in the southern state of Louisiana in eighteen-sixty-seven. Her parents were former slaves. The family lived and worked on a cotton farm along the Mississippi River. Cotton was a crop that grew well in the rich, dark soil near the river. Most children of slaves did not go to school. They had to work. By the time Sarah was five years old, she was picking cotton in the fields with her family. She also helped her mother and sister earn money by washing clothes for white people. There was no water or machine to wash clothes in their home. The water from the Mississippi River was too dirty. So, they used rainwater. Sarah helped her mother and sister carry water to fill big wooden containers. They heated the water over the fire. Then they rubbed the clothes on flat pieces of wood, squeezed out the water and hung each piece to dry. It was hard work. The wet clothes were heavy, and the soap had lye in it. Lye is a strong substance that cleaned the clothes well. But it hurt people's skin. VOICE ONE: When Sarah was seven years old, her parents died of the disease yellow fever. She and her sister moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. At the age of fourteen, Sarah married Moses McWilliams. They had a daughter after they were married for three years. They named their daughter Lelia. Two years later, Moses McWilliams died in an accident. Sarah was alone with her baby. She decided to move to Saint Louis, Missouri. She had heard that washerwomen earned more money there. Sarah washed clothes all day. At night, she went to school to get the education she had missed as a child. She also made sure that her daughter Lelia went to school. Sarah saved enough money to send Lelia to college. Sarah began to think about how she was going to continue to earn money in the future. What was she going to do when she grew old and her back grew weak? She also worried about her hair. It was dry and broken. Her hair was falling out in some places on her head. Sarah tried different products to improve her hair but nothing worked. Then she got an idea. If she could create a hair product that worked for her, she could start her own business. VOICE TWO: At the age of thirty-seven, Sarah invented a mixture that helped her hair and made curly hair straight. Some people believe that Sarah studied the hair product she used and added her own "secret" substance. But Sarah said she invented the mixture with God's help. By solving her hair problem, she had found a way to improve her life. Sarah decided to move west to Denver, Colorado. She did not want to compete with companies in Saint Louis that made hair-care products. For the first time in her life, Sarah left the area along the Mississippi River where she was born. Sarah found a job in Denver as a cook. She cooked and washed clothes during the day. At night she worked on her hair products. She tested them on herself and on her friends. The products helped their hair. Sarah began selling her products from house to house. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-six, she married Charles Joseph Walker. He was a newspaperman who had become her friend and adviser. From then on, Sarah used the name madam C. J. Walker. Madam Walker organized women to sell her hair treatment. She established Walker schools of beauty culture throughout the country to train the saleswomen. The saleswomen became known as "Walker Agents. " They became popular in black communities throughout the United States. Madam Walker worked hard at her business. She traveled to many American cities to help sell her products. She also traveled to the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Panama, and Cuba. Her products had become popular there too. VOICE TWO: Madam Walker's business grew quickly. It soon was employing three-thousand people. Black women who could not attend her schools could learn the Walker hair care method through a course by mail. Hundreds, and later thousands, of black women learned her hair-care methods. Madam Walker's products helped these women earn money to educate their children, build homes and start businesses. Madam Walker was very proud of what she had done. She said that she had made it possible "for many colored women to abandon the washtub for more pleasant and profitable occupations. " VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-eight, Madam Walker moved her business east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was closer to cities on the Atlantic coast with large black populations, cities such as New York, Washington, D. C. and Baltimore. Two years later, she established a laboratory and a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, her products were developed and made. Some people criticized Madam Walker's products. They accused her of straightening black women's hair to make it look like white women's hair. Some black clergymen said that if black people were supposed to have straight hair, God would have given it to them. But Madam Walker said her purpose was to help women have healthy hair. She also said cleanliness was important. She established rules for cleanliness for her employees. Her rules later led to state laws covering jobs involving beauty treatment. VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker became very rich and famous. She enjoyed her new life. She also shared her money. She became one of the few black people at the time wealthy enough to give huge amounts of money to help people and organizations. She gave money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to churches and to cultural centers. Madam Walker also supported many black artists and writers. And, she worked hard to end violations against the rights of black people. In nineteen-seventeen, she was part of a group that went to Washington, D. C. to meet with President Woodrow Wilson. The group urged him and Congress to make mob violence a federal crime. In nineteen-eighteen, Madam Walker finally settled in a town near New York City where she built a large, beautiful house. She continued her work, but her health began to weaken. Her doctors advised her to slow down. But she would not listen. She died the next year. She was fifty-one years old. VOICE ONE: Madam C. J. Walker never forgot where she came from. Nor did she stop dreaming of how life could be. At a meeting of the National Negro Business League, Madam Walker explained that she was a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. "I was promoted from there to the washtub," she said. "Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground. " She not only improved her own life, but that of other women in similar situations. Madam C. J. Walker explained it this way, "If I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. " (Theme) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: Madam Walker's business grew quickly. It soon was employing three-thousand people. Black women who could not attend her schools could learn the Walker hair care method through a course by mail. Hundreds, and later thousands, of black women learned her hair-care methods. Madam Walker's products helped these women earn money to educate their children, build homes and start businesses. Madam Walker was very proud of what she had done. She said that she had made it possible "for many colored women to abandon the washtub for more pleasant and profitable occupations. " VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-eight, Madam Walker moved her business east to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh was closer to cities on the Atlantic coast with large black populations, cities such as New York, Washington, D. C. and Baltimore. Two years later, she established a laboratory and a factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. There, her products were developed and made. Some people criticized Madam Walker's products. They accused her of straightening black women's hair to make it look like white women's hair. Some black clergymen said that if black people were supposed to have straight hair, God would have given it to them. But Madam Walker said her purpose was to help women have healthy hair. She also said cleanliness was important. She established rules for cleanliness for her employees. Her rules later led to state laws covering jobs involving beauty treatment. VOICE TWO: Madam C. J. Walker became very rich and famous. She enjoyed her new life. She also shared her money. She became one of the few black people at the time wealthy enough to give huge amounts of money to help people and organizations. She gave money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to churches and to cultural centers. Madam Walker also supported many black artists and writers. And, she worked hard to end violations against the rights of black people. In nineteen-seventeen, she was part of a group that went to Washington, D. C. to meet with President Woodrow Wilson. The group urged him and Congress to make mob violence a federal crime. In nineteen-eighteen, Madam Walker finally settled in a town near New York City where she built a large, beautiful house. She continued her work, but her health began to weaken. Her doctors advised her to slow down. But she would not listen. She died the next year. She was fifty-one years old. VOICE ONE: Madam C. J. Walker never forgot where she came from. Nor did she stop dreaming of how life could be. At a meeting of the National Negro Business League, Madam Walker explained that she was a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. "I was promoted from there to the washtub," she said. "Then I was promoted to the cook kitchen, and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations. I have built my own factory on my own ground. " She not only improved her own life, but that of other women in similar situations. Madam C. J. Walker explained it this way, "If I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. " (Theme) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – World Bank Calls for Better Public Services
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 29, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank says the poor quality of public services in developing countries is hurting world economic growth. This finding is based on a year of study of successes and failures involving services in different countries. The World Bank says better services would reduce the divide between rich and poor people. This means better health care, education, electricity, water and waste treatment services. The main message of the World Bank report is “Making Services Work for the Poor.” The report proposes three steps to improve public services. First is the suggestion that poor people be given more choice and involvement in the services provided. The report says poor people should be empowered to demand better services by putting pressure on elected politicians. And the report calls for a system to reward or punish service providers. The World Bank says that through this system, service providers would have to answer to the government and to the public. The report was released last week before the yearly meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Officials from more than one-hundred-eighty nations gathered in Dubai. The delegates discussed a number of issues during the two-day meeting. These included efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals. One goal is to cut world poverty in half by two-thousand-fifteen. That is the same goal for the number of people who cannot read or write. In addition to improving services, many people believe an important way to help developing nations is to increase trade with richer ones. Two years ago, in Doha, Qatar, the World Trade Organization agreed to begin a new series of negotiations to reduce trade barriers. Member nations agreed to work for completion by two-thousand-five. The latest talks, however, ended in disagreement earlier this month in Cancun, Mexico. Delegates argued over aid to farmers in wealthy countries. Some delegates walked out of the meetings. They said wealthy counties were not making enough compromises to help poor nations. They say development problems in the poorest countries are likely to continue until the issue of trade barriers is solved. A high-level WTO meeting is planned in Geneva by December fifteenth. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Robert Cohen. Broadcast: September 29, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Bank says the poor quality of public services in developing countries is hurting world economic growth. This finding is based on a year of study of successes and failures involving services in different countries. The World Bank says better services would reduce the divide between rich and poor people. This means better health care, education, electricity, water and waste treatment services. The main message of the World Bank report is “Making Services Work for the Poor.” The report proposes three steps to improve public services. First is the suggestion that poor people be given more choice and involvement in the services provided. The report says poor people should be empowered to demand better services by putting pressure on elected politicians. And the report calls for a system to reward or punish service providers. The World Bank says that through this system, service providers would have to answer to the government and to the public. The report was released last week before the yearly meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Officials from more than one-hundred-eighty nations gathered in Dubai. The delegates discussed a number of issues during the two-day meeting. These included efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals. One goal is to cut world poverty in half by two-thousand-fifteen. That is the same goal for the number of people who cannot read or write. In addition to improving services, many people believe an important way to help developing nations is to increase trade with richer ones. Two years ago, in Doha, Qatar, the World Trade Organization agreed to begin a new series of negotiations to reduce trade barriers. Member nations agreed to work for completion by two-thousand-five. The latest talks, however, ended in disagreement earlier this month in Cancun, Mexico. Delegates argued over aid to farmers in wealthy countries. Some delegates walked out of the meetings. They said wealthy counties were not making enough compromises to help poor nations. They say development problems in the poorest countries are likely to continue until the issue of trade barriers is solved. A high-level WTO meeting is planned in Geneva by December fifteenth. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I'm Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Laura Bush and  Other First Ladies
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 29, 2003 (MUSIC) Hillary Rodham Clinton Broadcast: September 29, 2003 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The wife of the United States president has no duties or powers under the law, but has an important place in America. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about First Lady Laura Bush and other wives of presidents, this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National First Ladies Library in Canton, Ohio, recently opened an education and research center. Laura Bush spoke at the event. Missus Bush, the wife of the forty-third president, talked about other first ladies in history. She remembered how Bess Truman, the wife of the thirty-third president, had described the duty of a first lady. Harry Truman served in office from nineteen-forty-five until nineteen-fifty-three. His wife said the job of the first lady is to sit quietly in public next to her husband and make sure her hat is on straight. Missus Bush said some people agree with this. But, she added, the fact is first ladies have made and changed history. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand-one, for example, Laura Bush became the only first lady to give a full presidential radio message. She spoke in place of her husband in his weekly talk. She described the poor conditions for women and children in Afghanistan under Taleban rule. Laura Bush is a former teacher and librarian. She and her husband moved into the White House in January of two-thousand-one. Since then she has spent a lot of time on educational issues. Missus Bush has launched a national campaign called Ready to Read, Ready to Learn. It places great importance on reading to children to prepare them for school. VOICE ONE: Laura Bush has also started the National Book Festival in Washington. The first one took place on September eighth, two-thousand-one. About thirty-thousand people came to enjoy storytelling, readings, musical performances and book-signings. The Library of Congress gathered writers and artists from across the United States. The third National Book Festival will be held this year on October fourth. This interest in reading follows a tradition set by another first lady, Barbara Bush -- the mother of the current president. Barbara Bush is the wife of George Herbert Walker Bush, America‘s forty-first president. They lived in the White House from nineteen-eighty-nine until nineteen-ninety-three. She continues to serve as honorary chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. That group has awarded millions of dollars to programs across the country. VOICE TWO: Laura Bush was born Laura Welch in Midland, Texas, in nineteen-forty-six. She developed an interest in reading as a young child. She completed her studies in education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in nineteen-sixty-eight. Then she taught school until nineteen-seventy-two. The next year she earned a master's degree in library science at the University of Texas at Austin. She met George Walker Bush in Austin in nineteen-seventy-seven. They married in Midland a few months later. In nineteen-eighty-one they had twin daughters. Jenna and Barbara are now college students. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Historically, many first ladies limited their activities. They organized dinners for important guests. Or they welcomed groups to the White House. But other first ladies have been activists. Hillary Rodham Clinton is now a United States senator from New York. No other first lady has ever been elected to office. She campaigned for the Senate during her last days in the White House. Her husband, Bill Clinton, was America’s forty-second president. He served two terms, from nineteen-ninety-three until two-thousand-one. Hillary Clinton led the efforts in her husband's administration to enact a health care reform plan. That plan died in Congress. As first lady she was also active in children's issues. And she supported her husband during his impeachment trial in nineteen-ninety-nine. The Senate cleared him of charges that he lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a young White House worker. Hillary Clinton and her husband also both faced accusations of dishonesty in their past financial dealings. She was called to give evidence while first lady. The accusations never resulted in charges. Hillary Clinton has many critics. But she also has many supporters. Many people believe she will run for president herself someday. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eleanor Roosevelt was another activist. She was married to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was elected president four times, and served until his death in nineteen-forty-five. (The Constitution now says presidents can serve only two terms.) Franklin Roosevelt guided the nation through the great economic depression and most of World War Two. Much of the public also liked Eleanor Roosevelt. She did humanitarian work. She worked to improve human rights for women and minorities. She spoke throughout the country about major issues. But she, too, was often criticized. Some people did not think a first lady should influence public policy. VOICE ONE: Sometimes President Roosevelt joked about his wife's influence. In nineteen-thirty-three, he named a woman to the Cabinet for the first time ever. Union leaders opposed the appointment of Frances Perkins as labor secretary. But Missus Roosevelt supported her. Later Missus Roosevelt said she was sorry for the problems her husband had with the union officials. But Franklin said he would rather have an hour of trouble with union officials than trouble with Eleanor for the rest of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early in American history, Abigail Smith Adams was first lady. Her husband, John Adams, was the second president of the United States. This was in the late seventeen-hundreds. Missus Adams expressed strong opinions. Critics had a name for her. They called her "Missus President." But one first lady did more than influence her husband's decisions. For months, Edith Wilson made the decisions. Her husband was Woodrow Wilson, America's twenty-eighth president. He suffered a stroke in nineteen-nineteen. Edith Wilson performed many presidential duties while her husband was sick. So, for a time, Missus Wilson was America's unofficial president. VOICE ONE: Social duties are a part of life for any first lady. Dolley Payne Madison was famous for her parties even before she became first lady. She was the wife of James Madison, America's fourth president. He had been secretary of state to President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's wife died, so Dolley Madison helped him entertain visitors. Dolley Madison probably is best known for what she did when the British invaded Washington. That happened during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. When the British burned the White House, Dolley Madison fled with important government documents. She also removed a painting of America's first president, George Washington. Martha Washington had not enjoyed being first lady as much as Dolley Madison did. Martha Washington once said, "I am more like a state prisoner than anything else. There are limits set for me which I must not move past. And, as I cannot do as I like, I resist and stay home a great deal." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One modern first lady said she wanted to live a private life. Instead Jacqueline Bouvier (boo-vee-AY) Kennedy became one of the most famous first ladies ever. She was married to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. They moved into the White House in nineteen-sixty-one. Jackie Kennedy was young and beautiful. Her picture was always in the press. During a state visit to France, she became very popular with the French people. This caused the president to describe himself as the man who came with Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris. VOICE ONE: Each time the wife of a new president enters the White House, she redefines the job of first lady. Someday there may be a complete redefinition. If so, Americans will have to decide what to call the person married to the president. "First gentleman" perhaps? (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: The wife of the United States president has no duties or powers under the law, but has an important place in America. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about First Lady Laura Bush and other wives of presidents, this week on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The National First Ladies Library in Canton, Ohio, recently opened an education and research center. Laura Bush spoke at the event. Missus Bush, the wife of the forty-third president, talked about other first ladies in history. She remembered how Bess Truman, the wife of the thirty-third president, had described the duty of a first lady. Harry Truman served in office from nineteen-forty-five until nineteen-fifty-three. His wife said the job of the first lady is to sit quietly in public next to her husband and make sure her hat is on straight. Missus Bush said some people agree with this. But, she added, the fact is first ladies have made and changed history. VOICE TWO: In two-thousand-one, for example, Laura Bush became the only first lady to give a full presidential radio message. She spoke in place of her husband in his weekly talk. She described the poor conditions for women and children in Afghanistan under Taleban rule. Laura Bush is a former teacher and librarian. She and her husband moved into the White House in January of two-thousand-one. Since then she has spent a lot of time on educational issues. Missus Bush has launched a national campaign called Ready to Read, Ready to Learn. It places great importance on reading to children to prepare them for school. VOICE ONE: Laura Bush has also started the National Book Festival in Washington. The first one took place on September eighth, two-thousand-one. About thirty-thousand people came to enjoy storytelling, readings, musical performances and book-signings. The Library of Congress gathered writers and artists from across the United States. The third National Book Festival will be held this year on October fourth. This interest in reading follows a tradition set by another first lady, Barbara Bush -- the mother of the current president. Barbara Bush is the wife of George Herbert Walker Bush, America‘s forty-first president. They lived in the White House from nineteen-eighty-nine until nineteen-ninety-three. She continues to serve as honorary chairman of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. That group has awarded millions of dollars to programs across the country. VOICE TWO: Laura Bush was born Laura Welch in Midland, Texas, in nineteen-forty-six. She developed an interest in reading as a young child. She completed her studies in education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in nineteen-sixty-eight. Then she taught school until nineteen-seventy-two. The next year she earned a master's degree in library science at the University of Texas at Austin. She met George Walker Bush in Austin in nineteen-seventy-seven. They married in Midland a few months later. In nineteen-eighty-one they had twin daughters. Jenna and Barbara are now college students. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Historically, many first ladies limited their activities. They organized dinners for important guests. Or they welcomed groups to the White House. But other first ladies have been activists. Hillary Rodham Clinton is now a United States senator from New York. No other first lady has ever been elected to office. She campaigned for the Senate during her last days in the White House. Her husband, Bill Clinton, was America’s forty-second president. He served two terms, from nineteen-ninety-three until two-thousand-one. Hillary Clinton led the efforts in her husband's administration to enact a health care reform plan. That plan died in Congress. As first lady she was also active in children's issues. And she supported her husband during his impeachment trial in nineteen-ninety-nine. The Senate cleared him of charges that he lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a young White House worker. Hillary Clinton and her husband also both faced accusations of dishonesty in their past financial dealings. She was called to give evidence while first lady. The accusations never resulted in charges. Hillary Clinton has many critics. But she also has many supporters. Many people believe she will run for president herself someday. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Eleanor Roosevelt was another activist. She was married to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was elected president four times, and served until his death in nineteen-forty-five. (The Constitution now says presidents can serve only two terms.) Franklin Roosevelt guided the nation through the great economic depression and most of World War Two. Much of the public also liked Eleanor Roosevelt. She did humanitarian work. She worked to improve human rights for women and minorities. She spoke throughout the country about major issues. But she, too, was often criticized. Some people did not think a first lady should influence public policy. VOICE ONE: Sometimes President Roosevelt joked about his wife's influence. In nineteen-thirty-three, he named a woman to the Cabinet for the first time ever. Union leaders opposed the appointment of Frances Perkins as labor secretary. But Missus Roosevelt supported her. Later Missus Roosevelt said she was sorry for the problems her husband had with the union officials. But Franklin said he would rather have an hour of trouble with union officials than trouble with Eleanor for the rest of his life. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Early in American history, Abigail Smith Adams was first lady. Her husband, John Adams, was the second president of the United States. This was in the late seventeen-hundreds. Missus Adams expressed strong opinions. Critics had a name for her. They called her "Missus President." But one first lady did more than influence her husband's decisions. For months, Edith Wilson made the decisions. Her husband was Woodrow Wilson, America's twenty-eighth president. He suffered a stroke in nineteen-nineteen. Edith Wilson performed many presidential duties while her husband was sick. So, for a time, Missus Wilson was America's unofficial president. VOICE ONE: Social duties are a part of life for any first lady. Dolley Payne Madison was famous for her parties even before she became first lady. She was the wife of James Madison, America's fourth president. He had been secretary of state to President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's wife died, so Dolley Madison helped him entertain visitors. Dolley Madison probably is best known for what she did when the British invaded Washington. That happened during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. When the British burned the White House, Dolley Madison fled with important government documents. She also removed a painting of America's first president, George Washington. Martha Washington had not enjoyed being first lady as much as Dolley Madison did. Martha Washington once said, "I am more like a state prisoner than anything else. There are limits set for me which I must not move past. And, as I cannot do as I like, I resist and stay home a great deal." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: One modern first lady said she wanted to live a private life. Instead Jacqueline Bouvier (boo-vee-AY) Kennedy became one of the most famous first ladies ever. She was married to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. They moved into the White House in nineteen-sixty-one. Jackie Kennedy was young and beautiful. Her picture was always in the press. During a state visit to France, she became very popular with the French people. This caused the president to describe himself as the man who came with Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris. VOICE ONE: Each time the wife of a new president enters the White House, she redefines the job of first lady. Someday there may be a complete redefinition. If so, Americans will have to decide what to call the person married to the president. "First gentleman" perhaps? (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report on the powerful storms of this past month ... news of a new dinosaur, and the oldest modern European ... and, a look at one way feeling happy may be good for the health. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, South Korea was hit by its strongest ocean storm since records began a century ago. At least one-hundred-seventeen people were killed in Typhoon Maemi. And there were damage estimates of four thousand million dollars. The following week, Hurricane Isabel tore into the mid-Atlantic coast of the eastern United States. American officials said the powerful storm was responsible for at least forty deaths. And, in northwestern Mexico, Hurricane Marty was blamed last week for five deaths. Hurricanes and typhoons are the same thing. Weather scientists call them hurricanes when the storms develop east of the International Date Line. They call them typhoons when the storms happen west of the date line. And they call the same kind of powerful ocean storm a cyclone when it forms in the Indian Ocean. Weather experts use these names to describe storms that have winds of more than one-hundred-twenty kilometers an hour. VOICE TWO: Experts in different countries are responsible for observing storm movements and warning people about any danger. Warning centers are found in twenty-two places. These include Bangladesh, Burma, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States. Technology has given weather experts better tools to do their job. Satellites observe weather conditions from space. Radar systems gather information from the ground. Airplanes can drop special instruments into storms. These devices record information about air movements. VOICE ONE: Weather experts have gotten better in recent years at telling where an ocean storm will hit land. But they say they still need to improve their ability to tell how powerful the storm will be when it gets there. They say part of the problem is because the storms develop over water. This makes it more difficult to measure exact conditions. However, scientists are working to improve their ability to tell what is happening inside a storm. They say this should lead to better predictions of the intensity. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Scientists in Switzerland have announced the newest discovery of a set of dinosaur footprints in the Jura mountains. They say the prints were found along several ancient paths near the village of Chevenez. The footprints suggest that the dinosaurs were probably three to four meters high. Scientists believe the dinosaurs that left them were sauropods. Sauropods are among the biggest animals ever. They had huge bodies with very small heads at the end of long necks. They also had long, powerful tails. Sauropods ate plants. The prints are believed to be about one-hundred-fifty million years old. They would have been left during the Jurassic Period. That time in Earth's history is named for the Jura mountains. The area is shared by Switzerland and France. Scientists have found many fossils of similar age there. The Jurassic period began about one-hundred-eighty-million years ago. It lasted about fifty million years. VOICE ONE: Sauropods were on Earth long before the Jurassic period. In fact, scientists in South Africa recently announced the oldest known sauropod fossils. The bones are about two-hundred-twenty-million years old. They date back to the middle of the Triassic period. James Kitching is a widely known fossil hunter at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. He found the bones of the two-ton creature in nineteen-eighty-one. But they were wrongly identified at the time as belonging to an ancestor of sauropods. Recently another scientist at Witwatersrand, Adam Yates, re-examined the bones. He decided that they represented a new kind of sauropod. VOICE TWO: Mister Yates named the new sauropod Antetonitrus (ant-ee-tone-ite-rus). That is Latin for “before the thunder.” The name connects the dinosaur to a well-known plant eater that came later. Brontosaurus is a Latin word meaning “thunder lizard.” Scientists knew that plant-eating dinosaurs with four legs, like sauropods, developed from older ones with two legs. Mister Yates says Antetonitrus walked on four legs but still had the ability like its ancestors to hold things. Adam Yates and James Kitching worked together on the new study. The Proceedings of the Royal Society in Britain published their research. VOICE ONE: Fossil researchers in the United States also made an announcement recently. They believe they have identified the oldest known fossil in Europe of a modern human. They say the jawbone is from the mouth of someone who lived around thirty-five-thousand years ago. Three Romanian cave explorers found the jawbone last year in the Carpathian mountains of Romania. Other face and head bones were found in the same cave earlier this year. Scientists used the process called radiocarbon dating to find the age of the jawbone. They say they expect to find the other bones the same age. Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, was one of the two leaders of the research. He says the bones show some qualities found in earlier periods of human development. He says not only is the face very large, but so are the jaws and the teeth. This is especially true of the wisdom teeth at the back of the mouth. VOICE TWO: Mister Trinkaus says the bones possibly show that early modern humans and Neanderthals had children together. At the time, early modern humans existed with Neanderthals as that species was disappearing in Europe. But scientists disagree about whether the two groups mixed. Mister Trinkaus and Romanian researcher Oana Moldovan reported their results in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Journal of Human Evolution will publish a separate report later. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: A small study in the United States shows how brain activity may influence the body’s defenses against disease. The findings also appear in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Richard Davidson led the study. He directs the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Professor Davidson and his team worked with fifty-two people chosen from a long-term health study. All were between the ages of fifty-seven and sixty. The team wanted to study electrical activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Earlier studies linked increased activity in the right side of this area with depression, anger and sadness. Greater activity in the left side has been linked with happier emotions. The team asked the people to think about two events – one that made them happy and another that made them sad, fearful or angry. Each time, the researchers measured the electrical activity in both sides of the prefrontal cortex. VOICE TWO: Next, the people received injections of vaccine against the influenza virus. Like other vaccines, it is designed to increase the number of antibodies in a person's defense system. Antibodies fight infection. The researchers wanted to know if the people who showed more activity in the left side would also show greater protection after the vaccine. Over the next six months, the researchers took blood from the fifty-two people to count the antibodies against influenza. They found higher levels of antibodies in the people who had more activity in the left side instead of the right side. The left side of the prefrontal area in the brain is the side linked to happier emotions. Professor Davidson at the University of Wisconsin says the study helps show how the mind can influence the body. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: September 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is the VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. VOICE TWO: This week -- a report on the powerful storms of this past month ... news of a new dinosaur, and the oldest modern European ... and, a look at one way feeling happy may be good for the health. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, South Korea was hit by its strongest ocean storm since records began a century ago. At least one-hundred-seventeen people were killed in Typhoon Maemi. And there were damage estimates of four thousand million dollars. The following week, Hurricane Isabel tore into the mid-Atlantic coast of the eastern United States. American officials said the powerful storm was responsible for at least forty deaths. And, in northwestern Mexico, Hurricane Marty was blamed last week for five deaths. Hurricanes and typhoons are the same thing. Weather scientists call them hurricanes when the storms develop east of the International Date Line. They call them typhoons when the storms happen west of the date line. And they call the same kind of powerful ocean storm a cyclone when it forms in the Indian Ocean. Weather experts use these names to describe storms that have winds of more than one-hundred-twenty kilometers an hour. VOICE TWO: Experts in different countries are responsible for observing storm movements and warning people about any danger. Warning centers are found in twenty-two places. These include Bangladesh, Burma, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States. Technology has given weather experts better tools to do their job. Satellites observe weather conditions from space. Radar systems gather information from the ground. Airplanes can drop special instruments into storms. These devices record information about air movements. VOICE ONE: Weather experts have gotten better in recent years at telling where an ocean storm will hit land. But they say they still need to improve their ability to tell how powerful the storm will be when it gets there. They say part of the problem is because the storms develop over water. This makes it more difficult to measure exact conditions. However, scientists are working to improve their ability to tell what is happening inside a storm. They say this should lead to better predictions of the intensity. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Scientists in Switzerland have announced the newest discovery of a set of dinosaur footprints in the Jura mountains. They say the prints were found along several ancient paths near the village of Chevenez. The footprints suggest that the dinosaurs were probably three to four meters high. Scientists believe the dinosaurs that left them were sauropods. Sauropods are among the biggest animals ever. They had huge bodies with very small heads at the end of long necks. They also had long, powerful tails. Sauropods ate plants. The prints are believed to be about one-hundred-fifty million years old. They would have been left during the Jurassic Period. That time in Earth's history is named for the Jura mountains. The area is shared by Switzerland and France. Scientists have found many fossils of similar age there. The Jurassic period began about one-hundred-eighty-million years ago. It lasted about fifty million years. VOICE ONE: Sauropods were on Earth long before the Jurassic period. In fact, scientists in South Africa recently announced the oldest known sauropod fossils. The bones are about two-hundred-twenty-million years old. They date back to the middle of the Triassic period. James Kitching is a widely known fossil hunter at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. He found the bones of the two-ton creature in nineteen-eighty-one. But they were wrongly identified at the time as belonging to an ancestor of sauropods. Recently another scientist at Witwatersrand, Adam Yates, re-examined the bones. He decided that they represented a new kind of sauropod. VOICE TWO: Mister Yates named the new sauropod Antetonitrus (ant-ee-tone-ite-rus). That is Latin for “before the thunder.” The name connects the dinosaur to a well-known plant eater that came later. Brontosaurus is a Latin word meaning “thunder lizard.” Scientists knew that plant-eating dinosaurs with four legs, like sauropods, developed from older ones with two legs. Mister Yates says Antetonitrus walked on four legs but still had the ability like its ancestors to hold things. Adam Yates and James Kitching worked together on the new study. The Proceedings of the Royal Society in Britain published their research. VOICE ONE: Fossil researchers in the United States also made an announcement recently. They believe they have identified the oldest known fossil in Europe of a modern human. They say the jawbone is from the mouth of someone who lived around thirty-five-thousand years ago. Three Romanian cave explorers found the jawbone last year in the Carpathian mountains of Romania. Other face and head bones were found in the same cave earlier this year. Scientists used the process called radiocarbon dating to find the age of the jawbone. They say they expect to find the other bones the same age. Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, was one of the two leaders of the research. He says the bones show some qualities found in earlier periods of human development. He says not only is the face very large, but so are the jaws and the teeth. This is especially true of the wisdom teeth at the back of the mouth. VOICE TWO: Mister Trinkaus says the bones possibly show that early modern humans and Neanderthals had children together. At the time, early modern humans existed with Neanderthals as that species was disappearing in Europe. But scientists disagree about whether the two groups mixed. Mister Trinkaus and Romanian researcher Oana Moldovan reported their results in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Journal of Human Evolution will publish a separate report later. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: A small study in the United States shows how brain activity may influence the body’s defenses against disease. The findings also appear in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Richard Davidson led the study. He directs the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Professor Davidson and his team worked with fifty-two people chosen from a long-term health study. All were between the ages of fifty-seven and sixty. The team wanted to study electrical activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Earlier studies linked increased activity in the right side of this area with depression, anger and sadness. Greater activity in the left side has been linked with happier emotions. The team asked the people to think about two events – one that made them happy and another that made them sad, fearful or angry. Each time, the researchers measured the electrical activity in both sides of the prefrontal cortex. VOICE TWO: Next, the people received injections of vaccine against the influenza virus. Like other vaccines, it is designed to increase the number of antibodies in a person's defense system. Antibodies fight infection. The researchers wanted to know if the people who showed more activity in the left side would also show greater protection after the vaccine. Over the next six months, the researchers took blood from the fifty-two people to count the antibodies against influenza. They found higher levels of antibodies in the people who had more activity in the left side instead of the right side. The left side of the prefrontal area in the brain is the side linked to happier emotions. Professor Davidson at the University of Wisconsin says the study helps show how the mind can influence the body. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Agroecology, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 30, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This week, we take a suggestion from a listener in Brazil. Agricultural specialist Luiz Augusto Verona in Chapeco would like to hear about agroecology. He says it is a subject that these days "everybody talks about." The word agroecology is generally used to describe farming methods that can be carried out in a way that does not damage the environment. Sustainable development is another term often used in connection with agroecology. Sustainable development methods are designed to save resources. Interest in agroecology has increased in recent years. Now, many universities offer studies in this area. The University of California at Santa Cruz and Pennsylvania State University are just two of the schools that offer agroecology programs. Many agricultural programs are also linking studies in animal biology, soil science and other studies. In many ways agroecology is an answer to the technological movement to increase production of some crops. This movement which developed in the nineteen-sixties and seventies became known as the Green Revolution. Scientists developed ways to make highly productive forms of wheat, corn and rice. Norman Borlaug helped bring about the Green Revolution. Mister Borlaug was an agricultural researcher for the DuPont Company. Later, he went to Mexico where he worked at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. He became the director. He also helped create new kinds of highly productive wheat. Mister Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-seventy for his efforts to develop more productive crops and to train scientists. He remains active in this work today. The Green Revolution produced huge increases in crop size in India, Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines. It has also placed importance on the use of chemical fertilizers and insect poisons, and on the need for new crops. Today’s genetically changed crops are the next step. Agroecology seeks to use scientific knowledge of the environment to make good choices about growing crops. Many experts say it is not competing with the goals of the Green Revolution. They say both have a single goal: to feed the world’s people. Listen next week as we tell more about agroecology. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: September 30, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. This week, we take a suggestion from a listener in Brazil. Agricultural specialist Luiz Augusto Verona in Chapeco would like to hear about agroecology. He says it is a subject that these days "everybody talks about." The word agroecology is generally used to describe farming methods that can be carried out in a way that does not damage the environment. Sustainable development is another term often used in connection with agroecology. Sustainable development methods are designed to save resources. Interest in agroecology has increased in recent years. Now, many universities offer studies in this area. The University of California at Santa Cruz and Pennsylvania State University are just two of the schools that offer agroecology programs. Many agricultural programs are also linking studies in animal biology, soil science and other studies. In many ways agroecology is an answer to the technological movement to increase production of some crops. This movement which developed in the nineteen-sixties and seventies became known as the Green Revolution. Scientists developed ways to make highly productive forms of wheat, corn and rice. Norman Borlaug helped bring about the Green Revolution. Mister Borlaug was an agricultural researcher for the DuPont Company. Later, he went to Mexico where he worked at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. He became the director. He also helped create new kinds of highly productive wheat. Mister Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-seventy for his efforts to develop more productive crops and to train scientists. He remains active in this work today. The Green Revolution produced huge increases in crop size in India, Mexico, Pakistan and the Philippines. It has also placed importance on the use of chemical fertilizers and insect poisons, and on the need for new crops. Today’s genetically changed crops are the next step. Agroecology seeks to use scientific knowledge of the environment to make good choices about growing crops. Many experts say it is not competing with the goals of the Green Revolution. They say both have a single goal: to feed the world’s people. Listen next week as we tell more about agroecology. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXLORATIONS – October 1, 2003: Klondike and Alaska Gold Rush, Part 1
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we begin the first of two programs about the discovery of gold. Huge amounts of gold. Enough gold to make a person extremely rich. Our story begins in an area called the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of western Canada. The discovery took place on a warm August day in eighteen-ninety-six. (THEME) This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we begin the first of two programs about the discovery of gold. Huge amounts of gold. Enough gold to make a person extremely rich. Our story begins in an area called the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of western Canada. The discovery took place on a warm August day in eighteen-ninety-six. (THEME) VOICE ONE: George Carmack and his two Indian friends, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, were working near the edge of a small river in western Canada’s Yukon Territory. The area was just across the border from Alaska, which was owned by the United States. The men were using large steel pans to search for gold. They placed dirt and rocks in a pan and then filled it about half way with water. Slowly, they moved the water around in the pan until most of the dirt and water washed away. This left only very small rocks. This method was a very good way to find small amounts of gold. The three men had often worked like this in an effort to find gold. But they had never been very successful. VOICE TWO: The three men moved along the small river as they worked. History does not say which of the three found gold first. But it does say that all three began to find large amounts. In eighteen-ninety-six, gold was selling for about sixteen dollars for twenty-eight grams. The three men knew they were rich after just a few days. They also knew they must go to the government office and claim the land. They had to keep their discovery a secret until they had a legal claim to the land where they had found the gold. VOICE ONE: George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie were the first men to discover a great amount of gold in the Klondike. Before that August day, others had found gold, but never in huge amounts. The three men had found one of the largest amounts of gold ever discovered lying on the surface of the Earth. The news of this discovery could not be kept secret very long. Other people quickly traveled to the area of the great Klondike River where the three had made the discovery. Some also found huge amounts of gold, enough to make them extremely rich. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On July sixteenth, eighteen-ninety-seven, the ship Excelsior came into the American port of San Francisco, California. It carried the first men who had found gold in the Klondike. The next day, the ship Portland landed in Seattle, Washington. It too carried men who had found gold in the Yukon. Clarence Berry was one of these men. He was a fruit farmer from California. He came off the ship Excelsior in San Francisco with one-hundred-thirty-thousand dollars worth of gold. Niles Anderson came off the ship Portland with one-hundred-twelve-thousand dollars in gold. They were only two men among more than one-hundred who left the ships with huge amounts of money. Photographs taken when the ships landed show thousands of people meeting the two ships. Newspapers printed long stories about the discovery of gold and the rich men who had just returned from the Yukon. VOICE ONE: To understand the excitement it caused, you must understand the value of that much money at the time.In eighteen-ninety-seven, a man with a good job working in New York City was paid about ten dollars each week. To earn the one-hundred-thirty-thousand dollars that Clarence Berry took off the ship, that man would have had to work for two-hundred-fifty years! People all over the world became excited about the possibility of finding gold. Newspaper stories said it was easy to find the gold. It was just lying on the ground. All you had to do was go to Alaska, and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon Territory of Canada and collect your gold. VOICE TWO: The possibility of finding gold caused thousands of people to make plans to travel to Alaska and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon. American and Canadian experts say between twenty and thirty-thousand people may have traveled to the gold fields. These people were called “stampeders.” The word “stampede” means a mass movement of frightened animals. In eighteen-ninety-seven, the word came to mean the huge groups of people running or stampeding to Alaska and the Klondike. The people wanted a chance to become rich. The United States was suffering a great economic depression. By eighteen-ninety-seven, thousands of people were out of work. Men who had no jobs decided to use all the money they had left to go to Alaska. VOICE ONE: Newspapers and magazines began writing stories about traveling to Alaska. Books told what a person would need to be successful at finding gold. Other books explained sure methods of finding gold. Many of these books told people what they wanted to hear -- that finding gold in the Yukon was easy. Most of the people who wrote the books had no idea at all where the Canadian Yukon Territory was. Many did not know anything about the American territory of Alaska. The people who wrote the books had no idea what was involved. They were only interested in selling books. Many of the people who would travel to the gold fields had no idea what they would face. They did not know about the extremely cold weather that could kill. Most did not know they would face extremely hard work and terrible living conditions. VOICE TWO: This was not true of the Canadian government. The Canadian government knew how hard it was to live in the western part of the country. The Canadian government quickly approved a law that said each person must bring enough supplies to last for one year. This was about nine-hundred kilograms of supplies. Each person would have to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else they needed for one year. The reason for this was very simple. There were no stores in the Yukon. There was no place to buy food. The nearest port was more than one-thousand kilometers away from where the gold discovery had been made. There were no railroads. At first, there were no roads that would permit a horse and wagon. The stampeders would have to walk all the way, and transport the supplies by themselves. The price of these supplies quickly increased. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-ninety-seven, a travel company in the middle western American city of Chicago, Illinois listed the prices of what it cost to travel to Alaska. A ticket to ride the train from Chicago to Seattle, Washington was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents. The company said a ticket on a ship from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska was thirty-five dollars. Companies across the United States offered to sell all the supplies a gold seeker would need to take to the Klondike. Newspapers and magazines printed long lists of the supplies a stampeder would need. The price for these goods was often extremely high. The trains and the ships would carry these supplies for an additional price. VOICE TWO: A young man who had the money to buy the supplies and the necessary tickets to travel to Alaska usually landed at the little port of Skagway. The first ship load of several hundred gold seekers landed at Skagway on July twenty-sixth, eighteen-ninety-seven. Many ships quickly followed. The little town of Skagway soon had thousands of people looking for a place to live, food to eat and directions to where they could find gold. The stampeders were in a hurry. They wanted to quickly travel to the area where they could find gold. Many wanted to buy the rest of the supplies they would need before they began the trip into Canada. These supplies became extremely valuable. Prices increased even more. Violence and a lack of a police department soon caused problems. People fought over supplies. The gold seekers quickly learned that life in Alaska would be extremely difficult. And they soon learned they still had more than one-thousand kilometers to travel. They learned they would have to carry their supplies over high mountains. Then they would need to build a boat to travel on the Yukon River. They learned the last part of their trip would be the hardest of all. That trip and what the thousands of gold seekers found will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: George Carmack and his two Indian friends, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie, were working near the edge of a small river in western Canada’s Yukon Territory. The area was just across the border from Alaska, which was owned by the United States. The men were using large steel pans to search for gold. They placed dirt and rocks in a pan and then filled it about half way with water. Slowly, they moved the water around in the pan until most of the dirt and water washed away. This left only very small rocks. This method was a very good way to find small amounts of gold. The three men had often worked like this in an effort to find gold. But they had never been very successful. VOICE TWO: The three men moved along the small river as they worked. History does not say which of the three found gold first. But it does say that all three began to find large amounts. In eighteen-ninety-six, gold was selling for about sixteen dollars for twenty-eight grams. The three men knew they were rich after just a few days. They also knew they must go to the government office and claim the land. They had to keep their discovery a secret until they had a legal claim to the land where they had found the gold. VOICE ONE: George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason and Dawson Charlie were the first men to discover a great amount of gold in the Klondike. Before that August day, others had found gold, but never in huge amounts. The three men had found one of the largest amounts of gold ever discovered lying on the surface of the Earth. The news of this discovery could not be kept secret very long. Other people quickly traveled to the area of the great Klondike River where the three had made the discovery. Some also found huge amounts of gold, enough to make them extremely rich. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: On July sixteenth, eighteen-ninety-seven, the ship Excelsior came into the American port of San Francisco, California. It carried the first men who had found gold in the Klondike. The next day, the ship Portland landed in Seattle, Washington. It too carried men who had found gold in the Yukon. Clarence Berry was one of these men. He was a fruit farmer from California. He came off the ship Excelsior in San Francisco with one-hundred-thirty-thousand dollars worth of gold. Niles Anderson came off the ship Portland with one-hundred-twelve-thousand dollars in gold. They were only two men among more than one-hundred who left the ships with huge amounts of money. Photographs taken when the ships landed show thousands of people meeting the two ships. Newspapers printed long stories about the discovery of gold and the rich men who had just returned from the Yukon. VOICE ONE: To understand the excitement it caused, you must understand the value of that much money at the time.In eighteen-ninety-seven, a man with a good job working in New York City was paid about ten dollars each week. To earn the one-hundred-thirty-thousand dollars that Clarence Berry took off the ship, that man would have had to work for two-hundred-fifty years! People all over the world became excited about the possibility of finding gold. Newspaper stories said it was easy to find the gold. It was just lying on the ground. All you had to do was go to Alaska, and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon Territory of Canada and collect your gold. VOICE TWO: The possibility of finding gold caused thousands of people to make plans to travel to Alaska and then to the Klondike area of the Yukon. American and Canadian experts say between twenty and thirty-thousand people may have traveled to the gold fields. These people were called “stampeders.” The word “stampede” means a mass movement of frightened animals. In eighteen-ninety-seven, the word came to mean the huge groups of people running or stampeding to Alaska and the Klondike. The people wanted a chance to become rich. The United States was suffering a great economic depression. By eighteen-ninety-seven, thousands of people were out of work. Men who had no jobs decided to use all the money they had left to go to Alaska. VOICE ONE: Newspapers and magazines began writing stories about traveling to Alaska. Books told what a person would need to be successful at finding gold. Other books explained sure methods of finding gold. Many of these books told people what they wanted to hear -- that finding gold in the Yukon was easy. Most of the people who wrote the books had no idea at all where the Canadian Yukon Territory was. Many did not know anything about the American territory of Alaska. The people who wrote the books had no idea what was involved. They were only interested in selling books. Many of the people who would travel to the gold fields had no idea what they would face. They did not know about the extremely cold weather that could kill. Most did not know they would face extremely hard work and terrible living conditions. VOICE TWO: This was not true of the Canadian government. The Canadian government knew how hard it was to live in the western part of the country. The Canadian government quickly approved a law that said each person must bring enough supplies to last for one year. This was about nine-hundred kilograms of supplies. Each person would have to bring food, tools, clothing, and everything else they needed for one year. The reason for this was very simple. There were no stores in the Yukon. There was no place to buy food. The nearest port was more than one-thousand kilometers away from where the gold discovery had been made. There were no railroads. At first, there were no roads that would permit a horse and wagon. The stampeders would have to walk all the way, and transport the supplies by themselves. The price of these supplies quickly increased. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-ninety-seven, a travel company in the middle western American city of Chicago, Illinois listed the prices of what it cost to travel to Alaska. A ticket to ride the train from Chicago to Seattle, Washington was fifty-one dollars and fifty cents. The company said a ticket on a ship from Seattle to Skagway, Alaska was thirty-five dollars. Companies across the United States offered to sell all the supplies a gold seeker would need to take to the Klondike. Newspapers and magazines printed long lists of the supplies a stampeder would need. The price for these goods was often extremely high. The trains and the ships would carry these supplies for an additional price. VOICE TWO: A young man who had the money to buy the supplies and the necessary tickets to travel to Alaska usually landed at the little port of Skagway. The first ship load of several hundred gold seekers landed at Skagway on July twenty-sixth, eighteen-ninety-seven. Many ships quickly followed. The little town of Skagway soon had thousands of people looking for a place to live, food to eat and directions to where they could find gold. The stampeders were in a hurry. They wanted to quickly travel to the area where they could find gold. Many wanted to buy the rest of the supplies they would need before they began the trip into Canada. These supplies became extremely valuable. Prices increased even more. Violence and a lack of a police department soon caused problems. People fought over supplies. The gold seekers quickly learned that life in Alaska would be extremely difficult. And they soon learned they still had more than one-thousand kilometers to travel. They learned they would have to carry their supplies over high mountains. Then they would need to build a boat to travel on the Yukon River. They learned the last part of their trip would be the hardest of all. That trip and what the thousands of gold seekers found will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-09/a-2003-09-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Gene Linked to Stroke Risk
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 1, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists in Iceland say they have identified the first gene linked to common forms of stroke. These strokes are caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the brain. They are known as ischemic (eh-SKEE-mic) strokes. Ischemic strokes often result in death or severe disability. Researchers at the Decode Genetics company say differences in the gene can increase the chance of a stroke by three to five times. They believe that a protein produced by the gene influences the movement and growth of muscle cells. They believe this influence causes the cells to grow inside arteries and restrict the flow of blood. All people have this gene. But the risk of stroke appears higher in those with a version that produces low levels of the protein. Work has begun on a genetic test to identify those at risk. The researchers say other genes are probably also involved in a stroke. But they believe this one is among the strongest. They say treatments are possible in the future to reduce the risk of stroke. Such drugs could target the protein produced by the gene. The Swiss drug company Hoffman-La Roche is already doing tests on rats. The scientists mapped the genes of almost one-thousand-eight-hundred people. Half had suffered a stroke. The discovery is part of a larger genetic study of the Icelandic people. Their family histories have been unusually well documented. Vikings from Norway settled in Iceland in the ninth and tenth century. The population of three-hundred-thousand is a mix of Norwegian and Celtic. Celtic means Scottish and Irish. The researchers say they expect to find that the gene has a similar effect in people outside Iceland. The discovery appears in the publication Nature Genetics. The work is part of the effort by Decode to identify the genetic causes of more than fifty common diseases. At least eighty percent of all strokes are from blockages. The others happen when a blood vessel breaks and causes bleeding in the brain. The new finding may help explain why strokes happen in some people who do not seem at high risk. Doctors say high blood pressure, heart disease, smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol all increase the risk of stroke. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: October 1, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists in Iceland say they have identified the first gene linked to common forms of stroke. These strokes are caused by a blockage in the flow of blood to the brain. They are known as ischemic (eh-SKEE-mic) strokes. Ischemic strokes often result in death or severe disability. Researchers at the Decode Genetics company say differences in the gene can increase the chance of a stroke by three to five times. They believe that a protein produced by the gene influences the movement and growth of muscle cells. They believe this influence causes the cells to grow inside arteries and restrict the flow of blood. All people have this gene. But the risk of stroke appears higher in those with a version that produces low levels of the protein. Work has begun on a genetic test to identify those at risk. The researchers say other genes are probably also involved in a stroke. But they believe this one is among the strongest. They say treatments are possible in the future to reduce the risk of stroke. Such drugs could target the protein produced by the gene. The Swiss drug company Hoffman-La Roche is already doing tests on rats. The scientists mapped the genes of almost one-thousand-eight-hundred people. Half had suffered a stroke. The discovery is part of a larger genetic study of the Icelandic people. Their family histories have been unusually well documented. Vikings from Norway settled in Iceland in the ninth and tenth century. The population of three-hundred-thousand is a mix of Norwegian and Celtic. Celtic means Scottish and Irish. The researchers say they expect to find that the gene has a similar effect in people outside Iceland. The discovery appears in the publication Nature Genetics. The work is part of the effort by Decode to identify the genetic causes of more than fifty common diseases. At least eighty percent of all strokes are from blockages. The others happen when a blood vessel breaks and causes bleeding in the brain. The new finding may help explain why strokes happen in some people who do not seem at high risk. Doctors say high blood pressure, heart disease, smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol all increase the risk of stroke. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 2, 2003: 'MegaSkills' for Children
* Byline: 

 This is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Education Report. MegaSkills is a program used in schools across the United States. This program trains adults to help children develop the skills needed for what educators call lifelong learning. MegaSkills is based on the idea that parents and teachers can help children gain skills through normal, daily activities. Dorothy Rich created the program. She heads a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, called the Home and School Institute. Mizz Rich identified eleven major skills that children need to succeed in life. She based them on information she gathered from educators and employers. She describes them as "inner engines of learning" for school and work. These MegaSkills include feeling able to do what is needed, and wanting to do it. Being willing to work hard and doing what is right are other MegaSkills. So are completing what you start, showing concern for others, and using good judgment. Dorothy Rich says children also need to learn how to solve problems, and how to work with a goal in mind. MegaSkills Education Online offers suggestions for activities to build these skills. For example, there are ideas about how parents can help children get organized in school. Parents can begin by helping a child plan a school project, like a science project. A parent can suggest that the child think about all the supplies needed for the project. What special supplies might the child need? The child can write down each step required for the project, then number the steps to help follow them. Other ideas offer ways to help younger children plan their time. MegaSkills Education Online suggests that parents and children list activities for a day when there is no school. For example, the family might plan to wake up at eight o'clock and eat breakfast by nine. As the day progresses, children can write down the time they start each activity on the list. At the end of the day, the family can see how close they came to following their plan. MegaSkills says this exercise is one way to reduce the time spent watching television. It can also increase the time children spend on schoolwork. There are other free suggestions and activities at the MegaSkills Web site. The address is megaskillshsi.org. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 3, 2003: Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride / Giant Pandas in America / Music by Simon and Garfunkel
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – we answer a listener who wants to know how many giant pandas are in the United States. And we play some music by Simon and Garfunkel as they get ready for another reunion. But first – a report about a cross-country demonstration. Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride HOST: A demonstration called the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride ends Saturday. Organizers say they expect thousands of supporters to gather in New York at the final stop. The ride took place to call for equal rights for all people in the United States. This includes workers who are in the country illegally. Faith Lapidus has details. ANNCR: Eighteen buses left from different parts of the United States last month to cross the country with around nine-hundred people. Planners organized visits to more than one-hundred towns and cities, including Washington D.C. Labor unions and groups active for the rights of immigrants were among the organizers. Supporters also included community and religious groups and some elected officials. Planners of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride took the idea from the Freedom Rides of the nineteen-sixties. Those rides were to fight for civil rights for blacks in the South. The riders of today hope the public and Congress will support legal rights for workers who entered the country illegally. They also called for labor protections for immigrant workers. And they want immigration policies changed so families can reunite in less time. The demonstrators also say the government should do more to honor the civil rights of immigrants. Organizers of the ride say immigrants often take low paying jobs that others do not want. They say workers may lose their jobs if they demand fair treatment from employers. Also, they say many immigrants are afraid to report crimes because they are in the country illegally. The government says the country has about eight-million illegal immigrants. Some groups say more. Leaders of organized labor say immigrant workers are a growing and important part of the American economy. But the event also had critics who want to restrict immigration. Critics say illegal immigrants take jobs away from legal ones and add to the use of public services. The terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one, ended immigration reform efforts by lawmakers. But now, several members of Congress are trying again. Political experts say immigration laws are not likely to change in the near future. But Freedom Ride organizers say they hope their event will increase discussion of this issue in the presidential campaign. The election is in November of next year. Giant Pandas HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Shandong Province, China. Dong Ning asks about the giant pandas on loan from China to the United States. Currently, there are ten giant pandas in American zoos. Four are in San Diego, California. Two are in Memphis, Tennessee. Two are in Washington, D.C. And two are in Atlanta, Georgia. People love to watch the giant pandas at play. These black-and-white bears come from central China. Only about one-thousand are still in the wild. American zoos are helping with efforts to save the giant pandas. The two in Washington at the National Zoo are Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) and Tian Tian (te-YEN te-YEN). These young pandas have become interested in each other. But zoo scientists say Mei Xiang has not become pregnant yet. Across the country, in San Diego, Bai Yun (by-YOON) gave birth in late August. The baby weighed about one-hundred-fifty grams at birth. He now weighs more than nine-hundred grams. And he measures about thirty centimeters from his nose to the end of his short tail. The baby will not get a name until he is one-hundred days old. American zoos pay China one-million dollars a year for the loan of two breeding pandas. The zoos also pay up to six-hundred-thousand dollars for every baby that is born. Once the baby is three years old, it must be sent to China. Later this month, a San Diego panda is expected to travel to her ancestral homeland. Hua Mei (hwa-MAY) is the first giant panda born in the United States to survive to adulthood. Simon and Garfunkel Reunion HOST: Later this month, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel begin a series of reunion concerts. The last time the two singers traveled together was twenty years ago. They plan to perform in more than thirty cities in North America. And they say the concerts will include the songs that made them famous in the nineteen-sixties. Bob Doughty has more. ANNCR: Paul Simon began to write songs at the age of fourteen. He and his school friend Art Garfunkel recorded their first song in nineteen-fifty-eight. In the sixties, they became popular singers of folk rock. Young people liked the feelings in the songs Paul Simon wrote. They also liked the beauty of Art Garfunkel’s voice. Together, Simon and Garfunkel produced one best-selling album after another. Their first big hit was “The Sound of Silence.” (MUSIC) Simon and Garfunkel gained more fans after their music appeared in "The Graduate," a popular movie. One of the best remembered songs from the movie was “Scarborough Fair.” (MUSIC) Simon and Garfunkel broke up in nineteen-seventy, after they recorded “Bridge Over Troubled Water." Art Garfunkel appeared in movies and recorded by himself. Paul Simon also recorded alone. They have performed together at times. But Paul Simon recently told a reporter they never could have made a bigger success than "Bridge Over Troubled Water." We leave you now with the title song from the album. (MUSIC) HOST: Before we go, we want to talk about a recall. This one affects the two-wheeled vehicle called the Segway Human Transporter. Two weeks ago we answered a listener in Iran who asked about the Segway. Well, last week, owners learned that when the battery power gets low, the rider can fall off. About six-thousand are in use. The Segway company offered a free computer fix. This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who is also our producer. Our engineer was Vosco Volaric. And our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Join us again next week for American Mosaic -- VOA's radio magazine in Special English! Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – we answer a listener who wants to know how many giant pandas are in the United States. And we play some music by Simon and Garfunkel as they get ready for another reunion. But first – a report about a cross-country demonstration. Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride HOST: A demonstration called the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride ends Saturday. Organizers say they expect thousands of supporters to gather in New York at the final stop. The ride took place to call for equal rights for all people in the United States. This includes workers who are in the country illegally. Faith Lapidus has details. ANNCR: Eighteen buses left from different parts of the United States last month to cross the country with around nine-hundred people. Planners organized visits to more than one-hundred towns and cities, including Washington D.C. Labor unions and groups active for the rights of immigrants were among the organizers. Supporters also included community and religious groups and some elected officials. Planners of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride took the idea from the Freedom Rides of the nineteen-sixties. Those rides were to fight for civil rights for blacks in the South. The riders of today hope the public and Congress will support legal rights for workers who entered the country illegally. They also called for labor protections for immigrant workers. And they want immigration policies changed so families can reunite in less time. The demonstrators also say the government should do more to honor the civil rights of immigrants. Organizers of the ride say immigrants often take low paying jobs that others do not want. They say workers may lose their jobs if they demand fair treatment from employers. Also, they say many immigrants are afraid to report crimes because they are in the country illegally. The government says the country has about eight-million illegal immigrants. Some groups say more. Leaders of organized labor say immigrant workers are a growing and important part of the American economy. But the event also had critics who want to restrict immigration. Critics say illegal immigrants take jobs away from legal ones and add to the use of public services. The terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two-thousand-one, ended immigration reform efforts by lawmakers. But now, several members of Congress are trying again. Political experts say immigration laws are not likely to change in the near future. But Freedom Ride organizers say they hope their event will increase discussion of this issue in the presidential campaign. The election is in November of next year. Giant Pandas HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Shandong Province, China. Dong Ning asks about the giant pandas on loan from China to the United States. Currently, there are ten giant pandas in American zoos. Four are in San Diego, California. Two are in Memphis, Tennessee. Two are in Washington, D.C. And two are in Atlanta, Georgia. People love to watch the giant pandas at play. These black-and-white bears come from central China. Only about one-thousand are still in the wild. American zoos are helping with efforts to save the giant pandas. The two in Washington at the National Zoo are Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) and Tian Tian (te-YEN te-YEN). These young pandas have become interested in each other. But zoo scientists say Mei Xiang has not become pregnant yet. Across the country, in San Diego, Bai Yun (by-YOON) gave birth in late August. The baby weighed about one-hundred-fifty grams at birth. He now weighs more than nine-hundred grams. And he measures about thirty centimeters from his nose to the end of his short tail. The baby will not get a name until he is one-hundred days old. American zoos pay China one-million dollars a year for the loan of two breeding pandas. The zoos also pay up to six-hundred-thousand dollars for every baby that is born. Once the baby is three years old, it must be sent to China. Later this month, a San Diego panda is expected to travel to her ancestral homeland. Hua Mei (hwa-MAY) is the first giant panda born in the United States to survive to adulthood. Simon and Garfunkel Reunion HOST: Later this month, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel begin a series of reunion concerts. The last time the two singers traveled together was twenty years ago. They plan to perform in more than thirty cities in North America. And they say the concerts will include the songs that made them famous in the nineteen-sixties. Bob Doughty has more. ANNCR: Paul Simon began to write songs at the age of fourteen. He and his school friend Art Garfunkel recorded their first song in nineteen-fifty-eight. In the sixties, they became popular singers of folk rock. Young people liked the feelings in the songs Paul Simon wrote. They also liked the beauty of Art Garfunkel’s voice. Together, Simon and Garfunkel produced one best-selling album after another. Their first big hit was “The Sound of Silence.” (MUSIC) Simon and Garfunkel gained more fans after their music appeared in "The Graduate," a popular movie. One of the best remembered songs from the movie was “Scarborough Fair.” (MUSIC) Simon and Garfunkel broke up in nineteen-seventy, after they recorded “Bridge Over Troubled Water." Art Garfunkel appeared in movies and recorded by himself. Paul Simon also recorded alone. They have performed together at times. But Paul Simon recently told a reporter they never could have made a bigger success than "Bridge Over Troubled Water." We leave you now with the title song from the album. (MUSIC) HOST: Before we go, we want to talk about a recall. This one affects the two-wheeled vehicle called the Segway Human Transporter. Two weeks ago we answered a listener in Iran who asked about the Segway. Well, last week, owners learned that when the battery power gets low, the rider can fall off. About six-thousand are in use. The Segway company offered a free computer fix. This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, who is also our producer. Our engineer was Vosco Volaric. And our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. Join us again next week for American Mosaic -- VOA's radio magazine in Special English! 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Fiscal Year
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 3, 2003 This is Bob Doughty. Welcome to the VOA Special English Economics Report. You can now hear environment news on Tuesday as part of Science in the News. Our first Economics Report is about a timely subject. Have you ever wondered what is a fiscal year? A fiscal year is simply a way to record and report financial activity. It is the same length as a calendar year. In fact, many businesses begin their fiscal year on January first. The fiscal year for the United States government starts on October first and ends September thirtieth. Other fiscal years begin in April or July. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants begins its fiscal year on August first. Accountants add up earnings and losses at the end of a fiscal year. These numbers are needed to know how much is owed for taxes, and how much is left for the next budget. Congress is supposed to approve federal spending for the coming fiscal year by October first. This does not always happen. President Bush gave Congress his spending plan for fiscal two-thousand-four on February third. That was only the beginning. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate must write and vote on their own budget resolution. This is a general plan for spending. Then, a conference committee meets. Members from both houses are on this committee. They approve a final budget resolution which goes to a vote in both houses. But this is not the end of the process. Committees in both houses must also approve the exact amount of money for each program. This is called appropriations. Under the committees are subcommittees that make decisions about areas like education and defense. Bills to permit spending then go to the full House and Senate for a vote. The appropriations process often takes place at the same time as the budget resolution process. Government offices can close if the president has not signed a new budget by October first. But Congress can pass a continuing resolution, like the one now in place. Continuing resolutions provide money for government operations at current levels until a budget is completed. All this cannot take too much time. Only four months into the new fiscal year, the president must give Congress a new budget and the whole process starts over again. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. If you have a question, send it to special@voanews.com. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #32 - Hamilton and Jefferson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 2, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Maurice Joyce . Today, Blake Lannum and I tell more about two early American leaders: Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. They held opposing ideas about how the new nation should be governed. Their dispute helped create the political party system in the United States. VOICE TWO: The federalist party, led by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, supported a strong national government with a powerful president and courts. Federalists thought men of money and position should rule the country. And they did in the early seventeen-nineties. Federalists controlled the Congress. They also had great influence over the nation's first president, George Washington. The Republicans, led by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, did not want a strong national government with unlimited powers. And they believed political power should be spread throughout the population. VOICE ONE: The two sides carried on a war of words in their party newspapers. Historians believe Hamilton himself wrote much of what appeared in the Federalist paper. Jefferson, they believe, acted mostly as an adviser to the Republican paper. Both papers carried unsigned articles attacking the opposition. Both printed stories that were false. At times, the attacks were personal. Many people felt two cabinet secretaries should be above that kind of public fighting. VOICE TWO: Toward the end of president Washington's first administration, he received a letter from Jefferson. The Secretary of State said he planned to resign. He said he disagreed with most of the administration's national and foreign policies. He did not name Hamilton. It was not necessary. Washington knew what he meant. For Hamilton was the chief planner of those policies. The president tried to make peace between the two men. He liked them and respected them. He believed the new nation needed the skills of both men. However, the dispute had gone too far. It was now more than just a question of two strong men who could not agree. It was a battle of two completely different philosophies of government. VOICE ONE: Washington did not succeed in making peace between Jefferson and Hamilton. But Jefferson decided not to resign. In a letter to his daughter, Jefferson said: "the attacks on me have changed a decision which I did not think could possibly be changed. I must remain and fight." The idea of organized political parties was new in the United States. There were no laws saying what they could or could not do. There were no restrictions on the political activities of government officials. So, while continuing to serve as Secretary of State, Jefferson began working to get his supporters elected to Congress. He believed that was the only way to fight Hamilton. National elections were set for seventeen-ninety-two. VOICE TWO: There was no dispute about the highest office. In seventeen-ninety-two, everyone wanted George Washington to be elected president again. However, many Republicans saw no reason to re-elect John Adams as vice president. Adams was a patriot and had served his country well. But he was not democratic. He made no secret of his opinion that men born to the upper class should rule. Republicans had another reason to campaign against the Federalists. Hamilton's financial policies made it possible for bankers and other money lenders to invest in all kinds of deals. One man did this with information he got as a high-level Treasury Department official. His investments turned bad and his business failed. This caused other businesses to fail. There was a financial crash in New York City, the center of business in the United States. VOICE ONE: The Federalists were strong in the northeast. But the Republicans were gaining strength everywhere else. The election of Republican representatives to Congress in seventeen-ninety-two would make them an important force in the House of Representatives. The Republicans did not, however, win the vice presidency. That office went once again to Federalist John Adams. Perhaps the one thing that saved Adams was the belief of many Americans that President Washington wanted him again as vice president. Yet Adams did not win a clear victory. The electors from four states voted for Republican George Clinton of New York. One state voted for Jefferson, though he was not a candidate. VOICE TWO: The year seventeen-ninety-three saw a change in Alexander Hamilton's political powers. The Republicans in the House of Representatives demanded answers to questions about his financial programs. Why did the treasury secretary refuse to give Congress all the facts about government plans to borrow, to lend, and to tax? For four years, the House had passed all the laws Hamilton asked for without being told why the laws were needed. In his opinion, that was the only way to govern. Now, the House wanted to know more. VOICE ONE: Hamilton considered the request an insult. Yet he answered it. He produced four reports about treasury department activities. Republicans searched the reports for proof that Hamilton and his Federalist friends had been dishonest. They found no such proof. And they did not accuse him of taking money for himself. But they attacked him on several other issues. For example, they said Hamilton had not followed President Washington's instructions for dealing with the nation's foreign loans. They said he paid too much interest to the National Bank of the United States. And they said he did not carefully obey laws passed by Congress concerning the use of government money. VOICE TWO: Federalist members of Congress answered the accusations. They declared again and again that the Republicans had not been able to prove even one criminal act by the Treasury Secretary. The attempt to force Hamilton out of office failed. But Hamilton himself was ready to leave. He was satisfied with the work he had done. More than any other man, he had shaped the policies of the United States for the first five years of its existence. He was sure the young nation would continue to be governed by the political ideas he supported. Hamilton went to New York City to work as a lawyer and spend more time with his family. VOICE ONE: Most Americans were not excited by the debate between Federalists and Republicans on such issues as the bank of the United States. Farmers and laborers did not understand economics. But the French Revolution was something else. Federalists opposed the French Revolution. They denounced the violence and the murder of the king and queen. They also wanted closer economic and political ties with Britain. Republicans welcomed the revolution. They saw it as a fight for liberty and democracy -- the same ideas they fought for against Britain. Besides, they said, Britain was no friend of America. Britain still held land in the western United States in violation of the peace treaty between the two countries. Britain still paid native American Indians to kill white settlers in frontier areas. And Britain still took sailors off American ships and forced them to serve in its navy. VOICE TWO: The revolution in France put the United States in a difficult situation. The situation became worse when the kings of Europe sent their armies against the new French republic. The United States had a treaty with France. It had agreed to aid France if France were attacked. But President Washington firmly believed the United States should not become involved in the politics of Europe. So he declared the United States would remain neutral. VOICE ONE: The declaration was a victory for the Federalists. They still had a great deal of influence over President Washington. But what would they do after seventeen-ninety-six? Washington's second term would come to an end that year. And he had announced he would not run again. At that time, the Constitution did not limit the number of presidential terms. Yet George Washington felt two was enough. Who was the most likely candidate to succeed him? That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Blake Lannum . Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 4, 2003: California Recall Election
* Byline: 

 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, from VOA Special English. Voters in California will decide Tuesday whether to remove Governor Gray Davis from office. If he is recalled, public opinion studies show the leading candidate to replace him is actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mister Davis is a Democrat, Mister Schwarzenegger is a Republican. The two have been going city to city in a final effort for votes. Both are leading television campaigns critical of each other. Yet the two men are not really opponents on the ballot Tuesday. Mister Davis is the only name on the first question. Voters are asked to decide if the governor should stay in office or be recalled. He needs fifty-percent of the votes plus one to stay. The second question asks voters who support the recall to choose a replacement. One-hundred-thirty-five candidates are listed. One of them is Mister Schwarzenegger. Another is Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. He is considered the leading Democratic candidate. If Mister Davis is recalled, the candidate with the most votes will become governor. Republicans worry that another Republican on the ballot, state Senator Tom McClintock, could take votes away from Mister Schwarzenegger. Mister McClintock, however, was refusing to withdraw. Republican Congressman Darryl Issa financed the recall effort. He said he would urge people to vote “no” on the recall unless one of the Republicans withdrew to avoid splitting the vote. Opinion studies show that a majority of Californians want to recall Governor Davis. Many people say they are unhappy with the way he has dealt with a budget crisis. California has the largest population in the country and one of the largest economies in the world. Critics of the recall effort say it is an undemocratic way to try to remove an elected governor from office. Mister Davis is in his second term. He says the recall is a Republican effort to seize power in California and possibly other states. Eighteen of the fifty states permit special elections to recall the governor. Six of those states say the governor must be guilty of some wrongdoing. California is not one of them. It has some of the easiest rules for recall elections. Several civil rights groups tried to delay the vote this Tuesday. They said there could be problems with older voting machines in some areas with large numbers of minorities. Those efforts failed. In developments late this week, the Los Angeles Times reported accusations by six women. They said Mister Schwarzenegger had touched them in a sexual way without permission. On Thursday he apologized for having, in his words, "behaved badly sometimes." He said he would be a "champion for women" as governor. The Austrian-born actor also reacted to reports that he once expressed praise for Adolf Hitler. Mister Schwarzenegger said he had no memory of such comments and that he hated the Nazi dictator. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. This is Bob Doughty with In the News, from VOA Special English. Voters in California will decide Tuesday whether to remove Governor Gray Davis from office. If he is recalled, public opinion studies show the leading candidate to replace him is actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mister Davis is a Democrat, Mister Schwarzenegger is a Republican. The two have been going city to city in a final effort for votes. Both are leading television campaigns critical of each other. Yet the two men are not really opponents on the ballot Tuesday. Mister Davis is the only name on the first question. Voters are asked to decide if the governor should stay in office or be recalled. He needs fifty-percent of the votes plus one to stay. The second question asks voters who support the recall to choose a replacement. One-hundred-thirty-five candidates are listed. One of them is Mister Schwarzenegger. Another is Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. He is considered the leading Democratic candidate. If Mister Davis is recalled, the candidate with the most votes will become governor. Republicans worry that another Republican on the ballot, state Senator Tom McClintock, could take votes away from Mister Schwarzenegger. Mister McClintock, however, was refusing to withdraw. Republican Congressman Darryl Issa financed the recall effort. He said he would urge people to vote “no” on the recall unless one of the Republicans withdrew to avoid splitting the vote. Opinion studies show that a majority of Californians want to recall Governor Davis. Many people say they are unhappy with the way he has dealt with a budget crisis. California has the largest population in the country and one of the largest economies in the world. Critics of the recall effort say it is an undemocratic way to try to remove an elected governor from office. Mister Davis is in his second term. He says the recall is a Republican effort to seize power in California and possibly other states. Eighteen of the fifty states permit special elections to recall the governor. Six of those states say the governor must be guilty of some wrongdoing. California is not one of them. It has some of the easiest rules for recall elections. Several civil rights groups tried to delay the vote this Tuesday. They said there could be problems with older voting machines in some areas with large numbers of minorities. Those efforts failed. In developments late this week, the Los Angeles Times reported accusations by six women. They said Mister Schwarzenegger had touched them in a sexual way without permission. On Thursday he apologized for having, in his words, "behaved badly sometimes." He said he would be a "champion for women" as governor. The Austrian-born actor also reacted to reports that he once expressed praise for Adolf Hitler. Mister Schwarzenegger said he had no memory of such comments and that he hated the Nazi dictator. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: October 2, 2003 - Lida Baker: Thought Groups in Spoken English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 2, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles talks about improving English pronunciation by understanding the idea of thought groups. RS: Thought groups are something we don't even think about as native speakers of English. It's a way to break long sentences into shorter pieces, separated by slight pauses, to help listeners organize the meaning. AA: But English learners need help to develop this skill when they study pronunciation. Lida says over the last twenty years, many teachers of English have come to focus not just on vowels and consonants, but also on stress and intonation. BAKER: "So we're talking about the way that the voice moves up and down and where we pause and things of that sort. This is a much more authentic way of learning about spoken language." RS: Take a sentence like: "I took the milk from the table and I put it in the refrigerator." BAKER: "This is not right: [robotic monotone] 'I took the milk from the refrigerator and I put it on the table.' Nobody talks like that." AA: "You sound like a robot." BAKER: "That's right. But that's not how we speak English. What we do is, the voice moves up and down, and there's also an alternation between syllables that are stressed and pronounced clearly, and syllables that are unstressed and therefore are reduced and spoken very quickly. So 'I took the milk' becomes 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, OK? So within each thought group you will also find that there are these variations in pitch, with the voice moving up and down, and then syllables that are pronounced more clearly, syllables that are reduced and pronounced unclearly. So you get this effect of 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, 'from the table,' puh-puh-PAH-PAH, 'and I put it,' da-da-DAH-DAH, 'in the refrigerator,' puh-puh-PAH-puh-puh-puh." AA: "You've got a hit there!" BAKER: "Funny you should say that, because one of the easiest ways to learn about thought groups is to listen to popular music. And it happens that my daughter is absolutely crazy about the Beatles and she plays the guitar, so yesterday she was singing 'Can't Buy Me Love.'" MUSIC: "Can't Buy Me Love" Can’t buy me love, love, Can't buy me love I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright I’ll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright 'cause I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love ... BAKER: "First of all 'can't buy me love,' that's a thought group right there. 'I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend,' -- so, 'I'll buy you,' 'a diamond ring, 'my friend.' That's three thought groups right there." RS: "What about for those who speak English as a foreign language, are there some rules, or do they have to learn by doing." BAKER: "Well, I can't give you any rules, but I can give you some guidelines. Generally speaking, the pauses occur, they sort of correspond to grammatical units such as phrases and clauses and things like the complete subject of a sentence. So if you have a sentence like 'a big black cat sat on a tall white fence.' So the subject there is 'a big black cat,' and that's a thought group. 'A big black cat sat on a tall white fence,' 'on a tall white fence is also a thought group, and that's a prepositional phrase. "Now pop music isn't the only way to learn this. A great way to learn this, I'm going to put in a plug here for the Voice of America -- is to go the Special English broadcasts and look at the transcripts and then listen to the announcers. Because on Special English the language is slowed down, it's a wonderful way for learners to pick up on the way sentences are broken down into thought groups. "Another way is to use a video cassette recorder and tape any television program and do something called tracking. You tape a segment of a show and then you play it back and what you try to do is to imitate what they're saying, just one beat behind them. And incidentally it doesn't have to be done with television. It can be done with radio as well." RS: "Anywhere there's sound going on in English." BAKER: "That's right!" AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes and edits textbooks for English learners. And, by the way, those Special English programs she mentioned are all available online at voaspecialenglish.com. RS: You can also find a link from our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 2, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles talks about improving English pronunciation by understanding the idea of thought groups. RS: Thought groups are something we don't even think about as native speakers of English. It's a way to break long sentences into shorter pieces, separated by slight pauses, to help listeners organize the meaning. AA: But English learners need help to develop this skill when they study pronunciation. Lida says over the last twenty years, many teachers of English have come to focus not just on vowels and consonants, but also on stress and intonation. BAKER: "So we're talking about the way that the voice moves up and down and where we pause and things of that sort. This is a much more authentic way of learning about spoken language." RS: Take a sentence like: "I took the milk from the table and I put it in the refrigerator." BAKER: "This is not right: [robotic monotone] 'I took the milk from the refrigerator and I put it on the table.' Nobody talks like that." AA: "You sound like a robot." BAKER: "That's right. But that's not how we speak English. What we do is, the voice moves up and down, and there's also an alternation between syllables that are stressed and pronounced clearly, and syllables that are unstressed and therefore are reduced and spoken very quickly. So 'I took the milk' becomes 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, OK? So within each thought group you will also find that there are these variations in pitch, with the voice moving up and down, and then syllables that are pronounced more clearly, syllables that are reduced and pronounced unclearly. So you get this effect of 'I took the milk,' puh-PAH, puh-PAH, 'from the table,' puh-puh-PAH-PAH, 'and I put it,' da-da-DAH-DAH, 'in the refrigerator,' puh-puh-PAH-puh-puh-puh." AA: "You've got a hit there!" BAKER: "Funny you should say that, because one of the easiest ways to learn about thought groups is to listen to popular music. And it happens that my daughter is absolutely crazy about the Beatles and she plays the guitar, so yesterday she was singing 'Can't Buy Me Love.'" MUSIC: "Can't Buy Me Love" Can’t buy me love, love, Can't buy me love I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright I’ll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright 'cause I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love ... BAKER: "First of all 'can't buy me love,' that's a thought group right there. 'I'll buy you a diamond ring, my friend,' -- so, 'I'll buy you,' 'a diamond ring, 'my friend.' That's three thought groups right there." RS: "What about for those who speak English as a foreign language, are there some rules, or do they have to learn by doing." BAKER: "Well, I can't give you any rules, but I can give you some guidelines. Generally speaking, the pauses occur, they sort of correspond to grammatical units such as phrases and clauses and things like the complete subject of a sentence. So if you have a sentence like 'a big black cat sat on a tall white fence.' So the subject there is 'a big black cat,' and that's a thought group. 'A big black cat sat on a tall white fence,' 'on a tall white fence is also a thought group, and that's a prepositional phrase. "Now pop music isn't the only way to learn this. A great way to learn this, I'm going to put in a plug here for the Voice of America -- is to go the Special English broadcasts and look at the transcripts and then listen to the announcers. Because on Special English the language is slowed down, it's a wonderful way for learners to pick up on the way sentences are broken down into thought groups. "Another way is to use a video cassette recorder and tape any television program and do something called tracking. You tape a segment of a show and then you play it back and what you try to do is to imitate what they're saying, just one beat behind them. And incidentally it doesn't have to be done with television. It can be done with radio as well." RS: "Anywhere there's sound going on in English." BAKER: "That's right!" AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes and edits textbooks for English learners. And, by the way, those Special English programs she mentioned are all available online at voaspecialenglish.com. RS: You can also find a link from our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 5, 2003: Johnny Cash
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about world famous country music performer Johnny Cash. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: That was Johnny Cash singing his first major hit record, “I Walk The Line”. It has sold more than two-million copies since it was released in nineteen-fifty-six. Music industry experts say Johnny Cash recorded one-thousand-five-hundred songs during his life. He sold more than fifty-million records. He recorded not only country music, but religious songs, rock and roll, folk and blues. Johnny Cash’s music could be as dark as the black clothes he always wore. Those songs told stories about poor people, outlaws, prisoners, coal miners, cowboys and laborers. He sang about loneliness, death, love and faith. He also sang very funny songs, like this one, “A Boy Named Sue.” (CUT 1) VOICE TWO: Johnny Cash was born in nineteen-thirty-two in the southern state of Arkansas. His parents were poor cotton farmers. He worked in the fields alongside his parents, three brothers and two sisters. He also listened to country music on the radio. He began writing songs and he performed on radio programs. After high school, he joined the United States Air Force. He served as a radio operator in Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen-fifty-four and married Vivian Liberto. They moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He got a job selling kitchen equipment and went to school to learn how to be a radio announcer. Cash formed a band with two friends and performed at local events. They began recording for Sun Records in Memphis. One of the songs Cash wrote became the first country music hit record for the company. It was “Cry, Cry, Cry.” (CUT 2) VOICE ONE: Johnny Cash continued to record on his own for Sun Records. He performed all across the United States and Canada. He also appeared on radio and television shows. His next big hit record sold more than one-million copies. It was a hit for a second time in nineteen-sixty-eight after Johnny Cash recorded it live at Folsom Prison. It was “Folsom Prison Blues.” (CUT 3) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-fifty-eight, Johnny Cash was a successful recording artist, songwriter and singer. He was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He performed his music in front of live audiences in the United States and in other countries. But he was often afraid to perform in front of a lot of people. He began using drugs to help him perform and quickly became dependant on the drugs. His serious drug problem caused the end of his marriage.Johnny Cash said he took drugs regularly for seven years during the nineteen-sixties. Then he would drive cars and boats too fast and get into dangerous accidents that almost killed him. He finally decided that he needed to stop taking drugs. One of his best friends, country singer June Carter, helped him through this difficult time. The Carter family is considered one of the earliest country and western singing groups. Johnny Cash and June Carter recorded together. They won a Grammy award in nineteen-sixty-eight for best country and western performance by a group. The song was “Jackson.” (CUT 4) VOICE ONE: Johnny Cash and June Carter were married in nineteen-sixty-eight. They performed many times with the Carter family. She also helped him re-discover his Christian faith. Years earlier, June Carter had written a song about her feelings for Johnny. His record of that song became one of his biggest hits, “Ring Of Fire.” (CUT 5) VOICE TWO: Johnny Cash had his own television show and also acted in movies. He published two books about his life. He won many awards, including eleven Grammy Awards and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was elected to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Johnny Cash suffered many health problems as he got older. When June Carter Cash died in May, two-thousand-three, his friends feared the worst. But Cash decided to continue recording. He recorded more than fifty songs in the four months before he died on September twelfth, two-thousand-three, in Nashville. He was seventy-one years old. VOICE ONE: Fans say that Johnny Cash’s music was important because it told simple stories about life and death. They say he cared about social issues and continued to express support for those who are poor and without political power. One of the last songs he recorded was one made popular by the rock and roll group Nine Inch Nails. It is called “Hurt.” (CUT 6) VOICE TWO: A reporter once asked Johnny Cash what he hoped people would remember about his music. Cash said he hoped people would remember that his music described the feelings of love and life. That it was different. And that it was honest. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studo engineer was Suleiman Tarawalay. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (music) I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about world famous country music performer Johnny Cash. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: That was Johnny Cash singing his first major hit record, “I Walk The Line”. It has sold more than two-million copies since it was released in nineteen-fifty-six. Music industry experts say Johnny Cash recorded one-thousand-five-hundred songs during his life. He sold more than fifty-million records. He recorded not only country music, but religious songs, rock and roll, folk and blues. Johnny Cash’s music could be as dark as the black clothes he always wore. Those songs told stories about poor people, outlaws, prisoners, coal miners, cowboys and laborers. He sang about loneliness, death, love and faith. He also sang very funny songs, like this one, “A Boy Named Sue.” (CUT 1) VOICE TWO: Johnny Cash was born in nineteen-thirty-two in the southern state of Arkansas. His parents were poor cotton farmers. He worked in the fields alongside his parents, three brothers and two sisters. He also listened to country music on the radio. He began writing songs and he performed on radio programs. After high school, he joined the United States Air Force. He served as a radio operator in Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen-fifty-four and married Vivian Liberto. They moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He got a job selling kitchen equipment and went to school to learn how to be a radio announcer. Cash formed a band with two friends and performed at local events. They began recording for Sun Records in Memphis. One of the songs Cash wrote became the first country music hit record for the company. It was “Cry, Cry, Cry.” (CUT 2) VOICE ONE: Johnny Cash continued to record on his own for Sun Records. He performed all across the United States and Canada. He also appeared on radio and television shows. His next big hit record sold more than one-million copies. It was a hit for a second time in nineteen-sixty-eight after Johnny Cash recorded it live at Folsom Prison. It was “Folsom Prison Blues.” (CUT 3) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-fifty-eight, Johnny Cash was a successful recording artist, songwriter and singer. He was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. He performed his music in front of live audiences in the United States and in other countries. But he was often afraid to perform in front of a lot of people. He began using drugs to help him perform and quickly became dependant on the drugs. His serious drug problem caused the end of his marriage.Johnny Cash said he took drugs regularly for seven years during the nineteen-sixties. Then he would drive cars and boats too fast and get into dangerous accidents that almost killed him. He finally decided that he needed to stop taking drugs. One of his best friends, country singer June Carter, helped him through this difficult time. The Carter family is considered one of the earliest country and western singing groups. Johnny Cash and June Carter recorded together. They won a Grammy award in nineteen-sixty-eight for best country and western performance by a group. The song was “Jackson.” (CUT 4) VOICE ONE: Johnny Cash and June Carter were married in nineteen-sixty-eight. They performed many times with the Carter family. She also helped him re-discover his Christian faith. Years earlier, June Carter had written a song about her feelings for Johnny. His record of that song became one of his biggest hits, “Ring Of Fire.” (CUT 5) VOICE TWO: Johnny Cash had his own television show and also acted in movies. He published two books about his life. He won many awards, including eleven Grammy Awards and the Kennedy Center Honors. He was elected to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Johnny Cash suffered many health problems as he got older. When June Carter Cash died in May, two-thousand-three, his friends feared the worst. But Cash decided to continue recording. He recorded more than fifty songs in the four months before he died on September twelfth, two-thousand-three, in Nashville. He was seventy-one years old. VOICE ONE: Fans say that Johnny Cash’s music was important because it told simple stories about life and death. They say he cared about social issues and continued to express support for those who are poor and without political power. One of the last songs he recorded was one made popular by the rock and roll group Nine Inch Nails. It is called “Hurt.” (CUT 6) VOICE TWO: A reporter once asked Johnny Cash what he hoped people would remember about his music. Cash said he hoped people would remember that his music described the feelings of love and life. That it was different. And that it was honest. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studo engineer was Suleiman Tarawalay. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (music) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 6, 2003: UN Treaty Against Organized Crime
* Byline: 

  This is Bob Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The first treaty to fight organized criminal groups around the world is now a part of international law. The treaty went into effect last week. It is called the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The U-N Office on Drugs and Crime says about one-hundred-fifty nations have signed the treaty. These include the United States, Russia, China and most of the nations in Latin America. So far, forty-eight of the countries have gone the next step and approved the treaty. They are now expected to include the rules of the agreement in their local laws. The treaty requires countries to approve a series of measures. One measure is to make it illegal to take part in an organized criminal group. Such groups are defined in the agreement as at least three people working together to carry out serious crimes for profit. The treaty also includes agreements for protection against trafficking in people. The U-N says criminal groups are using new transportation and communication technologies to make huge profits from their activities. These include moving immigrants illegally across borders. They also include transporting women and children for use in the sex trade or as servants. The United Nations estimates that this trafficking involves tens of thousands of women and children each year. They are brought from developing nations into Western countries and forced to work. President Bush has promised fifty-million dollars to help victims of the international sex trade. He made the promise during his speech before the United Nations General Assembly last month. The new U-N treaty also requires that countries approve measures to fight dishonesty by public officials. And nations will have to cooperate against money laundering. They will have to work together to find hidden money earned through criminal activities. The treaty also sets new rules for countries to surrender suspects for trial and to carry out joint investigations. In addition, countries must work to fight illegal trafficking in firearms. The United Nations is to hold a conference in Vienna next year to examine how the treaty against organized crime is working. Officials say the treaty is a major step in efforts to support international development. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Bob Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – October 6, 2003: Patents and Inventions
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: An office in the United States government has helped protect the property rights of inventors for more than two-hundred years. Its job is to support the progress of human creativity. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Richard Rael. The Patent and Trademark Office is our subject this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every week, thousands of people send their inventions to the United States Patent and Trademark Office near Washington, D-C. The Patent Office examines each invention. Those that are judged to be new and useful will receive a patent. The term of a patent is up to twenty years. During that time, the inventor controls the legal right to make, use or sell the invention in the United States. After twenty years, anyone can make or sell the invention. VOICE TWO: Patents are meant to protect the chances of inventors to make money from their creations. A patent gives both inventors and investors time to develop and market a product. Patents also provide a way to share and spread technical information. VOICE TWO (CONT):In addition to patents, the office is responsible for trademark protection. A trademark is anything that helps to identify the ownership of goods. It could be a name, sign or device. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a similar mark. Yet, such rights may not prevent others from making or selling the same kinds of goods under a clearly different mark. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Almost since its creation, the United States has been seen as a country of inventors. It is not surprising that the founders of the United States included patent protection in the Constitution. They wrote that Congress should support the progress of science by giving inventors all rights to their discoveries, for a limited time. In seventeen-ninety, President George Washington signed into law the first Patent Act of the United States. Under the measure, inventors asked the Secretary of State to consider a request for a patent. Next, the secretary would discuss the request with the secretary of war and the attorney general. They would decide if the invention or discovery was useful and important. At that time, both the president and the secretary of state signed patents. VOICE TWO: The first American patent for an invention was given in seventeen-ninety to Samuel Hopkins. Mister Hopkins invented a better way to make the chemical potash. As the number of patent requests grew, it became necessary to develop an organized process to deal with all the requests. The job of receiving and approving patents was given to a group of State Department employees in seventeen-ninety-three. In eighteen-oh-two, a State Department official named William Thornton was appointed to serve as the first clerk. He was the only person responsible for receiving and recording patent requests and approving requests. His office became the first Patent Office. Since then, more than six-million patents for inventions have been approved. They have included Thomas Edison’s electric light, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flying machine. VOICE ONE: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has grown to fourteen agencies in the Department of Commerce. The agency occupies several buildings in Arlington, Virginia. It has more than five-thousand permanent employees. The Patent and Trademark Office has one of the largest collections of scientific and technical knowledge in the world. Each year, the agency receives hundreds of thousands of requests for patents and trademarks. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Suppose you have an idea for an invention. How do you get a patent to protect your rights? The Patent and Trademark Office says the first step is to record your idea on paper. You must be sure no one else has invented a device just like yours. So you must examine the descriptions of similar devices that already have patents. This can be a big job and take a long time. Many inventors pay patent lawyers to do this job. The Patent and Trademark Office will examine your request once you know that the idea does not have a patent already. Because the agency gets so many requests, the examination process may last two or more years. You do not have to show that your invention works to receive a patent. All you must show is that your invention is a new idea. For example, Thomas Edison is famous for inventing the electric light bulb. Yet the light bulb design for which he received a patent never worked. VOICE ONE: Sometimes, two or more inventors get the same idea at the same time. This happened with the telephone. One of the men involved was Alexander Graham Bell. The people who invested money in his project told him not to work on the telephone’s design. They did not believe they could earn any money from the invention. However, Bell continued to work on the telephone. He arrived at the Patent Office just two hours before a competing inventor got there. Elisha Gray had developed exactly the same idea for a telephone. He, too, did not believe the invention would be very important. Yet he went to the Patent Office when he heard that Bell was requesting a patent. Elisha Gray was too late. Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for inventing the telephone. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: What kinds of inventions can receive patents? American law names many kinds of things. These include new machines, methods and products. New uses for -- or improvements to -- old inventions. And new, improved kinds of plants and animals. An American patent protects an invention only in the United States. But you do not have to be an American citizen to receive a United States patent. In two-thousand-one, nine of the ten companies that received the largest number of patents were foreign. VOICE ONE: Almost every nation in the world has a patent system of some kind to protect inventors. Most governments give a patent to an inventor who is the first to ask for it. Until recently, many countries honored an international treaty on patents. The treaty was signed more than one-hundred years ago. In nineteen-ninety-five, the World Trade Organization was established. W-T-O member countries are required to provide patent protection for inventions, while permitting exceptions. Under W-T-O rules, patent protection has to last at least twenty years from the date the patent request was first made. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In two-thousand-two the United States Patent and Trademark Office celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary. President Bush said the agency has been an important influence in the nation’s development. Now, in its third century, the Patent and Trademark Office faces a number of issues. One is what to do with the growing number of patent requests awaiting consideration. The agency is slowly working its way through hundreds of thousands of requests. One problem is a lack of money. The Patent and Trademark Office does not keep all the money it collects. During recent years, Congress has taken millions of dollars to spend on other government programs. VOICE ONE: Former Congressman James Rogan [RO-gan] was named director of the Patent and Trademark Office in two-thousand one. Mister Rogan proposed a plan to reform the patent process. The plan was amended after discussions between agency officials and users of the Patent and Trademark Office. Earlier this year, a subcommittee in the House of Representatives approved reform legislation. But the future of this measure is not clear. VOICE ONE (CONT):The legislation would increase the money that the Patent and Trademark Office collects to work on requests. It would also give the office the power to decide how to use the money. Supporters say the measure would result in major improvement to the system. But critics say the increased costs would reduce investment in scientific research and development in new technologies. They also say the costs would stop some independent inventors and small companies from using a system long tied to progress in America. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by George Grow and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: An office in the United States government has helped protect the property rights of inventors for more than two-hundred years. Its job is to support the progress of human creativity. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Richard Rael. The Patent and Trademark Office is our subject this week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every week, thousands of people send their inventions to the United States Patent and Trademark Office near Washington, D-C. The Patent Office examines each invention. Those that are judged to be new and useful will receive a patent. The term of a patent is up to twenty years. During that time, the inventor controls the legal right to make, use or sell the invention in the United States. After twenty years, anyone can make or sell the invention. VOICE TWO: Patents are meant to protect the chances of inventors to make money from their creations. A patent gives both inventors and investors time to develop and market a product. Patents also provide a way to share and spread technical information. VOICE TWO (CONT):In addition to patents, the office is responsible for trademark protection. A trademark is anything that helps to identify the ownership of goods. It could be a name, sign or device. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a similar mark. Yet, such rights may not prevent others from making or selling the same kinds of goods under a clearly different mark. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Almost since its creation, the United States has been seen as a country of inventors. It is not surprising that the founders of the United States included patent protection in the Constitution. They wrote that Congress should support the progress of science by giving inventors all rights to their discoveries, for a limited time. In seventeen-ninety, President George Washington signed into law the first Patent Act of the United States. Under the measure, inventors asked the Secretary of State to consider a request for a patent. Next, the secretary would discuss the request with the secretary of war and the attorney general. They would decide if the invention or discovery was useful and important. At that time, both the president and the secretary of state signed patents. VOICE TWO: The first American patent for an invention was given in seventeen-ninety to Samuel Hopkins. Mister Hopkins invented a better way to make the chemical potash. As the number of patent requests grew, it became necessary to develop an organized process to deal with all the requests. The job of receiving and approving patents was given to a group of State Department employees in seventeen-ninety-three. In eighteen-oh-two, a State Department official named William Thornton was appointed to serve as the first clerk. He was the only person responsible for receiving and recording patent requests and approving requests. His office became the first Patent Office. Since then, more than six-million patents for inventions have been approved. They have included Thomas Edison’s electric light, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flying machine. VOICE ONE: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has grown to fourteen agencies in the Department of Commerce. The agency occupies several buildings in Arlington, Virginia. It has more than five-thousand permanent employees. The Patent and Trademark Office has one of the largest collections of scientific and technical knowledge in the world. Each year, the agency receives hundreds of thousands of requests for patents and trademarks. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Suppose you have an idea for an invention. How do you get a patent to protect your rights? The Patent and Trademark Office says the first step is to record your idea on paper. You must be sure no one else has invented a device just like yours. So you must examine the descriptions of similar devices that already have patents. This can be a big job and take a long time. Many inventors pay patent lawyers to do this job. The Patent and Trademark Office will examine your request once you know that the idea does not have a patent already. Because the agency gets so many requests, the examination process may last two or more years. You do not have to show that your invention works to receive a patent. All you must show is that your invention is a new idea. For example, Thomas Edison is famous for inventing the electric light bulb. Yet the light bulb design for which he received a patent never worked. VOICE ONE: Sometimes, two or more inventors get the same idea at the same time. This happened with the telephone. One of the men involved was Alexander Graham Bell. The people who invested money in his project told him not to work on the telephone’s design. They did not believe they could earn any money from the invention. However, Bell continued to work on the telephone. He arrived at the Patent Office just two hours before a competing inventor got there. Elisha Gray had developed exactly the same idea for a telephone. He, too, did not believe the invention would be very important. Yet he went to the Patent Office when he heard that Bell was requesting a patent. Elisha Gray was too late. Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for inventing the telephone. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: What kinds of inventions can receive patents? American law names many kinds of things. These include new machines, methods and products. New uses for -- or improvements to -- old inventions. And new, improved kinds of plants and animals. An American patent protects an invention only in the United States. But you do not have to be an American citizen to receive a United States patent. In two-thousand-one, nine of the ten companies that received the largest number of patents were foreign. VOICE ONE: Almost every nation in the world has a patent system of some kind to protect inventors. Most governments give a patent to an inventor who is the first to ask for it. Until recently, many countries honored an international treaty on patents. The treaty was signed more than one-hundred years ago. In nineteen-ninety-five, the World Trade Organization was established. W-T-O member countries are required to provide patent protection for inventions, while permitting exceptions. Under W-T-O rules, patent protection has to last at least twenty years from the date the patent request was first made. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: In two-thousand-two the United States Patent and Trademark Office celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary. President Bush said the agency has been an important influence in the nation’s development. Now, in its third century, the Patent and Trademark Office faces a number of issues. One is what to do with the growing number of patent requests awaiting consideration. The agency is slowly working its way through hundreds of thousands of requests. One problem is a lack of money. The Patent and Trademark Office does not keep all the money it collects. During recent years, Congress has taken millions of dollars to spend on other government programs. VOICE ONE: Former Congressman James Rogan [RO-gan] was named director of the Patent and Trademark Office in two-thousand one. Mister Rogan proposed a plan to reform the patent process. The plan was amended after discussions between agency officials and users of the Patent and Trademark Office. Earlier this year, a subcommittee in the House of Representatives approved reform legislation. But the future of this measure is not clear. VOICE ONE (CONT):The legislation would increase the money that the Patent and Trademark Office collects to work on requests. It would also give the office the power to decide how to use the money. Supporters say the measure would result in major improvement to the system. But critics say the increased costs would reduce investment in scientific research and development in new technologies. They also say the costs would stop some independent inventors and small companies from using a system long tied to progress in America. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Our program was written by George Grow and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Polio in Africa / America's Tree Deficit / Monkeys and Fairness / Cough CPR
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 7, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: October 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. VOICE TWO: This week -- new polio cases in Africa ... a tree deficit in American cities ... and, later, monkeys play fair ... and the idea of "cough C-P-R." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cases of polio have been reported in three West African countries that had been free of the disease. The World Health Organization says cases have been reported in Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso. Polio is also spreading again in Nigeria. Doctors with the W-H-O say the virus has spread to the city of Lagos. Less than a year ago, the director of the national program on immunization said Nigeria was close to stopping the disease. W-H-O communications officer Melissa Corkum says emergency vaccination campaigns will take place in Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso. They will also take place in Benin, Cameroon and Chad to block any possible spread. Mizz Corkum says the campaigns will cost ten million dollars. VOICE TWO: The polio virus spreads quickly by contact with human waste through unclean conditions. The virus enters through the mouth. Within four days to a month, victims may develop a high body temperature, headaches, vomiting and difficulty moving. They can lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Breathing may also become difficult. There is no cure. In Nigeria, most polio cases are in the north. About thirty-five percent of children in the north are vaccinated. Experts say at least eighty percent must get the vaccine to stop the spread of polio. But the Daily Champion newspaper in Lagos says some people are afraid of the vaccine. It says that is because of statements made by a member of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria. Doctor Ibrahim Datti Ahmed said the vaccine is not safe. The World Health Organization is working with traditional rulers and religious leaders in Nigeria to tell people that Doctor Ahmed is wrong. VOICE ONE: World health officials want to end polio by two-thousand-five. The number of new cases has dropped by ninety-nine percent. Experts say that is because so many children have received the vaccine. Last year health workers in one hundred countries gave the polio vaccine to more than five-hundred million children. India is one country that has increased its vaccination rates. India had the highest rate of new polio cases, until the recent reports from Nigeria. Health officials say it is important to vaccinate people as soon as possible after reports of new cases. The polio vaccine is taken by mouth. It is a few drops of liquid. The vaccine does not have to be given by a health worker. Medical experts say children should receive the vaccine three times before they are one year old. Since there is no cure, prevention is the only way to stop polio. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Fairness was the subject of a recent study at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The study showed that humans are not the only primates that dislike unequal treatment. Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal led the study. They worked with brown capuchin monkeys. They taught the monkeys to trade plastic tokens for food. They tested the monkeys two at a time so the animals could see each other. The monkeys like to eat cucumbers. So it was easy to get them to trade tokens for cucumber pieces. But it was not so easy if one monkey saw the other get a food they like even more -- a grape. Often the insulted monkey refused to give up its token or rejected the piece of cucumber. Some threw the token or the cucumber out of the cage. The researchers also gave grapes as rewards for different levels of work. Some monkeys were upset to see others receive a grape after no work at all. VOICE ONE: Sarah Brosnan says the study found that the capuchin monkeys compared their rewards with those of their partners. They refused to accept a lower-value reward if their partner received one of higher value. Think of how humans react when they see other someone else get a better deal. The researchers used only female capuchins. They say males are likely to share food even without a fair deal. The social system of capuchins might play a part. Males are usually either the partner of, or the father of, all the other monkeys around them. VOICE TWO: Sarah Brosnan says a sense of fairness is needed to live in large, complex groups. The researchers say the study supports the idea that primates developed this sense early, as cooperation evolved. The findings appeared last month in the publication Nature. The researchers at Emory University are also doing a similar study with chimpanzees. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An environmental group says American cities lost more than one in five of their trees during the past ten years. The group is called American Forests. It says the services that trees provide to keep air and water clean are worth thousands of millions of dollars. American Forests released a study at the National Urban Forest Conference last month in San Antonio, Texas. The group used satellite images to study tree cover in four-hundred-forty-eight cities. It compared these with images taken ten years earlier. The study found that American cities have twenty-one percent fewer trees today. Gary Moll is an official with American Forests. He calls the problem a "tree deficit." Mister Moll blames road projects and expanding areas of development. VOICE TWO: With fewer trees, cities have to find other ways to remove storm water. Gary Moll says trees help protect water supplies and prevent flooding. Trees also remove pollution from the air and reduce the need for electric cooling during hot weather. American Forests says the loss is especially bad in fast-growing cities in the southern states. Gary Moll says Atlanta had the worst tree loss. The group praised San Antonio for taking steps to fight the problem. It also praised Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Diego, California. The group was started in eighteen-seventy-five to get people to plant and care for trees. It wants to plant one-thousand-seven-hundred-million trees during the next ten years to replace the lost cover. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A researcher in Poland says coughing hard may help people during the most common form of heart attack. Doctor Tadeusz Petelenz is a professor at the Silesian Medical School in Katowice. He studied one-hundred-fifteen patients at risk of a heart attack. They were trained to cough at the first sign of an attack. They learned to start with one cough every one to two seconds, in sets of five coughs. They used this method in three-hundred-sixty-five cases when they thought they were about to lose consciousness. Doctor Petelenz says the symptoms disappeared in all but seventy-three cases. VOICE TWO: Doctor Petelenz discussed his findings about "cough C-P-R" during a recent meeting in Vienna of the European Society of Cardiology. He said the pumping action caused by deep coughing forces blood to the brain when the heart begins to fail. Traditional C-P-R, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, combines rescue breaths with compressions on the chest. When the heart fails, victims can lose consciousness very quickly. Brain damage and death can follow within minutes. Doctor Petelenz says coughing may give a person enough time to call for help. Most attacks are caused by a sudden problem with heart rhythm. Doctor Petelenz says coughing might help in these cases, called arrhythmia. The traditional treatment is electric shock to the heart. VOICE ONE: Doctor Petelenz says cough C-P-R should be taught to the public. Some doctors have patients cough to increase blood flow during hospital treatment for heart disease. But others say the idea of cough C-P-R needs more study. The American Heart Association says it is possible that a person could send enough blood to the brain to stay conscious for a few seconds. But it says this practice is not useful enough to teach with traditional lifesaving methods. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Lawan Davis, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. VOICE TWO: This week -- new polio cases in Africa ... a tree deficit in American cities ... and, later, monkeys play fair ... and the idea of "cough C-P-R." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Cases of polio have been reported in three West African countries that had been free of the disease. The World Health Organization says cases have been reported in Ghana, Togo and Burkina Faso. Polio is also spreading again in Nigeria. Doctors with the W-H-O say the virus has spread to the city of Lagos. Less than a year ago, the director of the national program on immunization said Nigeria was close to stopping the disease. W-H-O communications officer Melissa Corkum says emergency vaccination campaigns will take place in Togo, Ghana and Burkina Faso. They will also take place in Benin, Cameroon and Chad to block any possible spread. Mizz Corkum says the campaigns will cost ten million dollars. VOICE TWO: The polio virus spreads quickly by contact with human waste through unclean conditions. The virus enters through the mouth. Within four days to a month, victims may develop a high body temperature, headaches, vomiting and difficulty moving. They can lose the ability to move their arms or legs. Breathing may also become difficult. There is no cure. In Nigeria, most polio cases are in the north. About thirty-five percent of children in the north are vaccinated. Experts say at least eighty percent must get the vaccine to stop the spread of polio. But the Daily Champion newspaper in Lagos says some people are afraid of the vaccine. It says that is because of statements made by a member of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria. Doctor Ibrahim Datti Ahmed said the vaccine is not safe. The World Health Organization is working with traditional rulers and religious leaders in Nigeria to tell people that Doctor Ahmed is wrong. VOICE ONE: World health officials want to end polio by two-thousand-five. The number of new cases has dropped by ninety-nine percent. Experts say that is because so many children have received the vaccine. Last year health workers in one hundred countries gave the polio vaccine to more than five-hundred million children. India is one country that has increased its vaccination rates. India had the highest rate of new polio cases, until the recent reports from Nigeria. Health officials say it is important to vaccinate people as soon as possible after reports of new cases. The polio vaccine is taken by mouth. It is a few drops of liquid. The vaccine does not have to be given by a health worker. Medical experts say children should receive the vaccine three times before they are one year old. Since there is no cure, prevention is the only way to stop polio. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Fairness was the subject of a recent study at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The study showed that humans are not the only primates that dislike unequal treatment. Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal led the study. They worked with brown capuchin monkeys. They taught the monkeys to trade plastic tokens for food. They tested the monkeys two at a time so the animals could see each other. The monkeys like to eat cucumbers. So it was easy to get them to trade tokens for cucumber pieces. But it was not so easy if one monkey saw the other get a food they like even more -- a grape. Often the insulted monkey refused to give up its token or rejected the piece of cucumber. Some threw the token or the cucumber out of the cage. The researchers also gave grapes as rewards for different levels of work. Some monkeys were upset to see others receive a grape after no work at all. VOICE ONE: Sarah Brosnan says the study found that the capuchin monkeys compared their rewards with those of their partners. They refused to accept a lower-value reward if their partner received one of higher value. Think of how humans react when they see other someone else get a better deal. The researchers used only female capuchins. They say males are likely to share food even without a fair deal. The social system of capuchins might play a part. Males are usually either the partner of, or the father of, all the other monkeys around them. VOICE TWO: Sarah Brosnan says a sense of fairness is needed to live in large, complex groups. The researchers say the study supports the idea that primates developed this sense early, as cooperation evolved. The findings appeared last month in the publication Nature. The researchers at Emory University are also doing a similar study with chimpanzees. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An environmental group says American cities lost more than one in five of their trees during the past ten years. The group is called American Forests. It says the services that trees provide to keep air and water clean are worth thousands of millions of dollars. American Forests released a study at the National Urban Forest Conference last month in San Antonio, Texas. The group used satellite images to study tree cover in four-hundred-forty-eight cities. It compared these with images taken ten years earlier. The study found that American cities have twenty-one percent fewer trees today. Gary Moll is an official with American Forests. He calls the problem a "tree deficit." Mister Moll blames road projects and expanding areas of development. VOICE TWO: With fewer trees, cities have to find other ways to remove storm water. Gary Moll says trees help protect water supplies and prevent flooding. Trees also remove pollution from the air and reduce the need for electric cooling during hot weather. American Forests says the loss is especially bad in fast-growing cities in the southern states. Gary Moll says Atlanta had the worst tree loss. The group praised San Antonio for taking steps to fight the problem. It also praised Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Diego, California. The group was started in eighteen-seventy-five to get people to plant and care for trees. It wants to plant one-thousand-seven-hundred-million trees during the next ten years to replace the lost cover. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A researcher in Poland says coughing hard may help people during the most common form of heart attack. Doctor Tadeusz Petelenz is a professor at the Silesian Medical School in Katowice. He studied one-hundred-fifteen patients at risk of a heart attack. They were trained to cough at the first sign of an attack. They learned to start with one cough every one to two seconds, in sets of five coughs. They used this method in three-hundred-sixty-five cases when they thought they were about to lose consciousness. Doctor Petelenz says the symptoms disappeared in all but seventy-three cases. VOICE TWO: Doctor Petelenz discussed his findings about "cough C-P-R" during a recent meeting in Vienna of the European Society of Cardiology. He said the pumping action caused by deep coughing forces blood to the brain when the heart begins to fail. Traditional C-P-R, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, combines rescue breaths with compressions on the chest. When the heart fails, victims can lose consciousness very quickly. Brain damage and death can follow within minutes. Doctor Petelenz says coughing may give a person enough time to call for help. Most attacks are caused by a sudden problem with heart rhythm. Doctor Petelenz says coughing might help in these cases, called arrhythmia. The traditional treatment is electric shock to the heart. VOICE ONE: Doctor Petelenz says cough C-P-R should be taught to the public. Some doctors have patients cough to increase blood flow during hospital treatment for heart disease. But others say the idea of cough C-P-R needs more study. The American Heart Association says it is possible that a person could send enough blood to the brain to stay conscious for a few seconds. But it says this practice is not useful enough to teach with traditional lifesaving methods. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Lawan Davis, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Agroecology, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 7, 2003 This is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Today we finish a two-part series. A listener in Brazil asked about agroecology. This is a field of ideas about how to farm productively but also protect natural resources. Last week, we discussed how agroecology is seen in many ways as an answer to the Green Revolution. That movement has given us modern farming methods. Agroecology and the Green Revolution both want to increase productivity. But they work toward this common goal in different ways. Many agroecologists question how long modern farming methods can continue. Modern farming uses land intensively. Often the same crop is grown on the same land year after year. Soil breaks down and washes away. Also, fewer kinds of the same plant are grown. This can limit the number of kinds that may have useful genetic qualities. Another issue is fertilizer. Agroecologists say they would use organic materials and compost in place of chemicals. The Green Revolution has shown that chemical fertilizer can greatly increase crop productivity. But it can also pollute water supplies. To water crops, agroecologists say they would use methods that reduce the need for irrigation. Irrigation is an ancient idea. Water is pulled from the ground or brought from another place. Irrigated crops are highly productive. Sixteen percent of all farmland in the world is irrigated. But this sixteen percent of the farmland produces forty-percent of all food. Yet irrigation systems can use up groundwater faster than nature can replace it. And there are costs to taking water from other areas. To control pests, agroecologists say they would use helpful insects to kill harmful ones. In the last fifty years, however, farmers have increased the use of insecticides. These chemical poisons do destroy harmful insects. But they also kill helpful ones, and can cause pollution and health problems. Also, pests can develop the ability to resist chemicals. One place to learn more about agroecology is at the Web site agroecology dot o-r-g. This site is operated by the University of California at Santa Cruz. Steven Gliessman is a professor in the Center for Agroecology there. He has written several books on the subject. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. If you have a question for us, write to special@voanews.com. This is Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – October 8, 2003: Klondike and Alaska Gold Rush, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell the second part of our story about the discovery of gold in the area of Canada called the Yukon. We tell about the thousands of people who traveled to Alaska and on to Canada hoping that they would become rich. (THEME) This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell the second part of our story about the discovery of gold in the area of Canada called the Yukon. We tell about the thousands of people who traveled to Alaska and on to Canada hoping that they would become rich. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how three men discovered huge amounts of gold near the Yukon River in northwestern Canada. Their discovery started a rush of people traveling to the American territory of Alaska and across the border to Canada. History experts believe that between twenty and thirty-thousand people traveled to the area. Newspapers printed stories that said it was easy to become rich. All you had to do was pick up the gold from the ground. Books and magazines told how to travel to the area and the best method of finding gold. However, most of this information was false. It was not easy to find gold. It was extremely hard work under very difficult conditions. VOICE TWO: The first ship carrying the gold seekers arrived in the port town of Skagway, Alaska, on July twenty-sixth, eighteen-ninety-seven. These people were very lucky. It was summer and the weather was warm. However, they found few places to live in Skagway. Most people had to make temporary houses out of cloth. Skagway was a very small port town. It had very few stores. And everything was very costly. Skagway also had a crime problem. One of the chief criminals was a man named Jefferson Randolph Smith. He was better known as “Soapy” Smith. He did his best to take money from men who were on their way to seek gold. VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how three men discovered huge amounts of gold near the Yukon River in northwestern Canada. Their discovery started a rush of people traveling to the American territory of Alaska and across the border to Canada. History experts believe that between twenty and thirty-thousand people traveled to the area. Newspapers printed stories that said it was easy to become rich. All you had to do was pick up the gold from the ground. Books and magazines told how to travel to the area and the best method of finding gold. However, most of this information was false. It was not easy to find gold. It was extremely hard work under very difficult conditions. VOICE TWO: The first ship carrying the gold seekers arrived in the port town of Skagway, Alaska, on July twenty-sixth, eighteen-ninety-seven. These people were very lucky. It was summer and the weather was warm. However, they found few places to live in Skagway. Most people had to make temporary houses out of cloth. Skagway was a very small port town. It had very few stores. And everything was very costly. Skagway also had a crime problem. One of the chief criminals was a man named Jefferson Randolph Smith. He was better known as “Soapy” Smith. He did his best to take money from men who were on their way to seek gold. One method he used seems funny, now. Soapy Smith had signs printed that said a person could send a telegram for five dollars. Many people paid the money to send telegrams to their families back home to say they had arrived safely in Skagway. But they did not know that the telegraph office wires only went into the nearby forest. It was not a real telegraph office. It was a lie Soapy Smith used to take money from people who passed through Skagway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most of the gold seekers wanted to quickly travel to the area where gold had been discovered. However, the Canadian government required that each person had to bring enough supplies to last for one year if they wanted to cross the border into Canada. This was about nine-hundred kilograms of supplies. People who brought their supplies with them on the ship were lucky. Others had to buy their supplies in Skagway. They had to pay extremely high prices for everything they needed. VOICE TWO: When they had gathered all the supplies, the gold seekers then faced the extremely hard trip into Canada. Their first problem was crossing over a huge mountain. They could cross the mountain in one of two places -- the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass. Each gold seeker began by moving his supplies to the bottom of the mountain. Their progress to the mountain was painfully slow. One method he used seems funny, now. Soapy Smith had signs printed that said a person could send a telegram for five dollars. Many people paid the money to send telegrams to their families back home to say they had arrived safely in Skagway. But they did not know that the telegraph office wires only went into the nearby forest. It was not a real telegraph office. It was a lie Soapy Smith used to take money from people who passed through Skagway. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Most of the gold seekers wanted to quickly travel to the area where gold had been discovered. However, the Canadian government required that each person had to bring enough supplies to last for one year if they wanted to cross the border into Canada. This was about nine-hundred kilograms of supplies. People who brought their supplies with them on the ship were lucky. Others had to buy their supplies in Skagway. They had to pay extremely high prices for everything they needed. VOICE TWO: When they had gathered all the supplies, the gold seekers then faced the extremely hard trip into Canada. Their first problem was crossing over a huge mountain. They could cross the mountain in one of two places -- the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass. Each gold seeker began by moving his supplies to the bottom of the mountain. Their progress to the mountain was painfully slow. A man named Fred Dewey wrote to friends back home that it took him two weeks just to move his supplies from Skagway to the mountain. His wrote that his body hurt because of the extremely hard work. VOICE ONE: Then the gold seekers had to move their supplies up the mountain. Some men made as many as thirty trips before they had all of their supplies at the top. But others looked at the mountain and gave up. They sold their supplies and went back to Skagway. At the top of the mountain was the United States border with Canada. Canadian officials weighed the supplies of each man. If the supplies did not weigh enough, the men were sent back. They were not permitted to cross into Canada. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A gold seeker who had successfully traveled up the mountain still faced the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip. Both trails up the mountain ended near Lake Bennett in British Columbia. From there it was almost nine-hundred kilometers by boat down the Yukon River to the town of Dawson were gold had been discovered. But there was no boat service. Each person or small group had to build their own boat. They cut down many trees to build the boats. Within a few months, some forests in the area were gone. The summer quickly passed and winter began. The gold seekers were still building their boats. The Yukon River turned to ice. Winter in this area was extremely cold. The temperature often dropped to sixty degrees below zero Celsius. The cold could kill an unprotected person in just a few minutes. VOICE ONE: American writer Jack London was among the gold seekers. He became famous for writing about his experiences in Alaska and Canada. He wrote a short story that perhaps best explains the terrible conditions gold seekers faced. It is called “The White Silence.” In the story, Mister London explained how the extreme cold made the world seem dead. It caused strange thoughts. He said the cold and silence of this frozen world seemed to increase a man’s fear of death. This cruel cold could make a man afraid of his own voice. The story also tells what could happen to a person who had an accident. There were not many doctors in the gold fields. A seriously injured person could only expect to die. Jack London’s many stories truthfully explained just how hard it was to be a gold seeker in eighteen-ninety-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the end of winter, the area around Lake Bennett was a huge temporary town of more than ten-thousand people. They were all waiting for the ice to melt so they could continue on to the gold fields. On May twenty-eighth, eighteen-ninety-eight, the Yukon River could again hold boats. The ice was melting. That day, more than seven-thousand boats began the trip to Dawson. Many of these gold seekers did not survive the trip on the Yukon River. All of the boats had to pass through an area called the White Horse Rapids. The water there was fast and dangerous. Many boats turned over. Many of the gold seekers died. VOICE ONE: At last, the remaining gold seekers reached the city of Dawson. Dawson had been a small village before the discovery of gold. It became a big city within a short time. Stores and hotels were quickly built. The price of everything increased. One man named Miller brought a cow to Dawson. He sold the milk for thirty dollars for a little less than four liters. For the rest of his life he was known as “Cow Miller.” He did not get rich seeking gold. But he made a great deal of money selling milk. Many people did the same thing. They bought supplies in the United States and moved them to Dawson. Then they sold everything at extremely high prices. VOICE TWO: The gold seekers quickly learned that most of the valuable areas of land had already been claimed by others. Many gave up and went home. Some gold seekers searched in other areas. Others went to work for people who had found gold. Experts say about four-thousand people became rich during the great Klondike gold rush. Groups of men formed large companies and began buying land in the area. The large companies used huge machines to dig for gold. One of these companies continued to make a profit digging gold until nineteen-sixty-six. History records say that in only four years the area around Dawson produced more than fifty-one-million dollars in gold. This would be worth more than one-thousand-million dollars today. VOICE ONE: The great Yukon gold rush was over by the end of eighteen-ninety-nine. As many of the gold seekers began to leave, news spread of another huge discovery of gold. Gold had been found in Nome, Alaska. Gold was later discovered in another part of Alaska in nineteen-oh-two. Today, people visiting the area of the great Klondike gold rush can still find very small amounts of gold. The amount of gold is not much. But it is enough to feel the excitement of those gold seekers more than one-hundred years ago. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. A man named Fred Dewey wrote to friends back home that it took him two weeks just to move his supplies from Skagway to the mountain. His wrote that his body hurt because of the extremely hard work. VOICE ONE: Then the gold seekers had to move their supplies up the mountain. Some men made as many as thirty trips before they had all of their supplies at the top. But others looked at the mountain and gave up. They sold their supplies and went back to Skagway. At the top of the mountain was the United States border with Canada. Canadian officials weighed the supplies of each man. If the supplies did not weigh enough, the men were sent back. They were not permitted to cross into Canada. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A gold seeker who had successfully traveled up the mountain still faced the most difficult and dangerous part of the trip. Both trails up the mountain ended near Lake Bennett in British Columbia. From there it was almost nine-hundred kilometers by boat down the Yukon River to the town of Dawson were gold had been discovered. But there was no boat service. Each person or small group had to build their own boat. They cut down many trees to build the boats. Within a few months, some forests in the area were gone. The summer quickly passed and winter began. The gold seekers were still building their boats. The Yukon River turned to ice. Winter in this area was extremely cold. The temperature often dropped to sixty degrees below zero Celsius. The cold could kill an unprotected person in just a few minutes. VOICE ONE: American writer Jack London was among the gold seekers. He became famous for writing about his experiences in Alaska and Canada. He wrote a short story that perhaps best explains the terrible conditions gold seekers faced. It is called “The White Silence.” In the story, Mister London explained how the extreme cold made the world seem dead. It caused strange thoughts. He said the cold and silence of this frozen world seemed to increase a man’s fear of death. This cruel cold could make a man afraid of his own voice. The story also tells what could happen to a person who had an accident. There were not many doctors in the gold fields. A seriously injured person could only expect to die. Jack London’s many stories truthfully explained just how hard it was to be a gold seeker in eighteen-ninety-seven. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: By the end of winter, the area around Lake Bennett was a huge temporary town of more than ten-thousand people. They were all waiting for the ice to melt so they could continue on to the gold fields. On May twenty-eighth, eighteen-ninety-eight, the Yukon River could again hold boats. The ice was melting. That day, more than seven-thousand boats began the trip to Dawson. Many of these gold seekers did not survive the trip on the Yukon River. All of the boats had to pass through an area called the White Horse Rapids. The water there was fast and dangerous. Many boats turned over. Many of the gold seekers died. VOICE ONE: At last, the remaining gold seekers reached the city of Dawson. Dawson had been a small village before the discovery of gold. It became a big city within a short time. Stores and hotels were quickly built. The price of everything increased. One man named Miller brought a cow to Dawson. He sold the milk for thirty dollars for a little less than four liters. For the rest of his life he was known as “Cow Miller.” He did not get rich seeking gold. But he made a great deal of money selling milk. Many people did the same thing. They bought supplies in the United States and moved them to Dawson. Then they sold everything at extremely high prices. VOICE TWO: The gold seekers quickly learned that most of the valuable areas of land had already been claimed by others. Many gave up and went home. Some gold seekers searched in other areas. Others went to work for people who had found gold. Experts say about four-thousand people became rich during the great Klondike gold rush. Groups of men formed large companies and began buying land in the area. The large companies used huge machines to dig for gold. One of these companies continued to make a profit digging gold until nineteen-sixty-six. History records say that in only four years the area around Dawson produced more than fifty-one-million dollars in gold. This would be worth more than one-thousand-million dollars today. VOICE ONE: The great Yukon gold rush was over by the end of eighteen-ninety-nine. As many of the gold seekers began to leave, news spread of another huge discovery of gold. Gold had been found in Nome, Alaska. Gold was later discovered in another part of Alaska in nineteen-oh-two. Today, people visiting the area of the great Klondike gold rush can still find very small amounts of gold. The amount of gold is not much. But it is enough to feel the excitement of those gold seekers more than one-hundred years ago. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Cardiovascular Disease / Women
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 8, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization says that each year almost seventeen-million people die of heart disease and stroke. More than eight-million of them are women. In fact, heart attacks and strokes cause two times as many deaths in women as all kinds of cancer combined. September twenty-eighth was World Heart Day. The W-H-O used the event to release a report on a major worldwide study. The project was called Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease, or MONICA. The study took place from the middle of the nineteen-eighties to the middle of the nineties. Teams in twenty-one countries measured levels of heart disease, stroke and the risk factors that can lead to them in different populations. The W-H-O says the information is important for developing prevention policies and for demonstrating the value of new treatments. The World Heart Day observance this year centered on women. A non-governmental organization in Geneva, the World Heart Federation, says heart disease is the most serious health threat to women. The federation represents more than one-hundred heart organizations in ninety-seven countries. It says many people believe that mainly men have heart attacks and strokes. Executive Director Janet Voute (pronounced voot) says this is only one of the false ideas people have. Another is that heart attacks and strokes are diseases of rich countries. Mizz Voute says eighty percent of heart attack and stroke deaths are in low and middle income countries. A third idea is that it is simply an old person’s disease. The director says this too is false. But she says people are increasingly at risk of heart disease when they are older because of how they lived when they were young. The federation says the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease are smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and high body weight. The group says eighteen times more women die from heart disease and strokes than from breast cancer. It says more than half of female deaths and disability from heart disease and stroke could be cut. It says women would need to do things like quit smoking, lose weight and get thirty minutes of exercise a day. The federation says it is also important to avoid breathing other people's tobacco smoke. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: October 8, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Health Organization says that each year almost seventeen-million people die of heart disease and stroke. More than eight-million of them are women. In fact, heart attacks and strokes cause two times as many deaths in women as all kinds of cancer combined. September twenty-eighth was World Heart Day. The W-H-O used the event to release a report on a major worldwide study. The project was called Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease, or MONICA. The study took place from the middle of the nineteen-eighties to the middle of the nineties. Teams in twenty-one countries measured levels of heart disease, stroke and the risk factors that can lead to them in different populations. The W-H-O says the information is important for developing prevention policies and for demonstrating the value of new treatments. The World Heart Day observance this year centered on women. A non-governmental organization in Geneva, the World Heart Federation, says heart disease is the most serious health threat to women. The federation represents more than one-hundred heart organizations in ninety-seven countries. It says many people believe that mainly men have heart attacks and strokes. Executive Director Janet Voute (pronounced voot) says this is only one of the false ideas people have. Another is that heart attacks and strokes are diseases of rich countries. Mizz Voute says eighty percent of heart attack and stroke deaths are in low and middle income countries. A third idea is that it is simply an old person’s disease. The director says this too is false. But she says people are increasingly at risk of heart disease when they are older because of how they lived when they were young. The federation says the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease are smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and high body weight. The group says eighteen times more women die from heart disease and strokes than from breast cancer. It says more than half of female deaths and disability from heart disease and stroke could be cut. It says women would need to do things like quit smoking, lose weight and get thirty minutes of exercise a day. The federation says it is also important to avoid breathing other people's tobacco smoke. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: October 9, 2003 - 'Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 9, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk with the author of a book called "Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language." Broadcast: October 9, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we talk with the author of a book called "Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language." RS: Ilan Stavans is a professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He's originally from Mexico. His newest work is a lexicon and "user's manual" to a mostly spoken language used by Latinos. People of Spanish-speaking ancestry are now the largest minority in the U.S., comprising more than 13 percent of the population. AA: Spanglish blends the two most spoken languages in the country. It can mix English and Spanish in the same sentence or even within in the same word -- like "Hollywoodiano," a noun defined in the book as "Hollywood lifestyle." But Ilan Stavans says Spanglish is more than simply words. STAVANS: "It is the announcement of a new way of thinking, of a new way of being, by a large portion of the population that lives in the United States that traces its roots to the Hispanic world. According to the U.S. Census, this population is almost 40 million people, which is a huge number -- it's the entire population of Spain and seven or eight times the population of a country like El Salvador. "And the fact that this population is having an identity struggle, so to speak -- it is part Anglo, part Hispanic, but neither one nor the other -- is perfectly reflected on the language that is spoken, Spanglish, that is part English and part Spanish. And it is a way of saying I'm neither here nor there but I am perfectly who I am." RS: "Where do these words come from, where does this new identity come from?" STAVANS: "These words come from the streets, come from the people. They are to be heard in playgrounds, in restaurants, by gardeners, by migrant workers in states like Oregon and Wisconsin and Arizona, by urban dwellers, youngsters that live in the inner city, in New York, in Chicago, in L.A., in Miami. "And it is really a very spontaneous, very popular way of communication that, it is important to stress, goes beyond class. It is not only spoken by those that don't speak fluent English or don't speak fluent Spanish. It is actually a way of relating by people of the middle class and upper middle class and even the upper class. And as such I think it is an extraordinary American phenomenon, one that tells lots about who we are as a country, as a people." AA: "Now I see you've even got 'Cyber-Spanglish.' Why don't we talk about some examples of Spanglish terms, including words that you particularly enjoy." STAVANS: "Of all the Spanglishes that exist -- there's the Spanglish spoken by Cuban Americans. Mexican Americans speak their own Spanglish and New Yoricans -- that is, the Puerto Ricans that live in New York -- have their own style and manner. Of all the ones, the one that I feel is more provocative, perhaps, or stimulating is Cyber-Spanglish, maybe because we tend to think of Hispanics as rooted in the past and not always looking at the future. And Cyber-Spanglish is the answer to that. "We have terms like 'downloadiar,' meaning to download, or 'attachiar,' or 'forwardiar,' all verbs that relate to sending manuscripts or sending messages from one side to another. The language of technology and the language of the Internet is fascinating. There is a term that is very popular in the U.S.-Mexican border and more so in Mexico, a Spanglish term, to refer to the Web, 'la Web.' But in Spanish 'web' or 'weba' has also this kind of risky element of being lazy, but being lazy together with just wasting your time in front of the Internet." AA: "Actually, that raises the question of, in the same way the French are concerned about English words coming into French, is there a similar concern about Spanish?" STAVANS: "A substantial concern, particularly among those that consider themselves purists of the language. If in the United States, the debate on Spanglish is played out against issues like assimilation and integration -- are Latinos following the patterns of other, previous immigrant groups, are they becoming part of the American tapestry, are they giving up their immigrant language and embracing English -- outside the United States the debate is very different. "The debate has to do with American foreign policy, with cultural imperialism. But I think this is a misguided perception. I don't think that, at least for the time being, Spanglish is replacing anything else. But it's certainly making its way through, and that scares some people." RS: Ilan Stavans is author of "Spanglish: the Making of a New American Language." It includes a chapter of the Spanish classic "Don Quixote de la Mancha" translated into Spanglish! AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can find all our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: Ilan Stavans is a professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He's originally from Mexico. His newest work is a lexicon and "user's manual" to a mostly spoken language used by Latinos. People of Spanish-speaking ancestry are now the largest minority in the U.S., comprising more than 13 percent of the population. AA: Spanglish blends the two most spoken languages in the country. It can mix English and Spanish in the same sentence or even within in the same word -- like "Hollywoodiano," a noun defined in the book as "Hollywood lifestyle." But Ilan Stavans says Spanglish is more than simply words. STAVANS: "It is the announcement of a new way of thinking, of a new way of being, by a large portion of the population that lives in the United States that traces its roots to the Hispanic world. According to the U.S. Census, this population is almost 40 million people, which is a huge number -- it's the entire population of Spain and seven or eight times the population of a country like El Salvador. "And the fact that this population is having an identity struggle, so to speak -- it is part Anglo, part Hispanic, but neither one nor the other -- is perfectly reflected on the language that is spoken, Spanglish, that is part English and part Spanish. And it is a way of saying I'm neither here nor there but I am perfectly who I am." RS: "Where do these words come from, where does this new identity come from?" STAVANS: "These words come from the streets, come from the people. They are to be heard in playgrounds, in restaurants, by gardeners, by migrant workers in states like Oregon and Wisconsin and Arizona, by urban dwellers, youngsters that live in the inner city, in New York, in Chicago, in L.A., in Miami. "And it is really a very spontaneous, very popular way of communication that, it is important to stress, goes beyond class. It is not only spoken by those that don't speak fluent English or don't speak fluent Spanish. It is actually a way of relating by people of the middle class and upper middle class and even the upper class. And as such I think it is an extraordinary American phenomenon, one that tells lots about who we are as a country, as a people." AA: "Now I see you've even got 'Cyber-Spanglish.' Why don't we talk about some examples of Spanglish terms, including words that you particularly enjoy." STAVANS: "Of all the Spanglishes that exist -- there's the Spanglish spoken by Cuban Americans. Mexican Americans speak their own Spanglish and New Yoricans -- that is, the Puerto Ricans that live in New York -- have their own style and manner. Of all the ones, the one that I feel is more provocative, perhaps, or stimulating is Cyber-Spanglish, maybe because we tend to think of Hispanics as rooted in the past and not always looking at the future. And Cyber-Spanglish is the answer to that. "We have terms like 'downloadiar,' meaning to download, or 'attachiar,' or 'forwardiar,' all verbs that relate to sending manuscripts or sending messages from one side to another. The language of technology and the language of the Internet is fascinating. There is a term that is very popular in the U.S.-Mexican border and more so in Mexico, a Spanglish term, to refer to the Web, 'la Web.' But in Spanish 'web' or 'weba' has also this kind of risky element of being lazy, but being lazy together with just wasting your time in front of the Internet." AA: "Actually, that raises the question of, in the same way the French are concerned about English words coming into French, is there a similar concern about Spanish?" STAVANS: "A substantial concern, particularly among those that consider themselves purists of the language. If in the United States, the debate on Spanglish is played out against issues like assimilation and integration -- are Latinos following the patterns of other, previous immigrant groups, are they becoming part of the American tapestry, are they giving up their immigrant language and embracing English -- outside the United States the debate is very different. "The debate has to do with American foreign policy, with cultural imperialism. But I think this is a misguided perception. I don't think that, at least for the time being, Spanglish is replacing anything else. But it's certainly making its way through, and that scares some people." RS: Ilan Stavans is author of "Spanglish: the Making of a New American Language." It includes a chapter of the Spanish classic "Don Quixote de la Mancha" translated into Spanglish! AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And you can find all our programs at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 10, 2003: Flash Mobs / Why Isn't America Named for Columbus? / Mary J. Blige's New Album
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Christopher Columbus (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – some hip-hop music from the newest album by Mary J. Blige. And a listener wants to know why America is named for someone other than Christopher Columbus. But first – we look at a new kind of mob activity that is spreading around the world. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – some hip-hop music from the newest album by Mary J. Blige. And a listener wants to know why America is named for someone other than Christopher Columbus. But first – we look at a new kind of mob activity that is spreading around the world. Flash Mobs HOST: Have you ever taken part in a flash mob? Do you even know what a flash mob is? Well, here is Shep O’Neal to explain. ANNCR: A flash mob is where young people suddenly gather in a large group for no apparent reason. Flash mobs can involve hundreds of people. The people do not all know each other. But they all meet at the same time, then leave the area quickly. A flash mob can be held for any reason, but usually just to have some fun. The people involved in a flash mob do not know the time or place of the meeting until just minutes before it takes place. They get the details from a Web site, or by e-mail or as a text message on their wireless phone. What do people do at flash mobs? Flash mobbers in a store will all ask for the same product. On a street, they may sing a song at the same time. Or shout meaningless words. Or hug each other. Or make some kind of noise. Then, just as quickly as they came, they leave. It all happens in a flash. Flash mobbing reportedly started in New York City. But some say the first ones were in Europe. However it got started, flash mobbing has become popular around the world. Flash mobs have been reported in Japan, Britain, Germany, New Zealand, and at many colleges and universities in America. The founder of the New York mob is known as Bill. He began with a list of fifty people. The list grew over time. Now, international flash mobbers are said to number in the tens of thousands. Last month, the American cartoonist Gary Trudeau used his “Doonesbury” comic strip to call for a flash mob. He told people to gather at the bottom of the Space Needle in Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest. He told them to link arms, form a circle, jump up and down and yell "the doctor is in!" The purpose of the gathering was to support Howard Dean, one of the Democratic presidential candidates and also a doctor. About one-hundred people went, but said it was not a real flash mob since it was not called electronically. They say flash mobbing shows how computers and the Internet are linking people. So, are you ready to join a flash mob? No, we are not going to call one -- not unless you could all get to Washington at the same time! But we will tell you how to learn more about flash mobs. There are Web sites, including flashmob dot com and flashmob dot info. Columbus Day HOST: Our question this week comes by e-mail from China. A listener asks why America is not named after Christopher Columbus, the first European to find the New World. This is a good time to answer that question. Monday is Columbus Day in the United States. Columbus Day is observed on the second Monday in October. The holiday honors the first visit to America by Columbus in fourteen-ninety-two. Yet the land is named for someone else. Here is the story. Christopher Columbus visited the New World three times. Yet he never recognized that he was outside Asia. He always believed that he had found the Indies. He called the people “Indians.” His voyages were important, though. They opened the area to others. One of these was an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci. In fourteen-ninety-nine, Amerigo Vespucci made his first trip to what is now known as South America. He named many areas. And he made important improvements to navigation during his trip. Vespucci made another trip a few years later. That was when he recognized that he was not in India, but on a separate continent. He confirmed this by following the coast of South America as far south as he could. Amerigo Vespucci wrote letters about his explorations. They described the people he found and told how they lived. The letters were published in many languages and widely read in Europe. In fifteen-oh-seven, a German mapmaker named Martin Waldseemuller printed a map with a land he called “America." He named it after Amerigo Vespucci. Waldseemuller sold copies of that map all over Europe. People started to use the name America. Later, it was also used to describe the area discovered to the north. The last known copy of that map, by the way, was recently bought by the Library of Congress. Some history experts think these areas of the New World should have been named for Christopher Columbus. But others say it was right to honor Amerigo Vespucci. After all, he first recognized these lands as a separate, new part of the world. Mary J. Blige HOST: Mary J. Blige is often called the queen of hip-hop music. She became popular by singing about love and loss. But her newest album takes a new turn. It is called "Love and Life." Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: The songs of Mary J. Blige have always told of the painful experiences in her life. The thirty-two-year-old singer and her sister were raised alone by their mother. They lived in a poor neighborhood just outside New York City. In this song from her first album, Mary J. Blige sings of searching for “real love.” (MUSIC) By her second album, Mary J. Blige was recognized for her songwriting skills. She sang about bad relationships and drug use. In two-thousand-one, she released an album called “No More Drama.” In the title song, she sings of living a better life. (MUSIC) Mary J. Blige has recorded six albums in all since nineteen-ninety-two. Her newest one, “Love and Life,” is different from all the others. The words to her songs do not include so much pain. She has happier things to sing about. She says drugs and alcohol are behind her now. And she is going to be married. We leave you with a song from her new album. Here is “Love at First Sight.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Eva Nenicka. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Flash Mobs HOST: Have you ever taken part in a flash mob? Do you even know what a flash mob is? Well, here is Shep O’Neal to explain. ANNCR: A flash mob is where young people suddenly gather in a large group for no apparent reason. Flash mobs can involve hundreds of people. The people do not all know each other. But they all meet at the same time, then leave the area quickly. A flash mob can be held for any reason, but usually just to have some fun. The people involved in a flash mob do not know the time or place of the meeting until just minutes before it takes place. They get the details from a Web site, or by e-mail or as a text message on their wireless phone. What do people do at flash mobs? Flash mobbers in a store will all ask for the same product. On a street, they may sing a song at the same time. Or shout meaningless words. Or hug each other. Or make some kind of noise. Then, just as quickly as they came, they leave. It all happens in a flash. Flash mobbing reportedly started in New York City. But some say the first ones were in Europe. However it got started, flash mobbing has become popular around the world. Flash mobs have been reported in Japan, Britain, Germany, New Zealand, and at many colleges and universities in America. The founder of the New York mob is known as Bill. He began with a list of fifty people. The list grew over time. Now, international flash mobbers are said to number in the tens of thousands. Last month, the American cartoonist Gary Trudeau used his “Doonesbury” comic strip to call for a flash mob. He told people to gather at the bottom of the Space Needle in Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest. He told them to link arms, form a circle, jump up and down and yell "the doctor is in!" The purpose of the gathering was to support Howard Dean, one of the Democratic presidential candidates and also a doctor. About one-hundred people went, but said it was not a real flash mob since it was not called electronically. They say flash mobbing shows how computers and the Internet are linking people. So, are you ready to join a flash mob? No, we are not going to call one -- not unless you could all get to Washington at the same time! But we will tell you how to learn more about flash mobs. There are Web sites, including flashmob dot com and flashmob dot info. Columbus Day HOST: Our question this week comes by e-mail from China. A listener asks why America is not named after Christopher Columbus, the first European to find the New World. This is a good time to answer that question. Monday is Columbus Day in the United States. Columbus Day is observed on the second Monday in October. The holiday honors the first visit to America by Columbus in fourteen-ninety-two. Yet the land is named for someone else. Here is the story. Christopher Columbus visited the New World three times. Yet he never recognized that he was outside Asia. He always believed that he had found the Indies. He called the people “Indians.” His voyages were important, though. They opened the area to others. One of these was an Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci. In fourteen-ninety-nine, Amerigo Vespucci made his first trip to what is now known as South America. He named many areas. And he made important improvements to navigation during his trip. Vespucci made another trip a few years later. That was when he recognized that he was not in India, but on a separate continent. He confirmed this by following the coast of South America as far south as he could. Amerigo Vespucci wrote letters about his explorations. They described the people he found and told how they lived. The letters were published in many languages and widely read in Europe. In fifteen-oh-seven, a German mapmaker named Martin Waldseemuller printed a map with a land he called “America." He named it after Amerigo Vespucci. Waldseemuller sold copies of that map all over Europe. People started to use the name America. Later, it was also used to describe the area discovered to the north. The last known copy of that map, by the way, was recently bought by the Library of Congress. Some history experts think these areas of the New World should have been named for Christopher Columbus. But others say it was right to honor Amerigo Vespucci. After all, he first recognized these lands as a separate, new part of the world. Mary J. Blige HOST: Mary J. Blige is often called the queen of hip-hop music. She became popular by singing about love and loss. But her newest album takes a new turn. It is called "Love and Life." Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: The songs of Mary J. Blige have always told of the painful experiences in her life. The thirty-two-year-old singer and her sister were raised alone by their mother. They lived in a poor neighborhood just outside New York City. In this song from her first album, Mary J. Blige sings of searching for “real love.” (MUSIC) By her second album, Mary J. Blige was recognized for her songwriting skills. She sang about bad relationships and drug use. In two-thousand-one, she released an album called “No More Drama.” In the title song, she sings of living a better life. (MUSIC) Mary J. Blige has recorded six albums in all since nineteen-ninety-two. Her newest one, “Love and Life,” is different from all the others. The words to her songs do not include so much pain. She has happier things to sing about. She says drugs and alcohol are behind her now. And she is going to be married. We leave you with a song from her new album. Here is “Love at First Sight.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Eva Nenicka. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT – China’s Money
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 10, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The Bush administration and some American lawmakers have called for a change in China’s financial policy. At issue is the value of Chinese money, called the yuan or renminbi. American officials say the renminbi is undervalued. They say its low value permits China to unfairly compete with American businesses. When we think of the value of money, we think of the number seen on money itself. That tells us how much of something we can buy. But, money also is something that can be traded on financial markets, or currency exchanges. Nations buy the money of other nations. Nations must keep supplies of foreign money to pay for goods they import. They also receive foreign money for the goods they export. This foreign money may be held in banks for future use. For years, China has controlled the value of the renminbi by linking it to the value of the American dollar. Chinese officials have set that rate at about eight renminbi to the dollar. The Bush administration would like to see China’s money traded on currency exchanges. Treasury Secretary John Snow and other officials believe the renminbi would have a higher value if it were traded like the money of other countries. American companies say the renminbi could increase in value by forty percent if it were to be freely traded. Some administration officials and experts believe that a stronger renminbi could reduce America’s trade deficit. Last year, the trade deficit with China was over one-hundred-thousand-million dollars. That was its highest level ever. This year, the deficit is expected to be higher. China does not believe that permitting the renminbi to trade freely is a good idea. Last month, the governor of the Bank for the People’s Republic of China said his country would not change its money policy. Jen Renqing said the Chinese economy was still developing. He also said China would need time to open its money to market forces. Others agree that China should not change its policy at this time. Standard and Poor’s is a company that measures financial risk. Last month, Standard and Poor’s said that a change in China’s money policy would be a mistake. It said changes in the value of the renminbi would put too much financial pressure on Chinese banks. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #33 - John Adams, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 9, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) The year Seventeen-Ninety-Six saw a change in American politics. The new nation held its third presidential election that year. And, for the first time, there was more than one candidate. George Washington won the first two elections without opposition. But now there were two political parties. The Federalists were led by former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The Republicans were led by former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the election and the man who won it. VOICE TWO: Most people expected John Adams to win. He was well-known throughout the country. He had campaigned for American independence from British rule. He had served as a diplomat in Europe and as the first American minister to Britain. He was Washington's choice for vice president and had served in that position for two terms. Adams was a Federalist. But he was not -- like other Federalists -- loyal to Alexander Hamilton. So Hamilton worked against Adams. He tried to win electoral support for his own candidate for president, Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina. VOICE ONE: At last, the day arrived for counting the votes. The Federalists were shocked by the results. Seventy-one electors voted for John Adams. Sixty-eight voted for Republican Thomas Jefferson. Only sixty voted for Hamilton's choice, Thomas Pinckney. Under the electoral system used at that time, the candidate with the most votes became president. The candidate with the next largest number of votes became vice president. So America's second president would be John Adams. Its second vice president would be Thomas Jefferson. VOICE TWO: Jefferson had resigned from public service a few years earlier. But he decided to accept his election as vice president. He wrote to his friend James Madison: "I am willing to serve under President Adams. I believe Adams is the only man who can stop Alexander Hamilton from becoming president in Eighteen-Hundred." To Adams himself, Jefferson wrote that he valued their long friendship and hoped it would continue. Republican newspapers carried articles that were friendly to Federalist John Adams -- the first time they had done so. VOICE ONE: When Adams and Jefferson took office in March, Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, some Federalists believed their political power had come to an end. But Alexander Hamilton, sitting in his law office in New York City, did not lose hope. He knew he still controlled the top Federalist leaders in Congress. More than that, he believed he knew how to control John Adams. The new president made Hamilton's job easy. Adams kept President Washington's cabinet. The three men who were Washington's chief government officials would now advise President Adams. Washington had appointed them at Hamilton's request. And they always did what Hamilton told them to do. VOICE TWO: Historians still cannot explain why John Adams -- a man who did not like or trust Alexander Hamilton -- kept the three cabinet secretaries. If the secretaries had been men of great ability, then that might be an explanation. But they were not. One was a Secretary of State who knew very little about foreign relations. The second was a Secretary of the Treasury who knew less about finance. The third was a Secretary of War who knew nothing about military matters and defense. Adams may have kept these men as an act of party unity. Or he may have kept them because he could not get anyone else. VOICE ONE: Whatever his reason, the decision was politically costly. For the three men worked together against him. President Adams told his cabinet secretaries what he wanted. Then they went to Alexander Hamilton for orders. In the end, these secret activities helped destroy the Federalist Party. And so, they made the administration of John Adams one of the most exciting and important periods in the political history of the United States. VOICE TWO: As we said earlier, John Adams was a great man and a true patriot. He was born in the village of Braintree, Massachusetts, in Seventeen-Thirty-Five. He wanted to be a farmer. But he was sent to Harvard College to study to be a clergyman. He had no interest in this life and became a lawyer, instead. In the years before the American Revolution, John Adams wrote articles about the injustice of British rule. He also became a delegate to the First Continental Congress. He urged the Congress to appoint George Washington as commander-in-chief of American forces. He argued for the creation of an American navy. And he helped develop the resolutions declaring American independence. VOICE ONE: Adams spent most of the war years in Europe. He helped win Dutch recognition of the new American nation. He also negotiated a loan from the Dutch government, as well as a treaty of friendship and commerce. After American forces defeated British forces, he helped negotiate the peace treaty between the two countries. Then he served as the first American minister to Britain. Adams, like other Federalists, believed that men of money and position should govern America. He did not trust the common people. He did not support democracy. He once wrote: "In the city of Boston, there are four noble families. They are just as much a noble class as the nobility of Britain or Spain. And it is good that this aristocracy exists." Yet John Adams had a deep love for his country. He would do whatever was necessary to keep it free. VOICE TWO: Adams was extremely intelligent and was a thoughtful, lively writer. However, he often acted very coldly and said little. Or he became angry easily. His best friend probably was his wife, Abigail. He had few other friends. Adams' personal weaknesses caused trouble during his presidency. He belonged to the Federalist Party. But he did not want to become involved in party arguments. And he did not want to make all the compromises necessary in the world of politics. So, other Federalists often worked against him. VOICE ONE: Not many people really liked this difficult, aristocratic man. Strangely enough, one of the few who did was Thomas Jefferson. This was strange, because Jefferson's political philosophy was opposed to everything Adams represented. Perhaps Jefferson liked Adams because he respected him for his intelligence. Perhaps he never forgot that Adams had fought hard for American independence. Or perhaps he understood that, under Adams' selfishness and weaknesses, there was an honest man who would do anything for his country. However, there were not many like Jefferson. Most men in politics just did not like Adams. They used this fact as a weapon. It was such a strong weapon that it made people forget what Jefferson remembered. John Adams had a good mind and loved the United States. He had given many years of his life to the young nation and should be honored for it. VOICE TWO: Federalist leaders, especially, appealed to Adams' weaknesses when they wanted his support. For example, they knew Adams was jealous of President Washington. Adams felt Washington received too much honor, while he received not enough. Sometimes, if Adams knew the president's opinion on a question, he would develop a different opinion. Yet Washington -- like Jefferson -- respected Adams. He felt the new nation needed Adams' skills. VOICE ONE: Adams won the presidency in Seventeen-Ninety-Six. But his term would be difficult. His own party, the Federalists, did not trust him. And he did not have the support of the general public. The people knew he did not like them. Adams did not expect the job to be easy. He once wrote: "In politics, a man must always walk on broken glass and red-hot iron. It is not easy to do this when you are not wearing shoes. But some men must do it. There are many dangerous things that have to be done for our country in these dangerous times. If nobody else will do them, I will." We will continue the story of John Adams next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson. Broadcast: October 9, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) The year Seventeen-Ninety-Six saw a change in American politics. The new nation held its third presidential election that year. And, for the first time, there was more than one candidate. George Washington won the first two elections without opposition. But now there were two political parties. The Federalists were led by former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The Republicans were led by former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. I'm Harry Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the election and the man who won it. VOICE TWO: Most people expected John Adams to win. He was well-known throughout the country. He had campaigned for American independence from British rule. He had served as a diplomat in Europe and as the first American minister to Britain. He was Washington's choice for vice president and had served in that position for two terms. Adams was a Federalist. But he was not -- like other Federalists -- loyal to Alexander Hamilton. So Hamilton worked against Adams. He tried to win electoral support for his own candidate for president, Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina. VOICE ONE: At last, the day arrived for counting the votes. The Federalists were shocked by the results. Seventy-one electors voted for John Adams. Sixty-eight voted for Republican Thomas Jefferson. Only sixty voted for Hamilton's choice, Thomas Pinckney. Under the electoral system used at that time, the candidate with the most votes became president. The candidate with the next largest number of votes became vice president. So America's second president would be John Adams. Its second vice president would be Thomas Jefferson. VOICE TWO: Jefferson had resigned from public service a few years earlier. But he decided to accept his election as vice president. He wrote to his friend James Madison: "I am willing to serve under President Adams. I believe Adams is the only man who can stop Alexander Hamilton from becoming president in Eighteen-Hundred." To Adams himself, Jefferson wrote that he valued their long friendship and hoped it would continue. Republican newspapers carried articles that were friendly to Federalist John Adams -- the first time they had done so. VOICE ONE: When Adams and Jefferson took office in March, Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, some Federalists believed their political power had come to an end. But Alexander Hamilton, sitting in his law office in New York City, did not lose hope. He knew he still controlled the top Federalist leaders in Congress. More than that, he believed he knew how to control John Adams. The new president made Hamilton's job easy. Adams kept President Washington's cabinet. The three men who were Washington's chief government officials would now advise President Adams. Washington had appointed them at Hamilton's request. And they always did what Hamilton told them to do. VOICE TWO: Historians still cannot explain why John Adams -- a man who did not like or trust Alexander Hamilton -- kept the three cabinet secretaries. If the secretaries had been men of great ability, then that might be an explanation. But they were not. One was a Secretary of State who knew very little about foreign relations. The second was a Secretary of the Treasury who knew less about finance. The third was a Secretary of War who knew nothing about military matters and defense. Adams may have kept these men as an act of party unity. Or he may have kept them because he could not get anyone else. VOICE ONE: Whatever his reason, the decision was politically costly. For the three men worked together against him. President Adams told his cabinet secretaries what he wanted. Then they went to Alexander Hamilton for orders. In the end, these secret activities helped destroy the Federalist Party. And so, they made the administration of John Adams one of the most exciting and important periods in the political history of the United States. VOICE TWO: As we said earlier, John Adams was a great man and a true patriot. He was born in the village of Braintree, Massachusetts, in Seventeen-Thirty-Five. He wanted to be a farmer. But he was sent to Harvard College to study to be a clergyman. He had no interest in this life and became a lawyer, instead. In the years before the American Revolution, John Adams wrote articles about the injustice of British rule. He also became a delegate to the First Continental Congress. He urged the Congress to appoint George Washington as commander-in-chief of American forces. He argued for the creation of an American navy. And he helped develop the resolutions declaring American independence. VOICE ONE: Adams spent most of the war years in Europe. He helped win Dutch recognition of the new American nation. He also negotiated a loan from the Dutch government, as well as a treaty of friendship and commerce. After American forces defeated British forces, he helped negotiate the peace treaty between the two countries. Then he served as the first American minister to Britain. Adams, like other Federalists, believed that men of money and position should govern America. He did not trust the common people. He did not support democracy. He once wrote: "In the city of Boston, there are four noble families. They are just as much a noble class as the nobility of Britain or Spain. And it is good that this aristocracy exists." Yet John Adams had a deep love for his country. He would do whatever was necessary to keep it free. VOICE TWO: Adams was extremely intelligent and was a thoughtful, lively writer. However, he often acted very coldly and said little. Or he became angry easily. His best friend probably was his wife, Abigail. He had few other friends. Adams' personal weaknesses caused trouble during his presidency. He belonged to the Federalist Party. But he did not want to become involved in party arguments. And he did not want to make all the compromises necessary in the world of politics. So, other Federalists often worked against him. VOICE ONE: Not many people really liked this difficult, aristocratic man. Strangely enough, one of the few who did was Thomas Jefferson. This was strange, because Jefferson's political philosophy was opposed to everything Adams represented. Perhaps Jefferson liked Adams because he respected him for his intelligence. Perhaps he never forgot that Adams had fought hard for American independence. Or perhaps he understood that, under Adams' selfishness and weaknesses, there was an honest man who would do anything for his country. However, there were not many like Jefferson. Most men in politics just did not like Adams. They used this fact as a weapon. It was such a strong weapon that it made people forget what Jefferson remembered. John Adams had a good mind and loved the United States. He had given many years of his life to the young nation and should be honored for it. VOICE TWO: Federalist leaders, especially, appealed to Adams' weaknesses when they wanted his support. For example, they knew Adams was jealous of President Washington. Adams felt Washington received too much honor, while he received not enough. Sometimes, if Adams knew the president's opinion on a question, he would develop a different opinion. Yet Washington -- like Jefferson -- respected Adams. He felt the new nation needed Adams' skills. VOICE ONE: Adams won the presidency in Seventeen-Ninety-Six. But his term would be difficult. His own party, the Federalists, did not trust him. And he did not have the support of the general public. The people knew he did not like them. Adams did not expect the job to be easy. He once wrote: "In politics, a man must always walk on broken glass and red-hot iron. It is not easy to do this when you are not wearing shoes. But some men must do it. There are many dangerous things that have to be done for our country in these dangerous times. If nobody else will do them, I will." We will continue the story of John Adams next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – October 9, 2003: Improving High School Reading and Writing
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. An American expert has suggestions for helping high school students read and write better. Paul Thomas is assistant professor of education at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development published Mister Thomas’s suggestions in its magazine, Classroom Leadership. The association is a nonprofit educational organization in Alexandria, Virginia. Mister Thomas says students’ reading and writing skills continue to develop. He says the major source for learning these skills is the traditional textbook. But he believes that textbooks are not enough. Mister Thomas suggests that other books be used in addition to textbooks. Students, he says, should not read a description of a historical person’s words written by someone else. Instead, they should read a book containing the true words of that person. He also says movies and drama can help increase students’ interest in the subject they are reading. Mister Thomas urges teachers to continue developing their knowledge of the best methods for teaching reading and writing. He says this leads to good experiments in the classroom. He believes that high school teachers are required to teach too much material in reading and writing. He urges them to call for a reduction in the material. At the same time, he suggests using plans for teaching by concept – the central idea. For example, he says some students he has known have reached a new level of learning. This is because they became deeply interested in the subject they were reading. Mister Thomas urges teachers to make sure students know that reading and writing are not valued only by the English department. He says reading and writing must become an important part of learning activities. In addition, teachers themselves should be active readers and writers. The magazine that published Mister Thomas’s article is one of a number of publications of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. One-hundred-sixty-thousand educators belong to the organization. They come from more than one-hundred-thirty-five countries. The Association helps educators develop more effective ways of teaching and learning. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-09-5-1.cfm
* Headline: Economics Report
* Byline: 

 March 11, 2005: Insurance, Part 1 March 4, 2005: Identity Theft February February 25, 2005: When Companies (and Sometimes Individuals) Have to Give Back Money February 18, 2005: Hewlett-Packard Ousts "Most Powerful Woman in Business" February 11, 2005: Business Organizations February 4, 2005: Social Security, Part 2 January January 28, 2005: Social Security, Part 1 January 21, 2005: Strengthening the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation January 14, 2005: Carbon Trading January 7, 2005: U.S. Agency Moves to Take Over Pilots' Pension at United Airlines 2004 Programs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 11, 2003: Investigation of Intelligence Leak
* Byline: 

 This is In the News, from VOA Special English. Officials are investigating who in the Bush administration identified an American intelligence agent to a news reporter. The Justice Department launched the investigation. The department acted at the request of the director of Central Intelligence, George Tenet. The agent is the wife of a former American ambassador, Joseph Wilson. Mister Wilson once served as acting ambassador in Baghdad. He has criticized the administration’s case for war in Iraq. He says the identification of his wife as a C-I-A officer was punishment for his dissent. In February two-thousand-two, the Central Intelligence Agency sent Joseph Wilson to Niger. He went to investigate a British intelligence report that Iraqi officials were trying to buy uranium in Africa for use in nuclear weapons. Mister Wilson says he found nothing to confirm the claim. He said he was surprised when President Bush spoke of the British report in his State of the Union speech this past January. The president included it as part of the argument for war to prevent Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction. In July, Mister Wilson disputed the claim. Administration officials later said the decision to include the sentence in the State of the Union speech was a mistake. Then, one week later, reporter and political commentator Robert Novak published the name of Mister Wilson's wife. Mister Novak said two high-level administration officials had identified her as working for the C-I-A. He has refused to identify the officials. Mister Wilson has accused Karl Rove of urging reporters to spread the story once his wife's identity was released. Mister Rove is the president's top political adviser. This week, Democratic Congressman John Conyers urged Mister Rove to resign. A White House spokesman said Mister Rove denies any involvement. The spokesman said he had also asked two other officials about the case and they too said they had not been involved. The others were the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, and Elliot Abrams, an official of the National Security Council. White House employees were told to provide e-mail records and other materials that might be used in the investigation. Democratic and Republican members of Congress welcomed the Justice Department investigation into the leak of secret information. But some Democratic senators want an independent investigator. They say the Justice Department is too closely linked to the administration to be fair. President Bush said this week that he has told White House officials to cooperate fully with the investigation. He said he wants to know the truth. But he also said he has no idea whether the person who leaked the information will ever be found. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is _________. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 12, 2003: Ida Tarbell
* Byline: 

 (THEME) (THEME) ANNCR: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about reporter Ida Minerva Tarbell. Ida Tarbell was one of the most successful magazine writers in the United States during the last century. She wrote important stories at a time when women had few social or political rights. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ida Tarbell used her reporting skills against one of the most powerful companies in the world. That company was Standard Oil. Ida Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies. She investigated these illegal business dealings and wrote about them for a magazine called McClure's. The reports she wrote led to legal cases that continued all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Ida Tarbell was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in November, Eighteen-Fifty-Seven. Her family did not have much money. Her father worked hard but had not been very successful. When Ida was three years old, oil was discovered in the nearby town of Titusville. Her father entered the oil business. He struggled as a small businessman to compete with the large oil companies. Ida's mother had been a school teacher. She made sure that Ida attended school. She also helped the young girl learn her school work. Ida wanted to study science at college. Most people at that time thought it was not important for young women to learn anything more than to read and write. Most people thought educating women was a waste of money. Ida's parents, however, believed education was important...even for women. They sent her to Allegheny College in nearby Meadville, Pennsylvania. She was nineteen. VOICE ONE: Those who knew Ida Tarbell in college say she would wake up at four o'clock in the morning to study. She was never happy with her school work until she thought it was perfect. In Eighteen-Eighty, Ida finished college. In August of that year, she got a teaching job in Poland, Ohio. It paid five-hundred dollars a year. VOICE TWO: Miss Tarbell learned that she was expected to teach subjects about which she knew nothing. She was able to do so by reading the school books before the students did. She was a successful teacher, but the work, she decided, was too difficult for the amount she was paid. So she returned home after one year. A small newspaper in the town of Meadville soon offered her a job. Many years later, Ida Tarbell said she had never considered being a writer. She took the job with the newspaper only because she needed the money. At first, she worked only a few hours each week. Later, however, she was working sixteen hours a day. She discovered that she loved to see things she had written printed in the paper. She worked very hard at becoming a good writer. VOICE ONE: Miss Tarbell enjoyed working for the newspaper. She discovered, though, that she was interested in stories that were too long for the paper to print. She also wanted to study in France. To earn money while in Paris, she decided she would write for American magazines. Ida Tarbell found it difficult to live in Paris without much money. She also found it difficult to sell her work to magazines. The magazines were in the United States. She was in Paris. Some of her stories were never used because it took too long for them to reach the magazine. Yet she continued to write. Several magazines soon learned that she was a serious writer. VOICE TWO: A man named Samuel McClure visited Miss Tarbell in Paris. He owned a magazine named "McClure's." Mister McClure had read several of her stories. He wanted her to return to the United States and work for his magazine. She immediately understood that this was a very good offer. But she said no. She proposed that she write for "McClure's" from Paris. Ida Tarbell wrote many stories for "McClure's." She did this for some time before returning to the United States. Her writing was very popular. She helped make "McClure's" one of the most successful magazines of its day. One of her first jobs for the magazine was a series of stories about the life of the French Emperor Napoleon. The series was printed in "McClure's Magazine" in Eighteen-Ninety-Four. It was an immediate success. The series was later printed as a book. It was very popular for a number of years. VOICE ONE: Her next project was a series about the life of American President Abraham Lincoln. She began her research by talking with people who had known him. She used nothing they told her, however, unless she could prove it was true to the best of her ability. "McClure's Magazine" wanted a short series about President Lincoln. But Ida Tarbell's series lasted for one year in the magazine. Like her series about Napoleon, the President Lincoln stories were immediately popular. They helped sell more magazines. She continued her research about President Lincoln. Through the years, she would write eight books about President Lincoln. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Miss Tarbell's reports about the Standard Oil Company are considered more important than any of her other writings. Her nineteen-part series was called "The History of the Standard Oil Company.” "McClure's Magazine" published it beginning in Nineteen-Oh-Two. Her reports showed that Standard Oil used illegal methods to make other companies lose business. One method was to sell oil in one area of the country for much less than than the oil was worth. This caused smaller companies in that area to fail. They could not sell their oil for that low a price and still make a profit. After a company failed, Standard Oil would then increase the price of its oil. This kind of unfair competition was illegal. VOICE ONE: Miss Tarbell had trouble discovering information about the Standard Oil Company. She tried to talk to businessmen who worked in the oil business. At first, few would agree to talk. They were afraid of the Standard Oil Company and its owner, John D. Rockefeller. He was one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Miss Tarbell kept seeking information. She was told by one man that Rockefeller would try to destroy "McClure's Magazine." But she did not listen to the threats. She soon found evidence that Standard Oil had been using unfair and illegal methods to destroy other oil companies. Soon many people were helping her find the evidence she needed. VOICE TWO: Ida Tarbell's investigations into Standard Oil were partly responsible for later legal action by the federal government against the company. The case began in Nineteen-Oh-Six. In Nineteen-Eleven, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Standard Oil because of its illegal dealings. The decision was a major one. It forced the huge company to separate into thirty-six different companies. John D. Rockefeller never had to appear in court himself. Yet the public felt he was responsible for his company's illegal actions. The investigative work of Ida Tarbell helped form that public opinion. That investigative work continues to be what she is known for, even though some of her later writings defended American business. She died in Nineteen-Forty-Four. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: A picture has survived from the long ago days when Ida Tarbel took on the giant Standard Oil Company. It shows John D. Rockefeller walking to his car. It was taken after his company had lost an important court battle. He is wearing a tall black hat and a long coat. He looks angry. Several people are watching the famous man from the behind the car. One is a very tall women. Mister Rockefeller does not see her. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the face of Ida Tarbell. She is smiling. If you know the story, her smile clearly says, "I won." (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program, on VOA. ANNCR: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about reporter Ida Minerva Tarbell. Ida Tarbell was one of the most successful magazine writers in the United States during the last century. She wrote important stories at a time when women had few social or political rights. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ida Tarbell used her reporting skills against one of the most powerful companies in the world. That company was Standard Oil. Ida Tarbell charged that Standard Oil was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies. She investigated these illegal business dealings and wrote about them for a magazine called McClure's. The reports she wrote led to legal cases that continued all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Ida Tarbell was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in November, Eighteen-Fifty-Seven. Her family did not have much money. Her father worked hard but had not been very successful. When Ida was three years old, oil was discovered in the nearby town of Titusville. Her father entered the oil business. He struggled as a small businessman to compete with the large oil companies. Ida's mother had been a school teacher. She made sure that Ida attended school. She also helped the young girl learn her school work. Ida wanted to study science at college. Most people at that time thought it was not important for young women to learn anything more than to read and write. Most people thought educating women was a waste of money. Ida's parents, however, believed education was important...even for women. They sent her to Allegheny College in nearby Meadville, Pennsylvania. She was nineteen. VOICE ONE: Those who knew Ida Tarbell in college say she would wake up at four o'clock in the morning to study. She was never happy with her school work until she thought it was perfect. In Eighteen-Eighty, Ida finished college. In August of that year, she got a teaching job in Poland, Ohio. It paid five-hundred dollars a year. VOICE TWO: Miss Tarbell learned that she was expected to teach subjects about which she knew nothing. She was able to do so by reading the school books before the students did. She was a successful teacher, but the work, she decided, was too difficult for the amount she was paid. So she returned home after one year. A small newspaper in the town of Meadville soon offered her a job. Many years later, Ida Tarbell said she had never considered being a writer. She took the job with the newspaper only because she needed the money. At first, she worked only a few hours each week. Later, however, she was working sixteen hours a day. She discovered that she loved to see things she had written printed in the paper. She worked very hard at becoming a good writer. VOICE ONE: Miss Tarbell enjoyed working for the newspaper. She discovered, though, that she was interested in stories that were too long for the paper to print. She also wanted to study in France. To earn money while in Paris, she decided she would write for American magazines. Ida Tarbell found it difficult to live in Paris without much money. She also found it difficult to sell her work to magazines. The magazines were in the United States. She was in Paris. Some of her stories were never used because it took too long for them to reach the magazine. Yet she continued to write. Several magazines soon learned that she was a serious writer. VOICE TWO: A man named Samuel McClure visited Miss Tarbell in Paris. He owned a magazine named "McClure's." Mister McClure had read several of her stories. He wanted her to return to the United States and work for his magazine. She immediately understood that this was a very good offer. But she said no. She proposed that she write for "McClure's" from Paris. Ida Tarbell wrote many stories for "McClure's." She did this for some time before returning to the United States. Her writing was very popular. She helped make "McClure's" one of the most successful magazines of its day. One of her first jobs for the magazine was a series of stories about the life of the French Emperor Napoleon. The series was printed in "McClure's Magazine" in Eighteen-Ninety-Four. It was an immediate success. The series was later printed as a book. It was very popular for a number of years. VOICE ONE: Her next project was a series about the life of American President Abraham Lincoln. She began her research by talking with people who had known him. She used nothing they told her, however, unless she could prove it was true to the best of her ability. "McClure's Magazine" wanted a short series about President Lincoln. But Ida Tarbell's series lasted for one year in the magazine. Like her series about Napoleon, the President Lincoln stories were immediately popular. They helped sell more magazines. She continued her research about President Lincoln. Through the years, she would write eight books about President Lincoln. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Miss Tarbell's reports about the Standard Oil Company are considered more important than any of her other writings. Her nineteen-part series was called "The History of the Standard Oil Company.” "McClure's Magazine" published it beginning in Nineteen-Oh-Two. Her reports showed that Standard Oil used illegal methods to make other companies lose business. One method was to sell oil in one area of the country for much less than than the oil was worth. This caused smaller companies in that area to fail. They could not sell their oil for that low a price and still make a profit. After a company failed, Standard Oil would then increase the price of its oil. This kind of unfair competition was illegal. VOICE ONE: Miss Tarbell had trouble discovering information about the Standard Oil Company. She tried to talk to businessmen who worked in the oil business. At first, few would agree to talk. They were afraid of the Standard Oil Company and its owner, John D. Rockefeller. He was one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Miss Tarbell kept seeking information. She was told by one man that Rockefeller would try to destroy "McClure's Magazine." But she did not listen to the threats. She soon found evidence that Standard Oil had been using unfair and illegal methods to destroy other oil companies. Soon many people were helping her find the evidence she needed. VOICE TWO: Ida Tarbell's investigations into Standard Oil were partly responsible for later legal action by the federal government against the company. The case began in Nineteen-Oh-Six. In Nineteen-Eleven, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Standard Oil because of its illegal dealings. The decision was a major one. It forced the huge company to separate into thirty-six different companies. John D. Rockefeller never had to appear in court himself. Yet the public felt he was responsible for his company's illegal actions. The investigative work of Ida Tarbell helped form that public opinion. That investigative work continues to be what she is known for, even though some of her later writings defended American business. She died in Nineteen-Forty-Four. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: A picture has survived from the long ago days when Ida Tarbel took on the giant Standard Oil Company. It shows John D. Rockefeller walking to his car. It was taken after his company had lost an important court battle. He is wearing a tall black hat and a long coat. He looks angry. Several people are watching the famous man from the behind the car. One is a very tall women. Mister Rockefeller does not see her. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the face of Ida Tarbell. She is smiling. If you know the story, her smile clearly says, "I won." (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program, on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — October 13, 2003: Telemarketing
* Byline: 

 This is Robert Cohen with the Special English Development Report. People who sell goods and services over the telephone are called telemarketers. India, the Philippines, China and South Africa are among countries where telemarketing is a growing industry. Others, such as Mauritius, want to enter the business. This is Robert Cohen with the Special English Development Report. People who sell goods and services over the telephone are called telemarketers. India, the Philippines, China and South Africa are among countries where telemarketing is a growing industry. Others, such as Mauritius, want to enter the business. This should not be difficult for countries with the technology and interest. Many international companies have started to move their call center jobs to nations where the wages are lower. People may have no idea if a call center worker is on the other side of the world. Most call centers are used not only for telemarketing. Workers also help customers. They collect information for companies. And they handle claims and record keeping. In fact, India’s call center industry has been described as “the back office of the world.” About seventy companies there do telemarketing for American businesses. Some experts estimate that more than two-hundred-fifty-thousand telemarketing jobs have already moved out of the United States. These and other jobs in the services industry are expected to continue to leave the country. The Forrester Research group expects more than three-million jobs in the services industry to move within the next fifteen years. It says they will go to countries like India, Russia, China and the Philippines. As a result, the company says, the United States will lose more than one-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars in wages. This amount could increase depending on how a legal battle over a national “do not call” list is settled. More than fifty-million Americans have signed on to a new government list to prevent phone calls from telemarketers. These calls often interfere with family time or dinner. President Bush supports the do-not-call list, which took effect this month. Telemarketers could face large fines for violations, though some kinds of calls are still permitted. The industry says the list violates the right to free speech. In addition, lawmakers who represent areas with call centers worry about the loss of jobs. The fear is that more American call centers will close or move overseas if the list is enforced. Last week, an appeals court ruled that the government may continue to enforce the do-not-call list for now at least. A final ruling could come from the United States Supreme Court. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Robert Cohen. This should not be difficult for countries with the technology and interest. Many international companies have started to move their call center jobs to nations where the wages are lower. People may have no idea if a call center worker is on the other side of the world. Most call centers are used not only for telemarketing. Workers also help customers. They collect information for companies. And they handle claims and record keeping. In fact, India’s call center industry has been described as “the back office of the world.” About seventy companies there do telemarketing for American businesses. Some experts estimate that more than two-hundred-fifty-thousand telemarketing jobs have already moved out of the United States. These and other jobs in the services industry are expected to continue to leave the country. The Forrester Research group expects more than three-million jobs in the services industry to move within the next fifteen years. It says they will go to countries like India, Russia, China and the Philippines. As a result, the company says, the United States will lose more than one-hundred-thirty-thousand-million dollars in wages. This amount could increase depending on how a legal battle over a national “do not call” list is settled. More than fifty-million Americans have signed on to a new government list to prevent phone calls from telemarketers. These calls often interfere with family time or dinner. President Bush supports the do-not-call list, which took effect this month. Telemarketers could face large fines for violations, though some kinds of calls are still permitted. The industry says the list violates the right to free speech. In addition, lawmakers who represent areas with call centers worry about the loss of jobs. The fear is that more American call centers will close or move overseas if the list is enforced. Last week, an appeals court ruled that the government may continue to enforce the do-not-call list for now at least. A final ruling could come from the United States Supreme Court. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA -  October 13, 2003: Willie Nelson and 'Red Headed Stranger'
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Country singer Willie Nelson turned seventy years old this year. He lives in Texas and keeps busy. He performs in cities around the world -- when not playing golf, that is. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week, we bring you one of the albums that helped make Willie Nelson famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The album is called "Red Headed Stranger." It came out in nineteen-seventy-five. It sold over two million copies in its first release. Its re-release on compact disc has sold many more. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Willie Nelson’s "Red Headed Stranger" is known as a concept album. It tells one story through many songs. The story is set in nineteen-oh-one, in the last days of the American Old West. It is about a good man gone bad. A clergyman, a preacher, shoots his wife and her lover. The first song describes the moment when he discovers his wife’s betrayal. The song is called “Time of the Preacher." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We never learn the preacher's name. As the story continues, he travels the Old West. He lives the life of an outlaw, a criminal. Finally he falls in love again. By the end of the album, the "red headed stranger" has settled into a quiet new life with the woman and their child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of love and disloyalty has been told for thousands of years. But the story of the red headed stranger seemed to capture something current in American society at that time. There had been large student protests against the Vietnam War since the nineteen-sixties. Many of those who opposed the war might have seen themselves as outlaws. Nineteen-seventy-five was also the year the war ended. South Vietnam fell to the Communist North. The last American troops came home. Many people continued to argue about why the war had ever been fought. At the very least, the story of the red headed stranger was a lot simpler to talk about. Music critics have suggested that people found it easy to understand what the preacher did. They felt sorry for him. In the title song, we learn about another violent act by the preacher. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another reason for the success of the album was the popularity of westerns in the years up to then. Programs like "Gunsmoke" acted out stories of lawlessness in the Old West. Some television shows about cowboys and Indians were for children. But movies offered more realistic stories, and more violent. Willie Nelson's album seemed to say in music what these westerns played out on film. Here, he sings a short song that bridges two longer pieces on "Red Headed Stranger." It tells the story of when the preacher kills his wife and her lover. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Willie Nelson did not write many of the songs on “Red Headed Stranger.” The title song was written many years earlier by a songwriter named Arthur "Guitar Ruby" Smith. Willie Nelson used to perform this song on a radio show for children. Then Columbia Records offered him a record deal. Willie Nelson decided to base an album on the song. The other songs would describe events that led up to, and followed, what happened in "Red Haired Stranger." The first big hit from the album was a song written by Fred Rose in nineteen-forty-five: “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the early nineteen-seventies, Willie Nelson moved to Austin, Texas. He had lived for some time in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is known as the capital of country music. But Willie Nelson and some other musicians were unhappy with country music at that time. They said the country music recording industry only wanted the songs that could earn the most money. So these musicians began a movement more closely tied to earlier country and blues. This was music made by and for common people. The other musicians included Waylon Jennings and George Jones. Together with Willie Nelson, the music they made came to called "outlaw" country music. The name made sense. These were outlaws from the recording industry. They lived hard lives. And the music they made dealt with subjects like a red-haired preacher who kills his wife and her lover. VOICE TWO: When “Red-Headed Stranger” came out in nineteen-seventy-five, many different kinds of people liked the album. Its old-time roots appealed to lovers of traditional country music. And young fans enjoyed the connection to modern folk and rock. It helped that Willie Nelson himself had red hair. He also presented himself as someone who might easily step into one of his own songs. Willie Nelson had been working in the music industry for twenty years before the album came out. But this one turned him into a star. And today Willie Nelson is still proving he is no stranger in the world of country music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can learn more about Willie Nelson at his own Web site, willienelson-dot-com. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Country singer Willie Nelson turned seventy years old this year. He lives in Texas and keeps busy. He performs in cities around the world -- when not playing golf, that is. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week, we bring you one of the albums that helped make Willie Nelson famous. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The album is called "Red Headed Stranger." It came out in nineteen-seventy-five. It sold over two million copies in its first release. Its re-release on compact disc has sold many more. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Willie Nelson’s "Red Headed Stranger" is known as a concept album. It tells one story through many songs. The story is set in nineteen-oh-one, in the last days of the American Old West. It is about a good man gone bad. A clergyman, a preacher, shoots his wife and her lover. The first song describes the moment when he discovers his wife’s betrayal. The song is called “Time of the Preacher." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We never learn the preacher's name. As the story continues, he travels the Old West. He lives the life of an outlaw, a criminal. Finally he falls in love again. By the end of the album, the "red headed stranger" has settled into a quiet new life with the woman and their child. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The story of love and disloyalty has been told for thousands of years. But the story of the red headed stranger seemed to capture something current in American society at that time. There had been large student protests against the Vietnam War since the nineteen-sixties. Many of those who opposed the war might have seen themselves as outlaws. Nineteen-seventy-five was also the year the war ended. South Vietnam fell to the Communist North. The last American troops came home. Many people continued to argue about why the war had ever been fought. At the very least, the story of the red headed stranger was a lot simpler to talk about. Music critics have suggested that people found it easy to understand what the preacher did. They felt sorry for him. In the title song, we learn about another violent act by the preacher. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another reason for the success of the album was the popularity of westerns in the years up to then. Programs like "Gunsmoke" acted out stories of lawlessness in the Old West. Some television shows about cowboys and Indians were for children. But movies offered more realistic stories, and more violent. Willie Nelson's album seemed to say in music what these westerns played out on film. Here, he sings a short song that bridges two longer pieces on "Red Headed Stranger." It tells the story of when the preacher kills his wife and her lover. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Willie Nelson did not write many of the songs on “Red Headed Stranger.” The title song was written many years earlier by a songwriter named Arthur "Guitar Ruby" Smith. Willie Nelson used to perform this song on a radio show for children. Then Columbia Records offered him a record deal. Willie Nelson decided to base an album on the song. The other songs would describe events that led up to, and followed, what happened in "Red Haired Stranger." The first big hit from the album was a song written by Fred Rose in nineteen-forty-five: “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: By the early nineteen-seventies, Willie Nelson moved to Austin, Texas. He had lived for some time in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is known as the capital of country music. But Willie Nelson and some other musicians were unhappy with country music at that time. They said the country music recording industry only wanted the songs that could earn the most money. So these musicians began a movement more closely tied to earlier country and blues. This was music made by and for common people. The other musicians included Waylon Jennings and George Jones. Together with Willie Nelson, the music they made came to called "outlaw" country music. The name made sense. These were outlaws from the recording industry. They lived hard lives. And the music they made dealt with subjects like a red-haired preacher who kills his wife and her lover. VOICE TWO: When “Red-Headed Stranger” came out in nineteen-seventy-five, many different kinds of people liked the album. Its old-time roots appealed to lovers of traditional country music. And young fans enjoyed the connection to modern folk and rock. It helped that Willie Nelson himself had red hair. He also presented himself as someone who might easily step into one of his own songs. Willie Nelson had been working in the music industry for twenty years before the album came out. But this one turned him into a star. And today Willie Nelson is still proving he is no stranger in the world of country music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written and produced by Robert Brumfield. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. You can learn more about Willie Nelson at his own Web site, willienelson-dot-com. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Aging and Cancer / Zoo Animals Missing Out / Largest Rodent / Rats Cloned
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. VOICE TWO: This week -- researchers try to learn why the risk of cancer rises with age ... a new theory about what some animals in zoos are missing ... a report about the largest rodent that ever lived ... and, cloned rats are here at last! (THEME) VOICE ONE: Studies of yeast may help scientists better understand why the risk of cancer increases as people get older. Yeast cells do not get cancer. But they could be a useful tool in the study of genetic changes that happen as human cells age. Yeast is a one-celled fungi. It is found in soil and on plants. It is also found on the skin and in the organs of warm-blooded animals. Some kinds of yeast cause infections. But others are used to make bread and wine. VOICE TWO: The magazine Science recently published findings by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. They found strong similarities in the changes that take place as genes age in both humans and yeast. Daniel Gottschling (GOTCH-ling) led the study. Graduate student Michael McMurray assisted. The researchers observed several kinds of simple baker's yeast. Most yeast cells survive for about thirty or thirty-five cell divisions. The whole process takes about five days. Cells divide to produce new ones to keep an organism alive. Scientists talk in terms of mother cells and daughter cells. Each generation is represented by a mother cell's production of a new daughter cell. The researchers found that genetic mistakes started to happen as the daughter cells reached the equivalent of middle age. Doctor Gottschling says these changes could damage the ability to control cell growth. Cancer is uncontrolled cell growth. The researchers found that the damage always happened around the twenty-fifth generation of cell division. The researchers hope to find some way to turn off whatever "switch" causes the genetic changes. VOICE ONE: Getting older is considered the biggest risk factor for cancer. Middle age is when humans start to develop genetic changes that can lead to the disease. But researchers note that it will be much more difficult to find out how the process works in people. The American Cancer Society says almost eighty-percent of cancers are discovered after the age of fifty-five. It says men face a fifty-percent chance of developing cancer after they reach late middle age. Women have a thirty-five percent chance. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recent findings show that animals that normally live in wide open areas have the most problems in zoos. Nature magazine published a report by two researchers at Oxford University in England. Georgia Mason and Ros Clubb studied more than one-thousand reports by other scientists. These dealt with observations made at five-hundred zoos worldwide in the past forty years. The researchers say animals such as polar bears, lions, tigers, and cheetahs are more likely to show signs of boredom in zoos. The signs can include walking back and forth, over and over. In addition to pacing, these animals also have higher death rates among their babies compared to other zoo animals. Polar bears move within areas as large as eighty-thousand square kilometers. Zoos, however, usually limit them to an area one-millionth of that size. VOICE ONE: In the past, other scientists have suggested that the problems are because meat-eating animals in zoos are not able to hunt. The new report says the problem is because their territory is restricted. The researchers found the situation better for animals that normally need less territory. Grizzly bears, Arctic fox and American mink were some of the animals that had lower death rates among their babies. Their pacing rates were also lower than among the animals that normally move in wide open areas. A number of zoos in North America and elsewhere are taking steps to provide more room and more activities for their animals. But Georgia Mason at Oxford University says most zoos need larger, more complex living areas. She says another solution is for zoos to replace animals, when they die, with other kinds that need less space to move around. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have been studying what they say is the most complete skeleton of the largest rodent that ever lived. They estimate that the animal weighed about seven-hundred kilograms. That is about ten times the size of the South American capybara, the largest rodent alive today. The discovery is expected to help scientists better understand what the northern part of South America was like millions of years ago. VOICE ONE: Scientists are calling the ancient animal Phoberomys pattersoni. They link it to modern guinea pigs, an animal small enough to hold in one hand. They believe that the huge rodent lived about eight-million years ago. Scientists first described it more than twenty years ago. At that time, however, they had only small pieces of bone or teeth to study. Now, Science magazine has published the results of a new study of ancient fossil remains. These include the nearly complete skeleton discovered in a desert area of western Venezuela three years ago. Scientists recovered the skeleton near the town of Urumaco, about four-hundred kilometers west of Caracas. They say fossils of large fish, crocodiles and other creatures also were found in the area. VOICE TWO: Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra is a researcher at the University of Tubingen in Germany. He says tests of soil suggest that the area near Urumaco was rich in water and plant life. He says the rodent probably ate grasses and could swim. Phoberomys belongs to a group of rodents called caviomorphs. Scientists have evidence that these developed in South America about forty-million years ago. At that time, South America was not connected to any other continent. A land bridge formed between North and South America only about three-million years ago. One theory is that the rodent might have been killed off by animals that came from North America. VOICE ONE: Science magazine also published a commentary by McNeill Alexander of the University of Leeds in Britain. He notes that small rodents like mice have short legs -- but they also have big hands. These are good for digging holes to escape attackers. Mister Alexander writes that large mammals can dig holes too. But they have long legs and generally escape by running. He wonders if large rodents like Phoberomys were just too slow for their own good. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We just talked about an ancient rodent the size of a cow or buffalo. Now let us talk about a better known rodent. Lots of people think of rats as ugly and dirty animals that spread disease and eat food meant for humans. VOICE ONE: Now scientists have found a way to help rats reproduce. Not that rats need any help. But medical scientists have been trying for some time to create more of the rats they use in laboratories. These provide a way to study drugs and disorders before doing tests on people. Researchers at the National Institute of Agricultural Research in France succeeded in cloning rats. They published their work in Science. Scientists had already cloned sheep, pigs, cows, cats, mice and horses. But no one had produced a genetic copy of a rat before. Their reproductive eggs age too quickly for scientists to make changes to the nucleus. VOICE TWO: The French scientists, however, were able to halt the activation process in the eggs. They removed the genetic material from the nucleus and replaced it with DNA from an adult rat cell. The result was more than one-hundred live embryos. These were placed into two female rats. Three male rats were born. One of these later died. The researchers repeated the experiment and produced two healthy females. Then they mated the cloned males and females and produced healthy babies. The next step is to genetically design rats for studies of human diseases. The French team plans to put a human gene into a group of cloned rats. Then they plan to use the animals to study possible treatments against diseases linked to that gene. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach, Chi-Un Lee and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: October 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty with Sarah Long, and this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. VOICE TWO: This week -- researchers try to learn why the risk of cancer rises with age ... a new theory about what some animals in zoos are missing ... a report about the largest rodent that ever lived ... and, cloned rats are here at last! (THEME) VOICE ONE: Studies of yeast may help scientists better understand why the risk of cancer increases as people get older. Yeast cells do not get cancer. But they could be a useful tool in the study of genetic changes that happen as human cells age. Yeast is a one-celled fungi. It is found in soil and on plants. It is also found on the skin and in the organs of warm-blooded animals. Some kinds of yeast cause infections. But others are used to make bread and wine. VOICE TWO: The magazine Science recently published findings by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. They found strong similarities in the changes that take place as genes age in both humans and yeast. Daniel Gottschling (GOTCH-ling) led the study. Graduate student Michael McMurray assisted. The researchers observed several kinds of simple baker's yeast. Most yeast cells survive for about thirty or thirty-five cell divisions. The whole process takes about five days. Cells divide to produce new ones to keep an organism alive. Scientists talk in terms of mother cells and daughter cells. Each generation is represented by a mother cell's production of a new daughter cell. The researchers found that genetic mistakes started to happen as the daughter cells reached the equivalent of middle age. Doctor Gottschling says these changes could damage the ability to control cell growth. Cancer is uncontrolled cell growth. The researchers found that the damage always happened around the twenty-fifth generation of cell division. The researchers hope to find some way to turn off whatever "switch" causes the genetic changes. VOICE ONE: Getting older is considered the biggest risk factor for cancer. Middle age is when humans start to develop genetic changes that can lead to the disease. But researchers note that it will be much more difficult to find out how the process works in people. The American Cancer Society says almost eighty-percent of cancers are discovered after the age of fifty-five. It says men face a fifty-percent chance of developing cancer after they reach late middle age. Women have a thirty-five percent chance. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recent findings show that animals that normally live in wide open areas have the most problems in zoos. Nature magazine published a report by two researchers at Oxford University in England. Georgia Mason and Ros Clubb studied more than one-thousand reports by other scientists. These dealt with observations made at five-hundred zoos worldwide in the past forty years. The researchers say animals such as polar bears, lions, tigers, and cheetahs are more likely to show signs of boredom in zoos. The signs can include walking back and forth, over and over. In addition to pacing, these animals also have higher death rates among their babies compared to other zoo animals. Polar bears move within areas as large as eighty-thousand square kilometers. Zoos, however, usually limit them to an area one-millionth of that size. VOICE ONE: In the past, other scientists have suggested that the problems are because meat-eating animals in zoos are not able to hunt. The new report says the problem is because their territory is restricted. The researchers found the situation better for animals that normally need less territory. Grizzly bears, Arctic fox and American mink were some of the animals that had lower death rates among their babies. Their pacing rates were also lower than among the animals that normally move in wide open areas. A number of zoos in North America and elsewhere are taking steps to provide more room and more activities for their animals. But Georgia Mason at Oxford University says most zoos need larger, more complex living areas. She says another solution is for zoos to replace animals, when they die, with other kinds that need less space to move around. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Scientists have been studying what they say is the most complete skeleton of the largest rodent that ever lived. They estimate that the animal weighed about seven-hundred kilograms. That is about ten times the size of the South American capybara, the largest rodent alive today. The discovery is expected to help scientists better understand what the northern part of South America was like millions of years ago. VOICE ONE: Scientists are calling the ancient animal Phoberomys pattersoni. They link it to modern guinea pigs, an animal small enough to hold in one hand. They believe that the huge rodent lived about eight-million years ago. Scientists first described it more than twenty years ago. At that time, however, they had only small pieces of bone or teeth to study. Now, Science magazine has published the results of a new study of ancient fossil remains. These include the nearly complete skeleton discovered in a desert area of western Venezuela three years ago. Scientists recovered the skeleton near the town of Urumaco, about four-hundred kilometers west of Caracas. They say fossils of large fish, crocodiles and other creatures also were found in the area. VOICE TWO: Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra is a researcher at the University of Tubingen in Germany. He says tests of soil suggest that the area near Urumaco was rich in water and plant life. He says the rodent probably ate grasses and could swim. Phoberomys belongs to a group of rodents called caviomorphs. Scientists have evidence that these developed in South America about forty-million years ago. At that time, South America was not connected to any other continent. A land bridge formed between North and South America only about three-million years ago. One theory is that the rodent might have been killed off by animals that came from North America. VOICE ONE: Science magazine also published a commentary by McNeill Alexander of the University of Leeds in Britain. He notes that small rodents like mice have short legs -- but they also have big hands. These are good for digging holes to escape attackers. Mister Alexander writes that large mammals can dig holes too. But they have long legs and generally escape by running. He wonders if large rodents like Phoberomys were just too slow for their own good. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: We just talked about an ancient rodent the size of a cow or buffalo. Now let us talk about a better known rodent. Lots of people think of rats as ugly and dirty animals that spread disease and eat food meant for humans. VOICE ONE: Now scientists have found a way to help rats reproduce. Not that rats need any help. But medical scientists have been trying for some time to create more of the rats they use in laboratories. These provide a way to study drugs and disorders before doing tests on people. Researchers at the National Institute of Agricultural Research in France succeeded in cloning rats. They published their work in Science. Scientists had already cloned sheep, pigs, cows, cats, mice and horses. But no one had produced a genetic copy of a rat before. Their reproductive eggs age too quickly for scientists to make changes to the nucleus. VOICE TWO: The French scientists, however, were able to halt the activation process in the eggs. They removed the genetic material from the nucleus and replaced it with DNA from an adult rat cell. The result was more than one-hundred live embryos. These were placed into two female rats. Three male rats were born. One of these later died. The researchers repeated the experiment and produced two healthy females. Then they mated the cloned males and females and produced healthy babies. The next step is to genetically design rats for studies of human diseases. The French team plans to put a human gene into a group of cloned rats. Then they plan to use the animals to study possible treatments against diseases linked to that gene. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach, Chi-Un Lee and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - 'G22' Developing Nations
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 14, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. In September, the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico, ended without an agreement. There was strong debate about payments to farmers in developed nations. More negotiations are planned for December in Geneva. At Cancun, the United States had proposed that major industrial nations reduce payments to farmers by seventy-six percent over five years. It also proposed they end all agricultural subsidies by two-thousand-fifteen. In return, the plan called for developing nations to lower taxes on imports and to open their markets to foreign investors. Developing nations formed a coalition called the Group of Twenty-two. They said rich nations were not willing to offer enough. After the talks ended, American Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said the United States would move toward free trade with "can-do countries." He criticized what he called "won't-do countries." Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Newsweek magazine that the talks did not end because of agriculture. He says the meeting broke down over demands by wealthy nations to discuss rules for government purchasing, trade financing and competitiveness. Brazil has been a major organizer of the group. China and India are also members. Others include Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. But the group no longer has twenty-two members. Last week another Latin American country informed the others of its decision to leave. Costa Rica joined Colombia, Peru and El Salvador. Each year, rich nations spend about three-hundred-thousand-million dollars on farm subsidies. Subsidies permit nations to reduce the price of their exports. This can force down prices on world markets. At Cancun, African and Caribbean nations objected to the subsidies for American cotton farmers. The farmers have high production costs. The government pays them more than three-thousand-million dollars a year. The European Union pays large subsidies to keep its agricultural products competitive. Japan places import taxes of up to one-thousand percent on foreign rice. After Cancun, some experts say poor nations are in a better position to negotiate. Others, like the Brazilian foreign minister, say the talks were only part of a continuing process. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 15, 2003: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we tell about the planned launch of the new crew of the International Space Station on October eighteenth. We also tell about the birthday of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Our report begins with the last days of the Galileo spacecraft. (THEME) This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we tell about the planned launch of the new crew of the International Space Station on October eighteenth. We also tell about the birthday of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Our report begins with the last days of the Galileo spacecraft. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Galileo spacecraft flew into the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter on September twenty-first. NASA experts say the extreme pressure of Jupiter’s atmosphere destroyed Galileo, breaking it into small pieces. NASA’s Deep Space Network communication’s station in Goldstone, California received the last message from Galileo at twelve-forty-three in the afternoon, Pacific Daylight Time. Hundreds of former Galileo project team members and their families were present at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They came to honor and celebrate the Galileo spacecraft and to say goodbye. VOICE TWO: NASA officials directed Galileo into Jupiter’s atmosphere because its fuel was almost gone. Without fuel, the spacecraft would not have been able to change direction or to point its communications equipment toward Earth. And NASA scientists did not want Galileo to crash into Jupiter’s moon, Europa. One of Galileo’s many discoveries was evidence of an ocean under the surface of Europa. Scientists did not want to take the chance that Galileo could damage Europa’s environment. Galileo also created so much scientific interest in Europa that plans have already been made to return to this moon. VOICE ONE: Galileo was launched from the cargo area of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in nineteen eighty-nine. It has been one of the most successful spacecraft ever launched. The discoveries made by Galileo began even before it reached Jupiter. For example, in nineteen-ninety-one, Galileo took the first close photographs of a huge space rock, named Gaspra. In nineteen-ninety-four, Galileo made the only direct observation of a comet hitting a planet. The comet was Shoemaker-Levy. The gravity of Jupiter broke apart the comet and huge pieces exploded into Jupiter’s atmosphere. The photographs of that event were among more than fourteen-thousand that Galileo sent back to Earth. The spacecraft provided thousands of photographs of Jupiter and its moons. Among these were photographs of huge storms on Jupiter that carried fierce lightning. They also included photographs of active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon, Io, and the unusual surface of the moon Europa. Galileo sent back huge amounts of scientific information about Jupiter and its moons. VOICE TWO: The idea for Galileo was first proposed in nineteen-seventy-seven. Scientists spent more than twelve years planning and building Galileo. After its launch in nineteen-eighty-nine, it took six years to travel to Jupiter. Galileo arrived at Jupiter on December seventh, nineteen-ninety-five. It made thirty-five orbits around the huge planet. Galileo remained in orbit around Jupiter for almost eight years. Galileo project officials say it traveled more than four-thousand-million kilometers. NASA says the working time for Galileo should have ended six years ago. However, NASA extended its life three times. This was done because it was still returning very valuable scientific information. The spacecraft kept working even after it suffered four times the amount of radiation that experts thought possible. The only thing that stopped it was the end of its fuel supply. Torrance Johnson is a Galileo project scientist. Mister Johnson said that Galileo’s end does not mean that NASA has lost a spacecraft. It means they have progressed a step further into the future of space exploration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is expected to be launched from Kazakhstan on October eighteenth. It will link with the International Space Station on October twentieth. The Soyuz will carry the two men who will be the eighth crew to live and work on the Space Station. The crewmembers are Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. Both men have a great amount of experience. Astronaut Foale has spent one-hundred-seventy-eight days in space. Cosmonaut Kaleri has spent four-hundred-eighteen days in space. VOICE TWO: European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque will also fly as part of the team. However, he will return to Earth with the seventh Space Station crew. They are Expedition Seven Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Ed Lu. They have lived on the International Space Station since April. The new crew is to spend almost two-hundred days on the International Space Station. Their work will begin after the Seventh Expedition crew has returned to Earth. Astronaut Foale and Cosmonaut Kaleri will begin science research and experiments. They will also carry out education activities and Earth observations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This month is the forty-fifth birthday of NASA. On July twenty-ninth, nineteen-fifty-eight, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a law that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On October first of that year, the new agency began the work of civilian research linked to space flight and aeronautics. Humans have always wanted to travel to the moon and other planets. A major step toward that goal was the first successful launch of a liquid fuel rocket. It took place on March sixteenth, nineteen-twenty-six. That rocket was launched by Robert Goddard, near the American city of Auburn, Massachusetts. Experts say it was as important to space flight as the Wright Brothers’ first flight was to the beginning of aviation. VOICE TWO: Six days after President Eisenhower signed the law creating NASA, the new agency began work on a study that would result in a human space flight project. It was later named Project Mercury. That project continued for almost five years. NASA successfully launched Alan Shepard into space on May fifth, nineteen-sixty-one. His flight lasted only fifteen seconds. Project Mercury ended with the thirty-four hour flight of Astronaut Gordon Cooper on May fifteenth, nineteen-sixty-three. Project Mercury was only a beginning. On July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon. VOICE ONE: NASA has had many other successes in its forty-five years of effort. It has placed advanced communications satellites in space that provide immediate television and voice communications around the world. NASA placed in orbit the Hubble Space Telescope which has extended our knowledge of our solar system and the universe. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided thousands of photographs. Some of these are of objects that are millions of light years away. Anyone with a computer than can link with the Internet can see thousands of these photographs. Like the Hubble photographs, NASA provides much of its work to scientists and the public around the world. VOICE TWO: NASA helped build the International Space Station. The crews on the station continue to do experiments in medicine, agriculture, space science and many more subjects. NASA successfully landed exploration vehicles on the planet Mars. Two more of these exploration vehicles are now on their way to the red planet. The Mars exploration vehicles will provide information that may make it possible for human exploration in the future. VOICE ONE: NASA is already planning a human space flight to Mars. Scientists are working on the technical problems that must be solved before people can travel to, and live safely on, Mars. NASA says the technical problems in traveling to Mars will be solved in the very near future. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says it has always worked toward the future. NASA says it will continue in this effort. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Richard Rael. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The Galileo spacecraft flew into the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter on September twenty-first. NASA experts say the extreme pressure of Jupiter’s atmosphere destroyed Galileo, breaking it into small pieces. NASA’s Deep Space Network communication’s station in Goldstone, California received the last message from Galileo at twelve-forty-three in the afternoon, Pacific Daylight Time. Hundreds of former Galileo project team members and their families were present at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They came to honor and celebrate the Galileo spacecraft and to say goodbye. VOICE TWO: NASA officials directed Galileo into Jupiter’s atmosphere because its fuel was almost gone. Without fuel, the spacecraft would not have been able to change direction or to point its communications equipment toward Earth. And NASA scientists did not want Galileo to crash into Jupiter’s moon, Europa. One of Galileo’s many discoveries was evidence of an ocean under the surface of Europa. Scientists did not want to take the chance that Galileo could damage Europa’s environment. Galileo also created so much scientific interest in Europa that plans have already been made to return to this moon. VOICE ONE: Galileo was launched from the cargo area of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in nineteen eighty-nine. It has been one of the most successful spacecraft ever launched. The discoveries made by Galileo began even before it reached Jupiter. For example, in nineteen-ninety-one, Galileo took the first close photographs of a huge space rock, named Gaspra. In nineteen-ninety-four, Galileo made the only direct observation of a comet hitting a planet. The comet was Shoemaker-Levy. The gravity of Jupiter broke apart the comet and huge pieces exploded into Jupiter’s atmosphere. The photographs of that event were among more than fourteen-thousand that Galileo sent back to Earth. The spacecraft provided thousands of photographs of Jupiter and its moons. Among these were photographs of huge storms on Jupiter that carried fierce lightning. They also included photographs of active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon, Io, and the unusual surface of the moon Europa. Galileo sent back huge amounts of scientific information about Jupiter and its moons. VOICE TWO: The idea for Galileo was first proposed in nineteen-seventy-seven. Scientists spent more than twelve years planning and building Galileo. After its launch in nineteen-eighty-nine, it took six years to travel to Jupiter. Galileo arrived at Jupiter on December seventh, nineteen-ninety-five. It made thirty-five orbits around the huge planet. Galileo remained in orbit around Jupiter for almost eight years. Galileo project officials say it traveled more than four-thousand-million kilometers. NASA says the working time for Galileo should have ended six years ago. However, NASA extended its life three times. This was done because it was still returning very valuable scientific information. The spacecraft kept working even after it suffered four times the amount of radiation that experts thought possible. The only thing that stopped it was the end of its fuel supply. Torrance Johnson is a Galileo project scientist. Mister Johnson said that Galileo’s end does not mean that NASA has lost a spacecraft. It means they have progressed a step further into the future of space exploration. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is expected to be launched from Kazakhstan on October eighteenth. It will link with the International Space Station on October twentieth. The Soyuz will carry the two men who will be the eighth crew to live and work on the Space Station. The crewmembers are Commander and NASA Station Science Officer Michael Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri. Both men have a great amount of experience. Astronaut Foale has spent one-hundred-seventy-eight days in space. Cosmonaut Kaleri has spent four-hundred-eighteen days in space. VOICE TWO: European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque will also fly as part of the team. However, he will return to Earth with the seventh Space Station crew. They are Expedition Seven Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Flight Engineer Ed Lu. They have lived on the International Space Station since April. The new crew is to spend almost two-hundred days on the International Space Station. Their work will begin after the Seventh Expedition crew has returned to Earth. Astronaut Foale and Cosmonaut Kaleri will begin science research and experiments. They will also carry out education activities and Earth observations. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This month is the forty-fifth birthday of NASA. On July twenty-ninth, nineteen-fifty-eight, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a law that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. On October first of that year, the new agency began the work of civilian research linked to space flight and aeronautics. Humans have always wanted to travel to the moon and other planets. A major step toward that goal was the first successful launch of a liquid fuel rocket. It took place on March sixteenth, nineteen-twenty-six. That rocket was launched by Robert Goddard, near the American city of Auburn, Massachusetts. Experts say it was as important to space flight as the Wright Brothers’ first flight was to the beginning of aviation. VOICE TWO: Six days after President Eisenhower signed the law creating NASA, the new agency began work on a study that would result in a human space flight project. It was later named Project Mercury. That project continued for almost five years. NASA successfully launched Alan Shepard into space on May fifth, nineteen-sixty-one. His flight lasted only fifteen seconds. Project Mercury ended with the thirty-four hour flight of Astronaut Gordon Cooper on May fifteenth, nineteen-sixty-three. Project Mercury was only a beginning. On July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon. VOICE ONE: NASA has had many other successes in its forty-five years of effort. It has placed advanced communications satellites in space that provide immediate television and voice communications around the world. NASA placed in orbit the Hubble Space Telescope which has extended our knowledge of our solar system and the universe. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided thousands of photographs. Some of these are of objects that are millions of light years away. Anyone with a computer than can link with the Internet can see thousands of these photographs. Like the Hubble photographs, NASA provides much of its work to scientists and the public around the world. VOICE TWO: NASA helped build the International Space Station. The crews on the station continue to do experiments in medicine, agriculture, space science and many more subjects. NASA successfully landed exploration vehicles on the planet Mars. Two more of these exploration vehicles are now on their way to the red planet. The Mars exploration vehicles will provide information that may make it possible for human exploration in the future. VOICE ONE: NASA is already planning a human space flight to Mars. Scientists are working on the technical problems that must be solved before people can travel to, and live safely on, Mars. NASA says the technical problems in traveling to Mars will be solved in the very near future. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says it has always worked toward the future. NASA says it will continue in this effort. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Richard Rael. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Efforts to Stop Measles
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. International health leaders meet in Cape Town, South Africa, this week to discuss efforts to reduce deaths from measles. The World Health Organization organized the special meeting. Health experts estimate that each year nearly seven-hundred-fifty-thousand children die from the disease. More than half are in Africa. The World Health Organization says measles is the leading cause of preventable death among children. It says up to forty-million people a year get measles. a Measles is highly infectious. The virus can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Measles produces a red rash on the skin and high body temperature for several days. It can cause a cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes. But measles can also cause serious health problems such as blindness, pneumonia and brain infection. Last year, at its Special Session on Children, the United Nations set a goal to reduce deaths from measles. The goal is a fifty percent reduction from the levels in nineteen-ninety-nine. The aim is to reach this goal in two-thousand-five. Another goal is a two-thirds reduction in the number of children under five years of age who die of measles. That goal is to be met by two-thousand-fifteen. One effort to stop the spread of measles is taking place this week in Uganda. The United Nations Children's Fund is involved in a national vaccination campaign through October nineteenth. Officials expect to give the measles vaccine to more than twelve-million children. Earlier campaigns were aimed at children age five and younger. But the New Vision newspaper in Uganda says older children have started to suffer from measles. So it says children up to fifteen will be vaccinated in this campaign. The W-H-O says more children around the world need to get vaccinated against measles in order to protect populations. Children in developing nations may not get the vaccine because of a lack of supplies. But some parents in richer nations refuse the vaccine for their children. Several years ago, a London doctor suggested a possible link between the vaccine and the mental disorder autism. Most experts dispute any connection. Still, doctors in Britain are concerned because vaccination rates there are down and cases of measles are up. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: October 15, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. International health leaders meet in Cape Town, South Africa, this week to discuss efforts to reduce deaths from measles. The World Health Organization organized the special meeting. Health experts estimate that each year nearly seven-hundred-fifty-thousand children die from the disease. More than half are in Africa. The World Health Organization says measles is the leading cause of preventable death among children. It says up to forty-million people a year get measles. a Measles is highly infectious. The virus can spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Measles produces a red rash on the skin and high body temperature for several days. It can cause a cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes. But measles can also cause serious health problems such as blindness, pneumonia and brain infection. Last year, at its Special Session on Children, the United Nations set a goal to reduce deaths from measles. The goal is a fifty percent reduction from the levels in nineteen-ninety-nine. The aim is to reach this goal in two-thousand-five. Another goal is a two-thirds reduction in the number of children under five years of age who die of measles. That goal is to be met by two-thousand-fifteen. One effort to stop the spread of measles is taking place this week in Uganda. The United Nations Children's Fund is involved in a national vaccination campaign through October nineteenth. Officials expect to give the measles vaccine to more than twelve-million children. Earlier campaigns were aimed at children age five and younger. But the New Vision newspaper in Uganda says older children have started to suffer from measles. So it says children up to fifteen will be vaccinated in this campaign. The W-H-O says more children around the world need to get vaccinated against measles in order to protect populations. Children in developing nations may not get the vaccine because of a lack of supplies. But some parents in richer nations refuse the vaccine for their children. Several years ago, a London doctor suggested a possible link between the vaccine and the mental disorder autism. Most experts dispute any connection. Still, doctors in Britain are concerned because vaccination rates there are down and cases of measles are up. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #34 - John Adams, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of America's second president, John Adams. VOICE TWO: John Adams took office in Seventeen-Ninety-Seven. He had served eight years as vice president under President George Washington. Now, state electors had chosen him to govern the new nation. Adams was an intelligent man. He was a true patriot and an able diplomat. But he did not like party politics. This weakness caused trouble during his presidency. For, during the late Seventeen-Hundreds, two political parties struggled for power. He was caught in the middle. VOICE ONE: Adams was a member of the Federalist Party. As president, he should have been party leader. But this position belonged to a man who really knew how to get and use political power, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton served as Treasury Secretary under President Washington. Now, he was a private citizen, a lawyer in New York City. Through the Federalist Party, Hamilton continued to have great influence over the national government. Federalists loyal to Hamilton controlled the Congress. Even President Adams' three cabinet ministers were loyal to Hamilton. In fact, they worked together against the new president. This political situation made Adams' term in office very difficult. Yet strangely, it also led to the end of Federalist Party power. VOICE TWO: Two major issues marked Adams' presidency. One concerned foreign policy. The other concerned the rights of citizens. The first involved America's relations with France. Federalists, in general, were men of wealth and position. They did not believe in democracy, rule by the people. For this reason, they strongly opposed the revolution in France. They were horrified by the execution of the French king and queen. Federalists wanted an alliance with Britain. Over time, they demanded war with France. VOICE ONE: American support for France came from the opposition party, the Republicans. The leader of that party was the country's vice president, Thomas Jefferson. France helped America win its war for independence from Britain. The friendship formed during the war continued afterward when Thomas Jefferson served as minister to Paris. Relations began to turn bad as soon as he returned home. The man who replaced him openly supported the French monarchy...the losing side in the revolution. After the revolution succeeded, the new French government demanded that he leave. VOICE TWO: Most Federalists did not want good relations with France. They used their power to prevent the government from sending a pro-French representative to Paris. They also searched for any signs of insult, any excuse to declare war. President Adams did not agree with the majority of Federalists. He wanted to improve relations with France through negotiations. Yet he said the United States would strengthen its defenses. We will be ready, he said, if war comes. VOICE ONE: One incident, especially, brought the two nations close to war. It is known in American history books as the "X, Y, and Z Affair." President Adams had appointed a committee of three ministers to negotiate with the French government. French officials kept these three men waiting for several weeks. While they waited, they had a visit from three Frenchmen -- later called X, Y, and Z. X, Y, and Z told the Americans that France would sign an agreement if the United States did three things. It had to lend the French government twelve million dollars. It had to apologize for anti-French statements in a recent message from President Adams to the American Congress. And it had to pay the French foreign minister two-hundred-fifty thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: The American ministers were willing to pay. But they wanted to sign the agreement first. The French foreign minister refused. First the money. . .then the agreement. The Federalists finally had the excuse they were looking for. France had insulted the United States. We must answer the insult. The only answer was war. Federalist newspapers added fuel to the fire by publishing anti-French propaganda. In a few places, pro-war groups became violent. The Republican Party could do little. Even Thomas Jefferson was helpless. He remained in Philadelphia, the capital of the United States at that time. But he had few friends there anymore. VOICE ONE: Congress quickly passed laws to create a permanent army and navy. It also approved new taxes to pay for them. Two new laws passed by a small vote. But they greatly increased the powers of the national government. The laws were known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Federalists said they were necessary to protect national security. But, in effect, the Federalists used them to weaken the power of the Republican Party. VOICE TWO: Under the Alien Act, the president could accuse any foreigner living in the United States of being a threat to national security. He could order that person out of the country. The act also increased the time a foreigner had to wait to become a citizen, from five years to fourteen years. Republicans were furious. Most foreigners, when they became naturalized citizens, joined the Republican Party. Republicans argued that the Alien Act violated the Constitution. They said it gave the government more powers than were stated in the Constitution. Federalists said the act was Constitutional. They said the Constitution gave the government the right to defend the country against foreign aggression. VOICE ONE: The other law, the Sedition Act, barred the publication of anything that might incite public hostility against the government. Republicans argued that this act violated Americans' Constitutional rights of free speech and a free press. Federalists, once again, defended it as necessary for national security. The Federalists tried to use the Sedition Act to quiet Republican critics of President Adams' administration. About twenty-five persons were charged under the Sedition Act. These included several leading Republican newspapermen and a Republican member of Congress. Some of the men were tried and found guilty and sent to prison. But other Republicans took their places in the fight against the Act. The Federalist plan to stop criticism did not succeed. VOICE TWO: President Adams had signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law. He believed they were necessary to protect the United States at a time when war with France was still possible. Then, in early Seventeen-Ninety-Nine, Adams received several reports that France was ready to re-open negotiations on improving relations. He immediately nominated a new minister to France. Federalist senators threatened to reject the nomination. In the end, Adams agreed to nominate a committee of three ministers. The Senate approved them. VOICE ONE: It was many months before the three men went to France to negotiate the agreement. And it was many more months before they completed their work. But they did so on September Thirtieth, Eighteen-Hundred. After several years of bitter political struggle at home, President Adams finally prevented war with France. Later he wrote: "There is one thing I would like to be remembered for more than anything else. I gave myself the task of making peace with France. And I succeeded." VOICE TWO: The year Eighteen-Hundred was another presidential election year in the United States. The Federalist Party appeared to be dying. It failed in its effort to force the nation into war with France. And it failed to silence its critics through the Alien and Sedition Acts. Party leaders knew the election would be their last chance to keep political power. The Republican Party had more popular support. It also had gained an increasing number of seats in state legislatures and the national Congress. Party leader Thomas Jefferson was sure to be elected president ... unless the Federalists could find a way to change the electoral process. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. Broadcast: October 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of America's second president, John Adams. VOICE TWO: John Adams took office in Seventeen-Ninety-Seven. He had served eight years as vice president under President George Washington. Now, state electors had chosen him to govern the new nation. Adams was an intelligent man. He was a true patriot and an able diplomat. But he did not like party politics. This weakness caused trouble during his presidency. For, during the late Seventeen-Hundreds, two political parties struggled for power. He was caught in the middle. VOICE ONE: Adams was a member of the Federalist Party. As president, he should have been party leader. But this position belonged to a man who really knew how to get and use political power, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton served as Treasury Secretary under President Washington. Now, he was a private citizen, a lawyer in New York City. Through the Federalist Party, Hamilton continued to have great influence over the national government. Federalists loyal to Hamilton controlled the Congress. Even President Adams' three cabinet ministers were loyal to Hamilton. In fact, they worked together against the new president. This political situation made Adams' term in office very difficult. Yet strangely, it also led to the end of Federalist Party power. VOICE TWO: Two major issues marked Adams' presidency. One concerned foreign policy. The other concerned the rights of citizens. The first involved America's relations with France. Federalists, in general, were men of wealth and position. They did not believe in democracy, rule by the people. For this reason, they strongly opposed the revolution in France. They were horrified by the execution of the French king and queen. Federalists wanted an alliance with Britain. Over time, they demanded war with France. VOICE ONE: American support for France came from the opposition party, the Republicans. The leader of that party was the country's vice president, Thomas Jefferson. France helped America win its war for independence from Britain. The friendship formed during the war continued afterward when Thomas Jefferson served as minister to Paris. Relations began to turn bad as soon as he returned home. The man who replaced him openly supported the French monarchy...the losing side in the revolution. After the revolution succeeded, the new French government demanded that he leave. VOICE TWO: Most Federalists did not want good relations with France. They used their power to prevent the government from sending a pro-French representative to Paris. They also searched for any signs of insult, any excuse to declare war. President Adams did not agree with the majority of Federalists. He wanted to improve relations with France through negotiations. Yet he said the United States would strengthen its defenses. We will be ready, he said, if war comes. VOICE ONE: One incident, especially, brought the two nations close to war. It is known in American history books as the "X, Y, and Z Affair." President Adams had appointed a committee of three ministers to negotiate with the French government. French officials kept these three men waiting for several weeks. While they waited, they had a visit from three Frenchmen -- later called X, Y, and Z. X, Y, and Z told the Americans that France would sign an agreement if the United States did three things. It had to lend the French government twelve million dollars. It had to apologize for anti-French statements in a recent message from President Adams to the American Congress. And it had to pay the French foreign minister two-hundred-fifty thousand dollars. VOICE TWO: The American ministers were willing to pay. But they wanted to sign the agreement first. The French foreign minister refused. First the money. . .then the agreement. The Federalists finally had the excuse they were looking for. France had insulted the United States. We must answer the insult. The only answer was war. Federalist newspapers added fuel to the fire by publishing anti-French propaganda. In a few places, pro-war groups became violent. The Republican Party could do little. Even Thomas Jefferson was helpless. He remained in Philadelphia, the capital of the United States at that time. But he had few friends there anymore. VOICE ONE: Congress quickly passed laws to create a permanent army and navy. It also approved new taxes to pay for them. Two new laws passed by a small vote. But they greatly increased the powers of the national government. The laws were known as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Federalists said they were necessary to protect national security. But, in effect, the Federalists used them to weaken the power of the Republican Party. VOICE TWO: Under the Alien Act, the president could accuse any foreigner living in the United States of being a threat to national security. He could order that person out of the country. The act also increased the time a foreigner had to wait to become a citizen, from five years to fourteen years. Republicans were furious. Most foreigners, when they became naturalized citizens, joined the Republican Party. Republicans argued that the Alien Act violated the Constitution. They said it gave the government more powers than were stated in the Constitution. Federalists said the act was Constitutional. They said the Constitution gave the government the right to defend the country against foreign aggression. VOICE ONE: The other law, the Sedition Act, barred the publication of anything that might incite public hostility against the government. Republicans argued that this act violated Americans' Constitutional rights of free speech and a free press. Federalists, once again, defended it as necessary for national security. The Federalists tried to use the Sedition Act to quiet Republican critics of President Adams' administration. About twenty-five persons were charged under the Sedition Act. These included several leading Republican newspapermen and a Republican member of Congress. Some of the men were tried and found guilty and sent to prison. But other Republicans took their places in the fight against the Act. The Federalist plan to stop criticism did not succeed. VOICE TWO: President Adams had signed the Alien and Sedition Acts into law. He believed they were necessary to protect the United States at a time when war with France was still possible. Then, in early Seventeen-Ninety-Nine, Adams received several reports that France was ready to re-open negotiations on improving relations. He immediately nominated a new minister to France. Federalist senators threatened to reject the nomination. In the end, Adams agreed to nominate a committee of three ministers. The Senate approved them. VOICE ONE: It was many months before the three men went to France to negotiate the agreement. And it was many more months before they completed their work. But they did so on September Thirtieth, Eighteen-Hundred. After several years of bitter political struggle at home, President Adams finally prevented war with France. Later he wrote: "There is one thing I would like to be remembered for more than anything else. I gave myself the task of making peace with France. And I succeeded." VOICE TWO: The year Eighteen-Hundred was another presidential election year in the United States. The Federalist Party appeared to be dying. It failed in its effort to force the nation into war with France. And it failed to silence its critics through the Alien and Sedition Acts. Party leaders knew the election would be their last chance to keep political power. The Republican Party had more popular support. It also had gained an increasing number of seats in state legislatures and the national Congress. Party leader Thomas Jefferson was sure to be elected president ... unless the Federalists could find a way to change the electoral process. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 16, 2003: Homework
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Students often say their teachers give them too much homework. Now, reports by two research organizations show that in the United States this argument is generally not true. The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., wrote one of the reports. It shows that the average student does less than one hour of schoolwork at home a night. The Rand Corporation in California did the other study. The research shows that only one in ten high school students spends more than two hours a night on homework. The findings are based on information from the United States Department of Education and international studies. They are also based on research by the University of Michigan, the University of California at Los Angeles and others. The Brookings report notes an international math and science study from nineteen-ninety-five. The United States was near last among twenty countries in homework. Students in France, Italy, Russia, and South Africa reported they spent at least two times as long on homework. The Rand report examined American homework levels during the second half of the twentieth century. Brian Gill helped write the report. He says there was only one time when homework sharply increased. That happened during the early nineteen-sixties. Americans were not happy when the Soviet Union became the first country to reach space. There was great concern about improving education. Politicians, educators and parents called for more intensive study -- especially in mathematics and science. Still, at that time, only about twenty-five percent of high school students completed more than two hours of homework daily. Not just children protest about homework. Some busy parents say their jobs leave them little time to help. Others want their children to have time for sports, music lessons and other activities after school. At the same time, some educators say schools need to give more meaningful homework. Harris Cooper is an expert on homework. He is a professor at Duke University in North Carolina. Professor Cooper suggests ten minutes per grade level. That adds up to two hours a night by the last year of high school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 17, 2003: History of baseball in America / Music from Gloria Estefan / The health care system in the United States.
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – music from the newest album by Gloria Estefan. And a listener wants to know about health care in the United States. But first – we look at the history of one of the most important sports events in the country. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – music from the newest album by Gloria Estefan. And a listener wants to know about health care in the United States. But first – we look at the history of one of the most important sports events in the country. World Series HOST: Saturday is the first game of the World Series for the championship in North American baseball. As Faith Lapidus reports, perhaps no other sport is rooted as deeply in American life. ANNCR: No other sport has created as many popular traditions as baseball has. There are plenty of poems, songs, books and films. Americans of all ages play baseball. Thousands of teams compete at all levels. There are school teams, company teams and teams supported by religious groups. Baseball is part of American English. Here is just one example: When Americans fail at something, they might say they "struck out." The first group of professional baseball teams formed in the United States in eighteen-seventy-six. The National League had eight teams then. Today it has sixteen. The other major league today is the American League. It formed in nineteen-oh-one. The American League tried to get National League players to change teams. The American League teams were also competing with the National League for fans. One-hundred years ago, in nineteen-three, officials from the two leagues met to try to ease the situation. They agreed to a series of games between two of their teams. The team that won the most games in the series would be declared the best team in the land. That is still considered the purpose of the games known as the World Series. The first World Series brought together the American League team from Boston and the National League team from Pittsburgh. The American League team won. Baseball historians say that victory confirmed the American League as a real force in professional baseball. They also say the World Series made the sport into America’s game. And, for millions of Americans, that tradition continues today. Health Care HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guanzhou, China. Mike Li asks about the medical care system in the United States. Most Americans buy health insurance from private companies through their employers. Workers and employers usually share the cost. Insurance companies pay some or all the costs when a person visits a doctor or hospital. But they may not pay for some kinds of treatments or services, or there are limits. Also, many plans pay for some kinds of examinations only when a person is sick. One kind of health insurance is provided by a health maintenance organization, or H-M-O. Groups of doctors work for an H-M-O. Individuals and families pay each month to belong. Their employers usually also pay part of the cost. Members can see the different doctors within their H-M-O at little or no additional cost. Millions of people belong to H-M-0's. But others want more freedom to choose their own doctors and hospitals. Also, some people say an H-M-O may put too much pressure on doctors to control costs. About forty-three-million Americans, or fifteen percent, have no health insurance at all. Many cannot pay for insurance, but have too much money to receive free health care for the poor. Some have no job, or work for a company that does not provide insurance. Still others are sick and cannot get insurance to pay for their treatment. Two federal programs pay medical costs for some Americans. Medicare pays for many older and disabled people. Medicaid pays for poor people. Some want a system that pays for all people, like other major industrial nations have. Eight-thousand doctors support a proposal for a national system of health insurance. The proposal appeared in August in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That is the nation's largest doctors group. But the group itself says a single-payer system would limit care and create other problems. Health costs continue to increase. The government has attempted reforms in the past. But it is a huge job. The Bush administration is proposing to reduce drug costs for older Americans. The idea is to offer a limited drug payment system through Medicare. The Democratic presidential candidates also have health care proposals. Gloria Estafan’s New Album HOST: Gloria Estefan has recorded more than twenty albums and sold more than seventy million copies. Jim Tedder tells us about the newest release by the forty-six-year-old singer. ANNCR: Gloria Estafan’s new album is called “Unwrapped.” The first hit song from the album is called “Wrapped.” (MUSIC) Gloria Estefan was a child when her family had to flee Cuba after Fidel Castro seized power in nineteen-fifty-nine. They moved to Miami, Florida. She had her first big hits in the middle of the nineteen-eighties with the group Miami Sound Machine. Then, in nineteen-ninety, a truck hit their bus. She broke her back. Her recovery took months. Gloria Estefan says music has helped her through hard times. Here is another song from her new album. It is called “I Will Always Need Your Love.” (MUSIC) Gloria Estefan's popularity has helped other Latin singers find success in the American music industry. Four of the songs on "Unwrapped" are in Spanish. We leave you with "Te Amare," or "I will love you." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Chi Un Lee and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Vosco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. World Series HOST: Saturday is the first game of the World Series for the championship in North American baseball. As Faith Lapidus reports, perhaps no other sport is rooted as deeply in American life. ANNCR: No other sport has created as many popular traditions as baseball has. There are plenty of poems, songs, books and films. Americans of all ages play baseball. Thousands of teams compete at all levels. There are school teams, company teams and teams supported by religious groups. Baseball is part of American English. Here is just one example: When Americans fail at something, they might say they "struck out." The first group of professional baseball teams formed in the United States in eighteen-seventy-six. The National League had eight teams then. Today it has sixteen. The other major league today is the American League. It formed in nineteen-oh-one. The American League tried to get National League players to change teams. The American League teams were also competing with the National League for fans. One-hundred years ago, in nineteen-three, officials from the two leagues met to try to ease the situation. They agreed to a series of games between two of their teams. The team that won the most games in the series would be declared the best team in the land. That is still considered the purpose of the games known as the World Series. The first World Series brought together the American League team from Boston and the National League team from Pittsburgh. The American League team won. Baseball historians say that victory confirmed the American League as a real force in professional baseball. They also say the World Series made the sport into America’s game. And, for millions of Americans, that tradition continues today. Health Care HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guanzhou, China. Mike Li asks about the medical care system in the United States. Most Americans buy health insurance from private companies through their employers. Workers and employers usually share the cost. Insurance companies pay some or all the costs when a person visits a doctor or hospital. But they may not pay for some kinds of treatments or services, or there are limits. Also, many plans pay for some kinds of examinations only when a person is sick. One kind of health insurance is provided by a health maintenance organization, or H-M-O. Groups of doctors work for an H-M-O. Individuals and families pay each month to belong. Their employers usually also pay part of the cost. Members can see the different doctors within their H-M-O at little or no additional cost. Millions of people belong to H-M-0's. But others want more freedom to choose their own doctors and hospitals. Also, some people say an H-M-O may put too much pressure on doctors to control costs. About forty-three-million Americans, or fifteen percent, have no health insurance at all. Many cannot pay for insurance, but have too much money to receive free health care for the poor. Some have no job, or work for a company that does not provide insurance. Still others are sick and cannot get insurance to pay for their treatment. Two federal programs pay medical costs for some Americans. Medicare pays for many older and disabled people. Medicaid pays for poor people. Some want a system that pays for all people, like other major industrial nations have. Eight-thousand doctors support a proposal for a national system of health insurance. The proposal appeared in August in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That is the nation's largest doctors group. But the group itself says a single-payer system would limit care and create other problems. Health costs continue to increase. The government has attempted reforms in the past. But it is a huge job. The Bush administration is proposing to reduce drug costs for older Americans. The idea is to offer a limited drug payment system through Medicare. The Democratic presidential candidates also have health care proposals. Gloria Estafan’s New Album HOST: Gloria Estefan has recorded more than twenty albums and sold more than seventy million copies. Jim Tedder tells us about the newest release by the forty-six-year-old singer. ANNCR: Gloria Estafan’s new album is called “Unwrapped.” The first hit song from the album is called “Wrapped.” (MUSIC) Gloria Estefan was a child when her family had to flee Cuba after Fidel Castro seized power in nineteen-fifty-nine. They moved to Miami, Florida. She had her first big hits in the middle of the nineteen-eighties with the group Miami Sound Machine. Then, in nineteen-ninety, a truck hit their bus. She broke her back. Her recovery took months. Gloria Estefan says music has helped her through hard times. Here is another song from her new album. It is called “I Will Always Need Your Love.” (MUSIC) Gloria Estefan's popularity has helped other Latin singers find success in the American music industry. Four of the songs on "Unwrapped" are in Spanish. We leave you with "Te Amare," or "I will love you." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Chi Un Lee and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Vosco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT — Nobel in Economics
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 17, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Robert Engle Broadcast: October 17, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Two professors, Robert Engle and Clive Granger, are the winners this year of the Nobel prize in economics. Professor Engle is American; Professor Granger is British. The award honors their work to help economists better understand what are called "time series." These show the development of things like stock prices, interest rates and levels of national production. The two professors worked together for many years at the University of California at San Diego. They established one of the top programs in economic measurement. Clive Granger became a professor at New York University three years ago. Both professors are now partly retired, but still active in their work. Professor Granger’s work in the nineteen-seventies and eighties permitted him to develop methods to study economic changes. He was interested in how prices change over time. He found that economists treat many economic changes as if they did not have forces that act upon them. This can lead to misleading results. Professor Granger developed methods to test his theories. These methods showed which economic changes are related. For example, the methods showed a link between the foreign exchange rate of a nation’s money and prices in its economy. Professor Granger worked with Professor Engle to develop tests to show which economic changes are, and are not, related. Economists use these tests widely. Professor Engle also developed ways to estimate the risk of an investment during a period of time. Today these methods help banks, for example, decide how much wealth they need to remain financially healthy. Robert Engle and Clive Granger will share the prize of about one-million-three-hundred-thousand dollars. The award is officially called the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel did not establish the prize. The Bank of Sweden established it in nineteen-sixty-eight. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm presents the award. The names of people nominated for Nobel prizes remain secret for fifty years. To learn about other winners of this year's Nobel prizes, listen Tuesday for the fifteen-minute program Science in the News. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Two professors, Robert Engle and Clive Granger, are the winners this year of the Nobel prize in economics. Professor Engle is American; Professor Granger is British. The award honors their work to help economists better understand what are called "time series." These show the development of things like stock prices, interest rates and levels of national production. The two professors worked together for many years at the University of California at San Diego. They established one of the top programs in economic measurement. Clive Granger became a professor at New York University three years ago. Both professors are now partly retired, but still active in their work. Professor Granger’s work in the nineteen-seventies and eighties permitted him to develop methods to study economic changes. He was interested in how prices change over time. He found that economists treat many economic changes as if they did not have forces that act upon them. This can lead to misleading results. Professor Granger developed methods to test his theories. These methods showed which economic changes are related. For example, the methods showed a link between the foreign exchange rate of a nation’s money and prices in its economy. Professor Granger worked with Professor Engle to develop tests to show which economic changes are, and are not, related. Economists use these tests widely. Professor Engle also developed ways to estimate the risk of an investment during a period of time. Today these methods help banks, for example, decide how much wealth they need to remain financially healthy. Robert Engle and Clive Granger will share the prize of about one-million-three-hundred-thousand dollars. The award is officially called the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel did not establish the prize. The Bank of Sweden established it in nineteen-sixty-eight. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm presents the award. The names of people nominated for Nobel prizes remain secret for fifty years. To learn about other winners of this year's Nobel prizes, listen Tuesday for the fifteen-minute program Science in the News. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 18, 2003: United Nations Approves U.S. Resolution on Iraq
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with In the News, from VOA Special English. The United Nations Security Council this week approved an American resolution on Iraq. All fifteen members voted Thursday to support the resolution. These included France, Germany, Russia and Syria, which had all opposed the war in Iraq. The United States says it hopes the resolution will get more countries to provide troops and aid to help rebuild Iraq. Several countries had said they would not send troops unless the Security Council passed a new resolution. The United States and Britain plan to request more aid at an international conference next week in Spain. The resolution calls for the establishment of an American-led international force in Iraq. The resolution also urges U-N members to provide troops and money to support the occupation. The plan gives Iraq's temporary governing council until December fifteenth to set time limits to write a constitution and hold elections. The new resolution had been changed five times since August. The U-N wanted greater influence in political decisions about Iraq. And France, Russia and Germany wanted the United States to return power within a few months to a temporary government in Baghdad. The United States rejected these demands. But this week it presented new compromises. The changes give the United Nations greater influence in the constitutional process in Iraq. The changes also guarantee the need for additional approval to keep the international force in Iraq after a new government is sworn in. But the resolution does not set a date for Iraqis to take power. The vote Thursday came after days of negotiations. France, Germany and Russia agreed to support the resolution after a conference call among their leaders. The call took place hours before the vote. Those three countries were the leading opponents of the war in Iraq. After the vote, however, France, Germany and Russia said they would not provide troops or additional money to support the coalition efforts in Iraq. They said the resolution does not go far enough to re-establish Iraqi control. The Bush administration increased its efforts to seek a new resolution after the bombing at the U-N headquarters in Baghdad in August. The chief U-N diplomat in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was among the twenty-two people killed. In September, President Bush told the General Assembly that the United States would deal with calls to expand U-N involvement in the change of power in Iraq. But Secretary General Kofi Annan demanded greater independence and security guarantees for the United Nations in exchange. The Security Council remains divided on the future of Iraq. But a spokeswoman for French President Jacques Chirac said the vote on the resolution was important, above all, as a show of unity. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: October 16, 2003 - 'Wall Street Words'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 16, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we invest some time with the author of a book about financial terms. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 16, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we invest some time with the author of a book about financial terms. SCOTT: "Stock markets around the world have done fairly well, but in the U.S. money has come back into stocks for sure." RS: So it's a good time for David Scott to come out with the third edition of his book "Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investors." Mister Scott teaches finance and accounting at Valdosta State University in Georgia. AA: Like any field, there's a lot of jargon, so we asked him to pick some terms anyone could understand. SCOTT: "One term that's been used a lot is 'fallen angel,' which applies to securities or companies that at one time were really high flying, high valued, admired companies that have fallen out of favor. 'Shark repellant' is another. For example, if one company is trying to take over a second company, the company being taken over or in danger of being taken over might institute some kind of shark repellant that makes it very expensive to accomplish the task." RS: "Now, are these words used in everyday speech, or do you actually see them in written documents?" SCOTT: "They're used both. I think a term like shark repellant or fallen angel is used more in the industry than it is among individual investors. But it's used a lot in the press, and I think a lot of writers enjoy using kind of 'in' terms to make readers think that they are more sophisticated than they are perhaps. So I think a lot of these terms find their way into the popular press, and I don't think individuals always understand what the writers are talking about." RS: "What are some more of these words?" AA: "Would a shark repellant have anything to do with, let's say, a 'macaroni defense.' And what is a macaroni defense?" SCOTT: "Well, it is. Actually, a macaroni defense is a type of shark repellant. For example, a macaroni defense is one where the directors of a company include in the bylaws that certain bonds have to be repurchased at above their face value in the event a company is in danger of being taken over. So it makes the company very expensive, and it relates to macaroni, as when you put macaroni in a boiling pot, it tends to expand in size. And so the cost of the takeover in this case expands in cost, and that's called a macaroni defense. I'm not sure that's used a lot, but it is used sometimes in the press." RS: "This is a whole new world for me." SCOTT: "Yes, I know." AA: "What's interesting is when the stock market was last doing well, and we had the dot-coms, the technology companies were trading lots of shares, a term we kept hearing then was 'pump and dump,' and I wonder if perhaps we'll be seeing this again. If you could explain what pump and dump is." SCOTT: "Sure, and that's a very good question. Individual investors would take a position in a stock. By that I mean they would start buying shares in a stock. And they would try to buy it at a relatively low price, and then they would spread information about the company or the stock, trying to get other investors interested in it, so that they would buy shares and run the price up because of the increased demand. This occurred a lot on Internet chat rooms, for example. "If this was successful, then new investors would come in and start buying the stock, the price would start trending upward, and then the initial people that had spread the good word -- which much of the time wasn't true -- would dump their shares at a profit. And then the stock price would go down, but they wouldn't care. So that was called a pump and dump. You pump the price up, and then you dump your shares into the lap of someone else and let them worry about the fact that it's probably overpriced." AA: "And was that illegal?" SCOTT: "Yeah, it was. It sometimes used to be difficult to find out who was doing it." AA: David Scott is author of "Wall Street Words, An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investors." And as for the term "Wall Street" itself, here's how he defines it: "The main street in New York City's financial district. The term is often used to denote the entire financial district in New York or the world of U.S. finance and investments. Also called the Street," that's with a capital S. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. SCOTT: "Stock markets around the world have done fairly well, but in the U.S. money has come back into stocks for sure." RS: So it's a good time for David Scott to come out with the third edition of his book "Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investors." Mister Scott teaches finance and accounting at Valdosta State University in Georgia. AA: Like any field, there's a lot of jargon, so we asked him to pick some terms anyone could understand. SCOTT: "One term that's been used a lot is 'fallen angel,' which applies to securities or companies that at one time were really high flying, high valued, admired companies that have fallen out of favor. 'Shark repellant' is another. For example, if one company is trying to take over a second company, the company being taken over or in danger of being taken over might institute some kind of shark repellant that makes it very expensive to accomplish the task." RS: "Now, are these words used in everyday speech, or do you actually see them in written documents?" SCOTT: "They're used both. I think a term like shark repellant or fallen angel is used more in the industry than it is among individual investors. But it's used a lot in the press, and I think a lot of writers enjoy using kind of 'in' terms to make readers think that they are more sophisticated than they are perhaps. So I think a lot of these terms find their way into the popular press, and I don't think individuals always understand what the writers are talking about." RS: "What are some more of these words?" AA: "Would a shark repellant have anything to do with, let's say, a 'macaroni defense.' And what is a macaroni defense?" SCOTT: "Well, it is. Actually, a macaroni defense is a type of shark repellant. For example, a macaroni defense is one where the directors of a company include in the bylaws that certain bonds have to be repurchased at above their face value in the event a company is in danger of being taken over. So it makes the company very expensive, and it relates to macaroni, as when you put macaroni in a boiling pot, it tends to expand in size. And so the cost of the takeover in this case expands in cost, and that's called a macaroni defense. I'm not sure that's used a lot, but it is used sometimes in the press." RS: "This is a whole new world for me." SCOTT: "Yes, I know." AA: "What's interesting is when the stock market was last doing well, and we had the dot-coms, the technology companies were trading lots of shares, a term we kept hearing then was 'pump and dump,' and I wonder if perhaps we'll be seeing this again. If you could explain what pump and dump is." SCOTT: "Sure, and that's a very good question. Individual investors would take a position in a stock. By that I mean they would start buying shares in a stock. And they would try to buy it at a relatively low price, and then they would spread information about the company or the stock, trying to get other investors interested in it, so that they would buy shares and run the price up because of the increased demand. This occurred a lot on Internet chat rooms, for example. "If this was successful, then new investors would come in and start buying the stock, the price would start trending upward, and then the initial people that had spread the good word -- which much of the time wasn't true -- would dump their shares at a profit. And then the stock price would go down, but they wouldn't care. So that was called a pump and dump. You pump the price up, and then you dump your shares into the lap of someone else and let them worry about the fact that it's probably overpriced." AA: "And was that illegal?" SCOTT: "Yeah, it was. It sometimes used to be difficult to find out who was doing it." AA: David Scott is author of "Wall Street Words, An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investors." And as for the term "Wall Street" itself, here's how he defines it: "The main street in New York City's financial district. The term is often used to denote the entire financial district in New York or the world of U.S. finance and investments. Also called the Street," that's with a capital S. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA  - October 19, 2003: John Wesley Powell
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Ulysses S. Grant (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program People in America. Every week at this time we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about explorer John Wesley Powell. He was also a scientist, land reformer, and supporter of native American rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The date is May twenty-fourth, eighteen sixty-nine. The place is Green River, Wyoming, in the western United States. The Green River flows in a curving path south through Utah and Colorado until it joins the great Colorado River. The Colorado, in turn, flows through a huge deep canyon. Years from now, that formation will be called the Grand Canyon. Ten men are putting supplies and scientific equipment into four small boats. They are about to leave on a dangerous, exciting exploration. The leader of the group is John Wesley Powell. VOICE TWO: Powell writes in his journal: "The good people of Green River City turn out to see us start. We raise our little flag, push the boats from shore, and the current carries us down. Wild emptiness is stretched out before me. Yet there is a beauty in the picture." So begins John Wesley Powell's story of his trip on the Green and Colorado Rivers. It was one of the greatest trips of discovery in the history of North America. He and his men were the first whites to travel in that area. Until then, the land had been known only to Indians and prehistoric tribes. VOICE ONE: John Wesley Powell was thirty-five-years-old. He had served in the American Civil War. He had lost an arm in that war. He was an unknown scientist, temporarily away from his job at a museum in Illinois. John's parents had come to the United States from England. They settled in New York state, where John was born in eighteen thirty-four. They later moved to Ohio. Mister Powell made clothes for other people, and farmed a little, too. He also taught religion. His teaching duties often took him away from home. Missus Powell believed young John needed the guidance and protection of a man. So she asked a friend, George Crookham, for help. VOICE TWO: George Crookham was a rich farmer. He also was a self-taught scientist. He kept a small museum at his home. It contained examples of plants and minerals. Native animals and insects. Remains of Indian tools and weapons. From George Crookham, John Wesley Powell received a wide, but informal, education. The boy learned many things about the natural sciences, philosophy and history. VOICE ONE: In eighteen forty-six, the Powell family moved again. This time, they settled even farther west, in Wisconsin. John wanted to go to school to study science. His father said that if John were to be sent to college, it would be to study Religion -- not something as unimportant as science. The argument continued for three years. Then John decided to leave home to seek an education. He soon discovered that he knew more about science than any teacher he met. He realized that the only good scientific education in the country came from colleges in the East, like Harvard and Yale. But he was too poor to go to them. VOICE TWO: John Wesley Powell got work as a school teacher in Illinois. Whenever possible, he went on scientific trips of his own. In April, eighteen sixty-one, civil war broke out in the United States. John joined the Union forces of the North. At the battle of Shiloh, a cannon ball struck him in the right arm. The arm could not be saved. Although John was disabled, he returned to active duty under General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant would later serve as secretary of war and president. Powell's friendship with Grant would help win him support for his explorations of the West. After the war, John Wesley Powell taught science at two universities in Illinois. He also helped establish the Illinois historical society. He urged state lawmakers to provide more money for the society's museum. His efforts were so successful that he was given responsibility for the museum's collections. One of the first things he did after getting the job was to plan an exploration of the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: Powell got help from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. The Smithsonian gave him scientific equipment. He got help from the army. The army promised to protect the explorers in dangerous areas. And he got help from the railroads. The railroads agreed to let the explorers ride free as far as possible. Powell's group brought back enough information to satisfy those who supported it. A second, similar trip took place the following year. Then Powell centered his efforts on the plan that would make him famous: exploration of the Green River and the Colorado River. VOICE TWO: It was a voyage never attempted by white men. Indians who knew the area said it could not be done. But John Wesley Powell believed it could. And he believed it would provide a wealth of scientific information about that part of America. Once again, Powell turned for help to the Smithsonian, the army and the railroads. He got what he wanted. VOICE ONE: The explorers left Green River, Wyoming, on May twenty-fourth, eighteen-sixty-nine. All along the way, Powell measured distances, temperatures, heights, depths and currents. He examined soils, rocks and plant life. Since the explorers were mapping unknown territory, they named the places they passed as they went along. The trip was just as dangerous as expected, perhaps more. The rivers were filled with rocky areas and waterfalls. Sometimes, the boats overturned. One of the boats broke in two against a big rock. The explorers suffered from a hot sun, and cold rain. They lost many of their supplies. Yet they pushed on. VOICE TWO: On August thirteenth, eighteen-sixty-nine, they reached the mouth of a great canyon. Its walls rose more than a kilometer above them. Powell wrote in his journal: "We are now ready to start on our way down the great unknown. What waterfalls there are, we know not. What rocks lie in the river, we know not. We may imagine many things. The men talk as happily as ever. But to me, there is a darkness to the joy." The trip through the great canyon was much the same as the earlier part of the trip. For a time, the Colorado River widened. The explorers were able to travel long distances each day. Then the canyon walls closed in again. Once more, the group battled rapids, rocks and waterfalls. Conditions grew so bad that three of the men left to try to reach civilization overland. Two days later, the rest of the group sailed out of the dangers of the Grand Canyon. VOICE ONE: The story of the brave explorers was printed in newspapers all over the country. John Wesley Powell became famous. Powell's explorations led to the creation of the United States Geological Survey in eighteen-seventy-nine. The survey became responsible for all mapping and scientific programs of American lands. Powell's interests, however, were becoming wider than just the geology of the land. He found himself growing deeply interested in the people who lived on the land. On every future trip, he visited Indian villages. He talked to the people, and learned about their culture and history. He helped establish a Bureau of American Ethnology within the Smithsonian Institution to collect information about the Indian cultures. Powell headed the bureau for more than twenty years. In a message to Congress, Powell explained why he felt the bureau was so important: "Many of the difficulties between white men and Indians are unnecessary, and are caused by our lack of knowledge relating to the Indians themselves. The failure to recognize this fact has brought great trouble to our management of the Indians." VOICE TWO: John Wesley Powell's scientific studies of western lands shaped his ideas of how those lands should be used. He proposed programs to control both crop farming and cattle raising. He was especially concerned about water supplies. Many of John Wesley Powell's ideas were far ahead of his time. Congress rejected Powell's proposals for land and water use. He died in nineteen-oh-two. Years later his ideas were signed into law. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program People in America. Every week at this time we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about explorer John Wesley Powell. He was also a scientist, land reformer, and supporter of native American rights. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The date is May twenty-fourth, eighteen sixty-nine. The place is Green River, Wyoming, in the western United States. The Green River flows in a curving path south through Utah and Colorado until it joins the great Colorado River. The Colorado, in turn, flows through a huge deep canyon. Years from now, that formation will be called the Grand Canyon. Ten men are putting supplies and scientific equipment into four small boats. They are about to leave on a dangerous, exciting exploration. The leader of the group is John Wesley Powell. VOICE TWO: Powell writes in his journal: "The good people of Green River City turn out to see us start. We raise our little flag, push the boats from shore, and the current carries us down. Wild emptiness is stretched out before me. Yet there is a beauty in the picture." So begins John Wesley Powell's story of his trip on the Green and Colorado Rivers. It was one of the greatest trips of discovery in the history of North America. He and his men were the first whites to travel in that area. Until then, the land had been known only to Indians and prehistoric tribes. VOICE ONE: John Wesley Powell was thirty-five-years-old. He had served in the American Civil War. He had lost an arm in that war. He was an unknown scientist, temporarily away from his job at a museum in Illinois. John's parents had come to the United States from England. They settled in New York state, where John was born in eighteen thirty-four. They later moved to Ohio. Mister Powell made clothes for other people, and farmed a little, too. He also taught religion. His teaching duties often took him away from home. Missus Powell believed young John needed the guidance and protection of a man. So she asked a friend, George Crookham, for help. VOICE TWO: George Crookham was a rich farmer. He also was a self-taught scientist. He kept a small museum at his home. It contained examples of plants and minerals. Native animals and insects. Remains of Indian tools and weapons. From George Crookham, John Wesley Powell received a wide, but informal, education. The boy learned many things about the natural sciences, philosophy and history. VOICE ONE: In eighteen forty-six, the Powell family moved again. This time, they settled even farther west, in Wisconsin. John wanted to go to school to study science. His father said that if John were to be sent to college, it would be to study Religion -- not something as unimportant as science. The argument continued for three years. Then John decided to leave home to seek an education. He soon discovered that he knew more about science than any teacher he met. He realized that the only good scientific education in the country came from colleges in the East, like Harvard and Yale. But he was too poor to go to them. VOICE TWO: John Wesley Powell got work as a school teacher in Illinois. Whenever possible, he went on scientific trips of his own. In April, eighteen sixty-one, civil war broke out in the United States. John joined the Union forces of the North. At the battle of Shiloh, a cannon ball struck him in the right arm. The arm could not be saved. Although John was disabled, he returned to active duty under General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant would later serve as secretary of war and president. Powell's friendship with Grant would help win him support for his explorations of the West. After the war, John Wesley Powell taught science at two universities in Illinois. He also helped establish the Illinois historical society. He urged state lawmakers to provide more money for the society's museum. His efforts were so successful that he was given responsibility for the museum's collections. One of the first things he did after getting the job was to plan an exploration of the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: Powell got help from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. The Smithsonian gave him scientific equipment. He got help from the army. The army promised to protect the explorers in dangerous areas. And he got help from the railroads. The railroads agreed to let the explorers ride free as far as possible. Powell's group brought back enough information to satisfy those who supported it. A second, similar trip took place the following year. Then Powell centered his efforts on the plan that would make him famous: exploration of the Green River and the Colorado River. VOICE TWO: It was a voyage never attempted by white men. Indians who knew the area said it could not be done. But John Wesley Powell believed it could. And he believed it would provide a wealth of scientific information about that part of America. Once again, Powell turned for help to the Smithsonian, the army and the railroads. He got what he wanted. VOICE ONE: The explorers left Green River, Wyoming, on May twenty-fourth, eighteen-sixty-nine. All along the way, Powell measured distances, temperatures, heights, depths and currents. He examined soils, rocks and plant life. Since the explorers were mapping unknown territory, they named the places they passed as they went along. The trip was just as dangerous as expected, perhaps more. The rivers were filled with rocky areas and waterfalls. Sometimes, the boats overturned. One of the boats broke in two against a big rock. The explorers suffered from a hot sun, and cold rain. They lost many of their supplies. Yet they pushed on. VOICE TWO: On August thirteenth, eighteen-sixty-nine, they reached the mouth of a great canyon. Its walls rose more than a kilometer above them. Powell wrote in his journal: "We are now ready to start on our way down the great unknown. What waterfalls there are, we know not. What rocks lie in the river, we know not. We may imagine many things. The men talk as happily as ever. But to me, there is a darkness to the joy." The trip through the great canyon was much the same as the earlier part of the trip. For a time, the Colorado River widened. The explorers were able to travel long distances each day. Then the canyon walls closed in again. Once more, the group battled rapids, rocks and waterfalls. Conditions grew so bad that three of the men left to try to reach civilization overland. Two days later, the rest of the group sailed out of the dangers of the Grand Canyon. VOICE ONE: The story of the brave explorers was printed in newspapers all over the country. John Wesley Powell became famous. Powell's explorations led to the creation of the United States Geological Survey in eighteen-seventy-nine. The survey became responsible for all mapping and scientific programs of American lands. Powell's interests, however, were becoming wider than just the geology of the land. He found himself growing deeply interested in the people who lived on the land. On every future trip, he visited Indian villages. He talked to the people, and learned about their culture and history. He helped establish a Bureau of American Ethnology within the Smithsonian Institution to collect information about the Indian cultures. Powell headed the bureau for more than twenty years. In a message to Congress, Powell explained why he felt the bureau was so important: "Many of the difficulties between white men and Indians are unnecessary, and are caused by our lack of knowledge relating to the Indians themselves. The failure to recognize this fact has brought great trouble to our management of the Indians." VOICE TWO: John Wesley Powell's scientific studies of western lands shaped his ideas of how those lands should be used. He proposed programs to control both crop farming and cattle raising. He was especially concerned about water supplies. Many of John Wesley Powell's ideas were far ahead of his time. Congress rejected Powell's proposals for land and water use. He died in nineteen-oh-two. Years later his ideas were signed into law. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 20, 2003: Blindness / World Sight Day
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An estimated one-hundred-thirty-five million people have low vision. Forty to forty-five million others cannot see at all. Health experts warn that the number of blind people will increase sharply as the world population grows, and grows older. They say the number of blind people could almost double by two-thousand-twenty. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An estimated one-hundred-thirty-five million people have low vision. Forty to forty-five million others cannot see at all. Health experts warn that the number of blind people will increase sharply as the world population grows, and grows older. They say the number of blind people could almost double by two-thousand-twenty. Yet the World Health Organization says that in eight out of ten cases, blindness can be cured or avoided. October ninth was World Sight Day. A campaign called Vision Twenty-twenty released materials to help governments and health workers develop national plans to prevent blindness. Vision Twenty-twenty is a joint effort of the W-H-O and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. The goal is to end preventable blindness by two-thousand-twenty. The campaign targets four main causes. Cataracts cause the lens of the eye to become cloudy. In most of Africa and Asia, cataracts cause at least half the cases of blindness that can be cured. A simple operation can remove cataracts. Trachoma is an infectious disease spread person-to-person and by insects. Trachoma causes about fifteen percent of all cases of blindness. Most of the cases are in Africa. The disease can be treated with antibiotic medicines and an operation to correct the damage. The disease known as river blindness is also found mostly in Africa. Flies spread the infection. A yearly treatment of the drug Mectizan can control the disease. Finally, a lack of vitamin A as a result of poor nutrition is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children. Vision Twenty-twenty says that every five seconds another person in the world goes blind. Most blind people live in developing nations. India has at least nine million. About six million are in China, and seven million in Africa. Officials estimate that the world economy loses about twenty-eight-thousand-million dollars each year from curable blindness. A resolution passed by the World Health Assembly in May urges all governments to develop national plans to prevent blindness. You can learn more about Vision Twenty-twenty on the Internet at v-twenty-twenty dot o-r-g (v2020.org). This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Yet the World Health Organization says that in eight out of ten cases, blindness can be cured or avoided. October ninth was World Sight Day. A campaign called Vision Twenty-twenty released materials to help governments and health workers develop national plans to prevent blindness. Vision Twenty-twenty is a joint effort of the W-H-O and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. The goal is to end preventable blindness by two-thousand-twenty. The campaign targets four main causes. Cataracts cause the lens of the eye to become cloudy. In most of Africa and Asia, cataracts cause at least half the cases of blindness that can be cured. A simple operation can remove cataracts. Trachoma is an infectious disease spread person-to-person and by insects. Trachoma causes about fifteen percent of all cases of blindness. Most of the cases are in Africa. The disease can be treated with antibiotic medicines and an operation to correct the damage. The disease known as river blindness is also found mostly in Africa. Flies spread the infection. A yearly treatment of the drug Mectizan can control the disease. Finally, a lack of vitamin A as a result of poor nutrition is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children. Vision Twenty-twenty says that every five seconds another person in the world goes blind. Most blind people live in developing nations. India has at least nine million. About six million are in China, and seven million in Africa. Officials estimate that the world economy loses about twenty-eight-thousand-million dollars each year from curable blindness. A resolution passed by the World Health Assembly in May urges all governments to develop national plans to prevent blindness. You can learn more about Vision Twenty-twenty on the Internet at v-twenty-twenty dot o-r-g (v2020.org). This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 20, 2003: Historic Documents at the National Archives
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) Rotunda at National Archives Building (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Declaration of Independence helped establish the United States as a new nation. So did the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The National Archives and Records Administration is again showing these historic documents in its building in Washington, D-C. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about these important documents on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. United States Constitution VOICE ONE: The Declaration of Independence helped establish the United States as a new nation. So did the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The National Archives and Records Administration is again showing these historic documents in its building in Washington, D-C. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about these important documents on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Until two years ago, America’s most important historic documents were moved for their safety. At night, mechanical devices placed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in an underground container. The next day, the documents were lifted back to the place where the public could see them. Their home was a beautiful area of the National Archives building called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. But many visitors said the glass containers made the documents hard to see. Experts also worried that the condition of the very old documents was worsening. The documents were signed in the seventeen-hundreds. VOICE TWO: In July, two-thousand-one, the government began improving the National Archives. The project includes structural changes and the addition of new public areas. The project costs millions of dollars and probably will continue until the end of two-thousand-five. After the work began, the research area of the Archives building remained open. But the Rotunda area was closed for restoration for more than two years. VOICE ONE: Today, however, crowds of people again gather at the Rotunda to walk by the documents, as they did in earlier years. It is much easier to see the documents now than before. Experts have cleaned and partly restored them. They have also improved the cases in which they are contained. Last month, thousands of people attended celebrations for the newly restored home of the historic papers. These “papers” are really parchments – specially treated animal skins. Officials say the best of modern technology has been used to extend the lives of the documents. For example, devices in the cases measure the temperature, humidity and pressure inside. Argon gas helps protect the parchments. A special structure makes it possible for people in wheelchairs and small children to easily see the documents. VOICE TWO: The central point of the restored Rotunda is the United States Constitution. Officials placed the document in a case in the middle of the room. Before the improvement, visitors could see only two pages of the Constitution. Now they can see all four. On the left of the Constitution is the Declaration of Independence. On the right is the Bill of Rights. Before the Rotunda was changed, the Declaration of Independence hung on the wall. It was not very close to the other documents. People said it was hard to see. Now experts have placed the cases in positions designed for easier reading. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Jefferson wrote the first version of the powerful Declaration of Independence in June, seventeen-seventy-six. It announced separation of the thirteen American colonies from Britain. Continental Congress members approved the Declaration on July Fourth of that year. VOICE TWO: After the colonists won the Revolutionary War and gained their independence, delegates were chosen to write rules to establish a government for the new nation. Constitutional Convention members worked out the agreement beginning in May, seventeen-eighty-seven. It was signed on September seventeenth of that year. Historians say the Constitution created the new United States from the spirit of the American Revolution. The Constitution established a strong central government. It called for this government to have three parts, or branches. The president was to lead the executive branch. Congress formed the legislative branch. The courts formed the judicial branch. The Constitution also called for each branch to exercise some control over the others. These checks and balances protect against any one branch becoming too powerful. More than two-hundred years later, the United States still operates under this system. VOICE ONE: Early American legislators added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution in seventeen-ninety-one. House of Representatives Speaker Frederick A. Muhlenberg signed the document first. Senate President John Adams signed it soon after. The Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments to the Constitution. It guarantees Americans several important freedoms: These include freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Freedom of the press. Freedom to gather to express opinions. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States hears many cases that are linked to the Bill of Rights. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Visitors to the National Archives also can see other important documents in the Rotunda. For example, there is the agreement permitting the largest land purchase in American history. It is called the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. This let the United States buy more than two-million square kilometers of land from France in eighteen-oh-three. The land extended from west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Two historical paintings hang above the documents. The picture on the left shows Thomas Jefferson. He is giving a version of the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock, the first person to sign the document. The picture on the right shows James Madison giving the Constitution to George Washington, America’s first president. VOICE ONE: The work on the document area is only part of the major improvement project at the National Archives. For example, exhibit spaces called public vaults will be added. The vaults will let visitors walk through areas where records are kept. Another special area, a gallery, will show temporary exhibits. The National Archives will open a learning center and a theater for films and other presentations. Officials also plan to improve the Archives Web site, w-w-w dot archives dot g-o-v.(www.archives.gov) This will enable people to visit the Archives by computer. They also will be able to connect to Archive records. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ceremonies, music and dramatizations were held at the Rotunda opening last month. For example, actors representing historical people welcomed visitors. People could question the actors about American heroes like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. A small boy from the state of Oklahoma asked about President Washington’s height. The actor performing as George Washington answered that Washington stood taller than one-point-eight meters. At the same time, the actor playing Thomas Jefferson was talking to a young girl from Baltimore, Maryland. He described how Jefferson designed Monticello, his Virginia home. After writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson served as America’s third president. He was also known for his skill as an inventor, designer and farmer. VOICE ONE: Another actor took the part of black Revolutionary War soldier Edward Hector. He told what it was like to fight in the American War of Independence. Black people were given freedom for joining the American colonial troops. Ned Hector was a hero of the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania. The battle took place in September, seventeen-seventy-five. Hector was attacked by many British troops. He reportedly said he would never surrender his horses and wagon. When the battle ended, he had survived. And, he still had his horses and wagon. VOICE TWO: One of the first visitors to the newly re-opened document exhibit was a high school teacher from the state of Oklahoma. Before leaving, the teacher stopped to look back at the Rotunda. She said, “This place helped me remember how hard people struggled to create this country.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. (MUSIC) (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Until two years ago, America’s most important historic documents were moved for their safety. At night, mechanical devices placed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in an underground container. The next day, the documents were lifted back to the place where the public could see them. Their home was a beautiful area of the National Archives building called the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. But many visitors said the glass containers made the documents hard to see. Experts also worried that the condition of the very old documents was worsening. The documents were signed in the seventeen-hundreds. VOICE TWO: In July, two-thousand-one, the government began improving the National Archives. The project includes structural changes and the addition of new public areas. The project costs millions of dollars and probably will continue until the end of two-thousand-five. After the work began, the research area of the Archives building remained open. But the Rotunda area was closed for restoration for more than two years. VOICE ONE: Today, however, crowds of people again gather at the Rotunda to walk by the documents, as they did in earlier years. It is much easier to see the documents now than before. Experts have cleaned and partly restored them. They have also improved the cases in which they are contained. Last month, thousands of people attended celebrations for the newly restored home of the historic papers. These “papers” are really parchments – specially treated animal skins. Officials say the best of modern technology has been used to extend the lives of the documents. For example, devices in the cases measure the temperature, humidity and pressure inside. Argon gas helps protect the parchments. A special structure makes it possible for people in wheelchairs and small children to easily see the documents. VOICE TWO: The central point of the restored Rotunda is the United States Constitution. Officials placed the document in a case in the middle of the room. Before the improvement, visitors could see only two pages of the Constitution. Now they can see all four. On the left of the Constitution is the Declaration of Independence. On the right is the Bill of Rights. Before the Rotunda was changed, the Declaration of Independence hung on the wall. It was not very close to the other documents. People said it was hard to see. Now experts have placed the cases in positions designed for easier reading. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thomas Jefferson wrote the first version of the powerful Declaration of Independence in June, seventeen-seventy-six. It announced separation of the thirteen American colonies from Britain. Continental Congress members approved the Declaration on July Fourth of that year. VOICE TWO: After the colonists won the Revolutionary War and gained their independence, delegates were chosen to write rules to establish a government for the new nation. Constitutional Convention members worked out the agreement beginning in May, seventeen-eighty-seven. It was signed on September seventeenth of that year. Historians say the Constitution created the new United States from the spirit of the American Revolution. The Constitution established a strong central government. It called for this government to have three parts, or branches. The president was to lead the executive branch. Congress formed the legislative branch. The courts formed the judicial branch. The Constitution also called for each branch to exercise some control over the others. These checks and balances protect against any one branch becoming too powerful. More than two-hundred years later, the United States still operates under this system. VOICE ONE: Early American legislators added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution in seventeen-ninety-one. House of Representatives Speaker Frederick A. Muhlenberg signed the document first. Senate President John Adams signed it soon after. The Bill of Rights contains the first ten amendments to the Constitution. It guarantees Americans several important freedoms: These include freedom of speech. Freedom of religion. Freedom of the press. Freedom to gather to express opinions. Today, the Supreme Court of the United States hears many cases that are linked to the Bill of Rights. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Visitors to the National Archives also can see other important documents in the Rotunda. For example, there is the agreement permitting the largest land purchase in American history. It is called the Louisiana Purchase Treaty. This let the United States buy more than two-million square kilometers of land from France in eighteen-oh-three. The land extended from west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Two historical paintings hang above the documents. The picture on the left shows Thomas Jefferson. He is giving a version of the Declaration of Independence to John Hancock, the first person to sign the document. The picture on the right shows James Madison giving the Constitution to George Washington, America’s first president. VOICE ONE: The work on the document area is only part of the major improvement project at the National Archives. For example, exhibit spaces called public vaults will be added. The vaults will let visitors walk through areas where records are kept. Another special area, a gallery, will show temporary exhibits. The National Archives will open a learning center and a theater for films and other presentations. Officials also plan to improve the Archives Web site, w-w-w dot archives dot g-o-v.(www.archives.gov) This will enable people to visit the Archives by computer. They also will be able to connect to Archive records. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Ceremonies, music and dramatizations were held at the Rotunda opening last month. For example, actors representing historical people welcomed visitors. People could question the actors about American heroes like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. A small boy from the state of Oklahoma asked about President Washington’s height. The actor performing as George Washington answered that Washington stood taller than one-point-eight meters. At the same time, the actor playing Thomas Jefferson was talking to a young girl from Baltimore, Maryland. He described how Jefferson designed Monticello, his Virginia home. After writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson served as America’s third president. He was also known for his skill as an inventor, designer and farmer. VOICE ONE: Another actor took the part of black Revolutionary War soldier Edward Hector. He told what it was like to fight in the American War of Independence. Black people were given freedom for joining the American colonial troops. Ned Hector was a hero of the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania. The battle took place in September, seventeen-seventy-five. Hector was attacked by many British troops. He reportedly said he would never surrender his horses and wagon. When the battle ended, he had survived. And, he still had his horses and wagon. VOICE TWO: One of the first visitors to the newly re-opened document exhibit was a high school teacher from the state of Oklahoma. Before leaving, the teacher stopped to look back at the Rotunda. She said, “This place helped me remember how hard people struggled to create this country.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on THIS IS AMERICA from VOA Special English. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 21, 2003: Nobel Prize Winners / The Public Library of Science
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Roderick MacKinnon (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. This week -- reports on the winners of the two-thousand-three Nobel prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine. VOICE TWO: And, later in the program, the Public Library of Science puts its first research publication out on the Internet -- and it is free of charge. (THEME) Alexei Abrikosov I’m Sarah Long with Bob Doughty, and this is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. This week -- reports on the winners of the two-thousand-three Nobel prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine. VOICE TWO: And, later in the program, the Public Library of Science puts its first research publication out on the Internet -- and it is free of charge. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Nobel prizes are presented each year on December tenth. The Peace Prize is given in Oslo, Norway. The others are given in Stockholm, Sweden. December tenth is the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel in eighteen-ninety-six. The Swedish engineer held legal rights to more than three-hundred inventions. One is dynamite, an explosive. Alfred Nobel left nine-million dollars in his will to establish yearly prizes in his name. He said they should go to living people who have worked most effectively to improve human life. The first awards were given in nineteen-oh-one. Each prize includes a gold medal and ten-thousand Swedish kronas. Today that equals more than one-million dollars. The money is shared if more than one person wins a prize. VOICE TWO: Vitaly Ginzburg VOICE ONE: The Nobel prizes are presented each year on December tenth. The Peace Prize is given in Oslo, Norway. The others are given in Stockholm, Sweden. December tenth is the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel in eighteen-ninety-six. The Swedish engineer held legal rights to more than three-hundred inventions. One is dynamite, an explosive. Alfred Nobel left nine-million dollars in his will to establish yearly prizes in his name. He said they should go to living people who have worked most effectively to improve human life. The first awards were given in nineteen-oh-one. Each prize includes a gold medal and ten-thousand Swedish kronas. Today that equals more than one-million dollars. The money is shared if more than one person wins a prize. VOICE TWO: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences chose two winners this year for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon are American. Professor Agre is with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Professor MacKinnon is at the Rockefeller University in New York City. The award honors their studies of cell walls in living things. The two scientists described how water and charged atoms flow into and out of cells through passages called pores. Professor MacKinnon discovered the shape of one of these pores. Professor Agre discovered the first pore known to transport water molecules. VOICE ONE: Pores help cells operate normally. The flow of charged atoms creates electrical bursts. Cells use these to communicate with each other. This process controls physical activities of the body such as making the heart beat and the arms move. When pores in cells do not operate correctly, serious conditions can happen. These include irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and the disease cystic fibrosis. One member of the Nobel committee said the major effect of Agre and MacKinnon’s work has been on understanding disease. Another said the discoveries are important to understanding life processes, not just among humans but also bacteria and plants. (MUSIC) Anthony Leggett The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences chose two winners this year for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon are American. Professor Agre is with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Professor MacKinnon is at the Rockefeller University in New York City. The award honors their studies of cell walls in living things. The two scientists described how water and charged atoms flow into and out of cells through passages called pores. Professor MacKinnon discovered the shape of one of these pores. Professor Agre discovered the first pore known to transport water molecules. VOICE ONE: Pores help cells operate normally. The flow of charged atoms creates electrical bursts. Cells use these to communicate with each other. This process controls physical activities of the body such as making the heart beat and the arms move. When pores in cells do not operate correctly, serious conditions can happen. These include irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and the disease cystic fibrosis. One member of the Nobel committee said the major effect of Agre and MacKinnon’s work has been on understanding disease. Another said the discoveries are important to understanding life processes, not just among humans but also bacteria and plants. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This year the Nobel Prize in Physics honors three people for work they did many years ago. Two of the winners are Alexei Abrikosov of the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and Vitaly Ginzburg of the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. In the early nineteen-fifties, they developed theories that explained an area of superconductivity. Superconductors are materials that permit electricity to flow without resistance. Resistance weakens the flow and produces heat. To work, superconductors must be cooled to extremely low temperatures. VOICE ONE: Superconductors help in areas of technology and research where electricity is used to create strong magnetic fields. Mister Ginzburg and another Russian scientist showed that some materials could superconduct in the presence of stronger magnetic fields than had been thought. Later, Mister Abrikosov showed how magnetic fields affect the process. The other Russian scientist, Lev Landau, won a Nobel Prize in nineteen-sixty-two for other work. He died six years later. VOICE TWO: The third scientist to win the Nobel Prize for Physics this year is Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award recognizes his work with superfluids. A superfluid is like a superconductor. It is a liquid that flows freely at very low temperatures. A superfluid can even move upward off a surface. In the nineteen-seventies Mister Leggett used ideas about superconductivity to explain the movement of atoms in liquid helium. The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences says the three winners this year helped to change the science of physics. They recognized the importance of the interactions between atoms and electrons. They explained how the movement of these particles together can be more important than the movement of individual particles. VOICE TWO: This year the Nobel Prize in Physics honors three people for work they did many years ago. Two of the winners are Alexei Abrikosov of the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois and Vitaly Ginzburg of the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. In the early nineteen-fifties, they developed theories that explained an area of superconductivity. Superconductors are materials that permit electricity to flow without resistance. Resistance weakens the flow and produces heat. To work, superconductors must be cooled to extremely low temperatures. VOICE ONE: Superconductors help in areas of technology and research where electricity is used to create strong magnetic fields. Mister Ginzburg and another Russian scientist showed that some materials could superconduct in the presence of stronger magnetic fields than had been thought. Later, Mister Abrikosov showed how magnetic fields affect the process. The other Russian scientist, Lev Landau, won a Nobel Prize in nineteen-sixty-two for other work. He died six years later. VOICE TWO: The third scientist to win the Nobel Prize for Physics this year is Anthony Leggett of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award recognizes his work with superfluids. A superfluid is like a superconductor. It is a liquid that flows freely at very low temperatures. A superfluid can even move upward off a surface. In the nineteen-seventies Mister Leggett used ideas about superconductivity to explain the movement of atoms in liquid helium. The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences says the three winners this year helped to change the science of physics. They recognized the importance of the interactions between atoms and electrons. They explained how the movement of these particles together can be more important than the movement of individual particles. Scientists say this discovery led to major changes in thinking by leading physicists. One influence of this work was the development of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI technology. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Two men involved in the development of MRI technology are the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. They are Paul Lauterbur of the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in Britain. The Karolinska Institute in Sweden awards the prize. Magnetic resonance imaging uses a magnetic field to record pictures. This technology has changed the practice of medicine. It permits doctors to look inside patients without the use of X-rays or an operation. They can look at all sides of organs and capture events like the beating of a heart. Scientists have also developed brain examinations by MRI. Doctor can observe changes in blood flow to study mental activity. In two-thousand-two, nearly sixty-million MRIs were done around the world. VOICE TWO: Scientists say many other people took part in the development of the MRI besides Mister Lauterbur and Mister Mansfield. In fact, one of these researchers is protesting the choices for the Nobel Prize in Medicine this year. Raymond Damadian owns an MRI manufacturing company near New York City. He has paid for announcements in newspapers to say he should have shared in the prize because of the research he did. His experiments started in nineteen-sixty-nine. He discovered that cancerous and normal tissue could be recognized using a technology then known as nuclear magnetic resonance. Scientists say that Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield later developed improved methods to capture pictures of tissue. Their pictures were clearer and easier to use. But Mister Damadian says their work came from his ideas. The Nobel committee and others say that the two winners made their own independent discoveries. Scientists say this discovery led to major changes in thinking by leading physicists. One influence of this work was the development of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI technology. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Two men involved in the development of MRI technology are the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. They are Paul Lauterbur of the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in Britain. The Karolinska Institute in Sweden awards the prize. Magnetic resonance imaging uses a magnetic field to record pictures. This technology has changed the practice of medicine. It permits doctors to look inside patients without the use of X-rays or an operation. They can look at all sides of organs and capture events like the beating of a heart. Scientists have also developed brain examinations by MRI. Doctor can observe changes in blood flow to study mental activity. In two-thousand-two, nearly sixty-million MRIs were done around the world. VOICE TWO: Scientists say many other people took part in the development of the MRI besides Mister Lauterbur and Mister Mansfield. In fact, one of these researchers is protesting the choices for the Nobel Prize in Medicine this year. Raymond Damadian owns an MRI manufacturing company near New York City. He has paid for announcements in newspapers to say he should have shared in the prize because of the research he did. His experiments started in nineteen-sixty-nine. He discovered that cancerous and normal tissue could be recognized using a technology then known as nuclear magnetic resonance. Scientists say that Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield later developed improved methods to capture pictures of tissue. Their pictures were clearer and easier to use. But Mister Damadian says their work came from his ideas. The Nobel committee and others say that the two winners made their own independent discoveries. It will not be easy to find out how the committee chose the winners. Rules for the Nobel prizes state that the documents used to nominate and choose winners are to be held in secret for fifty years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Before scientists can earn a Nobel Prize, or any recognition, first they must get their work published. There are major publications like Science and Nature, but also many others. Some scientific publications cost a lot to receive in paper form. But most publishers also charge to read reports over the Internet. The reports often include findings of research paid for with public money. Some scientists think it is wrong to charge for scientific knowledge. Three years ago, a number of medical researchers organized the Public Library of Science. They urged scientific publishers to release reports on the Internet without charge. They were not satisfied with the steps taken. So the library decided to publish research on its own. The organizers say they hope to show that free sharing of scientific knowledge will speed the progress of science and medicine. VOICE TWO: Next year the Public Library of Science, or P-L-O-S, will launch a publication called P-L-O-S Medicine. Earlier this month the library released its first publication, P-L-O-S Biology. It came out in print and online. The writers of the reports pay the costs of editing and publishing. As with many publications, other scientists read the articles to judge if the work should be published. One of the reports in P-L-O-S Biology made a lot of news. The report tells about experiments in which scientists connected devices to the brains of monkeys. These devices permitted the monkeys to control a mechanical arm with their thoughts. Listen next week for more details. And Internet users can visit the new library at publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. It will not be easy to find out how the committee chose the winners. Rules for the Nobel prizes state that the documents used to nominate and choose winners are to be held in secret for fifty years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Before scientists can earn a Nobel Prize, or any recognition, first they must get their work published. There are major publications like Science and Nature, but also many others. Some scientific publications cost a lot to receive in paper form. But most publishers also charge to read reports over the Internet. The reports often include findings of research paid for with public money. Some scientists think it is wrong to charge for scientific knowledge. Three years ago, a number of medical researchers organized the Public Library of Science. They urged scientific publishers to release reports on the Internet without charge. They were not satisfied with the steps taken. So the library decided to publish research on its own. The organizers say they hope to show that free sharing of scientific knowledge will speed the progress of science and medicine. VOICE TWO: Next year the Public Library of Science, or P-L-O-S, will launch a publication called P-L-O-S Medicine. Earlier this month the library released its first publication, P-L-O-S Biology. It came out in print and online. The writers of the reports pay the costs of editing and publishing. As with many publications, other scientists read the articles to judge if the work should be published. One of the reports in P-L-O-S Biology made a lot of news. The report tells about experiments in which scientists connected devices to the brains of monkeys. These devices permitted the monkeys to control a mechanical arm with their thoughts. Listen next week for more details. And Internet users can visit the new library at publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — October 21, 2003: Snap Beans
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Snap beans possess the good qualities of other beans, but they may be less well known. Snap beans are native to the Americas. They are harvested and served inside their covering, called a pod. Most kinds of snap beans are green, but some have yellow or purple pods. Snap beans are picked when they are young. Fresh ones break in half with a sound like the snap of two fingers. But the pods and the beans inside are soft enough to cook easily and eat. In the United States, there are different names for snap beans. Some people call them string beans. That is because earlier kinds had strings that had to be removed from the pods. Other names are green beans or wax beans, which are yellow. Pole beans are closely related to other kinds of snap beans. Farmers grow these long, thin plants on sticks or poles for support. Some pole beans can be harvested up to ten times in a season. But pole beans require more labor. They are not easily harvested by machine like snap beans grown on short plants. Snap beans have a short growing period, forty-five to sixty days. They are sold fresh, canned or frozen. They grow easily. But too much water in the soil will cause disease in the roots. The soil should be loose. Snap beans should be planted in different areas from year to year to avoid disease carried in the soil. Like all beans and peas, snap beans release nitrogen into the soil. So they provide natural fertilizer. The world crop is about one-thousand-five-hundred-million kilograms. France, Mexico, Iraq and Argentina are big producers. But the United States is the biggest producer and importer of snap beans. After years of decrease, Americans are again eating more of this traditional vegetable with their evening meal. In the United States, the Agriculture Department says prices have moderately increased even while production has risen. American imports increase during the winter months. The top growing season is May through October. Beans are naturally high in protein. But they provide higher quality protein when eaten with a grain like rice or wheat. Beans are also high in vitamins A, B and C. And they contain a lot of fiber, a vegetable material that many people do not get enough of in their diet. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Snap beans possess the good qualities of other beans, but they may be less well known. Snap beans are native to the Americas. They are harvested and served inside their covering, called a pod. Most kinds of snap beans are green, but some have yellow or purple pods. Snap beans are picked when they are young. Fresh ones break in half with a sound like the snap of two fingers. But the pods and the beans inside are soft enough to cook easily and eat. In the United States, there are different names for snap beans. Some people call them string beans. That is because earlier kinds had strings that had to be removed from the pods. Other names are green beans or wax beans, which are yellow. Pole beans are closely related to other kinds of snap beans. Farmers grow these long, thin plants on sticks or poles for support. Some pole beans can be harvested up to ten times in a season. But pole beans require more labor. They are not easily harvested by machine like snap beans grown on short plants. Snap beans have a short growing period, forty-five to sixty days. They are sold fresh, canned or frozen. They grow easily. But too much water in the soil will cause disease in the roots. The soil should be loose. Snap beans should be planted in different areas from year to year to avoid disease carried in the soil. Like all beans and peas, snap beans release nitrogen into the soil. So they provide natural fertilizer. The world crop is about one-thousand-five-hundred-million kilograms. France, Mexico, Iraq and Argentina are big producers. But the United States is the biggest producer and importer of snap beans. After years of decrease, Americans are again eating more of this traditional vegetable with their evening meal. In the United States, the Agriculture Department says prices have moderately increased even while production has risen. American imports increase during the winter months. The top growing season is May through October. Beans are naturally high in protein. But they provide higher quality protein when eaten with a grain like rice or wheat. Beans are also high in vitamins A, B and C. And they contain a lot of fiber, a vegetable material that many people do not get enough of in their diet. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – October 22, 2003: Iraqi Treasures Recovered
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS, from VOA Special English. Today we tell about efforts to recover ancient works of art stolen from Iraq. (MUSIC) This is Phoebe Zimmermann. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS, from VOA Special English. Today we tell about efforts to recover ancient works of art stolen from Iraq. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Thousands of archeological treasures disappeared from the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad, Iraq last April. At that time, a coalition led by the United States ousted the government of Saddam Hussein. Robbers entered the museum. They stole and damaged many priceless objects. At first, experts estimated that one-hundred-seventy-thousand objects were missing. But museum workers had hidden many objects for their protection before the war began in March. Some Iraqi citizens have been holding other artifacts for safe keeping. These people have expressed concern that museum workers are connected with Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath political party. They say they fear the artifacts might not be put back in the museum again. Negotations for returning such objects are continuing. VOICE TWO: Officials now say the museum lost between ten-thousand and fifteen-thousand artifacts after the war. Baghdad citizens and others returned many of these ancient objects. An American group also has organized the return of almost three-thousand-five-hundred artifacts. Group members worked with local citizens and international officials to restore valuable pieces to the National Museum of Antiquities. For example, the Americans helped recover a sculpture of a woman’s head. Some experts said it is one of the five most important pieces taken from the museum. The sculpture is called the Warka Mask, or Lady of Warka. It is about five-thousand years old. It was carved in the ancient city of Warka during the rule of the Sumerians. Iraqi police and American soldiers found it buried among fruit trees on a farm near Baghdad. VOICE ONE: Jabir Ibrahim directs Iraq’s department of ancient objects. He said his office learned in August about a group trying to sell the Warka Mask. But the group’s negotiations with possible buyers apparently failed. After that, the group hid the mask. Information provided to the museum identified the person who apparently stole the mask. A week of negotiations with this person led to the farm. Soldiers and police dug out the mask from fifteen centimeters of earth. It was unharmed. VOICE TWO: Jabir Ibrahim is among Iraqi experts who have said United States forces failed to protect the museum after occupying Baghdad. A number of international art experts and archeologists agree. But American officials say Iraqi Army soldiers were firing from the museum at American troops as they arrived. The officials say the gunfire made it impossible for the American troops to enter the museum. They say the stealing took place before the American military could help stop it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: United States Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos (boag-DON-ose) began the American investigation of the missing artifacts in April. Colonel Bogdanos is a reserve officer who has completed graduate work in classical studies. In civilian life, he works as a government lawyer in New York City. At a recent media conference in Washington, D-C, Colonel Bogdanos described the efforts of his group. He reported how the thirteen members found missing artifacts in Baghdad and six other nations. VOICE TWO: Colonel Bogdanos said the goal was not to punish people who stole the objects. Instead, he said his group wants mainly to recover the lost treasures. So the investigators operated on a policy of “no questions asked.” This meant people who returned stolen objects would not be arrested. Colonel Bogdanos praised religious and community leaders in Baghdad for spreading this message. A recent count showed that one-thousand-seven-hundred objects have been returned under the “no questions asked” policy. The colonel said many citizens in Baghdad also provided valuable information leading to missing objects. VOICE ONE: The Americans said their hardest job was learning exactly what was missing. Museum employees had never recorded the presence of many artifacts in the huge collection. Some Iraqi experts say the employees purposely failed to do this. The experts said the employees meant to prevent Saddam’s family and his Ba’ath party members from seizing valuable objects. Now Iraqi, American, British and Italian archeologists are trying to complete a list of which objects are in the museum and which are still missing. VOICE TWO: Toward that goal, investigators have been sending photographs of the missing objects around the world. However, this effort has had many problems. Robbers had stolen or destroyed many of the photographs. Photos of other objects were of poor quality. Also, the museum had never photographed some of its artworks. Still, many art communities and law-enforcement agencies have received photographs. If an artifact had no picture, investigators sent photos of similar artworks. Colonel Bogdanos said the goal was to make the objects as recognizable as possible. The photographs have helped make searches successful at airports, security points and international borders. By last month, more than seven-hundred-fifty artifacts had been recovered this way. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some artifacts from the National Museum of Antiquities have been missing far longer than a few months. Museum officials hid these objects more than twelve years ago, before the Persian Gulf War. For example, in nineteen-ninety, officials took a number of important objects to the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad. They included the golden head of a male cow. They also included objects known as the Treasure of Nimrud. During the nineteen-eighties, archeologists had found these artifacts near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. They were found in royal burial places in what had been the ancient Assyrian capital of Nimrud. Boxes containing these artifacts had been placed in a lower-level area of the bank. However, the area became flooded. VOICE TWO: This past summer, bank and museum officials watched as a National Geographic Society crew and American soldiers pumped out the water. When they opened the boxes, they found that the golden cow’s head had been damaged. Then they opened boxes containing the Treasure of Nimrud. Those present held their breath as the treasures were lifted out. The gold, jewels and other artifacts were unharmed. VOICE ONE: Workers at the museum also had hidden eight-thousand artifacts in a secret place before the most recent war. They had sworn on the Koran not to tell where that place was. Colonel Bogdanos and his group spent weeks talking to the museum workers in an effort to build trust. The workers finally shared their secret. The objects were discovered in good condition. The museum will show them again when security permits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Americans have carefully searched the huge National Museum of Antiquities. They found evidence of an Iraqi Army firing position in a storage room. They found many suspicious objects, including weapon parts and an unexploded bomb. They also found rocket weapons on the roofs of the museum library and the children’s museum. The searchers discovered fifteen sets of Iraqi Army clothing in another museum building. In a lower-level storage room, they discovered that almost three-thousand valuable small objects had been stolen. These artifacts were not yet ready to be shown to the public. Colonel Bogdanos believes the objects could not have been removed without a museum worker knowing they were there. He says a museum worker may have organized the theft or given information to other people. The colonel says some museum employees have left their jobs and cannot be found. Iraqi officials, however, say this theft was possible without help from museum workers. VOICE ONE: Colonel Bogdanos now has returned to the United States. But he says only the first work of the investigation is complete. In Iraq, the search continues. Around the world, archeologists, art experts and law officers are helping to restore the museum’s collections. Many people wait for the day when the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad can again show its treasures from the past. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for Explorations on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Thousands of archeological treasures disappeared from the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad, Iraq last April. At that time, a coalition led by the United States ousted the government of Saddam Hussein. Robbers entered the museum. They stole and damaged many priceless objects. At first, experts estimated that one-hundred-seventy-thousand objects were missing. But museum workers had hidden many objects for their protection before the war began in March. Some Iraqi citizens have been holding other artifacts for safe keeping. These people have expressed concern that museum workers are connected with Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath political party. They say they fear the artifacts might not be put back in the museum again. Negotations for returning such objects are continuing. VOICE TWO: Officials now say the museum lost between ten-thousand and fifteen-thousand artifacts after the war. Baghdad citizens and others returned many of these ancient objects. An American group also has organized the return of almost three-thousand-five-hundred artifacts. Group members worked with local citizens and international officials to restore valuable pieces to the National Museum of Antiquities. For example, the Americans helped recover a sculpture of a woman’s head. Some experts said it is one of the five most important pieces taken from the museum. The sculpture is called the Warka Mask, or Lady of Warka. It is about five-thousand years old. It was carved in the ancient city of Warka during the rule of the Sumerians. Iraqi police and American soldiers found it buried among fruit trees on a farm near Baghdad. VOICE ONE: Jabir Ibrahim directs Iraq’s department of ancient objects. He said his office learned in August about a group trying to sell the Warka Mask. But the group’s negotiations with possible buyers apparently failed. After that, the group hid the mask. Information provided to the museum identified the person who apparently stole the mask. A week of negotiations with this person led to the farm. Soldiers and police dug out the mask from fifteen centimeters of earth. It was unharmed. VOICE TWO: Jabir Ibrahim is among Iraqi experts who have said United States forces failed to protect the museum after occupying Baghdad. A number of international art experts and archeologists agree. But American officials say Iraqi Army soldiers were firing from the museum at American troops as they arrived. The officials say the gunfire made it impossible for the American troops to enter the museum. They say the stealing took place before the American military could help stop it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: United States Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos (boag-DON-ose) began the American investigation of the missing artifacts in April. Colonel Bogdanos is a reserve officer who has completed graduate work in classical studies. In civilian life, he works as a government lawyer in New York City. At a recent media conference in Washington, D-C, Colonel Bogdanos described the efforts of his group. He reported how the thirteen members found missing artifacts in Baghdad and six other nations. VOICE TWO: Colonel Bogdanos said the goal was not to punish people who stole the objects. Instead, he said his group wants mainly to recover the lost treasures. So the investigators operated on a policy of “no questions asked.” This meant people who returned stolen objects would not be arrested. Colonel Bogdanos praised religious and community leaders in Baghdad for spreading this message. A recent count showed that one-thousand-seven-hundred objects have been returned under the “no questions asked” policy. The colonel said many citizens in Baghdad also provided valuable information leading to missing objects. VOICE ONE: The Americans said their hardest job was learning exactly what was missing. Museum employees had never recorded the presence of many artifacts in the huge collection. Some Iraqi experts say the employees purposely failed to do this. The experts said the employees meant to prevent Saddam’s family and his Ba’ath party members from seizing valuable objects. Now Iraqi, American, British and Italian archeologists are trying to complete a list of which objects are in the museum and which are still missing. VOICE TWO: Toward that goal, investigators have been sending photographs of the missing objects around the world. However, this effort has had many problems. Robbers had stolen or destroyed many of the photographs. Photos of other objects were of poor quality. Also, the museum had never photographed some of its artworks. Still, many art communities and law-enforcement agencies have received photographs. If an artifact had no picture, investigators sent photos of similar artworks. Colonel Bogdanos said the goal was to make the objects as recognizable as possible. The photographs have helped make searches successful at airports, security points and international borders. By last month, more than seven-hundred-fifty artifacts had been recovered this way. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some artifacts from the National Museum of Antiquities have been missing far longer than a few months. Museum officials hid these objects more than twelve years ago, before the Persian Gulf War. For example, in nineteen-ninety, officials took a number of important objects to the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad. They included the golden head of a male cow. They also included objects known as the Treasure of Nimrud. During the nineteen-eighties, archeologists had found these artifacts near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. They were found in royal burial places in what had been the ancient Assyrian capital of Nimrud. Boxes containing these artifacts had been placed in a lower-level area of the bank. However, the area became flooded. VOICE TWO: This past summer, bank and museum officials watched as a National Geographic Society crew and American soldiers pumped out the water. When they opened the boxes, they found that the golden cow’s head had been damaged. Then they opened boxes containing the Treasure of Nimrud. Those present held their breath as the treasures were lifted out. The gold, jewels and other artifacts were unharmed. VOICE ONE: Workers at the museum also had hidden eight-thousand artifacts in a secret place before the most recent war. They had sworn on the Koran not to tell where that place was. Colonel Bogdanos and his group spent weeks talking to the museum workers in an effort to build trust. The workers finally shared their secret. The objects were discovered in good condition. The museum will show them again when security permits. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The Americans have carefully searched the huge National Museum of Antiquities. They found evidence of an Iraqi Army firing position in a storage room. They found many suspicious objects, including weapon parts and an unexploded bomb. They also found rocket weapons on the roofs of the museum library and the children’s museum. The searchers discovered fifteen sets of Iraqi Army clothing in another museum building. In a lower-level storage room, they discovered that almost three-thousand valuable small objects had been stolen. These artifacts were not yet ready to be shown to the public. Colonel Bogdanos believes the objects could not have been removed without a museum worker knowing they were there. He says a museum worker may have organized the theft or given information to other people. The colonel says some museum employees have left their jobs and cannot be found. Iraqi officials, however, say this theft was possible without help from museum workers. VOICE ONE: Colonel Bogdanos now has returned to the United States. But he says only the first work of the investigation is complete. In Iraq, the search continues. Around the world, archeologists, art experts and law officers are helping to restore the museum’s collections. Many people wait for the day when the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad can again show its treasures from the past. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for Explorations on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - October 22, 2003: New Breast Cancer Drug
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say a drug developed several years ago reduces the chance that older women will get breast cancer for a second time. The drug is called letrozole. It suppresses the production of the female hormone estrogen. Cancerous growths need estrogen to spread. Breast cancer is most treatable early in its development. Current practice calls for doctors to operate to remove the growth. Then women take chemotherapy drugs to kill any cancer that remains. After that, women are supposed to take the drug tamoxifen (ta-MOX-i-fen) for five years. This is to prevent the cancer from coming back. But tamoxifen seems to lose its effect after five years. Researchers have found that fifteen to thirty percent of patients get breast cancer again within ten years after they stop the tamoxifen. These are the women that doctors hope the new drug can help. Novartis Pharmaceuticals makes letrozole under the name Femara. The drug is already approved in the United States to treat late forms of breast cancer. The new study involved more than five-thousand women in the United States, Canada and Europe. All had breast cancer once and been treated with tamoxifen. For the study, half took letrozole once a day. The others took a placebo, a pill they did not know contained only sugar. In all, two-hundred-seven women got breast cancer for a second time. Of these, one-hundred-thirty-two had taken the placebo. Seventy-five had been given letrozole. The Canadian-led study found that the drug reduced the chance of cancer returning by forty-three percent. The researchers planned to study the women for five years. But they stopped after two-and-a-half years. They said the effect was so clear, it would have been wrong to keep the drug from the other women in the study. Because of the lack of estrogen, the women on letrozole had a higher risk of bone-thinning osteoporosis. They were also more likely to experience effects similar to those of menopause, like feeling hot all of a sudden. Ending the study early left some questions unanswered -- for example, how long should women take the drug. The study involved the National Cancer Institutes in Canada and the United States. The findings appear next month in the New England Journal of Medicine. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #35 - October 23, 2003: Election of 1800
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Shep O’Neal and I tell about America's presidential election of Eighteen-Hundred. The two major candidates were President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Adams represented the Federalist Party. Jefferson represented the Republican Party. VOICE TWO: Aaron Burr THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Frank Oliver. Today, Shep O’Neal and I tell about America's presidential election of Eighteen-Hundred. The two major candidates were President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Adams represented the Federalist Party. Jefferson represented the Republican Party. VOICE TWO: As president, John Adams was head of the Federalist Party. But the power of that position belonged, in fact, to former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. For this and other reasons, Adams did not like Hamilton. He said: "Thomas Jefferson will be a good president, if elected. I would rather be a minister to Europe under Jefferson than to be a president controlled by Hamilton." Hamilton did not like Adams. He did everything he could to block Adams from becoming president again. He gave his support to another Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. Under the electoral system of that time, the candidate with the most votes became president. The candidate with the second highest number of votes became vice president. VOICE ONE: A Federalist victory in the election of Eighteen-Hundred would not be easy. The Republicans had a very strong and popular candidate -- Thomas Jefferson. So, Federalist Party leaders attempted to change the electoral system. Record of electoral votes in the 1800 presidential election: 73 for Thomas Jefferson and 73 for Aaron Burr.(Image - National Archives) As president, John Adams was head of the Federalist Party. But the power of that position belonged, in fact, to former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. For this and other reasons, Adams did not like Hamilton. He said: "Thomas Jefferson will be a good president, if elected. I would rather be a minister to Europe under Jefferson than to be a president controlled by Hamilton." Hamilton did not like Adams. He did everything he could to block Adams from becoming president again. He gave his support to another Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. Under the electoral system of that time, the candidate with the most votes became president. The candidate with the second highest number of votes became vice president. VOICE ONE: A Federalist victory in the election of Eighteen-Hundred would not be easy. The Republicans had a very strong and popular candidate -- Thomas Jefferson. So, Federalist Party leaders attempted to change the electoral system. The Constitution said state legislatures were to choose electors to vote for president. The Federalists tried to gain control over the legislatures' decisions. They wanted Congress to create a special committee to rule if an elector had -- or did not have -- the right to vote. The committee could say if an elector's vote should be counted or thrown away. VOICE TWO: The committee would have six members from the Senate and six members from the House of Representatives. The thirteenth member would be the Chief Justice of the United States. Creating such a committee violated the Constitution. Federalist leaders knew this. So, they wanted Congress to approve the committee, but keep the measure secret until after the election. The Federalists held a majority of seats in the Senate. And the Senate voted to approve the proposal. But some Federalist members of the House of Representatives denounced it. They made many changes in the proposal. The Senate refused to accept the changes. Without agreement by both houses of Congress, the bill died. Federalist leaders saw their hopes for an election victory begin to disappear. VOICE ONE: By the summer of Eighteen-Hundred, Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party had strong leaders in every state. It had many newspapers to express party ideas. Jefferson decided to take a holiday at Monticello, his farm in Virginia. The Republican Party leader in New York was a lawyer, Aaron Burr. Burr had served as an officer under General George Washington during America's war for independence from Britain. After the war, he joined the Federalist Party and was elected to the United States Senate. Later, he changed parties and became a Republican. In Eighteen-Hundred, a group of both Federalists and Republicans supported him as a candidate for president. VOICE TWO: Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were bitter enemies. When Hamilton learned of a plan by his own party to elect Burr president, instead of Jefferson, his reaction was quick and sharp. "Anybody," he said, "even Thomas Jefferson, is better than Aaron Burr. Jefferson is not dangerous. Burr is. Jefferson's ideas of government are wrong. But at least he is an honest man. Burr is a man without honesty and character. He will destroy America." VOICE ONE: The president elected in Eighteen-Hundred would govern in a new capital city. The national government would move from Philadelphia to Washington, a newly-built city in the District of Columbia. It was on the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia. When President Adams and his wife Abigail arrived in Washington, D.C., they found a frontier town. There were few houses or streets. Missus Adams could not believe what she saw. She wrote to her daughter: "This is a city only because we call it a city. Our house here is very big. But the rooms are not finished. There is almost no furniture. There are not enough lamps for light." VOICE TWO: A street called Pennsylvania Avenue went from the president's house to the Capitol building where Congress would meet. On each side of the street -- where buildings stand today -- there were fields of mud. This was the new federal city, the new capital of the United States. This was where the winner of the presidential election of Eighteen-Hundred would begin his term of office. VOICE ONE: George Washington won America's first two presidential elections without opposition. John Adams won the third presidential election by three votes. This time, in Eighteen-Hundred, there was no clear winner. When the electors' votes were counted, President Adams had sixty-five votes. But Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each had seventy-three votes. So, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would choose between Jefferson or Burr -- the candidates with the highest number of votes. Each congressman could vote. But each state had just one vote. That vote would go to the candidate supported by a majority of congressmen from the state. A candidate had to receive a majority of the state votes to win. In Eighteen-Hundred, that was nine of the sixteen states. VOICE TWO: The Federalists saw the situation as their last chance to control the presidency. They had two plans. They would try to block the Congress from electing either Jefferson or Burr as president. Then they would try to find a way to put executive power in the hands of a Federalist. If that plan failed, they were prepared to elect Burr. The Federalists tried to make people believe that Burr was working with them, against Jefferson. Burr denied this. In a letter to Jefferson, Burr wrote: "Every Republican wants you to be president of the United States. Every good Republican wants to serve under you. I would be happy and honored to be your vice president. And, if you believe I could help you better in some other position, I would do so." VOICE ONE: On February eleventh, the House of Representatives began to count votes, state by state. Eight states chose Jefferson. Six chose Burr. The representatives of two states -- Maryland and Vermont -- gave each man an equal number of votes. There was no majority within those states. So neither man won the votes of those states. The voting continued. All that day and throughout the night the representatives voted. Twenty-seven times the count remained the same: Eight states for Jefferson. Six for Burr. Two undecided. The next morning, the representatives decided to rest for four hours. The voting began again at noon. There was no change. The thirteenth of February passed, then the fourteenth and fifteenth. Still, no change. The House voted thirty-three times. It could not elect a president. VOICE TWO: A change in the vote of just one congressman from Maryland or Vermont could decide the contest. Later, after the election, the representative from Delaware said he had met with two congressmen from Maryland and one from Vermont. All were Federalists. All had voted for Aaron Burr. The Delaware congressman said they claimed they spoke with a friend of Thomas Jefferson. He said they told Jefferson's friend they would change their votes, if Jefferson made certain promises. Jefferson denied that he had made any political promises. He said many men tried to get promises from him. But he said he told them all that he would never become president with his hands tied. VOICE ONE: History experts do not agree on what really happened. What is sure is that the House of Representatives voted for the thirty-sixth time on February seventeenth. Ten states, including Maryland and Vermont, voted for Thomas Jefferson. Four states voted for Aaron Burr. Two states -- Delaware and South Carolina -- did not vote. But Jefferson had the majority he needed. He would be the new president. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson. The Constitution said state legislatures were to choose electors to vote for president. The Federalists tried to gain control over the legislatures' decisions. They wanted Congress to create a special committee to rule if an elector had -- or did not have -- the right to vote. The committee could say if an elector's vote should be counted or thrown away. VOICE TWO: The committee would have six members from the Senate and six members from the House of Representatives. The thirteenth member would be the Chief Justice of the United States. Creating such a committee violated the Constitution. Federalist leaders knew this. So, they wanted Congress to approve the committee, but keep the measure secret until after the election. The Federalists held a majority of seats in the Senate. And the Senate voted to approve the proposal. But some Federalist members of the House of Representatives denounced it. They made many changes in the proposal. The Senate refused to accept the changes. Without agreement by both houses of Congress, the bill died. Federalist leaders saw their hopes for an election victory begin to disappear. VOICE ONE: By the summer of Eighteen-Hundred, Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party had strong leaders in every state. It had many newspapers to express party ideas. Jefferson decided to take a holiday at Monticello, his farm in Virginia. The Republican Party leader in New York was a lawyer, Aaron Burr. Burr had served as an officer under General George Washington during America's war for independence from Britain. After the war, he joined the Federalist Party and was elected to the United States Senate. Later, he changed parties and became a Republican. In Eighteen-Hundred, a group of both Federalists and Republicans supported him as a candidate for president. VOICE TWO: Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were bitter enemies. When Hamilton learned of a plan by his own party to elect Burr president, instead of Jefferson, his reaction was quick and sharp. "Anybody," he said, "even Thomas Jefferson, is better than Aaron Burr. Jefferson is not dangerous. Burr is. Jefferson's ideas of government are wrong. But at least he is an honest man. Burr is a man without honesty and character. He will destroy America." VOICE ONE: The president elected in Eighteen-Hundred would govern in a new capital city. The national government would move from Philadelphia to Washington, a newly-built city in the District of Columbia. It was on the Potomac River between the states of Maryland and Virginia. When President Adams and his wife Abigail arrived in Washington, D.C., they found a frontier town. There were few houses or streets. Missus Adams could not believe what she saw. She wrote to her daughter: "This is a city only because we call it a city. Our house here is very big. But the rooms are not finished. There is almost no furniture. There are not enough lamps for light." VOICE TWO: A street called Pennsylvania Avenue went from the president's house to the Capitol building where Congress would meet. On each side of the street -- where buildings stand today -- there were fields of mud. This was the new federal city, the new capital of the United States. This was where the winner of the presidential election of Eighteen-Hundred would begin his term of office. VOICE ONE: George Washington won America's first two presidential elections without opposition. John Adams won the third presidential election by three votes. This time, in Eighteen-Hundred, there was no clear winner. When the electors' votes were counted, President Adams had sixty-five votes. But Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each had seventy-three votes. So, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would choose between Jefferson or Burr -- the candidates with the highest number of votes. Each congressman could vote. But each state had just one vote. That vote would go to the candidate supported by a majority of congressmen from the state. A candidate had to receive a majority of the state votes to win. In Eighteen-Hundred, that was nine of the sixteen states. VOICE TWO: The Federalists saw the situation as their last chance to control the presidency. They had two plans. They would try to block the Congress from electing either Jefferson or Burr as president. Then they would try to find a way to put executive power in the hands of a Federalist. If that plan failed, they were prepared to elect Burr. The Federalists tried to make people believe that Burr was working with them, against Jefferson. Burr denied this. In a letter to Jefferson, Burr wrote: "Every Republican wants you to be president of the United States. Every good Republican wants to serve under you. I would be happy and honored to be your vice president. And, if you believe I could help you better in some other position, I would do so." VOICE ONE: On February eleventh, the House of Representatives began to count votes, state by state. Eight states chose Jefferson. Six chose Burr. The representatives of two states -- Maryland and Vermont -- gave each man an equal number of votes. There was no majority within those states. So neither man won the votes of those states. The voting continued. All that day and throughout the night the representatives voted. Twenty-seven times the count remained the same: Eight states for Jefferson. Six for Burr. Two undecided. The next morning, the representatives decided to rest for four hours. The voting began again at noon. There was no change. The thirteenth of February passed, then the fourteenth and fifteenth. Still, no change. The House voted thirty-three times. It could not elect a president. VOICE TWO: A change in the vote of just one congressman from Maryland or Vermont could decide the contest. Later, after the election, the representative from Delaware said he had met with two congressmen from Maryland and one from Vermont. All were Federalists. All had voted for Aaron Burr. The Delaware congressman said they claimed they spoke with a friend of Thomas Jefferson. He said they told Jefferson's friend they would change their votes, if Jefferson made certain promises. Jefferson denied that he had made any political promises. He said many men tried to get promises from him. But he said he told them all that he would never become president with his hands tied. VOICE ONE: History experts do not agree on what really happened. What is sure is that the House of Representatives voted for the thirty-sixth time on February seventeenth. Ten states, including Maryland and Vermont, voted for Thomas Jefferson. Four states voted for Aaron Burr. Two states -- Delaware and South Carolina -- did not vote. But Jefferson had the majority he needed. He would be the new president. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Harold Braverman and Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – October 23, 2003: Parent-Teacher Associations
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Six-million people in the United States belong to parent-teacher associations, or PTA's. PTA's work to help schools and students in their communities. Members give their time to serve on committees. They plan school projects and special activities, such as sales and other events to assist schools. Members also serve as activists for children’s issues before government agencies and other organizations. There are national, state and local PTA organizations. PTA groups exist in the fifty American states and the District of Columbia. The PTA also operates in the United States Virgin Islands and in Department of Defense schools in the Pacific and Europe. These are schools for children of American military families. Three women are responsible for establishing the Parent-Teacher Association. Two of them, Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst, established the Congress of Mothers in eighteen-ninety-seven. Both women lived in Washington, D.C. Alice Birney proposed the plan for the group in eighteen-ninety-five. Two years later, she met Phoebe Hearst who provided the money to start the organization. Later, fathers, educators and other interested citizens joined the group. It then changed its name to the National Congress of Parent-Teacher Associations. Selena Sloan Butler is considered the third founder of the PTA. She established and served as the first president of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers. In nineteen-seventy, the congress united with the National PTA. The National PTA provides members with, among other things, information online about educational issues. It publishes a free newsletter called “This Week in Washington” on its Web site, p-t-a dot o-r-g. It tells about developments that affect education. There are critics of the National PTA. In a recent book, education researcher Charlene Haar says the positions of the group mainly serve the interests of teachers unions. PTA spokeswoman Jenni Sopko says the group speaks for parents, students and teachers, and is not influenced by the unions. She also notes that other countries have used the PTA in the United States as an example to develop their own parent-teacher associations. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 23, 2003 - Slangman: A Really Bad Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: October 23, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- it's time for our monthly chat with Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. RS: We were sad to hear that even Slangman, who's always so happy, occasionally has a really bad day. SLANGMAN: "I proved last week that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong -- which is, of course, Murphy's Law, which is a list of truths, things that can happen in one's life, and I proved this one big time. So I wrote a letter, of course, to my mother, explaining it to her which I'd like to share with you now. 'Dear Slangmom: Last week, I was invited to be a guest on a big international TV show' -- and, of course, TV is the way we all say television, because it's faster -- 'at 10 o’clock the next morning to talk about -- what else? -- slang. "I only had a few hours to pull it all together (which means to prepare, to pull it all together) so I had to kick it into high gear (which means to hurry, because when a car is traveling at its highest speed, it has to be in high gear -- you can see that the only way I can write a letter, of course, is in slang!)" AA: "Of course." SLANGMAN: "'Well, I pulled an all-nighter (which means I stayed up all night) creating illustrations that represent some of our American expressions to show to the TV audience. Finally, by 6 a.m., I finished the illustrations. But as soon as I pushed the save button on my computer, the hard drive crashed' -- which is something you never want to have happen, which means the heart of my computer died!" AA: "One thing, when you say illustrations, do you mean scripts?" SLANGMAN: "No, actual illustrations. These are drawings, so when we talk about an expression, for example, a hard drive driving, we show an illustration of a hard drive, which is that part of the computer where it stores all of your files, crashing -- so I like to show it visually, it makes it more fun. 'So, as we say in slang, I was rather freaked, bummed out, ticked off and blown away. All that means very upset. Of course, there were other words I used at the time, but I’ll keep those to myself for now. "With only now four hours before going on international television, I hauled buns to my friend’s house.' And hauled buns simply means I hurried, because when you haul you hurry, and buns is slang for one's rear end." RS: "So you got yourself there very fast." SLANGMAN: "Yes, exactly. 'I hauled buns to my friend's house because he’s a computer geek (and a computer geek is someone who is an expert at computers. In fact, a geek is also used to describe someone whose clothing is not current with today’s fashion, that's also a geek.) "So after eyeballing my hard drive, my friend the computer geek knew immediately that I had lost all my files! There was nothing left! I started sweating bullets because I knew I had to create the illustrations again from scratch (which means, from the beginning, from the very beginning.) So I was able to recreate all the illustrations by 9 o’clock. But as soon as I got into my car, it died!'" RS: "The car." SLANGMAN: "Yes, it died, the car died. Or as we say in slang, it conked out, bit the bullet, kicked the bucket, croaked. 'So I decided to take a bus, but as you know, this week and last week all the buses -- " RS: "Were on strike!" SLANGMAN: "Were on strike." AA: "In Los Angeles." SLANGMAN: "In Los Angeles, and to be on strike means to stop working in protest of something. 'So I high tailed it (which means to hurry), so I hailed it it by foot -- " AA: "You ran." SLANGMAN: "I ran -- there's another way of saying it, a more normal way of saying it. 'I ran all the way there, only to discover that they decided to scrap my segment." RS: "Awww." SLANGMAN: "And to scrap means to cancel. 'So after all the trouble I went through, they blew me off (which means rejected me), they blew me off! I thought I was going to die, or should I say, conk out, bite the bullet, kick the bucket, croak! Well, on that note, I’ll leave you for now. Hug, hug, kiss, kiss. Love your son, the freaked, bummed out, ticked off and blown away, Slangman." AA: And so ends a story inspired by actual events – though, admittedly, embellished. We know it will make Slangman David Burke feel better if we tell you that you'll find all his English teaching materials on his Web site, slangman.com. RS: You can also link from our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on Coast to Coast: October 23, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- it's time for our monthly chat with Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. RS: We were sad to hear that even Slangman, who's always so happy, occasionally has a really bad day. SLANGMAN: "I proved last week that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong -- which is, of course, Murphy's Law, which is a list of truths, things that can happen in one's life, and I proved this one big time. So I wrote a letter, of course, to my mother, explaining it to her which I'd like to share with you now. 'Dear Slangmom: Last week, I was invited to be a guest on a big international TV show' -- and, of course, TV is the way we all say television, because it's faster -- 'at 10 o’clock the next morning to talk about -- what else? -- slang. "I only had a few hours to pull it all together (which means to prepare, to pull it all together) so I had to kick it into high gear (which means to hurry, because when a car is traveling at its highest speed, it has to be in high gear -- you can see that the only way I can write a letter, of course, is in slang!)" AA: "Of course." SLANGMAN: "'Well, I pulled an all-nighter (which means I stayed up all night) creating illustrations that represent some of our American expressions to show to the TV audience. Finally, by 6 a.m., I finished the illustrations. But as soon as I pushed the save button on my computer, the hard drive crashed' -- which is something you never want to have happen, which means the heart of my computer died!" AA: "One thing, when you say illustrations, do you mean scripts?" SLANGMAN: "No, actual illustrations. These are drawings, so when we talk about an expression, for example, a hard drive driving, we show an illustration of a hard drive, which is that part of the computer where it stores all of your files, crashing -- so I like to show it visually, it makes it more fun. 'So, as we say in slang, I was rather freaked, bummed out, ticked off and blown away. All that means very upset. Of course, there were other words I used at the time, but I’ll keep those to myself for now. "With only now four hours before going on international television, I hauled buns to my friend’s house.' And hauled buns simply means I hurried, because when you haul you hurry, and buns is slang for one's rear end." RS: "So you got yourself there very fast." SLANGMAN: "Yes, exactly. 'I hauled buns to my friend's house because he’s a computer geek (and a computer geek is someone who is an expert at computers. In fact, a geek is also used to describe someone whose clothing is not current with today’s fashion, that's also a geek.) "So after eyeballing my hard drive, my friend the computer geek knew immediately that I had lost all my files! There was nothing left! I started sweating bullets because I knew I had to create the illustrations again from scratch (which means, from the beginning, from the very beginning.) So I was able to recreate all the illustrations by 9 o’clock. But as soon as I got into my car, it died!'" RS: "The car." SLANGMAN: "Yes, it died, the car died. Or as we say in slang, it conked out, bit the bullet, kicked the bucket, croaked. 'So I decided to take a bus, but as you know, this week and last week all the buses -- " RS: "Were on strike!" SLANGMAN: "Were on strike." AA: "In Los Angeles." SLANGMAN: "In Los Angeles, and to be on strike means to stop working in protest of something. 'So I high tailed it (which means to hurry), so I hailed it it by foot -- " AA: "You ran." SLANGMAN: "I ran -- there's another way of saying it, a more normal way of saying it. 'I ran all the way there, only to discover that they decided to scrap my segment." RS: "Awww." SLANGMAN: "And to scrap means to cancel. 'So after all the trouble I went through, they blew me off (which means rejected me), they blew me off! I thought I was going to die, or should I say, conk out, bite the bullet, kick the bucket, croak! Well, on that note, I’ll leave you for now. Hug, hug, kiss, kiss. Love your son, the freaked, bummed out, ticked off and blown away, Slangman." AA: And so ends a story inspired by actual events – though, admittedly, embellished. We know it will make Slangman David Burke feel better if we tell you that you'll find all his English teaching materials on his Web site, slangman.com. RS: You can also link from our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 24, 2003: Linkin Park's New Album / Gordon Mitchell, Actor in Old Action Movies, Dies / Standard Time Returns
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Gordon Mitchell in 'Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops.'(Photo - briansdriveintheater.com) (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – music from the group Linkin Park. And a listener wants to know about a movie actor named Gordon Mitchell. But first – we tell why millions of Americans will get an extra hour of sleep this weekend. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week – music from the group Linkin Park. And a listener wants to know about a movie actor named Gordon Mitchell. But first – we tell why millions of Americans will get an extra hour of sleep this weekend. Time Change HOST: This Sunday, most of the United States will make the yearly change from daylight saving time to standard time. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: Standard time is a worldwide system of time keeping based on longitude. Longitude is the distance around the earth measured east or west of the first longitude line in Greenwich, England. In the system of Universal Time, when announcers talk about "zero hour," that is midnight local time in Greenwich. The earth is divided into twenty-four areas, called time zones. Each one is fifteen degrees longitude wide. Under standard time, the time kept in each local area is that of its central longitude line. These lines fall fifteen degrees, thirty degrees and so on east or west of Greenwich. The difference in time between each zone is one hour. Time Change HOST: This Sunday, most of the United States will make the yearly change from daylight saving time to standard time. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: Standard time is a worldwide system of time keeping based on longitude. Longitude is the distance around the earth measured east or west of the first longitude line in Greenwich, England. In the system of Universal Time, when announcers talk about "zero hour," that is midnight local time in Greenwich. The earth is divided into twenty-four areas, called time zones. Each one is fifteen degrees longitude wide. Under standard time, the time kept in each local area is that of its central longitude line. These lines fall fifteen degrees, thirty degrees and so on east or west of Greenwich. The difference in time between each zone is one hour. About seventy countries use daylight saving time in some way. Most Americans move their clocks forward one hour to use daylight saving time during the summer months. The only states that do not are Hawaii, Arizona and most of Indiana. Daylight saving time provides an added hour of daylight in the early evening. This saves energy. It reduces the use of electricity for lighting. Many countries first used daylight saving time during wars. Britain, for example, went on this system during World War One. So did the United States, which used it again during World War Two. After the war, many American states established some kind of daylight saving time. But this became confusing. So, in nineteen-sixty-six, Congress established a system for the nation. The time change began the last Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday of October. Then, in October of nineteen-seventy-three, Arab nations reduced oil exports to the United States during the Arab-Israeli war. Americans faced shortages of fuel. So Congress extended the period of daylight saving time for two years. In nineteen-eighty-six, new legislation changed the start of daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday. But standard time still returns on the last Sunday in October. So this is why most Americans will set their clocks back one hour before they go to sleep this Saturday night. Gordon Mitchell HOST: A listener in Iran named Abderrahim sent us an e-mail about Gordon Mitchell, an American movie actor who died last month at the age of eighty. The listener was very sad. He wanted to know why we did not report about the death in our news. So we decided to tell about the life of Gordon Mitchell. He was born Charles Pendleton in nineteen-twenty-three in Denver, Colorado. His parents ended their marriage when he was young. His mother moved the family to Inglewood, California. Gordon Mitchell became interested in bodybuilding and developed large muscles. He served in the Army during World War Two. After the war, he got a college degree in guidance and counseling. Then he became a high school teacher. In the early nineteen-fifties, Gordon Mitchell was one of a group of good-looking bodybuilders who gathered at Muscle Beach, in Los Angeles. Film star Mae West saw him there. She invited him to join several other handsome men in her musical show. Gordon Mitchell began to appear in movies in the nineteen-fifties. He had small parts in some famous ones. One movie was “The Man With the Golden Arm” which starred Frank Sinatra. Another was “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston. In the early nineteen-sixties, movie producers from Italy began to look for large, handsome men to appear in films about heroes from ancient times. These were called “sword and sandal” movies. Gordon Mitchell moved to Italy to star in “Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops.” He did not speak Italian. So he spoke in English, and later another actor recorded the words in Italian. Gordon Mitchell made most of his movies this way. He lived in Italy for almost thirty years. He returned to the United States in nineteen-eighty-nine. During his forty years as an actor, Gordon Mitchell appeared in more than two-hundred films. He died at his home in Marina del Rey, California. Linkin Park HOST: The group Linkin Park has a new album. These six young men formed their band in Los Angeles in nineteen-ninety-six. Faith Lapidus tells us more. ANNCR: Linkin Park released its first album in two-thousand. "Hybrid Theory" sold almost five-million copies. One member of the group says the album dealt with a young person’s feelings of anger, fear and confusion. One of the most popular songs was “In the End.” (MUSIC) The second album from Linkin Park is “Meteora.” It is also dark. It mixes hard rock, hip-hop and pop. But there are more hopeful messages about the need to need to change for the better. Here is “Breaking The Habit.” (MUSIC) Many fans like the honesty they hear in the music of Linkin Park. We leave you with another song from "Meteora," the new album by this Grammy-winning group. This is “Somewhere I Belong.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailing address. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Chi Un Lee and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Caty Weaver. And our engineer was Vasco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. About seventy countries use daylight saving time in some way. Most Americans move their clocks forward one hour to use daylight saving time during the summer months. The only states that do not are Hawaii, Arizona and most of Indiana. Daylight saving time provides an added hour of daylight in the early evening. This saves energy. It reduces the use of electricity for lighting. Many countries first used daylight saving time during wars. Britain, for example, went on this system during World War One. So did the United States, which used it again during World War Two. After the war, many American states established some kind of daylight saving time. But this became confusing. So, in nineteen-sixty-six, Congress established a system for the nation. The time change began the last Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday of October. Then, in October of nineteen-seventy-three, Arab nations reduced oil exports to the United States during the Arab-Israeli war. Americans faced shortages of fuel. So Congress extended the period of daylight saving time for two years. In nineteen-eighty-six, new legislation changed the start of daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday. But standard time still returns on the last Sunday in October. So this is why most Americans will set their clocks back one hour before they go to sleep this Saturday night. Gordon Mitchell HOST: A listener in Iran named Abderrahim sent us an e-mail about Gordon Mitchell, an American movie actor who died last month at the age of eighty. The listener was very sad. He wanted to know why we did not report about the death in our news. So we decided to tell about the life of Gordon Mitchell. He was born Charles Pendleton in nineteen-twenty-three in Denver, Colorado. His parents ended their marriage when he was young. His mother moved the family to Inglewood, California. Gordon Mitchell became interested in bodybuilding and developed large muscles. He served in the Army during World War Two. After the war, he got a college degree in guidance and counseling. Then he became a high school teacher. In the early nineteen-fifties, Gordon Mitchell was one of a group of good-looking bodybuilders who gathered at Muscle Beach, in Los Angeles. Film star Mae West saw him there. She invited him to join several other handsome men in her musical show. Gordon Mitchell began to appear in movies in the nineteen-fifties. He had small parts in some famous ones. One movie was “The Man With the Golden Arm” which starred Frank Sinatra. Another was “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston. In the early nineteen-sixties, movie producers from Italy began to look for large, handsome men to appear in films about heroes from ancient times. These were called “sword and sandal” movies. Gordon Mitchell moved to Italy to star in “Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops.” He did not speak Italian. So he spoke in English, and later another actor recorded the words in Italian. Gordon Mitchell made most of his movies this way. He lived in Italy for almost thirty years. He returned to the United States in nineteen-eighty-nine. During his forty years as an actor, Gordon Mitchell appeared in more than two-hundred films. He died at his home in Marina del Rey, California. Linkin Park HOST: The group Linkin Park has a new album. These six young men formed their band in Los Angeles in nineteen-ninety-six. Faith Lapidus tells us more. ANNCR: Linkin Park released its first album in two-thousand. "Hybrid Theory" sold almost five-million copies. One member of the group says the album dealt with a young person’s feelings of anger, fear and confusion. One of the most popular songs was “In the End.” (MUSIC) The second album from Linkin Park is “Meteora.” It is also dark. It mixes hard rock, hip-hop and pop. But there are more hopeful messages about the need to need to change for the better. Here is “Breaking The Habit.” (MUSIC) Many fans like the honesty they hear in the music of Linkin Park. We leave you with another song from "Meteora," the new album by this Grammy-winning group. This is “Somewhere I Belong.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailing address. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust, Chi Un Lee and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Caty Weaver. And our engineer was Vasco Volaric. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Mutual Funds
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 24, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. People invest money in the hope their wealth will grow over time. Some have financial advisers make their investments for them. But even people without very much money can invest. Of course, there are no guarantees. So one way investors try to limit their risk is to buy shares in a mutual fund. A mutual fund is a collection of different financial securities. Securities include stocks and bonds. Stock in a company gives the buyer a chance to vote on company issues. Stockholders have a financial share in the company. They may receive a small payment, a dividend, from time to time for each share owned. But the value of stocks can change greatly in a short time. Bonds represent a loan. Companies or governments sell bonds as a way to borrow money. Buyers earn interest as they wait for the bonds to reach full value over a period of years. Mutual funds gather money from many investors and buy many different securities. A mutual fund can spread money over hundreds of investments. In the United States, the mutual fund industry controls seven-million-million dollars of investments. The oldest fund is Massachusetts Investors Trust, begun in nineteen-twenty-four. The biggest fund is the Vanguard Five-hundred Index Fund of the Vanguard Group. This fund is valued at eighty-two-thousand-million dollars. It invests in companies listed on the Standard and Poor's Five-hundred Index. The S-and-P Five-hundred is often used as a measure of the stock market in the United States. There is risk in mutual funds. They may lose value. And, recently, some activity in the mutual fund industry has been under investigation. In September, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer brought charges against a top officer of a mutual fund company. Mister Spitzer said the former vice chairman of Fred Alger Management permitted some big investors to trade in ways that other investors could not. Last week James Connelly pleaded guilty to interfering with an investigation. Federal officials are also investigating illegal trading activities. The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, William Donaldson, has called for new rules for mutual funds. Government lawyers are expected to make proposals next month. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 25, 2003: President Bush's Trip to Asia
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with In the News, from VOA Special English. President Bush has returned to Washington after visits to six Asian countries. He met this week with leaders in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. They discussed ways to strengthen security and trade ties. On Thursday, Mister Bush spoke to the Australian Parliament in Canberra. He defended the United States’ decision to go to war in Iraq. Mister Bush praised Australian Prime Minister John Howard for sending two-thousand troops to Iraq. He also defended the continued holding of two Australians captured during fighting in Afghanistan. They are held at the American prison in Guantanamo, Cuba. Prime Minister Howard said Australia is a nation divided on the war in Iraq. In parliament this week, forty-one opposition lawmakers signed a letter criticizing President Bush's decision to go to war. They said no clear and present danger existed. Mister Bush traveled to Australia after a brief stop on the Indonesian island of Bali. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population. Mister Bush said President Megawati Sukarnoputri has taken effective steps against terrorism. He promised more than one-hundred-fifty million dollars to support education programs as part of the fight against religious extremism. Bombings on the island of Bali a year ago killed more than two-hundred people, ninety of them Australian. The Jemaah Islamiyah group in Indonesia is held responsible. That group is linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network. Mister Bush also met with moderate Indonesian Islamic leaders to answer criticism of American foreign policy in the Middle East. They said it is directed toward Israel. Mister Bush told them it is directed toward peace. He noted he is the first American president to support an independent Palestinian state. During his stop in Singapore, Mister Bush urged that country to use its financial influence to help strengthen other Asian countries. In the Philippines he promised to help the army modernize. In Tokyo, Mister Bush urged Japan to halt efforts to weaken the Japanese yen. And, in Bangkok, the president attended a two-day meeting of APEC, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation group. The United States and the twenty other APEC members agreed on ways to speed the war against terrorism. They also called for the renewal of world trade talks that ended without agreement in Cancun, Mexico. And they agreed to work to restart talks about ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Mister Bush faced protests in several countries. There was anger about the decision to go to war in Iraq. On his way back to Washington, the president met with Pacific island leaders in Hawaii. He also raised money for his re-election campaign. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 26, 2003: Edgar Allan Poe
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Edgar Allan Poe, a nineteenth-century American writer. His stories and poems were some of the most frightening and strange ever written. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Halloween on October thirty-first. It is mostly a holiday for children, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observe Halloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe think Halloween is the best time of year to celebrate them. Poe is most famous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery and terror. He wrote about people buried while still alive. About insanity and death. About dreams that become real...or reality that seems like a dream. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore, Maryland in eighteen-forty-nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes place every Halloween. In the dark of night, visitors go to the grounds of Westminster Presbyterian Church where Poe is buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe! No, it is just an actor, reading Poe's work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Poe created many of these "short stories.” They appeared in different publications. Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing. Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story. Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries about crimes, such as murder. An investigator called a detective solves the mysteries. The detective is able to find important, hidden meanings in facts. The horror and detective stories Poe created remain popular in books and movies. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read. His language is difficult to understand today. And most of his writing describes very unpleasant situations and events. His story "The Pit and the Pendulum," for example, is about the mental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himself from death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him. Another story is "The Masque of the Red Death." In it, a terrible disease -- the Red Death -- has killed half the population of a country. The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. He and his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by having parties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edgar Poe was born in eighteen-oh-nine in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were actors. At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman, John Allan. He then received his new name -- Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he came to dislike him strongly. Edgar attended schools in England and in Richmond, Virginia. As a young man, he attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He was a good student. He was a member of the Jefferson Literary Society. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did not have. John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. He also refused to let Edgar continue at the university. So, Edgar went to Boston and began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines. He also served in the army for two years. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. He published three books of poetry. He also began writing stories. Five of his stories were printed in a publication in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in eighteen-thirty-two. Yet he was not well-paid. His life was difficult. He was poor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind. Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drank alcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect on him. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-thirty-five, Poe began editing the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia. The following year, at the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She was the daughter of his father's sister. She was only thirteen years old. Poe and his wife moved often as he found work at magazines and newspapers in Philadelphia and New York. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. But his wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died in eighteen-forty-seven. After his wife’s death, Poe’s problems with alcohol increased. He died two years later, at the age of forty. He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories, poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yet he did not become famous until eighteen-forty-five. That was when his poem "The Raven" was published. There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems. One critic said Poe's spirit was torn. He said Poe's stories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in his stories showed a different side of the writer. There is a question, however, about Poe's importance. Some critics said he was one of America's best writers. Others disagreed. VOICE ONE: One critic said Poe discovered a new artistic universe -- a universe of dreams. It was a place where the line between reality and unreality is extremely thin. Even those who praised Poe agreed that there are many difficulties in his work. These difficulties place Poe's writing outside the main body of American literature. Most American writing is realistic. Poe's interests and way of writing were not realistic at all. Poe's work has been praised most in France. He had a great influence on many French writers. VOICE TWO: Poe's best-known poem is "The Raven." Some people love it. They say it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced and unnatural -- like bad music. "The Raven" is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died. She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness is gone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window. Here is the beginning of the poem: READER: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping -- rapping at my chamber door. "’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -- Only this and nothing more." VOICE TWO: The man looks out the window and sees only blackness. READER: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" Merely this and nothing more. VOICE TWO: But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird -- a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death and hopelessness. It sits on a small statue above the door. The raven can speak just one word: “nevermore” -- meaning “never again”. READER: But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered -- Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before – On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore." VOICE TWO: The man becomes frightened. He does not know if the raven is just a bird or an evil spirit. We know the raven will never leave the man's room. READER: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting -- still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a Demon that is dreaming, And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted – nevermore! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. Our poetry reader was Richard Rael. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Edgar Allan Poe, a nineteenth-century American writer. His stories and poems were some of the most frightening and strange ever written. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Halloween on October thirty-first. It is mostly a holiday for children, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observe Halloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe think Halloween is the best time of year to celebrate them. Poe is most famous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery and terror. He wrote about people buried while still alive. About insanity and death. About dreams that become real...or reality that seems like a dream. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore, Maryland in eighteen-forty-nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes place every Halloween. In the dark of night, visitors go to the grounds of Westminster Presbyterian Church where Poe is buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe! No, it is just an actor, reading Poe's work. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Poe created many of these "short stories.” They appeared in different publications. Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing. Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story. Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries about crimes, such as murder. An investigator called a detective solves the mysteries. The detective is able to find important, hidden meanings in facts. The horror and detective stories Poe created remain popular in books and movies. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read. His language is difficult to understand today. And most of his writing describes very unpleasant situations and events. His story "The Pit and the Pendulum," for example, is about the mental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himself from death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him. Another story is "The Masque of the Red Death." In it, a terrible disease -- the Red Death -- has killed half the population of a country. The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. He and his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by having parties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Edgar Poe was born in eighteen-oh-nine in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were actors. At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman, John Allan. He then received his new name -- Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he came to dislike him strongly. Edgar attended schools in England and in Richmond, Virginia. As a young man, he attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He was a good student. He was a member of the Jefferson Literary Society. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did not have. John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. He also refused to let Edgar continue at the university. So, Edgar went to Boston and began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines. He also served in the army for two years. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. He published three books of poetry. He also began writing stories. Five of his stories were printed in a publication in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in eighteen-thirty-two. Yet he was not well-paid. His life was difficult. He was poor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind. Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drank alcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect on him. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-thirty-five, Poe began editing the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia. The following year, at the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She was the daughter of his father's sister. She was only thirteen years old. Poe and his wife moved often as he found work at magazines and newspapers in Philadelphia and New York. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. But his wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died in eighteen-forty-seven. After his wife’s death, Poe’s problems with alcohol increased. He died two years later, at the age of forty. He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories, poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yet he did not become famous until eighteen-forty-five. That was when his poem "The Raven" was published. There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems. One critic said Poe's spirit was torn. He said Poe's stories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in his stories showed a different side of the writer. There is a question, however, about Poe's importance. Some critics said he was one of America's best writers. Others disagreed. VOICE ONE: One critic said Poe discovered a new artistic universe -- a universe of dreams. It was a place where the line between reality and unreality is extremely thin. Even those who praised Poe agreed that there are many difficulties in his work. These difficulties place Poe's writing outside the main body of American literature. Most American writing is realistic. Poe's interests and way of writing were not realistic at all. Poe's work has been praised most in France. He had a great influence on many French writers. VOICE TWO: Poe's best-known poem is "The Raven." Some people love it. They say it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced and unnatural -- like bad music. "The Raven" is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died. She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness is gone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window. Here is the beginning of the poem: READER: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping -- rapping at my chamber door. "’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -- Only this and nothing more." VOICE TWO: The man looks out the window and sees only blackness. READER: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" Merely this and nothing more. VOICE TWO: But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird -- a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death and hopelessness. It sits on a small statue above the door. The raven can speak just one word: “nevermore” -- meaning “never again”. READER: But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered -- Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before – On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore." VOICE TWO: The man becomes frightened. He does not know if the raven is just a bird or an evil spirit. We know the raven will never leave the man's room. READER: And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting -- still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a Demon that is dreaming, And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted – nevermore! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Sulaiman Tarawaley. Our poetry reader was Richard Rael. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Controlling Machines with Brain Power / Navy Limits New Sonar Use / African Slaves Reburied
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 28, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week -- getting monkeys, and possibly humans, to control machines with their brain. VOICE ONE: Also, the United States Navy agrees to limits on a new sonar that some call a risk to whales. And, in New York, remains of African slaves are reburied after intensive study. (THEME) VOICE TWO: A device connected to the brain permits monkeys to control a robotic arm with their thoughts. These are the findings of experiments by scientists in the United States. Researchers say this is great news for hundreds of thousands of people who are disabled. Someday, people who cannot move their arms or legs might have the ability to control machines just by thinking. Scientists at Duke University in North Carolina reported their work in P-L-O-S Biology. This is a new research publication offered free of charge over the Internet by the Public Library of Science. You can read the full report at publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. VOICE ONE: The experiments involved two rhesus monkeys with tiny wires placed in several areas of their brains. Each monkey learned to hold a stick to control the movement of a robotic arm. The arm appeared on a computer screen as part of a game. Later, the researchers disconnected the stick. They wondered if the monkeys could still move the robotic arm on the screen just by thinking. The researchers were not the only ones surprised. They say the monkeys were surprised, too. And their ability at brain control improved over time. VOICE TWO: There are different ways such a system could help people who are paralyzed. It might help them communicate by computer through their thoughts. It might help them come to think of robotic arms and other devices as extensions of themselves. It might even help them send messages from the brain directly to the muscles to move their own arms and legs again. The researchers in North Carolina hope to begin experiments on people next year. They have already shown that people produce brain signals like those the monkeys used in the experiment. But longer studies are needed to prove that the devices are safe and good for more than just simple tasks. Then, in the future, a person might control a computer or other machine in only the time it takes to think. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The remains of more than four-hundred Africans who died during the Colonial period in American history have been reburied in New York. The people had been slaves or freed slaves. Workers found the remains in nineteen-ninety-one, as they dug ground for a federal office building in New York City. The bones were part of a burial ground where historians estimate that twenty-thousand slaves from Africa were buried. The people were brought to North America three-hundred years ago. The African Burial Ground was the largest and oldest known burial place for enslaved and freed blacks. Earlier this month, many people gathered in New York City to attend a “ceremony of return.” The reburials took place in an area of the city where one of the largest slave markets in America once stood. People sang prayers, and political leaders spoke to the crowd. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-three, scientists took the bones found in New York to Howard University in Washington. A team led by Doctor Michael Blakey examined the remains. They wanted to learn more about the lives of slaves in the northern United States. They compared the remains with a collection of bones at Howard University. The researchers say up to half of the black population in colonial New York died at birth or in the first years of life. Almost half of the remains were those of children under fifteen years old. Many of the remains showed evidence of poor nutrition and disease. Many had signs of violent wounds to the head. Evidence also suggested that many of the people had been forced to carry heavy loads. The scientists also examined more than one-million cultural objects recovered from the burial ground. These included beads, tools and children’s toys. VOICE ONE: Many people were surprised to learn that New York State permitted slavery early in its history. Most people think of the Southern states where slave labor was widely used until the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. In fact, historians say New York City once had the second most slaves in the United States after Charleston, South Carolina. The Dutch first brought them to colonial New York in the early sixteen-hundreds. The reburial and research project cost twenty-five-million dollars and took thirteen years to complete. The federal government paid for it. Plans for building on the burial place have been canceled. The ground is now considered an important historic area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Navy has agreed to limit its use of a new sonar system that critics say could harm whales and other sea animals. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, led the effort to restrict the use. The sonar system is designed to search for submarines that are especially quiet. It sends loud, low frequency sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed. The sound waves can travel farther than sonar in common use today. The noise can be as loud as a rocket launch. VOICE ONE: This sonar system and others that produce sound waves are called active sonar. Researchers say there is evidence that all active sonar may threaten sea animals. Nature magazine recently published findings by British and Spanish researchers. They examined fourteen whales that died on the beach in the Canary Islands last year. The whales got trapped on land a few hours after the start of international naval exercises led by Spain. One American ship took part. The exercises involved the use of mid-frequency sonar. The scientists found that ten of the whales had bubbles in their blood system. They also discovered evidence that major organs had bled. The researchers say the most likely cause was a form of decompression sickness, also called the bends. This can happen to divers when they rise from deep water too quickly. The pressure change releases bubbles of nitrogen gas into the blood system. These bubbles can block passages. VOICE TWO: Traditional thinking is that whales and other ocean mammals are protected against the bends. The study leader, Paul Jepsen, says more research is needed to learn how the whales got sick. But he says he is sure the mid-frequency sonar was connected. He says the noise may have frightened the whales and led them to surface too quickly. Or, he says, the mid-frequency sonar may have caused the nitrogen bubbles to form in their blood system. Mister Jepsen is a scientist with the London Zoological Society. VOICE ONE: United States Navy officials say there has been no evidence that their new low-frequency sonar harms ocean animals. They say it will improve national security. But Navy officials agreed this month to limit the use to an area off the coast of east Asia. The area includes China, Japan, North and South Korea and the Philippines. But it represents only one percent of the area in which the Navy had first received approval to use the sonar. Under the agreement, the Navy cannot use the sonar within fifty to one-hundred kilometers of coastlines. It also bars use during seasonal times when whales travel through the area. Researchers say the sonar could interfere with whale communication. Many whales produce sounds at the same low frequencies. VOICE TWO: In August, a federal judge in California had restricted the use of the system, and ordered the negotiation of a final settlement. All restrictions would be suspended in time of war or increased threat. The National Resources Defense Council says it is extremely pleased with the agreement. And it says it will start an international effort to seek similar rules about the use of active sonar around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: October 28, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week -- getting monkeys, and possibly humans, to control machines with their brain. VOICE ONE: Also, the United States Navy agrees to limits on a new sonar that some call a risk to whales. And, in New York, remains of African slaves are reburied after intensive study. (THEME) VOICE TWO: A device connected to the brain permits monkeys to control a robotic arm with their thoughts. These are the findings of experiments by scientists in the United States. Researchers say this is great news for hundreds of thousands of people who are disabled. Someday, people who cannot move their arms or legs might have the ability to control machines just by thinking. Scientists at Duke University in North Carolina reported their work in P-L-O-S Biology. This is a new research publication offered free of charge over the Internet by the Public Library of Science. You can read the full report at publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. VOICE ONE: The experiments involved two rhesus monkeys with tiny wires placed in several areas of their brains. Each monkey learned to hold a stick to control the movement of a robotic arm. The arm appeared on a computer screen as part of a game. Later, the researchers disconnected the stick. They wondered if the monkeys could still move the robotic arm on the screen just by thinking. The researchers were not the only ones surprised. They say the monkeys were surprised, too. And their ability at brain control improved over time. VOICE TWO: There are different ways such a system could help people who are paralyzed. It might help them communicate by computer through their thoughts. It might help them come to think of robotic arms and other devices as extensions of themselves. It might even help them send messages from the brain directly to the muscles to move their own arms and legs again. The researchers in North Carolina hope to begin experiments on people next year. They have already shown that people produce brain signals like those the monkeys used in the experiment. But longer studies are needed to prove that the devices are safe and good for more than just simple tasks. Then, in the future, a person might control a computer or other machine in only the time it takes to think. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The remains of more than four-hundred Africans who died during the Colonial period in American history have been reburied in New York. The people had been slaves or freed slaves. Workers found the remains in nineteen-ninety-one, as they dug ground for a federal office building in New York City. The bones were part of a burial ground where historians estimate that twenty-thousand slaves from Africa were buried. The people were brought to North America three-hundred years ago. The African Burial Ground was the largest and oldest known burial place for enslaved and freed blacks. Earlier this month, many people gathered in New York City to attend a “ceremony of return.” The reburials took place in an area of the city where one of the largest slave markets in America once stood. People sang prayers, and political leaders spoke to the crowd. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-three, scientists took the bones found in New York to Howard University in Washington. A team led by Doctor Michael Blakey examined the remains. They wanted to learn more about the lives of slaves in the northern United States. They compared the remains with a collection of bones at Howard University. The researchers say up to half of the black population in colonial New York died at birth or in the first years of life. Almost half of the remains were those of children under fifteen years old. Many of the remains showed evidence of poor nutrition and disease. Many had signs of violent wounds to the head. Evidence also suggested that many of the people had been forced to carry heavy loads. The scientists also examined more than one-million cultural objects recovered from the burial ground. These included beads, tools and children’s toys. VOICE ONE: Many people were surprised to learn that New York State permitted slavery early in its history. Most people think of the Southern states where slave labor was widely used until the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. In fact, historians say New York City once had the second most slaves in the United States after Charleston, South Carolina. The Dutch first brought them to colonial New York in the early sixteen-hundreds. The reburial and research project cost twenty-five-million dollars and took thirteen years to complete. The federal government paid for it. Plans for building on the burial place have been canceled. The ground is now considered an important historic area. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Navy has agreed to limit its use of a new sonar system that critics say could harm whales and other sea animals. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, led the effort to restrict the use. The sonar system is designed to search for submarines that are especially quiet. It sends loud, low frequency sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed. The sound waves can travel farther than sonar in common use today. The noise can be as loud as a rocket launch. VOICE ONE: This sonar system and others that produce sound waves are called active sonar. Researchers say there is evidence that all active sonar may threaten sea animals. Nature magazine recently published findings by British and Spanish researchers. They examined fourteen whales that died on the beach in the Canary Islands last year. The whales got trapped on land a few hours after the start of international naval exercises led by Spain. One American ship took part. The exercises involved the use of mid-frequency sonar. The scientists found that ten of the whales had bubbles in their blood system. They also discovered evidence that major organs had bled. The researchers say the most likely cause was a form of decompression sickness, also called the bends. This can happen to divers when they rise from deep water too quickly. The pressure change releases bubbles of nitrogen gas into the blood system. These bubbles can block passages. VOICE TWO: Traditional thinking is that whales and other ocean mammals are protected against the bends. The study leader, Paul Jepsen, says more research is needed to learn how the whales got sick. But he says he is sure the mid-frequency sonar was connected. He says the noise may have frightened the whales and led them to surface too quickly. Or, he says, the mid-frequency sonar may have caused the nitrogen bubbles to form in their blood system. Mister Jepsen is a scientist with the London Zoological Society. VOICE ONE: United States Navy officials say there has been no evidence that their new low-frequency sonar harms ocean animals. They say it will improve national security. But Navy officials agreed this month to limit the use to an area off the coast of east Asia. The area includes China, Japan, North and South Korea and the Philippines. But it represents only one percent of the area in which the Navy had first received approval to use the sonar. Under the agreement, the Navy cannot use the sonar within fifty to one-hundred kilometers of coastlines. It also bars use during seasonal times when whales travel through the area. Researchers say the sonar could interfere with whale communication. Many whales produce sounds at the same low frequencies. VOICE TWO: In August, a federal judge in California had restricted the use of the system, and ordered the negotiation of a final settlement. All restrictions would be suspended in time of war or increased threat. The National Resources Defense Council says it is extremely pleased with the agreement. And it says it will start an international effort to seek similar rules about the use of active sonar around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Science in the News was written by Nancy Steinbach, Caty Weaver and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Biosolids
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 28, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Farmers have long put animal waste on their fields. They may also use human waste. Modern ways to process waste and make it safer to use have only been developed since the nineteen-seventies. Treated waste products are called biosolids, or sludge. They contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Biosolids are removed from the wastewater systems of cities and other communities. They are treated in several ways to kill organisms that could spread disease. In the United States, the government says sixty-percent of all treated solid waste is used to fertilize land. This includes some farmland. But the government says only one-tenth of one-percent of American farmland uses this kind of fertilizer from year to year. There are two kinds of biosolids. Class A is considered free of any organism that could be a danger to health. These organisms include viruses, bacteria and worms. Class B biosolids are not completely free of such organisms. So their use is restricted. Another concern about biosolids is that they may contain chemical pollution. Many kinds of chemicals can enter wastewater systems. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has rules about the presence of nine chemicals in biosolids. The E-P-A requires testing for levels of substances like arsenic, chromium, mercury and lead. After five years of study, the E-P-A recently decided not to require producers and users of biosolids to add dioxins to this list. Dioxins are a group of organic chemicals that can stay for a long time in the environment. There are concerns about greater risk of cancer and other disorders. Dioxins are released by burning plastics and fuels like coal, oil and wood. They are also released by some kinds of chemical manufacturing. Paper production with the use of chlorine produces dioxins. So does cigarette smoke. Environmental groups and others condemned the decision not to set rules for dioxins in biosolids. They point out that the use of sludge products is a leading cause of dioxin in the environment in the United States. The E-P-A agrees that dioxins are highly poisonous. But the agency has also found that levels in the environment have been greatly reduced in the last thirty years. It says there is not enough risk of new cancer cases in farmers and other people to support new rules. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Best-Selling Books in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 27, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: October 27, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Health and love, crime, secrets from the past -- these are some of the subjects that readers in the United States currently like best. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to This Is America, from VOA Special English. This week, we tell about some of the books that people in the United States are reading right now. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Newspapers and magazines tell us what books people are buying. What the lists of best sellers clearly show is that Americans are worried about their health, especially the risks of being too fat. Several books of advice about how to lose weight are among America’s top selling books. Arthur Agatston and Phillip McGraw are the authors of two of them. In “The South Beach Diet,” Doctor Agatston suggests ways that people can get thinner while still eating foods they like best. Phillip McGraw is a mental health specialist and television personality known as “Doctor Phil.” His book is called “The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution.” [Editor's note: the correct title is "The Ultimate Weight Solution."] It offers seven ways to lose weight. VOICE TWO: Other books on the best-seller lists might help readers forget their own troubles. These books tell of romantic love and mysterious events from the past that return to threaten the heroes of the stories. Among novels, romance writer Danielle Steel has a best seller with “Answered Prayers.” It tells about two people who were friends as children. They meet again years later and fall in love. Danielle Steel has now written fifty-six best sellers. Nora Roberts is another popular romance writer. "Lawless," her novel about love in the American Old West, is a best seller. Many people are also buying another book by Nora Roberts called “Temptation.” VOICE ONE: Mitch Albom has written a best-selling novel about an old man named Eddie. Eddie repairs rides in an amusement park. He is bitter that he has not lived a more meaningful life. Then, on his eighty-third birthday, Eddie dies. He loses his own life as he tries to save the life of a little girl. After the man dies, five people who played a part in his life explain to Eddie his existence on Earth. The book is called, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” VOICE TWO: People who like mysteries have made several books into best sellers. One is "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. This story tells what happens to an American professor when a museum director in Paris asks to meet with him. Clues linked to works of art by Leonardo da Vinci lead to ancient secrets. James Patterson is another popular author. He wrote the best-selling mystery “Four Blind Mice.” As the story begins, investigator Alex Cross prepares to resign from his job as a policeman in Washington, D.C. Just then, Cross learns that an old friend in the military is accused of murder. Cross and the officer he works with, John Sampson, go to work to save the soldier. VOICE ONE: Many lists of best sellers in America also include books for children. One of these is the first book for young people by Madonna. The singer, and mother, has written the storybook ”The English Roses." It is for ages four to eight, and deals with feelings and emotions. Another popular children’s book has a long name. It is called “A Series of Unfortunate Events Number Ten: The Slippery Slope.” The writer, Lemony Snicket, follows three children as they travel through mysterious and frightening mountains. VOICE TWO: Some books continue to sell many copies years after they were first published. The books in the “Chicken Soup” series are a good example. They are among the best selling books in the history of publishing. The series began in nineteen-ninety-three with “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” This book of stories was written by Jack Canfield and Mark David Hansen. The “Chicken Soup” books get their name from the traditional idea that chicken soup makes people feel better. Some of the stories make readers cry, but others make them smile or laugh. VOICE ONE: People loved the first “Chicken Soup” book. Another followed, called “A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul.” Since then there have been many other books. They have names like “Chicken Soup for the Golfer’s Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover’s Soul.” Other writers have joined Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen to write stories for the series. And many other people send material to suggest for the books. Thirty publishers had rejected the first “Chicken Soup” book before it was finally printed. Today, about eighty million of these books have been printed in North America. And “Chicken Soup” books have been translated from English into thirty-five other languages. VOICE TWO: Mystery and horror stories by Steven King have also sold millions of copies. Some of his most famous – and most frightening -- books are “Carrie,“ “The Shining,” and “The Green Mile.” These and many others have been made into films. On November nineteenth, the National Book Foundation will honor Stephen King. He will receive the award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Stephen King lives in Bangor, Maine. Visitors often drive by his home. Carvings of witches and black cats sit on the iron barrier fence around his huge red house. In nineteen-ninety-nine, a truck hit Stephen King as he walked along a road. He recovered, but the injuries almost killed him. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In recent years, Oprah Winfrey and her television talk show have greatly influenced reading in America. Mizz Winfrey started a nationwide book club in the late nineteen-nineties. She suspended it for awhile. But now she is again helping Americans find what she believes is the best literature. Oprah Winfrey chooses a book she likes. She announces her choice on her show from Chicago. Then she asks people to read the book. During the first years of her club, Mizz Winfrey often picked books that had not gained huge public interest. That would immediately change, once the books became choices of Oprah’s Book Club. VOICE TWO: Now Oprah Winfrey is choosing books from the past. For example, she suggests that club members read “East of Eden,” by the American author John Steinbeck. This huge novel explores family relations over a long period of time. The story uses themes similar in some ways to the biblical story of the brothers Cain and Abel. Another choice is “Cry the Beloved Country” by South African writer Alan Paton. This nineteen-forty-eight classic tells what happens when a black clergyman goes to Johannesburg to find his son. Alan Paton was a white man. He was born in South Africa in nineteen-oh-three. He worked as director of a corrections center for boys, where he made many reforms. He opposed colonialism and apartheid, the former system of racial separation in South Africa. VOICE ONE: A number of other television programs besides "Oprah" also have book clubs that reach millions of people. But there are thousands of small book clubs across the country. Members of these discussion groups may gather in homes, libraries, offices or religious centers. Some meet in eating and drinking places. Members of book clubs may read classics like “The Odyssey of Homer.” They may read poetry. Or mystery stories. Or love stories. Or, they may read books about politics and current events. There are also books that offer directions for book clubs. Book clubs are not the only big development in recent years. The publishing industry itself has changed. Many small, independent book sellers are struggling to survive. There are now huge book stores owned by a few national companies. Buyers can also order books through the Internet. One thing that has not changed, though, is that people can still borrow books from their local public library. VOICE TWO: Book clubs are more than just reading groups. They are social groups, too. Many book club members become friends. They discuss their families and jobs as well as the books they read. The meetings let people learn what other readers are thinking. As one book club member says, “It is very satisfying to talk about what you read with good friends.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again for more about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Health and love, crime, secrets from the past -- these are some of the subjects that readers in the United States currently like best. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to This Is America, from VOA Special English. This week, we tell about some of the books that people in the United States are reading right now. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Newspapers and magazines tell us what books people are buying. What the lists of best sellers clearly show is that Americans are worried about their health, especially the risks of being too fat. Several books of advice about how to lose weight are among America’s top selling books. Arthur Agatston and Phillip McGraw are the authors of two of them. In “The South Beach Diet,” Doctor Agatston suggests ways that people can get thinner while still eating foods they like best. Phillip McGraw is a mental health specialist and television personality known as “Doctor Phil.” His book is called “The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution.” [Editor's note: the correct title is "The Ultimate Weight Solution."] It offers seven ways to lose weight. VOICE TWO: Other books on the best-seller lists might help readers forget their own troubles. These books tell of romantic love and mysterious events from the past that return to threaten the heroes of the stories. Among novels, romance writer Danielle Steel has a best seller with “Answered Prayers.” It tells about two people who were friends as children. They meet again years later and fall in love. Danielle Steel has now written fifty-six best sellers. Nora Roberts is another popular romance writer. "Lawless," her novel about love in the American Old West, is a best seller. Many people are also buying another book by Nora Roberts called “Temptation.” VOICE ONE: Mitch Albom has written a best-selling novel about an old man named Eddie. Eddie repairs rides in an amusement park. He is bitter that he has not lived a more meaningful life. Then, on his eighty-third birthday, Eddie dies. He loses his own life as he tries to save the life of a little girl. After the man dies, five people who played a part in his life explain to Eddie his existence on Earth. The book is called, “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” VOICE TWO: People who like mysteries have made several books into best sellers. One is "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. This story tells what happens to an American professor when a museum director in Paris asks to meet with him. Clues linked to works of art by Leonardo da Vinci lead to ancient secrets. James Patterson is another popular author. He wrote the best-selling mystery “Four Blind Mice.” As the story begins, investigator Alex Cross prepares to resign from his job as a policeman in Washington, D.C. Just then, Cross learns that an old friend in the military is accused of murder. Cross and the officer he works with, John Sampson, go to work to save the soldier. VOICE ONE: Many lists of best sellers in America also include books for children. One of these is the first book for young people by Madonna. The singer, and mother, has written the storybook ”The English Roses." It is for ages four to eight, and deals with feelings and emotions. Another popular children’s book has a long name. It is called “A Series of Unfortunate Events Number Ten: The Slippery Slope.” The writer, Lemony Snicket, follows three children as they travel through mysterious and frightening mountains. VOICE TWO: Some books continue to sell many copies years after they were first published. The books in the “Chicken Soup” series are a good example. They are among the best selling books in the history of publishing. The series began in nineteen-ninety-three with “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” This book of stories was written by Jack Canfield and Mark David Hansen. The “Chicken Soup” books get their name from the traditional idea that chicken soup makes people feel better. Some of the stories make readers cry, but others make them smile or laugh. VOICE ONE: People loved the first “Chicken Soup” book. Another followed, called “A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul.” Since then there have been many other books. They have names like “Chicken Soup for the Golfer’s Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover’s Soul.” Other writers have joined Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen to write stories for the series. And many other people send material to suggest for the books. Thirty publishers had rejected the first “Chicken Soup” book before it was finally printed. Today, about eighty million of these books have been printed in North America. And “Chicken Soup” books have been translated from English into thirty-five other languages. VOICE TWO: Mystery and horror stories by Steven King have also sold millions of copies. Some of his most famous – and most frightening -- books are “Carrie,“ “The Shining,” and “The Green Mile.” These and many others have been made into films. On November nineteenth, the National Book Foundation will honor Stephen King. He will receive the award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Stephen King lives in Bangor, Maine. Visitors often drive by his home. Carvings of witches and black cats sit on the iron barrier fence around his huge red house. In nineteen-ninety-nine, a truck hit Stephen King as he walked along a road. He recovered, but the injuries almost killed him. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In recent years, Oprah Winfrey and her television talk show have greatly influenced reading in America. Mizz Winfrey started a nationwide book club in the late nineteen-nineties. She suspended it for awhile. But now she is again helping Americans find what she believes is the best literature. Oprah Winfrey chooses a book she likes. She announces her choice on her show from Chicago. Then she asks people to read the book. During the first years of her club, Mizz Winfrey often picked books that had not gained huge public interest. That would immediately change, once the books became choices of Oprah’s Book Club. VOICE TWO: Now Oprah Winfrey is choosing books from the past. For example, she suggests that club members read “East of Eden,” by the American author John Steinbeck. This huge novel explores family relations over a long period of time. The story uses themes similar in some ways to the biblical story of the brothers Cain and Abel. Another choice is “Cry the Beloved Country” by South African writer Alan Paton. This nineteen-forty-eight classic tells what happens when a black clergyman goes to Johannesburg to find his son. Alan Paton was a white man. He was born in South Africa in nineteen-oh-three. He worked as director of a corrections center for boys, where he made many reforms. He opposed colonialism and apartheid, the former system of racial separation in South Africa. VOICE ONE: A number of other television programs besides "Oprah" also have book clubs that reach millions of people. But there are thousands of small book clubs across the country. Members of these discussion groups may gather in homes, libraries, offices or religious centers. Some meet in eating and drinking places. Members of book clubs may read classics like “The Odyssey of Homer.” They may read poetry. Or mystery stories. Or love stories. Or, they may read books about politics and current events. There are also books that offer directions for book clubs. Book clubs are not the only big development in recent years. The publishing industry itself has changed. Many small, independent book sellers are struggling to survive. There are now huge book stores owned by a few national companies. Buyers can also order books through the Internet. One thing that has not changed, though, is that people can still borrow books from their local public library. VOICE TWO: Book clubs are more than just reading groups. They are social groups, too. Many book club members become friends. They discuss their families and jobs as well as the books they read. The meetings let people learn what other readers are thinking. As one book club member says, “It is very satisfying to talk about what you read with good friends.” (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again for more about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 27, 2003: Maternal Death Rates
* Byline: 

 This is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Development Report. A study finds that one out of sixteen women in Africa will die during pregnancy or childbirth. The rate for industrial countries is one out of almost three-thousand women. Better health care would save many lives. The findings are in a report released this month by three United Nations agencies. The World Health Organization joined with the U-N Children’s Fund and the U-N Population Fund. Researchers estimate that more than half a million women died during pregnancy or childbirth in two-thousand. They say ninety-five percent of these deaths were in Africa and Asia. India had the highest number of maternal deaths, one-hundred-thirty-six-thousand. Pakistan and Afghanistan each had over twenty-thousand. But the death rate was highest in Africa. Nearly forty-thousand women died in Nigeria. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia each had almost twenty-five-thousand deaths. Carol Bellamy heads the U-N Children’s Fund. She says the numbers show an urgent need to improve reproductive health care for women. In addition, Mizz Bellamy says family planning programs would help make sure pregnancies are wanted and spread out over time. Experts say many deaths could be avoided if more women gave birth with the help of skilled health workers. Currently, only about fifty-eight percent of women in developing nations have a trained health worker present during birth. The new report says Latin America had four percent of the maternal deaths in two-thousand. Researchers say the rate is low because skilled health workers assist most women. The findings show that Southeast Asia and Northern Africa had the greatest improvement in recent years in the use of skilled help. But in sub-Saharan Africa, less than half of women get such care during childbirth. Carol Bellamy says pregnant women also must be able to receive emergency medical care if problems develop. Often, even if life-saving care exists, women may lack money, or a way to reach a medical center, or approval from their husbands. World leaders have agreed to try to reduce maternal death rates by seventy-five percent over the next twelve years. This promise is part of the U-N Millennium Development Goals. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Castillo de San Marcos
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 29, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Our story today tells of ships, explorers, pirate attacks and wars. It is the story of an old military base, the Castillo de San Marcos. It was built in the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States -- Saint Augustine, in the southern state of Florida. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To reach the Castillo de San Marcos you must drive through part of the city of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine is in northeastern Florida near the Atlantic Ocean. You drive on a small, narrow road with vehicles slowly going both ways. On one side of the road is water. On the other side is the city. You pass businesses, eating places, stores and hotels. And then you see it, just as the road turns to the left. It looks like a hill of rock rising out of the ground. It seems fierce. And it looks very foreign. There can be no mistake about what it is. It is a very old military base -- the kind that is called a fort. It looks like it should be in some European country, not on the coast of Florida. VOICE TWO: Near the entrance is an area to leave your car. A large sign says “National Park Service, Castillo de San Marcos.” In English the name means the “Castle of Saint Mark.” A National Park Service worker sells us a ticket to enter the old fort. It only costs a few dollars. Slowly we make our way across a wide, water-filled area called a moat. VOICE ONE: Passing through the huge walls of the fort is a little like walking back in time. Sounds from the street and the city of Saint Augustine do not reach inside. The fort is very much like it was when its builders completed most of it in Sixteen-Ninety-Five. There are ancient guns here. Most of the huge cannon are made of bronze. They are a green color because of their great age. Some have deep marks showing the gun was made by the royal weapons factory in Spain. Others are British. If you could look down at the fort from above, you would see it is shaped like a star with four large points. The fort has more than twenty rooms. Some rooms were used to store weapons, medical supplies and food. One of the rooms was used to hold religious services. Soldiers lived in others. VOICE TWO: The Spanish built nine forts in this area before they built San Marcos. They needed some kind of strong protection after they arrived in Fifteen-Sixty-Five. That was when explorers first claimed the area for Spain. Soldiers were left there to provide protection for Spanish treasure ships sailing from the Americas back to Spain. They were also there to protect Spain’s claim to Florida. The first forts were made of wood. They were not very strong. One of the early ones was burned in Fifteen-Eighty-Six by the famous British sea captain, Francis Drake. The Florida heat and insects quickly destroyed other wood forts. Spanish military officials in Florida knew they needed more protection. They asked Spain for the money to build a stronger fort. Each time they asked, however, they were refused. The need for a stronger fort became clear on the night of May Twenty-Eighth, Sixteen-Sixty-Eight. VOICE ONE: Earlier that day, a ship sailed near Saint Augustine. The townspeople thought it was Spanish. It was not. That night, pirates attacked the town and the wooden fort. The Spanish soldiers were able to keep the pirates from capturing the wooden fort, but they could not protect the town. Many people in Saint Augustine were killed or captured. The pirates left when they could find nothing else to steal. They destroyed much of the town. VOICE TWO: Spanish officials immediately began sending money to build a stronger fort. They also sent workers to Saint Augustine to replace the wooden fort with something that offered more protection. Workers found a nearby area where they could begin cutting thick stone to build the fort. It took almost four years to gather enough money and to prepare the land for the fort. But on October Second, Sixteen-Seventy-Two, Governor Don Manuel de Cendoya held a special ceremony to observe the beginning of the work. VOICE ONE: The Castillo de San Marcos grew very slowly. It took twenty-three years to complete. There never seemed to be enough money to pay the workers. There never seemed to be enough workers. Disease often struck the builders. The fierce heat of Florida’s summer months slowed the work each year. The work was extremely difficult, but the new fort was finished just in time. War was soon declared. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The year Seventeen-Oh-Two was the first real test of the Castillo’s strength. The War of Spanish Succession had begun in Europe. Britain, Austria and their allies were fighting Spain and France to prevent a French prince from becoming the King of Spain. The governor of the British colony of Carolina was James Moore. He hoped to capture the fort to prevent a possible attack by Spanish or French forces on his British colony further up the coast. Governor Moore commanded five-hundred British troops and three-hundred Indians in his invading army. The Spanish army only had two-hundred-thirty soldiers and one-hundred-eighty Indian allies at Castillo de San Marcos. Moore’s army arrived with eight small ships, and blocked the harbor of Saint Augustine. The people of the town fled into the Castillo. Governor Moore could make no progress in his attack. The huge new fort was too strong. Then, several Spanish war ships arrived to help the Spanish soldiers. Moore burned his small ships and retreated to the north. He burned the town of Saint Augustine before he left. But the Spanish soldiers and the people of the town had survived in the fort. The battle had lasted for fifty days. VOICE ONE: The Spanish again strengthened the fort after the British attack. This time they made a wall of earth around Saint Augustine to protect the town. They also improved the fort’s defenses. Saint Augustine became a walled city. In Seventeen-Forty, the British again attacked Castillo San Marcos. For twenty-seven days they fired huge shells at the fort. The shelling had little effect. The British withdrew. VOICE TWO: In Seventeen Sixty-Three, Spain gave up its claim to Florida. The British took control. Castillo de San Marcos soon became Fort Saint Mark. The British occupied the fort during the American Revolution. When the war ended, Florida was once again returned to Spain. Spain held Florida until Eighteen-Twenty-One. Then, tensions between Spain and the United States caused Spain to give up its claim to Florida. The name of the old fort was changed again. It was now called Fort Marion. During the next one-hundred years the fort was used as a prison to hold American Indians from the western States. It was also used as a military prison. In Nineteen-Twenty-Four, Fort Marion was declared a national historical monument. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, the United States War Department gave the old fort to the National Park Service. The National Park service changed its name back to Castillo de San Marcos. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, the Castillo de San Marcos still seems to protect the city of Saint Augustine. However, no enemy has attacked since the year Seventeen-Forty. Each day hundreds of people do what no enemy was ever able to do. They enter the fort. The National Park Service representatives lead small groups of visitors through the fort. They explain how it was built. And they tell stories of the people who built it. They also tell of pirates and English invaders. They explain why it was so very difficult for even a strong enemy to capture the fort. Children play near the huge old guns that are no longer dangerous. They play that they are fighting against fierce invaders. Most visitors have cameras and take pictures. Everyone enjoys looking at the beautiful surroundings from the top of the old fort’s walls. Many visitors stand inside the small guard rooms at each point of the star. Inside the guard room, you can look out the little windows at the ocean, much the same way Spanish soldiers watched for enemies. Then, for a few moments, Castillo de San Marcos may seem again to be protecting the city of Saint Augustine, and the treasure ships returning to Spain. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: October 29, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Our story today tells of ships, explorers, pirate attacks and wars. It is the story of an old military base, the Castillo de San Marcos. It was built in the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States -- Saint Augustine, in the southern state of Florida. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: To reach the Castillo de San Marcos you must drive through part of the city of Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine is in northeastern Florida near the Atlantic Ocean. You drive on a small, narrow road with vehicles slowly going both ways. On one side of the road is water. On the other side is the city. You pass businesses, eating places, stores and hotels. And then you see it, just as the road turns to the left. It looks like a hill of rock rising out of the ground. It seems fierce. And it looks very foreign. There can be no mistake about what it is. It is a very old military base -- the kind that is called a fort. It looks like it should be in some European country, not on the coast of Florida. VOICE TWO: Near the entrance is an area to leave your car. A large sign says “National Park Service, Castillo de San Marcos.” In English the name means the “Castle of Saint Mark.” A National Park Service worker sells us a ticket to enter the old fort. It only costs a few dollars. Slowly we make our way across a wide, water-filled area called a moat. VOICE ONE: Passing through the huge walls of the fort is a little like walking back in time. Sounds from the street and the city of Saint Augustine do not reach inside. The fort is very much like it was when its builders completed most of it in Sixteen-Ninety-Five. There are ancient guns here. Most of the huge cannon are made of bronze. They are a green color because of their great age. Some have deep marks showing the gun was made by the royal weapons factory in Spain. Others are British. If you could look down at the fort from above, you would see it is shaped like a star with four large points. The fort has more than twenty rooms. Some rooms were used to store weapons, medical supplies and food. One of the rooms was used to hold religious services. Soldiers lived in others. VOICE TWO: The Spanish built nine forts in this area before they built San Marcos. They needed some kind of strong protection after they arrived in Fifteen-Sixty-Five. That was when explorers first claimed the area for Spain. Soldiers were left there to provide protection for Spanish treasure ships sailing from the Americas back to Spain. They were also there to protect Spain’s claim to Florida. The first forts were made of wood. They were not very strong. One of the early ones was burned in Fifteen-Eighty-Six by the famous British sea captain, Francis Drake. The Florida heat and insects quickly destroyed other wood forts. Spanish military officials in Florida knew they needed more protection. They asked Spain for the money to build a stronger fort. Each time they asked, however, they were refused. The need for a stronger fort became clear on the night of May Twenty-Eighth, Sixteen-Sixty-Eight. VOICE ONE: Earlier that day, a ship sailed near Saint Augustine. The townspeople thought it was Spanish. It was not. That night, pirates attacked the town and the wooden fort. The Spanish soldiers were able to keep the pirates from capturing the wooden fort, but they could not protect the town. Many people in Saint Augustine were killed or captured. The pirates left when they could find nothing else to steal. They destroyed much of the town. VOICE TWO: Spanish officials immediately began sending money to build a stronger fort. They also sent workers to Saint Augustine to replace the wooden fort with something that offered more protection. Workers found a nearby area where they could begin cutting thick stone to build the fort. It took almost four years to gather enough money and to prepare the land for the fort. But on October Second, Sixteen-Seventy-Two, Governor Don Manuel de Cendoya held a special ceremony to observe the beginning of the work. VOICE ONE: The Castillo de San Marcos grew very slowly. It took twenty-three years to complete. There never seemed to be enough money to pay the workers. There never seemed to be enough workers. Disease often struck the builders. The fierce heat of Florida’s summer months slowed the work each year. The work was extremely difficult, but the new fort was finished just in time. War was soon declared. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The year Seventeen-Oh-Two was the first real test of the Castillo’s strength. The War of Spanish Succession had begun in Europe. Britain, Austria and their allies were fighting Spain and France to prevent a French prince from becoming the King of Spain. The governor of the British colony of Carolina was James Moore. He hoped to capture the fort to prevent a possible attack by Spanish or French forces on his British colony further up the coast. Governor Moore commanded five-hundred British troops and three-hundred Indians in his invading army. The Spanish army only had two-hundred-thirty soldiers and one-hundred-eighty Indian allies at Castillo de San Marcos. Moore’s army arrived with eight small ships, and blocked the harbor of Saint Augustine. The people of the town fled into the Castillo. Governor Moore could make no progress in his attack. The huge new fort was too strong. Then, several Spanish war ships arrived to help the Spanish soldiers. Moore burned his small ships and retreated to the north. He burned the town of Saint Augustine before he left. But the Spanish soldiers and the people of the town had survived in the fort. The battle had lasted for fifty days. VOICE ONE: The Spanish again strengthened the fort after the British attack. This time they made a wall of earth around Saint Augustine to protect the town. They also improved the fort’s defenses. Saint Augustine became a walled city. In Seventeen-Forty, the British again attacked Castillo San Marcos. For twenty-seven days they fired huge shells at the fort. The shelling had little effect. The British withdrew. VOICE TWO: In Seventeen Sixty-Three, Spain gave up its claim to Florida. The British took control. Castillo de San Marcos soon became Fort Saint Mark. The British occupied the fort during the American Revolution. When the war ended, Florida was once again returned to Spain. Spain held Florida until Eighteen-Twenty-One. Then, tensions between Spain and the United States caused Spain to give up its claim to Florida. The name of the old fort was changed again. It was now called Fort Marion. During the next one-hundred years the fort was used as a prison to hold American Indians from the western States. It was also used as a military prison. In Nineteen-Twenty-Four, Fort Marion was declared a national historical monument. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, the United States War Department gave the old fort to the National Park Service. The National Park service changed its name back to Castillo de San Marcos. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today, the Castillo de San Marcos still seems to protect the city of Saint Augustine. However, no enemy has attacked since the year Seventeen-Forty. Each day hundreds of people do what no enemy was ever able to do. They enter the fort. The National Park Service representatives lead small groups of visitors through the fort. They explain how it was built. And they tell stories of the people who built it. They also tell of pirates and English invaders. They explain why it was so very difficult for even a strong enemy to capture the fort. Children play near the huge old guns that are no longer dangerous. They play that they are fighting against fierce invaders. Most visitors have cameras and take pictures. Everyone enjoys looking at the beautiful surroundings from the top of the old fort’s walls. Many visitors stand inside the small guard rooms at each point of the star. Inside the guard room, you can look out the little windows at the ocean, much the same way Spanish soldiers watched for enemies. Then, for a few moments, Castillo de San Marcos may seem again to be protecting the city of Saint Augustine, and the treasure ships returning to Spain. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Conjoined Twins
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: October 29, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Health Report. Some estimates say that one in as many as eighty-thousand of all births results in two babies joined together. Conjoined twins happen about once out of every two-hundred births of identical twins. Some twins develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized at the same time. These babies are called fraternal twins. One can be a girl and the other a boy. Other twins develop from a single egg. These are called identical twins. Identical twins result when a fertilized egg divides into two. Sometimes the division begins but is not completed. This produces twins who are physically linked. Medical experts say genetic and environmental influences are involved in the development of conjoined twins. Recent separations have taken place in Britain, Singapore, Italy, Australia and the United States. These included an operation where doctors at the Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, separated two Egyptian boys joined at the head. Conjoined twins may be linked only by a thin piece of tissue. Or they may be attached at the chest or other part of the body. Sometimes they share a heart or other internal organ. In the past, conjoined twins were called Siamese twins. This was because the first well-known twins were born in Siam, the country now called Thailand. Chang and Eng were born in eighteen-eleven. A twelve-centimeter-long ligament near their breastbones connected them. Chang and Eng grew up, married and had a total of twenty-one children. The two men died in eighteen-seventy-four. Historically, the survival rate for conjoined babies has been between five and twenty-five percent. But medical progress has increased those chances. Today, most conjoined twins are found during examinations before they are born. Some are easier to separate than others. The book "Entwined Lives" by Nancy Segal says doctors have performed about two-hundred operations to separate conjoined twins. Ninety percent have taken place since nineteen-fifty. The book says most of the operations resulted in the survival of at least one of the babies. One Web site where you can learn more about conjoined twins is twinstuff-dot-com. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Broadcast: October 29, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmerman with the VOA Special English Health Report. Some estimates say that one in as many as eighty-thousand of all births results in two babies joined together. Conjoined twins happen about once out of every two-hundred births of identical twins. Some twins develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized at the same time. These babies are called fraternal twins. One can be a girl and the other a boy. Other twins develop from a single egg. These are called identical twins. Identical twins result when a fertilized egg divides into two. Sometimes the division begins but is not completed. This produces twins who are physically linked. Medical experts say genetic and environmental influences are involved in the development of conjoined twins. Recent separations have taken place in Britain, Singapore, Italy, Australia and the United States. These included an operation where doctors at the Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, separated two Egyptian boys joined at the head. Conjoined twins may be linked only by a thin piece of tissue. Or they may be attached at the chest or other part of the body. Sometimes they share a heart or other internal organ. In the past, conjoined twins were called Siamese twins. This was because the first well-known twins were born in Siam, the country now called Thailand. Chang and Eng were born in eighteen-eleven. A twelve-centimeter-long ligament near their breastbones connected them. Chang and Eng grew up, married and had a total of twenty-one children. The two men died in eighteen-seventy-four. Historically, the survival rate for conjoined babies has been between five and twenty-five percent. But medical progress has increased those chances. Today, most conjoined twins are found during examinations before they are born. Some are easier to separate than others. The book "Entwined Lives" by Nancy Segal says doctors have performed about two-hundred operations to separate conjoined twins. Ninety percent have taken place since nineteen-fifty. The book says most of the operations resulted in the survival of at least one of the babies. One Web site where you can learn more about conjoined twins is twinstuff-dot-com. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 31, 2003: Holidays in America / Ghosts / Halloween Music
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week we get into the spirit of Halloween, complete with scary music and tales of ghosts. But first -- some explanation. Holidays in U.S. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Kathmandu, Nepal. Sunil Dhungana asks about the major holidays in the United States. There are national holidays, like Labor Day, Veterans Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King's Birthday. Federal offices close. State and local governments and schools often close too, as do many private workplaces. Many Americans also observe major holidays of their religions. The Constitution calls for separation of religion and government. But government offices and public schools, and most businesses, traditionally close for Christmas. Now, there are other holidays that some people would surely consider major. But no one gets the day off from work or school. These are observances like Valentine's Day and Halloween. In fact, today IS Halloween, a celebration that goes back more than two-thousand years. October thirty-first was the Day of the Autumn Feast for the Celts of ancient Britain. Celtic priests prayed that the spirits of the dead would return to their homes for a few hours. The Celts built huge fires to frighten away evil spirits released with the dead that night. Hundreds of years later, the Roman Catholic Church made November first a day to honor Christian saints. It was called All Saints Day or All Hallows Day. The day before was known as Hallow Eve or Halloween. The name came from the church. But the traditions were closer to the old Celtic beliefs. People from Scotland and Ireland brought these traditions to America. Many believed that spirits played tricks on people the last night of October. In the late nineteenth century, American children helped the spirits with tricks of their own. On Halloween, they would do things like change street signs or put a wagon on top of a house. Many Americans continue to celebrate Halloween. Children and adults go to parties dressed as ghosts, monsters or famous people. Many children also go house to house yelling "trick or treat" and asking for candy. If the trick-or-treaters do not get what they want, they may play a trick. But usually they get the candy. Ghosts HOST: Halloween is one night when ghosts are very popular. For one thing, being a ghost is one of the easiest costumes for a trick-or-treater to make. All you need is to pull on a big piece of white cloth with two holes for the eyes. But where can you go to meet ghosts on other nights? Shep O’Neal has some ideas. ANNCR: One thing is known for sure. Many people enjoy visiting places thought to be occupied by the spirits of dead people. Old stories say ghosts do things like move furniture and turn lights on and off. When these kind of things happen in a house, it is said to be haunted. One of the best-known haunted houses is the Whaley House, in San Diego, California. People say numerous ghosts live in the Whaley house, including those of past family members. Workers in the museum and some visitors say they have observed ghostly activities. Another place is a big home in New Orleans, Louisiana. Madame Delphine Lalaurie lived there in the eighteen-thirties. She had slaves, and old stories say she treated them violently. Now the house is a favorite of visitors. And they report numerous frightening noises and images inside and outside of the house. To experience a haunted house for more than a day, you can stay in a haunted hotel. The Groveland Hotel in Groveland, California, has a ghost they call Lyle. It seems he likes to play with the lights, move things in the office, and turn on the water in the bathrooms. In Union, South Carolina, guests find out that ten ghosts live at the Inn at Merridun. The Inn has a history of unusual happenings and ghostly appearances. And the owner’s cat reportedly often talks to "someone” -- we're not sure who. Many other places in the United States have haunted hotels, too. If you ever decide to stay in one, just make sure the ghosts are friendly! Halloween Music HOST: All the monsters who come to the front door are frightening enough. But Halloween also brings out scary music in homes and parties. Faith Lapidus has more. ANNCR: An album called "Andrew Gold’s Halloween Howls" is filled with songs for children. The opening song is called “It Must Be Halloween.” (MUSIC) Another album, “New Wave Halloween” brings back songs by bands of the nineteen-eighties. Here is Oingo Boingo with “Dead Man’s Party.” (MUSIC) Forget the rock and roll and children’s music. Some of the scariest sounds perfect for Halloween come from the world of classical music. Picture now a deathly individual, playing a violin in a burial ground at night. Skeletons move about to the music. Here is the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra performing Camille Saint-Saens' “Danse Macabre.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Chi Un Lee, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Skip Sisk. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: October 30, 2003 - Origin of 'Murphy's Law'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 30, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the story of one of life's little truths. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: October 30, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the story of one of life's little truths. RS: It's a law we all live under, and it goes this way: "If anything can go wrong, it will." It's known as Murphy's Law. AA: Murphy was Edward Murphy. He was a no-nonsense military officer, a captain. But he was also an engineer, based at an aircraft laboratory in Ohio. This was in the early days of the space program and high-performance flight. RS: We learned all this from Bill Sloat, a reporter at the Plain Dealer newspaper in Ohio. We saw a story he recently did on the history of Murphy's Law. RS: So we called Bill up and had just started asking him questions, when, wouldn't you know it ... SLOAT: "Can I start over for a minute? I've got to sneeze." AA: "Go ahead, sneeze." SLOAT: "I don't know why I had to sneeze." RS: "Feel free." AA: "If anything can go wrong, it will. [laughter]" SLOAT: "Yeah, that's Murphy's Law." RS: "And we'll pick up the story in the late 1940s." SLOAT: "OK. So he's working at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in a laboratory. And so he was working on those machines that would spin people round and round and round, to test G-forces. Meanwhile, out at Edwards Air Force Base in California, there were engineers and they were building these rockets sleds and they would strap guys and dummies into them and then fire them down like a railroad track. I think sometimes they went faster than the speed of sound." RS: "And what was the purpose of that?" SLOAT: "They wanted to see how fast human beings could go before they turned into mush. But they also needed a way to measure how much gravity they were receiving. So Murphy built some gauges. And they attached them to this rocket sled and fired the sled, and then when they checked them, they registered zero. The sled worked and the guy who was riding it survived. But nobody knew how many G-forces he pulled, because the gauges malfunctioned." RS: "So then what happened?" SLOAT: "Murphy chewed out the guys who installed the gauges and said 'if those guys can do something wrong, they will.' And then a guy named George Nichols overheard this. Now this is in 1949, thereabouts. The aerospace engineers had their own lingo and they were always coining laws and things. So they came up with 'Murphy's Law.' And the guy said 'Oh we got us a new law,' Nichols said that. A few weeks later, John Paul Stapp, the rocket sled pilot, was doing a press conference out at Edwards Air Force Base, and one of the reporters asked him -- this is the story. Well, the reporter says, 'Are you worried about this?' And Stapp says, 'No, we're careful not to violate Murphy's Law.' Well, nobody knew what Murphy's Law was, except the aerospace engineers. And it became sort of along the lines of 'if it can happen, it will happen.' That's how it -- the metaphor morphed into that out at Edwards." RS: "So, was the gauge ever fixed? [laughter]" SLOAT: "Murphy went back to Ohio, and the engineers out there got the gauges installed and they did work, yes." RS: "So it was the technician’s fault?" SLOAT: "Well, no, it was Murphy's fault -- or some of the technicians, or some of the technical people that were there thought it was Murphy's fault, because he should have checked the gauges to make sure they worked." RS: "And if he had stayed, we might not have had this law." SLOAT: "That's exactly right." AA: "And this law has found its way around the world. You were telling me that you talked to someone in Russia about this?" SLOAT: "Right, I sent an e-mail to a friend of mine, an electrical engineer and said 'do you know about Murphy's law?' And he sent me an e-mail back a couple of days later and said 'yes, we know that as the Law of Toast,' meaning that toast, the buttered side always falls down, or hits the ground. [laughter]" RS: "So what do you think is the legacy of Ed Murphy?" SLOAT: "That's a great question. You know, when I was working on this story, I started looking up Murphy's Law. And there's, if you get on the Internet or you go to the library, and I did both, and there's like all kinds of, you know, Murphy’s laws. There's a guy in California named Arthur Block who even compiles them and collects them, and he had some great examples. Here's my favorite, Hyman's Highway Hypothesis: The shortest distance between two points is usually under construction. [laughter]" RS: "Should we leave it at that?" SLOAT: "Yeah, I don't think you could top it." AA: Bill Sloat is a newspaper reporter at the Plain Dealer in Ohio. Ed Murphy died in 1990 but he was honored this month with an Ig Nobel Prize. These are given at Harvard University for achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think. RS: Now, if you can think of any of your own versions of Murphy's Law, send them to word@voanews.com. We’ll read our favorites on the air. AA: You can find all of our programs on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I’m Avi Arditti. RS: It's a law we all live under, and it goes this way: "If anything can go wrong, it will." It's known as Murphy's Law. AA: Murphy was Edward Murphy. He was a no-nonsense military officer, a captain. But he was also an engineer, based at an aircraft laboratory in Ohio. This was in the early days of the space program and high-performance flight. RS: We learned all this from Bill Sloat, a reporter at the Plain Dealer newspaper in Ohio. We saw a story he recently did on the history of Murphy's Law. RS: So we called Bill up and had just started asking him questions, when, wouldn't you know it ... SLOAT: "Can I start over for a minute? I've got to sneeze." AA: "Go ahead, sneeze." SLOAT: "I don't know why I had to sneeze." RS: "Feel free." AA: "If anything can go wrong, it will. [laughter]" SLOAT: "Yeah, that's Murphy's Law." RS: "And we'll pick up the story in the late 1940s." SLOAT: "OK. So he's working at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in a laboratory. And so he was working on those machines that would spin people round and round and round, to test G-forces. Meanwhile, out at Edwards Air Force Base in California, there were engineers and they were building these rockets sleds and they would strap guys and dummies into them and then fire them down like a railroad track. I think sometimes they went faster than the speed of sound." RS: "And what was the purpose of that?" SLOAT: "They wanted to see how fast human beings could go before they turned into mush. But they also needed a way to measure how much gravity they were receiving. So Murphy built some gauges. And they attached them to this rocket sled and fired the sled, and then when they checked them, they registered zero. The sled worked and the guy who was riding it survived. But nobody knew how many G-forces he pulled, because the gauges malfunctioned." RS: "So then what happened?" SLOAT: "Murphy chewed out the guys who installed the gauges and said 'if those guys can do something wrong, they will.' And then a guy named George Nichols overheard this. Now this is in 1949, thereabouts. The aerospace engineers had their own lingo and they were always coining laws and things. So they came up with 'Murphy's Law.' And the guy said 'Oh we got us a new law,' Nichols said that. A few weeks later, John Paul Stapp, the rocket sled pilot, was doing a press conference out at Edwards Air Force Base, and one of the reporters asked him -- this is the story. Well, the reporter says, 'Are you worried about this?' And Stapp says, 'No, we're careful not to violate Murphy's Law.' Well, nobody knew what Murphy's Law was, except the aerospace engineers. And it became sort of along the lines of 'if it can happen, it will happen.' That's how it -- the metaphor morphed into that out at Edwards." RS: "So, was the gauge ever fixed? [laughter]" SLOAT: "Murphy went back to Ohio, and the engineers out there got the gauges installed and they did work, yes." RS: "So it was the technician’s fault?" SLOAT: "Well, no, it was Murphy's fault -- or some of the technicians, or some of the technical people that were there thought it was Murphy's fault, because he should have checked the gauges to make sure they worked." RS: "And if he had stayed, we might not have had this law." SLOAT: "That's exactly right." AA: "And this law has found its way around the world. You were telling me that you talked to someone in Russia about this?" SLOAT: "Right, I sent an e-mail to a friend of mine, an electrical engineer and said 'do you know about Murphy's law?' And he sent me an e-mail back a couple of days later and said 'yes, we know that as the Law of Toast,' meaning that toast, the buttered side always falls down, or hits the ground. [laughter]" RS: "So what do you think is the legacy of Ed Murphy?" SLOAT: "That's a great question. You know, when I was working on this story, I started looking up Murphy's Law. And there's, if you get on the Internet or you go to the library, and I did both, and there's like all kinds of, you know, Murphy’s laws. There's a guy in California named Arthur Block who even compiles them and collects them, and he had some great examples. Here's my favorite, Hyman's Highway Hypothesis: The shortest distance between two points is usually under construction. [laughter]" RS: "Should we leave it at that?" SLOAT: "Yeah, I don't think you could top it." AA: Bill Sloat is a newspaper reporter at the Plain Dealer in Ohio. Ed Murphy died in 1990 but he was honored this month with an Ig Nobel Prize. These are given at Harvard University for achievements that first make people laugh, then make them think. RS: Now, if you can think of any of your own versions of Murphy's Law, send them to word@voanews.com. We’ll read our favorites on the air. AA: You can find all of our programs on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I’m Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Securities and Exchange Commission
* Byline: 

 This is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English Economics Report. In the United States, people who put their money in banks are usually protected if the bank ever fails. They are guaranteed to get their money back, up to one-hundred-thousand dollars. Financial markets offer no guarantees. That is why the Securities and Exchange Commission exists. The S-E-C is an independent government agency formed to protect investors. The need grew out of the stock market crash of nineteen-twenty-nine. Many Americans lost trust in financial markets. The Great Depression soon followed. In nineteen-thirty four, Congress established the Securities and Exchange Commission. President Bush chose William Donaldson, an investment banker, as the current chairman last December. The commission has five members, including the chairman. At most, three of the five may be of the same political party. The president appoints the commissioners, with Senate approval. Their job is to establish and enforce rules for financial markets. The S-E-C has four divisions. One is the Division of Corporation Finance. It requires public companies to report on their financial condition and any issues that could affect investors. The Division of Market Regulation oversees the private groups that supervise financial markets. Stock exchanges and groups like the National Association of Securities Dealers are self-governing. But, because their work involves public trust, the S-E-C plays a part. The Division of Investment Management oversees investment companies and dealers. Its areas include the mutual fund industry. Chairman Donaldson recently called for changes to prevent some kinds of trading in mutual funds. Officials say some traders use these methods to help only big investors. And, the Division of Enforcement investigates violations of laws. The commission can bring charges, but often reaches agreements to avoid a trial. On October first, for example, the S-E-C reached a deal with J.P. Morgan Securities. The company agreed to pay a fine of twenty-five million dollars in a case, but did not have to admit or deny guilt. The S-E-C can only enforce civil laws. But it works with agencies that enforce criminal laws. In some cases, the S-E-C may work with the attorney general of a state to bring charges. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Doug Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #36 - October 30, 2003: Thomas Jefferson, Part 1: Inaugural Speech
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNOUNCER: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) Thomas Jefferson, on March Fourth, Eighteen-Oh-One, walked to the Capitol to be inaugurated as the third president of the United States. As Jefferson entered the Capitol, there was the thunder of cannon. All the senators and representatives stood until Jefferson sat down. A few moments later, the newly-elected president rose and began to read his inaugural speech. This is what Jefferson said: JEFFERSON: Friends and fellow citizens: I have been called to the position of chief executive of our country. I must tell you how honored and thankful I am. But I must tell you, too, of my fears. Yes, I must tell you that the duties of your president are too much for any one man. However, I tell myself that I am not alone. When I see all your faces, I understand the wisdom of those who wrote our Constitution. For in you, the members of Congress, and in the judicial branch of our government, I know that I shall find the strength, the honesty, the courage that I shall need. We have passed through a hard year of bitter struggle between two political parties. We have shown the world that in America all can speak, write, and think freely. The debate is over. The people have decided. Now is the time for all of us to unite for the good of all. The majority of the people have won the contest. But we must always remember that there is a minority. True, the majority must rule. But the rule of the majority must be just. The rights of the minority are equal to the rights of the majority, and must be protected with equal laws. Let us unite with hearts and minds. Let us have peace and love in our relations with each other. For without peace and love, liberty and life are sad things indeed. Let us remember that the religious freedom which we have in the United States is nothing if we do not have political freedom, if we permit men to be punished because they do not agree with the majority. For hundreds of years in Europe, men have killed and have been killed in the name of liberty. It is not surprising, then, that even here -- in our peaceful land -- all cannot agree. But it is possible to have different ideas without forgetting our common wish. We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists. Most of us love our country. Most of us want it to grow. There may be among us those who want to end the union of the states, or to end our republican government. Well then, let those men speak freely, without fear. They are wrong. But America is strong enough to let them say what they wish. When men can think and speak freely, there is no danger to the nation. For those who do not agree with them also have the right to think and speak freely. There are some honest Americans who are afraid that a republican government cannot be strong. But I ask these good men one question. Do they want us to destroy a government which has kept us strong and free for ten years? I hope not. We have here in the United States the best and strongest government in the world. This is the only nation on the Earth whose citizens know that the government belongs to them. Then there are some who say that men cannot govern themselves. What do they offer us instead? Government by kings? Are kings men, or are they angels? I will let history answer this question. Let us keep our union and our government by the people through their elected representatives. We are very fortunate here in the New World. Three-thousand miles of ocean separate us from the wars and the dictatorships of Europe. Here we do not suffer as the people of Europe do. Here we have a great and rich land, with room for a hundred, perhaps a thousand generations of Americans yet to be born. We -- and the American children who will come after us -- all have equal rights. We honor a man not because of his father, but for what the man is. We do not care what religion a man follows. In this country, men practice religion in many ways. Yet all our religions teach honesty, truth, and the love of man. All worship one God who rules the universe, who wants men to be happy in life. Yes, we are a fortunate people. What more do we need to make us happy? We need one more thing, my fellow citizens: a wise government. A government that keeps men from injuring each other. A government that gives men freedom to live and work in peace as they wish, and does not take from them the fruit of their labor. That is good government. In my short speech, I cannot tell you all the things that I believe our government should do, and should not do. But I will tell you what I believe to be the most important principles of our government. This is what I believe in: The same and equal justice to all men no matter what their religion, their political beliefs, or their class. Peace, trade, and friendship with all nations, but alliances for war with no nations. Support of the rights of the state governments which are the best defenders of our republic. A strong central government under the Constitution to protect our peace at home and our safety in other parts of the world. We must keep the right of the people to elect their representatives. This is the safe way to change governments that make mistakes. Without the right of election, we will have bloody revolution. In our election, the majority must rule. This is the life-blood of a republic. If the majority is not allowed to rule, then we will have dictatorship. America should have a good volunteer army to protect us in peace and in the first days of war, until we use professional soldiers. But at all times, the civil officers of the government must be first over the military officers. The rights of man will be of the highest importance in this government. Information, knowledge, and opinions must move easily and swiftly. We will support freedom of religion...freedom of the press...freedom of the person protected by the habeas corpus...and the right to trial by juries that are chosen fairly. These are the freedoms that brought us through a revolution and that made this nation. Our wise men wrote these freedoms. Our heroes gave their lives for these freedoms. They are the stones on which our political philosophy must be built. If we make the mistake of forgetting them, let us return to them quickly. For only these rights of man can bring us peace, liberty, and safety. Well then, my fellow citizens, I go to the position which you have given me. I am no George Washington. I cannot ask you to believe in me as you did in the man who led us through our revolution -- the man who will always be first in the love of our country. I ask only that you give me your support and your strength. I know that I shall make mistakes. And, even when I am right, there will be men who will say that I am wrong. I ask you to forgive my mistakes which, I promise, will at least be honest mistakes. And I ask you to support me when I am right against the attacks of those who are wrong. Always, my purpose will be to strengthen the happiness and freedom of all Americans . . . those who do not agree with me, as well as those who do. I need you. I go to my work as president of the United States, ready to leave that position when you and the American people decide that there is a better man for it. May the power that leads the universe tell us what is best, and bring to you peace and happiness. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Thomas Jefferson's inaugural address was read by Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Harold Braverman. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) Thomas Jefferson, on March Fourth, Eighteen-Oh-One, walked to the Capitol to be inaugurated as the third president of the United States. As Jefferson entered the Capitol, there was the thunder of cannon. All the senators and representatives stood until Jefferson sat down. A few moments later, the newly-elected president rose and began to read his inaugural speech. This is what Jefferson said: JEFFERSON: Friends and fellow citizens: I have been called to the position of chief executive of our country. I must tell you how honored and thankful I am. But I must tell you, too, of my fears. Yes, I must tell you that the duties of your president are too much for any one man. However, I tell myself that I am not alone. When I see all your faces, I understand the wisdom of those who wrote our Constitution. For in you, the members of Congress, and in the judicial branch of our government, I know that I shall find the strength, the honesty, the courage that I shall need. We have passed through a hard year of bitter struggle between two political parties. We have shown the world that in America all can speak, write, and think freely. The debate is over. The people have decided. Now is the time for all of us to unite for the good of all. The majority of the people have won the contest. But we must always remember that there is a minority. True, the majority must rule. But the rule of the majority must be just. The rights of the minority are equal to the rights of the majority, and must be protected with equal laws. Let us unite with hearts and minds. Let us have peace and love in our relations with each other. For without peace and love, liberty and life are sad things indeed. Let us remember that the religious freedom which we have in the United States is nothing if we do not have political freedom, if we permit men to be punished because they do not agree with the majority. For hundreds of years in Europe, men have killed and have been killed in the name of liberty. It is not surprising, then, that even here -- in our peaceful land -- all cannot agree. But it is possible to have different ideas without forgetting our common wish. We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists. Most of us love our country. Most of us want it to grow. There may be among us those who want to end the union of the states, or to end our republican government. Well then, let those men speak freely, without fear. They are wrong. But America is strong enough to let them say what they wish. When men can think and speak freely, there is no danger to the nation. For those who do not agree with them also have the right to think and speak freely. There are some honest Americans who are afraid that a republican government cannot be strong. But I ask these good men one question. Do they want us to destroy a government which has kept us strong and free for ten years? I hope not. We have here in the United States the best and strongest government in the world. This is the only nation on the Earth whose citizens know that the government belongs to them. Then there are some who say that men cannot govern themselves. What do they offer us instead? Government by kings? Are kings men, or are they angels? I will let history answer this question. Let us keep our union and our government by the people through their elected representatives. We are very fortunate here in the New World. Three-thousand miles of ocean separate us from the wars and the dictatorships of Europe. Here we do not suffer as the people of Europe do. Here we have a great and rich land, with room for a hundred, perhaps a thousand generations of Americans yet to be born. We -- and the American children who will come after us -- all have equal rights. We honor a man not because of his father, but for what the man is. We do not care what religion a man follows. In this country, men practice religion in many ways. Yet all our religions teach honesty, truth, and the love of man. All worship one God who rules the universe, who wants men to be happy in life. Yes, we are a fortunate people. What more do we need to make us happy? We need one more thing, my fellow citizens: a wise government. A government that keeps men from injuring each other. A government that gives men freedom to live and work in peace as they wish, and does not take from them the fruit of their labor. That is good government. In my short speech, I cannot tell you all the things that I believe our government should do, and should not do. But I will tell you what I believe to be the most important principles of our government. This is what I believe in: The same and equal justice to all men no matter what their religion, their political beliefs, or their class. Peace, trade, and friendship with all nations, but alliances for war with no nations. Support of the rights of the state governments which are the best defenders of our republic. A strong central government under the Constitution to protect our peace at home and our safety in other parts of the world. We must keep the right of the people to elect their representatives. This is the safe way to change governments that make mistakes. Without the right of election, we will have bloody revolution. In our election, the majority must rule. This is the life-blood of a republic. If the majority is not allowed to rule, then we will have dictatorship. America should have a good volunteer army to protect us in peace and in the first days of war, until we use professional soldiers. But at all times, the civil officers of the government must be first over the military officers. The rights of man will be of the highest importance in this government. Information, knowledge, and opinions must move easily and swiftly. We will support freedom of religion...freedom of the press...freedom of the person protected by the habeas corpus...and the right to trial by juries that are chosen fairly. These are the freedoms that brought us through a revolution and that made this nation. Our wise men wrote these freedoms. Our heroes gave their lives for these freedoms. They are the stones on which our political philosophy must be built. If we make the mistake of forgetting them, let us return to them quickly. For only these rights of man can bring us peace, liberty, and safety. Well then, my fellow citizens, I go to the position which you have given me. I am no George Washington. I cannot ask you to believe in me as you did in the man who led us through our revolution -- the man who will always be first in the love of our country. I ask only that you give me your support and your strength. I know that I shall make mistakes. And, even when I am right, there will be men who will say that I am wrong. I ask you to forgive my mistakes which, I promise, will at least be honest mistakes. And I ask you to support me when I am right against the attacks of those who are wrong. Always, my purpose will be to strengthen the happiness and freedom of all Americans . . . those who do not agree with me, as well as those who do. I need you. I go to my work as president of the United States, ready to leave that position when you and the American people decide that there is a better man for it. May the power that leads the universe tell us what is best, and bring to you peace and happiness. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Thomas Jefferson's inaugural address was read by Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Harold Braverman. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 23, 2003: Virtual Learning
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many people remember the day in school when they had to cut up a dead frog. Students often perform this dissection as a requirement for biology class. A smelly chemical, formaldehyde, preserves the body of the frog. The students remove and identify the organs as part of learning about the science of life. But some schools no longer require students to cut apart frogs. Cost may be an issue. Also, animal rights activists may object. Today, more and more students learn about frogs by computer, through "virtual dissection." A company called Froguts sells educational services to schools. But it also offers a free demonstration on its Web site. First, the image of a whole bullfrog appears on the screen. Users of the site direct cutting tools with clicks of their computer mouse. Lines show where to cut. Several steps later, the frog is open. The next steps are to remove and identify the heart, lungs and other organs. The Web site is froguts-dot-com. That's spelled f-r-o-g-u-t-s. Some educators praise virtual dissection. Others say nothing can replace the real thing. Other virtual activities are also increasingly popular in schools. Some schools cannot send their students to places like museums and zoos. Distance and money may prevent them. But children can still “visit” zoo animals, museum collections and historic places by computer. Last year, Maine launched a plan to become the first state to provide laptop computers to each of its middle school students and teachers. Maine is a small Northeastern state which, like many other states, is facing budget troubles. But now seventh and eighth graders and their teachers in more than two-hundred-forty schools have these wireless computers. And the idea is spreading. Michigan, for example, has started to spend twenty-two-million dollars for laptop or hand-held computers for sixth graders. Schools can get the computers if they can pay twenty-five dollars for each student. Yet such plans have critics, as a story in the magazine U.S. News and World Report noted. They say there is little proof that computers are better than traditional teaching methods. Other teachers say the computer is simply another tool that depends on how it is used. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-10/a-2003-10-31-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 1, 2003: Southern California Wildfires
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with In the News, from VOA Special English. Thousands of firefighters from around the United States are battling the wildfires in Southern California. The fires are spread from the Mexican border north more than two-hundred kilometers to Los Angeles, and beyond. Around three-hundred-thousand hectares have burned. Officials say the fires are the most destructive in state history. The fires began last week. At least twenty people have been killed. More than two-thousand homes have been destroyed. Officials say crews could find more bodies when they inspect the ruins. More than one-hundred-thousand people have had to leave their homes. Winds have eased during the past few days. And officials expect cooler temperatures and rain. Rain would also help clear the air of smoke and ash. Hot, dry winds have spread the flames. These winds are called Santa Anas. They develop this time of year in the Santa Ana Canyon. Officials had hoped that cooler winds from the Pacific Ocean would calm the fires. But the wind changes moved some fires into areas that crews thought they had under control. More than ten fires are burning in five counties. The two worst fires are in the San Bernardino mountains east of Los Angeles and in the mountains of San Diego County. What is known as the Cedar Fire in San Diego is the largest fire in Southern California. Officials say the Cedar Fire has burned more than one-hundred-thousand hectares of San Diego County. At least fourteen people have been killed. The first death of firefighter happened Wednesday, near the historic mountain town of Julian. To the south, in the town of Cuyamaca, flames left only a fire station and city hall still standing. Crews have been working hard to keep the Cedar Fire from joining with another large fire burning in San Diego County. Officials say a hunter who got lost and fired a signal flare into the sky started the Cedar Fire in San Diego. But officials believe all of the fires in San Bernardino County were set. Police were looking for a man seen leaving the area where the fire first began. In San Bernardino, crews have been working to protect popular tourist towns like Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead from what they call the Old Fire. Officials have been worried for days that changing winds would blow flames into huge pine trees in the San Bernardino National Forest. These trees have already been damaged by insects and dry weather. Damaged and dead trees have also fueled other fires. Outgoing Governor Gray Davis has estimated the cost of the fires at more than two-thousand-million dollars. He declared the five counties a disaster area to speed federal aid. The next governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was in Washington this week and also appealed for aid. He takes office next month. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - New Campaign to Restore Ellis Island
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 3, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 3, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: Millions of people came through Ellis Island on their way to new lives in the United States. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week, we take you to Ellis Island and tell about efforts to save more of this historic place. VOICE ONE: Millions of people came through Ellis Island on their way to new lives in the United States. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week, we take you to Ellis Island and tell about efforts to save more of this historic place. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ellis Island is in New York Harbor, near the Statue of the Liberty and the tall buildings of New York City. For years it was America's major immigration center. Twelve-million people arrived at Ellis Island between eighteen-ninety-two and nineteen-twenty-four. They came on ships from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia and many other countries. About forty percent of Americans have at least one family member who passed through Ellis Island. The immigration center closed in nineteen-fifty-four. The buildings fell into disrepair. In the nineteen-eighties, a private group, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, led a restoration campaign. Lee Iacocca, a leader in the automobile industry, directed the effort. This work rescued one-third of the island from ruin. Ellis Island reopened, this time as a museum and memorial. Since nineteen-ninety, the National Park Service has operated this restored area for visitors. VOICE TWO: Today there is another organization. It is called Save Ellis Island! This group is working to restore the remaining two-thirds of the island. The goal is to raise three-hundred-million dollars to pay for the work. Save Ellis Island! also wants to establish a research center. This institute would study such issues as immigration policy and public health. Judith McAlpin is president of the group. She points out that for sixty years, the island served many different groups of people. Judith McAlpin says the lessons learned by immigration and public health officials could be valuable today. The institute would also have exhibits and performances about the history of Ellis Island. VOICE ONE: The Save Ellis Island! organization is working to raise money from public and private givers. At the same time, the National Park Service is completing a project to prevent further damage to the island. The Park Service, Congress and the state of New Jersey are paying for the project. About twenty-thousand square meters of Ellis Island lie in the state of New York. The remainder -- eighty-nine-thousand square meters -- is in New Jersey. The project in the nineteen-eighties restored three buildings on the New York side. One of the buildings contains a huge room, the Great Hall. Each month, thousands of people visit these buildings. But twenty-nine buildings on the New Jersey side are closed to the public. Weeds cover much of the area. Some buildings are falling apart. They include the three buildings in what is called the Main Hospital Complex. VOICE TWO: All of the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island had to have a health examination. People could not enter the country if they were sick or pregnant. They were offered care at the hospital buildings. Most were later permitted to enter the country. More than three-hundred-fifty babies were born on Ellis Island. But over the years, about three-thousand-five-hundred immigrants died on Ellis Island. It became the final resting place for their dreams of life in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year is long ago. A ship sails into New York Harbor. Passengers crowd each other to see the Statue of Liberty. The statue stands with her arm raised high. In her hand is a light, to represent freedom. Now the people are marched off the ship to a small island. Everyone feels tense. This place – Ellis Island – is a door to an unknown world. No one can be sure what is on the other side. VOICE TWO: The immigrants enter a big building. It is made of red brick and stone. It looks like the home of a king. Inside, the immigrants climb steps to the Great Hall. Doctors and nurses examine them closely. Anyone who shows signs or sickness might be sent back home. Medical inspectors mark the clothes of those with possible health problems. An “E” means eye trouble. An “H” means heart disease. An “X” means mental disorders. Next comes a different kind of inspection. Officials sit at tall tables at one end of the Great Hall. They ask questions, quickly. “Do you have a job? Do you have money? Can you read and write?” VOICE ONE: Hundreds of immigrants wait their turn in the Great Hall. Sunlight flows in through the windows, big and rounded. Outside, across the water, the people can see the tall buildings of New York City. The Great Hall is noisy with the sounds of different languages. There are joyful meetings. Family members and friends welcome new arrivals from the old country. The inspections usually last a few hours. Then the immigrants walk down a set of steps. These are called the “Stairs of Separation.” The steps to the left lead to the boat to New York City. The steps on the right lead to the railroad office. Immigrants can buy a ticket to travel to other parts of the United States. VOICE TWO: The steps in the middle are for those who must stay temporarily on Ellis Island. About twenty percent remain for several days or weeks. Some are sick. Others are held for legal reasons. Two percent of the people are sent home. Most often, these people have diseases that can spread. Some people are sent back because they have no money or job skills. Some are unmarried women, traveling alone. Some are criminals. Some have unpopular political ideas. Many immigrants permitted to stay in the United States did not stay for long. One of every three who came to America during the nineteen-hundreds chose to return home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the early nineteen-hundreds, five-thousand immigrants moved through the immigration center on Ellis Island almost every day. There were thirty-three buildings where people ate, slept and received medical care. Representatives of forty religious, cultural and social service agencies worked on Ellis Island. These groups helped immigrants find work or join family members already in the United States. Some people called Ellis Island the “Island of Tears.” There were not enough beds for everyone. The food was often bad. Those who had to stay waited days or weeks without knowing what would happen to them. VOICE TWO: Nineteen-oh-seven was the busiest year on Ellis Island. More than one-million immigrants passed through. At the time, America needed workers. Immigrants were accepted quickly. Then, an anti-immigration movement arose. Congress passed laws to restrict immigration for people of some ancestries and national groups.Some immigrants continued to come to America through Ellis Island after nineteen-twenty-four. But most already had been approved for immigration at American embassies in their home countries. The government began to use Ellis Island mostly as a holding place for illegal immigrants. VOICE ONE: The United States government finally closed the immigration center on Ellis Island in nineteen-fifty-four. The wet air of the harbor had begun to destroy the buildings. Workers spent two years just drying the main building. The workers found places where immigrants had written on the walls as they waited for word of their future. There were little pictures, poems and prayers. In the nineteen-eighties, President Ronald Reagan called for the repair and restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. He wanted to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the statue in nineteen-eighty-six. The work cost more than four-hundred-fifty-million dollars. Today, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum stands as a memorial to honor all immigrants. VOICE TWO: One of the structures on Ellis Island is the Ferry Building. This was where immigrants permitted to enter the country could get on a boat to New York City. It was built in nineteen-thirty-five during the Great Depression. Last year, public and private money restored the Ferry Building. But a boat still lies on its side in the water, at least for now. Many people who visit Ellis Island today say they hope it can be completely restored. They want the nation to remember the part that this island played in the largest movement of people in recorded history. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another report about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Ellis Island is in New York Harbor, near the Statue of the Liberty and the tall buildings of New York City. For years it was America's major immigration center. Twelve-million people arrived at Ellis Island between eighteen-ninety-two and nineteen-twenty-four. They came on ships from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia and many other countries. About forty percent of Americans have at least one family member who passed through Ellis Island. The immigration center closed in nineteen-fifty-four. The buildings fell into disrepair. In the nineteen-eighties, a private group, the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, led a restoration campaign. Lee Iacocca, a leader in the automobile industry, directed the effort. This work rescued one-third of the island from ruin. Ellis Island reopened, this time as a museum and memorial. Since nineteen-ninety, the National Park Service has operated this restored area for visitors. VOICE TWO: Today there is another organization. It is called Save Ellis Island! This group is working to restore the remaining two-thirds of the island. The goal is to raise three-hundred-million dollars to pay for the work. Save Ellis Island! also wants to establish a research center. This institute would study such issues as immigration policy and public health. Judith McAlpin is president of the group. She points out that for sixty years, the island served many different groups of people. Judith McAlpin says the lessons learned by immigration and public health officials could be valuable today. The institute would also have exhibits and performances about the history of Ellis Island. VOICE ONE: The Save Ellis Island! organization is working to raise money from public and private givers. At the same time, the National Park Service is completing a project to prevent further damage to the island. The Park Service, Congress and the state of New Jersey are paying for the project. About twenty-thousand square meters of Ellis Island lie in the state of New York. The remainder -- eighty-nine-thousand square meters -- is in New Jersey. The project in the nineteen-eighties restored three buildings on the New York side. One of the buildings contains a huge room, the Great Hall. Each month, thousands of people visit these buildings. But twenty-nine buildings on the New Jersey side are closed to the public. Weeds cover much of the area. Some buildings are falling apart. They include the three buildings in what is called the Main Hospital Complex. VOICE TWO: All of the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island had to have a health examination. People could not enter the country if they were sick or pregnant. They were offered care at the hospital buildings. Most were later permitted to enter the country. More than three-hundred-fifty babies were born on Ellis Island. But over the years, about three-thousand-five-hundred immigrants died on Ellis Island. It became the final resting place for their dreams of life in America. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The year is long ago. A ship sails into New York Harbor. Passengers crowd each other to see the Statue of Liberty. The statue stands with her arm raised high. In her hand is a light, to represent freedom. Now the people are marched off the ship to a small island. Everyone feels tense. This place – Ellis Island – is a door to an unknown world. No one can be sure what is on the other side. VOICE TWO: The immigrants enter a big building. It is made of red brick and stone. It looks like the home of a king. Inside, the immigrants climb steps to the Great Hall. Doctors and nurses examine them closely. Anyone who shows signs or sickness might be sent back home. Medical inspectors mark the clothes of those with possible health problems. An “E” means eye trouble. An “H” means heart disease. An “X” means mental disorders. Next comes a different kind of inspection. Officials sit at tall tables at one end of the Great Hall. They ask questions, quickly. “Do you have a job? Do you have money? Can you read and write?” VOICE ONE: Hundreds of immigrants wait their turn in the Great Hall. Sunlight flows in through the windows, big and rounded. Outside, across the water, the people can see the tall buildings of New York City. The Great Hall is noisy with the sounds of different languages. There are joyful meetings. Family members and friends welcome new arrivals from the old country. The inspections usually last a few hours. Then the immigrants walk down a set of steps. These are called the “Stairs of Separation.” The steps to the left lead to the boat to New York City. The steps on the right lead to the railroad office. Immigrants can buy a ticket to travel to other parts of the United States. VOICE TWO: The steps in the middle are for those who must stay temporarily on Ellis Island. About twenty percent remain for several days or weeks. Some are sick. Others are held for legal reasons. Two percent of the people are sent home. Most often, these people have diseases that can spread. Some people are sent back because they have no money or job skills. Some are unmarried women, traveling alone. Some are criminals. Some have unpopular political ideas. Many immigrants permitted to stay in the United States did not stay for long. One of every three who came to America during the nineteen-hundreds chose to return home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: During the early nineteen-hundreds, five-thousand immigrants moved through the immigration center on Ellis Island almost every day. There were thirty-three buildings where people ate, slept and received medical care. Representatives of forty religious, cultural and social service agencies worked on Ellis Island. These groups helped immigrants find work or join family members already in the United States. Some people called Ellis Island the “Island of Tears.” There were not enough beds for everyone. The food was often bad. Those who had to stay waited days or weeks without knowing what would happen to them. VOICE TWO: Nineteen-oh-seven was the busiest year on Ellis Island. More than one-million immigrants passed through. At the time, America needed workers. Immigrants were accepted quickly. Then, an anti-immigration movement arose. Congress passed laws to restrict immigration for people of some ancestries and national groups.Some immigrants continued to come to America through Ellis Island after nineteen-twenty-four. But most already had been approved for immigration at American embassies in their home countries. The government began to use Ellis Island mostly as a holding place for illegal immigrants. VOICE ONE: The United States government finally closed the immigration center on Ellis Island in nineteen-fifty-four. The wet air of the harbor had begun to destroy the buildings. Workers spent two years just drying the main building. The workers found places where immigrants had written on the walls as they waited for word of their future. There were little pictures, poems and prayers. In the nineteen-eighties, President Ronald Reagan called for the repair and restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. He wanted to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the statue in nineteen-eighty-six. The work cost more than four-hundred-fifty-million dollars. Today, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum stands as a memorial to honor all immigrants. VOICE TWO: One of the structures on Ellis Island is the Ferry Building. This was where immigrants permitted to enter the country could get on a boat to New York City. It was built in nineteen-thirty-five during the Great Depression. Last year, public and private money restored the Ferry Building. But a boat still lies on its side in the water, at least for now. Many people who visit Ellis Island today say they hope it can be completely restored. They want the nation to remember the part that this island played in the largest movement of people in recorded history. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for another report about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 3, 2003: Recycling Scrap Metal
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. People have been recycling metals for hundreds of years. Today, re-using metal waste or scrap provides work for many people, especially in developing countries. Three kinds of metals are recycled. They are ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and precious metals. Ferrous metals contain iron. They are low in cost and recycled in huge amounts. Metallic iron called pig iron is produced when iron is heated in a hot industrial stove. This kind of stove is called a blast furnace. Pig iron also contains another element, carbon. Pig iron is useful because it can be formed into solid, heavy objects or objects with unusual shapes. Another kind of iron is steel, which is iron without the carbon. Making steel is simply removing the carbon by burning it away. This makes the steel stronger and easier to cut than iron. Both pig iron and steel waste or scrap are useful because they can be melted to make new products. In countries where there is a shortage of steel scrap, old tin cans are sometimes used and melted. Tin cans are mostly steel. If the scrap is heated before the temperature gets to the melting point, the blast furnace can be more simply designed and less costly. These simpler furnaces are called foundries. Products are made in foundries all over the world, but especially in Asia. Non-ferrous metals include copper and aluminum. Copper is the perfect material for recycling. It is valuable, easy to identify and easy to clean. People who operate foundries around the world buy copper wire and cable to recycle. Aluminum is another very popular non-ferrous scrap metal. It is cheap to produce and very easy to work with. In developing countries, small foundries produce aluminum bars, sheets and wire. Precious metals like silver also are recycled. Silver can be found in pictures made with an old black-and-white camera. And it can be found in X-rays after they have been developed. X-ray film is very valuable for recycling silver, because both sides of the film are usually developed. You can learn more about recycling metals from Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. People have been recycling metals for hundreds of years. Today, re-using metal waste or scrap provides work for many people, especially in developing countries. Three kinds of metals are recycled. They are ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and precious metals. Ferrous metals contain iron. They are low in cost and recycled in huge amounts. Metallic iron called pig iron is produced when iron is heated in a hot industrial stove. This kind of stove is called a blast furnace. Pig iron also contains another element, carbon. Pig iron is useful because it can be formed into solid, heavy objects or objects with unusual shapes. Another kind of iron is steel, which is iron without the carbon. Making steel is simply removing the carbon by burning it away. This makes the steel stronger and easier to cut than iron. Both pig iron and steel waste or scrap are useful because they can be melted to make new products. In countries where there is a shortage of steel scrap, old tin cans are sometimes used and melted. Tin cans are mostly steel. If the scrap is heated before the temperature gets to the melting point, the blast furnace can be more simply designed and less costly. These simpler furnaces are called foundries. Products are made in foundries all over the world, but especially in Asia. Non-ferrous metals include copper and aluminum. Copper is the perfect material for recycling. It is valuable, easy to identify and easy to clean. People who operate foundries around the world buy copper wire and cable to recycle. Aluminum is another very popular non-ferrous scrap metal. It is cheap to produce and very easy to work with. In developing countries, small foundries produce aluminum bars, sheets and wire. Precious metals like silver also are recycled. Silver can be found in pictures made with an old black-and-white camera. And it can be found in X-rays after they have been developed. X-ray film is very valuable for recycling silver, because both sides of the film are usually developed. You can learn more about recycling metals from Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 2, 2003: Chief Joseph, Part 1
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNOUNCER: People in America -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Warren Scheer and Larry West begin the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. He is remembered as a hero of all American Indian people. VOICE ONE: Chief Joseph loved peace. But he was forced to lead his people in war. He loved freedom and his land. But he lost both. Chief Joseph’s story begins with his people and his land. VOICE TWO: An old man looks out at a green valley. Tall dark mountains stand above it. Snow covers the mountain tops. In the clear water of a lake dance the dark shapes of the mountains. The old man's name is Tuekakas. White men call him old Joseph. The Wallowa Valley is the old man's home -- and the home of the Nez Perce people -- for as long as anyone can remember. It lies in the northwestern part of the United States. Today, the land is part of the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. No one knows exactly when the Nez Perce first came to the valley. From earliest times, the people hunted and raised cattle there. They kept horses, the kind called Appaloosas. VOICE ONE: The Nez Perce did not own the land. They had not bought it from anyone else. They possessed no documents of ownership. But they believed the land was theirs, simply because that was where they lived. For almost seventy years, the Nez Perce showed friendship to the white farmers, churchmen and explorers who came to their land. Old Joseph, the chief, had been a friend to the white men. But in eighteen- seventy-one, as he looked out across the valley, he could see a time of trouble coming. White people had discovered gold in mountains on Nez Perce land. More and more white farmers were asking the United States government to open the land for development. To do that, the Indians had to be moved. The government usually offered the Indians money or gifts to leave the area. Different deals were made with different Indian groups. VOICE TWO: Several years before, the white governor of the territory met with old Joseph. He asked the chief to sign a treaty. The governor said he wanted the land divided so the Indians and white men could live separately. "If the two groups are to live in peace," the governor said, "it is necessary for the Indians to have a country set apart for them. And in that country they must stay. " Old Joseph was furious. "Take Away your paper," he said. "I will not touch it with my hand. " Other Nez Perce chiefs, however -- beyond the valley -- signed treaties to give up their lands. Those chiefs and their people became Christians. They cut their hair short. They forgot the ways of their tribe. Old Joseph's people did not forget. They wore their hair long. And they loved the land. VOICE ONE: Old Joseph had been chief for many years. Now he was dying. He called for his first son. The son, like the father, was named Joseph. Old Joseph spoke. His voice was the voice of a dying man. But his words were the words of a strong, proud spirit: "My son," the old man said, "when I am gone you will be chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never gave up his land. VOICE TWO: Young Joseph was thirty-one years old when his father died. His people called him Heinmot Tooyalaket. Those were the words the Nez Perce used to describe the noise that lightning makes in the mountains. The young man had a wide face. His hair was tied on both sides of his head and hung down on his chest like long, heavy ropes. He wore chains of seashells around his neck. Small pieces of colored glass shone brightly on his clothing. Already, the Nez Perce knew him for his good judgment, his kindness, and his ability with words. And now they would know him as their leader -- Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph remembered his dying father's words. He said: "This land has always belonged to my people. We will defend this land as long as Indian blood warms the hearts of our men. " VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-three, Chief Joseph sent a message to the President of the United States, Ulysses Grant. He asked that no more white persons be permitted to live in the Wallowa Valley. President Grant agreed. But two years later, under pressure from farmers and gold-hunters, the president broke his promise. More white people came. Some stole cattle and horses. Some insulted the Indians. Always, Chief Joseph kept the peace. In May, eighteen seventy-seven, the government told General Oliver Howard to meet with the Nez Perce chiefs. He was ordered to tell the Indians that they must leave their land. The government had a place in Idaho for all Nez Perce people. It was called the Lapwai Reservation. General Howard did not like his orders. To his friends he said it was a great mistake to take the valley from Joseph. But the general had spent many years in the army. He obeyed his orders. To the Nez Perce chiefs he said: "I stand here for the president. My orders are clear and must be obeyed. You have thirty days to leave the valley. If you delay even one day," General Howard said, "the soldiers will force you to the reservation. And all your cattle and horses will fall into the hands of the white men. " VOICE TWO: The chiefs had a difficult choice. They could leave. Or they could fight. Joseph and the other chiefs had only ninety warriors. They knew they could not defend the valley with such a small fighting force. Chief Joseph said: "I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I learned then that we were but few, while the white men were many, and that we could not defeat them. VOICE ONE: Some of the Nez Perce chiefs wanted to stay and fight. They were willing to try, even if there was little chance of winning. But Joseph said, "To protect my people from war, I will give up my country. I will give up everything. " So the Nez Perce prepared to leave the Wallowa Valley. To get to the reservation in time, they had to leave behind many of the things they owned. They took some cattle and horses, and what food and possessions they could carry. Chief Joseph had promised them peace. But peace would not follow them. That will be our story next week. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Larry West. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: People in America -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Warren Scheer and Larry West begin the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. He is remembered as a hero of all American Indian people. VOICE ONE: Chief Joseph loved peace. But he was forced to lead his people in war. He loved freedom and his land. But he lost both. Chief Joseph’s story begins with his people and his land. VOICE TWO: An old man looks out at a green valley. Tall dark mountains stand above it. Snow covers the mountain tops. In the clear water of a lake dance the dark shapes of the mountains. The old man's name is Tuekakas. White men call him old Joseph. The Wallowa Valley is the old man's home -- and the home of the Nez Perce people -- for as long as anyone can remember. It lies in the northwestern part of the United States. Today, the land is part of the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. No one knows exactly when the Nez Perce first came to the valley. From earliest times, the people hunted and raised cattle there. They kept horses, the kind called Appaloosas. VOICE ONE: The Nez Perce did not own the land. They had not bought it from anyone else. They possessed no documents of ownership. But they believed the land was theirs, simply because that was where they lived. For almost seventy years, the Nez Perce showed friendship to the white farmers, churchmen and explorers who came to their land. Old Joseph, the chief, had been a friend to the white men. But in eighteen- seventy-one, as he looked out across the valley, he could see a time of trouble coming. White people had discovered gold in mountains on Nez Perce land. More and more white farmers were asking the United States government to open the land for development. To do that, the Indians had to be moved. The government usually offered the Indians money or gifts to leave the area. Different deals were made with different Indian groups. VOICE TWO: Several years before, the white governor of the territory met with old Joseph. He asked the chief to sign a treaty. The governor said he wanted the land divided so the Indians and white men could live separately. "If the two groups are to live in peace," the governor said, "it is necessary for the Indians to have a country set apart for them. And in that country they must stay. " Old Joseph was furious. "Take Away your paper," he said. "I will not touch it with my hand. " Other Nez Perce chiefs, however -- beyond the valley -- signed treaties to give up their lands. Those chiefs and their people became Christians. They cut their hair short. They forgot the ways of their tribe. Old Joseph's people did not forget. They wore their hair long. And they loved the land. VOICE ONE: Old Joseph had been chief for many years. Now he was dying. He called for his first son. The son, like the father, was named Joseph. Old Joseph spoke. His voice was the voice of a dying man. But his words were the words of a strong, proud spirit: "My son," the old man said, "when I am gone you will be chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never gave up his land. VOICE TWO: Young Joseph was thirty-one years old when his father died. His people called him Heinmot Tooyalaket. Those were the words the Nez Perce used to describe the noise that lightning makes in the mountains. The young man had a wide face. His hair was tied on both sides of his head and hung down on his chest like long, heavy ropes. He wore chains of seashells around his neck. Small pieces of colored glass shone brightly on his clothing. Already, the Nez Perce knew him for his good judgment, his kindness, and his ability with words. And now they would know him as their leader -- Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph remembered his dying father's words. He said: "This land has always belonged to my people. We will defend this land as long as Indian blood warms the hearts of our men. " VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-three, Chief Joseph sent a message to the President of the United States, Ulysses Grant. He asked that no more white persons be permitted to live in the Wallowa Valley. President Grant agreed. But two years later, under pressure from farmers and gold-hunters, the president broke his promise. More white people came. Some stole cattle and horses. Some insulted the Indians. Always, Chief Joseph kept the peace. In May, eighteen seventy-seven, the government told General Oliver Howard to meet with the Nez Perce chiefs. He was ordered to tell the Indians that they must leave their land. The government had a place in Idaho for all Nez Perce people. It was called the Lapwai Reservation. General Howard did not like his orders. To his friends he said it was a great mistake to take the valley from Joseph. But the general had spent many years in the army. He obeyed his orders. To the Nez Perce chiefs he said: "I stand here for the president. My orders are clear and must be obeyed. You have thirty days to leave the valley. If you delay even one day," General Howard said, "the soldiers will force you to the reservation. And all your cattle and horses will fall into the hands of the white men. " VOICE TWO: The chiefs had a difficult choice. They could leave. Or they could fight. Joseph and the other chiefs had only ninety warriors. They knew they could not defend the valley with such a small fighting force. Chief Joseph said: "I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I learned then that we were but few, while the white men were many, and that we could not defeat them. VOICE ONE: Some of the Nez Perce chiefs wanted to stay and fight. They were willing to try, even if there was little chance of winning. But Joseph said, "To protect my people from war, I will give up my country. I will give up everything. " So the Nez Perce prepared to leave the Wallowa Valley. To get to the reservation in time, they had to leave behind many of the things they owned. They took some cattle and horses, and what food and possessions they could carry. Chief Joseph had promised them peace. But peace would not follow them. That will be our story next week. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: You have been listening to the Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Larry West. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS -  Leaders Discuss AIDS in Africa / 10-Year Effort to Count Marine Life / Genes Tell What Makes a Dog / What Sleep Can Do for Memory
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 4, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 4, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week -- helping people live with AIDS ... counting all the fish -- and more -- in the sea. (Photo - Craig Venter) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week -- helping people live with AIDS ... counting all the fish -- and more -- in the sea. VOICE ONE: And, later, what makes a dog a dog ... and what sleep can do for memory. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Over forty-million people are infected with H-I-V. About three out of four live in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. H-I-V is the virus that causes the deadly disease AIDS. Last week an international conference for people living with H-I-V and AIDS took place in Uganda. In December there will be a meeting in Senegal on caring for people with AIDS in the community and in their own homes. But the largest African meeting on AIDS and other infections spread through sex took place in Kenya in late September. Seven thousand scientists and political leaders gathered in Nairobi for the thirteenth conference known as ICASA. They talked about ways to make sure people who have AIDS get the care they need. Many religious leaders at the conference also talked about ways to reduce the unfair treatment of people with AIDS. VOICE TWO: People at the conference talked a lot about the newest kind of medicine, called anti-retroviral drugs. A person takes three different pills a day to suppress the virus from multiplying. This combination of drugs has been shown to help people with AIDS live longer. People who take these medicines are often able to work or go to school. Many protesters at the conference were angry about delays in getting the medicines to more people. Kenya's health minister announced that the government will provide the drugs at reduced cost to six thousand people over the next year. One man from Kenya said he would not take any until everyone who has AIDS in Kenya can get them. VOICE ONE: Even if poor people get the best medicines, they must also have healthy food and clean water. So there were discussions about these issues as well. In Botswana, for example, all people with H-I-V are able to get anti-retroviral medicines. But there is also a program to make sure patients have nursing care and food in their homes. The delegates also discussed traditional medicines. However, some doctors said people should only use medicines that have been tested scientifically. VOICE TWO: Last month, former American President Bill Clinton announced an agreement that he negotiated with four drug makers. The companies will supply lost-cost versions of three anti-retroviral drugs taken as a combination. People in nine Caribbean countries as well as Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa are to receive them. The United Nations says only three-hundred-thousand people living with AIDS in Africa currently receive anti-retroviral medicines. It says all nations must work harder and faster to fight AIDS. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Oceans cover almost seventy percent of Earth. Yet scientists say they know surprisingly little about the creatures in them. Now scientists have given the first progress report on a ten-year effort to identify all living things in the oceans. The project is called the Census of Marine Life. Organizers met in Washington, D.C., last month to report on three years of work. The scientists hope to complete the study by two-thousand-ten. The Census of Marine Life is expected to cost one-thousand-million dollars. Most of that money will come from governments. Hundreds of scientists from more than fifty countries are involved. A Canadian scientist, Ronald O’Dor, supervises the Census of Marine Life. VOICE TWO: Currently, scientists know about more than two-hundred-thousand kinds of sea creatures. But they estimate that the final number could be ten times greater. More than fifteen-thousand kinds of fish are now included in the census records. Organizers say they expect the final count to reach about twenty-thousand. Project scientists have identified an average of three new kinds of fish each week. These fish are not necessarily new, but this is the first time anyone has identified them. The census is also identifying threatened sea creatures and areas where they mate. The scientists say pollution, climate change and the fishing industry have caused many kinds of sea life to disappear. VOICE ONE: Scientists have made a number of discoveries during the first three years of the project. One example is a deep-sea environment near the coast of Angola. They say it contains more kinds of sea life per area than any other ocean environment known. About eighty percent of the creatures collected there were new to scientists. Also, underwater cameras have shown that deep-sea areas are not mostly dirt, as many people believe. Corals and sponges have formed environments that the scientists call surprisingly rich. They say deep-sea areas are very important for fish and other creatures. One video showed life in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean at a depth of four-thousand-five-hundred meters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: If you ever want to build a dog, there is now a place to start. Scientists have completed the first version of the dog genome. These are the genetic instructions needed to make the animal known as man's best friend. They scientists learned more about the nature of dogs, and their genetic links to people. The magazine Science published the findings of a team under Craig Venter of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland. Doctor Venter is well-known for his work on a genetic map of humans. He used his own D-N-A in that project. For the dog project, he used cells from his black standard poodle, named Shadow. The team used a new method of D-N-A testing. It does not provide all of the genetic information. Full genetic sequencing is more complete. That was the method used to find the instructions for humans, mice and fruit flies. But the new method takes a lot less time and money. Doctor Venter’s team placed about two-and-a-half thousand-million dog gene molecules in general order. As expected, the scientists found that dogs have more smell receptor genes in their noses than people do. This explains why dogs have such a strong sense of smell. VOICE ONE: Craig Venter says one of the main goals was to understand the links between genes and the way dogs act. Scientists say small changes in genetic code may explain why different breeds of dogs act differently. But the researchers also learned that we share at least seventy-five percent of our known genes with dogs. These findings may help studies of human disease, since dogs get many of the same diseases people do. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many students try to study the whole night and not sleep before an exam. Two separate studies show this may do more harm than good. The studies found that a good night’s sleep may improve memory. The findings of both studies appeared in the publication Nature. Scientists at the University of Chicago did one of them. They trained students to listen to unclear speech produced by a machine. Some students listened to the recording after a night of sleep. Others were tested twelve hours after the training, with no sleep. Guess what? The students who slept understood the recording better. Professor Daniel Margoliash says sleep has at least two effects on learning. One is to strengthen memories and protect them against interference. The second is to recover memories that have been lost. VOICE ONE: The other study took place at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Scientists trained one-hundred people to repeat two series of finger movements. The act was similar to playing notes on a piano. People who slept between learning the first series and the second did the best. The study suggested that memories are recorded in three steps. Scientists say the process is similar to the way a computer stores information. In humans, they say, the second step requires sleep. So remember that! VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Karen Leggett, George Grow, Doreen Baingana and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: And, later, what makes a dog a dog ... and what sleep can do for memory. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Over forty-million people are infected with H-I-V. About three out of four live in African countries south of the Sahara Desert. H-I-V is the virus that causes the deadly disease AIDS. Last week an international conference for people living with H-I-V and AIDS took place in Uganda. In December there will be a meeting in Senegal on caring for people with AIDS in the community and in their own homes. But the largest African meeting on AIDS and other infections spread through sex took place in Kenya in late September. Seven thousand scientists and political leaders gathered in Nairobi for the thirteenth conference known as ICASA. They talked about ways to make sure people who have AIDS get the care they need. Many religious leaders at the conference also talked about ways to reduce the unfair treatment of people with AIDS. VOICE TWO: People at the conference talked a lot about the newest kind of medicine, called anti-retroviral drugs. A person takes three different pills a day to suppress the virus from multiplying. This combination of drugs has been shown to help people with AIDS live longer. People who take these medicines are often able to work or go to school. Many protesters at the conference were angry about delays in getting the medicines to more people. Kenya's health minister announced that the government will provide the drugs at reduced cost to six thousand people over the next year. One man from Kenya said he would not take any until everyone who has AIDS in Kenya can get them. VOICE ONE: Even if poor people get the best medicines, they must also have healthy food and clean water. So there were discussions about these issues as well. In Botswana, for example, all people with H-I-V are able to get anti-retroviral medicines. But there is also a program to make sure patients have nursing care and food in their homes. The delegates also discussed traditional medicines. However, some doctors said people should only use medicines that have been tested scientifically. VOICE TWO: Last month, former American President Bill Clinton announced an agreement that he negotiated with four drug makers. The companies will supply lost-cost versions of three anti-retroviral drugs taken as a combination. People in nine Caribbean countries as well as Mozambique, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Africa are to receive them. The United Nations says only three-hundred-thousand people living with AIDS in Africa currently receive anti-retroviral medicines. It says all nations must work harder and faster to fight AIDS. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Oceans cover almost seventy percent of Earth. Yet scientists say they know surprisingly little about the creatures in them. Now scientists have given the first progress report on a ten-year effort to identify all living things in the oceans. The project is called the Census of Marine Life. Organizers met in Washington, D.C., last month to report on three years of work. The scientists hope to complete the study by two-thousand-ten. The Census of Marine Life is expected to cost one-thousand-million dollars. Most of that money will come from governments. Hundreds of scientists from more than fifty countries are involved. A Canadian scientist, Ronald O’Dor, supervises the Census of Marine Life. VOICE TWO: Currently, scientists know about more than two-hundred-thousand kinds of sea creatures. But they estimate that the final number could be ten times greater. More than fifteen-thousand kinds of fish are now included in the census records. Organizers say they expect the final count to reach about twenty-thousand. Project scientists have identified an average of three new kinds of fish each week. These fish are not necessarily new, but this is the first time anyone has identified them. The census is also identifying threatened sea creatures and areas where they mate. The scientists say pollution, climate change and the fishing industry have caused many kinds of sea life to disappear. VOICE ONE: Scientists have made a number of discoveries during the first three years of the project. One example is a deep-sea environment near the coast of Angola. They say it contains more kinds of sea life per area than any other ocean environment known. About eighty percent of the creatures collected there were new to scientists. Also, underwater cameras have shown that deep-sea areas are not mostly dirt, as many people believe. Corals and sponges have formed environments that the scientists call surprisingly rich. They say deep-sea areas are very important for fish and other creatures. One video showed life in the Mid-Atlantic Ocean at a depth of four-thousand-five-hundred meters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: If you ever want to build a dog, there is now a place to start. Scientists have completed the first version of the dog genome. These are the genetic instructions needed to make the animal known as man's best friend. They scientists learned more about the nature of dogs, and their genetic links to people. The magazine Science published the findings of a team under Craig Venter of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland. Doctor Venter is well-known for his work on a genetic map of humans. He used his own D-N-A in that project. For the dog project, he used cells from his black standard poodle, named Shadow. The team used a new method of D-N-A testing. It does not provide all of the genetic information. Full genetic sequencing is more complete. That was the method used to find the instructions for humans, mice and fruit flies. But the new method takes a lot less time and money. Doctor Venter’s team placed about two-and-a-half thousand-million dog gene molecules in general order. As expected, the scientists found that dogs have more smell receptor genes in their noses than people do. This explains why dogs have such a strong sense of smell. VOICE ONE: Craig Venter says one of the main goals was to understand the links between genes and the way dogs act. Scientists say small changes in genetic code may explain why different breeds of dogs act differently. But the researchers also learned that we share at least seventy-five percent of our known genes with dogs. These findings may help studies of human disease, since dogs get many of the same diseases people do. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many students try to study the whole night and not sleep before an exam. Two separate studies show this may do more harm than good. The studies found that a good night’s sleep may improve memory. The findings of both studies appeared in the publication Nature. Scientists at the University of Chicago did one of them. They trained students to listen to unclear speech produced by a machine. Some students listened to the recording after a night of sleep. Others were tested twelve hours after the training, with no sleep. Guess what? The students who slept understood the recording better. Professor Daniel Margoliash says sleep has at least two effects on learning. One is to strengthen memories and protect them against interference. The second is to recover memories that have been lost. VOICE ONE: The other study took place at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Scientists trained one-hundred people to repeat two series of finger movements. The act was similar to playing notes on a piano. People who slept between learning the first series and the second did the best. The study suggested that memories are recorded in three steps. Scientists say the process is similar to the way a computer stores information. In humans, they say, the second step requires sleep. So remember that! VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by Karen Leggett, George Grow, Doreen Baingana and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Asian Lady Beetle
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 4, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There are lots of insects that farmers hate. But there also are some they like. These protect crops against damage from other insects. A good example is the lady beetle, also known as the ladybug. Lady beetles are a natural control for aphids. Aphids are tiny insects that develop colonies on plants and eat plant fluids. Aphids can also spread crop diseases. Adult lady beetles can eat fifty aphids a day. The young beetle larvae can eat hundreds of aphids. Lady beetles are red, orange or black. They often have black spots, though some have light colored spots. Different kinds of lady beetles have different numbers of spots. There are lady beetles with four, five, seven and fourteen spots. Many of the well-known kinds of lady beetles come from Asia or Europe. They now are common throughout the United States. American scientists imported one kind of lady beetle, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, as early as nineteen-sixteen. They released them as an attempt to control some kinds of inspects. Over the years, the beetle has become established, possibly helped by some that arrived with imported plants on ships. Experts say over four-hundred-fifty kinds of lady beetles are found in North America. Some are native to the area. Others have been brought from other places. Almost all are helpful to farmers. Two kinds, however, are not. The Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle eat plants. The Asian lady beetles now in the United States probably came from Japan. The Asian lady beetle eats aphids that affect crops like soybeans, fruits and berries. In the southern United States, Asian lady beetles have reduced the need for farmers to use pest-killing poisons on pecan trees. This popular tree nut suffers from aphids and other pests that the beetles eat. But some people say the Asian lady beetle has itself become a pest. This time of year, lady beetles have no food after crops have been harvested. It is time for them to prepare for winter. Normally this is in the ground, but it can also be in someone’s home. Some farmers also worry that the beetles may eat their late-autumn fruit crops. Experts say Asian lady beetles may appear in large numbers in some years. But they say the insects are too helpful to consider pests. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: November 4, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. There are lots of insects that farmers hate. But there also are some they like. These protect crops against damage from other insects. A good example is the lady beetle, also known as the ladybug. Lady beetles are a natural control for aphids. Aphids are tiny insects that develop colonies on plants and eat plant fluids. Aphids can also spread crop diseases. Adult lady beetles can eat fifty aphids a day. The young beetle larvae can eat hundreds of aphids. Lady beetles are red, orange or black. They often have black spots, though some have light colored spots. Different kinds of lady beetles have different numbers of spots. There are lady beetles with four, five, seven and fourteen spots. Many of the well-known kinds of lady beetles come from Asia or Europe. They now are common throughout the United States. American scientists imported one kind of lady beetle, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, as early as nineteen-sixteen. They released them as an attempt to control some kinds of inspects. Over the years, the beetle has become established, possibly helped by some that arrived with imported plants on ships. Experts say over four-hundred-fifty kinds of lady beetles are found in North America. Some are native to the area. Others have been brought from other places. Almost all are helpful to farmers. Two kinds, however, are not. The Mexican bean beetle and the squash beetle eat plants. The Asian lady beetles now in the United States probably came from Japan. The Asian lady beetle eats aphids that affect crops like soybeans, fruits and berries. In the southern United States, Asian lady beetles have reduced the need for farmers to use pest-killing poisons on pecan trees. This popular tree nut suffers from aphids and other pests that the beetles eat. But some people say the Asian lady beetle has itself become a pest. This time of year, lady beetles have no food after crops have been harvested. It is time for them to prepare for winter. Normally this is in the ground, but it can also be in someone’s home. Some farmers also worry that the beetles may eat their late-autumn fruit crops. Experts say Asian lady beetles may appear in large numbers in some years. But they say the insects are too helpful to consider pests. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - New Heart Attack Tests
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 5, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. A new blood test could give doctors a better way to tell if a person is in danger of a heart attack. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, developed the experimental test. It measures the amount of an enzyme produced by white blood cells. This protein is called myeloperoxidase, or M-P-O. M-P-O is present in the fatty material found on the arteries of people who die suddenly of a heart attack. The researchers reported on their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. They studied more than six-hundred people over several months last year. All had arrived at the Emergency Room of the Cleveland Clinic within twenty-four hours of the start of chest pain. The researchers found a link between high levels of M-P-O and the chances that a person would suffer a heart attack within six months. They also found that the M-P-O level in the blood correctly told a person’s risk of heart disease ninety-five percent of the time. Researchers had known that M-P-O plays a part in hardening of the arteries. They say the study is more proof of the risks of inflammation in artery walls. Inflammation loosens some of the fatty cholesterol material that attaches to the walls. The material can separate from the artery and block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. The M-P-O level shows the amount of inflammation in arteries. M-P-O is one of a number of substances being studied as ways to find the probability of heart disease. German researchers reported about a second one in the New England Journal of Medicine. It is called glutathione peroxidase. They measured levels of this molecule in the red blood cells of people with suspected coronary artery disease. They studied more than six-hundred people for about five years. The study suggests that a low level of the molecule is a sign of a coming heart attack. New blood tests like these would add to the ways that doctors decide what to do for patients with chest pain. The choice of treatment could reduce the chances of a heart attack. The tests themselves must be tested further. But the Cleveland researchers say their M-P-O test could be ready for use within a year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Broadcast: November 5, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. A new blood test could give doctors a better way to tell if a person is in danger of a heart attack. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, developed the experimental test. It measures the amount of an enzyme produced by white blood cells. This protein is called myeloperoxidase, or M-P-O. M-P-O is present in the fatty material found on the arteries of people who die suddenly of a heart attack. The researchers reported on their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. They studied more than six-hundred people over several months last year. All had arrived at the Emergency Room of the Cleveland Clinic within twenty-four hours of the start of chest pain. The researchers found a link between high levels of M-P-O and the chances that a person would suffer a heart attack within six months. They also found that the M-P-O level in the blood correctly told a person’s risk of heart disease ninety-five percent of the time. Researchers had known that M-P-O plays a part in hardening of the arteries. They say the study is more proof of the risks of inflammation in artery walls. Inflammation loosens some of the fatty cholesterol material that attaches to the walls. The material can separate from the artery and block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. The M-P-O level shows the amount of inflammation in arteries. M-P-O is one of a number of substances being studied as ways to find the probability of heart disease. German researchers reported about a second one in the New England Journal of Medicine. It is called glutathione peroxidase. They measured levels of this molecule in the red blood cells of people with suspected coronary artery disease. They studied more than six-hundred people for about five years. The study suggests that a low level of the molecule is a sign of a coming heart attack. New blood tests like these would add to the ways that doctors decide what to do for patients with chest pain. The choice of treatment could reduce the chances of a heart attack. The tests themselves must be tested further. But the Cleveland researchers say their M-P-O test could be ready for use within a year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Tuskegee Airmen
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 5, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 5, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell about the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell about the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots. (THEME) There was a little fog near the ground. But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew into the air. It was only a few minutes before the planes were flying over the Mediterranean Sea. The sea was calm, and very blue. It was July First,Nineteen-Forty-Three. The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes travelling to Italy. The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their guns were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. At the target area, the bombers began to unload their bombs. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions. VOICE TWO: A group of enemy fighters immediately appeared to attack the bomber planes. The enemy airplanes flew near. The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them. In the battle that followed, the men of the Ninety-Ninth gained their first victory. Lieutenant Charles B. Hall shot down a German airplane. He said it was the first time he had seen the enemy close enough to shoot at. He saw two German airplanes following the bombers just after the bombs were dropped. "I headed for the space between the fighters and bombers...I fired a long burst and saw my tracers penetrate the second aircraft. He was turning left, but suddenly fell off and headed straight into the ground." Charles Hall won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service that day. He and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama, to fight that battle. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty, blacks made up about one-point-five percent of the American Army and Navy. But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes. They had begun fighting for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One. In Nineteen-Seventeen, blacks who requested acceptance into pilot training programs were told that colored air groups were not being formed at the time. Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many whites that blacks could not fight. In Nineteen-Thirty-One, Walter White and Robert R. Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of an important organization for blacks, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute. The War Department refused their request. It said that the Air Corps chose men with technical experience. The department also said that blacks were not that interested in flying. And, it said so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many whites had to be refused acceptance. VOICE TWO: The War Department's refusal led many to feel that blacks would be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps only through legislation by Congress. Black leaders used the United States' preparation for and entry into World War Two to pressure Congress. They attacked the unfair treatment of blacks in the armed services. In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, Congress passed a bill that guaranteed blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots. It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established at Tuskegee, Alabama. VOICE ONE: Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military. Yet they continued to attack the military policy of racial separation. The War Department answered the criticisms by making plans to form several new black fighting groups. It also promoted a black Colonel, Benjamin O. Davis Senior, to Brigadier General. And, the department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, who was head of Howard University Law School, as Civilian Aide on Negro Affairs. VOICE TWO: Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flying training school at Tuskegee. He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separately. The Air Corps, however, said there was no room in other programs. It said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training program. Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition to the plan, even though he was not satisfied with it. Fred Patterson was president of the Tuskegee Institute then. He also objected to the separate training of black pilots at Tuskegee. He said that it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. Mister Patterson finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He realized blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks were now able to be military pilots. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. On March Seventh, Nineteen-Forty-Two, the first group of African-Americans ever to be trained as fighter pilots completed the program at Tuskegee. General Davis's son, Benjamin O. Davis Junior, was among the first graduates. Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces. Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October of Nineteen-Forty-Two. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Junior commanded it. The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, Nineteen-Forty-Three. The pilots were able to gain fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of Nineteen-Forty-Three, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time "air power alone...completely destroyed all enemy resistance." The Tuskegee airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in January of Nineteen-Forty-Four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth squadron shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Their performance earned them two awards. And, their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war. VOICE TWO: In September, Nineteen-Forty-Three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three-Hundred-Thirty-Second Fighter Group. The Ninety-Ninth squadron became a part of the group. There were four-hundred-fifty pilots in the all-black group. They flew more than fifteen-thousand-five-hundred flights in southern France, Greece, the Balkans and finally in Germany. The Tuskegee airmen guarded bomber airplanes. They destroyed more than one-hundred enemy airplanes in the air and one-hundred-fifty others on the ground. They flew more than two-hundred combat flights in Germany in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Not one allied bomber fell to enemy fighters when guarded by the Tuskegee airmen. They were considered the best at their job. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Nine-Hundred-Ninety-Six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee airmen represented both honor and inequality. Eighty-five of them won the Distinguished Flying Cross during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the racial policies of the military. History books say the Tuskegee airman proved that black men could fly modern airplanes in highly successful combat operations. And, the success of the group helped end the separate racial policies of the American military. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, President Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen. The next year, the Air Force, which no longer was part of the army, announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated. Back in civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airman became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their continued fighting spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. There was a little fog near the ground. But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew into the air. It was only a few minutes before the planes were flying over the Mediterranean Sea. The sea was calm, and very blue. It was July First,Nineteen-Forty-Three. The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes travelling to Italy. The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their guns were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. At the target area, the bombers began to unload their bombs. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions. VOICE TWO: A group of enemy fighters immediately appeared to attack the bomber planes. The enemy airplanes flew near. The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them. In the battle that followed, the men of the Ninety-Ninth gained their first victory. Lieutenant Charles B. Hall shot down a German airplane. He said it was the first time he had seen the enemy close enough to shoot at. He saw two German airplanes following the bombers just after the bombs were dropped. "I headed for the space between the fighters and bombers...I fired a long burst and saw my tracers penetrate the second aircraft. He was turning left, but suddenly fell off and headed straight into the ground." Charles Hall won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service that day. He and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama, to fight that battle. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty, blacks made up about one-point-five percent of the American Army and Navy. But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes. They had begun fighting for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One. In Nineteen-Seventeen, blacks who requested acceptance into pilot training programs were told that colored air groups were not being formed at the time. Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many whites that blacks could not fight. In Nineteen-Thirty-One, Walter White and Robert R. Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of an important organization for blacks, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute. The War Department refused their request. It said that the Air Corps chose men with technical experience. The department also said that blacks were not that interested in flying. And, it said so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many whites had to be refused acceptance. VOICE TWO: The War Department's refusal led many to feel that blacks would be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps only through legislation by Congress. Black leaders used the United States' preparation for and entry into World War Two to pressure Congress. They attacked the unfair treatment of blacks in the armed services. In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, Congress passed a bill that guaranteed blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots. It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established at Tuskegee, Alabama. VOICE ONE: Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military. Yet they continued to attack the military policy of racial separation. The War Department answered the criticisms by making plans to form several new black fighting groups. It also promoted a black Colonel, Benjamin O. Davis Senior, to Brigadier General. And, the department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, who was head of Howard University Law School, as Civilian Aide on Negro Affairs. VOICE TWO: Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flying training school at Tuskegee. He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separately. The Air Corps, however, said there was no room in other programs. It said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training program. Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition to the plan, even though he was not satisfied with it. Fred Patterson was president of the Tuskegee Institute then. He also objected to the separate training of black pilots at Tuskegee. He said that it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. Mister Patterson finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He realized blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks were now able to be military pilots. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. On March Seventh, Nineteen-Forty-Two, the first group of African-Americans ever to be trained as fighter pilots completed the program at Tuskegee. General Davis's son, Benjamin O. Davis Junior, was among the first graduates. Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces. Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October of Nineteen-Forty-Two. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Junior commanded it. The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, Nineteen-Forty-Three. The pilots were able to gain fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of Nineteen-Forty-Three, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time "air power alone...completely destroyed all enemy resistance." The Tuskegee airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in January of Nineteen-Forty-Four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth squadron shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Their performance earned them two awards. And, their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war. VOICE TWO: In September, Nineteen-Forty-Three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three-Hundred-Thirty-Second Fighter Group. The Ninety-Ninth squadron became a part of the group. There were four-hundred-fifty pilots in the all-black group. They flew more than fifteen-thousand-five-hundred flights in southern France, Greece, the Balkans and finally in Germany. The Tuskegee airmen guarded bomber airplanes. They destroyed more than one-hundred enemy airplanes in the air and one-hundred-fifty others on the ground. They flew more than two-hundred combat flights in Germany in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Not one allied bomber fell to enemy fighters when guarded by the Tuskegee airmen. They were considered the best at their job. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Nine-Hundred-Ninety-Six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee airmen represented both honor and inequality. Eighty-five of them won the Distinguished Flying Cross during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the racial policies of the military. History books say the Tuskegee airman proved that black men could fly modern airplanes in highly successful combat operations. And, the success of the group helped end the separate racial policies of the American military. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, President Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen. The next year, the Air Force, which no longer was part of the army, announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated. Back in civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airman became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their continued fighting spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #37 - November 6, 2003: Thomas Jefferson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) The United States, in Eighteen-Hundred-One, had a new president, Thomas Jefferson. With him, a new party had come to power, the Republican Party, which would later be called the Democratic Party. The United States now had a two-party system. On taking office, Jefferson spoke of the bitter struggle between his party, the Republicans, and the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton. But Jefferson held out the hand of peace and friendship to the Federalists. He said: "We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists. Let us unite with hearts and minds. Let us have peace and love in our relations with each other." That is our story. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, thus held out the hand of friendship to the Federalists. But Alexander Hamilton did not accept it. As Jefferson became president, Hamilton made a speech attacking Jefferson. Hamilton had decided to continue fighting the democratic movement in the United States. This did not worry Jefferson. He was sure he could show even the Federalists that his program was good for all. Of course, he said, the top leaders of the Federalists -- men like Hamilton -- could never be changed. But he was more interested in bringing their followers to his side. VOICE ONE: Jefferson was a happy president in those early days of Eighteen-Hundred-One. Jefferson said: "We can no longer say that there is nothing new under the sun. What we have done in this country is all new. The force of public opinion is new. But the most important and pleasing newness is that we have changed our government without violence. This shows a strength of American character that will give long life to our republic. "We have proved that freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought are necessary in a healthy nation. Let men argue with each other. The arguments may become bitter. But the bitterness is just a cloud that passes. And out of the arguments will come the truth." VOICE TWO: As for the Federalist leaders, they too -- except for Hamilton -- were pleased. President Jefferson had said in his inaugural speech: "We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists." This, the Federalist leaders said, showed that Jefferson would not even think of trying to destroy their program. George Cabot, the strongest Federalist leader in New England, usually agreed with Hamilton. But now, he did not. Cabot said, "I believe that our new president wants to stay out of war. We do not have to worry any longer that he plans to join France against England. He is friendly to us and wants our help. Therefore, I am sure that he will not dismiss any of our people from their government positions." VOICE ONE: Another Federalist leader -- Timothy Pickering -- the secretary of state under President Adams, said: "I am satisfied that Jefferson will not make any important changes in government policy, and that he will depend for support more on us Federalists than on the Democrats." During those first few weeks of the new government, the Federalist leaders really believed that Jefferson was afraid of them, that he had surrendered to them and would soon be destroyed as the leader of the Republican Party. One Federalist wrote: "Soon Jefferson will feel the bite of his dirty Democrats when they attack him!" VOICE TWO: Jefferson soon did hear complaints from Republican leaders who felt he was being too kind to the Federalists. William Giles, a Jeffersonian leader in Virginia, wrote: "Of course, I am very pleased by the president's inaugural speech. The president's program is correct. It agrees with the opinions of the people. But I still think that the president's success will depend on how he carries out his program. "Let him offer friendship to the Federalists. But he must not permit friendship to become weakness. His friends believe that the first thing he must do is to clean out the executive branch of the government. He must dismiss from office all men who are enemies of the Republican program." VOICE ONE: Even James Monroe wrote a strong letter to the president: "Your speech and your program are healthy and good. But there are serious dangers ahead of you. There are two parties in this country, not one. One of these parties, the Federalists, has controlled the government for twelve years and has hurt our nation greatly. Some of these Federalists now speak softly to you and promise their support. "But you must remember, too, that there are thousands of good Republicans who have always supported you. If you keep Federalists in office, if you appoint Federalists to office, many of these good Republicans will stop believing in you. "Certainly, there is no reason why you should give jobs to men who worked for the Federalist government of John Adams. Certainly, you must throw out the officials of the last government who stole money and sold their services. Do this and you will give strength to our Republican movement. "Please understand me. I am speaking only of high offices. I do not ask that you dismiss small officials because they are Federalists. They have a right to their political beliefs. Let them keep their jobs. This will show that you are a president who can accept different political opinions." VOICE TWO: As the Federalists and the Republican leaders kept asking Jefferson for positions in the government, the president was thinking of his cabinet. He quickly decided who would be his secretary of state and secretary of the treasury. James Madison of Virginia -- Jefferson's old friend and the father of the Constitution -- would be secretary of state. For secretary of the treasury, Jefferson chose Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania -- the brilliant leader of the Republicans in Congress -- the man who understood economics and finance as well as Alexander Hamilton. For the war department, Jefferson turned to General Henry Dearborn of New England. Jefferson's first choice to be secretary of the navy was Judge Robert Livingston, the great lawyer from New York. But Judge Livingston rejected this position. Jefferson finally chose Robert Smith of Baltimore, Maryland. VOICE ONE: The president had already appointed one man from New England to his cabinet, Secretary of War Dearborn. Yet, he went to New England for two more appointments. Jefferson knew that the strength of the Federalist Party was greater in New England than in any other part of the country. He believed that there was no better way to move New England away from the Federalist program than to give cabinet positions to men from New England. And so, Jefferson found his attorney general in Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts. Like Dearborn, Lincoln was a patriot of the American Revolution. He had been a supporter of Jefferson from the beginning. He was famous as a lawyer in Massachusetts, where he was the top leader of the Republican Party. Jefferson went to New England, too, for the postmaster general. It was not yet a cabinet office. But its importance was growing. The president gave this appointment to Gideon Granger -- lawyer, businessman, and writer -- one of the strong Jeffersonians in the state of Connecticut. Such was Jefferson's cabinet. All strong Republicans. All completely loyal. The Federalists were shocked. Not one of their men had been appointed. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Stuart Spencer. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (THEME) The United States, in Eighteen-Hundred-One, had a new president, Thomas Jefferson. With him, a new party had come to power, the Republican Party, which would later be called the Democratic Party. The United States now had a two-party system. On taking office, Jefferson spoke of the bitter struggle between his party, the Republicans, and the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton. But Jefferson held out the hand of peace and friendship to the Federalists. He said: "We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists. Let us unite with hearts and minds. Let us have peace and love in our relations with each other." That is our story. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, thus held out the hand of friendship to the Federalists. But Alexander Hamilton did not accept it. As Jefferson became president, Hamilton made a speech attacking Jefferson. Hamilton had decided to continue fighting the democratic movement in the United States. This did not worry Jefferson. He was sure he could show even the Federalists that his program was good for all. Of course, he said, the top leaders of the Federalists -- men like Hamilton -- could never be changed. But he was more interested in bringing their followers to his side. VOICE ONE: Jefferson was a happy president in those early days of Eighteen-Hundred-One. Jefferson said: "We can no longer say that there is nothing new under the sun. What we have done in this country is all new. The force of public opinion is new. But the most important and pleasing newness is that we have changed our government without violence. This shows a strength of American character that will give long life to our republic. "We have proved that freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought are necessary in a healthy nation. Let men argue with each other. The arguments may become bitter. But the bitterness is just a cloud that passes. And out of the arguments will come the truth." VOICE TWO: As for the Federalist leaders, they too -- except for Hamilton -- were pleased. President Jefferson had said in his inaugural speech: "We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists." This, the Federalist leaders said, showed that Jefferson would not even think of trying to destroy their program. George Cabot, the strongest Federalist leader in New England, usually agreed with Hamilton. But now, he did not. Cabot said, "I believe that our new president wants to stay out of war. We do not have to worry any longer that he plans to join France against England. He is friendly to us and wants our help. Therefore, I am sure that he will not dismiss any of our people from their government positions." VOICE ONE: Another Federalist leader -- Timothy Pickering -- the secretary of state under President Adams, said: "I am satisfied that Jefferson will not make any important changes in government policy, and that he will depend for support more on us Federalists than on the Democrats." During those first few weeks of the new government, the Federalist leaders really believed that Jefferson was afraid of them, that he had surrendered to them and would soon be destroyed as the leader of the Republican Party. One Federalist wrote: "Soon Jefferson will feel the bite of his dirty Democrats when they attack him!" VOICE TWO: Jefferson soon did hear complaints from Republican leaders who felt he was being too kind to the Federalists. William Giles, a Jeffersonian leader in Virginia, wrote: "Of course, I am very pleased by the president's inaugural speech. The president's program is correct. It agrees with the opinions of the people. But I still think that the president's success will depend on how he carries out his program. "Let him offer friendship to the Federalists. But he must not permit friendship to become weakness. His friends believe that the first thing he must do is to clean out the executive branch of the government. He must dismiss from office all men who are enemies of the Republican program." VOICE ONE: Even James Monroe wrote a strong letter to the president: "Your speech and your program are healthy and good. But there are serious dangers ahead of you. There are two parties in this country, not one. One of these parties, the Federalists, has controlled the government for twelve years and has hurt our nation greatly. Some of these Federalists now speak softly to you and promise their support. "But you must remember, too, that there are thousands of good Republicans who have always supported you. If you keep Federalists in office, if you appoint Federalists to office, many of these good Republicans will stop believing in you. "Certainly, there is no reason why you should give jobs to men who worked for the Federalist government of John Adams. Certainly, you must throw out the officials of the last government who stole money and sold their services. Do this and you will give strength to our Republican movement. "Please understand me. I am speaking only of high offices. I do not ask that you dismiss small officials because they are Federalists. They have a right to their political beliefs. Let them keep their jobs. This will show that you are a president who can accept different political opinions." VOICE TWO: As the Federalists and the Republican leaders kept asking Jefferson for positions in the government, the president was thinking of his cabinet. He quickly decided who would be his secretary of state and secretary of the treasury. James Madison of Virginia -- Jefferson's old friend and the father of the Constitution -- would be secretary of state. For secretary of the treasury, Jefferson chose Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania -- the brilliant leader of the Republicans in Congress -- the man who understood economics and finance as well as Alexander Hamilton. For the war department, Jefferson turned to General Henry Dearborn of New England. Jefferson's first choice to be secretary of the navy was Judge Robert Livingston, the great lawyer from New York. But Judge Livingston rejected this position. Jefferson finally chose Robert Smith of Baltimore, Maryland. VOICE ONE: The president had already appointed one man from New England to his cabinet, Secretary of War Dearborn. Yet, he went to New England for two more appointments. Jefferson knew that the strength of the Federalist Party was greater in New England than in any other part of the country. He believed that there was no better way to move New England away from the Federalist program than to give cabinet positions to men from New England. And so, Jefferson found his attorney general in Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts. Like Dearborn, Lincoln was a patriot of the American Revolution. He had been a supporter of Jefferson from the beginning. He was famous as a lawyer in Massachusetts, where he was the top leader of the Republican Party. Jefferson went to New England, too, for the postmaster general. It was not yet a cabinet office. But its importance was growing. The president gave this appointment to Gideon Granger -- lawyer, businessman, and writer -- one of the strong Jeffersonians in the state of Connecticut. Such was Jefferson's cabinet. All strong Republicans. All completely loyal. The Federalists were shocked. Not one of their men had been appointed. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Weitzel and Stuart Spencer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – College Costs in U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 6, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. A new report says the cost of studies at public colleges in the United States increased fourteen percent this year. This is the biggest increase in tuition in thirty years. But the study also found that the average student pays a lot less than the published costs of a college education, because of grants. And it points out that American students received a record amount of financial aid last year. Students do not have to repay grants, unlike financial aid in the form of loans. About half of American college students receive grants. This means that education costs differ from student to student. The report is from the College Board. This is a non-profit membership group of schools and other educational organizations. One of its best-known jobs is to administer college entrance tests. The College Board says tuition at two-year public colleges rose at the same rate as four-year schools. The College Board says the increases were mainly caused by cuts in state spending on education. But a congressman says colleges have increased their prices in both good and bad economic times. John Boehner [pronounced bay-ner] of Ohio is chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He says colleges do not want to talk about their decisions to spend money to build things like rock-climbing walls. The College Board collected information from four-thousand colleges and universities. It says the average total charge for students who live at a public college in their state is ten-thousand-six-hundred dollars. While tuition rose fourteen percent this year, housing and other costs increased at a lower rate. At a private college, total charges are almost twenty-seven-thousand dollars. That is an increase of about six percent over last year. David Ward is president of the American Council on Education. His group represents colleges and universities. Mister Ward called the College Board findings bad news. But he says percentage increases in tuition do not tell the whole story. He says there was good news about grants and other student aid. The College Board says financial aid for the last school year reached one-hundred-five-thousand-million dollars. That amount was up sharply from the year before. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: November 6, 2003 - American National Corpus
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 6, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the American National Corpus! RS: In linguistics, a corpus is a body of words. It's language collected in context, from books, poems, recorded conversations, newspapers, broadcasts -- any way language is used. Researchers, dictionary publishers, advertising writers and other users can easily search the collection by computer to find out how people naturally use language. AA: There's a British National Corpus. And now there's one for American English. Developers of the American National Corpus want to collect one-hundred-million core words -- and perhaps several hundred million more, to provide the broadest possible selection of texts and genres. RS: Paulo Quaglio is a Brazilian-born research assistant for the American National Corpus. QUAGLIO: "One of the things that we have learned is that native speaker intuition is very often inaccurate. So I'm going to give you an example from my personal research. So let me ask you a question. If you had to choose between these two sentences that I'm going to give you, which one would you choose. And there's no right or wrong, OK?" RS: "All right." QUAGLIO: "And the first is, 'I haven't seen you in two years.' And the second is, 'I haven't seen you for two years.' What would you say, in or for?" RS: "For." AA: "I would say 'in,' and I would think it sounds more British English to say 'for.'" RS: "'I haven't see you for two years,' 'I haven't seen you in two years.' To me, it doesn't make a big difference." AA: "Well ... " QUAGLIO: "OK, that's interesting. So that is a question that corpus linguistics can answer. So what do we do, we go to this huge body of language and we search for those occurrences and we try to find patterns of occurrence. Let me just guess one thing -- this is not always true, but Avi, would you be younger than Rosanne?" AA: "Well, yes." QUAGLIO: "OK, so what our research has shown is that in American English this construction is used with 'in' 75 percent of the time, and it seems to be correlated with speaker age. AA: "Wait, so the sentence 'I haven't seen you in two years' -- 'IN two years' rather than 'FOR two years' -- is more likely to be used by younger Americans, than 'for two years.'" QUAGLIO: "Exactly." AA: "Wow." RS: "Maybe it's because I've just been with my 85-year-old mother. [laughter]" QUAGLIO: "Both are used, but in British English 'for' occurs 98 percent of the time." RS: "That's interesting, because I was recently in England. Maybe all these influences of being around my 85-year-old mother and being in England ... " AA: "You were only there for a week!" QUAGLIO: "Or it could also be the region that you're from here in the United States." AA: "You know, I'm curious, with the influences of instant media and television and the Internet and so forth, and I know you've just released the first installment of 10 million words -- " QUAGLIO: "Right." AA: " -- is it safe to assume that by now, maybe some of those words aren't used as frequently as maybe they were five or 10 years ago or whenever they were first compiled?" QUAGLIO: "Well, language is constantly changing, and I can give you an example -- for example, the use of the adverbial intensifier 'so.' So when you take a look at grammars for example, you see there that 'so' modifies an adjective or an adverb. So, for example, 'she's so beautiful,' 'oh that was so beautifully done.' But then when you take a look at a more recent corpus, you see that 'so' is modifying a verb and it's also modifying a noun. Examples are 'oh I so want to do that.' Right, you've probably heard that before?" RS: "Right." QUAGLIO: "So this is really new. So we heard that a lot here on campus and we said 'oh, this is kind of interesting,' and then we saw that on this particular television show that I am analyzing. And so somebody says 'hey, you're so the man!' Hey, 'man' is a noun." AA: "Or my daughter will say 'that's so not right.'" QUAGLIO: "Exactly. This is the second point. Why not say, for example, 'this is so untrue'? What is the difference between that and 'this is so not true'?" RS: Paulo Quaglio is a research assistant for the American National Corpus, and a doctoral candidate at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. The corpus will be updated and distributed freely for non-commercial research purposes. AA: Commercial use will be limited at first to members of a consortium. These include publishers, software companies and academic members. The Web site for the project is americannationalcorpus -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. We'll post a link at our site. RS: Our address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And don't forget our e-mail address. It's word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 6, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the American National Corpus! RS: In linguistics, a corpus is a body of words. It's language collected in context, from books, poems, recorded conversations, newspapers, broadcasts -- any way language is used. Researchers, dictionary publishers, advertising writers and other users can easily search the collection by computer to find out how people naturally use language. AA: There's a British National Corpus. And now there's one for American English. Developers of the American National Corpus want to collect one-hundred-million core words -- and perhaps several hundred million more, to provide the broadest possible selection of texts and genres. RS: Paulo Quaglio is a Brazilian-born research assistant for the American National Corpus. QUAGLIO: "One of the things that we have learned is that native speaker intuition is very often inaccurate. So I'm going to give you an example from my personal research. So let me ask you a question. If you had to choose between these two sentences that I'm going to give you, which one would you choose. And there's no right or wrong, OK?" RS: "All right." QUAGLIO: "And the first is, 'I haven't seen you in two years.' And the second is, 'I haven't seen you for two years.' What would you say, in or for?" RS: "For." AA: "I would say 'in,' and I would think it sounds more British English to say 'for.'" RS: "'I haven't see you for two years,' 'I haven't seen you in two years.' To me, it doesn't make a big difference." AA: "Well ... " QUAGLIO: "OK, that's interesting. So that is a question that corpus linguistics can answer. So what do we do, we go to this huge body of language and we search for those occurrences and we try to find patterns of occurrence. Let me just guess one thing -- this is not always true, but Avi, would you be younger than Rosanne?" AA: "Well, yes." QUAGLIO: "OK, so what our research has shown is that in American English this construction is used with 'in' 75 percent of the time, and it seems to be correlated with speaker age. AA: "Wait, so the sentence 'I haven't seen you in two years' -- 'IN two years' rather than 'FOR two years' -- is more likely to be used by younger Americans, than 'for two years.'" QUAGLIO: "Exactly." AA: "Wow." RS: "Maybe it's because I've just been with my 85-year-old mother. [laughter]" QUAGLIO: "Both are used, but in British English 'for' occurs 98 percent of the time." RS: "That's interesting, because I was recently in England. Maybe all these influences of being around my 85-year-old mother and being in England ... " AA: "You were only there for a week!" QUAGLIO: "Or it could also be the region that you're from here in the United States." AA: "You know, I'm curious, with the influences of instant media and television and the Internet and so forth, and I know you've just released the first installment of 10 million words -- " QUAGLIO: "Right." AA: " -- is it safe to assume that by now, maybe some of those words aren't used as frequently as maybe they were five or 10 years ago or whenever they were first compiled?" QUAGLIO: "Well, language is constantly changing, and I can give you an example -- for example, the use of the adverbial intensifier 'so.' So when you take a look at grammars for example, you see there that 'so' modifies an adjective or an adverb. So, for example, 'she's so beautiful,' 'oh that was so beautifully done.' But then when you take a look at a more recent corpus, you see that 'so' is modifying a verb and it's also modifying a noun. Examples are 'oh I so want to do that.' Right, you've probably heard that before?" RS: "Right." QUAGLIO: "So this is really new. So we heard that a lot here on campus and we said 'oh, this is kind of interesting,' and then we saw that on this particular television show that I am analyzing. And so somebody says 'hey, you're so the man!' Hey, 'man' is a noun." AA: "Or my daughter will say 'that's so not right.'" QUAGLIO: "Exactly. This is the second point. Why not say, for example, 'this is so untrue'? What is the difference between that and 'this is so not true'?" RS: Paulo Quaglio is a research assistant for the American National Corpus, and a doctoral candidate at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. The corpus will be updated and distributed freely for non-commercial research purposes. AA: Commercial use will be limited at first to members of a consortium. These include publishers, software companies and academic members. The Web site for the project is americannationalcorpus -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. We'll post a link at our site. RS: Our address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And don't forget our e-mail address. It's word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Ramadan in America / Music by Sweet Honey in the Rock / Special English Announcers and Writers
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 7, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 7, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we play some music by Sweet Honey in the Rock, as that group celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. And we answer a listener’s question about some Special English announcers and writers. But first – a look at Ramadan in America. Ramadan in America HOST: Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan. Faith Lapidus tells how some are observing it in the United States. ANNCR: America is a nation of two-hundred-ninety-two-million people. There are estimates that six-million of them are Muslim. The government does not ask people their religion, so it has no official numbers. But Islam is often described as a fast growing religion in the United States. Media around the country have stories about activities at local Islamic centers during Ramadan. In Maryland, the Al-Rahmah Mosque in the Baltimore area uses its basketball court as a dining room. The Baltimore Sun newspaper says two-hundred to three-hundred people gather for their evening meal. Muslims are supposed to avoid food and drink from sunrise to sundown during Ramadan. In the central United States, the director of the Islamic Center of Lawrence, Kansas, says as many as two-hundred people go to daily prayers during a normal month. But he tells the Journal-World newspaper that the number can grow to five-hundred during Ramadan. President Bush led a traditional meal at the White House for American Muslim leaders and ambassadors of Muslim countries. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. To Muslims, it was the month in the year six-ten when the Prophet Mohamed received the knowledge from God that would become the holy book, the Koran. Many Muslims give presents to children during Ramadan. This year, a company in the state of Michigan is selling a number of toys designed for Muslim children. One of the most popular is a doll called Razanne (rah-ZAN). Razanne looks different from Barbies and other dolls for girls. All seven dolls in the series wear the traditional Muslim head covering. Their arms and legs are also covered. One is a schoolgirl. Another is a teacher. Ammar Saadeh established NoorArt, the company that created the Razanne doll. Mister Saadeh says the doll provides a good example for Muslim girls. There is also a Praying Razanne. It comes with a prayer rug and what the company describes as a small Koran-like book. Where Are They Now? HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Delta State, Nigeria. Henry Oghifo would like to know about several of the people whose names or voices appear in Special English programs. He sent us a list, and we would like to include a few more. First, he asked about Marilyn Rice Christiano. Marilyn was the chief of Special English and she retired about two years ago. Marilyn is a very busy woman. She travels a lot and has become an excellent photographer. Marilyn stops by our office once in a while to say hello. You may remember Warren Scheer. If you listen to this program, you heard his voice many times. Warren retired a few years ago and is busy with a small farm in West Virginia. Henry also asked about Tony Riggs. Tony was the host of American Mosaic for a long time -- more than four-hundred programs! We still see Tony almost every day. You can hear him on VOA News Now. Tony is also busy learning to fly small airplanes. And where would we be without Nancy Steinbach? She is the chief writer of American Mosaic, and has been since our program began. She writes for other Special English programs as well. Henry also asked about Larry West, Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Sadly, all three have died. Kay Gallant died just a few weeks ago, at the age of eighty. We miss them. They were good friends and a lot of fun to work with. Because we repeat some older programs, you may still hear their voices on the air. Listen for a moment to Larry, Maurice and Kay. They were three of our very best announcers. (SOUND) Henry also asks about Paul Thompson. Paul is here with me in the studio. He usually produces American Mosaic, and has produced almost one-thousand of our shows. Sometimes he writes for us, too, along with most of the shows in the Special English program, Explorations. Anyway, Paul has just given me a signal. That means we are almost out of time for this part of American Mosaic. However, we would like to thank Henry Oghifo in Delta State, Nigeria for asking about us. Sweet Honey in the Rock HOST: Members of the singing group Sweet Honey In The Rock are celebrating thirty years together. These six African American women perform the religious music known as gospel. They also sing jazz, protest songs and blues. Sweet Honey In The Rock takes its name from a story in the Bible. It tells of a land so rich that honey would flow from rocks. Phoebe Zimmermann takes the story from there. ANNCR: Most of the time, the members of Sweet Honey In The Rock sing without any musical instruments. Here is a song from “Still On The Journey,” their twentieth anniversary album. The song is called "Tribute." (MUSIC) The founder of Sweet Honey In The Rock is Bernice Johnson Reagon (REE gun). She writes many of their songs. Here is one she wrote for children, ”Still Got To Get Up In The Morning.” (MUSIC) The women of Sweet Honey In The Rock are celebrating their thirty years together by performing across the United States. They also recorded an anniversary album called "The Women Gather." We leave you with the title song. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailing address. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Skip Sisk. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we play some music by Sweet Honey in the Rock, as that group celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. And we answer a listener’s question about some Special English announcers and writers. But first – a look at Ramadan in America. Ramadan in America HOST: Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan. Faith Lapidus tells how some are observing it in the United States. ANNCR: America is a nation of two-hundred-ninety-two-million people. There are estimates that six-million of them are Muslim. The government does not ask people their religion, so it has no official numbers. But Islam is often described as a fast growing religion in the United States. Media around the country have stories about activities at local Islamic centers during Ramadan. In Maryland, the Al-Rahmah Mosque in the Baltimore area uses its basketball court as a dining room. The Baltimore Sun newspaper says two-hundred to three-hundred people gather for their evening meal. Muslims are supposed to avoid food and drink from sunrise to sundown during Ramadan. In the central United States, the director of the Islamic Center of Lawrence, Kansas, says as many as two-hundred people go to daily prayers during a normal month. But he tells the Journal-World newspaper that the number can grow to five-hundred during Ramadan. President Bush led a traditional meal at the White House for American Muslim leaders and ambassadors of Muslim countries. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. To Muslims, it was the month in the year six-ten when the Prophet Mohamed received the knowledge from God that would become the holy book, the Koran. Many Muslims give presents to children during Ramadan. This year, a company in the state of Michigan is selling a number of toys designed for Muslim children. One of the most popular is a doll called Razanne (rah-ZAN). Razanne looks different from Barbies and other dolls for girls. All seven dolls in the series wear the traditional Muslim head covering. Their arms and legs are also covered. One is a schoolgirl. Another is a teacher. Ammar Saadeh established NoorArt, the company that created the Razanne doll. Mister Saadeh says the doll provides a good example for Muslim girls. There is also a Praying Razanne. It comes with a prayer rug and what the company describes as a small Koran-like book. Where Are They Now? HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Delta State, Nigeria. Henry Oghifo would like to know about several of the people whose names or voices appear in Special English programs. He sent us a list, and we would like to include a few more. First, he asked about Marilyn Rice Christiano. Marilyn was the chief of Special English and she retired about two years ago. Marilyn is a very busy woman. She travels a lot and has become an excellent photographer. Marilyn stops by our office once in a while to say hello. You may remember Warren Scheer. If you listen to this program, you heard his voice many times. Warren retired a few years ago and is busy with a small farm in West Virginia. Henry also asked about Tony Riggs. Tony was the host of American Mosaic for a long time -- more than four-hundred programs! We still see Tony almost every day. You can hear him on VOA News Now. Tony is also busy learning to fly small airplanes. And where would we be without Nancy Steinbach? She is the chief writer of American Mosaic, and has been since our program began. She writes for other Special English programs as well. Henry also asked about Larry West, Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Sadly, all three have died. Kay Gallant died just a few weeks ago, at the age of eighty. We miss them. They were good friends and a lot of fun to work with. Because we repeat some older programs, you may still hear their voices on the air. Listen for a moment to Larry, Maurice and Kay. They were three of our very best announcers. (SOUND) Henry also asks about Paul Thompson. Paul is here with me in the studio. He usually produces American Mosaic, and has produced almost one-thousand of our shows. Sometimes he writes for us, too, along with most of the shows in the Special English program, Explorations. Anyway, Paul has just given me a signal. That means we are almost out of time for this part of American Mosaic. However, we would like to thank Henry Oghifo in Delta State, Nigeria for asking about us. Sweet Honey in the Rock HOST: Members of the singing group Sweet Honey In The Rock are celebrating thirty years together. These six African American women perform the religious music known as gospel. They also sing jazz, protest songs and blues. Sweet Honey In The Rock takes its name from a story in the Bible. It tells of a land so rich that honey would flow from rocks. Phoebe Zimmermann takes the story from there. ANNCR: Most of the time, the members of Sweet Honey In The Rock sing without any musical instruments. Here is a song from “Still On The Journey,” their twentieth anniversary album. The song is called "Tribute." (MUSIC) The founder of Sweet Honey In The Rock is Bernice Johnson Reagon (REE gun). She writes many of their songs. Here is one she wrote for children, ”Still Got To Get Up In The Morning.” (MUSIC) The women of Sweet Honey In The Rock are celebrating their thirty years together by performing across the United States. They also recorded an anniversary album called "The Women Gather." We leave you with the title song. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send us your questions about American life! Our e-mail address is mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailing address. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Skip Sisk. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - New York Stock Exchange, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 7, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The largest stock market in the world is the New York Stock Exchange. It is also the oldest financial market in the United States. Its history dates to seventeen-ninety-two. Today, two-thousand-eight hundred companies trade their shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Together, the value of those stocks is almost fifteen-million-million dollars. These companies are all publicly traded. That means any investor can buy their stock. A foreign company can trade on the New York Stock Exchange by placing some of its shares in a bank. An American Depositary [correct] Receipt is given in place of the stock, and can be traded on the exchange. About four-hundred-seventy companies from fifty-one other nations are represented on the New York Stock Exchange. Stock is a share in the ownership of a company. Debt is also traded on the exchange. Bonds are generally sold in amounts of one-thousand dollars or more. Companies and governments sell bonds as a way to borrow money. Buyers earn interest as they wait for the bonds to reach full value. Bonds can also be resold or divided. The New York Stock Exchange is owned by its members. It has more than one-thousand-three-hundred members. They have the right to buy and sell securities on the trading floor, for other investors or for themselves. A membership is traditionally called a seat. These can also be bought and sold. Seats on the exchange have sometimes sold for more than two-million dollars. In nineteen-seventy-one, the New York Stock Exchange became a non-profit corporation. This means it does not pay taxes. A board of directors governs the exchange. The board has twenty-seven members. Twelve directors come from the securities industry. Twelve others are public directors. The board also includes the chairman of the exchange and two other top officers. In September, Richard Grasso resigned as chairman. This happened after the exchange reported for the first time the total value of his pay agreement. It was one-hundred-eighty-eight million dollars. A lot of people said that was too much. The temporary chairman of the New York Stock Exchange is John Reed. He says he plans to reform the board of directors. We discuss some of those plans next week. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: November 7, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The largest stock market in the world is the New York Stock Exchange. It is also the oldest financial market in the United States. Its history dates to seventeen-ninety-two. Today, two-thousand-eight hundred companies trade their shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Together, the value of those stocks is almost fifteen-million-million dollars. These companies are all publicly traded. That means any investor can buy their stock. A foreign company can trade on the New York Stock Exchange by placing some of its shares in a bank. An American Depositary [correct] Receipt is given in place of the stock, and can be traded on the exchange. About four-hundred-seventy companies from fifty-one other nations are represented on the New York Stock Exchange. Stock is a share in the ownership of a company. Debt is also traded on the exchange. Bonds are generally sold in amounts of one-thousand dollars or more. Companies and governments sell bonds as a way to borrow money. Buyers earn interest as they wait for the bonds to reach full value. Bonds can also be resold or divided. The New York Stock Exchange is owned by its members. It has more than one-thousand-three-hundred members. They have the right to buy and sell securities on the trading floor, for other investors or for themselves. A membership is traditionally called a seat. These can also be bought and sold. Seats on the exchange have sometimes sold for more than two-million dollars. In nineteen-seventy-one, the New York Stock Exchange became a non-profit corporation. This means it does not pay taxes. A board of directors governs the exchange. The board has twenty-seven members. Twelve directors come from the securities industry. Twelve others are public directors. The board also includes the chairman of the exchange and two other top officers. In September, Richard Grasso resigned as chairman. This happened after the exchange reported for the first time the total value of his pay agreement. It was one-hundred-eighty-eight million dollars. A lot of people said that was too much. The temporary chairman of the New York Stock Exchange is John Reed. He says he plans to reform the board of directors. We discuss some of those plans next week. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 8, 2003: Russia's Yukos Oil Arrest
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. Many investors are concerned about the possible effects on the Russian economy from the arrest of the top official of Yukos Oil. That is Russia's largest oil company. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed last month on charges of failing to pay taxes and other economic crimes. This week, he resigned as chief executive. Mister Khodorkovsky denies any wrongdoing. His lawyers say the charges are political. Yukos Oil has lost market value. The Russian government has threatened to take away the rights of the company to develop important oil fields. Yukos could also lose its rights to operate some of the Siberian oilfields it depends on. Yukos Oil became a private company after the end of the Soviet Union twelve years ago. It has grown into the fourth largest energy supplier in the world. Russia’s economic growth in recent years has been largely based on oil sales. Russia has the world’s largest oil reserves. It is the second biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia. Foreign companies have invested a lot of money in Russian oil projects. Critics say the government organized the arrest of Mister Khodorkovsky to punish him for his political activities. He has criticized the government of President Vladimir Putin. He has given money to opposition parties. And he has had wide influence in the Russian parliament. President Putin had made an agreement with Russia’s business leaders. These leaders became rich under former President Boris Yelstin. They bought state-owned businesses at low prices in the early nineteen-nineties. Many of these agreements, however, were considered illegal. At a meeting in early two-thousand, Mister Putin told the business leaders to stay out of politics or risk losing their companies. Two of them used their television stations to attack the president. They were later forced into exile. Mister Putin has been widely criticized in the West for appearing to unfairly target a political opponent. His closest aide resigned in protest over the arrest of Mister Khodorkovsky. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov also has publicly opposed the president. Russian businessmen say they fear that the investigation of Yukos Oil will spread. One aide to Mister Khodorkovsky requested Israeli citizenship. Two others fled to London. Mister Putin says his government supports business and a market economy. On Thursday, the president said the arrest would not lead to any changes in economic or political policy. He said high-level officials in the Interior Ministry were arrested too. He said the actions are guided by the desire to establish law and order and fight economic crime in Russia. Yukos Oil has named a Russian-born American to take Mister Khodorkovsky’s place. IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English. Many investors are concerned about the possible effects on the Russian economy from the arrest of the top official of Yukos Oil. That is Russia's largest oil company. Mikhail Khodorkovsky was jailed last month on charges of failing to pay taxes and other economic crimes. This week, he resigned as chief executive. Mister Khodorkovsky denies any wrongdoing. His lawyers say the charges are political. Yukos Oil has lost market value. The Russian government has threatened to take away the rights of the company to develop important oil fields. Yukos could also lose its rights to operate some of the Siberian oilfields it depends on. Yukos Oil became a private company after the end of the Soviet Union twelve years ago. It has grown into the fourth largest energy supplier in the world. Russia’s economic growth in recent years has been largely based on oil sales. Russia has the world’s largest oil reserves. It is the second biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia. Foreign companies have invested a lot of money in Russian oil projects. Critics say the government organized the arrest of Mister Khodorkovsky to punish him for his political activities. He has criticized the government of President Vladimir Putin. He has given money to opposition parties. And he has had wide influence in the Russian parliament. President Putin had made an agreement with Russia’s business leaders. These leaders became rich under former President Boris Yelstin. They bought state-owned businesses at low prices in the early nineteen-nineties. Many of these agreements, however, were considered illegal. At a meeting in early two-thousand, Mister Putin told the business leaders to stay out of politics or risk losing their companies. Two of them used their television stations to attack the president. They were later forced into exile. Mister Putin has been widely criticized in the West for appearing to unfairly target a political opponent. His closest aide resigned in protest over the arrest of Mister Khodorkovsky. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov also has publicly opposed the president. Russian businessmen say they fear that the investigation of Yukos Oil will spread. One aide to Mister Khodorkovsky requested Israeli citizenship. Two others fled to London. Mister Putin says his government supports business and a market economy. On Thursday, the president said the arrest would not lead to any changes in economic or political policy. He said high-level officials in the Interior Ministry were arrested too. He said the actions are guided by the desire to establish law and order and fight economic crime in Russia. Yukos Oil has named a Russian-born American to take Mister Khodorkovsky’s place. IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 9, 2003: Chief Joseph, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: People in America -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Larry West and Warren Scheer complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. (THEME) ANNCR: People in America -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Larry West and Warren Scheer complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. (Theme) VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-seven, the American government decided to move the Nez Perce Indians from their land in the northwestern part of the country. The government had set up a reservation for them in Idaho. Chief Joseph did not want to leave the land. It was holy ground. It contained the bones of his father and mother. But, like his father in earlier times, Chief Joseph knew it would be hopeless to stay and defend the land. There were too few Indians to win a war against the white men. And so in June of eighteen seventy-seven, the Nez Perce left their home in the Wallowa Valley. They left quickly. They were able to take only a small part of what they owned, and just a few cattle and Appaloosa horses. VOICE TWO: When the Indians reached the Snake River, the water was very deep and ran very fast with melted snow from the mountains. Chief Joseph and his people made boats from sticks and dried animal skins to cross the river. While the Indians were busy, a group of white men came and stole some of the cattle waiting at the edge of the river. The other chiefs demanded that Joseph call a meeting. Two of the chiefs, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote, spoke for War. But Joseph said, "It is better to live at peace than to begin a war and lie dead. " VOICE ONE: Some of the young men in White Bird's group were very angry. That night, they rode into the countryside and killed eleven white persons. During all his years as chief, Joseph had tried to keep the peace. Now he saw there was no hope. Although he and his young men had taken no part in the killings, he knew that the white men would blame all of the Indians. Chief Joseph said, "I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of the white men. " Many Nez Perce fled. Chief Joseph remained, because his wife was about to have a baby. After she gave birth, he and his brother and their families joined the others in White Bird Canyon to the south. VOICE TWO: Joseph wanted to lead the people to safety in the flat lands of Montana. But the United States army quickly sent horse soldiers to follow them. The troops rode all night. They were extremely tired when they reached White Bird Canyon. An Indian -- carrying a white flag -- walked forward to meet them. A soldier shot him. With that shot, war between the Nez Perce and the United States began. VOICE ONE: The young Nez Perce men were skilled with their guns. They knew the land. And they were calm in battle. The army officers did not know the land. And they were not wise. When the soldiers attacked, they fired on Indian women and children. The two sides fought hard. The soldiers could not defeat the Indians. Joseph, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote led their people across the mountains to join another Nez Perce group led by Chief Looking Glass. Together, the Nez Perce forces then numbered more than two-hundred-fifty warriors. The chiefs met. They knew they could not return home. They decided to lead their people to Canada. And so they headed north, always keeping their horses in front of them. The chiefs believed the soldiers would not follow them again. VOICE TWO: The chiefs did not know, however, that army officials in Washington were discussing the situation. The officials did not understand why the United States army could not capture several hundred Indians. So they decided to send General William Tecumseh Sherman -- a hero of the Civil War -- to find out. The Indians continued to move toward Canada, battling groups of soldiers along the way. When the Indians reached the great Yellowstone Park, General Sherman himself was waiting for them. His troops closed every road out of the park. But Joseph, with his people and their horses, escaped through the trees. VOICE ONE: General Sherman sent word by telegraph to other army commanders along the Indians' way north. At one place in the mountains, the Indians found a group of soldiers building a wall across the only road. Joseph, White Bird and Looking Glass rode down to the wall and spoke to the officers. The chiefs told them: "We are going by you without fighting if you will let us. But we are going by you anyhow. " The soldiers would not let the Indians pass. Fighting broke out. And, again, the Indian warriors defeated the white soldiers. Joseph was not a military man. In fact, before the war against the American army, Joseph had never been in battle. But he understood human nature. He understood his enemy. And he was able to unite his warriors and his people. VOICE TWO: Many weeks after the Nez Perce had left their home lands, they reached the Bear Paw Mountains. They were only eighty kilometers from Canada. The Nez Perce were close to their goal. But safety was not yet in sight. Six-hundred army troops, under the command of General Nelson Miles, were waiting at Bear Paw. The soldiers attacked two times on the first day. They were beaten back two times. Joseph's brother was killed in the fighting, as well as Toohoolhoolzote and some of the other chiefs. After the long march and so many battles, only eighty-seven warriors remained. Many of the women and children were wounded or sick. Most of the horses were dead. The weather turned cold in the mountains. The wind blew, and it began to snow. General Miles sent a message to Chief Joseph. He said: "If you will come out and give up your arms, I will not harm you, and will send you to the reservation. " VOICE ONE: Chief Joseph would not give up. The battle continued. On the fourth day, Chief Looking Glass was hit by a bullet and died. On the fifth day, Chief Joseph rode out -- alone -- to the snowy battlefield. He surrendered. He said: "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. It is cold, and we have no blankets. Some of my people have run away to the hills. No one knows where they are. I want to have time to look for my children. Hear me, my chiefs! My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands. . . I will fight no more forever. " VOICE TWO: Two days after Chief Joseph surrendered, the government ordered him and his people far away. First, they went to an army base in Kansas. Then they went to a dry and empty piece of land in Oklahoma. Within a year, almost half the people died. Joseph buried all of his children. Years later, Chief Joseph and his people were permitted to return to the northwest. But they were not permitted to return home. Joseph spoke to American officials. Nothing changed. He could never go back to the holy ground that held the bones of his father and mother. He lived in the northwest -- in exile -- until September, nineteen-oh-four, when he died. VOICE ONE: Chief Joseph's words expressed the ideas of justice and civil rights. . . Even though he lived in a time when he could not have those rights himself. He said: "Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. The earth is the mother of all people. And all people should have equal rights upon it. Then the great spirit chief who rules above will smile upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. " (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America, and its story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. You narrators were Larry West and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. This is Shirley Griffith. (Theme) VOICE ONE: In eighteen seventy-seven, the American government decided to move the Nez Perce Indians from their land in the northwestern part of the country. The government had set up a reservation for them in Idaho. Chief Joseph did not want to leave the land. It was holy ground. It contained the bones of his father and mother. But, like his father in earlier times, Chief Joseph knew it would be hopeless to stay and defend the land. There were too few Indians to win a war against the white men. And so in June of eighteen seventy-seven, the Nez Perce left their home in the Wallowa Valley. They left quickly. They were able to take only a small part of what they owned, and just a few cattle and Appaloosa horses. VOICE TWO: When the Indians reached the Snake River, the water was very deep and ran very fast with melted snow from the mountains. Chief Joseph and his people made boats from sticks and dried animal skins to cross the river. While the Indians were busy, a group of white men came and stole some of the cattle waiting at the edge of the river. The other chiefs demanded that Joseph call a meeting. Two of the chiefs, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote, spoke for War. But Joseph said, "It is better to live at peace than to begin a war and lie dead. " VOICE ONE: Some of the young men in White Bird's group were very angry. That night, they rode into the countryside and killed eleven white persons. During all his years as chief, Joseph had tried to keep the peace. Now he saw there was no hope. Although he and his young men had taken no part in the killings, he knew that the white men would blame all of the Indians. Chief Joseph said, "I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of the white men. " Many Nez Perce fled. Chief Joseph remained, because his wife was about to have a baby. After she gave birth, he and his brother and their families joined the others in White Bird Canyon to the south. VOICE TWO: Joseph wanted to lead the people to safety in the flat lands of Montana. But the United States army quickly sent horse soldiers to follow them. The troops rode all night. They were extremely tired when they reached White Bird Canyon. An Indian -- carrying a white flag -- walked forward to meet them. A soldier shot him. With that shot, war between the Nez Perce and the United States began. VOICE ONE: The young Nez Perce men were skilled with their guns. They knew the land. And they were calm in battle. The army officers did not know the land. And they were not wise. When the soldiers attacked, they fired on Indian women and children. The two sides fought hard. The soldiers could not defeat the Indians. Joseph, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote led their people across the mountains to join another Nez Perce group led by Chief Looking Glass. Together, the Nez Perce forces then numbered more than two-hundred-fifty warriors. The chiefs met. They knew they could not return home. They decided to lead their people to Canada. And so they headed north, always keeping their horses in front of them. The chiefs believed the soldiers would not follow them again. VOICE TWO: The chiefs did not know, however, that army officials in Washington were discussing the situation. The officials did not understand why the United States army could not capture several hundred Indians. So they decided to send General William Tecumseh Sherman -- a hero of the Civil War -- to find out. The Indians continued to move toward Canada, battling groups of soldiers along the way. When the Indians reached the great Yellowstone Park, General Sherman himself was waiting for them. His troops closed every road out of the park. But Joseph, with his people and their horses, escaped through the trees. VOICE ONE: General Sherman sent word by telegraph to other army commanders along the Indians' way north. At one place in the mountains, the Indians found a group of soldiers building a wall across the only road. Joseph, White Bird and Looking Glass rode down to the wall and spoke to the officers. The chiefs told them: "We are going by you without fighting if you will let us. But we are going by you anyhow. " The soldiers would not let the Indians pass. Fighting broke out. And, again, the Indian warriors defeated the white soldiers. Joseph was not a military man. In fact, before the war against the American army, Joseph had never been in battle. But he understood human nature. He understood his enemy. And he was able to unite his warriors and his people. VOICE TWO: Many weeks after the Nez Perce had left their home lands, they reached the Bear Paw Mountains. They were only eighty kilometers from Canada. The Nez Perce were close to their goal. But safety was not yet in sight. Six-hundred army troops, under the command of General Nelson Miles, were waiting at Bear Paw. The soldiers attacked two times on the first day. They were beaten back two times. Joseph's brother was killed in the fighting, as well as Toohoolhoolzote and some of the other chiefs. After the long march and so many battles, only eighty-seven warriors remained. Many of the women and children were wounded or sick. Most of the horses were dead. The weather turned cold in the mountains. The wind blew, and it began to snow. General Miles sent a message to Chief Joseph. He said: "If you will come out and give up your arms, I will not harm you, and will send you to the reservation. " VOICE ONE: Chief Joseph would not give up. The battle continued. On the fourth day, Chief Looking Glass was hit by a bullet and died. On the fifth day, Chief Joseph rode out -- alone -- to the snowy battlefield. He surrendered. He said: "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. It is cold, and we have no blankets. Some of my people have run away to the hills. No one knows where they are. I want to have time to look for my children. Hear me, my chiefs! My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands. . . I will fight no more forever. " VOICE TWO: Two days after Chief Joseph surrendered, the government ordered him and his people far away. First, they went to an army base in Kansas. Then they went to a dry and empty piece of land in Oklahoma. Within a year, almost half the people died. Joseph buried all of his children. Years later, Chief Joseph and his people were permitted to return to the northwest. But they were not permitted to return home. Joseph spoke to American officials. Nothing changed. He could never go back to the holy ground that held the bones of his father and mother. He lived in the northwest -- in exile -- until September, nineteen-oh-four, when he died. VOICE ONE: Chief Joseph's words expressed the ideas of justice and civil rights. . . Even though he lived in a time when he could not have those rights himself. He said: "Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. The earth is the mother of all people. And all people should have equal rights upon it. Then the great spirit chief who rules above will smile upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. " (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America, and its story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. You narrators were Larry West and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. This is Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 10, 2003: Microcredit Summit Campaign
* Byline: 

 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. In many developing nations, more than fifty percent of workers are self-employed. They might move from temporary job to temporary job. Or they may own a small business. Many poor people would like to start a business, but cannot get a bank loan. One tool to fight poverty is the use of microcredit loans. These are small loans for poor people who want to turn self-employment projects into businesses. In some countries, the loans may start out as small as twenty dollars. People may also receive training to learn how to operate a business. In nineteen-ninety-seven, delegates from one-hundred-thirty-seven nations attended a conference in Washington, D.C. They agreed to give microcredit loans to one-hundred-million of the world's poorest families by two-thousand-five. An organization in the United States called the Results Educational Fund supports the campaign. It says more than forty-one-million families around the world have received microcredit so far. The Results Educational Fund says the nine-year campaign is well on the way to its goal. The Microcredit Summit Campaign brings together lenders, aid groups, educators, non-governmental organizations and others. The campaign has four main ideas. The first is to reach the poorest families in each country. The World Bank estimates that over one-thousand-million people live on less than one dollar a day. The second goal is to reach out especially to women. Campaign officials say experience shows that women are less likely than men to waste their earnings. They say women are more likely to invest their profits in their families and businesses. So the campaign seeks to give women more power. The third goal is to create loan organizations that are financially strong. And the fourth is to make sure the programs have a measurable effect on the lives of the families that receive microcredit. There are more than two-thousand-five-hundred microcredit organizations around the world. Campaign officials say most do charge interest, but often use their earnings to reach more people. They also say that some banks have seen the success of microcredit and recognized it as a good market. The Web site for the campaign is microcreditsummit, all one word, dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Robert Cohen. This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. In many developing nations, more than fifty percent of workers are self-employed. They might move from temporary job to temporary job. Or they may own a small business. Many poor people would like to start a business, but cannot get a bank loan. One tool to fight poverty is the use of microcredit loans. These are small loans for poor people who want to turn self-employment projects into businesses. In some countries, the loans may start out as small as twenty dollars. People may also receive training to learn how to operate a business. In nineteen-ninety-seven, delegates from one-hundred-thirty-seven nations attended a conference in Washington, D.C. They agreed to give microcredit loans to one-hundred-million of the world's poorest families by two-thousand-five. An organization in the United States called the Results Educational Fund supports the campaign. It says more than forty-one-million families around the world have received microcredit so far. The Results Educational Fund says the nine-year campaign is well on the way to its goal. The Microcredit Summit Campaign brings together lenders, aid groups, educators, non-governmental organizations and others. The campaign has four main ideas. The first is to reach the poorest families in each country. The World Bank estimates that over one-thousand-million people live on less than one dollar a day. The second goal is to reach out especially to women. Campaign officials say experience shows that women are less likely than men to waste their earnings. They say women are more likely to invest their profits in their families and businesses. So the campaign seeks to give women more power. The third goal is to create loan organizations that are financially strong. And the fourth is to make sure the programs have a measurable effect on the lives of the families that receive microcredit. There are more than two-thousand-five-hundred microcredit organizations around the world. Campaign officials say most do charge interest, but often use their earnings to reach more people. They also say that some banks have seen the success of microcredit and recognized it as a good market. The Web site for the campaign is microcreditsummit, all one word, dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Veterans Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 10, 2003 (MUSIC) Arlington National Cemetary Broadcast: November 10, 2003 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: November eleventh is a day Americans honor men and women who have served in the United States armed forces. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week -- a report about Veterans Day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States has nineteen-million war veterans. But the term "veteran" is not just for soldiers who have served in wars. It describes anyone who has ever been in the military. On November eleventh, communities across the United States hold ceremonies to observe Veterans Day. Parades take place on this holiday. Military bands play. The president and other public officials give speeches. And, soldiers fire guns into the air to remember those who died in service to their country. There is a separate holiday to honor members of the armed services who were killed. The United States observes Memorial Day in May. VOICE TWO: Congress wanted the nation to hear the stories of its older veterans. Many veterans have reached old age. Each day, more than one-thousand veterans die. So, in two-thousand, Congress created a program to keep these memories alive for future Americans. It is called the Veterans History Project. The Library of Congress Folklife Center collects recorded stories and written histories from veterans. It also gathers memorable objects. The Veterans History Project includes people who served in World Wars One and Two. It includes men and women who served in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War in nineteen-ninety-one. People who served in civilian jobs in the military are also invited to take part. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people called World War One "the war to end all wars.” It lasted from nineteen-fourteen to nineteen-eighteen. The United States entered the fighting in nineteen-seventeen. In April it declared war against Germany. But the United States armed forces were small. So the government ordered every man between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one to report for military duty. VOICE TWO: The men came from cities and farms. Some were rich. Others were poor. There were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, professional athletes and college students. Many were married. More than nine-and-a-half million men reported for duty in June of nineteen-seventeen. The military chose about six-hundred-thousand to serve. They went through military training camps before going to France. The following year, the government expanded the draft. Now it called on all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. More than thirteen-million reported for duty. The Army did not have enough bases to train all the new soldiers. So, it used many colleges and universities as military training centers. VOICE ONE: The Navy and Marine Corps had about eighty-two-thousand men when the United States entered World War One. A year later, there were almost three times that many sailors and Marines. Many women joined the armed forces, too. Most got office jobs at military bases in the United States. Some, however, went to France as nurses in battlefield hospitals. VOICE TWO: A man named Alvin York was honored as one of the greatest American heroes of World War One. He came from a poor family in the state of Tennessee. He opposed all wars. He said his religious beliefs prevented him from killing. But he was forced to join the Army. He was sent to fight the Germans who invaded France. Alvin York shot many enemy soldiers. He was responsible for capturing one-hundred-thirty-two German prisoners. The United States and France both honored Sergeant Alvin York for his bravery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: World War One ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Germany surrendered at eleven o'clock in the morning on November eleventh, nineteen-eighteen. On that day, thousands of Americans were completing their military training in the United States. Others were either in France or on boats sailing to France. American soldiers who had fought overseas wanted to return to the life they knew before. Almost overnight, the number of troops in the American armed services dropped to what it had been before the war. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration of November eleventh as Armistice Day in the United States. It would be a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during the war. About two-million Americans served in Europe during the First World War. More than one-hundred-sixteen-thousand were killed. Two-hundred-thirty-five thousand others were wounded. In nineteen-twenty-six, Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday. But new problems were on the way. Soon, everyone knew that World War One had not been the war to end all wars. In all, more than four-million Americans served in the armed forces during the First World War. Four times that many would serve during the second. VOICE ONE: Most of the Americans who served in World War Two in Europe and the Pacific were eighteen or nineteen years old. They were the children of World War One veterans. The United States entered the war in December nineteen-forty-one, after Japan attacked the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During World War Two, Americans came to learn the names of men like Audie Murphy and Carl Klett. VOICE TWO: Audie Murphy was the son of farm laborers in Texas. He was a teen-ager when he joined the Army and went to fight in Europe. Over a period of three years, he earned thirty-three medals for bravery. These included the Congressional Medal of Honor. He killed more than two-hundred-forty enemy soldiers and captured others. After the war, Audie Murphy became famous as a Hollywood movie actor. VOICE ONE: Carl Klett was a flier from Chesterton, Indiana. He piloted supply planes. In nineteen-forty-four, he had made seventy-five flights over a dangerous mountain area in Burma. Seventy-five was the number of flights required for a pilot to be sent back to the United States. But Lieutenant Klett heard that an Army hospital in the Burmese jungle needed medicine and equipment. He offered to make one more flight. His plane crashed, and he was killed. VOICE TWO: Germany surrendered in May nineteen-forty-five. That ended the war in Europe. Japan surrendered in August of that year. Armistice Day in nineteen-forty-five was a very special day in the United States. Most of the men and women who had served in the war were home. So, instead of just honoring veterans of World War One, Americans also honored veterans of World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day. The holiday became Veterans Day. By then almost six-million more Americans had served in another war -- the Korean War. VOICE ONE: Paulette Geer lives in Rockville, Maryland. She was a young Army nurse during the Korean War. She worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D-C. The hospital served as a main treatment center for wounded soldiers. She helped care for men with terrible injuries. At one point, Paulette Geer was told of a plan for nurses to parachute into Korea. An airplane would drop them behind enemy lines to establish a battlefield hospital. She and other nurses offered to take part. But that flight never took place. Mizz Geer says that is probably why she is alive today to tell about it. VOICE TWO: The Korean War ended in nineteen-fifty-three. In the years to follow, almost nine-million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. That was the last time the United States held a draft. Since nineteen-seventy-three, no one has been required to join the military. Many Americans today grew up with stories of family members who fought in Vietnam, or Korea or the battlefields of World War Two. Future stories will tell about places like Iraq and Afghanistan. But this November eleventh, as the nation honors its veterans, many Americans are thinking about family members still at war far from home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: November eleventh is a day Americans honor men and women who have served in the United States armed forces. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week -- a report about Veterans Day. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The United States has nineteen-million war veterans. But the term "veteran" is not just for soldiers who have served in wars. It describes anyone who has ever been in the military. On November eleventh, communities across the United States hold ceremonies to observe Veterans Day. Parades take place on this holiday. Military bands play. The president and other public officials give speeches. And, soldiers fire guns into the air to remember those who died in service to their country. There is a separate holiday to honor members of the armed services who were killed. The United States observes Memorial Day in May. VOICE TWO: Congress wanted the nation to hear the stories of its older veterans. Many veterans have reached old age. Each day, more than one-thousand veterans die. So, in two-thousand, Congress created a program to keep these memories alive for future Americans. It is called the Veterans History Project. The Library of Congress Folklife Center collects recorded stories and written histories from veterans. It also gathers memorable objects. The Veterans History Project includes people who served in World Wars One and Two. It includes men and women who served in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War in nineteen-ninety-one. People who served in civilian jobs in the military are also invited to take part. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people called World War One "the war to end all wars.” It lasted from nineteen-fourteen to nineteen-eighteen. The United States entered the fighting in nineteen-seventeen. In April it declared war against Germany. But the United States armed forces were small. So the government ordered every man between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one to report for military duty. VOICE TWO: The men came from cities and farms. Some were rich. Others were poor. There were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, professional athletes and college students. Many were married. More than nine-and-a-half million men reported for duty in June of nineteen-seventeen. The military chose about six-hundred-thousand to serve. They went through military training camps before going to France. The following year, the government expanded the draft. Now it called on all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. More than thirteen-million reported for duty. The Army did not have enough bases to train all the new soldiers. So, it used many colleges and universities as military training centers. VOICE ONE: The Navy and Marine Corps had about eighty-two-thousand men when the United States entered World War One. A year later, there were almost three times that many sailors and Marines. Many women joined the armed forces, too. Most got office jobs at military bases in the United States. Some, however, went to France as nurses in battlefield hospitals. VOICE TWO: A man named Alvin York was honored as one of the greatest American heroes of World War One. He came from a poor family in the state of Tennessee. He opposed all wars. He said his religious beliefs prevented him from killing. But he was forced to join the Army. He was sent to fight the Germans who invaded France. Alvin York shot many enemy soldiers. He was responsible for capturing one-hundred-thirty-two German prisoners. The United States and France both honored Sergeant Alvin York for his bravery. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: World War One ended at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Germany surrendered at eleven o'clock in the morning on November eleventh, nineteen-eighteen. On that day, thousands of Americans were completing their military training in the United States. Others were either in France or on boats sailing to France. American soldiers who had fought overseas wanted to return to the life they knew before. Almost overnight, the number of troops in the American armed services dropped to what it had been before the war. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration of November eleventh as Armistice Day in the United States. It would be a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during the war. About two-million Americans served in Europe during the First World War. More than one-hundred-sixteen-thousand were killed. Two-hundred-thirty-five thousand others were wounded. In nineteen-twenty-six, Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday. But new problems were on the way. Soon, everyone knew that World War One had not been the war to end all wars. In all, more than four-million Americans served in the armed forces during the First World War. Four times that many would serve during the second. VOICE ONE: Most of the Americans who served in World War Two in Europe and the Pacific were eighteen or nineteen years old. They were the children of World War One veterans. The United States entered the war in December nineteen-forty-one, after Japan attacked the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During World War Two, Americans came to learn the names of men like Audie Murphy and Carl Klett. VOICE TWO: Audie Murphy was the son of farm laborers in Texas. He was a teen-ager when he joined the Army and went to fight in Europe. Over a period of three years, he earned thirty-three medals for bravery. These included the Congressional Medal of Honor. He killed more than two-hundred-forty enemy soldiers and captured others. After the war, Audie Murphy became famous as a Hollywood movie actor. VOICE ONE: Carl Klett was a flier from Chesterton, Indiana. He piloted supply planes. In nineteen-forty-four, he had made seventy-five flights over a dangerous mountain area in Burma. Seventy-five was the number of flights required for a pilot to be sent back to the United States. But Lieutenant Klett heard that an Army hospital in the Burmese jungle needed medicine and equipment. He offered to make one more flight. His plane crashed, and he was killed. VOICE TWO: Germany surrendered in May nineteen-forty-five. That ended the war in Europe. Japan surrendered in August of that year. Armistice Day in nineteen-forty-five was a very special day in the United States. Most of the men and women who had served in the war were home. So, instead of just honoring veterans of World War One, Americans also honored veterans of World War Two. In nineteen-fifty-four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day. The holiday became Veterans Day. By then almost six-million more Americans had served in another war -- the Korean War. VOICE ONE: Paulette Geer lives in Rockville, Maryland. She was a young Army nurse during the Korean War. She worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D-C. The hospital served as a main treatment center for wounded soldiers. She helped care for men with terrible injuries. At one point, Paulette Geer was told of a plan for nurses to parachute into Korea. An airplane would drop them behind enemy lines to establish a battlefield hospital. She and other nurses offered to take part. But that flight never took place. Mizz Geer says that is probably why she is alive today to tell about it. VOICE TWO: The Korean War ended in nineteen-fifty-three. In the years to follow, almost nine-million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. That was the last time the United States held a draft. Since nineteen-seventy-three, no one has been required to join the military. Many Americans today grew up with stories of family members who fought in Vietnam, or Korea or the battlefields of World War Two. Future stories will tell about places like Iraq and Afghanistan. But this November eleventh, as the nation honors its veterans, many Americans are thinking about family members still at war far from home. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 11, 2003 (THEME) (Photo - epa.gov) Broadcast: November 11, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week: a home designed to keep out microscopic visitors ... a new environmental protection chief in Washington ... and the value of anti-pollution rules. (File photo - usgs.gov) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week: a home designed to keep out microscopic visitors ... a new environmental protection chief in Washington ... and the value of anti-pollution rules. VOICE ONE: Also -- trouble at a mink farm ... and the pain of social rejection: why hurt feelings hurt. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Workers recently finished an unusual house in Southern California. The house is built with a special kind of steel. The steel is designed to resist bacteria and other organisms that might cause health problems. An Ohio company, A-K Steel, started work on the project two years ago. A-K Steel agreed to provide the steel if the company could use the house to demonstrate its products. The house is the home of Ed and Madeleine Landry. The nineteen-ninety-four earthquake in Los Angeles damaged their old home. They have also had problems with wood-eating insects. And Madeleine Landry suffers from asthma, a common breathing disorder. She hopes the specially treated steel will fight molds and other organisms that could worsen her condition. VOICE ONE: The new home is more than one-thousand square meters. Work crews used almost ninety-one-thousand kilograms of steel to build it. About one-fifth of the steel is covered with a chemical that kills bacteria, mold and other organisms. A Massachusetts company, AgION Technologies, produces the chemical. The heating, airflow and cooling systems all are made with the treated steel. So are food preparation surfaces and other "high-touch" areas, along with the roof. But germs are not the only thing the house is designed against. The structure and the plants nearby are also fire resistant. The home lies on a hillside in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles. Recent wildfires nearly put the house to its first test. In fact, the New York Times reports that Ed and Madeleine Landry's new home served as a command center for firefighters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Environmental Protection Agency has a new chief. He is Michael Leavitt. The Senate voted late last month to approve his appointment. Last week Mister Leavitt resigned as governor of the western state of Utah to take his new job. He was in his third term as the top elected official in the state. He is a former chairman of the National Governors Association. Several Democrats in the Senate had delayed the approval of Mister Leavitt. They did that to protest the Bush administration's environmental policies. Mister Leavitt replaces Christine Todd Whitman. She resigned earlier this year after disagreements with members of the administration. President Bush nominated Mister Leavitt in August. Environmental groups say the new administrator has a mixed record on environmental issues. The Environmental Protection Agency was created thirty-three years ago. The E-P-A is an independent federal agency that reports directly to the president. It has more than eighteen-thousand employees. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: White House officials must report yearly to Congress on the costs to enforce, and obey, federal rules. The White House Office of Management and Budget must also report the benefits, the value these rules produce in return. The report this year says rules on pollution produce the greatest economic value. The study found that the benefits of environmental rules were five to seven times the costs to businesses and local governments. The study examined major federal rules from a ten-year period. It found that most of the benefits came from several rules that improved air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency established these rules under the Clean Air Act of nineteen-ninety. The report says fewer Americans had to go to hospitals for treatment of breathing problems. So that avoided costs. There were also economic returns from a reduction in early deaths and lost work time. VOICE TWO: Last year, the report presented a different picture of the costs and benefits of government rules. That report showed that the costs of the rules and the value of the good they did were about equal. The Office of Management and Budget says the new report expands on that study. Karen Florini is a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund. Mizz Florini says the report proves what environmental groups like hers have been saying. That is, federal intervention to protect the environment now prevents more costly pollution problems later. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Minks have been raised on farms in the United States and Europe for more than one-hundred years. The fur industry makes clothing with the skin of these small animals. Minks have short legs and sharp little teeth, as anyone who tries to touch a mink might discover. Minks are related to weasels. In late August, some people broke into a mink farm near Seattle, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. In the middle of the night, they opened cages and broke down fencing around the farm. Ten-thousand minks ran loose. The family that owns the farm recaptured all but about one-thousand of them. The Animal Liberation Front took responsibility for the release. This group carries out economic sabotage of fur farms, pet stores and laboratories. Federal investigators say it has carried out more than six-hundred attacks in the past seven years. VOICE TWO: Experts say minks are easy to find. For one thing, they make loud noises that sound like crows. For another, they release a smelly chemical from under their tail to mark their territory. The farm in the town of Sultan, east of Seattle, raises rare blue mink. Each animal is worth about forty dollars. The owner told the Seattle Times newspaper that about half his twenty-two-thousand mink never left their cages. But now the farm has a bigger problem -- keeping the recaptured minks from killing each other. Unrelated minks often attack and eat each other. So they are kept in separate cages. But the workers cannot tell which of the recaptured minks are related. As a result, they lose about ten to twenty recaptured minks a day. The release was the second largest in the United States involving minks. More than fourteen-thousand were set free from a mink farm in Iowa three years ago. The Animal Liberation Front also claimed responsibility for that release. The group says it tries to harm businesses that profit unfairly from the use of animals. VOICE ONE: The industry group Fur Commission USA calls the Animal Liberation Front "ecoterrorists." It says farm-raised minks cannot survive in the wild. But the Animal Liberation Front says they can. In the recent case, some of the minks were reported eating fish in rivers. They have also attacked exotic birds, chickens, even a large dog. But others have been killed by cars, or by thirst. Experts say any minks that survive the winter and reproduce could grow into a threat to other small animals in the wild and family pets. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recent findings suggest that the pain of social rejection affects the same areas of the brain as physical pain. The journal Science published a report by two researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles. Matthew Lieberman and Naomi Eisenberger studied the brain activity of thirteen college students. The study took place as the students played a computer game. The students could catch and throw a ball to other players. They were told they were playing with two other students elsewhere. But the computer played the part of the other players. After the students received the ball seven times, the computer excluded them from the game. Throughout the experiment, a machine recorded changes in blood flow to different parts of the brain. VOICE ONE: Two areas of the brain were more active in students who later reported feeling more hurt by the rejection. One area, the anterior cingulate, has been connected with creating the experience of physical pain. The other area, the prefrontal cortex, has been linked to thinking about emotions. The researchers say the pain of social rejection may have developed thousands of years ago as a way to survive in groups. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by George Grow, Caty Weaver, Chi Un Lee and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Also -- trouble at a mink farm ... and the pain of social rejection: why hurt feelings hurt. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Workers recently finished an unusual house in Southern California. The house is built with a special kind of steel. The steel is designed to resist bacteria and other organisms that might cause health problems. An Ohio company, A-K Steel, started work on the project two years ago. A-K Steel agreed to provide the steel if the company could use the house to demonstrate its products. The house is the home of Ed and Madeleine Landry. The nineteen-ninety-four earthquake in Los Angeles damaged their old home. They have also had problems with wood-eating insects. And Madeleine Landry suffers from asthma, a common breathing disorder. She hopes the specially treated steel will fight molds and other organisms that could worsen her condition. VOICE ONE: The new home is more than one-thousand square meters. Work crews used almost ninety-one-thousand kilograms of steel to build it. About one-fifth of the steel is covered with a chemical that kills bacteria, mold and other organisms. A Massachusetts company, AgION Technologies, produces the chemical. The heating, airflow and cooling systems all are made with the treated steel. So are food preparation surfaces and other "high-touch" areas, along with the roof. But germs are not the only thing the house is designed against. The structure and the plants nearby are also fire resistant. The home lies on a hillside in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles. Recent wildfires nearly put the house to its first test. In fact, the New York Times reports that Ed and Madeleine Landry's new home served as a command center for firefighters. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States Environmental Protection Agency has a new chief. He is Michael Leavitt. The Senate voted late last month to approve his appointment. Last week Mister Leavitt resigned as governor of the western state of Utah to take his new job. He was in his third term as the top elected official in the state. He is a former chairman of the National Governors Association. Several Democrats in the Senate had delayed the approval of Mister Leavitt. They did that to protest the Bush administration's environmental policies. Mister Leavitt replaces Christine Todd Whitman. She resigned earlier this year after disagreements with members of the administration. President Bush nominated Mister Leavitt in August. Environmental groups say the new administrator has a mixed record on environmental issues. The Environmental Protection Agency was created thirty-three years ago. The E-P-A is an independent federal agency that reports directly to the president. It has more than eighteen-thousand employees. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: White House officials must report yearly to Congress on the costs to enforce, and obey, federal rules. The White House Office of Management and Budget must also report the benefits, the value these rules produce in return. The report this year says rules on pollution produce the greatest economic value. The study found that the benefits of environmental rules were five to seven times the costs to businesses and local governments. The study examined major federal rules from a ten-year period. It found that most of the benefits came from several rules that improved air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency established these rules under the Clean Air Act of nineteen-ninety. The report says fewer Americans had to go to hospitals for treatment of breathing problems. So that avoided costs. There were also economic returns from a reduction in early deaths and lost work time. VOICE TWO: Last year, the report presented a different picture of the costs and benefits of government rules. That report showed that the costs of the rules and the value of the good they did were about equal. The Office of Management and Budget says the new report expands on that study. Karen Florini is a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund. Mizz Florini says the report proves what environmental groups like hers have been saying. That is, federal intervention to protect the environment now prevents more costly pollution problems later. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Minks have been raised on farms in the United States and Europe for more than one-hundred years. The fur industry makes clothing with the skin of these small animals. Minks have short legs and sharp little teeth, as anyone who tries to touch a mink might discover. Minks are related to weasels. In late August, some people broke into a mink farm near Seattle, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. In the middle of the night, they opened cages and broke down fencing around the farm. Ten-thousand minks ran loose. The family that owns the farm recaptured all but about one-thousand of them. The Animal Liberation Front took responsibility for the release. This group carries out economic sabotage of fur farms, pet stores and laboratories. Federal investigators say it has carried out more than six-hundred attacks in the past seven years. VOICE TWO: Experts say minks are easy to find. For one thing, they make loud noises that sound like crows. For another, they release a smelly chemical from under their tail to mark their territory. The farm in the town of Sultan, east of Seattle, raises rare blue mink. Each animal is worth about forty dollars. The owner told the Seattle Times newspaper that about half his twenty-two-thousand mink never left their cages. But now the farm has a bigger problem -- keeping the recaptured minks from killing each other. Unrelated minks often attack and eat each other. So they are kept in separate cages. But the workers cannot tell which of the recaptured minks are related. As a result, they lose about ten to twenty recaptured minks a day. The release was the second largest in the United States involving minks. More than fourteen-thousand were set free from a mink farm in Iowa three years ago. The Animal Liberation Front also claimed responsibility for that release. The group says it tries to harm businesses that profit unfairly from the use of animals. VOICE ONE: The industry group Fur Commission USA calls the Animal Liberation Front "ecoterrorists." It says farm-raised minks cannot survive in the wild. But the Animal Liberation Front says they can. In the recent case, some of the minks were reported eating fish in rivers. They have also attacked exotic birds, chickens, even a large dog. But others have been killed by cars, or by thirst. Experts say any minks that survive the winter and reproduce could grow into a threat to other small animals in the wild and family pets. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recent findings suggest that the pain of social rejection affects the same areas of the brain as physical pain. The journal Science published a report by two researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles. Matthew Lieberman and Naomi Eisenberger studied the brain activity of thirteen college students. The study took place as the students played a computer game. The students could catch and throw a ball to other players. They were told they were playing with two other students elsewhere. But the computer played the part of the other players. After the students received the ball seven times, the computer excluded them from the game. Throughout the experiment, a machine recorded changes in blood flow to different parts of the brain. VOICE ONE: Two areas of the brain were more active in students who later reported feeling more hurt by the rejection. One area, the anterior cingulate, has been connected with creating the experience of physical pain. The other area, the prefrontal cortex, has been linked to thinking about emotions. The researchers say the pain of social rejection may have developed thousands of years ago as a way to survive in groups. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Science in the News was written by George Grow, Caty Weaver, Chi Un Lee and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Commodity Futures Markets
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 11, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Consider the life of a crop farmer. One year, the growing conditions are excellent. The farmer has a huge crop. But so do the other farmers. When they all sell their crops, prices go down. Next year, conditions are poor. Prices go up. But the farmers have less to sell. These are the risks when farmers take a crop to market at harvest time. With supply highest, prices are lowest. And there is always the danger of a bad harvest. To control risk, farmers may use commodity contracts. These are agreements to buy or sell a product for a set price within a period of time. Commodity contracts represent financial protection against changes in price. In the eighteen-hundreds, progress in transportation and communications permitted new markets to be built and linked. The Chicago Board of Trade is one of the oldest of these markets. It opened in eighteen-forty-eight. At first, farmers received immediate payment as crops arrived at the market by horse or train. Soon, people recognized a better system: Guarantee the price of goods that would arrive in the future. Traders called these guarantees forward contracts. A farmer could buy a contract and know exactly how much money to expect. By eighteen-sixty-five, the Chicago Board of Trade set rules for trade in futures. Futures are contracts that rarely involve anything real, except money. Farmers still sell their crops at harvest time. Market forces still set the prices. But farmers can use futures to protect themselves if they sell at a loss. The contracts pay the difference between the price they hoped for and the price they received. Farmers are not the only ones who trade in futures. Companies buy futures to guarantee costs for materials. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the biggest commodities market in the United States. Traders sell futures for agricultural and energy products, valuable metals -- even weather. A futures market could not operate without another kind of trader. Speculators try to guess the direction of commodity prices to make a profit. Speculators can cause big changes in the price of futures. But the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington says research suggests they do not affect the price of goods. This federal agency says money from speculators helps provide the kind of continuous activity that is part of a healthy market. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Aspirin and Pancreatic Cancer
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 12, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers who found a possible link between aspirin and the risk of cancer of the pancreas say more studies are needed to confirm the finding. The pancreas is an organ near the stomach that is involved in the digestion of food. Study leader Eva Schernhammer teaches at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Doctor Schernhammer says the finding does not mean that women should no longer use aspirin. She says the drug still has important effects. Many people take it to help prevent colorectal cancer, heart attack and stroke. The finding came from more than eighty-eight-thousand women in a health study of nurses. The study lasted eighteen years. During this time, one-hundred-sixty-one of the nurses developed pancreatic cancer. Here is what the study found: Women who took fourteen or more aspirin a week had an eighty-six percent greater chance of pancreatic cancer than those who took none. Women who took between six and thirteen pills a week had a forty-one percent higher risk. And women who took one to three aspirin a week had an eleven percent greater chance of pancreatic cancer. The World Health Organization says seventeen-million people a year die of heart disease. By comparison, two-hundred-sixteen-thousand people develop pancreatic cancer. However, it is one of the most deadly of all cancers. Most patients die within a year. The researchers reported their findings at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. A separate study found a possible danger for people with heart disease who stop taking aspirin. Researchers from University Hospital Pasteur in Paris reported about that study at a meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians. They studied people who entered the hospital after a heart attack or other serious heart problem. All had taken aspirin every day for at least three months to help control heart disease. Aspirin thins the blood and can reduce the chance of a blockage in the flow to the heart. The French researchers studied more than one-thousand-two-hundred patients. They found that fifty-one of them had a serious heart problem less than one week after they stopped the aspirin. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Broadcast: November 12, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers who found a possible link between aspirin and the risk of cancer of the pancreas say more studies are needed to confirm the finding. The pancreas is an organ near the stomach that is involved in the digestion of food. Study leader Eva Schernhammer teaches at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Doctor Schernhammer says the finding does not mean that women should no longer use aspirin. She says the drug still has important effects. Many people take it to help prevent colorectal cancer, heart attack and stroke. The finding came from more than eighty-eight-thousand women in a health study of nurses. The study lasted eighteen years. During this time, one-hundred-sixty-one of the nurses developed pancreatic cancer. Here is what the study found: Women who took fourteen or more aspirin a week had an eighty-six percent greater chance of pancreatic cancer than those who took none. Women who took between six and thirteen pills a week had a forty-one percent higher risk. And women who took one to three aspirin a week had an eleven percent greater chance of pancreatic cancer. The World Health Organization says seventeen-million people a year die of heart disease. By comparison, two-hundred-sixteen-thousand people develop pancreatic cancer. However, it is one of the most deadly of all cancers. Most patients die within a year. The researchers reported their findings at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. A separate study found a possible danger for people with heart disease who stop taking aspirin. Researchers from University Hospital Pasteur in Paris reported about that study at a meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians. They studied people who entered the hospital after a heart attack or other serious heart problem. All had taken aspirin every day for at least three months to help control heart disease. Aspirin thins the blood and can reduce the chance of a blockage in the flow to the heart. The French researchers studied more than one-thousand-two-hundred patients. They found that fifty-one of them had a serious heart problem less than one week after they stopped the aspirin. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Edwin Hubble
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 12, 2003 (THEME) Yerkes Observatory (Photo - U. Chicago) Broadcast: November 12, 2003 (THEME) ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Richard Rael and Tony Riggs tell the story of American astronomer, Edwin Hubble. He changed our ideas about the universe and how it developed. Edwin Hubble made his most important discoveries in the Nineteen-Twenties. Today, other astronomers continue the work he began. Many of them are using the Hubble space telescope that is named after him. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edwin Powell Hubble was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine in Marshfield, Missouri. He spent his early years in the state of Kentucky. Then he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago. He studied mathematics and astronomy. Hubble was a good student. He was a good athlete, too. He was a member of the University of Chicago championship basketball team in Nineteen-oh-Nine. He also was an excellent boxer. Several people urged him to train for the world heavyweight boxing championship after college. Instead, he decided to continue his studies. He went to Queen's College at Oxford, England. At Oxford, Hubble studied law. He was interested in British Common Law, because his family had come to America from England many years before. He spent three years at Oxford. In Nineteen-Thirteen, Hubble returned to the United States. He opened a law office in Louisville, Kentucky. After a short time, however, he decided he did not want to be a lawyer. He returned to the University of Chicago. There, once again, he studied astronomy. VOICE ONE: Hubble watched the night sky with instruments at the university's Yerkes Observatory. His research involved a major question astronomers could not answer. What are nebulae? The astronomical term 'nebulae', Hubble explained, had come down through the centuries. It was the name given to permanent, cloudy areas in the sky outside our solar system. Some astronomers thought nebulae were part of our Milky Way Galaxy. Others thought they were island universes farther away in space. In his research paper, Hubble said the issue could be decided only by more powerful instruments. And those instruments had not yet been developed. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventeen, the United States was fighting in World War One in Europe. Edwin Hubble joined the American army and served in France. Earlier, astronomer George Ellery Hale had offered Hubble a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory in southern California. When Hubble returned to the United States after World War One, he accepted Hale's offer. Hubble was thirty years old. He was just beginning the work that would make him famous. VOICE ONE: In his first observations from Mount Wilson, Hubble used a telescope with a mirror one-hundred fifty-two-centimeters across. He studied objects within our own galaxy. And he made an important discovery about nebulae. Hubble said the light that appeared to come from nebulae really came from stars near the nebulae. The nebulae, he said, were clouds of atoms and dust. They were not hot enough -- like stars -- to give off light. Soon after, Hubble began working with a larger and more powerful telescope at Mount Wilson. Its mirror was two-hundred-fifty centimeters across. It was the most powerful telescope in the world for twenty-five years. It had the power Hubble needed to make his major discoveries. VOICE TWO: From Nineteen-Twenty-Two on, Edwin Hubble began examining more and more distant objects. His first great discovery was made when he recognized a Cepheid variable star. It was in the outer area of the great nebula called Andromeda. Cepheid variable stars are stars whose brightness changes at regular periods. An astronomer at Harvard College, Henrietta Leavitt, had discovered that these periods of brightness could be used to measure the star's distance from Earth. Hubble made the measurements. They showed that the Andromeda nebula lay far outside our Milky Way Galaxy. Hubble's discovery ended a long dispute. He proved wrong those who believed nebulae lay inside the Milky Way. And he proved that nebulae were galaxies themselves. Astronomers now agree that far distant galaxies do exist. VOICE ONE: Hubble then began to observe more details about galaxies. He studied their shape and brightness. By Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he had made enough observations to say that the universe is organized into galaxies of many shapes and sizes. As stars differ from one another, he said, so do galaxies. Some are spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. They have a center, and arms of matter that seem to circle the center like a pinwheel. Others are shaped like baseballs or eggs. A few have no special shape. VOICE TWO: Hubble proposed a system to describe galaxies by their shape. His system still is used today. He also showed that galaxies are similar in the kinds of bright objects they contain. All galaxies, he said, are related to each other, much as members of a family are related to each other. In the late Nineteen-Twenties, Hubble studied the movement of galaxies through space. His investigation led to the most important astronomical discovery of the Twentieth century -- the expanding universe. VOICE ONE: Earlier observations about the movement of galaxies had been done by V. M. Silpher. He discovered that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds between three-hundred kilometers a second and one-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers a second. Hubble understood the importance of Silpher's findings. He developed a plan for measuring both the distance and speed of as many galaxies as possible. With his assistant at Mount Wilson, Milton Humason, Hubble measured the movement of galaxies. The two men did this by studying what Hubble called the "red shift." It also is known as the "Doppler effect." The Doppler effect explains changes in the length of light waves or sound waves as they move toward you or away from you. Light waves from an object speeding away from you will stretch into longer wavelengths. They appear red. Light waves from an object speeding toward you will have shorter wavelengths. They appear blue. VOICE TWO: Observations of forty-six galaxies showed Hubble that the galaxies were traveling away from Earth. The observations also showed that the speed was linked directly to the galaxies' distance from Earth. Hubble discovered that the farther away a galaxy is, the greater its speed. This scientific rule is called "Hubble's Law." Hubble's discovery meant a major change in our idea of the universe. The universe had not been quiet and unchanging since the beginning of time, as many people had thought. It was expanding. And that, Hubble said, meant it probably began with an explosion of unimaginable force. The explosion often is called "the big bang." VOICE ONE: Hubble's work did not end with this discovery. He continued to examine galaxies. He continued to gain new knowledge about them. Astronomers from all over the world went to study with him. Hubble left the Mount Wilson Observatory during World War Two. He did research for the United States War Department. He returned after the war. Then, he spent much of his time planning a new, much larger telescope in southern California. The telescope was completed in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. It had a mirror five-hundred centimeters across. It was named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. VOICE TWO: Edwin Hubble was the first person to use the Hale Telescope. He died in Nineteen-Fifty-Three while preparing to spend four nights looking through the telescope at the sky. Hubble's work led to new research on the birth of the universe. One astronomer said scientists have been filling in the details ever since. And, he said, there is a long way to go. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (MUSIC) Today, Richard Rael and Tony Riggs tell the story of American astronomer, Edwin Hubble. He changed our ideas about the universe and how it developed. Edwin Hubble made his most important discoveries in the Nineteen-Twenties. Today, other astronomers continue the work he began. Many of them are using the Hubble space telescope that is named after him. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Edwin Powell Hubble was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine in Marshfield, Missouri. He spent his early years in the state of Kentucky. Then he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago. He studied mathematics and astronomy. Hubble was a good student. He was a good athlete, too. He was a member of the University of Chicago championship basketball team in Nineteen-oh-Nine. He also was an excellent boxer. Several people urged him to train for the world heavyweight boxing championship after college. Instead, he decided to continue his studies. He went to Queen's College at Oxford, England. At Oxford, Hubble studied law. He was interested in British Common Law, because his family had come to America from England many years before. He spent three years at Oxford. In Nineteen-Thirteen, Hubble returned to the United States. He opened a law office in Louisville, Kentucky. After a short time, however, he decided he did not want to be a lawyer. He returned to the University of Chicago. There, once again, he studied astronomy. VOICE ONE: Hubble watched the night sky with instruments at the university's Yerkes Observatory. His research involved a major question astronomers could not answer. What are nebulae? The astronomical term 'nebulae', Hubble explained, had come down through the centuries. It was the name given to permanent, cloudy areas in the sky outside our solar system. Some astronomers thought nebulae were part of our Milky Way Galaxy. Others thought they were island universes farther away in space. In his research paper, Hubble said the issue could be decided only by more powerful instruments. And those instruments had not yet been developed. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventeen, the United States was fighting in World War One in Europe. Edwin Hubble joined the American army and served in France. Earlier, astronomer George Ellery Hale had offered Hubble a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory in southern California. When Hubble returned to the United States after World War One, he accepted Hale's offer. Hubble was thirty years old. He was just beginning the work that would make him famous. VOICE ONE: In his first observations from Mount Wilson, Hubble used a telescope with a mirror one-hundred fifty-two-centimeters across. He studied objects within our own galaxy. And he made an important discovery about nebulae. Hubble said the light that appeared to come from nebulae really came from stars near the nebulae. The nebulae, he said, were clouds of atoms and dust. They were not hot enough -- like stars -- to give off light. Soon after, Hubble began working with a larger and more powerful telescope at Mount Wilson. Its mirror was two-hundred-fifty centimeters across. It was the most powerful telescope in the world for twenty-five years. It had the power Hubble needed to make his major discoveries. VOICE TWO: From Nineteen-Twenty-Two on, Edwin Hubble began examining more and more distant objects. His first great discovery was made when he recognized a Cepheid variable star. It was in the outer area of the great nebula called Andromeda. Cepheid variable stars are stars whose brightness changes at regular periods. An astronomer at Harvard College, Henrietta Leavitt, had discovered that these periods of brightness could be used to measure the star's distance from Earth. Hubble made the measurements. They showed that the Andromeda nebula lay far outside our Milky Way Galaxy. Hubble's discovery ended a long dispute. He proved wrong those who believed nebulae lay inside the Milky Way. And he proved that nebulae were galaxies themselves. Astronomers now agree that far distant galaxies do exist. VOICE ONE: Hubble then began to observe more details about galaxies. He studied their shape and brightness. By Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he had made enough observations to say that the universe is organized into galaxies of many shapes and sizes. As stars differ from one another, he said, so do galaxies. Some are spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. They have a center, and arms of matter that seem to circle the center like a pinwheel. Others are shaped like baseballs or eggs. A few have no special shape. VOICE TWO: Hubble proposed a system to describe galaxies by their shape. His system still is used today. He also showed that galaxies are similar in the kinds of bright objects they contain. All galaxies, he said, are related to each other, much as members of a family are related to each other. In the late Nineteen-Twenties, Hubble studied the movement of galaxies through space. His investigation led to the most important astronomical discovery of the Twentieth century -- the expanding universe. VOICE ONE: Earlier observations about the movement of galaxies had been done by V. M. Silpher. He discovered that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds between three-hundred kilometers a second and one-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers a second. Hubble understood the importance of Silpher's findings. He developed a plan for measuring both the distance and speed of as many galaxies as possible. With his assistant at Mount Wilson, Milton Humason, Hubble measured the movement of galaxies. The two men did this by studying what Hubble called the "red shift." It also is known as the "Doppler effect." The Doppler effect explains changes in the length of light waves or sound waves as they move toward you or away from you. Light waves from an object speeding away from you will stretch into longer wavelengths. They appear red. Light waves from an object speeding toward you will have shorter wavelengths. They appear blue. VOICE TWO: Observations of forty-six galaxies showed Hubble that the galaxies were traveling away from Earth. The observations also showed that the speed was linked directly to the galaxies' distance from Earth. Hubble discovered that the farther away a galaxy is, the greater its speed. This scientific rule is called "Hubble's Law." Hubble's discovery meant a major change in our idea of the universe. The universe had not been quiet and unchanging since the beginning of time, as many people had thought. It was expanding. And that, Hubble said, meant it probably began with an explosion of unimaginable force. The explosion often is called "the big bang." VOICE ONE: Hubble's work did not end with this discovery. He continued to examine galaxies. He continued to gain new knowledge about them. Astronomers from all over the world went to study with him. Hubble left the Mount Wilson Observatory during World War Two. He did research for the United States War Department. He returned after the war. Then, he spent much of his time planning a new, much larger telescope in southern California. The telescope was completed in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. It had a mirror five-hundred centimeters across. It was named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. VOICE TWO: Edwin Hubble was the first person to use the Hale Telescope. He died in Nineteen-Fifty-Three while preparing to spend four nights looking through the telescope at the sky. Hubble's work led to new research on the birth of the universe. One astronomer said scientists have been filling in the details ever since. And, he said, there is a long way to go. (MUSIC) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT- Head Start Testing
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 13, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Four-year-old children in Head Start programs throughout the United States are taking a test. This test is meant to show if Head Start is succeeding in its goal. The goal is to make sure children from poor families are as prepared to begin school as other children. The four-year-olds are being tested for their ability to recognize simple words and letters in the alphabet. They are also being tested for their skills with numbers. Federal education officials say the test will help the Head Start program improve. The officials will compare the performance of the children against national averages in early arithmetic, reading and writing. Head Start began almost forty years ago. The children are between the ages of three and five. They receive free preparation for their first year in school. Some spend half a day in Head Start, others a full day. Still others take part in a program of home visits. Local non-profit organizations operate the programs. The government spends more than six-and-a-half thousand-million dollars a year to pay for Head Start. Federal officials say close to a million children throughout the country take part in the programs. Wade Horn leads the Head Start program for the government. Mister Horn says the test is designed to learn which kinds of programs help children the most. The United States Department of Health and Human Services released a report on Head Start in June. The agency compared Head Start children with children from average, middle-income families. It said the Head Start children are not as ready for school as the others. But some educators criticize the idea that one year in Head Start could raise poor children to average levels. Some also criticize parts of the test. For example, critics noted that the children are asked to point to a picture of a "swamp." They say a lot of children, especially from cities, might not know that a swamp is a wetland area with grass. Still, even some educators who oppose the test agree with federal officials that Head Start needs to do better to prepare children for school. Currently, local programs decide what they want to teach. Many have placed major importance on health, nutrition and social development. In recent years, federal managers of Head Start have been telling programs to place more importance on basic skills needed for school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: November 13, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Four-year-old children in Head Start programs throughout the United States are taking a test. This test is meant to show if Head Start is succeeding in its goal. The goal is to make sure children from poor families are as prepared to begin school as other children. The four-year-olds are being tested for their ability to recognize simple words and letters in the alphabet. They are also being tested for their skills with numbers. Federal education officials say the test will help the Head Start program improve. The officials will compare the performance of the children against national averages in early arithmetic, reading and writing. Head Start began almost forty years ago. The children are between the ages of three and five. They receive free preparation for their first year in school. Some spend half a day in Head Start, others a full day. Still others take part in a program of home visits. Local non-profit organizations operate the programs. The government spends more than six-and-a-half thousand-million dollars a year to pay for Head Start. Federal officials say close to a million children throughout the country take part in the programs. Wade Horn leads the Head Start program for the government. Mister Horn says the test is designed to learn which kinds of programs help children the most. The United States Department of Health and Human Services released a report on Head Start in June. The agency compared Head Start children with children from average, middle-income families. It said the Head Start children are not as ready for school as the others. But some educators criticize the idea that one year in Head Start could raise poor children to average levels. Some also criticize parts of the test. For example, critics noted that the children are asked to point to a picture of a "swamp." They say a lot of children, especially from cities, might not know that a swamp is a wetland area with grass. Still, even some educators who oppose the test agree with federal officials that Head Start needs to do better to prepare children for school. Currently, local programs decide what they want to teach. Many have placed major importance on health, nutrition and social development. In recent years, federal managers of Head Start have been telling programs to place more importance on basic skills needed for school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #38 - Thomas Jefferson, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 13, 2003 (THEME) James Madison Broadcast: November 13, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) The United States had a new president in Eighteen-Oh-One. It was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Jefferson wrote America's Declaration of Independence. He served as America's first ambassador to France and its first secretary of state. Now he would govern the nation. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of America's third president, Thomas Jefferson. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson was happy and hopeful as he took office. His new political party, the Republicans, had defeated the older Federalist Party. The Federalists had controlled the government for twelve years. America's first president, George Washington, was not a Federalist. But Federalists controlled the cabinet and the Congress during Washington's two terms. America's second president, John Adams, was a Federalist. So the party continued its control during his term. VOICE ONE: The Federalists and the Republicans held very different opinions about how to govern the nation. Yet the change in power from one party to the other took place peacefully. Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of this fact. He said: "What we have done in this country is all new. The force of public opinion is new. But the most important and pleasing newness is that we have changed our government without violence. This shows a strength of American character that will give long life to our republic." VOICE TWO: President Jefferson wanted to work with Federalists for the good of the nation. But he chose no Federalists for his cabinet. All the cabinet officers were strong Republicans. All were loyal to Thomas Jefferson. James Madison of Virginia was secretary of state. Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury. General Henry Dearborn of New Hampshire, secretary of war. Robert Smith of Maryland, secretary of the navy. And Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts, attorney general. VOICE ONE: For other government positions, Jefferson decided to take a middle road. He would remove all officials appointed by former President John Adams during his 'lame duck' period. That was the time after Jefferson won the election, but before he took office. He also would remove all officials found guilty of dishonesty. He said: "Federalists in government positions have nothing to fear if they have acted honestly and with justice. Those who have acted badly must go. As for the men I appoint to office, they must be of the highest character. I will accept no others." VOICE TWO: Federalist leaders denounced Jefferson's policy. They thought all Federalists should keep their government jobs. Many Republican leaders denounced Jefferson, too. They thought no Federalist should have a government job. The president was caught between the two groups. He finally answered his critics. "Shouts and screams from Federalists or Republicans," he said, "will not force me to remove one more official. . .or one less. I will do what I think is right and just." VOICE ONE: Once President Jefferson formed his cabinet, he began planning the policies of his administration. His two closest advisers were Secretary of State Madison and Treasury Secretary Gallatin. First, they discussed financial policy. They agreed that the government must stop spending as much money as it did under former President Adams. So, government departments would get less money. They also agreed that the government must pay its debts as quickly as possible. The government owed millions of dollars. Each year, the debt grew larger because of the interest on these loans. Albert Gallatin said: "We must have a strong policy. The debt must be paid. If we do not do this, our children, our grandchildren, and many generations to come will have to pay for our mistakes." VOICE TWO: President Jefferson wanted to pay the government debt. He also wanted to cut taxes on the production and sale of some products, such as whiskey and tobacco. He hoped the government could get all the money it needed from import taxes and from the sale of public lands. Jefferson began saving money by ending unnecessary jobs in the executive branch. He reduced the number of American ambassadors. He dismissed all tax inspectors. Congress would have to take the next steps. "Most government offices," Jefferson said, "were created by laws of Congress. Congress alone must act on these positions. The citizens of the United States have paid for these jobs with their taxes. It is not right or just for the government to take more than it needs from the people." Jefferson especially wanted Congress to reduce the judicial branch. He hoped to dismiss all the Federalist judges former President Adams appointed during his last days in office. These men were known as "midnight judges." VOICE ONE: The Federalists were furious. They accused Jefferson of trying to destroy the courts. They warned that his financial program would crush the nation. They declared there would be anarchy if Federalist officials were dismissed. Most people, however, were happy. They liked what Jefferson said. They especially liked his plan to cut taxes. Jefferson's biggest critic was his long-time political opponent, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had served as the nation's first treasury secretary. Now, he was a private lawyer in New York City. He published his criticism of Jefferson in a newspaper he started, the "New York Evening Post." VOICE TWO: While the public debated Jefferson's policies, the Congress debated his proposal to reduce the number of federal courts. Federalist congressmen claimed that the president was trying to interfere with the judiciary. This, they said, violated the Constitution. Republican congressmen argued that the Constitution gave Congress the power to create courts and to close them. They said the former administration had no right to appoint the so-called "midnight judges." The Republicans won the argument. Congress approved President Jefferson's proposal on the courts. VOICE ONE: Next, Congress debated the president's proposal to cut taxes. Federalists said it was dangerous for the government to depend mainly on import taxes. They said such a policy would lead to smuggling. People would try to bring goods into the United States secretly, without paying taxes on them. Federalists also said that if the United States cut taxes, it would not have enough money to pay its debts. Then no one would want to invest in the United States again. VOICE TWO: Republicans said they were not afraid of smugglers. The danger, they said, would come from taxing the American people. There was no need for production and sales taxes. And, they said, the American people knew it. The Republicans also said they were sure the government would have enough money to pay its debts. The Republicans won this legislative fight, too. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to approve the president's plan to cut taxes. VOICE ONE: Congress then turned to other business. But the question of the "midnight judges" would not die. In fact, the Supreme Court would hear the case of one of those judges. Its decision gave the court an extremely important power which it still uses today. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Harold Braverman. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You can hear a different Special English feature program every day of the week. It follows the latest world news, reported in Special English. On Fridays, there is AMERICAN MOSAIC -- our radio magazine. On Saturdays, we tell AMERICAN STORIES. On Mondays, we report about life in the United States on THIS IS AMERICA. On Tuesdays, we report the latest SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. SPECIAL ENGLISH – right here -- on V-O-A. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) The United States had a new president in Eighteen-Oh-One. It was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Jefferson wrote America's Declaration of Independence. He served as America's first ambassador to France and its first secretary of state. Now he would govern the nation. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Richard Rael and I continue the story of America's third president, Thomas Jefferson. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson was happy and hopeful as he took office. His new political party, the Republicans, had defeated the older Federalist Party. The Federalists had controlled the government for twelve years. America's first president, George Washington, was not a Federalist. But Federalists controlled the cabinet and the Congress during Washington's two terms. America's second president, John Adams, was a Federalist. So the party continued its control during his term. VOICE ONE: The Federalists and the Republicans held very different opinions about how to govern the nation. Yet the change in power from one party to the other took place peacefully. Thomas Jefferson recognized the importance of this fact. He said: "What we have done in this country is all new. The force of public opinion is new. But the most important and pleasing newness is that we have changed our government without violence. This shows a strength of American character that will give long life to our republic." VOICE TWO: President Jefferson wanted to work with Federalists for the good of the nation. But he chose no Federalists for his cabinet. All the cabinet officers were strong Republicans. All were loyal to Thomas Jefferson. James Madison of Virginia was secretary of state. Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury. General Henry Dearborn of New Hampshire, secretary of war. Robert Smith of Maryland, secretary of the navy. And Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts, attorney general. VOICE ONE: For other government positions, Jefferson decided to take a middle road. He would remove all officials appointed by former President John Adams during his 'lame duck' period. That was the time after Jefferson won the election, but before he took office. He also would remove all officials found guilty of dishonesty. He said: "Federalists in government positions have nothing to fear if they have acted honestly and with justice. Those who have acted badly must go. As for the men I appoint to office, they must be of the highest character. I will accept no others." VOICE TWO: Federalist leaders denounced Jefferson's policy. They thought all Federalists should keep their government jobs. Many Republican leaders denounced Jefferson, too. They thought no Federalist should have a government job. The president was caught between the two groups. He finally answered his critics. "Shouts and screams from Federalists or Republicans," he said, "will not force me to remove one more official. . .or one less. I will do what I think is right and just." VOICE ONE: Once President Jefferson formed his cabinet, he began planning the policies of his administration. His two closest advisers were Secretary of State Madison and Treasury Secretary Gallatin. First, they discussed financial policy. They agreed that the government must stop spending as much money as it did under former President Adams. So, government departments would get less money. They also agreed that the government must pay its debts as quickly as possible. The government owed millions of dollars. Each year, the debt grew larger because of the interest on these loans. Albert Gallatin said: "We must have a strong policy. The debt must be paid. If we do not do this, our children, our grandchildren, and many generations to come will have to pay for our mistakes." VOICE TWO: President Jefferson wanted to pay the government debt. He also wanted to cut taxes on the production and sale of some products, such as whiskey and tobacco. He hoped the government could get all the money it needed from import taxes and from the sale of public lands. Jefferson began saving money by ending unnecessary jobs in the executive branch. He reduced the number of American ambassadors. He dismissed all tax inspectors. Congress would have to take the next steps. "Most government offices," Jefferson said, "were created by laws of Congress. Congress alone must act on these positions. The citizens of the United States have paid for these jobs with their taxes. It is not right or just for the government to take more than it needs from the people." Jefferson especially wanted Congress to reduce the judicial branch. He hoped to dismiss all the Federalist judges former President Adams appointed during his last days in office. These men were known as "midnight judges." VOICE ONE: The Federalists were furious. They accused Jefferson of trying to destroy the courts. They warned that his financial program would crush the nation. They declared there would be anarchy if Federalist officials were dismissed. Most people, however, were happy. They liked what Jefferson said. They especially liked his plan to cut taxes. Jefferson's biggest critic was his long-time political opponent, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton had served as the nation's first treasury secretary. Now, he was a private lawyer in New York City. He published his criticism of Jefferson in a newspaper he started, the "New York Evening Post." VOICE TWO: While the public debated Jefferson's policies, the Congress debated his proposal to reduce the number of federal courts. Federalist congressmen claimed that the president was trying to interfere with the judiciary. This, they said, violated the Constitution. Republican congressmen argued that the Constitution gave Congress the power to create courts and to close them. They said the former administration had no right to appoint the so-called "midnight judges." The Republicans won the argument. Congress approved President Jefferson's proposal on the courts. VOICE ONE: Next, Congress debated the president's proposal to cut taxes. Federalists said it was dangerous for the government to depend mainly on import taxes. They said such a policy would lead to smuggling. People would try to bring goods into the United States secretly, without paying taxes on them. Federalists also said that if the United States cut taxes, it would not have enough money to pay its debts. Then no one would want to invest in the United States again. VOICE TWO: Republicans said they were not afraid of smugglers. The danger, they said, would come from taxing the American people. There was no need for production and sales taxes. And, they said, the American people knew it. The Republicans also said they were sure the government would have enough money to pay its debts. The Republicans won this legislative fight, too. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to approve the president's plan to cut taxes. VOICE ONE: Congress then turned to other business. But the question of the "midnight judges" would not die. In fact, the Supreme Court would hear the case of one of those judges. Its decision gave the court an extremely important power which it still uses today. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Richard Rael. Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Harold Braverman. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You can hear a different Special English feature program every day of the week. It follows the latest world news, reported in Special English. On Fridays, there is AMERICAN MOSAIC -- our radio magazine. On Saturdays, we tell AMERICAN STORIES. On Mondays, we report about life in the United States on THIS IS AMERICA. On Tuesdays, we report the latest SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. SPECIAL ENGLISH – right here -- on V-O-A. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: November 13, 2003 - 'The Evasion English Dictionary'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 13, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- evasive maneuvers in American English. RS: Listening to a conversation on a train one day got Maggie Balistreri thinking. She became interested in the ways that Americans can say what they would like to say without actually having to say it. AA: The result is an eighty-seven-page dictionary. "The Evasion English Dictionary" has ten entries just for the word "like." Maggie Balistreri uses a few of them in this bit of dialogue: BALISTRERI: "And I was like, no way." "Really?" "Yeah, I mean, it's like, you know when you try to say something, but like." "I know, I know. I did that the other day." "Really?" "Yeah, it was like, oh my God, I know exactly what you're talking about." RS: "Now could you break apart some of the phrases that you used and what 'like' means in the context of how you used it." AA: "There were very subtle differences between all those uses there." BALISTRERI: "I think the multimedia like is the most popular. And the multimedia like substitutes for the descriptives of what someone else said or what I felt. So rather than tell you what I felt, what I meant, what someone else meant and felt, I will act it out. And so the multimedia like translates as 'visual aid to follow.' 'Did you see what she was wearing? I was like ...' -- [translation] judge." RS: "And another kind of like?" BALISTRERI: "The cowardly like. We're so accustomed to appeasing and not rocking the boat, and accepting every opinion to the extent that we never express our own without undercutting it. So the cowardly like translates as 'I disagree. That is, if it's OK.' 'I don't want to, like, tell you what to do, but it just doesn't sound, like, nice.'" AA: "How about, on the page before here, you have the self-effacing like." BALISTRERI: "I think when we speak, we're ashamed to sound as though we're bragging, and so if we want to state a plain fact -- something we do, something we believe in, something we value, something we believe is right -- we precede it with the word like and it signals shame. So the self-effacing like translates as 'virtue is shameful,' and examples are: 'No, I don't want to, like, betray her trust. I want to try to be more, like, considerate.' 'I work out, like, every day.' 'I volunteer for a few hours every week. I, like, care about the environment and stuff.'" RS: "[laughter] You're pretty good!" BALISTRERI: "And it's sad. That's the most heartbreaking of all of the likes, because I think it's not bragging if you state the plain fact and it's commendable. So that 'like' is the saddest of all the likes." AA: Now take another commonly used evasion: "whatever." BALISTRERI: "I think whatever is snottier than like. Like is more ironic and whatever is more sarcastic, overtly sarcastic. And what I prefer about whatever is that I can respond to it. It is overtly obnoxious. One category of whatever is the apathetic whatever. Translation: 'yeah, so.' Examples: 'She said I was insensitive, and I was like, whatever.' 'Oh, I'm immature? Whatever.' Would you like another example?" AA: "Yeah, please!" BALISTRERI: "The pseudo-impartial whatever. Translation: 'who am I to judge?' Examples: 'He doesn't work. He lives at home. His parents take care of him. Hmm, whatever.' 'She's dating the boss. Hmm, whatever.' 'He belongs to one of those religious, spiritual groups, cults, whatever.' Or the self-pitying whatever. Translations: 'why do I always have to be the martyr?' Examples: 'I don't know why it's called a group project, because I did all the work. But whatever.'" RS: Then there are times when people say one thing but mean the opposite. For instance, when they say they "hate" to say something, it means they really have to say it. BALISTRERI: "I came up with 'hate equals have' because I was having a conversation with an old friend and I said 'you know, I hate to say it, but ...' and he tartly replied, 'then don't.'" RS: "Let me ask you, looking through your dictionary, do you have a favorite?" BALISTRERI: "I think 'should equals won't,' as in I'll learn that somebody is learning yet another language and I think 'you know what, I should, I should totally learn another language.' And should equals won't in that, because if I wanted to, I would." AA: Maggie Balistreri is a copy editor who was born in New York but spoke Italian at home as her first language. She's author of "The Evasion English Dictionary." She also has a language and poetry Web site, CafeMo -- that's c-a-f-e-m-o -- dot com. RS: You'll find at link at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "This Is My United States of Whatever"/Liam Lynch Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 13, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- evasive maneuvers in American English. RS: Listening to a conversation on a train one day got Maggie Balistreri thinking. She became interested in the ways that Americans can say what they would like to say without actually having to say it. AA: The result is an eighty-seven-page dictionary. "The Evasion English Dictionary" has ten entries just for the word "like." Maggie Balistreri uses a few of them in this bit of dialogue: BALISTRERI: "And I was like, no way." "Really?" "Yeah, I mean, it's like, you know when you try to say something, but like." "I know, I know. I did that the other day." "Really?" "Yeah, it was like, oh my God, I know exactly what you're talking about." RS: "Now could you break apart some of the phrases that you used and what 'like' means in the context of how you used it." AA: "There were very subtle differences between all those uses there." BALISTRERI: "I think the multimedia like is the most popular. And the multimedia like substitutes for the descriptives of what someone else said or what I felt. So rather than tell you what I felt, what I meant, what someone else meant and felt, I will act it out. And so the multimedia like translates as 'visual aid to follow.' 'Did you see what she was wearing? I was like ...' -- [translation] judge." RS: "And another kind of like?" BALISTRERI: "The cowardly like. We're so accustomed to appeasing and not rocking the boat, and accepting every opinion to the extent that we never express our own without undercutting it. So the cowardly like translates as 'I disagree. That is, if it's OK.' 'I don't want to, like, tell you what to do, but it just doesn't sound, like, nice.'" AA: "How about, on the page before here, you have the self-effacing like." BALISTRERI: "I think when we speak, we're ashamed to sound as though we're bragging, and so if we want to state a plain fact -- something we do, something we believe in, something we value, something we believe is right -- we precede it with the word like and it signals shame. So the self-effacing like translates as 'virtue is shameful,' and examples are: 'No, I don't want to, like, betray her trust. I want to try to be more, like, considerate.' 'I work out, like, every day.' 'I volunteer for a few hours every week. I, like, care about the environment and stuff.'" RS: "[laughter] You're pretty good!" BALISTRERI: "And it's sad. That's the most heartbreaking of all of the likes, because I think it's not bragging if you state the plain fact and it's commendable. So that 'like' is the saddest of all the likes." AA: Now take another commonly used evasion: "whatever." BALISTRERI: "I think whatever is snottier than like. Like is more ironic and whatever is more sarcastic, overtly sarcastic. And what I prefer about whatever is that I can respond to it. It is overtly obnoxious. One category of whatever is the apathetic whatever. Translation: 'yeah, so.' Examples: 'She said I was insensitive, and I was like, whatever.' 'Oh, I'm immature? Whatever.' Would you like another example?" AA: "Yeah, please!" BALISTRERI: "The pseudo-impartial whatever. Translation: 'who am I to judge?' Examples: 'He doesn't work. He lives at home. His parents take care of him. Hmm, whatever.' 'She's dating the boss. Hmm, whatever.' 'He belongs to one of those religious, spiritual groups, cults, whatever.' Or the self-pitying whatever. Translations: 'why do I always have to be the martyr?' Examples: 'I don't know why it's called a group project, because I did all the work. But whatever.'" RS: Then there are times when people say one thing but mean the opposite. For instance, when they say they "hate" to say something, it means they really have to say it. BALISTRERI: "I came up with 'hate equals have' because I was having a conversation with an old friend and I said 'you know, I hate to say it, but ...' and he tartly replied, 'then don't.'" RS: "Let me ask you, looking through your dictionary, do you have a favorite?" BALISTRERI: "I think 'should equals won't,' as in I'll learn that somebody is learning yet another language and I think 'you know what, I should, I should totally learn another language.' And should equals won't in that, because if I wanted to, I would." AA: Maggie Balistreri is a copy editor who was born in New York but spoke Italian at home as her first language. She's author of "The Evasion English Dictionary." She also has a language and poetry Web site, CafeMo -- that's c-a-f-e-m-o -- dot com. RS: You'll find at link at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "This Is My United States of Whatever"/Liam Lynch 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC -- Rap Music by OutKast / A Question About Churches in America / and Mobile Phone Technology
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 14, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 14, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we play music by the group OutKast. And we answer a listener’s question about churches in America. But first – a look at the latest in mobile phone technology, and how some people are using it. Cell Phone Technology HOST: More than one-hundred-fifty-million Americans, or over half the people in the country, use wireless phones. Americans usually call them cell phones, which describes the technology. Signals travel from one area, or cell, to another as a person travels. And, as Shep O’Neal reports, wireless technology keeps moving along too. ANNCR: Cell phones can organize information, receive e-mail, send instant messages and search the Internet. They can also store music, play games and do other things. And, oh yes, you can still talk on them too. Manufacturers are discussing the development of phones that can be used as video cameras. For now, though, most of the talk is about phones that take pictures. Camera phones were first used in Japan in two-thousand. They combine the technology of a digital camera with a telephone. Users can take pictures with their cell phones, then send the images to others. The color screens on the phones are small, but the images can also be put onto a computer. Millions of camera phones are in use in Japan and other Asian countries. Some places have experienced problems. In South Korea, pictures taken of women in public bathhouses have appeared on the Internet. In Japan, police have caught some people aiming their camera phones under the clothes of women in train stations. Others go into stores and take pictures of pages in books and magazines. That way they do not have to buy them. All these activities have led officials to ban camera phones in some public places. Now, the United States is also experiencing problems with this new technology. Some American health clubs have banned the use of camera phones in their buildings. In one sports club in Washington, D.C., members are not permitted to use cell phones of any kind in the changing rooms. News reports said the club wanted to be careful and prevent any problems. Health clubs in Los Angeles have also banned the use of camera phones. A lot of famous people exercise in those clubs. Officials are concerned not to violate their privacy. Churches in America HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Argentina. Raul Colquehuanca (kohl-kay-WAHN-kah) asks about the number of churches in the United States. He also wants to know how young people learn about them. That is not an easy question to answer. Experts say it is not possible to know the number of churches in the United States. That is because it is difficult to say exactly what a church is. However, some researchers say America has more than three-hundred-thousand religious congregations, or groups that meet. These religious centers belong to Christians, Jews, Muslims and many other groups. Experts also say it is not possible to know exactly how many Americans follow each religion. However, research shows that more than seventy-five percent of American adults are Christian. The number of Christians in the United States has been estimated at between one-hundred-fifty-million and two-hundred-thirty-million. Researchers found that there are about sixty-million Roman Catholics in the United States. There are more than two-hundred other Christian groups in America. Also, about six-million people in America are Jewish. About six-million are Muslim. One opinion study also says that more than twenty-seven-million people in America say they are not religious. Young people learn about their religions through activities of their church organization. For example, most Christian churches meet for Bible study and other classes to teach about their religion. Some groups also meet just to have a good time. Churches often place messages in high school and local newspapers about their programs for young people. Thousands of teen-agers across the country attend young people’s activities at their churches. For example, the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland has a large program for high school students. Hundreds of teenagers attend activities there. Each Sunday, the church offers religious education especially for teenagers. Young people can eat breakfast together at the church on Thursday mornings before school. Other social activities include parties at peoples’ homes. Church families hold these events for high school students once each month. OutKast HOST: Two rappers who perform together as OutKast released their first single in nineteen-ninety-three. Since then they have released five albums. The newest is called “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” Bob Cohen tells more. ANNCR: Antwan Patton and Andre Benjamin are the members of OutKast. They are also known as Big Boi and Dre, or Andre Three-thousand. They have created their own kind of hip-hop music. It includes many musical influences such as blues and jazz. Their first hit song combined hip-hop with deep Southern soul and live instruments. It was “Player’s Ball.” (MUSIC) The music of OutKast is sometimes funny, and often uses sound effects. In general, the music is less aggressive than a lot of other rap. Here is a song from their fourth album. It is about a man's former relationship with the mother of his child. He is telling the story to her mother. The song is called “Ms. Jackson.” (MUSIC) OutKast’s new album is unlike their other ones. It is made up of two parts. “The Love Below” is Andre Three-thousand's part of the album. Big Boi’s part is called, “Speakerboxxx.” We leave you with a hit from the “The Love Below” part of the album. It is called “Hey Ya.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Today’s program was written by Chi-Un Lee and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Jim Harmon. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we play music by the group OutKast. And we answer a listener’s question about churches in America. But first – a look at the latest in mobile phone technology, and how some people are using it. Cell Phone Technology HOST: More than one-hundred-fifty-million Americans, or over half the people in the country, use wireless phones. Americans usually call them cell phones, which describes the technology. Signals travel from one area, or cell, to another as a person travels. And, as Shep O’Neal reports, wireless technology keeps moving along too. ANNCR: Cell phones can organize information, receive e-mail, send instant messages and search the Internet. They can also store music, play games and do other things. And, oh yes, you can still talk on them too. Manufacturers are discussing the development of phones that can be used as video cameras. For now, though, most of the talk is about phones that take pictures. Camera phones were first used in Japan in two-thousand. They combine the technology of a digital camera with a telephone. Users can take pictures with their cell phones, then send the images to others. The color screens on the phones are small, but the images can also be put onto a computer. Millions of camera phones are in use in Japan and other Asian countries. Some places have experienced problems. In South Korea, pictures taken of women in public bathhouses have appeared on the Internet. In Japan, police have caught some people aiming their camera phones under the clothes of women in train stations. Others go into stores and take pictures of pages in books and magazines. That way they do not have to buy them. All these activities have led officials to ban camera phones in some public places. Now, the United States is also experiencing problems with this new technology. Some American health clubs have banned the use of camera phones in their buildings. In one sports club in Washington, D.C., members are not permitted to use cell phones of any kind in the changing rooms. News reports said the club wanted to be careful and prevent any problems. Health clubs in Los Angeles have also banned the use of camera phones. A lot of famous people exercise in those clubs. Officials are concerned not to violate their privacy. Churches in America HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Argentina. Raul Colquehuanca (kohl-kay-WAHN-kah) asks about the number of churches in the United States. He also wants to know how young people learn about them. That is not an easy question to answer. Experts say it is not possible to know the number of churches in the United States. That is because it is difficult to say exactly what a church is. However, some researchers say America has more than three-hundred-thousand religious congregations, or groups that meet. These religious centers belong to Christians, Jews, Muslims and many other groups. Experts also say it is not possible to know exactly how many Americans follow each religion. However, research shows that more than seventy-five percent of American adults are Christian. The number of Christians in the United States has been estimated at between one-hundred-fifty-million and two-hundred-thirty-million. Researchers found that there are about sixty-million Roman Catholics in the United States. There are more than two-hundred other Christian groups in America. Also, about six-million people in America are Jewish. About six-million are Muslim. One opinion study also says that more than twenty-seven-million people in America say they are not religious. Young people learn about their religions through activities of their church organization. For example, most Christian churches meet for Bible study and other classes to teach about their religion. Some groups also meet just to have a good time. Churches often place messages in high school and local newspapers about their programs for young people. Thousands of teen-agers across the country attend young people’s activities at their churches. For example, the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland has a large program for high school students. Hundreds of teenagers attend activities there. Each Sunday, the church offers religious education especially for teenagers. Young people can eat breakfast together at the church on Thursday mornings before school. Other social activities include parties at peoples’ homes. Church families hold these events for high school students once each month. OutKast HOST: Two rappers who perform together as OutKast released their first single in nineteen-ninety-three. Since then they have released five albums. The newest is called “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” Bob Cohen tells more. ANNCR: Antwan Patton and Andre Benjamin are the members of OutKast. They are also known as Big Boi and Dre, or Andre Three-thousand. They have created their own kind of hip-hop music. It includes many musical influences such as blues and jazz. Their first hit song combined hip-hop with deep Southern soul and live instruments. It was “Player’s Ball.” (MUSIC) The music of OutKast is sometimes funny, and often uses sound effects. In general, the music is less aggressive than a lot of other rap. Here is a song from their fourth album. It is about a man's former relationship with the mother of his child. He is telling the story to her mother. The song is called “Ms. Jackson.” (MUSIC) OutKast’s new album is unlike their other ones. It is made up of two parts. “The Love Below” is Andre Three-thousand's part of the album. Big Boi’s part is called, “Speakerboxxx.” We leave you with a hit from the “The Love Below” part of the album. It is called “Hey Ya.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Today’s program was written by Chi-Un Lee and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Jim Harmon. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT — New York Stock Exchange, Part 2: Proposed Reforms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 14, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week we told about the New York Stock Exchange and the resignation of its chairman, Richard Grasso. This week we tell about proposals by the temporary chairman, John Reed, to reform the world's biggest stock market. Mister Grasso spent thirty-five years there, the last eight as chairman. He left in September after the public learned about his pay. The Board of Directors had awarded him a deal worth almost one-hundred-eighty-eight-million-dollars. Critics said investors could not trust the board because of its close ties to the investment companies that the exchange supervises. Earlier this month, Mister Reed proposed that instead of twenty-seven directors, he wants at most twelve. He asked all but two of the current directors to resign. The two are former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Herbert Allison Junior. Mister Allison is chairman of T-I-A-A-CREF, a financial services company. Both joined the board this year. Mister Reed said his plan would create the first totally independent board in the two-hundred-eleven-year history of the exchange. He also says the exchange should continue to have the power to police itself. Critics of his plan called for greater separation between those who enforce the rules of the exchange and those who must obey them. Members of the exchange will vote on the plan November eighteenth. For his services as temporary chairman, Mister Reed will be paid one dollar. There have also been calls to reform an important group of members of the New York Stock Exchange. These are called specialists. Specialists are central to trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Each stock listed on the exchange is represented by a specialist. They receive requests to buy stocks. They bring buyers and sellers together. They buy and sell stocks for themselves. Specialists also are expected to use their own money to help control stock prices. Recently, the exchange accused five specialist companies of using their position unfairly. It says they put their own interests ahead of those who trade stock for the public. The exchange is seeking total fines of about one-hundred-fifty million dollars. The Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington is urging higher fines and a wider investigation. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - New Palestinian Government
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 15, 2003 This is Steve Ember with In the News, from VOA Special English. Planning has been taking place for talks between Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. They are to discuss ways to end three years of violence between the two sides and restart peace talks. Both sides are under pressure from the United States to renew peace efforts now that a new Palestinian government is in place. The Palestinian Legislative Council approved Mister Qureia’s government on Wednesday. The council voted forty-six to thirteen. Five council members did not vote. Mister Qureia has twenty-four members in his cabinet. Mister Qureia was speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He became acting prime minister in September. He could not form a cabinet, however, because of a dispute with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Mister Qureia had threatened to resign when Mister Arafat would not approve his choice of interior minister. The dispute lasted ten weeks. On Sunday, Mister Qureia ended the political dispute. He accepted Mister Arafat's choice of Hakam Bilawi as interior minister. Mister Bilawi will have some control over the police, civil defense and security forces. But Mister Arafat will have most of the control over the security forces as the head of the new National Security Council. Mister Qureia took office after Mister Arafat named an emergency cabinet to replace the government of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Mister Abbas resigned in September after losing a similar power struggle with Mister Arafat over security issues. Mister Arafat has controlled the security forces since the Palestinian Authority began in nineteen-ninety-four. Israel and the United States have held him responsible for the failure to stop terrorist attacks against Israelis. They have demanded that he give control of the security forces to his prime minister. Mister Arafat said in a speech this week that the time has come to end what he called the "destructive war" with Israel. Israel and the Palestinians are under international pressure to carry out a peace plan known as the road map. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia proposed the plan. The aim is to establish an independent Palestinian state by two-thousand-five. The plan calls on Israel to stop building settlements, and the Palestinian security forces to break up militant groups. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said Israel and the Palestinians must work together and help each other. Israel says it wants to give him a chance to move the peace process forward. On Friday, four of Israel's former security chiefs criticized Ariel Sharon's current policies. They said Israel faces a lot worse trouble unless he works toward a peace agreement soon. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - John. F. Kennedy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 16, 2003 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Steve Ember and Sarah Long tell the story of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On November twenty-second, Nineteen-Sixty-Three, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. He was riding in an open car through the streets of Dallas, Texas. His death ended the time in American politics that has been known ever since as ”Camelot.” Jacqueline Kennedy named the years of her husband’s presidency after the imaginary time of peace and good will in ancient Britain. She said her husband liked the song from the musical play called “Camelot”: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in the northeastern city of Brookline, Massachusetts on May twenty-ninth, Nineteen-Seventeen. He was the second son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. John had eight brothers and sisters. The family moved often to bigger houses as Joseph Kennedy became richer. John Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in Nineteen-Forty. His final paper became the best selling book, “Why England Slept.” He joined the United States Navy during World War Two and was commander of a small attack boat in the South Pacific Ocean. A Japanese ship destroyed the boat. Two of the men were killed. The others swam to a nearby island, where John Kennedy spent the next four days searching for help. The crew was rescued. Later, Kennedy was honored for saving the life of one of his crewmen. VOICE ONE: The Kennedy family always explained John’s poor health at times on the back injury he suffered during the war. But that was not the whole truth. John Kennedy had been a very sick child. He almost died more than once of fevers and other mysterious sicknesses. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, he found out that he had Addison’s disease, a condition affecting the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands of a healthy person produce hormones that help fight infection and provide extra strength when necessary. Addison’s Disease damages the adrenal glands, causing weight loss, tiredness, stomach problems and yellow skin. If the condition is not treated, the body has no resistance to infection, and death can result. After the disease was discovered, John Kennedy was treated with a medicine that he continued to take the rest of his life. No one outside the family and closest friends knew about his medical secret. VOICE TWO: John Kennedy survived World War Two and returned home to Massachusetts. His older brother did not. Joseph Kennedy Junior was killed in the war. The Kennedy family had always believed Joe Junior would someday become President of the United States. After his death, that goal fell to his younger brother. In Nineteen-Forty-Six, John Kennedy was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and served until Nineteen-Fifty-Two. Then he was elected senator from Massachusetts. He served in the Senate until Nineteen-Sixty when he was elected President. VOICE ONE: John Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Nineteen-Fifty-Three. Not long after their marriage, Senator Kennedy had two operations on his spine to correct back problems suffered during the war. While recovering, he wrote about a series of acts of political courage by eight United States senators. The reports became the book “Profiles in Courage.” It received the Pulitzer Prize in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven. The Kennedys had two children. Caroline Bouvier was born in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Junior was born in November, Nineteen-Sixty, after his father was elected President, but before he was sworn in to office. VOICE TWO: John Fitzgerald Kennedy became America’s thirty-fifth President on January twentieth, Nineteen-Sixty-One. It was an important day for millions of Americans, who saw John Kennedy as a new beginning for the country. Not everyone liked the new President, however. He had won the election over the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, by fewer than one-hundred-twenty-thousand popular votes. Many people thought he was too young to be President. He was the youngest man ever elected, only forty-three. Many people opposed him because he belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of Christians in America were Protestant. The United States had never had a Roman Catholic president. VOICE ONE: President Kennedy’s speech the day he was sworn in is considered among the best speeches in American history. He spoke about a light of leadership being passed from older Americans to younger ones. He urged the young to take the light and accept responsibility for the future. And he urged other countries to work with the United States to create a better world: (SOUND: KENNEDY INAUGURAL SPEECH) “The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” VOICE TWO: A few weeks after he took office, President Kennedy announced the creation of the Peace Corps. It has sent thousands of Americans to developing countries to provide help. He also announced a program called the Alliance for Progress to provide economic aid to Latin American nations. The worst failure of Kennedy’s administration came early in his presidency. On April seventeenth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, more than one-thousand Cuban exiles landed in western Cuba, in a place called the Bay of Pigs. They had received training and equipment from the United States. They were to lead a revolution to overthrow the communist government of Cuba. The plan failed. Most of the exiles were killed or captured. It had not been John Kennedy’s idea to start a revolution against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Officials in the former administration had planned it. But Kennedy approved it. The public considered him responsible for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. His popularity rating dropped. VOICE ONE: President Kennedy soon regained some public approval when he visited Europe, and met with French leader Charles DeGaulle in Paris. Later, the East Germans, with support from the Soviet Union, built a wall to separate the eastern and western parts of Berlin. President Kennedy quickly announced a large increase in the number of American military forces in Germany. He said the United States would not permit freedom to end in Berlin. Then in October, Nineteen-Sixty-Two, the United States discovered the Soviets were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy immediately sent American ships to the area. They were to prevent Soviet ships from taking missile parts and other supplies to Cuba. War seemed likely. Then the Soviet ships carrying missile parts to Cuba turned back. President Kennedy promised that the United States would not invade Cuba if the Soviet Union removed its missiles and stopped building new ones there. VOICE TWO: The United States and the Soviet Union did make progress on arms control in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. They reached a major agreement to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water and in space. The treaty did not ban nuclear tests under ground. On national issues, President Kennedy began the American space effort to land a man on the moon by the end of the Nineteen-Sixties. He also supported efforts to provide a better life for African-Americans. He proposed a new civil rights law that would guarantee equal treatment for blacks in public places and jobs. It would speed the work of ending racial separation in schools. But Congress delayed action on the bill. It did not approve a civil rights law until after John Kennedy was killed and Lyndon Johnson took office. VOICE ONE: President John F. Kennedy was buried on his son’s third birthday, November twenty-fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Millions of people around the world watched on television. They mourned along with the Kennedy family. Many people loved President Kennedy, his wife and young children. They felt the family represented a new, bright future for the United States and the world. With his death, they felt that hope disappearing. (THEME) ANNCR: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Sarah Long. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. Broadcast: November 16, 2003 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Steve Ember and Sarah Long tell the story of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On November twenty-second, Nineteen-Sixty-Three, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. He was riding in an open car through the streets of Dallas, Texas. His death ended the time in American politics that has been known ever since as ”Camelot.” Jacqueline Kennedy named the years of her husband’s presidency after the imaginary time of peace and good will in ancient Britain. She said her husband liked the song from the musical play called “Camelot”: (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in the northeastern city of Brookline, Massachusetts on May twenty-ninth, Nineteen-Seventeen. He was the second son of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and his wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. John had eight brothers and sisters. The family moved often to bigger houses as Joseph Kennedy became richer. John Kennedy graduated from Harvard University in Nineteen-Forty. His final paper became the best selling book, “Why England Slept.” He joined the United States Navy during World War Two and was commander of a small attack boat in the South Pacific Ocean. A Japanese ship destroyed the boat. Two of the men were killed. The others swam to a nearby island, where John Kennedy spent the next four days searching for help. The crew was rescued. Later, Kennedy was honored for saving the life of one of his crewmen. VOICE ONE: The Kennedy family always explained John’s poor health at times on the back injury he suffered during the war. But that was not the whole truth. John Kennedy had been a very sick child. He almost died more than once of fevers and other mysterious sicknesses. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, he found out that he had Addison’s disease, a condition affecting the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands of a healthy person produce hormones that help fight infection and provide extra strength when necessary. Addison’s Disease damages the adrenal glands, causing weight loss, tiredness, stomach problems and yellow skin. If the condition is not treated, the body has no resistance to infection, and death can result. After the disease was discovered, John Kennedy was treated with a medicine that he continued to take the rest of his life. No one outside the family and closest friends knew about his medical secret. VOICE TWO: John Kennedy survived World War Two and returned home to Massachusetts. His older brother did not. Joseph Kennedy Junior was killed in the war. The Kennedy family had always believed Joe Junior would someday become President of the United States. After his death, that goal fell to his younger brother. In Nineteen-Forty-Six, John Kennedy was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and served until Nineteen-Fifty-Two. Then he was elected senator from Massachusetts. He served in the Senate until Nineteen-Sixty when he was elected President. VOICE ONE: John Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Nineteen-Fifty-Three. Not long after their marriage, Senator Kennedy had two operations on his spine to correct back problems suffered during the war. While recovering, he wrote about a series of acts of political courage by eight United States senators. The reports became the book “Profiles in Courage.” It received the Pulitzer Prize in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven. The Kennedys had two children. Caroline Bouvier was born in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Junior was born in November, Nineteen-Sixty, after his father was elected President, but before he was sworn in to office. VOICE TWO: John Fitzgerald Kennedy became America’s thirty-fifth President on January twentieth, Nineteen-Sixty-One. It was an important day for millions of Americans, who saw John Kennedy as a new beginning for the country. Not everyone liked the new President, however. He had won the election over the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, by fewer than one-hundred-twenty-thousand popular votes. Many people thought he was too young to be President. He was the youngest man ever elected, only forty-three. Many people opposed him because he belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of Christians in America were Protestant. The United States had never had a Roman Catholic president. VOICE ONE: President Kennedy’s speech the day he was sworn in is considered among the best speeches in American history. He spoke about a light of leadership being passed from older Americans to younger ones. He urged the young to take the light and accept responsibility for the future. And he urged other countries to work with the United States to create a better world: (SOUND: KENNEDY INAUGURAL SPEECH) “The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” VOICE TWO: A few weeks after he took office, President Kennedy announced the creation of the Peace Corps. It has sent thousands of Americans to developing countries to provide help. He also announced a program called the Alliance for Progress to provide economic aid to Latin American nations. The worst failure of Kennedy’s administration came early in his presidency. On April seventeenth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, more than one-thousand Cuban exiles landed in western Cuba, in a place called the Bay of Pigs. They had received training and equipment from the United States. They were to lead a revolution to overthrow the communist government of Cuba. The plan failed. Most of the exiles were killed or captured. It had not been John Kennedy’s idea to start a revolution against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Officials in the former administration had planned it. But Kennedy approved it. The public considered him responsible for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. His popularity rating dropped. VOICE ONE: President Kennedy soon regained some public approval when he visited Europe, and met with French leader Charles DeGaulle in Paris. Later, the East Germans, with support from the Soviet Union, built a wall to separate the eastern and western parts of Berlin. President Kennedy quickly announced a large increase in the number of American military forces in Germany. He said the United States would not permit freedom to end in Berlin. Then in October, Nineteen-Sixty-Two, the United States discovered the Soviets were putting nuclear missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy immediately sent American ships to the area. They were to prevent Soviet ships from taking missile parts and other supplies to Cuba. War seemed likely. Then the Soviet ships carrying missile parts to Cuba turned back. President Kennedy promised that the United States would not invade Cuba if the Soviet Union removed its missiles and stopped building new ones there. VOICE TWO: The United States and the Soviet Union did make progress on arms control in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. They reached a major agreement to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water and in space. The treaty did not ban nuclear tests under ground. On national issues, President Kennedy began the American space effort to land a man on the moon by the end of the Nineteen-Sixties. He also supported efforts to provide a better life for African-Americans. He proposed a new civil rights law that would guarantee equal treatment for blacks in public places and jobs. It would speed the work of ending racial separation in schools. But Congress delayed action on the bill. It did not approve a civil rights law until after John Kennedy was killed and Lyndon Johnson took office. VOICE ONE: President John F. Kennedy was buried on his son’s third birthday, November twenty-fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Millions of people around the world watched on television. They mourned along with the Kennedy family. Many people loved President Kennedy, his wife and young children. They felt the family represented a new, bright future for the United States and the world. With his death, they felt that hope disappearing. (THEME) ANNCR: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Sarah Long. I’m Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Pfizer Adds to Fight to End Blindness from Trachoma
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 17, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Broadcast: November 17, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The drug company Pfizer says it will give enough medicine free of charge to treat about ninety percent of people with trachoma. This eye infection is the leading cause of preventable blindness. An estimated one-hundred-fifty-million people have trachoma. Most live in developing nations. Pfizer said from New York that it will give away one-hundred-thirty-five-million treatments of Zithromax over the next five years. Pfizer invented this antibiotic drug and holds the patent rights until two-thousand-six. After that, other companies can make their own versions. One dose of Zithromax a year can prevent a trachoma infection from progressing. Pfizer’s new donation will help the World Health Organization with its goal to end trachoma by two-thousand-twenty. Joseph Cook heads the W-H-O's International Trachoma Initiative. He says the success over the past five years proves that the goal is within reach. Since nineteen-ninety-nine, Pfizer has given away eight-million doses of Zithromax to the W-H-O campaign. The nine countries already in the program include Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Morocco and Nepal. The other are Niger, Sudan, Tanzania and Vietnam. Initiative officials say the effort will expand to at least ten more countries. The Washington Post reported that Senegal and Mauritania are the next to be added. Antibiotics are not the only method for dealing with trachoma. The World Health Organization supports a program known as the “SAFE Strategy.” “S” stands for surgical operations, for the most severe cases. “A” stands for antibiotics, such as Zithromax. “F” stands for face washing, to reduce the spread of the disease. And “E” stands for environmental changes. These include the development of clean water supplies and better living conditions. Trachoma begins as a bacterial infection inside the upper eyelids. Hands, clothes or insects that have touched fluid from the eyes or nose of an infected person can spread the disease. Children and women are at greatest risk -- women, because they are often around children. Trachoma has blinded about six-million people. Blindness usually happens during the most economically productive years of life. You can learn more on the Internet at trachoma-dot-o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Robert Cohen. The drug company Pfizer says it will give enough medicine free of charge to treat about ninety percent of people with trachoma. This eye infection is the leading cause of preventable blindness. An estimated one-hundred-fifty-million people have trachoma. Most live in developing nations. Pfizer said from New York that it will give away one-hundred-thirty-five-million treatments of Zithromax over the next five years. Pfizer invented this antibiotic drug and holds the patent rights until two-thousand-six. After that, other companies can make their own versions. One dose of Zithromax a year can prevent a trachoma infection from progressing. Pfizer’s new donation will help the World Health Organization with its goal to end trachoma by two-thousand-twenty. Joseph Cook heads the W-H-O's International Trachoma Initiative. He says the success over the past five years proves that the goal is within reach. Since nineteen-ninety-nine, Pfizer has given away eight-million doses of Zithromax to the W-H-O campaign. The nine countries already in the program include Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Morocco and Nepal. The other are Niger, Sudan, Tanzania and Vietnam. Initiative officials say the effort will expand to at least ten more countries. The Washington Post reported that Senegal and Mauritania are the next to be added. Antibiotics are not the only method for dealing with trachoma. The World Health Organization supports a program known as the “SAFE Strategy.” “S” stands for surgical operations, for the most severe cases. “A” stands for antibiotics, such as Zithromax. “F” stands for face washing, to reduce the spread of the disease. And “E” stands for environmental changes. These include the development of clean water supplies and better living conditions. Trachoma begins as a bacterial infection inside the upper eyelids. Hands, clothes or insects that have touched fluid from the eyes or nose of an infected person can spread the disease. Children and women are at greatest risk -- women, because they are often around children. Trachoma has blinded about six-million people. Blindness usually happens during the most economically productive years of life. You can learn more on the Internet at trachoma-dot-o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. I’m Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Gays in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 17, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week, we look at some of the legal and social gains made in recent years by homosexuals in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, a clergyman named Gene Robinson became a leader in the Episcopal Church. He is the new bishop in the small, northeastern state of New Hampshire. He is the first Episcopal bishop to say publicly that he is gay. The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion. There are seventy-million Anglicans around the world. More than two million of them belong to the Episcopal Church in the United States. Gene Robinson is fifty-six years old. He was married and has two adult daughters. He has lived with the same man for the past fourteen years. Bishop Robinson says other members and leaders of the clergy have been gay, but have not said so. He says he is being honest. He says he does not believe his sexuality will harm his leadership. VOICE TWO: Bishop Robinson was elected in June as leader of Episcopalians in New Hampshire. Later, a national convention of church leaders confirmed the decision. The ceremony in which he became bishop took place at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. About four-thousand people attended. Most of the people at the ceremony cheered Bishop Robinson. But some opponents also attended. A member of the Episcopal Church and two clergymen spoke in opposition. One speaker read a statement signed by thirty-eight Episcopal bishops. The statement said Bishop Robinson's relationship with another man violates the teachings of the church and the writings of the Christian Bible. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, expressed deep regret at the divisions in the Anglican Communion. As archbishop of the Church of England, he is the spiritual leader of Anglicans. Anglican leaders in Africa have been especially critical of the choice of Gene Robinson as a bishop. VOICE ONE: Some Episcopalians and other Anglicans say the dispute is just beginning. But the choice of a gay bishop is seen as another sign of wider acceptance of homosexuals in the United States. In June, the same month Gene Robinson was elected bishop, the United States Supreme Court cancelled a law in Texas. That law made sexual relations between adults of the same sex a crime. The Supreme Court was divided, six-to-three. But the majority found that the law violated freedoms under the Constitution. The ruling effectively rejected the last few laws of this kind in the United States. Supporters of gay rights called it a major victory. Then, in July, the nation's largest private employer said it would increase protection of the civil rights of gay and lesbian employees. VOICE TWO: Wal-Mart employs more than one-million people worldwide at stores that sell all kinds of goods at low prices. The company agreed to expand its equal employment rules. These rules already barred unfair treatment of racial and religious minorities and disabled people, among others. Gay rights groups have been working to get more companies to extend similar protection. One group, based in Washington, D.C., is called the Human Rights Campaign. It says more than three-hundred of the five-hundred largest companies in the United States now have such policies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, the Human Rights Campaign launched a public education effort through the media. The group says society would gain if all loving couples had the right to marry. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has been considering an important appeal on this issue. The case involves two women denied a marriage license. This is the document needed to have an official marriage ceremony. Some clergy now perform religious ceremonies for couples of the same sex. But these couples lack the rights and protections traditionally given to husbands and wives. In two-thousand, another state in the Northeast, Vermont, recognized civil unions. A civil union gives same-sex couples the responsibilities and legal protections of marriage. But no state recognizes two people of the same sex as legally married. VOICE TWO: The United States Constitution does not define marriage. Some Republicans in Congress support the idea of a constitutional amendment. It would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. President Bush said in July that lawyers were looking at the best way to establish that idea in law. Mister Bush said it is very important for society to welcome those with "good hearts." But, he added, that does not mean someone like him has to compromise on an issue such as marriage. In October, the president declared an observance of Marriage Protection Week. VOICE ONE: Roman Catholic leaders in America have added their voice to the opposition to same-sex marriage. Last week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a statement in the form of questions and answers. The document says the purposes of marriage are established by God. It says marriage is directly related to the common good of society. In September, the top committee of the bishops voted to support a marriage amendment to the Constitution. About sixty million members of the Roman Catholic Church live in the United States. The country has a total population of almost three-hundred-million people. Some religious groups in America offer support to gay men and lesbians. Others condemn homosexuality. Some groups want to make opposition to same-sex marriage an issue in the presidential election next year. Still other groups express no official position. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Current United States policy about gays in the military became law ten years ago. It was during the administration of President Bill Clinton. The policy is called “don't ask, don't tell.” It says service members should not ask about the sexuality of other members. It says they should also not discuss their own sexuality. Under this policy, however, the military can still dismiss gays. A private group, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, studies Defense Department records. It says the military dismissed just over nine-hundred people last year for homosexuality. That was the lowest number reported since nineteen-ninety-six. In July of this year, a former Army officer began legal action to demand his retirement payments. He was dismissed in nineteen-ninety-seven, one week before he could have retired after twenty years in the Army. He also wants to have the "don't ask, don't tell policy" declared unfair. VOICE ONE: In the area of education, gay and lesbian students now have a public high school especially for them. It opened in September in New York City. Many of the students accepted by the school were mistreated in other schools. Supporters and a small number of protesters gathered outside for the opening of Harvey Milk High School. Harvey Milk was a gay county supervisor in San Francisco, California. He was shot to death in nineteen-seventy-eight. The school has almost one-hundred students. Some educators praise the idea. They say the school provides a chance for the students to study in a safer environment. But others say the idea of such a school is like separating the races. VOICE TWO: As time has passed, more people have publicly identified themselves as gay. Television programs and movies about gays are popular. One program is called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Each week, five gay men help a heterosexual man look better and have a nicer home. Usually the goal is to improve his relationships with women. Gay men and lesbians have gained influence in politics. Voters have elected them to local and state offices and Congress. At the same time, activist groups have helped the fight against AIDS gain more money. During the nineteen-eighties, doctors in the United States first identified the deadly disease among gay men. VOICE ONE: Some Americans believe homosexuality is wrong. But developments in recent years suggest that social acceptance of gays and lesbians in the United States has increased. One thing is sure: Discussion of these issues is out in the open in American life as never before. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: November 17, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week, we look at some of the legal and social gains made in recent years by homosexuals in the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, a clergyman named Gene Robinson became a leader in the Episcopal Church. He is the new bishop in the small, northeastern state of New Hampshire. He is the first Episcopal bishop to say publicly that he is gay. The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion. There are seventy-million Anglicans around the world. More than two million of them belong to the Episcopal Church in the United States. Gene Robinson is fifty-six years old. He was married and has two adult daughters. He has lived with the same man for the past fourteen years. Bishop Robinson says other members and leaders of the clergy have been gay, but have not said so. He says he is being honest. He says he does not believe his sexuality will harm his leadership. VOICE TWO: Bishop Robinson was elected in June as leader of Episcopalians in New Hampshire. Later, a national convention of church leaders confirmed the decision. The ceremony in which he became bishop took place at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. About four-thousand people attended. Most of the people at the ceremony cheered Bishop Robinson. But some opponents also attended. A member of the Episcopal Church and two clergymen spoke in opposition. One speaker read a statement signed by thirty-eight Episcopal bishops. The statement said Bishop Robinson's relationship with another man violates the teachings of the church and the writings of the Christian Bible. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, expressed deep regret at the divisions in the Anglican Communion. As archbishop of the Church of England, he is the spiritual leader of Anglicans. Anglican leaders in Africa have been especially critical of the choice of Gene Robinson as a bishop. VOICE ONE: Some Episcopalians and other Anglicans say the dispute is just beginning. But the choice of a gay bishop is seen as another sign of wider acceptance of homosexuals in the United States. In June, the same month Gene Robinson was elected bishop, the United States Supreme Court cancelled a law in Texas. That law made sexual relations between adults of the same sex a crime. The Supreme Court was divided, six-to-three. But the majority found that the law violated freedoms under the Constitution. The ruling effectively rejected the last few laws of this kind in the United States. Supporters of gay rights called it a major victory. Then, in July, the nation's largest private employer said it would increase protection of the civil rights of gay and lesbian employees. VOICE TWO: Wal-Mart employs more than one-million people worldwide at stores that sell all kinds of goods at low prices. The company agreed to expand its equal employment rules. These rules already barred unfair treatment of racial and religious minorities and disabled people, among others. Gay rights groups have been working to get more companies to extend similar protection. One group, based in Washington, D.C., is called the Human Rights Campaign. It says more than three-hundred of the five-hundred largest companies in the United States now have such policies. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, the Human Rights Campaign launched a public education effort through the media. The group says society would gain if all loving couples had the right to marry. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has been considering an important appeal on this issue. The case involves two women denied a marriage license. This is the document needed to have an official marriage ceremony. Some clergy now perform religious ceremonies for couples of the same sex. But these couples lack the rights and protections traditionally given to husbands and wives. In two-thousand, another state in the Northeast, Vermont, recognized civil unions. A civil union gives same-sex couples the responsibilities and legal protections of marriage. But no state recognizes two people of the same sex as legally married. VOICE TWO: The United States Constitution does not define marriage. Some Republicans in Congress support the idea of a constitutional amendment. It would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. President Bush said in July that lawyers were looking at the best way to establish that idea in law. Mister Bush said it is very important for society to welcome those with "good hearts." But, he added, that does not mean someone like him has to compromise on an issue such as marriage. In October, the president declared an observance of Marriage Protection Week. VOICE ONE: Roman Catholic leaders in America have added their voice to the opposition to same-sex marriage. Last week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a statement in the form of questions and answers. The document says the purposes of marriage are established by God. It says marriage is directly related to the common good of society. In September, the top committee of the bishops voted to support a marriage amendment to the Constitution. About sixty million members of the Roman Catholic Church live in the United States. The country has a total population of almost three-hundred-million people. Some religious groups in America offer support to gay men and lesbians. Others condemn homosexuality. Some groups want to make opposition to same-sex marriage an issue in the presidential election next year. Still other groups express no official position. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Current United States policy about gays in the military became law ten years ago. It was during the administration of President Bill Clinton. The policy is called “don't ask, don't tell.” It says service members should not ask about the sexuality of other members. It says they should also not discuss their own sexuality. Under this policy, however, the military can still dismiss gays. A private group, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, studies Defense Department records. It says the military dismissed just over nine-hundred people last year for homosexuality. That was the lowest number reported since nineteen-ninety-six. In July of this year, a former Army officer began legal action to demand his retirement payments. He was dismissed in nineteen-ninety-seven, one week before he could have retired after twenty years in the Army. He also wants to have the "don't ask, don't tell policy" declared unfair. VOICE ONE: In the area of education, gay and lesbian students now have a public high school especially for them. It opened in September in New York City. Many of the students accepted by the school were mistreated in other schools. Supporters and a small number of protesters gathered outside for the opening of Harvey Milk High School. Harvey Milk was a gay county supervisor in San Francisco, California. He was shot to death in nineteen-seventy-eight. The school has almost one-hundred students. Some educators praise the idea. They say the school provides a chance for the students to study in a safer environment. But others say the idea of such a school is like separating the races. VOICE TWO: As time has passed, more people have publicly identified themselves as gay. Television programs and movies about gays are popular. One program is called "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Each week, five gay men help a heterosexual man look better and have a nicer home. Usually the goal is to improve his relationships with women. Gay men and lesbians have gained influence in politics. Voters have elected them to local and state offices and Congress. At the same time, activist groups have helped the fight against AIDS gain more money. During the nineteen-eighties, doctors in the United States first identified the deadly disease among gay men. VOICE ONE: Some Americans believe homosexuality is wrong. But developments in recent years suggest that social acceptance of gays and lesbians in the United States has increased. One thing is sure: Discussion of these issues is out in the open in American life as never before. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Solar Flares / Table of the Elements for astronomers / New use for Leeches
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 18, 2003 (THEME) (Photo - David Kilper/Washington University) Broadcast: November 18, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- solar flares ... a new Table of the Elements, for astronomers ... and, later, social recognition among spiders and a possible new use for leeches. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On November fourth, the largest solar flare yet recorded shot from the sun. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, has measured this kind of space "weather" since nineteen-seventy-six. NOAA says the flare produced a moderate solar radiation storm. This interfered with high frequency communications in the northern and southern parts of the world. Solar flares are releases of energy that can block communications and affect the flow of electricity. They can expose airplanes to extra radiation. Crews on the International Space Station take shelter in areas most protected from the storm. VOICE TWO: The sun has been in a period of high activity. Solar flares are common during such times. They can extend thousands of kilometers. They send powerful waves of radiation deep into space. Solar flares are related to sunspots. These are areas that appear on the surface of the sun during times of high activity. Sunspots are cooler than surrounding areas. Scientists say the presence of a group of sunspots for a long enough time changes magnetic fields above the surface of the sun. A solar flare starts when these magnetic fields change back. The effect is almost like that of a wound-up rubber band that returns to its normal form. VOICE ONE: The magnetic change releases a burst of energy high above the sun. The burst is at five- to ten-million degrees. The energy travels down to the surface. This causes an area to heat up and expand. Flare material shoots away from the sun. The speed can reach one-thousand-five-hundred kilometers a second. High-energy electrons, X-rays, radio and ultraviolet waves are expelled into space. From Earth, the flare looks like a burst of flame from a fire. The energy speeds up tiny particles. These electrons become charged with unusually high amounts of energy. This can interfere with communications on Earth, one-hundred-fifty-million kilometers away. VOICE TWO: Solar flares can also intensify the biggest light shows on Earth. The Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis take place above the poles. They can be seen at night mostly by people in the extreme north or south. But sometimes, during periods of high solar activity, they can be seen farther away. Auroras happen when Earth’s magnetic field captures electrically charged particles from the sun. These particles are carried down toward the atmosphere and strike other particles, releasing light. The light is often green but can be any color. Scientists and others who want to observe activity on the sun must have special equipment. People who look into the sun without this protection can permanently damage their eyes. But the auroras are a way for people to see the powerful forces of the sun at work, as dancing lights in the night sky. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anyone who studies chemistry knows about the Periodic Table of the Elements. This is a list that describes the qualities of the chemical elements on Earth. Now a planetary chemist has redesigned it to help scientists who study the creation of the sun and the planets. Katharina Lodders is a professor at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. She calls her work the Cosmochemical Periodic Table of the Elements in the Solar System. An early version of the traditional Periodic Table of the Elements was published in eighteen-sixty-nine. A Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev (DMEE-trih mehn-duh-LAY-uhf), developed it. VOICE TWO: Professor Lodders collected information gathered by astronomers during the past forty years. Her list represents all the elements as they were about four-and-a-half thousand-million years ago. That is when astronomers believe the planets formed. Her list gives estimates of the amounts of the elements relative to each other. It includes information about the temperature at which atoms combine and form solid substances. It uses colors to show the nature of the substances that form: metal, rock or sulfide. Atomic numbers and atomic weights are not on this periodic table. Also missing are the temperatures at which elements melt or boil. VOICE ONE: Most of the mass of our solar system is in the sun. So the sun tells us a lot about what the solar system is made of. In recent years, scientists again measured the amounts of oxygen and carbon in the sun. They found that the levels are lower than they thought they were. Professor Lodders says this means there is less oxygen to form rock and ices. She says the discovery is important to understanding the chemistry of the larger planets, their moons and other icy objects, such as comets. Professor Lodders says lists have been made before of the amounts of elements present in the solar system. But she says her new Cosmochemical Periodic Table represents the most recent findings. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Leeches are worms that eat the blood of animals and humans. For more than two-thousand years, doctors used leeches to remove blood from patients. They thought it was good for the health. Research in the middle eighteen-hundreds, however, showed no health gain. Doctors once again use leeches, but this time to help save reconnected fingers, toes, lips and noses. Leeches also have been used to save tissue after breast cancer operations. Doctors say the value of leeches is in the brown fluid from their mouths. The leeches leave their saliva around the bite wound in the skin. The saliva contains blood thinners to keep blood flowing smoothly. It also contains chemicals that prevent a person from feeling pain. VOICE ONE: Now doctors in Germany have tested leeches to stop pain in the knee. Doctors at the University of Duisburg-Essen did the study. The Annals of Internal Medicine published the findings The study involved fifty-one people with pain from osteoarthritis of the knee. Doctors gave almost half the patients a single treatment with four to six leeches for about one hour. The other patients received a medicine to put on their knee for twenty-eight days to ease the pain. The doctors reported that the people treated with leaches had better movement and less pain. But the researchers say the treatment does carry the risk of infection. So they hope their work will help lead to a new kind of pain killer for arthritis that does the good of leeches, but without the bites. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: A study has demonstrated the lasting influence of experiences early in life, at least in a kind of spider. Eileen Hebets [HEH-bits] of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, did the study. She says the findings show that social experience influences choice in mates. She says the study also shows that creatures without backbones, invertebrates, have social recognition. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported her findings. The National Institutes of Health provided money for the study. The researcher studied wolf spiders because males have different appearances. Some have hair on their front legs. Or their markings might be of different colors. Other kinds of male spiders usually look alike. The study involved female wolf spiders not yet old enough to mate. Eileen Hebets put them in containers with adult males of different looks. Later, once the females became adults, the highest rate of mating was with males that looked similar to those they had seen before. The females were more likely to attack other males that attempted to mate with them. Mizz Hebets had painted the legs of the males either black or brown. The longer a female had been left with males painted one of the colors, the more likely she was to eat a male painted with the other. The researcher says the study also demonstrates how females can influence the passing and development of genetic qualities. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- solar flares ... a new Table of the Elements, for astronomers ... and, later, social recognition among spiders and a possible new use for leeches. (THEME) VOICE ONE: On November fourth, the largest solar flare yet recorded shot from the sun. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, has measured this kind of space "weather" since nineteen-seventy-six. NOAA says the flare produced a moderate solar radiation storm. This interfered with high frequency communications in the northern and southern parts of the world. Solar flares are releases of energy that can block communications and affect the flow of electricity. They can expose airplanes to extra radiation. Crews on the International Space Station take shelter in areas most protected from the storm. VOICE TWO: The sun has been in a period of high activity. Solar flares are common during such times. They can extend thousands of kilometers. They send powerful waves of radiation deep into space. Solar flares are related to sunspots. These are areas that appear on the surface of the sun during times of high activity. Sunspots are cooler than surrounding areas. Scientists say the presence of a group of sunspots for a long enough time changes magnetic fields above the surface of the sun. A solar flare starts when these magnetic fields change back. The effect is almost like that of a wound-up rubber band that returns to its normal form. VOICE ONE: The magnetic change releases a burst of energy high above the sun. The burst is at five- to ten-million degrees. The energy travels down to the surface. This causes an area to heat up and expand. Flare material shoots away from the sun. The speed can reach one-thousand-five-hundred kilometers a second. High-energy electrons, X-rays, radio and ultraviolet waves are expelled into space. From Earth, the flare looks like a burst of flame from a fire. The energy speeds up tiny particles. These electrons become charged with unusually high amounts of energy. This can interfere with communications on Earth, one-hundred-fifty-million kilometers away. VOICE TWO: Solar flares can also intensify the biggest light shows on Earth. The Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis take place above the poles. They can be seen at night mostly by people in the extreme north or south. But sometimes, during periods of high solar activity, they can be seen farther away. Auroras happen when Earth’s magnetic field captures electrically charged particles from the sun. These particles are carried down toward the atmosphere and strike other particles, releasing light. The light is often green but can be any color. Scientists and others who want to observe activity on the sun must have special equipment. People who look into the sun without this protection can permanently damage their eyes. But the auroras are a way for people to see the powerful forces of the sun at work, as dancing lights in the night sky. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Anyone who studies chemistry knows about the Periodic Table of the Elements. This is a list that describes the qualities of the chemical elements on Earth. Now a planetary chemist has redesigned it to help scientists who study the creation of the sun and the planets. Katharina Lodders is a professor at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. She calls her work the Cosmochemical Periodic Table of the Elements in the Solar System. An early version of the traditional Periodic Table of the Elements was published in eighteen-sixty-nine. A Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev (DMEE-trih mehn-duh-LAY-uhf), developed it. VOICE TWO: Professor Lodders collected information gathered by astronomers during the past forty years. Her list represents all the elements as they were about four-and-a-half thousand-million years ago. That is when astronomers believe the planets formed. Her list gives estimates of the amounts of the elements relative to each other. It includes information about the temperature at which atoms combine and form solid substances. It uses colors to show the nature of the substances that form: metal, rock or sulfide. Atomic numbers and atomic weights are not on this periodic table. Also missing are the temperatures at which elements melt or boil. VOICE ONE: Most of the mass of our solar system is in the sun. So the sun tells us a lot about what the solar system is made of. In recent years, scientists again measured the amounts of oxygen and carbon in the sun. They found that the levels are lower than they thought they were. Professor Lodders says this means there is less oxygen to form rock and ices. She says the discovery is important to understanding the chemistry of the larger planets, their moons and other icy objects, such as comets. Professor Lodders says lists have been made before of the amounts of elements present in the solar system. But she says her new Cosmochemical Periodic Table represents the most recent findings. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Leeches are worms that eat the blood of animals and humans. For more than two-thousand years, doctors used leeches to remove blood from patients. They thought it was good for the health. Research in the middle eighteen-hundreds, however, showed no health gain. Doctors once again use leeches, but this time to help save reconnected fingers, toes, lips and noses. Leeches also have been used to save tissue after breast cancer operations. Doctors say the value of leeches is in the brown fluid from their mouths. The leeches leave their saliva around the bite wound in the skin. The saliva contains blood thinners to keep blood flowing smoothly. It also contains chemicals that prevent a person from feeling pain. VOICE ONE: Now doctors in Germany have tested leeches to stop pain in the knee. Doctors at the University of Duisburg-Essen did the study. The Annals of Internal Medicine published the findings The study involved fifty-one people with pain from osteoarthritis of the knee. Doctors gave almost half the patients a single treatment with four to six leeches for about one hour. The other patients received a medicine to put on their knee for twenty-eight days to ease the pain. The doctors reported that the people treated with leaches had better movement and less pain. But the researchers say the treatment does carry the risk of infection. So they hope their work will help lead to a new kind of pain killer for arthritis that does the good of leeches, but without the bites. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: A study has demonstrated the lasting influence of experiences early in life, at least in a kind of spider. Eileen Hebets [HEH-bits] of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, did the study. She says the findings show that social experience influences choice in mates. She says the study also shows that creatures without backbones, invertebrates, have social recognition. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported her findings. The National Institutes of Health provided money for the study. The researcher studied wolf spiders because males have different appearances. Some have hair on their front legs. Or their markings might be of different colors. Other kinds of male spiders usually look alike. The study involved female wolf spiders not yet old enough to mate. Eileen Hebets put them in containers with adult males of different looks. Later, once the females became adults, the highest rate of mating was with males that looked similar to those they had seen before. The females were more likely to attack other males that attempted to mate with them. Mizz Hebets had painted the legs of the males either black or brown. The longer a female had been left with males painted one of the colors, the more likely she was to eat a male painted with the other. The researcher says the study also demonstrates how females can influence the passing and development of genetic qualities. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Forcing Bulbs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 18, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. If you like flowers in the early spring, then the middle of autumn is an important time of year. It is the time to plant bulbs. Bulbs develop roots and leaves to become a full plant. Many spring flowers grow from bulbs. The most famous flower bulb is the tulip. The kinds of tulips that are popular in Europe and North America are native to central Asia. Experts say a Flemish diplomat brought tulips to the Netherlands from Turkey in fifteen-fifty-four. It is said that the name tulip comes from the Turkish word for a turban, a headdress shaped something like the flower. The Dutch fell in love with the tulip. In the years to follow, some forms of tulips became highly valuable. The period between sixteen-sixty-four and sixteen-sixty-seven became known as the Tulipomania (tu-lip-o-MAY-nee-yeh). People traded the rights to buy different kinds of tulips in a kind of tulip stock market. Ever since that time, the Netherlands has been the world’s biggest producer of tulip bulbs. Tulip bulbs alone are a forty-one million dollar export business. In the northern part of the world, most tulips by now have already been planted in the ground for spring flowering. But another way of planting tulips and some other bulb flowers is growing in popularity. It is called forcing bulbs. This method is a way to grow flowers in the middle of winter. This is how it is done. Use planting containers about ten centimeters across but not very deep. You can plant as many as three tulip bulbs, spaced about one centimeter apart. Fill the containers with loose, fertile soil. Chose large bulbs that are hard and do not show any signs of disease, like gray mold. Plant the bulbs so their pointed end is just above the level of the soil. Water the bulbs well. Then store them in a cool, dark place. Bulbs need temperatures of about five to ten degrees Celsius to begin to grow. Do not let the soil get dry, but do not put too much water either. After six to ten weeks, the bulbs should have leaves about several centimeters long. The roots should be well developed. Move the containers out of the cold. Place them where they will receive moderate light. Experts say the bulbs store enough food to produce flowers, so there is no need to fertilize them. About four weeks later, in the middle of winter, the bulbs should produce flowers. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: November 18, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. If you like flowers in the early spring, then the middle of autumn is an important time of year. It is the time to plant bulbs. Bulbs develop roots and leaves to become a full plant. Many spring flowers grow from bulbs. The most famous flower bulb is the tulip. The kinds of tulips that are popular in Europe and North America are native to central Asia. Experts say a Flemish diplomat brought tulips to the Netherlands from Turkey in fifteen-fifty-four. It is said that the name tulip comes from the Turkish word for a turban, a headdress shaped something like the flower. The Dutch fell in love with the tulip. In the years to follow, some forms of tulips became highly valuable. The period between sixteen-sixty-four and sixteen-sixty-seven became known as the Tulipomania (tu-lip-o-MAY-nee-yeh). People traded the rights to buy different kinds of tulips in a kind of tulip stock market. Ever since that time, the Netherlands has been the world’s biggest producer of tulip bulbs. Tulip bulbs alone are a forty-one million dollar export business. In the northern part of the world, most tulips by now have already been planted in the ground for spring flowering. But another way of planting tulips and some other bulb flowers is growing in popularity. It is called forcing bulbs. This method is a way to grow flowers in the middle of winter. This is how it is done. Use planting containers about ten centimeters across but not very deep. You can plant as many as three tulip bulbs, spaced about one centimeter apart. Fill the containers with loose, fertile soil. Chose large bulbs that are hard and do not show any signs of disease, like gray mold. Plant the bulbs so their pointed end is just above the level of the soil. Water the bulbs well. Then store them in a cool, dark place. Bulbs need temperatures of about five to ten degrees Celsius to begin to grow. Do not let the soil get dry, but do not put too much water either. After six to ten weeks, the bulbs should have leaves about several centimeters long. The roots should be well developed. Move the containers out of the cold. Place them where they will receive moderate light. Experts say the bulbs store enough food to produce flowers, so there is no need to fertilize them. About four weeks later, in the middle of winter, the bulbs should produce flowers. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #39 - Thomas Jefferson, Part 4
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 20, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 20, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Shep O’Neal and I continue the story of America's third president, Thomas Jefferson. VOICE TWO: In our last program, we told how Congress approved two of President Jefferson's proposals. One proposal ended some taxes. The other reduced the number of judges appointed by former President John Adams. Congress passed a Judiciary Act in the closing days of Adams' term as president. The act gave Adams the power to appoint as many judges as he wished. It was a way for the Federalist Party to keep control of one branch of government. In the elections, the Federalists had lost the presidency and their majority in Congress to Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans. VOICE ONE: President Adams quickly created new courts and named new judges. Just as quickly, the Senate approved them. The papers of appointment were signed. However, some of the judges did not receive their papers, or commissions, before Thomas Jefferson was sworn-in. The new president refused to give them their commissions. One of the men was William Marbury. He asked the Supreme Court to decide his case. VOICE TWO: The Chief Justice was John Marshall, a Federalist. Marshall thought about ordering the Republican administration to give Marbury his commission. On second thought, he decided not to. He knew the administration would refuse his order. And that would weaken the power of the Supreme Court. Marshall believed the Supreme Court should have the right to veto bills passed by Congress and signed by the president. In the Marbury case, he saw a chance to put this idea into law. VOICE ONE: Marshall wrote his decision carefully. First, he said that Marbury did have a legal right to his judicial commission. Then, he said that Marbury had been denied this legal right. He said no one -- not even the president -- could take away a person's legal rights. Next, Marshall noted that Marbury had taken his request to the Supreme Court under the terms of a law passed in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. That law gave citizens the right to ask the high court to order action by any lower court or by any government official. Marshall explained that the Constitution carefully limits the powers of the Supreme Court. The court can hear direct requests involving diplomats and the separate states. It cannot rule on other cases until a lower court has ruled. So, Marshall said, the Seventeen-Eighty-Nine law permits Marbury to take his case directly to the Supreme Court. But the Constitution does not. The Constitution, he added, is the first law of the land. Therefore, the congressional law is unconstitutional and has no power. VOICE TWO: Chief Justice Marshall succeeded in doing all he hoped to do. He made clear that Marbury had a right to his judicial commission. He also saved himself from a battle with the administration. Most importantly, he claimed for the Supreme Court the power to rule on laws passed by Congress. President Jefferson understood the importance of Marshall's decision. He did not agree with it. He waited for the Supreme Court to use this new power. Several times during Jefferson's presidency, Federalists claimed that laws passed by the Republican Congress violated the Constitution. But they never asked the Supreme Court to reject those laws. VOICE ONE: During Jefferson's first term, the United States faced a serious problem in its relations with France. France had signed a secret treaty with Spain. The treaty gave France control of a large area in North America -- the Louisiana Territory. Napoleon Bonaparte ruled France at that time. Jefferson did not want him in North America. He felt the French presence was a threat to the peace of the United States. He decided to try to buy parts of Louisiana. VOICE TWO: Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris as a special negotiator. Before sailing, Monroe met with the president and Secretary of State James Madison. They discussed what the United States position would be on every proposal France might make. First, Monroe would try to buy as much territory east of the Mississippi River as France would sell. If France refused, then Monroe would try to buy an area near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The area was to be large enough for a port. VOICE ONE: Monroe never had a chance to offer the American position. Napoleon had decided to sell everything to the Americans. He told his finance minister to give up Louisiana. . .all of it. Napoleon needed money for a war with Britain. James Monroe was happy to negotiate the purchase of Louisiana. They agreed on a price of eighty-million francs for all the land drained by the great Mississippi River and all its many streams. VOICE TWO: Federalists in the northeastern states opposed the decision to buy Louisiana. They feared it would weaken the power of the states of the northeast. Federalist leaders made a plan to form a new government of those states. But to succeed, they needed the state of New York. Vice President Aaron Burr was the political leader of New York and a candidate for New York governor. The Federalists believed Burr would win the election and support their plan. But Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton did not trust Burr. The two had been enemies for a long time. VOICE ONE: Hamilton made some strong statements against Burr during the election campaign in New York. The comments later appeared in several newspapers. Burr lost the New York election. The Federalist plan died for a new government of northeastern states. After the election, Burr asked Hamilton to admit or deny the comments he had made against Burr. Hamilton refused. The two men exchanged more notes. Burr was not satisfied with Hamilton's answers. He believed Hamilton had attacked his honor. Burr demanded a duel. VOICE TWO: A duel is a fight, usually with guns. In those days, a duel was how a gentleman defended his honor. Hamilton opposed duels. His son had been killed in a duel. Yet he agreed to fight Burr on July Eleventh, Eighteen-Oh-Four. The two men met at Weehawken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York City. They would fight by the water's edge, at the bottom of a high rock wall. VOICE ONE: The guns were loaded. Burr and Hamilton took their places. One of Hamilton's friends explained the rules. "Are you ready, gentlemen?" he asked. Both answered "yes." There was a moment of silence. He gave the signal. Burr and Hamilton raised their guns. Two shots split the air. Hamilton raised up on his toes, then fell to the ground. Burr remained standing. He looked at Hamilton with regret, then left. Hamilton died the next day. Newspapers throughout the nation reported Hamilton's death. Most people accepted the news calmly. To them, it was simply the sad end to an old, private dispute. But Burr's political enemies charged him with murder. The vice president fled to the southern state of Georgia. VOICE TWO: The nation was preparing for the presidential election in a few months. Once again, the Republican Party chose Thomas Jefferson as its candidate for president. But Republicans refused to support Aaron Burr for vice president again. Instead, they chose George Clinton. Clinton had served as governor of New York seven times. The Federalist Party chose Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina as its candidate for president. It chose Rufus King of New York to be its vice presidential candidate. VOICE ONE: The campaign was quiet. In those days, candidates did not make many speeches. Republican pamphlets told of the progress made during the past four years. The former Federalist administration raised taxes, they said. Jefferson ended many of the taxes. The Federalists borrowed millions of dollars. Jefferson borrowed none. And, Jefferson got the Louisiana Territory without going to war. The Federalists could not dispute these facts. They expected that Jefferson would be re-elected. But they were sure their candidate would get as many as forty electoral votes. The results shocked the Federalists. Jefferson received one-hundred sixty-two electoral votes. Pinckney received just fourteen. Thomas Jefferson would be president for another four years. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Harold Braverman. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Shep O’Neal and I continue the story of America's third president, Thomas Jefferson. VOICE TWO: In our last program, we told how Congress approved two of President Jefferson's proposals. One proposal ended some taxes. The other reduced the number of judges appointed by former President John Adams. Congress passed a Judiciary Act in the closing days of Adams' term as president. The act gave Adams the power to appoint as many judges as he wished. It was a way for the Federalist Party to keep control of one branch of government. In the elections, the Federalists had lost the presidency and their majority in Congress to Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans. VOICE ONE: President Adams quickly created new courts and named new judges. Just as quickly, the Senate approved them. The papers of appointment were signed. However, some of the judges did not receive their papers, or commissions, before Thomas Jefferson was sworn-in. The new president refused to give them their commissions. One of the men was William Marbury. He asked the Supreme Court to decide his case. VOICE TWO: The Chief Justice was John Marshall, a Federalist. Marshall thought about ordering the Republican administration to give Marbury his commission. On second thought, he decided not to. He knew the administration would refuse his order. And that would weaken the power of the Supreme Court. Marshall believed the Supreme Court should have the right to veto bills passed by Congress and signed by the president. In the Marbury case, he saw a chance to put this idea into law. VOICE ONE: Marshall wrote his decision carefully. First, he said that Marbury did have a legal right to his judicial commission. Then, he said that Marbury had been denied this legal right. He said no one -- not even the president -- could take away a person's legal rights. Next, Marshall noted that Marbury had taken his request to the Supreme Court under the terms of a law passed in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. That law gave citizens the right to ask the high court to order action by any lower court or by any government official. Marshall explained that the Constitution carefully limits the powers of the Supreme Court. The court can hear direct requests involving diplomats and the separate states. It cannot rule on other cases until a lower court has ruled. So, Marshall said, the Seventeen-Eighty-Nine law permits Marbury to take his case directly to the Supreme Court. But the Constitution does not. The Constitution, he added, is the first law of the land. Therefore, the congressional law is unconstitutional and has no power. VOICE TWO: Chief Justice Marshall succeeded in doing all he hoped to do. He made clear that Marbury had a right to his judicial commission. He also saved himself from a battle with the administration. Most importantly, he claimed for the Supreme Court the power to rule on laws passed by Congress. President Jefferson understood the importance of Marshall's decision. He did not agree with it. He waited for the Supreme Court to use this new power. Several times during Jefferson's presidency, Federalists claimed that laws passed by the Republican Congress violated the Constitution. But they never asked the Supreme Court to reject those laws. VOICE ONE: During Jefferson's first term, the United States faced a serious problem in its relations with France. France had signed a secret treaty with Spain. The treaty gave France control of a large area in North America -- the Louisiana Territory. Napoleon Bonaparte ruled France at that time. Jefferson did not want him in North America. He felt the French presence was a threat to the peace of the United States. He decided to try to buy parts of Louisiana. VOICE TWO: Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris as a special negotiator. Before sailing, Monroe met with the president and Secretary of State James Madison. They discussed what the United States position would be on every proposal France might make. First, Monroe would try to buy as much territory east of the Mississippi River as France would sell. If France refused, then Monroe would try to buy an area near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The area was to be large enough for a port. VOICE ONE: Monroe never had a chance to offer the American position. Napoleon had decided to sell everything to the Americans. He told his finance minister to give up Louisiana. . .all of it. Napoleon needed money for a war with Britain. James Monroe was happy to negotiate the purchase of Louisiana. They agreed on a price of eighty-million francs for all the land drained by the great Mississippi River and all its many streams. VOICE TWO: Federalists in the northeastern states opposed the decision to buy Louisiana. They feared it would weaken the power of the states of the northeast. Federalist leaders made a plan to form a new government of those states. But to succeed, they needed the state of New York. Vice President Aaron Burr was the political leader of New York and a candidate for New York governor. The Federalists believed Burr would win the election and support their plan. But Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton did not trust Burr. The two had been enemies for a long time. VOICE ONE: Hamilton made some strong statements against Burr during the election campaign in New York. The comments later appeared in several newspapers. Burr lost the New York election. The Federalist plan died for a new government of northeastern states. After the election, Burr asked Hamilton to admit or deny the comments he had made against Burr. Hamilton refused. The two men exchanged more notes. Burr was not satisfied with Hamilton's answers. He believed Hamilton had attacked his honor. Burr demanded a duel. VOICE TWO: A duel is a fight, usually with guns. In those days, a duel was how a gentleman defended his honor. Hamilton opposed duels. His son had been killed in a duel. Yet he agreed to fight Burr on July Eleventh, Eighteen-Oh-Four. The two men met at Weehawken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York City. They would fight by the water's edge, at the bottom of a high rock wall. VOICE ONE: The guns were loaded. Burr and Hamilton took their places. One of Hamilton's friends explained the rules. "Are you ready, gentlemen?" he asked. Both answered "yes." There was a moment of silence. He gave the signal. Burr and Hamilton raised their guns. Two shots split the air. Hamilton raised up on his toes, then fell to the ground. Burr remained standing. He looked at Hamilton with regret, then left. Hamilton died the next day. Newspapers throughout the nation reported Hamilton's death. Most people accepted the news calmly. To them, it was simply the sad end to an old, private dispute. But Burr's political enemies charged him with murder. The vice president fled to the southern state of Georgia. VOICE TWO: The nation was preparing for the presidential election in a few months. Once again, the Republican Party chose Thomas Jefferson as its candidate for president. But Republicans refused to support Aaron Burr for vice president again. Instead, they chose George Clinton. Clinton had served as governor of New York seven times. The Federalist Party chose Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina as its candidate for president. It chose Rufus King of New York to be its vice presidential candidate. VOICE ONE: The campaign was quiet. In those days, candidates did not make many speeches. Republican pamphlets told of the progress made during the past four years. The former Federalist administration raised taxes, they said. Jefferson ended many of the taxes. The Federalists borrowed millions of dollars. Jefferson borrowed none. And, Jefferson got the Louisiana Territory without going to war. The Federalists could not dispute these facts. They expected that Jefferson would be re-elected. But they were sure their candidate would get as many as forty electoral votes. The results shocked the Federalists. Jefferson received one-hundred sixty-two electoral votes. Pinckney received just fourteen. Thomas Jefferson would be president for another four years. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Shep O’Neal. Our program was written by Christine Johnson and Harold Braverman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Schoolyard Habitats
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 20, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Educational gardens called “Schoolyard Habitats” are growing at schools in almost every American state. To make a habitat, schoolchildren create a space for plants in their schoolyards. They put in plants that are inviting to birds and to insects called butterflies. Then they watch the birds, plants and insects as they grow and multiply. Teachers praise the habitats as valuable learning tools. To students in habitat programs, for example, photosynthesis is not just something to learn from a book. Children can study their own plants as the plants complete this process of combining water and carbon dioxide. They learn that plants can use light to make the energy that keeps the plant alive. Students in habitat programs can watch for and identify birds. They can learn about trees and flowers. They can build and operate weather stations and make mathematical records of weather activities. They can estimate the number of baby frogs in a water pond. They can write environment reports about the habitats in science class and write stories about them in English class. The National Wildlife Federation in Reston, Virginia, developed the Schoolyard Habitats program. It started in nineteen-ninety-six. At first, three-hundred-fifty-five schools developed habitats. Today, there are two-thousand Schoolyard Habitats in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Gowana Middle School in Clifton Park, New York, operates one of these habitats. It has beautiful flowers and bushes. A waterfall flows over rocks in a large pond. Bird-feeding stations are placed just outside classroom windows. Students can observe, identify and record sightings of birds from their classroom. From November through April, they share their records with scientists at the Cornell University Lab’s Classroom FeederWatch program. The scientists document the movements of winter bird populations. Gowana students also study monarch butterflies. They take part in the Monarch Watch program of the University of Kansas. The young people catch and mark the butterflies, then free them. This way, scientists can study where and when the insects fly. Life sciences teacher Deborah Smith says students will always need books. But she also says working with habitats leads to deeper understanding. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Placebo Effect Update
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 19, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. When scientists want to test the effectiveness of a new drug, they usually divide a large number of people into two groups. One group takes the medicine that is being tested. The other group takes an inactive substance, called a placebo. Placebo pills are usually made of sugar. None of the people know which pill they are taking -- the active one or the inactive one. In this kind of experiment, the medicine must perform better than the placebo to prove it is effective. The word “placebo” is Latin. It means “I shall please.” And, sometimes, it just might do that. Some people who take the placebo report improvements in their health. This is known as the “placebo effect" -- the effect of something that is not supposed to have any effect. Some doctors have reported the use of the placebo effect in treatment. For example, a doctor tells a patient that a new drug will stop his or her pain. The pill is only sugar. The patient does not know that. The patients takes the pills and reports that the pain is gone. An influential study appeared in nineteen-fifty-five. It said treatment with a placebo made patients feel better thirty-five percent of the time. In two-thousand-one, Danish researchers reported that they had examined more than one-hundred studies. They found little evidence of healing as a result of the use of placebos. Other scientists disputed those findings. But some medical researchers do think it is wrong to use inactive substances when testing new drugs. They say it would be better to use existing drugs instead of placebos and see if the new drug is more effective. Other researchers are looking at the placebo effect in connection with the use of real drugs for conditions like asthma and high blood pressure. They want to prove whether a drug works better if a doctor provides it cheerfully and tells the patient that it will help. They say a good relationship between a patient and a doctor may increase the effectiveness of the drugs that the doctor provides. Doctors say investigating the placebo effect is important for the future of medicine. They say the knowledge gained may make it possible to reduce the number of drugs people need to take to improve their health. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-20-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Novmber 19, 2003: China’s first astronaut / Voyager One / Solar flares and Mars Express
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (Photo - NASA) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we report about the twenty-six-year flight of two spacecraft named Voyager. We tell about problems with a spacecraft on its way to the planet Mars. And we begin with China’s successful launch of a human into orbit around the Earth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last month, China’s first astronaut left Earth and returned safely after fourteen orbits of our planet. Yang Liwei landed with his spacecraft in the Gobi Desert, in Inner Mongolia, on October Sixteenth. He was in flight for twenty-one hours. China is now the third country after Russia and the United States to send a human in orbit around the Earth. VOICE TWO: China’s spacecraft is named the Shenzhou-Five. It was launched using China’s Long March Two-F rocket. The launch took place at the Jiuquan Space Center, one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers west of Beijing. After fourteenth orbits, the Shenzhou-Five slowed and began to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft was guided by four ships in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and southern Atlantic Ocean. A Chinese spacecraft communications station in the African country of Namibia ordered the Shenzhou to fire rockets to slow its speed. It then flew over Africa and Pakistan. The spacecraft again fired rockets about two meters from the ground to soften the landing. VOICE ONE: China’s first astronaut is a thirty-eight year old pilot in the Chinese Air Force. He is from Liaoning Province, in northeast China. He joined the air force when he was eighteen years old. Yang Liwei was one of more than one-thousand air force pilots who competed to be China’s first human in space. Only fourteen were chosen for training. American astronaut Edward Lu was a member of the crew of the International Space Station during Yang Liwei’s flight. Mister Lu’s mother and father were born in China. Mister Lu spoke to the astronaut in Chinese. He said: “Welcome to space. Have a safe journey and I wish you success.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States launched the Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft in nineteen-seventy-seven. Some scientists believe Voyager One is now at the farthest edge of our solar system. It has become the first human-made object to travel past the influence of our Sun. Other scientists say it has not reached the edge yet, but is close. Both groups say the evidence is confusing. In the past twenty-six years it has traveled more than thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from our Sun. NASA scientists say it is now entering an area called termination shock. That is an area at the edge of our solar system. They say it is where the Sun’s influence ends and an area between stars begins.In this area supersonic winds of charged particles from the Sun clash with gas and dust that fill the space between stars. VOICE ONE: Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology is the top Voyager project scientist. He says Voyager One may take as long as three or four years to pass through the termination shock area and into the area of space between stars. Mister Stone says the first evidence that Voyager One had passed into the termination shock area was received from Voyager in August. Scientific instruments on Voyager One sent information showing evidence that the spacecraft had entered a new environment. This environment shows unusual solar winds and an unusual decrease in these solar winds. Solar winds are a kind of energy. They come from the surface of the Sun and travel out into space. Scientists say the solar winds move the termination shock area out and then back. The area does not stay in one place. Some scientists say the Voyager One has passed through the termination shock area while others say this is not permanent. They believe the Voyager will re-enter the termination shock area because the area is moving out and back faster than the Voyager spacecraft. One of Voyager One’s scientific instruments could solve this argument. But that instrument has been broken since nineteen-eighty. VOICE TWO: Mister Stone says that Voyager One will continue to send information back to Earth until the year twenty-twenty if none of the equipment fails. Then it will lose power. Voyager Two is more about three-thousand-million kilometers behind Voyager One. It has more working scientific instruments. Scientists agree that when it reaches the area called termination shock many more questions will be answered. VOICE ONE: The Voyager One and Two spacecraft were the first human objects to fly near and send back information about the planets Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. The two spacecraft provided the first close photographs and much valuable information about these planets. The two spacecraft have finished their main work but continue to send back useful information about the edge of our solar system. Scientists say the Voyager spacecraft are traveling at a speed of more than sixty-one thousand kilometers an hour as they travel out into space. In time, the spacecraft will pass other stars. However, space experts say that even at this great speed, it will be more than forty-thousand years before either Voyager travels near the influence of another star. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the past several weeks, scientists have been watching unusual activity on the surface of the Sun. Three huge sunspots appeared. Each one was larger than the planet Jupiter. The sunspots caused solar flares, huge explosions of matter near the sunspot. The explosions force huge amounts of energy into space. VOICE ONE: Eleven solar flares were reported in only fourteen days. The solar flares caused problems with radio communications. The same solar flares also entered Earth’s upper atmosphere. The energy produced by the flares exposed astronauts and some air travelers to a small amount of radiation. This was about the same amount of radiation that a medical chest-X-ray would produce. VOICE TWO: The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft suffered temporary damage from the solar flares. The flares damaged the equipment that guides the spacecraft through space. The Mars Express finds it way through space by observing two stars. This equipment keeps the spacecraft traveling on its planned direction. The Mars Express could not see the two stars for more than fifteen hours because of the solar flares. Researchers with the European Space Agency say the Mars Express mission is now back to normal. The solar flares also prevented a study of the spacecraft’s Mars lander, named the Beagle Two. The flares delayed the test, but caused no damage to the Beagle Two. VOICE ONE: The Mars Express is to orbit the planet Mars beginning December twenty-fifth. The Beagle lander is to fly to the surface soon after. The Beagle will look for evidence of water. The Mars Express is just one of four spacecraft from three countries that will arrive at Mars by January, two-thousand-four. Japan’s Nozomi craft is expected at Mars in the middle of December. Then NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are to arrive in January. VOICE TWO: In August, tests of the Mars Rovers showed that one of their science instruments was not working correctly. However, experts were able to make the instruments use different methods of collecting information. The instruments will be used to find the mineral iron in rocks and soil. Researchers say the instruments will return good information if they do not suffer any more problems. The researchers say the problems may have been caused by the huge amount of pressure produced when the spacecraft were launched. The Spirit Rover is to land near Mars’ Gusev Crater on January fourth. Three weeks later, the Opportunity Rover will land in an area called Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of Mars. Each Rover will examine its landing area for evidence about the history of water on the planet. The information is needed for scientists to decide if life could have existed on Mars. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we report about the twenty-six-year flight of two spacecraft named Voyager. We tell about problems with a spacecraft on its way to the planet Mars. And we begin with China’s successful launch of a human into orbit around the Earth. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last month, China’s first astronaut left Earth and returned safely after fourteen orbits of our planet. Yang Liwei landed with his spacecraft in the Gobi Desert, in Inner Mongolia, on October Sixteenth. He was in flight for twenty-one hours. China is now the third country after Russia and the United States to send a human in orbit around the Earth. VOICE TWO: China’s spacecraft is named the Shenzhou-Five. It was launched using China’s Long March Two-F rocket. The launch took place at the Jiuquan Space Center, one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers west of Beijing. After fourteenth orbits, the Shenzhou-Five slowed and began to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft was guided by four ships in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and southern Atlantic Ocean. A Chinese spacecraft communications station in the African country of Namibia ordered the Shenzhou to fire rockets to slow its speed. It then flew over Africa and Pakistan. The spacecraft again fired rockets about two meters from the ground to soften the landing. VOICE ONE: China’s first astronaut is a thirty-eight year old pilot in the Chinese Air Force. He is from Liaoning Province, in northeast China. He joined the air force when he was eighteen years old. Yang Liwei was one of more than one-thousand air force pilots who competed to be China’s first human in space. Only fourteen were chosen for training. American astronaut Edward Lu was a member of the crew of the International Space Station during Yang Liwei’s flight. Mister Lu’s mother and father were born in China. Mister Lu spoke to the astronaut in Chinese. He said: “Welcome to space. Have a safe journey and I wish you success.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The United States launched the Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft in nineteen-seventy-seven. Some scientists believe Voyager One is now at the farthest edge of our solar system. It has become the first human-made object to travel past the influence of our Sun. Other scientists say it has not reached the edge yet, but is close. Both groups say the evidence is confusing. In the past twenty-six years it has traveled more than thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from our Sun. NASA scientists say it is now entering an area called termination shock. That is an area at the edge of our solar system. They say it is where the Sun’s influence ends and an area between stars begins.In this area supersonic winds of charged particles from the Sun clash with gas and dust that fill the space between stars. VOICE ONE: Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology is the top Voyager project scientist. He says Voyager One may take as long as three or four years to pass through the termination shock area and into the area of space between stars. Mister Stone says the first evidence that Voyager One had passed into the termination shock area was received from Voyager in August. Scientific instruments on Voyager One sent information showing evidence that the spacecraft had entered a new environment. This environment shows unusual solar winds and an unusual decrease in these solar winds. Solar winds are a kind of energy. They come from the surface of the Sun and travel out into space. Scientists say the solar winds move the termination shock area out and then back. The area does not stay in one place. Some scientists say the Voyager One has passed through the termination shock area while others say this is not permanent. They believe the Voyager will re-enter the termination shock area because the area is moving out and back faster than the Voyager spacecraft. One of Voyager One’s scientific instruments could solve this argument. But that instrument has been broken since nineteen-eighty. VOICE TWO: Mister Stone says that Voyager One will continue to send information back to Earth until the year twenty-twenty if none of the equipment fails. Then it will lose power. Voyager Two is more about three-thousand-million kilometers behind Voyager One. It has more working scientific instruments. Scientists agree that when it reaches the area called termination shock many more questions will be answered. VOICE ONE: The Voyager One and Two spacecraft were the first human objects to fly near and send back information about the planets Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. The two spacecraft provided the first close photographs and much valuable information about these planets. The two spacecraft have finished their main work but continue to send back useful information about the edge of our solar system. Scientists say the Voyager spacecraft are traveling at a speed of more than sixty-one thousand kilometers an hour as they travel out into space. In time, the spacecraft will pass other stars. However, space experts say that even at this great speed, it will be more than forty-thousand years before either Voyager travels near the influence of another star. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the past several weeks, scientists have been watching unusual activity on the surface of the Sun. Three huge sunspots appeared. Each one was larger than the planet Jupiter. The sunspots caused solar flares, huge explosions of matter near the sunspot. The explosions force huge amounts of energy into space. VOICE ONE: Eleven solar flares were reported in only fourteen days. The solar flares caused problems with radio communications. The same solar flares also entered Earth’s upper atmosphere. The energy produced by the flares exposed astronauts and some air travelers to a small amount of radiation. This was about the same amount of radiation that a medical chest-X-ray would produce. VOICE TWO: The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft suffered temporary damage from the solar flares. The flares damaged the equipment that guides the spacecraft through space. The Mars Express finds it way through space by observing two stars. This equipment keeps the spacecraft traveling on its planned direction. The Mars Express could not see the two stars for more than fifteen hours because of the solar flares. Researchers with the European Space Agency say the Mars Express mission is now back to normal. The solar flares also prevented a study of the spacecraft’s Mars lander, named the Beagle Two. The flares delayed the test, but caused no damage to the Beagle Two. VOICE ONE: The Mars Express is to orbit the planet Mars beginning December twenty-fifth. The Beagle lander is to fly to the surface soon after. The Beagle will look for evidence of water. The Mars Express is just one of four spacecraft from three countries that will arrive at Mars by January, two-thousand-four. Japan’s Nozomi craft is expected at Mars in the middle of December. Then NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are to arrive in January. VOICE TWO: In August, tests of the Mars Rovers showed that one of their science instruments was not working correctly. However, experts were able to make the instruments use different methods of collecting information. The instruments will be used to find the mineral iron in rocks and soil. Researchers say the instruments will return good information if they do not suffer any more problems. The researchers say the problems may have been caused by the huge amount of pressure produced when the spacecraft were launched. The Spirit Rover is to land near Mars’ Gusev Crater on January fourth. Three weeks later, the Opportunity Rover will land in an area called Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of Mars. Each Rover will examine its landing area for evidence about the history of water on the planet. The information is needed for scientists to decide if life could have existed on Mars. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-20-5-1.cfm
* Headline: November 20, 2003 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 20, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- letters from listeners. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 20, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- letters from listeners. RS: Our segment on the origin of Murphy's Law -- which states that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong -- drew some responses. One came from Nick Spark, associate editor of Wings Magazine, an aviation history magazine. He spent the last year studying the origin of Murphy’s law and wanted to add a few points. AA: Nick Spark says the history of Murphy's Law is, in effect, a victim of Murphy's Law. We know it came out of a test of a rocket sled in the 1940s. The test involved a famous Air Force colonel, John Paul Stapp, and, among others, an engineer named Ed Murphy. A simple wiring mistake caused an acceleration meter to fail. RS: Beyond that, Nick Spark says there is no way to know definitively who said what and who deserves what credit for Murphy's Law. He also says Murphy's Law was actually more of an optimistic statement, not the pessimistic view of things as we now use it. John Paul Stapp, a doctor, went on to improve automobile safety. SPARK: "'If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.' Well, look to prevent it from going wrong. Make it so it can't happen, then it won't go wrong. And John Paul Stapp himself who's involved in putting seatbelts in American cars certainly looked at it in that respect. He saved a lot of people's lives by putting a seatbelt in a car so when something did go wrong, people's lives were saved. And, I mean, it's actually very funny, because Murphy's Law is by now far more famous than John Paul Stapp himself, and he was on the cover of Time magazine in the 1950s." AA: Nick Spark says Stapp didn't like to talk about his role in the coining of Murphy's Law. SPARK: "He viewed it as a real distraction from the real message that he wanted to send out in the world, which is: look everybody, buckle up." RS: We also asked our listeners to suggest their own versions of Murphy's Law. Our friend Sebastiao Albano in Lavrinhas, Brazil, wrote: "I have the feeling that Mr. Murphy was a Brazilian. I say that because here, everything that works all over the world is yet to be constructed. Moreover, that law gets me every day: "1. When I am alone at home, completely soaped under the shower, the telephone or the door bell rings. "2. When I am in a hurry to type at work my computer refuses to turn on. I have to try between 20 and 50 times to turn it on. AA: "3. When my computer definitely refuses to work I go to a cybercafe downtown and it is crowded. "4. If I pass by the cybercafe some days later, with nothing in the world to do, it is completely empty. RS: And "5. When I say everything right all my students are sleeping, but if I say something wrong they are completely awake. AA: We also heard from William McGehee, who wrote: "I coined a phrase that I used when I was working in Saudi Arabia, because of so many different things that used to come up that I didn't know about: 'the knowing how is in the doing.'" RS: This next letter has to do with a hand gesture we talked about with Melissa Wagner, author of "The Field Guide to Gestures." AA: You put your pointer finger and little finger up, then hold down the two middle fingers with your thumb. In Texas, it's a way to mimic longhorn cattle, to show support for a college football team, the Texas Longhorns. RS: And, as Melissa Wagner went on to explain, it's also become a popular gesture of affinity among fans at rock concerts. WAGNER: "But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually mean your wife is cheating on you." AA: And why is that? "I send you this e-mail in order to explain the connection between the horns gesture and infidelity," writes our friend Daniel Ortega in Madrid. "It has its origin in the Greek myth of the Minotaur, a man with a bull's head, kept in a Cretan labyrinth and fed with human flesh. Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to the sea god Poseidon to send him a white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign. He promised to sacrifice the bull as an offering, and as a symbol of subservience. RS: "A white bull emerged from the sea, but Minos liked the bull so much that he neglected to sacrifice it. As a punishment, Poseidon caused the king's wife to fall in love with the bull. The offspring of their lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur. When Minos saw the newborn horned creature he discovered his wife’s infidelity. That is the reason why in certain Mediterranean countries, such as Spain or Italy, horns are related to infidelity. AA: "In Spanish, we say the husband of a faithless woman is 'horned.' Furthermore, if a woman cheats on her husband we say that she 'puts the horns on him.' Of course, the horns gesture means infidelity in Spain. Curiously, the animal that represents Spain is a bull. Sincerely yours, Daniel Ortega." RS: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: Our segment on the origin of Murphy's Law -- which states that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong -- drew some responses. One came from Nick Spark, associate editor of Wings Magazine, an aviation history magazine. He spent the last year studying the origin of Murphy’s law and wanted to add a few points. AA: Nick Spark says the history of Murphy's Law is, in effect, a victim of Murphy's Law. We know it came out of a test of a rocket sled in the 1940s. The test involved a famous Air Force colonel, John Paul Stapp, and, among others, an engineer named Ed Murphy. A simple wiring mistake caused an acceleration meter to fail. RS: Beyond that, Nick Spark says there is no way to know definitively who said what and who deserves what credit for Murphy's Law. He also says Murphy's Law was actually more of an optimistic statement, not the pessimistic view of things as we now use it. John Paul Stapp, a doctor, went on to improve automobile safety. SPARK: "'If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.' Well, look to prevent it from going wrong. Make it so it can't happen, then it won't go wrong. And John Paul Stapp himself who's involved in putting seatbelts in American cars certainly looked at it in that respect. He saved a lot of people's lives by putting a seatbelt in a car so when something did go wrong, people's lives were saved. And, I mean, it's actually very funny, because Murphy's Law is by now far more famous than John Paul Stapp himself, and he was on the cover of Time magazine in the 1950s." AA: Nick Spark says Stapp didn't like to talk about his role in the coining of Murphy's Law. SPARK: "He viewed it as a real distraction from the real message that he wanted to send out in the world, which is: look everybody, buckle up." RS: We also asked our listeners to suggest their own versions of Murphy's Law. Our friend Sebastiao Albano in Lavrinhas, Brazil, wrote: "I have the feeling that Mr. Murphy was a Brazilian. I say that because here, everything that works all over the world is yet to be constructed. Moreover, that law gets me every day: "1. When I am alone at home, completely soaped under the shower, the telephone or the door bell rings. "2. When I am in a hurry to type at work my computer refuses to turn on. I have to try between 20 and 50 times to turn it on. AA: "3. When my computer definitely refuses to work I go to a cybercafe downtown and it is crowded. "4. If I pass by the cybercafe some days later, with nothing in the world to do, it is completely empty. RS: And "5. When I say everything right all my students are sleeping, but if I say something wrong they are completely awake. AA: We also heard from William McGehee, who wrote: "I coined a phrase that I used when I was working in Saudi Arabia, because of so many different things that used to come up that I didn't know about: 'the knowing how is in the doing.'" RS: This next letter has to do with a hand gesture we talked about with Melissa Wagner, author of "The Field Guide to Gestures." AA: You put your pointer finger and little finger up, then hold down the two middle fingers with your thumb. In Texas, it's a way to mimic longhorn cattle, to show support for a college football team, the Texas Longhorns. RS: And, as Melissa Wagner went on to explain, it's also become a popular gesture of affinity among fans at rock concerts. WAGNER: "But the funny thing I found out is that in other parts of the world, it can actually mean your wife is cheating on you." AA: And why is that? "I send you this e-mail in order to explain the connection between the horns gesture and infidelity," writes our friend Daniel Ortega in Madrid. "It has its origin in the Greek myth of the Minotaur, a man with a bull's head, kept in a Cretan labyrinth and fed with human flesh. Before he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to the sea god Poseidon to send him a white bull, as a sign of approval by the gods for his reign. He promised to sacrifice the bull as an offering, and as a symbol of subservience. RS: "A white bull emerged from the sea, but Minos liked the bull so much that he neglected to sacrifice it. As a punishment, Poseidon caused the king's wife to fall in love with the bull. The offspring of their lovemaking was a monster called the Minotaur. When Minos saw the newborn horned creature he discovered his wife’s infidelity. That is the reason why in certain Mediterranean countries, such as Spain or Italy, horns are related to infidelity. AA: "In Spanish, we say the husband of a faithless woman is 'horned.' Furthermore, if a woman cheats on her husband we say that she 'puts the horns on him.' Of course, the horns gesture means infidelity in Spain. Curiously, the animal that represents Spain is a bull. Sincerely yours, Daniel Ortega." RS: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Real-life Experience in Washington / Singer Marvin Gaye / Sports Illustrated at 50
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 21, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 21, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about the singer Marvin Gaye. And we report about the fiftieth anniversary of a major sports magazine. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about the singer Marvin Gaye. And we report about the fiftieth anniversary of a major sports magazine. But first – a look inside one of the college programs in the United States where students get to experience life in Washington, D.C. MSU Internship Program HOST: Many American college students from all over the country want a chance to live, work and study in the nation’s capital. One school that offers this kind of program is Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Shep O’Neal tells us about the student experience. ANNCR: Michigan State University’s Semester Study Program in Washington, D.C. is for students who are studying political science, criminal justice, psychology, or communications. The students work four days a week, but do not earn any money. Their jobs are called internships. The students also go to Michigan State University classes held in Washington two times a week. The students write a research paper and make an oral presentation to complete the program. About twenty students are now taking part in the fall semester program. Most of the students live in the same hotel. Some live with family members or friends. They all travel to work on the underground Metro train system. The students in the program all have different jobs. Some work for congressional representatives. Others work at radio or television stations. Most of the students work for non-profit organizations. Laura Seidl works at Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers’ office. She answers telephone calls from citizens and carries out other office duties. She says her experience so far has been excellent. John Sturk works for another congressman from Michigan, Thaddeus McCotter. John is doing so well as an intern that he has been offered a job there after graduation. Chi-Un (JEE-un) Lee is interning here in Special English. She enjoys working with news writers and seeing how radio shows are produced. Students have many things to do when they are not at work or in class. They explore the city of Washington. They see theatrical shows. They attend local events, like the Taste of D.C., where people taste foods prepared by different eating places. Some students enjoy visiting the many museums and monuments in the city. Internship director Joel Clarke praises the program. He says students change so much in the three months they are in Washington. Students gain valuable work experience. They also learn more about the kind of job they want to have in the future. And he says many of the students like the Washington experience so much that they return to live in the city after they graduate. Sports Illustrated at 50 HOST: Do you love sports? Well, a lot of Americans do. And, there is a weekly magazine that has been celebrating sports in the United States for almost fifty years. Faith Lapidus tells about Sports Illustrated and what the magazine is doing to observe its fiftieth year. ANNCR: It is August, nineteen-fifty-four. Eddie Matthews of the Milwaukee Braves baseball team is at bat. A magazine photographer takes a picture of the baseball player in the middle of a swing. The catcher has his glove up --- ready to catch the ball if the batter misses his target. The game official behind the plate is in position to make a call on the play if necessary. And, in the background, a huge crowd watches the action from the seats of the baseball stadium. That picture became the first cover of Sports Illustrated. The magazine’s goal was to cover American sports. About five-hundred-thousand people paid to receive the magazine at their homes each week back then. Now more than three-million people subscribe. They pay almost ninety dollars a year to get the magazine sent to their homes every week. Other people buy it on newsstands. Today the magazine says it has about twenty-million readers. The huge majority of Sports Illustrated readers are men. However, about four-million women read the magazine too. In July, Sports Illustrated officials announced plans for a year-long celebration leading up to the magazine’s fiftieth anniversary. The plans include a new weekly report on each of the fifty states in America. The reports discuss a sport or sporting event that is special to the state. Sports Illustrated is also producing four large anniversary issues. One was released last week. It honored Sports Illustrated cover pictures throughout the years. The magazine included small versions of all two-thousand-five-hundred-forty-eight cover pictures. The issue also reported some interesting facts about the magazine’s covers. For example, the most popular sport based on covers is American football. It was the subject of more than five-hundred Sports Illustrated covers. Among athletes, a famous American basketball player had his picture on the most magazine covers. Michael Jordan was the subject of forty-nine Sports Illustrated covers. Marvin Gaye HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Venah Obiasor asks about the life, and death, of the singer Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye was born in Washington, D.C., on April second, nineteen-thirty-nine. His father was a Christian minister. Young Marvin first sang in his father’s church. But he wanted to sing other kinds of music. He joined several groups before Motown Records chief Berry Gordy got him to sing alone. His first hit song was called “That Stubborn Kind of Fellow.” Marvin Gaye also recorded songs with several female singers, including Tammi Terrell. Here they are with “Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing.” (MUSIC) Marvin Gaye had another big song with “Mercy, Mercy Me.” It appeared on the album “What’s Goin' On” in which he performed songs he wrote himself. He sang about social problems, like pollution and poverty. (MUSIC) In the nineteen-seventies, Marvin Gaye developed a drug problem. He became dependent on cocaine. He stopped work for a few years. Then, in nineteen-eighty-two, he recorded an album called “Midnight Love.” The recording industry honored him with two Grammy awards. His personal life, however, remained unhappy. He continued to use cocaine, and threatened to kill himself. Marvin Gaye died on April first, nineteen-eighty-four, the day before his forty-fifth birthday. His father shot him during an argument. We leave you now with one of Marvin Gaye’s biggest hits, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailing address. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Chi-Un Lee, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Paul Thompson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. But first – a look inside one of the college programs in the United States where students get to experience life in Washington, D.C. MSU Internship Program HOST: Many American college students from all over the country want a chance to live, work and study in the nation’s capital. One school that offers this kind of program is Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Shep O’Neal tells us about the student experience. ANNCR: Michigan State University’s Semester Study Program in Washington, D.C. is for students who are studying political science, criminal justice, psychology, or communications. The students work four days a week, but do not earn any money. Their jobs are called internships. The students also go to Michigan State University classes held in Washington two times a week. The students write a research paper and make an oral presentation to complete the program. About twenty students are now taking part in the fall semester program. Most of the students live in the same hotel. Some live with family members or friends. They all travel to work on the underground Metro train system. The students in the program all have different jobs. Some work for congressional representatives. Others work at radio or television stations. Most of the students work for non-profit organizations. Laura Seidl works at Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers’ office. She answers telephone calls from citizens and carries out other office duties. She says her experience so far has been excellent. John Sturk works for another congressman from Michigan, Thaddeus McCotter. John is doing so well as an intern that he has been offered a job there after graduation. Chi-Un (JEE-un) Lee is interning here in Special English. She enjoys working with news writers and seeing how radio shows are produced. Students have many things to do when they are not at work or in class. They explore the city of Washington. They see theatrical shows. They attend local events, like the Taste of D.C., where people taste foods prepared by different eating places. Some students enjoy visiting the many museums and monuments in the city. Internship director Joel Clarke praises the program. He says students change so much in the three months they are in Washington. Students gain valuable work experience. They also learn more about the kind of job they want to have in the future. And he says many of the students like the Washington experience so much that they return to live in the city after they graduate. Sports Illustrated at 50 HOST: Do you love sports? Well, a lot of Americans do. And, there is a weekly magazine that has been celebrating sports in the United States for almost fifty years. Faith Lapidus tells about Sports Illustrated and what the magazine is doing to observe its fiftieth year. ANNCR: It is August, nineteen-fifty-four. Eddie Matthews of the Milwaukee Braves baseball team is at bat. A magazine photographer takes a picture of the baseball player in the middle of a swing. The catcher has his glove up --- ready to catch the ball if the batter misses his target. The game official behind the plate is in position to make a call on the play if necessary. And, in the background, a huge crowd watches the action from the seats of the baseball stadium. That picture became the first cover of Sports Illustrated. The magazine’s goal was to cover American sports. About five-hundred-thousand people paid to receive the magazine at their homes each week back then. Now more than three-million people subscribe. They pay almost ninety dollars a year to get the magazine sent to their homes every week. Other people buy it on newsstands. Today the magazine says it has about twenty-million readers. The huge majority of Sports Illustrated readers are men. However, about four-million women read the magazine too. In July, Sports Illustrated officials announced plans for a year-long celebration leading up to the magazine’s fiftieth anniversary. The plans include a new weekly report on each of the fifty states in America. The reports discuss a sport or sporting event that is special to the state. Sports Illustrated is also producing four large anniversary issues. One was released last week. It honored Sports Illustrated cover pictures throughout the years. The magazine included small versions of all two-thousand-five-hundred-forty-eight cover pictures. The issue also reported some interesting facts about the magazine’s covers. For example, the most popular sport based on covers is American football. It was the subject of more than five-hundred Sports Illustrated covers. Among athletes, a famous American basketball player had his picture on the most magazine covers. Michael Jordan was the subject of forty-nine Sports Illustrated covers. Marvin Gaye HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Venah Obiasor asks about the life, and death, of the singer Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye was born in Washington, D.C., on April second, nineteen-thirty-nine. His father was a Christian minister. Young Marvin first sang in his father’s church. But he wanted to sing other kinds of music. He joined several groups before Motown Records chief Berry Gordy got him to sing alone. His first hit song was called “That Stubborn Kind of Fellow.” Marvin Gaye also recorded songs with several female singers, including Tammi Terrell. Here they are with “Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing.” (MUSIC) Marvin Gaye had another big song with “Mercy, Mercy Me.” It appeared on the album “What’s Goin' On” in which he performed songs he wrote himself. He sang about social problems, like pollution and poverty. (MUSIC) In the nineteen-seventies, Marvin Gaye developed a drug problem. He became dependent on cocaine. He stopped work for a few years. Then, in nineteen-eighty-two, he recorded an album called “Midnight Love.” The recording industry honored him with two Grammy awards. His personal life, however, remained unhappy. He continued to use cocaine, and threatened to kill himself. Marvin Gaye died on April first, nineteen-eighty-four, the day before his forty-fifth birthday. His father shot him during an argument. We leave you now with one of Marvin Gaye’s biggest hits, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. If we use your question, we'll send you a gift. So make sure to include your name and mailing address. Our postal address is American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our program was written by Chi-Un Lee, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Paul Thompson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT – Steel Tariffs Dispute
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 21, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. Last week, the World Trade Organization ruled that United States taxes on imports of steel violate international trade law and should be removed. President Bush ordered the new taxes, some as high as thirty percent, in March, two-thousand-two. He did so to protect the American steel industry from foreign competition. The taxes were to last for three years and were designed to save American steel companies from failure. During that time, steel companies were to re-organize or join with other companies. Many struggling companies were bought by larger ones. And jobs were cut. But the steel industry says the reorganization is not complete. And steel industry leaders say it may never be complete if President Bush cancels the import taxes. The European Union had protested to the W-T-O about the taxes on steel imports. The recent ruling permits the E-U to order taxes on imports from the United States as punishment. E-U countries say they plan to target more than two-thousand-million dollars worth of products. Several other nations, including Brazil, China, and Japan, also protested the steel import taxes and are threatening similar action. The American steel industry offered a compromise plan this week. Three powerful steel companies proposed that the taxes on steel imports could end six months early. They also said the taxes could be sharply lowered during the next four months.But the European Commission, which negotiates E-U trade agreements, says the United States should honor the W-T-O ruling. President Bush says he will decide on the issue in a reasonable period of time. The E-U has said it will begin taxing American imports December fifteenth if the steel import taxes are still in place. The E-U is expected to target products from American states that are very important to Mister Bush’s re-election effort. Some companies and individuals in the United States are also urging Mister Bush to end the import taxes. Industries that use steel say they have been hurt by the price increases that resulted. And reports say some Bush administration officials are also calling for an end to steel import taxes. They reportedly think the taxes might be causing Mister Bush more political harm than good. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS-Free Trade Area of the Americas
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 22, 2003 This is In the News from VOA Special English. Trade ministers from the Americas gathered in Miami, Florida, this week to discuss plans for a free trade agreement. Thirty-four ministers from North, Central and South American countries took part in the talks. They hope to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by two-thousand-five. The agreement would bring together eight-hundred-million people from Argentina to Canada. All the nations in the area would be included except Cuba. If approved, it would create the largest free trade area in the world. The Free Trade Area of the Americas was first proposed at the Summit of the Americas in Miami in nineteen-ninety-four. The presidents of the thirty-four democracies in the area agreed to begin efforts to unite the economies of the Americas into one free trade area. The goal was to end barriers to trade and investment among member countries. It was also designed to improve living and working conditions of all people in the area and better protect the environment. Trade ministers from those countries have been meeting for eight years to discuss ways to put the agreement into effect. Negotiations are to be completed by two-thousand-five. On Wednesday, lower-level negotiators approved a compromise agreement. Trade ministers discussed the proposal during official talks Thursday and Friday. Then, the thirty-four nations were to decide on the next step in negotiations aimed at creating a free trade area. The proposed agreement put forward a limited set of rights and responsibilities for each country to follow. But countries could decide which parts they would accept. In a final declaration Friday, the trade ministers from the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean agreed to a greatly reduced plan. It includes a limited number of trade compromises such as tax reductions on industrial goods. The declaration did not include issues such as investment and copyright protection. And agricultural issues will now be dealt with by the World Trade Organization, as called for by the United States. The United States says it will continue to seek separate trade agreements with individual countries. The agreement is based on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, completed in nineteen-ninety-four. The agreement links Canada, Mexico and the United States. But a recent study says that NAFTA has failed to increase jobs in Mexico and thousands of Mexicans in farming areas have suffered. Thousands of protesters opposed to the Free Trade Area of the Americas clashed with riot police during the talks in Miami this week. Most of them belong to American labor unions. They say the agreement will result in environmental damage and loss of jobs. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. Broadcast: November 22, 2003 This is In the News from VOA Special English. Trade ministers from the Americas gathered in Miami, Florida, this week to discuss plans for a free trade agreement. Thirty-four ministers from North, Central and South American countries took part in the talks. They hope to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by two-thousand-five. The agreement would bring together eight-hundred-million people from Argentina to Canada. All the nations in the area would be included except Cuba. If approved, it would create the largest free trade area in the world. The Free Trade Area of the Americas was first proposed at the Summit of the Americas in Miami in nineteen-ninety-four. The presidents of the thirty-four democracies in the area agreed to begin efforts to unite the economies of the Americas into one free trade area. The goal was to end barriers to trade and investment among member countries. It was also designed to improve living and working conditions of all people in the area and better protect the environment. Trade ministers from those countries have been meeting for eight years to discuss ways to put the agreement into effect. Negotiations are to be completed by two-thousand-five. On Wednesday, lower-level negotiators approved a compromise agreement. Trade ministers discussed the proposal during official talks Thursday and Friday. Then, the thirty-four nations were to decide on the next step in negotiations aimed at creating a free trade area. The proposed agreement put forward a limited set of rights and responsibilities for each country to follow. But countries could decide which parts they would accept. In a final declaration Friday, the trade ministers from the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean agreed to a greatly reduced plan. It includes a limited number of trade compromises such as tax reductions on industrial goods. The declaration did not include issues such as investment and copyright protection. And agricultural issues will now be dealt with by the World Trade Organization, as called for by the United States. The United States says it will continue to seek separate trade agreements with individual countries. The agreement is based on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, completed in nineteen-ninety-four. The agreement links Canada, Mexico and the United States. But a recent study says that NAFTA has failed to increase jobs in Mexico and thousands of Mexicans in farming areas have suffered. Thousands of protesters opposed to the Free Trade Area of the Americas clashed with riot police during the talks in Miami this week. Most of them belong to American labor unions. They say the agreement will result in environmental damage and loss of jobs. In the News, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – November 23, 2003: Margaret Mead
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about one of the most influential social scientists of the last century -- the anthropologist, Margaret Mead. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People around the world mourned when Margaret Mead died in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. The president of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter, honored the social scientist with America's highest award for civilians. Another honor came from a village in New Guinea. The people there planted a coconut tree in her memory. Margaret Mead would have liked that. As a young woman, she had studied the life and traditions of the village. Mizz Mead received such honors because she added greatly to public knowledge of cultures and traditions in developing areas. Many people consider her the most famous social-science researcher of the Twentieth Century. Yet some experts say her research was not scientific. They say she depended too much on observation and local stories. They say she did not spend enough time on comparative studies. They believe her fame resulted as much from her colorful personality as from her research. VOICE TWO: Margaret Mead was often the object of heated dispute. She shared her strong opinions about social issues. She denounced the spread of nuclear bombs. She spoke against racial injustice. She strongly supported women's rights. Throughout her life she enjoyed taking a risk. Mizz Mead began her studies of cultures in an unusual way for a woman of her time. She chose to perform her research in the developing world. She went to an island village in the Pacific Ocean. She went alone. The year was Nineteen-Twenty-Five. At that time, young American women did not travel far away from home by themselves. They did not ask personal questions of strangers. They did not observe births and deaths unless they were involved in medical work. Margaret Mead did all those things. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Margaret Mead was born in December, Nineteen-Oh-One, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were educators. Few women attended college in those days. However, Mizz Mead began her studies in Nineteen-Nineteen at De Pauw University in the middle western town of Greencastle, Indiana. She soon decided that living in a small town did not improve one's mind. So she moved to New York City to study at Barnard College. There she studied English and psychology. She graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. VOICE TWO: Margaret next decided to study anthropology at Columbia University in New York. She wanted to examine the activities and traditions of different societies. She sought to add to knowledge of human civilization. At the same time, she got married. Her husband, Luther Cressman, planned to be a clergyman. Together, they began the life of graduate students. VOICE ONE: Mizz Mead studied with two famous anthropologists: Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. Mister Boas believed that the environment people grow up in -- not family genes -- was the cause of most cultural differences among people. This belief also influenced his young student. Mister Boas was not pleased when Margaret Mead asked to do research in Samoa. He was concerned for her safety. Still, he let her go. Franz Boas told her to learn about the ways in which the young women of Samoa were raised. VOICE TWO: Margaret's husband went to Europe to continue his studies. She went -- alone -- to Samoa, in the Pacific Ocean. She worked among the people of Tau Island. The people spoke a difficult language. Their language had never been written. Luckily, she learned languages easily. VOICE ONE: Mizz Mead investigated the life of Samoan girls. She was not much older than the girls she questioned. She said their life was free of the anger and rebellion found among young people in other societies. She also said Samoan girls had sexual relations with anyone they wanted. She said their society did not urge them to love just one man. And she said their society did not condemn sex before marriage. Margaret Mead said she reached these beliefs after nine months of observation on Samoa. They helped make her book about Samoa one of the best-selling books of the time. Mizz Mead was just twenty-five years old when this happened. VOICE TWO: Several social scientists later disputed her findings. In a recent book, Derek Freeman says Mizz Mead made her observations from just a few talks with two friendly young women. He says they wanted to tell interesting stories to a foreign visitor. However, he says their stories were not necessarily true. Mister Freeman says Samoan society valued a young woman who had not had sexual relations. He says Tau Island men refused to marry women who had had sex. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After nine months among the Samoans, Mizz Mead returned to the United States. She met a psychology student from New Zealand, Reo Fortune, on the long trip home. Her marriage to Luther Cressman ended. She married Mister Fortune in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. Mizz Mead and her second husband went to New Guinea to work together. It would be the first of seven trips that she would make to the area in the next forty-seven years. The two observed the people of Manus Island, one of the Admiralty Islands, near mainland New Guinea. They thought the people were pleasant. After a while, though, she and her husband had no more tobacco to trade. Then the people of Manus Island stopped giving them fish. VOICE TWO: Later the two studied the Mundugumor people of New Guinea. Mizz Mead reported that both the men and women were expected to be aggressive. Only a few years before, tribe members had given up head-hunting. Traditionally they had cut off the heads of their enemies. Mundugumor parents also seemed to be cruel to their children. They carried their babies in stiff baskets. They did not answer the needs of the babies when they cried. Instead, they hit the baskets with sticks until the babies stopped crying. VOICE ONE: Not long after the New Guinea trip ended, Margaret Mead's marriage to Reo Fortune also ended. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, she married for the third time. Her new husband was Gregory Bateson, a British biologist. Mister Bateson and Mizz Mead decided to work together on the island of Bali, near Java in Indonesia. The people of Bali proudly shared their rich culture and traditions with the visitors. Mizz Mead observed and recorded their activities. Mister Bateson took photographs. The Batesons had a daughter. They seemed like a fine team. Yet their marriage ended in the late Nineteen-Forties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As time went on, Margaret Mead's fame continued to grow. Her books sold very well. She also wrote for popular magazines. She appeared on radio and television programs. She spoke before many groups. Americans loved to hear about her work in faraway places. Mizz Mead continued to go to those places and report about the people who lived there. VOICE ONE: After her trips, Margaret Mead always returned to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She worked there more than fifty years. She examined the research of others. She guided and advised a number of anthropology students. Mizz Mead worked in an office filled with ceremonial baskets and other objects from her studies and travels. People said she ruled the museum like a queen. They said Margaret Mead knew what she wanted from the work of others and knew how to get it. VOICE TWO: Other scientists paid her a high honor when she was seventy-two years old. They elected her president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A few years later, she developed cancer. But she continued to travel, speak and study almost to the end of her life. One friend said, "Margaret Mead was not going to let a little thing like death stop her." Margaret Mead died more than twenty years ago. Yet people continue to discuss and debate her studies of people and cultures around the world. (THEME) ANNCR: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I'm Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for People in America, from VOA Special English. (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about one of the most influential social scientists of the last century -- the anthropologist, Margaret Mead. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People around the world mourned when Margaret Mead died in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. The president of the United States at the time, Jimmy Carter, honored the social scientist with America's highest award for civilians. Another honor came from a village in New Guinea. The people there planted a coconut tree in her memory. Margaret Mead would have liked that. As a young woman, she had studied the life and traditions of the village. Mizz Mead received such honors because she added greatly to public knowledge of cultures and traditions in developing areas. Many people consider her the most famous social-science researcher of the Twentieth Century. Yet some experts say her research was not scientific. They say she depended too much on observation and local stories. They say she did not spend enough time on comparative studies. They believe her fame resulted as much from her colorful personality as from her research. VOICE TWO: Margaret Mead was often the object of heated dispute. She shared her strong opinions about social issues. She denounced the spread of nuclear bombs. She spoke against racial injustice. She strongly supported women's rights. Throughout her life she enjoyed taking a risk. Mizz Mead began her studies of cultures in an unusual way for a woman of her time. She chose to perform her research in the developing world. She went to an island village in the Pacific Ocean. She went alone. The year was Nineteen-Twenty-Five. At that time, young American women did not travel far away from home by themselves. They did not ask personal questions of strangers. They did not observe births and deaths unless they were involved in medical work. Margaret Mead did all those things. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Margaret Mead was born in December, Nineteen-Oh-One, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were educators. Few women attended college in those days. However, Mizz Mead began her studies in Nineteen-Nineteen at De Pauw University in the middle western town of Greencastle, Indiana. She soon decided that living in a small town did not improve one's mind. So she moved to New York City to study at Barnard College. There she studied English and psychology. She graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. VOICE TWO: Margaret next decided to study anthropology at Columbia University in New York. She wanted to examine the activities and traditions of different societies. She sought to add to knowledge of human civilization. At the same time, she got married. Her husband, Luther Cressman, planned to be a clergyman. Together, they began the life of graduate students. VOICE ONE: Mizz Mead studied with two famous anthropologists: Franz Boas and Ruth Benedict. Mister Boas believed that the environment people grow up in -- not family genes -- was the cause of most cultural differences among people. This belief also influenced his young student. Mister Boas was not pleased when Margaret Mead asked to do research in Samoa. He was concerned for her safety. Still, he let her go. Franz Boas told her to learn about the ways in which the young women of Samoa were raised. VOICE TWO: Margaret's husband went to Europe to continue his studies. She went -- alone -- to Samoa, in the Pacific Ocean. She worked among the people of Tau Island. The people spoke a difficult language. Their language had never been written. Luckily, she learned languages easily. VOICE ONE: Mizz Mead investigated the life of Samoan girls. She was not much older than the girls she questioned. She said their life was free of the anger and rebellion found among young people in other societies. She also said Samoan girls had sexual relations with anyone they wanted. She said their society did not urge them to love just one man. And she said their society did not condemn sex before marriage. Margaret Mead said she reached these beliefs after nine months of observation on Samoa. They helped make her book about Samoa one of the best-selling books of the time. Mizz Mead was just twenty-five years old when this happened. VOICE TWO: Several social scientists later disputed her findings. In a recent book, Derek Freeman says Mizz Mead made her observations from just a few talks with two friendly young women. He says they wanted to tell interesting stories to a foreign visitor. However, he says their stories were not necessarily true. Mister Freeman says Samoan society valued a young woman who had not had sexual relations. He says Tau Island men refused to marry women who had had sex. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After nine months among the Samoans, Mizz Mead returned to the United States. She met a psychology student from New Zealand, Reo Fortune, on the long trip home. Her marriage to Luther Cressman ended. She married Mister Fortune in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. Mizz Mead and her second husband went to New Guinea to work together. It would be the first of seven trips that she would make to the area in the next forty-seven years. The two observed the people of Manus Island, one of the Admiralty Islands, near mainland New Guinea. They thought the people were pleasant. After a while, though, she and her husband had no more tobacco to trade. Then the people of Manus Island stopped giving them fish. VOICE TWO: Later the two studied the Mundugumor people of New Guinea. Mizz Mead reported that both the men and women were expected to be aggressive. Only a few years before, tribe members had given up head-hunting. Traditionally they had cut off the heads of their enemies. Mundugumor parents also seemed to be cruel to their children. They carried their babies in stiff baskets. They did not answer the needs of the babies when they cried. Instead, they hit the baskets with sticks until the babies stopped crying. VOICE ONE: Not long after the New Guinea trip ended, Margaret Mead's marriage to Reo Fortune also ended. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, she married for the third time. Her new husband was Gregory Bateson, a British biologist. Mister Bateson and Mizz Mead decided to work together on the island of Bali, near Java in Indonesia. The people of Bali proudly shared their rich culture and traditions with the visitors. Mizz Mead observed and recorded their activities. Mister Bateson took photographs. The Batesons had a daughter. They seemed like a fine team. Yet their marriage ended in the late Nineteen-Forties. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: As time went on, Margaret Mead's fame continued to grow. Her books sold very well. She also wrote for popular magazines. She appeared on radio and television programs. She spoke before many groups. Americans loved to hear about her work in faraway places. Mizz Mead continued to go to those places and report about the people who lived there. VOICE ONE: After her trips, Margaret Mead always returned to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She worked there more than fifty years. She examined the research of others. She guided and advised a number of anthropology students. Mizz Mead worked in an office filled with ceremonial baskets and other objects from her studies and travels. People said she ruled the museum like a queen. They said Margaret Mead knew what she wanted from the work of others and knew how to get it. VOICE TWO: Other scientists paid her a high honor when she was seventy-two years old. They elected her president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A few years later, she developed cancer. But she continued to travel, speak and study almost to the end of her life. One friend said, "Margaret Mead was not going to let a little thing like death stop her." Margaret Mead died more than twenty years ago. Yet people continue to discuss and debate her studies of people and cultures around the world. (THEME) ANNCR: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. The announcers were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I'm Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for People in America, from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 24, 2003: Diabetes in Developing Countries
* Byline: 

 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says it expects two times as many cases of diabetes in developing countries within thirty years. Developing countries had one-hundred-fifteen million diabetics in two-thousand, or two out of three cases worldwide. In two-thousand-thirty that share is expected to be three out of four cases. The W-H-O is working with the International Diabetes Federation to fight the increase. It says many cases could be prevented by better nutrition and more physical activity. The W-H-O released its report for the yearly observance of World Diabetes Day on November fourteenth. That is the birthday of Canadian scientist Frederick Banting. He and his assistant Charles Best did research that led to the discovery of insulin in nineteen-twenty-one. People with diabetes have too much of a sugar called glucose in their blood. Glucose levels rise when the body cannot produce insulin, or cannot use this hormone correctly. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. Insulin helps glucose enter cells to use as fuel. There are two kinds of diabetes. Type One is usually found in children and young people. It results when the body’s own defense system destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. In Type Two diabetes, the pancreas produces insulin, but the body is not able to use it. This kind of diabetes usually appears in adults. But doctors also see it increasingly in overweight children. About ninety percent of all cases of diabetes worldwide are Type Two. Experts warn about the economic costs of an increase in diabetes. The W-H-O estimates that countries now spend up to fifteen percent of their yearly health care budgets on this disease. Then there is also the amount of money lost in worker productivity. Diabetes is often linked to a high-fat diet and little exercise. But health officials say it no longer affects mostly rich nations. People with diabetes can often control it through better nutrition, more physical exercise and the use of medicine. The World Health Organization is developing what it calls a Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity. It says this plan will support its efforts to help countries prevent diabetes and other diseases related to unhealthy diets and lack of activity. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says it expects two times as many cases of diabetes in developing countries within thirty years. Developing countries had one-hundred-fifteen million diabetics in two-thousand, or two out of three cases worldwide. In two-thousand-thirty that share is expected to be three out of four cases. The W-H-O is working with the International Diabetes Federation to fight the increase. It says many cases could be prevented by better nutrition and more physical activity. The W-H-O released its report for the yearly observance of World Diabetes Day on November fourteenth. That is the birthday of Canadian scientist Frederick Banting. He and his assistant Charles Best did research that led to the discovery of insulin in nineteen-twenty-one. People with diabetes have too much of a sugar called glucose in their blood. Glucose levels rise when the body cannot produce insulin, or cannot use this hormone correctly. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. Insulin helps glucose enter cells to use as fuel. There are two kinds of diabetes. Type One is usually found in children and young people. It results when the body’s own defense system destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. In Type Two diabetes, the pancreas produces insulin, but the body is not able to use it. This kind of diabetes usually appears in adults. But doctors also see it increasingly in overweight children. About ninety percent of all cases of diabetes worldwide are Type Two. Experts warn about the economic costs of an increase in diabetes. The W-H-O estimates that countries now spend up to fifteen percent of their yearly health care budgets on this disease. Then there is also the amount of money lost in worker productivity. Diabetes is often linked to a high-fat diet and little exercise. But health officials say it no longer affects mostly rich nations. People with diabetes can often control it through better nutrition, more physical exercise and the use of medicine. The World Health Organization is developing what it calls a Global Strategy on Diet and Physical Activity. It says this plan will support its efforts to help countries prevent diabetes and other diseases related to unhealthy diets and lack of activity. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - California
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 24, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: People have been following a dream to California for more than one-hundred-fifty years. Around thirty-six-million people live there now, more than in any other state. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week -- California and its people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At first, the dream was to find gold. In eighteen-forty-eight, a man named James Marshall was working at a sawmill. It was on the American River, about one hundred kilometers northeast of San Francisco. He found a piece of bright metal where the river flowed through the sawmill. It was gold. People who rushed to California the following year, eighteen-forty-nine, became known as "forty-niners." A few found gold and became rich. Others found jobs and stayed in California. In eighteen-fifty California became a state. VOICE TWO: As years passed, more and more people came to the Golden State. There was lots of sunshine. The weather was warm most of the year. Ocean beaches and mountains were nearby. Jobs could be found in the cities and on farms. Going to California became a dream of many people in the cold, crowded cities of the East and Middle West. Some of the newcomers dreamed of Hollywood. They came to find a job in the movie capital of the world. But these young men and women were like the early settlers who searched for gold. Only a few became stars or successful Hollywood movie writers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The newcomers in California found that nature put some problems in their dream. One of them is earthquakes. In nineteen-oh-six an earthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco. It killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. Most recently, a powerful earthquake in Southern California in nineteen-ninety-four killed about sixty people in the Los Angeles area. It caused twenty-thousand million dollars in damage to buildings and roads. Fires are another problem. In late autumn, dry winds race across the desert into Southern California. Any fire can suddenly become a major wildfire. In late October, major wildfires burned across areas of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. More than three-thousand homes were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed. VOICE TWO: California is more than one-thousand kilometers long and four-hundred kilometers wide. Mount Whitney, in the Sequoia National Park, is the highest mountain in the forty-eight connected states. It is more than four-thousand-four-hundred meters high. California also has the lowest place in the United States. It is in Death Valley National Park, in the eastern desert near the border with Nevada. The place is called Badwater Basin. It is eighty-six meters below sea level. In fact, it is the lowest place anywhere in the Americas. The coastline of California begins at the border with Mexico. It extends one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty kilometers north, to the state of Oregon. The central and southern California coast has many beautiful, sandy beaches. The big waves of the Pacific make these areas great places to surf. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Europeans to see the California coast were explorers from Spain and Portugal almost five centuries ago. The peninsula that extends into Mexico made them think it was an island. In fifty-thirty-nine a member of one sailing party recorded the name as "California." California was the name of an imaginary island in a book, a romance novel, that was popular in Spain. Spain claimed the new land and later built religious settlements to spread Christianity among the native people. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the eighteen-twenties. But Mexico lost California in a war with the United States about twenty-five years later. The discovery of gold in California soon followed. VOICE TWO: Today, California has the largest economy of all the fifty states. In fact, it has one of the largest economies in the world. In the area of education, California has more state colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system has more than twenty colleges and universities. The University of California, another system, has schools in nine cities. California also has more than one-hundred community colleges. These offer two-year study programs to any student who completes high school. California is rich in natural resources. It has wide areas of farmland. It has large forests. And it is has oil, natural gas and other valuable minerals. California gets most of its water from rain and snow that fall in its northern and central mountains. But much of its best farmland is dry. So the state sends water from the mountains through pipelines and canals to farms and also to cities along the coast. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America's largest city is New York. After that is Los Angeles, with about four-million people. San Diego, on the border with Mexico, is the second largest city in California. It has one-million-two-hundred-thousand people. San Jose and San Francisco are the third and fourth largest cities. San Jose is near the so-called Silicon Valley, home to many high technology companies. The state capital is Sacramento. VOICE TWO: In October, voters in California dismissed their state governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat. To take his place, they elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former champion bodybuilder. Mister Schwarzenegger is a Republican who was born in Austria. He took office last Monday. Mister Davis had been elected for a second term last November. But Republicans used a recall law passed almost one-hundred years ago to call for a vote to remove him. Many Californians were angry at Mister Davis because he raised taxes. Mister Davis said the state did not have enough money to pay for important government services. He blamed an economic recession and an energy crisis for a budget deficit of thousands of millions of dollars. Many people were especially angry at a big increase in the vehicle tax. Governor Schwarzenegger, as his first official act, cancelled that increase. VOICE ONE: California lawmakers passed the recall law in nineteen-eleven. The law permits people to recall elected officials even without any charges of wrongdoing. Now, for the first time, the law has been used to remove the governor. Some other states also have recall laws, but make the process more difficult. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many famous Americans were born in California. Here are a few of them: President Richard Nixon. Poet Robert Frost. Writers Jack London and John Steinbeck. Guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia. Movie maker George Lucas. Actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio. Actress Mariel Hemingway. Astronaut Sally Ride. Tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. And golfer Tiger Woods. VOICE ONE: People continue to follow their dreams to California. The State Department of Finance expects the population to grow by nearly six-hundred-thousand this year. About half the population growth is from people who arrive from other countries and states. The Department of Finance says about seventy percent of these new arrivals come from other countries. The largest number is people from Mexico. Almost eleven-million people of Mexican ancestry live in California. Asian-Pacific ties are also strong. San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. Chinese immigration to California began in large numbers after the Gold Rush. In the eighteen-sixties, thousands of Chinese worked on the first railroad across the state. But there also were anti-Chinese riots. VOICE TWO: Twelve percent of people in the United States live in California. California's population is expected to reach thirty-six-million-five-hundred-thousand next year. At the current growth rate, California will reach fifty-four-million people in just over twenty years. With so large a population, some fear what may happen to the California dream. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: November 24, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: People have been following a dream to California for more than one-hundred-fifty years. Around thirty-six-million people live there now, more than in any other state. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week -- California and its people. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: At first, the dream was to find gold. In eighteen-forty-eight, a man named James Marshall was working at a sawmill. It was on the American River, about one hundred kilometers northeast of San Francisco. He found a piece of bright metal where the river flowed through the sawmill. It was gold. People who rushed to California the following year, eighteen-forty-nine, became known as "forty-niners." A few found gold and became rich. Others found jobs and stayed in California. In eighteen-fifty California became a state. VOICE TWO: As years passed, more and more people came to the Golden State. There was lots of sunshine. The weather was warm most of the year. Ocean beaches and mountains were nearby. Jobs could be found in the cities and on farms. Going to California became a dream of many people in the cold, crowded cities of the East and Middle West. Some of the newcomers dreamed of Hollywood. They came to find a job in the movie capital of the world. But these young men and women were like the early settlers who searched for gold. Only a few became stars or successful Hollywood movie writers. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The newcomers in California found that nature put some problems in their dream. One of them is earthquakes. In nineteen-oh-six an earthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco. It killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people. Most recently, a powerful earthquake in Southern California in nineteen-ninety-four killed about sixty people in the Los Angeles area. It caused twenty-thousand million dollars in damage to buildings and roads. Fires are another problem. In late autumn, dry winds race across the desert into Southern California. Any fire can suddenly become a major wildfire. In late October, major wildfires burned across areas of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. More than three-thousand homes were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed. VOICE TWO: California is more than one-thousand kilometers long and four-hundred kilometers wide. Mount Whitney, in the Sequoia National Park, is the highest mountain in the forty-eight connected states. It is more than four-thousand-four-hundred meters high. California also has the lowest place in the United States. It is in Death Valley National Park, in the eastern desert near the border with Nevada. The place is called Badwater Basin. It is eighty-six meters below sea level. In fact, it is the lowest place anywhere in the Americas. The coastline of California begins at the border with Mexico. It extends one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty kilometers north, to the state of Oregon. The central and southern California coast has many beautiful, sandy beaches. The big waves of the Pacific make these areas great places to surf. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Europeans to see the California coast were explorers from Spain and Portugal almost five centuries ago. The peninsula that extends into Mexico made them think it was an island. In fifty-thirty-nine a member of one sailing party recorded the name as "California." California was the name of an imaginary island in a book, a romance novel, that was popular in Spain. Spain claimed the new land and later built religious settlements to spread Christianity among the native people. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the eighteen-twenties. But Mexico lost California in a war with the United States about twenty-five years later. The discovery of gold in California soon followed. VOICE TWO: Today, California has the largest economy of all the fifty states. In fact, it has one of the largest economies in the world. In the area of education, California has more state colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system has more than twenty colleges and universities. The University of California, another system, has schools in nine cities. California also has more than one-hundred community colleges. These offer two-year study programs to any student who completes high school. California is rich in natural resources. It has wide areas of farmland. It has large forests. And it is has oil, natural gas and other valuable minerals. California gets most of its water from rain and snow that fall in its northern and central mountains. But much of its best farmland is dry. So the state sends water from the mountains through pipelines and canals to farms and also to cities along the coast. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: America's largest city is New York. After that is Los Angeles, with about four-million people. San Diego, on the border with Mexico, is the second largest city in California. It has one-million-two-hundred-thousand people. San Jose and San Francisco are the third and fourth largest cities. San Jose is near the so-called Silicon Valley, home to many high technology companies. The state capital is Sacramento. VOICE TWO: In October, voters in California dismissed their state governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat. To take his place, they elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former champion bodybuilder. Mister Schwarzenegger is a Republican who was born in Austria. He took office last Monday. Mister Davis had been elected for a second term last November. But Republicans used a recall law passed almost one-hundred years ago to call for a vote to remove him. Many Californians were angry at Mister Davis because he raised taxes. Mister Davis said the state did not have enough money to pay for important government services. He blamed an economic recession and an energy crisis for a budget deficit of thousands of millions of dollars. Many people were especially angry at a big increase in the vehicle tax. Governor Schwarzenegger, as his first official act, cancelled that increase. VOICE ONE: California lawmakers passed the recall law in nineteen-eleven. The law permits people to recall elected officials even without any charges of wrongdoing. Now, for the first time, the law has been used to remove the governor. Some other states also have recall laws, but make the process more difficult. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many famous Americans were born in California. Here are a few of them: President Richard Nixon. Poet Robert Frost. Writers Jack London and John Steinbeck. Guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia. Movie maker George Lucas. Actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio. Actress Mariel Hemingway. Astronaut Sally Ride. Tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. And golfer Tiger Woods. VOICE ONE: People continue to follow their dreams to California. The State Department of Finance expects the population to grow by nearly six-hundred-thousand this year. About half the population growth is from people who arrive from other countries and states. The Department of Finance says about seventy percent of these new arrivals come from other countries. The largest number is people from Mexico. Almost eleven-million people of Mexican ancestry live in California. Asian-Pacific ties are also strong. San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. Chinese immigration to California began in large numbers after the Gold Rush. In the eighteen-sixties, thousands of Chinese worked on the first railroad across the state. But there also were anti-Chinese riots. VOICE TWO: Twelve percent of people in the United States live in California. California's population is expected to reach thirty-six-million-five-hundred-thousand next year. At the current growth rate, California will reach fifty-four-million people in just over twenty years. With so large a population, some fear what may happen to the California dream. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Ways to Stop Smoking / Terri Schiavo Case in Florida
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 25, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- some advice about how to stop smoking ... and the case of a brain-damaged woman in Florida. Her husband has been fighting to have doctors end her life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each year, the American Cancer Society holds the Great American Smokeout. It is a day when people in the United States are supposed to avoid the use of tobacco. The Great American Smokeout is twenty-seven years old. It is part of the effort to get smokers to give up cigarettes and save lives. Not just their own lives, but also the lives of the people who breathe their smoke. Tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking is also linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. So-called light or low-tar cigarettes are no safer. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that almost five-million people a year die from the effects of smoking. At current rates of growth, the W-H-O says tobacco use will kill more than eight-million people a year by two-thousand-twenty. This year's observance of the Great American Smokeout took place last Thursday. So this seems like a good time to repeat some advice we have given before about how to stop smoking. VOICE TWO: Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or cocaine. Nicotine is a poison. But it is also the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again, forcing the person to keep smoking. So experts say it is better not to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members and others who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE TWO: There are several products designed to help end a smoker’s dependence on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. For example, smokers can place a small, specially treated piece of material, a patch, on their skin. They can chew or swallow other products that contain nicotine. Or they can breathe small amounts of nicotine through their nose or mouth. VOICE ONE: Studies have shown that a drug used to fight depression reduces the urge to smoke for some people. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug increases levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. There is strong evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Cancer Society says there is no one right way to stop smoking. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people smoke. Being under the influence of alcohol can also make it harder to resist smoking. So if you drink alcohol, you may need to stop temporarily. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time. Or you may feel sad. You may have a headache. Or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go on a fast walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States, a court case in Florida over the life of a brain-damaged woman has created much debate. Terri Schiavo is thirty-nine years old. Thirteen years ago, she suffered a heart attack. Doctors found that her brain was starved of oxygen for about ten minutes. The brain damage that resulted left her unable to care for herself. She has been kept alive by a feeding tube in her mouth. She can breathe without assistance. But she cannot eat or swallow. Nor can she talk, or make decisions for herself. Florida courts have found that she is in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state. Her husband, Michael, wants doctors to remove her feeding tube and permit her to die. He says his wife told him she would rather die than be kept alive by life support. But family members dispute that. They believe she still could recover with treatment. Some medical experts, however, have said Terri Schiavo will never recover. VOICE TWO: Michael Schiavo is the legal caretaker for his wife. Under the law, a caretaker is believed to know best what a person would have wanted. For years, the parents of Terri Schiavo have been seeking the right to decide her care. Her parents have fought to keep her alive. So have Christian groups and other supporters. Doctors removed her feeding tube on October fifteenth. But they replaced it six days later, after the Florida Legislature passed a law. That law gave Governor Jeb Bush the power to overrule the courts. Governor Bush, the brother of the president, ordered doctors to continue feeding Terri Schiavo. After that, Michael Schiavo asked the courts to rule the new law unconstitutional. He said it violated his wife’s right to privacy. He said it also violated the separation of powers in the state government under the Florida Constitution. Last week, an appeals court agreed to let Michael Schiavo continue his case against Governor Bush. VOICE ONE: A vegetative state is not like the deep sleep of a coma. A person may have open eyes, periods of waking and sleeping and some bodily movement. But experts say the brain cannot produce emotion, memory or thought. Those seeking to keep Terri Schiavo alive, however, say she is in what is called a minimally conscious condition. They say a videotape made by her parents shows that she can still think and react. On the tape, her eyes blink, though faster than normal. Her mouth hangs open, but at times the edges seem to turn up, as if in a smile. Her father says there were signs that she could hear and answer questions. However, a number of experts on the nervous system rejected these ideas. They said the appearances of brain-damaged people can be misleading. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: November 25, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- some advice about how to stop smoking ... and the case of a brain-damaged woman in Florida. Her husband has been fighting to have doctors end her life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Each year, the American Cancer Society holds the Great American Smokeout. It is a day when people in the United States are supposed to avoid the use of tobacco. The Great American Smokeout is twenty-seven years old. It is part of the effort to get smokers to give up cigarettes and save lives. Not just their own lives, but also the lives of the people who breathe their smoke. Tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking is also linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. So-called light or low-tar cigarettes are no safer. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that almost five-million people a year die from the effects of smoking. At current rates of growth, the W-H-O says tobacco use will kill more than eight-million people a year by two-thousand-twenty. This year's observance of the Great American Smokeout took place last Thursday. So this seems like a good time to repeat some advice we have given before about how to stop smoking. VOICE TWO: Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or cocaine. Nicotine is a poison. But it is also the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again, forcing the person to keep smoking. So experts say it is better not to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members and others who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE TWO: There are several products designed to help end a smoker’s dependence on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. For example, smokers can place a small, specially treated piece of material, a patch, on their skin. They can chew or swallow other products that contain nicotine. Or they can breathe small amounts of nicotine through their nose or mouth. VOICE ONE: Studies have shown that a drug used to fight depression reduces the urge to smoke for some people. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug increases levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. There is strong evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The American Cancer Society says there is no one right way to stop smoking. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people smoke. Being under the influence of alcohol can also make it harder to resist smoking. So if you drink alcohol, you may need to stop temporarily. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time. Or you may feel sad. You may have a headache. Or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go on a fast walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the United States, a court case in Florida over the life of a brain-damaged woman has created much debate. Terri Schiavo is thirty-nine years old. Thirteen years ago, she suffered a heart attack. Doctors found that her brain was starved of oxygen for about ten minutes. The brain damage that resulted left her unable to care for herself. She has been kept alive by a feeding tube in her mouth. She can breathe without assistance. But she cannot eat or swallow. Nor can she talk, or make decisions for herself. Florida courts have found that she is in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state. Her husband, Michael, wants doctors to remove her feeding tube and permit her to die. He says his wife told him she would rather die than be kept alive by life support. But family members dispute that. They believe she still could recover with treatment. Some medical experts, however, have said Terri Schiavo will never recover. VOICE TWO: Michael Schiavo is the legal caretaker for his wife. Under the law, a caretaker is believed to know best what a person would have wanted. For years, the parents of Terri Schiavo have been seeking the right to decide her care. Her parents have fought to keep her alive. So have Christian groups and other supporters. Doctors removed her feeding tube on October fifteenth. But they replaced it six days later, after the Florida Legislature passed a law. That law gave Governor Jeb Bush the power to overrule the courts. Governor Bush, the brother of the president, ordered doctors to continue feeding Terri Schiavo. After that, Michael Schiavo asked the courts to rule the new law unconstitutional. He said it violated his wife’s right to privacy. He said it also violated the separation of powers in the state government under the Florida Constitution. Last week, an appeals court agreed to let Michael Schiavo continue his case against Governor Bush. VOICE ONE: A vegetative state is not like the deep sleep of a coma. A person may have open eyes, periods of waking and sleeping and some bodily movement. But experts say the brain cannot produce emotion, memory or thought. Those seeking to keep Terri Schiavo alive, however, say she is in what is called a minimally conscious condition. They say a videotape made by her parents shows that she can still think and react. On the tape, her eyes blink, though faster than normal. Her mouth hangs open, but at times the edges seem to turn up, as if in a smile. Her father says there were signs that she could hear and answer questions. However, a number of experts on the nervous system rejected these ideas. They said the appearances of brain-damaged people can be misleading. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – Pressing Oil from Seeds
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 25, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. From the beginning of human history, people have used oils from seeds and nuts. Most of the time these oils are used as food, especially in cooking. But sometimes they have other uses. For example, oils are found in paint and in cleaning products, like soap. Oil is separated from seeds by using pressure. A machine called a press is often used. Sometimes it is surprising to learn how much oil the seeds contain. These common seeds all contain at least fifty-percent oil: olives, groundnuts, sesame, cotton and sunflower. The soybean is an important seed around the world, but it is only twenty percent oil. So chemicals are needed to release oil from soybeans. The first step in pressing the oil from seeds is to crush the seeds between two stones. A cloth container or bag is filled with the crushed seeds. Then the bag is hung up. Some of the oil will flow out of the bag and can be collected. But some oil will remain in the crushed seeds inside the bag. The easiest way to get the rest of the oil out is to place heavy rocks on the crushed material. Another method is to place several cloth bags on top of each other in a box. Then a long wooden stick is used to slowly push a heavy cover down on the bags. Great pressure is produced in this way. Much greater pressure can be produced by using a machine, a hydraulic jack. The greater the pressure, the more oil will be produced. Oil can also be collected with small, hand-operated machines. Small presses are important in areas where electricity or gasoline cannot be used. They are also a good way to test if a local market for oil exists. Small batch presses can be made of local materials. Their cost is low. They are not difficult to operate. And they are easy to repair. The small presses produce good quality oil. But the work is hard. And getting all the oil from the seeds can be difficult. A system can be set up to press together an amount of seeds at different times of the day. But if there is a large supply of seeds, then large, powered presses that can operate all day are needed. You can get more information about collecting oil from seeds from the group VITA, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – Schoolyard Habitats
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 27, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Educational gardens called “Schoolyard Habitats” are growing at schools in almost every American state. To make a habitat, schoolchildren create a space for plants in their schoolyards. They put in plants that are inviting to birds and to insects called butterflies. Then they watch the birds, plants and insects as they grow and multiply. Teachers praise the habitats as valuable learning tools. To students in habitat programs, for example, photosynthesis is not just something to learn from a book. Children can study their own plants as the plants complete this process of combining water and carbon dioxide. They learn that plants can use light to make the energy that keeps the plant alive. Students in habitat programs can watch for and identify birds. They can learn about trees and flowers. They can build and operate weather stations and make mathematical records of weather activities. They can estimate the number of baby frogs in a water pond. They can write environment reports about the habitats in science class and write stories about them in English class. The National Wildlife Federation in Reston, Virginia, developed the Schoolyard Habitats program. It started in nineteen-ninety-six. At first, three-hundred-fifty-five schools developed habitats. Today, there are two-thousand Schoolyard Habitats in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Gowana Middle School in Clifton Park, New York, operates one of these habitats. It has beautiful flowers and bushes. A waterfall flows over rocks in a large pond. Bird-feeding stations are placed just outside classroom windows. Students can observe, identify and record sightings of birds from their classroom. From November through April, they share their records with scientists at the Cornell University Lab’s Classroom FeederWatch program. The scientists document the movements of winter bird populations. Gowana students also study monarch butterflies. They take part in the Monarch Watch program of the University of Kansas. The young people catch and mark the butterflies, then free them. This way, scientists can study where and when the insects fly. Life sciences teacher Deborah Smith says students will always need books. But she also says working with habitats leads to deeper understanding. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - November 26, 2003: Charles Lindbergh
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy. Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February Fourth, Nineteen-Oh-Two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D-C, while Mister Lindbergh served in the Congress. Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle. VOICE TWO: He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five-hundred dollars to buy his own plane. Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing." He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier. VOICE ONE: From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class. After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago. Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five-thousand dollars. A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane. A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it: "The Spirit of Saint Louis." VOICE ONE: In May, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes. At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two. "If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either." VOICE TWO: May twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of "The Spirit of Saint Louis." "It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go." The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris. VOICE ONE: Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three-thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left. During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel. On the evening of May Twenty-First, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris! Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and "The Spirit of Saint Louis" were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people. From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors. VOICE TWO: Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations. He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed. On a stormy night in Nineteen-Thirty-Two, kidnappers took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace. President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany. Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero. VOICE TWO: Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war. Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights. Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest. While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed. Today, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight. ((THEME)) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (THEME) ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy. Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February Fourth, Nineteen-Oh-Two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D-C, while Mister Lindbergh served in the Congress. Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle. VOICE TWO: He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five-hundred dollars to buy his own plane. Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing." He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier. VOICE ONE: From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class. After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago. Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five-thousand dollars. A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane. A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it: "The Spirit of Saint Louis." VOICE ONE: In May, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes. At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two. "If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either." VOICE TWO: May twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of "The Spirit of Saint Louis." "It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go." The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris. VOICE ONE: Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three-thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left. During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel. On the evening of May Twenty-First, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris! Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and "The Spirit of Saint Louis" were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people. From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors. VOICE TWO: Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations. He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed. On a stormy night in Nineteen-Thirty-Two, kidnappers took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace. President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany. Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero. VOICE TWO: Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war. Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights. Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest. While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed. Today, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight. ((THEME)) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - SARS Vaccine Moves Toward Testing
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 26, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermman with the VOA Special English Health Report. Health officials say tests on people of a possible vaccine to prevent SARS may begin early next year. SARS is severe acute respiratory syndrome. More than fifty SARS experts met this month in Geneva at the headquarters of the World Health Organization. They came from fifteen countries to discuss progress against the lung disease. SARS began in southern China late last year. It spread in Asia and other parts of the world. The W-H-O declared travel warnings. Health officials worked aggressively. They kept SARS patients away from others. They looked for anyone else those patients might have been near. SARS was contained in the middle of this year. By then, eight-thousand people had become sick. More than seven-hundred of them died. SARS causes effects similar to those of pneumonia or influenza. People often cough. Breathing is difficult or painful. Some people need machines to help them breathe. Body temperature goes up. SARS can also make people feel tired, make their head hurt and make them not want to eat. Most people with SARS, however, usually recover within two weeks. There will not be a vaccine in time if SARS returns at the end of this year. But the experts at the meeting in Geneva praised the progress made so far. They discussed work on experimental vaccines against animal diseases caused by similar viruses. SARS is caused by a coronavirus. Other members of this family of viruses cause diseases in animals as well as the common cold in people. The W-H-O said the first test of an experimental SARS vaccine on humans could happen as early as January. It says the vaccine should be ready in four to five years, unless there is a large outbreak of SARS. In that event, it says the development process may be shortened to two years. Doctor Marie-Paule Kieny is director of the W-H-O Initiative for Vaccine Research. She said the process to develop a SARS vaccine more quickly than usual will be very complex. It will require continued international cooperation. But, she said, safety and quality must never be compromised. Until there is a vaccine, the W-H-O says health officials must be ready to use the existing control measures that work, in case SARS reappears. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – November 27, 2003: Middle School Recommendations
* Byline: 

  This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. More than nine-million children in the United States attend public middle schools. Middle school is the level between elementary and high school. The first one opened in nineteen-sixty to help ease crowding in existing schools. Today thirty-thousand teachers, school officials, parents and others belong to the National Middle School Association. This independent group advises and represents schools. This month, the association suggested ways to improve education for students between the ages of ten and fifteen. Its position statement is called “This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents.” Sue Swaim is executive director of the association. Mizz Swaim says there are middle schools that are well on their way to providing the best possible education. But, she says, having some successful schools is not enough. She says all must do better, especially if the nation is to meet the goals of the education law called No Child Left Behind. President Bush signed this law last year. It requires greater testing in schools. The National Middle School Association says schools should employ teachers who are trained especially to work with students in this age group. It says schools should offer a number of teaching methods. And it says they should form teams of two to four teachers to work with a common group of students. The association advises middle schools to get students actively involved in their learning. It says students learn best when they take part in the teaching process. Schools are also urged to continually measure the progress of students. And they are told that expectations for everyone in the school should be high. The National Middle School Association also advises schools to create a mission statement. Such a statement describes the needs and goals of a school, and helps guide decisions. Middle schools are also urged to develop an inviting and safe environment. Students should feel supported. Further, the association says all the adults in successful middle schools help advise and guide the students. It says successful schools work to get families involved. And these schools recognize that young people can learn more than adults often believe. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Thomas Jefferson, Part 5
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 27, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In our last program, we reported on the presidential election of Eighteen-Oh-Four. Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president, was re-elected easily. We will have several programs about developments during his second administration. Today, we begin that story. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson was head of the Republican Party. His political opponents were called Federalists. Jefferson had a very good record during his first term as president. He ended many taxes. He paid government debts. And he gained possession of the huge Louisiana Territory from France without going to war. The Federalists were sure he would win the election of Eighteen-Oh-Four. Still, they were surprised by the strength of his election victory. VOICE ONE: Jefferson won one-hundred sixty-two electoral votes. His opponent, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, won just fourteen. The Federalists had expected Pinckney to get about forty. Jefferson received support even in the northeast. That is where the Federalists had their greatest strength. What was the explanation? One man tried to explain the meaning of Jefferson's great victory. He was John Quincy Adams, son of former president John Adams. President Adams had been a firm Federalist. This is what his son said: VOICE TWO: "The power of Jefferson's administration rests on a strong majority of the American people. The president has great popular support. His re-election shows that the experiment of the Federalists has failed. It never can and never will be brought to life again. To try to bring it back would be foolish. It would be like trying to put life into a body that has been buried for years." After the election of Eighteen-Oh-Four, only seven Federalists remained in the United States Senate. Only twenty-five remained in the House of Representatives. VOICE ONE: The Federalists no longer controlled the Congress, although they still controlled the courts. Many judges had been appointed during John Adams's last days as president. These judges opposed Thomas Jefferson. Some used the courtroom as a place to attack his policies. Judges were not supposed to make political speeches in court. One of the most powerful anti-Jeffersonian judges was Samuel Chase. He was a member of the Supreme Court. VOICE TWO: Samuel Chase was from the state of Maryland. He was active in local and national politics for a long time. He had signed America's Declaration of Independence from Britain. He had served in the Continental congresses that governed America during and after its Revolutionary War. Yet he did not agree with all parts of the United States Constitution. When the Maryland legislature voted to approve or reject the Constitution, he voted against it. VOICE ONE: Samuel Chase was not a republican. He believed that Americans should not have the same rights. For example, he believed that all citizens should not have the right to vote. He said this would lead to mob rule. He declared that great trouble would come to the government if common people had the same rights as educated people who owned property. President Jefferson heard about Chase's statement. He told a member of Congress that he was concerned. Jefferson asked: "Should this judge's attack on the ideas of our Constitution go without punishment? The public will look to Congress to take the necessary action against him." VOICE TWO: During the last months of Jefferson's first term as president, the House of Representatives began discussing the possibility of removing Justice Chase from the Supreme Court. A committe was named to investigate. The committee decided that there was enough evidence to bring him to trial before the Senate. The full House agreed. The impeachment trial was to begin in February, Eighteen-Oh-Five. VOICE ONE: The judge in the trial was the chief officer of the Senate, Vice President Aaron Burr. Burr would decide what evidence could or could not be heard. His actions would have great influence over the final decision. Both Federalists and Republicans watched Burr closely during the trial. Both groups looked for some sign of support. Burr gave none. No one found any reason to criticize his actions. VOICE TWO: The Senate heard testimony for a little more than three weeks. Then it voted on each of the eight charges against Justice Chase. A two-thirds vote was needed to declare him guilty. None of the charges received the necessary two-thirds vote. The impeachment had failed. Samuel Chase could not be removed from the Supreme Court. President Jefferson had hoped that Chase would be found guilty. He did not get this wish. But, after the trial, Chase no longer used the courtroom for political purposes. VOICE ONE: A few days after the impeachment trial ended, Thomas Jefferson was to be sworn in as president for a second term. In those days, the inauguration of the American president was held in March, not January. Aaron Burr would not be serving with Jefferson again. The Republican Party had not supported him for vice president. Instead, it chose George Clinton, who had been governor of New York state. Before leaving office, Burr decided to make one last speech to the Senate. VOICE TWO: The senators were very interested in what Burr had to say. Even his political opponents sat up and listened. Burr told his friends good-bye. He said he might never see them again. Yet he said they could still join together in defending freedom and social justice. He spoke of the senators' great responsibility to protect liberty, the law, and the Constitution. "If the Constitution is ever destroyed," he said, "its final breaths will come on this floor." VOICE ONE: Aaron Burr faced a future full of questions. He had lost all political power. He owed large amounts of money. He could not return to his home in the New York area. He would face criminal charges there as a result of his duel with Alexander Hamilton. Burr had shot and killed Hamilton in the duel. At the end of March, Eighteen-Oh-Five, Burr wrote to his daughter. "In ten or twelve days," he said, "I shall be on my way west. The trip may lead me to New Orleans, perhaps even farther." He also wrote to his daughter's husband. He said he would not return home. "In New York," he wrote, "I would lose my freedom. In New Jersey, I would be hanged. So, for the present, I will not take a chance." VOICE TWO: What would Burr do instead? For more than a year, he had thought about a secret plan. Details are not clear, because he said different things to different people. But history experts say the plan involved an attempt to seize Mexico from Spain. Burr could not keep his plan a secret from everyone. He needed help. He worked with two men. One was Jonathan Dayton, a former United States senator. The other was James Wilkinson, military governor of the Louisiana Territory. VOICE ONE: Burr also needed money. He got some from his daughter's husband. And he got some from a man in Ohio named Harman Blennerhassett. Mister Blennerhassett had become rich after coming to America from Ireland. History experts say Burr tried to get help from Britain, too. Burr told the British ambassador in Washington that he wanted money and ships to create a new country. It would include Mexico and several western states. The states would be split away from the Union. VOICE TWO: The British ambassador liked Burr's plan. He told Burr that he would urge his government to support it. It would take at least four months, however, for the ambassador to communicate with his government in London. Burr decided not to wait for an answer. He began his trip to the west. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, with Richard Rael and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and Christine Johnson. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. Broadcast: November 27, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In our last program, we reported on the presidential election of Eighteen-Oh-Four. Thomas Jefferson, the nation's third president, was re-elected easily. We will have several programs about developments during his second administration. Today, we begin that story. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson was head of the Republican Party. His political opponents were called Federalists. Jefferson had a very good record during his first term as president. He ended many taxes. He paid government debts. And he gained possession of the huge Louisiana Territory from France without going to war. The Federalists were sure he would win the election of Eighteen-Oh-Four. Still, they were surprised by the strength of his election victory. VOICE ONE: Jefferson won one-hundred sixty-two electoral votes. His opponent, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, won just fourteen. The Federalists had expected Pinckney to get about forty. Jefferson received support even in the northeast. That is where the Federalists had their greatest strength. What was the explanation? One man tried to explain the meaning of Jefferson's great victory. He was John Quincy Adams, son of former president John Adams. President Adams had been a firm Federalist. This is what his son said: VOICE TWO: "The power of Jefferson's administration rests on a strong majority of the American people. The president has great popular support. His re-election shows that the experiment of the Federalists has failed. It never can and never will be brought to life again. To try to bring it back would be foolish. It would be like trying to put life into a body that has been buried for years." After the election of Eighteen-Oh-Four, only seven Federalists remained in the United States Senate. Only twenty-five remained in the House of Representatives. VOICE ONE: The Federalists no longer controlled the Congress, although they still controlled the courts. Many judges had been appointed during John Adams's last days as president. These judges opposed Thomas Jefferson. Some used the courtroom as a place to attack his policies. Judges were not supposed to make political speeches in court. One of the most powerful anti-Jeffersonian judges was Samuel Chase. He was a member of the Supreme Court. VOICE TWO: Samuel Chase was from the state of Maryland. He was active in local and national politics for a long time. He had signed America's Declaration of Independence from Britain. He had served in the Continental congresses that governed America during and after its Revolutionary War. Yet he did not agree with all parts of the United States Constitution. When the Maryland legislature voted to approve or reject the Constitution, he voted against it. VOICE ONE: Samuel Chase was not a republican. He believed that Americans should not have the same rights. For example, he believed that all citizens should not have the right to vote. He said this would lead to mob rule. He declared that great trouble would come to the government if common people had the same rights as educated people who owned property. President Jefferson heard about Chase's statement. He told a member of Congress that he was concerned. Jefferson asked: "Should this judge's attack on the ideas of our Constitution go without punishment? The public will look to Congress to take the necessary action against him." VOICE TWO: During the last months of Jefferson's first term as president, the House of Representatives began discussing the possibility of removing Justice Chase from the Supreme Court. A committe was named to investigate. The committee decided that there was enough evidence to bring him to trial before the Senate. The full House agreed. The impeachment trial was to begin in February, Eighteen-Oh-Five. VOICE ONE: The judge in the trial was the chief officer of the Senate, Vice President Aaron Burr. Burr would decide what evidence could or could not be heard. His actions would have great influence over the final decision. Both Federalists and Republicans watched Burr closely during the trial. Both groups looked for some sign of support. Burr gave none. No one found any reason to criticize his actions. VOICE TWO: The Senate heard testimony for a little more than three weeks. Then it voted on each of the eight charges against Justice Chase. A two-thirds vote was needed to declare him guilty. None of the charges received the necessary two-thirds vote. The impeachment had failed. Samuel Chase could not be removed from the Supreme Court. President Jefferson had hoped that Chase would be found guilty. He did not get this wish. But, after the trial, Chase no longer used the courtroom for political purposes. VOICE ONE: A few days after the impeachment trial ended, Thomas Jefferson was to be sworn in as president for a second term. In those days, the inauguration of the American president was held in March, not January. Aaron Burr would not be serving with Jefferson again. The Republican Party had not supported him for vice president. Instead, it chose George Clinton, who had been governor of New York state. Before leaving office, Burr decided to make one last speech to the Senate. VOICE TWO: The senators were very interested in what Burr had to say. Even his political opponents sat up and listened. Burr told his friends good-bye. He said he might never see them again. Yet he said they could still join together in defending freedom and social justice. He spoke of the senators' great responsibility to protect liberty, the law, and the Constitution. "If the Constitution is ever destroyed," he said, "its final breaths will come on this floor." VOICE ONE: Aaron Burr faced a future full of questions. He had lost all political power. He owed large amounts of money. He could not return to his home in the New York area. He would face criminal charges there as a result of his duel with Alexander Hamilton. Burr had shot and killed Hamilton in the duel. At the end of March, Eighteen-Oh-Five, Burr wrote to his daughter. "In ten or twelve days," he said, "I shall be on my way west. The trip may lead me to New Orleans, perhaps even farther." He also wrote to his daughter's husband. He said he would not return home. "In New York," he wrote, "I would lose my freedom. In New Jersey, I would be hanged. So, for the present, I will not take a chance." VOICE TWO: What would Burr do instead? For more than a year, he had thought about a secret plan. Details are not clear, because he said different things to different people. But history experts say the plan involved an attempt to seize Mexico from Spain. Burr could not keep his plan a secret from everyone. He needed help. He worked with two men. One was Jonathan Dayton, a former United States senator. The other was James Wilkinson, military governor of the Louisiana Territory. VOICE ONE: Burr also needed money. He got some from his daughter's husband. And he got some from a man in Ohio named Harman Blennerhassett. Mister Blennerhassett had become rich after coming to America from Ireland. History experts say Burr tried to get help from Britain, too. Burr told the British ambassador in Washington that he wanted money and ships to create a new country. It would include Mexico and several western states. The states would be split away from the Union. VOICE TWO: The British ambassador liked Burr's plan. He told Burr that he would urge his government to support it. It would take at least four months, however, for the ambassador to communicate with his government in London. Burr decided not to wait for an answer. He began his trip to the west. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, with Richard Rael and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and Christine Johnson. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-6-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Thanksgiving in America / Native American Music / National Museum of the American Indian in Washington
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 28, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: November 28, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about the observance of Thanksgiving in America. And we play Native American music performed by Joanne Shenandoah. But first – a progress report on a new museum being built in Washington, D.C., to honor the first people of this land. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a VOA Special English program about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about the observance of Thanksgiving in America. And we play Native American music performed by Joanne Shenandoah. But first – a progress report on a new museum being built in Washington, D.C., to honor the first people of this land. American Indian Museum HOST: November is Native American History Month in the United States. So this is a good time to tell about progress on the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Shep O’Neal has our report. ANNCR: The new museum is to open in September of two-thousand-four. Visitors will learn about the native peoples of North, Central and South America -- about their lives, languages, history and arts. Members of these living cultures played an important part in creating the new museum. They helped decide what will be shown to the public and how it will be shown. The National Museum of the American Indian will have objects from the past and the present. Native people will provide explanations about the meaning and importance. Research will also take place. Indian leaders say building the museum in the center of the nation’s capital represents a kind of cultural justice. It is considered a sign of cooperation between people whose ancestors came to these shores and the people who were already here. The museum is on the National Mall, just across from the Capitol building where Congress meets. It is also across from the VOA headquarters, and the National Air and Space Museum. Native influence can be seen in the shape of the museum. Golden limestone walls form waves around the building. It all seems to flow as if formed by wind and water. Glass windows provide light and a connection between inside and out. The museum will have areas where Native Americans present pictures, songs and other materials to tell about their past and present. It will also have two theaters: one for live performances, the other to show a film that explains the museum. The building will be surrounded by trees and a grassy area. Native American crops will grow there. Water will flow in and around huge rocks, and continue to a small lake. The rocks are to show respect for ancient things. The new museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian officials are planning special opening celebrations and programs. The Web site for the National Museum of the American Indian is w-w-w dot n-m-a-i dot s-i dot e-d-u. Again, w-w-w dot n-m-a-i dot s-i dot e-d-u. Thanksgiving HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India and Nigeria. Sampath Kumar and Okezie Okoro both ask about Thanksgiving Day. This American holiday is observed on the last Thursday in November. As the name suggests, it is a day to give thanks. Millions of families and friends gather for a traditional meal on Thanksgiving. It usually includes turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Many of the same foods from the autumn harvest were eaten on the first Thanksgiving centuries ago. Settlers from England called Pilgrims are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in North America in sixteen-twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. More than half their number died from disease or lack of food. Those who survived held a day of thanksgiving. They thanked God for protecting them. They also thanked the Native Americans who lived in the area. These Indians were part of the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoags helped save the Pilgrims by showing them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving for about three days. About ninety Indians joined the celebration. They ate deer, ducks, geese, turkeys and pumpkins. The two groups also made a peace and friendship agreement. This gave the Pilgrims an area to build their town. This friendship, though, was not for long. More English settlers came to America. They did not need the help of the Indians. Many settlers forgot about the help the Indians had provided. Within a few years, the two sides were at war. Many of the Wampanoags were killed in battle or died from diseases that arrived with the Europeans. NAMA/Joanne Shenandoah HOST: The Native American Music Association held its sixth yearly awards ceremony earlier this month. One of the winners this year is American Indian song writer and recording artist Joanne Shenandoah. More from Faith Lapidus. ANNCR: Joanne Shenandoah is a member of the Oneida Nation, a tribe in New York state. She is known for mixing traditional songs of her people with modern folk music. Here is an Oneida song called “She Carries the Sky.” (MUSIC) Joanne Shenandoah has performed with many artists across North America and in Europe. She has performed at Earth Day celebrations and other events. Here she sings a song from the Lakota Indians of the Great Plains. It is called “Creator’s Song.” (MUSIC) This year she won a Native American Music Award for her record album “Peace and Power: The Best of Joanne Shenandoah.” We leave you with the title song. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Audrius Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC and will join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. American Indian Museum HOST: November is Native American History Month in the United States. So this is a good time to tell about progress on the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Shep O’Neal has our report. ANNCR: The new museum is to open in September of two-thousand-four. Visitors will learn about the native peoples of North, Central and South America -- about their lives, languages, history and arts. Members of these living cultures played an important part in creating the new museum. They helped decide what will be shown to the public and how it will be shown. The National Museum of the American Indian will have objects from the past and the present. Native people will provide explanations about the meaning and importance. Research will also take place. Indian leaders say building the museum in the center of the nation’s capital represents a kind of cultural justice. It is considered a sign of cooperation between people whose ancestors came to these shores and the people who were already here. The museum is on the National Mall, just across from the Capitol building where Congress meets. It is also across from the VOA headquarters, and the National Air and Space Museum. Native influence can be seen in the shape of the museum. Golden limestone walls form waves around the building. It all seems to flow as if formed by wind and water. Glass windows provide light and a connection between inside and out. The museum will have areas where Native Americans present pictures, songs and other materials to tell about their past and present. It will also have two theaters: one for live performances, the other to show a film that explains the museum. The building will be surrounded by trees and a grassy area. Native American crops will grow there. Water will flow in and around huge rocks, and continue to a small lake. The rocks are to show respect for ancient things. The new museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian officials are planning special opening celebrations and programs. The Web site for the National Museum of the American Indian is w-w-w dot n-m-a-i dot s-i dot e-d-u. Again, w-w-w dot n-m-a-i dot s-i dot e-d-u. Thanksgiving HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India and Nigeria. Sampath Kumar and Okezie Okoro both ask about Thanksgiving Day. This American holiday is observed on the last Thursday in November. As the name suggests, it is a day to give thanks. Millions of families and friends gather for a traditional meal on Thanksgiving. It usually includes turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Many of the same foods from the autumn harvest were eaten on the first Thanksgiving centuries ago. Settlers from England called Pilgrims are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in North America in sixteen-twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. More than half their number died from disease or lack of food. Those who survived held a day of thanksgiving. They thanked God for protecting them. They also thanked the Native Americans who lived in the area. These Indians were part of the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoags helped save the Pilgrims by showing them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving for about three days. About ninety Indians joined the celebration. They ate deer, ducks, geese, turkeys and pumpkins. The two groups also made a peace and friendship agreement. This gave the Pilgrims an area to build their town. This friendship, though, was not for long. More English settlers came to America. They did not need the help of the Indians. Many settlers forgot about the help the Indians had provided. Within a few years, the two sides were at war. Many of the Wampanoags were killed in battle or died from diseases that arrived with the Europeans. NAMA/Joanne Shenandoah HOST: The Native American Music Association held its sixth yearly awards ceremony earlier this month. One of the winners this year is American Indian song writer and recording artist Joanne Shenandoah. More from Faith Lapidus. ANNCR: Joanne Shenandoah is a member of the Oneida Nation, a tribe in New York state. She is known for mixing traditional songs of her people with modern folk music. Here is an Oneida song called “She Carries the Sky.” (MUSIC) Joanne Shenandoah has performed with many artists across North America and in Europe. She has performed at Earth Day celebrations and other events. Here she sings a song from the Lakota Indians of the Great Plains. It is called “Creator’s Song.” (MUSIC) This year she won a Native American Music Award for her record album “Peace and Power: The Best of Joanne Shenandoah.” We leave you with the title song. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. The producer was Paul Thompson. And our engineer was Audrius Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC and will join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-7-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - World Trade Organization, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: November 28, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. The World Trade Organization is the international system for negotiating trade issues. The W-T-O was established in nineteen-ninety-five. But its roots go back to an agreement made soon after World War Two. Twenty-three nations approved the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, in nineteen-forty-seven. Three years earlier, the International Monetary Conference had taken place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Negotiators succeeded in planning two important financial organizations. These are the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But the negotiators could not agree on a proposed organization for international trade. GATT was meant to be temporary. Trade negotiations under GATT were carried out in a series of talks, called rounds. The first round produced cuts in import taxes on one fifth of world trade. Later rounds produced additional cuts. And negotiators added other issues. In nineteen-sixty-three, the sixth round began. It was called the Kennedy Round, after President John F. Kennedy. He was shot in Dallas on November twenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three. This round of talks ended four years later. The results included an agreement against the trade practice known as dumping. That is where one country sells a product in another country at an unfairly low price. The eighth round of talks began in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in nineteen-eighty-six. The Uruguay Round required seven-and-a-half years of meetings and work. In all, one-hundred-twenty-three nations took part. The Uruguay Round set time limits for future negotiations. It dealt with import taxes as well as other trade barriers. It dealt with protection for intellectual property such as books, music and computer programs. The heavily protected trade in clothing and agricultural products also became issues for negotiation. The nations that took part did not agree on everything. But they did agree on a new, permanent system to settle disputes. In April of nineteen-ninety-four, ministers of most of the one-hundred-twenty-three countries signed an agreement. This established the World Trade Organization. The W-T-O has replaced the old GATT. But those first agreements remain the basis of international trade law. Next week -- how the W-T-O operates. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-26-8-1.cfm
* Headline: November 27, 2003 - Thanks for the Grammar, Mom!
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 27, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a Thanksgiving Day special. RS: This is a day for families, so we'd like you to meet one. Harriet and Tom Lloyd live in the small state of Rhode Island and have two daughters. Morgan is twenty-one and Kearsley is sixteen. When they all sit down to their Thanksgiving meal, they'll probably sound like any other American family this holiday. Then again, maybe not. AA: You see, Harriet Lloyd went to unusual lengths to set a high standard for her daughters in both grammar and speech. These are standards she grew up with, she says, and now serve her as a writer for non-profit organizations. RS: Mrs. Lloyd also once served on a school board when she lived in New Jersey, and likes to speak out about language. A letter to the editor she wrote to the New York Times caught our attention. AA: So, what are Harriet Lloyd’s thoughts this Thanksgiving Day? LLOYD: "One of the things that I'm thankful for is that language has played such a large part in my life and that it is such an art form really, and I feel, you know, I'm rather pessimistic at this moment about it. I mean, I try to be hopeful and I hope there's something to look forward to with the language, but I think that it's an art form that's being forgotten and we're raising a generation of children that do not have clear, organized thought." RS: "Now are you talking about written or oral speech?" LLOYD: "I'm speaking about both, and I think the fact that so many schools have dispensed with debate and public speaking -- I mean, I myself have looked for this training for my children and I've had to go to universities and actually get a professor, usually a drama professor, to work with them to be able to make a better presentation at a job interview or to be able to be comfortable at a college interview." AA: "Why don't you talk a little bit about how you raised your kids in an age of popular culture to have them uphold sort of the more traditional, higher standards." LLOYD: "I think it was largely consistency. I think it was similar to when a child is misbehaving. When you hear faulty grammar or when you hear a word that isn't pronounced well, just taking the time to make clear to them that it is pronounced a certain way or that you don't want them to say certain words the way they're saying them. And I have found that my children have kind of started in the past to correct each other almost; it becomes a game. And we would do these little exercises sometimes along the roadway in the car, looking at billboards that might have had faulty grammar that caught our eye. "We had a consciousness-raising exercise often times by doing crossword puzzles together. I remember my parents working with us on the New York Times crossword puzzle. So I used crossword puzzles as kind of a challenge to see how much we could finish each day. And we read newspapers together and, you know, just basically looked at the sentence structure. And if they saw a mistake it was an opportunity for celebration and sometimes a quarter [a coin] to find a mistake." RS: "How has this made a difference in your family?" LLOYD: "I think it's made a huge difference for my children in terms of their success in school. And I would say, ironically, that they've been strong in foreign language, where their grammatical skills have actually been useful to them, while many of their peers have had to learn grammar for the first time in order to master a foreign language." AA: "And why don't you give, just so it's clear what we're talking about when you're sort of defending your children against [the influence of popular culture], why don't you make it clear what you're talking about." LLOYD: "Well, I'm very upset, I guess, by the lazy and careless language that I see, somewhat symptomatic of a hurried environment, but also that the aesthetics of the language as I have know it are being lost to kind of the -- and I don't want to be disparaging of rap music in particular, but the rap kind of talk and the street kind of talk that has become kind of a culture of anti-intellectualism in the country. And I think that Americans are very savvy, smart people and I don't exactly understand what is being rejected about the language that my generation was raised with." RS: "One positive step that I've seen lately is that in the college entrance exam, the scholastic aptitude test, they're going to require an essay which my children are, you know, like ... " AA: "And that was, in fact -- RS: " ... threatened by." AA: " -- like the University of California system, I believe it was the president, was threatening to stop requiring the SAT unless they did more to bring up some writing. So ... " LLOYD: "Right." AA: " ... I think you're seeing that now as -- " LLOYD: "I think that's a very good sign." AA: "Now last question, that I have at least, is when you would hear your daughters talk with their friends, did they still apply the sort of higher standards, more formal standards of English, or did they sound like other teenagers?" LLOYD: "They sounded very much like other kids. And it's very funny, because now that one of them is out of college, I will often now hear that there were so many good things that came out of that type of training." RS: "We can all understand that! [laughter]" RS: Harriet Lloyd lives in Shelter Harbor, Rhode Island. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and visit us at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: November 27, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a Thanksgiving Day special. RS: This is a day for families, so we'd like you to meet one. Harriet and Tom Lloyd live in the small state of Rhode Island and have two daughters. Morgan is twenty-one and Kearsley is sixteen. When they all sit down to their Thanksgiving meal, they'll probably sound like any other American family this holiday. Then again, maybe not. AA: You see, Harriet Lloyd went to unusual lengths to set a high standard for her daughters in both grammar and speech. These are standards she grew up with, she says, and now serve her as a writer for non-profit organizations. RS: Mrs. Lloyd also once served on a school board when she lived in New Jersey, and likes to speak out about language. A letter to the editor she wrote to the New York Times caught our attention. AA: So, what are Harriet Lloyd’s thoughts this Thanksgiving Day? LLOYD: "One of the things that I'm thankful for is that language has played such a large part in my life and that it is such an art form really, and I feel, you know, I'm rather pessimistic at this moment about it. I mean, I try to be hopeful and I hope there's something to look forward to with the language, but I think that it's an art form that's being forgotten and we're raising a generation of children that do not have clear, organized thought." RS: "Now are you talking about written or oral speech?" LLOYD: "I'm speaking about both, and I think the fact that so many schools have dispensed with debate and public speaking -- I mean, I myself have looked for this training for my children and I've had to go to universities and actually get a professor, usually a drama professor, to work with them to be able to make a better presentation at a job interview or to be able to be comfortable at a college interview." AA: "Why don't you talk a little bit about how you raised your kids in an age of popular culture to have them uphold sort of the more traditional, higher standards." LLOYD: "I think it was largely consistency. I think it was similar to when a child is misbehaving. When you hear faulty grammar or when you hear a word that isn't pronounced well, just taking the time to make clear to them that it is pronounced a certain way or that you don't want them to say certain words the way they're saying them. And I have found that my children have kind of started in the past to correct each other almost; it becomes a game. And we would do these little exercises sometimes along the roadway in the car, looking at billboards that might have had faulty grammar that caught our eye. "We had a consciousness-raising exercise often times by doing crossword puzzles together. I remember my parents working with us on the New York Times crossword puzzle. So I used crossword puzzles as kind of a challenge to see how much we could finish each day. And we read newspapers together and, you know, just basically looked at the sentence structure. And if they saw a mistake it was an opportunity for celebration and sometimes a quarter [a coin] to find a mistake." RS: "How has this made a difference in your family?" LLOYD: "I think it's made a huge difference for my children in terms of their success in school. And I would say, ironically, that they've been strong in foreign language, where their grammatical skills have actually been useful to them, while many of their peers have had to learn grammar for the first time in order to master a foreign language." AA: "And why don't you give, just so it's clear what we're talking about when you're sort of defending your children against [the influence of popular culture], why don't you make it clear what you're talking about." LLOYD: "Well, I'm very upset, I guess, by the lazy and careless language that I see, somewhat symptomatic of a hurried environment, but also that the aesthetics of the language as I have know it are being lost to kind of the -- and I don't want to be disparaging of rap music in particular, but the rap kind of talk and the street kind of talk that has become kind of a culture of anti-intellectualism in the country. And I think that Americans are very savvy, smart people and I don't exactly understand what is being rejected about the language that my generation was raised with." RS: "One positive step that I've seen lately is that in the college entrance exam, the scholastic aptitude test, they're going to require an essay which my children are, you know, like ... " AA: "And that was, in fact -- RS: " ... threatened by." AA: " -- like the University of California system, I believe it was the president, was threatening to stop requiring the SAT unless they did more to bring up some writing. So ... " LLOYD: "Right." AA: " ... I think you're seeing that now as -- " LLOYD: "I think that's a very good sign." AA: "Now last question, that I have at least, is when you would hear your daughters talk with their friends, did they still apply the sort of higher standards, more formal standards of English, or did they sound like other teenagers?" LLOYD: "They sounded very much like other kids. And it's very funny, because now that one of them is out of college, I will often now hear that there were so many good things that came out of that type of training." RS: "We can all understand that! [laughter]" RS: Harriet Lloyd lives in Shelter Harbor, Rhode Island. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and visit us at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Georgia Politics
* Byline: Written by Cynthia Kirk

 Broadcast: November 29, 2003 This is Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS from VOA Special English. Mikhail Saakashvili has announced plans to be a candidate for President in Georgia. Mister Saakashvili helped organize street protests that led to President Eduard Shevardnadze to resign from office last Sunday. Mister Saakashvili is an American-trained lawyer. He served two years as Georgia’s Justice Minister. Last year, he cut his ties with Mister Shevardnadze over the issue of dishonesty by Georgian officials. Mister Saakashvili formed an opposition party, the National Movement. He also was elected to a top local government job in the capital, Tbilisi. On Wednesday, the National Movement and its allies named him as their only candidate in a special presidential election to be held in January. Mister Shevardnadze left office after three weeks of demonstrations against parliamentary elections held earlier this month. Opposition leaders said the elections were unfairly designed to keep pro-government parties in power. Last Saturday, thousands of protesters forced their way into Georgia’s parliament building. They forced Mister Shevardnadze and newly-appointed lawmakers to flee. The next day, the President resigned, ending his eleven-years in office. Mister Shaakashvili had help from two other opponents of Mister Shevardnadze. The speaker of parliament, Nino Burdzhanadze, is now Georgia’s acting president. The other leader, Zurab Zhvania, has been named state minister, the second highest position in the government. Georgian lawmakers have yet to agree on a date for new parliamentary elections. On Tuesday, the nation’s Supreme Court canceled the results of the parliamentary elections this month. Mizz Burdzhanadze has said one of her main goals will be to keep peace in Georgia. She says another goal will be to strengthen the economy and prepare for new elections. However, she warned that the country is close to economic failure. She said she would appeal for financial aid. Georgia is one of the poorest of any of the fifteen former republics of the Soviet Union. The country is home to about five-million people. Some reports estimate that about half of its population is unemployed. Many blame President Shevardnadze for leading the country into financial ruin. Georgia has a foreign debt of almost two-thousand-million dollars, most of it owed to Turkey and Russia. It also receives financial assistance from the United States. But opposition leaders say Mister Shevardnadze failed to use much of that money the right way. The International Monetary Fund refused to give loans to Georgia during Mister Shevardnadze’s rule. It notes dishonesty by public officials and the country’s failure to collect taxes. The temporary government cannot pay wages or retirement benefits until after the presidential election next year. Delegations from the I-M-F, the World Bank and the United States are expected to visit Tbilisi next week to discuss the country’s appeal for financial aid. IN THE NEWS, from VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 30, 2003: The Wright Brothers
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: The Wright Brothers conquer flight in Kitty Hawk on Dec. 17 1903 (THEME) ANNCR: Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell the story of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright Brothers made a small engine-powered flying machine and proved that it was possible for humans to really fly. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Wilbur Wright was born in Eighteen-Sixty-Seven near Melville, Indiana. His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio. Throughout their lives, they were best friends. As Wilbur once said: "From the time we were little children, Orville and I lived together, played together, worked together and thought together." Wilbur and Orville's father was a bishop, an official of the United Brethren Church. He traveled a lot on church business. Their mother was unusual for a woman of the nineteenth century. She had completed college. She was especially good at mathematics and science. And she was good at using tools to fix things or make things. VOICE TWO: One winter day when the Wright brothers were young, all their friends were outside sliding down a hill on wooden sleds. The Wright brothers were sad, because they did not have a sled. So, Missus Wright said she would make one for them. She drew a picture of a sled. It did not look like other sleds. It was lower to the ground and not as wide. She told the boys it would be faster, because there would be less resistance from the wind when they rode on it. Missus Wright was correct. When the sled was finished, it was the fastest one around. Wilbur and Orville felt like they were flying. The sled project taught the Wright brothers two important rules. They learned they could increase speed by reducing wind resistance. And they learned the importance of drawing a design. Missus Wright said: "If you draw it correctly on paper, it will be right when you build it." VOICE ONE: When Wilbur was eleven years old and Orville seven, Bishop Wright brought home a gift for them. It was a small flying machine that flew like helicopters of today. It was made of paper, bamboo and cork. The motor was a rubber band that had to be turned many times until it was tight. When the person holding the toy helicopter let go, it rose straight up. It stayed in the air for a few seconds. Then it floated down to the floor. Wilbur and Orville played and played with their new toy. Finally, the paper tore and the rubber band broke. They made another one. But it was too heavy to fly. Their first flying machine failed. VOICE TWO: Their attempts to make the toy gave them a new idea. They would make kites to fly and sell to their friends. They made many designs and tested them. Finally, they had the right design. The kites flew as though they had wings. The Wright brothers continued to experiment with mechanical things. Orville started a printing business when he was in high school. He used a small printing machine to publish a newspaper. He sold copies of the newspaper to the other children in school, but he did not earn much money from the project. VOICE ONE: Wilbur offered some advice to his younger brother. Make the printing press bigger and publish a bigger newspaper, he said. So, together, they designed and built one. The machine looked strange. Yet it worked perfectly. Soon, Orville and Wilbur were publishing a weekly newspaper. They also printed materials for local businessmen. They were finally earning money. Wilbur was twenty-five years old and Orville twenty-one when they began to sell and repair bicycles. Then they began to make them. But the Wright brothers never stopped thinking about flying machines. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine, Wilbur decided to learn about all the different kinds of flying machines that had been designed and tested through the years. Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He asked for all the information it had on flying. The Wright brothers read everything they could about people who sailed through the air under huge balloons. They also read about people who tried to fly on gliders -- planes with wings, but no motors. VOICE ONE: Then the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine. They used the ideas they had developed from their earlier experiments with the toy helicopter, kites, printing machine and bicycles. Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight. They wrote to the Weather Bureau in Washington to find the place with the best wind conditions. The best place seemed to be a thin piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk. It had the right wind and open space. Best of all, it was private. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Hundred, the Wright brothers tested a glider that could carry a person. But neither the first or second glider they built had the lifting power needed for real flight. Wilbur and Orville decided that what they had read about air pressure on curved surfaces was wrong. So they built a wind tunnel two meters long in their bicycle store in Dayton, Ohio. They tested more than two-hundred designs of wings. These tests gave them the correct information about air pressure on curved surfaces. Now it was possible for them to design a machine that could fly. VOICE ONE: The Wright brothers built a third glider. They took it to Kitty Hawk in the summer of Nineteen-Oh-Two. They made almost one-thousand flights with the glider. Some covered more than one-hundred-eighty meters. This glider proved that they had solved most of the problems of balance in flight. By the autumn of Nineteen-Oh-Three, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine. The plane had wings twelve meters across. It weighed about three-hundred-forty kilograms, including the pilot. VOICE TWO: The Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk. On December Seventeen, Nineteen-Oh-Three, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Orville flew the plane thirty-seven meters. He was in the air for twelve seconds. The two brothers made three more flights that day. The longest was made by Wilbur. He flew two-hundred-sixty meters in fifty-nine seconds. Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights. One of the men took pictures. Few newspapers, however, noted the event. VOICE ONE: Wilbur and Orville returned home to Ohio. They built more powerful engines and flew better airplanes. But they success was almost unknown. Most people still did not believe flying was possible. It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous. In Nineteen-Oh-Eight, Wilbur went to France. He gave demonstration flights at heights of ninety meters. A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine. VOICE TWO: Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France. One lasted an hour. Orville also made fifty-seven complete circles over a field at Fort Myer, Virginia. The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane. Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes. Newspapers wrote long stories about them. Crowds followed them. But they were not seeking fame. They returned to Dayton where they continued to improve their airplanes. They taught many others how to fly. VOICE ONE: Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in Nineteen-Twelve. Orville Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years later, in Nineteen-Forty-Eight. Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Visitors to the museum look at the Wright brothers' small plane with its cloth wings, wooden controls and tiny engine. Then they see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon. This is striking evidence of the changes in the world since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight, one-hundred years ago. (THEME) ANNCR: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell the story of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright Brothers made a small engine-powered flying machine and proved that it was possible for humans to really fly. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Wilbur Wright was born in Eighteen-Sixty-Seven near Melville, Indiana. His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio. Throughout their lives, they were best friends. As Wilbur once said: "From the time we were little children, Orville and I lived together, played together, worked together and thought together." Wilbur and Orville's father was a bishop, an official of the United Brethren Church. He traveled a lot on church business. Their mother was unusual for a woman of the nineteenth century. She had completed college. She was especially good at mathematics and science. And she was good at using tools to fix things or make things. VOICE TWO: One winter day when the Wright brothers were young, all their friends were outside sliding down a hill on wooden sleds. The Wright brothers were sad, because they did not have a sled. So, Missus Wright said she would make one for them. She drew a picture of a sled. It did not look like other sleds. It was lower to the ground and not as wide. She told the boys it would be faster, because there would be less resistance from the wind when they rode on it. Missus Wright was correct. When the sled was finished, it was the fastest one around. Wilbur and Orville felt like they were flying. The sled project taught the Wright brothers two important rules. They learned they could increase speed by reducing wind resistance. And they learned the importance of drawing a design. Missus Wright said: "If you draw it correctly on paper, it will be right when you build it." VOICE ONE: When Wilbur was eleven years old and Orville seven, Bishop Wright brought home a gift for them. It was a small flying machine that flew like helicopters of today. It was made of paper, bamboo and cork. The motor was a rubber band that had to be turned many times until it was tight. When the person holding the toy helicopter let go, it rose straight up. It stayed in the air for a few seconds. Then it floated down to the floor. Wilbur and Orville played and played with their new toy. Finally, the paper tore and the rubber band broke. They made another one. But it was too heavy to fly. Their first flying machine failed. VOICE TWO: Their attempts to make the toy gave them a new idea. They would make kites to fly and sell to their friends. They made many designs and tested them. Finally, they had the right design. The kites flew as though they had wings. The Wright brothers continued to experiment with mechanical things. Orville started a printing business when he was in high school. He used a small printing machine to publish a newspaper. He sold copies of the newspaper to the other children in school, but he did not earn much money from the project. VOICE ONE: Wilbur offered some advice to his younger brother. Make the printing press bigger and publish a bigger newspaper, he said. So, together, they designed and built one. The machine looked strange. Yet it worked perfectly. Soon, Orville and Wilbur were publishing a weekly newspaper. They also printed materials for local businessmen. They were finally earning money. Wilbur was twenty-five years old and Orville twenty-one when they began to sell and repair bicycles. Then they began to make them. But the Wright brothers never stopped thinking about flying machines. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine, Wilbur decided to learn about all the different kinds of flying machines that had been designed and tested through the years. Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He asked for all the information it had on flying. The Wright brothers read everything they could about people who sailed through the air under huge balloons. They also read about people who tried to fly on gliders -- planes with wings, but no motors. VOICE ONE: Then the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine. They used the ideas they had developed from their earlier experiments with the toy helicopter, kites, printing machine and bicycles. Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight. They wrote to the Weather Bureau in Washington to find the place with the best wind conditions. The best place seemed to be a thin piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk. It had the right wind and open space. Best of all, it was private. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Hundred, the Wright brothers tested a glider that could carry a person. But neither the first or second glider they built had the lifting power needed for real flight. Wilbur and Orville decided that what they had read about air pressure on curved surfaces was wrong. So they built a wind tunnel two meters long in their bicycle store in Dayton, Ohio. They tested more than two-hundred designs of wings. These tests gave them the correct information about air pressure on curved surfaces. Now it was possible for them to design a machine that could fly. VOICE ONE: The Wright brothers built a third glider. They took it to Kitty Hawk in the summer of Nineteen-Oh-Two. They made almost one-thousand flights with the glider. Some covered more than one-hundred-eighty meters. This glider proved that they had solved most of the problems of balance in flight. By the autumn of Nineteen-Oh-Three, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine. The plane had wings twelve meters across. It weighed about three-hundred-forty kilograms, including the pilot. VOICE TWO: The Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk. On December Seventeen, Nineteen-Oh-Three, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Orville flew the plane thirty-seven meters. He was in the air for twelve seconds. The two brothers made three more flights that day. The longest was made by Wilbur. He flew two-hundred-sixty meters in fifty-nine seconds. Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights. One of the men took pictures. Few newspapers, however, noted the event. VOICE ONE: Wilbur and Orville returned home to Ohio. They built more powerful engines and flew better airplanes. But they success was almost unknown. Most people still did not believe flying was possible. It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous. In Nineteen-Oh-Eight, Wilbur went to France. He gave demonstration flights at heights of ninety meters. A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine. VOICE TWO: Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France. One lasted an hour. Orville also made fifty-seven complete circles over a field at Fort Myer, Virginia. The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane. Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes. Newspapers wrote long stories about them. Crowds followed them. But they were not seeking fame. They returned to Dayton where they continued to improve their airplanes. They taught many others how to fly. VOICE ONE: Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in Nineteen-Twelve. Orville Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years later, in Nineteen-Forty-Eight. Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Visitors to the museum look at the Wright brothers' small plane with its cloth wings, wooden controls and tiny engine. Then they see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon. This is striking evidence of the changes in the world since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight, one-hundred years ago. (THEME) ANNCR: This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELPOMENT REPORT - World AIDS Day
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 1, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. December first is World AIDS Day. The message at events this year is “Live and Let Live.” The aim is to end unfair treatment of people with H-I-V and AIDS. Experts say such discrimination remains a barrier to prevention and care. The United Nations reported last week that the spread of AIDS shows no signs of easing. It says an estimated forty-million people are living with the virus. These include two-and-a-half million children. Worldwide, the report says five-million people became infected with H-I-V and three-million died this year -- the most ever. Doctor Peter Piot heads the United Nations AIDS program. He says AIDS is spreading fastest in Eastern Europe, especially Russia. The Caribbean continues to experience high levels of infection. And, he says there could be major increases in China, India and Indonesia. One out of five adults in southern Africa is living with H-I-V or AIDS. Southern Africa remains the worst affected part of the world. But Doctor Piot says there is a sharp increase in parts of western Africa, such as in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Nigeria. Sex, infected blood and the sharing of injection needles can all spread the AIDS virus. AIDS was first discovered in the nineteen-eighties. Now, more women than men become infected with H-I-V. And Doctor Piot warns that the ability of countries to provide services has dropped as many health workers become infected. The U-N says South Africa had more people with H-I-V at the end of last year than any other country. It had an estimated five-point-three million cases, around eleven percent of the population. Last month South Africa announced a plan to provide anti-retroviral medicines for free. These drugs restrain the spread of the virus. South Africa says it hopes to have centers open in every health district within a year and in every local area within five years. The plan also includes money for public education and training for health care workers. Until now, the government has said the drugs cost too much and could cause harm. However, the cost of three AIDS drugs taken as a combination will be cut by almost one-third. This will happen under an agreement negotiated by the Clinton Foundation. Former American President Bill Clinton says that if the South African program is successful, other nations could follow it. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: December 1, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. December first is World AIDS Day. The message at events this year is “Live and Let Live.” The aim is to end unfair treatment of people with H-I-V and AIDS. Experts say such discrimination remains a barrier to prevention and care. The United Nations reported last week that the spread of AIDS shows no signs of easing. It says an estimated forty-million people are living with the virus. These include two-and-a-half million children. Worldwide, the report says five-million people became infected with H-I-V and three-million died this year -- the most ever. Doctor Peter Piot heads the United Nations AIDS program. He says AIDS is spreading fastest in Eastern Europe, especially Russia. The Caribbean continues to experience high levels of infection. And, he says there could be major increases in China, India and Indonesia. One out of five adults in southern Africa is living with H-I-V or AIDS. Southern Africa remains the worst affected part of the world. But Doctor Piot says there is a sharp increase in parts of western Africa, such as in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Nigeria. Sex, infected blood and the sharing of injection needles can all spread the AIDS virus. AIDS was first discovered in the nineteen-eighties. Now, more women than men become infected with H-I-V. And Doctor Piot warns that the ability of countries to provide services has dropped as many health workers become infected. The U-N says South Africa had more people with H-I-V at the end of last year than any other country. It had an estimated five-point-three million cases, around eleven percent of the population. Last month South Africa announced a plan to provide anti-retroviral medicines for free. These drugs restrain the spread of the virus. South Africa says it hopes to have centers open in every health district within a year and in every local area within five years. The plan also includes money for public education and training for health care workers. Until now, the government has said the drugs cost too much and could cause harm. However, the cost of three AIDS drugs taken as a combination will be cut by almost one-third. This will happen under an agreement negotiated by the Clinton Foundation. Former American President Bill Clinton says that if the South African program is successful, other nations could follow it. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-11/a-2003-11-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Montpelier Gets a Facelift
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 1, 2003 (THEME) James Madison Broadcast: December 1, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This week, we tell about James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. And we take you to his home, called Montpelier. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: James Madison is known as the "Father of the United States Constitution." Madison wrote the first plan for unifying the new nation. He also was the one mainly responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights. His home, Montpelier [mont-PEEL-yer], is about one-hundred-thirty kilometers south of Washington, D.C. It covers more than one-thousand-one-hundred hectares of some of America’s most beautiful land. Montpelier is in the middle of farm country in Virginia. It is a short drive from the Blue Ridge Mountains. It also is only about forty-five kilometers from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. VOICE ONE: In October of this year, the Montpelier Foundation, an independent group, announced plans to restore the home of James Madison. The American businessman Paul Mellon left twenty-million dollars for the project in his will. Paul Mellon died in nineteen-ninety-nine, at the age of ninety-one. The foundation says the gift is probably the largest ever made by a single provider to a historic property. A government program called Save America’s Treasures will supply one-million dollars. And the Montpelier Foundation will raise additional money. The project is to repair and beautify the home inside and out. The restoration project will make the home more like it looked in the eighteen-twenties. The new look will include the removal of areas built in the nineteen-hundreds. The restored home will have twenty-two rooms instead of fifty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia, on March sixteenth, seventeen-fifty-one. He grew up in Orange County, at the Madison family home at Montpelier. James Madison’s grandfather, Ambrose Madison, first settled the land in seventeen-twenty-three. James spent the first nine years of his life in a house built by his grandfather. His father built the main house at Montpelier in about seventeen-sixty. The family moved there a short time later. James Madison was the oldest of twelve children. He was educated at home and at schools in Virginia until he was eighteen years old. Then he attended the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University. He completed his college education in just two years. He stayed in New Jersey one more year for independent studies. James Madison returned to Montpelier in seventeen-seventy-two. He was not sure what he would do for his future. He thought about becoming a lawyer, a clergyman or a businessman. But he decided against all those jobs. VOICE ONE: As Madison thought about his future, Britain and its American colonies were becoming increasingly angry with each other. This period, the early seventeen-seventies, was about the time James Madison began his political activism. He served in local government. Then he was elected to Virginia’s first House of Delegates. There he helped to write a new state constitution. Madison represented Virginia at the Second Continental Congress during the American War of Independence. After the war, he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in seventeen-eighty-seven. Madison thought the United States should have a strong central government. He led efforts in Virginia and other states to approve the proposal. He helped write The Federalist, a series of reports that explained the proposed Constitution. VOICE TWO: The Constitution was approved. Madison continued as a leading member of the new federal government. He was elected to the first Congress. He led the fight to approve the first ten amendments to the Constitution – the Bill of Rights. A few years later, he and Thomas Jefferson formed a political party. It is known today as the Democratic Party. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: While in Congress, James Madison met a young woman, Dolley Payne Todd. Her husband had died of yellow fever the year before. Madison proposed marriage a short time after they met. They were married on September fifteenth, seventeen-ninety-four. James Madison was a small, quiet man. But Dolley Madison was known for her friendliness and for organizing large parties. They were married forty-one years, until he died. They had no children. But they raised Dolley’s son by her first husband. James Madison left Congress in seventeen-ninety-seven. He and Dolley retired to Montpelier. But the retirement did not last long. Thomas Jefferson became president in eighteen-oh-one. Jefferson appointed his friend James Madison as secretary of state. Madison served as America’s top diplomat for eight years. VOICE TWO: The Jefferson presidency was a period of growth for the new nation. In eighteen-oh-three, the United States agreed to pay France about fifteen-million dollars for a huge piece of land. This agreement was called the Louisiana Purchase. It increased the area of the United States by one-hundred percent. There were, however, some problems. Secretary of State Madison could not get France and Great Britain to honor the rights of Americans on the high seas. James Madison became president in eighteen-oh-nine. Trade relations with the French and British became his government’s biggest problem. President Madison served two terms, eight years in all. He led the United States through the War of Eighteen-twelve. British troops invaded the country and burned Washington. The United States won the war in eighteen-fifteen. VOICE ONE: His second term ended in eighteen-seventeen. James and Dolley Madison returned home to Montpelier. The former president remained active and interested in politics. He had many slaves at Montpelier. Now, he founded a group that sought to free the slaves in the United States and return them to Africa. He also took part in Virginia’s constitutional convention in eighteen-twenty-nine. James Madison died at Montpelier on June twenty-eighth, eighteen-thirty-six. He was eighty-five years old. Dolley Madison died thirteen years later. They are buried on the property. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In seventeen-sixty, the main building at Montpelier, in Virginia, started with eight rooms. It had four rooms on the first floor and four on the second. James Madison made two major additions to the building his father built. He also made structural changes. He built private areas for family use. He combined existing rooms to create larger, public spaces for dinners and parties. VOICE ONE: Dolley Madison sold Montpelier to a friend in eighteen-forty-four, eight years after her husband died. The property had five other owners before William and Annie duPont bought the land in nineteen-oh-one. The duPonts enlarged the main building to its present size. Their daughter, Marion duPont Scott, added two large tracks for horse racing. The home remained in the duPont family until nineteen-eighty-three. Then it was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Montpelier opened to the public in nineteen-eighty-seven. The Montpelier Foundation accepted responsibility for the property. VOICE TWO: Today, James Madison’s Montpelier faces changes. But not everything will change. There will still be many buildings, a large flower garden and farmland. Some trees on the grounds were alive when Madison was alive. The James Madison Landmark Forest includes wooded land near the back of the property. It is recognized as the best example of an old-growth forest in central Virginia. With its new restoration, Montpelier should stand for many years to come – an honor to James Madison and the country he loved. We leave you now with music recorded at Montpelier a few years ago. One of the instruments, the crystal flute, belonged to President Madison. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This week, we tell about James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. And we take you to his home, called Montpelier. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: James Madison is known as the "Father of the United States Constitution." Madison wrote the first plan for unifying the new nation. He also was the one mainly responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights. His home, Montpelier [mont-PEEL-yer], is about one-hundred-thirty kilometers south of Washington, D.C. It covers more than one-thousand-one-hundred hectares of some of America’s most beautiful land. Montpelier is in the middle of farm country in Virginia. It is a short drive from the Blue Ridge Mountains. It also is only about forty-five kilometers from Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. VOICE ONE: In October of this year, the Montpelier Foundation, an independent group, announced plans to restore the home of James Madison. The American businessman Paul Mellon left twenty-million dollars for the project in his will. Paul Mellon died in nineteen-ninety-nine, at the age of ninety-one. The foundation says the gift is probably the largest ever made by a single provider to a historic property. A government program called Save America’s Treasures will supply one-million dollars. And the Montpelier Foundation will raise additional money. The project is to repair and beautify the home inside and out. The restoration project will make the home more like it looked in the eighteen-twenties. The new look will include the removal of areas built in the nineteen-hundreds. The restored home will have twenty-two rooms instead of fifty-five. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia, on March sixteenth, seventeen-fifty-one. He grew up in Orange County, at the Madison family home at Montpelier. James Madison’s grandfather, Ambrose Madison, first settled the land in seventeen-twenty-three. James spent the first nine years of his life in a house built by his grandfather. His father built the main house at Montpelier in about seventeen-sixty. The family moved there a short time later. James Madison was the oldest of twelve children. He was educated at home and at schools in Virginia until he was eighteen years old. Then he attended the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University. He completed his college education in just two years. He stayed in New Jersey one more year for independent studies. James Madison returned to Montpelier in seventeen-seventy-two. He was not sure what he would do for his future. He thought about becoming a lawyer, a clergyman or a businessman. But he decided against all those jobs. VOICE ONE: As Madison thought about his future, Britain and its American colonies were becoming increasingly angry with each other. This period, the early seventeen-seventies, was about the time James Madison began his political activism. He served in local government. Then he was elected to Virginia’s first House of Delegates. There he helped to write a new state constitution. Madison represented Virginia at the Second Continental Congress during the American War of Independence. After the war, he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in seventeen-eighty-seven. Madison thought the United States should have a strong central government. He led efforts in Virginia and other states to approve the proposal. He helped write The Federalist, a series of reports that explained the proposed Constitution. VOICE TWO: The Constitution was approved. Madison continued as a leading member of the new federal government. He was elected to the first Congress. He led the fight to approve the first ten amendments to the Constitution – the Bill of Rights. A few years later, he and Thomas Jefferson formed a political party. It is known today as the Democratic Party. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: While in Congress, James Madison met a young woman, Dolley Payne Todd. Her husband had died of yellow fever the year before. Madison proposed marriage a short time after they met. They were married on September fifteenth, seventeen-ninety-four. James Madison was a small, quiet man. But Dolley Madison was known for her friendliness and for organizing large parties. They were married forty-one years, until he died. They had no children. But they raised Dolley’s son by her first husband. James Madison left Congress in seventeen-ninety-seven. He and Dolley retired to Montpelier. But the retirement did not last long. Thomas Jefferson became president in eighteen-oh-one. Jefferson appointed his friend James Madison as secretary of state. Madison served as America’s top diplomat for eight years. VOICE TWO: The Jefferson presidency was a period of growth for the new nation. In eighteen-oh-three, the United States agreed to pay France about fifteen-million dollars for a huge piece of land. This agreement was called the Louisiana Purchase. It increased the area of the United States by one-hundred percent. There were, however, some problems. Secretary of State Madison could not get France and Great Britain to honor the rights of Americans on the high seas. James Madison became president in eighteen-oh-nine. Trade relations with the French and British became his government’s biggest problem. President Madison served two terms, eight years in all. He led the United States through the War of Eighteen-twelve. British troops invaded the country and burned Washington. The United States won the war in eighteen-fifteen. VOICE ONE: His second term ended in eighteen-seventeen. James and Dolley Madison returned home to Montpelier. The former president remained active and interested in politics. He had many slaves at Montpelier. Now, he founded a group that sought to free the slaves in the United States and return them to Africa. He also took part in Virginia’s constitutional convention in eighteen-twenty-nine. James Madison died at Montpelier on June twenty-eighth, eighteen-thirty-six. He was eighty-five years old. Dolley Madison died thirteen years later. They are buried on the property. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In seventeen-sixty, the main building at Montpelier, in Virginia, started with eight rooms. It had four rooms on the first floor and four on the second. James Madison made two major additions to the building his father built. He also made structural changes. He built private areas for family use. He combined existing rooms to create larger, public spaces for dinners and parties. VOICE ONE: Dolley Madison sold Montpelier to a friend in eighteen-forty-four, eight years after her husband died. The property had five other owners before William and Annie duPont bought the land in nineteen-oh-one. The duPonts enlarged the main building to its present size. Their daughter, Marion duPont Scott, added two large tracks for horse racing. The home remained in the duPont family until nineteen-eighty-three. Then it was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Montpelier opened to the public in nineteen-eighty-seven. The Montpelier Foundation accepted responsibility for the property. VOICE TWO: Today, James Madison’s Montpelier faces changes. But not everything will change. There will still be many buildings, a large flower garden and farmland. Some trees on the grounds were alive when Madison was alive. The James Madison Landmark Forest includes wooded land near the back of the property. It is recognized as the best example of an old-growth forest in central Virginia. With its new restoration, Montpelier should stand for many years to come – an honor to James Madison and the country he loved. We leave you now with music recorded at Montpelier a few years ago. One of the instruments, the crystal flute, belonged to President Madison. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Food Safety / Climate Change and Better Wine / Antioxidants in Hot Cocoa / Taking Medicine
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 2, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, from VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- advice about food safety ... and, a report on climate change and the quality of wine. VOICE ONE: Also -- a study of the health value of drinking hot cocoa ... and, experts look for ways to get people to take their medicine. (THEME) VOICE TWO: More than six-hundred people in the eastern United States recently became sick with the liver disease hepatitis A. They all ate at the same restaurant in Pennsylvania. They all got sick from uncooked green onions imported from Mexico. The Pennsylvania health department said last week that three people had died. More than nine-thousand people received injections of immunoglobulin as a preventive measure. VOICE ONE: The virus that causes hepatitis A is spread through infected body waste. Most people suffer only a few effects such as high body temperature and yellowish colored skin. These generally go away after a few weeks. People with weak defense systems, though, can die. Experts say people should cook all foods well to prevent hepatitis and other infections. People should also wash their hands before they touch food. This includes farm workers. Keep food preparation surfaces clean. Wash fruits and vegetables. But keep in mind that diseases like hepatitis A can also spread if food is kept in ice made from water that contains the organism. VOICE TWO: Another common cause of food-related sickness is the bacteria E. coli. It also is passed from one person to another through infected body waste. Most people infected by E. coli suffer stomach pains. They also may have diarrhea. Young children and older people can die from E. coli infections. Experts say to drink only milk that has been heated through pasteurization to kill bacteria. And cook all meats long enough and at a high enough temperature to kill harmful bacteria. There are different temperatures for different foods. Ground beef, for example, should be cooked to at least seventy-one degrees Celsius. Turkey and chicken should reach eighty-two degrees Celsius. VOICE ONE: Listeria is another dangerous bacteria spread in food. Listeria is found naturally in soil and water. Vegetables can become contaminated from the soil or from animal waste used as fertilizer. Unpasteurized milk and cheese may also contain the bacteria. People infected by listeria develop a high body temperature, muscle aches and diarrhea. Again, food safety experts say people should cook foods to avoid infection. And they should wash their hands and cooking tools after they touch uncooked foods. Also, make sure the liquid from uncooked meat does not touch other foods. Other dangerous bacteria include salmonella and campylobacter. These are spread by foods that are not cooked enough. Victims have a high fever, diarrhea and stomach pain. Salmonella infection can kill if it spreads through the bloodstream untreated. VOICE TWO: The United States government has a Web site with information about food safety. The address is w-w-w dot foodsafety -- all one word -- dot g-o-v. Again, w-w-w dot foodsafety dot g-o-v. (MUSIC) Scientists say they have shown a link between climate change and the quality of wine. They found that wine quality improved as temperatures rose during the past fifty years. But they say some wine producing areas could have problems if temperatures continue to rise. Gregory Jones of Southern Oregon University presented the findings at a meeting of the Geological Society of America. The yearly meeting took place in Seattle, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest. The publication Climatic Change is planning to report the findings. Professor Jones worked on the study with researchers from Utah State University and the University of Colorado. They studied twenty-seven areas where farmers grow the grapes used to produce top wines. VOICE ONE: The researchers examined temperature records from nineteen-fifty to the present. They found that average temperatures rose by about one-point-three degrees Celsius. The researchers also used a system developed by Sotheby’s auction house to rate wine quality. They found that wine quality has improved during the past half-century. They said the effects were strongest in areas with cool climates. Next, the researchers estimated how climate changes might influence the same twenty-seven areas in the future. They used a computer program, a long-term climate model, to complete this part of the study. They expect temperatures in the wine producing areas to rise another two degrees during the next fifty years. VOICE TWO: If the weather is too hot or too cold, then grapes do not reach their full flavor. So the researchers say cool areas should continue to see improvements in wine quality. But they say higher temperatures could hurt wine production in areas that are already warm. What do winemakers think of these findings? One expert in California told a reporter from Wine Spectator that this is all just theory. Another says progress in grape growing and winemaking has, and will continue to have, the greatest effect on the increase in wine quality. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In cold weather, many people like to drink hot cocoa -- chocolate mixed with water or milk. Now a study finds that hot cocoa contains more antioxidants than wine or tea. Antioxidants have been shown to help prevent cancer, heart disease and other conditions. The body produces compounds that cause oxidation. Atoms and molecules called free radicals are involved. Oxidation damages cells and tissue. Experts say this damage causes many of the health problems common in older people. Antioxidants reduce or prevent oxidation. In recent years, other studies have shown the health value of drinking red wine and tea. Both are known to be high in antioxidants. VOICE TWO: Chang Yong Lee of Cornell University in the United States led the new study. He is a professor of food chemistry. Professor Lee and his team compared the antioxidant levels of hot cocoa to those of tea and red wine. They tested one serving of hot water containing two tablespoons of pure cocoa powder. They also tested a cup of green tea, a cup of black tea and a glass of California red wine. Cocoa is a fine powder made from the seeds of the cacao tree. Most of the world’s cacao beans come from the west coast of Africa. The Cornell team found that, per serving, cocoa had the highest antioxidant levels. It had almost two times more than the red wine. It had two to three times more than the green tea. And it had four to five times more than the black tea. The findings appear in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society. A South Korean development agency provided part of the money for the study. VOICE ONE: Professor Lee says we know that antioxidants in foods are important for good health. But there's a problem. He says nobody knows exactly how much we need each day. (MUSIC ) The World Health Organization says medical progress against disease will have no effect unless people take their medicine. This is common sense. But the W-H-O says only about half of people in developed countries continue their treatments for serious medical conditions. Such adherence rates are even lower in developing countries. To improve the situation, the W-H-O is leading an international effort, the Adherence to Long-Term Therapies project. VOICE TWO: The W-H-O says health care providers need training to judge a patient's ability to understand and continue with treatments. Providers need to give advice about how people can follow their treatments. And they need to examine the patient's progress at every chance. The report says patients need to be supported, not blamed. It says another way to improve adherence is to get the support of the patient's family and community. In fact, the W-H-O says improving adherence to existing treatments may have better results than providing new ones. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk, who was also our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - Turkeys in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 2, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last Thursday, millions of Americans ate turkey as part of a traditional meal on Thanksgiving, a national holiday. Turkey is also popular on Christmas. In the past, half of all turkeys sold in the United States were eaten during the holidays. Now that share is thirty percent, as more turkey products appear on the market. Over the years Americans have been eating less red meat and more chicken and turkey. Turkey is now the fourth most popular meat. The National Turkey Federation in New York represents the industry. The group says Americans eat two times more turkey than they did twenty-five years ago. Last year the average amount per person was eight kilograms. Americans are second only to Israelis in the amount of turkey eaten. The French are third. Six percent of turkeys raised in the United States are exported. Mexico is the top importer. Next come Hong Kong, Russia and Taiwan. Over the years, growers have developed birds that are better for industrial meat production. A turkey hen lays eighty to one-hundred eggs in a season. To fertilize the eggs, reproduction is left not to nature but to the process of artificial insemination. Farmed turkeys grow very quickly. In fourteen weeks, a hen weighs seven kilograms and is ready for market. Male turkeys, called toms, are grown longer. In eighteen weeks, a male turkey weighs more than fourteen kilograms. Hens are usually sold as whole birds. The toms are processed into meat products. Two-thirds of the cost to raise a turkey is in the food they eat. Farmed turkeys eat a mixture of corn and soybean with vitamins and minerals added. To raise a fourteen-kilogram bird requires about thirty-six kilograms of food. Most turkeys are raised inside barns. But higher-priced turkeys may be permitted to go outside in the open air. Farm turkeys cannot fly, and even wild turkeys cannot fly very far. The Department of Agriculture says turkeys are not fed hormones to increase growth. It says turkeys may receive antibiotic drugs to prevent disease and increase feed efficiency. There are turkeys raised without antibiotics or feed grown with chemicals. But people who want to feed their families an organic turkey for the holidays, or any time, pay a higher price at the store. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 2, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last Thursday, millions of Americans ate turkey as part of a traditional meal on Thanksgiving, a national holiday. Turkey is also popular on Christmas. In the past, half of all turkeys sold in the United States were eaten during the holidays. Now that share is thirty percent, as more turkey products appear on the market. Over the years Americans have been eating less red meat and more chicken and turkey. Turkey is now the fourth most popular meat. The National Turkey Federation in New York represents the industry. The group says Americans eat two times more turkey than they did twenty-five years ago. Last year the average amount per person was eight kilograms. Americans are second only to Israelis in the amount of turkey eaten. The French are third. Six percent of turkeys raised in the United States are exported. Mexico is the top importer. Next come Hong Kong, Russia and Taiwan. Over the years, growers have developed birds that are better for industrial meat production. A turkey hen lays eighty to one-hundred eggs in a season. To fertilize the eggs, reproduction is left not to nature but to the process of artificial insemination. Farmed turkeys grow very quickly. In fourteen weeks, a hen weighs seven kilograms and is ready for market. Male turkeys, called toms, are grown longer. In eighteen weeks, a male turkey weighs more than fourteen kilograms. Hens are usually sold as whole birds. The toms are processed into meat products. Two-thirds of the cost to raise a turkey is in the food they eat. Farmed turkeys eat a mixture of corn and soybean with vitamins and minerals added. To raise a fourteen-kilogram bird requires about thirty-six kilograms of food. Most turkeys are raised inside barns. But higher-priced turkeys may be permitted to go outside in the open air. Farm turkeys cannot fly, and even wild turkeys cannot fly very far. The Department of Agriculture says turkeys are not fed hormones to increase growth. It says turkeys may receive antibiotic drugs to prevent disease and increase feed efficiency. There are turkeys raised without antibiotics or feed grown with chemicals. But people who want to feed their families an organic turkey for the holidays, or any time, pay a higher price at the store. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATONS  - Flight Anniversary, Pt. 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 3, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 3, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. A celebration will be held December seventeenth near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It will honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the first flight of a powered aircraft by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today we begin the first of three programs to honor that flight. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. A celebration will be held December seventeenth near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It will honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the first flight of a powered aircraft by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today we begin the first of three programs to honor that flight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: From the beginning of time humans have watched the beautiful flight of birds and wished they too could fly. For thousands of years human flight was only a dream. Humans did not understand what made flight possible. Several times in history people tried to copy the flight of birds. But this too was only a dream. Any attempt to copy the flight of birds always ended in failure. VOICE TWO: But failure did not stop people from attempting to fly. A good example was an English religious worker in the eleventh century named Eilmer of Malmesbury. He put large wings on his hands and feet that permitted him to “fly” from the top of a church to the ground below. But he had no method of controlling his flight. When he landed, he broke both of his legs. VOICE ONE: In the year twelve-seventy, Italian explorer Marco Polo traveled through much of China. He wrote that he had seen a man tied to a device made from paper, cloth and wood that was lifted by wind power. This device is called a kite. Children and adults often fly kites on windy days. But this was not really flying. A person who rode a kite had no control. And a rope held the kite to the ground. VOICE TWO: In the seventeen-eighties, French brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier had discovered that a paper bag filled with heated air will rise from the ground. They began building large hot air balloons. Two of their friends rode in a balloon near Paris on November twenty-first, seventeen-eighty-three. They flew over Paris for twenty-five minutes and landed several kilometers away. They were said to be the first people in recorded history to fly. However, they had no way to control their flight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: History experts say George Cayley of Britain was the man most responsible for inventing the science of flight. He developed the idea of a fixed-wing aircraft with no engine called a glider. Mister Cayley carried out many different experiments in an effort to produce a device that could fly. History records say he built the first successful glider that carried a person in eighteen-fifty-three. Mister Cayley wrote that in the future airplanes would be able to carry passengers and fly at speeds as fast as eighty-kilometers an hour. Very few people believed him. VOICE TWO: A German engineer named Otto Lilienthal did believe humans could fly. Mister Lilienthal built a small hill near the city of Berlin from which he could launch a glider. He built many different kinds of gliders. He was often able to fly more than three-hundred-fifty meters. He had limited control of his gliders by moving his body forward or backward, right or left. However, these gliders had no wheels. Mister Lilienthal’s feet served as the landing devices for his aircraft. Mister Lilienthal always knew the risk involved in his efforts. On August ninth, eighteen-ninety-six, he pushed off from the top of a hill on one of his gliders. A sharp wind caused it to drop and he lost control. Otto Lilienthal crashed. He died the next day of his injuries. Otto Lilienthal’s work was very important for two young American brothers who lived in Dayton, Ohio. Their names were Wilbur and Orville Wright. They had been closely following the work of Mister Lilienthal. They began to make improvements to his designs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: History books about airplanes and flight say that Wilbur and Orville Wright designed, built and flew the first powered aircraft. The books also say they made their first flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. However, most books do not explain what they really did. Here is a small list of what the Wright Brothers had to do before they could successfully make that first powered flight. First, they had to design an airplane wing that would produce the lift needed to fly. They had to design a system that would permit them to control an aircraft in flight. They also had to design an engine that would be light in weight but produce enough power to make flight possible. They also had to design a propeller that would be strong enough to move their aircraft forward. And, while they were doing all of these things, they had to teach themselves to fly an aircraft. By any measure, these tasks were extremely difficult. VOICE TWO: From a very early age, both Orville and Wilbur Wright loved machines and new inventions of all kinds. The brothers were not engineers like Otto Lilienthal. In fact, neither had gone to college. However both brothers believed that it was possible for people to fly. And they worked extremely well together. They also did something many others had not done. The sought to solve the problem of human flight using modern scientific methods. First, they gathered every book or magazine they could find on the subject. They collected the works of George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal and many others. VOICE ONE: Then the Wright Brothers began to experiment. They built many different kinds of wings. They built propellers. They designed small copies of Otto Lilienthal’s gliders. Their experiments quickly showed that much of the information that had been published about flying was of little use. They also discovered that no one had written anything about what they considered the most important problem. That was how to control an aircraft in flight. Many experts at the time believed it would be impossible for a person to control an aircraft. The Wright Brothers agreed that the pilot of an aircraft had to be able to control it to fly safely. The brothers were sure that flight without control was useless and dangerous. VOICE TWO: The Wright Brothers learned that successful flight depends on controlled movement in three different directions as an aircraft moves through the air. These directions are called pitch, roll and yaw. They are easily explained. Think of a modern airplane. The airplane experiences pitch when the front of the plane goes up or down. Roll is experienced when one wing drops and the other rises. The plane can even roll over in a complete circle. And yaw is experienced if the front of the airplane moves to the left or right. Successful fight is only possible if all three directions -- pitch, roll and yaw -- are used in a coordinated effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Wright Brothers planned, designed, tested and then improved each of their aircraft and its many parts. They did this again and again. They made small aircraft for tests. Then they made larger ones they could fly. They failed many times. But they never stopped working. In September of nineteen-hundred, the two brothers built a large aircraft. They had already chosen a place to try to fly it. It was near the little town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They chose this place because of the strong wind and the lack of trees in the area. VOICE TWO: Like Otto Lilienthal, the two brothers decided to fly gliders first. Their first attempt was not very successful. A strong wind severely damaged their aircraft. The next morning they began rebuilding the glider. They tried again two weeks later. Soon they were flying distances of ninety to one-hundred-twenty meters. And they were able to control some of the glider’s movements. Again and again the two men would plan, design, test, improve and begin again. With each successful design they learned a little more about how to build and fly an aircraft. VOICE ONE: In the last months of nineteen-oh-three, the two brothers put all of their successful designs together in one aircraft. This time they added a small engine. The aircraft had two wings. The pilot would lie on the aircraft, to the right of the engine. The aircraft had two large propellers in back. And, most importantly, it could be controlled. What happened on that first flight will be our story next week. We will also tell about the difficult job of building a copy of the Wright Brothers’ airplane. That copy will fly at Kitty Hawk on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. (THEME) VOICE ONE: From the beginning of time humans have watched the beautiful flight of birds and wished they too could fly. For thousands of years human flight was only a dream. Humans did not understand what made flight possible. Several times in history people tried to copy the flight of birds. But this too was only a dream. Any attempt to copy the flight of birds always ended in failure. VOICE TWO: But failure did not stop people from attempting to fly. A good example was an English religious worker in the eleventh century named Eilmer of Malmesbury. He put large wings on his hands and feet that permitted him to “fly” from the top of a church to the ground below. But he had no method of controlling his flight. When he landed, he broke both of his legs. VOICE ONE: In the year twelve-seventy, Italian explorer Marco Polo traveled through much of China. He wrote that he had seen a man tied to a device made from paper, cloth and wood that was lifted by wind power. This device is called a kite. Children and adults often fly kites on windy days. But this was not really flying. A person who rode a kite had no control. And a rope held the kite to the ground. VOICE TWO: In the seventeen-eighties, French brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier had discovered that a paper bag filled with heated air will rise from the ground. They began building large hot air balloons. Two of their friends rode in a balloon near Paris on November twenty-first, seventeen-eighty-three. They flew over Paris for twenty-five minutes and landed several kilometers away. They were said to be the first people in recorded history to fly. However, they had no way to control their flight. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: History experts say George Cayley of Britain was the man most responsible for inventing the science of flight. He developed the idea of a fixed-wing aircraft with no engine called a glider. Mister Cayley carried out many different experiments in an effort to produce a device that could fly. History records say he built the first successful glider that carried a person in eighteen-fifty-three. Mister Cayley wrote that in the future airplanes would be able to carry passengers and fly at speeds as fast as eighty-kilometers an hour. Very few people believed him. VOICE TWO: A German engineer named Otto Lilienthal did believe humans could fly. Mister Lilienthal built a small hill near the city of Berlin from which he could launch a glider. He built many different kinds of gliders. He was often able to fly more than three-hundred-fifty meters. He had limited control of his gliders by moving his body forward or backward, right or left. However, these gliders had no wheels. Mister Lilienthal’s feet served as the landing devices for his aircraft. Mister Lilienthal always knew the risk involved in his efforts. On August ninth, eighteen-ninety-six, he pushed off from the top of a hill on one of his gliders. A sharp wind caused it to drop and he lost control. Otto Lilienthal crashed. He died the next day of his injuries. Otto Lilienthal’s work was very important for two young American brothers who lived in Dayton, Ohio. Their names were Wilbur and Orville Wright. They had been closely following the work of Mister Lilienthal. They began to make improvements to his designs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: History books about airplanes and flight say that Wilbur and Orville Wright designed, built and flew the first powered aircraft. The books also say they made their first flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. However, most books do not explain what they really did. Here is a small list of what the Wright Brothers had to do before they could successfully make that first powered flight. First, they had to design an airplane wing that would produce the lift needed to fly. They had to design a system that would permit them to control an aircraft in flight. They also had to design an engine that would be light in weight but produce enough power to make flight possible. They also had to design a propeller that would be strong enough to move their aircraft forward. And, while they were doing all of these things, they had to teach themselves to fly an aircraft. By any measure, these tasks were extremely difficult. VOICE TWO: From a very early age, both Orville and Wilbur Wright loved machines and new inventions of all kinds. The brothers were not engineers like Otto Lilienthal. In fact, neither had gone to college. However both brothers believed that it was possible for people to fly. And they worked extremely well together. They also did something many others had not done. The sought to solve the problem of human flight using modern scientific methods. First, they gathered every book or magazine they could find on the subject. They collected the works of George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal and many others. VOICE ONE: Then the Wright Brothers began to experiment. They built many different kinds of wings. They built propellers. They designed small copies of Otto Lilienthal’s gliders. Their experiments quickly showed that much of the information that had been published about flying was of little use. They also discovered that no one had written anything about what they considered the most important problem. That was how to control an aircraft in flight. Many experts at the time believed it would be impossible for a person to control an aircraft. The Wright Brothers agreed that the pilot of an aircraft had to be able to control it to fly safely. The brothers were sure that flight without control was useless and dangerous. VOICE TWO: The Wright Brothers learned that successful flight depends on controlled movement in three different directions as an aircraft moves through the air. These directions are called pitch, roll and yaw. They are easily explained. Think of a modern airplane. The airplane experiences pitch when the front of the plane goes up or down. Roll is experienced when one wing drops and the other rises. The plane can even roll over in a complete circle. And yaw is experienced if the front of the airplane moves to the left or right. Successful fight is only possible if all three directions -- pitch, roll and yaw -- are used in a coordinated effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The Wright Brothers planned, designed, tested and then improved each of their aircraft and its many parts. They did this again and again. They made small aircraft for tests. Then they made larger ones they could fly. They failed many times. But they never stopped working. In September of nineteen-hundred, the two brothers built a large aircraft. They had already chosen a place to try to fly it. It was near the little town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They chose this place because of the strong wind and the lack of trees in the area. VOICE TWO: Like Otto Lilienthal, the two brothers decided to fly gliders first. Their first attempt was not very successful. A strong wind severely damaged their aircraft. The next morning they began rebuilding the glider. They tried again two weeks later. Soon they were flying distances of ninety to one-hundred-twenty meters. And they were able to control some of the glider’s movements. Again and again the two men would plan, design, test, improve and begin again. With each successful design they learned a little more about how to build and fly an aircraft. VOICE ONE: In the last months of nineteen-oh-three, the two brothers put all of their successful designs together in one aircraft. This time they added a small engine. The aircraft had two wings. The pilot would lie on the aircraft, to the right of the engine. The aircraft had two large propellers in back. And, most importantly, it could be controlled. What happened on that first flight will be our story next week. We will also tell about the difficult job of building a copy of the Wright Brothers’ airplane. That copy will fly at Kitty Hawk on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Gene Linked to Osteoporosis
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists in Iceland say they have found a gene linked to osteoporosis. This disease causes bones to break easily. It is most common in older people, especially women after menopause. Osteoporosis results from an imbalance in the cells of the body that either form or destroy bone tissue. Normally, bone-forming cells create more bone than the other cells can destroy. As people grow older, however, the action of the destructive cells increases faster. Bones break more easily. Hormone changes in women increase this bone-thinning effect. Now, researchers at the deCODE Genetics company say a gene involved in bone development may increase the risk of osteoporosis. The gene is called B-M-P-two. The researchers reported their work in the new publication P-L-O-S Biology. The work is part of a larger genetic study of the Icelandic people. The researchers examined genetic information on two-hundred-seven families. They studied people who suffered easily broken bones. Blood from these families showed a link to an area on chromosome twenty. That area contains six known genes, including four involved in bone formation. The researchers then studied the genes of seven-hundred-five people with osteoporosis. About thirty percent of them had one of the three versions of the B-M-P-two gene linked to a higher risk of osteoporosis. The researchers say the risk was three times greater than in people without these forms of the gene. Scientists in Denmark carried out a separate study in two groups of older women and found similar results. The researchers at deCODE Genetics say other genes could also influence osteoporosis. They urged researchers outside Iceland to do more studies into the effects of the B-M-P-two gene. They say better understanding of the genetics of osteoporosis could lead to new and more effective drugs. You can read their full report, free of charge, on the Internet at the Public Library of Science. The address is publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot org. The scientists in Iceland are now working with the company Roche Diagnostics to develop a test for increased risk of osteoporosis. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: December 3, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists in Iceland say they have found a gene linked to osteoporosis. This disease causes bones to break easily. It is most common in older people, especially women after menopause. Osteoporosis results from an imbalance in the cells of the body that either form or destroy bone tissue. Normally, bone-forming cells create more bone than the other cells can destroy. As people grow older, however, the action of the destructive cells increases faster. Bones break more easily. Hormone changes in women increase this bone-thinning effect. Now, researchers at the deCODE Genetics company say a gene involved in bone development may increase the risk of osteoporosis. The gene is called B-M-P-two. The researchers reported their work in the new publication P-L-O-S Biology. The work is part of a larger genetic study of the Icelandic people. The researchers examined genetic information on two-hundred-seven families. They studied people who suffered easily broken bones. Blood from these families showed a link to an area on chromosome twenty. That area contains six known genes, including four involved in bone formation. The researchers then studied the genes of seven-hundred-five people with osteoporosis. About thirty percent of them had one of the three versions of the B-M-P-two gene linked to a higher risk of osteoporosis. The researchers say the risk was three times greater than in people without these forms of the gene. Scientists in Denmark carried out a separate study in two groups of older women and found similar results. The researchers at deCODE Genetics say other genes could also influence osteoporosis. They urged researchers outside Iceland to do more studies into the effects of the B-M-P-two gene. They say better understanding of the genetics of osteoporosis could lead to new and more effective drugs. You can read their full report, free of charge, on the Internet at the Public Library of Science. The address is publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot org. The scientists in Iceland are now working with the company Roche Diagnostics to develop a test for increased risk of osteoporosis. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Adult Education
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 4, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of Americans take part in adult education programs. Some adults are completing high school, college or graduate school work. They attend classes designed especially for working people on weekends or at night. Other adults take classes by mail or on their computers. For example, the University of Arizona Extended University is one of many colleges now providing such courses. Other adults learn job skills like computer science or woodworking. Still other adult students learn to read or improve their English. Some adult students are not trying to finish their education or learn job skills. Instead, they want to explore new interests. They want to learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument or take good pictures. They attend continuing education programs at a community college or public school. For example, Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, offers many classes. They teach adults how to build a house or how to write their memories. An agency in the federal Department of Education supervises public adult education programs. Also, the government offers classes in many subjects for adults through the departments of Agriculture and Defense. So do private companies, labor unions and other organizations. These subjects include the arts, science and business. Adult education classes meet in schools, public libraries and business offices. They also meet in religious centers and shopping centers. Classes in nature sciences and sports often take place outside. Education experts say the large number of retired Americans is a major reason for the popularity of adult education. These people say they want to continue developing their brains. Some programs for older adults include travel. For example, the nonprofit organization Elderhostel serves hundreds of thousands of people over age fifty-five. One Elderhostel program takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. This program teaches older adults about the culture of this famous city. Students travel there to learn about New Orleans food, music, history, art and building design. Today, more and more American adults are proving that education is not only for young people. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 4, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of Americans take part in adult education programs. Some adults are completing high school, college or graduate school work. They attend classes designed especially for working people on weekends or at night. Other adults take classes by mail or on their computers. For example, the University of Arizona Extended University is one of many colleges now providing such courses. Other adults learn job skills like computer science or woodworking. Still other adult students learn to read or improve their English. Some adult students are not trying to finish their education or learn job skills. Instead, they want to explore new interests. They want to learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument or take good pictures. They attend continuing education programs at a community college or public school. For example, Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, offers many classes. They teach adults how to build a house or how to write their memories. An agency in the federal Department of Education supervises public adult education programs. Also, the government offers classes in many subjects for adults through the departments of Agriculture and Defense. So do private companies, labor unions and other organizations. These subjects include the arts, science and business. Adult education classes meet in schools, public libraries and business offices. They also meet in religious centers and shopping centers. Classes in nature sciences and sports often take place outside. Education experts say the large number of retired Americans is a major reason for the popularity of adult education. These people say they want to continue developing their brains. Some programs for older adults include travel. For example, the nonprofit organization Elderhostel serves hundreds of thousands of people over age fifty-five. One Elderhostel program takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. This program teaches older adults about the culture of this famous city. Students travel there to learn about New Orleans food, music, history, art and building design. Today, more and more American adults are proving that education is not only for young people. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #41- Thomas Jefferson, Part 6 (Burr’s Trial)
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 4, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In the year Eighteen-Oh-Five, Aaron Burr's term as vice president of the United States came to an end. He was heavily in debt. His political future did not look promising. Burr was not without plans, however. For some time, he had been playing with an unusual idea. He wanted to seize Mexico from Spain. Burr made secret deals with a number of people to get their help or their money for his plan. He told them different things to get what he wanted. What was Burr's real goal? Was it to seize Mexico? Or was it to create a country of his own out of some of America's western lands? The facts are not clear. Burr's secret activities, and the trial that ended them, lasted for more than two years. VOICE TWO: Burr traveled west in the spring of Eighteen-Oh-Five. His trip would take him down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the port city of New Orleans. In that city, he talked with a number of rich, powerful men. He explained his plan. And he found support among those who wished to end Spanish control of Mexico. Burr was then ready to return east and put his plan into action. VOICE ONE: On the way back, Burr stopped in Saint Louis to see General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory. Wilkinson was plotting with Burr. At the same time, however, Wilkinson was spying for Spain. He did not want to lose the money Spain paid him for information. So he began to think about how he could pull out of Burr's plan. He advised Burr that it might be best to forget Mexico...that perhaps the time was not right. He offered to help Burr get back into politics as a congressman from Indiana. Burr rejected Wilkinson's offer. He was not yet ready to give up his dream about Mexico. VOICE TWO: Burr had hoped to begin his move against Mexico in the spring of Eighteen-Oh-Six. Without money, however, he could do nothing. He tried to get money from people who might be interested in sharing the riches of Mexico. But he was not successful. Nor did he get the money and ships he had asked earlier from Britain. VOICE ONE: War between the United States and Spain was an important part of Burr's plan. Should there be such a war, Burr was sure the men of the western lands would join him against the Spanish in Mexico. Without war, the campaign might fail. Burr received bad news after he returned to Washington. He met with President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson made clear that there would be no war with Spain. After his meeting with Jefferson, Burr began to make new plans. He would forget the idea of invading Mexico...at least temporarily. Instead, he said he would build a settlement in Louisiana and wait for a better time. VOICE TWO: While Aaron Burr had been traveling in the west, stories began to spread about his activities. Newspaper reports came close to accusing him of plotting to split the Union. People seemed willing to believe the reports. This was the situation General Wilkinson would use to pull out of Burr's plan. Wilkinson wrote a letter to President Jefferson. He claimed that a force of ten-thousand men was moving toward New Orleans. He said it was part of a campaign against Mexico. He gave details of the campaign, but claimed he did not know who was leading it. He warned the president that the force might try to seize Louisiana as well as Mexico. VOICE ONE: It was not the first letter Jefferson received about Burr's Mexican campaign. Nor was it the first to say that Burr was, in fact, planning to split some western states from the Union. But, unlike the other letters, Jefferson accepted Wilkinson's as firm evidence against Burr. The president called a cabinet meeting to discuss what should be done. The result of the meeting was this: all American military commanders were ordered to stop Burr. President Jefferson then made a public declaration. He said a private military campaign was about to begin against the Spanish, and that anyone involved should leave it immediately. The declaration did not speak of Aaron Burr by name. VOICE TWO: Jefferson also spoke of the private military campaign in his yearly State of the Union message to Congress. Congress asked for more information. In a special message, the president said Burr had several plans. One was to split the western states from the Union. Another was to seize Mexico. He said Burr wanted to make people believe he was building a settlement in Louisiana. But, he said, that was just a trick. The president said Burr had discovered that the people of the western states would not support any attempt to take them out of the Union. So, the president said, Burr had decided to capture New Orleans. Jefferson said there was no question that Burr was guilty. VOICE ONE: Burr's guilt had not been proved in court. But to many Americans, Jefferson's statement was taken as truth. Some demanded that Burr be put to death for treason. The crime of treason, as explained in America's Constitution, is the act of a citizen making war against the United States. Burr was arrested in February, Eighteen-Oh-Seven, and taken to Richmond, Virginia. A federal grand jury hearing would be held to decide if there was enough evidence to bring him to trial. In June, the grand jury officially charged him with treason. Burr would stand trial before John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. VOICE TWO: At one point in court, Burr spoke for himself. "Treason," he said, "is not possible without action. Yet I am being attacked -- not for acts -- but because of false reports about what I might do. The whole country has been turned against me. Is this justice? Wilkinson frightened the president with his reports about me. Then, the president frightened the people." VOICE ONE: It was true that President Jefferson wanted to prove Burr guilty. He ordered government officials in all parts of the country to find witnesses who could give evidence against Burr. Some of Jefferson's opponents said he did this to turn the trial into a political battle. They believed he wanted to use the trial record to attack Chief Justice Marshall, who was a member of the opposition Federalist Party. Jefferson objected to the way Marshall controlled the Supreme Court. He felt Marshall used his position to threaten the powers of the presidency and Congress. Chief Justice Marshall knew of Jefferson's part in the accusations against Burr. He was extremely careful and fair in giving his opinions and decisions. VOICE TWO: At the end of August, Chief Justice Marshall stopped taking evidence. He told the court that -- under the Constitution -- a charge of treason must be proved by two witnesses. He said the government's claim had not been proved by even one witness. He ordered the jury to decide the case. On September First, the jury announced its decision. It said: "We of the jury declare that Aaron Burr is not proved guilty by any evidence offered to us. Therefore, we find him not guilty." Burr and his lawyers angrily protested the way the decision had been written. They said it was wrong for the jury to say more than 'guilty' or 'not guilty'. Marhsall agreed. He ordered the decision to be changed to read, simply, 'not guilty.' The trial was over. VOICE ONE: Aaron Burr lived another twenty-nine years. He spent some time in Europe, and then New York City. A few hours before he died, a friend asked if he had ever plotted -- as part of his plan to seize Mexico -- to split the Union of American states. Burr answered: "No! I would as soon have thought of seizing the moon and informing my friends that I would divide it among them." (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. Broadcast: December 4, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) In the year Eighteen-Oh-Five, Aaron Burr's term as vice president of the United States came to an end. He was heavily in debt. His political future did not look promising. Burr was not without plans, however. For some time, he had been playing with an unusual idea. He wanted to seize Mexico from Spain. Burr made secret deals with a number of people to get their help or their money for his plan. He told them different things to get what he wanted. What was Burr's real goal? Was it to seize Mexico? Or was it to create a country of his own out of some of America's western lands? The facts are not clear. Burr's secret activities, and the trial that ended them, lasted for more than two years. VOICE TWO: Burr traveled west in the spring of Eighteen-Oh-Five. His trip would take him down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the port city of New Orleans. In that city, he talked with a number of rich, powerful men. He explained his plan. And he found support among those who wished to end Spanish control of Mexico. Burr was then ready to return east and put his plan into action. VOICE ONE: On the way back, Burr stopped in Saint Louis to see General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory. Wilkinson was plotting with Burr. At the same time, however, Wilkinson was spying for Spain. He did not want to lose the money Spain paid him for information. So he began to think about how he could pull out of Burr's plan. He advised Burr that it might be best to forget Mexico...that perhaps the time was not right. He offered to help Burr get back into politics as a congressman from Indiana. Burr rejected Wilkinson's offer. He was not yet ready to give up his dream about Mexico. VOICE TWO: Burr had hoped to begin his move against Mexico in the spring of Eighteen-Oh-Six. Without money, however, he could do nothing. He tried to get money from people who might be interested in sharing the riches of Mexico. But he was not successful. Nor did he get the money and ships he had asked earlier from Britain. VOICE ONE: War between the United States and Spain was an important part of Burr's plan. Should there be such a war, Burr was sure the men of the western lands would join him against the Spanish in Mexico. Without war, the campaign might fail. Burr received bad news after he returned to Washington. He met with President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson made clear that there would be no war with Spain. After his meeting with Jefferson, Burr began to make new plans. He would forget the idea of invading Mexico...at least temporarily. Instead, he said he would build a settlement in Louisiana and wait for a better time. VOICE TWO: While Aaron Burr had been traveling in the west, stories began to spread about his activities. Newspaper reports came close to accusing him of plotting to split the Union. People seemed willing to believe the reports. This was the situation General Wilkinson would use to pull out of Burr's plan. Wilkinson wrote a letter to President Jefferson. He claimed that a force of ten-thousand men was moving toward New Orleans. He said it was part of a campaign against Mexico. He gave details of the campaign, but claimed he did not know who was leading it. He warned the president that the force might try to seize Louisiana as well as Mexico. VOICE ONE: It was not the first letter Jefferson received about Burr's Mexican campaign. Nor was it the first to say that Burr was, in fact, planning to split some western states from the Union. But, unlike the other letters, Jefferson accepted Wilkinson's as firm evidence against Burr. The president called a cabinet meeting to discuss what should be done. The result of the meeting was this: all American military commanders were ordered to stop Burr. President Jefferson then made a public declaration. He said a private military campaign was about to begin against the Spanish, and that anyone involved should leave it immediately. The declaration did not speak of Aaron Burr by name. VOICE TWO: Jefferson also spoke of the private military campaign in his yearly State of the Union message to Congress. Congress asked for more information. In a special message, the president said Burr had several plans. One was to split the western states from the Union. Another was to seize Mexico. He said Burr wanted to make people believe he was building a settlement in Louisiana. But, he said, that was just a trick. The president said Burr had discovered that the people of the western states would not support any attempt to take them out of the Union. So, the president said, Burr had decided to capture New Orleans. Jefferson said there was no question that Burr was guilty. VOICE ONE: Burr's guilt had not been proved in court. But to many Americans, Jefferson's statement was taken as truth. Some demanded that Burr be put to death for treason. The crime of treason, as explained in America's Constitution, is the act of a citizen making war against the United States. Burr was arrested in February, Eighteen-Oh-Seven, and taken to Richmond, Virginia. A federal grand jury hearing would be held to decide if there was enough evidence to bring him to trial. In June, the grand jury officially charged him with treason. Burr would stand trial before John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. VOICE TWO: At one point in court, Burr spoke for himself. "Treason," he said, "is not possible without action. Yet I am being attacked -- not for acts -- but because of false reports about what I might do. The whole country has been turned against me. Is this justice? Wilkinson frightened the president with his reports about me. Then, the president frightened the people." VOICE ONE: It was true that President Jefferson wanted to prove Burr guilty. He ordered government officials in all parts of the country to find witnesses who could give evidence against Burr. Some of Jefferson's opponents said he did this to turn the trial into a political battle. They believed he wanted to use the trial record to attack Chief Justice Marshall, who was a member of the opposition Federalist Party. Jefferson objected to the way Marshall controlled the Supreme Court. He felt Marshall used his position to threaten the powers of the presidency and Congress. Chief Justice Marshall knew of Jefferson's part in the accusations against Burr. He was extremely careful and fair in giving his opinions and decisions. VOICE TWO: At the end of August, Chief Justice Marshall stopped taking evidence. He told the court that -- under the Constitution -- a charge of treason must be proved by two witnesses. He said the government's claim had not been proved by even one witness. He ordered the jury to decide the case. On September First, the jury announced its decision. It said: "We of the jury declare that Aaron Burr is not proved guilty by any evidence offered to us. Therefore, we find him not guilty." Burr and his lawyers angrily protested the way the decision had been written. They said it was wrong for the jury to say more than 'guilty' or 'not guilty'. Marhsall agreed. He ordered the decision to be changed to read, simply, 'not guilty.' The trial was over. VOICE ONE: Aaron Burr lived another twenty-nine years. He spent some time in Europe, and then New York City. A few hours before he died, a friend asked if he had ever plotted -- as part of his plan to seize Mexico -- to split the Union of American states. Burr answered: "No! I would as soon have thought of seizing the moon and informing my friends that I would divide it among them." (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Mammal Exhibit in Washington / Question about California's new Governor / Music from Cyndi Lauper
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 5, 2003 (THEME) Arnold Schwarzenegger Broadcast: December 5, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about the new governor of the state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we play music from Cyndi Lauper’s new record album. But first – come along to look at some animals in Washington, not at a zoo but at a museum. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about the new governor of the state of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we play music from Cyndi Lauper’s new record album. But first – come along to look at some animals in Washington, not at a zoo but at a museum. Animals in New Museum Display HOST: Did you know that the hippopotamus is closely related to pigs and whales? Or that hippos can stay underwater for up to half an hour? These are just some of the things visitors can learn from a new permanent part of the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. Phoebe Zimmermann has more. ANNCR: Meet "Morgie” the Morganucodon (mor-GAN-ew-KO-don), a four-inch creature with a long nose and short legs. Morgie lived with the dinosaurs. It is two-hundred-ten-million years old. And it is one of the animals now on display at the National Museum of Natural History. Visitors can take a close look at more than two-hundred-seventy animals. Not all are as old as Morgie. And museum officials say most died of natural causes. The animals are set in realistic positions. A tiger is the first animal that visitors see as they walk through the door. It looks as if it is going to jump at them. Visitors also see a huge walrus nearby. It is the size of a small car. A giraffe looks like it is eating from the top of a tree. Small flying animals are suspended from the ceiling to look as they do in flight. The animals come from four environments: the frozen North, the forest, the rainforest and Australia. In the African part of the display, visitors hear rain as the area becomes dark during a storm. Lights create the effect of lightning. There are fun things for children and other visitors to do. They can walk on top of the footprints of a one-and-a-half million-year-old human-like creature. They can touch a frozen squirrel that is sleeping in the ground. And they can use a special device to understand how jaguars see in the dark. Visitors learn that jaguars can see better at night than people can with a flashlight. The animals all have something in common. They are all mammals. Mammals are warm-blooded creatures that have body hair and mothers that produce milk. Museum officials got the idea for the new Hall of Mammals after they found that many visitors did not really know what a mammal is. Many did not know, for example, that humans are mammals. Did you? Arnold Schwarzenegger HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Pham Hong Hai asks about the new governor of California. Let's start at the beginning. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz, Austria, in nineteen-forty-seven. At the urging of his father, he began weightlifting at the age of fifteen. Five years later, he won the Mister Universe bodybuilding competition. This was his first of thirteen world bodybuilding championships. Others included Mister Olympia and Mister World. When he was twenty-one, Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to the United States. He was interested in business. His first business was laying bricks for homes. He earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Wisconsin. He did this through a special program while living in California. And he invested in property in Santa Monica, California. Mister Schwarzenegger also became interested in movies. In nineteen-seventy-seven, he appeared in "Pumping Iron," a documentary about the Mister Olympia competition. This film led to his first major Hollywood part. He starred as “Conan the Barbarian.” He went on to appear in other action films. These included “The Terminator,” “Predator,” “Total Recall,” and “True Lies." He has also starred in comedies, including the nineteen-ninety movie "Kindergarten Cop." Mister Schwarzenegger has supported efforts to get more money for children's programs in California. He helped expand the Los Angeles Inner-City Games to fifteen cities. This is a sports program for children threatened by violence and drugs. He also serves as world ambassador to the Special Olympics. Eunice Kennedy Shriver started the Special Olympics, for people with disabilities, in nineteen-sixty-seven. She is the sister of President John F. Kennedy. She is also the mother of Maria Shriver, whom many Americans know as a television reporter. Maria Shriver was next to Mister Schwarzenegger as he took office last month. Not as a reporter, but as his wife and now the first lady of California. Cyndi Lauper's New Album HOST: Cyndi Lauper came to fame in the nineteen-eighties. Her hit song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was a favorite on MTV in the early days of Music Television. Now, Cyndi Lauper is singing some songs made famous by others. Faith Lapidus tells about her new release. It's called “At Last.” ANNOUNCER: Cyndi Lauper gives credit for her new album to the people she grew up with in the Queens area of New York City. She says the people on her street represented all different ethnic groups and cultures. But, she says, they all shared a love of music. And they all felt the same way about Manhattan, the center of the city. She says they believed that is where all dreams led. On “At Last” Cyndi Lauper shares a song with another singer from Queens, Tony Bennett. Here is “Making Whoopee.” (MUSIC) Tony Bennett is not the only musical great to help with the album. Stevie Wonder plays harmonica as Cyndi Lauper sings one his songs. It's called “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do.)” (MUSIC) The last song on “At Last” is clear proof that Cyndi Lauper still wants to have fun! We leave you with “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” (MUSIC) Animals in New Museum Display HOST: Did you know that the hippopotamus is closely related to pigs and whales? Or that hippos can stay underwater for up to half an hour? These are just some of the things visitors can learn from a new permanent part of the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. Phoebe Zimmermann has more. ANNCR: Meet "Morgie” the Morganucodon (mor-GAN-ew-KO-don), a four-inch creature with a long nose and short legs. Morgie lived with the dinosaurs. It is two-hundred-ten-million years old. And it is one of the animals now on display at the National Museum of Natural History. Visitors can take a close look at more than two-hundred-seventy animals. Not all are as old as Morgie. And museum officials say most died of natural causes. The animals are set in realistic positions. A tiger is the first animal that visitors see as they walk through the door. It looks as if it is going to jump at them. Visitors also see a huge walrus nearby. It is the size of a small car. A giraffe looks like it is eating from the top of a tree. Small flying animals are suspended from the ceiling to look as they do in flight. The animals come from four environments: the frozen North, the forest, the rainforest and Australia. In the African part of the display, visitors hear rain as the area becomes dark during a storm. Lights create the effect of lightning. There are fun things for children and other visitors to do. They can walk on top of the footprints of a one-and-a-half million-year-old human-like creature. They can touch a frozen squirrel that is sleeping in the ground. And they can use a special device to understand how jaguars see in the dark. Visitors learn that jaguars can see better at night than people can with a flashlight. The animals all have something in common. They are all mammals. Mammals are warm-blooded creatures that have body hair and mothers that produce milk. Museum officials got the idea for the new Hall of Mammals after they found that many visitors did not really know what a mammal is. Many did not know, for example, that humans are mammals. Did you? Arnold Schwarzenegger HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Pham Hong Hai asks about the new governor of California. Let's start at the beginning. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz, Austria, in nineteen-forty-seven. At the urging of his father, he began weightlifting at the age of fifteen. Five years later, he won the Mister Universe bodybuilding competition. This was his first of thirteen world bodybuilding championships. Others included Mister Olympia and Mister World. When he was twenty-one, Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to the United States. He was interested in business. His first business was laying bricks for homes. He earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Wisconsin. He did this through a special program while living in California. And he invested in property in Santa Monica, California. Mister Schwarzenegger also became interested in movies. In nineteen-seventy-seven, he appeared in "Pumping Iron," a documentary about the Mister Olympia competition. This film led to his first major Hollywood part. He starred as “Conan the Barbarian.” He went on to appear in other action films. These included “The Terminator,” “Predator,” “Total Recall,” and “True Lies." He has also starred in comedies, including the nineteen-ninety movie "Kindergarten Cop." Mister Schwarzenegger has supported efforts to get more money for children's programs in California. He helped expand the Los Angeles Inner-City Games to fifteen cities. This is a sports program for children threatened by violence and drugs. He also serves as world ambassador to the Special Olympics. Eunice Kennedy Shriver started the Special Olympics, for people with disabilities, in nineteen-sixty-seven. She is the sister of President John F. Kennedy. She is also the mother of Maria Shriver, whom many Americans know as a television reporter. Maria Shriver was next to Mister Schwarzenegger as he took office last month. Not as a reporter, but as his wife and now the first lady of California. Cyndi Lauper's New Album HOST: Cyndi Lauper came to fame in the nineteen-eighties. Her hit song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was a favorite on MTV in the early days of Music Television. Now, Cyndi Lauper is singing some songs made famous by others. Faith Lapidus tells about her new release. It's called “At Last.” ANNOUNCER: Cyndi Lauper gives credit for her new album to the people she grew up with in the Queens area of New York City. She says the people on her street represented all different ethnic groups and cultures. But, she says, they all shared a love of music. And they all felt the same way about Manhattan, the center of the city. She says they believed that is where all dreams led. On “At Last” Cyndi Lauper shares a song with another singer from Queens, Tony Bennett. Here is “Making Whoopee.” (MUSIC) Tony Bennett is not the only musical great to help with the album. Stevie Wonder plays harmonica as Cyndi Lauper sings one his songs. It's called “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do.)” (MUSIC) The last song on “At Last” is clear proof that Cyndi Lauper still wants to have fun! We leave you with “On the Sunny Side of the Street.” (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT — World Trade Organization, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 5, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week: part two of our report on the World Trade Organization. We told about agreements that existed before the W-T-O was established in nineteen-ninety-five. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, served as the main set of rules for world trade for more than forty years. Today GATT is still the main rule book for trade in goods. Nations agreed to form the W-T-O during the eighth round of world trade talks, the eighth since World War Two. The talks opened in nineteen-eighty-six in Uruguay and did not end until nineteen-ninety-four, in Morocco. The first director general of the W-T-O was Peter Sutherland of Ireland. Now it is Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand. The W-T-O tried to launch a ninth round in Seattle, Washington, in nineteen-ninety-nine. Ministers from one-hundred-thirty-five-nations could not agree on the issues to discuss. And opponents of free trade rioted in the streets. The W-T-O launched the ninth round in Doha, Qatar, in November of two-thousand-one. The Ministerial Conference led to the Doha Development Agenda, a set of issues to discuss to reduce trade barriers. Among these are agriculture and services. As we said, GATT remains an important set of rules. It is thirty-thousand pages long. But it deals only with import taxes on goods. A General Agreement on Trade in Services, or GATS, took effect in nineteen-ninety-five. Banking, financial services and telecommunications are some of the areas under this agreement. Many nations bar foreign companies from competing with their own service businesses. This agreement aims to reduce these barriers. There is also an Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS. This deals with trade and investment in ideas and research. For example, the holder of a copyright or patent can prevent others from copying creative works or inventions. But, in general, copyrights and patents have legal power only in the country that provided them. So the TRIPS agreement seeks to increase protection of intellectual property rights. Current world trade negotiations aim to set rules in areas including trade and competition policy, and openness in government purchases. Our report on the World Trade Organization continues next week. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 4, 2003 - Vocabulary of Marriage
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: December 4, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the vocabulary of marriage in America. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: December 4, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the vocabulary of marriage in America. RS: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead is co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She says Americans are less wedded these days to terms like "courtship" to describe the path to marriage. For one thing, people are waiting longer to get married. For another, she says, more than forty-percent of first-time marriages are likely to end in divorce. AA: Even terms like "husband" and "wife" can't be taken for granted, not when some would prefer the gender-neutral "spouse," or when talking about two men or two women. Currently no state recognizes same-sex marriage, although Vermont offers homosexuals the legal benefits, through what is called a civil union. RS: Things could change. Last month the highest court in Massachusetts gave the legislature until May to permit same-sex marriage. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead says all these trends in American society have led to two major changes in the language. WHITEHEAD: "One is that it has been significantly de-gendered. That is, the language has become more gender-neutral. And secondly, the language has become more morally neutral. So that we tend to now use the language of the social sciences, economics or sociology, rather than religion, to talk about marriage and courtship. So, yes, 'courtship' has fallen into disuse. It has a distinctly old-fashioned air. I think 'betrothal' is another word that we don't hear very often. "'Engagement' has become, I think, it's still common and popular, but it isn't as big a benchmark event, and therefore it doesn't crop up so much in our language as it did perhaps two-and-a-half or three decades ago." AA: "What else could people say?" WHITEHEAD: "People who are planning to get married are very often living together, so they've established the custom of referring to each other as 'my partner,' 'my significant other,' 'my girlfriend' or 'boyfriend.' Interestingly, we also have a neologism called 'starter marriage' that refers to marriages that begin and end very quickly." RS: "Now, you refer to 'gender-neutral' and 'morally-neutral.' What do you mean by morally-neutral?" WHITEHEAD: "Well, one example is that of course people who live together, we used to say 'they're shacking up.' And there was definitely moral criticism. Now, of course, it's very neutral. It's 'living together' or even more social scientific, 'cohabitation.'" RS: "It sounds like, you know, you're raising mice or something." WHITEHEAD: "Well, exactly. One thing that's interesting to me is the degree to which the words 'love,' 'romance,' 'my one and only' have been leeched out of the whole vocabulary that surrounds courtship and marriage. It's more practical and more highly rationalized, so that some of the -- along with the moral content, the religious and spiritual and, you know, the 'soul mate' notion has also been leeched out of the language. It is very much down-to-earth and close to the language of the business world." AA: "And you might end up with a 'trophy wife,' right?" WHITEHEAD: "Oh, that's another good one. I forgot about that. A trophy wife is the, usually, second marriage by a powerful, older man to a young, beautiful, fertile woman. And the implication is the first wife has been worn out or used up, or simply doesn't reflect the social aspirations of the powerful man." RS: That was Barbara Dayfoe Whitehead at the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. AA: So then there are practical issues. Like what should an unmarried couple who live together call each other? RS: In the case of same-sex couples, the options are even more limited. Kitt Cherry is an author, poet and retired journalist in Los Angeles. She says that when she refers to her "partner," a lot of people think she means her business partner. AA: They've tried saying "spouse." But that, she says, sounds too formal -- yet "partner" sound too neutral. And the problem isn't just here. RS: Kitt Cherry has written about language in Japan. She checked back with one of her sources to see how the Japanese deal with this. CHERRY: "And she said because it's so hard to find a word for a partner, out of the Japanese language, for same-sex couples or unmarried couples, that they borrowed the English word and just say it with a Japanese accent." RS: "Part-ner." CHERRY: "Part-na." AA: Mizz Cherry's most recent book is called "Equal Rites," r-i-t-e-s. It's a collection of same-sex commitment ceremonies, the kind she herself used to lead as a minister. CHERRY: "You know in the standard marriage ceremony they say 'I now pronounce you man and wife' or 'husband and wife.' And I thought I would let you know how we -- some other beautiful ways people said that for same-sex couples. 'I announce to you that they are life partners in the name of God beyond us, God within us and God between us.' Or here's another one: 'By the power of God's love, embodied in your covenant, you are joined one to another.'" RS: One final point: The debate over same-sex marriage may end up an issue in next year's presidential election. Opponents are seeking a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: Barbara Dafoe Whitehead is co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She says Americans are less wedded these days to terms like "courtship" to describe the path to marriage. For one thing, people are waiting longer to get married. For another, she says, more than forty-percent of first-time marriages are likely to end in divorce. AA: Even terms like "husband" and "wife" can't be taken for granted, not when some would prefer the gender-neutral "spouse," or when talking about two men or two women. Currently no state recognizes same-sex marriage, although Vermont offers homosexuals the legal benefits, through what is called a civil union. RS: Things could change. Last month the highest court in Massachusetts gave the legislature until May to permit same-sex marriage. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead says all these trends in American society have led to two major changes in the language. WHITEHEAD: "One is that it has been significantly de-gendered. That is, the language has become more gender-neutral. And secondly, the language has become more morally neutral. So that we tend to now use the language of the social sciences, economics or sociology, rather than religion, to talk about marriage and courtship. So, yes, 'courtship' has fallen into disuse. It has a distinctly old-fashioned air. I think 'betrothal' is another word that we don't hear very often. "'Engagement' has become, I think, it's still common and popular, but it isn't as big a benchmark event, and therefore it doesn't crop up so much in our language as it did perhaps two-and-a-half or three decades ago." AA: "What else could people say?" WHITEHEAD: "People who are planning to get married are very often living together, so they've established the custom of referring to each other as 'my partner,' 'my significant other,' 'my girlfriend' or 'boyfriend.' Interestingly, we also have a neologism called 'starter marriage' that refers to marriages that begin and end very quickly." RS: "Now, you refer to 'gender-neutral' and 'morally-neutral.' What do you mean by morally-neutral?" WHITEHEAD: "Well, one example is that of course people who live together, we used to say 'they're shacking up.' And there was definitely moral criticism. Now, of course, it's very neutral. It's 'living together' or even more social scientific, 'cohabitation.'" RS: "It sounds like, you know, you're raising mice or something." WHITEHEAD: "Well, exactly. One thing that's interesting to me is the degree to which the words 'love,' 'romance,' 'my one and only' have been leeched out of the whole vocabulary that surrounds courtship and marriage. It's more practical and more highly rationalized, so that some of the -- along with the moral content, the religious and spiritual and, you know, the 'soul mate' notion has also been leeched out of the language. It is very much down-to-earth and close to the language of the business world." AA: "And you might end up with a 'trophy wife,' right?" WHITEHEAD: "Oh, that's another good one. I forgot about that. A trophy wife is the, usually, second marriage by a powerful, older man to a young, beautiful, fertile woman. And the implication is the first wife has been worn out or used up, or simply doesn't reflect the social aspirations of the powerful man." RS: That was Barbara Dayfoe Whitehead at the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. AA: So then there are practical issues. Like what should an unmarried couple who live together call each other? RS: In the case of same-sex couples, the options are even more limited. Kitt Cherry is an author, poet and retired journalist in Los Angeles. She says that when she refers to her "partner," a lot of people think she means her business partner. AA: They've tried saying "spouse." But that, she says, sounds too formal -- yet "partner" sound too neutral. And the problem isn't just here. RS: Kitt Cherry has written about language in Japan. She checked back with one of her sources to see how the Japanese deal with this. CHERRY: "And she said because it's so hard to find a word for a partner, out of the Japanese language, for same-sex couples or unmarried couples, that they borrowed the English word and just say it with a Japanese accent." RS: "Part-ner." CHERRY: "Part-na." AA: Mizz Cherry's most recent book is called "Equal Rites," r-i-t-e-s. It's a collection of same-sex commitment ceremonies, the kind she herself used to lead as a minister. CHERRY: "You know in the standard marriage ceremony they say 'I now pronounce you man and wife' or 'husband and wife.' And I thought I would let you know how we -- some other beautiful ways people said that for same-sex couples. 'I announce to you that they are life partners in the name of God beyond us, God within us and God between us.' Or here's another one: 'By the power of God's love, embodied in your covenant, you are joined one to another.'" RS: One final point: The debate over same-sex marriage may end up an issue in next year's presidential election. Opponents are seeking a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-04-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Wordmaster Archives
* Byline: 

 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-04-5-1.cfm
* Headline: Fun with VOA Special English Words!
* Byline: 

 Charles Kelly, an English as a Second Language expert in Japan, has developed games and quizzes that use VOA Special English words. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Ivory Coast Protests
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 6, 2003 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. The government of France says it is closely following the violence in its former colony of Ivory Coast. Protesters have demonstrated for several days in Abidjan, the business capital of the West African country. They are protesting the French military presence in Ivory Coast. Riot police fired tear gas as they fought with young demonstrators near the main French military base in Abidjan. On Tuesday the government banned demonstrations, but the protests continued. A youth leader, Charles Ble Goude, organized the demonstrations. He is the leader of a pro-government group called the Young Patriots. Mister Goude also led anti-French riots in Abidjan earlier this year. French peacekeepers in Ivory Coast enforce a cease-fire line that separates rebel forces and government troops. Without them, government troops in the south could try to recapture territory controlled by the rebels in the north. Some protesters threatened to kill French citizens if the French troops do not leave. France said its troops will remain. About sixteen-thousand French civilians live in Ivory Coast. For months, government and rebel forces have accused French troops of supporting the other side. France has about four-thousand peacekeeping troops in Ivory Coast. They are stationed along a six-hundred-fifty kilometer cease-fire line. They work with about one-thousand West African peacekeepers to help enforce a French-led peace agreement. The government and the rebels signed the agreement in January in an effort to end a civil war. The war began after the rebels tried to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo in September of two-thousand-two. The war officially ended in July. But tensions over the peace agreement have continued. The agreement calls for both sides to disarm. It also calls for President Gbagbo to share power until a new election in two-thousand-five. But the rebels have refused to surrender their weapons. They accused President Gbagbo of failing to carry out the peace agreement fully. They withdrew from the coalition government in September of this year. Late this week, President Gbagbo announced that rebels in the north had agreed to begin surrendering their weapons on December fifteenth. He spoke after meeting with army officials and rebel delegates in the capital, Yamoussoukro. But on Friday, spokesmen for the rebel New Forces said there was no such agreement, only a proposal. The rebels said they will not begin to disarm until disputes about the coalition government are settled. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer of cocoa. For years, the country was considered the strongest and wealthiest in West Africa. In nineteen-ninety-nine, the military overthrew President Henri Konan Bedie. Since then, ethnic, political and religious tensions have increased. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Edward Teller
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 7, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 7, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Edward Teller. He was one of the best-known American scientists of the twentieth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb.” However, he reportedly did not like that name. Teller helped develop the first nuclear weapons. Later, he was an activist for a strong national defense. He was an important influence on America’s defense and energy policies. Experts say Teller’s strong support for defense resulted from experiences that helped shape his opinion of world events. One was the rise of the Nazi party while he lived in Germany during the nineteen-thirties. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary in nineteen-oh-eight. His father was a lawyer and his mother had strong musical abilities. His parents and teachers recognized at an early age that Edward was excellent in mathematics. Yet his father was unhappy when Edward said he wanted to be a mathematician. He told his son that mathematicians had trouble earning money. So Edward agreed to study chemistry. He went to Leipzig (LIPE-sick), Germany for his university education.While in Germany, Edward was in a streetcar accident. One of his feet was cut off. He had to wear a man-made, replacement foot for the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: One of Teller’s professors in Leipzig was Werner Heisenberg (HIGH-zen-berg). Heisenberg helped invent the theory called quantum mechanics. This theory involves the study of matter and radiation at an atomic level. It was one of the most important theories in twentieth century science. In nineteen-thirty-two, Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize for physics for developing the theory. Later he worked in Germany’s nuclear research program. Edward Teller received a doctorate in physics from the University of Leipzig in nineteen-thirty. He was a professor at the University of Gottingen (GUH-ting-en) for three years. In nineteen-thirty-three, Adolf Hitler became Germany’s Chancellor. Hitler and his Nazi Party organized a campaign against Jews and other minorities. This forced Teller and a number of other Jewish scientists to flee Germany. Teller and his wife, Mici (MEET-see), came to the United States in nineteen-thirty-five. They became American citizens six years later. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: By the late nineteen-thirties, scientists in several countries were learning how to split the nuclei of atoms. They discovered that this nuclear fission releases huge amounts of energy and could be used to create a powerful new weapon. Some scientists in the United States feared that Germany was developing an atomic bomb and would be the first to use it as a weapon. One of those who believed this was a friend of Teller’s, Leo Szilard (SIL-ard). Like Teller, Szilard was a scientist who had left Hungary and come to live in the United States. Szilard believed that the United States should have its own program to develop atomic weapons. He wanted to get American officials interested in such a program. He decided to seek help from the world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-nine, Szilard prepared a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt for Einstein to sign. The letter urged the need for an atomic weapons program. Szilard decided to visit Einstein at his summer home near New York City. But Szilard could not drive a car, so he asked his friend Teller to drive them to Einstein’s home. Einstein signed the letter. It led to a secret American program to develop an atomic bomb. This program was called the Manhattan Project. To carry out the program, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory was secretly established in the southwestern state of New Mexico in nineteen-forty-two. This was during World War Two. The United States wanted to build an atomic bomb before Germany or Japan did. Teller joined the project along with America’s other top scientists. He and his wife brought their one-hundred-year-old piano to the New Mexico desert. Teller often stayed up late, playing music written by Mozart and other famous composers. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller hoped to design a hydrogen fusion bomb, a device he called the “super.” The idea for the hydrogen bomb came from another scientist, Enrico Fermi (FER-me). Fermi suggested that the fusion of hydrogen atoms might create an even more powerful force than splitting them. Teller quickly accepted the idea. However, the director of the Manhattan Project disagreed. J. Robert Oppenheimer wanted his team of scientists to develop an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb. The Manhattan project succeeded in developing the world’s first atomic bomb. Its energy came from splitting the nuclei of uranium atoms. VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was among the scientists who gathered to see the world’s first atomic test explosion. They watched as a huge cloud rose from the New Mexico desert on July sixteenth, ninety-forty-five. By that time, the war in Europe was over. The Germans had never come close to creating an atomic bomb. But the war with Japan continued. In an effort to end the war, United States planes dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August sixth. Japan surrendered within days to end World War Two. VOICE TWO: After the war, Edward Teller taught at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Many scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb returned to civilian jobs. Some had problems with moral issues. Years later, Teller wondered if the United States could have shown Japanese leaders the power of the atom without destroying the two cities. Teller said he regretted that he and other scientists did not seek to demonstrate American power in some other way to influence Japan to end the war. Teller said: “If we could have ended the war by showing the power of science without killing a single person, all of us would be happier, more reasonable and much more safe.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-nine, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. Suddenly, the United States faced its own threat of nuclear attack. Edward Teller believed the country needed a hydrogen bomb for defense. President Harry Truman agreed. Teller returned to Los Alamos and worked to develop the hydrogen bomb. Scientists tested the bomb in the Pacific Ocean in nineteen-fifty-two. VOICE TWO: As the United States and the Soviet Union built more nuclear bombs, Edward Teller called for a second national nuclear weapons laboratory. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory opened near San Francisco, California in nineteen-fifty-two. Teller worked as an advisor there. He served as director from nineteen-fifty-eight to nineteen-sixty. Then he became a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the nineteen-sixties, opponents of the Vietnam War criticized Teller for his work in developing nuclear weapons. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Edward Teller spent the rest of his life on matters of war and peace. He believed that the security of the United States depended on strong national defense. In nineteen-eighty, Teller said he believed nuclear war with the Soviet Union was possible. He said: “ I cannot just go back to physics because I believe that to prevent another war happens to be … more important.” In the nineteen-eighties, Teller argued for a missile-defense system for the United States. Teller strongly supported President Ronald Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative. It called for space satellites armed with lasers to destroy possible nuclear missiles directed at the United States. This program became known as “Star Wars.” Critics said it would cost too much money to develop and would not work. It was never built. However, President Bush has renewed the idea of establishing a missile-defense system to protect the United States. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller received many honors during his life. In two-thousand-three, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. That same year, Teller suffered a stroke. He died at his home on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He was ninety-five years old. Until his last days, Edward Teller continued to support the idea of a system to defend the country against a danger he helped create. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Edward Teller. He was one of the best-known American scientists of the twentieth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was often called the "father of the hydrogen bomb.” However, he reportedly did not like that name. Teller helped develop the first nuclear weapons. Later, he was an activist for a strong national defense. He was an important influence on America’s defense and energy policies. Experts say Teller’s strong support for defense resulted from experiences that helped shape his opinion of world events. One was the rise of the Nazi party while he lived in Germany during the nineteen-thirties. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller was born in Budapest, Hungary in nineteen-oh-eight. His father was a lawyer and his mother had strong musical abilities. His parents and teachers recognized at an early age that Edward was excellent in mathematics. Yet his father was unhappy when Edward said he wanted to be a mathematician. He told his son that mathematicians had trouble earning money. So Edward agreed to study chemistry. He went to Leipzig (LIPE-sick), Germany for his university education.While in Germany, Edward was in a streetcar accident. One of his feet was cut off. He had to wear a man-made, replacement foot for the rest of his life. VOICE ONE: One of Teller’s professors in Leipzig was Werner Heisenberg (HIGH-zen-berg). Heisenberg helped invent the theory called quantum mechanics. This theory involves the study of matter and radiation at an atomic level. It was one of the most important theories in twentieth century science. In nineteen-thirty-two, Heisenberg won the Nobel Prize for physics for developing the theory. Later he worked in Germany’s nuclear research program. Edward Teller received a doctorate in physics from the University of Leipzig in nineteen-thirty. He was a professor at the University of Gottingen (GUH-ting-en) for three years. In nineteen-thirty-three, Adolf Hitler became Germany’s Chancellor. Hitler and his Nazi Party organized a campaign against Jews and other minorities. This forced Teller and a number of other Jewish scientists to flee Germany. Teller and his wife, Mici (MEET-see), came to the United States in nineteen-thirty-five. They became American citizens six years later. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: By the late nineteen-thirties, scientists in several countries were learning how to split the nuclei of atoms. They discovered that this nuclear fission releases huge amounts of energy and could be used to create a powerful new weapon. Some scientists in the United States feared that Germany was developing an atomic bomb and would be the first to use it as a weapon. One of those who believed this was a friend of Teller’s, Leo Szilard (SIL-ard). Like Teller, Szilard was a scientist who had left Hungary and come to live in the United States. Szilard believed that the United States should have its own program to develop atomic weapons. He wanted to get American officials interested in such a program. He decided to seek help from the world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-nine, Szilard prepared a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt for Einstein to sign. The letter urged the need for an atomic weapons program. Szilard decided to visit Einstein at his summer home near New York City. But Szilard could not drive a car, so he asked his friend Teller to drive them to Einstein’s home. Einstein signed the letter. It led to a secret American program to develop an atomic bomb. This program was called the Manhattan Project. To carry out the program, the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory was secretly established in the southwestern state of New Mexico in nineteen-forty-two. This was during World War Two. The United States wanted to build an atomic bomb before Germany or Japan did. Teller joined the project along with America’s other top scientists. He and his wife brought their one-hundred-year-old piano to the New Mexico desert. Teller often stayed up late, playing music written by Mozart and other famous composers. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller hoped to design a hydrogen fusion bomb, a device he called the “super.” The idea for the hydrogen bomb came from another scientist, Enrico Fermi (FER-me). Fermi suggested that the fusion of hydrogen atoms might create an even more powerful force than splitting them. Teller quickly accepted the idea. However, the director of the Manhattan Project disagreed. J. Robert Oppenheimer wanted his team of scientists to develop an atomic bomb, not a hydrogen bomb. The Manhattan project succeeded in developing the world’s first atomic bomb. Its energy came from splitting the nuclei of uranium atoms. VOICE ONE: Edward Teller was among the scientists who gathered to see the world’s first atomic test explosion. They watched as a huge cloud rose from the New Mexico desert on July sixteenth, ninety-forty-five. By that time, the war in Europe was over. The Germans had never come close to creating an atomic bomb. But the war with Japan continued. In an effort to end the war, United States planes dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August sixth. Japan surrendered within days to end World War Two. VOICE TWO: After the war, Edward Teller taught at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Many scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb returned to civilian jobs. Some had problems with moral issues. Years later, Teller wondered if the United States could have shown Japanese leaders the power of the atom without destroying the two cities. Teller said he regretted that he and other scientists did not seek to demonstrate American power in some other way to influence Japan to end the war. Teller said: “If we could have ended the war by showing the power of science without killing a single person, all of us would be happier, more reasonable and much more safe.” (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-nine, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. Suddenly, the United States faced its own threat of nuclear attack. Edward Teller believed the country needed a hydrogen bomb for defense. President Harry Truman agreed. Teller returned to Los Alamos and worked to develop the hydrogen bomb. Scientists tested the bomb in the Pacific Ocean in nineteen-fifty-two. VOICE TWO: As the United States and the Soviet Union built more nuclear bombs, Edward Teller called for a second national nuclear weapons laboratory. The Lawrence Livermore Laboratory opened near San Francisco, California in nineteen-fifty-two. Teller worked as an advisor there. He served as director from nineteen-fifty-eight to nineteen-sixty. Then he became a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the nineteen-sixties, opponents of the Vietnam War criticized Teller for his work in developing nuclear weapons. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Edward Teller spent the rest of his life on matters of war and peace. He believed that the security of the United States depended on strong national defense. In nineteen-eighty, Teller said he believed nuclear war with the Soviet Union was possible. He said: “ I cannot just go back to physics because I believe that to prevent another war happens to be … more important.” In the nineteen-eighties, Teller argued for a missile-defense system for the United States. Teller strongly supported President Ronald Reagan’s proposed Strategic Defense Initiative. It called for space satellites armed with lasers to destroy possible nuclear missiles directed at the United States. This program became known as “Star Wars.” Critics said it would cost too much money to develop and would not work. It was never built. However, President Bush has renewed the idea of establishing a missile-defense system to protect the United States. VOICE TWO: Edward Teller received many honors during his life. In two-thousand-three, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. That same year, Teller suffered a stroke. He died at his home on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He was ninety-five years old. Until his last days, Edward Teller continued to support the idea of a system to defend the country against a danger he helped create. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by George Grow and produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – World Hunger Up, UN Study Says
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 8, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says world hunger has increased. The agency released its newest estimates in a report called “The State of Food Insecurity in the World Two-thousand-three.” Researchers say world hunger had dropped by thirty-seven million people during the early part of the nineteen-nineties. In the second half of the decade, however, the number grew by eighteen-million. Today, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than eight-hundred-forty-million people do not get enough to eat. That is one in seven people in the world. Most live in developing nations. Hartwig de Haen helped write the F-A-O report. He says a lot of progress has been made to reduce hunger. In nineteen-seventy, almost forty percent of the world population was underfed. By two-thousand, the percentage was down to less than half that. However, Mister De Haen says it is too early to tell if the recent increase represents a major change. He says the increase may be temporary, caused by a series of crises and conflicts. For example, the F-A-O says seventy-five percent of Congolese were underfed as of a few years ago, because of war. The U-N report shows how nations with higher economic and agricultural growth have had more success reducing hunger. It says Brazil, for example, has cut the number of hungry people through programs to increase employment and food production. The Brazilian government also offers free or low-cost meals at schools and workplaces. But the U-N report also shows how world hunger has been worsened by the AIDS crisis. In southern Africa, wage earners in many families have become infected with the AIDS virus and have had to leave their fields. The F-A-O says it expects AIDS to claim one-fifth or more of agricultural workers in most southern African nations by two-thousand-twenty. The recent increase in world hunger is bad news for efforts to reduce the number of hungry people in the world by half by two-thousand-fifteen. World leaders set this goal in nineteen-ninety-six at the World Food Summit in Rome. The United Nations also approved it as a Millennium Development Goal in September of two-thousand. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: December 8, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says world hunger has increased. The agency released its newest estimates in a report called “The State of Food Insecurity in the World Two-thousand-three.” Researchers say world hunger had dropped by thirty-seven million people during the early part of the nineteen-nineties. In the second half of the decade, however, the number grew by eighteen-million. Today, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than eight-hundred-forty-million people do not get enough to eat. That is one in seven people in the world. Most live in developing nations. Hartwig de Haen helped write the F-A-O report. He says a lot of progress has been made to reduce hunger. In nineteen-seventy, almost forty percent of the world population was underfed. By two-thousand, the percentage was down to less than half that. However, Mister De Haen says it is too early to tell if the recent increase represents a major change. He says the increase may be temporary, caused by a series of crises and conflicts. For example, the F-A-O says seventy-five percent of Congolese were underfed as of a few years ago, because of war. The U-N report shows how nations with higher economic and agricultural growth have had more success reducing hunger. It says Brazil, for example, has cut the number of hungry people through programs to increase employment and food production. The Brazilian government also offers free or low-cost meals at schools and workplaces. But the U-N report also shows how world hunger has been worsened by the AIDS crisis. In southern Africa, wage earners in many families have become infected with the AIDS virus and have had to leave their fields. The F-A-O says it expects AIDS to claim one-fifth or more of agricultural workers in most southern African nations by two-thousand-twenty. The recent increase in world hunger is bad news for efforts to reduce the number of hungry people in the world by half by two-thousand-fifteen. World leaders set this goal in nineteen-ninety-six at the World Food Summit in Rome. The United Nations also approved it as a Millennium Development Goal in September of two-thousand. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Kennedy Center Honors
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 8, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 8, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This week, we tell about the performers who were honored Sunday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (THEME) VOICE TWO: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is one of America’s cultural headquarters. This is the twenty-sixth year it has honored performing artists for their lifetime of work. Those chosen this year for the Kennedy Center Honors include singers James Brown and Loretta Lynn, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The other honorees are actress and comedian Carol Burnett and director and producer Mike Nichols. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE : James Brown is often called the “Godfather of Soul.” The Kennedy Center calls him "arguably the most influential African-American musician in popular music in the past half-century." It says he led two major musical revolutions and has added to a third. He helped develop rhythm and blues music into soul music. Then he turned soul into another form, funk. Now, many rap and hip-hop performers borrow from his recordings. As a child in the American South, James Brown sang, danced and played instruments on the street to help support his family. Later he learned about the religious music known as gospel. He joined a gospel group, then changed its style to rhythm and blues as rock and roll music became popular on radio. In nineteen-fifty-six the group had its first hit song: “Please, Please, Please.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, James Brown has recorded many top songs. They include “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag” and “Living in America.” He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the winner of a special Grammy Award. Now on to the Kennedy Center honoree who is known to millions of people by this song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Loretta Lynn is often called the "Coal Miner’s Daughter.” That is the name of her most famous song. And true to her song, Loretta Lynn was the daughter of a coal miner, the second of eight children in her family. She married at the age of thirteen and became a mother at fourteen. Her husband recognized her gift for singing and bought her a guitar. She taught herself to play. She and her husband mailed her first recording to radio stations. “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” became popular across the nation. VOICE TWO: Many other hits followed. They included “Success” and “Woman of the World.” Loretta Lynn wrote a book about her life. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” became a best seller. A film version won an Academy Award. Loretta Lynn is the first woman ever named “Entertainer of the Year” by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Now, from country music we turn to the world of classical music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many critics consider Itzhak Perlman the greatest concert violinist in the world. He has won fifteen Grammy awards for his recordings. He has also won four Emmys for his musical work on television. Itzhak Perlman was born in Israel. At the age of four, he developed polio. He uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches. But none of this stopped him from playing the violin. He spent his early years studying music in Tel Aviv. VOICE TWO: At thirteen, Itzhak Perlman came to the United States. He soon appeared on television. He attended the Juilliard School in New York and won a major performance prize in nineteen-sixty-four. His international fame had begun. Itzhak Perlman has received both a Medal of Liberty and a National Medal of Arts in the United States. Here he performs Brahms’ "Violin Sonata Number Three in D Minor." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now on to classic comedy, with another Kennedy Center honoree. Many people consider Carol Burnett one of the funniest entertainers alive. Over the years, she has performed in clubs, films, theater and television. Her work has included singing, dancing and playing serious parts. But she is best known for her comedy. “The Carol Burnett Show” appeared for eleven seasons on television. Carol Burnett grew up in Hollywood. At the University of California at Los Angeles, she appeared in theatrical productions -- and found her life’s work. She left college to become an actress in New York. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-nine, Carol Burnett became a star of the Broadway theater in the musical production, “Once Upon a Mattress.” That same year, she began to appear on "The Garry Moore Show" on television. Carol Burnett won her first Emmy in nineteen-sixty-two for her work on that show. Five years later she launched her own television program. “The Carol Burnett Show” lasted until the late nineteen-seventies. Since then, she has appeared in many other television shows and on Broadway. Listen now as Carol Burnett sings about a theater worker who wants to become a movie star. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The final Kennedy Center honoree this year is Mike Nichols. He has performed, written, directed and produced during his many years in show business. His work on Broadway has earned him seven Tony awards. And he has won an Academy Award for his work in film. As a child, Mike Nichols and his family fled to America from Germany. His family was Jewish, and Adolf Hitler was coming to power. Later Mike Nichols attended the University of Chicago. He helped form a comedy group at a theater in Chicago called The Second City. Members of this group became famous for making people laugh. Soon Mike Nichols left Chicago with another member of the group, Elaine May. They began to perform comedy together in New York. By nineteen-fifty-seven, Mike Nichols and Elaine May were becoming very popular on radio and television. They opened their own Broadway show in nineteen-sixty. But a year later they stopped performing together. VOICE TWO: Mike Nichols went on to receive Tony awards for his work on plays including “The Odd Couple” and “The Real Thing.” His major films include “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “The Graduate” and “Catch Twenty-Two.” More recently, he directed the film “The Bird Cage.” Elaine May wrote the screenplay. Some movie critics said it was one of the funniest films of the nineteen-nineties. VOICE ONE: Mike Nichols, Carol Burnett, Itzhak Perlman, Loretta Lynn and James Brown are this year's winners of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This week, we tell about the performers who were honored Sunday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (THEME) VOICE TWO: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is one of America’s cultural headquarters. This is the twenty-sixth year it has honored performing artists for their lifetime of work. Those chosen this year for the Kennedy Center Honors include singers James Brown and Loretta Lynn, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The other honorees are actress and comedian Carol Burnett and director and producer Mike Nichols. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE : James Brown is often called the “Godfather of Soul.” The Kennedy Center calls him "arguably the most influential African-American musician in popular music in the past half-century." It says he led two major musical revolutions and has added to a third. He helped develop rhythm and blues music into soul music. Then he turned soul into another form, funk. Now, many rap and hip-hop performers borrow from his recordings. As a child in the American South, James Brown sang, danced and played instruments on the street to help support his family. Later he learned about the religious music known as gospel. He joined a gospel group, then changed its style to rhythm and blues as rock and roll music became popular on radio. In nineteen-fifty-six the group had its first hit song: “Please, Please, Please.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Over the years, James Brown has recorded many top songs. They include “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag” and “Living in America.” He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the winner of a special Grammy Award. Now on to the Kennedy Center honoree who is known to millions of people by this song. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Loretta Lynn is often called the "Coal Miner’s Daughter.” That is the name of her most famous song. And true to her song, Loretta Lynn was the daughter of a coal miner, the second of eight children in her family. She married at the age of thirteen and became a mother at fourteen. Her husband recognized her gift for singing and bought her a guitar. She taught herself to play. She and her husband mailed her first recording to radio stations. “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” became popular across the nation. VOICE TWO: Many other hits followed. They included “Success” and “Woman of the World.” Loretta Lynn wrote a book about her life. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” became a best seller. A film version won an Academy Award. Loretta Lynn is the first woman ever named “Entertainer of the Year” by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Now, from country music we turn to the world of classical music. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many critics consider Itzhak Perlman the greatest concert violinist in the world. He has won fifteen Grammy awards for his recordings. He has also won four Emmys for his musical work on television. Itzhak Perlman was born in Israel. At the age of four, he developed polio. He uses a wheelchair or walks with the aid of crutches. But none of this stopped him from playing the violin. He spent his early years studying music in Tel Aviv. VOICE TWO: At thirteen, Itzhak Perlman came to the United States. He soon appeared on television. He attended the Juilliard School in New York and won a major performance prize in nineteen-sixty-four. His international fame had begun. Itzhak Perlman has received both a Medal of Liberty and a National Medal of Arts in the United States. Here he performs Brahms’ "Violin Sonata Number Three in D Minor." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Now on to classic comedy, with another Kennedy Center honoree. Many people consider Carol Burnett one of the funniest entertainers alive. Over the years, she has performed in clubs, films, theater and television. Her work has included singing, dancing and playing serious parts. But she is best known for her comedy. “The Carol Burnett Show” appeared for eleven seasons on television. Carol Burnett grew up in Hollywood. At the University of California at Los Angeles, she appeared in theatrical productions -- and found her life’s work. She left college to become an actress in New York. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-nine, Carol Burnett became a star of the Broadway theater in the musical production, “Once Upon a Mattress.” That same year, she began to appear on "The Garry Moore Show" on television. Carol Burnett won her first Emmy in nineteen-sixty-two for her work on that show. Five years later she launched her own television program. “The Carol Burnett Show” lasted until the late nineteen-seventies. Since then, she has appeared in many other television shows and on Broadway. Listen now as Carol Burnett sings about a theater worker who wants to become a movie star. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The final Kennedy Center honoree this year is Mike Nichols. He has performed, written, directed and produced during his many years in show business. His work on Broadway has earned him seven Tony awards. And he has won an Academy Award for his work in film. As a child, Mike Nichols and his family fled to America from Germany. His family was Jewish, and Adolf Hitler was coming to power. Later Mike Nichols attended the University of Chicago. He helped form a comedy group at a theater in Chicago called The Second City. Members of this group became famous for making people laugh. Soon Mike Nichols left Chicago with another member of the group, Elaine May. They began to perform comedy together in New York. By nineteen-fifty-seven, Mike Nichols and Elaine May were becoming very popular on radio and television. They opened their own Broadway show in nineteen-sixty. But a year later they stopped performing together. VOICE TWO: Mike Nichols went on to receive Tony awards for his work on plays including “The Odd Couple” and “The Real Thing.” His major films include “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “The Graduate” and “Catch Twenty-Two.” More recently, he directed the film “The Bird Cage.” Elaine May wrote the screenplay. Some movie critics said it was one of the funniest films of the nineteen-nineties. VOICE ONE: Mike Nichols, Carol Burnett, Itzhak Perlman, Loretta Lynn and James Brown are this year's winners of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington. (MUSIC) Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Flu Warnings / Reporting Storms / The Reporter Who Became an Environmentalist
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 9, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- warnings about the flu season ... and improvements in storm reporting. VOICE ONE: Also, a look back at the life of a news reporter who became a leading environmentalist. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Health experts in the northern part of the world say this influenza season could be especially bad. People are getting sick earlier than usual. People over age sixty-five and very young children are most at risk of dying if they get the flu. Influenza in northern countries is at its highest between December and March. In the southern half of the world, infections are highest between April and September. Doctors say they are concerned about a new form of the virus that first appeared in Fujian province, China, last year. The Fujian strain caused many cases of the flu in Australia during the recent flu season. And it is now spreading in northern countries. VOICE TWO: Public health officials say the best way to reduce the chances of getting influenza is to get a yearly flu shot. Each year, drug companies manufacture flu vaccines to protect people against current strains of influenza. The virus itself is always changing. So the vaccines change from year to year. This year’s vaccine, however, is not designed to protect against the Fujian strain. That version of the virus appeared after drug companies had already developed their vaccines for this year. But the vaccine does include similar strains common in recent years. So health experts say they believe this year’s vaccine will provide some defense against the Fujian strain. Currently, flu vaccines are injected into the skin or sprayed into the nose. Researchers are also investigating new ways to vaccinate people. VOICE ONE: There are three kinds of influenza virus. Influenza A can infect humans and animals, such as pigs, chickens and wild birds. It causes moderate to severe sickness in people of all ages. The Fujian strain is a type A influenza. Influenza B generally causes less sickness than type A. It affects only humans, mostly children. Influenza C also infects only humans, but causes very little sickness. The influenza virus enters the body through the nose or mouth. It then grows in the body for several days. Signs of influenza include a sudden high body temperature, muscle pain mostly in the back, a sore throat and an unproductive cough. Victims can remain infected for up to seven days after the virus appears. The flu can also lead to pneumonia, a bacterial infection. Hand washing and avoiding crowds are two ways to decrease the chances of getting the flu. There are lots more facts about influenza on the Web site of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The address is c-d-c dot g-o-v. VOICE TWO: In the United States alone, the flu causes thirty-six-thousand deaths in an average year. One-hundred-fourteen-thousand people get sick enough to need hospital treatment. More than half of those treated are under the age of sixty-five. The name "influenza" comes from Italy in the fifteenth century. People blamed the sickness on the influence of the stars. Experts believe the first pandemic, or worldwide spread, of influenza happened in fifteen-eighty. The Spanish flu that struck in nineteen-eighteen caused an estimated twenty-one million deaths worldwide. The CDC says flu pandemics normally happened every ten to forty years. The last one struck in nineteen-sixty-eight. That flu, first seen in Hong Kong, killed around thirty-four-thousand people worldwide. Experts say it was the mildest flu pandemic of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Weather scientists in the United States say their ability to tell the movement of ocean storms has greatly improved. One study compared recent storms in the North Atlantic with estimates of their expected movement. Early results from the study show that the average mistake for such estimates this year was the smallest ever measured. The National Hurricane Center provided information for the study. An official with the center says the ability to forecast where storms will move has improved for each of the past four years. What scientists call the active Atlantic hurricane season, the traditional period for storm activity, ended on November thirtieth. Major ocean storms in the northern half of the world usually develop in late summer or autumn over waters near the Equator. VOICE TWO: The National Center for Atmospheric Research says some hurricanes this year followed clear paths. It was easy to tell where they would go. But others followed more unusual paths. The center says differences in the way storms act from year to year can influence the quality of forecasts. But it says better forecasts of hurricane movements are a result of better computer programs. Those programs now include better wind information collected by instruments dropped by parachute into storms. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research developed these instruments. The weather experts say their ability to tell the path of a storm has improved one to two percent a year since the nineteen-sixties. In two-thousand, the National Hurricane Center began to use new computer programs to estimate the path for a forty-eight-hour period. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed these programs. Scientists say they can now forecast Atlantic storm movements thirty-five percent better than they could before. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Environmental activists have lost a leader. Ben Metcalfe died October fourteenth in his home in the Canadian province of British Colombia. He had a heart attack. He was eighty-three years old. Ben Metcalfe was a founder of Greenpeace and the first chairman of the group. He was one of the first environmental activists to use the media effectively to gain support for their cause. E. Bennett Metcalfe was born on October thirty-first, nineteen-nineteen, in Winnipeg, Canada. At sixteen, in England, he joined the Royal Air Force. He first served in India. Mahatma Gandhi was leading a peaceful independence movement. Britain was defending its colonial rule. But stories say Ben Metcalfe chose to drop bombs on empty fields instead of targets in villages. VOICE TWO: Mister Metcalfe remained in the Royal Air Force during World War Two. He was based in several countries in Africa, Asia and Europe during his nine years of service. After that, he joined the British Foreign Service as an information officer. In nineteen-forty-six, Ben Metcalfe became a sports reporter in Paris at the Continental Daily Mail. He continued as a news reporter for many years at different news organizations. He also worked as an independent reporter and as a broadcaster. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-seventy, a group of environmental activists formed a committee. They called it Don't Make a Wave. They came together to protest American nuclear weapons testing in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Later they changed the name to Greenpeace. Ben Metcalfe got involved after reporting on the committee. In nineteen-seventy-one, he and eleven other people sailed a boat toward the testing area. He used his media connections to report on the protest. He would radio his wife, Dorothy, from the boat and she would call the media. The protest added fuel to anti-nuclear demonstrations in Canada. Mister Metcalfe became the first chairman of Greenpeace. VOICE TWO: The next year, nineteen-seventy-two, he and others sailed to protest French nuclear testing in the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. That year, he also left his position as chairman. Bob Hunter, a former president of Greenpeace, says the group had gone in a new direction. But he calls Ben Metcalfe a giant and a media genius. And Greenpeace says Mister Metcalfe is one of the reasons the organization exists. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, George Grow and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. Broadcast: December 9, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- warnings about the flu season ... and improvements in storm reporting. VOICE ONE: Also, a look back at the life of a news reporter who became a leading environmentalist. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Health experts in the northern part of the world say this influenza season could be especially bad. People are getting sick earlier than usual. People over age sixty-five and very young children are most at risk of dying if they get the flu. Influenza in northern countries is at its highest between December and March. In the southern half of the world, infections are highest between April and September. Doctors say they are concerned about a new form of the virus that first appeared in Fujian province, China, last year. The Fujian strain caused many cases of the flu in Australia during the recent flu season. And it is now spreading in northern countries. VOICE TWO: Public health officials say the best way to reduce the chances of getting influenza is to get a yearly flu shot. Each year, drug companies manufacture flu vaccines to protect people against current strains of influenza. The virus itself is always changing. So the vaccines change from year to year. This year’s vaccine, however, is not designed to protect against the Fujian strain. That version of the virus appeared after drug companies had already developed their vaccines for this year. But the vaccine does include similar strains common in recent years. So health experts say they believe this year’s vaccine will provide some defense against the Fujian strain. Currently, flu vaccines are injected into the skin or sprayed into the nose. Researchers are also investigating new ways to vaccinate people. VOICE ONE: There are three kinds of influenza virus. Influenza A can infect humans and animals, such as pigs, chickens and wild birds. It causes moderate to severe sickness in people of all ages. The Fujian strain is a type A influenza. Influenza B generally causes less sickness than type A. It affects only humans, mostly children. Influenza C also infects only humans, but causes very little sickness. The influenza virus enters the body through the nose or mouth. It then grows in the body for several days. Signs of influenza include a sudden high body temperature, muscle pain mostly in the back, a sore throat and an unproductive cough. Victims can remain infected for up to seven days after the virus appears. The flu can also lead to pneumonia, a bacterial infection. Hand washing and avoiding crowds are two ways to decrease the chances of getting the flu. There are lots more facts about influenza on the Web site of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The address is c-d-c dot g-o-v. VOICE TWO: In the United States alone, the flu causes thirty-six-thousand deaths in an average year. One-hundred-fourteen-thousand people get sick enough to need hospital treatment. More than half of those treated are under the age of sixty-five. The name "influenza" comes from Italy in the fifteenth century. People blamed the sickness on the influence of the stars. Experts believe the first pandemic, or worldwide spread, of influenza happened in fifteen-eighty. The Spanish flu that struck in nineteen-eighteen caused an estimated twenty-one million deaths worldwide. The CDC says flu pandemics normally happened every ten to forty years. The last one struck in nineteen-sixty-eight. That flu, first seen in Hong Kong, killed around thirty-four-thousand people worldwide. Experts say it was the mildest flu pandemic of the twentieth century. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Weather scientists in the United States say their ability to tell the movement of ocean storms has greatly improved. One study compared recent storms in the North Atlantic with estimates of their expected movement. Early results from the study show that the average mistake for such estimates this year was the smallest ever measured. The National Hurricane Center provided information for the study. An official with the center says the ability to forecast where storms will move has improved for each of the past four years. What scientists call the active Atlantic hurricane season, the traditional period for storm activity, ended on November thirtieth. Major ocean storms in the northern half of the world usually develop in late summer or autumn over waters near the Equator. VOICE TWO: The National Center for Atmospheric Research says some hurricanes this year followed clear paths. It was easy to tell where they would go. But others followed more unusual paths. The center says differences in the way storms act from year to year can influence the quality of forecasts. But it says better forecasts of hurricane movements are a result of better computer programs. Those programs now include better wind information collected by instruments dropped by parachute into storms. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research developed these instruments. The weather experts say their ability to tell the path of a storm has improved one to two percent a year since the nineteen-sixties. In two-thousand, the National Hurricane Center began to use new computer programs to estimate the path for a forty-eight-hour period. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed these programs. Scientists say they can now forecast Atlantic storm movements thirty-five percent better than they could before. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Environmental activists have lost a leader. Ben Metcalfe died October fourteenth in his home in the Canadian province of British Colombia. He had a heart attack. He was eighty-three years old. Ben Metcalfe was a founder of Greenpeace and the first chairman of the group. He was one of the first environmental activists to use the media effectively to gain support for their cause. E. Bennett Metcalfe was born on October thirty-first, nineteen-nineteen, in Winnipeg, Canada. At sixteen, in England, he joined the Royal Air Force. He first served in India. Mahatma Gandhi was leading a peaceful independence movement. Britain was defending its colonial rule. But stories say Ben Metcalfe chose to drop bombs on empty fields instead of targets in villages. VOICE TWO: Mister Metcalfe remained in the Royal Air Force during World War Two. He was based in several countries in Africa, Asia and Europe during his nine years of service. After that, he joined the British Foreign Service as an information officer. In nineteen-forty-six, Ben Metcalfe became a sports reporter in Paris at the Continental Daily Mail. He continued as a news reporter for many years at different news organizations. He also worked as an independent reporter and as a broadcaster. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-seventy, a group of environmental activists formed a committee. They called it Don't Make a Wave. They came together to protest American nuclear weapons testing in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Later they changed the name to Greenpeace. Ben Metcalfe got involved after reporting on the committee. In nineteen-seventy-one, he and eleven other people sailed a boat toward the testing area. He used his media connections to report on the protest. He would radio his wife, Dorothy, from the boat and she would call the media. The protest added fuel to anti-nuclear demonstrations in Canada. Mister Metcalfe became the first chairman of Greenpeace. VOICE TWO: The next year, nineteen-seventy-two, he and others sailed to protest French nuclear testing in the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. That year, he also left his position as chairman. Bob Hunter, a former president of Greenpeace, says the group had gone in a new direction. But he calls Ben Metcalfe a giant and a media genius. And Greenpeace says Mister Metcalfe is one of the reasons the organization exists. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss, George Grow and Caty Weaver. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT— Biotech Corn and the EU
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 9, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Genetically engineered crops are part of American agriculture. But farmers also have to make decisions based on the markets for their crops. The market for corn, or maize, is a good example. Farmers want to increase their production. But they also want to trade in many different markets. In some cases these two desires conflict. In nineteen-ninety-eight, the European Union suspended the approval of additional products made from biotechnology. Lately E-U officials have been considering new approvals. American corn farmers are watching closely. As Farm Journal recently reported, European policy has had a big influence on what they plant. Farmers can buy several kinds of corn that are genetically changed to resist damage from insects or chemical treatments. Such kinds of crops are known as genetically modified organisms, or G-M-Os. Corn farmers who choose to plant these crops, but want to sell to the European Union, must meet E-U conditions. Sometimes, a farmer plants genetically modified corn next to the fields of a farmer who does not. Researchers have found that wind can carry the pollen up to several kilometers. The corn can partly fertilize the other crop. This gives it some of the genetically modified material. If tests show this has happened, the farmer with the other crop may not be able to sell it to the Europeans. In November of two-thousand-two, the directors of the Illinois Farm Bureau, a farmers organization, took a position. They urged farmers in the state not to plant any kind of genetically modified corn not approved by the European Union. The reason was simple. Much of the crop corn from Illinois is processed and exported to Europe. Farmers, though, are still free to plant any kind of corn they wish. The Department of Agriculture says forty percent of the corn planted in the United States this year was genetically modified. That is up from thirty-four percent in two-thousand-two. But the planting rates differ from state to state. They are lower in states that export a lot of processed corn to Europe. They are higher in states where corn is fed mainly to cattle and other animals. In South Dakota, for example, seventy-five percent of all corn planted is biotech. In Ohio, it is nine-percent. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Anniversary of Flight, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 10, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 10, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations from VOA Special English. A celebration will be held December seventeenth near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It will honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the first flight of a powered aircraft by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today we continue our report about the Wright Brothers’ famous flight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The airplane is one of the most important inventions in human history. It started a revolution in technology. It greatly increased the speed of travel. It changed the way business is done. It increased the speed of communications. It changed the way wars are fought. And it changed the way people think about the world. The science of flight made it possible for humans to leave the Earth and travel to the moon. Now scientists are planning for a future group of astronauts to visit the planet Mars. This goal of travel to another planet began with two brothers -- Wilbur and Orville Wright -- and the first powered airplane they built and flew. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our story begins on October fifth, nineteen-hundred near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur Wright flew a kind of airplane without an engine called a glider for the first time. It was not a very successful flight. Wilbur flew for about ten seconds and traveled a distance of a little less than one meter. But it was a beginning. Throughout history, many other people had tried to invent a flying machine. None was successful. The Wright Brothers began by studying the information from those who had failed. They carefully planned, built and then tried to fly bigger and better glider aircraft. They returned to Kitty Hawk the next year, nineteen-oh-one. They made thirty-nine flights that year. Wilbur made the longest. It measured one-hundred-eighteen meters. This was a great improvement. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-two the Wright Brothers returned to Kitty Hawk with a new glider. Their first flight, on September twentieth, was almost sixty-one meters. Their best flight that year was almost one-hundred-ninety meters. They made almost one-thousand flights with gliders that year. A close look at the Wright Brothers’ records shows they made progress each year. They slowly learned how to control their gliders. And with each flight, they learned a little more about how to use the controls to fly an aircraft. They returned home to Dayton, Ohio to experiment, build, test and improve their flying machine. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Kitty Hawk a year later, on September twenty-eighth, nineteen-oh-three. This time they brought a new aircraft they had built called the Flyer. It had improved controls. It had better wings. And this aircraft had a small engine and two propellers with blades that turned quickly. During the month of October they made about twenty flights with a glider to test the new controls. In November the winds near Kitty Hawk were too strong to fly the plane. On December twelfth, they decided to test the new Flyer with the engine. However, the day ended with no flight. They tried again on December fourteenth. That flight ended again in failure and with damage to the machine. They quickly repaired it. VOICE ONE: The morning of December seventeenth did not seem like a good day to fly. The weather did not want to cooperate. However, the Wright Brothers decided to test the new Flyer. At ten-thirty that morning, the brothers placed the Flyer in position on a flat piece of ground. They started the engine. Wilbur and Orville shook hands. Orville climbed on the Flyer and took hold of the controls. At ten-thirty-five, he released a wire that prevented the Flyer from moving. Slowly, it began to move -- then faster and faster. Slowly, Orville moved the controls that made the Flyer lift into the air. The flight lasted only twelve seconds and went only about thirty-seven meters before it landed safely. The brothers made four flights that day. Each was longer than the last. The fourth flight flown by Wilbur was the longest. It lasted fifty-nine seconds and traveled almost two-hundred-sixty meters. Ten years later Orville Wright spoke with a magazine reporter about those four flights. He said the flights were the first time in the history of the world that a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight. He said the Flyer had sailed forward without losing speed and landed at a point as high as that from which it had started. Orville and Wilbur Wright had showed the world how to fly. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A photograph of the Wright Brothers’ nineteen-oh-three Flyer shows a very simple machine. A strong man could easily break many of the wooden parts with only his hands. The wings are made of thin pieces of wood covered with cloth. They are held together and strengthened with wire. It seems like it should be easy to make a copy of the Wright Flyer. However, the Wright Brothers’ aircraft is not simple. It is an extremely difficult machine. It was built using the most advanced methods and technology of nineteen-oh-three. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-eight, the United States Congress approved the Centennial of Flight Commemoration Act. This was done to honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight. Part of the law called on a new committee to ask organizations and individuals across the country to take part in celebrations of the Wright Brothers’ flight. One of the organizations that chose to take part in the anniversary was the Experimental Aircraft Owners Association of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The association chose to honor the Wright Brothers by building an exact copy of the nineteen-oh-three Flyer. Their goal is to fly it at ten-thirty-five on the morning of December seventeenth, two-thousand-three. This is exactly one-hundred years after the Wright Brothers first flew their aircraft. VOICE TWO: The Experimental Aircraft Owners Association asked a small company called The Wright Experience to build a copy of the Flyer. The company is in Warrenton, Virginia. Workers at the company soon learned that it would not be easy. The Wright Brothers left few written records about how they built the Flyer. Many of the tools used to make the aircraft no longer exist. Much of the material used in the construction of the Flyer is no longer made. Ken Hyde is head of the company that was asked to build the copy of the Wright Brothers’ plane. Mister Hyde said the members of the team had to forget everything they knew about aircraft and flying. He said that to successfully build the copy they had to attack all of the problems of early flight the same way the Wright Brothers did. Mister Hyde said the team had to learn how to make each part of the plane the way the Wright Brothers did. Slowly the team built the aircraft. Experts say the Wright Experience company produced the most exact copy of the nineteen-oh-three Flyer that is possible to build. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As The Wright Experience company was building the copy of the famous plane, pilots were being trained to fly it. When a pilot plans to fly an aircraft for the first time, he or she reads the aircraft’s flight book. This book tells how the controls work. It tells how to safely take off, fly and land the aircraft. But the pilots who plan to fly the copy of the Wright Flyer have no aircraft flight book to read. No one has experience flying such an aircraft. It is also a very difficult aircraft to fly safely. VOICE TWO: Scott Crossfield is a retired test pilot with many thousands of hours testing and flying aircraft. In nineteen-fifty-three, he became the first person to fly two times faster than the speed of sound. Mister Crossfield was chosen to help train four experienced pilots to learn how to safely fly the copy of the Wright Brothers’ plane. Scott Crossfield says the plane is ready and the pilots will be ready to fly it on December seventeenth at ten-thirty-five in the morning at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations from VOA Special English. We will tell where the famous Wright Brothers Flyer is today. And we will tell about a huge new museum that will open soon to honor many famous aircraft in the history of flight. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Explorations from VOA Special English. A celebration will be held December seventeenth near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It will honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the first flight of a powered aircraft by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today we continue our report about the Wright Brothers’ famous flight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The airplane is one of the most important inventions in human history. It started a revolution in technology. It greatly increased the speed of travel. It changed the way business is done. It increased the speed of communications. It changed the way wars are fought. And it changed the way people think about the world. The science of flight made it possible for humans to leave the Earth and travel to the moon. Now scientists are planning for a future group of astronauts to visit the planet Mars. This goal of travel to another planet began with two brothers -- Wilbur and Orville Wright -- and the first powered airplane they built and flew. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Our story begins on October fifth, nineteen-hundred near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur Wright flew a kind of airplane without an engine called a glider for the first time. It was not a very successful flight. Wilbur flew for about ten seconds and traveled a distance of a little less than one meter. But it was a beginning. Throughout history, many other people had tried to invent a flying machine. None was successful. The Wright Brothers began by studying the information from those who had failed. They carefully planned, built and then tried to fly bigger and better glider aircraft. They returned to Kitty Hawk the next year, nineteen-oh-one. They made thirty-nine flights that year. Wilbur made the longest. It measured one-hundred-eighteen meters. This was a great improvement. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-oh-two the Wright Brothers returned to Kitty Hawk with a new glider. Their first flight, on September twentieth, was almost sixty-one meters. Their best flight that year was almost one-hundred-ninety meters. They made almost one-thousand flights with gliders that year. A close look at the Wright Brothers’ records shows they made progress each year. They slowly learned how to control their gliders. And with each flight, they learned a little more about how to use the controls to fly an aircraft. They returned home to Dayton, Ohio to experiment, build, test and improve their flying machine. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Kitty Hawk a year later, on September twenty-eighth, nineteen-oh-three. This time they brought a new aircraft they had built called the Flyer. It had improved controls. It had better wings. And this aircraft had a small engine and two propellers with blades that turned quickly. During the month of October they made about twenty flights with a glider to test the new controls. In November the winds near Kitty Hawk were too strong to fly the plane. On December twelfth, they decided to test the new Flyer with the engine. However, the day ended with no flight. They tried again on December fourteenth. That flight ended again in failure and with damage to the machine. They quickly repaired it. VOICE ONE: The morning of December seventeenth did not seem like a good day to fly. The weather did not want to cooperate. However, the Wright Brothers decided to test the new Flyer. At ten-thirty that morning, the brothers placed the Flyer in position on a flat piece of ground. They started the engine. Wilbur and Orville shook hands. Orville climbed on the Flyer and took hold of the controls. At ten-thirty-five, he released a wire that prevented the Flyer from moving. Slowly, it began to move -- then faster and faster. Slowly, Orville moved the controls that made the Flyer lift into the air. The flight lasted only twelve seconds and went only about thirty-seven meters before it landed safely. The brothers made four flights that day. Each was longer than the last. The fourth flight flown by Wilbur was the longest. It lasted fifty-nine seconds and traveled almost two-hundred-sixty meters. Ten years later Orville Wright spoke with a magazine reporter about those four flights. He said the flights were the first time in the history of the world that a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight. He said the Flyer had sailed forward without losing speed and landed at a point as high as that from which it had started. Orville and Wilbur Wright had showed the world how to fly. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: A photograph of the Wright Brothers’ nineteen-oh-three Flyer shows a very simple machine. A strong man could easily break many of the wooden parts with only his hands. The wings are made of thin pieces of wood covered with cloth. They are held together and strengthened with wire. It seems like it should be easy to make a copy of the Wright Flyer. However, the Wright Brothers’ aircraft is not simple. It is an extremely difficult machine. It was built using the most advanced methods and technology of nineteen-oh-three. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-eight, the United States Congress approved the Centennial of Flight Commemoration Act. This was done to honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ flight. Part of the law called on a new committee to ask organizations and individuals across the country to take part in celebrations of the Wright Brothers’ flight. One of the organizations that chose to take part in the anniversary was the Experimental Aircraft Owners Association of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The association chose to honor the Wright Brothers by building an exact copy of the nineteen-oh-three Flyer. Their goal is to fly it at ten-thirty-five on the morning of December seventeenth, two-thousand-three. This is exactly one-hundred years after the Wright Brothers first flew their aircraft. VOICE TWO: The Experimental Aircraft Owners Association asked a small company called The Wright Experience to build a copy of the Flyer. The company is in Warrenton, Virginia. Workers at the company soon learned that it would not be easy. The Wright Brothers left few written records about how they built the Flyer. Many of the tools used to make the aircraft no longer exist. Much of the material used in the construction of the Flyer is no longer made. Ken Hyde is head of the company that was asked to build the copy of the Wright Brothers’ plane. Mister Hyde said the members of the team had to forget everything they knew about aircraft and flying. He said that to successfully build the copy they had to attack all of the problems of early flight the same way the Wright Brothers did. Mister Hyde said the team had to learn how to make each part of the plane the way the Wright Brothers did. Slowly the team built the aircraft. Experts say the Wright Experience company produced the most exact copy of the nineteen-oh-three Flyer that is possible to build. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: As The Wright Experience company was building the copy of the famous plane, pilots were being trained to fly it. When a pilot plans to fly an aircraft for the first time, he or she reads the aircraft’s flight book. This book tells how the controls work. It tells how to safely take off, fly and land the aircraft. But the pilots who plan to fly the copy of the Wright Flyer have no aircraft flight book to read. No one has experience flying such an aircraft. It is also a very difficult aircraft to fly safely. VOICE TWO: Scott Crossfield is a retired test pilot with many thousands of hours testing and flying aircraft. In nineteen-fifty-three, he became the first person to fly two times faster than the speed of sound. Mister Crossfield was chosen to help train four experienced pilots to learn how to safely fly the copy of the Wright Brothers’ plane. Scott Crossfield says the plane is ready and the pilots will be ready to fly it on December seventeenth at ten-thirty-five in the morning at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations from VOA Special English. We will tell where the famous Wright Brothers Flyer is today. And we will tell about a huge new museum that will open soon to honor many famous aircraft in the history of flight. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Dental Examinations
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 10, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Teeth are an important part of any holiday celebration. After all, it's difficult to enjoy a meal without them. So this week we talk about dental health. Dentists say people should have their mouth examined about every six months to make sure their teeth are healthy. But dentists look for more than holes in teeth and problems with the gum tissue around them. Examinations are also important because they can show medical problems in other parts of the body. In fact, the mouth is considered a warning system for sickness, and more. For example, signs of damage can mean that a person has been the victim of violence. The mouth can also show that a person has an eating disorder, bulimia. People with bulimia eat large amounts of food, then force themselves to vomit. The insides of their teeth will appear worn. This is because the chemicals in stomach acid eat away the surface of the teeth. A dentist can also see in a patient’s mouth the beginning of diseases such as measles or mumps. An area of unusual skin on a patient’s lip may be a sign of syphilis, an infection spread through sex. If the patient has bone loss in the mouth, a dentist will suspect the disease diabetes. Someone whose gums appear white may have leukemia -- blood cancer. And a person whose gums appear too red may not get enough vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D causes a disease called rickets. Experts say early signs of more than forty health problems can be seen in a person’s mouth or on the tongue. These include the deadly disease AIDS and a lack of many different vitamins. When dentists recognize possible signs of disease, they send the patients for medical tests, or to a doctor for treatment. In the case of people who use tobacco, some dentists organize programs to help people stop. Smoking cigarettes can cause mouth, lung and throat cancer. It also can increase the severity of other mouth problems such as gum disease. Chewing tobacco can also cause mouth cancer. The nicotine in tobacco affects the gum and soft tissue inside the cheek. Finally, as any dentist will tell you, teeth require daily care. This means not only brushing them, but also using dental floss to help prevent gum infections. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: December 10, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Teeth are an important part of any holiday celebration. After all, it's difficult to enjoy a meal without them. So this week we talk about dental health. Dentists say people should have their mouth examined about every six months to make sure their teeth are healthy. But dentists look for more than holes in teeth and problems with the gum tissue around them. Examinations are also important because they can show medical problems in other parts of the body. In fact, the mouth is considered a warning system for sickness, and more. For example, signs of damage can mean that a person has been the victim of violence. The mouth can also show that a person has an eating disorder, bulimia. People with bulimia eat large amounts of food, then force themselves to vomit. The insides of their teeth will appear worn. This is because the chemicals in stomach acid eat away the surface of the teeth. A dentist can also see in a patient’s mouth the beginning of diseases such as measles or mumps. An area of unusual skin on a patient’s lip may be a sign of syphilis, an infection spread through sex. If the patient has bone loss in the mouth, a dentist will suspect the disease diabetes. Someone whose gums appear white may have leukemia -- blood cancer. And a person whose gums appear too red may not get enough vitamin D. Lack of vitamin D causes a disease called rickets. Experts say early signs of more than forty health problems can be seen in a person’s mouth or on the tongue. These include the deadly disease AIDS and a lack of many different vitamins. When dentists recognize possible signs of disease, they send the patients for medical tests, or to a doctor for treatment. In the case of people who use tobacco, some dentists organize programs to help people stop. Smoking cigarettes can cause mouth, lung and throat cancer. It also can increase the severity of other mouth problems such as gum disease. Chewing tobacco can also cause mouth cancer. The nicotine in tobacco affects the gum and soft tissue inside the cheek. Finally, as any dentist will tell you, teeth require daily care. This means not only brushing them, but also using dental floss to help prevent gum infections. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Experts Call for More Arts Training in U.S. Schools
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 11, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many groups are working to widen and improve teaching of the arts in American schools. A current national campaign urges Americans to demand and support more such teaching. Americans for the Arts and other activist organizations developed television messages as part of the campaign. One shows a child lacking in arts training. She asks her father to read to her. But she cannot understand or enjoy creative stories. Instead, she chooses an extremely dull book. It contains lists of legal requirements for buildings. Then an announcer says, “Art. Ask for More.” Many American school officials and community leaders strongly support arts training as necessary for children. They said so in a study published in two-thousand. The study examined ninety-one school systems in the United States. Schools in these districts had earned recognition for effective teaching of dance, music, drama and visual arts, like painting. Two groups were responsible for this study: the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and the Arts Education Partnership. The committee advises the White House about arts policy. The Arts Education Partnership is a national coalition of more than one-hundred groups. The coalition is trying to widen the influence of the arts in American life and in schools. In the nineteen-nineties, less than half of middle school students studied the arts in school. And the programs they did have were not all very good. The United States Department of Education noted this in nineteen-ninety-seven. One of its programs, the National Assessment of Education Progress, studied eighth graders across the country. The study involved more than six-thousand students in almost two-hundred-seventy schools. The assessment said they were not as well trained in the arts as they should have been. Educational experts have good things to say about students who study the arts. They say these students are more likely to do well in other subjects than other students. They are more likely to become school leaders. In addition, they do more community service. And, they are less likely to get into trouble. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 11, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. Many groups are working to widen and improve teaching of the arts in American schools. A current national campaign urges Americans to demand and support more such teaching. Americans for the Arts and other activist organizations developed television messages as part of the campaign. One shows a child lacking in arts training. She asks her father to read to her. But she cannot understand or enjoy creative stories. Instead, she chooses an extremely dull book. It contains lists of legal requirements for buildings. Then an announcer says, “Art. Ask for More.” Many American school officials and community leaders strongly support arts training as necessary for children. They said so in a study published in two-thousand. The study examined ninety-one school systems in the United States. Schools in these districts had earned recognition for effective teaching of dance, music, drama and visual arts, like painting. Two groups were responsible for this study: the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and the Arts Education Partnership. The committee advises the White House about arts policy. The Arts Education Partnership is a national coalition of more than one-hundred groups. The coalition is trying to widen the influence of the arts in American life and in schools. In the nineteen-nineties, less than half of middle school students studied the arts in school. And the programs they did have were not all very good. The United States Department of Education noted this in nineteen-ninety-seven. One of its programs, the National Assessment of Education Progress, studied eighth graders across the country. The study involved more than six-thousand students in almost two-hundred-seventy schools. The assessment said they were not as well trained in the arts as they should have been. Educational experts have good things to say about students who study the arts. They say these students are more likely to do well in other subjects than other students. They are more likely to become school leaders. In addition, they do more community service. And, they are less likely to get into trouble. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Thomas Jefferson, Part 7
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 11, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 11, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I continue the story of developments during Thomas Jefferson's second term as president. VOICE TWO: In the early Eighteen-Hundreds, Britain and France were at war with each other. The United States remained neutral. President Jefferson did not want to become involved in a war. He believed it would destroy all the progress he had made. His economic policies had helped to pay much of the national debt. And he was able to reduce taxes. Staying neutral was not easy, however. The United States was having trouble with Britain. VOICE ONE: For many years, Britain had been taking men by force to serve in its navy. The custom was called 'impressment'. Britain claimed the right to impress -- or seize -- any British citizen, anywhere. Conditions in the British navy were not good at that time, and many sailors deserted. Some went to work on American ships. The American ships were stopped and searched in British waters. Anyone born in Britain was seized. Several thousand sailors were taken off American ships during the early Eighteen-Hundreds. Sometimes, American citizens were taken by mistake. VOICE TWO: Impressment was one of two major problems the United States was having with Britain in the early Eighteen-Hundreds. The other problem was trade. Britain wanted to stop the United States from trading with France and its colonies. British warships blocked the port of New York all through the year Eighteen-Oh-Five. No American ship could leave without being searched. When goods for France were discovered, the ship was taken to Halifax on the coast of Canada. There, a British court had the power to seize the goods and force the ship's owners to pay a large amount of money. VOICE ONE: President Jefferson protested this interference in American trade. He sent James Monroe to London to negotiate a treaty. Jefferson wanted Britain to stop taking sailors from American ships, and to stop interfering in the trade of neutral nations. Monroe tried many times to discuss such an agreement. But the British foreign minister was always too busy to see him. VOICE TWO: In Washington, Congress decided to act and not wait for a treaty. The House of Representatives debated two proposals. One proposal would stop all goods from being imported into the United States from Britain and its colonies. Imports would be permitted only after Britain had answered America's protests. The representative who offered the proposal said: "We do not wish to destroy the ties that ought to join nations of the same interests. To prevent this, we want an agreement that will satisfy both the United States and Britain. But if Britain continues its hostile acts, then we must loosen these ties of friendship." VOICE ONE: Some members of Congress felt that this measure was too extreme. They believed it might lead to war with Britain. The second proposal was more moderate. It would ban only those British goods which could be gotten from other places. The House of Representatives debated the two proposals. After four months, it finally approved a ban on the import of some British goods. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson did not want the trade ban to last long. He pressed for an agreement with Britain. He sent William Pinkney to assist James Monroe in London. The two diplomats were told to make clear to Britain what it must do to end the limited ban on British imports. Britain was to stop taking sailors from American ships. It was to stop interfering with trade between the United States and the colonies of France. And it was to pay for all property seized from American ships. Monroe and Pinkney knew they could never reach an agreement if they obeyed their orders. So they decided to negotiate on their own as best they could. VOICE ONE: They dropped the demand for payment for seized property. And they accepted a note -- separate from the agreement -- about impressment. The note promised that Britain would be careful not to seize any more American sailors. At the end of December, Eighteen-Oh-Six, Monroe and Pinkney sent word to Washington that the treaty was ready. But from the way their note was written, it seemed the treaty might not be satisfactory. Secretary of State James Madison wrote back. He said if the two diplomats could get no clear agreement on the question of impressment, then the talks should end without a treaty. But it was too late. Monroe and Pinkney had signed the agreement. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson was angry. His negotiators had disobeyed his orders. He refused to send the treaty to the Senate for approval. And he said he would tell Monroe and Pinkney to re-open negotiations. Before that could happen, an incident added more fuel to the diplomatic fire. A British navy ship attacked the American navy ship "Chesapeake" while looking for deserters. Britain believed that some of the deserters were on the American ship. The United States said the men were American citizens who had been forced to serve in the British navy. It refused to return them. VOICE ONE: When the Chesapeake sailed out of American waters, the British ship tried to stop it and search it. The American captain did not stop. The British ship first fired two shots in front of the Chesapeake. Then it fired all its guns directly at the American ship. The Chesapeake was able to answer with only one gun. The American captain surrendered. News of the British attack spread quickly. President Jefferson ordered all British navy ships in American waters to leave at once. He told citizens not to aid them. And he said any person -- American or British -- who disobeyed his orders would be arrested. VOICE TWO: In London, James Monroe protested the attack on the Chesapeake. But the British foreign minister did not want to talk about the incident. Monroe saw little purpose in remaining. So he sailed for home. A few days after he left London, the British government announced a new rule. It said any American ship sailing to Europe must stop first in Britain to get permission. Ships violating the rule would be seized. Relations between the two countries had reached the breaking point. VOICE ONE: When President Jefferson learned of the new rule, he called a cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis. He said the United States had three choices: Go to war with Britain. Stop all trade with Europe. Do nothing. Jefferson supported the second choice -- a total embargo -- no trade with Europe. The president sent a special message to Congress. He proposed that no ships be permitted to enter the United States, and no ships be permitted to leave. Both houses of Congress approved Jefferson's proposal. He signed the measure in the closing days of Eighteen-Oh-Seven. VOICE TWO: Jefferson later explained why he thought the embargo was the best choice of action. He said if American ships had sailed out of American waters, they would have been seized by Britain or France. That would have forced the United States into war. Jefferson said: "It was far better to stop all communications with these nations until they returned to some sense of justice." VOICE ONE: Jefferson's decision, and continuing tense relations with Britain, caused problems through his final days as president. The situation did not improve for America's next president, James Madison. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, with Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I continue the story of developments during Thomas Jefferson's second term as president. VOICE TWO: In the early Eighteen-Hundreds, Britain and France were at war with each other. The United States remained neutral. President Jefferson did not want to become involved in a war. He believed it would destroy all the progress he had made. His economic policies had helped to pay much of the national debt. And he was able to reduce taxes. Staying neutral was not easy, however. The United States was having trouble with Britain. VOICE ONE: For many years, Britain had been taking men by force to serve in its navy. The custom was called 'impressment'. Britain claimed the right to impress -- or seize -- any British citizen, anywhere. Conditions in the British navy were not good at that time, and many sailors deserted. Some went to work on American ships. The American ships were stopped and searched in British waters. Anyone born in Britain was seized. Several thousand sailors were taken off American ships during the early Eighteen-Hundreds. Sometimes, American citizens were taken by mistake. VOICE TWO: Impressment was one of two major problems the United States was having with Britain in the early Eighteen-Hundreds. The other problem was trade. Britain wanted to stop the United States from trading with France and its colonies. British warships blocked the port of New York all through the year Eighteen-Oh-Five. No American ship could leave without being searched. When goods for France were discovered, the ship was taken to Halifax on the coast of Canada. There, a British court had the power to seize the goods and force the ship's owners to pay a large amount of money. VOICE ONE: President Jefferson protested this interference in American trade. He sent James Monroe to London to negotiate a treaty. Jefferson wanted Britain to stop taking sailors from American ships, and to stop interfering in the trade of neutral nations. Monroe tried many times to discuss such an agreement. But the British foreign minister was always too busy to see him. VOICE TWO: In Washington, Congress decided to act and not wait for a treaty. The House of Representatives debated two proposals. One proposal would stop all goods from being imported into the United States from Britain and its colonies. Imports would be permitted only after Britain had answered America's protests. The representative who offered the proposal said: "We do not wish to destroy the ties that ought to join nations of the same interests. To prevent this, we want an agreement that will satisfy both the United States and Britain. But if Britain continues its hostile acts, then we must loosen these ties of friendship." VOICE ONE: Some members of Congress felt that this measure was too extreme. They believed it might lead to war with Britain. The second proposal was more moderate. It would ban only those British goods which could be gotten from other places. The House of Representatives debated the two proposals. After four months, it finally approved a ban on the import of some British goods. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson did not want the trade ban to last long. He pressed for an agreement with Britain. He sent William Pinkney to assist James Monroe in London. The two diplomats were told to make clear to Britain what it must do to end the limited ban on British imports. Britain was to stop taking sailors from American ships. It was to stop interfering with trade between the United States and the colonies of France. And it was to pay for all property seized from American ships. Monroe and Pinkney knew they could never reach an agreement if they obeyed their orders. So they decided to negotiate on their own as best they could. VOICE ONE: They dropped the demand for payment for seized property. And they accepted a note -- separate from the agreement -- about impressment. The note promised that Britain would be careful not to seize any more American sailors. At the end of December, Eighteen-Oh-Six, Monroe and Pinkney sent word to Washington that the treaty was ready. But from the way their note was written, it seemed the treaty might not be satisfactory. Secretary of State James Madison wrote back. He said if the two diplomats could get no clear agreement on the question of impressment, then the talks should end without a treaty. But it was too late. Monroe and Pinkney had signed the agreement. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson was angry. His negotiators had disobeyed his orders. He refused to send the treaty to the Senate for approval. And he said he would tell Monroe and Pinkney to re-open negotiations. Before that could happen, an incident added more fuel to the diplomatic fire. A British navy ship attacked the American navy ship "Chesapeake" while looking for deserters. Britain believed that some of the deserters were on the American ship. The United States said the men were American citizens who had been forced to serve in the British navy. It refused to return them. VOICE ONE: When the Chesapeake sailed out of American waters, the British ship tried to stop it and search it. The American captain did not stop. The British ship first fired two shots in front of the Chesapeake. Then it fired all its guns directly at the American ship. The Chesapeake was able to answer with only one gun. The American captain surrendered. News of the British attack spread quickly. President Jefferson ordered all British navy ships in American waters to leave at once. He told citizens not to aid them. And he said any person -- American or British -- who disobeyed his orders would be arrested. VOICE TWO: In London, James Monroe protested the attack on the Chesapeake. But the British foreign minister did not want to talk about the incident. Monroe saw little purpose in remaining. So he sailed for home. A few days after he left London, the British government announced a new rule. It said any American ship sailing to Europe must stop first in Britain to get permission. Ships violating the rule would be seized. Relations between the two countries had reached the breaking point. VOICE ONE: When President Jefferson learned of the new rule, he called a cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis. He said the United States had three choices: Go to war with Britain. Stop all trade with Europe. Do nothing. Jefferson supported the second choice -- a total embargo -- no trade with Europe. The president sent a special message to Congress. He proposed that no ships be permitted to enter the United States, and no ships be permitted to leave. Both houses of Congress approved Jefferson's proposal. He signed the measure in the closing days of Eighteen-Oh-Seven. VOICE TWO: Jefferson later explained why he thought the embargo was the best choice of action. He said if American ships had sailed out of American waters, they would have been seized by Britain or France. That would have forced the United States into war. Jefferson said: "It was far better to stop all communications with these nations until they returned to some sense of justice." VOICE ONE: Jefferson's decision, and continuing tense relations with Britain, caused problems through his final days as president. The situation did not improve for America's next president, James Madison. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION, with Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - A Question About TV's 'Smallville' / Mickey Mouse's 75th Birthday / A New Album from Seal
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 12, 2003 HOST: Broadcast: December 12, 2003 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about a popular American television show. And we play music from the singer and songwriter known as Seal. But first – birthday wishes to the world's most recognizable rodent. Mickey Mouse at 75 An image from the TV show. Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we answer a question about a popular American television show. And we play music from the singer and songwriter known as Seal. But first – birthday wishes to the world's most recognizable rodent. Mickey Mouse at 75 HOST: Mickey Mouse has celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. He first appeared in November of nineteen-twenty-eight. The Disney Company honored his birthday with a big party in Orlando, Florida. Steve Ember has more about the mouse and the man who created him. ANNCR: Walt Disney was born in nineteen-oh-one. As a young man he hoped to become a movie producer or director. But he could not find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In traditional animation, cartoonists draw each image by hand. They draw picture after picture, each one a little different from the last, to create movement. Walt Disney believed animated characters could be just as popular as real actors. He decided he needed a cartoon hero. So he created Mickey Mouse. The mouse had big eyes and ears. He stood on two legs like a human. On his hands he wore white gloves. Mickey Mouse first appeared in nineteen-twenty-eight in the movie "Steamboat Willie." He was known then as Mortimer Mouse. In nineteen-thirty-two, Walt Disney produced the first cartoon filmed in the full-color process called Technicolor. This movie was called “Flowers and Trees.” It starred Mickey Mouse. Both the mouse and Walt Disney became famous. HOST: Mickey Mouse has celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday. He first appeared in November of nineteen-twenty-eight. The Disney Company honored his birthday with a big party in Orlando, Florida. Steve Ember has more about the mouse and the man who created him. ANNCR: Walt Disney was born in nineteen-oh-one. As a young man he hoped to become a movie producer or director. But he could not find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In traditional animation, cartoonists draw each image by hand. They draw picture after picture, each one a little different from the last, to create movement. Walt Disney believed animated characters could be just as popular as real actors. He decided he needed a cartoon hero. So he created Mickey Mouse. The mouse had big eyes and ears. He stood on two legs like a human. On his hands he wore white gloves. Mickey Mouse first appeared in nineteen-twenty-eight in the movie "Steamboat Willie." He was known then as Mortimer Mouse. In nineteen-thirty-two, Walt Disney produced the first cartoon filmed in the full-color process called Technicolor. This movie was called “Flowers and Trees.” It starred Mickey Mouse. Both the mouse and Walt Disney became famous. Over the years, children read Mickey Mouse comics in newspapers and played with Mickey Mouse toys. They watched the "Mickey Mouse Club" on television. People checked the time of day on their Mickey Mouse watches and used Mickey Mouse telephones. Mickey Mouse has had a lot of cultural influence. Too much, some say. But these days, products with another Disney character, Winnie the Pooh, sell better than Mickey. In two-thousand-four, the Disney Company will release the first full-length movie starring Mickey Mouse and other characters. Then, the next year, Mickey is to appear in his first computer animated film. Both movies will be released only on video. And, next summer, the United States Postal Service will start to honor Disney characters with postage stamps. Guess who goes first. Smallville and Metropolis HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dong Phuong asks about a program on Vietnamese television -- the American show "Smallville." That is the name of a town in the show. People who live there sometimes talk about a big city, Metropolis. Our listeners asks, "Where are these two places?" The answer is, nowhere. At least not on a map. Smallville is the hometown of Clark Kent, better known as ... Superman. The story of Superman goes back to nineteen-thirty-three, during the Great Depression. Jerry Siegel was a high school student in Cleveland, Ohio. He came up with the idea of an action hero named Superman. He asked his friend, Joe Shuster, to make a series of pictures to tell the story. They also formed a business, called DC Comics. The company published picture magazines for children. These comics were a popular form of entertainment during the Depression. The imaginary heroes helped people forget the poor economic times. In nineteen-thirty-eight, DC Comics published its first Superman magazine for just ten cents. Within two years there was a Superman radio program. That led to books, television shows and movies. Superman comics are sold in more than thirty countries and in many different languages. People can buy Superman clothes, toys and other products. And lately there is the TV show “Smallville.” This is where Superman grew up, a small, imaginary town in the state of Kansas. The show is about his life as a young man. During this time, he discovers who he really is and what superhuman powers he has. Superman is from the planet Krypton. When he was a boy, his father sent him to Earth to save him from an explosion that destroyed their world. John and Mary Kent, a couple in Smallville, discover him and raise him as their own. They name him Clark. In time, Clark Kent learns that he must move to the big city, Metropolis, to discover his true purpose in life. In Metropolis, he works at a newspaper -- that is, when he is not fighting evil as Superman. The woman in his life is Lois Lane, another reporter at the paper. Superman stands for "truth, justice and the American way." He has been a part of American culture for seventy years. He holds a place Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, those two boys from Ohio, never dreamed possible. Seal HOST: The singer and songwriter known as Seal has received praise from music critics and fans since his first release in nineteen-ninety-one. Now he is out with his fourth album. Phoebe Zimmerman tells us more. ANNCR: Sealhenry Samuel was born in London, to Brazilian and Nigerian parents. The forty-year-old singer calls himself a citizen of the world. His first album was called “Seal.” His second album was also called “Seal.” It was released in nineteen ninety-four. It included the hit song “Kiss from a Rose.” That song won three Grammy awards. (MUSIC) His third album was "Human Being." And now his fourth release is called “Seal IV” [Seal Four]. Fans had to wait five years for this CD. Seal says he wanted to make the album as good as it could be. Here is “Waiting for You.” (MUSIC) Seal combines popular music with soul, rock and other forms to create lively dance songs. His songs deal with social issues; "Prayer for the Dying" was about AIDS. And they tell about love. From “Seal IV" we leave you with “Get It Together.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC today and will join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss and Lawan Davis. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andrius Regis. Over the years, children read Mickey Mouse comics in newspapers and played with Mickey Mouse toys. They watched the "Mickey Mouse Club" on television. People checked the time of day on their Mickey Mouse watches and used Mickey Mouse telephones. Mickey Mouse has had a lot of cultural influence. Too much, some say. But these days, products with another Disney character, Winnie the Pooh, sell better than Mickey. In two-thousand-four, the Disney Company will release the first full-length movie starring Mickey Mouse and other characters. Then, the next year, Mickey is to appear in his first computer animated film. Both movies will be released only on video. And, next summer, the United States Postal Service will start to honor Disney characters with postage stamps. Guess who goes first. Smallville and Metropolis HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dong Phuong asks about a program on Vietnamese television -- the American show "Smallville." That is the name of a town in the show. People who live there sometimes talk about a big city, Metropolis. Our listeners asks, "Where are these two places?" The answer is, nowhere. At least not on a map. Smallville is the hometown of Clark Kent, better known as ... Superman. The story of Superman goes back to nineteen-thirty-three, during the Great Depression. Jerry Siegel was a high school student in Cleveland, Ohio. He came up with the idea of an action hero named Superman. He asked his friend, Joe Shuster, to make a series of pictures to tell the story. They also formed a business, called DC Comics. The company published picture magazines for children. These comics were a popular form of entertainment during the Depression. The imaginary heroes helped people forget the poor economic times. In nineteen-thirty-eight, DC Comics published its first Superman magazine for just ten cents. Within two years there was a Superman radio program. That led to books, television shows and movies. Superman comics are sold in more than thirty countries and in many different languages. People can buy Superman clothes, toys and other products. And lately there is the TV show “Smallville.” This is where Superman grew up, a small, imaginary town in the state of Kansas. The show is about his life as a young man. During this time, he discovers who he really is and what superhuman powers he has. Superman is from the planet Krypton. When he was a boy, his father sent him to Earth to save him from an explosion that destroyed their world. John and Mary Kent, a couple in Smallville, discover him and raise him as their own. They name him Clark. In time, Clark Kent learns that he must move to the big city, Metropolis, to discover his true purpose in life. In Metropolis, he works at a newspaper -- that is, when he is not fighting evil as Superman. The woman in his life is Lois Lane, another reporter at the paper. Superman stands for "truth, justice and the American way." He has been a part of American culture for seventy years. He holds a place Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, those two boys from Ohio, never dreamed possible. Seal HOST: The singer and songwriter known as Seal has received praise from music critics and fans since his first release in nineteen-ninety-one. Now he is out with his fourth album. Phoebe Zimmerman tells us more. ANNCR: Sealhenry Samuel was born in London, to Brazilian and Nigerian parents. The forty-year-old singer calls himself a citizen of the world. His first album was called “Seal.” His second album was also called “Seal.” It was released in nineteen ninety-four. It included the hit song “Kiss from a Rose.” That song won three Grammy awards. (MUSIC) His third album was "Human Being." And now his fourth release is called “Seal IV” [Seal Four]. Fans had to wait five years for this CD. Seal says he wanted to make the album as good as it could be. Here is “Waiting for You.” (MUSIC) Seal combines popular music with soul, rock and other forms to create lively dance songs. His songs deal with social issues; "Prayer for the Dying" was about AIDS. And they tell about love. From “Seal IV" we leave you with “Get It Together.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC today and will join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Jill Moss and Lawan Davis. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andrius Regis. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - The World Trade Organization, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 12, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. This week -- the third and final part of our series on the World Trade Organization. In September, there was a lot of news when the Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, ended without new agreements. Developing nations blamed wealthy ones; wealthy nations blamed developing ones. In any case, trade agreements take time. The last series of negotiations, called the Uruguay Round, took seven-and-a-half years. That was a lot longer than planned. But it established the World Trade Organization in nineteen-ninety-five. The Ministerial Conference represents the highest level of the WTO. A conference must take place at least once every two years. High-level officials from member nations meet and can make decisions on all trade issues. The General Council performs the everyday work of the WTO. The General Council is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The WTO has almost one-hundred-fifty members. All of the nations are represented on the General Council. One of its duties is to act as what is called the Dispute Settlement Body. The WTO makes rules, but it also tries to settle problems between members. The Dispute Settlement Body carries out hearings. The process to settle a case generally takes fifteen months. The council also acts as the Trade Policy Review Body. Below the General Council are three separate councils. These deal with trade in goods, services and intellectual property. And below these councils are many committees. Specialists from member nations take part in the work of the WTO. Each member of the World Trade Organization has an equal vote. There is no Security Council like at the United Nations, or a board of directors like at the World Bank. The WTO says everything it does is the result of negotiations. Over three-fourths of the members are developing nations. So all WTO agreements contain special provisions for them. These include longer time periods to meet the requirements. The WTO also offers training and technical assistance. One of the main ideas governing the WTO is that all members should trade equally with each other. It says trade with a member nation should be as simple as trade within a member nation. The World Trade Organization employs about five-hundred-fifty people. Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand began a three-year term as director-general in September of last year. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 11, 2003 - RepeatAfterUs.com
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: December 11, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a simple way to practice English online. RS: RepeatAfterUs.com offers copyright-free classics with audio clips. You choose from an assortment of texts, and then repeat along with a recording. AA: RepeatAfterUs.com is the brainchild of Ellie Wen. She's sixteen years old, an eleventh grader at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. Ellie Wen says the idea came from her work each Friday with the children of Spanish-speakers at a community center on Skid Row, a rough area of the city. WEN: "I like to play games with them, I tutor them, I help them with their homework. Last year I created a poetry book with them, and they wrote their own poems." AA: "And then you got the idea for English teaching. How did you come up with the idea for English teaching?" WEN: "It was kind of sad to see how hard they were struggling to learn how to speak English. And I realized that not everybody has a parent to be there to help them speak, or learn how to speak English, and that with the Internet anybody can click on and learn for themselves. The audio part was because I love performing. So I thought it was a cool idea to be part of the acting kind of community. So I could involve a lot of people at school that were in performing arts." AA: "So how did you start collecting all these -- you've got poems and you've got stories. What are some of the other kinds of texts you've got on your site?" WEN: "Well, my school community service director, Miss Jan Stewart, she gave me several great ideas, like including fairy tales. So now I have fairy tales and nursery rhymes and Aesops Fables and, like, Shakespeare's soliloquies." AA: "And how did you collect all of these and not run afoul of copyright lawyers?" WEN: "Well, I e-mailed the Library of Congress and they taught me that I can use anything that's published before 1923." AA: "Are there any texts out there that you would have liked to have included in your site but couldn't because of copyright restrictions?" WEN: "Well, there's Martin Luther King Junior's 'I Have a Dream' speech and that's still protected by copyright. But if we continue the site, someday... I still get to use, like, John F. Kennedy's 'ask not what your country can do for you' because any speech given as part of the president's job falls into the public domain." AA: "Who recorded the audio portions?" WEN: "I started out with my friends at my house. Now, the same group of friends plus more people are working on 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.' And then I moved on to my school and I've gotten teachers and faculty to record. It's a community service project at school, so people who volunteer get community service credit." AA: "And how are you spreading the word about RepeatAfterUs.com?" WEN: "I've e-mailed several American embassies and they're actually helping me collect material for a new section called Stories from Around the World.' And so I've just searched like under Google for literacy programs or ... yeah." AA: "So how many people have visited your site so far?" WEN: " ... ooh, I think five-thousand .... and ... five-thousand-six-hundred or something like that." AA: "And this has been since when?" WEN: "Since August, because the site crashed, so we had to start all over again." AA: "Oh no." WEN: "Yeah!" AA: "You didn't lose everything, though, did you?" WEN: "We lost like eighty percent of what we had." AA: "So did you have to re -- " WEN: "I had to retype everything." AA: "Oh no." WEN: "But the recordings stayed, so that was good." AA: "Have you gotten any e-mail from fans of your site?" WEN: "Yeah, and I've posted a lot of e-mails back on our feedback section." AA: "And what do people like about it?" WEN: "They like the fact that everybody involved with the project seems very interested in it. And, they can tell that we all have a passion for the same thing." AA: "Do you want to talk, say anything else about your site or about what people can find there?" WEN: "Umm ... well, for anybody who's going to visit the site now, I'm really sorry if something doesn't function properly, because we work on the site every day. So chances are we're already trying to fix it. So, basically, please don't give up on us!" RS: Sixteen-year-old Ellie Wen in Los Angeles is the founder and manager of RepeatAfterUs.com -- we'll put a link on our site. As for a career, she wants to be either a teacher or an actress. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on COAST TO COAST: December 11, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a simple way to practice English online. RS: RepeatAfterUs.com offers copyright-free classics with audio clips. You choose from an assortment of texts, and then repeat along with a recording. AA: RepeatAfterUs.com is the brainchild of Ellie Wen. She's sixteen years old, an eleventh grader at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. Ellie Wen says the idea came from her work each Friday with the children of Spanish-speakers at a community center on Skid Row, a rough area of the city. WEN: "I like to play games with them, I tutor them, I help them with their homework. Last year I created a poetry book with them, and they wrote their own poems." AA: "And then you got the idea for English teaching. How did you come up with the idea for English teaching?" WEN: "It was kind of sad to see how hard they were struggling to learn how to speak English. And I realized that not everybody has a parent to be there to help them speak, or learn how to speak English, and that with the Internet anybody can click on and learn for themselves. The audio part was because I love performing. So I thought it was a cool idea to be part of the acting kind of community. So I could involve a lot of people at school that were in performing arts." AA: "So how did you start collecting all these -- you've got poems and you've got stories. What are some of the other kinds of texts you've got on your site?" WEN: "Well, my school community service director, Miss Jan Stewart, she gave me several great ideas, like including fairy tales. So now I have fairy tales and nursery rhymes and Aesops Fables and, like, Shakespeare's soliloquies." AA: "And how did you collect all of these and not run afoul of copyright lawyers?" WEN: "Well, I e-mailed the Library of Congress and they taught me that I can use anything that's published before 1923." AA: "Are there any texts out there that you would have liked to have included in your site but couldn't because of copyright restrictions?" WEN: "Well, there's Martin Luther King Junior's 'I Have a Dream' speech and that's still protected by copyright. But if we continue the site, someday... I still get to use, like, John F. Kennedy's 'ask not what your country can do for you' because any speech given as part of the president's job falls into the public domain." AA: "Who recorded the audio portions?" WEN: "I started out with my friends at my house. Now, the same group of friends plus more people are working on 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.' And then I moved on to my school and I've gotten teachers and faculty to record. It's a community service project at school, so people who volunteer get community service credit." AA: "And how are you spreading the word about RepeatAfterUs.com?" WEN: "I've e-mailed several American embassies and they're actually helping me collect material for a new section called Stories from Around the World.' And so I've just searched like under Google for literacy programs or ... yeah." AA: "So how many people have visited your site so far?" WEN: " ... ooh, I think five-thousand .... and ... five-thousand-six-hundred or something like that." AA: "And this has been since when?" WEN: "Since August, because the site crashed, so we had to start all over again." AA: "Oh no." WEN: "Yeah!" AA: "You didn't lose everything, though, did you?" WEN: "We lost like eighty percent of what we had." AA: "So did you have to re -- " WEN: "I had to retype everything." AA: "Oh no." WEN: "But the recordings stayed, so that was good." AA: "Have you gotten any e-mail from fans of your site?" WEN: "Yeah, and I've posted a lot of e-mails back on our feedback section." AA: "And what do people like about it?" WEN: "They like the fact that everybody involved with the project seems very interested in it. And, they can tell that we all have a passion for the same thing." AA: "Do you want to talk, say anything else about your site or about what people can find there?" WEN: "Umm ... well, for anybody who's going to visit the site now, I'm really sorry if something doesn't function properly, because we work on the site every day. So chances are we're already trying to fix it. So, basically, please don't give up on us!" RS: Sixteen-year-old Ellie Wen in Los Angeles is the founder and manager of RepeatAfterUs.com -- we'll put a link on our site. As for a career, she wants to be either a teacher or an actress. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - Shirin Ebadi Receives Nobel Peace Prize, Criticizes West
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 13, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with In the News, in VOA Special English. Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi has become the first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She accepted the award for two-thousand-three at a ceremony Wednesday in Oslo, Norway. The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presented her with a gold medal and a prize award worth more than one-million dollars. Shirin Ebadi is fifty-six years old. She received the prize for her efforts to fight for democracy and the rights of women and children in Iran. As a lawyer, Mizz Ebadi has opposed the actions of judges and political officials. She has represented political prisoners and the victims of political violence in Iran. She has received death threats as a result of her activities. Mizz Ebadi became the first female judge in Iran in nineteen-seventy-five. Four years later, after the Islamic revolution, the new leaders declared that women could not carry out such responsibilities. She had to resign. In nineteen-ninety-nine, government supporters killed several students at Tehran University. Mizz Ebadi successfully campaigned to identify those responsible. The next year, she was jailed for three weeks on charges of criticizing Islamic government officials. Mizz Ebadi teaches at the University of Tehran and continues to work as a lawyer. She also is the founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children’s Rights in Iran. And she has written several books on human rights. Shirin Ebadi was chosen for the Nobel prize in October. Since then, Iranian reformers have called on her to do more to get the unelected religious leaders in Iran to support change. Opponents of change have accused her of secretly working for Western interests. In her acceptance speech this week, she said the Peace Prize would help influence other women in Islamic countries to seek their rights. She denounced Islamic leaders who use religion as an excuse for dictatorship. But Mizz Ebadi had stronger criticism of Western nations. She indirectly accused the United States and its allies of using the war on terrorism as an excuse to violate international law and human rights. She asked why U-N resolutions on the Palestinians have not been fully enforced, while those on Iraq have. And she criticized the treatment of terrorist suspects jailed at the United States naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A five-member Nobel committee chose Mizz Ebadi for the award. Former American President Jimmy Carter won the Peace Prize last year. The Nobel prizes were first awarded in nineteen-oh-one. They are presented each year on December tenth. In a separate ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, ten other Nobel winners this year received awards in literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Bille Holiday
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 14, 2003 (THEME) Lester Young and Billie Holiday Broadcast: December 14, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. This week, we tell about Billie Holiday. She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America. ((MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was Billie Holiday singing one of her famous songs. She and Arthur Herzog wrote it. Billie Holiday's life was a mixture of success and tragedy. Her singing expressed her experiences and her feelings. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Nineteen-Fifteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. They were young when their daughter was born. Their marriage failed because Clarence Holiday was not at home much. He traveled as a musician with some of the earliest jazz bands. Sadie Fagan cleaned people's houses. But she could not support her family on the money she earned. So she moved to New York City where the pay was higher. She left her daughter in Baltimore with members of her family. VOICE ONE: The young girl Eleanora Fagan changed her name to Billie, because she liked a movie star, Billie Dove. Billie Holiday loved to sing. She sang and listened to music whenever she could. One place near her home had a machine that played records. The building was a brothel where women who were prostitutes had sex with men for money. Billie cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the Nineteen-Twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence on her. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday once said, "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is all I know." Here is Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the Nineteen-Thirties, "More Than You Know." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Billie Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a prison for children. In Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was arrested and spent four months in prison. VOICE TWO: Two years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work. Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and listen to music. For the next seventeen years, Holiday was one of the most popular nightclub singers in New York. She always wore a long white evening dress. And she wore large white flowers in her black hair. She called herself "Lady Day." VOICE ONE: In the early Nineteen-Thirties, a music producer, John Hammond, heard Billie Holiday sing in a nightclub. He called her the best jazz singer he had ever heard. He brought famous people to hear her sing. Hammond produced Holiday's first records. He got the best jazz musicians to play. They included Benny Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Ben Webster on saxophone. They recorded many famous songs with Billie Holiday. "I Wished on the Moon" is one of them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Billy Holiday sang with Artie Shaw's band as it traveled around the United States. She was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band. But racial separation laws in America made travel difficult for her. During this time, a new nightclub opened in the area of New York called Greenwich Village. It was the first club that had both black and white performers. And it welcomed both black and white people to hear the performers. The nightclub was called Cafe Society. It was here that Billy Holiday first sang a song called "Strange Fruit." A school teacher named Lewis Allan had written it for her. The song was about injustice and oppression of black people in the southern part of the United States. It told about how mobs of white men had killed black men by hanging them from trees. Many people objected to the song. It was unlike any other popular song. But it was a huge hit. Here is Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the Nineteen-Forties, Holiday started using the illegal drug heroin. Soon her body needed more and more of the drug. It began to affect her health. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing illegal drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. When she was released, New York City officials refused to give her a document that permitted her to work in any place that served alcoholic drinks. This meant Holiday no longer could sing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. She could sing only in theaters and concert halls. Ten days after her release from jail, she performed at New York's famous Carnegie Hall. People filled the place to hear her sing. This is one of the songs she sang at that concert. It is called "I Cover the Waterfront." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, Billie Holiday wrote a book about her life. The book was called “Lady Sings the Blues.” A friend at the New York Post newspaper, William Dufty, helped her write the book. A few months later, she was arrested again for possessing illegal drugs. But instead of going to prison, she was permitted to seek treatment to end her dependence on drugs. The treatment was successful. That same year, she performed her second concert at Carnegie Hall. Here is one of the songs Holiday sang that night. It is called "Lady Sings the Blues." She and Herbie Nichols wrote it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Billy Holiday's health was ruined by using illegal drugs and by drinking too much alcohol. Her last performance was in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. She had to be led off the stage after singing two songs. She died that year. She was only forty-four. But Lady Day lives on through her recordings that continue to influence the best jazz singers. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. This week, we tell about Billie Holiday. She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America. ((MUSIC) VOICE ONE: That was Billie Holiday singing one of her famous songs. She and Arthur Herzog wrote it. Billie Holiday's life was a mixture of success and tragedy. Her singing expressed her experiences and her feelings. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Nineteen-Fifteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. They were young when their daughter was born. Their marriage failed because Clarence Holiday was not at home much. He traveled as a musician with some of the earliest jazz bands. Sadie Fagan cleaned people's houses. But she could not support her family on the money she earned. So she moved to New York City where the pay was higher. She left her daughter in Baltimore with members of her family. VOICE ONE: The young girl Eleanora Fagan changed her name to Billie, because she liked a movie star, Billie Dove. Billie Holiday loved to sing. She sang and listened to music whenever she could. One place near her home had a machine that played records. The building was a brothel where women who were prostitutes had sex with men for money. Billie cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the Nineteen-Twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence on her. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday once said, "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is all I know." Here is Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the Nineteen-Thirties, "More Than You Know." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Billie Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a prison for children. In Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was arrested and spent four months in prison. VOICE TWO: Two years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work. Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and listen to music. For the next seventeen years, Holiday was one of the most popular nightclub singers in New York. She always wore a long white evening dress. And she wore large white flowers in her black hair. She called herself "Lady Day." VOICE ONE: In the early Nineteen-Thirties, a music producer, John Hammond, heard Billie Holiday sing in a nightclub. He called her the best jazz singer he had ever heard. He brought famous people to hear her sing. Hammond produced Holiday's first records. He got the best jazz musicians to play. They included Benny Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Ben Webster on saxophone. They recorded many famous songs with Billie Holiday. "I Wished on the Moon" is one of them. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Billy Holiday sang with Artie Shaw's band as it traveled around the United States. She was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band. But racial separation laws in America made travel difficult for her. During this time, a new nightclub opened in the area of New York called Greenwich Village. It was the first club that had both black and white performers. And it welcomed both black and white people to hear the performers. The nightclub was called Cafe Society. It was here that Billy Holiday first sang a song called "Strange Fruit." A school teacher named Lewis Allan had written it for her. The song was about injustice and oppression of black people in the southern part of the United States. It told about how mobs of white men had killed black men by hanging them from trees. Many people objected to the song. It was unlike any other popular song. But it was a huge hit. Here is Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit." (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In the Nineteen-Forties, Holiday started using the illegal drug heroin. Soon her body needed more and more of the drug. It began to affect her health. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing illegal drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. When she was released, New York City officials refused to give her a document that permitted her to work in any place that served alcoholic drinks. This meant Holiday no longer could sing in nightclubs and jazz clubs. She could sing only in theaters and concert halls. Ten days after her release from jail, she performed at New York's famous Carnegie Hall. People filled the place to hear her sing. This is one of the songs she sang at that concert. It is called "I Cover the Waterfront." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, Billie Holiday wrote a book about her life. The book was called “Lady Sings the Blues.” A friend at the New York Post newspaper, William Dufty, helped her write the book. A few months later, she was arrested again for possessing illegal drugs. But instead of going to prison, she was permitted to seek treatment to end her dependence on drugs. The treatment was successful. That same year, she performed her second concert at Carnegie Hall. Here is one of the songs Holiday sang that night. It is called "Lady Sings the Blues." She and Herbie Nichols wrote it. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Billy Holiday's health was ruined by using illegal drugs and by drinking too much alcohol. Her last performance was in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. She had to be led off the stage after singing two songs. She died that year. She was only forty-four. But Lady Day lives on through her recordings that continue to influence the best jazz singers. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – Philanthropy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 15, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: This week, we tell about philanthropy in the United States. (THEME) VOICE TWO: "Philanthropy" comes from Latin and Greek. It means a love of humankind, especially as shown through an act like giving to charity groups. Charities collect money to help the sick and needy, to support the arts and to aid other causes. VOICE ONE: Experts say philanthropy has played an increasing part in American society since the eighteen-sixties. These days, rich people like Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, and media businessman Ted Turner make news with their gifts to charity. But fundraising experts say about seventy percent of households give donations to non-profit groups during any given year. This time of year, around the holidays, is an important time for charity appeals. The United States has nine-hundred-thousand charities listed with the federal tax agency. If churches and other religious congregations are included, the number is almost one-and-a-half million. VOICE TWO: A report called “Giving USA” estimates how much individuals, companies and others give to charity. In two-thousand-two, the amount reached almost two-hundred-forty-one-thousand-million dollars. This was an increase of one percent over two-thousand-one. If inflation is considered, giving decreased by half of one percent. Still, the group that releases the yearly report called the level historic. An official noted that it came during a year of economic difficulties and other worries. VOICE ONE: "Giving USA" is released by the Trust for Philanthropy of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel. The Center on Philanthropy at the University of Indiana does the research and writes the findings. Publications about philanthropy list the fifty charities that receive the largest income. The list includes organizations that aid social, financial and development agencies and religious groups. Other charities on the list help support hospitals and disease research. Still others aid public broadcasting, museums and the performing arts. (MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Publications say the National Council of Young Men’s Christian Associations was the top-income charity for two-thousand-two. YMCA’s have grown to offer many services. These include health care for children and older people and international education. The publications say the American Red Cross had the second largest income for two-thousand-two. The Red Cross provides blood and tissue products. It trains millions of people in lifesaving skills. And its volunteers give their time to aid victims of floods, fires and other terrible events. VOICE ONE: Catholic Charities USA placed third on the list of income received in two-thousand-two. Social service agencies connected to Catholic Charities help people of all religions. Number fifty on the list of the fifty top-income charities last year was the National Mental Health Association. This is the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit group that deals with mental health. More than three-hundred-forty allied organizations work to improve mental health through activism, education, and research. VOICE TWO: Charities collect donations in many ways. Often they ask by mail. Others use the telephone. The Internet is another way. People who give money to charities can reduce their taxes. But government officials warn people to be careful, like after the wildfires this autumn in Southern California. Not all groups that appeal for money are honest. Even with honest groups, there is always the question of how they use the money they collect. Officials say people should ask how much a charity spends on itself for administrative costs. VOICE ONE: Many Americans give to a combined charity at work. For example, the United Way operates in about one-thousand-four-hundred cities. Its yearly campaigns combine the needs of many charities. Some charities hold dinners and dances to raise money. Others hold auctions. People compete to offer the highest price for artworks and other objects. Young people serve charities in many ways. They hold community parties, wash cars and sell foods they make. Charities often organize walks or races to raise money. The March of Dimes, for example, holds more than one-thousand walks each year. One of the main jobs of this group is to raise money for research into ways to prevent babies from being born too soon. VOICE TWO: The March of Dimes walking event is called WalkAmerica. It takes place in all fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The walks began thirty-three years ago. Since then, WalkAmerica has raised more than one-thousand-million dollars. Adults and children take part in the walks. Walkers ask family members and friends to make a gift to the March of Dimes. Others who want to help can offer their time to help administer WalkAmerica events. VOICE ONE: Some charity experts say walks, races and other such events do not always raise much money. They say the success depends on the weather, the economy and the competition from other events at the same time. But other experts point to reasons besides money for holding such events. For example, a runner in a race for AIDS research and treatment can learn more about the disease. Media reporting on the event can also increase public interest in supporting the charity. VOICE TWO: There are other reasons that people get involved in charity events. For example, there is a retired Army officer in Washington, D.C., who always walks in events to aid research and treatment of breast cancer. His wife died of the disease several years ago. The man says he walks to honor his wife’s memory and to help protect the health of his daughters. He says, “It feels good to fight back.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Actors, athletes and other famous people have helped launch efforts for many causes. Support from celebrities helped Gary and Susan Ellis of Florida start a charity that now receives millions of dollars. Their daughter Nicole was born nineteen years ago. She is now a college student. But she has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that affects the lungs and other organs. Currently, even with the best treatment, Nicole cannot expect to live a long life. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation says the average lifetime of a person with this disease is thirty-two years. Still, many years ago, most children with cystic fibrosis never reached the age of seven. VOICE TWO: Nicole’s father is captain of a fishing boat in the Florida Keys. After learning of her sickness, Gary Ellis asked for help from some people who liked to fish. These included the great baseball players Ted Williams and, later, Joe DiMaggio. They and other celebrities helped start a fishing competition to raise money for cystic fibrosis. That was in nineteen-eighty-eight. With time, the competition became known as the Redbone Celebrity Tournament Series. It raises money for research and treatment of cystic fibrosis. VOICE ONE: Businesses, students and even very young children raise money for charity. Some people leave their money or property to charities when they die. In doing these things, all of these people are following a tradition many centuries old. For example, ancient Israelities were asked to pay a tax to help poor people. In ancient Egypt and Greece, ruling families helped establish libraries and universities. Churches in Europe supported hospitals and homes for children with no parents. In the United States, gifts from private citizens helped establish many early colleges, churches and hospitals. And today many of these places continue to depend at least in part on philanthropy. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - A Plan to Study Autism / The Debate over Glofish / Squirrels and Healthy Forests
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 16, 2003 (THEME) (Photo - glofish.com) Broadcast: December 16, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- a research plan for autism ... and, a look at how a small animal can have a big influence on future forests. VOICE ONE: Also ... a small fish lands in the news for a reason that will be easy to see. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Autism is a brain disorder. It first appears in children. The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States says autism usually affects three abilities. These are the ability to communicate, form personal relationships and react in a normal way to the environment. Scientists know that genetics play a part, but much else remains a mystery. The United States government has announced a ten-year plan to study autism. The plan is called a "roadmap" to guide research by government and private scientists. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education organized a conference last month in Washington. The meeting brought together autism experts, activists and government officials. VOICE ONE: The level of disability among autistic people can differ greatly. Some may have complete command of speech and no lack of intelligence. Others may not speak at all. Still others may be mentally slow, or unable to stop themselves from repetitive actions. Autistic people may have an unusual ability to remember numbers and facts -- people's birthdays, for example. Autistic children often seem in their own world. A young baby may not look at people. A child may act aggressive suddenly. VOICE TWO: Normal children generally are uncomfortable with strangers. Or they might cry when their parents leave them. But a child with autism might not seem to show interest in other people. Parents of autistic children usually notice communication and language problems in their child by the age of three. Autism experts say about half of children identified as autistic never learn to speak. Others learn to speak, but the ability may develop later than normal. Speakers may not form meaningful sentences. Or they might simply repeat what others say. VOICE ONE: In the United States, many children with autism attend school with other students, although with special education. How well people with autism do in life depends, of course, on the severity of their condition. But autism organizations agree there are too few services to help. Officials in the United States say the roadmap for research aims to change that. It calls for federal agencies, autism organizations and researchers to work together closely for the next ten years. One goal is to find the cause of autism. Another is to develop a test to identify the disorder in young babies. VOICE TWO: Experts generally agree that early intervention is important, even with the limited ways to deal with autism. For example, there are special teaching methods for children. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States has not approved any medicines for autism. But doctors may give drugs used to treat other disorders. These can help control repetitive actions, for example, or aggression. The roadmap for research also calls on medical researchers to seek ways to prevent at least some kinds of autism. VOICE ONE: The government says autism affects about one to two people in every thousand. Out of almost three-hundred-million Americans, that would be as many as about six-hundred-thousand cases. But the Autism Society of America says an estimated one-and-a-half-million Americans have some form of autism. And the group says the problem is growing. Experts, though, say greater public interest and better identification methods may have helped increase the number of cases reported. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In January, pet stores in the United States are to begin selling a new kind of fish. It is a zebra fish. Zebra fish are not new. What is new is people will not need a lighted fish tank to see it in a dark room. This fish lights up red. It is called the GloFish. And it is the first creature to be sold as a genetically engineered house pet. Scientists in Singapore developed the fish to use in searches for environmental poisons in waterways. They took a color gene from sea coral and placed it into zebra fish egg cells. A genetically changed zebra fish produces babies that also glow. VOICE ONE: Scientists often use zebra fish in genetics work. The fish cost less and are easier to care for than mice and other laboratory animals. Scientists say zebra fish are especially helpful in a new science called proteomics, or post-genomics. It deals with the duties of proteins as they relate to genes. Fluorescent fish also have been helpful in the study of disease and physical development. And now some people want them as pets. Fluorescent fish went on sale earlier this year in Taiwan. VOICE TWO: Recently a company in the United States decided to raise and sell fluorescent zebra fish. Yorktown Technologies is based in Texas. GloFish are raised at a fish farm in Florida. The marketers say the fish are just like normal zebra fish, except they glow. They say the fish are not harmed and are as healthy as other zebra fish. Not everyone thinks GloFish are such a bright idea. California has decided not to permit sales in that state. California bans the sale of animals created by genetic engineering except in some cases. Exceptions are made for scientific purposes, or if there is proof it will not harm the general animal population. VOICE ONE: Scientists told the California Fish and Game Commission there was no danger if the GloFish escaped into waterways. But the chairman said it was not a question of science. He said selling genetically engineered fish as pets is wrong. Greenpeace and other groups say the federal government should control sales of the GloFish. Last week the government said no. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Winter begins in the north on December twenty-second. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels, for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect. They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to show how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests. Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The findings are in the Canadian Journal of Zoology. VOICE ONE: The two researcher estimate that seven times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they rarely remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls these "death traps for seeds." VOICE TWO: Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more and more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century. The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the clearing of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- a research plan for autism ... and, a look at how a small animal can have a big influence on future forests. VOICE ONE: Also ... a small fish lands in the news for a reason that will be easy to see. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Autism is a brain disorder. It first appears in children. The National Institute of Mental Health in the United States says autism usually affects three abilities. These are the ability to communicate, form personal relationships and react in a normal way to the environment. Scientists know that genetics play a part, but much else remains a mystery. The United States government has announced a ten-year plan to study autism. The plan is called a "roadmap" to guide research by government and private scientists. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education organized a conference last month in Washington. The meeting brought together autism experts, activists and government officials. VOICE ONE: The level of disability among autistic people can differ greatly. Some may have complete command of speech and no lack of intelligence. Others may not speak at all. Still others may be mentally slow, or unable to stop themselves from repetitive actions. Autistic people may have an unusual ability to remember numbers and facts -- people's birthdays, for example. Autistic children often seem in their own world. A young baby may not look at people. A child may act aggressive suddenly. VOICE TWO: Normal children generally are uncomfortable with strangers. Or they might cry when their parents leave them. But a child with autism might not seem to show interest in other people. Parents of autistic children usually notice communication and language problems in their child by the age of three. Autism experts say about half of children identified as autistic never learn to speak. Others learn to speak, but the ability may develop later than normal. Speakers may not form meaningful sentences. Or they might simply repeat what others say. VOICE ONE: In the United States, many children with autism attend school with other students, although with special education. How well people with autism do in life depends, of course, on the severity of their condition. But autism organizations agree there are too few services to help. Officials in the United States say the roadmap for research aims to change that. It calls for federal agencies, autism organizations and researchers to work together closely for the next ten years. One goal is to find the cause of autism. Another is to develop a test to identify the disorder in young babies. VOICE TWO: Experts generally agree that early intervention is important, even with the limited ways to deal with autism. For example, there are special teaching methods for children. The Food and Drug Administration in the United States has not approved any medicines for autism. But doctors may give drugs used to treat other disorders. These can help control repetitive actions, for example, or aggression. The roadmap for research also calls on medical researchers to seek ways to prevent at least some kinds of autism. VOICE ONE: The government says autism affects about one to two people in every thousand. Out of almost three-hundred-million Americans, that would be as many as about six-hundred-thousand cases. But the Autism Society of America says an estimated one-and-a-half-million Americans have some form of autism. And the group says the problem is growing. Experts, though, say greater public interest and better identification methods may have helped increase the number of cases reported. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In January, pet stores in the United States are to begin selling a new kind of fish. It is a zebra fish. Zebra fish are not new. What is new is people will not need a lighted fish tank to see it in a dark room. This fish lights up red. It is called the GloFish. And it is the first creature to be sold as a genetically engineered house pet. Scientists in Singapore developed the fish to use in searches for environmental poisons in waterways. They took a color gene from sea coral and placed it into zebra fish egg cells. A genetically changed zebra fish produces babies that also glow. VOICE ONE: Scientists often use zebra fish in genetics work. The fish cost less and are easier to care for than mice and other laboratory animals. Scientists say zebra fish are especially helpful in a new science called proteomics, or post-genomics. It deals with the duties of proteins as they relate to genes. Fluorescent fish also have been helpful in the study of disease and physical development. And now some people want them as pets. Fluorescent fish went on sale earlier this year in Taiwan. VOICE TWO: Recently a company in the United States decided to raise and sell fluorescent zebra fish. Yorktown Technologies is based in Texas. GloFish are raised at a fish farm in Florida. The marketers say the fish are just like normal zebra fish, except they glow. They say the fish are not harmed and are as healthy as other zebra fish. Not everyone thinks GloFish are such a bright idea. California has decided not to permit sales in that state. California bans the sale of animals created by genetic engineering except in some cases. Exceptions are made for scientific purposes, or if there is proof it will not harm the general animal population. VOICE ONE: Scientists told the California Fish and Game Commission there was no danger if the GloFish escaped into waterways. But the chairman said it was not a question of science. He said selling genetically engineered fish as pets is wrong. Greenpeace and other groups say the federal government should control sales of the GloFish. Last week the government said no. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Winter begins in the north on December twenty-second. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels, for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect. They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to show how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests. Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The findings are in the Canadian Journal of Zoology. VOICE ONE: The two researcher estimate that seven times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they rarely remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls these "death traps for seeds." VOICE TWO: Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more and more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century. The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the clearing of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and George Grow. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Red Cross/Red Crescent Seeks a Third Symbol
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 15, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The sign of the red cross and red crescent is meant to offer neutrality and protection to victims of war. It is also supposed to protect the humanitarian workers who come to their aid. These emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement date back more than one-hundred years. The first Geneva Convention in Switzerland in eighteen-sixty-four approved a red cross on a white background. In eighteen-seventy-six, the Ottoman Empire used the emblem of a red crescent during its war with Russia. That emblem became recognized in the nineteen-twenty-nine Geneva Convention. So was the emblem of the red lion and sun of Persia. Today, only the red cross and red crescent are in use. Rules to define how the emblems can be used are in the nineteen-forty-nine Geneva Convention. Medical workers, hospitals and aid stations, and emergency vehicles are permitted to use an emblem for protection. But the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement says its emblem is under increasing attack by extremists and armed groups. Officials say some people link it to Christianity or national causes. The movement has proposed to create a third emblem. More than one-thousand-five-hundred representatives approved a resolution on this issue at a conference in Geneva earlier this month. Officials say they hope the action will speed the admission of more groups as full members of the movement. These currently use national emblems. Israel’s Magen David [DAH-veed] Adom is the most debated case. The emergency medical service uses a red, six-pointed Star of David. Officials say the third emblem, whatever it is, must have the ability to be used in unlimited ways around the world. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross says it must be free of any religious or national connections. The efforts have been delayed by the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian violence in two-thousand. Calls for a third emblem have increased since the bombing of the Red Cross headquarters in Baghdad in October. Twelve people were killed. To add a new emblem, Switzerland would need to call a conference of all one-hundred-eighty-eight nations that have signed the Geneva Convention. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: December 15, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. The sign of the red cross and red crescent is meant to offer neutrality and protection to victims of war. It is also supposed to protect the humanitarian workers who come to their aid. These emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement date back more than one-hundred years. The first Geneva Convention in Switzerland in eighteen-sixty-four approved a red cross on a white background. In eighteen-seventy-six, the Ottoman Empire used the emblem of a red crescent during its war with Russia. That emblem became recognized in the nineteen-twenty-nine Geneva Convention. So was the emblem of the red lion and sun of Persia. Today, only the red cross and red crescent are in use. Rules to define how the emblems can be used are in the nineteen-forty-nine Geneva Convention. Medical workers, hospitals and aid stations, and emergency vehicles are permitted to use an emblem for protection. But the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement says its emblem is under increasing attack by extremists and armed groups. Officials say some people link it to Christianity or national causes. The movement has proposed to create a third emblem. More than one-thousand-five-hundred representatives approved a resolution on this issue at a conference in Geneva earlier this month. Officials say they hope the action will speed the admission of more groups as full members of the movement. These currently use national emblems. Israel’s Magen David [DAH-veed] Adom is the most debated case. The emergency medical service uses a red, six-pointed Star of David. Officials say the third emblem, whatever it is, must have the ability to be used in unlimited ways around the world. The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross says it must be free of any religious or national connections. The efforts have been delayed by the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian violence in two-thousand. Calls for a third emblem have increased since the bombing of the Red Cross headquarters in Baghdad in October. Twelve people were killed. To add a new emblem, Switzerland would need to call a conference of all one-hundred-eighty-eight nations that have signed the Geneva Convention. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — Christmas Trees
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 16, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many people do not think of trees as a crop. But Christmas trees are a crop just like any other. In the United States alone, people last year bought more than one-thousand-million dollars worth of Christmas trees. The traditional tree for the holiday is a fir, spruce or pine. These stay green all year. Evergreens have thin needles instead of leaves. This prevents the loss of water during dry or cold periods. This quality makes evergreens the perfect choice for use. They can stay green for many weeks, even after being cut. Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest, is the biggest grower of Christmas trees in the United States. Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are also major growers. There are more than fifteen-thousand tree farms in the United States and Canada. More than four-hundred-thousand hectares of Christmas trees are planted. The trees take an average of seven years until they are ready for harvest. Up to five thousand trees can be grown on a single hectare. Every year, more than seventy-million Christmas trees are planted. Growers plant at least two new trees for every one they harvest. The Agriculture Department says eighty percent of homes in the United States have some kind of Christmas tree. Unlike other crops, Christmas trees have a competitor made of plastic. They never turn brown, and can be used from year to year. In nineteen-eighty-nine, sales of natural trees and artificial trees were equal. By two-thousand, however, sixty-one percent of the trees sold were plastic. The number of real Christmas trees sold has decreased in recent years. Fewer hectares are being planted in Canada. But the price of Christmas trees has continued to increase. The average tree costs about thirty-six dollars. Poinsettia plants are increasingly popular at Christmas. But sales are small compared to trees. The tradition of the Christmas tree is said to have begun in Germany hundreds of years ago. People put fruits and nuts, paper flowers and other objects on the tree to make it more beautiful. German settlers brought the tradition to America in the middle of the eighteen-hundreds. At the time, people cut trees from forests. Over time, Christmas tree farming developed and grew into an industry. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS  - Flight Anniversary, Part 3
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 17, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 17, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we bring you the third program in our series that honors the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. It took place one-hundred years ago today. We will tell more about their famous aircraft. And we will tell about a new museum that has hundreds of aircraft important in the history of flight. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we bring you the third program in our series that honors the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. It took place one-hundred years ago today. We will tell more about their famous aircraft. And we will tell about a new museum that has hundreds of aircraft important in the history of flight. VOICE ONE: Let us go back to July, nineteen-sixty-nine. The Apollo Eleven spacecraft has left Earth and is on its way to the moon. Apollo Eleven is carrying the first humans who will land on the moon. The spacecraft is also carrying a few small pieces of very old wood and cloth material. They are from the first aircraft to leave the ground and return using its own power. Apollo Eleven is traveling into space to honor two American brothers -- Orville and Wilbur Wright. The cloth and wood are from the Wright Brothers nineteen-oh-three Flyer, the most important aircraft in the history of aviation. It was this airplane that began a revolution in the science of flight. It was this revolution that led to the successful flight of Apollo Eleven. It is a revolution that is leading us into the future. VOICE TWO: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is near the United States Capitol building in Washington, D-C. The Air and Space Museum is the most visited museum in the world. This year, almost eleven-million people came to see airplanes and spacecraft that are important to the history of flight. The National Air and Space Museum is the home of the largest collection of important aircraft in the world. VOICE ONE: The Air and Space Museum building was completed in nineteen-seventy-six. One of the first things that visitors saw when they entered the museum was the famous Wright Brothers airplane -- the nineteen-oh-three Flyer. Museum officials placed the Flyer several meters above the heads of visitors near the main door. It was hung by wires from the ceiling in a place of honor. Other important aircraft were placed near it. Almost all visitors stopped and looked up at the Wright Flyer. The world’s first airplane is the most important aircraft in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum. VOICE TWO: Recently, the Wright Brothers’ Flyer was taken down from its place of honor. It was moved to a special area in the museum. It was placed in a large room. Museum officials say it will remain there for about two years. This special room honors the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. The new display was opened to the public on October eleventh. It is called “The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age.” The special room holds the Flyer and many objects that are important to the story of the Wright Brothers. The Flyer is no longer hanging from the ceiling. It rests on the floor. Visitors can come very near the famous airplane. They can walk around it and examine it closely. VOICE ONE: The Wright Flyer is a very beautiful airplane. The cloth material that covers the wings has been replaced. It is a soft white color. The wooden pieces are a light brown color. The airplane has two large wings, one on top, one below. The wings are about twelve meters long. Two smaller wings are in front of the Flyer. These small wings are control devices used to make the Flyer go up or down. In the center of the lower wing is a human-like form dressed in clothing similar to what the Wright Brothers wore one-hundred years ago. To the right of this form is the Flyer’s small engine. The engine is linked to two devices that turn the Flyer’s two large propellers. Many pieces of wire have been placed between the wings and other surfaces to add strength and support. The total weight of the Flyer is only two-hundred-seventy-four kilograms. VOICE TWO: Visitors smile when they enter the room. Most visitors already know the story of the Wright Brothers and they know what this small aircraft represents. If you stay in the room for a few minutes you can hear visitors speaking many languages. For example, a group of visitors from China stops to inspect the plane. Several take pictures of each other standing in front of the Flyer. Students from Spain discuss how the Flyer is made of simple materials. A man and woman from Germany ask a man from the American state of Alaska to take their picture near the Flyer. Other visitors inspect many of the objects linked to the Wright Brothers and their famous flight. VOICE ONE: One of these objects is a letter the Wright Brothers wrote in eighteen-ninety-nine. The letter was sent to the Smithsonian Institution asking for information about flying. Photographs of the two brothers show them at work, building their aircraft. Visitors can see the silver watch that the brothers used to observe the time of each of the four flights the Flyer made on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. And there are a few pieces of wood and cloth material from the Flyer. These are the same pieces that were carried by the crew of the Apollo Eleven spacecraft when it went to the moon and returned to Earth in July, nineteen-sixty-nine. VOICE TWO: The Wright Brothers’ airplane is just one of several hundred aircraft the National Air and Space Museum has collected. The museum celebrates the development of aviation and space flight. Its job is to collect, repair and display aircraft and space flight equipment that are of interest to history. It is also a center for research into the history, science and technology of aviation and space flight. The museum building in Washington, D-C shows many aircraft. However, it can only show about ten percent of the aircraft the museum has collected. Many of the museum’s famous aircraft have been kept in special buildings that have not always been open to the public. That situation changed on Monday. That is when the National Air and Space Museum’s new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened to the public. It is named for a businessman who gave sixty-five-million dollars to help build the center. The new building will be the permanent home to more than two-hundred aircraft and one-hundred-thirty-five spacecraft in the museum’s collection. VOICE ONE: The new Udvar-Hazy Center is near the Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The huge main area is about twenty-seven-thousand square meters. The center includes a fifty-meter tall observation tower. Visitors can listen to the Dulles International Airport control tower as air traffic controllers talk to aircraft pilots. Visitors can also watch aircraft landing and taking off from this busy airport. VOICE TWO: The aircraft in the display area of the Udvar-Hazy Center are all very different. Some are more than ninety years old. Others are almost new. One of these is the Air France Concorde. The Concorde was the only passenger jet ever to travel faster than two times the speed of sound. That is more than two-thousand-one-hundred kilometers an hour. The Concorde was a gift to the museum from Air France airlines. It arrived at Dulles Airport on its last passenger flight from Paris in June. Visitors will also want to see the famous S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. The Blackbird was a military intelligence aircraft that carried no weapons. It is still the fastest aircraft ever built and holds many speed records. It could fly at more than three-thousand-seven hundred kilometers an hour. This is more than three times the speed of sound. And it could fly near the edge of space at twenty-six-thousand meters above the Earth. VOICE ONE: In the past three weeks, we have told about the Wright Brothers and the revolution they began in the science of flight. We have told about some of the events to honor them. You too can take part in these celebrations if you have a computer that can link with the Internet communications system. You can even see the new Udvar-Hazy Center and many of the aircraft it holds. You can do this by using your computer to search for the letters n-a-s-m -- the National Air and Space Museum. Or go to the museum’s Web site: www.nasm.si.edu. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. VOICE ONE: Let us go back to July, nineteen-sixty-nine. The Apollo Eleven spacecraft has left Earth and is on its way to the moon. Apollo Eleven is carrying the first humans who will land on the moon. The spacecraft is also carrying a few small pieces of very old wood and cloth material. They are from the first aircraft to leave the ground and return using its own power. Apollo Eleven is traveling into space to honor two American brothers -- Orville and Wilbur Wright. The cloth and wood are from the Wright Brothers nineteen-oh-three Flyer, the most important aircraft in the history of aviation. It was this airplane that began a revolution in the science of flight. It was this revolution that led to the successful flight of Apollo Eleven. It is a revolution that is leading us into the future. VOICE TWO: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is near the United States Capitol building in Washington, D-C. The Air and Space Museum is the most visited museum in the world. This year, almost eleven-million people came to see airplanes and spacecraft that are important to the history of flight. The National Air and Space Museum is the home of the largest collection of important aircraft in the world. VOICE ONE: The Air and Space Museum building was completed in nineteen-seventy-six. One of the first things that visitors saw when they entered the museum was the famous Wright Brothers airplane -- the nineteen-oh-three Flyer. Museum officials placed the Flyer several meters above the heads of visitors near the main door. It was hung by wires from the ceiling in a place of honor. Other important aircraft were placed near it. Almost all visitors stopped and looked up at the Wright Flyer. The world’s first airplane is the most important aircraft in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum. VOICE TWO: Recently, the Wright Brothers’ Flyer was taken down from its place of honor. It was moved to a special area in the museum. It was placed in a large room. Museum officials say it will remain there for about two years. This special room honors the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. The new display was opened to the public on October eleventh. It is called “The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age.” The special room holds the Flyer and many objects that are important to the story of the Wright Brothers. The Flyer is no longer hanging from the ceiling. It rests on the floor. Visitors can come very near the famous airplane. They can walk around it and examine it closely. VOICE ONE: The Wright Flyer is a very beautiful airplane. The cloth material that covers the wings has been replaced. It is a soft white color. The wooden pieces are a light brown color. The airplane has two large wings, one on top, one below. The wings are about twelve meters long. Two smaller wings are in front of the Flyer. These small wings are control devices used to make the Flyer go up or down. In the center of the lower wing is a human-like form dressed in clothing similar to what the Wright Brothers wore one-hundred years ago. To the right of this form is the Flyer’s small engine. The engine is linked to two devices that turn the Flyer’s two large propellers. Many pieces of wire have been placed between the wings and other surfaces to add strength and support. The total weight of the Flyer is only two-hundred-seventy-four kilograms. VOICE TWO: Visitors smile when they enter the room. Most visitors already know the story of the Wright Brothers and they know what this small aircraft represents. If you stay in the room for a few minutes you can hear visitors speaking many languages. For example, a group of visitors from China stops to inspect the plane. Several take pictures of each other standing in front of the Flyer. Students from Spain discuss how the Flyer is made of simple materials. A man and woman from Germany ask a man from the American state of Alaska to take their picture near the Flyer. Other visitors inspect many of the objects linked to the Wright Brothers and their famous flight. VOICE ONE: One of these objects is a letter the Wright Brothers wrote in eighteen-ninety-nine. The letter was sent to the Smithsonian Institution asking for information about flying. Photographs of the two brothers show them at work, building their aircraft. Visitors can see the silver watch that the brothers used to observe the time of each of the four flights the Flyer made on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. And there are a few pieces of wood and cloth material from the Flyer. These are the same pieces that were carried by the crew of the Apollo Eleven spacecraft when it went to the moon and returned to Earth in July, nineteen-sixty-nine. VOICE TWO: The Wright Brothers’ airplane is just one of several hundred aircraft the National Air and Space Museum has collected. The museum celebrates the development of aviation and space flight. Its job is to collect, repair and display aircraft and space flight equipment that are of interest to history. It is also a center for research into the history, science and technology of aviation and space flight. The museum building in Washington, D-C shows many aircraft. However, it can only show about ten percent of the aircraft the museum has collected. Many of the museum’s famous aircraft have been kept in special buildings that have not always been open to the public. That situation changed on Monday. That is when the National Air and Space Museum’s new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center opened to the public. It is named for a businessman who gave sixty-five-million dollars to help build the center. The new building will be the permanent home to more than two-hundred aircraft and one-hundred-thirty-five spacecraft in the museum’s collection. VOICE ONE: The new Udvar-Hazy Center is near the Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The huge main area is about twenty-seven-thousand square meters. The center includes a fifty-meter tall observation tower. Visitors can listen to the Dulles International Airport control tower as air traffic controllers talk to aircraft pilots. Visitors can also watch aircraft landing and taking off from this busy airport. VOICE TWO: The aircraft in the display area of the Udvar-Hazy Center are all very different. Some are more than ninety years old. Others are almost new. One of these is the Air France Concorde. The Concorde was the only passenger jet ever to travel faster than two times the speed of sound. That is more than two-thousand-one-hundred kilometers an hour. The Concorde was a gift to the museum from Air France airlines. It arrived at Dulles Airport on its last passenger flight from Paris in June. Visitors will also want to see the famous S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird built by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. The Blackbird was a military intelligence aircraft that carried no weapons. It is still the fastest aircraft ever built and holds many speed records. It could fly at more than three-thousand-seven hundred kilometers an hour. This is more than three times the speed of sound. And it could fly near the edge of space at twenty-six-thousand meters above the Earth. VOICE ONE: In the past three weeks, we have told about the Wright Brothers and the revolution they began in the science of flight. We have told about some of the events to honor them. You too can take part in these celebrations if you have a computer that can link with the Internet communications system. You can even see the new Udvar-Hazy Center and many of the aircraft it holds. You can do this by using your computer to search for the letters n-a-s-m -- the National Air and Space Museum. Or go to the museum’s Web site: www.nasm.si.edu. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Alcohol and Stroke
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 17, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Alcohol is a part of holiday celebrations for many people. Some studies have shown that alcohol may be good for people's hearts. But this holiday season, a newly published study says moderate drinkers may reduce the size of their brain. The study of middle-aged people also disputes findings that moderate alcohol use can protect against stroke. Johns Hopkins University researchers in Baltimore, Maryland, did the study. They reported their work in Stroke: The Journal of the American Heart Association. They studied almost two-thousand men and women over the age of fifty-five who lived in the American South. The researchers used information collected in a heart study between nineteen-eighty-seven and nineteen-eighty-nine. The people were also asked about their health every three years until nineteen-ninety-five. Each person had a magnetic resonance imaging test of the head. This MRI test can show changes in the brain that are linked to an increased chance of a stroke. It also measures the amount of liquid that surrounds the brain. The greater the amount of liquid, the smaller the brain. Each person also provided information about how much alcohol he or she drank each week. Those who drank less than once a week were called “occasional” drinkers. “Low” drinkers had between one and seven alcoholic drinks a week. “Moderate” drinkers had between seven and fourteen. And “heavy” drinkers had twenty-five or more. The researchers found that brain size became smaller the more people drank. They also found that drinking alcohol did not lower the chance of stroke. Earlier studies linked heavy drinking with reduced brain size and with stroke. But other studies had suggested that moderate drinking could protect against stroke. Jingzhong Ding led the new study. He notes that the MRI tests were done only once, and the reduction found in brain tissue was small. He also says it is not known how much this reduction affects the abilities of the brain. What is known is that people who drink too much can die of liver disease and other disorders. Pregnant women who use alcohol may also damage their unborn child. And alcohol is a leading cause of deadly traffic accidents. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Broadcast: December 17, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Alcohol is a part of holiday celebrations for many people. Some studies have shown that alcohol may be good for people's hearts. But this holiday season, a newly published study says moderate drinkers may reduce the size of their brain. The study of middle-aged people also disputes findings that moderate alcohol use can protect against stroke. Johns Hopkins University researchers in Baltimore, Maryland, did the study. They reported their work in Stroke: The Journal of the American Heart Association. They studied almost two-thousand men and women over the age of fifty-five who lived in the American South. The researchers used information collected in a heart study between nineteen-eighty-seven and nineteen-eighty-nine. The people were also asked about their health every three years until nineteen-ninety-five. Each person had a magnetic resonance imaging test of the head. This MRI test can show changes in the brain that are linked to an increased chance of a stroke. It also measures the amount of liquid that surrounds the brain. The greater the amount of liquid, the smaller the brain. Each person also provided information about how much alcohol he or she drank each week. Those who drank less than once a week were called “occasional” drinkers. “Low” drinkers had between one and seven alcoholic drinks a week. “Moderate” drinkers had between seven and fourteen. And “heavy” drinkers had twenty-five or more. The researchers found that brain size became smaller the more people drank. They also found that drinking alcohol did not lower the chance of stroke. Earlier studies linked heavy drinking with reduced brain size and with stroke. But other studies had suggested that moderate drinking could protect against stroke. Jingzhong Ding led the new study. He notes that the MRI tests were done only once, and the reduction found in brain tissue was small. He also says it is not known how much this reduction affects the abilities of the brain. What is known is that people who drink too much can die of liver disease and other disorders. Pregnant women who use alcohol may also damage their unborn child. And alcohol is a leading cause of deadly traffic accidents. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - Thomas Jefferson, Part 8
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 18 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. Today, Shirley Griffith and I tell of Thomas Jefferson's final days as president of the United States, and James Madison's election to the office. VOICE TWO: In the closing days of Eighteen-Oh-Seven, President Thomas Jefferson signed a bill banning all trade with Europe. No ships could enter the United States, and no ships could leave. The purpose of the trade ban was to keep America out of the war between Britain and France. Jefferson acted to protect American traders, shipowners and sailors. Yet those were the people who protested loudest against the ban. hey were willing to take the chance of having Britain or France seize their ship and goods. They could make no money without trade. VOICE ONE: The situation quickly turned into a political battle between Jefferson's party, the Republicans, and the opposition Federalists. Federalist newspapers attacked Jefferson. They charged that he supported the trade ban to help Napoleon Bonaparte. They called him a 'tool' of France. One Federalist senator wrote a pamphlet against the trade ban. He urged northeastern states to refuse to enforce it. Then he went even further. He met secretly with the British official sent to Washington to discuss the situation. He told the British official that President Jefferson would be forced out of office because of the trade ban. The Federalists tried hard to get Congress to end the ban. But they were not successful. VOICE TWO: President Jefferson did not believe that trade bans -- embargoes -- were the best way to settle America's problems with other nations. But at the time, he thought an embargo was the only way to deal with Britain and France...short of war. And he did not want war. Jefferson's economic policies had brought much progress during his two terms as president. He had been able to pay much of the national debt, and still reduce taxes. He also had begun several projects to improve communication and transportation throughout the country. He was afraid that a war would destroy everything he had done. VOICE ONE: Jefferson simply wished to give the trade embargo a fair chance. "For a time," he wrote, "I think the embargo is less evil than war. But after a time, this will not be so. If the war should continue in Europe, and if Britain and France continue to act against us, then it will be for Congress to say if war would not be better than the embargo." Jefferson hoped that the loss of American trade would force Britain and France to change their policies toward the United States. And he hoped the change would come quickly, for he knew the American people would not accept a long ban on trade. VOICE TWO: A British traveler visiting New York City described what the embargo had done. He wrote: "The port is full of ships. But all of them are closed. Only a few sailors can be seen. Many of the counting houses are closed. The coffee houses are almost empty. The streets near the water are almost deserted. Grass has begun to grow upon the docks." VOICE ONE: America's northern industrial states felt the loss of trade most strongly. But the agricultural south also was affected. Rich southern farmers and planters suddenly found themselves poor. Tobacco was one of their major crops. And Britain bought more American tobacco than any other country. Its price fell so low because of the embargo that it had almost no value. The price of wheat fell from two dollars a bushel to seven cents a bushel. Good farmland dropped in value until it was worth almost nothing. Opposition to the embargo was growing. VOICE TWO: Opposition was strongest in the northeast. Ship owners and traders there believed that the embargo was wrong. They continued to export goods secretly. Some traders began sending goods over land to Canada. From there, the goods were sent on to Britain. Congress passed a law against this kind of trade. But the shipments did not stop. Too many people were willing to violate the law for the large amounts of money they could make by trading secretly with Britain. By August, Eighteen-Oh-Eight, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin had lost all hope that the embargo would be successful. Gallatin told President Jefferson: "The embargo is now defeated by open violations, by ships sailing without permission of any kind." VOICE ONE: Another of Jefferson's supporters gave the president this advice: "If the trade ban could be enforced, and if the people would accept it, then I am sure it would be the wisest course. But if it cannot be enforced completely, and if the people will not accept it, then it will not answer its purpose. And it should not be continued." VOICE TWO: Jefferson, however, was not ready to give up his plan. In his last State of the Union message to Congress, he painted a bright picture of the nation. He reported that American industry was making progress. Many goods which had been imported before the embargo were now being made at home. He said almost all of the national debt had been paid. And he said more than one-hundred gunboats had been built -- enough, he declared, to defend the country. Jefferson said nothing about opposition to the embargo. Nor did he talk of the serious economic problems caused by it. He said only that Britain and France still refused to honor American neutrality, and so the embargo must continue. VOICE ONE: The rest of the nation was not so sure. Congress began debating a number of proposals to either lift, or amend, the embargo. And the opposition Federalist Party used the issue to increase its strength in northeastern states. Eighteen-Oh-Eight was, after all, a presidential election year. VOICE TWO: Thomas Jefferson had served two four-year terms as president. No law prevented him from running again. But Jefferson had decided years before that a man should be limited to two terms as president. Without such a limit, Jefferson believed, a powerful man might be able to keep the position for as long as he wished. George Washington had served two terms, and then retired. Jefferson would do the same. VOICE ONE: Three members of Jefferson's Republican Party wanted to be president. One was James Madison, the Secretary of State. The second was James Monroe, who had served as a special assistant to the president. The third was George Clinton, who was vice president during Jefferson's second term. The Republican Party chose Madison as its candidate for president. It chose Clinton as its candidate for vice president. he Federalist Party named the same candidates it had chosen four years earlier: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney for president, and Rufus King for vice president. VOICE TWO: The Federalists were sure of victory in the election. They thought that Jefferson's embargo on trade had angered the people and turned them away from the Republican Party. Even some Republicans felt the election could go very badly for their party. But Jefferson remained calm. He believed that most Americans understood what he was trying to do with the embargo. And he believed they would vote for his party's candidate. Jefferson was right. Madison was elected. VOICE ONE: As we said earlier, Congress was trying to resolve the issue of the embargo before Jefferson left office. In the first months of Eighteen-Oh-Nine, it finally approved a bill. The bill lifted the ban on trade with all European countries except Britain and France. Jefferson had hoped to continue the embargo a little longer and with more powers to enforce it. He was not satisfied with the final bill. But he signed it anyway on March First. Three days later, the fifteen-month-old embargo was dead. And the United States had a new president. That will be our story next week. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION with Steve Ember and Shirley Griffith . Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard on the Voice of America's Special English broadcasts on Thursdays. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Chinese, Italian Added to Advanced Placement Program
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 18, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. The College Board says its Advanced Placement program will add four new languages for American high school students. Mandarin Chinese along with Italian will be added within three years. Japanese and Russian will be offered later. This means the best high school students will be able to take college-level courses in these four new languages. The Chinese government and the Italian government have each agreed to pay part of the cost of developing the Advanced Placement programs. Chinese officials say they will also help create the program in Chinese language and culture. College Board officials say the study of a world language, such as Chinese, is an important part of a student’s high school education. More than one-million students at more than fourteen-thousand American high schools took at least one Advanced Placement test this year after taking an AP class. The AP program is increasingly important among high school classes for the best students. Colleges often give high school students credit for an AP class if the students do well on the test. Colleges require a set number of credits before a student may graduate. Credit for AP classes may help some students graduate from college earlier. The Advanced Placement program in American high schools has expanded over the years. There are now thirty-four classes and tests in nineteen subject areas. They include history, mathematics and English. But, until now, the languages included only Spanish, French and German. These are the most popular languages in American high schools. The American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages says Spanish is the most commonly taught language in American high schools. About four-million high school students study Spanish. It is followed by French, German, Italian, Russian and Japanese. The College Board notes that most high school students in China study English. However, only about fifty-thousand American high school students study Chinese. This may change because of the new AP language program. The Chinese ambassador to the United States spoke about the new AP program. Yang Jiechi said: “The bridge of understanding and friendship cannot be built without language.” This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Shelley Gollust. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 18, 2003 - 'Spider Hole' and Other Iraq War Terms
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 18, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look into "spider holes" and some other terms that have come out of the war in Iraq. Broadcast: December 18, 2003 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look into "spider holes" and some other terms that have come out of the war in Iraq. RS: Sunday's news of the arrest of Saddam Hussein included some military lingo that has captured a lot of people's curiosity. AA: "Spider hole," for example. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq, used that term to describe what troops had found. SANCHEZ: "After uncovering the spider hole, a search was conducted, and Saddam Hussein was found hiding at the bottom of the hole." RS: Here in the United States, Sean Fitzpatrick happened to turn on his radio in the middle of a special report on the arrest. The amateur linguist knew the term "spider hole" -- but not from the dozens of dictionaries he's collected at his home in Pennsylvania. AA: Sean Fitzpatrick served in Vietnam in the late 1960s, part of the time as an Army reporter and photographer. During the war, Viet Cong guerrillas used such holes to snipe at American troops. On Sunday, as he listened to the news, he's not sure which he heard first, the term itself or the description. But it didn't matter. FITZPATRICK: "As soon as I heard the description, it matched up with 'spider hole,' that it was a hole in the ground for concealment that could be closed with some kind of concealing or camouflaged cover, the idea being that even if you were standing on it or next to it, you might not see that it was there, and yet the person inside could get out pretty quickly, because the cover was light and loosely fitted." RS: "And in this case it was Styrofoam with a rug on top." FITZPATRICK: "Right. And I'd known the term before. I think there was posting to the American Dialect Society list that had a news item from 1941 with a photo caption showing Marines, I believe, being taught to use spider holes. And you know, I didn't really know why, exactly why it was called a spider hole. I've seen it suggested that it's because there are certain kinds of spiders that build similar kinds of nests with a lid that the spider is able to pop out of and ambush prey. And that sort of makes sense, but exactly why it was called a spider as opposed to a covered foxhole or something like that, I don't know. Because that's basically what the idea is. It's a covered, concealed foxhole." AA: "So initially they referred to this hole as a spider hole, and we're hearing now 'rat hole.' What is the difference between a spider hole and a rat hole?" FITZPATRICK: "Oh, a rat hole is an old general civilian term. And I think it's just been applied to any kind of sordid refuge that a scoundrel or a rat hides in." RS: "Another expression we heard Sunday morning was 'high value target,' or HVT." FITZPATRICK: "Right. That was completely new to me. Actually I heard it just as 'HVT.' The colonel who was, I believe commanded that 600-man task force, kept referring to HVTs and I inferred pretty quickly that T stood for target, but I didn't know until quite a while later that HV stood for high value." AA: "And Saddam's codename that they were calling him was 'HVT one." FITZPATRICK: "Was it? OK ... " RS: "One term that we've been seeing is, and if you could explain it we'd appreciate it, is 'improvised explosive device.'" AA: "Or IED, as they also call it." RS: "What does that mean?" FITZPATRICK: "It means exactly what it says. It's an explosive device that has been manufactured in somebody's basement or somebody's garage rather than being manufactured specifically as an explosive, as a bomb. Or it's one that has been adapted. This seems also to be a pretty new term. It may even have been coined to deal with these roadside explosive devices which often use an actual explosive device, an unexploded bomb or an artillery shell that's been looted from a weapons repository and then set up with a fuse that can be detonated remotely." RS: Sean Fitzpatrick is a Vietnam veteran and former military journalist. He's now a technical writer and editor in the computer industry. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find all our programs on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: Sunday's news of the arrest of Saddam Hussein included some military lingo that has captured a lot of people's curiosity. AA: "Spider hole," for example. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American forces in Iraq, used that term to describe what troops had found. SANCHEZ: "After uncovering the spider hole, a search was conducted, and Saddam Hussein was found hiding at the bottom of the hole." RS: Here in the United States, Sean Fitzpatrick happened to turn on his radio in the middle of a special report on the arrest. The amateur linguist knew the term "spider hole" -- but not from the dozens of dictionaries he's collected at his home in Pennsylvania. AA: Sean Fitzpatrick served in Vietnam in the late 1960s, part of the time as an Army reporter and photographer. During the war, Viet Cong guerrillas used such holes to snipe at American troops. On Sunday, as he listened to the news, he's not sure which he heard first, the term itself or the description. But it didn't matter. FITZPATRICK: "As soon as I heard the description, it matched up with 'spider hole,' that it was a hole in the ground for concealment that could be closed with some kind of concealing or camouflaged cover, the idea being that even if you were standing on it or next to it, you might not see that it was there, and yet the person inside could get out pretty quickly, because the cover was light and loosely fitted." RS: "And in this case it was Styrofoam with a rug on top." FITZPATRICK: "Right. And I'd known the term before. I think there was posting to the American Dialect Society list that had a news item from 1941 with a photo caption showing Marines, I believe, being taught to use spider holes. And you know, I didn't really know why, exactly why it was called a spider hole. I've seen it suggested that it's because there are certain kinds of spiders that build similar kinds of nests with a lid that the spider is able to pop out of and ambush prey. And that sort of makes sense, but exactly why it was called a spider as opposed to a covered foxhole or something like that, I don't know. Because that's basically what the idea is. It's a covered, concealed foxhole." AA: "So initially they referred to this hole as a spider hole, and we're hearing now 'rat hole.' What is the difference between a spider hole and a rat hole?" FITZPATRICK: "Oh, a rat hole is an old general civilian term. And I think it's just been applied to any kind of sordid refuge that a scoundrel or a rat hides in." RS: "Another expression we heard Sunday morning was 'high value target,' or HVT." FITZPATRICK: "Right. That was completely new to me. Actually I heard it just as 'HVT.' The colonel who was, I believe commanded that 600-man task force, kept referring to HVTs and I inferred pretty quickly that T stood for target, but I didn't know until quite a while later that HV stood for high value." AA: "And Saddam's codename that they were calling him was 'HVT one." FITZPATRICK: "Was it? OK ... " RS: "One term that we've been seeing is, and if you could explain it we'd appreciate it, is 'improvised explosive device.'" AA: "Or IED, as they also call it." RS: "What does that mean?" FITZPATRICK: "It means exactly what it says. It's an explosive device that has been manufactured in somebody's basement or somebody's garage rather than being manufactured specifically as an explosive, as a bomb. Or it's one that has been adapted. This seems also to be a pretty new term. It may even have been coined to deal with these roadside explosive devices which often use an actual explosive device, an unexploded bomb or an artillery shell that's been looted from a weapons repository and then set up with a fuse that can be detonated remotely." RS: Sean Fitzpatrick is a Vietnam veteran and former military journalist. He's now a technical writer and editor in the computer industry. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and you'll find all our programs on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-18-4-1.cfm
* Headline: NEXT WORDMASTER on January 8, 2004
* Byline: 

 Hi there! We'll start 2004 with our January tradition, "The Ballad of Palindrome." This comedy sketch by the group Riders in the Sky is about a cowboy with an unusual speech habit. Everything he says is the same spelled backwards or forwards. Also in January, get some advice from English teacher Lida Baker about how to learn phrasal verbs. As for their reputation of being difficult to learn, Lida says: "That's a myth." And we'll check in with Slangman David Burke. Best wishes to all our friends around the world, thanks for listening -- and we'll see you all back here soon! Avi & Rosanne P.S. If you have any questions or comments for Wordmaster, send them to us at word@voanews.com. Hi there! We'll start 2004 with our January tradition, "The Ballad of Palindrome." This comedy sketch by the group Riders in the Sky is about a cowboy with an unusual speech habit. Everything he says is the same spelled backwards or forwards. Also in January, get some advice from English teacher Lida Baker about how to learn phrasal verbs. As for their reputation of being difficult to learn, Lida says: "That's a myth." And we'll check in with Slangman David Burke. Best wishes to all our friends around the world, thanks for listening -- and we'll see you all back here soon! Avi & Rosanne P.S. If you have any questions or comments for Wordmaster, send them to us at word@voanews.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Holiday Gifts / Hanukkah / and Harry Connick’s Christmas Album
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 19, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 19, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we present a special holiday Mosaic -- including some new Christmas music from Harry Connick Junior. But first – we'll tell you about some of the gifts that Americans are getting for each other this year. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. This week, we present a special holiday Mosaic -- including some new Christmas music from Harry Connick Junior. But first – we'll tell you about some of the gifts that Americans are getting for each other this year. Holiday Gift Giving HOST: As Americans shop for holiday gifts for family members and friends, Jim Tedder checks out what they are buying this year. ANNCR: News reports tell us that many young people want cell phones for gifts. Boys also want radio-controlled cars or trucks, but no special kind. In fact, it seems no one thing has become a "must-have" item this year, for children or adults. For younger children, one toy many people are buying is called Hokey Pokey Elmo. Elmo is a creature from the children’s television show “Sesame Street.” The "hokey pokey" is a dance song. Hokey Pokey Elmo sings and moves his feet. Here, listen for yourself. (SOUND) For adults, one online marketing survey found that many women want travel as a gift, even if they have to buy it themselves. For men, the most desired gift is electronic equipment like a flat-screen television, or a computer or a digital camera. One holiday gift this year that proved surprisingly popular is a candle that smells like a fig. Officials of the Bath and Body Works company cannot really explain why their fruit scented candle has sold so well. For one thing, they set the price lower than some other special candles, about twenty dollars. Gifts like candles are an easy choice for someone who is difficult to buy for. Another way to solve the problem of what to buy is to buy a gift card. These look like credit cards, and come with a set amount of money to spend in the store they are from. The National Retail Federation says seventy percent of American shoppers plan to buy gift cards this holiday season. Stores say these cards are more popular than ever. But they say people should know there are restrictions. Gift cards can lose some or all of their value unless they are used within a period of time. Business experts say gift cards earn stores a lot of money. People often spend more once they go to use their cards. Also, about ten percent of the people who receive them never go to the store to buy anything at all. Hanukkah HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Richard Oscar asks about festivities that Americans celebrate. This is the big month for celebrations. On December twenty-fifth, Christian Americans will remember the birth of Jesus as they celebrate Christmas. Then, the next day, the African American celebration of Kwaanza begins. This honors the black American family and culture. Listen next week for more details. And Jewish Americans are just beginning to celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah. The Festival of Lights is set by the Hebrew calendar, so it is different each year. The story of Hanukkah goes back more than two-thousand years, to the land that is now Israel. The ruling Greek-Syrian king attempted to suppress the Jewish religion. He placed statues of Greek gods in the Jewish temple and tried to force the people to accept them. A man called Judah Macabee led a small group of Jews against the king. They won the battle, and the freedom to live by their religion. They began to cleanse the temple of Greek influence. Tradition says they found only enough oil to light the holy lamp in the temple for one day. Yet that oil burned for eight days, until more could arrive. On Friday night, December nineteenth, Jews around the world will say prayers and light candles in a menorah. A menorah holds nine candles. One is called the shamish (shah-mus). It is used to light the others. On the first night of Hanukkah, the shamish is used to light one other candle. An additional candle is lit on each of the following nights. On the last night of Hanukkah, all nine candles burn brightly. It is traditional for parents to give their children a small gift on each night of Hanukkah. It is also a time for special games and foods. Religious leaders say Hanukkah has never been considered one of the most important Jewish holidays. But they say it is good time to remember how people in the past fought for the right of religious freedom. Oh, and let us not forget one more event in this month of celebrations -- New Year's Eve! Harry Connick’s Christmas Album HOST: Music is a big part of Christmas celebrations. And the season always brings out new record albums to play at parties. Faith Lapidus tells us about a new one this year from a well-known name in jazz. ANNCR: Harry Connick Junior was born in a city famous for jazz ... New Orleans, Louisiana. He started to play the piano in jazz clubs when he was thirteen years old. He has been performing and recording ever since. Harry Connick writes music, too. Four of his own songs are included on his new Christmas album, “Harry for the Holidays.” This one is for children: “The Happy Elf.” (MUSIC) Harry Connick Junior is not alone on his Christmas album. Also performing is country singer George Jones. Harry Connick says George Jones is his favorite singer. Here they are with another song written by Harry Connick, “Nothin' New For New Year.” (MUSIC) Harry Connick Junior says the songs on his album represent very different kinds of music, from jazz to big band to rhythm-and-blues. We leave you with a traditional Christmas song, only it has the feel of a New Orleans street parade. From "Harry for the Holidays," here is “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our holiday program today was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Audrius Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Holiday Gift Giving HOST: As Americans shop for holiday gifts for family members and friends, Jim Tedder checks out what they are buying this year. ANNCR: News reports tell us that many young people want cell phones for gifts. Boys also want radio-controlled cars or trucks, but no special kind. In fact, it seems no one thing has become a "must-have" item this year, for children or adults. For younger children, one toy many people are buying is called Hokey Pokey Elmo. Elmo is a creature from the children’s television show “Sesame Street.” The "hokey pokey" is a dance song. Hokey Pokey Elmo sings and moves his feet. Here, listen for yourself. (SOUND) For adults, one online marketing survey found that many women want travel as a gift, even if they have to buy it themselves. For men, the most desired gift is electronic equipment like a flat-screen television, or a computer or a digital camera. One holiday gift this year that proved surprisingly popular is a candle that smells like a fig. Officials of the Bath and Body Works company cannot really explain why their fruit scented candle has sold so well. For one thing, they set the price lower than some other special candles, about twenty dollars. Gifts like candles are an easy choice for someone who is difficult to buy for. Another way to solve the problem of what to buy is to buy a gift card. These look like credit cards, and come with a set amount of money to spend in the store they are from. The National Retail Federation says seventy percent of American shoppers plan to buy gift cards this holiday season. Stores say these cards are more popular than ever. But they say people should know there are restrictions. Gift cards can lose some or all of their value unless they are used within a period of time. Business experts say gift cards earn stores a lot of money. People often spend more once they go to use their cards. Also, about ten percent of the people who receive them never go to the store to buy anything at all. Hanukkah HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Richard Oscar asks about festivities that Americans celebrate. This is the big month for celebrations. On December twenty-fifth, Christian Americans will remember the birth of Jesus as they celebrate Christmas. Then, the next day, the African American celebration of Kwaanza begins. This honors the black American family and culture. Listen next week for more details. And Jewish Americans are just beginning to celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah. The Festival of Lights is set by the Hebrew calendar, so it is different each year. The story of Hanukkah goes back more than two-thousand years, to the land that is now Israel. The ruling Greek-Syrian king attempted to suppress the Jewish religion. He placed statues of Greek gods in the Jewish temple and tried to force the people to accept them. A man called Judah Macabee led a small group of Jews against the king. They won the battle, and the freedom to live by their religion. They began to cleanse the temple of Greek influence. Tradition says they found only enough oil to light the holy lamp in the temple for one day. Yet that oil burned for eight days, until more could arrive. On Friday night, December nineteenth, Jews around the world will say prayers and light candles in a menorah. A menorah holds nine candles. One is called the shamish (shah-mus). It is used to light the others. On the first night of Hanukkah, the shamish is used to light one other candle. An additional candle is lit on each of the following nights. On the last night of Hanukkah, all nine candles burn brightly. It is traditional for parents to give their children a small gift on each night of Hanukkah. It is also a time for special games and foods. Religious leaders say Hanukkah has never been considered one of the most important Jewish holidays. But they say it is good time to remember how people in the past fought for the right of religious freedom. Oh, and let us not forget one more event in this month of celebrations -- New Year's Eve! Harry Connick’s Christmas Album HOST: Music is a big part of Christmas celebrations. And the season always brings out new record albums to play at parties. Faith Lapidus tells us about a new one this year from a well-known name in jazz. ANNCR: Harry Connick Junior was born in a city famous for jazz ... New Orleans, Louisiana. He started to play the piano in jazz clubs when he was thirteen years old. He has been performing and recording ever since. Harry Connick writes music, too. Four of his own songs are included on his new Christmas album, “Harry for the Holidays.” This one is for children: “The Happy Elf.” (MUSIC) Harry Connick Junior is not alone on his Christmas album. Also performing is country singer George Jones. Harry Connick says George Jones is his favorite singer. Here they are with another song written by Harry Connick, “Nothin' New For New Year.” (MUSIC) Harry Connick Junior says the songs on his album represent very different kinds of music, from jazz to big band to rhythm-and-blues. We leave you with a traditional Christmas song, only it has the feel of a New Orleans street parade. From "Harry for the Holidays," here is “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. Our holiday program today was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Audrius Regis. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT - Holiday Shopping
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 19, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Economics Report. About two-thirds of the economic activity in the United States is created by people who spend money -- consumers. And much of that activity is created this time of year, as consumers buy gifts for Christmas and other holidays. Government economists say big department stores make about fourteen percent of their sales in the month of December. That may not seem like a lot. But December sales are almost twice the monthly average for the rest of the year. The holiday shopping season traditionally starts the day after Thanksgiving. It is called Black Friday. Storekeepers used to record profits in black ink and losses in red ink. So being "in the black" on the Friday after Thanksgiving means a good thing, a return to profit. But it also means that people face crowded stores, which is the other idea of a "Black Friday," a day they do not like. It used to be the busiest shopping day of the year. In recent years the busiest day has been the Saturday before Christmas. People who do not like crowded stores have another choice. Americans are buying more on the Internet. The Census Bureau says they bought almost fourteen-thousand-million dollars in goods online in the last three months of last year. Still, that was less than two percent of total retail sales. The National Retail Federation said it expected holiday sales in the United States to increase by five-point-seven percent over last year. The trade group said it expected sales of about two-hundred-seventeen-thousand-million dollars. Another group, the Conference Board, measures how consumers feel about the economy. In November it said its Consumer Confidence Index increased by ten points, to eighty. That was good news for sellers. But it is still below the starting level of one-hundred set in nineteen-eighty-five. Holiday shopping is also important to the stock market. Last week, the Commerce Department said retail sales were higher than expected in November. That report helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average to close above ten-thousand for the first time in eighteen months. Last Friday, though, the University of Michigan released its consumer confidence report. The first report for December showed an unexpected decrease in current conditions. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - International Debate on Trial of Saddam Hussein
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 20, 2003 This is Steve Ember with In the News, in VOA Special English. An international debate has begun about how former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should be tried for serious crimes he is accused of carrying out. The former Iraqi leader was captured Saturday in Iraq during a raid on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit. He was hiding underground. Saddam was armed, but he did not resist capture. American military officials are holding Saddam Hussein in an unknown location in Iraq. The United States Central Intelligence Agency has taken control of questioning the ousted Iraqi leader. At issue is whether Mister Hussein should be tried before an Iraqi court or an international court. Some legal experts say an Iraqi court would give Iraqis more control over the legal process and help the country deal with its past. But international legal experts and human rights groups question whether Saddam can get a fair trial in the country he ruled with such cruelty. Last week, the American-appointed Iraqi governing council voted to set up a special Iraqi court. The court would try members of the former Iraqi government for war crimes and human rights violations. But, unlike recent international criminal trials for Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia, the United Nations would not take part. The head of Iraq’s governing council said Saddam Hussein will be tried by the special Iraqi court. The Iraqi governing council met this week to discuss ways of appointing judges to the court. There would be five judges. The governing council is permitted to appoint international judges to the court. But most of the judges are expected to be Iraqis. The American-led coalition in Iraq has approved the plan. And this week, coalition officials said they have trained judges and lawyers for the court.Some legal experts and human rights groups want Saddam Hussein to be tried in an international court. They say Iraqi judges probably lack the legal skills necessary to try complex cases of human rights violations. Iran also supports calls for an international court. It said such a court is the right place to examine Iraq’s use of banned chemical weapons during the eight-year war the two countries fought during the nineteen-eighties. Iraqi governing council members say Saddam should face the death penalty if he is found guilty of any crimes. But American-led coalition officials in Iraq suspended the death penalty after Saddam Hussein was ousted from power. Iraqi officials have said they will decide whether to re-establish the death penalty when a temporary government takes power in July. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan said he does not support the death penalty for Saddam Hussein. President Bush said Saddam Hussein should receive the worst possible punishment for his crimes. But he said it is up to the Iraqi people to decide. In the News, in VOA Special English, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Davy Crockett
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 21, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann with PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. Today, we tell the story of Davy Crockett. He was a hunter, fighter, storyteller and elected official. For many people, he represented the spirit of the American wilderness. (THEME) VOICE ONE: David Crockett was born in what is now Greene County, Tennessee in seventeen-eighty-six. He was the fifth of nine children born to John and Rebecca Hawkins Crockett. Davy’s grandparents were among the first white people to live in eastern Tennessee. His grandfather had moved there in search of land to settle. Before Davy was born, his grandparents and other settlers were killed by a group of native American Indian warriors. Life in the wilderness was difficult. John Crockett repeatedly moved his family in an effort to find a good place to live. In seventeen-ninety-six, he opened a tavern, or drinking place. The tavern was a popular stop for travelers. Davy probably heard many stories told by the people at his father’s tavern. VOICE TWO: Davy Crockett started attending a small school when he was about thirteen years old. A few days later, he fought with another boy at the school. After that, Davy decided to run away from home to escape his father’s punishment. For more than two years, he worked a number of unskilled jobs to support himself. When Davy returned home, he was so tall that his family did not recognize him. When they finally did, they celebrated his return. Two-hundred years ago, a boy either worked for his father or surrendered his pay if he worked for someone else. To gain his independence, Davy worked for about a year to help pay his father’s debts. He borrowed a gun from one employer and became good at shooting. Within a short time, Davy was a skilled hunter and trapper of wild animals. He was able to provide food and clothing for himself and his family. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Davy Crockett married Polly Finley in eighteen-oh-six. At first they lived in a small place near Davy’s parents. Five years later, Davy, Polly and their two boys moved west into what is now Lincoln County, Tennessee. Later, they settled in Franklin County, near what was then the territory of Alabama. About this time, Creek Indian warriors killed many settlers at Fort Mims, Alabama. When news of the attack reached Crockett, he joined an army force under the command of Andrew Jackson. Crockett served in the army during the Creek Indian War. He also explored areas controlled by Indian warriors. Crockett returned home when his military service ended. He decided to re-join the army in eighteen-fourteen, just before the Treaty of Ghent officially ended the fighting. At the time, General Jackson’s force was attempting to stop British-trained Indian forces in Florida. VOICE TWO: Davy Crockett returned home after the war. His wife Polly died in eighteen-fifteen. Crockett needed a wife to raise his children. A short time later, he met and married Elizabeth Patton, whose husband had died. More and more settlers were moving to Tennessee. Crockett seemed restless and traveled many times into the wilderness. In Alabama, he became infected with malaria and almost died. Later, he and his family moved again, this time to what would become Lawrence County, Tennessee. Crockett was elected to the position of colonel in the local military force. He also was appointed a local court official. He became popular with the people and developed an interest in politics. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Davy Crockett loved the wilderness and became famous as a hunter. He also was a good storyteller. His stories were based partly on fact and partly on his imagination. For example, he told one story about an unusual experience when he was hunting. Crockett said the animal he was hunting looked at him once and surrendered immediately, without a single shot being fired. He also told stories about killing more than one-hundred bears in six months. Crockett was able to remember almost anything that he had heard. He found that his story-telling skills were helpful when he was campaigning for political office. For example, he once memorized an opponent’s campaign speech word for word. Crockett repeated the speech as his own during a debate. The opponent was so surprised to hear his own words that he was forced to make unprepared statements. VOICE TWO: Crockett won a seat in the Tennessee legislature in eighteen-twenty-one. As a lawmaker, he became an expert in land policy, especially in wilderness areas. Crockett always did what he believed was right. He thought others should do the same. He was known for these words: “Be always sure you are right, then go ahead.” After his term in office, Crockett decided to move his family further into the wilderness. They settled in what is now Gibson County, Tennessee. Crockett was so popular there that he was re-elected to the state legislature. Two years later, he was chosen as a candidate for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. This time, however, he was defeated. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Crockett won a seat in the House of Representatives the second time he was nominated in eighteen-twenty-seven. He was re-elected two years later. During this period, another Tennessee native, General Andrew Jackson, was elected President. Crockett generally claimed to support President Jackson’s programs. But he opposed the President and other members of Congress from Tennessee on several issues, including land reform. He also opposed a measure that forced Indian tribes from their native lands. However, even with Crockett’s opposition, the Indian Resettlement Act passed. VOICE TWO: President Jackson’s supporters prevented Crockett from winning a third term in Congress. However, he returned to the House of Representatives in eighteen-thirty-three. By this time, his fame as a hunter, Indian fighter and storyteller was spreading. First, a book about Crockett was published. Later, he wrote a book about his life. Several artists made paintings of the famous Tennessee woodsman. Some pictures show him wearing clothing made of animal skins and a hat made of raccoon fur. Crockett made several trips to speak in cities in the eastern United States. The Whig political party provided support for the trips. Some Whig leaders were considering Crockett as the party’s candidate for President in eighteen-thirty-six. However, his hopes for a political future ended when he lost his seat in the House of Representatives to a supporter of President Jackson. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: After his political defeat, Davy Crockett had a desire to see the wilderness again. He set out with a number of other men to explore the western area of Texas. Crockett believed that he could renew his political life there. At the time, American settlers in Texas were fighting to gain independence from Mexico. Crockett joined more than one-hundred-eighty men who had established a fort at the Alamo, an old Roman Catholic mission in San Antonio. The commander of the Texas Army ordered the men to destroy the Alamo. He did not believe it could be defended against a strong Mexican attack. However, the men disobeyed the order. VOICE TWO: When Mexican troops attacked the Alamo, the men battled against them for almost two weeks. But on March sixth, eighteen-thirty-six, Mexican forces captured the Alamo. Some historians believe that all the defenders died in battle. Others believe that a few men survived the battle, but were executed. Davy Crockett died with the other heroes at the Alamo. He was forty-nine years old. After his death, Davy Crockett became even more famous and popular. His life has been celebrated in books, plays, movies, television shows and songs, like this one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA from VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Possible Ebola Virus Treatment
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 22, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists appear to have made progress toward a treatment for the Ebola virus. Most people infected with Ebola die. Scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases carried out the study. Their results appear this month in the British medical publication The Lancet. The scientists injected twelve monkeys with the Ebola virus. Then nine of the animals received an experimental drug. It is called recombinant nematode anticoagulant protein c-two. The monkeys received the drug almost immediately or within twenty-four hours of infection. They continued to receive the drug each day for up to fourteen days. Ebola normally kills any monkey it infects. But three of the nine monkeys treated with the drug survived. The other six died; however, the study says the drug delayed their death for several days. The three monkeys left untreated also died. Thomas Geisbert led the study. He says his team considered the Ebola problem in a new way. In past studies, scientists tested anti-retroviral medicine as a possible way to prevent infection. The Army researchers instead examined ways to treat signs of the disease. They say the experimental drug appears to stop the effects of a protein called tissue factor. White blood cells release this protein as they try to fight the infection. It causes the cells to stick together, or clot. Ebola victims die from severe clotting and bleeding inside the body. The experimental drug is made from hookworms, which use the chemical to keep blood flowing in their victims. Other scientists are also testing the drug as a treatment for heart trouble. Signs of the Ebola virus include a sudden rise in body temperature, weakness, muscle pain and a headache. This progresses into vomiting and diarrhea, and bleeding inside and outside the body. Over the years, the Ebola virus has killed more than one-thousand people in outbreaks in central Africa. It was first discovered in nineteen-seventy-six, near the Ebola River, and is spread through body fluids. The starting point in nature is not known. The Republic of Congo has had a recent spread of the disease. The World Health Organization says officials had reported twenty-nine deaths as of December eleventh in the Mbomo District. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: December 22, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists appear to have made progress toward a treatment for the Ebola virus. Most people infected with Ebola die. Scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases carried out the study. Their results appear this month in the British medical publication The Lancet. The scientists injected twelve monkeys with the Ebola virus. Then nine of the animals received an experimental drug. It is called recombinant nematode anticoagulant protein c-two. The monkeys received the drug almost immediately or within twenty-four hours of infection. They continued to receive the drug each day for up to fourteen days. Ebola normally kills any monkey it infects. But three of the nine monkeys treated with the drug survived. The other six died; however, the study says the drug delayed their death for several days. The three monkeys left untreated also died. Thomas Geisbert led the study. He says his team considered the Ebola problem in a new way. In past studies, scientists tested anti-retroviral medicine as a possible way to prevent infection. The Army researchers instead examined ways to treat signs of the disease. They say the experimental drug appears to stop the effects of a protein called tissue factor. White blood cells release this protein as they try to fight the infection. It causes the cells to stick together, or clot. Ebola victims die from severe clotting and bleeding inside the body. The experimental drug is made from hookworms, which use the chemical to keep blood flowing in their victims. Other scientists are also testing the drug as a treatment for heart trouble. Signs of the Ebola virus include a sudden rise in body temperature, weakness, muscle pain and a headache. This progresses into vomiting and diarrhea, and bleeding inside and outside the body. Over the years, the Ebola virus has killed more than one-thousand people in outbreaks in central Africa. It was first discovered in nineteen-seventy-six, near the Ebola River, and is spread through body fluids. The starting point in nature is not known. The Republic of Congo has had a recent spread of the disease. The World Health Organization says officials had reported twenty-nine deaths as of December eleventh in the Mbomo District. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HOLIDAY PROGRAM -  Christmas Traditions and Music
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 22, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 22, 2003 (THEME) ANNCR: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely-celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas -- he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ANNCR: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely-celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas -- he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – Raising Chickens
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 23, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Raising chickens or other birds for their eggs and meat is a popular family and business activity almost everywhere in the world. The birds eat grain, seeds and grasses. They also eat small pieces of food that people throw away. Many of these materials would be wasted if the birds did not eat them. Chicken eggs and meat contain high quality protein and other substances important in the human diet. For many centuries, chickens were allowed to run free to find food for themselves. Then people used fences to keep small groups of birds from running away. After the chickens were kept inside a fence, people had to provide food for them. Early in the last century, raising flocks of thousands of birds became a successful business for many people. But the size of these flocks caused some serious problems, including pollution caused by chicken waste. Disease is one of the biggest problems in large flocks. The birds are kept close together all the time. So if one bird becomes sick, the sickness spreads. All the chickens in a flock can die from a serious disease. Avian flu, for example, can in some cases also spread to humans. Diseases that affect chickens are different in different areas of the world. One current example in Asia is an outbreak of avian flu in South Korea. Troops have been helping to kill and bury chickens and ducks that became infected at farms in North Chungcheong Province. To help prevent disease, experts advise these steps: Feed the birds a balanced diet. This will help them resist infections. Do not add adult birds to your flocks. If you must add adult birds, keep them separate from the flock for five to fifteen days to make sure they are healthy. Cover the floor of the buildings where the chickens are kept with material like straw, rice husks or sawdust. Change this material often. After you sell the chickens, completely empty the building where they were kept. Clean and wash the building. Then leave it empty for four weeks before putting in new chickens. Diseases affecting birds are not simple to understand and treat, so expert medical advice is important. You can get more information about caring for chickens and other birds from Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 23, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Raising chickens or other birds for their eggs and meat is a popular family and business activity almost everywhere in the world. The birds eat grain, seeds and grasses. They also eat small pieces of food that people throw away. Many of these materials would be wasted if the birds did not eat them. Chicken eggs and meat contain high quality protein and other substances important in the human diet. For many centuries, chickens were allowed to run free to find food for themselves. Then people used fences to keep small groups of birds from running away. After the chickens were kept inside a fence, people had to provide food for them. Early in the last century, raising flocks of thousands of birds became a successful business for many people. But the size of these flocks caused some serious problems, including pollution caused by chicken waste. Disease is one of the biggest problems in large flocks. The birds are kept close together all the time. So if one bird becomes sick, the sickness spreads. All the chickens in a flock can die from a serious disease. Avian flu, for example, can in some cases also spread to humans. Diseases that affect chickens are different in different areas of the world. One current example in Asia is an outbreak of avian flu in South Korea. Troops have been helping to kill and bury chickens and ducks that became infected at farms in North Chungcheong Province. To help prevent disease, experts advise these steps: Feed the birds a balanced diet. This will help them resist infections. Do not add adult birds to your flocks. If you must add adult birds, keep them separate from the flock for five to fifteen days to make sure they are healthy. Cover the floor of the buildings where the chickens are kept with material like straw, rice husks or sawdust. Change this material often. After you sell the chickens, completely empty the building where they were kept. Clean and wash the building. Then leave it empty for four weeks before putting in new chickens. Diseases affecting birds are not simple to understand and treat, so expert medical advice is important. You can get more information about caring for chickens and other birds from Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Great Apes and African Elephants: What Does the Future Hold?
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 23, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 23, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- warnings about the danger of extinction for the great apes ... and a study that may, or may not, offer good news for African elephants. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United Nations says great apes are in danger of disappearing. Experts say some species will disappear soon, and others within fifty years. The great apes are gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. They live in the wild in twenty-three countries in Africa and Asia. They are the closest relatives to humans. An emergency meeting took place last month in Paris. Representatives from those twenty-three countries met with environmental groups and scientific experts. For three days they discussed how to save the great apes. They also discussed plans for a meeting of government ministers late next year. VOICE TWO: The U-N Environment Program and UNESCO, the U-N cultural organization, organized a project in two-thousand-one. It is called the Great Apes Survival Project -- or GRASP. Officials say sixteen of the twenty-three countries have begun taking measures to protect their great apes. The meeting organizers say they hope to expand these measures. The United Nations says at least twenty-five million dollars is needed to begin the effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Great apes share more than ninety-six percent of our genetic material. They stand upright, and hold things with hands like ours. Their ability to learn is of great interest to people. Ian Redman heads the technical support team for the Great Apes Survival Project. He says the future of the planet is linked to their survival. He describes great apes, along with elephants, as the "gardeners" of the forest. They help keep it healthy. U-N officials note that to many scientists, if we lose a species of great apes, we destroy part of our humanity. VOICE TWO: An estimated four-hundred-thousand great apes remain in the wild. Experts say the western chimpanzee has already disappeared from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Togo. In Ghana, the numbers are estimated between just three-hundred and five-hundred. Human activities are the most serious threat to the great apes. Researchers say the two biggest problems are the destruction of forests and road building. A U-N report called "The Great Apes - the Road Ahead" examines the situation. Great apes live in environments that contain resources valuable to people. Things like trees, minerals and oil. Logging and mining camps bring new roads. Foreign demand for hardwood causes the logging industry to move deeper into forests. VOICE ONE: Clearing forests makes it easier for hunters to find and kill apes. The U-N report notes that bushmeat is an important food to many people in west and central Africa. Some of the people also believe it has special powers of magic or medicine. In Africa and Asia, killing and selling apes can also provide extra money to villagers and workers in the forest. Even with laws against it, bushmeat hunting is now more widespread. The U-N report says hunting increases in times of conflict. And demand is rising from people who live in cities. Scientists say the bushmeat trade increases the risk that infectious diseases will spread from apes to humans. The U-N report notes that chimpanzees and gorillas can get influenza, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, even the common cold. VOICE TWO: Ebola virus is a big concern. The disease usually kills apes that become infected. Experts say Ebola can spread from handling the bodies of infected apes. The World Health Organization says between fifty and ninety percent of people who develop Ebola die. Ebola causes uncontrolled bleeding. Scientists are developing ways to prevent or treat it. For now, though, aside from the danger to humans, Ebola could severely effect the future of the great apes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The number of chimpanzees left in the world is not known. But researchers say their tropical rainforest is being destroyed at a rate of more than one-hundred-thousand square kilometers a year. The U-N report says chimpanzees are captured in large numbers. Chimpanzee products are sold in local markets. Trade in baby chimpanzees is widespread. Until recently, large numbers of chimpanzees were also used for medical research. The population of western lowland gorillas has dropped sharply from hunting and the spread of the Ebola virus. Gorillas are also killed by traps meant for other animals. Researchers say gorilla populations have dropped by more than fifty-percent in some areas, and more than ninety percent in others. They say the number of mountain gorillas has fallen below seven-hundred. Gorillas in the wild normally live about thirty-five years. Females give birth to only about three babies in their lifetime. Countries with great apes have laws to control hunting and capture. But the U-N report says a lack of money usually means little or no enforcement. VOICE TWO: Orangutans are the only great apes outside Africa. They are found in Southeast Asia, on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Researchers say the orangutan population has dropped below twenty-seven-thousand. They say this is mostly the result of fires, logging, mining and farming. They say human activities have taken away up to fifty percent of the orangutan’s environment. Experts say hunting is common. They say female orangutans are usually killed to steal their babies for sale as pets. VOICE ONE: The U-N meeting last month in Paris produced an international work plan to help end hunting of great apes. The delegates said countries with these animals must take urgent action. There were also calls for international help to expand protected areas and to increase forest conservation measures. Last year, at the Johannesburg environmental summit, the United States promised ninety-million dollars for such programs in central Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From great apes, we turn to elephants in Africa. A new report says Africa is thought to have between four-hundred-thousand and six-hundred-sixty-thousand elephants. These numbers are higher than reported in nineteen-ninety-nine. But scientists are careful when they talk about the new findings. They say a number of things could explain the increase. VOICE ONE: Experts from the World Conservation Union gathered information from a record-keeping system called the African Elephant Database. The scientists believe that Southern Africa has the most elephants, at least two-hundred-forty-six-thousand. They say the number could be as high as three-hundred-thousand. East Africa is next, followed by Central Africa. The reports says Central Africa could have as few as sixteen-thousand elephants or as many as almost two-hundred-thousand. West Africa is believed to have the fewest elephants, at least five-thousand-five-hundred and as many as thirteen-thousand. VOICE TWO: The overall increase this year is partly the result of reported increases in the large elephant populations in Botswana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Also, the estimates cover a much larger area than before. But the numbers still represent only half of the total area where elephants may be found. Julian Blanc helped write the report. He says the numbers say little about the condition of elephant populations across Africa. He says most elephant studies are restricted to protected areas. Elephants often flee to these areas to escape from humans. As a result, he says, large groups of elephants can give the misleading appearance that populations have increased. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk and also written by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. This week -- warnings about the danger of extinction for the great apes ... and a study that may, or may not, offer good news for African elephants. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The United Nations says great apes are in danger of disappearing. Experts say some species will disappear soon, and others within fifty years. The great apes are gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos. They live in the wild in twenty-three countries in Africa and Asia. They are the closest relatives to humans. An emergency meeting took place last month in Paris. Representatives from those twenty-three countries met with environmental groups and scientific experts. For three days they discussed how to save the great apes. They also discussed plans for a meeting of government ministers late next year. VOICE TWO: The U-N Environment Program and UNESCO, the U-N cultural organization, organized a project in two-thousand-one. It is called the Great Apes Survival Project -- or GRASP. Officials say sixteen of the twenty-three countries have begun taking measures to protect their great apes. The meeting organizers say they hope to expand these measures. The United Nations says at least twenty-five million dollars is needed to begin the effort. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Great apes share more than ninety-six percent of our genetic material. They stand upright, and hold things with hands like ours. Their ability to learn is of great interest to people. Ian Redman heads the technical support team for the Great Apes Survival Project. He says the future of the planet is linked to their survival. He describes great apes, along with elephants, as the "gardeners" of the forest. They help keep it healthy. U-N officials note that to many scientists, if we lose a species of great apes, we destroy part of our humanity. VOICE TWO: An estimated four-hundred-thousand great apes remain in the wild. Experts say the western chimpanzee has already disappeared from Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Togo. In Ghana, the numbers are estimated between just three-hundred and five-hundred. Human activities are the most serious threat to the great apes. Researchers say the two biggest problems are the destruction of forests and road building. A U-N report called "The Great Apes - the Road Ahead" examines the situation. Great apes live in environments that contain resources valuable to people. Things like trees, minerals and oil. Logging and mining camps bring new roads. Foreign demand for hardwood causes the logging industry to move deeper into forests. VOICE ONE: Clearing forests makes it easier for hunters to find and kill apes. The U-N report notes that bushmeat is an important food to many people in west and central Africa. Some of the people also believe it has special powers of magic or medicine. In Africa and Asia, killing and selling apes can also provide extra money to villagers and workers in the forest. Even with laws against it, bushmeat hunting is now more widespread. The U-N report says hunting increases in times of conflict. And demand is rising from people who live in cities. Scientists say the bushmeat trade increases the risk that infectious diseases will spread from apes to humans. The U-N report notes that chimpanzees and gorillas can get influenza, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, even the common cold. VOICE TWO: Ebola virus is a big concern. The disease usually kills apes that become infected. Experts say Ebola can spread from handling the bodies of infected apes. The World Health Organization says between fifty and ninety percent of people who develop Ebola die. Ebola causes uncontrolled bleeding. Scientists are developing ways to prevent or treat it. For now, though, aside from the danger to humans, Ebola could severely effect the future of the great apes. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The number of chimpanzees left in the world is not known. But researchers say their tropical rainforest is being destroyed at a rate of more than one-hundred-thousand square kilometers a year. The U-N report says chimpanzees are captured in large numbers. Chimpanzee products are sold in local markets. Trade in baby chimpanzees is widespread. Until recently, large numbers of chimpanzees were also used for medical research. The population of western lowland gorillas has dropped sharply from hunting and the spread of the Ebola virus. Gorillas are also killed by traps meant for other animals. Researchers say gorilla populations have dropped by more than fifty-percent in some areas, and more than ninety percent in others. They say the number of mountain gorillas has fallen below seven-hundred. Gorillas in the wild normally live about thirty-five years. Females give birth to only about three babies in their lifetime. Countries with great apes have laws to control hunting and capture. But the U-N report says a lack of money usually means little or no enforcement. VOICE TWO: Orangutans are the only great apes outside Africa. They are found in Southeast Asia, on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Researchers say the orangutan population has dropped below twenty-seven-thousand. They say this is mostly the result of fires, logging, mining and farming. They say human activities have taken away up to fifty percent of the orangutan’s environment. Experts say hunting is common. They say female orangutans are usually killed to steal their babies for sale as pets. VOICE ONE: The U-N meeting last month in Paris produced an international work plan to help end hunting of great apes. The delegates said countries with these animals must take urgent action. There were also calls for international help to expand protected areas and to increase forest conservation measures. Last year, at the Johannesburg environmental summit, the United States promised ninety-million dollars for such programs in central Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: From great apes, we turn to elephants in Africa. A new report says Africa is thought to have between four-hundred-thousand and six-hundred-sixty-thousand elephants. These numbers are higher than reported in nineteen-ninety-nine. But scientists are careful when they talk about the new findings. They say a number of things could explain the increase. VOICE ONE: Experts from the World Conservation Union gathered information from a record-keeping system called the African Elephant Database. The scientists believe that Southern Africa has the most elephants, at least two-hundred-forty-six-thousand. They say the number could be as high as three-hundred-thousand. East Africa is next, followed by Central Africa. The reports says Central Africa could have as few as sixteen-thousand elephants or as many as almost two-hundred-thousand. West Africa is believed to have the fewest elephants, at least five-thousand-five-hundred and as many as thirteen-thousand. VOICE TWO: The overall increase this year is partly the result of reported increases in the large elephant populations in Botswana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Also, the estimates cover a much larger area than before. But the numbers still represent only half of the total area where elephants may be found. Julian Blanc helped write the report. He says the numbers say little about the condition of elephant populations across Africa. He says most elephant studies are restricted to protected areas. Elephants often flee to these areas to escape from humans. As a result, he says, large groups of elephants can give the misleading appearance that populations have increased. (THEME) VOICE ONE: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk and also written by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Prostate Cancer / Powell
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 24, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week, American Secretary of State Colin Powell had an operation to remove his prostate gland. Doctors had found prostate cancer, one of the most common cancers among men in Western nations. The operation lasted two hours. Mister Powell is sixty-six years old. A spokesman said doctors expected a full recovery. The prostate is part of the male reproduction system. It is a small gland below the bladder. Cancer of the prostate usually develops after the age of fifty. The disease can kill if it spreads. But it can be cured if discovered early. Doctors can do a blood test to find prostate cancer. The test measures the amount of a protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. An injured or diseased prostate lets PSA into the blood. The more PSA that is found, the greater the chance that a man has prostate cancer. If a man has a high PSA level, a doctor will remove small pieces of the prostate and examine them. Men with early prostate cancer have some choices. One is an operation to remove the gland. Another is radiation treatment. Experts say radiation is a good choice for men who are too old or weak for the operation. Both treatments are considered the most effective interventions for early prostate cancer. However, they can affect a man in other ways. They can make him unable to perform sexually. Another possible effect is a loss of control over the release of urine from the bladder. Doctors say some men with early prostate cancer do not need any immediate treatment. They suggest this for old men or those with other serious health problems. Prostate cancer generally grows slowly. Treatment can be started later if the cancer is found to be growing. Prostate cancer that has spread can be treated with anti-cancer drugs or hormones. Prostate cancers grow in the presence of testosterone. Doctors say drugs that block this hormone seem to shrink the cancers. About ninety percent of men with prostate cancer survive at least five years. The World Health Organization says prostate cancer is strongly related to Western living, where diets are too high in fat. But the W-H-O also says black men appear at greater risk that whites, and white men at greater risk than Asians. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Broadcast: December 24, 2003 This is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Health Report. Last week, American Secretary of State Colin Powell had an operation to remove his prostate gland. Doctors had found prostate cancer, one of the most common cancers among men in Western nations. The operation lasted two hours. Mister Powell is sixty-six years old. A spokesman said doctors expected a full recovery. The prostate is part of the male reproduction system. It is a small gland below the bladder. Cancer of the prostate usually develops after the age of fifty. The disease can kill if it spreads. But it can be cured if discovered early. Doctors can do a blood test to find prostate cancer. The test measures the amount of a protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. An injured or diseased prostate lets PSA into the blood. The more PSA that is found, the greater the chance that a man has prostate cancer. If a man has a high PSA level, a doctor will remove small pieces of the prostate and examine them. Men with early prostate cancer have some choices. One is an operation to remove the gland. Another is radiation treatment. Experts say radiation is a good choice for men who are too old or weak for the operation. Both treatments are considered the most effective interventions for early prostate cancer. However, they can affect a man in other ways. They can make him unable to perform sexually. Another possible effect is a loss of control over the release of urine from the bladder. Doctors say some men with early prostate cancer do not need any immediate treatment. They suggest this for old men or those with other serious health problems. Prostate cancer generally grows slowly. Treatment can be started later if the cancer is found to be growing. Prostate cancer that has spread can be treated with anti-cancer drugs or hormones. Prostate cancers grow in the presence of testosterone. Doctors say drugs that block this hormone seem to shrink the cancers. About ninety percent of men with prostate cancer survive at least five years. The World Health Organization says prostate cancer is strongly related to Western living, where diets are too high in fat. But the W-H-O also says black men appear at greater risk that whites, and white men at greater risk than Asians. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Development Marketplace
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 24, 2003 (THEME) World Bank President Paul Wolfensohn Broadcast: December 24, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a World Bank program that supports people with new ways to solve social problems. It is called the Development Marketplace. The World Bank program identifies and pays for the best ideas in development. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people around the world are trying to create new kinds of businesses. They often are called entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are people who organize, build and support their individual business proposals. They may have ideas about new products that the world has never seen. Or, they may have ideas about new ways to do business. VOICE TWO: Social entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneurs. However, social entrepreneurs try to improve conditions in their communities. They organize, build, and support new and creative programs. Their goal is to improve people’s lives. Their work is very important. Usually, social entrepreneurs do not receive much support for their work. However, the World Bank is trying to change this. The bank recognizes the need for social entrepreneurs and has developed a special program to offer them support. About every eighteen months, the World Bank brings together social entrepreneurs in a friendly competition called the Development Marketplace. During the gathering in Washington D-C, competitors are able to explain their ideas to groups that can provide financial and technical support. At the end of the two-day competition, winners are given start-up money to carry out their plans within one year. VOICE ONE: The World Bank competition serves as a chance for the development community to share ideas. Non-governmental organizations, aid groups, government agencies, educators and private companies are able to discuss new ways to solve social problems. Anyone can compete in the Development Marketplace. The only requirement is that their idea be creative, designed to change people’s lives, and help end poverty. Also, other people must be able to copy the idea in their own communities. A group of judges from the World Bank and other organizations chooses the winners. VOICE TWO: One-hundred-eighty-three social entrepreneurs were in Washington earlier this month for this year’s Development Marketplace. They came from sixty-three countries. Each competitor offered an idea in one of twelve areas. These included agricultural development, civil society and social protection, disabilities, education, energy and transportation, and the environment. There were also ideas for improved health and nutrition, H-I-V and AIDS, information and communication technologies, small and medium-size business development, financing, and clean water. The main message of this year’s Development Marketplace was “Making Services Work for Poor People.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each social entrepreneur competing at the Development Marketplace offered a creative approach to easing world poverty. For example, Peter Clark was hoping to receive money to pay for a video education program in Afghanistan. He and Shahzad Ahmed (Shah-ZAD AH-med) work for a not-for-profit group called ARCA Associates. The group believes that people learn best with tools that relate to their own life experiences, such as videos. ARCA was seeking money to create a series of videos for Afghani women and girls. These would be used to teach females about the important part they play in Afghanistan’s growth and development. VOICE TWO: Although ARCA’s proposal did not win money at the Development Marketplace, an environmental plan from Vietnam did. Tran Triet (Tran Trit) is a professor at the national university in Ho Chi Minh City. He hopes to save a special wetland area in southwest Ha Tien, Vietnam. Money from the World Bank will be used to teach farmers how to harvest grass from the wetland without harming the environment. Currently, the Vietnam government wants to use the wetland area for rice farming. However, Mister Tran says this is a bad idea because the soil contains too much acid. Instead, he says farmers should protect the wetland and harvest its grass from year to year. VOICE ONE: Such sustainable harvesting will also protect the home of Vietnam’s sarus crane. This long-legged bird is at risk of dying out completely. The sarus crane is also an important sign of the ethnic Khmer Buddhists living in Ha Tien. Mister Tran believes the Khmer population can use the wetland grass to create hand-made hats and containers. He says the products will be sold in markets in Ho Chi Minh City. About two-hundred Khmer families live near the Ha Tien wetlands. Mister Tran says his program will improve their economic situation as well as protect the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another winning proposal is for growing chili pepper plants for conservation and development in Zimbabwe. This project supports the production of chili peppers in the Zambezi Valley as a way to protect farmers from invasion of their land by elephants. In addition, the chili crop will create a new valuable export product for the farmers. Another winning project is from Brazil. This project seeks to help poor young people whose parents had died of AIDS. It helps find useful jobs for these AIDS orphans. In Nepal, a proposal for the Doko Dai Mobile Library also is a winner in the Development Marketplace. This project seeks to teach children to read and write. It also increases jobs for adults who take books and educational materials to communities in mountainous areas. Another Development Marketplace winner is from the Philippines. It is a project called the Hilwai Rehabilitation Boat for Disabled Persons. This project will build a boat and sail to far-away islands to help people with disabilities who cannot get health services. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most interesting idea to win money at the Development Marketplace comes from Tanzania. Researchers at the Sokoine (so-ko-EE-nee) University of Agriculture are training rats to identify tuberculosis. Usually, health officials in developing nations use a microscopic test to identify the disease. Experts examine liquid from a patient’s mouth under a microscope. They try to identify cells infected with T-B bacteria. Although this method is effective, it takes a long time. Trained laboratory workers may spend up to a full day to complete just twenty tests. Belgian scientist Bart Weetjens (WET-jens) says his idea is faster and more effective. He says one rat can complete more than two-thousand tuberculosis tests in a single day. The rats can smell tuberculosis bacteria. They are trained to stay in front of a T-B test if the disease is present. VOICE TWO: Mister Weetjens gives the rats food when they correctly identify tuberculosis. He says money from the World Bank will be used to carry out a full scientific study with the rats. He hopes to prove that his method is a dependable, effective way to identify T-B in poor nations. The social entrepreneurs presenting ideas at this year’s Development Marketplace gave Mister Weetjens’ project the People’s Choice Award. The scientist said he was honored and pleased that so many people consider his work valuable. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Development Marketplace competition was held in two-thousand. At that time, forty-three winning ideas shared five-million dollars in start-up money. Last year, four-and-one-half million dollars was divided among thirty-nine winners. And at this year’s competition, forty-seven projects won financing. The winners divided the largest amount of start-up money -- six-and-one-half-million dollars. World Bank President Paul Wolfensohn described the winners as imaginative people with the ability to solve difficult development problems. VOICE TWO: More than two-thousand-seven-hundred people entered ideas at the start of this year’s competition in June. To learn more about how you can take part in the next Development Marketplace, visit the World Bank website at w-w-w-dot-worldbank-dot-org. World Bank is spelled as all one word. (www.worldbank.org) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a World Bank program that supports people with new ways to solve social problems. It is called the Development Marketplace. The World Bank program identifies and pays for the best ideas in development. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people around the world are trying to create new kinds of businesses. They often are called entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are people who organize, build and support their individual business proposals. They may have ideas about new products that the world has never seen. Or, they may have ideas about new ways to do business. VOICE TWO: Social entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneurs. However, social entrepreneurs try to improve conditions in their communities. They organize, build, and support new and creative programs. Their goal is to improve people’s lives. Their work is very important. Usually, social entrepreneurs do not receive much support for their work. However, the World Bank is trying to change this. The bank recognizes the need for social entrepreneurs and has developed a special program to offer them support. About every eighteen months, the World Bank brings together social entrepreneurs in a friendly competition called the Development Marketplace. During the gathering in Washington D-C, competitors are able to explain their ideas to groups that can provide financial and technical support. At the end of the two-day competition, winners are given start-up money to carry out their plans within one year. VOICE ONE: The World Bank competition serves as a chance for the development community to share ideas. Non-governmental organizations, aid groups, government agencies, educators and private companies are able to discuss new ways to solve social problems. Anyone can compete in the Development Marketplace. The only requirement is that their idea be creative, designed to change people’s lives, and help end poverty. Also, other people must be able to copy the idea in their own communities. A group of judges from the World Bank and other organizations chooses the winners. VOICE TWO: One-hundred-eighty-three social entrepreneurs were in Washington earlier this month for this year’s Development Marketplace. They came from sixty-three countries. Each competitor offered an idea in one of twelve areas. These included agricultural development, civil society and social protection, disabilities, education, energy and transportation, and the environment. There were also ideas for improved health and nutrition, H-I-V and AIDS, information and communication technologies, small and medium-size business development, financing, and clean water. The main message of this year’s Development Marketplace was “Making Services Work for Poor People.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each social entrepreneur competing at the Development Marketplace offered a creative approach to easing world poverty. For example, Peter Clark was hoping to receive money to pay for a video education program in Afghanistan. He and Shahzad Ahmed (Shah-ZAD AH-med) work for a not-for-profit group called ARCA Associates. The group believes that people learn best with tools that relate to their own life experiences, such as videos. ARCA was seeking money to create a series of videos for Afghani women and girls. These would be used to teach females about the important part they play in Afghanistan’s growth and development. VOICE TWO: Although ARCA’s proposal did not win money at the Development Marketplace, an environmental plan from Vietnam did. Tran Triet (Tran Trit) is a professor at the national university in Ho Chi Minh City. He hopes to save a special wetland area in southwest Ha Tien, Vietnam. Money from the World Bank will be used to teach farmers how to harvest grass from the wetland without harming the environment. Currently, the Vietnam government wants to use the wetland area for rice farming. However, Mister Tran says this is a bad idea because the soil contains too much acid. Instead, he says farmers should protect the wetland and harvest its grass from year to year. VOICE ONE: Such sustainable harvesting will also protect the home of Vietnam’s sarus crane. This long-legged bird is at risk of dying out completely. The sarus crane is also an important sign of the ethnic Khmer Buddhists living in Ha Tien. Mister Tran believes the Khmer population can use the wetland grass to create hand-made hats and containers. He says the products will be sold in markets in Ho Chi Minh City. About two-hundred Khmer families live near the Ha Tien wetlands. Mister Tran says his program will improve their economic situation as well as protect the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another winning proposal is for growing chili pepper plants for conservation and development in Zimbabwe. This project supports the production of chili peppers in the Zambezi Valley as a way to protect farmers from invasion of their land by elephants. In addition, the chili crop will create a new valuable export product for the farmers. Another winning project is from Brazil. This project seeks to help poor young people whose parents had died of AIDS. It helps find useful jobs for these AIDS orphans. In Nepal, a proposal for the Doko Dai Mobile Library also is a winner in the Development Marketplace. This project seeks to teach children to read and write. It also increases jobs for adults who take books and educational materials to communities in mountainous areas. Another Development Marketplace winner is from the Philippines. It is a project called the Hilwai Rehabilitation Boat for Disabled Persons. This project will build a boat and sail to far-away islands to help people with disabilities who cannot get health services. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most interesting idea to win money at the Development Marketplace comes from Tanzania. Researchers at the Sokoine (so-ko-EE-nee) University of Agriculture are training rats to identify tuberculosis. Usually, health officials in developing nations use a microscopic test to identify the disease. Experts examine liquid from a patient’s mouth under a microscope. They try to identify cells infected with T-B bacteria. Although this method is effective, it takes a long time. Trained laboratory workers may spend up to a full day to complete just twenty tests. Belgian scientist Bart Weetjens (WET-jens) says his idea is faster and more effective. He says one rat can complete more than two-thousand tuberculosis tests in a single day. The rats can smell tuberculosis bacteria. They are trained to stay in front of a T-B test if the disease is present. VOICE TWO: Mister Weetjens gives the rats food when they correctly identify tuberculosis. He says money from the World Bank will be used to carry out a full scientific study with the rats. He hopes to prove that his method is a dependable, effective way to identify T-B in poor nations. The social entrepreneurs presenting ideas at this year’s Development Marketplace gave Mister Weetjens’ project the People’s Choice Award. The scientist said he was honored and pleased that so many people consider his work valuable. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Development Marketplace competition was held in two-thousand. At that time, forty-three winning ideas shared five-million dollars in start-up money. Last year, four-and-one-half million dollars was divided among thirty-nine winners. And at this year’s competition, forty-seven projects won financing. The winners divided the largest amount of start-up money -- six-and-one-half-million dollars. World Bank President Paul Wolfensohn described the winners as imaginative people with the ability to solve difficult development problems. VOICE TWO: More than two-thousand-seven-hundred people entered ideas at the start of this year’s competition in June. To learn more about how you can take part in the next Development Marketplace, visit the World Bank website at w-w-w-dot-worldbank-dot-org. World Bank is spelled as all one word. (www.worldbank.org) (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/2006-08-28-voa1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Development Marketplace
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE:? I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today, we tell about a World Bank program that supports people with new ways to solve social problems. It is called the Development Marketplace. The World Bank program identifies and pays for the best ideas in development. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many people around the world are trying to create new kinds of businesses. They often are called entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are people who organize, build and support their individual business proposals. They may have ideas about new products that the world has never seen. Or, they may have ideas about new ways to do business. VOICE TWO: World Bank headquarters in WashingtonSocial entrepreneurs are similar to business entrepreneurs. However, social entrepreneurs try to improve conditions in their communities. They organize, build, and support new and creative programs. Their goal is to improve people’s lives. Their work is very important. Usually, social entrepreneurs do not receive much support for their work. However, the World Bank is trying to change this. The bank recognizes the need for social entrepreneurs and has developed a special program to offer them support. About every eighteen months, the World Bank brings together social entrepreneurs in a friendly competition called the Development Marketplace. During the gathering in Washington D-C, competitors are able to explain their ideas to groups that can provide financial and technical support. At the end of the two-day competition, winners are given start-up money to carry out their plans within one year. VOICE ONE: The World Bank competition serves as a chance for the development community to share ideas. Non-governmental organizations, aid groups, government agencies, educators and private companies are able to discuss new ways to solve social problems. Anyone can compete in the Development Marketplace. The only requirement is that their idea be creative, designed to change people’s lives, and help end poverty. Also, other people must be able to copy the idea in their own communities. A group of judges from the World Bank and other organizations chooses the winners. VOICE TWO: One hundred eighty-three social entrepreneurs were in Washington earlier this month for this year’s Development Marketplace. They came from sixty-three countries. Each competitor offered an idea in one of twelve areas. These included agricultural development, civil society and social protection, disabilities, education, energy and transportation, and the environment. There were also ideas for improved health and nutrition, H-I-V and AIDS, information and communication technologies, small and medium-size business development, financing, and clean water. The main message of this year’s Development Marketplace was “Making Services Work for Poor People.” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Each social entrepreneur competing at the Development Marketplace offered a creative approach to easing world poverty. For example, Peter Clark was hoping to receive money to pay for a video education program in Afghanistan. He and Shahzad Ahmed work for a not-for-profit group called ARCA Associates. The group believes that people learn best with tools that relate to their own life experiences, such as videos. ARCA was seeking money to create a series of videos for Afghani women and girls. These would be used to teach females about the important part they play in Afghanistan’s growth and development. VOICE TWO: Although ARCA’s proposal did not win money at the Development Marketplace, an environmental plan from Vietnam did. Tran Triet is a professor at the national university in Ho Chi Minh City. He hopes to save a special wetland area in southwest Ha Tien, Vietnam. Money from the World Bank will be used to teach farmers how to harvest grass from the wetland without harming the environment. Currently, the Vietnam government wants to use the wetland area for rice farming. However, Mister Tran says this is a bad idea because the soil contains too much acid. Instead, he says farmers should protect the wetland and harvest its grass from year to year. VOICE ONE: Such sustainable harvesting will also protect the home of Vietnam’s sarus crane. This long-legged bird is at risk of dying out completely. The sarus crane is also an important sign of the ethnic Khmer Buddhists living in Ha Tien. Mister Tran believes the Khmer population can use the wetland grass to create hand-made hats and containers. He says the products will be sold in markets in Ho Chi Minh City. About two-hundred Khmer families live near the Ha Tien wetlands. Mister Tran says his program will improve their economic situation as well as protect the environment. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another winning proposal is for growing chili pepper plants for conservation and development in Zimbabwe. This project supports the production of chili peppers in the Zambezi Valley as a way to protect farmers from invasion of their land by elephants. In addition, the chili crop will create a new valuable export product for the farmers. Another winning project is from Brazil. This project seeks to help poor young people whose parents had died of AIDS. It helps find useful jobs for these AIDS orphans. In Nepal, a proposal for the Doko Dai Mobile Library also is a winner in the Development Marketplace. This project seeks to teach children to read and write. It also increases jobs for adults who take books and educational materials to communities in mountainous areas. Another Development Marketplace winner is from the Philippines. It is a project called the Hilwai Rehabilitation Boat for Disabled Persons. This project will build a boat and sail to far-away islands to help people with disabilities who cannot get health services. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most interesting idea to win money at the Development Marketplace comes from Tanzania. Researchers at the Sokoine University of Agriculture are training rats to identify tuberculosis. Usually, health officials in developing nations use a microscopic test to identify the disease. Experts examine liquid from a patient’s mouth under a microscope. They try to identify cells infected with T-B bacteria. Although this method is effective, it takes a long time. Trained laboratory workers may spend up to a full day to complete just twenty tests. Belgian scientist Bart Weetjens says his idea is faster and more effective. He says one rat can complete more than two-thousand tuberculosis tests in a single day. The rats can smell tuberculosis bacteria. They are trained to stay in front of a T-B test if the disease is present. VOICE TWO: Mister Weetjens gives the rats food when they correctly identify tuberculosis. He says money from the World Bank will be used to carry out a full scientific study with the rats. He hopes to prove that his method is a dependable, effective way to identify T-B in poor nations. The social entrepreneurs presenting ideas at this year’s Development Marketplace gave Mister Weetjens’ project the People’s Choice Award. The scientist said he was honored and pleased that so many people consider his work valuable. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The first Development Marketplace competition was held in two-thousand. At that time, forty-three winning ideas shared five-million dollars in start-up money. Last year, four-and-one-half million dollars was divided among thirty-nine winners. And at this year’s competition, forty-seven projects won financing. The winners divided the largest amount of start-up money -- six-and-one-half-million dollars. World Bank President James Wolfensohn described the winners as imaginative people with the ability to solve difficult development problems. VOICE TWO: More than two-thousand-seven-hundred people entered ideas at the start of this year’s competition in June. To learn more about how you can take part in the next Development Marketplace, visit the World Bank website at w-w-w-dot-worldbank-dot-org. World Bank is spelled as all one word. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Flight Anniversary / A Question about American Celebrations / Bringing in the New Year
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 26, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 26, 2003 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we report about some New Year’s celebrations to be held next week. And we answer a listener’s question about still another holiday Americans celebrate in December. But first –we tell about a special anniversary...the anniversary of flight. Anniversary of Flight HOST: December Seventeenth was the one-hundredth-anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first successful powered flight. That anniversary is being observed in several ways. Bob Cohen tells us about two of them. ANNCR: The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum is perhaps the most visited museum in the world. The building is in Washington D-C, near the Capitol building. The museum displays aircraft important to the history of aviation. More than nine-million people visit the Air and Space Museum each year. But the museum is not big enough to display all of the aircraft it has collected over the years. As part of the observances of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight, the Smithsonian opened a huge new building in nearby Virginia. That building may solve the problem of where to display the museum’s collection. The building is named the Steven Udvar-Hazy (OOD-var HA-zee) Center. Mister Udvar-Hazy came to the United States from Hungary. He was very successful in the American aviation industry. He gave sixty-five-million dollars to help build the new museum. He said this was a way for him to thank America for the chances for success that it provided him. Although open to the public, the Udvar-Hazy Center is not yet finished. It will be able to hold about three-hundred aircraft. About eighty aircraft are now in the building. These include the SR-Seventy-One “Black Bird,” the fastest aircraft ever built. It has flown at more than three times the speed of sound. On December seventeenth, exactly one-hundred years after the Wright Brothers first flew, a group of aviation experts tried to recreate their first flight. The attempt was made at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. This is the same place where Orville and Wilbur Wright made their famous flight. However, the attempt to recreate the flight failed. The experts tried to fly a copy of the Wright Brothers’ famous aircraft. But the weather did not cooperate. The aircraft began to move but could not lift into the air. Event organizers said they did not feel disappointed by the failure. They said the Wright Brothers had failed three days before they were successful. They said they will try again. Kwanzaa HOST: Last week, we told about Hanukkah when we answered a question about celebrations from a listener in Nigeria. This week, we answer a similar question, but give a different answer. Sajid Iqbal from Lahore, Pakistan asks about events or occasions that Americans celebrate. One of these starts December twenty-sixth. It is called Kwanzaa. The word “Kwanzaa” is Swahili. It means first fruits of the harvest. The first Kwanzaa celebration began on the day after Christmas in nineteen-sixty-six. A small group of African-Americans in the western city of Los Angeles, California began the first seven-day celebration. The celebration was not religious. Its purpose was to honor black culture, especially the importance of the family. Today, millions of African-Americans celebrate Kwanzaa. Families in Canada, Britain, France and Africa also celebrate it. The holiday continues from December twenty-sixth through January first. Kwanzaa does not replace Christmas. Most people who celebrate Kwanzaa also celebrate Christmas. Kwanzaa is a time for black families to discuss seven goals to live by all year. These are unity, personal independence, joint responsibility, cooperative econonics, purpose, creativity and faith. On each of the seven days of Kwanzaa, family members gather to light a black, red or green candle in a special candle holder. Each day, the family discusses one of the goals. People may also get together for a party and enjoy a holiday meal. College professor Maulana Karenga developed Kwanzaa. He said Kwanzaa’s goal of unity includes unity in the family, the local community, the nation and the African community around the world. He also said that celebrating Kwanzaa will not solve the social problems of black people. But he said that honoring the goals of Kwanzaa will make people more creative and productive citizens. New Year’s Traditions HOST: The year two-thousand-four will begin next Thursday, January first. Many Americans are already planning to celebrate. Faith Lapidus tells us about some of their plans. ANNCR: On Wednesday night, millions of Americans will dress in their best clothes and go out to celebrate the coming of the new year. Some will go to private parties to eat, drink and dance. Others will go to a hotel or public eating place for dinner and dancing. Many such places have bands and singers to perform on New Year’s Eve. They play songs like this one. (FUNKY NEW YEAR) Americans recognize the dangers of drinking alcohol and then driving a car. So hotels in many cities offer people a way to enjoy the party and stay safe. They urge people to stay in the hotel for the night. That way, the celebrators can drive home safely the next morning. Some people take part in public celebrations known as First Night. People in the northeastern city of Boston created the First Night celebration more than twenty-five years ago. Such celebrations include art, puppets, magicians, storytellers and all kinds of music. Those who take part say First Night celebrations are for everyone. They say it gives people more to cheer about than just beginning the new year at midnight. Whatever way Americans choose to celebrate the new year, one tradition is common. At midnight, everyone cheers and makes noise. (NEW YEAR’S CROWD) They shout out wishes for a happy and healthy new year. And they join in singing this traditional new year’s song, “Auld Lang Syne.” (AULD LANG SYNE) HOST: This is Doug Johnson, wishing all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program today was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Eva Nenicka. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our show today, we report about some New Year’s celebrations to be held next week. And we answer a listener’s question about still another holiday Americans celebrate in December. But first –we tell about a special anniversary...the anniversary of flight. Anniversary of Flight HOST: December Seventeenth was the one-hundredth-anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first successful powered flight. That anniversary is being observed in several ways. Bob Cohen tells us about two of them. ANNCR: The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum is perhaps the most visited museum in the world. The building is in Washington D-C, near the Capitol building. The museum displays aircraft important to the history of aviation. More than nine-million people visit the Air and Space Museum each year. But the museum is not big enough to display all of the aircraft it has collected over the years. As part of the observances of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight, the Smithsonian opened a huge new building in nearby Virginia. That building may solve the problem of where to display the museum’s collection. The building is named the Steven Udvar-Hazy (OOD-var HA-zee) Center. Mister Udvar-Hazy came to the United States from Hungary. He was very successful in the American aviation industry. He gave sixty-five-million dollars to help build the new museum. He said this was a way for him to thank America for the chances for success that it provided him. Although open to the public, the Udvar-Hazy Center is not yet finished. It will be able to hold about three-hundred aircraft. About eighty aircraft are now in the building. These include the SR-Seventy-One “Black Bird,” the fastest aircraft ever built. It has flown at more than three times the speed of sound. On December seventeenth, exactly one-hundred years after the Wright Brothers first flew, a group of aviation experts tried to recreate their first flight. The attempt was made at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. This is the same place where Orville and Wilbur Wright made their famous flight. However, the attempt to recreate the flight failed. The experts tried to fly a copy of the Wright Brothers’ famous aircraft. But the weather did not cooperate. The aircraft began to move but could not lift into the air. Event organizers said they did not feel disappointed by the failure. They said the Wright Brothers had failed three days before they were successful. They said they will try again. Kwanzaa HOST: Last week, we told about Hanukkah when we answered a question about celebrations from a listener in Nigeria. This week, we answer a similar question, but give a different answer. Sajid Iqbal from Lahore, Pakistan asks about events or occasions that Americans celebrate. One of these starts December twenty-sixth. It is called Kwanzaa. The word “Kwanzaa” is Swahili. It means first fruits of the harvest. The first Kwanzaa celebration began on the day after Christmas in nineteen-sixty-six. A small group of African-Americans in the western city of Los Angeles, California began the first seven-day celebration. The celebration was not religious. Its purpose was to honor black culture, especially the importance of the family. Today, millions of African-Americans celebrate Kwanzaa. Families in Canada, Britain, France and Africa also celebrate it. The holiday continues from December twenty-sixth through January first. Kwanzaa does not replace Christmas. Most people who celebrate Kwanzaa also celebrate Christmas. Kwanzaa is a time for black families to discuss seven goals to live by all year. These are unity, personal independence, joint responsibility, cooperative econonics, purpose, creativity and faith. On each of the seven days of Kwanzaa, family members gather to light a black, red or green candle in a special candle holder. Each day, the family discusses one of the goals. People may also get together for a party and enjoy a holiday meal. College professor Maulana Karenga developed Kwanzaa. He said Kwanzaa’s goal of unity includes unity in the family, the local community, the nation and the African community around the world. He also said that celebrating Kwanzaa will not solve the social problems of black people. But he said that honoring the goals of Kwanzaa will make people more creative and productive citizens. New Year’s Traditions HOST: The year two-thousand-four will begin next Thursday, January first. Many Americans are already planning to celebrate. Faith Lapidus tells us about some of their plans. ANNCR: On Wednesday night, millions of Americans will dress in their best clothes and go out to celebrate the coming of the new year. Some will go to private parties to eat, drink and dance. Others will go to a hotel or public eating place for dinner and dancing. Many such places have bands and singers to perform on New Year’s Eve. They play songs like this one. (FUNKY NEW YEAR) Americans recognize the dangers of drinking alcohol and then driving a car. So hotels in many cities offer people a way to enjoy the party and stay safe. They urge people to stay in the hotel for the night. That way, the celebrators can drive home safely the next morning. Some people take part in public celebrations known as First Night. People in the northeastern city of Boston created the First Night celebration more than twenty-five years ago. Such celebrations include art, puppets, magicians, storytellers and all kinds of music. Those who take part say First Night celebrations are for everyone. They say it gives people more to cheer about than just beginning the new year at midnight. Whatever way Americans choose to celebrate the new year, one tradition is common. At midnight, everyone cheers and makes noise. (NEW YEAR’S CROWD) They shout out wishes for a happy and healthy new year. And they join in singing this traditional new year’s song, “Auld Lang Syne.” (AULD LANG SYNE) HOST: This is Doug Johnson, wishing all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program today was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was Eva Nenicka. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ECONOMICS REPORT—The Dow Jones Industrial Average
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 26, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Doctors always measure the heartbeat of a patient when examining the patient’s health. The heartbeat of America’s stock markets is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. No other measure of stock value is as widely known. Sometimes it is simply called the Dow. It is published by the Dow Jones Company, an influential publisher of international financial news. The Dow Jones Company is a product of Wall Street, the area in New York City that is the financial center of the United States. Three reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, started the company in eighteen-eighty-two. At first, they published a handwritten newsletter for financial workers. It was very successful. By eighteen-eighty-nine, the newsletter became the Wall Street Journal newspaper. The Dow Jones Company began publishing the Dow Jones Industrial Average in eighteen-ninety-six. The list had twelve stocks. It represented the biggest industries in the American economy at the time. Today, the Dow lists thirty stocks. They are often called “blue-chip” stocks. These stocks represent an ownership share in companies that are considered strong. These well known companies include Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, McDonald’s and General Electric. When you read the Dow Jones Industrial Average, you quickly see that it is not the average price of thirty stocks. For example, the Dow recently increased to more than ten-thousand for the first time in more than eighteen months. Ten-thousand does not seem like the average price of thirty stocks. In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average does not represent a price but a mathematical average. When the Dow goes up, it gains points, not dollars. The Dow Jones uses what is called a flexible divisor to keep changes in individual stock prices from affecting the whole average too much. The Dow system generally divides stock prices by the flexible divisor. The result is the number we see in newspapers and on television news reports. Today, the Dow is just one of many stock averages. The Standard and Poor’s Five-Hundred Index averages five-hundred stocks. Still others measure foreign stock exchanges. While stock averages are good research tools, many people consider them the heartbeat of finance. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Broadcast: December 26, 2003 This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Doctors always measure the heartbeat of a patient when examining the patient’s health. The heartbeat of America’s stock markets is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. No other measure of stock value is as widely known. Sometimes it is simply called the Dow. It is published by the Dow Jones Company, an influential publisher of international financial news. The Dow Jones Company is a product of Wall Street, the area in New York City that is the financial center of the United States. Three reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, started the company in eighteen-eighty-two. At first, they published a handwritten newsletter for financial workers. It was very successful. By eighteen-eighty-nine, the newsletter became the Wall Street Journal newspaper. The Dow Jones Company began publishing the Dow Jones Industrial Average in eighteen-ninety-six. The list had twelve stocks. It represented the biggest industries in the American economy at the time. Today, the Dow lists thirty stocks. They are often called “blue-chip” stocks. These stocks represent an ownership share in companies that are considered strong. These well known companies include Coca-Cola, Eastman Kodak, McDonald’s and General Electric. When you read the Dow Jones Industrial Average, you quickly see that it is not the average price of thirty stocks. For example, the Dow recently increased to more than ten-thousand for the first time in more than eighteen months. Ten-thousand does not seem like the average price of thirty stocks. In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average does not represent a price but a mathematical average. When the Dow goes up, it gains points, not dollars. The Dow Jones uses what is called a flexible divisor to keep changes in individual stock prices from affecting the whole average too much. The Dow system generally divides stock prices by the flexible divisor. The result is the number we see in newspapers and on television news reports. Today, the Dow is just one of many stock averages. The Standard and Poor’s Five-Hundred Index averages five-hundred stocks. Still others measure foreign stock exchanges. While stock averages are good research tools, many people consider them the heartbeat of finance. This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – Libya’s Weapons Programs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 27, 2003 This is IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. Libyan officials announced last week that their country is ending its program to develop weapons of great destruction. They said Libya plans to give up the program and work instead on development projects. Libya also said it would welcome inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The announcement was the result of a nine-month long diplomatic effort by Libya, Britain and the United States. British officials say it began in March, when Libya’s Intelligence Chief sent a message to the British government. He said Libya wanted to start talks with Britain and the United States about its effort to possess biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. British and American teams met with Libyan representatives in Britain earlier this year. Weapons experts visited Libya in October and again this month. The experts observed Libya’s weapons programs and missile-building activities. They reported that Libya was close to developing a nuclear weapon. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for his country’s decision. Mister Straw said the decision was the result of secretive, quiet diplomacy. He said both sides were able to develop trust in each other over many months. In Washington, Bush administration officials said the reasons for Libya’s decision included the war in Iraq and international pressure. The officials welcomed the decision because it will give them the chance to learn who was helping Libya with its weapons programs. Libya also has offered to provide all the details of its programs. Some diplomats say the Libyan move is an attempt to end seventeen years of American economic restrictions. They say Mister Gadhafi is attempting to open Libya and its oil industry to American investment. They also say he wants to improve his image around the world. In September, the United Nations ended its restrictions after Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing of an American passenger airplane over Scotland fifteen years ago. Libya is still on an American list of countries that support terrorism. President Bush has said the United States and Britain will watch to make sure that Libya acts on its offer to give up its weapons of great destruction. He says leaders whose nations give up banned weapons will find an open path to better relations with the United States. This week, a Bush Administration official said the United States may consider lifting the restrictions against Libya. He also said any change in policy would depend on the actions of the Libyan government. British officials say the Libyan agreement is an example of what can be gained from diplomatic efforts with nations such as North Korea and Iran. This may already be happening. Recently, Iran agreed to surprise visits by inspectors from the United Nations nuclear agency. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – Remembering Five Special People
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 28, 2003 (THEME) Broadcast: December 28, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five special Americans who died during the past year. We start with a former United States senator from New York State. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about five special Americans who died during the past year. We start with a former United States senator from New York State. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Daniel Patrick Moynihan spent more than half his life in politics at the time of his death last March at age seventy-six. During those years, he earned the love and respect of Democratic and Republican members of Congress. They remember him as a leader in public policy and an excellent speaker. Democrat Pat Moynihan served in the Senate from nineteen-seventy-seven to two-thousand-one. Before that he served in the administration of four presidents, including John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. He was ambassador to India and later to the United Nations. He was also a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And he wrote eighteen books. VOICE TWO: Pat Moynihan said what he thought and sometimes got into trouble for it. For example, there was a serious dispute over a paper he wrote in nineteen-sixty-five. The Labor Department report dealt with the situation of black people in the United States. Among other things, Mister Moynihan wrote that government assistance programs were destroying black families. Black leaders condemned the report as racist. Katharine Hepburn in 'Woman of the Year' (THEME) VOICE ONE: Daniel Patrick Moynihan spent more than half his life in politics at the time of his death last March at age seventy-six. During those years, he earned the love and respect of Democratic and Republican members of Congress. They remember him as a leader in public policy and an excellent speaker. Democrat Pat Moynihan served in the Senate from nineteen-seventy-seven to two-thousand-one. Before that he served in the administration of four presidents, including John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. He was ambassador to India and later to the United Nations. He was also a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And he wrote eighteen books. VOICE TWO: Pat Moynihan said what he thought and sometimes got into trouble for it. For example, there was a serious dispute over a paper he wrote in nineteen-sixty-five. The Labor Department report dealt with the situation of black people in the United States. Among other things, Mister Moynihan wrote that government assistance programs were destroying black families. Black leaders condemned the report as racist. However, many political experts say Mister Moynihan’s paper was misunderstood. Its main point was that civil rights laws did not guarantee equal treatment. Mister Moynihan wrote that slavery had destroyed black families. He said government had to establish education and employment programs to help repair the damage. Experts say Senator Moynihan’s place in American history is secure. Newsweek magazine wrote that his influence could be found in every major social policy of the last fifty years. The Almanac of American Politics wrote that Pat Moynihan was the best thinker among politicians since President Abraham Lincoln and the best politician among thinkers since President Thomas Jefferson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jazz composer, saxophonist and bandleader Benny Carter died in Los Angeles, California in July. He was ninety-five. He was most famous for the saxophone, but he could also play the piano and other instruments. He was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-seven. His mother and music teachers who lived nearby taught him to play the piano and trumpet. He started the saxophone as a teenager. In nineteen-thirty-five he moved to London, England. There, he formed a musical group that had members of different races and nationalities. This was quite unusual at the time. Benny Carter returned to the United States in nineteen-forty-two. He began writing music for movies. He also produced a major collection of jazz albums, including recordings by other artists. VOICE TWO: Benny Carter is considered the main developer of the big band swing style of jazz. He was presented with a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in nineteen-eighty-seven. He won two more Grammies later. And in two-thousand, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Musicians of his time called Benny Carter “The King.” When he died, music producer Quincy Jones said, “A big, big person walked out of the room.” Here is Benny Carter with “Blues in My Heart.” ("BLUES IN MY HEART") VOICE ONE: America also lost a famous athlete this year. Althea Gibson broke “the color barrier” in tennis and golf. In nineteen-fifty, Gibson became the first black player to compete in the United States tennis championships. A year later she did the same at Wimbledon. Althea Gibson won both those championships, and many others, a few years later.The athlete was born in South Carolina. She was the first of five children. Her parents worked on a farm owned by white people. Althea’s family moved to the Harlem area of New York City. They were poor. Her father was violent. Althea missed many days of school. In time, she was placed in the care of the state government. VOICE TWO: Althea started playing competitive tennis through one of the city’s assistance organizations. Before long, many tennis fans learned about her ability. Two of these fans became Gibson’s main source of financial support. This permitted her to finish high school and graduate from college. The Associated Press named Althea Gibson Woman Athlete of the Year in nineteen-fifty-eight and fifty-nine. She was the first black person to win the award. Gibson called herself a born athlete. She played basketball in college. And, she was a good golfer. Althea Gibson was the first black athlete to compete in the Ladies Professional Golf Association series. She never won a major competition but she played in almost two-hundred. Althea Gibson never became wealthy. She had serious financial and health problems. She died at age seventy-six. Female tennis stars honored Althea Gibson for the example she provided for women in sports. They called her a great champion and a great person. (“MISTER ROGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD”) VOICE ONE: Children young and old were saddened in February with the news of the death of Fred Rogers. He was the host and creator of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” This popular children’s program was on television for more than thirty years. The show included songs that Mister Rogers wrote and characters he developed. There were also many fun learning activities. Mister Rogers also explored difficult issues like death, anger and fear. He spoke to children with a gentle understanding. Mister Rogers said his goal was to present as much love as possible to the children watching his show. VOICE TWO: “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was first shown on local television in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in nineteen-sixty-eight. Fred Rogers was born in a nearby town forty years earlier. He learned to play the piano as a child and earned a music degree in college. Later, he also studied child development and became a Christian clergyman. Mister Rogers won many television awards. And, last year, Fred Rogers was presented with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, Fred Rogers said that prizes were not so important. He said the important things are knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth and that somebody loves us. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hollywood lost many members of the movie industry in two-thousand-three. One of its greatest stars was among them. Katharine Hepburn was in the movie business for more than sixty years. She made more than fifty movies. She held the record for winning the most Best Actress Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Mizz Hepburn won four of them and was nominated eight other times. Katharine Hepburn was sometimes called the First Lady of Cinema. However, she was a stage actress first. Mizz Hepburn performed in more than ten Broadway plays. She was nominated for two Tony awards. VOICE TWO: But, Katharine Hepburn said she liked movie work immediately. Her very first movie, “Bill of Divorcement,” was a hit. She won her first Oscar for her third movie, “Morning Glory”. Other popular Katharine Hepburn movies include “The Philadelphia Story” and “The African Queen.” The actress was born in Connecticut in nineteen-oh-seven. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a women’s voting rights activist . Mizz Hepburn said her parents taught her freedom from fear. Mizz Hepburn had a relationship with actor Spencer Tracy that lasted almost thirty years until his death. They also starred in nine movies together. Mister Tracy was married to another woman throughout the relationship. Katharine Hepburn died at age ninety-six. Another famous Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Taylor, released a statement the next day. She said every actress in the world hoped to be like Katharine Hepburn. ("YOU ARE") VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. However, many political experts say Mister Moynihan’s paper was misunderstood. Its main point was that civil rights laws did not guarantee equal treatment. Mister Moynihan wrote that slavery had destroyed black families. He said government had to establish education and employment programs to help repair the damage. Experts say Senator Moynihan’s place in American history is secure. Newsweek magazine wrote that his influence could be found in every major social policy of the last fifty years. The Almanac of American Politics wrote that Pat Moynihan was the best thinker among politicians since President Abraham Lincoln and the best politician among thinkers since President Thomas Jefferson. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Jazz composer, saxophonist and bandleader Benny Carter died in Los Angeles, California in July. He was ninety-five. He was most famous for the saxophone, but he could also play the piano and other instruments. He was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-seven. His mother and music teachers who lived nearby taught him to play the piano and trumpet. He started the saxophone as a teenager. In nineteen-thirty-five he moved to London, England. There, he formed a musical group that had members of different races and nationalities. This was quite unusual at the time. Benny Carter returned to the United States in nineteen-forty-two. He began writing music for movies. He also produced a major collection of jazz albums, including recordings by other artists. VOICE TWO: Benny Carter is considered the main developer of the big band swing style of jazz. He was presented with a Grammy award for lifetime achievement in nineteen-eighty-seven. He won two more Grammies later. And in two-thousand, President Bill Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts. Musicians of his time called Benny Carter “The King.” When he died, music producer Quincy Jones said, “A big, big person walked out of the room.” Here is Benny Carter with “Blues in My Heart.” ("BLUES IN MY HEART") VOICE ONE: America also lost a famous athlete this year. Althea Gibson broke “the color barrier” in tennis and golf. In nineteen-fifty, Gibson became the first black player to compete in the United States tennis championships. A year later she did the same at Wimbledon. Althea Gibson won both those championships, and many others, a few years later.The athlete was born in South Carolina. She was the first of five children. Her parents worked on a farm owned by white people. Althea’s family moved to the Harlem area of New York City. They were poor. Her father was violent. Althea missed many days of school. In time, she was placed in the care of the state government. VOICE TWO: Althea started playing competitive tennis through one of the city’s assistance organizations. Before long, many tennis fans learned about her ability. Two of these fans became Gibson’s main source of financial support. This permitted her to finish high school and graduate from college. The Associated Press named Althea Gibson Woman Athlete of the Year in nineteen-fifty-eight and fifty-nine. She was the first black person to win the award. Gibson called herself a born athlete. She played basketball in college. And, she was a good golfer. Althea Gibson was the first black athlete to compete in the Ladies Professional Golf Association series. She never won a major competition but she played in almost two-hundred. Althea Gibson never became wealthy. She had serious financial and health problems. She died at age seventy-six. Female tennis stars honored Althea Gibson for the example she provided for women in sports. They called her a great champion and a great person. (“MISTER ROGER’S NEIGHBORHOOD”) VOICE ONE: Children young and old were saddened in February with the news of the death of Fred Rogers. He was the host and creator of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” This popular children’s program was on television for more than thirty years. The show included songs that Mister Rogers wrote and characters he developed. There were also many fun learning activities. Mister Rogers also explored difficult issues like death, anger and fear. He spoke to children with a gentle understanding. Mister Rogers said his goal was to present as much love as possible to the children watching his show. VOICE TWO: “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was first shown on local television in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in nineteen-sixty-eight. Fred Rogers was born in a nearby town forty years earlier. He learned to play the piano as a child and earned a music degree in college. Later, he also studied child development and became a Christian clergyman. Mister Rogers won many television awards. And, last year, Fred Rogers was presented with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, Fred Rogers said that prizes were not so important. He said the important things are knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth and that somebody loves us. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hollywood lost many members of the movie industry in two-thousand-three. One of its greatest stars was among them. Katharine Hepburn was in the movie business for more than sixty years. She made more than fifty movies. She held the record for winning the most Best Actress Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Mizz Hepburn won four of them and was nominated eight other times. Katharine Hepburn was sometimes called the First Lady of Cinema. However, she was a stage actress first. Mizz Hepburn performed in more than ten Broadway plays. She was nominated for two Tony awards. VOICE TWO: But, Katharine Hepburn said she liked movie work immediately. Her very first movie, “Bill of Divorcement,” was a hit. She won her first Oscar for her third movie, “Morning Glory”. Other popular Katharine Hepburn movies include “The Philadelphia Story” and “The African Queen.” The actress was born in Connecticut in nineteen-oh-seven. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a women’s voting rights activist . Mizz Hepburn said her parents taught her freedom from fear. Mizz Hepburn had a relationship with actor Spencer Tracy that lasted almost thirty years until his death. They also starred in nine movies together. Mister Tracy was married to another woman throughout the relationship. Katharine Hepburn died at age ninety-six. Another famous Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Taylor, released a statement the next day. She said every actress in the world hoped to be like Katharine Hepburn. ("YOU ARE") VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another People in America program in VOA Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Yearender 2003
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 29, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. As two-thousand-three ends, several major issues and events have influenced the year in development. In October, the first treaty to fight organized criminal groups around the world became part of international law. About one-hundred-fifty nations signed the agreement. It includes a measure making work in organized criminal groups illegal. Also this year, South Korean doctor Jong Wook Lee was named the new director-general of the World Health Organization. One of his main goals is to fight health problems in Africa, especially AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. The United Nations estimates about forty-million people have the virus. World AIDS Day on December first supported international efforts to fight the disease. The W-H-O announced a new plan to provide three-million AIDS patients in developing countries with medicine by the end of two-thousand-five. This program also calls for training more than one-hundred-thousand community health workers. They will work at the local level, providing anti-retroviral drugs and supervising patients. However, the three-million AIDS patients is still only half of the number of people considered in immediate need of the drugs. The W-H-O estimates five-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars will be needed to carry out its program. The cost would have been higher if not for a recent agreement negotiated by the Clinton Foundation to reduce drug prices for poor nations. Former President Bill Clinton negotiated the agreement with three drug companies in India and one in South Africa. The companies produce low-cost versions of drugs protected by legal permits, or patents. They will sell these medicines to Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and twelve Caribbean countries. The Clinton Foundation agreement was made possible by a World Trade Organization ruling in September. The W-T-O gave its approval for poor countries threatened by killer diseases to import patented drugs. Under the agreement, international patent laws will be eased to permit drug companies in countries like India and Brazil to sell copies of medicines to poor nations. The agreement also calls for special measures to prevent copied drugs from being illegally transported back to wealthy nations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. Broadcast: December 29, 2003 This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development Report. As two-thousand-three ends, several major issues and events have influenced the year in development. In October, the first treaty to fight organized criminal groups around the world became part of international law. About one-hundred-fifty nations signed the agreement. It includes a measure making work in organized criminal groups illegal. Also this year, South Korean doctor Jong Wook Lee was named the new director-general of the World Health Organization. One of his main goals is to fight health problems in Africa, especially AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. The United Nations estimates about forty-million people have the virus. World AIDS Day on December first supported international efforts to fight the disease. The W-H-O announced a new plan to provide three-million AIDS patients in developing countries with medicine by the end of two-thousand-five. This program also calls for training more than one-hundred-thousand community health workers. They will work at the local level, providing anti-retroviral drugs and supervising patients. However, the three-million AIDS patients is still only half of the number of people considered in immediate need of the drugs. The W-H-O estimates five-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars will be needed to carry out its program. The cost would have been higher if not for a recent agreement negotiated by the Clinton Foundation to reduce drug prices for poor nations. Former President Bill Clinton negotiated the agreement with three drug companies in India and one in South Africa. The companies produce low-cost versions of drugs protected by legal permits, or patents. They will sell these medicines to Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and twelve Caribbean countries. The Clinton Foundation agreement was made possible by a World Trade Organization ruling in September. The W-T-O gave its approval for poor countries threatened by killer diseases to import patented drugs. Under the agreement, international patent laws will be eased to permit drug companies in countries like India and Brazil to sell copies of medicines to poor nations. The agreement also calls for special measures to prevent copied drugs from being illegally transported back to wealthy nations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Robert Cohen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HOLIDAY PROGRAM - New Year's Traditions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 29, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: On December thirty-first, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about New Year celebrations and traditions on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is December thirty-first in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten…nine…eight…” A huge glass New Year’s Ball falls through the darkness. Someone says the ball looks like thousands of burning stars. Someone else say it looks like a huge, bright piece of snow. When the ball reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. They dance. They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship called “Auld Lang Syne.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, people arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They say “ooh” and “aah” when the electric company turns on the thousands of little lights in the ball. Then everyone waits for the beautiful object to fall. Families and friends attend this event together. People who have not met talk as if they had known each other all their lives. Many in the crowd jump around to keep warm. VOICE ONE: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on top of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball was dropped from the top of the building for the first time. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen-forty-two and nineteen-forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square. They observed a moment of silence. After that, bells rang from a vehicle in Times Square. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People do not pay to attend the Times Square celebration. But other New Year’s Eve celebrations can be costly. Many Americans observe the holiday at public eating and drinking places. Some people like to see the New Year arrive while traveling by boat. For example, people in Chicago, Illinois can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. In San Diego, California, a ship company offers New Year’s Eve on the Pacific Ocean. It costs more than one-hundred dollars for each person. Other Americans have parties at home and invite all their friends. Many of these events are noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noisemakers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to music. Other Americans spend a quiet evening at home. They drink Champagne at midnight to welcome the New Year. Here, the Persuasions sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE TWO: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred-twenty American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in nineteen-seventy-six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. People in Boston can choose among two-hundred-fifty performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky over Boston Harbor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Some of the top university teams play in these games. The most famous of these Bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE TWO: Another famous parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. VOICE ONE: Sometimes families invite friends to visit them on New Year’s Day. They serve drinks and food at these open houses and wish everyone a good year. In some parts of the country, American children and adults still follow an ancient custom on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. Americans borrowed this tradition from ancient peoples in what is now Britain and Europe. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. Some people wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, men and women who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do celebrate the New Year, we wish you a very happy one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Broadcast: December 29, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: On December thirty-first, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about New Year celebrations and traditions on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: It is December thirty-first in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten…nine…eight…” A huge glass New Year’s Ball falls through the darkness. Someone says the ball looks like thousands of burning stars. Someone else say it looks like a huge, bright piece of snow. When the ball reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. They dance. They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship called “Auld Lang Syne.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, people arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They say “ooh” and “aah” when the electric company turns on the thousands of little lights in the ball. Then everyone waits for the beautiful object to fall. Families and friends attend this event together. People who have not met talk as if they had known each other all their lives. Many in the crowd jump around to keep warm. VOICE ONE: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on top of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball was dropped from the top of the building for the first time. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen-forty-two and nineteen-forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square. They observed a moment of silence. After that, bells rang from a vehicle in Times Square. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: People do not pay to attend the Times Square celebration. But other New Year’s Eve celebrations can be costly. Many Americans observe the holiday at public eating and drinking places. Some people like to see the New Year arrive while traveling by boat. For example, people in Chicago, Illinois can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. In San Diego, California, a ship company offers New Year’s Eve on the Pacific Ocean. It costs more than one-hundred dollars for each person. Other Americans have parties at home and invite all their friends. Many of these events are noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noisemakers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to music. Other Americans spend a quiet evening at home. They drink Champagne at midnight to welcome the New Year. Here, the Persuasions sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE TWO: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred-twenty American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in nineteen-seventy-six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. People in Boston can choose among two-hundred-fifty performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky over Boston Harbor. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Some of the top university teams play in these games. The most famous of these Bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE TWO: Another famous parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. VOICE ONE: Sometimes families invite friends to visit them on New Year’s Day. They serve drinks and food at these open houses and wish everyone a good year. In some parts of the country, American children and adults still follow an ancient custom on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. Americans borrowed this tradition from ancient peoples in what is now Britain and Europe. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. Some people wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, men and women who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do celebrate the New Year, we wish you a very happy one. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICUTURE REPORT—Mad Cow Disease in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 30, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Broadcast: December 30, 2003 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. A test seemed to show bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B-S-E, in a cow from Washington state. The next day, a laboratory in Waybridge, England, confirmed the case. Within hours of the news, Japan, Mexico and South Korea had banned imports of American beef. More than thirty nations have now banned American been imports. The restrictions affect about ninety percent of American beef exports worth about three-thousand-million dollars a year. American agriculture officials say that the nation’s supply of beef is safe. They note that only the brain and nerve matter from the cow can carry B-S-E. They say infected parts of the cow were not processed for use as food for people. On Saturday, the top animal doctor for the United States Agriculture Department said the infected cow came from Alberta, Canada. Ron DeHaven said the cow was in a group of seventy-four animals bought from Canada two years ago.But a Canadian official noted that Canada’s records do not match the American ones. He said there was no clear evidence that the infected cow came from Canada. So far, almost five-thousand kilograms of beef have been seized. American officials have temporarily closed two farms where the infected cow had been kept and where its calf is believed to be. The situation is harming American beef producers. In May, Canadian officials reported a single case of B-S-E in Alberta. Many nations, including the United States, banned Canadian beef. That ban cost Canada one-million dollars a day. American beef prices are quickly dropping. An American delegation went to Japan to try to ease fears. Japan has suggested that the United States should expand its B-S-E testing program. Japan tests every cow for the disease. B-S-E is widely known as mad cow disease. It is caused by deformed proteins called prions. B-S-E spreads when animals eat food containing processed brains or nervous tissue of infected animals. A form of B-S-E, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, infects people. Reports say about one-hundred-fifty people have died from the disease, mostly in Britain, since B-S-E was first identified in nineteen-eighty-six. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. Last Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. A test seemed to show bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or B-S-E, in a cow from Washington state. The next day, a laboratory in Waybridge, England, confirmed the case. Within hours of the news, Japan, Mexico and South Korea had banned imports of American beef. More than thirty nations have now banned American been imports. The restrictions affect about ninety percent of American beef exports worth about three-thousand-million dollars a year. American agriculture officials say that the nation’s supply of beef is safe. They note that only the brain and nerve matter from the cow can carry B-S-E. They say infected parts of the cow were not processed for use as food for people. On Saturday, the top animal doctor for the United States Agriculture Department said the infected cow came from Alberta, Canada. Ron DeHaven said the cow was in a group of seventy-four animals bought from Canada two years ago.But a Canadian official noted that Canada’s records do not match the American ones. He said there was no clear evidence that the infected cow came from Canada. So far, almost five-thousand kilograms of beef have been seized. American officials have temporarily closed two farms where the infected cow had been kept and where its calf is believed to be. The situation is harming American beef producers. In May, Canadian officials reported a single case of B-S-E in Alberta. Many nations, including the United States, banned Canadian beef. That ban cost Canada one-million dollars a day. American beef prices are quickly dropping. An American delegation went to Japan to try to ease fears. Japan has suggested that the United States should expand its B-S-E testing program. Japan tests every cow for the disease. B-S-E is widely known as mad cow disease. It is caused by deformed proteins called prions. B-S-E spreads when animals eat food containing processed brains or nervous tissue of infected animals. A form of B-S-E, Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, infects people. Reports say about one-hundred-fifty people have died from the disease, mostly in Britain, since B-S-E was first identified in nineteen-eighty-six. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-30-4-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – Yearender 2003
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 30, 2003 (THEME) Chinese students wearing protective masks Broadcast: December 30, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week -- we look back at some of the major science news of two-thousand-three. We tell about new powers for the World Health Organization ... and a new research publication that is free of charge. VOICE ONE: We also tell about the new disease SARS ... and the continuing fight against AIDS. (THEME) VOICE TWO: In October, a group of medical researchers launched a free scientific publication on the Internet. The researchers formed the group three years ago as the Public Library of Science. They urged scientific publishers to put reports on the Internet without charge. They said it was unfair to charge for the results of research many times paid for by the public. In the end, the group decided to start its own free publications. The first is called the Public Library of Science Biology, or P-L-O-S Biology for short. The writers of the reports pay the costs of editing and publishing. Other scientists read the articles to judge if the work should be published. The Web site is w-w-w dot publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. One of the first reports published in P-L-O-S Biology made a lot of news. It told about devices placed in the brains of monkeys. These devices permitted the animals to control a machine with their thoughts. VOICE ONE: Scientists did the experiments at Duke University in North Carolina. They placed tiny wires in several areas of the brains of two rhesus monkeys. Each monkey learned to hold a stick to control the movement of a robotic arm. The arm appeared on a computer screen as part of a game. Later, the researchers disconnected the stick. They wondered if the monkeys could still move the robotic arm on the screen just by thinking. The researchers were not the only ones surprised when the answer was yes. They say the monkeys were surprised too. And their ability at brain control improved over time. VOICE TWO: The researchers said this was great news for people who cannot move their arms or legs. Such a system could help disabled people in different ways. It might help them communicate using a computer and their thoughts. And it might help them come to think of robotic arms and other devices as extensions of themselves. It might even help them send messages from their brains directly to the muscles to move their own arms and legs again. VOICE ONE: The researchers in North Carolina are planning to begin experiments with people in two-thousand-four. They have already shown that people produce brain signals like those the monkeys used in the experiment. But longer studies are needed to prove that the devices are safe and good for more than just simple tasks. Then, someday, a person might control a computer or other machine in only the time it takes to think. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another major science story of two-thousand-three was the approval of new powers for World Health Organization. These have expanded its ability to intervene when a country faces a health crisis that could spread to other countries. The W-H-O can also now use unofficial reports such as news stories to confirm an outbreak of disease. All one-hundred-ninety-two members of W-H-O approved the new rules at a meeting in May. The W-H-O is part of the United Nations. The changes are part of an effort to rewrite the International Health Regulations. These were first published in nineteen-sixty-nine. The members also urged the W-H-O to use the experiences and knowledge gained from recent crises when it makes further changes. The new rules permit the W-H-O to send teams to investigate a severe health situation anywhere in the world. The teams could also make sure a country is doing enough to control the situation. The health agency wants to create an improved system of communication with officials in each country. The new rules also officially give the W-H-O the power to declare international health threats -- just as it did this past year with SARS. VOICE ONE: The W-H-O recognized the need for stronger international health rules following the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS began in China late in two-thousand-two. But the Chinese government did not officially confirm it until February of two-thousand-three. That gave the lung infection time to spread while it went unreported. The W-H-O will now be able to intervene even when a country denies it has a health problem. For years, experts have criticized the legal structure that governs W-H-O action. Existing rules permitted the agency to collect information about diseases only after a government officially announced a crisis, not before. Also, the rules required W-H-O members to report only outbreaks of cholera, plague or yellow fever. The World Health Organization is expected to complete reforms to the International Health Regulations in two-thousand-five. The U-N agency will not gain any ability to punish a country that disobeys the new rules. Still, the SARS crisis showed that the W-H-O could take steps on its own to stop the spread of a disease. W-H-O officials, for example, made the decision to warn people not to travel to places affected by SARS. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SARS was a big medical science story of two-thousand-three. Doctors describe it as an unusual form of pneumonia. Pneumonia is a general term for many kinds of lung infections. SARS may cause several kinds of reactions. These include high body temperature, diarrhea, a dry cough and difficulty breathing. The disease is caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Some members of the coronavirus family are among the many that cause the common cold. Scientists identified the cause of SARS faster than many thought possible. Yet that was only the first task for laboratories around the world. The job now is create a vaccine to prevent the sickness. Tests on humans could begin early in the new year. VOICE ONE: Early tests on monkeys have shown some good results. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, injected six rhesus monkeys with a genetically engineered vaccine against SARS. Two weeks later, the monkeys showed a defense-system reaction against the virus. The SARS outbreak, which began in China, infected eight-thousand people in almost thirty countries. It killed more than seven-hundred-seventy of them. Other diseases are far more deadly than SARS. Yet SARS has shown how quickly a viral infection can spread around the world thanks to a modern invention. In fact, its one-hundredth anniversary was celebrated just this month -- the airplane. (BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Our final major science story of two-thousand-three deals with one of the biggest international health threats of all. The United Nations reported that AIDS infected and killed more people than ever this year. It says that between thirty-four-million and forty-six-million people are infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes the disease. Of that number, about five-million became infected this year. VOICE ONE: Around three-million people died of AIDS this year. That was two-hundred-thousand-more than last year. Southern Africa remains the most severely affected area of the world. But Doctor Peter Piot, the head of the U-N-AIDS program, said AIDS is spreading fastest in Eastern Europe, especially Russia. And he said there could be major increases in China, India and Indonesia. The World Health Organization has announced a plan to provide medicine to three-million people with AIDS by two-thousand-five. These drugs suppress the virus. The plan aims to get drugs to half the people most in need. The W-H-O says around six-million people in developing countries have H-I-V infections that require treatment. Currently, it says, fewer than three-hundred-thousand are being treated. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Science in the News, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. This week -- we look back at some of the major science news of two-thousand-three. We tell about new powers for the World Health Organization ... and a new research publication that is free of charge. VOICE ONE: We also tell about the new disease SARS ... and the continuing fight against AIDS. (THEME) VOICE TWO: In October, a group of medical researchers launched a free scientific publication on the Internet. The researchers formed the group three years ago as the Public Library of Science. They urged scientific publishers to put reports on the Internet without charge. They said it was unfair to charge for the results of research many times paid for by the public. In the end, the group decided to start its own free publications. The first is called the Public Library of Science Biology, or P-L-O-S Biology for short. The writers of the reports pay the costs of editing and publishing. Other scientists read the articles to judge if the work should be published. The Web site is w-w-w dot publiclibraryofscience -- all one word -- dot o-r-g. One of the first reports published in P-L-O-S Biology made a lot of news. It told about devices placed in the brains of monkeys. These devices permitted the animals to control a machine with their thoughts. VOICE ONE: Scientists did the experiments at Duke University in North Carolina. They placed tiny wires in several areas of the brains of two rhesus monkeys. Each monkey learned to hold a stick to control the movement of a robotic arm. The arm appeared on a computer screen as part of a game. Later, the researchers disconnected the stick. They wondered if the monkeys could still move the robotic arm on the screen just by thinking. The researchers were not the only ones surprised when the answer was yes. They say the monkeys were surprised too. And their ability at brain control improved over time. VOICE TWO: The researchers said this was great news for people who cannot move their arms or legs. Such a system could help disabled people in different ways. It might help them communicate using a computer and their thoughts. And it might help them come to think of robotic arms and other devices as extensions of themselves. It might even help them send messages from their brains directly to the muscles to move their own arms and legs again. VOICE ONE: The researchers in North Carolina are planning to begin experiments with people in two-thousand-four. They have already shown that people produce brain signals like those the monkeys used in the experiment. But longer studies are needed to prove that the devices are safe and good for more than just simple tasks. Then, someday, a person might control a computer or other machine in only the time it takes to think. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Another major science story of two-thousand-three was the approval of new powers for World Health Organization. These have expanded its ability to intervene when a country faces a health crisis that could spread to other countries. The W-H-O can also now use unofficial reports such as news stories to confirm an outbreak of disease. All one-hundred-ninety-two members of W-H-O approved the new rules at a meeting in May. The W-H-O is part of the United Nations. The changes are part of an effort to rewrite the International Health Regulations. These were first published in nineteen-sixty-nine. The members also urged the W-H-O to use the experiences and knowledge gained from recent crises when it makes further changes. The new rules permit the W-H-O to send teams to investigate a severe health situation anywhere in the world. The teams could also make sure a country is doing enough to control the situation. The health agency wants to create an improved system of communication with officials in each country. The new rules also officially give the W-H-O the power to declare international health threats -- just as it did this past year with SARS. VOICE ONE: The W-H-O recognized the need for stronger international health rules following the discovery of severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS began in China late in two-thousand-two. But the Chinese government did not officially confirm it until February of two-thousand-three. That gave the lung infection time to spread while it went unreported. The W-H-O will now be able to intervene even when a country denies it has a health problem. For years, experts have criticized the legal structure that governs W-H-O action. Existing rules permitted the agency to collect information about diseases only after a government officially announced a crisis, not before. Also, the rules required W-H-O members to report only outbreaks of cholera, plague or yellow fever. The World Health Organization is expected to complete reforms to the International Health Regulations in two-thousand-five. The U-N agency will not gain any ability to punish a country that disobeys the new rules. Still, the SARS crisis showed that the W-H-O could take steps on its own to stop the spread of a disease. W-H-O officials, for example, made the decision to warn people not to travel to places affected by SARS. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: SARS was a big medical science story of two-thousand-three. Doctors describe it as an unusual form of pneumonia. Pneumonia is a general term for many kinds of lung infections. SARS may cause several kinds of reactions. These include high body temperature, diarrhea, a dry cough and difficulty breathing. The disease is caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Some members of the coronavirus family are among the many that cause the common cold. Scientists identified the cause of SARS faster than many thought possible. Yet that was only the first task for laboratories around the world. The job now is create a vaccine to prevent the sickness. Tests on humans could begin early in the new year. VOICE ONE: Early tests on monkeys have shown some good results. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, injected six rhesus monkeys with a genetically engineered vaccine against SARS. Two weeks later, the monkeys showed a defense-system reaction against the virus. The SARS outbreak, which began in China, infected eight-thousand people in almost thirty countries. It killed more than seven-hundred-seventy of them. Other diseases are far more deadly than SARS. Yet SARS has shown how quickly a viral infection can spread around the world thanks to a modern invention. In fact, its one-hundredth anniversary was celebrated just this month -- the airplane. (BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Our final major science story of two-thousand-three deals with one of the biggest international health threats of all. The United Nations reported that AIDS infected and killed more people than ever this year. It says that between thirty-four-million and forty-six-million people are infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes the disease. Of that number, about five-million became infected this year. VOICE ONE: Around three-million people died of AIDS this year. That was two-hundred-thousand-more than last year. Southern Africa remains the most severely affected area of the world. But Doctor Peter Piot, the head of the U-N-AIDS program, said AIDS is spreading fastest in Eastern Europe, especially Russia. And he said there could be major increases in China, India and Indonesia. The World Health Organization has announced a plan to provide medicine to three-million people with AIDS by two-thousand-five. These drugs suppress the virus. The plan aims to get drugs to half the people most in need. The W-H-O says around six-million people in developing countries have H-I-V infections that require treatment. Currently, it says, fewer than three-hundred-thousand are being treated. (THEME) VOICE TWO: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-30-5-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - Morning After Pill
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 31, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. An advisory committee to the United States Food and Drug Administration has voted to approve selling an emergency birth control drug without a doctor’s order. The drug can reduce the chance of pregnancy by eighty-nine percent if used within seventy-two hours of unprotected sexual activity. It is known as Plan B and is commonly called “the morning-after pill.” That is because it must be used as soon as possible after unprotected sex. The drug is really two pills that contain the hormone progestin. Women take the pills twelve hours apart. Women should start taking them within twenty-four hours after unprotected sex to be most effective. The progestin delays or blocks the release of an egg inside a woman’s body or prevents fertilization of the egg. This prevents her from becoming pregnant. The drug may also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Some religious leaders oppose use of the drug because they say this is the same as having an operation to end a pregnancy. The drug is considered medically safe. It has been approved in about one-hundred countries. It is sold without a doctor’s order in thirty-three countries. Plan B is approved in the United States, but a woman must have a doctor’s order to get the drug. Birth control experts told the F-D-A committee that more than two-million American women have used the drug since it was approved in nineteen-ninety-nine. They say the drug has already prevented about fifty-two-thousand abortion operations that end pregnancies. And they expect that making the drug easier to get will greatly reduce the number of abortions in the future. They also said it is wrong to withhold a safe and effective drug from women who need to take it as soon as possible after unprotected sex to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Those who oppose sale of the drug in drugstores said they feared it would lead to increased sexual activity among young people. They said this would increase the number of young women who suffer from sexually spread diseases and emotional problems. The F-D-A committee listened to all the experts, then voted twenty-three to four to approve sale of the drug in drugstores. The Food and Drug Adminstration usually follows the committee’s advice. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: December 31, 2003 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Health Report. An advisory committee to the United States Food and Drug Administration has voted to approve selling an emergency birth control drug without a doctor’s order. The drug can reduce the chance of pregnancy by eighty-nine percent if used within seventy-two hours of unprotected sexual activity. It is known as Plan B and is commonly called “the morning-after pill.” That is because it must be used as soon as possible after unprotected sex. The drug is really two pills that contain the hormone progestin. Women take the pills twelve hours apart. Women should start taking them within twenty-four hours after unprotected sex to be most effective. The progestin delays or blocks the release of an egg inside a woman’s body or prevents fertilization of the egg. This prevents her from becoming pregnant. The drug may also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Some religious leaders oppose use of the drug because they say this is the same as having an operation to end a pregnancy. The drug is considered medically safe. It has been approved in about one-hundred countries. It is sold without a doctor’s order in thirty-three countries. Plan B is approved in the United States, but a woman must have a doctor’s order to get the drug. Birth control experts told the F-D-A committee that more than two-million American women have used the drug since it was approved in nineteen-ninety-nine. They say the drug has already prevented about fifty-two-thousand abortion operations that end pregnancies. And they expect that making the drug easier to get will greatly reduce the number of abortions in the future. They also said it is wrong to withhold a safe and effective drug from women who need to take it as soon as possible after unprotected sex to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Those who oppose sale of the drug in drugstores said they feared it would lead to increased sexual activity among young people. They said this would increase the number of young women who suffer from sexually spread diseases and emotional problems. The F-D-A committee listened to all the experts, then voted twenty-three to four to approve sale of the drug in drugstores. The Food and Drug Adminstration usually follows the committee’s advice. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-30-6-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – Space Yearender 2003
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 31, 2003 (THEME) Yang Liwei (Photo - www.space.com) Broadcast: December 31, 2003 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we tell about some of the important space news during the past year. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year two-thousand-three began with the terrible accident that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew. On Saturday morning, February first, the seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia were returning to Earth. They had performed a successful sixteen-day science flight. At eight-fifteen that morning, the Columbia and its crew began flying down into Earth’s atmosphere. Forty-five minutes later, NASA lost all communication with Columbia. The shuttle was flying six times faster than the speed of sound and sixty-two kilometers above the Earth. It began to break apart. People in three states reported hearing an extremely loud noise and seeing fire in the sky. VOICE TWO: Within minutes the American space agency confirmed that something was terribly wrong. Within an hour NASA announced that the Columbia and its crew had been lost. The seven astronauts were Shuttle Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon and Mission Specialists Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark. In addition to Americans, people in India and Israel had followed the flight with special interest and were now filled with sadness. Astronaut Kalpana Chawla was born in India. Ilan Ramon was the first Israeli to fly into space. VOICE ONE: In August, the special Columbia Accident Investigation Board reported on the causes of the accident. The committee had spent seven months gathering information for the report. It said the main cause of the accident was a piece of lightweight protective material. During the launch, this material came loose from the support structure that connects the shuttle to the large rocket. The object hit the edge of Columbia’s left wing. This created a small hole in the wing’s protective material. The report said that extremely hot air passed through the hole and into the wing when the shuttle began its flight into Earth’s atmosphere. This heat caused the wing to fail. The shuttle went out of control and broke apart. VOICE TWO: The investigation committee also reported that NASA officials must accept much of the responsibility that led to the accident. The committee said management failed in several areas that involved safety. And it said safety must be the first concern of all NASA workers. Soon after the report was released, NASA took steps to improve all safety requirements involved in the Space Shuttle program. In November, NASA announced it hopes to begin launching the three remaining Space Shuttles in two-thousand-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In September, NASA controllers sent commands to the Galileo spacecraft that caused it to fly into the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter. NASA experts say the extreme pressure of Jupiter’s atmosphere destroyed Galileo, breaking it into small pieces. Hundreds of former Galileo project team members and their families were present at NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They came to honor and celebrate the Galileo spacecraft and to say goodbye. NASA officials ordered Galileo to fly into Jupiter’s atmosphere because its fuel was almost gone. Without fuel, the spacecraft would not have been able to change direction or to point its communications equipment toward Earth. VOICE TWO: Galileo was launched from the cargo area of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in nineteen-eighty-nine. It had been one of the most successful spacecraft ever launched. The discoveries made by Galileo began even before it reached Jupiter. It took close photographs of a comet hitting a planet. The comet was Shoemaker-Levy. The gravity of Jupiter broke apart the comet and huge pieces exploded into the planet’s atmosphere. Galileo sent more than fourteen-thousand photographs back to Earth. These included thousands of photographs of Jupiter and its moons, Io and Europa. The Galileo spacecraft continued its work in space for six years longer than had been planned. NASA extended its life three times. The only thing that stopped it was the end of its fuel supply. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The month of October became important in the history of the People’s Republic of China. China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, returned safely after fourteen orbits of our planet. His spacecraft landed in the Gobi Desert, in Inner Mongolia, on October sixteenth. He was in flight for twenty-one hours. China is now the third country after Russia and the United States to send a human in orbit around the Earth. China’s first astronaut is a thirty-eight-year-old pilot in the Chinese Air Force. Yang Liwei was one of more than one-thousand air force pilots who competed to be China’s first human in space. VOICE TWO: October was also an important month for America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The agency celebrated forty-five years of space exploration. On October first, nineteen-fifty-eight, the agency began the work of civilian research linked to space flight and aeronautics. The agency immediately started a study that would result in a human space flight project. It was later named Project Mercury. That project continued for almost five years. Project Mercury was only a beginning. On July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon. NASA’s major successes in forty-five years include the Hubble Space Telescope and the work on the International Space Station. It has launched more than one-hundred successful space shuttle flights. NASA has placed advanced communications satellites in space. They provide immediate television and voice communications around the world. NASA also launched two spacecraft that are now farther into space than any other human- made objects. Those spacecraft are Voyager One and Voyager Two. VOICE ONE: The United States launched the Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft in nineteen-seventy-seven. Some scientists believe Voyager One is now at the farthest edge of our solar system. It has become the first human-made object to travel past the influence of our Sun. In the past twenty-six years, it has traveled more than thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from our Sun. NASA scientists say it is now entering an area where the Sun’s influence ends and an area between stars begins. Voyager One and Two were the first spacecraft to fly near and send back information about the planets Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. They have finished their main work but continue to send back useful information about the edge of our solar system. NASA scientists say the fuel in the two Voyager spacecraft should last until the year twenty-twenty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The planet Mars was in the news several times in the past year. The red planet came close to Earth in August -- closer than it has been in the past sixty-thousand years. This led to increased sales of telescopes and new interest in the science of astronomy. The end of this year saw the beginning of a scientific invasion of Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express with its Beagle Two lander device arrived this month. However, earlier this month, Japanese officials reported their Nozomi Mars Orbiter failed to move into orbit above the red planet. Japan’s first planet exploration device had been traveling toward Mars for five years. Its electrical and communications equipment were damaged by solar flares. America’s effort in Mars exploration are the vehicles called Spirit and Opportunity. They will search for evidence of water and collect and study minerals. Spirit is expected to land on Mars January third. Opportunity will land January twenty-fourth. Next month we will report about these new efforts to explore the red planet. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. Today we tell about some of the important space news during the past year. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year two-thousand-three began with the terrible accident that destroyed the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew. On Saturday morning, February first, the seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia were returning to Earth. They had performed a successful sixteen-day science flight. At eight-fifteen that morning, the Columbia and its crew began flying down into Earth’s atmosphere. Forty-five minutes later, NASA lost all communication with Columbia. The shuttle was flying six times faster than the speed of sound and sixty-two kilometers above the Earth. It began to break apart. People in three states reported hearing an extremely loud noise and seeing fire in the sky. VOICE TWO: Within minutes the American space agency confirmed that something was terribly wrong. Within an hour NASA announced that the Columbia and its crew had been lost. The seven astronauts were Shuttle Commander Rick Husband, Pilot Willie McCool, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon and Mission Specialists Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark. In addition to Americans, people in India and Israel had followed the flight with special interest and were now filled with sadness. Astronaut Kalpana Chawla was born in India. Ilan Ramon was the first Israeli to fly into space. VOICE ONE: In August, the special Columbia Accident Investigation Board reported on the causes of the accident. The committee had spent seven months gathering information for the report. It said the main cause of the accident was a piece of lightweight protective material. During the launch, this material came loose from the support structure that connects the shuttle to the large rocket. The object hit the edge of Columbia’s left wing. This created a small hole in the wing’s protective material. The report said that extremely hot air passed through the hole and into the wing when the shuttle began its flight into Earth’s atmosphere. This heat caused the wing to fail. The shuttle went out of control and broke apart. VOICE TWO: The investigation committee also reported that NASA officials must accept much of the responsibility that led to the accident. The committee said management failed in several areas that involved safety. And it said safety must be the first concern of all NASA workers. Soon after the report was released, NASA took steps to improve all safety requirements involved in the Space Shuttle program. In November, NASA announced it hopes to begin launching the three remaining Space Shuttles in two-thousand-five. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: In September, NASA controllers sent commands to the Galileo spacecraft that caused it to fly into the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter. NASA experts say the extreme pressure of Jupiter’s atmosphere destroyed Galileo, breaking it into small pieces. Hundreds of former Galileo project team members and their families were present at NASA’s Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They came to honor and celebrate the Galileo spacecraft and to say goodbye. NASA officials ordered Galileo to fly into Jupiter’s atmosphere because its fuel was almost gone. Without fuel, the spacecraft would not have been able to change direction or to point its communications equipment toward Earth. VOICE TWO: Galileo was launched from the cargo area of the Space Shuttle Atlantis in nineteen-eighty-nine. It had been one of the most successful spacecraft ever launched. The discoveries made by Galileo began even before it reached Jupiter. It took close photographs of a comet hitting a planet. The comet was Shoemaker-Levy. The gravity of Jupiter broke apart the comet and huge pieces exploded into the planet’s atmosphere. Galileo sent more than fourteen-thousand photographs back to Earth. These included thousands of photographs of Jupiter and its moons, Io and Europa. The Galileo spacecraft continued its work in space for six years longer than had been planned. NASA extended its life three times. The only thing that stopped it was the end of its fuel supply. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The month of October became important in the history of the People’s Republic of China. China’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, returned safely after fourteen orbits of our planet. His spacecraft landed in the Gobi Desert, in Inner Mongolia, on October sixteenth. He was in flight for twenty-one hours. China is now the third country after Russia and the United States to send a human in orbit around the Earth. China’s first astronaut is a thirty-eight-year-old pilot in the Chinese Air Force. Yang Liwei was one of more than one-thousand air force pilots who competed to be China’s first human in space. VOICE TWO: October was also an important month for America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The agency celebrated forty-five years of space exploration. On October first, nineteen-fifty-eight, the agency began the work of civilian research linked to space flight and aeronautics. The agency immediately started a study that would result in a human space flight project. It was later named Project Mercury. That project continued for almost five years. Project Mercury was only a beginning. On July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon. NASA’s major successes in forty-five years include the Hubble Space Telescope and the work on the International Space Station. It has launched more than one-hundred successful space shuttle flights. NASA has placed advanced communications satellites in space. They provide immediate television and voice communications around the world. NASA also launched two spacecraft that are now farther into space than any other human- made objects. Those spacecraft are Voyager One and Voyager Two. VOICE ONE: The United States launched the Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft in nineteen-seventy-seven. Some scientists believe Voyager One is now at the farthest edge of our solar system. It has become the first human-made object to travel past the influence of our Sun. In the past twenty-six years, it has traveled more than thirteen-thousand-million kilometers from our Sun. NASA scientists say it is now entering an area where the Sun’s influence ends and an area between stars begins. Voyager One and Two were the first spacecraft to fly near and send back information about the planets Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. They have finished their main work but continue to send back useful information about the edge of our solar system. NASA scientists say the fuel in the two Voyager spacecraft should last until the year twenty-twenty. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The planet Mars was in the news several times in the past year. The red planet came close to Earth in August -- closer than it has been in the past sixty-thousand years. This led to increased sales of telescopes and new interest in the science of astronomy. The end of this year saw the beginning of a scientific invasion of Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express with its Beagle Two lander device arrived this month. However, earlier this month, Japanese officials reported their Nozomi Mars Orbiter failed to move into orbit above the red planet. Japan’s first planet exploration device had been traveling toward Mars for five years. Its electrical and communications equipment were damaged by solar flares. America’s effort in Mars exploration are the vehicles called Spirit and Opportunity. They will search for evidence of water and collect and study minerals. Spirit is expected to land on Mars January third. Opportunity will land January twenty-fourth. Next month we will report about these new efforts to explore the red planet. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 3, 2002: Seasonal Affective Disorder
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Some people feel sad or depressed during the winter months in northern areas of the world. They may have trouble eating or sleeping. They suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S-A-D. Victims of S-A-D suffer its effects during the short, dark days of winter. The problems are most severe in the months when there are fewer hours of daylight. When spring arrives, these signs disappear and S-A-D victims feel well again. The National Mental Health Association reports that S-A-D can affect anyone. The group says young people and women are at the highest risk for the disorder. It says that an estimated twenty-five percent of the American population suffers from some form of S-A-D. About five percent suffer from a severe form of the disorder. Many people in other parts of the world also have the condition. For example, some scientists who work in Antarctica suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. During the long, dark winter months there, workers have difficulty finding enough energy to do their jobs. The idea of health problems linked to a lack of light is not new. Scientists have discussed the issue since the beginning of medicine. More than two-thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates noted that the seasons affect human emotions. Today, experts do not fully understand S-A-D. Yet they agree that it is a very real disorder. Many doctors think that a change in brain chemistry causes people to develop S-A-D. They say people with the condition have too much of the hormone melatonin in their bodies. The pineal gland in the brain produces melatonin while we sleep. This hormone is believed to cause signs of depression. Melatonin is produced at increased levels in the dark. So, its production increases when the days are shorter and darker. To treat the disorder, victims of S-A-D do not need to wait until spring. Experts know that placing affected individuals in bright light each day eases the condition. There are other things people can do to ease the problem. They can increase the sunlight in their homes and workplaces. They can spend more time outdoors in the fresh air during the day. One study found that walking for an hour in winter sunlight was as effective as spending two-and-one-half hours under bright light indoors. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 3, 2002: 1920s/Foreign Policy
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) The nineteen-twenties are remembered today as a quiet period in American foreign policy. The nation was at peace. The Republican presidents in the White House generally were more interested in economic growth at home than in relations with foreign countries. But the world had changed. The United States had become a world power. It was tied to other countries by trade, politics, and joint interests. And America had gained new economic strength. VOICE 2: Before World War One, foreigners invested more money in the United States than Americans invested in other countries -- about three-thousand-million dollars more. The war changed this. By nineteen-nineteen, Americans had almost three-thousand-million dollars more invested in other countries than foreign citizens had invested in the United States. American foreign investments continued to increase greatly during the nineteen-twenties. Increased foreign investment was not the only sign of growing American economic power. By the end of World War One, the United States produced more goods and services than any other nation, both in total and per person. Americans had more steel, food, cloth, and coal than even the richest foreign nations. By nineteen-twenty, the United States national income was greater than the combined incomes of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and seventeen smaller countries. Quite simply, the United States had become the world's greatest economic power. VOICE 1: America's economic strength influenced its policies toward Europe during the nineteen-twenties. In fact, one of the most important issues of this period was the economic aid the United States had provided European nations during World War One. Americans lent the Allied countries seven-thousand-million dollars during the war. Shortly after the war, they lent another three-thousand-million dollars. The Allies borrowed most of the money for military equipment and food and other needs of their people. The Allied nations suffered far greater losses of property and population than the United States during the war. And when peace came, they called on the United States to cancel the loans America had made. France, Britain, and the other Allied nations said the United States should not expect them to re-pay the loans. VOICE TWO: The United States refused to cancel the debts. President Coolidge spoke for most Americans when he said, simply: "They borrowed the money." He believed the European powers should pay back the war loans, even though their economies had suffered terribly during the fighting. However, the European nations had little money to pay their loans. France tried to get the money by demanding payments from Germany for having started the war. When Germany was unable to pay, France and Belgium occupied Germany's Ruhr Valley. As a result, German miners in the area reduced coal production. And France and Germany moved toward an economic crisis and possible new armed conflict. VOICE 1: An international group intervened and negotiated a settlement to the crisis. The group provided a system to save Germany's currency and protect international debts. American bankers agreed to lend money to Germany to pay its war debts to the Allies. And the Allies used the money to pay their debts to the United States. VOICE 2: Some Americans with international interests criticized President Coolidge and other conservative leaders for not reducing or canceling Europe's debts. They said the debts and the new payment plan put foolish pressure on the weak European economies. They said this made the German currency especially weak. And they warned that a weak economy would lead to serious social problems in Germany and other countries. However, most Americans did not understand the serious effect that international economic policies could have on the future of world peace. They believed that it was wrong for the Europeans -- or anyone -- to borrow money and then refuse to pay it back. VOICE 1: Many Americans of the nineteen-twenties also failed to recognize that a strong national military force would become increasingly important in the coming years. President Coolidge requested very limited military spending from the Congress. And many conservative military leaders refused to spend much money on such new kinds of equipment as submarines and airplanes. Some Americans did understand that the United States was now a world power and needed a strong and modern fighting force. One general, Billy Mitchell, publicly criticized the military leadership for not building new weapons. But most Americans were not interested. Many Americans continued to oppose arms spending until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in nineteen-forty-one. VOICE 2: American policy toward the League of Nations did not change much in the nineteen-twenties. In nineteen-nineteen, the Senate denied President Wilson's plea for the United States to join the new League of Nations. The United States, however, became involved unofficially in a number of league activities. But it continued to refuse to become a full member. And in nineteen-thirty, the Senate rejected a proposal for the United States to join the World Court. The United States also continued in the nineteen-twenties to refuse to recognize the communist government in Moscow. However, trade between the Soviet Union and the United States increased greatly during this period. And such large American companies as General Electric, DuPont, and R-C-A provided technical assistance to the new Soviet government. VOICE 1: The Coolidge administration was involved actively in events in Latin America. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes helped several Latin American countries to settle border disputes peacefully. In Central America, President Coolidge ordered American Marines into Nicaragua when President Adolfo Diaz faced a revolt from opposition groups. The United States gave its support to more conservative groups in Nicaragua. And it helped arrange a national election in nineteen-twenty-eight. American troops stayed in Nicaragua until nineteen-thirty-three. However, American troops withdrew from the Dominican Republic during this period. And Secretary of State Hughes worked to give new life to the Pan American union. VOICE 2: Relations with Mexico became worse during the nineteen-twenties. In nineteen-twenty-five, Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles called for laws to give Mexico more control over its minerals and natural wealth. American oil companies resisted the proposed changes. They accused Calles of communism. And some American business and church leaders called for armed American intervention. However, the American Senate voted to try to settle the conflict peacefully. And American diplomat Dwight Morrow helped negotiate a successful new agreement. VOICE 1: These American actions in Nicaragua and Mexico showed that the United States still felt that it had special security interests south of its border. But its peaceful settlement of the Mexican crisis and support of elections in Nicaragua showed that it was willing to deal with disputes peacefully. America's policies in Latin America during the nineteen-twenties were in some ways similar to its policies elsewhere. It was a time of change, of movement, from one period to another. Many Americans were hoping to follow the traditional foreign policies of the past. They sought to remain separate from world conflict. VOICE 2: The United States, however, could no longer remain apart from world events. This would become clear in the coming years. Europe would face facism and war. The Soviet Union would grow more powerful. And Latin America would become more independent. The United States was a world power. But it was still learning in the nineteen-twenties about the leadership and responsibility that is part of such power. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) The nineteen-twenties are remembered today as a quiet period in American foreign policy. The nation was at peace. The Republican presidents in the White House generally were more interested in economic growth at home than in relations with foreign countries. But the world had changed. The United States had become a world power. It was tied to other countries by trade, politics, and joint interests. And America had gained new economic strength. VOICE 2: Before World War One, foreigners invested more money in the United States than Americans invested in other countries -- about three-thousand-million dollars more. The war changed this. By nineteen-nineteen, Americans had almost three-thousand-million dollars more invested in other countries than foreign citizens had invested in the United States. American foreign investments continued to increase greatly during the nineteen-twenties. Increased foreign investment was not the only sign of growing American economic power. By the end of World War One, the United States produced more goods and services than any other nation, both in total and per person. Americans had more steel, food, cloth, and coal than even the richest foreign nations. By nineteen-twenty, the United States national income was greater than the combined incomes of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, and seventeen smaller countries. Quite simply, the United States had become the world's greatest economic power. VOICE 1: America's economic strength influenced its policies toward Europe during the nineteen-twenties. In fact, one of the most important issues of this period was the economic aid the United States had provided European nations during World War One. Americans lent the Allied countries seven-thousand-million dollars during the war. Shortly after the war, they lent another three-thousand-million dollars. The Allies borrowed most of the money for military equipment and food and other needs of their people. The Allied nations suffered far greater losses of property and population than the United States during the war. And when peace came, they called on the United States to cancel the loans America had made. France, Britain, and the other Allied nations said the United States should not expect them to re-pay the loans. VOICE TWO: The United States refused to cancel the debts. President Coolidge spoke for most Americans when he said, simply: "They borrowed the money." He believed the European powers should pay back the war loans, even though their economies had suffered terribly during the fighting. However, the European nations had little money to pay their loans. France tried to get the money by demanding payments from Germany for having started the war. When Germany was unable to pay, France and Belgium occupied Germany's Ruhr Valley. As a result, German miners in the area reduced coal production. And France and Germany moved toward an economic crisis and possible new armed conflict. VOICE 1: An international group intervened and negotiated a settlement to the crisis. The group provided a system to save Germany's currency and protect international debts. American bankers agreed to lend money to Germany to pay its war debts to the Allies. And the Allies used the money to pay their debts to the United States. VOICE 2: Some Americans with international interests criticized President Coolidge and other conservative leaders for not reducing or canceling Europe's debts. They said the debts and the new payment plan put foolish pressure on the weak European economies. They said this made the German currency especially weak. And they warned that a weak economy would lead to serious social problems in Germany and other countries. However, most Americans did not understand the serious effect that international economic policies could have on the future of world peace. They believed that it was wrong for the Europeans -- or anyone -- to borrow money and then refuse to pay it back. VOICE 1: Many Americans of the nineteen-twenties also failed to recognize that a strong national military force would become increasingly important in the coming years. President Coolidge requested very limited military spending from the Congress. And many conservative military leaders refused to spend much money on such new kinds of equipment as submarines and airplanes. Some Americans did understand that the United States was now a world power and needed a strong and modern fighting force. One general, Billy Mitchell, publicly criticized the military leadership for not building new weapons. But most Americans were not interested. Many Americans continued to oppose arms spending until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii in nineteen-forty-one. VOICE 2: American policy toward the League of Nations did not change much in the nineteen-twenties. In nineteen-nineteen, the Senate denied President Wilson's plea for the United States to join the new League of Nations. The United States, however, became involved unofficially in a number of league activities. But it continued to refuse to become a full member. And in nineteen-thirty, the Senate rejected a proposal for the United States to join the World Court. The United States also continued in the nineteen-twenties to refuse to recognize the communist government in Moscow. However, trade between the Soviet Union and the United States increased greatly during this period. And such large American companies as General Electric, DuPont, and R-C-A provided technical assistance to the new Soviet government. VOICE 1: The Coolidge administration was involved actively in events in Latin America. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes helped several Latin American countries to settle border disputes peacefully. In Central America, President Coolidge ordered American Marines into Nicaragua when President Adolfo Diaz faced a revolt from opposition groups. The United States gave its support to more conservative groups in Nicaragua. And it helped arrange a national election in nineteen-twenty-eight. American troops stayed in Nicaragua until nineteen-thirty-three. However, American troops withdrew from the Dominican Republic during this period. And Secretary of State Hughes worked to give new life to the Pan American union. VOICE 2: Relations with Mexico became worse during the nineteen-twenties. In nineteen-twenty-five, Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles called for laws to give Mexico more control over its minerals and natural wealth. American oil companies resisted the proposed changes. They accused Calles of communism. And some American business and church leaders called for armed American intervention. However, the American Senate voted to try to settle the conflict peacefully. And American diplomat Dwight Morrow helped negotiate a successful new agreement. VOICE 1: These American actions in Nicaragua and Mexico showed that the United States still felt that it had special security interests south of its border. But its peaceful settlement of the Mexican crisis and support of elections in Nicaragua showed that it was willing to deal with disputes peacefully. America's policies in Latin America during the nineteen-twenties were in some ways similar to its policies elsewhere. It was a time of change, of movement, from one period to another. Many Americans were hoping to follow the traditional foreign policies of the past. They sought to remain separate from world conflict. VOICE 2: The United States, however, could no longer remain apart from world events. This would become clear in the coming years. Europe would face facism and war. The Soviet Union would grow more powerful. And Latin America would become more independent. The United States was a world power. But it was still learning in the nineteen-twenties about the leadership and responsibility that is part of such power. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 27, 2001: Giving Blood Platelets December 26, 2001: Christmas Holiday Plants December 20, 2001: Human Transporter December 19, 2001: Baby Elephant December 13, 2001: Smallest Lizard December 12, 2001: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Decaf Coffee December 6, 2001: Stop Smoking December 5, 2001: Process of Tumor Growth November 29, 2001: National Virtual Observatory November 28, 2001: Children and Sleep November 22, 2001: Vitamins for Vision Loss November 21, 2001: Largest Cockroach Fossil November 15, 2001: New Genetic Test for Anthrax November 14, 2001: Tiny Transistor November 8, 2001: Leonid Meteor Shower November 7, 2001: Rush Limbaugh’s Hearing Loss November 1, 2001: Weakened Smallpox Vaccine October 31, 2001: Bats October 25, 2001: New Birth Control Ring October 24, 2001: Evidence of Ancient Hunters October 18, 2001: Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry October 17, 2001: Nobel Prize for Medicine October 11, 2001: Satellite Radio October 10, 2001: Virus Appears to Slow HIV October 4, 2001: Robotic Surgery October 3, 2001: Bacteria and Stomach Cancer September 27, 2001: Planning for Safer Buildings September 26, 2001: Sports Drugs September 20, 2001: Number of Human Genes Questioned September 19, 2001: African Elephants September 13, 2001: Earthquake Threat in the Himalayas September 12, 2001: Search for Long Life Gene September 6, 2001: Failing Memory September 5, 2001: Digestive System Camera August 30, 2001: Testing Possible Treatments for CJD August 29, 2001: AIDS in the United States August 23, 2001: Dinosaur Noses August 22, 2001: Cloning Mount Vernon’s Trees August 16, 2001: OxyContin Warning August 15, 2001: Designer Antibiotics August 9, 2001: Female Hormones and Heart Disease August 8, 2001: Iceman’s Death August 2, 2001: The Perseid Meteor Shower August 1, 2001: DDT Linked to Premature Births July 26, 2001: Rules for Genetically Engineered Foods July 25, 2001: Reduction in Deep Sea Current July 19, 2001: Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute July 18, 2001: Men's Heart Risk July 12, 2001: Leaning Tower of Pisa Repaired July 11, 2001: Vitamin C and DNA July 5, 2001: Ancient Human Hunters July 4, 2001: Comet LINEAR June 28, 2001: Gene Therapy to Treat Hemophilia June 27, 2001: The Motion of Mars June 21, 2001: Placebo Effect Study 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 26, 2001: Charles Lindbergh December 19, 2001: Botanic Garden Re-Opens December 12, 2001: Testing the Wright Brothers Flying Machine December 5, 2001: Space Digest November 28, 2001: Project Mercury, Part 2 November 21, 2001: Project Mercury, Part 1 November 14, 2001: Literacy November 7, 2001: Space Digest October 31, 2001: Newseum October 24, 2001: South Street Seaport Museum October 17, 2001: Tenement Museum October 10, 2001: Edwin Hubble October 3, 2001: North Carolina Lighthouses September 26, 2001: Grand Canyon September 19, 2001: Space Digest September 12, 2001: X-15 Plane September 5, 2001: Indiana Dunes August 29, 2001: Carl Sagan August 22, 2001: Meridian International Center August 15, 2001: Tuskegee Airmen August 8, 2001: The Intrepid Museum August 1, 2001: Albert Einstein July 25, 2001: The Price of Medicine in America July 18, 2001: Cloning Trees July 11, 2001: Jacqueline Cochran July 4, 2001: Preparing Shuttle for Space Flight June 27, 2001: Climbing Mount Everest 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT- January 4, 2002: Mystery Squid
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists have discovered a strange new kind of squid deep in the world’s oceans. Scientists reported seeing the sea creatures in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and in the Gulf of Mexico. They say they have never seen anything like the mystery squid before. Evidence of the squid comes from pictures and video images taken by eight independent scientists in four countries. The scientists took the pictures from inside deep-water submarines. The deepest sighting was made almost five kilometers below the surface of the ocean, in the western Atlantic near the coast of Brazil. The mystery squid is about seven meters long. Most squids have two long tentacles and eight shorter arms. The new squid, however, has ten arms that are extremely long, about six meters. Its arms are longer than those of any known squid species. The squid’s arms are held in an unusual position. They spread out a short distance from the body, then bend down sharply. The rest of the arms flow behind the squid as it swims. Scientists also say the squid’s arms are sticky. The scientists discovered this when a squid became stuck to the submarine while they were filming. Scientists believe the squid may use its long, sticky arms to trap food. The mystery squid also has two huge fins that stick out from its small head. The fins look like two giant elephant ears that appear to help the animal swim through the water. Scientists have not captured the animal. So they could not tell how much the squid weighs. However, they say it has a very small body, unlike that of the giant squid. Michael Vecchione [VECK-ee-own] is a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He wrote about the mystery squid in Science magazine. He said the discovery shows how little researchers know about life deep in the world’s oceans. Areas of deep water make up more than ninety percent of the living space on Earth. However, scientists do not know much about deep sea areas. That is because these areas are difficult, dangerous and costly to explore. The mystery squids were discovered accidentally by scientists or oil company workers looking for something else at the bottom of the ocean. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists have discovered a strange new kind of squid deep in the world’s oceans. Scientists reported seeing the sea creatures in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and in the Gulf of Mexico. They say they have never seen anything like the mystery squid before. Evidence of the squid comes from pictures and video images taken by eight independent scientists in four countries. The scientists took the pictures from inside deep-water submarines. The deepest sighting was made almost five kilometers below the surface of the ocean, in the western Atlantic near the coast of Brazil. The mystery squid is about seven meters long. Most squids have two long tentacles and eight shorter arms. The new squid, however, has ten arms that are extremely long, about six meters. Its arms are longer than those of any known squid species. The squid’s arms are held in an unusual position. They spread out a short distance from the body, then bend down sharply. The rest of the arms flow behind the squid as it swims. Scientists also say the squid’s arms are sticky. The scientists discovered this when a squid became stuck to the submarine while they were filming. Scientists believe the squid may use its long, sticky arms to trap food. The mystery squid also has two huge fins that stick out from its small head. The fins look like two giant elephant ears that appear to help the animal swim through the water. Scientists have not captured the animal. So they could not tell how much the squid weighs. However, they say it has a very small body, unlike that of the giant squid. Michael Vecchione [VECK-ee-own] is a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He wrote about the mystery squid in Science magazine. He said the discovery shows how little researchers know about life deep in the world’s oceans. Areas of deep water make up more than ninety percent of the living space on Earth. However, scientists do not know much about deep sea areas. That is because these areas are difficult, dangerous and costly to explore. The mystery squids were discovered accidentally by scientists or oil company workers looking for something else at the bottom of the ocean. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 4, 2002: Top books, movies and music of 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and recordings of the year Two-Thousand-One. Top Books of 2001 HOST: (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we tell about the most popular books, movies and recordings of the year Two-Thousand-One. Top Books of 2001 HOST: The newspaper USA Today recently listed the most popular books of last year in the United States. It creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Bob Doughty tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: Three of the top five books on the list are stories for children about a boy named Harry Potter. These books were at the top of the list last year, too ... and the year before that. They are “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” They were written by British writer Joanne Rowling [ROE-ling]. On his eleventh birthday, Harry Potter learns that he has magical powers. He goes away to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All the books tell about the adventures of Harry and his friends at the Hogwarts School. Harry is usually in danger. He is threatened by the evil Lord Voldemort. Joanne Rowling has published four Harry Potter books so far. The fifth one is expected to arrive in bookstores later this year. USA Today says the second most popular book of the year was “Who Moved My Cheese?” It was written by Spencer Johnson. The book gives advice about how people can deal with changes in their lives. The newspaper says the third ost popular book in the United States last year was “The Prayer of Jabez” (JAY-bez). It was written by an American Christian religious leader, Bruce Wilkinson. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Jabez was a tribal leader whose prayer was answered by God. Mister Wilkinson says in the book that the prayer of Jabez can help everyone who uses it. And he gives examples of how the prayer has helped him in life. Other religious leaders have criticized the book. But they also say it is meant to help people do good. They say that praying each day will improve peoples’ lives. Top Movies of 2001 HOST: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The three most popular movies last year were made for children. But many adults also enjoyed them. The movie that earned the most money in ticket sales in the United States last year was “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” It has earned more than two-hundred-ninety-four-million dollars since it opened in November. The movie is based on the international best selling book of the same name by British writer Joanne Rowling. It tells the same story as the first book in the Harry Potter series. Harry learns he has magical powers and spends his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the movie was opening in November, its actors were beginning to film a movie based on the second book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” It will open next November. It will be interesting to see if the second movie is as popular as the first one. The second most popular movie of last year in the United States is called “Shrek”. “Shrek” earned more than two-hundred-sixty-seven-million dollars since it opened in May.“Shrek” is a computer-animated movie about a huge, ugly, green man who saves the life and wins the love of a princess. Critics say both children and their parents liked the lesson of the movie -- that what a person thinks and feels are more important than what he or she looks like. The third most popular movie of the year in the United States was another computer-animated movie, “Monsters, Inc.” It earned more than two-hundred-thirty-six-million dollars last year. It tells a story about two creatures whose job is to scare children. But their movie adventure teaches the monsters that laughter is more powerful than fear. Top Recordings of 2001 HOST: Each December, Billboard magazine lists the most popular albums, records and performers of the year. Jim Tedder tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: Billboard magazine says the top record album of Two-Thousand-One was a surprise to everyone. It was the Beatles’ greatest hits collection, called “One.” The magazine says this is the first time in the history of their record-keeping that the Beatles had the most popular album of the year. “One” includes twenty-seven Beatles songs that were number one hits when they were first released. Among them is a song written and sung by George Harrison, who died last month. It is called “Something.” ((CUT 1: SOMETHING)) Billboard says the top country album of the year was also a “Greatest Hits” collection. It is by country singer Tim McGraw. Here he sings “My Next Thirty Years.” ((CUT 2: MY NEXT THIRTY YEARS)) Billboard says the top jazz album of the year was “The Look of Love” by Diana Krall. The magazine also says Diana Krall was the number one jazz album artist for the third year. We leave you now with a song from “The Look of Love” album. It is called “Dancing in the Dark.” ((CUT 3: DANCING IN THE DARK)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. The newspaper USA Today recently listed the most popular books of last year in the United States. It creates the list from information about the number of books sold during the year. Bob Doughty tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: Three of the top five books on the list are stories for children about a boy named Harry Potter. These books were at the top of the list last year, too ... and the year before that. They are “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” They were written by British writer Joanne Rowling [ROE-ling]. On his eleventh birthday, Harry Potter learns that he has magical powers. He goes away to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All the books tell about the adventures of Harry and his friends at the Hogwarts School. Harry is usually in danger. He is threatened by the evil Lord Voldemort. Joanne Rowling has published four Harry Potter books so far. The fifth one is expected to arrive in bookstores later this year. USA Today says the second most popular book of the year was “Who Moved My Cheese?” It was written by Spencer Johnson. The book gives advice about how people can deal with changes in their lives. The newspaper says the third ost popular book in the United States last year was “The Prayer of Jabez” (JAY-bez). It was written by an American Christian religious leader, Bruce Wilkinson. In the Old Testament of the Bible, Jabez was a tribal leader whose prayer was answered by God. Mister Wilkinson says in the book that the prayer of Jabez can help everyone who uses it. And he gives examples of how the prayer has helped him in life. Other religious leaders have criticized the book. But they also say it is meant to help people do good. They say that praying each day will improve peoples’ lives. Top Movies of 2001 HOST: At the end of the year, the American movie industry reports about the most popular movies of the year. The three most popular movies last year were made for children. But many adults also enjoyed them. The movie that earned the most money in ticket sales in the United States last year was “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” It has earned more than two-hundred-ninety-four-million dollars since it opened in November. The movie is based on the international best selling book of the same name by British writer Joanne Rowling. It tells the same story as the first book in the Harry Potter series. Harry learns he has magical powers and spends his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As the movie was opening in November, its actors were beginning to film a movie based on the second book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” It will open next November. It will be interesting to see if the second movie is as popular as the first one. The second most popular movie of last year in the United States is called “Shrek”. “Shrek” earned more than two-hundred-sixty-seven-million dollars since it opened in May.“Shrek” is a computer-animated movie about a huge, ugly, green man who saves the life and wins the love of a princess. Critics say both children and their parents liked the lesson of the movie -- that what a person thinks and feels are more important than what he or she looks like. The third most popular movie of the year in the United States was another computer-animated movie, “Monsters, Inc.” It earned more than two-hundred-thirty-six-million dollars last year. It tells a story about two creatures whose job is to scare children. But their movie adventure teaches the monsters that laughter is more powerful than fear. Top Recordings of 2001 HOST: Each December, Billboard magazine lists the most popular albums, records and performers of the year. Jim Tedder tells us about a few of them. ANNCR: Billboard magazine says the top record album of Two-Thousand-One was a surprise to everyone. It was the Beatles’ greatest hits collection, called “One.” The magazine says this is the first time in the history of their record-keeping that the Beatles had the most popular album of the year. “One” includes twenty-seven Beatles songs that were number one hits when they were first released. Among them is a song written and sung by George Harrison, who died last month. It is called “Something.” ((CUT 1: SOMETHING)) Billboard says the top country album of the year was also a “Greatest Hits” collection. It is by country singer Tim McGraw. Here he sings “My Next Thirty Years.” ((CUT 2: MY NEXT THIRTY YEARS)) Billboard says the top jazz album of the year was “The Look of Love” by Diana Krall. The magazine also says Diana Krall was the number one jazz album artist for the third year. We leave you now with a song from “The Look of Love” album. It is called “Dancing in the Dark.” ((CUT 3: DANCING IN THE DARK)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 27, 2001: Election of 1924 December 20, 2001: 1920s/Black History December 13, 2001: 1920s/Conservatism December 6, 2001: 1920s/The Arts November 29, 2001: Roaring Twenties November 22, 2001: Calvin Coolidge November 15, 2001: Warren Harding November 8, 2001: Red Scare November 1, 2001: New Era-1920s, Part 2 October 25, 2001: New Era-1920s, Part 1 October 18, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 9 October 11, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 8 October 4, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 7 September 27, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 6 September 20, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 5 September 13, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 4 September 6, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 3 August 30, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 2 August 23, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 1 August 16, 2001: Election of 1912 August 9, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt/Wm. Howard Taft, Part 2 August 2, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt/Wm. Howard Taft, Part 1 July 26, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 4 July 19, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 3 July 12, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 2 July 5, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 1 June 28, 2001: William McKinley, Part 3 June 21, 2001: William McKinley, Part 2 June 14, 2001: William McKinley, Part 1 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 6, 2002: Phillis Wheatley
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Phillis Wheatley, the first black female poet in the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: The girl who became known as Phillis Wheatley was born about seventeen-fifty-three in Senegal, Africa. She was kidnapped and brought to the New England colonies in North America on a ship that carried slaves. The ship's name was Phillis. The girl was between seven and eight years old. She was weak and sickly. So her price was not very high. She was sold in a slave market in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in August seventeen-sixty-one. John Wheatley, an international businessman, bought her to serve his wife, Susannah. VOICE 2: Phillis came from a culture that was very different from that of the Wheatleys. She found the food, customs and beliefs to be new and strange. The other slaves in the house taught her many things about America. Phillis quickly learned the rules of slavery. She learned that slaves could not beat drums because slave owners feared that secret messages were being passed to slaves on other farms. She learned that in Southern states it was a crime to teach a slave to read and write. VOICE 1: In Northern states in the seventeen-hundreds, black slaves were treated better than they were in the Southern states. Restrictions against the education of slaves were not as severe as they were in the South. Many of the slaves in New England were even urged to learn to read, especially the Bible, the major book of the Christian religion. Many people thought that slaves should read the Bible so they could become better believers of the Christian religion. In New England, blacks were free to meet with each other in groups. Many times male slaves were accepted as members of the community for special projects. These included gatherings to clean corn or to build a farm house. Female slaves cooked for the groups. VOICE 2: From her earliest days as a slave, Phillis was a happy, busy person. She liked to keep busy. She especially liked to do things with her hands. She quickly learned how to clean around the Wheatley house and how to do the dishes. But her mind seemed to move even faster than her hands. She wanted to do everything. Phillis's new family had unusual beliefs for the times. John Wheatley and his wife were educated people. Susannah Wheatley believed that all human beings, including African slaves, could learn if given the chance. She believed that all people, of any skin color, should love and respect each other. She treated Phillis more as a daughter than as a slave. Mr. Wheatley said, "You're my black child. You're my Phillis." Susannah Wheatley soon recognized Phillis's intelligence and desire to learn. Mr. Wheatley observed how Phillis loved books and the care she took with them. At times, Phillis would smell the pages of the books and hold them close to her. VOICE 1: One day, one of the slaves in the Wheatley home found Phillis writing on the wall of Mr. Wheatley's room with a piece of coal. Phillis had been cleaning the dust from a book. She decided to copy the letters from the cover of the book. The slave brought Mr. Wheatley to inspect the marks on the wall. But Susannah Wheatley did not get angry. Instead, she smiled. Mr. Wheatley gave Phillis a pencil and paper and a little table on which to write. She showed the writing on the wall to her daughter Mary. Mary was as surprised as her mother at how well Phillis had copied the letters. Mary told Phillis she would teach her to write -- on paper, not on walls. VOICE 2: Mary Wheatley began to teach Phillis to read and write English. She also taught Phillis the Christian religion. Phillis learned quickly. She learned the English alphabet in a few weeks. In a year and one-half after she arrived in America, Phillis could read English. And she could read and understand difficult parts of the Bible. Phillis loved to learn new words. She enjoyed the new feelings that went with the sounds. She especially liked writing and creating new ways of saying things. VOICE 1: Mary taught Phillis about writings from other countries. America was a young nation. It had not yet produced writers and poets like older nations. So Phillis studied the writings of European writers. She read the work of the Greek poet Homer, the English poets Keats and Pope, and the plays and poetry of Shakespeare. She read and re-read the Bible. Phillis was about twelve years old when she began to write poetry. One of her earliest poems was about her religious faith. It questioned how a person could not believe in God: "Thou who dost daily feel his hand, and rod Darest thou deny the essence of a God! If ther's no heav'n, ah! Whither wilt thou go. ... " VOICE 2: Phillis Wheatley's first major work was "An Elegiac Poem on the Death of the Celebrated Divine." It was published in seventeen-seventy. Phillis wrote the long poem to honor a famous clergyman who had died. Phillis wrote mostly about religion and morals. Many of her poems were created at the request of someone to honor a family member who had died. Her poems are representative of the times. They expressed common reactions to personal events such as deaths or marriages. Or they honored public events such as battles. VOICE 1: Phillis had an unusual life for a slave. Mr. Wheatley had stopped having Phillis do house cleaning jobs. She made sure Phillis had time to study and to visit the family friends. But Phillis was not permitted to make friends with other uneducated slaves. So she remained separate from both white and black worlds. While she was considered above the other black slaves, she was never considered an equal of white slave owners. One time she was invited to dinner in the home of one of Mr. Wheatley's relations. The servants said that it was the first time they ever carried food to a woman with skin their color. But Phillis usually sat at a table separate from the white people at a dinner party. VOICE 2: Phillis Wheatley became famous in Europe as well as in America. She travelled to London in seventeen-seventy-three and gave poetry readings there. She was twenty years old. The writings of the young slave from Africa surprised everyone. During her visit in London, she was to have been presented to King George the third. But she received urgent news from America. Mr. Wheatley was very sick and had asked that Phillis return to Boston. Phillis returned home quickly. That meant she missed the publication in London of her book poems on various subjects, religious and moral. It contained thirty-eight of her poems. It was the first published book written by a black person in America. And it was only the second book written by an American woman. Newspapers in London highly praised her poems. Her book sold very well there and later in America. VOICE 1: Phillis Wheatley had one more brief period of being famous. In seventeen-seventy-five, she wrote a poem about George Washington. He had become commander of the Colonial forces in the American revolution. The poem was called "His Excellency General Washington." It called Washington "first in peace and honors." She sent her poem to him. Some time later, she was invited to visit George Washington in his headquarters. It was an unusual visit between a black woman poet and a military commander. VOICE 2: Phillis took care of Susannah during her long final sickness. When Mr. Wheatley died in March, seventeen-seventy-four, Phillis wrote that she had lost a friend and parent. After Susannah's death, Phillis was freed by the Wheatley family. But her life became more difficult. She married John Peters, a free black man. He failed in many business attempts. Their three children died at a very young age. Phillis tried to publish another book of her poems. But now that she was free, she had lost her appeal as a slave poet. Phillis Wheatley died poor and alone in seventeen-eighty-four. She was thirty-one years old. (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Phillis Wheatley, the first black female poet in the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: The girl who became known as Phillis Wheatley was born about seventeen-fifty-three in Senegal, Africa. She was kidnapped and brought to the New England colonies in North America on a ship that carried slaves. The ship's name was Phillis. The girl was between seven and eight years old. She was weak and sickly. So her price was not very high. She was sold in a slave market in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in August seventeen-sixty-one. John Wheatley, an international businessman, bought her to serve his wife, Susannah. VOICE 2: Phillis came from a culture that was very different from that of the Wheatleys. She found the food, customs and beliefs to be new and strange. The other slaves in the house taught her many things about America. Phillis quickly learned the rules of slavery. She learned that slaves could not beat drums because slave owners feared that secret messages were being passed to slaves on other farms. She learned that in Southern states it was a crime to teach a slave to read and write. VOICE 1: In Northern states in the seventeen-hundreds, black slaves were treated better than they were in the Southern states. Restrictions against the education of slaves were not as severe as they were in the South. Many of the slaves in New England were even urged to learn to read, especially the Bible, the major book of the Christian religion. Many people thought that slaves should read the Bible so they could become better believers of the Christian religion. In New England, blacks were free to meet with each other in groups. Many times male slaves were accepted as members of the community for special projects. These included gatherings to clean corn or to build a farm house. Female slaves cooked for the groups. VOICE 2: From her earliest days as a slave, Phillis was a happy, busy person. She liked to keep busy. She especially liked to do things with her hands. She quickly learned how to clean around the Wheatley house and how to do the dishes. But her mind seemed to move even faster than her hands. She wanted to do everything. Phillis's new family had unusual beliefs for the times. John Wheatley and his wife were educated people. Susannah Wheatley believed that all human beings, including African slaves, could learn if given the chance. She believed that all people, of any skin color, should love and respect each other. She treated Phillis more as a daughter than as a slave. Mr. Wheatley said, "You're my black child. You're my Phillis." Susannah Wheatley soon recognized Phillis's intelligence and desire to learn. Mr. Wheatley observed how Phillis loved books and the care she took with them. At times, Phillis would smell the pages of the books and hold them close to her. VOICE 1: One day, one of the slaves in the Wheatley home found Phillis writing on the wall of Mr. Wheatley's room with a piece of coal. Phillis had been cleaning the dust from a book. She decided to copy the letters from the cover of the book. The slave brought Mr. Wheatley to inspect the marks on the wall. But Susannah Wheatley did not get angry. Instead, she smiled. Mr. Wheatley gave Phillis a pencil and paper and a little table on which to write. She showed the writing on the wall to her daughter Mary. Mary was as surprised as her mother at how well Phillis had copied the letters. Mary told Phillis she would teach her to write -- on paper, not on walls. VOICE 2: Mary Wheatley began to teach Phillis to read and write English. She also taught Phillis the Christian religion. Phillis learned quickly. She learned the English alphabet in a few weeks. In a year and one-half after she arrived in America, Phillis could read English. And she could read and understand difficult parts of the Bible. Phillis loved to learn new words. She enjoyed the new feelings that went with the sounds. She especially liked writing and creating new ways of saying things. VOICE 1: Mary taught Phillis about writings from other countries. America was a young nation. It had not yet produced writers and poets like older nations. So Phillis studied the writings of European writers. She read the work of the Greek poet Homer, the English poets Keats and Pope, and the plays and poetry of Shakespeare. She read and re-read the Bible. Phillis was about twelve years old when she began to write poetry. One of her earliest poems was about her religious faith. It questioned how a person could not believe in God: "Thou who dost daily feel his hand, and rod Darest thou deny the essence of a God! If ther's no heav'n, ah! Whither wilt thou go. ... " VOICE 2: Phillis Wheatley's first major work was "An Elegiac Poem on the Death of the Celebrated Divine." It was published in seventeen-seventy. Phillis wrote the long poem to honor a famous clergyman who had died. Phillis wrote mostly about religion and morals. Many of her poems were created at the request of someone to honor a family member who had died. Her poems are representative of the times. They expressed common reactions to personal events such as deaths or marriages. Or they honored public events such as battles. VOICE 1: Phillis had an unusual life for a slave. Mr. Wheatley had stopped having Phillis do house cleaning jobs. She made sure Phillis had time to study and to visit the family friends. But Phillis was not permitted to make friends with other uneducated slaves. So she remained separate from both white and black worlds. While she was considered above the other black slaves, she was never considered an equal of white slave owners. One time she was invited to dinner in the home of one of Mr. Wheatley's relations. The servants said that it was the first time they ever carried food to a woman with skin their color. But Phillis usually sat at a table separate from the white people at a dinner party. VOICE 2: Phillis Wheatley became famous in Europe as well as in America. She travelled to London in seventeen-seventy-three and gave poetry readings there. She was twenty years old. The writings of the young slave from Africa surprised everyone. During her visit in London, she was to have been presented to King George the third. But she received urgent news from America. Mr. Wheatley was very sick and had asked that Phillis return to Boston. Phillis returned home quickly. That meant she missed the publication in London of her book poems on various subjects, religious and moral. It contained thirty-eight of her poems. It was the first published book written by a black person in America. And it was only the second book written by an American woman. Newspapers in London highly praised her poems. Her book sold very well there and later in America. VOICE 1: Phillis Wheatley had one more brief period of being famous. In seventeen-seventy-five, she wrote a poem about George Washington. He had become commander of the Colonial forces in the American revolution. The poem was called "His Excellency General Washington." It called Washington "first in peace and honors." She sent her poem to him. Some time later, she was invited to visit George Washington in his headquarters. It was an unusual visit between a black woman poet and a military commander. VOICE 2: Phillis took care of Susannah during her long final sickness. When Mr. Wheatley died in March, seventeen-seventy-four, Phillis wrote that she had lost a friend and parent. After Susannah's death, Phillis was freed by the Wheatley family. But her life became more difficult. She married John Peters, a free black man. He failed in many business attempts. Their three children died at a very young age. Phillis tried to publish another book of her poems. But now that she was free, she had lost her appeal as a slave poet. Phillis Wheatley died poor and alone in seventeen-eighty-four. She was thirty-one years old. (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 5, 2002: New Mayor of New York City
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Michael Bloomberg was sworn in as mayor of New York City on Tuesday. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led a ceremony in Times Square a few moments after the New Year began. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Michael Bloomberg was sworn in as mayor of New York City on Tuesday. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led a ceremony in Times Square a few moments after the New Year began. About five-hundred-thousand New Year’s Eve celebrants watched the event. It was the largest public gathering in the city since the terrorist attacks on September eleventh. A swearing-in ceremony had never been held in Times Square before. But, New York City has changed since the destruction of the World Trade Center. Both Mister Giuliani and Mister Bloomberg hoped that holding a ceremony in Times Square would help people feel safe in the city. An official ceremony took place at City Hall later in the day. Mister Bloomberg, a Republican, is the one-hundred-eighth mayor of New York. He defeated Democrat Mark Green in the election in November. The new mayor spent a record seventy-million dollars of his own money on his campaign for the office. This is the first political office Michael Bloomberg has held. He has been an extremely successful businessman. Mister Bloomberg began his professional life in Nineteen-Sixty-Six as a trader on Wall Street. In the early Nineteen-Eighties, he started a company that developed and sold financial information technology. He made hundreds of millions of dollars in the business. In Nineteen-Ninety, Michael Bloomberg opened a financial news service. Bloomberg News grew quickly. Today, it employs more than one-thousand people to provide news to media and companies around the world. The news service led to Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg-dot-com on the Internet. Political experts say Mister Bloomberg’s business skills could help New York solve its current economic difficulties. The city has a four-thousand-million dollar budget deficit. One-hundred-thousand people in the city lost their jobs as a result of the terrorist attacks. And, a number of companies moved out of the city. Mister Bloomberg also faces problems in the New York City public education system. The actions he takes during his term could affect more than one-million students in the city. Michael Bloomberg will lead New York while it makes difficult decisions about the future of the area where the World Trade Center once stood. Some people feel the area should be made into a memorial for the thousands of people who died there. Others want to see the Trade Center re-built to show that New York is not defeated. The new mayor has not yet said what he thinks about these and other issues. However, he did make one promise. He said Rudy Giuliani had asked him not to fail the people of New York. Michael Bloomberg answered, “Rudy, I will not.” This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. About five-hundred-thousand New Year’s Eve celebrants watched the event. It was the largest public gathering in the city since the terrorist attacks on September eleventh. A swearing-in ceremony had never been held in Times Square before. But, New York City has changed since the destruction of the World Trade Center. Both Mister Giuliani and Mister Bloomberg hoped that holding a ceremony in Times Square would help people feel safe in the city. An official ceremony took place at City Hall later in the day. Mister Bloomberg, a Republican, is the one-hundred-eighth mayor of New York. He defeated Democrat Mark Green in the election in November. The new mayor spent a record seventy-million dollars of his own money on his campaign for the office. This is the first political office Michael Bloomberg has held. He has been an extremely successful businessman. Mister Bloomberg began his professional life in Nineteen-Sixty-Six as a trader on Wall Street. In the early Nineteen-Eighties, he started a company that developed and sold financial information technology. He made hundreds of millions of dollars in the business. In Nineteen-Ninety, Michael Bloomberg opened a financial news service. Bloomberg News grew quickly. Today, it employs more than one-thousand people to provide news to media and companies around the world. The news service led to Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg-dot-com on the Internet. Political experts say Mister Bloomberg’s business skills could help New York solve its current economic difficulties. The city has a four-thousand-million dollar budget deficit. One-hundred-thousand people in the city lost their jobs as a result of the terrorist attacks. And, a number of companies moved out of the city. Mister Bloomberg also faces problems in the New York City public education system. The actions he takes during his term could affect more than one-million students in the city. Michael Bloomberg will lead New York while it makes difficult decisions about the future of the area where the World Trade Center once stood. Some people feel the area should be made into a memorial for the thousands of people who died there. Others want to see the Trade Center re-built to show that New York is not defeated. The new mayor has not yet said what he thinks about these and other issues. However, he did make one promise. He said Rudy Giuliani had asked him not to fail the people of New York. Michael Bloomberg answered, “Rudy, I will not.” This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – January 7, 2002: Storing Drinking Water
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Safe drinking water has always been rare and valuable. Throughout the world, drinking water has to be stored for periods of low rainfall. Tanks or other containers for water storage must be ready long before a dry season begins. For hundreds of years different kinds of materials have been used to build water storage containers. In many areas of the world, small lakes or reservoirs formed by dirt walls provide drinking water for villagers during the long dry season. In western Sudan, the thick part of the baobob tree is removed to store water collected during the short rainy season in that country. Bricks and concrete are among the modern materials used today to build storage containers for water. A solid rock can be used as the bottom of a water tank. However, a mixture of rock and soil should not be used. The soil will settle down, but the rock will not. The water will leak out. Ferro-cement structures are popular in some developing countries, especially in India. Ferro-cement is made by pouring a sand and cement mixture over a skeleton form made of steel rods, pipe, or chicken wire. It creates a structure that is lightweight yet keeps in water. The walls of ferro-cement structures are usually thin, which means that they can be used in building different shapes such as circles. Wood also can be used for water storage structures. Cypress, fir, pine and redwood are some of the kinds of trees that have been used. Wooden tanks do not require special care, although their average lifetime is shorter than tanks made with concrete or steel. Any chemicals used to keep the wood from being ruined must not be poisonous substances. Water in uncovered storage tanks or reservoirs can become unsafe. Small green plants called algae can grow in large amounts near the surface. The algae may help bacteria continue to grow, even if chemicals such as chlorine are added to the water to kill the bacteria. Uncovered water also can be polluted by birds, animals or humans. You can learn more about storing water for drinking through the Volunteers in Technical Assistance, or VITA. You can reach VITA through the Internet at its World Wide Web address w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-04-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 7, 2002:
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: An American musical play has been performed in New York City for almost forty-two years. On January thirteenth, however, “The Fantasticks” is finally expected to close. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: An American musical play has been performed in New York City for almost forty-two years. On January thirteenth, however, “The Fantasticks” is finally expected to close. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. The story and music of “The Fantasticks” is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "OVERTURE")) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. The story and music of “The Fantasticks” is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "OVERTURE")) VOICE ONE: "The Fantasticks" has been performed about seventeen-thousand times at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York. It is the longest-running musical play in the world. Now, however, “The Fantasticks” producer Lore [loar] Noto says the show must end January Thirteenth. He says operating costs have increased. At the same time, ticket sales have decreased. The musical opened on May Third, Nineteen-Sixty. Much has changed since then. Yet over the years people kept coming to see "The Fantasticks." VOICE TWO: People even came to see a performance of “The Fantasticks” a few days after the September Eleventh terrorist attack in New York. The theater is in the area called Greenwich Village, very close to the target area. But about fifteen people walked through the ashes blowing from the destroyed World Trade Center buildings to see the show. One song in the play had a new and sadder meaning after September Eleventh. This song, “Try to Remember,” urges people to try to remember a very different kind of September -- a September when life was beautiful. VOICE ONE: "The Fantasticks" has been performed about seventeen-thousand times at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York. It is the longest-running musical play in the world. Now, however, “The Fantasticks” producer Lore [loar] Noto says the show must end January Thirteenth. He says operating costs have increased. At the same time, ticket sales have decreased. The musical opened on May Third, Nineteen-Sixty. Much has changed since then. Yet over the years people kept coming to see "The Fantasticks." VOICE TWO: People even came to see a performance of “The Fantasticks” a few days after the September Eleventh terrorist attack in New York. The theater is in the area called Greenwich Village, very close to the target area. But about fifteen people walked through the ashes blowing from the destroyed World Trade Center buildings to see the show. One song in the play had a new and sadder meaning after September Eleventh. This song, “Try to Remember,” urges people to try to remember a very different kind of September -- a September when life was beautiful. VOICE ONE: “The Fantasticks” is about young love, children leaving home and what it is like to be a father. Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote "The Fantasticks" in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. They wrote it for a summer production at Barnard College in New York. Nine months later, the show opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. "The Fantasticks" has played there ever since. The children and grandchildren of those who first saw the play have returned to see it. VOICE TWO: One reason for the continuing popularity of "The Fantasticks" may be that it is different from large musicals playing in Broadway theaters. The Sullivan Street Playhouse is very small. It has only one-hundred-fifty seats. The people who see the show are very close to the actors. "The Fantasticks" has only eight actors. There are only two musicians. The actors' clothes and the settings on the stage are very simple. VOICE ONE: Now we present some music from the first New York production of "The Fantasticks." Jerry Orbach plays the Narrator. He helps tell the story. Mister Orbach also plays El Gallo [GUY-yo], a handsome robber. The Narrator sings the play's most famous song, "Try to Remember." ((MUSIC: "TRY TO REMEMBER”)) VOICE TWO: The Narrator presents the main people in the play. They are a boy named Matt, a girl named Luisa, and their two fathers. Luisa is sixteen years old. She dreams of having more interesting experiences in her life. Rita Gardner plays Luisa. She sings "Much More." ((MUSIC: "MUCH MORE")) VOICE ONE: A wall separates the homes of Matt and Luisa. Their fathers built the wall to keep the young people apart. The fathers really want Matt and Luisa to fall in love. But, they feel that the best way to make this happen is to act as if they disapprove of any relationship between their two children. The fathers believe children will only do what their parents do not want them to do. The fathers, played by William Larsen and Hugh Thomas, sing about this in "Never Say No." ((MUSIC: "NEVER SAY NO")) VOICE TWO: The fathers decide on a plot to bring Matt and Luisa together. They ask El Gallo to try to kidnap Luisa. Matt fights El Gallo. The young man saves Luisa. He becomes a hero. The young people and their fathers are united. Everyone is happy. But in the second part of "The Fantasticks," Matt and Luisa discover that their fathers have tricked them. The young lovers argue. Matt decides to leave Luisa. He wants to travel to other parts of the world. He seeks new experiences. Kenneth Nelson is Matt. He sings "I Can See It." ((MUSIC: "I CAN SEE IT”)) VOICE ONE: The fathers are unhappy that their plot to bring the children together has failed. They discuss the problems of having children. They decide it is easier to grow vegetables than to raise children. ((MUSIC: "PLANT A RADISH”)) VOICE TWO: Luisa also wants to visit different places. The handsome robber, El Gallo, offers to take her with him to see the world. ((MUSIC: "ROUND AND ROUND")) VOICE ONE: Luisa prepares to go away with El Gallo, but he leaves without her. Matt returns from his travels. He has seen and experienced many unpleasant things. Both Luisa and Matt have been hurt emotionally by their experiences. Yet they also have grown up. Matt and Luisa rediscover their love for each other. Listen as they sing their song of love, “They Were You.” ((MUSIC: "THEY WERE YOU”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Shelley Gollust. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Kevin Raiman. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "OVERTURE")) “The Fantasticks” is about young love, children leaving home and what it is like to be a father. Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt wrote "The Fantasticks" in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. They wrote it for a summer production at Barnard College in New York. Nine months later, the show opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. "The Fantasticks" has played there ever since. The children and grandchildren of those who first saw the play have returned to see it. VOICE TWO: One reason for the continuing popularity of "The Fantasticks" may be that it is different from large musicals playing in Broadway theaters. The Sullivan Street Playhouse is very small. It has only one-hundred-fifty seats. The people who see the show are very close to the actors. "The Fantasticks" has only eight actors. There are only two musicians. The actors' clothes and the settings on the stage are very simple. VOICE ONE: Now we present some music from the first New York production of "The Fantasticks." Jerry Orbach plays the Narrator. He helps tell the story. Mister Orbach also plays El Gallo [GUY-yo], a handsome robber. The Narrator sings the play's most famous song, "Try to Remember." ((MUSIC: "TRY TO REMEMBER”)) VOICE TWO: The Narrator presents the main people in the play. They are a boy named Matt, a girl named Luisa, and their two fathers. Luisa is sixteen years old. She dreams of having more interesting experiences in her life. Rita Gardner plays Luisa. She sings "Much More." ((MUSIC: "MUCH MORE")) VOICE ONE: A wall separates the homes of Matt and Luisa. Their fathers built the wall to keep the young people apart. The fathers really want Matt and Luisa to fall in love. But, they feel that the best way to make this happen is to act as if they disapprove of any relationship between their two children. The fathers believe children will only do what their parents do not want them to do. The fathers, played by William Larsen and Hugh Thomas, sing about this in "Never Say No." ((MUSIC: "NEVER SAY NO")) VOICE TWO: The fathers decide on a plot to bring Matt and Luisa together. They ask El Gallo to try to kidnap Luisa. Matt fights El Gallo. The young man saves Luisa. He becomes a hero. The young people and their fathers are united. Everyone is happy. But in the second part of "The Fantasticks," Matt and Luisa discover that their fathers have tricked them. The young lovers argue. Matt decides to leave Luisa. He wants to travel to other parts of the world. He seeks new experiences. Kenneth Nelson is Matt. He sings "I Can See It." ((MUSIC: "I CAN SEE IT”)) VOICE ONE: The fathers are unhappy that their plot to bring the children together has failed. They discuss the problems of having children. They decide it is easier to grow vegetables than to raise children. ((MUSIC: "PLANT A RADISH”)) VOICE TWO: Luisa also wants to visit different places. The handsome robber, El Gallo, offers to take her with him to see the world. ((MUSIC: "ROUND AND ROUND")) VOICE ONE: Luisa prepares to go away with El Gallo, but he leaves without her. Matt returns from his travels. He has seen and experienced many unpleasant things. Both Luisa and Matt have been hurt emotionally by their experiences. Yet they also have grown up. Matt and Luisa rediscover their love for each other. Listen as they sing their song of love, “They Were You.” ((MUSIC: "THEY WERE YOU”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Shelley Gollust. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Kevin Raiman. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "OVERTURE")) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-04-5-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 28, 2001: Warm Year December 21, 2001: UN Fishing Treaty December 7, 2001: UN Environment Prize November 30, 2001: Solar Energy in San Francisco November 23, 2001: Population and the Environment November 16, 2001: Marrakech Agreement November 9, 2001: Orcas Threatened November 2, 2001: Earth’s Magnetic Field Helps Turtles October 26, 2001: Wellbeing of Nations Study October 19, 2001: Great Lakes Clean Themselves October 12, 2001: Elephant Relocation October 5, 2001: Wildlife Society Conference September 28, 2001: Virus Killing Salmon September 21, 2001: Endangered Species Agreement September 14, 2001: Weather Maps For Floods September 7, 2001: Mercury Pollution in Wildfires August 31, 2001: Light Pollution August 24, 2001: Early Plant Study August 17, 2001: Sea Turtle Recovery Plan August 10, 2001: Climate Change Agreement August 3, 2001: African Dust Storms July 27, 2001: Carbon Dioxide July 20, 2001: Test for World War One Poisons July 13, 2001: Penguins Dying July 6, 2001: Pollution Linked to Heart Attacks June 29, 2001: Yucca Mountain Proposed Nuclear Waste Area June 22, 2001: Apes Endangered 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-04-6-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 28, 2001: Music by Tony Bennett/college football bowl games/Kwanzaa December 21, 2001: Christmas music/question about Santa Claus/gifts for young people December 7, 2001: Ryan Adams/Hanukkah/Chinati museum in Texas November 30, 2001: Native American Heritage Month Special November 23, 2001: Top country music/U.S. Muslims/Wright Bros. museum November 16, 2001: Patriotic songs/Thanksgiving/TV's Emmy Awards November 9, 2001: Sept. 11 music shows/Veterans Day/helping Afghan kids November 2, 2001: Saxophone music/life on film/Coach Joe Paterno October 26, 2001: Country music/superstitions/black hall of fame October 19, 2001: Jazz/divorce/Sept. 11 N.Y. photos October 12, 2001: Electric guitar music/baseball season/new glory for Old Glory October 5, 2001: Isaac Stern/engagements/Chicago reads September 28, 2001: Shemekia Copeland/lie detectors/national book festival September 21, 2001: Special on Terrorist Attack September 14, 2001: Jessica Simpson/wine makers/Pres. Madison's home September 7, 2001: Alicia Keys/Secret Service/lottery August 31, 2001: John Lennon/eating eggs/"Key Monster" August 24, 2001: Listener survey winners/Eden's Crush/place names/high-flying plane August 17, 2001: MTV/pensions/late learner August 10, 2001: Special on New York ... music about the city, a question about skyscrapers August 3, 2001: Miles Davis/Library of Congress/National Cathedral July 27, 2001: India Arie/space tourists/Math Olympiad July 20, 2001: Hip-hop/pizza/John Adams July 13, 2001: Chet Atkins/two inventors/Kokopeli, happy man of rock July 6, 2001: John Lee Hooker/American courts/unusual honor for a TV star June 29, 2001: "Don't Stop the Carnival"/an American expression about wood/Fourth of July in Denmark June 22, 2001: Jane Monheit/submarines/White House photographers Foreign Student Series 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 30, 2001: Heroes of September 11 December 23, 2001: Roger Miller December 16, 2001: Walt Disney December 9, 2001: Marilyn Monroe December 2, 2001: Nat King Cole November 25, 2001: Ralph Waldo Emerson November 18, 2001: Nellie Bly November 11, 2001: Chief Joseph, Part 2 November 4, 2001: Chief Joseph, Part 1 October 28, 2001: Madam C.J. Walker October 21, 2001: R. Buckminster Fuller October 14, 2001: John Coltrane October 7, 2001: Babe Ruth September 30, 2001: Harriet Tubman September 23, 2001: Katharine Graham September 16, 2001: Larry Adler September 9, 2001: John Wesley Powell September 2, 2001: Billie Holiday August 26, 2001: Emperor Norton August 19, 2001: Gunther Gebel-Williams August 12, 2001: Helen Keller, Part 2 August 5, 2001: Helen Keller, Part 1 July 29, 2001: Paul Robeson, Part 2 July 22, 2001: Paul Robeson, Part 1 July 15, 2001: Flannery O'Connor July 8, 2001: Douglas MacArthur July 1, 2001: Clara Barton June 24, 2001: John Lewis 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - January 8, 2002: Composting
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Many farmers around the world are composting to improve their soil so they can produce better crops. Composting is the mixing of plant or animal wastes so they break down and produce simpler substances. Farmers add compost to their soils instead of burning the plant and animal wastes or throwing them away. Compost is an example of a natural organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers help to make soils rich so that they produce more crops for a longer time. During the growing season, plants take gases from the air such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They combine these gases with minerals from the soil. After the growing season ends, many parts of the plant die. Farmers gather a large amount of dead plant materials into small hills called compost piles. They may add animal wastes. They must add water so the materials will break down or decay. Soon the plants are attacked by insects and organisms including worms and bacteria. Oxygen helps the organisms change the plant materials more rapidly. The plants decay into a mixture that can be spread on the farmland where the crops are growing. The compost returns needed nutrients to the soil. Some rules need to be followed to produce the best quality compost. Good compost piles need water to speed the process of decay. Yet the piles should not be too wet or the plant material will be ruined. The temperature of the compost pile should not be too high or too low. The best temperature for a compost pile is about thirty to thirty-seven degrees Celsius. You can turn the pile over and over to help cool down the material. Turning the compost pile over adds more oxygen to the mixture which helps it decay. Sometimes small animals such as rats and mice like to eat the composting materials. This can be prevented if you add a thin amount of soil to the top of the compost pile. Farmers who use compost can increase the amount and quality of their crops. Computer users can find more information about composting from Volunteers in Technical Assistance or VITA. VITA is an organization based in the United States that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. VITA’s Internet address is w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AUDIO TROUBLE
* Byline: 

 We apologize that the only sound files currently available for download are MP3 files for programs from the past few days. Our computer engineers are working to restore service as soon as possible. VOA Special English Washington 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - January 8, 2002: Top stories of 2001
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. Letter sent with anthrax to Tom Daschle VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some major science stories of the year two-thousand-one. We tell about stem cell research, anthrax bacteria and the disease AIDS. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some major science stories of the year two-thousand-one. We tell about stem cell research, anthrax bacteria and the disease AIDS. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last year, President Bush approved limited federal government support of research on special human cells. The research involves stem cells taken from fertilized human eggs called embryos. Scientists believe stem cells may be highly useful in the treatment and possible cure of many diseases. The most useful are stem cells from embryos. They are able to develop into all the kinds of tissues of the body. Embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos created in laboratories to help women become pregnant. Scientists use embryonic stem cells from embryos that are four or five days old. During those first days, the cells in the embryo divide quickly. For a short period of time, each of the embryo’s cells is able to become any one of more than two-hundred different kinds of cells in the body. The great value of embryonic stem cells appears to be their ability to reproduce in large numbers in the laboratory before they become specialized cells. Researchers believe that embryonic stem cells may be used to help diseased organs develop healthy cells again. They hope these stem cells can be used to treat diseases of the brain, heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys. These include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. VOICE TWO: However, the Bush Administration has only permitted research on about sixty groups of existing stem cells. Medical researchers have noted that these groups of stem cells are not useful for treating disease. Also, treatments developed from existing stem cells might be rejected by the bodies of possible patients. This is because the genetic material is different. Some scientists say the best way to make stem cells for treatment is to grow them from embryos that are exact copies of patients. Late last year, scientists working for the company Advanced Cell Technology announced that they had made the first genetic copies of human embryos. The process of making genetic copies is called cloning. Cloning involves the creation of an embryo from a single adult cell. Genetic material from the adult cell is joined with an egg cell whose genetic material has been removed. Scientists have used cloning to create animals. Scientists from Advanced Cell Technology performed the experiments in an effort to create cloned human embryonic stem cells. However, the experiments did not produce stem cells because the embryos did not live long enough. Company officials said the research on human embryos is designed only to produce embryonic stem cells to treat disease. They have strongly stated that the company has no interest in cloning human beings. VOICE ONE: American lawmakers have been preparing legislation that could ban or limit cloning. President Bush said he strongly opposes human cloning. He said it is wrong to use embryos for cloning. The Catholic Church opposes all kinds of stem cell research. Many other religious groups also oppose all embryonic stem cell research. They consider it the same as taking a human life. Other religious groups accept the research with several restrictions because it may lead to cures for some diseases. Experts say the debate about embryonic stem cell research is complex and will continue for some time. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another major scientific story of Two-Thousand-One involved the disease anthrax. The deadly bacterium that causes the disease was found in letters mailed within the United States. These letters were sent to several places, including major news organizations and congressional offices. This led to the closing of several government buildings and mail centers. Federal investigators say the anthrax was sent through the mail in an organized act of biological terrorism. Several people died as a result of breathing the anthrax bacteria into their lungs. Many other people are still taking medicines to protect against the disease if anthrax was found in buildings where they work. Most recently, federal health officials have offered anthrax vaccine and more medicine to thousands of affected people. The fear is that the anthrax bacteria may still be present in their lungs even after taking antibiotic medicines for sixty days. The vaccine treatment is designed to prevent the disease. It is considered experimental because it has not been approved for use by people who already have breathed the anthrax bacteria. VOICE ONE: These incidents have spread fear and confusion across the country. They are also leading scientists to learn more about anthrax.Until the recent attacks, American scientists believed that particles of anthrax bacteria settled on a surface and did not move about in the air again. But results from tests inside some affected buildings found that a number of particles entered the air again when investigators re-entered the buildings. And a test of mail-handling equipment found that even a machine that was partly cleaned still released anthrax into the air. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control want to test different drugs for the disease. Other agencies are planning still more investigations. They want to learn how many particles it takes to infect a person with anthrax. They want to learn what health conditions make a person more likely than others to develop the disease. They also want to know what drugs are the most effective treatments. And they want to know what would happen if the bacteria were released in an area where there are many people instead of through the mail. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another major science story of last year was the continued struggle against the H-I-V virus and the disease it causes, AIDS. The United Nations says about forty-million people are living with H-I-V and AIDS around the world. That is an increase of about four-million from the year before. Officials say about three-million people died from the disease last year. African countries have been most seriously affected. About seventy percent of all people infected with the disease live in Africa. More than three-million people in Africa were infected last year. Were it not for AIDS, life expectancy among Africans would be about sixty-two years instead of forty-seven. The United Nations recently reported that AIDS is now spreading fastest in eastern Europe, especially Ukraine. The number of infections in Russia also has greatly increased. AIDS rates also have risen in Asia and the Middle East. An increase in dangerous sexual activities is leading to higher infection rates in some industrial countries. However, some nations have reduced their number of AIDS cases. For example, Thailand, Brazil and Uganda have led successful treatment and prevention campaigns. These efforts also have reduced the number of babies born with the virus. VOICE ONE: The U-N General Assembly held it first conference about AIDS last year. More than three-thousand government leaders, health experts, activists and patients took part. At the meeting, the U-N established an international program to finance treatment and prevention efforts. Countries have promised about two-thousand-million dollars so far. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the program needs at least seven-thousand-million dollars. Some of the world’s largest drug companies have sharply reduced the prices of powerful AIDS drugs for developing countries. But AIDS experts say this will have a limited effect until other problems are solved. For example, may Africans are not tested for the disease. Many African countries do not have the necessary medical equipment to carry out needed blood tests. And few doctors know how to give AIDS drugs and supervise their use. But other experts say enough medical centers do exist to support AIDS drug programs in Africa. They say these problems can be solved. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Last year, President Bush approved limited federal government support of research on special human cells. The research involves stem cells taken from fertilized human eggs called embryos. Scientists believe stem cells may be highly useful in the treatment and possible cure of many diseases. The most useful are stem cells from embryos. They are able to develop into all the kinds of tissues of the body. Embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos created in laboratories to help women become pregnant. Scientists use embryonic stem cells from embryos that are four or five days old. During those first days, the cells in the embryo divide quickly. For a short period of time, each of the embryo’s cells is able to become any one of more than two-hundred different kinds of cells in the body. The great value of embryonic stem cells appears to be their ability to reproduce in large numbers in the laboratory before they become specialized cells. Researchers believe that embryonic stem cells may be used to help diseased organs develop healthy cells again. They hope these stem cells can be used to treat diseases of the brain, heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys. These include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. VOICE TWO: However, the Bush Administration has only permitted research on about sixty groups of existing stem cells. Medical researchers have noted that these groups of stem cells are not useful for treating disease. Also, treatments developed from existing stem cells might be rejected by the bodies of possible patients. This is because the genetic material is different. Some scientists say the best way to make stem cells for treatment is to grow them from embryos that are exact copies of patients. Late last year, scientists working for the company Advanced Cell Technology announced that they had made the first genetic copies of human embryos. The process of making genetic copies is called cloning. Cloning involves the creation of an embryo from a single adult cell. Genetic material from the adult cell is joined with an egg cell whose genetic material has been removed. Scientists have used cloning to create animals. Scientists from Advanced Cell Technology performed the experiments in an effort to create cloned human embryonic stem cells. However, the experiments did not produce stem cells because the embryos did not live long enough. Company officials said the research on human embryos is designed only to produce embryonic stem cells to treat disease. They have strongly stated that the company has no interest in cloning human beings. VOICE ONE: American lawmakers have been preparing legislation that could ban or limit cloning. President Bush said he strongly opposes human cloning. He said it is wrong to use embryos for cloning. The Catholic Church opposes all kinds of stem cell research. Many other religious groups also oppose all embryonic stem cell research. They consider it the same as taking a human life. Other religious groups accept the research with several restrictions because it may lead to cures for some diseases. Experts say the debate about embryonic stem cell research is complex and will continue for some time. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another major scientific story of Two-Thousand-One involved the disease anthrax. The deadly bacterium that causes the disease was found in letters mailed within the United States. These letters were sent to several places, including major news organizations and congressional offices. This led to the closing of several government buildings and mail centers. Federal investigators say the anthrax was sent through the mail in an organized act of biological terrorism. Several people died as a result of breathing the anthrax bacteria into their lungs. Many other people are still taking medicines to protect against the disease if anthrax was found in buildings where they work. Most recently, federal health officials have offered anthrax vaccine and more medicine to thousands of affected people. The fear is that the anthrax bacteria may still be present in their lungs even after taking antibiotic medicines for sixty days. The vaccine treatment is designed to prevent the disease. It is considered experimental because it has not been approved for use by people who already have breathed the anthrax bacteria. VOICE ONE: These incidents have spread fear and confusion across the country. They are also leading scientists to learn more about anthrax.Until the recent attacks, American scientists believed that particles of anthrax bacteria settled on a surface and did not move about in the air again. But results from tests inside some affected buildings found that a number of particles entered the air again when investigators re-entered the buildings. And a test of mail-handling equipment found that even a machine that was partly cleaned still released anthrax into the air. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control want to test different drugs for the disease. Other agencies are planning still more investigations. They want to learn how many particles it takes to infect a person with anthrax. They want to learn what health conditions make a person more likely than others to develop the disease. They also want to know what drugs are the most effective treatments. And they want to know what would happen if the bacteria were released in an area where there are many people instead of through the mail. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another major science story of last year was the continued struggle against the H-I-V virus and the disease it causes, AIDS. The United Nations says about forty-million people are living with H-I-V and AIDS around the world. That is an increase of about four-million from the year before. Officials say about three-million people died from the disease last year. African countries have been most seriously affected. About seventy percent of all people infected with the disease live in Africa. More than three-million people in Africa were infected last year. Were it not for AIDS, life expectancy among Africans would be about sixty-two years instead of forty-seven. The United Nations recently reported that AIDS is now spreading fastest in eastern Europe, especially Ukraine. The number of infections in Russia also has greatly increased. AIDS rates also have risen in Asia and the Middle East. An increase in dangerous sexual activities is leading to higher infection rates in some industrial countries. However, some nations have reduced their number of AIDS cases. For example, Thailand, Brazil and Uganda have led successful treatment and prevention campaigns. These efforts also have reduced the number of babies born with the virus. VOICE ONE: The U-N General Assembly held it first conference about AIDS last year. More than three-thousand government leaders, health experts, activists and patients took part. At the meeting, the U-N established an international program to finance treatment and prevention efforts. Countries have promised about two-thousand-million dollars so far. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the program needs at least seven-thousand-million dollars. Some of the world’s largest drug companies have sharply reduced the prices of powerful AIDS drugs for developing countries. But AIDS experts say this will have a limited effect until other problems are solved. For example, may Africans are not tested for the disease. Many African countries do not have the necessary medical equipment to carry out needed blood tests. And few doctors know how to give AIDS drugs and supervise their use. But other experts say enough medical centers do exist to support AIDS drug programs in Africa. They say these problems can be solved. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 9, 2002: Red Wine and Heart Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. British scientists may have discovered the reason why red wine appears to protect the heart. They say natural chemicals found in red wine appear to protect against blocked blood passages. The chemical substances are called polyphenols. They come from the outer covering of grapes. They are not present in other alcoholic drinks. Researchers from the William Harvey Research Institute at the London School of Medicine and Dentistry carried out the study. The findings are published in Nature magazine. The scientists say their discovery explains why many people in southern Europe can eat fatty foods and still have a low risk of heart disease. People in France, for example, have lower rates of heart disease than Americans do. Yet the traditional French diet includes butter, cheese and other foods high in cholesterol. This led the British scientists to examine another important part of the French diet -- red wine. Several earlier studies have suggested that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol may reduce their risk of heart disease. The British team experimented with cells from the blood vessels of cows. The scientists studied the effects of twenty-three kinds of red wine on the cow cells. They found that polyphenols from all of the red wines stopped production of a protein called endothelin-one. This protein causes blood vessels to become smaller. Scientists believe endothelin-one is linked to hardening of the blood vessels, which is a cause of heart disease. The scientists found that the decrease in endothelin-one levels was linked to the amount of polyphenols in the wines. The red wine known as Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to have the greatest effect. The British team performed similar experiments with two other kinds of wine, white and rose. These wines contain little or no polyphenols because the grape skins are removed before the wine is made. White and rose wines had no effect on endothelin-one levels. The scientists also studied the effect of non-alcoholic juice made from red grapes. They found that grape juice slowed the production of endothelin-one, but was much less effective than the red wines. The scientists say people who already drink wine might consider drinking red wine to increase their protection against heart disease. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 9, 2002: Software Theft
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Computer programs are the written materials that permit a computer to do useful work. Today, we tell what is being done about the stealing of thousands of millions of dollars of computer programs. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: An Indonesian court recently found five computer dealers guilty of using illegally copied Microsoft computer programs. The programs were the kind usually sold with a new computer. These programs are called the operating system of the computer. The five computer dealers made the copies without paying for them. The courts ordered the five dealers to pay nine-million dollars to the Microsoft company. In December, American Attorney General John Ashcroft announced police actions against one-hundred groups or people around the world. They are accused of illegal use or theft of computer programs. Three separate police investigations led to these legal actions. One of the criminal groups was charged with stealing and making illegal copies of more than twelve-thousand separate computer programs, movies and games. These are examples of recent actions to try to stop the stealing of computer programs. VOICE TWO: The modern computer has changed the way the world communicates, the way business is done, and the way many people work and live. Computers now control airplanes, railroads, the financial system and automobile traffic. However, a computer needs written material produced by people to be able to do anything. The written material permits the machine to do useful work. This material is called software. Without software, a computer is nothing more than useless glass, wire and plastic. Few people would think of stealing a costly computer from a store. They know that theft is a crime. It can be punished with a prison sentence. Theft is banned around the world. However, many people think it is all right to buy a computer program from a person they know is making illegal copies. Or they will take a computer program they bought legally and make a copy of it illegally for a friend. For some reason, many people do not consider it a crime to not pay for computer software. However it is. And, the crime of stealing computer software can send a person to jail or cost them a great deal of money, or both. People steal every kind of software program from games that do not cost much to very costly complex programs for business. Almost every company that produces software has been the victim of such theft. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Business Software Alliance is a group that fights the crime of software theft. Each year it publishes a report for computer companies that are members of the Alliance. The report attempts to show how much money computer companies have lost in the past year because of software theft. The Alliance’s report for the year two-thousand showed the software industry lost almost twelve-thousand-million dollars because of worldwide theft. The report says the industry loss is partly the result of people making illegal copies of computer programs and games. The loss also results from large and small businesses making and selling thousands of illegally copied software programs. The report also said the United States lost almost one-thousand million dollars in tax money in one year that would have been paid if people bought the programs legally. VOICE TWO: The computer itself aids in the problem of software theft. Almost anyone can make an illegal copy of a computer program in a few seconds. This copying is done in homes, schools, businesses and even governments. The Business Software Alliance says theft from a software company decreases the amount of money the company has for research and development of new products. That means computer users have fewer programs that are useful for work or play. The Business Software Alliance says all software theft is illegal. That means just making a copy of a program for a friend is illegal. VOICE ONE: Laws in the United States call for severe punishment for people found guilty of computer software theft. A person found guilty in a criminal trial can be forced to pay as much as two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars and spend as many as five years in jail. A lesser crime is called copyright infringement. A copyright is the legal protection a person receives from the government for a work or product that he or she has created. A copyright makes it illegal for anyone to copy or reproduce the work of another person or company. A person found guilty of copyright infringement could be made to pay as much as one-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars for each act of copyright infringement. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest and best-known computer companies in the world. Microsoft was one of the first companies to begin developing and selling software products that permit useful work to be done on computers. Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft Corporation. He started the company in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. One year later, Mister Gates learned that people were already making illegal copies of the products of his small company. Mister Gates published a letter to computer users. In it, he accused many computer users of stealing software. He said he could not understand why all computer users would pay for a computer but steal the software. VOICE ONE: Microsoft was one of the companies that helped form the Business Software Alliance in an effort to fight software theft around the world. Today, workers for the Microsoft Corporation and the Business Software Alliance find people who steal software products and then place legal charges against them. They work with local law enforcement agencies and the court system in a country to punish those found guilty of stealing software. A good example of their investigative work took place in February, Nineteen Ninety-Nine. Microsoft and local law enforcement officials in Paramount, California, seized a huge amount of illegally copied software. Microsoft says the stolen software was worth about sixty-million dollars. Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance say the problem is worldwide. They continue to fight software theft in more than sixty-five countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Microsoft Corporation says people make illegal copies of software or buy illegal copies because they think they are saving money. The company says they are wrong. Microsoft says an illegal software program does not have the support of the company that makes the real product. Microsoft says many illegal copies are of very poor quality. Some are so poor they can damage the computer that they are used on. The illegal copies sometimes can not do all the useful work that the legal product can do. Often illegal copies do not come with the written instructions the company includes with its products. This makes it difficult to get the program to work correctly. And Microsoft says a computer user can not call the company for help if they have a problem with illegal software. VOICE ONE: Microsoft also says that a software company usually releases major changes to a program from time to time to make it better and more useful. Computer users with illegal copies do not receive such improvements. Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance say all the problems created by using illegal software can cost an individual or a company a great deal of time and money. However, critics say part of the reason for the amount of software theft is that Microsoft and other large software companies are making huge profits. They say people make illegal copies of programs because they cannot pay the high cost the companies charge for them. VOICE TWO: The Business Software Alliance and software companies say they are improving their methods of investigating. They are bringing legal charges against those who steal software products. Many countries around the world now recognize the harm done by software theft and are now joining the effort to stop it. The Business Software Alliance says more and more software thieves are caught and severely punished every year. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Computer programs are the written materials that permit a computer to do useful work. Today, we tell what is being done about the stealing of thousands of millions of dollars of computer programs. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: An Indonesian court recently found five computer dealers guilty of using illegally copied Microsoft computer programs. The programs were the kind usually sold with a new computer. These programs are called the operating system of the computer. The five computer dealers made the copies without paying for them. The courts ordered the five dealers to pay nine-million dollars to the Microsoft company. In December, American Attorney General John Ashcroft announced police actions against one-hundred groups or people around the world. They are accused of illegal use or theft of computer programs. Three separate police investigations led to these legal actions. One of the criminal groups was charged with stealing and making illegal copies of more than twelve-thousand separate computer programs, movies and games. These are examples of recent actions to try to stop the stealing of computer programs. VOICE TWO: The modern computer has changed the way the world communicates, the way business is done, and the way many people work and live. Computers now control airplanes, railroads, the financial system and automobile traffic. However, a computer needs written material produced by people to be able to do anything. The written material permits the machine to do useful work. This material is called software. Without software, a computer is nothing more than useless glass, wire and plastic. Few people would think of stealing a costly computer from a store. They know that theft is a crime. It can be punished with a prison sentence. Theft is banned around the world. However, many people think it is all right to buy a computer program from a person they know is making illegal copies. Or they will take a computer program they bought legally and make a copy of it illegally for a friend. For some reason, many people do not consider it a crime to not pay for computer software. However it is. And, the crime of stealing computer software can send a person to jail or cost them a great deal of money, or both. People steal every kind of software program from games that do not cost much to very costly complex programs for business. Almost every company that produces software has been the victim of such theft. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Business Software Alliance is a group that fights the crime of software theft. Each year it publishes a report for computer companies that are members of the Alliance. The report attempts to show how much money computer companies have lost in the past year because of software theft. The Alliance’s report for the year two-thousand showed the software industry lost almost twelve-thousand-million dollars because of worldwide theft. The report says the industry loss is partly the result of people making illegal copies of computer programs and games. The loss also results from large and small businesses making and selling thousands of illegally copied software programs. The report also said the United States lost almost one-thousand million dollars in tax money in one year that would have been paid if people bought the programs legally. VOICE TWO: The computer itself aids in the problem of software theft. Almost anyone can make an illegal copy of a computer program in a few seconds. This copying is done in homes, schools, businesses and even governments. The Business Software Alliance says theft from a software company decreases the amount of money the company has for research and development of new products. That means computer users have fewer programs that are useful for work or play. The Business Software Alliance says all software theft is illegal. That means just making a copy of a program for a friend is illegal. VOICE ONE: Laws in the United States call for severe punishment for people found guilty of computer software theft. A person found guilty in a criminal trial can be forced to pay as much as two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars and spend as many as five years in jail. A lesser crime is called copyright infringement. A copyright is the legal protection a person receives from the government for a work or product that he or she has created. A copyright makes it illegal for anyone to copy or reproduce the work of another person or company. A person found guilty of copyright infringement could be made to pay as much as one-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars for each act of copyright infringement. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest and best-known computer companies in the world. Microsoft was one of the first companies to begin developing and selling software products that permit useful work to be done on computers. Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft Corporation. He started the company in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. One year later, Mister Gates learned that people were already making illegal copies of the products of his small company. Mister Gates published a letter to computer users. In it, he accused many computer users of stealing software. He said he could not understand why all computer users would pay for a computer but steal the software. VOICE ONE: Microsoft was one of the companies that helped form the Business Software Alliance in an effort to fight software theft around the world. Today, workers for the Microsoft Corporation and the Business Software Alliance find people who steal software products and then place legal charges against them. They work with local law enforcement agencies and the court system in a country to punish those found guilty of stealing software. A good example of their investigative work took place in February, Nineteen Ninety-Nine. Microsoft and local law enforcement officials in Paramount, California, seized a huge amount of illegally copied software. Microsoft says the stolen software was worth about sixty-million dollars. Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance say the problem is worldwide. They continue to fight software theft in more than sixty-five countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Microsoft Corporation says people make illegal copies of software or buy illegal copies because they think they are saving money. The company says they are wrong. Microsoft says an illegal software program does not have the support of the company that makes the real product. Microsoft says many illegal copies are of very poor quality. Some are so poor they can damage the computer that they are used on. The illegal copies sometimes can not do all the useful work that the legal product can do. Often illegal copies do not come with the written instructions the company includes with its products. This makes it difficult to get the program to work correctly. And Microsoft says a computer user can not call the company for help if they have a problem with illegal software. VOICE ONE: Microsoft also says that a software company usually releases major changes to a program from time to time to make it better and more useful. Computer users with illegal copies do not receive such improvements. Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance say all the problems created by using illegal software can cost an individual or a company a great deal of time and money. However, critics say part of the reason for the amount of software theft is that Microsoft and other large software companies are making huge profits. They say people make illegal copies of programs because they cannot pay the high cost the companies charge for them. VOICE TWO: The Business Software Alliance and software companies say they are improving their methods of investigating. They are bringing legal charges against those who steal software products. Many countries around the world now recognize the harm done by software theft and are now joining the effort to stop it. The Business Software Alliance says more and more software thieves are caught and severely punished every year. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 18, 2001: Clementines/Medflies December 11, 2001: Mad Cow Disease in Japan December 4, 2001: Christmas Trees November 27, 2001: Low-Till Farming November 20, 2001: Turkey Time November 13, 2001: Low-Cost Water Pump November 6, 2001: Antibiotics in Animals October 23, 2001: Conservation Agriculture October 16, 2001: Norman Borlaug October 9, 2001: Farm Safety October 2, 2001: Growing Carrots September 25, 2001: Plants that Absorb Metals September 18, 2001: Robotic Milking September 11, 2001: World Food Prize September 4, 2001: Salt-Resistant Tomato August 28, 2001: Burpee Seed Company August 21, 2001: Utah’s Insect Invasion August 14, 2001: Genetic Engineering Crop Debate August 7, 2001: Cheese from Camels July 31, 2001: Spying on Farm Animals July 24, 2001: Tobacco Farmers Going Fishing July 17, 2001: Mad Cow Conference July 10, 2001: StarLink Corn Not Linked to Allergies July 3, 2001: Beagle Brigade June 26, 2001: Controlling Locusts with Technology 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 17, 2001: Clean Water Campaign December 10, 2001: Mutated Gene Protects Against Malaria December 3, 2001: World Bank-IMF Aid to Poor Nations November 26, 2001: WTO Agreement on Drug Patents November 19, 2001: Heifer International November 12, 2001: HIV in Asia November 5, 2001: Nutrition Study in Ivory Coast October 29, 2001: WHO and Drug Resistance October 15, 2001: Food Assistance in Asia October 8, 2001: Yellow Fever in Ivory Coast October 1, 2001: Africa/Hospice Care September 24, 2001: Internet in Malaysia September 17, 2001: World Child Hunger September 10, 2001: Street Food Safety September 3, 2001: Leishmaniasis Disease August 27, 2001: Cars and Crops August 20, 2001: World Population August 13, 2001: WHO Leprosy August 6, 2001: African Sleeping Sickness July 30, 2001: United Nations Special Session on Children July 23, 2001: Medical Information on the Internet July 16, 2001: WHO and Tuberculosis July 9, 2001: World Refugee Day July 2, 2001: WHO Assembly June 25, 2001: Brain Disorders 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 29, 2001: Argentina’s Economic Crisis December 22, 2001: The Euro December 15, 2001: Bush/ABM Treaty December 8, 2001: Enron Fails November 24, 2001: American Red Cross November 17, 2001: World Trade Organization November 10, 2001: The American Economy November 3, 2001: Anthrax in the U.S. October 27, 2001: Food Drops in Afghanistan October 20, 2001: Financial Campaign Against Terrorism October 12, 2001: Homeland Security October 6, 2001: Reagan National Airport Re-opens September 29, 2001: Afghanistan September 22, 2001: Economic Effects of Terrorist Attacks September 15, 2001: Explaining Tragedy September 8, 2001: UN General Assembly September 1, 2001: Federal Budget/Social Security August 25, 2001: Senator Helms To Retire August 18, 2001: Stem Cell Research August 11, 2001: Testing of Drugs August 4, 2001: New FBI Director July 28, 2001: Group of Eight Conference July 21, 2001: Olympics July 14, 2001: Chandra Levy Case July 7, 2001: Microsoft Ruling June 30, 2001: Federal Reserve June 23, 2001: World Trade Organization 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-7-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 30, 2001: Heroes of September 11 December 23, 2001: Roger Miller December 16, 2001: Walt Disney December 9, 2001: Marilyn Monroe December 2, 2001: Nat King Cole November 25, 2001: Ralph Waldo Emerson November 18, 2001: Nellie Bly November 11, 2001: Chief Joseph, Part 2 November 4, 2001: Chief Joseph, Part 1 October 28, 2001: Madam C.J. Walker October 21, 2001: R. Buckminster Fuller October 14, 2001: John Coltrane October 7, 2001: Babe Ruth September 30, 2001: Harriet Tubman September 23, 2001: Katharine Graham September 16, 2001: Larry Adler September 9, 2001: John Wesley Powell September 2, 2001: Billie Holiday August 26, 2001: Emperor Norton August 19, 2001: Gunther Gebel-Williams August 12, 2001: Helen Keller, Part 2 August 5, 2001: Helen Keller, Part 1 July 29, 2001: Paul Robeson, Part 2 July 22, 2001: Paul Robeson, Part 1 July 15, 2001: Flannery O'Connor July 8, 2001: Douglas MacArthur July 1, 2001: Clara Barton June 24, 2001: John Lewis 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-8-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 18, 2001: Smoking December 11, 2001: Digest December 4, 2001: Digest November 27, 2001: Diabetes November 20, 2001: Digest November 13, 2001: Digest November 6, 2001: Anthrax October 30, 2001: Digest October 23, 2001: Multiple Sclerosis October 16, 2001: Digest October 9, 2001: Stem Cell Research October 2, 2001: Arthritis September 25, 2001: Sharks September 18, 2001: Digest September 11, 2001: Tuberculosis September 4, 2001: Digest August 28, 2001: Diseases Spread by Mosquitoes August 21, 2001: Digest August 14, 2001: Heat and Health August 7, 2001: Digest July 31, 2001: Agent Orange July 24, 2001: Mad Cow Disease July 17, 2001: Heart Devices July 10, 2001: UN AIDS Conference July 3, 2001: Digest June 26, 2001: Digest 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-08-9-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - 2001
* Byline: 

 December 31, 2001: New Year's Traditions December 24, 2001: Christmas Traditions and Music December 17, 2001: Muslims in America December 10, 2001: Volunteers December 3, 2001: The Supreme Court November 26, 2001: Kennedy Center Honors November 19, 2001: Thanksgiving November 12, 2001: Preservation Hall Jazz November 5, 2001: Veterans Day October 29, 2001: Halloween and Edgar Allan Poe October 22, 2001: Rethinking Skyscrapers October 15, 2001: The Federal Reserve October 8, 2001: Patriotic Music October 1, 2001: Chicago September 24, 2001: Women in Sports September 17, 2001: Indiana State Fair September 10, 2001: Kennedy Center Anniversary September 3, 2001: Labor Movement Songs August 27, 2001: "The Producers" August 20, 2001: Yard Sales and Flea Markets August 13, 2001: Summer Camps August 6, 2001: Visiting Washington July 30, 2001: James Madison’s Montpelier July 23, 2001: Air and Space Museum Birthday July 16, 2001: Smithsonian Folklife Festival July 9, 2001: Route 66 Anniversary July 2, 2001: Statue of Liberty June 25, 2001: Golf 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT- January 10, 2002: New Glaucoma Treatments
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Sixty-seven-million people around the world cannot see because they suffer from the disease glaucoma. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Sixty-seven-million people around the world cannot see because they suffer from the disease glaucoma. The disease prevents the clear fluid in the eye from flowing normally. This causes increased fluid pressure inside the eye. The increased pressure can damage the optic nerve that carries images from the eye to the brain. The most common kind of glaucoma mainly affects people over forty years old. People with family members who have the disease are more likely to develop glaucoma. Black people also are at higher risk for the disease. Others at high risk include people suffering from diabetes or high blood pressure. The first sign of glaucoma is usually a very small loss of sight at the outside edges of the eye. Experts say most people do not know they have glaucoma until it causes a real loss of sight. Vision already lost to the disease cannot be restored. However, the damage can be controlled and eyesight can be saved if the disease is discovered early. Doctors treat glaucoma with eye medicines or a laser light operation. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved three new drugs last year to treat glaucoma. Two of these drugs increase the movement of fluid out of the eye. This reduces pressure in the eye. The third drug increases fluid drainage and also decreases the amount of fluid that is produced. Researchers in Israel are developing a vaccine to treat glaucoma. Michal [me-KHAL] Schwartz is a professor at the Weizmann [VITES-mahn] Institute of Science in Rehovot [re-HO-vote]. She says tests on rats have shown that the drug Copaxone protects the optic nerve. The researchers may begin testing the vaccine in people in the next year or two. The Israeli researchers had developed Copaxone to treat the disease multiple sclerosis. A Canadian researcher has created a device that permits people to measure their eye pressure at home. The device measures the pressure through the eyelid. Until now, measuring eye pressure could be done only at a doctor’s office. Experts say the new device will give glaucoma patients and their doctors better information about how drugs are working to control the pressure. They also say that everyone over the age of forty should be tested for glaucoma by an eye doctor every year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. The disease prevents the clear fluid in the eye from flowing normally. This causes increased fluid pressure inside the eye. The increased pressure can damage the optic nerve that carries images from the eye to the brain. The most common kind of glaucoma mainly affects people over forty years old. People with family members who have the disease are more likely to develop glaucoma. Black people also are at higher risk for the disease. Others at high risk include people suffering from diabetes or high blood pressure. The first sign of glaucoma is usually a very small loss of sight at the outside edges of the eye. Experts say most people do not know they have glaucoma until it causes a real loss of sight. Vision already lost to the disease cannot be restored. However, the damage can be controlled and eyesight can be saved if the disease is discovered early. Doctors treat glaucoma with eye medicines or a laser light operation. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved three new drugs last year to treat glaucoma. Two of these drugs increase the movement of fluid out of the eye. This reduces pressure in the eye. The third drug increases fluid drainage and also decreases the amount of fluid that is produced. Researchers in Israel are developing a vaccine to treat glaucoma. Michal [me-KHAL] Schwartz is a professor at the Weizmann [VITES-mahn] Institute of Science in Rehovot [re-HO-vote]. She says tests on rats have shown that the drug Copaxone protects the optic nerve. The researchers may begin testing the vaccine in people in the next year or two. The Israeli researchers had developed Copaxone to treat the disease multiple sclerosis. A Canadian researcher has created a device that permits people to measure their eye pressure at home. The device measures the pressure through the eyelid. Until now, measuring eye pressure could be done only at a doctor’s office. Experts say the new device will give glaucoma patients and their doctors better information about how drugs are working to control the pressure. They also say that everyone over the age of forty should be tested for glaucoma by an eye doctor every year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 10, 2002: Election of 1928
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The presidential election of nineteen-twenty-eight gave American voters a clear choice between two different kinds of candidates and political parties. The Democratic Party nominated Al Smith, the popular governor of the state of New York. The Republican Party chose Herbert Hoover, an engineer and businessman who served as secretary of commerce for presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. VOICE 2: Governor Alfred Smith of New York had campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-twenty-four. But he was defeated at the party convention by a compromise candidate, John Davis. Four years later, however, Smith could not be stopped. He had a strong record as governor of the nation's most heavily-populated state. He campaigned for the presidency on a policy of building new electric power stations under public control. Smith knew that many conservative Americans might be worried by his new ideas and his belief in strong government. So he chose as his campaign manager a Republican industrial leader who had worked with General Motors, DuPont, and other major companies. Smith hoped this would prove his faith in the American private business system. VOICE 1: Al Smith was a strong political leader and an effective governor. But he frightened many Americans, especially conservative citizens living in rural areas. They lived on farms or in small towns. Al Smith was from the city. And not just from any city, but New York City, a place that seemed big and dirty and filled with foreign people and strange traditions. Al Smith's parents came from Ireland. He grew up in New York and worked as a salesman at the Fulton Fish Market. Smith was an honest man. But many rural Americans simply did not trust people from big cities. Al Smith seemed to them to represent everything that was new, different, and dangerous about American life. But being from New York City was not Al Smith's only problem. He also opposed the new national laws that made it illegal to buy or produce alcoholic drinks. And he had political ties to the New York political machine. But worst of all, in the eyes of many Americans, Al Smith was a Roman Catholic. VOICE 2: From George Washington through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and up to Calvin Coolidge, every American president had been male, white, and a Protestant Christian. Of course, there was no law requiring a candidate to be Protestant. But millions of traditional Americans just were not ready to give their vote to a Roman Catholic. Opponents of the Smith campaign generally did not speak openly about his religion. But many of them were afraid that Smith would take his orders from the Vatican in Rome, instead of working with the Congress in Washington. Al Smith fought back. He told the country, "I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a Catholic could possibly be in conflict with what is good citizenship. My faith," he said, "is built upon the laws of God. There can be no conflict between them. " VOICE 1: But many Protestant Americans thought there was a conflict. And they looked to the Republican Party to supply a strong candidate to oppose Smith and the Democrats. The Republicans did just that. They nominated former secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover, one of the country's most popular men. Hoover was well-known to Americans. People trusted him. And they liked the way he had gained great personal success from poor beginnings. In fact, Hoover's life story would have pleased Abraham Lincoln, another American who rose from a poor family to fame. Hoover was born in the farm state of Iowa in eighteen-seventy-four. His father was a poor metal worker who kept moving his family from state to state. Herbert Hoover's father died when the boy was just six years old. His mother died four years later. Young Herbert had to move to the western state of Oregon to live with his mother's brother. Herbert's uncle was luckier in life than Herbert's parents. He had made money in the land business. And he helped the boy gain admission to Stanford University in California. At the university, Herbert showed great skill in mathematics. And he decided to go into business as a geologist studying the science of the earth. VOICE 2: After college, Herbert Hoover got a job as a mine worker. During the next several years, Hoover spent most of his time working as an engineer in foreign countries. And he succeeded beyond his greatest dreams. By the time he was forty years old, he had earned more than one-million dollars. After World War One, he organized the effort to provide food for starving people in Europe. He did an excellent job, winning praise from people in Europe and the United States alike. Next, Hoover joined the administration of President Warren Harding, serving as the secretary of commerce. Again, he did a very good job. Hoover left the cabinet in nineteen-twenty-five. But two years later, he organized efforts to provide relief for victims of a flood in the southern state of Mississippi. And again, Americans all around the country took note of this quiet, serious man who did such effective work in so many different kinds of situations. Some Americans, however, did not like Hoover, including some people who usually supported Republicans. For example, many professional Republican politicians did not trust him, because he had spent most of his life in business, not politics. Some stock market traders thought Hoover might change the rules on the New York Stock Exchange. And many farmers believed hoover had no new ideas about how to solve their growing economic problems. VOICE 1: This, then, was the choice Americans faced in nineteen-twenty-eight. On the one hand, Al Smith. A Democrat. A Roman Catholic. A politician from the city. A man wanting some social change. And on the other hand, Herbert Hoover. A Republican. A businessman who had proven the dream that even a poor boy could become great in America. A man who seemed to succeed with every effort he touched. The main issue in the campaign was not economics or religion, but the new national laws banning alcoholic drinks. Hoover was for the laws; Smith against them. The two candidates also argued about how to provide aid to struggling farmers, and how to increase electricity and water supplies. VOICE 2: Herbert Hoover won the election of nineteen-twenty-eight. It was one of the greatest victories in presidential history. Hoover won fifty-eight percent of the votes. Smith got just forty percent. And Hoover captured four-hundred forty-four electoral votes to Smith's eighty-seven. And so it was that the engineer and businessman Herbert Hoover entered the White House in nineteen-twenty-nine. There was some trouble the day he moved in. Outgoing President Coolidge was a man who watched every dollar he owned. And he accused some White House workers of stealing his shoes on the day of the inauguration. But -- finally -- safe, conservative, business-like Herbert Hoover was leading the country. VOICE 1: The nation's stock market reacted by pushing stock prices to record high levels. Everyone expected that economic growth would continue and expand. But the happy times were just a dream. Within one year, the stock market collapsed. Millions of people lost their jobs. The nation fell into the worst economic crisis it had ever faced. Herbert Hoover was not personally responsible for the crisis. In many ways, it was his own bad luck to be elected just before the disaster struck. But it was his job to guide the nation through its troubled waters. And he would prove to be the wrong person to give such leadership. His four years in office would be one of the most difficult periods in the nation's history. We will look at President Hoover's administration in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. (Theme) The presidential election of nineteen-twenty-eight gave American voters a clear choice between two different kinds of candidates and political parties. The Democratic Party nominated Al Smith, the popular governor of the state of New York. The Republican Party chose Herbert Hoover, an engineer and businessman who served as secretary of commerce for presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. VOICE 2: Governor Alfred Smith of New York had campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-twenty-four. But he was defeated at the party convention by a compromise candidate, John Davis. Four years later, however, Smith could not be stopped. He had a strong record as governor of the nation's most heavily-populated state. He campaigned for the presidency on a policy of building new electric power stations under public control. Smith knew that many conservative Americans might be worried by his new ideas and his belief in strong government. So he chose as his campaign manager a Republican industrial leader who had worked with General Motors, DuPont, and other major companies. Smith hoped this would prove his faith in the American private business system. VOICE 1: Al Smith was a strong political leader and an effective governor. But he frightened many Americans, especially conservative citizens living in rural areas. They lived on farms or in small towns. Al Smith was from the city. And not just from any city, but New York City, a place that seemed big and dirty and filled with foreign people and strange traditions. Al Smith's parents came from Ireland. He grew up in New York and worked as a salesman at the Fulton Fish Market. Smith was an honest man. But many rural Americans simply did not trust people from big cities. Al Smith seemed to them to represent everything that was new, different, and dangerous about American life. But being from New York City was not Al Smith's only problem. He also opposed the new national laws that made it illegal to buy or produce alcoholic drinks. And he had political ties to the New York political machine. But worst of all, in the eyes of many Americans, Al Smith was a Roman Catholic. VOICE 2: From George Washington through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and up to Calvin Coolidge, every American president had been male, white, and a Protestant Christian. Of course, there was no law requiring a candidate to be Protestant. But millions of traditional Americans just were not ready to give their vote to a Roman Catholic. Opponents of the Smith campaign generally did not speak openly about his religion. But many of them were afraid that Smith would take his orders from the Vatican in Rome, instead of working with the Congress in Washington. Al Smith fought back. He told the country, "I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a Catholic could possibly be in conflict with what is good citizenship. My faith," he said, "is built upon the laws of God. There can be no conflict between them. " VOICE 1: But many Protestant Americans thought there was a conflict. And they looked to the Republican Party to supply a strong candidate to oppose Smith and the Democrats. The Republicans did just that. They nominated former secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover, one of the country's most popular men. Hoover was well-known to Americans. People trusted him. And they liked the way he had gained great personal success from poor beginnings. In fact, Hoover's life story would have pleased Abraham Lincoln, another American who rose from a poor family to fame. Hoover was born in the farm state of Iowa in eighteen-seventy-four. His father was a poor metal worker who kept moving his family from state to state. Herbert Hoover's father died when the boy was just six years old. His mother died four years later. Young Herbert had to move to the western state of Oregon to live with his mother's brother. Herbert's uncle was luckier in life than Herbert's parents. He had made money in the land business. And he helped the boy gain admission to Stanford University in California. At the university, Herbert showed great skill in mathematics. And he decided to go into business as a geologist studying the science of the earth. VOICE 2: After college, Herbert Hoover got a job as a mine worker. During the next several years, Hoover spent most of his time working as an engineer in foreign countries. And he succeeded beyond his greatest dreams. By the time he was forty years old, he had earned more than one-million dollars. After World War One, he organized the effort to provide food for starving people in Europe. He did an excellent job, winning praise from people in Europe and the United States alike. Next, Hoover joined the administration of President Warren Harding, serving as the secretary of commerce. Again, he did a very good job. Hoover left the cabinet in nineteen-twenty-five. But two years later, he organized efforts to provide relief for victims of a flood in the southern state of Mississippi. And again, Americans all around the country took note of this quiet, serious man who did such effective work in so many different kinds of situations. Some Americans, however, did not like Hoover, including some people who usually supported Republicans. For example, many professional Republican politicians did not trust him, because he had spent most of his life in business, not politics. Some stock market traders thought Hoover might change the rules on the New York Stock Exchange. And many farmers believed hoover had no new ideas about how to solve their growing economic problems. VOICE 1: This, then, was the choice Americans faced in nineteen-twenty-eight. On the one hand, Al Smith. A Democrat. A Roman Catholic. A politician from the city. A man wanting some social change. And on the other hand, Herbert Hoover. A Republican. A businessman who had proven the dream that even a poor boy could become great in America. A man who seemed to succeed with every effort he touched. The main issue in the campaign was not economics or religion, but the new national laws banning alcoholic drinks. Hoover was for the laws; Smith against them. The two candidates also argued about how to provide aid to struggling farmers, and how to increase electricity and water supplies. VOICE 2: Herbert Hoover won the election of nineteen-twenty-eight. It was one of the greatest victories in presidential history. Hoover won fifty-eight percent of the votes. Smith got just forty percent. And Hoover captured four-hundred forty-four electoral votes to Smith's eighty-seven. And so it was that the engineer and businessman Herbert Hoover entered the White House in nineteen-twenty-nine. There was some trouble the day he moved in. Outgoing President Coolidge was a man who watched every dollar he owned. And he accused some White House workers of stealing his shoes on the day of the inauguration. But -- finally -- safe, conservative, business-like Herbert Hoover was leading the country. VOICE 1: The nation's stock market reacted by pushing stock prices to record high levels. Everyone expected that economic growth would continue and expand. But the happy times were just a dream. Within one year, the stock market collapsed. Millions of people lost their jobs. The nation fell into the worst economic crisis it had ever faced. Herbert Hoover was not personally responsible for the crisis. In many ways, it was his own bad luck to be elected just before the disaster struck. But it was his job to guide the nation through its troubled waters. And he would prove to be the wrong person to give such leadership. His four years in office would be one of the most difficult periods in the nation's history. We will look at President Hoover's administration in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 11, 2002: Music by Bob Dylan/question about Amtrak/furniture maker Sam Maloof
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we ... play music by Bob Dylan ... answer a question about America’s national rail system ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we ... play music by Bob Dylan ... answer a question about America’s national rail system ... and report about a museum show of handmade furniture. Furniture Show HOST: People can see more than sixty pieces of wonderful handmade furniture at a museum show in Washington, D-C. Shep O’Neal tells us about the furniture and its maker. ANNCR: Sam Maloof (ma-LUFE) is eighty-five years old. He is the best-known designer and maker of handmade furniture in America. He believes a successful chair or table contains something of the eye, the hand and the heart. He says, “I want to be able to work a piece of wood into an object that gives something beautiful and useful to everyday life.” He also says he wants to work with materials without destroying their natural beauty and warmth. and report about a museum show of handmade furniture. Furniture Show HOST: People can see more than sixty pieces of wonderful handmade furniture at a museum show in Washington, D-C. Shep O’Neal tells us about the furniture and its maker. ANNCR: Sam Maloof (ma-LUFE) is eighty-five years old. He is the best-known designer and maker of handmade furniture in America. He believes a successful chair or table contains something of the eye, the hand and the heart. He says, “I want to be able to work a piece of wood into an object that gives something beautiful and useful to everyday life.” He also says he wants to work with materials without destroying their natural beauty and warmth. In the furniture of Sam Maloof, experts say the age-old ideas of woodworking survive into the twenty-first century. Sixty-five pieces of Sam Maloof’s furniture are at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. There are chairs for sitting, small beds for sleeping babies, desks for writing, and cabinets for storing objects. Their designs are simple and timeless. They are made of beautiful, rich-looking wood -- maple, ebony and walnut. The most famous pieces are the rocking chairs. The rocking chair is Mister Maloof’s single most popular chair design. These rocking chairs are beautiful. They look like good art. They are smooth to touch. And they are even better to sit on. The chairs are designed to fit people’s bodies as they move back and forward on rounded bases. In Nineteen-Eighty-Six, People Magazine called Sam Maloof, “King of the Rockers.” People around the world own these rocking chairs, including three former American presidents. Sam Maloof was born in Nineteen-Sixteen in Chino, California. His parents had come to America from Lebanon. Sam Maloof taught himself woodworking. He started making furniture in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. At the time, he did not know if he could make enough money to support himself and his wife, Alfreda. Mister Maloof has become extremely successful. He has won more awards for design and woodworking skill than any other furniture maker. Today, each piece of his furniture sells for thousands of dollars. Sam Maloof still makes all his furniture by hand, one piece at a time. He says, “I let the wood speak for itself.” Amtrak HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Takuya Yanagawa asks about the national railroad system in the United States. The official name of America’s passenger rail system is the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. It is known as Amtrak. “Amtrak” is a combination of the words “American” and “track.” Amtrak began service on May first, Nineteen-Seventy-One. It operated one-hundred-eighty-four trains that served more than three-hundred towns and cities. Amtrak took over the passenger operations of all but three local railroads at that time. Amtrak took over their operations later. Today, Amtrak serves more than five-hundred stations in forty-six American states. Its trains travel over more than thirty-five-thousand kilometers. But it does not own all the track it uses. In most of the country, Amtrak passenger trains use tracks owned by railroads that carry only goods. Amtrak operates a few special trains. One is the Auto Train. It travels every day between Lorton, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and Sanford, Florida. The Auto Train makes the trip overnight. It carries cars and motorcycles as well as people. It is also the longest Amtrak train. It has two engines and more than forty rail cars. Another special Amtrak train is the high-speed Acela (a-SELL-ah) Express. The Acela began service in the year Two-Thousand. It serves the northeastern United States, from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City and Washington, D.C. The Acela is Amtrak's fastest train. It travels at a speed of two-hundred-forty-one kilometers an hour. The government has provided money for Amtrak throughout its history. In Nineteen-Seventy-Seven, Congress approved a law requiring that the rail system be self-supporting in five years. The law also created an Amtrak Reform Council to let Congress know if Amtrak was having problems meeting this goal. The council recently reported that the goal is not being met. So, in the coming months, Congress will begin debate on the future of Amtrak. Bob Dylan, “Love & Theft” HOST: American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan is sixty years old. He has won many awards and honors in the forty years he has been performing. And he continues to write and record music. His latest album is called “Love and Theft.” Jim Tedder tells us about it. ANNCR: “Love and Theft” is Bob Dylan’s forty-third record album. He wrote all twelve songs. Critics have called them some of his best work. “Love and Theft” was recently nominated for a Grammy Award as Album of the Year. Its songs explore all kinds of American blues music. One example is a traditional blues song, “Lonesome Day Blues.” ((CUT 1: LONESOME DAY BLUES)) Another interesting song on the album is a funny one that includes a few American jokes. It is called “Po’ Boy.” ((CUT 2: PO' BOY)) Bob Dylan also wrote a few love songs for “Love and Theft.” Critics have praised these songs. We leave you now with one of these love songs. It is called “Moonlight.” ((CUT 3: MOONLIGHT)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producerwas Paul Thompson. In the furniture of Sam Maloof, experts say the age-old ideas of woodworking survive into the twenty-first century. Sixty-five pieces of Sam Maloof’s furniture are at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. There are chairs for sitting, small beds for sleeping babies, desks for writing, and cabinets for storing objects. Their designs are simple and timeless. They are made of beautiful, rich-looking wood -- maple, ebony and walnut. The most famous pieces are the rocking chairs. The rocking chair is Mister Maloof’s single most popular chair design. These rocking chairs are beautiful. They look like good art. They are smooth to touch. And they are even better to sit on. The chairs are designed to fit people’s bodies as they move back and forward on rounded bases. In Nineteen-Eighty-Six, People Magazine called Sam Maloof, “King of the Rockers.” People around the world own these rocking chairs, including three former American presidents. Sam Maloof was born in Nineteen-Sixteen in Chino, California. His parents had come to America from Lebanon. Sam Maloof taught himself woodworking. He started making furniture in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. At the time, he did not know if he could make enough money to support himself and his wife, Alfreda. Mister Maloof has become extremely successful. He has won more awards for design and woodworking skill than any other furniture maker. Today, each piece of his furniture sells for thousands of dollars. Sam Maloof still makes all his furniture by hand, one piece at a time. He says, “I let the wood speak for itself.” Amtrak HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Takuya Yanagawa asks about the national railroad system in the United States. The official name of America’s passenger rail system is the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. It is known as Amtrak. “Amtrak” is a combination of the words “American” and “track.” Amtrak began service on May first, Nineteen-Seventy-One. It operated one-hundred-eighty-four trains that served more than three-hundred towns and cities. Amtrak took over the passenger operations of all but three local railroads at that time. Amtrak took over their operations later. Today, Amtrak serves more than five-hundred stations in forty-six American states. Its trains travel over more than thirty-five-thousand kilometers. But it does not own all the track it uses. In most of the country, Amtrak passenger trains use tracks owned by railroads that carry only goods. Amtrak operates a few special trains. One is the Auto Train. It travels every day between Lorton, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and Sanford, Florida. The Auto Train makes the trip overnight. It carries cars and motorcycles as well as people. It is also the longest Amtrak train. It has two engines and more than forty rail cars. Another special Amtrak train is the high-speed Acela (a-SELL-ah) Express. The Acela began service in the year Two-Thousand. It serves the northeastern United States, from Boston, Massachusetts to New York City and Washington, D.C. The Acela is Amtrak's fastest train. It travels at a speed of two-hundred-forty-one kilometers an hour. The government has provided money for Amtrak throughout its history. In Nineteen-Seventy-Seven, Congress approved a law requiring that the rail system be self-supporting in five years. The law also created an Amtrak Reform Council to let Congress know if Amtrak was having problems meeting this goal. The council recently reported that the goal is not being met. So, in the coming months, Congress will begin debate on the future of Amtrak. Bob Dylan, “Love & Theft” HOST: American singer and songwriter Bob Dylan is sixty years old. He has won many awards and honors in the forty years he has been performing. And he continues to write and record music. His latest album is called “Love and Theft.” Jim Tedder tells us about it. ANNCR: “Love and Theft” is Bob Dylan’s forty-third record album. He wrote all twelve songs. Critics have called them some of his best work. “Love and Theft” was recently nominated for a Grammy Award as Album of the Year. Its songs explore all kinds of American blues music. One example is a traditional blues song, “Lonesome Day Blues.” ((CUT 1: LONESOME DAY BLUES)) Another interesting song on the album is a funny one that includes a few American jokes. It is called “Po’ Boy.” ((CUT 2: PO' BOY)) Bob Dylan also wrote a few love songs for “Love and Theft.” Critics have praised these songs. We leave you now with one of these love songs. It is called “Moonlight.” ((CUT 3: MOONLIGHT)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producerwas Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - January 11, 2002: Endangered Turtles Rescued
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. International environmental groups have begun transporting hundreds of endangered turtles to a wildlife protection center in the American state of Florida. The turtles were part of an illegal shipment of more than seven-thousand freshwater turtles being sent to Chinese markets. Wildlife officials in Hong Kong rescued the turtles last month from illegal traders in Southeast Asia. The rescue effort is part of a plan to save freshwater turtles from disappearing. Among the turtles are some of the world’s most endangered species. They include the Asian Brown turtle, the black marsh turtle, the box turtle and the painted terrapin. More than half of all Asian freshwater turtle species are endangered. The Yunnan box turtle has already disappeared. Turtles have survived on earth for more than two-hundred-million years. However, some of the best known soft-shell species are endangered because of a growing market for them in China in recent years. The meat of soft-shell turtles is especially popular among wealthy Chinese. Turtle shells are traded to supply the traditional Chinese medicine industry. Many Chinese believe turtle shells can increase sexual powers. Many countries in Southeast and East Asia have passed legislation providing some protection for turtles. But those laws are not strongly enforced. Recently, officials in Hong Kong have begun to do more to stop the illegal trade in turtles. Hong Kong is a port of entry to the mainland Chinese market. Wildlife officials in Hong Kong say that the seven-thousand turtles seized in the raid last month were worth more than three-million dollars. The turtles were crowded into small boxes. Many of the turtles suffered from the cold, lack of water and disease. About five-hundred of them died shortly after they were discovered. Conservation International and other environmental groups are leading efforts to save the turtles. They asked an American airline company to transport hundreds of the turtles from Hong Kong to a rescue center in Miami, Florida. The turtles will be treated and recorded by species and sex. Then they will be placed in zoos and other nature centers. In time, the turtles will be returned to their natural homes in Southeast and East Asia. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 13, 2002: Isaac Stern
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about one of the world’s greatest musicians, violinist Isaac Stern. ((VIOLIN INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: Isaac Stern was more than a great violin player. He was one of the most honored musicians in the world. He was an international cultural ambassador. He was a major supporter of the arts in America and in other countries. He was a teacher and activist. For more than sixty years, Mister Stern performed excellent music. He performed in concerts around the world and on recordings. He played with major orchestras and in small groups. Here he plays Sergey (ser-GAY) Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto (Opus Nineteen) with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. ((CUT ONE: VIOLIN CONCERTO)) VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern was born in Nineteen-Twenty in what is now Ukraine. His parents moved to San Francisco, California, the following year. His mother began teaching Isaac the piano when he was six years old. He began taking violin lessons after hearing a friend play the instrument. Later, he began studying music at the San Francisco Conservatory. He progressed quickly. When he was sixteen, he played with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The next year, he performed in New York City and was praised by music critics. VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Mister Stern played for thousands of American soldiers. It was the first time many of them had heard classical music. After the war, he was the first American violinist to perform in concert in the Soviet Union. Later, he declared that he would not perform there again until artists had more freedom to leave the country. Mister Stern had a strong connection to Israel. He supported young musicians and cultural organizations there. He performed in Israel many times, including during the Persian Gulf War in Nineteen-Ninety-One. VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern became one of the busiest musicians of his day. He played more than one-hundred concerts a year. He also became one of the most recorded musicians in history. This recording is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Romance in F-Major (Opus Fifty.) Mister Stern performs with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. ((CUT 2: ROMANCE IN F-MAJOR [OPUS FIFTY])) VOICE ONE: Carnegie Hall in New York City is one of the most famous places for the performance of classical music. All of the world’s best musicians have played there. In Nineteen-Sixty, there were plans to tear down Carnegie Hall and build a tall office building in its place. Mister Stern organized a committee of citizens, politicians and artists to oppose the plan. He successfully led the effort to save Carnegie Hall. Then he became president of the newly established Carnegie Hall Corporation. He held that office for forty years. In recent years, he gave a series of classes for young musicians at Carnegie Hall. Isaac Stern also supported artistic development and freedom. He was an advisor when the National Endowment for the Arts was established. This is the government agency that supports the arts in America. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Isaac Stern visited China. He met with Chinese musicians and students. He taught them about classical Western music. His visit was made into a film. It is called “From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.” It won an Academy Award for best documentary film. Mister Stern loved to play music by many different composers. He found the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to be among the most difficult. Here he plays Mozart’s Adagio for Violin and Orchestra with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. ((CUT THREE: ADAGIO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Isaac Stern received the Kennedy Center Honors Award for his gifts to American culture through music. He expressed his thoughts about the part that music plays in life. He said he believed that music makes life better for every one, especially children. He said music is an important part of a civilized life. He said people need music as much as they need bread. Mister Stern supported and guided younger classical musicians. They include violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Yefim Bronfman. Isaac Stern died in Two-Thousand-One at the age of eighty-one. He was a major influence on music in the Twentieth Century. He leaves the world richer with his many recordings. This one is “Humoresque” by Antonin Dvorak (DVOR-zhak) performed with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. ((CUT FOUR: HUMORESQUE)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about one of the world’s greatest musicians, violinist Isaac Stern. ((VIOLIN INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: Isaac Stern was more than a great violin player. He was one of the most honored musicians in the world. He was an international cultural ambassador. He was a major supporter of the arts in America and in other countries. He was a teacher and activist. For more than sixty years, Mister Stern performed excellent music. He performed in concerts around the world and on recordings. He played with major orchestras and in small groups. Here he plays Sergey (ser-GAY) Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto (Opus Nineteen) with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. ((CUT ONE: VIOLIN CONCERTO)) VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern was born in Nineteen-Twenty in what is now Ukraine. His parents moved to San Francisco, California, the following year. His mother began teaching Isaac the piano when he was six years old. He began taking violin lessons after hearing a friend play the instrument. Later, he began studying music at the San Francisco Conservatory. He progressed quickly. When he was sixteen, he played with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. The next year, he performed in New York City and was praised by music critics. VOICE ONE: During World War Two, Mister Stern played for thousands of American soldiers. It was the first time many of them had heard classical music. After the war, he was the first American violinist to perform in concert in the Soviet Union. Later, he declared that he would not perform there again until artists had more freedom to leave the country. Mister Stern had a strong connection to Israel. He supported young musicians and cultural organizations there. He performed in Israel many times, including during the Persian Gulf War in Nineteen-Ninety-One. VOICE TWO: Isaac Stern became one of the busiest musicians of his day. He played more than one-hundred concerts a year. He also became one of the most recorded musicians in history. This recording is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Romance in F-Major (Opus Fifty.) Mister Stern performs with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. ((CUT 2: ROMANCE IN F-MAJOR [OPUS FIFTY])) VOICE ONE: Carnegie Hall in New York City is one of the most famous places for the performance of classical music. All of the world’s best musicians have played there. In Nineteen-Sixty, there were plans to tear down Carnegie Hall and build a tall office building in its place. Mister Stern organized a committee of citizens, politicians and artists to oppose the plan. He successfully led the effort to save Carnegie Hall. Then he became president of the newly established Carnegie Hall Corporation. He held that office for forty years. In recent years, he gave a series of classes for young musicians at Carnegie Hall. Isaac Stern also supported artistic development and freedom. He was an advisor when the National Endowment for the Arts was established. This is the government agency that supports the arts in America. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Isaac Stern visited China. He met with Chinese musicians and students. He taught them about classical Western music. His visit was made into a film. It is called “From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China.” It won an Academy Award for best documentary film. Mister Stern loved to play music by many different composers. He found the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to be among the most difficult. Here he plays Mozart’s Adagio for Violin and Orchestra with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. ((CUT THREE: ADAGIO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Isaac Stern received the Kennedy Center Honors Award for his gifts to American culture through music. He expressed his thoughts about the part that music plays in life. He said he believed that music makes life better for every one, especially children. He said music is an important part of a civilized life. He said people need music as much as they need bread. Mister Stern supported and guided younger classical musicians. They include violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Yefim Bronfman. Isaac Stern died in Two-Thousand-One at the age of eighty-one. He was a major influence on music in the Twentieth Century. He leaves the world richer with his many recordings. This one is “Humoresque” by Antonin Dvorak (DVOR-zhak) performed with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. ((CUT FOUR: HUMORESQUE)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 14, 2002: The Disney Company
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Walt Disney was one of America’s most famous film producers. He created Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and some of the world’s most successful entertainment businesses. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: Walt Disney was one of America’s most famous film producers. He created Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and some of the world’s most successful entertainment businesses. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. The world of Walt Disney is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (("WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR" INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. The world of Walt Disney is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (("WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR" INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: Film artist and producer Walt Disney died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. Yet his work and influence live on. People around the world watch Disney movies and Disney television programs. They buy Disney music, books, videos, toys, clothes and games. They attend Disney shows. They stay in Disney hotels and ride on a Disney passenger ship. They visit Disney entertainment parks in the United States, France and Japan. VOICE TWO: Last month was the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Walt Disney. He was born in Nineteen-Oh-One in Chicago, Illinois. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California. He hoped to become a movie producer or director. However, he could not find a job. So he decided to make animated movies or cartoons. Walt Disney was an artist. He wanted to bring his pictures to life. A cartoon is a series of drawings on film. Each drawing is a little different from the one before it. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the cartoon people and animals appear to move. They speak with voices recorded by actors. Walt Disney believed that animated movies could be just as popular as movies made with real people. He decided he needed a cartoon hero. So he created Mickey Mouse. This cartoon mouse had big eyes and ears. He stood on two legs like a human. He wore white gloves on his hands. Disney’s first short cartoon films starring Mickey Mouse gained great success. Both the mouse and his creator became famous. Pluto, Minnie and Goofy(photo courtesy Walt Disney Co.) Film artist and producer Walt Disney died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. Yet his work and influence live on. People around the world watch Disney movies and Disney television programs. They buy Disney music, books, videos, toys, clothes and games. They attend Disney shows. They stay in Disney hotels and ride on a Disney passenger ship. They visit Disney entertainment parks in the United States, France and Japan. VOICE TWO: Last month was the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Walt Disney. He was born in Nineteen-Oh-One in Chicago, Illinois. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California. He hoped to become a movie producer or director. However, he could not find a job. So he decided to make animated movies or cartoons. Walt Disney was an artist. He wanted to bring his pictures to life. A cartoon is a series of drawings on film. Each drawing is a little different from the one before it. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the cartoon people and animals appear to move. They speak with voices recorded by actors. Walt Disney believed that animated movies could be just as popular as movies made with real people. He decided he needed a cartoon hero. So he created Mickey Mouse. This cartoon mouse had big eyes and ears. He stood on two legs like a human. He wore white gloves on his hands. Disney’s first short cartoon films starring Mickey Mouse gained great success. Both the mouse and his creator became famous. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, Disney produced the first cartoon filmed in the full-color process called Technicolor. Mickey Mouse was the main character in this movie, called “Flowers and Trees.” Disney served as the voice of his mouse. Disney created cartoons with other characters including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto the dog. These cartoons were very popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies too. VOICE TWO: Disney’s first full-length cartoon movie was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. It was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” became one of Hollywood’s most successful movies. Disney made a number of other extremely popular cartoon films during the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and “Bambi.” Disney’s skills in this animation process made him one of the world’s most successful movie artists. Film experts say that without Walt Disney, the art of animation would not have developed so fully. In the Nineteen-Fifties, Disney started producing live-action films with actors. He also started producing several popular television series. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, Disney produced the first cartoon filmed in the full-color process called Technicolor. Mickey Mouse was the main character in this movie, called “Flowers and Trees.” Disney served as the voice of his mouse. Disney created cartoons with other characters including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto the dog. These cartoons were very popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies too. VOICE TWO: Disney’s first full-length cartoon movie was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. It was “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” became one of Hollywood’s most successful movies. Disney made a number of other extremely popular cartoon films during the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo” and “Bambi.” Disney’s skills in this animation process made him one of the world’s most successful movie artists. Film experts say that without Walt Disney, the art of animation would not have developed so fully. In the Nineteen-Fifties, Disney started producing live-action films with actors. He also started producing several popular television series. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, Disney made a popular film called “Mary Poppins.” It told about a woman who cares for other people’s children. Human actors shared the action with cartoon characters. “Mary Poppins” was one of Disney’s last productions. For about forty years, other filmmakers praised and honored the work of Walt Disney. He won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies. He also received honors for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. However, Walt Disney was not just a great artist and filmmaker. He also gained great success in business. ((MUSIC BRIDGE: "IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL")) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park in Anaheim, California, near Los Angeles. He called the park Disneyland. He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. It re-created places from Disney movies. It also showed real places as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another area looked like the world of the future. Disneyland had many exciting rides for children of all ages and for adults too. Disneyland was so successful that Walt Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park. The project was called Walt Disney World. It opened near Orlando, Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, five years after Disney died. It was larger than Disneyland and had many more activities. VOICE ONE: Today, the Disney Company continues Walt Disney’s work and traditions. Michael Eisner became the company chief in Nineteen-Eighty-Four. At the time, the company was not making successful films. It was depending on the entertainment parks for much of its profits. Mister Eisner changed that situation. He ordered that old Disney cartoons, programs and films be sold to television stations. He approved the production of programs and movies for adults. He expanded the idea of the Disney parks to Japan and France. Disney parks opened in Tokyo in Nineteen-Eighty-Four and in Paris in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. VOICE TWO: Led by Mister Eisner, the Disney Company continues to build entertainment centers. Disney’s California Adventure park opened last year in Anaheim, next to Disneyland. It cost one-point-four-thousand-million dollars. California Adventure is smaller than Disneyland. It celebrates the state of California, not some make-believe place. The park has three areas. Paradise Pier celebrates the great American amusement park. It has the world’s longest roller coaster, called “California Screamin.’” It is almost two-thousand meters long. The park also has a ride that makes people feel like they are hang-gliding in the air over famous areas in California. They include Yosemite National Park, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sierra Mountains. The second area in California Adventure is called Hollywood Pictures Backlot. It shows visitors the movie-making industry. The third area, called The Golden State, shows important places in California including agricultural areas. There are also new Disney parks in Paris and Tokyo. Disney Studios Europe will open this year next to Disneyland Paris. It will bring a little bit of Hollywood to France. Tokyo DisneySea opened recently next to Tokyo Disneyland. It has seven areas that celebrate exploration and discovery of the seas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE FROM "LION KING")) VOICE ONE: The Disney Company earns about twenty-five-thousand-million dollars a year. It is one of the largest media companies in the world. It operates movie and television companies. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five it bought the Capital Cities A-B-C media company which includes the A-B-C television network. The Disney Company recently bought a group of international cable television channels. It also owns sports teams. The Disney Company also has become a major Broadway theater producer in New York City. Its stage productions of “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” have been among the most popular plays on Broadway. The company continues to make successful animated films. Its latest movie is a computer-animated film produced with the Pixar Company. It is called “Monsters, Incorporated.” It was the third most popular movie in the United States last year. VOICE TWO: Last year, however, a weak economy and the September terrorist attacks hurt the Disney Company. It lost money on its Internet operations. Sales of products at Disney stores decreased. The A-B-C television network lost viewers and advertising sales. Attendance at the Disney parks fell. The company cut four-thousand jobs last year. Most financial experts, however, say the Disney Company will improve in the future. They believe people around the world will always enjoy Disney entertainment. (("WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR" INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, Disney made a popular film called “Mary Poppins.” It told about a woman who cares for other people’s children. Human actors shared the action with cartoon characters. “Mary Poppins” was one of Disney’s last productions. For about forty years, other filmmakers praised and honored the work of Walt Disney. He won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies. He also received honors for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. However, Walt Disney was not just a great artist and filmmaker. He also gained great success in business. ((MUSIC BRIDGE: "IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL")) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park in Anaheim, California, near Los Angeles. He called the park Disneyland. He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. It re-created places from Disney movies. It also showed real places as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another area looked like the world of the future. Disneyland had many exciting rides for children of all ages and for adults too. Disneyland was so successful that Walt Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park. The project was called Walt Disney World. It opened near Orlando, Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, five years after Disney died. It was larger than Disneyland and had many more activities. VOICE ONE: Today, the Disney Company continues Walt Disney’s work and traditions. Michael Eisner became the company chief in Nineteen-Eighty-Four. At the time, the company was not making successful films. It was depending on the entertainment parks for much of its profits. Mister Eisner changed that situation. He ordered that old Disney cartoons, programs and films be sold to television stations. He approved the production of programs and movies for adults. He expanded the idea of the Disney parks to Japan and France. Disney parks opened in Tokyo in Nineteen-Eighty-Four and in Paris in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. VOICE TWO: Led by Mister Eisner, the Disney Company continues to build entertainment centers. Disney’s California Adventure park opened last year in Anaheim, next to Disneyland. It cost one-point-four-thousand-million dollars. California Adventure is smaller than Disneyland. It celebrates the state of California, not some make-believe place. The park has three areas. Paradise Pier celebrates the great American amusement park. It has the world’s longest roller coaster, called “California Screamin.’” It is almost two-thousand meters long. The park also has a ride that makes people feel like they are hang-gliding in the air over famous areas in California. They include Yosemite National Park, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sierra Mountains. The second area in California Adventure is called Hollywood Pictures Backlot. It shows visitors the movie-making industry. The third area, called The Golden State, shows important places in California including agricultural areas. There are also new Disney parks in Paris and Tokyo. Disney Studios Europe will open this year next to Disneyland Paris. It will bring a little bit of Hollywood to France. Tokyo DisneySea opened recently next to Tokyo Disneyland. It has seven areas that celebrate exploration and discovery of the seas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE FROM "LION KING")) VOICE ONE: The Disney Company earns about twenty-five-thousand-million dollars a year. It is one of the largest media companies in the world. It operates movie and television companies. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five it bought the Capital Cities A-B-C media company which includes the A-B-C television network. The Disney Company recently bought a group of international cable television channels. It also owns sports teams. The Disney Company also has become a major Broadway theater producer in New York City. Its stage productions of “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King” have been among the most popular plays on Broadway. The company continues to make successful animated films. Its latest movie is a computer-animated film produced with the Pixar Company. It is called “Monsters, Incorporated.” It was the third most popular movie in the United States last year. VOICE TWO: Last year, however, a weak economy and the September terrorist attacks hurt the Disney Company. It lost money on its Internet operations. Sales of products at Disney stores decreased. The A-B-C television network lost viewers and advertising sales. Attendance at the Disney parks fell. The company cut four-thousand jobs last year. Most financial experts, however, say the Disney Company will improve in the future. They believe people around the world will always enjoy Disney entertainment. (("WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR" INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 12, 2002: International Monetary Fund
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In the News. A team from the International Monetary Fund completed a two-day visit to Argentina this week. The financial experts were there to examine the country’s economic crisis and how the new government is dealing with it. Argentina owes other countries more than one-hundred-forty-thousand-million dollars. The country is in the fourth year of a recession. It has an eighteen percent unemployment rate. The economic troubles have led to a political crisis and violent protests in Argentina. The Argentine Economy Minister, Jorge Remes Lenicov, said the government is seeking as much as twenty-thousand-million dollars in new aid. He said Argentine officials would negotiate with the I-M-F to re-structure the country’s debt. The International Monetary Fund was created in part to deal with problems like this. In Nineteen-Forty-Five, twenty-nine countries signed an agreement establishing the organization. They promised to cooperate on international financial issues and to help expand international trade. The I-M-F also seeks to help countries pay their debts when they are experiencing economic problems. In return, governments usually must take action that the I-M-F thinks will help solve the problems. The I-M-F lends money under an “arrangement.” The arrangement states the conditions the country must meet in order to receive the loan. Officials of the country and the I-M-F develop the arrangement together. Then it is presented to the I-M-F Executive Board. The Board represents the I-M-F’s one-hundred-eighty-three member countries. If the Board approves the arrangement, then the loan is released in a series of payments. I-M-F officials periodically re-consider the loan. Loan payments continue as long as the country honors the arrangement. The I-M-F has created a number of loan programs to deal with special situations among its members. The most common loan program is called a Stand-By Arrangement. It is for countries experiencing short-term debt problems. Payments usually are made for twelve to eighteen months. Countries generally are expected to repay the loan within two to four years. The I-M-F has another program for poor countries. The Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility permits poor countries to borrow money at a very low rate of interest. All other I-M-F programs have interest rates linked to the open market. The Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility also gives countries as long as ten years to re-pay loans. Many people around the world oppose the I-M-F. In recent years, thousands of demonstrators have protested outside meetings of the I-M-F and similar organizations. Many of these activists say I-M-F policies make industrial nations richer and developing nations poorer. They also say the organization’s activities result in damage to the environment. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – January 14, 2002: Economics and Health
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has released a report about how disease weakens the economies of poor countries. For years, people believed that good health is a direct result of strong economic development. However, this study suggests the opposite is true. It says that strong economic development is an important result of improved health. An international committee of economists and experts in public health and policy carried out study. It is based on almost ninety investigations in countries around the world. Some people say the study is the most complete examination to link investments in health care to economic growth. The study calls for a large increase in foreign aid for health care services in developing countries. In the world’s richest countries, total spending for health care for each person is almost two-thousand dollars a year. However, in the world’s poorest nations, spending on health care for each person is only thirteen dollars a year. The W-H-O says this amount should be increased to thirty-eight dollars a year for each person by Two-Thousand-Fifteen. The money would help poor nations provide treatment for diseases. It would also provide babies with important health care early in life. Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, led the study. He says about eight-million lives could be saved each year if the richest nations increased spending on health care in developing countries. In addition, Mister Sachs says more than fifty of the world’s poorest countries would have a chance to improve the living and economic conditions for their people. The study links political crises in developing countries to high death rates among newborn babies. The report also provides new information about how AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria affect economic growth in developing countries. The researchers suggest eight-thousand-million dollars be provided each year to help fight these diseases. The W-H-O plans to send the study to many officials around the world. They include heads of state, ministers of finance, health and trade, members of national parliaments and non-governmental organizations. It says the report is a valuable guide for future international health programs, policies and financing. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - January 15, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a link between Americans who served in the Persian Gulf war and a rare disease. We tell about a new Sumatran tiger born at the National Zoo. And we tell about Seasonal Affective Disorder. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new study has found the first likely link between Americans who served in the Persian Gulf war and a rare disease. The study found that those who served in the Gulf war were almost two times as likely as other members of the armed forces to develop amyotrophic (am-ee-oh-TRO-fik) lateral sclerosis, or A-L-S. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense Department reported the findings. A-L-S is a rare and deadly disease of the human nervous system. The disease destroys the nerve cells that control muscle movement. Victims lose their ability to move, speak and breathe. Scientists do not know what causes the disease. There is no effective treatment or cure. A-L-S is also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was named for a famous American baseball player who had the disease. For many years, Americans who served in the Gulf war have said they developed diseases linked to their service in the war. However, there had been little scientific evidence until now. VOICE TWO: The new study involved about two-million-five-hundred-thousand former members of the armed forces. Research scientists examined the health of about seven-hundred-thousand service members who had been deployed to the Persian Gulf area. They had served in the Allied campaign against Iraq between August, Nineteen-Ninety and July, Nineteen-Ninety-One. The researchers also studied one-million-eight-hundred-thousand other members of the armed forces. They had served in other parts of the world during that period. The study found forty cases of A-L-S among the veterans deployed in the Persian Gulf. About half of them have died. Scientists would expect to find thirty-three cases in a similar-sized population during the same period. Sixty-seven cases of the disease were identified among the larger control group. Members of the Air Force who served in the Persian Gulf war were two-point-seven times more likely to develop A-L-S than members of the control group. Those in the Army were two times as likely. However, disease rates among those in the Navy and Marines who served in the Gulf war were not much different from those who had not served. VOICE ONE: The researchers say they do not know the reason for this link or why only some groups are at higher risk for the disease. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi says the new findings are of great concern and require additional study. Mister Principi says his agency will work with other groups to find the cause, treatment and cure for A-L-S. He also said his agency will continue research on the connection between the Gulf war and other illnesses. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. recently showed a new baby Sumatran tiger to the public for the first time. Thousands of people are waiting in long lines to see the rare animal. He was born at the zoo September Eighteenth. Only about one-hundred-seventy Sumatran tigers live in zoos.The baby tiger is called Berani. The name means “brave” in the Bahasa Indonesian language. Sumatran tigers come from the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia. Like all tigers in the world, they are threatened with dying out. Fewer than five-hundred of these animals now survive in the wild in Sumatra. Zoo scientists examined Berani for the first time two weeks after his birth. At that time, he weighed less than three kilograms. He now weighs more than ten kilograms. Zoo director Lucy Spelman says information gained from studying Berani will help zoo experts protect other Sumatran tigers. VOICE ONE: The birth of Berani resulted from a scientifically managed reproduction plan for Sumatran tigers. The National Zoo cooperates with the American Zoo Association in this effort. Other agencies involved are the Save the Tiger Fund and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Berani’s mother is Soyono. His father is Rokan. The birth marked the second time in recent years that the National Zoo has welcomed Sumatran tigers. Rokan became the father of three Sumatran baby tigers in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. For many years, experts believed Sumatran tigers belonged to a larger scientific grouping of tigers. However, a Nineteen-Ninety-Eight study of tiger cells questioned this belief. Researchers from several areas of science made the study. The magazine “Animal Conservation” published their results. The study reported that Sumatran tigers are unlike other tigers. Blood taken from Sumatrans showed three genetic markers not found in other kinds of tigers. Zoos throughout the world since then have increased their efforts to produce more Sumatran tigers. VOICE TWO: Sumatrans are the smallest surviving tigers in the world. If Berani is average, he will measure about two meters when fully grown. He will weigh about one-hundred-twenty kilograms. The Sumatran has the darkest skin of any tiger. It has many black marks on its dark orange body. Two other kinds of tigers once lived in Indonesia. However, these Javan and Balinese tigers have disappeared from Earth. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Indonesia developed a reproduction program aimed at saving Sumatran tigers in the wild. Humans threaten the existence of these animals, as they threaten all tigers. Increases in human population and agriculture have robbed the tigers of places where they once lived. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Some people feel sad or depressed during the winter months in northern areas of the world. They may have trouble eating or sleeping. They suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S-A-D. Victims of S-A-D suffer its effects during the short, dark days of winter. The problems are most severe in the months when there are fewer hours of daylight. When spring arrives, these signs disappear and S-A-D victims feel well again. The National Mental Health Association reports that S-A-D can affect anyone. However, the group says young people and women are at the highest risk for the disorder. It says an estimated twenty-five percent of the American population suffers from some form of S-A-D. About five percent suffer from a severe form of the disorder. Many people in other parts of the world also have the condition. For example, some scientists who work in Antarctica suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. During the long, dark winter months there, workers have difficulty finding enough energy to do their jobs. VOICE TWO: The idea of health problems linked to a lack of light is not new. Scientists have discussed the issue since the beginning of medicine. More than two-thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates (hip-POCK-ra-tees) noted that the seasons affect human emotions. Today, experts do not fully understand S-A-D. Yet they agree that it is a very real disorder. Many doctors think that a change in brain chemistry causes people to develop S-A-D. They say people with the condition have too much of the hormone melatonin in their bodies. The pineal gland in the brain produces melatonin while we sleep. This hormone is believed to cause signs of depression. Melatonin is produced at increased levels in the dark. So, its production increases when the days are shorter and darker. VOICE ONE: To treat the disorder, victims of S-A-D do not need to wait until spring. Experts know that placing affected individuals in bright light each day eases the condition. There are other things people can do to ease the problem. They can increase the sunlight in their homes and workplaces. They can spend more time outdoors in the fresh air during the day. One study found that walking for an hour in winter sunlight was as effective as spending two-and-one-half hours under bright lights indoors. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a link between Americans who served in the Persian Gulf war and a rare disease. We tell about a new Sumatran tiger born at the National Zoo. And we tell about Seasonal Affective Disorder. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new study has found the first likely link between Americans who served in the Persian Gulf war and a rare disease. The study found that those who served in the Gulf war were almost two times as likely as other members of the armed forces to develop amyotrophic (am-ee-oh-TRO-fik) lateral sclerosis, or A-L-S. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense Department reported the findings. A-L-S is a rare and deadly disease of the human nervous system. The disease destroys the nerve cells that control muscle movement. Victims lose their ability to move, speak and breathe. Scientists do not know what causes the disease. There is no effective treatment or cure. A-L-S is also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was named for a famous American baseball player who had the disease. For many years, Americans who served in the Gulf war have said they developed diseases linked to their service in the war. However, there had been little scientific evidence until now. VOICE TWO: The new study involved about two-million-five-hundred-thousand former members of the armed forces. Research scientists examined the health of about seven-hundred-thousand service members who had been deployed to the Persian Gulf area. They had served in the Allied campaign against Iraq between August, Nineteen-Ninety and July, Nineteen-Ninety-One. The researchers also studied one-million-eight-hundred-thousand other members of the armed forces. They had served in other parts of the world during that period. The study found forty cases of A-L-S among the veterans deployed in the Persian Gulf. About half of them have died. Scientists would expect to find thirty-three cases in a similar-sized population during the same period. Sixty-seven cases of the disease were identified among the larger control group. Members of the Air Force who served in the Persian Gulf war were two-point-seven times more likely to develop A-L-S than members of the control group. Those in the Army were two times as likely. However, disease rates among those in the Navy and Marines who served in the Gulf war were not much different from those who had not served. VOICE ONE: The researchers say they do not know the reason for this link or why only some groups are at higher risk for the disease. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi says the new findings are of great concern and require additional study. Mister Principi says his agency will work with other groups to find the cause, treatment and cure for A-L-S. He also said his agency will continue research on the connection between the Gulf war and other illnesses. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. recently showed a new baby Sumatran tiger to the public for the first time. Thousands of people are waiting in long lines to see the rare animal. He was born at the zoo September Eighteenth. Only about one-hundred-seventy Sumatran tigers live in zoos.The baby tiger is called Berani. The name means “brave” in the Bahasa Indonesian language. Sumatran tigers come from the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia. Like all tigers in the world, they are threatened with dying out. Fewer than five-hundred of these animals now survive in the wild in Sumatra. Zoo scientists examined Berani for the first time two weeks after his birth. At that time, he weighed less than three kilograms. He now weighs more than ten kilograms. Zoo director Lucy Spelman says information gained from studying Berani will help zoo experts protect other Sumatran tigers. VOICE ONE: The birth of Berani resulted from a scientifically managed reproduction plan for Sumatran tigers. The National Zoo cooperates with the American Zoo Association in this effort. Other agencies involved are the Save the Tiger Fund and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Berani’s mother is Soyono. His father is Rokan. The birth marked the second time in recent years that the National Zoo has welcomed Sumatran tigers. Rokan became the father of three Sumatran baby tigers in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. For many years, experts believed Sumatran tigers belonged to a larger scientific grouping of tigers. However, a Nineteen-Ninety-Eight study of tiger cells questioned this belief. Researchers from several areas of science made the study. The magazine “Animal Conservation” published their results. The study reported that Sumatran tigers are unlike other tigers. Blood taken from Sumatrans showed three genetic markers not found in other kinds of tigers. Zoos throughout the world since then have increased their efforts to produce more Sumatran tigers. VOICE TWO: Sumatrans are the smallest surviving tigers in the world. If Berani is average, he will measure about two meters when fully grown. He will weigh about one-hundred-twenty kilograms. The Sumatran has the darkest skin of any tiger. It has many black marks on its dark orange body. Two other kinds of tigers once lived in Indonesia. However, these Javan and Balinese tigers have disappeared from Earth. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Indonesia developed a reproduction program aimed at saving Sumatran tigers in the wild. Humans threaten the existence of these animals, as they threaten all tigers. Increases in human population and agriculture have robbed the tigers of places where they once lived. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Some people feel sad or depressed during the winter months in northern areas of the world. They may have trouble eating or sleeping. They suffer from a condition known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S-A-D. Victims of S-A-D suffer its effects during the short, dark days of winter. The problems are most severe in the months when there are fewer hours of daylight. When spring arrives, these signs disappear and S-A-D victims feel well again. The National Mental Health Association reports that S-A-D can affect anyone. However, the group says young people and women are at the highest risk for the disorder. It says an estimated twenty-five percent of the American population suffers from some form of S-A-D. About five percent suffer from a severe form of the disorder. Many people in other parts of the world also have the condition. For example, some scientists who work in Antarctica suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. During the long, dark winter months there, workers have difficulty finding enough energy to do their jobs. VOICE TWO: The idea of health problems linked to a lack of light is not new. Scientists have discussed the issue since the beginning of medicine. More than two-thousand years ago, the Greek doctor Hippocrates (hip-POCK-ra-tees) noted that the seasons affect human emotions. Today, experts do not fully understand S-A-D. Yet they agree that it is a very real disorder. Many doctors think that a change in brain chemistry causes people to develop S-A-D. They say people with the condition have too much of the hormone melatonin in their bodies. The pineal gland in the brain produces melatonin while we sleep. This hormone is believed to cause signs of depression. Melatonin is produced at increased levels in the dark. So, its production increases when the days are shorter and darker. VOICE ONE: To treat the disorder, victims of S-A-D do not need to wait until spring. Experts know that placing affected individuals in bright light each day eases the condition. There are other things people can do to ease the problem. They can increase the sunlight in their homes and workplaces. They can spend more time outdoors in the fresh air during the day. One study found that walking for an hour in winter sunlight was as effective as spending two-and-one-half hours under bright lights indoors. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – January 15, 2002: Growing Wheat
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Studies show that there will be nine-thousand-million people in the world by the year Two-Thousand-Fifty. The United Nations has warned that many countries will have to increase food production to satisfy their population demands. Some agriculture experts say increasing grain production on the world’s richest soils may not be enough. They note that production of wheat also must be increased on less productive soils. One concern is the growing amount of harmful metals in farmland soils. The metal aluminum, for example, restricts growth of wheat plants when acid levels in the soil are high. Aluminum particles are mainly found just below the topsoil. Aluminum restricts plant growth on more than thirty percent of all farmland worldwide. In the United States, almost thirty-five-million hectares of farmland are affected. Adding another substance, lime, is one way to reduce the acidity of soils that have too much aluminum. But lime is costly to transport long distances. Another method is to develop plants strong enough to grow in such soils. J. Perry Gustafson is a genetic expert with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Agriculture Department. He is helping plant growers develop new kinds of wheat plants with genes that will help the plants grow in high-aluminum soils. Mister Gustafson works with the Plant Genetics Research office in Columbia, Missouri. Scientists there have been studying the genetic structure of wheat. They have identified the area of a gene that resists aluminum. They say the aluminum-resistant gene is between two marker genes that are close to each other. Wheat growers can now choose plants that have these markers. The Department of Agriculture say this process may reduce by half the time required to develop a new kind of wheat. Currently, ten to fifteen years are necessary. The genetic marker was identified in a wheat plant native to Brazil. No other wheat grows as well in high-aluminum soils. Mister Gustafson says that borrowing genes from another grain, rye, may be the best hope for wheat to survive in acidic, high-aluminum soils. He has found genetic markers in rye plants that are closely linked to the aluminum-resistant genes. He hopes the markers can be used to help move the desirable rye genes into wheat. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Studies show that there will be nine-thousand-million people in the world by the year Two-Thousand-Fifty. The United Nations has warned that many countries will have to increase food production to satisfy their population demands. Some agriculture experts say increasing grain production on the world’s richest soils may not be enough. They note that production of wheat also must be increased on less productive soils. One concern is the growing amount of harmful metals in farmland soils. The metal aluminum, for example, restricts growth of wheat plants when acid levels in the soil are high. Aluminum particles are mainly found just below the topsoil. Aluminum restricts plant growth on more than thirty percent of all farmland worldwide. In the United States, almost thirty-five-million hectares of farmland are affected. Adding another substance, lime, is one way to reduce the acidity of soils that have too much aluminum. But lime is costly to transport long distances. Another method is to develop plants strong enough to grow in such soils. J. Perry Gustafson is a genetic expert with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Agriculture Department. He is helping plant growers develop new kinds of wheat plants with genes that will help the plants grow in high-aluminum soils. Mister Gustafson works with the Plant Genetics Research office in Columbia, Missouri. Scientists there have been studying the genetic structure of wheat. They have identified the area of a gene that resists aluminum. They say the aluminum-resistant gene is between two marker genes that are close to each other. Wheat growers can now choose plants that have these markers. The Department of Agriculture say this process may reduce by half the time required to develop a new kind of wheat. Currently, ten to fifteen years are necessary. The genetic marker was identified in a wheat plant native to Brazil. No other wheat grows as well in high-aluminum soils. Mister Gustafson says that borrowing genes from another grain, rye, may be the best hope for wheat to survive in acidic, high-aluminum soils. He has found genetic markers in rye plants that are closely linked to the aluminum-resistant genes. He hopes the markers can be used to help move the desirable rye genes into wheat. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 16, 2002: Mars
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. Odyssey VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we report about the planet Mars. We tell about evidence that weather on Mars is changing. We tell about plans for a new kind of vehicle to explore Mars. And we tell about the Mars Odyssey spacecraft that recently began orbiting the planet. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials are using the atmosphere of Mars to slow the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The slowing of spacecraft also permits it to fly much closer to the planet. The Two-Thousand-One Mars Odyssey spacecraft arrived at Mars in October. Its early orbit around the planet was extremely high. The orbit was so high the spacecraft took eighteen and one half-hours to circle the planet. Today, the Mars Odyssey is much lower and closer to the planet. It now takes only three hours and fifteen minutes to make one complete orbit of the planet. VOICE TWO: David Spencer is the head of the Mars Odyssey project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Spencer says it will take most of the month of January to get the Mars Odyssey in exactly the right orbit. He says the two and one-half-year science mission will begin when the orbit is correct, which should be in February. NASA experts have been testing the science instruments on the Mars Odyssey. They say the instruments are working correctly. VOICE ONE: The Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched in April, Two-Thousand-One. Its main task is to study the surface of Mars. The surface has long been thought to be a mix of rock, soil and ice material. Odyssey will provide images that will help scientists identify the minerals that are in the soils and rocks on the surface. Mars Odyssey also carries instruments that can measure hydrogen in the upper meter of soil. It will search for evidence of water. It will study the soil and other materials in areas that may be used for future landings. The spacecraft will also look for radiation risks that could affect any future human explorers. And it will act as a communications link for future spacecraft that land on Mars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: NASA researchers are developing several new devices that will explore the surface of Mars. These devices will not carry humans. They will carry several different scientific devices and instruments. The devices are called robots. NASA researchers hope to design a series of robots that will be able to work together, or work alone on the surface of Mars. Each robot will look like a small vehicle with four wheels. Researchers hope the robots will be able to climb very steep areas of the planet surface. VOICE ONE: Paul Schenker is the head of the Mechanical and Robotics Technologies Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is also the chief investigator for the robot project. Mister Schenker says the robots will be able to climb up hills or down into deep valleys to study the surface. In a recent test in California, two robots helped a third robot safely climb down a side of a hill that dropped sharply. These robots were linked together with a long device called a tether. Mister Schenker said the test showed the robots can work as a true team. They use extremely small computers to share the important information their instruments gather. Mister Schenker says the small robots communicate with each other, make informed decisions, and jointly work to control actions. He says you can think of them as one mountain climber with two good friends that help. VOICE TWO: In the past year, NASA researchers also successfully developed and demonstrated a single robot that can move over difficult surface areas. It can move up and over hills that rise sharply. Researchers say the robot is similar to a small animal. It uses cameras that perform like eyes to look at objects blocking the way, make decisions and then move over the objects or around them. The robots could carry many different kinds of instruments. They could be used to search for water or minerals. These robots are called All Terrain Explorer Rovers. They may be part of a future Mars flight. They will be used to explore the hills, valleys, and hard to reach areas of the Mars. VOICE ONE: One of the most unusual devices that may be sent to explore Mars is a large round rubber ball. Researchers hope to use the winds of Mars to move the large balls across long distances. Researchers have begun calling the balls “Tumbleweed Rovers.” The name comes from a plant that grows in the American southwest. Winds in the desert often tear the tumbleweed plants loose from the ground and blow them across the sand. Researchers accidentally discovered the idea of the wind driven ball. They were testing a vehicle that has ball shaped wheels. One of the wheels came off the device. The wind blew the round wheel across the ground so quickly that researchers could not catch it. Researchers who are testing the Tumbleweed Rovers say they will be cheap to produce. Many could be sent to Mars. The tumbleweed rovers could carry inside them science instruments to seek water. Researches say this could be another way to find water on Mars. VOICE TWO: The use of a robot device to explore the planet Mars is not a new idea. The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft successfully landed on Mars in July, Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. The Pathfinder carried a small robot called Sojourner, named for the American civil rights worker, Sojourner Truth. The little robot outlived its expected working life by almost twelve days. It sent back more than five-hundred-fifty pictures as well as more than fifteen chemical tests of rocks and soil. It also sent back information on winds and other weather information. The Sojourner rover robot provided the first evidence that suggests that Mars was warmer and wetter at one time in its past. Researchers are excited about what kind of information future robots will provide when they reach Mars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The planet Mars we know today is a cold, dry, desert-like world. Yet there is some evidence that its climate is changing. New observations by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are expanding our understanding of the Martian climate. NASA scientists say new evidence suggests large climate changes have taken place during the planet’s recent history. They say even larger changes may take place in its future. They say it is possible Mars may become warmer and wetter as some scientists say it was in its early history. The scientists say the climate evidence was gathered during one Martian year. One Martian year is equal to six-hundred-eighty-seven Earth days. VOICE TWO: Pictures from Global Surveyor’s camera system show that holes in the surface of the ice at the southern pole of Mars have increased greatly in size in the past year. NASA scientists say this shows that heat below the surface has caused material to change from frozen liquid into gas, which escapes into the atmosphere. Michael Malin is chief investigator for the Global Surveyor’s camera system at Malin Space Science systems in San Diego, California. He says the frozen liquid may be carbon dioxide ice. Mister Malin says changes in atmospheric pressure could be linked to the increased size of the holes in the ice at the Martian south pole. He said if this is true, it is more likely that water was present as a liquid near the surface. The presence of liquid water on Mars would make it more likely life may once have existed on the planet. VOICE ONE: James Garvin is NASA’s top scientist for Mars Exploration. He says that finding evidence of climate change on Mars is important information. Mister Garvin says information gathered by the Mars Global Surveyor will tell where landings of other spacecraft should be made in the next ten years. He said the information shows that polar areas should be good places to search for evidence of hot water produced deep below the surface of Mars. Experts say the Global Surveyor is continuing to provide important information that helps in understanding Martian climate of the past. And they say the spacecraft is continuing to provide information about what might happen to the climate of the planet Mars in the future. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we report about the planet Mars. We tell about evidence that weather on Mars is changing. We tell about plans for a new kind of vehicle to explore Mars. And we tell about the Mars Odyssey spacecraft that recently began orbiting the planet. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials are using the atmosphere of Mars to slow the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. The slowing of spacecraft also permits it to fly much closer to the planet. The Two-Thousand-One Mars Odyssey spacecraft arrived at Mars in October. Its early orbit around the planet was extremely high. The orbit was so high the spacecraft took eighteen and one half-hours to circle the planet. Today, the Mars Odyssey is much lower and closer to the planet. It now takes only three hours and fifteen minutes to make one complete orbit of the planet. VOICE TWO: David Spencer is the head of the Mars Odyssey project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Spencer says it will take most of the month of January to get the Mars Odyssey in exactly the right orbit. He says the two and one-half-year science mission will begin when the orbit is correct, which should be in February. NASA experts have been testing the science instruments on the Mars Odyssey. They say the instruments are working correctly. VOICE ONE: The Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched in April, Two-Thousand-One. Its main task is to study the surface of Mars. The surface has long been thought to be a mix of rock, soil and ice material. Odyssey will provide images that will help scientists identify the minerals that are in the soils and rocks on the surface. Mars Odyssey also carries instruments that can measure hydrogen in the upper meter of soil. It will search for evidence of water. It will study the soil and other materials in areas that may be used for future landings. The spacecraft will also look for radiation risks that could affect any future human explorers. And it will act as a communications link for future spacecraft that land on Mars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: NASA researchers are developing several new devices that will explore the surface of Mars. These devices will not carry humans. They will carry several different scientific devices and instruments. The devices are called robots. NASA researchers hope to design a series of robots that will be able to work together, or work alone on the surface of Mars. Each robot will look like a small vehicle with four wheels. Researchers hope the robots will be able to climb very steep areas of the planet surface. VOICE ONE: Paul Schenker is the head of the Mechanical and Robotics Technologies Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is also the chief investigator for the robot project. Mister Schenker says the robots will be able to climb up hills or down into deep valleys to study the surface. In a recent test in California, two robots helped a third robot safely climb down a side of a hill that dropped sharply. These robots were linked together with a long device called a tether. Mister Schenker said the test showed the robots can work as a true team. They use extremely small computers to share the important information their instruments gather. Mister Schenker says the small robots communicate with each other, make informed decisions, and jointly work to control actions. He says you can think of them as one mountain climber with two good friends that help. VOICE TWO: In the past year, NASA researchers also successfully developed and demonstrated a single robot that can move over difficult surface areas. It can move up and over hills that rise sharply. Researchers say the robot is similar to a small animal. It uses cameras that perform like eyes to look at objects blocking the way, make decisions and then move over the objects or around them. The robots could carry many different kinds of instruments. They could be used to search for water or minerals. These robots are called All Terrain Explorer Rovers. They may be part of a future Mars flight. They will be used to explore the hills, valleys, and hard to reach areas of the Mars. VOICE ONE: One of the most unusual devices that may be sent to explore Mars is a large round rubber ball. Researchers hope to use the winds of Mars to move the large balls across long distances. Researchers have begun calling the balls “Tumbleweed Rovers.” The name comes from a plant that grows in the American southwest. Winds in the desert often tear the tumbleweed plants loose from the ground and blow them across the sand. Researchers accidentally discovered the idea of the wind driven ball. They were testing a vehicle that has ball shaped wheels. One of the wheels came off the device. The wind blew the round wheel across the ground so quickly that researchers could not catch it. Researchers who are testing the Tumbleweed Rovers say they will be cheap to produce. Many could be sent to Mars. The tumbleweed rovers could carry inside them science instruments to seek water. Researches say this could be another way to find water on Mars. VOICE TWO: The use of a robot device to explore the planet Mars is not a new idea. The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft successfully landed on Mars in July, Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. The Pathfinder carried a small robot called Sojourner, named for the American civil rights worker, Sojourner Truth. The little robot outlived its expected working life by almost twelve days. It sent back more than five-hundred-fifty pictures as well as more than fifteen chemical tests of rocks and soil. It also sent back information on winds and other weather information. The Sojourner rover robot provided the first evidence that suggests that Mars was warmer and wetter at one time in its past. Researchers are excited about what kind of information future robots will provide when they reach Mars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The planet Mars we know today is a cold, dry, desert-like world. Yet there is some evidence that its climate is changing. New observations by NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are expanding our understanding of the Martian climate. NASA scientists say new evidence suggests large climate changes have taken place during the planet’s recent history. They say even larger changes may take place in its future. They say it is possible Mars may become warmer and wetter as some scientists say it was in its early history. The scientists say the climate evidence was gathered during one Martian year. One Martian year is equal to six-hundred-eighty-seven Earth days. VOICE TWO: Pictures from Global Surveyor’s camera system show that holes in the surface of the ice at the southern pole of Mars have increased greatly in size in the past year. NASA scientists say this shows that heat below the surface has caused material to change from frozen liquid into gas, which escapes into the atmosphere. Michael Malin is chief investigator for the Global Surveyor’s camera system at Malin Space Science systems in San Diego, California. He says the frozen liquid may be carbon dioxide ice. Mister Malin says changes in atmospheric pressure could be linked to the increased size of the holes in the ice at the Martian south pole. He said if this is true, it is more likely that water was present as a liquid near the surface. The presence of liquid water on Mars would make it more likely life may once have existed on the planet. VOICE ONE: James Garvin is NASA’s top scientist for Mars Exploration. He says that finding evidence of climate change on Mars is important information. Mister Garvin says information gathered by the Mars Global Surveyor will tell where landings of other spacecraft should be made in the next ten years. He said the information shows that polar areas should be good places to search for evidence of hot water produced deep below the surface of Mars. Experts say the Global Surveyor is continuing to provide important information that helps in understanding Martian climate of the past. And they say the spacecraft is continuing to provide information about what might happen to the climate of the planet Mars in the future. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 16, 2002: Snow Facts
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Winter weather has arrived in northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Last month, during a severe storm, about two meters of snow fell on the city of Buffalo, New York. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles, called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one-hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two-and-one-half centimeters. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. Each year, the continental United States has an average of one-hundred snow storms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. Snow creates many problems for people traveling. But it also is important. Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Winter weather has arrived in northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Last month, during a severe storm, about two meters of snow fell on the city of Buffalo, New York. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles, called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one-hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two-and-one-half centimeters. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. Each year, the continental United States has an average of one-hundred snow storms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. Snow creates many problems for people traveling. But it also is important. Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 17, 2002: Lying Eyes
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Scientists say they have developed a camera that can help identify when a person is not telling the truth. The new camera measures the heat released by a person’s face. The scientists say the camera correctly identified lying in more than eighty percent of the people they tested. They say the device might one day be used in high-level security operations at airports or border crossings. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota led the study. Nature magazine reported the findings. The scientists based their work on the theory that people who plan to trick someone release physical or chemical signals. They say these signals can help security officials prevent wrongdoing. The Mayo Clinic researchers worked with scientists at Honeywell Laboratories to develop the new, heat-imaging technology. Doctor Levine says the camera is designed to measure small changes in the body. He notes that the flow of blood to the surface of the skin increases around the eyes when a person lies. The scientists used twenty people to test the heat-sensing camera. Eight of the people took part in a crime that was not real. They attacked a human-like object and stole money from it. They were asked to lie and say they were innocent of the crime. The twelve other people in the study were told nothing about the make-believe crime. The researchers used the special camera while questioning the twenty people about the crime. The camera showed that six of the eight people who carried out the crime had increased heat around their eyes when they lied. Eleven of the twelve people who knew nothing about the crime were correctly identified as innocent. When they told the truth, the area around their eyes remained cool. The researchers say the rate of success of the test was similar to the current polygraph method of lie detection. Polygraph tests measure changes in heart rate, breathing and the wetness of a person’s skin. However, a polygraph test requires a person willing to be tested. And it takes time and skill to examine the results. Lie detection experts say the new camera could be used without suspects knowing they are being watched. The researchers say more testing and development of the device are needed. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Scientists say they have developed a camera that can help identify when a person is not telling the truth. The new camera measures the heat released by a person’s face. The scientists say the camera correctly identified lying in more than eighty percent of the people they tested. They say the device might one day be used in high-level security operations at airports or border crossings. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota led the study. Nature magazine reported the findings. The scientists based their work on the theory that people who plan to trick someone release physical or chemical signals. They say these signals can help security officials prevent wrongdoing. The Mayo Clinic researchers worked with scientists at Honeywell Laboratories to develop the new, heat-imaging technology. Doctor Levine says the camera is designed to measure small changes in the body. He notes that the flow of blood to the surface of the skin increases around the eyes when a person lies. The scientists used twenty people to test the heat-sensing camera. Eight of the people took part in a crime that was not real. They attacked a human-like object and stole money from it. They were asked to lie and say they were innocent of the crime. The twelve other people in the study were told nothing about the make-believe crime. The researchers used the special camera while questioning the twenty people about the crime. The camera showed that six of the eight people who carried out the crime had increased heat around their eyes when they lied. Eleven of the twelve people who knew nothing about the crime were correctly identified as innocent. When they told the truth, the area around their eyes remained cool. The researchers say the rate of success of the test was similar to the current polygraph method of lie detection. Polygraph tests measure changes in heart rate, breathing and the wetness of a person’s skin. However, a polygraph test requires a person willing to be tested. And it takes time and skill to examine the results. Lie detection experts say the new camera could be used without suspects knowing they are being watched. The researchers say more testing and development of the device are needed. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 17, 2002: Stock Market Crash of 1929
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The election of Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover in nineteen-twenty-eight made Americans more hopeful than ever about their future. In March nineteen-twenty-nine, Hoover rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in the rain to become the new president. "I have no fears for the future of our country," he told the cheering crowd. "It is bright with hope." Herbert Hoover seemed to have just the right experience to lead the nation to new economic progress. He had training in engineering, business, and national leadership. He understood economics and had faith in the future of private business. VOICE 2: The clearest evidence of the public's faith in the economy is the stock market. And the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the new president with a wild increase in prices. During the months after Hoover's election, prices generally rose like a rocket. Stocks valued at one-hundred dollars climbed to two-hundred, then three-hundred, four-hundred. Men and women made huge amounts of money overnight. Publications and economic experts advised Americans to buy stocks before prices went even higher. Time and again, people heard how rich they could become if they found and bought stocks for companies growing into industrial giants. "Never sell the United States short," said one publication. Another just said, "Everybody ought to be rich. " VOICE 1: A number of economic experts worried about the sharp increase in stock prices that followed Hoover's election. The president himself urged stock market officials to make trading more honest and safe. And he approved a move by the Federal Reserve Board to increase the interest charged to banks. However, both efforts failed to stop the growing number of Americans who were spending their money wildly on stocks. Some experts pointed to danger signs in the economy during the summer of nineteen-twenty-nine. The number of houses being built was dropping. Industries were reducing the amount of products that they held in their factories. The rate of growth in spending by average Americans was falling sharply. And industrial production, employment, and prices were down. These experts warned that the American economy was just not strong enough to support such rapid growth in stock prices. They said there was no real value behind many of the high prices. They said a stock price could not increase four times while a company's sales stayed the same. They said the high prices were built on foolish dreams of wealth, not real value. VOICE 2: But the prices went still higher. Buyers fought with each other to pay more and more for company stocks. The average price of all stocks almost doubled in just one year. It seemed everybody was buying stocks, even people with little money or economic training. A clothing salesman got advice from a stock trader visiting his store and made two-hundred-thousand dollars. A nurse learned of a good company from someone in the hospital. She made thirty-thousand dollars. There were thousands of such stories. By early September, the stock market reached its high point of the past eighteen months. Shares of the Westinghouse company had climbed from ninety-one dollars to three-hundred-thirteen. The Anaconda Copper company had risen from fifty-four dollars to one-hundred-sixty-two. Union Carbide jumped from one-hundred-forty-five to four-hundred-thirteen. Life was like a dream. But like any dream, it could not last forever. VOICE 1: In September, nineteen-twenty-nine, stock prices stopped rising. During the next month and a half, stock prices fell, but only slowly. Then suddenly, at the end of October, the market crashed. Prices dropped wildly. Leading stocks fell five, ten, twenty dollars in a single day. Everyone tried to sell their stocks. But no one was buying. Fear washed across the stock market. People were losing money even faster than they had made it. VOICE 2: The stock market collapsed on Thursday, October twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-nine. People remember the day as "Black Thursday," the day the dreams ended. The day began with a wave of selling. People from across the country sent messages to their stock traders in New York. All the messages said the same thing: Sell! Sell the stocks at any price possible! But no one was buying. And so down the prices came. The value of stock for the Montgomery Ward store dropped from eighty-three dollars to fifty in a single day. The R-C-A radio corporation fell from sixty-eight dollars to forty-four ... twenty-four dollars in just a few hours. Down the stocks fell, lower and lower. Several of the country's leading bankers met to discuss ways to stop the disaster. They agreed to buy stocks in large amounts to stop the wave of selling. The bankers moved quickly. And for two days, prices held steady. But then, like snow falling down the side of a mountain, the stocks dropped again. Prices went to amazingly low levels. One business newspaper said simply: "The present week has witnessed the greatest stock market disaster of all time. " VOICE 1: The stock market crash ruined thousands of Americans. In a few short weeks, traders lost thirty-thousand-million dollars, an amount almost as great as all the money the United States had spent in World War One. Some businessmen could not accept what had happened. They jumped from the tops of buildings and killed themselves. In fact, one popular joke of the time said that hotel owners had to ask people if they wanted rooms for sleeping or jumping. But the stock market crash was nothing to laugh about. It destroyed much of the money that Americans had saved. Even worse, it caused millions of people to worry and lose faith in the economy. They were not sure what to expect tomorrow. Business owners would not spend money for new factories or business operations. Instead, they decided to wait and see what would happen. This reduced production and caused more workers to lose their jobs. Fewer workers meant fewer people with money to buy goods. And fewer people buying goods meant less need for factories to produce. So it went. In short, economic disaster. VOICE 2: Why did the stock market crash. One reason, people had been paying too much for stocks. Everyone believed that prices would go higher and higher forever. People paid more for stocks than the stocks were worth. They hoped to sell the stocks at even higher prices. It was like a children's balloon that expands with air, blowing bigger and bigger until it bursts. But there were other important reasons. Industrial profits were too high and wages too low. Five percent of the population owned one-third of all personal income. The average worker simply did not have enough money to buy enough of all the new goods that factories were producing. Another problem was that companies were not investing enough money in new factories and supplies. There were also problems with the rules of the stock market itself. People were allowed to buy stocks when they did not have the money to do so. VOICE 1: Several government economic policies also helped cause the stock market crash of nineteen-twenty-nine. Government tax policies made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And the government did little to control the national money supply, even when the economy faced disaster. The stock market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression -- a long, slow, painful fall to the worst economic crisis in American history. The Depression would bring suffering to millions of people. It would cause major political changes. And it would be a major force in creating the conditions that led to World War Two. We will look at the beginning of the Great Depression in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) The election of Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover in nineteen-twenty-eight made Americans more hopeful than ever about their future. In March nineteen-twenty-nine, Hoover rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in the rain to become the new president. "I have no fears for the future of our country," he told the cheering crowd. "It is bright with hope." Herbert Hoover seemed to have just the right experience to lead the nation to new economic progress. He had training in engineering, business, and national leadership. He understood economics and had faith in the future of private business. VOICE 2: The clearest evidence of the public's faith in the economy is the stock market. And the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the new president with a wild increase in prices. During the months after Hoover's election, prices generally rose like a rocket. Stocks valued at one-hundred dollars climbed to two-hundred, then three-hundred, four-hundred. Men and women made huge amounts of money overnight. Publications and economic experts advised Americans to buy stocks before prices went even higher. Time and again, people heard how rich they could become if they found and bought stocks for companies growing into industrial giants. "Never sell the United States short," said one publication. Another just said, "Everybody ought to be rich. " VOICE 1: A number of economic experts worried about the sharp increase in stock prices that followed Hoover's election. The president himself urged stock market officials to make trading more honest and safe. And he approved a move by the Federal Reserve Board to increase the interest charged to banks. However, both efforts failed to stop the growing number of Americans who were spending their money wildly on stocks. Some experts pointed to danger signs in the economy during the summer of nineteen-twenty-nine. The number of houses being built was dropping. Industries were reducing the amount of products that they held in their factories. The rate of growth in spending by average Americans was falling sharply. And industrial production, employment, and prices were down. These experts warned that the American economy was just not strong enough to support such rapid growth in stock prices. They said there was no real value behind many of the high prices. They said a stock price could not increase four times while a company's sales stayed the same. They said the high prices were built on foolish dreams of wealth, not real value. VOICE 2: But the prices went still higher. Buyers fought with each other to pay more and more for company stocks. The average price of all stocks almost doubled in just one year. It seemed everybody was buying stocks, even people with little money or economic training. A clothing salesman got advice from a stock trader visiting his store and made two-hundred-thousand dollars. A nurse learned of a good company from someone in the hospital. She made thirty-thousand dollars. There were thousands of such stories. By early September, the stock market reached its high point of the past eighteen months. Shares of the Westinghouse company had climbed from ninety-one dollars to three-hundred-thirteen. The Anaconda Copper company had risen from fifty-four dollars to one-hundred-sixty-two. Union Carbide jumped from one-hundred-forty-five to four-hundred-thirteen. Life was like a dream. But like any dream, it could not last forever. VOICE 1: In September, nineteen-twenty-nine, stock prices stopped rising. During the next month and a half, stock prices fell, but only slowly. Then suddenly, at the end of October, the market crashed. Prices dropped wildly. Leading stocks fell five, ten, twenty dollars in a single day. Everyone tried to sell their stocks. But no one was buying. Fear washed across the stock market. People were losing money even faster than they had made it. VOICE 2: The stock market collapsed on Thursday, October twenty-fourth, nineteen-twenty-nine. People remember the day as "Black Thursday," the day the dreams ended. The day began with a wave of selling. People from across the country sent messages to their stock traders in New York. All the messages said the same thing: Sell! Sell the stocks at any price possible! But no one was buying. And so down the prices came. The value of stock for the Montgomery Ward store dropped from eighty-three dollars to fifty in a single day. The R-C-A radio corporation fell from sixty-eight dollars to forty-four ... twenty-four dollars in just a few hours. Down the stocks fell, lower and lower. Several of the country's leading bankers met to discuss ways to stop the disaster. They agreed to buy stocks in large amounts to stop the wave of selling. The bankers moved quickly. And for two days, prices held steady. But then, like snow falling down the side of a mountain, the stocks dropped again. Prices went to amazingly low levels. One business newspaper said simply: "The present week has witnessed the greatest stock market disaster of all time. " VOICE 1: The stock market crash ruined thousands of Americans. In a few short weeks, traders lost thirty-thousand-million dollars, an amount almost as great as all the money the United States had spent in World War One. Some businessmen could not accept what had happened. They jumped from the tops of buildings and killed themselves. In fact, one popular joke of the time said that hotel owners had to ask people if they wanted rooms for sleeping or jumping. But the stock market crash was nothing to laugh about. It destroyed much of the money that Americans had saved. Even worse, it caused millions of people to worry and lose faith in the economy. They were not sure what to expect tomorrow. Business owners would not spend money for new factories or business operations. Instead, they decided to wait and see what would happen. This reduced production and caused more workers to lose their jobs. Fewer workers meant fewer people with money to buy goods. And fewer people buying goods meant less need for factories to produce. So it went. In short, economic disaster. VOICE 2: Why did the stock market crash. One reason, people had been paying too much for stocks. Everyone believed that prices would go higher and higher forever. People paid more for stocks than the stocks were worth. They hoped to sell the stocks at even higher prices. It was like a children's balloon that expands with air, blowing bigger and bigger until it bursts. But there were other important reasons. Industrial profits were too high and wages too low. Five percent of the population owned one-third of all personal income. The average worker simply did not have enough money to buy enough of all the new goods that factories were producing. Another problem was that companies were not investing enough money in new factories and supplies. There were also problems with the rules of the stock market itself. People were allowed to buy stocks when they did not have the money to do so. VOICE 1: Several government economic policies also helped cause the stock market crash of nineteen-twenty-nine. Government tax policies made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And the government did little to control the national money supply, even when the economy faced disaster. The stock market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression -- a long, slow, painful fall to the worst economic crisis in American history. The Depression would bring suffering to millions of people. It would cause major political changes. And it would be a major force in creating the conditions that led to World War Two. We will look at the beginning of the Great Depression in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 18, 2002: Music by Cole Porter/Muhammad Ali turns 60/Martin Luther King holiday
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Standing over Sonny Liston, 1965 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play music written by Cole Porter ... tell about a man who may be Americas’s most famous athlete ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play music written by Cole Porter ... tell about a man who may be Americas’s most famous athlete ... and report about the holiday that honors Martin Luther King Junior. Martin Luther King Junior HOST: Monday, January twenty-first is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. It celebrates the life and work of the American civil rights leader. Sarah Long tells us about him. ANNCR: Martin Luther King Junior was born on January fifteenth, Nineteen-Twenty-Nine in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a minister of a Christian Baptist Church. At that time, laws in the American south kept black people separate from white people. The laws forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of the city. Blacks did not have the same civil rights as whites. Martin Luther King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. There he studied the ideas of India’s spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. He also studied American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Both Gandhi and Thoreau wrote about ways to fight injustice. They urged people to disobey unjust laws, but not to use violence. Martin Luther King Junior wanted to spread these ideas about peaceful protest. He became a Baptist minister like his father. He and his wife Coretta moved to Montgomery, Alabama. One day in Nineteen-Fifty-Five, a black woman got on a city bus in Montgomery. She sat in a seat saved for white people. She refused to move. She was arrested. Martin Luther King organized a peaceful protest against the city bus system. The protest succeeded. The Supreme Court later ruled that racial separation in the Montgomery bus system was illegal. Martin Luther King became well known. Groups formed to protest racial separation. He became the leader of the struggle. Each year, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King’s life and work on the Monday nearest his birthday. Schools and government offices are closed. Cities and towns hold special ceremonies to honor him. These include music events, readings and movies. For more information about the life and work of Martin Luther King Junior, listen Sunday to the broadcast of the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Muhammad Ali HOST: Yesterday, January seventeenth, was the birthday of American boxing champion Muhammad Ali. He was sixty years old. Muhammad Ali is the only professional boxer to win the heavyweight championship three times. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in Nineteen-Forty-Two. His parents named him Cassius Clay. Cassius Clay won a gold medal for boxing at the Nineteen-Sixty Summer Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. He was eighteen years old. Then he became a professional boxer. Cassius Clay won the heavyweight boxing championship for the first time in Nineteen-Sixty-Four when he defeated Sonny Liston. Then he joined the Black Muslim religion and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, Ali refused to serve in the United States army during the Vietnam War. The World Boxing Association took away his title as champion and refused to let him fight again. A court later found him guilty of refusing to serve in the military. However, in Nineteen-Seventy-One, the United States Supreme Court changed the lower court’s decision. America’s highest court said Ali had the right to refuse to serve in the military because of religious reasons. Ali re-gained the heavyweight championship in Nineteen-Seventy-Four by defeating George Foreman. He lost the championship to Leon Spinks in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight, then re-gained it by defeating Spinks later that year. Muhammad Ali often appeared on television. He called himself “The Greatest.” He said his boxing method was to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” He wrote funny poems about his opponents. He traveled around the world. Ali earned a lot of money as a boxer. He used some it to build schools, hospitals and Islamic religious centers. Muhammad Ali boxed professionally for twenty-two years. He had more than sixty fights. He retired from boxing in Nineteen-Eighty. The next year, doctors discovered that he had Parkinson’s disease, a nervous system disorder. Ali did not often appear in public after that. But in Nineteen-Ninety-Six, he lit the fire to open the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. He recently attended the opening of a movie made about his life, called “Ali.” Earlier this month, officials in Los Angeles, California announced they were naming January seventeenth in his honor. They said the city was honoring Muhammad Ali for his boxing skills and his humanitarian work. Cole Porter HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Peru. Cesar Montanez Revenga asks about American songwriter Cole Porter. Cole Porter wrote almost one-thousand songs, mostly in the Nineteen-Twenties, Thirties and Forties. Yet they are still being sung and played today. One of his best songs is “Night And Day.” Lena Horne sings it here. ((CUT 1: NIGHT AND DAY)) Cole Porter was born in Eighteen-Ninety-One in the state of Indiana. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. He lived in Europe as a young man. He served with the French military during World War One. Cole Porter married Linda Lee Thomas in Nineteen-Nineteen. They were very rich and gave parties for their friends that lasted for days. Although happily married most of the time, Cole Porter was homosexual. This was both forbidden and accepted in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not secret. But they could never be admitted publicly. Cole Porter wrote songs about love, passion and desire. The words were often unexpected and shocking for their time. Here is an example: Susannah McCorkle sings the original words to Cole Porter’s famous song, “Anything Goes.” ((CUT 2: ANYTHING GOES)) Cole Porter won fame as a musical theater writer by the early Nineteen-Thirties. His plays were produced on Broadway in New York City. He had a new play every year or so. We leave you now with one of his most beautiful songs. It was written for the Nineteen-Thirty-Five show “Jubilee.” Ella Fitzgerald sings “Begin the Beguine.” ((CUT 3: BEGIN THE BEGUINE)) This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Carolyn Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. and report about the holiday that honors Martin Luther King Junior. Martin Luther King Junior HOST: Monday, January twenty-first is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. It celebrates the life and work of the American civil rights leader. Sarah Long tells us about him. ANNCR: Martin Luther King Junior was born on January fifteenth, Nineteen-Twenty-Nine in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a minister of a Christian Baptist Church. At that time, laws in the American south kept black people separate from white people. The laws forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of the city. Blacks did not have the same civil rights as whites. Martin Luther King attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. There he studied the ideas of India’s spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. He also studied American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Both Gandhi and Thoreau wrote about ways to fight injustice. They urged people to disobey unjust laws, but not to use violence. Martin Luther King Junior wanted to spread these ideas about peaceful protest. He became a Baptist minister like his father. He and his wife Coretta moved to Montgomery, Alabama. One day in Nineteen-Fifty-Five, a black woman got on a city bus in Montgomery. She sat in a seat saved for white people. She refused to move. She was arrested. Martin Luther King organized a peaceful protest against the city bus system. The protest succeeded. The Supreme Court later ruled that racial separation in the Montgomery bus system was illegal. Martin Luther King became well known. Groups formed to protest racial separation. He became the leader of the struggle. Each year, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King’s life and work on the Monday nearest his birthday. Schools and government offices are closed. Cities and towns hold special ceremonies to honor him. These include music events, readings and movies. For more information about the life and work of Martin Luther King Junior, listen Sunday to the broadcast of the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Muhammad Ali HOST: Yesterday, January seventeenth, was the birthday of American boxing champion Muhammad Ali. He was sixty years old. Muhammad Ali is the only professional boxer to win the heavyweight championship three times. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in Nineteen-Forty-Two. His parents named him Cassius Clay. Cassius Clay won a gold medal for boxing at the Nineteen-Sixty Summer Olympic Games in Rome, Italy. He was eighteen years old. Then he became a professional boxer. Cassius Clay won the heavyweight boxing championship for the first time in Nineteen-Sixty-Four when he defeated Sonny Liston. Then he joined the Black Muslim religion and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, Ali refused to serve in the United States army during the Vietnam War. The World Boxing Association took away his title as champion and refused to let him fight again. A court later found him guilty of refusing to serve in the military. However, in Nineteen-Seventy-One, the United States Supreme Court changed the lower court’s decision. America’s highest court said Ali had the right to refuse to serve in the military because of religious reasons. Ali re-gained the heavyweight championship in Nineteen-Seventy-Four by defeating George Foreman. He lost the championship to Leon Spinks in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight, then re-gained it by defeating Spinks later that year. Muhammad Ali often appeared on television. He called himself “The Greatest.” He said his boxing method was to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” He wrote funny poems about his opponents. He traveled around the world. Ali earned a lot of money as a boxer. He used some it to build schools, hospitals and Islamic religious centers. Muhammad Ali boxed professionally for twenty-two years. He had more than sixty fights. He retired from boxing in Nineteen-Eighty. The next year, doctors discovered that he had Parkinson’s disease, a nervous system disorder. Ali did not often appear in public after that. But in Nineteen-Ninety-Six, he lit the fire to open the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. He recently attended the opening of a movie made about his life, called “Ali.” Earlier this month, officials in Los Angeles, California announced they were naming January seventeenth in his honor. They said the city was honoring Muhammad Ali for his boxing skills and his humanitarian work. Cole Porter HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Peru. Cesar Montanez Revenga asks about American songwriter Cole Porter. Cole Porter wrote almost one-thousand songs, mostly in the Nineteen-Twenties, Thirties and Forties. Yet they are still being sung and played today. One of his best songs is “Night And Day.” Lena Horne sings it here. ((CUT 1: NIGHT AND DAY)) Cole Porter was born in Eighteen-Ninety-One in the state of Indiana. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. He lived in Europe as a young man. He served with the French military during World War One. Cole Porter married Linda Lee Thomas in Nineteen-Nineteen. They were very rich and gave parties for their friends that lasted for days. Although happily married most of the time, Cole Porter was homosexual. This was both forbidden and accepted in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not secret. But they could never be admitted publicly. Cole Porter wrote songs about love, passion and desire. The words were often unexpected and shocking for their time. Here is an example: Susannah McCorkle sings the original words to Cole Porter’s famous song, “Anything Goes.” ((CUT 2: ANYTHING GOES)) Cole Porter won fame as a musical theater writer by the early Nineteen-Thirties. His plays were produced on Broadway in New York City. He had a new play every year or so. We leave you now with one of his most beautiful songs. It was written for the Nineteen-Thirty-Five show “Jubilee.” Ella Fitzgerald sings “Begin the Beguine.” ((CUT 3: BEGIN THE BEGUINE)) This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Carolyn Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — January 18, 2002: U.S. Navy and Whales
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. In March of the year Two-Thousand, seventeen large ocean animals mysteriously appeared on the coast of some of the Bahama Islands. The islands are near the American state of Florida. The animals were small whales that live only in the ocean and cannot survive on land. Seven of the whales died. Rescuers pushed the other ten whales back into the Atlantic Ocean. Ken Balcomb supervises the Marine Mammal Survey on the Bahamian island of Abaco. He said the first whales appeared near his research station. Mister Balcomb knew that he needed to save tissue from the dead whales to find out why they had left the sea and died. He cut off the heads of some of the dead whales. He then froze the heads to protect their tissue. Mister Balcomb took the frozen whale heads on a passenger airplane to Boston, Massachusetts. He took the whale tissue, weighing hundreds of kilograms, to Darlene Ketten. Mizz Ketten is an expert in whale biology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She used an electronic recording device to examine the whales’ heads. She found that they had suffered severe damage and bleeding in their ears and around their brains. The researchers decided that the whales had suffered from tissue damage caused by an extremely loud noise. The researchers at first thought that some natural event had caused the sound. However, the incidents happened at the same time that the United States Navy was testing an underwater listening device in the area. The device created an extremely loud sound in the ocean. Sound moves more effectively through water than it does through air. Sound is measured in decibels. Sounds that measure one-hundred-eighty decibels can cause tissue damage in ocean animals. The Navy’s tests created sounds of about two-hundred-thirty decibels. These sounds were one-hundred-thousand times louder than the level required to cause harm to ocean animals. Scientists are not sure if the whales were killed by the sounds or if the sound-related injuries damaged their ability to swim safely. The Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service wrote a report about the incidents. The Navy says it has changed the way it tests underwater sounds. It also says it will spend nine-million dollars to study ocean animals. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: test
* Byline: 

 test 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 21, 2002: Hawaiian Music
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The American state of Hawaii is a group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean. Its people, culture and music are different from the rest of America. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: The American state of Hawaii is a group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean. Its people, culture and music are different from the rest of America. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The music of Hawaii is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: KUMA HULA)) VOICE ONE: The kind of singing you just heard is very old. It is the voice of a Kuma Hula, a teacher of the Hawaiian dance called the hula. The song she is singing is as old as the people and culture of Hawaii. This kind of song is called a chant. It is extremely important in Hawaii. It helps to connect the ancient Hawaiian culture of the past with the present and the future. The Kuma Hula is teaching a class of children, some as young as five years old. Already they perform the slow ancient dance steps with a sure knowledge they will carry into the future. Without this strong connection to the past, the music of Hawaii would slowly die and disappear. VOICE TWO: The words the Kuma Hula sings are in the language of Hawaii. The language has become important in recent years. If you use a computer to look on the World Wide Web, you can find lessons in the old language. It is now popular in Hawaii to learn the language. The Hawaiian language is important to the music. It is also important as a connection with the past. Something is unusual about both the lessons for young hula dancers and those who are learning the language. Not all the students are Hawaiian by birth. The people who live in Hawaii today are a mix of many different cultural groups. There are people whose ancestors are Hawaiian. Others came from Japan, China, Korea, and the Philippines. Some people who live in Hawaii are from American Samoa or the mainland of the United States. Still others came from Mexico and Portugal. Almost all these people are citizens of the United States. But they also consider themselves to be Hawaiian. And many have learned to enjoy the rich musical tradition of the Hawaiian culture. VOICE ONE: A good example of this tradition is the beautiful guitar music played in Hawaii. You cannot hear it anywhere else in the world. It is called slack key. The guitar came to the islands of Hawaii in the early Eighteen-hundreds with Mexican cowboys who worked on cattle ranches. The people of Hawaii took the guitar and changed the sound by making the strings much looser. There are several different methods used to tune a slack key guitar. How it is tuned depends on what the guitar player is trying to do. Listen for a few minutes to a slack key guitar that produces a very deep, rich sound. This sound also provides feelings that very closely represent the Hawaiian culture, both past and present. John Keawe (KEY-Why) plays the guitar. The name of the song is “Whale Talk.” ((CUT TWO: WHALE TALK)) VOICE TWO: Slack key guitarist Ozzie Kotani really represents modern Hawaii. The music he plays is a rich mix of ancient and modern Hawaiian sounds played on the slack key guitar. Mister Kotani is also a good example of the mix of cultural groups that are the people of Hawaii. Mister Kotani’s ancestors came to Hawaii from Japan. But he is truly a Hawaiian. He is also one of the best Hawaiian slack key artists in the Islands. Listen as Ozzie Kotani plays a song he wrote, “My Old Guitar.” ((CUT THREE: MY OLD GUITAR)) VOICE ONE: Another stringed instrument used in Hawaiian music is extremely important. People who came from Portugal brought it to the Islands. It looks like a very small guitar or a child’s toy. It only has four strings. It is called an ukulele (oo-koo-LAY-lay). It may look like a child’s toy but in the hands of an expert it can produce very serious music. Listen for a minute to part of a song played on a ukulele. It is called “Morning Dew.” It is played by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (KA-MA-KA-WEE-WHOA-OLAY). ((CUT FOUR: MORNING DEW)) VOICE TWO: We have played some Hawaiian slack key guitar, and you have just heard the Hawaiian ukulele. To better understand Hawaiian music, you must hear a song sung in the ancient language. This song is performed by singing extremely high notes. This kind of singing is called falsetto. The use of a falsetto voice lets the performer sing low notes and extremely high notes. It also lets the performer bring a very different sound to the music. It is extremely difficult to do well. Here is Israel Kamakawiwo’ole singing a song called “Kuhio(KU-HI-O) Bay.” ((CUT FIVE: KUHIO BAY)) VOICE ONE: Now, we will put the slack key guitar together with the ukulele and add a song in the Hawaiian language with normal and falsetto voice. The singer again is Israel Kaamakawiwo’ole. This song is called “Ka Huila Wai” (ka-he-la-WAI). It is a combination of very ancient and modern music. It is the sound of Hawaii today. ((CUT SIX: KA HUILA WAI)) VOICE TWO: Many different kinds of music are played in Hawaii today. Many very good songs are sung in English. Many modern electric musical instruments are used. Much of this kind of music is very popular with the people of Hawaii and those who come to spend their holidays in these famous islands. However, for the music of Hawaii to carry on in the future, the musicians will continue to look to the traditions of the past. ((CUT SEVEN: HAWAII ’78)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((SLACK KEY GUITAR INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The music of Hawaii is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: KUMA HULA)) VOICE ONE: The kind of singing you just heard is very old. It is the voice of a Kuma Hula, a teacher of the Hawaiian dance called the hula. The song she is singing is as old as the people and culture of Hawaii. This kind of song is called a chant. It is extremely important in Hawaii. It helps to connect the ancient Hawaiian culture of the past with the present and the future. The Kuma Hula is teaching a class of children, some as young as five years old. Already they perform the slow ancient dance steps with a sure knowledge they will carry into the future. Without this strong connection to the past, the music of Hawaii would slowly die and disappear. VOICE TWO: The words the Kuma Hula sings are in the language of Hawaii. The language has become important in recent years. If you use a computer to look on the World Wide Web, you can find lessons in the old language. It is now popular in Hawaii to learn the language. The Hawaiian language is important to the music. It is also important as a connection with the past. Something is unusual about both the lessons for young hula dancers and those who are learning the language. Not all the students are Hawaiian by birth. The people who live in Hawaii today are a mix of many different cultural groups. There are people whose ancestors are Hawaiian. Others came from Japan, China, Korea, and the Philippines. Some people who live in Hawaii are from American Samoa or the mainland of the United States. Still others came from Mexico and Portugal. Almost all these people are citizens of the United States. But they also consider themselves to be Hawaiian. And many have learned to enjoy the rich musical tradition of the Hawaiian culture. VOICE ONE: A good example of this tradition is the beautiful guitar music played in Hawaii. You cannot hear it anywhere else in the world. It is called slack key. The guitar came to the islands of Hawaii in the early Eighteen-hundreds with Mexican cowboys who worked on cattle ranches. The people of Hawaii took the guitar and changed the sound by making the strings much looser. There are several different methods used to tune a slack key guitar. How it is tuned depends on what the guitar player is trying to do. Listen for a few minutes to a slack key guitar that produces a very deep, rich sound. This sound also provides feelings that very closely represent the Hawaiian culture, both past and present. John Keawe (KEY-Why) plays the guitar. The name of the song is “Whale Talk.” ((CUT TWO: WHALE TALK)) VOICE TWO: Slack key guitarist Ozzie Kotani really represents modern Hawaii. The music he plays is a rich mix of ancient and modern Hawaiian sounds played on the slack key guitar. Mister Kotani is also a good example of the mix of cultural groups that are the people of Hawaii. Mister Kotani’s ancestors came to Hawaii from Japan. But he is truly a Hawaiian. He is also one of the best Hawaiian slack key artists in the Islands. Listen as Ozzie Kotani plays a song he wrote, “My Old Guitar.” ((CUT THREE: MY OLD GUITAR)) VOICE ONE: Another stringed instrument used in Hawaiian music is extremely important. People who came from Portugal brought it to the Islands. It looks like a very small guitar or a child’s toy. It only has four strings. It is called an ukulele (oo-koo-LAY-lay). It may look like a child’s toy but in the hands of an expert it can produce very serious music. Listen for a minute to part of a song played on a ukulele. It is called “Morning Dew.” It is played by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (KA-MA-KA-WEE-WHOA-OLAY). ((CUT FOUR: MORNING DEW)) VOICE TWO: We have played some Hawaiian slack key guitar, and you have just heard the Hawaiian ukulele. To better understand Hawaiian music, you must hear a song sung in the ancient language. This song is performed by singing extremely high notes. This kind of singing is called falsetto. The use of a falsetto voice lets the performer sing low notes and extremely high notes. It also lets the performer bring a very different sound to the music. It is extremely difficult to do well. Here is Israel Kamakawiwo’ole singing a song called “Kuhio(KU-HI-O) Bay.” ((CUT FIVE: KUHIO BAY)) VOICE ONE: Now, we will put the slack key guitar together with the ukulele and add a song in the Hawaiian language with normal and falsetto voice. The singer again is Israel Kaamakawiwo’ole. This song is called “Ka Huila Wai” (ka-he-la-WAI). It is a combination of very ancient and modern music. It is the sound of Hawaii today. ((CUT SIX: KA HUILA WAI)) VOICE TWO: Many different kinds of music are played in Hawaii today. Many very good songs are sung in English. Many modern electric musical instruments are used. Much of this kind of music is very popular with the people of Hawaii and those who come to spend their holidays in these famous islands. However, for the music of Hawaii to carry on in the future, the musicians will continue to look to the traditions of the past. ((CUT SEVEN: HAWAII ’78)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((SLACK KEY GUITAR INSTEAD OF THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - January 22, 2002: Finding Atlantis
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. (Map - The World Factbook 2001) VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about efforts to find and prove the existence of the ancient lost city of Atlantis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A French scientist believes he has identified the mysterious ancient city of Atlantis. Jacques Collina-Girard says it probably was an island near Spain that sank about eleven-thousand years ago. He says he made the discovery while studying levels of the Atlantic Ocean in ancient times. For thousands of years, people told of the highly developed ancient civilization of Atlantis. The island-city became a legend -- a story repeated over time. The Greek writer Plato wrote about it more than two-thousand-three-hundred years ago. Today, scientists are trying to find evidence of Atlantis and prove it existed. VOICE TWO: Jacques Collina-Girard says Atlantis was an island called Spartel. He says it was about thirty-two kilometers southwest of what is now Tarifa, Spain and about nineteen kilometers northwest of Tangier, Morocco. The scientist says Atlantis’ remains now are sandy areas on the ocean bottom. He estimates that these remains could be as deep as one-hundred-twenty-five meters below the surface of the ocean. Mister Collina-Girard published his research in the “Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences.” The magazine “New Scientist” also reported his findings. Mister Collina-Girard works for the University of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France. He is an expert in the history, structure and development of the Earth. VOICE ONE: Mister Collina-Girard studied levels of the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and Morocco. He says this area contained seven islands during the last Ice Age about twenty-thousand years ago. He believes the sea level at that time was about one-hundred-twenty meters lower than it is today. The French scientist says the seven islands were at the west end of the Strait of Gibraltar. This is very similar to where Plato placed Atlantis. Plato wrote that Atlantis was in front of what he called the Pillars of Hercules. Mister Collina-Girard says the Pillars of Hercules now are known as the Strait of Gibraltar. VOICE TWO: Plato wrote about Atlantis in his works “Timaeus” and “Critias.” He wrote that the people of Atlantis had a highly developed civilization for many centuries. The island was a center for trade and business. He described the people of Atlantis as powerful and intelligent. Their rulers governed areas of Europe and Africa in addition to their own island. Plato described a land of beautiful mountains, valleys and rivers. The people enjoyed rich harvests and grew many kinds of herbs, fruits and nuts. Many animals lived on Atlantis, including a large population of elephants. Plato wrote that the society was a happy one for centuries. In its last years, however, the people were guilty of great wrongdoing. The gods punished them by destroying their city. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Ice covered large parts of the Earth during the Ice Age. When the Ice Age ended, the Earth warmed. Much of the ice melted. Mister Collina-Girard says this caused the sea level to rise for about fifteen-thousand years. At first it rose slowly. Then it rose faster as time passed. Toward the end of the melting period, the ocean covered all but Atlantis and one other island. Mister Collina-Girard reports that the sea rose an average of two-point-four meters during each of the last three-hundred years that Atlantis existed. About eleven-thousand years ago, the scientist says Atlantis disappeared under the water. VOICE TWO: Plato wrote a different ending for Atlantis. He wrote that volcanoes destroyed it. However, Mister Collina-Girard says Plato may have been trying to add interest to his story. Mister Collina-Girard also says Plato was wrong about the size of Atlantis. Plato wrote that it was bigger than Asia and Libya together. Mister Collina-Girard says it was much smaller. The scientist says it was only about fourteen kilometers long by five kilometers wide. VOICE ONE: Mister Collina-Girard says an accident led him to find where he believes Atlantis existed. He says he made the discovery while doing research about another ancient civilization. This caused him to investigate changing sea levels in the ancient world. Other scientists say there is only one way to find out if Atlantis was near Spain. They say scientists must explore the bottom of the ocean. Jacques Collina-Girard plans to dive in the area next summer. Finding objects from a human society would provide more evidence for his discovery. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Over the centuries, scientists, historians, writers and sailors all have searched for Atlantis in many places. Today, however, one of the commonly accepted beliefs is that Atlantis was an island called Thira about one-hundred-thirteen kilometers north of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Some people believe Thira was Atlantis because a volcano destroyed the island about three-thousand-five-hundred years ago. However, Mister Collina-Girard says this idea does not take note of Plato’s writings. Plato wrote that the gods destroyed Atlantis nine-thousand years before his time. That would mean Atlantis sank about eleven-thousand years ago. VOICE ONE: Some people believe the Azores Islands are the mountain tops of the sunken island of Atlantis. More than one-hundred years ago, a former United States Congressman, Ignatius Donnelly, said Atlantis probably was in the Azores Islands. These Atlantic Ocean islands are about one-thousand-three-hundred kilometers west of Portugal. Mister Donnelly believed this because of studies of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Eighteen-Seventies. The ridge is one of the Earth’s largest line of underwater mountains. It extends almost ten-thousand kilometers in the center of the North and South Atlantic Oceans. American, British and German ships made deep-sea soundings in the ridge. The soundings showed parts of sunken land near the Azores. Mud raised from the sunken land contained lava material that had flowed from volcanoes. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Over the years, people have claimed that the lost city of Atlantis existed in other areas around the world. They include South America, the Middle East, the coast of Western Africa, the Sahara Desert and Iceland. Another popular theory says the remains of Atlantis are in Antarctica in the most southern part of the world. Many people believe the city lies under many levels of ice. This belief developed partly from very old maps. Sailors made one of these maps in Fifteen-Thirteen. A Roman Catholic clergyman made another map in Sixteen-Sixty-Five. It appeared to have placed Atlantis in the north Atlantic Ocean. But the clergyman had written “north” on the bottom of the page. Scientists in more modern times say both maps showed the same piece of land. Some people say this land was warm enough in ancient times for people to have lived there. VOICE ONE: Many scientists say Atlantis never existed anywhere. But others now accept the possibility of a real Atlantis because of the science of plate tectonics. Earth scientists say continents are continually moving. They say the continents float on pieces of the Earth’s outer layer or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from below the ocean floor. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again. In the Nineteen-Fifties, American researchers studied the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. They used modern equipment to investigate the ocean floor. Their research helped prove that continents move. VOICE TWO: For many years, scientists believed continents separated over millions of years. They believed that continents divided by moving from side to side. Plate tectonics science suggests that land separates from continents as Earth moves up and down. It suggests that such separation takes place when volcanoes explode. This results in the creation of islands. Plate tectonics science also suggests that seas can cover and destroy islands. Scientist Jacques Collina-Girard believes that is how life may have ended for the people of Atlantis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about efforts to find and prove the existence of the ancient lost city of Atlantis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A French scientist believes he has identified the mysterious ancient city of Atlantis. Jacques Collina-Girard says it probably was an island near Spain that sank about eleven-thousand years ago. He says he made the discovery while studying levels of the Atlantic Ocean in ancient times. For thousands of years, people told of the highly developed ancient civilization of Atlantis. The island-city became a legend -- a story repeated over time. The Greek writer Plato wrote about it more than two-thousand-three-hundred years ago. Today, scientists are trying to find evidence of Atlantis and prove it existed. VOICE TWO: Jacques Collina-Girard says Atlantis was an island called Spartel. He says it was about thirty-two kilometers southwest of what is now Tarifa, Spain and about nineteen kilometers northwest of Tangier, Morocco. The scientist says Atlantis’ remains now are sandy areas on the ocean bottom. He estimates that these remains could be as deep as one-hundred-twenty-five meters below the surface of the ocean. Mister Collina-Girard published his research in the “Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences.” The magazine “New Scientist” also reported his findings. Mister Collina-Girard works for the University of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France. He is an expert in the history, structure and development of the Earth. VOICE ONE: Mister Collina-Girard studied levels of the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and Morocco. He says this area contained seven islands during the last Ice Age about twenty-thousand years ago. He believes the sea level at that time was about one-hundred-twenty meters lower than it is today. The French scientist says the seven islands were at the west end of the Strait of Gibraltar. This is very similar to where Plato placed Atlantis. Plato wrote that Atlantis was in front of what he called the Pillars of Hercules. Mister Collina-Girard says the Pillars of Hercules now are known as the Strait of Gibraltar. VOICE TWO: Plato wrote about Atlantis in his works “Timaeus” and “Critias.” He wrote that the people of Atlantis had a highly developed civilization for many centuries. The island was a center for trade and business. He described the people of Atlantis as powerful and intelligent. Their rulers governed areas of Europe and Africa in addition to their own island. Plato described a land of beautiful mountains, valleys and rivers. The people enjoyed rich harvests and grew many kinds of herbs, fruits and nuts. Many animals lived on Atlantis, including a large population of elephants. Plato wrote that the society was a happy one for centuries. In its last years, however, the people were guilty of great wrongdoing. The gods punished them by destroying their city. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Ice covered large parts of the Earth during the Ice Age. When the Ice Age ended, the Earth warmed. Much of the ice melted. Mister Collina-Girard says this caused the sea level to rise for about fifteen-thousand years. At first it rose slowly. Then it rose faster as time passed. Toward the end of the melting period, the ocean covered all but Atlantis and one other island. Mister Collina-Girard reports that the sea rose an average of two-point-four meters during each of the last three-hundred years that Atlantis existed. About eleven-thousand years ago, the scientist says Atlantis disappeared under the water. VOICE TWO: Plato wrote a different ending for Atlantis. He wrote that volcanoes destroyed it. However, Mister Collina-Girard says Plato may have been trying to add interest to his story. Mister Collina-Girard also says Plato was wrong about the size of Atlantis. Plato wrote that it was bigger than Asia and Libya together. Mister Collina-Girard says it was much smaller. The scientist says it was only about fourteen kilometers long by five kilometers wide. VOICE ONE: Mister Collina-Girard says an accident led him to find where he believes Atlantis existed. He says he made the discovery while doing research about another ancient civilization. This caused him to investigate changing sea levels in the ancient world. Other scientists say there is only one way to find out if Atlantis was near Spain. They say scientists must explore the bottom of the ocean. Jacques Collina-Girard plans to dive in the area next summer. Finding objects from a human society would provide more evidence for his discovery. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Over the centuries, scientists, historians, writers and sailors all have searched for Atlantis in many places. Today, however, one of the commonly accepted beliefs is that Atlantis was an island called Thira about one-hundred-thirteen kilometers north of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Some people believe Thira was Atlantis because a volcano destroyed the island about three-thousand-five-hundred years ago. However, Mister Collina-Girard says this idea does not take note of Plato’s writings. Plato wrote that the gods destroyed Atlantis nine-thousand years before his time. That would mean Atlantis sank about eleven-thousand years ago. VOICE ONE: Some people believe the Azores Islands are the mountain tops of the sunken island of Atlantis. More than one-hundred years ago, a former United States Congressman, Ignatius Donnelly, said Atlantis probably was in the Azores Islands. These Atlantic Ocean islands are about one-thousand-three-hundred kilometers west of Portugal. Mister Donnelly believed this because of studies of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Eighteen-Seventies. The ridge is one of the Earth’s largest line of underwater mountains. It extends almost ten-thousand kilometers in the center of the North and South Atlantic Oceans. American, British and German ships made deep-sea soundings in the ridge. The soundings showed parts of sunken land near the Azores. Mud raised from the sunken land contained lava material that had flowed from volcanoes. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Over the years, people have claimed that the lost city of Atlantis existed in other areas around the world. They include South America, the Middle East, the coast of Western Africa, the Sahara Desert and Iceland. Another popular theory says the remains of Atlantis are in Antarctica in the most southern part of the world. Many people believe the city lies under many levels of ice. This belief developed partly from very old maps. Sailors made one of these maps in Fifteen-Thirteen. A Roman Catholic clergyman made another map in Sixteen-Sixty-Five. It appeared to have placed Atlantis in the north Atlantic Ocean. But the clergyman had written “north” on the bottom of the page. Scientists in more modern times say both maps showed the same piece of land. Some people say this land was warm enough in ancient times for people to have lived there. VOICE ONE: Many scientists say Atlantis never existed anywhere. But others now accept the possibility of a real Atlantis because of the science of plate tectonics. Earth scientists say continents are continually moving. They say the continents float on pieces of the Earth’s outer layer or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from below the ocean floor. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again. In the Nineteen-Fifties, American researchers studied the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. They used modern equipment to investigate the ocean floor. Their research helped prove that continents move. VOICE TWO: For many years, scientists believed continents separated over millions of years. They believed that continents divided by moving from side to side. Plate tectonics science suggests that land separates from continents as Earth moves up and down. It suggests that such separation takes place when volcanoes explode. This results in the creation of islands. Plate tectonics science also suggests that seas can cover and destroy islands. Scientist Jacques Collina-Girard believes that is how life may have ended for the people of Atlantis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - January 21, 2002: Clearing Land Mines in Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, thousands of people are killed or injured by explosions from land mines. This is a serious problem in many developing countries that are experiencing war. Afghanistan is considered the most heavily land-mined country in the world. Soviet forces fighting in Afghanistan placed most of the bombs during the Nineteen-Eighties. Land mine victim This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, thousands of people are killed or injured by explosions from land mines. This is a serious problem in many developing countries that are experiencing war. Afghanistan is considered the most heavily land-mined country in the world. Soviet forces fighting in Afghanistan placed most of the bombs during the Nineteen-Eighties. The United Nations estimates that as many as ten-million land mines were buried in Afghanistan before the American-led war against terrorism started. That number has increased. United States military planes dropped unexploded cluster bombs in Afghanistan. These bombs are especially dangerous because they look like games for children to play with. Now, the United States is helping Afghanistan remove these dangerous land mines. It has employed a company based in Washington, D.C., called Ronco Consulting Company. Ronco is sending an eleven-man team of experts to Afghanistan to help remove the bombs. The team will also train Afghan officials in mine removal techniques. They will start in Jalalabad, then move to four other areas of the country. Stephen Edelmann and Ronald Boyd started Ronco in Nineteen-Seventy-Four. Since that time, the company has worked on more than three-hundred projects in more than fifty developing countries. About ninety people work for Ronco in the United States. More than three-hundred people work for the company around the world. In recent years, Ronco experts have gone to several other countries to find and remove land mines. The company uses metal sensing equipment and specially trained dogs to find the buried bombs. It also helps countries create special picture books for children. These books warn children about the dangers of land mines. Human Rights Watch estimates that a single land mine costs between three and thirty dollars to make. Yet, the cost of finding and removing a single bomb is between three-hundred and one-thousand dollars. Although the cost is high, the United States believes it is money well spent. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States will help rebuild Afghanistan and bring hope to its people. He says that hope will begin with clearing the country of land mines. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. The United Nations estimates that as many as ten-million land mines were buried in Afghanistan before the American-led war against terrorism started. That number has increased. United States military planes dropped unexploded cluster bombs in Afghanistan. These bombs are especially dangerous because they look like games for children to play with. Now, the United States is helping Afghanistan remove these dangerous land mines. It has employed a company based in Washington, D.C., called Ronco Consulting Company. Ronco is sending an eleven-man team of experts to Afghanistan to help remove the bombs. The team will also train Afghan officials in mine removal techniques. They will start in Jalalabad, then move to four other areas of the country. Stephen Edelmann and Ronald Boyd started Ronco in Nineteen-Seventy-Four. Since that time, the company has worked on more than three-hundred projects in more than fifty developing countries. About ninety people work for Ronco in the United States. More than three-hundred people work for the company around the world. In recent years, Ronco experts have gone to several other countries to find and remove land mines. The company uses metal sensing equipment and specially trained dogs to find the buried bombs. It also helps countries create special picture books for children. These books warn children about the dangers of land mines. Human Rights Watch estimates that a single land mine costs between three and thirty dollars to make. Yet, the cost of finding and removing a single bomb is between three-hundred and one-thousand dollars. Although the cost is high, the United States believes it is money well spent. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the United States will help rebuild Afghanistan and bring hope to its people. He says that hope will begin with clearing the country of land mines. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-5-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – January 22, 2002: Treating Stress in Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. People often experience stress as a result of events in their lives. Stress is a physical condition that results from real or expected problems. People may experience stress when they lose a job or feel threatened. Common signs include increased heart rate, higher blood pressure and muscle tension. American agriculture experts say farm animals also may experience stress. Animals may experience stress after giving birth or for other reasons. They say stress may affect meat quality, milk production and the health of farm animals. Experts say stress in animals is more difficult to identify. Farmers can look for signs such as lower than expected body weight and increased risk of disease. Ted Elsasser is a scientist at the United States Agricultural Research Service. He is studying a possible sign of stress in animals. He says changed proteins called nitrated proteins may serve as an early warning system for the problem. Currently, farmers use antibiotics to treat stress in animals. However, repeated use of use antibiotics can lead to bacteria that resist the drugs. Mister Elsasser is studying another method. He found that Vitamin E may protect farm animals against the harmful effects of stress. In an experiment, he gave Vitamin E to six young cows. Then he injected the animals with a harmful substance taken from the cell walls of bacteria. This toxin causes the defense system of the animals to react as if an infection were present. The scientist injected six other calves with only the toxin. Four other cows did not receive the toxin or the Vitamin E. Then Mister Elsasser studied the animals. All of the animals that received the toxin had lower levels of a natural growth substance in their liver and blood, compared with the untreated calves. However, the calves that were given Vitamin E and the toxin had higher levels of the growth factor than those that received only the toxin. The calves given vitamin E also recovered more quickly from the effects of the harmful substance. Mister Elsasser says using Vitamin E helps support growth rates and may prevent some infections. He says being able to prevent infections linked to stress could lead to lower medical costs and healthier farm animals. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. People often experience stress as a result of events in their lives. Stress is a physical condition that results from real or expected problems. People may experience stress when they lose a job or feel threatened. Common signs include increased heart rate, higher blood pressure and muscle tension. American agriculture experts say farm animals also may experience stress. Animals may experience stress after giving birth or for other reasons. They say stress may affect meat quality, milk production and the health of farm animals. Experts say stress in animals is more difficult to identify. Farmers can look for signs such as lower than expected body weight and increased risk of disease. Ted Elsasser is a scientist at the United States Agricultural Research Service. He is studying a possible sign of stress in animals. He says changed proteins called nitrated proteins may serve as an early warning system for the problem. Currently, farmers use antibiotics to treat stress in animals. However, repeated use of use antibiotics can lead to bacteria that resist the drugs. Mister Elsasser is studying another method. He found that Vitamin E may protect farm animals against the harmful effects of stress. In an experiment, he gave Vitamin E to six young cows. Then he injected the animals with a harmful substance taken from the cell walls of bacteria. This toxin causes the defense system of the animals to react as if an infection were present. The scientist injected six other calves with only the toxin. Four other cows did not receive the toxin or the Vitamin E. Then Mister Elsasser studied the animals. All of the animals that received the toxin had lower levels of a natural growth substance in their liver and blood, compared with the untreated calves. However, the calves that were given Vitamin E and the toxin had higher levels of the growth factor than those that received only the toxin. The calves given vitamin E also recovered more quickly from the effects of the harmful substance. Mister Elsasser says using Vitamin E helps support growth rates and may prevent some infections. He says being able to prevent infections linked to stress could lead to lower medical costs and healthier farm animals. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 19, 2002: Ford Motor Co. Re-organizes; Big Loss in 2001
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Last week, the second-largest American automobile manufacturer, Ford Motor Company, announced plans to re-organize. It said it would close five factories and cut thirty-five thousand jobs worldwide. Ford also said it would stop making four of its car models. Ford expects to be manufacturing about one-million fewer cars by the year Two-Thousand-Five than it does now. Ford auto worker This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Last week, the second-largest American automobile manufacturer, Ford Motor Company, announced plans to re-organize. It said it would close five factories and cut thirty-five thousand jobs worldwide. Ford also said it would stop making four of its car models. Ford expects to be manufacturing about one-million fewer cars by the year Two-Thousand-Five than it does now. Most of the job cuts will affect workers in North America. Four of the factories that will close are in the United States. The other is in Ontario, Canada. Ford will end about twenty-two-thousand jobs in North America. The rest of the cuts will happen in Europe. The company’s chief executive officer, William Ford, announced the cuts. He said the company is sorry that some of its plans will cause pain. But, Mister Ford said he believes the reductions are necessary for the company to compete. Mister Ford also said he would not accept any pay from the company, except in stocks. He said, this way, he will only earn money if the re-organization succeeds. On Thursday, Ford announced it had lost almost five-and-one-half thousand-million dollars last year. The loss includes more than four-thousand-million dollars Ford will spend to re-organize. The last time the company had a yearly loss was in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. In Two-Thousand, Ford recorded a profit of more than six-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. Mister Ford says that great success may have led the company to underestimate the growing strength of competitors. He said Ford also under-estimated the effect of the slowing of the economy. Financial experts say all three large American car companies were hurt by the terrorist attacks in the United States. Sales of new cars dropped after September eleventh. Car companies began to make limited special offers to get shoppers interested in buying new cars. These offers included interest-free loans to buy cars. The offers did increase car sales. Yet, experts say the increase may have been too great. They say that some people who planned to buy new cars in Two-Thousand-Two bought them early in order to get the special offer. That means car companies lost the business of people who would have paid a higher price. American car companies were also hurt by foreign competition. Sales of Japanese and Korean made cars are increasing in the United States. Ford had other increased costs last year after the media began reporting serious crashes of Ford Explorers. The crashes appeared to be caused by the sudden failure of tires made by the Bridgestone/Firestone company. Ford had to replace the tires. Experts say this year will be difficult for the Ford Motor company. But company officials hope the re-organization plan will lead to increased profits in the future. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. Most of the job cuts will affect workers in North America. Four of the factories that will close are in the United States. The other is in Ontario, Canada. Ford will end about twenty-two-thousand jobs in North America. The rest of the cuts will happen in Europe. The company’s chief executive officer, William Ford, announced the cuts. He said the company is sorry that some of its plans will cause pain. But, Mister Ford said he believes the reductions are necessary for the company to compete. Mister Ford also said he would not accept any pay from the company, except in stocks. He said, this way, he will only earn money if the re-organization succeeds. On Thursday, Ford announced it had lost almost five-and-one-half thousand-million dollars last year. The loss includes more than four-thousand-million dollars Ford will spend to re-organize. The last time the company had a yearly loss was in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. In Two-Thousand, Ford recorded a profit of more than six-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. Mister Ford says that great success may have led the company to underestimate the growing strength of competitors. He said Ford also under-estimated the effect of the slowing of the economy. Financial experts say all three large American car companies were hurt by the terrorist attacks in the United States. Sales of new cars dropped after September eleventh. Car companies began to make limited special offers to get shoppers interested in buying new cars. These offers included interest-free loans to buy cars. The offers did increase car sales. Yet, experts say the increase may have been too great. They say that some people who planned to buy new cars in Two-Thousand-Two bought them early in order to get the special offer. That means car companies lost the business of people who would have paid a higher price. American car companies were also hurt by foreign competition. Sales of Japanese and Korean made cars are increasing in the United States. Ford had other increased costs last year after the media began reporting serious crashes of Ford Explorers. The crashes appeared to be caused by the sudden failure of tires made by the Bridgestone/Firestone company. Ford had to replace the tires. Experts say this year will be difficult for the Ford Motor company. But company officials hope the re-organization plan will lead to increased profits in the future. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-18-7-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 20, 2002: Martin Luther King Jr., Part 1
* Byline: 

 Anncr: People in America - a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Martin Luther King, Jr. Anncr: People in America - a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: (Theme) Today, Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal begin the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: It all started on a bus. A black woman was returning home from work after a long, hard day. She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt. But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama. And the year was nineteen fifty-five. In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus. So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat. But the woman refused, and she was arrested. Incidents like this had happened before. But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks. This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest. He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed. The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King. He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system. The protest became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement. VOICE 2: It all started on a bus. A black woman was returning home from work after a long, hard day. She sat near the front of the bus because she was tired and her legs hurt. But the bus belonged to the city of Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama. And the year was nineteen fifty-five. In those days, black people could sit only in the back of the bus. So the driver ordered the woman to give up her seat. But the woman refused, and she was arrested. Incidents like this had happened before. But no one had ever spoken out against such treatment of blacks. This time, however, a young black preacher organized a protest. He called on all black citizens to stop riding the buses in Montgomery until the laws were changed. The name of the young preacher was Martin Luther King. He led the protest movement to end injustice in the Montgomery city bus system. The protest became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The protest marked the beginning of the civil rights movement in the United States. This is the story of Martin Luther King, and his part in the early days of the civil rights movement. VOICE 2: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen-twenty-nine. He was born into a religious family. Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church. And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion. In nineteen twenty-nine, atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States. Many black families came to the city in search of a better life. There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities. But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites. The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States. They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city. Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated. VOICE 1: Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young. But as he grew older, he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally. One day martin and his father went out to buy shoes. They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman. The businessman sold shoes to all people. But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store. He ordered martin's father to obey the rule. Martin never forgot his father's angry answer: "If you do not sell shoes to black people at the front of the store, you will not sell shoes to us at all." Such incidents, however, were rare during martin's early life. Instead, he led the life of a normal boy. Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly. He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university. The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta. Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study. VOICE 2: It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher. At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking. He soon was able to test his gifts. One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church. When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them. But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King. A church member once described him: "The boy seemed much older than his years. He understood life and its problems." VOICE 1: Martin seemed wise to others because of his studies at the university. He carefully read the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and thinker. Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice. Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws. He taught his followers never to use violence. Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs. As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people. The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau -- non-violence and civil disobedience could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans. Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right. He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau. Years later he said: "My university studies gave me the basic truths I now believe. I discovered the idea of humanity's oneness and the dignity and value of all human character." VOICE 2: Martin continued his studies in religion for almost ten years. When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston. It was in Boston that martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife. Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown. His brother once said that Martin "never had one girlfriend for more than a year." VOICE 1: But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different. The first time he saw her Martin said: "You have everything I have ever wanted in a wife." Coretta was surprised at his words. But she felt that Martin was serious and honest. A short time later, they were married. Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree in religion. The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. VOICE 2: Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery. Their first child was born. Martin's work at the church was going well. He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor. And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher. Coretta remembered their life as simple and without worries. Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a montgomery city bus. And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system. Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed -- more important even than his own life. But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign. He was only twenty-six years old. He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers. VOICE 1: Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement. But he was faced with a serious problem. He asked: "How can I make my people militant enough to win our goals, while keeping peace within the movement." The answer came to him from the teachings of gandhi and thoreau. In his first speech as a leader, Martin said: "We must seek to show we are right through peaceful, not violent means. Love must be the ideal guiding our actions. If we protest bravely, and yet with pride and Christian love, then future historians will say: "There lived a great people, a black people, who gave new hope to civilization." With these words, a new movement was born. It was non-violent and peaceful. But victory was far from sure, and many difficult days of struggle lay ahead. (Theme) Anncr: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by William Rodgers. Listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen-twenty-nine. He was born into a religious family. Martin's father was a preacher at a Baptist church. And his mother came from a family with strong ties to the Baptist religion. In nineteen twenty-nine, atlanta was one of the wealthiest cities in the southern part of the United States. Many black families came to the city in search of a better life. There was less racial tension between blacks and whites in Atlanta than in other southern cities. But Atlanta still had laws designed to keep black people separate from whites. The laws of racial separation existed all over the southern part of the United States. They forced blacks to attend separate schools and live in separate areas of a city. Blacks did not have the same rights as white people, and were often poorer and less educated. VOICE 1: Martin Luther King did not know about racial separation when he was young. But as he grew older, he soon saw that blacks were not treated equally. One day martin and his father went out to buy shoes. They entered a shoe store owned by a white businessman. The businessman sold shoes to all people. But he had a rule that blacks could not buy shoes in the front part of the store. He ordered martin's father to obey the rule. Martin never forgot his father's angry answer: "If you do not sell shoes to black people at the front of the store, you will not sell shoes to us at all." Such incidents, however, were rare during martin's early life. Instead, he led the life of a normal boy. Martin liked to learn, and he passed through school very quickly. He was only fifteen when he was ready to enter the university. The university, called Morehouse College, was in Atlanta. Morehouse College was one of the few universities in the South where black students could study. VOICE 2: It was at the university that Martin decided to become a preacher. At the same time, he also discovered he had a gift for public speaking. He soon was able to test his gifts. One Sunday, Martin's father asked him to preach at his church. When Martin arrived, the church members were surprised to see such a young man getting ready to speak to them. But they were more surprised to find themselves deeply moved by the words of young Martin Luther King. A church member once described him: "The boy seemed much older than his years. He understood life and its problems." VOICE 1: Martin seemed wise to others because of his studies at the university. He carefully read the works of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader and thinker. Martin also studied the books of the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Both men wrote about ways to fight injustice. Gandhi had led his people to freedom by peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws. He taught his followers never to use violence. Thoreau also urged people to disobey laws that were not just, and to be willing to go to prison for their beliefs. As he studied, Martin thought he had found the answer for his people. The ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau -- non-violence and civil disobedience could be used together to win equal rights for black Americans. Martin knew, then, that his decision to become a preacher was right. He believed that as a preacher he could spread the ideas of Gandhi and Thoreau. Years later he said: "My university studies gave me the basic truths I now believe. I discovered the idea of humanity's oneness and the dignity and value of all human character." VOICE 2: Martin continued his studies in religion for almost ten years. When he was twenty-two, he moved north to study in Boston. It was in Boston that martin met Coretta Scott, the woman who later became his wife. Martin always had been very popular with the girls in his hometown. His brother once said that Martin "never had one girlfriend for more than a year." VOICE 1: But Martin felt Coretta Scott was different. The first time he saw her Martin said: "You have everything I have ever wanted in a wife." Coretta was surprised at his words. But she felt that Martin was serious and honest. A short time later, they were married. Martin soon finished his studies in Boston, and received a doctorate degree in religion. The young preacher then was offered a job at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. VOICE 2: Martin Luther King and his wife were happy in Montgomery. Their first child was born. Martin's work at the church was going well. He became involved in a number of activities to help the poor. And the members of his church spoke highly of their new preacher. Coretta remembered their life as simple and without worries. Then, a black woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested for sitting in the white part of a montgomery city bus. And Martin Luther King organized a protest against the Montgomery bus system. Martin believed it was very important for the bus boycott to succeed -- more important even than his own life. But he worried about his ability to lead such an important campaign. He was only twenty-six years old. He prayed to God for help and believed that God answered his prayers. VOICE 1: Martin knew that his actions and his speeches would be important for the civil rights movement. But he was faced with a serious problem. He asked: "How can I make my people militant enough to win our goals, while keeping peace within the movement." The answer came to him from the teachings of gandhi and thoreau. In his first speech as a leader, Martin said: "We must seek to show we are right through peaceful, not violent means. Love must be the ideal guiding our actions. If we protest bravely, and yet with pride and Christian love, then future historians will say: "There lived a great people, a black people, who gave new hope to civilization." With these words, a new movement was born. It was non-violent and peaceful. But victory was far from sure, and many difficult days of struggle lay ahead. (Theme) Anncr: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America. Your narrators were Warren Scheer and Shep O'Neal. Our program was written by William Rodgers. Listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 23, 2002: National Highway System
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Several years ago a first time visitor to the United States was asked what he liked best about the country. He immediately said, “I love your roads. You can drive a car very quickly anywhere.” Today we tell about the history of the American national road system. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In the United States it is possible to drive more than four-thousand kilometers from the East Coast on the Atlantic Ocean to the West Coast on the Pacific Ocean. You can also drive more than two-thousand kilometers from near the Canadian border south to the Mexican border. You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic signals and no stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at all. This is possible because of the Interstate Highway system. This system has almost seventy-thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Interstate Highway system is usually two roads, one in each direction, separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one-hundred and one-hundred twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway system is only a small part of the huge system of roads in the United States. VOICE TWO: To understand the Interstate Highway system, it is helpful to understand the history of roads. Roads in most countries were first built to permit armies to travel from one part of the country to another to fight against an invader. The ancient Romans build roads over most of Europe to permit their armies to move quickly from one place to another. People who traded goods began using these roads for business. Good roads helped them to move their goods faster from one area to another. No roads existed when early settlers arrived in the area of North America that would become the United States. Most settlers built their homes near the ocean or along major rivers. This made transportation easy. A few early roads were built near some cities. Travel on land was often difficult because there was no road system in most areas. VOICE ONE: In Seventy-Eighty-Five, farmers in the Ohio River Valley used rivers to take cut trees to the southern city of New Orleans. It was easier to walk or ride a horse home than to try to go by boat up the river. One of the first roads was built to help these farmers return home after they sold their wood. It began as nothing more than a path used by native Americans. American soldiers helped make this path into an early road. The new road extended from the city of Nashville, in Tennessee to the city of Natchez in the southern state of Louisiana. It was called the Natchez Trace. You can still follow about seven-hundred kilometers of the Natchez Trace. Today, the road is a beautiful National Park. It takes the traveler though forests that look much the same as they did two-hundred years ago. You can still see a few of the buildings in which early travelers slept overnight. VOICE TWO: The Natchez Trace was called a road. Yet it was not what we understand a road to be. It was just a cleared path through the forest. It was used by people walking, or riding a horse or in a wagon pulled by horses. In Eighteen-Oh-Six, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that approved money for building a road to make it easier to travel west. Work began on the first part of the road in Cumberland in the eastern state of Maryland. When finished, the road reached all the way to the city of Saint Louis in what would become the middle-western state of Missouri. It was named the National Road. The National Road was similar to the Natchez Trace. It followed a path made by American Indians. Work began in Eighteen-Eleven. It was not finished until about Eighteen-Thirty-Three. The National Road was used by thousands of people who moved toward the west. These people paid money to use the road. This money was used to repair the road. Now, the old National Road is part of United States Highway Forty. By the Nineteen-Twenties, Highway Forty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. You can still see signs that say "National Road" along the side of parts of it. Several statues were placed along this road to honor the women who moved west over the National Road in the Eighteen-hundreds. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Hundred, it still was difficult to travel by road. Nothing extended from the eastern United States to the extreme western part of the country. Several people wanted to see a road built all the way across the country. Carl Fisher was a man who had ideas and knew how to act on them. Mister Fisher built the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway where car races still take place. In Nineteen-Twelve, Carl Fisher began working on his idea to build a coast to coast highway using crushed rocks. He called this dream…the Coast to Coast Rock Highway. VOICE TWO: Carl Fisher asked many people to give money for the project. One of these men was Henry Joy, the president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Mister Joy agreed, but suggested another name for the highway. He said the road should be named after President Abraham Lincoln. He said it should be called the “Lincoln Highway.” Everyone involved with the project agreed to the new name. The Lincoln Highway began in the east in New York City’s famous Times Square. It ended in the west in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway was completed in about Nineteen-Thirty-Three. VOICE ONE: Later, the federal government decided to assign each highway in the country its own number. Numbers were easier to remember than names. The Lincoln Highway became Highway Thirty for most of its length. Today, you can still follow much of the Lincoln Highway. It passes through small towns and large cities. This makes it a slow but interesting way to travel. Highway Thirty still begins in New York and ends near San Francisco. And it is still remembered as the first coast-to-coast highway. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Nineteen, a young army officer named Dwight Eisenhower took part in the first crossing of the United States by army vehicles. The vehicles left Washington D-C and drove to San Francisco. It was not a good trip. The vehicles had problems with thick mud, ice and mechanical difficulties. It took the American army vehicles sixty-two days to reach San Francisco. Dwight Eisenhower believed the United States needed a highway that would aid in the defense of the country. He believed the nation needed a road system that would permit military vehicles to travel quickly from one coast to the other. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States. He signed the legislation that created the Federal Interstate Highway system. Work was begun almost immediately. VOICE ONE: Building such an interstate highway system was a major task. Many problems had to be solved. The highway passed through different areas that were wetlands, mountains and deserts. It was very difficult to build the system. Yet lessons learned while building it influenced the building of highways around the world. Today, the interstate system links every major city in the United States. It also links the United States with Canada and Mexico. The Interstate Highway system has been an important part of the nation’s economic growth during the past forty-years. Experts believe that trucks using the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold. Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy Interstate Highways all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places, gasoline stations and shopping centers. The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly from one part of the country to another. The United States government re-named the Interstate Highway system at the end of the Twentieth Century. Large signs now can be seen along the side of the highway that say, “Eisenhower Interstate System.” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Several years ago a first time visitor to the United States was asked what he liked best about the country. He immediately said, “I love your roads. You can drive a car very quickly anywhere.” Today we tell about the history of the American national road system. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In the United States it is possible to drive more than four-thousand kilometers from the East Coast on the Atlantic Ocean to the West Coast on the Pacific Ocean. You can also drive more than two-thousand kilometers from near the Canadian border south to the Mexican border. You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic signals and no stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at all. This is possible because of the Interstate Highway system. This system has almost seventy-thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states. The Interstate Highway system is usually two roads, one in each direction, separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one-hundred and one-hundred twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway system is only a small part of the huge system of roads in the United States. VOICE TWO: To understand the Interstate Highway system, it is helpful to understand the history of roads. Roads in most countries were first built to permit armies to travel from one part of the country to another to fight against an invader. The ancient Romans build roads over most of Europe to permit their armies to move quickly from one place to another. People who traded goods began using these roads for business. Good roads helped them to move their goods faster from one area to another. No roads existed when early settlers arrived in the area of North America that would become the United States. Most settlers built their homes near the ocean or along major rivers. This made transportation easy. A few early roads were built near some cities. Travel on land was often difficult because there was no road system in most areas. VOICE ONE: In Seventy-Eighty-Five, farmers in the Ohio River Valley used rivers to take cut trees to the southern city of New Orleans. It was easier to walk or ride a horse home than to try to go by boat up the river. One of the first roads was built to help these farmers return home after they sold their wood. It began as nothing more than a path used by native Americans. American soldiers helped make this path into an early road. The new road extended from the city of Nashville, in Tennessee to the city of Natchez in the southern state of Louisiana. It was called the Natchez Trace. You can still follow about seven-hundred kilometers of the Natchez Trace. Today, the road is a beautiful National Park. It takes the traveler though forests that look much the same as they did two-hundred years ago. You can still see a few of the buildings in which early travelers slept overnight. VOICE TWO: The Natchez Trace was called a road. Yet it was not what we understand a road to be. It was just a cleared path through the forest. It was used by people walking, or riding a horse or in a wagon pulled by horses. In Eighteen-Oh-Six, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that approved money for building a road to make it easier to travel west. Work began on the first part of the road in Cumberland in the eastern state of Maryland. When finished, the road reached all the way to the city of Saint Louis in what would become the middle-western state of Missouri. It was named the National Road. The National Road was similar to the Natchez Trace. It followed a path made by American Indians. Work began in Eighteen-Eleven. It was not finished until about Eighteen-Thirty-Three. The National Road was used by thousands of people who moved toward the west. These people paid money to use the road. This money was used to repair the road. Now, the old National Road is part of United States Highway Forty. By the Nineteen-Twenties, Highway Forty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. You can still see signs that say "National Road" along the side of parts of it. Several statues were placed along this road to honor the women who moved west over the National Road in the Eighteen-hundreds. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Hundred, it still was difficult to travel by road. Nothing extended from the eastern United States to the extreme western part of the country. Several people wanted to see a road built all the way across the country. Carl Fisher was a man who had ideas and knew how to act on them. Mister Fisher built the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway where car races still take place. In Nineteen-Twelve, Carl Fisher began working on his idea to build a coast to coast highway using crushed rocks. He called this dream…the Coast to Coast Rock Highway. VOICE TWO: Carl Fisher asked many people to give money for the project. One of these men was Henry Joy, the president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Mister Joy agreed, but suggested another name for the highway. He said the road should be named after President Abraham Lincoln. He said it should be called the “Lincoln Highway.” Everyone involved with the project agreed to the new name. The Lincoln Highway began in the east in New York City’s famous Times Square. It ended in the west in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway was completed in about Nineteen-Thirty-Three. VOICE ONE: Later, the federal government decided to assign each highway in the country its own number. Numbers were easier to remember than names. The Lincoln Highway became Highway Thirty for most of its length. Today, you can still follow much of the Lincoln Highway. It passes through small towns and large cities. This makes it a slow but interesting way to travel. Highway Thirty still begins in New York and ends near San Francisco. And it is still remembered as the first coast-to-coast highway. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Nineteen, a young army officer named Dwight Eisenhower took part in the first crossing of the United States by army vehicles. The vehicles left Washington D-C and drove to San Francisco. It was not a good trip. The vehicles had problems with thick mud, ice and mechanical difficulties. It took the American army vehicles sixty-two days to reach San Francisco. Dwight Eisenhower believed the United States needed a highway that would aid in the defense of the country. He believed the nation needed a road system that would permit military vehicles to travel quickly from one coast to the other. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States. He signed the legislation that created the Federal Interstate Highway system. Work was begun almost immediately. VOICE ONE: Building such an interstate highway system was a major task. Many problems had to be solved. The highway passed through different areas that were wetlands, mountains and deserts. It was very difficult to build the system. Yet lessons learned while building it influenced the building of highways around the world. Today, the interstate system links every major city in the United States. It also links the United States with Canada and Mexico. The Interstate Highway system has been an important part of the nation’s economic growth during the past forty-years. Experts believe that trucks using the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold. Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy Interstate Highways all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places, gasoline stations and shopping centers. The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly from one part of the country to another. The United States government re-named the Interstate Highway system at the end of the Twentieth Century. Large signs now can be seen along the side of the highway that say, “Eisenhower Interstate System.” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 23, 2002: Aging Protein
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A new study suggests that a protein that protects animals from cancer early in life may later cause extreme aging. The protein is called p-fifty-three. Scientists say p-fifty-three also helps prevent cancer in humans. It probably does this by halting growth or killing damaged cells that might develop into tumors. However, recent research on mice also shows that increased activity by the protein ages the animals later in life. It stops the natural renewal of their tissue and organs. The study also showed that p-fifty-three caused other effects of aging. Scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, reported their work in the publication “Nature.” Lawrence Donehower led a team that studied normal mice. The team also studied mice that were accidentally created with unusually large amounts of p-fifty-three in their cells. The scientists observed that the mice with extra p-fifty-three aged sooner than normal. Their bones became weak. Their muscles and organs became smaller. They lost weight. They lost some of their hair. However, these mice did not develop cancerous tumors. By comparison, forty-five percent of the normal animals developed tumors. Still, the normal mice lived an average twenty percent longer than the ones with extra p-fifty-three. “Nature” magazine published the comments of two independent experts about the results of the Baylor team research. The experts said the study may mean that aging may be a product of the body’s natural protection against cancer. The study has special importance for scientists trying to develop medicines to treat the effects of aging. The research raises the question if such treatments that suppress the p-fifty-three gene could make a person more likely to get cancer. The study results also may be important for young cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. These chemical treatments help suppress tumors. They do this by attacking some of the genetic material in the body’s cells. However, the process may increase the activity of the p-fifty-three protein. This might threaten recovered cancer patients with aging sooner than normal. These young people might develop age-related health problems before their time. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A new study suggests that a protein that protects animals from cancer early in life may later cause extreme aging. The protein is called p-fifty-three. Scientists say p-fifty-three also helps prevent cancer in humans. It probably does this by halting growth or killing damaged cells that might develop into tumors. However, recent research on mice also shows that increased activity by the protein ages the animals later in life. It stops the natural renewal of their tissue and organs. The study also showed that p-fifty-three caused other effects of aging. Scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, reported their work in the publication “Nature.” Lawrence Donehower led a team that studied normal mice. The team also studied mice that were accidentally created with unusually large amounts of p-fifty-three in their cells. The scientists observed that the mice with extra p-fifty-three aged sooner than normal. Their bones became weak. Their muscles and organs became smaller. They lost weight. They lost some of their hair. However, these mice did not develop cancerous tumors. By comparison, forty-five percent of the normal animals developed tumors. Still, the normal mice lived an average twenty percent longer than the ones with extra p-fifty-three. “Nature” magazine published the comments of two independent experts about the results of the Baylor team research. The experts said the study may mean that aging may be a product of the body’s natural protection against cancer. The study has special importance for scientists trying to develop medicines to treat the effects of aging. The research raises the question if such treatments that suppress the p-fifty-three gene could make a person more likely to get cancer. The study results also may be important for young cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. These chemical treatments help suppress tumors. They do this by attacking some of the genetic material in the body’s cells. However, the process may increase the activity of the p-fifty-three protein. This might threaten recovered cancer patients with aging sooner than normal. These young people might develop age-related health problems before their time. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 24, 2002: World’s Oldest Man
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The Italian island of Sardinia recently lost its oldest citizen. Family members say Antonio Todde died in his sleep early this month. Mister Todde was one-hundred-twelve years old. He was less than three weeks away from his one-hundred-thirteenth birthday. Record-keeping experts say he was the world’s oldest man. Mister Todde was born in a village on Sardinia in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. He cared for farm animals in the mountains almost all his life. Mister Todde often said that drinking a glass of red wine every day helped him live to an old age. His long life and that of other very old Sardinians is the subject of a scientific project called Akea. Luca Deiana of Sassari University is directing the study. He says the name Akea comes from a traditional greeting on Sardinia. It means “health and life for one-hundred years.” Professor Deiana and his team started to collect information for the study in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. They identified more than two-hundred-twenty Sardinians who were centenarians -- one-hundred years old or older. His team required three documents to confirm a person’s age. They are a government birth record, a church record and a statement by a close family member. The Akea study has produced two major findings. The first is Sardinia’s extremely high number of centenarians. The island has about one-hundred-thirty-five centenarians for every one-million people. In other western countries, the average is about seventy-five centenarians for every one-million people. The second major finding was an unusual rate of female to male centenarians. Sardinia has two women centenarians for every male centenarian. In central Sardinia there are equal numbers of female and male centenarians. Studies in other parts of the world have shown a much higher percentage of female centenarians. The Akea study collected information about the health and diet of about one-hundred-forty of the centenarians. About ninety percent of those in the study also agreed to provide blood for scientific testing. The study team hopes to identify genetic material in the blood that can be linked to successful aging. Study leaders say there is no single reason why people on Sardinia live so long. They believe the answer is a combination of genetic and environmental conditions. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 24, 2002: Great Depression
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) The stock market crash of Nineteen-Twenty-Nine marked the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. Millions of people lost their jobs. Thousands lost their homes. During the next several years, a large part of the richest nation on Earth learned what it meant to be poor. Hard times found their way into every area, group, and job. Workers struggled as factories closed. Farmers, hit with falling prices and natural disasters, were forced to give up their farms. Businessmen lost their stores and sometimes their homes. It was a severe economic crisis -- a depression. VOICE TWO: Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, one of America's greatest writers, described the depression this way: "It was a terrible, troubled time. I can't think of any ten years in history when so much happened in so many directions. Violent change took place. Our country was shaped, our lives changed, our government rebuilt." Said John Steinbeck: "When the stock market fell, the factories, mines, and steelworks closed. And then no one could buy anything. Not even food." VOICE ONE: An unemployed auto worker in the manufacturing city of Detroit described the situation this way: "Before daylight, we were on the way to the Chevrolet factory to look for work. The police were already there, waving us away from the office. They were saying, 'Nothing doing! No jobs! No jobs!' So now we were walking slowly through the falling snow to the employment office for the Dodge auto company. A big, well-fed man in a heavy overcoat stood at the door. 'No! No!' he said. There was no work." One Texas farmer lost his farm and moved his family to California to look for work. "We can't send the children to school," he said, "because they have no clothes." VOICE TWO: The economic crisis began with the stock market crash in October, Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. For the first year, the economy fell very slowly. But it dropped sharply in Nineteen-Thirty-One and Nineteen-Thirty-Two. And by the end of Nineteen-Thirty-Two, the economy collapsed almost completely. The gross national product is the total of all goods and services produced. During the three years following the stock market crash, the American gross national product dropped by almost half. The wealth of the average American dropped to a level lower than it had been twenty-five years earlier. All the gains of the Nineteen-Twenties were washed away. Unemployment rose sharply. The number of workers looking for a job jumped from three percent to more than twenty-five percent in just four years. One of every three or four workers was looking for a job in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. VOICE ONE: Those employment numbers did not include farmers. The men and women who grew the nation's food suffered terribly during the Great Depression. This was especially true in the southwestern states of Oklahoma and Texas. Farmers there were losing money because of falling prices for their crops. Then natural disaster struck. Year after year, little or no rain fell. The ground dried up. And then the wind blew away the earth in huge clouds of dust. "All that dust made some of the farmers leave," one Oklahoma farmer remembered later. "But my family stayed. We fought to live. Despite all the dust and the wind, we were planting seeds. But we got no crops. We had five crop failures in five years." VOICE TWO: Falling production. Rising unemployment. Men begging in the streets. But there was more to the Great Depression. At that time, the federal government did not guarantee the money that people put in banks. When people could not repay loans, banks began to close. In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, six-hundred fifty-nine banks with total holdings of two-hundred-million dollars went out of business. The next year, two times that number failed. And the year after that, almost twice that number of banks went out of business. Millions of persons lost all their savings. They had no money left. VOICE ONE: The depression caused serious public health problems. Hospitals across the country were filled with sick people whose main illness was a lack of food. The health department in New York City found that one of every five of the city's children did not get enough food. Ninety-nine percent of the children attending a school in a coal-mining area reportedly were underweight. In some places, people died of hunger. The quality of housing also fell. Families were forced to crowd into small houses or apartments to share costs. Many people had no homes at all. They slept on public streets, buses, or trains. One official in Chicago reported in Nineteen-Thirty-One that several hundred women without homes were sleeping in city parks. In a number of cities, people without homes built their houses from whatever materials they could find. They used empty boxes or pieces of metal to build shelters in open areas. VOICE TWO: People called these areas of little temporary houses "Hoovervilles." They blamed President Hoover for their situation. So, too, did the men forced to sleep in public parks at night. They covered themselves with pieces of paper. And they called the paper "Hoover blankets." People without money in their pants called their empty pockets "Hoover flags." People blamed President Hoover because they thought he was not doing enough to help them. Hoover did take several actions to try to improve the economy. But he resisted proposals for the federal government to provide aid in a major way. And he refused to let the government spend more money than it earned. Hoover told the nation: "Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive decision." Many conservative Americans agreed with him. But not the millions of Americans who were hungry and tired of looking for a job. They accused Hoover of not caring about the common citizen. One congressman from Alabama said: "In the White House, we have a man more interested in the money of the rich than in the stomachs of the poor." VOICE ONE: On and on the Great Depression continued. Of course, some Americans were lucky. They kept their jobs. And they had enough money to enjoy the lower prices of most goods. Many people shared their earnings with friends in need. "We joined our money when we had some," remembered John Steinbeck. "It seems strange to say that we rarely had a job," Steinbeck wrote years later. "There just weren't any jobs. But we didn't have to steal much. Farmers and fruit growers in the nearby countryside could not sell their crops. They gave us all the food and fruit we could carry home. VOICE TWO: Other Americans reacted to the crisis by leading protests against the economic policies of the Hoover administration. In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, a large group of former soldiers gathered in Washington to demand help. More than eight-thousand of them built the nation's largest Hooverville near the White House. Federal troops finally removed them by force and burned their little shelters. Next week, we will look at how the Great Depression of the Nineteen-Thirties affected other countries. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (THEME) The stock market crash of Nineteen-Twenty-Nine marked the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. Millions of people lost their jobs. Thousands lost their homes. During the next several years, a large part of the richest nation on Earth learned what it meant to be poor. Hard times found their way into every area, group, and job. Workers struggled as factories closed. Farmers, hit with falling prices and natural disasters, were forced to give up their farms. Businessmen lost their stores and sometimes their homes. It was a severe economic crisis -- a depression. VOICE TWO: Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, one of America's greatest writers, described the depression this way: "It was a terrible, troubled time. I can't think of any ten years in history when so much happened in so many directions. Violent change took place. Our country was shaped, our lives changed, our government rebuilt." Said John Steinbeck: "When the stock market fell, the factories, mines, and steelworks closed. And then no one could buy anything. Not even food." VOICE ONE: An unemployed auto worker in the manufacturing city of Detroit described the situation this way: "Before daylight, we were on the way to the Chevrolet factory to look for work. The police were already there, waving us away from the office. They were saying, 'Nothing doing! No jobs! No jobs!' So now we were walking slowly through the falling snow to the employment office for the Dodge auto company. A big, well-fed man in a heavy overcoat stood at the door. 'No! No!' he said. There was no work." One Texas farmer lost his farm and moved his family to California to look for work. "We can't send the children to school," he said, "because they have no clothes." VOICE TWO: The economic crisis began with the stock market crash in October, Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. For the first year, the economy fell very slowly. But it dropped sharply in Nineteen-Thirty-One and Nineteen-Thirty-Two. And by the end of Nineteen-Thirty-Two, the economy collapsed almost completely. The gross national product is the total of all goods and services produced. During the three years following the stock market crash, the American gross national product dropped by almost half. The wealth of the average American dropped to a level lower than it had been twenty-five years earlier. All the gains of the Nineteen-Twenties were washed away. Unemployment rose sharply. The number of workers looking for a job jumped from three percent to more than twenty-five percent in just four years. One of every three or four workers was looking for a job in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. VOICE ONE: Those employment numbers did not include farmers. The men and women who grew the nation's food suffered terribly during the Great Depression. This was especially true in the southwestern states of Oklahoma and Texas. Farmers there were losing money because of falling prices for their crops. Then natural disaster struck. Year after year, little or no rain fell. The ground dried up. And then the wind blew away the earth in huge clouds of dust. "All that dust made some of the farmers leave," one Oklahoma farmer remembered later. "But my family stayed. We fought to live. Despite all the dust and the wind, we were planting seeds. But we got no crops. We had five crop failures in five years." VOICE TWO: Falling production. Rising unemployment. Men begging in the streets. But there was more to the Great Depression. At that time, the federal government did not guarantee the money that people put in banks. When people could not repay loans, banks began to close. In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, six-hundred fifty-nine banks with total holdings of two-hundred-million dollars went out of business. The next year, two times that number failed. And the year after that, almost twice that number of banks went out of business. Millions of persons lost all their savings. They had no money left. VOICE ONE: The depression caused serious public health problems. Hospitals across the country were filled with sick people whose main illness was a lack of food. The health department in New York City found that one of every five of the city's children did not get enough food. Ninety-nine percent of the children attending a school in a coal-mining area reportedly were underweight. In some places, people died of hunger. The quality of housing also fell. Families were forced to crowd into small houses or apartments to share costs. Many people had no homes at all. They slept on public streets, buses, or trains. One official in Chicago reported in Nineteen-Thirty-One that several hundred women without homes were sleeping in city parks. In a number of cities, people without homes built their houses from whatever materials they could find. They used empty boxes or pieces of metal to build shelters in open areas. VOICE TWO: People called these areas of little temporary houses "Hoovervilles." They blamed President Hoover for their situation. So, too, did the men forced to sleep in public parks at night. They covered themselves with pieces of paper. And they called the paper "Hoover blankets." People without money in their pants called their empty pockets "Hoover flags." People blamed President Hoover because they thought he was not doing enough to help them. Hoover did take several actions to try to improve the economy. But he resisted proposals for the federal government to provide aid in a major way. And he refused to let the government spend more money than it earned. Hoover told the nation: "Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive decision." Many conservative Americans agreed with him. But not the millions of Americans who were hungry and tired of looking for a job. They accused Hoover of not caring about the common citizen. One congressman from Alabama said: "In the White House, we have a man more interested in the money of the rich than in the stomachs of the poor." VOICE ONE: On and on the Great Depression continued. Of course, some Americans were lucky. They kept their jobs. And they had enough money to enjoy the lower prices of most goods. Many people shared their earnings with friends in need. "We joined our money when we had some," remembered John Steinbeck. "It seems strange to say that we rarely had a job," Steinbeck wrote years later. "There just weren't any jobs. But we didn't have to steal much. Farmers and fruit growers in the nearby countryside could not sell their crops. They gave us all the food and fruit we could carry home. VOICE TWO: Other Americans reacted to the crisis by leading protests against the economic policies of the Hoover administration. In Nineteen-Thirty-Two, a large group of former soldiers gathered in Washington to demand help. More than eight-thousand of them built the nation's largest Hooverville near the White House. Federal troops finally removed them by force and burned their little shelters. Next week, we will look at how the Great Depression of the Nineteen-Thirties affected other countries. (THEME) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 25, 2002: Music by Aaliyah/a question about Guantanamo/a report on the Olympic Flame
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: HOST: Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today we: play songs by Aaliyah ... Aaliyah, File photo Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today we: play songs by Aaliyah ... answer a question about the American naval base in Cuba ... and report about the Olympic Flame. Olympic Flame HOST: The Two-Thousand-Two Winter Olympic Games will begin in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February eighth. The games will open with the lighting of the Olympic Flame from fire that has been carried from Greece. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: The Olympic Flame links the old and new Olympic Games. In ancient Olympia, a fire burned for the god Zeus during the Olympic sports competition. Now, runners bring a torch carrying the flame from Olympia, Greece to every new Olympics. The torch was lit on November nineteenth in Olympia. It first traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, where the last Olympic Games in the United States were held. Then it began a twenty-two-thousand kilometer trip across forty-six states to Salt Lake City. Many kinds of vehicles are carrying the Olympic torch. They include cars, airplanes, trains, ships, dogsleds, sleighs, and even a snow mobile. Runners in many cities across the country are also carrying the torch. The flame lights a torch each morning to start the run that day. Each runner then lights the next runner’s torch. Officials say the flame travels about three-hundred-thirty kilometers each day. The Salt Lake City Olympic Committee chose the runners who are carrying the torch. People in their towns and cities nominated the runners for the honor. Some of the runners are famous. Others are not. Last week in Los Angeles, for example, one-hundred people carried the torch. They included Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a teenaged girl who helps young students. Olympic officials say more than eleven-thousand runners will have carried the flame by the time it reaches Salt Lake City on February eighth. The name of the last person to carry the flame is kept a secret. He or she will enter the sports center to light the torch that will officially start the Winter Olympic Games. Guantanamo HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. A listener in Ho Chi Minh City asks about the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is a one-hundred-sixteen square kilometer area on the eastern edge of Cuba. It includes the island’s only deep water bay, and is controlled by the United States. The American base is surrounded by a wire fence, Cuban land mines and Cuban guards armed with machine guns. United States Marines took control of Guantanamo Bay during the Spanish-American War in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. In Nineteen-Oh-Three, an independent Cuba agreed to permit the United States to use the base in exchange for a yearly payment of two-thousand dollars in gold. A treaty confirmed the agreement in Nineteen-Thirty-Four. It said the United States could stay as long as it wanted. Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. He immediately demanded the return of the base. The United States refused. The Defense Department continues to send payment to the Cuban government each year. In the Nineteen-Sixties, tensions increased at Guantanamo following the American-supported Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Cuban missile crisis. These incidents led American forces to increase security at the base. In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, President Castro cut off its water supply. The United States had to send drinking water to the area until it built its own equipment to remove salt from the water in the bay. In recent times, the United States has used the base at Guantanamo to hold Cuban and Haitian refugees. Now, it is holding more than one-hundred-fifty Taleban and al-Qaida prisoners. The fighters were captured during the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Officials say they are the most dangerous people ever held at Guantanamo. The United States is now building a permanent building to hold two-thousand prisoners at the naval base. It will be completed in several months. American officials had expected President Castro to protest use of the base, as he has so many times in the past. They were surprised that the Cuban leader did not criticize the United States action. In fact, he ordered his troops to cooperate in the anti-terror operation. Aaliyah HOST: The American music industry presented the yearly American Music Awards earlier this month in Los Angeles, California. One of the winners was the singer, songwriter and actress Aaliyah. She was named favorite rhythm and blues artist. Her last album was named favorite rhythm and blues album. Aaliyah died in a plane crash last year. Sarah Long tells us about her. ANNCR: Aaliyah Haughton was born in Brooklyn, New York in Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. She began performing at the age of eleven when she sang on stage with her aunt, Gladys Knight. She released her first album in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. It was called “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.” One of its big hits was this song, “At Your Best (You Are Love).” ((CUT 1: AT YOUR BEST [YOU ARE LOVE])) Aaliyah was also a successful actress. Her first movie was “Romeo Must Die.” She sang two songs that are included in the film. One was the hit “Try Again.” ((CUT 2: TRY AGAIN)) Aaliyah and eight other people were killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas last August. She was in the islands making a music video film for her album, “Aaliyah.” That album has been nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Rhythm and Blues Album of the Year. We leave you now with the song from that album that is nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Female Rhythm and Blues Performance. It is called “Rock the Boat.” ((CUT 3: ROCK THE BOAT)) HOST: This is Steve Ember . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. answer a question about the American naval base in Cuba ... and report about the Olympic Flame. Olympic Flame HOST: The Two-Thousand-Two Winter Olympic Games will begin in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February eighth. The games will open with the lighting of the Olympic Flame from fire that has been carried from Greece. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: The Olympic Flame links the old and new Olympic Games. In ancient Olympia, a fire burned for the god Zeus during the Olympic sports competition. Now, runners bring a torch carrying the flame from Olympia, Greece to every new Olympics. The torch was lit on November nineteenth in Olympia. It first traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, where the last Olympic Games in the United States were held. Then it began a twenty-two-thousand kilometer trip across forty-six states to Salt Lake City. Many kinds of vehicles are carrying the Olympic torch. They include cars, airplanes, trains, ships, dogsleds, sleighs, and even a snow mobile. Runners in many cities across the country are also carrying the torch. The flame lights a torch each morning to start the run that day. Each runner then lights the next runner’s torch. Officials say the flame travels about three-hundred-thirty kilometers each day. The Salt Lake City Olympic Committee chose the runners who are carrying the torch. People in their towns and cities nominated the runners for the honor. Some of the runners are famous. Others are not. Last week in Los Angeles, for example, one-hundred people carried the torch. They included Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a teenaged girl who helps young students. Olympic officials say more than eleven-thousand runners will have carried the flame by the time it reaches Salt Lake City on February eighth. The name of the last person to carry the flame is kept a secret. He or she will enter the sports center to light the torch that will officially start the Winter Olympic Games. Guantanamo HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. A listener in Ho Chi Minh City asks about the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is a one-hundred-sixteen square kilometer area on the eastern edge of Cuba. It includes the island’s only deep water bay, and is controlled by the United States. The American base is surrounded by a wire fence, Cuban land mines and Cuban guards armed with machine guns. United States Marines took control of Guantanamo Bay during the Spanish-American War in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. In Nineteen-Oh-Three, an independent Cuba agreed to permit the United States to use the base in exchange for a yearly payment of two-thousand dollars in gold. A treaty confirmed the agreement in Nineteen-Thirty-Four. It said the United States could stay as long as it wanted. Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. He immediately demanded the return of the base. The United States refused. The Defense Department continues to send payment to the Cuban government each year. In the Nineteen-Sixties, tensions increased at Guantanamo following the American-supported Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Cuban missile crisis. These incidents led American forces to increase security at the base. In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, President Castro cut off its water supply. The United States had to send drinking water to the area until it built its own equipment to remove salt from the water in the bay. In recent times, the United States has used the base at Guantanamo to hold Cuban and Haitian refugees. Now, it is holding more than one-hundred-fifty Taleban and al-Qaida prisoners. The fighters were captured during the war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Officials say they are the most dangerous people ever held at Guantanamo. The United States is now building a permanent building to hold two-thousand prisoners at the naval base. It will be completed in several months. American officials had expected President Castro to protest use of the base, as he has so many times in the past. They were surprised that the Cuban leader did not criticize the United States action. In fact, he ordered his troops to cooperate in the anti-terror operation. Aaliyah HOST: The American music industry presented the yearly American Music Awards earlier this month in Los Angeles, California. One of the winners was the singer, songwriter and actress Aaliyah. She was named favorite rhythm and blues artist. Her last album was named favorite rhythm and blues album. Aaliyah died in a plane crash last year. Sarah Long tells us about her. ANNCR: Aaliyah Haughton was born in Brooklyn, New York in Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. She began performing at the age of eleven when she sang on stage with her aunt, Gladys Knight. She released her first album in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. It was called “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.” One of its big hits was this song, “At Your Best (You Are Love).” ((CUT 1: AT YOUR BEST [YOU ARE LOVE])) Aaliyah was also a successful actress. Her first movie was “Romeo Must Die.” She sang two songs that are included in the film. One was the hit “Try Again.” ((CUT 2: TRY AGAIN)) Aaliyah and eight other people were killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas last August. She was in the islands making a music video film for her album, “Aaliyah.” That album has been nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Rhythm and Blues Album of the Year. We leave you now with the song from that album that is nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Female Rhythm and Blues Performance. It is called “Rock the Boat.” ((CUT 3: ROCK THE BOAT)) HOST: This is Steve Ember . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - January 25, 2002: Nuclear Waste
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The United States Energy Department has approved building a huge nuclear waste burial center at Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada. The nuclear waste dump would be used to bury about seventy-thousand tons of nuclear waste material. The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at power centers around the country. However, these power centers have little storage space left. The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recently told Nevada state officials that the nuclear waste burial project is scientifically acceptable. He also said placing all of the country’s nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would help protect against terrorist attacks. Mister Abraham said he will ask President Bush to approve the project. Officials of nuclear power industries also support the plan. However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups, Nevada state officials, the two United States senators from Nevada and the Senate majority leader. The dispute about Yucca Mountain has continued for many years. The federal government says the area is a good place for a nuclear waste dump because of its lack of population and low rainfall. But opponents say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say they are not sure if the rock could hold the waste and keep it from entering water underground. Opponents also say the nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across more than forty states to reach the proposed dump. They fear accidents could happen during this travel. Any such accident could endanger the population. Congress still must approve the plan. Then the Energy Department must request permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission must hold hearings. Then hearings must provide evidence that Yucca Mountain could hold the nuclear wastes for ten-thousand years, as government rules require. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The United States Energy Department has approved building a huge nuclear waste burial center at Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada. The nuclear waste dump would be used to bury about seventy-thousand tons of nuclear waste material. The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at power centers around the country. However, these power centers have little storage space left. The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recently told Nevada state officials that the nuclear waste burial project is scientifically acceptable. He also said placing all of the country’s nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would help protect against terrorist attacks. Mister Abraham said he will ask President Bush to approve the project. Officials of nuclear power industries also support the plan. However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups, Nevada state officials, the two United States senators from Nevada and the Senate majority leader. The dispute about Yucca Mountain has continued for many years. The federal government says the area is a good place for a nuclear waste dump because of its lack of population and low rainfall. But opponents say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say they are not sure if the rock could hold the waste and keep it from entering water underground. Opponents also say the nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across more than forty states to reach the proposed dump. They fear accidents could happen during this travel. Any such accident could endanger the population. Congress still must approve the plan. Then the Energy Department must request permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission must hold hearings. Then hearings must provide evidence that Yucca Mountain could hold the nuclear wastes for ten-thousand years, as government rules require. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - January 27, 2002: Martin Luther King Jr., Part 2
* Byline: 

 Anncr: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Anncr: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. (Theme) VOICE 1: (Theme) Today, Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer finish the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. (Theme) VOICE 1: Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion. He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. In nineteen-fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus. Doctor king became the leader of a protest against the city bus system. It was the first time that black Southerners had united against the laws of racial separation. VOICE 2: At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work. They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation. But the buses remained empty. Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest. They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders. One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement. Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk. But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued. Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in nineteen twenty-nine. He began his university studies when he was fifteen years old, and received a doctorate degree in religion. He became a preacher at a church in Montgomery, Alabama. In nineteen-fifty-five, a black woman in Montgomery was arrested for sitting in the white part of a city bus. Doctor king became the leader of a protest against the city bus system. It was the first time that black Southerners had united against the laws of racial separation. VOICE 2: At first, the white citizens of Montgomery did not believe that the protest would work. They thought most blacks would be afraid to fight against racial separation. But the buses remained empty. Some whites used tricks to try to end the protest. They spread false stories about Martin Luther King and other protest leaders. One story accused Martin of stealing money from the civil rights movement. Another story charged that protest leaders rode in cars while other protesters had to walk. But the tricks did not work, and the protest continued. VOICE 1: Doctor King's wife, Coretta, described how she and her husband felt during the protest. She said: "We never knew what was going to happen next. We felt like actors in a play whose ending we did not know. Yet we felt a part of history. And we believed we were instruments of the will of God.. The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest. They thought it would end if he was in prison or dead. Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges. His arrests made national news and he was released. But the threats against his life continued. VOICE 2: The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred-eighty-two days. Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system. Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle. The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible. They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights. VOICE 1: Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over. He had become well-known all over the country and throughout the world. He often was asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence. Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings. Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation. The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it. The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Martin Luther King became its president. In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States. Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat. And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only. These protests became known as "freedom rides." Many of the freedom rides turned violent. Black activists were beaten and arrested. Some were even killed. VOICE 2: In nineteen-sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city. They demanded more jobs for blacks. And they demanded to send their children to white schools. The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands. The situation became tense. Many protestors were beaten and arrested. Even Doctor King was arrested. But he was not in prison for long. The Birmingham demonstrations made international news. Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them. Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham. It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham. It did not mean that racial separation had ended. Some still remains today. But he felt that the battle was almost won. And he wanted to call on the nation for its support. So Doctor King organized a March on Washington, D.C. The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three. About two-hundred-fifty-thousand persons gathered there. They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans. There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies. But this was the biggest up to that time. VOICE 1: It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches. The speech is known as the "I Have a Dream Speech." It expressed his ideas for the future. Doctor King said: ((TAPE: "I have a dream")) VOICE 2: Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four. But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work. He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight. Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death. His life had been threatened wherever he went. And he often spoke to his wife about his fears. But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement. The night before he died he spoke to his supporters. He said: ((Speech to supporters)) ((MUSIC: We Shall Overcome)) (Theme) Anncr: You have been listening to the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. This Special English program was written by William Rodgers. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer. I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (Theme) VOICE 1: Doctor King's wife, Coretta, described how she and her husband felt during the protest. She said: "We never knew what was going to happen next. We felt like actors in a play whose ending we did not know. Yet we felt a part of history. And we believed we were instruments of the will of God.. The white citizens blamed Doctor King for starting the protest. They thought it would end if he was in prison or dead. Doctor King was arrested twice on false charges. His arrests made national news and he was released. But the threats against his life continued. VOICE 2: The Montgomery bus boycott lasted three hundred-eighty-two days. Finally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial separation was illegal in the Montgomery bus system. Martin Luther King and his followers had won their struggle. The many months of meetings and protest marches had made victory possible. They also gave blacks a new feeling of pride and unity. They saw that peaceful protest, Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violence, could be used as a tool to win their legal rights. VOICE 1: Life did not return to normal for Doctor King after the protest was over. He had become well-known all over the country and throughout the world. He often was asked to speak about his ideas on non-violence. Both black and white Americans soon began to follow his teachings. Groups were formed throughout the south to protest peacefully against racial separation. The civil rights movement spread so fast that a group of black churchmen formed an organization to guide it. The organization was called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Martin Luther King became its president. In his job, Doctor King helped organize many protests in the southern part of the United States. Blacks demanded to be served in areas where only whites were permitted to eat. And they rode in trains and buses formerly for whites only. These protests became known as "freedom rides." Many of the freedom rides turned violent. Black activists were beaten and arrested. Some were even killed. VOICE 2: In nineteen-sixty-three, the black citizens of Birmingham refused to buy goods from the stores in the city. They demanded more jobs for blacks. And they demanded to send their children to white schools. The white citizens were angry and afraid, but they refused to meet the blacks' demands. The situation became tense. Many protestors were beaten and arrested. Even Doctor King was arrested. But he was not in prison for long. The Birmingham demonstrations made international news. Whites soon saw that it was easier to meet the demands of the protestors than to fight them. Martin Luther King and his followers had won an important victory in Birmingham. It marked a turning point for the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King recognized the importance of Birmingham. It did not mean that racial separation had ended. Some still remains today. But he felt that the battle was almost won. And he wanted to call on the nation for its support. So Doctor King organized a March on Washington, D.C. The March on Washington took place in August, nineteen sixty-three. About two-hundred-fifty-thousand persons gathered there. They came to demand more jobs and freedom for black Americans. There were to be many other marches in Washington during the nineteen sixties and early seventies. But this was the biggest up to that time. VOICE 1: It was in Washington that Martin Luther King gave one of his most famous speeches. The speech is known as the "I Have a Dream Speech." It expressed his ideas for the future. Doctor King said: ((TAPE: "I have a dream")) VOICE 2: Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen sixty-four. But he did not live to see the final results of his life's work. He was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen sixty-eight. Doctor King always felt he would die a violent death. His life had been threatened wherever he went. And he often spoke to his wife about his fears. But he never believed that his life was more important than the civil rights movement. The night before he died he spoke to his supporters. He said: ((Speech to supporters)) ((MUSIC: We Shall Overcome)) (Theme) Anncr: You have been listening to the story of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior. This Special English program was written by William Rodgers. Your narrators were Shep O'Neal and Warren Scheer. I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. (Theme) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - January 26, 2002: Congo Volcano
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Last week, a volcano exploded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hot melted rock from Mount Nyiragongo flowed into the eastern city of Goma. Most of the about four-hundred thousand people who live in Goma fled the city. Many crossed the nearby border into the Rwandan town of Gisenyi. This is Steve Ember the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Last week, a volcano exploded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hot melted rock from Mount Nyiragongo flowed into the eastern city of Goma. Most of the about four-hundred thousand people who live in Goma fled the city. Many crossed the nearby border into the Rwandan town of Gisenyi. As many as one-hundred people are believed to have died in the lava flow and fires that resulted. But officials have not yet confirmed an official number of dead. The thick river of melted rock burned a path through the center of Goma. The lava has since cooled and hardened into volcanic rock. It is about fifty meters wide and one meter thick. People walk on top of it to get from one side of town to the other. Officials estimate the lava and fires damaged eighty percent of Goma. Thousands of houses were completely destroyed. The lava and fires also destroyed businesses leaving most people without jobs. Rwanda established two camps in Gisenyi for the refugees. An international emergency aid program was based in Gisenyi also. Yet, very few of the Congolese refugees stayed long enough to receive aid there. Most returned quickly to Goma. They said they would rather die at home than stay in Rwanda. The Rwandan government supports the Congolese rebels who control the territory around Goma. As many as one-hundred people are believed to have died in the lava flow and fires that resulted. But officials have not yet confirmed an official number of dead. The thick river of melted rock burned a path through the center of Goma. The lava has since cooled and hardened into volcanic rock. It is about fifty meters wide and one meter thick. People walk on top of it to get from one side of town to the other. Officials estimate the lava and fires damaged eighty percent of Goma. Thousands of houses were completely destroyed. The lava and fires also destroyed businesses leaving most people without jobs. Rwanda established two camps in Gisenyi for the refugees. An international emergency aid program was based in Gisenyi also. Yet, very few of the Congolese refugees stayed long enough to receive aid there. Most returned quickly to Goma. They said they would rather die at home than stay in Rwanda. The Rwandan government supports the Congolese rebels who control the territory around Goma. Most aid groups did not move their workers to Goma until Wednesday when they felt the situation was safe enough. The town has been experiencing small earthquakes since the first volcano explosion. This has caused concern that another major explosion is possible. The aid workers were not able to get supplies to large numbers of people in need until almost a week after the volcano explosion. The Congolese government criticized the slow reaction of the aid groups. United Nations agencies have asked for fifteen million dollars from countries to provide food, shelter and medicines for the people of Goma. Thursday, the U-N World Food Program provided two-hundred sixty metric tons of food. That is enough to feed about seventy-thousand people for a week. Aid groups also are providing blankets and materials to make temporary shelters. The United States is sending five-thousand metric tons of food and a team of experts to Goma immediately. The team members will examine health, food and security issues in the Congolese city. Belgium, Britain, Germany and the European Commission also have promised millions of dollars of aid. Aid workers now say there is safe drinking water for some areas of Goma. But there are concerns about the spread of cholera and other diseases in areas where there is no safe water. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. Most aid groups did not move their workers to Goma until Wednesday when they felt the situation was safe enough. The town has been experiencing small earthquakes since the first volcano explosion. This has caused concern that another major explosion is possible. The aid workers were not able to get supplies to large numbers of people in need until almost a week after the volcano explosion. The Congolese government criticized the slow reaction of the aid groups. United Nations agencies have asked for fifteen million dollars from countries to provide food, shelter and medicines for the people of Goma. Thursday, the U-N World Food Program provided two-hundred sixty metric tons of food. That is enough to feed about seventy-thousand people for a week. Aid groups also are providing blankets and materials to make temporary shelters. The United States is sending five-thousand metric tons of food and a team of experts to Goma immediately. The team members will examine health, food and security issues in the Congolese city. Belgium, Britain, Germany and the European Commission also have promised millions of dollars of aid. Aid workers now say there is safe drinking water for some areas of Goma. But there are concerns about the spread of cholera and other diseases in areas where there is no safe water. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 28, 2002: Winter Olympic Games
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The American state of Utah is busy making final preparations for the Winter Olympics. The Olympic Games will open early next month. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. The story of the Olympics is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((OLYMPIC FANFARE INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: Athletes from around the world will compete for medals at the Nineteenth Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Games will open in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February eighth. They will continue until February twenty-fourth. An estimated three-thousand-five-hundred athletes and officials from about eighty countries will take part in the games. The athletes will compete to win medals in seventy-eight events testing their skill in seven winter sports. The sports include skiing, ice skating, sledding and ice hockey. Thousands of people will attend the events. Millions more around the world will watch the Olympics on television. VOICE TWO: Salt Lake City, Utah is in the Rocky Mountains of the American West. Most of the state is dry. Average yearly rainfall is thirty centimeters. Yet, a lot of snow falls in the mountains in winter. The United States last held the Winter Olympic Games twenty-two years ago. The Nineteen-Eighty Games were in Lake Placid, New York. They were among the most exciting in history. American Eric Heiden won all five speed-skating races. He became the first athlete to win five individual gold medals at one Olympics. Also, the American ice hockey team won an unexpected gold medal at the Lake Placid games. VOICE ONE: The modern Olympics are named after games held in ancient times. The games are said to have started in the ancient Greek city of Olympia, about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. The first thirteen Olympic games were foot races during celebrations to honor the Greek god Zeus. Winners were honored with a crown of olive leaves placed around their head. Greece continued to hold the games every four years for the next one-thousand years. The ancient Romans finally banned them in the fourth century when they ruled Greece. They destroyed the Olympic centers and sports fields. VOICE TWO: The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in Eighteen-Ninety-Six. A French diplomat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games of Greece. He believed the international event would provide a way for athletes of all nations to become friends. Today, the Olympics are the world’s most famous sports event. The five rings of the Olympic sign represent this athletic friendship. They represent the linking, through sports, of five parts of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The Olympics have many traditions. For example, a special Olympic flame always burns at the games. The Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece. Runners are carrying it across the United States to Utah. The Olympic flame will arrive in Salt Lake City on the day of the opening ceremonies. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Utah is a popular holiday area. The state earns hundreds of millions of dollars from visitors each year. Many visitors travel there to take part in winter sports. Utah is one of the best places in the United States for skiing. Many skiing events at the Olympics will be held at the Utah Olympic Park, high in the Wasatch Mountains, about forty kilometers east of Salt Lake City. It is about two-thousand-two-hundred meters above sea level. The mountains receive an average of seven-and-one-half meters of snow each winter. VOICE TWO: The Utah Olympic Park has five areas for ski jump competitions. An Olympic-size track was built for bobsled and luge competitions. It is one of only three such tracks in North America. The track is close to the ground and has fifteen turns. Its path is similar in shape to the land. The Utah Olympic Park will hold four major events during the Winter Games. They are the Nordic skiing, bobsled, luge and skeleton competitions. The skeleton event has not been seen at the Olympics since Nineteen-Forty-Eight. Officials expect it to be extremely popular. Athletes competing in the skeleton ride down the track on a luge sled. But they ride head first on their stomachs, instead of feet first on their backs. VOICE ONE: One of the world’s top skeleton riders is Jim Shea of the United States. He is the first American to win a skeleton world championship. He also is the third member of his family to compete in the Winter Olympics. Jim Shea’s father, James, competed in three events at the Nineteen-Sixty-Four games in Innsbruck, Austria. James Shea’s father, Jack, won two speed-skating races at the Nineteen-Thirty-Two Games in Lake Placid, New York. Jack Shea was to have been honored at the Olympics opening ceremony as the oldest American to have won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. But he died last week of injuries suffered in a car accident. He was ninety-one years old. Another athlete to watch at the Olympics is Michelle Kwan. She has been the top American women’s figure skater in recent years. Kwan has already won four world figure skating championships. She has been national champion six times. Now, pressure is building on Kwan to win her first Olympic gold medal. She won a silver medal at the Nineteen-Ninety-Eight Winter games in Nagano (NA-ga-no) Japan. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Olympic athletes spend many hours training for the games. This can be very costly. In many countries, the government provides athletes with special trainers, equipment and economic support. In the United States, athletes do not receive such support from the government. Instead, they depend on help from private groups and companies, or from the United States Olympic Committee. The committee supervises all activities of the United States Olympic teams. The United States Olympic Committee helps gain money to support American athletes who hope to compete in the Olympics. It does this in several ways. The committee receives most of its money from private companies. The companies pay the committee for the right to use the Olympic sign to help sell their products. The committee also earns money by selling sporting goods, clothing and other products with the Olympic sign. Television companies also pay the committee for the right to broadcast the Olympic games. VOICE ONE: The Salt Lake City Olympics had problems, long before the games were to open. Three years ago, an investigation found that top officials of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee gave money and gifts to members of the International Olympic Committee. The payments were reportedly made in an effort to win votes for the city to hold the Winter Games. The findings badly damaged the image of Salt Lake City and the Olympics. The Salt Lake City Olympic Committee quickly re-organized and continued making plans for the games. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Security at the Olympics has been a major concern since the Nineteen-Seventy-Two Summer Games in Munich, Germany. That is when eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed in a terrorist attack. Six years ago, a bomb exploded at the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia killing one person. Many people still have fresh memories of the September eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States. Olympic organizers and Utah officials recognize that the Winter Games could be a target for terrorists. Olympic officials say they are prepared for any security threat. The federal government, state of Utah and Salt Lake City Olympic Committee are spending more than three-hundred-million dollars on security. That total is a record for any sporting event in history. Thousands of federal, state and local law enforcement officials will be protecting the athletes and people watching the events. Entrances to all events will be heavily guarded. VOICE ONE: Mitt Romney is chairman of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee. Mister Romney says it is necessary to hold the Olympics because of what they represent. He says the Olympics represent civilization and the family of mankind. He says the Olympics are more important now than ever. ((OLYMPIC THEME INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: The American state of Utah is busy making final preparations for the Winter Olympics. The Olympic Games will open early next month. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. The story of the Olympics is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((OLYMPIC FANFARE INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: Athletes from around the world will compete for medals at the Nineteenth Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Games will open in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February eighth. They will continue until February twenty-fourth. An estimated three-thousand-five-hundred athletes and officials from about eighty countries will take part in the games. The athletes will compete to win medals in seventy-eight events testing their skill in seven winter sports. The sports include skiing, ice skating, sledding and ice hockey. Thousands of people will attend the events. Millions more around the world will watch the Olympics on television. VOICE TWO: Salt Lake City, Utah is in the Rocky Mountains of the American West. Most of the state is dry. Average yearly rainfall is thirty centimeters. Yet, a lot of snow falls in the mountains in winter. The United States last held the Winter Olympic Games twenty-two years ago. The Nineteen-Eighty Games were in Lake Placid, New York. They were among the most exciting in history. American Eric Heiden won all five speed-skating races. He became the first athlete to win five individual gold medals at one Olympics. Also, the American ice hockey team won an unexpected gold medal at the Lake Placid games. VOICE ONE: The modern Olympics are named after games held in ancient times. The games are said to have started in the ancient Greek city of Olympia, about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. The first thirteen Olympic games were foot races during celebrations to honor the Greek god Zeus. Winners were honored with a crown of olive leaves placed around their head. Greece continued to hold the games every four years for the next one-thousand years. The ancient Romans finally banned them in the fourth century when they ruled Greece. They destroyed the Olympic centers and sports fields. VOICE TWO: The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in Eighteen-Ninety-Six. A French diplomat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games of Greece. He believed the international event would provide a way for athletes of all nations to become friends. Today, the Olympics are the world’s most famous sports event. The five rings of the Olympic sign represent this athletic friendship. They represent the linking, through sports, of five parts of the world: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The Olympics have many traditions. For example, a special Olympic flame always burns at the games. The Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece. Runners are carrying it across the United States to Utah. The Olympic flame will arrive in Salt Lake City on the day of the opening ceremonies. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Utah is a popular holiday area. The state earns hundreds of millions of dollars from visitors each year. Many visitors travel there to take part in winter sports. Utah is one of the best places in the United States for skiing. Many skiing events at the Olympics will be held at the Utah Olympic Park, high in the Wasatch Mountains, about forty kilometers east of Salt Lake City. It is about two-thousand-two-hundred meters above sea level. The mountains receive an average of seven-and-one-half meters of snow each winter. VOICE TWO: The Utah Olympic Park has five areas for ski jump competitions. An Olympic-size track was built for bobsled and luge competitions. It is one of only three such tracks in North America. The track is close to the ground and has fifteen turns. Its path is similar in shape to the land. The Utah Olympic Park will hold four major events during the Winter Games. They are the Nordic skiing, bobsled, luge and skeleton competitions. The skeleton event has not been seen at the Olympics since Nineteen-Forty-Eight. Officials expect it to be extremely popular. Athletes competing in the skeleton ride down the track on a luge sled. But they ride head first on their stomachs, instead of feet first on their backs. VOICE ONE: One of the world’s top skeleton riders is Jim Shea of the United States. He is the first American to win a skeleton world championship. He also is the third member of his family to compete in the Winter Olympics. Jim Shea’s father, James, competed in three events at the Nineteen-Sixty-Four games in Innsbruck, Austria. James Shea’s father, Jack, won two speed-skating races at the Nineteen-Thirty-Two Games in Lake Placid, New York. Jack Shea was to have been honored at the Olympics opening ceremony as the oldest American to have won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. But he died last week of injuries suffered in a car accident. He was ninety-one years old. Another athlete to watch at the Olympics is Michelle Kwan. She has been the top American women’s figure skater in recent years. Kwan has already won four world figure skating championships. She has been national champion six times. Now, pressure is building on Kwan to win her first Olympic gold medal. She won a silver medal at the Nineteen-Ninety-Eight Winter games in Nagano (NA-ga-no) Japan. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Olympic athletes spend many hours training for the games. This can be very costly. In many countries, the government provides athletes with special trainers, equipment and economic support. In the United States, athletes do not receive such support from the government. Instead, they depend on help from private groups and companies, or from the United States Olympic Committee. The committee supervises all activities of the United States Olympic teams. The United States Olympic Committee helps gain money to support American athletes who hope to compete in the Olympics. It does this in several ways. The committee receives most of its money from private companies. The companies pay the committee for the right to use the Olympic sign to help sell their products. The committee also earns money by selling sporting goods, clothing and other products with the Olympic sign. Television companies also pay the committee for the right to broadcast the Olympic games. VOICE ONE: The Salt Lake City Olympics had problems, long before the games were to open. Three years ago, an investigation found that top officials of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee gave money and gifts to members of the International Olympic Committee. The payments were reportedly made in an effort to win votes for the city to hold the Winter Games. The findings badly damaged the image of Salt Lake City and the Olympics. The Salt Lake City Olympic Committee quickly re-organized and continued making plans for the games. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Security at the Olympics has been a major concern since the Nineteen-Seventy-Two Summer Games in Munich, Germany. That is when eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed in a terrorist attack. Six years ago, a bomb exploded at the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia killing one person. Many people still have fresh memories of the September eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States. Olympic organizers and Utah officials recognize that the Winter Games could be a target for terrorists. Olympic officials say they are prepared for any security threat. The federal government, state of Utah and Salt Lake City Olympic Committee are spending more than three-hundred-million dollars on security. That total is a record for any sporting event in history. Thousands of federal, state and local law enforcement officials will be protecting the athletes and people watching the events. Entrances to all events will be heavily guarded. VOICE ONE: Mitt Romney is chairman of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee. Mister Romney says it is necessary to hold the Olympics because of what they represent. He says the Olympics represent civilization and the family of mankind. He says the Olympics are more important now than ever. ((OLYMPIC THEME INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – January 28, 2002: UNICEF Child Sex Report
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says millions of children are forced to become sex workers every year. Most of the victims are girls. Officials say they hope the report will increase public concern about the problem and lead to government action. The study is called “Profiting from Abuse.” It tells about the sex trade in countries including India, Thailand, West Africa and Eastern and Central Europe. The report says that in Colombia and Sierra Leone, girls as young as twelve are forced to have sex with armed soldiers in an effort to defend their families. UNICEF says children in the sex trade suffer from sexual, physical and emotional problems that can last a lifetime. They also suffer from diseases passed through sex. And they may suffer from social dishonor and rejection by their families. The study found that some of the causes for the child sex trade include poor living conditions, the illegal drug trade and organized crime. UNICEF released the study last month before an international conference in Yokohama, Japan, on the issue. It was called The Second World Conference Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy told the conference that the child sex trade is a form of terrorism. She said it uses children most at risk, such as refugees, war victims and children without parents.Mizz Bellamy said the sex trade continues even though more than one-hundred-ninety countries approved a historic United Nations agreement protecting the rights of children. Delegates at the four-day conference in Yokohama approved a plan to fight the child sex trade. They called for increased communication among governments, police and legal officials. They also urged countries to put stronger laws into effect and to approve international agreements to protect children. More than three-thousand delegates from more than one-hundred-thirty countries and private organizations attended the conference. Young victims of sexual abuse also attended. The first international conference on the problem was held in Stockholm, Sweden five years ago. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says millions of children are forced to become sex workers every year. Most of the victims are girls. Officials say they hope the report will increase public concern about the problem and lead to government action. The study is called “Profiting from Abuse.” It tells about the sex trade in countries including India, Thailand, West Africa and Eastern and Central Europe. The report says that in Colombia and Sierra Leone, girls as young as twelve are forced to have sex with armed soldiers in an effort to defend their families. UNICEF says children in the sex trade suffer from sexual, physical and emotional problems that can last a lifetime. They also suffer from diseases passed through sex. And they may suffer from social dishonor and rejection by their families. The study found that some of the causes for the child sex trade include poor living conditions, the illegal drug trade and organized crime. UNICEF released the study last month before an international conference in Yokohama, Japan, on the issue. It was called The Second World Conference Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy told the conference that the child sex trade is a form of terrorism. She said it uses children most at risk, such as refugees, war victims and children without parents.Mizz Bellamy said the sex trade continues even though more than one-hundred-ninety countries approved a historic United Nations agreement protecting the rights of children. Delegates at the four-day conference in Yokohama approved a plan to fight the child sex trade. They called for increased communication among governments, police and legal officials. They also urged countries to put stronger laws into effect and to approve international agreements to protect children. More than three-thousand delegates from more than one-hundred-thirty countries and private organizations attended the conference. Young victims of sexual abuse also attended. The first international conference on the problem was held in Stockholm, Sweden five years ago. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-25-5-1.cfm
* Headline: January 27, 2002 - Learning English Online
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "My Internet Girl"/Aaron Carter (lyrics) "You've got e-mail ... " AA: E-mail is just one of the benefits of the Internet. I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER we look at learning English online. RS: Charles Kelly is an English professor who has devoted countless hours to three Web sites for students and teachers of English as a second language. He's an American who's been teaching at the Aichi [ah-ee-chee] Institute of Technology in Toyota, Japan, for twenty years. KELLY: "Up to and even five years ago, six years ago, people who wanted to read a lot of things in English would have to buy things at a bookstore or mail-order books or magazines. But now they can go right online and look up any topic they're interested in and find things they're interested in reading. And of course one advantage of studying things you're interested in is (that) it increases your motivation to study it. So by reading in English about topics you're interested in, you tend to learn the vocabulary and the sentence patterns used to discuss that topic." AA: Charles Kelly says that there is really only one potential hurdle. RS: And that is the cost of connecting to the Internet. KELLY: "More and more countries are offering unlimited access, so I think the future looks better. But at this point many countries -- for example, Japan -- people are paying per-minute on the telephone, so unless they have an unlimited account they're not likely to stay on the Internet a long time." AA: "Do you have any advice for people who may see this as a big downside to trying to reach out to the rest of the world?" KELLY: "One thing people can do to lower the cost is to find sites they're interested in, they can go right to the site and download two or three pages and hang up the phone, and then read those pages offline. That's a possibility. Some of the radio stations out there allow you to download the RealAudio file and listen to it offline." RS: Charles Kelly operates one Web site with his older brother, Larry, who also teaches English at the Aichi Institute of Technology. The address is: w-w-w dot manythings dot o-r-g. AA: And "many things" are exactly what you find there, from tests on slang and proverbs to a lot of other activities. KELLY: "We have games, quizzes and puzzles -- things that tend to be fun. There are word search puzzles where a person would see a whole page full of letters and then they try to locate the hidden words within the letters. We have traditional grammar quizzes, multiple choice." AA: Charles Kelly also edits a monthly online journal for teachers of English as a Second Language. It's called The Internet TESL Journal. That address is ... i-t-e-s-l-j dot org. RS: And his third Web site is a-4-e-s-l dot org. That's the letter "a" followed by the number 4, then e-s-l dot o-r-g. It contains more than 1-thousand activities for learning English. AA: Yet even with so much potential for using technology to learn a language, Charles Kelly says it's hard to predict the future of English language learning on the Internet. KELLY: "I think from a commercial point of view, probably the universities that offer online courses might do better than companies that are trying to offer online courses, just the same as a lot of the dot-coms went offline a year or so ago, a lot of the English-teaching dot-coms did the same, they went offline." AA: "And one thing I notice about your sites, it appears there's no advertising." KELLY: "We decided a long time ago that that was a good idea. The a4esl.org has a lot of teachers that volunteer their time and send it quizzes and activities that we post on the Web, and as long as there are volunteers that are willing to share their time, we're willing to share our time." RS: Professor Charles Kelly, speaking to us from the Aichi Institute of Technology in Toyota, Japan. AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. If you'd like to reach Rosanne and me on the Internet, write to word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "My Internet Girl"/Aaron Carter (lyrics) "You've got e-mail ... " AA: E-mail is just one of the benefits of the Internet. I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER we look at learning English online. RS: Charles Kelly is an English professor who has devoted countless hours to three Web sites for students and teachers of English as a second language. He's an American who's been teaching at the Aichi [ah-ee-chee] Institute of Technology in Toyota, Japan, for twenty years. KELLY: "Up to and even five years ago, six years ago, people who wanted to read a lot of things in English would have to buy things at a bookstore or mail-order books or magazines. But now they can go right online and look up any topic they're interested in and find things they're interested in reading. And of course one advantage of studying things you're interested in is (that) it increases your motivation to study it. So by reading in English about topics you're interested in, you tend to learn the vocabulary and the sentence patterns used to discuss that topic." AA: Charles Kelly says that there is really only one potential hurdle. RS: And that is the cost of connecting to the Internet. KELLY: "More and more countries are offering unlimited access, so I think the future looks better. But at this point many countries -- for example, Japan -- people are paying per-minute on the telephone, so unless they have an unlimited account they're not likely to stay on the Internet a long time." AA: "Do you have any advice for people who may see this as a big downside to trying to reach out to the rest of the world?" KELLY: "One thing people can do to lower the cost is to find sites they're interested in, they can go right to the site and download two or three pages and hang up the phone, and then read those pages offline. That's a possibility. Some of the radio stations out there allow you to download the RealAudio file and listen to it offline." RS: Charles Kelly operates one Web site with his older brother, Larry, who also teaches English at the Aichi Institute of Technology. The address is: w-w-w dot manythings dot o-r-g. AA: And "many things" are exactly what you find there, from tests on slang and proverbs to a lot of other activities. KELLY: "We have games, quizzes and puzzles -- things that tend to be fun. There are word search puzzles where a person would see a whole page full of letters and then they try to locate the hidden words within the letters. We have traditional grammar quizzes, multiple choice." AA: Charles Kelly also edits a monthly online journal for teachers of English as a Second Language. It's called The Internet TESL Journal. That address is ... i-t-e-s-l-j dot org. RS: And his third Web site is a-4-e-s-l dot org. That's the letter "a" followed by the number 4, then e-s-l dot o-r-g. It contains more than 1-thousand activities for learning English. AA: Yet even with so much potential for using technology to learn a language, Charles Kelly says it's hard to predict the future of English language learning on the Internet. KELLY: "I think from a commercial point of view, probably the universities that offer online courses might do better than companies that are trying to offer online courses, just the same as a lot of the dot-coms went offline a year or so ago, a lot of the English-teaching dot-coms did the same, they went offline." AA: "And one thing I notice about your sites, it appears there's no advertising." KELLY: "We decided a long time ago that that was a good idea. The a4esl.org has a lot of teachers that volunteer their time and send it quizzes and activities that we post on the Web, and as long as there are volunteers that are willing to share their time, we're willing to share our time." RS: Professor Charles Kelly, speaking to us from the Aichi Institute of Technology in Toyota, Japan. AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. If you'd like to reach Rosanne and me on the Internet, write to word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - January 29, 2002: Aspirin
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about the pain medicine aspirin. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Aspirin is one of the world's oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs. It makes people feel better. It is a common treatment for headaches, colds and flu. It also reduces other kinds of pain, such as pain in bone joints caused by arthritis. A drug like aspirin is said to have been used in ancient Greece. More than two-thousand-four-hundred years ago, Hippocrates told his patients to ease pain by chewing the outer covering of the willow tree. The covering, called bark, contains the chemical salicylic acid. VOICE TWO: In the Seventeen-Hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce a sick person's high body temperature. In Eighteen-Sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied the salicylic acid found in willow bark. They created acetyl salicylic acid. They called it aspirin, for the spirea plant which also contains the natural chemical. Aspirin first was made into its present pill form about one-hundred years ago. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Two, British scientist Sir John Vane shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. He found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and swelling in damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the kidneys, heart and blood vessels work well. The problem with aspirin is that it works against all prostaglandins -- good and bad. VOICE TWO: Scientists have learned how aspirin interferes with a protein enzyme. One form of the enzyme makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates the protective kind of compound. So, while aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues, it also can harm the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Still, aspirin does things that other drugs for treating pain cannot do. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists know that aspirin prevents tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form blood clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. They can cause heart attacks or strokes. A few years ago, some doctors began advising people to take aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes. One doctor noted this effect of aspirin more than forty years ago. VOICE TWO: The doctor was Lawrence Craven. He observed unusual bleeding among children who chewed an aspirin gum to ease pain after a throat operation. Doctor Craven believed they were bleeding because aspirin prevented the blood from thickening or clotting. He decided that aspirin might help prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots in blood vessels. In the Nineteen-Fifties, Doctor Craven examined medical records of about eight-thousand people. He found no heart attacks or strokes among those who regularly took aspirin. Doctor Craven invited other scientists to test his ideas with modern methods. But, it was many years before large studies were carried out. VOICE ONE: One study was begun in Nineteen-Eighty-Three by Charles Hennekens of Harvard University Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He began studying more than twenty-two-thousand healthy male doctors over the age of forty. Half of the doctors in the study took an aspirin every other day. The other half took an inactive pill. Five years later, Doctor Hennekens reported that the men who took aspirin reduced their chances of having a heart attack by forty-four percent. However, the study also found that the men who took aspirin had almost two times the rate of bleeding in the brain as the other group. Thousands of men had refused to take part in the study because aspirin caused them to suffer stomach problems. VOICE TWO: A group of American medical experts recently said that people who have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack should take a small amount of aspirin every day. The experts examined studies on aspirin for the Department of Health and Human Services. They said research has shown that taking an aspirin each day can reduce the chance of suffering a heart attack in the future. People likely to suffer a heart attack include men over the age of forty and women over the age of fifty. The group also includes people who weigh too much or smoke cigarettes. It also includes people who suffer diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol levels. Doctors say aspirin should be given to anyone who is having a heart attack because of a blocked blood vessel in the heart. Aspirin lets blood continue to flow past the blockage in the artery. Research has shown that taking aspirin during a heart attack lowers the chance of death by about twenty-five percent. It also lowers the chance of having a second heart attack by fifty percent. Some people should not take aspirin, however. They include people who have stomach problems, or suffer bleeding, or take medicines to thin the blood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: New research has provided information about the effects of aspirin on the brain. Several small studies have shown that taking aspirin can affect older people with thinking problems. Those who took aspirin did not lose their reasoning abilities as soon as those who did not take aspirin. Doctors think aspirin can help prevent small strokes that result from blocked blood vessels in the brain. Some studies have been done on the effects of people taking aspirin during the first signs of a stroke. These show a fifteen to twenty-five percent improvement in the patients’ condition. But researchers have not been able to find any evidence that aspirin can prevent strokes in healthy people. VOICE TWO: A study of aspirin and strokes was published in the “Archives of Neurology.” Robert Hart and others at the University of Texas at San Antonio examined studies of aspirin and stroke prevention in more than fifty-thousand healthy people. Some of the people already had an increased risk of stroke, like high blood pressure. Others had no signs that they could suffer a stroke in the future. The researchers found that aspirin did not seem to prevent strokes as long as people had no signs of blocked blood vessels in the brain. Often, taking aspirin was linked with a small increased risk of bleeding in the brain. This also can cause a stroke. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Aspirin often causes problems in the stomach or intestines, especially if taken in large amounts. These problems can include life-threatening bleeding. Such problems are caused by damage to the tissue inside the stomach or intestines. The acid in aspirin irritates the tissue, and the drug interferes with natural healing of the cells. However, researchers also have found that aspirin may prevent cancers of the stomach and intestines. Studies done in the last twenty years have shown that people who take aspirin have unusually low rates of such cancers. Steven Shiff is a researcher at Rockefeller University in New York City. Studies in his laboratory have shown that aspirin destroys cells in the lining of the intestines before they can become cancerous. This action may also injure other cells and cause bleeding. VOICE TWO: Medical experts continue to say that no one should begin taking aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes without first asking their doctor. They also say people should not take aspirin instead of doing other things that can prevent heart attacks and strokes. They say people should exercise, stop smoking cigarettes and eat foods low in fat. Doctors do not believe aspirin is safe for everyone. They do not believe pregnant women should take the drug. And, they say children should not take aspirin. Studies show that children who take aspirin for a sickness like flu or chicken pox have a much greater chance of developing a serious disease called Reye's syndrome. Even with its problems, aspirin still is considered one of the most valuable drugs ever discovered. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Avi Arditti. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on The Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about the pain medicine aspirin. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Aspirin is one of the world's oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs. It makes people feel better. It is a common treatment for headaches, colds and flu. It also reduces other kinds of pain, such as pain in bone joints caused by arthritis. A drug like aspirin is said to have been used in ancient Greece. More than two-thousand-four-hundred years ago, Hippocrates told his patients to ease pain by chewing the outer covering of the willow tree. The covering, called bark, contains the chemical salicylic acid. VOICE TWO: In the Seventeen-Hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce a sick person's high body temperature. In Eighteen-Sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied the salicylic acid found in willow bark. They created acetyl salicylic acid. They called it aspirin, for the spirea plant which also contains the natural chemical. Aspirin first was made into its present pill form about one-hundred years ago. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Two, British scientist Sir John Vane shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for discovering how aspirin works. He found that aspirin blocks the body from making natural substances called prostaglandins. Prostaglandins have several effects on the body. Some cause pain and swelling in damaged tissue. Others protect the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Prostaglandins also make the kidneys, heart and blood vessels work well. The problem with aspirin is that it works against all prostaglandins -- good and bad. VOICE TWO: Scientists have learned how aspirin interferes with a protein enzyme. One form of the enzyme makes the prostaglandin that causes pain and swelling. Another form of the enzyme creates the protective kind of compound. So, while aspirin can reduce pain and swelling in damaged tissues, it also can harm the lining of the stomach and small intestine. Still, aspirin does things that other drugs for treating pain cannot do. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists know that aspirin prevents tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together to form blood clots. Clots can block the flow of blood to the heart or the brain. They can cause heart attacks or strokes. A few years ago, some doctors began advising people to take aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes. One doctor noted this effect of aspirin more than forty years ago. VOICE TWO: The doctor was Lawrence Craven. He observed unusual bleeding among children who chewed an aspirin gum to ease pain after a throat operation. Doctor Craven believed they were bleeding because aspirin prevented the blood from thickening or clotting. He decided that aspirin might help prevent heart attacks caused by blood clots in blood vessels. In the Nineteen-Fifties, Doctor Craven examined medical records of about eight-thousand people. He found no heart attacks or strokes among those who regularly took aspirin. Doctor Craven invited other scientists to test his ideas with modern methods. But, it was many years before large studies were carried out. VOICE ONE: One study was begun in Nineteen-Eighty-Three by Charles Hennekens of Harvard University Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He began studying more than twenty-two-thousand healthy male doctors over the age of forty. Half of the doctors in the study took an aspirin every other day. The other half took an inactive pill. Five years later, Doctor Hennekens reported that the men who took aspirin reduced their chances of having a heart attack by forty-four percent. However, the study also found that the men who took aspirin had almost two times the rate of bleeding in the brain as the other group. Thousands of men had refused to take part in the study because aspirin caused them to suffer stomach problems. VOICE TWO: A group of American medical experts recently said that people who have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack should take a small amount of aspirin every day. The experts examined studies on aspirin for the Department of Health and Human Services. They said research has shown that taking an aspirin each day can reduce the chance of suffering a heart attack in the future. People likely to suffer a heart attack include men over the age of forty and women over the age of fifty. The group also includes people who weigh too much or smoke cigarettes. It also includes people who suffer diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol levels. Doctors say aspirin should be given to anyone who is having a heart attack because of a blocked blood vessel in the heart. Aspirin lets blood continue to flow past the blockage in the artery. Research has shown that taking aspirin during a heart attack lowers the chance of death by about twenty-five percent. It also lowers the chance of having a second heart attack by fifty percent. Some people should not take aspirin, however. They include people who have stomach problems, or suffer bleeding, or take medicines to thin the blood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: New research has provided information about the effects of aspirin on the brain. Several small studies have shown that taking aspirin can affect older people with thinking problems. Those who took aspirin did not lose their reasoning abilities as soon as those who did not take aspirin. Doctors think aspirin can help prevent small strokes that result from blocked blood vessels in the brain. Some studies have been done on the effects of people taking aspirin during the first signs of a stroke. These show a fifteen to twenty-five percent improvement in the patients’ condition. But researchers have not been able to find any evidence that aspirin can prevent strokes in healthy people. VOICE TWO: A study of aspirin and strokes was published in the “Archives of Neurology.” Robert Hart and others at the University of Texas at San Antonio examined studies of aspirin and stroke prevention in more than fifty-thousand healthy people. Some of the people already had an increased risk of stroke, like high blood pressure. Others had no signs that they could suffer a stroke in the future. The researchers found that aspirin did not seem to prevent strokes as long as people had no signs of blocked blood vessels in the brain. Often, taking aspirin was linked with a small increased risk of bleeding in the brain. This also can cause a stroke. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Aspirin often causes problems in the stomach or intestines, especially if taken in large amounts. These problems can include life-threatening bleeding. Such problems are caused by damage to the tissue inside the stomach or intestines. The acid in aspirin irritates the tissue, and the drug interferes with natural healing of the cells. However, researchers also have found that aspirin may prevent cancers of the stomach and intestines. Studies done in the last twenty years have shown that people who take aspirin have unusually low rates of such cancers. Steven Shiff is a researcher at Rockefeller University in New York City. Studies in his laboratory have shown that aspirin destroys cells in the lining of the intestines before they can become cancerous. This action may also injure other cells and cause bleeding. VOICE TWO: Medical experts continue to say that no one should begin taking aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes without first asking their doctor. They also say people should not take aspirin instead of doing other things that can prevent heart attacks and strokes. They say people should exercise, stop smoking cigarettes and eat foods low in fat. Doctors do not believe aspirin is safe for everyone. They do not believe pregnant women should take the drug. And, they say children should not take aspirin. Studies show that children who take aspirin for a sickness like flu or chicken pox have a much greater chance of developing a serious disease called Reye's syndrome. Even with its problems, aspirin still is considered one of the most valuable drugs ever discovered. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Avi Arditti. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on The Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – January 29, 2002: Genetically Engineered Crops Increasing
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Increasing numbers of farmers are growing genetically engineered crops. A new report also says that the total land area where such crops are grown is increasing. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications reported the findings. The group supports the use of agricultural technology in developing countries. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. Genes are parts of cells that control growth and development. A changed gene directs a plant or other organism to do things it normally does not do. For example, a plant may be genetically engineered to resist insects. There is plenty of conflicting information about genetically engineered crops. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications supports growing such crops in developing countries. So do the United Nations Development Program and other groups. However, critics of genetic engineering say the technology is a threat to human health and the environment. The new report estimates that farmers grew genetically engineered crops on more than fifty-two-million hectares of farmland last year. That represents an increase in land area of nineteen percent compared to the year before. The report estimates that more than five-million farmers grew genetically engineered crops in thirteen countries last year. Four countries grew ninety-nine percent of all genetically engineered crops last year. The United States grew sixty-eight percent of the world total. Argentina grew twenty-two percent. Canada was next with six percent. China had three percent. The report says soybeans were the most common genetically engineered crop. They were grown on thirty-three-million hectares of farmland. Other common genetically engineered crops were corn, cotton and canola. In a separate development, scientists report that genetic material from genetically engineered plants can spread across great distances to native plants. The scientists say the genes were found in wild corn growing in the mountains of southern Mexico. The finding is most unusual because the Mexican government has banned the planting of genetically engineered corn since Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Increasing numbers of farmers are growing genetically engineered crops. A new report also says that the total land area where such crops are grown is increasing. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications reported the findings. The group supports the use of agricultural technology in developing countries. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. Genes are parts of cells that control growth and development. A changed gene directs a plant or other organism to do things it normally does not do. For example, a plant may be genetically engineered to resist insects. There is plenty of conflicting information about genetically engineered crops. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications supports growing such crops in developing countries. So do the United Nations Development Program and other groups. However, critics of genetic engineering say the technology is a threat to human health and the environment. The new report estimates that farmers grew genetically engineered crops on more than fifty-two-million hectares of farmland last year. That represents an increase in land area of nineteen percent compared to the year before. The report estimates that more than five-million farmers grew genetically engineered crops in thirteen countries last year. Four countries grew ninety-nine percent of all genetically engineered crops last year. The United States grew sixty-eight percent of the world total. Argentina grew twenty-two percent. Canada was next with six percent. China had three percent. The report says soybeans were the most common genetically engineered crop. They were grown on thirty-three-million hectares of farmland. Other common genetically engineered crops were corn, cotton and canola. In a separate development, scientists report that genetic material from genetically engineered plants can spread across great distances to native plants. The scientists say the genes were found in wild corn growing in the mountains of southern Mexico. The finding is most unusual because the Mexican government has banned the planting of genetically engineered corn since Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 31, 2002: Hoover's Foreign Policy
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The stock market crash of nineteen-twenty-nine began a long and difficult period for the United States. President Herbert Hoover struggled to find solutions as the nation sank into the worst economic crisis in its history. But the Great Depression was not the only problem demanding answers from Hoover. The president also had to deal with a number of important foreign policy issues. There were revolutions in South America. The economic situation created serious problems in America's relations with Europe. And Japan launched a campaign of aggression in northeastern China. Hoover failed in his efforts to solve America's economic troubles. But as we will see in our program today, he did succeed with some of his foreign policies. He and most other Americans, however, would fail to understand the long-term importance of the forces gaining control in Germany and Japan. VOICE 2: Herbert Hoover's foreign policies were marked by his desire to Make friends and avoid war. Like most Americans, the new president had been shocked by World War One. Hoover had seen the results of that terrible war with his own eyes. He led the international effort to feed the many European civilian victims of the fighting. And the new president was a member of the quaker religious group that traditionally opposes armed conflict. Hoover shared the wish of most Americans that the world would never again fight a major war. He felt the bloody bodies at Verdun, the Marne, and the other battlefields of World War One showed that conflict should be settled by peaceful negotiations. VOICE 1: Hoover worked toward this goal even before he entered the white house. Following his election, he had several months free before becoming president. Hoover used this period to travel to latin America for ten weeks. He wanted to show Latin American nations that they could trust the United States to honor their rights as independent nations. Hoover kept his word. The year after he took office, his administration announced that it would recognize the governments of all Latin American countries, including governments that the United States did not like. Hoover told the nation that he would not follow the Latin American policies of president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had decided in nineteen-oh-four that the United States had a right to intervene in Latin America if governments there did not act in the right way. Hoover said this was wrong. He told the country that it was more important to use friendship instead of force. VOICE 2: Hoover withdrew American forces from Nicaragua. He arranged to withdraw them from Haiti. And he showed restraint as some fifty revolutions shook the nations of Latin America. Some revolutionary governments opposed the United States. They refused to pay debts to American companies or claimed ownership of foreign property. But Hoover refused to advance American interests by force. He wanted to prove that the United States could act towards Latin American nations as equals. The policy was quite successful. And relations between the United States and Latin American countries generally improved under Hoover's leadership. VOICE 1: The situation in Europe was much more difficult and serious for the United States. The problem was simple: money. The Great Depression did not stop at America's borders. It moved to Britain, Europe, and beyond. And it brought extremely hard economic conditions. In Germany, the value of the national currency -- the mark -- collapsed. German people were forced to buy goods with hundreds, thousands, and millions of marks. They lost faith in the existing system. And they looked for some new leader to provide solutions. The economic crisis also put great pressure on the international circle of debt that had been created after the war. Suddenly, American bankers could no longer make loans to Germany. This meant that Germany could not pay back war debts to France and the other allied nations of World War One. And without this money, the Allied nations could not repay money they owed American banks. The circle of debt fell apart. VOICE 2: The situation grew steadily worse throughout the early months of nineteen-thirty. Hoover finally had to announce that all nations could delay their debt payments to the United States for one year. Hoover's action did what he wanted it to. It put a temporary stop to the international debt crisis. But it caused great damage to private banks. People lost faith in banks. Throughout Europe, people withdrew their money from banks. As a result, the European banks could not repay more than a thousand-million dollars they had borrowed from private American banks. VOICE 1: This was not the only problem. Nations throughout Europe also were forced to take their currencies off the gold standard. This meant their money no longer could be exchanged for gold. The economic situation grew worse. And as it did, serious political tensions began to threaten peace in Asia and Europe. VOICE 2: The threat in Asia became clear first. Japan had defeated Russia in a war in nineteen-oh-five. The victory gave Japan control over the economy of southern Manchuria in the northeastern part of China. As years passed, Japan began to feel threatened by two forces. First, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek was trying to organize all of China under the control of his Nationalist forces. Second, Russia was extending the Chinese eastern railway to the Siberian city of Vladivostok. Japan's army took control of the government in Tokyo in late nineteen-thirty-one. The army was fearful of the growing threat to Japan's control of Manchuria. So it moved Japanese troops immediately into several Manchurian cities. And it claimed political control of the whole area. President Hoover and most Americans opposed Japan's aggression strongly. But they were not willing to take any action that might lead to another major war. VOICE 1: Japan's military leaders knew that the people of Europe and America had no desire to fight to protect China. And so their army marched on. It invaded the huge city of Shanghai, killing thousands of civilians. Western leaders condemned the action. American Secretary of State Henry Stimson said the United States would not recognize Japanese control in these areas of China. But again, hoover refused to consider any economic actions against the Japanese. And he strongly opposed taking any military action. The League of Nations also refused to recognize Japan's takeover. It called Japan the aggressor in Manchuria. Japan reacted simply. It withdrew from the League of Nations. VOICE 2: Most Americans were not happy about Japan's clear aggression. But they were not willing to fight force with force. This was less true for Secretary of State Stimson. Stimson was a follower of the old ideas of president Theodore roosevelt. He believed a nation could only have a strong foreign policy by being strong and using its military power in times of crisis. But Stimson's voice was in the minority. Most Americans did not believe Japan really threatened the security of the United States. And they were not ready to risk their lives to help people in China. Many Americans would change their opinion about Japan only after its airplanes attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in nineteen-forty-one. VOICE 1: The same story was true in Europe. France was worried about the rising power of the nazis in Germany, and of facists in Italy and Spain. It proposed creation of an international army. Hoover opposed the plan. He called for all nations to reduce their weapons. He believed negotiation, not force, was the way to solve the problem. But the new leaders in Germany and Japan would listen much more closely to the footsteps of marching troops than to the high words of political leaders or peace supporters. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The stock market crash of nineteen-twenty-nine began a long and difficult period for the United States. President Herbert Hoover struggled to find solutions as the nation sank into the worst economic crisis in its history. But the Great Depression was not the only problem demanding answers from Hoover. The president also had to deal with a number of important foreign policy issues. There were revolutions in South America. The economic situation created serious problems in America's relations with Europe. And Japan launched a campaign of aggression in northeastern China. Hoover failed in his efforts to solve America's economic troubles. But as we will see in our program today, he did succeed with some of his foreign policies. He and most other Americans, however, would fail to understand the long-term importance of the forces gaining control in Germany and Japan. VOICE 2: Herbert Hoover's foreign policies were marked by his desire to Make friends and avoid war. Like most Americans, the new president had been shocked by World War One. Hoover had seen the results of that terrible war with his own eyes. He led the international effort to feed the many European civilian victims of the fighting. And the new president was a member of the quaker religious group that traditionally opposes armed conflict. Hoover shared the wish of most Americans that the world would never again fight a major war. He felt the bloody bodies at Verdun, the Marne, and the other battlefields of World War One showed that conflict should be settled by peaceful negotiations. VOICE 1: Hoover worked toward this goal even before he entered the white house. Following his election, he had several months free before becoming president. Hoover used this period to travel to latin America for ten weeks. He wanted to show Latin American nations that they could trust the United States to honor their rights as independent nations. Hoover kept his word. The year after he took office, his administration announced that it would recognize the governments of all Latin American countries, including governments that the United States did not like. Hoover told the nation that he would not follow the Latin American policies of president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had decided in nineteen-oh-four that the United States had a right to intervene in Latin America if governments there did not act in the right way. Hoover said this was wrong. He told the country that it was more important to use friendship instead of force. VOICE 2: Hoover withdrew American forces from Nicaragua. He arranged to withdraw them from Haiti. And he showed restraint as some fifty revolutions shook the nations of Latin America. Some revolutionary governments opposed the United States. They refused to pay debts to American companies or claimed ownership of foreign property. But Hoover refused to advance American interests by force. He wanted to prove that the United States could act towards Latin American nations as equals. The policy was quite successful. And relations between the United States and Latin American countries generally improved under Hoover's leadership. VOICE 1: The situation in Europe was much more difficult and serious for the United States. The problem was simple: money. The Great Depression did not stop at America's borders. It moved to Britain, Europe, and beyond. And it brought extremely hard economic conditions. In Germany, the value of the national currency -- the mark -- collapsed. German people were forced to buy goods with hundreds, thousands, and millions of marks. They lost faith in the existing system. And they looked for some new leader to provide solutions. The economic crisis also put great pressure on the international circle of debt that had been created after the war. Suddenly, American bankers could no longer make loans to Germany. This meant that Germany could not pay back war debts to France and the other allied nations of World War One. And without this money, the Allied nations could not repay money they owed American banks. The circle of debt fell apart. VOICE 2: The situation grew steadily worse throughout the early months of nineteen-thirty. Hoover finally had to announce that all nations could delay their debt payments to the United States for one year. Hoover's action did what he wanted it to. It put a temporary stop to the international debt crisis. But it caused great damage to private banks. People lost faith in banks. Throughout Europe, people withdrew their money from banks. As a result, the European banks could not repay more than a thousand-million dollars they had borrowed from private American banks. VOICE 1: This was not the only problem. Nations throughout Europe also were forced to take their currencies off the gold standard. This meant their money no longer could be exchanged for gold. The economic situation grew worse. And as it did, serious political tensions began to threaten peace in Asia and Europe. VOICE 2: The threat in Asia became clear first. Japan had defeated Russia in a war in nineteen-oh-five. The victory gave Japan control over the economy of southern Manchuria in the northeastern part of China. As years passed, Japan began to feel threatened by two forces. First, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek was trying to organize all of China under the control of his Nationalist forces. Second, Russia was extending the Chinese eastern railway to the Siberian city of Vladivostok. Japan's army took control of the government in Tokyo in late nineteen-thirty-one. The army was fearful of the growing threat to Japan's control of Manchuria. So it moved Japanese troops immediately into several Manchurian cities. And it claimed political control of the whole area. President Hoover and most Americans opposed Japan's aggression strongly. But they were not willing to take any action that might lead to another major war. VOICE 1: Japan's military leaders knew that the people of Europe and America had no desire to fight to protect China. And so their army marched on. It invaded the huge city of Shanghai, killing thousands of civilians. Western leaders condemned the action. American Secretary of State Henry Stimson said the United States would not recognize Japanese control in these areas of China. But again, hoover refused to consider any economic actions against the Japanese. And he strongly opposed taking any military action. The League of Nations also refused to recognize Japan's takeover. It called Japan the aggressor in Manchuria. Japan reacted simply. It withdrew from the League of Nations. VOICE 2: Most Americans were not happy about Japan's clear aggression. But they were not willing to fight force with force. This was less true for Secretary of State Stimson. Stimson was a follower of the old ideas of president Theodore roosevelt. He believed a nation could only have a strong foreign policy by being strong and using its military power in times of crisis. But Stimson's voice was in the minority. Most Americans did not believe Japan really threatened the security of the United States. And they were not ready to risk their lives to help people in China. Many Americans would change their opinion about Japan only after its airplanes attacked the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in nineteen-forty-one. VOICE 1: The same story was true in Europe. France was worried about the rising power of the nazis in Germany, and of facists in Italy and Spain. It proposed creation of an international army. Hoover opposed the plan. He called for all nations to reduce their weapons. He believed negotiation, not force, was the way to solve the problem. But the new leaders in Germany and Japan would listen much more closely to the footsteps of marching troops than to the high words of political leaders or peace supporters. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Maurice Joyce and Larry West. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – January 31, 2002: Hubble Improvements
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American space agency astronauts will soon replace much of the equipment in the Hubble Space Telescope. The new equipment will help the Hubble produce much more information than it can today. NASA plans to launch the Space Shuttle Columbia from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February twenty-eighth. It will carry seven astronauts on an eleven-day flight to provide service to the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble was designed to permit astronauts to take it apart and replace old or broken equipment with newer technology. More than ninety percent of its parts are designed to be replaced. Columbia’s astronauts will replace Hubble’s camera with a new, advanced system. It will permit the space telescope to do ten times the amount of work it can do now. The new camera is called the Advanced Camera for Surveys or A-C-S. The A-C-S is three different cameras. Each deals with different kinds of light. The cameras can see and record light that the human eye can not see. The Hubble will also receive new equipment that permits it to make electric power from sunlight. The device will replace an older one that has been in use for eight years. The new device will increase Hubble’s electric power by thirty percent. Astronauts also will replace the device that controls Hubble’s electric power. The new power control device will permit Hubble to use the added power. Astronauts will also repair an instrument called the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. They will replace the camera’s cooling system. This special camera was placed on the Hubble in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It stopped working two years later after its cooling device failed. NASA hopes the new cooling device will be able to provide the extremely cold temperatures needed by this special camera. They also hope to extend the camera’s working life by several years. Since its launch in Nineteen-Ninety, the Hubble Space Telescope has made more than three-hundred-thirty-thousand scientific observations of distant objects in space. It has observed more than twenty-five-thousand space objects. And it has provided scientific information that has helped researchers produce more than two-thousand-six-hundred scientific papers. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Paul Thompson. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American space agency astronauts will soon replace much of the equipment in the Hubble Space Telescope. The new equipment will help the Hubble produce much more information than it can today. NASA plans to launch the Space Shuttle Columbia from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February twenty-eighth. It will carry seven astronauts on an eleven-day flight to provide service to the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble was designed to permit astronauts to take it apart and replace old or broken equipment with newer technology. More than ninety percent of its parts are designed to be replaced. Columbia’s astronauts will replace Hubble’s camera with a new, advanced system. It will permit the space telescope to do ten times the amount of work it can do now. The new camera is called the Advanced Camera for Surveys or A-C-S. The A-C-S is three different cameras. Each deals with different kinds of light. The cameras can see and record light that the human eye can not see. The Hubble will also receive new equipment that permits it to make electric power from sunlight. The device will replace an older one that has been in use for eight years. The new device will increase Hubble’s electric power by thirty percent. Astronauts also will replace the device that controls Hubble’s electric power. The new power control device will permit Hubble to use the added power. Astronauts will also repair an instrument called the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. They will replace the camera’s cooling system. This special camera was placed on the Hubble in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It stopped working two years later after its cooling device failed. NASA hopes the new cooling device will be able to provide the extremely cold temperatures needed by this special camera. They also hope to extend the camera’s working life by several years. Since its launch in Nineteen-Ninety, the Hubble Space Telescope has made more than three-hundred-thirty-thousand scientific observations of distant objects in space. It has observed more than twenty-five-thousand space objects. And it has provided scientific information that has helped researchers produce more than two-thousand-six-hundred scientific papers. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-28-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Sumatran Tiger
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: January 15, 2002 The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. recently showed a new baby Sumatran tiger to the public for the first time. Thousands of people are waiting in long lines to see the rare animal. He was born at the zoo September Eighteenth. Only about one-hundred-seventy Sumatran tigers live in zoos.The baby tiger is called Berani. The name means “brave” in the Bahasa Indonesian language. Sumatran tigers come from the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia. Like all tigers in the world, they are threatened with dying out. Fewer than five-hundred of these animals now survive in the wild in Sumatra. Zoo scientists examined Berani for the first time two weeks after his birth. At that time, he weighed less than three kilograms. He now weighs more than ten kilograms. Zoo director Lucy Spelman says information gained from studying Berani will help zoo experts protect other Sumatran tigers. VOICE ONE: The birth of Berani resulted from a scientifically managed reproduction plan for Sumatran tigers. The National Zoo cooperates with the American Zoo Association in this effort. Other agencies involved are the Save the Tiger Fund and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Berani’s mother is Soyono. His father is Rokan. The birth marked the second time in recent years that the National Zoo has welcomed Sumatran tigers. Rokan became the father of three Sumatran baby tigers in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. For many years, experts believed Sumatran tigers belonged to a larger scientific grouping of tigers. However, a Nineteen-Ninety-Eight study of tiger cells questioned this belief. Researchers from several areas of science made the study. The magazine “Animal Conservation” published their results. The study reported that Sumatran tigers are unlike other tigers. Blood taken from Sumatrans showed three genetic markers not found in other kinds of tigers. Zoos throughout the world since then have increased their efforts to produce more Sumatran tigers. VOICE TWO: Sumatrans are the smallest surviving tigers in the world. If Berani is average, he will measure about two meters when fully grown. He will weigh about one-hundred-twenty kilograms. The Sumatran has the darkest skin of any tiger. It has many black marks on its dark orange body. Two other kinds of tigers once lived in Indonesia. However, these Javan and Balinese tigers have disappeared from Earth. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Indonesia developed a reproduction program aimed at saving Sumatran tigers in the wild. Humans threaten the existence of these animals, as they threaten all tigers. Increases in human population and agriculture have robbed the tigers of places where they once lived. Broadcast: January 15, 2002 The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. recently showed a new baby Sumatran tiger to the public for the first time. Thousands of people are waiting in long lines to see the rare animal. He was born at the zoo September Eighteenth. Only about one-hundred-seventy Sumatran tigers live in zoos.The baby tiger is called Berani. The name means “brave” in the Bahasa Indonesian language. Sumatran tigers come from the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia. Like all tigers in the world, they are threatened with dying out. Fewer than five-hundred of these animals now survive in the wild in Sumatra. Zoo scientists examined Berani for the first time two weeks after his birth. At that time, he weighed less than three kilograms. He now weighs more than ten kilograms. Zoo director Lucy Spelman says information gained from studying Berani will help zoo experts protect other Sumatran tigers. VOICE ONE: The birth of Berani resulted from a scientifically managed reproduction plan for Sumatran tigers. The National Zoo cooperates with the American Zoo Association in this effort. Other agencies involved are the Save the Tiger Fund and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Berani’s mother is Soyono. His father is Rokan. The birth marked the second time in recent years that the National Zoo has welcomed Sumatran tigers. Rokan became the father of three Sumatran baby tigers in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. For many years, experts believed Sumatran tigers belonged to a larger scientific grouping of tigers. However, a Nineteen-Ninety-Eight study of tiger cells questioned this belief. Researchers from several areas of science made the study. The magazine “Animal Conservation” published their results. The study reported that Sumatran tigers are unlike other tigers. Blood taken from Sumatrans showed three genetic markers not found in other kinds of tigers. Zoos throughout the world since then have increased their efforts to produce more Sumatran tigers. VOICE TWO: Sumatrans are the smallest surviving tigers in the world. If Berani is average, he will measure about two meters when fully grown. He will weigh about one-hundred-twenty kilograms. The Sumatran has the darkest skin of any tiger. It has many black marks on its dark orange body. Two other kinds of tigers once lived in Indonesia. However, these Javan and Balinese tigers have disappeared from Earth. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Indonesia developed a reproduction program aimed at saving Sumatran tigers in the wild. Humans threaten the existence of these animals, as they threaten all tigers. Increases in human population and agriculture have robbed the tigers of places where they once lived. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 30, 2002: Population and the Environment
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about how the growing population around the world is affecting the environment. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new report says the growing population around the world is harming the environment. More people are using more of the Earth’s natural resources than ever before. Experts say poor people around the world will suffer most in the future unless environmental damage is stopped. They say more should be done to balance human and environmental needs. The United Nations Population Fund is responsible for studying population growth. Its new report is called the State of the World Population Two-Thousand-One. It examines the links among environmental conditions, population growth and efforts to help poor people in developing countries. The world’s population now is more than six-thousand-million people. That number is two times more than it was in Nineteen-Sixty. The population is expected to increase to more than nine-thousand-million by the year Two-Thousand-Fifty. VOICE TWO: The U-N Population Fund says that in fifty years, more than four-thousand-million people will be living in countries that can not provide for people's daily needs. The report says all the expected growth in world population will take place in developing countries. The population of the forty-nine least developed countries is expected to be almost three times greater in fifty years. Yet, the U-N agency says people in the richest countries use much more of the world’s resources than people in developing countries. It says a child born today in an industrialized country will do more harm to the environment during his lifetime than as many as fifty children born in developing countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Almost sixty-percent of people in developing countries lack ways to deal with waste. About thirty-percent of the people in those countries can not get clean water. Unclean water and a lack of ways to deal with human wastes kill more than twelve-million people each year. The Earth’s natural resources such as water, land and air are being used at ever-increasing rates. Experts estimate that more than one-thousand million people do not have clean water. By the year Two-Thousand-Twenty-Five, as many as three-thousand-million people may be living in areas where supplies of freshwater are extremely low. VOICE TWO: Carbon dioxide and other gases trap heat in the atmosphere and raise average temperatures on Earth. There is a strong link between population growth and the increase in what are called greenhouse gases. The population grew almost four times larger in the past one-hundred years. This means more people using greater quantities of fossil fuels such as oil gas and coal. These fuels produce carbon dioxide when burned. The U-N report says twelve times more carbon dioxide gas was being released at the end of the century than was at the beginning. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates the Earth’s atmosphere could become more than five degrees Celsius warmer during this century. The group estimates the sea levels will rise about half a meter in the next one hundred years. The climate changes will affect rainfall as well as temperatures worldwide. This will affect food production and the supply of natural resources throughout the world. VOICE ONE: The U-N Population Fund says the warming of the Earth is already causing infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever to spread. Higher temperatures mean that the insects and animals that carry disease can now survive places they could not before. This leads to diseases being spread in new places. The U-N report says forests are being destroyed at the highest levels in history. Trees are being cleared for extra agricultural land and to make room for housing. Trees absorb greenhouse gases and act as a barrier from more global warming. Over the past one-hundred years, the world has lost almost half its forest area. The destruction of forests leads to the loss of many species of plants and animals. There is a direct connection between people and the health of the Earth’s environment. Right now, the U-N report says the rate at which people are using natural resources threatens the health of the planet. It also threatens the supplies of water, forests and other resources needed for future populations. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The U-N Population Fund says water may be the Earth’s most valuable resource. However, many developing countries are suffering from severe water shortages. More than seventy-percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Yet only three-percent of the total water on Earth is fresh-water. Only one-percent of the entire supply of water on Earth is available for human use. Worldwide, more than fifty-percent of the yearly available fresh water is being used, much of it for agriculture. Ground water levels in some cities in China, Latin America and South Asia are decreasing more than one meter every year. Experts say that in about fifty years, more than four-thousand-million people will be living in countries that can not provide enough water for daily needs. VOICE ONE: The U-N says most developing countries do not produce enough food to feed their people. Nor are they financially able to import the amount of food they need. About eight-hundred million people living in poor countries do not have enough to eat. Food production in many poor countries is threatened by soil damage, water shortages, poor agricultural methods and fast population growth. Supplies of fish around the world are also under threat. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The U-N group says a combination of changes has led to sharp growth in the world population. Improvements in diet, health care and waste removal systems have helped people live longer, more productive lives. However, this means more people are in their reproductive years and having more children. For the first time in human history, one-thousand-million people are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. As populations grow, demand increases. So does the search for water, food and energy resources. VOICE ONE: In developing countries throughout the world, women are half of the world’s agricultural workforce. In the world’s poorest countries, women head almost twenty-five percent of homes outside cities. In many countries, they are responsible for food, water, fuel and other duties in their homes. Yet, women usually do not have control of their lives. National law or local traditions often deny women the rights that would help them improve their conditions. The U-N report finds that programs that increase education and economic opportunities for women help to slow population growth. Women who gain from these programs are more likely to stay in school longer, have more control over their reproductive lives, and choose to have smaller families. VOICE TWO: The U-N Population Fund says the AIDS crisis could sharply increase death rates in some areas of the world. In many countries, women and young people are the worst affected. AIDS directly affects health and the family. In severely affected areas, communities cannot support the large numbers of surviving children and older people. AIDS kills women who work on family farms and men who own them so the farms no longer produce food for the families. VOICE ONE: The U-N Population Fund says international policies need to be put into effect to improve economic conditions, increase social development and ease pressure on the environment. It also says women should be given more control over their lives. Empowering women could slow population growth The U-N Population Fund says high population growth makes it more difficult for poor countries to improve their economic development. It says measures to help improve conditions for growing populations could also protect the natural environment. The report says humans have always changed and been changed by the natural world. It says the future of human development depends on wise choices made now. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about how the growing population around the world is affecting the environment. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new report says the growing population around the world is harming the environment. More people are using more of the Earth’s natural resources than ever before. Experts say poor people around the world will suffer most in the future unless environmental damage is stopped. They say more should be done to balance human and environmental needs. The United Nations Population Fund is responsible for studying population growth. Its new report is called the State of the World Population Two-Thousand-One. It examines the links among environmental conditions, population growth and efforts to help poor people in developing countries. The world’s population now is more than six-thousand-million people. That number is two times more than it was in Nineteen-Sixty. The population is expected to increase to more than nine-thousand-million by the year Two-Thousand-Fifty. VOICE TWO: The U-N Population Fund says that in fifty years, more than four-thousand-million people will be living in countries that can not provide for people's daily needs. The report says all the expected growth in world population will take place in developing countries. The population of the forty-nine least developed countries is expected to be almost three times greater in fifty years. Yet, the U-N agency says people in the richest countries use much more of the world’s resources than people in developing countries. It says a child born today in an industrialized country will do more harm to the environment during his lifetime than as many as fifty children born in developing countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Almost sixty-percent of people in developing countries lack ways to deal with waste. About thirty-percent of the people in those countries can not get clean water. Unclean water and a lack of ways to deal with human wastes kill more than twelve-million people each year. The Earth’s natural resources such as water, land and air are being used at ever-increasing rates. Experts estimate that more than one-thousand million people do not have clean water. By the year Two-Thousand-Twenty-Five, as many as three-thousand-million people may be living in areas where supplies of freshwater are extremely low. VOICE TWO: Carbon dioxide and other gases trap heat in the atmosphere and raise average temperatures on Earth. There is a strong link between population growth and the increase in what are called greenhouse gases. The population grew almost four times larger in the past one-hundred years. This means more people using greater quantities of fossil fuels such as oil gas and coal. These fuels produce carbon dioxide when burned. The U-N report says twelve times more carbon dioxide gas was being released at the end of the century than was at the beginning. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates the Earth’s atmosphere could become more than five degrees Celsius warmer during this century. The group estimates the sea levels will rise about half a meter in the next one hundred years. The climate changes will affect rainfall as well as temperatures worldwide. This will affect food production and the supply of natural resources throughout the world. VOICE ONE: The U-N Population Fund says the warming of the Earth is already causing infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue fever to spread. Higher temperatures mean that the insects and animals that carry disease can now survive places they could not before. This leads to diseases being spread in new places. The U-N report says forests are being destroyed at the highest levels in history. Trees are being cleared for extra agricultural land and to make room for housing. Trees absorb greenhouse gases and act as a barrier from more global warming. Over the past one-hundred years, the world has lost almost half its forest area. The destruction of forests leads to the loss of many species of plants and animals. There is a direct connection between people and the health of the Earth’s environment. Right now, the U-N report says the rate at which people are using natural resources threatens the health of the planet. It also threatens the supplies of water, forests and other resources needed for future populations. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The U-N Population Fund says water may be the Earth’s most valuable resource. However, many developing countries are suffering from severe water shortages. More than seventy-percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Yet only three-percent of the total water on Earth is fresh-water. Only one-percent of the entire supply of water on Earth is available for human use. Worldwide, more than fifty-percent of the yearly available fresh water is being used, much of it for agriculture. Ground water levels in some cities in China, Latin America and South Asia are decreasing more than one meter every year. Experts say that in about fifty years, more than four-thousand-million people will be living in countries that can not provide enough water for daily needs. VOICE ONE: The U-N says most developing countries do not produce enough food to feed their people. Nor are they financially able to import the amount of food they need. About eight-hundred million people living in poor countries do not have enough to eat. Food production in many poor countries is threatened by soil damage, water shortages, poor agricultural methods and fast population growth. Supplies of fish around the world are also under threat. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The U-N group says a combination of changes has led to sharp growth in the world population. Improvements in diet, health care and waste removal systems have helped people live longer, more productive lives. However, this means more people are in their reproductive years and having more children. For the first time in human history, one-thousand-million people are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. As populations grow, demand increases. So does the search for water, food and energy resources. VOICE ONE: In developing countries throughout the world, women are half of the world’s agricultural workforce. In the world’s poorest countries, women head almost twenty-five percent of homes outside cities. In many countries, they are responsible for food, water, fuel and other duties in their homes. Yet, women usually do not have control of their lives. National law or local traditions often deny women the rights that would help them improve their conditions. The U-N report finds that programs that increase education and economic opportunities for women help to slow population growth. Women who gain from these programs are more likely to stay in school longer, have more control over their reproductive lives, and choose to have smaller families. VOICE TWO: The U-N Population Fund says the AIDS crisis could sharply increase death rates in some areas of the world. In many countries, women and young people are the worst affected. AIDS directly affects health and the family. In severely affected areas, communities cannot support the large numbers of surviving children and older people. AIDS kills women who work on family farms and men who own them so the farms no longer produce food for the families. VOICE ONE: The U-N Population Fund says international policies need to be put into effect to improve economic conditions, increase social development and ease pressure on the environment. It also says women should be given more control over their lives. Empowering women could slow population growth The U-N Population Fund says high population growth makes it more difficult for poor countries to improve their economic development. It says measures to help improve conditions for growing populations could also protect the natural environment. The report says humans have always changed and been changed by the natural world. It says the future of human development depends on wise choices made now. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - January 30, 2002: Premature Baby Study
* Byline: 

 This is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists have reported the first long-term study of children who were born earlier and smaller than normal. The researchers measured the progress of these premature babies compared with normal children. Maureen Hack of Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio led the twenty-year study. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results.The researchers studied almost five-hundred premature and normal children. The children were born in a poor area of Cleveland between Nineteen-Seventy-Seven and Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. On average, the premature babies were born in the twenty-ninth week of pregnancy. Thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy is considered full-term. The babies weighed less than one-thousand-five-hundred grams. They were more likely to have serious medical problems including cerebral palsy, blindness and lung disease. The premature group did worse on intelligence tests than the others. Still, seventy-four percent of them completed high school. Eighty-three percent of the normal group finished high school. Both groups tested lower than average on intelligence tests. Experts say these results may not represent the rest of the nation. They say children from rich families usually do better on intelligence tests. The researchers say the study showed that the young people born too soon got into less trouble than the other group. They had fewer problems with alcohol, drugs and crime. The girls had fewer pregnancies. Children of lower intelligence often get involved in risk-taking activities. So the scientists had not expected this result. Doctor Hack said the medical problems of the premature group did not surprise the researchers. The babies were born before their organs had a chance to fully develop. Blindness and lung disease often threaten premature babies. Some also suffer severe muscular damage. The researchers say the premature children had unusually protective and careful parents. This may have saved their lives. The researchers also say extremely watchful parents may have prevented the children from getting into trouble. About forty-thousand premature babies are born each year in the United States. This is about one-percent of the total number of babies born in this country every year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Sarah Long. This is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists have reported the first long-term study of children who were born earlier and smaller than normal. The researchers measured the progress of these premature babies compared with normal children. Maureen Hack of Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio led the twenty-year study. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results.The researchers studied almost five-hundred premature and normal children. The children were born in a poor area of Cleveland between Nineteen-Seventy-Seven and Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. On average, the premature babies were born in the twenty-ninth week of pregnancy. Thirty-seven weeks of pregnancy is considered full-term. The babies weighed less than one-thousand-five-hundred grams. They were more likely to have serious medical problems including cerebral palsy, blindness and lung disease. The premature group did worse on intelligence tests than the others. Still, seventy-four percent of them completed high school. Eighty-three percent of the normal group finished high school. Both groups tested lower than average on intelligence tests. Experts say these results may not represent the rest of the nation. They say children from rich families usually do better on intelligence tests. The researchers say the study showed that the young people born too soon got into less trouble than the other group. They had fewer problems with alcohol, drugs and crime. The girls had fewer pregnancies. Children of lower intelligence often get involved in risk-taking activities. So the scientists had not expected this result. Doctor Hack said the medical problems of the premature group did not surprise the researchers. The babies were born before their organs had a chance to fully develop. Blindness and lung disease often threaten premature babies. Some also suffer severe muscular damage. The researchers say the premature children had unusually protective and careful parents. This may have saved their lives. The researchers also say extremely watchful parents may have prevented the children from getting into trouble. About forty-thousand premature babies are born each year in the United States. This is about one-percent of the total number of babies born in this country every year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Sarah Long. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: January 20, 2002 - Lida Baker: Acquiring Vocabulary
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- advice for learning English. We've gotten a lot of questions on this topic recently -- especially about how to acquire new vocabulary words. RS: For some answers, we turn once again to Lida [LEE-da] Baker who teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She's written textbooks for students of English as a foreign or second language. AA: Here's a typical question we've gotten. It came via e-mail from a Chinese listener named Frank. He has this to say: "I'm a self-studying man. I want to know what the best way is not to forget the words I memorized from the dictionary." TAPE: CUT ONE -- BAKER "I have a little trouble with the word 'memorized,' because 'memorized' makes me think that what Frank is doing is that he is writing the English words on the left side of the page and he's putting the Chinese translation on the right side of the page. That might work for the types of standardized tests that are given to students in a lot of countries. But if you really want to learn English vocabulary for the purpose of communicating, then that is not a good way to study vocabulary." RS: A better way to remember new words, Lida Baker says, is to get yourself some index cards -- one for each new word you're trying to learn. Index cards are small pieces of heavy paper. AA: This is what she tells her students: Write the word in English on one side of the card. On the other side, write enough information -- again, in English -- about that word until you've learned how to use it in a sentence. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BAKER/SKIRBLE "So you would want to write not just a one-word translation from your own language, but write the English definition too. Write some synonyms in English. Write the dictionary definition of the word, but also write how you would use the word, so you want to write whether it's a noun or a verb. Do you use it with 'a' or 'the,' or do you use it without any kind of article? How do you pronounce it? A dictionary is going to tell you how to pronounce a word, right? So put all that information on the back of the card." SKIRBLE: "So what you're saying is, to put this word into context, so you can remember it." BAKER: "Right. You could also write on the back of the card, you could write the sentence that you originally heard the word in or that you saw the word in. And then you should try to write an original sentence using the word in a new way." RS: And, while you're at it, any time you see that word used somewhere in a sentence, add that sentence to the back of the card too! AA: But, as you're doing all this, be careful. Don't try to learn too many new words too quickly. Lida Baker says it's important to set a reasonable goal. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BAKER "It doesn't work to try to learn fifty or one-hundred words at one sitting. It's much more realistic to choose a word a day or two words a day or ten words a week or fifteen words a week. So you have to start with a realistic goal. Beyond that, that's where discipline comes in. And the fact that you've written the words on index cards makes them portable. So while you're sitting on the bus you can be going through those cards and reviewing those words several times a day even. And at the end of a week, if you have picked a manageable goal and you've been reviewing those cards every day, those words are going to be yours." RS: Now, you might be wondering, once that week is over, what to do with the cards? TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BAKER "It's a good idea to have a box that you can put the cards in, and every so often go back and look at your old cards. Now, another technique that you can use is to divide those cards into two piles. The ones that you remember and that you can use, you put those in one pile, but the words that you've forgotten you put those in a second pile. And, you then go through and review the words that you put in that second pile, and as you remember the word and are able to use it, you move it from the pile of words that you don't know into the pile of words that you know." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. RS: If you have a question, mail it to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. You can also reach Avi and me by e-mail. That address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Words, Words, Words"/Pete Seeger AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- advice for learning English. We've gotten a lot of questions on this topic recently -- especially about how to acquire new vocabulary words. RS: For some answers, we turn once again to Lida [LEE-da] Baker who teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She's written textbooks for students of English as a foreign or second language. AA: Here's a typical question we've gotten. It came via e-mail from a Chinese listener named Frank. He has this to say: "I'm a self-studying man. I want to know what the best way is not to forget the words I memorized from the dictionary." TAPE: CUT ONE -- BAKER "I have a little trouble with the word 'memorized,' because 'memorized' makes me think that what Frank is doing is that he is writing the English words on the left side of the page and he's putting the Chinese translation on the right side of the page. That might work for the types of standardized tests that are given to students in a lot of countries. But if you really want to learn English vocabulary for the purpose of communicating, then that is not a good way to study vocabulary." RS: A better way to remember new words, Lida Baker says, is to get yourself some index cards -- one for each new word you're trying to learn. Index cards are small pieces of heavy paper. AA: This is what she tells her students: Write the word in English on one side of the card. On the other side, write enough information -- again, in English -- about that word until you've learned how to use it in a sentence. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BAKER/SKIRBLE "So you would want to write not just a one-word translation from your own language, but write the English definition too. Write some synonyms in English. Write the dictionary definition of the word, but also write how you would use the word, so you want to write whether it's a noun or a verb. Do you use it with 'a' or 'the,' or do you use it without any kind of article? How do you pronounce it? A dictionary is going to tell you how to pronounce a word, right? So put all that information on the back of the card." SKIRBLE: "So what you're saying is, to put this word into context, so you can remember it." BAKER: "Right. You could also write on the back of the card, you could write the sentence that you originally heard the word in or that you saw the word in. And then you should try to write an original sentence using the word in a new way." RS: And, while you're at it, any time you see that word used somewhere in a sentence, add that sentence to the back of the card too! AA: But, as you're doing all this, be careful. Don't try to learn too many new words too quickly. Lida Baker says it's important to set a reasonable goal. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BAKER "It doesn't work to try to learn fifty or one-hundred words at one sitting. It's much more realistic to choose a word a day or two words a day or ten words a week or fifteen words a week. So you have to start with a realistic goal. Beyond that, that's where discipline comes in. And the fact that you've written the words on index cards makes them portable. So while you're sitting on the bus you can be going through those cards and reviewing those words several times a day even. And at the end of a week, if you have picked a manageable goal and you've been reviewing those cards every day, those words are going to be yours." RS: Now, you might be wondering, once that week is over, what to do with the cards? TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BAKER "It's a good idea to have a box that you can put the cards in, and every so often go back and look at your old cards. Now, another technique that you can use is to divide those cards into two piles. The ones that you remember and that you can use, you put those in one pile, but the words that you've forgotten you put those in a second pile. And, you then go through and review the words that you put in that second pile, and as you remember the word and are able to use it, you move it from the pile of words that you don't know into the pile of words that you know." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. RS: If you have a question, mail it to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. You can also reach Avi and me by e-mail. That address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Words, Words, Words"/Pete Seeger 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: January 13, 2002 - Words of 2001
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- our annual look at American English through the eyes and ears of some close observers. RS: Members of the American Dialect Society met in San Francisco this month and chose their "word of the year" for two-thousand-one. But actually, as executive secretary Allan Metcalf explains, it's not really a word. TAPE: CUT ONE -- METCALF/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI METCALF: "It's the expression '9-11,' and we included in that the varieties of expression '9-11,' '9-1-1,' and even the date September 11, referring to all the terrorist events that took place on that day." SKIRBLE: "And was there much discussion about that, or did that have a unanimous vote?" METCALF: "It wasn't unanimous, but in voting for word of the year, it got about 30 votes out of a total of 50, and the next closest got only 10 votes." ARDITTI: "And what was that?" METCALF: "That was the word 'burqa.' Someone proposed that burqa, although it's not a new word, is new to us and furthermore it has all kinds of associations with not only the Taleban but also with the situation of women in Islam and the whole situation in Afghanistan." SKIRBLE: "What were some other contenders for word of the year?" METCALF: "Well, there were just a few that got other votes. 'Theo-terrorism' was one of them, terrorism based on religious attitudes, and then 'homeland' in its new sense of the country to be defended against terrorist attacks, that got five votes. 'Theo-terrorism' got four votes. Another four votes went to 'mis-underestimate,' a small relic of the 'Bushisms' that before September (eleventh) probably would have been prominent among our list. And there were two votes for 'ground zero.'" AA: Terms related to September eleventh also dominated other categories voted on by the linguists, including "most euphemistic." TAPE: CUT TWO -- METCALF "The winner in that was 'daisy-cutter,' the kind of serious bomb used by the U-S Air Force. It's not that it's a new word, but it was certainly newly prominent. Most creative was the term 'shoe-icide bomber,' a terrorist who has a bomb in his shoes." RS: This year, the American Dialect Society added a special category, "most inspirational." TAPE: CUT THREE -- METCALF "We thought the phrase 'let's roll,' that was said by Todd Beamer in United Airlines Flight 93, and then was picked up by President Bush, was an especially inspirational response to the terrorist attacks." TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BUSH "We will no doubt face new challenges. But we have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, let's roll (applause)." RS: Todd Beamer had been talking to a telephone operator by cell phone. At the end, the operator heard him say: "Let's roll" -- meaning "it's time to act." AA: Passengers on Flight 93 fought back. The airliner -- one of four planes hijacked on "nine-eleven" -- crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, averting a possible attack on Washington. RS: As the focus of the nation changed, so did the nature of the words submitted by members of the American Dialect Society for their annual consideration. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- METCALF/SKIRBLE METCALF: "We did have some nominations of pre-September eleventh words, and if there had been no September eleventh, then we would have gone for words like 'datacasting,' the use of broadcast television signals to send digital information, or 'desk-rage,' uncontrollable rage in a workplace, or 'interruptible.' Interruptible, an energy company customer who agrees to have service suspended if supply is short. And that, of course, was a big topic of conversation last January." AA: Allan Metcalf of the American Dialect Society, speaking from his office at MacMurray College in Illinois, where he's an English professor. Now let's see if you can remember the winner last January for the word of two-thousand. RS: That would be "chad" -- those bits of ballot card that made for such drama in the presidential election. AA: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. We leave you with a song by Neil Young. It's called "Let's Roll." With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Let's Roll"/Neil Young 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: January 6, 2002: Bicycle Messenger Slang
* Byline: 

 TEXT: I'm Adam Phillips, sitting in for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble this week on Wordmaster. Today, it's the lingo of bicycle, or bike, messengers. Businesses in every major American city rely on "bike" messengers to zip in and out of traffic at breakneck speed to deliver documents and important packages. Over time, these couriers have developed their own colorful language to describe their work. Before learning some of those words, I asked Travis Hugh Culley, a veteran Chicago courier and the author of "The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power" just what his day job actually entails. TAPE: CUT ONE -- CULLEY "It's on the surface, a very simple job. I get a call on my radio that say I need to pick up something. I bike there. I lock up, I walk upstairs, I grab the package, get back on my bike, ride down the street, and deliver the package, amen! I get paid a few dollars for that delivery. What becomes hairy and difficulty is when you are doing fifty of those a day. And what's really a challenge is you are not going to make a living unless you are working that hard in a city like mine. In Chicago." TEXT: Sheba Farrin, Mr. Culley's friend and a longtime Washington DC courier, was the "2000 Cycle Messenger World Champion." She joined us in the VOA studios to explain that courier slang is generally conveyed on the radio walkie-talkies couriers wear strapped to their shoulder bags. TAPE: CUT TWO -- FARRIN/CULLEY FARRIN: "The language, the different lingo, is used to describe specific buildings, specific sections of town. There is always radio language which varies from city to city, and if you are not familiar with it, you probably wouldn't understand a word anybody was saying on the radio." CULLEY: "Like what is a 'rag'? If my package is a 'rag,' it's not in any hurry. I've got 'a rag in the bag' and I've got nothing to do. So I can take on more work keeping that one package on board for four hours or more. And if I had 'hot work on," it would be an entirely different situation. If my package is 'burning up all over the desk' meaning the dispatcher's desk, not in my bag then I am going to be in a serious hurry and I am going to 'beeline it' of course." FARRIN: "'Having it on' just means having it in his bag. We use a 'ten-code' for that. 'Ten-eight. I have the package. It's ten-eight.'" CULLEY: "There is always the ten-four, which also turns into slang in Chicago as 'Tenth Floor!' And Chicago, 'Roger Roger' is 'Roget Roget' [ROH-jhay'] FARRIN: [laughs] Yeah actually we do the French Roger in Washington as well! Q: So 'ten-four' means what? CULLEY: That means 'I copy -- I understand -- your transmission.' CULLEY: There is actually a ten-two that means 'yes.' And a 'ten-three' that means 'no.' 'Tenth floor,' fo-riah' [as heard] is just a way of saying 'copy.'" FARRIN: "One of the things that is most interesting to me is that from city to city there is a different name for a 'run' or a 'tag' or a 'ticket.' Okay, you pick up a package and you bring it from Point A to Point B. In Washington DC, that's called a 'run.' That's one run. In Chicago, it's a 'drop.' In San Francisco, it's a 'tag.' In other places, it's a 'ticket.'" CULLEY: "Once you make your 'drop' and you've got nothing in your bag, in Chicago, you're 'clean.' FARRIN: And here, you're 'clear' because you weren't 'dirty' to begin with! [LAUGHS] CULLEY: Not so! Not so! You are always dirty in Chicago!" Q: Do you have special words for customers that you deal with that are really hard or harsh? [LAUGHTER] FARRIN: Uh ... no. We keep that language to ourselves sometimes. CULLEY: If they concern a client, they stay with us! TEXT: Ms. Farrin says that a 'rookie' meaning, someone who is inexperienced, is one potentially wounding word couriers use on each other. TAPE: CUT THREE -- FARRIN/CULLEY "You don't get any respect if you're a rookie. And the longer the person who is calling you a rookie has been on the street, the longer they are willing to call you a rookie. I had been a messenger for five years and my 'old school' friends were still calling me 'rookie.' And 'old school' would be the opposite of the rookie, of course. The rookies, you feel sorry for them. They don't know their way around, they don't know how to dress in the rain, but you're not going to help them! CULLEY: "The best tip I can give to a new bike messenger, a rookie, in any respect, a rookie is just don't quit in the face of people calling you a rookie all the time. FARRIN: They'll be your friends soon enough! CULLEY: in the face of weather and things like that, the most important thing is that you keep pushing through it. The human body is built so as to be weatherproof. And though you might be a little wet and sometimes a little cold, it does not mean you cannot do your job!" TEXT: Travis Hugh Culley is a bicycle messenger in downtown Chicago Illinois and is the author or a book about his craft "The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power." Sheba Farrin is the 2000 Cycle Messenger World Champion, and continues to deliver packages in and around Washington DC. And that is Wordmaster for this week. I'm Adam Phillips. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-4-1.cfm
* Headline: December 30, 2001 - Palindrome
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a look backward! RS: As we do each New Year, we're going to play one of our favorite recordings. It's a skit about a cowboy with an unusual speaking habit. AA: The piece is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." It's by Riders in The Sky, and it's off the group's album from a few years ago called "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" The vocalists in the group are Ranger Doug, Too Slim and Woody Paul. RS: Here's what the liner notes say: "Back in the 1950s Johnny Western co-wrote and sang the theme song for a popular television show about a gunfighter named Paladin. Too Slim changed the action from gun play to word play and wrote new lyrics to the theme. The result is the clever and funny 'Palindrome.' Johnny Western himself joins Riders in The Sky to sing this new version. Those big thick Hollywood twangs pouring out of your speakers come from a rootin' tootin' Danelectro guitar." AA: So now sit back and enjoy... TAPE: "The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western" (3:35) RS: ... Riders in The Sky, from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" We want to wish all of our listeners around the world a great big happy 2002. AA: Which, come to think of it, happens be a palindromic number. But whichever way you look at it, happy New Year! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-5-1.cfm
* Headline: December 23, 2001 - Slangman: Health Slang ('Hansel and Gretel')
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- wishing you good health over the holidays, with Slangman David Burke. RS: Once again, just for our listeners, Slangman David Burke has rewritten a popular children's fairy tale to infuse it with some popular idioms -- this time, related to health and eating too much. AA: ... a theme in this particular tale, which is also an opera that is often performed around Christmas. MUSIC: "Hansel and Gretel: Dream Pantomime"/Boston Pops Orchestra TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a boy and girl named Hansel and Gretel who were 'bored out of their minds,' so they decided to take a walk in the forest and got lost. "Finally they saw a very unusual house. It was made of gingerbread and covered with cakes, and the windows were made of clear sugar. And they began to eat parts of the roof and windows. But then they suddenly heard an old woman's voice say, 'Who is eating my house?' 'Oh it's just the wind,' answered Hansel. Well, the woman was old but not totally 'out of it.' 'Out of it' means not completely coherent, not really thinking rationally. "Well, suddenly the door opened and the old woman walked out. 'Oh, do come in and stay with me.' She took them both by the hand and led them into her little house. Then she gave them lots and lots of food to eat. They kept eating until they could not eat anymore. "Well, Hansel was usually in 'tip-top shape' -- which means great physical condition -- but after eating so much he felt 'sick as a dog' and felt like he was 'running a fever.' That means to have a fever. He was nervous that he was going to 'lose his cookies.' Now that simply means to vomit. Why cookies, I don't know, but it's very common." SKIRBLE: "And it's appropriate for this story." BURKE: "Well, he felt like he would never 'bounce back.' Now that means to recover from being sick, to 'bounce back.' He felt really 'blah.' This is a great word. It's what we call an onomatopoeia, which simply is a word that sounds like what it means. So if you feel 'blah,' you have no energy, you just feel really terrible." ARDITTI: "Spelled b-l-a-h." BURKE: "Right. Oh, don't worry, his condition wasn't bad enough where he would have to 'go under the knife,' which means to have surgery. The last thing he needed was to go see some kind of 'quack.'" SKIRBLE: "And that's not a duck." BURKE: "That's not a duck, although that is the sound a duck makes. However, a 'quack' means a doctor who's not very good. In fact, a really terrible doctor is a 'quack.' The feeling in his stomach would just have to 'run its course,' which means just go through its natural progress of being bad, and then finally curing itself. "Well, Gretel felt a little 'under the weather' too. 'Under the weather' simply means kind of sick. She thought she may even 'pass out.' 'Pass out' simply means to faint.' Hansel said, 'Gretel, just mellow out. Take a chill pill', because when you're really tense you're hot, so 'take a chill pill,' relax. Well, early the next morning the old woman -- I mean, the witch -- quietly woke up Hansel and led him into a little room made of more candy. It was actually a cage! "Gretel heard him screaming and rushed downstairs, but the witch said to her, 'Go take this food to your brother so he will become even more fat, and then I'm going to eat him!' The witch gave Gretel the 'willies' so she didn't dare disobey. Well, to give someone the 'willies' means to make them nervous." SKIRBLE: "Or scared." BURKE: "'Gretel,' screamed the witch, 'go inside the oven and make sure the pilot light is on.' Well, Gretel wasn't 'born yesterday' and said, 'you know, witch, I'm not myself this morning.' When you're 'not yourself,' that means you're not feeling very well, so she said to the witch, 'Can you show me how to light that pilot light?' "When the witch got in, Gretel gave her a push, shut the door and fastened the bolt. Gretel quickly ran to Hansel's cage and let him out and said, 'Hansel, the witch kicked the bucket. She croaked in the oven.' Now I don't really know why to 'kick the bucket' would mean to die. To 'croak,' that seems more normal,' because when a frog croaks it makes that sound of [throat sound]. (laughter) So if a frog dies, does the frog croak? Maybe not." AA: Slangman David Burke comes to us from Los Angeles. Learn all about his different teaching materials on American slang at slangman.com. To reach us here, write to word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: Next week -- welcome the New Year with some cowboy wordplay! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Brother, Came and Dance with Me"/Disney Children's Favorite Songs AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- wishing you good health over the holidays, with Slangman David Burke. RS: Once again, just for our listeners, Slangman David Burke has rewritten a popular children's fairy tale to infuse it with some popular idioms -- this time, related to health and eating too much. AA: ... a theme in this particular tale, which is also an opera that is often performed around Christmas. MUSIC: "Hansel and Gretel: Dream Pantomime"/Boston Pops Orchestra TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a boy and girl named Hansel and Gretel who were 'bored out of their minds,' so they decided to take a walk in the forest and got lost. "Finally they saw a very unusual house. It was made of gingerbread and covered with cakes, and the windows were made of clear sugar. And they began to eat parts of the roof and windows. But then they suddenly heard an old woman's voice say, 'Who is eating my house?' 'Oh it's just the wind,' answered Hansel. Well, the woman was old but not totally 'out of it.' 'Out of it' means not completely coherent, not really thinking rationally. "Well, suddenly the door opened and the old woman walked out. 'Oh, do come in and stay with me.' She took them both by the hand and led them into her little house. Then she gave them lots and lots of food to eat. They kept eating until they could not eat anymore. "Well, Hansel was usually in 'tip-top shape' -- which means great physical condition -- but after eating so much he felt 'sick as a dog' and felt like he was 'running a fever.' That means to have a fever. He was nervous that he was going to 'lose his cookies.' Now that simply means to vomit. Why cookies, I don't know, but it's very common." SKIRBLE: "And it's appropriate for this story." BURKE: "Well, he felt like he would never 'bounce back.' Now that means to recover from being sick, to 'bounce back.' He felt really 'blah.' This is a great word. It's what we call an onomatopoeia, which simply is a word that sounds like what it means. So if you feel 'blah,' you have no energy, you just feel really terrible." ARDITTI: "Spelled b-l-a-h." BURKE: "Right. Oh, don't worry, his condition wasn't bad enough where he would have to 'go under the knife,' which means to have surgery. The last thing he needed was to go see some kind of 'quack.'" SKIRBLE: "And that's not a duck." BURKE: "That's not a duck, although that is the sound a duck makes. However, a 'quack' means a doctor who's not very good. In fact, a really terrible doctor is a 'quack.' The feeling in his stomach would just have to 'run its course,' which means just go through its natural progress of being bad, and then finally curing itself. "Well, Gretel felt a little 'under the weather' too. 'Under the weather' simply means kind of sick. She thought she may even 'pass out.' 'Pass out' simply means to faint.' Hansel said, 'Gretel, just mellow out. Take a chill pill', because when you're really tense you're hot, so 'take a chill pill,' relax. Well, early the next morning the old woman -- I mean, the witch -- quietly woke up Hansel and led him into a little room made of more candy. It was actually a cage! "Gretel heard him screaming and rushed downstairs, but the witch said to her, 'Go take this food to your brother so he will become even more fat, and then I'm going to eat him!' The witch gave Gretel the 'willies' so she didn't dare disobey. Well, to give someone the 'willies' means to make them nervous." SKIRBLE: "Or scared." BURKE: "'Gretel,' screamed the witch, 'go inside the oven and make sure the pilot light is on.' Well, Gretel wasn't 'born yesterday' and said, 'you know, witch, I'm not myself this morning.' When you're 'not yourself,' that means you're not feeling very well, so she said to the witch, 'Can you show me how to light that pilot light?' "When the witch got in, Gretel gave her a push, shut the door and fastened the bolt. Gretel quickly ran to Hansel's cage and let him out and said, 'Hansel, the witch kicked the bucket. She croaked in the oven.' Now I don't really know why to 'kick the bucket' would mean to die. To 'croak,' that seems more normal,' because when a frog croaks it makes that sound of [throat sound]. (laughter) So if a frog dies, does the frog croak? Maybe not." AA: Slangman David Burke comes to us from Los Angeles. Learn all about his different teaching materials on American slang at slangman.com. To reach us here, write to word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: Next week -- welcome the New Year with some cowboy wordplay! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Brother, Came and Dance with Me"/Disney Children's Favorite Songs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-6-1.cfm
* Headline: December 16, 2001 - 'Junk English'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we talk about "Junk English." RS: That's the title of a new book. Author Ken Smith spent six months immersing himself in the language of popular culture. He found a lot of it junk, in other words, worthless. "Junk English," he writes, "is the linguistic equivalent of junk food -- ingest it long enough and your brain goes soft." AA: Ken Smith says he wrote the book out of anger at what he calls the "debasement" of English by corporations, public relations consultants, politicians and everyday people. TAPE: CUT ONE -- SMITH/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI SMITH: "I would talk to friends and they would mention the same things, that they were in a meeting or they heard someone use 'efficacious' instead of 'effective' or 'incentavize' instead of 'encourage' and it would drive them crazy, too." RS: "So are you talking about sloppy grammar, sloppy, thinking, sloppy pronunciation, sloppy usage?" SMITH: "It's a little bit of all of them. Some of it's sloppy, obviously, saying 'true facts' instead of just 'facts,' some of it's pretentious -- saying 'documentation' instead of 'paperwork,' or 'specificities' instead of 'specifics' -- and some of it's deliberate, frankly. A sentence like 'This is a car for those who value quality.' That means nothing." AA: "As opposed to a car for those who don't." SMITH: "Yeah, right. I mean, a lot of language being used by politicians, the advertising industry, is language designed to sound as if it means something but it really doesn't mean anything." AA: "Hasn't this always been the case?" SMITH: "It has, but I think recently it's gotten a lot worse. Certainly the reach of the media that we have today is broader than it ever has been before, and that tends to spread it faster. It sort of increases the viral quality of this bad grammar and bad English. Every executive is a 'visionary' now, every product is 'revolutionary' or 'innovative.' Words like 'shocking' and 'unique' get thrown around all the time, and so the power of those words has been lost." AA: In his research, Ken Smith came to an unsettling conclusion. TAPE: CUT THREE -- SMITH/SKIRBLE SMITH: "Part of the difficulty in paying attention to this stuff as I did is that you realize you're not supposed to pay attention to this stuff. You're just supposed to sit back and be impressed by them and not really think too much about what is being said." RS: "What about you, Ken Smith, did you find some of these words creeping into your vocabulary after six months?" SMITH: "Oh, god yes! I always say that I'm an expert in junk English because I do it myself. In fact, in the introduction to the book I use the phrase 'broad overview' which is a redundancy, and I didn't realize that. I went back and read the book and there it was, sort of leaping out at me. I mean, junk English habits are very difficult to break." RS: And hard to escape. For instance, a lot of companies use what Ken Smith calls "casual, intimate language" to make business relationships seem something more. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- ARDITTI/SMITH/SKIRBLE SMITH: "It is trying to present this veneer of family. In fact, there's a section of the book called 'palsy-walsy pitches' ... " RS: "Palsy-walsy pitches?" SMITH: " ... which is a sales pitch put in a lexical mantle of friendship, it's like, you know, 'from our family to yours.' It's that kind of talk that's coming out of corporations and advertisers nowadays." AA: "And you encourage people to send you examples of junk English, is that right, to your Web site?" SMITH: "Oh yes, junkenglish.com." AA: "What's been the biggest complaint just since your book's come out, that people have been sending in to you?" SMITH: "Well, a lot of it is just these abomination words like 'concretize' and 'accidenting,' those are two that came into the Web site just the other day. People really pick up on these sort of fake words that people coin." RS: "So what you're saying is, once we being to recognize that we're speaking or writing in junk English, we can avoid doing that." SMITH: "Yeah and again I think the book also helps you to laugh at it, and I think once you're able to laugh at junk English, it loses a lot of its power, it's not impressive anymore. You hear it, it's like a bell going off, like, 'oh yeah, he just said "incentavize," oh that's baaad,' whereas before you might not have recognized it." RS: "I guess my last question is, any advice for students learning English as a foreign language and learning to write?" SMITH: "Well, read good books and read good newspapers. The best way to learn how to write is to read good writing. Read the New York Times, read Harper's Magazine, read the New Yorker. I mean, these people know the language very well. They make mistakes too, but you can't go wrong by starting out at the top, it's the best way to learn a language. AA: Ken Smith, author of "Junk English." Now, if we can help you improve your English, write to us! RS: Send us your questions. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Turnstyled, Junkpiled"/Townes Van Zandt 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-7-1.cfm
* Headline: December 9, 2001 - Lida Baker: Stress in American English
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we take some of the stress out of learning which words to stress in American English. RS: We turn to Lida [lee-da] Baker. She's an instructor at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She says the basic rule when speaking is to put emphasis on what she calls "content words" like nouns and verbs -- the words that convey information. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BAKER/ARDITTI BAKER: "Words that are part of the grammatical structure of the language tend to be unstressed. So words like articles and prepositions and pronouns. So let me give you an example, if I say something like 'I have to go to the store,' the most prominent word in that sentence is the word 'store.' It's a noun. It's also stressed because it is the last content word of the sentence. One of the normal patterns of American English is that you stress the last content word, the last information-conveying word, of the sentence. Now in contrast to that, let's look at the words that are not stressed. The very first word is a pronoun. 'I' tends to be unstressed. The next two words, 'have to,' if we were to write those words out, we would write 'have to.' In conversation we run them together and we pronounce them very quickly, and we say 'hafta.'" AA: "Like h-a-f-t-a." BAKER: "Exactly." AA: "And that's perfectly acceptable." BAKER: "It's more than acceptable, it's required. This is what native speakers of English do. And by the way, a lot of people all over the world learn English by reading. They memorize lists of vocabulary and they're tested on their reading skills and so on. Well, when I get them in my classroom and they're in an English-speaking country for the first time in their lives, and they're hearing the language all around them, they don't understand a word. And one of the reasons they can't understand the spoken language is that they're not familiar with this alternating stress and unstressed pattern." RS: As Lida Baker explained, the word you choose to stress also lets you change the focus of a sentence in order to convey a specific meaning. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BAKER/ARDITTI BAKER: "Let's take a simple sentence like this: 'I put my red hat away.' Now what was the focus word in that phrase?" AA: "Hat." BAKER: "Right, because 'hat' is the last content word of the sentence. So if you were to ask me, 'what did you put away?' I would answer you, 'I put my red hat away.' But what if I say it like this, 'I put my red hat AWAY.' What question is that answering?" ARDITT: "What did you do with your red hat?" BAKER: "Or 'where did you put your red hat,' right? Now what if I say it like this, 'EYE put my red hat away.' What question is that answering?" AA: "Who put your red hat away." BAKER: "That's right. Let's move the focus one more time and say it like this, 'I put MY red hat away' ... 'I put MY red hat away.'" AA: "As opposed to someone else's." BAKER: "Right, so we can voluntarily focus on any word in the sentence that we want to in order to convey a specific meaning." AA: "And, in fact, if you're not familiar with the sort of natural patterns and you stress the wrong words, you might end up confusing the listener." BAKER: "That's exactly the point. As a matter of fact, people who are learning English have a tendency, for example, to stress pronouns. For them the normal stress pattern that they employ would be 'EYE put my red hat away.' And to a native speaker of English, as you say, that would be very confusing, because they would be wondering 'well, why are you stressing the pronoun there?'" AA: One way Lida Baker helps her students learn normal speech patterns is by listening to music and singing along. She says music also helps people remember things. RS: She plays classic songs, like one that Julie Andrews made famous in the movie soundtrack to "My Fair Lady." TAPE: CUT THREE -- BAKER "'The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly in the Plain' is a great example of a normal speech pattern. It's divided into two thought groups, 'the rain in Spain,' 'falls mainly in the plain.' Each thought group has a focus word -- in fact it has two focus words, rain/Spain, mainly/plain. And the function words -- the prepositions and the articles and so on -- are not stressed, and so they're what we call reduced. They're pronounced at a lower pitch, they're pronounced quickly ... MUSIC: "The Rain in Spain" RS: If you have a question for Lida Baker at UCLA's American Language Center, send it to us -- she might be able to answer it on the air. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "The Rain in Spain" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-8-1.cfm
* Headline: December 2, 2001 - English Teachers Convention, Part 2
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on WORDMASTER -- what's it like to be an English teacher in America today? I put that question to an expert at the recent convention of the National Council of Teachers of English, in Baltimore, Maryland. Meet Carol Jago. Not only has she been teaching English at Santa Monica High School in Southern California for almost thirty years ... she also directs the California Literature and Reading Project at the University of California at Los Angeles, which trains English teachers to help them continue to grow professionally. TAPE: CUT ONE -- CAROL JAGO "I think the job of an English teacher is first and foremost to help students to be truly literate, both students who can read and [who] do read. And not just for functional purposes, but because within books are the important and lasting ideals of our society. And I really see English teachers as keepers of that American and that worldwide treasure." AA: Carol Jago teaches the classics of English literature, like the epic Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf." She tries to make the stories relevant to students who these days may have other ideas of what constitutes a "classic." TAPE: CUT TWO -- JAGO/ARDITTI JAGO: "I think the importance of what we do, let's say with a study of literature, is that it helps -- it's like a window to the world, instead of thinking your whole world is your neighborhood. It's the job of an artful teacher to help them see through that window. It's not just lecturing but having them do things with the books, enact characters." AA: "Well, I've got to ask you a question about Harry Potter." JAGO: "Absolutely. I had a girl yesterday, while I'm trying to teach, she's reading 'Harry Potter'! I didn't interrupt her for a minute. I love those books! And why are they great books? Because they build on archetypal characters. To me, it fits right in to everything I'm trying to do by teaching the classics. Harry Potter has a scar, just like all heroes have a scar. He has a Merlin-like character in his life, he's got sidekicks. That's why these books work for everyone. I think the fourth Harry Potter, the 800-page book, has done more than anything I know to demonstrate to students that long books don't mean boring books." AA: At the same time, though, as an English teacher, Carol Jago has to teach students whose native language is Spanish or any of the other languages spoken in ethnically diverse Southern California. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JAGO/ARDITTI JAGO: "I think learning English as a second language is a huge, huge challenge. For me, the more contact with native English speakers that one could have, the more easily that transition is made. That's what we see in Los Angeles. We have so many students trying to learn English as a second language. Those who live in linguistically isolated communities have a much more difficult time than those students who have more English spoken in their lives. I personally have a challenge ahead of me, because my husband wants to move to France. So it's been very interesting to me as a teacher to think about that and to think of my fears when I'm in France, my reluctance to talk. It's helped me be a better teacher of English language learners by confronting my own terror." AA: Carol Jago, an English teacher at Santa Monica High School ... which happens to be where I went to school. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- ARDITTI/JAGO AA: "You remember me! JAGO: "I do!" AA: Also at the National Council of Teachers of English convention were all the big school book publishers, including Scholastic. I talked to Scholastic's Carole Levine about the growing trend in America toward standards-based education. That translates to teaching geared to what state or local officials decide all students must know. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- CAROLE LEVINE LEVINE: "Teachers are complaining vehemently that everything is driven by the standards, because they are accountable all the way through." AA: And has that changed your industry? LEVINE: "It's changed in the way that we need to be so much more aware of testing, the way to test, what you can do to get ready, what the various elements are for this kind of learning, and trying to give it to the teachers." AA: So how do publishers keep up? Julie Kreiss of Scholastic says that sometimes it's just a matter of linguistic adjustments -- keeping up with new terms for existing materials. TAPE: CUT SIX -- JULIE KREISS "So people call us and say 'do you have informational texts,' and if you're not aware that 'informational texts' in many cases means non-fiction ... you have to stay on your toes in that sense." AA: That's all for WORDMASTER this week. If you're trying to keep up on American English, and have a question, send it along to word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "An English Teacher"/Bye-Bye Birdie 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-9-1.cfm
* Headline: November 25, 2001 - English Teachers Convention, Part 1
* Byline: 

 TAPE: CROWD NOISE AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a visit to Baltimore, Maryland, for the ninety-first annual convention of N-C-T-E -- the National Council of Teachers of English. These teachers take American kids through reading and writing, speaking and literature. I was curious to find out what's new in the field, but also how teachers have been addressing what's happening in the world right now. TAPE: CUT ONE -- SZYMBORSKI "My name is Renuka Chander Szymborski and I teach middle and upper school English at a small private school in Gastonia, North Carolina. Gastonia is a town close to Charlotte, and our population is predominately Caucasian; we do have a few minority students. I teacher primarily world literature. We found a need for that at our school mainly because we have a lot of focus on the British and the American and some of our students were lacking the understanding that there were other literatures and other cultures that perhaps we needed to be aware of. So that was a new course that was created about two years ago." AA: Then with September eleventh, and several thousand dead at the hands of terrorists, the name of Osama bin Laden was suddenly all over the news and on the minds of her students. TAPE: CUT TWO -- SZYMBORSKI/ARDITTI SZYMBORSKI: "One of the interesting things was, we were working on Middle Eastern literature at that time, and so we did stop and many of the students did ask questions about, well, what is Islam and who is this guy and why do they hate Americans? So we did talk about the religious aspects and how that relates to the Koran and some of the literature. And they did seem to have more of an interest in global issues after the attack, as to what does literature have to say about the thoughts and feelings of people of those cultures." AA: "And now, two months later?" SZYMBORSKI: "They do bring up some things that are on the news and try to see how that connects. They understand that war and oppression have existed for a very long time, and that people have used religious doctrines to further their own causes. And so that kind of allows them to realize this is not the first time, and that perhaps we are not alone in this problem." AA: Renuka Chander Szymborski wasn't the only English teacher at her school to find her curriculum suddenly overshadowed by events. Jill Kazmierczak had her upper grade students analyze a speech by Osama bin Laden. TAPE: CUT THREE -- KAZMIERCZAK/ARDITTI KAZMIERCZAK: "We wanted to look at and to answer the question, well, why do they hate Americans. What is it at least that they are saying, how do they perceive rationalizing such an attack." AA: "And how have the students reacted?" KAZMIERCZAK: "It was fascinating. They really dug into the material. They started saying, 'He makes a reference to "eighty years ago" three times in that speech. What WAS going on, and what was America's role in creating Palestine and Israel, what is this League of Nations, how were we a part of this?' And so they got interested in it." AA: "How is this considered English?" KAZMIERCZAK: "We can analyze it not only for the content, but for the rhetoric. And so what kinds of arguments, what kinds of modes of arguments, do we have going on here. What rhetorical manipulations. So when you call Bush 'the head of all infidels in the world,' what does that really mean? What is the depth of that kind of statement?" AA: I also spoke to Sawsan Jaber, a 21-year-old American-born Palestinian who is in her second year of teaching English at an Islamic school in Teaneck, New Jersey. A tan scarf covers her hair and neck. The township of Teaneck, New Jersey, is close to New York and Ground Zero, site of the ruins of the World Trade Center. Sawsa Jaber says her students have been victims twice -- first of the attack on September eleventh, then of a backlash in their own community. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- JABER/ARDITTI JABER: "You can't leave out current events. It's happening in our neighborhood. I mean, we have [graffiti] spray-painted all over our building and comments from our neighbors." AA: "As their teacher how are you using these events?" JABER: "I actually did a novel with them -- 'Fahrenheit 451' -- about censorship in media and how the media has like a one-sided point of view sometimes and that's the point of view that they want the people to accept. So it fit in perfectly with what was going on, because I personally feel -- and they also feel -- that the media has taken a one-sided point of view on this whole issue and sort of stereotyped a lot of, you know, Muslims. And we see all of this negative stigma from the Middle East. So the novel that we did with my honors ninth-grade class was "Fahrenheit 451" which covers all of these points about media and representation and all of that." AA: "Fahrenheit 451" is a novel by American science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Published almost fifty years ago, it's about a society that burns books. The title refers to the temperature at which paper catches fire. And, it's the same book my wife uses to teach her schoolchildren about censorship. Over the years, some teachers have taken heat from parents for using this book in class. But when you're an English teacher, that sort of challenge comes with the territory. Next week, more from the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Baltimore. (If you have a question about American English, send it to word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA.) That's WORDMASTER for this week. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-10-1.cfm
* Headline: November 18, 2001 - Supreme Court Dictionary Use
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- using a dictionary to help define the law of the land. RS: The next time you go to an English dictionary to look up a word or settle an argument, you might take comfort in knowing that even some of the most esteemed users of the language are doing the same thing. AA: Two researchers have found an increasing tendency by U-S Supreme Court justices some more than others - to cite dictionaries in their opinions. And not just legal dictionaries but general-use dictionaries as well. RS: Jeff Kirchmeier [kirk-meyer] is a law professor at the City University of New York. Using a computer, he and Sam Thumma [thum-a], a lawyer in Arizona, searched for the word "dictionary" in Supreme Court decisions. TAPE: CUT ONE -- KIRCHMEIER "Whereas the court first used the dictionary back in 1830, very rarely did they use it. For a long time, even up through like 1910 through 1919 they only used the dictionary in eight opinions. In the 1920s they only used it in 10 opinions. And really up through the '60s they never even used it in more than 20 opinions a year -- I'm talking about over a whole term of the court year." AA: In the nineteen-nineties, Professor Kirchmeier says, the Supreme Court cited dictionaries in more than two hundred opinions. The words defined ranged from the seemingly straightforward, like "coal," to terms like "corruption" and "usufructuary," which has to do with the right to enjoy the fruits of something belonging to someone else. One possible reason for the increasing reliance, he says, is that dictionaries have changed over the years. TAPE: CUT TWO -- KIRCHMEIER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI KIRCHMEIER: "Up through the 1960s, dictionaries generally were used to be prescriptive, meaning that dictionaries would say what words should mean or how we should see them to mean. And the Webster's Third New International Dictionary sort of changed that. They came out with what's called a descriptive dictionary, instead describing the way words actually are being used in conversations and writings. Once dictionaries started focusing on what words actually meant in general use, that may have also partly affected the court's use of it, although initially there was some debate about whether dictionaries that were descriptive dictionaries were really dictionaries." RS: "Can you give us an example of how the dictionary has determined the outcome of a case." KIRCHMEIER: "There's a couple of cases where the court used it in the same way, and there the court was trying to interpret a statute using the word 'cattle.' The statute there had been written many years before, like a century earlier, so the court looked at dictionaries from that time period to determine what 'cattle' meant to determine whether it included in those cases hogs and sheep. And they determined by looking at those dictionaries that the definition of 'cattle' did include those in those cases." AA: "Really! When I hear 'cattle' I just think of cows." KIRCHMEIER: "Yeah, me too!" RS: Even words as simple as "no" have prompted the Supreme Court to turn to the dictionary. TAPE: CUT THREE -- KIRCHMEIER/ARDITTI KIRCHMEIER: "'No' involved a case where the court was looking at whether someone could be convicted of making a false statement to investigators, and someone had answered a question by saying 'no,' and so the court looked at dictionaries to determine whether the word 'no' constituted a statement." AA: "And what did they decide?" KIRCHMEIER: "They decided that it was a statement." AA: "So, 'no,' period. (laughing)" KIRCHMEIER: "Yeah, yeah." AA: He says that, a lot of times, if the statutes written by Congress were a little clearer, then the court might not have to go to the dictionary as often. Not long ago there was a case involving a law that imposed a more severe sentence if a person were found to be "carrying" a weapon. RS: Does having a gun in the trunk of a car mean "carrying"? Or does the law literally mean holding a weapon in your hand? TAPE: CUT FOUR -- KIRCHMEIER/SKIRBLE KIRCHMEIER: "They did decide that 'carrying' would include it being in the trunk. But I think there was a dissenting opinion in that case." RS: "So it's a struggle on one hand to be clear and on the other hand to be precise but understandable." KIRCHMEIER: "Exactly." AA: Professor Kirchmeier points to comments made by some of the nine members of the court, including Justice Stephen Beyer, expressing concerns about the use of dictionaries. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- KIRCHMEIER/SKIRBLE KIRCHMEIER: "There's a very recent case where Justice Breyer had stated, and I'll read it: 'Language, dictionaries and canons, unilluminated by purpose, can lead courts into blind alleys, producing rigid interpretations that can harm those whom the statute affects." AA: Professor Jeff Kirchmeyer at the City University of New York School of Law, co-author of an article on this topic in the autumn issue of "The Green Bag, An Entertaining Journal of Law" -- that's what it calls itself. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our address is word@voanews.com, or VOA Wordmaster Washington DC 20237 USA. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-11-1.cfm
* Headline: November 11, 2001 - Telephone Etiquette
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Hanging on the Telephone"/Blondie AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- some tips on telephone etiquette. MUSIC: ...don't leave me hanging on the telephone, don't leave me hanging on the telephone... RS: One person you don't want to leave hanging on the phone is Nancy Friedman. For the past eighteen years ... ever since this Saint Louis, Missouri, businesswoman got fed up with her insurance agent's rude staff ... she's been traveling the country, and now abroad, on a mission. AA: That mission, in her words: "training corporations to do a better job when the public calls." Nancy Friedman calls herself the Telephone Doctor. Let's start with her prescription for answering the phone: TAPE: CUT ONE -- FRIEDMAN "So it would be 'good morning, XYZ company, this is Mary -- stop. Anything after our name, erases our name. 'How can I help you?' is not necessary in initial greetings. We're there to help, that's why we've picked up the telephone. I can guarantee you that most 'how can I help you's' are interrupted by somebody asking for somebody or needing some help." RS: Nancy Friedman says, don't underestimate the power of those first few seconds on the phone. TAPE: CUT TWO -- FRIEDMAN "That's where a sale is made, where somebody says 'Good morning, thanks for calling, Telephone Doctor's office, this is Nancy,' that's the point where the person thinks, 'Do I want to do business with this company or don't I.' And number two, the other nice part of this is when you give your name, eighty percent of the time you will get the caller's name. So if I were saying, 'Good afternoon, Telephone Doctor's office, this is Nancy,' you might say, 'Hi Nancy, this is Rosanne.'" RS: And there's a reason she phrases it "this is Nancy." TAPE: CUT THREE -- FRIEDMAN FRIEDMAN: "Not 'Nancy speaking,' please remember -- not 'Nancy speaking.' We don't want that." AA: "Why not?" FRIEDMAN: "Well, we don't want 'Nancy speaking' because Nancy Speaking is married to Bob Speaking. They have two children, Judy Speaking (laughter) ... " RS: "Exactly!" FRIEDMAN: "Well, I make a joke on that, but the bottom line is they won't remember your name." AA: OK, let's say you're on the phone with someone and you're not sure who it is, is it polite to ask: "Who is this?" That's a question our listener Njideka Umeh in Lagos, Nigeria would like answered. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- FRIEDMAN FRIEDMAN: "Well, it is not polite to ask 'who is this?' over the telephone any more than if you would walk up to somebody at a party and say 'who are you?' We would shake our hand, we would put our hand out as a sign of friendship and we would say, 'Hello, my name is Nancy. And you are? ' And they would say it. So on the telephone we want to remember to do pretty much the same thing. When somebody calls up and gives a name, it is very rude to say, 'I'm sorry, what was your name again?' You can say, 'I apologize, I know you gave your name and I missed it. My name is Nancy and you are?'" RS: But what if the caller never gave his or her name right up? AA: Extracting the caller's name can require going beyond the obivious questions -- questions that might sound rude. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- FRIEDMAN "Who is this,' 'what company are you with,' 'what is this concerning' -- those are all very threatening and very frustrating questions to ask and to answer, so we simply believe if somebody hasn't identified themselves, and you ask for Mister Smith [the reply should be]: 'I'll be glad to ring his office -- let me tell him who's calling, please,' and not 'can I ask who's calling,' not 'who is this,' 'let me tell him who's calling please.' But that has a second part to it and a very important second part. If you're turning around and telling Mr. Bigshot it's Mrs. Smith on the phone, Mr. Bigshot must answer the phone with Mrs. Smith's name or don't screen." RS: In other words, don't try to find out who's calling. AA: Nancy Friedman has some other rules of customer service. TAPE: CUT SIX -- FRIEDMAN/ARDITTI FRIEDMAN: "Smile before you pick up the phone, because the callers can hear it, [and] don't rush callers. We find that sometimes, especially when there's a language barrier, each side tries to rush the other caller. Ending a phone call should be done as pleasantly as the beginning. 'Hey, great to talk with you,' 'good meeting you by phone' -- whatever closing signature you'd like. You do it on a letter: 'best wishes,' 'stay well,' all those things. Do it on the telephone, too." AA: Nancy Friedman, dispensing advice as the Telephone Doctor, at www.telephonedoctor.com. RS: If you have a problem the Wordmasters could cure, write to word@voanews.com, or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. AA: And, if you'd like, include your telephone number and the best time to reach you. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "The Telephone Hour"/Original Broadway cast of "Bye-Bye Birdie" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-12-1.cfm
* Headline: November 4, 2001 - Slangman: Old Slang ('Little Red Riding Hood')
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Syncopated Clocks"/Leroy Anderson AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- time for some slang! This past week, the United States went off Daylight Savings Time and onto Standard Time for the next six months. So we turned our clocks back one hour. RS: Well, this gave us an idea: why stop at just one hour? We decided to send our friend Slangman on a mission back in time to talk to us about some old American slang. AA: And when Slangman -- the author whose real name is David Burke -- called in to report his findings, he presented them in the form of a famous children's story... TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE "Once upon a time there lived an 'able Grable,' which is a very pretty girl or woman. It comes from the '40s, the movie star Betty Grable, who was known for being very pretty. So our 'able Grable' -- her name was Little Red Riding Hood -- she loved to 'bop around.' Now to 'bop around,' which meant to walk around, to move around. She loved to bop around wearing a red hood -- and of course that's why she became known as Little Red Riding Hood. "Well, one day, her 'old lady' -- which means mother or wife -- one day her old lady, who was a bit of a 'flat tire' -- that comes from the '20s, which means 'really dull,' a great expression -- she was a 'flat tire,' and she asked Little Red Riding Hood to take some 'eats' to her grandmother, who was sick in bed. "Well, thought Little Red Riding Hood, 'heavy bummer,' which comes from the '70s, which means 'what a shame.' And Little Red Riding Hood quickly 'cut out' -- which means 'to leave' -- she cut out to her grandmother's house. As she was going through the woods she met with a 'hep cat' -- it means a very intelligent looking guy, a 'hep cat.' This hep cat was actually a wolf dressed like a man. "The wolf would have 'bumped her off' -- which is slang from the '20s meaning 'to kill.' But there were a lot of other people around, and he thought he'd better leave her alone for the moment. He asked her where she was 'trucking to' -- now, in the '70s, to 'truck' meant to go somewhere, 'keep on trucking,' that means 'keep on moving.' 'I am going to see my grandmother to give her some food -- dig?' That was really popular in the '50s -- that meant 'you understand, you dig?' So she said to the wolf 'later gator.' short for 'see you later, alligator' -- 'later gator.' That's from the '40s where everything rhymed. "When Little Red got to her grandmother's house she saw her grandmother in bed, but it was really the wolf who ran ahead of her. The grandmother said 'hey kiddo,' that's from the '20s meaning friend or any term of affection. 'How are you?' And Little Red Riding Hood replied 'everything is Jake.' 'Jake' was really popular in the '20s; it meant 'great.' And she told her grandmother 'I brought you some grub.' We still say 'grub' too even today. "But Little Red Riding Hood was getting 'bad vibes,' very popular from the '70s, it meant a bad feeling. Little Red Riding Hood was no 'dumb Dora' -- which means she wasn't stupid, that's from the '20s also -- and noticed that something was wrong. 'Grandma, you have such big peepers,' that meant 'eyes,' 'and really big choppers' -- that meant teeth, that came from the '50s. And the wolf said 'all the better to eat you with.' "Luckily the wolf was a little bit 'spifflicated' -- which is a great word from the '20s meaning 'drunk' -- because he accidentally drank some 'giggle water.' 'Giggle water' was from the '20s, it meant alcohol. He saw it sitting on the grandmother's table. He thought it was regular water and drank the whole thing. "Well, when the wolf got up, he tripped and fell, and Little Red 'boogied' -- that's from the '70s, it meant 'left really fast' -- she 'boogied' home. The moral of the story? Don't 'rap' -- which is from the '70s, meaning to talk -- with talking wolves. And, by the way, today to 'rap' does not mean to have a conversation; it means to do music where you talk instead of sing." AA: Slangman David Burke, proving once again that he's no "flat tire." RS: Now, if modern American slang is what you're interested in, David has samples from his teaching books posted online at www.slangman.com. You can also e-mail him your questions: that address is slangman@slangman.com AA: Ours here at Wordmaster is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Little Red Riding Hood"/Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-13-1.cfm
* Headline: October 28, 2001 - TESOL Teacher
* Byline: 

 AA: I've Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- come with us to the American Midwest to meet a young man who teaches English to speakers of other languages ... lots of other languages. RS: His name is Josh Atherton. He taught English in South Korea for three years, and now he's teaching a class while he works on a graduate degree in education at the University of Northern Iowa. AA: It's a writing class for students from other countries. He has twenty students -- from seventeen different countries! TAPE: CUT ONE -- ATHERTON "It's a challenge to say the least. I am charged with teaching them standard American academic English. All the students come from different cultures and the academic languages they have learned are sometimes very different from the academic language of America." RS: Argentina, Bosnia, China, Ghana -- in fact, two brothers from Ghana -- he's got them all. AA: Yet, as Josh Atherton has learned, his students are already familiar with some areas of American English -- maybe a little too familiar. TAPE: CUT TWO -- ATHERTON "I think the most interesting thing for me is [that] the students have a very hard time understanding the role of swear words and curse words. These students, they know the words, the swear words, from movies and whatever they've read on the Internet, but they don't know necessarily the connotations that surround this type of language." RS: "Right, they don't have the experience with it, they don't have the context, they don't have the emotion charged..." ATHERTON: "Exactly, so they feel it's appropriate to talk like this in class and to talk like this in their writing." AA: And that's not the only thing the students have a hard time adjusting to. TAPE: CUT THREE -- ATHERTON "You know, I tell my students, OK in this paper, in the academic papers you're going to write for American institutions, I want to see your thesis -- which I explained is the answer to the problem that they're addressing in the paper -- I want to see your thesis in the first paragraph. And they think, well, doesn't that spoil the mystery or the suspense of reading the paper if you know the answer before your hear all of the relevant details behind it?" RS: Maybe so, but what they're learning is the traditional formula for American academic writing: TAPE: CUT FOUR -- ATHERTON "OK, this is what the introduction should include: Introduce a topic, create a problem, answer that problem with a thesis. OK, paragraph one addresses this point, paragraph two addresses that point, and the conclusion now restates your thesis, sums up all your information and maybe provides a little direction for the future. And the students say, well, that's so boring." RS: Right now Josh Atherton is teaching the students how to do research. He talks about the need to give proper credit. AA: That way, the students don't appear to be copying the words of an expert and claiming them as their own. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- ATHERTON "Plagiarism in an American academic institution is seriously, seriously discouraged and I tell my students if you're caught plagiarizing, you at the very least fail the paper, probably fail the course. And the students, you know, their initial reaction is, why so serious? What's the problem?" RS: The students tell him that in some of their cultures, they're taught not to give their own opinion in a paper. TAPE: CUT SIX -- ATHERTON/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE ATHERTON: "So the idea is don't try to change, don't try to paraphrase, don't try to summarize, just cut and paste and that's the idea. Whereas in America I teach my students that this is not enough to go out and tell me what these people have said, you have to do some critical thinking and you have to synthesize." AA: "Meaning ..." RS: "You can quote them." ATHERTON: "You can quote them, right, but then I have students who have an entire paper of quotes and maybe one or two lines -- truly in a five or ten page paper, one or two lines is something that they've written themselves. And I say this is not appropriate, you need to have fewer quotes and more critical thinking. AA: "They're not just writing, they're also writing in a language, in a peculiar language in itself, of academic writing." ATHERTON: "I work my students through multiple drafts. So I tell my students when you do the first draft of any of the papers that I assign, I ask them to do a lot of free writing, I tell them to put down their dictionaries, I tell them to keep their pencils moving, just write as much as you can without paying attention to grammar and syntax and vocabulary. If they have something they want to say, put it in their native languages if they can't think of how to say it in English originally, just to get the thoughts onto the paper." RS: Josh Atherton, a graduate assistant instructor at the University of Northern Iowa. AA: If you're in the mood to write, our e-mail address here is word@voanews.com, or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-14-1.cfm
* Headline: October 21, 2001 - Grammar Lady: Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we answer some listener mail, starting with this question sent by e-mail from Siva Kumar in Madras, in Tamil Nadu, India. RS: "Dear Avi and Rosanne, I would like to know the opposite of postpone." TAPE: CUT -- BRUDER "In American English there isn't a direct opposite. We'd have to use a phrase like 'move up' or 'advance the date' or something like that." AA: Linguist and author Mary Newton Bruder, at grammarlady-dot-com, speaking to us on her grammar advice hotline in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. RS: Sivakumar in India may be familiar with a local term for the opposite of "postpone." That is "prepone" -- but so far "prepone" has yet to advance its way into American English! AA: The next question we put to Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder is from Radha, a high school student in Pune, India: "Here is a question regarding punctuation. What is the difference between these two sentences: 'kill him not, comma, leave him" and 'kill him, comma, not leave him." TAPE: CUT -- BRUDER/SKIRBLE BRUDER: "I've heard this explained as 'a comma can kill a man.'" RS: "A comma can kill a man. OK, go on." BRUDER: "So if you put it in after 'kill him,' that's exactly what the directive is, to kill someone. But if you put it after 'not,' it changes the meaning entirely to 'don't kill him' -- 'kill him not, leave him.' Don't kill him, leave him alone." AA: Now, Rosanne, does "kill him not" even sound like Modern English? RS: "Not" should come after an auxiliary or helping verb and not after the main verb in a sentence. So, for instance, "fear not" becomes "do not fear" ... unless you're going for style. AA: Next for Grammar Lady -- a question from Manuela in Berlin. She would like to know if the sentence "I'll come round at six" is British English. She says, "I guess in American English it has to be 'around,' doesn't it?" RS: Well, we talked about this with Mary Newton Bruder. TAPE: CUT -- ARDITTI/BRUDER AA: "When I first saw this, I thought, OK, 'I'll come around at six' means I'll come around to your way of thinking, or ... " RS: "... I'll wake up." AA: "to come around means if you're unconscious, you come around, you wake up. It seems like a speaker of American English would be more likely to say 'I'll come around six,' meaning a few minutes before, a few minutes after." BRUDER: "Yeah, right, meaning to stop by. It's not a common American phrase, to 'come around.'" RS: Now a question from Meng Chun-Quan at Xi'an University of Science & Technology in Shaanxi, China. "Dear friends of the Wordmaster team: After the deadly terrorist attack in New York and Washington on September eleventh, I've heard VOA News Now refer many times to the site of the destroyed World Trade Center as the ground zero. Could you please tell me the meaning of [ground zero.]" AA: For an explanation, we called Stephen Schwartz in Chicago. He's publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. TAPE: CUT -- SCHWARTZ/ARDITTI (: 58) SCHWARTZ: "Ground zero in nuclear terminology refers to the point on the surface of land where either directly above or directly below which a nuclear weapon detonates." AA: "How did that term come about?" SCHWARTZ: "My guess is that during World War Two and probably before, people used 'zero' in the sense of like 'zero hour' to refer to when an operation might start, for example, and my supposition is that when the scientists were getting ready to test the first atomic bomb out in New Mexico in 1945, that after that test occurred, they had to figure out where they were going -- 'let's go out and visit the site where the test took place' -- and somebody obviously coined the term ground zero to refer to the point at which basically everything occurred." RS: But, as Steve Schwartz notes the meaning of "ground zero" has grown over the years. TAPE: CUT -- SCHWARTZ/ARDITTI "The other definition which ground zero has sort of transformed into is the, one could say, the center or origin of rapid, intense or violent activity or change -- which obviously not only describes a nuclear explosion, but any sort of massive, cataclysmic event such as the attack and collapse of the World Trade Center." AA: "And it also has a third meaning, doesn't it, some people use it in place of 'square one' -- 'we're going to start this project here at ground zero and move from there.'" SCHWARTZ: "Right, and there it would have more of a positive connotation." RS: Stephen Schwartz, publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. AA: If you have a question for us, send it to word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-15-1.cfm
* Headline: October 14, 2001 - Language of Terror, Part 2
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- more about terrorism and language. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BUSH "Now is the time to draw a line in the sand against the evil ones." RS: President Bush, speaking this past week. Geoff Nunberg is a linguist, author and social commentator. We asked him his thoughts about hearing our leaders refer to terrorists as "evil," a word with a strong moral overtone. TAPE: CUT TWO -- NUNBERG "'Evil' is not a word that has been much used in the political arena, and when it has been used, for example, when Reagan described the Soviet Union as an 'evil empire' he was jumped on by a lot of people not just on the left, but moderates, and there really hasn't been that reaction to the use of evil in this context, perhaps because people feel there really is something evil about what happened." AA: He says a word that has drawn more attention among Americans is "homeland," as in President Bush's new Office of Homeland Security. TAPE: CUT THREE -- NUNBERG "Americans don't usually think of themselves as having a 'homeland' in that sense. It's like 'fatherland' in German or 'patris' in French. English and particularly American English doesn't have a word for that. We need some way to describe this part of America that's located here, and that's a very interesting usage. It has an Old World feel to it and it's not the sort of way we've thought about our country. I don't know if it augers a change in the way we think of America itself or if it's just a convenient or slightly awkward term that Bush grabbed for, but it's certainly interesting." RS: Geoff Nunberg says that after the September eleventh attacks on the United States, politicians in particular seemed to reach back in time for their language. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- NUNBERG/SKIRBLE NUNBERG: "People were using the word 'nefarious.' Both Senator Schumer of New York and Governor Davis of California used the word 'dastardly.' Now 'dastardly' is the kind of word that you usually associate with the villain in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. It's not a word that people ordinarily use to describe events in everyday life. Bush used the word 'despicable' which has a slightly Victorian cast to it. "I don't know what the reason for this was, but I suspect that part of it had to do with the idea that that language -- words like 'dastardly,' 'despicable,' 'nefarious' -- is associated with a Victorian moral order where there was right and wrong. And this way of casting the problem as a battle between good and evil, for example, also had that Victorian resonance. And in that sense the ideology that's implicit in the use of this language does reflect more a kind of Victorian ideology than a twentieth century ideology where things aren't black and white but all painted in shades of gray." RS: "These are words coming out of the mouths of politicians. What about the people on the street? What are we hearing from them?" NUNBERG: "Well, we're hearing two kinds of language. We're hearing very angry language, very colloquial angry language. And we're also hearing a kind of interestingly formal language to describe -- the word 'enormity' has been used for a long time in English but tends to be used by most people now just to refer to things that are large and not things that are large and terrible, but somehow 'enormity' has re-acquired its old sense of things that are great in their horribleness and their terror. The word 'horrific' was on everyone's lips for the week following the attacks, and that again is a slightly old-fashioned word, I think. So it's as if people also are looking to the language of some earlier moral order, as if the language of ordinary English doesn't quite have the resources to deal with events of this magnitude." AA: Sometimes, though, he says, it seems like not having the right words is just the right thing. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- NUNBERG "We use these words like 'unuterrable, indescribable, unspeakable. In a certain sense the most damning thing you can say about events is that they pass the powers of language to describe. It's a way of talking that was very much used in connection with the Holocaust, for example. That words ought to fail us." RS: Linguist Geoff Nunberg, speaking to us from his home in San Francisco, California. He's the author of a new book about language and culture, called "The Way We Talk Now." AA: The way to talk to us now is to send an e-mail -- our address is word@voanews.com. And that's all for Wordmaster this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-16-1.cfm
* Headline: October 7, 2001 - Language of Terror, Part 1
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- language and the impact of the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. RS: Start with something as simple as the date. September eleventh, or 9-11 as Americans write it in shorthand. Even before the attacks, nine-one-one already had special significance to Americans. It is the telephone number we dial in case of an emergency. AA: So it is easy to see the double meaning in the various "9-11 emergency funds," as they are called. These charitable funds have been set up to raise money for the victims of the suicide hijackers in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. RS: But other terms, even the words we use to describe what happened on the eleventh of September, were not so clear. TAPE: CUT ONE -- WOODS 4) "You wind up hearing people talk about 'bombings' and there were of course no bombs that day." AA: Keith Woods is a journalist now on the ethics faculty at the Poynter Institute in Saint Petersburg, Florida. In the words of its literature, the Poynter Institute is a "school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders." TAPE: CUT TWO -- WOODS "Because the language was deficient in a lot of ways, our cultural understanding of what happened on September 11th was created on September 11th. We did not have a situation where people were flying commercial airlines filled with fuel into large, densely populated buildings. So to a certain extent the struggle has been over something as simple as that, to the bigger issues which have to do with what you call not only the people who are dead and guilty by all accounts of what happened on the eleventh of September, but also the people who assisted them, the people who are being held in detention centers around this country right now, who are of Middle Eastern descent, the people like bin Laden and the Taleban." RS: In fact, even the use of the word "terrorist" has not been clear cut. Some news organizations, fearful of appearing biased or inflammatory, are reminding their reporters to be careful about whom they call a terrorist, especially when not quoting a newsmaker. After all, as the saying goes, one person's "terrorist" is another person's "freedom fighter." AA: Still, on September thirtieth, CNN television posted a note on its Web page saying, quote, "There have been false reports that CNN has not used the word 'terrorist' to refer to those who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon. In fact, CNN has consistently and repeatedly referred to the attackers and hijackers as terrorists, and it will continue to do so." RS: Keith Woods at the Poynter Institute says it's a struggle on the part of the media to find the right language to be accurate, and also as precise and descriptive as possible. And when it comes to using the word "terrorism," he says, there is also a practical consideration -- since none of the hijackers is still alive to interview, there is no way to know their objective beyond what they did on September eleventh. TAPE: CUT THREE -- WOODS "What we know for sure is that a group of people conspired to kill the people on those airplanes and anybody else who they could kill when they crashed them. So we know that they are murderers. The rest of the motivation for terrorism, as I understand it at the very least, has to do with the impact that the act has on the people who are still alive -- the terror part of terrorism." AA: Keith Woods on the media ethics faculty at the Poynter Institute in Florida, talking about language in America post-September eleventh. Now in case you're wondering about the origin of the word "terrorism," we checked the Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, which defines it as a "system of terror" and gives this as the origin: "Government by intimidation as directed and carried out by the party in power in France during the Revolution of 1789 to 1794." RS: Send us your thoughts. We'd like to hear from you. Our address is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven U-S-A. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-17-1.cfm
* Headline: September 30, 2001 - How America Got Its Name, Part 2
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- how a piece of land between Europe and Asia got the name "America." RS: The name honors the Italian-born explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci. "America" first appeared on a world map in fifteen-oh-seven, over what we now call South America. AA: Only one copy of America's so-called birth certificate is known to survive. It's now in the hands of the Library of Congress here in Washington. RS: But the library has to raise ten-million dollars to buy it from a German prince. The big map was housed for more than three-hundred-fifty years in his family's castle. AA: Now here's the story of the map: Amerigo Vespucci first set out for this part of the world in fourteen-ninety-nine. RS: But, let's not forget Christopher Columbus. He set out for the New World seven years earlier, in fourteen-ninety-two. AA: Right, but when Columbus touched land he thought he was in Asia. It was Vespucci who writes of finding a "Mondus Novus," Latin for "New World." Professor David Woodward at the University of Wisconsin is editor of "The History of Cartography." He says Vespucci's published account of what he had found inspired the German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller to put "America" on the map, and to explain his reasoning in a book called "Introduction to Cosmography." TAPE: CUT ONE -- WOODWARD "In that book he says, 'I don't see why anybody should rightly forbid naming this fourth part of the world Amerige, land of Americus, as it were, after its discoverer, Americus, a man of acute genius. Or America, in as much as Europe and Asia have received their names from women." RS: OK, you recognize the name "America" -- but what about "Americus" and "Amerige"? Americus is simply Latin for Amerigo. AA: But Professor Woodward believes "Amerige" was actually a play on words by Waldseemuller and another young scholar. They changed the g-o in Amerigo to g-e, the same Greek root as in "geography," by implication "land," to come up with "land of Americus." TAPE: CUT TWO -- WOODWARD/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI WOODWARD: "I'm not sure that they really expected people to seriously agree with them that this new world should be named after Amerigo Vespucci." RS: "So did they not know that Columbus had been there first?" WOODWARD: "They had knowledge of the Columbian voyages to the islands of the Caribbean, but not up to the mainland and Columbus himself you got the remember didn't know that he'd really reached the mainland either." RS: "Is there anything in the literature about Amerigo Vespuci, about his reaction -- or did he ever see this?" AA: "Did he get royalties from that?" WOODWARD: "There's no reaction in the literature at all that I've seen." RS: "So what you're saying here, it's really the power of the press, it's printed in a booklet and finds its name on a map." WOODWARD: "There were three times as many editions of Amerigo Vespuci's little publication published as there were of the record of Columbus' voyages. It was far more popular as a piece of literature." RS: "So more copies in print, puts the name on the map." WOODWARD: "And more editions in languages other than Latin." AA: That was Professor David Woodward at the University of Wisconsin. RS: Columbus never saw Waldseemuller's map and its tribute to Vespucci -- Columbus died in fifteen-oh-six, a year before it came out. Now interestingly, the mapmaker removed the name "America" a few years later. RS: But by then, others had started using it, so the name stuck. Before we go, a little quiz -- do you say the "United States is" or the "United States are"? AA: We were surprised to learn that the answer used to be "are." That changed after the eighteen-sixties. After the Civil War, "United States" became "is." AA: University of Maryland history professor Gary Gerstle says it that before the Civil War, you were first a citizen of your state, then of the country. But after the pro-Union north defeated the Confederate states of the South, citizenship became something granted directly by the federal government. TAPE: CUT THREE -- GERSTLE "It's not just the drive for unity, though, it's not just 'let's pull together,' but it's also the very particular assertion made by the unionists, the republicans, that the Union was supreme and no state of the United Sates had a right to secede from the Union." RS: That's all for this week. Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "America"/West Side Story [movie soundtrack, recorded in Hollywood in August of 1960] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-18-1.cfm
* Headline: September 23, 2001 - How America Got Its Name, Part 1
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble with Wordmaster. Some time ago, a listener wrote to ask if there is a difference between "America" and "United States." We think this is a good time to answer that question. RS: Recently we read about an effort by the U.S. Library of Congress to acquire what is known as "America's birth certificate." It's a 1507 European map -- the first map on which the name "America" appears. AA: So we set up an interview with John Hebert [AY-bear], chief of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress. We scheduled it for Tuesday, September eleventh. RS: And then... TAPE: CUT ONE -- BUSH/RESCUE WORKERS AT WTC "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings but they cannot touch the foundation of America." "(crowd chanting) U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!" RS: President Bush, speaking from the White House, and later, when he later visited rescuers at the World Trade Center in New York, being greeted with "U-S-A! U-S-A!" a patriotic chant normally reserved for international sporting events. AA: You heard President Bush call the United States, "America." John Hebert sees little difference between "America" and "United States." In fact, he checked some atlases going back to the founding of the republic in 1776. What he found is that people here have been using "America" all along as another name for the United States of America. RS: Yet on that 1507 map the name "America" actually appeared over what we now call South America. North America, in other words, wasn't even on the map yet. AA: So I asked John Hebert why politicians tend to use the term "America" rather than "United States." TAPE: CUT THREE -- ARDITTI/HEBERT HEBERT: "Well, I guess it's a shorthand. I think the United States is a very cumbersome word when you're describing 'I'm a citizen of the United States,' as opposed to 'I'm an American.' I will tell you one thing, 'America' does denote an area separated from Europe, separated from Asia, and that is a way of classifying us an entity that feels that protection -- at one time felt protection -- of the ocean separating us from the Old World. So I think it's become part of our language, not only political language but just in everyday language, to refer to us as Americans." AA: "I mean, Mexicans are Americans, Canadians are Americans." HEBERT: "There's no doubt about what you're saying. And they definitely are Americans and they think of themselves as Americans. When they define who they are, when they name who they are, in most cases, it's 'Mexicans' or 'Canadians.' RS: John Hebert, a Latin America historian by training, also noted that not everyone looks at the map the same way. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- HEBERT/ARDITTI "In the study of geography in Latin American texts, you will see that the Western Hemisphere is referred to as 'America.' There is no division of continents between a North America and a South America, but there is only one continent of America which is divided into a southern, central and northern branch of the same continent -- not continents -- of America." AA: "And then in English?" HEBERT: "In English geograhies you will invariably see the division into two continents, between a North American and a South America as two separate continents. That's not to say we should not call ourselves Americans, though. That's not the point. The point is that we should be aware of the way in which other peoples look at this same part of the real estate that we all occupy." AA: "I suppose economic power kind of seems to have dictated usage perhaps." HEBERT: "Or political. Political and economic. Let's not forget that the United States very early on is the independent nation. It establishes itself as a beacon for other republican efforts, and hence came along the Haitian revolution and the breaks from Spain in 1821 with Mexico and the whole 'new Spain' folding, and progressively throughout the Americas from that point on. So there is a certain amount of vintage to the United States as the first American republic and probably leads very strongly to the use of our terms in a very strong sense of the idea of independence and democracy, a democratic system." AA: John Hebert at the Library of Congress. Next week, more about how America got its name. RS: Let us hear from you. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com or send letters to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, D-C, 20237 USA. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "America"/Simon & Garfunkel 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-19-1.cfm
* Headline: September 9, 2001 - Gossip
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- did you hear? We're going to talk about gossip! RS: Idle talk, chatty talk, rumors or facts of an intimate nature -- these are some dictionary definitions for what Americans mean by "gossip." AA: In British English, a "gossip" is a godparent -- someone to look after you. That meaning goes all the way back to Old English. In America, though, a "gossip" might look after you -- but only to learn some juicy tidbit to tell others! RS: This past week, a new group launched an effort to reduce what it calls "gossip and verbal violence" in America. To quote its press release: "The goal of the campaign is to promote the value and practice of ethical speech in order to improve our democracy [and] build mutual respect, honor and dignity in our country." AA: The non-profit group is called Words Can Heal-dot-org -- that's also its Web address -- and grew out of Aish HaTorah, an international Jewish educational organization. The campaign, led by two Orthodox rabbis, is supported by a number of politicians and Hollywood stars. RS: President Bush is expected to endorse the campaign as well. Words Can Heal-dot-org did a national poll on gossip, and co-executive director Irwin Katsof discussed the findings with VOA's Barbara Schoetzau: TAPE: KATSOF/SCHOETZAU/TV COMMERCIAL KATSOF: "Over 80 percent of the American people say they are affected by gossip in the workplace. Over 84 percent of the American people say it's affected things in politics and there's too much of it in the media." SCHOETZAU: "Do you think there's a particular outbreak of gossip going on? Have we just become so attuned to it in recent years, or what?" KATSOF: "You know, people like to think that with all the telecommunications devices that we have today that we're communicating so much better, but the truth is that we really are not communicating any better. Gossip has been there for a long time and it's still there and it's even more prevalent. Wordscanheal.org is a national effort to really try and sensitize the American people to this. Our major focus is asking people to take the Words Can Heal pledge. ... (Audio montage from TV commercial:) "I pledge to think more about the words I use. ... I will try to see how gossip hurts people including myself and work to eliminate it from my life ... I will try to replace words that hurt with words that encourage, engage and enrich. ... I will not become discouraged when I am unable to choose words perfectly ... because making the world a better place is hard work.. I am pledging to do that one word at a time." AA: The campaign started with TV spots in the Washington area, although gossip and harsh words are hardly limited to the nation's capital. RS: Searching the Internet, we found a sermon given in May by Lori Sawdon, senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of Merced, in the Central Valley of California. The title? "Taming the Tongue." TAPE: CUT TWO -- SAWDON "Yes, definitely words can heal and we probably need to speak those healing words more frequently in our society: 'I'm sorry' and 'thank you' and words of affirmation. Usually I try to find something that someone has done well and affirm them for it, and so say specifically: 'That was a wonderful paper that you wrote' or 'you spoke very eloquently when you said that at the meeting the other day' or 'you've done a fine job in putting this committee together.'" AA: Pastor Lori, as she calls herself, says gossip has become, in her words, "a standard in American society." TAPE: CUT THREE -- SAWDON "We have lost some of our standards about language and etiquette and what's appropriate and what's not, and so we tend to fall into gossip very easily in talking about other people and spreading information without really thinking." RS: In her sermon, she encouraged members of her congregation to use words to build people up, not tear them down. AA: And she passed along three guidelines to help them think through if something is worth saying: TAPE: CUT FOUR -- SAWDON "Those three guidelines were: Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary?" RS: To tame gossip takes time, but Pastor Lori Sawdon, looks on the bright side. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- SAWDON "My experience is that in speaking positively about people and creating a positive environment, that it leaves little room for negative criticism or gossip or critique." AA: Now, if you have a critique for us -- we hope it's nice! -- or if you have a question about American English, send it our way. RS: Our address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Men Gossip Too"/E.C. Scott 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-20-1.cfm
* Headline: September 2, 2001 - Race Terms
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- as delegates in South Africa discuss racism, we discuss the language of race. RS: About thirteen percent of Americans are African American. They are now rivaled in number by Hispanics, who can be of any race. Asians have reached four percent of the population. AA: Still, as of last year's Census, the great majority of Americans identified themselves as "white." TAPE: CUT ONE -- BING "I call myself Euro-American in some of my classes, and my students get really offended by that." RS: Janet Bing is a linguistics professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia. She has worked on diversity training at her school, to help different people learn to get along. In her words, "We're all ethnic in some sense." TAPE: CUT TWO -- ARDITTI/BING AA: "Race and ethnicity -- what is the difference?" BING: "We tend to use race for color, I think, more, and ethnicity for culture, but in fact the two can't be separated, just like language and culture can't be separated." AA: And when a particular group lacks much power, she says, whatever term is used for that group eventually becomes negative. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BING/ARDITTI BING: "For example the term 'Negro' was the polite term actually when I was a child, but it's associated with a group that had very little power or status in this society, and so the term became negative. So people wanted a more positive term and they changed it to 'black,' and now it's 'African American' or 'Afro-American.'" AA: "Now what about the term 'people of color'?" BING: "Well, at the university level, it is THE term, the polite term. At least at the university where I teach, we have a lot of international people and a lot of blacks and a lot of Asian Americans. They refer to themselves as 'people of color.' I think it's a unifying term for them." RS: Although "Caucasian" and "Anglo" are a couple of terms used for white Americans, mostly they're just called "white." But a professor who teaches courses on race and ethnicity has noticed a change. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- MODEL "Actually in social science now you will see the term 'European American' used somewhat more, or sometimes we will say 'non-Hispanic white.'" AA: Sue Model [moe-DELL] at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- MODEL "From my perspective as a sociologist, I think it is unfortunate that words like 'racism' have come to have the more general meaning of any kind of disadvantage associated with a wide variety of racial or ethnic mixtures, when in fact I think the difference in experience is primarily between people of African origin and others." RS: To many people, "diversity" simply means racial diversity. This past week, however, a court ruling challenged that view. AA: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that it's unconstitutional for the University of Georgia to award "bonus points" to any non-white applicant. The judges wrote: "We assume that there is value in having a racially-diverse student body, but racial diversity alone is not necessarily the hallmark of a diverse student body." RS: They noted that a white student from a disadvantaged rural area in Appalachia may well have more to offer the university than a non-white applicant from an affluent family. But Sue Model says its unlikely that a white student would face the same kind of scrutiny that non-whites sometimes face. TAPE: CUT SIX -- MODEL "It is very unlikely that anyone is going to be very closely watching that Appalachian when she or he goes to buy a record or goes into a five-and-dime store, to make sure that he or she doesn't walk out with something." RS: Sue Model says part of the problem with language is that it really hasn't kept up with change in America. TAPE: CUT SEVEN -- MODEL "I think that unfortunately what is happening is that language is confusing us, that in our attempt to be inclusive, that in a sense we are more inclusive by using let's say a word like 'racism' instead of a word like 'anti-African Americanism,' which would be much more specific. We could use many, many more words to describe the various ways that different groups could be defined or could relate to one another than we have. Our language is impoverished relative to the diversity, if I could use that word, of our experience." RS: And that's all for Wordmaster this week. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "You Don't Bring Me Floriculturally Diverse Polyfragrant Soilistically Challenged Multipetaled Victims of Pesticidal Food Chain Chauvinism"/The Capitol Steps 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-21-1.cfm
* Headline: August 26, 2001 - Peace terms
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of peace. Robert Johansen is a professor at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He says "peace" has a guarded place in the American vocabulary. TAPE: CUT ONE: JOHANSEN "In the U-S context, when you are campaigning in an election you don't usually get more votes by emphasizing peace, at least very much. Now, people don't want to be seen as war mongers or as glorifying war. But usually you get points or you get votes by emphasizing strength." AA: Professor Johansen says it's easier for Americans to talk about peace when it's associated with personal peace. TAPE: CUT TWO -- JOHANSEN "You talk about 'being at peace with yourself' or you talk about 'blessed are the peacemakers.' So it's very positive in those contexts that deal with spiritual or personal inner peace or inter-personal relations. But when you deal with adversarial relations, there we're afraid of the use of the term unless it's sort of coupled with great military strength." AA: So "peace" does have its uses. Some people sign off letters with it. If a product is supposed to make you feel secure, advertisements promise "peace of mind." "Peace" can even serve as a gentle word of warning. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JOHANSEN "Often in US culture, in weddings, there's a time in which the clergy person will say 'speak now or forever hold your peace,' or in other words, 'keep quiet, don't make a stressful situation later on.' Also, we're familiar with the term 'keep the peace.' I looked in the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, and it says there that this term, or set of terms, goes back to the fourteen-hundreds in the English language and it meant to maintain public order." AA: Another term, to "leave someone in peace," means to leave a person alone. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- JOHANSEN "Also we talk about making one's peace with a certain situation. It may not be what we had preferred, but we need to 'make our peace' with it.' Or it may be a tragedy. This also goes back centuries and centuries. I think it's interesting that the only ones I can come up with are ones that precede modern military confrontations, and in those contexts there may have been a more level playing field between borrowing terms from the idea of peace to other forms of human activity." AA: Now speaking of playing fields, it's hard to think of a human activity with fewer peace-inspired metaphors than sports. Yet Professor Johansen says that in American schools, the typical way to build pride is to rally students around the pursuit of victory. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- JOHANSEN/ARDITTI JOHANSEN: "It's far less common to associate school spirit let's say with a spirit of service, of doing maybe service in the community. A lot of schools do that, but it doesn't quite excite people as much as winning a ballgame or being first in one's athletic conference. So these are things that we need to think about and reflect upon." AA: "Your school, Notre Dame, is home to the 'Fighting Irish,' the sports teams, so I suppose to call them, what, the 'Peace-Loving Irish' or the 'Peaceful' -- would that ... " JOHANSEN: "We have a lot of jokes about that, and I think most of these are helpful because certainly people in the Peace Studies Institute are happy to see Notre Dame athletic victories, and it's good for us to reflect on how that desire is one that can be constructive in human interactions and when it seems maybe to get out of line and become destructive." AA: Professor Robert Johansen at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. If you have a question or comment, write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. Back next week with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Give Peace a Chance"/John Lennon 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-22-1.cfm
* Headline: August 19, 2001 - Military Terms in Civilian Use
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster ... some military terms that have come into civilian slang. RS: Sanya Aina, a listener in Lagos, Nigeria, is writing a book about the plight of peacekeepers in Sierra Leone and is curious to know some American phrases that are associated with war and peace. AA: Next week, we'll set our sights on the language of peace. Today we turn to a professor at the National War College here in Washington, historian Mark Clodfelter. CUT ONE -- CLODFELTER/SKIRBLE CLODFELTER: "Given that I was an Air Force officer if something's not going right, I present a proposal, it could be 'shot down.' Also from the navy perspective my proposal was 'torpedoed.'" RS: "So if your proposal 'blew me out of the water,' would I like it or hate it?" CLODFELTER: "Now that's a good point. If it 'blew you out of the water,' you might have been so overcome, that you were just amazed that it was such a stunning an idea. However, on the other hand, you could have had a counter-idea and I could have 'sunk' you." AA: Now what if someone calls your idea "over the top," slang for extreme or outlandish. Mark Clodfelter says the term was first used to describe an extreme kind of warfare. TAPE: CUT TWO -- CLODFELTER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI CLODFELTER: "That would refer to trench warfare in World War One where you had two lines of trenches in fairly close proximity to one another, and typically the way you would attack your enemy is you would hit them with an artillery barrage and then when the barrage stopped, and hopefully the enemy force was hurt very badly, then your troops would climb out 'over the top' of the trench -- your trench -- and advance towards the enemy's trench." RS: "So if you work 'in the trenches' of an organization, what would that mean?" CLODFELTER: "Well, I would say you were perhaps deep, deep in the bowels of that organization and your odds of seeing daylight are very remote, and to use another military term you're not going to be part of the 'top brass.'"RS: "Can you tell us other words that have recently, or rather recently, made it from the military into everyday speech?" CLODFELTER: "Perhaps the term 'friendly fire.' I think that was used frequently during the Gulf War and also during Vietnam, which means you have an idea, proposal, whatever, but it's going to be undermined, undercut, by your own organization [unintentionally]. In military terms, 'friendly fire' means that you've caused damage to your own troops. You've shot and missed the enemy and inadvertently hit your own guys." AA: Now if a person is considered a traitor, Americans have an expression: We might call that person a "Benedict Arnold." RS: Mark Clodfelter offered a little history lesson. Benedict Arnold was a general in the Revolutionary War against the British. He was a hero ... who ended up turning against his own country: TAPE: CUT THREE -- CLODFELTER "He succumbed to British offers of money and was going to sell out the plans for how to attack West Point to the British, was found out about this, and then switched sides and served with the British for the rest of the war." AA: That was in the late 1700s, yet "Benedict Arnold" -- his name -- lives on. RS: Now on to the modern term "Catch 22", which originated as a parody of military rules and the conditions written into them. It's the creation of the late author Joseph Heller. AA: His book "Catch 22" was published in 1961 and became an anti-war classic. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- CLODFELTER " The phrase as used was referring to pilots, air crews in World War Two and saying, well, gosh, you can't fly if you're crazy, the idea being that you would have to be crazy to fly, but if you know you're crazy, then really you're not crazy, so obviously you're cleared to go and fly, so it's a classic contradiction." RS: In Heller's words a "Catch 22. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- CLODFELTER (cont.) AA: "And, finally, what's your favorite military term?" CLODFELTER: "'Crash and burn' is a good one. Referring to somebody who's very gifted perhaps as an 'ace.'" AA: "Meaning a pilot who shoots down a lot of other planes." CLODFELTER: "Yeah, but obviously it can refer to an ace corporate executive, ace tennis player, I mean it can refer to many things. The term was first used in a military capacity in World War One." RS: Professor Mark Clodfelter at the National War College. AA: If you have a question about American English, fire it off to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237, USA, or send e-mail to voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-23-1.cfm
* Headline: August 12, 2001 - Cliches
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of cliches. RS: These are phrases that lose meaning when we use them all the time. Take the expression: 24-7. That's another way of saying "24 hours a day, seven days a week." When I first heard it, it sounded clever. Now it's just time worn. AA: Same with "issues" as a nicer way to say "problems," as in "that person has issues." The problem is, this well-intentioned euphemism now seems like a cliche. Not long ago, I heard a hiking boot salesman tell a frustrated customer that she had "lacing issues." RS: So does that mean she had trouble tying her shoes? AA: Apparently so. RS: The whole issue of cliches prompted Ben Yagoda, an English professor at the University of Delaware, to write an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education. He bases his view about how cliches evolve on what the British writer George Orwell had to say, which is that the life span of a cliche often begins with a metaphor. TAPE: CUT ONE -- YAGODA "Take, as an example, Achilles' heel. Now, 'Achilles' heel' is an expression that means someone's weakness and it comes from the legend of Achilles, who hurt his heel. In researching this piece I wrote I came upon the fact in the Oxford English Dictionary that the first person to use Achilles heel as a metaphor for weaken was Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the nineteenth century poet. What a great idea that he had to say 'this character's Achilles' heel was his pride.' The problem was that it was so good that people started copying it, started talking about this person's Achilles' heel, that company's Achilles' heel, and that company's Achilles' heel, until it became a cliche." AA: Ben Yagoda says according to Orwell, after a long time a popular figure of speech reaches a third stage when it becomes a "dead metaphor." TAPE: CUT TWO -- YAGODA "And Achilles' heel is at that stage now, where it's sort of gone beyond cliche. No one says that to be clever or even to attempt to say something fresh or stylish. It's now at the stage of being more or less a synonym for weakness." RS: Despite the love-hate relationship many people have with cliches, Ben Yagoda calls them the "currency of the language." TAPE: CUT TWO YAGODA/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI "To avoid cliches, your speech and your writing would have to consist of either terms that exactly denote what you're talking about, like 'I will move the chair,' 'I will stand up now and go,' totally dull, or constantly be trying to invent new metaphors or new clever, funny, stylish expressions, which is hard. As with the example of Achilles' heel, the good thing about cliches is that they really do express a meaning in an understandable and vivid way." RS: "Do you have some favorites?" YAGODA: "Well, let's see, I have things that really..." RS: "Or really bother you?" YAGODA: "Bug me, yeah, and I can't explain why. The word 'arguably' ... " AA: "Yes, yes!" YAGODA: "You know, it's sort of a cliche, it's also sort of a sloppy way of thinking and writing." RS: "So how would you say that without using that cliche?" YAGODA: "Well, it's a hedge word, because without using it you have to say what you really think." AA: Ben Yagoda says the new thing in cliches is the growing popularity of African American slang beyond black neighborhoods. TAPE: CUT THREE -- YAGODA "The ones that came to mind were things like 'you go, girlfriend,' 'back in the day, we had it going on,' 'it was old school in the 'hood -- we were keeping it real, 'don't diss that playa -- show him some love, or I'll hit you upside the head,' 'yo, what it is.' You know, African American slang has been historically a very, very rich source of great stuff for the language. The problem is the cliche aspect, also the sort of poseur aspect -- it had a certain kind of authenticity in one context, but if you have a fourteen-year-old suburban white kid saying it, there's something that doesn't quite fit." AA: English Professor Ben Yagoda at the University of Delaware. And, as cliched as it may sound, that's all for this week on Wordmaster. RS: Our address is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "It Takes Blood and Guts to Be This Cool, but I'm Still Just a Cliche"/Skunk Anasie 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-30-24-1.cfm
* Headline: July 15, 2001 - Ear for Emotion?
* Byline: 

 AA: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears ... just the left ones will do! This is Avi Arditti. Rosanne Skirble is away. This week on Wordmaster, you'll hear from a researcher who says humans just might have an ear for emotional words. Teow-Chong Sim is a psychology professor at Sam Houston State University in Texas. He led a study of sixty-two people. They had to recall words played for them in pairs -- one word in each pair emotional, the other non-emotional. For instance: "depressed" and "entered," "anxious" and "molar," "crazy" and "cigar." Other pairs included "loving," "vacant"; "sexy," "moving"; "terror," "orange." But here's the twist: this is what it sounded like. TAPE: CUT ONE -- (sound tracks mixed) AA: Actually, through headphones, the people heard the emotional word in one ear and the non-emotional word in the other ear at the same time. They recalled an average of fifty-eight percent of the emotional words they heard on the right. Yet they recalled close to sixty-five percent of the emotional words they heard on the left. Professor Sim says the difference has to do with the brain and how it takes in verbal messages. The left side sorts out the words; the right side deals with emotional stimuli. When both ears receive different signals at the same time, he says, the signals that go to the opposite side of the brain are stronger than the ones that travel to the same side. Typically the signal strength is balanced. So is there a reason to favor a person's left ear to get an emotional message across to the right side of the brain? TAPE: CUT TWO -- SIM/ARDITTI SIM: "How often do you just hear with just one ear? And how often does one actually hear signals that are exclusive to one ear?" AA: "That's true. In a practical sense, I suppose, if you're going to get up close to your spouse, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, and you want to convey some emotional thoughts, would it be wise to kind of slyly get around to the left side and whisper -- as they're listening to music in the right ear or something, listening to the television or the radio -- then whisper these emotional words into the left ear?" SIM: "If I wanted to do that, I would make sure that there are no other kinds of distractions in the environment, so that I could have the complete, totally undivided attention of my loved one." AA: "What do you see as the significance of your study?" SIM: " In the experiment what we are able to demonstrate is that there is this added responsibility of the right hemisphere when it comes to processing any kind of emotional stimulus, in this case words or verbal kinds of messages being one of them." AA: "Did you try reversing this, did you try doing the emotional words into the right ear?" SIM: "In the cases where the emotional words were received on the right, there was a lower level of recall. Subjects weren't able to recall it as accurately as when they were on the left." AA: "Now which side are you holding the phone up to? I'm curious -- again, we could talk about the implications of this. I mean, does this even affect which side of the head a person holds the phone up to?" SIM: "No, it shouldn't. When we are engaged in any kind of a normal, verbal interaction, typically however what they have consistently shown is that for any kind of a processing of verbal stimuli, that it is the right ear that will show an advantage. So if you're asking me which one is going to make more sense to me, which one will have a greater impact on me, I would say I should have it on my right ear." AA: "And what ear do you have it up to?" SIM: "I have it on my left. (laughter)" AA: Professor Teow-Chong Sim, on the phone from the Psychology Department at Sam Houston State University in Texas. Next week VOA's Adam Phillips is here. He'll talk about some truly useful words -- if only we had them in English! And if you have a question about American English, send it to word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, D-C, two-zero-two-three-seven U-S-A. That's all for Wordmaster this week. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "I Second That Emotion"/Smokey Robinson and the Miracles 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 5, 2001 - Slangman: Action Words ('Goldilocks and the Three Bears')
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- Slangman David Burke, with a story to help explain some action words used in everyday American speech. RS: You might recognize the story as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." That's the fairy tale about a young girl who wanders into a home in the forest while the family that lives there is away. She helps herself to food and even breaks some of the furniture! AA: Slangman picks up the story as the family -- a mother bear, a father bear and a baby bear -- return home. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "They were very hungry and were looking forward to 'macking out' on the nice bowls of tasty porridge." RS: "'Macking out.' That's interesting. Is that as in Big Mac, as in McDonald's?" BURKE: "Very good! This is one of the most popular expressions that teens are using now. To 'mack out ' means let's go eat a lot.' Originally, like a hamburger from McDonald's, a Big Mac, right." RS: "It could be eating a lot of anything." BURKE: "Oh yeah, I'm going to mack out on some cereal, I'm going to mack out on some spaghetti. Mack out just means to 'chow down.' In fact, suddenly Papa Bear cried out in his great big voice, 'Someone has been chowing down on my porridge!' The Mamma Bear then cried out in her medium-sized voice, 'Someone has been chowing down on MY porridge!' I think we get the idea of what 'chowing down' means by now? And Baby Bear cried out in his teeny-tiny-isty-bisty little voice, 'Some has been chowing down on my porridge. And they've downed the whole thing!' RS: "They ate it all up!" BURKE: "Then the Three Bears 'got a load' of their chairs near the fireplace. When you 'get a load' of something, you see it, 'get a load of that.' Get a look at, observe, 'get a load of her.' 'Someone has plopped down in my chair!' Papa Bear said in his great big voice. 'Someone has plopped down in MY chair!' Mamma Bear said in her medium size voice. 'Someone has plopped down in MY chair,' Baby Bear cried in his teeny-tiny-isty-bitsy little voice. 'And now it's smashed to smithereens!" RS: "Little bitty parts, little bitty pieces." BURKE: "Then the Three Bears went upstairs to the bedroom. 'Someone has been catching some Z's in my bed!' Papa Bear shouted in his great big voice. 'And someone has been catching some Z's in MY bed!' Mamma Bear exclaimed in her medium-sized voice. And now why do we say that?" RS: "Because the expression is written out that way in, um..." AA: "In cartoons." BURKE: "In a cartoon when you see someone asleep, you'll see a lot of Z's next to each other. I guess it represents the sound of zzzzzz, kind of like you would be..." RS: "Snoring..." BURKE: "Breathing, or snoring. 'Someone has been catching some Z's in MY bed,' Baby Bear squeaked in his teeny-tiny-itsy-bitsy little voice. 'AND THERE SHE IS!' Just then Goldilocks woke up! When she got 'a load' -- when she noticed -- when she got a load of the three bears standing around her, she popped up off the bed and 'took off' -- which means she left, like an airplane takes off -- she took off down the stairs and 'hauled buns' out the door. Now this is also a very normal, fine expression. To 'haul buns' literally means to leave quickly, because 'buns' is slang for one's bottom. So she hauled buns out the door. She 'high-tailed' it through the woods for the longest time until she was 'stopped dead' in her tracks -- now, when you stop dead in your tracks it means you stop suddenly in your footsteps, it has nothing to do with dying. But when you say 'stopped dead' it means instantly. So she was stopped dead in her tracks by a giant beanstalk! Which ... is a story for another time. (laughter) The End." AA: Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles, with his own version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," written just for Wordmaster fans. RS: If you're having an unbearable time with American slang, send your questions by e-mail to slangman@slangman.com. And you can check out his teaching books about how Americans really talk at www.slangman.com. AA: Our address here is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-4-1.cfm
* Headline: July 29, 2001 - Grammar Lady: Verb Phrases
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- a lesson in verb phrases! These are verbs with particles added. For instance, take the verb "call." To "call up" means to telephone. To "call on" means to visit a person or to ask for something -- and we called on Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder to help explain phrasal verbs. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BRUDER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BRUDER: "One type is a verb where the preposition can move, so 'I called up my friend' or 'I called my friend up.'" RS: "Meaning the same thing." BRUDER: "Meaning exactly the same thing. And the other kind, as in 'call on' -- 'I called on my friend' -- in that case, the preposition doesn't move." RS: "That is so difficult in American English." BRUDER: "You just have to memorize them. So if you say, for example, 'I called up my friend,' or 'I called my friend up,' the problem is when you have a pronoun -- 'I called him up' or 'I called her up' -- with the pronoun it's always fixed. The pronoun has to be in the middle. AA: For example, take the sentence, "I'm going to pick up the paper." If you replace "paper" with the pronoun "it," "I'm going to pick up the paper" becomes "I'm going to pick it up," not "I'm going to pick up it." That's what Grammar Lady means when she says the pronoun has to be in the middle. Now take a sentence like "I'm writing up the reports." You could also say "I'm writing the reports up." But in either case, the correct pronoun form is "I'm writing them up," not "I'm writing up them." TAPE: CUT TWO -- BRUDER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BRUDER: "So I'll give you a few phrases and you change them to the pronoun. So if I say, 'I'm going to give the clothes away,' you change it to 'I'm going to give them away.' OK? 'I'm going to throw the papers away.'" RS: "I'm going to throw them away." BRUDER: "I'm going to take the stray dogs in." RS: "I'm going to take them in." BRUDER: "I'm going to lay the book down." RS: "I'm going to lay it down." BRUDER: "I'm going to write the names down." RS: "I'm going to write them down. Now, you say the best way to learn these is to memorize them. And so what I would think is, if you memorized them in some sort of context, not just the two words ..." BRUDER: "No, you have to memorize them with the meaning, because it won't make any sense in the long run, unless you have the meaning with them too." RS: "Right, so memorize them in sentences, in phrases, in situations, so that you can better remember them in the long run, as you say." BRUDER: "Right, OK, now the type B, I've called them verbs with non-movable prepositions, and the example I gave you is to 'call on,' meaning to visit, 'I called on my friend. I called on him.' There aren't as many of these, but they are very, very commonly used in English. So, 'we're going to look at the picture,' 'I'm going to look at it.' In these the verb and the preposition form a single unit and it doesn't change when you put in the pronoun. OK, so, here we go. 'Think of the answer,' and you'd say 'I'm going to think of it' or something like that." RS: "Right." BRUDER: "OK, 'I asked for some information.'" RS: "'Asked for some,' or 'asked for it.'" BRUDER: "Decide on the answer." RS: "Decide on it." BRUDER: "'I'm going to look for some,' what ..." RS: "Some cookies." BRUDER: "Some cookies, OK." AA: "I'm going to look for them." BRUDER: "Right here on lunch time. OK, we'll look for them. Now in this category too there are some very common three-word verbs. To 'drop in on,' meaning to drop in unannounced. 'I'm going to drop in on my friends down the street.' To 'run out of,' to use up completely, 'I ran out of gas on the freeway,' for example." AA: "These are idioms, common idioms." BRUDER: "Very common ones, right. 'Brush up on,' to review something, 'I'm going to brush up on my Spanish before I go to Spain. To 'make up for,' to compensate, 'he wrote with his right hand to make up for ... ' I can't think of a good sentence for that one." AA: "And these are perfectly acceptable in formal writing." BRUDER: "Right, yes. 'Brush up on,' I mean, 'I'm going to brush up on my Spanish'? I think that's perfectly fine." AA: To brush up on your English, you can visit Mary Newton Bruder on the Web at www.grammarlady.com. Or look for her grammar book called "Much Ado About a Lot." That's all our time for Wordmaster this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Time Don't Run Out on Me"/Anne Murray 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-5-1.cfm
* Headline: July 22, 2001 - 'They Have a Word For It'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Hollywood and popular music have spread American culture and its special words around the world. Cool! Yet Americans are largely unfamiliar with many of the wonderful words spoken by non-English speaking cultures. Each culture offers words that convey concepts, often without an exact equivalent in American English. Sioux American Indians, for example, speak of 'wistelikiya"[PRON: WIH'stell ih KIE' yuh] meaning "the sexual awkwardness that can arise between relatives" and Yiddish speaking Jews say "farpotshket" [PRON: fahr POTs' SKEHT] to describe something that is all fouled up, especially as a result of trying to fix it. Social commentator Howard Rheingold has compiled examples into a book. It's called "They Have a Word For It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases." VOA's Adam Phillips interviewed Mr. Rheingold at his California home. MUSIC: "HARISEY" TEXT: Howard Rheingold glances up from his oversized computer screen. It's the most familiar object among many, mostly foreign, curios that fill his colorful home office. As a freelance writer, Mr. Rheingold has authored several books and countless magazine articles. Still, he feels special affection for his published compendium of strange -- and strangely useful non-English words. TAPE: CUT ONE -- RHEINGOLD "There are many words that are not easily translatable from one culture to another and I think that those words are contributions to the world's culture from that particular national group…. People who speak more than one language understand that a language is more than a code form communicating words. It's really a way of seeing the world." TEXT: Some foreign words have made their way into English and with their original pronunciation intact. Not surprisingly, many of these originated in Europe. TAPE: CUT TWO -- RHEINGOLD Most people have a grandmother or grandfather who said words from the old country that have become part of English that really don't have a direct English translation. 'Schadenfreude' is an example of a German word that has to do with the joy we get at seeing the misfortunes of others. Why do we laugh when someone slips on a banana peel? There is a[nother] word that became very important to physicists that comes from the German. 'Gedanken' experiment. A gedanken experiment is not one that takes place in the laboratory. It takes place in your mind. It's a thought experiment. And, in fact, a lot of the theory of relativity came from Einstein thinking about what it would be like to ride on a light wave and look behind you. What would you see? Relativity [Theory] really came from that thought experiment. There is a French phrase 'l'esprit de l'escalier" 'the spirit of the staircase.' It's the witty rejoinder you always think of on the staircase as you're leaving the party." TEXT: Many of the offerings in Mr. Rheingold's book are imported from the Southern Hemisphere. TAPE: CUT THREE -- RHEINGOLD "There is a word from New Guinea called 'mokita' which is the truth that everybody knows about but nobody speaks. An open secret. Everybody knows that So and So is fooling around with So and So. But nobody talks about it. What about 'mamihlapinatapei' which is a word from the Tierro del Fuegan language [which means] 'a meaningful look shared by two people expressing mutual unstated feelings.' It might be two people in love Romeo and Juliet across the room. Or it could be two enemies across a battlefield who are about to bayonet each other." TEXT: During his research, Mr. Rheingold discovered several words that convey a culture's sense of the beautiful. The Japanese, for example, have an especially rich vocabulary to express the artistic side of life. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- RHEINGOLD "The Japanese word 'wabi' that has to do with a certain kind of beauty that generally Americans have not appreciated as much. It's the kind of beauty of a pot that has a crack in it. Maybe the beauty of the Liberty Bell. "'Sabi.' One word to describe it is 'beautiful patina.' It's something that accumulates with age that is beautiful. "Another kind of beauty called 'shibui' that can only come from aging. Now that can apply to a piece of wood that only becomes beautiful after two hundred years. It can also apply to the lines on an old woman's face." TEXT: Howard Rheingold explains why he believes Japanese has such words and English does not. TAPE: CUT -- RHEINGOLD "Japanese culture is an older culture and old people are valued there. Now we worship a youth culture in America, and we also like the modern. So neither 'wabi' or 'sabi' are part of the English language." TEXT: Mr. Rheingold says that he wrote "They Have a Word For It" to help Americans appreciate the unique perspectives of other cultures through their words. MUSIC: "HARISEY" TAPE: CUT FIVE -- RHEINGOLD "I think the dominant way of seeing the world, because of our technology and our economic success, ** has been the American way over the last fifty years. And we are now moving into much more of a global era. And it would help to understand that people see the world differently." TEXT: Howard Rheingold is the author of "They Have a Word For It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and Phrases" and several other books, including "Tools for the Mind," "Virtual Reality," and "The Virtual Community." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-6-1.cfm
* Headline: July 1, 2001 - Listeners' Questions About Grammar
* Byline: 

 AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- answers to some of your questions about grammar. RS: And providing those answers is Jeff Glauner [pronounced glonner], an English professor at Park University in Missouri. AA: We start with some questions from our friend Elkhan Tahirov in Baku, Azerbaijan. He first of all would like to know what does 'would' mean in this sentence: "White House spokesman Ari Fleischer would not comment on the latest allegation." TAPE: CUT ONE -- GLAUNER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE GLAUNER: "'Would not comment' -- it seems as if it's within his rights to not comment. Often, although 'refused to' would hit the nail on the head a little better, 'would not' sounds a little nicer." AA: "And grammatically that is correct." GLAUNER: "Absolutely. And of course if his political opponent said it, he would say 'refused to.'" (laughter) RS: "Right. He goes on to ask another question, and he presents another sentence, and that sentence is, 'Our nation must rise above a house divided.' Now he wants to know what the difference is between 'our nation must rise above a house divided' and 'our nation must rise above a divided house.'" GLAUNER: "The difference is Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was a very fine speaker and knew the value of a modifier placed in a little different spot. He borrowed this, of course, from the Bible, the book of Mark: 'If a house be divided, it cannot stand.' Lincoln changed that to say 'a nation divided cannot stand.' So there is no difference whatsoever in the meaning between the two sentences. However, the style is different." RS: "And the grammar is fine?" GLAUNER: "Technically speaking. If someone goes around speaking with adjectives after nouns, they're going to be accused of being incorrect in terms of their grammar. If it's a single adjective it should go before the noun in the normal sentence." AA: "All right, the next question from Elkhan Tehirov. He wants know the difference between these two sentences: 'Blanton is the second man to be convicted of taking part in the 1963 bombing' and 'Blanton is the second man convicted of taking part in the 1963 bombing.'" GLAUNER: "Both are correct. In American English especially we like things to be efficient and as succinct as possible. So 'to be convicted' is longer and we don't have to have the 'to be' in it in order to understand, and therefore often we will leave out parts of such phrases." RS: Next, Lynn Dai writes from Nanjing, China: "I came across this sentence: 'In every society there are norms that say individuals how they are supposed to behave.' I think 'say' is not properly used," the letter goes on, "but I don't know how to correct it." AA: The way to correct it in this case, says Jeff Glauner, is to use "tell" instead of "say." TAPE: CUT TWO -- GLAUNER/ARDITTI GLAUNER: "'Tell' has something of a command attached to it. So in this particular sentence you can't apply it generally to every sentence or every time 'say' and 'tell' comes along - but in this particular case there is a certain implied command going on here, telling the individuals how they are supposed to behave, whereas 'saying' doesn't imply that command." AA: "So, like, let's say, a constitution would 'say' how individuals are supposed to behave, wouldn't it?" GLAUNER: "Actually 'tell' would probably work better there too if you get right down to it. You wouldn't want to say a constitution will 'say individuals how,' you'd say 'tell individuals how they are supposed to behave.'" AA: "Well maybe the second part of Lynn Dai's question here might be a little easier to explain." GLAUNER: "It might be. That one is next to impossible. Like I say, it's a miracle that anyone learns the difference between 'tell' and 'say.'" AA: "So the second part of the question here is, what's the error in this sentence: 'Physical fitness activities can lead to an alarming variety of injuries if participants push themselves greatly hard.'" GLAUNER: "OK, now, again, technically speaking, the grammar is not incorrect. However, the use of the word 'greatly' there is not something that we would ever say in American English and I don't know of any particular system that would use it. Usually we would put the word 'too' in there -- 'too hard.'" AA: "t-o-o." GLAUNER: "Right, instead of 'greatly.' Now that comes back to that English efficiency and succinctness. We like the smaller word instead of the bigger word. Also we don't like two things that look like adverbs right together if we can avoid them." AA: Jeff Glauner at Park University in Missouri, where he's busy organizing a national meeting of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar. It's later this month, and you can find the group on the Web at www dot a-t-e-g dot o-r-g. RS: Send Avi and me your questions. Write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Gotta Say It, Gonna Tell It Like It Is"/Marvin Gaye 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-7-1.cfm
* Headline: June 24, 2001 - Political Marketing
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- need help sounding genuine? Some tips from a political trainer. RS: Mark Montini runs a firm called Complete Communication Strategies. He's also a trainer at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia, what he calls the "human resources department for the conservative movement." AA: Mark Montini says that in politics, it's -- quote -- "marketing first, policy second." TAPE: CUT ONE -- MONTINI/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI MONTINI: "And it's not because policy is less important, but the bottom line is, if people don't buy the policy, the policy is not going to be around for very long." RS: "Well, what does it take to be a successful marketer of political policy?" MONTINI: "Well, I really think the main thing, of course, and the most important thing, is to really have a foundation of knowing what you believe, because what most people associate marketing with in public policy is this bad word that we call 'spin,' and they think, 'Oh, spin means that you just say whatever people want to hear. You don't say what you believe.' And unfortunately there are people out there on both sides who are willing to say whatever people want to hear, and I suppose you could call that spin, but what we're talking about is, once you know what you believe, then you focus on how do you communicate that to the people." RS: "Well, what are the major points that you recommend to be a better communicator?" MONTINI: "Probably the biggest thing actually is pretty easy, and it goes all the way back, I like to tell people, to kindergarten, when you're in school, or in pre-school. And that is, we've got to become better storytellers. And a lot of times we get so caught up in the numbers, and we get so caught up in the specifics, we forget to tell our story of this is how it's going to make your lives better. I mean, Bill Clinton, like Ronald Reagan, had a story for everything, and that's what makes them such powerful communicators is because by telling a story what you do is you allow people to visualize what you're talking about." RS: "How important are the words you use?" MONTINI: "The words you use are important in the sense that, at the end of the day, especially in politics, if people want to criticize you they're going to go back to the words that you use and find that you maybe misspoke here or maybe you didn't have a perfect subject-verb agreement here. But when you're in front of an audience, study after study after study shows us that the two most powerful parts of communication are actually the way you look and the way you sound, not the words that you use. And so, to answer your question, they're extremely important at the end of the day but in terms of getting your message out there -- " AA: "In the morning..." [laughter] MONTINI: "Yeah, in the morning, exactly, but in terms of getting people out there and getting them motivated, I'm more concerned with what they see, who they see and how you sound." TAPE: CUT TWO -- ARDITTI/SKIRBLE/MONTINI AA: "Do you look credible, Rosanne? Does she look credible?" RS: "Do I look credible?" MONTINI: "Absolutely, Rosanne." And, he says, looking credible is what's important AA: "Why -- what makes her look credible?" MONTINI: "Well, what you're looking for is someone who's comfortable, someone who's confident in what they're saying, someone who is filling the bill of how they've been sold. I mean, if you're not the most articulate, if you're not the most attractive person, don't package yourself as the articulate orator or the most attractive candidate, because people respect genuine candidates, they respect genuine people." RS: And how do genuine people express, let's say, outrage? TAPE: CUT THREE -- MONTINI "One of the things we know is that when we get upset, we tend to shorten our words. And when you're upset, you get those words off and you [snapping fingers] snap them real quickly off of your tongue, and so you can't get up and tell ... people ... that ... you're ... upset, when you're stretching your words, because it doesn't sound like you're upset. At the same point you have to raise your voice." AA: Mark Montini has also consulted in Greece, Canada and Chile, offering a taste of American-style political communication skills. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- MONTINI "We are just in the United States starting to learn these skills ourselves. I mean, really, it's a recent phenomenon over the last probably 20 years, and so you go to a lot of the other countries that are looking to the United States as an example, and when you say, for example, that you've got to smile more, you've got the group of people that say, 'oh, no, no, we can't smile, we're political leaders, people look to us to be serious. And I asked when I was in Greece one of the guys, I said, 'well, tell me, who's the most popular personality in your country, and he immediately without any hesitation told me it was a lady who was on TV. And I said, 'I've never seen her show but I can guarantee you she smiles the whole show.' And he thought about it, and he smiled at me, and he said, 'You know what? That's right.'" AA: Mark Montini, president of Complete Communication Strategies in Fairfax, Virginia. RS: Let Avi and me put a smile on your face -- by answering your questions about American English! Write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven U-S-A or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "When You're Smiling (the Whole World Smiles with You")/Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-8-1.cfm
* Headline: June 17, 2001 - Slangman: Water Words ('Cinderella')
* Byline: 

 SFX: Boat engine AA: Ahoy! I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and we're out on the Wordmaster boat, fishing for terms associated with water. SFX: Engine stops RS: Uh-oh, we're adrift! Good thing we've got Slangman David Burke to throw us a line, all the way from Los Angeles. AA: He's recast a well-known fairy tale into more of a fish tale. TAPE: CUT 1 -- BURKE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a young girl named Cinderella. All she did every day was to work for her evil stepsisters. She always had so much work to do around the house or 'she was drowning in work.' She could hardly manage all the work she had to do or 'she had trouble keeping her head above water.'" AA: "Clever!" BURKE: "She certainly didn't enjoy this kind of work, but every day she would begin her work, or 'dive right in' without complaining." RS: "Very good!" BURKE: "One day an invitation to the King's beach party arrived at the house. It was a special party to help the prince find a wife. Cinderella was nervous or 'had a sinking feeling' that her stepsisters wouldn't let her go. Cinderella didn't want to upset her stepsisters or 'she didn't want to make waves,' but she really wanted to go to the beach party. She finally worked up the courage to ask them and told them that she really needed a break, and that if she didn't have a little fun she would become very depressed or 'go off . . . AA: " . . . the deep end." BURKE: "Or 'she would go off the deep end.' That's really depressed. Well, her stepsisters said, cry about it all you want. Or, 'cry me a river!' The prince would never like you. You're not interesting anymore. Or, 'you're all washed up!'" RS: "Poor Cinderella!" BURKE: "Well, one of her stepsisters then said, 'Cinderella don't make trouble, or 'don't rock the . . . RS: . . . boat." BURKE: "If you 'rock the boat' you are making a lot of trouble because you could fall off the boat. So, you'd never want to 'rock the boat' in any situation. " RS: "Get back to the story." BURKE: "Ooh, don't rock the boat around here!" AA: "Or, you'll be up a creek. " BURKE: "'You'll be up a creek without a paddle.' That means that you'll be in big trouble. Cinderella, you need to behave or leave, or 'shape up or ship out.' 'Fine,' she said, or 'whatever floats your boat.' A nice popular expression meaning whatever you like, 'whatever floats your boat.'" RS: "Whatever works for you." BURKE: "Whatever works for you, right! … The day finally came when all the sisters went to the beach party except for Cinderella. Suddenly Cinderella's fairy godmother appeared and says, 'Honey you've had enough bad luck or you've been 'under a black cloud' long enough. Of course a black cloud makes lots of rain. And it was obvious that the stepsisters were full of nonsense, or 'all wet.' The fairy godmother said, 'let's change the situation, or "turn the tide." We won't let those stepsisters destroy your fun or 'rain on your parade!' The fairy godmother waved her magic wand and suddenly Cinderella was wearing a beautiful bikini bathing suit. Well, next Cinderella found herself at the beach party. The moment Cinderella arrived she walked right past her stepsisters, or 'sailed right by them.' They didn't ever recognize her." AA: "They were left standing in her wake." BURKE: "Well as soon as everyone saw Cinderella she made a great impression, or 'made a big … RS: "Splash!" BURKE: "Yes! She 'made a big splash,' especially with the prince. In fact every guy at that party wanted to meet Cinderella. When one good thing happens they all happen at the same time. In other words, when it rains … SKIRBLE/AA: "It pours! (Laughter) RS: And Cinderella lives happily -- you might even say "swimmingly" -- ever after. AA: David Burke invites you to make a splash learning American slang: check out his books at www.slangman.com. Or send e-mail to slangman@slangman.com if you have a question. RS: The address here is VOA Wordmaster, Washington D-C two-zero-two-three-seven USA, or word@voanews.com. Time to hit the beach! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Rock the Boat"/The Hues Corporation 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-9-1.cfm
* Headline: June 10, 2001 - Grammar Lady: Only One You
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Only You"/The Platters AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- what to do when there's only one "you." RS: We're talking about forms of address. Speakers of other languages may be used to having two ways to address someone -- one formal, the other informal. In Spanish, for instance, there's the formal "usted" and the casual "tu." But in English it's "you" and only "you." AA: So, you may ask yourself, does that mean English speakers have no way to differentiate between formal and informal situations? We asked this question to our friend Mary Newton Bruder, the linguist better known as Grammar Lady. TAPE: CUT 1 -- BRUDER/SKIRBLE BRUDER: "We do it by using people's names. So if we want to be very formal with somebody that we've just met, we use a title plus last name. So 'Dr. Snow' or 'Mrs. Jones' or 'Miss Scafe,' for example. But if we wanted to be less formal and we know the people better, then we use their first names. And the rules for calling people by their first names, generally the older person will suggest, 'Oh, please call me Joe -- don't call me Dr. Smith, call me Joe,' or something like that." AA: OK, let's say you've just met a person. Rosanne had this question for Grammar Lady: What happens when it's a situation where it's not immediately clear how formal you should be? TAPE: CUT 2 -- SKIRBLE/BRUDER RS: "The reason I'm asking is because we have a young man living with us this summer. He's from Atlanta, and he's a college student. And, he calls me 'ma'am.' And that's not really something I'm used to." BRUDER: "And does he call your husband 'sir'?" RS: "Uh-huh." BRUDER: "OK, I think Southerners tend to be more formal. He'll probably have to be there quite a long time before he'll call you by your first name." RS: "Is this generally a big problem for people coming in from other cultures because in their own languages they have these two levels." BRUDER: "I think it is a problem because the rules are not necessarily explicit, and people will not say to a non-English speaker, 'Don't call me Mary, call me Dr. Bruder,' for example. I would never say that. I would never correct someone even though I felt uncomfortable with the use of my first name." AA: "And I guess one thing you never use as a form of address is to call someone 'mizz.' You never say that, 'Excuse me, mizz.' You'd say 'miss.'" BRUDER: "And you wouldn't say 'missus' either." RS: "Right." BRUDER: "You would say 'miss' or 'ma'am.'" AA: "So I suppose people, they've come over, they're meeting with a prospective employer or a prospective school, university, that they want to attend, your advice is to be formal, but if the other person, the person in authority, suggests that you loosen up, then you should." BRUDER: "Then you should do that, yes." AA: "But still refer to the person by last name, mister or miss or doctor or professor." BRUDER: "Yes, unless specifically invited on more than one occasion, I would continue to use title, last name, continue to be formal for quite awhile." RS: "Mary, I think it also has to do with how you feel, or how the person feels talking to you. I can tell someone not to call me 'ma'am' but I think they have to reach a certain comfort level before they're able to do that." BRUDER: "That's right, because what happens if you ask them to do that before they're ready, what you get is avoidance. They don't call you anything." AA: "What bugs me sometimes is when people use my name too much. It's usually salespeople, where they keep using your name. So I guess when you're talking in a situation like a job interview or speaking with a professor, how do you know how often to use the name -- or is it just better to avoid it." BRUDER: "Use it at the beginning and at the end. There's no real need to use it in-between time because you know you're speaking to the person. I think that's what bothers you, Avi, is that the person who's trying to sell you something is trying to capture your attention. But he already has your attention and it annoys you to have him keep repeating your name." AA: "And also when store clerks read your name off your credit card and start calling you by that." BRUDER: "Especially by your first name. That drives me crazy, too. (laughter)" RS: If things like forms of address are driving you crazy, you might want to look by Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder called "Speaking Naturally: Communication Skills in American English." You can also visit her Web site at www.grammarlady.com. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Only You"/The Platters 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-10-1.cfm
* Headline: May 27, 2001 - Singing Medical School Professor
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- teaching through singing! It's how Dr. Helen Davies [pronounced Davis], a medical school professor at the University of Pennsylvania, inspires her students to memorize the numbing facts of microbiology. And it might even work for teaching English. TAPE: CUT ONE -- DAVIS/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI "I get a lot of teaching awards and I try to explain it in the following way: It's not that I'm this great teacher, it's that other people just don't make that much effort. I look at my students and I think, 'Oh my god, their eyes are glazing over. I wish I could wake them up.' I loved singing to people so I thought, 'well, why don't I just try putting some of this to music,' and I did, and the first thing I did was to develop a song for streptococci. Everybody knows what a sore throat is, which in medical language is pharyngitis, but it's a strep sore throat. And we know that strep can cause a middle ear infection, a throat infection. And in medical lingo i-t-i-s -- an 'itis' -- means an inflammation, a swelling. So all the words that are used are 'otitis' (that's the ear) 'pharyngitis' (that's the throat), 'cellulitis' (that's an inflammation of cells). Recently we've had something called 'flesh-eating bacteria,' which are the strep, and the flesh-eating bacteria cause something called 'necrotizing fasciitis.' And the strep themselves can end up, if they are not properly treated, as rheumatic fever in kids and an inflammation of the kidney -- 'glomerular nephritis.' Now look how long it's taken me to tell you this." RS: "And we're glazed over." AA: "No, it's fascinating actually. I remember the flesh-eating bacteria scare a few years back." DAVIES: "Well, it's still here with us. People still die of it. But if you put it together, look how easy this is: (singing to the tune of "She'll be Coming Round the Mountain") Streptococci cause otitis, pharyngitis, cellulitis and necrotizing fasciitis, but the delayed sequelae [see-QUELL-ee, consequences] should make doc a nervous Nellie: rheumatic fever and glomerular nephritis. It all comes together in just five little lines." RS: "How do you introduce this to your class, do you first put them on the books and then say, 'OK, now we're really going to learn it'?" DAVIES: "First I give them a lecture and I say 'and now I will summarize for you. And I say, "Please don't be frightened, I know nobody has ever sung to you in a science course, but I'm going to do that." And so I put the words onto a slide and they look at it, look at me with disbelief, and I say, "Now you're going to join me, because if you join me you can have the words to it.'" RS: "So what's the reaction of the students?" DAVIES: "At first they're a little shy and then they start making songs for me." RS: "So tell me do you see them humming these songs in the halls?" DAVIES: "I know they hum it when they go for their exams." AA: "Is there a singing portion of their exams?" DAVIES: "Not really, but they remember." RS: "The techniques you're using are good teaching techniques not only for medicine, but they could be used to help learn English as a foreign language." DAVIES: "I agree with you completely. All of these are wonderful teaching techniques because you can engage the right side of the brain as well as the left side and you can remember so much more from having it with music. Just think of the number of students who can't remember anything in class but who can do rap songs by the hour." AA: "I understand that there's one disease that you don't sing about." DAVIES: "Yes, I don't sing about AIDS, H-I-V/AIDS, and that is because I find it so tragic at this point because we still don't know how to deal with it. We have got some drugs, but we need preventive care, and I think that is coming with our newer vaccines. And when we have a vaccine against it, I'll write a song." AA: Professor Helen Davis at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who tells people she's "twenty-four Celsius" ... that's seventy-six in Fahrenheit years. And that's Wordmaster for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Dry Bones"/Fats Waller and His Rhythm 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-11-1.cfm
* Headline: May 20, 2001 - Language of Privacy
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Every Breath You Take"/The Police AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- the language of privacy. Privacy is a hot topic in America right now. The traditional fear of government as "Big Brother" -- the term used by George Orwell in his book "Nineteen-Eighty-Four" -- is giving way increasingly to fear of Big Business. Many people worry about companies collecting and sharing the most personal of details, including health and financial information. RS: This year, for the first time, banks and other financial institutions must disclose their policies for sharing personal information for marketing and other purposes. The requirement is part of a new law permitting more kinds of mergers within the financial industry. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act says financial institutions must disclose their policies in "clear and conspicuous terms" -- and they must give people the option to "opt out." AA: In other words, information will be shared unless customers "opt out" and say, "no." Millions and millions of privacy notices are making their way through the mail by the July first deadline. But should it really take a college education to understand them? RS: No, say critics like Mark Hochhauser, a psychologist who helps companies to simplify documents. He says many privacy notices are far too complicated for the general public. TAPE: CUT ONE -- HOCHHAUSER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI HOCHHAUSER: "I don't want to sound like I'm bashing lawyers, because I know there are many lawyers who do try to write in plain English and do a good job of it. But very often what takes precedence is to try to protect the organization from being sued. So lawyers will write these documents as though the audience is other lawyers instead of average consumers. Here's one from a bank in Connecticut and this is what they say on the opt-out form that you have to fill out and send back to the bank. It says, 'If you choose not to exercise your option to opt-out of sharing, no action is required.'" RS: "What does that mean?" HOCHHAUSER: "In real English what that means is, 'If you want us to continue sharing information, don't do anything.' It's really tortured English, and I suspect that most people when they see this won't really know, 'Am I supposed to fill out this form or not?' And so they'll probably throw it away and not fill it out. From the standpoint of plain English, most of these brochures fail on all counts, and I don't know whether it's being cynical or realistic, but the net result is that the banks are in technical compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, but the net result is that it's not going to change the way information is being used." RS: "Wouldn't this just be obvious, if you want somebody to read your document, you don't use long sentences and you don't use unfamiliar words?" HOCHHAUSER: "You would think so. And people who study literacy and reading and understanding have made those suggestions, but somehow the materials still keep coming out in ways where there are too many long sentences and too many unfamiliar words." AA: Readability expert Mark Hochhauser says privacy notices are often murky about what information companies are actually sharing -- and what customers can do about it. TAPE: CUT THREE -- HOCHHAUSER/ARDITTI HOCHHAUSER: "They're not very up-front about saying 'you have certain privacy rights as a customer and here's what rights you have.' So it's a little bit misleading to expect people who are getting something called a 'privacy notice' to understand that it really refers to the privacy rights that they have." AA: "So chances are they're just going to toss it into the trash." HOCHHAUSER: "Many people will. If they look at it, they will find that often there are not only problems with readability, in the sense that they use complicated language, but the legibility of many of these documents is very difficult. What I mean by that is, they often use small type, sometimes referred to as 'mouseprints,' I guess like the footprint of a mouse. The type is small, it's crammed together, sometimes you have very long paragraphs with many lines in them, so it's very easy to get to the end of the line you're reading and then you get lost when you try to come back and find the beginning of the next line." AA: Mark Hochhauser reviewed seventeen notices for the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. His findings appear on the group's Web site, at www-dot-privacyrights-dot-o-r-g. RS: That's all for Wordmaster. Next week, meet a singing medical school professor who will leave you in stitches! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Every Breath You Take" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-12-1.cfm
* Headline: May 13, 2001 - American vs. British English
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Help!"/Beatles AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we talk about a few of the differences between American English and British English. RS: It's a question we often get. After all, some differences can lead to embarrassment, others to plain old confusion. AA: For instance, Americans put babies to sleep in a "crib." The British call the same kind of bed a "cot." RS: In America a cot is a flimsy, fold-up bed made of canvas. AA: Oh, you mean what the British call a "camp bed." RS: In Britain, "public school" is what Americans would call "private school," where you pay to have your children go. Now let's say you have "to go" -- or you're looking for the toilet. Here, it's not polite to ask where "the toilet" is. Say "bathroom" or "restroom" when speaking to an American. AA: Joining us now from New York is the author of a handy little book called "Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the U-S-A." Dileri Borunda Johnston lived in England, so she knows what it's like from both sides. TAPE: CUT ONE -- JOHNSTON "A lot of the grammar is slightly different, so you would have things in British English that perhaps you wouldn't want an American child to learn because it might sound slightly incorrect. Like you wouldn't say 'I haven't got any more.' You would rather an American kid would learn to say 'I don't have any more.'" AA: Let's say a speaker of British English steps off a plane in the States. Just to catch a bus or train into town from the airport requires a different vocabulary. TAPE: CUT TWO -- JOHNSTON "In England you would catch a 'coach' whereas here you take the 'bus,' or if you're taking the public transportation you would take the 'subway in America rather than the 'tube' or the 'underground' as you would in England." AA: Also, what the British call "lorries" we Americans call "trucks." RS: Now let's say the weather is cold and wet, and our traveler didn't pack the right clothes. Dileri Johnston pointed out some British terms that might confuse an American clerk. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JOHNSTON/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI JOHNSTON: "Like, for example, 'jumper,' which in England is the most common thing to call a sweater." RS: "Here it's a dress." JOHNSTON: "And a jumper here is a dress, yes." AA: "And then here we have 'boots' and 'galoshes' and there..." JOHNSTON: "They have 'wellies,' yes." RS: "They have what?" JOHNSTON: "Wellies." AA: "Here we talk about 'boots,' but, again, a 'boot' is in British English the trunk of a car. Here it's a heavy shoe that you wear when you're going through puddles." JOHNSTON: "You use the word 'boot' in British English as well; you know, for regular boots or cowboy boots or riding boots or anything like that. But just the rubber boots are called 'wellies.'" RS: And the differences don't stop there! TAPE: CUT FOUR -- JOHNSTON/SKIRBLE JOHNSTON: "'Pants' is the very big sort of trouble spot, because 'pants' here are quite -- you know, the common thing to call the things you put on your -- the long things you put on your legs, whereas 'pants' in England is always referring to underwear." RS: "So here that would be 'underpants.'" JOHNSTON: "Underpants, or underwear or boxers or whatever." RS: "So if you say, 'do you have a pair of pants to wear to the party,' that would be pretty inappropriate to say in England unless you were forewarned." JOHNSTON: "And over there they say 'trousers,' which is not a word that is completely unknown in American English, but it's not the most common one." RS: Along these lines, it seemed to us that a lot of the terms used in British English are older forms of the words used by Americans -- for instance, it might sound odd for an American to say "spectacles" instead of "glasses." TAPE: CUT FIVE -- JOHNSTON/ARDITTI JOHNSTON: "That's often the case. You know, you have 'spectacles,' you have 'trousers.' They tend to be sort of things that might be more common in regional varieties of American English. You know, like in England, it's quite common to say 'reckon,' which in American English is quite unusual, or you might here it in the South perhaps or in more old-fashioned contexts." AA: "Like, 'I reckon I'll go in when the sun gets too hot.'" JOHNSTON: "Yeah, and people in England say it sort of quite seriously, without meaning it to be funny or ironic or anything like that." RS: Same with some other terms that might strike Americans as funny. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- JOHNSTON "You know, if you go shopping, for example, you don't really want to take a 'trolley' which is what Americans ride around in on the street, like say in San Francisco. Here you would rather use a 'shopping cart' when you go to do your groceries." AA: And, it's not just words that set American and British speakers apart. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- JOHNSTON "Speakers of British English have to be very conscious of the fact that British accents are quite incomprehensible to Americans at times. I know from experience -- my husband, who's British, has a horrible time ordering water in restaurants. Nobody understands him when he asks for 'waw-tuh.' So he's tried to modify it and say 'waw-da, can I have some waw-da please.' (laughter) And he more or less gets understood nowadays." AA: Dileri Borunda Johnston, author of "Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the USA." RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Send your language questions to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "American English"/Wax UK 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-13-1.cfm
* Headline: March 18, 2001 - Company Names
* Byline: 

 MUSIC "Names and Addresses"/Junior Brown AA: We all have trouble remembering names. But when it comes to corporate America, it's easy to see why. A record number of U-S companies changed their name last year 2,976 to be exact, we're told, just over half of them because of mergers and acquisitions. I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. RS: And this week on Wordmaster we look at the business of corporate names. Jim Johnson is a leader in that business. He's chief executive of Enterprise I-G, a firm based in New York that helps find names for companies in the United States and 14 other countries. TAPE CUT: SKIRBLE/JIM JOHNSON/ARDITTI JIM JOHNSON: "A name is what people associate with you, with your products, with your services. It's a shorthand way that people can remember who you are from a clutter of other services and products and people in their everyday lives. It's a way of short-handing people's memory so when you say IBM or American Airlines, it immediately evokes all the images of what that company is without having to explain it over and over again." RS: What would be a good name. What are the qualities of a good name for a company?" JIM JOHNSON: "There are several very important ones. Typically, the better ones are normally short -- one or two syllables. Beyond short is memorable, distinctive and different, so that you don't confuse it with other names. (Another quality is) relevant something that if possible you can evoke the kind of imagery that you want associated with your company." RS: "Do companies often make up names, combining several words for example?" JIM JOHNSON: "Well, there are a number of ways to do it. The obvious one that most people think of is to just pick a name everybody knows. We'll just pick it right out of the dictionary, and we will just say what we are. And as a matter of fact that's sometimes the best way. The problem is there are very few simple dictionary words that are not being used by somebody in your industry. That leaves you with other options of combining word parts -- like Disney created a company called TriStar, a combination of two word parts. Another way to do it is to combine different words like VoiceStream or HotJobs and so on. Other companies will purposely change a word. Instead of Horizon, one of the big telecommunications companies in the United States developed a name called Verizon with a 'V.' A big communications company is called Qwest -- instead of Q-U-E-S-T, it is Q-W-E-S-T." AA: "How are people to know how to spell some of these new corporate names we're seeing?" JIM JOHNSON: "That's a problem. You have names that are purposely misspelled. I mentioned one of them like Qwest, and other ones like Verizon. There's another (business) called Cingular with a 'C.' Instead of S-I-N-G, it is spelled C-I-N-G. It's in the technology area. But there's a benefit, if you accurately and adequately describe it to everybody, they will remember it because it is so unusual, The problem is that you've got to do that very effectively. If you don't, you will confuse people." RS: And, you could even offend them. Jim Johnson says Enterprise I-G and companies like his do a thorough linguistic check on all name candidates. They want to avoid slang or any negative meaning in another language. For example, something as simple as two letters S-I when pronounced a certain way in the phonetic system of Mandarin, means "death." Not a good company name. AA: The process can take both time and money -- lots of it. But, Jim Johnson says a name is a strategic business decision, and if chosen wisely won't have to be changed unless the mission of the company changes. RS: Our mission isn't changing, so keep writing to Avi and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 or send e-mail to word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "How to Succeed in Business"/Original Broadway Cast 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-14-1.cfm
* Headline: March 25, 2001 - New York Times Style
* Byline: 

 INTRO: For many Americans, The New York Times is among the most reliable newspapers in the nation both for the balance of its coverage and for the carefully neutral way that the words in its news articles are used. For this Wordmaster report, VOA's Adam Phillips spoke with the man primarily responsible for the accuracy and correct nuance of the words that get printed in The New York Times. He is assistant managing editor Allan M. Siegal [SEe' ghell] and co-author of "The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage" the authoritative book on matters of style within his newspaper and at many rival organizations. TEXT: In the forty years that Allan Siegal has worked at The New York Times, almost fifteen thousand daily editions of the newspaper have been published -- each one full of words. It is the overall reliability of those words that accounts for The New York Times reputation in American journalism. I asked Mr. Siegal if "objective truth" is what he strives for at the newspaper. TAPE: CUT ONE -- SIEGAL I've learned over the years to stay away from the word "objective." I do say "impartial." We do try very hard to tell the whole story and all the sides of a story -- when there is a story with more than one side. Q- Tell me a bit about style and usage here at The [New York] Times. What makes it unique? What is it about style that you really want to stress to your writers and others? A- We try to write a language that is the equivalent of what used to be called "middle speech" by radio announcers. It's not so hip that our older established readers wold be turned off [dissuaded] by it…. And at the same time it's not stodgy and doesn't read as if it comes out of a law brief. It is as straightforward and as clear as we can make it. We are read by people in a hurry many of them on trains and buses that are lurching and rocking. People are being bumped by other commuters. And we nevertheless want them to be able to get the facts in the most efficient way they can off the paper and into their heads! Q- Can you give me one example of a delicate judgement-call that you had to make in terms of style? Sometimes you have to be very artful about how exactly you say something. A- We try to not suggest accidentally - much less intentionally - that we are taking sides on disputed issues. The one that's probably the most difficult for us over time is abortion, because all sides have set semantic traps intentionally. Each side of that argument wants to condition the vocabulary so that they force you to speak in their language -- and therefore take their side when you discuss it. So when we say "partial-birth abortion," we are using the language of those who oppose it [abortion]. Unfortunately, the people who don't oppose it ["partial-birth abortion"] don't have a clear name for it, so we tend to fall into clumsy phrases like "what opponents call" or "critics call" partial-birth abortion. We don't use "pro-choice" because that would put you on one side of the argument and we don't say "pro-life." We talk about "anti-abortion," which is indisputable. We talk about "advocates of abortion rights," which is also indisputable. TEXT: Mr. Siegal notes that new words to be wary of often appear with new presidential administrations. Lately, the term "faith- based" has appeared in connection with President Bush's proposal to fund some religious groups that provide social services. TAPE: CUT TWO -- SIEGAL The [U-S] Constitution forbids certain aspects of religion in public life and the Administration, its critics would say, is trying to circumvent that. And the first thing they've done is rename "religion." So that what you or I would have six or nine months ago referred to as "a religious organization" or "a religion-sponsored organization" or a "church-sponsored organization" is now referred to, by the government at least, as "a faith-based organization." And we think it is our job to resist the inertial pull of that kind of language and continue to use neutral language even as the government is succeeding in insinuating its vocabulary -- mainly through television and TV news -- into the public consciousness. TEXT: He offers another example, this one of longer standing. TAPE: CUT THREE -- SIEGAL "Sometime, probably in the 1940s, it became the practice to refer to "defense spending" and "defense preparation" as what the government does. [But at "The New York Times"] we still try to say "military spending" and "arms spending." Because it may be "defense" and it may be "offense." That is sometimes a very subjective judgment. … It is possible by looking closely at the words we use to retain a questioning, skeptical stance without seeming to disparage the language other people use." TEXT: Allan M. Siegal, an assistant managing editor at the "New York Times" newspaper, is co-author of "The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage." Roseanne Skirble and Avi Arditti will be back next week. For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips in New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-15-1.cfm
* Headline: April 29, 2001 - Baseball Idioms
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Talkin' Baseball [Willie, Mickey & 'The Duke']"/Terry Cashman AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster, we answer a question from a Japanese listener about the many baseball idioms in American English. RS: Asako Kadonaga in Osaka gives the examples of "right off the bat," "ballpark figure" and "touch all bases." Our linguist friend Maggie Sokolik at the University of California at Berkeley says we can thank sportswriters for many terms like these that are now part of everyday speech. AA: Baseball started in the eighteen-hundreds, and Maggie Sokolik says writers made up colorful ways to describe the game. After all, in those days, there was no television to watch the national pastime! RS: A lot of those phrases hit a home run with Americans, so today even people who don't follow baseball might still talk about doing something "right off the bat." TAPE: CUT ONE -- SOKOLIK "And if you can imagine a baseball striking the bat, that instant that things happen, things go very quickly, so if you need to do something fast, you might want to do it right off the bat. Similarly now if you have a large plan, say in business, in which you need to accomplish several tasks, you might tell your colleagues that you've 'touched all the bases,' you've contacted people -- you've 'covered your bases' as well, that is, you've prepared adequately." RS: Which means that you've probably gone beyond rough estimates, or "ballpark figures." TAPE: CUT TWO -- ARDITTI/SOKOLIK/SKIRBLE SOKOLIK: "Often if we're talking, and perhaps we're negotiating, perhaps we might say, 'you know, we're not even in the same ballpark,' meaning my figures are so different from yours that we're not even communicating about them." AA: "Why a ballpark?" SOKOLIK: "Well, we have this notion of a ballpark as being a sort of rough area. The playing field doesn't really have a definite boundary. The diamond itself does, but what extends beyond the diamond doesn't have a specific dimension assigned to it. Similarly with time, an inning can be five minutes, an inning could be fifty minutes, it just depends on how long it takes to get all the outs in." AA: "And it's still if you get three strikes you're out." SOKOLIK: "Exactly." AA: "And it's not just in baseball anymore. We hear that now in laws. I know in California, if you commit three serious crimes ..." SOKOLIK: "Yes, three felonies and then I think it's a lifetime sentence after that. It 's call the 'three-strike law,' three strikes and you're in prison. I think a less happy baseball metaphor than most of them are." RS: "Do you have a favorite baseball expression?" SOKOLIK: "I think the ones that I like, there's a lot of baseball expressions that really focus on people making mistakes, because errors in baseball are sort of what make the game interesting and exciting and also make us scream and tear our hair out in the stands. So when you talk about people being 'off base' -- or 'way off base' in fact -- that means that they're really quite wrong. There's also the term, to call someone a 'screwball' which is a type of pitch, but also means that someone is sort of crazy and not thinking straight. If we talk about someone who's really capable, we talk about them being 'on the ball.'" RS: "Do you see that our baseball vocabulary is evolving, especially since we are attracting athletes from outside the United States, from Central and South America, from Japan. Just today on the front page of the New York Times is an article about, um..." AA: "Ichiro Suzuki, the top Japanese player who's now playing for the Seattle Mariners." SOKOLIK: "For the Seattle Mariners!" RS: "But do you find that with these players coming to the United States, that they're also bringing a new vocabulary into baseball?" SOKOLIK: "Well, interestingly enough, not a lot, because the answer is that American baseball vocabulary has begun to travel overseas, so the language they bring with them is that which was exported to begin with." AA: As far as creating new terms, Maggie Sokolik at the University of California at Berkeley says American baseball is in a slump. Still there are more baseball-related phrases out there than most people realize. RS: In fact, University of Missouri Professor Gerald Cohen tells us the earliest citations for "jazz" had nothing to do with music. San Francisco newspaper writer "Scoop" Gleeson used the term "jazz" in nineteen-thirteen to describe enthusiasm and spirit on the baseball field. RS: If you have a question about American English, bat it our way. Write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "You've Got to Hit the Right Lick"/Big Bill Broonzy 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-16-1.cfm
* Headline: September 3, 2000 - Grammar Lady: English Spelling
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble turn to their old friend, Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder, to answer a question that English learners frequently ask. AA: Why isn't English spelled the way it sounds? TEXT: CUT ONE -- BRUDER "First of all because it's very old and it's gone through a lot of changes and it has borrowed words willy-nilly from everyplace you can think of." RS: "So you say it isn't spelled like it sounds because it's an old language, which leaves us in quite a bad place because there are so many different spellings that are pronounced the same way. For example, you inform me that there are eight or nine ways to pronounce o-u-g-h." AA: "What are they?" BRUDER: "OK, rough [ruff], dough [doh], thought [thaw-t], plough [plow], through [throo], scarborough [scar-bur-row], slough [sluff] -- which is either 'sluff' or 'slew' depending on which way you're going to use it -- cough [caw-f], hiccough [hic-cup], Youghiogheny [ya-ka-gay-nee] and Poughkeepsie [puh-kip-see]." RS: "I've been down the Youghiogheny. It's a river in Pennsylvania. So tell us about the o-u-g-h. There are so many pronunciations, how do you go about learning them, or is it, again, just a rote thing?" BRUDER: "You have to learn them in context and you have to learn them bit by bit as you're learning to read, then have them all brought together when you're maybe in fourth or fifth grade and can understand that this is one of those major conundrums of our language and we just have to deal with it. There was a movement by George Bernard Shaw to simplify English spelling, and he suggests that g-h-o- t-i -- or "go-tee" -- spells 'fish.' G-h from 'enough,' 'women' for the o and t-i from 'nation.'" AA: "That really simplifies things!" RS: "That doesn't help me." BRUDER: "That was his example of why we need spelling reform. And so for awhile we had what was called the Initial Teaching Alphabet. It was the reduction of English to exactly what it sounds like, which was your original question. So 'Stephen' would be s-t-e-f-e-n. 'Heard' would be h-e-r-d, no matter which meaning of the word." AA: But Mary Newton Bruder says she found from teaching college that the worst spellers were the students who had started out with this system in grade school. TAPE: CUT TWO - SKIRBLE/BRUDER/ARDITTI RS: "Back to o-u-g-h. Are there groups of words that we can learn so that we can learn to pronounce them and read them and to write them?" BRUDER: "That's exactly how it should be done, so that you do 'rough' [ruff] and 'tough' [tuff] ... " AA: "Enough [e-nuff]." BRUDER: "Enough. And you learn as a group all the words that are spelled in one way. Then you learn the ones like 'through." RS: "T-h-r-o-u-g-h." BRUDER: "The ones that are unique simply have to be learned when they are learning the spelling for that sound. So if they're learning 'threw' -- t-h-r-e-w -- they're learning that 'oo' sound, then I would teach t-h-r-o-u-g-h at that time, so that they are associating that particular spelling with other words that sound the same even though they are spelled differently." RS: "So they can read them." BRUDER: "So they can read them. I mean, that's the whole purpose of this, is teaching people how to read. If they can't remember how to spell them, well, then we hope they get a good spell-checker." AA: Linguist and author Mary Newton Bruder speaking from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she dispenses grammar advice through a telephone hotline and on the Internet at www.grammarlady.com. That's all for Wordmaster this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC:""I Couldn't Spell !!*@!"/Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-17-1.cfm
* Headline: April 1, 2001 - Grammar Lady: English Sentence Order
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder joins us to talk about the proper word order for an English sentence. RS: And you know what? She says it's pretty simple. Just remember the abbreviation S-V-O. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BRUDER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI MARY BRUDER: "You have the subject first, then the verb and then the object. And it's pretty much fixed in English. We have to know which one of the words is the subject. In some languages the subject words are marked by an ending, so they can go almost anyplace in a sentence. But that's not true in English. If you have, for example, 'the dog bit the man,' you know which happened first. But if you have 'the man bit the dog,' you have quite a different kind of action. We know the relationships of the words by the place in the sentence." RS: "So, as you say, this is pretty well fixed in American English." BRUDER: "Right, but there are some places where the verb moves around. For example, in a question, you have 'did the dog bite the man?" You have the auxiliary that comes before the subject. So that's one thing that the learners of English have to look out for. There's another case where if you're giving emphasis to something, you might get the object first. For example, if you say, 'I need a book and a hat. The hat I'll get tomorrow' -- in the second sentence you have the direct object at the beginning of the sentence. And again, as I say, that's for emphasis. But learners need to look out for these kinds of little pitfalls." AA: "So basically you can't go wrong, if you're writing a standard English sentence, if you follow the subject-verb-object (pattern)." BRUDER: "That's correct. In writing you'll never go wrong that way. The only thing that might be troublesome is (with reading some kind of novels) where the author (fools) around with the verb structure a little bit and the sentence structure a little bit, then you might have some of these exceptions, but they will be rare." AA: "Now what about passive versus active voice. Plain language advocates always say 'keep it active.' Why is that?" BRUDER: "Well, partly because of efficiency and partly because of understanding. If the subject comes first -- let's take this example: 'The man was bitten by the dog.' 'The dog was bitten by the man.' You've sort of reversed the place of the subject in the sentence. You've also added some extra words. And it's easier for English speakers to process the language if the subject comes first, so that's why they say to keep it in the active voice. There are, however, some examples when you can't do that. If you say 'French is spoken in Montreal,' in order to make that an active sentence, you'd have to do something like; 'They speak French in Montreal.' And then people will say, 'who do you mean by they -- the Montrealers?' that kind of thing. 'The doors were opened at 4 a.m.,' those kinds of things, where you don't actually care who did the object, you can have them in the passive voice without any trouble at all." AA: "I know that in, from what I've read, in Russian, in certain languages, it really doesn't matter where the verb goes because the rest of the sentence makes clear the point you're trying to make." BRUDER: "Right, when all the words have the endings, say you have a subject-ending on the subject words, so everybody knows which word is the subject, it doesn't matter where it comes in the sentence. But in English we've lost all of those inflections, all of those endings that tell which part of speech is which. Basically the inflections were lost after the Norman Conquest of William the Conqueror, and French became more and more involved with English, and French didn't have as many inflections, and so many of them were lost in English as well." RS: There you have it, a grammar lesson wrapped up in a history lesson from 1066! Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder is author of the book "Much a Do About a Lot." AA She also posts her advice at www.grammarlady.com. You can send questions to Rosanne and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com //end RS: Until next week, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC "Background to History"/Monty Python 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-18-1.cfm
* Headline: April 8, 2001 - Slangman: Misunderstood Idioms
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we look at the problem of misunderstood idioms. David Burke, better known to our listeners and to readers of his books as "Slangman," has had his ear to the ground -- and no, we're not pulling your leg. RS: In plain English, that means we're not joking. To keep an ear to the ground means to listen closely for information. That's what Slangman did at a meeting in Saint Louis of the group TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE "For example, one teacher told me that she asked her student if she would kindly 'crack the window,' and the student didn't know what to do with that. She thought, 'I'm not from the United States, is this some kind of strange ritual? Do you want me to break your window?' To crack a window simply means to open the window just a little bit, 'to crack the window.'" RS: Another teacher told about asking a student to get some food for a party at school. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BURKE "She said, 'Listen, I need you to go buy a pizza and step on it!' Well, we know 'to step on it' simply means 'hurry' because that comes from a car, where you step on the gas pedal, you step on the accelerator. Step on it -- hurry! So, of course, the student thought 'there's a strange tradition. Well, when in America...' So 'get me a pizza and step on it' is not what you would think it means. You don't want to step on it." AA: OK, now we cut to Hollywood. Slangman says an executive at a major movie company told him about a meeting to talk about a sales project. RS: This was a big meeting. There were people from different countries... TAPE: CUT THREE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI "And there were in particular three executives from Japan, and they told the executives, 'well, we are going to shelve the project.' Well, we know that a shelf -- RS: "Is something that you would put a book on." BURKE: "Or in the market, in stores, they all have shelves. Well, when they said to the executives, 'we are going to shelve the project,' the Japanese executives bowed in agreement, they went back to Japan and they produced millions of dollars of products -- because [the way they understood] 'to shelve the project,' they thought that meant to put our products on all the shelves of all the stores around the United States. They didn't realize that to 'shelve the project' meant the opposite -- we're taking the products off the shelf!" AA: "Oh no -- what were these, movie tie-in toys or something?" BURKE: "Yes, exactly! Anyway, they said 'this was a disaster for us.' So sometimes when we think an idiom means one thing it can mean something else. In fact, there was a teacher who told me a very funny story how one of her students, it was a girl, who asked her boyfriend -- they were both non-native speakers of English, but she was using her slang -- and she said to her boyfriend, 'Give me a ring tomorrow.' Well, what seemed very normal -- a ring on the telephone, 'give me a ring,' that's very common, we hear that all the time, 'give me a ring' -- well, her boyfriend thought, '(gasp) A wedding ring? We've only been going out together for a week!' So, of course, he panicked." RS: Now what if a friend told you that you had "foot-in-mouth disease"? Slangman says relax, it's not what you might think. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BURKE/ARDITTI "A very common expression is 'to put one's foot in one's mouth.' And we also call that the 'foot-in-mouth' disease. When you put your foot in your mouth, it means you said something that you should not have said, and you don't know how to take it back. (OPT) For example, let's say that somebody is really, really sensitive about their nose, for whatever reason, and you make a comment about the person's nose by accident, and you realize you just caused horrible embarrassment. So your friend might say, 'wow, you really put your foot in your mouth.' (END OPT) And if it's something you do all the time, if you're constantly saying things that you shouldn't be saying, you'd say, 'wow, you really have foot-in-mouth disease.'" AA: "Or is that 'foot-IN-mouth -- isn't it with the I-N instead of A-N-D?" BURKE: "Actually you're right. It's the way we say it, though. The disease that's happened right now is foot-and-mouth, but in slang, in everyday conversation, the word 'and' and the word 'in' are pronounced as apostrophe-n ('n). So foot-in-mouth can either be heard as foot-and-mouth or foot-in-mouth, it depends on the context. So when you hear that someone has 'foot-'n-mouth disease,' it has that connotation and it came from this horrible epidemic." AA: Slangman David Burke, in Los Angeles. He says you can learn how Americans really speak by visiting slangman.com on the Internet, or if you hear some slang you don't understand, send an e-mail to slangman@slangman.com. RS: Our address is word@voanews.com or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. Next week I'll take you to an island where some descendants of American slaves struggle to hold on to their land and their language. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC Richard Thompson "I Misunderstood" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-19-1.cfm
* Headline: April 15, 2001 - Gullah Geechee on Sapelo Island, Georgia
* Byline: 

 TEXT: I'm Rosanne Skirble and today on Wordmaster I want you to meet a special woman I met a few weeks ago on a remote island off the coast of Georgia. Cornelia Walker Bailey traces her ancestors back to a rice-growing region of West Africa from which her people were sold into slavery more than 200 years ago. Mrs. Bailey says once in this country, her ancestors were forced to build dikes, dig canals and flood the land to grow rice on islands along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Like the old pecan tree in her front yard, Cornelia Walker Bailey's roots run deep in the soil of Sepalo Island and the Gullah-Geechee culture. Gullah is the English-based Creole language she speaks among the Geechee, her people . . . descendents of slaves who labored on the Sea Islands. She says, for an outsider like me it might take some time to catch on to the rhythm of Gullah. TAPE CUT ONE: CORNELIA WALKER BAILEY "'I'm binyah, you comeyah' . . . 'Comeyah ain't got no business tellin' binyah what to do. Remember child, I binyah.' . . . You can translate it by saying, 'I was here on Sapelo and Hog Hammock all along. You are the new person. So you (have) got no reason telling me with my land or my business because you just came.' Or you can translate it as an older person who is teaching a younger person the ways of the world and say, 'I know. I (have been) here a long time. I have the knowledge and the wisdom. So I know 'I binyah and you just comeyah. So you young." TEXT: Cornelia Bailey refers to a cemetery as a place for the "sure dead" and to someone who talks too much as a person with "cracked teeth". . And, she remembers as a child her confusion when her mother told her about a woman with what the young Cornelia imagined was a broken foot turned out to be a pregnant woman! TAPE CUT TWO: CORNELIA WALKER BAILEY "And you would go off and report to your friends, 'You know mama and auntie were sitting there talking, and they said that Miss So-and-So's 'foot broken.' We see you down the road some place, and we look at your foot and, ain't nothing wrong with your foot. I don't know what mama was talking about. They must have made a mistake, be(cause) her foot look fine to me. We didn't know about her being pregnant!" So, they kept you in the dark for as long as possible until they figured you were ready for that part of life." TEXT: Mrs. Bailey wants her grandchildren to explore life on Sapelo Island using all their senses. TAPE CUT THREE: CORNELIA BAILEY "So you do these things. You stand up and look at the sky and (sniffs) say, 'I smell fish in the river. And they (the grandchildren) stand there and say, 'Grandma, I don't smell no fish!' (I say) 'Hold your head up. Smell! . . . Now don't you smell fish? Don't you know what fresh fish smell like? And they (say), 'Yeah.' (I say) 'Smell. That means there's fish in the creek.' So all of a sudden they realize from now on that the fishy scent coming in the air is coming from the nearby creek. So you say things that they don't even realize are there, and then you explain it to them." TEXT: Cornelia Bailey tells her grandchildren about the American Civil War and how after the war the island plantations were burned and the owners fled to the mainland. The freed slaves on the Sea Islands had no where to go, so they stayed. They farmed and fished, cooked foods that reminded them of Africa, wove baskets from sweet grasses and spoke the language she still speaks today. She says things began to change in the mid-1950s when bridges brought real estate speculators, tourists, electricity and paved roads. The predominately black communities slowly died away, squeezed out by vacation homes and resorts. But no bridge was ever built to Sapelo Island where Cornelia Bailey was born fifty-five years ago. Sapelo is free of condominiums, traffic lights and has more dirt roads than paved ones. Most of the Island is a nature preserve that is owned by the state. Sapelo has few amenities a general store, a church, a community center, but no hospital, school or supermarket. Mrs. Bailey is among 64 residents, all black, who live in simple pine houses among big trees in a community called Hog Hammock. Many more lived on Sapelo when she was a child. But, she says, the young have left and the old die. She says preserving this heritage is a struggle, but also a matter of pride. TAPE CUT FOUR: CORNELIA WALKER BAILEY "We have to work real hard on doing that, and teaching the kids there is nothing to be ashamed of. It's a part of your history. Any culture anywhere depends on the people, and you have to be first one to say, 'I am proud of who I am. Once you say that, nothing stands in your way, no matter how you pronounce something, how you eat something, how you cook it, it's you and you're part of it." TEXT: Cornelia Walker Bailey fears the Geechee ways will die out with her generation. She wants the people in Hog Hammock to hold on to their land, but knows the young people will leave unless they have good jobs. She is working to create cottage industries to market foods and crafts. But, Cornelia Walker Bailey says, much more needs to be done to ensure that Sapelo Island has a future that can preserve the past. I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-20-1.cfm
* Headline: April 22, 2001 - Diplomatic Language
* Byline: 

 INTRO: The aftermath of the collision between an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet gives Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble an opportunity to examine the language of diplomacy. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BOUCHER "Since there was not a productive discussion of the return of our airplane at the meeting today, we want to be reassured that they are willing to do that before we continue these discussions." AA: That's State Department spokesman Richard Boucher after negotiations got off to a rough start in Beijing Wednesday. The Navy intelligence-gathering plane made an emergency landing at an air base on Hainan Island on April first. RS: It took the United States eleven days to get the crew back. China wanted the United States to apologize for the incident. The United States ended up saying it was "very sorry" that the Chinese had lost their pilot and "very sorry" that the American plane had entered Chinese airspace and had landed without permission. AA: Paul Sharp is a British-born political scientist at the University of Minnesota. He says the wording of the statement from U-S diplomats took on great importance. TAPE: CUT TWO -- SHARP "Both sides were saying the other had done something wrong, and one side had made an apology the condition of cooperating -- specifically returning the aircraft and the aircrew. And what the diplomats on both sides did was look for a formula that would somehow satisfy both sides, that would have enough nuance of apology for the Chinese, in this case, and yet would not be an apology from the point of view of the United States." RS: Professor Paul Sharp says precision of language was of more concern in what he calls the "good old days of diplomacy." TAPE: CUT THREE -- SHARP "In the past, precision of language was for straightforward communication on substantial matters -- we've got to know what we've agreed to -- whereas I think in this recent episode the question of spin and how this is to be presented by both governments to their domestic audiences and to their allies and friends became very important." AA: Mr. Sharp says the incident has also underlined the importance of the differences between what researchers call high-context and low-context cultures. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- SHARP PAUL SHARP: "In the low-context culture, you focus specifically on the words and the content of the words, whereas in high-context cultures you pay a great deal of attention to the circumstances in which they are being uttered and by whom. Raymond Cohen at the Hebrew University has done some very interesting work on this and, for example, he points to the clash between American -- and, indeed, Western -- negotiators and Arab negotiators on how you bargain. For Americans, the idea is very much that you -- to use their phrase, 'cut to the chase.' 'Let's talk about what's negotiable, what we're prepared to offer up in return for something else.' And the argument is that in a high-context culture, for example like the Arabs and indeed the Chinese, that is bringing the language of the 'suuk' or the marketplace, or the second-hand car lot, to issues of high principle that should not be dealt with in terms of this sort of haggling." RS: "So how do you know what you've got? How do you know what you've agreed to if one is rooted in one's culture and the other diplomats are rooted in another. How do you actually come to an agreement -- or as you said before, is it just a matter that you understand what you think you got and you put that spin to it." SHARP: "I think it's not so much that we are all trapped in our cultural prisons and therefore are unable to reach agreement with each other. Because very often countries, when they want to reach agreement, find these sorts of obstacles no problem at all and they work their way through. There's two dangers. One is that international politics, despite what our governments say, is still power politics. So countries are maneuvering for advantage over each other and will exploit language nuances at times to gain advantage. But, I would say more importantly than that, the real danger is when countries think they have reached an agreement. They go away thinking that they've agreed to something, they think that the other side has the same conception of the agreement, and then there's regrets down the line." AA: Professor Sharp says language can be used as a bargaining chip among negotiators. The American crew was released shortly after "sorry" became "very sorry" in the statement of regret from the United States. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- SHARP "So at some point in the negotiation, where both sides are thinking 'well, this is about as much as we can get out of this,' 'very' becomes a chip that works: 'You throw that into the pot, and we'll go for it.'" AA: Paul Sharp at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. RS: If you have questions about American English, send them to Avi and me. Our address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or send e-mail to word@voanews.com. AA: Until next week, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-21-1.cfm
* Headline: May 6, 2001 - Slangman: 'Clean' Slang
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Mr. Clean" AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- a break from spring cleaning, as we look at some terms that only sound like they have to do with tidying up. RS: Take the phrase "to clean house." Really what that means is to carry out major changes. "Boy, the new owners of that company really cleaned house!" AA: We called Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles and asked him to "come clean" with us on some other terms. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "To 'come clean' with someone means to be honest, to be open. 'Don't hide anything -- come clean with me.' Now if somebody decides they're going to take you to court, and they're going to go after all your money, they're taking you somewhere that you really don't want to go." RS: "They're taking you to the cleaners!" BURKE: "Yes, they are. (laughter)" RS: "Very good!" BURKE: "And if they win, they're going to 'clean up' -- if you have a lot of money, that is. Now, along the same lines of clean, there are certain things we use around the house to keep things clean. For example, we might use a mop. Well, if somebody were really angry at you, they might say to you, 'I'm going to mop up the floor with you!' Now another thing we use, certainly, is a rag. This is an interesting expression -- I don't know why we say [it] -- 'stop ragging on me, stop harassing me, stop bothering me, don't rag on me so much -- you always criticize me." AA: Sounds like a need to "clear the air." TAPE: CUT THREE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "That means you're going to discuss the problem between you two and all the negative tension in the air will be gone. That's to clear the air. And that's something, in fact, in my home, we always had a deal when I was kid: We never go to bed angry, we always clear the air." RS: "I'll have to remember that before my kids go to bed. We never go to bed angry but we need to clear the air more -- we wouldn't want to mop the floor with one another, that's for sure." BURKE: "Well, you know, when you do mop the floor, you use some kind of detergent or soap. Well, here's one -- now what is 'a soap'?" AA: "Like a soap opera?" BURKE: "Yeah, a soap opera. Even that in itself is kind of slang, because a soap opera is simply a continuing drama. We watch them everyday, they're usually about half an hour long, and one show continues into the next, into the next. But years ago the sponsors were all soap [companies] so now they're called soap operas, or simply 'soaps.'" AA: "And that can be a person's personal problems. 'Oh, that's a real soap opera.'" BURKE: "That's right, if someone tells you a story about what's happening in their life, and it's such a long and involved story, with so many different twists and turns, it's a 'soap opera.' And that person, of course, may be on his ... soap box?" AA: "Oh..." RS: "Right, talking about what he believes or she believes in." BURKE: "If somebody believes in something and they just don't stop talking about it and they try to convince everyone else to believe what they believe, they're on their soapbox." RS: "Or we could tell someone to get off of their soapbox." BURKE: "Right -- or 'get off your soapbox.' OK, if something is really troubling you but you don't want to talk about it, what are you going to do to that problem?" RS: "You're going to sweep it under the rug." BURKE: "Exactly, because when you're cleaning your house, if you don't want to be bothered with putting all the dust into the dust bin, throwing it away, you just sweep it under the rug and get rid of it that way." RS: "Because no one will see it that way, right." BURKE: "Now we've just talked about clean. Of course, on the flip side of clean..." RS: "…is dirty." BURKE: "Dirty!" RS: "Yeah!" BURKE: "Well, first of all, the word dirt -- again, here's one that's popular and I don't know why we say it -- 'so what's the dirt on Rosanne?'" RS: "What's the gossip about me, huh?" BURKE: "We know that 'dirt' means gossip in slang. Now 'dirty,' this is interesting, for some reason 'dirty' means 'obscene' and if it's really obscene, it's dirtier than dirty, it's 'filthy.' So, dirty can mean not just obscene, it can also mean unpleasant. 'Why are you giving me that dirty look?'" RS: Maybe the recipient of that dirty look just "trashed" something that belonged to the other person. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BURKE "To 'trash' something means to destroy it. For example, if you say 'I trashed my car,' [that means] 'I totally ruined my car.' But if you say 'to get trashed,' it's different than 'to be trashed.' To 'get trashed' means to get drunk. But to 'be trashed' means to be exhausted: After flying for twelve hours, I finally arrived at my destination and I was trashed." AA: Slangman David Burke invites you to check out his books on slang if you want to know how Americans really talk. If you're on the Internet, visit slangman.com -- or send questions to slangman@slangman.com. RS: Write to Avi and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Cleaning House"/Peggy Scott-Adams 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-22-1.cfm
* Headline: August 27, 2000 - Slangman: Apologies
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble offer some apologies. MUSIC:"Who's Sorry Now"/Connie Francis AA: There's a new law in California. It says expressions of sympathy to a person involved in an accident, or to that person's family, cannot be used as evidence of liability in a civil action. In other words, it's OK to say you're sorry. We talked with Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles about some of the ways Americans say they're sorry. We start at the dramatic end, with "I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart." TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE "That's definitely a common way to apologize because 'from the bottom of your heart,' that is as profound as you can possibly go. They also say this, what they call a spoonerism." RS: "A spoonerism?" BURKE: "Where you flip the two main words in a sentence. I've heard this out here -- they even use it on a popular radio show out here, where they'll say 'I'm sorry from the heart of my bottom." AA:Lately a new way to apologize has entered the American vocabulary. Slangman David Burke has even found it out on the water: TAPE: CUT TWO -- BURKE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE BURKE: "On my rowing team, anytime anybody makes a mistake, another guy on the rowing team will say, 'Oops, my bad.' AA: "M-y b-a-d, which makes no sense gramatically." BURKE: "It makes no sense at all, and the first time I heard that, I said, 'excuse me, what did you say?' My bad." RS: "My mistake, my fault." BURKE: "Exactly, it's my mistake, and it's extremely popular. I hear that all the time, and not just from teen-agers but also from people in their twenties and thirties. And what's even more popular than "my bad" is, if you make a mistake, it's common to say some one-syllable word like 'whoops' or 'uh-oh.'" RS: "Or oops." BURKE: "Well, what is the most popular one -- it comes from 'the Simpsons,' when you make a mistake?" AA: "It's a sound effect." BURKE: "I see this all the time, it is so popular, and it's spelled d-o-h. Doh! HOMER SIMPSON SFX: "Doh!" AA: "Right, it's Homer Simpson, the father on this animated T-V show." BURKE: " I hear that actually first even before I hear 'my bad.'" AA: "And you slap your palm to your forehead as you're saying it." BURKE: "Exactly, it's like 'Doh! I made a mistake.'" AA: "The Simpsons" isn't the only American T-V show to spin off a way to apologize. So did a cold war-era comedy about a bumbling secret agent named Maxwell Smart. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "Remember the old 'Get Smart' show?" AA/RS: "Yeah?" BURKE: "On 'Get Smart' remember what Max would always say to his chief when he made a mistake?" RS: "Sorry about that chief." BURKE: Right, 'sorry about that chief.' Although 'Get Smart' has been off the air for some time -- I should say, they stopped filming it a long, long time ago. Because of reruns, a lot of people still use it. I still hear 'sorry about that,' and they say it like Maxwell Smart." AA: OK, once you say you're sorry -- however you say it -- what next? TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BURKE/ARDITTI BURKE: "'What can I do to make it up to you.' And that's a very confusing one to non-native speakers, because there are so many prepositions. There's 'to' and there's 'up.' 'What can I do to make it up to you' means 'what can I do for you.'" RS: "Or what can I do to make it better." BURKE: "Exactly." AA: "There really isn't a good answer. People don't expect you to actually say, 'well, yes, you can do this, that and the other.' It's kind of rhetorical." BURKE: "Right. Usually somebody will say, 'that's OK.' What they'll do then is forgive you, and since we're talking about apologies, what would someone say then to forgive you? So if someone said, 'what can I do to make it up to you?' well, the other person might say, 'let it slide,' which means 'let the mistake slide right by, and I won't pay any more attention to it.' Another way to say forgive is, 'just let it go.'" AA: "Don't worry about it." BURKE: "But that's just normal, everyday speech, 'don't worry about it.' Or there are a lot of different ways -- for example, you made some huge mistake and you feel so terrible, you say, 'Oh, David, I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart.' And I say to you, 'Oh, please, no biggie.' We also hear the abbreviation of, instead of 'it's not a problem,' we hear 'not a prob' or 'no prob.' Or what a lot of teens will say, of course, is 'whatever.'" AA: Whatever your interest in the slang and idioms that Americans use, check out Slangman David Burke's all-new Web site at www.slangman.com. You can also write to Rosanne and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or word@voa.gov. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "I'm sorry"/Brenda Lee 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-23-1.cfm
* Headline: July 30, 2000 - Car Names
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti check out the power that drives car names in America. MUSIC: "Mustang Sally"/Wilson Pickett AA: America traded horses for horsepower a long time ago. But out on the road you still find yourself behind Mustangs, Colts and Broncos. Even if the most exotic place you go is the shopping mall, you can get there in a Caravan or an Expedition. There's even the Probe. And there are names that bite back like the Viper. RS: Car companies spend a lot of time and money choosing names. They want to make sure that the name fits the vehicle, and that the image matches the driver. So says Warren Brown, who writes about cars for the Washington Post. He explained why, for instance, General Motors has just combined a pickup truck and a truck- like sport utility vehicle, or S-U-V, and named it the Chevrolet Avalanche. TAPE CUT ONE: WARREN BROWN/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE WARREN BROWN: "Avalanche was chosen as much because `Chev-ro-let [shev-ro-lay] A-va- lanche' kind of flows together. Forget the fact that avalanches tend to kill people! But, it's basically how the name flows together. How does it sound coming out of the mouth?" AA: "It would be like the Ford Earthquake!" WARREN BROWN: "Things like earthquake have been considered. But the Avalanche, for example is not the first disaster type name. You've had the Cyclone. You've had the Tempest. You've had the Comet." RS: Take us through the process with the Avalanche. And, how did Avalanche get its name? WARREN BROWN: First of all you start with the truck. You start with the (market) segment. The Avalanche is a full-sized pick-up truck. But, it is no longer adequate to have a full- sized pick-up truck. It is no longer adequate to have a full-sized S-U-V. The truck market is becoming increasingly segmented. So, now the idea is to have a truck that also acts like an S-U-V and an S- U-V that acts like a pick-up. It basically can do multi-purpose things. So, what do you do? You go for a name in G-M's (General Motors) mind that is really powerful, that is really forceful, that captures attention, but that also people can pronounce. It sounds good coming off of the tongue. Chevy Avalanche!" AA: But the name also has to prove itself in public. Test marketers begin with a trip to the mall to ask passersby their opinion. RS: But, Warren Brown says, only certain people are interviewed. TAPE CUT TWO: WARREN BROWN/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE "The auto industry is not that democratic. It really doesn't care what the public in general thinks about a name. It only cares what the target market thinks about the name. If you like hiking, biking, camping. If you are a person who likes to take chances in extreme sports... AA: "Or think you do." RS: "Or what you perceive yourself as doing." WARREN BROWN: "... then come and talk with us. Have we got a name for you." AA: But the name game doesn't end at the mall. People from the targeted market are invited to attend small focus groups to discuss the name and the vehicle. TAPE CUT THREE: WARREN BROWN "Several of the G-M executives told me that finally they decided to stop being politically correct and say, `Look, does this name scare you? Do you think of ice coming down, killing people?'" RS: And, when Avalanche passed THAT test, and after GM lawyers said there was no conflict with the Colorado Avalanche hockey team, a new truck name was born. AA: Warren Brown says this process takes time and lots of money. He says a bad name could hurt sales. TAPE CUT FOUR: WARREN BROWN/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE WARREN BROWN: "You try not to offend anyone. For example, I went through a list of historical names that you wouldn't dare use today. The Wasp wouldn't play in politically correct America." AA: "W-A-S-P . . . White Angle Saxon Protestant." WARREN BROWN: "Of course it didn't mean that then. It's an (insect)." RS: "Bzzzzz." WARREN BROWN: "It just goes, right? But, now they wouldn't touch it." AA: Automotive writer Warren Brown says that in the global market place, car companies like names that can easily cross borders. RS: Names that combine letters and numbers and take no linguistic skill to understand like the Mercedes Benz E320, or the BMW X5. AA: But, Warren Brown says he expects American car companies to go on naming cars as they have, as long as Americans see in those chrome nameplates a reflection of who they want to be. RS:Before we hit the road, if you have a question about American English, write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237. Or you can send e-mail to word@voa.gov. AA:With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-24-1.cfm
* Headline: June 11, 2000 - Slangman: Anatomy of Slang
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week, VOA Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti examine the anatomy of slang, from head to toe. MUSIC "Dry Bones"/The Delta Rhythm Boys AA: Hundreds of slang expressions in American English are connected to the human body. But translated literally, many of these expressions leave non-native English speakers scratching their heads -- in other words, confused. RS: For instance, how is a non-native speaker to know that the expression "you're pulling my leg" means "you're kidding me" or "you're teasing." But, don't get discouraged. Other languages do the same thing. RS: Slangman David Burke tells us that in French the equivalent of "you're pulling my leg" is, "You're treating yourself to my head." In Spanish it's, "You're taking my hair." He writes about this kind of idiomatic body language in his book "Street Speak Two." AA: We asked David Burke, in Los Angeles, to guide us through some of the slang expressions of the human anatomy, without putting his foot in his mouth -- saying something embarrassing. And we asked him to start at the top. TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "Well, let's see! `To come to a head,' which means to come to a final climatic, emotional level. Or, `to get a head start' which means to be given an early start or an advantage. Someone gives you a `head start' in a race. You get an advantage." (A person) who is very sensible, we say that person has a `good head on their shoulders.' For example, a sentence would be, `Chuck has a good head on his shoulders. I'm sure he will make the right decision.' So, to have a good head on one's shoulders, it just means to be very sensible. That's a really good one." RS: Next we zoom in on the mouth, as Slangman David Burke continues our tour. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI DAVID BURKE: "Someone who talks and talks and talks and someone who can just not stop talking (is)... " RS: "A blabbermouth." BURKE: "Right! A blabbermouth! To blabber means to talk a lot. But, for some reason we like to add blabber and mouth together to make a real kind of funny sounding word. Here's a good sentence: `Why did you tell Howard about the surprise party for Helen? What a blabbermouth!' "OK, in your mouth, we have of course, hopefully ..." RS: "Teeth!" BURKE: "Teeth! There are lots of expressions with teeth. We're going to pick one: Somebody who lies, grossly, somebody who tells huge lies you say to that person, `You are lying through your teeth.' For example, Todd lied through his teeth when he said that he planned to pay me back next week. He didn't. He didn't pay me back. He lied through his teeth.'" "Now we're going to go a little bit lower to your shoulder. If somebody refuses to talk to you anymore and is really mad at you, I'm going to give you ... " RS: "The cold shoulder." DAVID BURKE: "That means to refuse to acknowledge someone, usually because you're angry or your feelings were hurt. An example would be, `I saw Chuck at the movies last night, but he gave me the cold shoulder. I asked him what was wrong, but he ignored me. He gave me the cold shoulder.' I asked him what was wrong, but he ignored me." "And your shoulder is connected to your spine ... your spine goes up to your shoulders, and if you have no courage ... " AA: "You're spineless!" DAVID BURKE: "Right. To be cowardly, to be weak. `Every time the boss is verbally abusive to Pat, he just takes it and doesn't fight back. Pat is spineless. He's cowardly. He's weak. Somebody without courage." RS: But, maybe poor Pat was scared out of his skin. David Burke says the situation could have been "hairy." TAPE CUT THREE: BURKE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE DAVID BURKE: "You hear this often when you go to an amusement park and there's a roller coaster, and the ride was scary, thrilling, exhilarating. 'It was hairy!'" AA: "I thought you were going to say hair-raising." RS: "Or make your hair stand on end!" AA: "Or curl your hair." DAVID BURKE: "(It's interesting) that many things that have to do with hair have to do with fear and being scared, unless we decide to `split hairs.' That's really popular, `to argue about trivial details.' `We could have signed the contract hours ago, but the other side started splitting hairs.'" RS: Slangman David Burke says the best way to learn these expressions, is to write them down when you see them in print or hear them in conversation. AA: David Burke also invites you to let your fingers do the walking, over to his Internet Web site at www.slangman.com. RS: And you can write to us. Our address is word@voa.gov or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237, USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 1, 2002: Jazz conference/Susan B. Anthony/the Super Bowl
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: HOST: Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some jazz music ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some jazz music ... answer a question about the women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony ... and report about the Super Bowl. Super Bowl HOST: Sunday, February third is not a holiday in the United States, but it may seem like one to many Americans. They will be attending parties to watch the Super Bowl Game. The Superbowl is the championship game of American professional football. Bob Doughty explains. ANNCR: American professional football involves thirty-one teams in the National Football League, or NFL. The first NFL was formed in Nineteen-Twenty, when representatives of four professional teams met in Canton, Ohio. The group first called it the American Professional Football Association, but changed the name two years later. In Nineteen-Sixty, businessman Lamar Hunt started the American Football League, or AFL. The two leagues competed with each other to get college players. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, established NFL players began negotiating to play for the competing league. So officials of the two leagues decided to work together. This agreement immediately established a championship game between them. It was officially called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, but became known as the Super Bowl. The first Super Bowl was played in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven in Los Angeles, California. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. It was not a very exciting game. Many of the seats in the sports center were empty. That changed with the Super Bowl played two years later. Experts say the public finally accepted the new league when the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts. After that game, officials of the two leagues decided to create a new National Football League. They divided the teams into two competing conferences, the American Conference, or AFC, and the National Conference, NFC. Each year, the conference champions play in the Super Bowl. Today, the Super Bowl is a major sporting event. Thousands of people will be watching the game Sunday at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Millions of people around the world will be watching Super Bowl Thirty-Six on television. They will be watching to see if the AFC New England Patriots or the NFC Saint Louis Rams become the champions of American football. Susan B. Anthony HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ethiopia. Theodros Solomon asks about Susan B. Anthony. Susan Brownell Anthony led the struggle for women’s rights in the United States. She was born in Eighteen-Twenty in the state of Massachusetts. Her family moved to New York State when she was seven. She began teaching school when she was fifteen, and continued until she was thirty years old. Susan B. Anthony opposed drinking alcohol. She also urged an immediate end to slavery. She worked for both these causes. But she is most famous for her work for women’s rights. This began in Eighteen Fifty-One when she met reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They first worked to improve women’s rights in New York State. Their first important success came in Eighteen-Sixty when New York approved a Married Woman’s Law. For the first time in New York, a married woman could own property. And she had a right to the money she was paid for work she did. The campaign for women’s rights spread to other states. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton realized that women would not gain their rights until they had the right to vote in elections. Their campaign was called the women’s suffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote. As part of the campaign, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election of Eighteen-Seventy-Two in Rochester, New York. She was arrested and tried for voting illegally. She was found guilty and ordered to pay one-hundred dollars as punishment. She refused to pay, but no further action was taken against her. Miss Anthony led efforts to gain voting rights for women through a new amendment to the United States Constitution. She traveled across the country to work for such an amendment until she was seventy-five years old. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew it would not come while she was alive. Susan B. Anthony died in Nineteen-Oh-Six. She was eighty-six years old. Thirteen years later, Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. It states that the right to vote shall not be denied because of a person’s sex. It was called the Anthony amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony. Many years later, the United States honored her again when it put her picture on a newly created dollar coin. She was the first woman to be pictured on American money. Jazz Conference ((CUT ONE: “JEEPS BLUES")) HOST: Last month, some of the biggest names in jazz attended the Twenty-Ninth yearly meeting of the International Association of Jazz Educators. Musicians such as Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones and Nancy Wilson attended the conference in Long Beach, California. Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: The conference brings together jazz educators, musicians, students and industry representatives. They celebrate the joys of music and the effect of jazz on cultural life. More than seven-thousand people from thirty-five countries attended the conference this year. There is always something musical going on during the conference. There are lively discussion groups, concerts, training programs and other events. But the most exciting part of the conference is the energy created during the jam sessions. That is when the musicians play together without preparation. The music of jazz great Duke Ellington is heard throughout the conference. Here is Ellington and his orchestra playing “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.” ((CUT TWO: “THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE”)) There were many special performances at the jazz educators conference including a jazz presentation of a religious story. And a group of talented young women, called “Sisters in Jazz”, showed that women can play jazz too. Musician and composer Dave Brubeck was one of several people who were honored during the conference. He was recognized as a major influence in jazz and a powerful supporter of jazz education. We leave you with one of Dave Brubeck’s biggest hits, “Take Five.” ((CUT THREE: “TAKE FIVE”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. answer a question about the women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony ... and report about the Super Bowl. Super Bowl HOST: Sunday, February third is not a holiday in the United States, but it may seem like one to many Americans. They will be attending parties to watch the Super Bowl Game. The Superbowl is the championship game of American professional football. Bob Doughty explains. ANNCR: American professional football involves thirty-one teams in the National Football League, or NFL. The first NFL was formed in Nineteen-Twenty, when representatives of four professional teams met in Canton, Ohio. The group first called it the American Professional Football Association, but changed the name two years later. In Nineteen-Sixty, businessman Lamar Hunt started the American Football League, or AFL. The two leagues competed with each other to get college players. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, established NFL players began negotiating to play for the competing league. So officials of the two leagues decided to work together. This agreement immediately established a championship game between them. It was officially called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, but became known as the Super Bowl. The first Super Bowl was played in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven in Los Angeles, California. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs. It was not a very exciting game. Many of the seats in the sports center were empty. That changed with the Super Bowl played two years later. Experts say the public finally accepted the new league when the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts. After that game, officials of the two leagues decided to create a new National Football League. They divided the teams into two competing conferences, the American Conference, or AFC, and the National Conference, NFC. Each year, the conference champions play in the Super Bowl. Today, the Super Bowl is a major sporting event. Thousands of people will be watching the game Sunday at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Millions of people around the world will be watching Super Bowl Thirty-Six on television. They will be watching to see if the AFC New England Patriots or the NFC Saint Louis Rams become the champions of American football. Susan B. Anthony HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ethiopia. Theodros Solomon asks about Susan B. Anthony. Susan Brownell Anthony led the struggle for women’s rights in the United States. She was born in Eighteen-Twenty in the state of Massachusetts. Her family moved to New York State when she was seven. She began teaching school when she was fifteen, and continued until she was thirty years old. Susan B. Anthony opposed drinking alcohol. She also urged an immediate end to slavery. She worked for both these causes. But she is most famous for her work for women’s rights. This began in Eighteen Fifty-One when she met reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They first worked to improve women’s rights in New York State. Their first important success came in Eighteen-Sixty when New York approved a Married Woman’s Law. For the first time in New York, a married woman could own property. And she had a right to the money she was paid for work she did. The campaign for women’s rights spread to other states. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton realized that women would not gain their rights until they had the right to vote in elections. Their campaign was called the women’s suffrage movement. Suffrage means the right to vote. As part of the campaign, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election of Eighteen-Seventy-Two in Rochester, New York. She was arrested and tried for voting illegally. She was found guilty and ordered to pay one-hundred dollars as punishment. She refused to pay, but no further action was taken against her. Miss Anthony led efforts to gain voting rights for women through a new amendment to the United States Constitution. She traveled across the country to work for such an amendment until she was seventy-five years old. She knew the victory would come. But she also knew it would not come while she was alive. Susan B. Anthony died in Nineteen-Oh-Six. She was eighty-six years old. Thirteen years later, Congress approved the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. It states that the right to vote shall not be denied because of a person’s sex. It was called the Anthony amendment, to honor Susan B. Anthony. Many years later, the United States honored her again when it put her picture on a newly created dollar coin. She was the first woman to be pictured on American money. Jazz Conference ((CUT ONE: “JEEPS BLUES")) HOST: Last month, some of the biggest names in jazz attended the Twenty-Ninth yearly meeting of the International Association of Jazz Educators. Musicians such as Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones and Nancy Wilson attended the conference in Long Beach, California. Steve Ember tells us more. ANNCR: The conference brings together jazz educators, musicians, students and industry representatives. They celebrate the joys of music and the effect of jazz on cultural life. More than seven-thousand people from thirty-five countries attended the conference this year. There is always something musical going on during the conference. There are lively discussion groups, concerts, training programs and other events. But the most exciting part of the conference is the energy created during the jam sessions. That is when the musicians play together without preparation. The music of jazz great Duke Ellington is heard throughout the conference. Here is Ellington and his orchestra playing “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.” ((CUT TWO: “THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE”)) There were many special performances at the jazz educators conference including a jazz presentation of a religious story. And a group of talented young women, called “Sisters in Jazz”, showed that women can play jazz too. Musician and composer Dave Brubeck was one of several people who were honored during the conference. He was recognized as a major influence in jazz and a powerful supporter of jazz education. We leave you with one of Dave Brubeck’s biggest hits, “Take Five.” ((CUT THREE: “TAKE FIVE”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-01/a-2002-01-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - February 1, 2002: Antarctic Ice
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. New measurements show that ice in West Antarctica is thickening. Scientists concerned about global warming had worried that higher temperatures could melt the huge ice sheet in Antarctica. That could cause sea levels around the world to rise. However, some experts have said there is little evidence that global warming is responsible for melting the ice sheet. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. New measurements show that ice in West Antarctica is thickening. Scientists concerned about global warming had worried that higher temperatures could melt the huge ice sheet in Antarctica. That could cause sea levels around the world to rise. However, some experts have said there is little evidence that global warming is responsible for melting the ice sheet. Antarctica is the continent that surrounds the South Pole. It is the coldest and iciest area in the world. Stormy waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans separate Antarctica from other continents. The Antarctic icecap is a thick layer of ice and snow that buries most of the continent. If the ice melted, the earth’s oceans would rise and flood coastal cities around the world. Large, flat sheets of the icecap called ice shelves float in water near Antarctica. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest one. Several rivers of the West Antarctica ice sheet flow into the ice shelf. Huge pieces of the ice shelf break off and slowly melt into the sea. The West Antarctica ice sheet currently covers more than nine-hundred-thousand square kilometers. The new study was done by researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Santa Cruz. They studied several ice streams in West Antarctica that lead into the Ross Ice Shelf. The ice streams are similar to large flowing rivers of ice. The researchers used new satellite radar to measure the thickness of the ice. Earlier studies suggested that the ice was thinning and quickly moving toward the sea. However, new satellite information found that the Ross ice streams are gaining ice, not losing it. Scientists said there were an average of twenty-six-thousand-million tons more ice each year. Earlier studies showed a loss of almost twenty-one-thousand-million tons a year. The scientists said they found strong evidence of ice growth. Yet, measurements taken by researchers have shown that the ice sheet has been slowly melting since the end of the last ice age about eleven-thousand years ago. Some researchers say they believe the Earth’s internal heat may be causing the ice sheet to thin or thicken over time. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. Antarctica is the continent that surrounds the South Pole. It is the coldest and iciest area in the world. Stormy waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans separate Antarctica from other continents. The Antarctic icecap is a thick layer of ice and snow that buries most of the continent. If the ice melted, the earth’s oceans would rise and flood coastal cities around the world. Large, flat sheets of the icecap called ice shelves float in water near Antarctica. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest one. Several rivers of the West Antarctica ice sheet flow into the ice shelf. Huge pieces of the ice shelf break off and slowly melt into the sea. The West Antarctica ice sheet currently covers more than nine-hundred-thousand square kilometers. The new study was done by researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Santa Cruz. They studied several ice streams in West Antarctica that lead into the Ross Ice Shelf. The ice streams are similar to large flowing rivers of ice. The researchers used new satellite radar to measure the thickness of the ice. Earlier studies suggested that the ice was thinning and quickly moving toward the sea. However, new satellite information found that the Ross ice streams are gaining ice, not losing it. Scientists said there were an average of twenty-six-thousand-million tons more ice each year. Earlier studies showed a loss of almost twenty-one-thousand-million tons a year. The scientists said they found strong evidence of ice growth. Yet, measurements taken by researchers have shown that the ice sheet has been slowly melting since the end of the last ice age about eleven-thousand years ago. Some researchers say they believe the Earth’s internal heat may be causing the ice sheet to thin or thicken over time. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 4, 2002: Dating
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The United States has millions of unmarried adults. Many would like go out socially and have fun with someone they like. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of how people meet and date is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Thursday, February Fourteenth, is Valentine’s Day. On that day, many people buy cards or flowers for those who are important in their lives. Valentine’s Day gives lovers a chance to express their feelings. However, millions of people in the United States are alone. They are not married or involved in a close relationship. Some of these people wish they could find someone to date. They wish they could celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special person. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to find someone to date. Some people meet at work. Others meet by chance in a public place. Still others visit places where other single people go. Or they can use businesses that help organize dates. Many men and women find dates through services they find on their personal computers. The purpose of dating is to have fun. Sometimes people who date develop a close relationship. Some people decide to live together, yet remain unmarried. Others decide to get married. In the past, young people in America usually lived with their parents until they got married. Today, some still do. Yet most young people live a more independent life. They have a job. They travel. They rent or own their own apartment or house. They wait longer to get married. While waiting, they date. VOICE ONE: Often a friend will plan a meeting between two unmarried people who do not know each other. This is called a “blind date.” The people involved are not blind. They just have never seen each other. However, most unmarried people have to find their own dates. Many go to public eating, drinking or dancing places. Every city in America has them. Some places are popular with young people. Others are for older people. Many Americans, however, want to go where they are sure they can meet people with similar interests. For example, they may go to a bookstore. Some bookstores in America now serve coffee and food. Many offer special programs and social activities for single people. Other singles join health clubs to exercise and to meet people. Or, they may join groups for people who like to take long walks or watch birds. VOICE TWO: Some public eating and drinking places help plan dates for single people. At several such places in New York City, people can write answers to a series of questions. Then other people read the answers. If someone likes the answers, an employee sets up a date. This service costs a small amount of money. A restaurant called Drip started using this system when it opened in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. Since then, the Drip café has helped many people find someone to date. It was the first restaurant and date-organizing place in a group called DateCafes. Today more DateCafes have opened in New York and in Boston, Massachusetts. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Some companies help single people meet other people. For example, Great Expectations has been organizing dates for about twenty-five years. It started in San Francisco, California. The company sends millions of letters a year to people throughout the country. The letters explain how the system works. A company called Brief Encounters serves single people in Washington, D-C, and Baltimore, Maryland. Its meetings provide quick introductions for ten to twelve young and middle-aged people. At these events, people meet members of the opposite sex for only a few minutes. A man and a woman sit at a table across from each other. They talk for six minutes until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write their reactions on paper. They note whom they like. Then they give these notes to a Brief Encounters employee. Within twenty-four hours people seeking dates receive the names and telephone numbers of those who also liked them. VOICE TWO: The group SpeedDating also provides fast introductions. It is one of a number of dating services organized by religious organizations. Jewish men and women aged twenty-five to thirty-five meet for fewer than ten minutes. Then they meet and talk to other people. An international Jewish education center started these groups. They began in Los Angeles, California. The service now has spread to many American cities and to other countries. Some people seeking dates do not like making hurried choices. But others praise this method. A young woman in Chicago, Illinois says it prevents spending long hours with someone who is not very interesting. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many American newspapers and magazines publish messages from people seeking someone to date. The messages are called “personal want ads” or simply “personals.” This is the usual kind of message in a personal ad: “Nice looking woman, forty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship.” Men who want to meet this woman write to the newspaper or magazine. They describe themselves and their interests. The woman reads the letters. Then she decides if she wants to meet any of the men. VOICE TWO: There also are telephone dating services in many cities. A person calls a telephone dating service and leaves a message on a recording machine. For example, a man describes himself and the kind of woman he hopes to meet. He describes what kind of relationship he would like. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. If two people enjoy these telephone messages, they can make plans to meet. Some telephone services let people speak directly to others they might want to date. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Millions of Americans seek someone to date through services they find through their personal computers. People start by communicating with strangers. Sometimes the strangers become friends. They might decide to meet. Then they might decide to date. They may even decide to get married. A business called Match-dot-Com is a leader in organizing dates through the World Wide Web. It has more than two-and-one-half-million members. Members can get lists of people their age who live nearby. Some people identify themselves, while others do not. Many send pictures electronically. The goal is for people to get to know each other through electronic mail. Then, they can decide to meet and date. Match-dot-com says its listings have led to more than one-thousand-four-hundred weddings. Many other members have formed close relationships. However, many people believe there is the possibility of danger in any situation when strangers meet. Some women say they do not want to meet a man through a computer dating service. They are afraid that a man may not be the kind of person he claims to be. VOICE TWO: Some people praise businesses that help organize dates. Others say they wish they could meet people by chance. No one method of finding someone to date works for everyone. When single people finally get together, what do they do on a date? People of all ages like to do many of the same things. They go to restaurants or night clubs. They go to movies, museums and concerts. They watch sporting events. Sometimes, they decide to spend the rest of their lives together. VOICE ONE: A clothing designer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was married a few weeks ago. Her new husband is an engineer. They found each other through their personal computers. They tried this service because neither had much chance to meet someone at work. For several years after they finished their university studies, both felt alone. Now these newly married people say that this year, they are truly celebrating Valentine’s Day. VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Stefan Anderko. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((“AT LAST” INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE ONE: The United States has millions of unmarried adults. Many would like go out socially and have fun with someone they like. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of how people meet and date is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Thursday, February Fourteenth, is Valentine’s Day. On that day, many people buy cards or flowers for those who are important in their lives. Valentine’s Day gives lovers a chance to express their feelings. However, millions of people in the United States are alone. They are not married or involved in a close relationship. Some of these people wish they could find someone to date. They wish they could celebrate Valentine’s Day with a special person. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to find someone to date. Some people meet at work. Others meet by chance in a public place. Still others visit places where other single people go. Or they can use businesses that help organize dates. Many men and women find dates through services they find on their personal computers. The purpose of dating is to have fun. Sometimes people who date develop a close relationship. Some people decide to live together, yet remain unmarried. Others decide to get married. In the past, young people in America usually lived with their parents until they got married. Today, some still do. Yet most young people live a more independent life. They have a job. They travel. They rent or own their own apartment or house. They wait longer to get married. While waiting, they date. VOICE ONE: Often a friend will plan a meeting between two unmarried people who do not know each other. This is called a “blind date.” The people involved are not blind. They just have never seen each other. However, most unmarried people have to find their own dates. Many go to public eating, drinking or dancing places. Every city in America has them. Some places are popular with young people. Others are for older people. Many Americans, however, want to go where they are sure they can meet people with similar interests. For example, they may go to a bookstore. Some bookstores in America now serve coffee and food. Many offer special programs and social activities for single people. Other singles join health clubs to exercise and to meet people. Or, they may join groups for people who like to take long walks or watch birds. VOICE TWO: Some public eating and drinking places help plan dates for single people. At several such places in New York City, people can write answers to a series of questions. Then other people read the answers. If someone likes the answers, an employee sets up a date. This service costs a small amount of money. A restaurant called Drip started using this system when it opened in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. Since then, the Drip café has helped many people find someone to date. It was the first restaurant and date-organizing place in a group called DateCafes. Today more DateCafes have opened in New York and in Boston, Massachusetts. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Some companies help single people meet other people. For example, Great Expectations has been organizing dates for about twenty-five years. It started in San Francisco, California. The company sends millions of letters a year to people throughout the country. The letters explain how the system works. A company called Brief Encounters serves single people in Washington, D-C, and Baltimore, Maryland. Its meetings provide quick introductions for ten to twelve young and middle-aged people. At these events, people meet members of the opposite sex for only a few minutes. A man and a woman sit at a table across from each other. They talk for six minutes until a bell rings. Then everyone meets a new person. People write their reactions on paper. They note whom they like. Then they give these notes to a Brief Encounters employee. Within twenty-four hours people seeking dates receive the names and telephone numbers of those who also liked them. VOICE TWO: The group SpeedDating also provides fast introductions. It is one of a number of dating services organized by religious organizations. Jewish men and women aged twenty-five to thirty-five meet for fewer than ten minutes. Then they meet and talk to other people. An international Jewish education center started these groups. They began in Los Angeles, California. The service now has spread to many American cities and to other countries. Some people seeking dates do not like making hurried choices. But others praise this method. A young woman in Chicago, Illinois says it prevents spending long hours with someone who is not very interesting. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many American newspapers and magazines publish messages from people seeking someone to date. The messages are called “personal want ads” or simply “personals.” This is the usual kind of message in a personal ad: “Nice looking woman, forty years old, thin, athletic, successful, great cook, desires long-term relationship.” Men who want to meet this woman write to the newspaper or magazine. They describe themselves and their interests. The woman reads the letters. Then she decides if she wants to meet any of the men. VOICE TWO: There also are telephone dating services in many cities. A person calls a telephone dating service and leaves a message on a recording machine. For example, a man describes himself and the kind of woman he hopes to meet. He describes what kind of relationship he would like. Other people call and listen to the messages. If they hear one they like, they leave their own message. If two people enjoy these telephone messages, they can make plans to meet. Some telephone services let people speak directly to others they might want to date. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Millions of Americans seek someone to date through services they find through their personal computers. People start by communicating with strangers. Sometimes the strangers become friends. They might decide to meet. Then they might decide to date. They may even decide to get married. A business called Match-dot-Com is a leader in organizing dates through the World Wide Web. It has more than two-and-one-half-million members. Members can get lists of people their age who live nearby. Some people identify themselves, while others do not. Many send pictures electronically. The goal is for people to get to know each other through electronic mail. Then, they can decide to meet and date. Match-dot-com says its listings have led to more than one-thousand-four-hundred weddings. Many other members have formed close relationships. However, many people believe there is the possibility of danger in any situation when strangers meet. Some women say they do not want to meet a man through a computer dating service. They are afraid that a man may not be the kind of person he claims to be. VOICE TWO: Some people praise businesses that help organize dates. Others say they wish they could meet people by chance. No one method of finding someone to date works for everyone. When single people finally get together, what do they do on a date? People of all ages like to do many of the same things. They go to restaurants or night clubs. They go to movies, museums and concerts. They watch sporting events. Sometimes, they decide to spend the rest of their lives together. VOICE ONE: A clothing designer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was married a few weeks ago. Her new husband is an engineer. They found each other through their personal computers. They tried this service because neither had much chance to meet someone at work. For several years after they finished their university studies, both felt alone. Now these newly married people say that this year, they are truly celebrating Valentine’s Day. VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Stefan Anderko. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((“AT LAST” INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 3, 2002: George Abbott
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program. People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the man known as "Mr. broadway," George Abbott. (Theme) VOICE 1: Experts say probably no one in the history of the American theater influenced it more than George Abbott. He lived to be one-hundred-seven years old. He remained active until he died, January thirty-first, nineteen-ninety-five. You can tell the history of the Broadway theater area in New York City by telling the story of George Abbott's life. He wrote plays. He directed them. He produced plays. And he acted in them. He was involved in more than one-hundred-twenty productions. Some of his most popular shows were musicals. They include "Jumbo," "Pal Joey," "Call Me Madam," "Pajama Game," "Fiorello!" and "Damn Yankees. " In some years, he had three hit shows at the same time. VOICE 2: "Damn Yankees" opened in New York in nineteen-fifty-five. George Abbott helped write the musical play. And he directed it. It won eight of the Tony Awards given each year for the best theater productions on Broadway. In nineteen-ninety-four, another performance of "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway. George Abbott helped with the production. He was one-hundred-six years old. "Damn Yankees" is about a baseball player on the Washington senators baseball team. He sells his soul to the devil so the senators will win the championship. A major person in the play is a beautiful woman who works for the devil. Her name is lola. One of the best known songs from that show is "whatever lola wants": ((Cut 1: Whatever Lola Wants)) VOICE 1: George Francis Abbott was born in eighteen-eighty-seven, in New York state. His family moved to the western state of Wyoming when he was eleven years old. George worked as a cowboy during summers before the family moved back to New York state, near the city of Buffalo. He attended the University of Rochester, where he played football and took part in the acting club. He then studied play writing at Harvard University. In nineteen-twelve, he won one-hundred dollars for a play he wrote called "The Man in the Manhole." George Abbott moved to New York City in nineteen-thirteen. But he had a slow start in the theater. He did not get many acting jobs. Two years later, he became an assistant to a theater producer. Soon he was deeply involved with re-writing plays and producing them. He had his first hit show in nineteen-twenty-six. It was called "Broadway." VOICE 2: George Abbott worked in Hollywood too. He was involved in producing eleven movies between nineteen-twenty-eight and nineteen-fifty-eight. "All Quiet on the Western Front" was one of the most praised. He also produced films of the musical plays "Damn Yankees," "Where's Charley." And "The Pajama Game". A few weeks before his death, Mr. Abbott reportedly was working on a new version of "The Pajama Game." The musical play is about workers in a pajama factory. The clothing workers are planning to strike for more pay. How much more ... seven-and-a-half cents: ((Cut 2: Seven and a Half Cents)) VOICE 1: Beginning in nineteen-twenty, George Abbott had at least one play on broadway each year. Sometimes there were as many as five. Mr. Abbott liked working with young, unknown actors. He once said a producer was better off if he did not have a star in his show. He said working without a star saves money and damage to the nerves! that is why George Abbott gave acting jobs to actors who were unknown at the time. Many became very famous. Helen Hayes, Gene Kelley, Eddie Albert, Shirley maclaine, and Carol Burnett are just a few. He also helped unknown song writers, dancers and producers like Harold Prince, Leonard Bbernstein, Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins. George Abbott changed the American theater in many ways. He was the first to produce musical shows that were serious dramas, not just light love stories. And he was the first producer to use ballet dancers in a musical show. He worked with the ballet expert George Balanchine. That was in nineteen-thirty-six. The play was "On Your Toes. " The music was "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue": ((CUT 3: Slaughter on Tenth Avenue) VOICE 2: George Abbott won just about every award a person can win in the theater. He received a special Tony Award for his lifetime of work. He also received the Kennedy Center lifetime achievement award in nineteen-eighty-two. And he won Tony awards for four of his musical shows including "Ffiorello!" "Fiorello!" also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama after it opened in nineteen-fifty-nine. It is about the life of Fiorello LaGuardia, the mayor of New York City during the nineteen-forties. Many critics said the song "Little Tin Box" was the best in the show. It makes fun of the way politicians try to explain their actions when they are accused of spending public money for their own use. Here is "Little Tin Box" from "Fiorello!": ((CUT 4: Little Tin Box)) VOICE 1: George Abbott earned millions of dollars in the theater. But he did not spend his money freely. He always helped the poor, however. And he quietly provided money to produce shows that no one else would support. Mr. Abbott was married three times. He had a daughter who also worked in the theater. She died in nineteen-eighty-four. VOICE 2: George Abbott was always involved in new projects, usually several at one time. But he always took care of his health. He said it was important to eat three meals a day and get enough sleep each night. He always wore a suit and tie. And he always said what was necessary, not a word more. For Mr. Abbott, the play was the most important thing, and nothing was permitted to interfere. Actors and people who went to his plays loved him for it. When George Abbott celebrated his one-hundredth birthday in nineteen-eighty-seven, theater actors honored him with a big party. They also performed for him. They ended their show with a song George Abbott especially liked. So we thought we would end with it too. It is called "Heart," from George Abbott's show, "Damn Yankees. " ((Cut 4: Heart)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – February 4, 2002: WHO and Smallpox
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has delayed the destruction of the last remaining supply of smallpox virus in the world. Officials had planned to destroy the virus this year. However, they became concerned after the September eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States. Many people are concerned that extremist groups or governments may try to use smallpox as a weapon. The head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, strongly urged that supplies of the virus be saved. She spoke at a W-H-O meeting of health officials and scientists in Geneva, Switzerland last month. Doctor Brundtland said that keeping the virus alive will help researchers develop new medicines to prevent and treat the disease. She said it is impossible to test new drugs if no supplies of the smallpox virus exist. Two laboratories in the world are currently carrying out research on smallpox. They are in Russia and the United States. In Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, the World Health Organization launched a campaign to end smallpox around the world. The goal was to give everyone the vaccine medicne that prevents the disease. The W-H-O officially declared the world free from smallpox in Nineteen-Eighty. If the disease became active again, scientists believe it would create a very dangerous situation. Smallpox is believed to have started more than three-thousand years ago in India or Egypt. It is an infectious disease caused by the variola virus. Approximately thirty percent of reported cases result in death. The disease is spread by particles from an infected person’s breath. There is no cure for smallpox. However, the vaccine that prevents it from developing in the body is very effective. The vaccine must be given within four days of someone breathing in the virus. Some of the side effects caused by the vaccine can also be harmful. This is why health officials say only those people working with the virus or others directly at risk should take the vaccine. The W-H-O has asked for a report in two to three years on progress made in smallpox treatment research. Officials say the research program should be completed as quickly as possible. Then a new date for the destruction of the world’s remaining smallpox virus can be set. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has delayed the destruction of the last remaining supply of smallpox virus in the world. Officials had planned to destroy the virus this year. However, they became concerned after the September eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States. Many people are concerned that extremist groups or governments may try to use smallpox as a weapon. The head of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, strongly urged that supplies of the virus be saved. She spoke at a W-H-O meeting of health officials and scientists in Geneva, Switzerland last month. Doctor Brundtland said that keeping the virus alive will help researchers develop new medicines to prevent and treat the disease. She said it is impossible to test new drugs if no supplies of the smallpox virus exist. Two laboratories in the world are currently carrying out research on smallpox. They are in Russia and the United States. In Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, the World Health Organization launched a campaign to end smallpox around the world. The goal was to give everyone the vaccine medicne that prevents the disease. The W-H-O officially declared the world free from smallpox in Nineteen-Eighty. If the disease became active again, scientists believe it would create a very dangerous situation. Smallpox is believed to have started more than three-thousand years ago in India or Egypt. It is an infectious disease caused by the variola virus. Approximately thirty percent of reported cases result in death. The disease is spread by particles from an infected person’s breath. There is no cure for smallpox. However, the vaccine that prevents it from developing in the body is very effective. The vaccine must be given within four days of someone breathing in the virus. Some of the side effects caused by the vaccine can also be harmful. This is why health officials say only those people working with the virus or others directly at risk should take the vaccine. The W-H-O has asked for a report in two to three years on progress made in smallpox treatment research. Officials say the research program should be completed as quickly as possible. Then a new date for the destruction of the world’s remaining smallpox virus can be set. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – February 2, 2002: Bush’s State of the Union
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. On Tuesday, President Bush gave his first State of the Union speech. He spoke at the Capitol Building before a joint meeting of Congress. Mister Bush mainly discussed terrorism and security issues. He praised the United States armed forces early in his speech. He said he sent American soldiers to Afghanistan with complete belief in their bravery and skill. He said the United States was winning the war on terror thanks to them. But, Mister Bush said there are still thousands of terrorists around the world. He said they see the world as a battlefield. President Bush said the United States has two main goals in its fight against terrorism. He said the first is to close terrorist training camps, block terrorist plans and bring terrorists to justice. Mister Bush said the United States already is working toward that goal in Afghanistan and other places. He noted the American troops are in the Philippines to help train its soldiers to fight terrorism. He also said American Navy ships are sailing along the coast of Africa to stop weapons shipments and prevent the establishment of terrorist camps in Somalia. Mister Bush said the second goal is to stop threats to the United States and the world from terrorists and governments that seek chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. He accused North Korea, Iran and Iraq of such actions. He said they are a group of evil governments. The American leader said North Korea was arming with missiles and weapons of major destruction while starving its citizens. He said Iran seeks such weapons and exports terror. And he said Iraq has plotted to develop biological, chemical and nuclear weapons for more than ten years. Mister Bush said the United States would work with its coalition to stop terrorists and nations that support them from building such weapons. He also said his government would continue with plans for effective missile defenses to protect itself and its allies. President Bush is a Republican. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt gave the Democratic Party’s answer to the speech. He said his party supports the war on terror. However, Mister Gephardt said that support does not mean the party will agree to all Mister Bush’s economic plans. Iran, Iraq and North Korea strongly rejected Mister Bush’s statement that they are evil nations. The Iranian Foreign Minister protested by cancelling his plans to attend a world economic meeting in New York. China said such statements do not solve international problems. American officials said later that Mister Bush was not suggesting any new military action was about to happen. They said the United States is still open to talks with Iran and North Korea. But, officials said there will be no talks with Iraq until it permits the return of international weapons inspectors. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-5-1.cfm
* Headline: February 2, 2002 - Biathlon
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Olympic Fanfare" RS: The Winter Olympics begins on Friday in Salt Lake City, and today on WORDMASTER I've got an almost-Olympic story to tell. I'm Rosanne Skirble, and I'll be in Utah for the Games. The only sport I really want to see is the biathlon, a sport that combines target shooting with a 22-caliber rifle and cross-country skiing. That's because I could have been an Olympic biathlete - or at least my family thinks so - and that's okay with me. But, before I get to that, let me tell you a little bit about the sport. Basically it is a skiing and shooting competition. But, the targets are tough to hit because it is hard to steady your rifle after racing on skies. And the targets are small and half a football field away. And, to make matters worse, for each missed target you have to ski a penalty loop. That can cost you the race because the athlete with the best time wins. I'm telling you all this so you can appreciate what happened to me last summer when my family visited the Olympic Biathlon course in Lake Placid, New York. That's where the Winter Olympics were held in 1980. And, that's where this year's U-S biathlon contender Jeremy Teela has trained. TAPE: CUT ONE -- JEREMY TEELA "It's at sea-level which is a lot easier than racing in altitude which is what the Olympic venue this year will be at. It's a pretty easy course. It's really fluid. There's a lot of down hills to rest on. It's a great course, and it's one of my favorites." RS: Jeremy Teela goes to Lake Placid when there's snow. When I got there the grass was green, but you could pay to shoot just the same. I made a contribution to the United States Olympic Committee and was handed a biathlon rifle and five bullets. I told my family that a long time ago at Camp Wingfoot for Girls in North Madison, Ohio, I was the greatest target shooter the camp had ever had. So good that I had won all the youth awards you could ever win from the National Rifle Association. I entered N-R-A competitions and placed in the top ten among all the campers in the entire United States. With a chance to prove myself in Lake Placid some thirty some years later, I shouldered the biathlon rifle, closed one eye and nailed the first target. I stopped for a breath and shot the second and third. A moment later targets four and five went down. Disbelief, wonder and awe embraced my family. The man who took my money in exchange for the shooting privileges told me, "Lady, no one walks off the street and does that." My sons, who had a new respect for their mother, put me on a kind of Olympic pedestal for the rest of the day. So, I can shoot, but what does it take to really compete in this sport? Jeremy Teela considered the best hope for the United States in Utah says the biathlon could have been within my reach - maybe. TAPE: CUT TWO -- JEREMY TEELA "You know you could have been an Olympian. It only takes four or five years to learn how to ski well under the right coach, and the right program with the right funding. And, you need to be at the right age." RS: That's all I wanted to hear -- affirmation from an Olympic athlete. Jeremy Teela says it's about learning how to pull the trigger at the right time. So, it's all about timing. And, if you see him or any of the other athletes on the biathlon course at Soldiers Hollow in Utah, you'll want to know some of the terms posted on the U-S Biathlon Association website at www.usbiathlon.org. Jeremy Teela explains a few, starting with 'zero,' which is what you do before the race -- shoot at paper targets to align the rifle sights. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JEREMY TEELA/SKIRBLE JEREMY TEELA: "You 'zero' the rifle every morning because bringing it in from out of the cold into the warm heat of your house will change the wooden stock. Or you might bump it when you put it in the trunk (of your car) and so you have to make sure that it is 'zeroed,' each day." RS: "The next thing is something I am sure you ant to do every time you go out on the course. (That is) 'Shoot clean.' What is 'shooting clean'?" TEELA: "'Shooting clean' is when you hit all 10 for 10, all 20 for 20 depending on the race. It's a good feeling. It's when you shoot perfect. You hit all your targets. You have no penalties, and it is the best thing that could happen to a biathlete during a race." RS: "What does it mean 'to skate' in a biathlon?" TEELA: "'Skate skiing' is one type of cross country skiing. It does the same movement as hockey players on the ice, but we are on long skies that are set up with a full glide zone, and we use the same movement as ice skaters would." RS: "What is a 'snow guard' or a 'snow cover'?" TEELA: "'Snow guard,' 'snow cover,' it's what is on the front and rear sites sights of your rifle. So, if it is snowing or if you happen to take a fall on a course on a downhill and you roll on to your back on to your rifle, the snow doesn't get jammed up inside the sight. So, when you lie down to shoot you look through the rifle, and it is clear instead of full of white snow which is a hassle." RS: We hope we have armed you with a few new words to help you enjoy the Winter Olympics. And we invite you to join VOA in its daily coverage of the Games from Salt Lake City beginning later this week. Avi Arditti and I will be back with WORDMASTER following the Olympics on March 3rd. And, as U-S biathlon contender Jeremy Teela told me, "If you've got an Olympic dream, go for it." I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Olympic Fanfare" RS: The Winter Olympics begins on Friday in Salt Lake City, and today on WORDMASTER I've got an almost-Olympic story to tell. I'm Rosanne Skirble, and I'll be in Utah for the Games. The only sport I really want to see is the biathlon, a sport that combines target shooting with a 22-caliber rifle and cross-country skiing. That's because I could have been an Olympic biathlete - or at least my family thinks so - and that's okay with me. But, before I get to that, let me tell you a little bit about the sport. Basically it is a skiing and shooting competition. But, the targets are tough to hit because it is hard to steady your rifle after racing on skies. And the targets are small and half a football field away. And, to make matters worse, for each missed target you have to ski a penalty loop. That can cost you the race because the athlete with the best time wins. I'm telling you all this so you can appreciate what happened to me last summer when my family visited the Olympic Biathlon course in Lake Placid, New York. That's where the Winter Olympics were held in 1980. And, that's where this year's U-S biathlon contender Jeremy Teela has trained. TAPE: CUT ONE -- JEREMY TEELA "It's at sea-level which is a lot easier than racing in altitude which is what the Olympic venue this year will be at. It's a pretty easy course. It's really fluid. There's a lot of down hills to rest on. It's a great course, and it's one of my favorites." RS: Jeremy Teela goes to Lake Placid when there's snow. When I got there the grass was green, but you could pay to shoot just the same. I made a contribution to the United States Olympic Committee and was handed a biathlon rifle and five bullets. I told my family that a long time ago at Camp Wingfoot for Girls in North Madison, Ohio, I was the greatest target shooter the camp had ever had. So good that I had won all the youth awards you could ever win from the National Rifle Association. I entered N-R-A competitions and placed in the top ten among all the campers in the entire United States. With a chance to prove myself in Lake Placid some thirty some years later, I shouldered the biathlon rifle, closed one eye and nailed the first target. I stopped for a breath and shot the second and third. A moment later targets four and five went down. Disbelief, wonder and awe embraced my family. The man who took my money in exchange for the shooting privileges told me, "Lady, no one walks off the street and does that." My sons, who had a new respect for their mother, put me on a kind of Olympic pedestal for the rest of the day. So, I can shoot, but what does it take to really compete in this sport? Jeremy Teela considered the best hope for the United States in Utah says the biathlon could have been within my reach - maybe. TAPE: CUT TWO -- JEREMY TEELA "You know you could have been an Olympian. It only takes four or five years to learn how to ski well under the right coach, and the right program with the right funding. And, you need to be at the right age." RS: That's all I wanted to hear -- affirmation from an Olympic athlete. Jeremy Teela says it's about learning how to pull the trigger at the right time. So, it's all about timing. And, if you see him or any of the other athletes on the biathlon course at Soldiers Hollow in Utah, you'll want to know some of the terms posted on the U-S Biathlon Association website at www.usbiathlon.org. Jeremy Teela explains a few, starting with 'zero,' which is what you do before the race -- shoot at paper targets to align the rifle sights. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JEREMY TEELA/SKIRBLE JEREMY TEELA: "You 'zero' the rifle every morning because bringing it in from out of the cold into the warm heat of your house will change the wooden stock. Or you might bump it when you put it in the trunk (of your car) and so you have to make sure that it is 'zeroed,' each day." RS: "The next thing is something I am sure you ant to do every time you go out on the course. (That is) 'Shoot clean.' What is 'shooting clean'?" TEELA: "'Shooting clean' is when you hit all 10 for 10, all 20 for 20 depending on the race. It's a good feeling. It's when you shoot perfect. You hit all your targets. You have no penalties, and it is the best thing that could happen to a biathlete during a race." RS: "What does it mean 'to skate' in a biathlon?" TEELA: "'Skate skiing' is one type of cross country skiing. It does the same movement as hockey players on the ice, but we are on long skies that are set up with a full glide zone, and we use the same movement as ice skaters would." RS: "What is a 'snow guard' or a 'snow cover'?" TEELA: "'Snow guard,' 'snow cover,' it's what is on the front and rear sites sights of your rifle. So, if it is snowing or if you happen to take a fall on a course on a downhill and you roll on to your back on to your rifle, the snow doesn't get jammed up inside the sight. So, when you lie down to shoot you look through the rifle, and it is clear instead of full of white snow which is a hassle." RS: We hope we have armed you with a few new words to help you enjoy the Winter Olympics. And we invite you to join VOA in its daily coverage of the Games from Salt Lake City beginning later this week. Avi Arditti and I will be back with WORDMASTER following the Olympics on March 3rd. And, as U-S biathlon contender Jeremy Teela told me, "If you've got an Olympic dream, go for it." I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-6-1.cfm
* Headline: April 23, 2000 - Grammar Lady: 'Will' vs. 'Shall'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week, Grammar Lady joins Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, to try to settle an issue of longstanding confusion. Will they succeed? We shall see. MUSIC: "Shall We Dance?"/The King and I AA: These days, most English speakers dance around the traditional distinctions between "shall" and "will." RS: That's because, unless you arrived here in a time machine from centuries-old southern England, chances are you wouldn't be able to master the arcane rules. AA: But that's not to say people haven't tried. TAPE: CUT ONE - BRUDER "It might have been my grandmother's generation, people made a distinction in the use in the future between `shall' and `will.'" AA: Grammar Lady Mary Bruder says the distinction is when you're talking about what's called the simple future -- "I shall go shopping tomorrow, that's just what I plan to do" -- versus the more emphatic: "I WILL go shopping tomorrow, don't try to stop me." RS: But that's in the first person. When you're talking in the second or third person, according to tradition, you reverse them: AA:So "You shall" or "they shall" becomes a command, while "you will" or "they will" just describes the simple future. RS: But the rules are hardly simple. Maybe that's why "shall" is not used much anymore -- except in legal documents: "You shall pay your taxes on time." But, as we discussed with Grammar Lady Mary Bruder, lawyers argue about the level of obligation implied by "shall": TAPE: CUT -- ARDITTI/BRUDER/SKIRBLE AA: "This is a live debate right now." BRUDER: "Well, it may be a live debate for people who make resolutions, but among the rest of us who speak the language on an everyday basis, this is an artificial argument that needs to have been put to bed a long, long time ago." RS: "In favor of `will.'" BRUDER: "In favor of will, for all future tenses. And the spoken language, and the people who write on a regular basis, even in very formal language, use `will' for the future. The only common use for shall is to make suggestions: `What shall we do? Shall we go to the movies? Shall we blah blah blah. And even that is sort of the contracted `sh'll': `What sh'll we do?'" RS: "So why have you brought to us `shall' and `will' when `shall' in this context is on its way out -- or is it to tell us that `shall' is on its way out?" BRUDER: "Well, it's one of the questions, one of the myths of English that this is still a common distinction. The international students ask this question all the time. They think that they have to remember to use `shall' for the future sometimes and `will' at other times." RS: "Is this because it's written in their grammar books?" BRUDER: "Yes - well, some of the things written about English grammar in international texts are quite amazing, but this one, this actually was a feature of English, maybe in Victorian times and the rule has remained. It's sort of like ending a sentence with a preposition or splitting an infinitive, those sorts of rules." RS: "And the `shall' and the `will' are in their textbooks and they're learning these rules, then they get mixed up because they're both future tense markers and they don't know which to use." BRUDER: "That's right, and they are confused when they get to a classroom with a native speaker of English as a teacher, and the teacher doesn't seem to be following this rule and they're all confused." RS: "Like, who's right anyway?" BRUDER: "(laughs) Right." AA: If you have access to the Internet, you can learn more about English grammar by visiting Mary Bruder's Web site: www.grammarlady.com RS:Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. Or write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Next week we answer some questions from listeners. Stay tuned! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC:"Shall We Dance" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-7-1.cfm
* Headline: April 16, 2000 - Slangman: Language of Love
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble have some fun today with the language of love. AA: The sounds of spring... SFX - sounds of birds/bees AA: And of course... RS:[kissing sounds] AA: The sounds of smooching. RS: Another word for kissing -- which can lead to "necking" or "making out." And from there... AA:we turn to our regular contributor, "Slangman" David Burke, who takes us through the stages of a relationship and the language of love. TAPE: CUT ONE - BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "The first step in being in love is actually to be `in like.' Have you heard of that expression?" RS: "Definitely." BURKE: "It's a wonderful expression. It's sort of a takeoff on to be in love. To be `in like' just means, you really like this other person, you're not quite in love yet." AA: "It sounds kind of tentative." BURKE: "You're scared to say `I'm in love' because that's such a commitment. So you say `I'm in like' - that just means I've got these really strong feelings for the other person that could grow into love in another week or so, or another hour. Now once you're in love, there are some wonderfully common expressions for in love. For example, to be what over heels?" RS: "Head over heels." BURKE: "'I'm head over heels for someone.' If you 'fall head over heels,' that means you have fallen in love with every part of you, a deep, deep love." AA:OK, so how do you express those feelings to that special someone? TAPE: CUT TWO - BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI "I'm mad about you, I'm madly in love with you, or I'm crazy about you, or I'm nuts about you - anything to do with craziness we can apply to love, as long as it's followed by the word `about.'" RS: "Exactly, because if you say `I'm mad at you'... AA: "That comes later." BURKE: "I'm mad at you, that means I'm angry. But `I'm mad about you' - or even I'm mad OVER you: `I'm mad over him,' `I'm mad over her.' Now let's say, OK, you've fallen in love. The person has `popped the question,' asked you to marry that person." RS: "Good!" BURKE: "Well, because after all, now you're in love, the relationship is going well, they `pop the question,' which means." RS: "To propose marriage." BURKE: "Exactly. To pop means to appear suddenly, so when someone pops the question, they ask you The Question, and the question of questions is, `Will you marry me?'" AA:All right, let's assume the answer is "yes". We asked "Slangman" David Burke what comes next in the lexicon of love. TAPE: CUT THREE - BURKE/SKIRBLE BURKE: "Well, once you get married, once you `tie the knot,' once you've `gotten hitched,' there are a couple of slang expressions for husband and wife. Like what would you call a slang expression for husband? A term of endearment for husband? . `Hubby.'" RS: "No thank you." BURKE: "Your main squeeze." RS: "My sweetheart." BURKE: "Well, those are terms of endearment, and there are lots of those. If you love somebody very much, instead of calling them by their first name, you'll call them a little term of endearment like `honey' or `honeybunch,' or `sweetie,' `sweetie pie' - anything that has to do with sweetness. Sugar - hey sugar, sugar lips. A lot of people will make up these terms of endearment that for most people who hear them are pretty disgusting because they're so sweet." AA:And, so the story goes . They were strangers, brought together for a so-called "blind date" by a mutual friend. They fell in love. But, as we all know, sometimes things turn sour. TAPE: CUT FOUR - BURKE "Ok, we've gone through the whole spectrum: we hit it off during the blind date, we started to fall in like, then we fell in love, then we tied the knot, then the other person left, 'out of the clear blue' - meaning without warning. We got dumped. Or, if it's mutual, you break up. It doesn't have to do with breaking anything, except the relationship." RS: You can learn more language of love from "Slangman" David Burke. AA: He invites you to his Internet Web site at www.slangman.com, and you can look for his series of books called "Street Speak." RS: And, as always, we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a line at word@voa.gov or to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC - "The Birds and the Bees"/Jewel Akens 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-8-1.cfm
* Headline: February 20, 2000 - Slangman:  Listener Questions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble have put together a jiggy update on some slang terms. What's jiggy, you ask? MUSIC: "Gettin' Jiggy with It"/Will Smith AA: That's Will Smith, but what's that song all about? What does "getting jiggy" mean? RS:That's what David Ngwesa in Tanzania would like to know. Ditto for the term "da hood." AA: For answers, we turn to "Slangman," the author in Los Angeles otherwise known as David Burke. TAPE: CUT ONE - BURKE/SKIRBLE BURKE: "'To get jiggy with it' means to get energetic, let's have a really great time. For example, `whoah, this party is jiggy!' It's energetic, it's fun. Or we might even use `jiggy' to mean attractive." RS: "And you might be energetic and attractive in a `hood.'" BURKE: "Very good! And you're not talking about a piece of garment either." RS: "No, you're not, you're talking about `da hood.'" BURKE: "Da hood - neighborhood. As we've spoken about this before, the trend in slang is shorten, shorten, shorten. So, `the neighboorhood' - oh, that's way too long, [thus] `the hood.'" AA:But the right way to say it is DA hood, D-A. RS: If you say THE hood - T-H-E - people might think you're "wack." TAPE: CUT TWO - BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI 'Wack' comes from the original slang - again, the trend with teen-agers, in addition to shortening, is to update terms. To be 'wacked out' is a common slang term to mean to be crazy, to be nuts, `oh he is wacked out.'" RS: "Or wacko." BURKE: "To be 'wack' can mean two things: either to be crazy -- `what are you talking about, are you wack?' -- or it means to be ugly." AA: "The thing with 'wack' where I see it could be confusing is that this is W-A-C-K, not to be confused with W-H-A-C-K which means either to hit someone or, in Mafia-speak, to have someone killed, to have him 'whacked.'" BURKE: "Right, and that's a very good point, especially with academic English where the W-H - this is in controvery a lot, especially in English classes because the way to pronounce the W-H is /hw/ [with a breath]. For example, /hw/at [what], /hw/ere [where]. But in common, everyday speech we don't say that. We say /wot/ and /wear/. The color white: some people say /hw/ite, some people say /wite/. So that's why, when you say wack, that could be /hw/ack or it could be /wack/. You have to listen for the context." RS: "Let's drop down to another listener question, from Ali Gado in Nigeria. He asks, `If a friend or a colleague says thank you, what's the proper way for me to respond?' And he gives us a) thank you too, b) you're welcome, c) my pleasure, d) no charge - no charge? - and e) no problem. I would eliminate `no charge.' I think he just threw that in to confuse us." BURKE: "Oddly enough, I have heard that as a response." RS: "No kidding? What could that mean." BURKE: "No charge simply means, `it's on me,' no problem, I'm not going to charge you for it.'" AA: "And not necessarily between a storekeeper and a customer?" BURKE: "Don't you wish you were the customer! Actually I'd have to say answers a, b, c, d and e are all appropriate depending, again, on the context, especially b through e. Let me explain: A) Thank you too. You'd only use that response if the other person that you're thanking has also done a favor for you as well. If that person has not, then you'd simply say `you're welcome,' that's the most common response, or `my pleasure' - that's just telling the person that it gave you great pleasure to render that service to the person. And the other one, `no problem,' that's also extremely acceptable. That just means it was absolutely no problem for you to help that person in what they needed." MUSIC: "Going to the Chapel" AA: On to a question from a college student in China. Hillary Kong likes to read American magazines but sometimes finds a confusing term -- like "altar-bound." RS: ... which is just a fancy way to say "getting married." TAPE: CUT THREE - BURKE "Altar-bound is something we would hear -- in fact not really hear that much, but we would see it. It's more literary than it is actually spoken. Altar-bound - the altar is in a church, and if you're altar-bound, you're going to that altar at the front of the church. `He's altar-bound' or `she's altar-bound.' What's more spoken and more heard in today's lingo and in slang would be either `to tie the knot' or to `get hitched.'" RS: "You wouldn't say, for example, `well, I won't see you tomorrow, I'm altar-bound.' It is a little literary." BURKE: "Well, you have to consider where Hillary got these terms, from Time and People. These magazines tend to be a little more flowery in their literary usage of some of these terms." AA: To learn more about American slang, you can look for the "Street Speak" books by David Burke. RS:Or, if you have access to the Internet, you can visit his redesigned Web site at www.slangman.com. AA:Next week, a visit with Grammar Lady! RS:With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC:"Gettin' Jiggy with It"/Will Smith OPT: That song earned Will Smith a Grammy last year (for best rap solo). This year he's nominated again (for "Wild Wild West"). Will he win? Find out when the American music industry presents this year's Grammy Awards on Wednesday night. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-9-1.cfm
* Headline: February 6, 2000 - Road Names
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, answer a listener question that takes us on the road. MUSIC: "Hit the Road, Jack"/Ray Charles AA: This song goes out to Zhang Tian-guan in Luoyang City, Henan Province, China. RS: He wrote to ask us about the differences in the words "street," "road," "avenue," "boulevard" and "drive" -- AA: -- as in typical American road names like "Washington Street," "Jones Boulevard," "University Drive," "Magnolia Road" and "New York Avenue." RS: This question calls for someone with street smarts. TAPE: CUT ONE - PETHTEL "My name is Ray Pethtel. I'm University Transportation Fellow and associate director of the Center for Transportation Research at Virginia Tech." AA: We asked Mr. Pethtel how a "street" is different from, say, a "drive." TAPE: CUT TWO - PETHTEL "There is no national standard that I'm aware of or that I could locate regarding street names." RS: So, we suggest that you not worry about it. Ray Pethtel says that in many cases choosing a street name comes down to the whim of whoever builds property on the surrounding land. TAPE: CUT THREE - PETHTEL/ARDITTI PETHTEL: "There was a road near my home in Richmond [Virginia] that was called Allecingie ['ah-le-'sin-gee] Drive. It was named by the developer of the area, and it was named after his three daughters. He put their names together, and it became Allecinge. It didn't mean anything to me as a resident of the area, but it meant something to the developer." AA: "It seems like presidents' names and tree names are popular choices in lieu of a name like Allecingie if the developer doesn't have three daughters to name his streets after. What are some other popular choices for street names?" PETHTEL: "Periods of history. There seem to be some of the monarchies, King Arthur Court and Prince William Drive and those kinds of names are very popular. Certainly trees - elm and spruce, whatever's dominant in the area. Historical figures, presidents." RS:In some cities, though, like Washington DC, streets are named in a system that can serve as a guide -- if you know the code. Ray Pethtel recalls trying to navigate the streets when he lived here in the nation's capital. TAPE: CUT FOUR - PETHTEL/ARDITTI "One of my neighbors told me that the easy way to figure out the direction you're going, is to look first at the letters - M Street, etc., then the next series of streets will also be in alphabetical order, one syllable, then two syllables, and three syllables. And they used to say, 'but forget the major avenues,' because they just happen to be there wherever somebody put them. Massachusetts ... " AA: "Pennsylvania Avenue." PETHTEL: "And Vermont. There was no rhyme or reason for the streets named after states." AA: "And, finally, what is your favorite street name?" PETHTEL: "I guess my favorite is Luster's Gate Road. I have absolutely no idea why the name. I suppose somebody at one time in history, probably named Luster, had a gate on the road and it was a farm road, and it's now the road that runs by my house. And I think to many people their favorite street is the one that goes right by their house." RS: So what's your question about American English? AA: We might be able to answer it on the air. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. RS: Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. Next week at this new time, we'll introduce you to a romance coach -- to help get you ready for Valentines Day! MUSIC:"Love on a Two-Way Street"/Gloria Estefan 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-10-1.cfm
* Headline: January 30, 2000 - Word of the Millennium
* Byline: 

 INTRO: A scholarly group that studies American English recently chose its "Word of the Millennium" and its "Word of the Century." Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble discuss the selections. MUSIC: "She"/The Sundays AA: The Word of the Millennium chosen by the American Dialect Society has just three letters. RS: S-H-E. It's the pronoun "she." TAPE: CUT ONE - METCALF "When you get to the past thousand years of the English language and you ask yourself for one word that has been so significant, and so characteristic and so fundamental in the entire millennium, that's a considerable challenge." RS: That's Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the American Dialect Society. Seventy people - mostly scholars -- gathered in Chicago earlier this month for the Society's yearly meeting. AA: Nominees for Word of the Millennium included "freedom," "government," "news," "truth" -- even the universally used American expression, "OK." RS: Allan Metcalf says "she" received thirty-five votes. The word "science" was runner-up with twenty-seven votes. AA: We asked Alan Metcalf how "she" came into our vocabulary. TAPE: CUT TWO - METCALF "Before the year 1000 there was a feminine pronoun in Old English but it was the pronoun he with an added vowel - `hay-oh' is how you pronounce it. 'He' was the masculine, 'heo' was the feminine. The masculine was spelled h-e and the feminine was spelled h-e-o. And furthermore h-e-o meant `they,' so it was the plural as well." RS: Then, early in the millennium, "she" began to replace "heo" [HAY-oh] TAPE: CUT THREE - METCALF/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI METCALF: "We're not sure where it came from. It might have come from the Scandinavian languages because of the Viking invasions. Or it might just have been a change that otherwise occurred. But suddenly there was a very distinctive pronoun `she' which is not at all the same as or derived from `he.' And that seemed like such an important development that that became our word of the millennium." RS: "How did it evolve - where was it first seen either printed or recorded so that you could actually date it?" METCALF: "It's dated around the year 1100, and of course that's before printing, so it's in various manuscripts and exactly how it got there, unfortunately those who wrote the manuscripts didn't stop and say, `by the way, here's a new pronoun and here's where I got it.' "They assumed it was normal. But one of the things that happened between the year 1066 and about the year 1400 was that the people in charge of England spoke French. There was the Norman Conquest and after that every ruling person in England spoke French. And that meant that all the editors and teachers and people who are concerned about the language spoke French. They didn't care at all about English, so even a pronoun could change without some editor saying `wait a minute, you've got the wrong pronoun.' It just happened." AA: "Today people take pains to say `he or she' and we're seeing more and more `they' -- sort of `he' and `she' being lumped together -- so you're not favoring one gender over the other." METCALF: "I suppose if we had the kept the old pronouns we could just use /hey-oh/ -- it would be /he-oh/ nowadays -- and that would be the plural. And the interesting thing is that it would be related more to the feminine than to the masculine. We would then have a plural, which was basically feminine. That might have advanced the women's cause by centuries." RS: The American Dialect Society also chose a Word of the Century: "jazz." AA: Allan Metcalf says a sports writer first used the word "jazz" in 1913 to describe a baseball pitcher as having "a lot of jazz." TAPE: CUT FOUR - METCALF "It was such a new word that in the San Francisco newspaper that used the word, the columnist then wrote a whole article about the meaning of `jazz' as peppy or enthusiastic." MUSIC:"Maple Leaf Rag"/Butch Thompson RS: But musicians in San Francisco quickly picked up the word "jazz." From there it headed east to Chicago, then south to New Orleans, where by 1915 it had become the new name for "ragtime" music. TAPE: CUT FIVE - METCALF "The nice thing about 'jazz' is that it is a very American word. It involves African American culture. It involves the first truly original American style of music. It characterized an entire era - the Jazz Age - and it is still going strong at the start of the new millennium." MUSIC: "Around Midnight"/Miles Davis AA: Allan Metcalf at the American Dialect Society. RS: Now a programming note: Starting next Sunday Wordmaster will be broadcast one half-hour later. AA: Write if you need help finding us. Send e- mail to word@voa.gov, or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. ----- (The American Dialect Society also chose "Y2K" as its Word of the Year for 1999 and "Web" -- as in the World Wide Web on the Internet -- as its Word of the Decade.) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-11-1.cfm
* Headline: January 23, 2000 - 'Words and Rules' by Steven Pinker
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti discuss the ingredients of language found in a new book by a best-selling author. RS: Steven Pinker is a researcher who has studied many aspects of language. He is also the director of the Center for Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. AA: On the surface it sounds as if they have no connection, but Steven Pinker makes one in his latest book, "Words and Rules." He looks at the complexity of language and the working of the brain through a single linguistic phenomenon. TAPE CUT ONE: STEVEN PINKER "And that is the difference between irregular verbs -- bring/brought, come/came, go/went, take/took -- and regular verbs -- walk/walked, stop/stopped, and so on, and using that one example to explore everything you always wanted to know about language." RS: You might think the result would be of limited interest outside the field of linguistics. But, Steven Pinker reaches for a broader audience. AA:He recently spoke with Carol Pearson on VOA's Talk to America. He says irregular past-tense verbs explain his theory of how we learn language. TAPE CUT TWO: STEVEN PINKER "Language really involves two tricks, and they may even be involved in different parts of the brain. One of them is the ability to memorize words. That's what we do when we learn tens of thousands of words in our vocabulary like 'dog' and 'cat' and 'duck' and 'tree' and so on. And I think that is also what we do when we learn irregular verbs like 'brought' and 'took' and 'came.' We are simply adding another 165 items to a vocabulary that's already in the tens of thousands. Whereas when we generate a form like 'walked' or 'talked' or 'played,' I don't think that we have to dredge them up from memory. We can create them right there and then, on the fly, by a mental rule of grammar." RS: And, that rule is: add -ed to a verb to form the past tense. AA: In other words, to describe an action that's already taken place. TAPE CUT THREE: STEVEN PINKER (: 13) "And that's why, when a new word enters the language, like 'to fax' or 'to flame' or 'to spam' you don't have to go to the dictionary to look up its past tense form, you automatically know that it's 'spammed,' and 'flamed' and 'faxed.'" RS: But, how does the brain handle the exceptions? Steven Pinker says the words must be stored in memory. AA: Children who grow up speaking English learn the difference between the two forms as they learn language and their mistakes are corrected. RS: So it's not surprising that irregular verbs can be especially difficult for adult students of English as a Foreign Language. TAPE CUT FOUR: STEVEN PINKER "There are not many options other than learning them by rote. We even know this because the only irregular (verbs) that survive in a language are those that are high in frequency like 'come,' 'take,' 'put,' 'make,' 'do,' the verbs that we use almost every other sentence." AA: Steven Pinker says some irregular verbs simply did not survive the passage of time and eventually conformed to the regular pattern. TAPE CUT FIVE: STEVEN PINKER Things like 'chide/chid' -- which used to be the correct form -- or 'gripe/grope.' What happened was that some generations of English speakers at some point never learned them properly. They started saying 'griped' and 'chided' the same way children say 'breaked' and 'taked.'" RS: Instead of "broken" and "taken." AA: Who knows, maybe someday people will say "breaked" and "taked." But until then we figure the problem will be around for a while. RS: So, we suggest that a sense of humor go into your study. AA: Here's a poem on the subject by Richard Lederer that we found in Steven Pinker's book. RS: "The verbs in English are a fright. Today we speak, but first we spoke. How can we learn to read and write? Some faucets leak, but never loke. Today we write, but first we wrote; AA: We bit our tongues, but never bote. Each day I teach, for years I taught, And preachers preach, but never praught. This tale I tell; This tale I told; RS: I smell the flower, but never smold. If knights still slay, as once they slew Then do we play, as once we plew? If I still do as once I did, Then do cows moo, as they once mid?" AA: If you're still confused by irregular verbs, you can check out Steven Pinker's new book, "Words and Rules." RS: Or, if you have a question about American English, you can write to us. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. AA: And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Verb"/Schoolhouse Rock! 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-12-1.cfm
* Headline: January 16, 2000 - Grammar Lady: Irregular Verbs
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Today VOA Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti introduce us to Grammar Lady. RS: Mary Bruder is a woman on a mission. She calls herself Grammar Lady. Her goal: to help bring grammar back into people's lives. AA: Mary Bruder has taught English and English as a Foreign Language. She says it bothers her that many schools in the United States and Canada no longer teach the rules of grammar. RS: So now there's a place where people who don't know their participles from their apostrophes can turn. They can call Grammar Lady on the telephone hotline she operates from her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. AA: Mary Bruder also writes a column for the local newspaper. And, she's on the Internet: she runs grammarlady.com, a Web site that gets 300-thousand visits a month. RS: For speakers of English-as-a-foreign- language, she says, one of the most common grammatical mistakes is incorrect usage of irregular past tense verbs. TAPE CUT ONE: GRAMMAR LADY "As the language has changed over the years, most of the verbs in English have a regular pattern. For example, with the verb `live,' you say, `I live in Pittsburgh now.' `I lived in Pittsburgh last year.' And, `I have lived in Pittsburgh for twenty years.' That's the regular pattern and most of the verbs in English have changed over to that. But there are some quite popular verbs like `go,' that didn't change. And so we have three forms of that verb: Go, `I go to church every week.' `I went to church last week.' And, `I have gone to church every week. So you have `go, went and gone.' RS: Grammar Lady Mary Bruder puts "speak," "spoke," and "spoken" and "do," "did" and "done" into the same category of verbs with three forms. AA: But, she says some irregular verbs adapt to a more regular pattern over time. Take the past tense of the word "dream." TAPE CUT TWO: GRAMMA RLADY/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BRUDER: "I grew up saying `dreamt.' But we could check for an age changing: Rosanne, what do you say for the past tense of dream?" RS: "`Dreamt,' I'm in your league." BRUDER: "What do you say, Avi?" AA: "I say `dreamed.'" BRUDER: "OK. This is not wrong. A lot of the forms are in usage and they are both correct and acceptable. A lot of the changes we find happen over generations." RS: In other words, younger people are learning to say "today I dream," "yesterday I dreamed," and "I have dreamed" -- just like any other verb. Mary Bruder cites the media as one source of change in the past tense of verbs. TAPE CUT TWO: GRAMMAR LADY "Here's one that has changed because of popular culture, and I'm not sure that we will ever get it back again. (The verb) is shrink. The past is `shrank' and the past participle is `shrunk.' But, that movie a few years ago -- `Honey I Shrunk the Kids'-- used it in error and now everyone is confused about that one." AA: That movie title should have been, "Honey I Shrank the Kids." RS: Or, "Honey, I Have Shrunk the Kids." AA: Grammar Lady says the only way to learn irregular verbs is to memorize them - and she says the easiest way to do that is to learn them in groups that follow similar patterns. TAPE CUT THREE: GRAMMAR LADY/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE "For example, if you have a verb like `make,' the past is `made' and the past participle is `made.' You only have two things to remember. Verbs like `make' are 'teach': `teach,' `taught,' `taught'; `buy': `buy,' `bought,' `bought.' So, there's a bunch of those in that particular category. Then there are ones where all three parts are the same. And, that's like `shut,' `I shut the door now.' `I shut the door yesterday.' `I have shut the door.' Those are easy to remember if you remember them as a group. Then there are the truly irregular ones where all three parts are different." AA: "All new verbs, I have heard it said, are regular." BRUDER: "Yes, all the new verbs will have the -ed ending and the -ed past participle." RS: "That's good news!" BRUDER: "Yes!" AA: Grammar Lady Mary Bruder will join us each month to answer some of your questions about American English. RS: You can write to her at her Web site, www.grammarlady.com. Don't forget to tell her you heard her here on Wordmaster. AA: Or you can send us your questions. Our e- mail address is word@voa.gov. RS: And, our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. That's a new ZIP code. Keep those postcards and letters coming! AA: Next week on Wordmaster, learn more about irregular past tense verbs from a scientist and author who has written a whole book about them! RS:With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC:"Verb: That's What's Happening"/Schoolhouse Rock 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-13-1.cfm
* Headline: January 9, 2000 - Slangman: Timely Slang
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Today our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble take stock of American slang in this new millennium. AA: Millennium, millennium -- why doesn't someone banish that word? A lot of people are getting really tired of hearing it! RS: Here's some good news: Lake Superior State University in Michigan has announced its twenty-fifth annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness." Guess which word is at the very top? AA: "Millennium!" RS: That's right! And it was followed by the term "24/7". AA: ... which means that something is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. RS: A woman from California who nominated "24/7" says the expression is, in her words, "designed to make stressed people feel even more stressed." AA: Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles agrees. He says its time may already be running out -- at least among the young trendsetters of cool slang. TAPE: CUT 1 - BURKE "A lot of teen-agers are telling me that `24/7' really is kind of out, it's outdated. But if you're not a teen-ager, it's OK to use it. A lot of adults still use it. They'll say `we're open 24/7.' In fact, it's really become more popular in the adult world." AA: And that's a sure death sentence, if adults find it cool. RS: What is it about the word "cool"? In a world of here-today-gone-tomorrow slang, David Burke says cool is a living legend that remains hot on the streets. TAPE: CUT 2 - BURKE (: 19) "As long as something sounds funny or has many different ways to say it, it will probably stick around. And cool does have a few different ways to say it. Many teen-agers in the `80s were pronouncing it without the l: `That's coooo.' Or they'd say /kuhl/. And in black rap we would hear `coo.'" RS: David Burke says another language trend among American teenagers that he expects to stick around is rhyming. TAPE: CUT 3 - BURKE/ARDITTI BURKE: "Because of music, and a lot of the rap music and the African American black music, a lot of white kids are adopting not only the rhyming they're using in rap slang, but they're actually adopting the accent. For example if I said to you, Avi, `Whew, she is tore up from the floor up.' Have you heard that one? AA: "No." BURKE: "'She is tore up from the floor up.' This has become so popular, [meaning] really ugly, but kids also like to shorten: `She is really tore up.' But they're not saying that anymore. Now they're saying, `she's /toe/ up.'" RS: Moving from the cool to the uncool... David Burke says `rad,' `groovy' and `heavy' are three slang words that it's no longer hip to let slip. TAPE: CUT 4 - BURKE "Rad was really big in the late `80s, early `90s, meaning radical, fantastic, 'that's rad.' We don't hear that very much anymore. `Heavy' [as in]`ooh, that is heavy.' That was from the `70s, like the expression `heavy bummer' which means `what a big disappointment.' `Heavy' was used for awhile in the `90s - it's gone." AA: And what about "groovy," that feel-good '70s term which recently made a comeback? TAPE: CUT 5 - BURKE "Groovy is now gone. Nobody's using it." RS: Bummer. But that's the nature of slang. There's no way to predict. AA: And, says Slangman David Burke, if there's one thing you have to be careful of: TAPE: CUT 6 - BURKE "Do not use old slang. That is really important. If you're going to use old slang, you're going to sound strange." RS: If you want to learn more about current slang, check out David Burke's Internet Web site at www.slangman.com. AA: You can send us e-mail at word@voa.gov or write to us at VOA Wordmaster Washington DC 20237. That's VOA's new postal code, 20237. RS: This week we featured Slangman, next week we meet Grammarlady! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC - "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"/Simon & Garfunkel 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-14-1.cfm
* Headline: December 24, 2000 - Slangman: Top Ten Slang for 2000
* Byline: 

 Music: "Phatt Move"/Basstone AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster we present, from Los Angeles, "Slangman" David Burke with his list of the top ten slang words for 2000. RS: David points out that some of these words had been around for years before they entered the popular mainstream. We start at the bottom of the list with number ten . . . the noun "homey." TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE "Either h-o-m-e-y or h-o-m-i-e is a friend, a close pal, and it's usually a male person, like we'll say, 'hey homey, what's up?" AA: "Homey" comes from "homeboy," a black American English expression meaning a friend from one's home town or neighborhood, but like so much of slang, it was shortened over time. RS: Next on Slangman's list at number nine is "kick it," short for "kick back," meaning to relax, to kick back in your chair. "Oh, I've had such a hard week. Tonight I'm just going to kick it." AA: Let's move on to number eight, the adjective "tight": TAPE: CUT TWO -- BURKE BURKE: "'Tight' means fantastic, really good, excellent. For example, you would say, 'ooh, that car is tight,' or' that sweater is tight!'" AA: "(laughing) These pants are tight!" BURKE: "Yes -- you see, you never know if you're being kind of insulted or complimented with the word tight. OK, number seven, is the verb 'to dis,' D-I-S. Which comes from?" AA: "Disrespect." BURKE: "Of course, disrespect. Instead of saying, 'You have such disrespect for me,' we would say, 'Are you dissing me? Are you showing me disrespect?' To dis, we hear that all the time. OK, number six: 'sweet.' 'Ooh, that is a sweet bicycle!" RS: "David, you know I find myself using that. Isn't that awful?" BURKE: "You use sweet also? See. Now we also have the word, which is number five, 'dude.' Now that's been around for a long time. It's still around. It's a replacement for a guy, a man. But now girls are using this a lot. It's really common for a group of girls to call each other dude. And dude also not only means a guy or even a girl -- like, 'hi dude,' a girl would say that to another girl -- it also means 'wow!' For example you'd say, 'duuude!' That just means 'wow' and it's really popular. OK, moving right on down, oh here's one -- number four is 'da bomb,' meaning the best, the most excellent. And here is where it gets a little confusing because originally if something is 'a bomb' it's really bad. But if someone says it is 'THE bomb,' well that's the best, you can't really get better than 'the bomb.' But teen-agers don't really pronounce it 'the bomb.'" RS: "Da bomb." BURKE: "Da bomb. D-A. OK, number three, here's a word I think we talked about before: 'wack.' W-A-C-K. It's an adjective meaning unfair, bad. For example, 'The teacher failed you, oh that is so wack!'" RS: "OK, drum roll, drum roll." BURKE: "No this [next term] is number two. I love this one -- phat. Now that's not F-A-T. It's P-H-A-T, to be really confusing. So if someone says 'oh, you are fat,' now should you slap that person in the face for insulting you or should you say thank you? It depends on the context. Fat, F-A-T, of course, is overweight. But P-H-A-T is great, fantastic. It couldn't be better. If someone were to say to you, for example, 'that girl in our science class, ooh she is phat!' that's good. But if someone says, 'that girl in our science class is fat,' that's bad." AA: Bad because it's not nice to talk about people that way! RS: Now, the moment you've been waiting for -- again, Slangman David Burke TAPE: CUT THREE -- BURKE BURKE: "The number one slang term for the year 2000 is 'cool.' Yes, cool, the word that has not left us since I think the '40s or '50s." AA: "Still at the top of the charts." BURKE: "That is still at the top of the charts. I've asked a lot of teen-agers, and not just teen-agers but people in their twenties and thirties, what word do you use the most..." AA: You guessed it, that word was "cool." Cool has a number of different meanings, but generally it's used much the same way "sweet," for instance, is used -- to express approval. RS: Maybe our listeners can suggest a new contender for 2001. Write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC, 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. You can also visit David Burke on the Internet and learn about his teaching books on American slang. His address is www.slangman.com. RS: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Ain't She Sweet"/Eddie Cantor 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-15-1.cfm
* Headline: December 17, 2000 - Thank You Notes
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Thank You For... "/Hall and Oates AA: No, thank you -- for listening! I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Some advice on how to write a thank-you note, as many people will do in this season of holiday gift giving. AA: Laura Kimoto is an instructor in the Intensive English Program at Hawaii Community College. She's been teaching her students from Asia what Americans learn about writing thank-you's -- which is, above all, give details about what you're saying thanks for. Laura Kimoto points out the need for students to vary their writing. For instance, instead of using the word "kindness" several times, she offers synonyms like "hospitality," "generosity" or "thoughtfulness." RS: Some things, though, are harder to teach, like the social customs that make some words better left unsaid. TAPE: CUT ONE -- KIMOTO "For example, a girl used the word 'cute' to refer to this elderly couple: 'You are a cute elderly couple.'" AA: What's wrong with being called a "cute elderly couple"? RS: Well, Americans generally avoid calling attention to age. And, to refer to an older couple as "cute" might seem a little condescending. AA: Of course the student had no idea! She was just trying to thank a nice couple she had met. RS: You even have to be careful with your closing salutation. TAPE: CUT TWO -- ARDITTI/KIMOTO AA: "Do you not end a thank-you note with love? Is that not a good idea?" KIMOTO: "I would say that is not a good idea, depending on who the person is you are writing to, but most likely not." RS: This time of year, Laura Kimoto suggests to her students at Hawaii Community College: "Wishing you health and peace for the New Year." AA: A phrase worthy of a professional greeting card -- which is what Sandra Louden has written lots of over the years. She says a thank-you should be "sincere" and "heartfelt" -- and, again, big on specifics! RS: Sandra Louden says that even if a person gives you a gift of money, you should tell the giver how you plan to use it. TAPE: CUT THREE -- LOUDEN "You always remember, in any type of note you write, especially a thank-you note, it should have that me-to-you quality. In other words I am writing this note to specifically thank you, so I have you in mind when I am writing this. So that me-to-you voice is always very nice, very heartfelt, very successful, it makes for a very successful thank-you note." RS: Sandra Louden says she likes to add a touch of humor, but knows that some people are afraid to include it, afraid that, as writers, they're too serious to be funny. If that's you, consider this: TAPE: CUT FOUR -- LOUDEN/ARDITTI LOUDEN: "It's really not as hard as you think, if you think in a certain way, and one of those ways that I talk about in classes that I teach, is to think literally. You might try something like 'thanks a bunch' and on the front maybe draw a bunch of grapes and have yourself smiling and sitting in those bunch of grapes, and that would be 'thanks a bunch.' AA: "(laughing) I never thought of that!" LOUDEN: "And if you want to do 'thanks a bunch' again, just think of anything with a bunch. You could do a bunch of bananas. Now if you want to get into another expression, then you say like 'thanks a million,' maybe you want to tack some fake money on the front of the card you make. You want to hand make a card and you get some of those one-hundred-thousand-dollar bills that they sell in novelty shops, and you tack that on the front of your card and you say 'thanks a ... thanks a million.'" RS: And, she says, you can even employ humor on thank-you cards in a business setting. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- LOUDEN "For a lawyer for instance, 'There is no reasonable doubt, we thank you very much.' Or for an accountant, 'when we tally our blessings, we count you among them. Thank you for your patronage.' I find that humor is a state of mind -- it cuts across age, gender, what have you. Everyone appreciates a good laugh and a smile. And with a thank you card, another component is to keep it very short and to the point, and if it's based on a pun or a play on words, even if it's very corny, it gets the message across and it adds that little extra punch that people remember." AA: Sandra Louden is author of the book "Write Well and Sell Greeting Cards." She also teaches an Internet course at www.writerscollege.com. RS: And we'd like you to remember our new e-mail address: it's word@voanews.com. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Oh, and thank you in advance! AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Kind & Generous"/Natalie Merchant 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-16-1.cfm
* Headline: December 10, 2000 - Globalization of English
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talk about some of the limits in the globalization of English. TAPE: CUT ONE -- MOVIE CLIP/"My Name is Joe" "I could not say nine simple words: 'My name is Joe, and I am an alcoholic.'" AA: Simple words, from the Scottish film "My Name is Joe." But on this side of the Atlantic, the video comes with subtitles -- in English! RS: Listen again to actor Peter Mullan. The dialogue goes, "I could not say nine simple words: "My name is Joe, and I am an alcoholic.'" TAPE: CUT ONE -- MOVIE CLIP/"My Name is Joe" "I could not say nine simple words: 'My name is Joe and I am an alcoholic.'" AA: Sounds clear to me. But the problem is that speakers of English don't always understand one another. Different accents, pronunciations and local idioms can interfere. Barbara Wallraff cites the example of "My Name is Joe" in a November article in The Atlantic Monthly magazine, where she is a senior editor. RS: She says English "is not sweeping all before it" by replacing other languages as it gains in global status, but rather is being adapted to local tastes and linguistic needs. That's what she found in her look at the globalization of English. TAPE: CUT TWO WALLRAFF/SKIRBLE WALLRAFF: "I think the most interesting fact that came out of all of it is that so many people are using English as part of a larger suite of languages, so many people are being bilingual with English or using it as one of several languages they have, and then I began to be anxious that people in the United States who basically only speak one language, like me, are going to be left behind." RS: "How is the English language being transformed, say, in the United States or elsewhere around the globe by people who, as you say, speak a suite of languages?" WALLRAFF: "One thing that is happening as English establishes itself better in, say, Asia, there is an Indian version of English that is a lot like British English, but it is growing increasingly different from it as time goes, as more and more people in India speak English to each other, where the language has beachheads, where it has communities of local speakers who aren't speaking it as a foreign language, just something that they use to talk with tourists to their country, but use it among themselves or use it as a lingua franca with people whose first language might be something else. "So in India, English becomes something different. In Nigeria, which is another country where English is much spoken -- I think Nigeria has the third largest number of speakers of English in the world -- the language there would be something that may be difficult for your typical American to understand. All these things are certainly part of English, but the idea that even speaking English together, we won't necessarily continue to be able to understand each other, if we don't focus on this as a problem -- is this something to worry about? Maybe it is." AA: "Why might someone worry about this?" WALLRAFF: "Well, I like to think of English as something that will take me everywhere I want to go, and this is what I think makes Americans rather complacent about the fact that, 'well, all we speak is English, but it will get us anywhere.' If English continues to diversify, there are words -- for example, 'hotel,' as I understand it, in South Asia means a restaurant. In the United States, of course, it means a place where you stay overnight while traveling. In Australia, I think it means basically a bar, a place where alcoholic beverages are served. So if I say, 'Can you show me to a hotel,' maybe you think I'm telling you I want an alcoholic drink, or maybe you think I'm telling you that I need a place to stay." AA: "It could get you in all sorts of trouble, couldn't it!" WALLRAFF: "It could, it could!" SKIRKLE: "What is it about English and its ability to absorb all kinds of elements, all kinds of words from many different languages." WALLRAFF: "Well, of course, over the centuries, it has been cobbled together from -- what, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin, and the words that have come out of Latin and the various Romance languages, and now there are words coming directly into American English from, say, Japanese. They may not be anything more subtle than names of foods or that kind of thing, but it doesn't have one root language so that things that come from other languages conspicuously stand out. It's incorporated all different kinds of things forever, so it's quite welcoming to words from anywhere." AA: Yet what happens as local forms of English go their separate ways? Barbara Wallraff says English speakers will have fewer words in common. RS: Things could be worse, though. TAPE: CUT THREE -- WALLRAFF "Somebody I interviewed said that there is no language in the world that is easier to speak badly than English. You can pick up enough to kind of get along in it, and to kind of communicate in it quite readily." AA: Barbara Wallraff, senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly and author of the book "Word Court." That's word, W-O-R-D, same as our e-mail address. RS: But make a note -- our address is now word@voanews.com. We hope to hear from you! AA: Or write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-17-1.cfm
* Headline: December 3, 2000 - Grammar Lady: SANAM
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Grammar is the issue this week for our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. They start off with a question from a listener in Vietnam. AA: Nguyen Tang Thanh Binh poses this question by e-mail: "What's the differences between these two sentences: 'There were no students in the classroom, and 'There was no student in the classroom.'" RS: For our answer, we turn to Mary Newton Bruder, better known as Grammar Lady, as in www.grammarlady.com. She says the two sentences are pretty much the same -- TAPE CUT ONE: MARY NEWTON BRUDER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE MB: " ... except in context. If you say 'there were no students in the classroom,' you have the expectation that the classroom should be full of students and they either hadn't come yet, or they left, and there were no students there. If you said 'there was no student in the classroom,' I think that the expectation is that there is a group of adults here, maybe it's the faculty having a meeting, and there is no student in the classroom. So, you are making the emphasis on one singular student. The more common phrase would certainly be in the plural." AA: "Is this a common question you get from people?" MB: "No, I haven't seen this before. (But) I do get a lot of questions with 'everybody' and 'everyone.' They want to know the difference between 'Everybody is going,' and 'Everyone is going.' AA: "What is the difference?" MB: "There isn't any.." AA: "How about with none (as in) 'None of the passengers on the bus was injured,' or 'None of the passengers on the bus were injured." Which would you choose?" MB: "I would choose 'were' because basically what you want to say is 'All of the students were safe.' When 'none' means not one, then it is singular. Let's see if I can give you an example. 'Three candidates were running for sheriff. None is qualified.' In this case you are singling out each individual person, and you are saying no one of these is qualified. But generally, the verb after none is governed by the word that comes after it. So you (can) say, 'None of the milk is spoiled, but, 'None of the eggs are rotten.'" RS: There's a way to help you remember when a verb should be singular or plural. Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder says, just think "SAMAN!" AA: S-A-M-A-N or "S" for "some," "A" for "any," "M" for "most," "A" for "all" and "N" "none." RS: The noun that follows each of these words governs the verb. If the noun is singular, the verb is singular. If the noun is plural, the verb is plural. Got that? TAPE CUT TWO: MARY BRUDER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE MB: "So if you say, 'Some of the books are green, (and) 'Some of the food is delicious.' AA: "You wouldn't say some of the food are delicious." MB: "Right!" AA: "You would say 'some of the brownies are delicious,' or 'some of the pastries are delicious.' MB: "Yes, it's the pastries, the brownies and the food that determine what the verb is." RS: "So, 'most of the girls are pretty.'" MN: "Right. And, most of the music is loud. AA: "But in general though the conventional rule is . . ." MB: "The conventional rule is that the object of the preposition is not the subject of the sentence." AA: "Give us an example." MB: "An example would be 'the members of the team are gone.' So, members is what governs the verb." RS: "(But the exception would be with) 'Some, any, most, all or none.' 'None of the candidates is acceptable.' MB: "Well, with none it can be either (is or are) depending on whether you mean no single one or whether you mean all of the above aren't." AA: "There are people who argue about this, that none is always singular." MB: "Right that one can go either way." AA: "What about the word 'couple'? Would it be 'the couple is happy' or 'the couple are happy'?" MB: "My example for that one is, 'The couple is getting married on Saturday. The couple are divorcing next month.' RS: "They were one and then they were two!" MB: "Right!" RS: Our thanks to Mary Newton Bruder, on the Internet at www.grammarlady.com, and coming to us from the studios of WQED radio in Pittsburgh do we need to say that?. You can send your questions -- for Grammar Lady or for us - to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. AA: Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC -- "It's You or No One"/Doris Day 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-18-1.cfm
* Headline: November 19, 2000 - Presidential Election Terms
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble look at some of the terms that, thanks to the presidential election, have won a new place in the American vocabulary. MUSIC: "Butterfly"/Andy Williams AA: Maybe you heard that flutter of confusion over the use of a "butterfly ballot" in Palm Beach County, Florida. Some people apparently voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan when they meant to vote for Al Gore. RS: That's because the two names appeared close together on facing pages of the ballot. AA: Well, within a day the term "butterfly ballot" had become, in the words of the Palm Beach Post, "instant pop-culture lingo." RS: Paul Nolte says he had never heard it before, and he's been in the ballot printing business for twenty-five years. In fact, he's president of the company whose software was used to design the controversial ballot in Palm Beach County. TAPE: CUT ONE -- NOLTE/SKIRBLE "We never called this a butterfly ballot. We called it either right-hand pages or facing pages, and it wasn't until last week, after the election, that somebody -- probably in the news media -- dubbed this the butterfly ballot." RS: "Because?" NOLTE: "Because rather than opening this ballot up as a book and looking at the content on just the left-hand page, it was opened up as a book but a portion of the presidential contest was presented on the left-hand page and a portion of the contest was presented on the right-hand page." RS: "Or the wings." NOLTE: "Right, the wings of a butterfly." AA: Paul Nolte says officials in a third of the states produce ballots with the software of his Election Resources Corporation. RS: Some use butterflies, but most choose other designs. TAPE: CUT TWO -- NOLTE "Nobody ever starts out to consciously produce a butterfly ballot. There is always some reason that it happens, and it is generally always a space limitation. Now in Palm Beach the criteria for printing the ballot, according to what I've read in the paper, is that because of the older population, and the failing eyesight of the population, the supervisor of elections chose to print the candidates' names for president in a very large point size type. Well, in Florida they had ten candidates and running mates for president and they also had a write-in position for president. So that is eleven different contests." RS: -- and twenty-two candidates in all. TAPE: CUT THREE -- NOLTE "Well, there are only nineteen voting positions on a page and they needed twenty-two. They had two alternatives, They could have gone back to a much smaller type or they could split the contest up and present it partially on the left-hand page and partially on the right-hand page. They chose the butterfly ballot." AA: And that's not the only addition to Paul Nolte's vocabulary. We also talked about the word "chad." A chad is that little piece of card that gets punched out of the ballot when voters make their choices. RS: Later, a machine uses a light beam to look for the holes and count the votes. But sometimes there are problems. Paul Nolte was familiar with the term "hanging chad," but not "swinging chad," "tri-chad" or "pregnant chad" terms that have been used since the voting. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- NOLTE/SKIRBLE "A hanging chad is a chad that is not completely separated from the ballot. Actually any hole that is partially punched is in effect a hanging chad, it's hanging on." RS: "Whether it's swinging or attached by three corners which is what a tri-chad must be. So those do count." NOLTE: "No, a hanging chad or a swinging chad might count one time but not count the next time." RS: "Now explain that to me." NOLTE: "In a machine count what might happen is that the hanging chad might actually flop over back into the hole that it came from, in effect covering up the hole. So no vote would count. The next time if you process it back through the card reader like in the case of a recount, the chad may swing back the other way, opening up the hole, and in that case the vote would count." RS: In a hand count, he says, election officials try to interpret the voter's intent. A hanging chad may clearly signal a vote. But go figure a "dimpled" chad, one that's merely indented. AA: Turn the ballot over, and it may even look puffy. RS: In other words, pregnant. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- NOLTE "You know, that one is really a gray area because the voter did not exert enough force to even partially separate the chad from the card. That might be a stretch to count that for a vote." AA: Which brings us to a "canvass." RS: But not the kind an artist uses. TAPE: CUT SIX -- NOLTE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE "A canvass is a recount of the vote, or the detail of the vote, precinct by precinct, candidate by candidate. And so a canvassing board is just the board that reviews the results and actually then certifies them as being valid." AA: "And it's c-a-n-v-a-s-s." NOLTE: "Yes that's correct." AA: "And what is an undervote and an overvote." NOLTE: "An overvote is what happens in a contest like Palm Beach County. They had (some) nineteen thousand ballots that were overvoted. It's a contest where the instruction to the voter says 'vote for one.'" RS: "And so they vote for more than one." NOLTE: "That's exactly right. The software that reads the ballots will pick up a hole for more than one candidate." RS: "And invalidate the ballot." NOLTE: "No it doesn't invalidate the ballot. It still continues to read every contest that's on the ballot, and it's only the improperly voted contests that are in effect not counted." AA: "And what would an undervote be?" NOLTE: "An undervote is where you have an opportunity to vote for one and you don't vote for anybody." RS: Paul Nolte, president of Election Resources Corporation of Little Rock, Arkansas. AA: That's all for Wordmaster this week. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov or write to us to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Deep Down in Florida"/Muddy Waters 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-19-1.cfm
* Headline: November 12, 2000 - Pittsburghese
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA Wordmaster Rosanne Skirble recently went back to her hometown of Pittsburgh in the US state of Pennsylvania in search of clues about the way she speaks American English. MUSIC: "The Pennsylvania Polka"/Lawrence Welk TEXT: I didn't realize it growing up, but I spoke a dialect of American English called Pittsburghese. Of course, we didn't call it that. It's just the way we talked in Pittsburgh, and everyone understood one another. When I left Pittsburgh for college and work I adapted to my surroundings and sounded, well, let's just say 'less Pittsburgh.' Only on visits to my hometown would I slip into the familiar dialect. Once again I'd call rubber bands 'gum bands' and thinly sliced ham 'chipped-chopped ham.' So, you can imagine my delight when I learned that the words and phrases that I had spoken as a child were alive and well and living in cyberspace at www.pittsburgese.com. I have to admit that when I logged on, I felt a sense of community. Alan Freed and a co-worker in Pittsburgh created the site to attract new customers to their web design business. When we met in his basement office on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, he told me that the site has become a meeting place for people like me lonely for Pittsburgh. TAPE CUT ONE: SKIRBLE/FREED ALAN FREED: "It gets about 100,000 hits a month. I'd say most of the attention that the site gets is from people who have moved out of the city and are longing for stuff from their hometown." RS: "You are now on to the Pittsburghese website, and you've clicked on to 'nouns.' ALAN FREED: "I clicked on to nouns. That's actually our biggest section that people have contributed the most words to, so I thought we'd go there and take a look at some of the submissions. I see on the screen right in front of us, "jaggers" is something that means thorns like if you have a rose and you have thorns. Those are "jaggers." RS: "Do you have a favorite (Pittsburgh) phrase or expression?" ALAN FREED: "How are yinz (you, plural) doin' and 'at.'(That)" is one of my favorites because it would blow away any one who was from out of town." RS: "Can we translate that?" ALAN FREED: "How are you?" TEXT: The "How yinz doin'" greeting baffled University of Pittsburgh linguist Paul Toth when he moved to Pittsburgh from Rochester, New York ten years ago. After a while he says he began to see patterns in the way people from Pittsburgh talk. For example, he says, the ever-popular "yinz" is simply an informal way of saying the plural pronoun "you." TAPE CUT TWO: PAUL TOTH "The Southern dialects are famous for 'you all' or 'ya'all' and in Pittsburghese we have 'yinz'. That comes from saying 'you ones and blending that together' as 'yinz.' It does actually make sense that you would call more than one person, 'you ones' over there, and 'yinz' is where that comes from." TEXT: Also, I discovered from Paul Toth that people in Pittsburgh swallow the th at the beginning of a word. TAPE CUT THREE: PAUL TOTH "That th is gone. So, it's gone just like "-"-is" and just like "at." 'They talk a little bit like "-is." And they also say, "and at" as sort of a connector at the end of a sentence. "Yinz guys going down the Steelers game and (th)at." "And -at" is "and -at," and the th is gone from the beginning of that." TEXT: Another common Pittsburgh sound is how words like doing and going are pronounced. TAPE CUT FOUR: PAUL TOTH "The vowel would be /ue/" They are sort of pronounced 'ue-en', "How you doin'? ('due-en'). This is what you hear people say when they are greeting you. "How you doin'" "Where you goin'?" So they are really merged together as a similar vowel. So, if you put your second person plural pronoun in there and talk about "going to the house or going down town you could say, "Yinz goin' to the house? Yinz goin' downtown?" RS: "I guess moving away from Pittsburgh I really changed to a more standard English vocabulary, and I didn't even realize that growing up I had a grammatical problem. Things like, "That shirt needs washed." PAUL TOTH: That's the one thing I can identify as a grammatical difference. In Standard English you would say, "The shirt needs to be washed. And in Pittsburghese they have extended that pattern from the present participle "need washing" to the past participle as well and say "needs washed." TEXT: Alan Freed demonstrates all of this with animated graphics and enhanced facial features on the www.pittsburghese.com website. TAPE CUT FIVE: SKIRBLE/ALAN FREED RS: "Do you have anything to say to our listeners just to say goodbye to them?" ALAN FREED: (in Pittsburgese) Maybe you can come up here and go to a (Pittsburgh) Steelers (football) game and (that). RS: "Loosely translated that would be, "Maybe you could come to visit us in Pittsburgh and go to a Pittsburgh Steelers football game. Did I get it?" ALAN FREED: "That 'ill work." RS: "That will work. Thank you so much it's been a pleasure talking with you!" MUSIC: "THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS FIGHT SONG"/Jimmy Pol RS: Whether or not you can learn Pittsburghese in a day as Alan Freed claims, you will can get an entertaining start at the www.pittsburghese.com website. Nostalgic or not for Pittsburgh, write to us at Wordmaster, Washington, D.C. 20037 USA or to word@voa.gov. Avi Arditti will be back next week. I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-20-1.cfm
* Headline: November 5, 2000 - Election Metaphors
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Today, Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talk with a political scientist about the terms a lot of Americans are using when they talk about the American presidential campaign. AA: You might think George W. Bush and Al Gore were horses in a race or soldiers in a war, if all you listened to were the metaphors coming off the "campaign trail." RS: Jack Pitney knows that mythical road that only politicians and reporters travel. He's an associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. He says metaphors usually come from war or sports because politics is about conflict, about winning and losing. AA: And where better to fight it out than in those "battleground states" we keep hearing about. TAPE: CUT ONE -- PITNEY/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI PITNEY: "Battleground states are those in which either candidate might win, in which both of them are putting a great deal of time, money and effort. And that's particularly important in a federal system such as the United States where elections hinge on very specific geographical territories. We elect members of Congress at the local level, and in our presidential elections the outcome hinges on our Electoral College, which in turn depends on the states. Hence, candidates fight over individual states in order to get a majority in the Electoral College." RS: "And what about 'swing states'?" PITNEY: "'Swing states' are a very similar kind of concept, but a different kind of connotation. Swing states are those that tend to sway between one party and the other in terms of the election. But whether they become 'battlegrounds,' however, depends on whether the candidates fight for them." AA: "A 'ground war'! Do they have 'air strikes' too?" PITNEY: "The idea of a 'ground war' is that the candidates will put a great deal of effort into individual voter contact, sending campaign volunteers out house-to-house, as opposed to the so-called air war, in which you have candidates placing all their effort into broadcast media, into the electronic advertising. So, very often in the United States you hear political professionals talking about certain states being an arena of 'ground war' and others being the arena of 'air war.'" AA: "So is it a mixed metaphor if you say that the two candidates are 'neck-and-neck' in a battleground state. Does that mix up horse racing and war?" PITNEY: "Very much, you're mixing both the horse racing metaphor in which when two horses are very close together, people say they are neck-and-neck, and in a battleground state." RS: "Which takes us into the 'war room,' which really isn't a 'war room' at all." PITNEY: "That's right, a 'war room' is a command center, an area for coordination of a campaign. Hillary Clinton in 1992 dubbed the central Clinton campaign headquarters the 'war room.' That's a term that comes, again, from the military. You have a war room in the Pentagon, a war room in the White House, and those are places where the president or the U.S. military would coordinate forces during a military conflict." RS: "[Next question:] Is there money in a 'war chest'?" AA: "And do they keep the war chest in the war room?" PITNEY: "Well, as far as I know, the war chest is kept elsewhere, in the U.S. Treasury, at least at the federal level, but a war chest is a metaphor for the amount of money that a campaign has." AA: Jack Pitney is just out with his own book "The Art of Political Warfare." He ends with a chapter on some less-violent political metaphors -- RS: for instance, from the medical field. TAPE: CUT TWO -- PITNEY "When you talk about politics as medicine, people talk about 'let the healing process begin.' When a politician proffers a policy proposal, he or she will say, 'This is good medicine for what ails us.'" RS: In the end, though, he says terms from war and sports -- like "on the ropes," meaning a faltering boxer literally up against the ropes of the boxing ring -- are just too irresistible. TAPE: CUT THREE -- PITNEY "Those are the predominate metaphors, although politicians sometimes try to make them more subtle because people don't want to hear politicians sound overly offensive or aggressive. Nevertheless, Vice President Gore has been talking a lot in these terms lately because he's saying 'I'm fighting for you. I will fight for this. I will fight for that. And that's very much a rallying cry -- another military term -- to mobilize -- another military term -- his base." AA: Jack Pitney from Claremont McKenna College, keeping his eye on the finish line this coming Election Day in America. RS: And, as always, we're keeping our eye on American English. Send your questions to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or word@voa.gov. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "The Main Event/Fight"/Barbra Streisand 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-21-1.cfm
* Headline: October 29, 2000 - Listener Questions: Essay Writing
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Today, Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble answer some listener mail. AA: First out of the mailbag today is a question about the correct form for writing an essay. A listener in Manipur, India, heard us discuss that subject with Sharon Bode from the Intensive English Program at the University of Pennsylvania. RS: "I had been trying to write some passages and letters to friends," L. Shantikumar writes by postal mail. But what came out was "neither introduction [nor] body, nor conclusion. I felt deranged. Still I am unclear what these five paragraphs should contain." AA: So we went back to Sharon Bode. RS: Here now is her recipe -- at least it sounds like a recipe -- for composing a standard, five-paragraph essay: TAPE: CUT ONE -- BODE "One introduction paragraph, three body paragraphs that are directly related to your thesis statement and then a concluding paragraph that restates the main point." AA: Suppose, for example, you want to write about a time when you showed courage. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BODE "If you start by making a list of possible times in your life when you did that, and then from that list choose one particular experience, and then on that experience, one or two or three main ideas that are related to that -- each of those main ideas then becomes a paragraph." RS: Now let's say the most courageous thing you ever did was to protect your little brother from a ferocious dog. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BODE/ARDITTI "Then you might want to introduce the topic of dogs before you talk about yourself as being courageous. Like, 'Many people in most countries like animals, but sometimes dogs are not as fun as they might seem. In my neighborhood, there was a particularly angry dog one day and that dog started to attack me and my little brother. I think when I protected my little brother, that was the most courageous day of my life." AA: "And then the next paragraph might begin ... " BODE: "And then the next paragraph would give more detail abut the dog, and the next paragraph would maybe give more detail about the specific moment of protecting the brother. And then the summary would be to relate the reader and the writer, perhaps to say that not everyone could protect their little brother; I didn't think I could do that either. However, in the moment, I was able to find the courage to do that.'" AA: Sharon Bode says the same information can be expanded to a longer essay or condensed to a single paragraph. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- BODE "But the main idea is that there is a thesis that is unifying the entire essay in the first paragraph, that there are supporting statements and examples in the others and that the conclusion tries to make a more general point, or some -- not like a moral statement, but something that makes it larger than the incident itself, or larger than the individual experience." RS: Our next question comes from a listener in Vietnam by the e-mail name of Harry Potter -- Harry Potter? The protagonist of the best-selling children's books? Anyway, here's the question: "What is the difference between 'what about you' and 'how about you'?" AA: Well, Harry, there's not a lot of difference. If I said, Rosanne, I just took my daughter to a pumpkin patch for Halloween, I could then say either "what about you?" or "how about you?" Either way, it's casual and avoids having to say, have you taken your kids to a pumpkin patch, too? RS: But "what about you?" can sound a little stuffier than "how 'bout you?" -- which is how people usually say it. AA: We move on now to a longtime listener in Baku, Azerbaijan,. Elkhan Tahirov says he needs to keep up on English, especially now in his new job as an English and Russian language consultant ... in the president's office! RS: He says that in the Azeri language, "There is a huge amount of English words in informal speech (not to mention the slang) especially popular with teenagers and especially from computer technology." TAPE: CUT SIX - Elkhan Tahirov/Arditti TAHIROV: "The most prominent, of course, is the Internet, and e-mail, and then, for example, online, hacker, log in." AA: "Hacker, as in someone who breaks into computers." TAHIROV: "Yes (laughs)." RS: But, he says, "there are some English terms the usage of which in my own language still sounds a little bit quaint, such as the interjection "Oops!" MUSIC: "Oops!...I Did It Again"/Britney Spears AA: If you're saying "oops" a lot because you're having trouble learning American English, let us know! We'll try to answer your question on the air. RS: Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washingon, DC 20237 USA, or send e-mail to word@voa.gov. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-22-1.cfm
* Headline: December 26, 1999 - Hazard Communication
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Caution! Warning! The signs are all around us! This week VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble look behind the labels on hazardous materials to find out what it takes to put danger into words. SFX: Pouring sound AA: OK, now pour in some stuff from that bottle over there. RS: That bottle without a label? AA: Right -- it's probably safe. RS:OK. SFX: Glass smashing RS: Uh oh. SFX: Explosion RS: Time to talk to an expert about hazard communication! AA: Sidney Lirtzman is acting president of Baruch College at City University of New York. His research has focused on hazard communication in the chemical industry. He says a lot of people think it's easy to write a warning for, say, a corrosive chemical. TAPE: CUT 1 - LIRTZMAN "And you'd say, `so what, it's very straightforward, you tell them you could burn yourself.'" RS: But, in fact, he says, creating an effective warning takes a lot more work. TAPE: CUT 2 - LIRTZMAN "It's got to communicate very rapidly to a person who sees it without very much concentrated reading or concentrated attempts at deciphering what the thing is actually saying. And to do that requires a considerable amount of planning as to what words to use, how the words will be strung together in a sentence, what the tone of the sentence will be, whether the words or the sign should be in color, whether there should be symbols associated with it or not associated with it." AA: Sidney Lirtzman says hazard communicators also have to consider the ability of intended audiences to understand and apply what they read. He says the United States has a high level of functional illiteracy, both among native English speakers and non-native populations. TAPE: CUT 3 - LIRTZMAN "You cannot be certain as to the actual reading level capability of many people. So the attempt is being made to reduce the complexity of English which is being used in warnings down to at least a sixth-grade level -- and below if possible -- and also to make certain that under certain circumstances, warnings may be repeated and appear not only in English but may be repeated to a large extent in Spanish." RS: Sidney Lirtzman says warning signs intended for multicultural audiences increasingly use symbols in place of words. He says, for instance, that most people recognize skull- and-cross-bone symbols to mean a poison or toxic hazard. AA: But ten years ago he led a study which found that many commonly used chemical hazard signs were misunderstood. One sign was especially confusing: the silhouette of a man with white dots on his body. RS: The sign warns about a potentially severe allergic reaction to contact with a chemical. But that's not how people in the study saw it. TAPE: CUT 4 - LIRTZMAN/ARDITTI "The most common association which was made and the understanding that they had was that it was a sign for a men's room." AA: "Have they changed that symbol or any of the others that were confusing?" LIRTZMAN: "Mainly what has been done is to try to avoid using it." RS:Professor Lirtzman says the problem is finding a better alternative. AA: And, there's another hazard looming: the Y2K bug. By now most people have heard the warnings that some computers may think the year 2000 is actually the year 1900, and malfunction. RS: Sidney Lirtzman says hazard communicators should now have detailed plans ready to instruct people what to do in a Y2K emergency. TAPE CUT 5 - LIRTZMAN "This should have been done a long time ago, and if it hasn't been done by now, I couldn't see what good it would do to start fooling around now." AA: That was hazard communications expert Sidney Lirtzman. RS: Now for our own alert -- beginning in the New Year we're introducing a new segment on Wordmaster with "Grammar Lady." So send us your grammar questions along with any other questions or comments. Send them to word@voa.gov or to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: Finally, if you still can't decide what to call the coming decade -- in other words, what follows the 'Nineties? -- then listen at this time next week. We'll replay the winning entries in our Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble wishing you a hazard-free New Year! MUSIC:"WILL2K"/Will Smith 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-23-1.cfm
* Headline: December 19, 1999 - Language and the Bible
* Byline: 

 INTRO: A research group says most Americans own Bibles yet few read them. This week our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti turn to a theologian to ask why. RS: The Barna Research Group in California studies Christian-related cultural trends. It says more than ninety percent of homes in America own a Christian Bible. In fact, it says, the typical count is three. AA: But the Barna Research Group says that, outside of church, in a typical week only about one out of three adults reads the Bible. RS:Why not more? TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID SCHOLER "Partly because of its length, partly because of its cultural distance, partly because of its concepts. If one is not schooled in biblical historical reading, the Bible might seem a little off-putting to some people." RS:That's David Scholer, a New Testament scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. AA: He says the King James Version published in 1611 has become the standard against which all other English translations of the New Testament are compared. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID SCHOLER "And, of course it was written in the beautiful English of its time, but that English today is difficult for most English speakers to easily understand and read. And therefore modern translations of the bible help people to understand the bible more clearly." AA: David Scholer says three-hundred-fifty editions of the New Testament have been published within the last century. He says the most successful -- like the New Revised Standard Version -- make changes in language, but remain faithful to the spirit of the original text. RS:Modern translations, he says, use contemporary English and thus avoid obsolete words and expressions that were part of the English language when the King James Version appeared. TAPE CUT THREE: DAVID SCHOLER "Then of course there are the `thee' and the `thou' and the `ye' which in the 17th century were part of how the personal pronouns were declined. And so modern translations don't use the `thee' and the `thou.' They just use 'you.' For a while that was seen by some as disrespectful of God because the `thou' term was used often to refer to the deity, and it was assumed that it had kind of a divine flavor to it." AA: Another major change in modern English translations involves references to gender. For instance, the First Psalm in the King James Version begins: "Blessed is the man." RS: In the 1989 New Revised Standard Version -- known as the R-S-V for short -- that wording became "Happy are those." AA: But efforts to remove male-oriented language went beyond just that. TAPE CUT FOUR: DAVID SCHOLER "Another example from the New Testament is very often the Apostle Paul addresses believers in the church as `brothers.' And so traditional translations would always translate `brothers.' The New R-S-V and many other modern translations would now translate [brothers into] 'brothers and sisters' or sometimes 'friends' in order to show that the term `brothers' as the apostle Paul used it was really meant to refer to all members of the believing community." AA: Though not everyone in the community is happy with changes like that. Many say it's wrong to tamper with the words of the Bible. TAPE CUT FIVE: DAVID SCHOLER/SKIRBLE DAVID SCHOLER: "The issue of the language in the bible is a real issue because it does affect the way people perceive things." RS: "What would you consider the major challenges facing a translator of the Bible?" DAVID SCHOLER: "Translating the Bible is a matter of trying to represent as carefully as possible what an ancient text actually said. Is my translation genuinely accurate to the Hebrew or to the Greek text? At the same time will my translation actually allow the reader today to experience the text as a reader of the original text would have experienced it?" RS: "And that's what bible translators are struggling with everyday." DAVID SCHOLER: "That's what they are struggling with every day. Because language is living, there is an almost irresistible attempt to keep on translating to see if one can do it better, and that's one reason why there are so many translations." AA: David Scholer, associate dean at the Center for Advanced Theological Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. RS: Next week, find out what it takes to put danger into words. Intrigued? Tune in! AA: Wishing you a joyous holiday season, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. ------ HOST: Now for some Wordmaster trivia: Author Joseph Heller, who died this past week, left us all a simple term to describe a helpless, no-win situation: "Catch-22." Originally, though, Heller called his satirical, 1961 anti-war novel "Catch-18." But because Leon Uris was publishing "Mila 18," the title became "Catch-22." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-24-1.cfm
* Headline: December 12, 1999 - Storm Names
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talk about the weather. SFX: STORM SOUNDS AA: Frank, a listener in Shanghai, was blown over by a sentence he read in the newspaper. RS: It said, "Hurricane Irene swept across parts of Florida." AA: Frank is puzzled: After all, isn't Irene a woman's name? RS: It is. But a hurricane is a severe storm that begins in the ocean, and Irene was the name of a hurricane that hit south Florida in October. AA: Frank Lepore at the National Hurricane Center in Miami says the current system of giving both female and male names to tropical storms dates back two decades. TAPE: CUT 1 - LEPORE "Prior to that time, in fact going back to World War Two, military forecasters, navy and air force, used to name typhoons and hurricanes there in the Pacific after women. It was just a convention; a way of keeping storms separated one from the other. And particularly when information was broadcast over long distances, this was helpful in identifying storms." RS: Frank Lepore says the United States for a time used a system where storms were named after their phonetic equivalents ... AA: ... Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy and so forth. But he says the U-S abandoned that system in the mid-1950s and went back to giving storms female names. TAPE CUT TWO: FRANK LEPORE "That persisted from the mid-`50s until about 1977 when they considered a United Nations call for a uniform system of identifying tropical cyclones. And they hit upon the idea of alternating male and female names." RS: In the Western Hemisphere, the United States and 24 other countries must approve storm names. There's a six-year supply, with 21 letters, out of the 26 in the Roman alphabet, used for names each year. AA:The lists are alphabetical, but omit names that begin with the letters Q, U, X, Y or Z. RS: So much for Quentin, Yvonne or Zelda! AA:There's never been a season with more than 21 storms strong enough to deserve a name. If there ever were, scientists would switch to the Greek alphabet. RS: The hurricane season in our part of the world officially runs from May through the end of November. AA: This season the first storm was named Arlene. Most names get re-used, but to avoid confusion, a name may be retired if a storm causes great damage or loss of life. RS: National Hurricane Center spokesman Frank Lepore says names today reflect more than just the English influence on North America. TAPE: CUT 3 - LEPORE "This is a very ecumenical process. We don't want just Anglican names. Over the years the replacement names have tended to be more Spanish, Dutch and French." AA:Yet some names may cause confusion. TAPE: CUT 3 - LEPORE "We had a Hurricane Georges last year, very French. That caused considerable economic damage here in Key West, Florida. They retired that name, it was replaced by a similar French name, Gaston. So we've at least kept the French flavor there. But many people had trouble pronouncing Georges." AA: "They thought it was George." LEPORE: "Right. Or the French Canadian Georges (`zheor-zhis)." AA: "And it was actually pronounced?" LEPORE: "Georges (zhe-`or-zhe)." RS: You name it, if you have a question about American English, send by it e-mail to word@voa.gov. AA: Or by postal mail to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Stormy Weather"/Lena Horn 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-25-1.cfm
* Headline: December 5, 1999 - Trade Talk
* Byline: 

 INTRO: The jargon used at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle led our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti to ask an economist for help in deciphering the A-B-C's of the W-T-O. AA: You might have felt a little square ... RS: meaning unsophisticated AA: ... if you didn't understand all the references at the world trade talks to a new "round." TAPE CUT ONE: MICHAEL FINGER "The word simply means a negotiation." RS: That's Michael Finger, lead economist for trade policy at the World Bank in Washington. AA: He's a thirty-year veteran of the language of international trade. TAPE CUT TWO: MICHAEL FINGER "The negotiations are broken into parts or rounds because the international community agrees to negotiate on certain topics. Once they have exhausted that list of topics, then either the negotiations end or negotiations begin to identify a new set of topics, which is taken up. The Uruguay Round completed negotiations on one set of topics. We are now in a period of trying to agree on a new set of topics." AA: As trade ministers from 135 nations gathered in Seattle, they couldn't even agree on what a new round would be called. The European Union proposed the "Millennium Round." RS: But, U-S Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky lobbied for the "Clinton Round." Others wanted the "Seattle Round." AA: Now here's a real tongue-twister among trade negotiators: "multifunctionality." It refers to the different functions served by agriculture in addition to food production. RS:.like the protection of the environment or preservation of rural economies and communities. World Bank economist Michael Finger says the European Union and Japan use "multifunctionality" to justify farm subsidies. TAPE CUT FOUR: MICHAEL FINGER/ARDITTI AA: "Some would say it is another term for protectionism." MICHAEL FINGER: "Some would say that, yes. But the W-T-O has many concepts and terms that when pushed for a precise meaning turn out to be pretty much an attempt to cover over ordinary protectionism with a better veneer." RS: That brings us to one of the hottest buzzwords in global circles: "transparency." Our dictionary defines it as "easy to see through." AA: But, economist Michael Finger from the World Bank says trade negotiators use the word to describe the degree to which trade policies and practices are open and predictable. TAPE CUT FIVE: MICHAEL FINGER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI MICHAEL FINGER: "The rules have to be applied. To apply the rules requires a court and a judge to decide whether or not the particular circumstance is consistent with the law. Transparency refers to the amount of information which is available to the public generally on what transpires in these investigations and reviews which ultimately lead to a determination by the W-T-O that, say, U-S restrictions on imports of tuna from Mexico are not legal under the (W-T-O) rules." RS: "So use `transparency' in the W-T-O sense. " AA: "In a sentence." MICHAEL FINGER: "If all of us knew more about what documents, what facts and what opinions went into the WTO decision in the tuna case, the system would be more transparent." RS: "Meaning?" MICHAEL FINGER: "Meaning we would know more about the evidence and how the evidence was interpreted by the judges." AA: Economist Michael Finger at the World Bank. For the hundreds of trade words we didn't discuss, we refer you to the glossary on the WTO web site at www.wto.org. RS: If you have a question about American English, send it to word@voa.gov or to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: And we hope you'll send along your questions for "Grammar Lady" who will be joining us in the new year for a new monthly feature. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-26-1.cfm
* Headline: November 28, 1999 - Navajo Code Talkers
* Byline: 

 INTRO: To mark Native American History Month, our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti talk with a World War Two Navajo code talker. SFX: NAVAJO CODE OVER RADIO RS: Before modern computer encryption, the U-S Marine Corps used a group of American Indians to talk their way past Japanese code breakers. AA: Four-hundred Navajos served as code talkers. They used their spoken tribal language as a secret code against Japanese forces in the Pacific. The Japanese broke other American codes, but never this one. RS: Albert Smith followed his brothers into the service in 1943. He was 15. Only he didn't tell the Marines that, because they would have told him to wait till he was 17 to enlist. AA: During training the Marines offered Albert Smith a chance to join the Navajo code talkers. But first he had to pass a test. TAPE: CUT 1 - SMITH/SKIRBLE SMITH: "We had so many words in English and in Navajo to memorize on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And on Friday we were given the exam of all those words." RS: "How did it actually work in practice? How did you actually use this code during the conflict?" SMITH: "What they did for us to use it and to memorize it as quickly as possible is, they took the basic military vocabulary, and instead of using Able, Baker, Charlie as the alphabet, they used the plant names, animal names, fruits and clan systems." AA: For instance, the Navajo word for "clan" was substituted for the word "corps" (C-O-R-P-S) - - as in the United States Marine Corps. TAPE: CUT 2 - SMITH "(speaks in Navajo) That's `Code Talker 3C to Code Talker 3B, here's the message.'" SFX: CODE OVER RADIO RS: The code talker receiving the message had to translate each word into English. Then he would use the first letter of that English equivalent to spell an English word. AA: Not every word had to be spelled out. Hundreds of common military terms did not exist in Navajo language... RS: So a submarine would become, in Navajo, an "iron fish" and a fighter plane a "hummingbird." A commanding general was a "war chief." AA: Albert Smith was one of two code talkers to go ashore for the famous Marine landing at Iwo Jima. RS: In lectures he gives across the United States about his role in World War II, Albert Smith is frequently asked why, as a Navajo Indian, he joined the fight to protect a country with a history of oppression of Native Americans. TAPE: CUT 3 - SMITH "My response to that is, I'm an American, native, and my way of looking at it is, I did not do it for sacraments of people, I did it for Mother Earth, because Mother Earth means everything to us, it means all the freedom people talk about, the way of life, and another foreign country wanted all that to be taken away from us, so that was my way of looking at it." AA: Albert Smith, speaking to us from Gallup, New Mexico, where a museum honors the Navajo code talkers. RS: To reach Avi and me, write to word@voa.gov or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: And when you do, ask us any grammar questions you might have. We're planning a new monthly Wordmaster segment with an expert on English grammar who calls herself "Grammar Lady"! RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-27-1.cfm
* Headline: July 18, 1999 - George Carlin
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble put some humor into the obsure -- and often misunderstood -- language of official Washington with guidance from a popular American comedian. AA: George Carlin can say some outrageous things -- years ago the US Supreme Court found his "seven filthy words" monolgue "indecent." RS: But when he stopped at the National Press Club in Washington not long ago, George Carlin had other words to say. TAPE: CUT ONE -- CARLIN "I'm not here to advance any political, social or environmental cause. I am, in fact, blessedly agenda-free. I don't want to save the river. I don't want to save the bay. I don't want to save the canyon, the whale, the wetlands, the rainforest, or the flying, spotted dwarf something-or-other. I don't want to save the children, above all. (laughter & Applause) frankly, I don't care about many of those things. Between you and me, those battles were lost a long time ago." RS: Dressed in black with his hair in a pony tail, George Carlin kept the Washington press corps -- including VOA's Keming Kuo -- laughing with his observations on how the politicians and lawyers in Washington speak. AA: He says they use a lot of obscure terms and phrases to avoid saying anything substantive. TAPE: CUT TWO -- CARLIN "They don't actually say things. They indicate them: 'as I indicated yesterday, and as the president indicated to me . . . ' Sometimes they don't indicate; they suggest: 'let me suggest, as I indicated yesterday . . . I haven't determined that yet.' They don't decide; they determine. If it's a really serious matter, they Make a judgment: 'I haven't made a judgment on that. When the hearings have concluded, I will Make a judgment or I might Make an assessment. I'm not sure; I haven't determined that yet. But when I do, I'll advise you. ' They don't tell, they advise: 'I advised him that I had made a judgment. Thus far, he hasn't responded. ' They don't answer; they respond: 'he hasn't responded to my intiative . . . ' An initiative is an idea that isn't going anywhere." [laughter] RS: George Carlin added that when legislation is delayed or a project is taking too long, some more terms come into use: TAPE: CUT THREE -- CARLIN "That's a big activity in Washington: proceeding. They're always proceeding or moving forward. A lot of that goes on: 'Senator, have you solved that problem. Well, we're moving forward on that. ' And when they're not moving forward, they're moving something else forward . . . Such as the process: 'We have to move the process forward so we can implement the provisions of the initiative in order to meet these challenges. ' No one has problems anymore. Challenges. That's why we need people who can make the tough decisions. Tough decisions like: 'How much soft money can I expect to collect in exchange for my core values?'" AA: George Carlin says political scandal or wrongdoing calls for yet another set of euphemisms. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- CARLIN "When they're in trouble, their explanations usually begin simply with words like miscommunication: 'What did you do wrong, senator? Well, it was a miscommunication.' Or: 'I was quoted out of context. ' Better yet, and more ironic: 'They twisted my words.' Such a nice touch. A person who routinely spends his days torturing the language complains, 'they twisted my words.' [laughter] Then, as the controversy continues to heat up, he moves to his next level of complaint: 'The whole thing has been blown out of proportion. ' It's always the whole thing. Apparently no one has ever claimed that a small portion of something was blown out of proportion. It has to be the whole thing." RS: That's comedian George Carlin, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington. He was in town promoting the paperback edition of his book "Brain Droppings," a collection of humorous euphemisms. AA: You can listen to Wordmaster each week at this same time. We welcome your questions or comments. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 29547 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-28-1.cfm
* Headline: July 4, 1999 - Declaration of Independence Dispute
* Byline: 

 INTRO: As Americans celebrate their nation's birthday this Fourth of July, our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble look at a contemporary dispute involving the Declaration of Independence. Music: patriotic music AA: On July fourth, 1776, the American colonies approved a document written by Thomas Jefferson, declaring their freedom from Britain. Americans traditionally observe independence day with lots of hoopla. But this year the words of Thomas Jefferson also are setting off fireworks of a different kind. RS: There's debate over a bill in the state of New Jersey to require schoolchildren to recite two sentences from the declaration of independence each day. AA: These are the two sentences: RS: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." AA: Critics of the New Jersey bill say these historical words are out of step with the times. The language, they say, is insensitive to women and minorities. RS: Supporters see it otherwise. TAPE: CUT ONE: MICHAEL CARROLL "Our students, I think, our children, are not getting a sufficient sense these days of what makes it special to be an American, and in these two short sentences, these fifty-six words, Jefferson distills the essence of what America is all about." AA: Michael Patrick Carroll sponsored the bill in the New Jersey assembly. TAPE: CUT TWO: MICHAEL CARROLL "The fact is that this is the basic founding document of America, and how it can be controversial 223 years after the fact is astonishing to me." RS: Another member of the assembly, Nia ('nee-ah) Gill, an African-American woman, proposed a requirement that students also hear from two other important documents -- for historical context. TAPE: CUT TWO: NIA GILL "My amendment really goes to the issue of, if you are going to read this portion of the Declaration of Independence, then you should also read the pertinent portions of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery and the 19th Amendment that gives women the right to vote. We understand that the 13th Amendment is a national acknowledgement of the persons who were excluded from the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, because the Declaration of Independence, when written, was written by slaveowners and fathers of slave children, and it was for the benefit only of white men and white men who had property." AA: Assemblywoman Nia Gill also proposed an alternative: replacing the references to "men" in the passage from the Declaration of Independence with references to "people" -- as in "all people are created equal" -- so girls would not feel excluded. RS: Assemblyman Michael Carroll reacted to that idea when he recently appeared with Nia Gill on NBC's "Today" show. TAPE: CUT THREE: MICHAEL CARROLL/NIA GILL CARROLLl: "As the father of an 8-year-old girl who doesn't feel excluded, and as the father of a little girl who understands that the English language which evolved over many years, over many centuries, meant that the word 'men' as used by Thomas Jefferson included all of us, no one should ever feel excluded by this. The fact of the matter is that we in our politically correct, ultrasensitive, quick-to-take offense days would amend Mr. Jefferson's prose -- talk about being historically accurate, this would be historically inaccurate. To the extent that a teacher feels the need to explain that 'men' means 'all of us,' fine." GILL: "but if we're being historically accurate, then the words when they were written by Thomas Jefferson historically excluded black people -- " CARROLL: "Actually, that's nonsense." GILL: "I would have been owned as a piece of chattel. And it also excluded women and it also excluded people who did not own property." CARROLL: "All three of those contentions are nonsense." GILL: "I don't think that the assemblyman can really challenge the historical accuracy of that." CARROLL: "I absolutely can. The fact of the matter is Jefferson included a very strong anti-slavery provision in his first draft of the declaration of independence. If you can point to any words in the sentences that I have suggested be read that in any way, shape or form even hints that they exclude blacks, I'd be interested in seeing that." GILL: "I think that when you talk about a historical document, being defined by the people who wrote it, at that time Thomas Jefferson, not withstanding his position on slavery, was a slaveowner and we also know that he was a father of slave children." CARROLL: "True, so he might stand justly accused of being a hypocrite but he can't stand justly accused of penning anything other than a great oratory in support of the rights of us all." AA: In the end, the New Jersey assembly voted last month to pass the bill requiring schoolkids to recite from the declaration of independence. Nia Gill's amendment was rejected. The bill is now having a tough time in the state Senate, with further action not expected until later this year. RS: That's it for Wordmaster this fourth of July independence holiday weekend. You can reach us by e-mail -- our address is word@voa.gov. And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20547 USA. AA: with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-29-1.cfm
* Headline: June 27, 1999 - Fashion Terms
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti look at a fashion wave that has altered the fabric of American English. MUSIC -- "California Girls"/Beach Boys RS: Those California girls who inspired that classic Beach Boys song from the '60s had sleek tan bodies, blond hair and lived in the sun, surf and sand of the Pacific Ocean. Today the California lifestyle continues to Make waves in the world of fashion. AA: Valerie Steele is a historian at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She says the idealized California way of life has given us words that resonate far beyond America's West Coast. TAPE: CUT ONE: VALERIE STEELE "A lot of these terms are used even internationally. I am sitting here with copies of 'Italian Vogue' (magazine) and the cover of 'Men's Italian Vogue' has the English word, 'surfing' in English on the front. You've got a sense of the surfing feeling, sort of impregnating modern fashion, a sense of freedom, youth and new techno (high tech) materials." RS: In the language of fashion the style of dressing is called California casual. So, let's get practical. What if you're invited to a party and asked to come dressed "California causal." TAPE: CUT TWO: VALERIE STEELE/ARDITTI Valerie Steele: "you might wear, flip-flops, for example." AA: "Which are?" Valerie Steele: "which are those thong sandals with a little piece between your two first toes. And those would imply a beach casual lifestyle. I remember ten years ago being appalled seeing people wearing them on the street in New York. But, now of course that is perfectly acceptable because this California casual has spread. And, you might wear a little slip dress or a pair of long baggy shorts whether you are male or female. Pastel colors, florals, things that are generally light and happy." RS: Casual fashion has also made its way into the workplace, along with the language associated with it. Many office workers have what's called "casual" or "dress-down Friday" at the end of the work week when employees and their supervisors are free to dress more informally. AA: Valerie Steele says the style got its start in California, not on the beach, but in the high-tech world of the Silicon Valley. TAPE: CUT THREE: VALERIE STEELE "It seems to have spread from there to a variety of American businesses, partly because it seems to fit in with a democratic ethos in America. You can sort of pretend on Fridays that the CEO (chief executive officer) isn't making 200 times the salary that you are. It hasn't really spread that far in Europe, but it has definitely become entrenched in America and is spreading out from Friday to all of the work days." RS: Turning from the causal to the more traditional office wear, Valerie Steele says she's beginning to hear the term "suits" used as a derogotary remark to describe the people who wear them. TAPE: CUT FOUR: VALERIE STEELE "It is strange because a suit is something that has been the paramount prestige uniform for men, and for executive men and gradually also for executive women. And yet there is also a certain ambivalence people feel towards executives, bosses, those who are perceived of as wearing the suits. Also, there has been a sense that the guys in the suits maybe they are not as hip, as sexy and desirable in some way as other more working class or casual guys. So there has been a sense that the 'suits' were stiff, old fashioned like the man in the gray flannel suit." AA: Valerie Steele at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Whatever your style, we'd love to hear from you, and Make your comments a part of our broaDCast. Address your questions about American English to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA, or send e-mail to word@voa.gov. RS: Surf's up and we're out of here! with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Music -- "Surfing USA"/Beach Boys 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-30-1.cfm
* Headline: June 13, 1999 - English Spelling
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week, our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble give some hints on learning how to spell in English. AA: Let's start with an expert speller. Fourteen-year-old Nupur Lala qualifies. The eighth-grader from Tampa, Florida, won the 72nd annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington. RS: She won the competition on June third by spelling the word "logorrhea." TAPE: CUT ONE: SPELLING BEE Nupur Lala: "May I have a definition." Man: "This is pathologically excessive and often incoherent talkativeness." Nupur Lala: "'Logorrhea. May I have a sentence please." Man: "The patient's logorrhea was indicative of deep emotional problems." Nupur Lala: "Logorrhea. L-o-g-o-r-r-h-e-a." Judge: "That is correct." RS: America's new spelling bee champ, nupur lala, won ten-thousand dollars and other prizes. She is an adolescent inspiration for anyone who may find it hard learning how to spell in English. AA: John Algeo is a linguist, writer and retired professor from the university of Georgia. He says, don't get discouraged -- spelling is tough even for native speakers of English. TAPE: CUT TWO: JOHN ALGEO "All of the homophones in English words, which were at one time pronounced differently but have fallen together in their pronunciation, they are often quite small words that are difficult. So, the various 'to's' in English, the t-o, t-o-o and t-w-o are hard for native speakers. Not that they don't know the difference between the words, but that if one is writing quickly it is hard to remember which spelling to put down. And especially difficult for native speakers are words that come ultimately from Latin sources which have double letters in them. One doesn't know which letters are doubled and which are not, because we don't pronounce the double letters, normally. For example, one of the most misspelled words in the English language among educated English speakers is 'accommodation. '" AA: Which for the record is spelled a-c-c-o-m-m-o-d-a-t-I-o-n. RS: That's two c's and two m's. You would know that, says John Algeo, if you knew something about the history of the word and its Latin roots. TAPE: CUT THREE: JOHN ALGEO "Then you know that the first com, 'c-o-m' is the preposition and then the next m-o-d is part of the Latin word 'modis' or 'mode. ' So, once farmilar with the history of the word and the structure of the words, then the spelling of at least those words from Latin becomes easier." RS: John Algeo tells us that knowing another language helps a lot too. TAPE: CUT FOUR: JOHN ALGEO/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE ALGEO: "German, for example. That's very helpful in knowing the native English spelling patterns. And, of course, if one knows something about the romance languages and particularly Latin which is their source, then a great many of the other words are actually sometimes easier for foreigners to spell than they are for native speakers provided they are from a European background." AA: "And, what if they from an Asian or African background." ALGEO: "that's much more difficult. Speakers of Asian and African languages, if they are not familiar with one of the European languages, then of course have a really hard time with English spelling." RS: And, you might have some trouble understanding why some words in American English are spelled differently from the same words in British English. AA: Like the word "color." The British favor the French-like spelling with an -ou -- so they spell it c-o-l-o-u-r. Americans, on the other hand, have adopted the single -o, c-o-l-o-r, which is simpler. John Algeo explains how that happened. TAPE: CUT FIVE: JOHN ALGEO "People often think that Americans changed English spelling. That's not the case. Both those spellings c-o-l-o-u-r and c-o-l-o-r were around during the 16th and 17th centuries. It's just that Britain settled on one, and we settled on the other." RS: That's your spelling lesson for today. We welcome your questions about American English. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Spelling Bee Romance"/Darrell Scott 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-31-1.cfm
* Headline: June 6, 1999 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters answer some listener mail. Music: "Please, Mr. Postman"/The Marvelettes AA: I'm Avi Arditti ... RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble, and today we catch up on some of the mail you've been sending us. AA: We start with a listener in Tokyo. Chiaki Kotori wrote us to comment on our recent report about the language of war. RS: "I am really happy to tune into today's topic on military language used in the NATO briefings," Chiaki Kotori says. "I've learned a lot about doublespeak and simply 'soft' words while listening to the spokesmen. So many words used during the briefing are ambiguous and dangerously evasive when it comes to crucial information. As an English teacher, I've wanted to get more insights into the linguistic aspect of this crisis." AA: Also last month, we talked about using poetry to teach English as a foreign language. We interviewed a teacher who uses the poem "Honeybees" by Paul Fleischman to encourage students to write stories of their own. RS: "Honeybees" tells a story from two perspectives: Being a bee is a joy AA: is a pain RS: I'm a queen AA: I'm a worker RS & AA: I'll gladly explain. AA: and we did -- we recited the whole poem! RS: That prompted this poem by Xu Jian-Mei at the United Nations International School of Hanoi: "I want to be a bee/ I want to be a queen/ but I am a kite/ in other's hand/ flying without thread/ destination then lost." AA: In another program we discovered that the English word "cootie" came from "kutu," the Malay word for lice. RS: After our report, we heard from an American couple, the Eastmans in western Australia: AA: "Several years ago . . . We were living in the west Australian coastal community of Onslow and became aware that a local aboriginal word for cooties is/was 'gulu' ... There are several aboriginal dialects represented in that community so I cannot certify as from which the word gulu originally derived." RS: University of Hawaii linguistics Professor Byron Bender told us that the word "kutu" has spread throughout the South Sea language family. So it's not surprising that "gulu" sounds a little like "kutu." AA: From China we received this e-mail from a self-described loyal listener of VOA News Now. RS: Lcren Lo writes, "Wordmaster is among the features that I love most, though it is very short and only once a week. ... Although my English is second to none in my class, I am ashamed by the fact that I don't know how to pronounce a widely used abbreviation of a Latin word 'eg,' which is the abbreviation of 'exempli gratia. ' So I write to you for help." AA: Well, rosanne just answered your question -- it's pronounced e-g. RS: From somewhere out in cyberspace came this e-mail from a listener named Donald. AA: Donald writes, "If I had time, I will always listen to your program. But it's not convenient for me on your schedule. Can you distribute your program by e-mail." RS: Not by e-mail, but you can find our scripts on the VOA web site, www.voa.gov. You can also hear us on the internet as part of the VOA News Now audio feed. AA: Before we close, we heard back from one of the many listeners who entered our recent Name the Next Decade Contest. RS: Charlotte Leo in Malta writes, "Hi!, I wish to thank you very much for the gifts you sent me. The bag is great, but I especially like the hat. I'm from upstate New York, where we don't wear hats as a rule (as the sun makes a rare appearance now and then). So now that I'm here in Malta I've developed a need for protection. And what a fashionable way to go. White with a braid trim and all. Thank you so much!" AA: Well, thank you, Charlotte, and everyone else who's written us. Sorry if we couldn't read all your letters on the air, but if we do read yours, you will receive a VOA souvenir. You can write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. RS: Make sure to include your phone number if you'd like us to call you! until next week, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-32-1.cfm
* Headline: May 30, 1999 - Slangman: Techno-Slang
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble get a crash course on the growing links between computer words and everyday speech. Cd: "Make a Circuit with Me"/Polecats AA: Computers are everywhere these days -- and so is computer lingo. Some words are adapted from everyday speech. RS: But this language circuit flows both ways. Everyday speech is also beginning to buzz with words from the computer world -- for instance, "multitasking." AA: For an explanation, we turn to our expert on slang, David Burke in Los Angeles. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE "'Multitasking' simply means for a computer to be able to operate several programs at the same time, which was a real innovation in the computer world. But people are starting to use that more and more in everyday speech. They'll say something like, if you can do the laundry, Make phone calls and take care of business at the same time, you're multitasking." SFX -- computer sounds RS: But what if your computer is sick. AA: Rosanne, it feels awfully warm. . . RS: Oh no -- maybe it has a virus! TAPE: CUT TWO -- BURKE "I can remember when that first came out, I was thinking, how can a computer catch a virus. Well, a virus of course is now some program that is snuck into your computer by the internet. Often times when you go to a web site, automatically information is put into your computer from that web site and this little virus can attack your computer and actually change programs and ruin your computer. AA: While the word "virus" has gone high-tech, David Burke says some people use computer jargon to describe a system problem of a different nature. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BURKE "You'e heard the expressions to 'download' and to 'upload'. Well, teen-agers are now using the term upload. For example, they'll say something like, 'I ate so much I feel like I'm going to upload. ' RS: Meaning to throw up! but when a computer uploads, that means it sends a file to another computer. Downloading is the reverse; it means to bring a file into your computer. AA: Computer language is even influencing what people call the punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. David Burke says people increasingly say "dot" instead of "period." After all, you don't say period-com, you say dot-com in giving the address for a commercial web site. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BURKE "Now the term dot is also being used in secretarial schools. Instead of saying period when you read back a paragraph, you'll say dot. I first heard it in the computer world." RS: As we said, it goes both ways. Take the word "surfing." David Burke traces its evolution, starting with the traditional meaning. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- BURKE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE BURKE: "To surf, well of course that's just surfing on a wave. Before computers I would hear the expression 'to channel surf. ' Now you know what that means. AA: "To graze across the TV channels." RS: "To take your remote clicker and go across all the channels." BURKE: "Right, you're channel surfing. Well, now we have 'surfing the web,' which is kind of an interesting visual because you picture a big spider web and someone surfing across it. But surfing the web is incredibly popular, that's a kind of term that really everybody knows, not just a computer geek -- ah, another slang term." AA: 'We should point out, the web being the World Wide Web, the www part of the internet that carries pictures and sound and files." BURKE: "And the reason they call it the Web is because if one part of the web breaks down, your e-mail can always get through because it's rerouted to another part of the web." AA: You can use your modem to visit David Burke on the internet, at www.slangman.com. You can find more information about the terms he used today, and also learn about the language books that David writes. Again, the address is slangman.com. RS: And our address if you'd like to send us e-mail is word@VOA. Gov, or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-33-1.cfm
* Headline: May 23, 1999 - Pacific Island Words
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti take us back to the islands of the Pacific this week for a lesson in language. Music -- "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini"/Brian Hyland RS: I can remember singing about that "itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polkadot bikini" as a kid in summer camp, back in 1960 when that song was a hit. Little did we realize what a fashion statement we were making! AA: Back then it was a shock to see women on the beach wearing itsy bitsy bikinis -- small two-piece bathing suits. Today the bikini is a part of American popular culture. But what most Americans probably don't know is where the word itself comes from. RS: It comes all the way from the Marshall Islands. That's what University of Hawaii linguistics Professor Byron Bender told us. TAPE: CUT ONE: BYRON BENDER/SKIRBLE BENDER: "In the Marshalls it is the word 'pikinni,' the name of the island where early atomic testing took place. The name literally means 'surface of coconuts.'" RS: "How did the name of an island get attached to a two-piece bathing suit." Byron Bender: "I gather the bathing suit for its time was rather explosive or atomic let's say. That was the image." AA: Now here's another image, one that strikes fear in the hearts of schoolchildren -- to be accused of having "cooties," real or imaginary. RS: "Cooties" is another favorite on Byron Bender's list of "loan words" from the pacific islands. It means lice. TAPE: CUT TWO: BYRON BENDER "This is a word that has come into English from the Malay language where the word is 'kutu,' k-u-t-u, and I assume that British (colonial) soldiers out in the Malays one way or another encountered these little creatures, and they dubbed them cootie. Now, the -ie ending gives them a kind of diminutive, but of course, 'kutu' are quite small." RS: But the story doesn't end there. Byron Bender told us that "kutu" or cootie also surfaced in Hawaii as the name of a popular musical instrument resembling the guitar. TAPE: CUT THREE: BYRON BENDER "I'm sure that most Americans know what a ukulele is. Here in Hawaii we call it the ukulele without the /yuh/ on the front end of the word. Ukulele literally is dancing flea, or dancing louse. So that /kutu/ has become in hawaiian /uku/. And, I suppose it has to do with the fingers dancing on the strings of the ukulele." AA: Byron Bender says Malay is also credited with the word "compound" meaning a settlement or a village. The Malay language has also given us the name for a primate that looks a lot like a human. "Orangutan" means "person of the forest. RS: turning from the islands of Malaysia, Byron Bender says English also derives a number of words from the Asian subcontinent. TAPE: CUT FOUR: BYRON BENDER "Again the British (colonial) experience has brought back into the English language words like 'veranda' and 'pajamas. ' Another word that many people aren't aware of comes ultimately from the Indian subcontinent is the word pal, p-a-l for buddy, and actually that comes not from Hindi, but from a sister language of Hindi, a language called Romani which is the language of the gypsies. That's especially interesting because it shows us where the gypsies originated from, from the subcontinent of Indian. But the word 'pal' comes from the word for brother in Romani." AA: Byron Bender from the University of Hawaii says words come to the United States with successive waves of immigrants, and when people travel or work abroad and bring the words home. RS: Words like bikini, cootie, veranda, compound, orangutan, pajamas and pal. AA: Be a pal and write to us. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. Or you can reach us electronically -- our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Music -- "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-34-1.cfm
* Headline: February 18, 2001 - Slangman: Power Slang
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "The Power"/Snap RS: This is Rosanne Skirble, with Avi Arditti, and this week on Wordmaster -- get charged up with some power slang! We've been following news of the California energy crisis, and since we have a slang expert on the scene with energy to spare, we challenged him to generate some energy-related slang. AA: We're talking, of course, about "Slangman" David Burke, who comes to us each month from the VOA bureau in Los Angeles. TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE BURKE: "Avi, when you wrote this e-mail to me, at first I thought, OK he's lost his mind. How much slang could there be in this category? There is a ton! So let's talk about a few expressions that have to do with energy and shortages and electricity. For some reason, in the United States, and I don't know if this is true around the world, if someone has a great idea -- and we see this on television or a cartoon or a cartoon strip -- what appears over their head?" SKIRBLE: "A bubble -- a light bulb!" BURKE: "A light bulb. There's the light bulb -- see, the light bulb just turned on." SKIRBLE: "I was thinking of the little, you know ..." ARDITTI: "Caption." SKIRBLE: "Caption -- thank you. Then the light bulb is over the head, that's the picture, the bigger picture." ARDITTI: "Your bubble got short-circuited." BURKE: "'To get short-circuited' -- that's a great one also. For example, 'our plans got short-circuited.' Well, in the world of electricity, if something gets short-circuited it stops working because electricity is running the wrong way or getting routed to the wrong place. Well, your plans can get short-circuited, which means they suddenly are no longer good, your plans have to change, they have been short-circuited. Here's another one, which we're not allowed to do here in Los Angeles now because of the energy shortage: the worst thing you could do is go out, leave your house and the lights are still on. We have an expression, what is that if someone is crazy?" ARDITTI: "Oh yeah ... " BURKE: "'The lights are on, but nobody's home.' (laughter) We wouldn't want that to happen, that's a really bad one." SKIRBLE: "You're not really aware of what's going on." BURKE: "Also, if the lights aren't working very well because of the electricity, it's a blackout. A blackout is where all the lights go off. In fact, if a person has too much to drink, they could experience a blackout also, which means fainting. "And, if all of a sudden you have a power outage as the elevator is going up, well, you could say this about someone: 'The elevator doesn't go quite up to the top,' which means that person isn't really very intelligent." ARDITTI: "Sort of 'in the dark.' That's a little different." BURKE: "To be 'in the dark' means you are unaware of what's happening." SKIRBLE: "You don't have a clue." BURKE: "Yes, another good expression. Not to have a clue and to be in the dark both mean 'I don't know what's going on. 'Tell me -- what happened yesterday at work? I'm in the dark, I don't have a clue.'" RS: And if that's the case -- say you're asking a co-worker about something that happened at work -- then what you don't want to hear is that the boss "pulled the plug" on that big project of yours. AA: To "pull the plug," of course, literally means to pull a power cord out of the electric socket. Figuratively it means to end something suddenly or let it die a merciful death. Now if that happens at work and you become really angry, your co-workers might describe you as having "blown a fuse." RS: One place you don't want to blow a fuse is at a "power lunch," where important people chew over important business along with their food. And what with all those influential men in their bright "power ties" and women in their "power suits," some might even find themselves "charged up." TAPE: CUT TWO -- SKIRBLE/BURKE/ARDITTI BURKE: "To be 'all charged up,' to be excited -- 'I get a real charge out of you,' that means I really get excited by you." SKIRBLE: "Aw ..." BURKE: "'I get a charge out of you.' Or what we say now, this is very common -- remember, these words did not exist before electricity, these are all brand-new slang -- brand new, over the last one-hundred years -- if we 'zap' something, it's in the microwave. 'Give it a zap.' My mother always says that. 'Just put it in the microwave and give it a zap.' If you're tired, you're on 'E' or 'I've run out of gas.'" MUSIC: "Running on Empty"/Jackson Browne AA: Fill up on Slangman again next week -- he'll answer some listener mail. In the meantime, David Burke says if you want to learn more about how Americans REALLY speak, check out his books on slang and idioms at slangman.com ... that's S-L-A-N-G-M-A-N dot com. RS: Or send your questions to Avi and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our address for e-mail is word@voanews.com. Time to run! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Running on Empty"/Jackson Browne 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-35-1.cfm
* Headline: February 25, 2001 - Slangman: Listener Questions
* Byline: 

 MUSIC "Get Off of My Cloud"/Rolling Stones (lyrics) "Hey! You! Get off of my cloud/ Don't hang around, baby, two's a crowd." RS: Two's a crowd on a cloud? I'm Rosanne Skirble with Avi Arditti and this week on Wordmaster we answer some mail -- starting with a question from a listener in Nanjing, China, who is curious about one cloud in particular. AA: "How come 'on cloud nine' means happy?" Deming Liu asks us by e-mail. We wondered about that, too, and we asked Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles to help us out. TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "Here's what I discovered to be on cloud nine. I discovered that, depending on what religion or spiritual beliefs you have there are nine levels of consciousness. And the ninth level is nirvana, the highest level. This is what I read in one of my resources. So, if you are on cloud three or seven, well, they are not good enough. But cloud nine is the highest level. You can't get much better than that. It's euphoria. It's paradise. It's heaven. RS: And it's just one common explanation for why cloud nine like a lot of old sayings, the origin appears to be a bit up in the air. OK, if "cloud nine" is heavenly, then just what do you look like if you are "dressed to the nines"? AA: Ajayi Olujide of Kwara State, Nigeria, knows what that means to be "dressed to the nines" is to be dressed in your fanciest clothing -- the question is: why? Again the explanations vary, ranging from numerology (some people equate nine with perfection) to the idea that what you really dress up to is the "eines," the old English word for eyes. And it doesn't stop there. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE SKIRBLE: "What about the expression, another nine expression, 'the whole nine yards'?" DAVID BURKE: "I would imagine that one comes from (American) football. Wouldn't you think so?" AA: No, says our producer Kevin Raiman, who renovates homes in his spare time. The "whole nine yards" is a term he hears around construction sites. RS: He says the expression refers to the capacity of cement mixers. TAPE CUT THREE: RAIMAN/BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI KEVIN RAIMAN: "So somebody would say, 'That's the whole nine yards.'" SKIRBLE: "Where did you learn that?" DAVID BURKE: "I was going to say, he's the only person in the United States that knows that." KEVIN RAIMAN: "No, every construction person born before 1950 knows it because there were some situations where the construction companies were trying to skim some (cement) off the top (in other words, cheat). (They) wouldn't put a whole nine yards of concrete in the truck, and they would charge you for the whole nine yards. So people got wise to that, and said, 'I want the whole nine yards." AA/RS/BURKE: "AH! Very good, that's great." AA: "Next question, from Cameroon. Mohamadou Ousmanou would like to know the meaning of 'gotcha!' G-O-T-C-H-A" DAVID BURKE: "What is really interesting to me is that 'gotcha' is actually a reduction of 'got' and 'you.' In common, everyday spoken American English if the letter 'y' is preceded by a 't' we often pronounce it like a 'cha' sound. 'I will let you have it,' becomes 'I will 'letcha' have it.' So, 'I got you' is 'I 'gotcha'.' Now some reductions are so common they are actually seen in dictionaries and in books in the reduced form. So, let's take a look at this. 'Gotcha' means a few different things. For example it means that 'I succeeded in tricking you.' Let's say I say to you something like, 'Isn't that your car rolling down the hill?' And you say, 'What?' and I say, 'Gotcha!' It just means I tricked you didn't I!" SKIRBLE: "It's a joke!" DAVID BURKE: "(Yes,) it's just a joke!" It also means, 'I have you.' Like to a little child you (might) sneak up behind him and say, 'I gotcha.'" It means I have you. I have a hold of you. It also means I understand . . . 'I gotcha.' That's a common thing we hear. It simply means, 'I got or I have received and understand what you're saying,' 'I gotcha.'" RS: And there's a new term when politicians accuse each other or journalists of doing something unfair in order to harm a reputation. It's called "political gotcha." TAPE: CUT THREE -- CONTINUED ARDITTI: "I remember when I started seeing that word and thought, why isn't there a 'y' in there (as in) 'gotchya' like (got) chya? But this is the spelling you see everywhere. G-O-T-C-H-A. Now teachers, though, if they see it in an essay may not like it. They may think it's slang or a reduced form." DAVID BURKE: "Yes, absolutely! That's why you need to know that (also) in spoken (or written) language there is a time and a place for everything. There is a casual language. So if you are writing to a friend and want to say, 'gotcha,' that's fine. But, if you are writing it in an essay, you don't want to use it. The same thing (would apply) if you were in an interview, a professional situation. You would want to make sure that you are using very correct English and not a lot of slang. But if you don't use a lot of slang when you are talking to a friend you are going to sound too formal." RS: Slangman David Burke comes to us from VOA's Los Angeles studio. Slangman says if you want to learn more about how Americans REALLY speak you should check out his books on slang and idioms at www.slangman.com. AA: You can also address your questions to us at word@voanews.com or to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. Got that? With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC "I'VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN"/Frank Sinatra 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-01-36-1.cfm
* Headline: October 15, 2000 - Slangman: Business Slang
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Now let's get down to business with VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. MUSIC "Organization Man"/Frank Loesser AA: To succeed in any organization, it helps to speak the language, in this case the language of business. And since most business is conducted in a formal setting, you might think your speaking style should be formal, too. RS: But slang also enters the picture at business meetings. From VOA's Los Angeles studio Slangman David Burke tells us if don't know the jargon of business, you will be at a definite disadvantage. TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "Imagine if you are at a negotiation and the person across the table from you says he's ready to 'cut a deal.' Well, in everyday slang if someone says, 'cut it out,' that means 'stop, stop it, cut it out.' If someone says they want to 'cut a deal' they are not saying they want to stop the deal. They are saying they want to make a deal with you. And, you need to understand that." "What if someone says, how are you going to 'sweeten this deal'? To sweeten coffee means you add sugar to it and you make the coffee taste better. So if you 'sweeten a deal' you are adding something to that deal, maybe extra money for the other person or you are bringing down the price or you are giving them some extra advantages. So you are 'sweetening the deal.'" AA: You certainly don't want to "blow the deal." RS: ... in other words, ruin it. AA: Slangman David Burke had some other expressions that apply to negotiators. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE DAVID BURKE: "Usually we hear things like 'to wheel and deal.'" RS: "Or someone is a 'wheeler-dealer.'" DAVID BURKE: "Yes, if you are a 'wheeler and a dealer,' a 'wheeler-dealer,' you are someone who is a really good negotiator. And, if you are someone who is good at 'wheeling and dealing,' you like to 'play hardball.'" RS: "And that has nothing to do with baseball." BURKE: "Not at all! 'To play hardball' simply means that you are a tough negotiator. O.K., I'm ready to play hardball. And, if you 'stick to your guns' during the negotiations, you don't move from your position. You want to 'stick to your guns' no matter what the other person offers, and then you are going to 'drive a hard bargain.' That's another expression for to be a tough negotiator and get everything you want out of that negotiation." AA: And since negotiations often take place around a table, the table itself is another source for slang words. TAPE CUT THREE: DAVID BURKE/ARDITTI DAVID BURKE: "If I were to say to you, 'OK, we are going to put this topic 'on the table'. What does that mean to you?" AA: "We're going to propose it." DAVID BURKE: "Right! It's on the table. We're going to talk about it. We're going to discuss it. But, if I say, instead of putting the topic 'on the table' we're going to 'table the topic.'" RS: That means to end the discussion. AA: At least it does in American English. In British English to "table a topic" means just the opposite -- it means to propose a topic. RS: From the table, David Burke points us to another part of the meeting room. TAPE CUT FOUR: DAVID BURKE DAVID BURKE: "Let's say that you are having a huge meeting and someone says to you, 'OK, you have the floor.'" RS: "That means you can talk." DAVID BURKE: "Your turn to speak, right! You have the floor. You have permission to speak. And that's a very strange concept. If you take that literally, 'I have the floor!?' OK, the person who does give you the floor is called the chair." RS: "It's interesting, a lot of these idioms present an image of things." DAVID BURKE: "It's true a lot of these expressions are very colorful and create an image in your head. Imagine if you are at a meeting and you are all trying to 'brainstorm' about an idea or 'brainstorm' about a project that you are working on. 'To brainstorm' is a great expression used by everyone. It simply means you get together in a group, and you think about how to solve a problem. 'Let's brainstorm about this problem.' It's like a storm that has lots of activity going on. So, your brain has lots of activity while you try to solve the problem." AA: If you have a problem with American English, let us know. Address your letters to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or by e-mail to word@voa.gov. RS: Thanks again to "Slangman" David Burke. You can learn more about BIZ SPEAK and his other English teaching books on his Web site, www.slangman.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 5, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about pig organs designed for use in humans. We tell about a gene for grooming. We tell about a new way to tell if someone is lying. And we tell about the death of the world’s oldest man. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Two biotechnology companies say they have developed pigs with organs designed for use in human transplant operations. They are the first pigs genetically engineered to keep their organs from being rejected by humans. Pigs carry a gene that causes production of an enzyme. The enzyme puts sugar molecules on the surface of pig organs. The human body’s defense system recognizes the organ as foreign and rejects it. The idea was to create pigs that lacked this gene. The scientists genetically changed a pig embryo, then copied it in a process known as cloning. VOICE TWO: The researchers believe their work is the best hope for people waiting for an organ transplant operation. More than seventy-thousand people in the United States alone need such an operation to replace organs that no longer work. Scientists consider pigs to be the best animals to provide organs for people. This is because the organs are similar. VOICE ONE: The two biotechnology companies developed pigs of different sizes. The first four genetically engineered pigs were born in September and October. The pigs are smaller than normal. Researchers at the University of Missouri in Columbia developed these pigs. They worked with the Immerge BioTherapeutics Company of Charlestown, Massachusetts. The five other pigs are of normal size. They were born in December at the P-P-L Therapeutics Company research center in Blacksburg, Virginia. P-P-L is the Scottish company that helped create the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, a few years ago. The company says it wants to use the pigs as part of its program to seek a cure for the disease diabetes. VOICE TWO: It is very difficult to create genetically engineered pigs. The Missouri group used millions of pig cells. The researchers made more than three-thousand copies of pig embryos. They placed the embryos in twenty-eight mother pigs. Seven baby pigs were born. Four survived. However, some show evidence of heart and blood vessel problems. Scientists say that creating these pigs was an important step in solving a major problem in transplanting organs from animals to humans. VOICE ONE: However, scientists say much more work needs to be done to improve this process. Researchers also must solve the possible problem that pig organs could spread deadly viruses to people. Scientists expect other genes will need to be changed before it is safe to place a pig organ in a human being. In addition, the idea of using pig organs for people raises serious moral questions about the scientific use of animals. Animal rights activists strongly oppose this research. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: It is important to most people to look good. For example, we wash our hands and face. We comb our hair. This is called grooming. Grooming is important for animals too. They clean themselves and remove harmful organisms from their bodies. Researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine have found a group of genes that might be responsible for grooming activity. The study was led by Mario Capecchi. It appeared in the publication Neuron. VOICE ONE: The researchers examined a gene that all animals have. The gene is very important in the early stages of development. It helps make an animal’s bones, heart, and other organs. The researchers created a group of mice that lacked the gene. The mice seemed to develop normally. However, after three weeks, the researchers noted that the mice had missing hair and open wounds. The mice were grooming themselves too much. They were spending two times as long as healthy mice to get themselves clean. They licked and bit themselves in some places until their hair was gone. VOICE TWO: The researchers wanted to find out if the extreme grooming was a result of some other problem the mice had. They placed normal mice in the same cage. The genetically changed mice continued to bite their hair until it was gone in some places. They also did this to the normal mice that had been placed in the cage with them. Mario Capecchi says people have almost all the same genes as mice. He says the discovery of a grooming gene could lead to better treatment of some disorders in people. Some people with these disorders spend too much time grooming. For example, they wash their hands until they bleed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists say they have developed a camera that can help identify when a person is not telling the truth. The new camera measures the heat released by a person’s face. The scientists say the camera correctly identified lying in more than eighty percent of the people they tested. They say the device might one day be used in high-level security operations at airports or border crossings. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota led the study. The scientists based their work on the theory that people who plan to trick someone release physical or chemical signals. VOICE TWO: The researchers worked with scientists at Honeywell Laboratories to develop the new, heat-imaging technology. Doctor Levine says the camera is designed to measure small changes in the body. He notes that the flow of blood to the surface of the skin increases around the eyes when a person lies. The scientists used twenty people to test the heat-sensing camera. Eight of the people took part in a crime that was not real. They attacked a human-like object and stole money from it. They were asked to lie and say they were innocent of the crime. The twelve other people in the study were told nothing about the make-believe crime. VOICE ONE: The researchers used the special camera while questioning the twenty people about the crime. The camera showed that six of the eight people who carried out the crime had increased heat around their eyes when they lied. Eleven of the twelve people who knew nothing about the crime were correctly identified as innocent. When they told the truth, the area around their eyes remained cool. Lie detection experts say the new camera could be used without suspects knowing they are being watched. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The world’s oldest man died last month. Antonio Todde lived on the Italian island of Sardinia. Mister Todde was one-hundred-twelve years old. He was less than three weeks away from his one-hundred-thirteenth birthday.Mister Todde cared for farm animals in the mountains almost all his life. He often said that drinking a glass of red wine every day helped him live to an old age. His long life and that of other very old Sardinians is the subject of a study. Luca Deiana of Sassari University is directing the study. Professor Deiana and his team identified more than two-hundred-twenty Sardinians who were centenarians -- one-hundred years old or older. VOICE ONE: The study has produced two major findings. The first is Sardinia’s extremely high number of centenarians. The island has about one-hundred-thirty-five centenarians for every one-million people. In other western countries, the average is about seventy-five centenarians for every one-million people. The second major finding is an unusual rate of female to male centenarians. Sardinia has two women centenarians for every male centenarian. In central Sardinia there are equal numbers of female and male centenarians. Studies in other parts of the world have shown a much higher percentage of female centenarians. Study leaders say there is no single reason why people in Sardinia live so long. They believe the answer is a combination of genetic and environmental conditions. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Lawan Davis and George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about pig organs designed for use in humans. We tell about a gene for grooming. We tell about a new way to tell if someone is lying. And we tell about the death of the world’s oldest man. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Two biotechnology companies say they have developed pigs with organs designed for use in human transplant operations. They are the first pigs genetically engineered to keep their organs from being rejected by humans. Pigs carry a gene that causes production of an enzyme. The enzyme puts sugar molecules on the surface of pig organs. The human body’s defense system recognizes the organ as foreign and rejects it. The idea was to create pigs that lacked this gene. The scientists genetically changed a pig embryo, then copied it in a process known as cloning. VOICE TWO: The researchers believe their work is the best hope for people waiting for an organ transplant operation. More than seventy-thousand people in the United States alone need such an operation to replace organs that no longer work. Scientists consider pigs to be the best animals to provide organs for people. This is because the organs are similar. VOICE ONE: The two biotechnology companies developed pigs of different sizes. The first four genetically engineered pigs were born in September and October. The pigs are smaller than normal. Researchers at the University of Missouri in Columbia developed these pigs. They worked with the Immerge BioTherapeutics Company of Charlestown, Massachusetts. The five other pigs are of normal size. They were born in December at the P-P-L Therapeutics Company research center in Blacksburg, Virginia. P-P-L is the Scottish company that helped create the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, a few years ago. The company says it wants to use the pigs as part of its program to seek a cure for the disease diabetes. VOICE TWO: It is very difficult to create genetically engineered pigs. The Missouri group used millions of pig cells. The researchers made more than three-thousand copies of pig embryos. They placed the embryos in twenty-eight mother pigs. Seven baby pigs were born. Four survived. However, some show evidence of heart and blood vessel problems. Scientists say that creating these pigs was an important step in solving a major problem in transplanting organs from animals to humans. VOICE ONE: However, scientists say much more work needs to be done to improve this process. Researchers also must solve the possible problem that pig organs could spread deadly viruses to people. Scientists expect other genes will need to be changed before it is safe to place a pig organ in a human being. In addition, the idea of using pig organs for people raises serious moral questions about the scientific use of animals. Animal rights activists strongly oppose this research. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: It is important to most people to look good. For example, we wash our hands and face. We comb our hair. This is called grooming. Grooming is important for animals too. They clean themselves and remove harmful organisms from their bodies. Researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine have found a group of genes that might be responsible for grooming activity. The study was led by Mario Capecchi. It appeared in the publication Neuron. VOICE ONE: The researchers examined a gene that all animals have. The gene is very important in the early stages of development. It helps make an animal’s bones, heart, and other organs. The researchers created a group of mice that lacked the gene. The mice seemed to develop normally. However, after three weeks, the researchers noted that the mice had missing hair and open wounds. The mice were grooming themselves too much. They were spending two times as long as healthy mice to get themselves clean. They licked and bit themselves in some places until their hair was gone. VOICE TWO: The researchers wanted to find out if the extreme grooming was a result of some other problem the mice had. They placed normal mice in the same cage. The genetically changed mice continued to bite their hair until it was gone in some places. They also did this to the normal mice that had been placed in the cage with them. Mario Capecchi says people have almost all the same genes as mice. He says the discovery of a grooming gene could lead to better treatment of some disorders in people. Some people with these disorders spend too much time grooming. For example, they wash their hands until they bleed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists say they have developed a camera that can help identify when a person is not telling the truth. The new camera measures the heat released by a person’s face. The scientists say the camera correctly identified lying in more than eighty percent of the people they tested. They say the device might one day be used in high-level security operations at airports or border crossings. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota led the study. The scientists based their work on the theory that people who plan to trick someone release physical or chemical signals. VOICE TWO: The researchers worked with scientists at Honeywell Laboratories to develop the new, heat-imaging technology. Doctor Levine says the camera is designed to measure small changes in the body. He notes that the flow of blood to the surface of the skin increases around the eyes when a person lies. The scientists used twenty people to test the heat-sensing camera. Eight of the people took part in a crime that was not real. They attacked a human-like object and stole money from it. They were asked to lie and say they were innocent of the crime. The twelve other people in the study were told nothing about the make-believe crime. VOICE ONE: The researchers used the special camera while questioning the twenty people about the crime. The camera showed that six of the eight people who carried out the crime had increased heat around their eyes when they lied. Eleven of the twelve people who knew nothing about the crime were correctly identified as innocent. When they told the truth, the area around their eyes remained cool. Lie detection experts say the new camera could be used without suspects knowing they are being watched. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The world’s oldest man died last month. Antonio Todde lived on the Italian island of Sardinia. Mister Todde was one-hundred-twelve years old. He was less than three weeks away from his one-hundred-thirteenth birthday.Mister Todde cared for farm animals in the mountains almost all his life. He often said that drinking a glass of red wine every day helped him live to an old age. His long life and that of other very old Sardinians is the subject of a study. Luca Deiana of Sassari University is directing the study. Professor Deiana and his team identified more than two-hundred-twenty Sardinians who were centenarians -- one-hundred years old or older. VOICE ONE: The study has produced two major findings. The first is Sardinia’s extremely high number of centenarians. The island has about one-hundred-thirty-five centenarians for every one-million people. In other western countries, the average is about seventy-five centenarians for every one-million people. The second major finding is an unusual rate of female to male centenarians. Sardinia has two women centenarians for every male centenarian. In central Sardinia there are equal numbers of female and male centenarians. Studies in other parts of the world have shown a much higher percentage of female centenarians. Study leaders say there is no single reason why people in Sardinia live so long. They believe the answer is a combination of genetic and environmental conditions. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Lawan Davis and George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - February 5, 2002: Soil Conservation Methods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soil conservation efforts protect soil from wind and water that can blow or wash it away. Good soil produces food crops for both people and animals. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. For example, in parts of West Africa, studies have shown that grain harvests can be twenty per cent higher on fields protected by windbreaks compared to those without such protection. Windbreaks are effective when a wall of trees and other plants blocks the wind. The windbreaks should also limit violent motions of the wind to those areas closest to the windbreak. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty per cent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its World Wide Web address, w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soil conservation efforts protect soil from wind and water that can blow or wash it away. Good soil produces food crops for both people and animals. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant them in lines around their fields. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. They are very important for growing grains, such as wheat. For example, in parts of West Africa, studies have shown that grain harvests can be twenty per cent higher on fields protected by windbreaks compared to those without such protection. Windbreaks are effective when a wall of trees and other plants blocks the wind. The windbreaks should also limit violent motions of the wind to those areas closest to the windbreak. However, windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty per cent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. Locally grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its World Wide Web address, w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – February 6, 2002: Iceman’s Death
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A leading expert on ancient mountain cultures has a theory about a man who died more than five-thousand years ago. The man’s body was found in a piece of ice high in the Alps Mountains in northern Italy in Nineteen-Ninety-One. Newspapers called him the Iceman. Johan Reinhard suspects the Iceman was killed as an offering to the gods. Mister Reinhard is famous for his discoveries of human remains in the Andes Mountains of South America. Many of the remains were of children sacrificed to mountain gods. Mister Reinhard works for the National Geographic Society. His theory is reported in National Geographic magazine. Mister Reinhard admits that some scientists are dismissing his theory. Yet, he says, it is time to re-examine all the evidence. Two German climbers discovered the Iceman more than three-thousand meters above sea level. Ice had protected the body for thousands of years. It was the oldest and best preserved ancient body ever found. When the Iceman was discovered, some scientists suggested that he had fallen asleep and died in the snow or was killed in a fall. A bow and arrows were found with the Iceman. This led some people to believe that he died while hunting animals. Later, his remains and other objects were transported to Bolzano, Italy. They are now kept at the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology. The body is kept cool in a special observation area at the museum. Last year, scientists announced the cause of death. The scientists used x-ray equipment to produce images of the Iceman’s upper chest. They found an arrowhead under the left shoulder. Scientists said he was killed by an arrow that tore through his back.Mister Reinhard says the killing might have been either a murder or an offering to the gods. The body was found in a long, narrow area between two of the highest mountains in the Alps. Mister Reinhard says this is the kind of place where people from mountain cultures traditionally made offerings to their gods. He also notes that a valuable copper ax was found near the body. He says a murderer would have stolen something this valuable. He believes the tool may have been left to serve the victim in the afterlife or as an offering to the gods. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 6, 2002: Increasing Hubble’s Power
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about plans to make the Hubble Space Telescope a much more powerful scientific instrument. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Later this month, NASA astronauts plan to replace much of the equipment that makes the Hubble Space Telescope one of the most valuable science tools ever invented. The new equipment will help Hubble do ten times more work than it can today. The Hubble Space Telescope is an eye in space that permits humans to look far into the universe. The Hubble telescope orbits six-hundred kilometers above the Earth. It works twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week helping scientists understand the secrets of the universe. It provides information and images of the universe that cannot be seen from Earth because of clouds or atmospheric conditions. VOICE TWO: NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope in Nineteen-Ninety. Since then, the telescope has made more than three-hundred-thirty-thousand scientific observations of distant objects in space. It has observed more than twenty-five thousand different objects. And it has provided the scientific information that helped researchers produce more than two-thousand six-hundred scientific papers. The Hubble Space Telescope produces enough good science information to fill about thirty large books each day. It has provided information that has helped us understand the structure of our universe. Scientists say the telescope has expanded our knowledge of how stars and planet systems form together. Hubble has provided detailed pictures and images that help us in understanding the history of our solar system. It has also helped us understand what makes Earth similar to or different from other planets. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA’s plans call for the Space Shuttle Colombia to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February twenty-eighth. It will carry seven astronauts on an eleven-day flight to work on the space telescope. The Hubble telescope is the first scientific instrument ever designed to be repaired and rebuilt by astronauts who work in space. The telescope was built so astronauts can take it apart and replace old or broken equipment with newer technology. More than ninety percent of its parts can be replaced by space shuttle astronauts. As new technology is developed, the telescope is provided with more modern devices. Each instrument that is replaced is much more powerful than the older one. VOICE TWO: In February, Colombia’s astronauts will complete a number of tasks during their flight. They will replace Hubble’s camera with new, advanced technology that will permit the telescope to do ten times the amount of work. The new camera is called the Advanced Camera for Surveys or A-C-S. NASA says the new A-C-S camera will permit researchers to study huge galaxies. The A-C-S is really three different cameras. Each deals with different kinds of light. Each one can see and record light that is far beyond what the human eye can see. The A-C-S also carries equipment that can control light that enters the camera. It does this by placing different pieces of glass in front of the camera’s eye. NASA says the information provided by Hubble’s new A-C-S camera will lead to a better understanding of how our universe changed over time. VOICE ONE: The Hubble Space telescope also will receive new equipment that permits it to make electric power from sunlight. The old power equipment has been in use for eight years. Radiation and small space objects have damaged it. The power equipment looks like large wings. These wings are called solar arrays. The new solar arrays are smaller than those being replaced, but can produce thirty percent more power. They can also operate better in the extreme temperature changes found in space. VOICE TWO: The astronauts also will replace the electric power control device on the space telescope. It has been controlling Hubble’s power for the eleven years it has been in space. To replace the device, all power on Hubble will have to be turned off for the first time since it was launched in Nineteen-Ninety. The new power control device will permit the space telescope to use all of the increased power provided by the new solar arrays. VOICE ONE: Astronauts also will repair an instrument called the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. They will replace the cooling system for the camera. This special camera was put in the space telescope in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It stopped working two years later after its cooling device failed. NASA hopes the new device will be able to provide the extremely cold temperatures needed by this special camera. They also hope to extend the camera’s working life by several years. VOICE TWO: The shuttle crew has learned how to replace or repair each of the many systems that are part of the space telescope. Some of these include the spacecraft’s communications system, its computers, and the instrument that points the telescope at distant objects. Hubble’s pointing system is extremely powerful. It is a good example of the kind of device the astronauts must learn to repair. It finds and then keeps the Hubble telescope pointing at objects so they can be studied. Imagine pointing a small light at a very small object two-hundred kilometers away. Then imagine holding the light for hours or days with little or no movement. The pointing device on Hubble has a small computer that watches for any movement or mistakes forty times a second. If movement occurs, other instruments change speeds to bring the telescope back into the correct position. VOICE ONE: When all the work is completed on the space telescope, the astronauts may use the shuttle’s small rockets to place Hubble in a higher orbit. This has been done two times before. Very little atmosphere surrounds the Earth six-hundred kilometers in space. Yet enough atmosphere exists to cause the Hubble to slow down over a long period of time. When this happens, the Earth’s gravity pulls the orbit of the telescope lower. If the space telescope were left alone it would continue to fall lower and faster towards Earth until it burned up in the atmosphere. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Repairing the Hubble Space Telescope in space is a very difficult task. The crewmembers of the Space Shuttle Colombia have been training for their flight for many months. They have done each task many times here on Earth. The new equipment they will place in the telescope has been tested again and again for many thousands of hours. The astronauts will have to use more than one-hundred-fifty special tools and aids to work on the telescope in space. They have worked with these tools until they are experts in the use of each one. VOICE ONE: The astronauts also prepare for this difficult flight by asking the question, “What if?” This is the method they use to prepare for surprises. It is similar to you asking yourself, “What if it there is a heavy rain tomorrow morning.” Or “What if I turn here instead of there.” You would think of an answer for each of these questions and a solution to each problem. By working out the answers to these “what if” questions, the Hubble team tries to be prepared for any problem that might develop. Experts have spent many days providing the astronauts with different “what if” surprise problems. The astronauts then spent hundreds of hours working on the correct solutions. VOICE TWO: Hubble has provided many thousands of pictures of distant objects in the universe. Many of them are thousands of light years away from Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope has seen the birth of stars and their deaths. You do not need to be a scientist or a researcher to enjoy the beautiful pictures the telescope provides. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see hundreds of them. Have your computer search for the word Hubble. That is H-U-B-B-L-E. Once again, H-U-B-B-L-E. Your computer will answer with several web sites that will permit you to see millions of kilometers into our universe. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was John Ellison This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 3, 2001 - Therapeutic Language
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster, you'll meet an English professor in Texas who thinks Americans have gotten into a bad relationship with the language of what she calls the "therapeutic self-help movement." RS: These days troubled families are diagnosed by popular culture as "dysfunctional" or "toxic." People with troubles are told to "let it go," to give their will over to a higher power in a spiritual quest for "recovery" and "healing." The idea of a "twelve-step" recovery program originated decades ago with Acoholics Anonymous and its Al-Anon support group for family and friends so-called "co-dependents." But today you can even find twelve-step weight-loss programs! AA: Trysh Travis at Southern Methodist University in Dallas says terms that sound clinical may reflect little more than personal opinion. A few years ago, she began to notice her students applying therapeutic jargon to literary analysis … even of works like Shakespeare's "Hamlet." TAPE: CUT ONE -- SKIRBLE/TRAVIS/ARDITTI RS: "How do you react when you see them in your student's papers, when you see words like 'dysfunctional' or 'toxic family' or 'co-dependent.'" TRAVIS: "What I try to tell them is that those terms may work really well to describe their own lives and to describe the world that we live in now, but you can't look back at Hamlet's family -- written in England circa sixteen-hundred, existing in Denmark some time even earlier in the modern era -- and say that Hamlet and Claudius and Gertrude are dysfunctional. Because the kind of family structure that we think of as functional -- and dysfunctional -- didn't exist until the mid-nineteenth century." AA: "I know in the past this kind of language has been criticized for representing a 'culture of victimization.' Is that what the students are revealing in their writing is a sense of whatever is going on in the story, it's still a story of victimization of one or another, or in their own family, in their own life?" TRAVIS: "That's a really interesting question. In original AA and Al-Anon culture, and in the official publications of those groups today, there is a real emphasis away from the victim role, a real push towards members to take responsibility for their own actions, to acknowledge what they have done and to make their wrongs right with the people that they have hurt. What's changed as this theory has moved out into popular culture is that somehow the opposite has happened and you're exactly right that these terms have become associated with a sense of victimization: 'My horrible parents, they've done this to me'; 'My terrible abusive partner has done this to me.' And that's one of things that critics of this therapeutic movement have really reacted strongly against." RS: "When you see these words in the compositions or the writing of your students, do you think they're using them basically as crutches and do you have them look for other words -- I mean, how do you remedy this?" TRAVIS: "I can only do so much as a teacher. My main plan is to get them to try to understand that these words are historically specific ways of understanding human suffering, that they are not universal, timeless and true, in the way they would like to believe them. And then I try to push them -- yes, I try to push them further to get a more complicated understanding of things. For instance, if they want to believe that a character in a Toni Morrison novel is a victim of the cruel family around her, they need to go past that idea of the dysfunctional family to think about the fact that this is a family that exists within a racist culture, this is a family that exists at the edge of poverty. But as I said, they don't like it when I push them to do that and they tend to be very reluctant to think that hard." RS: "Because some of these words are very much a cliche." AA: "They're trendy." TRAVIS: "They are, they're extremely trendy and like most sort of cliches, they are useful and popular because they allow you to stop thinking before it becomes uncomfortable. And that's exactly what I see my role as a teacher to fight against, is to push you to think past the point of comfort, into the realm of discomfort, which is where actual progress and thinking really happen." AA: "Where you'll create functioning students." TRAVIS: "(laughs) I would like to think that." RS: Trysh Travis, an assistant professor of English at Southern Methodist University. She's taking next year off to write a book. The topic? How the twelve-step recovery movement has moved into popular culture. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, D-C two-zero-two-three-seven USA or send e-mail to word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Product of Dysfunction"/5 Chinese Brothers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: October 31, 1999 - Halloween
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Listen up guys and ghouls! This week VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talk about some of the language of Halloween - which just happens to be today. MUSIC: "HALLOWEEN" MOVIE THEME AA: It's a dark and stormy night. There's a knock at the door. Some kids are standing there, dressed in costumes. They're holding out bags. And they're yelling: RS: "Trick or treat!" or "Happy Halloween!" What do these children want? Candy, of course! AA: "Trick or treat" means give us a treat or we'll do something nasty to your house. RS: Yes, it's a form of extortion, but it's usually meant in good spirits ... SFX -- SPOOKY SOUNDS RS: ... although Halloween is supposed to be scary, with spooky little monsters trick-or-treating alongside ghosts, goblins and witches. AA: Lesley Pratt Bannatyne is author of a book called "Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History." RS: She says that while Americans have transformed Halloween, its roots are ancient. TAPE: CUT 1 - BANNATYNE "You can go back 2,000 years to Celtic tribes in northern Europe celebrating the end of summer in a festival called Samhain, which was essentially their New Year's Eve. And this festival they invited the ancestral dead to, so there were ghosts about, and they tried to tell the future by asking the spirits what would happen to them." AA: So how did the name Halloween come about? Lesley Pratt Bannatyne says it had to do with the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church. TAPE: CUT 2 - BANNATYNE "It was (called) Samhain and people were celebrating it, pagans were celebrating it, and the church came and said, well OK fine, we're going to take these customs of remembering the dead and we're going to sanction a church holiday on the same date. So November 1st is All Saints Day, November 2nd will become 500 years later All Souls Day. These two days were called Hallowmas. All Saints was called All Hallows, from `all holy,' and All Hallows Eve was the night before All Saints, or October 31st, [which became] Halloween." RS: Lesley Pratt Bannatyne says early immigrants brought Halloween to America, but it wasn't until the late 1930's that the words "trick or treat" began appearing in popular culture. TAPE: CUT 3 - ARDITTI/BANNATYNE/SKIRBLE AA: "What did they say before `trick or treat'?" BANNATYNE: "They probably didn't say anything, because they weren't exactly doing that. They would put on a costume and go to a big party or they would go out and move outhouses around or take farmers' fences down so their cows would wander in the streets, or put rocking chairs in the trees." RS: "Let's talk pumpkins. Pumpkins are a really big part of Halloween, but we don't just call them pumpkins, we call them Jack-o'- lanterns. How did we get that term?" BANNATYNE: "That's a good one. First of all in old Halloween in Europe, there weren't pumpkins, because pumpkins are American. There were turnips and other vegetables and they did carve them on Halloween or All Hallows and they did carve faces in them, we think, to represent the ghosts and demons that might have been out and about. `Jack' is a folk legend of an actual character called Jack, someone who is denied entrance to heaven and hell and has to wander the Earth forever with just a lump of coal from hell to guide his way. So it's `Jack of the Lantern' or `Jack who carries this lantern' that we get this Jack-o'-lantern from." AA: Lesley Pratt Bannatyne says the popularity of Halloween -- not just with children but increasingly with adults -- shows that Americans want some fantasy in their lives. RS: And also a sense of community: TAPE: CUT 4 - BANNATYNE/ARDITTI "It's the one time of year where we still open our doors to each other. It's a valuable thing." ARDITTI: "In your neighborhood do you see kids from different cultures, different countries, learning this" BANNATYNE: "Some of them don't know say `trick or treat.' They know enough about it to know they should stand there, they should dress up, they should smile and they should put their bags out when the door opens? But I don't hear trick or treat from everybody anymore. `Happy Halloween' is what I hear almost more than `trick or treat." RS: Lesley Pratt Bannatyne, author of "Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History." AA: And we wish you a boo-tiful halloween. RS: Scary or otherwise, we'd like to hear from you. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov, or write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Now let's party! MUSIC: "Monster Mash" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-5-1.cfm
* Headline: October 17, 1999 - Slangman: Car Talk
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti go for a spin with the language of cars. MUSIC: "Little Deuce Coupe"/Beach Boys AA: We hit the road to answer a question from Dustin Mencius at Tianjin Medical University in China. He's baffled by all the different terms Americans use for automobiles. And there are lots of them - starting with the "little deuce coupe" in that Beach Boys song. RS: A "deuce coupe" is a 1932 Ford with lots of power, a hot rod. "Deuce" is slang for "two" - as in 1932 - and a "coupe" is a car with two doors. AA: ... not to be confused with a "sedan" which is a car with four doors. RS: Now either a coupe or a sedan can be a "convertible" also known as a "rag top" -- a car with a fabric roof that goes up and down. AA: If you need more room, you might want to drive a "station wagon." That's a passenger car with seats in back that can fold down or be removed to open up storage space. RS: A "mini van" is similar to a station wagon with rows of seats and a back storage area. But a mini van is built on a higher frame and looks more like a truck than a passenger car. AA: In recent years Americans have learned a new term: S-U-V. That stands for sport utility vehicle. It's also a cross between a truck and a car, but rides even higher on the road than a mini van and has four wheel drive and a boxy shape. Today half of all new passenger cars sold in America are S-U-V's. RS: Sport utility vehicles don't have much to do with sports, except that they can lug bikes and other gear off-road through mud and snow. SFX: (car engine sound) AA: Let's "shift gears" now and head out to Los Angeles to chat with "Slangman" David Burke. RS: He says Americans have some pretty endearing names for their cars - that is, when their cars run well. TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "Usually you'll say baby. `Wow that baby can move.' If you refer to a car as a baby, that's actually a good thing. And that term is also used in general for anything that is really good. Now, on the other side of the coin, taking about cars - a `clunker.' Now that's something that doesn't work very well. A clunker is generally a car that is very old and looks like it has been in a lot of accidents." AA: You can also refer to a car by its wheels. RS: As in, "Hey, nice set of wheels!" or "Can I borrow your wheels. They're also known as "rides" - as in, hey, nice ride - meaning nice car. AA: So what does it mean if you want to take those wheels "for a spin"? David Burke explains. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE "Now we all know what spinning means. It means going around and around really fast. If I buy a new car I go to your house and I say, `Come into my car and let's go for a spin.' A spin simply means a quick little trip in the car with no particular destination." RS: And, if I ask someone along, I might say "hop in." AA: That's what David Burke said as he took us for a virtual spin down one of the most famous streets in Hollywood: Sunset Boulevard. RS: At night young people "cruise" Sunset Boulevard. David Burke says that means they go out in search of some fun. TAPE CUT THREE: DAVID BURKE "The sky is dark, but Sunset Boulevard is bright with lights. Every storefront is lit up. The traffic is `bumper-to-bumper' - which is another good expression - because you are right on top of the other person's bumper practically, because you are hardly moving. There are lots and lots of convertibles or `drop tops' as we say. People are sticking their heads out screaming and waving to each other, And, it becomes a huge - another expression -- `tailgate party' - where all these kids are just sitting there basically in this gigantic parking lot (stopped traffic). What happens is the (traffic) creates a lot of `pile ups' - another good expression -- meaning traffic accidents, and `bunch ups,' a good term for traffic accident." AA: David Burke says it's pretty much "gridlock" - cars backed up in all directions -- for about an hour and a half every night, just after dusk. RS: Now if you're cruising the Internet, and you'd like to learn about David Burke's latest book on American slang and idioms, you can visit him at www.slangman.com. AA: And if you'd like to send us e-mail, our address is word@voa.gov. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547. RS: Now we've got to burn rubber out of here. AA: OK, Rosanne, put the pedal to the metal. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Little Deuce Coupe" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-6-1.cfm
* Headline: October 3, 1999 - 'The World in So Many Words'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti talk to the author of a new book that gives a country-by-country tour of words that have shaped the English language. RS: If you speak English, then you know at least a little bit from more than one-hundred languages around the world. AA: That's what got Allan Metcalf interested in writing "The World in So Many Words." Allan Metcalf is a professor of English at MacMurray College in Illinois. He is also executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, a scholarly group that studies American English. RS: Each of the two-hundred essays in his book is based on a word imported into English from a different language. For instance, touring the globe, we get "pampered" by the Dutch, attend "kindergarten" in Germany, take a "siesta" in Spain, learn to "tango" from the Ibibio of Nigeria. And, we end up in "paradise" courtesy of the Persian language. AA: Allan Metcalf says deciding which word to choose for each language wasn't always easy. TAPE CUT ONE: ALLAN METCALF/SKIRBLE METCALF: "The real challenge came from languages like French and Latin which have provided about one quarter each of the entire vocabulary of English. So, even just to list all the words from French and Latin would take a book thicker than this one." RS: "Give us an example, would you?" METCALF: "For French, I had `reason' and `fashion' thinking that the French would appreciate their `superiority' in those areas. And, I didn't spend a whole lot of time discussing `reason' and fashion because those words are so well known. I did give Descartes, as an example of the use of `reason,' the `Discourse of Reason.,' but (also) mentioning that we have had `reason' from French in English since 1225, and fashion we've had since the year 1300." AA: Allan Metcalf says one of the most amazing stories in "The World in So Many Words" is how a bird in Antarctica got its name. According to his research, the naming process started on an island off Newfoundland visited by Welsh sailors. TAPE CUT TWO: ALAN METCALF/SKIRBLE METCALF: "'Pen' means `head' and `guin' means `white.' So `penguin' means white head. And, this is even more a mystery because a penguin is mostly black. What happened was there's an island off of Newfoundland and British sailors back in the 1500s called the island and the birds on it `penguin' or `white head.' Now that particular kind of bird, that kind of penguin, has become extinct. But, then when speakers of English got as far as the South Pole they had this name `penguin' and somebody must have thought that the bird they saw near the South Pole was the same kind of thing as the bird they had called a penguin." RS: "It's fascinating that these words travel so much. I guess that as people travel, they take their words with them." METCALF: "And then they adapt the words to different circumstances or perhaps what you can say is that (the word) gets misunderstood." RS: Take the word "bizarre," B-I-Z-A-R-R-E, meaning "strange" in English. AA: Allan Metcalf says what started as a Basque word for "beard" has sprouted into different meanings to different speakers. And it's not too bizarre to imagine these speakers all converging on a European street. TAPE: CUT THREE - METCALF "So, somebody hears a person in Basque saying `bizarre.' Somebody speaking Spanish says that must mean somebody who is handsome. Then the French person hears it and says, it must mean somebody who is a warrior. Then the English speaker hears it, and says it must mean somebody who is weird looking. So they hear the word and mistranslate it, but then it becomes the meaning of the word in a new language." AA: Allan Metcalf's new book is called "The World in So Many Words." It is published by Houghton Mifflin. RS: If you have a "yen" -- AA: In other words, a craving, to use the meaning of yen that comes to English from Cantonese. RS: -- if you have a yen to know more about American English, address your questions via e-mail to word@voa.gov or write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-7-1.cfm
* Headline: September 5, 1999 - Job Titles
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Millions of American workers will get the day off on Monday to celebrate Labor Day. In honor of the national holiday, VOA Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti look at a publication that the U-S Department of Labor is about to issue which offers a snapshot of the American workforce. MUSIC - "9 to 5"/Dolly Parton RS: The new Department of Labor book classifies some 30-thousand jobs into 842 occupations. TAPE CUT ONE: DANIEL WEINBERG "The Census Bureau will use it to describe occupations on the 2000 Census. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will use it for its occupational employment statistics. Other federal agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Science Foundation and so forth will be using the same classifications to talk about occupations that are important to their work." AA: That's Daniel Weinberg. He heads the Census Bureau division that is currently revising the existing opus of job titles and definitions. RS: Mr. Weinberg says the 1999 edition of what's officially called the "Standard Occupational Classification System" reflects recent changes in the working world, especially the shift toward more service and high-tech jobs. TAPE CUT TWO: DANIEL WEINBERG "We've focused, for example, on the computer area, where we've added job titles like `computer software engineer.' We've also increased the number of categories for post- secondary teachers. We've tended to reduce jobs in industries that have been getting fewer and fewer workers. For example, we've combined a number of production occupations. "We've increased the number of gaming occupations as gambling seems to have been more widespread." AA: The Census Bureau began classifying job titles as far back as the 1850 census. While jobs like lawyers, carpenters and brokers are still around, others have just vanished with the times. TAPE CUT THREE: DANIEL WEINBERG/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI DANIEL WEINBERG: "The one I liked most was `salaeratus maker.' That was one of the few that I couldn't find in my abridged dictionary. I had to go to the massive, huge thousand-plus page dictionary to find out what `salaeratus' was. It turned out to be `baking soda.'" RS: "So, (the job would be) a baking soda maker?" DANIEL WEINBERG: `That was actually an occupation in the 1850 Census.'" AA: "What do you call that person today?" DANIEL WEINBERG: "I assume that (he/she) is just a worker in a chemical plant. AA: Mr. Weinberg has a staff to update job descriptions, relying on the work-related responses they get from periodic Census Bureau questionnaires that ask Americans to describe the work they do. RS: Jobs are then classified among the 842 occupation categories on the list. Mr. Weinberg says his staff tries to make each job title gender-neutral. For example, letter carrier, police officer and firefighter have replaced postman, policeman, and fireman. TAPE CUT FOUR: WEINBERG/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE DANIEL WEINBERG: "Any word with `man' in it we changed. Fisherman became a `fisher.'" AA: "Now, how many fishermen out on the sea do you think would describe themselves as `fishers?'" DANIEL WEINBERG: "Very few, but that doesn't matter. If they write down on the Census form, that they are fishermen, we'll put them in the `fisher' occupation. We're not going to misclassify them just because they use a gender specific term. "But people still call themselves a waitress, or a waiter. So, we actually kept that particular job description in the `tandard Occupational Classification,' but we said `waiters' and `waitresses.'" RS: "And, actors and actresses, I presume." DANIEL WEINBERG: "Exactly." AA: At the same time, some job titles have been upgraded - for instance, "secretary" is now "executive assistant." Whatever your job title is, we'd love to hear from you. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. RS: Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20547 USA. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-8-1.cfm
* Headline: August 22, 1999 - Listener Questions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble answer some listener mail. MUSIC: "Oh Mr. Postman"/B'witched RS: Our first letter comes from a listener in Assela, Ethiopia. AA: Teddy Solomon would like to know the distinction between some easily confused words, and how to pronounce them. RS: The four words he's talking about are spelled: l-o-o-s-e, l-o-s-e, l-o-s-s and l-o-s-t. AA: L-double-o-s-e is pronounced loose. It's the opposite of tight. A loose screw may fall out... RS: And if you don't put it in your pocket right away, you may lose it. Lose is spelled with one o: l-o-s-e. AA: And, if there is a hole in your pocket, the screw might fall out. When you look for it, you'll discover you've lost it, l-o-s-t, lost. And if you need that screw to put something together again, you won't be happy about the loss, l-o-s-s, loss. RS: Now, a Chinese listener named William asks this question by e-mail: What is the meaning of the phrase "mess about"? AA: In American English to "mess around" has several different meanings. Wasting time is one meaning. Quit messing around, a teacher might tell a rowdy class. RS: To mess around can also mean to be romantically involved with someone, and can also refer to an extramarital affair. AA: From Chittagong Medical College Hospital in Bangladesh, a Doctor Azad asks for a copy of Wordmaster. "I will be very delighted and will remain ever grateful to you," our listener writes. RS: The easiest way to get a copy of our script each week - and to hear our broadcasts on VOA News Now - is on the Internet, at the VOA home page. That address is www.voa.gov. AA: Now for a medical-related question. Eighteen- year-old "Reza Sheikhi" in Tehran would like to know whether the longest word in English is the medical name of a lung disease suffered by coal miners. "If so," he says, "would you please try pronouncing it on the air?" RS: The word is spelled p-n-e-u-m-o-n-o-u-l-t-r-a- m-i-c-r-o-s-c-o-p-i-c-s-i-l-i-c-o-v-o-l-c-a-n- o-c-o-n-i-o-s-i-s. Forty-five letters! And it's pronounced - AA: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. RS: That's a mouthful!, but, is it the longest word in the English language? AA: The dictionary folks at Merriam-Webster put it this way. They say it's the longest word in English that is used often enough to merit entry in the dictionary. RS: Next we have this question from Bertrand Gall of Tournefeuille, France: He asks, "Why do you call New York City the Big Apple?" AA: We contacted the New York Historical Society and found this explanation in the Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth Jackson. RS: According to the Encyclopedia, the nickname "The Big Apple" was first popularized in the 1920s by John J. Fitzgerald, a reporter for the Morning Telegraph, who used the term to refer to the city's racetracks. He had heard it used by black stable hands in New Orleans in 1921. AA: In the 1930s, black jazz musicians used the name to refer to the city and especially Harlem as the jazz capital of the world. But by the 1950s, the nickname had dropped from usage and was largely unknown. Charles Gillette, president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau revived the term Big Apple as part of a publicity campaign for the city in 1971. RS: Bertrand Gall in France, we hope that peels away the mystery of the Big Apple! AA: We owe a big thank you to everyone who's written to us recently. When you write to us, please remember to include your full name and address so we can send you a VOA souvenir. Our address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA, or send e-mail to word@voa.gov. RS: Next week, all aboard for some railroad lingo. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "New York, New York"/Frank Sinatra 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-9-1.cfm
* Headline: August 15, 1999 - Encarta World English Dictionary, Part 2
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti take another look at a new dictionary and the way it was created. AA: Bloomsbury Publishing in London wanted to create a world English dictionary. The idea was to write different editions aimed at different English-speaking audiences. But Bloomsbury also wanted to give readers a taste of the different vocabularies used by English speakers around the world. And it wasn't enough to publish a book -- the company also wanted to put the dictionary on a CD-ROM for computer users. RS: Enter Microsoft. The computer software giant was interested in updating its existing reference software, and so Bloomsbury and Microsoft began the new venture. They recruited a team of 320 lexicographers from twenty English-speaking countries to work on the project. Anne Soukhanov [sue-`ha-nuff] became editor of the U-S and Canadian edition of the Encarta World English Dictionary. She says the work not only required the use of new technologies, but also new ways of collaborating. TAPE CUT ONE: ANNE SOUKHANOV "No longer will American lexicographers be able to work in isolation. I think that the fact that we had an international editorial group linked by computers, working together and checking each other's work and commenting on it and culturally editing our own work and using a fifty-million word corpus on CD-ROM, with which to decide which entry was current enough to put into our various books. All of these things changed dictionary publishing in America. It's never going to be the same again." AA: Anne Soukhanov, a thirty-year veteran of the word-defining business, worked from a "virtual office" -- her old farmhouse in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, equipped with a computer, a fax and a telephone. TAPE CUT TWO: ANNE SOUKHANOV "Each (word) definer would receive an electronic file of head words and the corpus of words and would start writing definitions which were reviewed up the line. The etymologists would get those same head words with definitions and supply the word history. "The pronunciation editors supplying U-S and U- K and Australian pronunciations in separate little boxes, in what we call pronunciation fields. And, so the whole thing was put together by our e-mailing our material to London everyday. It went into a major computer there." RS: And then at another junction on the electronic superhighway, the book was culturally divided according to the different English-speaking regions where it would be published. TAPE CUT THREE: ANNE SOUKHANOV "And, we reviewed it and added features and just kept working without paper until it got down to the end when we did have to look at page proofs to make sure each page was coming out right." AA: Anne Soukhanov says the dictionary was completed in record time. TAPE CUT FOUR: ANNE SOUKHANOV "I was working on this for more than two years, and I believe that it took us about three and a half years to do which I would say less than half the time that would have been required to do a dictionary from scratch, not based on any pre-existing dictionary product. "And, the reason that it was so easy to do so fast is electronics, pure and simple." RS: Anne Soukhanov says this new dictionary of world English may help English speakers from different parts of the world avoid confusing situations. Each regional edition includes a snapshot of words used in the other regions. AA: She offers this scenario with the word "similar." Similar means "alike" in American English, but in Malaysian English it means "identical." TAPE CUT FIVE: ANNE SOUKHANOV "Suppose a robbery occurred and an American police officer who was visiting over there (in Malaysia) was talking with witnesses along with a Malaysian. And, the witness said the two cars were similar. Let's say that there were two groups of suspects and two cars. The American policeman would think they looked sort of like each other, but were not identical, whereas the Malaysian officer would understand similar meant identical." RS: Anne Soukhanov, North American editor of the Encarta World English Dictionary, published this past week in book form and on CD-ROM. AA: Whether you are electronically connected or not, we'd like to hear from you. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA RS: Next week on Wordmaster we'll read from some of your letters. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "OeeOeeO (The English Language)"/Scooter Lee 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-10-1.cfm
* Headline: August 8, 1999 - Encarta World English Dictionary, Part 1
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week, VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti discuss a dictionary that's just been published. It aims to help the world's English speakers understand the different varieties of their langauge. MUSIC: "We Are the World" RS: Now there's a new dictionary for the 375 million people who speak English as their native language, and the 750 million people who are studying English, no matter where they live. AA: The Encarta World English Dictionary is a joint venture between the American computer software giant, Microsoft, and Bloomsbury Publishing in England. What they've created is both a book and a computer CD-ROM containing more than 400- thousand words. Each variety of English is represented in a special edition targeted to its native audience. The varieties are British, American, Canadian, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, South African, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Australian and New Zealand English. RS: The regional editions also include sections with words widely used from other English speaking countries. Anne Soukhanov [sue-`ha-nuff] is the U-S editor for the new dictionary. She told us that the varieties of English around the globe are very different, yet remarkably the same. TAPE CUT ONE: ANNE SOUKHANOV "English linguistic structure basically stays the same, except when you have conjoint terms from, say, aboringinal languages or other native languages in English speaking countries. I would say a good example of a combination term that is indigenous to South Asia is `police-walla' which means `policeman' where `walla' meaning `man' is combined with an English word, `police.'" AA: Anne Soukhanov says the meaning of an English term can also vary from place to place. TAPE CUT TWO: ANNE SOUKHANOV/SKIRBLE ANNE SOUKHANOV: "For, example, in South Asia, a hotel can be a restaurant. In Australia, a hotel can be a pub or a bar. In U- S/Canadian English a hotel is a lodging house." RS: "How would a person who speaks English as a foreign language use this book?" ANNE SOUKHANOV: "I think that that person would use it with great success because we intentionally tried to make the definitions as easily understood as possible. "We have lots of made up and quoted illustrations showing them how to use the language with good idiomatic (expressions), and also with percision, grace and accuracy. Then we also include lots of cultural notes which tie specific entries in the dictionary to cultural events or cultural artifacts outside the language. AA: One example is the way the Encarta World English Dictionary defines Camelot, beginning with the legendary site of King Arthur's court. TAPE CUT THREE: ANNE SUKHANOV "And then, in a cultural note (there is) a reference to the 1960s musical by Lerner and Lowe. And, the note ties together the fact that the (President John F.) Kennedy Administration came to be known as the `Camelot administration.' The term has taken on a generic meaning, `a time or a place that is idyllic, idealistic, enlightened, youthful and optimistic.' The note ends by saying that it is interesting that Camelot, associated with a sixth century English King, by way of the theater and politics, came to refer to the administration of the grandson of Irish immigrants." RS: We'll talk more about the Encarta World English Dictionary -- and the unusual way it was produced -- next week on Wordmaster. AA: Whatever variety of English you speak, we hope to hear from you. Write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20547 USA or reach us by e-mail. That address is word@voa.gov RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-05-11-1.cfm
* Headline: August 1, 1999 - Slangman: Surfer Slang
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Forget "surfing the Web" or "channel surfing" - today our Wordmasters talk about some of the lingo used by real surfers in Southern California. MUSIC: "Surfing USA"/Beach Boys RS: I'm Rosanne Skirble. AA: And I'm Avi Arditti. For many people who live near the beach, surfing is a way of life. So it's not surprising that surfers have their own slang. RS: Our expert on slang, David Burke, didn't have to go far to check out surfer talk - he lives near the beach in Southern California. AA: David Burke says California surfers not only have their own language, but also their own delivery. RS: You really hear it with vowels: a-e-i-o-u. TAPE: CUT ONE - DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "Now the surfer style, that is something you'll hear that is more breathy [gives example]. So a lot of (American) surfers would say the phrase `the ocean is producing large waves,'that would become if you use the slang and the delivery,`the big mama is fully mackin' some gnarly grinders.'" RS: "Could you take that sentence, say it slowly then dissect it?" BURKE: "OK, the line in normal everyday English is, `the ocean is producing large waves.' But a surfer would say `the big mama is fully mackin' some gnarly grinders.' The big mama is what a surfer calls the ocean. Mackin' is short for macking, which [refers to] a Mac truck; a Mac truck is huge. So if the ocean is `fully macking' then it's producing something as big as a Mac truck. "Gnarly is a really popular adjective meaning impressive, so a gnarly grinder is a big huge wave that grinds down. So `the big mama is fully mackin' some gnarly grinders' simply means the ocean is fully producing some very large waves. And if it's wave after wave after wave, you would add to that sentence that it is `fully macking some gnarly grinders with corduroy to the horizon,' like corduroy pants, line after line after line." RS: "Have any of these words crossed over into our vocabulary so even someone who may live by a river and not an ocean may be using them?" BURKE: "I want you to know that I went through probably 500 words to answer that question that I figured you would ask me, and I found only one. Out of all these words the one that's a teen slang word is `styling.' You'll say `ooh we're styling now,' which means we are doing great now. That one is used in surfer lingo and in teen lingo - but oddly enough, or to the credit of surfers, they've created their own lingo and they've really kept it? in their club so it really has not gone out there yet." RS: "So there's not much hope for any of us unless you enter as you say the club." BURKE: "If a surfer heard what you just said, Rosanne, that surfer would say `yes, exactly what we want'- they don't want us to know their lingo, unless you become a surfer." AA: David Burke isn't a surfer, but he learned the slang from some teen-age California surfers he met at the beach and at his local surfing shop. TAPE: CUT TWO - DAVID BURKE BURKE: "Now at the end of the interview of these surfer teens, one of them said he had to go scrut - do you have any idea what that means?" RS: "He had to go clean up his board?" BURKE: "No actually it means to go eat. And when you scrut you usually scrut some grunts. Now grunts of course - a pig grunts - is food. So to go scrut some grunts, that's very popular in surfer lingo. Now when a surfer leaves they don't say goodbye, they actually have taken an older expression and really updated it. Years ago they used say `see you later alligator' then they changed it to `later gator' then the teens started saying `later' and `lates', but the surfers say latronic." AA: David "Slangman" Burke, speaking to us from Los Angeles. You can learn more about surfer lingo from David Burke by surfing the Web to his Internet homepage: www.slangman.com. RS: And you can reach us by e-mail; our address is word@voa.gov or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 6, 2000 - George W. Bush/Style
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble discuss Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush's speaking style with an expert in political rhetoric. AA: Wayne Fields is an English professor and director of American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. RS: Professor Fields looks at the way George W. Bush communicates with the public and sees some of both Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. TAPE: CUT 1 - FIELDS/SKIRBLE FIELDS: "Focusing upon the idea that he connects with people personally, emotionally, as opposed necessarily to policies or ideology or content. He doesn't really offer arguments per se so much as instincts and feelings and attitudes. And I think that's become much more a style in American politics, with the success of Reagan and Clinton, who shared some aspects of that as well." RS: "How good is he at it." FIELDS: "Well, he's fortunate in that he's up against a candidate who is not very good at it, and so he doesn't have to be as good as if he were running against either Reagan or Clinton." AA: Professor Fields says although George W. Bush inherited his father's knack for slips of the tongue, he also learned from his father how to put verbal gaffes in context this way: TAPE: CUT TWO - FIELDS "'I may make mistakes like that, but look, I went to Yale, I'm no dummy' -- the larger argument of being a part of a genteel class in America. And this gets re-emphasized particularly in the younger Bush, by his tendency to emphasize what he is in his heart." RS: But, in the general election campaign, the Texas governor can expect greater scrutiny of what he says, and how he says it: TAPE: CUT THREE - FIELDS "On one hand we've had a tendency in recent years to ask for presidents who don't come from Washington, who haven't been corrupted by knowing what really goes on there. On the other hand we get very nervous about presidential candidates who don't know what's going on there. So I think this sort of sound-bite rhetoric that has served him pretty well up till now increasingly has to give way to something that suggests that he has the capacity to satisfy the job. And since he can't really do anything except campaign and give speeches to prove that, the rhetoric has to convey that." AA: One of the phrases central to George W. Bush's campaign is his description of himself as a "compassionate conservative." RS: We asked Wayne Fields to put the phrase in context. TAPE: CUT FOUR - FIELDS "When the senior Bush ran, remember his acceptance speech emphasized `a thousand points of light,' a kind of compassionate aspect of Republicanism that by the very fact that they put so much emphasis on it, suggested that they were aware that most of us don't immediately put those things together. "That's to say, that the notion is that the Republican Party has been more hard-headed, and consequently more hard-hearted, than either Bush was projecting. But there is this tradition certainly in the upper classes of Republicans, from the beginning of the party on, that they are to be somehow that wing of the party that represents the interests of the vulnerable, that they are to take up causes that we typically now associate with liberals. "So to say that you can be conservative and be compassionate may on one hand, at one extreme, say that you can care about people and not spend any money on them. That might be one interpretation. Or you can say that there are conservative principles that are themselves compassionate social forces and influences." RS: And, Wayne Fields says, it was those principles that the elder Bush emphasized, and that his son now echoes in his own campaign speeches. AA: Political rhetoric expert Wayne Fields will be back later in the month to talk about the soon-to-be-nominated Democratic candidate, Al Gore. Let us hear from you. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov or write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. We leave you with some of George Walker Bush's own words, from his acceptance speech Thursday night, at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- BUSH "Big government is not the answer, but the alternative to bureaucracy is not indifference. It is to put conservative values and conservative ideas into the thick of the fight for justice and opportunity. This is what I mean by compassionate conservatism." "And on this ground, we will lead our nation." "... When I act, you will know my reasons. And when I speak, you will know my heart. ... We are now the party of ideas and innovation, the party of idealism and inclusion, the party of a simple and powerful hope. My fellow citizens, we can begin again. After all of the shouting and all of the scandal, after all the bitterness and broken faith, we can begin again." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-4-1.cfm
* Headline: June 4, 2000 - National Teacher of the Year
* Byline: 

 INTRO: An English teacher stopped by to chat with our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble - - but not just any English teacher. TAPE: CUT ONE - WHIRRY "My name is Dr. Marilyn Whirry and I teach Advanced Placement English, twelfth grade, at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California, and I recently received the wonderful distinction and honor of being named National Teacher of the Year." AA: America's fiftieth National Teacher of the Year, to be exact. It's an honor bestowed by national education groups and a children's publishing company. RS: Marilyn Whirry will travel around the country for a year, teaching adults about the role of education in society. AA: And part of that role, she says, is to nurture a passion for learning. TAPE: CUT TWO - WHIRRY "I'm a very rigorous teacher, but I want to get my kids to love the learning of reading and writing. So I teach them techniques for reading books and I teach them how to write. My students write about 35 essays in the course of a year, and I grade them." RS: That's one three-page essay per week, based on reading about 20 novels during the school year. AA: Marilyn Whirry has a doctorate in contemporary literature -- which happens to be the focus of twelfth-grade English classes at Mira Costa High School. TAPE: CUT THREE - WHIRRY "We teach some classics in there, like 'Crime and Punishment' and 'Hamlet,' but a lot of our works are very contemporary. I teach Toni Morison's 'The Song of Solomon' and I teach 'Snow Falling on Cedars,' and I teach 'Their Eyes Were Watching God,' and I teach 'Cry the Beloved Country' and I teach works that pertain to today's society and the problems that exist in it. It's so wonderful for English teachers because we're able to open the door to the world." RS: When she's not teaching children, Marilyn Whirry teaches teachers. And what she's found, she says, is that many new teachers today are not trained to run a classroom. TAPE: CUT FOUR - Whirry WHIRRY: "For many of them it means learning to do a lesson plan for the first time, when I feel they should have learned that long before. And you may have to teach them how to teach a novel. They don't know that you don't just tell kids to read every day, you have to do something every day. And then the teaching of writing is very, very difficult. It's a skill that needs a lot of development in young teachers - in all teachers." AA: "Do you have a philosophy of what seems to work best for you in teaching writing?" WHIRRY: "My philosophy is, writing takes writing, and you have to work with each child individually on that writing. There are basic things we teach. We teach that if you give a reason, you need evidence. If you give evidence, you need significance. And if you can teach kids those three areas, they begin getting it, their writing has some depth. There's another way to do this, and that is through group work. You give them the same kind of problem in a group and demand the same kind of examples - here are your reasons, now where's your evidence, and then give the significance when you talk back to the class. Then you're reinforcing what they're going to do in their writing." RS: Her methods, she says, can apply just as well to students learning English as another language. One technique she described is to have students write to one another or to the teacher in a journal -- TAPE: CUT FIVE - WHIRRY/SKIRBLE " ... where you pick a passage from the text - such as `our lives become meaningful by being meaningful to others' - and then you comment about that. What does that mean, how does that connect to other ideas in the text? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to other pieces of literature you've read? (The child works with the text until he/she) understands that quotation. And that's a very important way for a beginning reader to operate. And it's also an important way to bring up reading comprehension." RS: "And grammar and sentence structure." WHIRRY: "Absolutely. All these things are essential. And as a child learns to write, what one does as a teacher is, take out what he needs. He needs work on syntax. Well, now you work with syntax and you do it this way. You work with syntax in the writing and then you start pointing out the syntax of the books you're reading, so that it becomes one, and the student says `yes, I get it! If I want a style like this writer, I'd better use my syntax this way." AA: English teacher Marilyn Whirry of California, America's new National Teacher of the Year. RS: Next week it's time to check in again with Slangman David Burke. We hope you'll tune in! Until then let us hear from you. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. AA: Or you can write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC, 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "No More Homework"/Gary U.S. Bonds 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-5-1.cfm
* Headline: March 19, 2000 - Slangman: Non-Words
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble try to make sense of what can sound like nonsense to the untrained ear. MUSIC -- "De do do do, de da da da"/The Police AA: Spoken English is made up not just of words but also sounds that are called interjections. They probably are not in any dictionary -- but interjections can convey a lot of meaning. RS: Uh-huh! When we stopped to think about it, we came up with plenty of examples. So did "Slangman" David Burke, the author of a series of books on American English. He points out a pair of common interjections for "yes" and "no." TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "uh-huh and uh-uh." RS: Can we hear that again? TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "uh-huh and uh-uh." AA: Did you get that? The problem for non-native English speakers -- even for native speakers - - is to distinguish between these two sounds: "uh-huh" and "uh-uh." TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE (:21) "We have lots of words that say yes: `yes,' `yep,' but uh-huh is really popular, and it sounds musically like this: 'uh-HUH?' or 'uh- HUH!' Now if you stop the 'uh' and say 'uh- uh', that's `no.' So, it's a big difference, 'uh-huh' is `yes' and 'uh-uh' is no." RS: David Burke suggests another common interjection that carries its own melody: TAPE CUT THREE: DAVID BURKE/ARDITTI DAVID BURKE: "`Duh.' To me `duh' is a way to say, 'That's so obvious,' `Duh!' And, it was typically a teenager thing, but it fits so perfectly. There is no other word for it. You can not replace it with anything else except, `duh!' AA: `So, it's like saying, `What are you an idiot?'" DAVID BURKE: "Yeah, `What are you stupid?'" RS: And, then we have other interjections that help describe what we feel. TAPE CUT FOUR: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI DAVID BURKE: "What kind of sound do we make when you taste something that is really bad? RS: "Yuck!" DAVID BURKE: "That's really popular. Kids say that. Adults say it. We say, `yuck,' or `ick.'" AA: "Or blech!" DAVID BURKE: "B-L-E-C-H! We see that in cartoons. Now those are things that taste bad. So, if it tastes bad it is `yucky,' or you say 'yuck,' 'ick,' `blech.' But what if it smells bad, what would you say?" AA: "Pew! [sounds like P-U]" DAVID BURKE: "Right! `Pew.' That's what we'd used for a smell, and the other ones, `yuck' and `ick' and `blech,' we'd use for a taste." RS: "How about a good taste? If something smells good, what would you say?" DAVID BURKE: "Mmmm..." RS: "Exactly! That's a wonderful one because we use that for anything that gives pleasure. If it smells good, if it tastes good." AA: "Let's bring up `yada yada yada, which was a term that was in the popular vocabulary, then got further exposure on the television show `Seinfeld.' It's used a lot. It's the cousin of `blab blah blah'. (Could you) explain `yada yada yada.'" DAVID BURKE: "We can actually use it in two ways, one to make fun of someone: `yada yada yada.' And, the second way simply means 'et cetera' and 'so forth,' and it's not insulting. (Here's) a sentence: `Today I went to an amusement park. Then I went to the beach. Then I went shopping, yada yada, yada, I had a long day." RS: "Now with the television show off the air, and `yada yada yada' in our general vocabulary, do you think that (the expression) is going to disappear too?" DAVID BURKE: "Not a chance. I think that any slang term that is fun to say will stay here forever! So, we have to look at what's popular. It's popular to say, `yuck,' `zap,' `pow,' `umph' `blech' -- all that stuff. "So, it's important that we know what (the interjections) mean and when is it appropriate to use those sounds and when is it not appropriate to use them. Like we said before with `yada yada yada,' there could be some times when that could be offensive to somebody because you are insinuating that that person is talking nonsense, and there are other times where it is absolutely the only word to use. 'Et ctcetera' is more formal. `Yada yada yada.' That's more casual and, again, popular. "So these sounds are part of our language, and maybe for the first time create our own sound dictionary." AA: In fact, "Slangman" David Burke says he plans to add a "sound dictionary" to his Web site, so you can look for that and also browse through his books at www.slangman.com. RS: To reach us, address your letters to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA, or send us e-mail at word@voa.gov. AA: Next, week we tackle another problem of American grammar with Grammar Lady Mary Bruder. RS: Until then, we say "tah-tah!" AA: Tah-tah! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC - "De do do do, de da da da"/The Police (reprise) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-6-1.cfm
* Headline: November 7, 1999 - Articles
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Now VOA's Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti tackle three little words that spell trouble for some of their listeners. AA: Ivan Huziak from Croatia, writes, "How can I know when to use the definite article and when to use the indefinite article." RS: Articles are the words "a," "an" and "the" which come before a noun and modify or describe it. AA: The reason Ivan is having trouble is that articles don't exist in Croatian, or in a lot of other languages. RS: For Nirmal, Nilima and Alka from Nepal, the problem is not how to use articles but when to pronounce t-h-e "thuh" and when to pronounce it "thee." Keep listening, you'll find out! AA: "Thuh" or "thee" is called the definite article because the noun it goes with refers to something specific. As in, "Put the book on the table in the dining room." RS: ... not just any old book on any old table, we're talking about specific things. And which room? AA: The dining room. The definite article is also used to point out something that is one a kind -- like "the moon" or "the earth." RS: Indefinite articles don't refer to a specific noun. I might say to Avi, "give me a pen" meaning any pen, unless there's one I really have my eyes on. "A" - which most Americans pronounce "uh" -- goes before a consonant while "an" goes before a vowel. AA: So, we could go to the grocery store to buy "a bunch of carrots," "a head of lettuce," "a loaf of bread" and "a box of cereal." RS: We might also buy "an apple," "an apricot" and "an orange." AA: Zarina Hock learned these simple rules in a British school as a child in India. She grew up bilingual in English and Hindi. Hindi, by the way, also does not use articles. RS: Today Zarina Hock enforces the rules of American English. She's senior editor for the National Council of Teachers of English, a group with almost 80-thousand members. AA: She says articles can be hard to master because of the differences between British and American English. TAPE CUT ONE: ZARINA HOCK ZARINA HOCK: "In British English, for example, we would say, `in future' I'll do this and in American English you would say, `the future.' Or in British English you would say, `in hospital' or you `catch cold and in American English it would be `catch a cold' or you've got `a toothache.' RS: Zarina Hock says grammar books are good but don't explain the hundreds of exceptions to the rules for using articles. TAPE CUT TWO: ZARINA HOCK/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI ZARINA HOCK: "It's very difficult for a non- English speaker to know because some of this is purely idiomatic. For example, you can say. "He's gone to jail. No one says `to the jail.' If I said to you, `the jail' you would say, `which one,' right? Because it's `the jail' meaning a specific jail that we're talking about." RS: "Which brings us to the next subject which was a question from another listener about the differences in pronunciation between /thee/ and /thuh/. What is the rule behind that?" ZARINA HOCK: "That one I thought was pretty clear. You use /thee/ when you have the article in front of a vowel, and use /thuh/ Voice of America because you have a consonant. The interesting thing is that you also emphasize /thee/ when you're talking about `it is /thee/ program to listen to.'" AA: "Now, do you call yourself, the senior editor or just senior editor?" ZARINA HOCK: "If I were the senior editor I would be really giving myself airs (inflating my job title) wouldn't I? No, I'm just senior editor. But I am the only senior editor we have." RS: Our thanks to Zarina Hock, senior editor for the National Council of Teachers of English. And also a special thanks to Ivan Huziak from Croatia and to Nirmal, Nilima and Alka from Nepal for sending us your questions. AA: Having a problem with American English? Let us know. You can reach us at word@voa.gov or by snail mail at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The Rain in Spain"/My Fair Lady 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-7-1.cfm
* Headline: October 10, 1999 - Listener Questions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters answer some of your questions. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. RS: This is she. Or should I have said, this is her? AA: That's a question asked by Bikash, Nirmal and Manoj -- three students in Birgunj, Nepal. RS: They e-mailed us, wanting to know which is correct: "this is her" or "this is she." AA: It's grammatically correct to say, "This is she." So if someone asks for you on the telephone, you would answer: RS: "This is she, this is Rosanne," although grammarian and author Pat O'Conner tells us that in common usage these days it's considered more natural to say, "This is her." AA: We asked Pat O'Conner for the rules about using "she" and "her" in sentences. TAPE: CUT 1 - O'CONNER "The thing to remember about `she' and `her' is that `she' does the action and `her' is the one acted upon, as in `she spoke to her,' `I spoke to her,' `he spoke to her,' `she spoke to him' - that sort of thing. One little hint there is the object, the `her' person, will usually come at the end of a phrase, rather than at the beginning, and the `she' will usually come first." RS: Chen Ying, a listener at the Hangzhou Foreign Language School in China has another question. The letter says: "I'm puzzled by the slang [phrase] `Not until the fat lady sings.' What does it mean and how is it used?" AA: OK, think of a typical opera. How does the audience know when the end is near? RS: There's a dramatic aria by the soprano. AA: Now we don't usually think of opera singers as tending toward the skinny side. RS: So you could say - to use the slang vernacular -- "it ain't over till the fat lady sings." No offense intended! AA: Pat O'Conner told us that expression is often traced to a 1978 story in the Washington Post... RS: ... written not by opera critic, but by a sports writer. TAPE: CUT 3 - O'CONNER "He was using it in terms of a [base]ball game, meaning you don't give up until the last inning. You don't just toss up your hands and give up a game until it's over." AA: Patricia O'Conner is just out with a new book. It's called "Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing." RS: Two weeks ago, we reported on a decision in El Cenizo, Texas, to adopt Spanish as an official language for town business. But the decision to use Spanish has been widely criticized - mostly by people who don't live in El Cenizo. AA: Doug Shannon, a computer programmer in San Antonio, Texas, saw our script on the voa.gov Web site. He says our story - in his words -- "sympathized exclusively with the El Cenizo authorities." TAPE: CUT 4 - SHANNON "My concern is that when authorities give a disincentive to learning English, any kind of official disincentive, it's the slippery slope theory, where it's going to make children less likely to learn that language. And in a time when you have a large and growing gap between the rich and the poor, I think that any disincentive to learning the language that is being used in all sorts of high-tech engineering jobs, could just exacerbate that gap." RS: Doug Shannon says he's not anti-Spanish - in fact, the language spoken in his home is Spanish. His wife is from Mexico. AA: Whatever language you speak at home, we'd love to hear from you. If we read your letter on Wordmaster, we'll send you a VOA souvenir - just remember to tell us where to send it! RS: Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov and our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington, D.C., 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti MUSIC: "Return to Sender" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-8-1.cfm
* Headline: September 19, 1999 - Education Jargon
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Some American teachers are appalled by language they're hearing in school. But as our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble report, the offending words are not coming from students. MUSIC: "Teacher's Pet"/Doris Day AA: Today we're going to talk about a teacher's pet peeve. Education is like any other profession: it has its own jargon that people outside the field may not understand. Yet some teachers think administrators and educational policymakers could use a lesson in speaking more clearly. RS: Patrick Welsh is one of those teachers. He has taught English for more than thirty years at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington. He says education officials, under pressure to improve schools, keep giving new names to what he contends are old practices. AA: For instance, right now Pat Welsh and his colleagues are being trained in a program called S-B-E. That stands for Standards Based Education. TAPE: CUT 1 - WELSH/ARDITTI "We've been told that this is a new paradigm, that this is something that Plato and Aristotle did not think of. When Einstein was teaching at Princeton, he didn't know about this either. What it is, is this silly thing where you have to find out what is essential for the students to know and to do, and then you're supposed to design the whole curriculum around these state standards which are defining what is essential for kids to know and to do." AA: "Why do you call it silly?" WELSH: "Because for years teachers have been saying to themselves, either consciously or unconsciously, `I want my students to know this.' Then one way or another they teach (it) either through direct teaching, or they have students sit around in groups. The new jargon for that is `cooperative learning.'" RS: And how are teachers supposed to measure how much their students have learned? Pat Welsh says teachers are being told to use what are now called "performance indicators." TAPE: CUT 2 - WELSH "They used to call them tests. I mean, normal people call them tests. But the school system is calling them `performance indicators' and I still don't know what that means. But now we're supposed to translate performance indicators into `benchmarks.'" AA: "Benchmark" refers to a level of achievement. RS: Pat Welsh says a lot of educational jargon arrives with newly hired top administrators wanting to make their own mark. He says things were different back when he was a student in Catholic parochial schools. TAPE: CUT 3 - WELSH (:33) "You know the nuns that I had in the 1950s, they never had an education course in their lives, they never used the jargon. Their thing was, `You're going to learn it or else!' But the politics today demands that superintendents come in with a new little bag of tricks and new jargon to get people to believe that they have `the' answer, that they have the silver bullet. They don't want to come in and say, `We're going to do what we always did but we're going to try to do it better.'" AA: According to Pat Welsh, most teachers avoid using jargon in their classrooms. But it's a real problem, he says, when parents can't understand the technical terms often used in reporting the results of state or locally mandated exams. RS: Here he speaks as a parent as well as a teacher. TAPE: CUT 4 - WELSH "I have a fairly decent education, (yet) I could barely read the reports that would come either from the state or from our own central office, how to interpret the test data." RS: Pat Welsh, speaking to us from the English Department at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. AA: If you'd like to speak to us, write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA or send e- mail to word@voa.gov. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "School Day"/Chuck Berry 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-9-1.cfm
* Headline: September 12, 1999 - Slangman: Food Words
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti are back with an English lesson that's a piece of cake. MUSIC - "EAT IT" AA: A college student named Jo from Shanghai got us thinking about food. Jo writes, "There are a lot of expressions in English that are very useful, and what's more very interesting." RS: Our listener says, an example is "when someone asks you to do something which is quite easy, instead of saying, it's easy, you would say, `It's a piece of cake.'" AA: That's right, and, you know Jo, we read your letter at lunchtime, and so we jotted down a whole list of food-related expressions. We decided to talk them over with Slangman David Burke, who cooked up a list of his own. "Piece of cake," he says, means more or less the same as "easy as pie." TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "'Easy as pie' comes from the time when making a pie was really easy. All you do to make the crust was (mix) water, flour and lard, and the pie was simply apples, cinnamon, and sugar, That's why bakers used to make hundreds of pies in the mornings. It was very inexpensive and easy to make." RS: Moving from pie, back to cake and to the icing on the cake, we chewed over another expression. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI DAVID BURKE: "`Icing on the cake' simply means `This tops everything. It's the best we could possibly be talking about.' For example, going to France is wonderful, but to go there on the Concorde, now that's icing on the cake. You couldn't do any better than that." RS: "What about (the expression) `That takes the cake.'" AA: "Meaning you've almost gone too far. It's really outlandish." DAVID BURKE: "Exactly. It means outlandish. And, it can be used either negatively or positively. For example, let's say you are at a party and a woman walks in who has tons and tons of makeup and her hair is about three feet off her head. You could say, `Wow, she really takes the cake.' Or say you were going to buy a car, and they show you the most beautiful car, `Wow that really takes the cake.' It means that it is the best!" AA: According to the Dictionary of American Slang by Robert Chapman, the term "takes the cake" was in use by 1847 and came from the prize awarded in black American dancing competitions known as cakewalks. RS: We no longer dance the cakewalk, but we've kept the expression. AA: Walking down the produce aisle we come across a bunch of bananas and some peas. David Burke helps us put these words into context: TAPE CUT THREE: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI DAVID BURKE: "I'm tired of playing second banana to that pea brain." RS: "Second banana!" DAVID BURKE: "Second banana. Now why do you think that we say that one?" AA: "As opposed to the top banana!" DAVID BURKE: "Why you do think we say those expressions?" AA: "Is the top banana the one that gets the most sun? It's on top of the bunch." DAVID BURKE: "You just guessed that didn't you! You are absolutely right!" That's it. "If you are the top banana, you're the one that is exposed to the sun. The ones below (the top banana) are the ones that don't really get as much sun. The second banana is not quite as sweet, but it is ok. So, you never want to play second banana, you always want to be top banana. But if someone calls you a pea brain." RS: "Very small (brain)." DAVID BURKE: "Very small, the size of a pea. So, that one is pretty easy." RS: Bananas can also mean "nuts," meaning either crazy or wildly enthusiastic, depending on the context. AA: For instance: "She went bananas over the dress and bought one in every color." RS: The "Dictionary of American Slang" suggests that this expression comes from the spectacle of an ape greedily gobbling bananas. AA: Now, before we peel out of here, all this talk about food might whet your appetite for "Slangman" David Burke's web site, where you can learn about his newest books on American slang and idioms. The address is www.slangman.com. Slangman is spelled S-L-A- N-G-M-A-N. RS: Have a question about American English? Let us know, and we'll try to answer it on the air. Write to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington,DC 20547 USA or use our e-mail address, word@voa.gov. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC -- "Food Glorious Food" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-10-1.cfm
* Headline: June 18, 2000 - Grammar Lady: 'There Is' vs. 'There Are'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: There is a common grammatical mistake that our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, talk about this week. MUSIC: "There's a Cloud in My Valley of Sunshine"/Roy Rogers AA: Poor Roy Rogers, there's clouds in his valley of sunshine. RS: No, there's just one. But say some more clouds appeared on the horizon. These days a lot of people would say, "There's clouds in my valley of sunshine." AA: And they'd be wrong. "There's" is the contraction of "there is." And "is" refers to something singular. So, with the plural "clouds," you would say "there are clouds." RS: Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder offered to shed a little more sunshine on "there is" vs. "there are." TAPE: CUT ONE - BRUDER/ARDITTI BRUDER: "This is a very interesting structure because this is one of the only places in English where the subject actually comes after the verb. If you say `there is a book' or `there are four books,' the subject is book or books, so the speaker has to anticipate what is coming up." "And since the mind of an English speaker is not set up to delay the subject, most people forget that the subject is coming up, and they think that maybe `there' is the subject, so they always say `there is.' You hear lots of people say `there's a lot of stuff going on' or there's . " AA: "There's ten movies opening." BRUDER: "There's ten movies opening,' `there's three boys on the street,' whereas proper grammar requires us to say `there are seven movies' or `there are a lot of people on the street.'" RS: There is a simple way in many cases to avoid confusion. Mary Newton Bruder says all you have to do is put the subject first. AA: Take the sentence: "There are four people here to see you." Turn it around and you get: "Four people are here to see you." TAPE: CUT TWO - BRUDER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE BRUDER: "It's a stronger way to start, and the reader then knows what the subject is right away without having to wait." AA: In any case, if the current trend continues, the phrase "there are" could drop out of common usage. RS: Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder predicts a time when, regardless of whether the subject of a sentence is singular or plural, people will just say "there is." TAPE: CUT THREE - BRUDER "Educated speakers in informal situations use it frequently, and that's generally an indicator of an evolutionary process." AA: "Is that progress, or is that a step back?" BRUDER: "Well, there are those who say that you can't stop the change of language, and that's true. Who knows? The curmudgeons would say it's a step back, I say it's basically a process that we can't stop and probably shouldn't even bother to try, although I will say that in formal writing, I would require my students to make the distinction between `there is' and `there are,' because people form perceptions on these kinds of things that could make a difference." RS: ... when it comes to, say, applying for college or interviewing for a job. If you'd like more advice from Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder, you can visit her Web site, at www.grammarlady.com. AA: That's all for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "There's a Cloud in My Valley of Sunshine"/Roy Rogers 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-11-1.cfm
* Headline: May 9, 1999 - Language of War
* Byline: 

 INTRO: The "language of war" is the subject this time for our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. AA: NATO officials hold daily news briefings on the air campaign in Yugoslavia. Here NATO spokesman Jamie Shea answers a question about what seemed to be some conflicting information. TAPE: CUT ONE -- SHEA/SOUKHANOV SHEA: "There's no contradiction here. The meeting did not discuss the idea which has been a familiar one of sending in ground troops in a non-permissive environment. . . " SOUKHANOV: "Permissive, semi-permissive and non-permissive environment -- friendly, iffy or hostile environments is what is meant." RA: Anne Soukhanov (soo-'ha-nof) keeps a close eye on those daily reports from brussels. She is the "Word Watch" columnist for the Atlantic monthly magazine and author of the book "Word Watch: The Stories Behind the Words of Our Lives." And, she is the U-S editor of the Encarta World English Dictionary, to be published in August. AA: In other words, Anne Soukhanov makes her living listening not just to what people say but also how they say it. TAPE: CUT TWO -- SOUKHANOV "Other examples of euphemistic vocabulary that I hear in the briefings are things like 'degrade the command and control infrastructure of Yugoslavia.' Degrade means either to damage or destroy by way of bombardment. 'Command and control infrastructure' is sort of an engineering term that involves such things as roads, rail lines, bridges, headquarters, barracks and so on. " RS: Anne Soukhanov says "assets" is another popular word with the NATO briefers. TAPE: CUT THREE -- SOUKHANOV/ARDITTI "Air assets, naval assets, strike assets, rescue assets -- (assets) means personnel. It also can mean the equipment used to transport personnel. A force package is a bomb or a warhead, a strike package is a group of platforms -- another word they love to use -- either airborne or naval or ground, used to deliver force packages. " AA: "Why don't they just call it a bomb. " SOUKHANOV: "This I don't know, but I do feel that 'packaging' everything, in the recent past, has become a buzz word. You package a product, you package a personality if you're working in public relations, trying to represent a famous person. " RS: To Anne Soukhanov, such terms represent what she calls anti-emotional "program management jargon." And she says it's being used more and more in society these days, not just in the military. She says military language didn't used to be so "antiseptic. " TAPE CUT FOUR -- SOUKHANOV "Oh, as far back as Teddy Roosevelt and the roughriders, that's a pretty rough and ready term. In the first world war, we had things called 'duds' and 'flamethrowers' and 'shell shock' and 'trench warfare. ' They rather called it what it was. " AA: Anne Soukhanov says more recent wars have produced euphemisms like "collateral damage" to describe "civilian casualties. " TAPE: CUT FIVE -- SOUKHANOV "But what we're been seeing in Brussels has taken it to a new dimension. I've seen a lot of political cartoonists recently address this issue of how it used to be 'charge!' and 'hit the beach' and now it's 'degrade the infrastructure.' And it's become an interesting issue because lots of times people don't understand what some of these terms really mean." RS: Anne Soukhanov says she was surprised to hear one NATO briefer, a German general, use some terms anyone could understand. TAPE CUT SIX -- SOUKHANOV/ARDITTI "He kept talking about air strikes. In fact, I have notes here: 'attack used a lot, six or seven times in three or four minutes. '" AA: "Whereas another spokesman might use what terms?" SOUKHANOV: "Might use 'incursion' or 'event' or might use 'strike package.'" AA: Veteran word-watcher Anne Soukhanov, speaking to us from her home in Virginia. RS: And if you'd like to speak to us, our e-mail address is word@VOA. Gov, or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington dc 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-12-1.cfm
* Headline: May 2, 1999 - Poetry
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Our Wordmasters were buzzing with activity as they prepared for their weekly report on language. AA: Roses are red, violets are blue, if you like poetry, then this week's Wordmaster is just for you. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble, and today we're going to talk about using poetry to teach English. TAPE CUT 1 -- JOY PEYTON "Poems are usually pretty short, compared to other kinds of text, so you get a full topic in a paragraph or two, or a page, so you can explore a topic very quickly. " AA: Joy Peyton uses poetry to teach English as a foreign language. She gives writing seminars for teachers and students, through the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington. TAPE CUT 2 -- JOY PEYTON "Poets seek to touch people's hearts universally and they look for universal themes to write about. " RS: Joy Peyton says reading and writing poetry unlocks emotions. So, she says, language learners express themselves more than they might otherwise. Also, many poems repeat words and sentence structures, and poetry helps teach the rhythms of the language. SFX: BUZZING BEES RS: Ouch! those honeybees are angry!! AA: Joy Peyton told us that one of her favorite poems for teaching English is called "Honeybees. " It's from the book "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices" by Paul Fleischman. //AA and RS read poem// TAPE CUT 3 -- JOY PEYTON "You have 'being a bee is a joy/is a pain/I'm a queen/I'm a worker/I'll gladly explain. ' So you have two perspectives and from that you can write zillions of poems about (for example) Columbus and the people that were in the countries that he went to. You can write about an immigration officer and a person who's coming to a country. You can write about a mother and her son. "When you read the poem, people come up with a whole bunch of ideas about two perspectives. The other thing is that people see that you don't necessarily have to rhyme. " AA: Joy Peyton at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington. RS: If you're a poet -- or even if you're not -- write to us. We love to hear from our listeners. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington dc 20547 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Flight of the Bumblebee 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-13-1.cfm
* Headline: April 25, 1999 - Slangman: Space Terms
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble are back this week with a language lesson that is out of this world. MUSIC: "Star Wars" AA: The much anticipated prequel to the star wars trilogy doesn't open in movie theaters nationwide until may 19th. But hard-core star wars fans began lining up a little early, you might say. TAPE: CUT ONE -- PEOPLE IN LINE MAN #1: "I've been here since April 9th. " WOMAN: "April 8th. MAN #2: "I got here on April 8th at about nine in the morning. " RS: Some fans outside Mann's Chinese theater in Hollywood. Friends come to take their place in line from time to time. But these fanatics are holding their ground, determined to be among the first to see "Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace. " AA: Our "Slangman" David Burke lives nearby, but isn't one of those camped out in line. RS: ... although when we talked with him, he was ready with a list of space-related idioms that might describe the behavior of some of those fans. TAPE: CUT TWO -- DAVID BURKE/RS/AA DAVID BURKE: "'To be spaced out. ' Of course, that means to be completely lost in your mind, to have no specific focus. And, 'to be spacey,' which is very common. "He's so 'spacey. ' He's kind of strange. He doesn't have both 'feet on the ground. ' That's another slang term, another idiom for to be in the here and now. "Another (space term) I found is the word 'looney. ' Do you know where that comes from? " AA: "Sounds like lunar. " RS: "Sounds like moon. " DAVID BURKE: "You're both right. It comes from (the) Latin 'luna' meaning moon. So, for somebody who is very, very strange, in fact (a) lunatic, that word comes from luna. To 'go to the looney bin,' that means a place crazy people have to go to get rehabilitated. " AA: "Now it is interesting that there are certain terms, for example if I said that something was 'out of this world,' that's great. But, if I said that this person is 'spaced out,' that's not good. How are people supposed to know the difference between terms like that?" DAVID BURKE: "That is one aspect that is so complicated, especially for non-native speakers because you really have to listen to the context. My father was from Hungary. He would eat something that was delicious and he would say, 'this is out of this world!' well, my mother's family was from Poland, and when my father would say that, my mother's reaction was, 'you don't like it. ' No, no, no (I would say) that's good! 'out of this world' is a good thing! so, anything that is 'out of this world' is fantastic. I don't believe that I've ever heard it used in a different context, although I guess you would say (with a different tone of voice) that he was 'out of this world ... " AA: "From another planet!" DAVID BURKE: "From another planet, exactly that would make more sense!" RS: "Why do you think that we have looked to the heavens so much for so many of our idioms?" DAVID BURKE: "I guess because it is so inexplicable the weird things that we see up there. A shooting star, we even use (that expression) in slang now. A 'star' is a movie star." AA: "That's what we call our celebrities." DAVID BURKE: "Exactly, a movie star. Or even 'a shooting star' is somebody who is going up and up on the ladder of success. So, I think that any possible way that we can create a slang term out of anything, whatever it is, we are going to do it, and I think that we all have a fascination with the heavens, with space, because there are so many unanswered questions. So, we try to bring it down to a level that is palatable for us by creating slang terms out of heavenly terms. It makes it a little more approachable." RS: "What kind of advice do you have for our listeners who would like to incorporate some of these space terms into their vocabulary. " DAVID BURKE: "Well, the only way to fully incorporate them is to fully understand them. It's important sometimes to know where these words come from. It helps you remember them. " AA: David Burke invites you to visit him in cyberspace, at slangman.com. You'll find the terms you just heard along with additional information to help you learn them. That Web site again is www.slangman.com. RS: And, while you're at it, drop us a line to let us know what would you like to hear on Wordmaster. We'll send a VOA guide to everyone who writes. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20547 USA or send e-mail to word@voa.gov AA: Until next week, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Star Wars" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-14-1.cfm
* Headline: February 13, 2000 - Romance Coach
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Monday is Valentine's Day, and that has our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti searching for some language of love -- with help from a professional romantic. MUSIC "All You Need is Love"/The Beatles AA: You could say Leslie Karsner is in love with love. Even back in high school, she says, her classmates voted her the "Class Romancer." RS: That interest stayed with her into the working world, in a job as a business trainer. The executives she worked with began to share details about their personal lives. What she heard told her that what these men and women needed was more romance in their lives. AA: So Leslie Karsner has created the Romance Institute. It's a think-tank of sorts for coaching men and women in the fine art of romance. TAPE CUT ONE: LESLIE KARSNER/SKIRBLE KARSNER: "It's not about winning someone over. This is about genuinely making efforts, and are they appreciating that other person in their life, doing all that they are capable of doing to make that person feel special. In my practice I focus on the four pillars of romance, and they are vitality, passion, magic and comfort." RS: "So, are you saying these pillars of love start with yourself? That you have to have vitality, magic, passion and comfort before you can attract anyone else?" KARSNER: "Yes, I believe that. And, it's about having a romantic nature and enhancing that romantic spirit within you. In one of my group coaching programs that I lead I gave the class the assignment for the week was to go out and fortify one of their `Pillars of Romance.' One gentleman came back the next week and talked about going to work and how on his way from the car to the office, he stopped to feel the `sunshine warm his face or the breeze against his skin.' And I thought, here's a successful man who is stopping to appreciate the little things in life that we totally forget about." AA: And Leslie Karsner says those little things can make a big difference when it comes to putting romance into words. TAPE CUT TWO: LESLIE KARSNER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE (1:47) LESLIE KARSNER: "Even something as simple as, `You take my breath away,' or you move me." AA: "Some might say that would sound disingenuous or insincere." LESLIE KARSNER: "It needs to come from the heart. So, it's the tone you use. It's the genuineness. It's the sincerity. We're all familiar that there are players out there that may use words to their advantage, using those killer compliments. You have to notice body language. But, if it's that special someone in your life who is going out on a limb, and saying something that they typically don't normally say -- to express that, `I appreciate you.' Romance is really an appreciation for the little things, and when they acknowledge something about you and appreciate that about you, that should warm everyone's heart." AA: "Can you think of the worst line you've ever heard or had to advise someone not to use, and the best?" KARSNER: "Often times people say, (in greeting) `What do you do for a living?' and I often say to steer away from that to something like, 'What do you do for fun?' What are their passions? Are they athletic?" RS: So, it gives a better idea of who you are, rather than the work that you do." KARSNER: "Right!" RS: "Avi asked you the best line, and the worst. Is there (another) line you should avoid?" KARSNER: "I think the taboos would be the norms, like, `Do you come (to this place) often?' `Haven't I seen you before?' Things that are not true, anything like that. RS: "Be sincere, be honest!" KARSNER: "Be honest! And let it come from your heart." AA: Now meet Jason, thirty-two years old, from Baltimore, Maryland. He began twice-a-week romance coaching sessions six months ago. At that time he was involved with a woman from another city. But Jason wasn't happy. With Leslie Karsner's help, he says, he realized that his long-distance relationship demonstrated a fear of commitment. RS: Jason says the telephone coaching sessions have given him not only a clearer picture of what he is looking for in a mate, but also a deeper understanding of himself. As a result, he says, he is now happily involved with a woman who lives nearby. AA: And he gives a lot of the credit to his romance coach. TAPE CUT THREE: JASON/SKIRBLE JASON: "The thing that I like about Leslie is that she doesn't candy-coat exactly what you need to hear. She is direct, insightful and instinctive on what some of the major issues of a relationship are." RS: "And when do you think you will have gotten what you need to get from the coaching experience, and it's time to let that piece of your life go?" JASON: "I played a lot of sports in college and I always really valued coaching to keep you accountable and on track because it's very easy to get out of that mode. I don't know where it (the romance coaching) will go from here, but we will keep in touch, although it may be on a less frequent basis, at least to make sure that things are still going forward." AA: Leslie Karsner has a Web site for would-be romantics: www.romanceinstitute.com. RS: As for matters of American English, you can address your questions to Avi and me at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC, 20237 USA. Or use our e-mail address: word@voa.gov. AA: Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"/The Shirelles 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-15-1.cfm
* Headline: February 27, 2000 - Grammar Lady: Subjunctive 'Will' vs. 'Were'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti talk with Grammar Lady about a tricky rule of English. MUSIC: "Your Song"/Elton John AA: OK, Rosanne, so why does Elton John -- who just a few days ago won a Grammy Legend Award -- say "if I WAS a sculptor," and not "if I WERE a sculptor"? RS: Was, were -- what's the difference? Well, it has to do with something called the subjunctive. The subjunctive is a verb form that expresses an idea that's hypothetical or not factual. AA: It's subtle. The clue is in the use of "were" instead of "was." Here's another example. You're invited to a meeting. You think you're on time, but you arrive after everyone else. RS: You feel the need to apologize. But what do you say? For an answer, we turn to Grammar Lady Mary Bruder, a linguist and former English teacher in Pittsburgh. TAPE: CUT THREE - BRUDER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE "`If I was late, please excuse me.' That's simply a conditional form: I might have been late or I might not. If I was, then I'm sorry. But with the subjunctive, it's totally contrary to any kind of fact. `If I was in Paris right now' - that's wrong, because you're not in Paris and there's no possibility you could get there, so you have to say `If I were in Paris I'd be." AA: "Having a lot of fun." BRUDER: "Having a lot of fun. So when it's contrary to fact, you use the `were' - `if I were in Paris,' `if he were king,' `if I were a rich man.'" MUSIC: "If I Were a Rich Man"/Fiddler on the Roof AA: "it's sort of like `in the event of' - if I were a rich man, I'd have a lot of money, or I'd be happy or I'd have a big house." BRUDER: "Right." RS: "From `Fiddler on the Roof,' to finish your sentence." AA: "I'd be Tevye." BRUDER: "Right, but the thing is, it's not fact. Maybe it's clearer with the verb `wish'; `I wish I were in Paris.' With the verb 'wish,' it's always contrary to fact, because you wouldn't be wishing for it if it weren't. The verb `be' is the most difficult one because it changes from `was' and `were.' `If I was late, please excuse me.' That's a condition. `If I were rich I wouldn't know what to do with all the money.' That's the subjunctive because I'm not rich and there's not much likelihood of being rich either." AA: The subjunctive "were" allows for nuance, but Mary Bruder is not sure it will survive in the shadow of the all-purpose "was." TAPE: CUT FOUR - BRUDER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI "Since the subjunctive is so narrowly used in English, it's very possible that it would just disappear." RS: "And which direction would it be then, which move would it be, all toward which word?" BRUDER: "I think it would go toward the agreement of the subject and verb. So you'll get `if I was,' `I wish I was,' `I wish he was,' that kind of thing." RS: "But you know, if we lose the subjunctive, haven't we lost something from our language?" AA: "A really big word." BRUDER: "A very troublesome subject, you might say the other way too. If you look at what things have changed since even the early 1700s, the early part of English use in the United States, it's changed tremendously in a lot of ways that I suppose the people who lived then would be sad about. You can't stop language from changing, there's no possibility of doing that, and I think we shouldn't even think to try. But I do think we should continue to learn correctly and use correctly the things that are in the language today. I don't think we have to hurry it on its way to change, I guess is my point." RS: Advise from Grammar Lady Mary Bruder. Grammar lady also invites you to send your questions about American English grammar to her web site at www.grammarlady.com, or you can send them to us at word@voa.gov. AA: But we enjoy getting mail too -- like the nice letter we just received from Robert Honakar in Costa Rica, who says our topics "often form a basis for friendly conversations in Valle Azul." RS: Our address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington, D.C, 20237 USA. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "If I Were a Rich Man"/Fiddler on the Roof 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-16-1.cfm
* Headline: March 28, 1999 - Winners of the Name the Next Decade Contest
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time now for the results of the Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. Here to present some of the top entries are VOA's Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC -- THEME FROM "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY" AA: We begin with an appropriate selection, music from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." That classic science-fiction journey inspired a timely entry from one of our youngest listeners. Her suggestion for what to call the next decade pays tribute to legendary film director Stanley Kubrick, who died earlier this month. RS: Twelve-year-old Tania Ving of Mauritius, a student at Loreto Convent Secondary School in Port Luis, writes: "I've seen the movie many times, and I do believe that one day in the next century, something which Mr. Kubrick and all of us who can only dream of will become a reality." AA: So in memory of Stanley Kubrick, Tania Ving suggests the word "odyssey" for the year two-thousand and beyond. RS: That was one of the many suggestions we received from listeners in forty-five countries. As we promised, everyone who entered wins a prize, the better the entry the better the prize. AA: The entries ranged from the functional --- like "First Decade," the single most popular theme -- to the philosophical. Let's call the first category the "zeros" in honor of the letter we received from Cy Hinton in England. He writes, "we ought to call the first decade the 'zeros,' but since people wrongly speak of the number zero as 'o' (which is a letter) most folk will probably talk of the 'o's. ' " RS: You're right about that, if you consult primary school teacher Serge Remy from France. He suggests -- you guessed it -- the "o's. AA: These entries also fit loosely into the "zero" or "o" category: the "Double Nothings" from Israel, the "Zilches" from India, the "Oh-Zone" from New Zealand, and the "Oh Somethings" from Iraq. RS: Now moving on to the "technological name category," the winners are: AA: "Cyber Decade (from South Africa), the "Digy Ten" suggested by longtime listener cherry Ann Moore in Trinidad. "Digy Ten" comes from the words "digital technology." We also got these entries from Trinidad: "Ten Dot Com," "the Early Sci-Space Years," and the "First Cyber Ten of the 21st Century)." RS: We also heard from some pessimists. In this category the entries included "Hazardous" from Malaysia, and these words from 25-year-old Iranian English teacher M. Hosseini: "Of course in the turn of the century, we will have too many awkward problems -- and chief among them 'exhaustion of natural resources.'" AA: But the future looks bright to Chiaka Celestine from Nigeria, who writes, "I wish to name it the 'decade of great achievement and fulfillment. '" "I name it so," Chiaka Celestine writes, "because in most countries especially the developing ones, the next decade is seen as the target period for the achievement and fulfillment of lots of things. Take for instance, the talk of health for all by the year 2000, food for all by the year 2000, vision 2010 in Nigeria." RS: We also got some practical advise on how to say each individual year. From Costa Rica came the suggestion two-mil, two-mil-one, two-mil-two. From China: zero year, zero one, zero two. From India: 2-thousand-one, 2-thousand-two. And from Ghana: 20-hundred-and-one, 20-hundred-and-two, and so on. AA: Finally we want to read some a few stanzas from our favorite entry, a poem from Barry Durand in the Czech Republic. He writes: RS: "Now there's a task, to put a name on something filled with nothing, a decade filled with zips and ohs, and goose eggs, and years with double nuttins AA: "So, is the decade double oh. Or zippidy zip. Or opps. Uh oh. Let's just be glad y1. 9k's been put to bed, and let's forget the nonsense I've just said." RS: Thank you so much, Barry Durand. And thanks again to all who entered. We always love to hear from our listeners. Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20547 USA or send e-mail to word@voa.gov. AA: Our thanks to intern Albert Sieber for his help with our contest. As we start our second year of Wordmaster -- with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-17-1.cfm
* Headline: October 24, 1999 - Dictionary of Allusions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talk to a master of allusion. MUSIC: "WATERLOO"/ABBA AA: Napoleon didn't have much to sing about at Waterloo, as he met his final defeat against the forces of the Duke of Wellington. RS: Yet thanks to Napoleon, people can now describe a defeat or setback as a "waterloo" and others are likely to know what they mean. AA: So what happened on a battlefield near Brussels, Belgium, in 1815, today can describe a big loss on, say, a football field. "Waterloo" is an allusion, a-l-l-u-s-i-o-n. RS: Not to confused with an illusion, spelled with an "i," which is an imaginary appearance. Allusion spelled with an "a" is a term or expression taken from its original context and applied in a different context, to explain or dramatize or make a more colorful comparison. AA: That's the definition from editor and writer Elizabeth Webber, co-author of Merriam Webster's new Dictionary of Allusions. TAPE: CUT 1 - WEBBER "Allusions come into our language from all different points, from popular culture, from movies, from cartoons, from the sciences. Our goal in writing the book was to come up with a reference book that would be useful to people from many backgrounds." RS: So do you know where the common allusion "bite the bullet" comes from? We happened to see it in a newswire story the day Elizabeth Webber visited us. The story said a big Japanese automaker would have to "bite the bullet." TAPE: CUT 2 - WEBBER "'Bite the bullet' refers to the old procedure of pre-anesthesia days when a patient was given a bullet to bite during surgery. That was the only solace doctors were able to offer. So it is to step up and endure something difficult and painful with as much courage as you can muster." AA: Elizabeth Webber says many allusions come from Shakespeare... RS: She cites "Lady Macbeth" as a term that may be used to refer to a forceful woman... RS: But when it comes to building that proverbial "better mousetrap," credit goes to American philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson: TAPE: CUT 3 - WEBBER "It is said that he said, `If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or build a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.' The expression was taken up to apply to anyone who comes up with a better way of doing things." RS: There's at least one phrase where allusion and illusion meet. To see the "handwriting on the wall" means to sense that something bad is going to happen. AA: Elizabeth Webber says she was surprised to find that that's a biblical reference to words that appeared on the wall during a great feast held by the King of Babylon. TAPE: CUT 4 - WEBBER "The Prophet Daniel came and said that the words foretold the fall of the king, and he said, `God hath numbered thy kingdom ... Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting.'" RS: Some allusions are taken from other countries or cultures... AA: but not always used tastefully, in Elizabeth Webber's opinion. TAPE: CUT 5 - WEBBER "One of the examples we had was someone criticizing the architecture of the Disney [park] in France as a `cultural Chernobyl.' Another one that we have in there is `kabuki,' a reference to the Japanese theater, the very stylized theater with the distinctive white makeup. That is used rather frequently to describe that our politics or political disputes are sometimes rather ritualized and that everyone plays a certain role that is almost pre-determined, so they refer to it as `political kabuki.'" AA: Elizabeth Webber, co-author with Mike Feinsilber of the new Dictionary of Allusions. RS: Now, if you have a question about American English, send it to Avi and me. If we read your question on the air, we'll send you a VOA souvenir. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20547 USA. AA: And remember to send us your mailing address. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Waterloo" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-18-1.cfm
* Headline: March 5, 2000 - Jargon
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti seek some common-sense advice on the use of jargon in American English. MUSIC "Dragnet" theme AA: Some people call Barbara Wallraff a "word cop." But she considers herself a judge, a judge of the "Word Court." That's the name of the monthly column written by this soft-spoken editor at the Atlantic Monthly magazine. RS: And, one of her favorite subjects is jargon. Barbara Wallraff defines such words this way: TAPE CUT ONE: BARBARA WALLRAFF "They are specialized terms for specialized purposes." AA: These could be technical terms or abbreviations used within a particular field, or even expressions used in business. Like "repurposing," which simply means to find a new use for something. Every profession has its own jargon. RS: Doctors, for instance, like others, use jargon to make it easier to communicate with their colleagues. Barbara Wallraff gives this example from her new book -- which also happens to be called "Word Court." TAPE CUT TWO: BARBARA WALLRAFF "I reproduce the title of an article from the magazine `Neurology.' And the title is `Erythropoietin-associated hypertensive posterior leukoenecephalopathy.'" AA: Now, that's clearly medical jargon. RS: Loosely translated it has to do with a disease that affects the back of the brain and a drug used to treat it. TAPE CUT THREE: BARBARA WALLRAFF/ARDITTI BARBARA WALLRAFF: "The jargon version of it, `Erythropoietin-associated hypertensive posterior leukoenecephalopathy' may seem long on first glance, but what it manages to pack into that number of words is an incredible amount of information if you are prepared to take it in. And, that is the valuable use of jargon." AA: "You go on to say in your book that `Professional jargon thus belongs in the category of things that consenting adults do and say in private. ... And, sometimes they try to dress up mundane ideas as if they were too special for the ordinary person to understand.'" BARBARA WALLRAFF: "That's when jargon starts getting silly. I think the most important thing to say is that people who use words of any description and don't know what they mean are asking to look foolish, and whether it's jargon or whether it's a regular old word in the dictionary that you are not familiar with." RS: Barbara Wallraff gives us an example from the field of education. TAPE CUT FOUR: BARBARA WALLRAFF/RS BARBARA WALLRAFF: "Oh, I don't want to dump on teachers because teachers are very important, but I did get a letter from a copy editor who works on education textbooks complaining that the author used (the expressions) `problem solve' all the time, and they used `transition' as a verb. `How do you transition to your students?' And, these aren't complicated ideas." RS: "So, translate for us: `problem solve' and `transition.'" BARBARA WALLRAFF: `If we're talking about `transition to a solution,' I think you would say, 'make the transition to a solution' or just something like, `find a solution.'" AA: So how would you define "problem solve?" TAPE CUT FIVE: BARBARA WALLRAFF/RS/AA BARBARA WALLRAFF: "Something like when you work with parents together to solve problems, or when you put your heads together and consider problems. I think that is much more reassuring to people to hear it that way." RS: "Has jargon crept into our everyday life?" BARBARA WALLRAFF: "Oh, sure it has. People like to demonstrate their familiarity with particular fields. (For example) Even if you are not a stockbroker you might find yourself talking about I-P-Os. AA: That's an Initial Public Offering (of shares on the stock market). It has to do with stocks, right?" BARBARA WALLRAFF: "Yes, it definitely has to do with stocks. (And,) it's interesting to see what kind (of jargon) enters the general language from different fields of jargon, and get a sense that we are now a society a little bit crazy for stock offerings." AA: If you have access to the Internet, you can learn more about how Barbara Wallraff judges words, at www.theatlantic.com. Wishing Rosanne a happy birthday, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Say What You Mean"/Mike Cross 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-19-1.cfm
* Headline: March 12, 2000 - Bad Hair Day
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble search for new meaning in the expression, "bad hair day." MUSIC: "Hair" AA: A Yale University psychologist recently did a study to learn if a messy hairdo or bad haircut could hurt a person's self-esteem. RS: In combing for evidence, Professor Marianne LaFrance found it by asking a group of people to recall some bad hair experiences and then measuring their feelings of self-worth. AA: At the same time, Professor LaFrance may have also untangled the psychology behind the phrase "having a bad hair day." TAPE: CUT ONE - LaFRANCE/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE (1:39) LaFRANCE: "It's one of those phrases in which people nod and say `yes, yes, I know exactly what you're talking about." AA: "What does it mean exactly?" LaFRANCE: "The way that I think most people understand it is, using that phrase `bad hair day' refers to the fact that that particular day is not going well, things are going badly, things are out of whack, out of sync." RS: "So what you're saying is, `bad hair day' -- or `bad hair moment' - goes beyond what your hair looks like." LaFRANCE: "Absolutely. I think the two general meanings of the term `bad hair day,' one is literally you wake up, you look in the mirror and you think, `I think maybe I'll go back to bed, or crawl under the bed.' And then the more general phrase `bad hair day' refers to a general sense that things are not going well." RS: "This starts really early. When my 10-year-old son looks in the mirror in the morning and says to me, `Mom, I've got a bad hair day,' or 'Mom, do I have a bad hair day?' - how am I supposed to interpret that?" LaFRANCE: "I think what you're picking up with your son is, physical appearance is something that we are remarkably sensitive to, it occurs very early. Kids as young as 4 or 5 become very attentive to how they look and wanting to be regarded by others as looking good. And when we feel we're not looking our best - either we have something wrong with our complexion, or altogether the wrong clothes or the hair is bad - then it feels like it's going to swamp everything else in our life that day." AA: Professor LaFrance found that when people are made to think about times in which their hair has been a problem, they have "bad hair minutes, or moments." She says there's no proof that the effects of recalling a bad hair experience last all day. But maybe that's just splitting hairs. RS: Her study involved sixty men and sixty women divided among three groups. One group was asked to recall bad hair experiences. TAPE: CUT TWO - LaFRANCE "So in the bad hair condition we said, there may have been times in which, sometime in your life in which your hair was a problem. It could have been a bad haircut, it could have been high humidity so that it was completely frizzy - you tell us." AA: Another group was asked to remember something they had bought that had bad packaging: maybe it was hard to open or it leaked. Professor LaFrance says the point was to find something else, besides hair, that would put people in a bad mood. And, the third group was asked to think about nothing in particular. RS: Afterward, all the people were given psychology tests. TAPE: CUT THREE- LaFRANCE "Our hypothesis was, people who were made to think of bad hair would show reductions in self-esteem, we got that; would show heightened self-consciousness and embarrassment and some other negative feelings about being around others, we got that; and would show a greater inclination to self- describe in negative trait terms, and we got that." RS: Professor LaFrance says the effects were similar with both men and women -- except in the area of so-called "performance self- esteem." That's the feeling that you're able to do what needs to be done. AA: In that area, she says, men seemed to suffer more than women from bad hair. All of which leads to the question -- TAPE: CUT FOUR - SKIRBLE/LaFRANCE RS: "What is it about hair, the physical hair, why are we focusing on it?" LaFRANCE: "You know, there's a lot of interesting mythology about hair, if you think of Samson and Delilah as one example. Almost every society has a lot of assumptions and myths about hair. The assumption has often been that in hair there is virility, there is strength and if people lose their hair, they lose more than just literally the hair on top of their head. There was a musical as you well know, 20-something years ago, called `Hair' and the assumption there was that hair was a great way to represent one's political attitudes. So that if the establishment's hair is short, then the way one indicates one's rebellion is to have it long, and vice versa." RS: Professor Marianne LaFrance at Yale University in Connecticut, who, in case you're wondering, has curly hair and admits to her share of "bad hair days" -- both literal and metaphorical. AA: If American English is giving you a bad hair day, or you just need to brush up, send us your questions. We'll try to answer them on the air, and we'll send you a souvenir if we do. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov. RS: Or write to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, D.C., 20237 USA. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-20-1.cfm
* Headline: March 26, 2000 - Grammar Lady: Third Person Singular
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week on Wordmaster, Grammar Lady helps Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble tackle a problem in learning English called the third- person "s." MUSIC: "One"/Chorus Line AA: I dance, you dance, but Rosanne here -- she dances. RS: So what's wrong with that? Nothing. It's a rule of Standard English. You have to remember to add an "s" to a verb when you're talking in the third-person singular. AA: So it's "he runs," "she jumps." RS: For more of an explanation we turn to Mary Bruder, also known as Grammar Lady. She says this third-person "s" is a problem for students of English as a foreign language because they often forget to use it. TAPE: CUT ONE - BRUDER "In the present tense there's only one subject that takes the third person `s.' All the rest of them don't have an `s' on the end. So, for example: I live in Pittsburgh, Avi and Rosanne live in Washington, D.C. My friend lives in Pittsburgh. So when you have he, she or it as the subject - `he lives in Pittsburgh,' `he drives a car,' `she mows the lawn - you have to put the `s' on and it's the only subject that does. It's hard to remember because it's all by itself." RS: But how can you help yourself remember when to put the "s" at the end of verbs? TAPE: CUT TWO - BRUDER "I had a teacher - I think she was from Yugoslavia - she made a huge red S that she hung in the front of her classroom and when any of the students forgot to put the S on, she would go up and tap on the S and they knew exactly what their mistake had been. Now for the individual - and this is important, I think, mostly when you're writing -- when you're writing, you want to make sure that you have this `s' on the ends of these verbs. For the individual you can make a note card and put it at the top of your writing materials when you're writing your compositions or whatever, to remind you to put the `s' on the ends of these verbs." AA: Grammar Lady Mary Bruder says the "s" can be hard to remember for speakers of languages that don't have similar verb markers -- in fact, even some non-standard varieties of American English omit the third person "s." RS: She remembers one African American woman who was having trouble in a job that required her to write down what was said at business meetings. TAPE: CUT THREE - BRUDER/ARDITTI/SKIRBLE "The woman was a secretary of a group and she was to do the minutes [of meetings] and she was writing up the minutes and she couldn't remember - she said she didn't even know - when the verb should have an `s' on it. "Because she didn't use them in her dialect, and she couldn't hear them when others - when a thing doesn't exist in your dialect, you don't hear it in anyone else's - she simply didn't know how to fix her minutes. And I said to her, can you go through them and find out whenever there is a singular subject -- `the man,' `he,' `mister so-and-so' -- anytime there's one of those all by itself, the verb will have an `s.' She was so astounded; nobody had ever told her this before." AA: "Because in African American Vernacular English, it's commonly left off." BRUDER: "It's commonly left off, that's correct." RS: "So to learn this, you first have to perceive that it exists and you have to hear it." BRUDER: "Yes." RS: "And then you can produce it." BRUDER: "Sometimes you can produce it, and sometimes you can't." AA: Fortunately there's Grammar Lady to help. Grammar Lady's Web site at www.grammarlady.com has more tips on English usage. She's also written a new book "Much Ado About a Lot: How to Mind Your Manners in Print and in Person" . We'll talk about that book in a future program. RS: To reach Avi and me, write to word@voa.gov or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Next week we take a field trip to a high school science class for learners of English as a Second Language. We hope you'll come along! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "One"/Chorus Line 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-21-1.cfm
* Headline: April 2, 2000 - Teaching English and Science
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti look in on a teacher who takes an unusual approach to teaching English as a second language. TAPE CUT - SFX OF SCHOOL CORRIDOR RS: It's the beginning of the day at Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington. Students gather in small groups to chat with friends on the way to class. In blue jeans and T-shirts, backpacks over their shoulders, these students look like typical American teenagers. AA: What's not so typical about Blair High School is the way it sounds. The school has almost three-thousand students. One-third of them speak English as a second language. They come from 43 countries and speak more than thirty languages. TAPE: SFX OF CLASSROOM RS: On the third floor one classroom is tucked away in a quiet space at the end of a corridor. The class has just twelve students. It's so small because these students have special needs beyond those of other students of English as a second language. AA: They come from Somalia, Liberia, El Salvador. Their lives have been traumatized by war. Some have missed years of school. These students come to Blair illiterate both in English and their native language. RS: Cindy Carlson teaches this special class. And what's different about how she teaches the kids to read, write and speak English is that she uses the science curriculum. Today's lesson is to identify coral. TAPE CUT ONE: CINDY CARLSON SPEAKING TO CLASS "You guys if you want to look up here we have a chart of the coral reef. We have the deep water here. We have the crest here. We have a little lagoon here. Remember we talked about this yesterday. If you look down here in the front, some coral likes to grow where it is deeper water and some like to grow where it's shallow water. I'm going to read this and you put the coral on your chart where it goes, OK?." AA: As Cindy Carlson reads the description, her students are busy at work. They color, cut and paste different examples of coral onto a blank chart of the ocean. Other activities then reinforce these concepts. RS: The students compare coral from photographs in books and images on a laser disc. They pass samples of coral around the room. Cindy Carlson says repetition is the key to success in learning language. TAPE CUT TWO: CINDY CARLSON/SKIRBLE CINDY CARLSON: "Not only just repetition, but repeating it in different forms. If you can do something orally, that means the kids hear something. If you can do something where they can read about it, and if you can do something where they can hold it and manipulate it and then discuss it, and see pictures of it -- the more different kinds of ways you can approach the same thing, the better." RS: "Why is it so difficult to teach science to learners of English as a Foreign or Second Language?" CINDY CARLSON: "It's difficult because it is abstract. We're talking about something that is difficult for anyone to learn, and then on top of that there is the language. Of course the vocabulary is a problem, but there are also different kinds of vocabulary, the process vocabulary and the content vocabulary. The content is, for example, the names of the coral or the word 'coral' and the word 'deep' and 'shallow' and things like that. But there are other kinds of words in science that are really important. Those are the process vocabulary." AA: Cindy Carlson says those are the words that describe the scientific method, or the procedure scientists apply to their work. TAPE CUT THREE: CINDY CARLSON "So, what I try to do is use simple, basic language, but at the same time give them experience with the more complicated scientific language. When they are doing experiments they have to create hypotheses. "They have to do the procedure. They have to decide what are the conclusions. The words that I use to tell them what to do are very difficult for them. So, for example when I talk about the hypothesis, I also talk about their opinion. So, I say, 'put your hypothesis here. Remember, the hypothesis is what you think is going to happen.' Over and over I associate a common word that they know with the complicated process word." RS: But even some common words have a totally different meaning in the language of science. TAPE CUT FOUR: CINDY CARLSON "For example, (take) the word culture. We talk about what is our culture -- the American culture, Hispanic culture, Asian culture. In science, culture is where you grow your bacteria in a little dish. So, when you start talking about culture, the kids have no idea of what you are talking about because it is the same word that we use normally use in a different way." TAPE: SFX -- CLASSROOM SOUNDS AA: Cindy Carlson sees no reason her students at Blair High School should have to learn English first, then science. TAPE CUT FIVE: CINDY CARLSON "I think the kids have a right to the same quality education that the other students have. They have a right to learn the concepts the other students are learning, but the challenge is how to get those concepts across to them, given their lack of schooling and lack of English." RS: When Cindy Carlson is not teaching, she is writing her dissertation for a doctorate in education. Her topic: Teaching English as a second language through science. AA: Experimenting with American English? Let us know if you've got any questions. Our e-mail address is word@voa.gov, or send your letters to VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Mysteries of Science"/Jeanie Stahl 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT — February 7, 2002: Fuel Cell Cars
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The United States Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, has announced a program to develop a new kind of engine to power cars in the future. Mister Abraham calls the new program the “Freedom Car.” The cars will use energy from chemical fuel cells. Fuel cell technology uses hydrogen to create electricity. Hydrogen gas is passed over a metal like platinum. The electrons from the hydrogen separate to form electricity. The remaining part of the atom, the proton, combines with oxygen to form water. Fuel cells create very clean energy with no pollution. However, they need to be very large to create enough electricity to power a vehicle. A company called Fuel Cell Energy has proposed a fuel cell that also uses a coal-powered device to create power. But this device is very large and costly. Experts believe that fuel cell energy will some day provide power for small devices like cellular telephones and computers. Peter Hoffman is editor and publisher of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter. He supports developing fuel cell energy technology. However, he estimates that a fuel cell car could cost between seventy-five-thousand and one-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars. In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the Clinton administration began a program to develop cars that use about three times less fuel than current cars. The government was to spend one-thousand-five-hundred-million dollars on research. However, the Bush administration has decided not to continue that effort. Instead, it will support the program to develop cars that are powered by fuel cells. Other kinds of cars that use less fuel are currently being sold in the United States. The Japanese car company Toyota makes the Prius. The Prius is called a hybrid car because it uses both electricity and gas to run its engine. It uses less gas and produces less pollution than normal cars. Toyota has sold twenty-thousand of these cars in the United States. This new hybrid car has become very popular. Every Prius made has been sold. In fact, there are not enough of these cars being made for all the people who want them. Cars with fuel cells would create even less pollution than hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius. However, experts say cell cars will not be ready to be sold for ten to twenty years. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The United States Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, has announced a program to develop a new kind of engine to power cars in the future. Mister Abraham calls the new program the “Freedom Car.” The cars will use energy from chemical fuel cells. Fuel cell technology uses hydrogen to create electricity. Hydrogen gas is passed over a metal like platinum. The electrons from the hydrogen separate to form electricity. The remaining part of the atom, the proton, combines with oxygen to form water. Fuel cells create very clean energy with no pollution. However, they need to be very large to create enough electricity to power a vehicle. A company called Fuel Cell Energy has proposed a fuel cell that also uses a coal-powered device to create power. But this device is very large and costly. Experts believe that fuel cell energy will some day provide power for small devices like cellular telephones and computers. Peter Hoffman is editor and publisher of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter. He supports developing fuel cell energy technology. However, he estimates that a fuel cell car could cost between seventy-five-thousand and one-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars. In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the Clinton administration began a program to develop cars that use about three times less fuel than current cars. The government was to spend one-thousand-five-hundred-million dollars on research. However, the Bush administration has decided not to continue that effort. Instead, it will support the program to develop cars that are powered by fuel cells. Other kinds of cars that use less fuel are currently being sold in the United States. The Japanese car company Toyota makes the Prius. The Prius is called a hybrid car because it uses both electricity and gas to run its engine. It uses less gas and produces less pollution than normal cars. Toyota has sold twenty-thousand of these cars in the United States. This new hybrid car has become very popular. Every Prius made has been sold. In fact, there are not enough of these cars being made for all the people who want them. Cars with fuel cells would create even less pollution than hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius. However, experts say cell cars will not be ready to be sold for ten to twenty years. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - February 7, 2002: Election of 1932
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) President Herbert Hoover worked hard to rescue the American economy following the crash of the stock market in October nineteen-twenty-nine. Within one month, he called the nation's business leaders to the White House. "Don't lower wages," the president told them. Hoover called on the Federal Reserve Bank to make it easier for businesses to borrow money. He tried to provide funds to help farmers get fair prices for their crops. He pushed Congress to lower personal taxes. And above all, the president urged Americans not to lose hope in their economy or in themselves. VOICE 2: But it was no use. The economy was in ruins, falling faster with each passing day. The value of stocks had collapsed. Millions of workers lost their jobs. The level of industrial production in the country was less than half what it had been before the stock market crash. Hoover's efforts were not enough to stop the growing crisis. In ever greater numbers, people called on the president to increase federal spending and provide jobs for citizens out of work. But the president was a conservative Republican. He did not think it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide relief for poor Americans. And he thought it was wrong to increase spending above the amount of money that the government received in taxes. VOICE 1: The situation seemed out of control. The nation's government and business leaders appeared to have no idea how to save the dollar and put people back to work. Although Hoover did more than most presidents before him, he was not willing to take the severe actions that many Americans felt were needed. Hoover would spend government money to help farmers buy seeds and fertilizers. But he refused to give wheat to unemployed workers who were hungry. He created an emergency committee to study the unemployment problem. But he would not launch government programs to create jobs. Hoover called on Americans to help their friends in need. But he resisted calls to spend federal funds for major relief programs to help the millions of Americans facing disaster. VOICE 2: Leaders of the Democratic Party made the most of the situation. They accused the president of not caring about the common man. They said Hoover was willing to spend money to feed starving cattle for businessmen, but not to feed poor children. Hoover tried to show the nation that he was dealing with the crisis. He worked with the Congress to try to save the banks and to keep the dollar tied to the value of gold. He tried hard to balance the federal budget. And he told the American public that it was not the responsibility of the national government to solve all their problems. VOICE 1: Late in nineteen-thirty-one, Hoover appointed a new committee on unemployment. He named Walter Gifford, the chief of the large American Telephone and Telegraph company, to be its head. Gifford did Hoover more harm than good. When he appeared before Congress, Gifford was unable to defend Hoover's position that relief was the responsibility of local governments and private giving. He admitted that he did not know how many people were out of work. He did not know how many of them needed help. How much help they needed. Or how much money local governments could raise. VOICE 2: The situation grew worse. And some Americans began to lose faith in their government completely. They looked to groups with extreme political ideas to provide answers. Some Americans joined the Communist Party. Others helped elect state leaders with extreme political ideas. And in growing numbers, people began to turn to hatred and violence. However, most Americans remained loyal to traditional values even as conditions grew steadily worse. They looked ahead to nineteen-thirty-two, when they would have a chance to vote for a new president. VOICE 1: Leaders of the Democratic Party felt they had an excellent chance to capture the white house in the election. And their hopes increased when the Republicans re-nominated president hoover and vice president Charles Curtis in the summer of nineteen-thirty-two. For this reason, competition was fierce for the democratic presidential nomination. The top candidate was Franklin Roosevelt, the governor of New York state. Roosevelt had been re-elected to that office just two years before by a large vote. He came from a rich and famous family, but was seen as a friend of the common man. Roosevelt was conservative in his economic thinking. But he was a progressive in his opinion that government should be active in helping citizens. He had suffered polio and could not walk. But he seemed to enjoy his life and his work. VOICE 2: Roosevelt's two main opponents were Al Smith and John Garner. Smith had been the governor of New York before roosevelt. Garner, a Texan, was the speaker of the House of Representatives. Together, they hoped to block Roosevelt's nomination. And they succeeded the first three times the delegates voted at the democratic convention in Chicago. Roosevelt's chief political adviser, James farley, worked hard to find roosevelt the votes he needed at the convention. Finally, farley found a solution. He made a deal with supporters of John Garner. Roosevelt would make garner the vice presidential nominee if garner's forces voted to make Roosevelt the presidential nominee. Garner agreed. And on the next vote, the democratic delegates nominated Franklin Roosevelt to be their presidential candidate. Al Smith was so angry about the deal that he left Chicago without congratulating Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted to show the nation that he was the kind of man to take action. That he had more imagination than hoover. So he broke tradition and flew to Chicago. It was the first time a candidate had ever appeared at a convention to accept a nomination. And Roosevelt told the cheering crowd that together they would defeat Hoover. VOICE 1: The main issue in the campaign of nineteen-thirty-two was the economy. President Hoover defended his policies. Roosevelt and the Democrats attacked the administration for not taking enough action. Roosevelt knew that most Americans were unhappy with the hoover administration. So his plan during the campaign was to let hoover defeat himself. He avoided saying anything that might make groups of voters think he was too extreme. But roosevelt did Make clear that he would move the federal government into action to help people suffering from the economic crisis. He said he was for a balanced federal budget. But he said the government must be willing to spend extra money to prevent people from starving. VOICE 2: Americans liked what they heard from Franklin Roosevelt. He seemed strong. He enjoyed life. And Roosevelt seemed willing to try new ideas, to experiment with government. Hoover attacked Roosevelt bitterly during the campaign. He warned that Roosevelt and the Democrats would destroy the American system. But Americans were tired of hoover. They thought he was too serious, too afraid of change, too friendly with business leaders instead of the working man. Most of all, they blamed hoover for the hard times of the Depression. On election day, Americans voted in huge numbers for Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats. Roosevelt won forty-two of the forty-eight states. The Democrats also gained a large majority in both houses of Congress. VOICE 1: The election ended twelve years of Republican rule in the White House. It also marked the passing of a long conservative period in American political life. Franklin Roosevelt would become one of the strongest and most progressive presidents in the nation's history. He woud serve longer than any other president, changing the face of America's political and economic systems. We will take a look at the beginning of his administration in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) President Herbert Hoover worked hard to rescue the American economy following the crash of the stock market in October nineteen-twenty-nine. Within one month, he called the nation's business leaders to the White House. "Don't lower wages," the president told them. Hoover called on the Federal Reserve Bank to make it easier for businesses to borrow money. He tried to provide funds to help farmers get fair prices for their crops. He pushed Congress to lower personal taxes. And above all, the president urged Americans not to lose hope in their economy or in themselves. VOICE 2: But it was no use. The economy was in ruins, falling faster with each passing day. The value of stocks had collapsed. Millions of workers lost their jobs. The level of industrial production in the country was less than half what it had been before the stock market crash. Hoover's efforts were not enough to stop the growing crisis. In ever greater numbers, people called on the president to increase federal spending and provide jobs for citizens out of work. But the president was a conservative Republican. He did not think it was the responsibility of the federal government to provide relief for poor Americans. And he thought it was wrong to increase spending above the amount of money that the government received in taxes. VOICE 1: The situation seemed out of control. The nation's government and business leaders appeared to have no idea how to save the dollar and put people back to work. Although Hoover did more than most presidents before him, he was not willing to take the severe actions that many Americans felt were needed. Hoover would spend government money to help farmers buy seeds and fertilizers. But he refused to give wheat to unemployed workers who were hungry. He created an emergency committee to study the unemployment problem. But he would not launch government programs to create jobs. Hoover called on Americans to help their friends in need. But he resisted calls to spend federal funds for major relief programs to help the millions of Americans facing disaster. VOICE 2: Leaders of the Democratic Party made the most of the situation. They accused the president of not caring about the common man. They said Hoover was willing to spend money to feed starving cattle for businessmen, but not to feed poor children. Hoover tried to show the nation that he was dealing with the crisis. He worked with the Congress to try to save the banks and to keep the dollar tied to the value of gold. He tried hard to balance the federal budget. And he told the American public that it was not the responsibility of the national government to solve all their problems. VOICE 1: Late in nineteen-thirty-one, Hoover appointed a new committee on unemployment. He named Walter Gifford, the chief of the large American Telephone and Telegraph company, to be its head. Gifford did Hoover more harm than good. When he appeared before Congress, Gifford was unable to defend Hoover's position that relief was the responsibility of local governments and private giving. He admitted that he did not know how many people were out of work. He did not know how many of them needed help. How much help they needed. Or how much money local governments could raise. VOICE 2: The situation grew worse. And some Americans began to lose faith in their government completely. They looked to groups with extreme political ideas to provide answers. Some Americans joined the Communist Party. Others helped elect state leaders with extreme political ideas. And in growing numbers, people began to turn to hatred and violence. However, most Americans remained loyal to traditional values even as conditions grew steadily worse. They looked ahead to nineteen-thirty-two, when they would have a chance to vote for a new president. VOICE 1: Leaders of the Democratic Party felt they had an excellent chance to capture the white house in the election. And their hopes increased when the Republicans re-nominated president hoover and vice president Charles Curtis in the summer of nineteen-thirty-two. For this reason, competition was fierce for the democratic presidential nomination. The top candidate was Franklin Roosevelt, the governor of New York state. Roosevelt had been re-elected to that office just two years before by a large vote. He came from a rich and famous family, but was seen as a friend of the common man. Roosevelt was conservative in his economic thinking. But he was a progressive in his opinion that government should be active in helping citizens. He had suffered polio and could not walk. But he seemed to enjoy his life and his work. VOICE 2: Roosevelt's two main opponents were Al Smith and John Garner. Smith had been the governor of New York before roosevelt. Garner, a Texan, was the speaker of the House of Representatives. Together, they hoped to block Roosevelt's nomination. And they succeeded the first three times the delegates voted at the democratic convention in Chicago. Roosevelt's chief political adviser, James farley, worked hard to find roosevelt the votes he needed at the convention. Finally, farley found a solution. He made a deal with supporters of John Garner. Roosevelt would make garner the vice presidential nominee if garner's forces voted to make Roosevelt the presidential nominee. Garner agreed. And on the next vote, the democratic delegates nominated Franklin Roosevelt to be their presidential candidate. Al Smith was so angry about the deal that he left Chicago without congratulating Roosevelt. Roosevelt wanted to show the nation that he was the kind of man to take action. That he had more imagination than hoover. So he broke tradition and flew to Chicago. It was the first time a candidate had ever appeared at a convention to accept a nomination. And Roosevelt told the cheering crowd that together they would defeat Hoover. VOICE 1: The main issue in the campaign of nineteen-thirty-two was the economy. President Hoover defended his policies. Roosevelt and the Democrats attacked the administration for not taking enough action. Roosevelt knew that most Americans were unhappy with the hoover administration. So his plan during the campaign was to let hoover defeat himself. He avoided saying anything that might make groups of voters think he was too extreme. But roosevelt did Make clear that he would move the federal government into action to help people suffering from the economic crisis. He said he was for a balanced federal budget. But he said the government must be willing to spend extra money to prevent people from starving. VOICE 2: Americans liked what they heard from Franklin Roosevelt. He seemed strong. He enjoyed life. And Roosevelt seemed willing to try new ideas, to experiment with government. Hoover attacked Roosevelt bitterly during the campaign. He warned that Roosevelt and the Democrats would destroy the American system. But Americans were tired of hoover. They thought he was too serious, too afraid of change, too friendly with business leaders instead of the working man. Most of all, they blamed hoover for the hard times of the Depression. On election day, Americans voted in huge numbers for Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats. Roosevelt won forty-two of the forty-eight states. The Democrats also gained a large majority in both houses of Congress. VOICE 1: The election ended twelve years of Republican rule in the White House. It also marked the passing of a long conservative period in American political life. Franklin Roosevelt would become one of the strongest and most progressive presidents in the nation's history. He woud serve longer than any other president, changing the face of America's political and economic systems. We will take a look at the beginning of his administration in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 8, 2002: Songs by the late Peggy Lee/A question about Valentine's Day/Ways animals help people
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Courtesy Warner Brothers HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some songs recorded by Peggy Lee ... answer a question about the holiday called Valentine’s Day ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some songs recorded by Peggy Lee ... answer a question about the holiday called Valentine’s Day ... and report about ways animals help people. Pet Therapy HOST: Last September, trained dogs provided emotional support for some of the families of victims of the terrorist attacks on the United States. The dogs also helped people who escaped from the World Trade Center in New York City. Such dogs also aid patients in hospitals and nursing centers. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Jean Owen of New York City is a dog trainer. She and her two dogs belong to an organization called Therapy Dogs International. On September Eleventh, Mizz Owen and her dogs helped people who had escaped the World Trade Center attack. These people were running through the streets in terror. Many people were covered with dust from explosions. Mizz Owen said they felt much calmer after holding and talking to her dogs. Peggy Lee and report about ways animals help people. Pet Therapy HOST: Last September, trained dogs provided emotional support for some of the families of victims of the terrorist attacks on the United States. The dogs also helped people who escaped from the World Trade Center in New York City. Such dogs also aid patients in hospitals and nursing centers. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Jean Owen of New York City is a dog trainer. She and her two dogs belong to an organization called Therapy Dogs International. On September Eleventh, Mizz Owen and her dogs helped people who had escaped the World Trade Center attack. These people were running through the streets in terror. Many people were covered with dust from explosions. Mizz Owen said they felt much calmer after holding and talking to her dogs. Mizz Owen is among thousands of people in the United States who own animals trained to help people feel better. Each year these teams of humans and animals give their time during emergencies. They also visit millions of patients in hospitals and long-term care centers for old people. For many years, American hospitals and nursing homes banned animals. Doctors feared the animals carried germs that would harm patients. Recently, however, scientific studies have shown that playing with a pet animal can improve health. It can decrease high blood pressure. It can lower heart rate. Spending time with a friendly animal also helps ease loneliness and sadness. More than two-hundred American groups organize animal visits to sick people. One of the largest is the Delta Society of Renton, Washington. Four-thousand-five-hundred human and animal teams belong to Delta. They visit almost one-million people every year in the United States and five other nations. Most of the animals are dogs. However, cats, pet pigs and even a small horse also visit patients. All these animals are carefully examined before they enter hospitals and nursing homes. They must be friendly. But they must not be too active. After acceptance into the program, animals and their humans attend hours of training. Many hospitals and nursing home officials praise these animal visits. They say seeing an animal helps patients forget their troubles. They say these visits make the patients feel more like they are at home. Valentine’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about the holiday called Valentine’s Day. Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day each year on February fourteenth. It is a holiday for lovers. Valentine’s Day is a good day for a man to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It is also a good day for couples to get married. But most Americans do not go that far to celebrate the day named for Saint Valentine. He was an early Christian churchman who reportedly helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. But the day that has his name is even older than that. The ancient Romans celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two-thousand years ago. As part of the celebration, girls wrote their names on pieces of paper and put them in a large container. Boys reached into the container and pulled out the name of a girl. That girl became his girlfriend or sweetheart for a year. Lovers still put their names on pieces of paper. They send each other Valentine’s Day cards that tell of their love. Sometimes they also send other gifts too, like jewelry or flowers or candy. Americans usually send cards through the mail system or in a computer message. But there is another way many Americans send messages of love on Valentine’s Day. They pay to have them printed in a newspaper. Some of the messages are simple and short: “Debby, I love you very much. From Bob.” Others say more: “Dan, roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you love me as much as I love you. Forever, Mary.” There is only one problem in sending a Valentine’s Day message this way. It will only reach the one you love if he or she reads the Valentine Day messages in the newspaper that day. Peggy Lee HOST: American singer Peggy Lee died last month of a heart attack. She was eighty-one years old. Critics called her one of the most popular singers of the Twentieth Century. Steve Ember tells us about her. ANNCR: Peggy Lee was named Norma Egstrom when she was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. She said she always wanted to become a singer. Peggy Lee sang with Benny Goodman’s band in the Nineteen-Forties. In the Nineteen-Fifties, she appeared in several movies. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film “Pete Kelly’s Blues.” But she wanted to sing more than she wanted to act. Peggy Lee wrote many of the songs she performed. In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, she wrote songs for the popular Walt Disney cartoon movie about dogs called “Lady and the Tramp.” She sang some of the songs in the movie too, including this one, “He’s a Tramp.” ((CUT 1: HE’S A TRAMP)) Peggy Lee recorded songs written by other songwriters, too. In Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, she won a Grammy Award for her recording of this song written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. It asks the question “Is That All There Is?” ((CUT 2: IS THAT ALL THERE IS?)) Peggy Lee made hundreds of recordings and fifty record albums. Yet she will probably be remembered best for one song that she recorded in the Nineteen-Fifties. We leave you now with Peggy Lee singing that song, “Fever.” ((CUT 3: FEVER)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Kevin Raiman. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Mizz Owen is among thousands of people in the United States who own animals trained to help people feel better. Each year these teams of humans and animals give their time during emergencies. They also visit millions of patients in hospitals and long-term care centers for old people. For many years, American hospitals and nursing homes banned animals. Doctors feared the animals carried germs that would harm patients. Recently, however, scientific studies have shown that playing with a pet animal can improve health. It can decrease high blood pressure. It can lower heart rate. Spending time with a friendly animal also helps ease loneliness and sadness. More than two-hundred American groups organize animal visits to sick people. One of the largest is the Delta Society of Renton, Washington. Four-thousand-five-hundred human and animal teams belong to Delta. They visit almost one-million people every year in the United States and five other nations. Most of the animals are dogs. However, cats, pet pigs and even a small horse also visit patients. All these animals are carefully examined before they enter hospitals and nursing homes. They must be friendly. But they must not be too active. After acceptance into the program, animals and their humans attend hours of training. Many hospitals and nursing home officials praise these animal visits. They say seeing an animal helps patients forget their troubles. They say these visits make the patients feel more like they are at home. Valentine’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about the holiday called Valentine’s Day. Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day each year on February fourteenth. It is a holiday for lovers. Valentine’s Day is a good day for a man to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It is also a good day for couples to get married. But most Americans do not go that far to celebrate the day named for Saint Valentine. He was an early Christian churchman who reportedly helped young lovers. Valentine was executed for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. But the day that has his name is even older than that. The ancient Romans celebrated a holiday for lovers more than two-thousand years ago. As part of the celebration, girls wrote their names on pieces of paper and put them in a large container. Boys reached into the container and pulled out the name of a girl. That girl became his girlfriend or sweetheart for a year. Lovers still put their names on pieces of paper. They send each other Valentine’s Day cards that tell of their love. Sometimes they also send other gifts too, like jewelry or flowers or candy. Americans usually send cards through the mail system or in a computer message. But there is another way many Americans send messages of love on Valentine’s Day. They pay to have them printed in a newspaper. Some of the messages are simple and short: “Debby, I love you very much. From Bob.” Others say more: “Dan, roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you love me as much as I love you. Forever, Mary.” There is only one problem in sending a Valentine’s Day message this way. It will only reach the one you love if he or she reads the Valentine Day messages in the newspaper that day. Peggy Lee HOST: American singer Peggy Lee died last month of a heart attack. She was eighty-one years old. Critics called her one of the most popular singers of the Twentieth Century. Steve Ember tells us about her. ANNCR: Peggy Lee was named Norma Egstrom when she was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. She said she always wanted to become a singer. Peggy Lee sang with Benny Goodman’s band in the Nineteen-Forties. In the Nineteen-Fifties, she appeared in several movies. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film “Pete Kelly’s Blues.” But she wanted to sing more than she wanted to act. Peggy Lee wrote many of the songs she performed. In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, she wrote songs for the popular Walt Disney cartoon movie about dogs called “Lady and the Tramp.” She sang some of the songs in the movie too, including this one, “He’s a Tramp.” ((CUT 1: HE’S A TRAMP)) Peggy Lee recorded songs written by other songwriters, too. In Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, she won a Grammy Award for her recording of this song written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. It asks the question “Is That All There Is?” ((CUT 2: IS THAT ALL THERE IS?)) Peggy Lee made hundreds of recordings and fifty record albums. Yet she will probably be remembered best for one song that she recorded in the Nineteen-Fifties. We leave you now with Peggy Lee singing that song, “Fever.” ((CUT 3: FEVER)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Kevin Raiman. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - February 8, 2002: Health Effects of World Trade Center Attack
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. There are growing environmental concerns about the air near the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City. The two huge buildings were destroyed September eleventh when terrorists crashed two passenger planes into them. Some people say they are suffering health problems as a result of the attacks. When the World Trade Center fell, it left about one-million tons of crushed concrete, glass and dust. Some people fear that cancer-causing substances may have been released into the air from the resulting fires and smoke. For example, asbestos and other harmful substances were used in building the World Trade Center. The wreckage of the World Trade Center covers more than six hectares of land. Since September eleventh, federal, state and local agencies have been testing the air in and around the wreckage area. Scientists from universities, medical schools and private companies also are doing tests. They are looking for the presence of pollutants in the air that might present a health risk to the workers removing the wreckage and to the public. Federal officials say no long-term health risks have been discovered so far. Yet, doctors say many of the workers have been suffering from severe cough, chest pain, nose bleeds and breathing problems. Many workers with continuing problems have taken legal action against the city.Doctors say rescue workers and other people who worked in the area for a long period of time are most at risk for health problems. They say workers who did not wear protective coverings on their faces are at even greater risk. About forty-thousand people live near the ruins of the World Trade Center. Some of these people worry that open trucks carrying the wreckage from the area are still spreading pollutants. Some people have criticized New York City’s clean-up efforts. They say many buildings in the area have not been cleaned. And they say the information released to the public from air quality tests is often confusing. They say the federal government should supervise clean up efforts. Doctors in New York City are organizing a study of the hundreds of pregnant women who were near the World Trade Center on the day of the attack. They will examine the possible health effects of smoke and dust on pregnant women and their babies. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. There are growing environmental concerns about the air near the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City. The two huge buildings were destroyed September eleventh when terrorists crashed two passenger planes into them. Some people say they are suffering health problems as a result of the attacks. When the World Trade Center fell, it left about one-million tons of crushed concrete, glass and dust. Some people fear that cancer-causing substances may have been released into the air from the resulting fires and smoke. For example, asbestos and other harmful substances were used in building the World Trade Center. The wreckage of the World Trade Center covers more than six hectares of land. Since September eleventh, federal, state and local agencies have been testing the air in and around the wreckage area. Scientists from universities, medical schools and private companies also are doing tests. They are looking for the presence of pollutants in the air that might present a health risk to the workers removing the wreckage and to the public. Federal officials say no long-term health risks have been discovered so far. Yet, doctors say many of the workers have been suffering from severe cough, chest pain, nose bleeds and breathing problems. Many workers with continuing problems have taken legal action against the city.Doctors say rescue workers and other people who worked in the area for a long period of time are most at risk for health problems. They say workers who did not wear protective coverings on their faces are at even greater risk. About forty-thousand people live near the ruins of the World Trade Center. Some of these people worry that open trucks carrying the wreckage from the area are still spreading pollutants. Some people have criticized New York City’s clean-up efforts. They say many buildings in the area have not been cleaned. And they say the information released to the public from air quality tests is often confusing. They say the federal government should supervise clean up efforts. Doctors in New York City are organizing a study of the hundreds of pregnant women who were near the World Trade Center on the day of the attack. They will examine the possible health effects of smoke and dust on pregnant women and their babies. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 10, 2002: Percival Lowell
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Percival Lowell whose work led to the discovery of the planet Pluto. His efforts and imagination helped change the history of astronomy in America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Percival Lowell came from a New England family with a long history in America. The Lowell family first came to the colony of Massachussetts in Sixteen-Thirty-Nine. One of Percival Lowell’s ancestors, John Cabot Lowell, manufactured cloth. He became an important American industrialist in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Percival’s father, Augustus Lowell, worked in the family cloth business. He settled his family in Boston, Massachusetts. Percival was born there in Eighteen-Fifty-Five. He had a younger brother, Abbott Lawrence and a younger sister, Amy. VOICE TWO: Percival Lowell attended American and European private schools as a young man. He studied mathematics at Harvard University. After he finished his studies at Harvard in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, he traveled in Europe and the Middle East for a year. Then he worked as a financial officer in the cloth business of his grandfather. After several years, Percival realized he was not happy as a businessman. So he decided to travel to Japan to study its culture and language. While there, he was asked to go with a special trade group from Korea to establish trade relations with the United States. In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, Mister Lowell traveled to Korea as a diplomat. He reported on a clash there between Korean and Japanese troops. Mister Lowell remained in East Asia for ten years. He returned home when each of his six books about East Asian subjects was published. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Percival Lowell also had an intense interest in astronomy and mathematics. In Eighteen-Ninety-Three he left Tokyo for the last time and returned to the United States. He decided to spend more time observing the planet Mars. He had studied observations by the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. He found notes that described markings on Mars that Mister Schiaparelli called “canali” (can-AL-ee). Mister Lowell came to believe that intelligent life created the markings on Mars. In Eighteen-Ninety Four, he built an observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. He had the world-famous telescope-maker Alvan Clark and Sons make a telescope for his observatory. He began a program of observing not only Mars, but also Venus and Mercury. VOICE TWO: Mister Lowell published his first book about Mars in Eighteen-Ninety-Five. In it, he developed a theory that intelligent life had created waterways all over the surface of Mars. His theory was that Martians were trying to bring water to the warm areas near the equator of the planet. Mister Lowell’s theories were based on what were serious scientific studies of that time. Yet his theories about life on Mars may have had more lasting influence on many writers of imaginary stories. Three years after Mister Lowell’s book was published, H-G Wells published his famous book “War of the Worlds.” Mister Wells’ story told of a Martian invasion of Earth. The Martians that he imagined lived on a dry and wasted planet. This is very similar to Mister Lowell’s description of Mars. Mister Lowell’s theories about Mars also influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mister Burroughs is best known for stories about “Tarzan.” He also wrote a series of books about an American who traveled to Mars and fell in love with a beautiful princess. The popular series began in Nineteen Twelve with “The Princess of Mars.” VOICE ONE: Mister Lowell’s book, “Mars and Its Canals,” was published in Nineteen-Oh-Six. In that book, he expanded his theory about Martian life. He said he could see changes in the seasons on the surface of Mars. He said the darkening of the Martian surface during some times of the year was caused by the growth of plants. His theory of Martian life became so complex that he made maps of cities and waterways on the planet. Percival Lowell did not know that his eyes played a part in the markings he saw on Mars. Experts explain that the movement of air in the atmosphere and natural qualities of the human eye caused him to see markings that were not there. VOICE TWO: Percival Lowell also studied the effect of gravity on the planet Neptune. Small changes in the movement of Neptune led several astronomers to believe that an undiscovered planet was affecting Neptune’s orbit. Mister Lowell called it Planet X. Mister Lowell himself searched for Planet X for two years starting in Nineteen-Oh-Five. He made the search by comparing two pictures of the same part of the sky. The photographs would be taken several weeks apart. The astronomer would then check both photographs. An object in the solar system could be identified if it appeared to move from its place in the earlier photograph. However, the first search failed. In fact, he failed to recognize Planet X in a few photographs. He searched again for it several years later. Percival Lowell did not have the chance to discover Planet X. He died suddenly in November, Nineteen-Sixteen. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The search for Planet X did not restart at Lowell Observatory for years. Then in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, Guy Lowell a relative of Percival, gained control of the observatory. He decided to seriously search for Planet X. He wanted to continue the work Percival had started. In the following years, Percival’s brother, Abbott Lawrence, provided money to build a special photographic telescope. The new telescope was completed in early Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. That year, an observatory official, V-M Slipher, offered a young man a job working with the new telescope. The young man’s name was Clyde Tombaugh (TOM-baw). VOICE TWO Mister Tombaugh got a job a Lowell Observatory after he sent drawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars. He quickly learned how best to use the new photographic telescope at the observatory. He carefully planned his research to make the most of his time. On February Eighteenth, Nineteen-Thirty, he discovered an unusual object after less than one year of searching. The object moved slowly in the sky like a distant planet. Percival Lowell’s Planet X had been found! On March thirteenth, Clyde Tombaugh and V-M Slipher announced the discovery of a new planet. The date was the seventy-fifth anniversary of Mister Lowell’s birth. Mister Tombaugh continued to record the motion of the new planet for thirteen years. He found more than seven-hundred small bodies that orbit the sun, called asteroids. He also discovered a number of star systems called galaxies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: During his life, Percival Lowell did not enjoy the success he hoped to find in astronomy. He died long before the search for Planet X resulted in the discovery of Pluto. And his theories about waterways and complex life on Mars have been disproved. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, NASA’s Mariner Four spacecraft showed that no waterways existed on Mars. Yet, the institution Mister Lowell established in Flagstaff, Arizona, has made many discoveries in addition to that of Pluto. Evidence that the universe is expanding was first discovered at Lowell Observatory by V-M Slipher. Also, the rings around the planet Uranus were discovered there. Lowell Observatory now has four telescopes and is continuing to expand. It supports programs that bring astronomy to the public. Astronomers at Lowell and many other observatories continue to search for life beyond our planet. Their efforts continue Percival Lowell’s tradition of scientific investigation. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Percival Lowell whose work led to the discovery of the planet Pluto. His efforts and imagination helped change the history of astronomy in America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Percival Lowell came from a New England family with a long history in America. The Lowell family first came to the colony of Massachussetts in Sixteen-Thirty-Nine. One of Percival Lowell’s ancestors, John Cabot Lowell, manufactured cloth. He became an important American industrialist in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Percival’s father, Augustus Lowell, worked in the family cloth business. He settled his family in Boston, Massachusetts. Percival was born there in Eighteen-Fifty-Five. He had a younger brother, Abbott Lawrence and a younger sister, Amy. VOICE TWO: Percival Lowell attended American and European private schools as a young man. He studied mathematics at Harvard University. After he finished his studies at Harvard in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, he traveled in Europe and the Middle East for a year. Then he worked as a financial officer in the cloth business of his grandfather. After several years, Percival realized he was not happy as a businessman. So he decided to travel to Japan to study its culture and language. While there, he was asked to go with a special trade group from Korea to establish trade relations with the United States. In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, Mister Lowell traveled to Korea as a diplomat. He reported on a clash there between Korean and Japanese troops. Mister Lowell remained in East Asia for ten years. He returned home when each of his six books about East Asian subjects was published. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Percival Lowell also had an intense interest in astronomy and mathematics. In Eighteen-Ninety-Three he left Tokyo for the last time and returned to the United States. He decided to spend more time observing the planet Mars. He had studied observations by the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. He found notes that described markings on Mars that Mister Schiaparelli called “canali” (can-AL-ee). Mister Lowell came to believe that intelligent life created the markings on Mars. In Eighteen-Ninety Four, he built an observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. He had the world-famous telescope-maker Alvan Clark and Sons make a telescope for his observatory. He began a program of observing not only Mars, but also Venus and Mercury. VOICE TWO: Mister Lowell published his first book about Mars in Eighteen-Ninety-Five. In it, he developed a theory that intelligent life had created waterways all over the surface of Mars. His theory was that Martians were trying to bring water to the warm areas near the equator of the planet. Mister Lowell’s theories were based on what were serious scientific studies of that time. Yet his theories about life on Mars may have had more lasting influence on many writers of imaginary stories. Three years after Mister Lowell’s book was published, H-G Wells published his famous book “War of the Worlds.” Mister Wells’ story told of a Martian invasion of Earth. The Martians that he imagined lived on a dry and wasted planet. This is very similar to Mister Lowell’s description of Mars. Mister Lowell’s theories about Mars also influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mister Burroughs is best known for stories about “Tarzan.” He also wrote a series of books about an American who traveled to Mars and fell in love with a beautiful princess. The popular series began in Nineteen Twelve with “The Princess of Mars.” VOICE ONE: Mister Lowell’s book, “Mars and Its Canals,” was published in Nineteen-Oh-Six. In that book, he expanded his theory about Martian life. He said he could see changes in the seasons on the surface of Mars. He said the darkening of the Martian surface during some times of the year was caused by the growth of plants. His theory of Martian life became so complex that he made maps of cities and waterways on the planet. Percival Lowell did not know that his eyes played a part in the markings he saw on Mars. Experts explain that the movement of air in the atmosphere and natural qualities of the human eye caused him to see markings that were not there. VOICE TWO: Percival Lowell also studied the effect of gravity on the planet Neptune. Small changes in the movement of Neptune led several astronomers to believe that an undiscovered planet was affecting Neptune’s orbit. Mister Lowell called it Planet X. Mister Lowell himself searched for Planet X for two years starting in Nineteen-Oh-Five. He made the search by comparing two pictures of the same part of the sky. The photographs would be taken several weeks apart. The astronomer would then check both photographs. An object in the solar system could be identified if it appeared to move from its place in the earlier photograph. However, the first search failed. In fact, he failed to recognize Planet X in a few photographs. He searched again for it several years later. Percival Lowell did not have the chance to discover Planet X. He died suddenly in November, Nineteen-Sixteen. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The search for Planet X did not restart at Lowell Observatory for years. Then in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, Guy Lowell a relative of Percival, gained control of the observatory. He decided to seriously search for Planet X. He wanted to continue the work Percival had started. In the following years, Percival’s brother, Abbott Lawrence, provided money to build a special photographic telescope. The new telescope was completed in early Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. That year, an observatory official, V-M Slipher, offered a young man a job working with the new telescope. The young man’s name was Clyde Tombaugh (TOM-baw). VOICE TWO Mister Tombaugh got a job a Lowell Observatory after he sent drawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars. He quickly learned how best to use the new photographic telescope at the observatory. He carefully planned his research to make the most of his time. On February Eighteenth, Nineteen-Thirty, he discovered an unusual object after less than one year of searching. The object moved slowly in the sky like a distant planet. Percival Lowell’s Planet X had been found! On March thirteenth, Clyde Tombaugh and V-M Slipher announced the discovery of a new planet. The date was the seventy-fifth anniversary of Mister Lowell’s birth. Mister Tombaugh continued to record the motion of the new planet for thirteen years. He found more than seven-hundred small bodies that orbit the sun, called asteroids. He also discovered a number of star systems called galaxies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: During his life, Percival Lowell did not enjoy the success he hoped to find in astronomy. He died long before the search for Planet X resulted in the discovery of Pluto. And his theories about waterways and complex life on Mars have been disproved. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, NASA’s Mariner Four spacecraft showed that no waterways existed on Mars. Yet, the institution Mister Lowell established in Flagstaff, Arizona, has made many discoveries in addition to that of Pluto. Evidence that the universe is expanding was first discovered at Lowell Observatory by V-M Slipher. Also, the rings around the planet Uranus were discovered there. Lowell Observatory now has four telescopes and is continuing to expand. It supports programs that bring astronomy to the public. Astronomers at Lowell and many other observatories continue to search for life beyond our planet. Their efforts continue Percival Lowell’s tradition of scientific investigation. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - February 9, 2002: World Economic Forum
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The World Economic Forum meeting ended this week in New York City. About two-thousand-seven-hundred heads of government, business leaders and members of non-governmental organizations met for five days. They announced programs meant to improve living conditions in Africa. They also discussed security and economic issues after the terrorist attacks on the United States. Protesters at World Economic Forum in New York city, Saturday This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The World Economic Forum meeting ended this week in New York City. About two-thousand-seven-hundred heads of government, business leaders and members of non-governmental organizations met for five days. They announced programs meant to improve living conditions in Africa. They also discussed security and economic issues after the terrorist attacks on the United States. The Forum is a private, independent group of business and political leaders. Its aim is to improve economic growth and social progress throughout the world. For the past thirty-one years, it met in Davos, Switzerland. The conference was held in New York this year to show support for the city after the terrorist attacks. New York officials provided heavy security for the event. At one point, as many as seven-thousand demonstrators gathered. Many of them protested the opening of world markets for increased trade. They say easing trade restrictions harms workers. None of the demonstrations was as violent as at similar, past events in other cities. During the meeting, the Group of Seven industrial countries and Russia announced a five-hundred-million-dollar new project to help Africa. This project would aid African countries that create programs to improve trade and investments. American businessman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda head a private-assistance organization. Mister Gates told the Forum that the organization is giving fifty-million dollars to prevent H-I-V virus and AIDS disease in Africa. However, he said private gifts alone would not solve poor health and living conditions. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and activist musician Bono also discussed ways to improve health and living conditions. Many delegates at the World Economic Forum were concerned about the slow world economy after the terrorist attacks in September. Some worried about the effects of the failure of the American energy company, Enron. They said the problems of the company could worsen the worldwide economy. Most speakers praised the United States led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan. However, some diplomats expressed concern that America might extend military action without seeking approval from other nations. In Porto Alegre, Brazil, forty-thousand people held a very different conference. The World Social Forum ended Tuesday. Delegates denounced United States military action and defense spending. They discussed ways to stop a Free Trade Area of the Americas. It was organized by the United States to provide a united trade area from Alaska to Argentina by Two-Thousand-Five. World Social Forum delegates said free trade agreements increase differences between rich and poor in the area. This VOA Special English program In the News was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. The Forum is a private, independent group of business and political leaders. Its aim is to improve economic growth and social progress throughout the world. For the past thirty-one years, it met in Davos, Switzerland. The conference was held in New York this year to show support for the city after the terrorist attacks. New York officials provided heavy security for the event. At one point, as many as seven-thousand demonstrators gathered. Many of them protested the opening of world markets for increased trade. They say easing trade restrictions harms workers. None of the demonstrations was as violent as at similar, past events in other cities. During the meeting, the Group of Seven industrial countries and Russia announced a five-hundred-million-dollar new project to help Africa. This project would aid African countries that create programs to improve trade and investments. American businessman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda head a private-assistance organization. Mister Gates told the Forum that the organization is giving fifty-million dollars to prevent H-I-V virus and AIDS disease in Africa. However, he said private gifts alone would not solve poor health and living conditions. Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and activist musician Bono also discussed ways to improve health and living conditions. Many delegates at the World Economic Forum were concerned about the slow world economy after the terrorist attacks in September. Some worried about the effects of the failure of the American energy company, Enron. They said the problems of the company could worsen the worldwide economy. Most speakers praised the United States led campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan. However, some diplomats expressed concern that America might extend military action without seeking approval from other nations. In Porto Alegre, Brazil, forty-thousand people held a very different conference. The World Social Forum ended Tuesday. Delegates denounced United States military action and defense spending. They discussed ways to stop a Free Trade Area of the Americas. It was organized by the United States to provide a united trade area from Alaska to Argentina by Two-Thousand-Five. World Social Forum delegates said free trade agreements increase differences between rich and poor in the area. This VOA Special English program In the News was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT  - February 11, 2002: Tools For Life
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Experts say deaths from infectious diseases can be greatly reduced at very little cost with the use of some common devices and medicines. The United Nations Population Fund magazine has listed the seven most effective tools for life in a developing country. Last year, an estimated forty-million people around the world were living with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. One device that can prevent the spread of AIDS is the rubber condom. Men wear condoms during sex to protect themselves from passing or receiving diseases like H-I-V. A one-year supply of rubber condoms costs about fourteen dollars. There are also condoms for women. Another tool for life in developing countries is a bed net to cover a person’s bed while sleeping. The cost of a bed net is about four dollars. Bed nets prevent mosquito insects from biting people during the night. Mosquitoes carry malaria, a disease that kills more than one-million people every year. The World Health Organization says bed nets can reduce the number of child deaths from malaria by twenty-five percent. Medicine to treat malaria is also important for people in developing countries. Anti-malarial drugs are considered ninety-five percent effective and cost as little as twelve cents for each pill. Other kinds of medicine can treat tuberculosis. Tuberculosis spreads through the air from one person to another. The bacteria attack the lungs. It takes at least six months for medicine to kill all T-B bacteria. A full treatment costs about ten dollars. It is considered ninety-five percent effective in curing the disease. Antibiotics to fight pneumonia are also important. Pneumonia is a serious infection of the lungs, which can cause death if untreated. Most treatments are considered ninety percent effective and cost as little as twenty-seven cents for each pill. The U-N Population Fund says vaccine medicines can prevent the childhood disease measles. The vaccine costs twenty-six cents for every treatment including the equipment to inject the vaccine. Finally, a simple liquid called Oral Rehydration Therapy can treat a severe lack of fluids in the body. Many children around the world suffer this condition caused by diarrhea. Oral Rehydration Therapy to restore body liquids costs about thirty cents. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 11, 2002: VOA's 60th Anniversary
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: February Twenty-Fourth marks the sixtieth anniversary of the first broadcast on the Voice of America. This year, VOA will be honoring its past and looking forward to its future. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The history of the Voice of America is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The world has changed much since the first VOA broadcast sixty years ago. When listeners first heard VOA on that February day in Nineteen-Forty-Two, the United States had recently entered World War Two. The country was fighting against Germany and Japan. At the time, Germany was broadcasting radio programs to gain international support for its position. American officials believed they should answer the German broadcasts with the truth about world events. The first VOA broadcast was a short report in the German language. It began with these words: “Here speak voices from America. Everyday at this time we will bring you the news of the war. The news may be good. The news may be bad. We shall tell you the truth.” That first broadcast was prepared by just a few people working in three small offices in New York City. Within a week, other VOA announcers were broadcasting in Italian, French and English. VOICE TWO: Since then, the Voice of America has expanded to include more than one-thousand employees. They produce more than one-thousand hours of programs every week. VOA broadcasts in fifty-three languages.VOA uses satellites to send its broadcasts around the world. Radio stations in Asia, Europe and Latin America are broadcasting VOA programs over F-M and medium-wave frequencies. As many as ninety-one million people around the world listen to the Voice of America each week. People can also hear programs and read stories on the Internet Web site, w-w-w-dot-voanews-dot-com. VOA also produces television programs that are broadcast by satellite. VOICE ONE: However, VOA almost did not survive beyond World War Two. When the war ended in Nineteen-Forty-Five, some Americans felt that VOA’s purpose also had ended. Many members of Congress believed a government radio service was not needed in peacetime. Before anyone took steps to close the agency, however, a new development took place. The United States and the Soviet Union – former allies – became enemies. Many American politicians saw a new need for the Voice of America. They wanted to reach listeners in the Soviet Union, which had no independent press. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, VOA began broadcasting programs in the Russian language. VOICE TWO: In those early years, VOA also began adding something new to its broadcasts: music. In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, music expert Willis Conover broadcast his first jazz show on the program called "Music U-S-A.” American jazz was not permitted in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union at that time. Willis Conover’s programs became hugely popular. In fact, many observers believe he helped create an important jazz movement in eastern Europe. For forty years, he brought the jazz music of performers like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker to millions of listeners. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, VOA added another new kind of program to its broadcasts. VOA officials knew that many listeners understood some English. But the listeners did not know enough to completely understand normal English-language broadcasts. So, VOA officials invented a simpler kind of English. It uses about one-thousand-five-hundred words. And, it is spoken slowly. Of course, you are listening to it now: Special English. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: VOA has reported many major news events during the past sixty years. For example, in July of Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, four-hundred-fifty-million people listened as an American space vehicle landed on the moon. VOA broadcast the words of Astronaut Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the surface of the moon. As the years passed, VOA continued to provide news of major events. In August, Nineteen-Ninety-One, VOA Russian language broadcasters reported the attempted ouster of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. On December Thirty-First, VOA reported ceremonies marking the end of the Soviet Union. Reporters told the story from Red Square in Moscow. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, VOA became the first international broadcaster to offer its material on the Internet. VOA also started its first telephone call-in program, Talk to America.” The program presents experts discussing important issues. People around the world call the program and ask questions or give their comments. Also in Nineteen-Ninety-Four, the Mandarin Chinese language service launched “China Forum.” It was VOA’s first radio and television program broadcast at the same time. The program is broadcast by satellite, shortwave and medium-wave radio to people in China. In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, VOA joined an international effort to end the disease polio. VOA broadcast to Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East in sixteen languages. Reported new cases of polio in affected countries dropped ninety-nine percent by Two-Thousand-One. VOICE TWO: Today, VOA “News Now” broadcasters present the latest news and information in English twenty-four hours a day. News Now includes reports from VOA correspondents in the United States and around the world. It also includes stories about sports, science, business and entertainment. Last September, VOA told the world about the terrorist attacks on the United States. Reporters provided news from the targeted areas in New York City and near Washington, D.C. They followed the recovery efforts at the World Trade Center and the Defense Department headquarters. The Dari and Pashto language services of VOA are continuing to report to Afghanistan during the current war on terrorism. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A major test for VOA news came during the Watergate political crisis. Watergate was the series of events that led President Richard Nixon to resign in Nineteen-Seventy-Four. For months, VOA broadcast all the news about charges of illegal campaign activities by White House officials. Some Administration officials objected to the broadcasts. Later, there were demands for a clear legal statement of what VOA’s purpose should be. Congress answered by writing a new law. President Gerald Ford signed it in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. VOICE TWO: The law contains a statement of what the Voice of America must do. The statement has three parts. First, it says, VOA will present news that is truthful, fair and complete. Second, VOA will present a balanced picture of all sides of American life. And third, VOA will present the policies of the United States government, as well as opinions supporting and opposing those policies. Official policies are broadcast in short messages called “editorials.” Writers in an office separate from the newsroom produce the editorials. VOICE ONE: However, the law did not end debate about the purpose of VOA. The debate continues today, as VOA reports about the war on terrorism. Some people say VOA should not broadcast stories containing material critical of the United States. Other people say listeners would reject pro-government programs as propaganda. And they say such programs would violate the law that says programs must be truthful and balanced. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: During sixty years of broadcasting, people in many countries have written to VOA to tell how it has affected their lives. For example, a farmer in China says VOA agriculture programs helped him learn what crops to plant. He says his harvests have improved. A woman born in India says she learned English by listening to VOA. She was able to continue her education with this increased language ability. She became a doctor. For years, the military government of Burma has restricted the activities of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. One of the freedoms Aung San Suu Kyi has demanded is her right to listen to the Voice of America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 12, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about new research using genes to find early signs of cancer. We tell about why red wine is good for you. And we tell about the health problems in the area of New York City where the World Trade Center was destroyed. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have recently reported progress in research using genes to find early signs of cancer. American and Dutch researchers say they have developed a way to tell if a breast cancer tumor will spread to other parts of the body. The researchers reported their work in the publication Nature. Scientists at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and in the United States found special groups of genes in the kinds of cancerous tumors that spread quickly. They made the discovery by studying genes in seventy-eight breast cancer tumors in women. Then they studied the women to see if they developed other cancers. The researchers say that seventy genes in the tumors could show if a woman had a high risk of developing cancer in another part of her body. The researchers could also tell if the disease was not likely to return. VOICE TWO: The scientists say they have created a system that can tell if the breast cancer will return or not. They say the system is correct eighty percent of the time. Experts say such a test could change the normal treatment for breast cancer. Today, women suffering breast cancer have an operation to remove the tumor. Then they have chemotherapy and radiation to make sure the cancer will not return. However, the drugs used in chemotherapy can have unwanted effects. Experts say women who know their cancer will not return would not need to have this treatment. Other researchers say that this kind of progress is not limited to breast cancer research. American researchers recently reported a similar system to tell about the possible spread of a kind of brain cancer in children. And other researchers have found such a system for prostate cancer patients. VOICE ONE: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland are reporting a genetic test that can find early colon cancer. They reported this study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The new test studies a small amount of a person’s solid waste for the presence of changed genes known to cause colon cancer. The researchers say these changes begin creating growths in the colon twenty to thirty years before the growths become cancerous. The researchers tested seventy-four such samples in the study. They found the cancer genes in about sixty percent of the people with early colon cancer. They found the genes in half of the people with pre-cancerous growths. They did not find any of the cancer genes in people who were free of the disease. VOICE TWO: The researchers say the new test should find a high percentage of people who are developing colon cancer. This test is much easier to carry out than a colonoscopy test to find colon cancer. In a colonoscopy, a long, thin tube is placed inside the colon to find any possible growths. This test is costly and is usually done in a hospital. Researchers say the new test should influence many more people to get tested for colon cancer. They say the test could save the lives of many of the five-hundred-thousand people around the world who die of colon cancer each year. Officials from the private company producing the test say they hope it will be ready for use by the year Two-Thousand-Four. Experts say these new tests are the result of new cancer research technology. These new methods can identify and target the molecules that cause the disease. They say this will lead to improved cancer treatments in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. British scientists may have discovered the reason why red wine appears to protect the heart. They say natural chemicals found in red wine appear to protect against blocked blood passages. The chemical substances are called polyphenols. They come from the outer covering of grapes. They are not present in other alcoholic drinks. Researchers from the William Harvey Research Institute at the London School of Medicine and Dentistry carried out the study. The scientists say their discovery explains why many people in southern Europe can eat fatty foods and still have a low risk of heart disease. People in France, for example, have lower rates of heart disease than Americans do. Yet the traditional French diet includes butter, cheese and other foods high in cholesterol. VOICE TWO: This led the British scientists to examine another important part of the French diet -- red wine. Several earlier studies have suggested that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol may reduce their risk of heart disease. The British team experimented with cells from the blood vessels of cows. The scientists studied the effects of twenty-three kinds of red wine on the cow cells. They found that polyphenols from all of the red wines stopped production of a protein called endothelin-one. This protein causes blood vessels to become smaller. Scientists believe endothelin-one is linked to hardening of the blood vessels, which is a cause of heart disease. VOICE ONE: The scientists found that the decrease in endothelin-one levels was linked to the amount of polyphenols in the wines. The British team performed similar experiments with two other kinds of wine, white and rose. These wines contain little or no polyphenols because the grape skins are removed before the wine is made. White and rose wines had no effect on endothelin-one levels. The scientists also studied the effect of non-alcoholic juice made from red grapes. They found that grape juice slowed the production of endothelin-one, but was much less effective than the red wines. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are growing environmental concerns about the air near the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City. The two huge buildings were destroyed September eleventh when terrorists crashed two passenger planes into them. Some people say they are suffering health problems as a result of the attacks. When the World Trade Center fell, it left about one-million tons of crushed concrete, glass and dust. Some people fear that cancer-causing substances may have been released into the air from the resulting fires and smoke. For example, asbestos and other harmful substances were used in building the World Trade Center. VOICE ONE: The wreckage of the World Trade Center covers more than six hectares of land. Since September eleventh, federal, state and local agencies have been testing the air in and around the wreckage area. Scientists from universities, medical schools and private companies also are doing tests. They are looking for the presence of pollutants in the air that might present a health risk to the workers removing the wreckage and to the public. Federal officials say no long-term health risks have been discovered so far. Yet, doctors say many of the workers have been suffering from severe cough, chest pain, nose bleeds and breathing problems. Many workers with continuing problems have taken legal action against the city.Doctors say rescue workers and other people who worked in the area for a long period of time are most at risk for health problems. They say workers who did not wear protective coverings on their faces are at even greater risk. VOICE TWO: About forty-thousand people live near the ruins of the World Trade Center. Some of these people worry that open trucks carrying the wreckage from the area are still spreading pollutants. Doctors in New York City are organizing a study of the hundreds of pregnant women who were near the World Trade Center on the day of the attack. They will examine the possible health effects of smoke and dust on pregnant women and their babies. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – February 12, 2002: Sharpshooters
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Farmers in the American state of California are guarding against an insect called the glassy-winged sharpshooter. It carries Pierce’s disease, a bacterial disease that attacks grape plants and other crops. Government and industry are working to fight the sharpshooter and the deadly disease. California is a leading producer of wine, the alcoholic drink made from grapes. The California wine industry provides thirty-three-thousand-million dollars for the state’s economy. For more than a century, California grape growers have battled Pierce’s disease. It has caused major damage to Los Angeles area farmers several times. A new, more threatening glassy-winged sharpshooter arrived in southern California twelve years ago. Scientists believe this insect came from the southern United States. Officials estimate it has caused fourteen-million dollars in damage over the past several years. Experts say it is now ready to attack other parts of California. The glassy-winged sharpshooter feeds on hundreds of different kinds of plants. The small insect spreads Pierce’s disease as it moves from plant to plant. The bacterial disease slowly kills the plants. There is no known treatment. In addition, the insect carries diseases that can harm peaches, oranges and other crops. American scientists are studying ways to stop the sharpshooter. One method involves covering grapevines with particles of kaolin, a fine white clay. The particles stick to the insects when they land on treated grapevines. The insects do not eat the plants, and are unlikely to leave their eggs there. A similar treatment has successfully protected other kinds of fruit from insects. Other scientists are studying ways to safely kill sharpshooters. They found that some chemicals were very effective. Some of the chemicals were still killing sharpshooters four weeks after the plants were treated. However, scientists want to guarantee that the chemicals do not kill helpful insects, such as egg parasitoids. They are a leading natural enemy of sharpshooters. Scientists have already released one kind of egg parasitoid in California. Other scientists are studying parasitoids that eat the eggs of a native South American sharpshooter. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Farmers in the American state of California are guarding against an insect called the glassy-winged sharpshooter. It carries Pierce’s disease, a bacterial disease that attacks grape plants and other crops. Government and industry are working to fight the sharpshooter and the deadly disease. California is a leading producer of wine, the alcoholic drink made from grapes. The California wine industry provides thirty-three-thousand-million dollars for the state’s economy. For more than a century, California grape growers have battled Pierce’s disease. It has caused major damage to Los Angeles area farmers several times. A new, more threatening glassy-winged sharpshooter arrived in southern California twelve years ago. Scientists believe this insect came from the southern United States. Officials estimate it has caused fourteen-million dollars in damage over the past several years. Experts say it is now ready to attack other parts of California. The glassy-winged sharpshooter feeds on hundreds of different kinds of plants. The small insect spreads Pierce’s disease as it moves from plant to plant. The bacterial disease slowly kills the plants. There is no known treatment. In addition, the insect carries diseases that can harm peaches, oranges and other crops. American scientists are studying ways to stop the sharpshooter. One method involves covering grapevines with particles of kaolin, a fine white clay. The particles stick to the insects when they land on treated grapevines. The insects do not eat the plants, and are unlikely to leave their eggs there. A similar treatment has successfully protected other kinds of fruit from insects. Other scientists are studying ways to safely kill sharpshooters. They found that some chemicals were very effective. Some of the chemicals were still killing sharpshooters four weeks after the plants were treated. However, scientists want to guarantee that the chemicals do not kill helpful insects, such as egg parasitoids. They are a leading natural enemy of sharpshooters. Scientists have already released one kind of egg parasitoid in California. Other scientists are studying parasitoids that eat the eggs of a native South American sharpshooter. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 6, 1998 - Slangman: Greetings
* Byline: 

 INTRO: "Huh-LOW" ["hello" with a lyrical emphasis on "low"] -- are you up on the latest American greetings? Find out, as we welcome our Wordmasters, Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Hello"/The Doors AA: Let's translate that '60s hit by The Doors into modern slang: "Yo, how ya doin', what's your name?" My name is Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. As Americans prepare for holiday reunions, or flock to stores to buy gifts, how are they greeting each other, besides a simple "hi." For help we asked our Slangman, David Bburke, author of the "Street Talk" series and other books on slang. AA: David filled us in on "what's up" -- meaning "what's new," in American greetings: TAPE: CUT ONE -- DAVID BURKE "The trend in slang has always been shorten, shorten, shorten! And the original expression was, 'what's up.' Now that expression is of course very confusing to non-native speakers because they take that literally." And, 'what's up' means literally what is up over your head. So, 'what's up' was the original expression. Then it was shortened, and a lot of teens are simply saying, 'what up.' Now 'sup' is really a term from rap (music) and a lot of teens are still saying 'what up.' And some are saying 'sup' just to be super cool. " RS: So how do you reply if someone greets you with "sup"? AA: 'Sup, Rosie? RS: Nada, just chillin', Av-man. Nada, as in "not a thing." But nada also means "nothing" in Spanish, and a lot of young people use Spanish terms to spice up their English. Chillin' is a clipped form of "chilling. " In slang "to chill" means "to relax." AA: OK, another question for David Burke: You're walking down the street, you pass a casual acquaintance, what do you say. TAPE: CUT TWO -- DAVID BURKE/RS DAVID BURKE: "Often times you will see two people cross each other (walk by one another) and one person will say, 'how ya doin'.' (how are you doing. ) And they will answer with 'how ya doin'.' So, it's almost become an expression of greeting. And actually, in a situation that is really super casual like maybe you are buying some groceries and the checker (cashier) says, 'how ya doin'.' I think the checker would be very surprised if you actually said, 'Well, I went to the doctor yesterday, and I had this sore on my arm, and I got it ... ' I think they would be actually surprised. So, 'how ya doin' has really become more of a greeting." RS: "You know David, what has been really interesting to me has been to follow the word 'hello.' And today we hear the word, and we don't just say 'hello' (normal intonation) but we inject it with 'huh-LOW.' (as if to say) 'wake up!' DAVID BURKE: "Yeah, hello is wonderful! That one is 'huh-LOW' -- is anybody in there? In other words, anybody inside your head? Is there a brain inside of there?" RS: Why, yes there is, thank you! Anyway, once you've said "hello" -- or "huh-LOW" -- and now you want to say goodbye, what are your slang options. TAPE: CUT THREE -- DAVID BURKE/AA/RS DAVID BURKE: "'See you later' was the original way to say goodbye. There's nothing idiomatic about it. There's nothing strange. It's simply a straight forward sentence. But again the trend in slang, shorten! so teens were saying, 'later' and then they started saying 'late.'" AA: Lately, we've been curious what store clerks are saying to greet shoppers this holiday season, to recognize America's increasing diversity. RS: After all, this month we also have the Jewish holiday of Chanukkah, the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa, and the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. So we asked David Burke what's in store for shoppers this year in the way of greetings. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- DAVID BURKE "Interestingly enough, we are hearing usually, 'merry Christmas.' But then they catch themselves (from saying that). Let's face it, we see more Christmas trees than we do any other kind of decorations all over the United States. So, it isn't politically correct of course to say 'merry Christmas,' but I guess the store clerks and those who deal with the public are being told make sure that you are politically correct. But that's a hard habit to break when you've been raised saying 'merry Christmas.'" AA: Of course, a simple "happy holidays" will usually do just fine. RS: We'll say "hi" or "hey" or "hello" to David Burke again next month. In the meantime you can visit his web site -- the address is w-w-w dot slangman dot com. AA: Rosanne and I will be back next week. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Later ... MUSIC -- "Hello Goodbye"/Beatles 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: December 20, 1998 - Talking Toys Teach English
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti say one way to learn English is to take a few lessons from the new crop of talking toys. MUSIC -- "Toyland" AA: That Christmas classic, "Toyland," evoking memories of a time when kids talked to toys and toys didn't talk back. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. In today's increasingly electronic toyland, the most popular toys for good little girls and boys are sophisticated, computer-programmed interactive toys. They talk. They sing. They laugh. They tell stories. AA: But don't let cuddly looks deceive you. Deep down these toys are stuffed with computer chips. Like a bespectacled aardvark named Arthur. He's got a vocabulary the size of a college graduate's when you plug him into a computer. RS: And Arthur certainly doesn't stand alone, at least that's what we discovered in a visit to a toy store at a shopping mall. TAPE: CUT ONE -- TOY STORE/AA/RS TALKING FROG: "Ribbit. Ribbit. Let's play. Push three letters to make your own word." RS: "Try mom, M-O-M." AA: "OK." FROG: "M-O-M! Mom. Awesome!" AA: "Yeah!" RS: "Good! ... What is this one?" AA: "(This is) Talking Chip Hazard from the movie 'Small Soldiers.' Let's see, what does he say. He's a little commando in a crew cut. (sound) Oh, I just pulled his arm. Say something, buddy. Let's go. ' TALKING CHIP HAZARD: "Chip Hazard reporting for duty, sir!" RS: "Let me hear what he says again. " CHIP HAZARD: "Attention. All organized scum must die." RS: "(sarcastically) Nice doll." CHIP HAZARD: "Commando elite, bomb him." RS: "Avi, come over here and listen to this one." DELORES THE TALKING "CABBAGE PATCH" DOLL: [laughs] RS: "all she does is laugh, but she does have a name. Her name is Delores Jocasta. (It says) 'squeeze my hand, and I sing.' Oh, okay." DELORES: [singing "Farmer in the Dell"] RS: "That was pretty good, Delores." DELORES: "I like to sing with you!" RS: "Well thank you. And, she's so polite! Now I understand if I tickle your tummy, you'll giggle. Well, here we go!" DELORES: [giggles] RS: One talking toy we didn't find because it's out-of-stock almost everywhere is a small creature called a Furby. Picture a squat penguin, with the eyes of an owl, the ears of a cat and a nose sort of like the beak on a parrot. That's a Furby. AA: And it speaks a language called Furbish. It even comes with a Furbish-English dictionary. Furbish is actually a blend of Mandarin, Japanese, Thai and Hebrew. But with some work you can teach a Furby about one-thousand words and phrases in English. That is, when it's not snoring or sneezing or squealing -- or worse, sleeping. RS: My neighbors Dana, Jake and Annie Silver are the only kids on the block with this impossible-to-get-toy. What sounds like gibberish makes perfect sense to eight-year-old Annie Silver. TAPE: CUT TWO -- SILVER HOME WITH FURBY ANNIE SILVER: "This Furby's name is Cocoa. The way you know their names is when you first put the batteries in they say, 'me' and then their name, and this one just happened to say 'Cocoa. 'Me Cocoa.'" FURBY: "Me cocoa! A-loh." ANNIE SILVER: "A-loh means light. " RS: "what I'd like you to do is show me how you teach a furby a word. How do you teach your furby cocoa a word. " ANNIE SILVER: "Well, you keep saying a word to him over and over or you could just talk to him and about a day later he will start saying the word. " RS: "What word are you going to teach him tonight for me?" ANNIE SILVER: "We're going to try 'happy holiday.'" RS: "Here we go, kids, we're going to teach this Furby, 'happy holiday.' He's got his eyes open. He's awake. " ANNIE, JAKE AND DANA SILVER: "Happy holidays! Happy holidays! Happy holidays!" FURBY: [making noises] RS: The Furby method of English teaching follows the basic yell-in-your-ear technique. Unfortunately, Cocoa wasn't much interested, and continued on in its own stream of consciousness. AA: We're always interested in hearing from you. RS: Wishing you the best this holiday season, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-5-1.cfm
* Headline: December 27, 1998 - Merriam-Webster, Part 2
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, take another look at a dictionary that's been going off to college in America for one-hundred years. MUSIC: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" AA: You have to be Mary Poppins to spell that word! But how about the word "centenarian". RS: Centenarian. C-e-n-t-e-n-a-r-i-a-n. A noun meaning "one that is one-hundred years old or older" which describes the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. First published in 1898, the Collegiate -- as the name implies -- is targeted at the college crowd. AA: Merriam-Webster updates the Collegiate annually, adding new words and taking out old ones. John Morse is the president and publisher of the Merriam-Webster Company. He says the biggest source of new words these days is computer technology, especially the Internet. John Morse keeps his copy of the Collegiate Dictionary on his laptop computer, which was handy when we asked him to look up the term "chat room." TAPE: CUT ONE -- MORSE/AA/RS MORSE: "What we see for 'chat room' is that it's an online interactive group on the Internet. And interestingly it's dated in 1986. That means the earliest evidence we have of the word being used at all is from 1986, and that's a reminder, I think, of how new a technology this really is. Many of the words going in the dictionary have been in the language for just a few years, and I can give you another example of something where we're even newer than that: our new word 'netizen,' active participant in an online community of the Internet, is from 1994. So that word is really only four years old. That's very, very fast for words to get into the dictionary and really speaks to the tremendous power that the Internet and the World Wide Web are having. AA: "Is there a threshold of how many times you have to see it in print?" MORSE: "There's not a hard-and-fast rule, but we do want to see evidence that the word is going to come into the language and stay in the language. We don't put this year's vogue word in just to take it out again next year. So we're looking for evidence of a word being used in many different publications or at least three to five years and very often it would take typically at least ten examples in order to satisfy the conditions." RS: "What is the mortality rate of words? You say you're very careful in your selection because you don't want them in one year, out the next." MORSE: "Unfortunately, more words are coming into the language than going out of the language. So the mortality rate is less than the fertility rate and that's a problem for dictionary makers. We've had to resort to one trick after another to find room for these words. Over the course of about ten years, when we do a big ten-year revision, we'll probably add more than ten-thousand new words and meanings to the dictionary. Unfortunately, fewer than that come out." AA: "To carry this metaphor here, what are the risks of overpopulation?" MORSE: "That other parts of the dictionary get crowded out or the dictionary itself gets bigger, and we have done both of those over the years -- added pages to the Collegiate Dictionary so it's bigger or removed other sections." AA: John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster. RS: There are lots of other dictionaries that also use the name Webster. Webster was Noah Webster, America's most famous lexicographer. AA: Back in 1843 the Merriam-Webster Company acquired the rights to revise and publish Noah Webster's dictionaries. But early in this century courts found that the name Webster was generic. That gave other companies the right to use the name. So, today Merriam-Webster finds itself competing against all those other Websters. However the Collegiate is Number One at the US college level. RS: To find Merriam-Webster on the Internet, go to www.m-w.com. To find Avi and me ... AA: Just send us a note. RS: Looking ahead to next week, we'll start the new year with a play on words with some very funny cowboys. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-6-1.cfm
* Headline: January 10, 1999 - Name the Next Decade Contest
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time for our weekly report from VOA's Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. Today Avi and Rosanne announce a contest about a "Y2K problem" -- not about computers, but about what to call the coming decade. MUSIC: "Time Is On My Side"/Rolling Stones AA: Time is on our side now, but just wait another year. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. We talk about the sixties, the seventies, the eighties and the nineties. AA: But what do we call the decade that's coming up? TAPE: CUT ONE -- LEVINE/AA LEVINE: "I don't know what you call it." AA: "What would you call it?" LEVINE: "Well, I would call it modified Julian day number fifty-one-thousand-something or other." RS: That's Judah Levine. He's a physicist in the time and frequency division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. AA: When we got the idea for a "name the next decade" contest, we thought -- first let's see what an official timekeeper would say. It turns out that keepers of atomic clocks, like Judah Levine, don't think in the same terms that other people do. RS: He tried to explain the standard of Julian days which timekeepers use -- and which had Avi and me confused in no time at all. AA: But there's that bigger Y2K, meaning year 2000, problem to worry about. A lot of older computers may think next year is 1900, because of a programming quirk. So, as midnight approaches next new year's eve, Judah Levine and his fellow atomic timekeepers will be watching their clocks very closely. RS: Zero Hour Universal Time on January first will come at five p-m local time on New Year's Eve in Colorado, where he works. TAPE: CUT TWO -- LEVINE "My guess is that on December thirty-first, all of us will be running around like crazy, making sure all of our services are doing the right thing. And at five p-m on December thirty-first, which is when our time scale rolls over, when Universal Time rolls over, we will be very, very busy indeed. By the time midnight comes it will be all over and we will have dealt with whatever is going to happen. Hopefully we will have fixed whatever problems exist and we get to go home." AA: One last thing before we announce the details of our contest. We asked Judah Levine to predict what people will be calling the year two-thousand for short. RS: You know, the way we say "ninety-nine" instead of nineteen-ninety-nine. TAPE: CUT THREE -- LEVINE/AA/RS LEVINE: "I think we're going to keep saying 'two-thousand' for awhile. But then after awhile we'll start calling it the year 'zero.'" RS: "The year 'zero,' or 'zero-zero'?" LEVINE: "[sigh] The year zero-zero, I suppose." AA: "Followed by 'one.'" LEVINE: "Followed by the year 'ought-one.' RS: "So, over at the Nnational Institute of Standards and Technology, you just take one day at a time." LEVINE: "We just take one day at a time, that's right." AA: And now it's time to talk about our contest. We were thinking about this even before one of our listeners, Hassan Yosimbom at the University of Buea in Cameroon, wrote to say he finds it "disheartening" that we don't have competitions. RS: Well, Hassan, here you go -- announcing the VOA Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. It's simple. Just send us your suggestion for what to call the first ten years of the twenty-first century. AA: Like the "oughts" -- as in "ought-one" or "ought-two" instead of "oh-one" or "oh-two." We've also seen the "ooze," the "uh-ohs," the "pre-teens," the "zippies" -- as in "zip," meaning zero -- and simply the "turn of the century" or the "first decade." RS: Send us your idea by e-mail or by postal mail. And we've got a bagful of stuff to give away, ranging from VOA pens to some very nice VOA T-shirts. AA: Everyone who sends us a suggestion will get something. But, the better your entry, the better the gift. The deadline is March second. RS: If you reach us by e-mail, please be sure to include your postal address, so we know where to send your souvenir. AA: We'll remind you of the contest again in the coming weeks. But we need to receive your entry by March second. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Time Is On My Side"/Irma Thomas 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-11-7-1.cfm
* Headline: January 17, 1999 - Word of 1998
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time for Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble to talk about their Name the Next Decade Contest again. But first our Wordmasters reveal the "word of the year" for 1998, just chosen by some watchdogs of American English. MUSIC: "Auld Lang Syne" AA: Nineteen-ninety-eight, a year in which the term "sexual relations" suddenly figured into the fate of a presidency. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. The story from the White House dominated what Americans talked about in 1998. Or did it? AA: Each year the American Dialect Society chooses a word or phrase that best reflects the previous year. That group calls itself "the only scholarly association dedicated to the study of the English language in north America." RS: Here to announce the Word of the Year for 1998 is the society's executive secretary, Allan Metcalf. TAPE: CUT ONE -- METCALF/AA METCALF: "It's 'e-' -- the prefix 'e-' as in not only e-mail, which has been around for quite awhile, but also e-commerce, e-business, e-activity, e-about anything having to do with the Internet and electronics. There was quite a bit of debate about whether it should be something having to do with 'sexual relations' or something to have to do with the Internet. So it was very close." AA: "What was the final vote?" METCALF: "The final vote was 31 for 'e-' and 28 for 'sexual relations,' so I guess you could say we were more excited by electrons than sex." RS: So the winner was "e-" -- actually, e-hyphen ... "e" for electronic. AA: Allan Metcalf says e- is really more of what he calls a "lexical unit" than a word or phrase. But he says the American Dialect Society looks for a term that sets off possibilities in people's minds. TAPE: CUT TWO -- METCALF "So another term that came close to being -- well, it was chosen as 'brand-new word' and actually it's a brand word -- is the suffix '-agra,' as not only in the brand name Viagra but also all sorts of humerous spinoffs of that. 'Viagravision' is television devoted to sex in the guise of science and politics, 'viagrafication' is the process of making something excited or stimulated. Anyhow, there are lots of plays on Viagra as well as Viagra itself, the brand, that special drug being something people talked about last year." RS: Viagra is that new anti-impotence drug for men. AA: The language experts also choose notable words in other categories: TAPE: CUT THREE -- METCALF METCALF: "As 'most original' we chose 'multi-slacking' which is a term for doing something at your computer other than the work you're expected to do. So 'multi-slacking,' I guess, is based on 'multi-tasking.' As 'most euphemistic' we chose 'senior moment.' A senior moment is a momentary lapse of memory due to age. And we found ourselves having quite a few senior moments as we went through our discussion, as a matter of fact." AA: Allan Metcalf, executive secretary of the American Dialect Society -- which will have a lot to vote on come next January. RS: Allan Metcalf says that's because the group will choose, not just a word or phrase or lexical unit of this year, but also of the decade and of the 20th century. AA: And, after that, they'll choose a word of the millennium! RS: But Allan Metcalf says the group won't take sides on whether the next millennium starts in 2000 or 2001. AA: The official answer is 2001 -- even if it is celebrated next year. Anyway, last week we announced our VOA Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. We talk about the seventies, the eighties, the nineties -- RS: So what are we going to call the first ten years of the 21th century? Think about that. We'll reward every suggestion with a VOA souvenir. But the better the idea, the better the prize. AA: The top prizes are some nice black VOA T-shirts. March second is the deadline. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "2001: A Space Odyssey" movie theme 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-5-1.cfm
* Headline: January 24, 1999 - State of the Union Analysis
* Byline: 

 INTRO: President Clinton delivered his annual state of the union message this past week. Now our wordmasters rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti take another listen -- not so much as to what he said, but how he said it. TAPE: CUT ONE -- CLINTON "My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight to report that the state of our union is strong. [applause]" AA: It's written in the Constitution that the president shall "from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union." I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. The Constitution does not specify a time or fomat -- presidents used to give their report in writing. But it's evolved into a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. And, that's where Mr. Clinton appeared Tuesday night -- in front of the same House members who impeached him last month, and the senators who now sit in judgment of his future. AA: Wayne Fields is an expert in political rhetoric and director of the American Studies Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He's written extensively about the the history of the State of the Union address. And what impressed him this time, he says, was the way Mr. Clinton maintained a relaxed composure. TAPE: CUT TWO -- FIELDS "He did it by the mixture of formality and informality, I think, which is something that Ronald Reagan, who delivered similar State of the Union messages, was very good at. That is to say that there were the ad libs, the moment when he [Clinton] broke in after talking about equal pay and having applause on both sides, he said something about how encouraging it was that there was more balance, and laughed." TAPE: CUT THREE -- CLINTON "[applause] That was encouraging, you know. There was more balance on the seesaw. I like that. Let's give them a hand. That's great. [applause]" TAPE: CUT FOUR -- AA/FIELDS AA: "If there's one or two phrases from the president's speech that you think would stand a chance of making it into history books one day, what would they be?" FIELDS: "I think that the ones that will probably be the most memorable for historians after the fact will be the ones that are the most typical. I think those are the ones about the more perfect union, which starts when he says this is the last State of the Union message of the 20th century, and then focuses almost wholely on the constitutional theme of what it means to be a more perfect union." TAPE: CUT FIVE -- CLINTON "We must all be profoundly grateful for the magnificent achievements of our forbearers in this century. Yet perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash of controversy, we don't see our own time for what it truly is -- a new dawn for America." TAPE: CUT SIX -- RS/FIELDS RS: "Do you feel that when historians do look back, they will be more captured by the context in which the president found himself or about this message he delivered?" FIELDS: "When they look at the speech, it will probably be that it was given under these circumstances. On the other hand, there are a few things that are important if for no other reason than it is the last of these in the 20th century. And, I think one of the most significant, is a symbolic thing and that is the most prominent reference was to the civil rights movement. It was for the struggle of civil rights in America." TAPE: CUT SEVEN -- CLINTON "In a very real sense this journey began 43 years ago, when a woman named Rosa Parks sat down on a bus in Alabama and wouldn't get up. She's sitting down with the first lady tonight, and she may get up or not as she chooses. (applause)" AA: From the State of the Union address that President Clinton delivered to Congress and to the American people Tuesday night. RS: And now, a message to our audience: We've been getting lots of entries for the Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. AA: The object, we remind you, is to suggest a name for the first ten years of the 21st century. Everyone who enters wins a VOA souvenir, but the better the entry, the better the prize. The deadline is March 2. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-6-1.cfm
* Headline: June 20, 1999 - New England Expressions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, are off searching their dictionaries this week. But our travel reporter, Ted Landphair, is here to tell us about some of the unusual expressions you'll run into if you journey to the northeastern part of the United States. MUSIC: "New England Night"/J.D. Beard TL: Americans don't speak a single language -- even when they're speaking English. There are many quaint regional expressions common to only one part of the nation. The fancy term for these expressions is "colloquialisms," [kah-loke-qwee-uh-liz-ums]. Often these colloquialisms are spoken with a distinctive regional accent. This is especially true in New England, one of the oldest, most compact, and most colorful of America's regions. "New England night "All the windows frozen "And the wind blows high "And the storm draws nigh ..." TL: If you want to hear some fascinating expressions that survive from an earlier time, New England is a good place to go. Ay-yup. That's one example, "ay-yup." It means yes. Ask a question of folks in Maine -- many of whom don't talk much to strangers -- and all you're likely to get is a one-word answer: "ay-yup" or "nope." Robert Hendrickson writes about New England expressions in a book called "Yankee Talk." It lists New England colloquialisms that even another American might scratch his head trying to understand. I've asked Ed Blotner, a colleague from another part of the Voice of America, to read us some samples from the "Yankeee Talk" book . Eddie is a true Yankee -- from the north shore of Massachusetts, above Boston. Here goes: TAPE: CUT ONE -- BLOTNER "Two lamps burning, and no ship at sea." TL: Here's the meaning: Coastal dwellers used to burn a light in a window to help ships navigate, or to welcome someone home from the sea. So if there are two lamps burning and no ship at sea, it means you're a foolish person, wasting your time and wasting good fuel. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BLOTNER "Happy as a clam at high tide." TL: You dig or dredge for clams at low tide, so a clam is quite happy when the tide is high. He's safe. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BLOTNER "All in a pucker." TL: Don't be so all in a pucker to get home -- don't be in such a hurry. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BLOTNER "An apple shaker." TL: That's a storm so strong that it knocks apples off of trees. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- BLOTNER "A flower-pot judge." TL: This is one of the associate judges on a court who mostly sits there like a flower pot -- like a decoration -- and does or says nothing. TAPE: CUT SIX -- BLOTNER "The fog's so thick, you can hardly spit." TL: That one does not require much of an explanation! TAPE: CUT SEVEN -- BLOTNER "Get a wiggle on." TL: Hurry up. Get a wiggle on. TAPE: CUT EIGHT -- BLOTNER "God made the food, but the devil made the cook!" TL: In other words, the food's not very good! TAPE: CUT NINE -- BLOTNER "guyascutas." [pronounced: guy-us-cutt-us] TL: Guyascutus. It's a made-up name for a make-believe Vermont cow. Supposedly its legs are shorter on one side than they are on the other. That way, it can walk comfortably along the steep hillsides in Vermont. TAPE: CUT TEN -- BLOTNER "Hang up your boots." TL: That means to die. Used to be, New Englanders would hang a working man's boots on the cross over his grave. TAPE: CUT ELEVEN -- BLOTNER "He has the hatter's shakes." TL: The deadly element mercury was once used in the making of felt hats in New England factories, and the mercury damaged workers' nerves. It gave them the hatter's shakes. TAPE: CUT TWELVE -- BLOTNER "He doesn't know beans when the bag's untied!" TL: In other words, he's not very smart. He cannot tell it's beans in the bag, even when you open it and show them to him. TAPE: CUT THIRTEEN -- BLOTNER "A New Hampshire screwdriver." TL: That's a hammer. Folks from Maine would call a hammer a New Hampshire screwdriver, meaning that a neighbor from New Hampshire might try to pound in the screw with a hammer. A lot of Yankee talk makes fun of somebody from the neighboring state. TAPE: CUT FOURTEEN -- BLOTNER "Irish turkey." TL: The Irish came to Boston in waves, beginning about 1835. And for a long time, most of them were poor. They could not afford a fancy turkey dinner. They had what their neighbors called "Irish turkey" -- or humble corned beef and cabbage. And in Maine, "Kennebec turkey" is a meal prepared by a fisherman -- it's herring instead of turkey. TAPE: CUT FIFTEEN -- BLOTNER "Lie like a tombstone." TL: He's a good liar ... The way the words on a tombstone say only good things about a person. TAPE: CUT SIXTEEN -- BLOTNER "He moves like a toad in a tar bucket." TL: He's not moving very fast! OK, one more. TAPE: CUT SEVENTEEN -- BLOTNER "New England diamonds." TL: That's little stones or gravel. Farmers whose fields had a lot of small stones could sell these "New England diamonds" for use in making roads. Robert Hendrickson cites several reasons why New England has so many colorful expressions. It's a cold, often snowbound place, so people did not travel as much as Americans elsewhere. And when you live in one place and don't hear other people's speech much, you develop your own expressions for things. Another reason is that most of the early American writers came from New England. They took note of unusual expressions and used them in their writing ... Just like we did today! I'm Ted Landphair. MUSIC: "When Fall Comes to New England"/Cheryl Wheeler "When the fall comes to New England "And the wind blows off the sea "Swallows fly in a perfect sky "And the world was meant to be. "When the acorns line the walkways "Then winter can't be far. "From the yellow leaves a bluejay calls. "Grandmothers walk out in the shawls. "And chipmunks walk the old stone walls "When fall comes to New England ..." 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-7-1.cfm
* Headline: January 31, 1999 - Slangman: Slang Update
* Byline: 

 INTRO: What's hot and what's not in American slang. Here with an update -- and another call for entries in the Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest -- are VOA's Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)"/The Offspring AA: "Pretty fly" is slang for "pretty impressive." I'm Avi Arditti, and this song and the album it's from, "Americana" by The Offspring, have been soaring high on the Billboard charts. RS: Which I'd say is pretty fly. I'm Rosanne Skirble, and today we look at a few terms in American slang. AA: We can thank teen-agers, those incubators of popular culture, for most of our new expressions. But it's hard to keep up, since let's not forget that teens invent slang to stay one step ahead of adults. RS: Fortunately we have Slangman, David Burke, an author who makes his living writing about this stuff. AA: And he says one word he's hearing a lot lately is the word "so." TAPE: CUT ONE -- DAVID BURKE "'So' is usually before an adjective, like 'I'm so tired,' 'I'm so happy,' 'you are so nice.' But the way teens are using it now, is using it in front of an expression, or verb. For example, if you are my employee and you do something really wrong, I might say, 'Rosanne, you are so fired.' Or I might say, "Avi, you are so not funny.' " RS: Or, to put it another way: TAPE: CUT TWO -- DAVID BURKE "Let's say we're at a party together, and this party is so not fun, I might say to you, 'Avi, Rosanne, I am so out of here.'" AA: David Burke also reports that while "so" is so in, the word "not" is not these days. TAPE: CUT THREE -- DAVID BURKE "One of the words that was very popular maybe last year and a few years before, the word 'not.' Now, 'not' was added to a positive expression to kind of mislead the other person so they think you're going to say something very nice, and suddenly you turn it around. For example, 'that is a beautiful dress you're wearing ... not!' That is now gone." RS: How sad ... not! But 'not' is not the only word that's gone. AA: David Burke says teens were using the adjectives "dope" and "fresh" to mean "fantastic." But that was last year. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- DAVID BURKE "Now, teens are saying 'tight.' So if a teenager says to you, 'ooh, that is a tight shirt,' they're not talking about the size or the fit, they're talking about the coolness of it. And by the way, 'cool' and 'tight' are two of the most popular adjectives right now, I think the most popular of this decade. The reason cool has lasted so long I think is because there are so many different ways to pronounce it. That's what teenagers are telling me. In the fifties, people would say, 'that's cool,' and they'd stretch out that 'ooo' sound. "And then teens were pronouncing cool as 'cool,' kind of like q-u-e-l. And rappers pronounce it 'coo.' So I think that's why it's staying with us, there are so many different ways to pronounce it, and who knows, maybe there will be another way to pronounce it next year." AA: David Burke, who comes to us from Los Angeles. RS: If you'd like to check out Slangman David Burke's books on slang and idioms, and for a list of the slang words and expressions you just heard on today's show, visit the slangman.com Web site. That's slangman, one word, dot com. RS: Now here's a reminder of our Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. AA: In other words, what comes after the nineties? Send us a suggestion and you'll receive a VOA souvenir. RS: But the cooler the idea, the cooler the souvenir. The deadline for entries is March second. AA: A final note: This past week, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington played its first concert in China. The program of American classics included the music by Leonard Bernstein from "West Side Story." RS: We leave you with one of the songs, called "Cool," as recorded by the original Broadway cast in the 1950s -- back when "cool" was "coooool." With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Cool"/West Side Story 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-8-1.cfm
* Headline: February 7, 1999 - African American Vernacular English, Part 1
* Byline: 

 INTRO: February is African American History Month in the United States. It's a good opportunity for our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, to look at the history -- and structure -- of a style of English used by black Americans. MUSIC -- "Rappers Delight"/Sugar Hill Gang AA: I'm Avi Arditti. It was 1979 when the Sugar Hill Gang, a trio from Harlem, New York, changed music history with this song, "Rappers Delight." RS: I'm Rosanne Skirble. "Rappers Delight" was the first commercially successful rap song in America. Since then, rap music has been helping to bring African American dialect into mainstream culture. Linguists today call it African American vernacular English. AA: John Baugh is a professor of education and linguistics at Stanford University in California. His research focuses on the history, politics and race issues related to the speech used in the United States by the descendants of slaves. Professor baugh says that, unlike other immigrant languages, no African language survived the Atlantic crossing to America. TAPE: CUT ONE -- JOHN BAUGH "The reason for that was that slave traders separated slaves by language to restrict their communication, and when you compound that slaves were denied access to schools by law when they first came to the south, that unique linguistic history combined with the lack of access to the model of standard English that was needed in the majority culture, has triggered all the linguistic features which we can now talk about." RS: John Baugh of Stanford University says that -- contrary to stereotypes -- when African Americans use non-standard English, they follow a structured dialect with a definite set of rules. TAPE: CUT TWO -- JOHN BAUGH "Let me give you an example with the use of the word 'is.' In standard English you would either say 'he is coming' or 'he's coming.' In African American English it's quite common to say 'he coming.' It turns out many of the languages in the world function in this way, Russian being one. But there's a striking difference to the ear of the listener as to whether or not someone says 'he coming' or 'he happy' versus 'he's coming or 'he's happy.' If you conclude that the missing 'is' is substantial, we find that in the African American case the present tense form can be unmarked. So they will say 'he will be happy' or 'I was happy,' but 'I happy' or 'he happy' in the present tense doesn't have to be marked, whereas in standard English it must be marked." AA: Despite the rules that govern African American Vernacular English, John Baugh says considerable prejudice remains. He says teachers should support linguistic and cultural diversity in the classroom. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JOHN BAUGH "When I attended inner-city schools in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, that was not the case. It was very clear that many of my teachers held our dialect in low regard and would say things like 'people who speak that way can't be intelligent' and so on and so forth. It's very difficult for a young child in that circumstance if people aren't sensitive to the fact that everyone wants to respect their culture, their background, and what their people have contributed to the development of this country." RS: We'll hear more from John Baugh of Stanford University later in the month, when we continue our look at African American Vernacular English. AA: Before we go, we remind you that the deadline for the Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest is March 2 -- just a few weeks away. We want your ideas for what to call the first ten years of the 21st century. In other words, what follows "the nineties"? RS: We've had a lot of good entries already. And, remember everyone who enters wins a VOA souvenir. But the better the entry the better the prize. Next week in the spirit of Saint Valentine -- and that special day for lovers -- we dedicate Wordmaster to the language of love. With Avi Arditti I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-9-1.cfm
* Headline: February 14, 1999 - Valentine's Day
* Byline: 

 INTRO: February 14th is Valentine's Day, a special time for sweethearts. It's a day of wine and roses -- and lots of chocolate. In the spirit of romance, Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble introduce you to a writer who helps people who are looking for love. MUSIC: "Looking for Love"/Johnny Lee AA: When Americans go looking for love, one place they might check is the personals. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. We're talking about personal advertisements. These "personals" can be found in newspapers, magazines, telephone voice mail services and Internet Web sites. AA: A personal ad lets you describe who you are and what you're in search of in a mate. RS: Since the ads are anonymous, you're free to pick and choose from the responses you get. AA: That's where Susan Fox comes in. Susan Fox is a writer in Boston. After meeting her husband through a personal ad, she's made a full-time job out of writing personals for other people. RS: Clients pay this former therapist hundreds of dollars to find the several dozen or more words that capture a portrait of themselves. AA: If you want to catch a fish, you need the right hook. Susan Fox says the hook in this case is the lead line of the ad. TAPE: CUT ONE -- SUSAN FOX "Mediterranean soul, Anglo-Saxon head, passionate heart, inquisitive mind, tough but gentle, rugged and earthy. We're not saying he's the world's most gorgeous man. It goes on to say 'once worked as a cowboy.' It's all true. This is a legitimate portrait of who this man is, and I think that is the sort of thing that people have to be very careful about. You don't want to describe yourself as a gorgeous blue-eyed blonde when you're an average looking sort of dumpy brown-haired woman." RS: Susan Fox calls her Boston company Personals Work. She has clients -- mostly women -- across the country, plus some overseas. AA: She says about fifty percent of her clients find the lasting relationships they're looking for. RS: We asked Susan Fox to help us decipher some of the abbreviations that often appear in ordinary personal ads. TAPE: CUT TWO -- AA/SUSAN FOX AA: "Attractive slim, swf, ns, nd, iso, slim professional, dwm 35-45, 6 foot plus with traditional values." SUSAN FOX: "First of all the 'iso' means 'in search of.' We don't use that because I personally believe that it just looks ugly on the paper, that particular abbreviation. Iso, what in the world is that. But it means 'in search of'. 'Ns' is non-smoking. 'Nd,' I'm not sure what 'nd' is. It might be 'non-denominational.' In some places it is non-denominational. That ad is a kind of ad that really doesn't give a sense of who this person is. Again, who is she. She is slim. And she's in search of this guy, but beyond that, who is she?" AA: Susan Fox says a personal ad should not sound too cute. She says using a term like "Romeo seeks juliet" tends to bring out "weirdos" -- her word. RS: We asked her for some free advise for those who want to write an ad on their own. TAPE: CUT THREE -- SUSAN FOX "If you're a woman, by all means let people know that you are trim, thin or slender if you are because it is sort of damnation by omission. Don't leave that out. If you are a man and you are professional and you are stable, let women know that because that is a gender difference that we generally find that it is very important to most women that the man be employed, financially responsible, and it's important to most men that she be at least trim and fit and attractive. AA: And speaking of love this Valentine's Day ... RS: We'd love you to add your ideas to the Wordmaster Name the Next Decade contest. What should we call the next ten years. You'll get a VOA souvenir just for entering. AA: The deadline is March 2. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "All You Need is Love"/Beatles 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-10-1.cfm
* Headline: February 21, 1999 - African American Vernacular English, Part 2
* Byline: 

 INTRO: A local official here in Washington, DC, resigned recently over his use of a word. He eventually was reinstated to a job with the city government. But as VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble report, the incident started a nationwide debate over the bounds of racial sensitivity in a country that is thirteen percent African American. AA: The word was "niggardly." It comes from Old Norse and means miserly or stingy. David Howard, a newly appointed white official in a majority black city, used that word while discussing his budget. He was telling two aides that funds were tight. RS: One of the aides was white, the other black. When the African American staffer heard that word -- niggardly -- he stormed out of the office. David Howard recalls what happened next: TAPE: CUT ONE -- DAVID HOWARD "Rumors spiraled out of that, out of the use of the word, that I had actually used the N-word, and because of those rumors I felt that the trust that people would have in me was compromised." RS: "The N-word" is the term many people now use to avoid offense when referring to one of the most volatile words in America: TAPE: CUT TWO -- JOHN BAUGH "There is no hotter button that all African Americans agree upon than the word 'nigger.' It is the most highly offensive thing that anyone can say to us." AA: John Baugh is a linguist and professor of education at stanford university in California. TAPE: CUT THREE -- JOHN BAUGH (:36) "This is so highly charged in the African American community that one does not talk about it without substantial emotion. And you can refer to the dictionary and its literal sense and Make a case for why one should be able to do that, and in fact on our college campuses a few years ago the question came up as to whether or not students couldn't in fact use racial insults because our institutions of higher learning are places where language of all kinds should be tolerated. But for those of us that care about our fellow citizens, I would suggest that we refrain from anything that might even ambiguously be interpreted along those lines." RS: But, in David Howard's case, not everyone agreed. AA: In editorial comments around the country, some people said it was wrong to censor language just because of the way certain words sound or may be misinterpreted. RS: But Mr. Howard -- who has since returned to the mayor's office -- says he learned a lesson: TAPE: CUT FOUR -- DAVID HOWARD "I think that a lot of good can come out of this, and I think that one of the good things is that it sparked a discussion about racial perceptions. And, I think that is really going to help all of us understand each other better. You know, we need to value our perceptions and our differences." AA: At Stanford University, John Baugh studies those perceptions and differences. In addition to the David Howard case, we talked with him about racism. He told us about recent experiments he's done which showed that not just language but even accents can influence how people treat each other. RS: Professor Baugh did the experiments with his students to study housing discrimination. The goal was to see if landlords would react differently, depending on the way someone calling to arrange housing sounded on the telephone: TAPE: CUT FIVE -- JOHN BAUGH "We've used a combination of Zip codes and telephone prefixes to target neighborhoods of different socio-economic incomes. I typically call with one of the minority glosses [accents], and I may be denied an appointment. Later I will call back with my professional voice, using the same grammar, and what we've seen is predictable: the non-standard dialects get a lot more rejections than does standard English. We've done the experiments in all neighborhoods as part of a random survey. And what's interesting is when you get the incredulity on the part of the low-income landlord who hears the standard English voice and asks, 'Are you sure you know what neighborhood we are?'" AA: John Baugh of Stanford University has just written two new books on African Americans and language. RS: Just a quick reminder, we're still accepting entries for our Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. People are calling next year "y2k" -- but what about the next ten years? Our deadline is March 2. AA: Everyone with a suggestion wins a prize, but the better the entry, the better the prize. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-11-1.cfm
* Headline: February 28, 1999 - Rap Music
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Rap -- the music of an African American culture known as hip-hop -- has gained world popularity as a form of personal and social expression. Now, for the first time, the American music industry has given its top honors to a hip-hop artist. Singer Lauryn Hill won five Grammy awards Wednesday night, including the Album of the Year award. Today our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, look at the language of rap, with help from a rapper here in Washington. TAPE: CUT ONE -- "WORDMASTER"/PRIEST DA NOMAD AA: That's me. And that's Priest Da Nomad, showing his talent for improvisation that's making him a rising name in hip-hop. RS: This twenty-six-year-old nomad is a journeyman "MC" -- master of ceremonies. He's been rapping since he was twelve. He used to annoy his teachers by tapping out rhythms on his desk. TAPE: CUT TWO -- PRIEST DA NOMAD/AA "To rap is basically just to speak, but it's to speak rhythmically. You notice when you talk anyway, you kind of define a rhythm, but we don't really notice it. So it's really consciously doing it, and it's just using your brain, which is a muscle. It's like everything you do, it's like going to the gym with your brain." AA: "And you have to keep working out and working out and getting stronger." PRIEST DA NOMAD: "And there's different aspects of rapping. The one I specialize in is improvisational rhyming, which is called freestyling." RS: Just give Priest a word -- in this case the word we gave him was "word" -- and he'll think up a rhyme. TAPE: CUT THREE -- "WORD" RAP AA: His skill comes from practice, but also from speech training and working with others to master the art of freestyling. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- PRIEST DA NOMAD "We used to take speech exercises like doing debates, doing alliterations, going through alphabets, doing story telling and environmental rhyming, which is just picking things out in the environment and rhyming about them and just practicing like that. I read the newspaper every day. I try to feed my brain with as much data as possible, and then you practice drawing upon that data in a split second." RS: Priest says the success of hip-hop stars like Lauryn Hill shows that rap lyrics don't have to be violent or vulgar. But in the music industry, he says, record companies know that this so-called "gangsta" rap sells. TAPE: CUT five -- PRIEST DA NOMAD/RS PRIEST DA NOMAD: "Certain artists and certain types of music are pushed because it's kind of talking about a certain lifestyle, and popular America -- white America -- is fascinated by that lifestyle." RS: "How different are you from the twelve-year-old who was pounding on his desk in junior high?" PRIEST DA NOMAD: "Well, I've grown and matured. I still have the same passion, though. My whole thing with what I do is when I feel something and when something moves me, I can't ignore it, and everyone from, like teachers and parents -- my mother used to tell me, 'why are you doing this?' She laughed at it at first because, she was like, 'OK, it's a phase he's going through.' And then after high school -- we were dealing with some record companies but before we could do a deal, one of them folded -- I went to school for a little bit, to college, and came back and got pulled back into music. Once I got back into it, I was like, this is where my heart is and I'm not ever stopping." MUSIC: "We Got" AA: Priest Da Nomad performs mostly in clubs in the Washington area and has a self-released CD which includes this party song called "We Got." RS: And we've got a final call for our Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. The deadline is Tuesday. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-12-1.cfm
* Headline: March 7, 1999 - Verbal Abuse
* Byline: 

 INTRO: How prepared are you to defend against a verbal attack? Today our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, talk about words that hurt and some ways to soothe the pain. MUSIC: "Kiss Off"/Violent Femmes Lyrics: "'I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record.' Oh yeah? Well, don't be so distressed. Did I happen to mention, I'm impressed?" AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and today we start off with some good old-fashioned sarcasm. RS: "I'm impressed." I'm Rosanne Skirble, and that tone of voice is meant to be insulting. If I really were impressed, I would have said it this way: "I'm impressed!" AA: Why, thank you! I'm flattered ... I think. If you don't know how Americans speak, it may be hard to tell just what they're really saying. RS: Suzette Haden Elgin is a linguist and authority on the language of verbal abuse. She's sold more than a million copies in her series on what she calls the gentle art of verbal self-defense. AA: Verbal abuse, she says, is language that purposely causes pain, and American English uses a distinct tonal pattern to do this. TAPE: CUT ONE -- SUZETTE HADEN ELGIN/RS/AA ELGIN: "The primary mechanism for transmitting hostility in spoken English is the tone of voice and the tune the words are set to. It's not the words you say. That's why verbal abusers who speak English can generally get away with it, 'but all I said, was ... ' and then setting the words to a very different tune. In many languages of the world this isn't true. There will be a special marker in the sentence that makes it abusive or a special marker on a word, and it makes it very difficult for people who don't speak English as their first language to know if something that they are saying may be offensive and interpreted as hostile, and secondly understand hostile messages coming at them from native speakers. I spend a great deal of my time straightening out messes like that." RS: "Here's an example from one of your books. It's an example of conversation(al speech): 'If You really loved me, you wouldn't waste money the way you do.'" ELGIN: "That's right, and that is a classic example of what is called a verbal attack pattern of English." RS: "Could you give us another example?" ELGIN: "Sure. 'Even a linguist should be able to understand a language like that.' 'Even a freshman should be able to grasp a concept like that.' 'Even a women should be able to balance a checkbook,' and 'a man should know how to change a diaper.'" AA: "So, an American attacks verbally not with words, but with tone." ELGIN: "It is higher pitch, plus greater volume, plus longer duration. But tone is one way of talking about it. In written English the tune is not there. But spoken English is a very different matter, and it's extremely hard for people who are not native speakers to figure out what is meant by the multiplicity of possible ways to say the same words." RS: So, how can you really understand what Americans are saying? We asked Suzette Haden Elgin for some advice for speakers of English-as-a-foreign-language. TAPE: CUT TWO -- SUZETTE HADEN ELGIN "What is most important is for them to know that they have to be wary. That is they have to know they must not leap to the conclusion that an utterance is angry without investigating it further, and they must be ready to explore it and say, 'many people would wonder what that meant. People who do not speak English might not understand that,' and then say something like, 'could you talk about it a little more.' And, you shouldn't hesitate to do that because you can get in dreadful trouble if you don't." AA: Suzette Haden Elgin, a blackbelt in "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense." RS: And now we'd like to say thank you -- and we really mean it! -- to all of you who entered our Name the Next Decade Contest. AA: We'll read some of your ideas on the air at the end of the month when we celebrate the first anniversary of Wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-13-1.cfm
* Headline: March 14, 1999 - 'Guys'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: OK, guys, listen up. In American slang a "guy" is a man. But Americans increasingly use the plural -- "guys," g-u-y-s -- to address both men and women together. It's simpler and more casual than saying, for example, "guys and gals," or "ladies and gentlemen." To some people, though, calling everyone "guys" sounds silly. Our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, talked with Peat O'Neil, who wrote a newspaper article expressing this view. TAPE: CUT ONE -- PEAT O'NEAL O'NEIL: "Hi, I'm Peat O'Neil. Actually my first name is Louisa, and the Peat is spelled p-e-a-t. The piece I wrote was in the Washington Post. It's [headlined] 'Where the Girls Aren't, or Guys R Us,' all about the use of the word 'guys' for collective humanity." RS: "Why did you decide to write the piece?" O'NEIL: "Well, I was mad. I was tired of going into fancy restaurants with a date, a male date, or maybe two or three women, and we'd be addressed as 'guys,' and the collective noun 'you' would have been just as appropriate. Or 'how are you tonight?' Meaning all of us." RS: "So that led you to do a little bit of research about guys, because we're not just hearing it in restaurants, we're hearing it all over the place." O'NEIL: "Everywhere, and I think it's the last ten, fifteen, twenty years that this word has replaced all others for referring to adult human beings of either gender." AA: "Is it sexist?" O'NEIL: "Well, it is imprecise, and that's my primary objection." RS: "So are you on a one woman crusade to eliminate 'guys' from our language?" O'NEIL: "Well, I do note it, and I grumble a little, and I'm becoming more vocal when I'm in a situation where I think it's inappropriate to be called a guy. I will speak up and say, 'ahem, I am a lady.'" AA: "So when you walk into a restaurant with a group, you would prefer that the maitre d' look and say, 'Guys and lady, this way, follow me'?" O'NEIL: "Or 'your table is ready' or 'how are you this evening?' Or 'ladies and gentlemen' or 'madam and monsieur' or 'ma'am and mister.' Something a little more elegant and uplifting." RS: "So you don't want to be one of the guys." O'NEIL: "No, no. I can arm wrestle and kayak and scurry up a mountain just as well as those guys, but I'd like to be called something that designates my unique quality of being a woman." AA: "Is it a generational thing? Do you think younger women don't mind as much?" O'NEIL: "It is interesting that you ask that. I think some of the younger women in my classes don't seem to have any objection to being called 'you guys' and call each other that. That may be fine for them, but I think it's a cheap word and we can do so much better with our brilliant language. And I would think that in our ethnic diversity with all the people moving into the United States, emigrating here, we could borrow some words from their culture that might be a little more elegant and less sexist. I know Spanish, and Italian, and certainly French, and many of the patois of Africa and the Caribbean have designators that are inclusive and I wouldn't be surprised if the Pacific languages did too." AA: Peat O'Neil is an administrator at the Washington Post, and says it's a great ice-breaker when people call her for the first time, expecting to hear a "Peter" on the phone. RS: Next Sunday -- Academy Awards night -- Avi and I will look at the influence of movies on American slang. And in two weeks we announce the top winners in our Name the Next Decade Contest. AA: So stay tuned! RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Guys and Dolls" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-14-1.cfm
* Headline: March 21, 1999 - Slangman: Hollywood's Influence
* Byline: 

 INTRO: A worldwide audience will be tuning in Sunday night when the American film industry presents its Academy Awards. Our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, get in on the act as they look at some of the words and phrases Hollywood has contributed to American English. TAPE: CUT ONE -- LEONARDO DECAPRIO "I'm the king of the world!" AA: That was last year, when Leonardo DeCaprio and the rest of the cast and crew of "Titanic" sailed straight into top honors at the Academy Awards. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. In a minute we'll talk with our slang expert David Burke about some expressions that come from the movie industry. AA: But first we're going to play a few classic movie lines that have become ingrained in the American lexicon. TAPE: CUT TWO -- CLARK GABLE "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." RS: Sixty years ago, moviegoers were shocked to hear Clark Gable utter that naughty word in "Gone with the Wind." In polite company, the preferred word is "darn." AA: OK, who said this famous line? TAPE: CUT THREE -- HUMPHREY BOGART "Here's looking at you, kid." RS: "Here's looking at you, kid." As any late-night movie fan could tell you, that's Humphrey Bogart in the classic film "Casablanca." AA: Now we can't have Bogie without Bacall. RS: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were quite the pair, starting with her film debut in 1944 in "To Have and Have Not." TAPE: CUT FOUR -- LAUREN BACALL "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve. You just put your lips together and blow." RS: Now we cut to David Burke, in Los Angeles, for a lesson on some movie-related words, including "flick" and "bomb": TAPE: CUT FIVE -- BURKE/AA/RS BURKE: "A 'flick' was actually exactly what a movie used to be. Remember, the old movies were nothing more at the very beginning than cards. Every single card was actually a photograph, and you would flick the cards one after the next to Make the illusion of motion.'bomb' Is really interesting to me because that has changed over the years. We all knew it anywhere from before 1995, a bomb was anything bad. Usually it referred to a bad movie.'what A bomb,' something horrible that you would never want to go see. Now if you hear the term 'bomb' you may very well want to go see it. Teenagers are using 'bomb' as something very good. But, you have to say 'the bomb.'" AA: "Or 'da bomb.'" BURKE: "'Da bomb.' That's considered rap slang because of the accent a lot of rappers use. For some reason if you say 'a' in front of 'bomb' it is something bad. If you say the word 'the' in front of bomb it is something really good. So, you have to listen. You have to pay attention to these expressions." RS: "There's another one -- 'cut to the chase.' Let's explore that a little bit." BURKE: "In movies, what the director or writer will try to do is build up to the big moment, the chase scene. That's why the (early film going) audiences used to rush to those movie theaters to watch the big chase like 'Ben Hur' in the chariot scene. Those were always the scenes that were full of excitement and full of urgency, and the music used to get really, really fast, and it was a thrill to the audiences. Sometimes the directors and the writers would take a little too much time to get to the chase scene. You'd hear the director say, 'let's cut to the chase.' Then (we started) to adopt it to our (daily) lives. (For example,) if I don't answer this question you might say, 'David, cut to the chase' -- what does it mean?" AA: "Get to the point." Db: "Exactly. Get to the point." RS: "David, I just have one last word for you -- 'hasta la vista, baby!'" BURKE: "Make my day, Rosanne! [laughter]" TAPE: CUT SIX -- SCHWARTZNEGGER "Hasta la vista, baby!" TAPE: CUT SEVEN -- CLINT EASTWOOD "Make my day." RS: OK, I will! let's explain: "Hasta la vista" is Spanish for "see you later," and is used by a lot of Americans. But from the mouth of Arnold Schwartznegger in the movie "Terminator II," it's taken on a deadly twist. AA: Same with the expression "make my day," which started out to mean something nice. But when movie cop Harry Calaghan -- better known as Clint Eastwood -- says it in "Sudden Impact," you'd better run the other way to avoid getting your head blown off! RS: You could run all the way to w-w-w dot slangman dot com. That's David "Slangman" Burke's Web site. You can check out his book on slang and idioms, and also a list of the words he uses on Wordmaster. And now we've got to run -- so we can pop some popcorn and get ready to watch the Academy Awards! AA: Next week we give out our awards in the Wordmaster Name the Next Decade Contest. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-15-1.cfm
* Headline: September 20, 1998 - Impeachment
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Now for a look at American English, with VOA's wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. They talk about the meaning of the word "impeach," which as they discovered even has some Americans confused. AA: I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. In his report to Congress about President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, independent counsel Kenneth Starr outlines eleven acts by the president that he says -- and we quote -- "may constitute grounds for an impeachment." AA: So what does the word impeach really mean? I decided to take a lunchtime walk near the Capitol building and ask some people passing by. This was a typical response: TAPE: CUT ONE/AA/MAN/WOMAN MAN: "To remove an official from office." AA: "What do you think?" WOMAN: "The same." AA: "I pull out my dictionary definition. Does it say anything about removing?" MAN/WOMAN: "No." RS: No, it doesn't. Impeach, according to our American Heritage Dictionary, simply means "to charge with malfeasance in office before a proper tribunal." AA: And in the case of the president, that's the House of Representatives. If the House does decide to impeach -- in effect, to indict the president -- then it's up to the Senate to hold a trial to decide if the president should be removed from office. And presiding at that trial, should it take place, would be the chief justice of the United States. RS: That's what Father Robert Drinan, a priest who teaches law at Georgetown University, told us. Twenty five years ago he was a congressman from Massachusetts serving on the House Judiciary Committee during impeachment hearings against President Nixon. The committee approved articles of impeachment against the president. But in the end, Richard Nixon resigned before the full House could vote on sending the case to the Senate for trial. AA: We asked Father Drinan to walk us through the impeachment process. TAPE: CUT TWO -- AA/DRINAN DRINAN: "If the House impeaches by a simple majority vote, it goes to the Senate where he has to be convicted by two-thirds of the vote. It's a trial in the Senate. Technically it's only a hearing of some kind in the House. AA: "I was just out at the Capitol talking to people and asking them what does impeach mean, and a lot of them were saying it means to remove from office." DRINAN: "The person is not removed from office until he is convicted by the Senate. And the Framers [of the Constitution] very wisely wanted to make this very, very rare." AA: In fact, only one American president has ever been impeached, and that was Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson was impeached in eighteen-sixty-eight. But the Senate fell just one vote short of convicting him -- so he kept his job. RS: We asked Father Drinan if there were any other words related to the present situation that might be confusing. TAPE: CUT THREE -- RS/DRINAN DRINAN: "Well, we lawyers keep them obscure so we can keep up a monopoly. I'm certain [people] wonder about the term 'the subornation of perjury.' That means that he ordered it or arranged it or expedited it and they also wonder about the subpoena, that document that means you have to appear before the court designated." RS: "Are there words that we're likely to hear in the coming days that perhaps we're not familiar with?" DRINAN: "We'll I'm afraid that most people, especially those under 40, have never really focused on the terms in the Constitution that the president can be impeached only for bribery, treason and -- listen to this -- 'or other high crimes and misdemeanors.' That's a consecrated phrase that comes to us from English law." RS: Father Robert Drinan at Georgetown University. He mentioned "high crimes and misdemeanors." What are high crimes and misdemeanors? The Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution didn't answer that question. So it would be up to Congress to decide. AA: Which brings us to another word coming up in the congressional debate about President Clinton, and that is the word "censure" ['sen-shur]. RS: Censure -- c-e-n-s-u-r-e, not censor c-e-n-s-o-r ['sen-sir. ] A censure is one of the possible punishments that Congress could take against the president. It would be a reprimand, but n o t impeachment or removal from office. To censure is to reprimand, whereas to censor is to suppress. AA: I suppose you could censure an overzealous censor. Anyway, that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Next week -- some stock market slang. I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-16-1.cfm
* Headline: November 29, 1998 - Native American Influence on English
* Byline: 

 INTRO: As they prepared for their Thanksgiving holiday dinner on Thursday, our Wordmasters, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, looked into the contributions of native Americans -- starting with the food on the table. MUSIC -- "Corn Dance" AA: We're listening to the Cherokee Indian "corn dance," and it honors a crop that we can all thank the Indians for -- corn, or maize. When English colonists began arriving in what is now the eastern United States, native Americans taught them how to grow corn. RS: In fact, a good corn harvest helped save the Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. So when the colonists held the first Thanksgiving feast that year, they invited dozens of Indians to join them. But, Indian contributions did not stop with corn. Anthropologist Jack Weatherford has complied a bumper crop of Indian words added to our culinary vocabulary and beyond. TAPE: CUT ONE -- JACK WEATHERFORD "Today around the world we do use words such as 'potatoes,' 'tomato,' and 'maize' to signify some of these foods. Some of the words such as 'succotash' is still there today with the combination of corn and beans that the Indians of that area used. But oddly, one of the words that I think that we'd recognize right away that they brought with them wasn't the name of one of the foods, but it was the name of something that they did. "And that is when they all got together in order to sit down and make a decision of some sort. They didn't just do it by vote, they did it by consensus. And there was no real word for that in the English language. They had to pick up then the Algonquin word and that was 'caucus.' They formed a caucus to discuss an issue, and we to this day especially in American politics use the word caucus quite commonly." AA: Jack Weatherford is an anthropologist at Macalaster College in Minnesota. He says Americans use thousands of native words in everyday speech -- from place names like Seattle and Connecticut to names of rivers, streams and mountains, to names of plants and animals. RS: Jack Weatherford suggests that even the affirmation "OK," now almost universally used, may have roots in Native American language. In his book "native roots" he discusses just how embedded Indian words are in American English: TAPE: CUT TWO -- JACK WEATHERFORD/AA JACK WEATHERFORD: "And these vary from words such as chocolate and OK, all the way up to jaguar, hurricane, blizzard, canoe. There are many words from different aspects of life that now become a part of internationalized English. AA: "Like the idea that this winter kids could be putting on their anorak or parka, getting on their toboggan and going through the snow never realizing those words come from the native American." JACK WEATHERFORD: "Yeah, some words such as toboggan and parka, haven't really spread around the world, but they are certainly popular in North America in the heavy snow areas. And there are other words such as canoe that are part of the language of the world. When the colonists arrived in America they encountered a new landscape. It was a new world, and you can use your words for that, and they would often would take European words and European names of animals or birds or trees and apply it to the American landscape, but they soon found that could really be quite dangerous in some ways. For example, if you encountered the storm that we call now in contemporary English, a hurricane, if you thought of that as just a tempest, as Shakespeare did, you wouldn't understand what a hurricane was at all, and you might mistake the lull in the middle of the hurricane for the end of the hurricane." RS: So, the settlers learned pretty fast that they'd better use the Indian words or they could get in real trouble. AA: The strongest linguistic exchange came early, during the sixteen and seventeen hundreds. Then came oppression of the Indians, moving them onto reservations and forcing them to aculturate by prohibiting them from speaking their native languages. RS: Yet, the US military used Navajo Indians as "code-talkers" during World War Two in the Pacific. The Japanese could never decipher the Navajo language. AA: Something else to think about is the word "Yankee" -- as in "Yankee Doodle," the New York Yankees baseball team, or Americans in general. The etymology of this common, and not always complimentary, name for Americans is unclear. Jack Weatherford points out one possible source. As early as the 1600s, he says, the Delaware Indians referred to the English as the yankwis, or yanwako, meaning English snake. RS: No comment. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-17-1.cfm
* Headline: November 22, 1998 - Using Music to Learn English
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time for wordmaster, with VOA's Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble. If you've ever had trouble understanding song lyrics, then what you're about to hear will be music to your ears. MUSIC: "What's Love Got to Do With It?"/Tina Turner AA: What's love got to do with it? Well -- not much, if you can't understand the words to this Tina Turner song. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. A listener in Israel, Michael Farberman of Tel Aviv, says it's really hard for him to make out the words of songs such as Tina Turner's hit, "What's Love Got to Do With It?" Unfortunately, there are lots of American songs that even native English speakers cannot understand. So it's especially tough on people who listen to music trying to learn the language. AA: Wendy Hyman-Fite directs the English as a second language program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She and her sister Lori Diefenbacher are also singers and musicians. Their English teaching book and recording, "Singing USA," includes the 19th century wagon song "Sweet Betsy from Pike." TAPE: CUT TWO -- HYMAN-FITE "Now you sing that, 'have you ever heard of sweet betsy from pike.' So even if a person doesn't know the natural stress of an English sentence, if they sing the song, they can remember that, 'have you ever heard of sweet betsy from pike,' and start to get a more natural rhythm to their language." TAPE: CUT three: "sweet betsy from pike" RS: Of course, other kinds of music in addition to folk songs can be used to teach -- pop, rock, rap. But Wendy Hyman-Fite has a favorite: TAPE: CUT FOUR -- HYMAN-FITE/AA HYMAN-FITE: "Now you many laugh at me here but I think country music is rich. It'll tell an awful lot about what's going on in the country and you know it's about trains and mama and all these -- 'my baby left me' -- but it's never so heavy that it doesn't come back with a rousing chorus that brings you back up because it has a more positive feeling to it. So I would tend to use more country music -- also choosing it for good grammar and rich vocabulary. All the teacher has to do is 'datamine,' to use a computer term. Find out what's in [the song] and really milk it for all it's worth. Then have fun with it. I always end with them singing the song. So we've worked it through, we understand it and we know the words and we know the rhythm. We've worked on the pronunciation and now let's just have a good time and sing it. AA: "What about bad grammar in songs?" HYMAN-FITE: "Well, yeah, there's a lot of bad grammar. But if you choose your songs carefully, I guess that would be it." RS: Wendy Hyman-Fite points out that songs teach more than words. Teachers can use songs to talk about culture, history and social issues that the music reflects. AA: Wendy Hyman-Fite also says there's a lot of research to show that music gets the whole brain working. So that's another benefit of using music to teach language. RS: We leave you today with America's favorite unintelligible party song, "Louie Louie," as sung by the Kingsmen in 1963. It was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling this month involving royalty payments. The lyrics are so slurred that some people suspected they were obscene. But they're really the words of a lovesick, drunken Jamaican sailor, talking innocently to a bartender named Louie. MUSIC: "Louie Louie" AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-18-1.cfm
* Headline: November 15, 1998 - Split Infinitives
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time for Wordmaster, our weekly look at American English. Today Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble report on a debate that, while not exactly ear-splitting, has been getting a lot of attention lately. TAPE: CUT ONE -- "STAR TREK" OPENING Voice: "Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before." AA: I'm Avi Arditti, and what we're about to say should come as no surprise to fans of the old TV show "Star Trek." The latest word from the Oxford University Press is -- and we quote -- "in standard English, the principle of allowing split infinitives is broadly accepted as both normal and useful.' RS: I'm Rosanne Skirble. Just what is an infinitive and what does it mean to split it? An infinitive is the basic form of a verb, and in English we usually see it with the word "to" before it as in "to run," "to see," "to hear." To split the infinitive is to stick an adverb in the middle: "to quickly run," or as we just heard "to boldly go." AA: Generations of English speakers have been taught that it's wrong to split an infinitive. So when the publishers of the mighty Oxford English Dictionary say otherwise, it's controversial. The news produced headlines like "it's okay to sometimes split infinitives" and "it's just fine to boldly go." RS: That last headline went with a New York Times essay written by Patricia O'Conner, author of "Woe is I," a book about grammar. TAPE: CUT TWO -- O'CONNER/AA O'CONNER: "I'm not saying and no one else is saying that the infinitive should always be split, that in other words the "to" should always be followed by an adverb if possible. The point is that you put an adverb where it seems to most -- seems to belong most logically. You see, I didn't say 'to most logically belong.' But there are times when it would be quite awkward to avoid splitting. "For example, in the phrase, to 'quietly drop the charges,' that he had murdered his wife. Now, you could say, 'quietly to drop' the charges against him or you could put it at the end, 'to drop the charges against him that he had murdered his wife quietly. You can turn a sentence upside down to avoid splitting, but in fact the 'quietly' really belongs with the drop, 'to quietly drop' the charges. Like 'he refused to flatly deny,' 'he tried to more than triple his earnings.' There's nowhere else you can put 'more than.' [or] 'they Decided to voluntarily pay their overdue taxes. You can't say 'they decided voluntarily to pay their overdue taxes.' That's a different meaning. AA: "So, why didn't Shakespeare say, 'to be or to not be'?" O'CONNER: "Because, I'm sure that we all agree that it sounds better to say, 'to be or not to be.' If he said, 'to be or to not be' he wouldn't be Shakespeare. But, if you told Shakespeare that he shouldn't split an infinitive he would have looked at you like you were nuts. All the great writers in English have split infinitives. They've done this for hundreds of years." AA: Patricia O'Conner says the rule against splitting infinitives comes from an 1864 British grammar book called "A Plea for the Queen's English," which tried to apply rules of Latin to English. She says the rule was quickly disputed, yet it crossed the Atlantic to America and has stuck with us ever since. RS: Samuel Pickering is an English professor at the University of Connecticut. He says that after he was quoted nationally as saying splitting infinitives shows poor grammatical taste he got a lot of hate mail. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- PICKERING/RS PICKERING: "People took my statement that 'I do not dine with people who split infinitives' quite literally and urged me to eat meals with children and people from other social classes. They called me haughty, elitist, aristocratic. [They] urged me to get a real life -- generally that's to be found in smoky places where people have dangling participles. They did all these sorts of things. RS: "So how did you feel when you got all this mail?" PICKERING: "I loved it!" RS: For one thing, Professor Pickering says, it gave him something to write about -- and when he writes, he says, he never splits infinitives. AA: But these days most grammar guides say it's OK to split infinitives -- if you know what you're doing. While, we repeat, Shakespeare split infinitives, let us remember that he did not write "to be or to not be." RS: That is the question. And if you have any questions, send them to us! AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-19-1.cfm
* Headline: November 8, 1998 - Slangman: '70s Slang
* Byline: 

 INTRO: on this week's wordmaster, Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble "get down" with some of the lingo of a decade that's popular again. MUSIC: "Night Fever"/Bee-Gees AA: The seventies are back, from disco music to fashion to those little yellow smiley faces. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. Two decades later, we still hear the music from "Saturday Night Fever" -- and see that movie image of John Travolta, in his white suit striking a classic disco dance pose. And you can relive the seventies in recent films like "Studio 54" and "The Last Days of Disco." AA: Coming up we'll talk seventies slang with author David Burke -- who's an expert on slang. But first we take you to the dance floor of the Tropix nightclub in McLean, Virginia, where seventies music is hot. MUSIC: "Disco Inferno"/The Trammps RS: This is Pete. He's a fifty-year-old computer specialist. TAPE: CUT ONE -- PETE/AA PETE: "Disco was a big thing. You'd go out and you'd get up in a leisure suit with a silk shirt with seagulls or whatever or whatnot type pattern on it, and you'd go out with platform shoes and just go out to the club and start trying to get down or boogy." AA: "What was you favorite expression or slang from the seventies? And do you admit to using any still?" PETE: "Not too much, other than we'd go out and 'roll,' 'run the street' or 'party' -- that was still pretty much what people would say back then." AA: On this night the DJ playing the music is Derek Williams. What's his favorite expression from the seventies? TAPE: CUT TWO -- WILLIAMS "'Shake your booty' -- that works every time, everyone knows what it means. It means 'get busy and get down,' 'let's do it,' 'sweat.' RS: And now it's time to sweat with our Slangman, David Burke, coming to us on the Wordmaster hotline from Los Angeles. TAPE: CUT THREE -- BURKE/RS/AA BURKE: "You're in the seventies now and a guy comes up to you and says, 'whoa, cosmic threads, really out of sight. Want to groove on a real boss movie later?' If a guy says to you, 'whoa cosmic threads' (he means) ... " RS: "Good clothes." BURKE: "Right, good clothes. Now, 'cosmic' is gone, no one says cosmic, but we do still say 'threads.' In jest, someone will say, 'ooo, nice threads.' Now 'really out of sight,' of course you know what that means?" AA: "Great." RS: "'Way out.'" BURKE: "You know, this is so funny. This is how it works: if you're into the seventies, maybe ten years ago you'd be 'really square' -- which of course means to be out of touch with reality. But for some reason, those who are still living in the seventies are now really hip today. In fact, for years I've had this plaster of Paris candle in my bedroom and I've had this old seventies wood-frame bed. Ten years ago people would come in and say, 'you are so out of touch.' But nowadays people would see that and say, 'whoa, you're really retro.' So now, if you're into the seventies, you are called 'retro,' and that is 'way cool.' RS: "So you are so out, that you have come back. [laughter]" BURKE: "It's just like bellbottoms (pants). OK, anybody who wore bellbottoms ten years ago, I'm sorry, you would have been stared at. Nowadays, you wear bellbottoms and you are extremely cool. Let me ask you something -- I'll give this one to Avi. If someone were to say to you, 'I don't mean to bum you out or lay a bad trip on you, but I'm not getting good vibes here.' That's talking seventies. If someone said, 'I don't mean to bum you out' ... " AA: "I feel like I'm back in high school -- make you feel bad." BURKE: "Right, and 'lay a bad trip on you'?" AA: "Make you feel guilty." BURKE: "But now we don't say that. We'll say, 'someone is a real head trip' or 'they're really trippy.' A lot of teens are saying, 'don't trip on me,' which means, 'don't dis(respect) me, don't try to fake me out' -- see, I keep answering one slang term with another one -- 'don't try to trick me.' And 'I'm not getting good vibes here'. That's really popular -- 'good vibes,' 'bad vibes.' That is still here for some reason and I don't think that one is going to leave us anytime soon." RS: David "Slangman" Burke will bring back those good vibes -- meaning good feelings -- next month when he joins us with more American slang. In the meantime, check out his Web site: www.slangman.com. Slangman is one word. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-20-1.cfm
* Headline: November 1, 1998 - Political Language
* Byline: 

 INTRO: with election day coming up in the United States, VOA wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble try to Make sense of some of the language of politics. MUSIC "I Wanna Grow Up to Be a Politician"/Byrds AA: On Tuesday, Americans vote in mid-term elections -- meaning midway through the president's term. Candidates for everything from local school boards to state governorships to the US House and Senate are out this weekend busily "stumping for votes." I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. Not too many politicians stand on tree stumps anymore when they give speeches. Whether candidates use public meetings or political advertisements on radio or TV -- or now the Internet -- they speak a political lingo that is constantly changing. AA: But some words never change. Like the word "gerrymander." In 1812, Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill which divided the state into voting districts that, according to his opponents, unfairly favored his party. To some people, one of the districts looked like a mythical salamander. This animal image spawned a new word, gerrymander, which to this day means drawing up districts to favor a political party or candidate. RS: Thank you, Elbridge Gerry. AA: And, where would we be without the word gobbledygook? RS: Gobbledygook, coined in the 1940s by Representative Maury Maverick of Texas. It means confusing, bureaucratic jargon. If gobbledygook sounds like something a turkey would say, you're right: that's where Maury Maverick got the word! AA: Sounds like fowl language to me ... RS: Wayne Fields is an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He's spent a career sorting out what politicians say and how they say it. He bemoans that political rhetoric has been reduced to negative messages known as attack ads and to the all-important sound bites on the evening news. AA: And those short excerpts of a candidate speaking are interpreted by political handlers who work for a specific office holder or candidate. These handlers are called spin doctors. TAPE: CUT TWO -- WAYNE FIELDS "And, the whole business of doctoring these phrases that get used in place of arguments is an interesting phenomenon because it has to do with something essential to the process. That's to say that you are trying to represent small things in big ways in place of building ongoing arguments and political discussion. "And then I think the language of insider/outsider politics (is another source of new words). 'Inside the Beltway' is one (term) that you hear a lot when people are attacking Washington insiders and trying to run as outsiders which has become very much a style of the last decade." RS: The Beltway is the name of the highway that circles the Washington metropolitan area. TAPE: CUT TWO -- WAYNE FIELDS/AA WAYNE FIELDS : "So somebody who thinks like people 'inside the Beltway' doesn't think like the rest of America that there is some kind of artificial boundary between the regular United States and the people who govern us presumably out of ignorance of what we are and what we are interested in." AA: "Speaking of inside the Beltway here, what is it with all these words that end in -gate -- could you explain." WAYNE FIELDS: "Watergate (the political event) is the origin of all of those terms and arguably most of the time is understood as the most significant of them. It brought down a presidency and all the rest of it. So when you use Irangate, or Monicagate or any of the other variations you are trying to say this event has a kind of significance, a kind of magnitude comparable to the Nixon crisis that led to the presidential resignation." RS: And why the name "Watergate" at all? The Watergate is a big residential and office complex here in Washington. It's where the downfall of Richard Nixon's presidency began with a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters in 1972. AA: Professor Wayne Fields from Washington university in St. Louis says the key to understanding what politicians are saying is to first figure out what they are trying to persuade you to think, and how. RS: He says all too often politicians manipulate us through an appeal to our emotions, rather than with constructive arguments that challenge our intellect. AA: If there's anything about American English that is a challenge to you, let us know! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-21-1.cfm
* Headline: October 25, 1998 - Double Negatives
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time to "ask the Wordmasters," as Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble answer some mail from listeners. MUSIC: "Please, Mr. Postman"/The Marvelettes AA: A few weeks ago, Rosanne and I talked about double negatives. We're going back to that subject because we've gotten more letters and e-mails -- from China, Israel and Hungary, all about double negatives. RS: We made it clear that standard English frowns on saying something like. . . TAPE: CUT ONE -- MOVIE SOUND FROM "TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE" "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges." AA: That famous line from the old movie "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" might be less dramatic had the Mexican character said to Humphrey Bogart: "badges. We don't have any badges." But in standard English that's the way it should be. RS: A Chinese listener asks us, "What is the meaning of 'I don't know nothing'?" It's slang, a way to mean you don't know something. But literally you're saying the opposite -- that you do know something -- because two negatives make a positive. We also received this message: "Hi, I'm listening on shortwave in a Hungarian forest (and) e-mailing from a mobilephone" this listener writes, "the Hungarian language has double negatives." Yes, and so do other languages. Even -- dare I say it. -- English. AA: That's right, there are some cases in English where it's not unthinkable to use a double negative. In fact, it's perfectly OK. Unlike "bad" double negatives, these "good" double negatives are a way to imply something without really saying it. RS: Confused? To help explain, we spoke to Claire Contraire, a noted "expert" on double negatives, played here by VOA's Barbara Klein. TAPE: CUT THREE -- "CLAIRE CONTRAIRE"/RS/AA CLAIRE: "My knowledge is by no means negligible." It's funny, in hardly no time, I've really internalized the concept." RS: "You've devoted your life to this subject." CLAIRE: "But of course that doesn't mean I don't have other interests. For example, cooking isn't something that turns me off." AA: "Do you have many friends?" CLAIRE: "Now, that isn't nice! No one has no friends." AA: I guess that's a yes. RS: Claire Contraire says double negatives have a positive use in social discourse. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- "CLAIRE CONTRAIRE"/AA/RS CLAIRE: "One would never say you should never use a double negative." AA: "So never say never." CLAIRE: "And never say never use a double negative, because sometimes it's useful. For example, that shirt you have on. It's not unbecoming." AA: "Thank you. Why would a person want to use the double negative." CLAIRE: "Well, for example, the comment about your shirt. If I don't want you to think that I'm flirting with you or going too far -- I just want to let you know that it's a nice shirt by saying, 'that shirt isn't unbecoming.' Or if I were lying ... " RS: "Not entirely telling the truth." AA: "If you asked me how I liked your book and I said, 'well, it was not bad, it was not uninteresting,' wouldn't you rather I say it was wonderful, it was great -- or that this shirt is a beautiful color instead of 'it's not unbecoming'?" CLAIRE: "I would rather it, but I would also think that you're sending me a signal that maybe you don't think the book is all that great. I mean, that's how we use the language." RS: You know, Avi, Claire Contraire wasn't as negative as I thought she'd be. AA: Yes, but why didn't she just come out and say she hated my aubergine shirt! RS: On Wednesday, President Clinton's new press secretary, Joe Lockhart, used a double negative in referring to the Middle East summit in Maryland. He told reporters at a briefing, quote: "We wouldn't still be at this if we didn't believe that both sides were serious about reaching an agreement." AA: So why not accentuate the positive? Well, the language of diplomacy is nothing if not subtle. RS: Next week we'll look at a language that's not at all subtle anymore, and that's the language of American politics -- to set the stage for the November third elections in the US. AA: We hope you'll vote for sending us more questions. You'll receive a VOA souvenir if we read your question on the air. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-22-1.cfm
* Headline: October 18, 1998 - Baseball Terms
* Byline: 

 INTRO: With the 93rd Major League baseball World Series underway this weekend at Yankee Stadium in New York, Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti step 'up to the plate' to explore the language of baseball. MUSIC: "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" AA: 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' has become the national anthem of baseball and the song that puts us on the playing field, so to speak, as we watch the New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres play in the World Series. And 'right off the bat' we've got to thank baseball for enriching American English. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble. We learned from Maggie Sokolik, a linguist and baseball fan at the University of California at Berkeley, that some 25-hundred baseball idioms have worked their way into American English. TAPE: CUT ONE -- MAGGIE SOKOLIK/AA/RS MAGGIE SOKOLIK: "The idea of a 'raincheck' started in baseball and now we have it for shopping and all kinds of terminology. Someone who is 'out of left field' or is a 'screwball,' up at bat or 'off base.' 'on deck is going to be next in the 'lineup.'" AA: "In fact we are both 'southpaws' here, and I didn't realize until I read your paper that the term for left handedness comes from baseball. Can you explain that?" MAGGIE SOKOLIK: "Yeah, it actually comes from the orientation of the (baseball) diamond. I believe (it was) in Yankee Stadium where the left hand of the pitcher actually faced south. So, a left handed pitcher became know as a 'southpaw,' and it got generalized to the whole population as left handed people became 'southpaws.'" RS: "How do you account for the fact that this vocabulary goes well beyond the sport? We have the essential (baseball words like) ball and bat and pitch and base and field and strike and hit. How do you account for the fact that these go well beyond the sport and have to do with every aspect of our lives?" MAGGIE SOKOLIK: "Well, many of the important things in our lives get translated into metaphors. We see things as other things. And so baseball has become a really important metaphor because of its cultural place in our history. And so when we think of life as being like a game, we think of the baseball terminology that goes along with the gamesman-like attitude. When we think of life as being a series of sequences, we concentrate on the time aspect, then we think about who is 'up next' and who is 'on deck,' and who is 'at bat.' And so these metaphors serve to help us organize the way we see the world, and because baseball has been so important in our cultural history it provides a really interesting metaphor, a different way, a more interesting way than just saying that this person is 'going to speak next,' or it is 'his turn next' and provides color interest and indeed the really important cultural aspect what makes American English unique." AA: "Is it possible for an American to go through a full day without using at least one baseball metaphor either knowingly or unknowingly?" MAGGIE SOKOLIK: "It would be a very interesting experiment to find, but I would be surprised if someone made it through an entire day of speaking under normal circumstances and didn't use at least one baseball metaphor." AA: Maggie Sokolik of the University of California at Berkeley says don't worry if you don't know a thing about baseball. You can figure out what a lot of its idioms mean through the context of what's being said. RS: We hope that we haven't 'thrown to many curves' in your direction today. Next week we take a look into the Wordmaster mailbag and read some of your letters. Remember, we'll send a VOA souvenir to every listener whose letter we read on the air. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-23-1.cfm
* Headline: October 4, 1998 - Slangman: Business Terms
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week we're back to business with Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble, as they look at more words from the financial world. MUSIC: "Daddy Made the Dollars (Mamma Made the Sense)" AA: Daddy made the dollars, but mamma made the sense -- some country music that's right on the money for our subject today. I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And, I'm Rosanne Skirble, and today we're going to make sense of some more words used on Wall Street -- the vocabulary if not the economics of the stock market these days. AA: There's a lot of color in the language of business and finance. For instance, if your checkbook is "in the red," that means you have a negative balance. Not good. Or if a business is in the red that means it's losing money. We also hear expressions like in the black, big blue and blue chip. RS: We asked David Burke for help in sorting out these economic terms. Mr. Burke is the author of "Biz Talk," a book for students of English as a foreign language, published by Caslon Books in Los Angeles. TAPE: CUT ONE -- DAVID BURKE "You want to be 'in the black.' That's a very good thing, because long ago, ledgers that accountants would use would have two different columns. In the black column, if you wrote something, that was good, that meant you were making money. But if you had to write something in the red column ... " AA: That's not so good. TAPE: CUT TWO -- DAVID BURKE/AA/RS BURKE: "The 'blue chip,' that's actually from poker. The best chip you can get is the blue chip. 'Blue chip indicator,' we hear that a lot. That simply means it's one of the most expensive stocks you can buy. And 'big blue' -- that is IBM, because originally the IBM logo was blue. So it became known as big blue." AA: "Speaking of ledgers, I guess that's also where the term 'bottom line' came from." BURKE: 'That's right. In fact, that's interest how a lot of finance slang like 'bottom line' is used in everyday speech. You'll have something who's not in finance say, 'OK, give me the bottom line,' or they've made it into a verb: 'bottom-line me.'" RS: "We have a mystery question for you. Not necessarily a mystery guest, but a mystery question -- who is Dow Jones?" BURKE: "That's so funny. Who is this Dow Jones person?" RS: Well, it turned out we stumped David Burke, author of "Biz Talk." But it was kind of a trick question! AA: Dow Jones -- as in the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- is actually two people. Charles Dow was a reporter. He and Edward Jones began Dow Jones and Company in 1882 to provide business news. Later, they began publishing the Wall Street Journal. RS: Looking at the New York Stock Exchange, Charles Dow decided that the change in value of a group of stocks would represent the general level of prices. Thus was born the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It's a daily measure of the average value of stocks from thirty major American industrial companies. And that list changes from time to time. On the first day it was published in 1896 the Dow closed at just forty-one points. AA: These days we're hearing a lot about another market -- the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations System. Better known as Nasdaq. The Nasdaq is a composite index of mostly high-tech and biotechnology stocks. And while the Nasdaq is based in Washington, it's an electronic market -- there's no big, noisy trading floor. RS: Finally, if you ever hear of the S-and-P 500, and wonder what that is, it's the Standard and Poor's broad index of 500 stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Standard and Poor's is a big investment information company. MUSIC: "Fistful of Dollars" AA: Now that we've solved those mysteries, let us know what problems you'd like us to uncover about American English. RS: And if we use your letter on the air, we'll send you a VOA souvenir. We leave you with another song that ties in with our subject. It's the theme from that old Clint Eastwood movie "a Fistful of Dollars." AA: Which of course is what everyone who plays the stock market hopes to end up with! Until next week, with Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-24-1.cfm
* Headline: August 13, 2000 - New Words in Dictionary
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA Wordmaster Rosanne Skirble talks with a dictionary editor about new words. RS: Dictionary makers publish college editions each year. College dictionaries are defined by the number of words they contain - 200,000 compared to an unabridged dictionary that defines more than 300,000 words. Random House in New York started the college dictionary trend back in 1947. Editorial Reference Director Wendolyn Nichols has the final say about what goes into the Random House Webster's College Dictionary. The 2000 edition released last month includes 303 new words and, she says, is a snapshot of contemporary life. TAPE CUT ONE: WENDOLYN NICHOLS/RS WENDOLYN NICHOLS: "We tend to track things for three or four years. We watch to see when something becomes widespread in use, when it moves out of simply teenage slang or simply technical jargon and moves into broader use by the general population and finding it in lots of different kind of media." RS: "Let's talk about the words that came into the dictionary, not to our language, this year. What are the ones that you see are not ephemeral and may have some staying power?" WENDOLYN NICHOLS: "I think that the word dot- com as a noun is going to have staying power for as long as those types of businesses exist, which are businesses that operate mainly on the web. The word "dot-com" as in `I'm going to go work for a `dot-com' and hopefully they will have an I-P-O (Initial Public Stock Offering) and I'll earn a lot of money,' has become so common a word that we don't even register it almost as being new." RS: "In addition to `dot-com' you have a host of other computer words. What does that say about the kind of words that are coming into the dictionary?" WENDOLYN NICHOLS: "We certainly have noticed that over the last decade the proportion of words coming from technology has certainly shifted. I would say, two-thirds are coming from technology, and it isn't just something that (computer technicians) use, this is stuff that people use in their lives as everyone is going on-line. RS: Some other first-time high-tech listings include "Webmaster," the person who designs or maintains an Internet website; "e-tailing" the selling of goods or services on the Internet or through e-mail; and "keypal," the e-mail version of a pen pal. Wendolyn Nichols says Random House Webster's College Dictionary also adds new definitions to standard words, like "candy." TAPE CUT TWO: WENDOLYN NICHOLS/RS WENDOLYN NICHOLS: "And, that is just something pleasing to look at. So you can have 'arm candy,' which is a great looking date that you walk into a party with, or you can have `eye candy' which is something really pleasant to look at. And, the implication is that it is something that will occupy your time, but it doesn't necessarily have a lot of substance (there)." RS: Now, can `arm candy' be either male or female?" WENDOLYN NICHOLS: "Yes, it can." RS: But, if you're looking for something with nutritional substance, check out the new dictionary entry for "energy-bar," defined as "a high-protein food resembling a candy bar." And, then there's the Spanish-sounding `fashionista' to describe someone who is fashion conscious or in the business of fashion. TAPE CUT THREE: WENDOLYN NICHOLS/RS WENDOLYN NICHOLS: "Fashion itself is not a Spanish word. And, you've got a Spanish suffix tacked on to fashion, but that's just Spanish influence on English where we will put suffixes from Spanish on to English words and not even really recognize that they are from Spanish." RS: Wendolyn Nichols says the annual updates of Random House Webster's College Dictionary are a reflection of our rapidly evolving language and culture. She says, while new words are added every year, fewer are taken out. One exception was the dance craze called the "Macarena." Random House Webster's College Dictionary listed the word in 1997 and eliminated it a year later. So, put on your dancing shoes as we listen to the "Macarena," sung by the Spanish duo Los Del Rio. Avi Arditti will be back next week. I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Macarena" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-25-1.cfm
* Headline: July 16, 2000 - Grammar Lady: Asking Questions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Today on Wordmaster, Grammar Lady joins Avi Arditti to explain a few tricks about asking questions in English. AA: To turn a statement into a question, usually all you have to do is invert the subject and the verb. Before Rosanne went on vacation we spoke with "Grammar Lady" Mary Newton Bruder who gave some examples. TAPE: CUT 1 - BRUDER "So you have a sentence like, `You are a teacher.' `Are you a teacher?' You just turn around the subject and the verb and you've got a question. `He will go tomorrow.' `Will he go tomorrow?' `They will go to Paris.' `Have they been to Paris.' So generally question formation in English is very, very easy and students don't have a problem with it...' AA: But when it comes to learning English grammar, there seems to always be an exception. TAPE: CUT 2 - BRUDER/RS "However, in the simple present tense and the simple past tense of most verbs, we have this little difficulty. So if you say, `He walks to school.' If you want to make that into a question, you have to say, `Does he walk to school.' And the first time the students encounter that, they think, `My good heavens, where did that "does" come from?'" RS: "Well, where does it come from?" BRUDER: "Well, it comes from the marker for the present tense. It's at the end of the verb. `He walks to school.' So now we have to use a marker that makes into the present: 'Does he walk to school?' And notice that walk, then, no longer has the `s,' but the present tense is indicated by the `does.'" AA: Now let's say "he" is already at school, and I want to know how he got there. I would ask, "Did he walk to school?" TAPE: CUT 3 - BRUDER "Same way with `you walked to school': `Did you walk to school?' The students finally get the idea that here's this crazy thing we've got to do this with, and they eventually get that OK." AA: Until they get to those tricky irregular verbs. Take the statement, "He goes home at 3 o'clock." "Does he go home at 3 o'clock?" OK, so there's nothing unusual about turning that into a question. But now let's say "he went home at 3 o'clock." How would you turn that into a question? The answer is, "Did he go home at 3 o'clock?" For people who don't know that the past tense of "go" is "went," that's a tough one. TAPE: CUT 4 -- AA/BRUDER AA: "I could see where you'd want to say, `Did he went home.' BRUDER: "That's exactly what they want to say, `Did he went home.' And in fact, when children are learning English as a native language they say things like, for years, they'll say, `Daddy went to work, Daddy went to work.' And then when they learn that this is some kind of rule, they say `Daddy goed to work' and `Did he went to work?'" RS: "You say, and we agree, that it is very difficult to learn, it's even difficult for a native speaker, for children, to learn, so how do we go about teaching it?" BRUDER: "This only happens, remember, in the simple present and past tense. But since they're two very useful tenses in English, it happens a lot. But you learn, first of all, by using the regular verbs, like in the pattern of `walk' that I did before. And once they learn those -- because that's really a matter of learning the structure of the past tense -- then you introduce the irregular ones bit by bit, and make the students see that it's exactly the same pattern but they have to learn what the variations are in the irregular verbs." AA: Mary Newton Bruder posts a lot of her grammar advice at her Web site: www.grammarlady.com. She's also written a book about grammar, called "Much Ado About a Lot." Rosanne Skirble is on vacation. Next week VOA's Adams Phillips will be here to talk about how Yiddish has influenced American speech. I'm Avi Arditti, leaving you with Charley Pride asking a musical question with that irregular verb we were discussing ... MUSIC: "Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger (When You Go Out at Night)"/Charlie Pride 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-26-1.cfm
* Headline: July 9, 2000 - Slangman: Business Animals
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week on Wordmaster, Avi Arditti meets some of the menagerie in the dog-eat-dog world of business. MUSIC: "Too Much Monkey Business"/Chuck Berry TEXT: When you hear of "monkey business," rarely are actual monkeys involved. "Monkey business" is slang for fun and games, but also for dishonesty. It's a jungle out there, all right, with enough animal-related business slang to fill a zoo. Rosanne Skirble is on vacation, taking a break from the rat race. Before she left, we spoke with Slangman, author David Burke in Los Angeles. We could have talked about bull markets, which go up, or bear markets, which go down. But we started by talking turkey. TAPE: CUT 1 - BURKE/SKIRBLE BURKE: "In business, the business of movies, if a movie is really bad, we might say `this is a real turkey.' That's a real common one in the entertainment business, to be a turkey, as opposed to `talking turkey' meaning let's talk about the subject we're focusing on right now and not get off the subject." RS: "The turkey isn't the only one that we use with business terms. Give us some other examples." BURKE: "Now somebody who arrives to work early, they're called `an early bird,' because there's an expression: `the early bird gets the worm' - that's actually a proverb - which means, the person who gets up early and starts his or her day first, gets the most accomplished. OK, and in business, let's say you're very - you've calculated your business day very carefully, you have all of your ducks in a row. That means you're very well organized. Somebody who's not organized would not be said to have his or her ducks in a row." AA: And if your employer finds out that you're disorganized, you're liable to get chewed out by the "top dog." TAPE: CUT 2 - BURKE/SKIRBLE BURKE: "A `top dog' is the person in control, the commander-in-chief, the boss. That's the top dog." AA: One of the traits that's likely to help a business person become top dog is the ability to "outfox" a competitor. TAPE: CUT 3 - BURKE BURKE: "A fox is considered clever and cunning, because when a fox is ready to get its victim, or prey, it's very clever about it, it will move slowly around the victim - the victim doesn't know it's there - then all of a sudden it jumps, it pounces. So we call that either to be `as sly as a fox' or to outfox somebody. That means to trick somebody." AA: Invoking the imagery of a fox might also be considered flattering -- only, make sure you know just what you're saying: TAPE: CUT 4 - BURKE BURKE: "Because if you were to say someone is foxy, it has two connotations actually." RS: "Sexy." BURKE: "Right, it can be sexy: `That person is foxy [fox-ee],' and you might even say it like that, stressing the `-ee" part. But if you were to say, `I'll tell you, these other clients are really foxy, you got to be careful.' And we also say `what a fox!' `What a fox' is always good, always sexy." AA: But let's say that fox turns out to be a rat: TAPE: CUT 5 -- BURKE "There are a lot of interesting expressions around rat that we use in business. To be a `dirty rat' means somebody who informed on you. `He ratted on me, he went to the boss and ratted on me because I arrived 10 minutes late to work, what a rat." RS: "What about the expression `pouring money down a rat hole?" BURKE: "I'm glad you asked that one, Rosanne. Anything that goes into a rat hole is lost forever. You're never going to see it, because rats are known as these eating monsters. So in a business venture, if you invest your money in something that will never pay off, your partner may say to you, `You just threw your money down a rat hole, why did you do something so stupid?' - that means you'll never see that money again." AA: You might have fallen victim to a "shark" or a "snake" -- two other terms commonly used to describe unscrupulous business people. It's hard to think of any animal slang for virtuous business people. But let's say you mean well, and try to engage your boss in some friendly conversation. You have to be careful what you say, lest you open up a "can of worms." TAPE: CUT 6 - BURKE "That is opening up a situation that you should not have started talking about because it's so embarrassing. For example, let's say you were to say, `I saw your wife yesterday and she was walking down the street with a gentleman. Is that your brother?' And maybe it's not his brother, it may be someone she's seeing on the side. So we would say, `Uh-oh, you just opened up a can of worms,' meaning you just opened up a topic that's very sensitive." AA: Of course, the boss's wife could just be a party animal ... If you're on the Internet, David Burke invites you to check out his "Slangman" books, at www.slangman.com. With this week's Wordmaster, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Talk to the Animals"/Sammy Davis Jr. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-27-1.cfm
* Headline: July 2, 2000 - OK
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble answer a question about one of the most widely used expressions in the world. AA: Listener Shahram Mohammadi in Tehran writes: "I want to know what O.K. stands for. Is it a Latin word? Where does it come from?" RS: For some answers, we asked Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Illinois, and executive secretary of the American Dialect Society. AA: Allan Metcalf says O.K. started out as a joke, what he called an "egregious misspelling" of the expression "all correct." TAPE: CUT ONE - METCALF "Now of course `all' is spelled with an A and `correct' is spelled with a C, but O.K. in the humor of 1839 - it must have been a slow summer in Boston, because in 1839, the Boston newspapers were full of humorous, or what they thought were humorous, abbreviations. They had OFM, Our First Men; SP, Small Potatoes; RTBS, Remains To Be Seen. And then among other things they put in O.K. They used O.K. now and then, `oll korrect,' and they thought that was really hilarious." RS: Most of those expressions used by Boston newspaper columnists faded away. But not OK. AA: The following year, 1840, President Martin Van Buren was running for re-election. Because he was born in Kinderhook, in New York State, Van Buren was known as "Old Kinderhook" - O.K. TAPE: CUT TWO - METCALF "His supporters formed an O.K. Club in New York City, and so there was a reinforcement for O.K., one meaning `oll korrect,' and the other meaning, `Old Kinderhook,' and that became a nationally prominent term. He lost the election -- but O.K. won." RS: And that, Allan Metcalf says, is the "true original story of O.K.," based on the research published in the 1960s by Allen Walker Reed of Columbia University, regarded as the expert on O.K. AA: So, in other words, forget all those competing claims you might hear about the roots of O.K. TAPE: CUT THREE - METCALF "Because it's such a successful expression, practically every ethnic and other group in the country has claimed it as their origin. So the Scots think it's an `och aye,' and President Woodrow Wilson thought it was a Choctaw [Indian]`okeh.'" AA: In fact, Allan Metcalf at the American Dialect Society says almost every continent has tried to lay claim to O.K. TAPE: CUT FOUR - METCALF "It's by far the most successful American linguistic export. There's something about it, maybe it's got the right sounds that every language has, it's short and to the point, and I think it conveys the American spirit." RS: As he sees it, O.K. conveys the attitude "that'll do" or "that'll work." TAPE: CUT FIVE - METCALF "One of the interesting things about O.K., though, is that it still, although everyone knows it, it isn't something that you generally would use in formal speaking or formal writing. I teach freshman composition, among other things, and I can't even recall a student attempting to use O.K. in writing. That just doesn't seem to be the thing that you do. The written form where you see it will be where it's representations of speech, in a novel or something else, you'll see somebody saying `O.K. this' or `O.K. that.'" AA: Allan Metcalf says the most ubiquitous use of O.K. these days is on computer screens. Lots of computer prompts require the user to click on "O.K." to make something happen. RS: Which raises the question: Just how should O.K. be written? The answer is: However you'd like. TAPE: CUT SIX - METCALF "Whether it is two capital letters without periods, two capital letters with periods, o- k-a-y, or small letters with periods -- and then even the question is it a noun, verb, interjection, is it a complete sentence, or is it part of another sentence - it goes beyond the boundaries of any single grammatical category to encompass a huge range of speaking." AA: That's pretty amazing for a word that Allan Metcalf says all but disappeared from common use during the latter half of the 1800s. TAPE: CUT SEVEN - METCALF "Starting around the year 1900 everyone starts using it, but after 1840 it just appears rarely and in isolated places, and you would think, for example, Mark Twain, that master of dialect, would have used O.K. There's not a single O.K. in all of his writing." RS: We can't talk about O.K. without mentioning one of the most famous events of the Old West: the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. We were curious how that horse corral in Tombstone, Arizona, got its name. AA: We found out that the original owner, John Montgomery, liked the sound of the O.K. -- or "Old Kinderhook" -- Club for Martin Van Buren in New York City, so he took the name. And, one of the employees of the O.K. Corral told us that if we'd like any more information, we'd have to call back after the gunfight... RS: That's right, the gunfight. Today the O.K. Corral it a big tourist draw, with its daily re-enactments of the famous shootout - only today the shooters all come out O.K. in the end. AA: That's all for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 13, 2002: Yabby and Space Place
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a special place on the Internet communications system that helps young children learn about the exploration of space. And we tell about copying nature to help design devices that may help explore the planet Mars. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Researchers are studying a small Australian shellfish to help them build devices that could explore the surface of the planet Mars. Australian scientists at the University of Melbourne are studying a small shellfish called a yabby. The yabby is a small salt-water creature that looks like a crab. David Macmillan is a professor of zoology at the University of Melbourne. He says the yabby can do many different tasks although it has a very limited amount of intelligence. Researchers are studying the Yabby to see if they can make a device similar to it that can also perform difficult tasks. Mister Macmillan says this kind of research is called biomimetics. Biomimetics is the science of using successful designs found in nature and reproducing them as machines. Mister Macmillan says biomimetics is a quickly expanding part of scientific research. The kind of machines he is planning to build are called robots. VOICE TWO: Mister Macmillan says many small creatures like the yabby are able to make many of the same decisions that humans make. Yet they are not as intelligent as humans. For example, they search for and find food. They can choose a mate so they can produce young. They can also look for and find an area to make a home or nest. Mister Macmillan says humans make these same decisions using millions and millions of brain cells. Yet extremely small creatures like the Australian yabby shellfish make the same decisions using just thousands of brain cells. VOICE ONE: Mister Macmillan says the computer industry is now able to make powerful computers that are very small. These small computers can be placed in small machines that could do useful work. A powerful computer can act like a brain. So robots can be created to make decisions, similar to the simple decisions made by a yabby. Mister Macmillan says a good example would be a robot that could be designed to look for water. Another could be designed to search for minerals or chemicals. These robots could also be designed so they could move across difficult areas of land and climb small hills. Their small computers could also be able to link together to perform work or to help each other complete a task. The little robots would be able to perform tasks that would be too dangerous for people. VOICE TWO: Researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration say they want to expand their use of this kind of small robot. The NASA researchers say some robots can already do this kind of work. But these robots are much too large and weigh too much to be taken into space. Researchers say they hope to see many of the small robots that have the intelligence that Yabbies have exploring Mars in the near future. They could provide information that will increase the chances of human exploration of the Red-Planet. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen Ninety-Eight, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched a very special and exciting space vehicle. Yet, it did not travel into space. This vehicle traveled in the computer Internet communications system. It is a Web site on the Internet called Space Place. The Space Place Web site is a joint effort by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the California Institute of Technology and the International Technology Education Association. It was designed as a tool for teachers to help young children learn about space technology. VOICE TWO: Space Place is meant for school children between the ages of eight and thirteen. However, it can really be enjoyed by anyone who wants to learn about many different space sciences. Among the subjects are space technology, Earth sciences and space sciences. Space Place includes about forty activities that help children learn about these subjects. It includes games that help teach about space. Areas within the web site teach facts about the many different sciences used in space exploration. Other areas offer plans to help teachers present many of these subjects to their students. VOICE ONE: Recently, the federal government counted the number of people living in the United States. This count takes place every ten years. It is called a census. Information collected in the latest census showed that Spanish is the first language for more than twenty-seven-million people in the United States. Almost thirteen-million speakers of Spanish do not speak English very well. This number includes many children. NASA officials decided that these Americans could use a Spanish language version of Space Place. It was launched last month. It is almost an exact copy of the English language Space Place. VOICE TWO: The information and activities at the Space Place web site are developed by workers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Much of their work has been published in past copies of “The Technology Teacher,” the magazine of the International Technology Education Association. Teachers say that most of the information on Space Place is for young children. Yet much of it can be useful to older children in high school. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: When you open the Space Place Web site, you will see a large screen with several drawings. Each drawing opens a link to another part of Space Place. Doctor Marc’s Amazing Facts is only one of the many areas in this web site that you can visit. If you open Doctor Marc’s Amazing Facts, you will find it links to twelve different questions. One of the links is called, “How Good is the Amazing Hubble Space Telescope?” The answer is: “If you could see as well as the camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, you would be able to read the small print on a newspaper from one and a half kilometers away.” The answer may be simple, but it clearly describes how powerful the Hubble Space Telescope really is. This area of Space Place also has a computer link to some of the beautiful color pictures produced by the space telescope. Doctor Marc’s Amazing Facts also answers the question about how satellites remain in the same position in the sky. The answer used the example of the GOES weather satellites. The job of a GOES is to study the weather over North America. The satellite orbits over the center of Earth at the equator and make one orbit a day. Since the Earth turns once a day, the weather satellite is moving at the same rate as the Earth and appears to stay in the same place in the sky all the time. VOICE TWO: Another area in Space Place is called Space Science In Action. There, you can learn about many different sciences. One is called, “The Infrared Photo Album.” This area shows many photographs including those of birds, a young boy, an alligator and a camel. You can look at these photographs as you normally would. You can also change the image to an infrared photograph. Light is a form of energy. The human eye can see only some of this energy. Infrared photography permits us to see light energy the human eye can not see. Infrared photography is extremely valuable in space because it permits researchers to see space objects the human eye can not see. VOICE ONE: You can visit NASA’s Space Place if you have a computer and are able to link with the World Wide Web. Space Place provides valuable information in simple English that is easy to understand. And it provides the same information in Spanish. You can find Space Place by having your computer look for the words “Space Place.” Enter it as one word: s-p-a-c-e-p-l-a-c-e. Or you can enter the address. It is: w-w-w dot s-p-a-c-e-p-l-a-c-e dot n—a-s-a dot g-o-v. You can find the link to the Spanish language version of Space Place near the top of the opening page. Have Fun! ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – February 13, 2002: Oral Health Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A new report examines the problem of tooth and gum disease in the United States. It found that many Americans are not doing enough to care for their teeth. The report says the biggest problems are the lack of dental health care for all Americans and the lack of services to prevent disease. A group called Oral Health America in Chicago, Illinois, released the findings. It used information from recent government studies to prepare the report. The group’s leader says the report shows the nation needs to be more concerned about the oral health of its citizens. One major problem is tooth decay. Bacteria in the mouth act on sugars that remain on the teeth after eating. This action creates acid that damages the tooth. The damage appears as a hole in the tooth called a cavity. The part of the tooth that has been destroyed by the acid is called tooth decay. There are many reasons for diseases of the teeth and gums. The report says many areas in the United States fail to add enough fluoride to public drinking water. It notes that ten states failed to provide fluoridated water for at least fifty percent of their population. Fluoride is an element found in rocks and minerals. Drinking fluoridated water is one of the best ways to prevent tooth decay. The report shows that many Americans do not have their teeth examined by a dentist or trained expert. In most states, one-third or more of the citizens failed to visit a dentist at least once last year. In addition, a person’s earnings seemed to have a major effect on the services received. Poor people are less likely to visit a dentist. More than one-hundred-million American adults and children do not have insurance to help pay for treatment by a dentist. One area of progress is increased public understanding of oral health issues. The report notes that several states now employ dental health directors. Oral Health America says the increased understanding is partly a result of American Surgeon General David Satcher. Two years ago, he released a report on the importance of oral health. His report noted that more than thirty-thousand Americans develop cancers in the mouth or throat every year. It also found that tooth decay is the most common disease among American children. Fifty percent of all six-year-old children already have tooth decay. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A new report examines the problem of tooth and gum disease in the United States. It found that many Americans are not doing enough to care for their teeth. The report says the biggest problems are the lack of dental health care for all Americans and the lack of services to prevent disease. A group called Oral Health America in Chicago, Illinois, released the findings. It used information from recent government studies to prepare the report. The group’s leader says the report shows the nation needs to be more concerned about the oral health of its citizens. One major problem is tooth decay. Bacteria in the mouth act on sugars that remain on the teeth after eating. This action creates acid that damages the tooth. The damage appears as a hole in the tooth called a cavity. The part of the tooth that has been destroyed by the acid is called tooth decay. There are many reasons for diseases of the teeth and gums. The report says many areas in the United States fail to add enough fluoride to public drinking water. It notes that ten states failed to provide fluoridated water for at least fifty percent of their population. Fluoride is an element found in rocks and minerals. Drinking fluoridated water is one of the best ways to prevent tooth decay. The report shows that many Americans do not have their teeth examined by a dentist or trained expert. In most states, one-third or more of the citizens failed to visit a dentist at least once last year. In addition, a person’s earnings seemed to have a major effect on the services received. Poor people are less likely to visit a dentist. More than one-hundred-million American adults and children do not have insurance to help pay for treatment by a dentist. One area of progress is increased public understanding of oral health issues. The report notes that several states now employ dental health directors. Oral Health America says the increased understanding is partly a result of American Surgeon General David Satcher. Two years ago, he released a report on the importance of oral health. His report noted that more than thirty-thousand Americans develop cancers in the mouth or throat every year. It also found that tooth decay is the most common disease among American children. Fifty percent of all six-year-old children already have tooth decay. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - February 14, 2002: Inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Americans voted for Democratic candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt in large numbers in the presidential election of nineteen-thirty-two. They were tired of the policies of Republican President Herbert Hoover. They thought Hoover had done too little to fight the terrible economic depression. And they welcomed Roosevelt's call that the federal government should become more active in helping the common man. The election brought hope to many Americans in the autumn of nineteen-thirty-two. VOICE 2: But Roosevelt did not become president until March nineteen-thirty-three, four months after the election. And those months saw the American economy fall to its lowest level in the history of the nation. President Hoover tried to arrange a world economic conference. And he called on President-elect Roosevelt to join him in making conservative statements in support of business. Roosevelt refused. He did not think it was correct to begin acting like a president until he actually became the head of government. He did not want to tie himself to policies that the voters had just rejected. Congress, controlled by Democrats, also refused to help Hoover. VOICE 1: It was a strange period, a season of uncertainty and anger. The economic depression was worse than ever. The lines of people waiting for food were longer than before. Angry mobs of farmers were gathering in the countryside. And the politicians in Washington seemed unable to work together to end the crisis. Hoover said: "We are at the end of our rope. There is nothing more we can do." And across the country, Americans waited -- worried, uncertain, afraid. What would the new president do? VOICE 2: The new president was fifty-one years old. His family name was well-known to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt -- a distant family member -- had served as one of America's greatest presidents thirty years before. Franklin Roosevelt was born to a rich and important New York family. He went to the best schools: Groton, Harvard, and Columbia Law School. In nineteen-ten, he won election as a Democrat to the New York State Legislature. He showed great intelligence and political understanding as a state senator, and worked hard for other Democratic candidates. Franklin Roosevelt next served as assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. And in nineteen-twenty, he was the Democratic Party's unsuccessful candidate for vice president. VOICE 1: The next year, Roosevelt suffered a personal tragedy. He was sailing during a holiday with his family. Suddenly, his body became cold. He felt severe pain in his back and legs. Doctors came. But the pain got worse. For weeks, Roosevelt was forced to lie on his back. Finally, doctors discovered that Roosevelt was a victim of the terrible disease poliomyelitis. He lost control of his legs. He would never walk again. Roosevelt had always been an active man who loved sports. But now he would have to live in a wheelchair. All of his money and fame could not get him back the strength in his legs. VOICE 2: Many Americans thought the illness would end Roosevelt's political dreams. But they were wrong. He showed an inner strength that people had never seen in him before. Roosevelt ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of New York state in nineteen-twenty-eight. He won by a small number of votes. Two years later, the voters of New York re-elected Roosevelt. And they cheered his creative efforts to help citizens of the state who were suffering from the great depression. VOICE 1: Franklin Roosevelt always appeared strong and friendly in public. He loved to laugh and enjoy life. But his happy face hid a strong will. Throughout his life, Roosevelt worked to improve life for the common man. And he was willing to use the power of government to do this. He thought the government had the power and responsibility to improve the life of its citizens. VOICE 2: Roosevelt believed deeply in this. But he was less certain about the best way to do it. He believed in action and was willing to experiment with different methods. "The country demands creative experimentation," he said in his presidential campaign of nineteen-thirty-two. "Above All, we must try something." Citizens across the country voted for Roosevelt in large numbers in nineteen-thirty-two. They supported his calls for action to end the depression. But no one was really sure just what this new president from New York -- this man unable to walk -- would really do after he entered the white house. VOICE 1: Inauguration day in nineteen-thirty-three began with clouds and a dark sky. Roosevelt went to church in the morning. And then he drove with president Hoover from the White House to the Capitol. Roosevelt tried to talk with Hoover as they drove. But Hoover said little. He just waved without emotion at the crowd. The two men arrived at the Capitol building. A huge crowd of people waited. Millions more Americans listened to a radio broadcast of the ceremony. The chief justice, Charles Evans Hughes, gave the oath of office to Roosevelt. And then the nation waited to hear what the new president would say. This is what he said: VOICE 2: "I am sure that my fellow Americans expect me to speak openly and honestly about the present situation of our nation. This is a time to speak the truth, the whole truth. This great nation will survive, as it has survived. It will recover and become rich again. "So first of all, let me tell you that I believe that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. It is this nameless fear which blocks our efforts to move forward. In every dark hour of our nation's history, the people have given their support to honest, active leadership. I firmly believe that you will offer that support now, in these important days. " VOICE 1: Roosevelt's words caught the emotions of the crowd. He seemed sure of himself. He promised leadership. His whole style was different from the empty promises of wealth offered earlier by President Hoover. Roosevelt said that the most important need was to put people back to work. And he said the federal government would have to take an active part in creating jobs. Roosevelt said there were many ways to help the nation recover. But he said it would never be helped just by talking about it. "we must act," he said, "and act quickly. " VOICE 2: Roosevelt's face was strong and serious. He told the crowd that all the necessary action was possible under the American system of government. But he warned that the Congress must cooperate with him to get the nation moving again. Then, his speech finished, Roosevelt waved to the crowd and smiled. Herbert Hoover shook his hand and left. Roosevelt rode alone through the huge crowds back to the White House. And he immediately began a series of conferences. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's inauguration speech of nineteen-thirty-three was one of the most powerful and important speeches in American history. Roosevelt's speech was like an ocean wave that washes away one period of history and brings in a new one. The president seemed strong. He gave people hope. The new president promised the American people action. And action came quickly. During the next three months, Roosevelt and the Democrats would pass more major new programs than the nation had seen for many years. We will look at this beginning of the Roosevelt administration in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and George Mishler. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) Americans voted for Democratic candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt in large numbers in the presidential election of nineteen-thirty-two. They were tired of the policies of Republican President Herbert Hoover. They thought Hoover had done too little to fight the terrible economic depression. And they welcomed Roosevelt's call that the federal government should become more active in helping the common man. The election brought hope to many Americans in the autumn of nineteen-thirty-two. VOICE 2: But Roosevelt did not become president until March nineteen-thirty-three, four months after the election. And those months saw the American economy fall to its lowest level in the history of the nation. President Hoover tried to arrange a world economic conference. And he called on President-elect Roosevelt to join him in making conservative statements in support of business. Roosevelt refused. He did not think it was correct to begin acting like a president until he actually became the head of government. He did not want to tie himself to policies that the voters had just rejected. Congress, controlled by Democrats, also refused to help Hoover. VOICE 1: It was a strange period, a season of uncertainty and anger. The economic depression was worse than ever. The lines of people waiting for food were longer than before. Angry mobs of farmers were gathering in the countryside. And the politicians in Washington seemed unable to work together to end the crisis. Hoover said: "We are at the end of our rope. There is nothing more we can do." And across the country, Americans waited -- worried, uncertain, afraid. What would the new president do? VOICE 2: The new president was fifty-one years old. His family name was well-known to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt -- a distant family member -- had served as one of America's greatest presidents thirty years before. Franklin Roosevelt was born to a rich and important New York family. He went to the best schools: Groton, Harvard, and Columbia Law School. In nineteen-ten, he won election as a Democrat to the New York State Legislature. He showed great intelligence and political understanding as a state senator, and worked hard for other Democratic candidates. Franklin Roosevelt next served as assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. And in nineteen-twenty, he was the Democratic Party's unsuccessful candidate for vice president. VOICE 1: The next year, Roosevelt suffered a personal tragedy. He was sailing during a holiday with his family. Suddenly, his body became cold. He felt severe pain in his back and legs. Doctors came. But the pain got worse. For weeks, Roosevelt was forced to lie on his back. Finally, doctors discovered that Roosevelt was a victim of the terrible disease poliomyelitis. He lost control of his legs. He would never walk again. Roosevelt had always been an active man who loved sports. But now he would have to live in a wheelchair. All of his money and fame could not get him back the strength in his legs. VOICE 2: Many Americans thought the illness would end Roosevelt's political dreams. But they were wrong. He showed an inner strength that people had never seen in him before. Roosevelt ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of New York state in nineteen-twenty-eight. He won by a small number of votes. Two years later, the voters of New York re-elected Roosevelt. And they cheered his creative efforts to help citizens of the state who were suffering from the great depression. VOICE 1: Franklin Roosevelt always appeared strong and friendly in public. He loved to laugh and enjoy life. But his happy face hid a strong will. Throughout his life, Roosevelt worked to improve life for the common man. And he was willing to use the power of government to do this. He thought the government had the power and responsibility to improve the life of its citizens. VOICE 2: Roosevelt believed deeply in this. But he was less certain about the best way to do it. He believed in action and was willing to experiment with different methods. "The country demands creative experimentation," he said in his presidential campaign of nineteen-thirty-two. "Above All, we must try something." Citizens across the country voted for Roosevelt in large numbers in nineteen-thirty-two. They supported his calls for action to end the depression. But no one was really sure just what this new president from New York -- this man unable to walk -- would really do after he entered the white house. VOICE 1: Inauguration day in nineteen-thirty-three began with clouds and a dark sky. Roosevelt went to church in the morning. And then he drove with president Hoover from the White House to the Capitol. Roosevelt tried to talk with Hoover as they drove. But Hoover said little. He just waved without emotion at the crowd. The two men arrived at the Capitol building. A huge crowd of people waited. Millions more Americans listened to a radio broadcast of the ceremony. The chief justice, Charles Evans Hughes, gave the oath of office to Roosevelt. And then the nation waited to hear what the new president would say. This is what he said: VOICE 2: "I am sure that my fellow Americans expect me to speak openly and honestly about the present situation of our nation. This is a time to speak the truth, the whole truth. This great nation will survive, as it has survived. It will recover and become rich again. "So first of all, let me tell you that I believe that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. It is this nameless fear which blocks our efforts to move forward. In every dark hour of our nation's history, the people have given their support to honest, active leadership. I firmly believe that you will offer that support now, in these important days. " VOICE 1: Roosevelt's words caught the emotions of the crowd. He seemed sure of himself. He promised leadership. His whole style was different from the empty promises of wealth offered earlier by President Hoover. Roosevelt said that the most important need was to put people back to work. And he said the federal government would have to take an active part in creating jobs. Roosevelt said there were many ways to help the nation recover. But he said it would never be helped just by talking about it. "we must act," he said, "and act quickly. " VOICE 2: Roosevelt's face was strong and serious. He told the crowd that all the necessary action was possible under the American system of government. But he warned that the Congress must cooperate with him to get the nation moving again. Then, his speech finished, Roosevelt waved to the crowd and smiled. Herbert Hoover shook his hand and left. Roosevelt rode alone through the huge crowds back to the White House. And he immediately began a series of conferences. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's inauguration speech of nineteen-thirty-three was one of the most powerful and important speeches in American history. Roosevelt's speech was like an ocean wave that washes away one period of history and brings in a new one. The president seemed strong. He gave people hope. The new president promised the American people action. And action came quickly. During the next three months, Roosevelt and the Democrats would pass more major new programs than the nation had seen for many years. We will look at this beginning of the Roosevelt administration in our next program. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and George Mishler. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-12-4-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – February 14, 2002: King Midas
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. An American archeologist has a new theory about an ancient statue found in Greece. Keith DeVries of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia says the statue may have once belonged to King Midas. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. An American archeologist has a new theory about an ancient statue found in Greece. Keith DeVries of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia says the statue may have once belonged to King Midas. He believes the statue may have once been part of the special chair used by the king, called a throne. He says ancient records and other evidence show the statue came from a throne that Midas is believed to have given as a gift to the Greek god Apollo. The small statue is known as “The Lion Tamer.” It shows a man and a lion. It is about twenty-three centimeters tall. It is made of ivory, from the tusk of an elephant. It was discovered in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine in Delphi, Greece. It had been buried with other objects near the ruins of the Corinthian Treasury building. King Midas ruled an ancient country called Phrygia in what is now central Turkey. He lived about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. King Midas was said to be extremely rich. Stories said he could change anything he touched into gold. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed to have seen King Midas’s throne in the Corinthian treasury at Delphi three-hundred years after the king died. The throne itself has not been found. The statue has cuttings in its back. This suggests it was once attached to something, possibly a chair. “The Lion Tamer” statue is in a museum in Delphi, Greece. For years, experts have debated the statue’s history. Many experts thought it came from Greece. However, others thought it came from somewhere else. Mister DeVries says the discovery of similar ivory statues in Turkey adds support to his argument that the statue is Phrygian. Those objects were recovered from burial areas at the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordion and at Elmali. Scientists used a process known as radiocarbon dating to confirm that the statues date to the time of King Midas. Radiocarbon dating shows the level of a radioactive form of carbon in a substance. This can tell scientists when an object was made. Mister DeVries works for the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. He reported his research at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Philadelphia. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. He believes the statue may have once been part of the special chair used by the king, called a throne. He says ancient records and other evidence show the statue came from a throne that Midas is believed to have given as a gift to the Greek god Apollo. The small statue is known as “The Lion Tamer.” It shows a man and a lion. It is about twenty-three centimeters tall. It is made of ivory, from the tusk of an elephant. It was discovered in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine in Delphi, Greece. It had been buried with other objects near the ruins of the Corinthian Treasury building. King Midas ruled an ancient country called Phrygia in what is now central Turkey. He lived about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. King Midas was said to be extremely rich. Stories said he could change anything he touched into gold. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed to have seen King Midas’s throne in the Corinthian treasury at Delphi three-hundred years after the king died. The throne itself has not been found. The statue has cuttings in its back. This suggests it was once attached to something, possibly a chair. “The Lion Tamer” statue is in a museum in Delphi, Greece. For years, experts have debated the statue’s history. Many experts thought it came from Greece. However, others thought it came from somewhere else. Mister DeVries says the discovery of similar ivory statues in Turkey adds support to his argument that the statue is Phrygian. Those objects were recovered from burial areas at the ancient Phrygian capital of Gordion and at Elmali. Scientists used a process known as radiocarbon dating to confirm that the statues date to the time of King Midas. Radiocarbon dating shows the level of a radioactive form of carbon in a substance. This can tell scientists when an object was made. Mister DeVries works for the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. He reported his research at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Philadelphia. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 15, 2002: Olympic songs/question about Carnival in the US/a history of African American hairstyles
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs for the Olympic Games ... Answer a question about Carnival in the United States ... And report about a museum show for Black History Month. African American Hairstyle Exhibit HOST: A show about the history of African American hair is taking place at a museum near Washington, D.C. The expressive nature of African American hairstyles is celebrated through pictures, drawings and historical objects. Barbara Klein tells us about it. ANNCR: The exhibit is at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel, Maryland. It shows many different ways African Americans have worn their hair during different periods in history. In Africa, as in other parts of the world, hairstyles are linked to cultural identity. They show an individual’s group, age, sex, social position and profession. Traditional African hairstyles include braids and twists. Some of the more complex designs were produced with bones, shells or seeds. Well-kept hair was important in African societies. Hairstyling traditions of Africans greatly changed after they were brought to America as slaves. Long hours of work in the fields left blacks too tired to produce traditional hairstyles. So they developed new ways to wear their hair. Records show that slaves wore their hair in ways that established a link to their African past. After slavery ended, blacks began accepting European ideas of beauty as a way to gain social acceptance and to get jobs. However, attempts to straighten their curly hair were difficult and often dangerous. In the early Nineteen-Hundreds, Madam C.J. Walker developed a product called the hot comb which made it easier for blacks to straighten their hair. Her efforts made her very rich and also created thousands of jobs for women. In the Nineteen-Sixties, the American civil rights movement led to a renewed interest in African culture. Blacks began to celebrate their African appearance by wearing more natural hairstyles. For example, a natural hairstyle called the Afro became very popular. The Afro also became linked with the Black Power Movement. African Americans have continued to wear their hair in many different natural styles linked to Africa. One example is a twisted hairstyle called dreadlocks. Dreadlocks were first worn in Africa. The name dreadlocks came from early European travelers. They thought the style was ugly or “dreadful” because it was not combed and grew into rope-like pieces. The hairstyle is popular in Jamaica among members of a religious group called Rastafarians. Experts say African-American hairstyles such as braids and dreadlocks have led to social tensions, problems in the workplace and legal action. Exhibit organizers suggest this may be because some people have not fully accepted the appearance of African American hair in any style. Carnival HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Valmecir Jose de Souza asks about Carnival celebrations in the United States. The Carnival celebrations in Brazil are world famous. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people gather in the city of Rio de Janeiro. They enjoy a series of lively parties and parades. Carnival is a traditional time of celebration before the Christian season of Lent. Lent is a forty-day period of spiritual renewal before the holiday of Easter. Carnival ends with a wild celebration on Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before the start of Lent. This year, Mardi Gras was celebrated on February twelfth. Traditionally, Mardi Gras is celebrated in many Roman Catholic countries and other communities. French colonists first celebrated Mardi Gras in what is now the United States in the Seventeen-Hundreds. Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French. The tradition became popular in New Orleans, Louisiana and spread to nearby areas. Today, Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in the states of Alabama, Florida and parts of Louisiana. New Orleans is the oldest major city in the southern United States. It is known for its music, food, and noisy celebrations. New Orleans has one of the world’s biggest Mardi Gras celebrations. Different groups called krewes have parades. People wear strange, colorful clothes. Beautiful, sometimes frightening, masks cover their faces. Dances and a huge party end the celebration on the night before Lent begins. Several other American cities had their own celebrations this year. For example, the Brazilian community in New York planned its own Carnival celebration. Part of Saint Louis, Missouri, held almost four weeks of parties and celebrations. The main event was a parade last Saturday. Another celebration was held in the Florida city of Leesburg. This was the fifth year for Leesburg’s Mardi Gras celebration and parade. The celebration included music shows, dancers, food and drinks. Organizers of the Leesburg event chose a man and a woman to help lead the parade. They also named two dogs to lead a Mardi Gras parade for animals. Money raised from the event went to the Leesburg Arts Center. Olympics Music HOST: Athletes from around the world have come to the United States and are taking part in the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. American television has been using a popular song to communicate this message. It is “America,” written and performed by Neil Diamond. ((CUT 1: AMERICA)) Here is Shep O’Neal with some more Olympics music. ANNCR: American songwriter and conductor John Williams wrote music for the Olympic Games that were held in Los Angeles, California, and Atlanta, Georgia. The theme from the Atlanta Games is called “Summon the Heroes.” ((CUT 2: SUMMON THE HEROES)) John Williams also wrote the music for the Salt Lake City Olympics. He recorded it with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. At the start, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings the three-word Olympic message, “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” The words are Latin for “swifter, higher, stronger.” We leave you now with the official Salt Lake City Olympics theme, “Call of the Champions.” ((CUT 3: CALL OF THE CHAMPIONS)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Caty Weaver. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs for the Olympic Games ... Answer a question about Carnival in the United States ... And report about a museum show for Black History Month. African American Hairstyle Exhibit HOST: A show about the history of African American hair is taking place at a museum near Washington, D.C. The expressive nature of African American hairstyles is celebrated through pictures, drawings and historical objects. Barbara Klein tells us about it. ANNCR: The exhibit is at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel, Maryland. It shows many different ways African Americans have worn their hair during different periods in history. In Africa, as in other parts of the world, hairstyles are linked to cultural identity. They show an individual’s group, age, sex, social position and profession. Traditional African hairstyles include braids and twists. Some of the more complex designs were produced with bones, shells or seeds. Well-kept hair was important in African societies. Hairstyling traditions of Africans greatly changed after they were brought to America as slaves. Long hours of work in the fields left blacks too tired to produce traditional hairstyles. So they developed new ways to wear their hair. Records show that slaves wore their hair in ways that established a link to their African past. After slavery ended, blacks began accepting European ideas of beauty as a way to gain social acceptance and to get jobs. However, attempts to straighten their curly hair were difficult and often dangerous. In the early Nineteen-Hundreds, Madam C.J. Walker developed a product called the hot comb which made it easier for blacks to straighten their hair. Her efforts made her very rich and also created thousands of jobs for women. In the Nineteen-Sixties, the American civil rights movement led to a renewed interest in African culture. Blacks began to celebrate their African appearance by wearing more natural hairstyles. For example, a natural hairstyle called the Afro became very popular. The Afro also became linked with the Black Power Movement. African Americans have continued to wear their hair in many different natural styles linked to Africa. One example is a twisted hairstyle called dreadlocks. Dreadlocks were first worn in Africa. The name dreadlocks came from early European travelers. They thought the style was ugly or “dreadful” because it was not combed and grew into rope-like pieces. The hairstyle is popular in Jamaica among members of a religious group called Rastafarians. Experts say African-American hairstyles such as braids and dreadlocks have led to social tensions, problems in the workplace and legal action. Exhibit organizers suggest this may be because some people have not fully accepted the appearance of African American hair in any style. Carnival HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Valmecir Jose de Souza asks about Carnival celebrations in the United States. The Carnival celebrations in Brazil are world famous. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people gather in the city of Rio de Janeiro. They enjoy a series of lively parties and parades. Carnival is a traditional time of celebration before the Christian season of Lent. Lent is a forty-day period of spiritual renewal before the holiday of Easter. Carnival ends with a wild celebration on Mardi Gras, the Tuesday before the start of Lent. This year, Mardi Gras was celebrated on February twelfth. Traditionally, Mardi Gras is celebrated in many Roman Catholic countries and other communities. French colonists first celebrated Mardi Gras in what is now the United States in the Seventeen-Hundreds. Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French. The tradition became popular in New Orleans, Louisiana and spread to nearby areas. Today, Mardi Gras is a legal holiday in the states of Alabama, Florida and parts of Louisiana. New Orleans is the oldest major city in the southern United States. It is known for its music, food, and noisy celebrations. New Orleans has one of the world’s biggest Mardi Gras celebrations. Different groups called krewes have parades. People wear strange, colorful clothes. Beautiful, sometimes frightening, masks cover their faces. Dances and a huge party end the celebration on the night before Lent begins. Several other American cities had their own celebrations this year. For example, the Brazilian community in New York planned its own Carnival celebration. Part of Saint Louis, Missouri, held almost four weeks of parties and celebrations. The main event was a parade last Saturday. Another celebration was held in the Florida city of Leesburg. This was the fifth year for Leesburg’s Mardi Gras celebration and parade. The celebration included music shows, dancers, food and drinks. Organizers of the Leesburg event chose a man and a woman to help lead the parade. They also named two dogs to lead a Mardi Gras parade for animals. Money raised from the event went to the Leesburg Arts Center. Olympics Music HOST: Athletes from around the world have come to the United States and are taking part in the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. American television has been using a popular song to communicate this message. It is “America,” written and performed by Neil Diamond. ((CUT 1: AMERICA)) Here is Shep O’Neal with some more Olympics music. ANNCR: American songwriter and conductor John Williams wrote music for the Olympic Games that were held in Los Angeles, California, and Atlanta, Georgia. The theme from the Atlanta Games is called “Summon the Heroes.” ((CUT 2: SUMMON THE HEROES)) John Williams also wrote the music for the Salt Lake City Olympics. He recorded it with the Utah Symphony Orchestra. At the start, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings the three-word Olympic message, “Citius, Altius, Fortius.” The words are Latin for “swifter, higher, stronger.” We leave you now with the official Salt Lake City Olympics theme, “Call of the Champions.” ((CUT 3: CALL OF THE CHAMPIONS)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - February 15, 2002: Olympics Doing Harm in Salt Lake?
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Officials at the Olympic Games taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah, say they have met their environmental goals. Their environmental program helped Salt Lake City win the right to hold the Games this year. However, environmental groups in Utah say efforts by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee have not been successful. They say developers are doing permanent harm to the area. The Olympic goal of protecting the environment began in Nineteen-Ninety-Four with the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Norway recognized that major sport events like the Olympics could have a harmful effect on the surrounding environment. Protection of the environment is now officially one of the three goals of the Olympic movement. The other goals are sports and culture. Today, many cities seeking to hold the Olympic Games promise to offer greater protection for the environment. Organizers in Utah say they worked with many organizations for years to develop environmental programs in preparation for the Games. Some of these projects include a forestry program. It is expected to result in eighteen-million trees being planted around the world. Organizers also promised other efforts to make the air cleaner and to improve the way waste is removed. However, an environmental group called Save Our Canyons says the Salt Lake Olympic Committee made promises that it has not kept. For example, activists criticized ski jumps that were built into the sides of mountains. They also criticized officials for permitting trees to be cut down and new roads built for the Olympic Games. They said better public transportation is needed to help decrease pollution during the Games. And they said not enough is being done to reduce energy use.Lawyers for Save Our Canyons say the Olympics are being used as an excuse to permit development that normally would be unacceptable under current environmental laws. However, Olympic organizers say the group’s findings contained many mistakes and failed to recognize other environmental programs. The director of Save Our Canyons says the group is not against the Olympics. She says the group wants to pass on what it has learned to other cities considering holding the Olympic Games in the future. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Officials at the Olympic Games taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah, say they have met their environmental goals. Their environmental program helped Salt Lake City win the right to hold the Games this year. However, environmental groups in Utah say efforts by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee have not been successful. They say developers are doing permanent harm to the area. The Olympic goal of protecting the environment began in Nineteen-Ninety-Four with the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Norway recognized that major sport events like the Olympics could have a harmful effect on the surrounding environment. Protection of the environment is now officially one of the three goals of the Olympic movement. The other goals are sports and culture. Today, many cities seeking to hold the Olympic Games promise to offer greater protection for the environment. Organizers in Utah say they worked with many organizations for years to develop environmental programs in preparation for the Games. Some of these projects include a forestry program. It is expected to result in eighteen-million trees being planted around the world. Organizers also promised other efforts to make the air cleaner and to improve the way waste is removed. However, an environmental group called Save Our Canyons says the Salt Lake Olympic Committee made promises that it has not kept. For example, activists criticized ski jumps that were built into the sides of mountains. They also criticized officials for permitting trees to be cut down and new roads built for the Olympic Games. They said better public transportation is needed to help decrease pollution during the Games. And they said not enough is being done to reduce energy use.Lawyers for Save Our Canyons say the Olympics are being used as an excuse to permit development that normally would be unacceptable under current environmental laws. However, Olympic organizers say the group’s findings contained many mistakes and failed to recognize other environmental programs. The director of Save Our Canyons says the group is not against the Olympics. She says the group wants to pass on what it has learned to other cities considering holding the Olympic Games in the future. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - February 18, 2002: Lincoln Portrait
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Today is Presidents' Day in the United States. It is the day to honor all American presidents. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. We tell about one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, on our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Presidents' Day each year on the third Monday of February. But they did not always do so. They used to observe the birthdays of two of the greatest American presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both men were born in the month of February. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February twelfth. George Washington's is February twenty-second. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, Congress approved a law that affected some national holidays. It changed the official celebration of the holiday to the Monday closest to the real date. The birthdays of the two presidents were celebrated on one day -- the third Monday in February. Later, Congress said the holiday would honor all American presidents. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth American president. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. He grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education. Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. In Eighteen-Sixty, he was elected to the country's highest office. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War between the northern and southern states. This was the most serious crisis in American history. President Lincoln helped end slavery in the nation. And he helped keep the American union from splitting apart during the war. President Lincoln believed that he proved to the world that democracy can be a lasting form of government. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Three, President Lincoln gave what became his most famous speech. Union armies of the north had won two great victories that year. They defeated the Confederate armies of the south at Vicksburg, Mississippi and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held to honor the dead soldiers at a burial place on the Gettysburg battlefield. President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. But his speech has never been forgotten. Historians say the speech defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality. Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most memorable words in American history. He was murdered a few days after the Civil War ended, in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. Yet his words live on. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked composer Aaron Copland to write a piece of music about Abraham Lincoln. Copland was one of the best modern American composers. He wrote many kinds of music. His music told stories about the United States. Aaron Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor the president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the Civil War. Here is the Seattle Symphony playing part of "Lincoln Portrait." ((TAPE CUT ONE: LINCOLN PORTRAIT)) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters to his "Lincoln Portrait." It has been performed many times in the United States. Many famous people have read the words. To celebrate Presidents' Day, here is actor James Earl Jones reading part of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait": ((TAPE CUT TWO: JAMES EARL JONES, LINCOLN PORTRAIT:)) “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what he said, That is what Abraham Lincoln said: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility” … Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man. But, when he spoke of Democracy, this is what he said: He said: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen, for on the battleground at Gettysburg this is what he said: He said: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Al Alevy. I'm Shirley Griffith. ((LINCOLN PORTRAIT INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Today is Presidents' Day in the United States. It is the day to honor all American presidents. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. We tell about one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, on our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate Presidents' Day each year on the third Monday of February. But they did not always do so. They used to observe the birthdays of two of the greatest American presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both men were born in the month of February. Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February twelfth. George Washington's is February twenty-second. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, Congress approved a law that affected some national holidays. It changed the official celebration of the holiday to the Monday closest to the real date. The birthdays of the two presidents were celebrated on one day -- the third Monday in February. Later, Congress said the holiday would honor all American presidents. VOICE TWO: Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth American president. He is considered one of the greatest leaders of all time. Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. He grew up in Illinois. His family was poor and had no education. Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. In Eighteen-Sixty, he was elected to the country's highest office. VOICE ONE: President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War between the northern and southern states. This was the most serious crisis in American history. President Lincoln helped end slavery in the nation. And he helped keep the American union from splitting apart during the war. President Lincoln believed that he proved to the world that democracy can be a lasting form of government. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Three, President Lincoln gave what became his most famous speech. Union armies of the north had won two great victories that year. They defeated the Confederate armies of the south at Vicksburg, Mississippi and at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held to honor the dead soldiers at a burial place on the Gettysburg battlefield. President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. But his speech has never been forgotten. Historians say the speech defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality. Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most memorable words in American history. He was murdered a few days after the Civil War ended, in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. Yet his words live on. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty-Two, orchestra conductor Andre Kostelanitz asked composer Aaron Copland to write a piece of music about Abraham Lincoln. Copland was one of the best modern American composers. He wrote many kinds of music. His music told stories about the United States. Aaron Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor the president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the Civil War. Here is the Seattle Symphony playing part of "Lincoln Portrait." ((TAPE CUT ONE: LINCOLN PORTRAIT)) VOICE TWO: Aaron Copland added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters to his "Lincoln Portrait." It has been performed many times in the United States. Many famous people have read the words. To celebrate Presidents' Day, here is actor James Earl Jones reading part of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait": ((TAPE CUT TWO: JAMES EARL JONES, LINCOLN PORTRAIT:)) “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what he said, That is what Abraham Lincoln said: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We – even we here – hold the power and bear the responsibility” … Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man. But, when he spoke of Democracy, this is what he said: He said: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.” Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen, for on the battleground at Gettysburg this is what he said: He said: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our engineer was Al Alevy. I'm Shirley Griffith. ((LINCOLN PORTRAIT INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - February 18, 2002: Infectious Diseases
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization and several other United Nations agencies are calling for a major new effort to fight malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. These three infectious diseases killed almost six-million people last year. That is about ten percent of the total number of deaths around the world last year. The W-H-O and U-N agencies released a new report at the World Economic Forum in New York City earlier this month. The document says that deaths around the world from malaria and tuberculosis could be cut in half by the year Two-Thousand-Ten. It also says the number of deaths from AIDS could be reduced twenty-five percent within that same time period. The report is called “Scaling Up the Response to Infectious Diseases.” It calls for huge new investments in methods to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Officials say money is needed for research and to purchase drugs. Money is also needed for devices to prevent diseases, such as bed nets and rubber condoms. Bed nets prevent mosquitoes that carry malaria from biting people while they sleep. Men wear condoms during sex to prevent the spread of AIDS. David Heymann is the head of the infectious disease program at the World Health Organization. He says that providing effective drug treatments is important for improving peoples’ health and economic well-being. Reducing disease can also help improve economic growth in developing countries. The W-H-O report also describes successful health programs in developing countries. In Peru, for example, the number of tuberculosis cases was cut in half by increasing the treatment to control the disease. In Vietnam, malaria was reduced ninety-seven percent through the use of bed nets. And in Uganda, cases of the virus that causes AIDS were cut in half among pregnant women and children through the use of anti-AIDS drugs. This new international health campaign is estimated to cost about twelve-thousand-million dollars a year. So far, officials say the campaign has about two-thousand-million dollars. The W-H-O says the campaign will need stronger relationships among governments, private aid agencies, and drug companies to succeed. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 17, 2002: Bessie Coleman
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in the eighteen-nineties. She was the sixth of nine children. Her mother was African American. Her father was part African-American and part American Indian. Her family was poor. Bessie had to walk four miles to go to school. When she was nine years old, her father left the family to search in Oklahoma for the territory of his Indian ancestors. In Texas then, as in most areas of the American South, blacks were treated unfairly. They lived separately from white people and established their own religious, business and social traditions. Bessie was proud of her race. She learned that from her hard-working and religious mother. VOICE 2: Bessie had to pick cotton and wash clothes to help earn money for her family. She was able to save a little money and went to college in the state of Oklahoma. She was in college only a year. She had to leave because she did not have enough money to complete her studies. But during that year, she learned about flying from reading about the first flight of the Wright Brothers and the first American woman pilot, Harriet Quimby. Bessie often thought about what it would feel like to fly like a bird. VOICE 1: Bessie Coleman moved to Chicago. There, she learned to make people's hands look beautiful. She was good at it, but she wanted to do something more important. She decided she was going to learn how to fly airplanes. She soon found this to be almost impossible. What flight school would admit a black woman. She found that apparently there were none in the United States. Bessie learned that she would have more of a chance in Europe. She began to study French at a language school in Chicago. She also took a higher-paying job supervising a public eating place so she could save money. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Soon after the end of World War One, Bessie left for France. She attended the famous flight school, Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, in the town of Le Crotoy in northern France. She learned to fly in a plane that had two sets of wings, one over the other. She completed seven months of flight training. Bessie earned her international permit to fly in nineteen-twenty-one from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She became the first black woman ever to earn an international pilot's license. VOICE 1: Bessie returned to Chicago. She was the only black female pilot in the United States. So her story became popular in African-American newspapers. She was asked by the Dallas Express newspaper why she wanted to fly. She said that women and blacks must have flyers if they are to keep up with the times. She added, "Do you know you have never lived until you have flown?" Bessie soon learned that it was difficult for anyone to earn enough as a pilot to live. She knew she would have to improve her flying skills and learn to do more tricks in the air if she wanted to succeed. There still was no one willing to teach her in Chicago. So, she returned to Europe in nineteen-twenty-two. She completed about four more months of flight training with French and German pilots. VOICE 2: Bessie returned to New York where she gave her first public performance in the United States on September third. A large crowd of people gathered to watch her. She rolled the plane. And she stopped the engine and then started it again just before the plane hit the ground. The crowd loved her performance, as did other crowds as she performed in towns and cities across the country. Bessie Coleman had proved she could fly. Yet she wanted to do more. She hoped to establish a school for black pilots in the United States. She knew she needed a plane of her own. She traveled to Los Angeles, California, where she sought the support of a company that sold tires. The company helped her buy a Curtiss JN4 airplane, commonly called a Jenny. In return, she was to represent the company at public events. VOICE 1: Bessie Coleman organized an air show in Los Angeles. But the jenny's engine stopped soon after take-off, and the plane crashed to the ground. Bessie suffered a broken leg and other injuries. She regretted the accident and felt she had disappointed her supporters. She sent a message: "tell them all that as soon as I can walk I'm going to fly!" Bessie returned to Chicago where she continued her plan to open a flying school. She had very little money, no job and no plane, yet she opened an office in Chicago. She soon found it was impossible to keep the office open without more financial support. So she decided to return to flying. VOICE 2: Early in nineteen-twenty-five, Bessie Coleman traveled to her home state of Texas. The former cotton picker and beauty technician now was the only licensed black woman pilot in the world. She could speak French. And she was an international traveler. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: To earn money, Bessie Coleman gave speeches and showed films of her flights in churches, theaters and at local all-black public schools. She organized more air shows. She soon had enough money to pay for some of the cost of a plane of her own, another old Curtiss Jenny. She continued her speeches and air shows in the state of Georgia, then in Florida. She soon hoped to have enough money to open her school. In Florida, Bessie met Edwin Beeman, whose father was the head of a huge chewing gum company. Mr. Beeman gave Bessie the money to make the final payment on her plane in Dallas. Bessie made plans to have it flown to her in Jacksonville. A young white pilot, William Wills, made the trip. But the old Jenny had problems. William had to make two stops during the short flight to repair the plane. Local pilots who examined the plane were surprised he had been able to fly it so far. VOICE 2: On April thirtieth, nineteen-twenty-six, Bessie was preparing for an air show in which she would star. She agreed to make the flight with William Wills. He flew the plane so Bessie could clearly see the field she would fly over. She did not use any safety devices, such as a seat belt or parachute. They would have prevented her from leaning over to see all of the field. During the flight, the plane's controls became stuck. The plane turned over in the air. Nothing was holding Bessie in. She fell more than a kilometer to her death. William had worn a seat belt. But he also died when the plane crashed. Officials later found the cause of the accident. A tool had slid into the controls of the plane. Experts said that the accident never would have happened if William and Bessie had been flying a newer plane. VOICE 1: Throughout her life, Bessie Coleman had resisted society's restrictions against blacks and women. She believed that the air is the only place where everyone is free. She wanted to teach other blacks about that special environment. It took some time until her wish was fulfilled. It was not until nineteen-thirty-nine that black students were permitted to enter civilian flight schools in the United States. It was not until the Second World War that black male pilots were sent into battle. And, it was not until nineteen-eighty that the first black women completed military pilot training in the United States. VOICE 2: Bessie Coleman did not live to establish her own flying school. But she had said that if she could create the minimum of her plans and desires, she would have no regrets. She had accepted the dangers of her job because she loved flying. Her influence continues today. In nineteen-ninety-two, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution praising her. It said, "Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands, even millions of young persons with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude and her determination to succeed. " In his nineteen-thirty-four book, "Black Wings," Lieutenant William Powell said, "Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was much worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream." ((Theme)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in the eighteen-nineties. She was the sixth of nine children. Her mother was African American. Her father was part African-American and part American Indian. Her family was poor. Bessie had to walk four miles to go to school. When she was nine years old, her father left the family to search in Oklahoma for the territory of his Indian ancestors. In Texas then, as in most areas of the American South, blacks were treated unfairly. They lived separately from white people and established their own religious, business and social traditions. Bessie was proud of her race. She learned that from her hard-working and religious mother. VOICE 2: Bessie had to pick cotton and wash clothes to help earn money for her family. She was able to save a little money and went to college in the state of Oklahoma. She was in college only a year. She had to leave because she did not have enough money to complete her studies. But during that year, she learned about flying from reading about the first flight of the Wright Brothers and the first American woman pilot, Harriet Quimby. Bessie often thought about what it would feel like to fly like a bird. VOICE 1: Bessie Coleman moved to Chicago. There, she learned to make people's hands look beautiful. She was good at it, but she wanted to do something more important. She decided she was going to learn how to fly airplanes. She soon found this to be almost impossible. What flight school would admit a black woman. She found that apparently there were none in the United States. Bessie learned that she would have more of a chance in Europe. She began to study French at a language school in Chicago. She also took a higher-paying job supervising a public eating place so she could save money. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Soon after the end of World War One, Bessie left for France. She attended the famous flight school, Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, in the town of Le Crotoy in northern France. She learned to fly in a plane that had two sets of wings, one over the other. She completed seven months of flight training. Bessie earned her international permit to fly in nineteen-twenty-one from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She became the first black woman ever to earn an international pilot's license. VOICE 1: Bessie returned to Chicago. She was the only black female pilot in the United States. So her story became popular in African-American newspapers. She was asked by the Dallas Express newspaper why she wanted to fly. She said that women and blacks must have flyers if they are to keep up with the times. She added, "Do you know you have never lived until you have flown?" Bessie soon learned that it was difficult for anyone to earn enough as a pilot to live. She knew she would have to improve her flying skills and learn to do more tricks in the air if she wanted to succeed. There still was no one willing to teach her in Chicago. So, she returned to Europe in nineteen-twenty-two. She completed about four more months of flight training with French and German pilots. VOICE 2: Bessie returned to New York where she gave her first public performance in the United States on September third. A large crowd of people gathered to watch her. She rolled the plane. And she stopped the engine and then started it again just before the plane hit the ground. The crowd loved her performance, as did other crowds as she performed in towns and cities across the country. Bessie Coleman had proved she could fly. Yet she wanted to do more. She hoped to establish a school for black pilots in the United States. She knew she needed a plane of her own. She traveled to Los Angeles, California, where she sought the support of a company that sold tires. The company helped her buy a Curtiss JN4 airplane, commonly called a Jenny. In return, she was to represent the company at public events. VOICE 1: Bessie Coleman organized an air show in Los Angeles. But the jenny's engine stopped soon after take-off, and the plane crashed to the ground. Bessie suffered a broken leg and other injuries. She regretted the accident and felt she had disappointed her supporters. She sent a message: "tell them all that as soon as I can walk I'm going to fly!" Bessie returned to Chicago where she continued her plan to open a flying school. She had very little money, no job and no plane, yet she opened an office in Chicago. She soon found it was impossible to keep the office open without more financial support. So she decided to return to flying. VOICE 2: Early in nineteen-twenty-five, Bessie Coleman traveled to her home state of Texas. The former cotton picker and beauty technician now was the only licensed black woman pilot in the world. She could speak French. And she was an international traveler. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: To earn money, Bessie Coleman gave speeches and showed films of her flights in churches, theaters and at local all-black public schools. She organized more air shows. She soon had enough money to pay for some of the cost of a plane of her own, another old Curtiss Jenny. She continued her speeches and air shows in the state of Georgia, then in Florida. She soon hoped to have enough money to open her school. In Florida, Bessie met Edwin Beeman, whose father was the head of a huge chewing gum company. Mr. Beeman gave Bessie the money to make the final payment on her plane in Dallas. Bessie made plans to have it flown to her in Jacksonville. A young white pilot, William Wills, made the trip. But the old Jenny had problems. William had to make two stops during the short flight to repair the plane. Local pilots who examined the plane were surprised he had been able to fly it so far. VOICE 2: On April thirtieth, nineteen-twenty-six, Bessie was preparing for an air show in which she would star. She agreed to make the flight with William Wills. He flew the plane so Bessie could clearly see the field she would fly over. She did not use any safety devices, such as a seat belt or parachute. They would have prevented her from leaning over to see all of the field. During the flight, the plane's controls became stuck. The plane turned over in the air. Nothing was holding Bessie in. She fell more than a kilometer to her death. William had worn a seat belt. But he also died when the plane crashed. Officials later found the cause of the accident. A tool had slid into the controls of the plane. Experts said that the accident never would have happened if William and Bessie had been flying a newer plane. VOICE 1: Throughout her life, Bessie Coleman had resisted society's restrictions against blacks and women. She believed that the air is the only place where everyone is free. She wanted to teach other blacks about that special environment. It took some time until her wish was fulfilled. It was not until nineteen-thirty-nine that black students were permitted to enter civilian flight schools in the United States. It was not until the Second World War that black male pilots were sent into battle. And, it was not until nineteen-eighty that the first black women completed military pilot training in the United States. VOICE 2: Bessie Coleman did not live to establish her own flying school. But she had said that if she could create the minimum of her plans and desires, she would have no regrets. She had accepted the dangers of her job because she loved flying. Her influence continues today. In nineteen-ninety-two, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution praising her. It said, "Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands, even millions of young persons with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude and her determination to succeed. " In his nineteen-thirty-four book, "Black Wings," Lieutenant William Powell said, "Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was much worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream." ((Theme)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – February 16, 2002: 'Taking the Fifth'
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In The News. The former chairman of the failed energy company Enron, Kenneth Lay, refused to answer questions at a Senate hearing this week. The Senate committee is investigating the company’s financial failure. Mister Lay used his legal right provided by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. That amendment says people do not have to provide information that may be used against them in court. Several other top officials of the huge energy company also have used this right to remain silent. Last year, Enron became the largest company in the United States to seek legal protection from its debts. Thousands of Enron employees lost their jobs and their retirement savings as a result of the company’s failure. Lawmakers suspect Enron set up false businesses to create imaginary profits and hide losses in earnings. Lawmakers believe top officials of Enron unfairly profited from this. Enron used the Arthur Andersen company as its independent financial examiner. Arthur Andersen also is suspected of wrongdoing. A company official also used his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions before the Senate committee.The Fifth Amendment is part of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights contains ten amendments that became law in Seventy-Ninety-One. The Fifth Amendment has several parts. The first says a person can not be tried for a crime unless a grand jury accuses the person. A grand jury is a special group of people chosen to decide if there is acceptable evidence against a person to hold a trial. There are a few limited exceptions to this rule.The second part of the Fifth Amendment says no person can be tried for the same crime two times. However, there are exceptions to this rule also. The third part of the Fifth Amendment is the part used by Enron and Arthur Andersen officials. It says no person can be legally forced to speak against himself or herself. This includes answering questions in court, by police or by other government agents. Using this right is commonly called “Taking the Fifth.” This part of the Fifth Amendment became famous in Congressional hearings during the Nineteen-Fifties. The House Un-American Activities Committee was investigating possible treason in the United States. The Committee ordered many filmmakers, writers and other people to answer questions. Committee members asked these people about their possible links to the Communist party. Many refused to answer. Some lawmakers called these people “Fifth Amendment Communists.” The Fifth Amendment also says the government may not deny a person his or her life, freedom, or property without the process of law. And it says the government may not take a person’s property for public use without fair payment. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-7-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 19, 2002: Medical Transplants
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about medical transplant operations. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Doctors perform medical transplant operations to place tissue or organs into the body of an injured or sick person. Medical history experts say the first transplant operation was carried out in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. A German doctor placed skin from a woman’s leg onto her nose. By Eighteen-Sixty-Three, French scientist Paul Bert showed that the body rejects tissue transplants from one person to another. Forty years later, German scientist Carl Jensen found that this rejection was carried out by the body’s defense system attacking the foreign tissue. VOICE TWO: Rejection continued to be a problem well into the twentieth century. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, French doctor Jean Dausset discovered a system for tissue matching. This is a way to make sure that the tissue to be transplanted is as similar as possible to the patient’s own tissue. In Nineteen-Seventy-Two, Swiss scientist Jean Borel discovered that the drug cyclosporine could stop the body from rejecting the new organ or tissue. Cyclosporine is a natural product made from a fungus found in soil. Cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States in Nineteen-Eighty-Three. Experts say the use of this drug is the most important reason for the success of transplant operations today. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Doctors around the world now can save thousands of lives with transplant operations. Each year, more than twenty-thousand organs are successfully transplanted into patients in the United States alone. These people can be expected to survive for many years. At least twenty-one different organs and tissues can be successfully transplanted into the bodies of patients. The most common organ transplanted is a kidney. A scientific report on transplants said more than twenty-four-thousand kidney transplants are performed around the world each year. The success rate of these transplants is very high. Some kidney transplant patients have survived for more than thirty years. A family member often can provide a kidney for transplant because people have two kidneys but need only one. VOICE TWO: The liver is the only human internal organ that can grow to normal size from a small piece. That is why it is possible to remove part of a liver from a living person and place it in the body of a person suffering liver failure. After the operation, both livers will grow to full size. More than seven-thousand liver transplants are performed around the world each year. VOICE ONE: The first successful heart transplant was done in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven by South African doctor Christiaan Barnard. Many more heart transplant operations have been done since Nineteen-Eighty-Three, when cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States. About three-thousand heart transplants are performed around the world each year. Lung transplants can replace a single diseased lung or both lungs. About one-thousand lung transplants are performed each year. Sometimes, lung disease has also damaged the heart, and both organs must be replaced. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Tissue also can be transplanted. The most common tissue transplant is a blood transfusion when a patient receives blood after an operation or accident. Other tissues that are transplanted include corneas of the eye, skin, bone marrow, bone and blood vessels. Corneal transplants improve the sight of people whose corneas have been damaged or destroyed by injury or infection. Corneal transplants have a success rate of more than ninety percent. Skin transplants reduce the chance of infection in areas of the body that have been burned. These transplants remain on the body for several weeks, until skin from another part of the patient’s body can be used for a permanent transplant. VOICE ONE: A bone marrow transplant treats people suffering from cancer of the blood and other diseases. Doctors remove the substance inside the hip bone of a healthy person and place the bone marrow in a sick person’s body. The marrow then begins producing healthy blood cells. Bones can be transplanted, too. Recently, doctors have even transplanted hands and arms onto several patients in Europe and the United States. VOICE TWO: A transplant operation succeeds only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the foreign organ or tissue. This is done with drugs like cyclosporine. The patient also must receive tissue that is similar to his or her own. The person providing the organ or tissue is known as the donor. The one receiving it is the recipient. Both the donor and recipient must have the same blood type. For some transplants, they also must have some of the same proteins called H-L-A antigens. H-L-A antigens are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H-L-A antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed. VOICE ONE: Family members are the best possible organ donors. Other healthy people also can provide organs. However, most transplanted organs come from people who have died or are brain dead. People who are brain dead usually were in a serious accident that injured the head. After the brain dies, doctors keep the other parts of the body alive with machines. The family of the accident victim must give permission for transplanting the victim’s organs. Then a local medical organization makes a computerized search for a person who needs the organ and who has tissue similar to the victim. Doctors remove the organs from the body and send them to the recipient’s hospital. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Animal organs also have been transplanted into people. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three and Nineteen-Sixty-Four, doctors in the United States placed kidneys from chimpanzees into six people. All the people died from infections. However, one patient survived for nine months. Doctors began performing such operations because of the lack of human organs. Those who continue the research today say they believe there never will be enough human organs for transplant operations. VOICE ONE: Many researchers now say pigs are the best animals for transplants. Heart valves from pigs are being used to replace diseased or damaged heart valves in people. And scientists are continuing research to find ways to use pig cells to treat several diseases. These include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Doctors say animal transplantation could be very useful in countries where human-to-human transplants are not permitted. However, some medical experts are concerned about the possible dangers of animal transplants. These include the possibility of releasing a virus like the one that causes the disease AIDS. Medical organizations all over the world have developed rules about animal transplants. In some nations, animal rights groups strongly protest transplants of animals to humans. VOICE TWO: The United Network for Organ Sharing is the organization in the United States that keeps the national list of patients needing transplants. The organization says about seventy-thousand people are waiting for organ transplants in the United States. It says more than six-thousand people died while waiting for an organ transplant in the United States last year. Health care workers around the world say organ and tissue transplants save thousands of lives. They urge people to consider giving permission to use their organs for transplant operations if they should die unexpectedly in an accident. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about medical transplant operations. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Doctors perform medical transplant operations to place tissue or organs into the body of an injured or sick person. Medical history experts say the first transplant operation was carried out in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. A German doctor placed skin from a woman’s leg onto her nose. By Eighteen-Sixty-Three, French scientist Paul Bert showed that the body rejects tissue transplants from one person to another. Forty years later, German scientist Carl Jensen found that this rejection was carried out by the body’s defense system attacking the foreign tissue. VOICE TWO: Rejection continued to be a problem well into the twentieth century. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, French doctor Jean Dausset discovered a system for tissue matching. This is a way to make sure that the tissue to be transplanted is as similar as possible to the patient’s own tissue. In Nineteen-Seventy-Two, Swiss scientist Jean Borel discovered that the drug cyclosporine could stop the body from rejecting the new organ or tissue. Cyclosporine is a natural product made from a fungus found in soil. Cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States in Nineteen-Eighty-Three. Experts say the use of this drug is the most important reason for the success of transplant operations today. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Doctors around the world now can save thousands of lives with transplant operations. Each year, more than twenty-thousand organs are successfully transplanted into patients in the United States alone. These people can be expected to survive for many years. At least twenty-one different organs and tissues can be successfully transplanted into the bodies of patients. The most common organ transplanted is a kidney. A scientific report on transplants said more than twenty-four-thousand kidney transplants are performed around the world each year. The success rate of these transplants is very high. Some kidney transplant patients have survived for more than thirty years. A family member often can provide a kidney for transplant because people have two kidneys but need only one. VOICE TWO: The liver is the only human internal organ that can grow to normal size from a small piece. That is why it is possible to remove part of a liver from a living person and place it in the body of a person suffering liver failure. After the operation, both livers will grow to full size. More than seven-thousand liver transplants are performed around the world each year. VOICE ONE: The first successful heart transplant was done in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven by South African doctor Christiaan Barnard. Many more heart transplant operations have been done since Nineteen-Eighty-Three, when cyclosporine was approved for use in the United States. About three-thousand heart transplants are performed around the world each year. Lung transplants can replace a single diseased lung or both lungs. About one-thousand lung transplants are performed each year. Sometimes, lung disease has also damaged the heart, and both organs must be replaced. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Tissue also can be transplanted. The most common tissue transplant is a blood transfusion when a patient receives blood after an operation or accident. Other tissues that are transplanted include corneas of the eye, skin, bone marrow, bone and blood vessels. Corneal transplants improve the sight of people whose corneas have been damaged or destroyed by injury or infection. Corneal transplants have a success rate of more than ninety percent. Skin transplants reduce the chance of infection in areas of the body that have been burned. These transplants remain on the body for several weeks, until skin from another part of the patient’s body can be used for a permanent transplant. VOICE ONE: A bone marrow transplant treats people suffering from cancer of the blood and other diseases. Doctors remove the substance inside the hip bone of a healthy person and place the bone marrow in a sick person’s body. The marrow then begins producing healthy blood cells. Bones can be transplanted, too. Recently, doctors have even transplanted hands and arms onto several patients in Europe and the United States. VOICE TWO: A transplant operation succeeds only if doctors can prevent the body from rejecting the foreign organ or tissue. This is done with drugs like cyclosporine. The patient also must receive tissue that is similar to his or her own. The person providing the organ or tissue is known as the donor. The one receiving it is the recipient. Both the donor and recipient must have the same blood type. For some transplants, they also must have some of the same proteins called H-L-A antigens. H-L-A antigens are found on the outside of cells. Each person has many different H-L-A antigens. The donor and recipient must have several of the same antigens for the transplant to have a chance to succeed. VOICE ONE: Family members are the best possible organ donors. Other healthy people also can provide organs. However, most transplanted organs come from people who have died or are brain dead. People who are brain dead usually were in a serious accident that injured the head. After the brain dies, doctors keep the other parts of the body alive with machines. The family of the accident victim must give permission for transplanting the victim’s organs. Then a local medical organization makes a computerized search for a person who needs the organ and who has tissue similar to the victim. Doctors remove the organs from the body and send them to the recipient’s hospital. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Animal organs also have been transplanted into people. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three and Nineteen-Sixty-Four, doctors in the United States placed kidneys from chimpanzees into six people. All the people died from infections. However, one patient survived for nine months. Doctors began performing such operations because of the lack of human organs. Those who continue the research today say they believe there never will be enough human organs for transplant operations. VOICE ONE: Many researchers now say pigs are the best animals for transplants. Heart valves from pigs are being used to replace diseased or damaged heart valves in people. And scientists are continuing research to find ways to use pig cells to treat several diseases. These include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. Doctors say animal transplantation could be very useful in countries where human-to-human transplants are not permitted. However, some medical experts are concerned about the possible dangers of animal transplants. These include the possibility of releasing a virus like the one that causes the disease AIDS. Medical organizations all over the world have developed rules about animal transplants. In some nations, animal rights groups strongly protest transplants of animals to humans. VOICE TWO: The United Network for Organ Sharing is the organization in the United States that keeps the national list of patients needing transplants. The organization says about seventy-thousand people are waiting for organ transplants in the United States. It says more than six-thousand people died while waiting for an organ transplant in the United States last year. Health care workers around the world say organ and tissue transplants save thousands of lives. They urge people to consider giving permission to use their organs for transplant operations if they should die unexpectedly in an accident. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-15-8-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – February 19, 2002: Bird Flu in Hong Kong
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Health workers in Hong Kong are attempting to halt the spread of a virus that attacks chickens. They are moving quickly before it can develop into a virus like one that killed six people in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. Health workers have already destroyed more than one-hundred-fifty-thousand chickens in Hong Kong. They also have increased inspections of markets and farms where chickens are raised. This is the third time in five years that the bird flu virus has affected Hong Kong. Officials are now considering what additional steps they need to take. Some critics blame the problem on poor conditions at chicken farms. They say these include overcrowding, unclean conditions and lack of fresh air. Influenza is usually called the flu. It causes higher than normal body temperatures. People with the flu also may suffer muscle pain, breathing problems and weakness.Flu is not usually serious. Most people will feel fine after a week of two. But the flu can have serious effects. And, it can kill. It is a special threat to very young or very old people, and those with a weak defense system against disease. Bird flu usually does not affect people. However, sometimes the flu virus changes. Five years ago, six people in Hong Kong died when they became infected with a flu virus found in chickens. Health officials then ordered the killing of all chickens, ducks and geese in Hong Kong. Last May, a similar virus infected thousands of Hong Kong’s chickens. Officials ordered the killing of more than one-million-three-hundred-thousand birds. That virus was not a threat to humans. Hong Kong has almost seven-million people. Chicken is a popular food. People there eat about one-hundred-thousand chickens every day. Traditionally, many people buy their chickens live from street markets and bring them home freshly killed. Hong Kong markets are still selling chickens. But sales have dropped sharply. Ken Shortridge is a biologist at the University of Hong Kong. He is one of the scientists studying the bird flu virus. Mister Shortridge says the virus is not an immediate threat to people. However, the virus is changing quickly. He says it could change into a virus that kills people. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Health workers in Hong Kong are attempting to halt the spread of a virus that attacks chickens. They are moving quickly before it can develop into a virus like one that killed six people in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. Health workers have already destroyed more than one-hundred-fifty-thousand chickens in Hong Kong. They also have increased inspections of markets and farms where chickens are raised. This is the third time in five years that the bird flu virus has affected Hong Kong. Officials are now considering what additional steps they need to take. Some critics blame the problem on poor conditions at chicken farms. They say these include overcrowding, unclean conditions and lack of fresh air. Influenza is usually called the flu. It causes higher than normal body temperatures. People with the flu also may suffer muscle pain, breathing problems and weakness.Flu is not usually serious. Most people will feel fine after a week of two. But the flu can have serious effects. And, it can kill. It is a special threat to very young or very old people, and those with a weak defense system against disease. Bird flu usually does not affect people. However, sometimes the flu virus changes. Five years ago, six people in Hong Kong died when they became infected with a flu virus found in chickens. Health officials then ordered the killing of all chickens, ducks and geese in Hong Kong. Last May, a similar virus infected thousands of Hong Kong’s chickens. Officials ordered the killing of more than one-million-three-hundred-thousand birds. That virus was not a threat to humans. Hong Kong has almost seven-million people. Chicken is a popular food. People there eat about one-hundred-thousand chickens every day. Traditionally, many people buy their chickens live from street markets and bring them home freshly killed. Hong Kong markets are still selling chickens. But sales have dropped sharply. Ken Shortridge is a biologist at the University of Hong Kong. He is one of the scientists studying the bird flu virus. Mister Shortridge says the virus is not an immediate threat to people. However, the virus is changing quickly. He says it could change into a virus that kills people. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: May 28, 2000 - Native Americans Object to Jamestown 'Celebration'
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Language and culture often go hand-in-hand. But in the state of Virginia, that relationship finds itself strained by a single word, in a debate as old as America itself. VOA Wordmaster Avi Arditti explains. AA: Officials in Virginia have decided to stop using the word "celebration" in connection with the four-hundredth anniversary of Jamestown. Established in 1607, Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. It's an event that descendents of the Native Americans who were already here -- and the African slaves who came later -- find hard to celebrate. Virginia hopes to put on one of the biggest tourist attractions of 2007 -- complete with a naval flotilla. Yet the group organizing the year-long observance has already had to change course. The planning committee no longer calls itself "Celebration 2007." The committee's name is now "Jamestown 2007." Norman Beatty, director of the committee, explains why the word "celebration" was dropped. TAPE: CUT ONE - BEATTY/ARDITTI "There's going to be plenty of reason to be celebrating in 2007, but there will also be times for some very sober reflections on some very serious history and it needs to be told honestly. But I think it was clear that the word had a completely different meaning at least in inference to the Virginia Indians and I think to a degree the African Americans felt the same way." AA: Norman Beatty says there's 400 years of history to consider. TAPE: CUT TWO - BEATTY "Not all that history was fun and growth and happiness, and we said we agree 100 percent. And to try to hide that would be to subvert the whole point of this commemoration. We need to tell that story honestly, [and] it needs in large measure to be told by the people who are the descendants of those cultures. And so I think there were other indications besides the Virginia Indians that the word `celebration' was probably not the word we were looking for." AA: The planners have already started to sample public opinion to try to find a name for the event. TAPE: CUT THREE - BEATTY/ARDITTI/WADE "Last year we did focus group interviews in and outside the state and the two that came back strongest, one was called `the Spirit of Discovery' and the other one was called `the Spirit of Freedom.' They're hitting around there somewhere, but we haven't got it really pinned down now, so we'll be looking for public input and probably hiring some consultants to assist us." ARDITT: "So you're looking for basically a neutral term that causes the least offense, to the fewest people?" BEATTY: "We don't want to offend anyone but we also want to create some excitement." AA: "What's wrong with just plain old `Jamestown 2007'?" BEATTY: "Well, right now that's what we're calling our planning organization, and people refer to us as that and that's what they think when they think about 2007. It may turn out to be that, but I'd like to believe - I don't know how many people that's going to cause to come to Virginia for the first time in their lives or come for that particular year." MARY WADE: "We've all along, as far as the Virginia Council on Indians and the Indian people in Virginia, merely just said, `Jamestown 2007.'" AA: Mary Wade is a member of the Virginia Council on Indians and the Monacan Indian Nation. TAPE: CUT FOUR - WADE "Because most people are familiar with Jamestown and 2007 is 400 years since the inception of the settlers here." AA: "So you would rather they just keep it Jamestown 2007, not `occasion,' `commemoration'. WADE: "I think they have used the word commemoration several times. I don't think we have a problem with that. But again, like I said, most people know what Jamestown is. That's the first settlement in this country." AA: Mary Wade says she's not against promoting tourism, but as for "celebrating": TAPE: CUT FIVE - WADE "You can't celebrate an invasion." AA: Nevertheless, she says Indian tribes may take part in some of the activities, much as their ancestors helped the newcomers at Jamestown. TAPE: CUT - WADE/ARDITTI WADE: "But in return they were pushed back off of their land, even killed. Whole tribes were annihilated. A lot of people carry that oral history with them, and that's why they use the word `invasion,' because it truly was an invasion, and I'm sure some of the Indian people will probably want to tell that as a part of the story of 400 years." AA: "And do you think they'll have that opportunity to do that?" WADE: "I know we're going to try our best to reiterate that to Jamestown and the steering committee. The council now has a person on that steering committee who was just appointed. And he is from the Chickahominy Indian tribe, which is probably the closest tribe to Jamestown. I think they've come to the conclusion that the Indian people here aren't going to be quiet. The quiet days of the Indians are gone." AA: The Jamestown planners say finding a name for the observance in 2007 could take as long as two years. That's all for Wordmaster this week. Without Rosanne Skirble - she's back next week -- I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Jamestown"/Ray Charles Singers (1957) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: May 21, 2000 - Grammar Lady's New Book
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talk with Grammar Lady, who has just published a new book. AA: It's called "Much Ado About a Lot" -- and, despite the way a lot of people spell it, "a lot" is clearly two words on the cover. RS: Mary Newton Bruder, the linguist who calls herself "Grammar Lady," made sure about that. After all, she says, you would never spell "a little" as one word. AA: You might if you weren't as concerned as she is about upholding the traditional rules of grammar. Mary Newton Bruder runs a grammar hotline and the Grammar Lady Web site at www.grammarlady.com RS: She says the study of grammar has been missing from most American schools for a generation. She's glad to see new interest. AA: But at the same time she's afraid that schools will go back to the old ways: TAPE: CUT ONE - BRUDER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI " -- the boring diagramming and the kinds of repetitive exercises that nobody really learned from and what made people turn off from grammar in the first place. What I'm looking for is an innovative way to teach grammar as a tool in the context of reading and writing. People don't really have to know grammar, if they are a natural, spontaneous writer or if they read very well. It's only a tool to achieve what you need to do." RS: "What's it going to take to institute these reforms?" BRUDER: "I think it's going to take a movement -- well, a movement on the part of the parents for one thing. And a lot of schools, I think, are rethinking their policies. I get calls from teachers and educators at least on a weekly basis (asking): `What can we do to do this?' I just got a call this afternoon to talk to a teachers group next October, so people are thinking ahead about it, at least." RS: "How can you make language and grammar fun? In your book you do it." AA: "Are there models out there right now that you can point to?" BRUDER: "Actually I don't know of any models, because grammar has been left out of school for so long, but I know of teachers who are able to bring grammar into the classroom by way of reading. For example, if they pick a good book that the children are really involved in and like to read, and then they talk about the use of grammar within the framework of the story. So here we are, the characters are talking in the present tense - what does this tell us? And here this character is using the past tense. Where is the verb that tells us that? And so they use something that has really excited the children, to get to the matter of grammar that holds the story together. It helps them understand how the grammar of the story works in telling the story." RS: "And perhaps they can model from that [in their own writing]." BRUDER: "Right." AA: So where does Grammar Lady think Americans could use the most help when it comes to improving their grammar? TAPE: CUT TWO - BRUDER BRUDER: "Well, the pronouns, that people shouldn't say `Give the book to John and I,' for example; `give the book to John and me.' And the other one that young people do all the time is `Me and Suzy are going to the show.' That particular lesson on the pronouns is very important. `Suzy and I are going to the show.' Or the other thing they do is substitute `myself': `Give the book to John and myself' or `If you have any further questions, contact John or myself.' And that's just as wrong as saying `John or I.'" AA: "You state in your book that you're on somewhat of a mission to re-inject rules of traditional grammar into American society, so where would you start?" BRUDER: "I would start in the first grade, I think. And I would also start with the sports announcers, who say things like `the National Anthem will be sang by Cher.' Those kinds of things. The sports announcers have done more damage to young people's ears in terms of grammar, I think, than almost anybody else." . RS: Mary Newton Bruder, author of "Much Ado About a Lot: How to Mind Your Manners in Print and in Person." And, if you'd like to know more about the book, you can check out the Grammar Lady Web site. That address once again is www.grammarlady.com. AA: Grammar Lady spoke to us from the studios of WQED radio in Pittsburgh. She will be back with us next month. That's all for Wordmaster this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo"/Lobo 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 14, 2000 - Slangman: Reductions
* Byline: 

 INTRO: VOA Wordmasters Rosanne Skirble and Avi Arditti are back with a lesson in reduction. RS: We're talking about the kind of reduction that takes place in English. AA: Slangman David Burke joins us from VOA's Los Angeles bureau with some examples. TAPE CUT ONE: DAVID BURKE "One of them is `you.' Instead of saying `you,' we just say, `ya.' Instead of saying, `How are you?' (We say) `How are ya?'" RS: You won't find reductions in the dictionary. That means you have to listen closely to the way a native speaker pronounces the words. TAPE CUT TWO: DAVID BURKE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI BURKE: "If I were to say to you, 'Didja eat yet?' And If I said to you, `No, "Didju?"' We would understand that. 'Didja eat yet?' Did you eat yet? "We talked about 'ya' which is reduction of you, but after the letter `d' the `you' or the `ya' becomes a 'ja' sound always after the letter `d.' (For example) `Would you like to come to the movies?' `"Wouldja" like to come to the movies?' `Did you eat?' `Didja eat?' And, for some reason after the letter 't' the ya becomes 'cha' (as in) `I'll let you come with me.' `I'll letcha come with me.' `What's that you have in your hand?' `Whatcha have in your hand?' So, we have about four different ways of saying `you' which is 'ya,' 'ja,' 'cha' and even 'ju.'" RS: "Depending on context." AA: "This is spoken English, right? Now if you were writing a report or something for work you would want to be more careful about using the formal non-reduced forms." BURKE: "Absolutely. But, I would have to say yes and no, because reductions are used typically in speaking; however, a lot of times when we are writing to friends or especially in comic books we'll see the reduced form. "True, in a formal report, you do not want to use reductions, but when we are writing a letter to somebody we might say in the beginning of the letter, `How are ya?' and spell `y-a' for `ya.' That's pretty common." AA: Also on the most-often-heard reduction list are the reduced forms of "going to" and "want to." They become "gonna" ... g-o-n-n-a ... and "wanna" . . . w-a-n-n-a. RS: As in "I'm gonna be late," or "Do you wanna go with me?" TAPE CUT THREE: DAVID BURKE "And what's a little bit difficult to understand about `gonna' (is that) `gonna' is the reduction of `going to' only when it is something that is happening in the future. But when it indicates going from one place to another you cannot reduce it. For example, `I'm going to the movies tonight. You can't say, `I'm gonna the movies tonight.' Or `Are you going to the market?' You can't say, 'Are you gonna the market?' So, it's only used to indicate the future, and it's really popular." AA: Sometimes, when reduction takes place, two different words are reduced to the same sound. RS: That happens with "and" and "in". TAPE CUT FOUR: DAVID BURKE BURKE: " `And' is pronounced 'n': `Rosanne n Avi.' The word `in' ... `Let's go inside.' It's pronounced absolutely the same. `Put the pencil 'n' the box.' It sounds like `Put the pencil and the box.'" AA: "So someone coming to this country who is not used to the fast-speaking ways of your average American is going to be confused by these `wanna's,' `gonna's' . . . RS: " ... `Can'tya, `don'tcha.' BURKE: "Absolutely. In fact just now you said a very common reduction, `used to' `usta' means to be accustomed to, to be acclimated to. I'm `usta' getting up early. He `usta' be my best friend. We would never say, `used to.'" RS: "The question I have for you is that given the fact that Americans speak with reductions, how do people who speak English as a foreign language learn to tell the difference? How do they learn these reductions?" BURKE: "The only way they can learn is to live in this country, and of course when they arrive they will be absolutely shocked and all of a sudden someone comes up and says, `How do ya do?' not `How do you do?' They are stunned and think that they have to re-learn English. Unfortunately, in a way, you sort of do." AA: But there's help at Slangman David Burke's Web site, www.slangman.com. RS: He's posting many of the reductions we've talked about today, and he's also written about them in his book called "STREET SPEAK 1." RS: Gotta go, but next week we'll be back with Grammar Lady Mary Bruder. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy?"/Chris LeDoux/Garth Brooks 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: May 7, 2000 - Learning English, Part 2
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week, VOA Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble offer some do's and don'ts for learning English. MUSIC - "Speak English or Die"/S.O.D AA: No, that's not our advice. Our advice comes from a specialist in the field. Anthea Tillyer at City University of New York has taught all levels of English as a Second Language. RS: She also runs an electronic discussion group for teachers of English as a second language. Through the Internet it links almost 30- thousand members in 157 countries. So what's her suggestion about where to begin when it comes to learning English? TAPE: CUT ONE - TILLYER "First, I would say read as much as possible, but things you like. Second, when you are reading, focus on the words that you do understand, not on what you don't understand. Anything that is tripping you up (preventing you from understanding), then you can look that up, but only if it's tripping up your understanding." AA: With reading comes writing. Anthea Tillyer advises her students to write as much as they can in English -- and, again, not to worry about getting every word correct. TAPE: CUT TWO - TILLYER "Something that has worked very well with my students, and they enjoy it a lot, is free writing, just sitting down anytime, anywhere with a little notebook and writing every day for 10 minutes without stopping - in English. Nobody's going to read it, but it frees you up from fear, and it frees you from constantly translating all the time. If you just write and don't stop in English, don't look anything up, don't worry about anything. (If you make) mistakes, no problem. Students find that they really begin to feel very friendly towards the language and close to it and engaged in it. And that becomes a steppingstone to learning a language well, when you begin to feel comfortable in it; when it's not something outside you. It becomes something that can come from you also." AA: Now for some entries on Anthea Tillyer's list of what NOT to do when learning English. RS: She starts with a rule that might sound shocking: Never study grammar. TAPE: CUT THREE - TILLYER "I like to say it like that because it's dramatic. But actually what I mean is, don't ever believe that you can learn a language by studying grammar." AA: "Meaning the rules." TILLYER: "The rules." RS: "The structure." TILLYER: "The structure. Of course that's important, but what you're really looking for is meaning, getting and giving. Grammar is one of the ways to do that, but it's not the most important way. I think a lot of people think that if they study grammar books they'll learn the language, and that is just simply false." "Another don't: don't use books written about the English language in your own language. In other words, don't read books in your first language that try to analyze or dissect English as a language because you're just reading about an abstraction. In your own language you're not being exposed to [English]. There's not really much point in doing that, unless you want to study theoretical linguistics, and (then) that's fine." AA: "You're saying just immerse yourself in English." TILLYER: "In English." My next don't is, don't make bilingual lists of words. You know, your language on one side, English on the other." RS: "It's not in context." TILLYER: "It's not in context, and you'll forget them. You'll remember that they were in a certain place on a page, but you won't remember what the meaning was. If someone wants to remember vocabulary and they really want to have it written down in a notebook, and some people do and that's fine, a list is not the way to go. Copy down sentences with the word in use from an authentic piece of text, and then review those every now and again. Just the fact of writing it down in a sentence will help anyway. And finally, I'm a big believer in picture dictionaries, as opposed to bilingual dictionaries, for lower- level people." RS: "And you can make your own." TILLYER: "You can make your own, but if someone else has already done it for you and done it well, there's not really much point." AA: Anthea Tillyer spoke to us from the VOA studios in New York. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "An English Teacher"/Bye-Bye Birdie 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-5-1.cfm
* Headline: April 30, 2000 - Learning English, Part 1
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week VOA's Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble begin a two-part report to answer a common question from their listeners. AA: Listeners often write us to ask for ways to learn English, and so we called Anthea Tillyer, a veteran English as a Second Language teacher at the City University of New York for some help. RS: She says you can have fun and learn English at the same time by watching English language movies, and recommends one in particular: MUSIC: "The Godfather Theme" TAPE: CUT ONE - TILLYER/ARDITTI TILLYER: "The movie that I found my students like more than any other - and of course it's quite shocking to some people - is `The Godfather.'" AA: "Part One, Two or Three?" TILLYER: "Part One and Two, Part Three is not mentionable in my presence. I'm not quite sure why it's such a tremendous success with students. Of course there are lots of other movies that they like, but there aren't any others that they will watch over and over and over and not just get bored with." AA: "So that's a violent movie about the Mafia and gangsters, and this is what they like to learn English?" TILLYER: "Yeah." RS: But Anthea Tillyer says "The Godfather" is also a story about family, and that may be the big attraction. She says that many students also read the book by Mario Puzo on which the films are based. AA: They read the book not just in English, but also in their native language. She says reading books in both languages is another technique to improve your English. TAPE: CUT TWO - TILLYER "You're already set up for success. You understand it. You can focus on particular words and the way they are used." RS: "What about building vocabulary through American music?" TILLYER: "Absolutely. For me personally, music is my preferred way of LEARNING languages. I've learned one or two that way, and I think the important thing is to choose music you like. I would say old music is not particularly good." RS: "What do you mean old music?" TILLYER: "I would say older than 1960 - even the 1960s." RS: "But what does it matter if you're singing?" TILLYER: "There are just certain turns of phrase that are quite dated. So if a student learns them and then trots them out, they sound funny." MUSIC: "I Just Called to Say I Love You"/Stevie Wonder RS: As with her students' choice in movies, Anthea Tillyer was also surprised by their taste in music: TAPE: CUT THREE - TILLYER "I hate to say it, but the all-time favorite among my students is Stevie Wonder's `I Just Called to Say I Love You.'" AA: "That's a very pretty song." RS: "Tell us about that song." TILLYER: "Actually I have a lot more respect for it now because one of my students, who's doing a master's degree in dance at NYU, has to take an advanced music course too. She was having terrible, terrible trouble writing her master's thesis. One of the reasons was that she elected to do it on Stevie Wonder's song `I Just Called to Say I Love You.' In the process I learned from her and from Stevie Wonder that there's a lot more to that song than meets the eye, but it is very, very repetitive." RS: "Is that why it makes a good song to use to teach English as a foreign language?" TILLYER: "Yes, it is, and it's because it's an upbeat song, people at all levels can understand it, and of course you can always give homework, tell them to go home and call someone and say they just called to say they loved them." RS: We'd like to give you, our listeners, a call and make you part of our program. Let us know your phone number and a question you'd like to have answered on Wordmaster. RS: Next week, more "do's" -- and some "don'ts" - - for learning English, so please tune in again. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: STEVIE WONDER -- "I Just Called to Say I Love You" HOST: That song, by the way, is from the movie "The Woman in Red" -- and it earned Stevie Wonder an Academy Award. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-6-1.cfm
* Headline: April 9, 2000 - Accents
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble discuss issues facing people who speak English with an accent. TAPE -- Young ape (Rosie O'Donnell voice-over) in "Tarzan" "The fun has arrived! Thank you very much." OTHER APE: "Hey, what took you so long?" "I had a little pest control problem, but it's all taken care of." AA: Maybe so for the young ape with the New York accent, the voice of actress Rosie O'Donnell, in the Disney animated film "Tarzan." But at least one movie-goer found a different problem. RS: Rosina Lippi-Green is not your average movie- goer. She is a linguist and author of the book "English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States." She says that although "Tarzan" is supposed to take place in Africa, you could never tell by listening to the characters. AA: Like these elephants: TAPE -- Sound from "Tarzan" "Piranha! It's a piranha!" "Sweetheart, there are no piranhas in Africa." "Shh! Don't tell the kid that. Of course there are piranhas in Africa." "No, she's right. They're native to South America." RS: She says most of the characters sound like they could be from the American Midwest. AA: Like Rosina Lippi-Green herself. She says the media traditionally prefer the neutral, middle American sound, although some celebrities are known for their accents, like Rosie O'Donnell. Ms. Lippi-Green says all this implies that other accents are not as desirable. RS: She says Americans are exposed to this bias as children. Several years ago, she did a statistical analysis of accent use in Disney animated films. TAPE: CUT ONE - LIPPI-GREEN "What I saw was large-scale, systematic representation to children - here's an interesting example: It doesn't always look negative on the surface. If you think of the Disney animated movie `Beauty and the Best,' it's set in France. The story line is presented in English. As this is primarily for an English-speaking audience, that makes sense. "Some of the characters have French accents and others don't. Why is that? It's not because the people doing the voice-over characterization were French. That wasn't the case, they were putting on French accents. "To look deeper at that, OK, which characters have French accents? It's the cook and the sexy little parlor maid - the stereotypes. Children learn, oh yes, this is what French people are. These people are all supposed to be French, but actually the real French people are the oversexed ones interested in food." RS: And it's not just Disney. Rosina Lippi-Green says people with strong accents -- whether foreign or regional -- can face discrimination in American society. AA: She says courts will not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity, but some employers have found loopholes by emphasizing "communication skills" as a job requirement. RS: So, Ms. Lippi-Green says, some people feel pressure to lose their accents. TAPE: CUT TWO - LIPPI-GREEN "If you went through and looked at all the places in the country that offer accent- reduction courses, you will see what they target are people from third world nations: Asian accents, African accents, Spanish accents. I actually had someone contact me who knew about my book and thought that I was kind of on that side of the fence, and I said, `Let me just ask you, why aren't you worried about reducing accents for Swedish people or French people?' And there was just stunned silence. It's because they're not stigmatized." AA: So what can someone with an accent do to deal with an uncomfortable or unfriendly situation? Rosina Lippi-Green offers some practical advice: TAPE: CUT THREE - LIPPI-GREEN "If you get a clerk who pretends not to understand you, I would say, `Should I write this down? What word are you not understanding? Help me communicate with you.' Sometimes if you bring it to the service and you make them aware that you know what they're doing, sometimes out of embarrassment they will cease." RS: And sometimes, the whole situation can be avoided by accentuating the positive. Rosina Lippi-Green says she discovered that while in academia. TAPE: CUT FOUR - LIPPI-GREEN "When I taught at the University of Michigan, I taught Introduction to Language and Linguistics. There were 250 people and I had teaching assistants. And I had one teaching assistant, a wonderful teacher who was a Japanese-American. She had a very strong accent. I knew that I was going to get complaints, that kids would come to me after they went to their first class and say `Oh, she's got an accent and I can't work with her.' "So what I did was at the beginning, in the very first lecture, I talked about communication difficulties: when they were real, when they weren't real, what to do with somebody who had an accent who was lecturing you and you didn't understand -- polite ways to clarify and work through that process. And I told them that if they would give this person a couple of days chance, they would have no problems at all, it was just a matter of accommodating in both directions." AA: And how did her students react? TAPE: CUT FIVE - LIPPI-GREEN "I didn't do this the first time I taught this class and I had a huge number of people showing up in my office, saying `I don't want to be in this section, she has an accent, blah blah blah.' When I did that presentation at the beginning of the hour, I had only one person come to me and she hadn't been at that lecture." RS: Rosina Lippi-Green, author of "English with an Accent," now works full time writing historic fiction. In fact, she won the 1999 PEN- Hemingway Award for her novel "Homestead." AA: That's it for Wordmaster this week. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Pardon My Southern Accent"/Toni Tennille 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-7-1.cfm
* Headline: September 10, 2000 - Writing in English
* Byline: 

 INTRO: In honor of the new school year in the United States, Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble offer a lesson in writing in English. MUSIC: "Write This Down"/George Strait AA: Writing it down is a good suggestion. Our advice today comes from Sharon Bode [BO-dee], coordinator of the Intensive English Program at the University of Pennsylvania. RS: There are different writing styles around the world, and Sharon Bode has probably seen most of them in her thirty years of teaching English as a second language. AA: For example, in some languages writers don't state the main point up front. TAPE: CUT ONE - BODE "But English values clarity and directness and making a point usually at the beginning, so that you know immediately what the author's purpose is. That purpose -- depending on the writing, whether it's a letter or an essay or an e-mail -- can vary, but the standards are pretty much the same, that the reader should know immediately or almost immediately why the person is writing. After that, typically, there will be a clear organization of support for that purpose." RS: And these logical relationships in English, she says, are clearly marked by words like "therefore," "moreover," "in this way," or "as a result." TAPE: CUT TWO -- BODE/ARDITTI "Other languages don't have markers in this way all the time, or at all. Other languages do not value directness. As a matter of fact, they value quite the opposite -- that if you have to say it directly, then you're not writing well." AA: "Can you give an example?" BODE: "In our courses, we have students from all over the world, but I think of my experience -- I was in Japan for six years -- and it seems typical or characteristic of students who are from Japan to write English without very many of these overt markers. They write typically simple sentences as opposed to complex sentences and usually don't mention the reason that they're writing until the very end. This means that you have to really puzzle about what they're writing until you get to the end of whatever it is." RS: Sharon Bode contrasts that with the style of Spanish-speaking students from Latin America. TAPE: CUT THREE - BODE "It seems to me that a typical way of writing in English for our Latin students is to write very long, very complex sentences. And, if they're not at a very advanced level, of course, the control of all that logical and meaningful relationships among the parts can be lost. So we typically have to tell them to write shorter sentences, to use only one or two clauses in their sentences, and not eight or nine." AA: Sharon Bode says the style of writing in English used to be a lot different. TAPE: CUT FOUR - BODE "In English a hundred years ago people were taught to write very flowery, very long sentences. As the century progressed, business and other sort of constraints taught us that simpler and more direct was better." RS: She says one basic way to teach writing in English is to give students a model, then have them try to match it. The model she suggests is called the five-paragraph essay. TAPE: CUT FIVE - BODE "You have an introduction, you have three paragraphs of body and you have a concluding paragraph. So that's a very common way of approaching teaching students to write who have not been really writing much at all." AA: For more advanced students, a different method is called for: Tape: "which is to take what they've written and to have conferences or do feedback in writing to them, to make suggestions about how they can shape their writing to be more effective for an English reading audience." AA: To learn the style used in the United States, Sharon Bode advises students to observe how paragraphs are constructed in magazine articles, newspaper editorials and other examples of what she calls "educated English." RS: And speaking of paragraphs, how do English speakers know when to begin a new one? TAPE: CUT SIX - BODE/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI "Well I think the sort of received wisdom of one idea per paragraph. But that's a sort of empirical question. If they look at a lot of English language pieces, then can ask themselves, why did the author start this new paragraph? But almost always it's because there's a new idea, a different idea from what was in the paragraph before." RS: "And we would call that the topic sentence." BODE: "Most of the time the topic sentence or the controlling idea would be in the beginning of the paragraph." AA: "And every paragraph deserves a controlling sentence." BODE: "Almost every paragraph." RS: "And supporting details, right?" BODE: "And supporting details, right." AA: "And at the end you've got an essay." BODE: "Oh my goodness!" RS: "Or a conclusion. (laughter)" AA: And that concludes our chat with Sharon Bode, coordinator of the Intensive English Program at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. RS: If you'd like some practice writing, write to us! With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Please Write"/The Tokens 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-16-8-1.cfm
* Headline: August 20, 2000 - Al Gore/Style
* Byline: 

 INTRO: Earlier this month, Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble talked with a political rhetoric expert about the speaking style of George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee. This week they focus on his Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore. AA: With elections less than three months away, many American voters seem more interested not in what a candidate says, but in how he or she says it. RS: Wayne Fields at Washington University in St. Louis says Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore is suffering from criticism of his style. TAPE: CUT ONE - FIELDS/RS/AA FIELDS: "Remarks about whether he speaks fast enough or whether he's too wooden. But on the other hand, all you hear about Bush that's particularly positive is that he has an easy way with people, that he's Clintonesque in a way in his demeanor." RS: "So we're not talking about content yet, people are more focused on what our candidates look like." AA: "And sound like." FIELDS: "Exactly, which is going to be very frustrating for Gore -- one, because people know what he looks and sounds like, and secondly because from the start everybody has suggested that Gore's strength over Bush would be his control of the issues, his ability to speak to content convincingly and knowledgeably." RS: "So it will be very interesting to watch these candidates face-to-face when we get into the debates." FIELDS: "Exactly, that is the time when issues do get sharpened. There's still a lot of attention to style, there's still a lot of attention to audiences' comfort level with the candidates, how much they like them. But at the same time that's the moment where [voters] begin to get a clearer sense of how well they understand issues, how clearly prepared they are for the wide range of responsibilities that go with the presidency." AA: "This past Sunday, the New York Times said on its editorial page that 'it's a quirk of Mister Gore's speaking style that the more right he is, the more he irritates people.' Is that so?" FIELDS: "[laughing] It's often the case, I think. We're not terribly fond of people just because they're right, especially if the news is complicated or bad. I think that some of it is just familiarity at this point, that people sort of know Gore and sort of don't know Gore in that ambiguous way that the country understands its vice presidents. They understand that he has been an active vice president, they understand that he knows a lot about what the job entails and that he's taken significant responsibilities in this administration all the way along. By the same token, there is always this hunger after eight years for new faces, for new personalities, new amusements." AA: Wayne Fields is director of American Culture Studies and an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He credits Al Gore with trying to sound more relaxed and connecting more with his audiences. RS: Still, when it comes to political rhetoric, Professor Fields says, the vice president stands in contrast to the man he hopes to replace, Bill Clinton. TAPE: CUT 2 - FIELDS "Much, much more businesslike, much more formal. When he tries to relax, it gets maudlin, sentimental. When he tries to act like Clinton it comes across as forced. That is a part of the rhetorical package." RS: Between now and November, if you find yourself stumped by any of the political rhetoric you hear coming out of the campaign, we might be able to answer your question on the air. AA: We leave you with some of Al Gore's acceptance speech -- which he said he wrote himself -- delivered Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. RS: You judge the style. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. TAPE: CUT THREE - GORE MONTAGE "We're entering a new time. We're electing a new president. And I stand here tonight as my own man. And I want you to know me for who I truly am. ... I was an Army reporter in Vietnam. When I was there I didn't do the most or run the gravest danger, but I was proud to wear my country's uniform. ... At a time when there is more computer power in a Palm Pilot than in the spaceship that took Neil Armstrong to the moon, we will offer all our people lifelong learning and new skills for the higher-paying jobs of the future. ... I know my own imperfections. For example, I know that sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy. Maybe I've done that tonight. But the presidency (audience: "Nooooo!") -- but the presidency is more than a popularity contest, it's a day-by- day fight for people. ... If you entrust me with the presidency, I know I won't be the most exciting politician. But I pledge to you tonight, I will work for you every day, and I will never let you down. (applause)" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-21-5-1.cfm
* Headline: December 13, 1998 - Merriam-Webster, Part 1
* Byline: 

 INTRO: It's time for our weekly look at American English. Today our Wordmasters, Avi and Rosanne, talk about the anniversary of a popular American dictionary. MUSIC: "Words"/Missing Persons lyrics: What are words for, when no one listens anymore ... AA: Gosh, I hope people are listening to our words! I'm Avi Arditti, and that's a song I used to listen to back in college. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble, and speaking of college, today we're going to talk about a dictionary designed to help kids get through college. It's the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, a collection of about 160,000 words taken from the company's Third New Unabridged Dictionary. The Collegiate is updated annually. AA: But since the folks at Merriam-Webster have just come out with the 100th-anniversary edition, we thought we'd mark the occasion. John Morse is president and publisher of Merriam-Webster. He came by for an interview. . . RS: We asked John Morse was, just how does a word get into the dictionary. TAPE: CUT ONE -- MORSE "The main way we do it is by a program that we call 'reading and marking.' Reading and marking involves every member of our editorial staff spending a portion of every working day reading -- reading newspapers, magazines, journals, books, repair manuals, parts catalogs -- whatever we can find that will give us a good idea of what are the words that are actually being used in everyday life. " AA: And if a new word appears enough times in print, then it could very well end up in the dictionary. RS: We also asked John Morse a question that a lot of listeners ask us: Why are there differences in the way certain words are spelled in American English versus British English. TAPE: CUT TWO -- MORSE "What you have to understand is that once the period of colonization was well under way in north America, that we really had two communities of English speakers widely divided from one another. And communications were not as good in those days, and it would really become inevitable that the two communities would just evolve in some different ways. Certainly our original lexicographer Noah Webster had a hand in this. He very much believed in spelling reform and simplifying the way words were spelled, and he was really instrumental in taking the 'u' out of a number of words in American English that the British still retain." AA: Like the word "labor. " RS: It's l-a-b-o-u-r in British English, but l-a-b-o-r in American English. AA: Merriam-Webster has the largest share of the dictionary market in the United States. But it faces growing competition extending beyond the printed word to CD-ROMs and even into cyberspace. RS: In fact, on the Merriam-Webster web site on the Internet, you can now look up the complete contents of the Collegiate Dictionary -- for free. The address is www.m-w.com. Again, the address is www.m-w.com. AA: John Morse of Merriam-Webster says an online dictionary is a great research tool -- and not just for people who need to look up words. TAPE: CUT THREE -- MORSE "For the first time in lexicography, now lexicographers know what are the words that people are actually looking up. Up until now we've guessed about them but we now we really know and it's interesting. The words that are most frequently looked up are the words 'paradigm,' 'ubiquitous,' 'oxymoron,' 'synergy,' 'serendipity' -- these are the words that are being used frequently in our prose and in our speech today but they're words that I think all of us are a little uncertain about. And what I think is very heartening is that people are coming to the dictionary to learn more about the words that they are hearing and maybe want to use themselves. When we look at the site logs of the words that are being looked up, the vast, vast majority of them are spelled correctly. People are better spellers than we give them credit for. " RS: That was John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster which is celebrating 100 years of the Collegiate Dictionary. AA: we'll have more of that interview in two weeks, but next week Rosanne and I will introduce you to a hot-selling American toy that speaks a language all its own. RS: Until next week, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-21-6-1.cfm
* Headline: About your hosts
* Byline: 

 Avi Arditti is the senior news editor in VOA Special English and manages www.voaspecialenglish.com. He joined the Special English Branch in 1991 after working as VOA's part-time reporter in Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest. Before that, he worked in Los Angeles as a copy editor on newspapers and as a wire service reporter. He graduated in legal studies from the University of California at Berkeley. Rosanne Skirble reports on the environment for VOA News Now. She has held a variety of assignments and hosting duties since joining VOA in 1981. She started as a producer in the American Republics Division, after working at radio and television stations in the Washington area. Rosanne holds degrees in education, Latin American studies, and teaching English as a Foreign Language. In the 1970s she taught Spanish and EFL at schools and universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan. She has written several EFL textbooks as well as articles for professional journals for teachers of English as a Foreign Language and Spanish. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - February 22, 2002: Songs nominated for Grammy Awards/a question about Mormons/a center for people who want to become writers
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Alicia Keys na czele listy HOT 100 Billboardu. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs nominated for a Grammy Award ... Answer a question about the Mormons ... and report about a center for people who want to become writers. Writer’s Center HOST: One of America’s first and best known educational centers for writers recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. Thousands of people in the Washington, D.C., area have attended classes at this creative gathering place. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: It is seven o’clock on a winter evening. People are entering the Writer’s Center headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. These people include doctors, lawyers and teachers. Some of the people are retired from their jobs. Others are very young. They all want to become successful writers. They are working on books, short stories, dramas, films or poems. These people have brought their work to be read and discussed during Writer’s Center workshop meetings. A successful writer or filmmaker leads the meetings. Before the students leave their classes tonight, they will know more about their creative efforts. Has their writing captured the interest of others in the workshop? Do some parts need improvement? Is there a chance their work might be published? The Writer’s Center opened in Nineteen-Seventy-Six, soon after English professor Al Lefcowitz decided to create it. Mister Lefcowitz writes books and plays. He believed that writers needed a place to gather and share their work and thoughts. Another university professor, Jane Fox, soon began to help Mister Lefcowitz establish the Writer’s Center. Under their leadership, it has become extremely popular. The Writer’s Center offered only three workshops when it opened twenty-five years ago. Twenty-seven people attended these classes. They met in a former amusement park. Today, the Writer’s Center provides sixty-eight workshops. They take place in its Bethesda headquarters, and in other places in Maryland and Virginia. Most people attend classes once a week for six or eight weeks. The classes continue almost all year. Some students say criticism of their writing makes them feel bad. Most, however, say they learn a lot. One woman who has taken part in workshops has published several books. She says she never could have done this without the help of the Writer’s Center. Mormons HOST: The Winter Olympic Games end Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake City is also the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our VOA listener question this week asks about the Church. It comes from Song Wenjiang in China. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are known as Mormons. They are called this because of their belief in the Book of Mormon. Mormons believe their Church is the true and complete Church of Jesus Christ on Earth. Mormons say the Christian Church today is not the same as the one established by Christ. They believe that God re-established that first Church in modern times through a man named Joseph Smith. Mormons recognize the Christian Bible as the word of God. But they add three holy books of their own. One is the Book of Mormon. Mormons believe it was given to Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni near Palmyra, New York, in Eighteen-Twenty-Seven. Joseph Smith is said to have translated the work from an ancient language into English. Joseph Smith organized the Mormon Church in Eighteen-Thirty. It grew quickly. However, people of other religions did not accept Mormons in the towns where they lived. Mormons were oppressed because of their beliefs. So they searched for a place where they could live in peace and have religious freedom. They moved west, and settled the area that is now the state of Utah. Today, about seventy percent of the people who live in Utah are Mormons. Their main religious center is the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. People of other religions are not permitted inside. Mormons are perhaps best known for their former belief that a man was permitted to have more than one wife. This tradition was one reason other people would not accept them in the early years of the Church. However, the Mormon Church rejected this belief in Eighteen-Ninety. Today, Mormons attend religious services on Sunday. They spend at least one night a week with their families. All members give the Church ten percent of the money they earn each year. The Mormon Church is established in one-hundred-sixty countries and territories around the world. Thousands of young men, women and retired people work up to two years in a Mormon missionary program without pay. They offer to show people of other religions how to become Mormons. Their efforts seem to be successful. The Mormon Church is growing. It now has more than eleven-million members worldwide. Grammy Nominees HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will present the yearly Grammy Awards next Wednesday. Mary Tillotson tells us about the Grammies and plays three of the songs that have been nominated. ANNCR: The Grammy Awards recognize excellent musical recordings and the musicians who create them. The award is a small statue. It is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Recording Academy choose the best work each year. The awards include all kinds of music -- popular, jazz, classical, country and western, rap, and many others. One of the most important Grammy Awards is for “Record of the Year.” Critics say two women are in a very close race among the records nominated for that award. The first is India Arie for her song “Video.” ((CUT ONE: “VIDEO”)) The critics say the strongest competition for India Arie is Alicia Keys with this song, “Fallin.’” ((CUT TWO: "FALLIN'")) Songs by India Arie and Alicia Keys are not the only ones nominated for “Record of the Year.” Other nominated songs are “Ms. Jackson” by the group OutKast, and “Drops of Jupiter” by the group Train. We leave you now with the final song nominated for “Record of the Year.” It is “Walk On” by U2. ((CUT THREE: "WALK ON")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs nominated for a Grammy Award ... Answer a question about the Mormons ... and report about a center for people who want to become writers. Writer’s Center HOST: One of America’s first and best known educational centers for writers recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. Thousands of people in the Washington, D.C., area have attended classes at this creative gathering place. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: It is seven o’clock on a winter evening. People are entering the Writer’s Center headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. These people include doctors, lawyers and teachers. Some of the people are retired from their jobs. Others are very young. They all want to become successful writers. They are working on books, short stories, dramas, films or poems. These people have brought their work to be read and discussed during Writer’s Center workshop meetings. A successful writer or filmmaker leads the meetings. Before the students leave their classes tonight, they will know more about their creative efforts. Has their writing captured the interest of others in the workshop? Do some parts need improvement? Is there a chance their work might be published? The Writer’s Center opened in Nineteen-Seventy-Six, soon after English professor Al Lefcowitz decided to create it. Mister Lefcowitz writes books and plays. He believed that writers needed a place to gather and share their work and thoughts. Another university professor, Jane Fox, soon began to help Mister Lefcowitz establish the Writer’s Center. Under their leadership, it has become extremely popular. The Writer’s Center offered only three workshops when it opened twenty-five years ago. Twenty-seven people attended these classes. They met in a former amusement park. Today, the Writer’s Center provides sixty-eight workshops. They take place in its Bethesda headquarters, and in other places in Maryland and Virginia. Most people attend classes once a week for six or eight weeks. The classes continue almost all year. Some students say criticism of their writing makes them feel bad. Most, however, say they learn a lot. One woman who has taken part in workshops has published several books. She says she never could have done this without the help of the Writer’s Center. Mormons HOST: The Winter Olympic Games end Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake City is also the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Our VOA listener question this week asks about the Church. It comes from Song Wenjiang in China. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are known as Mormons. They are called this because of their belief in the Book of Mormon. Mormons believe their Church is the true and complete Church of Jesus Christ on Earth. Mormons say the Christian Church today is not the same as the one established by Christ. They believe that God re-established that first Church in modern times through a man named Joseph Smith. Mormons recognize the Christian Bible as the word of God. But they add three holy books of their own. One is the Book of Mormon. Mormons believe it was given to Joseph Smith by the angel Moroni near Palmyra, New York, in Eighteen-Twenty-Seven. Joseph Smith is said to have translated the work from an ancient language into English. Joseph Smith organized the Mormon Church in Eighteen-Thirty. It grew quickly. However, people of other religions did not accept Mormons in the towns where they lived. Mormons were oppressed because of their beliefs. So they searched for a place where they could live in peace and have religious freedom. They moved west, and settled the area that is now the state of Utah. Today, about seventy percent of the people who live in Utah are Mormons. Their main religious center is the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. People of other religions are not permitted inside. Mormons are perhaps best known for their former belief that a man was permitted to have more than one wife. This tradition was one reason other people would not accept them in the early years of the Church. However, the Mormon Church rejected this belief in Eighteen-Ninety. Today, Mormons attend religious services on Sunday. They spend at least one night a week with their families. All members give the Church ten percent of the money they earn each year. The Mormon Church is established in one-hundred-sixty countries and territories around the world. Thousands of young men, women and retired people work up to two years in a Mormon missionary program without pay. They offer to show people of other religions how to become Mormons. Their efforts seem to be successful. The Mormon Church is growing. It now has more than eleven-million members worldwide. Grammy Nominees HOST: The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences will present the yearly Grammy Awards next Wednesday. Mary Tillotson tells us about the Grammies and plays three of the songs that have been nominated. ANNCR: The Grammy Awards recognize excellent musical recordings and the musicians who create them. The award is a small statue. It is shaped like the early record player called a gramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone. Members of the Recording Academy choose the best work each year. The awards include all kinds of music -- popular, jazz, classical, country and western, rap, and many others. One of the most important Grammy Awards is for “Record of the Year.” Critics say two women are in a very close race among the records nominated for that award. The first is India Arie for her song “Video.” ((CUT ONE: “VIDEO”)) The critics say the strongest competition for India Arie is Alicia Keys with this song, “Fallin.’” ((CUT TWO: "FALLIN'")) Songs by India Arie and Alicia Keys are not the only ones nominated for “Record of the Year.” Other nominated songs are “Ms. Jackson” by the group OutKast, and “Drops of Jupiter” by the group Train. We leave you now with the final song nominated for “Record of the Year.” It is “Walk On” by U2. ((CUT THREE: "WALK ON")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - February 21, 2002: Women and Sense of Smell
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Two new American studies are adding to our understanding of women and their sense of smell. The first study showed that women appear to like the smell of men whose genes are similar to the women’s fathers. Scientists at the University of Chicago in Illinois described their experiment in Nature Genetics magazine. The scientists asked a group of forty-nine women to smell several boxes. Each box had a different smell. The women were asked which box they would choose if they had to smell it all the time. They were not told what each box contained. The ten boxes contained pieces of clothing called T-shirts. Some of the T-shirts contained a common smell of a substance found around the house. Each of the other six T-shirts had been worn by a man for two days. The six men who wore the T-shirts were told to avoid activities that produced strong smells. The scientists tested the genes of the men and women in the study. They examined a special group of genes called M-H-C genes. The scientists found that the women did not choose smells of men with genes totally similar to their own. However, women generally liked the smell of men whose M-H-C genes were similar to the genes that were passed to the women from their fathers. There was no such relationship between a woman and genes from her mother. A second study found that women can improve their ability to recognize smells by smelling them repeatedly. Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, organized this study. They reported the findings in Nature Neuroscience magazine. The scientists found that men and women were equally good at identifying a number of smells at the start of testing. However, the women became better at recognizing smells the more they were tested. This was not true for men, boys, girls or older women. Scientists suggest that this ability may be linked to substances called hormones produced by women. Scientists say their findings may explain why women are more likely than men to be troubled by smells in the environment. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Two new American studies are adding to our understanding of women and their sense of smell. The first study showed that women appear to like the smell of men whose genes are similar to the women’s fathers. Scientists at the University of Chicago in Illinois described their experiment in Nature Genetics magazine. The scientists asked a group of forty-nine women to smell several boxes. Each box had a different smell. The women were asked which box they would choose if they had to smell it all the time. They were not told what each box contained. The ten boxes contained pieces of clothing called T-shirts. Some of the T-shirts contained a common smell of a substance found around the house. Each of the other six T-shirts had been worn by a man for two days. The six men who wore the T-shirts were told to avoid activities that produced strong smells. The scientists tested the genes of the men and women in the study. They examined a special group of genes called M-H-C genes. The scientists found that the women did not choose smells of men with genes totally similar to their own. However, women generally liked the smell of men whose M-H-C genes were similar to the genes that were passed to the women from their fathers. There was no such relationship between a woman and genes from her mother. A second study found that women can improve their ability to recognize smells by smelling them repeatedly. Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, organized this study. They reported the findings in Nature Neuroscience magazine. The scientists found that men and women were equally good at identifying a number of smells at the start of testing. However, the women became better at recognizing smells the more they were tested. This was not true for men, boys, girls or older women. Scientists suggest that this ability may be linked to substances called hormones produced by women. Scientists say their findings may explain why women are more likely than men to be troubled by smells in the environment. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - February 22, 2002: Monarch Butterfly Deaths in Mexico
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A severe winter storm in central Mexico last month killed hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies. It is the largest number of monarch butterflies killed at one time. However, scientists say the loss is not expected to threaten the species. The butterflies froze to death in two of the largest protected areas for monarch butterflies in Mexico. The Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies are in the mountains in the state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City. Most of the butterflies in the two colonies were killed in the storm. Researchers say the butterflies froze to death after heavy rain fell in the area, followed by freezing temperatures. Monarch butterflies can easily freeze to death if they become wet and the temperature drops to freezing. Scientists say the temperatures following the storm were the lowest recorded in the area in the past twenty-five years. During the year, monarch butterflies fly long distances, or migrate. They are one of the few kinds of insects to migrate. This has made the monarch popular among nature lovers. The monarchs spend the winter in Mexico. Each spring, the butterflies fly north after they mate. The females stop to lay their eggs in the southern United States. The adults die soon after. The monarchs that develop from those eggs continue the flight. They return to the same areas in North America where their parents lived. By summer, the butterflies can reach as far north as Canada. During the autumn, the monarchs return to the same forests in the mountains of Mexico. They like the oyamel tree the best. These tall trees are sometimes completely covered with butterflies. Some scientists have suggested that the loss of forests in the mountains of Mexico led to the die-off of monarchs last month. They say the remaining forests may no longer provide enough protection to keep the butterflies warm and dry. Every winter, millions of monarchs die in the high mountain forests. However, scientists note that the species is not in danger of disappearing. That is because there are other, smaller populations of monarchs in the United States that did not migrate to Mexico. Scientists say they will know after more study if the monarch populations in Mexico will be able to recover from the die-off. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A severe winter storm in central Mexico last month killed hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies. It is the largest number of monarch butterflies killed at one time. However, scientists say the loss is not expected to threaten the species. The butterflies froze to death in two of the largest protected areas for monarch butterflies in Mexico. The Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies are in the mountains in the state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City. Most of the butterflies in the two colonies were killed in the storm. Researchers say the butterflies froze to death after heavy rain fell in the area, followed by freezing temperatures. Monarch butterflies can easily freeze to death if they become wet and the temperature drops to freezing. Scientists say the temperatures following the storm were the lowest recorded in the area in the past twenty-five years. During the year, monarch butterflies fly long distances, or migrate. They are one of the few kinds of insects to migrate. This has made the monarch popular among nature lovers. The monarchs spend the winter in Mexico. Each spring, the butterflies fly north after they mate. The females stop to lay their eggs in the southern United States. The adults die soon after. The monarchs that develop from those eggs continue the flight. They return to the same areas in North America where their parents lived. By summer, the butterflies can reach as far north as Canada. During the autumn, the monarchs return to the same forests in the mountains of Mexico. They like the oyamel tree the best. These tall trees are sometimes completely covered with butterflies. Some scientists have suggested that the loss of forests in the mountains of Mexico led to the die-off of monarchs last month. They say the remaining forests may no longer provide enough protection to keep the butterflies warm and dry. Every winter, millions of monarchs die in the high mountain forests. However, scientists note that the species is not in danger of disappearing. That is because there are other, smaller populations of monarchs in the United States that did not migrate to Mexico. Scientists say they will know after more study if the monarch populations in Mexico will be able to recover from the die-off. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 20, 2002: Sport Parachuting
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does. The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety. By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think, "Do I really want to do this?" You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too. VOICE ONE: The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready. Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky. The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned. You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind. While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts: VOICE TWO: "Jump-run!" VOICE ONE: This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot: VOICE TWO: "Cut the engine!" VOICE ONE: The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says: VOICE TWO: "Sit in the door!" VOICE ONE: Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command: VOICE TWO: "Climb out!" VOICE ONE: You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel. Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine-hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller feels heavy against your chest. Then your teacher shouts: VOICE TWO: "Go!" VOICE ONE: You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below. The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving...but not falling. Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff straps of the parachute harness gently pull on your shoulders and legs. You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left. VOICE TWO: You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small. For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump. VOICE ONE: Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place. Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet. You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun. VOICE TWO: The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as Fourteen-Ninety-Five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute. About two-hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device. The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, he parachuted from a balloon six-hundred meters above the city of Paris. VOICE ONE: There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives. Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool. In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old. VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving. Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three-thousand-meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely. People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up! Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight...like that of birds. VOICE ONE: Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five-hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors. One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works much like a jet airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer it. Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does. The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety. By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think, "Do I really want to do this?" You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too. VOICE ONE: The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready. Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky. The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned. You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind. While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts: VOICE TWO: "Jump-run!" VOICE ONE: This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot: VOICE TWO: "Cut the engine!" VOICE ONE: The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says: VOICE TWO: "Sit in the door!" VOICE ONE: Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command: VOICE TWO: "Climb out!" VOICE ONE: You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel. Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine-hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller feels heavy against your chest. Then your teacher shouts: VOICE TWO: "Go!" VOICE ONE: You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below. The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving...but not falling. Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff straps of the parachute harness gently pull on your shoulders and legs. You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left. VOICE TWO: You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small. For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump. VOICE ONE: Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place. Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet. You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun. VOICE TWO: The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as Fourteen-Ninety-Five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute. About two-hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device. The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, he parachuted from a balloon six-hundred meters above the city of Paris. VOICE ONE: There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives. Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool. In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old. VOICE TWO: There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving. Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three-thousand-meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely. People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up! Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight...like that of birds. VOICE ONE: Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five-hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors. One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works much like a jet airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer it. Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour. (THEME) VOICE TWO: You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - February 21, 2002: Franklin Roosevelt and the First 100 Days
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The inauguration speech of President Franklin Roosevelt in March, nineteen-thirty-three, gave hope to millions of Americans. The new president promised to fight the terrible economic crisis, the great depression. Roosevelt kept his promise. His administration launched into action even before the inauguration ceremonies were finished. As Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, watched the traditional inauguration parade, his assistants began working. The lights of Washington's federal office buildings burned late that night. And not just on inauguration night, but the next night and the next night, too. The nation was in crisis. There was much work to do. VOICE 2: The first three months of Franklin Roosevelt's administration were an exciting time. Roosevelt led the Congress to pass more important legislation during this short period than most presidents pass during their entire term. These three months are remembered today as "the Hundred Days. " Sunday, March fifth, was the day after the inauguration. Roosevelt told Congress to begin a special meeting on Thursday. And he ordered all the nation's banks to close until the economy improved. Roosevelt also banned the export of gold. Congress met on Thursday, as Roosevelt had asked. It passed everything that Roosevelt wanted. Both the house and Senate approved Roosevelt's strong new banking laws in less than eight hours. Roosevelt signed the bills into law the same day. VOICE 1: The next day, Friday, Roosevelt called on Congress to cut federal spending. Once again, Congress met and approved Roosevelt's request immediately. Two nights later, Roosevelt spoke to the nation in a radio speech. His warm, powerful voice traveled to millions of homes. He gave listeners hope that they could once again trust their banks and political leaders. On Monday, Roosevelt called on Congress to pass laws making it legal to drink wine or beer. And once again, Congress agreed. Roosevelt's success in passing these important and difficult laws excited the nation. People across the country watched in wonder as the new president fought and won battle after battle. VOICE 2: Washington was filled with activity. The air was full of energy, like a country sky during an electric storm. People from around the country rushed to the capital to urge the administration to support their ideas. Bankers came by the thousands to win favorable legislation. Experts of all kinds offered new ideas on how to rescue the economy. Ambassadors came from Britain, France, Brazil, Chile, China, and many other countries to speak with Roosevelt on economic and diplomatic issues. And members of the Democratic Party arrived by the thousands to seek jobs in the new administration. Americans watched closely what was happening in Washington. And they liked what they saw. They had voted for action. Now, Roosevelt was giving them action. VOICE 2: One of the most important areas of action for the new administration was agriculture. American farmers had been hurt more than any other group by the economic depression. The average income of American farmers had dropped in three years from one-hundred sixty-two dollars a year to just forty-eight dollars. Farm prices had fallen fifty-five percent. The buying power of the average farmer had dropped by more than half. Many farmers could not even earn enough money to pay for their tools and seeds. The main cause of the farmers' problem was that they produced too much. There was too much grain, too much meat, too much cotton. As a result, prices stayed low. The situation was good for people in cities who bought farm products. But it was a disaster for the farmers themselves. VOICE 2: Roosevelt attacked the problem by limiting production. His administration put a new tax on grain products, increasing their price and reducing demand. The administration paid cotton farmers to destroy some of their crops. And it bought and killed five-million pigs to reduce the amount of meat on the market. It was a strange situation. Some Americans had trouble understanding the economic reason why food had to be destroyed so people could have enough to eat. But more officials agreed that this was the only way to limit supply, raise prices, and save farmers. The plan worked. Production fell rapidly. Hot weather and bad harvests in nineteen-thirty-three and nineteen-thirty-four reduced the amount of grain even more. As a result, prices rose. Farm income increased fifty percent in four years. VOICE 1: The administration also attacked the problem of falling industrial production. At the time of Roosevelt's inauguration, American industry was producing less than half the goods that it had just four years before. Business owners reacted by cutting costs: lowering wages and reducing the number of workers. This only reduced the number of people with enough money to buy goods. And so production went down further and further. The administration created a national recovery administration to allow companies to cooperate to increase production. Business owners agreed to follow certain rules, such as limiting the number of hours people could work. They also agreed to raise wages and to stop hiring children. They agreed to improve working conditions and to cooperate with labor unions. At the same time, Roosevelt created a public works administration to provide jobs to unemployed workers. The federal government put people to work building dams, bridges, water systems, and other major projects. VOICE 2: On money policy, Roosevelt and the Congress decided that the dollar should no longer be tied to the price of gold. They passed a home owner's bill that helped many Americans borrow new money to protect their homes. And a bank insurance bill guaranteed the safety of money that Americans placed in banks, greatly increasing public faith in the banks. Roosevelt and the Congress created a new civilian conservation corps to put young men to work in rural areas to protect the nation's natural resources. These young men planted trees, improved parks, and protected natural water supplies. They also worked with farmers to develop crops and farming methods to protect soil from wind and rain. VOICE 1: One of Roosevelt's most creative projects was a plan to improve the area around the state of Tennessee in the southeastern part of the country. The Tennessee river valley area was very poor. Forests were thin, floods common, and income low. Few farms had electricity. Roosevelt and Congress decided to attack all these problems with a single project. The new Tennessee Valley administration (authority) built dams, cleared rivers, expanded forests, and provided electricity. It succeeded in helping farmers throughout the area, creating new life and hope. VOICE 2: "The Hundred Days" -- the first three months of the Roosevelt administration -- were a great success. One reporter for the New York Times newspaper observed that the change from President Hoover to President Roosevelt was like a man moving from a slow horse to an airplane. Suddenly, the nation was moving again. There was action everywhere. Newsman Frederick Allen described the situation this way: "The difference between Roosevelt's program and the Hoover program was sharp," Allen wrote. "Roosevelt's was not a program of defense, but of attack. In most of the laws, there was a new push for the good of the common man. There was a new effort to build wealth from the bottom up, rather than from the top down." Said Allen: "there was a new willingness to expand the limits of government." (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your reporters were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The inauguration speech of President Franklin Roosevelt in March, nineteen-thirty-three, gave hope to millions of Americans. The new president promised to fight the terrible economic crisis, the great depression. Roosevelt kept his promise. His administration launched into action even before the inauguration ceremonies were finished. As Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, watched the traditional inauguration parade, his assistants began working. The lights of Washington's federal office buildings burned late that night. And not just on inauguration night, but the next night and the next night, too. The nation was in crisis. There was much work to do. VOICE 2: The first three months of Franklin Roosevelt's administration were an exciting time. Roosevelt led the Congress to pass more important legislation during this short period than most presidents pass during their entire term. These three months are remembered today as "the Hundred Days. " Sunday, March fifth, was the day after the inauguration. Roosevelt told Congress to begin a special meeting on Thursday. And he ordered all the nation's banks to close until the economy improved. Roosevelt also banned the export of gold. Congress met on Thursday, as Roosevelt had asked. It passed everything that Roosevelt wanted. Both the house and Senate approved Roosevelt's strong new banking laws in less than eight hours. Roosevelt signed the bills into law the same day. VOICE 1: The next day, Friday, Roosevelt called on Congress to cut federal spending. Once again, Congress met and approved Roosevelt's request immediately. Two nights later, Roosevelt spoke to the nation in a radio speech. His warm, powerful voice traveled to millions of homes. He gave listeners hope that they could once again trust their banks and political leaders. On Monday, Roosevelt called on Congress to pass laws making it legal to drink wine or beer. And once again, Congress agreed. Roosevelt's success in passing these important and difficult laws excited the nation. People across the country watched in wonder as the new president fought and won battle after battle. VOICE 2: Washington was filled with activity. The air was full of energy, like a country sky during an electric storm. People from around the country rushed to the capital to urge the administration to support their ideas. Bankers came by the thousands to win favorable legislation. Experts of all kinds offered new ideas on how to rescue the economy. Ambassadors came from Britain, France, Brazil, Chile, China, and many other countries to speak with Roosevelt on economic and diplomatic issues. And members of the Democratic Party arrived by the thousands to seek jobs in the new administration. Americans watched closely what was happening in Washington. And they liked what they saw. They had voted for action. Now, Roosevelt was giving them action. VOICE 2: One of the most important areas of action for the new administration was agriculture. American farmers had been hurt more than any other group by the economic depression. The average income of American farmers had dropped in three years from one-hundred sixty-two dollars a year to just forty-eight dollars. Farm prices had fallen fifty-five percent. The buying power of the average farmer had dropped by more than half. Many farmers could not even earn enough money to pay for their tools and seeds. The main cause of the farmers' problem was that they produced too much. There was too much grain, too much meat, too much cotton. As a result, prices stayed low. The situation was good for people in cities who bought farm products. But it was a disaster for the farmers themselves. VOICE 2: Roosevelt attacked the problem by limiting production. His administration put a new tax on grain products, increasing their price and reducing demand. The administration paid cotton farmers to destroy some of their crops. And it bought and killed five-million pigs to reduce the amount of meat on the market. It was a strange situation. Some Americans had trouble understanding the economic reason why food had to be destroyed so people could have enough to eat. But more officials agreed that this was the only way to limit supply, raise prices, and save farmers. The plan worked. Production fell rapidly. Hot weather and bad harvests in nineteen-thirty-three and nineteen-thirty-four reduced the amount of grain even more. As a result, prices rose. Farm income increased fifty percent in four years. VOICE 1: The administration also attacked the problem of falling industrial production. At the time of Roosevelt's inauguration, American industry was producing less than half the goods that it had just four years before. Business owners reacted by cutting costs: lowering wages and reducing the number of workers. This only reduced the number of people with enough money to buy goods. And so production went down further and further. The administration created a national recovery administration to allow companies to cooperate to increase production. Business owners agreed to follow certain rules, such as limiting the number of hours people could work. They also agreed to raise wages and to stop hiring children. They agreed to improve working conditions and to cooperate with labor unions. At the same time, Roosevelt created a public works administration to provide jobs to unemployed workers. The federal government put people to work building dams, bridges, water systems, and other major projects. VOICE 2: On money policy, Roosevelt and the Congress decided that the dollar should no longer be tied to the price of gold. They passed a home owner's bill that helped many Americans borrow new money to protect their homes. And a bank insurance bill guaranteed the safety of money that Americans placed in banks, greatly increasing public faith in the banks. Roosevelt and the Congress created a new civilian conservation corps to put young men to work in rural areas to protect the nation's natural resources. These young men planted trees, improved parks, and protected natural water supplies. They also worked with farmers to develop crops and farming methods to protect soil from wind and rain. VOICE 1: One of Roosevelt's most creative projects was a plan to improve the area around the state of Tennessee in the southeastern part of the country. The Tennessee river valley area was very poor. Forests were thin, floods common, and income low. Few farms had electricity. Roosevelt and Congress decided to attack all these problems with a single project. The new Tennessee Valley administration (authority) built dams, cleared rivers, expanded forests, and provided electricity. It succeeded in helping farmers throughout the area, creating new life and hope. VOICE 2: "The Hundred Days" -- the first three months of the Roosevelt administration -- were a great success. One reporter for the New York Times newspaper observed that the change from President Hoover to President Roosevelt was like a man moving from a slow horse to an airplane. Suddenly, the nation was moving again. There was action everywhere. Newsman Frederick Allen described the situation this way: "The difference between Roosevelt's program and the Hoover program was sharp," Allen wrote. "Roosevelt's was not a program of defense, but of attack. In most of the laws, there was a new push for the good of the common man. There was a new effort to build wealth from the bottom up, rather than from the top down." Said Allen: "there was a new willingness to expand the limits of government." (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to the Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your reporters were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – February 20, 2002: Pine Island Glacier
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists have expressed much interest in the development of a huge new iceberg in Antarctica. This huge ice island formed when a piece broke off a moving mass of ice called the Pine Island Glacier. The new iceberg was formed last November. Creation of the new iceberg was the biggest such event ever recorded in the area. As much ice broke off the glacier as it usually releases in about seven years. The iceberg is about six-hundred square kilometers. It is four-hundred meters thick. The iceberg now is moving toward the northwest. Experts say its creation shows that western Antarctica is changing quickly. Experts say formation of the iceberg is not expected to affect sea levels on Earth. However, it is not clear how it may influence the climate. The Pine Island Glacier is the fastest moving glacier on the continent. It releases more ice into Antarctica than any other glacier. It is in the area of the West Antarctic ice sheet that scientists believe is most likely to break apart. American space agency scientist Robert Bindschadler works at the Goddard Space Flight Center in the state of Maryland. The NASA expert was studying satellite pictures of the Pine Island Glacier in January of last year. He noted a thin break in its ice. This crack measured about twenty-five kilometers long. It extended more than two-thirds of the way across the glacier. Satellite photos taken ten months earlier had not shown a crack. Other agencies that observe the Earth helped NASA watch the crack develop. The researchers used special instruments to measure its growth. During the first five weeks, it grew very fast. Then the crack grew at an average of about fifteen meters a day. The last ten kilometers of the cracking area broke off within days. The iceberg was formed at least six months faster than scientists had expected. NASA and the United States Geological Survey work together to make maps of Antarctica. Their joint project is called Landsat Seven. Landsat equipment can see objects as small as fifteen meters across. Before the project began, many parts of Antarctica had never been seen this well before. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – February 25, 2002: Measles in Africa
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Five leading public health organizations have announced a campaign to reduce the number of deaths among children in Africa caused by measles. The American Red Cross is leading this effort. Its goal is to save the lives of more than one-million children over the next five years. Officials hope to give vaccine medicines to prevent measles to more than two-hundred-million children. Measles attacks the skin surfaces and the body’s defense system against disease. It also can cause blindness and brain damage. Measles is the single leading cause of death among children in Africa. It kills more than four-hundred-fifty-thousand children in Africa each year. Yet it can be easily prevented with a simple vaccine medicine. Danny Tarantola (tah-RAHN-to-lah) is the Director of Vaccines at the World Health Organization. He says measles is seen in many African communities as the one disease that tests the survival of children. Doctor Tarantola says in some communities children will not be given a name unless they have survived the disease.The American Red Cross has joined four other organizations in the campaign against measles. They are the United States Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Foundation, and the U-N Children’s Fund. The five groups have promised two-hundred-million dollars for the campaign. That is about one-dollar for each child. Officials say the campaign really began last year. More than twenty-million children received the measles vaccine in Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Cameroon. Officials say the campaign reached ninety-five percent of the children in those countries and saved more than one-hundred-forty-thousand lives. Officials now plan to target fifty-three-million children in twelve more countries this year. Health officials hope to follow a model used during a successful campaign against the disease polio. They say the polio operation helped build a support system in Africa that the measles campaign will use. Officials are carrying out the effort against measles in Africa first because the need is greatest. However, they hope to extend the campaign to other parts of the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Five leading public health organizations have announced a campaign to reduce the number of deaths among children in Africa caused by measles. The American Red Cross is leading this effort. Its goal is to save the lives of more than one-million children over the next five years. Officials hope to give vaccine medicines to prevent measles to more than two-hundred-million children. Measles attacks the skin surfaces and the body’s defense system against disease. It also can cause blindness and brain damage. Measles is the single leading cause of death among children in Africa. It kills more than four-hundred-fifty-thousand children in Africa each year. Yet it can be easily prevented with a simple vaccine medicine. Danny Tarantola (tah-RAHN-to-lah) is the Director of Vaccines at the World Health Organization. He says measles is seen in many African communities as the one disease that tests the survival of children. Doctor Tarantola says in some communities children will not be given a name unless they have survived the disease.The American Red Cross has joined four other organizations in the campaign against measles. They are the United States Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Foundation, and the U-N Children’s Fund. The five groups have promised two-hundred-million dollars for the campaign. That is about one-dollar for each child. Officials say the campaign really began last year. More than twenty-million children received the measles vaccine in Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Cameroon. Officials say the campaign reached ninety-five percent of the children in those countries and saved more than one-hundred-forty-thousand lives. Officials now plan to target fifty-three-million children in twelve more countries this year. Health officials hope to follow a model used during a successful campaign against the disease polio. They say the polio operation helped build a support system in Africa that the measles campaign will use. Officials are carrying out the effort against measles in Africa first because the need is greatest. However, they hope to extend the campaign to other parts of the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - January 25, 2002: Three Mo' Tenors
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Music experts say more people are becoming interested in classical music because it is being presented in new ways by new groups. A group of singers called Three Mo’ Tenors is such a group. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The music of Three Mo’ Tenors is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE FROM THREE MO’ TENORS)) VOICE ONE: Three Mo’ Tenors present concerts that celebrate many kinds of music. Their first concert was presented in New York City in the summer of Two-Thousand. Since then, they have performed in many cities in the United States. Their concert also has been broadcast on television. A tenor is the highest natural adult male singing voice. Three African-American singers perform as Three Mo’ Tenors. They are Victor Trent Cook, Rodrick Dixon and Thomas Young. They sing seven different kinds of music -- opera, songs from Broadway shows, jazz, blues, soul, spiritual and gospel. Listen as they sing “La Donna e Mobile” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto.” ((CUT ONE – “LA DONNA E MOBILE")) VOICE TWO: You may think they sound like any other group of tenors trained to sing classical music. Listen again as the same performers celebrate the sounds of Broadway. This song is from the Broadway musical show “Five Guys Named Moe.” It is called “Let the Good Times Roll.” ((CUT 2 – “LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL")) VOICE ONE: Broadway director Marion Caffey is creator and director of Three Mo’ Tenors. He says he got the idea for the Three Mo’ Tenors concert while listening to the successful concert of the Three Tenors. It was performed by three world-famous opera singers, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Mister Caffey says he wants Three Mo’ Tenors to show that African-American singers are skilled performers of classical music. Mister Caffey says there has been a lack of African-American tenors singing opera or classical music in concert. He includes this message in the Three Mo’ Tenors concert. Rodrick Dixon sings “Make Them Hear You” from the Broadway musical “Ragtime.” ((CUT 3 – “MAKE THEM HEAR YOU")) VOICE TWO: The Three Mo’ Tenors are trained in classical as well as other kinds of music. Victor Trent Cook received a Tony Award nomination in Nineteen-Ninety-Five for his performance in the Broadway musical “Smokey Joe’s Café.” He has also performed in other Broadway shows. Rodrick Dixon has sung in concerts in the United States, France and Italy. He has appeared on Broadway in the musical “Ragtime.”Thomas Young has performed in major concert halls and opera houses in twenty countries. He has also performed in theater and as a jazz singer. VOICE ONE: Listen to more music from the Three Mo’ Tenors concert. The tenors sing a collection of songs written or made popular by Duke Ellington. Here they sing “You Gotta Be a Rug Cutter and It Don’t Mean a Thing.” ((CUT 4 - “YOU GOTTA BE A RUG CUTTER/IT DON’T MEAN A THING”)) VOICE TWO: Soul music became popular in the United States during the Nineteen-Sixties and Nineteen-Seventies. The song “Love Train” remains popular today. ((CUT 5 – “LOVE TRAIN")) VOICE ONE: Music critics are praising the Three Mo’ Tenors. Experts say the tenors are excellent at singing many kinds of music, as a group and as individuals. The Three Mo’ Tenors concert ends with a spiritually emotional performance of gospel songs. The tenors are joined by a small group of gospel singers. We leave you with “It’s My Time to Be Blessed.” ((CUT 6 – “IT’S MY TIME TO BE BLESSED”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Music experts say more people are becoming interested in classical music because it is being presented in new ways by new groups. A group of singers called Three Mo’ Tenors is such a group. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The music of Three Mo’ Tenors is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE FROM THREE MO’ TENORS)) VOICE ONE: Three Mo’ Tenors present concerts that celebrate many kinds of music. Their first concert was presented in New York City in the summer of Two-Thousand. Since then, they have performed in many cities in the United States. Their concert also has been broadcast on television. A tenor is the highest natural adult male singing voice. Three African-American singers perform as Three Mo’ Tenors. They are Victor Trent Cook, Rodrick Dixon and Thomas Young. They sing seven different kinds of music -- opera, songs from Broadway shows, jazz, blues, soul, spiritual and gospel. Listen as they sing “La Donna e Mobile” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto.” ((CUT ONE – “LA DONNA E MOBILE")) VOICE TWO: You may think they sound like any other group of tenors trained to sing classical music. Listen again as the same performers celebrate the sounds of Broadway. This song is from the Broadway musical show “Five Guys Named Moe.” It is called “Let the Good Times Roll.” ((CUT 2 – “LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL")) VOICE ONE: Broadway director Marion Caffey is creator and director of Three Mo’ Tenors. He says he got the idea for the Three Mo’ Tenors concert while listening to the successful concert of the Three Tenors. It was performed by three world-famous opera singers, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Mister Caffey says he wants Three Mo’ Tenors to show that African-American singers are skilled performers of classical music. Mister Caffey says there has been a lack of African-American tenors singing opera or classical music in concert. He includes this message in the Three Mo’ Tenors concert. Rodrick Dixon sings “Make Them Hear You” from the Broadway musical “Ragtime.” ((CUT 3 – “MAKE THEM HEAR YOU")) VOICE TWO: The Three Mo’ Tenors are trained in classical as well as other kinds of music. Victor Trent Cook received a Tony Award nomination in Nineteen-Ninety-Five for his performance in the Broadway musical “Smokey Joe’s Café.” He has also performed in other Broadway shows. Rodrick Dixon has sung in concerts in the United States, France and Italy. He has appeared on Broadway in the musical “Ragtime.”Thomas Young has performed in major concert halls and opera houses in twenty countries. He has also performed in theater and as a jazz singer. VOICE ONE: Listen to more music from the Three Mo’ Tenors concert. The tenors sing a collection of songs written or made popular by Duke Ellington. Here they sing “You Gotta Be a Rug Cutter and It Don’t Mean a Thing.” ((CUT 4 - “YOU GOTTA BE A RUG CUTTER/IT DON’T MEAN A THING”)) VOICE TWO: Soul music became popular in the United States during the Nineteen-Sixties and Nineteen-Seventies. The song “Love Train” remains popular today. ((CUT 5 – “LOVE TRAIN")) VOICE ONE: Music critics are praising the Three Mo’ Tenors. Experts say the tenors are excellent at singing many kinds of music, as a group and as individuals. The Three Mo’ Tenors concert ends with a spiritually emotional performance of gospel songs. The tenors are joined by a small group of gospel singers. We leave you with “It’s My Time to Be Blessed.” ((CUT 6 – “IT’S MY TIME TO BE BLESSED”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-22-5-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - February 24, 2002: Barbara Cooney
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. She died in March two-thousand. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. She wrote some. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. Her name appears on one-hundred-ten books in all. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about the life of Barbara Cooney, the creator of many popular children’s books. She died in March two-thousand. (THEME) VOICE ONE: For sixty years Barbara Cooney created children’s books. She wrote some. And she provided pictures for her own books and for books written by others. Her name appears on one-hundred-ten books in all. The last book was published six months before her death. It is called "Basket Moon." It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in "Basket Moon" as quiet and beautiful. It says they tie together "the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. One example is in her artwork for the book "Eleanor." It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Mizz Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details. Another example of her detailed work is in her retelling of "Chanticleer and the Fox." She took the story from the "Canterbury Tales" by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England. VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. "How many children will know or care?" she said. "Maybe not a single one. Still I keep piling it on. Detail after detail. Whom am I pleasing -- besides myself? I don't know. Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later." The last book was published six months before her death. It is called "Basket Moon." It was written by Mary Lyn Ray. It tells the story of a boy who lived a century ago with his family in the mountains in New York state. His family makes baskets that are sold in town. One magazine describes Barbara Cooney's paintings in "Basket Moon" as quiet and beautiful. It says they tie together "the basket maker’s natural world and the work of his craft." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney was known for her carefully detailed work. One example is in her artwork for the book "Eleanor." It is about Eleanor Roosevelt, who became the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. Mizz Cooney made sure that a dress worn by Eleanor as a baby was historically correct down to the smallest details. Another example of her detailed work is in her retelling of "Chanticleer and the Fox." She took the story from the "Canterbury Tales" by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Barbara Cooney once said that every flower and grass in her pictures grew in Chaucer's time in fourteenth-century England. VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney wondered at times if her concern about details was worth the effort. "How many children will know or care?" she said. "Maybe not a single one. Still I keep piling it on. Detail after detail. Whom am I pleasing -- besides myself? I don't know. Yet if I put enough in my pictures, there may be something for everyone. Not all will be understood, but some will be understood now and maybe more later." Mizz Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the Nineteen-Fifty-Nine Caldecott Medal for "Chanticleer and the Fox." The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book "Ox-Cart Man." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen-forties. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard. The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. Thick black ink is spread over the clay. The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. With each cut of the black ink, the white clay shows through. To finish the piece the artist may add different colors. Scratchboard is hard work, but this process can create fine detail. Later, Barbara Cooney began to use pen and ink, watercolor, oil paints, and other materials. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Mizz Cooney gave that speech as she accepted the Nineteen-Fifty-Nine Caldecott Medal for "Chanticleer and the Fox." The American Library Association gives the award each year to the artist of a picture book for children. She received a second Caldecott Medal for her folk-art paintings in the book "Ox-Cart Man." VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney’s first books appeared in the nineteen-forties. At first she created pictures using a method called scratchboard. The scratchboard is made by placing white clay on a hard surface. Thick black ink is spread over the clay. The artist uses a sharp knife or other tool to make thousands of small cuts in the top. With each cut of the black ink, the white clay shows through. To finish the piece the artist may add different colors. Scratchboard is hard work, but this process can create fine detail. Later, Barbara Cooney began to use pen and ink, watercolor, oil paints, and other materials. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Barbara Cooney was born in New York City in Nineteen-Seventeen. Her mother was an artist and her father sold stocks on the stock market. Barbara graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight with a major in art history. During World War Two Barbara Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps. She also got married, but her first marriage did not last long. Then she married a doctor, Charles Talbot Porter. They were married until her death. She had four children. VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney said that three of her books were as close to a story of her life as she would ever write. One is "Miss Rumphius," published in nineteen-eighty-two. We will tell more about "Miss Rumphius" soon. The second book is called "Island Boy." The boy is named Matthias. He is the youngest of twelve children in a family on Tibbetts Island, Maine. Matthias grows up to sail around the world. But throughout his life he always returns to the island of his childhood. Barbara Cooney also travelled around the world, but in her later years always returned to live on the coast of Maine. VOICE ONE: The third book about Barbara Cooney’s life is called "Hattie and the Wild Waves." It is based on the childhood of her mother. The girl Hattie lives in a wealthy family in New York. One days she tells her family that she wants to be a painter when she grows up. The other children make fun of the idea of a girl wanting to paint houses. But, as the book explains, “Hattie was not thinking about houses. She was thinking about the moon in the sky and the wind in the trees and the wild waves of the ocean." Hattie tries different jobs as she grows up. At last, she follows her dream and decides to "paint her heart out." (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Of all of Barbara Cooney's books, the one that seems to affect people the most is "Miss Rumphius." It won the American Book Award. It was first published in Nineteen-Eighty-Two by Viking-Penguin. "Miss Rumphius" is Alice Rumphius. A young storyteller in the book tells the story which begins with Alice as a young girl. VOICE THREE: "In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, 'When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea. "That is all very well, little Alice,' said her grandfather, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' "'What is that?' asked Alice. "You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' said her grandfather. "'All right,' said Alice. But she did not know what that could be. "In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework. "And pretty soon she was grown up." VOICE ONE: Alice traveled the world. She climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. One day, however, she hurt her back getting off a camel. VOICE THREE: "'What a foolish thing to do,' said Miss Rumphius. 'Well, I have certainly seen faraway places. Maybe it is time to find my place by the sea.' And it was, and she did. Miss Rumphius was almost perfectly happy. 'But there is still one more thing I have to do,' she said. 'I have to do something to make the world more beautiful.' "But what? 'The world is already pretty nice,' she thought, looking out over the ocean." VOICE TWO: The next spring Miss Rumphius' back was hurting again. She had to stay in bed most of the time. Through her bedroom window she could see the tall blue and purple and rose-colored lupine [pronounced 'loo-pin] flowers she had planted the summer before. VOICE THREE: "'Lupines,' said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction. 'I have always loved lupines the best. I wish I could plant more seeds this summer so that I could have still more flowers next year.' “But she was not able to." VOICE ONE: A hard winter came, then spring. Miss Rumphius was feeling better. She could take walks again. One day she came to a hill where she had not been in a long time. "'I don't believe my eyes,' she cried when she got to the top. For there on the other side of the hill was a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines!'" VOICE THREE: "'It was the wind,' she said as she knelt in delight. "It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here! And the birds must have helped.' Then Miss Rumphius had a wonderful idea!" VOICE TWO: That idea was to buy lupine seed -- lots of it. All summer, wherever she went, Miss Rumphius would drop handfuls of seeds: over fields, along roads, around the schoolhouse, behind the church. Her back did not hurt her any more. But now some people called her "That Crazy Old Lady." The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius had done the most difficult thing of all. The young storyteller in the book continues: VOICE THREE: "My Great-aunt Alice, Miss Rumphius, is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there are more and more lupines. Now they call her the Lupine Lady. ... "'When I grow up,' I tell her, 'I too will go to faraway places and come home to live by the sea.' "'That is all very well, little Alice,' says my aunt, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' "'What is that?' I ask. "'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.'" VOICE ONE: Many readers, young and old, would agree that Barbara Cooney did just that. VOICE TWO: Many of Barbara Cooney's later books took place in the small northeastern state of Maine. She spent summers there when she was a child, then moved to Maine in her later years. She loved Maine. She gave her local library almost a million dollars. The state showed its love for her. In nineteen-ninety-six, the governor of Maine declared Barbara Cooney a State Treasure. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Adrienne Arditti was the storyteller. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Barbara Cooney was born in New York City in Nineteen-Seventeen. Her mother was an artist and her father sold stocks on the stock market. Barbara graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight with a major in art history. During World War Two Barbara Cooney joined the Women's Army Corps. She also got married, but her first marriage did not last long. Then she married a doctor, Charles Talbot Porter. They were married until her death. She had four children. VOICE TWO: Barbara Cooney said that three of her books were as close to a story of her life as she would ever write. One is "Miss Rumphius," published in nineteen-eighty-two. We will tell more about "Miss Rumphius" soon. The second book is called "Island Boy." The boy is named Matthias. He is the youngest of twelve children in a family on Tibbetts Island, Maine. Matthias grows up to sail around the world. But throughout his life he always returns to the island of his childhood. Barbara Cooney also travelled around the world, but in her later years always returned to live on the coast of Maine. VOICE ONE: The third book about Barbara Cooney’s life is called "Hattie and the Wild Waves." It is based on the childhood of her mother. The girl Hattie lives in a wealthy family in New York. One days she tells her family that she wants to be a painter when she grows up. The other children make fun of the idea of a girl wanting to paint houses. But, as the book explains, “Hattie was not thinking about houses. She was thinking about the moon in the sky and the wind in the trees and the wild waves of the ocean." Hattie tries different jobs as she grows up. At last, she follows her dream and decides to "paint her heart out." (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Of all of Barbara Cooney's books, the one that seems to affect people the most is "Miss Rumphius." It won the American Book Award. It was first published in Nineteen-Eighty-Two by Viking-Penguin. "Miss Rumphius" is Alice Rumphius. A young storyteller in the book tells the story which begins with Alice as a young girl. VOICE THREE: "In the evening Alice sat on her grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, 'When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea. "That is all very well, little Alice,' said her grandfather, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' "'What is that?' asked Alice. "You must do something to make the world more beautiful,' said her grandfather. "'All right,' said Alice. But she did not know what that could be. "In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework. "And pretty soon she was grown up." VOICE ONE: Alice traveled the world. She climbed tall mountains where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. One day, however, she hurt her back getting off a camel. VOICE THREE: "'What a foolish thing to do,' said Miss Rumphius. 'Well, I have certainly seen faraway places. Maybe it is time to find my place by the sea.' And it was, and she did. Miss Rumphius was almost perfectly happy. 'But there is still one more thing I have to do,' she said. 'I have to do something to make the world more beautiful.' "But what? 'The world is already pretty nice,' she thought, looking out over the ocean." VOICE TWO: The next spring Miss Rumphius' back was hurting again. She had to stay in bed most of the time. Through her bedroom window she could see the tall blue and purple and rose-colored lupine [pronounced 'loo-pin] flowers she had planted the summer before. VOICE THREE: "'Lupines,' said Miss Rumphius with satisfaction. 'I have always loved lupines the best. I wish I could plant more seeds this summer so that I could have still more flowers next year.' “But she was not able to." VOICE ONE: A hard winter came, then spring. Miss Rumphius was feeling better. She could take walks again. One day she came to a hill where she had not been in a long time. "'I don't believe my eyes,' she cried when she got to the top. For there on the other side of the hill was a large patch of blue and purple and rose-colored lupines!'" VOICE THREE: "'It was the wind,' she said as she knelt in delight. "It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here! And the birds must have helped.' Then Miss Rumphius had a wonderful idea!" VOICE TWO: That idea was to buy lupine seed -- lots of it. All summer, wherever she went, Miss Rumphius would drop handfuls of seeds: over fields, along roads, around the schoolhouse, behind the church. Her back did not hurt her any more. But now some people called her "That Crazy Old Lady." The next spring there were lupines everywhere. Miss Rumphius had done the most difficult thing of all. The young storyteller in the book continues: VOICE THREE: "My Great-aunt Alice, Miss Rumphius, is very old now. Her hair is very white. Every year there are more and more lupines. Now they call her the Lupine Lady. ... "'When I grow up,' I tell her, 'I too will go to faraway places and come home to live by the sea.' "'That is all very well, little Alice,' says my aunt, 'but there is a third thing you must do.' "'What is that?' I ask. "'You must do something to make the world more beautiful.'" VOICE ONE: Many readers, young and old, would agree that Barbara Cooney did just that. VOICE TWO: Many of Barbara Cooney's later books took place in the small northeastern state of Maine. She spent summers there when she was a child, then moved to Maine in her later years. She loved Maine. She gave her local library almost a million dollars. The state showed its love for her. In nineteen-ninety-six, the governor of Maine declared Barbara Cooney a State Treasure. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Adrienne Arditti was the storyteller. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-22-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - February 23, 2002: New US Hostage Policy
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The United States has made changes in its policy about American hostages. State Department official Richard Boucher announced the changes Wednesday. Mister Boucher said the government will use every resource to gain the safe return of American citizens who are held hostage. However, he said the United States will continue its policy of not paying kidnappers or meeting any of their demands. For example, the United States will not release prisoners in exchange for the freedom of American hostages. The new policy was announced the day before the State Department confirmed that an American reporter had been killed by his kidnappers in Pakistan. Daniel Pearl was a Wall Street Journal reporter. He was kidnapped last month in Karachi. Two American religious workers continue to be held hostage in the Philippines by the Abu Sayef group. The new policy about American hostages is not very different from the one that has been in place the last seven years. But, it does make clear that the United States will take the kidnapping of private citizens just as seriously as that of government officials. The United States government now will examine every overseas kidnapping of an American for possible action. This expands the earlier policy of considering only the cases in which American officials are held. Mister Boucher warned terrorist groups, criminal organizations and foreign governments against kidnapping Americans. He said the kidnappers will not gain anything by taking hostages. Mister Boucher said there were several ways the United States may answer kidnappings in foreign countries. The new policy permits the use of force to try to gain the release of hostages. Yet, Mister Boucher said he did not want to suggest that military action is in any way a first choice or a better choice. He said the main promise the government is making is to look at every kidnapping case to see what can be done. The other major change in hostage policy concerns the actions of private individuals or businesses. The United States continues to strongly advise that people not pay kidnappers or meet their other demands. Yet, the new policy eases restrictions on American Foreign Service agencies in working on such kidnapping cases. In the past, the Foreign Service could offer assistance only to help private individuals and organizations communicate with foreign governments. The National Security Council began re-examining the hostage policy toward the end of former President Clinton’s administration. The White House, the Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency also were involved in developing the new policy. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The United States has made changes in its policy about American hostages. State Department official Richard Boucher announced the changes Wednesday. Mister Boucher said the government will use every resource to gain the safe return of American citizens who are held hostage. However, he said the United States will continue its policy of not paying kidnappers or meeting any of their demands. For example, the United States will not release prisoners in exchange for the freedom of American hostages. The new policy was announced the day before the State Department confirmed that an American reporter had been killed by his kidnappers in Pakistan. Daniel Pearl was a Wall Street Journal reporter. He was kidnapped last month in Karachi. Two American religious workers continue to be held hostage in the Philippines by the Abu Sayef group. The new policy about American hostages is not very different from the one that has been in place the last seven years. But, it does make clear that the United States will take the kidnapping of private citizens just as seriously as that of government officials. The United States government now will examine every overseas kidnapping of an American for possible action. This expands the earlier policy of considering only the cases in which American officials are held. Mister Boucher warned terrorist groups, criminal organizations and foreign governments against kidnapping Americans. He said the kidnappers will not gain anything by taking hostages. Mister Boucher said there were several ways the United States may answer kidnappings in foreign countries. The new policy permits the use of force to try to gain the release of hostages. Yet, Mister Boucher said he did not want to suggest that military action is in any way a first choice or a better choice. He said the main promise the government is making is to look at every kidnapping case to see what can be done. The other major change in hostage policy concerns the actions of private individuals or businesses. The United States continues to strongly advise that people not pay kidnappers or meet their other demands. Yet, the new policy eases restrictions on American Foreign Service agencies in working on such kidnapping cases. In the past, the Foreign Service could offer assistance only to help private individuals and organizations communicate with foreign governments. The National Security Council began re-examining the hostage policy toward the end of former President Clinton’s administration. The White House, the Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency also were involved in developing the new policy. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Click Here for Listings
* Byline: 

 Sunday Words and Their Stories - unavailable for copyright reasons People in America Monday Development Report This Is America Tuesday Agriculture Report Science in the News Wednesday Science Report Explorations Thursday Science Report The Making of a Nation Friday Environment Report American Mosaic Saturday In the News American Stories - unavailable for copyright reasons 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Sunday
* Byline: 

 People in America Words and Their Stories - unavailable for copyright reasons Words and Their Stories - unavailable for copyright reasons 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Monday
* Byline: 

 Development Report This Is America This Is America 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Tuesday
* Byline: 

 Agriculture Report Science in the News Science in the News 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-5-1.cfm
* Headline: Wednesday
* Byline: 

 Health Report Explorations 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-6-1.cfm
* Headline: Thursday
* Byline: 

 Education Report The Making of a Nation 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-7-1.cfm
* Headline: Friday
* Byline: 

 Environment Report American Mosaic American Mosaic 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-8-1.cfm
* Headline: Saturday
* Byline: 

 In the News American Stories - unavailable for copyright reasons American Stories - unavailable for copyright reasons 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-9-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – February 26, 2002: Heating Buildings with Chicken Fat
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American scientists are developing a new use for chicken fat. Scientists at the University of Georgia in Athens are burning fat from chickens and other animals to produce heat. They have successfully used the fat to produce hot water and heat for buildings at the university. The scientists say their tests show that animal fats often are less costly than more traditional fuels. They also say that burning the fats is safe for people and the environment. They add that no one has reported smelling anything unusual from the local heat production center. The University of Georgia uses large steam boilers to heat its buildings and produce hot water. Recently, the university spent thirty-thousand dollars to change some of the equipment so it could burn both animal fats and traditional fuels. The United States Poultry and Egg Association and the Fats and Protein Research Foundation are providing money for the project. Scientists with the University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering have been supervising the tests. They have burned different mixes of fuel and animal fats. At times, the fuel mix was one-hundred percent chicken fat or other low-cost substances from food processing operations. University of Georgia scientist Tom Adams says the animal fats produce about ninety percent of the heat that traditional fuel oils produce. He also says that substances released into the air by the burning fat are low in harmful pollutants, including sulfur. University officials add that the burning does not increase carbon dioxide gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. Increased production of the gas has been linked to rising temperatures on Earth. Engineer Bob Synk is another member of the research team. He says an increasing number of Americans believe that the country’s dependence on foreign oil imports is a problem. He says the government’s energy plan calls for non-traditional fuels to supply up to twenty percent of America’s energy needs within twenty years. The scientists say chicken fat and other natural products could become important fuels in the future. Mister Adams notes that the United States already produces almost five-thousand-million kilograms of fat from chickens, cows and pigs each year. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American scientists are developing a new use for chicken fat. Scientists at the University of Georgia in Athens are burning fat from chickens and other animals to produce heat. They have successfully used the fat to produce hot water and heat for buildings at the university. The scientists say their tests show that animal fats often are less costly than more traditional fuels. They also say that burning the fats is safe for people and the environment. They add that no one has reported smelling anything unusual from the local heat production center. The University of Georgia uses large steam boilers to heat its buildings and produce hot water. Recently, the university spent thirty-thousand dollars to change some of the equipment so it could burn both animal fats and traditional fuels. The United States Poultry and Egg Association and the Fats and Protein Research Foundation are providing money for the project. Scientists with the University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering have been supervising the tests. They have burned different mixes of fuel and animal fats. At times, the fuel mix was one-hundred percent chicken fat or other low-cost substances from food processing operations. University of Georgia scientist Tom Adams says the animal fats produce about ninety percent of the heat that traditional fuel oils produce. He also says that substances released into the air by the burning fat are low in harmful pollutants, including sulfur. University officials add that the burning does not increase carbon dioxide gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. Increased production of the gas has been linked to rising temperatures on Earth. Engineer Bob Synk is another member of the research team. He says an increasing number of Americans believe that the country’s dependence on foreign oil imports is a problem. He says the government’s energy plan calls for non-traditional fuels to supply up to twenty percent of America’s energy needs within twenty years. The scientists say chicken fat and other natural products could become important fuels in the future. Mister Adams notes that the United States already produces almost five-thousand-million kilograms of fat from chickens, cows and pigs each year. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-25-10-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - February 26, 2002: Mammograms
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the debate over a test used in the fight against breast cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For many years, experts have suggested that women have breast X-ray examinations called mammograms. Many doctors say these X-ray examinations reduce a woman’s chances of dying of breast cancer. In the United States, an estimated one of eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. The risk increases as a woman gets older. The government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for these mammograms. VOICE TWO: A mammogram takes a detailed X-ray picture of the inside of the breast. The picture can show if a woman has abnormal tissue that could be cancer. Health experts have told women that early discovery could reduce their chances of dying of the disease. They say the chances could be reduced by thirty percent. These experts have said early discovery of cancer might prevent removal of the whole breast and other severe treatments. However, some experts no longer give this advice. They now say there is not enough evidence to say that mammograms reduce deaths from breast cancer. They say early discovery of breast cancer does not always guarantee that the disease will not spread to other parts of the body. Many women and their doctors are left questioning what to do. VOICE ONE: Mammograms can show an extremely small tumor. They can show cancer long before a patient suspects it. But now, some doctors say cells from even a very small tumor may threaten a woman’s survival. They say a small tumor may not be an early tumor. They say cells from these cancers may already have spread to other parts of the body. Some experts say long-term survival does not depend on the size of the breast tumor. They say survival depends on the aggressiveness of the tumor. If a tumor has already invaded other parts of the body, even the best treatment may not save the patient’s life. VOICE TWO: An independent committee advises the National Cancer Institute about cancer testing and prevention. For years, this committee has advised women to start having mammograms at about age forty. Last month, the committee said it would no longer advise mammograms. Ten experts found problems in the studies that helped make mammograms an important cancer-fighting tool. The experts said these studies were not performed correctly. Some of the studies were started as early as Nineteen-Sixty-Three. At that time, some requirements for such studies were not as demanding as they are today. However, the National Cancer Institute disagrees with the independent committee. The institute will continue to advise women in their forties and older to have mammograms every one to two years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE ONE: Criticism of mammograms began to increase last October. At that time, the British scientific publication The Lancet reported on early breast cancer studies. The report said they show mammograms provide only a little protection against dying of breast cancer. It said there is not enough clear evidence to decide the value of mammograms. Two scientists from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, Denmark wrote the report. They said five of seven earlier studies of mammograms have problems. They said possible mistakes in the records may have weakened the research. They also said health histories of women in one study may have contained mistakes. The Lancet, however, now has published a more recent report on the subject. This report says a Swedish study confirms the value of mammograms. Their report says evidence developed in Sweden shows mammograms can provide long-term protection against death from breast cancer. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Health scientists are debating the conflicting evidence. For example, ten health advisory organizations placed an advertising message in The New York Times newspaper in late January. This ad advised women to continue having mammograms. The American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Cancer Society were among the groups that placed the ad. Doctors who treat cancer belong to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The society has organized a committee to study mammograms. The United States Preventive Services collects and prepares health information. The group is organizing a report. Two United States senators plan hearings on the issue. VOICE ONE: Barron Lerner is a doctor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York City. Doctor Lerner has written a book called “The Breast Cancer Wars.” He says both supporters and critics of mammograms have provided valuable information. Doctor Lerner says a woman’s age can help her decide about mammograms. He says he will not advise women under fifty whether or not to have the test. He will continue to suggest a yearly mammogram for women ages fifty to seventy. Many breast cancer experts still believe that mammograms can save lives. They say mammograms find more early cancer tumors than any other test. In the past twenty years, death rates from breast cancer have dropped. However it is not clear if this is the result of early treatment due to mammography, better treatment, better education or some other reason. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans have become activists against breast cancer. This activism began almost thirty years ago. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, the wife of President Gerald Ford had an operation for breast cancer. At the time, there was far less public discussion of this kind of cancer than today. Then Betty Ford openly discussed her disease. She helped Americans learn and talk about breast cancer. Many women went to their doctors for examinations. Today, activists work to increase money for breast cancer research. They demand better education and treatment for the disease. Activists include men and women, individuals and businesses. They may disagree about mammography or other issues. But they all share the goal of trying to save lives. VOICE ONE: For example, a woman named Nancy Brinker started the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. It honors the memory of her sister who died of breast cancer. The sisters had a close relationship while growing up in Peoria, Illinois. Later they lived far apart. However, they talked by telephone every day. Miz Brinker says she still remembers the day her sister said she had a lump in her breast. This growth proved to be cancer. Some of America’s best doctors treated Susan Komen. But she died of the disease. After that, Nancy Brinker started her foundation. She decided to see if one person could make a difference in the struggle against breast cancer. During the past twenty years, this organization has worked hard to fight the disease. The Komen foundation operates a telephone information line for patients and others. The foundation and allied organizations have raised more than two-hundred-forty-million dollars. The money helps provide research, education, examinations and treatment. VOICE TWO: One of the events that the Komen foundation organizes is called “Race for the Cure.” This year, more than one-million people will walk or run in the five-kilometer race. These events take place in more than one-hundred American cities and three other nations. They are held to raise money. Many other organizations and businesses also organize walks, races and other events to raise money for breast cancer research. The wife of a seventy-five-year-old retired Army officer died of breast cancer several years ago. Since then her husband has taken part in two fund-raising events. Last year, he walked more than eighty kilometers to aid breast-cancer research and treatment.The retired officer said he did this to honor the memory of his wife. He said he also did it to protect the future of their daughter. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the VOICE OF AMERICA. VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the debate over a test used in the fight against breast cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For many years, experts have suggested that women have breast X-ray examinations called mammograms. Many doctors say these X-ray examinations reduce a woman’s chances of dying of breast cancer. In the United States, an estimated one of eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. The risk increases as a woman gets older. The government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for these mammograms. VOICE TWO: A mammogram takes a detailed X-ray picture of the inside of the breast. The picture can show if a woman has abnormal tissue that could be cancer. Health experts have told women that early discovery could reduce their chances of dying of the disease. They say the chances could be reduced by thirty percent. These experts have said early discovery of cancer might prevent removal of the whole breast and other severe treatments. However, some experts no longer give this advice. They now say there is not enough evidence to say that mammograms reduce deaths from breast cancer. They say early discovery of breast cancer does not always guarantee that the disease will not spread to other parts of the body. Many women and their doctors are left questioning what to do. VOICE ONE: Mammograms can show an extremely small tumor. They can show cancer long before a patient suspects it. But now, some doctors say cells from even a very small tumor may threaten a woman’s survival. They say a small tumor may not be an early tumor. They say cells from these cancers may already have spread to other parts of the body. Some experts say long-term survival does not depend on the size of the breast tumor. They say survival depends on the aggressiveness of the tumor. If a tumor has already invaded other parts of the body, even the best treatment may not save the patient’s life. VOICE TWO: An independent committee advises the National Cancer Institute about cancer testing and prevention. For years, this committee has advised women to start having mammograms at about age forty. Last month, the committee said it would no longer advise mammograms. Ten experts found problems in the studies that helped make mammograms an important cancer-fighting tool. The experts said these studies were not performed correctly. Some of the studies were started as early as Nineteen-Sixty-Three. At that time, some requirements for such studies were not as demanding as they are today. However, the National Cancer Institute disagrees with the independent committee. The institute will continue to advise women in their forties and older to have mammograms every one to two years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE ONE: Criticism of mammograms began to increase last October. At that time, the British scientific publication The Lancet reported on early breast cancer studies. The report said they show mammograms provide only a little protection against dying of breast cancer. It said there is not enough clear evidence to decide the value of mammograms. Two scientists from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, Denmark wrote the report. They said five of seven earlier studies of mammograms have problems. They said possible mistakes in the records may have weakened the research. They also said health histories of women in one study may have contained mistakes. The Lancet, however, now has published a more recent report on the subject. This report says a Swedish study confirms the value of mammograms. Their report says evidence developed in Sweden shows mammograms can provide long-term protection against death from breast cancer. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Health scientists are debating the conflicting evidence. For example, ten health advisory organizations placed an advertising message in The New York Times newspaper in late January. This ad advised women to continue having mammograms. The American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Cancer Society were among the groups that placed the ad. Doctors who treat cancer belong to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The society has organized a committee to study mammograms. The United States Preventive Services collects and prepares health information. The group is organizing a report. Two United States senators plan hearings on the issue. VOICE ONE: Barron Lerner is a doctor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York City. Doctor Lerner has written a book called “The Breast Cancer Wars.” He says both supporters and critics of mammograms have provided valuable information. Doctor Lerner says a woman’s age can help her decide about mammograms. He says he will not advise women under fifty whether or not to have the test. He will continue to suggest a yearly mammogram for women ages fifty to seventy. Many breast cancer experts still believe that mammograms can save lives. They say mammograms find more early cancer tumors than any other test. In the past twenty years, death rates from breast cancer have dropped. However it is not clear if this is the result of early treatment due to mammography, better treatment, better education or some other reason. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans have become activists against breast cancer. This activism began almost thirty years ago. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, the wife of President Gerald Ford had an operation for breast cancer. At the time, there was far less public discussion of this kind of cancer than today. Then Betty Ford openly discussed her disease. She helped Americans learn and talk about breast cancer. Many women went to their doctors for examinations. Today, activists work to increase money for breast cancer research. They demand better education and treatment for the disease. Activists include men and women, individuals and businesses. They may disagree about mammography or other issues. But they all share the goal of trying to save lives. VOICE ONE: For example, a woman named Nancy Brinker started the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. It honors the memory of her sister who died of breast cancer. The sisters had a close relationship while growing up in Peoria, Illinois. Later they lived far apart. However, they talked by telephone every day. Miz Brinker says she still remembers the day her sister said she had a lump in her breast. This growth proved to be cancer. Some of America’s best doctors treated Susan Komen. But she died of the disease. After that, Nancy Brinker started her foundation. She decided to see if one person could make a difference in the struggle against breast cancer. During the past twenty years, this organization has worked hard to fight the disease. The Komen foundation operates a telephone information line for patients and others. The foundation and allied organizations have raised more than two-hundred-forty-million dollars. The money helps provide research, education, examinations and treatment. VOICE TWO: One of the events that the Komen foundation organizes is called “Race for the Cure.” This year, more than one-million people will walk or run in the five-kilometer race. These events take place in more than one-hundred American cities and three other nations. They are held to raise money. Many other organizations and businesses also organize walks, races and other events to raise money for breast cancer research. The wife of a seventy-five-year-old retired Army officer died of breast cancer several years ago. Since then her husband has taken part in two fund-raising events. Last year, he walked more than eighty kilometers to aid breast-cancer research and treatment.The retired officer said he did this to honor the memory of his wife. He said he also did it to protect the future of their daughter. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – February 27, 2002: Drug Use Report
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A new study examines drug use by young people in the United States. The study found that cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped during the past year. The drop continues a general decrease in teenage smoking rates that started in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. American health officials praised the decrease as good news in the nation’s battle against smoking. They note that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease. Smoking rates among American teenagers increased in the first half of the Nineteen-Nineties. However, teenage smoking rates have been decreasing in recent years. The University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research supervised the latest study. The Department of Health and Human Services reported the findings. The study involved more than forty-four-thousand students in more than four-hundred schools across the United States. They were asked about past and daily use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs. The youngest students questioned were thirteen years old. The study also involved fifteen-year-old students and seventeen-year-olds. The most notable change in the study was a continuation of the decrease in cigarette use among thirteen and fifteen-year-olds. For example, about twelve percent of thirteen-year-old students questioned reported smoking at least one cigarette during the past month. Six years ago, the rate was twenty-one percent. Among fifteen-year-olds, the rate dropped from thirty percent in Nineteen-Ninety-Six to twenty-one percent last year. Tommy Thompson is the secretary of Health and Human Services. He praised the findings. He said more teenagers are making correct choices that will help them avoid health problems caused by tobacco. The study found that use of alcoholic drinks and illegal drugs among American teenagers remained the same or dropped during the past year. However, the use of one illegal drug known as Ecstasy continued to increase. Yet the rate of increase was not as great as in recent years. American health officials said they will continue to give teenagers scientific information about the serious health risks of Ecstasy and other illegal drugs. The goal is to further reduce the use of these drugs. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A new study examines drug use by young people in the United States. The study found that cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped during the past year. The drop continues a general decrease in teenage smoking rates that started in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. American health officials praised the decrease as good news in the nation’s battle against smoking. They note that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease. Smoking rates among American teenagers increased in the first half of the Nineteen-Nineties. However, teenage smoking rates have been decreasing in recent years. The University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research supervised the latest study. The Department of Health and Human Services reported the findings. The study involved more than forty-four-thousand students in more than four-hundred schools across the United States. They were asked about past and daily use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs. The youngest students questioned were thirteen years old. The study also involved fifteen-year-old students and seventeen-year-olds. The most notable change in the study was a continuation of the decrease in cigarette use among thirteen and fifteen-year-olds. For example, about twelve percent of thirteen-year-old students questioned reported smoking at least one cigarette during the past month. Six years ago, the rate was twenty-one percent. Among fifteen-year-olds, the rate dropped from thirty percent in Nineteen-Ninety-Six to twenty-one percent last year. Tommy Thompson is the secretary of Health and Human Services. He praised the findings. He said more teenagers are making correct choices that will help them avoid health problems caused by tobacco. The study found that use of alcoholic drinks and illegal drugs among American teenagers remained the same or dropped during the past year. However, the use of one illegal drug known as Ecstasy continued to increase. Yet the rate of increase was not as great as in recent years. American health officials said they will continue to give teenagers scientific information about the serious health risks of Ecstasy and other illegal drugs. The goal is to further reduce the use of these drugs. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - February 27, 2002: Fuel Cell Cars
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a new American program to develop cars that do not cause pollution. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recently announced a new program to develop cars that effectively use fuel and do not cause pollution. The new energy department program will support research to make a car powered by a fuel cell engine. Mister Abraham calls the proposed vehicle the “Freedom Car.” The energy secretary made his announcement at the Detroit Auto Show in early January. He said the new “Freedom Car” project is meant to bring about a change in government policy. Mister Abraham said “Freedom C-A-R” stands for “Cooperative Automotive Research.” He said using hydrogen instead of gasoline as fuel for cars represents an important step toward reducing America’s use of foreign oil. Mister Abraham also said that the fuel cell project will combine government and industrial investments to develop new technologies. VOICE TWO: A fuel cell is not a new invention. It is a device which uses hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electricity and water. Sir William Grove of Britain invented the first fuel cell in Eighteen-Thirty-Nine. Many different designs have been invented since then. The Gemini and Apollo space ships used fuel cells to create electricity in space. Fuel cells provide all the electrical power on the American space agency’s Space Shuttle. The hydrogen used by the fuel cells combines with oxygen to provide all of the drinking water for the astronauts. This is the way a fuel cell uses hydrogen to create electricity. Hydrogen gas is passed over a metal that reacts electrically. The electrons from the hydrogen separate to form electricity. The remaining part of the hydrogen atom, the proton, combines with oxygen to form water. This process makes electricity without producing the pollution that is created when coal, oil and gasoline are burned as fuels. VOICE ONE: Researchers say fuel cells lose less of the energy they produce than other methods of making electricity. They also say that a large number of substances can be used to provide fuel for a fuel cell. Specially treated natural gas, oil and coal all contain the hydrogen necessary to run a fuel cell. Several companies in the United States, Germany and Canada are developing experimental fuel cells. Yet, most of these devices are part of a large power station. In these power systems, a central fuel cell makes electricity from hydrogen gas. Other machines separate hydrogen from natural gas, oil or coal. These fuel cell systems can be very complex. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Hydrogen presents several major problems for those who want to use it to make energy or to power cars. Hydrogen easily combines with other elements, or itself, to create molecules. Yet, it takes a lot of energy to release a hydrogen atom from a molecule. For example, electrolysis is the process of separating a hydrogen atom from an oxygen atom in a molecule of water. In this process, electrical current separates the two atoms, but adds greatly to the cost of making hydrogen gas. The Department of Energy lists several ways that hydrogen can be released from some materials. However, research shows that hydrogen is difficult to separate from complex molecules. The agency estimates that producing electricity from hydrogen would be about ten times more costly than burning natural gas. VOICE ONE: Fuel cells also present major problems for engineers who design cars. A single fuel cell has to be large, yet can create only a small amount of electrical power. So, fuel cells need to be combined in a series to produce a strong electrical current. Researchers have been trying to reduce the size of fuel cells for many years. Some scientists have used new materials to solve the problem. One fuel cell developed by Bell Laboratories is very small. It uses specially processed materials to make a very thin fuel cell. However, these thin fuel cells produce only a small amount of electricity. Experts believe that smaller fuel cells will some day provide power for devices like cellular telephones and computers. VOICE TWO: Fuel storage is another major problem in designing a car that is powered by a fuel cell. Fuel cell engines require a large amount of hydrogen to create enough electricity to much too much space. Hydrogen in liquid form can exist only at extremely low temperatures. A fuel tank in a car to hold liquid hydrogen would need to be very large to keep the temperature inside it low. The cost of a car with a fuel cell engine could also be a major problem. Peter Hoffman is head of The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter. Mister Hoffman supports developing cell energy technology. His estimates suggest that fuel cell cars would cost at least seventy-five thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: Experimental fuel cell cars do exist. The car manufacturer Daimler-Chrysler has developed a fuel cell engine small enough to use in a car. The experimental car is called the Chrysler Natrium. Its fuel cell engine runs on a chemical mixture called sodium borohydride. The fuel cell uses hydrogen in the fuel to make electricity. However, a hydrogen fuel cell powered by the kind of chemical mixture presents new problems. The new fuel is not commonly used today. And, the car would produce huge amounts of borax as waste defeating the purpose of using a fuel cell engine that does not pollute. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The new “Freedom Car” program is not the first time the American government has supported research to produce cars that use fuel more effectively. In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the Clinton administration began a program to design cars that use less fuel. The goal was to develop a car that uses about three times less gasoline than current cars. The government spent about one-thousand-five-hundred million dollars to aid the research. Much of the research money went to laboratories, universities and government agencies. The New York Times reports that the three biggest car makers -- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler -- received only a small amount of the government support. VOICE ONE: That program failed to produce any cars using less fuel that could be sold. It did develop several new materials that are being used in cars today. Yet, American vehicles on average do not use fuel more effectively than they did at the beginning of the program. Energy Secretary Abraham’s announcement in Detroit, Michigan, of the Freedom Car program officially ended that effort. In the proposed federal budget for Two-Thousand-Three, the Bush administration calls for spending one-hundred-fifty million dollars this year on fuel cell research. VOICE TWO: Two car companies have successfully developed cars that use regular gasoline far more effectively. The Japanese car company Toyota makes what is called a hybrid car. The model called the Prius uses both electricity and gas to run its engine. Toyota has sold more than twenty-thousand of these cars in the United States. In fact, every Prius ever made has been sold. There is a list of people who want to buy the popular car. The Japanese car-maker, Honda, also makes a hybrid car that uses gasoline so effectively that it almost meets the goal set by the Clinton administration. The Honda Insight also uses a combination of a gasoline engine and electricity created from the motion of the car itself. Both the Prius and the Insight produce much less waste as well. Toyota says the Prius produces seventy-five percent less pollution than regular cars. Cars powered by fuel cells would create less pollution than even hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius. However, fuel cell cars will not appear in the market place for many years, until researchers develop new technologies to deal with old problems. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was directed by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Wagner Roberts. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a new American program to develop cars that do not cause pollution. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recently announced a new program to develop cars that effectively use fuel and do not cause pollution. The new energy department program will support research to make a car powered by a fuel cell engine. Mister Abraham calls the proposed vehicle the “Freedom Car.” The energy secretary made his announcement at the Detroit Auto Show in early January. He said the new “Freedom Car” project is meant to bring about a change in government policy. Mister Abraham said “Freedom C-A-R” stands for “Cooperative Automotive Research.” He said using hydrogen instead of gasoline as fuel for cars represents an important step toward reducing America’s use of foreign oil. Mister Abraham also said that the fuel cell project will combine government and industrial investments to develop new technologies. VOICE TWO: A fuel cell is not a new invention. It is a device which uses hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air to produce electricity and water. Sir William Grove of Britain invented the first fuel cell in Eighteen-Thirty-Nine. Many different designs have been invented since then. The Gemini and Apollo space ships used fuel cells to create electricity in space. Fuel cells provide all the electrical power on the American space agency’s Space Shuttle. The hydrogen used by the fuel cells combines with oxygen to provide all of the drinking water for the astronauts. This is the way a fuel cell uses hydrogen to create electricity. Hydrogen gas is passed over a metal that reacts electrically. The electrons from the hydrogen separate to form electricity. The remaining part of the hydrogen atom, the proton, combines with oxygen to form water. This process makes electricity without producing the pollution that is created when coal, oil and gasoline are burned as fuels. VOICE ONE: Researchers say fuel cells lose less of the energy they produce than other methods of making electricity. They also say that a large number of substances can be used to provide fuel for a fuel cell. Specially treated natural gas, oil and coal all contain the hydrogen necessary to run a fuel cell. Several companies in the United States, Germany and Canada are developing experimental fuel cells. Yet, most of these devices are part of a large power station. In these power systems, a central fuel cell makes electricity from hydrogen gas. Other machines separate hydrogen from natural gas, oil or coal. These fuel cell systems can be very complex. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Hydrogen presents several major problems for those who want to use it to make energy or to power cars. Hydrogen easily combines with other elements, or itself, to create molecules. Yet, it takes a lot of energy to release a hydrogen atom from a molecule. For example, electrolysis is the process of separating a hydrogen atom from an oxygen atom in a molecule of water. In this process, electrical current separates the two atoms, but adds greatly to the cost of making hydrogen gas. The Department of Energy lists several ways that hydrogen can be released from some materials. However, research shows that hydrogen is difficult to separate from complex molecules. The agency estimates that producing electricity from hydrogen would be about ten times more costly than burning natural gas. VOICE ONE: Fuel cells also present major problems for engineers who design cars. A single fuel cell has to be large, yet can create only a small amount of electrical power. So, fuel cells need to be combined in a series to produce a strong electrical current. Researchers have been trying to reduce the size of fuel cells for many years. Some scientists have used new materials to solve the problem. One fuel cell developed by Bell Laboratories is very small. It uses specially processed materials to make a very thin fuel cell. However, these thin fuel cells produce only a small amount of electricity. Experts believe that smaller fuel cells will some day provide power for devices like cellular telephones and computers. VOICE TWO: Fuel storage is another major problem in designing a car that is powered by a fuel cell. Fuel cell engines require a large amount of hydrogen to create enough electricity to much too much space. Hydrogen in liquid form can exist only at extremely low temperatures. A fuel tank in a car to hold liquid hydrogen would need to be very large to keep the temperature inside it low. The cost of a car with a fuel cell engine could also be a major problem. Peter Hoffman is head of The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter. Mister Hoffman supports developing cell energy technology. His estimates suggest that fuel cell cars would cost at least seventy-five thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: Experimental fuel cell cars do exist. The car manufacturer Daimler-Chrysler has developed a fuel cell engine small enough to use in a car. The experimental car is called the Chrysler Natrium. Its fuel cell engine runs on a chemical mixture called sodium borohydride. The fuel cell uses hydrogen in the fuel to make electricity. However, a hydrogen fuel cell powered by the kind of chemical mixture presents new problems. The new fuel is not commonly used today. And, the car would produce huge amounts of borax as waste defeating the purpose of using a fuel cell engine that does not pollute. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The new “Freedom Car” program is not the first time the American government has supported research to produce cars that use fuel more effectively. In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the Clinton administration began a program to design cars that use less fuel. The goal was to develop a car that uses about three times less gasoline than current cars. The government spent about one-thousand-five-hundred million dollars to aid the research. Much of the research money went to laboratories, universities and government agencies. The New York Times reports that the three biggest car makers -- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler -- received only a small amount of the government support. VOICE ONE: That program failed to produce any cars using less fuel that could be sold. It did develop several new materials that are being used in cars today. Yet, American vehicles on average do not use fuel more effectively than they did at the beginning of the program. Energy Secretary Abraham’s announcement in Detroit, Michigan, of the Freedom Car program officially ended that effort. In the proposed federal budget for Two-Thousand-Three, the Bush administration calls for spending one-hundred-fifty million dollars this year on fuel cell research. VOICE TWO: Two car companies have successfully developed cars that use regular gasoline far more effectively. The Japanese car company Toyota makes what is called a hybrid car. The model called the Prius uses both electricity and gas to run its engine. Toyota has sold more than twenty-thousand of these cars in the United States. In fact, every Prius ever made has been sold. There is a list of people who want to buy the popular car. The Japanese car-maker, Honda, also makes a hybrid car that uses gasoline so effectively that it almost meets the goal set by the Clinton administration. The Honda Insight also uses a combination of a gasoline engine and electricity created from the motion of the car itself. Both the Prius and the Insight produce much less waste as well. Toyota says the Prius produces seventy-five percent less pollution than regular cars. Cars powered by fuel cells would create less pollution than even hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius. However, fuel cell cars will not appear in the market place for many years, until researchers develop new technologies to deal with old problems. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was directed by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Wagner Roberts. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - February 28, 2002: Election of 1936
* Byline: 

 THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies during the nineteen-thirties changed the face of American government. The new president and the Congress passed legislation that helped farmers, strengthened the banking system, and supplied jobs for millions of workers. One of the most important results of Roosevelt's policies was a stronger American labor movement. VOICE 2: Labor leaders had little success in organizing workers in the United States during the nineteen-twenties. Three Republican presidents and a national wave of conservatism prevented them from gaining many members or increasing They're negotiating power. In nineteen-twenty-nine, organized labor fell even further with the beginning of the Great Economic Depression. By nineteen-thirty-three, America's labor unions had less than three-million members. But by the end of the nineteen-thirties, more than ten-and-a-half-million American workers belonged to unions. VOICE 1: New laws proposed by the Roosevelt administration made the labor growth possible. The National Industrial Recovery Act of nineteen-thirty-three gave labor leaders the right to organize and represent workers. The Supreme Court ruled that the law was illegal. But another law, the Wagner Labor Relations Act of nineteen-thirty-five, helped labor unions to increase their power. Most of the leaders of America's traditional labor unions were slow to understand their new power. They were conservative men. They represented workers with certain skills, such as wood workers or metal workers. They did little to organize workers with other kinds of skills. But a new group of labor leaders used the new laws to organize unions by industries, not by skills. They believed that workers would have much more power if they joined forces with other workers in the same factory to make common demands. These new leaders began to organize unions for the automobile industry, the steel industry, and other major industries. VOICE 2: The leader of the new movement was the head of the mine workers, John L. Lewis. Lewis was a powerful leader with a strong body and strong opinions. He had begun to work in the coal mines at the age of twelve. Lewis rose to become a powerful and successful leader of the mine workers. But he was concerned about workers in other industries as well. And he believed that most of the leaders in the American Federation of Labor were doing little to help them. For this reason, Lewis and the heads of several other unions formed their own group to organize unions by industry, not by skills. They called their group the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the CIO. And they tried immediately to gain members. VOICE 1: The CIO successfully organized the workers in several major industries. But it succeeded only by hard work and struggle. The CIO's first big battle was against the giant automobile company, General Motors. Late in nineteen-thirty-five, workers at several General Motors factories began a "sit-down" strike at their machines to demand better pay and working conditions. After forty-four days, General Motors surrendered. It recognized that the automobile workers' union had the right to represent GM workers. And it agreed to negotiate a new work agreement. VOICE 2: The struggle at the Ford Motor Company was more bitter. Ford company guards beat union organizers and workers. But the Ford company finally agreed to negotiate with the new union. The same story was true in the steel industry. But the new labor leaders succeeded in becoming the official representatives of steel workers throughout the country. By nineteen-thirty-eight, the CIO had won its battle to organize major industries. In later years, it would join with the more traditional American Federation of Labor to form the organization that remains the most important labor group in America today, the AFL-CIO. VOICE 1: President Roosevelt was not always an active supporter of organized labor. But neither was he a constant supporter of big business, like the three Republican presidents before him. In fact, Roosevelt spoke out often against the dangers of big business in a democracy. These speeches caused great concern among many of the traditional business and conservative leaders of the nation. And Roosevelt's increasingly progressive policies in nineteen-thirty-five made many richer Americans fear that the president was a socialist, a dictator, or a madman. Former president Herbert Hoover, for example, denounced Roosevelt's new deal policies as an attack "on the whole idea of individual freedoms." The family of business leader J.P. Morgan told visitors not to say Roosevelt's name in front of Morgan. They said it would make his blood pressure go up. VOICE 2: This conservative opposition to Roosevelt grew steadily throughout nineteen-thirty-five and thirty-six. Many Americans were honestly worried that Roosevelt's expansion of government was the first step to dictatorship. They feared that Roosevelt and the Democrats were trying to gain power as the Nazis did in Germany, the Fascists in Italy or the Communists in Russia. VOICE 1: The Republican Party held its presidential convention in the summer of nineteen-thirty-six. The party delegates chose Alfred Landon to oppose Roosevelt for president. Mr. Landon was the governor of the farm state of Kansas. He was a successful oil producer with conservative business views. But he was open to some of the social reforms of Roosevelt's new deal. Republicans hoped he would appeal to average Americans who supported mild reforms, but feared Roosevelt's social policies. The Democrats nominated Roosevelt and vice president John Garner to serve a second term. VOICE 2: The main issue in the presidential campaign of nineteen-thirty-six was Franklin Roosevelt himself. Roosevelt campaigned across the country like a man sure that he would win. He laughed with the cheering crowds and told them that the new deal had helped improve their lives. In New York, Roosevelt made a major speech promising to continue the work of his administration if he was re-elected. "Of course we will continue to seek to improve working conditions for the workers of America," Roosevelt told the crowd that day. "Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America. Of course we will continue our efforts for the farmers of America. Of course we will continue our efforts for young men and women. For those unable to walk. For the blind. For the mothers, the unemployed, and the aged. We have only just begun to fight." One of the most important results of Roosevelt's New Deal policies was a stronger American labor movement early in the 20th century. VOICE 1: The Republican candidate, Alfred Landon, began his campaign by saying that many of Roosevelt's new deal programs were good. But he said that a Republican administration could do them better and for less money. However, Landon's words became much stronger as the campaign continued. He attacked many of Roosevelt's programs. The campaign became increasingly bitter. Roosevelt said his opponents cared only about their money, not about other Americans. "I welcome their hatred," he said. Landon's supporters accused Roosevelt of destroying the nation's economic traditions and threatening democracy. VOICE 2: The nation had not seen such a fierce campaign in forty years. But when it was over, the nation also saw a victory greater than any in its history. Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alfred Landon in the election of nineteen-thirty-six by one of the largest votes in the nation's history. Roosevelt won every state except Maine and Vermont. The huge election victory marked the high point of Roosevelt's popularity. In our next program, we will look at the many problems he faced in his second administration. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Sarah Long. THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by David Jarmul. THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies during the nineteen-thirties changed the face of American government. The new president and the Congress passed legislation that helped farmers, strengthened the banking system, and supplied jobs for millions of workers. One of the most important results of Roosevelt's policies was a stronger American labor movement. VOICE 2: Labor leaders had little success in organizing workers in the United States during the nineteen-twenties. Three Republican presidents and a national wave of conservatism prevented them from gaining many members or increasing They're negotiating power. In nineteen-twenty-nine, organized labor fell even further with the beginning of the Great Economic Depression. By nineteen-thirty-three, America's labor unions had less than three-million members. But by the end of the nineteen-thirties, more than ten-and-a-half-million American workers belonged to unions. VOICE 1: New laws proposed by the Roosevelt administration made the labor growth possible. The National Industrial Recovery Act of nineteen-thirty-three gave labor leaders the right to organize and represent workers. The Supreme Court ruled that the law was illegal. But another law, the Wagner Labor Relations Act of nineteen-thirty-five, helped labor unions to increase their power. Most of the leaders of America's traditional labor unions were slow to understand their new power. They were conservative men. They represented workers with certain skills, such as wood workers or metal workers. They did little to organize workers with other kinds of skills. But a new group of labor leaders used the new laws to organize unions by industries, not by skills. They believed that workers would have much more power if they joined forces with other workers in the same factory to make common demands. These new leaders began to organize unions for the automobile industry, the steel industry, and other major industries. VOICE 2: The leader of the new movement was the head of the mine workers, John L. Lewis. Lewis was a powerful leader with a strong body and strong opinions. He had begun to work in the coal mines at the age of twelve. Lewis rose to become a powerful and successful leader of the mine workers. But he was concerned about workers in other industries as well. And he believed that most of the leaders in the American Federation of Labor were doing little to help them. For this reason, Lewis and the heads of several other unions formed their own group to organize unions by industry, not by skills. They called their group the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the CIO. And they tried immediately to gain members. VOICE 1: The CIO successfully organized the workers in several major industries. But it succeeded only by hard work and struggle. The CIO's first big battle was against the giant automobile company, General Motors. Late in nineteen-thirty-five, workers at several General Motors factories began a "sit-down" strike at their machines to demand better pay and working conditions. After forty-four days, General Motors surrendered. It recognized that the automobile workers' union had the right to represent GM workers. And it agreed to negotiate a new work agreement. VOICE 2: The struggle at the Ford Motor Company was more bitter. Ford company guards beat union organizers and workers. But the Ford company finally agreed to negotiate with the new union. The same story was true in the steel industry. But the new labor leaders succeeded in becoming the official representatives of steel workers throughout the country. By nineteen-thirty-eight, the CIO had won its battle to organize major industries. In later years, it would join with the more traditional American Federation of Labor to form the organization that remains the most important labor group in America today, the AFL-CIO. VOICE 1: President Roosevelt was not always an active supporter of organized labor. But neither was he a constant supporter of big business, like the three Republican presidents before him. In fact, Roosevelt spoke out often against the dangers of big business in a democracy. These speeches caused great concern among many of the traditional business and conservative leaders of the nation. And Roosevelt's increasingly progressive policies in nineteen-thirty-five made many richer Americans fear that the president was a socialist, a dictator, or a madman. Former president Herbert Hoover, for example, denounced Roosevelt's new deal policies as an attack "on the whole idea of individual freedoms." The family of business leader J.P. Morgan told visitors not to say Roosevelt's name in front of Morgan. They said it would make his blood pressure go up. VOICE 2: This conservative opposition to Roosevelt grew steadily throughout nineteen-thirty-five and thirty-six. Many Americans were honestly worried that Roosevelt's expansion of government was the first step to dictatorship. They feared that Roosevelt and the Democrats were trying to gain power as the Nazis did in Germany, the Fascists in Italy or the Communists in Russia. VOICE 1: The Republican Party held its presidential convention in the summer of nineteen-thirty-six. The party delegates chose Alfred Landon to oppose Roosevelt for president. Mr. Landon was the governor of the farm state of Kansas. He was a successful oil producer with conservative business views. But he was open to some of the social reforms of Roosevelt's new deal. Republicans hoped he would appeal to average Americans who supported mild reforms, but feared Roosevelt's social policies. The Democrats nominated Roosevelt and vice president John Garner to serve a second term. VOICE 2: The main issue in the presidential campaign of nineteen-thirty-six was Franklin Roosevelt himself. Roosevelt campaigned across the country like a man sure that he would win. He laughed with the cheering crowds and told them that the new deal had helped improve their lives. In New York, Roosevelt made a major speech promising to continue the work of his administration if he was re-elected. "Of course we will continue to seek to improve working conditions for the workers of America," Roosevelt told the crowd that day. "Of course we will continue to work for cheaper electricity in the homes and on the farms of America. Of course we will continue our efforts for the farmers of America. Of course we will continue our efforts for young men and women. For those unable to walk. For the blind. For the mothers, the unemployed, and the aged. We have only just begun to fight." One of the most important results of Roosevelt's New Deal policies was a stronger American labor movement early in the 20th century. VOICE 1: The Republican candidate, Alfred Landon, began his campaign by saying that many of Roosevelt's new deal programs were good. But he said that a Republican administration could do them better and for less money. However, Landon's words became much stronger as the campaign continued. He attacked many of Roosevelt's programs. The campaign became increasingly bitter. Roosevelt said his opponents cared only about their money, not about other Americans. "I welcome their hatred," he said. Landon's supporters accused Roosevelt of destroying the nation's economic traditions and threatening democracy. VOICE 2: The nation had not seen such a fierce campaign in forty years. But when it was over, the nation also saw a victory greater than any in its history. Franklin Roosevelt defeated Alfred Landon in the election of nineteen-thirty-six by one of the largest votes in the nation's history. Roosevelt won every state except Maine and Vermont. The huge election victory marked the high point of Roosevelt's popularity. In our next program, we will look at the many problems he faced in his second administration. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Sarah Long. THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - February 28, 2002: Blood Test For Ovarian Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American medical researchers say they have developed a simple blood test that can tell if a woman has ovarian cancer. Cancer of the ovaries is one of the most difficult cancers to find and cure. That is because there has been no effective way to tell if a woman has the disease until it has spread throughout the body. Researchers say about twenty-four-thousand American women are found to have ovarian cancer every year. About fourteen-thousand of them die each year. Cancer experts say that ninety percent of women with ovarian cancer could be cured if the cancer was found early. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration developed the new test. It requires a very small amount of blood and gives results in thirty minutes. The test looks for a group of proteins that is present in the blood of women with ovarian cancer. The researchers reported their work in the British publication The Lancet. In the study, the researchers took blood from fifty women known to have ovarian cancer and fifty women without the disease. They examined the blood samples using a computer program developed by the Correlogic Systems Company of Bethesda, Maryland. The computer program found a group of five proteins in the blood samples of all the cancer victims. The researchers then looked for that protein group in one-hundred-sixteen other blood samples. Fifty of the blood samples were from women with ovarian cancer. Sixty-six were from women without the disease. The researchers did not know which samples came from which women. The test correctly identified all fifty cases of ovarian cancer, including eighteen that were in the earliest forms of the disease. However, the test falsely identified three healthy women as having ovarian cancer. The researchers now plan to do more tests involving larger numbers of women. They say it will be several years before the test could be used for all women. They say it will most likely be used first for women who have a greater than normal chance of developing ovarian cancer. The researchers say their testing method could be used to find other cancers, too. They are working to develop similar tests to find cancers of the pancreas, breast and prostate. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 1, 2002: Songs by Waylon Jennings/a question about five-and-dime stores/palindromes
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some songs by Waylon Jennings ... answer a question about five-and-dime stores ... Christmas shopping, Woolworth's, Washington, Dec. 1941(Photo - Library of Congress) (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some songs by Waylon Jennings ... answer a question about five-and-dime stores ... and report about something called a palindrome. Palindromes HOST: Do you know what a “palindrome” is? The word comes from the Greek word, “palindromos,” which means “running back again.” A palindrome is any word, sentence, poem or number which reads the same backwards as it does forwards. Sarah Long tells us more. ANNCR: One of the best known palindromes in the English language is the sentence, “Madam, I’m Adam.” If you write it on a piece of paper, it reads the same from the end to the beginning as from the beginning to the end. and report about something called a palindrome. Palindromes HOST: Do you know what a “palindrome” is? The word comes from the Greek word, “palindromos,” which means “running back again.” A palindrome is any word, sentence, poem or number which reads the same backwards as it does forwards. Sarah Long tells us more. ANNCR: One of the best known palindromes in the English language is the sentence, “Madam, I’m Adam.” If you write it on a piece of paper, it reads the same from the end to the beginning as from the beginning to the end. The country and western singing group “Riders In The Sky” recorded a song about a man who speaks only in palindromes. Let’s listen to some of it: ((CUT 1: "THE BALLAD OF PALINDROME")) This palindrome was written one-hundred years ago to honor American President Theodore Roosevelt: “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!” Here is another palindrome: “Rise to vote, sir.” There are other simple palindromes. For example, the name of a popular Swedish rock and roll group was ABBA, spelled A-B-B-A. Some names are palindromes. For example, Ava, spelled A-V-A and Hannah, spelled H-A-N-N-A-H. This year, Two-Thousand-Two, is a palindromic year. The experts say that a palindromic year usually happens only about every one-hundred-ten years. However, the last one happened in Nineteen-Ninety-One. Experts also noted a historic moment in palindromic time that took place recently, at two minutes after eight o’clock at night on February twentieth. That is when time on a twenty-four hour clock read as a palindrome. The time was twenty hours two minutes, on the twentieth day of the second month, in the year Two-Thousand-Two. So it was written Two-Oh-Oh-Two, Two-Oh-Oh-Two, Two-Oh-Oh-Two. Five and Dimes HOST: Our V-O-A listener question this week comes from Russia. Alexey Mozgovenko wants to know about five-and-ten-cent stores, also called five-and-dime stores or dime stores. The country and western singing group “Riders In The Sky” recorded a song about a man who speaks only in palindromes. Let’s listen to some of it: ((CUT 1: "THE BALLAD OF PALINDROME")) This palindrome was written one-hundred years ago to honor American President Theodore Roosevelt: “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!” Here is another palindrome: “Rise to vote, sir.” There are other simple palindromes. For example, the name of a popular Swedish rock and roll group was ABBA, spelled A-B-B-A. Some names are palindromes. For example, Ava, spelled A-V-A and Hannah, spelled H-A-N-N-A-H. This year, Two-Thousand-Two, is a palindromic year. The experts say that a palindromic year usually happens only about every one-hundred-ten years. However, the last one happened in Nineteen-Ninety-One. Experts also noted a historic moment in palindromic time that took place recently, at two minutes after eight o’clock at night on February twentieth. That is when time on a twenty-four hour clock read as a palindrome. The time was twenty hours two minutes, on the twentieth day of the second month, in the year Two-Thousand-Two. So it was written Two-Oh-Oh-Two, Two-Oh-Oh-Two, Two-Oh-Oh-Two. Five and Dimes HOST: Our V-O-A listener question this week comes from Russia. Alexey Mozgovenko wants to know about five-and-ten-cent stores, also called five-and-dime stores or dime stores. A dime is an American coin worth ten cents. The idea for five-and-dime stores came from Frank Winfield Woolworth. He was born in Rodman, New York in Eighteen-Fifty-Two. He worked at the local village store as a young man. Later, he accepted a position with a business in Watertown, New York. It was there that Mister Woolworth proposed his idea. He suggested that the company cut the price of goods it had trouble selling. Mister Woolworth proposed selling those goods for just five cents. Company officials agreed to try his idea. It was a huge success. The campaign was so successful that it was expanded to include new goods. In Eighteen-Seventy-Nine, Woolworth opened the first five-and-ten-cent stores in Utica, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The company quickly expanded. Six groups of stores resulted from the five-cent experiment. They were united in Nineteen-Twelve to form the F.W. Woolworth Company. Mister Woolworth became a rich man. In Nineteen-Thirteen, he built the Woolworth building in New York City. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world. Frank Woolworth died in Nineteen-Nineteen. At the time of his death, his company operated more than one-thousand stores. Most American towns in the twentieth century had a Woolworth’s store. The stores offered low cost clothing and products for the home. Many also offered hot meals. As recently as forty years ago, the United States had thousands of these five-and- dime stores. Other businesses attempted to copy Mister Woolworth’s idea. They had names like Ben Franklin, Grants, Kresge’s and G.C. Murphy’s. However, few have survived today. Experts say the dime stores were unable to react to changes in the American economy. Larger stores began to offer the same products and more choices at lower prices. Five years ago, the Woolworth Company closed all its general product stores in the United States. It had become clear that the stores could no longer compete with larger companies. Yet many Americans still have happy memories of shopping at the local five-and-dime. Waylon Jennings HOST: Country music singer Waylon Jennings died last month. He had recorded more than sixty record albums and had sixteen country music hit songs. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Waylon Jennings was known in the music business for refusing to take orders from country music officials. He played a kind of country music that was a mix of western, blues and rock and roll. He once said the three kinds of music were almost the same. Waylon Jennings was born in the state of Texas in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. He worked in small bands and on radio programs as a child. He later played in the band of one of the most famous of the early rock and roll musicians, Buddy Holly. Waylon Jennings often recorded with friends like Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. He and Willie Nelson won a Grammy Award in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight for this song, “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” ((CUT ONE: "MAMMAS, DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS")) Many Americans remember Waylon Jennings best for singing the song from a hit television program in the Nineteen-Eighties. His record of that song sold more than one-million copies. It is called “The Dukes of Hazzard.” ((CUT TWO: "DUKES OF HAZZARD" THEME)) Waylon Jennings became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame last October. We leave you now with one of the songs responsible for that honor, his biggest hit, ”Luckenbach, (LUKE-en-bock) Texas.” ((CUT THREE: “LUCKENBACH, TEXAS")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. A dime is an American coin worth ten cents. The idea for five-and-dime stores came from Frank Winfield Woolworth. He was born in Rodman, New York in Eighteen-Fifty-Two. He worked at the local village store as a young man. Later, he accepted a position with a business in Watertown, New York. It was there that Mister Woolworth proposed his idea. He suggested that the company cut the price of goods it had trouble selling. Mister Woolworth proposed selling those goods for just five cents. Company officials agreed to try his idea. It was a huge success. The campaign was so successful that it was expanded to include new goods. In Eighteen-Seventy-Nine, Woolworth opened the first five-and-ten-cent stores in Utica, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The company quickly expanded. Six groups of stores resulted from the five-cent experiment. They were united in Nineteen-Twelve to form the F.W. Woolworth Company. Mister Woolworth became a rich man. In Nineteen-Thirteen, he built the Woolworth building in New York City. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world. Frank Woolworth died in Nineteen-Nineteen. At the time of his death, his company operated more than one-thousand stores. Most American towns in the twentieth century had a Woolworth’s store. The stores offered low cost clothing and products for the home. Many also offered hot meals. As recently as forty years ago, the United States had thousands of these five-and- dime stores. Other businesses attempted to copy Mister Woolworth’s idea. They had names like Ben Franklin, Grants, Kresge’s and G.C. Murphy’s. However, few have survived today. Experts say the dime stores were unable to react to changes in the American economy. Larger stores began to offer the same products and more choices at lower prices. Five years ago, the Woolworth Company closed all its general product stores in the United States. It had become clear that the stores could no longer compete with larger companies. Yet many Americans still have happy memories of shopping at the local five-and-dime. Waylon Jennings HOST: Country music singer Waylon Jennings died last month. He had recorded more than sixty record albums and had sixteen country music hit songs. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Waylon Jennings was known in the music business for refusing to take orders from country music officials. He played a kind of country music that was a mix of western, blues and rock and roll. He once said the three kinds of music were almost the same. Waylon Jennings was born in the state of Texas in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. He worked in small bands and on radio programs as a child. He later played in the band of one of the most famous of the early rock and roll musicians, Buddy Holly. Waylon Jennings often recorded with friends like Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. He and Willie Nelson won a Grammy Award in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight for this song, “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” ((CUT ONE: "MAMMAS, DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS")) Many Americans remember Waylon Jennings best for singing the song from a hit television program in the Nineteen-Eighties. His record of that song sold more than one-million copies. It is called “The Dukes of Hazzard.” ((CUT TWO: "DUKES OF HAZZARD" THEME)) Waylon Jennings became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame last October. We leave you now with one of the songs responsible for that honor, his biggest hit, ”Luckenbach, (LUKE-en-bock) Texas.” ((CUT THREE: “LUCKENBACH, TEXAS")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – March 1, 2002: Eastern U.S. Drought
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH ENVIRONMENT REPORT. There has been a severe lack of rain and snow on the East Coast of the United States. The amount of rain and snow that has fallen in the states from Maine to Florida has been far below normal. The lack rain or snow is called a drought. The East Coast states are suffering an unusual drought this winter. Some areas received only a small percentage of the rain they normally receive. And the drought has continued into the winter. Normally, drought conditions happen during hot summer weather. Ground water supplies usually increase in the winter and decrease in the spring and summer. Some officials worry that a dry winter could cause serious water supply problems later in the year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studies and reports on weather and ocean conditions in the United States. The agency says that the East Coast drought is a continuing event. It began in November Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. NOAA says the drought is affecting eighteen percent of the United States, not including Alaska and Hawaii. The drought reached its highest level in August Two-Thousand, when thirty-six percent of the states were affected. NOAA says the current drought is as severe as any in the last forty years. Weather experts say they do not know if there will be more rain or snow in the near future. Their concerns have increased because the recent period from October to January was the second driest ever recorded for the Northeastern United States. The Delaware River Basin Commission controls the water supply used by about twenty-million people in the New York City area and nearby states. That agency has already begun placing limits on the use of water. Drought warnings are in effect in many places on the East Coast. The lack of water has caused some officials to consider ways to store water more effectively. Western states, like Nevada, store huge amounts of water underground. Now, some officials in New York are considering the same kind of system. The state of New Jersey already has built some underground storage structures and plans to build more. Experts say that measures once necessary only for dry desert areas may be needed for the heavily populated East Coast. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH ENVIRONMENT REPORT. There has been a severe lack of rain and snow on the East Coast of the United States. The amount of rain and snow that has fallen in the states from Maine to Florida has been far below normal. The lack rain or snow is called a drought. The East Coast states are suffering an unusual drought this winter. Some areas received only a small percentage of the rain they normally receive. And the drought has continued into the winter. Normally, drought conditions happen during hot summer weather. Ground water supplies usually increase in the winter and decrease in the spring and summer. Some officials worry that a dry winter could cause serious water supply problems later in the year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studies and reports on weather and ocean conditions in the United States. The agency says that the East Coast drought is a continuing event. It began in November Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. NOAA says the drought is affecting eighteen percent of the United States, not including Alaska and Hawaii. The drought reached its highest level in August Two-Thousand, when thirty-six percent of the states were affected. NOAA says the current drought is as severe as any in the last forty years. Weather experts say they do not know if there will be more rain or snow in the near future. Their concerns have increased because the recent period from October to January was the second driest ever recorded for the Northeastern United States. The Delaware River Basin Commission controls the water supply used by about twenty-million people in the New York City area and nearby states. That agency has already begun placing limits on the use of water. Drought warnings are in effect in many places on the East Coast. The lack of water has caused some officials to consider ways to store water more effectively. Western states, like Nevada, store huge amounts of water underground. Now, some officials in New York are considering the same kind of system. The state of New Jersey already has built some underground storage structures and plans to build more. Experts say that measures once necessary only for dry desert areas may be needed for the heavily populated East Coast. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – March 4, 2002: Gates Foundation
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The richest man in the world is an American, Bill Gates. He started Microsoft, the company that makes computer programs and operating systems. Two years ago, Mister Gates and his wife Melinda decided to use some of their money to improve the lives of people in developing countries. They started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington. The foundation has twenty-four-thousand-million dollars. It is the biggest not-for-profit organization in the world. Bill and Melinda Gates started the foundation because they believed progress in medical science and information technology was not reaching people in developing countries. Their foundation finances programs aimed at improving health and education in poor countries. One of the foundation’s major goals is the development of new medicines to prevent and treat tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS. The World Health Organization reports that these three diseases kill more than five-million people a year. Another leading foundation project is an effort to reduce death rates for babies in poor countries. The foundation also supports efforts to provide necessary medicines to prevent diseases among children in seventy-four developing countries. It also supports training programs for health workers. Bill and Melinda Gates are also concerned about connecting people to the Internet computer system. The foundation believes men and women of all ages and races should be able to use the Internet as a tool for lifelong learning. For example, the foundation gave nine-million dollars to more than three-hundred-fifty public libraries in Chile for computers and technology training. The Gates Foundation usually provides money to developing countries in the form of a gift or grant. However, there are conditions for receiving grants. Governments or other not-for-profit organizations working in a country must promise to provide an equal amount of money. The receiver must also meet performance goals or risk losing the money. For more information, write to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, P-O Box two-three-three-five-zero, Seattle, Washington, nine-eight-one-zero-two, U-S-A. Or, e-mail the organization at info-at-gatesfoundation-dot-org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The richest man in the world is an American, Bill Gates. He started Microsoft, the company that makes computer programs and operating systems. Two years ago, Mister Gates and his wife Melinda decided to use some of their money to improve the lives of people in developing countries. They started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington. The foundation has twenty-four-thousand-million dollars. It is the biggest not-for-profit organization in the world. Bill and Melinda Gates started the foundation because they believed progress in medical science and information technology was not reaching people in developing countries. Their foundation finances programs aimed at improving health and education in poor countries. One of the foundation’s major goals is the development of new medicines to prevent and treat tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS. The World Health Organization reports that these three diseases kill more than five-million people a year. Another leading foundation project is an effort to reduce death rates for babies in poor countries. The foundation also supports efforts to provide necessary medicines to prevent diseases among children in seventy-four developing countries. It also supports training programs for health workers. Bill and Melinda Gates are also concerned about connecting people to the Internet computer system. The foundation believes men and women of all ages and races should be able to use the Internet as a tool for lifelong learning. For example, the foundation gave nine-million dollars to more than three-hundred-fifty public libraries in Chile for computers and technology training. The Gates Foundation usually provides money to developing countries in the form of a gift or grant. However, there are conditions for receiving grants. Governments or other not-for-profit organizations working in a country must promise to provide an equal amount of money. The receiver must also meet performance goals or risk losing the money. For more information, write to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, P-O Box two-three-three-five-zero, Seattle, Washington, nine-eight-one-zero-two, U-S-A. Or, e-mail the organization at info-at-gatesfoundation-dot-org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 3, 2002: Todd Duncan
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell the story of Todd Duncan -- a concert singer and music teacher. He is the man who broke a major color barrier for black singers of classical music. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is Nineteen-Forty-Five. The place is New York City. The New York City Opera Company just finished performing the Italian opera "Pagliacci." Todd Duncan is on the stage. He had just become the first African American man to sing with this important American opera company. No one was sure how he would be received. But the people in the theater offered loud, warm approval of his performance. Duncan did not sing a part written for a black man. Instead, he played a part traditionally sung by a white man. All the other singers in the New York City Opera Company production were white. His historic performance took place ten years before black singer Marian Anderson performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. VOICE TWO: Todd Duncan opened doors for other black musicians when he appeared in "Pagliacci." Until that night, black singers of classical music had almost no chance of performing in major American opera houses and theaters. Many African American classical singers of today say they still do not have an equal chance to perform. But Todd Duncan began a major change in classical musical performance in the United States. VOICE ONE: Todd Duncan lived a very long life. He was ninety-five years old when he died in March, Nineteen-Ninety-Eight in Washington, D.C. He taught singing until the end of his life. Robert Todd Duncan was born in Nineteen-Oh-Three in the southern city of Danville, Kentucky. His mother, Nettie Cooper Duncan, was his first music teacher. As a young adult, he continued his music studies in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended both a university and a special music college In this middle western city. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty, he completed more musical education at Columbia University in New York City. Then he moved to Washington. For fifteen years, he taught music at Howard University in Washington. African Americans had gained worldwide fame for their work in popular music -- especially for creating jazz. But not many black musicians were known for writing or performing classical music. Teaching at Howard gave Duncan the chance to share his knowledge of classical European music with a mainly black student population. He taught special ways to present the music. These special ways became known as the Duncan Technique. Here Todd Duncan sings "O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me" from the opera "Lost in the Stars" composed by Kurt Weill. ((TAPE CUT ONE: "O TIXO, TIXO, HELP ME")) VOICE ONE: In addition to teaching, Duncan sang in several operas with performers who all were black. But it seemed he always would be known mainly as a concert artist. Duncan sang at least five-thousand concerts in fifty countries during twenty-five years as a performer. However, his life took a different turn in the middle Nineteen-Thirties. At that time, the famous American music writer George Gershwin was looking for someone to play a leading part in his new work, "Porgy and Bess." Gershwin had heard one-hundred baritones attempt the part. He did not want any of them. Then, the music critic of the New York Times newspaper suggested Todd Duncan. VOICE TWO: Duncan almost decided not to try for the part. But he changed his mind. He sang a piece from an Italian opera for Gershwin. He had sung only a few minutes when Gershwin offered him the part. But Duncan was not sure that playing Porgy would be right for him. Years later, he admitted that he had no idea that George Gershwin was such a successful composer. And, he thought Gershwin wrote only popular music. Duncan almost always had sung classical works, by composers such as Brahms and Schumann. Todd Duncan said he would have to hear "Porgy and Bess." He did. Then he accepted the part of Porgy. But he said he found it difficult to perform because Porgy has a bad leg and cannot walk. He spends most of the opera on his knees. Duncan used his special methods to get enough breath to produce beautiful sound. He was able to do this even in the difficult positions demanded by the part. Here Todd Duncan sings "Porgy's Lament" from the Gershwin opera, "Porgy and Bess." ((TAPE CUT TWO: "PORGY'S LAMENT")) VOICE ONE: Todd Duncan sang in the opening production of "Porgy and Bess" in Nineteen Thirty-Five. Then he appeared again as Porgy in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven and Nineteen-Forty-Two. He often commented on the fact that he was best known for a part he played for only three years. His fame as Porgy helped him get the part in "Pagliacci" with the New York City Opera Company. He also sang other parts with the opera company. Earlier, you heard him sing a song from one of the operas he enjoyed most. The part was that of Stephen Khumalo in "Lost in the Stars." It was a musical version of the famous novel about Africa, "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. American writer Maxwell Anderson wrote the words for the music by German composer Kurt Weill. Listen as Todd Duncan sings the title song from "Lost in the Stars." ((TAPE CUT THREE: "LOST IN THE STARS")) VOICE TWO: Todd Duncan gained fame as an opera singer and concert artist. But his greatest love in music was teaching. When he stopped teaching at Howard, he continued giving singing lessons in his Washington home until the week before his death. He taught hundreds of students over the years. Some musicians say they always can recognize students of Todd Duncan. They say people he taught demonstrate his special methods of singing. VOICE ONE: Donald Boothman is a singer and singing teacher from the eastern state of Massachusetts. He began studying with Todd Duncan in the Nineteen-Fifties. Boothman was twenty-two years old at the time. He was a member of the official singing group of the United States Air Force. He had studied music in college. But he studied with Duncan to improve his singing. Boothman continued weekly lessons with Duncan for thirteen years. After that, he would return to Duncan each time he accepted a new musical project. He says he considered Duncan his teacher for a lifetime. Many other students say they felt that way, too. VOICE TWO Todd Duncan was proud of his students. He was proud of his performances of classical music. And, he was proud of being the first African-American to break the color barrier in a major opera house. He noted in a VO-A broadcast in Nineteen-Ninety that blacks are singing in opera houses all over America. "I am happy," he said, "that I was the first one to open the door -- to let everyone know we could all do it." ((OUT ON TAPE CUT 4: "Oh, Lord, I'm on My Way" from the finale of "Porgy and Bess")) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell the story of Todd Duncan -- a concert singer and music teacher. He is the man who broke a major color barrier for black singers of classical music. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is Nineteen-Forty-Five. The place is New York City. The New York City Opera Company just finished performing the Italian opera "Pagliacci." Todd Duncan is on the stage. He had just become the first African American man to sing with this important American opera company. No one was sure how he would be received. But the people in the theater offered loud, warm approval of his performance. Duncan did not sing a part written for a black man. Instead, he played a part traditionally sung by a white man. All the other singers in the New York City Opera Company production were white. His historic performance took place ten years before black singer Marian Anderson performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. VOICE TWO: Todd Duncan opened doors for other black musicians when he appeared in "Pagliacci." Until that night, black singers of classical music had almost no chance of performing in major American opera houses and theaters. Many African American classical singers of today say they still do not have an equal chance to perform. But Todd Duncan began a major change in classical musical performance in the United States. VOICE ONE: Todd Duncan lived a very long life. He was ninety-five years old when he died in March, Nineteen-Ninety-Eight in Washington, D.C. He taught singing until the end of his life. Robert Todd Duncan was born in Nineteen-Oh-Three in the southern city of Danville, Kentucky. His mother, Nettie Cooper Duncan, was his first music teacher. As a young adult, he continued his music studies in Indianapolis, Indiana. He attended both a university and a special music college In this middle western city. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty, he completed more musical education at Columbia University in New York City. Then he moved to Washington. For fifteen years, he taught music at Howard University in Washington. African Americans had gained worldwide fame for their work in popular music -- especially for creating jazz. But not many black musicians were known for writing or performing classical music. Teaching at Howard gave Duncan the chance to share his knowledge of classical European music with a mainly black student population. He taught special ways to present the music. These special ways became known as the Duncan Technique. Here Todd Duncan sings "O Tixo, Tixo, Help Me" from the opera "Lost in the Stars" composed by Kurt Weill. ((TAPE CUT ONE: "O TIXO, TIXO, HELP ME")) VOICE ONE: In addition to teaching, Duncan sang in several operas with performers who all were black. But it seemed he always would be known mainly as a concert artist. Duncan sang at least five-thousand concerts in fifty countries during twenty-five years as a performer. However, his life took a different turn in the middle Nineteen-Thirties. At that time, the famous American music writer George Gershwin was looking for someone to play a leading part in his new work, "Porgy and Bess." Gershwin had heard one-hundred baritones attempt the part. He did not want any of them. Then, the music critic of the New York Times newspaper suggested Todd Duncan. VOICE TWO: Duncan almost decided not to try for the part. But he changed his mind. He sang a piece from an Italian opera for Gershwin. He had sung only a few minutes when Gershwin offered him the part. But Duncan was not sure that playing Porgy would be right for him. Years later, he admitted that he had no idea that George Gershwin was such a successful composer. And, he thought Gershwin wrote only popular music. Duncan almost always had sung classical works, by composers such as Brahms and Schumann. Todd Duncan said he would have to hear "Porgy and Bess." He did. Then he accepted the part of Porgy. But he said he found it difficult to perform because Porgy has a bad leg and cannot walk. He spends most of the opera on his knees. Duncan used his special methods to get enough breath to produce beautiful sound. He was able to do this even in the difficult positions demanded by the part. Here Todd Duncan sings "Porgy's Lament" from the Gershwin opera, "Porgy and Bess." ((TAPE CUT TWO: "PORGY'S LAMENT")) VOICE ONE: Todd Duncan sang in the opening production of "Porgy and Bess" in Nineteen Thirty-Five. Then he appeared again as Porgy in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven and Nineteen-Forty-Two. He often commented on the fact that he was best known for a part he played for only three years. His fame as Porgy helped him get the part in "Pagliacci" with the New York City Opera Company. He also sang other parts with the opera company. Earlier, you heard him sing a song from one of the operas he enjoyed most. The part was that of Stephen Khumalo in "Lost in the Stars." It was a musical version of the famous novel about Africa, "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. American writer Maxwell Anderson wrote the words for the music by German composer Kurt Weill. Listen as Todd Duncan sings the title song from "Lost in the Stars." ((TAPE CUT THREE: "LOST IN THE STARS")) VOICE TWO: Todd Duncan gained fame as an opera singer and concert artist. But his greatest love in music was teaching. When he stopped teaching at Howard, he continued giving singing lessons in his Washington home until the week before his death. He taught hundreds of students over the years. Some musicians say they always can recognize students of Todd Duncan. They say people he taught demonstrate his special methods of singing. VOICE ONE: Donald Boothman is a singer and singing teacher from the eastern state of Massachusetts. He began studying with Todd Duncan in the Nineteen-Fifties. Boothman was twenty-two years old at the time. He was a member of the official singing group of the United States Air Force. He had studied music in college. But he studied with Duncan to improve his singing. Boothman continued weekly lessons with Duncan for thirteen years. After that, he would return to Duncan each time he accepted a new musical project. He says he considered Duncan his teacher for a lifetime. Many other students say they felt that way, too. VOICE TWO Todd Duncan was proud of his students. He was proud of his performances of classical music. And, he was proud of being the first African-American to break the color barrier in a major opera house. He noted in a VO-A broadcast in Nineteen-Ninety that blacks are singing in opera houses all over America. "I am happy," he said, "that I was the first one to open the door -- to let everyone know we could all do it." ((OUT ON TAPE CUT 4: "Oh, Lord, I'm on My Way" from the finale of "Porgy and Bess")) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – March 2, 2002: International Women’s Day
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS. Next Saturday is International Women’s Day. The United Nations says it will observe the day with a meeting to honor the women of Afghanistan. Afghan women turn in aid coupons at ICRC station This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS. Next Saturday is International Women’s Day. The United Nations says it will observe the day with a meeting to honor the women of Afghanistan. U-N officials say the event will celebrate the spirit, heroism and survival power of Afghan women who were severely oppressed under the Taleban rulers. Organizers say the event will also be used to make known the needs of Afghan women. And, they say delegates will discuss ways in which Afghan females can take part in re-building peace, security and Afghan society. The opening ceremony will include a short movie about Afghan women. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan and the current President of the U-N Security Council, Ole Peter Kolby of Norway will speak. Delegates also will hear from Laura Bush, the wife of President Bush. The idea for an international day to honor women reportedly began in the United States. The United Nations says one of the first organized actions by working women anywhere took place in New York City March Eighth, Eighteen-Fifty-Seven. Women who worked in clothing factories demonstrated against poor working conditions. The Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day in Nineteen-Oh-Nine. One year later at a meeting in Denmark, the Socialist International established an International Women’s Day. It honored the movement for women’s rights, including the right to vote. In Nineteen-Seventy-Five, the U-N began celebrating March Eighth as International Women’s Day. The U-N says the day is a time to examine progress made, to call for change, and to celebrate acts of bravery by women important in the history of women’s rights. This year, a number of experts will discuss Afghan women’s issues at the observance at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Sima Wali is one of them. She is president of Refugee Women in Development. Mizz Wali was a delegate to the U-N peace talks on Afghanistan. She also helped lead a conference of Afghan women last December in Brussels. The U-N Development Fund for Women and the government of Belgium organized the conference. The final statement of the meeting called on the international community to support Afghan women in seeking rights and leadership positions in the efforts to re-build Afghanistan. The delegates also agreed to declare on International Women’s Day that for women “Afghanistan is Everywhere.” Many countries are planning events to celebrate International Women’s Day this year. There will be music, speeches, marches and demonstrations to observe the continuing struggle by women for equality, justice, peace and development. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. U-N officials say the event will celebrate the spirit, heroism and survival power of Afghan women who were severely oppressed under the Taleban rulers. Organizers say the event will also be used to make known the needs of Afghan women. And, they say delegates will discuss ways in which Afghan females can take part in re-building peace, security and Afghan society. The opening ceremony will include a short movie about Afghan women. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan and the current President of the U-N Security Council, Ole Peter Kolby of Norway will speak. Delegates also will hear from Laura Bush, the wife of President Bush. The idea for an international day to honor women reportedly began in the United States. The United Nations says one of the first organized actions by working women anywhere took place in New York City March Eighth, Eighteen-Fifty-Seven. Women who worked in clothing factories demonstrated against poor working conditions. The Socialist Party of America declared the first National Women’s Day in Nineteen-Oh-Nine. One year later at a meeting in Denmark, the Socialist International established an International Women’s Day. It honored the movement for women’s rights, including the right to vote. In Nineteen-Seventy-Five, the U-N began celebrating March Eighth as International Women’s Day. The U-N says the day is a time to examine progress made, to call for change, and to celebrate acts of bravery by women important in the history of women’s rights. This year, a number of experts will discuss Afghan women’s issues at the observance at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Sima Wali is one of them. She is president of Refugee Women in Development. Mizz Wali was a delegate to the U-N peace talks on Afghanistan. She also helped lead a conference of Afghan women last December in Brussels. The U-N Development Fund for Women and the government of Belgium organized the conference. The final statement of the meeting called on the international community to support Afghan women in seeking rights and leadership positions in the efforts to re-build Afghanistan. The delegates also agreed to declare on International Women’s Day that for women “Afghanistan is Everywhere.” Many countries are planning events to celebrate International Women’s Day this year. There will be music, speeches, marches and demonstrations to observe the continuing struggle by women for equality, justice, peace and development. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - March 4, 2002: The Lost Colony
* Byline: 

 . . . . . . . Broadcast: March 4, 2002 VOICE ONE: In Fifteen-Eighty-Seven, more than one-hundred men, women and children sailed from Britain across the Atlantic Ocean. They arrived at Roanoke Island off the coast of what is now North Carolina. This group established the first English settlement in America. However, within three years, the group disappeared without any signs. No one knows what happened to them. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of America’s Lost Colony is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Britain’s first settlement of families in America was supposed to be along the Chesapeake Bay. However, for unknown reasons, the colonists settled on Roanoke Island instead of sailing farther north. Roanoke is a low, narrow island that lies between North Carolina’s Outer Banks and the mainland. The Outer Banks are a group of narrow islands along the North Carolina coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The land on Roanoke Island today appears much as it did when the colonists arrived. The island has thick wetland areas, tall oak trees and a lot of wild animals. Because of this, Roanoke was a good, welcoming place for the colonists to settle. VOICE TWO: Soon after the colonists arrived in Fifteen-Eighty-Seven, fighting broke out with nearby Native American Indians. John White had led the British colonists to what was called the New World. He soon recognized that more supplies and arms were needed if the settlers were to survive. So Governor White decided to return to England only a few months after the settlers had arrived. Ten days before he sailed, Governor White’s daughter Eleanor Dare had a baby girl. Virginia Dare became the first English child born in America. However, Governor White would never know his granddaughter. The last time he saw his family was just before he returned to England. VOICE ONE: When he arrived back in England, Governor White found himself trapped. Britain had declared war with Spain in Fifteen-Eighty, and all ships were sent to battle. Finally, in Fifteen-Ninety, Governor White was able to return to Roanoke Island. However, instead of finding the small settlement busy and growing, he discovered it was empty. The only evidence telling where the colonists could have gone were the letters C-R-O written on a wooden stick at the entrance to the colony. Governor White thought the letters meant the colonists had gone to live with the Croatoan Indians south of Roanoke. He was ready to investigate, but was forced to return to England after a great storm damaged some equipment on his ships. Governor White tried several more times to return to America, but was never successful. He died many years later, never knowing what happened to his family and the colony. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Today, visitors to Roanoke Island can gain a good understanding of what life was like for the colonists. On the northern end of the island is the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. This park was developed on the same land used by the colonists. In fact, there is a building in the middle of the park that is modeled after the small military structure built when the colonists first arrived. This model fort is the only structure in the park built in the exact place as the first building. The model fort was built the same way it was created when the first settlers arrived. The fort was mainly a square building with pointed structures called bastions. Bastions are secure military positions used in fighting. Researchers believe the homes of the colonists would have been built near the road leading from the entrance of the fort. The researchers also discovered many objects from the colonial period. They include iron farming equipment, an Indian smoking pipe, and metal counters used for keeping financial records. VOICE ONE: Inside the visitor’s center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is the Elizabethan Room. This room has wooden walls and a stone fireplace from a sixteenth-century British home. The Elizabethan Room is similar to the kind of rooms found in the home of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a wealthy British investor who financially supported the Roanoke colony. Outside the visitor’s center are the Elizabethan Gardens. The Garden Club of North Carolina created these gardens as a memorial to the first colonists. They are also examples of the kind of gardens wealthy supporters of the colony enjoyed in Britain. People visiting the Elizabethan Gardens can enter through a sixteenth-century garden house. Beautiful paths lead visitors among the different flowers and plants that grow throughout the year. During warm summer nights, visitors at Roanoke Island can see a play called “The Lost Colony.” The Roanoke Island Historical Association has been performing this play since Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. It includes music, dance and the mysterious story of the lost colonists. The show is performed in an outdoor theater near the Elizabethan Gardens. The Waterside Theater is America’s first outdoor theater. VOICE TWO: Several kilometers south of Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is Roanoke Island Festival Park. The park has stores, two theaters and an art center. There is also a camp area where visitors can see how British soldiers lived during colonial times. The soldiers were sent to Roanoke Island several years before the colonists. They set up a military settlement that later failed. People visiting this recreated camp area can learn from historians how the soldiers made weapons from wood and metal. They can also learn about the food soldiers ate, how they talked and the games they played. VOICE ONE: The most interesting part of Roanoke Island Festival Park is a ship called the Elizabeth Two. This is a representation of a sixteenth-century ship called the Elizabeth. The Elizabeth was one of seven small ships used to transport the colonists to Roanoke Island. The recreated Elizabeth Two is twenty-one meters long and five meters wide. There is also a smaller, seven-meter long boat called the Silver Chalice. This represents the kind of boat the colonists used to carry their supplies from the large ship to land. Historians working on the boats tell stories about the long, difficult trip the colonists made from Britain to North Carolina. The Elizabeth Two is also a working ship. Two times a year a small crew sails it to other ports along the Atlantic coast. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: The mystery of the Lost Colony has never been solved. Yet, over the years, several theories developed to explain what happened to the colonists. Some people believe the settlers did, in fact, go to live among the Croatoan Indians. Others believe the colonists settled with the Pembrook Indians in the southeast part of what is now North Carolina. Several historians think that the settlement split into two groups after Governor White returned to England. They say the larger group traveled north to the Chesapeake Bay where the colonists had first planned to settle. VOICE ONE: The most interesting theory about the Lost Colony developed nearly seventy years ago. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, a rock was discovered about ninety-six kilometers west of Roanoke Island. It was covered with writing that many people thought was a message from Eleanor Dare to her father. The message reportedly said that the colonists fled Roanoke after an Indian attack. During the next three years, nearly forty similar rocks were discovered. When put together, they told a great story about how the colonists traveled southeast, and how Eleanor Dare died in Fifteen-Ninety-Nine. Many historians did not believe the story, but the media did. In time, however, an investigative reporter discovered the whole story was false, a trick. VOICE TWO: Each year, historians, researchers, scientists and visitors travel to Roanoke Island. They go with the hope of discovering new evidence about what happened to the Lost Colony. Yet, so far, no new signs have been uncovered. The Lost Colony remains a mystery – much like the events that took place there more than four-hundred years ago. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. Next week, we tell about Jamestown – the first successful colony in America. . . . . . . . Broadcast: March 4, 2002 VOICE ONE: In Fifteen-Eighty-Seven, more than one-hundred men, women and children sailed from Britain across the Atlantic Ocean. They arrived at Roanoke Island off the coast of what is now North Carolina. This group established the first English settlement in America. However, within three years, the group disappeared without any signs. No one knows what happened to them. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of America’s Lost Colony is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Britain’s first settlement of families in America was supposed to be along the Chesapeake Bay. However, for unknown reasons, the colonists settled on Roanoke Island instead of sailing farther north. Roanoke is a low, narrow island that lies between North Carolina’s Outer Banks and the mainland. The Outer Banks are a group of narrow islands along the North Carolina coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The land on Roanoke Island today appears much as it did when the colonists arrived. The island has thick wetland areas, tall oak trees and a lot of wild animals. Because of this, Roanoke was a good, welcoming place for the colonists to settle. VOICE TWO: Soon after the colonists arrived in Fifteen-Eighty-Seven, fighting broke out with nearby Native American Indians. John White had led the British colonists to what was called the New World. He soon recognized that more supplies and arms were needed if the settlers were to survive. So Governor White decided to return to England only a few months after the settlers had arrived. Ten days before he sailed, Governor White’s daughter Eleanor Dare had a baby girl. Virginia Dare became the first English child born in America. However, Governor White would never know his granddaughter. The last time he saw his family was just before he returned to England. VOICE ONE: When he arrived back in England, Governor White found himself trapped. Britain had declared war with Spain in Fifteen-Eighty, and all ships were sent to battle. Finally, in Fifteen-Ninety, Governor White was able to return to Roanoke Island. However, instead of finding the small settlement busy and growing, he discovered it was empty. The only evidence telling where the colonists could have gone were the letters C-R-O written on a wooden stick at the entrance to the colony. Governor White thought the letters meant the colonists had gone to live with the Croatoan Indians south of Roanoke. He was ready to investigate, but was forced to return to England after a great storm damaged some equipment on his ships. Governor White tried several more times to return to America, but was never successful. He died many years later, never knowing what happened to his family and the colony. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Today, visitors to Roanoke Island can gain a good understanding of what life was like for the colonists. On the northern end of the island is the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. This park was developed on the same land used by the colonists. In fact, there is a building in the middle of the park that is modeled after the small military structure built when the colonists first arrived. This model fort is the only structure in the park built in the exact place as the first building. The model fort was built the same way it was created when the first settlers arrived. The fort was mainly a square building with pointed structures called bastions. Bastions are secure military positions used in fighting. Researchers believe the homes of the colonists would have been built near the road leading from the entrance of the fort. The researchers also discovered many objects from the colonial period. They include iron farming equipment, an Indian smoking pipe, and metal counters used for keeping financial records. VOICE ONE: Inside the visitor’s center at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is the Elizabethan Room. This room has wooden walls and a stone fireplace from a sixteenth-century British home. The Elizabethan Room is similar to the kind of rooms found in the home of Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a wealthy British investor who financially supported the Roanoke colony. Outside the visitor’s center are the Elizabethan Gardens. The Garden Club of North Carolina created these gardens as a memorial to the first colonists. They are also examples of the kind of gardens wealthy supporters of the colony enjoyed in Britain. People visiting the Elizabethan Gardens can enter through a sixteenth-century garden house. Beautiful paths lead visitors among the different flowers and plants that grow throughout the year. During warm summer nights, visitors at Roanoke Island can see a play called “The Lost Colony.” The Roanoke Island Historical Association has been performing this play since Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. It includes music, dance and the mysterious story of the lost colonists. The show is performed in an outdoor theater near the Elizabethan Gardens. The Waterside Theater is America’s first outdoor theater. VOICE TWO: Several kilometers south of Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is Roanoke Island Festival Park. The park has stores, two theaters and an art center. There is also a camp area where visitors can see how British soldiers lived during colonial times. The soldiers were sent to Roanoke Island several years before the colonists. They set up a military settlement that later failed. People visiting this recreated camp area can learn from historians how the soldiers made weapons from wood and metal. They can also learn about the food soldiers ate, how they talked and the games they played. VOICE ONE: The most interesting part of Roanoke Island Festival Park is a ship called the Elizabeth Two. This is a representation of a sixteenth-century ship called the Elizabeth. The Elizabeth was one of seven small ships used to transport the colonists to Roanoke Island. The recreated Elizabeth Two is twenty-one meters long and five meters wide. There is also a smaller, seven-meter long boat called the Silver Chalice. This represents the kind of boat the colonists used to carry their supplies from the large ship to land. Historians working on the boats tell stories about the long, difficult trip the colonists made from Britain to North Carolina. The Elizabeth Two is also a working ship. Two times a year a small crew sails it to other ports along the Atlantic coast. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: The mystery of the Lost Colony has never been solved. Yet, over the years, several theories developed to explain what happened to the colonists. Some people believe the settlers did, in fact, go to live among the Croatoan Indians. Others believe the colonists settled with the Pembrook Indians in the southeast part of what is now North Carolina. Several historians think that the settlement split into two groups after Governor White returned to England. They say the larger group traveled north to the Chesapeake Bay where the colonists had first planned to settle. VOICE ONE: The most interesting theory about the Lost Colony developed nearly seventy years ago. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, a rock was discovered about ninety-six kilometers west of Roanoke Island. It was covered with writing that many people thought was a message from Eleanor Dare to her father. The message reportedly said that the colonists fled Roanoke after an Indian attack. During the next three years, nearly forty similar rocks were discovered. When put together, they told a great story about how the colonists traveled southeast, and how Eleanor Dare died in Fifteen-Ninety-Nine. Many historians did not believe the story, but the media did. In time, however, an investigative reporter discovered the whole story was false, a trick. VOICE TWO: Each year, historians, researchers, scientists and visitors travel to Roanoke Island. They go with the hope of discovering new evidence about what happened to the Lost Colony. Yet, so far, no new signs have been uncovered. The Lost Colony remains a mystery – much like the events that took place there more than four-hundred years ago. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. Next week, we tell about Jamestown – the first successful colony in America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-01-5-1.cfm
* Headline: About Your Hosts
* Byline: 

 Rosanne Skirble reports on the environment for VOA News Now. She has held a variety of assignments and hosting duties since joining VOA in 1981. She started as a producer in the American Republics Division, after working at radio and television stations in the Washington area. Rosanne holds degrees in education, Latin American studies, and teaching English as a Foreign Language. In the 1970s she taught Spanish and EFL at schools and universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan. She has written several EFL textbooks as well as articles for professional journals for teachers of English as a Foreign Language and Spanish. She and her husband have three sons. Avi Arditti is feature editor and senior Web editor in VOA Special English. He joined the staff in 1991 after reporting for VOA from Seattle. Before that, he was a radio, wire service and newspaper journalist in Los Angeles and San Francisco -- for the Associated Press, UPI and USA Today, among others. Avi has a special interest in technical communication, particularly the field of plain language. He has a degree in legal studies from the University of California at Berkeley, where he met his wife; they have a daughter. Rosanne Skirble reports on the environment for VOA News Now. She has held a variety of assignments and hosting duties since joining VOA in 1981. She started as a producer in the American Republics Division, after working at radio and television stations in the Washington area. Rosanne holds degrees in education, Latin American studies, and teaching English as a Foreign Language. In the 1970s she taught Spanish and EFL at schools and universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan. She has written several EFL textbooks as well as articles for professional journals for teachers of English as a Foreign Language and Spanish. She and her husband have three sons. Avi Arditti is feature editor and senior Web editor in VOA Special English. He joined the staff in 1991 after reporting for VOA from Seattle. Before that, he was a radio, wire service and newspaper journalist in Los Angeles and San Francisco -- for the Associated Press, UPI and USA Today, among others. Avi has a special interest in technical communication, particularly the field of plain language. He has a degree in legal studies from the University of California at Berkeley, where he met his wife; they have a daughter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-01-6-1.cfm
* Headline: March 3, 2002 - Lida Baker: Using a Dictionary
* Byline: 

 A: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and, now that the Olympics are over, we're back with WORDMASTER. This week -- going for gold in using the dictionary! RS: We looked up our friend Lida Baker. She teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and writes textbooks for English learners. AA: Lida Baker says a dictionary is "the most important tool that an English learner has." But, she says students often are not aware of the wealth of information in a dictionary. RS: A good dictionary, that is -- one that lists not just all the definitions of a word, but also how to use that word correctly. For instance, a good dictionary warns you if a word is considered vulgar or otherwise offensive. AA: Lida Baker says a good dictionary also helps you sort out the different meanings a word might have in different English-speaking countries. TAPE: CUT ONE -- LIDA BAKER "So if you look up, for instance, the word 'lift,' the first definition in my American English dictionary is, ‘if you give someone a lift, you take them somewhere in your car, and a synonym is a ride.’ So that is the most common meaning in American English, but if you read down a ways in this definition you will see a label that says 'British' and next to it you will see the words 'an elevator.'" RS: That's right, an "elevator" in American English is a "lift" in British English. AA: Lida Baker says another thing a good dictionary can tell you is how a word is generally used. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BAKER/AA/RS BAKER: "You'll see things ike 'formal,' 'informal,' 'humorous,' 'literary' or 'slang.' And a good example of this is the word 'chill.'" RS: "C-h-i-l-l." BAKER: "Right. When it's used as a verb it means to cool something down and it doesn't have any particular label, but definition number two has the label 'spoken and informal.' And the definition here is to relax instead of feeling angry or nervous. And there's an example sentence: "Shelley, just chill out, OK?" AA: "That sounds like slang, to 'chill out.'" RS: "Which is informal." BAKER: "Spoken or informal, right. So the student looking at this definition would know that they shouldn't use this if they're writing a composition in a college course, or you probably shouldn't use this if you're talking to the president of your company during a job interview or something like that, a more formal situation." AA: OK, now let's look up the word "frustration." Ah yes, here's the definition I'm looking for: "noun -- the feeling you get when you try to look up the correct spelling of a word that you have no clue how to spell." TAPE: CUT THREE -- BAKER/AA "I do not know a magical solution to this problem. Students from Asia tend to be exceptionally fine spellers in English even if they don't know what a word means. Students who come from other regions of the world have much more difficulty with spelling and they really get stuck in a situation like this if they don't know how to spell a word. Now there is something called a backward or reverse dictionary. Instead of finding the word with its correct spelling, you can look up a word based on the way it sounds, but I haven't actually seen one of these." RS: So how do you choose the right dictionary? Well, Lida Baker says it all depends on what you're looking for. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BAKER "If I'm reading a story for my own pleasure and I encounter a word and all I want is a quick and general sense of what the word means so that I can then continue with my pleasure reading, in a situation like that I might use a bilingual dictionary. I'll look it up, I'll find a one-word translation into my own language and then I'll keep on reading. But if my purpose is to learn English with the purpose of being able to use a word in an actual conversation or in writing a college composition or a business report, in a situation like that I would want to use an English-English dictionary that gives all the usage labels, the complete grammatical information, the example sentences and so on." AA: Lida Baker comes to us from Los Angeles, where -- when she's not thumbing through dictionaries -- she writes textbooks for English learners and teaches at the American Language Center, part of the University of California Extension program. RS: If you have a question, send it to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Your Dictionary"/XTC A: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and, now that the Olympics are over, we're back with WORDMASTER. This week -- going for gold in using the dictionary! RS: We looked up our friend Lida Baker. She teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and writes textbooks for English learners. AA: Lida Baker says a dictionary is "the most important tool that an English learner has." But, she says students often are not aware of the wealth of information in a dictionary. RS: A good dictionary, that is -- one that lists not just all the definitions of a word, but also how to use that word correctly. For instance, a good dictionary warns you if a word is considered vulgar or otherwise offensive. AA: Lida Baker says a good dictionary also helps you sort out the different meanings a word might have in different English-speaking countries. TAPE: CUT ONE -- LIDA BAKER "So if you look up, for instance, the word 'lift,' the first definition in my American English dictionary is, ‘if you give someone a lift, you take them somewhere in your car, and a synonym is a ride.’ So that is the most common meaning in American English, but if you read down a ways in this definition you will see a label that says 'British' and next to it you will see the words 'an elevator.'" RS: That's right, an "elevator" in American English is a "lift" in British English. AA: Lida Baker says another thing a good dictionary can tell you is how a word is generally used. TAPE: CUT TWO -- BAKER/AA/RS BAKER: "You'll see things ike 'formal,' 'informal,' 'humorous,' 'literary' or 'slang.' And a good example of this is the word 'chill.'" RS: "C-h-i-l-l." BAKER: "Right. When it's used as a verb it means to cool something down and it doesn't have any particular label, but definition number two has the label 'spoken and informal.' And the definition here is to relax instead of feeling angry or nervous. And there's an example sentence: "Shelley, just chill out, OK?" AA: "That sounds like slang, to 'chill out.'" RS: "Which is informal." BAKER: "Spoken or informal, right. So the student looking at this definition would know that they shouldn't use this if they're writing a composition in a college course, or you probably shouldn't use this if you're talking to the president of your company during a job interview or something like that, a more formal situation." AA: OK, now let's look up the word "frustration." Ah yes, here's the definition I'm looking for: "noun -- the feeling you get when you try to look up the correct spelling of a word that you have no clue how to spell." TAPE: CUT THREE -- BAKER/AA "I do not know a magical solution to this problem. Students from Asia tend to be exceptionally fine spellers in English even if they don't know what a word means. Students who come from other regions of the world have much more difficulty with spelling and they really get stuck in a situation like this if they don't know how to spell a word. Now there is something called a backward or reverse dictionary. Instead of finding the word with its correct spelling, you can look up a word based on the way it sounds, but I haven't actually seen one of these." RS: So how do you choose the right dictionary? Well, Lida Baker says it all depends on what you're looking for. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- BAKER "If I'm reading a story for my own pleasure and I encounter a word and all I want is a quick and general sense of what the word means so that I can then continue with my pleasure reading, in a situation like that I might use a bilingual dictionary. I'll look it up, I'll find a one-word translation into my own language and then I'll keep on reading. But if my purpose is to learn English with the purpose of being able to use a word in an actual conversation or in writing a college composition or a business report, in a situation like that I would want to use an English-English dictionary that gives all the usage labels, the complete grammatical information, the example sentences and so on." AA: Lida Baker comes to us from Los Angeles, where -- when she's not thumbing through dictionaries -- she writes textbooks for English learners and teaches at the American Language Center, part of the University of California Extension program. RS: If you have a question, send it to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Your Dictionary"/XTC 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - March 5, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the first genetic copy of a cat. We tell about scientists who are playing love songs for sharks. And we tell about the deaths of hundreds of millions of butterflies in Mexico. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the first genetic copy of a cat. We tell about scientists who are playing love songs for sharks. And we tell about the deaths of hundreds of millions of butterflies in Mexico. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American scientists in the state of Texas have produced a genetic copy of a cat for the first time. This cloned baby cat was born in December. Its birth marks the first successful cloning of an animal commonly kept as a pet. During the past few years, other researchers have cloned sheep, mice, pigs, cows and goats. The scientific journal Nature reported the cloning of the cat last month. The kitten is called “c-c” for “copy cat” or “carbon copy.” C-c was created at the College of Veterinary Medicine of Texas A-and-M University. This school for doctors who treat animals is in College Station, Texas. Mark Westhusin (west-TOO-shin) led the team that created the kitten. VOICE TWO: Scientists usually clone animals by placing a cell from an adult animal into a special egg cell whose genetic material has been removed. The genes in the adult cell direct the development of the embryo. The process means that the newly born creature will be an exact genetic copy of the adult. Doctor Westhusin and his team first tried to create a male kitten. They took cells from a male cat’s mouth and joined them with the specially treated egg cells. This produced more than eighty cloned embryos. The researchers then placed the embryos in seven female cats. One of these cats became pregnant. However, the pregnancy ended too soon. Doctor Westhusin and the other researchers tried again. They took cells from the ovaries of a female cat named Rainbow and joined them with the special egg cells. They placed five cloned embryos into a female cat called Allie. Allie became pregnant. Sixty-six days later, the doctors assisted in the birth of a normal, healthy kitten. American scientists in the state of Texas have produced a genetic copy of a cat for the first time. This cloned baby cat was born in December. Its birth marks the first successful cloning of an animal commonly kept as a pet. During the past few years, other researchers have cloned sheep, mice, pigs, cows and goats. The scientific journal Nature reported the cloning of the cat last month. The kitten is called “c-c” for “copy cat” or “carbon copy.” C-c was created at the College of Veterinary Medicine of Texas A-and-M University. This school for doctors who treat animals is in College Station, Texas. Mark Westhusin (west-TOO-shin) led the team that created the kitten. VOICE TWO: Scientists usually clone animals by placing a cell from an adult animal into a special egg cell whose genetic material has been removed. The genes in the adult cell direct the development of the embryo. The process means that the newly born creature will be an exact genetic copy of the adult. Doctor Westhusin and his team first tried to create a male kitten. They took cells from a male cat’s mouth and joined them with the specially treated egg cells. This produced more than eighty cloned embryos. The researchers then placed the embryos in seven female cats. One of these cats became pregnant. However, the pregnancy ended too soon. Doctor Westhusin and the other researchers tried again. They took cells from the ovaries of a female cat named Rainbow and joined them with the special egg cells. They placed five cloned embryos into a female cat called Allie. Allie became pregnant. Sixty-six days later, the doctors assisted in the birth of a normal, healthy kitten. VOICE ONE: C-c is now more than two months old. She has continued to develop normally. She has exactly the same genes as Rainbow. But she does not look exactly like her. The cats have different colored markings. This is because their colors are decided partly by genes and partly by molecular changes during development. Doctor Westhusin’s team has been trying to develop a cloned dog for several years. However, they say cloning a dog is much more difficult. They say scientists know more about cats because they have worked much more with cat eggs and embryos. Cats produce eggs when they mate. Dogs, however, do not produce eggs at any special time. Doctor Westhusin says research on cloning cats and dogs has provided important information about their reproduction. He says this information could help develop new methods of preventing the birth of unwanted animals. He also says cloning could be used to produce identical animals in research to find cures for diseases in humans. Researchers also say information from cloning could help save large endangered cats, like the African wild cat. VOICE TWO: A company called Genetic Savings and Clone of College Station, Texas, supported the research. The company wants to offer cloning to owners of cats and dogs in the future. The company believes some people may want to clone their pets when the animals die. However, many groups that are concerned with the treatment of animals oppose cloning cats and dogs. They say it serves no useful social purpose. And they say it would add to the problem of too many pets in the United States. Each year, American animal shelters destroy millions of unwanted dogs and cats.Some people also fear that the cloning of a cat means another step toward cloning humans. Some scientists already say they are working toward that goal. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: C-c is now more than two months old. She has continued to develop normally. She has exactly the same genes as Rainbow. But she does not look exactly like her. The cats have different colored markings. This is because their colors are decided partly by genes and partly by molecular changes during development. Doctor Westhusin’s team has been trying to develop a cloned dog for several years. However, they say cloning a dog is much more difficult. They say scientists know more about cats because they have worked much more with cat eggs and embryos. Cats produce eggs when they mate. Dogs, however, do not produce eggs at any special time. Doctor Westhusin says research on cloning cats and dogs has provided important information about their reproduction. He says this information could help develop new methods of preventing the birth of unwanted animals. He also says cloning could be used to produce identical animals in research to find cures for diseases in humans. Researchers also say information from cloning could help save large endangered cats, like the African wild cat. VOICE TWO: A company called Genetic Savings and Clone of College Station, Texas, supported the research. The company wants to offer cloning to owners of cats and dogs in the future. The company believes some people may want to clone their pets when the animals die. However, many groups that are concerned with the treatment of animals oppose cloning cats and dogs. They say it serves no useful social purpose. And they say it would add to the problem of too many pets in the United States. Each year, American animal shelters destroy millions of unwanted dogs and cats.Some people also fear that the cloning of a cat means another step toward cloning humans. Some scientists already say they are working toward that goal. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists at the National Sealife Center in Birmingham, England have a problem with their sharks. They want the five male and five female sharks to mate. Yet none of the creatures has shown any interest in the opposite sex. The center has had success in getting other sea creatures to reproduce. Some of those creatures live in the same area with the sharks. The British scientists seem willing to try almost anything to get the sharks to mate. Recently, they started to play love songs near a large container of water where the sharks live. The scientists hoped that the music would get the creatures ready for mating. VOICE TWO: The scientists decided to play music after they heard about a study done by the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the American study, scientists tested different sounds on koi carp fish. These scientists found that the fish react to sounds in a way similar to humans. They showed that the koi are affected by and can identify different kinds of music. Sharks have excellent hearing. But it is limited to low-pitched sounds. The scientists in Birmingham started playing music for the sharks just a few days before February fourteenth. That was Saint Valentine’s Day, the yearly celebration for lovers. They played a number of popular love songs, including some by American singer Barry White. ((MUSIC INSERT: "YOU’RE THE FIRST, THE LAST, MY EVERYTHING")) VOICE ONE: Scientists played the music in the room where the sharks live. The scientists say they may consider an idea to play the music underwater. The researchers say they are not sure how long it would be before the music has an effect. How will the scientists know if their experiment is successful? They say that, before mating, the male shark will chase the female and attempt to bite her on the back. VOICE ONE: Scientists at the National Sealife Center in Birmingham, England have a problem with their sharks. They want the five male and five female sharks to mate. Yet none of the creatures has shown any interest in the opposite sex. The center has had success in getting other sea creatures to reproduce. Some of those creatures live in the same area with the sharks. The British scientists seem willing to try almost anything to get the sharks to mate. Recently, they started to play love songs near a large container of water where the sharks live. The scientists hoped that the music would get the creatures ready for mating. VOICE TWO: The scientists decided to play music after they heard about a study done by the Rowland Institute for Science in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the American study, scientists tested different sounds on koi carp fish. These scientists found that the fish react to sounds in a way similar to humans. They showed that the koi are affected by and can identify different kinds of music. Sharks have excellent hearing. But it is limited to low-pitched sounds. The scientists in Birmingham started playing music for the sharks just a few days before February fourteenth. That was Saint Valentine’s Day, the yearly celebration for lovers. They played a number of popular love songs, including some by American singer Barry White. ((MUSIC INSERT: "YOU’RE THE FIRST, THE LAST, MY EVERYTHING")) VOICE ONE: Scientists played the music in the room where the sharks live. The scientists say they may consider an idea to play the music underwater. The researchers say they are not sure how long it would be before the music has an effect. How will the scientists know if their experiment is successful? They say that, before mating, the male shark will chase the female and attempt to bite her on the back. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the loss of hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies in central Mexico is not expected to threaten the species. The butterflies froze to death in January after a severe winter storm. Most of the butterflies in the Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies were killed in the storm. The colonies are in the mountains in the state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City. Researchers say the butterflies froze to death after heavy rain fell in the area, followed by freezing temperatures. Scientists say the temperatures following the storm were the lowest recorded in the area in the past twenty-five years. VOICE ONE: During the year, monarch butterflies fly long distances, or migrate. They are one of the few kinds of insects that migrate. This has made the monarch popular among nature lovers. The monarchs spend the winter in Mexico. Each spring, the butterflies fly north after they mate. The females stop to lay their eggs in the southern United States. The adults die soon after. The monarchs that develop from those eggs continue the flight. They return to the same areas in North America where their parents lived. By summer, the butterflies can reach as far north as Canada. During the autumn, the monarchs return to the same forests in the mountains of Mexico. They like the oyamel tree the best. These tall trees are sometimes completely covered with butterflies. VOICE TWO: Some scientists have suggested that the loss of forests in the mountains of Mexico led to the die-off of monarchs. They say the remaining forests may no longer provide enough protection to keep the butterflies warm and dry. Every winter, millions of monarchs die in the high mountain forests. However, scientists note that the species is not in danger of disappearing. That is because there are other, smaller populations of monarchs in the United States that did not migrate to Mexico. Scientists say they will know after more study if the monarch populations in Mexico will be able to recover from the die-off. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the loss of hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies in central Mexico is not expected to threaten the species. The butterflies froze to death in January after a severe winter storm. Most of the butterflies in the Rosario and Sierra Chincua colonies were killed in the storm. The colonies are in the mountains in the state of Michoacan, west of Mexico City. Researchers say the butterflies froze to death after heavy rain fell in the area, followed by freezing temperatures. Scientists say the temperatures following the storm were the lowest recorded in the area in the past twenty-five years. VOICE ONE: During the year, monarch butterflies fly long distances, or migrate. They are one of the few kinds of insects that migrate. This has made the monarch popular among nature lovers. The monarchs spend the winter in Mexico. Each spring, the butterflies fly north after they mate. The females stop to lay their eggs in the southern United States. The adults die soon after. The monarchs that develop from those eggs continue the flight. They return to the same areas in North America where their parents lived. By summer, the butterflies can reach as far north as Canada. During the autumn, the monarchs return to the same forests in the mountains of Mexico. They like the oyamel tree the best. These tall trees are sometimes completely covered with butterflies. VOICE TWO: Some scientists have suggested that the loss of forests in the mountains of Mexico led to the die-off of monarchs. They say the remaining forests may no longer provide enough protection to keep the butterflies warm and dry. Every winter, millions of monarchs die in the high mountain forests. However, scientists note that the species is not in danger of disappearing. That is because there are other, smaller populations of monarchs in the United States that did not migrate to Mexico. Scientists say they will know after more study if the monarch populations in Mexico will be able to recover from the die-off. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – March 5, 2002: Herbs
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Small plants called herbs have many uses. Some herbs are used in cooking to make foods taste better. Others are used as medicines. Now, a new study shows that many herbs used in cooking contain helpful chemicals called anti-oxidants. Our bodies naturally produce oxidizing compounds. An anti-oxidant is one of many chemicals that reduce or prevent oxidation. This prevents damage to cells and tissues caused by atoms or molecules in the body called free radicals. Experts agree that oxidative damage causes many of the health problems common to older adults. The new study found that herbs have more anti-oxidant power than some common fruits and vegetables. However, the strength of these anti-oxidants can depend on the kind of herb and growing conditions. In the new study, scientists from the United States and China tested herbs that were grown in the same area under similar conditions. The scientists did their work at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The United States Department of Agriculture reported the findings. The scientists measured the ability of different kinds of herbs to fight oxidizing chemicals. They tested twenty-seven herbs used in cooking. They also studied twelve herbs that are used as medicines. The highest level of anti-oxidant activity was found in three kinds of oregano used in cooking. They are Mexican, Italian and Greek mountain oregano. Their activity was stronger than the anti-oxidant Vitamin E. It was as strong as a chemical called B-H-A, which is added to food to protect against fat oxidation. Several other herbs also showed strong antioxidant activity. They include bay and dill. However, their strength was about one-half to one-third as strong as that of the three kinds of oregano. Generally, the herbs used as medicines were low in antioxidant activity. The scientists say this suggests that any health effects from such herbs resulted mostly from other actions in the body. The scientists say the antioxidant power of these herbs may be different, depending on where the plants are grown. Yet they suspect that their findings would have been similar had the study been done in another area. That is because of the substances found naturally in each kind of herb. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Small plants called herbs have many uses. Some herbs are used in cooking to make foods taste better. Others are used as medicines. Now, a new study shows that many herbs used in cooking contain helpful chemicals called anti-oxidants. Our bodies naturally produce oxidizing compounds. An anti-oxidant is one of many chemicals that reduce or prevent oxidation. This prevents damage to cells and tissues caused by atoms or molecules in the body called free radicals. Experts agree that oxidative damage causes many of the health problems common to older adults. The new study found that herbs have more anti-oxidant power than some common fruits and vegetables. However, the strength of these anti-oxidants can depend on the kind of herb and growing conditions. In the new study, scientists from the United States and China tested herbs that were grown in the same area under similar conditions. The scientists did their work at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. The United States Department of Agriculture reported the findings. The scientists measured the ability of different kinds of herbs to fight oxidizing chemicals. They tested twenty-seven herbs used in cooking. They also studied twelve herbs that are used as medicines. The highest level of anti-oxidant activity was found in three kinds of oregano used in cooking. They are Mexican, Italian and Greek mountain oregano. Their activity was stronger than the anti-oxidant Vitamin E. It was as strong as a chemical called B-H-A, which is added to food to protect against fat oxidation. Several other herbs also showed strong antioxidant activity. They include bay and dill. However, their strength was about one-half to one-third as strong as that of the three kinds of oregano. Generally, the herbs used as medicines were low in antioxidant activity. The scientists say this suggests that any health effects from such herbs resulted mostly from other actions in the body. The scientists say the antioxidant power of these herbs may be different, depending on where the plants are grown. Yet they suspect that their findings would have been similar had the study been done in another area. That is because of the substances found naturally in each kind of herb. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 6, 2002: Soaring
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a dream that is as old as the human mind. The dream is flight. Today we tell about how that dream has led to the sport of soaring. Soaring is flying in an airplane without an engine. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Every sport has a history. But few sports have a history that goes back one-thousand years. It was then that a Roman Catholic monk built a device to fly. History records say his name was Eilmer of Malmesbury England. He reportedly jumped from a building with wings he had built. He floated down for about two hundred meters before crashing. He broke both his legs. It was not a good flight, but it was a beginning. One of the most famous inventors and artists designed a flying device in the fifteen-century. The Italian inventor-artist was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo designed bird-like wings for a man to wear. His drawings survive to this day. VOICE TWO: Real flight by humans developed very slowly because early inventors like Leonardo tried to make wings that moved. Leonardo and other inventors studied birds. They used the birds' method of flight for their designs. Their idea was that a person would wear wings on their arms and move them up and down just as a bird's wings move. The idea always failed. We now know that a human does not have enough power to move wings fast enough to fly. The first real flights took place in Eighteen-Forty- Nine. British inventor George Cayley built a winged machine called a glider that carried a man. But it crashed after a short flight. In Eighteen-Eighty- Three, an American, John J. Montgomery, made the first, controlled flight in a glider. In fact, he made several. Then Otto Lilienthal of Germany made about two-thousand flights in simple gliders during the Eighteen-Nineties. He built a tall hill from which to launch his flights. Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright flew several kinds of gliders. They also improved methods of controlling their glider flights. Their successful experiments with gliders led to the first aircraft powered by an engine. VOICE ONE: The gliders of long ago could only stay in the air for limited amounts of time. Usually they were launched from a high place. They slowly floated or glided down. Modern technology has made the glider a high performance machine. It can stay up for many hours. It can reach many kilometers into the sky by riding on the hot air that rises from the ground. It can carry one, two or more people. Modern gliders are built from space-age lightweight metals, or plastics. They can carry radios, oxygen needed for extreme heights, and many flight instruments. Many modern gliders or sailplanes look more like insects than birds. They have narrow, rounded bodies, with long thin tails. Their wings are extremely long too. There is very little room inside. The pilot does not sit straight. The seat permits the pilot to almost lie down in an area enclosed by a plastic top. The top is clear. This lets the pilot see very well in every direction. VOICE TWO: A pilot controls a sailplane or glider much the same as other aircraft. Control instruments called ailerons are built into each wing. With one aileron raised and the other lowered, the plane will turn in the direction of the raised aileron. Another control is on the tail. It is called the elevator. It swings up and down. The elevator makes the plane move up or down. The tail also has a control that moves from side to side. It is called a rudder. It helps direct the plane. The pilot controls the rudder with foot pedals. The pilot uses a device called a stick to control the ailerons and elevators. Moving the stick from side to side moves the ailerons. Moving the stick forward points the glider down. Pulling back on the stick makes it go up. In front of the pilot are several instruments. One shows how high the glider is. Another shows the air speed. Another is a compass that shows what direction the glider is flying. And another tells if the glider is going up, or down. VOICE ONE: The modern glider is like those designed hundreds of years ago. It has no power. It can get into the air only with help. In the United States, a powered airplane usually pulls the glider into the air. The glider is usually pulled up to one thousand meters. Then the rope used to pull the glider is released. The glider is on its own. Every school child knows that hot air rises. Glider pilots learn this fact. They learn how to use it. As hot air rises from the ground, it creates enough pressure to permit a modern glider to rise. It provides the power to keep the glider in the air. When the glider has risen as high as the pilot wants, he steers the glider away from the hot air. A glider pilot who has enough rising hot air can keep the aircraft in the air for several hours. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Howard Hoadley lives in the southern state of North Carolina. When Howard is not working, or sleeping, Howard thinks about flying. Howard loves to fly. When he is not flying gliders, he is talking about flying gliders. Or he is talking about glider equipment, good places to fly gliders and about his friends who fly gliders. He has very little interest in flying airplanes that have engines. He thinks they make too much noise. Flying with Howard is safe. It is also fun. Howard flies from a very small airport in beautiful North Carolina farm land. Crops grow next to the landing field. There are powered airplanes at the airport but Howard only cares about the ones that pull the gliders into the air. On weekends and holidays, gliders land and take off every few minutes. VOICE ONE: If you have never been in a glider before, Howard always takes time to explain how it works. He shows how to use the safety belts. He explains each of the instruments and what they do. He shows how the controls work. He makes each passenger feel good about trying a new experience. And he tells his passengers that they will have a chance to fly the glider themselves once they are safely in the air. The glider Howard usually flies can carry two people. One sits in the front and one behind. Howard, as the pilot, rides behind the passenger. Howard and the passenger both have a complete set of flight instruments and controls. The glider is launched with safety as the first consideration. A person on the ground provides support for both the pilot of the glider and the pilot of the plane that will pull the gilder into the air. That person controls the launch and uses hand signs to communicate with both pilots. When everything is ready the sign to go is given. The person on the ground runs along with the glider to keep its wings level for the first few feet. VOICE TWO: The take-off area is covered with grass. So the ride is not very smooth. Howard tells his passengers to expect to feel many bumps in the first few moments. The glider moves faster and faster, as the airplane pulling it gathers speed. Within seconds both aircraft lift off the ground. The ride now is very smooth. You can hear the sound of the airplane engine in the plane that is pulling the glider. VOICE ONE: It takes a few minutes to reach the height where the rope holding the glider to the airplane is released. When the rope is released, the glider turns to the right. The airplane goes left. Now no loud sound is heard in the glider, only the sound of the air passing under the glider's wings. The clear plastic glass that covers the front of the glider provides a beautiful sight in all directions. The ground far below is green. There are dark green trees, green corn, and grass. A farm is seen in the distance. And, far below is the airport, with aircraft lined up in a row. VOICE TWO: Howard looks to make sure there are no other aircraft in the area. Then he tells his passenger to place his right hand on the stick and his feet on the rudder pedals. Howard takes his hands and feet off the controls. Howard tells the passenger, "Now, turn to the left. Move the stick to the left and press the left rudder pedal at the same time...stick and rudder together always. Now try pushing the stick forward a little. Now turn to the right." Howard sounds happy. Then he says one of the most exciting things the passenger will ever hear: "Now you are really flying ... all by yourself." ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a dream that is as old as the human mind. The dream is flight. Today we tell about how that dream has led to the sport of soaring. Soaring is flying in an airplane without an engine. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Every sport has a history. But few sports have a history that goes back one-thousand years. It was then that a Roman Catholic monk built a device to fly. History records say his name was Eilmer of Malmesbury England. He reportedly jumped from a building with wings he had built. He floated down for about two hundred meters before crashing. He broke both his legs. It was not a good flight, but it was a beginning. One of the most famous inventors and artists designed a flying device in the fifteen-century. The Italian inventor-artist was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo designed bird-like wings for a man to wear. His drawings survive to this day. VOICE TWO: Real flight by humans developed very slowly because early inventors like Leonardo tried to make wings that moved. Leonardo and other inventors studied birds. They used the birds' method of flight for their designs. Their idea was that a person would wear wings on their arms and move them up and down just as a bird's wings move. The idea always failed. We now know that a human does not have enough power to move wings fast enough to fly. The first real flights took place in Eighteen-Forty- Nine. British inventor George Cayley built a winged machine called a glider that carried a man. But it crashed after a short flight. In Eighteen-Eighty- Three, an American, John J. Montgomery, made the first, controlled flight in a glider. In fact, he made several. Then Otto Lilienthal of Germany made about two-thousand flights in simple gliders during the Eighteen-Nineties. He built a tall hill from which to launch his flights. Americans Wilbur and Orville Wright flew several kinds of gliders. They also improved methods of controlling their glider flights. Their successful experiments with gliders led to the first aircraft powered by an engine. VOICE ONE: The gliders of long ago could only stay in the air for limited amounts of time. Usually they were launched from a high place. They slowly floated or glided down. Modern technology has made the glider a high performance machine. It can stay up for many hours. It can reach many kilometers into the sky by riding on the hot air that rises from the ground. It can carry one, two or more people. Modern gliders are built from space-age lightweight metals, or plastics. They can carry radios, oxygen needed for extreme heights, and many flight instruments. Many modern gliders or sailplanes look more like insects than birds. They have narrow, rounded bodies, with long thin tails. Their wings are extremely long too. There is very little room inside. The pilot does not sit straight. The seat permits the pilot to almost lie down in an area enclosed by a plastic top. The top is clear. This lets the pilot see very well in every direction. VOICE TWO: A pilot controls a sailplane or glider much the same as other aircraft. Control instruments called ailerons are built into each wing. With one aileron raised and the other lowered, the plane will turn in the direction of the raised aileron. Another control is on the tail. It is called the elevator. It swings up and down. The elevator makes the plane move up or down. The tail also has a control that moves from side to side. It is called a rudder. It helps direct the plane. The pilot controls the rudder with foot pedals. The pilot uses a device called a stick to control the ailerons and elevators. Moving the stick from side to side moves the ailerons. Moving the stick forward points the glider down. Pulling back on the stick makes it go up. In front of the pilot are several instruments. One shows how high the glider is. Another shows the air speed. Another is a compass that shows what direction the glider is flying. And another tells if the glider is going up, or down. VOICE ONE: The modern glider is like those designed hundreds of years ago. It has no power. It can get into the air only with help. In the United States, a powered airplane usually pulls the glider into the air. The glider is usually pulled up to one thousand meters. Then the rope used to pull the glider is released. The glider is on its own. Every school child knows that hot air rises. Glider pilots learn this fact. They learn how to use it. As hot air rises from the ground, it creates enough pressure to permit a modern glider to rise. It provides the power to keep the glider in the air. When the glider has risen as high as the pilot wants, he steers the glider away from the hot air. A glider pilot who has enough rising hot air can keep the aircraft in the air for several hours. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Howard Hoadley lives in the southern state of North Carolina. When Howard is not working, or sleeping, Howard thinks about flying. Howard loves to fly. When he is not flying gliders, he is talking about flying gliders. Or he is talking about glider equipment, good places to fly gliders and about his friends who fly gliders. He has very little interest in flying airplanes that have engines. He thinks they make too much noise. Flying with Howard is safe. It is also fun. Howard flies from a very small airport in beautiful North Carolina farm land. Crops grow next to the landing field. There are powered airplanes at the airport but Howard only cares about the ones that pull the gliders into the air. On weekends and holidays, gliders land and take off every few minutes. VOICE ONE: If you have never been in a glider before, Howard always takes time to explain how it works. He shows how to use the safety belts. He explains each of the instruments and what they do. He shows how the controls work. He makes each passenger feel good about trying a new experience. And he tells his passengers that they will have a chance to fly the glider themselves once they are safely in the air. The glider Howard usually flies can carry two people. One sits in the front and one behind. Howard, as the pilot, rides behind the passenger. Howard and the passenger both have a complete set of flight instruments and controls. The glider is launched with safety as the first consideration. A person on the ground provides support for both the pilot of the glider and the pilot of the plane that will pull the gilder into the air. That person controls the launch and uses hand signs to communicate with both pilots. When everything is ready the sign to go is given. The person on the ground runs along with the glider to keep its wings level for the first few feet. VOICE TWO: The take-off area is covered with grass. So the ride is not very smooth. Howard tells his passengers to expect to feel many bumps in the first few moments. The glider moves faster and faster, as the airplane pulling it gathers speed. Within seconds both aircraft lift off the ground. The ride now is very smooth. You can hear the sound of the airplane engine in the plane that is pulling the glider. VOICE ONE: It takes a few minutes to reach the height where the rope holding the glider to the airplane is released. When the rope is released, the glider turns to the right. The airplane goes left. Now no loud sound is heard in the glider, only the sound of the air passing under the glider's wings. The clear plastic glass that covers the front of the glider provides a beautiful sight in all directions. The ground far below is green. There are dark green trees, green corn, and grass. A farm is seen in the distance. And, far below is the airport, with aircraft lined up in a row. VOICE TWO: Howard looks to make sure there are no other aircraft in the area. Then he tells his passenger to place his right hand on the stick and his feet on the rudder pedals. Howard takes his hands and feet off the controls. Howard tells the passenger, "Now, turn to the left. Move the stick to the left and press the left rudder pedal at the same time...stick and rudder together always. Now try pushing the stick forward a little. Now turn to the right." Howard sounds happy. Then he says one of the most exciting things the passenger will ever hear: "Now you are really flying ... all by yourself." ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – March 6, 2002: Bird Brains
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American scientists have found that some birds are more intelligent than experts had believed. The scientists say birds have abilities that involve communication and different kinds of memory. In some unusual cases, their abilities seem better than those of humans. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American scientists have found that some birds are more intelligent than experts had believed. The scientists say birds have abilities that involve communication and different kinds of memory. In some unusual cases, their abilities seem better than those of humans. The findings were presented at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The scientists met for six days last month in Boston, Massachusetts. Irene Pepperberg presented her research about a Grey parrot named Griffin. He lives in her laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Mizz Pepperberg says Griffin can arrange objects in order of size. She says the talking bird also can combine words in the right order. For example, he will combine words when asking for a piece of food. The researcher says experts had thought that only humans and other mammals with large brains have the ability to combine objects and words. She believes that bird brains have the ability to understand that complex tasks must be done in the correct order. Some birds have other memory skills. For example, they collect and store thousands of seeds in autumn, and find them later in winter. Alan Kamil (pronounced camel) and Alan Bond of the University of Nebraska are studying the memories of birds called jays and nutcrackers. Their experiments suggest that these birds use natural objects to find the seeds they have stored. They found the birds use at least three objects, such as rocks or trees, to find the stored seeds. Mister Kamil also was able to train a jay to choose one object instead of another. The bird used this skill to receive a prize, such as food. Scientists also say some birds can learn as many as two-thousand different songs. They say songs may have developed as a way for birds to communicate with other birds. Verner Bingman of Bowling Green State University in Ohio also presented research at the science meeting in Boston. Mister Bingman believes that birds must have a special guidance system in their brain. He says that understanding how a bird’s brain operates may help us better understand how a human brain processes information. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. The findings were presented at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The scientists met for six days last month in Boston, Massachusetts. Irene Pepperberg presented her research about a Grey parrot named Griffin. He lives in her laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Mizz Pepperberg says Griffin can arrange objects in order of size. She says the talking bird also can combine words in the right order. For example, he will combine words when asking for a piece of food. The researcher says experts had thought that only humans and other mammals with large brains have the ability to combine objects and words. She believes that bird brains have the ability to understand that complex tasks must be done in the correct order. Some birds have other memory skills. For example, they collect and store thousands of seeds in autumn, and find them later in winter. Alan Kamil (pronounced camel) and Alan Bond of the University of Nebraska are studying the memories of birds called jays and nutcrackers. Their experiments suggest that these birds use natural objects to find the seeds they have stored. They found the birds use at least three objects, such as rocks or trees, to find the stored seeds. Mister Kamil also was able to train a jay to choose one object instead of another. The bird used this skill to receive a prize, such as food. Scientists also say some birds can learn as many as two-thousand different songs. They say songs may have developed as a way for birds to communicate with other birds. Verner Bingman of Bowling Green State University in Ohio also presented research at the science meeting in Boston. Mister Bingman believes that birds must have a special guidance system in their brain. He says that understanding how a bird’s brain operates may help us better understand how a human brain processes information. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - March 7, 2002: 'Second New Deal'
* Byline: 

 (Theme) VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Franklin Roosevelt's first three months as president were one of the most exciting periods in American politics. Roosevelt entered the White House in March nineteen-thirty-three. The nation was in crisis. Banks across the country had closed their doors. The Great Economic Depression was at its lowest point. Roosevelt and the Congress moved quickly to help people without food or money. They launched a series of major economic programs. VOICE 2: Conditions improved within a year after Roosevelt took office. There was no question about that. Banks were open. More people had jobs. Farmers were doing better. And the poor were not so close to disaster as before. However, conditions were far from perfect. Ten-million workers still did not have jobs. Young people leaving school were lucky to find any job at all. And most business owners were only earning small profits, if any at all. After the worst crisis was past, some groups of Americans began to attack Roosevelt and his programs. Conservatives were the first to break with the president. They accused Roosevelt of socialist economic policies. VOICE 1: Much more serious to Roosevelt was criticism from reformers within his own party. A number of popular leaders with strong views began to attract support from large numbers of Americans. Roosevelt saw his national unity falling apart. Conservatives were accusing him of socialism. Leftist opponents said he was doing too little to end the depression. He saw that he had to change his path. Roosevelt knew he had little chance to re-gain the support of conservative Americans. His policies were too progressive. So halfway through his first term as president, he began to support new reforms in an effort to win more support from the left. VOICE 2: The Supreme Court made the president's effort easier. Early in nineteen-thirty-five, the court ruled that several of Roosevelt's earlier programs violated the constitution and ordered an end to them. Among them were major programs for farmers and industrial planning. The court's decisions forced Roosevelt to create new programs and try new ideas. One of his first new actions was to support a plan for government controls on companies that produced electricity and water. Another was a bill to give jobs to workers. A third new law forced companies doing business with the federal government to pay workers a minimum wage. And the government also began enforcing a new law to control the actions of stock market traders and investment companies. At the same time, Roosevelt began to attack large companies. He spoke about the importance of small businesses in a democracy. He warned the nation that large companies had too much power. And he called for new actions to increase business competition and control large companies. VOICE 1: Roosevelt supported, and Congress passed, two laws during this period that would change the lives of working Americans for years to come. The first law gave more power to labor unions. The second created a federal system to provide money for workers after they retired. Roosevelt's administration had already supported labor unions in an earlier law. But that law was over-ruled by the Supreme Court. So in nineteen-thirty-five, the Congress passed a new law called the National Labor Relations Act. The act created a national labor relations group to help negotiate agreements between workers and business owners. It gave all workers the right to join or form a labor union. And it ordered business owners to negotiate with a union if it represented most of the workers. The new law, for the first time, gave unions real power and negotiating rights. VOICE 2: The other very important law passed during this period created the national social security system. The law forced every worker and business owner to pay a small amount of money each month to the federal government. In exchange, the government paid money to workers who had retired or lost their jobs. The new law did not serve everyone. Farmers, government workers, and a number of other groups were not included in the system. The plan also did nothing to help people who were already unemployed. A person had to have a job after the new system began and then lose it to get money. However, the national social security law established a system that would grow and become a central part of American life. VOICE 1: Roosevelt also supported other new laws during this period that changed the American economy. A banking act gave the nation's central bank -- the Federal Reserve Board -- new power to control the total amount of money in use. Another law increased taxes for rich people. A third law limited the power of major companies to gain control of local electric utility companies. The new laws openly challenged the power of big companies, big banks, and big money. Roosevelt rejected the idea that government should cooperate with major companies. Instead, he accused many of the companies of ruining the economy and hurting the working man. He called on Congress to help small companies and the average American. VOICE 2: Perhaps the most important change during this period was that Roosevelt became willing to accept a federal budget that was not balanced. He began to agree with the views of Marriner Eccles, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank. Eccles believed that government had a duty to spend extra money during times of economic crisis. The extra money, he said, would create jobs for more people. They could buy more goods. And this would increase economic growth. Eccles believed that it was good policy for a government to spend more money than it earned through taxes during such periods. He argued that a growing economy would increase incomes and bring in more tax money. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's administration had spent more money than it earned ever since it took office. But the president and his advisers did so only to end the economic crisis. They believed that it was a necessary evil. But Eccles and others told Roosevelt that it was not bad for the nation if the government spent more than it earned. The British economic expert, John Maynard Keynes, published an influential book that supported the same policy. And Roosevelt and his top advisers began to accept the new idea. VOICE 2: Roosevelt's economic policies were known as the "New Deal." But the many changes he made during this period became known as the "Second New Deal." They included some of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of the country, such as the National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security law. And Roosevelt's willingness to accept an unbalanced budget would be the first step toward federal budget shortages that would grow steadily in the years to come. Budget shortages would jump under President Lyndon Johnson during the war in Vietnam. They would be an important cause of economic inflation in the United States and the world in the nineteen-seventies. And Americans would elect Ronald Reagan president in nineteen-eighty partly to try to bring federal spending under control. In nineteen-thirty-five, however, most Americans agreed with Franklin Roosevelt that budget shortages were necessary to fight the serious economic depression. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Larry West. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT — March 7, 2002: Alzheimer’s Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Medical researchers say a new study shows a link between the mental condition Alzheimer’s disease and high levels of the substance homocysteine (ho-mo-SIS-teen) in the blood. Homocysteine is an amino acid present in proteins that are normally produced in the body. Homocysteine levels Researchers at Boston University and Tufts University in Massachusetts carried out the new study. It is the first to find a link between high homocysteine levels in healthy people and the later development of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers reported their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. They examined the medical records of people who took part in the Framingham, Massachusetts Heart Study. That study examined the health of several thousand people who live in a town near Boston. They have had medical tests every other year since Nineteen-Forty-Eight. More than ten years ago, researchers measured the homocysteine levels of more than one-thousand healthy people taking part in the Framingham study. All the people were sixty-eight years old or older. Eight years later, ten percent of them had developed the mental and memory problems of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers found that those with the highest homocysteine levels had two times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease as those with lower levels. They said even a small increase in homocysteine levels appeared to increase the chance that the person would later develop Alzheimer’s. The study does not prove that high levels of homocysteine cause Alzheimer’s. But, the researchers say homocysteine can damage blood vessels and nerves. High levels of homocysteine have also been linked to strokes and heart attacks. Experts say some vitamins and folic acid in fruits and vegetables help change homocysteine into amino acids that do not harm the body. The researchers say people can reduce their homocysteine levels by eating more fruits and vegetables. Or they can take folic acid and vitamin B in pills. Scientists are planning to continue their work to find out if the vitamins can prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease in healthy people. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Medical researchers say a new study shows a link between the mental condition Alzheimer’s disease and high levels of the substance homocysteine (ho-mo-SIS-teen) in the blood. Homocysteine is an amino acid present in proteins that are normally produced in the body. Homocysteine levels Researchers at Boston University and Tufts University in Massachusetts carried out the new study. It is the first to find a link between high homocysteine levels in healthy people and the later development of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers reported their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. They examined the medical records of people who took part in the Framingham, Massachusetts Heart Study. That study examined the health of several thousand people who live in a town near Boston. They have had medical tests every other year since Nineteen-Forty-Eight. More than ten years ago, researchers measured the homocysteine levels of more than one-thousand healthy people taking part in the Framingham study. All the people were sixty-eight years old or older. Eight years later, ten percent of them had developed the mental and memory problems of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers found that those with the highest homocysteine levels had two times the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease as those with lower levels. They said even a small increase in homocysteine levels appeared to increase the chance that the person would later develop Alzheimer’s. The study does not prove that high levels of homocysteine cause Alzheimer’s. But, the researchers say homocysteine can damage blood vessels and nerves. High levels of homocysteine have also been linked to strokes and heart attacks. Experts say some vitamins and folic acid in fruits and vegetables help change homocysteine into amino acids that do not harm the body. The researchers say people can reduce their homocysteine levels by eating more fruits and vegetables. Or they can take folic acid and vitamin B in pills. Scientists are planning to continue their work to find out if the vitamins can prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease in healthy people. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - March 9, 2002: Switzerland Joins UN
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Last Sunday, Switzerland voted to join the United Nations. If approved by the U-N, Switzerland would become the one-hundred ninetieth member of the world organization. More than fifty-four percent of the Swiss voters supported the proposal. Forty-five percent voted against it. The proposal also had to be approved by a majority of Swiss states, called cantons. The result of that vote was much closer. It passed twelve cantons to eleven. This was not the first time Swiss voters had considered U-N membership. In Nineteen-Eighty-Six, seventy-five percent of voters rejected a proposal that Switzerland join the organization. However, the Swiss government campaigned intensely for U-N membership this time. Industries and trade unions also fought for the proposal’s approval. They argued that Switzerland could not have an influential voice in world issues unless it became a U-N member. Political experts say the terrorist attacks in the United States September eleventh probably increased support for the proposal. Experts say the attacks may have changed the way the Swiss felt about their country and how world events might affect it. Switzerland has a long history of being strongly independent and neutral in world issues. Opponents to U-N membership noted that tradition often in their campaign. Wealthy businessman Christopher Blocher directed the campaign against joining the U-N. He is a leader of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party. Mister Blocher argued that Switzerland would lose neutrality and freedom in joining the U-N membership. His campaign warned that Swiss soldiers would be forced to take part in peacekeeping operations. He also said Switzerland could be forced to join in economic restrictions and similar actions against other countries. Swiss government officials are celebrating the vote. Foreign Minister Joseph Deiss called Switzerland the winner of the election. He said the time has come for Switzerland to have responsibilities within the U-N system and to be able to defend its interests in the international community. Switzerland now is an observer to the U-N. It is a member of several U-N agencies such as the World Health Organization. It already gives about three-hundred-million dollars yearly to U-N agencies. And Switzerland is the home of the U-N headquarters in Europe. Now, Switzerland will officially ask U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan if it may join as a full member. The request will go before the U-N Security Council and then to the General Assembly. If the request is approved, as expected, Vatican City will become the only state that is not a member of the world organization. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 7, 2002: Songs by Hank Williams Junior / The effects of the Olympics on Salt Lake City / A visit to Hemingway's house
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: HOST: Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some songs by Hank Williams Junior ... Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah Courtesy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play some songs by Hank Williams Junior ... answer a question about the Olympic Games that just ended ... and report about a house owned by a famous American writer. Hemingway House HOST: Ernest Hemingway was one of America’s most famous writers. He wrote many of his best known books and stories in the little city of Key West, Florida. Visitors today can see Hemingway’s house and the creatures that live there. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: answer a question about the Olympic Games that just ended ... and report about a house owned by a famous American writer. Hemingway House HOST: Ernest Hemingway was one of America’s most famous writers. He wrote many of his best known books and stories in the little city of Key West, Florida. Visitors today can see Hemingway’s house and the creatures that live there. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The Hemingway house on Whitehead Street in Key West is across the street from a tall lighthouse. The powerful light in the tower warns ships at sea that they are approaching land. Friends of Ernest Hemingway liked to say the light also helped him find his way home at night after he left his favorite drinking place. Hemingway’s house was built in Eighteen-Fifty-One. Its walls are made of coral rocks found on the grounds. The rooms have many high windows and doors. These could be opened during the extremely hot summer days. A smaller house is just behind the main house. This is where Ernest Hemingway worked, in a small room on the second floor filled with pictures and books. He wrote more than half of his most famous books and stories here. These include the books “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “To Have And Have Not,” and short stories like “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Ernest Hemingway would begin work each day in the little room at about six in the morning. He would write for about six hours. Then he might go deep-sea fishing. Or he might go to his favorite drinking place with his friends. Ernest Hemingway loved cats. About fifty of them lived in his house in Key West. He left the house in Nineteen-Forty. No one lives there now -- except about sixty cats. Many of these animals are related to an unusual cat given to Hemingway by a ship’s captain. That cat had six toes on each of its paws. Many of the cats living there now also have six toes. Ernest Hemingway named his cats after famous writers and movie actors. That tradition is still alive. If you visit Hemingway’s house you can meet cats named William Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin and many others. People who visit the house usually want to know why Hemingway had so many cats. Hemingway answered the question many years ago. He said, “One cat leads to another.” Effects of Winter Olympics HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. Amarkhuu Ayulguisaikhan asks about the effects of the recent Olympic Winter Games on the people of Salt Lake City, Utah. The people of Utah prepared for the Olympic Winter Games for the past seven years. They expected many changes as a result of the world competition. Leaders of the Mormon Church hoped the Games would help more people around the world understand their religion. News reports say they succeeded because of their friendly welcome to all the athletes and visitors. Another expected result was that the Games would bring new businesses to Utah. Experts say it is really too soon to tell yet. But they note that the city now has new roads, hotels and transportation systems that were built for the Olympics. The owners of the state’s ski areas are hoping for a huge increase in business. About three-thousand-million people around the world saw the beautiful mountain environment of Utah on television. Officials say special competition areas built for Olympic sports like the luge and bobsled could make Utah a winter sports center. The Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee has plans for the buildings and equipment used during the Games. For example, the buildings where the athletes stayed will become housing for students at the University of Utah. Local schools and governments will buy furniture and office equipment used by Olympic officials. The Gateway company that provided computers for the Games plans to give the equipment to schools and local communities. Some store owners in the area say their business did not increase as a result of all the visitors. However, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee says Utah will earn at least forty-million dollars from the Olympic Winter Games. Some reports say Utah will enjoy a three-thousand-million dollar increase in business as a result of the Games during the next seven years. Hank Williams Junior HOST: Hank Williams Junior has recorded more than sixty albums. He began singing on stage at the age of eight. He recorded his first hit song when he was only fourteen years old. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Hank Williams Junior is the son of the most famous country and western musician of all time, Hank Williams. Hank Williams wrote most of the songs he made famous in the Nineteen-Forties and early Nineteen-Fifties. He died at the age of twenty-nine. His son, Hank Junior, was only three years old. Hank Junior learned to play guitar and sing his father’s songs soon after his father’s death. He quickly became famous for his ability to copy his father’s singing voice. Few people could tell the difference. But Hank Williams Junior wanted to play very different music from his father. He expressed this difference in a hit recording called “Family Traditions.” ((CUT 1: FAMILY TRADITIONS)) That record was a major hit. Hank Junior has had ten top-selling records and thirteen top-selling albums. He was voted the entertainer of the year three times by the Academy of Country Music. He received two entertainer of the year awards from the Country Music Association. Millions of people around the world know Hank Williams Junior because of the song he sings before the popular television show “Monday Night Football.” Here it is: ((CUT 2: MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL)) Hank Williams Junior has just released a new album. He recorded it in the same building where his father once performed. It is called “Almeria Club.” We leave you now with a song from Hank Williams Junior’s new album, “Almeria Club.” It is called “Go Girl Go.” ((CUT 3: GO GIRL GO)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Lee Dravis. And our producer was Paul Thompson. The Hemingway house on Whitehead Street in Key West is across the street from a tall lighthouse. The powerful light in the tower warns ships at sea that they are approaching land. Friends of Ernest Hemingway liked to say the light also helped him find his way home at night after he left his favorite drinking place. Hemingway’s house was built in Eighteen-Fifty-One. Its walls are made of coral rocks found on the grounds. The rooms have many high windows and doors. These could be opened during the extremely hot summer days. A smaller house is just behind the main house. This is where Ernest Hemingway worked, in a small room on the second floor filled with pictures and books. He wrote more than half of his most famous books and stories here. These include the books “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” and “To Have And Have Not,” and short stories like “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Ernest Hemingway would begin work each day in the little room at about six in the morning. He would write for about six hours. Then he might go deep-sea fishing. Or he might go to his favorite drinking place with his friends. Ernest Hemingway loved cats. About fifty of them lived in his house in Key West. He left the house in Nineteen-Forty. No one lives there now -- except about sixty cats. Many of these animals are related to an unusual cat given to Hemingway by a ship’s captain. That cat had six toes on each of its paws. Many of the cats living there now also have six toes. Ernest Hemingway named his cats after famous writers and movie actors. That tradition is still alive. If you visit Hemingway’s house you can meet cats named William Shakespeare, Charlie Chaplin and many others. People who visit the house usually want to know why Hemingway had so many cats. Hemingway answered the question many years ago. He said, “One cat leads to another.” Effects of Winter Olympics HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. Amarkhuu Ayulguisaikhan asks about the effects of the recent Olympic Winter Games on the people of Salt Lake City, Utah. The people of Utah prepared for the Olympic Winter Games for the past seven years. They expected many changes as a result of the world competition. Leaders of the Mormon Church hoped the Games would help more people around the world understand their religion. News reports say they succeeded because of their friendly welcome to all the athletes and visitors. Another expected result was that the Games would bring new businesses to Utah. Experts say it is really too soon to tell yet. But they note that the city now has new roads, hotels and transportation systems that were built for the Olympics. The owners of the state’s ski areas are hoping for a huge increase in business. About three-thousand-million people around the world saw the beautiful mountain environment of Utah on television. Officials say special competition areas built for Olympic sports like the luge and bobsled could make Utah a winter sports center. The Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee has plans for the buildings and equipment used during the Games. For example, the buildings where the athletes stayed will become housing for students at the University of Utah. Local schools and governments will buy furniture and office equipment used by Olympic officials. The Gateway company that provided computers for the Games plans to give the equipment to schools and local communities. Some store owners in the area say their business did not increase as a result of all the visitors. However, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee says Utah will earn at least forty-million dollars from the Olympic Winter Games. Some reports say Utah will enjoy a three-thousand-million dollar increase in business as a result of the Games during the next seven years. Hank Williams Junior HOST: Hank Williams Junior has recorded more than sixty albums. He began singing on stage at the age of eight. He recorded his first hit song when he was only fourteen years old. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Hank Williams Junior is the son of the most famous country and western musician of all time, Hank Williams. Hank Williams wrote most of the songs he made famous in the Nineteen-Forties and early Nineteen-Fifties. He died at the age of twenty-nine. His son, Hank Junior, was only three years old. Hank Junior learned to play guitar and sing his father’s songs soon after his father’s death. He quickly became famous for his ability to copy his father’s singing voice. Few people could tell the difference. But Hank Williams Junior wanted to play very different music from his father. He expressed this difference in a hit recording called “Family Traditions.” ((CUT 1: FAMILY TRADITIONS)) That record was a major hit. Hank Junior has had ten top-selling records and thirteen top-selling albums. He was voted the entertainer of the year three times by the Academy of Country Music. He received two entertainer of the year awards from the Country Music Association. Millions of people around the world know Hank Williams Junior because of the song he sings before the popular television show “Monday Night Football.” Here it is: ((CUT 2: MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL)) Hank Williams Junior has just released a new album. He recorded it in the same building where his father once performed. It is called “Almeria Club.” We leave you now with a song from Hank Williams Junior’s new album, “Almeria Club.” It is called “Go Girl Go.” ((CUT 3: GO GIRL GO)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Lee Dravis. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - March 11, 2002: Jamestown
* Byline: 

 . . . . . . . . . VOICE ONE: . . . . . . . . . VOICE ONE: Almost four-hundred years ago, three British ships loaded with passengers and supplies sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Their trip was long and difficult. They settled on the edge of the James River in sixteen-oh-seven. They immediately began building what was to become England’s first permanent settlement in America. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The colony of Jamestown, Virginia is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Unlike the first colonists on Jamestown Island, people today arrive by car. As they drive up, visitors can either stop at the Jamestown Settlement or they can see the very place where the colonists first settled on Jamestown Island. The Jamestown Settlement is a re-created version of the colony and a nearby Powhatan Indian village. Visitors can see what life was like in the colony almost four-hundred years ago. The people who work at the settlement speak English the way people did in the seventeenth-century. They also wear clothes from that time period and fire musket guns from colonial days. Visitors can see the kind of food the settlers ate, the games they played and the way they lived. There are also recreated versions of the ships that carried the colonists to Jamestown Island. The ships were called the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. VOICE TWO: Jamestown Settlement was built by the state of Virginia in nineteen-fifty-seven to celebrate the three-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the former colony. The goal was to bring more visitors to the area. This is because the true place where the settlers landed on Jamestown Island offered visitors little to see. Today, however, this has changed. Historians, archeologists and research experts are now working to uncover the remains of the old colony. The United States National Parks Service and a Virginia historical organization jointly run Jamestown Island. The two groups work together to provide visitors with a full understanding of the historical value of the land and the remains that are being discovered there. VOICE ONE: For example, several months after arriving in America in Sixteen-Oh-Seven, the colonists built a three-sided structure, or fort, along the edge of the island. Some of the remains of that fort still exist today. However, for years, researchers believed the fort had worn away into the James River. People visiting Jamestown Island will see a huge archeological project. Guides answer questions about the discoveries being made. Several hundred-thousand historical objects have already been recovered from the colony, including the remains of an early settler. Visitors can see many of these historic objects at the visitor center at the entrance to Jamestown. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The first few years of life in the Jamestown colony were extremely difficult. The colonists suffered from lack of food and diseases. They clashed with the Native American Indians who lived there. The winter of Sixteen-Oh-Nine was one of the worst periods in the colony’s history. It was called “the starving time” because everyone went hungry. Almost ninety percent of the colonists died that year. Weapons and valuable farming tools were traded to the Indians for small amounts of food. Wood from people’s homes was burned for heat. There were no crops, and no hope. To mark this difficult time, a memorial cross was built on the eastern coast of Jamestown Island. It honors some of the three-hundred burial places dug by the settlers during “the starving time.” Queen Elizabeth of England attended the observance in Jamestown in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven when the Memorial Cross was raised. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Jamestown is divided into two areas -- “Old Towne” and “New Towne.” The new area of the settlement was built in sixteen-twenty. This is when the colonists had become economically secure through the trade of smoking tobacco. Many settlers built homes in the New Towne area. Visitors can still see parts of these buildings, including the ruins of the Ambler Mansion. This was a two-floor home built in the mid-seventeen-hundreds. It is one of the oldest standing structures at Jamestown. VOICE TWO: Another historic building on Jamestown Island is the old colonial church. A wood version of this church was first built in Sixteen-Seventeen. Years later, in Sixteen-Thirty-Nine, a stone church was built in its place. Jamestown Church has great historical value. The first representative legislature in America met here in Sixteen-Nineteen. During this meeting, a plan of self-government was established for all future American colonies. VOICE ONE: People can also visit the Old Colonial Tower next to the Jamestown Church. This tall building was added to the church in Sixteen-Forty-Seven. Traditionally, builders of seventeenth century English churches added the bell tower after the church was finished. At one time, the Old Colonial Tower stood fourteen meters high and had two upper floors. Six small windows were on the top floor. Those openings permitted light to enter the upper room. They also let the sound of the church bell be heard across the colony. VOICE TWO: Near the historic Old Church Tower is a statue of the Indian woman, Pocahontas. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She married English colonist John Rolfe in Sixteen-Fourteen. This marriage began an eight-year period of peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians. Jamestown used this peaceful time to develop and grow a new crop-- tobacco. With the help of Pocahontas, tobacco for smoking became as valuable as gold. By Sixteen-Nineteen, the colony had exported more than nine-thousand kilograms of tobacco to Europe. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Near the statue of Pocahontas is the Tercentenary Monument. This tall memorial stands thirty-one meters high. It was built in Nineteen-Oh-Seven to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of Jamestown. The monument is made of smooth white stone. Tercentenary Monument is a place where visitors gather before a Jamestown guide leads them on a walk around the former colony. For visitors who want to drive around the island, there is a four or eight-kilometer road that circles Jamestown. The drive provides visitors with a look at the natural environment first discovered by the settlers. Signs along the drive tell about the early industries and agricultural traditions of the colonists. Down the road from Jamestown is a stone building known as the glasshouse. Local artists work here every day. They demonstrate for visitors how the Jamestown settlers made glass products. Glass-blowing was one of the early industries started by the English colonists in Virginia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Nearly one-hundred years after Jamestown was settled, a rebellion led by colonist Nathaniel Bacon burned the settlement to the ground. The colony fell into ruin in sixteen-ninety-nine, when the capital of Virginia moved to Williamsburg. Jamestown never became the great city its first settlers imagined. But it did allow England to establish a permanent presence in North America. Jamestown, America’s first colony, started a culture that would shape this country forever. In two-thousand-seven, Jamestown will celebrate its four-hundredth anniversary. State and federal officials are planning special events. They want Jamestown to be remembered as the place where America’s government, economy and culture were born. ((MUSIC FROM JAMESTOWN)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program This is America. Almost four-hundred years ago, three British ships loaded with passengers and supplies sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. Their trip was long and difficult. They settled on the edge of the James River in sixteen-oh-seven. They immediately began building what was to become England’s first permanent settlement in America. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The colony of Jamestown, Virginia is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Unlike the first colonists on Jamestown Island, people today arrive by car. As they drive up, visitors can either stop at the Jamestown Settlement or they can see the very place where the colonists first settled on Jamestown Island. The Jamestown Settlement is a re-created version of the colony and a nearby Powhatan Indian village. Visitors can see what life was like in the colony almost four-hundred years ago. The people who work at the settlement speak English the way people did in the seventeenth-century. They also wear clothes from that time period and fire musket guns from colonial days. Visitors can see the kind of food the settlers ate, the games they played and the way they lived. There are also recreated versions of the ships that carried the colonists to Jamestown Island. The ships were called the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. VOICE TWO: Jamestown Settlement was built by the state of Virginia in nineteen-fifty-seven to celebrate the three-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the former colony. The goal was to bring more visitors to the area. This is because the true place where the settlers landed on Jamestown Island offered visitors little to see. Today, however, this has changed. Historians, archeologists and research experts are now working to uncover the remains of the old colony. The United States National Parks Service and a Virginia historical organization jointly run Jamestown Island. The two groups work together to provide visitors with a full understanding of the historical value of the land and the remains that are being discovered there. VOICE ONE: For example, several months after arriving in America in Sixteen-Oh-Seven, the colonists built a three-sided structure, or fort, along the edge of the island. Some of the remains of that fort still exist today. However, for years, researchers believed the fort had worn away into the James River. People visiting Jamestown Island will see a huge archeological project. Guides answer questions about the discoveries being made. Several hundred-thousand historical objects have already been recovered from the colony, including the remains of an early settler. Visitors can see many of these historic objects at the visitor center at the entrance to Jamestown. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The first few years of life in the Jamestown colony were extremely difficult. The colonists suffered from lack of food and diseases. They clashed with the Native American Indians who lived there. The winter of Sixteen-Oh-Nine was one of the worst periods in the colony’s history. It was called “the starving time” because everyone went hungry. Almost ninety percent of the colonists died that year. Weapons and valuable farming tools were traded to the Indians for small amounts of food. Wood from people’s homes was burned for heat. There were no crops, and no hope. To mark this difficult time, a memorial cross was built on the eastern coast of Jamestown Island. It honors some of the three-hundred burial places dug by the settlers during “the starving time.” Queen Elizabeth of England attended the observance in Jamestown in Nineteen-Fifty-Seven when the Memorial Cross was raised. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Jamestown is divided into two areas -- “Old Towne” and “New Towne.” The new area of the settlement was built in sixteen-twenty. This is when the colonists had become economically secure through the trade of smoking tobacco. Many settlers built homes in the New Towne area. Visitors can still see parts of these buildings, including the ruins of the Ambler Mansion. This was a two-floor home built in the mid-seventeen-hundreds. It is one of the oldest standing structures at Jamestown. VOICE TWO: Another historic building on Jamestown Island is the old colonial church. A wood version of this church was first built in Sixteen-Seventeen. Years later, in Sixteen-Thirty-Nine, a stone church was built in its place. Jamestown Church has great historical value. The first representative legislature in America met here in Sixteen-Nineteen. During this meeting, a plan of self-government was established for all future American colonies. VOICE ONE: People can also visit the Old Colonial Tower next to the Jamestown Church. This tall building was added to the church in Sixteen-Forty-Seven. Traditionally, builders of seventeenth century English churches added the bell tower after the church was finished. At one time, the Old Colonial Tower stood fourteen meters high and had two upper floors. Six small windows were on the top floor. Those openings permitted light to enter the upper room. They also let the sound of the church bell be heard across the colony. VOICE TWO: Near the historic Old Church Tower is a statue of the Indian woman, Pocahontas. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She married English colonist John Rolfe in Sixteen-Fourteen. This marriage began an eight-year period of peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians. Jamestown used this peaceful time to develop and grow a new crop-- tobacco. With the help of Pocahontas, tobacco for smoking became as valuable as gold. By Sixteen-Nineteen, the colony had exported more than nine-thousand kilograms of tobacco to Europe. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Near the statue of Pocahontas is the Tercentenary Monument. This tall memorial stands thirty-one meters high. It was built in Nineteen-Oh-Seven to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of Jamestown. The monument is made of smooth white stone. Tercentenary Monument is a place where visitors gather before a Jamestown guide leads them on a walk around the former colony. For visitors who want to drive around the island, there is a four or eight-kilometer road that circles Jamestown. The drive provides visitors with a look at the natural environment first discovered by the settlers. Signs along the drive tell about the early industries and agricultural traditions of the colonists. Down the road from Jamestown is a stone building known as the glasshouse. Local artists work here every day. They demonstrate for visitors how the Jamestown settlers made glass products. Glass-blowing was one of the early industries started by the English colonists in Virginia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Nearly one-hundred years after Jamestown was settled, a rebellion led by colonist Nathaniel Bacon burned the settlement to the ground. The colony fell into ruin in sixteen-ninety-nine, when the capital of Virginia moved to Williamsburg. Jamestown never became the great city its first settlers imagined. But it did allow England to establish a permanent presence in North America. Jamestown, America’s first colony, started a culture that would shape this country forever. In two-thousand-seven, Jamestown will celebrate its four-hundredth anniversary. State and federal officials are planning special events. They want Jamestown to be remembered as the place where America’s government, economy and culture were born. ((MUSIC FROM JAMESTOWN)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program This is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 10, 2002: Langston Hughes, Part One
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Langston Hughes, who has been called the poet voice of African Americans. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of James Langston Hughes is being celebrated in the United States. A major event took place on his birthday, February First, in Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived as a child. More than five-hundred scholars and fans gathered there to remember him in speeches, films, concerts, art shows and poetry readings. Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet. But he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children’s books, and the words to operas. He also translated into English the works of foreign poets. Hughes was one of the first black writers who could support himself by his writings. He is praised for his ability to say what was important to millions of black people. Hughes produced a huge amount of work during his lifetime. He also has influenced the work of many other writers. He wrote for almost fifty years. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes was famous for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. His work is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages. Hughes’s poetry had serious messages. He often wrote about racial issues, describing his people in a realistic way. Although his story was not often pleasant, he told it with understanding and with hope. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were separated. He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. She told him stories about their family and their fight to end slavery. Her storytelling filled him with pride in himself and his race. He first began to write poetry when he was living with her. When he was fourteen, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with his mother and her new husband. He attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Langston was named Class Poet one year. He published his first short stories while he was still in high school. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes struggled with a feeling of loneliness caused by his parent’s divorce. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with the lack of time his parents spent with him. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. He wanted to reproduce the powerful effect other writers had made upon him. Among the early influences on his writing were poets Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After graduating from high school in nineteen-twenty, Langston moved to Mexico City to live with his father for one year. His father had moved there to escape racism in America. His father did not offer much warmth to his son. Yet, Langston turned the pain caused by his family problems into one of his most famous poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” In this poem, he speaks of the strength and pride of black people in ancient African civilizations and in America. ((CUT ONE: “THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS”)) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes learned a lot about race, and about social and economic conditions while he was in Mexico. His ability to speak Spanish and his brown skin often made it easy for him to appear to be a native. Many of his works, including a play for children, deal with his days in Mexico. During the time he stayed with his father in Mexico, Langston wrote many poems because he was always unhappy. He once said that he usually created his best work when he was really not happy. Langston had a troubled relationship with his father from which he never recovered fully. His father did not think he could earn a living as a writer. His mother, however, recognized his need to be a poet. VOICE TWO: Langston’s father agreed to pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City, if he studied engineering. Langston arrived in New York when he was nineteen years old. At the end of that first year at Columbia, he left school, broke with his father, and began traveling. Traveling was a lifelong love that would take him throughout the world before he died. In nineteen-twenty-two, Hughes took a job on a ship and sailed to Africa. He would later sail to France, Russia, Spain and Italy. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. His experiences while traveling greatly influenced his work. He sent a few of his writings back home. They were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. Financial problems ended Hughes’s travels. He tried to find work on a ship so he could return to the United States. But in Italy, he had problems finding work on a ship because he was black. In the poem “I, Too,” he noted that the American color line even reached all the way over there. ((CUT TWO: “I, TOO”)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-four, Langston Hughes returned to the United States to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. The poet Vachel Lindsay ate in a hotel where Hughes was working. Hughes put some poems he had written next to Lindsay’s dinner plate. Lindsay gave a poetry reading later that night. He read some of Hughes’s poetry, too. Newspapers across the country wrote about Lindsay’s poetry reading. Hughes became known as a new black poet. A year later, Hughes returned to New York. Through the years he lived in many places, but always came back to New York’s Harlem area. Harlem was the center of black life in New York City. Hughes’s creativity was influenced by his life in Harlem. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes returned to New York during a period called the Harlem Renaissance. It took place during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic creativity among black people. For the first time, black artistic expression was being widely recognized. Hughes became friends with other great black writers of the time, such as Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston. They hoped that great art could change the racist ideas in America about African Americans. Hughes was considered one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. He was the first poet to use the rhythms of black music. He often wrote about the everyday experiences of black working people. And he helped bring the movement of jazz and the sound of black speech into poetry. VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes experimented with his writing. Other Harlem Renaissance writers wrote traditional poems like those of English classic poets, such as William Shakespeare. Hughes broke free with his writing and helped change literature forever. Hughes became firmly established as a successful writer in nineteen-twenty-six with the publication of a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.” Hughes wrote the poems in a place in Harlem where blues music was played. He loved to write while sitting in clubs listening to blues and jazz. The title poem, “The Weary Blues,” was written to be played with musical instruments. The poem perfectly expressed the desire of Langston Hughes to combine black music and speech in his poetry. VOICE THREE: “I got the Weary Blues and I can’t be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues and can’t be satisfied. I ain’t happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died.” “And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed – while the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.” VOICE TWO: Poems in “The Weary Blues” are warm and full of color. They have a sense of freedom, like that of jazz music. Langston Hughes was excited about the new form of poetry he had discovered for himself. (((THEME))) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Caty Weaver. The poetry was read by Langston Hughes and Shep O’Neal. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA when we finish the story of the life of Langston Hughes. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about writer Langston Hughes, who has been called the poet voice of African Americans. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of James Langston Hughes is being celebrated in the United States. A major event took place on his birthday, February First, in Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived as a child. More than five-hundred scholars and fans gathered there to remember him in speeches, films, concerts, art shows and poetry readings. Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet. But he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children’s books, and the words to operas. He also translated into English the works of foreign poets. Hughes was one of the first black writers who could support himself by his writings. He is praised for his ability to say what was important to millions of black people. Hughes produced a huge amount of work during his lifetime. He also has influenced the work of many other writers. He wrote for almost fifty years. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes was famous for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. His work is known all around the world and has been translated into many languages. Hughes’s poetry had serious messages. He often wrote about racial issues, describing his people in a realistic way. Although his story was not often pleasant, he told it with understanding and with hope. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in nineteen-oh-two. His parents were separated. He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. She told him stories about their family and their fight to end slavery. Her storytelling filled him with pride in himself and his race. He first began to write poetry when he was living with her. When he was fourteen, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to stay with his mother and her new husband. He attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Langston was named Class Poet one year. He published his first short stories while he was still in high school. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes struggled with a feeling of loneliness caused by his parent’s divorce. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with the lack of time his parents spent with him. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. He wanted to reproduce the powerful effect other writers had made upon him. Among the early influences on his writing were poets Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After graduating from high school in nineteen-twenty, Langston moved to Mexico City to live with his father for one year. His father had moved there to escape racism in America. His father did not offer much warmth to his son. Yet, Langston turned the pain caused by his family problems into one of his most famous poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” In this poem, he speaks of the strength and pride of black people in ancient African civilizations and in America. ((CUT ONE: “THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS”)) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes learned a lot about race, and about social and economic conditions while he was in Mexico. His ability to speak Spanish and his brown skin often made it easy for him to appear to be a native. Many of his works, including a play for children, deal with his days in Mexico. During the time he stayed with his father in Mexico, Langston wrote many poems because he was always unhappy. He once said that he usually created his best work when he was really not happy. Langston had a troubled relationship with his father from which he never recovered fully. His father did not think he could earn a living as a writer. His mother, however, recognized his need to be a poet. VOICE TWO: Langston’s father agreed to pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City, if he studied engineering. Langston arrived in New York when he was nineteen years old. At the end of that first year at Columbia, he left school, broke with his father, and began traveling. Traveling was a lifelong love that would take him throughout the world before he died. In nineteen-twenty-two, Hughes took a job on a ship and sailed to Africa. He would later sail to France, Russia, Spain and Italy. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. His experiences while traveling greatly influenced his work. He sent a few of his writings back home. They were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. Financial problems ended Hughes’s travels. He tried to find work on a ship so he could return to the United States. But in Italy, he had problems finding work on a ship because he was black. In the poem “I, Too,” he noted that the American color line even reached all the way over there. ((CUT TWO: “I, TOO”)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-four, Langston Hughes returned to the United States to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. The poet Vachel Lindsay ate in a hotel where Hughes was working. Hughes put some poems he had written next to Lindsay’s dinner plate. Lindsay gave a poetry reading later that night. He read some of Hughes’s poetry, too. Newspapers across the country wrote about Lindsay’s poetry reading. Hughes became known as a new black poet. A year later, Hughes returned to New York. Through the years he lived in many places, but always came back to New York’s Harlem area. Harlem was the center of black life in New York City. Hughes’s creativity was influenced by his life in Harlem. VOICE TWO: Langston Hughes returned to New York during a period called the Harlem Renaissance. It took place during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic creativity among black people. For the first time, black artistic expression was being widely recognized. Hughes became friends with other great black writers of the time, such as Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Zora Neal Hurston. They hoped that great art could change the racist ideas in America about African Americans. Hughes was considered one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance. He was the first poet to use the rhythms of black music. He often wrote about the everyday experiences of black working people. And he helped bring the movement of jazz and the sound of black speech into poetry. VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes experimented with his writing. Other Harlem Renaissance writers wrote traditional poems like those of English classic poets, such as William Shakespeare. Hughes broke free with his writing and helped change literature forever. Hughes became firmly established as a successful writer in nineteen-twenty-six with the publication of a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.” Hughes wrote the poems in a place in Harlem where blues music was played. He loved to write while sitting in clubs listening to blues and jazz. The title poem, “The Weary Blues,” was written to be played with musical instruments. The poem perfectly expressed the desire of Langston Hughes to combine black music and speech in his poetry. VOICE THREE: “I got the Weary Blues and I can’t be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues and can’t be satisfied. I ain’t happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died.” “And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed – while the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.” VOICE TWO: Poems in “The Weary Blues” are warm and full of color. They have a sense of freedom, like that of jazz music. Langston Hughes was excited about the new form of poetry he had discovered for himself. (((THEME))) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Caty Weaver. The poetry was read by Langston Hughes and Shep O’Neal. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA when we finish the story of the life of Langston Hughes. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Indian Medical Camp
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: March 11, 2002 This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors recently treated more than twenty-thousand people at a special medical camp in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The medical camp takes place during the month of January in a hospital that is supported by the organization in the village of Bidada. A non-profit organization called the Bidada Sarvodaya Trust organizes it each year. Doctors from India and the United States treat the patients. The patients are from more than one-thousand poor villages in the area of Kutch. Vijay Chheda is one of the organizers of the medical camp. He says the patients receive the best medical care at the camp for free. Mister Chheda says that this year doctors treated the patients for more than twenty diseases and medical problems. Doctors performed more than seven-hundred operations during the camp. Almost two-hundred patients with the most serious problems were sent to hospitals in the city of Bombay, also known as Mumbai Many patients at the medical camp were suffering from physical or mental problems caused by a severe earthquake that shook the area in January, Two-Thousand-One. This year, the hospital started a center for people who were seriously injured in the earthquake. For example, the center provides man-made legs for people whose legs were destroyed. The government of Gujarat is providing money and training for this center. The Bidada medical camp began twenty-eight years ago. At first, doctors treated only patients with eye diseases. Then the organizers expanded the camp to help people with other diseases. Organizers say the medical camp has treated more than two-million people since it began. People in India, the United States and other countries provide the money to operate the medical camp. More than fifty doctors from the United States were part of the program this year. The doctors and other people provide their services without being paid. Many doctors who serve in the camp were born in Kutch and now are living in the United States. Some of them have been returning to volunteer at the camp each year for many years. The doctors from the United States also teach local Indian doctors the most modern medical techniques. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Shelley Gollust. This is Bill White. Broadcast: March 11, 2002 This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors recently treated more than twenty-thousand people at a special medical camp in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The medical camp takes place during the month of January in a hospital that is supported by the organization in the village of Bidada. A non-profit organization called the Bidada Sarvodaya Trust organizes it each year. Doctors from India and the United States treat the patients. The patients are from more than one-thousand poor villages in the area of Kutch. Vijay Chheda is one of the organizers of the medical camp. He says the patients receive the best medical care at the camp for free. Mister Chheda says that this year doctors treated the patients for more than twenty diseases and medical problems. Doctors performed more than seven-hundred operations during the camp. Almost two-hundred patients with the most serious problems were sent to hospitals in the city of Bombay, also known as Mumbai Many patients at the medical camp were suffering from physical or mental problems caused by a severe earthquake that shook the area in January, Two-Thousand-One. This year, the hospital started a center for people who were seriously injured in the earthquake. For example, the center provides man-made legs for people whose legs were destroyed. The government of Gujarat is providing money and training for this center. The Bidada medical camp began twenty-eight years ago. At first, doctors treated only patients with eye diseases. Then the organizers expanded the camp to help people with other diseases. Organizers say the medical camp has treated more than two-million people since it began. People in India, the United States and other countries provide the money to operate the medical camp. More than fifty doctors from the United States were part of the program this year. The doctors and other people provide their services without being paid. Many doctors who serve in the camp were born in Kutch and now are living in the United States. Some of them have been returning to volunteer at the camp each year for many years. The doctors from the United States also teach local Indian doctors the most modern medical techniques. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Shelley Gollust. This is Bill White. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-6-1.cfm
* Headline: March 10, 2002 - Language of Electronic Mail
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- the language of electronic mail. TAPE: CUT ONE -- NAOMI BARON "As e-mail is developing more and more users, it's also developing more and more styles. There's one style that says be brief, be spontaneous, don't edit anything you write." RS: But be careful -- that style is not always appropriate, says linguistics professor Naomi Baron. She's head of the TESOL -- Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages -- program at American University in Washington. TAPE: CUT TWO -- NAOMI BARON "I receive all sorts of e-mails from people who are asking my help that say: 'Hi Naomi, how ya doing? Need help -- fast. Answer me now.' And I find this a little bit forward from people I've never met who are asking me to spend time doing research to help them out." AA: But Naomi Baron says she gives the writers the benefit of the doubt when she gets pushy-sounding e-mails like that from people unfamiliar with American standards of decorum. RS: After all, she says even a lot Americans are not sure what tone to use when sending an electronic message to someone other than a friend or loved one. TAPE: CUT THREE -- NAOMI BARON "E-mail is different from formal speech and from traditional formal writing, in that there really isn't anybody laying down the rules. What I would overwhelmingly recommend is that if you're introducing yourself to someone whom you would like to have hold you in high esteem, read what you write, edit it, be polite, go ahead and don't care about whether or not you're too formal. Say 'dear mister, doctor, so-and-so,' sign it 'sincerely so-and-so.' AA: Now let's say you've just gotten an e-mail, how soon are you expected to reply? RS: Linguistics professor Naomi Baron has an answer. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- NAOMI BARON/RS BARON: "Interestingly when people first started commonly using e-mail -- oh, about ten years ago -- you could have two or three days before anybody would feel it's inappropriate not to have responded. But absolutely people have the assumption now if they haven't heard back within a day, you're being rude." RS: "So tell us something about what you see in your crystal ball about the future of e-mail." BARON: "In my crystal ball I see the possibility of trouble ahead for the written English language. For reasons that have nothing to do with e-mail, spoken language is coming to look closer and closer to written language, which really means writing is becoming much more informal, casual. What e-mail is doing -- and instant messaging after that -- is making that informal speech yet more informal. But I do believe that as we see a lot of the good things that carefully edited written language can do being jeopardized, we'll stop and say no, that's not what we want to happen and we'll find there's certain things for which we use the telephone, certain things for which we use unedited e-mail, but there will also be a style of e-mail that is indistinguishable from more formal, traditional writing." AA: And it is this kind of style that Naomi Baron would recommend for a situation like, say, writing to a professor you've never met, asking for help. RS: I asked Naomi Baron if she saw a role for mail in the English as a foreign or second language classroom. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- NAOMI BARON/RS BARON: "Absolutely. We, for example, have many, many classrooms in the United States that are taking e-mail as a device for having students regularly send messages to their faculty members. So yes it is being used and I think will be a very productive part of practicing one's writing." RS: "Finally, before you push 'send,' what would your recommendations be?" BARON: "Take your hands off of your keyboard, and read. In fact, I strongly recommend reading every e-mail message not once but twice." RS: "And would you recommend to read it out loud?" BARON: "Actually I would. I find an enormous number of errors that I wouldn't have seen, but I hear." RS: "That's what I tell my sons to do -- thank you! (laughter)" AA: Naomi Baron of American University is author of the book "Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading." RS: Now, speaking of evolution, this week Wordmaster launches a Web site! You can find most of our scripts from the last four years, along with recent audio files of our programs. AA: Here's the address: it's www.voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: That’s voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: Our e-mail address is still word@voanews.com. And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Digital Get Down"/N'sync AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- the language of electronic mail. TAPE: CUT ONE -- NAOMI BARON "As e-mail is developing more and more users, it's also developing more and more styles. There's one style that says be brief, be spontaneous, don't edit anything you write." RS: But be careful -- that style is not always appropriate, says linguistics professor Naomi Baron. She's head of the TESOL -- Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages -- program at American University in Washington. TAPE: CUT TWO -- NAOMI BARON "I receive all sorts of e-mails from people who are asking my help that say: 'Hi Naomi, how ya doing? Need help -- fast. Answer me now.' And I find this a little bit forward from people I've never met who are asking me to spend time doing research to help them out." AA: But Naomi Baron says she gives the writers the benefit of the doubt when she gets pushy-sounding e-mails like that from people unfamiliar with American standards of decorum. RS: After all, she says even a lot Americans are not sure what tone to use when sending an electronic message to someone other than a friend or loved one. TAPE: CUT THREE -- NAOMI BARON "E-mail is different from formal speech and from traditional formal writing, in that there really isn't anybody laying down the rules. What I would overwhelmingly recommend is that if you're introducing yourself to someone whom you would like to have hold you in high esteem, read what you write, edit it, be polite, go ahead and don't care about whether or not you're too formal. Say 'dear mister, doctor, so-and-so,' sign it 'sincerely so-and-so.' AA: Now let's say you've just gotten an e-mail, how soon are you expected to reply? RS: Linguistics professor Naomi Baron has an answer. TAPE: CUT FOUR -- NAOMI BARON/RS BARON: "Interestingly when people first started commonly using e-mail -- oh, about ten years ago -- you could have two or three days before anybody would feel it's inappropriate not to have responded. But absolutely people have the assumption now if they haven't heard back within a day, you're being rude." RS: "So tell us something about what you see in your crystal ball about the future of e-mail." BARON: "In my crystal ball I see the possibility of trouble ahead for the written English language. For reasons that have nothing to do with e-mail, spoken language is coming to look closer and closer to written language, which really means writing is becoming much more informal, casual. What e-mail is doing -- and instant messaging after that -- is making that informal speech yet more informal. But I do believe that as we see a lot of the good things that carefully edited written language can do being jeopardized, we'll stop and say no, that's not what we want to happen and we'll find there's certain things for which we use the telephone, certain things for which we use unedited e-mail, but there will also be a style of e-mail that is indistinguishable from more formal, traditional writing." AA: And it is this kind of style that Naomi Baron would recommend for a situation like, say, writing to a professor you've never met, asking for help. RS: I asked Naomi Baron if she saw a role for mail in the English as a foreign or second language classroom. TAPE: CUT FIVE -- NAOMI BARON/RS BARON: "Absolutely. We, for example, have many, many classrooms in the United States that are taking e-mail as a device for having students regularly send messages to their faculty members. So yes it is being used and I think will be a very productive part of practicing one's writing." RS: "Finally, before you push 'send,' what would your recommendations be?" BARON: "Take your hands off of your keyboard, and read. In fact, I strongly recommend reading every e-mail message not once but twice." RS: "And would you recommend to read it out loud?" BARON: "Actually I would. I find an enormous number of errors that I wouldn't have seen, but I hear." RS: "That's what I tell my sons to do -- thank you! (laughter)" AA: Naomi Baron of American University is author of the book "Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading." RS: Now, speaking of evolution, this week Wordmaster launches a Web site! You can find most of our scripts from the last four years, along with recent audio files of our programs. AA: Here's the address: it's www.voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: That’s voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: Our e-mail address is still word@voanews.com. And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Digital Get Down"/N'sync 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-08-7-1.cfm
* Headline: Talking Dictionaries and VOA's Pronunciation Guide
* Byline: 

 Some dictionary publishers offer free online lookups with audio files. Clicking on either of the examples below will open a new window on your browser: Merriam-Webster The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language You can also look up names and places in the news in the <a href="http://www.voa.gov/pronunciations/" "target=_blank">VOA Pronunciation Guide 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - March 12, 2002: Babies and Intelligence
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we discuss recent findings about how intelligence develops in babies. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The National Institute of Child Health and Development is an American government agency. Its goal is to discover which experiences can influence healthy development in humans. Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other humans. VOICE TWO: The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers. One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story. On the day the baby was born, the researchers tested to find out if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while inside his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby. The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again. VOICE ONE: Researchers in Finland have shown that babies can learn while they are asleep. They demonstrated that newborn babies can learn to identify different spoken sounds while sleeping. The Finnish researchers divided forty-five newborns into three groups. They used devices to measures the babies’ brain activity. The researchers played recordings of spoken sounds for up to one hour while the babies slept After this brief period, the researchers continued to play the recording to one group of babies during the night. The second group heard a different recording. The third group did not hear any recording. The researchers studied each baby’s brain activity. Those in the first group could identify the sounds in the morning and again at night. The other babies could not. The head of the study believes that babies can learn while asleep because the part of their brains called the cerebral cortex remains active at night. The cortex is very important for learning. This part of the brain is not active in adults while they sleep. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children. The study involved more than one-thousand-two-hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period. VOICE ONE: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of the mental condition called depression. The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear. These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another study suggests that babies who are bigger at birth generally are more intelligent later in life. It found that the intelligence of a child at seven years of age is directly linked to his or her weight at birth. Study organizers say this is probably because heavier babies received more nutrition during important periods of brain development before they were born. The study involved almost three-thousand-five-hundred children. Researchers in New York City used traditional tests to measure intelligence. Brothers and sisters were tested so that the effects of birth weight alone could be separated from the effects of diet or other considerations. The researchers found that children with higher birth weights generally did better on the intelligence tests. Also, the link between birth weight and intelligence later in life was stronger for boys than for girls. VOICE ONE: Another American study examined the development of very low birth weight babies. They were born early, before the end of the normal nine-month development period. Researchers in Cleveland, Ohio studied two-hundred-forty-two people who were born in the late Nineteen-Seventies. At birth, they weighed an average of one-thousand-one-hundred-seventy-nine grams. On average, they were born during the twenty-ninth week of pregnancy. By comparison, a pregnancy is considered full term at thirty-seven weeks. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the progress of those born early with other children over a twenty-year period. They found that the young people who had been very low birth weight babies were less likely to complete high school. They also did not perform as well on intelligence tests as other adults. However, the very low birth weight adults were less likely to use drugs or alcoholic drinks. They also were less likely to become pregnant before the age of twenty. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina. Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school. VOICE TWO: Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests. The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics. VOICE ONE: Recently, organizers of the Abecedarian Project completed another examination of the students who are now twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have graduated from college. The study is more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we discuss recent findings about how intelligence develops in babies. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old. Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The National Institute of Child Health and Development is an American government agency. Its goal is to discover which experiences can influence healthy development in humans. Research scientists at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other humans. VOICE TWO: The American researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers. One study shows that babies can learn before they are born. The researchers placed a tape recorder on the stomach of a pregnant woman. Then, they played a recording of a short story. On the day the baby was born, the researchers tested to find out if he knew the sounds of the story repeated while inside his mother. They did this by placing a device in the mouth of the newborn baby. The baby would hear the story if he moved his mouth one way. If the baby moved his mouth the other way, he would hear a different story. The researchers say the baby clearly liked the story he heard before he was born. They say the baby would move his mouth so he could hear the story again and again. VOICE ONE: Researchers in Finland have shown that babies can learn while they are asleep. They demonstrated that newborn babies can learn to identify different spoken sounds while sleeping. The Finnish researchers divided forty-five newborns into three groups. They used devices to measures the babies’ brain activity. The researchers played recordings of spoken sounds for up to one hour while the babies slept After this brief period, the researchers continued to play the recording to one group of babies during the night. The second group heard a different recording. The third group did not hear any recording. The researchers studied each baby’s brain activity. Those in the first group could identify the sounds in the morning and again at night. The other babies could not. The head of the study believes that babies can learn while asleep because the part of their brains called the cerebral cortex remains active at night. The cortex is very important for learning. This part of the brain is not active in adults while they sleep. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many experts say the first years of a child’s life are important for all later development. An American study shows how mothers can strongly influence social development and language skills in their children. The study involved more than one-thousand-two-hundred mothers and children. Researchers studied the children from the age of one month to three years. They observed the mothers playing with their children four times during this period. VOICE ONE: The researchers attempted to measure the sensitivity of the mothers. The women were considered sensitive if they supported their children’s activities and did not interfere unnecessarily. They tested the children for thinking and language development when they were three years old. Also, the researchers observed the women for signs of the mental condition called depression. The children of depressed women did not do as well on tests as the children of women who did not suffer from depression. The children of depressed women did poorly on tests of language skills and understanding what they hear. These children also were less cooperative and had more problems dealing with other people. The researchers noted that the sensitivity of the mothers was important to the general health of their children. Children did better when their mothers were caring, even when the women suffered from depression. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another study suggests that babies who are bigger at birth generally are more intelligent later in life. It found that the intelligence of a child at seven years of age is directly linked to his or her weight at birth. Study organizers say this is probably because heavier babies received more nutrition during important periods of brain development before they were born. The study involved almost three-thousand-five-hundred children. Researchers in New York City used traditional tests to measure intelligence. Brothers and sisters were tested so that the effects of birth weight alone could be separated from the effects of diet or other considerations. The researchers found that children with higher birth weights generally did better on the intelligence tests. Also, the link between birth weight and intelligence later in life was stronger for boys than for girls. VOICE ONE: Another American study examined the development of very low birth weight babies. They were born early, before the end of the normal nine-month development period. Researchers in Cleveland, Ohio studied two-hundred-forty-two people who were born in the late Nineteen-Seventies. At birth, they weighed an average of one-thousand-one-hundred-seventy-nine grams. On average, they were born during the twenty-ninth week of pregnancy. By comparison, a pregnancy is considered full term at thirty-seven weeks. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the progress of those born early with other children over a twenty-year period. They found that the young people who had been very low birth weight babies were less likely to complete high school. They also did not perform as well on intelligence tests as other adults. However, the very low birth weight adults were less likely to use drugs or alcoholic drinks. They also were less likely to become pregnant before the age of twenty. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina. Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school. VOICE TWO: Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests. The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics. VOICE ONE: Recently, organizers of the Abecedarian Project completed another examination of the students who are now twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have graduated from college. The study is more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program, SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – March 12, 2002: Carbon Dioxide and Crops
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Increasing levels of carbon dioxide gas in Earth’s atmosphere have been linked to warming of the Earth. Now, American scientists say the rising carbon dioxide levels can interfere with the ability of plants to use some forms of the important element nitrogen. They say the higher levels of carbon dioxide have affected plants everywhere and are forcing changes in the use of agricultural fertilizer. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported the findings. Carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere have increased more than thirty percent during the past two centuries. For years, scientists believed that rising levels of the industrial gas would help plants. Carbon dioxide is necessary for photosynthesis, the process in which green plants use sunlight to make energy. However, recent studies found that plants cannot support the increased amounts of carbon dioxide. In experiments, scientists increased carbon dioxide levels by as much as two-hundred percent. At first, the plants used thirty percent more carbon. Yet a short time later, the rate of carbon processing dropped to just twelve percent greater than normal. Scientists at the University of California at Davis are studying how plants react to fertilizer products made with nitrate and ammonium. Nitrate and ammonium are different forms of nitrogen. Nitrogen is necessary for production of proteins and nucleic acids in plants. Many farmers add nitrogen-rich fertilizers to their crops. In the new study, the scientists found that ammonium fertilizer is more effective than nitrate fertilizer when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are unusually high. The scientists grew wheat seedlings with either nitrate or ammonium under different levels of carbon dioxide. They found that increased carbon dioxide levels limited the processing of nitrate in the plants. The scientists also found that the kind of nitrogen did not affect wheat growth when carbon dioxide was at a normal level. However, this changed when they increased the gas to almost two times the normal atmospheric level. The seedlings treated with ammonium grew at a faster rate than those treated with nitrate. The scientists say they had similar results using tomato plants. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 13, 2002: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. Odyssey VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a spacecraft that left Earth thirty years ago. We report about the successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope by the crew of the space shuttle Colombia. And we tell about the first scientific information sent to Earth by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a spacecraft that left Earth thirty years ago. We report about the successful repair of the Hubble Space Telescope by the crew of the space shuttle Colombia. And we tell about the first scientific information sent to Earth by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Late last month, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft turned its many scientific instruments toward the planet Mars for the first time. Almost immediately it began sending home useful scientific information. Steve Saunders is the Odyssey project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says the first information sent by the spacecraft as it orbits Mars has made him and other scientists extremely happy. He says the information will be added to what has been learned from the Mars Global Surveyor and other spacecraft. Most importantly, Mister Saunders says, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft may permit researchers to see water on the surface of Mars rather than just guess where it might be. The first information received on Earth included photographs taken by the Mars Odyssey’s thermal emissions imaging system. This system shows the temperature of the Martian surface. Researchers say the photographs sent to Earth show the temperature differences extremely clearly during the Martian day and night. VOICE TWO: The camera system on the Mars Odyssey is studying the minerals on the surface of Mars. The new photographs already show thirty times more detail than any other camera or image-recording device sent to Mars. Another device on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the gamma ray spectrometer. Researchers say it shows huge amounts of hydrogen in the south polar area of Mars. The researchers say the large amounts of hydrogen are most likely the result of water ice. Late last month, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft turned its many scientific instruments toward the planet Mars for the first time. Almost immediately it began sending home useful scientific information. Steve Saunders is the Odyssey project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says the first information sent by the spacecraft as it orbits Mars has made him and other scientists extremely happy. He says the information will be added to what has been learned from the Mars Global Surveyor and other spacecraft. Most importantly, Mister Saunders says, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft may permit researchers to see water on the surface of Mars rather than just guess where it might be. The first information received on Earth included photographs taken by the Mars Odyssey’s thermal emissions imaging system. This system shows the temperature of the Martian surface. Researchers say the photographs sent to Earth show the temperature differences extremely clearly during the Martian day and night. VOICE TWO: The camera system on the Mars Odyssey is studying the minerals on the surface of Mars. The new photographs already show thirty times more detail than any other camera or image-recording device sent to Mars. Another device on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft is the gamma ray spectrometer. Researchers say it shows huge amounts of hydrogen in the south polar area of Mars. The researchers say the large amounts of hydrogen are most likely the result of water ice. The gamma ray spectrometer explored an area almost six-hundred-fifty kilometers across. NASA’s researchers will continue making maps of the area for another month. They say this will give them the needed information to confirm the presence of water on Mars. VOICE ONE: NASA officials say one device on the Odyssey spacecraft failed in August, Two-Thousand-One. It is called the Martian Radiation Environment experiment. It measures the daily amount of radiation that would be experienced by astronauts as they travel from Earth to Mars. The device did find that the area between Earth and Mars has more than two times the amount of radiation experienced by the crewmembers of the International Space Station. Investigators are studying the radiation device to find why the instrument stopped communicating and why it turned off last August. VOICE TWO: The Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched April Seventh of Two-Thousand-One. It began to orbit Mars on October Twenty-Fourth, Two-Thousand-One. Its main task is to map the surface of Mars. It also is examining the mineral and chemical elements on Mars, and searching for water. After Odyssey completes its science tasks, it will support other flights in the Mars Exploration program. It will provide the communications between the Mars surface and Earth during future explorations. These tasks will include the next flights in NASA’s Mars program, the Mars Exploration Rovers, to be launched in Two-Thousand-Three. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The crew of the American Space Shuttle Colombia has just completed a ten-day flight to repair and rebuild the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle returned Tuesday to the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida. NASA officials say the seven-person crew of Colombia has made the Hubble into a much more valuable space science instrument. It can now do ten times more work than it could before. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists say the most valuable piece of equipment added to the Hubble is a device called the Advanced Camera for Surveys. It increases by ten times Hubble’s ability to discover objects in the universe. The astronauts also gave Hubble several other pieces of equipment that permit it to do better work. This equipment includes wing-like structures called solar arrays that change sunlight into electricity. The new solar arrays are forty-five percent smaller than the older ones, but they can produce twenty-five percent more power. VOICE ONE: Colombia’s astronauts also replaced the Hubble’s power control device. The new Power Control Unit controls the electricity made by the solar arrays. It provides electricity to the Hubble’s electrical storage batteries. It also supplies electricity to any device that needs power. NASA officials say it was extremely difficult to replace the Power Control Unit. The work also placed the telescope in danger because Hubble had to be without power for the first time since its launch in Nineteen-Ninety. The astronauts had a limited amount of time to complete the replacement work and turn on Hubble’s power. If the work was not completed in time, the extreme cold temperatures of space would severely damage the space telescope. VOICE TWO: Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Rick Linnehan worked outside the space shuttle to replace the Power Control Unit on Hubble. They were able to complete the work to replace the power unit in less than four hours. Scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas were watching the two astronauts on television. They cheered when the new power unit was placed in the telescope and Hubble’s power returned. VOICE ONE: The crew of the Colombia also placed a new cooling device in Hubble to replace an older one that had failed. The cooling device is needed to work with the Near Inferred Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, called NICMOS. NICMOS must be kept at extremely cold temperatures so it can photograph infrared light. NASA officials hope the new cooling device will permit NICMOS to do useful work again for at least a few more years. VOICE TWO: The space shuttle Colombia flew about six-hundred kilometers above the Earth to reach the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronauts then had move the space shuttle near the Hubble and capture the two-thousand kilogram telescope. The capture had to be done as Hubble orbits the Earth at speeds faster than twenty-seven-thousand kilometers an hour. This is the fourth time NASA has sent a crew of astronauts to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA officials say this repair work was the most difficult and perhaps the most dangerous ever attempted. VOICE ONE: NASA plans one more flight to provide service to the Hubble Space Telescope. That flight should take place in Two-Thousand-Four. During that flight, an astronaut crew will place the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph in Hubble. The instrument will be able to see far into space and take pictures of many different kinds of light that cannot be seen by the human eye. It will be the most powerful and most complex scientific device to measure light ever sent into space. NASA plans to use the Hubble Space Telescope until Two-Thousand-Ten. At that time NASA officials will decide if it will return to Earth or be raised to a high orbit where it cannot fall back to Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: NASA officials have heard from an old friend. The Pioneer Ten spacecraft sent a message back to Earth from more than eleven-thousand-million kilometers in space. The little spacecraft left the gravity of Earth more than thirty years ago. On Friday, March First, scientists sent a message to Pioneer Ten. They sent the message from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Space Network communication center in Goldstone, California. Twenty-Two hours later researchers heard Pioneer’s answer. Pioneer reported that its systems were still working. VOICE ONE: Pioneer Ten was the first spacecraft to take close-up pictures of Jupiter. It also was the first human-made object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of the planet Pluto. Pioneer Ten is traveling toward the group of stars called Taurus. It will pass the nearest star in that constellation in about two million years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. The gamma ray spectrometer explored an area almost six-hundred-fifty kilometers across. NASA’s researchers will continue making maps of the area for another month. They say this will give them the needed information to confirm the presence of water on Mars. VOICE ONE: NASA officials say one device on the Odyssey spacecraft failed in August, Two-Thousand-One. It is called the Martian Radiation Environment experiment. It measures the daily amount of radiation that would be experienced by astronauts as they travel from Earth to Mars. The device did find that the area between Earth and Mars has more than two times the amount of radiation experienced by the crewmembers of the International Space Station. Investigators are studying the radiation device to find why the instrument stopped communicating and why it turned off last August. VOICE TWO: The Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched April Seventh of Two-Thousand-One. It began to orbit Mars on October Twenty-Fourth, Two-Thousand-One. Its main task is to map the surface of Mars. It also is examining the mineral and chemical elements on Mars, and searching for water. After Odyssey completes its science tasks, it will support other flights in the Mars Exploration program. It will provide the communications between the Mars surface and Earth during future explorations. These tasks will include the next flights in NASA’s Mars program, the Mars Exploration Rovers, to be launched in Two-Thousand-Three. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The crew of the American Space Shuttle Colombia has just completed a ten-day flight to repair and rebuild the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle returned Tuesday to the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida. NASA officials say the seven-person crew of Colombia has made the Hubble into a much more valuable space science instrument. It can now do ten times more work than it could before. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists say the most valuable piece of equipment added to the Hubble is a device called the Advanced Camera for Surveys. It increases by ten times Hubble’s ability to discover objects in the universe. The astronauts also gave Hubble several other pieces of equipment that permit it to do better work. This equipment includes wing-like structures called solar arrays that change sunlight into electricity. The new solar arrays are forty-five percent smaller than the older ones, but they can produce twenty-five percent more power. VOICE ONE: Colombia’s astronauts also replaced the Hubble’s power control device. The new Power Control Unit controls the electricity made by the solar arrays. It provides electricity to the Hubble’s electrical storage batteries. It also supplies electricity to any device that needs power. NASA officials say it was extremely difficult to replace the Power Control Unit. The work also placed the telescope in danger because Hubble had to be without power for the first time since its launch in Nineteen-Ninety. The astronauts had a limited amount of time to complete the replacement work and turn on Hubble’s power. If the work was not completed in time, the extreme cold temperatures of space would severely damage the space telescope. VOICE TWO: Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Rick Linnehan worked outside the space shuttle to replace the Power Control Unit on Hubble. They were able to complete the work to replace the power unit in less than four hours. Scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas were watching the two astronauts on television. They cheered when the new power unit was placed in the telescope and Hubble’s power returned. VOICE ONE: The crew of the Colombia also placed a new cooling device in Hubble to replace an older one that had failed. The cooling device is needed to work with the Near Inferred Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, called NICMOS. NICMOS must be kept at extremely cold temperatures so it can photograph infrared light. NASA officials hope the new cooling device will permit NICMOS to do useful work again for at least a few more years. VOICE TWO: The space shuttle Colombia flew about six-hundred kilometers above the Earth to reach the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronauts then had move the space shuttle near the Hubble and capture the two-thousand kilogram telescope. The capture had to be done as Hubble orbits the Earth at speeds faster than twenty-seven-thousand kilometers an hour. This is the fourth time NASA has sent a crew of astronauts to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA officials say this repair work was the most difficult and perhaps the most dangerous ever attempted. VOICE ONE: NASA plans one more flight to provide service to the Hubble Space Telescope. That flight should take place in Two-Thousand-Four. During that flight, an astronaut crew will place the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph in Hubble. The instrument will be able to see far into space and take pictures of many different kinds of light that cannot be seen by the human eye. It will be the most powerful and most complex scientific device to measure light ever sent into space. NASA plans to use the Hubble Space Telescope until Two-Thousand-Ten. At that time NASA officials will decide if it will return to Earth or be raised to a high orbit where it cannot fall back to Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: NASA officials have heard from an old friend. The Pioneer Ten spacecraft sent a message back to Earth from more than eleven-thousand-million kilometers in space. The little spacecraft left the gravity of Earth more than thirty years ago. On Friday, March First, scientists sent a message to Pioneer Ten. They sent the message from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Deep Space Network communication center in Goldstone, California. Twenty-Two hours later researchers heard Pioneer’s answer. Pioneer reported that its systems were still working. VOICE ONE: Pioneer Ten was the first spacecraft to take close-up pictures of Jupiter. It also was the first human-made object to leave the solar system when it passed the orbit of the planet Pluto. Pioneer Ten is traveling toward the group of stars called Taurus. It will pass the nearest star in that constellation in about two million years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT — March 13, 2002: Slow Tyrannosaurus Rex
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Ancient animals called dinosaurs have captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. The huge dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex has even been in popular American movies like “Jurassic Park.” In some movies, Tyrannosaurus rex is shown running at top speed after cars and helicopters. The Tyrannosaurus in the movies is a terrible combination of speed and power. Yet two biological scientists say this is probably wrong. They are John Hutchinson of Stanford University in California and Mariano Garcia of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Their research suggests that Tyrannosaurus rex could only walk slowly. They reported their findings in the publication Nature. Mister Hutchinson and Mister Garcia used a biological computer model to study the bones of the ancient creature. They found that the legs of Tyrannosaurus were not strong enough for the animal to be able to run fast. The meat-eating dinosaur weighed almost six-thousand kilograms. Mister Hutchinson says the animal’s legs would have had to be huge to enable the creature to run fast. He says its leg muscles would have had to be eighty-five percent of its total weight. The findings of the two biological scientists conflict with current scientific information about Tyrannosaurus. Until now, scientists believed that the huge dinosaur could run up to seventy kilometers an hour. This idea has passed into popular culture all the way to the directors of Hollywood movies. Not all scientists agree with the findings of Mister Hutchinson and Mister Garcia. In the last twenty years, scientists who study ancient bones have linked dinosaurs to birds. Some paleontologists believe the bird-like bones of giant dinosaurs suggest that some of these ancient creatures were fast runners. Many paleontologists continue to believe that the bone structure of Tyrannosaurus shows that it could run fast. The debate over how fast some dinosaurs ran probably will continue for some time. The last Tyrannosaurus rex died about sixty-five-million years ago. Paleontologists can only know the giant creature from its mineral fossil remains. Tyrannosaurus always will remain a creature of popular action movies and of the imagination. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Ancient animals called dinosaurs have captured the imagination of millions of people around the world. The huge dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex has even been in popular American movies like “Jurassic Park.” In some movies, Tyrannosaurus rex is shown running at top speed after cars and helicopters. The Tyrannosaurus in the movies is a terrible combination of speed and power. Yet two biological scientists say this is probably wrong. They are John Hutchinson of Stanford University in California and Mariano Garcia of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Their research suggests that Tyrannosaurus rex could only walk slowly. They reported their findings in the publication Nature. Mister Hutchinson and Mister Garcia used a biological computer model to study the bones of the ancient creature. They found that the legs of Tyrannosaurus were not strong enough for the animal to be able to run fast. The meat-eating dinosaur weighed almost six-thousand kilograms. Mister Hutchinson says the animal’s legs would have had to be huge to enable the creature to run fast. He says its leg muscles would have had to be eighty-five percent of its total weight. The findings of the two biological scientists conflict with current scientific information about Tyrannosaurus. Until now, scientists believed that the huge dinosaur could run up to seventy kilometers an hour. This idea has passed into popular culture all the way to the directors of Hollywood movies. Not all scientists agree with the findings of Mister Hutchinson and Mister Garcia. In the last twenty years, scientists who study ancient bones have linked dinosaurs to birds. Some paleontologists believe the bird-like bones of giant dinosaurs suggest that some of these ancient creatures were fast runners. Many paleontologists continue to believe that the bone structure of Tyrannosaurus shows that it could run fast. The debate over how fast some dinosaurs ran probably will continue for some time. The last Tyrannosaurus rex died about sixty-five-million years ago. Paleontologists can only know the giant creature from its mineral fossil remains. Tyrannosaurus always will remain a creature of popular action movies and of the imagination. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - March 14, 2002: Great Depression/Arts & Culture
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Hard economic times and social conflict have always offered a rich source of material for artists and writers. A painter's colors can show the drying of dreams or the flight of human spirits. A musician can express the tensions and uncertainty of a people in struggle. The pressures of hard times can be the force to lift a writer's imagination to new heights. So it was during the nineteen-thirties in the United States. The severe economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- created an atmosphere for artistic imagination and creative expression. The common feeling of struggle also led millions of Americans to look together to films, radio, and other new art forms for relief from their day-to-day cares. Our program today looks at American arts and popular culture during the nineteen-thirties. ((Tape Cut 1: Benny Goodman Orchestra)) (Theme) Hard economic times and social conflict have always offered a rich source of material for artists and writers. A painter's colors can show the drying of dreams or the flight of human spirits. A musician can express the tensions and uncertainty of a people in struggle. The pressures of hard times can be the force to lift a writer's imagination to new heights. So it was during the nineteen-thirties in the United States. The severe economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- created an atmosphere for artistic imagination and creative expression. The common feeling of struggle also led millions of Americans to look together to films, radio, and other new art forms for relief from their day-to-day cares. Our program today looks at American arts and popular culture during the nineteen-thirties. ((Tape Cut 1: Benny Goodman Orchestra)) VOICE 2: The most popular sound of the nineteen-thirties was a new kind of music -- "swing" music. And the "King of Swing" was a clarinet player named Benny Goodman. ((Tape Cut 2: Benny Goodman Orchestra)) Benny Goodman and other musicians made swing music extremely popular during the nineteen-thirties. Swing music was a new form of jazz. Many of its first players were black musicians in small, unknown groups. It was only when more well-known white musicians started playing swing music in the middle nineteen-thirties that the new music became wildly popular. VOICE 1: One reason for the popularity of swing music was the growing power of radio during the nineteen-thirties. VOICE 2: The most popular sound of the nineteen-thirties was a new kind of music -- "swing" music. And the "King of Swing" was a clarinet player named Benny Goodman. ((Tape Cut 2: Benny Goodman Orchestra)) Benny Goodman and other musicians made swing music extremely popular during the nineteen-thirties. Swing music was a new form of jazz. Many of its first players were black musicians in small, unknown groups. It was only when more well-known white musicians started playing swing music in the middle nineteen-thirties that the new music became wildly popular. VOICE 1: One reason for the popularity of swing music was the growing power of radio during the nineteen-thirties. Radio had already proven in earlier years that it could be an important force in both politics and popular culture. Millions of Americans bought radios during the nineteen-twenties. But radio grew up in the nineteen-thirties. Producers became more skillful in creating programs. And actors and actresses began to understand the special needs and power of this new electronic art form. Swing music was not the only kind of music that radio helped make popular. The nineteen-thirties also saw increasing popularity for traditional, classical music by Beethoven, Bach, and other great musicians. In nineteen-thirty, the Columbia Broadcasting System began a series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday afternoons. The next year, the National Broadcasting Company, NBC, began weekly opera concerts. VOICE 2: In nineteen-thirty-seven, NBC asked Arturo Toscanini of Italy to lead an orchestra on American radio. Toscanini was the greatest orchestra leader of his day. Millions of Americans listened at Christmas time as Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra began playing the first of ten special radio concerts. It was a great moment for both music and radio. For the first time, millions of average Americans were able to hear classical music by great musicians as it was being played. VOICE 1: Music was an important reason why millions of Americans gathered to listen to the radio during the nineteen-thirties. But even more popular were a series of weekly programs with exciting or funny new actors. Radio had already proven in earlier years that it could be an important force in both politics and popular culture. Millions of Americans bought radios during the nineteen-twenties. But radio grew up in the nineteen-thirties. Producers became more skillful in creating programs. And actors and actresses began to understand the special needs and power of this new electronic art form. Swing music was not the only kind of music that radio helped make popular. The nineteen-thirties also saw increasing popularity for traditional, classical music by Beethoven, Bach, and other great musicians. In nineteen-thirty, the Columbia Broadcasting System began a series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday afternoons. The next year, the National Broadcasting Company, NBC, began weekly opera concerts. VOICE 2: In nineteen-thirty-seven, NBC asked Arturo Toscanini of Italy to lead an orchestra on American radio. Toscanini was the greatest orchestra leader of his day. Millions of Americans listened at Christmas time as Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra began playing the first of ten special radio concerts. It was a great moment for both music and radio. For the first time, millions of average Americans were able to hear classical music by great musicians as it was being played. VOICE 1: Music was an important reason why millions of Americans gathered to listen to the radio during the nineteen-thirties. But even more popular were a series of weekly programs with exciting or funny new actors. Families would come home from school or work and laugh at the foolish experiences of such actors as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, George Burns, Edgar Bergen, and W.C. Fields. Radio helped people forget the hard conditions of the Great Depression. And it helped to bring Americans together and share experiences. VOICE 2: Swing music. Classical music. Great comedy programs. The nineteen-thirties truly were a golden period for radio and mass communications. But it was also during this period that Hollywood and the American film industry became much more skilled and influential. In previous years, films were silent. But the "talkies" arrived in the nineteen-thirties. Directors could produce films in which actors could talk. Americans reacted by attending film theaters by the millions. It was a great time for Hollywood. VOICE 1: The films had exciting new actors. Spencer Tracy. Bette Davis. Katharine Hepburn. The young Shirley Temple. The most famous film of the period was "Gone with the Wind" with actor Clark Gable and actress Vivien Leigh. Directors in the nineteen-thirties also produced such great films as "It Happened One Night," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "The Life of Emile Zola." VOICE 2: The success of radio and films, as well as the depression itself, caused problems for many Americans newspapers during the nineteen-thirties. The trouble was not so much that readers stopped buying newspapers. It was that companies talked about their products through advertisements on radio instead of buying advertising space in newspapers. Nearly half of the nation's independently-published newspapers either stopped publishing or joined larger companies during the nineteen-thirties. By World War Two, only one-hundred-twenty cities had competing newspapers. VOICE 1: Weekly and monthly publications faced the same problem as daily newspapers -- increased competition from radio and films. Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life Magazine and the Reader's Digest. Life Magazine had stories for everyone about film actors, news events, or just daily life in the home or on the farm. Its photographs were the greatest anywhere. Reader's Digest published shorter forms of stories from other magazines and sources. VOICE 2: Most popular books of the period were like the films coming from Hollywood. Writers cared more about helping people forget their troubles than about facing serious social issues. They made more money that way, too. But a number of writers in the nineteen-thirties did produce books that were both profitable and of high quality. One was Sinclair Lewis. His book, "It Can't Happen Here," warned of the coming dangers of fascism. John Steinbeck's great book, "The Grapes of Wrath," helped millions understand and feel in their hearts the troubles faced by poor farmers. Erskine Caldwell wrote about the cruelty of life among poor people in the southeastern United States, and James T. Farrell about life in Chicago. VOICE 1: The same social concern and desire to present life as it really existed also were clear in the work of many American artists during the nineteen-thirties. Thomas Benton painted workers and others with strong tough bodies. Edward Hopper showed the sad streets of American cities. Reginald Marsh painted picture after picture of poor parts of New York City. The federal government created a program that gave jobs to artists. They painted their pictures on the walls of airports, post offices, and schools. The program brought their ideas and creativity to millions of people. At the same time, photography became more important as cameras improved in quality and became more moveable. Some photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans used their cameras to report the hard conditions of the Depression. VOICE 2: All this activity in the arts and popular culture played an important part in the lives of Americans during the nineteen-thirties. It not only provided relief from their troubles, but expanded their minds and pushed their imaginations. The tensions and troubles of the Great Depression provided a rich atmosphere for artists and others to produce works that were serious, foolish, or just plain fun. And those works, in turn, helped make life a little better as Americans waited, worked, and hoped for times to improve. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Steve Ember and Bob Doughty. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Families would come home from school or work and laugh at the foolish experiences of such actors as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, George Burns, Edgar Bergen, and W.C. Fields. Radio helped people forget the hard conditions of the Great Depression. And it helped to bring Americans together and share experiences. VOICE 2: Swing music. Classical music. Great comedy programs. The nineteen-thirties truly were a golden period for radio and mass communications. But it was also during this period that Hollywood and the American film industry became much more skilled and influential. In previous years, films were silent. But the "talkies" arrived in the nineteen-thirties. Directors could produce films in which actors could talk. Americans reacted by attending film theaters by the millions. It was a great time for Hollywood. VOICE 1: The films had exciting new actors. Spencer Tracy. Bette Davis. Katharine Hepburn. The young Shirley Temple. The most famous film of the period was "Gone with the Wind" with actor Clark Gable and actress Vivien Leigh. Directors in the nineteen-thirties also produced such great films as "It Happened One Night," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "The Life of Emile Zola." VOICE 2: The success of radio and films, as well as the depression itself, caused problems for many Americans newspapers during the nineteen-thirties. The trouble was not so much that readers stopped buying newspapers. It was that companies talked about their products through advertisements on radio instead of buying advertising space in newspapers. Nearly half of the nation's independently-published newspapers either stopped publishing or joined larger companies during the nineteen-thirties. By World War Two, only one-hundred-twenty cities had competing newspapers. VOICE 1: Weekly and monthly publications faced the same problem as daily newspapers -- increased competition from radio and films. Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life Magazine and the Reader's Digest. Life Magazine had stories for everyone about film actors, news events, or just daily life in the home or on the farm. Its photographs were the greatest anywhere. Reader's Digest published shorter forms of stories from other magazines and sources. VOICE 2: Most popular books of the period were like the films coming from Hollywood. Writers cared more about helping people forget their troubles than about facing serious social issues. They made more money that way, too. But a number of writers in the nineteen-thirties did produce books that were both profitable and of high quality. One was Sinclair Lewis. His book, "It Can't Happen Here," warned of the coming dangers of fascism. John Steinbeck's great book, "The Grapes of Wrath," helped millions understand and feel in their hearts the troubles faced by poor farmers. Erskine Caldwell wrote about the cruelty of life among poor people in the southeastern United States, and James T. Farrell about life in Chicago. VOICE 1: The same social concern and desire to present life as it really existed also were clear in the work of many American artists during the nineteen-thirties. Thomas Benton painted workers and others with strong tough bodies. Edward Hopper showed the sad streets of American cities. Reginald Marsh painted picture after picture of poor parts of New York City. The federal government created a program that gave jobs to artists. They painted their pictures on the walls of airports, post offices, and schools. The program brought their ideas and creativity to millions of people. At the same time, photography became more important as cameras improved in quality and became more moveable. Some photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans used their cameras to report the hard conditions of the Depression. VOICE 2: All this activity in the arts and popular culture played an important part in the lives of Americans during the nineteen-thirties. It not only provided relief from their troubles, but expanded their minds and pushed their imaginations. The tensions and troubles of the Great Depression provided a rich atmosphere for artists and others to produce works that were serious, foolish, or just plain fun. And those works, in turn, helped make life a little better as Americans waited, worked, and hoped for times to improve. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Steve Ember and Bob Doughty. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - March 14, 2002: Space Tourism
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Would you like to orbit the Earth inside the International Space Station? Now you can take a space holiday — for a price. This is due to a recent decision by top space officials of the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Would you like to orbit the Earth inside the International Space Station? Now you can take a space holiday — for a price. This is due to a recent decision by top space officials of the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency. Last April, American businessman Dennis Tito reportedly paid between twelve-million and twenty-million dollars to spend one week on the International Space Station. NASA had strongly objected to the Russian plan to permit a civilian on the costly research vehicle. After two years of negotiations, space officials have agreed on a process to train private citizens to take trips to the International Space Station. NASA recently agreed to conditions that will permit Russia to sell trips to the space station. The trips are planned by an American company called Space Adventures Limited of Arlington, Virginia. The company calls itself “the world’s leading space tourism company.” The company has sold a space trip to Mark Shuttleworth, a South African businessman. In April, Mister Shuttleworth will be launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Experts say the change in policy at NASA shows a new desire to use space vehicles for business and industrial purposes. In a speech to Congress last year, NASA official Michael Hawes said that the space agency had not considered civilian travel as one of the industries it wanted to develop. However, Mister Hawes said that private space travel could now be done as long as safety measures are observed carefully. Yet, the average citizen will not be able to travel into space in the near future. Space Adventures Limited sells a training program for space flight that costs two-hundred-thousand dollars. That price does not include the cost of the trip to the International Space Station. That holiday in space costs twenty-million dollars. Candidates for adventure space travel trips must be in excellent health and must pass difficult health tests. They must receive a lot of training. However, Special English can help you prepare for a space holiday. This is because all successful candidates who wish to travel to the International Space Station must be able to read and speak English. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. Last April, American businessman Dennis Tito reportedly paid between twelve-million and twenty-million dollars to spend one week on the International Space Station. NASA had strongly objected to the Russian plan to permit a civilian on the costly research vehicle. After two years of negotiations, space officials have agreed on a process to train private citizens to take trips to the International Space Station. NASA recently agreed to conditions that will permit Russia to sell trips to the space station. The trips are planned by an American company called Space Adventures Limited of Arlington, Virginia. The company calls itself “the world’s leading space tourism company.” The company has sold a space trip to Mark Shuttleworth, a South African businessman. In April, Mister Shuttleworth will be launched into space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Experts say the change in policy at NASA shows a new desire to use space vehicles for business and industrial purposes. In a speech to Congress last year, NASA official Michael Hawes said that the space agency had not considered civilian travel as one of the industries it wanted to develop. However, Mister Hawes said that private space travel could now be done as long as safety measures are observed carefully. Yet, the average citizen will not be able to travel into space in the near future. Space Adventures Limited sells a training program for space flight that costs two-hundred-thousand dollars. That price does not include the cost of the trip to the International Space Station. That holiday in space costs twenty-million dollars. Candidates for adventure space travel trips must be in excellent health and must pass difficult health tests. They must receive a lot of training. However, Special English can help you prepare for a space holiday. This is because all successful candidates who wish to travel to the International Space Station must be able to read and speak English. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 15, 2002: Music written by John Williams / A question about Saint Patrick's Day / Watching baseball players get ready for the season
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: HOST: Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern presents U.S. President George Bush with a bowl of shamrocks at the White House Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. Our program today we: play music written by John Williams ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. Our program today we: play music written by John Williams ... answer a question about the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day ... and tell how Americans watch players train for the professional baseball season. Spring Training HOST: Many Americans love the sport of baseball. They are looking forward to the start of the North American professional baseball season at the end of this month. Currently, teams are busy training for the new season. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Baseball has created many popular traditions. One of them is spring training. Each February, Major League players report to their teams for training in warm American states. The players work on a number of skills, including hitting, throwing and running. They play games against other teams to help team officials decide which players to keep. Spring training is a popular activity for baseball fans. Thousands of people travel to the states of Arizona and Florida to watch the games. Some of the people do this to escape from winter weather in the north. Florida, for example, is famous for its warm waters and activities for holiday travelers. Spring training is another popular activity. The cost to attend a game is much lower than the cost of a game during the official baseball season. People of all ages enjoy spring training games. Boys and girls sit side by side with older adults. Parents take their babies to the games. Even some businessmen attend the games. Many people come equipped with cameras, baseballs, and something to write with. They ask players to sign their name on a baseball, a picture or a piece of paper. The most popular players are easy to recognize. They are the ones in the center of the largest crowds. This year, spring training is a little different. Increased security measures were added because of the terrorist attacks in the United States in September. As a result, the interaction between players and crowds is being closely watched. People who attend spring training games are no longer permitted to bring large cooling containers for food and drinks. Security officers search small, personal objects. They examine the playing field before a game. They also inspect the areas where people leave their cars. Yet this has not kept Americans away from spring training. Some recent reports say it is now more popular than ever. Saint Patrick’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day. Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March seventeenth. It is a religious holiday in Ireland. It is the day to honor the man who brought the Roman Catholic religion to Ireland more than one-thousand years ago. Saint Patrick’s Day is not an official holiday in the United States. But a lot of people celebrate it anyway. They show the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some put green color in their hair or on their faces. Some public eating places serve beer that is green. The city of Chicago even puts green color in its river. Many Americans eat the traditional Irish food, corned beef and cabbage. And they enjoy parties and parades. Saint Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in the United States in Boston, Massachusetts about two-hundred-fifty-years ago. These celebrations involved only people whose families had come to the United States from Ireland. Today, Americans who are not Irish also celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Some cities have Saint Patrick’s Day parades. An old story says this tradition began in New York City in Seventeen-Sixty-Two. Some members of the New York State military guard at that time had been born in Ireland. They decided to march to breakfast on Saint Patrick’s Day. These parades spread throughout the country as more Irish people came to live in the United States. Many Irish people who moved to the United States settled in big cities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders. They were able to stop work in the city for a day so they could have a parade to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Today, New York City’s parade is the biggest. Hundreds of thousands of people march for eight kilometers along Fifth Avenue. Millions of others gather along the street to watch. Many of these Americans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day.This year, the parade in New York City will be on March sixteenth, because it is never held on a Sunday. Also this year, there will be a minute of silence for the people killed in the World Trade Center attacks. John Williams’ Music HOST: The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present its yearly Academy Awards on March twenty-fourth. The awards honor people who make movies. One of the nominees this year is music writer John Williams. He has been nominated for an Academy Award forty-one times. That is more than anyone else in history. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: John Williams may be best known for writing movie soundtracks, the music that is heard throughout a movie. He has written the music and served as music director for almost eighty movies. They include “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Home Alone,” and “Superman,” to name only a few. He has won five Academy Awards. One was for the music from the movie “Jaws.” ((CUT 1: JAWS SOUNDTRACK)) John Williams is writing the music for the new series of “Star Wars” movies. The second of these will be released later this year. He also wrote the soundtracks for the first three “Star Wars” movies. He won an Academy Award for the first one in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. ((CUT 2: STAR WARS SOUNDTRACK)) John Williams is nominated for two Academy Awards this year. One is for the music he wrote for the movie “A.I: Artificial Intelligence.” We leave you now with the music that earned him the second nomination this year. It is from the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” ((CUT 3: HARRY POTTER SOUNDTRACK)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwasi Smith. And our producer was Paul Thompson. answer a question about the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day ... and tell how Americans watch players train for the professional baseball season. Spring Training HOST: Many Americans love the sport of baseball. They are looking forward to the start of the North American professional baseball season at the end of this month. Currently, teams are busy training for the new season. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Baseball has created many popular traditions. One of them is spring training. Each February, Major League players report to their teams for training in warm American states. The players work on a number of skills, including hitting, throwing and running. They play games against other teams to help team officials decide which players to keep. Spring training is a popular activity for baseball fans. Thousands of people travel to the states of Arizona and Florida to watch the games. Some of the people do this to escape from winter weather in the north. Florida, for example, is famous for its warm waters and activities for holiday travelers. Spring training is another popular activity. The cost to attend a game is much lower than the cost of a game during the official baseball season. People of all ages enjoy spring training games. Boys and girls sit side by side with older adults. Parents take their babies to the games. Even some businessmen attend the games. Many people come equipped with cameras, baseballs, and something to write with. They ask players to sign their name on a baseball, a picture or a piece of paper. The most popular players are easy to recognize. They are the ones in the center of the largest crowds. This year, spring training is a little different. Increased security measures were added because of the terrorist attacks in the United States in September. As a result, the interaction between players and crowds is being closely watched. People who attend spring training games are no longer permitted to bring large cooling containers for food and drinks. Security officers search small, personal objects. They examine the playing field before a game. They also inspect the areas where people leave their cars. Yet this has not kept Americans away from spring training. Some recent reports say it is now more popular than ever. Saint Patrick’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day. Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March seventeenth. It is a religious holiday in Ireland. It is the day to honor the man who brought the Roman Catholic religion to Ireland more than one-thousand years ago. Saint Patrick’s Day is not an official holiday in the United States. But a lot of people celebrate it anyway. They show the traditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some put green color in their hair or on their faces. Some public eating places serve beer that is green. The city of Chicago even puts green color in its river. Many Americans eat the traditional Irish food, corned beef and cabbage. And they enjoy parties and parades. Saint Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in the United States in Boston, Massachusetts about two-hundred-fifty-years ago. These celebrations involved only people whose families had come to the United States from Ireland. Today, Americans who are not Irish also celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Some cities have Saint Patrick’s Day parades. An old story says this tradition began in New York City in Seventeen-Sixty-Two. Some members of the New York State military guard at that time had been born in Ireland. They decided to march to breakfast on Saint Patrick’s Day. These parades spread throughout the country as more Irish people came to live in the United States. Many Irish people who moved to the United States settled in big cities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders. They were able to stop work in the city for a day so they could have a parade to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day. Today, New York City’s parade is the biggest. Hundreds of thousands of people march for eight kilometers along Fifth Avenue. Millions of others gather along the street to watch. Many of these Americans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyone is a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day.This year, the parade in New York City will be on March sixteenth, because it is never held on a Sunday. Also this year, there will be a minute of silence for the people killed in the World Trade Center attacks. John Williams’ Music HOST: The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present its yearly Academy Awards on March twenty-fourth. The awards honor people who make movies. One of the nominees this year is music writer John Williams. He has been nominated for an Academy Award forty-one times. That is more than anyone else in history. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: John Williams may be best known for writing movie soundtracks, the music that is heard throughout a movie. He has written the music and served as music director for almost eighty movies. They include “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Home Alone,” and “Superman,” to name only a few. He has won five Academy Awards. One was for the music from the movie “Jaws.” ((CUT 1: JAWS SOUNDTRACK)) John Williams is writing the music for the new series of “Star Wars” movies. The second of these will be released later this year. He also wrote the soundtracks for the first three “Star Wars” movies. He won an Academy Award for the first one in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. ((CUT 2: STAR WARS SOUNDTRACK)) John Williams is nominated for two Academy Awards this year. One is for the music he wrote for the movie “A.I: Artificial Intelligence.” We leave you now with the music that earned him the second nomination this year. It is from the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” ((CUT 3: HARRY POTTER SOUNDTRACK)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwasi Smith. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — March 15, 2002: Nuclear Pollution and Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A recent report by the USA Today newspaper says that a large amount of nuclear pollution has caused thousands of deaths in the United States. The radioactive material was spread by tests of nuclear weapons carried out during the Nineteen-Fifties and early Nineteen-Sixties. The news report is based on a study done by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute. However, the Department of Health and Human Services has not released the study to the public. The study says that a larger area than expected received high levels of nuclear pollution. The study used computer models to find out where nuclear pollution may have fallen. The study says all people living in the United States since Nineteen-Fifty-One have received some level of radiation. It says people in the most affected areas received radiation equal to one medical x-ray every year. Beginning in the Nineteen-Fifties, the American military carried out more than two-hundred tests of nuclear weapons. About half of those tests were done in the state of Nevada. During the same period, the former Soviet Union carried out a similar number of tests on its own territory. Britain and the United States carried out other nuclear tests on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The study says that these tests also spread radioactive material in America. The United States halted above-ground nuclear tests in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. The study also estimates that at least eleven-thousand Americans may have died of cancer as a result of nuclear pollution. It says thousands of other people developed non-deadly forms of cancer. Yet, some medical experts say that it is very difficult to point to a single cause for many kinds of cancer. They also say the number of deaths caused by radiation is small when compared to the number of people who have died from other causes, such as smoking. However, experts say nuclear pollution is an environmental problem that can last a long time because of the nature of radiation. Some radioactive material remains dangerous for only a few years. But other material is dangerous for much longer periods. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A recent report by the USA Today newspaper says that a large amount of nuclear pollution has caused thousands of deaths in the United States. The radioactive material was spread by tests of nuclear weapons carried out during the Nineteen-Fifties and early Nineteen-Sixties. The news report is based on a study done by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute. However, the Department of Health and Human Services has not released the study to the public. The study says that a larger area than expected received high levels of nuclear pollution. The study used computer models to find out where nuclear pollution may have fallen. The study says all people living in the United States since Nineteen-Fifty-One have received some level of radiation. It says people in the most affected areas received radiation equal to one medical x-ray every year. Beginning in the Nineteen-Fifties, the American military carried out more than two-hundred tests of nuclear weapons. About half of those tests were done in the state of Nevada. During the same period, the former Soviet Union carried out a similar number of tests on its own territory. Britain and the United States carried out other nuclear tests on islands in the Pacific Ocean. The study says that these tests also spread radioactive material in America. The United States halted above-ground nuclear tests in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. The study also estimates that at least eleven-thousand Americans may have died of cancer as a result of nuclear pollution. It says thousands of other people developed non-deadly forms of cancer. Yet, some medical experts say that it is very difficult to point to a single cause for many kinds of cancer. They also say the number of deaths caused by radiation is small when compared to the number of people who have died from other causes, such as smoking. However, experts say nuclear pollution is an environmental problem that can last a long time because of the nature of radiation. Some radioactive material remains dangerous for only a few years. But other material is dangerous for much longer periods. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 17, 2002: Langston Hughes, Part Two
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we finish telling about the life of Langston Hughes, known as the poet voice of African Americans. He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in nineteen-oh-two. His parents separated when he was little. Langston grew up with his grandmother who told him stories about their family’s fight against racial injustice. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with loneliness and a feeling of rejection from his parents. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. As a young man, Langston traveled to Europe and Africa working on ships. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. A few of the writings he sent home were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. VOICE TWO: By nineteen-twenty-five, Langston Hughes had returned to the United States and was living in Harlem in New York City. This was during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived there. Hughes discovered a new way of writing poetry, using the rhythms of jazz and blues to support his words. His first collection of poetry, called the “Weary Blues,” was published in nineteen-twenty-six. Hughes wrote poetry about the common experiences of black people. People said they could see themselves in the words of his poetry. VOICE ONE: Hughes had worked many different jobs, but wished to make a living as a writer. Wealthy white supporters of the Harlem Renaissance helped Hughes until he could support himself. Critic Carl Van Vechten had helped to get the “The Weary Blues” published. Van Vechten was one of the first to recognize the new styles of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and their importance in African American literature. Another supporter of the arts, Amy Spingarn, gave Hughes money to complete his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Missus Charlotte Mason began supporting Hughes in Nineteen Twenty-Seven. In nineteen-thirty, he published a novel, “Not Without Laughter,” that made him very famous. His relationship with Missus Mason ended about the time the book appeared. After that, Hughes sank into a period of intense personal unhappiness. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-thirties, Langston Hughes traveled to Cuba and Haiti. He later traveled across the southern United States, doing poetry readings and trying to sell his books. Hughes was likeable and gained many readers during his visit to the South. He also began to write many different short stories that were published in magazines. In these, he was able to discuss ideas related to black pride, racism and other issues of black life. In nineteen-thirty-two, Hughes traveled to the Soviet Union. He became an active supporter of communism. He believed communism was fairer to minorities. During this time, his writing also became more militant. Several of his poems expressed support for social and political protests. Later, his writings began to examine the unfairness of life in America. He wrote about people whose lives were affected by racism and sexual conflicts, violence in the southern United States, Harlem street life, poverty, racism, hunger and hopelessness. VOICE ONE: Hughes wrote one of his most important works in nineteen-twenty-six, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” It spoke of black writers and poets who want to be considered as poets, not black poets. Hughes thought this meant they wanted to write like white poets. He argued there was a need for race pride and artistic independence: CUT ONE: “THE NEGRO ARTIST AND THE RACIAL MOUNTAIN” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too…If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how. And we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.” VOICE TWO: As his success as a writer grew, Langston Hughes began to explore other ways to spread his message. He wrote children’s stories and several plays. By nineteen-forty, he had opened black theater groups in Harlem, Chicago and Los Angeles. While writing for a black newspaper, Hughes created someone called “Jesse B. Semple.” The name “Jesse B. Semple” represented Hughes’s writing style: Just Be Simple. Semple was a common man of the people who “tells it like it is.” His experiences help other people understand the world in a clearer light. Hughes spoke through his character: CUT TWO: HUGHES READING FROM “SIMPLE” Here is more of “Jesse B. Semple,” read by Langston Hughes. CUT THREE: HUGHES READING FROM “SIMPLE” VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was known to be very supportive of young writers and poets. Some said his willingness to help young writers was a result of his unhappy childhood. Wherever he went, from the Caribbean to Africa to Russia, he connected with writers and gave them support. He also translated some of their writings into English and included them in collections he produced. Not everyone praised Hughes’ work. Some critics said his writings were too simple and lacked depth. Some blacks condemned his informal writing style and honest descriptions of black life. They also criticized his use of blues and jazz in his poetry and his expressions of sympathy for working people. However, his supporters praised his straightforward writing style. They said he demonstrated that writing does not have to be complex to be great. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-one, Hughes wrote one of his most successful collections of jazz poetry called, “Montage of a Dream Deferred.” The poems are expressions of everyday life in Harlem. They take the reader through one complete day and night in Harlem. In some of the poems, Hughes uses a new kind of jazz played in Harlem at the time, called “Be-Bop.” The poems deal with the problem of being black in America. In “Harlem,” the most famous poem in the collection, he asks: CUT FOUR: “MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED” VOICE ONE: There were difficult times for Langston Hughes. Conservatives in the United States were suspicious of his ties to extremist movements, his activism, and his support of the Soviet Union for its treatment of minorities. In nineteen-fifty-three, he was forced to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee on subversive activities to explain his interest in communism. Under pressure during the nineteen-fifties, Hughes softened the voice of his poems and rejected his militant past. He was criticized later by some black activists for not being militant enough. Hughes continued to write and publish throughout the nineteen-fifties and sixties. And he won several important awards during that time. He also taught at Atlanta University and the University of Chicago. VOICE TWO: Hughes died of cancer in nineteen-sixty-seven in Harlem, New York. His home on One-Hundred-Twenty-Seventh Street has been made a national landmark. Experts say Langston Hughes helped to change the sound of American literature. They say he wrote poems the world will always know. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we finish telling about the life of Langston Hughes, known as the poet voice of African Americans. He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was born in nineteen-oh-two. His parents separated when he was little. Langston grew up with his grandmother who told him stories about their family’s fight against racial injustice. He developed a love of reading books as a way to deal with loneliness and a feeling of rejection from his parents. His love for reading grew into a desire to write. As a young man, Langston traveled to Europe and Africa working on ships. He wrote poems and short stories during his travels. A few of the writings he sent home were published, which helped establish him as a professional writer. VOICE TWO: By nineteen-twenty-five, Langston Hughes had returned to the United States and was living in Harlem in New York City. This was during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived there. Hughes discovered a new way of writing poetry, using the rhythms of jazz and blues to support his words. His first collection of poetry, called the “Weary Blues,” was published in nineteen-twenty-six. Hughes wrote poetry about the common experiences of black people. People said they could see themselves in the words of his poetry. VOICE ONE: Hughes had worked many different jobs, but wished to make a living as a writer. Wealthy white supporters of the Harlem Renaissance helped Hughes until he could support himself. Critic Carl Van Vechten had helped to get the “The Weary Blues” published. Van Vechten was one of the first to recognize the new styles of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance and their importance in African American literature. Another supporter of the arts, Amy Spingarn, gave Hughes money to complete his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Missus Charlotte Mason began supporting Hughes in Nineteen Twenty-Seven. In nineteen-thirty, he published a novel, “Not Without Laughter,” that made him very famous. His relationship with Missus Mason ended about the time the book appeared. After that, Hughes sank into a period of intense personal unhappiness. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In the early nineteen-thirties, Langston Hughes traveled to Cuba and Haiti. He later traveled across the southern United States, doing poetry readings and trying to sell his books. Hughes was likeable and gained many readers during his visit to the South. He also began to write many different short stories that were published in magazines. In these, he was able to discuss ideas related to black pride, racism and other issues of black life. In nineteen-thirty-two, Hughes traveled to the Soviet Union. He became an active supporter of communism. He believed communism was fairer to minorities. During this time, his writing also became more militant. Several of his poems expressed support for social and political protests. Later, his writings began to examine the unfairness of life in America. He wrote about people whose lives were affected by racism and sexual conflicts, violence in the southern United States, Harlem street life, poverty, racism, hunger and hopelessness. VOICE ONE: Hughes wrote one of his most important works in nineteen-twenty-six, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” It spoke of black writers and poets who want to be considered as poets, not black poets. Hughes thought this meant they wanted to write like white poets. He argued there was a need for race pride and artistic independence: CUT ONE: “THE NEGRO ARTIST AND THE RACIAL MOUNTAIN” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too…If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how. And we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.” VOICE TWO: As his success as a writer grew, Langston Hughes began to explore other ways to spread his message. He wrote children’s stories and several plays. By nineteen-forty, he had opened black theater groups in Harlem, Chicago and Los Angeles. While writing for a black newspaper, Hughes created someone called “Jesse B. Semple.” The name “Jesse B. Semple” represented Hughes’s writing style: Just Be Simple. Semple was a common man of the people who “tells it like it is.” His experiences help other people understand the world in a clearer light. Hughes spoke through his character: CUT TWO: HUGHES READING FROM “SIMPLE” Here is more of “Jesse B. Semple,” read by Langston Hughes. CUT THREE: HUGHES READING FROM “SIMPLE” VOICE ONE: Langston Hughes was known to be very supportive of young writers and poets. Some said his willingness to help young writers was a result of his unhappy childhood. Wherever he went, from the Caribbean to Africa to Russia, he connected with writers and gave them support. He also translated some of their writings into English and included them in collections he produced. Not everyone praised Hughes’ work. Some critics said his writings were too simple and lacked depth. Some blacks condemned his informal writing style and honest descriptions of black life. They also criticized his use of blues and jazz in his poetry and his expressions of sympathy for working people. However, his supporters praised his straightforward writing style. They said he demonstrated that writing does not have to be complex to be great. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-one, Hughes wrote one of his most successful collections of jazz poetry called, “Montage of a Dream Deferred.” The poems are expressions of everyday life in Harlem. They take the reader through one complete day and night in Harlem. In some of the poems, Hughes uses a new kind of jazz played in Harlem at the time, called “Be-Bop.” The poems deal with the problem of being black in America. In “Harlem,” the most famous poem in the collection, he asks: CUT FOUR: “MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED” VOICE ONE: There were difficult times for Langston Hughes. Conservatives in the United States were suspicious of his ties to extremist movements, his activism, and his support of the Soviet Union for its treatment of minorities. In nineteen-fifty-three, he was forced to appear before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee on subversive activities to explain his interest in communism. Under pressure during the nineteen-fifties, Hughes softened the voice of his poems and rejected his militant past. He was criticized later by some black activists for not being militant enough. Hughes continued to write and publish throughout the nineteen-fifties and sixties. And he won several important awards during that time. He also taught at Atlanta University and the University of Chicago. VOICE TWO: Hughes died of cancer in nineteen-sixty-seven in Harlem, New York. His home on One-Hundred-Twenty-Seventh Street has been made a national landmark. Experts say Langston Hughes helped to change the sound of American literature. They say he wrote poems the world will always know. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - March 18, 2002: Academy Awards
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: On March twenty-fourth, actors, directors and other filmmakers will gather in Los Angeles, California, for the yearly Academy Awards ceremonies. It is a night of excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch them. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The Academy Awards is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC FROM LORD OF THE RINGS)) VOICE ONE: Sunday will be the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the movie industry. Filmmakers will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, sound, music and other work on movies released last year. The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The statue is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award can be priceless to the person who receives it. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. It also can mean earning much more money. VOICE TWO: Movies from the United States and several other countries are competing in the Academy Awards this year. Five movies were nominated as best foreign language film. They are from France, Norway, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Argentina. The film from France, “Amelie,” was nominated for four other awards. It is about a young woman who brings happiness to other people. For the first time, an Oscar will be given for best animated feature film. Three movies are competing. They are “Shrek,” “Monsters, Inc.” and “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.” VOICE ONE: A movie based on a famous series of books by British writer J.R.R. Tolkien received the most Academy Award nominations. The movie, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” is a story about a struggle to save the world from the forces of evil. Good creatures called hobbits and elves battle against evil creatures. The movie is competing for thirteen Oscars, including best motion picture. Peter Jackson was nominated as best director. Ian McKellen was nominated as best supporting actor. Two more movies in the “Lord of the Rings” series will be released this year and next. VOICE TWO: “A Beautiful Mind” received eight nominations, including one for best motion picture. It is about a famous American mathematician, John Nash. He suffered from severe mental illness. Yet he shared the Nobel Prize for Economics in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. Russell Crowe was nominated for best actor for playing John Nash as he struggles against the disease. Jennifer Connelly received a nomination for best supporting actress for playing Nash’s wife, Alicia. The movie’s director, Ron Howard, also was nominated for an Oscar. VOICE ONE: An unusual movie musical called “Moulin Rouge” also was nominated for eight awards, including best motion picture. It is about a famous night club in Paris, France around the year Nineteen-Hundred. Yet it uses modern popular music to tell the story. Nicole Kidman was nominated for best actress for playing a singer and dancer at the Moulin Rouge. ((MUSIC FROM MOULIN ROUGE)) VOICE TWO: Two other movies were nominated for Academy Awards for best motion picture of the year. “Gosford Park” is a murder mystery that takes place in a rich country home in Britain in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Its director, Robert Altman, was nominated as best director. Two actresses in the movie, Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith, were nominated for best supporting actress. The movie “In the Bedroom” received five nominations, including best motion picture. It is a tragic story about parents who seek to punish the killer of their twenty-one-year-old son. Three of the actors in the movie also were nominated to win Oscars. They are Tom Wilkinson for best actor, Sissy Spacek for best actress and Marisa Tomei (toe-MY) for best supporting actress. VOICE ONE: Several other people were nominated for Academy Awards as best leading actor or actress. Renee Zellweger was nominated for her part in “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Judi Dench was nominated for playing the British writer Iris Murdoch in the movie “Iris.” And Halle Berry received a nomination for her performance in “Monster’s Ball.” The other nominations for best leading actor are Sean Penn for “I Am Sam,” Denzel Washington for “Training Day,” and Will Smith for playing boxer Muhammad Ali in the movie “Ali.” This is the first time in thirty years that three African American actors were nominated for leading acting awards. They are Halle Berry, Denzel Washington and Will Smith. VOICE TWO: Three people will be honored at the Academy Awards ceremony. Sidney Poitier will receive a special award for his performances in more than forty movies and for representing the motion picture industry. He is the only African American actor who has received an Oscar for best leading actor. Robert Redford will be honored for his work as actor, director, producer and supporter of independent movies by young filmmakers. And director Arthur Hiller will receive an award for his humanitarian efforts. ((MUSIC FROM A BEAUTIFUL MIND)) VOICE ONE: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. About six-thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the organization. It was established in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven to support the industry. The Academy began presenting awards in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, the woman who worked in the Academy library said the statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. Some people said the reporter and the librarian named the statue. But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis disputed this. She claimed she named the Oscars in honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. VOICE TWO: The process of choosing award winners begins with members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. The members choose among people doing the same kind of work they do. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote among those nominated to choose the final winners. The awards are presented every spring. This year, the ceremony will be held in its new home, the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry are invited to the ceremonies. The presentation is called Oscar Night. On Oscar night, crowds of people always line the streets. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony. Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. Some popular movie stars make statements to waiting reporters. Others hurry inside the theater. VOICE ONE: During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk up onto the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big moment has arrived. They cry. They laugh. They act surprised. They thank all the people who helped them win the award. Only a few hundred invited guests can attend the awards presentation. But millions of people in the United States and other countries watch the Academy Awards show on television. A total of about one-thousand-million people watch the show around the world. Thousands of Americans in almost forty cities will attend Oscar Night parties to re-create the excitement of the Academy Awards. These parties raise money for local aid organizations. Sunday will be the seventy-fourth Academy Awards presentation. The American film industry will honor some of the best in their industry. These winners will go home with a golden Oscar. ((CUT TWO: MUSIC FROM LORD OF THE RINGS)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - March 16, 2002: UN Resolution on the Middle East
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution concerning the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It was the first U-N resolution on that issue since October of two-thousand. It also is the first Security Council resolution that supports the idea of a separate and independent Palestinian state. The United States proposed the resolution. Fourteen nations who are members of the Security Council voted in support of it. The fifteenth member, Syria, chose not to vote. Resolution thirteen-ninety-seven says the Security Council supports an idea of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders. The resolution also demands an immediate end to the violence. It says this includes all acts of terror, incitement and destruction. The resolution says the current situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is tragic. It urges all involved to guarantee the safety of civilians and honor international humanitarian law. Security Council members also praised the efforts of foreign countries to settle the Middle East crisis. The resolution notes the work of diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The Council also welcomed the help of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Prince Abdullah recently proposed a plan for peace with Israel. He offered full Arab relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territory it captured in the Nineteen-Sixty-Seven War. The United States had not proposed a resolution linked to Israel in almost twenty-five years. In fact, the United States had used its veto power to stop Security Council action on the issue. The United States has argued that only Israel and the Palestinians can settle their differences. Yet, the United States Ambassador to the U-N, John Negroponte, says this resolution does not represent a change in American policy. The Ambassador says the United States still thinks Israel and the Palestinians must negotiate agreements. He said the aim of the resolution was to move forward peace efforts and to condemn violence and terror. The Palestinian representative to the U-N said the resolution is something that should help the situation. Israel said the resolution was balanced. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke to reporters the day after the Security Council passed the resolution. He said he was very happy about it. He also said he thought it was important that the United States took the lead in creating it. Secretary General Annan said the resolution would send a powerful message about the need to end current hostilities. He said it is part of the continuing efforts to move the Israelis and Palestinians forward in the peace process. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution concerning the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It was the first U-N resolution on that issue since October of two-thousand. It also is the first Security Council resolution that supports the idea of a separate and independent Palestinian state. The United States proposed the resolution. Fourteen nations who are members of the Security Council voted in support of it. The fifteenth member, Syria, chose not to vote. Resolution thirteen-ninety-seven says the Security Council supports an idea of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders. The resolution also demands an immediate end to the violence. It says this includes all acts of terror, incitement and destruction. The resolution says the current situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories is tragic. It urges all involved to guarantee the safety of civilians and honor international humanitarian law. Security Council members also praised the efforts of foreign countries to settle the Middle East crisis. The resolution notes the work of diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. The Council also welcomed the help of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Prince Abdullah recently proposed a plan for peace with Israel. He offered full Arab relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territory it captured in the Nineteen-Sixty-Seven War. The United States had not proposed a resolution linked to Israel in almost twenty-five years. In fact, the United States had used its veto power to stop Security Council action on the issue. The United States has argued that only Israel and the Palestinians can settle their differences. Yet, the United States Ambassador to the U-N, John Negroponte, says this resolution does not represent a change in American policy. The Ambassador says the United States still thinks Israel and the Palestinians must negotiate agreements. He said the aim of the resolution was to move forward peace efforts and to condemn violence and terror. The Palestinian representative to the U-N said the resolution is something that should help the situation. Israel said the resolution was balanced. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke to reporters the day after the Security Council passed the resolution. He said he was very happy about it. He also said he thought it was important that the United States took the lead in creating it. Secretary General Annan said the resolution would send a powerful message about the need to end current hostilities. He said it is part of the continuing efforts to move the Israelis and Palestinians forward in the peace process. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – March 18, 2002: Pot-in-Pot Cooling Device
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In many developing countries, it is difficult to keep food cool. Most areas do not have electricity to operate devices to keep food cold, called refrigerators. Food often spoils, or becomes unsafe to eat within days. This can cause diseases and loss of money for farmers. However, in Nigeria, one man is working to change this. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In many developing countries, it is difficult to keep food cool. Most areas do not have electricity to operate devices to keep food cold, called refrigerators. Food often spoils, or becomes unsafe to eat within days. This can cause diseases and loss of money for farmers. However, in Nigeria, one man is working to change this. Mohammed Bah Abba, a teacher, invented a cooling device using two round containers made of clay. Mister Abba’s invention is called a Pot-in-Pot Preservation Cooling System. A small pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system. The device keeps some foods fresh for several weeks. Food stored in the small pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot where drier outside air is moving. The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner container and helps destroy harmful bacteria found in food. Mister Abba started producing his cooling device in nineteen-ninety-seven. Since then, he has given more than twelve-thousand devices to people in villages in Nigeria. He estimates that within five years, people all over the country will be using his invention. Mister Abba also hopes to export his Pot-in-Pot cooling system to other hot, dry nations facing similar problems. The Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland has also recognized the value of this cooling system. Two years ago, Mister Abba received the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award is given every two years. It awards people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects. An international committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. You can learn more about the Rolex Awards for Enterprise on the Internet Web site, w-w-w-dot-rolexawards-dot-com. Or you can write to the Rolex awards committee at P-O-Box one-three-one-one, one-two-one-one Geneva, twenty-six, Switzerland. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Mohammed Bah Abba, a teacher, invented a cooling device using two round containers made of clay. Mister Abba’s invention is called a Pot-in-Pot Preservation Cooling System. A small pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system. The device keeps some foods fresh for several weeks. Food stored in the small pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot where drier outside air is moving. The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner container and helps destroy harmful bacteria found in food. Mister Abba started producing his cooling device in nineteen-ninety-seven. Since then, he has given more than twelve-thousand devices to people in villages in Nigeria. He estimates that within five years, people all over the country will be using his invention. Mister Abba also hopes to export his Pot-in-Pot cooling system to other hot, dry nations facing similar problems. The Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland has also recognized the value of this cooling system. Two years ago, Mister Abba received the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award is given every two years. It awards people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects. An international committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. You can learn more about the Rolex Awards for Enterprise on the Internet Web site, w-w-w-dot-rolexawards-dot-com. Or you can write to the Rolex awards committee at P-O-Box one-three-one-one, one-two-one-one Geneva, twenty-six, Switzerland. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: March 17, 2002 - Slangman: Bird Terms ('The Ugly Duckling')
* Byline: 

 SFX: Bird sounds AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER – with spring time approaching here in the United States our thoughts turn to bird watching. RS: Birds are easy to spot in everyday speech. A hierarchy in an organization is called a "pecking order." We don't just say "be happy with what you've got" -- we say "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush," or just simply "a bird in hand ... “ And, when children grow up and move out of their parents’ house, they "leave the nest." AA: Slangman David Burke joins us now from Los Angeles with his own version of the children's fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling” using bird-related terms. RS: As we pick up the story, a duck has just given birth to twelve little ducklings. So how could she afford such a large family? TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/RS/AA "Luckily she had a 'nest egg.' Now a nest egg is a lot of money that you save over the years. The money she saved wasn't 'chicken feed.' If you make very little money, we say 'I'm making chicken feed.' Her new children were the prettiest little ducklings you ever saw. She thought, when they're older, I'll teach them about the 'birds ... '" RS: " ... and the bees." BURKE: "'And the bees.' Now I don't know why we say that, but it's a euphemism for sex. Fortunately, she didn't 'count her chickens before they were hatched' -- that means you count on something before it actually happens -- because there was still one very large egg that did not open yet. "Finally the last chick appeared. One of the chicks actually said, 'He's so ugly, what a turkey!' Now frankly I have nothing against turkeys, but I guess in American slang we do, because anything that's considered bad is a 'turkey.' The mother wondered if maybe he really was a turkey. So she made each of them get into the water, because everyone knows that turkeys can't swim. She watched him 'like a hawk.'" RS: "Very closely." BURKE: "Yes. At first he was 'chicken' to get in the water." RS: "Afraid." BURKE: "Afraid. The others yelled 'get in the water, you 'bird brain.'" RS: "Stupid." BURKE: "Right, exactly. Well, just because he was ugly, they thought he was a 'dodo.' A dodo bird is a really big, big, big bird that doesn't do much, it just sort of sits there." AA: "It's extinct, isn't it?" BURKE: "And extinct -- and he doesn't exist anymore -- a 'dodo,' and he would 'chicken out.' But he did not 'stick his head in the sand' like an ostrich. He wanted to prove to the others that he could swim and that he was brave. That way he could 'kill two birds with one stone.' Ouch. This is an expression that is just so horrible, but it's common. To 'kill two birds with one stone,' it means to accomplish two things at the same time. "Well, he swam beautifully -- better than the others. The ducks all returned to the farm. He thought 'this place is for the birds.' This means undesirable. So he ran away but found a family of geese who said, 'Please join us.' Suddenly they all heard shots being fired. It was hunters. The geese all yelled, 'duck!" AA: "Get down!" BURKE: "'Duck!' simply means -- right -- get down. All the geese flew away quickly, but the duckling couldn't fly and started running around like a 'chicken with his head cut off.'" AA: "Which is what chickens that get their heads cut off tend to do." BURKE: "That's right. Well, he really needed to relax and 'get all his ducks in a row' and decide what to do. When you 'get all your ducks in a row,' it means you're becoming organized. So he ran and ran until he stopped at a pond with the most beautiful birds. They were swans. He thought, 'They're so beautiful!' But he felt sad because he was so ugly. He bent his head down toward the water in shame and saw his reflection -- he was beautiful! The other swans said to him, 'Please join our family. We knew you'd come. Why? A little birdie told us.'" AA and RS: "Awww ... " BURKE: "Isn't that sweet? Anytime we know something, but it's sort of a secret how we know it -- for example, if I were to say to Rosanne, 'Rosanne, I heard it's your birthday,' and you said, 'how'd you know?' -- well, a little birdie told me. Well, the moral of this story is, 'birds of a feather ... " RS: "Flock together." BURKE: "Flock together, which simply means, people who are alike stay together. Now, the actual expression is 'birds of a feather flock together,' but we shorten it and simply say, 'Well, birds of a feather ... " AA: ... can flock together to Slangman David Burke's Web site to learn all about his books and other teaching materials. It's www.slangman.com. And you can find all of our old scripts with Slangman on our new Wordmaster site. RS: That's at www.voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The Ugly Duckling"/Danny Kaye [A final note ... Influential economist James Tobin of Yale University died March 11 at the age of 84. He received the 1981 Nobel Prize in economics for his "portfolio theory" about investment decisions. And how did James Tobin sum up this theory? In his words, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."] SFX: Bird sounds AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER – with spring time approaching here in the United States our thoughts turn to bird watching. RS: Birds are easy to spot in everyday speech. A hierarchy in an organization is called a "pecking order." We don't just say "be happy with what you've got" -- we say "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush," or just simply "a bird in hand ... “ And, when children grow up and move out of their parents’ house, they "leave the nest." AA: Slangman David Burke joins us now from Los Angeles with his own version of the children's fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling” using bird-related terms. RS: As we pick up the story, a duck has just given birth to twelve little ducklings. So how could she afford such a large family? TAPE: CUT ONE -- BURKE/RS/AA "Luckily she had a 'nest egg.' Now a nest egg is a lot of money that you save over the years. The money she saved wasn't 'chicken feed.' If you make very little money, we say 'I'm making chicken feed.' Her new children were the prettiest little ducklings you ever saw. She thought, when they're older, I'll teach them about the 'birds ... '" RS: " ... and the bees." BURKE: "'And the bees.' Now I don't know why we say that, but it's a euphemism for sex. Fortunately, she didn't 'count her chickens before they were hatched' -- that means you count on something before it actually happens -- because there was still one very large egg that did not open yet. "Finally the last chick appeared. One of the chicks actually said, 'He's so ugly, what a turkey!' Now frankly I have nothing against turkeys, but I guess in American slang we do, because anything that's considered bad is a 'turkey.' The mother wondered if maybe he really was a turkey. So she made each of them get into the water, because everyone knows that turkeys can't swim. She watched him 'like a hawk.'" RS: "Very closely." BURKE: "Yes. At first he was 'chicken' to get in the water." RS: "Afraid." BURKE: "Afraid. The others yelled 'get in the water, you 'bird brain.'" RS: "Stupid." BURKE: "Right, exactly. Well, just because he was ugly, they thought he was a 'dodo.' A dodo bird is a really big, big, big bird that doesn't do much, it just sort of sits there." AA: "It's extinct, isn't it?" BURKE: "And extinct -- and he doesn't exist anymore -- a 'dodo,' and he would 'chicken out.' But he did not 'stick his head in the sand' like an ostrich. He wanted to prove to the others that he could swim and that he was brave. That way he could 'kill two birds with one stone.' Ouch. This is an expression that is just so horrible, but it's common. To 'kill two birds with one stone,' it means to accomplish two things at the same time. "Well, he swam beautifully -- better than the others. The ducks all returned to the farm. He thought 'this place is for the birds.' This means undesirable. So he ran away but found a family of geese who said, 'Please join us.' Suddenly they all heard shots being fired. It was hunters. The geese all yelled, 'duck!" AA: "Get down!" BURKE: "'Duck!' simply means -- right -- get down. All the geese flew away quickly, but the duckling couldn't fly and started running around like a 'chicken with his head cut off.'" AA: "Which is what chickens that get their heads cut off tend to do." BURKE: "That's right. Well, he really needed to relax and 'get all his ducks in a row' and decide what to do. When you 'get all your ducks in a row,' it means you're becoming organized. So he ran and ran until he stopped at a pond with the most beautiful birds. They were swans. He thought, 'They're so beautiful!' But he felt sad because he was so ugly. He bent his head down toward the water in shame and saw his reflection -- he was beautiful! The other swans said to him, 'Please join our family. We knew you'd come. Why? A little birdie told us.'" AA and RS: "Awww ... " BURKE: "Isn't that sweet? Anytime we know something, but it's sort of a secret how we know it -- for example, if I were to say to Rosanne, 'Rosanne, I heard it's your birthday,' and you said, 'how'd you know?' -- well, a little birdie told me. Well, the moral of this story is, 'birds of a feather ... " RS: "Flock together." BURKE: "Flock together, which simply means, people who are alike stay together. Now, the actual expression is 'birds of a feather flock together,' but we shorten it and simply say, 'Well, birds of a feather ... " AA: ... can flock together to Slangman David Burke's Web site to learn all about his books and other teaching materials. It's www.slangman.com. And you can find all of our old scripts with Slangman on our new Wordmaster site. RS: That's at www.voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "The Ugly Duckling"/Danny Kaye [A final note ... Influential economist James Tobin of Yale University died March 11 at the age of 84. He received the 1981 Nobel Prize in economics for his "portfolio theory" about investment decisions. And how did James Tobin sum up this theory? In his words, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - March 19, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - March 19, 2002: 4-H Turns 100
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A group with strong ties to American agriculture is celebrating a major anniversary. Four-H is one-hundred years old this year. Four-H programs began in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. The first programs were designed to give young people a better agricultural education. Today, Four-H offers the largest unofficial education program in the United States. Almost seven-million young people take part in activities organized by the group. The national Four-H program has ties with similar organizations in more than eighty countries. The expression “Four-H” comes from the words head, heart, hands and health. Members agree to use their head for clearer thinking, their heart for greater loyalty, their hands for larger service and their health for better living. Four-H programs were not the result of one idea or a recognized national leader. They were the result of the work of many people in different parts of the United States. One-hundred years ago, many young people were leaving American farms for jobs in cities. This concerned many educators, especially in farming communities. Four-H was established to teach students how to operate productive farms. Members met after normal school hours. Four-H officials say the group has changed during the past one-hundred years. They say the group is now mainly concerned with the development of young people. The purpose of Four-H is to give boys and girls knowledge and skills that will help them become productive members of society. Four-H members attend meetings, camps and other activities. They learn about things that interest them, such as raising animals, growing crops, cooking and caring for the environment. In most states, young people between the ages of eight and eighteen can join Four-H. Some states have programs designed for younger children. Money for Four-H programs comes from the United States Department of Agriculture, state universities and local governments. Recently, hundreds of people from across the United States gathered in Washington, D-C, for a national Four-H conference. The results of the conference were given to President Bush and Congress. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A group with strong ties to American agriculture is celebrating a major anniversary. Four-H is one-hundred years old this year. Four-H programs began in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. The first programs were designed to give young people a better agricultural education. Today, Four-H offers the largest unofficial education program in the United States. Almost seven-million young people take part in activities organized by the group. The national Four-H program has ties with similar organizations in more than eighty countries. The expression “Four-H” comes from the words head, heart, hands and health. Members agree to use their head for clearer thinking, their heart for greater loyalty, their hands for larger service and their health for better living. Four-H programs were not the result of one idea or a recognized national leader. They were the result of the work of many people in different parts of the United States. One-hundred years ago, many young people were leaving American farms for jobs in cities. This concerned many educators, especially in farming communities. Four-H was established to teach students how to operate productive farms. Members met after normal school hours. Four-H officials say the group has changed during the past one-hundred years. They say the group is now mainly concerned with the development of young people. The purpose of Four-H is to give boys and girls knowledge and skills that will help them become productive members of society. Four-H members attend meetings, camps and other activities. They learn about things that interest them, such as raising animals, growing crops, cooking and caring for the environment. In most states, young people between the ages of eight and eighteen can join Four-H. Some states have programs designed for younger children. Money for Four-H programs comes from the United States Department of Agriculture, state universities and local governments. Recently, hundreds of people from across the United States gathered in Washington, D-C, for a national Four-H conference. The results of the conference were given to President Bush and Congress. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 20, 2002: Dry Tortugas National Park
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – March 20, 2002: Uterus Transplant Operation
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Doctors in Saudi Arabia have performed the first human uterus transplant operation. The doctors say the woman who received the uterus had two monthly fertile periods after the operation. However, the uterus had to be removed after three months. Doctors say the experiment shows that a uterus transplant operation is technically possible. Yet some experts say it is very risky and question its value. The idea of uterus transplants was first explored in the Nineteen-Fifties. Little progress had been made since then. Many scientists considered it too difficult because of the many small and complex blood vessels that must be connected. The uterus transplant operation was performed two years ago at the King Fahad Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Doctors transplanted the uterus into a twenty-six year old Saudi woman. Doctors had removed her uterus six years earlier because of uncontrolled bleeding after the birth of her first child. The woman wanted to have another baby. The transplant organ came from a forty-six year old woman. She had a condition that required the removal of her reproductive organs. However, her uterus was healthy. The younger woman took powerful drugs both before and after the operation so her body would not reject the organ. The drugs suppressed her body’s natural defenses against disease. She also was given hormone injections to help the transplanted uterus develop normally. The doctors say the uterus performed normally for ninety-nine days. Then tests showed that blood flow to the organ had stopped. That forced doctors to remove it.The International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics described the experiment. A commentary published with the report said the operation should be considered a success. Some American experts said the experiment offered hope to women who want to have a baby and have been unable to do so. Other experts question the idea of such a transplant operation. Most organ transplant operations are done to save a patient’s life. They argue that a uterus is not necessary for a woman’s survival. They also note that the anti-rejection drugs that a woman must take have strong side effects. These might harm a developing fetus. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – March 21, 2002: Color of the Universe
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. What is the color of the universe? Astronomers had not answered this question until two months ago. That is when two American astronomers reported on their study of all the light in the universe. They said that the universe would appear to the human eye to be a light greenish color, called turquoise. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. What is the color of the universe? Astronomers had not answered this question until two months ago. That is when two American astronomers reported on their study of all the light in the universe. They said that the universe would appear to the human eye to be a light greenish color, called turquoise. Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, reported their finding in January. They presented research at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They said that finding the color of the universe was not part of their more serious scientific research. They did it for fun. However, earlier this month, the scientists admitted to making a mistake. They said their finding was much more colorful than it should have been. They now say the light from our universe is closer to white. It is more like a milky or creamy white color. Their study attempted to show what people might see if they could observe the universe from far away. The scientists found the average color by combining light from about two-hundred-thousand star systems. Their information came from an observatory in New South Wales, Australia. The scientists gave a number value to the colors of the different star systems. Then they added the numbers together and found the average measurement. The scientists used this average to identify the color of the universe. They said it was a very pretty light green or turquoise color. They called it “cosmic spectrum green.” Many newspapers and television stations reported their finding. Other scientists and color engineers attempted to reproduce the result. Mark Fairchild of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York was the first person to identify a mistake. He discovered a mistake in the computer software program used by the Johns Hopkins scientists. When the mistake was corrected, the results changed. The new color of the universe is much less colorful. It is very close to white. The scientists have apologized for the mistake. They are now working with the Rochester Institute of Technology to produce more images of the color of the universe. They also asked for suggestions for a name for the new color of the universe. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, reported their finding in January. They presented research at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They said that finding the color of the universe was not part of their more serious scientific research. They did it for fun. However, earlier this month, the scientists admitted to making a mistake. They said their finding was much more colorful than it should have been. They now say the light from our universe is closer to white. It is more like a milky or creamy white color. Their study attempted to show what people might see if they could observe the universe from far away. The scientists found the average color by combining light from about two-hundred-thousand star systems. Their information came from an observatory in New South Wales, Australia. The scientists gave a number value to the colors of the different star systems. Then they added the numbers together and found the average measurement. The scientists used this average to identify the color of the universe. They said it was a very pretty light green or turquoise color. They called it “cosmic spectrum green.” Many newspapers and television stations reported their finding. Other scientists and color engineers attempted to reproduce the result. Mark Fairchild of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York was the first person to identify a mistake. He discovered a mistake in the computer software program used by the Johns Hopkins scientists. When the mistake was corrected, the results changed. The new color of the universe is much less colorful. It is very close to white. The scientists have apologized for the mistake. They are now working with the Rochester Institute of Technology to produce more images of the color of the universe. They also asked for suggestions for a name for the new color of the universe. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - March 21, 2002: End of the New Deal
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) By the middle nineteen-thirties, America seemed to be moving out of the worst economic depression in its history. Most people supported the "New Deal" policies of President Franklin Roosevelt. The dark view that many Americans held during the final days of President Herbert Hoover's administration seemed to be changing. People began to believe that the United States was facing its problems with energy and hope. VOICE 2: The change could be seen in the way that Americans were moving away from extreme political movements of both the right and the left. Many decided that the best solution was to work through the existing political system. Most importantly, Roosevelt's continued experiments with different programs showed Americans that they did not have to blindly follow political or economic traditions. For years, most Americans had accepted the basic ideas of traditional free market capitalism. But as the depression began, a small number of Americans became interested in the economic ideas of Karl Marx. Roosevelt believed it was best to travel a path between these two opposite ideas. He basically supported the free market system. But he believed government also had a right and responsibility to act when needed. And he supported new government controls in such important areas as banking, transportation, agriculture, and oil production. VOICE 1: Some Americans did not think it was wise, or even possible, to mix traditional free market capitalism with government intervention or socialism. Former Republican treasury secretary Ogden Mills put it this way: "We can have a free country or a socialist one. We cannot have both. Our economic system cannot be half free and half socialistic. There is no middle ground between governing and being governed, between absolute rule and freedom.” Many leftists and socialists agreed with conservatives that it was impossible to mix capitalism and socialism. One leftist publication wrote: "Either the nation must live with the sadness of capitalism or it must prepare to replace capitalism with socialism. There is no longer a practical middle path." However, Roosevelt and his New Dealers happily rejected these arguments. They aimed the country between rightist and leftist extremes and created a whole new set of rules for government, the economy, and democracy. VOICE 2: Most Americans supported Roosevelt and the Democrats as they experimented with new solutions to the problems of the depression. They elected Democrats to a large majority in Congress in nineteen-thirty-four. Two years later, they re-elected Franklin Roosevelt to a second term in the white house by one of the largest victories in American history. Roosevelt's big victory made him stronger than ever. So he decided to fight the part of the government that had been blocking many of his programs -- the Supreme Court. VOICE 1: Most of the nine judges on the Supreme Court in nineteen-thirty-six were conservative. They had ruled that many of Roosevelt's most important New Deal programs were illegal. Now the judges were preparing to decide the future of programs to help old people, labor unions, and others. And there was nothing the president could do under the American system of government. So Roosevelt called for changes in the system. He asked Congress to reorganize the federal judicial system. And he asked for the power to add several new members to the Supreme Court. In this way, Roosevelt hoped to gain a new majority on the court that would support his views. VOICE 2: Most Americans liked Roosevelt. But people of all opinions feared that the president was trying to destroy the careful system of checks and balances in the federal government. They agreed with him in opposing the court's decisions. But they accepted the right of Supreme Court judges to rule as they thought correct. For this reason, the nation rejected Roosevelt's plan to add new members to the court. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to change the Supreme Court came at the same time as the economy began to get worse. Many Americans thought they had defeated the depression in nineteen-thirty-five and thirty-six. There was steady economic improvement. Some bankers had even begun to fear that the economy was growing too fast. These bankers called on the nation's central bank -- the Federal Reserve Board -- to control the expanding money supply. And the Federal Reserve acted to limit the amount of money in use. At the same time, the federal government began reducing the amount of money that it was spending. And it launched the new social security tax on workers' incomes. The effect of all these government actions was to limit the amount of money being spent by the government, companies, and private citizens. As a result, the economy began to fall once again into depression. VOICE 2: In August, nineteen-thirty-seven, stock market prices began to fall sharply. In seven months, the price of stock for the General Motors Corporation fell from sixty dollars to twenty-five. The United States Steel Company stock fell all the way from one-hundred-twenty-one dollars to thirty-eight. In fact, the stock markets lost in nine months about two-thirds of all the gains that they had made so slowly and painfully since Roosevelt took office. Americans had supported Roosevelt's New Deal program because it offered a solution to the depression. Now that program seemed to be failing. VOICE 1: Historian Frederick Lewis Allen remembered those dark days of nineteen-thirty-seven. "Goods sold slowly," Allen wrote. ”Businessmen became frightened and reduced production. Two-million men were thrown out of work in the space of a few months. They became less able to buy what was for sale. The terrible circle of the falling value of the dollar moved all the more rapidly. VOICE 2: The new economic crisis hurt Roosevelt's popularity. And it came at a time when he faced growing opposition within his own Democratic Party. For several years, conservative Democrats from the southeastern part of the country had supported Roosevelt. They liked his leadership and the power that he brought to all Democrats. But they opposed many of his more liberal or experimental social policies. VOICE 1: As the economy and Roosevelt's popularity fell, many of these southern Democrats began to openly oppose his leadership. They voted with Republicans on important bills before Congress. Roosevelt became very angry about the new opposition from within his own party. He began to intervene personally in Democratic Party primary elections in nineteen-thirty-eight. He told party members in several states that they should only vote for candidates who would support his New Deal policies. Roosevelt's opponents accused him of interfering in local politics. And democratic voters agreed with these criticisms. In almost all cases, they rejected the candidates supported by the president. A few months later, voters in the general election gave the Republicans major gains in both the House of Representatives and Senate. VOICE 2: In most situations, such a change in support would have signaled the end of a president's power. If people will not follow, a president cannot lead or be elected. But such was not the case for Roosevelt and the United States in the late nineteen-thirties. It was true that economic and political troubles were not solved. But another crisis was growing larger every day, making these other problems seem less and less important. The crisis was in foreign policy. Adolf Hitler and his nazi party in Germany seemed ready to Make war on Europe. And Japanese forces appeared to be planning new aggression in the pacific. Americans could no longer just worry about their problems at home. A dark cloud was forming outside their door. That will be the subject of our next several programs. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) By the middle nineteen-thirties, America seemed to be moving out of the worst economic depression in its history. Most people supported the "New Deal" policies of President Franklin Roosevelt. The dark view that many Americans held during the final days of President Herbert Hoover's administration seemed to be changing. People began to believe that the United States was facing its problems with energy and hope. VOICE 2: The change could be seen in the way that Americans were moving away from extreme political movements of both the right and the left. Many decided that the best solution was to work through the existing political system. Most importantly, Roosevelt's continued experiments with different programs showed Americans that they did not have to blindly follow political or economic traditions. For years, most Americans had accepted the basic ideas of traditional free market capitalism. But as the depression began, a small number of Americans became interested in the economic ideas of Karl Marx. Roosevelt believed it was best to travel a path between these two opposite ideas. He basically supported the free market system. But he believed government also had a right and responsibility to act when needed. And he supported new government controls in such important areas as banking, transportation, agriculture, and oil production. VOICE 1: Some Americans did not think it was wise, or even possible, to mix traditional free market capitalism with government intervention or socialism. Former Republican treasury secretary Ogden Mills put it this way: "We can have a free country or a socialist one. We cannot have both. Our economic system cannot be half free and half socialistic. There is no middle ground between governing and being governed, between absolute rule and freedom.” Many leftists and socialists agreed with conservatives that it was impossible to mix capitalism and socialism. One leftist publication wrote: "Either the nation must live with the sadness of capitalism or it must prepare to replace capitalism with socialism. There is no longer a practical middle path." However, Roosevelt and his New Dealers happily rejected these arguments. They aimed the country between rightist and leftist extremes and created a whole new set of rules for government, the economy, and democracy. VOICE 2: Most Americans supported Roosevelt and the Democrats as they experimented with new solutions to the problems of the depression. They elected Democrats to a large majority in Congress in nineteen-thirty-four. Two years later, they re-elected Franklin Roosevelt to a second term in the white house by one of the largest victories in American history. Roosevelt's big victory made him stronger than ever. So he decided to fight the part of the government that had been blocking many of his programs -- the Supreme Court. VOICE 1: Most of the nine judges on the Supreme Court in nineteen-thirty-six were conservative. They had ruled that many of Roosevelt's most important New Deal programs were illegal. Now the judges were preparing to decide the future of programs to help old people, labor unions, and others. And there was nothing the president could do under the American system of government. So Roosevelt called for changes in the system. He asked Congress to reorganize the federal judicial system. And he asked for the power to add several new members to the Supreme Court. In this way, Roosevelt hoped to gain a new majority on the court that would support his views. VOICE 2: Most Americans liked Roosevelt. But people of all opinions feared that the president was trying to destroy the careful system of checks and balances in the federal government. They agreed with him in opposing the court's decisions. But they accepted the right of Supreme Court judges to rule as they thought correct. For this reason, the nation rejected Roosevelt's plan to add new members to the court. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's unsuccessful effort to change the Supreme Court came at the same time as the economy began to get worse. Many Americans thought they had defeated the depression in nineteen-thirty-five and thirty-six. There was steady economic improvement. Some bankers had even begun to fear that the economy was growing too fast. These bankers called on the nation's central bank -- the Federal Reserve Board -- to control the expanding money supply. And the Federal Reserve acted to limit the amount of money in use. At the same time, the federal government began reducing the amount of money that it was spending. And it launched the new social security tax on workers' incomes. The effect of all these government actions was to limit the amount of money being spent by the government, companies, and private citizens. As a result, the economy began to fall once again into depression. VOICE 2: In August, nineteen-thirty-seven, stock market prices began to fall sharply. In seven months, the price of stock for the General Motors Corporation fell from sixty dollars to twenty-five. The United States Steel Company stock fell all the way from one-hundred-twenty-one dollars to thirty-eight. In fact, the stock markets lost in nine months about two-thirds of all the gains that they had made so slowly and painfully since Roosevelt took office. Americans had supported Roosevelt's New Deal program because it offered a solution to the depression. Now that program seemed to be failing. VOICE 1: Historian Frederick Lewis Allen remembered those dark days of nineteen-thirty-seven. "Goods sold slowly," Allen wrote. ”Businessmen became frightened and reduced production. Two-million men were thrown out of work in the space of a few months. They became less able to buy what was for sale. The terrible circle of the falling value of the dollar moved all the more rapidly. VOICE 2: The new economic crisis hurt Roosevelt's popularity. And it came at a time when he faced growing opposition within his own Democratic Party. For several years, conservative Democrats from the southeastern part of the country had supported Roosevelt. They liked his leadership and the power that he brought to all Democrats. But they opposed many of his more liberal or experimental social policies. VOICE 1: As the economy and Roosevelt's popularity fell, many of these southern Democrats began to openly oppose his leadership. They voted with Republicans on important bills before Congress. Roosevelt became very angry about the new opposition from within his own party. He began to intervene personally in Democratic Party primary elections in nineteen-thirty-eight. He told party members in several states that they should only vote for candidates who would support his New Deal policies. Roosevelt's opponents accused him of interfering in local politics. And democratic voters agreed with these criticisms. In almost all cases, they rejected the candidates supported by the president. A few months later, voters in the general election gave the Republicans major gains in both the House of Representatives and Senate. VOICE 2: In most situations, such a change in support would have signaled the end of a president's power. If people will not follow, a president cannot lead or be elected. But such was not the case for Roosevelt and the United States in the late nineteen-thirties. It was true that economic and political troubles were not solved. But another crisis was growing larger every day, making these other problems seem less and less important. The crisis was in foreign policy. Adolf Hitler and his nazi party in Germany seemed ready to Make war on Europe. And Japanese forces appeared to be planning new aggression in the pacific. Americans could no longer just worry about their problems at home. A dark cloud was forming outside their door. That will be the subject of our next several programs. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 22, 2002: VOA's Maurice Joyce remembered / Grand Central Terminal in New York / Oscar-nominated songs
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play songs nominated for an Academy Award ... answer a question about a famous building in New York City ... and remember a VOA announcer who died recently. This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: play songs nominated for an Academy Award ... answer a question about a famous building in New York City ... and remember a VOA announcer who died recently. Maurice Joyce HOST: The Voice of America lost one of its best-loved announcers last month. Maurice (pronounced Morris) Joyce died at a hospital in Lewes, Delaware. He was ninety-four years old. People who listen to VOA Special English programs have heard Maurice Joyce for many years. Shep O’Neal remembers him. ANNCR: Maurice Joyce was known to us at VOA as Mo. He had a long and interesting life. Mo Joyce grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. After high school, he attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Mo loved being an announcer. As a young man, he worked in Hollywood, California. He later returned to Washington and became active in the broadcasting industry. Mo was too old for active military service during World War Two. Yet he joined the Army as a civilian worker and moved to New York City. He made military training films during the war. Monsters, Inc.(Courtesy AMPAS) Maurice Joyce HOST: The Voice of America lost one of its best-loved announcers last month. Maurice (pronounced Morris) Joyce died at a hospital in Lewes, Delaware. He was ninety-four years old. People who listen to VOA Special English programs have heard Maurice Joyce for many years. Shep O’Neal remembers him. ANNCR: Maurice Joyce was known to us at VOA as Mo. He had a long and interesting life. Mo Joyce grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. After high school, he attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Mo loved being an announcer. As a young man, he worked in Hollywood, California. He later returned to Washington and became active in the broadcasting industry. Mo was too old for active military service during World War Two. Yet he joined the Army as a civilian worker and moved to New York City. He made military training films during the war. After the war, Mo worked as an announcer. He described major world events for short newsreel films. Later, he returned to Washington and began working at the Voice of America. Mo was a wonderful Special English announcer. His reading sounded effortless. He read several programs, including American Stories, Science in the News, and Words and Their Stories. ((TAPE: CUT ONE – “WORDS AND THEIR STORIES”)) “Now, the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about popular words and expressions used in the United States … ” Those of us who knew Maurice Joyce remember that he was serious about his work. He always arrived at the office in plenty of time to study his parts before it was his time to read. He also helped those around him improve their work. Mo never seemed to get angry. He let other, less experienced broadcasters make mistakes. This helped them to trust in their abilities. Before retiring, Mo worked at VOA headquarters once a week. After he finished his work, he invited others to join him for something to eat. He enjoyed telling stories. And, he always paid for everybody’s meals. Maurice Joyce left VOA in the early Nineteen-Nineties. Yet you will continue to hear his voice in some programs that we repeat. ((TAPE: CUT TWO – “WORDS AND THEIR STORIES” MUSIC)) Grand Central HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Song bin asks about the history of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Grand Central Terminal is one of the most famous buildings in New York. But most people call it Grand Central Station. The word “station” means a stopping place along a transportation line. A “terminal” describes either end of the line. Grand Central Terminal is a huge train station where train lines begin and end. American railroad developer Cornelius Vanderbilt was responsible for building the first Grand Central Terminal in Eighteen-Seventy-One. Thirty years later, steam trains were being replaced by electric ones. So officials decided to destroy the existing station and create a new electric train terminal. Their plan called for hiding the rail tracks under four city blocks and permitting developers to place buildings over the track area. The terminal took ten years to build, and it changed the city of New York. The new Grand Central Terminal opened in Nineteen-Thirteen. It was a huge and beautiful building with statues of Greek and Roman gods and a large metal clock. Its presence led to the building of large hotels, office and apartment buildings nearby. Grand Central also changed during the years. At different times, the huge building included an art gallery, an art school, a movie theater, and a rail history museum. At one point, it was the busiest train station in the country, serving nearby areas and those far away. In the Nineteen-Fifties, other transportation methods became more popular than trains. The railroads were losing money. They began destroying old stations. In Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, New York City established an organization to save such historic buildings. Railroad officials tested the law in court in an effort to destroy Grand Central. But city leaders were able to save it. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, the federal government protected Grand Central Terminal by naming it a National Historic Landmark. Grand Central Terminal has been restored and improved. Today, it includes many stores, eating places and food markets. Five-hundred-thousand people visit the famous building every day. And it continues to be one of the busiest train stations in the world. More than one-hundred-fifty-thousand people use it every day to travel to towns in New York State and Connecticut. Oscar Nominated Songs HOST: People who make movies will be honored Sunday in Los Angeles, California. That is when the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents its yearly awards, the Oscars. The movie industry will honor the best work of directors, actors, technical experts and songwriters. Mary Tillotson tells us about the nominations for best song. ANNCR: Five songs written for movies have been nominated for the best original song Academy Award. One song is from the movie “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” Enya sings “May It Be.” ((CUT 1: MAY IT BE)) Another song nominated for an Oscar is the song “Vanilla Sky” from the movie of the same name. A third nominated song is from the movie “Pearl Harbor.” Faith Hill sings “There You’ll Be.” ((CUT 2: THERE YOU’LL BE)) The fourth nominated song is “Until” from the movie “Kate and Leopold." We leave you with the final song nominated as best orginal song from a movie. It is from the animated movie, “Monsters, Inc.” John Goodman and Billy Crystal sing “If I Didn’t Have You.” ((CUT 3: IF I DIDN’T HAVE YOU)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwase Smith. And our producer was Paul Thompson. After the war, Mo worked as an announcer. He described major world events for short newsreel films. Later, he returned to Washington and began working at the Voice of America. Mo was a wonderful Special English announcer. His reading sounded effortless. He read several programs, including American Stories, Science in the News, and Words and Their Stories. ((TAPE: CUT ONE – “WORDS AND THEIR STORIES”)) “Now, the Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about popular words and expressions used in the United States … ” Those of us who knew Maurice Joyce remember that he was serious about his work. He always arrived at the office in plenty of time to study his parts before it was his time to read. He also helped those around him improve their work. Mo never seemed to get angry. He let other, less experienced broadcasters make mistakes. This helped them to trust in their abilities. Before retiring, Mo worked at VOA headquarters once a week. After he finished his work, he invited others to join him for something to eat. He enjoyed telling stories. And, he always paid for everybody’s meals. Maurice Joyce left VOA in the early Nineteen-Nineties. Yet you will continue to hear his voice in some programs that we repeat. ((TAPE: CUT TWO – “WORDS AND THEIR STORIES” MUSIC)) Grand Central HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Song bin asks about the history of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Grand Central Terminal is one of the most famous buildings in New York. But most people call it Grand Central Station. The word “station” means a stopping place along a transportation line. A “terminal” describes either end of the line. Grand Central Terminal is a huge train station where train lines begin and end. American railroad developer Cornelius Vanderbilt was responsible for building the first Grand Central Terminal in Eighteen-Seventy-One. Thirty years later, steam trains were being replaced by electric ones. So officials decided to destroy the existing station and create a new electric train terminal. Their plan called for hiding the rail tracks under four city blocks and permitting developers to place buildings over the track area. The terminal took ten years to build, and it changed the city of New York. The new Grand Central Terminal opened in Nineteen-Thirteen. It was a huge and beautiful building with statues of Greek and Roman gods and a large metal clock. Its presence led to the building of large hotels, office and apartment buildings nearby. Grand Central also changed during the years. At different times, the huge building included an art gallery, an art school, a movie theater, and a rail history museum. At one point, it was the busiest train station in the country, serving nearby areas and those far away. In the Nineteen-Fifties, other transportation methods became more popular than trains. The railroads were losing money. They began destroying old stations. In Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, New York City established an organization to save such historic buildings. Railroad officials tested the law in court in an effort to destroy Grand Central. But city leaders were able to save it. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, the federal government protected Grand Central Terminal by naming it a National Historic Landmark. Grand Central Terminal has been restored and improved. Today, it includes many stores, eating places and food markets. Five-hundred-thousand people visit the famous building every day. And it continues to be one of the busiest train stations in the world. More than one-hundred-fifty-thousand people use it every day to travel to towns in New York State and Connecticut. Oscar Nominated Songs HOST: People who make movies will be honored Sunday in Los Angeles, California. That is when the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents its yearly awards, the Oscars. The movie industry will honor the best work of directors, actors, technical experts and songwriters. Mary Tillotson tells us about the nominations for best song. ANNCR: Five songs written for movies have been nominated for the best original song Academy Award. One song is from the movie “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.” Enya sings “May It Be.” ((CUT 1: MAY IT BE)) Another song nominated for an Oscar is the song “Vanilla Sky” from the movie of the same name. A third nominated song is from the movie “Pearl Harbor.” Faith Hill sings “There You’ll Be.” ((CUT 2: THERE YOU’LL BE)) The fourth nominated song is “Until” from the movie “Kate and Leopold." We leave you with the final song nominated as best orginal song from a movie. It is from the animated movie, “Monsters, Inc.” John Goodman and Billy Crystal sing “If I Didn’t Have You.” ((CUT 3: IF I DIDN’T HAVE YOU)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwase Smith. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - March 22, 2002: Air Pollution/Lung Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Researchers have completed a major study on the health effects of air pollution common in many large American cities. The study shows that air pollution increases the risk of death from lung cancer and other diseases. They say people living in heavily polluted areas have a sixteen percent higher risk of dying of lung cancer than people in less polluted areas. They say the risk is similar to that of someone living with a person who smokes cigarettes. The latest study involved five-hundred-thousand people in more than one-hundred American cities. The researchers examined their health records from Nineteen-Eighty-Two through Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. They also gathered information about air pollution in the cities where the people lived. Researchers say the higher lung cancer risk is linked to pollution caused by small particles of soot from coal-burning power centers, factories and motor vehicles. Power centers built before Nineteen-Eighty produce about half the nation’s electricity. However, they also produce most of the power industry’s dangerous pollutants. These include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot.Air pollution levels have decreased during the past twenty years because of better enforcement of clean air laws. Yet levels of small particle pollution in major cities are at or above pollution limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The E-P-A set new pollution limits in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven after studies showed a link between small particle pollution and lung cancer. However, power companies have taken legal action against the agency to delay the restrictions.Environmental groups have long suggested that pollution from power centers has led to a sharp increase in deaths from lung diseases. They have urged action to either close the factories or force them to put in anti-pollution equipment. The American Lung Association says the latest findings show the urgent need to clean up aging power factories. Experts who have spent years examining the links between pollution and sicknesses generally support the latest study. The Environmental Protection Agency says it will consider the research as part of its continuing study of air quality rules on small particle pollution. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Researchers have completed a major study on the health effects of air pollution common in many large American cities. The study shows that air pollution increases the risk of death from lung cancer and other diseases. They say people living in heavily polluted areas have a sixteen percent higher risk of dying of lung cancer than people in less polluted areas. They say the risk is similar to that of someone living with a person who smokes cigarettes. The latest study involved five-hundred-thousand people in more than one-hundred American cities. The researchers examined their health records from Nineteen-Eighty-Two through Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. They also gathered information about air pollution in the cities where the people lived. Researchers say the higher lung cancer risk is linked to pollution caused by small particles of soot from coal-burning power centers, factories and motor vehicles. Power centers built before Nineteen-Eighty produce about half the nation’s electricity. However, they also produce most of the power industry’s dangerous pollutants. These include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot.Air pollution levels have decreased during the past twenty years because of better enforcement of clean air laws. Yet levels of small particle pollution in major cities are at or above pollution limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The E-P-A set new pollution limits in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven after studies showed a link between small particle pollution and lung cancer. However, power companies have taken legal action against the agency to delay the restrictions.Environmental groups have long suggested that pollution from power centers has led to a sharp increase in deaths from lung diseases. They have urged action to either close the factories or force them to put in anti-pollution equipment. The American Lung Association says the latest findings show the urgent need to clean up aging power factories. Experts who have spent years examining the links between pollution and sicknesses generally support the latest study. The Environmental Protection Agency says it will consider the research as part of its continuing study of air quality rules on small particle pollution. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – March 23, 2002: INS Re-Organization
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. President Bush is considering ways to re-organize the agency that enforces laws about foreigners coming into the United States. The agency is the Immigration and Naturalization Service known as the I-N-S. It is part of the Justice Department. One proposal reportedly calls for the I-N-S to join with the United States Customs Agency, which is part of the Treasury Department. The Justice Department would control the new agency. Such a move would require the approval of Congress, which already is considering several bills to re-organize the I-N-S. The purpose of the re-organization would be to establish more control over who enters the United States. Both the I-N-S and the Customs Agency work to protect American borders. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is responsible for enforcing laws connected to the admission of foreigners into the United States. That is the Immigration part of the agency. The I-N-S also deals with requests from foreigners for United States citizenship. That is the Naturalization part of I-N-S. Both supporters and critics say these responsibilites of the I-N-S are difficult to balance. It works to help immigrants enter and stay in the country. And it works to keep out people who are trying to enter the country illegally or who might be a danger. The I-N-S has more than thirty thousand employees. They work at about one-hundred offices throughout the world or at border patrol stations. I-N-S workers supervise the more than three hundred land, sea and airports of entry in the United States. They carry out hundreds of millions of inspections of individuals arriving at these ports each year. The I-N-S Border Patrol also guards thousands of kilometers of border between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Each year I-N-S agents arrest hundreds of thousands of people trying to enter the United States illegally. Other I-N-S employees deal with requests from foreigners seeking immigration services. The United States receives millions of such requests every year. There has been growing criticism of the I-N-S since the terrorist attacks against the United States. Four of the September eleventh hijackers were in the country illegally. Critics also say the I-N-S does not closely supervise the activities of hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the United States. Tom Ridge is the Director of Homeland Security for the United States. He argues that border control issues involve too many agencies including the Coast Guard and the Transportation Department. He says the agencies do not necessarily communicate with each other. Mister Ridge and other supporters of a re-organization plan say it will increase government control of who enters the country and help prevent terrorism. They also say it will save money. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 24, 2002: Elizabeth Blackwell
* Byline: 

 Anncr: Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about the first Western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America. (Theme) VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England, in eighteen-twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal. Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave trade. He tried to help improve low pay and poor living conditions of workers. And he wanted women to have the same chance for education as men. He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. These subjects were normally taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered, "They shall do what they please." VOICE 2: In eighteen-thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided to move the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old. The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mr. Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family, Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs. In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching. Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying. She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people. The dying friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine. VOICE 1: Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died. Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school. Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in Philadelphia. VOICE 2: No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard, Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her ... except Geneva Medical College in the state of New York. She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned the reason: her acceptance was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students decide. The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study. VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors from Geneva Medical School in eighteen-forty-nine. She was the only woman in the Western world to have completed medical school training. Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon she wanted to work in a hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she was a doctor. A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At the hospital, doctor Blackwell accidentally got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon. Instead, she went to London to study at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen-fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But no patients came. So Doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents. VOICE 2: Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school. With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re-built house. The work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York they treated only three-hundred people in their hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year. VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented. News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke to groups in London about disease prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty-eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for women opened in Boston and Philadelphia. VOICE 2: Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease. Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering from ever happening. In eighteen-seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay healthy. VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding wives who wanted to be considered as equals. Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's rights. VOICE 2: Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen-ten. She was eighty-nine years old. She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal was very important. Toward the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One wrote that Doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on. (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. Anncr: Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about the first Western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America. (Theme) VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England, in eighteen-twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal. Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave trade. He tried to help improve low pay and poor living conditions of workers. And he wanted women to have the same chance for education as men. He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. These subjects were normally taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered, "They shall do what they please." VOICE 2: In eighteen-thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided to move the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old. The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mr. Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family, Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs. In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching. Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying. She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people. The dying friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine. VOICE 1: Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died. Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school. Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in Philadelphia. VOICE 2: No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard, Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her ... except Geneva Medical College in the state of New York. She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned the reason: her acceptance was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students decide. The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study. VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors from Geneva Medical School in eighteen-forty-nine. She was the only woman in the Western world to have completed medical school training. Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon she wanted to work in a hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she was a doctor. A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At the hospital, doctor Blackwell accidentally got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon. Instead, she went to London to study at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen-fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But no patients came. So Doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents. VOICE 2: Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school. With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re-built house. The work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York they treated only three-hundred people in their hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year. VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented. News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke to groups in London about disease prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty-eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for women opened in Boston and Philadelphia. VOICE 2: Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease. Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering from ever happening. In eighteen-seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay healthy. VOICE 1: Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding wives who wanted to be considered as equals. Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's rights. VOICE 2: Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen-ten. She was eighty-nine years old. She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal was very important. Toward the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One wrote that Doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on. (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - March 25, 2002: Junior Achievement
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Millions of students in the United States are members of Junior Achievement. Many other students around the world are members of its international group. These organizations teach young people business skills and economics. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Junior Achievement is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, a young man named Constancio Larguia (Cone-STAN sea-oh Lahr-GHEE-ah) and a friend opened an Internet stock-trading company in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The company was called Patagon (PAH-tag-own) dot com International Limited. Two years ago, Mister Larguia and his investors sold Patagon dot com for five-hundred-twenty-eight-million dollars. Mister Larguia says skills he learned earlier in Junior Achievement enabled him to start the successful company. VOICE TWO: Junior Achievement has almost two-million members in one-hundred-twelve countries. Programs are offered in thirty-six languages. In the United States, the organization has more than four-million members. All these young people develop and operate their own businesses. Junior Achievement began in Nineteen-Nineteen in Springfield, Massachusetts. Horace Moses, a businessman, developed the idea. He wanted to help young people gain skills they needed to succeed in business after they left school. The group’s first program was for American high school students after school hours. It taught the young people how businesses are organized and operated. The students learned by forming their own companies. Local business people advised them. VOICE ONE: First, the students developed a product. Then they sold shares in their company. They used this money to buy the materials needed to make the product. They produced the product and sold it. They returned the profits to the people who bought shares in the company. For more than fifty years, these Junior Achievement company programs met after school. Then, in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, Junior Achievement began developing programs for use during normal school hours. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many more young people joined Junior Achievement after the organization began teaching business skills as part of the school day. People from the community teach about businesses – how they are organized, how products are made and sold. They also teach about the American and world economies – the systems of money, industry and trade. Students learn how the economy affects their families and their communities.Children from five to eleven years old can join Junior Achievement school programs in the United States. One of the goals is to show children they are part of a larger world community. They learn about rules and laws. They learn the meaning of being good citizens. VOICE ONE: Students from twelve to fourteen years old attend middle school Junior Achievement classes. They study subjects including trade, world economy, stocks and investment banking. The students learn about supply and demand, property rights and saving money. Each week, a member of the local business community leads discussions and activities. Students in this program learn some of the skills they will need to control their own money when they are adults. They learn about budgets and personal and family financial management. They learn about the use – and misuse – of using credit to buy things. Another Junior Achievement program for middle school students is called the Economics of Staying in School. It is for students who may be thinking of leaving school before completing high school. Students learn the importance of staying in school. They learn that workers with more education get better jobs and earn more money. VOICE TWO: Junior Achievement high school programs are for students fifteen to eighteen years old. These students learn how to form their own companies. They also study many business-related subjects including economics. In recent months, high school Junior Achievers have studied the economic effects of the terrorist attacks on the United States. They identified some of the businesses that were in the World Trade Center in New York City when it was destroyed in the attack. For example, MorganStanley is a major American stock-trading company. It had offices in the World Trade Center. Several of its employees were killed in the attack. Company officials asked the students to consider how damage to a business like MorganStanley could hurt the worldwide economy. They also asked them to think about how such a company could help improve living conditions for poor people. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Junior Achievement established its first program outside the United States. It was in Canada. Soon other countries joined, including Britain, Mexico and the Philippines. By Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, fifteen countries were teaching young people how to develop their business skills. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, after the Soviet Union ended, Junior Achievement spread very quickly. Many former Soviet countries launched programs using Junior Achievement International material. Interest in business development also increased in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. VOICE TWO: To meet this increased need, Junior Achievement International was established in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. The organization has several goals. They include helping young people understand the importance of market economies and the world economy. Another goal is to teach young people that businesses should support environmental and social issues and should operate honestly. Another goal is to help young people understand the importance of education and economics in their lives. VOICE ONE: Some Junior Achievement International programs are nontraditional. For example, last year the organization began a new project in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Business people are leading a group at the Youth Training Center in Trinidad. They are teaching business skills to young people jailed for crimes. The goal is to help them gain knowledge to improve their lives. Some members of Junior Achievement International also work for better social conditions. For example, students from Argentina created a program to improve the environment. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: About eighty major businesses support Junior Achievement International. Supporters include companies like Coca-Cola, American Express, Reynolds Aluminum and FedEx.Individuals and other groups also help. For example, the Citigroup Foundation has provided almost two-million dollars to Junior Achievement International since Nineteen-Ninety-Six. An organization led by international investor Sir John Templeton recently gave more than three-hundred-eighty-thousand dollars for a special project. The Exxon Mobil Corporation gave an equal amount of money. Junior Achievement International is establishing a Global Business Ethics Program with this money. This program will teach students about moral values in the business world. The program will be offered on the Internet World Wide Web later this year or early next year. VOICE ONE: Junior Achievement International has helped improve the lives of young people around the world. One of these is a sixteen-year-old boy from Zimbabwe whose parents died of AIDS. He must provide for his three young brothers and sisters. He says at first he thought it was difficult to start his own business. But he was able to do so after taking classes from Junior Achievement International. He says the program is very important for young people who are unemployed and have a family to support. VOICE TWO: You can find more information about Junior Achievement International at its Internet Web site, w-w-w-dot-j-a-I-n-t-l-dot-o-r-g. Or you can write to Junior Achievement International, four-six-zero Abernathy Road, Northeast; Atlanta, Georgia, three-zero-three-two-eight, U-S-A. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Millions of students in the United States are members of Junior Achievement. Many other students around the world are members of its international group. These organizations teach young people business skills and economics. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Junior Achievement is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, a young man named Constancio Larguia (Cone-STAN sea-oh Lahr-GHEE-ah) and a friend opened an Internet stock-trading company in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The company was called Patagon (PAH-tag-own) dot com International Limited. Two years ago, Mister Larguia and his investors sold Patagon dot com for five-hundred-twenty-eight-million dollars. Mister Larguia says skills he learned earlier in Junior Achievement enabled him to start the successful company. VOICE TWO: Junior Achievement has almost two-million members in one-hundred-twelve countries. Programs are offered in thirty-six languages. In the United States, the organization has more than four-million members. All these young people develop and operate their own businesses. Junior Achievement began in Nineteen-Nineteen in Springfield, Massachusetts. Horace Moses, a businessman, developed the idea. He wanted to help young people gain skills they needed to succeed in business after they left school. The group’s first program was for American high school students after school hours. It taught the young people how businesses are organized and operated. The students learned by forming their own companies. Local business people advised them. VOICE ONE: First, the students developed a product. Then they sold shares in their company. They used this money to buy the materials needed to make the product. They produced the product and sold it. They returned the profits to the people who bought shares in the company. For more than fifty years, these Junior Achievement company programs met after school. Then, in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, Junior Achievement began developing programs for use during normal school hours. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many more young people joined Junior Achievement after the organization began teaching business skills as part of the school day. People from the community teach about businesses – how they are organized, how products are made and sold. They also teach about the American and world economies – the systems of money, industry and trade. Students learn how the economy affects their families and their communities.Children from five to eleven years old can join Junior Achievement school programs in the United States. One of the goals is to show children they are part of a larger world community. They learn about rules and laws. They learn the meaning of being good citizens. VOICE ONE: Students from twelve to fourteen years old attend middle school Junior Achievement classes. They study subjects including trade, world economy, stocks and investment banking. The students learn about supply and demand, property rights and saving money. Each week, a member of the local business community leads discussions and activities. Students in this program learn some of the skills they will need to control their own money when they are adults. They learn about budgets and personal and family financial management. They learn about the use – and misuse – of using credit to buy things. Another Junior Achievement program for middle school students is called the Economics of Staying in School. It is for students who may be thinking of leaving school before completing high school. Students learn the importance of staying in school. They learn that workers with more education get better jobs and earn more money. VOICE TWO: Junior Achievement high school programs are for students fifteen to eighteen years old. These students learn how to form their own companies. They also study many business-related subjects including economics. In recent months, high school Junior Achievers have studied the economic effects of the terrorist attacks on the United States. They identified some of the businesses that were in the World Trade Center in New York City when it was destroyed in the attack. For example, MorganStanley is a major American stock-trading company. It had offices in the World Trade Center. Several of its employees were killed in the attack. Company officials asked the students to consider how damage to a business like MorganStanley could hurt the worldwide economy. They also asked them to think about how such a company could help improve living conditions for poor people. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Junior Achievement established its first program outside the United States. It was in Canada. Soon other countries joined, including Britain, Mexico and the Philippines. By Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, fifteen countries were teaching young people how to develop their business skills. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, after the Soviet Union ended, Junior Achievement spread very quickly. Many former Soviet countries launched programs using Junior Achievement International material. Interest in business development also increased in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. VOICE TWO: To meet this increased need, Junior Achievement International was established in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. The organization has several goals. They include helping young people understand the importance of market economies and the world economy. Another goal is to teach young people that businesses should support environmental and social issues and should operate honestly. Another goal is to help young people understand the importance of education and economics in their lives. VOICE ONE: Some Junior Achievement International programs are nontraditional. For example, last year the organization began a new project in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Business people are leading a group at the Youth Training Center in Trinidad. They are teaching business skills to young people jailed for crimes. The goal is to help them gain knowledge to improve their lives. Some members of Junior Achievement International also work for better social conditions. For example, students from Argentina created a program to improve the environment. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: About eighty major businesses support Junior Achievement International. Supporters include companies like Coca-Cola, American Express, Reynolds Aluminum and FedEx.Individuals and other groups also help. For example, the Citigroup Foundation has provided almost two-million dollars to Junior Achievement International since Nineteen-Ninety-Six. An organization led by international investor Sir John Templeton recently gave more than three-hundred-eighty-thousand dollars for a special project. The Exxon Mobil Corporation gave an equal amount of money. Junior Achievement International is establishing a Global Business Ethics Program with this money. This program will teach students about moral values in the business world. The program will be offered on the Internet World Wide Web later this year or early next year. VOICE ONE: Junior Achievement International has helped improve the lives of young people around the world. One of these is a sixteen-year-old boy from Zimbabwe whose parents died of AIDS. He must provide for his three young brothers and sisters. He says at first he thought it was difficult to start his own business. But he was able to do so after taking classes from Junior Achievement International. He says the program is very important for young people who are unemployed and have a family to support. VOICE TWO: You can find more information about Junior Achievement International at its Internet Web site, w-w-w-dot-j-a-I-n-t-l-dot-o-r-g. Or you can write to Junior Achievement International, four-six-zero Abernathy Road, Northeast; Atlanta, Georgia, three-zero-three-two-eight, U-S-A. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - March 26, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about new kinds of drugs to fight the virus that causes AIDS. We tell about an experiment to create nuclear fusion in the laboratory. And we tell about an operation to transplant a woman’s uterus. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about new kinds of drugs to fight the virus that causes AIDS. We tell about an experiment to create nuclear fusion in the laboratory. And we tell about an operation to transplant a woman’s uterus. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Researchers are testing powerful new drugs designed to fight H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. Experts hope that the new drugs will help people who are not being helped by current medicines. Scientists reported about the new drugs during a yearly AIDS meeting called the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. It was held last month in Seattle, Washington. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about nine-hundred-thousand people in the United States are infected with the AIDS virus. That is an increase of about fifty-thousand from Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. Experts say the increase is because people with the disease are surviving longer. VOICE TWO: The C-D-C found that at least forty-two percent of people with H-I-V in the United States either do not know they are infected or are not being treated. Another C-D-C study found that people who delay treatment have much higher death rates. Existing drugs have sharply reduced the number of deaths from AIDS. However, H-I-V can change into drug-resistant forms. And the medicines to treat the disease can cause severe side effects. Scientists say the new AIDS drugs do not cure H-I-V. However, they may offer help to people who are not being helped by existing medicines. VOICE ONE: There are about fifteen drugs that are used to prevent H-I-V from reproducing in the body. Their goal is to slow or stop the disease from progressing. The drugs work by attacking two of the three enzymes that the virus uses inside a human cell. Some of the new medicines target the third enzyme, called integrase. Integrase is the enzyme that places H-I-V genes into the genes in human cells, making the infection permanent. VOICE TWO: Other new drugs try to prevent H-I-V from entering the cell. Researchers began studying these drugs during the Nineteen-Nineties. At that time, they found that some people did not become infected with H-I-V, although they were exposed to the virus several times. Some of these people had a different form of a protein on the surface of their cells. In order to infect a cell, H-I-V must attach to this protein. But the virus can not attach to the different form of this protein, so it can not enter the cells. VOICE ONE: Scientists at the AIDS conference also heard about the early success of new drugs designed to avoid resistance problems. One of them is one of the most powerful anti-H-I-V drugs developed. Experts say the drug appears to sharply suppress the amount of virus in the blood. They say it appears to work as well as five older drugs taken in combination. This drug would not be used alone, however. Most anti-AIDS drugs are taken in combinations of three or more to be effective. Many anti-AIDS drugs seem to be extremely powerful at first. But they prove to be useless later as the virus changes. A few of the new anti-AIDS drugs discussed at the conference are expected to be approved soon by the United States government. However, most of the drugs have just started being tested on people. Others are still being developed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists are studying an experiment that reportedly created nuclear fusion in a laboratory. The fusion experiment was performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Experts say the work, if successful, could someday provide almost unlimited supplies of low-cost energy. However, some scientists are questioning the experiment. They note that another team of scientists claimed to have produced fusion thirteen years ago. Yet no one else could ever reproduce that result. VOICE ONE: Fusion is the process that makes the sun and other stars shine. Atoms of hydrogen are pressed together and heated so intensely that they join or fuse together. This fusion forms a different element, helium. It also releases a large burst of energy – the heat and light sent out by the sun. Fusion energy already exists on Earth. It is the power of the hydrogen bomb. However, scientists have not been able to produce this kind of energy in a safe, peaceful way. Scientists have been working on the problem for almost fifty years. Generally, their work includes attempts to build a copy of the intense pressure and heat of the sun. They believe such pressure and heat are needed for fusion. VOICE TWO: The team of scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory performed the latest experiment. Science magazine published the findings. The scientists sent sound waves into a small glass container that had the liquid chemical acetone. Acetone is a chemical in which the normal hydrogen atoms are replaced with deuterium. Deuterium is a heavy form of hydrogen that is capable of fusion reaction. The scientists then shot neutrons into the container. The scientists say this caused small particles of gas in the liquid to expand quickly. They say these bubbles then imploded, creating bursts of light. This created high pressure that caused deuterium atoms to fuse, releasing intense energy. VOICE ONE: An independent group of scientists examined the findings before they were published. Science magazine delayed the publication when other scientists at Oak Ridge could not reproduce the experiment. Science magazine published a commentary with the report. One scientist noted that the device used by the Oak Ridge scientists could be a tool for studying nuclear fusion in the laboratory, if the findings are confirmed. He added that scientists will – and should – question the findings until the experiment is reproduced by others. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Doctors in Saudi Arabia have performed the first human uterus transplant operation. The doctors say the woman who received the uterus had two monthly fertile periods after the operation. However, the uterus had to be removed after three months. Doctors say the experiment shows that a uterus transplant operation is technically possible. Yet some experts say it is very risky and question its value. VOICE ONE: The uterus transplant operation was performed two years ago at the King Fahad Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Doctors transplanted the uterus into a twenty-six year old Saudi woman. Doctors had removed her uterus six years earlier because of uncontrolled bleeding after the birth of her first child. The woman wanted to have another baby. The transplant organ came from a forty-six-year-old woman. She had a condition that required the removal of her reproductive organs. However, her uterus was healthy. VOICE TWO: The younger woman took powerful drugs both before and after the operation so her body would not reject the organ. The drugs suppressed her body’s natural defenses against disease. She also was given hormone injections to help the transplanted uterus develop normally. The doctors say the uterus performed normally for ninety-nine days. Then tests showed that blood flow to the organ had stopped. That forced doctors to remove it. VOICE ONE: The International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics described the experiment. A commentary published with the report said the operation should be considered a success. Some American experts said the experiment offered hope to women who want to have a baby and have been unable to do so. Other experts question the idea of such a transplant operation. Most organ transplant operations are done to save a patient’s life. They argue that a uterus is not necessary for a woman’s survival. They also note that the anti-rejection drugs that a woman must take have strong side effects. These might harm a developing fetus. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Cynthia Kirk and George Grow. It was produced by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Researchers are testing powerful new drugs designed to fight H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. Experts hope that the new drugs will help people who are not being helped by current medicines. Scientists reported about the new drugs during a yearly AIDS meeting called the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. It was held last month in Seattle, Washington. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about nine-hundred-thousand people in the United States are infected with the AIDS virus. That is an increase of about fifty-thousand from Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. Experts say the increase is because people with the disease are surviving longer. VOICE TWO: The C-D-C found that at least forty-two percent of people with H-I-V in the United States either do not know they are infected or are not being treated. Another C-D-C study found that people who delay treatment have much higher death rates. Existing drugs have sharply reduced the number of deaths from AIDS. However, H-I-V can change into drug-resistant forms. And the medicines to treat the disease can cause severe side effects. Scientists say the new AIDS drugs do not cure H-I-V. However, they may offer help to people who are not being helped by existing medicines. VOICE ONE: There are about fifteen drugs that are used to prevent H-I-V from reproducing in the body. Their goal is to slow or stop the disease from progressing. The drugs work by attacking two of the three enzymes that the virus uses inside a human cell. Some of the new medicines target the third enzyme, called integrase. Integrase is the enzyme that places H-I-V genes into the genes in human cells, making the infection permanent. VOICE TWO: Other new drugs try to prevent H-I-V from entering the cell. Researchers began studying these drugs during the Nineteen-Nineties. At that time, they found that some people did not become infected with H-I-V, although they were exposed to the virus several times. Some of these people had a different form of a protein on the surface of their cells. In order to infect a cell, H-I-V must attach to this protein. But the virus can not attach to the different form of this protein, so it can not enter the cells. VOICE ONE: Scientists at the AIDS conference also heard about the early success of new drugs designed to avoid resistance problems. One of them is one of the most powerful anti-H-I-V drugs developed. Experts say the drug appears to sharply suppress the amount of virus in the blood. They say it appears to work as well as five older drugs taken in combination. This drug would not be used alone, however. Most anti-AIDS drugs are taken in combinations of three or more to be effective. Many anti-AIDS drugs seem to be extremely powerful at first. But they prove to be useless later as the virus changes. A few of the new anti-AIDS drugs discussed at the conference are expected to be approved soon by the United States government. However, most of the drugs have just started being tested on people. Others are still being developed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists are studying an experiment that reportedly created nuclear fusion in a laboratory. The fusion experiment was performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Experts say the work, if successful, could someday provide almost unlimited supplies of low-cost energy. However, some scientists are questioning the experiment. They note that another team of scientists claimed to have produced fusion thirteen years ago. Yet no one else could ever reproduce that result. VOICE ONE: Fusion is the process that makes the sun and other stars shine. Atoms of hydrogen are pressed together and heated so intensely that they join or fuse together. This fusion forms a different element, helium. It also releases a large burst of energy – the heat and light sent out by the sun. Fusion energy already exists on Earth. It is the power of the hydrogen bomb. However, scientists have not been able to produce this kind of energy in a safe, peaceful way. Scientists have been working on the problem for almost fifty years. Generally, their work includes attempts to build a copy of the intense pressure and heat of the sun. They believe such pressure and heat are needed for fusion. VOICE TWO: The team of scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory performed the latest experiment. Science magazine published the findings. The scientists sent sound waves into a small glass container that had the liquid chemical acetone. Acetone is a chemical in which the normal hydrogen atoms are replaced with deuterium. Deuterium is a heavy form of hydrogen that is capable of fusion reaction. The scientists then shot neutrons into the container. The scientists say this caused small particles of gas in the liquid to expand quickly. They say these bubbles then imploded, creating bursts of light. This created high pressure that caused deuterium atoms to fuse, releasing intense energy. VOICE ONE: An independent group of scientists examined the findings before they were published. Science magazine delayed the publication when other scientists at Oak Ridge could not reproduce the experiment. Science magazine published a commentary with the report. One scientist noted that the device used by the Oak Ridge scientists could be a tool for studying nuclear fusion in the laboratory, if the findings are confirmed. He added that scientists will – and should – question the findings until the experiment is reproduced by others. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Doctors in Saudi Arabia have performed the first human uterus transplant operation. The doctors say the woman who received the uterus had two monthly fertile periods after the operation. However, the uterus had to be removed after three months. Doctors say the experiment shows that a uterus transplant operation is technically possible. Yet some experts say it is very risky and question its value. VOICE ONE: The uterus transplant operation was performed two years ago at the King Fahad Hospital and Research Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Doctors transplanted the uterus into a twenty-six year old Saudi woman. Doctors had removed her uterus six years earlier because of uncontrolled bleeding after the birth of her first child. The woman wanted to have another baby. The transplant organ came from a forty-six-year-old woman. She had a condition that required the removal of her reproductive organs. However, her uterus was healthy. VOICE TWO: The younger woman took powerful drugs both before and after the operation so her body would not reject the organ. The drugs suppressed her body’s natural defenses against disease. She also was given hormone injections to help the transplanted uterus develop normally. The doctors say the uterus performed normally for ninety-nine days. Then tests showed that blood flow to the organ had stopped. That forced doctors to remove it. VOICE ONE: The International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics described the experiment. A commentary published with the report said the operation should be considered a success. Some American experts said the experiment offered hope to women who want to have a baby and have been unable to do so. Other experts question the idea of such a transplant operation. Most organ transplant operations are done to save a patient’s life. They argue that a uterus is not necessary for a woman’s survival. They also note that the anti-rejection drugs that a woman must take have strong side effects. These might harm a developing fetus. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Cynthia Kirk and George Grow. It was produced by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-6-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - March 25, 2002: World TB Day
* Byline: 

 This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. March twenty-fourth was World Tuberculosis Day. The yearly event is held to improve knowledge, understanding and action against tuberculosis. The main idea of this year’s campaign against tuberculosis is “Stop T-B, Fight Poverty.” Organizers note the link between T-B and the world’s poor people. The World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause T-B. Infected people spread the disease by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. About two-million people die from tuberculosis each year. This year’s campaign calls on the world community to expand the program developed by the W-H-O to fight T-B. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course, or DOTS. There are five parts in the DOTS discovery and treatment plan. The first step requires governments and health officials to continue T-B control programs. The next step uses microscope technology to identify infected people. The third step is a drug treatment program that may continue for as many as eight months. The fourth step of the DOTS program is a guaranteed supply of all needed anti-T-B drugs in countries where the program is in place. Finally, the World Health Organization says countries must establish a system for recording and reporting T-B cases. World T-B Day started in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. At that time, an organization in the African country of Mali suggested that a day be organized to educate people about tuberculosis. The group wanted governments and organizations around the world to recognize the event, similar to World Health Day. March twenty-fourth is also the day in eighteen-eighty-two when scientist Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacteria that cause T-B. Governments and organizations around the world planned major events to observe World T-B Day. In Cambodia, for example, there was a public march through the capital, Phnom Penh. In South Africa, tuberculosis researchers held a health conference. And in Switzerland, children designed “Get Well” messages for young T-B patients in Afghanistan. Officials hope World T-B Day will improve international efforts to fight the disease. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bill White. This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. March twenty-fourth was World Tuberculosis Day. The yearly event is held to improve knowledge, understanding and action against tuberculosis. The main idea of this year’s campaign against tuberculosis is “Stop T-B, Fight Poverty.” Organizers note the link between T-B and the world’s poor people. The World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause T-B. Infected people spread the disease by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. About two-million people die from tuberculosis each year. This year’s campaign calls on the world community to expand the program developed by the W-H-O to fight T-B. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course, or DOTS. There are five parts in the DOTS discovery and treatment plan. The first step requires governments and health officials to continue T-B control programs. The next step uses microscope technology to identify infected people. The third step is a drug treatment program that may continue for as many as eight months. The fourth step of the DOTS program is a guaranteed supply of all needed anti-T-B drugs in countries where the program is in place. Finally, the World Health Organization says countries must establish a system for recording and reporting T-B cases. World T-B Day started in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. At that time, an organization in the African country of Mali suggested that a day be organized to educate people about tuberculosis. The group wanted governments and organizations around the world to recognize the event, similar to World Health Day. March twenty-fourth is also the day in eighteen-eighty-two when scientist Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacteria that cause T-B. Governments and organizations around the world planned major events to observe World T-B Day. In Cambodia, for example, there was a public march through the capital, Phnom Penh. In South Africa, tuberculosis researchers held a health conference. And in Switzerland, children designed “Get Well” messages for young T-B patients in Afghanistan. Officials hope World T-B Day will improve international efforts to fight the disease. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bill White. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-7-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – March 26, 2002: National Arboretum Anniversary
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Many people who come to Washington, D-C, act surprised when they first visit the United States National Arboretum. The National Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. However, visitors to the Arboretum often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Many people who come to Washington, D-C, act surprised when they first visit the United States National Arboretum. The National Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. However, visitors to the Arboretum often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. The National Arboretum covers one-hundred-eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. The area is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. An arboretum is a place where trees and plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture operates the Arboretum. The goal of the Arboretum is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. The goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public. The National Arboretum is a popular stop for visitors to Washington. About six-hundred-thousand people visit the Arboretum each year. It also has become famous through cooperative programs with many countries, including Austria, Japan and Russia. Recently, the Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, opened a year-long celebration in honor of the National Arboretum’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Mizz Veneman praised the Arboretum as a national treasure. As part of the celebration, Mizz Veneman assisted in the planting of a tree near the United States Capitol building. The tree -- a Sun Valley red maple -- is one of the many award-winning plants developed by Arboretum scientists. The Sun Valley red maple was developed as part of a project to study the genetic qualities of leaf color and insect resistance. The tree produces leaves that remain bright red late into autumn. It was tested in the state of Maryland. The Sun Valley maple kept its colorful leaves for about two weeks before they fell to the ground. The tree also resisted the potato leafhopper, an insect that feeds on the leaves of trees. American Agriculture Department officials say they expect the Sun Valley red maple will be ready for sale to the general public next year. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. The National Arboretum covers one-hundred-eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. The area is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. An arboretum is a place where trees and plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture operates the Arboretum. The goal of the Arboretum is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. The goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public. The National Arboretum is a popular stop for visitors to Washington. About six-hundred-thousand people visit the Arboretum each year. It also has become famous through cooperative programs with many countries, including Austria, Japan and Russia. Recently, the Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, opened a year-long celebration in honor of the National Arboretum’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Mizz Veneman praised the Arboretum as a national treasure. As part of the celebration, Mizz Veneman assisted in the planting of a tree near the United States Capitol building. The tree -- a Sun Valley red maple -- is one of the many award-winning plants developed by Arboretum scientists. The Sun Valley red maple was developed as part of a project to study the genetic qualities of leaf color and insect resistance. The tree produces leaves that remain bright red late into autumn. It was tested in the state of Maryland. The Sun Valley maple kept its colorful leaves for about two weeks before they fell to the ground. The tree also resisted the potato leafhopper, an insect that feeds on the leaves of trees. American Agriculture Department officials say they expect the Sun Valley red maple will be ready for sale to the general public next year. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-8-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT- March 29, 2002: Saving Sea Turtles
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Environmental groups in the United States are leading a campaign to save thousands of endangered sea turtles. They have asked Pope John Paul the Second to ban turtle meat during the Christian religious observance known as Lent. Christians observe Lent in preparation for the holiday of Easter. Environmental groups say illegal turtle hunting is one of the major threats to endangered sea turtles in southern California and Mexico. It has been illegal to harvest and eat sea turtle meat in Mexico for more than ten years. However, demand for sea turtle meat is widespread in both Southern California and Mexico. Biologists believe that illegal hunting is one of the main reasons for the sharp drop in sea turtle populations during the past thirty years. The week before Easter Sunday is an especially deadly time for the turtles. As many as five-thousand turtles are killed during this time each year. Many Mexicans and Mexican Americans eat turtle meat during the days before Easter. Many people do not eat meat during this holy time in order to obey the rules of Lent. Because sea turtles swim, many people consider them to be fish. Fish is permitted during Lent. The Sea Turtle Conservation Network is a coalition of fishermen, environmental activists and researchers. They sent a letter to Pope John Paul. They urged the Roman Catholic Church leader to officially declare that sea turtle flesh is meat, not fish or seafood. They say thousands of these endangered animals would be saved if people did not eat them during this religious period. The letter also asked members of the Catholic Church to obey laws banning the capture of turtles in Mexico and the United States. About thirty-five-thousand endangered sea turtles are killed illegally near the coasts of Baja, California, each year. Studies have shown a sharp drop in the numbers of females. They travel from as far away as Japan to lay their eggs on local beaches. Environmental activists say hunting sea turtles for their meat is the main barrier to the recovery of the species. They have urged the governments of the United States and Mexico to improve enforcement of the ban on sea turtle harvesting. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Environmental groups in the United States are leading a campaign to save thousands of endangered sea turtles. They have asked Pope John Paul the Second to ban turtle meat during the Christian religious observance known as Lent. Christians observe Lent in preparation for the holiday of Easter. Environmental groups say illegal turtle hunting is one of the major threats to endangered sea turtles in southern California and Mexico. It has been illegal to harvest and eat sea turtle meat in Mexico for more than ten years. However, demand for sea turtle meat is widespread in both Southern California and Mexico. Biologists believe that illegal hunting is one of the main reasons for the sharp drop in sea turtle populations during the past thirty years. The week before Easter Sunday is an especially deadly time for the turtles. As many as five-thousand turtles are killed during this time each year. Many Mexicans and Mexican Americans eat turtle meat during the days before Easter. Many people do not eat meat during this holy time in order to obey the rules of Lent. Because sea turtles swim, many people consider them to be fish. Fish is permitted during Lent. The Sea Turtle Conservation Network is a coalition of fishermen, environmental activists and researchers. They sent a letter to Pope John Paul. They urged the Roman Catholic Church leader to officially declare that sea turtle flesh is meat, not fish or seafood. They say thousands of these endangered animals would be saved if people did not eat them during this religious period. The letter also asked members of the Catholic Church to obey laws banning the capture of turtles in Mexico and the United States. About thirty-five-thousand endangered sea turtles are killed illegally near the coasts of Baja, California, each year. Studies have shown a sharp drop in the numbers of females. They travel from as far away as Japan to lay their eggs on local beaches. Environmental activists say hunting sea turtles for their meat is the main barrier to the recovery of the species. They have urged the governments of the United States and Mexico to improve enforcement of the ban on sea turtle harvesting. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-9-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - March 27, 2002: Igor Sikorsky
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Igor Sikorsky. He was a leader in designing and building new kinds of aircraft. ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Igor Sikorsky. He was a leader in designing and building new kinds of aircraft. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Igor Sikorsky was born in the city of Kiev, Russia, on May Twenty-Fifth, Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. His mother was a doctor. His father was a professor of psychology. Igor became interested in science when he was very young. He was especially interested in the possibilities of human flight. As a ten-year-old boy, he started building toy flying machines out of paper and bamboo. One was a helicopter. Igor turned the blades and held them in place with a thin piece of rubber. When he let go of the rubber, the blades turned in the opposite direction. And the little helicopter flew around the room. VOICE TWO: Igor dreamed of building a real helicopter. But he had little hope. Later he said: "I had read with great interest the stories of French writer Jules Verne. In some of the stories, Verne described a helicopter. Many intelligent people, however, said such a machine would never fly. So I decided my dream would remain just that." Sikorsky entered the naval college in St. Petersburg. Then he studied engineering at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev. He did not know that -- a few years earlier -- Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright had succeeded in flying. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Oh-Eight, Sikorsky traveled to Germany with his father. He saw a picture in a newspaper of Orville Wright and his airplane. "Within twenty-four hours," he said, "I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation." The next year, Sikorsky went to Paris. At that time, Paris was the center of aviation in Europe. Sikorsky met several French pilots, including Louis Bleriot, the first person to fly across the English Channel. The pilots gave him advice about building successful airplanes. VOICE TWO: Sikorsky returned home to Kiev after learning all he could in Paris. He decided to build a helicopter, even though many experts said it was not possible. He tested his first helicopter in Nineteen-Oh-Nine. It weighed too much and had too little power. It could not get off the ground. He tested his second helicopter a year later. That one could lift itself off the ground. But it was not powerful enough to lift a pilot, too. After these failures, Sikorsky decided to work on airplanes, instead. VOICE ONE: His technique was unusual. First, he drew pictures of a plane. Then he built it. Finally, he trained himself to fly it. In this way, he quickly discovered any problems in the design and was able to correct them. The first plane Sikorsky designed and built was called the S-Two. He tested it in the summer of Nineteen-Ten. Just two years later, another Sikorsky plane -- the S-Six -- won the highest prize at an aviation show in Moscow. VOICE TWO: Sikorsky's success helped win him a job as head of the airplane division of the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works. That is where he developed his first major new airplane design. Planes at that time had only one engine. Sometimes, a plane's propeller pulled masses of flying insects into the engine. The engine stopped, and the plane crashed. Sikorsky thought planes would be safer if they had more than one engine. So he designed a plane with four engines. He called it "The Grand." VOICE ONE: Sikorsky's plane was revolutionary. It was the first to have more than one engine. It was the first to have a closed area for the pilot and passengers. And it was the first to have a toilet. After designing "The Grand," Sikorsky designed an even bigger airplane. He called it the "Ilia Mourometz," the name of a famous Russian who lived in the Tenth century. He made a military version of this plane. It became the most successful bomber used in World War One. VOICE TWO: Igor Sikorsky left Russia at the start of the revolution in Nineteen-Seventeen. He stayed for a while in Britain and France. Then he went to the United States. He arrived with little money and no real chances for work. America's aviation industry was new and very small. There were no jobs. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, however, he got help from a group of Russian exiles in the United States. They gave him enough money to start his own aviation company, Sikorsky Aero Engineering. It was on Long Island east of New York City. VOICE ONE: Sikorsky's greatest success during this period was designing seaplanes. These planes could land on ground or on water. They could fly long distances. The Pan American airline company used them to fly from North America to Central and South America. In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, the Sikorsky company became part of the United Aircraft Corporation. The re-organized company produced a series of large planes known as flying boats. These planes were big enough and powerful enough to fly across oceans. They made it possible to move people and goods quickly from the United States to Europe and Asia. Passengers on flying boats rested in soft seats. They ate hot meals. Air travel had become fun, as well as safe. VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Thirty-Eight, Igor Sikorsky decided to experiment with helicopters again. It had been thirty years since his first unsuccessful attempts. Through those years, he had written down ideas for possible new designs. The first helicopter Sikorsky built in America was the V-S-Three-Hundred. It was a skeleton of steel tubes. In its first test flight, it rose about a meter off the ground. Sikorsky then tested nineteen more designs. VOICE ONE: The final design had one main rotator, or rotor. The rotor was connected to three long blades on top. These blades turned around like an album on a record player. They lifted the helicopter into the air. A smaller rotor, with shorter blades, was at the back end. Those blades turned around like the wheel of a car. They kept the body of the helicopter pointed forward. This remained the basic design of all Sikorsky helicopters. VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Forty-One, the V-S-Three-Hundred had set all world records for helicopter flight. Military versions were made and some were used in the last years of World War Two. Most people, however, still did not accept the new flying machine. They said the helicopter had to prove its worth. It did that during the war in Korea in the early Nineteen-Fifties. Helicopters take off straight into the air. They can land just about anywhere. They do not need long airport runways like planes. During the Korean War, helicopters flew into battle areas to rescue wounded soldiers. They flew the men quickly to medical centers set up away from the fighting. This greatly improved the men's chances of survival. VOICE ONE: Igor Sikorsky, the man most responsible for successfully designing and building helicopters, thought helicopters would be a common form of transportation. People, he said, would use them instead of automobiles. They would fly into a city, land on top of a building, go to work, then fly home again. This has not happened. Privately-owned helicopters are not common. Yet helicopters have proved their value in other ways. Companies use them to transport heavy equipment to hard-to-reach places. Farmers use them to put insect poisons on their crops. And emergency teams use them to rescue people from fires and floods. VOICE TWO: Igor Sikorsky continued as an engineering adviser to his aircraft company until he died in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He was one of the best-known and most respected leaders in international aviation. He received more than ninety major awards and honors from many countries and organizations. He always said, however, that his greatest satisfaction did not come from receiving honors. It did not come from being the first person to design new kinds of aircraft. Igor Sikorsky said his greatest satisfaction came from knowing that his helicopters were responsible for saving lives. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Igor Sikorsky was born in the city of Kiev, Russia, on May Twenty-Fifth, Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. His mother was a doctor. His father was a professor of psychology. Igor became interested in science when he was very young. He was especially interested in the possibilities of human flight. As a ten-year-old boy, he started building toy flying machines out of paper and bamboo. One was a helicopter. Igor turned the blades and held them in place with a thin piece of rubber. When he let go of the rubber, the blades turned in the opposite direction. And the little helicopter flew around the room. VOICE TWO: Igor dreamed of building a real helicopter. But he had little hope. Later he said: "I had read with great interest the stories of French writer Jules Verne. In some of the stories, Verne described a helicopter. Many intelligent people, however, said such a machine would never fly. So I decided my dream would remain just that." Sikorsky entered the naval college in St. Petersburg. Then he studied engineering at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev. He did not know that -- a few years earlier -- Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright had succeeded in flying. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Oh-Eight, Sikorsky traveled to Germany with his father. He saw a picture in a newspaper of Orville Wright and his airplane. "Within twenty-four hours," he said, "I decided to change my life's work. I would study aviation." The next year, Sikorsky went to Paris. At that time, Paris was the center of aviation in Europe. Sikorsky met several French pilots, including Louis Bleriot, the first person to fly across the English Channel. The pilots gave him advice about building successful airplanes. VOICE TWO: Sikorsky returned home to Kiev after learning all he could in Paris. He decided to build a helicopter, even though many experts said it was not possible. He tested his first helicopter in Nineteen-Oh-Nine. It weighed too much and had too little power. It could not get off the ground. He tested his second helicopter a year later. That one could lift itself off the ground. But it was not powerful enough to lift a pilot, too. After these failures, Sikorsky decided to work on airplanes, instead. VOICE ONE: His technique was unusual. First, he drew pictures of a plane. Then he built it. Finally, he trained himself to fly it. In this way, he quickly discovered any problems in the design and was able to correct them. The first plane Sikorsky designed and built was called the S-Two. He tested it in the summer of Nineteen-Ten. Just two years later, another Sikorsky plane -- the S-Six -- won the highest prize at an aviation show in Moscow. VOICE TWO: Sikorsky's success helped win him a job as head of the airplane division of the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works. That is where he developed his first major new airplane design. Planes at that time had only one engine. Sometimes, a plane's propeller pulled masses of flying insects into the engine. The engine stopped, and the plane crashed. Sikorsky thought planes would be safer if they had more than one engine. So he designed a plane with four engines. He called it "The Grand." VOICE ONE: Sikorsky's plane was revolutionary. It was the first to have more than one engine. It was the first to have a closed area for the pilot and passengers. And it was the first to have a toilet. After designing "The Grand," Sikorsky designed an even bigger airplane. He called it the "Ilia Mourometz," the name of a famous Russian who lived in the Tenth century. He made a military version of this plane. It became the most successful bomber used in World War One. VOICE TWO: Igor Sikorsky left Russia at the start of the revolution in Nineteen-Seventeen. He stayed for a while in Britain and France. Then he went to the United States. He arrived with little money and no real chances for work. America's aviation industry was new and very small. There were no jobs. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, however, he got help from a group of Russian exiles in the United States. They gave him enough money to start his own aviation company, Sikorsky Aero Engineering. It was on Long Island east of New York City. VOICE ONE: Sikorsky's greatest success during this period was designing seaplanes. These planes could land on ground or on water. They could fly long distances. The Pan American airline company used them to fly from North America to Central and South America. In Nineteen-Twenty-Nine, the Sikorsky company became part of the United Aircraft Corporation. The re-organized company produced a series of large planes known as flying boats. These planes were big enough and powerful enough to fly across oceans. They made it possible to move people and goods quickly from the United States to Europe and Asia. Passengers on flying boats rested in soft seats. They ate hot meals. Air travel had become fun, as well as safe. VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Thirty-Eight, Igor Sikorsky decided to experiment with helicopters again. It had been thirty years since his first unsuccessful attempts. Through those years, he had written down ideas for possible new designs. The first helicopter Sikorsky built in America was the V-S-Three-Hundred. It was a skeleton of steel tubes. In its first test flight, it rose about a meter off the ground. Sikorsky then tested nineteen more designs. VOICE ONE: The final design had one main rotator, or rotor. The rotor was connected to three long blades on top. These blades turned around like an album on a record player. They lifted the helicopter into the air. A smaller rotor, with shorter blades, was at the back end. Those blades turned around like the wheel of a car. They kept the body of the helicopter pointed forward. This remained the basic design of all Sikorsky helicopters. VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Forty-One, the V-S-Three-Hundred had set all world records for helicopter flight. Military versions were made and some were used in the last years of World War Two. Most people, however, still did not accept the new flying machine. They said the helicopter had to prove its worth. It did that during the war in Korea in the early Nineteen-Fifties. Helicopters take off straight into the air. They can land just about anywhere. They do not need long airport runways like planes. During the Korean War, helicopters flew into battle areas to rescue wounded soldiers. They flew the men quickly to medical centers set up away from the fighting. This greatly improved the men's chances of survival. VOICE ONE: Igor Sikorsky, the man most responsible for successfully designing and building helicopters, thought helicopters would be a common form of transportation. People, he said, would use them instead of automobiles. They would fly into a city, land on top of a building, go to work, then fly home again. This has not happened. Privately-owned helicopters are not common. Yet helicopters have proved their value in other ways. Companies use them to transport heavy equipment to hard-to-reach places. Farmers use them to put insect poisons on their crops. And emergency teams use them to rescue people from fires and floods. VOICE TWO: Igor Sikorsky continued as an engineering adviser to his aircraft company until he died in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He was one of the best-known and most respected leaders in international aviation. He received more than ninety major awards and honors from many countries and organizations. He always said, however, that his greatest satisfaction did not come from receiving honors. It did not come from being the first person to design new kinds of aircraft. Igor Sikorsky said his greatest satisfaction came from knowing that his helicopters were responsible for saving lives. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-10-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - March 28, 2002: Intel Science Talent Search
* Byline: 

 Starting April 3, two new programs will take the place of Science Report: -- On Wednesdays, Health Report will describe new research and information about staying healthy and treating disease. -- On Thursdays, Education Report will explore educational issues and news about teaching and learning in the United States and other countries. ------------------------------- This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A teen-age boy from the state of Colorado has won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search. The competition is the oldest program in the United States that honors the science projects of high school students. The Intel Science Talent Search is sixty-one years old this year. The winners receive a new computer and money for a college education. More than one-thousand-five-hundred students entered projects for the competition this year. The students came from thirty-one states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Forty-eight per cent were female. Fifty-two percent were male. Their research projects involved nearly every area of science, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, social science and medicine. Forty students were invited to Washington D.C. for the final judging. Ten of the top winners were born outside the United States. Five were born in China. Two were born in India. The others were born in Estonia, Belarus and Israel. Well-known scientists judged them on their research abilities and creative thinking. They also questioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the top ten winners. The top winner was eighteen-year-old Ryan Patterson of Grand Junction, Colorado. He received one-hundred-thousand dollars for his college education. He invented a device that changes American Sign Language into written words on a small screen. The invention has won prizes in other science contests. Ryan says he wants to continue developing electronic devices that can improve peoples’ lives. The second place winner was seventeen-year-old Jacob Licht (pronounced likt) of West Hartford, Connecticut. He received seventy-five-thousand dollars for a mathematics project that studied the Rainbow Ramsey Theory. It involves the idea that order must exist within disorder. The third place winner was seventeen-year-old Emily Riehl (pronounced reel) of Bloomington, Illinois. She received fifty-thousand dollars. Her mathematics project studied an algebraic structure called the Coxeter group. Intel official Craig Barrett praised all the students as future scientific leaders. He said they will play an important part in curing diseases, protecting the environment and developing new computer technologies. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Starting April 3, two new programs will take the place of Science Report: -- On Wednesdays, Health Report will describe new research and information about staying healthy and treating disease. -- On Thursdays, Education Report will explore educational issues and news about teaching and learning in the United States and other countries. ------------------------------- This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A teen-age boy from the state of Colorado has won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search. The competition is the oldest program in the United States that honors the science projects of high school students. The Intel Science Talent Search is sixty-one years old this year. The winners receive a new computer and money for a college education. More than one-thousand-five-hundred students entered projects for the competition this year. The students came from thirty-one states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Forty-eight per cent were female. Fifty-two percent were male. Their research projects involved nearly every area of science, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, social science and medicine. Forty students were invited to Washington D.C. for the final judging. Ten of the top winners were born outside the United States. Five were born in China. Two were born in India. The others were born in Estonia, Belarus and Israel. Well-known scientists judged them on their research abilities and creative thinking. They also questioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the top ten winners. The top winner was eighteen-year-old Ryan Patterson of Grand Junction, Colorado. He received one-hundred-thousand dollars for his college education. He invented a device that changes American Sign Language into written words on a small screen. The invention has won prizes in other science contests. Ryan says he wants to continue developing electronic devices that can improve peoples’ lives. The second place winner was seventeen-year-old Jacob Licht (pronounced likt) of West Hartford, Connecticut. He received seventy-five-thousand dollars for a mathematics project that studied the Rainbow Ramsey Theory. It involves the idea that order must exist within disorder. The third place winner was seventeen-year-old Emily Riehl (pronounced reel) of Bloomington, Illinois. She received fifty-thousand dollars. Her mathematics project studied an algebraic structure called the Coxeter group. Intel official Craig Barrett praised all the students as future scientific leaders. He said they will play an important part in curing diseases, protecting the environment and developing new computer technologies. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-11-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT — March 27, 2002: New Stem Cell Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Researchers at an American medical center say special stem cells in normal human blood can develop into other kinds of healthy, new tissue. The new findings could become important in forming public policy concerning stem cell research. Adult stem cells are unformed cells that exist in the blood and blood-making tissue of the body. Researchers at M-D Cancer Center in Houston, Texas say adult stem cells taken from blood can create new tissue in several organs. They made the discovery after examining about twelve patients who had received blood from family members. The blood was rich in the rare stem cells that make red and white blood cells. The patients needed the blood and stem cells after cancer treatments had destroyed the ability of their own bone marrow to make new blood cells. The doctors had thought the stem cells would only restore the patients’ ability to make new blood cells. However, they found that some of the stem cells spread to the patients’ livers and began to grow liver cells. Some of the stem cells also grew into skin cells and cells in the intestine. The researchers said some of the stem cells settled into the patients’ organs within two weeks. The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The doctors who did the research say the tests prove that adult stem cells can become liver, skin and other kinds of cells. The experiment appears to show that adult stem cells are more useful than medical researchers had thought. Until recently, doctors did not think that adult stem cells could produce new tissue in organs. For this reason, many people have urged Congress to permit research on embryonic stem cells taken from fertilized human eggs. These unformed embryonic stem cells are believed to be able to become any kind of tissue in the body. However, the Bush administration has put limits on embryonic stem cell research. President Bush believes it is not moral to experiment on fertilized human eggs. If confirmed, the new discovery will add to the debate over stem cells. It will also strengthen the idea that adults have cells that can repair damage to organs. And experts say it could lead to new treatments for diseases based on using the body’s own cells. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Researchers at an American medical center say special stem cells in normal human blood can develop into other kinds of healthy, new tissue. The new findings could become important in forming public policy concerning stem cell research. Adult stem cells are unformed cells that exist in the blood and blood-making tissue of the body. Researchers at M-D Cancer Center in Houston, Texas say adult stem cells taken from blood can create new tissue in several organs. They made the discovery after examining about twelve patients who had received blood from family members. The blood was rich in the rare stem cells that make red and white blood cells. The patients needed the blood and stem cells after cancer treatments had destroyed the ability of their own bone marrow to make new blood cells. The doctors had thought the stem cells would only restore the patients’ ability to make new blood cells. However, they found that some of the stem cells spread to the patients’ livers and began to grow liver cells. Some of the stem cells also grew into skin cells and cells in the intestine. The researchers said some of the stem cells settled into the patients’ organs within two weeks. The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The doctors who did the research say the tests prove that adult stem cells can become liver, skin and other kinds of cells. The experiment appears to show that adult stem cells are more useful than medical researchers had thought. Until recently, doctors did not think that adult stem cells could produce new tissue in organs. For this reason, many people have urged Congress to permit research on embryonic stem cells taken from fertilized human eggs. These unformed embryonic stem cells are believed to be able to become any kind of tissue in the body. However, the Bush administration has put limits on embryonic stem cell research. President Bush believes it is not moral to experiment on fertilized human eggs. If confirmed, the new discovery will add to the debate over stem cells. It will also strengthen the idea that adults have cells that can repair damage to organs. And experts say it could lead to new treatments for diseases based on using the body’s own cells. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-12-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 2, 2002: Cancer
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease cancer. We tell about the different kinds of cancer. We tell about how doctors treat the disease. And we tell the seven warning signs of cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many diseases cause fear in people. But one disease seems to be the most feared, although it has been recognized for hundreds of years. That disease is cancer. Although the word is simple, the disease is not. Cancer in humans takes more than one-hundred different forms. All of the forms of cancer attack the body in different ways. However, they are called cancers because they are similar in what they do. VOICE TWO: Generally, cancer is a disease in which cells change, divide and produce more cells without control or order. All tissues and organs of the body are made of cells. Normally, cells divide to produce more cells only when the body needs them. This orderly process helps keep us healthy. Cancer appears when the body’s complex chemical system becomes damaged and cells begin reproducing or dividing without control. If cells keep dividing when new cells are not needed, a mass of tissue forms. This mass of extra tissue, called a growth or tumor, can be benign or malignant. VOICE ONE: Benign tumors are not cancer. Usually they can be removed. Generally they do not return or form again. Cells from benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body. Such tumors rarely are a threat to life. Malignant tumors are cancer. They can threaten the life of a person if they are not treated. Cancer cells from such tumors can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs. Also, cancer cells can separate from a malignant tumor and enter the bloodstream or the body’s lymphatic system. This is how cancer spreads from one tumor to form new tumors in other parts of the body. The spread of cancer is called metastasis. VOICE TWO: The structure of cells in malignant tumors is not normal. All normal cells in the body have special purposes that help the body operate. Cancer cells have no purpose other than to reproduce and spread. And all organs and tissues can be threatened by cancer. Cancerous tissue, growing without limits, competes with normal tissue for nutrients. In time, the cancer cells kill normal cells by taking all the nutrients. The normal cells starve. Cancerous tissue has another effect as well. A growing tumor creates pressure against the nearby organs and surrounding tissue. This pressure can interfere with the operation of the organs, slowing the normal processes of the body. Signs of this kind of pressure are weakness, weight loss, and a lack of interest in food. VOICE ONE: The parts of the body that are most often affected by cancer are the skin, the lungs, the prostate gland in males, the breasts in females and the digestive organs. These organs include the throat, stomach, large and small intestines and colon. Cancer in these organs is most common among older people. Generally, men and women are affected equally by most kinds of cancer. Without proper treatment, most kinds of cancer cause death. For centuries, there have been many efforts to treat the different forms of cancer, but with little success. In the late part of the twentieth century, methods of discovering and treating cancer greatly improved. Generally, about one-half of all cancer patients now survive for at least five years after medical treatment. This is mainly because early discovery of the disease means there is an increased chance of successful treatment. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Cancer can be found in several ways. The first method is by looking closely. Another way is to feel for tumors. The most common example of this is to search for lumps or abnormal growths in a woman’s breast. The use of X-rays is another common method of finding tumors. Doctors perform an operation called a biopsy if they suspect that cancer is present in an organ. This involves removing some of the tissue and studying the cells with a microscope. The most common form of treating cancer is by operating. Cancer surgery involves removing the tumor and repairing affected organs. Doctors generally try to remove some tissue surrounding a tumor in an effort to protect against the possibility that cancer cells have spread. VOICE ONE: Another treatment for cancer is radiation. The radiation rays are used to damage cancer cells and stop them from growing and dividing. Radiation affects cancer cells only in the treated area. There are two methods of using radiation to treat cancer. One involves using a machine to aim the radiation at the cancerous part of the body. The other radiation treatment involves an operation to place radioactive material inside the body, near the tumor or cancerous tissue. Chemotherapy is another method of treating cancer. This involves the use of chemicals or drugs designed to kill cancer cells. The drugs flow through the bloodstream to all parts of the body. Most often the drugs are injected into the body or are taken through the mouth. Another method in chemotherapy treatment is to pump anti-cancer drugs into the body through a thin tube called a catheter. Chemotherapy is generally used for short periods. It is halted for a recovery period. Sometimes chemotherapy can make a patient very sick, requiring a stay in the hospital. However, most chemotherapy patients can receive the treatments at a doctor’s office, the hospital, or even at home. VOICE TWO: Sometimes, doctors use the body’s natural defense system to fight cancer. This kind of treatment is called biological therapy, or immunotherapy. The body already has a system designed to protect itself from infection and diseases. Biological therapy involves efforts to expand the effectiveness of the defense system to attack cancer cells and expel them from the body. These cancer treatments often produce what are known as side effects. Side effects can include tiredness, stomach sickness, little or no desire for food, hair loss, weight gain, high body temperature, muscle pain and weakness. Doctors are usually able to help patients deal with many of these side effects until they disappear after the treatment is completed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Doctors do not know all the causes of cancer. But they do know some of them. The material asbestos is one of them. People have been using asbestos for many centuries. However, scientists discovered that asbestos caused lung and colon cancer in people who breathed small particles of the material. Another clear cause of lung cancer is smoking tobacco. Sunlight is the chief cause of skin cancer, especially in people with light-colored skin. It is one of the most easily cured cancers, if it is treated early. X-rays and radioactive elements also are known to cause cancer. Some cancers, such as breast cancer and stomach cancer, may be passed from parents to children. Doctors say that people whose parents had these diseases should be examined at least once a year for signs of cancer. However, most people who develop cancer are not born with cancer-causing genes. Instead, their genes have been damaged by substances in the environment. VOICE TWO: Doctors say people should watch for the seven warning signs of cancer. The first warning sign is a change in how often a person passes waste materials. The second sign is a break in the skin, or sore, that does not heal. The third sign is unusual bleeding or leaking of body fluids. A thickening growth or lump in the breast or other part of the body is the fourth cancer warning sign. The fifth warning sign is difficulty swallowing, or stomach problems. The sixth sign is a change in normal small growths or dark spots on the skin. The seventh cancer warning sign is a cough that does not go away, or a major change in the way a person sounds when talking. A person with any of these cancer signs should seek advice from a doctor. Cancer often can be cured if it is found early. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow . This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-22-13-1.cfm
* Headline: March 24, 2002 - 'Big Apple,' 'Kangaroo Court'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we explore the origins of two terms that listeners have recently asked us about: "Big Apple" and "kangaroo court." RS: English teacher Dianne Gray writes from Moscow: "Last week at the English Club in which I work one of the attendees asked me why New York City is called 'The Big Apple.' I probably should know as I am an American, but I really don't know. Is there someone there who can tell us?" AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we explore the origins of two terms that listeners have recently asked us about: "Big Apple" and "kangaroo court." RS: English teacher Dianne Gray writes from Moscow: "Last week at the English Club in which I work one of the attendees asked me why New York City is called 'The Big Apple.' I probably should know as I am an American, but I really don't know. Is there someone there who can tell us?" AA: Yes, there is. That someone is a New Yorker named Barry Popik [PAH-pik]. He is a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary -- a word hunter. In stalking the "Big Apple," he started off from clues found by Gerald Cohen, a professor at the University of Missouri. The trail led to a newspaper writer who covered horse racing in New York in the 1920s. His name: John J. Fitz Gerald. POPIK: "At the beginning of the racing season, Fitz Gerald would write: 'Racing returns to the Big Apple.' We knew he used 'Big Apple' about six times, at least -- that's what Gerald Cohen found -- and then I said, wait a minute, did Fitz Gerald coin the term, did he not coin the term? And then I went through every single Fitz Gerald column for over a dozen years, and he wrote every single day. It was very labor intensive. He admitted twice that the Big Apple was his, that he heard it from an African American stable hand in New Orleans at the Fairgrounds Racetrack in about 1920, and that it referred to the big time in horse racing." RS: Barry Popik reads an excerpt from one of those columns: POPIK: "The Big Apple, the dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple, that's New York." And then he explains it in the second paragraph. He said, "Two dusky stable hands" -- 'dusky' was African American -- "were leading a pair of thoroughbreds around the cooling rings of adjoining stables at the fairgrounds in New Orleans and engaging in desultory conversation. "Where are you all going from here," queried one. "We're heading for the big apple," proudly replied the other.'" AA: Yes, there is. That someone is a New Yorker named Barry Popik [PAH-pik]. He is a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary -- a word hunter. In stalking the "Big Apple," he started off from clues found by Gerald Cohen, a professor at the University of Missouri. The trail led to a newspaper writer who covered horse racing in New York in the 1920s. His name: John J. Fitz Gerald. POPIK: "At the beginning of the racing season, Fitz Gerald would write: 'Racing returns to the Big Apple.' We knew he used 'Big Apple' about six times, at least -- that's what Gerald Cohen found -- and then I said, wait a minute, did Fitz Gerald coin the term, did he not coin the term? And then I went through every single Fitz Gerald column for over a dozen years, and he wrote every single day. It was very labor intensive. He admitted twice that the Big Apple was his, that he heard it from an African American stable hand in New Orleans at the Fairgrounds Racetrack in about 1920, and that it referred to the big time in horse racing." RS: Barry Popik reads an excerpt from one of those columns: POPIK: "The Big Apple, the dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple, that's New York." And then he explains it in the second paragraph. He said, "Two dusky stable hands" -- 'dusky' was African American -- "were leading a pair of thoroughbreds around the cooling rings of adjoining stables at the fairgrounds in New Orleans and engaging in desultory conversation. "Where are you all going from here," queried one. "We're heading for the big apple," proudly replied the other.'" RS: It's possible that the choice of fruit in this metaphor was influenced by the fact that apples are a treat for horses. AA: In any case, Barry Popik says that pretty soon the term "big apple" started to take on other meanings. In 1927, the radio commentator Walter Winchell said Broadway -- the street with many famous New York theaters -- was the big apple. POPIK: "Then in 1928 the New York Times mentioned the Big Apple and it referred to movies -- the movie people said New York is the Big Apple. Then in the 1930s the jazz musicians picked it up." And then in 1937 it really became a big hit because it became a big song-and-dance." MUSIC: "The Big Apple"/Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven ... Everybody's learning how to do the Big Apple. (Chorus: "The Big Apple.") And it isn't very hard to do the Big Apple. ... POPIK: "And then it faded away, because no one could dance the Big Apple dance. It required a lot of people, it was like the Lindy Hop, it was very strenuous, and there was a war, there was World War Two, and people kind of forgot about the Big Apple a little bit." AA: Until the early nineteen-seventies, when the president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau was looking for ways to polish the city's rough image. RS: He was looking for a "clean, wholesome symbol," Barry Popik says, and chose a shiny red apple. AA: Now fast-forward to the nineteen-nineties. Armed with his findings, Barry Popik set out to get the city to honor sportswriter John J. Fitz Gerald and the unknown African American stable hand who used the term "big apple." POPIK: "I didn't want to keep it secret, I wanted to tell New Yorkers. So I wrote away to all the newspapers, and no one believed me." RS: It took about five years, but the city finally established a "Big Apple Corner." It's at West 54th Street and Broadway, where John J. Fitz Gerald lived for thirty years. AA: Juhani [you-HA-nee] Vasankari from Helsinki, Finland, writes to us about another matter. He is curious about the origins of the expression “kangaroo court,” which he heard on VOA’s Encounter program. Barry Popik explains. POPIK: "It's defined as unauthorized, irregularly conducted, something that's on the frontiers of establishment of law. Sometimes it's called a mock court." RS: Barry Popik says "kangaroo court" comes not from Australia, home of kangaroos, but from Texas in the eighteen-hundreds: POPIK: "Supposedly people were bound up, and all they could do was jump and down in the court. There are various explanations like that, but I think the alliteration is probably the good one." AA: -- that is, the allure of having two words begin with the same sound, like "kangaroo court." RS: When he's not busy hunting words, Barry Popik is himself a judge, in New York City's Parking Violations Bureau, where he assures us he gives everyone a fair hearing. AA: We'd like to hear from you! If you're on the Internet, visit our new Web site -- it's www.voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. RS: It's possible that the choice of fruit in this metaphor was influenced by the fact that apples are a treat for horses. AA: In any case, Barry Popik says that pretty soon the term "big apple" started to take on other meanings. In 1927, the radio commentator Walter Winchell said Broadway -- the street with many famous New York theaters -- was the big apple. POPIK: "Then in 1928 the New York Times mentioned the Big Apple and it referred to movies -- the movie people said New York is the Big Apple. Then in the 1930s the jazz musicians picked it up." And then in 1937 it really became a big hit because it became a big song-and-dance." MUSIC: "The Big Apple"/Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven ... Everybody's learning how to do the Big Apple. (Chorus: "The Big Apple.") And it isn't very hard to do the Big Apple. ... POPIK: "And then it faded away, because no one could dance the Big Apple dance. It required a lot of people, it was like the Lindy Hop, it was very strenuous, and there was a war, there was World War Two, and people kind of forgot about the Big Apple a little bit." AA: Until the early nineteen-seventies, when the president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau was looking for ways to polish the city's rough image. RS: He was looking for a "clean, wholesome symbol," Barry Popik says, and chose a shiny red apple. AA: Now fast-forward to the nineteen-nineties. Armed with his findings, Barry Popik set out to get the city to honor sportswriter John J. Fitz Gerald and the unknown African American stable hand who used the term "big apple." POPIK: "I didn't want to keep it secret, I wanted to tell New Yorkers. So I wrote away to all the newspapers, and no one believed me." RS: It took about five years, but the city finally established a "Big Apple Corner." It's at West 54th Street and Broadway, where John J. Fitz Gerald lived for thirty years. AA: Juhani [you-HA-nee] Vasankari from Helsinki, Finland, writes to us about another matter. He is curious about the origins of the expression “kangaroo court,” which he heard on VOA’s Encounter program. Barry Popik explains. POPIK: "It's defined as unauthorized, irregularly conducted, something that's on the frontiers of establishment of law. Sometimes it's called a mock court." RS: Barry Popik says "kangaroo court" comes not from Australia, home of kangaroos, but from Texas in the eighteen-hundreds: POPIK: "Supposedly people were bound up, and all they could do was jump and down in the court. There are various explanations like that, but I think the alliteration is probably the good one." AA: -- that is, the allure of having two words begin with the same sound, like "kangaroo court." RS: When he's not busy hunting words, Barry Popik is himself a judge, in New York City's Parking Violations Bureau, where he assures us he gives everyone a fair hearing. AA: We'd like to hear from you! If you're on the Internet, visit our new Web site -- it's www.voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - March 28, 2002: 1930s/Foreign Policy
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about American foreign policy during the nineteen-thirties. VOICE 2: For much of its history, the United States was not involved in world disputes. Only in the twentieth century did it become a powerful and influential nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to see America as a great power. A few years later, President Woodrow Wilson wanted the United States to become more involved in the world. Many Americans disagreed. They wanted to stay out of international conflicts. The presidents after Wilson stayed informed about world events. But they were much less willing to involve the United States than Roosevelt or Wilson had been. The great economic depression that began in nineteen-twenty-nine reduced Americans' interest in the world even more. VOICE 1: Franklin Roosevelt became president in nineteen-thirty-three. Franklin Roosevelt was not like most Americans. He knew the international situation well from his own experience. Like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he wanted to expand America's foreign policies. The terrible crisis of the depression, however, forced him to spend most of his time on national economic issues. He was able to deal with international issues only very slowly. One of his most important first efforts was to improve relations with Latin American nations. VOICE 2: Thirty years earlier, President Theodore Roosevelt said the United States had the right to intervene in Latin America. In the years that followed, the United States sent troops to several Latin American countries. Many political leaders in the area accused the United States of treating them like children. Leaders throughout Latin America criticized the United States bitterly at a conference in nineteen-twenty-eight. When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he promised to treat Latin American nations as friends. He called this his "good neighbor" policy. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's new policy had an unfriendly beginning. His administration refused to recognize a government in Cuba that opposed the United States. Instead, it helped bring to power a new government that showed more support for the United States. After that, however, President Roosevelt was able to prove that he wanted to improve relations with the countries of Latin America. For example, his administration speeded up plans to withdraw American troops from Haiti. It rejected old treaties that gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba. It recognized a revolutionary government in El Salvador. It recognized the right of Panama to help operate and protect the Panama Canal. And it helped establish the Export-Import Bank to increase trade throughout the Americas. VOICE 2: All of these actions did much to improve the opinion of Latin American leaders about the United States. However, the most important test of Franklin Roosevelt's new policies was in Mexico. The Mexican government seized control of oil companies owned by investors in the United States. A number of influential Americans wanted the president to take strong action. He refused. He only agreed to urge the Mexican government to pay American investors for the value of the oil companies. VOICE 1: As United States' relations with Latin America improved, its relations with Britain got worse. Britain blamed Franklin Roosevelt for the failure of an international economic conference in nineteen-thirty-three. It also felt the United States Congress was unwilling to take a strong position against international aggression by other nations. Some British leaders had so little faith in Roosevelt that they proposed seeking cooperation with Japan instead of the United States. New leaders in Japan, however, soon ended this possibility. They presented Britain with such strong military demands that the British government gave up any idea of cooperation with Japan. VOICE 2: One big question in American foreign policy in the nineteen-thirties concerned the Soviet union. The United States had refused to recognize the government in Moscow after the Bolsheviks took control in nineteen-seventeen. Yet Franklin Roosevelt saw the Soviet union as a possible ally if growing tensions in Europe and Asia burst into war. For this reason, he held talks in Washington with a top Soviet official. In nineteen-thirty-three, he officially recognized the Soviet government. VOICE 1: President Roosevelt hoped recognition would lead to better relations. But the United States and the Soviet union did not trust each other. They immediately began arguing about many issues. Within two years, the American ambassador to Moscow urged President Roosevelt to cut diplomatic relations with the Soviets. Roosevelt refused. Relations between the two countries became even worse. Yet Roosevelt believed it was better to continue relations in case of an emergency. That emergency -- World War Two -- was just a few years away. VOICE 2: Economic issues played an important part in American foreign policy during the early nineteen-thirties. In nineteen thirty three, a major international economic conference was held in London. France and Italy led a movement to link the value of every nation's money to the price of gold. American delegates to the conference rejected the idea. They argued that it would slow America's recovery from the great depression. As a result, the London conference failed. Although President Roosevelt opposed linking the value of the American dollar to the price of gold, he did not oppose international trade. During the Nineteen-thirties, his administration negotiated new trade agreements with more than twenty countries. VOICE 1: The nineteen-thirties saw major political changes in Asia and Europe. President Roosevelt watched these developments with great interest. In Japan, military leaders gained control of the government. Their goal was to Make Japan Asia's leading power. In Italy, the government was headed by fascist Benito Mussolini. Another fascist, Francisco Franco, seized power in Spain. And, most important, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party increased their strength in Germany. Franklin Roosevelt understood much sooner than most western leaders the threat that these new leaders represented. VOICE 2: Most Americans shared Roosevelt's dislike for the new fascist movements. However, Americans felt another emotion much more strongly. It was their desire to stay out of war. World War One had ended just fifteen years earlier. It was still fresh in the minds of many Americans. A majority of the population opposed any policy that could involve the United States in another bloody conflict. VOICE 1: A public opinion study was made in nineteen thirty seven. The study showed that seventy-one percent of Americans believed it had been a mistake for the United States to fight in World War One. So, President Roosevelt was not surprised when Congress passed a law ordering the administration to remain neutral in any foreign conflict. Congress also refused an administration proposal that the United States join the World Court. Franklin Roosevelt shared the hope that the United States would stay out of foreign conflicts. However, Adolf Hitler and other fascists continued to grow more powerful. The situation forced Americans to begin to consider the need for military strength. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) I'm Shirley Griffith. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about American foreign policy during the nineteen-thirties. VOICE 2: For much of its history, the United States was not involved in world disputes. Only in the twentieth century did it become a powerful and influential nation. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to see America as a great power. A few years later, President Woodrow Wilson wanted the United States to become more involved in the world. Many Americans disagreed. They wanted to stay out of international conflicts. The presidents after Wilson stayed informed about world events. But they were much less willing to involve the United States than Roosevelt or Wilson had been. The great economic depression that began in nineteen-twenty-nine reduced Americans' interest in the world even more. VOICE 1: Franklin Roosevelt became president in nineteen-thirty-three. Franklin Roosevelt was not like most Americans. He knew the international situation well from his own experience. Like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he wanted to expand America's foreign policies. The terrible crisis of the depression, however, forced him to spend most of his time on national economic issues. He was able to deal with international issues only very slowly. One of his most important first efforts was to improve relations with Latin American nations. VOICE 2: Thirty years earlier, President Theodore Roosevelt said the United States had the right to intervene in Latin America. In the years that followed, the United States sent troops to several Latin American countries. Many political leaders in the area accused the United States of treating them like children. Leaders throughout Latin America criticized the United States bitterly at a conference in nineteen-twenty-eight. When Franklin Roosevelt became president, he promised to treat Latin American nations as friends. He called this his "good neighbor" policy. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's new policy had an unfriendly beginning. His administration refused to recognize a government in Cuba that opposed the United States. Instead, it helped bring to power a new government that showed more support for the United States. After that, however, President Roosevelt was able to prove that he wanted to improve relations with the countries of Latin America. For example, his administration speeded up plans to withdraw American troops from Haiti. It rejected old treaties that gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba. It recognized a revolutionary government in El Salvador. It recognized the right of Panama to help operate and protect the Panama Canal. And it helped establish the Export-Import Bank to increase trade throughout the Americas. VOICE 2: All of these actions did much to improve the opinion of Latin American leaders about the United States. However, the most important test of Franklin Roosevelt's new policies was in Mexico. The Mexican government seized control of oil companies owned by investors in the United States. A number of influential Americans wanted the president to take strong action. He refused. He only agreed to urge the Mexican government to pay American investors for the value of the oil companies. VOICE 1: As United States' relations with Latin America improved, its relations with Britain got worse. Britain blamed Franklin Roosevelt for the failure of an international economic conference in nineteen-thirty-three. It also felt the United States Congress was unwilling to take a strong position against international aggression by other nations. Some British leaders had so little faith in Roosevelt that they proposed seeking cooperation with Japan instead of the United States. New leaders in Japan, however, soon ended this possibility. They presented Britain with such strong military demands that the British government gave up any idea of cooperation with Japan. VOICE 2: One big question in American foreign policy in the nineteen-thirties concerned the Soviet union. The United States had refused to recognize the government in Moscow after the Bolsheviks took control in nineteen-seventeen. Yet Franklin Roosevelt saw the Soviet union as a possible ally if growing tensions in Europe and Asia burst into war. For this reason, he held talks in Washington with a top Soviet official. In nineteen-thirty-three, he officially recognized the Soviet government. VOICE 1: President Roosevelt hoped recognition would lead to better relations. But the United States and the Soviet union did not trust each other. They immediately began arguing about many issues. Within two years, the American ambassador to Moscow urged President Roosevelt to cut diplomatic relations with the Soviets. Roosevelt refused. Relations between the two countries became even worse. Yet Roosevelt believed it was better to continue relations in case of an emergency. That emergency -- World War Two -- was just a few years away. VOICE 2: Economic issues played an important part in American foreign policy during the early nineteen-thirties. In nineteen thirty three, a major international economic conference was held in London. France and Italy led a movement to link the value of every nation's money to the price of gold. American delegates to the conference rejected the idea. They argued that it would slow America's recovery from the great depression. As a result, the London conference failed. Although President Roosevelt opposed linking the value of the American dollar to the price of gold, he did not oppose international trade. During the Nineteen-thirties, his administration negotiated new trade agreements with more than twenty countries. VOICE 1: The nineteen-thirties saw major political changes in Asia and Europe. President Roosevelt watched these developments with great interest. In Japan, military leaders gained control of the government. Their goal was to Make Japan Asia's leading power. In Italy, the government was headed by fascist Benito Mussolini. Another fascist, Francisco Franco, seized power in Spain. And, most important, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party increased their strength in Germany. Franklin Roosevelt understood much sooner than most western leaders the threat that these new leaders represented. VOICE 2: Most Americans shared Roosevelt's dislike for the new fascist movements. However, Americans felt another emotion much more strongly. It was their desire to stay out of war. World War One had ended just fifteen years earlier. It was still fresh in the minds of many Americans. A majority of the population opposed any policy that could involve the United States in another bloody conflict. VOICE 1: A public opinion study was made in nineteen thirty seven. The study showed that seventy-one percent of Americans believed it had been a mistake for the United States to fight in World War One. So, President Roosevelt was not surprised when Congress passed a law ordering the administration to remain neutral in any foreign conflict. Congress also refused an administration proposal that the United States join the World Court. Franklin Roosevelt shared the hope that the United States would stay out of foreign conflicts. However, Adolf Hitler and other fascists continued to grow more powerful. The situation forced Americans to begin to consider the need for military strength. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - April 2, 2002: Quorn
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Some food stores in the United States have begun to sell a product called Quorn (pronounced kworn.) Quorn looks and tastes a lot like meat. Yet it is made from a fungus. A fungus is an organism that does not have roots or leaves. It lives on organic material. In Europe, Quorn already is a popular food with people who do not eat meat. Europeans can choose from more than one-hundred different Quorn products. Quorn comes from an organism called Fusarium venenatum. It is a member of the Fungi family that includes mushrooms. The organism was first discovered in Britain several years ago. Scientists found the fungus could be made into a product that is similar in appearance to animal tissue. The food product was developed by Marlow Foods, a business operated by the European company AstraZeneca. Quorn is grown in large containers and then processed. The process produces a kind of food called mycoprotein. The finished products sold in stores are made to taste like either chicken or beef. Quorn foods look and feel like traditional meat products. People who have tested Quorn praise its taste. The mycoprotein used to make Quorn products have high levels of protein and fiber. Some of the products have less fat and harmful cholesterol than chicken or other meat. Quorn foods began arriving in American stores this year after the Food and Drug Administration completed a safety inspection. Recently, one group urged the F-D-A to reconsider its decision. The Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the agency to stop claims being made by Marlow Foods. The group questioned the company’s claim that Quorn comes from the mushroom family. It noted that mycoprotein is not a mushroom, which is a common food. The group says that Quorn is a kind of fungus people do not expect in a food. The Center for Science in the Public Interest also questioned the effectiveness of Quorn’s testing. The group said some of the proteins in the product might cause harmful allergic reactions in people. It says the F-D-A should require the company to test for possible reactions. At the same time, the group praised the company for attempting to make a healthy product without harming the environment. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Some food stores in the United States have begun to sell a product called Quorn (pronounced kworn.) Quorn looks and tastes a lot like meat. Yet it is made from a fungus. A fungus is an organism that does not have roots or leaves. It lives on organic material. In Europe, Quorn already is a popular food with people who do not eat meat. Europeans can choose from more than one-hundred different Quorn products. Quorn comes from an organism called Fusarium venenatum. It is a member of the Fungi family that includes mushrooms. The organism was first discovered in Britain several years ago. Scientists found the fungus could be made into a product that is similar in appearance to animal tissue. The food product was developed by Marlow Foods, a business operated by the European company AstraZeneca. Quorn is grown in large containers and then processed. The process produces a kind of food called mycoprotein. The finished products sold in stores are made to taste like either chicken or beef. Quorn foods look and feel like traditional meat products. People who have tested Quorn praise its taste. The mycoprotein used to make Quorn products have high levels of protein and fiber. Some of the products have less fat and harmful cholesterol than chicken or other meat. Quorn foods began arriving in American stores this year after the Food and Drug Administration completed a safety inspection. Recently, one group urged the F-D-A to reconsider its decision. The Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the agency to stop claims being made by Marlow Foods. The group questioned the company’s claim that Quorn comes from the mushroom family. It noted that mycoprotein is not a mushroom, which is a common food. The group says that Quorn is a kind of fungus people do not expect in a food. The Center for Science in the Public Interest also questioned the effectiveness of Quorn’s testing. The group said some of the proteins in the product might cause harmful allergic reactions in people. It says the F-D-A should require the company to test for possible reactions. At the same time, the group praised the company for attempting to make a healthy product without harming the environment. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – April 1, 2002: Ebola in Africa
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization reports fifty-four people have died of the Ebola virus in central Africa during the last two months. The deaths have been in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. The Ebola virus began spreading after victims were discovered in areas in northeastern Gabon in November. It is the third time Ebola has spread through Gabon since Nineteen-Ninety-Four. Health officials believe people moving across the border spread the disease from Gabon to Congo. Ebola is highly infectious and kills up to eighty percent of its victims. Researchers do not know the method by which the virus first appears in humans, but they believe it is through infected animals. The disease then spreads from person to person through blood and other body liquids. Ebola victims treated early have the best chance of survival. Signs of Ebola include a high temperature, diarrhea, muscle pains and bleeding inside the body. In severe cases, victims experience chest pains and death. There is no known cure for the disease, and no way yet to prevent it. Scientists at the American National Institutes of Health are working to develop a vaccine to prevent Ebola. Doctor Gary Nabel is leading the research effort at the N-I-H testing center in the eastern state of Maryland. He says that during the past two years, the vaccine has been tested on small animals and monkeys for safety and effectiveness. In the most recent study, four monkeys who had been given the vaccine were completely protected from a deadly injection of the Ebola virus. The study was described in November in Nature magazine. Doctor Nabel says the tests appear to have moved scientists one step closer to a vaccine for humans. The development of an effective vaccine is very important for central Africa. Earlier this year, an international team of medical experts left northeastern Gabon after receiving threats from the local community. The World Health Organization says the medical experts have not yet returned because local officials are not able to guarantee their safety. This has made efforts to contain Ebola more difficult. The W-H-O can not declare this latest spread of Ebola finished until two separate, twenty-one day periods pass without a new case of the disease being reported. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization reports fifty-four people have died of the Ebola virus in central Africa during the last two months. The deaths have been in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. The Ebola virus began spreading after victims were discovered in areas in northeastern Gabon in November. It is the third time Ebola has spread through Gabon since Nineteen-Ninety-Four. Health officials believe people moving across the border spread the disease from Gabon to Congo. Ebola is highly infectious and kills up to eighty percent of its victims. Researchers do not know the method by which the virus first appears in humans, but they believe it is through infected animals. The disease then spreads from person to person through blood and other body liquids. Ebola victims treated early have the best chance of survival. Signs of Ebola include a high temperature, diarrhea, muscle pains and bleeding inside the body. In severe cases, victims experience chest pains and death. There is no known cure for the disease, and no way yet to prevent it. Scientists at the American National Institutes of Health are working to develop a vaccine to prevent Ebola. Doctor Gary Nabel is leading the research effort at the N-I-H testing center in the eastern state of Maryland. He says that during the past two years, the vaccine has been tested on small animals and monkeys for safety and effectiveness. In the most recent study, four monkeys who had been given the vaccine were completely protected from a deadly injection of the Ebola virus. The study was described in November in Nature magazine. Doctor Nabel says the tests appear to have moved scientists one step closer to a vaccine for humans. The development of an effective vaccine is very important for central Africa. Earlier this year, an international team of medical experts left northeastern Gabon after receiving threats from the local community. The World Health Organization says the medical experts have not yet returned because local officials are not able to guarantee their safety. This has made efforts to contain Ebola more difficult. The W-H-O can not declare this latest spread of Ebola finished until two separate, twenty-one day periods pass without a new case of the disease being reported. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA  - April 1, 2002: National Poetry Month
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: April is National Poetry Month. This year, five poets have been chosen to be honored. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Great poetry is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: National Poetry Month begins April first. The American Academy of Poets started this yearly observance in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. The goal is to show the importance of poetry in American culture. One of the main events will be a reading by the world’s largest poetry-reading group. On April second, people all over the world will read the works of poet Langston Hughes. Other major poets being honored this month are Gertrude Stein, W-H Auden, Marie Ponsot (pahn-SOH) and Shel Silverstein (SIL-ver-steen). Many people helped organize National Poetry Month across the country. They include poets, booksellers, members of reading groups, teachers and librarians. They organized readings, book shows, special meetings and other events. VOICE TWO: This year is the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes. To celebrate this, the American Academy of Poets has opened a special exhibit on the Internet’s World Wide Web. It tells about his life and work. This exhibit can be found at w-w-w-dot-poets-dot-o-r-g. Other groups joined the Academy to organize special events to honor Langston Hughes. During the April Second event, people around the world will read his poems. They will read his poems in schools, libraries, bookstores, and community and religious centers. His work also will be honored at a celebration April Thirtieth at Town Hall in New York City. VOICE ONE: People called Langston Hughes “the poet voice of African Americans.” He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance. This was a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived in the Harlem area of New York City. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in Nineteen-Oh-Two. His parents separated, and he spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. He began to write poetry when he was a child. As a young man, Langston Hughes studied engineering for a short time at Columbia University in New York. But soon he began to travel, something he did all his life. In Nineteen-Twenty-Five, Hughes settled in the Harlem area of New York. During his life he lived many places. But he always returned to Harlem. VOICE TWO: Hughes became established as a writer in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. That year, he published a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.” Hughes gained fame for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. Besides poetry, he wrote dramas, short stories and novels. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. Listen now to Hughes’ poem, “Minstrel Man.” Performers in minstrel shows sang and danced and made people laugh. VOICE THREE: Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter, You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing, You do not know I die? ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Poet Gertrude Stein was born in Eighteen-Seventy-Four in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Three years later her family moved to Europe. Later they settled in Oakland, California. Gertrude attended college and medical school in the United States. But she did not become a doctor. In Nineteen-Oh-Three, she moved to Paris. There she met writers like Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway. Some critics say Gertrude Stein was as important for her influence on writers and artists as for her poetry. Her first book was published in Nineteen-Oh-Nine. “Three Lives” told about women who work to support themselves. Critics praised the book. It established Gertrude Stein as a popular new writer. Gertrude Stein often repeated words to help express the messages of her work. She believed this repetition helped explain her meaning. Her line, “Rose is a rose is a rose” because famous. Sometimes people found her work hard to understand. Still, critics consider her a major poet. Listen for the repeated words in these lines from “Stanzas in Meditation” by Gertrude Stein. VOICE FOUR: Which I wish to say is this There is no beginning to an end But there is a beginning and an end To beginning. Why yes of course. Any one can learn that north of course Is not only north but north as north Why were they worried What I wish to say is this. Yes of course ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The American Academy of Poets also will honor W-H Auden. Many critics consider him the finest English poet of the Twentieth Century. Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York, England, in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. He was educated at Christ’s Church College at Oxford University in England. Auden published his first book of poetry in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Another collection of his poems was simply called “Poems”. It was published in Nineteen-Thirty. This book helped his work become widely known. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he wrote “The Age of Anxiety.” This long poem was published as a book. Listen to this beautiful poem by W-H Auden. It is called “Funeral Blues.” VOICE THREE: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood, For nothing now can ever come to any good. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Poet Marie Ponsot (pahn-SOH) was born in Nineteen-Twenty-One in New York City, where she lives today. In her long lifetime, she has published only a few books of poems. But many critics say she is one of America’s finest poets. Her collection, “The Bird Catcher” won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Marie Ponsot began publishing poems as a child. She attended universities in the United States. After the end of World War Two, she went to Paris. There she met French artist Claude Ponsot, whom she married. Many years later, the marriage ended. She raised seven children, mainly by herself. Marie Ponsot writes about home life, marriage and friendship. Listen now to Marie Ponsot’s poem, “Old Mama Saturday.” VOICE FOUR: “I’m moving from Grief Street. Taxes are high here though the mortgage’s cheap. The house is well built. With stuff to protect, that mattered to me, the security. These things that I mind, you know, aren’t mine. I mind minding them. They weigh on my mind. I don’t mind them well. I haven’t got the knack of kindly minding. I say Take them back but you never do. When I throw them out it may frighten you and maybe me too. Maybe it will empty me too emptily and keep me here asleep, at sea under the guilt quilt, under the you tree.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Academy of American Poets also is honoring Shel Silverstein (SIL-ver-steen). He was an artist and songwriter as well as a poet. His poetry and drawings please both children and adults. Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois, in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. He began writing poems as a young boy. During the Nineteen-Fifties, he served in the military in Japan and Korea. In the service, he drew cartoon art for the newspaper “Stars and Stripes.” VOICE TWO: One of his earliest and most successful books of poetry is called “The Giving Tree.” Later he wrote poetry books including “Falling Up”, “A Light in the Attic” and “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” He once said he hoped that people of all ages would find something to identify with in his poems. He died almost three years ago at age sixty-six. Here is “Examination”, Shel Silverstein’s funny poem about going to the doctor. VOICE THREE: I went to the doctor – He reached down my throat, He pulled out a shoe And a little toy boat, He pulled out a skate And a bicycle seat And said, “Be more careful About what you eat.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our poetry readers were Shep O’Neal and Sarah Long. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: April is National Poetry Month. This year, five poets have been chosen to be honored. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Great poetry is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: National Poetry Month begins April first. The American Academy of Poets started this yearly observance in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. The goal is to show the importance of poetry in American culture. One of the main events will be a reading by the world’s largest poetry-reading group. On April second, people all over the world will read the works of poet Langston Hughes. Other major poets being honored this month are Gertrude Stein, W-H Auden, Marie Ponsot (pahn-SOH) and Shel Silverstein (SIL-ver-steen). Many people helped organize National Poetry Month across the country. They include poets, booksellers, members of reading groups, teachers and librarians. They organized readings, book shows, special meetings and other events. VOICE TWO: This year is the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes. To celebrate this, the American Academy of Poets has opened a special exhibit on the Internet’s World Wide Web. It tells about his life and work. This exhibit can be found at w-w-w-dot-poets-dot-o-r-g. Other groups joined the Academy to organize special events to honor Langston Hughes. During the April Second event, people around the world will read his poems. They will read his poems in schools, libraries, bookstores, and community and religious centers. His work also will be honored at a celebration April Thirtieth at Town Hall in New York City. VOICE ONE: People called Langston Hughes “the poet voice of African Americans.” He was one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance. This was a period of great artistic creativity among blacks who lived in the Harlem area of New York City. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in Nineteen-Oh-Two. His parents separated, and he spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. He began to write poetry when he was a child. As a young man, Langston Hughes studied engineering for a short time at Columbia University in New York. But soon he began to travel, something he did all his life. In Nineteen-Twenty-Five, Hughes settled in the Harlem area of New York. During his life he lived many places. But he always returned to Harlem. VOICE TWO: Hughes became established as a writer in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. That year, he published a collection of jazz poems called “The Weary Blues.” Hughes gained fame for his descriptions of black American life. He used his work to praise his people and voice his concerns about race and social injustice. Besides poetry, he wrote dramas, short stories and novels. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. Listen now to Hughes’ poem, “Minstrel Man.” Performers in minstrel shows sang and danced and made people laugh. VOICE THREE: Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter, You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing, You do not know I die? ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Poet Gertrude Stein was born in Eighteen-Seventy-Four in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Three years later her family moved to Europe. Later they settled in Oakland, California. Gertrude attended college and medical school in the United States. But she did not become a doctor. In Nineteen-Oh-Three, she moved to Paris. There she met writers like Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway. Some critics say Gertrude Stein was as important for her influence on writers and artists as for her poetry. Her first book was published in Nineteen-Oh-Nine. “Three Lives” told about women who work to support themselves. Critics praised the book. It established Gertrude Stein as a popular new writer. Gertrude Stein often repeated words to help express the messages of her work. She believed this repetition helped explain her meaning. Her line, “Rose is a rose is a rose” because famous. Sometimes people found her work hard to understand. Still, critics consider her a major poet. Listen for the repeated words in these lines from “Stanzas in Meditation” by Gertrude Stein. VOICE FOUR: Which I wish to say is this There is no beginning to an end But there is a beginning and an end To beginning. Why yes of course. Any one can learn that north of course Is not only north but north as north Why were they worried What I wish to say is this. Yes of course ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The American Academy of Poets also will honor W-H Auden. Many critics consider him the finest English poet of the Twentieth Century. Wystan Hugh Auden was born in York, England, in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. He was educated at Christ’s Church College at Oxford University in England. Auden published his first book of poetry in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Another collection of his poems was simply called “Poems”. It was published in Nineteen-Thirty. This book helped his work become widely known. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he wrote “The Age of Anxiety.” This long poem was published as a book. Listen to this beautiful poem by W-H Auden. It is called “Funeral Blues.” VOICE THREE: Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood, For nothing now can ever come to any good. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Poet Marie Ponsot (pahn-SOH) was born in Nineteen-Twenty-One in New York City, where she lives today. In her long lifetime, she has published only a few books of poems. But many critics say she is one of America’s finest poets. Her collection, “The Bird Catcher” won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Marie Ponsot began publishing poems as a child. She attended universities in the United States. After the end of World War Two, she went to Paris. There she met French artist Claude Ponsot, whom she married. Many years later, the marriage ended. She raised seven children, mainly by herself. Marie Ponsot writes about home life, marriage and friendship. Listen now to Marie Ponsot’s poem, “Old Mama Saturday.” VOICE FOUR: “I’m moving from Grief Street. Taxes are high here though the mortgage’s cheap. The house is well built. With stuff to protect, that mattered to me, the security. These things that I mind, you know, aren’t mine. I mind minding them. They weigh on my mind. I don’t mind them well. I haven’t got the knack of kindly minding. I say Take them back but you never do. When I throw them out it may frighten you and maybe me too. Maybe it will empty me too emptily and keep me here asleep, at sea under the guilt quilt, under the you tree.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Academy of American Poets also is honoring Shel Silverstein (SIL-ver-steen). He was an artist and songwriter as well as a poet. His poetry and drawings please both children and adults. Sheldon Allan Silverstein was born in Chicago, Illinois, in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. He began writing poems as a young boy. During the Nineteen-Fifties, he served in the military in Japan and Korea. In the service, he drew cartoon art for the newspaper “Stars and Stripes.” VOICE TWO: One of his earliest and most successful books of poetry is called “The Giving Tree.” Later he wrote poetry books including “Falling Up”, “A Light in the Attic” and “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” He once said he hoped that people of all ages would find something to identify with in his poems. He died almost three years ago at age sixty-six. Here is “Examination”, Shel Silverstein’s funny poem about going to the doctor. VOICE THREE: I went to the doctor – He reached down my throat, He pulled out a shoe And a little toy boat, He pulled out a skate And a bicycle seat And said, “Be more careful About what you eat.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our poetry readers were Shep O’Neal and Sarah Long. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-03/a-2002-03-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 31, 2002: Jack Benny
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Jack Benny. He was one of America’s best-loved funnymen during the twentieth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Jack Benny was one of the most famous names in show business for more than fifty years. He started as a serious musician, before he discovered he could make people laugh. Jack Benny became famous nationwide in the Nineteen-Thirties as a result of his weekly radio program. His programs were among the most popular on American radio, and later on television. Jack Benny won the hearts of Americans by making fun of himself. He was known not as someone who said funny things, but as someone who said things in a funny way. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February fourteenth, Eighteen-Ninety-Four. His parents, Meyer and Emma Kubelsky, were religious Jews. They had moved to the United States from eastern Europe. They named their first child, Benjamin. Benjamin Kubelsky and his family lived in Waukeegan (pronounce waw-KEE-guhn), Illinois. Benjamin was a quiet boy. For much of the time, his parents were busy working in his father’s store. As a child, Benjamin, or Benny as his friends called him, learned to play the violin. Benny was such a good violin player that, for a time, he wanted to become a musician. VOICE ONE: While in school, Benny got a job as a violin player with the Barrison Theater, the local vaudeville house. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who made people laugh and other acts. Benny worked at the Barrison Theater -- sometimes during school hours. He left high school before completing his studies. The piano player for the theater was a former vaudeville performer named Cora Salisbury. For a short time, she and Benny formed their own performing act. Later, he and another piano player had their own act. At first, Benny changed his name to Ben K. Benny. However, that name was similar to another actor who played a violin. So, he chose the name Jack Benny. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The United States entered World War One in Nineteen-Seventeen. Benny joined the Navy and reported to the Great Lakes Naval Station. He continued using his violin to perform for sailors at the naval station. In one show, he was chosen more for his funny jokes than for his skill with the violin. That experience made him believe that his future job was as a comedian, not in music. VOICE ONE: After leaving the Navy, Benny returned to vaudeville. His performances won him considerable popularity during the Nineteen-Twenties. He traveled across the country with other well-known performers, including the Marx Brothers. In Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Benny married Sadie Marks, a sales girl from the May Company store in Los Angeles. Missus Benny soon became part of the traveling show. She used the name Mary Livingstone (pron: living-stun). Jack Benny appeared in a few Hollywood films, but then left California and moved to New York. He had a leading part in the Broadway show, Vanities. VOICE TWO: Benny made his first appearance on radio in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. He was invited to appear on a radio show presented by newspaper reporter Ed Sullivan. Benny opened with this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a short break while you say, who cares?” However, many listeners did care. Within a short period, Benny had his own radio show. It continued for twenty-three years. ANNCR:“The Jack Benny Program…” ((MUSIC)) “ … starring Jack Benny, with Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Rochester, Dennis Day, and yours truly, Don Wilson…” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Jack Benny developed a show business personality that had all the qualities people dislike. He was known for being so stingy he refused to spend any of his money, unless forced to do so. He always was concerned about money. For example, he would put on a jeweler’s glass to examine the diamond on a wealthy woman he had just met. In another example, a robber points a gun at Benny. ROBBER: “This is a stick-up.” BENNY: “Mister, put down that gun.” ROBBER: “Shut up. I said this is a stick-up. Now, come on. Your money or your life.” ((laughter)) ROBBER: “Look, bud. I said, your money or your life!” BENNY: “I’m thinking it over.” ((laughter/music)) VOICE TWO: On his shows, Jack Benny often spoke of his appearance, especially his baby blue eyes. As he grew older, he always claimed to be thirty-nine years old. Benny was known as a comedian with great timing. He seemed to know the perfect time to tell a joke and when to remain silent. The way he looked at other actors and his use of body movements were world famous. He also was skilled at using his violin to make people laugh. VOICE ONE: Jack Benny was one of the first comedians who was willing to let other people share some of the laughs. He rarely made jokes that hurt other people. Instead, he would let the other actors on the show tell jokes about him. Many of the actors in Benny’s show became almost as famous as he was. They would criticize Benny’s refusal to replace his ancient automobile. They made fun of the pay telephone that he added to his house. This is a telephone discussion between Benny and his trusted employee, Rochester. BENNY: “Hello…” ROCHESTER: “Hello, Mister Benny. This is Rochester…” ((applause)) BENNY: “Rochester, I’m in the middle of the program.” ROCHESTER: “I know, boss, but this is very important. The man from the life insurance company was here about that policy you’re taking out and he asked me a lot of questions.” BENNY: “Well, I hope you answered them right.” ROCHESTER: “Oh, I did. When he asked me your height, I said five-foot, ten.” BENNY: “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “Your weight, one-hundred-sixty-four.” BENNY: “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “Your age, thirty-nine.” BENNY: “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “We had quite a roundtable discussion on that one.” ((laughter)) BENNY: “Wait a minute, Rochester. Why should there be any question about my age?” ROCHESTER: “Oh, it wasn’t a question. It was the answer we had trouble with.” ((laughter)) VOICE TWO: Jack Benny said, “The show itself is the important thing. As long as people think the show is funny, it does not matter who tells the jokes.” He also made fun of the paid announcements broadcast during his radio show that were designed to sell products. They often provided some of the funniest moments in the show. Most performers never would make fun of the businesses that helped pay for the show. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Jack Benny did well financially. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he moved his show from the National Broadcasting Company to the Columbia Broadcasting System. As part of the agreement, C-B-S paid more than two-million dollars to a company in which Benny had a controlling interest. Much later, the Music Corporation of America bought Benny’s production company. Benny received almost three-million dollars in M-C-A stock shares. In real life, he was the opposite of the person he played in his show. He was known to be very giving and someone people liked having as their employer. He also could play the violin very well. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny entered the new medium of television in Nineteen-Fifty. Five years later, he dropped his radio program to spend more time developing his television show. At first, his appearances on television were rare. By Nineteen-Sixty, the Benny show was a weekly television program. It continued until Nineteen-Sixty-Five. Benny appeared in about twenty films during his life. A few became popular. But most were not. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, Benny returned to Broadway for the first time since Nineteen-Thirty-One. He performed to large crowds. VOICE ONE: Jack Benny received many awards during his lifetime. The publication Motion Picture Daily voted him the country’s best radio comedian four times. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, he won a special award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the best continuing performance. He also won the Academy’s television award for the best comedy series in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. Perhaps the one honor that pleased him most was that his hometown of Waukeegan named a school for him. This is was special honor for a man who had never finished high school. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny continued to perform and to do a few television specials after his weekly series ended. He died of cancer on December twenty-sixth, Nineteen-Seventy-Four. His friend, comedian Bob Hope, spoke at the funeral about the loss felt by Benny’s friends and fans. He said “Jack Benny was stingy to the end. He gave us only eighty years.” MUSIC: “Love in Bloom”/David Rose and His Orchestra VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by and produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Jack Benny. He was one of America’s best-loved funnymen during the twentieth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Jack Benny was one of the most famous names in show business for more than fifty years. He started as a serious musician, before he discovered he could make people laugh. Jack Benny became famous nationwide in the Nineteen-Thirties as a result of his weekly radio program. His programs were among the most popular on American radio, and later on television. Jack Benny won the hearts of Americans by making fun of himself. He was known not as someone who said funny things, but as someone who said things in a funny way. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February fourteenth, Eighteen-Ninety-Four. His parents, Meyer and Emma Kubelsky, were religious Jews. They had moved to the United States from eastern Europe. They named their first child, Benjamin. Benjamin Kubelsky and his family lived in Waukeegan (pronounce waw-KEE-guhn), Illinois. Benjamin was a quiet boy. For much of the time, his parents were busy working in his father’s store. As a child, Benjamin, or Benny as his friends called him, learned to play the violin. Benny was such a good violin player that, for a time, he wanted to become a musician. VOICE ONE: While in school, Benny got a job as a violin player with the Barrison Theater, the local vaudeville house. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who made people laugh and other acts. Benny worked at the Barrison Theater -- sometimes during school hours. He left high school before completing his studies. The piano player for the theater was a former vaudeville performer named Cora Salisbury. For a short time, she and Benny formed their own performing act. Later, he and another piano player had their own act. At first, Benny changed his name to Ben K. Benny. However, that name was similar to another actor who played a violin. So, he chose the name Jack Benny. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The United States entered World War One in Nineteen-Seventeen. Benny joined the Navy and reported to the Great Lakes Naval Station. He continued using his violin to perform for sailors at the naval station. In one show, he was chosen more for his funny jokes than for his skill with the violin. That experience made him believe that his future job was as a comedian, not in music. VOICE ONE: After leaving the Navy, Benny returned to vaudeville. His performances won him considerable popularity during the Nineteen-Twenties. He traveled across the country with other well-known performers, including the Marx Brothers. In Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Benny married Sadie Marks, a sales girl from the May Company store in Los Angeles. Missus Benny soon became part of the traveling show. She used the name Mary Livingstone (pron: living-stun). Jack Benny appeared in a few Hollywood films, but then left California and moved to New York. He had a leading part in the Broadway show, Vanities. VOICE TWO: Benny made his first appearance on radio in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. He was invited to appear on a radio show presented by newspaper reporter Ed Sullivan. Benny opened with this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a short break while you say, who cares?” However, many listeners did care. Within a short period, Benny had his own radio show. It continued for twenty-three years. ANNCR:“The Jack Benny Program…” ((MUSIC)) “ … starring Jack Benny, with Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris, Rochester, Dennis Day, and yours truly, Don Wilson…” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Jack Benny developed a show business personality that had all the qualities people dislike. He was known for being so stingy he refused to spend any of his money, unless forced to do so. He always was concerned about money. For example, he would put on a jeweler’s glass to examine the diamond on a wealthy woman he had just met. In another example, a robber points a gun at Benny. ROBBER: “This is a stick-up.” BENNY: “Mister, put down that gun.” ROBBER: “Shut up. I said this is a stick-up. Now, come on. Your money or your life.” ((laughter)) ROBBER: “Look, bud. I said, your money or your life!” BENNY: “I’m thinking it over.” ((laughter/music)) VOICE TWO: On his shows, Jack Benny often spoke of his appearance, especially his baby blue eyes. As he grew older, he always claimed to be thirty-nine years old. Benny was known as a comedian with great timing. He seemed to know the perfect time to tell a joke and when to remain silent. The way he looked at other actors and his use of body movements were world famous. He also was skilled at using his violin to make people laugh. VOICE ONE: Jack Benny was one of the first comedians who was willing to let other people share some of the laughs. He rarely made jokes that hurt other people. Instead, he would let the other actors on the show tell jokes about him. Many of the actors in Benny’s show became almost as famous as he was. They would criticize Benny’s refusal to replace his ancient automobile. They made fun of the pay telephone that he added to his house. This is a telephone discussion between Benny and his trusted employee, Rochester. BENNY: “Hello…” ROCHESTER: “Hello, Mister Benny. This is Rochester…” ((applause)) BENNY: “Rochester, I’m in the middle of the program.” ROCHESTER: “I know, boss, but this is very important. The man from the life insurance company was here about that policy you’re taking out and he asked me a lot of questions.” BENNY: “Well, I hope you answered them right.” ROCHESTER: “Oh, I did. When he asked me your height, I said five-foot, ten.” BENNY: “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “Your weight, one-hundred-sixty-four.” BENNY: “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “Your age, thirty-nine.” BENNY: “Uh, huh.” ROCHESTER: “We had quite a roundtable discussion on that one.” ((laughter)) BENNY: “Wait a minute, Rochester. Why should there be any question about my age?” ROCHESTER: “Oh, it wasn’t a question. It was the answer we had trouble with.” ((laughter)) VOICE TWO: Jack Benny said, “The show itself is the important thing. As long as people think the show is funny, it does not matter who tells the jokes.” He also made fun of the paid announcements broadcast during his radio show that were designed to sell products. They often provided some of the funniest moments in the show. Most performers never would make fun of the businesses that helped pay for the show. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Jack Benny did well financially. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he moved his show from the National Broadcasting Company to the Columbia Broadcasting System. As part of the agreement, C-B-S paid more than two-million dollars to a company in which Benny had a controlling interest. Much later, the Music Corporation of America bought Benny’s production company. Benny received almost three-million dollars in M-C-A stock shares. In real life, he was the opposite of the person he played in his show. He was known to be very giving and someone people liked having as their employer. He also could play the violin very well. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny entered the new medium of television in Nineteen-Fifty. Five years later, he dropped his radio program to spend more time developing his television show. At first, his appearances on television were rare. By Nineteen-Sixty, the Benny show was a weekly television program. It continued until Nineteen-Sixty-Five. Benny appeared in about twenty films during his life. A few became popular. But most were not. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, Benny returned to Broadway for the first time since Nineteen-Thirty-One. He performed to large crowds. VOICE ONE: Jack Benny received many awards during his lifetime. The publication Motion Picture Daily voted him the country’s best radio comedian four times. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, he won a special award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the best continuing performance. He also won the Academy’s television award for the best comedy series in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. Perhaps the one honor that pleased him most was that his hometown of Waukeegan named a school for him. This is was special honor for a man who had never finished high school. VOICE TWO: Jack Benny continued to perform and to do a few television specials after his weekly series ended. He died of cancer on December twenty-sixth, Nineteen-Seventy-Four. His friend, comedian Bob Hope, spoke at the funeral about the loss felt by Benny’s friends and fans. He said “Jack Benny was stingy to the end. He gave us only eighty years.” MUSIC: “Love in Bloom”/David Rose and His Orchestra VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by and produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - March 29, 2002: New Rock and Roll Hall of Famers / New York's Tribute in Light / Women's History Month
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Tribute of Light HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play music by some new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ... Answer a question about a memorial light in New York City ... The Ramones (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play music by some new members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ... Answer a question about a memorial light in New York City ... And celebrate National Women’s History Month. Women’s History Month HOST: March is National Women’s History Month. It honors women who have improved life in the United States. The National Women’s History Project is one organization that honors women this month. It was established in Nineteen-Eighty to record and recognize women’s influence on society. It is honoring six women this year. Shep O’Neal tells us about them. ANNCR: The six women being honored are all more than seventy years old. They have worked to keep history and cultural traditions alive and to improve people’s lives. Brenda Lee And celebrate National Women’s History Month. Women’s History Month HOST: March is National Women’s History Month. It honors women who have improved life in the United States. The National Women’s History Project is one organization that honors women this month. It was established in Nineteen-Eighty to record and recognize women’s influence on society. It is honoring six women this year. Shep O’Neal tells us about them. ANNCR: The six women being honored are all more than seventy years old. They have worked to keep history and cultural traditions alive and to improve people’s lives. Historian Gerda Lerner was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria in Nineteen-Twenty. She came to the United States in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight after resisting Nazi oppression. Miz Lerner helped establish women’s history as an important subject for study. In Nineteen-Eighty-One, she became the first woman in fifty years to head the Organization of American Historians. Native American storyteller Mary Louise Defender Wilson is being honored for helping keep alive the spirit of the Dakotah-Hidatsa tribes. She has traveled around the United States to tell stories about heroes, birds, plants and animals. Human rights activist Dorothy Height is also being honored this month. She was born in Nineteen-Twelve. Mizz Height helped lead the American civil rights movement during the Nineteen-Sixties. She led the National Council of Negro Women for more than forty years. Labor leader Dolores Huerta has worked to improve conditions for farm workers who must travel to different areas of the country to pick crops. With activist Cesar Chavez, she established and led the United Farm Workers Union. Congresswoman Patsy Mink is also being honored. Her grandparents moved to the American state of Hawaii from Japan. She became the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress. She has worked for equal educational chances for women. Mizz Mink has represented Hawaii in the House of Representatives for twelve terms. Sportswoman Alice Coachman was the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She broke the record for the high-jump event in the Nineteen-Forty-Eight Olympic Games in London. Each of these women is being recognized by lawmakers in her home state with a special party in her honor. And all their stories are being told in schools and other education centers around the country. Tribute in Light Historian Gerda Lerner was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria in Nineteen-Twenty. She came to the United States in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight after resisting Nazi oppression. Miz Lerner helped establish women’s history as an important subject for study. In Nineteen-Eighty-One, she became the first woman in fifty years to head the Organization of American Historians. Native American storyteller Mary Louise Defender Wilson is being honored for helping keep alive the spirit of the Dakotah-Hidatsa tribes. She has traveled around the United States to tell stories about heroes, birds, plants and animals. Human rights activist Dorothy Height is also being honored this month. She was born in Nineteen-Twelve. Mizz Height helped lead the American civil rights movement during the Nineteen-Sixties. She led the National Council of Negro Women for more than forty years. Labor leader Dolores Huerta has worked to improve conditions for farm workers who must travel to different areas of the country to pick crops. With activist Cesar Chavez, she established and led the United Farm Workers Union. Congresswoman Patsy Mink is also being honored. Her grandparents moved to the American state of Hawaii from Japan. She became the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress. She has worked for equal educational chances for women. Mizz Mink has represented Hawaii in the House of Representatives for twelve terms. Sportswoman Alice Coachman was the first African-American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She broke the record for the high-jump event in the Nineteen-Forty-Eight Olympic Games in London. Each of these women is being recognized by lawmakers in her home state with a special party in her honor. And all their stories are being told in schools and other education centers around the country. Tribute in Light HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Chu Mong Hung asks about the Tribute in Light in New York City. Tribute in Light is the name for two tall beams of light extending into the night sky over New York City. The lights re-create the image of the two World Trade Center buildings. The lights appear as the two huge buildings did before they were destroyed in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. The lights are also a temporary memorial to the more than two-thousand-eight-hundred people who were killed in the attacks. Experts say the lights extend up to three kilometers high. People can see the lights from as many as thirty-two kilometers away. The project was the idea of two building designers and two artists. The two teams joined together when they learned of each others’ work. The towers of light are produced by eighty-eight individual high-power lamps on the ground near the ruins of the Trade Center buildings. New York’s electric company is providing the light without charge. The Tribute in Light was first lit at a ceremony on March eleventh, six months after the terrorist attack. Twelve-year-old Valerie Webb lit the Tribute in Light. Her father was a police officer who was killed in the attack. Her mother died two years ago. The towers of light will shine every night until April thirteenth. Later, a permanent memorial will be built. The newspaper USA Today published some peoples’ reactions to the Tribute in Light. Some people said the lights cannot replace the buildings. Others said it was a good way to remember them. One woman said looking at the towers of light fills an emptiness she feels each day when she sees that the World Trade Center buildings are not there. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame HOST: Several famous recording artists were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week during a ceremony in New York City. The Hall of Fame has been honoring rock and roll singers and songwriters for seventeen years. Musicians can become members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twenty-five years after their first recordings. Mary Tillotson tells us about the new members. ANNCR: A group called the Ramones became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. They performed what is called “punk rock.” Perhaps you remember their song, “I Wanna Be Sedated.” ((CUT 1: "I WANNA BE SEDATED")) Two other groups were chosen for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They are The Talking Heads and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Singer Gene Pitney, musician Chet Atkins and record producer Jim Stewart also were made members of the Hall of Fame. The only woman to become a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year is Brenda Lee. She sings mostly country music today, but started out singing popular music as a child. Brenda Lee recorded one of her best known songs before she was sixteen years old. It is “I’m Sorry.” ((CUT 2: "I’M SORRY")) Another new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is African American performer Isaac Hayes. He is probably best known for the theme song from the hit movie “Shaft.” He performed that song at the Hall of Fame ceremonies in New York. We leave you now with Isaac Hayes’ recording of the “Theme from Shaft.” ((CUT 3: THEME FROM "SHAFT")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Chu Mong Hung asks about the Tribute in Light in New York City. Tribute in Light is the name for two tall beams of light extending into the night sky over New York City. The lights re-create the image of the two World Trade Center buildings. The lights appear as the two huge buildings did before they were destroyed in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. The lights are also a temporary memorial to the more than two-thousand-eight-hundred people who were killed in the attacks. Experts say the lights extend up to three kilometers high. People can see the lights from as many as thirty-two kilometers away. The project was the idea of two building designers and two artists. The two teams joined together when they learned of each others’ work. The towers of light are produced by eighty-eight individual high-power lamps on the ground near the ruins of the Trade Center buildings. New York’s electric company is providing the light without charge. The Tribute in Light was first lit at a ceremony on March eleventh, six months after the terrorist attack. Twelve-year-old Valerie Webb lit the Tribute in Light. Her father was a police officer who was killed in the attack. Her mother died two years ago. The towers of light will shine every night until April thirteenth. Later, a permanent memorial will be built. The newspaper USA Today published some peoples’ reactions to the Tribute in Light. Some people said the lights cannot replace the buildings. Others said it was a good way to remember them. One woman said looking at the towers of light fills an emptiness she feels each day when she sees that the World Trade Center buildings are not there. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame HOST: Several famous recording artists were named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week during a ceremony in New York City. The Hall of Fame has been honoring rock and roll singers and songwriters for seventeen years. Musicians can become members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twenty-five years after their first recordings. Mary Tillotson tells us about the new members. ANNCR: A group called the Ramones became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. They performed what is called “punk rock.” Perhaps you remember their song, “I Wanna Be Sedated.” ((CUT 1: "I WANNA BE SEDATED")) Two other groups were chosen for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They are The Talking Heads and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Singer Gene Pitney, musician Chet Atkins and record producer Jim Stewart also were made members of the Hall of Fame. The only woman to become a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year is Brenda Lee. She sings mostly country music today, but started out singing popular music as a child. Brenda Lee recorded one of her best known songs before she was sixteen years old. It is “I’m Sorry.” ((CUT 2: "I’M SORRY")) Another new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is African American performer Isaac Hayes. He is probably best known for the theme song from the hit movie “Shaft.” He performed that song at the Hall of Fame ceremonies in New York. We leave you now with Isaac Hayes’ recording of the “Theme from Shaft.” ((CUT 3: THEME FROM "SHAFT")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - March 30, 2002: Committee to Protect Journalists 2001 Report
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Every year, the Committee to Protect Journalists releases a report on the conditions faced by reporters around the world. The report tells about killings and suspicious disappearances of news writers, photographers, radio and television broadcasters and publishers. The report also discusses actions by governments and other groups to repress the news media. Two-Thousand-One was a dangerous year for reporters around the world. At least thirty-seven were killed because of what they reported or because they were working in dangerous situations. That is thirteen more deaths than the year before. The report says conditions last year were very bad for reporters in Burma, Syria and Columbia. Three reporters were killed in Colombia. And the Committee to Protect Journalists says it still is investigating the suspicious deaths of five other reporters in Colombia. The Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists is Ann Cooper. She says reporting about wars is dangerous. Eight reporters died last year covering the war in Afghanistan. But, she says reporters generally face the greatest risk when reporting about government wrongdoing in their own countries. She says members of the press may be murdered because of the information they report. That happened last year, she says, in Bangladesh, China, Yugoslavia and Thailand. The report by the Committee to Protect Journalists also suggests increased efforts last year to repress the media around the world. For example, the Committee says there was a major rise in the number of reporters put in jail for doing their work. The report says one-hundred-eighteen reporters were jailed last year compared to eighty-one in Two-Thousand. China jailed thirty-five reporters, more than any other country for the third year. The report also discusses the way the terrorist attacks on the United States affected reporting last year. It says some governments acted to interfere with or block reporting about the attacks. Other governments used national security concerns as an excuse to restrict the press after the attacks. The report notes the American State Department’s unsuccessful attempt to the stop V-O-A from broadcasting part of an interview with Taleban leader Mullah Omar. The report always includes a list of those people it considers the ten worst enemies of the press. Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again is at the top of the list. He is followed by Charles Taylor, the president of Liberia, and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The Committee to Protect Journalists is based in New York. It was established in Nineteen-Eighty-One to support freedom of the press internationally. It works to defend the right of reporters to do their work without fear of punishment. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Every year, the Committee to Protect Journalists releases a report on the conditions faced by reporters around the world. The report tells about killings and suspicious disappearances of news writers, photographers, radio and television broadcasters and publishers. The report also discusses actions by governments and other groups to repress the news media. Two-Thousand-One was a dangerous year for reporters around the world. At least thirty-seven were killed because of what they reported or because they were working in dangerous situations. That is thirteen more deaths than the year before. The report says conditions last year were very bad for reporters in Burma, Syria and Columbia. Three reporters were killed in Colombia. And the Committee to Protect Journalists says it still is investigating the suspicious deaths of five other reporters in Colombia. The Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists is Ann Cooper. She says reporting about wars is dangerous. Eight reporters died last year covering the war in Afghanistan. But, she says reporters generally face the greatest risk when reporting about government wrongdoing in their own countries. She says members of the press may be murdered because of the information they report. That happened last year, she says, in Bangladesh, China, Yugoslavia and Thailand. The report by the Committee to Protect Journalists also suggests increased efforts last year to repress the media around the world. For example, the Committee says there was a major rise in the number of reporters put in jail for doing their work. The report says one-hundred-eighteen reporters were jailed last year compared to eighty-one in Two-Thousand. China jailed thirty-five reporters, more than any other country for the third year. The report also discusses the way the terrorist attacks on the United States affected reporting last year. It says some governments acted to interfere with or block reporting about the attacks. Other governments used national security concerns as an excuse to restrict the press after the attacks. The report notes the American State Department’s unsuccessful attempt to the stop V-O-A from broadcasting part of an interview with Taleban leader Mullah Omar. The report always includes a list of those people it considers the ten worst enemies of the press. Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again is at the top of the list. He is followed by Charles Taylor, the president of Liberia, and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The Committee to Protect Journalists is based in New York. It was established in Nineteen-Eighty-One to support freedom of the press internationally. It works to defend the right of reporters to do their work without fear of punishment. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 3, 2002: Spacesuit History
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the special clothes astronauts wear that protect them while they work in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: left to right crew members Yury Usachev, Susan Helms and Jim Voss - NASA VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the special clothes astronauts wear that protect them while they work in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many questions had to be answered about fifty years ago when officials first began to think about placing a human being in space. One of the most important was how to design the special clothing needed to protect a person from the dangers of the space environment. A person can not work in the extremes of space without many different kinds of protection. The cold of space will freeze skin in just moments. The fierce heat of the sun can cause severe burns. The complete lack of atmosphere can cause the blood to boil. And, with no oxygen to breathe, a human being will die in only a few moments. Any of these extreme conditions would mean a quick death for someone who did not wear special protective clothing. VOICE TWO: When humans explore and do useful work in space, they must take their natural environment with them. The American space agency, NASA, provides astronauts with a number of things that work together to create a protective environment. An astronaut who works outside the space shuttle usually is wearing more than seventeen pieces of protective equipment. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) Many questions had to be answered about fifty years ago when officials first began to think about placing a human being in space. One of the most important was how to design the special clothing needed to protect a person from the dangers of the space environment. A person can not work in the extremes of space without many different kinds of protection. The cold of space will freeze skin in just moments. The fierce heat of the sun can cause severe burns. The complete lack of atmosphere can cause the blood to boil. And, with no oxygen to breathe, a human being will die in only a few moments. Any of these extreme conditions would mean a quick death for someone who did not wear special protective clothing. VOICE TWO: When humans explore and do useful work in space, they must take their natural environment with them. The American space agency, NASA, provides astronauts with a number of things that work together to create a protective environment. An astronaut who works outside the space shuttle usually is wearing more than seventeen pieces of protective equipment. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The atmosphere is about twenty-percent oxygen and eighty percent nitrogen from Earth’s surface to where space begins at one-hundred-twenty kilometers up. Yet up at about five-thousand-four hundred meters the air pressure is only about half of what it is on the ground. At about nineteen-thousand meters, the air is so thin and the amount of oxygen so small that a person needs a lot of special equipment to survive. A well-known American flyer, Wiley Post, designed one of the first successful devices to protect a pilot at extreme heights. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, he developed protective clothing that made it possible for him to fly very high. VOICE TWO: Wiley Post made this protective clothing with the help of the Phillips Petroleum Company and the B-F Goodrich Company. It appeared to be something a person would wear to stay underwater for long periods of time. A large device that looked like a can surrounded the pilot’s head. A small window in the front permitted him to see. Wiley Post’s protective clothing was made of rubber. It could hold oxygen and provide the needed air pressure to protect his body from the lack of pressure at a high height. This rubber suit looked similar to a large balloon shaped like a human. The protective rubber suit was only used a few times, but it permitted Mister Post to fly as high as fifteen-thousand meters. That was higher than any person had ever flown. Mister Post did not know it, but he had designed the first real spacesuit. You can see his design at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D-C. VOICE ONE: As time passed, airplane designers made it possible for people to fly extremely high without wearing such protection. They did this by providing almost normal air pressure inside the airplane. This environment meant people could wear their usual clothing. A passenger airplane today provides a safe, comfortable atmosphere inside the plane even when it is flying very high. VOICE TWO: Astronauts in NASA’s Mercury Program flew the first American space flights in the early Nineteen-Sixties. Each set of protective clothing was specially made for each astronaut. The clothing was similar to that invented by Wiley Post. And, it presented some of the same problems. When air pressure filled the early spacesuit, astronauts found it difficult to move their arms or legs. It was a little like trying to change the shape of a balloon. The pressure inside the suit provided protection, but made it difficult for the astronaut to move in a natural way. Mercury astronauts usually wore the suit without air pressure inside. The Mercury spacecraft had the needed atmospheric pressure to keep the astronauts safe. The astronauts wore the suit as a safety device in case the spacecraft suddenly lost air pressure. VOICE ONE: Today, astronauts wear very different protective clothing. It permits them to move, do useful tasks, and stay out side their spacecraft in comfort and safety for several hours. For the next few minutes, imagine you are in the space shuttle about to go out to work in space. We will tell you how you need to get into your space clothing. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You will wear a spacesuit to work in the open cargo area of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The spacesuit is called the shuttle extravehicular mobility unit or E-M-U. It was designed to last longer and to permit more movement than earlier spacesuits. The E-M-U has a number of parts that an astronaut can link together by using only one hand. The different parts are in different sizes. This makes it possible for each astronaut to select the parts that fit correctly. Wearing the whole E-M-U equipment adds about forty-eight kilograms to your weight. Yet, the lack of gravity in space means you will not feel the added weight. VOICE ONE: You will be wearing equipment that will send medical information back to the NASA control center in Houston, Texas. Doctors will observe your medical condition while you work in space. You also will wear a device that will collect urine, the body’s liquid waste. You will be working outside the space shuttle for about five hours. This collection device can become very necessary. VOICE TWO: You will also wear something called the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment. This piece of clothing is worn next to the skin. It helps keep the body cool by moving water through many small tubes that cover the device. The heat from the sun can reach one-hundred-twenty degrees Celsius in orbit. The material of the space suit helps protect against this heat. The liquid cooling device also works to keep your body from becoming too hot. Next you put on a container that holds water to drink. The container is worn near the chest. A small tube stays near your mouth so you can drink water during your stay in space. You place a special hat on your head. It is made of soft cloth. It also carries several communications devices including earphones and microphones. These communication devices will permit you to talk with other astronauts working outside the shuttle and with crew members inside the shuttle. You can also talk with the control center in Houston, Texas. The lower part of the spacesuit is next. It is called the Lower Torso Assembly. It is like putting on a large pair of pants that have boots built in the bottom of the legs. VOICE ONE: Next comes the upper part of the spacesuit. It is made of a hard plastic-like material. To put it on, you must hold your arms over your head, and rise up into the upper part of the suit. The upper part of the suit also holds the Primary Life Support System. The life support system supplies the oxygen needed for breathing and the air pressure necessary to protect your body. The upper part of the spacesuit also carries an emergency oxygen system in case the first system fails. An important part of your spacesuit is the Control Module. It lets you observe and control your oxygen system. It is also the place you find the controls for your communications equipment. And, it tells you if you are having a problem with any of the spacesuit’s devices. It is time for you to link the many systems together. The oxygen is on so you can breathe. And the air pressure is producing a normal atmosphere to protect you. Now you are ready to enter the work area of the space shuttle Discovery. VOICE TWO: You will need one more piece of equipment. This is the Manned Maneuvering Unit, or M-M-U. It connects to your Primary Live Support System. It makes it possible for you to fly from place to place in space, away from the Discovery. The M-M-U is worn on the back. It is controlled by a device that is held in the hand. The jets of nitrogen gas from the M-M-U help you move. The pressure of this gas moves you through space. You are now ready to work in the extreme and dangerous conditions of space. You will be comfortable and able to move. You can do the work that is needed. Then, best of all, you can return safely into the space shuttle when your work is done. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Kevin Raiman. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The atmosphere is about twenty-percent oxygen and eighty percent nitrogen from Earth’s surface to where space begins at one-hundred-twenty kilometers up. Yet up at about five-thousand-four hundred meters the air pressure is only about half of what it is on the ground. At about nineteen-thousand meters, the air is so thin and the amount of oxygen so small that a person needs a lot of special equipment to survive. A well-known American flyer, Wiley Post, designed one of the first successful devices to protect a pilot at extreme heights. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, he developed protective clothing that made it possible for him to fly very high. VOICE TWO: Wiley Post made this protective clothing with the help of the Phillips Petroleum Company and the B-F Goodrich Company. It appeared to be something a person would wear to stay underwater for long periods of time. A large device that looked like a can surrounded the pilot’s head. A small window in the front permitted him to see. Wiley Post’s protective clothing was made of rubber. It could hold oxygen and provide the needed air pressure to protect his body from the lack of pressure at a high height. This rubber suit looked similar to a large balloon shaped like a human. The protective rubber suit was only used a few times, but it permitted Mister Post to fly as high as fifteen-thousand meters. That was higher than any person had ever flown. Mister Post did not know it, but he had designed the first real spacesuit. You can see his design at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D-C. VOICE ONE: As time passed, airplane designers made it possible for people to fly extremely high without wearing such protection. They did this by providing almost normal air pressure inside the airplane. This environment meant people could wear their usual clothing. A passenger airplane today provides a safe, comfortable atmosphere inside the plane even when it is flying very high. VOICE TWO: Astronauts in NASA’s Mercury Program flew the first American space flights in the early Nineteen-Sixties. Each set of protective clothing was specially made for each astronaut. The clothing was similar to that invented by Wiley Post. And, it presented some of the same problems. When air pressure filled the early spacesuit, astronauts found it difficult to move their arms or legs. It was a little like trying to change the shape of a balloon. The pressure inside the suit provided protection, but made it difficult for the astronaut to move in a natural way. Mercury astronauts usually wore the suit without air pressure inside. The Mercury spacecraft had the needed atmospheric pressure to keep the astronauts safe. The astronauts wore the suit as a safety device in case the spacecraft suddenly lost air pressure. VOICE ONE: Today, astronauts wear very different protective clothing. It permits them to move, do useful tasks, and stay out side their spacecraft in comfort and safety for several hours. For the next few minutes, imagine you are in the space shuttle about to go out to work in space. We will tell you how you need to get into your space clothing. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You will wear a spacesuit to work in the open cargo area of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The spacesuit is called the shuttle extravehicular mobility unit or E-M-U. It was designed to last longer and to permit more movement than earlier spacesuits. The E-M-U has a number of parts that an astronaut can link together by using only one hand. The different parts are in different sizes. This makes it possible for each astronaut to select the parts that fit correctly. Wearing the whole E-M-U equipment adds about forty-eight kilograms to your weight. Yet, the lack of gravity in space means you will not feel the added weight. VOICE ONE: You will be wearing equipment that will send medical information back to the NASA control center in Houston, Texas. Doctors will observe your medical condition while you work in space. You also will wear a device that will collect urine, the body’s liquid waste. You will be working outside the space shuttle for about five hours. This collection device can become very necessary. VOICE TWO: You will also wear something called the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment. This piece of clothing is worn next to the skin. It helps keep the body cool by moving water through many small tubes that cover the device. The heat from the sun can reach one-hundred-twenty degrees Celsius in orbit. The material of the space suit helps protect against this heat. The liquid cooling device also works to keep your body from becoming too hot. Next you put on a container that holds water to drink. The container is worn near the chest. A small tube stays near your mouth so you can drink water during your stay in space. You place a special hat on your head. It is made of soft cloth. It also carries several communications devices including earphones and microphones. These communication devices will permit you to talk with other astronauts working outside the shuttle and with crew members inside the shuttle. You can also talk with the control center in Houston, Texas. The lower part of the spacesuit is next. It is called the Lower Torso Assembly. It is like putting on a large pair of pants that have boots built in the bottom of the legs. VOICE ONE: Next comes the upper part of the spacesuit. It is made of a hard plastic-like material. To put it on, you must hold your arms over your head, and rise up into the upper part of the suit. The upper part of the suit also holds the Primary Life Support System. The life support system supplies the oxygen needed for breathing and the air pressure necessary to protect your body. The upper part of the spacesuit also carries an emergency oxygen system in case the first system fails. An important part of your spacesuit is the Control Module. It lets you observe and control your oxygen system. It is also the place you find the controls for your communications equipment. And, it tells you if you are having a problem with any of the spacesuit’s devices. It is time for you to link the many systems together. The oxygen is on so you can breathe. And the air pressure is producing a normal atmosphere to protect you. Now you are ready to enter the work area of the space shuttle Discovery. VOICE TWO: You will need one more piece of equipment. This is the Manned Maneuvering Unit, or M-M-U. It connects to your Primary Live Support System. It makes it possible for you to fly from place to place in space, away from the Discovery. The M-M-U is worn on the back. It is controlled by a device that is held in the hand. The jets of nitrogen gas from the M-M-U help you move. The pressure of this gas moves you through space. You are now ready to work in the extreme and dangerous conditions of space. You will be comfortable and able to move. You can do the work that is needed. Then, best of all, you can return safely into the space shuttle when your work is done. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Kevin Raiman. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - April 3, 2002: Foods and Health
* Byline: 

 Two new programs are replacing Science Report: -- On Wednesdays, Health Report will describe new research and information about staying healthy and treating disease. -- On Thursdays, Education Report will explore educational issues and news about teaching and learning in the United States and other countries. ------------------------------- This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Experts say the food people eat greatly affects their health. They say that some foods are especially good for preventing disease. Many foods contain substances that protect against tissue damage. One of these is tomatoes. The substance lycopene is released when tomatoes are cooked. Lycopene helps reduce the risk of developing cancer in the digestive system, which processes food. The dark green vegetable spinach contains folic acid that prevents problems in developing fetuses. It also lowers blood levels of homocysteine. High homocysteine levels have been linked to heart attacks and strokes. Another vegetable, broccoli, can help protect against cancers of the breast, colon and stomach. Oats help lower blood pressure and protect against heart disease. They also may improve the levels of sugar in the blood. This reduces the chance of developing the disease, diabetes. Fish that contain omega three fatty acids help prevent blockages in the arteries. Omega three also lowers bad cholesterol and may protect brain cells from diseases like Alzheimer's. Fish that provide a lot of omega three acids are salmon, herring, mackerel and bluefish. Garlic may help protect the heart by reducing cholesterol and making the blood less sticky. Health experts also suggest cooking with olive oil because it also has been shown to help prevent cancer and heart disease. Studies show that drinking green tea may help prevent cancer of the liver and stomach. Green tea also slows the growth of bacteria in the mouth. Blueberries have been shown to help protect against heart disease and cancer. They can also help prevent some infections by preventing the bacteria from attacking the bladder. Experts say the skins of red grapes contain substances that increase the good kind of cholesterol in the blood. To get this protection, you can drink red wine... but not more than a few glasses a week. Drinking too much alcohol can be dangerous! Eating too much chocolate can increase weight. But recent studies have shown that substances in chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and cancer. They have also shown that chocolate is not as bad for the teeth as had been thought. The experts say the best chocolate to eat is the dark kind because it contains the most healthful substances. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. Two new programs are replacing Science Report: -- On Wednesdays, Health Report will describe new research and information about staying healthy and treating disease. -- On Thursdays, Education Report will explore educational issues and news about teaching and learning in the United States and other countries. ------------------------------- This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Experts say the food people eat greatly affects their health. They say that some foods are especially good for preventing disease. Many foods contain substances that protect against tissue damage. One of these is tomatoes. The substance lycopene is released when tomatoes are cooked. Lycopene helps reduce the risk of developing cancer in the digestive system, which processes food. The dark green vegetable spinach contains folic acid that prevents problems in developing fetuses. It also lowers blood levels of homocysteine. High homocysteine levels have been linked to heart attacks and strokes. Another vegetable, broccoli, can help protect against cancers of the breast, colon and stomach. Oats help lower blood pressure and protect against heart disease. They also may improve the levels of sugar in the blood. This reduces the chance of developing the disease, diabetes. Fish that contain omega three fatty acids help prevent blockages in the arteries. Omega three also lowers bad cholesterol and may protect brain cells from diseases like Alzheimer's. Fish that provide a lot of omega three acids are salmon, herring, mackerel and bluefish. Garlic may help protect the heart by reducing cholesterol and making the blood less sticky. Health experts also suggest cooking with olive oil because it also has been shown to help prevent cancer and heart disease. Studies show that drinking green tea may help prevent cancer of the liver and stomach. Green tea also slows the growth of bacteria in the mouth. Blueberries have been shown to help protect against heart disease and cancer. They can also help prevent some infections by preventing the bacteria from attacking the bladder. Experts say the skins of red grapes contain substances that increase the good kind of cholesterol in the blood. To get this protection, you can drink red wine... but not more than a few glasses a week. Drinking too much alcohol can be dangerous! Eating too much chocolate can increase weight. But recent studies have shown that substances in chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and cancer. They have also shown that chocolate is not as bad for the teeth as had been thought. The experts say the best chocolate to eat is the dark kind because it contains the most healthful substances. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-02-5-1.cfm
* Headline: March 31, 2002 - New Words
* Byline: 

 INTRO: As long has language has existed, it has been in a constant state of change, and as long there have been dictionaries lexicographers have been trying to keep up with those changes. James Donahower reports on the flood of new words entering the latest edition of a major U-S dictionary. TEXT: A bumper crop of new words and expressions has insinuated itself into the English lexicon this year, words that Americans use regularly now, but that our word processing programs do not yet recognize: Taleban, weaponize, hawala, and burkha. These particular words were brought to the linguistic forefront in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. They are also among the new entries in the latest edition of the American Heritage College Dictionary. The dictionary's senior editor, Steve Kleinedler, says this is a recurring phenomenon. KLEINEDLER: "In the history of the 20th century, there are certain events that are so powerful or so prominent or so newsworthy that they create language change. Watergate (the Nixon White House scandal of the 1970s, triggered by a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex in Washington) is a good example in that it gave us a productive suffix, the '-gate' suffix, that is now readily applied to most political scandals. These events are not entirely common, but they do happen from time to time. The September 11th tragedy is probably, since the Kennedy assassination, the single most horrific event that has locked the nation into a single cataclysmic event, causing people to focus on the same concepts at the same time." As the world gravitates increasingly towards the use of the English language, many of these new terms will become familiar even to non-English speakers, according to David Barnhart. He is the editor of the Barnhart Dictionary Companion, a quarterly compilation of new words. Many of the terrorist-attack-related entries are non-English in origin, as it happens, and will look and sound very much the same in other languages. But Mr. Barnhart says the most frequently used of these new entries, the term "nine-11", written numerically with a dash, will not be readily recognized in most of the world. BARNHART: "Most people in the world write dates such as September 11th, '11 September.' So for many Europeans, for example, it is '11-9,' not '9-11.'" Not all recent additions to the English lexicon are related to September 11th. Other new terms vying for a place in English dictionaries, terms which may even be unfamiliar to some Americans, include: "sports-rage," "chicken pox party," and "Enron-ese." But Mr. Barnhart says some of the strangest new terms derive from the world of medicine. BARNHART: "There are a bunch of medical terms that have come up, things like 'Dr. Strangelove Syndrome.' In a person who is injured, one hand may start reacting violently to the other. It has been described as one hand attacking the other." New words are born, old words die, and rarely-used words are launched into the spotlight by calamitous events, medical breakthroughs, or even new trends in music or fashion. Mr. Kleinedler of the American Heritage Dictionary says one of the biggest waves of new terminology in the last half-century came only recently. KLEINEDLER: "One of the largest influxes of words came from the technological revolution of the late 90's, with the Internet. Not only the technology, the bits and bytes that went into the Internet, but the whole sociological phenomenon that came from that. The chat rooms, the messages, and the instant messaging all spawned a cyber culture that created dozens if not scores of new words." So familiar are words like website, search engine, and Internet, that it is hard to believe they might one day disappear. But this is how language works. The only thing that is certain is that next year, lexicographers will be back at their desks, sifting through hundreds of new potential entries, and ridding dictionaries of obsolete ones. For Voice of America, this is James Donahower in New York. INTRO: As long has language has existed, it has been in a constant state of change, and as long there have been dictionaries lexicographers have been trying to keep up with those changes. James Donahower reports on the flood of new words entering the latest edition of a major U-S dictionary. TEXT: A bumper crop of new words and expressions has insinuated itself into the English lexicon this year, words that Americans use regularly now, but that our word processing programs do not yet recognize: Taleban, weaponize, hawala, and burkha. These particular words were brought to the linguistic forefront in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. They are also among the new entries in the latest edition of the American Heritage College Dictionary. The dictionary's senior editor, Steve Kleinedler, says this is a recurring phenomenon. KLEINEDLER: "In the history of the 20th century, there are certain events that are so powerful or so prominent or so newsworthy that they create language change. Watergate (the Nixon White House scandal of the 1970s, triggered by a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex in Washington) is a good example in that it gave us a productive suffix, the '-gate' suffix, that is now readily applied to most political scandals. These events are not entirely common, but they do happen from time to time. The September 11th tragedy is probably, since the Kennedy assassination, the single most horrific event that has locked the nation into a single cataclysmic event, causing people to focus on the same concepts at the same time." As the world gravitates increasingly towards the use of the English language, many of these new terms will become familiar even to non-English speakers, according to David Barnhart. He is the editor of the Barnhart Dictionary Companion, a quarterly compilation of new words. Many of the terrorist-attack-related entries are non-English in origin, as it happens, and will look and sound very much the same in other languages. But Mr. Barnhart says the most frequently used of these new entries, the term "nine-11", written numerically with a dash, will not be readily recognized in most of the world. BARNHART: "Most people in the world write dates such as September 11th, '11 September.' So for many Europeans, for example, it is '11-9,' not '9-11.'" Not all recent additions to the English lexicon are related to September 11th. Other new terms vying for a place in English dictionaries, terms which may even be unfamiliar to some Americans, include: "sports-rage," "chicken pox party," and "Enron-ese." But Mr. Barnhart says some of the strangest new terms derive from the world of medicine. BARNHART: "There are a bunch of medical terms that have come up, things like 'Dr. Strangelove Syndrome.' In a person who is injured, one hand may start reacting violently to the other. It has been described as one hand attacking the other." New words are born, old words die, and rarely-used words are launched into the spotlight by calamitous events, medical breakthroughs, or even new trends in music or fashion. Mr. Kleinedler of the American Heritage Dictionary says one of the biggest waves of new terminology in the last half-century came only recently. KLEINEDLER: "One of the largest influxes of words came from the technological revolution of the late 90's, with the Internet. Not only the technology, the bits and bytes that went into the Internet, but the whole sociological phenomenon that came from that. The chat rooms, the messages, and the instant messaging all spawned a cyber culture that created dozens if not scores of new words." So familiar are words like website, search engine, and Internet, that it is hard to believe they might one day disappear. But this is how language works. The only thing that is certain is that next year, lexicographers will be back at their desks, sifting through hundreds of new potential entries, and ridding dictionaries of obsolete ones. For Voice of America, this is James Donahower in New York. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - April 4, 2002: 1930s/Neutrality Tested
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Growing tensions in Europe and Asia created a serious conflict for Americans during the nineteen-thirties. Most Americans opposed the Fascist or military leaders gaining control in Germany, Italy, Japan, and other countries. But they were not willing to take any firm action to stop this growing movement. Americans did not want to become involved in another terrible world war. And they called on President Franklin Roosevelt and their representatives in Congress to remain neutral in world affairs. But aggression by Germany and Japan finally would force Americans to choose between their love of democracy and their desire for peace. VOICE 2: The first challenge to America's policy of neutrality came in October nineteen-thirty-five. Troops from Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia. Roosevelt did not feel neutral at all. "Italy is dropping bombs on Ethiopia, and that is war," Roosevelt said to his advisers. He sharply criticized the Fascist Italian leader, Benito Mussolini. Roosevelt issued an order banning Americans from sending arms to either Italy or Ethiopia. And he called on Americans not to send to Italy oil and other materials not covered by the ban on arms. Roosevelt's efforts to stop the export of oil and other products did not succeed. But the efforts by the white house played an important part in leading the international League of Nations to take economic actions against Italy. VOICE 1: Less than two years later, civil war broke out in Spain. Spanish Fascists led by General Francisco Franco tried to overthrow the democratic government in Madrid. Some Americans went to join the democratic army in Spain to fight Franco. But Roosevelt and the Congress agreed that America should remain officially neutral in the conflict. In this way, Roosevelt was meeting the wishes of the American people by avoiding war. But personally, he was deeply troubled by the events in Europe. In a letter to his ambassador in France, Roosevelt wrote, "One cannot help feeling that the whole European situation is blacker than at any time in your lifetime or mine." VOICE 2: Another challenge to American neutrality came in Asia. Japan launched a new invasion of China in July, nineteen-thirty-seven. Within one month, Japanese forces gained control of Peking [Beijing] and Tientsin. The United States had long supported the Nationalist forces of China. And many Americans were angry about the Japanese invasion. But Roosevelt and his administration once again refused to take strong actions against the aggression. For one thing, the American Navy was weak. There was little it could do to stop Japanese aggression thousands of miles away in Asia. And neither Roosevelt nor the Congress wanted to be first to break America's official policy of neutrality. VOICE 1: Franklin Roosevelt made clear in private talks with friends that he understood the serious threat to world peace created by Hitler and other Fascists. He believed that the United States could not remain neutral forever if democracy was threatened in so many countries. However, Roosevelt did little to educate the nation about this threat. Instead, he generally followed the wishes of the majority of people who wanted America to remain neutral. VOICE 2: Public opinion in the United States was strongly against any kind of involvement in foreign conflicts. In nineteen-thirty-seven, Roosevelt made an important speech calling for the world's neutral nations to protect themselves from lawless Fascist nations. But many Americans feared that Roosevelt was trying to create a new alliance. And they opposed his efforts. A public opinion study at the time showed that less than one in three Americans was willing to change the nation's strong neutrality laws to give Roosevelt more freedom of action. In the same year, Japanese planes sank an American gunboat in the Yangtze River in China. But few Americans showed any interest in going to war over the incident. Instead, they accepted Japanese apologies. Americans simply had no desire to fight. VOICE 1: Most Americans honestly believed that the best hope for their country was neutrality. One of the most influential supporters of neutrality was Senator Gerald P. Nye of the state of North Dakota. "There can be no objection to any action our government may take which tries to bring peace to the world," Nye wrote in the New York Times newspaper in nineteen-thirty-seven. "But," he wrote, "that action must not tie our population to another world death march. I very much fear that we are once again being made to feel that America must police a world that chooses to follow insane leaders. VOICE 2: Hitler's Nazi forces moved into the Rhineland in nineteen-thirty-six. Two years later, they invaded Austria. And then, in the following months, Hitler began making demands on the government of Czechoslovakia. Britain's prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, was afraid that Hitler might start a general European war if he was blocked from gaining control of Czechoslovakia. In September, nineteen-thirty-eight, chamberlain traveled to Munich to discuss the situation with the German leader. The result was that Britain agreed to a German takeover of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain returned to London promising "peace in our time." VOICE 1: The first reaction of most Americans to Chamberlain's Munich agreement was one of relief. But then public opinion changed. Americans saw that Hitler's Germany now had control of central Europe. Japan was becoming more powerful in Asia. Chamberlain's weakness only served to show dictators that they could gain land and power through aggression and fear. Roosevelt warned Americans in late nineteen-thirty-eight about this Fascist threat. "There can be no peace," he said, "if another nation makes the threat of war its national policy." VOICE 2: Roosevelt and much of the American public continued to hope that the United States could stay out of foreign conflicts. But increasingly, they understood that war might come. And they began to prepare for possible hostilities. Following the Munich agreement, Roosevelt requested a large increase in the defense budget. He asked Britain and France to buy arms from American manufacturers to give those companies more experience in producing weapons. And he helped bring about an agreement among nations of north and south America to join together to oppose Fascist threats to peace and security. Finally, Roosevelt tried to get Congress to change the neutrality laws. He wanted more freedom as president to resist Fascist aggression and help Britain, France, China, and other friendly nations. VOICE 1: Congress, however, continued to resist such changes. But events in early nineteen-thirty-nine showed that war was on the way. Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and then Lithuania. Franco's forces took control in Spain. Italy invaded Albania. And then Hitler began making demands on Poland. In August, Germany and the Soviet Union announced to the world that they had signed a joint defense agreement. A week later, Germany attacked Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. VOICE 2: Germany's invasion of Poland, and the beginning of the war, presented a giant challenge to the United States. On the one hand, almost all Americans supported the European democracies opposing the aggression by Hitler, Mussolini, and other Fascists. But on the other hand, Americans had no desire to fight in what might be a long and bloody war. The following months would force Americans of all political beliefs to consider this problem. It would be a final period of peace for the United States before events once again drew it into a terrible world conflict. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Growing tensions in Europe and Asia created a serious conflict for Americans during the nineteen-thirties. Most Americans opposed the Fascist or military leaders gaining control in Germany, Italy, Japan, and other countries. But they were not willing to take any firm action to stop this growing movement. Americans did not want to become involved in another terrible world war. And they called on President Franklin Roosevelt and their representatives in Congress to remain neutral in world affairs. But aggression by Germany and Japan finally would force Americans to choose between their love of democracy and their desire for peace. VOICE 2: The first challenge to America's policy of neutrality came in October nineteen-thirty-five. Troops from Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia. Roosevelt did not feel neutral at all. "Italy is dropping bombs on Ethiopia, and that is war," Roosevelt said to his advisers. He sharply criticized the Fascist Italian leader, Benito Mussolini. Roosevelt issued an order banning Americans from sending arms to either Italy or Ethiopia. And he called on Americans not to send to Italy oil and other materials not covered by the ban on arms. Roosevelt's efforts to stop the export of oil and other products did not succeed. But the efforts by the white house played an important part in leading the international League of Nations to take economic actions against Italy. VOICE 1: Less than two years later, civil war broke out in Spain. Spanish Fascists led by General Francisco Franco tried to overthrow the democratic government in Madrid. Some Americans went to join the democratic army in Spain to fight Franco. But Roosevelt and the Congress agreed that America should remain officially neutral in the conflict. In this way, Roosevelt was meeting the wishes of the American people by avoiding war. But personally, he was deeply troubled by the events in Europe. In a letter to his ambassador in France, Roosevelt wrote, "One cannot help feeling that the whole European situation is blacker than at any time in your lifetime or mine." VOICE 2: Another challenge to American neutrality came in Asia. Japan launched a new invasion of China in July, nineteen-thirty-seven. Within one month, Japanese forces gained control of Peking [Beijing] and Tientsin. The United States had long supported the Nationalist forces of China. And many Americans were angry about the Japanese invasion. But Roosevelt and his administration once again refused to take strong actions against the aggression. For one thing, the American Navy was weak. There was little it could do to stop Japanese aggression thousands of miles away in Asia. And neither Roosevelt nor the Congress wanted to be first to break America's official policy of neutrality. VOICE 1: Franklin Roosevelt made clear in private talks with friends that he understood the serious threat to world peace created by Hitler and other Fascists. He believed that the United States could not remain neutral forever if democracy was threatened in so many countries. However, Roosevelt did little to educate the nation about this threat. Instead, he generally followed the wishes of the majority of people who wanted America to remain neutral. VOICE 2: Public opinion in the United States was strongly against any kind of involvement in foreign conflicts. In nineteen-thirty-seven, Roosevelt made an important speech calling for the world's neutral nations to protect themselves from lawless Fascist nations. But many Americans feared that Roosevelt was trying to create a new alliance. And they opposed his efforts. A public opinion study at the time showed that less than one in three Americans was willing to change the nation's strong neutrality laws to give Roosevelt more freedom of action. In the same year, Japanese planes sank an American gunboat in the Yangtze River in China. But few Americans showed any interest in going to war over the incident. Instead, they accepted Japanese apologies. Americans simply had no desire to fight. VOICE 1: Most Americans honestly believed that the best hope for their country was neutrality. One of the most influential supporters of neutrality was Senator Gerald P. Nye of the state of North Dakota. "There can be no objection to any action our government may take which tries to bring peace to the world," Nye wrote in the New York Times newspaper in nineteen-thirty-seven. "But," he wrote, "that action must not tie our population to another world death march. I very much fear that we are once again being made to feel that America must police a world that chooses to follow insane leaders. VOICE 2: Hitler's Nazi forces moved into the Rhineland in nineteen-thirty-six. Two years later, they invaded Austria. And then, in the following months, Hitler began making demands on the government of Czechoslovakia. Britain's prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, was afraid that Hitler might start a general European war if he was blocked from gaining control of Czechoslovakia. In September, nineteen-thirty-eight, chamberlain traveled to Munich to discuss the situation with the German leader. The result was that Britain agreed to a German takeover of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain returned to London promising "peace in our time." VOICE 1: The first reaction of most Americans to Chamberlain's Munich agreement was one of relief. But then public opinion changed. Americans saw that Hitler's Germany now had control of central Europe. Japan was becoming more powerful in Asia. Chamberlain's weakness only served to show dictators that they could gain land and power through aggression and fear. Roosevelt warned Americans in late nineteen-thirty-eight about this Fascist threat. "There can be no peace," he said, "if another nation makes the threat of war its national policy." VOICE 2: Roosevelt and much of the American public continued to hope that the United States could stay out of foreign conflicts. But increasingly, they understood that war might come. And they began to prepare for possible hostilities. Following the Munich agreement, Roosevelt requested a large increase in the defense budget. He asked Britain and France to buy arms from American manufacturers to give those companies more experience in producing weapons. And he helped bring about an agreement among nations of north and south America to join together to oppose Fascist threats to peace and security. Finally, Roosevelt tried to get Congress to change the neutrality laws. He wanted more freedom as president to resist Fascist aggression and help Britain, France, China, and other friendly nations. VOICE 1: Congress, however, continued to resist such changes. But events in early nineteen-thirty-nine showed that war was on the way. Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and then Lithuania. Franco's forces took control in Spain. Italy invaded Albania. And then Hitler began making demands on Poland. In August, Germany and the Soviet Union announced to the world that they had signed a joint defense agreement. A week later, Germany attacked Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. VOICE 2: Germany's invasion of Poland, and the beginning of the war, presented a giant challenge to the United States. On the one hand, almost all Americans supported the European democracies opposing the aggression by Hitler, Mussolini, and other Fascists. But on the other hand, Americans had no desire to fight in what might be a long and bloody war. The following months would force Americans of all political beliefs to consider this problem. It would be a final period of peace for the United States before events once again drew it into a terrible world conflict. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – April 4, 2002: Charter schools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American public education has changed in recent years. One change is that increasing numbers of American parents and teachers are starting independent public schools called charter schools. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, there were no charter schools in the United States. Today, more than two-thousand-three-hundred charter schools operate in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia. Five-hundred-seventy-five-thousand students attend these schools. The students are from five years of age through eighteen or older. A charter school is created by groups of parents, teachers and community members. It is similar in some ways to a traditional public school. It receives tax money to operate just as other public schools do. The amount it receives depends on the number of students. The charter school must prove to local or state governments that its students are learning. These governments provide the school with the agreement, or charter that permits it to operate. Unlike a traditional public school, however, the charter school does not have to obey most laws governing public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell it what to teach. Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to reach those goals. Class sizes usually are smaller than in many traditional public schools. Many students and parents say teachers in charter schools can be more creative. However, state education agencies, local education-governing committees and unions often oppose charter schools. They say these schools may receive money badly needed by traditional public schools. Experts say some charter schools are doing well, while others are struggling. Congress provided two-hundred-million dollars for establishing charter schools in the Two-Thousand-Two federal budget. But often the schools say they lack enough money for their programs. Many also lack needed space. For example, many of the thirty-six charter schools in the District of Columbia hold classes in crowded buildings. These schools have almost eleven-thousand students. District officials say they have provided fourteen former school buildings for charter education. Yet, charter-school supporters say officials should try harder to find more space. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American public education has changed in recent years. One change is that increasing numbers of American parents and teachers are starting independent public schools called charter schools. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, there were no charter schools in the United States. Today, more than two-thousand-three-hundred charter schools operate in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia. Five-hundred-seventy-five-thousand students attend these schools. The students are from five years of age through eighteen or older. A charter school is created by groups of parents, teachers and community members. It is similar in some ways to a traditional public school. It receives tax money to operate just as other public schools do. The amount it receives depends on the number of students. The charter school must prove to local or state governments that its students are learning. These governments provide the school with the agreement, or charter that permits it to operate. Unlike a traditional public school, however, the charter school does not have to obey most laws governing public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell it what to teach. Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to reach those goals. Class sizes usually are smaller than in many traditional public schools. Many students and parents say teachers in charter schools can be more creative. However, state education agencies, local education-governing committees and unions often oppose charter schools. They say these schools may receive money badly needed by traditional public schools. Experts say some charter schools are doing well, while others are struggling. Congress provided two-hundred-million dollars for establishing charter schools in the Two-Thousand-Two federal budget. But often the schools say they lack enough money for their programs. Many also lack needed space. For example, many of the thirty-six charter schools in the District of Columbia hold classes in crowded buildings. These schools have almost eleven-thousand students. District officials say they have provided fourteen former school buildings for charter education. Yet, charter-school supporters say officials should try harder to find more space. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Health Report
* Byline: 

 March 16, 2005: Aspirin Found to Help Men and Women Differently March 9, 2005: Lead and Violence in Young People March 2, 2005: Plague Outbreak in Eastern Congo February February 23, 2005: India Begins AIDS Vaccine Study / Unusual AIDS Case in New York February 16, 2005: Update on Tsunami Survivors: Mental Health a Big Concern February 9, 2005: New Warnings About Tobacco Smoke and Children February 2, 2005: Study Finds Moderate Alcohol Use May Help Mental Abilities January January 26, 2005: Cancer Survival Rates Up in U.S. January 19, 2005: Heart Disease and C-Reactive Protein January 12, 2005: Caffeine Withdrawal January 5, 2005: New Tuberculosis Drug 2004 Programs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Education Report
* Byline: 

 March 17, 2005: Foreign Student Series #29: Carnegie Mellon University March 10, 2005: Foreign Student Series #28: New York University March 3, 2005: Foreign Student Series #27: University of Southern California February February 24, 2005: Foreign Student Series #26: Ohio State February 17, 2005: Foreign Student Series #25: M.I.T. February 10, 2005: Foreign Student Series #24: Harvard University February 3, 2005: Foreign Student Series #23: Medical School January January 27, 2005: Foreign Student Series #22: MBA Programs January 20, 2005: Foreign Student Series #21: Agriculture Studies January 13, 2005: Foreign Student Series #20: Military Colleges January 6, 2005: Foreign Student Series #19: Teaching Assistants 2004 Programs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 5, 2002: Berklee School of Music album / A question about Easter / A museum show honoring three female artists
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:72688| height="100" width="150" alt="Georgia O'Keeffe, "Red Hills with the Pedernal," 1936" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/nmwa.org_Georgia_O'Keeffe2_4april02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> Georgia O'Keeffe, "Red Hills with the Pedernal," 1936 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play recordings by musicians educated at the Berklee School of Music... Answer a question about the Easter holiday... <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:72689| height="150" width="109" alt="Frida Kahlo, "Self-Portrait with Monkey," 1938" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/nmwa.org_Frida_Kahlo_4april02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> Frida Kahlo, "Self-Portrait with Monkey," 1938 (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play recordings by musicians educated at the Berklee School of Music... Answer a question about the Easter holiday... And visit a museum show honoring three female artists. Three Women Artists HOST: A show honoring three North American women artists is now at a museum in Washington, D.C. The artists are Emily Carr of Canada, Georgia O’Keefe of the United States and Frida Kahlo of Mexico. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts is called “Places of Their Own: Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo.” The three women are considered the greatest women painters of their countries in the Twentieth Century. The show examines the artistic and personal links among them. Easter Cross, 1877(Image - Library of Congress) And visit a museum show honoring three female artists. Three Women Artists HOST: A show honoring three North American women artists is now at a museum in Washington, D.C. The artists are Emily Carr of Canada, Georgia O’Keefe of the United States and Frida Kahlo of Mexico. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts is called “Places of Their Own: Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo.” The three women are considered the greatest women painters of their countries in the Twentieth Century. The show examines the artistic and personal links among them. Emily Carr of Canada is the first in the show because she was the oldest. She was born in Eighteen-Seventy-One. She did not become known for her paintings until she was more than fifty years old. Today, Emily Carr is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists. Many of her paintings show the trees and natural surroundings she loved in her home province of British Columbia. She also developed a picture record of Northwest Coast Indian villages. Georgia O’Keefe is considered by many experts to be the most popular female American artist. Her paintings sometimes are shown along with the pictures taken by her husband, the famous photographer Alfred Steiglitz. Georgia O’Keefe lived in Texas and New York before moving to New Mexico. The striking land in the southwestern United States provided many subjects for her paintings. Many of her pictures show nature at its simplest, with few details. The final artist honored in the museum show is Frida Kahlo. Nearly all of her paintings are pictures of herself. Frida Kahlo was almost killed in an accident when she was a young girl. Her injuries remained a problem most of her life. Frida Kahlo’s work was affected by her pain and suffering. It also showed her love for her husband, the artist Diego Rivera. The colors and shapes of her paintings were influenced by Mexico’s many cultures. All three of these women included ideas of themselves in their paintings. They also searched for meaning in their native lands and cultures. Experts say their work is important because it greatly changed the art of North America in the Twentieth Century. Easter HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. Amarkhuu Ayulguisaikhan asks how Americans celebrate the Easter holiday. Christians in the United States celebrated Easter last Sunday, March thirty-first. Christians believe Easter is the day when Jesus Christ rose from the dead about two thousand years ago. Most Christians believe Jesus was sent to Earth to save humans from wrongdoing, and to give them everlasting life. Emily Carr of Canada is the first in the show because she was the oldest. She was born in Eighteen-Seventy-One. She did not become known for her paintings until she was more than fifty years old. Today, Emily Carr is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists. Many of her paintings show the trees and natural surroundings she loved in her home province of British Columbia. She also developed a picture record of Northwest Coast Indian villages. Georgia O’Keefe is considered by many experts to be the most popular female American artist. Her paintings sometimes are shown along with the pictures taken by her husband, the famous photographer Alfred Steiglitz. Georgia O’Keefe lived in Texas and New York before moving to New Mexico. The striking land in the southwestern United States provided many subjects for her paintings. Many of her pictures show nature at its simplest, with few details. The final artist honored in the museum show is Frida Kahlo. Nearly all of her paintings are pictures of herself. Frida Kahlo was almost killed in an accident when she was a young girl. Her injuries remained a problem most of her life. Frida Kahlo’s work was affected by her pain and suffering. It also showed her love for her husband, the artist Diego Rivera. The colors and shapes of her paintings were influenced by Mexico’s many cultures. All three of these women included ideas of themselves in their paintings. They also searched for meaning in their native lands and cultures. Experts say their work is important because it greatly changed the art of North America in the Twentieth Century. Easter HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. Amarkhuu Ayulguisaikhan asks how Americans celebrate the Easter holiday. Christians in the United States celebrated Easter last Sunday, March thirty-first. Christians believe Easter is the day when Jesus Christ rose from the dead about two thousand years ago. Most Christians believe Jesus was sent to Earth to save humans from wrongdoing, and to give them everlasting life. Thousands of American churches held services outside on Easter morning. This tradition is very old. It probably was started by Moravian Christians in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in Seventeen-Forty-Three. This Moravian service of praise is still held today. Sunrise services in the United States are usually planned to include members of many Christian religious groups. One of the most famous takes place at the Hollywood Bowl, an outdoor center in Los Angeles, California. People arrive the night before to try to attend this event. Many Americans also observe Easter customs not directly linked to religious tradition. People in many cities walk through the streets on Easter morning after attending church. Each year, thousands of people in New York City wear new clothes to take part in this Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. Some families color eggs and hide them for their children to find. Parents say a rabbit leaves the Easter eggs. The rabbit is known as the Easter Bunny. Here in Washington, a big celebration takes place each year on the Monday after Easter. The President of the United States invites children to play a game rolling colored Easter eggs on the grounds behind the White House. President Rutherford Hayes and his wife Lucy started this American tradition in Eighteen-Seventy-Eight. This year, about forty-thousand children took part. President Bush and his wife Laura welcomed the children and their families to the White House grounds. Everyone seemed to enjoy the sunny day filled with music and games. Shekinah Thirteen Artists HOST: The world famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, has trained many successful singers such as Melissa Etheridge and Diana Krall. A record has been recently released of some music by Berklee students who are not as well known. Mary Tillotson explains. ANNCR: Berklee College has its own recording company to provide its students with experiences in the recording business. Earlier this year, the college’s small recording company and a major recording company, Epic/Sony Records, jointly released a record. The project began when students in one Berklee class decided to produce a record and try to sell it nationally. They listened to tapes and chose which songs and artists to include. All the artists were educated at Berklee. The Epic record company agreed to market the recording. The name of the record is “Shekinah (shuh-KEE-nah) Thirteen Artists.” Berklee says the word honors the creative power of females. One artist on the record is Polina, the daughter of Russian singer Anka. She recorded her song in her father’s studio in Moscow. It is called “Out of My Mind.” ((CUT 1: OUT OF MY MIND)) Another former Berklee student on the record is German artist Antje Zumbansen. She has already won the Vince Gill Award for Songwriting and Outstanding Musicianship. Here she sings “Without An End.” ((CUT 2: WITHOUT AN END)) The last song on the Shekinah record was written and performed by Amanda Williams. She graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. She wrote the song “Beer Run,” which Garth Brooks and George Jones recorded. We leave you now with Amanda Williams singing her song, “Low.” ((CUT 3: LOW)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Thousands of American churches held services outside on Easter morning. This tradition is very old. It probably was started by Moravian Christians in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in Seventeen-Forty-Three. This Moravian service of praise is still held today. Sunrise services in the United States are usually planned to include members of many Christian religious groups. One of the most famous takes place at the Hollywood Bowl, an outdoor center in Los Angeles, California. People arrive the night before to try to attend this event. Many Americans also observe Easter customs not directly linked to religious tradition. People in many cities walk through the streets on Easter morning after attending church. Each year, thousands of people in New York City wear new clothes to take part in this Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. Some families color eggs and hide them for their children to find. Parents say a rabbit leaves the Easter eggs. The rabbit is known as the Easter Bunny. Here in Washington, a big celebration takes place each year on the Monday after Easter. The President of the United States invites children to play a game rolling colored Easter eggs on the grounds behind the White House. President Rutherford Hayes and his wife Lucy started this American tradition in Eighteen-Seventy-Eight. This year, about forty-thousand children took part. President Bush and his wife Laura welcomed the children and their families to the White House grounds. Everyone seemed to enjoy the sunny day filled with music and games. Shekinah Thirteen Artists HOST: The world famous Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, has trained many successful singers such as Melissa Etheridge and Diana Krall. A record has been recently released of some music by Berklee students who are not as well known. Mary Tillotson explains. ANNCR: Berklee College has its own recording company to provide its students with experiences in the recording business. Earlier this year, the college’s small recording company and a major recording company, Epic/Sony Records, jointly released a record. The project began when students in one Berklee class decided to produce a record and try to sell it nationally. They listened to tapes and chose which songs and artists to include. All the artists were educated at Berklee. The Epic record company agreed to market the recording. The name of the record is “Shekinah (shuh-KEE-nah) Thirteen Artists.” Berklee says the word honors the creative power of females. One artist on the record is Polina, the daughter of Russian singer Anka. She recorded her song in her father’s studio in Moscow. It is called “Out of My Mind.” ((CUT 1: OUT OF MY MIND)) Another former Berklee student on the record is German artist Antje Zumbansen. She has already won the Vince Gill Award for Songwriting and Outstanding Musicianship. Here she sings “Without An End.” ((CUT 2: WITHOUT AN END)) The last song on the Shekinah record was written and performed by Amanda Williams. She graduated from the Berklee School of Music in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. She wrote the song “Beer Run,” which Garth Brooks and George Jones recorded. We leave you now with Amanda Williams singing her song, “Low.” ((CUT 3: LOW)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - April 5, 2002: Antarctic Ice Breaks Off
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A huge piece of ice the size of a small country has broken off Antarctica. The event has created thousands of floating icebergs in the Weddell Sea. American and British scientists say it is the largest piece of ice that has broken off in thirty years. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A huge piece of ice the size of a small country has broken off Antarctica. The event has created thousands of floating icebergs in the Weddell Sea. American and British scientists say it is the largest piece of ice that has broken off in thirty years. Scientists say the ice broke off from the Larsen B Shelf area in a thirty-five day period that began January thirty-first. This area of ice was on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The peninsula is the Antarctic area that is closest to southern Argentina and Chile. It is surrounded on three sides by seas that keep temperatures more moderate. Larsen B is one of many ice shelves on Antarctica. The shelves are huge pieces of ice that float in the water. They are floating extensions of the ice sheets covering the Antarctic continent. The ice shelves block the ice sheets from moving off the land into the water. The part of Larsen B that broke off was two-hundred meters thick and covered about two-thousand square kilometers. Scientists say the ice shelf probably has existed since before the end of the last major ice age twelve thousand years ago. Scientists say the break up of the Larsen B shelf will not raise sea levels because the ice was already floating in the water. Sea levels would rise only if the land ice behind it now began to flow more quickly into the sea. Scientists say warming temperatures during the Antarctic summers probably caused the ice to break. Temperatures have risen two-point-five degrees Celsius in the Antarctic Peninsula during the past fifty years. That is much faster than climate warming worldwide or even in other parts of Antarctica. Some studies have suggested other areas of Antarctica might be cooling. A recent study reported that the ice in West Antarctica is thickening, not melting. The Larsen Ice Shelf has been under careful observation since Nineteen-Ninety-Five. That is when a piece of ice in the northern part of the ice shelf, known as Larsen A, broke off in a similar event. Scientists say the southern part of the ice shelf, Larsen C, could also break apart if the warming continues in Antarctica. Some scientists say the separation of the ice shelves is linked to the climate warming caused by human activity. But, other scientists say the break was probably caused by a natural warming event. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. Scientists say the ice broke off from the Larsen B Shelf area in a thirty-five day period that began January thirty-first. This area of ice was on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The peninsula is the Antarctic area that is closest to southern Argentina and Chile. It is surrounded on three sides by seas that keep temperatures more moderate. Larsen B is one of many ice shelves on Antarctica. The shelves are huge pieces of ice that float in the water. They are floating extensions of the ice sheets covering the Antarctic continent. The ice shelves block the ice sheets from moving off the land into the water. The part of Larsen B that broke off was two-hundred meters thick and covered about two-thousand square kilometers. Scientists say the ice shelf probably has existed since before the end of the last major ice age twelve thousand years ago. Scientists say the break up of the Larsen B shelf will not raise sea levels because the ice was already floating in the water. Sea levels would rise only if the land ice behind it now began to flow more quickly into the sea. Scientists say warming temperatures during the Antarctic summers probably caused the ice to break. Temperatures have risen two-point-five degrees Celsius in the Antarctic Peninsula during the past fifty years. That is much faster than climate warming worldwide or even in other parts of Antarctica. Some studies have suggested other areas of Antarctica might be cooling. A recent study reported that the ice in West Antarctica is thickening, not melting. The Larsen Ice Shelf has been under careful observation since Nineteen-Ninety-Five. That is when a piece of ice in the northern part of the ice shelf, known as Larsen A, broke off in a similar event. Scientists say the southern part of the ice shelf, Larsen C, could also break apart if the warming continues in Antarctica. Some scientists say the separation of the ice shelves is linked to the climate warming caused by human activity. But, other scientists say the break was probably caused by a natural warming event. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - April 8, 2002: Marathons
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This year, thousands of people from many nations are running marathon races in the United States. Many cities hold these races of more than forty-two kilometers. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This year, thousands of people from many nations are running marathon races in the United States. Many cities hold these races of more than forty-two kilometers. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Marathons and the growing popularity of running are our story today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME) VOICE ONE: More than sixteen-thousand people will compete April Fifteenth in the one-hundred-sixth Boston Marathon. The race is the oldest marathon in the world held each year. Men and women over eighteen run in the marathon. The largest number of runners, eight-thousand-six hundred, is in the under forty group. It is not surprising that the smallest number, forty-five, is in the seventy and older age group. Winners of the Two-Thousand-One Boston Marathon in the under age forty group will race again this year. Lee Bong-Ju (Bahng-‘ZHEW) of South Korea won the men’s race last year. Catherine Ndereba (Dair ‘EH bah) of Kenya won the women’s race. They are among many serious competitors in the Two-Thousand-Two marathon. Winners will share five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars in prize money given by companies and organizations. VOICE TWO: Runners in the Boston Marathon have demonstrated that they are good at the sport. They completed earlier races called qualifying races. They have to run those races within a set time. Other people join the Boston Marathon just for fun. These people have not officially joined the race. They just start running with the crowds. They are called bandits. Many of them probably will finish hours after the serious runners. But these unofficial racers are just as happy. They sometimes kiss the ground after crossing the finish line. VOICE ONE: The runners will begin this year’s Boston Marathon at noon next Monday in the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. They will then pass through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline. They will run up and down hills. They will complete the race in the center of Boston. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch the marathon. Many will carry signs that say things like, “We are proud of you, Mommy.” Security for both watchers and runners has been increased this year, after the terrorist attacks on the United States last September. VOICE TWO: Before the marathon begins, a computer chip device is attached to each runner’s shoe. It electronically records how long the runner takes to complete the race. Timing begins when a runner passes another device placed across the road at the starting line. The computer chip records each runner’s time as he or she passes over several areas along the race. And it records the runner’s final time when crossing the finish line. Last year, Lee Bong-Ju ran his winning race in two hours, nine minutes and forty-three seconds. Women’s winner Catherine Ndereba finished in two hours, twenty-three minutes and fifty-three seconds. VOICE ONE: People who cannot walk also compete in the Boston Marathon. Competitors in wheelchairs begin the race earlier than others. The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include users of wheelchairs in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. Last year, South African competitor Ernst VanDyk won the wheelchair race. He finished in one hour twenty-five minutes and twelve seconds. That was more than six minutes faster than his closest competitor. VOICE TWO: The first Boston Marathon was held in Eighteen-Ninety-Seven. Fifteen men competed. Ten finished the race. Since then, the marathon has been held every year as part of a holiday in Massachusetts called Patriot’s Day. The holiday honors the beginning of the American War of Independence in the Seventeen-Seventies. This year, several special events are planned for Patriot’s Day. For example, musicians will perform Eighteenth-Century music at a public gathering place at Hopkinton where the race begins. ((BRIDGE MUSIC: “CHARIOTS OF FIRE” THEME )) VOICE ONE: The word “marathon” comes from an area along the coast of Greece. An important battle took place in Marathon about two-thousand-five-hundred years ago. An army from Persia had invaded Greece. Greece’s army defeated the invading army at Marathon. An Athenian general sent a Greek runner to Athens to tell the news of the victory. Marathon was about forty kilometers from Athens. The man ran to Athens at top speed. He announced his message. Then he fell to the ground, dead. A men’s marathon of about forty kilometers was included in the first modern Olympic games in Eighteen-Ninety-Six. The distance of the marathon was increased to forty-two and two-tenths kilometers at the Nineteen-Oh-Eight Olympics in London. The marathon continues to be a popular Olympic sport. VOICE TWO: Many American cities in addition to Boston hold marathons. For example, the United States Marine Marathon will take place October Third in Washington, D.C., and the state of Virginia. Chicago also will hold its Two-Thousand-Two Marathon in October. The running area in Chicago is almost completely flat. This has permitted runners to set some of the world’s fastest times there. The Chicago race offers more than five-hundred-thousand dollars in prize money. New York will hold its marathon in November. This marathon is so large that competitors must take part in a game of chance to win the right to enter. As many as thirty-thousand people have run in New York Marathons. VOICE ONE: About six- thousand people ran in the new Washington, D.C., Marathon on March Twenty-Fourth. It was the first forty-two and two-tenths-kilometer race ever held completely inside the city. Marathon planners are pleased with the areas they chose for the competition. Racers ran through the city center near famous memorials and buildings like the Capitol. They also ran through many of the different areas of the city where people live. Andrey Kuznetsov of the nearby state of Maryland won the men’s race in the Washington Marathon. He is forty-four years old. He crossed the finish line after two hours twenty-three minutes and forty seconds. A mother of three young children from Atlanta, Georgia, won the women’s race. Forty-year-old Victoria Mills finished in two hours fifty-four minutes twenty-nine seconds. Each won two-thousand dollars. Los Angeles, California also held its marathon in March. More than eighteen-thousand runners competed. ((BRIDGE MUSIC: “CHARIOTS OF FIRE”)) VOICE TWO: Thirty years ago, far fewer people ran in the United States. Today, millions run. Many more women now take part in the sport. Many children in public and private schools run as part of their physical-education programs. Running has gained popularity for several reasons. You can do it anywhere, any time. You do not need other people. And you do not need much equipment. However, experts suggest you wear a good pair of running shoes to protect your feet. The manufacture of running shoes has become a huge industry in the United States. Other popular products for runners include special watches so they can record their times. Runners often buy drinks that contain minerals said to increase energy. Some carry water or energy drinks in unbreakable plastic bottles they wear on the belts. VOICE ONE: People run for different reasons. Most say running makes them feel better physically. It prevents them from gaining weight. It provides needed exercise to help prevent some diseases. Many people also say running makes them feel better mentally. It makes them feel happier. Some say they forget their worries when they run. Sports experts, however, urge people to prepare themselves before trying to run in long races. They say special exercises and repeated runs are needed to build strength. Doctors also urge runners to make sure they are in good health before entering a marathon. They say forty-two kilometers is a long way to run as fast as you can without stopping. VOICE TWO: Brett Silver is a young businesswoman in Los Angeles, California. She has run the Los Angeles Marathon two times. Last month, she finished the race in an hour less than she did the year before. She says she improved because she now awakens early and runs before work. Mizz Silver describes her feelings at crossing the finish line of a marathon. She says, “You feel terribly tired. At the same time, you feel just wonderful.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Marathons and the growing popularity of running are our story today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME) VOICE ONE: More than sixteen-thousand people will compete April Fifteenth in the one-hundred-sixth Boston Marathon. The race is the oldest marathon in the world held each year. Men and women over eighteen run in the marathon. The largest number of runners, eight-thousand-six hundred, is in the under forty group. It is not surprising that the smallest number, forty-five, is in the seventy and older age group. Winners of the Two-Thousand-One Boston Marathon in the under age forty group will race again this year. Lee Bong-Ju (Bahng-‘ZHEW) of South Korea won the men’s race last year. Catherine Ndereba (Dair ‘EH bah) of Kenya won the women’s race. They are among many serious competitors in the Two-Thousand-Two marathon. Winners will share five-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars in prize money given by companies and organizations. VOICE TWO: Runners in the Boston Marathon have demonstrated that they are good at the sport. They completed earlier races called qualifying races. They have to run those races within a set time. Other people join the Boston Marathon just for fun. These people have not officially joined the race. They just start running with the crowds. They are called bandits. Many of them probably will finish hours after the serious runners. But these unofficial racers are just as happy. They sometimes kiss the ground after crossing the finish line. VOICE ONE: The runners will begin this year’s Boston Marathon at noon next Monday in the town of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. They will then pass through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline. They will run up and down hills. They will complete the race in the center of Boston. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch the marathon. Many will carry signs that say things like, “We are proud of you, Mommy.” Security for both watchers and runners has been increased this year, after the terrorist attacks on the United States last September. VOICE TWO: Before the marathon begins, a computer chip device is attached to each runner’s shoe. It electronically records how long the runner takes to complete the race. Timing begins when a runner passes another device placed across the road at the starting line. The computer chip records each runner’s time as he or she passes over several areas along the race. And it records the runner’s final time when crossing the finish line. Last year, Lee Bong-Ju ran his winning race in two hours, nine minutes and forty-three seconds. Women’s winner Catherine Ndereba finished in two hours, twenty-three minutes and fifty-three seconds. VOICE ONE: People who cannot walk also compete in the Boston Marathon. Competitors in wheelchairs begin the race earlier than others. The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include users of wheelchairs in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. Last year, South African competitor Ernst VanDyk won the wheelchair race. He finished in one hour twenty-five minutes and twelve seconds. That was more than six minutes faster than his closest competitor. VOICE TWO: The first Boston Marathon was held in Eighteen-Ninety-Seven. Fifteen men competed. Ten finished the race. Since then, the marathon has been held every year as part of a holiday in Massachusetts called Patriot’s Day. The holiday honors the beginning of the American War of Independence in the Seventeen-Seventies. This year, several special events are planned for Patriot’s Day. For example, musicians will perform Eighteenth-Century music at a public gathering place at Hopkinton where the race begins. ((BRIDGE MUSIC: “CHARIOTS OF FIRE” THEME )) VOICE ONE: The word “marathon” comes from an area along the coast of Greece. An important battle took place in Marathon about two-thousand-five-hundred years ago. An army from Persia had invaded Greece. Greece’s army defeated the invading army at Marathon. An Athenian general sent a Greek runner to Athens to tell the news of the victory. Marathon was about forty kilometers from Athens. The man ran to Athens at top speed. He announced his message. Then he fell to the ground, dead. A men’s marathon of about forty kilometers was included in the first modern Olympic games in Eighteen-Ninety-Six. The distance of the marathon was increased to forty-two and two-tenths kilometers at the Nineteen-Oh-Eight Olympics in London. The marathon continues to be a popular Olympic sport. VOICE TWO: Many American cities in addition to Boston hold marathons. For example, the United States Marine Marathon will take place October Third in Washington, D.C., and the state of Virginia. Chicago also will hold its Two-Thousand-Two Marathon in October. The running area in Chicago is almost completely flat. This has permitted runners to set some of the world’s fastest times there. The Chicago race offers more than five-hundred-thousand dollars in prize money. New York will hold its marathon in November. This marathon is so large that competitors must take part in a game of chance to win the right to enter. As many as thirty-thousand people have run in New York Marathons. VOICE ONE: About six- thousand people ran in the new Washington, D.C., Marathon on March Twenty-Fourth. It was the first forty-two and two-tenths-kilometer race ever held completely inside the city. Marathon planners are pleased with the areas they chose for the competition. Racers ran through the city center near famous memorials and buildings like the Capitol. They also ran through many of the different areas of the city where people live. Andrey Kuznetsov of the nearby state of Maryland won the men’s race in the Washington Marathon. He is forty-four years old. He crossed the finish line after two hours twenty-three minutes and forty seconds. A mother of three young children from Atlanta, Georgia, won the women’s race. Forty-year-old Victoria Mills finished in two hours fifty-four minutes twenty-nine seconds. Each won two-thousand dollars. Los Angeles, California also held its marathon in March. More than eighteen-thousand runners competed. ((BRIDGE MUSIC: “CHARIOTS OF FIRE”)) VOICE TWO: Thirty years ago, far fewer people ran in the United States. Today, millions run. Many more women now take part in the sport. Many children in public and private schools run as part of their physical-education programs. Running has gained popularity for several reasons. You can do it anywhere, any time. You do not need other people. And you do not need much equipment. However, experts suggest you wear a good pair of running shoes to protect your feet. The manufacture of running shoes has become a huge industry in the United States. Other popular products for runners include special watches so they can record their times. Runners often buy drinks that contain minerals said to increase energy. Some carry water or energy drinks in unbreakable plastic bottles they wear on the belts. VOICE ONE: People run for different reasons. Most say running makes them feel better physically. It prevents them from gaining weight. It provides needed exercise to help prevent some diseases. Many people also say running makes them feel better mentally. It makes them feel happier. Some say they forget their worries when they run. Sports experts, however, urge people to prepare themselves before trying to run in long races. They say special exercises and repeated runs are needed to build strength. Doctors also urge runners to make sure they are in good health before entering a marathon. They say forty-two kilometers is a long way to run as fast as you can without stopping. VOICE TWO: Brett Silver is a young businesswoman in Los Angeles, California. She has run the Los Angeles Marathon two times. Last month, she finished the race in an hour less than she did the year before. She says she improved because she now awakens early and runs before work. Mizz Silver describes her feelings at crossing the finish line of a marathon. She says, “You feel terribly tired. At the same time, you feel just wonderful.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - April 7, 2002: in-in-the-Face
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. I’m Steve Ember. In the early days of the last century, an American doctor wrote about the Native American people called the Lakota or Sioux. His name was Charles Eastman. He was one of the few people to ever win the trust of the old people. He could do this because he too was a Lakota, Sioux. His Lakota name was Ohiyasa. As a child he learned to ride a horse. He learned to hunt. And he learned other skills that made the Sioux great. When Ohiyasa was fifteen years old he was sent to an American school for Indian children. He was given the English name Charles Eastman. He did very well in school. He was chosen to go on to college and then to medical school. He returned to his tribe as their medical doctor. In the early part of the past century, Charles Eastman saw that many of the old people were dying. He feared their history and culture would die with them. He talked to many of the very old members of the Sioux. He put their words down on paper. I’m Steve Ember. In the early days of the last century, an American doctor wrote about the Native American people called the Lakota or Sioux. His name was Charles Eastman. He was one of the few people to ever win the trust of the old people. He could do this because he too was a Lakota, Sioux. His Lakota name was Ohiyasa. As a child he learned to ride a horse. He learned to hunt. And he learned other skills that made the Sioux great. When Ohiyasa was fifteen years old he was sent to an American school for Indian children. He was given the English name Charles Eastman. He did very well in school. He was chosen to go on to college and then to medical school. He returned to his tribe as their medical doctor. In the early part of the past century, Charles Eastman saw that many of the old people were dying. He feared their history and culture would die with them. He talked to many of the very old members of the Sioux. He put their words down on paper. One of these stories was about a famous Indian fighter named “Rain-in-the-Face.” This is the story that Doctor Eastman wrote ... VOICE TWO: About two months before the great Sioux warrior, Rain-in-the Face died, I went to see him for the last time. “Friend,” I said,” At home when the old men were asked to tell the brave things they had done, the tobacco pipe was passed. So come, let us smoke now to the memory of the old days.” He took some of my tobacco and filled his long pipe. The old man lay upon a small bed covered by a red blanket. He was all alone that day, only an old dog lay silent by his feet. Finally he looked up and began telling me about his long life. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE THREE: One of these stories was about a famous Indian fighter named “Rain-in-the-Face.” This is the story that Doctor Eastman wrote ... VOICE TWO: About two months before the great Sioux warrior, Rain-in-the Face died, I went to see him for the last time. “Friend,” I said,” At home when the old men were asked to tell the brave things they had done, the tobacco pipe was passed. So come, let us smoke now to the memory of the old days.” He took some of my tobacco and filled his long pipe. The old man lay upon a small bed covered by a red blanket. He was all alone that day, only an old dog lay silent by his feet. Finally he looked up and began telling me about his long life. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE THREE: “I was born near the Cheyenne River about seventy years ago. My family were not great chiefs, but they were good warriors and great hunters. I was given the name “Rain-In-The-Face” as a young man. This was after a great battle when we were on a warpath against the Gros Ventres tribe. I had painted my face with warpaint that day. I had wished my face to represent the sun when partly covered with darkness…so I painted it half-black … half red. We fought all day in the rain and some of the war paint on my face was washed away. Much of The black and red paint had run together…so I was given the name “Rain In-The Face.” We Sioux considered it an honorable name.” VOICE TWO: As he told his story old Rain seemed to come alive. He smiled as he talked. He seemed younger and his eyes shined. VOICE THREE: One of the most daring attacks that we ever made was against the army base called Fort Totten in North Dakota. The fight took place in the summer of Eighteen-Sixty-Six. I had a special friend then. His name was Wapaypay. He was known to the white men as Fearless Bear. He was the bravest man among us. In those days Wapaypay and I called each other “Brother—Friend.” This was a life and death promise among the Sioux. What one does the other must do and that meant that I must be with him in the attack. And, if he was killed, I must fight until I died also. I prepared for death. I painted my face with my special sign…half red…half black. Now the signal for the attack was given. My horse started even with Wapaypay, but his horse was faster than mine. This was bad for me. By the time I came close to the fort, the soldiers had somewhat recovered from the surprise of our attack. They were aiming their guns more carefully. Their guns talked very loud but hit few of us. Their guns were like an old dog with no teeth who makes much noise and becomes more angry the more noise he makes. ((small pause))) How much harm we did …I do not know. When the fight was finished I saw blood on my leg. Both my horse and I were wounded. VOICE TWO: I knew that Rain-in-the Face had taken part in two of the most famous fights with white soldiers. One of these fights was near an army fort named Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. The other was the most famous battle between the Sioux and the American Army. Rain-in- the-Face was in the battle against the famous army general, George Armstrong Custer. That great battle took place near the Little Big Horn River. I asked him to tell me about these two great battles. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE THREE: We attacked a fort west of the Black Hills. The white soldiers called it Fort Phil Kearny. It was there we killed almost one-hundred soldiers. They were commanded by a captain named Fetterman. It was a big fight. Many famous chiefs were there -- Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud. And many young warriors -- Sword, American Horse, Crow King. The plan for the battle was decided after many meetings. The main group would stay hidden from view and a few of the bravest young men were chosen to attack a group of white men. These men were cutting wood for the fort. We were told not to kill these men, but to chase them back to the fort and then ride slowly away. We did this. A large group of soldiers commanded by Captain Fetterman followed us! They thought we were only few in number. We led them into the trap. It was a matter of a very few minutes before every soldier lay dead. ((Pause)) The very next year we signed a peace treaty at Fort Rice in North Dakota. Almost all the Sioux chiefs singed the treaty. The treaty said all the country north of the Republican River in Nebraska, including the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, was to be ALWAYS Sioux country. No white man could go there without our permission. After the treaty was signed, the white men found the yellow metal they call gold in our country. They came in great numbers. They chased away all the animals we hunted for food. We had no choice, so for the last time we took up arms against them. No one honored the treaty. VOICE TWO: When the treaty failed, many hundreds of Sioux families moved north to an area of that is now in the State of Montana. Rain-in-the-Face described what happened then. VOICE THREE: In the Spring, the Sioux got together near the Tongue River. It was one of the greatest camps of the Sioux that I ever saw. Some Northern Cheyennes with us. And there were Santee Sioux from Canada. We had decided to fight the white soldiers until no warrior should be left. We crossed the Tongue River to the Little Big Horn. I was eating my food one day when suddenly, the Long-Haired Soldier Chief called George Custer began to attack us. It was a great surprise. I heard a Sioux war cry. I saw a warrior riding his horse at stop speed giving the warning as he came. Then we heard the sound of soldiers’ guns. I seized my gun, my bow and arrows and my stone war club. As I was about to go join the fight, I saw a group of soldiers near us at the edge of a long line of cliffs across the small river. We all got on our horses and immediately started toward those soldiers. We quickly began to surround the soldiers. When the soldiers were surrounded on two sides, with the river on the third, the order came to attack. The soldiers tried to ride the other way, but they could not leave. They fired their guns at us as fast as they could. We mostly used bows and arrows. The soldiers fought very bravely until they were killed. I had always thought that white men were not brave, but I had a great respect for them after this day. ((Pause)) No one knows who killed the soldier chief Long-Hair Custer. Many lies have been told about me. Some say I killed Custer or his brother Tom Custer that day. Why, in that fight the excitement was so great that we could not recognize our nearest friends. Everything was done as fast as lightning. ((Pause)) But that was long ago. I have lived in peace now for many, many years. No one can say Rain-in-the-Face has broken the rules. I fought for my people and my country. When we lost, I remained silent, as a warrior should. My warrior spirit died when I put down my weapons. Now, there is only my poor body that has lived on. Now that too is almost ready to lie down for the last time. Ahhhhhh … It is well. VOICE TWO: Rain-in-the-Face, one of the last of the great Sioux warriors, died at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on September Fourteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Five. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was taken from the book “Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains” by Doctor Charles Eastman. Doug Johnson was the voice of Doctor Eastman; Shep O’Neal was the voice of Rain in the Face. Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. “I was born near the Cheyenne River about seventy years ago. My family were not great chiefs, but they were good warriors and great hunters. I was given the name “Rain-In-The-Face” as a young man. This was after a great battle when we were on a warpath against the Gros Ventres tribe. I had painted my face with warpaint that day. I had wished my face to represent the sun when partly covered with darkness…so I painted it half-black … half red. We fought all day in the rain and some of the war paint on my face was washed away. Much of The black and red paint had run together…so I was given the name “Rain In-The Face.” We Sioux considered it an honorable name.” VOICE TWO: As he told his story old Rain seemed to come alive. He smiled as he talked. He seemed younger and his eyes shined. VOICE THREE: One of the most daring attacks that we ever made was against the army base called Fort Totten in North Dakota. The fight took place in the summer of Eighteen-Sixty-Six. I had a special friend then. His name was Wapaypay. He was known to the white men as Fearless Bear. He was the bravest man among us. In those days Wapaypay and I called each other “Brother—Friend.” This was a life and death promise among the Sioux. What one does the other must do and that meant that I must be with him in the attack. And, if he was killed, I must fight until I died also. I prepared for death. I painted my face with my special sign…half red…half black. Now the signal for the attack was given. My horse started even with Wapaypay, but his horse was faster than mine. This was bad for me. By the time I came close to the fort, the soldiers had somewhat recovered from the surprise of our attack. They were aiming their guns more carefully. Their guns talked very loud but hit few of us. Their guns were like an old dog with no teeth who makes much noise and becomes more angry the more noise he makes. ((small pause))) How much harm we did …I do not know. When the fight was finished I saw blood on my leg. Both my horse and I were wounded. VOICE TWO: I knew that Rain-in-the Face had taken part in two of the most famous fights with white soldiers. One of these fights was near an army fort named Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. The other was the most famous battle between the Sioux and the American Army. Rain-in- the-Face was in the battle against the famous army general, George Armstrong Custer. That great battle took place near the Little Big Horn River. I asked him to tell me about these two great battles. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE THREE: We attacked a fort west of the Black Hills. The white soldiers called it Fort Phil Kearny. It was there we killed almost one-hundred soldiers. They were commanded by a captain named Fetterman. It was a big fight. Many famous chiefs were there -- Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud. And many young warriors -- Sword, American Horse, Crow King. The plan for the battle was decided after many meetings. The main group would stay hidden from view and a few of the bravest young men were chosen to attack a group of white men. These men were cutting wood for the fort. We were told not to kill these men, but to chase them back to the fort and then ride slowly away. We did this. A large group of soldiers commanded by Captain Fetterman followed us! They thought we were only few in number. We led them into the trap. It was a matter of a very few minutes before every soldier lay dead. ((Pause)) The very next year we signed a peace treaty at Fort Rice in North Dakota. Almost all the Sioux chiefs singed the treaty. The treaty said all the country north of the Republican River in Nebraska, including the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains, was to be ALWAYS Sioux country. No white man could go there without our permission. After the treaty was signed, the white men found the yellow metal they call gold in our country. They came in great numbers. They chased away all the animals we hunted for food. We had no choice, so for the last time we took up arms against them. No one honored the treaty. VOICE TWO: When the treaty failed, many hundreds of Sioux families moved north to an area of that is now in the State of Montana. Rain-in-the-Face described what happened then. VOICE THREE: In the Spring, the Sioux got together near the Tongue River. It was one of the greatest camps of the Sioux that I ever saw. Some Northern Cheyennes with us. And there were Santee Sioux from Canada. We had decided to fight the white soldiers until no warrior should be left. We crossed the Tongue River to the Little Big Horn. I was eating my food one day when suddenly, the Long-Haired Soldier Chief called George Custer began to attack us. It was a great surprise. I heard a Sioux war cry. I saw a warrior riding his horse at stop speed giving the warning as he came. Then we heard the sound of soldiers’ guns. I seized my gun, my bow and arrows and my stone war club. As I was about to go join the fight, I saw a group of soldiers near us at the edge of a long line of cliffs across the small river. We all got on our horses and immediately started toward those soldiers. We quickly began to surround the soldiers. When the soldiers were surrounded on two sides, with the river on the third, the order came to attack. The soldiers tried to ride the other way, but they could not leave. They fired their guns at us as fast as they could. We mostly used bows and arrows. The soldiers fought very bravely until they were killed. I had always thought that white men were not brave, but I had a great respect for them after this day. ((Pause)) No one knows who killed the soldier chief Long-Hair Custer. Many lies have been told about me. Some say I killed Custer or his brother Tom Custer that day. Why, in that fight the excitement was so great that we could not recognize our nearest friends. Everything was done as fast as lightning. ((Pause)) But that was long ago. I have lived in peace now for many, many years. No one can say Rain-in-the-Face has broken the rules. I fought for my people and my country. When we lost, I remained silent, as a warrior should. My warrior spirit died when I put down my weapons. Now, there is only my poor body that has lived on. Now that too is almost ready to lie down for the last time. Ahhhhhh … It is well. VOICE TWO: Rain-in-the-Face, one of the last of the great Sioux warriors, died at the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota on September Fourteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Five. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was taken from the book “Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains” by Doctor Charles Eastman. Doug Johnson was the voice of Doctor Eastman; Shep O’Neal was the voice of Rain in the Face. Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - April 8, 2002: Tobacco in Developing Countries
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Tobacco smoking has long been considered an international health problem, especially in developing countries. Health experts estimate that tobacco use causes diseases that kill three-million people each year. Ninety percent of smokers begin before age twenty-one. Sixty percent become smokers by age fourteen. Based on these numbers, an international organization of anti-tobacco groups has released new evidence against the tobacco industry. The public activist organization Infact and several members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals wrote the report. It examines actions by the tobacco industry around the world. The study says that tobacco companies spend huge amounts of money fighting anti-smoking legislation in developing countries. It says tobacco companies take serious steps to make smoking as low-cost as possible. And it says tobacco companies target young people. For example, the report says tobacco companies give free cigarettes to young people at music shows, dance centers and even in some schools. Tobacco companies also give away clothes or other products showing their signs or logos. The effect of these actions is an increase in young smokers. The report says the total number of young smokers has increased by more than seventy percent in developing countries during the last twenty-five years. Anti-smoking activists also say tobacco companies try to market their products to as many people as possible. For example, in India, cigarettes are sold individually or in boxes of two or five. The price of these smaller boxes is much less than a full box of twenty cigarettes. This makes it much easier for young people to get cigarettes. The report comes as the World Health Organization begins new talks on an agreement seeking to limit the use of tobacco. The document is called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Officials hope to have it finished by next year. The agreement will deal with tobacco marketing campaigns, the illegal transport of tobacco, financial support for the tobacco industry and other issues. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Tobacco smoking has long been considered an international health problem, especially in developing countries. Health experts estimate that tobacco use causes diseases that kill three-million people each year. Ninety percent of smokers begin before age twenty-one. Sixty percent become smokers by age fourteen. Based on these numbers, an international organization of anti-tobacco groups has released new evidence against the tobacco industry. The public activist organization Infact and several members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals wrote the report. It examines actions by the tobacco industry around the world. The study says that tobacco companies spend huge amounts of money fighting anti-smoking legislation in developing countries. It says tobacco companies take serious steps to make smoking as low-cost as possible. And it says tobacco companies target young people. For example, the report says tobacco companies give free cigarettes to young people at music shows, dance centers and even in some schools. Tobacco companies also give away clothes or other products showing their signs or logos. The effect of these actions is an increase in young smokers. The report says the total number of young smokers has increased by more than seventy percent in developing countries during the last twenty-five years. Anti-smoking activists also say tobacco companies try to market their products to as many people as possible. For example, in India, cigarettes are sold individually or in boxes of two or five. The price of these smaller boxes is much less than a full box of twenty cigarettes. This makes it much easier for young people to get cigarettes. The report comes as the World Health Organization begins new talks on an agreement seeking to limit the use of tobacco. The document is called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Officials hope to have it finished by next year. The agreement will deal with tobacco marketing campaigns, the illegal transport of tobacco, financial support for the tobacco industry and other issues. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - April 6, 2002: Cease-fire in Angola
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The Angolan government and the UNITA rebel movement signed a cease-fire treaty Thursday in the country’s capital, Luanda. The treaty ends a civil war in Angola that began twenty-seven years ago. The Angolan Army chief of staff and the military commander of the rebel group signed the document. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the temporary leader of UNITA, Paulo Lukamba Gato, observed. Four thousand guests filled the National Parliament building where the signing ceremony took place. Among them was United Nations official Ibrahim Gambari and representatives from Portugal, Russia and the United States. They have been helping to establish terms for carrying out a peace agreement reached in Lusaka, Zambia in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. Under the cease-fire, fifty-thousand UNITA fighters will surrender their weapons. More than five-thousand will begin preparations to enter the country’s army and police forces. Others will be trained so they can re-enter the economy. The Angolan Parliament has approved a pardon program for UNITA armed forces. The pardons also will be given to Angolan army soldiers who fled their duties. The war between the government of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola began in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. That is the year when Angola became independent from its colonial ruler, Portugal. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or M-P-L-A, took control of the government in Luanda. UNITA and another group declared a coalition government in the Angolan city of Huambo. However, by early Nineteen-Seventy-Six, the rulers in Luanda had gained control throughout the country. M-P-L-A remains the ruling party. It is now led by President dos Santos. UNITA was established by Jonas Savimbi in the Nineteen-Sixties. He led the group until his death on the battlefield six weeks ago. More than five-hundred-thousand people have died in the Angolan conflict. Others have been wounded—many by landmines. The United Nations says the war displaced four million people, about one-third of Angola’s population. The years of fighting have greatly damaged development efforts in the country. The Angolan government and UNITA have reached several other peace agreements in the past. None lasted. However, some experts say peace has a better chance with the death of Jonas Savimbi. They say he was an important part of the conflict. Other experts are expressing hope about this peace agreement for a different reason. They say a lasting peace is more probable because Angolans led this latest peace process. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The Angolan government and the UNITA rebel movement signed a cease-fire treaty Thursday in the country’s capital, Luanda. The treaty ends a civil war in Angola that began twenty-seven years ago. The Angolan Army chief of staff and the military commander of the rebel group signed the document. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the temporary leader of UNITA, Paulo Lukamba Gato, observed. Four thousand guests filled the National Parliament building where the signing ceremony took place. Among them was United Nations official Ibrahim Gambari and representatives from Portugal, Russia and the United States. They have been helping to establish terms for carrying out a peace agreement reached in Lusaka, Zambia in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. Under the cease-fire, fifty-thousand UNITA fighters will surrender their weapons. More than five-thousand will begin preparations to enter the country’s army and police forces. Others will be trained so they can re-enter the economy. The Angolan Parliament has approved a pardon program for UNITA armed forces. The pardons also will be given to Angolan army soldiers who fled their duties. The war between the government of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola began in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. That is the year when Angola became independent from its colonial ruler, Portugal. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or M-P-L-A, took control of the government in Luanda. UNITA and another group declared a coalition government in the Angolan city of Huambo. However, by early Nineteen-Seventy-Six, the rulers in Luanda had gained control throughout the country. M-P-L-A remains the ruling party. It is now led by President dos Santos. UNITA was established by Jonas Savimbi in the Nineteen-Sixties. He led the group until his death on the battlefield six weeks ago. More than five-hundred-thousand people have died in the Angolan conflict. Others have been wounded—many by landmines. The United Nations says the war displaced four million people, about one-third of Angola’s population. The years of fighting have greatly damaged development efforts in the country. The Angolan government and UNITA have reached several other peace agreements in the past. None lasted. However, some experts say peace has a better chance with the death of Jonas Savimbi. They say he was an important part of the conflict. Other experts are expressing hope about this peace agreement for a different reason. They say a lasting peace is more probable because Angolans led this latest peace process. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-05-5-1.cfm
* Headline: April 7, 2002 - Lida Baker: Pronouncing 'th'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- help for English learners who have trouble pronouncing words with the letters t-h. RS: Our friend Lida Baker joins us with a pronunciation lesson. She writes textbooks for English learners, and teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. AA: Lida Baker says the problem is that few other languages have the sound -- actually, the two sounds -- that we write in English with the letters t-h. BAKER: "There's t-h like in the word 'thing' and then there's the t-h sound that you have in a word like 'brother.' And because it doesn't exist in a person's language, what they tend to do is to substitute a sound that they do have in their language. "So a word like 'thing,' a French speaker might pronounce it as 'sing.' They'll put an 's' there because they don't have a t-h sound in their language, so they may not be aware that the t-h exists. And even if they do, they don't know what to do with their mouth in order to produce that sound, so they simply substitute something that they're familiar with. "Other people might pronounce it as 'ting.' And in the same manner, the word 'brother,' speakers of some languages pronounce it as 'bruzzer,' with a 'z' sound, and other people pronounce it 'brudder,' with a 'd' there in the middle." RS: Now let's get back to the two different t-h sounds. With the example of "brother," the vocal cords vibrate ... brother. When the example of "thing," there's no vibration ... thing. AA: Our lesson continues, as Lida Baker describes the basic way to form a t-h sound. BAKER: "It involves putting the tongue between the teeth and then inhaling and blowing air out. And of course you have to do all these things at the same time, so it takes a little bit of practice." AA: "I'm trying to do it myself and I can't do it!" BAKER: "Well, step one, Avi, put your tongue between your teeth, take a deep breath and now blow." AA: [Blowing sound] BAKER: "And say 'thing.'" AA: "Thing." BAKER: "Yes. And t-h is easy because you can actually see that the tip of the tongue protrudes between the teeth." AA: And once her students can see for themselves -- it helps that she walks around with a mirror -- she then moves on to teaching "sound discrimination." BAKER: "I might write the word 'sing' -- s-i-n-g -- and the word 'thing' -- t-h-i-n-g -- on the board, and under the word 'sing' I'll write the number one, and under the word 'thing' I'll write the number two. And then I'll start saying those words, and the students have to -- if they hear me say 'sing' they have to hold up one finger and if they hear may say 'thing' they have to hold up two fingers. "So modeling the sound, learning how to put one's mouth in the proper position, doing sound discrimination exercises, to make sure you can hear the difference between two sounds, and finally practicing the sound in context, in meaningful ways, such as a game or a dialogue or a discussion -- those are the four parts of a pronunciation lesson." RS: "And telling the students ... or I should say, and encouraging the students that this is a very difficult task, and that with practice -- hopefully -- they can approximate sounding like an American." BAKER: "With time." RS: "With time." BAKER: "Because don't forget that when people are learning a language, what's their number one priority?" RS: "Communication." BAKER: "Exactly, communication. So they're concerned with vocabulary, they're concerned with choosing the right word. Pronunciation tends to be almost the last priority." AA: "Which, ironically, is what native speakers might end up judging them on, is whether they can understand how they're pronouncing words." BAKER: "Well, it's very ironic, because pronunciation is the very first thing that people notice about you." RS: So what to do? Lida Baker tells her students at the American Language Center in Los Angeles to look in a mirror and -- you guessed it -- practice, practice, practice. AA: Need help practicing your American English? Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. RS: And our new Web site address is www.voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- help for English learners who have trouble pronouncing words with the letters t-h. RS: Our friend Lida Baker joins us with a pronunciation lesson. She writes textbooks for English learners, and teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. AA: Lida Baker says the problem is that few other languages have the sound -- actually, the two sounds -- that we write in English with the letters t-h. BAKER: "There's t-h like in the word 'thing' and then there's the t-h sound that you have in a word like 'brother.' And because it doesn't exist in a person's language, what they tend to do is to substitute a sound that they do have in their language. "So a word like 'thing,' a French speaker might pronounce it as 'sing.' They'll put an 's' there because they don't have a t-h sound in their language, so they may not be aware that the t-h exists. And even if they do, they don't know what to do with their mouth in order to produce that sound, so they simply substitute something that they're familiar with. "Other people might pronounce it as 'ting.' And in the same manner, the word 'brother,' speakers of some languages pronounce it as 'bruzzer,' with a 'z' sound, and other people pronounce it 'brudder,' with a 'd' there in the middle." RS: Now let's get back to the two different t-h sounds. With the example of "brother," the vocal cords vibrate ... brother. When the example of "thing," there's no vibration ... thing. AA: Our lesson continues, as Lida Baker describes the basic way to form a t-h sound. BAKER: "It involves putting the tongue between the teeth and then inhaling and blowing air out. And of course you have to do all these things at the same time, so it takes a little bit of practice." AA: "I'm trying to do it myself and I can't do it!" BAKER: "Well, step one, Avi, put your tongue between your teeth, take a deep breath and now blow." AA: [Blowing sound] BAKER: "And say 'thing.'" AA: "Thing." BAKER: "Yes. And t-h is easy because you can actually see that the tip of the tongue protrudes between the teeth." AA: And once her students can see for themselves -- it helps that she walks around with a mirror -- she then moves on to teaching "sound discrimination." BAKER: "I might write the word 'sing' -- s-i-n-g -- and the word 'thing' -- t-h-i-n-g -- on the board, and under the word 'sing' I'll write the number one, and under the word 'thing' I'll write the number two. And then I'll start saying those words, and the students have to -- if they hear me say 'sing' they have to hold up one finger and if they hear may say 'thing' they have to hold up two fingers. "So modeling the sound, learning how to put one's mouth in the proper position, doing sound discrimination exercises, to make sure you can hear the difference between two sounds, and finally practicing the sound in context, in meaningful ways, such as a game or a dialogue or a discussion -- those are the four parts of a pronunciation lesson." RS: "And telling the students ... or I should say, and encouraging the students that this is a very difficult task, and that with practice -- hopefully -- they can approximate sounding like an American." BAKER: "With time." RS: "With time." BAKER: "Because don't forget that when people are learning a language, what's their number one priority?" RS: "Communication." BAKER: "Exactly, communication. So they're concerned with vocabulary, they're concerned with choosing the right word. Pronunciation tends to be almost the last priority." AA: "Which, ironically, is what native speakers might end up judging them on, is whether they can understand how they're pronouncing words." BAKER: "Well, it's very ironic, because pronunciation is the very first thing that people notice about you." RS: So what to do? Lida Baker tells her students at the American Language Center in Los Angeles to look in a mirror and -- you guessed it -- practice, practice, practice. AA: Need help practicing your American English? Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. RS: And our new Web site address is www.voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 9, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today we tell about President Bush’s choices for the two top medical positions in the United States government. And we tell about the winner of one of the world’s largest prizes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: President Bush has nominated candidates for the nation’s two top medical positions. He named Elias Zerhouni (EL-ee-ahs Zur-HOH-nee) to direct the National Institutes of Health. The N-I-H, near Washington, D-C, is the government’s medical research agency. The president chose Richard Carmona (Car-MOAN-ah) to be surgeon general. The surgeon general is the government’s chief policy advisor and spokesperson about health issues. The Senate must approve both nominations. VOICE TWO: The National Institutes of Health has lacked a director for more than two years. Cancer researcher Harold Varmus left that position at the end of Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. Doctor Zerhouni currently serves as a top official at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He also is chief of radiology at the university’s hospital. Doctor Zerhouni is nationally known for excellence in radiology and research administration. He is an expert in the science that uses X-rays and other techniques to find and treat diseases. These techniques include magnetic resonance imaging that shows soft body tissue. He also has earned praise for developing a process that takes moving pictures of the heart. Some critics say Doctor Zerhouni is not especially known for performing research. By comparison, the former N-I-H director, Harold Varmus, won a Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine for research on the genetics of cancer. VOICE ONE: Elias Zerhouni is fifty-one years old. He is an American citizen who was born in Algeria. He completed his medical education at the University of Algiers in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. That same year, he and his wife arrived in the United States without family or friends in this country and with little money. He began his training as a doctor at Johns Hopkins. In the early Nineteen-Eighties, Doctor Zerhouni taught at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. He returned to Johns Hopkins in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. Ever since, he has held increasingly important responsibilities there. He also has established or helped establish two medical companies. One of these companies made it possible for patients to have magnetic resonance imaging without going to a hospital. Last year, Doctor Zerhouni helped get private money to start the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins. The institute is working to develop research with special cells called stem cells. Scientists believe this research may result in treatments for a number of diseases. VOICE TWO: President Bush says he is sure Doctor Zerhouni will defend Administration positions on important medical research issues. These include stem cells and cloning -- creating genetic copies of living things. If confirmed by the Senate, Doctor Zerhouni will lead a huge medical research organization. N-I-H occupies more than one-hundred-twenty hectares in Bethesda, Maryland. It has twenty-seven separate institutes or centers. They employ fifteen-thousand people. The N-I-H budget for Two-Thousand-Three is expected to be more than twenty-seven-thousand-million dollars. This is about one-hundred percent more than in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. N-I-H scientists supervise about forty-thousand research projects. They search for causes and treatments for many diseases. However, N-I-H carries out its main research on cancer, heart disease, AIDS and genetic diseases. It also has increased research on chemicals used in possible terrorism attacks. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: President Bush has chosen Richard Carmona to be the country’s new surgeon general. Doctor Carmona is fifty-two years old. He is an expert in emergency medical care. He operates hospital emergency rooms in Tucson, Arizona. He also serves as a police officer. Two years ago, the National Association of Police Organizations named him one of nation’s best policemen. About ten years ago, Doctor Carmona rescued a person trapped on a dangerous, snowy mountainside. He did this while suspended from a helicopter. This heroic action became the subject of a movie. VOICE TWO: If confirmed as surgeon general, Doctor Carmona will direct the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. More than five-thousand-five-hundred public health workers belong to this organization. Its members work during national emergencies. For example, they worked during the terrorist attacks in New York City and near Washington, D-C, last September. The surgeon general also prepares reports on public health issues. President Bush said he has asked Doctor Carmona to speak to the nation about alcohol and drug problems. The president also wants him to urge Americans to get more physical exercise. VOICE ONE: Richard Carmona grew up in a poor Hispanic family in New York City. He left high school before completing the requirements. At age seventeen, he joined the United States Army. He won Purple Heart medals after being wounded two times during the Vietnam War. Richard Carmona finished his high school education after returning from the war. Then he attended college and medical school at the University of California in San Francisco. He continued his medical education at hospitals in San Francisco. He moved to Arizona in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. There he started the first emergency care program in the area. He became director of these trauma services at Tucson Medical Center. VOICE TWO: Richard Carmona serves as a doctor for the Pima County police. He helps lead their special crisis force team. He also teaches at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Friends describe him as one of the most energetic people they have known. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts heads the Senate committee that will question Doctor Zerhouni and Doctor Carmona. He has praised both men. Senator Kennedy says he looks forward to hearing their positions on health issues. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A British physicist who became a Christian clergyman has been awarded one of the world’s largest prizes. The Reverend John Polkinghorne is this year’s winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. The Templeton Prize is worth about one-million dollars. It is named for British businessman John Templeton. Mister Templeton established the award in Nineteen-Seventy-Two to honor people for their work in religion. The winners for the past four years have been scientists. The Reverend John Polkinghorne is a mathematical physicist. His writings on the links between science and religion have helped increase public interest in the subject. VOICE TWO: John Charlton Polkinghorne was born in England in Nineteen-Thirty. His family was very religious and often attended Church of England services. As a boy, John became interested in mathematics. He completed his education at the University of Cambridge. He later became a professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge. His mathematical programs for estimating the movement of fast-moving particles are considered his most important scientific findings. His work led to his membership in the Royal Society, Britain’s leading scientific organization. Professor Polkinghorne decided to leave his teaching position to study religion in Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. Three years later, he became a Christian clergyman. VOICE ONE: Father Polkinghorne has written more than twenty books. The best known ones include “Belief in God in an Age of Science” and “The Faith of a Physicist.” Father Polkinghorne says he believes in both science and religion. He says he sees them as helping each other, not as opponents. He says the idea of a huge explosion creating the universe does not affect his belief in God as creator. Father Polkinghorne will receive the Templeton prize in a private ceremony in London later this month. He says he will use the prize money to aid the study of science and religion. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today we tell about President Bush’s choices for the two top medical positions in the United States government. And we tell about the winner of one of the world’s largest prizes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: President Bush has nominated candidates for the nation’s two top medical positions. He named Elias Zerhouni (EL-ee-ahs Zur-HOH-nee) to direct the National Institutes of Health. The N-I-H, near Washington, D-C, is the government’s medical research agency. The president chose Richard Carmona (Car-MOAN-ah) to be surgeon general. The surgeon general is the government’s chief policy advisor and spokesperson about health issues. The Senate must approve both nominations. VOICE TWO: The National Institutes of Health has lacked a director for more than two years. Cancer researcher Harold Varmus left that position at the end of Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. Doctor Zerhouni currently serves as a top official at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He also is chief of radiology at the university’s hospital. Doctor Zerhouni is nationally known for excellence in radiology and research administration. He is an expert in the science that uses X-rays and other techniques to find and treat diseases. These techniques include magnetic resonance imaging that shows soft body tissue. He also has earned praise for developing a process that takes moving pictures of the heart. Some critics say Doctor Zerhouni is not especially known for performing research. By comparison, the former N-I-H director, Harold Varmus, won a Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine for research on the genetics of cancer. VOICE ONE: Elias Zerhouni is fifty-one years old. He is an American citizen who was born in Algeria. He completed his medical education at the University of Algiers in Nineteen-Seventy-Five. That same year, he and his wife arrived in the United States without family or friends in this country and with little money. He began his training as a doctor at Johns Hopkins. In the early Nineteen-Eighties, Doctor Zerhouni taught at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk. He returned to Johns Hopkins in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. Ever since, he has held increasingly important responsibilities there. He also has established or helped establish two medical companies. One of these companies made it possible for patients to have magnetic resonance imaging without going to a hospital. Last year, Doctor Zerhouni helped get private money to start the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins. The institute is working to develop research with special cells called stem cells. Scientists believe this research may result in treatments for a number of diseases. VOICE TWO: President Bush says he is sure Doctor Zerhouni will defend Administration positions on important medical research issues. These include stem cells and cloning -- creating genetic copies of living things. If confirmed by the Senate, Doctor Zerhouni will lead a huge medical research organization. N-I-H occupies more than one-hundred-twenty hectares in Bethesda, Maryland. It has twenty-seven separate institutes or centers. They employ fifteen-thousand people. The N-I-H budget for Two-Thousand-Three is expected to be more than twenty-seven-thousand-million dollars. This is about one-hundred percent more than in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. N-I-H scientists supervise about forty-thousand research projects. They search for causes and treatments for many diseases. However, N-I-H carries out its main research on cancer, heart disease, AIDS and genetic diseases. It also has increased research on chemicals used in possible terrorism attacks. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: President Bush has chosen Richard Carmona to be the country’s new surgeon general. Doctor Carmona is fifty-two years old. He is an expert in emergency medical care. He operates hospital emergency rooms in Tucson, Arizona. He also serves as a police officer. Two years ago, the National Association of Police Organizations named him one of nation’s best policemen. About ten years ago, Doctor Carmona rescued a person trapped on a dangerous, snowy mountainside. He did this while suspended from a helicopter. This heroic action became the subject of a movie. VOICE TWO: If confirmed as surgeon general, Doctor Carmona will direct the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. More than five-thousand-five-hundred public health workers belong to this organization. Its members work during national emergencies. For example, they worked during the terrorist attacks in New York City and near Washington, D-C, last September. The surgeon general also prepares reports on public health issues. President Bush said he has asked Doctor Carmona to speak to the nation about alcohol and drug problems. The president also wants him to urge Americans to get more physical exercise. VOICE ONE: Richard Carmona grew up in a poor Hispanic family in New York City. He left high school before completing the requirements. At age seventeen, he joined the United States Army. He won Purple Heart medals after being wounded two times during the Vietnam War. Richard Carmona finished his high school education after returning from the war. Then he attended college and medical school at the University of California in San Francisco. He continued his medical education at hospitals in San Francisco. He moved to Arizona in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. There he started the first emergency care program in the area. He became director of these trauma services at Tucson Medical Center. VOICE TWO: Richard Carmona serves as a doctor for the Pima County police. He helps lead their special crisis force team. He also teaches at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Friends describe him as one of the most energetic people they have known. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts heads the Senate committee that will question Doctor Zerhouni and Doctor Carmona. He has praised both men. Senator Kennedy says he looks forward to hearing their positions on health issues. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A British physicist who became a Christian clergyman has been awarded one of the world’s largest prizes. The Reverend John Polkinghorne is this year’s winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. The Templeton Prize is worth about one-million dollars. It is named for British businessman John Templeton. Mister Templeton established the award in Nineteen-Seventy-Two to honor people for their work in religion. The winners for the past four years have been scientists. The Reverend John Polkinghorne is a mathematical physicist. His writings on the links between science and religion have helped increase public interest in the subject. VOICE TWO: John Charlton Polkinghorne was born in England in Nineteen-Thirty. His family was very religious and often attended Church of England services. As a boy, John became interested in mathematics. He completed his education at the University of Cambridge. He later became a professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge. His mathematical programs for estimating the movement of fast-moving particles are considered his most important scientific findings. His work led to his membership in the Royal Society, Britain’s leading scientific organization. Professor Polkinghorne decided to leave his teaching position to study religion in Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. Three years later, he became a Christian clergyman. VOICE ONE: Father Polkinghorne has written more than twenty books. The best known ones include “Belief in God in an Age of Science” and “The Faith of a Physicist.” Father Polkinghorne says he believes in both science and religion. He says he sees them as helping each other, not as opponents. He says the idea of a huge explosion creating the universe does not affect his belief in God as creator. Father Polkinghorne will receive the Templeton prize in a private ceremony in London later this month. He says he will use the prize money to aid the study of science and religion. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Jerilyn Watson and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – April 9, 2002: Genetic Engineering Debate
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. An international debate continues about genetically engineered corn. Last November, the British science publication Nature reported the findings of two researchers. They are Ignacio Chapela and David Quist of the University of California at Berkeley. The researchers said they found that genetic material from genetically engineered plants can spread across great distances to native plants. They said they found the genetic material in wild corn growing in the mountains of southern Mexico. Nature now has published a statement that says the study was not well researched and should not have been published. The publication took the action after at least four groups of scientists criticized the study. After the report was published last year, opponents of genetic engineering said the findings confirm that the technology is spreading in uncontrolled ways. They noted that Mexico’s government banned the planting of genetically engineered corn in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. However, scientists who support biotechnology in crops attacked the findings and the test methods used. The scientific publication “Transgenic Research” also criticized the study. It said the researchers failed to present strong scientific evidence to support their claims. Such criticisms led to other accusations. More than one-hundred-forty non-governmental organizations signed a statement in support of the University of California researchers. The joint statement urged agricultural officials to halt the spread of genetically engineered corn. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico also joined the debate. The Center is a non-profit group that studies corn. The center has a large collection of Mexican corn plant genes. It says none of its extensive testing has found genetic material from genetically engineered plants in native Mexican corn. The center is continuing to do more testing. Many scientists believe that that genes from genetically engineered crops can spread. The most famous case involves StarLink corn in the United States. American officials approved StarLink for use in animal feed. However, it was found in a number of food products for human use. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. An international debate continues about genetically engineered corn. Last November, the British science publication Nature reported the findings of two researchers. They are Ignacio Chapela and David Quist of the University of California at Berkeley. The researchers said they found that genetic material from genetically engineered plants can spread across great distances to native plants. They said they found the genetic material in wild corn growing in the mountains of southern Mexico. Nature now has published a statement that says the study was not well researched and should not have been published. The publication took the action after at least four groups of scientists criticized the study. After the report was published last year, opponents of genetic engineering said the findings confirm that the technology is spreading in uncontrolled ways. They noted that Mexico’s government banned the planting of genetically engineered corn in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. However, scientists who support biotechnology in crops attacked the findings and the test methods used. The scientific publication “Transgenic Research” also criticized the study. It said the researchers failed to present strong scientific evidence to support their claims. Such criticisms led to other accusations. More than one-hundred-forty non-governmental organizations signed a statement in support of the University of California researchers. The joint statement urged agricultural officials to halt the spread of genetically engineered corn. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico also joined the debate. The Center is a non-profit group that studies corn. The center has a large collection of Mexican corn plant genes. It says none of its extensive testing has found genetic material from genetically engineered plants in native Mexican corn. The center is continuing to do more testing. Many scientists believe that that genes from genetically engineered crops can spread. The most famous case involves StarLink corn in the United States. American officials approved StarLink for use in animal feed. However, it was found in a number of food products for human use. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT — April 10, 2002: Treating Osteoporosis
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical researchers say they may have found a new effective treatment for the bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis. Osteoporosis greatly reduces the density of bones. They become thin and weak and break easily. The areas of the body most seriously affected are the back bones and the hip bones. Experts say the condition is a major health threat around the world. The World Health Organization estimates that the risk of suffering a broken bone related to osteoporosis during a person’s life is about forty percent for women and thirteen percent for men. It says the number of broken hips suffered by people around the world is increasing. There are several drugs to prevent bone loss. People take these pills every day or once a week. However, not everyone can take the drugs because they have unwanted effects. The new international study examined the effect of a drug called zoledronic acid on bones. The drug has already been approved for use in cancer patients to treat a condition in which calcium leaves the bones. The researchers reported the results of their one-year study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved about three-hundred-fifty women in ten countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Canada and New Zealand. Some of the women received zoledronic acid during the study. Different groups received different amounts of the drug between one and four times a year. The other women received only an inactive substance. All of the women received either the drug or the inactive substance through a thin tube into a vein. The researchers found increased bone density in the back bones and hip bones of all the women who received the drug. The drug also slowed their rates of bone loss. The effects continued for at least a year after treatment, after the drug had disappeared from the blood. The researchers also said the drug caused fewer unwanted effects than those caused by osteoporosis drugs now in use. The researchers say the study suggests that zoledronic acid given once a year may be an effective treatment for osteoporosis. They will not know for sure for another five years, until more studies have been completed. These larger and longer studies have already begun. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Medical researchers say they may have found a new effective treatment for the bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis. Osteoporosis greatly reduces the density of bones. They become thin and weak and break easily. The areas of the body most seriously affected are the back bones and the hip bones. Experts say the condition is a major health threat around the world. The World Health Organization estimates that the risk of suffering a broken bone related to osteoporosis during a person’s life is about forty percent for women and thirteen percent for men. It says the number of broken hips suffered by people around the world is increasing. There are several drugs to prevent bone loss. People take these pills every day or once a week. However, not everyone can take the drugs because they have unwanted effects. The new international study examined the effect of a drug called zoledronic acid on bones. The drug has already been approved for use in cancer patients to treat a condition in which calcium leaves the bones. The researchers reported the results of their one-year study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved about three-hundred-fifty women in ten countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Canada and New Zealand. Some of the women received zoledronic acid during the study. Different groups received different amounts of the drug between one and four times a year. The other women received only an inactive substance. All of the women received either the drug or the inactive substance through a thin tube into a vein. The researchers found increased bone density in the back bones and hip bones of all the women who received the drug. The drug also slowed their rates of bone loss. The effects continued for at least a year after treatment, after the drug had disappeared from the blood. The researchers also said the drug caused fewer unwanted effects than those caused by osteoporosis drugs now in use. The researchers say the study suggests that zoledronic acid given once a year may be an effective treatment for osteoporosis. They will not know for sure for another five years, until more studies have been completed. These larger and longer studies have already begun. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 10, 2002: Wiley Post
* Byline: 

 Anncr: Now the VOA Special English program, explorations. Today Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson tell about pilot Wiley Post. He set new records when he flew his own airplane around the world in nineteen-thirty-three. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: It was nineteen-thirty-three. Only six years earlier Charles Lindburgh became famous around the world as the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a young pilot was trying to fly across Russia. He had left Moscow several hours before. All he heard was the sound of the one engine that powered his plane. Hour after hour the same sound. Now the weather was bad. He could not see much ahead, only the fog. Flying in fog is very dangerous. Yet the sound of the engine made everything seem warm and safe. Then, out of the fog he saw a mountain. He had only seconds to bring the airplane up. It was a narrow escape, one of many he would have during his long flight. VOICE 2: The young pilot was Wiley Post. He was trying to fly around the world by himself. He made the trip in less than eight days. He stopped eleven times for fuel, food and a little sleep. Wiley Post made his famous flight in July, nineteen-thirty-three. Not many flight instruments existed that could help him find his way. He was alone, fighting against sleep. If he fell asleep he would die. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Nothing in Wiley Post's early years suggests that he would become a famous pilot. He was born in Grand Saline, Texas, in eighteen-ninety-eight. His family were farmers. In nineteen-thirteen, Wiley saw something that forever changed his life -- an airplane. After watching the plane fly, young Wiley waited until most people had left the area. He then began inspecting and studying the plane. He measured different parts of the plane with his hands. Many years later, Wiley Post would say that first airplane was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. VOICE 2: Wiley Post began to study everything he could find about flying. He began to educate himself about subjects such as mathematics, radio and machinery. His self-education would continue the rest of his life. Post finally rode in an airplane in nineteen-nineteen. At the time, many people believed all pilots were special people. They believed it took special skills and courage to fly an airplane. But after his first ride, Wiley Post knew that flying was something he could learn to do. VOICE 1: Wiley Post began his career in flying, not as a pilot, but as a performer who jumps from airplanes using a parachute. He did this with a group that performed flying tricks to earn money. He jumped ninety-nine times in two years with the flying show. When he was not jumping with a parachute, he was being taught how to fly by pilots in the air show. But he could not fly as often as he liked. VOICE 2: Wiley Post then decided the only way to become a good pilot was to buy an airplane of his own. He needed more money than he earned in the flying show. He went to work in the oil-producing areas of Texas. But he damaged his left eye in an accident. Doctors had to remove his eye. At first, Post thought his days as a pilot were ended. A pilot needs to be able to judge distance. Judging distance is difficult without two eyes. It seems impossible to tell how big objects are and how far away. Wiley Post began teaching himself to judge distance with only one eye. He worked hard at training his eye and brain to tell the correct distance. It took a long time, but he succeeded. He continued to fly and soon became a very good pilot. VOICE 1: In nineteen-twenty-eight, he got a job flying the plane that belonged to a rich oil producer from Oklahoma. The man's name was F.C. Hall. He bought a new airplane for Post to fly. Mister Hall named the airplane the "Winnie Mae" after one of his daughters. F.C. Hall told Post he could use the plane to enter flight competitions. Post did. In nineteen-thirty, he entered the national air races. The race called for flying without stopping from Los Angeles in the western state of California, to the city of Chicago, in the middle western state of Illinois. Post won the race. He defeated several well known pilots. It was the first time the public heard the name Wiley Post. VOICE 2: Post was not really interested in racing airplanes. He wanted to be the first person to fly around the world. Many pilots had talked about trying to made such a flight. But no one had done it. Post believed he would need someone to help him in the effort. He chose an Australian man, Harold Gatty, to do the mathematics that decided the plane's direction. Post would fly the plane. On June twenty-third, nineteen-thirty-one, Post and Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field in New York. They returned to Roosevelt Field eight days, fifteen hours and fifty-one minutes later. They had flown around the world. VOICE 1: At first every one was very happy. Wiley Post and Harold Gatty were heroes. Then many people began to say that Post was nothing more than an airplane driver because he had no real education. They said Gatty was the real hero. He had guided the flight. Both men knew they had made the flight as a team. Others did not recognize this. This hurt Post. Wiley Post began to plan another flight around the world. This time he would go alone. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Wiley Post knew that any effort has a good chance of success if the person planning the task is well prepared. So he worked hard to prepare well. He used the most modern equipment possible. He made sure the engine on the Winnie Mae was perfect. And to prepare himself, he went without sleep for long periods of time. On July fifteenth, nineteen-thirty-three, Post took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York. His first stop would be Berlin, Germany. He landed in Berlin twenty-six hours later. He became the first person to fly from New York to Berlin without stopping. VOICE 1: After a little food for himself and fuel for the Winnie Mae, Post was once again in the air. This time he was headed for Russia. For long hours he flew, listening only to the sound of his engine. Often, the weather was so bad he could not see where he was. At one point he came so close to running out of gas he considered using his parachute. But at the last minute he found a place to land and get gas. The flight across the huge width of Russia was difficult. He made several stops for gas and a few hours rest before flying across the Bering Sea to Alaska. VOICE 2: By now, he was very tired. To keep himself awake as he flew east during the long night, Post tied a piece of string to one finger. The other end of the string was tied to a heavy aircraft tool. He held the tool in his hand. If he started to fall asleep, the tool would fall from his hand. The string would pull his finger and wake him. From Fairbanks, Alaska, he flew to Edmonton, Canada, and then on toward New York. More than fifty-thousand people waited at Floyd Bennett Field. Wiley Post gently landed the Winnie Mae long after dark. He had flown around the world in seven days, eighteen-hours and forty-nine minutes. Thousands of excited people rushed toward the plane. Wiley Post was a hero. He had become the most famous pilot in America. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: In nineteen-thirty-five, only two years after his around the world record flight, Wiley Post was killed in a flying accident in Alaska. Before Post's death, the government of the United States had bought the Winnie Mae. It is owned by the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. VOICE 2: Many pilots have flown around the world since Wiley Post made his flight. His record was first broken only a few years after his death. Since that time many records for the trip have been made and broken. Yet what Wiley Post did can never really be done again. No pilot today would try to make the flight in an airplane like the Winnie Mae. No one would try it with the flight instruments he used. And, no on would want to copy his flight around the world ... alone. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another explorations program on the Voice of America. Anncr: Now the VOA Special English program, explorations. Today Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson tell about pilot Wiley Post. He set new records when he flew his own airplane around the world in nineteen-thirty-three. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: It was nineteen-thirty-three. Only six years earlier Charles Lindburgh became famous around the world as the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a young pilot was trying to fly across Russia. He had left Moscow several hours before. All he heard was the sound of the one engine that powered his plane. Hour after hour the same sound. Now the weather was bad. He could not see much ahead, only the fog. Flying in fog is very dangerous. Yet the sound of the engine made everything seem warm and safe. Then, out of the fog he saw a mountain. He had only seconds to bring the airplane up. It was a narrow escape, one of many he would have during his long flight. VOICE 2: The young pilot was Wiley Post. He was trying to fly around the world by himself. He made the trip in less than eight days. He stopped eleven times for fuel, food and a little sleep. Wiley Post made his famous flight in July, nineteen-thirty-three. Not many flight instruments existed that could help him find his way. He was alone, fighting against sleep. If he fell asleep he would die. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Nothing in Wiley Post's early years suggests that he would become a famous pilot. He was born in Grand Saline, Texas, in eighteen-ninety-eight. His family were farmers. In nineteen-thirteen, Wiley saw something that forever changed his life -- an airplane. After watching the plane fly, young Wiley waited until most people had left the area. He then began inspecting and studying the plane. He measured different parts of the plane with his hands. Many years later, Wiley Post would say that first airplane was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen. VOICE 2: Wiley Post began to study everything he could find about flying. He began to educate himself about subjects such as mathematics, radio and machinery. His self-education would continue the rest of his life. Post finally rode in an airplane in nineteen-nineteen. At the time, many people believed all pilots were special people. They believed it took special skills and courage to fly an airplane. But after his first ride, Wiley Post knew that flying was something he could learn to do. VOICE 1: Wiley Post began his career in flying, not as a pilot, but as a performer who jumps from airplanes using a parachute. He did this with a group that performed flying tricks to earn money. He jumped ninety-nine times in two years with the flying show. When he was not jumping with a parachute, he was being taught how to fly by pilots in the air show. But he could not fly as often as he liked. VOICE 2: Wiley Post then decided the only way to become a good pilot was to buy an airplane of his own. He needed more money than he earned in the flying show. He went to work in the oil-producing areas of Texas. But he damaged his left eye in an accident. Doctors had to remove his eye. At first, Post thought his days as a pilot were ended. A pilot needs to be able to judge distance. Judging distance is difficult without two eyes. It seems impossible to tell how big objects are and how far away. Wiley Post began teaching himself to judge distance with only one eye. He worked hard at training his eye and brain to tell the correct distance. It took a long time, but he succeeded. He continued to fly and soon became a very good pilot. VOICE 1: In nineteen-twenty-eight, he got a job flying the plane that belonged to a rich oil producer from Oklahoma. The man's name was F.C. Hall. He bought a new airplane for Post to fly. Mister Hall named the airplane the "Winnie Mae" after one of his daughters. F.C. Hall told Post he could use the plane to enter flight competitions. Post did. In nineteen-thirty, he entered the national air races. The race called for flying without stopping from Los Angeles in the western state of California, to the city of Chicago, in the middle western state of Illinois. Post won the race. He defeated several well known pilots. It was the first time the public heard the name Wiley Post. VOICE 2: Post was not really interested in racing airplanes. He wanted to be the first person to fly around the world. Many pilots had talked about trying to made such a flight. But no one had done it. Post believed he would need someone to help him in the effort. He chose an Australian man, Harold Gatty, to do the mathematics that decided the plane's direction. Post would fly the plane. On June twenty-third, nineteen-thirty-one, Post and Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field in New York. They returned to Roosevelt Field eight days, fifteen hours and fifty-one minutes later. They had flown around the world. VOICE 1: At first every one was very happy. Wiley Post and Harold Gatty were heroes. Then many people began to say that Post was nothing more than an airplane driver because he had no real education. They said Gatty was the real hero. He had guided the flight. Both men knew they had made the flight as a team. Others did not recognize this. This hurt Post. Wiley Post began to plan another flight around the world. This time he would go alone. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Wiley Post knew that any effort has a good chance of success if the person planning the task is well prepared. So he worked hard to prepare well. He used the most modern equipment possible. He made sure the engine on the Winnie Mae was perfect. And to prepare himself, he went without sleep for long periods of time. On July fifteenth, nineteen-thirty-three, Post took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York. His first stop would be Berlin, Germany. He landed in Berlin twenty-six hours later. He became the first person to fly from New York to Berlin without stopping. VOICE 1: After a little food for himself and fuel for the Winnie Mae, Post was once again in the air. This time he was headed for Russia. For long hours he flew, listening only to the sound of his engine. Often, the weather was so bad he could not see where he was. At one point he came so close to running out of gas he considered using his parachute. But at the last minute he found a place to land and get gas. The flight across the huge width of Russia was difficult. He made several stops for gas and a few hours rest before flying across the Bering Sea to Alaska. VOICE 2: By now, he was very tired. To keep himself awake as he flew east during the long night, Post tied a piece of string to one finger. The other end of the string was tied to a heavy aircraft tool. He held the tool in his hand. If he started to fall asleep, the tool would fall from his hand. The string would pull his finger and wake him. From Fairbanks, Alaska, he flew to Edmonton, Canada, and then on toward New York. More than fifty-thousand people waited at Floyd Bennett Field. Wiley Post gently landed the Winnie Mae long after dark. He had flown around the world in seven days, eighteen-hours and forty-nine minutes. Thousands of excited people rushed toward the plane. Wiley Post was a hero. He had become the most famous pilot in America. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: In nineteen-thirty-five, only two years after his around the world record flight, Wiley Post was killed in a flying accident in Alaska. Before Post's death, the government of the United States had bought the Winnie Mae. It is owned by the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. VOICE 2: Many pilots have flown around the world since Wiley Post made his flight. His record was first broken only a few years after his death. Since that time many records for the trip have been made and broken. Yet what Wiley Post did can never really be done again. No pilot today would try to make the flight in an airplane like the Winnie Mae. No one would try it with the flight instruments he used. And, no on would want to copy his flight around the world ... alone. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - April 11, 2002: Road to Pearl Harbor
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Germany's attack on Poland and the start of World War Two presented a serious problem to Americans in September nineteen-thirty-nine. The United States -- by law -- was neutral. And few Americans had any desire to fight in another world war. But Americans did not like Germany's Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. They hoped for victory for Britain, France, and the other Allied powers. President Franklin Roosevelt made this clear in a radio talk to Americans soon after the war began. (Theme) Germany's attack on Poland and the start of World War Two presented a serious problem to Americans in September nineteen-thirty-nine. The United States -- by law -- was neutral. And few Americans had any desire to fight in another world war. But Americans did not like Germany's Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. They hoped for victory for Britain, France, and the other Allied powers. President Franklin Roosevelt made this clear in a radio talk to Americans soon after the war began. "The peace of all countries everywhere is in danger," Roosevelt said. He added, "I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought." He praised the British and other allies. Finally, the president called on Congress to change the neutrality laws that prevented him from sending arms to the allies to help them fight the Nazis. Congress agreed to change the laws so foreign nations could buy American arms. VOICE 2: In the months that followed, Hitler and his allies won one victory after another. German and Soviet troops captured Poland quickly in September nineteen-thirty-nine. Then Soviet forces invaded the small Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. In late November, they attacked Finland. Fighting between Finland and the Soviet Union continued through the winter, until Finland accepted Russia's demands. VOICE 1: Fighting grew even more fierce the following spring, in early nineteen-forty. "The peace of all countries everywhere is in danger," Roosevelt said. He added, "I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought." He praised the British and other allies. Finally, the president called on Congress to change the neutrality laws that prevented him from sending arms to the allies to help them fight the Nazis. Congress agreed to change the laws so foreign nations could buy American arms. VOICE 2: In the months that followed, Hitler and his allies won one victory after another. German and Soviet troops captured Poland quickly in September nineteen-thirty-nine. Then Soviet forces invaded the small Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. In late November, they attacked Finland. Fighting between Finland and the Soviet Union continued through the winter, until Finland accepted Russia's demands. VOICE 1: Fighting grew even more fierce the following spring, in early nineteen-forty. Germany attacked Denmark and Norway, defeating them easily. In May, Nazi forces struck like lightning through Belgium and Holland. Within one day, they were in France. British and French forces were unable to stop the Germans from moving deep into northern France. The British forces finally were forced to flee from the European continent in small boats. They sailed from the French town of Dunkerque [dunkirk] back to Britain. German soldiers marched through France. And Italian forces joined them by invading France from the south. Soon, Paris fell. A German supporter, Marshal Petain, took control of the French government. And France -- beaten and crushed -- was forced to sign a peace treaty with Hitler. VOICE 2: Now it was just Britain alone against Hitler and his allies. Only the English Channel separated the British people from a German army that seemed unbeatable. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to resign. The British people turned to a new leader, Winston Churchill. Churchill would prove to be strong and brave in the long months ahead. The British would need strong leadership. Hitler wasted no time in launching a fierce air attack on Britain. Throughout the summer, German and British planes fought above the English channel. VOICE 1: All this military action had an important effect on American popular opinion. War and neutrality were no longer just ideas to be discussed in a classroom or political debate. Now they were real concerns, real events. Fascist troops led by a dictator in Berlin were defeating one friendly democracy after another. And Soviet forces were on the march, too. Most Americans still desired neutrality. But how long could America remain at peace. And was peace worth the cost of just sitting by and watching friends like France and Britain be bombed and invaded. VOICE 2: Other issues melted away as Americans began to consider what to do about the darkening world situation. Some Americans, led by newspaper publisher William Allen White, called for the United States to help Britain immediately. But other groups, like the America First Committee, demanded that the United States stay out of another bloody European conflict. VOICE 1: The struggle between those who wanted to help Britain, and those who wanted to remain neutral, did not follow traditional party lines. Some of the closest supporters of Roosevelt's foreign policies were Republicans. And some members of his own Democratic Party opposed his policies. Even so, foreign policy was one of the main issues in the presidential election campaign of nineteen-forty. The Democrats, once again, nominated Franklin Roosevelt for president. The Republicans had several popular candidates who were interested in campaigning against Roosevelt. At first, it seemed that these candidates would fight it out in a bitter nominating convention in Philadelphia. But to everyone's surprise, a little-known candidate named Wendell Willkie suddenly gained a great deal of support and won the nomination. VOICE 2: Wendell Willkie was a tough candidate. He was friendly, a good businessman, and a strong speaker. He seemed honest. And he seemed to understand foreign policy. Most important, Willkie had a progressive record on many social issues. He was not the kind of traditional conservative Republican that Roosevelt had defeated so easily in his first two campaigns. Instead, Willkie could claim to represent the common man just as well as Roosevelt. And he offered the excitement of a change in leadership. While Willkie and Roosevelt began campaign battles with words, German and British planes were fighting real battles with bullets over the English channel. Winston Churchill sent a desperate message to Roosevelt. The British prime minister said Britain could not fight alone much longer. It needed help immediately. VOICE 1: Roosevelt did not want to take steps toward war just before an election. But neither could he refuse such an urgent appeal from the British. Roosevelt and Willkie discussed the situation. Willkie agreed not to criticize Roosevelt when the president sent fifty ships to the British navy. He also supported Roosevelt's order for American young men to give their names to army officials so they could be called if fighting began. In this way, Roosevelt and Willkie tried to keep America's growing involvement in the war from becoming a major political issue in the election. VOICE 2: President Roosevelt won the election of nineteen-forty. Roosevelt won twenty-seven-million votes to twenty-two-million for Willkie. This made Roosevelt the first and only man in American history to win a third term in the white house. Soon after the election, President Roosevelt received a letter from Winston Churchill. The British prime minister wrote that Britain urgently needed more arms and planes to fight Germany. Roosevelt agreed. He went to the Congress to plead for more aid to Britain. He said the United States should change its neutral policy, because Britain was fighting a common enemy of democracy. Roosevelt also said the United States could avoid war if Britain was strong enough to defeat Germany by herself. VOICE 1: Congress agreed, after a fierce debate, to increase aid to London. And in the weeks and months that followed, the United States moved closer and closer to open war with Germany. In March nineteen-forty-one, Roosevelt allowed British ships to come to American ports to be fixed. In June, the United States seized ships under German control. It also took over German and Italian funds in American banks. VOICE 2: Open fighting could not be prevented with this increase in tension between Germany and the United States. In September nineteen-forty-one, a German submarine fired at an American ship. The ship was not damaged. But a number of American troops were killed in other naval incidents that followed. VOICE 1: By the end of nineteen-forty-one, the United States and Germany were almost at war. Even so, most Americans continued to hope for peace. In fact, few Americans could guess that war was just days away. The first blow would come -- not from Germany -- but from Japan. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. Germany attacked Denmark and Norway, defeating them easily. In May, Nazi forces struck like lightning through Belgium and Holland. Within one day, they were in France. British and French forces were unable to stop the Germans from moving deep into northern France. The British forces finally were forced to flee from the European continent in small boats. They sailed from the French town of Dunkerque [dunkirk] back to Britain. German soldiers marched through France. And Italian forces joined them by invading France from the south. Soon, Paris fell. A German supporter, Marshal Petain, took control of the French government. And France -- beaten and crushed -- was forced to sign a peace treaty with Hitler. VOICE 2: Now it was just Britain alone against Hitler and his allies. Only the English Channel separated the British people from a German army that seemed unbeatable. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to resign. The British people turned to a new leader, Winston Churchill. Churchill would prove to be strong and brave in the long months ahead. The British would need strong leadership. Hitler wasted no time in launching a fierce air attack on Britain. Throughout the summer, German and British planes fought above the English channel. VOICE 1: All this military action had an important effect on American popular opinion. War and neutrality were no longer just ideas to be discussed in a classroom or political debate. Now they were real concerns, real events. Fascist troops led by a dictator in Berlin were defeating one friendly democracy after another. And Soviet forces were on the march, too. Most Americans still desired neutrality. But how long could America remain at peace. And was peace worth the cost of just sitting by and watching friends like France and Britain be bombed and invaded. VOICE 2: Other issues melted away as Americans began to consider what to do about the darkening world situation. Some Americans, led by newspaper publisher William Allen White, called for the United States to help Britain immediately. But other groups, like the America First Committee, demanded that the United States stay out of another bloody European conflict. VOICE 1: The struggle between those who wanted to help Britain, and those who wanted to remain neutral, did not follow traditional party lines. Some of the closest supporters of Roosevelt's foreign policies were Republicans. And some members of his own Democratic Party opposed his policies. Even so, foreign policy was one of the main issues in the presidential election campaign of nineteen-forty. The Democrats, once again, nominated Franklin Roosevelt for president. The Republicans had several popular candidates who were interested in campaigning against Roosevelt. At first, it seemed that these candidates would fight it out in a bitter nominating convention in Philadelphia. But to everyone's surprise, a little-known candidate named Wendell Willkie suddenly gained a great deal of support and won the nomination. VOICE 2: Wendell Willkie was a tough candidate. He was friendly, a good businessman, and a strong speaker. He seemed honest. And he seemed to understand foreign policy. Most important, Willkie had a progressive record on many social issues. He was not the kind of traditional conservative Republican that Roosevelt had defeated so easily in his first two campaigns. Instead, Willkie could claim to represent the common man just as well as Roosevelt. And he offered the excitement of a change in leadership. While Willkie and Roosevelt began campaign battles with words, German and British planes were fighting real battles with bullets over the English channel. Winston Churchill sent a desperate message to Roosevelt. The British prime minister said Britain could not fight alone much longer. It needed help immediately. VOICE 1: Roosevelt did not want to take steps toward war just before an election. But neither could he refuse such an urgent appeal from the British. Roosevelt and Willkie discussed the situation. Willkie agreed not to criticize Roosevelt when the president sent fifty ships to the British navy. He also supported Roosevelt's order for American young men to give their names to army officials so they could be called if fighting began. In this way, Roosevelt and Willkie tried to keep America's growing involvement in the war from becoming a major political issue in the election. VOICE 2: President Roosevelt won the election of nineteen-forty. Roosevelt won twenty-seven-million votes to twenty-two-million for Willkie. This made Roosevelt the first and only man in American history to win a third term in the white house. Soon after the election, President Roosevelt received a letter from Winston Churchill. The British prime minister wrote that Britain urgently needed more arms and planes to fight Germany. Roosevelt agreed. He went to the Congress to plead for more aid to Britain. He said the United States should change its neutral policy, because Britain was fighting a common enemy of democracy. Roosevelt also said the United States could avoid war if Britain was strong enough to defeat Germany by herself. VOICE 1: Congress agreed, after a fierce debate, to increase aid to London. And in the weeks and months that followed, the United States moved closer and closer to open war with Germany. In March nineteen-forty-one, Roosevelt allowed British ships to come to American ports to be fixed. In June, the United States seized ships under German control. It also took over German and Italian funds in American banks. VOICE 2: Open fighting could not be prevented with this increase in tension between Germany and the United States. In September nineteen-forty-one, a German submarine fired at an American ship. The ship was not damaged. But a number of American troops were killed in other naval incidents that followed. VOICE 1: By the end of nineteen-forty-one, the United States and Germany were almost at war. Even so, most Americans continued to hope for peace. In fact, few Americans could guess that war was just days away. The first blow would come -- not from Germany -- but from Japan. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – April 11, 2002: Better Teachers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The Bush administration is trying to improve teaching in American public schools. The goal is to have all American teachers well prepared by the school year beginning in Two-Thousand-Five. Officials say the nation will need more than two-million new teachers during the next ten years. But experts also say the number of possible new teachers is decreasing. President Bush’s wife, Laura, recently held a meeting about this situation. Missus Bush is a former teacher. She invited educators and policy-makers to the White House Conference on Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers. Historian Diane Ravitch told the conference that a public school teacher once needed only to have good morals. Now, she said, a person must satisfy many governmental requirements. Mizz Ravitch said some of these rules might prevent excellent young people from becoming teachers. At the same time, she said there is a lack of teachers in many schools in large cities. Sandra Feldman is president of the American Federation of Teachers, a labor union. She noted a report that a committee of her union prepared two years ago. The report called for changes in teacher-education programs in universities. It said students who want to become teachers should study more liberal arts and science subjects. The goal is to increase knowledge of the subjects they will teach. Currently, many college students studying to be teachers spend more time learning teaching methods than subject content. However, Mizz Feldman also said knowing educational methods is extremely important. She asked those attending the conference to consider how they would teach children without knowing what methods succeed. She asked them how they would teach twenty-five children to read without knowing how children learn. Mizz Feldman noted that the report called for new teachers to succeed on tests before they can begin teaching. She also urged that the best teachers supervise and support new teachers. Laura Bush also said better preparation is very important. She said she had felt satisfied with her college education. But as a new teacher, she recognized that she needed more skills. Missus Bush said teaching was a much harder job than she had thought. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The Bush administration is trying to improve teaching in American public schools. The goal is to have all American teachers well prepared by the school year beginning in Two-Thousand-Five. Officials say the nation will need more than two-million new teachers during the next ten years. But experts also say the number of possible new teachers is decreasing. President Bush’s wife, Laura, recently held a meeting about this situation. Missus Bush is a former teacher. She invited educators and policy-makers to the White House Conference on Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers. Historian Diane Ravitch told the conference that a public school teacher once needed only to have good morals. Now, she said, a person must satisfy many governmental requirements. Mizz Ravitch said some of these rules might prevent excellent young people from becoming teachers. At the same time, she said there is a lack of teachers in many schools in large cities. Sandra Feldman is president of the American Federation of Teachers, a labor union. She noted a report that a committee of her union prepared two years ago. The report called for changes in teacher-education programs in universities. It said students who want to become teachers should study more liberal arts and science subjects. The goal is to increase knowledge of the subjects they will teach. Currently, many college students studying to be teachers spend more time learning teaching methods than subject content. However, Mizz Feldman also said knowing educational methods is extremely important. She asked those attending the conference to consider how they would teach children without knowing what methods succeed. She asked them how they would teach twenty-five children to read without knowing how children learn. Mizz Feldman noted that the report called for new teachers to succeed on tests before they can begin teaching. She also urged that the best teachers supervise and support new teachers. Laura Bush also said better preparation is very important. She said she had felt satisfied with her college education. But as a new teacher, she recognized that she needed more skills. Missus Bush said teaching was a much harder job than she had thought. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 12, 2002: Artists Honored at an African American Awards Ceremony / Yosemite National Park / New Museum of Folk Art
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play recordings by musicians honored at a recent African American awards ceremony ... Answer a question about Yosemite National Park ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play recordings by musicians honored at a recent African American awards ceremony ... Answer a question about Yosemite National Park ... And visit a new museum of folk art. Folk Art Museum HOST: A new museum opened recently in New York City. It is called the American Folk Art Museum. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The new museum provides a permanent home for American folk art. Folk art includes traditional objects that people made to use in their homes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They created these objects to be beautiful as well as useful. Folk art also includes the work of self-taught artists who were not trained in art schools. And visit a new museum of folk art. Folk Art Museum HOST: A new museum opened recently in New York City. It is called the American Folk Art Museum. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: The new museum provides a permanent home for American folk art. Folk art includes traditional objects that people made to use in their homes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They created these objects to be beautiful as well as useful. Folk art also includes the work of self-taught artists who were not trained in art schools. The new American Folk Art Museum is an unusual modern metal building on West Fifty-Third Street. The building is tall and narrow. A special show celebrates the opening of the museum. It is called “American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum.” Ralph Esmerian is an official of the Folk Art Museum. He gave four-hundred pieces from his private collection to the museum. They include paintings, clay containers, cloth needlework pieces and painted household objects of the past two-hundred years. The objects were made by famous artists and unknown artists -- sailors and farmers and schoolgirls. Many of the pieces are well-known examples of American folk art. Some are serious pieces. Others are fun to look at and make the visitor smile. One of the well-known paintings is called “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks. He painted it around Eighteen-Forty-Six. The painting shows many kinds of animals, including a lion and a lamb, living together in peace. He got this idea from the Christian holy book, the Bible. Visitors to the Folk Art Museum can see many unusual metal or wood sculptures that are fun to look at. For example, weathervanes are made to turn to show the way the wind is blowing. One metal weathervane is shaped like the famous Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. People made other sculptures in the Eighteen-Hundreds to help sell products or services. One of them is a two-meter tall wooden statue of a man in a red, white and blue painted suit. It is called “Dapper Dan.” It stood outside a place where men got their hair cut. The director of the new folk art museum is Gerard Wertkin. He says folk art is the art of American culture. He says folk art can help people remember the American spirit of creativity and democracy. Yosemite National Park HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Nori Wada asks about Yosemite National Park. Yosemite National Park is a large wild area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the state of California. It extends over more than three-hundred-thousand hectares of land. It has more than one-thousand kilometers of paths. Most lead to an area of lakes and mountains known as the High Sierra. More than sixty kinds of animals and two-hundred kinds of birds live there. Yosemite also has more than one-thousand kinds of plants and thirty kinds of trees. It is one of the few places to see the famous Sequoia Trees. One of these is called the Grizzly Giant Tree. This tree measures more than ten meters around at the ground. The Sequoia trees are among the oldest living things on Earth. More than three-million people visited Yosemite National Park last year. Some camped in the park. They stayed overnight in tents – temporary cloth shelters. Others stayed at costly hotels in the park. Everyone was there to enjoy the park’s natural beauty. Much of that natural beauty is in the Yosemite Valley, at a height of more than one-thousand meters. Water and ice created the valley millions of years ago. Today, many waterfalls flow through it. One of the most famous is Bridalveil Falls. It is often the first waterfall that visitors see as they enter the park. In the spring, the water hitting the rocks produces a great sound like thunder. Another famous waterfall is Horsetail Falls. It sometimes appears to be on fire when the water shows the orange color of sunset. Yosemite is also known for its rock formations. One is called the Half Dome. It rises almost three-thousand meters from the floor of the Yosemite Valley. At an area called Glacier Point, visitors can look down more than nine-hundred meters into the valley. The highest point in the valley is called Cloud’s Rest, three-thousand meters about the valley floor. Margaret and Robert Lebonitte and their three children visited Yosemite National Park a few years ago. They visited Cloud’s Rest, Glacier Point and many waterfalls during a nine-hour bus trip through the park. Missus Lebonitte says her favorite experience was sitting in the middle of a group of huge Giant Sequoia trees and enjoying the silence of nature. NABOB Awards HOST: The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters represents the interests of African American owners of radio and television stations in the United States. Their goal is to increase the number of African American owners in the American broadcasting industry. The group is known as NABOB. It recently held a ceremony in Washington, D-C, to honor some of the most famous people in the entertainment and broadcasting industries. Among them were the rhythm and blues group the Isley Brothers, popular singer Janet Jackson and radio station owner Cathy Hughes. They were recognized for being successful and for helping others in the black community. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: NABOB presented blues musician Bo Diddley with the Pioneer in Entertainment Award. He was honored for his influence on rock, blues, jazz and popular music. Here is one of Bo Diddley’s hits, “I’m a Man”. ((CUT 1: I’M A MAN)) Opera singer Leontyne Price was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Leontyne Price has continued the struggle to help other black opera singers become successful. She performed one of her most famous songs from George Gershwin’s musical production “Porgy and Bess.” The song is “Summertime.” ((CUT 2: SUMMERTIME)) Patti LaBelle sang some of her greatest hits at the NABOB awards ceremony. She is known for her energetic live performances. Here, she sings the song “Lady Marmalade” with the group Labelle. ((CUT 3: LADY MARMALADE)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynam. And our producer was Paul Thompson. The new American Folk Art Museum is an unusual modern metal building on West Fifty-Third Street. The building is tall and narrow. A special show celebrates the opening of the museum. It is called “American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum.” Ralph Esmerian is an official of the Folk Art Museum. He gave four-hundred pieces from his private collection to the museum. They include paintings, clay containers, cloth needlework pieces and painted household objects of the past two-hundred years. The objects were made by famous artists and unknown artists -- sailors and farmers and schoolgirls. Many of the pieces are well-known examples of American folk art. Some are serious pieces. Others are fun to look at and make the visitor smile. One of the well-known paintings is called “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks. He painted it around Eighteen-Forty-Six. The painting shows many kinds of animals, including a lion and a lamb, living together in peace. He got this idea from the Christian holy book, the Bible. Visitors to the Folk Art Museum can see many unusual metal or wood sculptures that are fun to look at. For example, weathervanes are made to turn to show the way the wind is blowing. One metal weathervane is shaped like the famous Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. People made other sculptures in the Eighteen-Hundreds to help sell products or services. One of them is a two-meter tall wooden statue of a man in a red, white and blue painted suit. It is called “Dapper Dan.” It stood outside a place where men got their hair cut. The director of the new folk art museum is Gerard Wertkin. He says folk art is the art of American culture. He says folk art can help people remember the American spirit of creativity and democracy. Yosemite National Park HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Japan. Nori Wada asks about Yosemite National Park. Yosemite National Park is a large wild area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the state of California. It extends over more than three-hundred-thousand hectares of land. It has more than one-thousand kilometers of paths. Most lead to an area of lakes and mountains known as the High Sierra. More than sixty kinds of animals and two-hundred kinds of birds live there. Yosemite also has more than one-thousand kinds of plants and thirty kinds of trees. It is one of the few places to see the famous Sequoia Trees. One of these is called the Grizzly Giant Tree. This tree measures more than ten meters around at the ground. The Sequoia trees are among the oldest living things on Earth. More than three-million people visited Yosemite National Park last year. Some camped in the park. They stayed overnight in tents – temporary cloth shelters. Others stayed at costly hotels in the park. Everyone was there to enjoy the park’s natural beauty. Much of that natural beauty is in the Yosemite Valley, at a height of more than one-thousand meters. Water and ice created the valley millions of years ago. Today, many waterfalls flow through it. One of the most famous is Bridalveil Falls. It is often the first waterfall that visitors see as they enter the park. In the spring, the water hitting the rocks produces a great sound like thunder. Another famous waterfall is Horsetail Falls. It sometimes appears to be on fire when the water shows the orange color of sunset. Yosemite is also known for its rock formations. One is called the Half Dome. It rises almost three-thousand meters from the floor of the Yosemite Valley. At an area called Glacier Point, visitors can look down more than nine-hundred meters into the valley. The highest point in the valley is called Cloud’s Rest, three-thousand meters about the valley floor. Margaret and Robert Lebonitte and their three children visited Yosemite National Park a few years ago. They visited Cloud’s Rest, Glacier Point and many waterfalls during a nine-hour bus trip through the park. Missus Lebonitte says her favorite experience was sitting in the middle of a group of huge Giant Sequoia trees and enjoying the silence of nature. NABOB Awards HOST: The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters represents the interests of African American owners of radio and television stations in the United States. Their goal is to increase the number of African American owners in the American broadcasting industry. The group is known as NABOB. It recently held a ceremony in Washington, D-C, to honor some of the most famous people in the entertainment and broadcasting industries. Among them were the rhythm and blues group the Isley Brothers, popular singer Janet Jackson and radio station owner Cathy Hughes. They were recognized for being successful and for helping others in the black community. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: NABOB presented blues musician Bo Diddley with the Pioneer in Entertainment Award. He was honored for his influence on rock, blues, jazz and popular music. Here is one of Bo Diddley’s hits, “I’m a Man”. ((CUT 1: I’M A MAN)) Opera singer Leontyne Price was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Leontyne Price has continued the struggle to help other black opera singers become successful. She performed one of her most famous songs from George Gershwin’s musical production “Porgy and Bess.” The song is “Summertime.” ((CUT 2: SUMMERTIME)) Patti LaBelle sang some of her greatest hits at the NABOB awards ceremony. She is known for her energetic live performances. Here, she sings the song “Lady Marmalade” with the group Labelle. ((CUT 3: LADY MARMALADE)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Cynthia Kirk and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynam. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — April 12, 2002: Medicinal Plant Conservation
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Throughout history, people around the world have used traditional medicines made from plants. Today, these medicines made from plants have gained new acceptance in the United States. However, the popularity of medicines and products made from plants has caused concern that some of these valuable plants may disappear from the wild. Americans spend more than three-thousand-million dollars a year on herbal medicines. About sixty-million Americans use these medicines. More and more doctors are suggesting herbal medicines for their patients. However, there is little research on how best to use these resources without destroying natural populations of the plants. Some medicinal plants are harvested in huge amounts. For example, thirty-four million ginseng plants have been harvested each year from eastern forests in the United States. Now, the National Park Service is trying to do more to discover how to preserve herbal medicines that may be disappearing from America’s forests. The Park Service helped organize the Plant Conservation Alliance. This group includes more than one-hundred-forty government agencies, private groups and educational organizations. Some members of the group gathered with business leaders in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in February. Scientists, business representatives, as well as American Indian tribal leaders met to discuss the use of medicinal plants. The meeting explored concerns about medicinal plants that have not been dealt with before. The meeting did not produce a statement on policy. However, it did show why efforts are needed to preserve wild medicinal plants. At least one-hundred-seventy-five different kinds of plants are harvested for use as medicine. Some are very common and are found in many areas. However, some medicinal plants are becoming rare. These include ginseng, which is used to increase energy, and echinacea, which is used to fight infection. Concern for medicinal plant populations may have a wider effect. Some delegates to the conference noted that industries that use herbs in their products are now interested in preserving forests and natural areas. They say that undeveloped forests can be more profitable than developed land. This Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Throughout history, people around the world have used traditional medicines made from plants. Today, these medicines made from plants have gained new acceptance in the United States. However, the popularity of medicines and products made from plants has caused concern that some of these valuable plants may disappear from the wild. Americans spend more than three-thousand-million dollars a year on herbal medicines. About sixty-million Americans use these medicines. More and more doctors are suggesting herbal medicines for their patients. However, there is little research on how best to use these resources without destroying natural populations of the plants. Some medicinal plants are harvested in huge amounts. For example, thirty-four million ginseng plants have been harvested each year from eastern forests in the United States. Now, the National Park Service is trying to do more to discover how to preserve herbal medicines that may be disappearing from America’s forests. The Park Service helped organize the Plant Conservation Alliance. This group includes more than one-hundred-forty government agencies, private groups and educational organizations. Some members of the group gathered with business leaders in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in February. Scientists, business representatives, as well as American Indian tribal leaders met to discuss the use of medicinal plants. The meeting explored concerns about medicinal plants that have not been dealt with before. The meeting did not produce a statement on policy. However, it did show why efforts are needed to preserve wild medicinal plants. At least one-hundred-seventy-five different kinds of plants are harvested for use as medicine. Some are very common and are found in many areas. However, some medicinal plants are becoming rare. These include ginseng, which is used to increase energy, and echinacea, which is used to fight infection. Concern for medicinal plant populations may have a wider effect. Some delegates to the conference noted that industries that use herbs in their products are now interested in preserving forests and natural areas. They say that undeveloped forests can be more profitable than developed land. This Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – April 15, 2002: Visiting the Capitol
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Historians have described the United States Capitol building as “the most recognized sign of democratic government in the world.” By taking a walk though this historic building, visitors can understand why. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: Historians have described the United States Capitol building as “the most recognized sign of democratic government in the world.” By taking a walk though this historic building, visitors can understand why. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The United States Capitol building in Washington, D-C is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American lawmakers have held their meetings in the United States Capitol building since Eighteen-Hundred. The two houses of Congress gather in this building to write and pass laws for the nation. American presidents are sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol. And they give their yearly “State of the Union” speech in the Capitol. For more than two-hundred years, the Capitol has grown as the country has grown. New parts of the building have been added to provide space for lawmakers representing new states in the Union. Several million people from around the world visit the Capitol each year. The building is open to the public every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Recently, however, the building was closed to the public two separate times because of security concerns. The closures were linked to the September eleventh terrorist attacks and the anthrax crisis. VOICE TWO: Since the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, officials have taken great steps to increase security around the Capitol. Many roads around the building have been closed to traffic. In addition, visitors are now required to walk through special devices before entering the building. The devices detect metal weapons. Guided visits of the Capitol are free. However, visitors must have tickets to enter the building. Tours are offered Monday through Friday. Groups of twenty-five people are led through the building every thirty minutes. To get a ticket, visitors must wait in line several hours before the first tour begins. The Capitol is a popular and interesting place for visitors to Washington. For example, Mike and Joan Rolles (RAWL-ess) from Hershey, Pennsylvania, visited the Capitol last month. They described the building as a national treasure. They said they were happy to see the increased security measures because of the importance of the building. They said they believe additional security steps should be taken at other important federal buildings in the Washington area. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: After visitors have passed through the security area, they are welcomed into the Capitol building through the historic Columbus Doors. These doors are made of bronze metal. They are about five meters tall and weigh about nine-thousand kilograms. American artist Randolph Rogers designed the doors. They were placed at the main entrance of the Capitol in Eighteen-Seventy-One. They are considered a lasting memorial to Christopher Columbus who arrived in America in Fourteen-Ninety-Two. Mister Rogers designed eight squares on the doors representing events in the life of Columbus. Visitors then walk straight into the heart of the Capitol building – the Rotunda. This is a large, round room that connects the north and south parts of the building where the Senate and the House of Representatives meet. Visitors can always tell if the House or Senate is meeting if a flag flies over the north or south part of the Capitol. VOICE TWO: The Rotunda is the ceremonial center of the Capitol. State funerals have been held there for presidents, members of Congress, military heroes and important citizens. This honor is called “Lying in State.” Nine presidents have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda. They include Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Only one foreigner has received this honor – Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant. He planned the city of Washington, D-C. The Capitol building is filled with beautiful, historic works of art. One of the greatest pieces was painted fifty-four meters above the Rotunda on the top of the rounded ceiling. An Italian-American artist named Constantino Brumidi completed the ceiling painting in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. The painting is called “The Apotheosis of Washington” in honor of America’s first president. It shows George Washington rising to heaven. He is surrounded by historical people representing freedom, victory, knowledge and technological progress. The painting covers an area of about four-hundred-thirty square meters. Visitors are permitted to take pictures of the painting. However, because of its size, the whole painting usually does not fit into one picture. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: From the Rotunda, visitors walk into Statuary Hall. This room was once the meeting place for the House of Representatives. However, it became Statuary Hall in Eighteen-Sixty-Four after the number of lawmakers grew too large to continue meeting there. Another name for Statuary Hall is the “Whisper Chamber.” This is because when a visitor stands at one end of the room, he or she can hear what people at the other end are saying. The shape of the room with its high ceiling creates this unusual movement of sound waves. Many years ago, Congress invited each state in the United States to send two statues of its most famous citizens to the Capitol. Today, these statues are shown in Statuary Hall and throughout the building. North Dakota, New Mexico and Nevada are the only states that have sent just one statue. Most of the statues are made of marble stone or bronze metal. VOICE TWO: From Statuary Hall, visitors walk to the Capitol crypt directly below the Rotunda. Capitol designers built the crypt to be a memorial over the burial place of President Washington. It was to be seen through an opening in the Rotunda floor. However, when President Washington died, he was buried instead at his farm in Mount Vernon, Virginia. The Capitol crypt was left unused.There are forty sandstone structures, or columns, surrounding the crypt. These columns also support the floor of the Rotunda. There is a star in the center of the crypt floor that marks the point from which all streets in Washington are laid out and numbered. Visitors like to stand on the star because it is considered the very center of the nation’s capitol. VOICE ONE: From the center of the crypt to the very top of the Capitol building requires a big jump. However, the Statue of Freedom has made the top of the Capitol her home since Eighteen-Sixty-Three. The statue is made of bronze metal. It was designed by artist Thomas Crawford. Freedom weighs almost seven-thousand kilograms. The statue stands almost six meters high. She is the tallest statue in the District of Columbia. No statue is permitted to be taller. The statue faces the east overlooking the city of Washington. Historians say this position was chosen so that the sun would never set on the face of Freedom. (( MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: The United States Capitol was first built on wetlands. In Eighteen-Seventy-Four, a Senate committee asked garden expert Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds around the Capitol. Mister Olmsted was a leader in the development of public parks in America. He came to Washington from New York City, where he had designed the famous Central Park. Today, more then one-hundred different kinds of trees grow on the Capitol grounds. Many have signs identifying their historic importance. For example, more than thirty states have given trees to the Capitol grounds. Visitors often spend time walking around the area looking for their state’s tree. They also look for the historic “Cameron Elm” near the entrance to the House of Representatives. This tree is one of the oldest on the Capitol grounds. It was named in honor of a senator from Pennsylvania. He protected the tree from being cut down while the area around the Capitol was being designed. The Cameron Elm remains part of America’s treasure -- the United States Capitol -- the most recognized sign of democratic government in the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The United States Capitol building in Washington, D-C is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American lawmakers have held their meetings in the United States Capitol building since Eighteen-Hundred. The two houses of Congress gather in this building to write and pass laws for the nation. American presidents are sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol. And they give their yearly “State of the Union” speech in the Capitol. For more than two-hundred years, the Capitol has grown as the country has grown. New parts of the building have been added to provide space for lawmakers representing new states in the Union. Several million people from around the world visit the Capitol each year. The building is open to the public every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Recently, however, the building was closed to the public two separate times because of security concerns. The closures were linked to the September eleventh terrorist attacks and the anthrax crisis. VOICE TWO: Since the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, officials have taken great steps to increase security around the Capitol. Many roads around the building have been closed to traffic. In addition, visitors are now required to walk through special devices before entering the building. The devices detect metal weapons. Guided visits of the Capitol are free. However, visitors must have tickets to enter the building. Tours are offered Monday through Friday. Groups of twenty-five people are led through the building every thirty minutes. To get a ticket, visitors must wait in line several hours before the first tour begins. The Capitol is a popular and interesting place for visitors to Washington. For example, Mike and Joan Rolles (RAWL-ess) from Hershey, Pennsylvania, visited the Capitol last month. They described the building as a national treasure. They said they were happy to see the increased security measures because of the importance of the building. They said they believe additional security steps should be taken at other important federal buildings in the Washington area. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: After visitors have passed through the security area, they are welcomed into the Capitol building through the historic Columbus Doors. These doors are made of bronze metal. They are about five meters tall and weigh about nine-thousand kilograms. American artist Randolph Rogers designed the doors. They were placed at the main entrance of the Capitol in Eighteen-Seventy-One. They are considered a lasting memorial to Christopher Columbus who arrived in America in Fourteen-Ninety-Two. Mister Rogers designed eight squares on the doors representing events in the life of Columbus. Visitors then walk straight into the heart of the Capitol building – the Rotunda. This is a large, round room that connects the north and south parts of the building where the Senate and the House of Representatives meet. Visitors can always tell if the House or Senate is meeting if a flag flies over the north or south part of the Capitol. VOICE TWO: The Rotunda is the ceremonial center of the Capitol. State funerals have been held there for presidents, members of Congress, military heroes and important citizens. This honor is called “Lying in State.” Nine presidents have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda. They include Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Only one foreigner has received this honor – Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant. He planned the city of Washington, D-C. The Capitol building is filled with beautiful, historic works of art. One of the greatest pieces was painted fifty-four meters above the Rotunda on the top of the rounded ceiling. An Italian-American artist named Constantino Brumidi completed the ceiling painting in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. The painting is called “The Apotheosis of Washington” in honor of America’s first president. It shows George Washington rising to heaven. He is surrounded by historical people representing freedom, victory, knowledge and technological progress. The painting covers an area of about four-hundred-thirty square meters. Visitors are permitted to take pictures of the painting. However, because of its size, the whole painting usually does not fit into one picture. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: From the Rotunda, visitors walk into Statuary Hall. This room was once the meeting place for the House of Representatives. However, it became Statuary Hall in Eighteen-Sixty-Four after the number of lawmakers grew too large to continue meeting there. Another name for Statuary Hall is the “Whisper Chamber.” This is because when a visitor stands at one end of the room, he or she can hear what people at the other end are saying. The shape of the room with its high ceiling creates this unusual movement of sound waves. Many years ago, Congress invited each state in the United States to send two statues of its most famous citizens to the Capitol. Today, these statues are shown in Statuary Hall and throughout the building. North Dakota, New Mexico and Nevada are the only states that have sent just one statue. Most of the statues are made of marble stone or bronze metal. VOICE TWO: From Statuary Hall, visitors walk to the Capitol crypt directly below the Rotunda. Capitol designers built the crypt to be a memorial over the burial place of President Washington. It was to be seen through an opening in the Rotunda floor. However, when President Washington died, he was buried instead at his farm in Mount Vernon, Virginia. The Capitol crypt was left unused.There are forty sandstone structures, or columns, surrounding the crypt. These columns also support the floor of the Rotunda. There is a star in the center of the crypt floor that marks the point from which all streets in Washington are laid out and numbered. Visitors like to stand on the star because it is considered the very center of the nation’s capitol. VOICE ONE: From the center of the crypt to the very top of the Capitol building requires a big jump. However, the Statue of Freedom has made the top of the Capitol her home since Eighteen-Sixty-Three. The statue is made of bronze metal. It was designed by artist Thomas Crawford. Freedom weighs almost seven-thousand kilograms. The statue stands almost six meters high. She is the tallest statue in the District of Columbia. No statue is permitted to be taller. The statue faces the east overlooking the city of Washington. Historians say this position was chosen so that the sun would never set on the face of Freedom. (( MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: The United States Capitol was first built on wetlands. In Eighteen-Seventy-Four, a Senate committee asked garden expert Frederick Law Olmsted to design the grounds around the Capitol. Mister Olmsted was a leader in the development of public parks in America. He came to Washington from New York City, where he had designed the famous Central Park. Today, more then one-hundred different kinds of trees grow on the Capitol grounds. Many have signs identifying their historic importance. For example, more than thirty states have given trees to the Capitol grounds. Visitors often spend time walking around the area looking for their state’s tree. They also look for the historic “Cameron Elm” near the entrance to the House of Representatives. This tree is one of the oldest on the Capitol grounds. It was named in honor of a senator from Pennsylvania. He protected the tree from being cut down while the area around the Capitol was being designed. The Cameron Elm remains part of America’s treasure -- the United States Capitol -- the most recognized sign of democratic government in the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – April 15, 2002: Vitamin-Enriched Drinks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Coca-Cola Company is developing a new healthy drink for people in developing countries. The new drink is called Vitango. It tastes like orange drink. Vitango is a mix of fine particles that becomes a liquid when water is added. It contains twelve vitamins and minerals that are lacking in the diets of people in developing countries. It is designed to help prevent blood problems, blindness and other common sicknesses in developing countries, especially in Africa and South America. Coca-Cola tested the drink by giving it to students at two schools in Botswana last year. At the end of eight weeks, test results showed that levels of iron and zinc in the students’ blood had increased. The United Nations Children’s Fund says the most common vitamins lacking in the diets of people in developing countries are iodine, vitamin A, iron and zinc. The U-N estimates that about forty-three million people around the world suffer from brain damage and physical problems because of a lack of iodine. More than one-hundred-million children suffer from a lack of Vitamin A. A severe lack of Vitamin A can lead to blindness. Health experts estimate that about two-thousand-million people around the world do not have enough iron in their blood. This lowers their resistance to sickness. It weakens a child’s ability to learn and decreases energy. Many children in developing countries do not receive enough zinc in their diets. They are likely to have growth problems and infections. Lack of zinc also is widespread among women in developing countries and can cause problems during childbirth. Vitango is still being developed. However, officials believe it will be on the market by the end of this year. The Coca-Cola Company will offer it first in at least one country in Africa and South America. In time, the company hopes to sell it throughout the world at as low a cost as possible. Vitango would compete with a similar vitamin drink already on the market called Nutristar. The Procter and Gamble Company began selling Nutristar in Venezuela last October after several years of research. Nutristar contains eight vitamins and five minerals. U-N experts say these drinks are an effective way to help meet the health needs of people in developing countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Coca-Cola Company is developing a new healthy drink for people in developing countries. The new drink is called Vitango. It tastes like orange drink. Vitango is a mix of fine particles that becomes a liquid when water is added. It contains twelve vitamins and minerals that are lacking in the diets of people in developing countries. It is designed to help prevent blood problems, blindness and other common sicknesses in developing countries, especially in Africa and South America. Coca-Cola tested the drink by giving it to students at two schools in Botswana last year. At the end of eight weeks, test results showed that levels of iron and zinc in the students’ blood had increased. The United Nations Children’s Fund says the most common vitamins lacking in the diets of people in developing countries are iodine, vitamin A, iron and zinc. The U-N estimates that about forty-three million people around the world suffer from brain damage and physical problems because of a lack of iodine. More than one-hundred-million children suffer from a lack of Vitamin A. A severe lack of Vitamin A can lead to blindness. Health experts estimate that about two-thousand-million people around the world do not have enough iron in their blood. This lowers their resistance to sickness. It weakens a child’s ability to learn and decreases energy. Many children in developing countries do not receive enough zinc in their diets. They are likely to have growth problems and infections. Lack of zinc also is widespread among women in developing countries and can cause problems during childbirth. Vitango is still being developed. However, officials believe it will be on the market by the end of this year. The Coca-Cola Company will offer it first in at least one country in Africa and South America. In time, the company hopes to sell it throughout the world at as low a cost as possible. Vitango would compete with a similar vitamin drink already on the market called Nutristar. The Procter and Gamble Company began selling Nutristar in Venezuela last October after several years of research. Nutristar contains eight vitamins and five minerals. U-N experts say these drinks are an effective way to help meet the health needs of people in developing countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - April 13, 2002: International Criminal Court
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. The world’s first permanent International Criminal Court was established this week. The governments of sixty-six countries have approved the treaty establishing the court. However, the governments of China, Russia and the United States have not approved the treaty. The United States strongly opposes the court. The International Criminal Court will charge and try individuals for very serious human rights violations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The court will try suspects only if their own governments are unwilling or unable to do so. The treaty is to go into effect July first. The International Criminal Court will be able to try crimes that are carried out after that date. The two existing United Nations courts for Bosnia and Rwanda will continue to try war crimes suspects, independent of the new court. The new International Criminal Court will be based in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is expected to begin operations next year. The nations that approved the treaty will elect eighteen judges to nine-year terms early next year. Cases can be brought to the International Criminal Court in three ways. A nation that has approved the treaty can request that the court investigate a situation. The United Nations Security Council can also request such action. And, an International Criminal Court lawyer can start an investigation based on reports from victims and other people. The court will be able to investigate and try suspects from nations that are not part of the treaty if the nations permit it. The International Criminal Court will not be part of the United Nations. The countries that are part of the treaty will pay the costs of the court. A ceremony launching the International Criminal Court was held at U-N headquarters in New York City Thursday. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a message praising the court. He said countries with good judicial systems that carry out the rule of law do not need to fear the court. Most democratic nations and human rights groups welcomed the action. European nations praised the creation of the court as the most important action against war criminals this century. They urged the United States, China and Russia to approve the treaty. The United States signed the International Criminal Court Treaty in Two-Thousand during the administration of former President Bill Clinton. But Mister Clinton did not seek legislative approval of the treaty. However, the administration of President Bush strongly opposes the court. It says the court could lead to unfair legal action against American officials and soldiers in other countries. The administration says it is considering cancelling the United States signing of the treaty. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. The world’s first permanent International Criminal Court was established this week. The governments of sixty-six countries have approved the treaty establishing the court. However, the governments of China, Russia and the United States have not approved the treaty. The United States strongly opposes the court. The International Criminal Court will charge and try individuals for very serious human rights violations. These include crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The court will try suspects only if their own governments are unwilling or unable to do so. The treaty is to go into effect July first. The International Criminal Court will be able to try crimes that are carried out after that date. The two existing United Nations courts for Bosnia and Rwanda will continue to try war crimes suspects, independent of the new court. The new International Criminal Court will be based in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is expected to begin operations next year. The nations that approved the treaty will elect eighteen judges to nine-year terms early next year. Cases can be brought to the International Criminal Court in three ways. A nation that has approved the treaty can request that the court investigate a situation. The United Nations Security Council can also request such action. And, an International Criminal Court lawyer can start an investigation based on reports from victims and other people. The court will be able to investigate and try suspects from nations that are not part of the treaty if the nations permit it. The International Criminal Court will not be part of the United Nations. The countries that are part of the treaty will pay the costs of the court. A ceremony launching the International Criminal Court was held at U-N headquarters in New York City Thursday. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan sent a message praising the court. He said countries with good judicial systems that carry out the rule of law do not need to fear the court. Most democratic nations and human rights groups welcomed the action. European nations praised the creation of the court as the most important action against war criminals this century. They urged the United States, China and Russia to approve the treaty. The United States signed the International Criminal Court Treaty in Two-Thousand during the administration of former President Bill Clinton. But Mister Clinton did not seek legislative approval of the treaty. However, the administration of President Bush strongly opposes the court. It says the court could lead to unfair legal action against American officials and soldiers in other countries. The administration says it is considering cancelling the United States signing of the treaty. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-12-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - April 14, 2002: Mary Kay
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. This week, we tell about one of the most successful American businesswomen. Mary Kay started a company in Nineteen-Sixty-Three with a five-thousand dollar investment. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in Nineteen-Eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children. Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited peoples’ homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework. One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors praised her work. But they never increased her earnings. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had. Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister Heath’s skin care products and started her own company. She paid five-hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products. VOICE ONE: The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Mary Kay’s twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products. The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones. Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Two years later, in Nineteen-Sixty-Five, the company was selling almost one-million dollars worth of products. Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older! Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is the largest direct seller of skin care products in the United States. It develops and tests many skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than one-thousand-million dollars. It has more than eight-hundred-thousand sales representatives in thirty-seven countries around the world. You can find Mary Kay products and company sales representatives in Argentina, Brunei, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, and Singapore. VOICE ONE: Every year since Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two-hundred people and served it on paper plates. As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five-thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three day conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform. The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles. In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By Nineteen-Ninety-Four, seven-thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales. She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win. So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year. Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in Nineteen-Eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women. In Two-Thousand-One, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women. Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America’s Twenty-Five Most Influential Women in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, “Mary Kay,” told the story of her life. More than one-million copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on People Management.” Her third book was released in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. It is called “Mary Kay--You Can Have It All.” The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer. Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. She died in November, Two-Thousand-One. Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families. VOICE ONE: One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money. She paid less than one-hundred dollars for her supplies. After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years. Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. This week, we tell about one of the most successful American businesswomen. Mary Kay started a company in Nineteen-Sixty-Three with a five-thousand dollar investment. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is an international company worth thousands of millions of dollars. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in the state of Texas in Nineteen-Eighteen. For much of her childhood, she cared for her sick father while her mother worked long hours at a public eating place. Mary Kay married Ben Rogers when she was seventeen years old. They had three children before he left home to serve in World War Two. When he returned, their marriage ended. Mary Kay looked for a job so she could support her children. Mary Kay began selling different kinds of products. At first, she sold books. Later, she visited peoples’ homes to show how home care products such as cleaning fluids and equipment helped ease housework. One night, Mary Kay was showing these products at the home of Ova Heath Spoonemore. Later in the evening, Missus Spoonemore began giving her guests some home made skin care products. The products were developed by her father, J.W. Heath, in Arkansas. Mary Kay tried the skin care products and found they made her skin smooth. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay was successful selling home care products. Her supervisors praised her work. But they never increased her earnings. She left the company after a man she trained was given a more important job than she had. Mary Kay said later that she learned from this experience. It taught her that men did not believe that a woman could succeed in business. She decided to prove them wrong. So she bought the rights to Mister Heath’s skin care products and started her own company. She paid five-hundred dollars for the legal rights to the products. VOICE ONE: The Mary Kay Cosmetics company began operating in Dallas, Texas, in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Mary Kay’s twenty-year-old son Richard was the company’s financial official. The idea was to sell skin care products through demonstrations in homes and offices. Nine sales representatives were chosen to sell the products. The sales representatives were independent workers. They bought products like soaps and skin softening liquids from the company and sold them at higher prices to friends, family members and other individuals. Mary Kay decided that each representative who brought other sales women into the company would receive part of the new person’s earnings. That way, experienced sales representatives would be willing to help train new ones. Mary Kay told the women who worked for her that to be successful in life a person should put God first, family second and work third. She said women must discover how to be good wives and mothers while at the same time learning how to succeed in work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Two years later, in Nineteen-Sixty-Five, the company was selling almost one-million dollars worth of products. Mary Kay once said that success came fast because she did not have any time to waste. She was already forty-five years old when she started the company. She said a woman needs money fast as she gets older! Now Mary Kay Cosmetics is the largest direct seller of skin care products in the United States. It develops and tests many skin care and beauty products for the face, body, hair and nails -- many more than it started selling in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics has sales of more than one-thousand-million dollars. It has more than eight-hundred-thousand sales representatives in thirty-seven countries around the world. You can find Mary Kay products and company sales representatives in Argentina, Brunei, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, and Singapore. VOICE ONE: Every year since Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Mary Kay Cosmetics has held a yearly conference in Dallas for its sales representatives. The first one took place in one large room. Mary Kay cooked food for two-hundred people and served it on paper plates. As the company grew, so did the conference. Now, more than thirty-five-thousand sales representatives and company officials pay to attend education meetings at the yearly conference. A special event at the three day conference is Awards Night. That is when prizes are given to those representatives with the most sales for the year. Awards Night also includes a show in which famous singers and dancers perform. The Awards Night winners receive special paid holidays, jewels, furs, and pink Cadillac automobiles. In Germany, winners receive a pink Mercedes Benz, and in Taiwan they are given a pink Toyota. By Nineteen-Ninety-Four, seven-thousand cars had been given to sales representatives. The cars are pink because Mary Kay products come in pink containers. Mary Kay liked that color. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay believed that recognizing good work is the best way to increase a company’s sales. She said her company tried to have competitions in which everyone has a chance to win. She did not want to organize the kind of competition where someone has to hurt another person in order to win. So the Mary Kay competitions are designed around the idea that it is best to compete with yourself. That means every individual is trying to do better then she did last week or last year. Competition winners are rewarded well. For example, winners of one of the competitions get a gold pin called the Ladder of Success. Sales representatives earn a pin by selling a large number of products. Then they earn jewels for the pin as they increase their sales. Each jewel is placed higher on the ladder than the others. The pin of a top sales representative is covered with diamonds. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Mary Kay’s third husband, Mel Ash, died of cancer in Nineteen-Eighty. She wanted to help find a cure for the disease. At first, she helped organizations raise money for research. Later, she started the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, a non-profit group that provides money to support research about cancers affecting women. In Two-Thousand-One, the company and foundation expanded their goals in an effort to help stop violence against women. Through the years, Mary Kay Ash received many business awards. She was named one of America’s Twenty-Five Most Influential Women in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. She became a member of the National Business Hall of Fame in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. VOICE TWO: Mary Kay Ash wrote three books. The first book, “Mary Kay,” told the story of her life. More than one-million copies in several languages have been sold. She described her business ideas in the book “Mary Kay on People Management.” Her third book was released in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. It is called “Mary Kay--You Can Have It All.” The money earned from its sales went to help fight cancer. Mary Kay Ash continued her involvement in her business until she suffered a stroke in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. She died in November, Two-Thousand-One. Business experts say she was an important business leader who cared about people. Mary Kay sales representatives say she developed a way for women to earn money and still spend time with their families. VOICE ONE: One example is Valerie Yokie. She started selling Mary Kay products twenty years ago. She was an official at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., but left her job to stay home with her two small children. She became interested in the Mary Kay Cosmetics company because it was a way to get started in a business for a small amount of money. She paid less than one-hundred dollars for her supplies. After one year and one half, Missus Yokie became a director of the company and started helping other women become successful Mary Kay representatives. Soon after this, her husband lost his job. Then he developed cancer. Valerie Yokie has supported her family for twenty years through Mary Kay Cosmetics. She is an extremely successful businesswoman. She has won many prizes in Mary Kay competitions, and receives a new pink Cadillac every two years. Valerie Yokie’s story is similar to those of other Mary Kay representatives. They agree that Mary Kay Ash changed the business world. They say she opened a door for women by providing them with a way to earn money that balances work and family. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-12-5-1.cfm
* Headline: April 14, 2002 - 'Minority' and 'AHANA'
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Has the word "minority" outgrown its usefulness? RS: Minority means less than half. In the United States, members of non-European racial and ethnic groups are generally referred to as minorities. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: Has the word "minority" outgrown its usefulness? RS: Minority means less than half. In the United States, members of non-European racial and ethnic groups are generally referred to as minorities. AA: Americans of European descent are still in the majority, but other groups are growing. So much so that, in California, the last census found that Hispanics, blacks and Asians were fifty-one percent of the state's population. California, America's most populous state, was proclaimed its first "majority minority state." RS: Similar changes have also taken place in the largest cities across the country, with whites either in the minority or close to it. So what does the future hold for the word "minority"? Reporter Phillip Martin in Boston examines that question. PHILLIP MARTIN: In December, Boston’s City Council voted unanimously to delete the term "minority" from official documents. The sponsor of the resolution, Councilor Charles Yancey – who is African-American— says the term is insulting and stigmatizes people like himself. YANCY: "I do believe that to continue to label people as minorities establishes an almost caste-like system in the United States, where certain people will be permanently condemned to a status of second class citizenship." AA: Americans of European descent are still in the majority, but other groups are growing. So much so that, in California, the last census found that Hispanics, blacks and Asians were fifty-one percent of the state's population. California, America's most populous state, was proclaimed its first "majority minority state." RS: Similar changes have also taken place in the largest cities across the country, with whites either in the minority or close to it. So what does the future hold for the word "minority"? Reporter Phillip Martin in Boston examines that question. PHILLIP MARTIN: In December, Boston’s City Council voted unanimously to delete the term "minority" from official documents. The sponsor of the resolution, Councilor Charles Yancey – who is African-American— says the term is insulting and stigmatizes people like himself. YANCY: "I do believe that to continue to label people as minorities establishes an almost caste-like system in the United States, where certain people will be permanently condemned to a status of second class citizenship." PM: But that argument failed to sway Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who later vetoed the resolution. A spokesperson says that the Mayor was concerned that dropping the word "minority" from official city documents could undermine programs, such as the Office of Minority Business, which depend on that very term to get special funding. That same concern was voiced by some in San Diego in March 1999, when that city’s deputy mayor proposed eliminating “minority” from official records. Two years later he succeeded, and the term was removed with little resistance or repercussions. But the campaign in San Diego, and now the one in Boston, have nevertheless prompted some people to ask: Of all the terms on which to focus attention, why this one? And, once you get rid of the term minority, what do you use in its place? SFX: SOUNDS OF BELLS AT BOSTON COLLEGE CAMPUS On the campus of Boston College, some think they’ve found answers to those questions. DONALD BROWN: "In advance of coming, word is sent out to entering freshman that there is a new term in the lexicon of Boston College. We don’t use the term minority. We use AHANA." PM: But that argument failed to sway Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who later vetoed the resolution. A spokesperson says that the Mayor was concerned that dropping the word "minority" from official city documents could undermine programs, such as the Office of Minority Business, which depend on that very term to get special funding. That same concern was voiced by some in San Diego in March 1999, when that city’s deputy mayor proposed eliminating “minority” from official records. Two years later he succeeded, and the term was removed with little resistance or repercussions. But the campaign in San Diego, and now the one in Boston, have nevertheless prompted some people to ask: Of all the terms on which to focus attention, why this one? And, once you get rid of the term minority, what do you use in its place? SFX: SOUNDS OF BELLS AT BOSTON COLLEGE CAMPUS On the campus of Boston College, some think they’ve found answers to those questions. DONALD BROWN: "In advance of coming, word is sent out to entering freshman that there is a new term in the lexicon of Boston College. We don’t use the term minority. We use AHANA." PM: Donald Brown directs the Office of AHANA Student Programs, which focuses on retention and graduation of non-white students. The term AHANA has been in use at the school since 1979. DONALD BROWN: "It means African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American." PM: The name change was the result of a campaign by Puerto Rican and black students, who believed that they were being demeaned by the term minority. Donald Brown asserts that since the name alteration, retention rates for students of color at BC increased dramatically. Though the correlation between retention and the altered language is not proven, he says that most students have embraced the AHANA label as strongly as some have rejected being called minorities. SFX: SOUNDS OF STUDENTS Sitting at a Filipino Society table, Scott Agulo says for him the choice of terms is a “no-brainer.” SCOTT AGULO: "I prefer the term AHANA here at Boston College. I see the word minority as a pejorative. And the word AHANA to be more neutral." PM: But Cindy Uh, a Korean American from Florida, says the word AHANA took some getting used to. CINDY UH: "When I first came to Boston College I didn’t think much of the AHANA acronym. It was kind of placed upon me without choice, and as I began becoming more involved on campus I realized that the term is really beneficial to the students. Instead of using the word minority that's another way of saying your Asian, you’re African American and you guys are all united." PM: It’s a belief shared by students at other colleges and universities as well. At least thirty, including the University of Alaska at Anchorage, Fairfield College in Connecticut and Boston University, have all adopted the term AHANA in place of minority. SFX: SOUNDS OF CITY HALL PM: Here at Boston City Hall a sign on a door still reads “The Office of Minority Business.” Councilor Mickey Roach – a former high-ranking police official who dealt with racial disorder in Boston -- says he will work with Mayor Menino to draft a compromise. Mister Roach, who is white, says he is convinced that the term minority has outlived its usefulness. MICKEY ROACH: "The term in of itself is not highly charged emotionally as other words are, but in a way I think we’ve come to a point where we just describe people physically the way they are: tall, short, the color of skin whatever it is and that could be one way to go forward." PM: And if that doesn't work, says Mister Roach, he may join with Councilor Yancey and others in an attempt to override the mayor’s veto -- an action that requires the votes of nine of the 13 councilors. But most observers believe only a minority of them will vote to continue debate on this discordant issue." AA: Phillip Martin reporting from Boston, Massachusetts. RS: We leave you with a programming note -- Wordmaster is joining the new program “Coast to Coast" on Thursday. AA: But you'll hear a repeat on Sunday, at this slightly earlier time. RS: We'll post all the details on our Web site: www.voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. PM: Donald Brown directs the Office of AHANA Student Programs, which focuses on retention and graduation of non-white students. The term AHANA has been in use at the school since 1979. DONALD BROWN: "It means African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American." PM: The name change was the result of a campaign by Puerto Rican and black students, who believed that they were being demeaned by the term minority. Donald Brown asserts that since the name alteration, retention rates for students of color at BC increased dramatically. Though the correlation between retention and the altered language is not proven, he says that most students have embraced the AHANA label as strongly as some have rejected being called minorities. SFX: SOUNDS OF STUDENTS Sitting at a Filipino Society table, Scott Agulo says for him the choice of terms is a “no-brainer.” SCOTT AGULO: "I prefer the term AHANA here at Boston College. I see the word minority as a pejorative. And the word AHANA to be more neutral." PM: But Cindy Uh, a Korean American from Florida, says the word AHANA took some getting used to. CINDY UH: "When I first came to Boston College I didn’t think much of the AHANA acronym. It was kind of placed upon me without choice, and as I began becoming more involved on campus I realized that the term is really beneficial to the students. Instead of using the word minority that's another way of saying your Asian, you’re African American and you guys are all united." PM: It’s a belief shared by students at other colleges and universities as well. At least thirty, including the University of Alaska at Anchorage, Fairfield College in Connecticut and Boston University, have all adopted the term AHANA in place of minority. SFX: SOUNDS OF CITY HALL PM: Here at Boston City Hall a sign on a door still reads “The Office of Minority Business.” Councilor Mickey Roach – a former high-ranking police official who dealt with racial disorder in Boston -- says he will work with Mayor Menino to draft a compromise. Mister Roach, who is white, says he is convinced that the term minority has outlived its usefulness. MICKEY ROACH: "The term in of itself is not highly charged emotionally as other words are, but in a way I think we’ve come to a point where we just describe people physically the way they are: tall, short, the color of skin whatever it is and that could be one way to go forward." PM: And if that doesn't work, says Mister Roach, he may join with Councilor Yancey and others in an attempt to override the mayor’s veto -- an action that requires the votes of nine of the 13 councilors. But most observers believe only a minority of them will vote to continue debate on this discordant issue." AA: Phillip Martin reporting from Boston, Massachusetts. RS: We leave you with a programming note -- Wordmaster is joining the new program “Coast to Coast" on Thursday. AA: But you'll hear a repeat on Sunday, at this slightly earlier time. RS: We'll post all the details on our Web site: www.voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-12-6-1.cfm
* Headline: Our radio schedule
* Byline: 

 We're on each Thursday as part of COAST TO COAST. This VOA News Now program airs at 1230, 1430, 1630 and 1830 Universal Time, and at 0030 Friday to Latin America. A repeat broadcast of WORDMASTER airs on Sunday. Listen about 17 minutes past the hours of 0300, 0700, 1100, 1500, 1900 and 2300. For the frequencies in your area, click here and scroll down to English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 16, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the discovery of an ancient Inca city in Peru. We also tell about the discovery of an ancient Maya wall painting in Guatemala. And we tell about the intelligence of birds. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Explorers working in Peru have found extensive ruins of an ancient city built by the Inca people. The explorers say it is about thirty-five kilometers southwest of the famous ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu. The newly discovered city is almost four-thousand meters up the side of a mountain named Cerro Victoria. Peter Frost is a British explorer who lives in Cuzco, Peru. He has been studying archeology of the Inca for thirty years. Mister Frost led the group that found the ancient city. He says it is complete with roads, burial places, and more than one-hundred buildings. VOICE TWO: Mister Frost says some of the buildings were used to store food. He says his team also found specially built farming areas that the Incas cut into the side of the mountains. The scientists also found stone instruments and some human remains. The city covers an area of about six square kilometers. Mister Frost says the new discovery may contain a record of the Inca civilization from its beginning to its end. However, it is not clear exactly when the city was built. VOICE ONE: The Inca once ruled large areas of South America from Colombia to Chile. But invading Spanish explorers defeated them. The researchers reported finding pottery from two different periods of time in Inca history. Some of the pots are an early kind that were made when the Inca first became powerful. This would have been about the year Twelve-Hundred. Other pieces of pottery are thought to be from the time of the last Inca rebellion against Spanish rule, in about Fifteen-Thirty. Researchers say the ancient city may have been used by the Inca to hide from the Spanish explorers. They say the city may have been used until the Inca finally surrendered to the Spanish about forty years later. VOICE TWO: The scientists say local farmers have used one or two of the buildings in recent years. However, most of the city has not been touched in more than four-hundred years. The explorers first saw the city in the far distance in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. They traveled there last June. They left the nearest road and walked and climbed for four days before arriving at the city. Mister Frost said they knew immediately that they had found something special. He plans to return in June to make maps of the area and to carry out more investigations. VOICE ONE: Mister Frost says the Inca people probably lived in such an area for two reasons. He says there is a silver mine not far from the city. And he says the area is surrounded by mountains, which were holy to the Inca. Mister Frost says they may have held religious ceremonies and prayed to the mountains. He also says the Inca were very interested in the stars and may have used the mountains to observe the sun and stars. The National Geographic Society announced the discovery of the city. The Society helped pay the cost of exploring this area of Peru. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Archeologists have made another important discovery. This one is in the rain forest of northeastern Guatemala. They discovered what experts think may be the oldest and most complete Maya wall art ever found. The wall painting is believed to be about one-thousand-nine-hundred years old. It is said to be in better condition than other Maya art from that period. The National Geographic Society announced the discovery. The group provided financial support for the study. VOICE ONE: The Maya culture existed for hundreds of years in what is now Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras and Mexico. The Maya established many great cities. They built huge three-sided structures called pyramids. And they studied the planets and stars. The Maya culture ended more than one-thousand years ago. No one is sure why. William Saturno, an archeologist at the University of New Hampshire, led the team that discovered the wall art. He also works for the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Mister Saturno traveled to Guatemala last year to explore Maya ruins. He says he found the wall painting by accident. The archeologist arrived at the ruins of a Maya ceremonial area called San Bartolo after a three-day trip. To escape from the heat, he went into a dark, underground walkway near a large pyramid. He believes that people who stole objects from the pyramid dug the walkway. Mister Saturno used a flashlight to find his way as he entered the darkened area. The light helped him to see a painting on the wall of the passageway. He says the painting is about two meters long and is in very good condition. VOICE ONE: Mister Saturno says he knew immediately that he had found something important. He says it has been more than fifty years since anyone found such a large Maya painting. Only part of the wall art can be seen. But experts believe the painting extends at least eighteen meters around the top of the whole room. The painting was protected because it was covered with earth and then the room was closed. The picture is painted in black, red and yellow. There are at least nine images. All the human images stand or are on their knees above a complex design. The Maya god of corn is in the center of the painting.Most of the room is still filled with dirt and stones. Mister Saturno says he plans to return to San Bartolo next month. He and his team will protect the Maya artwork and carry out more work in the area. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists have found that some birds are more intelligent than experts had believed. The scientists say birds have abilities that involve communication and different kinds of memory. In some unusual cases, their abilities seem better than those of humans. The findings were presented at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, Massachusetts.Irene Pepperberg presented her research about a Grey parrot named Griffin. He lives in her laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. VOICE ONE: Mizz Pepperberg says Griffin can arrange objects in order of size. She says the talking bird also can combine words in the right order. For example, he will combine words when asking for a piece of food. The researcher says experts had thought that only humans and other mammals with large brains have the ability to combine objects and words. She believes that bird brains have the ability to understand that complex tasks must be done in the correct order. VOICE TWO: Some birds have other memory skills. For example, they collect and store thousands of seeds in autumn, and find them later in winter. Alan Kamil (CAMEL) and Alan Bond of the University of Nebraska are studying the memories of birds called jays and nutcrackers. Their experiments suggest that these birds use natural objects to find the seeds they have stored. The researchers say the birds use at least three objects, such as rocks or trees, to find the stored seeds. Mister Kamil also was able to train a jay to choose one object instead of another. The bird used this skill to receive a prize, such as food. Scientists also say some birds can learn as many as two-thousand different songs. They say songs may have developed as a way for birds to communicate with other birds. Verner Bingman of Bowling Green State University in Ohio also presented research at the science meeting in Boston. Mister Bingman believes that birds must have a special guidance system in their brain. He says that understanding how a bird’s brain operates may help us better understand how a human brain processes information. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Paul Thompson and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the discovery of an ancient Inca city in Peru. We also tell about the discovery of an ancient Maya wall painting in Guatemala. And we tell about the intelligence of birds. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Explorers working in Peru have found extensive ruins of an ancient city built by the Inca people. The explorers say it is about thirty-five kilometers southwest of the famous ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu. The newly discovered city is almost four-thousand meters up the side of a mountain named Cerro Victoria. Peter Frost is a British explorer who lives in Cuzco, Peru. He has been studying archeology of the Inca for thirty years. Mister Frost led the group that found the ancient city. He says it is complete with roads, burial places, and more than one-hundred buildings. VOICE TWO: Mister Frost says some of the buildings were used to store food. He says his team also found specially built farming areas that the Incas cut into the side of the mountains. The scientists also found stone instruments and some human remains. The city covers an area of about six square kilometers. Mister Frost says the new discovery may contain a record of the Inca civilization from its beginning to its end. However, it is not clear exactly when the city was built. VOICE ONE: The Inca once ruled large areas of South America from Colombia to Chile. But invading Spanish explorers defeated them. The researchers reported finding pottery from two different periods of time in Inca history. Some of the pots are an early kind that were made when the Inca first became powerful. This would have been about the year Twelve-Hundred. Other pieces of pottery are thought to be from the time of the last Inca rebellion against Spanish rule, in about Fifteen-Thirty. Researchers say the ancient city may have been used by the Inca to hide from the Spanish explorers. They say the city may have been used until the Inca finally surrendered to the Spanish about forty years later. VOICE TWO: The scientists say local farmers have used one or two of the buildings in recent years. However, most of the city has not been touched in more than four-hundred years. The explorers first saw the city in the far distance in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. They traveled there last June. They left the nearest road and walked and climbed for four days before arriving at the city. Mister Frost said they knew immediately that they had found something special. He plans to return in June to make maps of the area and to carry out more investigations. VOICE ONE: Mister Frost says the Inca people probably lived in such an area for two reasons. He says there is a silver mine not far from the city. And he says the area is surrounded by mountains, which were holy to the Inca. Mister Frost says they may have held religious ceremonies and prayed to the mountains. He also says the Inca were very interested in the stars and may have used the mountains to observe the sun and stars. The National Geographic Society announced the discovery of the city. The Society helped pay the cost of exploring this area of Peru. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Archeologists have made another important discovery. This one is in the rain forest of northeastern Guatemala. They discovered what experts think may be the oldest and most complete Maya wall art ever found. The wall painting is believed to be about one-thousand-nine-hundred years old. It is said to be in better condition than other Maya art from that period. The National Geographic Society announced the discovery. The group provided financial support for the study. VOICE ONE: The Maya culture existed for hundreds of years in what is now Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and parts of Honduras and Mexico. The Maya established many great cities. They built huge three-sided structures called pyramids. And they studied the planets and stars. The Maya culture ended more than one-thousand years ago. No one is sure why. William Saturno, an archeologist at the University of New Hampshire, led the team that discovered the wall art. He also works for the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Mister Saturno traveled to Guatemala last year to explore Maya ruins. He says he found the wall painting by accident. The archeologist arrived at the ruins of a Maya ceremonial area called San Bartolo after a three-day trip. To escape from the heat, he went into a dark, underground walkway near a large pyramid. He believes that people who stole objects from the pyramid dug the walkway. Mister Saturno used a flashlight to find his way as he entered the darkened area. The light helped him to see a painting on the wall of the passageway. He says the painting is about two meters long and is in very good condition. VOICE ONE: Mister Saturno says he knew immediately that he had found something important. He says it has been more than fifty years since anyone found such a large Maya painting. Only part of the wall art can be seen. But experts believe the painting extends at least eighteen meters around the top of the whole room. The painting was protected because it was covered with earth and then the room was closed. The picture is painted in black, red and yellow. There are at least nine images. All the human images stand or are on their knees above a complex design. The Maya god of corn is in the center of the painting.Most of the room is still filled with dirt and stones. Mister Saturno says he plans to return to San Bartolo next month. He and his team will protect the Maya artwork and carry out more work in the area. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists have found that some birds are more intelligent than experts had believed. The scientists say birds have abilities that involve communication and different kinds of memory. In some unusual cases, their abilities seem better than those of humans. The findings were presented at the yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, Massachusetts.Irene Pepperberg presented her research about a Grey parrot named Griffin. He lives in her laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. VOICE ONE: Mizz Pepperberg says Griffin can arrange objects in order of size. She says the talking bird also can combine words in the right order. For example, he will combine words when asking for a piece of food. The researcher says experts had thought that only humans and other mammals with large brains have the ability to combine objects and words. She believes that bird brains have the ability to understand that complex tasks must be done in the correct order. VOICE TWO: Some birds have other memory skills. For example, they collect and store thousands of seeds in autumn, and find them later in winter. Alan Kamil (CAMEL) and Alan Bond of the University of Nebraska are studying the memories of birds called jays and nutcrackers. Their experiments suggest that these birds use natural objects to find the seeds they have stored. The researchers say the birds use at least three objects, such as rocks or trees, to find the stored seeds. Mister Kamil also was able to train a jay to choose one object instead of another. The bird used this skill to receive a prize, such as food. Scientists also say some birds can learn as many as two-thousand different songs. They say songs may have developed as a way for birds to communicate with other birds. Verner Bingman of Bowling Green State University in Ohio also presented research at the science meeting in Boston. Mister Bingman believes that birds must have a special guidance system in their brain. He says that understanding how a bird’s brain operates may help us better understand how a human brain processes information. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Paul Thompson and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – April 16, 2002: New Rice For West Africa
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A new kind of rice is coming to West Africa. The new rice is said to have the best qualities of traditional African rice. It also has the higher productivity of Asian rice. It increases harvests by as much as fifty percent. The West African Rice Development Association announced plans to give the new rice to farmers in several West African countries. Rice is the main food in much of West Africa. The West African Rice Development Association says demand for rice is growing faster there than anywhere in the world. It says rice imports have risen in West Africa during the past thirty years. Experts say the African and Asian versions of rice developed separately over many centuries. The African rice plant falls down when the plant is filled with rice. The grain head breaks apart easily, so some rice is lost. Asian rice is more productive. It has become popular in world markets. For years, scientists talked about combining the best qualities of African rice with those of Asian rice. Yet attempts to combine the two kinds of rice failed. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, researcher Monty Jones started using genetic engineering methods to combine the two. The genetic differences of the plants made the work difficult. Yet the differences also led to improvements in the new rice. Scientists say the product of two genetically different plants grows faster and is more productive. Scientists have created several kinds of new rice for Africa. These kinds of rice resist dry weather, harmful insects and poor soils. They also slow the growth of unwanted plants. That reduces labor, and permits farmers to work the same land for longer periods. The new kinds of rice also have a different structure of the grain head. African rice produces only seventy-five to one-hundred grains. The new rice plants produce as many as four-hundred grains. The rice plants hold the grains firmly, so they do not fall apart. The new kinds of rice develop about one month earlier than other rice. They also are taller. This makes harvesting easier. Experts say they also contain more protein than other rice. The West African Rice Development Association says the new rice also may help rice growers in Asia, Central America and South America. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is __________. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A new kind of rice is coming to West Africa. The new rice is said to have the best qualities of traditional African rice. It also has the higher productivity of Asian rice. It increases harvests by as much as fifty percent. The West African Rice Development Association announced plans to give the new rice to farmers in several West African countries. Rice is the main food in much of West Africa. The West African Rice Development Association says demand for rice is growing faster there than anywhere in the world. It says rice imports have risen in West Africa during the past thirty years. Experts say the African and Asian versions of rice developed separately over many centuries. The African rice plant falls down when the plant is filled with rice. The grain head breaks apart easily, so some rice is lost. Asian rice is more productive. It has become popular in world markets. For years, scientists talked about combining the best qualities of African rice with those of Asian rice. Yet attempts to combine the two kinds of rice failed. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, researcher Monty Jones started using genetic engineering methods to combine the two. The genetic differences of the plants made the work difficult. Yet the differences also led to improvements in the new rice. Scientists say the product of two genetically different plants grows faster and is more productive. Scientists have created several kinds of new rice for Africa. These kinds of rice resist dry weather, harmful insects and poor soils. They also slow the growth of unwanted plants. That reduces labor, and permits farmers to work the same land for longer periods. The new kinds of rice also have a different structure of the grain head. African rice produces only seventy-five to one-hundred grains. The new rice plants produce as many as four-hundred grains. The rice plants hold the grains firmly, so they do not fall apart. The new kinds of rice develop about one month earlier than other rice. They also are taller. This makes harvesting easier. Experts say they also contain more protein than other rice. The West African Rice Development Association says the new rice also may help rice growers in Asia, Central America and South America. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is __________. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT- Testing for Pre-Diabetes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: April 17, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Broadcast: April 17, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American health experts say more people should be tested for a condition called pre-diabetes. Recent health studies have shown that people can delay or prevent the disease diabetes by losing weight and increasing physical exercise. About one-hundred-thirty-five-million people around the world have diabetes. They have high levels of the sugar called glucose in their blood. Glucose levels increase when the body lacks or cannot use the hormone insulin. This results in diabetes. The disease damages a person’s blood vessels, kidneys, eyes and nerves. It stops blood flow to the feet and legs. And it increases the chances of heart disease and strokes. There are two kinds of diabetes. Type One develops in children or young adults. Type Two develops in older adults. This is the kind that researchers now say can be delayed or prevented by testing for pre-diabetes. People with pre-diabetes have levels of glucose that are higher than normal, but not high enough to be considered diabetes. There are no signs of this condition. Without treatment, most people with the condition will develop diabetes. Health experts note a sharp increase in diabetes as a result of an increase in the number of Americans who are too fat. Government health experts and the American Diabetes Association are beginning a campaign to educate people about this danger. They say doctors can test people in two ways. One blood test measures the level of glucose in the blood after the person has not eaten for about twelve hours. Another test measures the glucose level two hours after the person drinks a liquid containing glucose. The government says doctors should test people over the age of forty-four who are overweight. It says doctors should also consider testing younger people who are overweight or have family members with diabetes. People found to have pre-diabetes should receive advice about ways to lose weight and increase exercise. Researchers in Finland and the United States have studied overweight people with pre-diabetes. Two large studies showed that those who lost weight and exercised reduced their chances of developing the disease by fifty-eight percent. Experts say that people who walk thirty minutes a day can greatly reduce their chance of developing diabetes. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. American health experts say more people should be tested for a condition called pre-diabetes. Recent health studies have shown that people can delay or prevent the disease diabetes by losing weight and increasing physical exercise. About one-hundred-thirty-five-million people around the world have diabetes. They have high levels of the sugar called glucose in their blood. Glucose levels increase when the body lacks or cannot use the hormone insulin. This results in diabetes. The disease damages a person’s blood vessels, kidneys, eyes and nerves. It stops blood flow to the feet and legs. And it increases the chances of heart disease and strokes. There are two kinds of diabetes. Type One develops in children or young adults. Type Two develops in older adults. This is the kind that researchers now say can be delayed or prevented by testing for pre-diabetes. People with pre-diabetes have levels of glucose that are higher than normal, but not high enough to be considered diabetes. There are no signs of this condition. Without treatment, most people with the condition will develop diabetes. Health experts note a sharp increase in diabetes as a result of an increase in the number of Americans who are too fat. Government health experts and the American Diabetes Association are beginning a campaign to educate people about this danger. They say doctors can test people in two ways. One blood test measures the level of glucose in the blood after the person has not eaten for about twelve hours. Another test measures the glucose level two hours after the person drinks a liquid containing glucose. The government says doctors should test people over the age of forty-four who are overweight. It says doctors should also consider testing younger people who are overweight or have family members with diabetes. People found to have pre-diabetes should receive advice about ways to lose weight and increase exercise. Researchers in Finland and the United States have studied overweight people with pre-diabetes. Two large studies showed that those who lost weight and exercised reduced their chances of developing the disease by fifty-eight percent. Experts say that people who walk thirty minutes a day can greatly reduce their chance of developing diabetes. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - April 17, 2002: Broadcast Number 2000
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the two-thousandth broadcast of this program. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Time changes everything, including the names of VOA radio programs. The program we know today as “Explorations” began as the Saturday feature. The first program of this series was broadcast thirty-nine years ago, June Eighth, Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called “Space, Food and Man.” The announcer began the program by saying, “Space, Food and Man … a program in Special English by the Voice of America.” That first program was part of a new series about the growing population of the world and the decreasing amount of living space on our planet. It also told about the amount of food people need to survive. VOICE TWO: It seems that listeners liked that first program broadcast in the series. However, the VOA Special English staff did change the name a little. The took out the word “food” from the title and kept the name “Space and Man.” The program continued under that name for many years even as it moved to a different broadcast day. It was heard on Wednesdays, Tuesday nights in Latin America. In April, Nineteen-Ninety-Six, the name “Space and Man” was changed to “Explorations.” The staff members of Special English believe the name “Explorations” really tells more about this program, which explores almost every subject. “Space and Man” began broadcasting programs about exploring space. It also included programs about medicine, science, culture and other subjects. As the years passed we discovered that this was really a program about everything. The name “Explorations” just seemed to fit the program because we try to explore many different subjects and ideas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Now, we have a secret to share with you. The staff of Special English has not written two-thousand programs for “Explorations.” We really do not know how many we have written. Some of our programs have been repeated. A few of them many times. A good example is a program about the sport of parachuting. It tells about what it feels like to jump out of a plane with a parachute. The facts do not change. And it is still an interesting program. We might repeat it every few years. Other programs are similar in this way to the parachuting program. They are worth broadcasting again. Each time a program is going to be broadcast again the facts and information are examined to make sure everything is still correct. The program is given a new number. So… today we are celebrating the two-thousandth broadcast. VOICE TWO: Some of the programs we repeat are about subjects that have become important in history. For example, some programs followed the progress of the first humans to leave Earth and travel into space. These programs included the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space flights. Other programs about space flight are continually added. We have followed the development of the space shuttle. We have told about the beginnings of the International Space Station and its progress. We have told about the launch of important satellites and space vehicles sent to explore the far reaches of our solar system. And we have taken our listeners along as humans attempt to explore the universe. VOICE ONE: American Astronaut Neal Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon. That event took place on July Twentieth, Nineteen-Sixty-Nine…thirty-three years ago. Many of us can remember that day. Others were not yet born. One of the reasons we repeat some programs is to let younger listeners feel the excitement of hearing such moments as Neal Armstrong say the first words from the Moon. He said those words as his foot left the moon lander vehicle and touched the surface of the Moon for the first time. He said, “That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind.” Listen closely as Mister Armstrong says those words in our program about the landing on the Moon. ((“THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND.”)) VOICE TWO: One of the most popular subjects on “Explorations” has been the progress of the Hubble Space Telescope. The space telescope orbits six-hundred kilometers above the Earth working to provide new information about our universe. Our programs followed the excitement leading up to the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in Nineteen-Ninety. We also reported that mistakes had been made in Hubble’s glass telescope. One mistake affected the telescope’s mirror. It would not permit the telescope to produce clear pictures. But the telescope was the first object in space designed so that astronauts could make repairs. So we have told about the three trips astronauts have made to the Hubble Space Telescope. Each time they have replaced older equipment with new modern equipment that permits the Hubble to do better work. We will report on the last of these trips to repair the space telescope. It is planned for July, Two-Thousand-Three. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program has closely followed the invention of the computer. Several members of our Special English staff remember when we had to learn to use computers to do our work. We quickly understood how important these new machines were and how very important they would become in the future. In this program, we told how computers were invented and the progress being made in their development. We told how early computers were helping make business easier. Our stories examined ways that computers could be used to gain information. Every few years we added new programs about computers. We told how people throughout the world were becoming connected with the use of computers. We told about the invention of the communications technology that became the Internet. VOICE TWO: Today, if you have a computer and can link to the Internet, you can print copies of this program or most other Special English programs broadcast recently. You can make a copy of the Special English Word Book…the English words used to write Special English programs. And, you can often see pictures of some of the people or places we discuss on our radio programs. News about developments in computer technology has been a very important part of this program. We know it will continue to be in the future. VOICE ONE: The computer has helped us link with many of you who listen to “Explorations” and other Special English programs. Many listeners have become friends over the years. A listener in China is a good example. Chun-Quan Meng works with a university’s computer center. He also collects science information for students who study at the center. He has often e-mailed us asking questions about our programs. He has even suggested ideas for programs. One subject he suggested was about the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. VOICE TWO: Each winter thousands of people around the world are killed or severely injured by carbon monoxide gas. Kerosene or gas heaters or stoves that do not work correctly usually cause these terrible accidents. Our friend in China thought it would be a good idea to explain this problem to our listeners. We did too! Giving our listeners valuable information about a problem is the kind of program we think is important. We would like to thank Chun-Quan Meng again for a very good idea. Our program about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning is one that will be repeated. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: What does the future hold for “Explorations”? Well, the name will not change again. We feel it describes the program very well. What will “Explorations” programs be like in the future? That is a good question. We hope to continue with programs that tell you about interesting places, events, people or subjects. Future programs will continue to deal with new technology or ideas we think will interest you. We hope you will enjoy hearing two-thousand more broadcasts of “Explorations” during the next forty years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Efim Drucker. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the two-thousandth broadcast of this program. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Time changes everything, including the names of VOA radio programs. The program we know today as “Explorations” began as the Saturday feature. The first program of this series was broadcast thirty-nine years ago, June Eighth, Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called “Space, Food and Man.” The announcer began the program by saying, “Space, Food and Man … a program in Special English by the Voice of America.” That first program was part of a new series about the growing population of the world and the decreasing amount of living space on our planet. It also told about the amount of food people need to survive. VOICE TWO: It seems that listeners liked that first program broadcast in the series. However, the VOA Special English staff did change the name a little. The took out the word “food” from the title and kept the name “Space and Man.” The program continued under that name for many years even as it moved to a different broadcast day. It was heard on Wednesdays, Tuesday nights in Latin America. In April, Nineteen-Ninety-Six, the name “Space and Man” was changed to “Explorations.” The staff members of Special English believe the name “Explorations” really tells more about this program, which explores almost every subject. “Space and Man” began broadcasting programs about exploring space. It also included programs about medicine, science, culture and other subjects. As the years passed we discovered that this was really a program about everything. The name “Explorations” just seemed to fit the program because we try to explore many different subjects and ideas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Now, we have a secret to share with you. The staff of Special English has not written two-thousand programs for “Explorations.” We really do not know how many we have written. Some of our programs have been repeated. A few of them many times. A good example is a program about the sport of parachuting. It tells about what it feels like to jump out of a plane with a parachute. The facts do not change. And it is still an interesting program. We might repeat it every few years. Other programs are similar in this way to the parachuting program. They are worth broadcasting again. Each time a program is going to be broadcast again the facts and information are examined to make sure everything is still correct. The program is given a new number. So… today we are celebrating the two-thousandth broadcast. VOICE TWO: Some of the programs we repeat are about subjects that have become important in history. For example, some programs followed the progress of the first humans to leave Earth and travel into space. These programs included the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space flights. Other programs about space flight are continually added. We have followed the development of the space shuttle. We have told about the beginnings of the International Space Station and its progress. We have told about the launch of important satellites and space vehicles sent to explore the far reaches of our solar system. And we have taken our listeners along as humans attempt to explore the universe. VOICE ONE: American Astronaut Neal Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon. That event took place on July Twentieth, Nineteen-Sixty-Nine…thirty-three years ago. Many of us can remember that day. Others were not yet born. One of the reasons we repeat some programs is to let younger listeners feel the excitement of hearing such moments as Neal Armstrong say the first words from the Moon. He said those words as his foot left the moon lander vehicle and touched the surface of the Moon for the first time. He said, “That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind.” Listen closely as Mister Armstrong says those words in our program about the landing on the Moon. ((“THAT’S ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND.”)) VOICE TWO: One of the most popular subjects on “Explorations” has been the progress of the Hubble Space Telescope. The space telescope orbits six-hundred kilometers above the Earth working to provide new information about our universe. Our programs followed the excitement leading up to the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in Nineteen-Ninety. We also reported that mistakes had been made in Hubble’s glass telescope. One mistake affected the telescope’s mirror. It would not permit the telescope to produce clear pictures. But the telescope was the first object in space designed so that astronauts could make repairs. So we have told about the three trips astronauts have made to the Hubble Space Telescope. Each time they have replaced older equipment with new modern equipment that permits the Hubble to do better work. We will report on the last of these trips to repair the space telescope. It is planned for July, Two-Thousand-Three. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program has closely followed the invention of the computer. Several members of our Special English staff remember when we had to learn to use computers to do our work. We quickly understood how important these new machines were and how very important they would become in the future. In this program, we told how computers were invented and the progress being made in their development. We told how early computers were helping make business easier. Our stories examined ways that computers could be used to gain information. Every few years we added new programs about computers. We told how people throughout the world were becoming connected with the use of computers. We told about the invention of the communications technology that became the Internet. VOICE TWO: Today, if you have a computer and can link to the Internet, you can print copies of this program or most other Special English programs broadcast recently. You can make a copy of the Special English Word Book…the English words used to write Special English programs. And, you can often see pictures of some of the people or places we discuss on our radio programs. News about developments in computer technology has been a very important part of this program. We know it will continue to be in the future. VOICE ONE: The computer has helped us link with many of you who listen to “Explorations” and other Special English programs. Many listeners have become friends over the years. A listener in China is a good example. Chun-Quan Meng works with a university’s computer center. He also collects science information for students who study at the center. He has often e-mailed us asking questions about our programs. He has even suggested ideas for programs. One subject he suggested was about the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning. VOICE TWO: Each winter thousands of people around the world are killed or severely injured by carbon monoxide gas. Kerosene or gas heaters or stoves that do not work correctly usually cause these terrible accidents. Our friend in China thought it would be a good idea to explain this problem to our listeners. We did too! Giving our listeners valuable information about a problem is the kind of program we think is important. We would like to thank Chun-Quan Meng again for a very good idea. Our program about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning is one that will be repeated. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: What does the future hold for “Explorations”? Well, the name will not change again. We feel it describes the program very well. What will “Explorations” programs be like in the future? That is a good question. We hope to continue with programs that tell you about interesting places, events, people or subjects. Future programs will continue to deal with new technology or ideas we think will interest you. We hope you will enjoy hearing two-thousand more broadcasts of “Explorations” during the next forty years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Efim Drucker. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - April 18, 2002: Synopsis: 1920-1940
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Attack on Pearl Harbor, 1945 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) History usually is a process of slow change. Customs and traditions flow slowly from day to day. However, certain single events also can change the course of history. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was such an event. So was the first airplane flight by the American inventors, the Wright Brothers. Or the meeting between the Spanish explorer Cortez and the Aztec king, Montezuma. All these events were single moments that changed history. And so it was, too, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen-forty-one. The surprise attack on America's large naval base in Hawaii was a great military success for the government in Tokyo. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor had more than a military meaning. It also represented the passing of a period in American history. The attack would force Americans to fight in World War Two. More important, it would make them recognize their position as one of the leading and powerful nations of the world. VOICE 2: In future weeks, we will discuss the military and political events of World War Two. But let us take a moment today to look back at the years before the battle. We already have seen how the attack ended the historic American tradition of avoiding world conflict. However, Pearl Harbor also marked the end of a shorter period in the nation's history. This period began with the end of World War One and ended with Pearl Harbor. It lasted only twenty-three years, from nineteen-eighteen to nineteen-forty-one. But it was filled with important changes in American politics, culture, and traditions. VOICE 1: Let us start our review of these years with politics. In nineteen-twenty, the voters of the United States elected Republican Warren Harding to the presidency. The voters were tired of the progressive policies of Democratic president Woodrow Wilson. They were especially tired of Wilson's desire for the United States to play an active part in the new league of nations. Harding was a conservative Republican. And so were the two presidents who followed him, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. VOICE 2: All three of these presidents generally followed conservative economic policies. And they did not take an active part in world affairs. Americans turned away from Republican rule in the election of nineteen-thirty-two. They elected the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And they continued to re-elect him. In this way, the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen-twenties changed to the more progressive policies of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in the nineteen-thirties. VOICE 1: This change happened mainly because of economic troubles. The nineteen-twenties were a time of growth and business strength. President Calvin Coolidge said during his term that the business of America was business. This generally was the same belief of the other Republican presidents during the period, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. There was a good reason for this. The economy expanded greatly during the nineteen-twenties. Many Americans made a great deal of money on the stock market. And wages for workers increased as well. However, economic growth ended suddenly with the stock market crash of October, nineteen-twenty-nine. In that month, the stocks for many leading companies fell sharply. And they continued to fall in the months that followed. Many Americans lost great amounts of money. And the public at large lost faith in the economy. Soon, the economy was in ruins, and businesses were closing their doors. VOICE 2: President Hoover tried to solve the crisis. But he was not willing to take the strong actions that were needed to end it. As time passed, many Americans began to blame Hoover for the terrible economic depression. Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected mainly because he promised to try new solutions to end the Great Depression. Soon after he was elected, Roosevelt launched a number of imaginative economic policies to solve the crisis. Roosevelt's policies helped to reduce the amount of human suffering. But the Great Depression finally ended only with America's entry into World War Two. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's victory in nineteen-thirty-two also helped change the balance of power in American politics. Roosevelt brought new kinds of Americans to positions of power: labor union leaders. Roman Catholics. Jews. Blacks. Americans from families that had come from such nations as Italy, Ireland, or Russia. These Americans repaid Roosevelt by giving the Democratic Party their votes. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties and thirties also brought basic changes in how Americans dealt with many of their social and economic problems. The nineteen-twenties generally were a period of economic growth with little government intervention in the day-to-day lives of the people. But the terrible conditions of the Great Depression during the nineteen-thirties forced Roosevelt and the federal government to experiment with new policies. The government began to take an active role in offering relief to the poor. It started programs to give food and money to poor people. And it created jobs for workers. The government grew in other ways. It created major programs for farmers. It set regulations for the stock market. It built dams, roads, and airports. American government looked much different at the end of this period between the world wars than it did at the beginning. Government had become larger and more important. It dealt with many more issues in people's lives than it ever had before. VOICE 1: Social protest increased during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. Some black Americans began to speak out more actively about unfair laws and customs. Blacks in great numbers moved from the southern part of the country to northern and central cities. The nineteen-twenties and thirties also were an exciting time of change for women. Women began to wear less traditional kinds of clothes. Washing machines and other inventions allowed them to spend less time doing housework. Women could smoke or drink in public, at least in large cities. And many women held jobs. Of course, the women's movement was not new. Long years of work by such women's leaders as Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony had helped women win the right to vote in nineteen-twenty. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties and thirties also were important periods in the arts. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, and others made this what many called the "Golden Age" of American writing. Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects designed great buildings. Film actors like Clark Gable, and radio entertainers like Jack Benny, did more than make Americans laugh or cry. They also helped unite the country. Millions of Americans could watch or listen to the same show at the same time. VOICE 1: Politics. The economy. Social traditions. Art. All these changed for Americans during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. And many of these changes also had effects in foreign countries beyond America's borders. However, the change that had the most meaning for the rest of the world was the change produced by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. America's modern history as a great superpower begins with its reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a sudden event in the flow of history. It was a day on which a young land suddenly became fully grown. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) History usually is a process of slow change. Customs and traditions flow slowly from day to day. However, certain single events also can change the course of history. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was such an event. So was the first airplane flight by the American inventors, the Wright Brothers. Or the meeting between the Spanish explorer Cortez and the Aztec king, Montezuma. All these events were single moments that changed history. And so it was, too, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen-forty-one. The surprise attack on America's large naval base in Hawaii was a great military success for the government in Tokyo. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor had more than a military meaning. It also represented the passing of a period in American history. The attack would force Americans to fight in World War Two. More important, it would make them recognize their position as one of the leading and powerful nations of the world. VOICE 2: In future weeks, we will discuss the military and political events of World War Two. But let us take a moment today to look back at the years before the battle. We already have seen how the attack ended the historic American tradition of avoiding world conflict. However, Pearl Harbor also marked the end of a shorter period in the nation's history. This period began with the end of World War One and ended with Pearl Harbor. It lasted only twenty-three years, from nineteen-eighteen to nineteen-forty-one. But it was filled with important changes in American politics, culture, and traditions. VOICE 1: Let us start our review of these years with politics. In nineteen-twenty, the voters of the United States elected Republican Warren Harding to the presidency. The voters were tired of the progressive policies of Democratic president Woodrow Wilson. They were especially tired of Wilson's desire for the United States to play an active part in the new league of nations. Harding was a conservative Republican. And so were the two presidents who followed him, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. VOICE 2: All three of these presidents generally followed conservative economic policies. And they did not take an active part in world affairs. Americans turned away from Republican rule in the election of nineteen-thirty-two. They elected the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And they continued to re-elect him. In this way, the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen-twenties changed to the more progressive policies of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in the nineteen-thirties. VOICE 1: This change happened mainly because of economic troubles. The nineteen-twenties were a time of growth and business strength. President Calvin Coolidge said during his term that the business of America was business. This generally was the same belief of the other Republican presidents during the period, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. There was a good reason for this. The economy expanded greatly during the nineteen-twenties. Many Americans made a great deal of money on the stock market. And wages for workers increased as well. However, economic growth ended suddenly with the stock market crash of October, nineteen-twenty-nine. In that month, the stocks for many leading companies fell sharply. And they continued to fall in the months that followed. Many Americans lost great amounts of money. And the public at large lost faith in the economy. Soon, the economy was in ruins, and businesses were closing their doors. VOICE 2: President Hoover tried to solve the crisis. But he was not willing to take the strong actions that were needed to end it. As time passed, many Americans began to blame Hoover for the terrible economic depression. Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected mainly because he promised to try new solutions to end the Great Depression. Soon after he was elected, Roosevelt launched a number of imaginative economic policies to solve the crisis. Roosevelt's policies helped to reduce the amount of human suffering. But the Great Depression finally ended only with America's entry into World War Two. VOICE 1: Roosevelt's victory in nineteen-thirty-two also helped change the balance of power in American politics. Roosevelt brought new kinds of Americans to positions of power: labor union leaders. Roman Catholics. Jews. Blacks. Americans from families that had come from such nations as Italy, Ireland, or Russia. These Americans repaid Roosevelt by giving the Democratic Party their votes. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties and thirties also brought basic changes in how Americans dealt with many of their social and economic problems. The nineteen-twenties generally were a period of economic growth with little government intervention in the day-to-day lives of the people. But the terrible conditions of the Great Depression during the nineteen-thirties forced Roosevelt and the federal government to experiment with new policies. The government began to take an active role in offering relief to the poor. It started programs to give food and money to poor people. And it created jobs for workers. The government grew in other ways. It created major programs for farmers. It set regulations for the stock market. It built dams, roads, and airports. American government looked much different at the end of this period between the world wars than it did at the beginning. Government had become larger and more important. It dealt with many more issues in people's lives than it ever had before. VOICE 1: Social protest increased during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. Some black Americans began to speak out more actively about unfair laws and customs. Blacks in great numbers moved from the southern part of the country to northern and central cities. The nineteen-twenties and thirties also were an exciting time of change for women. Women began to wear less traditional kinds of clothes. Washing machines and other inventions allowed them to spend less time doing housework. Women could smoke or drink in public, at least in large cities. And many women held jobs. Of course, the women's movement was not new. Long years of work by such women's leaders as Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony had helped women win the right to vote in nineteen-twenty. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties and thirties also were important periods in the arts. Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, and others made this what many called the "Golden Age" of American writing. Frank Lloyd Wright and other architects designed great buildings. Film actors like Clark Gable, and radio entertainers like Jack Benny, did more than make Americans laugh or cry. They also helped unite the country. Millions of Americans could watch or listen to the same show at the same time. VOICE 1: Politics. The economy. Social traditions. Art. All these changed for Americans during the nineteen-twenties and thirties. And many of these changes also had effects in foreign countries beyond America's borders. However, the change that had the most meaning for the rest of the world was the change produced by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. America's modern history as a great superpower begins with its reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a sudden event in the flow of history. It was a day on which a young land suddenly became fully grown. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - April 18, 2002: Head Start Proposal
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. President Bush has proposed a measure to improve teaching in the Head Start program for young children from poor families. The president wants all fifty-thousand Head Start teachers trained to prepare children for reading. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. President Bush has proposed a measure to improve teaching in the Head Start program for young children from poor families. The president wants all fifty-thousand Head Start teachers trained to prepare children for reading. About nine-hundred-thousand children in the United States attend Head Start. A major goal is to help children gain the skills they need to succeed in school. Children in the program are from three to five years old. There is also an Early Head Start program for babies and pregnant women. Each year in the United States, millions of children ages five or six start school for the first time. Many of these children attended some kind of pre-school or nursery school to prepare them for school. However, parents who do not earn much money cannot pay for their children to attend nursery schools. Some of these parents may not be able to read books to their children or teach them things at home. Their children may have health or emotional problems. Studies have shown that many children from low-income families often do poorly in school. To try to solve this problem, the government began the Head Start program in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. The purpose of the program is to give children from low-income families a “head start” so they can begin school on equal terms with other children. About nine-hundred-thousand children in the United States attend Head Start. A major goal is to help children gain the skills they need to succeed in school. Children in the program are from three to five years old. There is also an Early Head Start program for babies and pregnant women. Each year in the United States, millions of children ages five or six start school for the first time. Many of these children attended some kind of pre-school or nursery school to prepare them for school. However, parents who do not earn much money cannot pay for their children to attend nursery schools. Some of these parents may not be able to read books to their children or teach them things at home. Their children may have health or emotional problems. Studies have shown that many children from low-income families often do poorly in school. To try to solve this problem, the government began the Head Start program in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. The purpose of the program is to give children from low-income families a “head start” so they can begin school on equal terms with other children. There are four major parts of Head Start. The first is education. Children in Head Start classes learn words and numbers. They learn about history and science. They learn to express their feelings. And they learn how to play with others. The second part of Head Start is health. Every child receives health care. The children eat one or two healthy meals a day at their Head Start school. The third part of Head Start is the involvement of parents. Parents learn about educational activities they can do at home. Head Start teachers visit parents to talk about their child’s progress and any problems. Many parents work as assistants to teachers in the program. The fourth part of Head Start is social services. Head start provides information to help families deal with problems like homelessness, unemployment, and alcohol or drug dependence. Studies have shown that Head Start children perform equal to or better than other children when they enter school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. There are four major parts of Head Start. The first is education. Children in Head Start classes learn words and numbers. They learn about history and science. They learn to express their feelings. And they learn how to play with others. The second part of Head Start is health. Every child receives health care. The children eat one or two healthy meals a day at their Head Start school. The third part of Head Start is the involvement of parents. Parents learn about educational activities they can do at home. Head Start teachers visit parents to talk about their child’s progress and any problems. Many parents work as assistants to teachers in the program. The fourth part of Head Start is social services. Head start provides information to help families deal with problems like homelessness, unemployment, and alcohol or drug dependence. Studies have shown that Head Start children perform equal to or better than other children when they enter school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 11, 1999 - Politically Correct
* Byline: 

 INTRO: This week our Wordmasters Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble explore what it means to be "politically correct." AA: On its face, the term politically correct certainly seems innocent enough. After all, who doesn't like to be correct? RS: But these days most people would be insulted to be called "politically correct." AA: The term "politically correct" first appeared in the Random House Webster's College Dictionary in 1991. Random house has kept the original meaning in a second edition just published: RS: "Politically correct - adjective, marked by or adhering to a typically progressive orthodoxy on issues involving especially race, gender, sexual affinity, or ecology. " SHEIDLOWER: "Throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s it was something that one should aspire to. AA: Jesse Sheidlower is a senior editor for new words at random house reference in New York. SHEIDLOWER: "Around 1990 or so, at the time that it did get this kind of mainstream play, it was very negative and that has pretty much continued. Now no one or almost no one would describe themselves as politically correct. It's only the sort of thing that you use to criticize someone else. It doesn't really have any kind of positive sense anymore. It's just completely died out. " RS: So what's a sure-fire way to be accused of political correctness? SHEIDLOWER: "Standing up for environmental rights at the expense of people whose jobs will be lost if environmental legislation would be passed - that's a very typical sort of thing that right now would be described as politically correct. " AA: Yet Jesse Sheidlower says that even as Americans make fun of political correctness, American language is becoming -- dare we say it? -- more politically correct. SHEIDLOWER: "In the last ten years, there's been a big change in a number of usages that have made a big impact in American life, and some of these changes are ones that would be considered politically correct if we wanted to use that term. But because of the way the term has evolved, calling them politically correct will make it sound more negative that it actually is. "Perhaps the biggest area [of change] is any kind of gender-related terms. We really have stepped away in a big way from using words that specify the sex of the person being referred to. So words like policeman and mailman or chairman, things like that, have been replaced by words with 'person' in their place, or saying something like 'chair' instead of chairman, or 'mail carrier' instead of mailman, 'police officer' instead of policeman. It really has been a big shift and we've really accepted this kind of vocabulary to a very large extent in the last ten years. Most people aren't bothered by this. "Now, there have been some words and some phrases that have gotten a lot of negative attention, such as the word 'waitron' - meaning waiter or waitress, a person who waits on tables, without specifying sex. This is one that people really hate, and this is a word that gets called politically correct and is made fun of." AA: "Do you mind being called politically correct? Would you take that as an insult?" SHEIDLOWER: "I probably would because it would probably be intended as an insult. I'd find it difficult to imagine being called politically correct as praise nowadays. " RS: "so it's nothing that our listeners should strive for -although in their use of language they may apply some of the principles." SHEIDLOWER: "that's exactly right. There are many of the principles of political correctness that are perfectly fine but being called politically correct is almost always considered negative." AA: "And with your dictionary people can get some guidance on which language is good to use and which is to be rejected." SHEIDLOWER: "We do have a long essay in the back of the dictionary called 'avoiding insensitive and offensive language' that provides guidelines that we think are pretty straightforward, that no one could really object very strongly to. The guidelines do suggest things like using 'police officer' instead of 'policeman' or not assuming that a particular profession is male or female: don't assume that all nurses are female and don't assume that all lawyers are male. We really think that these guidelines are sensible and straightforward; of course, some people have accused these guidelines of being politically correct, but we are not trying to force people to speak in any particular way. We are simply setting out the kind of reaction that people can have to unintentional use of language like this." RS: Senior editor Jesse Sheidlower at Random House Reference Publishing in New York. AA: Next week, we venture into the political language of Washington with comedian George Carlin. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: April 18, 2002 - English Teaching Starts Earlier
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 18 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: April 21 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look at the teaching of English to non-native speakers at younger and younger ages. RS: Members of the international association known as TESOL -- Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages -- deemed this a "critical issue" in a recent survey. So there was a lot of discussion this month at the thirty-sixth annual TESOL convention, which took place in Salt Lake City, Utah. AA: Neil Anderson is a professor in the Linguistics Department at Brigham Young University in Utah, whose term as president of TESOL just ended. Professor Anderson says education ministries around the world are requiring schools to teach English earlier than they have been. ANDERSON: "Probably junior high is when most were starting, and they've lowered that now, some were going down to fifth grade, and now they're down to third. The challenge with that issue is that the ministry of education in a country is making the decision, but there are not teachers that have the English language skills that teach in those lower grades that are prepared to begin teaching English. And, there are not pedagogically appropriate materials that have been produced by publishing companies for the teachers to use in those lower grades." RS: As for the children, Neil Anderson says there are pros and cons to getting an early start. ANDERSON: "The learner at a younger age has a longer period of time to master the language, and so features such as pronunciation -- a young learner beginning the study of English can master the pronunciation of English and thus develop native-type pronunciation as they continue through the years. So if a learner were to start in second grade, by the time they're entering high school and college, their pronunciation would be like that of a native speaker of English. "The downside is, when you begin studying English at a younger and younger age, maybe the largest issue that comes into question is where is that learner at in the acquisition and development of their own first language. We want to make sure in our profession that we're not replacing a learner's native language, but that we are giving them an additional language that they can use in the world to do whatever it is they want to do. So we've got to carefully look at where is this learner at in the development of their own mother tongue." RS: "But you see this as a trend, a worldwide trend?" ANDERSON: "Yes, Dr. David Noonan of the University of Hong Kong was one of the panelists and he's currently gathering data in Southeast Asia on this very topic. And as I have traveled this year -- Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt -- in all of those five countries the ministries of education are now saying, let's begin teaching English at younger ages. "Yet they're not thinking of the full ramifications, I don't think, when they make that statement. They're only looking at the positive aspects, but they're not looking at, 'Are our teachers prepared in grade three to begin teaching? What are the language skills of the teachers who will be teaching these children?' "And that's another disadvantage that many, many of the teachers that are teaching these children, although they are prepared to be solid third-grade teachers, they are now having to add the task of teaching English, and their English skills may not be strong enough to be doing the task." RS: Neil Anderson, immediate past president of TESOL, speaking to us from his office at Brigham Young University in Utah. He says TESOL plans a symposium later this year in San Diego, California, to look closer at the issue of teaching English as a second language to young children. AA: TESOL has fifteen thousand members, plus affiliated groups of English teachers worldwide. Its headquarters are located near Washington and on the Web at www dot t-e-s-o-l dot o-r-g. RS: To reach our Web site, go to www.voanews.com/wordmaster. You'll find our old scripts and our new schedule. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "All the Words in the English Language"/"Animaniacs" (Warner Brothers cartoon characters) Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": April 18 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: April 21 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look at the teaching of English to non-native speakers at younger and younger ages. RS: Members of the international association known as TESOL -- Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages -- deemed this a "critical issue" in a recent survey. So there was a lot of discussion this month at the thirty-sixth annual TESOL convention, which took place in Salt Lake City, Utah. AA: Neil Anderson is a professor in the Linguistics Department at Brigham Young University in Utah, whose term as president of TESOL just ended. Professor Anderson says education ministries around the world are requiring schools to teach English earlier than they have been. ANDERSON: "Probably junior high is when most were starting, and they've lowered that now, some were going down to fifth grade, and now they're down to third. The challenge with that issue is that the ministry of education in a country is making the decision, but there are not teachers that have the English language skills that teach in those lower grades that are prepared to begin teaching English. And, there are not pedagogically appropriate materials that have been produced by publishing companies for the teachers to use in those lower grades." RS: As for the children, Neil Anderson says there are pros and cons to getting an early start. ANDERSON: "The learner at a younger age has a longer period of time to master the language, and so features such as pronunciation -- a young learner beginning the study of English can master the pronunciation of English and thus develop native-type pronunciation as they continue through the years. So if a learner were to start in second grade, by the time they're entering high school and college, their pronunciation would be like that of a native speaker of English. "The downside is, when you begin studying English at a younger and younger age, maybe the largest issue that comes into question is where is that learner at in the acquisition and development of their own first language. We want to make sure in our profession that we're not replacing a learner's native language, but that we are giving them an additional language that they can use in the world to do whatever it is they want to do. So we've got to carefully look at where is this learner at in the development of their own mother tongue." RS: "But you see this as a trend, a worldwide trend?" ANDERSON: "Yes, Dr. David Noonan of the University of Hong Kong was one of the panelists and he's currently gathering data in Southeast Asia on this very topic. And as I have traveled this year -- Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt -- in all of those five countries the ministries of education are now saying, let's begin teaching English at younger ages. "Yet they're not thinking of the full ramifications, I don't think, when they make that statement. They're only looking at the positive aspects, but they're not looking at, 'Are our teachers prepared in grade three to begin teaching? What are the language skills of the teachers who will be teaching these children?' "And that's another disadvantage that many, many of the teachers that are teaching these children, although they are prepared to be solid third-grade teachers, they are now having to add the task of teaching English, and their English skills may not be strong enough to be doing the task." RS: Neil Anderson, immediate past president of TESOL, speaking to us from his office at Brigham Young University in Utah. He says TESOL plans a symposium later this year in San Diego, California, to look closer at the issue of teaching English as a second language to young children. AA: TESOL has fifteen thousand members, plus affiliated groups of English teachers worldwide. Its headquarters are located near Washington and on the Web at www dot t-e-s-o-l dot o-r-g. RS: To reach our Web site, go to www.voanews.com/wordmaster. You'll find our old scripts and our new schedule. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. AA: And our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "All the Words in the English Language"/"Animaniacs" (Warner Brothers cartoon characters) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - April 19, 2002: World’s Forests Endangered
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Many of the world’s forests are quickly disappearing because of increased development. The World Resources Institute, based in Washington, D-C, recently completed a report about the problem. It says forty percent of the world’s undeveloped forest areas could be lost in ten to twenty years. The report includes the results of a two-year study of almost half the world’s forests. It includes forests in Chile, Venezuela, Indonesia, Russia, Central Africa and North America. The study is based on maps produced by a group linked to the World Resources Institute called Global Forest Watch. The maps combine satellite technology with information from the ground. The maps show illegal tree cutting, mining and road development in areas once thought to be undamaged forest land. The report says most of the threat is a result of bad economics, poor supervision and dishonesty. The World Resources Institute says Russia is one example. Russia has the largest forest area in the world. Yet, only twenty-five percent of forests in Russia today remain undamaged. Global Forest Watch says Russia’s forests are disappearing because of tree-cutting, fires set by people and other activities. In Indonesia, about seventy percent of trees are cut illegally. In Venezuela, tree cutting and mining activities threaten natural forest areas. Central Africa also was named in the report as another example of poor land management. Global Forest Watch says government policies often support short-term economic gain, instead of long-term efforts to protect forests. In Chile, for example, government policies urge people to plant new trees by clearing native forests that are thousands of years old. As a result, ancient forests and the second- oldest living trees in the world are in danger. The report notes that many countries have passed new laws to better protect forests. However, such laws are not always enforced. Some companies are beginning to make better business decisions designed to protect the environment. They promise to avoid wood products that are cut illegally or in a destructive way. Global Forest Watch says the health of the world’s remaining forests will depend on how well countries supervise and protect those areas. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Many of the world’s forests are quickly disappearing because of increased development. The World Resources Institute, based in Washington, D-C, recently completed a report about the problem. It says forty percent of the world’s undeveloped forest areas could be lost in ten to twenty years. The report includes the results of a two-year study of almost half the world’s forests. It includes forests in Chile, Venezuela, Indonesia, Russia, Central Africa and North America. The study is based on maps produced by a group linked to the World Resources Institute called Global Forest Watch. The maps combine satellite technology with information from the ground. The maps show illegal tree cutting, mining and road development in areas once thought to be undamaged forest land. The report says most of the threat is a result of bad economics, poor supervision and dishonesty. The World Resources Institute says Russia is one example. Russia has the largest forest area in the world. Yet, only twenty-five percent of forests in Russia today remain undamaged. Global Forest Watch says Russia’s forests are disappearing because of tree-cutting, fires set by people and other activities. In Indonesia, about seventy percent of trees are cut illegally. In Venezuela, tree cutting and mining activities threaten natural forest areas. Central Africa also was named in the report as another example of poor land management. Global Forest Watch says government policies often support short-term economic gain, instead of long-term efforts to protect forests. In Chile, for example, government policies urge people to plant new trees by clearing native forests that are thousands of years old. As a result, ancient forests and the second- oldest living trees in the world are in danger. The report notes that many countries have passed new laws to better protect forests. However, such laws are not always enforced. Some companies are beginning to make better business decisions designed to protect the environment. They promise to avoid wood products that are cut illegally or in a destructive way. Global Forest Watch says the health of the world’s remaining forests will depend on how well countries supervise and protect those areas. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 19, 2002: Jazz Violinist Regina Carter / Question about the Washington Monument / Museum Show on Wood Turning
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some jazz violin music ... Answer a question about the Washington Monument ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some jazz violin music ... Answer a question about the Washington Monument ... And learn about something called “wood turning.” Wood Turning Show HOST: The Renwick Gallery in Washington, D-C, has a show called “Wood Turning Since Nineteen-Thirty.” It contains one-hundred-thirty examples of the best turned wood pieces made in the past seventy years. Mary Tillotson tells us more about wood turning. ANNCR: Wood turning first became popular in the United States about seventy years ago. At that time, turned wood containers, candlesticks and other useful objects were made by students in school and by factory workers. Through the years, wood turning became a complex art form. Turned wood objects are now collected by museums and individuals. And learn about something called “wood turning.” Wood Turning Show HOST: The Renwick Gallery in Washington, D-C, has a show called “Wood Turning Since Nineteen-Thirty.” It contains one-hundred-thirty examples of the best turned wood pieces made in the past seventy years. Mary Tillotson tells us more about wood turning. ANNCR: Wood turning first became popular in the United States about seventy years ago. At that time, turned wood containers, candlesticks and other useful objects were made by students in school and by factory workers. Through the years, wood turning became a complex art form. Turned wood objects are now collected by museums and individuals. Wood turners use sharp tools to cut a piece of wood as it turns quickly on a special machine called a lathe. The piece of wood is held firmly and evenly in place on the lathe. The wood turner holds a sharp tool against the turning wood. In traditional pieces, the inner part of the wood is removed, leaving thin outside walls. Because the lathe is turning the wood around, the shape of the finished piece usually is round. The natural outer bark of the tree usually is removed so the outside of the piece is as smooth as the inside. Objects of many different shapes are in the Renwick show. Even things with similar shapes such as bowls that could be used for serving food look very different because of the color and grain of the kind of wood used. For example, a bowl Bob Stocksdale created out of Macassar ebony wood is simple and very dark. A bowl Ron Kent produced of Norfolk Pine has sides that are so thin and light you can see through them. David Ellsworth produced containers out of the large growths on trees called burls. He created a smooth inner space and left the natural, uneven shape on the outside. Merryll Saylan used paints and chemicals to color the surfaces of some of the turned pieces she produced. Many of the objects in the Wood Turning show are not containers with empty inner spaces. Some are pieces of useful furniture such as chairs and desks that combine wood pieces that have been shaped on the lathe. Other turned wood pieces in the Renwick Gallery show are complex sculptural pieces that are meant just to be enjoyed as art. Washington Monunment HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cameroon. Pius Ngoeh asks about the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument is the tallest structure in the city. It stands almost one-hundred-seventy meters tall. It is named for the first President of the United States, George Washington. Millions of people from around the world visit the white stone structure every year. The monument is a structure called an obelisk. Its four sides end in a point at the top. Fifty American flags surround it. They represent the fifty states. Lights shine on the Washington Monument at night. It can be seen from far away. Fireworks are launched from near the monument on American Independence Day – July fourth -- and at other special celebrations. It took many years to build the Washington Monument. One group started raising money for a memorial in Eighteen-Thirty-Three. Officials placed the first stone of the monument on July fourth, Eighteen-Forty-Eight. Roman Catholic Church leader Pope Pius the Ninth gave a piece of marble from Rome for the monument. But the stone was stolen in Eighteen-Fifty-Four. After that, the public almost stopped giving money for the structure. Many people believed it would never be finished. A group called the Know Nothings was suspected of trying to stop the monument from being built. Finally, in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, Congress voted to pay for building the Washington Monument. It was finished in Eighteen-Eighty-Four and opened to the public in Eighteen-Eighty-Eight. The Washington Monument recently re-opened after being closed for more than a year. Officials used that time to make improvements. New security measures also were added. And a new elevator now carries visitors to the observation area on top of the monument. From there, visitors can look out over the capital city. To learn more about visiting the Washington Monument, listen to the Special English program THIS IS AMERICA on Monday, April twenty-ninth. Regina Carter HOST: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D-C, is celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month. Jazz Appreciation Month is a national and international celebration that honors the history and music of jazz. Steve Ember tells us about jazz violin player Regina Carter. ANNCR: For eighteen years, Regina Carter has entertained people with her unusual command of the violin. Her strong music makes it sound as if she is playing with a full orchestra. Regina Carter says the violin is a perfect instrument for the demands of modern jazz. She says the violin is designed to play energetic jazz rhythms in the same way it is used to play classical music. Here is Regina Carter playing a song called, “Oh, Lady, Be Good.” (“OH, LADY, BE GOOD!”) Regina Carter began playing the violin when she was four years old. Her earlier goal was to play with a major orchestra. Jazz was not a big part of her life until she heard the music of jazz violinists Stephane Grapelli and Jean-Luc Ponty. She said there was a freedom and a possibility in the violin she had not understood before. Here, Regina Carter plays a song with a Latin sound, called “Mojito.” (“MOJITO”) Regina Carter is one of a very few jazz violinists. At first, she faced opposition to her jazz violin method. People told her there was no future for a jazz violinist. Mizz Carter says she still has to prove herself in the jazz world because so many of the musicians are men. Regina Carter recently became the first jazz musician and the first African American ever to play the two-hundred-fifty-year-old violin once owned by Niccolo Paganini. He is considered to be one of the greatest violinists of all time. Regina Carter said she never dreamed she would be given that chance. We leave you now with Regina Carter playing “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” (“CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO”) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Marilyn Christiano and Nancy Steinbach. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Wood turners use sharp tools to cut a piece of wood as it turns quickly on a special machine called a lathe. The piece of wood is held firmly and evenly in place on the lathe. The wood turner holds a sharp tool against the turning wood. In traditional pieces, the inner part of the wood is removed, leaving thin outside walls. Because the lathe is turning the wood around, the shape of the finished piece usually is round. The natural outer bark of the tree usually is removed so the outside of the piece is as smooth as the inside. Objects of many different shapes are in the Renwick show. Even things with similar shapes such as bowls that could be used for serving food look very different because of the color and grain of the kind of wood used. For example, a bowl Bob Stocksdale created out of Macassar ebony wood is simple and very dark. A bowl Ron Kent produced of Norfolk Pine has sides that are so thin and light you can see through them. David Ellsworth produced containers out of the large growths on trees called burls. He created a smooth inner space and left the natural, uneven shape on the outside. Merryll Saylan used paints and chemicals to color the surfaces of some of the turned pieces she produced. Many of the objects in the Wood Turning show are not containers with empty inner spaces. Some are pieces of useful furniture such as chairs and desks that combine wood pieces that have been shaped on the lathe. Other turned wood pieces in the Renwick Gallery show are complex sculptural pieces that are meant just to be enjoyed as art. Washington Monunment HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cameroon. Pius Ngoeh asks about the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument is the tallest structure in the city. It stands almost one-hundred-seventy meters tall. It is named for the first President of the United States, George Washington. Millions of people from around the world visit the white stone structure every year. The monument is a structure called an obelisk. Its four sides end in a point at the top. Fifty American flags surround it. They represent the fifty states. Lights shine on the Washington Monument at night. It can be seen from far away. Fireworks are launched from near the monument on American Independence Day – July fourth -- and at other special celebrations. It took many years to build the Washington Monument. One group started raising money for a memorial in Eighteen-Thirty-Three. Officials placed the first stone of the monument on July fourth, Eighteen-Forty-Eight. Roman Catholic Church leader Pope Pius the Ninth gave a piece of marble from Rome for the monument. But the stone was stolen in Eighteen-Fifty-Four. After that, the public almost stopped giving money for the structure. Many people believed it would never be finished. A group called the Know Nothings was suspected of trying to stop the monument from being built. Finally, in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, Congress voted to pay for building the Washington Monument. It was finished in Eighteen-Eighty-Four and opened to the public in Eighteen-Eighty-Eight. The Washington Monument recently re-opened after being closed for more than a year. Officials used that time to make improvements. New security measures also were added. And a new elevator now carries visitors to the observation area on top of the monument. From there, visitors can look out over the capital city. To learn more about visiting the Washington Monument, listen to the Special English program THIS IS AMERICA on Monday, April twenty-ninth. Regina Carter HOST: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D-C, is celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month. Jazz Appreciation Month is a national and international celebration that honors the history and music of jazz. Steve Ember tells us about jazz violin player Regina Carter. ANNCR: For eighteen years, Regina Carter has entertained people with her unusual command of the violin. Her strong music makes it sound as if she is playing with a full orchestra. Regina Carter says the violin is a perfect instrument for the demands of modern jazz. She says the violin is designed to play energetic jazz rhythms in the same way it is used to play classical music. Here is Regina Carter playing a song called, “Oh, Lady, Be Good.” (“OH, LADY, BE GOOD!”) Regina Carter began playing the violin when she was four years old. Her earlier goal was to play with a major orchestra. Jazz was not a big part of her life until she heard the music of jazz violinists Stephane Grapelli and Jean-Luc Ponty. She said there was a freedom and a possibility in the violin she had not understood before. Here, Regina Carter plays a song with a Latin sound, called “Mojito.” (“MOJITO”) Regina Carter is one of a very few jazz violinists. At first, she faced opposition to her jazz violin method. People told her there was no future for a jazz violinist. Mizz Carter says she still has to prove herself in the jazz world because so many of the musicians are men. Regina Carter recently became the first jazz musician and the first African American ever to play the two-hundred-fifty-year-old violin once owned by Niccolo Paganini. He is considered to be one of the greatest violinists of all time. Regina Carter said she never dreamed she would be given that chance. We leave you now with Regina Carter playing “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” (“CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO”) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Marilyn Christiano and Nancy Steinbach. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – April 22, 2002: Pulitzer Prizes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Every year, Pulitzer Prizes are given for the best newspaper reporting, books, drama, poetry and music in the United States. These awards for excellence were announced earlier this month. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the Pulitzer Prize winners in our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Columbia University in New York City has awarded Pulitzer Prizes every year since Nineteen-Seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary in Eighteen-Forty-Seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. Then he began buying newspaper companies. In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. He soon changed it into one of the most important newspapers in the United States. It sold more copies than any other newspaper in the country. Mister Pulitzer became very rich. He left two-million dollars to Columbia University when he died in Nineteen-Eleven. Part of the money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. The rest of the money was to be used as prizes for the best writing in the United States. This year, Columbia University gave fourteen awards to newspapers and reporters for excellence in journalism during Two-Thousand-One. The judges also honored seven people for their work in the arts -- for books, a play, poetry and music. VOICE TWO: The most important news event last year happened on September eleventh. On that day, Islamic militants attacked the United States. They crashed hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D.C. Passengers on another hijacked plane apparently crashed the plane to prevent more destruction. The attacks killed about three-thousand people. Eight of the Pulitzer Prizes awarded to newspapers were for stories about the terrorist attacks and events that followed. Pulitzer officials said no other news event was ever so widely represented in the competition. Unlike other years, all the journalism winners were major newspapers. VOICE ONE: The New York Times won a record seven Pulitzer Prizes for its work last year. In the past, no newspaper has received more than three of these awards in the same year. Six of the seven awards involved the attacks and the United States-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. For example, New York Times writers won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing. Their winning stories told about terrorists and their activities around the world. The New York Times also won the public service award. The prize honored a part of the newspaper called “A Nation Challenged.” These pages told what happened after the attacks. Every day, the section contained a full page with short stories about the people who died in the attacks. “A Nation Challenged” also reported the progress of the war on terrorism. Barry Bearak of the New York Times won the international reporting prize. He was honored for his stories about conditions and life in Afghanistan.New York Times writer Thomas L. Friedman won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary -- reports that express opinion. Mister Friedman wrote about the effects of the terrorist threat on the world. Mister Friedman won two earlier Pulitzer Prizes for his international reporting from the Middle East. VOICE TWO: Pictures in the New York Times also received awards. Its photographers won the Pulitzer Prize for pictures of news events in progress. The winning pictures showed how the destruction of the World Trade Center affected New York City. Pulitzer Prize judges also honored New York Times photographers for feature pictures of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The judges said the winning pictures showed the people’s suffering and their strength. New York Times writer Gretchen Morgenson won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting a very different subject. She was honored for her business reporting. She told about stock market experts who advise investors. Mizz Morgenson showed that some of these experts do not provide complete and honest information to investors. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times each won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. Bob Woodward and seven other Washington Post writers won the national reporting prize. Their stories explored the war on terrorism. Three other Washington Post reporters shared a Pulitzer Prize. Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz and Sarah Cohen were honored for investigative reporting. They wrote about the deaths of two-hundred-twenty-nine children in the District of Columbia. The children were under the legal protection of the city when they died. The reporters showed how courts and social agencies failed to protect these children. Barry Siegel of the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The Pulitzer judges praised his reporting about a man found guilty of carelessness that led to the death of his son. The man killed himself. Mister Siegel also wrote about the judge in the case. Editorials express a newspaper’s opinions on issues. Two Los Angeles Times writers, Alex Raksin and Bob Sipchen, wrote prize-winning editorials. They told about the problems facing mentally sick people who are homeless and live on the streets. VOICE TWO: The Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting events as they are happening. Its award-winning story told about the destruction of the World Trade Center. The attack also damaged the offices of the Wall Street Journal across the street. Reporters had to write about the events from a temporary headquarters. The newspaper still has not returned to its offices. A cartoonist from the Christian Science Monitor in Boston, Massachusetts, won the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning. Twenty drawings by Clay Bennett won for their social comment. For example, one drawing protests the heightened security measures that followed the terrorist attacks. Justin Davidson of Newsday in New York won the criticism prize. He was honored for his comments about ten classical music events. They included Metropolitan Opera productions and a New York Philharmonic Orchestra concert. The concert was held to gain money for the families of victims of the World Trade Center attack. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Columbia University also gave Pulitzer Prizes to honor a play, poetry, books, and music. Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Her play, “Topdog/Underdog”, is about the tense yet loving relationship between two African American brothers who live together.Carl Dennis won the poetry award for “Practical Gods.” Mister Dennis is a professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Critics have praised his work as wise and often deeply emotional. David McCullough won the Pulitzer Prize for biography, the story of a person’s life. His book, ”John Adams”, tells about America’s second president. It describes the marriage of John and Abigail Adams. It also tells about Mister Adams’s great skills as a diplomat. VOICE TWO: Louis Menand won the Pulitzer Prize for history. His book is called “The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America.” It tells about several young people in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who met to discuss their ideas in Eighteen-Seventy-Two. The group did not last long. But it established beliefs that guided Americans in the early Twentieth Century. A book by Richard Russo called “Empire Falls” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is about a single father who operates an eating place in a town in Maine that used to have several factories. The town represents the hopes of its citizens. Diane McWhorter won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Her book tells about the civil rights movement in one city in the American South. It is called “Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.” Henry Brant won the Pulitzer Prize for music for his composition, “Ice Field.” Mister Brant is a creator of Twentieth Century spatial music. In spatial music, performers are placed in different areas in the theater. The work was performed for the first time by the San Francisco Symphony last December. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Every year, Pulitzer Prizes are given for the best newspaper reporting, books, drama, poetry and music in the United States. These awards for excellence were announced earlier this month. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the Pulitzer Prize winners in our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Columbia University in New York City has awarded Pulitzer Prizes every year since Nineteen-Seventeen. The newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer established the prize. Mister Pulitzer was born in Hungary in Eighteen-Forty-Seven. He moved to the United States and settled in Saint Louis, Missouri. He became a newspaper reporter. Then he began buying newspaper companies. In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World. He soon changed it into one of the most important newspapers in the United States. It sold more copies than any other newspaper in the country. Mister Pulitzer became very rich. He left two-million dollars to Columbia University when he died in Nineteen-Eleven. Part of the money was to establish a graduate school of journalism to train reporters. The rest of the money was to be used as prizes for the best writing in the United States. This year, Columbia University gave fourteen awards to newspapers and reporters for excellence in journalism during Two-Thousand-One. The judges also honored seven people for their work in the arts -- for books, a play, poetry and music. VOICE TWO: The most important news event last year happened on September eleventh. On that day, Islamic militants attacked the United States. They crashed hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D.C. Passengers on another hijacked plane apparently crashed the plane to prevent more destruction. The attacks killed about three-thousand people. Eight of the Pulitzer Prizes awarded to newspapers were for stories about the terrorist attacks and events that followed. Pulitzer officials said no other news event was ever so widely represented in the competition. Unlike other years, all the journalism winners were major newspapers. VOICE ONE: The New York Times won a record seven Pulitzer Prizes for its work last year. In the past, no newspaper has received more than three of these awards in the same year. Six of the seven awards involved the attacks and the United States-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. For example, New York Times writers won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing. Their winning stories told about terrorists and their activities around the world. The New York Times also won the public service award. The prize honored a part of the newspaper called “A Nation Challenged.” These pages told what happened after the attacks. Every day, the section contained a full page with short stories about the people who died in the attacks. “A Nation Challenged” also reported the progress of the war on terrorism. Barry Bearak of the New York Times won the international reporting prize. He was honored for his stories about conditions and life in Afghanistan.New York Times writer Thomas L. Friedman won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary -- reports that express opinion. Mister Friedman wrote about the effects of the terrorist threat on the world. Mister Friedman won two earlier Pulitzer Prizes for his international reporting from the Middle East. VOICE TWO: Pictures in the New York Times also received awards. Its photographers won the Pulitzer Prize for pictures of news events in progress. The winning pictures showed how the destruction of the World Trade Center affected New York City. Pulitzer Prize judges also honored New York Times photographers for feature pictures of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The judges said the winning pictures showed the people’s suffering and their strength. New York Times writer Gretchen Morgenson won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting a very different subject. She was honored for her business reporting. She told about stock market experts who advise investors. Mizz Morgenson showed that some of these experts do not provide complete and honest information to investors. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times each won two Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. Bob Woodward and seven other Washington Post writers won the national reporting prize. Their stories explored the war on terrorism. Three other Washington Post reporters shared a Pulitzer Prize. Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz and Sarah Cohen were honored for investigative reporting. They wrote about the deaths of two-hundred-twenty-nine children in the District of Columbia. The children were under the legal protection of the city when they died. The reporters showed how courts and social agencies failed to protect these children. Barry Siegel of the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The Pulitzer judges praised his reporting about a man found guilty of carelessness that led to the death of his son. The man killed himself. Mister Siegel also wrote about the judge in the case. Editorials express a newspaper’s opinions on issues. Two Los Angeles Times writers, Alex Raksin and Bob Sipchen, wrote prize-winning editorials. They told about the problems facing mentally sick people who are homeless and live on the streets. VOICE TWO: The Wall Street Journal won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting events as they are happening. Its award-winning story told about the destruction of the World Trade Center. The attack also damaged the offices of the Wall Street Journal across the street. Reporters had to write about the events from a temporary headquarters. The newspaper still has not returned to its offices. A cartoonist from the Christian Science Monitor in Boston, Massachusetts, won the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning. Twenty drawings by Clay Bennett won for their social comment. For example, one drawing protests the heightened security measures that followed the terrorist attacks. Justin Davidson of Newsday in New York won the criticism prize. He was honored for his comments about ten classical music events. They included Metropolitan Opera productions and a New York Philharmonic Orchestra concert. The concert was held to gain money for the families of victims of the World Trade Center attack. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Columbia University also gave Pulitzer Prizes to honor a play, poetry, books, and music. Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Her play, “Topdog/Underdog”, is about the tense yet loving relationship between two African American brothers who live together.Carl Dennis won the poetry award for “Practical Gods.” Mister Dennis is a professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Critics have praised his work as wise and often deeply emotional. David McCullough won the Pulitzer Prize for biography, the story of a person’s life. His book, ”John Adams”, tells about America’s second president. It describes the marriage of John and Abigail Adams. It also tells about Mister Adams’s great skills as a diplomat. VOICE TWO: Louis Menand won the Pulitzer Prize for history. His book is called “The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America.” It tells about several young people in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who met to discuss their ideas in Eighteen-Seventy-Two. The group did not last long. But it established beliefs that guided Americans in the early Twentieth Century. A book by Richard Russo called “Empire Falls” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is about a single father who operates an eating place in a town in Maine that used to have several factories. The town represents the hopes of its citizens. Diane McWhorter won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. Her book tells about the civil rights movement in one city in the American South. It is called “Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.” Henry Brant won the Pulitzer Prize for music for his composition, “Ice Field.” Mister Brant is a creator of Twentieth Century spatial music. In spatial music, performers are placed in different areas in the theater. The work was performed for the first time by the San Francisco Symphony last December. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - April 21, 2002: Charlie Parker
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of America's greatest jazz musicians, Charlie Parker. He influenced the direction of jazz music during his short lifetime. His influence continues today. (("Bird of Paradise")) VOICE 1: Charlie Parker forever changed the performance and writing of jazz music. He developed a new style of jazz called "bebop." It was different from the dance or "swing" style that was popular for years. Performers of bebop left the traditional musical melody and played a song freely, with the music and rhythm that was felt at the time. So, the same song could be played in a different way each time it was performed. Charlie Parker said, "music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. " VOICE 2: Charlie Parker was born August, twenty-nineth, nineteen-twenty, in the middle western state of Kansas. He had his first music lessons in the local public schools. His mother bought him a saxophone in nineteen-thirty-three. Two years later, he decided to leave school and become a professional musician. For the next four years, he worked mainly in Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz music had become popular. Charlie developed as a musician by playing with different groups in public eating and drinking places called nightclubs. He also learned by listening to older local jazz musicians. During this time, Charlie developed serious problems that were to affect him the rest of his life. He became dependent on alcohol and the illegal drug heroin. VOICE 1: One night in nineteen-thirty-six, the young musician decided to take part in a "jam session." Musicians from all over Kansas City would play for fun during these unplanned performances. These jam sessions often became musical battles. The better, the faster, the stronger, the more creative musician would win. Charlie began to play the saxophone that night. He played well for a while. But he then became lost in the music. The drummer threw down his instrument and brought Charlie to a halt. Charlie later said, "I went home and cried and didn't play again for three months." The incident, however, made Charlie work even harder to improve his playing. VOICE 2: In nineteen-thirty-nine, Charlie went to New York City. He stayed for almost one year. He was able to get a few paying jobs playing the saxophone. Most of his time, though, was spent playing in unpaid jam sessions. It was during this time that he began to develop his own style of jazz. He said later that this was when he made a big discovery. He was unhappy playing songs the same way all the time. He thought there had to be another way to play. He said, "I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it." He began working on the song "Cherokee." He used the higher notes of a chord as a melody line and made other changes. He now could play the things he had been hearing. It was in December, nineteen-thirty-nine, that Charlie Parker made this discovery. He later said that with it, he "came alive. " Here he is playing "Cherokee": (("Cherokee")) VOICE 1: Charlie Parker's name first appeared in the press reports about music in nineteen-forty. During the next five years, he joined different bands. He played with the Earl Hines Orchestra and the Billy Eckstine orchestra. He also played with other young jazz musicians who helped make the new sound known. Trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and pianists Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell were some of them. Parker was considered the greatest of the bebop jazz musicians. This song, "Now's the Time," is one of his hits during this time: (("Now's the Time")) VOICE 2: Parker's continuing drug habit was affecting him. He often was late for performances. Or he missed them. He had decided he did not like the music of the big bands. He apparently did not feel at ease playing with a big band, even one that followed his own musical ideas. In nineteen-forty-five, he returned to New York City. He had the idea of starting a small jazz group. In New York, he joined Dizzy Gillespie. Their work together was among the greatest in American music history. They enjoyed the support of younger musicians. Yet, they had to fight the criticism of those opposed to any new development in jazz. That year, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie took the new jazz sound to California. Charlie continued to record and perform in Los Angeles, even after dizzy returned to New York. It was during this time that Parker recorded "Ornithology:" (("Ornithology")) VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-six, Charlie Parker suffered a nervous breakdown. His dependence on heroin and alcohol led to this severe mental condition. He was sent to a hospital and stayed there for six months. He returned to New York City in nineteen-forty-seven. The following four years are considered his most successful. He formed his own small bands and played with other groups. He visited Europe three times, where he recorded about half of the albums he ever made. In July, nineteen-fifty-one, New York City officials took away his right to play in nightclubs because he used illegal drugs. His debts greatly increased. His physical and mental health began to fail. VOICE 2: Charlie Parker was given a permit to play in New York again two years later. Jobs, though, were difficult to find. He finally got a chance to play for two nights in March, nineteen-fifty-five. It was at Birdland, the most famous jazz nightclub in New York City. Birdland had opened in nineteen-forty-nine. It was named after "Bird," as Charlie Parker's followers called him. Parker knew those performances might be his last chance to re-claim the success he had gained only a few years earlier. His last public appearance was on March fifth, nineteen-fifty-five, at Birdland. It was not a success. He died seven days later of a heart attack. He was thirty-four. VOICE 1: Charlie Parker's influence on modern jazz music continues to live. He led many artists to "play what they hear." Jazz musicians continue to perform his music, often copying his sound and style. But, experts say, no one has ever played the same as "Bird". (("Scrapple from the Apple")) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of America's greatest jazz musicians, Charlie Parker. He influenced the direction of jazz music during his short lifetime. His influence continues today. (("Bird of Paradise")) VOICE 1: Charlie Parker forever changed the performance and writing of jazz music. He developed a new style of jazz called "bebop." It was different from the dance or "swing" style that was popular for years. Performers of bebop left the traditional musical melody and played a song freely, with the music and rhythm that was felt at the time. So, the same song could be played in a different way each time it was performed. Charlie Parker said, "music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. " VOICE 2: Charlie Parker was born August, twenty-nineth, nineteen-twenty, in the middle western state of Kansas. He had his first music lessons in the local public schools. His mother bought him a saxophone in nineteen-thirty-three. Two years later, he decided to leave school and become a professional musician. For the next four years, he worked mainly in Kansas City, Missouri, where jazz music had become popular. Charlie developed as a musician by playing with different groups in public eating and drinking places called nightclubs. He also learned by listening to older local jazz musicians. During this time, Charlie developed serious problems that were to affect him the rest of his life. He became dependent on alcohol and the illegal drug heroin. VOICE 1: One night in nineteen-thirty-six, the young musician decided to take part in a "jam session." Musicians from all over Kansas City would play for fun during these unplanned performances. These jam sessions often became musical battles. The better, the faster, the stronger, the more creative musician would win. Charlie began to play the saxophone that night. He played well for a while. But he then became lost in the music. The drummer threw down his instrument and brought Charlie to a halt. Charlie later said, "I went home and cried and didn't play again for three months." The incident, however, made Charlie work even harder to improve his playing. VOICE 2: In nineteen-thirty-nine, Charlie went to New York City. He stayed for almost one year. He was able to get a few paying jobs playing the saxophone. Most of his time, though, was spent playing in unpaid jam sessions. It was during this time that he began to develop his own style of jazz. He said later that this was when he made a big discovery. He was unhappy playing songs the same way all the time. He thought there had to be another way to play. He said, "I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it." He began working on the song "Cherokee." He used the higher notes of a chord as a melody line and made other changes. He now could play the things he had been hearing. It was in December, nineteen-thirty-nine, that Charlie Parker made this discovery. He later said that with it, he "came alive. " Here he is playing "Cherokee": (("Cherokee")) VOICE 1: Charlie Parker's name first appeared in the press reports about music in nineteen-forty. During the next five years, he joined different bands. He played with the Earl Hines Orchestra and the Billy Eckstine orchestra. He also played with other young jazz musicians who helped make the new sound known. Trumpet players Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and pianists Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell were some of them. Parker was considered the greatest of the bebop jazz musicians. This song, "Now's the Time," is one of his hits during this time: (("Now's the Time")) VOICE 2: Parker's continuing drug habit was affecting him. He often was late for performances. Or he missed them. He had decided he did not like the music of the big bands. He apparently did not feel at ease playing with a big band, even one that followed his own musical ideas. In nineteen-forty-five, he returned to New York City. He had the idea of starting a small jazz group. In New York, he joined Dizzy Gillespie. Their work together was among the greatest in American music history. They enjoyed the support of younger musicians. Yet, they had to fight the criticism of those opposed to any new development in jazz. That year, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie took the new jazz sound to California. Charlie continued to record and perform in Los Angeles, even after dizzy returned to New York. It was during this time that Parker recorded "Ornithology:" (("Ornithology")) VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-six, Charlie Parker suffered a nervous breakdown. His dependence on heroin and alcohol led to this severe mental condition. He was sent to a hospital and stayed there for six months. He returned to New York City in nineteen-forty-seven. The following four years are considered his most successful. He formed his own small bands and played with other groups. He visited Europe three times, where he recorded about half of the albums he ever made. In July, nineteen-fifty-one, New York City officials took away his right to play in nightclubs because he used illegal drugs. His debts greatly increased. His physical and mental health began to fail. VOICE 2: Charlie Parker was given a permit to play in New York again two years later. Jobs, though, were difficult to find. He finally got a chance to play for two nights in March, nineteen-fifty-five. It was at Birdland, the most famous jazz nightclub in New York City. Birdland had opened in nineteen-forty-nine. It was named after "Bird," as Charlie Parker's followers called him. Parker knew those performances might be his last chance to re-claim the success he had gained only a few years earlier. His last public appearance was on March fifth, nineteen-fifty-five, at Birdland. It was not a success. He died seven days later of a heart attack. He was thirty-four. VOICE 1: Charlie Parker's influence on modern jazz music continues to live. He led many artists to "play what they hear." Jazz musicians continue to perform his music, often copying his sound and style. But, experts say, no one has ever played the same as "Bird". (("Scrapple from the Apple")) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – April 22, 2002: UN Report on Aging
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The number of people over age sixty is expected to increase two times during the next fifty years. A new United Nations population study says the percentage of older people in the world is rising quickly. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The number of people over age sixty is expected to increase two times during the next fifty years. A new United Nations population study says the percentage of older people in the world is rising quickly. Today, one of every ten people is over age sixty. By the middle of the next century, one in five people in the world will be sixty years old or older. That will be almost two-thousand-million people. This means there will be more older people in the world than children. Experts say many developing countries do not have the social services to help increasing numbers of older people. Joseph Chamie (SHAM-ee) heads the U-N office on population. He says that the average length of time a person is expected to live increased by about twenty years during the last half of the twentieth century. The current life expectancy is sixty-six years. The oldest of the old people are also living longer. Mister Chamie says that twelve percent of older people are eighty years old or older. Mister Chamie says the world’s population is getting older because death rates and birth rates have decreased. He says the reduction in these rates has been a great success. The U-N study also found that women still live longer than men in all but two countries – Pakistan and Bangladesh. For every one-hundred women in the world age sixty or over, there are only eighty-one men. The results of the study were discussed at the U-N Second World Assembly on Aging in Madrid, Spain, earlier this month. During the meeting, delegates from one-hundred-sixty countries agreed on a plan to improve the lives of old people. The measure deals with such issues as education, work, retirement guarantees, housing, health care and the rights of older women. U-N officials believe the aging of the world’s population will require a change in development aid. They say future aid should meet the needs of older people. In addition, officials say that older people in developing countries usually do not enjoy retirement. Instead, they often face poor living conditions and poor health. The officials say a system other than the family should be established in developing counties to care for older people. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Today, one of every ten people is over age sixty. By the middle of the next century, one in five people in the world will be sixty years old or older. That will be almost two-thousand-million people. This means there will be more older people in the world than children. Experts say many developing countries do not have the social services to help increasing numbers of older people. Joseph Chamie (SHAM-ee) heads the U-N office on population. He says that the average length of time a person is expected to live increased by about twenty years during the last half of the twentieth century. The current life expectancy is sixty-six years. The oldest of the old people are also living longer. Mister Chamie says that twelve percent of older people are eighty years old or older. Mister Chamie says the world’s population is getting older because death rates and birth rates have decreased. He says the reduction in these rates has been a great success. The U-N study also found that women still live longer than men in all but two countries – Pakistan and Bangladesh. For every one-hundred women in the world age sixty or over, there are only eighty-one men. The results of the study were discussed at the U-N Second World Assembly on Aging in Madrid, Spain, earlier this month. During the meeting, delegates from one-hundred-sixty countries agreed on a plan to improve the lives of old people. The measure deals with such issues as education, work, retirement guarantees, housing, health care and the rights of older women. U-N officials believe the aging of the world’s population will require a change in development aid. They say future aid should meet the needs of older people. In addition, officials say that older people in developing countries usually do not enjoy retirement. Instead, they often face poor living conditions and poor health. The officials say a system other than the family should be established in developing counties to care for older people. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - April 20, 2002: US Cardinals Called to Vatican
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church has called the highest level American church officials to his headquarters in Rome. Pope John Paul has called the American Cardinals to meet at the Vatican Tuesday and Wednesday. The Pope invited them to discuss reports of sexual wrongdoing by clergymen in the United States. Roman Catholic Church rules prevent its clergymen, called priests, from marrying or having sexual relations. Thousands of people are claiming to have been sexually violated by priests. Some of the people are children or were children when the reported violations took place. The reported violations are said to have happened during the last fifty years. The Roman Catholic Church is being accused of trying to hide the reports from the public. Critics also say church officials refused to investigate or to punish accused priests. Reports say church officials sometimes moved accused priests from one place to another where the violations continued against new victims. The Pope’s decision to call a meeting with the Cardinals and three Vatican officials surprised many people. Pope John Paul had met last week with leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. After the meeting, the bishops said the Pope planned to let the American Catholic Church deal with the reports of sexual violations on its own. However, two days later, he called for the thirteen American Cardinals to meet in Rome. Church officials say it is rare that the Vatican calls the American Cardinals to visit as a group. The officials say it is even rarer when the meeting is planned so quickly. Some Cardinals say they hope to discuss establishing a national church policy about reporting possible sexual violations by members of the clergy. Reports say a few Cardinals want to discuss changing church policies including the rule that priests may not marry. One of the Cardinals called to the Vatican is facing serious criticism for how he has dealt with reported sexual violations by priests. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Massachusetts, has admitted that he did not take action against a priest accused of many sexual violations. That priest reportedly sexually attacked more than one-hundred-thirty people. The churches that Cardinal Law supervises have received hundreds of similar accusations against Boston area priests. He says that he now will give the names of all priests suspected of sexual attacks to government lawyers. Cardinal Law also said he had spent several days in Rome meeting with Church officials including the Pope. He said he discussed the calls for his resignation. However, his statement suggested that he was not planning to resign. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church has called the highest level American church officials to his headquarters in Rome. Pope John Paul has called the American Cardinals to meet at the Vatican Tuesday and Wednesday. The Pope invited them to discuss reports of sexual wrongdoing by clergymen in the United States. Roman Catholic Church rules prevent its clergymen, called priests, from marrying or having sexual relations. Thousands of people are claiming to have been sexually violated by priests. Some of the people are children or were children when the reported violations took place. The reported violations are said to have happened during the last fifty years. The Roman Catholic Church is being accused of trying to hide the reports from the public. Critics also say church officials refused to investigate or to punish accused priests. Reports say church officials sometimes moved accused priests from one place to another where the violations continued against new victims. The Pope’s decision to call a meeting with the Cardinals and three Vatican officials surprised many people. Pope John Paul had met last week with leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. After the meeting, the bishops said the Pope planned to let the American Catholic Church deal with the reports of sexual violations on its own. However, two days later, he called for the thirteen American Cardinals to meet in Rome. Church officials say it is rare that the Vatican calls the American Cardinals to visit as a group. The officials say it is even rarer when the meeting is planned so quickly. Some Cardinals say they hope to discuss establishing a national church policy about reporting possible sexual violations by members of the clergy. Reports say a few Cardinals want to discuss changing church policies including the rule that priests may not marry. One of the Cardinals called to the Vatican is facing serious criticism for how he has dealt with reported sexual violations by priests. Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Massachusetts, has admitted that he did not take action against a priest accused of many sexual violations. That priest reportedly sexually attacked more than one-hundred-thirty people. The churches that Cardinal Law supervises have received hundreds of similar accusations against Boston area priests. He says that he now will give the names of all priests suspected of sexual attacks to government lawyers. Cardinal Law also said he had spent several days in Rome meeting with Church officials including the Pope. He said he discussed the calls for his resignation. However, his statement suggested that he was not planning to resign. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – April 23, 2002: Genetic Map of Rice
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Scientists have identified almost all the genes found in rice. Two teams published separate versions of the genetic information for rice plants this month. This is the first time scientists have mapped the genes of an important crop. The scientists say this genetic information could lead to improved kinds of rice and better rice production in developing countries. They also expect the information to be useful in improving other grains, such as corn and wheat. Rice feeds more than half the world’s population. However, weather conditions, disease and insects can restrict its production. That may change because of the efforts of the scientific teams. They reported their findings in the publication Science. One group was led by Jun Yu of the Beijing Genomics Institute in China and the University of Washington in Seattle. His group studied indica, the rice most commonly grown in China. The group says it has identified more than ninety percent of the genes in indica rica. The other scientists work for Syngenta company based in Switzerland. They did the research at the company’s Torrey Mesa Research Institute in La Jolla (La HOY-ah) California. They created a map of japonica, a short- grain rice grown in warm climates. Syngenta claims its map is more than ninety-nine percent complete and ninety-nine percent correct. Both teams say they are sharing their findings with the public on the Internet computer system. A third team led by Japanese scientists is working independently to produce a genetic map of rice. It expects to produce another version of the rice genome later this year. The chief editor of Science magazine said he believes the rice genome could prove more important in the next few years than the human genome. He noted that more people depend on rice than any other crop. Science magazine published a commentary with one of the reports. Jeffrey Bennetzen of Purdue University in Indiana noted that the scientists found that rice has more genes than a number of other organisms. The studies found that a rice plant has between forty-five-thousand and fifty-five-thousand genes. Humans are believed to have about thirty-five-thousand genes. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Scientists have identified almost all the genes found in rice. Two teams published separate versions of the genetic information for rice plants this month. This is the first time scientists have mapped the genes of an important crop. The scientists say this genetic information could lead to improved kinds of rice and better rice production in developing countries. They also expect the information to be useful in improving other grains, such as corn and wheat. Rice feeds more than half the world’s population. However, weather conditions, disease and insects can restrict its production. That may change because of the efforts of the scientific teams. They reported their findings in the publication Science. One group was led by Jun Yu of the Beijing Genomics Institute in China and the University of Washington in Seattle. His group studied indica, the rice most commonly grown in China. The group says it has identified more than ninety percent of the genes in indica rica. The other scientists work for Syngenta company based in Switzerland. They did the research at the company’s Torrey Mesa Research Institute in La Jolla (La HOY-ah) California. They created a map of japonica, a short- grain rice grown in warm climates. Syngenta claims its map is more than ninety-nine percent complete and ninety-nine percent correct. Both teams say they are sharing their findings with the public on the Internet computer system. A third team led by Japanese scientists is working independently to produce a genetic map of rice. It expects to produce another version of the rice genome later this year. The chief editor of Science magazine said he believes the rice genome could prove more important in the next few years than the human genome. He noted that more people depend on rice than any other crop. Science magazine published a commentary with one of the reports. Jeffrey Bennetzen of Purdue University in Indiana noted that the scientists found that rice has more genes than a number of other organisms. The studies found that a rice plant has between forty-five-thousand and fifty-five-thousand genes. Humans are believed to have about thirty-five-thousand genes. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 23, 2002: Study of Shipwrecks in Europe / Feathered Dinosaur / Foods That Can Keep You Healthy
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - April 24, 2002: Study of Cousins Who Marry
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Sometimes people who are first cousins get married. Two people are first cousins if their mothers are sisters, or their fathers are brothers, or one’s mother and the other’s father are brother and sister. American researchers now say it is not as dangerous as had been thought for first cousins to have children. A new study says that first cousins are only a little more likely than others to have a child with a serious physical or mental problem, or a genetic disease. It says the chance that a child of unrelated parents will be born with a serious problem is between three and four percent. The risk for first cousins is increased by between two and three percent, to as much as seven percent. One researcher says this means about ninety-three percent of the children of first cousins are normal. The small increase in risk exists because people in the same family may carry the same genes that cause disease. Scientists say at least five-thousand diseases are caused by these genes. If both parents have a harmful gene, it is more likely that the gene will be passed on to their child. People who are not related share fewer genes, so their chance of passing such a sickness on to their children is lower. A committee from the National Society of Genetic Counselors reported the results of their investigation in “The Journal of Genetic Counseling.” The group examined six major studies done between Nineteen-Sixty-Five and Two-Thousand involving thousands of births. The group began the investigation after learning that some genetic counselors gave wrong information to people who wanted to know if first cousins could safely have children. The group said in its report that no genetic tests are needed before first cousins have a child. Their report also noted that Americans fear such marriages more than people in other parts of the world. Marriages between first cousins are illegal in at least twenty-four American states. However, no countries in Europe have such laws. And marriages between cousins are desirable in many parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The researchers say their study shows that such laws in the United States should be changed. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Sometimes people who are first cousins get married. Two people are first cousins if their mothers are sisters, or their fathers are brothers, or one’s mother and the other’s father are brother and sister. American researchers now say it is not as dangerous as had been thought for first cousins to have children. A new study says that first cousins are only a little more likely than others to have a child with a serious physical or mental problem, or a genetic disease. It says the chance that a child of unrelated parents will be born with a serious problem is between three and four percent. The risk for first cousins is increased by between two and three percent, to as much as seven percent. One researcher says this means about ninety-three percent of the children of first cousins are normal. The small increase in risk exists because people in the same family may carry the same genes that cause disease. Scientists say at least five-thousand diseases are caused by these genes. If both parents have a harmful gene, it is more likely that the gene will be passed on to their child. People who are not related share fewer genes, so their chance of passing such a sickness on to their children is lower. A committee from the National Society of Genetic Counselors reported the results of their investigation in “The Journal of Genetic Counseling.” The group examined six major studies done between Nineteen-Sixty-Five and Two-Thousand involving thousands of births. The group began the investigation after learning that some genetic counselors gave wrong information to people who wanted to know if first cousins could safely have children. The group said in its report that no genetic tests are needed before first cousins have a child. Their report also noted that Americans fear such marriages more than people in other parts of the world. Marriages between first cousins are illegal in at least twenty-four American states. However, no countries in Europe have such laws. And marriages between cousins are desirable in many parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The researchers say their study shows that such laws in the United States should be changed. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – April 24, 2002: Wade Davis
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about scientist, explorer and writer Wade Davis. He is working to try to save cultures throughout the world that are in danger of disappearing. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Wade Davis has been exploring the mostly unknown areas of the world for more than twenty-five years. He has traveled from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of North Africa, from the Canadian Arctic to the rain forests of Borneo. “Light at the Edge of the World” is his latest book. It is published by the National Geographic Society, where he is an Explorer-in-Residence. The book includes pictures Mister Davis has taken of these hidden places of the world, places which face many threats. The pictures are beautiful and unusual. Some of the images remain in your memory long after you close the book. One picture shows a guard leaning out a window in a bright orange wall of a Buddhist religious center in Tibet. In another, the yellow light of the sun is just beginning to appear over the morning fog in the forests of the Waorani people in Ecuador. Another picture shows a caribou walking along a huge expanse of white snow in British Columbia, Canada. In another, an Ariaal woman of Karare in Kenya, wearing many bright red necklaces, carries a large load of firewood on her back. VOICE TWO: Other pictures show evidence of a disappearing way of life. For example, one picture is of fallen trees by a river that flows through the forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. A large yellow machine rests on the cleared land. A young woman tries to wash in the now polluted river. It is evidence of what is happening to the home of the Penan people in Borneo. They lived by hunting and gathering food as they moved through the forests. However, Mister Davis says the Malaysian government is permitting companies to cut the trees on more than seventy percent of the Penan territory. As a result, the traditional way of life of the Penan is gone. And all their history, which is part of the forest, is lost. VOICE ONE: In “Light at the Edge of the World,” Wade Davis writes about what native groups could teach about different ways of living and thinking. He describes their daily lives, and the threats to their traditional ways. He explains their strong relationship to the land they live on, and the ceremonies that tie them to each other and to nature. For these groups, the land is alive. Mountains, rivers and forests are not just thought of as supports for human life. Wade Davis’s hope is that through this book and other projects he can help people understand the value of what he calls the ethnosphere. He created the word ethnosphere, he says, because words have power. The word describes the total of all thoughts, beliefs and stories of the different cultures alive in the world today. He wants to get people to see that there is a link of cultural, spiritual, intellectual and social life that goes around the planet. He says, “The ethnosphere represents all we are and all we have created as humans.” VOICE TWO: Mister Davis says the ethnosphere is being damaged more rapidly and severely than the biosphere – the plants, animals and insects of the world. The sign of this, he says, is in the loss of languages. He explains it this way. Throughout all of human history, about ten-thousand languages have existed. Today, about six-thousand are still spoken. Yet half of these are not being taught to children, which means they will be lost as soon as the older speakers die. Each language contains the history of a culture. It represents the intellectual and spiritual knowledge that comes from ancestors down through the years. Languages express the belief systems, traditions and ways of understanding the world that are different for each group of people. Wade Davis says that each way of looking at the world helps us all understand the complex human experience. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Wade Davis was born in British Columbia, in northwest Canada. He has degrees in anthropology -- the study of humans, and botany -- the study of plants. He received his doctorate in ethnobotany from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ethnobotony is the study of how plants are used in a culture. One of the most important influences on his life was a professor at Harvard, Richard Schultes. He was known as the world’s leading expert on plants that are used as medicines and plants that affect the mind. Professor Schultes had left Harvard in the early Nineteen Forties to spend six months in South America along the Amazon River. He ended up spending twelve years there making maps of rivers. He lived with more than twenty native groups. In that time, he collected more than twenty-seven-thousand examples of plant life, including two-thousand medicinal plants. VOICE TWO: Wade Davis was a student at Harvard when he met Professor Schultes in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. He told the professor that he too would like to go collect plants in the Amazon. Two weeks later Wade was on his way. He spent fifteen months there during that first trip exploring the Amazon River and Andes Mountains of South America. Through the years, he lived with fifteen native groups in eight Latin American countries and collected six-thousand plants. After his first trip to the Amazon area, he went to Haiti to investigate plant mixtures thought to create a zombie, a live person who appears to be dead. He wrote about the experience in the book, “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” an international bestseller published in Nineteen-Eighty-Six. VOICE ONE: Wade Davis has spent years traveling in South America along the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River. His book, “One River, Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest,” tells about his experiences there. He explored many other places, including Tibet, the Arctic and Malaysia. He has experienced daily life that is very different from modern western life. He tells the story of how this way of life is disappearing as forests are cut, rivers are polluted, and native homelands are seized. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Wade Davis says his worldwide travels have been driven by a simple desire for knowledge, for understanding how other people live. But, he says, what also was pushing him into his explorations was the need for excitement. One of the pleasures of travel, he says, is the chance to live among those who have not lost the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind. He says he does not learn a lot about the nature of being alive from people who live in modern western ways. The joy of learning about what it means to be human comes from those who live in other ways. Mister Davis says he goes up into the Andes Mountains and spends a month in a village where an older member of the group tells the future by throwing coca leaves. “I see his people use traditional ceremonies to re-establish their sense of belonging to the Earth. It is here I see a window open wide to a place beyond my imaginings.” VOICE ONE: In his books and in public speeches, Wade Davis mourns the way ancient peoples throughout the world are being torn from their past and pushed into the future. “Change is not the problem,” he says. “All through history, cultures have changed to meet the pressures of more modern times. We are not talking about how we stop history, or change. The real question is how do we direct the flow of change so it does not do harm to living cultures.” He says traditional cultures should be permitted to change at their own speed and in their own ways. It is very possible, he says, to use both blowguns and computers. It should not be a choice of either one or the other. For example, offering modern medicine to native groups should not mean the death of shamanism, the ancient method of healing. The two traditions can support each other. VOICE TWO: Wade Davis points out that the physical destruction of groups of people is condemned worldwide. But the destruction of ethnic traditions is considered in many places to be good policy. He thinks that governments and individuals can be educated to realize this is wrong. Wade Davis says that every culture that disappears reduces human knowledge about the natural world, ways to react to common problems, and even the meaning of existence. In his book, “Light at the Edge of the World,” and through National Geographic Society programs, he tells the stories of the many cultures of the world. He hopes to use his explorations and storytelling about what he finds to try to awaken everyone to the wonder of the ethnosphere. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about scientist, explorer and writer Wade Davis. He is working to try to save cultures throughout the world that are in danger of disappearing. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Wade Davis has been exploring the mostly unknown areas of the world for more than twenty-five years. He has traveled from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of North Africa, from the Canadian Arctic to the rain forests of Borneo. “Light at the Edge of the World” is his latest book. It is published by the National Geographic Society, where he is an Explorer-in-Residence. The book includes pictures Mister Davis has taken of these hidden places of the world, places which face many threats. The pictures are beautiful and unusual. Some of the images remain in your memory long after you close the book. One picture shows a guard leaning out a window in a bright orange wall of a Buddhist religious center in Tibet. In another, the yellow light of the sun is just beginning to appear over the morning fog in the forests of the Waorani people in Ecuador. Another picture shows a caribou walking along a huge expanse of white snow in British Columbia, Canada. In another, an Ariaal woman of Karare in Kenya, wearing many bright red necklaces, carries a large load of firewood on her back. VOICE TWO: Other pictures show evidence of a disappearing way of life. For example, one picture is of fallen trees by a river that flows through the forests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak. A large yellow machine rests on the cleared land. A young woman tries to wash in the now polluted river. It is evidence of what is happening to the home of the Penan people in Borneo. They lived by hunting and gathering food as they moved through the forests. However, Mister Davis says the Malaysian government is permitting companies to cut the trees on more than seventy percent of the Penan territory. As a result, the traditional way of life of the Penan is gone. And all their history, which is part of the forest, is lost. VOICE ONE: In “Light at the Edge of the World,” Wade Davis writes about what native groups could teach about different ways of living and thinking. He describes their daily lives, and the threats to their traditional ways. He explains their strong relationship to the land they live on, and the ceremonies that tie them to each other and to nature. For these groups, the land is alive. Mountains, rivers and forests are not just thought of as supports for human life. Wade Davis’s hope is that through this book and other projects he can help people understand the value of what he calls the ethnosphere. He created the word ethnosphere, he says, because words have power. The word describes the total of all thoughts, beliefs and stories of the different cultures alive in the world today. He wants to get people to see that there is a link of cultural, spiritual, intellectual and social life that goes around the planet. He says, “The ethnosphere represents all we are and all we have created as humans.” VOICE TWO: Mister Davis says the ethnosphere is being damaged more rapidly and severely than the biosphere – the plants, animals and insects of the world. The sign of this, he says, is in the loss of languages. He explains it this way. Throughout all of human history, about ten-thousand languages have existed. Today, about six-thousand are still spoken. Yet half of these are not being taught to children, which means they will be lost as soon as the older speakers die. Each language contains the history of a culture. It represents the intellectual and spiritual knowledge that comes from ancestors down through the years. Languages express the belief systems, traditions and ways of understanding the world that are different for each group of people. Wade Davis says that each way of looking at the world helps us all understand the complex human experience. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Wade Davis was born in British Columbia, in northwest Canada. He has degrees in anthropology -- the study of humans, and botany -- the study of plants. He received his doctorate in ethnobotany from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ethnobotony is the study of how plants are used in a culture. One of the most important influences on his life was a professor at Harvard, Richard Schultes. He was known as the world’s leading expert on plants that are used as medicines and plants that affect the mind. Professor Schultes had left Harvard in the early Nineteen Forties to spend six months in South America along the Amazon River. He ended up spending twelve years there making maps of rivers. He lived with more than twenty native groups. In that time, he collected more than twenty-seven-thousand examples of plant life, including two-thousand medicinal plants. VOICE TWO: Wade Davis was a student at Harvard when he met Professor Schultes in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. He told the professor that he too would like to go collect plants in the Amazon. Two weeks later Wade was on his way. He spent fifteen months there during that first trip exploring the Amazon River and Andes Mountains of South America. Through the years, he lived with fifteen native groups in eight Latin American countries and collected six-thousand plants. After his first trip to the Amazon area, he went to Haiti to investigate plant mixtures thought to create a zombie, a live person who appears to be dead. He wrote about the experience in the book, “The Serpent and the Rainbow,” an international bestseller published in Nineteen-Eighty-Six. VOICE ONE: Wade Davis has spent years traveling in South America along the Andes Mountains and the Amazon River. His book, “One River, Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest,” tells about his experiences there. He explored many other places, including Tibet, the Arctic and Malaysia. He has experienced daily life that is very different from modern western life. He tells the story of how this way of life is disappearing as forests are cut, rivers are polluted, and native homelands are seized. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Wade Davis says his worldwide travels have been driven by a simple desire for knowledge, for understanding how other people live. But, he says, what also was pushing him into his explorations was the need for excitement. One of the pleasures of travel, he says, is the chance to live among those who have not lost the old ways, who still feel their past in the wind. He says he does not learn a lot about the nature of being alive from people who live in modern western ways. The joy of learning about what it means to be human comes from those who live in other ways. Mister Davis says he goes up into the Andes Mountains and spends a month in a village where an older member of the group tells the future by throwing coca leaves. “I see his people use traditional ceremonies to re-establish their sense of belonging to the Earth. It is here I see a window open wide to a place beyond my imaginings.” VOICE ONE: In his books and in public speeches, Wade Davis mourns the way ancient peoples throughout the world are being torn from their past and pushed into the future. “Change is not the problem,” he says. “All through history, cultures have changed to meet the pressures of more modern times. We are not talking about how we stop history, or change. The real question is how do we direct the flow of change so it does not do harm to living cultures.” He says traditional cultures should be permitted to change at their own speed and in their own ways. It is very possible, he says, to use both blowguns and computers. It should not be a choice of either one or the other. For example, offering modern medicine to native groups should not mean the death of shamanism, the ancient method of healing. The two traditions can support each other. VOICE TWO: Wade Davis points out that the physical destruction of groups of people is condemned worldwide. But the destruction of ethnic traditions is considered in many places to be good policy. He thinks that governments and individuals can be educated to realize this is wrong. Wade Davis says that every culture that disappears reduces human knowledge about the natural world, ways to react to common problems, and even the meaning of existence. In his book, “Light at the Edge of the World,” and through National Geographic Society programs, he tells the stories of the many cultures of the world. He hopes to use his explorations and storytelling about what he finds to try to awaken everyone to the wonder of the ethnosphere. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – April 25, 2002: Learning to Read
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. One of the most important issues in American education is how to teach children to read. Currently, American public and private schools use a number of methods. The majority of these methods depend on a system called phonics. The phonics system links letters with their spoken sounds. Phonics helps children understand which letters are used in words, and the reason they are used. In phonics, children learn to write the letters that represent the sounds they hear. Many American students learn the sounds of letters before learning to read. They learn the sounds of letters alone. They also learn the sounds of letters used together. When children see words they do not know, they speak the sounds of the letters. Then they put the sounds together. For example, a child learns to recognize the sound of the letter “c.” Then she learns the sounds of the two letters “a” and “t” used together. Using phonics, she can join these sounds to form the word “cat.” This method is called “sounding it out.” In another method of teaching phonics, children learn to recognize the whole word first. They look at the word “cat.” They write the word a number of times. They do this until they remember the word. Schools often present this recognition method during the teaching of reading, not before. Then the children learn to study words for their sounds. They can understand why some letters are used in a word instead of other letters. Experts say phonics makes it possible to say the sounds of many words a child does not recognize by sight. However, in the English language, the sound of a letter is not always the same. For this reason, many teachers add other methods to phonics to teach reading. Two years ago, a committee studied many reading methods. The report of this National Reading Panel urged that teachers use phonics programs to teach children to read. Earlier this year, President Bush signed a new education law. It includes a program called “Reading First” to increase the reading skills of American children. The program is based on the committee’s report about using phonics. Some educators disagree. They say other programs also are effective. They fear that phonics programs will take the place of other teaching methods. This VOA Special Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. One of the most important issues in American education is how to teach children to read. Currently, American public and private schools use a number of methods. The majority of these methods depend on a system called phonics. The phonics system links letters with their spoken sounds. Phonics helps children understand which letters are used in words, and the reason they are used. In phonics, children learn to write the letters that represent the sounds they hear. Many American students learn the sounds of letters before learning to read. They learn the sounds of letters alone. They also learn the sounds of letters used together. When children see words they do not know, they speak the sounds of the letters. Then they put the sounds together. For example, a child learns to recognize the sound of the letter “c.” Then she learns the sounds of the two letters “a” and “t” used together. Using phonics, she can join these sounds to form the word “cat.” This method is called “sounding it out.” In another method of teaching phonics, children learn to recognize the whole word first. They look at the word “cat.” They write the word a number of times. They do this until they remember the word. Schools often present this recognition method during the teaching of reading, not before. Then the children learn to study words for their sounds. They can understand why some letters are used in a word instead of other letters. Experts say phonics makes it possible to say the sounds of many words a child does not recognize by sight. However, in the English language, the sound of a letter is not always the same. For this reason, many teachers add other methods to phonics to teach reading. Two years ago, a committee studied many reading methods. The report of this National Reading Panel urged that teachers use phonics programs to teach children to read. Earlier this year, President Bush signed a new education law. It includes a program called “Reading First” to increase the reading skills of American children. The program is based on the committee’s report about using phonics. Some educators disagree. They say other programs also are effective. They fear that phonics programs will take the place of other teaching methods. This VOA Special Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - April 25, 2002: US/Japan Relations Before World War Two
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) We have seen in recent programs how the rise of Fascist leaders in Europe threatened American neutrality in the nineteen-thirties. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany created the most obvious threat. But there was also Benito Mussolini in Italy and Francisco Franco in Spain. These leaders challenged both the idea of democracy and the security of some of America's closest allies. Hitler's invasion of Poland and the beginning of general war in Europe in nineteen-thirty-nine made Americans wonder if they could remain neutral much longer. The United States would finally go to war against Hitler and the other axis nations. But its first battle would not be in Europe at all. Instead, Washington would enter World War Two following a direct attack by Japan. VOICE 2: Relations between the United States and Japan had grown steadily worse throughout the nineteen-thirties. Both nations were important industrial powers. But they had very different ideas about the economic and political future of eastern Asia, especially China. Until the late eighteen-hundreds, Japan had been a nation with ancient political traditions and little contact with the Western world. Visits by Commodore Matthew Perry and American warships helped open Japan to trade with the United States and other nations in the eighteen-fifties. And in the years that followed, Japan took giant steps toward becoming a modern industrial nation. By the nineteen-twenties and thirties, Japan was a strong country. But it lacked oil, rubber, and other natural materials of its own. For this reason, Japanese leaders looked with envy at the Dutch colonies in Indonesia, French colonies in Indochina, and British colonies in Malaya and Burma. And Japanese businessmen saw huge markets for their products in such nearby countries as Korea and China. VOICE 1: Japan's desire to use eastern Asia to gain natural materials and sell manufactured products was in direct conflict with American plans for Asia. This was especially true concerning China. Washington was the creator of the "Open Door" policy toward China. It wanted to keep China's natural materials and markets free from control by Japan or any other foreign nation. For this reason, Americans were very concerned when Japanese forces invaded the Manchuria area of China in nineteen-thirty-one. And they watched with great interest the efforts of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to oppose the Japanese invaders. The United States was also very concerned about protecting its imports of oil, tin, and natural rubber from southeast Asia. This area of the world was a major supplier of these natural materials in the nineteen-thirties. The Middle East had not yet become a leading producer of oil. In these ways, the United States and Japan were competing for the same natural materials and Asian markets. However, there also was a good deal of trade between the two nations. In fact, Japan depended on the United States for most of its metal, copper, and oil. VOICE 2: This trade with Tokyo became a major concern for President Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress in nineteen-thirty-seven. In the summer of that year, more Japanese troops moved into China. They quickly captured much of the Chinese coast. Much of the metal, oil, and other materials that Japan used for its war effort in China came from the United States. Americans did not like selling Japan materials to use against China. But the trade was legal because of a nineteen-eleven agreement between Tokyo and Washington. However, the American government told Japan in nineteen-thirty-nine that it would end the earlier agreement. It would no longer sell Japan materials that could be used for war. VOICE 1: Washington's decision made the Japanese government think again about its expansionist plans. And the announcement a month later of the peace treaty between Germany and the soviet union gave Tokyo even more cause for concern. The soviet union could be a major opponent of Japanese expansion in eastern Asia. And it appeared free from the threat of war in Europe. These two events helped moderates in the Japanese government to gain more influence over foreign policy. A moderate government took power in January, nineteen-forty. VOICE 2: However, this period of moderation in Tokyo did not last long. In the spring of nineteen-forty, Germany launched its lightning invasion of Europe. The nazis captured Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and finally France. Extremists in the Japanese government saw the German victory as their chance to launch their own attack on European colonies in Asia. They quickly began negotiations with Hitler to form a new alliance. And within months, militant leaders overthrew the moderate government in Tokyo. The new Japanese government was headed by a moderate, Prince Konoye. But its minister of war was an expansionist, General Tojo. Tokyo wasted no time in taking action. It forced France to give Japan permission to occupy northern Indochina. And Tokyo also demanded that Britain close the Burma road to the Chinese city of Chungking [Chongqing]. VOICE 1: These events caused relations between Tokyo and Washington to become even worse. In the second half of nineteen-forty, President Roosevelt banned the export of metal and oil products to Japan. His administration also lent money to China. And American representatives quietly began to Meet with British and Dutch officials to discuss joint defense plans for possible Japanese attacks in the western Pacific. Washington and Tokyo held long negotiations in nineteen-forty-one. The American officials hoped the negotiations might delay Japan from launching an attack to the south. They also thought that a delay might give more moderate leaders in Japan a chance to gain more influence. And for a time, the American plan worked. Japan did not make new acts of aggression. VOICE 2: Again, events in Europe caused this situation to change. Nazi Germany attacked the soviet union in the middle of nineteen-forty-one. This prevented Moscow from doing any fighting on its eastern borders. So, Japanese troops were free to invade southern Indochina. President Roosevelt reacted to Japan's invasion of Indochina by taking three major steps. First, he took control of all Japanese money in the United States. Second, he brought the armed forces of the Philippines under American command. And third, he closed the Panama canal to Japanese shipping. Once again, a conflict developed between moderates and extremists in the Japanese government. More moderate leaders such as Prime Minister Konoye urged one more effort to reach an agreement with the United States. But the Japanese army and navy believed that the time had come to go to war to end American and European power in eastern Asia forever. VOICE 1: Negotiations between Japan and the United States continued through the final months of nineteen-forty-one. But the two nations were on the edge of war. They were as close to hostilities as Washington was with the nazi government in Berlin. American military officials captured secret messages from Japan during this time. They learned that Tokyo was planning an attack of some kind unless the United States suddenly changed its policies. However, the American officials could not discover exactly where or how the attack would be made. Almost everyone in Washington expected that the Japanese would attack south of Japan. They were wrong. The military leaders in Tokyo were planning a surprise attack on America's main pacific military base, the huge naval center at pearl harbor, Hawaii. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Our program was narrated by Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. It was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) We have seen in recent programs how the rise of Fascist leaders in Europe threatened American neutrality in the nineteen-thirties. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany created the most obvious threat. But there was also Benito Mussolini in Italy and Francisco Franco in Spain. These leaders challenged both the idea of democracy and the security of some of America's closest allies. Hitler's invasion of Poland and the beginning of general war in Europe in nineteen-thirty-nine made Americans wonder if they could remain neutral much longer. The United States would finally go to war against Hitler and the other axis nations. But its first battle would not be in Europe at all. Instead, Washington would enter World War Two following a direct attack by Japan. VOICE 2: Relations between the United States and Japan had grown steadily worse throughout the nineteen-thirties. Both nations were important industrial powers. But they had very different ideas about the economic and political future of eastern Asia, especially China. Until the late eighteen-hundreds, Japan had been a nation with ancient political traditions and little contact with the Western world. Visits by Commodore Matthew Perry and American warships helped open Japan to trade with the United States and other nations in the eighteen-fifties. And in the years that followed, Japan took giant steps toward becoming a modern industrial nation. By the nineteen-twenties and thirties, Japan was a strong country. But it lacked oil, rubber, and other natural materials of its own. For this reason, Japanese leaders looked with envy at the Dutch colonies in Indonesia, French colonies in Indochina, and British colonies in Malaya and Burma. And Japanese businessmen saw huge markets for their products in such nearby countries as Korea and China. VOICE 1: Japan's desire to use eastern Asia to gain natural materials and sell manufactured products was in direct conflict with American plans for Asia. This was especially true concerning China. Washington was the creator of the "Open Door" policy toward China. It wanted to keep China's natural materials and markets free from control by Japan or any other foreign nation. For this reason, Americans were very concerned when Japanese forces invaded the Manchuria area of China in nineteen-thirty-one. And they watched with great interest the efforts of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to oppose the Japanese invaders. The United States was also very concerned about protecting its imports of oil, tin, and natural rubber from southeast Asia. This area of the world was a major supplier of these natural materials in the nineteen-thirties. The Middle East had not yet become a leading producer of oil. In these ways, the United States and Japan were competing for the same natural materials and Asian markets. However, there also was a good deal of trade between the two nations. In fact, Japan depended on the United States for most of its metal, copper, and oil. VOICE 2: This trade with Tokyo became a major concern for President Franklin Roosevelt and the Congress in nineteen-thirty-seven. In the summer of that year, more Japanese troops moved into China. They quickly captured much of the Chinese coast. Much of the metal, oil, and other materials that Japan used for its war effort in China came from the United States. Americans did not like selling Japan materials to use against China. But the trade was legal because of a nineteen-eleven agreement between Tokyo and Washington. However, the American government told Japan in nineteen-thirty-nine that it would end the earlier agreement. It would no longer sell Japan materials that could be used for war. VOICE 1: Washington's decision made the Japanese government think again about its expansionist plans. And the announcement a month later of the peace treaty between Germany and the soviet union gave Tokyo even more cause for concern. The soviet union could be a major opponent of Japanese expansion in eastern Asia. And it appeared free from the threat of war in Europe. These two events helped moderates in the Japanese government to gain more influence over foreign policy. A moderate government took power in January, nineteen-forty. VOICE 2: However, this period of moderation in Tokyo did not last long. In the spring of nineteen-forty, Germany launched its lightning invasion of Europe. The nazis captured Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and finally France. Extremists in the Japanese government saw the German victory as their chance to launch their own attack on European colonies in Asia. They quickly began negotiations with Hitler to form a new alliance. And within months, militant leaders overthrew the moderate government in Tokyo. The new Japanese government was headed by a moderate, Prince Konoye. But its minister of war was an expansionist, General Tojo. Tokyo wasted no time in taking action. It forced France to give Japan permission to occupy northern Indochina. And Tokyo also demanded that Britain close the Burma road to the Chinese city of Chungking [Chongqing]. VOICE 1: These events caused relations between Tokyo and Washington to become even worse. In the second half of nineteen-forty, President Roosevelt banned the export of metal and oil products to Japan. His administration also lent money to China. And American representatives quietly began to Meet with British and Dutch officials to discuss joint defense plans for possible Japanese attacks in the western Pacific. Washington and Tokyo held long negotiations in nineteen-forty-one. The American officials hoped the negotiations might delay Japan from launching an attack to the south. They also thought that a delay might give more moderate leaders in Japan a chance to gain more influence. And for a time, the American plan worked. Japan did not make new acts of aggression. VOICE 2: Again, events in Europe caused this situation to change. Nazi Germany attacked the soviet union in the middle of nineteen-forty-one. This prevented Moscow from doing any fighting on its eastern borders. So, Japanese troops were free to invade southern Indochina. President Roosevelt reacted to Japan's invasion of Indochina by taking three major steps. First, he took control of all Japanese money in the United States. Second, he brought the armed forces of the Philippines under American command. And third, he closed the Panama canal to Japanese shipping. Once again, a conflict developed between moderates and extremists in the Japanese government. More moderate leaders such as Prime Minister Konoye urged one more effort to reach an agreement with the United States. But the Japanese army and navy believed that the time had come to go to war to end American and European power in eastern Asia forever. VOICE 1: Negotiations between Japan and the United States continued through the final months of nineteen-forty-one. But the two nations were on the edge of war. They were as close to hostilities as Washington was with the nazi government in Berlin. American military officials captured secret messages from Japan during this time. They learned that Tokyo was planning an attack of some kind unless the United States suddenly changed its policies. However, the American officials could not discover exactly where or how the attack would be made. Almost everyone in Washington expected that the Japanese would attack south of Japan. They were wrong. The military leaders in Tokyo were planning a surprise attack on America's main pacific military base, the huge naval center at pearl harbor, Hawaii. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Our program was narrated by Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. It was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: April 25, 2002 - Slangman: Construction-Related Terms ('The Three Little Pigs')
* Byline: 

 SFX: CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- with the remodeling of the VOA News Now schedule, our thoughts turn to construction-related slang. Or, more precisely, words related to construction that have other meanings in slang. SFX: PIG SOUNDS RS: But what are these pigs doing here? It looks like Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles has, once again, built the perfect framework: his own slang version of the classic children's story “The Three Little Pigs.” BURKE: "Once upon a time there were three little pigs who grew up and decided to build their own homes. The thought of building their own homes was 'ground breaking' -- which, of course, means something that had never been done before -- because they didn't really 'dig' construction." RS: "Didn't like it." BURKE: "Didn't like it. 'Well,' said one of the pigs, 'let's get down to brass tacks,' which means, 'let's talk seriously.' 'We each need to build a strong home that will be safe from the mean, old wolf.' "'I'm going to build a house made of straw,' said the first little pig. "'What a screwy idea,' said the other little pigs. Now, a screwy idea means a crazy idea, 'it's screwy.' "'And what are you going to build your house out of?' asked the first pig to the second pig. "'I'm going to build my house out of sticks.' "'But sticks aren't strong at all,' said the other little pig. "'Now don't get all unglued,' which means don't get all upset, don't come apart. 'A single stick may not be strong, but several sticks will be as tough as nails,' which means, 'will be very strong.' And a person can be tough as nails also. If you have a boss who is very strict, that boss is 'tough as nails.' "Well, finally, the third the little pig said, 'Your ideas are not very concrete.' I love that one, which means simply, 'your ideas are not very good.'" RS: "They're not very solid." BURKE: "Exactly, they don't stick together well. 'After all, sticks and straw are not strong enough against the wolf.' "'Really, and what are YOU going to build YOUR house out of?' "The third little pig thought about it for a moment, and then suddenly it hit him ... like a ton of bricks. 'That's it -- bricks!' And by the way if you get 'hit by a ton of bricks,' it means something came to you, an idea suddenly came to you with extreme, uh ... " AA: "Force." BURKE: "Extreme force. 'It hit me like a ton of bricks.' "'Bricks?' said the other two pigs. "'Yes, you hit the nail on the head.' Which means, that is exactly right, a very common expression, used by everyone. "'OK, let's all make a deal to help each other starting tomorrow afternoon. We'll help each other build our homes. Let's shake hands and cement the deal.'" AA: "Cement being the active ingredient in concrete, right? People often confuse the two." BURKE: "Exactly. Something that's very concrete is very solid. But if you 'cement' a deal, it means you're putting the deal together, and that we've cemented it, which means it can't be broken. They all shook hands and 'ramped up' the project. So when you ramp up a project, it simply means to start a project." AA: "Or speed it up, or increase it." BURKE: "Exactly. After one week all three houses were finally built. That night, suddenly, the first little pig heard someone yelling outside his straw house. It was the wolf, and he was totally 'hammered,' which means completely drunk. "'If you don't open up this door right now,' said the wolf, 'I'm going to blow your house down.' Well, after a moment, the wolf inhaled deeply and blew out with all his might until the house collapsed. "The scared little pig ran down the road to the second pig's house, but the wolf -- who had a very large 'build' -- followed him. So a large build ... " RS: "A big guy." BURKE: "If you have big build, or if you're 'built,' it means you are powerful and muscular. Again, after a moment, the wolf inhaled with all his might and blew down the house. The two pigs really 'painted themselves into a corner.' When you paint yourself into a corner ... " RS: "You can't get out." BURKE: "You can't get out, you've created a situation that you cannot get out from. So they ran to the third pig's house to be safe from the wolf. But once again the wolf followed them. "Frustrated, the wolf started to climb up the house in order to get in. Fortunately the second pig had a friend who was a police officer. Just as the wolf was about to go down the chimney, the police officer 'nailed him' for trespassing." AA: "Oooh." BURKE: "Ow, got him. When you get nailed, it means you get in big trouble." RS: So the wolf got arrested, and the three little pigs could now "lay the groundwork" to live happily ever after. The end. AA: Slangman David Burke invites you to his home, made of electrons, on the Web. Learn about his teaching materials, at www dot slangman dot com. RS: And our address here is voanews dot com slash wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. SFX: CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- with the remodeling of the VOA News Now schedule, our thoughts turn to construction-related slang. Or, more precisely, words related to construction that have other meanings in slang. SFX: PIG SOUNDS RS: But what are these pigs doing here? It looks like Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles has, once again, built the perfect framework: his own slang version of the classic children's story “The Three Little Pigs.” BURKE: "Once upon a time there were three little pigs who grew up and decided to build their own homes. The thought of building their own homes was 'ground breaking' -- which, of course, means something that had never been done before -- because they didn't really 'dig' construction." RS: "Didn't like it." BURKE: "Didn't like it. 'Well,' said one of the pigs, 'let's get down to brass tacks,' which means, 'let's talk seriously.' 'We each need to build a strong home that will be safe from the mean, old wolf.' "'I'm going to build a house made of straw,' said the first little pig. "'What a screwy idea,' said the other little pigs. Now, a screwy idea means a crazy idea, 'it's screwy.' "'And what are you going to build your house out of?' asked the first pig to the second pig. "'I'm going to build my house out of sticks.' "'But sticks aren't strong at all,' said the other little pig. "'Now don't get all unglued,' which means don't get all upset, don't come apart. 'A single stick may not be strong, but several sticks will be as tough as nails,' which means, 'will be very strong.' And a person can be tough as nails also. If you have a boss who is very strict, that boss is 'tough as nails.' "Well, finally, the third the little pig said, 'Your ideas are not very concrete.' I love that one, which means simply, 'your ideas are not very good.'" RS: "They're not very solid." BURKE: "Exactly, they don't stick together well. 'After all, sticks and straw are not strong enough against the wolf.' "'Really, and what are YOU going to build YOUR house out of?' "The third little pig thought about it for a moment, and then suddenly it hit him ... like a ton of bricks. 'That's it -- bricks!' And by the way if you get 'hit by a ton of bricks,' it means something came to you, an idea suddenly came to you with extreme, uh ... " AA: "Force." BURKE: "Extreme force. 'It hit me like a ton of bricks.' "'Bricks?' said the other two pigs. "'Yes, you hit the nail on the head.' Which means, that is exactly right, a very common expression, used by everyone. "'OK, let's all make a deal to help each other starting tomorrow afternoon. We'll help each other build our homes. Let's shake hands and cement the deal.'" AA: "Cement being the active ingredient in concrete, right? People often confuse the two." BURKE: "Exactly. Something that's very concrete is very solid. But if you 'cement' a deal, it means you're putting the deal together, and that we've cemented it, which means it can't be broken. They all shook hands and 'ramped up' the project. So when you ramp up a project, it simply means to start a project." AA: "Or speed it up, or increase it." BURKE: "Exactly. After one week all three houses were finally built. That night, suddenly, the first little pig heard someone yelling outside his straw house. It was the wolf, and he was totally 'hammered,' which means completely drunk. "'If you don't open up this door right now,' said the wolf, 'I'm going to blow your house down.' Well, after a moment, the wolf inhaled deeply and blew out with all his might until the house collapsed. "The scared little pig ran down the road to the second pig's house, but the wolf -- who had a very large 'build' -- followed him. So a large build ... " RS: "A big guy." BURKE: "If you have big build, or if you're 'built,' it means you are powerful and muscular. Again, after a moment, the wolf inhaled with all his might and blew down the house. The two pigs really 'painted themselves into a corner.' When you paint yourself into a corner ... " RS: "You can't get out." BURKE: "You can't get out, you've created a situation that you cannot get out from. So they ran to the third pig's house to be safe from the wolf. But once again the wolf followed them. "Frustrated, the wolf started to climb up the house in order to get in. Fortunately the second pig had a friend who was a police officer. Just as the wolf was about to go down the chimney, the police officer 'nailed him' for trespassing." AA: "Oooh." BURKE: "Ow, got him. When you get nailed, it means you get in big trouble." RS: So the wolf got arrested, and the three little pigs could now "lay the groundwork" to live happily ever after. The end. AA: Slangman David Burke invites you to his home, made of electrons, on the Web. Learn about his teaching materials, at www dot slangman dot com. RS: And our address here is voanews dot com slash wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - April 26, 2002: Arctic Refuge Drilling
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. The Democratic-controlled United States Senate has voted to block exploration for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Alaska. Last week, the Senate rejected an attempt to bring to a vote an amendment allowing drilling holes in the ground to search for oil in the protected area. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. The Democratic-controlled United States Senate has voted to block exploration for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Alaska. Last week, the Senate rejected an attempt to bring to a vote an amendment allowing drilling holes in the ground to search for oil in the protected area. This was a serious defeat for President Bush. Drilling for oil in the wildlife refuge in Alaska was an important part of his energy program. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers almost eight-million hectares of land. Republican members of the Senate wanted legislation to permit oil exploration in part of the refuge. Scientists believe eighty percent of the oil is in that area. Supporters of the plan said it would have reduced oil imports. The United States imports about sixty percent of its oil. Supporters of the plan also said any risks to wildlife in the area could be reduced by restricting and closely supervising the drilling. Environmental groups and many Democrats in Congress opposed drilling in the area. They said it would destroy the area and harm wildlife such as caribou, musk oxen and some kinds of birds. They also said that the United States could reach the same goal of reducing oil imports by producing vehicles that use less fuel. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge photo This was a serious defeat for President Bush. Drilling for oil in the wildlife refuge in Alaska was an important part of his energy program. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers almost eight-million hectares of land. Republican members of the Senate wanted legislation to permit oil exploration in part of the refuge. Scientists believe eighty percent of the oil is in that area. Supporters of the plan said it would have reduced oil imports. The United States imports about sixty percent of its oil. Supporters of the plan also said any risks to wildlife in the area could be reduced by restricting and closely supervising the drilling. Environmental groups and many Democrats in Congress opposed drilling in the area. They said it would destroy the area and harm wildlife such as caribou, musk oxen and some kinds of birds. They also said that the United States could reach the same goal of reducing oil imports by producing vehicles that use less fuel. Congress currently has a ban on oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed an energy bill last year that would permit drilling. A recent American government study suggested that oil exploration in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would not harm animals. Administration officials had ordered the latest study after a twelve-year government study found that oil exploration could harm caribou and other wildlife in the refuge. The United States Geological Survey carried out both studies. The latest study examined drilling possibilities in limited areas of the coastal plain. Experts do not know how much oil is underground in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Estimates are between three-thousand-million and sixteen-thousand-million barrels. However, a recent Energy Department report suggested that oil from the refuge would have resulted in only a small reduction in American oil imports. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. Congress currently has a ban on oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. However, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed an energy bill last year that would permit drilling. A recent American government study suggested that oil exploration in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would not harm animals. Administration officials had ordered the latest study after a twelve-year government study found that oil exploration could harm caribou and other wildlife in the refuge. The United States Geological Survey carried out both studies. The latest study examined drilling possibilities in limited areas of the coastal plain. Experts do not know how much oil is underground in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Estimates are between three-thousand-million and sixteen-thousand-million barrels. However, a recent Energy Department report suggested that oil from the refuge would have resulted in only a small reduction in American oil imports. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - April 26, 2002: Museum Show About Women Spies / Re-creating Lindbergh's Famous Flight / A Song About a Train
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Explain a popular American song... Tell about plans to re-create Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Explain a popular American song... Tell about plans to re-create Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight ... And learn about female spies throughout history. Women Spies HOST: A military women’s memorial near Washington, D.C., has a new show that honors female intelligence officers. The National Women’s History Museum organized the show called “Clandestine Women: The Untold Stories of Women in Espionage.” It demonstrates the bravery of women who served their country by spying. Bob Doughty tells us more. ANNCR: Until recently, few people had heard of Virginia Hall. But this American woman made a difference in many lives. During World War Two, she helped rescue Allied servicemen trapped in areas occupied by Germany. Later she organized local resistance fighters into teams that captured hundreds of German prisoners. And learn about female spies throughout history. Women Spies HOST: A military women’s memorial near Washington, D.C., has a new show that honors female intelligence officers. The National Women’s History Museum organized the show called “Clandestine Women: The Untold Stories of Women in Espionage.” It demonstrates the bravery of women who served their country by spying. Bob Doughty tells us more. ANNCR: Until recently, few people had heard of Virginia Hall. But this American woman made a difference in many lives. During World War Two, she helped rescue Allied servicemen trapped in areas occupied by Germany. Later she organized local resistance fighters into teams that captured hundreds of German prisoners. Virginia Hall did all this although she had a wooden leg. Her own leg had been removed after a hunting accident. Mizz Hall is one of a number of spies being honored at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. The show tells spy stories from early American history to recent years. African American singer Josephine Baker was another World War Two spy. She carried orders and maps from the French Resistance into countries occupied by Germany. The orders were written in disappearing ink on pages of her music. Famous cooking expert Julia Child also helped in the World War Two effort. She helped solve a problem for the United States Navy. Sharks had been swimming into American bombs placed underwater. The bombs exploded before they could sink their targets – German U-boats. Julia Child created a substance that frightened sharks away from explosives. Women also served as spies in America’s earlier history. General George Washington used information from a spy known only as “Three-Hundred-Fifty-Five.” The number meant “lady” in the secret language of American Revolutionary War spies. Harriet Tubman led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the middle Eighteen-Hundreds. After the Civil War began, this brave African American woman spied for the Union Army. Visitors to the spy show can also see some of the tools the women used to spy. One is a small camera that was used to secretly photograph documents. Another is a cloth head covering that was printed with secret maps. Lindbergh Flight HOST: The grandson of world famous pilot Charles Lindbergh is planning to re-create his grandfather’s flight from New York City to Paris, France, seventy-five years ago. He is flying a plane he calls the New Spirit of Saint Louis. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Thirty-six-year-old Erik Lindbergh plans to leave New York on May first. He expects to arrive in Paris after twenty hours in the air. His grandfather flew the same distance in about thirty-three hours. Charles Lindbergh left New York City in his Spirit of Saint Louis plane on May twentieth, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He landed at Le Bourget Aerodrome on May twenty-first. He was the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He became famous around the world. Erik Lindbergh says he is making the same flight for several reasons. He wants to honor the work and the memory of his grandfather on the anniversary of his famous flight. He also wants to use the event to support the development of new treatments for the disease rheumatoid arthritis. Erik Lindbergh suffered from the disease for fifteen years. He says he always dreamed of making a flight like his grandfather’s. But he was not sure he could do it because of his health. A new drug is responsible for his good health today. Erik Lindbergh also is making the flight to support the X Prize Foundation. He is vice president of the foundation. It has offered ten-million dollars to the first private team to fly into space, return to Earth and do it again within two weeks. The competition is similar to that of the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh for making the flight from New York to Paris. The prize money was twenty-five-thousand dollars. Erik Lindbergh’s flight will be different from his grandfather’s in several ways. His plane is a modern, single-engine plane. But his plane is smaller than the Spirit of Saint Louis. It has been changed to carry the extra fuel needed to reach France. He will have modern communications equipment to link the plane with a command center at the Saint Louis Science Center in Missouri. And the public will be able to follow his progress. An American cable television network, The History Channel, is recording his adventure. It will broadcast a special program about it on May twentieth, the seventy-fifth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight. “City of New Orleans” HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zheng Xiangyun wrote to ask about a song. The words say, “Good morning America, how are you? Don’t you know me, I’m your native son.” The name of that song is “City of New Orleans.” The song is not about the famous city, but a train named after it. Many years ago, most of the major trains in the United States had names. They were famous to the people who rode them. The “City of New Orleans” is one of the last of these. The City of New Orleans still travels from the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois, to the southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The train they call the City of New Orleans leaves Chicago, crosses the Ohio River at Cairo (KAY-roe) Illinois, and moves on to Memphis, Tennessee. It travels along the great Mississippi River and pulls into the Mississippi State capital in Jackson. It passes along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and into New Orleans. The song called “City of New Orleans” was written by Steve Goodman in Nineteen-Seventy. The words are really a little sad. When he wrote the song, the American railroad industry was disappearing. One part of the song says, “This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues.” Several singers have recorded “City of New Orleans.” One of the most popular recordings is by Arlo Guthrie. So, here is Arlo Guthrie singing the Steve Goodman song, “City of New Orleans.” And thanks, Zheng Xiangyun -- we like the song too! ((CUT ONE: “CITY OF NEW ORLEANS“)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Al Alavi. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Virginia Hall did all this although she had a wooden leg. Her own leg had been removed after a hunting accident. Mizz Hall is one of a number of spies being honored at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. The show tells spy stories from early American history to recent years. African American singer Josephine Baker was another World War Two spy. She carried orders and maps from the French Resistance into countries occupied by Germany. The orders were written in disappearing ink on pages of her music. Famous cooking expert Julia Child also helped in the World War Two effort. She helped solve a problem for the United States Navy. Sharks had been swimming into American bombs placed underwater. The bombs exploded before they could sink their targets – German U-boats. Julia Child created a substance that frightened sharks away from explosives. Women also served as spies in America’s earlier history. General George Washington used information from a spy known only as “Three-Hundred-Fifty-Five.” The number meant “lady” in the secret language of American Revolutionary War spies. Harriet Tubman led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the middle Eighteen-Hundreds. After the Civil War began, this brave African American woman spied for the Union Army. Visitors to the spy show can also see some of the tools the women used to spy. One is a small camera that was used to secretly photograph documents. Another is a cloth head covering that was printed with secret maps. Lindbergh Flight HOST: The grandson of world famous pilot Charles Lindbergh is planning to re-create his grandfather’s flight from New York City to Paris, France, seventy-five years ago. He is flying a plane he calls the New Spirit of Saint Louis. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Thirty-six-year-old Erik Lindbergh plans to leave New York on May first. He expects to arrive in Paris after twenty hours in the air. His grandfather flew the same distance in about thirty-three hours. Charles Lindbergh left New York City in his Spirit of Saint Louis plane on May twentieth, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. He landed at Le Bourget Aerodrome on May twenty-first. He was the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He became famous around the world. Erik Lindbergh says he is making the same flight for several reasons. He wants to honor the work and the memory of his grandfather on the anniversary of his famous flight. He also wants to use the event to support the development of new treatments for the disease rheumatoid arthritis. Erik Lindbergh suffered from the disease for fifteen years. He says he always dreamed of making a flight like his grandfather’s. But he was not sure he could do it because of his health. A new drug is responsible for his good health today. Erik Lindbergh also is making the flight to support the X Prize Foundation. He is vice president of the foundation. It has offered ten-million dollars to the first private team to fly into space, return to Earth and do it again within two weeks. The competition is similar to that of the Orteig Prize won by Charles Lindbergh for making the flight from New York to Paris. The prize money was twenty-five-thousand dollars. Erik Lindbergh’s flight will be different from his grandfather’s in several ways. His plane is a modern, single-engine plane. But his plane is smaller than the Spirit of Saint Louis. It has been changed to carry the extra fuel needed to reach France. He will have modern communications equipment to link the plane with a command center at the Saint Louis Science Center in Missouri. And the public will be able to follow his progress. An American cable television network, The History Channel, is recording his adventure. It will broadcast a special program about it on May twentieth, the seventy-fifth anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight. “City of New Orleans” HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zheng Xiangyun wrote to ask about a song. The words say, “Good morning America, how are you? Don’t you know me, I’m your native son.” The name of that song is “City of New Orleans.” The song is not about the famous city, but a train named after it. Many years ago, most of the major trains in the United States had names. They were famous to the people who rode them. The “City of New Orleans” is one of the last of these. The City of New Orleans still travels from the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois, to the southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The train they call the City of New Orleans leaves Chicago, crosses the Ohio River at Cairo (KAY-roe) Illinois, and moves on to Memphis, Tennessee. It travels along the great Mississippi River and pulls into the Mississippi State capital in Jackson. It passes along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and into New Orleans. The song called “City of New Orleans” was written by Steve Goodman in Nineteen-Seventy. The words are really a little sad. When he wrote the song, the American railroad industry was disappearing. One part of the song says, “This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues.” Several singers have recorded “City of New Orleans.” One of the most popular recordings is by Arlo Guthrie. So, here is Arlo Guthrie singing the Steve Goodman song, “City of New Orleans.” And thanks, Zheng Xiangyun -- we like the song too! ((CUT ONE: “CITY OF NEW ORLEANS“)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Al Alavi. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – April 29, 2002: New Leishmaniasis Drug
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors from the United States and Saudi Arabia have discovered a new treatment for the form of leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis) disease that affects the skin. Currently, the World Health Organization estimates that twelve-million people are infected with the disease. In addition, at least three-hundred-fifty-million people in eighty-eight countries may be at risk of being infected. Leishmaniasis is caused by tiny organisms called parasites. Small insects called sandflies spread the disease. There are two major forms of leishmaniasis. The most severe form of the disease affects organs in the body. It causes death if not treated quickly. Another kind of leishmaniasis is called cutaneous, or skin-related. It causes serious wounds on the face, arms and legs. Skin-related forms of leishmaniasis are the most common and represent up to seventy-five percent of all new cases. A new study about treating the disease was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The Saudi and American doctors found that the drug fluconazole (floo-KAHN-uh-zol) can be used to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis. Fluconazole is used to treat other skin diseases. James Maguire is an expert on parasite diseases at the United States Centers for Disease Control. He took part in the latest study. It tested fluconazole on more than one-hundred patients in Saudi Arabia. One group of patients was given the drug every day for six weeks. The other group was given an inactive substance. The doctors found that almost eighty percent of the patients taking fluconazole were completely healed. About thirty-four percent of the people not taking the drug also were healed. The doctors also discovered that patients experienced fewer side effects from fluconazole compared to older drugs used to treat leishmaniasis. The doctors say the drug is effective against the most common form of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Middle East and parts of Africa. However, they say it does not work well on the kind of the disease found in South Asia and South America. The drug also costs a lot of money. Doctor Maguire says countries should provide fluconazole for free or at a reduced cost to patients who need it. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors from the United States and Saudi Arabia have discovered a new treatment for the form of leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis) disease that affects the skin. Currently, the World Health Organization estimates that twelve-million people are infected with the disease. In addition, at least three-hundred-fifty-million people in eighty-eight countries may be at risk of being infected. Leishmaniasis is caused by tiny organisms called parasites. Small insects called sandflies spread the disease. There are two major forms of leishmaniasis. The most severe form of the disease affects organs in the body. It causes death if not treated quickly. Another kind of leishmaniasis is called cutaneous, or skin-related. It causes serious wounds on the face, arms and legs. Skin-related forms of leishmaniasis are the most common and represent up to seventy-five percent of all new cases. A new study about treating the disease was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The Saudi and American doctors found that the drug fluconazole (floo-KAHN-uh-zol) can be used to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis. Fluconazole is used to treat other skin diseases. James Maguire is an expert on parasite diseases at the United States Centers for Disease Control. He took part in the latest study. It tested fluconazole on more than one-hundred patients in Saudi Arabia. One group of patients was given the drug every day for six weeks. The other group was given an inactive substance. The doctors found that almost eighty percent of the patients taking fluconazole were completely healed. About thirty-four percent of the people not taking the drug also were healed. The doctors also discovered that patients experienced fewer side effects from fluconazole compared to older drugs used to treat leishmaniasis. The doctors say the drug is effective against the most common form of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Middle East and parts of Africa. However, they say it does not work well on the kind of the disease found in South Asia and South America. The drug also costs a lot of money. Doctor Maguire says countries should provide fluconazole for free or at a reduced cost to patients who need it. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – April 28, 2002: Milton Berle
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Milton Berle. He was famous for his funny programs in the early years of American television. To many Americans, he was known simply as Mister Television. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Milton Berle performed in theaters, on radio and in movies. Yet he is best known as a television performer. He began working in television in Nineteen-Forty-Eight. At the time, television was so new that few people could receive it. Milton Berle’s weekly program was so popular that it may have influenced many Americans to buy their first television. Years ago, Americans who did not own a television often went to the home of someone who did to watch his shows. Many others watched it in stores that sold televisions. Milton Berle became so famous that some Americans considered him as part of their family. He was often called Uncle Milty. Like a family member, he was loved when his jokes were funny and even when they were not. VOICE TWO: He was born in New York City on July twelfth, Nineteen-Oh-Eight. His parents, Moses Berlinger and the former Sarah Glantz, were Jews. They named him Mendel Berlinger. He was one of five children. One day, Mendel put on some of his parents’ old clothes. All the adults who saw him said he looked like a small version of the film actor Charlie Chaplin. So, at the age of five years, he entered -- and won -- a local Chaplin look-alike competition. He became a child actor a short time later. In Nineteen-Fourteen, he appeared in his first film, “The Perils of Pauline.” He was just six years old. The same year, he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in another movie. VOICE ONE: Mendel was given a chance to join a vaudeville act. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who told jokes, and other acts. Sarah Berlinger supervised her boy’s rise in show business. She pushed him to be a success. Missus Berlinger attended all of her son’s performances. ((From "The Age of Television - Mr. Television: Uncle Miltie")) "I reached millions of people, who fortunately couldn't reach me. There was one laugh that projected out of the top of them all. That was my mother. And, if people didn't laugh that sat next to her, she used to shove them with the arm and say, 'Laugh it up. That's my son.'" VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Twenty -- at the age of twelve – Mendel first appeared in a show on Broadway in New York City. He formed a vaudeville act with a girl named Elizabeth Kennedy. Later, he formed his own group. As the years passed, his act improved and he worked as a single performer. By the age of sixteen, he was forced to make changes. He had grown too tall to be a child actor. Mendel Berlinger changed his name to Milton Berle. He began performing at New York’s famous Palace Theater in Nineteen-Thirty-One. He was twenty-three years old. Later, he appeared in several Broadway shows, including “Ziegfeld Follies.” VOICE ONE: Early in his adult life, Milton Berle was moderately successful in movies and on radio. He was better known as a comedian who told jokes in nightclub shows for adults. He was reported to be one of the best-paid performers in the country. Yet, Berle did not become truly famous until he appeared on the “Texaco Star Theater” television program in June, Nineteen-Forty-Eight. Three months later, the Texaco Company offered him a permanent position with the program. The “Texaco Star Theater” opened with four men who looked like gasoline station employees. They sang a song that the company used to sell its oil and gasoline products. MUSIC: "Oh, we’re the men of Texaco. We work from Maine to Mexico. There’s nothing like this Texaco of ours. Our show tonight is powerful. We’ll show you wow with an hour-full of howls from a showerful of stars. We’re the merry men of Texaco. Tonight we may be showmen. Tomorrow, we’ll be servicing your cars.” VOICE TWO: Milton Berle was a performer who won the love of a crowd by not being lovable. He developed a show business personality that was funny, yet not always pleasant. He acted aggressive, and often appeared to be selfish or uncivilized. Sometimes, he greeted people with the saying, “Good evening, ladies and germs.” One thing that made Berle’s television shows popular was the way he appeared. He knew how to use funny movements and clothing to make people laugh. He would do anything for a laugh. He sometimes wore women’s clothing and beauty products. In one show, he explained that he just paid his taxes. He wore only an empty wooden container, which suggested that the government had taken everything including his clothes. VOICE ONE: Other comedians accused Berle of stealing their jokes. Yet many of the best-known performers in the United States appeared on the “Texaco Star Theater.” Like any vaudeville show, his program also offered a mix of singers, dancers and animal acts. One Tuesday night, trained elephants appeared on the program. The animals left large droppings on the floor. This was a big surprise to the next act -- a group of dancers. Berle’s programs were filled with lots of energy, as we hear in this example. TEXACO MEN: “And now ladies and gentlemen, introducing America’s number one television star, who gets his nose into everybody’s act, your Cyrano de Bergerac, Milton Berle …” [music/cheering] BERLE: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] Don’t laugh, lady. You and I go to the same plastic surgeon. [laughter] That’s your own nose. I like it. It’s my basketball nose. I just had it fixed …” VOICE TWO: Milton Berle had a weekly television series from the late Nineteen-Forties into the middle of the Nineteen-Fifties. More than one-hundred shows competed on other networks against his program. They all failed. During one period, four of five Americans who watched television on Tuesday nights watched the program. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, Berle signed a long-term agreement with N-B-C, the network that provided his program to television stations across the country. Under the agreement, N-B-C agreed to pay him two-hundred-thousand dollars a year for thirty years, even if he did not work. VOICE ONE: Berle was tired from performing countless shows. So he demanded the right to take a rest from the program one week in every month. He later said that decision proved to be a mistake. The program began to lose its popularity. The taste of the American public was changing, and new funny acts were developing. The program also lost popularity when an opposing network added a series of religious talks. Berle left weekly television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. In the late Nineteen-Fifties, he appeared in a few N-B-C shows, but then the work seemed to stop. VOICE TWO: Berle returned to his roots as a comedian who told jokes, mainly at nightclub shows. He appeared in plays and movies. They included, “Let’s Make Love,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and “Broadway Danny Rose.” He also made appearances on television. Milton Berle was known for his work with non-profit groups. He performed for soldiers during World War Two. He appeared in thousands of shows that helped to raise money for different kinds of organizations. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, he helped to organize a television show for the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund. It may have been the first time that television was used to raise money for a non-profit group. Berle was married two times to a showgirl named Joyce Matthews. Each time, they agreed to end their marriage. Later, he was married more than thirty-five years to another woman, Joyce Cosgrove. After she died in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, he married Lorna Adams. VOICE ONE: For many years, Milton Berle remained a funnyman loved by Americans. He produced projects for several media, and collected awards for his work in television. The Television Academy Hall of Fame added him as one of its members. The story of his life led to the Nineteen-Ninety-Two film, “Mister Saturday Night.” He also wrote books of jokes and his memories. Milton Berle had colon cancer. He died at his Los Angeles home on March twenty-seventh, Two-Thousand-Two. He was ninety-three years old. He had spent more than eighty-five years making people laugh. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by George Grow. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of Milton Berle. He was famous for his funny programs in the early years of American television. To many Americans, he was known simply as Mister Television. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Milton Berle performed in theaters, on radio and in movies. Yet he is best known as a television performer. He began working in television in Nineteen-Forty-Eight. At the time, television was so new that few people could receive it. Milton Berle’s weekly program was so popular that it may have influenced many Americans to buy their first television. Years ago, Americans who did not own a television often went to the home of someone who did to watch his shows. Many others watched it in stores that sold televisions. Milton Berle became so famous that some Americans considered him as part of their family. He was often called Uncle Milty. Like a family member, he was loved when his jokes were funny and even when they were not. VOICE TWO: He was born in New York City on July twelfth, Nineteen-Oh-Eight. His parents, Moses Berlinger and the former Sarah Glantz, were Jews. They named him Mendel Berlinger. He was one of five children. One day, Mendel put on some of his parents’ old clothes. All the adults who saw him said he looked like a small version of the film actor Charlie Chaplin. So, at the age of five years, he entered -- and won -- a local Chaplin look-alike competition. He became a child actor a short time later. In Nineteen-Fourteen, he appeared in his first film, “The Perils of Pauline.” He was just six years old. The same year, he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in another movie. VOICE ONE: Mendel was given a chance to join a vaudeville act. Vaudeville was the most popular form of show business in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Vaudeville shows presented short plays, singers, comedians who told jokes, and other acts. Sarah Berlinger supervised her boy’s rise in show business. She pushed him to be a success. Missus Berlinger attended all of her son’s performances. ((From "The Age of Television - Mr. Television: Uncle Miltie")) "I reached millions of people, who fortunately couldn't reach me. There was one laugh that projected out of the top of them all. That was my mother. And, if people didn't laugh that sat next to her, she used to shove them with the arm and say, 'Laugh it up. That's my son.'" VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Twenty -- at the age of twelve – Mendel first appeared in a show on Broadway in New York City. He formed a vaudeville act with a girl named Elizabeth Kennedy. Later, he formed his own group. As the years passed, his act improved and he worked as a single performer. By the age of sixteen, he was forced to make changes. He had grown too tall to be a child actor. Mendel Berlinger changed his name to Milton Berle. He began performing at New York’s famous Palace Theater in Nineteen-Thirty-One. He was twenty-three years old. Later, he appeared in several Broadway shows, including “Ziegfeld Follies.” VOICE ONE: Early in his adult life, Milton Berle was moderately successful in movies and on radio. He was better known as a comedian who told jokes in nightclub shows for adults. He was reported to be one of the best-paid performers in the country. Yet, Berle did not become truly famous until he appeared on the “Texaco Star Theater” television program in June, Nineteen-Forty-Eight. Three months later, the Texaco Company offered him a permanent position with the program. The “Texaco Star Theater” opened with four men who looked like gasoline station employees. They sang a song that the company used to sell its oil and gasoline products. MUSIC: "Oh, we’re the men of Texaco. We work from Maine to Mexico. There’s nothing like this Texaco of ours. Our show tonight is powerful. We’ll show you wow with an hour-full of howls from a showerful of stars. We’re the merry men of Texaco. Tonight we may be showmen. Tomorrow, we’ll be servicing your cars.” VOICE TWO: Milton Berle was a performer who won the love of a crowd by not being lovable. He developed a show business personality that was funny, yet not always pleasant. He acted aggressive, and often appeared to be selfish or uncivilized. Sometimes, he greeted people with the saying, “Good evening, ladies and germs.” One thing that made Berle’s television shows popular was the way he appeared. He knew how to use funny movements and clothing to make people laugh. He would do anything for a laugh. He sometimes wore women’s clothing and beauty products. In one show, he explained that he just paid his taxes. He wore only an empty wooden container, which suggested that the government had taken everything including his clothes. VOICE ONE: Other comedians accused Berle of stealing their jokes. Yet many of the best-known performers in the United States appeared on the “Texaco Star Theater.” Like any vaudeville show, his program also offered a mix of singers, dancers and animal acts. One Tuesday night, trained elephants appeared on the program. The animals left large droppings on the floor. This was a big surprise to the next act -- a group of dancers. Berle’s programs were filled with lots of energy, as we hear in this example. TEXACO MEN: “And now ladies and gentlemen, introducing America’s number one television star, who gets his nose into everybody’s act, your Cyrano de Bergerac, Milton Berle …” [music/cheering] BERLE: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. [laughter] Don’t laugh, lady. You and I go to the same plastic surgeon. [laughter] That’s your own nose. I like it. It’s my basketball nose. I just had it fixed …” VOICE TWO: Milton Berle had a weekly television series from the late Nineteen-Forties into the middle of the Nineteen-Fifties. More than one-hundred shows competed on other networks against his program. They all failed. During one period, four of five Americans who watched television on Tuesday nights watched the program. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, Berle signed a long-term agreement with N-B-C, the network that provided his program to television stations across the country. Under the agreement, N-B-C agreed to pay him two-hundred-thousand dollars a year for thirty years, even if he did not work. VOICE ONE: Berle was tired from performing countless shows. So he demanded the right to take a rest from the program one week in every month. He later said that decision proved to be a mistake. The program began to lose its popularity. The taste of the American public was changing, and new funny acts were developing. The program also lost popularity when an opposing network added a series of religious talks. Berle left weekly television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. In the late Nineteen-Fifties, he appeared in a few N-B-C shows, but then the work seemed to stop. VOICE TWO: Berle returned to his roots as a comedian who told jokes, mainly at nightclub shows. He appeared in plays and movies. They included, “Let’s Make Love,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” and “Broadway Danny Rose.” He also made appearances on television. Milton Berle was known for his work with non-profit groups. He performed for soldiers during World War Two. He appeared in thousands of shows that helped to raise money for different kinds of organizations. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, he helped to organize a television show for the Damon Runyon Memorial Cancer Fund. It may have been the first time that television was used to raise money for a non-profit group. Berle was married two times to a showgirl named Joyce Matthews. Each time, they agreed to end their marriage. Later, he was married more than thirty-five years to another woman, Joyce Cosgrove. After she died in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, he married Lorna Adams. VOICE ONE: For many years, Milton Berle remained a funnyman loved by Americans. He produced projects for several media, and collected awards for his work in television. The Television Academy Hall of Fame added him as one of its members. The story of his life led to the Nineteen-Ninety-Two film, “Mister Saturday Night.” He also wrote books of jokes and his memories. Milton Berle had colon cancer. He died at his Los Angeles home on March twenty-seventh, Two-Thousand-Two. He was ninety-three years old. He had spent more than eighty-five years making people laugh. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by George Grow. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - April 27, 2002: World Bank
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS. The World Bank is not a normal bank. It is not a place where individuals borrow money. The Bank does loan money but not in the exact same way as a local bank. The World Bank is one of the largest suppliers of development assistance. Its main goal is to improve living conditions for poor people throughout the world. Last year, it provided more than seventeen-thousand-million dollars in loans to developing countries to help end poverty. The money went to efforts like debt reduction for some of the poorest countries in the world. That program was designed to increase debt assistance and provide it faster than in the past. As a result, twenty-three countries received debt assistance last year as compared to seven countries the year before. The World Bank does more than just provide loans, however. It believes that continued poverty reduction comes from investing in the people of a country -- especially through education and health programs. World Bank President James Wolfensohn announced one such program earlier this week at the organization’s yearly spring meeting in Washington. The “Education for All” plan is aimed at getting all children between the ages of five and eleven into early education. The World Bank plans to establish the program soon in ten countries. Bank leaders will choose countries that have strong education reform plans but no money to establish them. The World Bank uses engineers, economists, public policy experts and social scientists to create these kinds of programs. These professionals also provide developing countries with the necessary technical help to carry out the programs. Ten thousand people work for the World Bank. Eight thousand are based in Washington. The rest are spread around the world. The World Bank is owned by more than one-hundred-eighty member countries. They hold shares in the Bank. A Board of Governors and Board of Directors represent the positions and interests of the members. The World Bank began as a much smaller group. It was established at an international conference in the United States in Nineteen-Forty-Four. The Bank says it has helped to make great progress in developing nations especially in the past twenty or so years. Bank officials say life expectancy in developing nations has increased and baby and child deaths have decreased. They also say more adults now can read than in the past. However, the World Bank has critics around the world. Protesters have held large demonstrations at recent World Bank meetings. Opponents say Bank programs make industrial nations richer and developing nations poorer. Others say the organization’s activities result in environmental damage. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS. The World Bank is not a normal bank. It is not a place where individuals borrow money. The Bank does loan money but not in the exact same way as a local bank. The World Bank is one of the largest suppliers of development assistance. Its main goal is to improve living conditions for poor people throughout the world. Last year, it provided more than seventeen-thousand-million dollars in loans to developing countries to help end poverty. The money went to efforts like debt reduction for some of the poorest countries in the world. That program was designed to increase debt assistance and provide it faster than in the past. As a result, twenty-three countries received debt assistance last year as compared to seven countries the year before. The World Bank does more than just provide loans, however. It believes that continued poverty reduction comes from investing in the people of a country -- especially through education and health programs. World Bank President James Wolfensohn announced one such program earlier this week at the organization’s yearly spring meeting in Washington. The “Education for All” plan is aimed at getting all children between the ages of five and eleven into early education. The World Bank plans to establish the program soon in ten countries. Bank leaders will choose countries that have strong education reform plans but no money to establish them. The World Bank uses engineers, economists, public policy experts and social scientists to create these kinds of programs. These professionals also provide developing countries with the necessary technical help to carry out the programs. Ten thousand people work for the World Bank. Eight thousand are based in Washington. The rest are spread around the world. The World Bank is owned by more than one-hundred-eighty member countries. They hold shares in the Bank. A Board of Governors and Board of Directors represent the positions and interests of the members. The World Bank began as a much smaller group. It was established at an international conference in the United States in Nineteen-Forty-Four. The Bank says it has helped to make great progress in developing nations especially in the past twenty or so years. Bank officials say life expectancy in developing nations has increased and baby and child deaths have decreased. They also say more adults now can read than in the past. However, the World Bank has critics around the world. Protesters have held large demonstrations at recent World Bank meetings. Opponents say Bank programs make industrial nations richer and developing nations poorer. Others say the organization’s activities result in environmental damage. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - April 29, 2002: Washington Monument
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The tallest structure in America’s capital city is the Washington Monument. It is named for George Washington, the first president of the United States. I’m Bob Doughty. Washington monument - Washington, D.C. VOICE ONE: The tallest structure in America’s capital city is the Washington Monument. It is named for George Washington, the first president of the United States. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the Washington Monument and the man it honors on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The tallest structure in Washington, D-C, honors George Washington, the first president of the United States. He led the American colonies in the war of independence against England from Seventeen-Seventy-Five to Seventeen-Eighty-Three. Later he headed the group that wrote the American Constitution. As president, he helped the new United States of America through its difficult first years. Today, millions of people from around the world visit the stone structure that honors George Washington. The Washington Monument stands almost one-hundred-seventy meters high, not far from the Potomac River. The monument is a white stone structure called an obelisk. Its four sides end in a point at the top. VOICE TWO: Fifty American flags surround the monument. They represent the fifty states. The Washington Monument is one of the most photographed places in the world. Lights shine on the obelisk at night. It can be seen from far away. Fireworks are launched from near the monument on America’s Independence Day -- the Fourth of July -- and during other special celebrations. The monument recently reopened after being closed for more than a year. Workers made several improvements. They built a new elevator to carry visitors to the observation area at the top of the monument. New security measures also were added. Workers had carried out a more extensive repair project beginning in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. That project took two years and cost more than nine-million dollars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to the Washington Monument begin by getting a free ticket. Long lines often form at the ticket office. Once people have their tickets, they stand in a short line near the monument. On a recent day, visitors talked to one another while waiting. They discovered that they came from all over the United States and several other nations. Some of the visitors commented about the surrounding flags, which flew straight out in the spring wind. They said the flags looked as if they had been painted that way. National Park Service officials supervise the Washington Monument. They lead visitors to a big elevator for the ride up to the observation area at the top of the monument. During the ride, another Park Service employee tells about the history of the structure. He also tells visitors they can see all of Washington from the observation area if the weather is good. VOICE TWO: The observation area is more than one-hundred-fifty meters high. Many people say “ooh” and “aah” as they stand at the windows. Looking north, you can see such famous places as the White House. You can also see the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Willard Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Washington. America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, stayed there. To the east, you can see the Capitol building, where Congress makes laws. You can also see the Smithsonian Institution museum buildings. The return elevator trip to the ground is equally interesting. Two sides of this elevator have windows. Through the windows you can see some of the almost two-hundred carved memorial stones on the inside walls of the monument. Every state gave a stone to the monument. Stones also arrived from other countries. For example, one stone came from the library of Alexandria, Egypt. The Free Swiss Federation in Switzerland gave a stone that says, “To the Memory of Washington.” Japan gave a stone made from rock from a volcano. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: It took many years to build the Washington Monument. America almost got a very different memorial to George Washington instead of the present one. Congress decided to pay for a statue of George Washington on a horse. The lawmakers did this even before the signing of the treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War. The statue was to show how General Washington led American troops to victory against England. However, he said he did not want the nation to spend money for the statue. VOICE TWO: A group called the Washington National Monument Society started raising money for a memorial in Eighteen-Thirty-Three. Officials placed the first stone of the monument on July Fourth, Eighteen-Forty-Eight. The Roman Catholic Church leader Pope Pius the Ninth gave a piece of marble from Rome for the monument. But the stone was stolen a few years later. People suspected that an American group called the Know Nothings stole the stone. Among other things, the group opposed the Roman Catholic Church. After that, the public almost stopped giving money for the structure. Many people believed it never would be finished. Then Congress started to help pay for the monument. But, again, the Know Nothings intervened. They raided the Washington National Monument Society office. They claimed the monument was their property. VOICE ONE: Finally, in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, Congress voted to pay for building the Washington Monument. On December Sixth, Eighteen-Eighty-Four, the monument was finished. It opened to the public four years later. The Washington Monument is just one of many ways Americans have honored their first president. The northwest state of Washington is named for him. So are many cities, schools and streets in the United States. Thousands of children have been named George or Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: George Washington was born in Seventeen-Thirty-Two. His family lived in Westmoreland County, Virginia. George attended school for only about seven or eight years. He wanted to become a sailor. However, his mother would not permit this. So George became an explorer. At age twenty he became an officer in the colonial army. In Seventeen-Fifty-Three, the colonies still belonged to Britain. Major George Washington carried a message from British colonial officials to French forces. At the time, French forces occupied the Ohio River Valley. The message ordered them to withdraw. It was a dangerous duty, and George Washington completed it well. VOICE ONE: George Washington continued to gain responsibility in the army. However, as time passed, he became angry with the way England governed the American colonies. Taxes were high. And the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament. The war against Britain began in Seventeen-Seventy-Five. The Americans named George Washington commander of the Revolutionary armies. Many of his soldiers were untrained. They were poorly equipped. During one winter of the Revolutionary War, his troops almost froze to death. But General Washington led these Americans to victory. The last British troops left America in Seventeen-Eighty-Three. VOICE TWO: After the war, George Washington strongly influenced the writing of the new Constitution. Then, in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine, the first American Electoral College met. It named him the first president of the United States. Three years later, he wanted to retire. He planned to live with his wife Martha at their home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. But others appealed to him to run for president again. The ballots were counted in Eighteen-Ninety-Three, and he was re-elected. George Washington gave the nation a good start. He helped prevent the country from becoming a dictatorship. He prevented it from being ruled by a king. He helped establish freedom of religion. VOICE ONE: George Washington was not perfect. He kept slaves at Mount Vernon. However, he freed all his slaves during his lifetime. He also urged the nation to end slavery in the future. A sentence written on the wall in the Washington Monument expresses the way many Americans feel about George Washington. It says he was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the Washington Monument and the man it honors on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The tallest structure in Washington, D-C, honors George Washington, the first president of the United States. He led the American colonies in the war of independence against England from Seventeen-Seventy-Five to Seventeen-Eighty-Three. Later he headed the group that wrote the American Constitution. As president, he helped the new United States of America through its difficult first years. Today, millions of people from around the world visit the stone structure that honors George Washington. The Washington Monument stands almost one-hundred-seventy meters high, not far from the Potomac River. The monument is a white stone structure called an obelisk. Its four sides end in a point at the top. VOICE TWO: Fifty American flags surround the monument. They represent the fifty states. The Washington Monument is one of the most photographed places in the world. Lights shine on the obelisk at night. It can be seen from far away. Fireworks are launched from near the monument on America’s Independence Day -- the Fourth of July -- and during other special celebrations. The monument recently reopened after being closed for more than a year. Workers made several improvements. They built a new elevator to carry visitors to the observation area at the top of the monument. New security measures also were added. Workers had carried out a more extensive repair project beginning in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. That project took two years and cost more than nine-million dollars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to the Washington Monument begin by getting a free ticket. Long lines often form at the ticket office. Once people have their tickets, they stand in a short line near the monument. On a recent day, visitors talked to one another while waiting. They discovered that they came from all over the United States and several other nations. Some of the visitors commented about the surrounding flags, which flew straight out in the spring wind. They said the flags looked as if they had been painted that way. National Park Service officials supervise the Washington Monument. They lead visitors to a big elevator for the ride up to the observation area at the top of the monument. During the ride, another Park Service employee tells about the history of the structure. He also tells visitors they can see all of Washington from the observation area if the weather is good. VOICE TWO: The observation area is more than one-hundred-fifty meters high. Many people say “ooh” and “aah” as they stand at the windows. Looking north, you can see such famous places as the White House. You can also see the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Willard Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in Washington. America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, stayed there. To the east, you can see the Capitol building, where Congress makes laws. You can also see the Smithsonian Institution museum buildings. The return elevator trip to the ground is equally interesting. Two sides of this elevator have windows. Through the windows you can see some of the almost two-hundred carved memorial stones on the inside walls of the monument. Every state gave a stone to the monument. Stones also arrived from other countries. For example, one stone came from the library of Alexandria, Egypt. The Free Swiss Federation in Switzerland gave a stone that says, “To the Memory of Washington.” Japan gave a stone made from rock from a volcano. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: It took many years to build the Washington Monument. America almost got a very different memorial to George Washington instead of the present one. Congress decided to pay for a statue of George Washington on a horse. The lawmakers did this even before the signing of the treaty that ended the American Revolutionary War. The statue was to show how General Washington led American troops to victory against England. However, he said he did not want the nation to spend money for the statue. VOICE TWO: A group called the Washington National Monument Society started raising money for a memorial in Eighteen-Thirty-Three. Officials placed the first stone of the monument on July Fourth, Eighteen-Forty-Eight. The Roman Catholic Church leader Pope Pius the Ninth gave a piece of marble from Rome for the monument. But the stone was stolen a few years later. People suspected that an American group called the Know Nothings stole the stone. Among other things, the group opposed the Roman Catholic Church. After that, the public almost stopped giving money for the structure. Many people believed it never would be finished. Then Congress started to help pay for the monument. But, again, the Know Nothings intervened. They raided the Washington National Monument Society office. They claimed the monument was their property. VOICE ONE: Finally, in Eighteen-Seventy-Six, Congress voted to pay for building the Washington Monument. On December Sixth, Eighteen-Eighty-Four, the monument was finished. It opened to the public four years later. The Washington Monument is just one of many ways Americans have honored their first president. The northwest state of Washington is named for him. So are many cities, schools and streets in the United States. Thousands of children have been named George or Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: George Washington was born in Seventeen-Thirty-Two. His family lived in Westmoreland County, Virginia. George attended school for only about seven or eight years. He wanted to become a sailor. However, his mother would not permit this. So George became an explorer. At age twenty he became an officer in the colonial army. In Seventeen-Fifty-Three, the colonies still belonged to Britain. Major George Washington carried a message from British colonial officials to French forces. At the time, French forces occupied the Ohio River Valley. The message ordered them to withdraw. It was a dangerous duty, and George Washington completed it well. VOICE ONE: George Washington continued to gain responsibility in the army. However, as time passed, he became angry with the way England governed the American colonies. Taxes were high. And the colonies had no representation in the British Parliament. The war against Britain began in Seventeen-Seventy-Five. The Americans named George Washington commander of the Revolutionary armies. Many of his soldiers were untrained. They were poorly equipped. During one winter of the Revolutionary War, his troops almost froze to death. But General Washington led these Americans to victory. The last British troops left America in Seventeen-Eighty-Three. VOICE TWO: After the war, George Washington strongly influenced the writing of the new Constitution. Then, in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine, the first American Electoral College met. It named him the first president of the United States. Three years later, he wanted to retire. He planned to live with his wife Martha at their home in Virginia, Mount Vernon. But others appealed to him to run for president again. The ballots were counted in Eighteen-Ninety-Three, and he was re-elected. George Washington gave the nation a good start. He helped prevent the country from becoming a dictatorship. He prevented it from being ruled by a king. He helped establish freedom of religion. VOICE ONE: George Washington was not perfect. He kept slaves at Mount Vernon. However, he freed all his slaves during his lifetime. He also urged the nation to end slavery in the future. A sentence written on the wall in the Washington Monument expresses the way many Americans feel about George Washington. It says he was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – April 30, 2002: American Farmers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Two new reports offer information about American farmers. The first report provides official information on farms and farmland in the United States. The other gives the opinions of young American farmers. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Two new reports offer information about American farmers. The first report provides official information on farms and farmland in the United States. The other gives the opinions of young American farmers. The Department of Agriculture reports that the number of American farms decreased last year. It estimates there were two-million-one-hundred-sixty-thousand farms. That is down seven-tenths of one percent from the number reported in Two-Thousand. It was the second biggest decrease in the number of American farms since Nineteen-Ninety-One. Nationwide, more than three-hundred-eighty-million hectares of land were used for farming last year. That is down about eight-hundred-thousand hectares from one year earlier. The other report comes from the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation’s largest farm group. It questioned about three-hundred farmers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five from across the country. This report found that the leading concern of young farmers was earning a profit. It was the fourth time in four years that those questioned said making a profit was their top concern. For the fifth year, the young farmers said international trade was important for making a profit. Many of them said increasing agricultural exports was the most important step the United States government could take to help farmers. The young farmers were divided on a question that dealt with future earnings from agriculture. A little more than half said their farm earnings should come totally from selling their crops. The others said farmers also need payments from government programs. Fifty-one percent of those questioned said they started farming as a member of a family business. Twenty-seven percent entered farming on their own. Almost fourteen percent said marriage led them to farming. On a separate issue, almost seventy-two percent of the farmers said they or their husband or wife have an additional job not connected with farming. Fifty-nine percent of the young American farmers said they are more hopeful about farming now than they were five years ago. More than ninety percent said they believe they will remain in farming all their lives. And, almost eighty-five percent would like to see their children become farmers. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. The Department of Agriculture reports that the number of American farms decreased last year. It estimates there were two-million-one-hundred-sixty-thousand farms. That is down seven-tenths of one percent from the number reported in Two-Thousand. It was the second biggest decrease in the number of American farms since Nineteen-Ninety-One. Nationwide, more than three-hundred-eighty-million hectares of land were used for farming last year. That is down about eight-hundred-thousand hectares from one year earlier. The other report comes from the American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation’s largest farm group. It questioned about three-hundred farmers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five from across the country. This report found that the leading concern of young farmers was earning a profit. It was the fourth time in four years that those questioned said making a profit was their top concern. For the fifth year, the young farmers said international trade was important for making a profit. Many of them said increasing agricultural exports was the most important step the United States government could take to help farmers. The young farmers were divided on a question that dealt with future earnings from agriculture. A little more than half said their farm earnings should come totally from selling their crops. The others said farmers also need payments from government programs. Fifty-one percent of those questioned said they started farming as a member of a family business. Twenty-seven percent entered farming on their own. Almost fourteen percent said marriage led them to farming. On a separate issue, almost seventy-two percent of the farmers said they or their husband or wife have an additional job not connected with farming. Fifty-nine percent of the young American farmers said they are more hopeful about farming now than they were five years ago. More than ninety percent said they believe they will remain in farming all their lives. And, almost eighty-five percent would like to see their children become farmers. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - April 30, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new major group of insects. We tell about a space rock that came close to Earth. And we tell about food for soldiers that can stay fresh for three years. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new major group of insects. We tell about a space rock that came close to Earth. And we tell about food for soldiers that can stay fresh for three years. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have discovered the first major new group, or order, of insects in almost ninety years. Danish and German researchers reported three kinds of wingless insects unknown to science in the past. Evidence shows that the insects have existed for at least forty-five-million years. Science magazine reported the discovery this month. Insect expert Joachim Adis (JOE-kim AH-dis) helped write the report. Mister Adis works at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Ploen, Germany. He says the new order is the thirty-first order of insects to be identified. Examples of the insects came from private collections and from museums in Britain and Germany. Some insects were trapped inside an ancient material called amber. Others were found alive in southwest Africa. The insects measure about two-and-one-half centimeters. They look similar to insects called walking sticks, preying mantises and crickets. VOICE TWO: It is not unusual for scientists to discover and identify new kinds of insects. But an order is a large group of creatures. For example, an order called Lepidoptera contains all known moths and butterflies. The last new order of insects was discovered in Nineteen-Fifteen. Some scientists who heard about the discovery of the new order did not believe it. Most insects cannot be identified until they are adults. By that time, they usually have wings. The new order may not have been recognized earlier because the insects lack wings. VOICE ONE: The discovery of the new order resulted from good luck as well as hard work. Biologist Oliver Zompro is a student of Mister Adis at the Max Planck Institute. Mister Zompro was examining several insects sent to the institute for identification. They came from museums and private collectors. The insects were in amber that was at least forty-five-million years old. Mister Zompro found that the insects could not be identified as part of any known order. Officials at the British Museum of Natural History then showed Mister Zompro another insect. This insect came from Tanzania in Nineteen-Fifty. It had been in the museum for sixteen years. Its collectors had sent it there to be identified. However, the museum experts could not do so. Mister Zompro recognized it as similar to the mysterious insects he had seen before. He also examined another example of the order in the Berlin Museum of Natural History. It had been found in Namibia at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. VOICE TWO: Mister Zompro believed the mysterious insects might still be alive on Earth. He and a research team sent computer e-mail messages to museums around the world for help. They wanted to know if anybody had seen similar creatures. The only response came from Namibia. So, the researchers went to the southwest African nation to look for the insects. Other experts from England, South Africa, the United States and Namibia joined the team. They found the insects on Brandberg Mountain in western Namibia. Collectors reportedly are already paying high prices for the rare insects. Officials in Namibia have increased security to prevent people from seizing the insects and selling them. Scientists now are looking for more of the newly identified insects in Brazil. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A huge space rock came near Earth last month. Scientists say it measured between forty and eighty meters wide. Scientists think it was about the size of a large passenger plane. The space rock passed within about four-hundred-eighty-thousand kilometers of our planet. It was only a little further away from us than the Moon. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered the asteroid four days after it passed Earth and had moved off into space. They say it could have done severe damage if it had hit a major city. They say few asteroids that large have ever been known to pass so close to Earth. VOICE TWO: Scientists said no one saw the space rock for two reasons. They said it came toward Earth from the direction of the Sun. This made it extremely difficult to see because of the brightness of the Sun. And it was not big enough to see. Gareth Williams works with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is also an assistant director of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. Part of his job is finding space rocks that could be a danger to Earth. He says no amount of searching would have found the asteroid because of its size and where it came from. Mister Williams says there have probably been many similar space rocks that have flown close to our planet and then traveled back into deep space. VOICE ONE: Researchers say the asteroid’s orbit should not present a danger to Earth in the next century. However, they are worried about similar space rocks that could be in orbits that bring them close to Earth. A smaller space rock did hit an area of Siberia in Russia in Nineteen-Oh-Eight. It destroyed trees for hundreds of square kilometers. A similar asteroid made of iron crashed into the ground in the area that is now the American state of Arizona fifty-thousand years ago. It created a hole in the earth that was one-thousand-two-hundred meters wide. Benny Peiser is an expert on space rocks that have hit the Earth in the past. He works at the Liverpool John Moores University in Britain. He says that satellites will soon be used to search space for asteroids that may present a danger to Earth. He says scientists are studying space rocks in an effort to develop a plan for moving the big ones away from Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The United States military has developed a new product to feed soldiers in battle. The food contains meat and bread and is eaten like a sandwich. It can stay fresh for up to three years. Scientists at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts, developed the sandwiches. They do not have to be kept cool while being stored. And they do not have to be heated before eating. For years, the United States military has wanted to add to its collection of food for soldiers. Such food is commonly called “Meal, Ready-to-Eat,” or M-R-E. M-R-E foods are designed for soldiers on the move. Until now, soldiers had to make sandwiches from bread and other foods stored in separate containers. VOICE ONE: The new sandwiches are similar in size and appearance to some products already sold in American food stores. Yet they can survive extreme temperatures and being dropped from an airplane. The sandwiches will stay fresh for up to three years at twenty-six degrees Celsius. At thirty-eight degrees, they will keep up to six months. Researchers developed the sandwiches using a method called intermediate moisture technology. This technology protects foods by controlling water activity and levels of acid. Scientists use substances called humectants to reduce the amount of water in the product. This limits the growth of bacteria. The scientists also add naturally acidic substances to protect the product. The sandwiches are covered tightly in heavy plastic to protect them against water and oxygen. VOICE TWO: Recently, the military approved two kinds of sandwiches for use in the M-R-E program. One contains barbecue chicken. The other has pepperoni, a pork product often added to pizza. Officials report that soldiers who tested the sandwiches said their taste was acceptable. The sandwiches also meet safety requirements set by the United States Food and Drug Administration. American military scientists are now planning to extend the list of M-R-E foods to include bagels, burritos and even small pizzas. Battlefield meals may never be the same again. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Paul Thompson and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. ((THEME)) Scientists have discovered the first major new group, or order, of insects in almost ninety years. Danish and German researchers reported three kinds of wingless insects unknown to science in the past. Evidence shows that the insects have existed for at least forty-five-million years. Science magazine reported the discovery this month. Insect expert Joachim Adis (JOE-kim AH-dis) helped write the report. Mister Adis works at the Max Planck Institute for Limnology in Ploen, Germany. He says the new order is the thirty-first order of insects to be identified. Examples of the insects came from private collections and from museums in Britain and Germany. Some insects were trapped inside an ancient material called amber. Others were found alive in southwest Africa. The insects measure about two-and-one-half centimeters. They look similar to insects called walking sticks, preying mantises and crickets. VOICE TWO: It is not unusual for scientists to discover and identify new kinds of insects. But an order is a large group of creatures. For example, an order called Lepidoptera contains all known moths and butterflies. The last new order of insects was discovered in Nineteen-Fifteen. Some scientists who heard about the discovery of the new order did not believe it. Most insects cannot be identified until they are adults. By that time, they usually have wings. The new order may not have been recognized earlier because the insects lack wings. VOICE ONE: The discovery of the new order resulted from good luck as well as hard work. Biologist Oliver Zompro is a student of Mister Adis at the Max Planck Institute. Mister Zompro was examining several insects sent to the institute for identification. They came from museums and private collectors. The insects were in amber that was at least forty-five-million years old. Mister Zompro found that the insects could not be identified as part of any known order. Officials at the British Museum of Natural History then showed Mister Zompro another insect. This insect came from Tanzania in Nineteen-Fifty. It had been in the museum for sixteen years. Its collectors had sent it there to be identified. However, the museum experts could not do so. Mister Zompro recognized it as similar to the mysterious insects he had seen before. He also examined another example of the order in the Berlin Museum of Natural History. It had been found in Namibia at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. VOICE TWO: Mister Zompro believed the mysterious insects might still be alive on Earth. He and a research team sent computer e-mail messages to museums around the world for help. They wanted to know if anybody had seen similar creatures. The only response came from Namibia. So, the researchers went to the southwest African nation to look for the insects. Other experts from England, South Africa, the United States and Namibia joined the team. They found the insects on Brandberg Mountain in western Namibia. Collectors reportedly are already paying high prices for the rare insects. Officials in Namibia have increased security to prevent people from seizing the insects and selling them. Scientists now are looking for more of the newly identified insects in Brazil. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A huge space rock came near Earth last month. Scientists say it measured between forty and eighty meters wide. Scientists think it was about the size of a large passenger plane. The space rock passed within about four-hundred-eighty-thousand kilometers of our planet. It was only a little further away from us than the Moon. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered the asteroid four days after it passed Earth and had moved off into space. They say it could have done severe damage if it had hit a major city. They say few asteroids that large have ever been known to pass so close to Earth. VOICE TWO: Scientists said no one saw the space rock for two reasons. They said it came toward Earth from the direction of the Sun. This made it extremely difficult to see because of the brightness of the Sun. And it was not big enough to see. Gareth Williams works with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is also an assistant director of the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. Part of his job is finding space rocks that could be a danger to Earth. He says no amount of searching would have found the asteroid because of its size and where it came from. Mister Williams says there have probably been many similar space rocks that have flown close to our planet and then traveled back into deep space. VOICE ONE: Researchers say the asteroid’s orbit should not present a danger to Earth in the next century. However, they are worried about similar space rocks that could be in orbits that bring them close to Earth. A smaller space rock did hit an area of Siberia in Russia in Nineteen-Oh-Eight. It destroyed trees for hundreds of square kilometers. A similar asteroid made of iron crashed into the ground in the area that is now the American state of Arizona fifty-thousand years ago. It created a hole in the earth that was one-thousand-two-hundred meters wide. Benny Peiser is an expert on space rocks that have hit the Earth in the past. He works at the Liverpool John Moores University in Britain. He says that satellites will soon be used to search space for asteroids that may present a danger to Earth. He says scientists are studying space rocks in an effort to develop a plan for moving the big ones away from Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The United States military has developed a new product to feed soldiers in battle. The food contains meat and bread and is eaten like a sandwich. It can stay fresh for up to three years. Scientists at the Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts, developed the sandwiches. They do not have to be kept cool while being stored. And they do not have to be heated before eating. For years, the United States military has wanted to add to its collection of food for soldiers. Such food is commonly called “Meal, Ready-to-Eat,” or M-R-E. M-R-E foods are designed for soldiers on the move. Until now, soldiers had to make sandwiches from bread and other foods stored in separate containers. VOICE ONE: The new sandwiches are similar in size and appearance to some products already sold in American food stores. Yet they can survive extreme temperatures and being dropped from an airplane. The sandwiches will stay fresh for up to three years at twenty-six degrees Celsius. At thirty-eight degrees, they will keep up to six months. Researchers developed the sandwiches using a method called intermediate moisture technology. This technology protects foods by controlling water activity and levels of acid. Scientists use substances called humectants to reduce the amount of water in the product. This limits the growth of bacteria. The scientists also add naturally acidic substances to protect the product. The sandwiches are covered tightly in heavy plastic to protect them against water and oxygen. VOICE TWO: Recently, the military approved two kinds of sandwiches for use in the M-R-E program. One contains barbecue chicken. The other has pepperoni, a pork product often added to pizza. Officials report that soldiers who tested the sandwiches said their taste was acceptable. The sandwiches also meet safety requirements set by the United States Food and Drug Administration. American military scientists are now planning to extend the list of M-R-E foods to include bagels, burritos and even small pizzas. Battlefield meals may never be the same again. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Paul Thompson and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - May 1, 2002: Allergies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many different substances and organisms in the environment affect our health. An allergy is an unusually strong reaction to a substance. The substance may not be harmful under normal conditions. However, the way some people react to a common substance may not be normal. People may feel as though they are very sick from an infection. Many different things can cause allergies. The most common cause is pollen. Trees and many other kinds of plants release huge amounts of pollen into the air to reproduce successfully. To make things worse, different kinds of plants produce pollen at different times of the year. For example, trees usually produce pollen in the spring. Grasses pollinate in the summer. Weeds produce pollen in the autumn. Many other things can cause allergies. They include organisms such as dust mites and molds, dead skin particles on dogs and cats, chemicals, plants, medicines and some common foods. Insect bites also can cause allergic reactions. There are several kinds of allergic reactions. The most common reaction is watery, itchy eyes and a blocked or watery nose. Other reactions include red, painful, itchy skin. Some allergic reactions can be so extreme that they are life-threatening. For example, allergic reactions that block breathing tubes are very dangerous. Doctors say there are several ways to treat allergies. They say people should try to avoid the substances that cause allergic reactions. Medicines called antihistamines are used to treat allergies. These are some of the most widely used medicines in the United States. Another treatment is called immunotherapy. This involves injecting a patient with small amounts of the allergy-causing substance. Larger and larger amounts are given. Over time, the patient develops a resistance to the allergy-causing substance. This treatment is usually effective against allergies to small particles in the air, like pollen or dust, and insect bites. However, this treatment is generally not used for allergies to foods. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says more than fifty-million Americans suffer from allergies. The organization also says that treatments for allergies cost Americans eighteen-thousand-million dollars each year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Many different substances and organisms in the environment affect our health. An allergy is an unusually strong reaction to a substance. The substance may not be harmful under normal conditions. However, the way some people react to a common substance may not be normal. People may feel as though they are very sick from an infection. Many different things can cause allergies. The most common cause is pollen. Trees and many other kinds of plants release huge amounts of pollen into the air to reproduce successfully. To make things worse, different kinds of plants produce pollen at different times of the year. For example, trees usually produce pollen in the spring. Grasses pollinate in the summer. Weeds produce pollen in the autumn. Many other things can cause allergies. They include organisms such as dust mites and molds, dead skin particles on dogs and cats, chemicals, plants, medicines and some common foods. Insect bites also can cause allergic reactions. There are several kinds of allergic reactions. The most common reaction is watery, itchy eyes and a blocked or watery nose. Other reactions include red, painful, itchy skin. Some allergic reactions can be so extreme that they are life-threatening. For example, allergic reactions that block breathing tubes are very dangerous. Doctors say there are several ways to treat allergies. They say people should try to avoid the substances that cause allergic reactions. Medicines called antihistamines are used to treat allergies. These are some of the most widely used medicines in the United States. Another treatment is called immunotherapy. This involves injecting a patient with small amounts of the allergy-causing substance. Larger and larger amounts are given. Over time, the patient develops a resistance to the allergy-causing substance. This treatment is usually effective against allergies to small particles in the air, like pollen or dust, and insect bites. However, this treatment is generally not used for allergies to foods. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says more than fifty-million Americans suffer from allergies. The organization also says that treatments for allergies cost Americans eighteen-thousand-million dollars each year. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-04/a-2002-04-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - May 1, 2002: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. Astronauts take second spacewalk, Saturday VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a satellite that will search space for evidence of life on other planets. We tell about several new satellites that will provide valuable information about Earth’s weather and oceans. And we tell about the flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a satellite that will search space for evidence of life on other planets. We tell about several new satellites that will provide valuable information about Earth’s weather and oceans. And we tell about the flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The Space Shuttle Atlantis returned to the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida, Friday, April Nineteenth. The Atlantis and its crew spent ten days, nineteen-hours in space. The space shuttle carried two new devices to the International Space Station. One device is ninety-one meters long. It is called an S-Zero Truss. The S-Zero truss is the center of nine pieces that will be the outside frame of the space station. It will be used to support future additions to the Space Station. When all nine pieces are in place it will be one-hundred-nine meters long. VOICE TWO Another device called the Mobile Transporter also arrived at the space station with the crew of Atlantis. The transporter is very similar to a small railroad car. It moves along a track. It carries the space station’s mechanical arm. The arm is a device used to lift objects from one place to another. The transporter permits astronauts to move the huge arm from one part of the space station to another. The two devices were linked to the Space Station by crewmembers who left the space shuttle and worked in space. One of these crewmembers, Jerry Ross, became the first human to be launched into space seven times. He has also has the record for working outside the shuttle nine different times for more than fifty-eight hours. The Space Shuttle Atlantis returned to the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida, Friday, April Nineteenth. The Atlantis and its crew spent ten days, nineteen-hours in space. The space shuttle carried two new devices to the International Space Station. One device is ninety-one meters long. It is called an S-Zero Truss. The S-Zero truss is the center of nine pieces that will be the outside frame of the space station. It will be used to support future additions to the Space Station. When all nine pieces are in place it will be one-hundred-nine meters long. VOICE TWO Another device called the Mobile Transporter also arrived at the space station with the crew of Atlantis. The transporter is very similar to a small railroad car. It moves along a track. It carries the space station’s mechanical arm. The arm is a device used to lift objects from one place to another. The transporter permits astronauts to move the huge arm from one part of the space station to another. The two devices were linked to the Space Station by crewmembers who left the space shuttle and worked in space. One of these crewmembers, Jerry Ross, became the first human to be launched into space seven times. He has also has the record for working outside the shuttle nine different times for more than fifty-eight hours. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA and the German Center for Air and Space Flight have successfully launched two new satellites. The two satellites are called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE for short. Both satellites are exactly the same. They were launched by a Russian rocket launch vehicle from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome on March Seventeenth. The two satellites separated after they were launched. Their orbits are about five-hundred kilometers above Earth, but they travel about two-hundred-twenty kilometers apart. They will orbit the Earth sixteen times each day, one following the other. VOICE TWO: The GRACE satellites are the first launch in NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program. Plans call for the GRACE satellites to be used by several different kinds of scientific researchers for the next five years. They will make monthly maps of Earth’s gravity. The maps will be made from the information the satellites collect about very small changes in Earth’s surface mass and the resulting changes in the pull of gravity. NASA officials say the GRACE satellites are one-thousand times better at collecting correct information than methods being used now. The maps will be used by scientists who study the movement of masses of water on Earth including the oceans and the ice in Earth’s polar areas. And they will be used by researchers who study the effects of gravity on Earth’s climate. VOICE ONE: As the GRACE satellites orbit the Earth, areas of stronger gravity will pull the first satellite a little farther away from other satellite. By measuring the change in distance between the two satellites, scientists can draw an extremely good gravity map. The satellites are being tested to make sure they are providing correct information. These tests will continue for about six months. After the tests are finished, the GRACE satellites will begin providing gravity map information to scientists around the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: NASA plans to launch a new Earth science satellite on May Second from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The new satellite is named Aqua. The name means water. The task of the Aqua satellite will be to gather information about water in the Earth’s ecological system. Aqua will carry six of the most modern scientific instruments. They will collect information about how water is formed into rain and how it changes back into a gas that rises into the atmosphere. VOICE ONE: NASA scientists say the Aqua satellite’s greatest strength is its ability to gather several different kinds of information from many places around the Earth at the same time. This kind of information includes water temperature, air temperature and areas of cold and heat. The scientists say the satellite will let them study how this information is linked into systems that affect Earth’s atmosphere. In the past this kind of information was gathered from only small areas of the Earth. The Aqua satellite information will be used in research that will aid in understanding changes in weather and the movement of water and much more. VOICE TWO: One of the instruments on NASA’s new Aqua satellite will help the weather experts provide the public with much better information about future weather conditions. It is called the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder. The device will measure Earth’s atmosphere and provide scientists with a lot of information about atmospheric temperature, water in the air, clouds, ozone and other gases. Eric Fetzer is a weather expert at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He says it is difficult for weather experts to be correct because they can not get information from many different places at the same time. He says information is now gathered from weather balloons which are sent high into the atmosphere and from some satellites. He says there is often no information from some areas of the world, especially over the oceans. That is because no one is there to collect the information. VOICE ONE: Aqua’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument was designed to provide new information that weather experts need from most areas the Earth. And it will provide it very quickly. Mister Fetzer says the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on the Aqua satellite will begin providing weather information to the world’s weather experts within a year. He said NASA will be able to send the information from the Sounder to weather experts around the world within three hours. VOICE TWO: Mister Fetzer says the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder will help weather experts recognize large ocean storms as they are developing. He said a famous example took place in October of Nineteen-Eighty-Seven--the worst storm to hit Britain in two-hundred years. Weather experts did not have the information to correctly warn the public about the large storm. Mister Fetzer says the new weather instrument will help provide some kind of warning of such dangerous storms in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In the past ten years astronomers have discovered more than seventy planets outside our solar system. New instruments are planned that will permit astronomers to search for life on these and other planets that might be discovered in the future. The first of these new instruments to be sent into space is called the Terrestrial Planet Finder. NASA scientists say it will carry the necessary technology to search for the kind of atmosphere or the chemicals that make life possible. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists say the Terrestrial Planet Finder should be launched sometime in the year Two-Thousand-Fourteen. The planet finder satellite will include instruments that can block the light from far away stars. This will let other instruments on the satellite search for smaller planets that cannot be seen by devices in use now. Astronomers will then be able to observe these planets and investigate the chemicals that are part of these planets. They will search for chemicals that produce atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, water and ozone. VOICE ONE: NASA scientists say the best candidate for closer study would be any planet that has a moderate climate. If a planet is too hot, water disappears into a gas. If a planet is too cold, water freezes. Scientists say the best place to find life would be a planet that has water like we have here on Earth. NASA scientists say the Terrestrial Planet Finder may help provide the information needed to answer a very old question…”Are we alone in the Universe? ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA and the German Center for Air and Space Flight have successfully launched two new satellites. The two satellites are called the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE for short. Both satellites are exactly the same. They were launched by a Russian rocket launch vehicle from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome on March Seventeenth. The two satellites separated after they were launched. Their orbits are about five-hundred kilometers above Earth, but they travel about two-hundred-twenty kilometers apart. They will orbit the Earth sixteen times each day, one following the other. VOICE TWO: The GRACE satellites are the first launch in NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program. Plans call for the GRACE satellites to be used by several different kinds of scientific researchers for the next five years. They will make monthly maps of Earth’s gravity. The maps will be made from the information the satellites collect about very small changes in Earth’s surface mass and the resulting changes in the pull of gravity. NASA officials say the GRACE satellites are one-thousand times better at collecting correct information than methods being used now. The maps will be used by scientists who study the movement of masses of water on Earth including the oceans and the ice in Earth’s polar areas. And they will be used by researchers who study the effects of gravity on Earth’s climate. VOICE ONE: As the GRACE satellites orbit the Earth, areas of stronger gravity will pull the first satellite a little farther away from other satellite. By measuring the change in distance between the two satellites, scientists can draw an extremely good gravity map. The satellites are being tested to make sure they are providing correct information. These tests will continue for about six months. After the tests are finished, the GRACE satellites will begin providing gravity map information to scientists around the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: NASA plans to launch a new Earth science satellite on May Second from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The new satellite is named Aqua. The name means water. The task of the Aqua satellite will be to gather information about water in the Earth’s ecological system. Aqua will carry six of the most modern scientific instruments. They will collect information about how water is formed into rain and how it changes back into a gas that rises into the atmosphere. VOICE ONE: NASA scientists say the Aqua satellite’s greatest strength is its ability to gather several different kinds of information from many places around the Earth at the same time. This kind of information includes water temperature, air temperature and areas of cold and heat. The scientists say the satellite will let them study how this information is linked into systems that affect Earth’s atmosphere. In the past this kind of information was gathered from only small areas of the Earth. The Aqua satellite information will be used in research that will aid in understanding changes in weather and the movement of water and much more. VOICE TWO: One of the instruments on NASA’s new Aqua satellite will help the weather experts provide the public with much better information about future weather conditions. It is called the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder. The device will measure Earth’s atmosphere and provide scientists with a lot of information about atmospheric temperature, water in the air, clouds, ozone and other gases. Eric Fetzer is a weather expert at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He says it is difficult for weather experts to be correct because they can not get information from many different places at the same time. He says information is now gathered from weather balloons which are sent high into the atmosphere and from some satellites. He says there is often no information from some areas of the world, especially over the oceans. That is because no one is there to collect the information. VOICE ONE: Aqua’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument was designed to provide new information that weather experts need from most areas the Earth. And it will provide it very quickly. Mister Fetzer says the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on the Aqua satellite will begin providing weather information to the world’s weather experts within a year. He said NASA will be able to send the information from the Sounder to weather experts around the world within three hours. VOICE TWO: Mister Fetzer says the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder will help weather experts recognize large ocean storms as they are developing. He said a famous example took place in October of Nineteen-Eighty-Seven--the worst storm to hit Britain in two-hundred years. Weather experts did not have the information to correctly warn the public about the large storm. Mister Fetzer says the new weather instrument will help provide some kind of warning of such dangerous storms in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In the past ten years astronomers have discovered more than seventy planets outside our solar system. New instruments are planned that will permit astronomers to search for life on these and other planets that might be discovered in the future. The first of these new instruments to be sent into space is called the Terrestrial Planet Finder. NASA scientists say it will carry the necessary technology to search for the kind of atmosphere or the chemicals that make life possible. VOICE TWO: NASA scientists say the Terrestrial Planet Finder should be launched sometime in the year Two-Thousand-Fourteen. The planet finder satellite will include instruments that can block the light from far away stars. This will let other instruments on the satellite search for smaller planets that cannot be seen by devices in use now. Astronomers will then be able to observe these planets and investigate the chemicals that are part of these planets. They will search for chemicals that produce atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, water and ozone. VOICE ONE: NASA scientists say the best candidate for closer study would be any planet that has a moderate climate. If a planet is too hot, water disappears into a gas. If a planet is too cold, water freezes. Scientists say the best place to find life would be a planet that has water like we have here on Earth. NASA scientists say the Terrestrial Planet Finder may help provide the information needed to answer a very old question…”Are we alone in the Universe? ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 2, 2002: Pearl Harbor to Europe
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Roosevelt signing a declaration of war against Japan, Dec. 8, 1941 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December nineteen-forty-one was one of the most successful surprise attacks in the history of modern warfare. Japanese warships, including several aircraft carriers, crossed the western Pacific to Hawaii without being seen. They launched their warplanes on Sunday morning to attack the huge American naval and air base. Many of the American sailors were asleep or at church. They were completely surprised. In fact, some Americans outside the base thought the Japanese planes must be American airmen making training flights in new airplanes. The sounds of guns and bombs soon showed how wrong they were. VOICE 2: The Japanese planes sank or seriously damaged six powerful American battleships in just a few minutes. They killed more than three-thousand sailors. They destroyed or damaged half the American airplanes in Hawaii. American forces were so surprised that they were unable to offer much of a fight. Japanese losses were very light. Japan's destruction at Pearl Harbor was so complete that officials in Washington did not tell the full details immediately to the American people. They were afraid the nation might panic if it learned the truth about the loss of so much American military power. VOICE 1: The following day, President Roosevelt went to the Capitol building to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. The Senate approved his request without opposition. In the House of Representatives, only one congressman objected. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Congress reacted by declaring war on those two countries. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended the long American debate about whether to become involved in the Second World War. American politicians and citizens had argued for years about whether to remain neutral or fight to help Britain and France and other friends. Japan's aggressive attack at Pearl Harbor united Americans in a common desire for military victory. It made Americans willing to do whatever was necessary to win the war. And it pushed America into a kind of world leadership that its people had never known before. VOICE 2: President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisers had to make an important decision about how to fight the war. Would the United States fight Japan first, or Germany, or both enemies at the same time. Japan's attack had brought America into the war. And it had severely damaged American military power. But Roosevelt decided not to strike back at Japan immediately. He would use most of his forces to fight Germany. There were several reasons for Roosevelt's decision. First, Germany already controlled much of Europe, as well as much of the Atlantic Ocean. Roosevelt considered this a direct threat. And he worried about possible German intervention in Latin America. Second, Germany was an advanced industrial nation. It had many scientists and engineers. Its factories were modern. Roosevelt was concerned that Germany might be able to develop deadly new weapons, such as an atomic bomb, if it was not stopped quickly. Third, Britain historically was one of America's closest allies. And the British people were united and fighting for their lives against Germany. This was not true in Asia. Japan's most important opponent was China. But China's fighting forces were weak and divided, and could not offer strong opposition to the Japanese. VOICE 1: Hitler's decision to break his treaty with Josef Stalin and attack the soviet union made Roosevelt's choice final. The American leader recognized that the Germans would have to fight on two fronts: in the west against Britain and in the east against Russia. He decided it was best to attack Germany while its forces were divided. So Washington sent most of its troops and supplies to Britain to join the fight against Germany. American military leaders hoped to attack Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. Stalin also supported this plan. Soviet forces were suffering terrible losses from the Nazi attack and wanted the British and Americans to fight the Germans on the west. However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other leaders opposed launching an invasion across the English channel too quickly. They worried that such an invasion might fail, while the Germans were still so strong. And they knew this would mean disaster. VOICE 2: For this reason, British and American forces decided instead to attack the Italian and German occupation troops in north Africa. British forces had been fighting the Italians and Germans in north Africa since late in nineteen-forty. They fought the Italians first in Egypt and Libya. British forces had successfully pushed the Italians across Libya. They killed more than ten-thousand Italian troops and captured more than one-hundred thirty-thousand prisoners. But the British success did not last long. Hitler sent one of his best commanders, General Erwin Rommel, to take command of the Italians. Rommel was brave and smart. He pushed the British back from Libya to the border with Egypt. And in a giant battle at Tobruk, he destroyed or captured more than eight- hundred of Britains's nine-hundred tanks. VOICE 1: Rommel's progress threatened Egypt and the Suez Canal. So Britain and the United States moved quickly to send more troops and supplies to stop him. Slowly, British forces led by General Bernard Montgomery pushed Rommel and the Germans back to Tripoli in Libya. In November, nineteen-forty-two, American and British forces commanded by general Dwight Eisenhower landed in northwest Africa. They planned to attack rommel from the west, while montgomery attacked him from the east. But rommel knew Eisenhower's troops had done little fighting before. So he attacked them quickly before they could launch their own attack. VOICE 2: A terrible battle took place at kasserine in western Tunisia. Rommel's attack failed. The American troops held their ground. And three months later, they joined with montgomery's British troops to force the Germans in north Africa to surrender. The battle of north Africa was over. The allied forces of Britain and the United States had regained control of the southern mediterranean sea. They could now attack Hitler's forces in Europe from the south. VOICE 1: The allies wasted no time. They landed on the Italian island of Sicily in July of nineteen-forty-three. German tanks fought back. But the British and American forces moved ahead. Soon they captured Sicily's capital, Palermo. And within weeks, they forced the German forces to leave Sicily for the Italian mainland. In late July, Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, was overthrown and placed in prison. The Germans rescued him and helped him establish a new government, protected by German troops. But still the allies attacked. They crossed to the Italian mainland. The Germans fought hard, returning bullet for bullet. And for some time, they prevented the allied troops from breaking out of the coastal areas. VOICE 2: The fighting grew bloodier. A fierce battle took place at Monte Cassino. Thousands and thousands of soldiers lost their lives. But slowly the allies advanced north through Italy. They captured Rome in June of nineteen-forty-four. And they forced the Germans back into the mountains of northern Italy. The allies would not gain complete control of Italy until the end of the war. But they had succeeded in increasing their control of the Mediterranean and pushing back the Germans. One reason Hitler's forces were not stronger in Africa and Italy was because German armies also were fighting in Russia. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Our program was narrated by Jack Weitzel and Rich Kleinfeldt. It was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December nineteen-forty-one was one of the most successful surprise attacks in the history of modern warfare. Japanese warships, including several aircraft carriers, crossed the western Pacific to Hawaii without being seen. They launched their warplanes on Sunday morning to attack the huge American naval and air base. Many of the American sailors were asleep or at church. They were completely surprised. In fact, some Americans outside the base thought the Japanese planes must be American airmen making training flights in new airplanes. The sounds of guns and bombs soon showed how wrong they were. VOICE 2: The Japanese planes sank or seriously damaged six powerful American battleships in just a few minutes. They killed more than three-thousand sailors. They destroyed or damaged half the American airplanes in Hawaii. American forces were so surprised that they were unable to offer much of a fight. Japanese losses were very light. Japan's destruction at Pearl Harbor was so complete that officials in Washington did not tell the full details immediately to the American people. They were afraid the nation might panic if it learned the truth about the loss of so much American military power. VOICE 1: The following day, President Roosevelt went to the Capitol building to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. The Senate approved his request without opposition. In the House of Representatives, only one congressman objected. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Congress reacted by declaring war on those two countries. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ended the long American debate about whether to become involved in the Second World War. American politicians and citizens had argued for years about whether to remain neutral or fight to help Britain and France and other friends. Japan's aggressive attack at Pearl Harbor united Americans in a common desire for military victory. It made Americans willing to do whatever was necessary to win the war. And it pushed America into a kind of world leadership that its people had never known before. VOICE 2: President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisers had to make an important decision about how to fight the war. Would the United States fight Japan first, or Germany, or both enemies at the same time. Japan's attack had brought America into the war. And it had severely damaged American military power. But Roosevelt decided not to strike back at Japan immediately. He would use most of his forces to fight Germany. There were several reasons for Roosevelt's decision. First, Germany already controlled much of Europe, as well as much of the Atlantic Ocean. Roosevelt considered this a direct threat. And he worried about possible German intervention in Latin America. Second, Germany was an advanced industrial nation. It had many scientists and engineers. Its factories were modern. Roosevelt was concerned that Germany might be able to develop deadly new weapons, such as an atomic bomb, if it was not stopped quickly. Third, Britain historically was one of America's closest allies. And the British people were united and fighting for their lives against Germany. This was not true in Asia. Japan's most important opponent was China. But China's fighting forces were weak and divided, and could not offer strong opposition to the Japanese. VOICE 1: Hitler's decision to break his treaty with Josef Stalin and attack the soviet union made Roosevelt's choice final. The American leader recognized that the Germans would have to fight on two fronts: in the west against Britain and in the east against Russia. He decided it was best to attack Germany while its forces were divided. So Washington sent most of its troops and supplies to Britain to join the fight against Germany. American military leaders hoped to attack Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. Stalin also supported this plan. Soviet forces were suffering terrible losses from the Nazi attack and wanted the British and Americans to fight the Germans on the west. However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and other leaders opposed launching an invasion across the English channel too quickly. They worried that such an invasion might fail, while the Germans were still so strong. And they knew this would mean disaster. VOICE 2: For this reason, British and American forces decided instead to attack the Italian and German occupation troops in north Africa. British forces had been fighting the Italians and Germans in north Africa since late in nineteen-forty. They fought the Italians first in Egypt and Libya. British forces had successfully pushed the Italians across Libya. They killed more than ten-thousand Italian troops and captured more than one-hundred thirty-thousand prisoners. But the British success did not last long. Hitler sent one of his best commanders, General Erwin Rommel, to take command of the Italians. Rommel was brave and smart. He pushed the British back from Libya to the border with Egypt. And in a giant battle at Tobruk, he destroyed or captured more than eight- hundred of Britains's nine-hundred tanks. VOICE 1: Rommel's progress threatened Egypt and the Suez Canal. So Britain and the United States moved quickly to send more troops and supplies to stop him. Slowly, British forces led by General Bernard Montgomery pushed Rommel and the Germans back to Tripoli in Libya. In November, nineteen-forty-two, American and British forces commanded by general Dwight Eisenhower landed in northwest Africa. They planned to attack rommel from the west, while montgomery attacked him from the east. But rommel knew Eisenhower's troops had done little fighting before. So he attacked them quickly before they could launch their own attack. VOICE 2: A terrible battle took place at kasserine in western Tunisia. Rommel's attack failed. The American troops held their ground. And three months later, they joined with montgomery's British troops to force the Germans in north Africa to surrender. The battle of north Africa was over. The allied forces of Britain and the United States had regained control of the southern mediterranean sea. They could now attack Hitler's forces in Europe from the south. VOICE 1: The allies wasted no time. They landed on the Italian island of Sicily in July of nineteen-forty-three. German tanks fought back. But the British and American forces moved ahead. Soon they captured Sicily's capital, Palermo. And within weeks, they forced the German forces to leave Sicily for the Italian mainland. In late July, Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, was overthrown and placed in prison. The Germans rescued him and helped him establish a new government, protected by German troops. But still the allies attacked. They crossed to the Italian mainland. The Germans fought hard, returning bullet for bullet. And for some time, they prevented the allied troops from breaking out of the coastal areas. VOICE 2: The fighting grew bloodier. A fierce battle took place at Monte Cassino. Thousands and thousands of soldiers lost their lives. But slowly the allies advanced north through Italy. They captured Rome in June of nineteen-forty-four. And they forced the Germans back into the mountains of northern Italy. The allies would not gain complete control of Italy until the end of the war. But they had succeeded in increasing their control of the Mediterranean and pushing back the Germans. One reason Hitler's forces were not stronger in Africa and Italy was because German armies also were fighting in Russia. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Our program was narrated by Jack Weitzel and Rich Kleinfeldt. It was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – May 2, 2002: Teacher of the Year
* Byline: 

 This is the Special English Education Report. A social studies teacher from the state of California has been honored as the National Teacher of the Year. President Bush presented the award to retired Army officer Chauncey Veatch at a ceremony at the White House last week. The president praised Mister Veatch for serving both the children and the nation well. In accepting his award, Mister Veatch urged others to become teachers. He praised teaching as a way to become part of America’s future. He spoke in English and Spanish. Mister Veatch teaches at Coachella Valley High School in Thermal, California. Most of his students have families who speak Spanish. Many of the families are farm workers who move from place to place to pick grapes. Mister Veatch is the son of a military family who also moved often. As a child he once attended five different schools in four states during a single school year. Mister Veatch’s students have won competitions in science, spelling and mathematics. They also have earned scholarships -- money to attend universities. This year, half of his thirty-four students said they want to become teachers. Mister Veatch is fifty-four years old. Before becoming a teacher, he served for twenty-two years as an Army officer. He was a medical administrator. After retiring from the Army in Nineteen-Ninety-Five, he became interested in teaching. He asked the local school system if he could be a substitute teacher. He had never taught before. Still, the school system gave him a job teaching science and mathematics to middle-school students. Mister Veatch attended university classes at night, on weekends and during the summers. After three years, he completed the training required to become a permanent teacher. Mister Veatch will spend the next year away from his classroom. He will spread the message about the importance of teaching. American presidents have presented the Teacher of the Year Award to the country’s finest teachers every year since Nineteen-Fifty-Two. The goal is to honor teaching and show support for education. President Bush also has expressed special support for a program called Troops to Teachers. This program places retired members of the military in public school teaching jobs. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 2, 2002 - 'Lower 48 States' and 'Synergy' Explained
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 2, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: May 5, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the "lower 48 states" and "synergy" have something in common. Now what could it be ... RS: They're both terms that Walter Wang, a listener in the Xinjiang autonomous region of northwestern China, would like us to explain. As for "the lower 48 states," a term he came across in a magazine, Walter says by e-mail: "I guess it means the US states except Alaska and the Pacific state. Is this true?" JIM EVANS: "Yeah, that's true." RS: That's Jim Evans of the United States Geological Survey. EVANS: "I think the term 'lower' refers to the fact that the so-called lower 48 states are lower in latitude than, say, Alaska, although that wouldn't exclude Hawaii. It's out in the middle of the Pacific, so it doesn't get included." AA: The term is also imprecise in another way: referring to the "lower 48 states" might suggest that there's an "upper 48 states," which -- as every Canadian knows -- there isn't. RS: Well, here is a way to avoid any confusion: Americans also refer to the "48 contiguous states." Not continuous, but contiguous -- meaning connected. RS: OK, on to Walter's other question. His dictionary doesn't have the word "synergy," but he writes, "I infer it means a combination of various qualities among different people. In other words, it can take the place of fusion, among others." RS: Once again, Walter, you infer correctly! All we would add is that the word "synergy" has roots in an ancient Greek word meaning "working together." SFX: TYPING ON COMPUTER KEYBOARD AA: Now what do you say we go on the Internet and type in "synergy.com," just to see what we find. MAXWELL: "My name is Barbara Maxwell and my company is Synergy Software. We are probably one of the last remaining small, private, independent software companies in the United States. The company, essentially, is like a partnership between several groups of people -- our software developers and my husband and myself, and I'm a teacher by trade. "So the reason that we used the word synergy was because it goes a little bit beyond what I connote the word 'partnership' to mean. Partnership might not necessarily be a cooperative effort. You can have two partners who function together in a business and they don't really like each other, or sometimes even talk to each other. "But in our case the synergy in our company is the fact that our engineering talent is free to do what they do best, which is develop software, and then my husband and I take care of the marketing and the sales and all the other stuff, finding the people and paying the people. So together our synergy is that we have created this product and managed to stay alive for better than 15 years in a really tough market." RS: Synergy makes a data analysis and graphing program used in such places as big laboratories and universities. Little did the dozen employees know that the name they chose back in the early nineteen-nineties would become hot business jargon. MAXWELL: "There are now thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people who use the word 'synergy' somewhere in their name. We just have had a horrible problem because of all the other additional synergies and we get some very strange e-mail. (Laughter)" AA: "And no plans to change your name?" MAXWELL: "No ... no, not at this point." RS: Barbara Maxwell at Synergy Software in Pennsylvania. AA: If you've got a question for Rosanne and me, you can do what Walter Wang in far northwestern China did -- send it to word@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Synergy"/Holy Modal Rounders ----- HOST: Some American roots music by the group Holy Modal Rounders, going back to 1972. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 2, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: May 5, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the "lower 48 states" and "synergy" have something in common. Now what could it be ... RS: They're both terms that Walter Wang, a listener in the Xinjiang autonomous region of northwestern China, would like us to explain. As for "the lower 48 states," a term he came across in a magazine, Walter says by e-mail: "I guess it means the US states except Alaska and the Pacific state. Is this true?" JIM EVANS: "Yeah, that's true." RS: That's Jim Evans of the United States Geological Survey. EVANS: "I think the term 'lower' refers to the fact that the so-called lower 48 states are lower in latitude than, say, Alaska, although that wouldn't exclude Hawaii. It's out in the middle of the Pacific, so it doesn't get included." AA: The term is also imprecise in another way: referring to the "lower 48 states" might suggest that there's an "upper 48 states," which -- as every Canadian knows -- there isn't. RS: Well, here is a way to avoid any confusion: Americans also refer to the "48 contiguous states." Not continuous, but contiguous -- meaning connected. RS: OK, on to Walter's other question. His dictionary doesn't have the word "synergy," but he writes, "I infer it means a combination of various qualities among different people. In other words, it can take the place of fusion, among others." RS: Once again, Walter, you infer correctly! All we would add is that the word "synergy" has roots in an ancient Greek word meaning "working together." SFX: TYPING ON COMPUTER KEYBOARD AA: Now what do you say we go on the Internet and type in "synergy.com," just to see what we find. MAXWELL: "My name is Barbara Maxwell and my company is Synergy Software. We are probably one of the last remaining small, private, independent software companies in the United States. The company, essentially, is like a partnership between several groups of people -- our software developers and my husband and myself, and I'm a teacher by trade. "So the reason that we used the word synergy was because it goes a little bit beyond what I connote the word 'partnership' to mean. Partnership might not necessarily be a cooperative effort. You can have two partners who function together in a business and they don't really like each other, or sometimes even talk to each other. "But in our case the synergy in our company is the fact that our engineering talent is free to do what they do best, which is develop software, and then my husband and I take care of the marketing and the sales and all the other stuff, finding the people and paying the people. So together our synergy is that we have created this product and managed to stay alive for better than 15 years in a really tough market." RS: Synergy makes a data analysis and graphing program used in such places as big laboratories and universities. Little did the dozen employees know that the name they chose back in the early nineteen-nineties would become hot business jargon. MAXWELL: "There are now thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people who use the word 'synergy' somewhere in their name. We just have had a horrible problem because of all the other additional synergies and we get some very strange e-mail. (Laughter)" AA: "And no plans to change your name?" MAXWELL: "No ... no, not at this point." RS: Barbara Maxwell at Synergy Software in Pennsylvania. AA: If you've got a question for Rosanne and me, you can do what Walter Wang in far northwestern China did -- send it to word@voanews.com. Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Synergy"/Holy Modal Rounders ----- HOST: Some American roots music by the group Holy Modal Rounders, going back to 1972. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: test article
* Byline: 

 Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Roosevelt signing a declaration of war against Japan, Dec. 8, 1941 Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article Please ignore this test article 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT- May 3, 2002: Goldman Environmental Prize
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Eight environmental activists from around the world have been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize this year. They received one-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars from the Goldman Environmental Foundation. The awards were presented last week at a ceremony in San Francisco, California. Standing, from left: Alexis Massol-González, Jonathon Solomon, Pisit Charnsnoh. Seated: Sarah James, Jean La Rose, Norma Kassi, Fatima Jibrell. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Eight environmental activists from around the world have been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize this year. They received one-hundred-twenty-five-thousand dollars from the Goldman Environmental Foundation. The awards were presented last week at a ceremony in San Francisco, California. The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest program that honors local environmental activists. Experts choose the winners from six different parts of the world. Three winners will share the prize for North America. They are Jonathon Soloman and Sarah James of Alaska, and Norma Kassi of Canada. These Gwich’in tribal leaders fought to prevent oil companies from exploring in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Some experts say drilling in the ground would endanger the Caribou population. These animals are important for the survival of the Gwich’in culture. Jean La Rose of Guyana won the Goldman prize for South and Central America. Mizz La Rose leads the struggle for land rights in Guyana. She works to halt destructive mining activities that have damaged Guyana’s rainforests and the health of many of its native communities. Businessman Alexis Massol-Gonzalez of Puerto Rico won the prize for Islands and Island Nations. He led a successful campaign to change a mining area into a protected forest reserve that is now supervised by the community. Jadwiga Lopata(photo courtesy Goldman Foundation) The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest program that honors local environmental activists. Experts choose the winners from six different parts of the world. Three winners will share the prize for North America. They are Jonathon Soloman and Sarah James of Alaska, and Norma Kassi of Canada. These Gwich’in tribal leaders fought to prevent oil companies from exploring in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Some experts say drilling in the ground would endanger the Caribou population. These animals are important for the survival of the Gwich’in culture. Jean La Rose of Guyana won the Goldman prize for South and Central America. Mizz La Rose leads the struggle for land rights in Guyana. She works to halt destructive mining activities that have damaged Guyana’s rainforests and the health of many of its native communities. Businessman Alexis Massol-Gonzalez of Puerto Rico won the prize for Islands and Island Nations. He led a successful campaign to change a mining area into a protected forest reserve that is now supervised by the community. Jadwiga Lopata of Poland won the prize for Europe. Mizz Lopata created a program to increase support for the more than two-million family farms in Poland. These small farms provide important environmental systems for many different plants and animals. Ecologist Pisit Charnsnoh of Thailand was awarded the Goldman Prize for Asia. He works with fishermen to protect and restore Thailand’s environment that has been damaged by industrial fishing and tree-cutting. Fatima Jibrell of Somalia won the prize for Africa. She works for peace and environmental protection in her country, while dealing with wars and a severe lack of water. Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the Goldman Environmental Prize in Nineteen-Ninety. The Goldman Foundation awards the prizes to show the difference each person can make to help save the environment. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. Jadwiga Lopata of Poland won the prize for Europe. Mizz Lopata created a program to increase support for the more than two-million family farms in Poland. These small farms provide important environmental systems for many different plants and animals. Ecologist Pisit Charnsnoh of Thailand was awarded the Goldman Prize for Asia. He works with fishermen to protect and restore Thailand’s environment that has been damaged by industrial fishing and tree-cutting. Fatima Jibrell of Somalia won the prize for Africa. She works for peace and environmental protection in her country, while dealing with wars and a severe lack of water. Richard and Rhoda Goldman created the Goldman Environmental Prize in Nineteen-Ninety. The Goldman Foundation awards the prizes to show the difference each person can make to help save the environment. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 3, 2002: George Mason / Music from The Band / Question About the International Space Station
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. International Space Station HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music from The Band ... Answer a question about the International Space Station ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music from The Band ... Answer a question about the International Space Station ... And learn about a little known hero of American history. George Mason HOST: Washington, D.C., has many memorials. Some honor former presidents. Others honor Americans who fought in wars. Recently, a crowd gathered near the Potomac River for the opening of the George Mason National Memorial. It is in a garden, near colorful flowers and a water fountain. A metal statue of a man sits on a seat. A few of his most famous writings are on a nearby stone wall. George Mason was responsible for the first American bill of rights. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. VOICE: And learn about a little known hero of American history. George Mason HOST: Washington, D.C., has many memorials. Some honor former presidents. Others honor Americans who fought in wars. Recently, a crowd gathered near the Potomac River for the opening of the George Mason National Memorial. It is in a garden, near colorful flowers and a water fountain. A metal statue of a man sits on a seat. A few of his most famous writings are on a nearby stone wall. George Mason was responsible for the first American bill of rights. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. VOICE: George Mason held few public offices. Yet his ideas influenced both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution. Later, his ideas were used in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Rights. George Mason was born in the colony of Virginia in Seventeen-Twenty-Five. He studied law and supervised his family’s property. Mister Mason became active in his community. He was famous for opposing the British colonial government. However, he refused public office many times. He enjoyed being a private citizen. Finally, George Mason became a delegate to the Virginia Convention in Seventeen-Seventy-Five. The following year, he was chosen to write Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. It became his most important work. The Virginia Declaration of Rights has been called the first American bill of rights. The declaration called for freedom of the press. It called for an official policy that permitted different religions. It also declared an individual’s right to a fair and speedy trial. A few years later, George Mason took part in creating the United States Constitution. However, he strongly disagreed with parts of it. He objected to a compromise that permitted the importation of slaves to continue until Eighteen-Oh-Eight. Mister Mason owned slaves, but he was one of the few southern state delegates to oppose slavery. He believed that slaves should be educated and later freed. George Mason had other concerns about the proposed Constitution. He wanted a bill of rights to protect individuals against possible interference by the federal government. George Mason refused to sign the Constitution. And he opposed the document when it was offered to the states for approval. But he lived to see the Bill of Rights added to the Constitution in Seventeen-Ninety-One. That was one year before George Mason died. International Space Station HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Bouahom Damrong asks about the International Space Station. Some scientists have called the International Space Station the largest and most important international scientific project in history. The Space Station will be a permanent laboratory to test new industrial materials and communications devices and to carry out medical research. The space station will be used for such research because gravity, temperature and pressure can be controlled and changed in ways impossible to do in laboratories on Earth. The building of the International Space Station began in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight with the launch of the Zarya spacecraft from Russia. Project planners say it will take about forty-four launches of Russian rockets and American space shuttles to complete the structure. They hope to have the work done by Two-Thousand-Four. The complete space station will be one-hundred-nine meters across and eighty-eight meters long. It will weigh more than four-hundred-fifty-thousand kilograms. Large devices that collect sunlight and change it to electric power will extend over an area of almost one-half hectare. The space station will provide working and living areas for a crew of up to seven astronauts and scientists. These areas will be about the same size as two huge passenger planes. The International Space Station is a joint effort of the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil and eleven members of the European Space Agency. Many of these countries build parts for the space station. Each piece is then taken into space and linked together by astronauts. American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have been living on the space station for more than a year. They have already completed several scientific experiments. The first crew of three to live on the space station left Earth in October, Two-Thousand and spent more than one-hundred-thirty-eight days there. The fifth group is expected to arrive in June and leave in October. The United States space agency’s Kennedy Space Center Internet Web site provides much more information about the International Space Station. The Internet address is www.ksc.nasa.gov. The Band HOST: A famous rock and roll group called the Band was popular in the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies. It is popular again because of a movie and an album called “The Last Waltz.” Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: The members of the group first started performing with singer Ronnie Hawkins as the Hawks. Then Bob Dylan asked them to perform with him. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, they began performing on their own as the Band. The Band’s songs are like many traditional American songs -- they tell stories. This song is about the Civil War between the northern and southern states in the Eighteen-Sixties. It is called “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” ((CUT ONE: THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN)) The Band decided to stop performing in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. The members held one last concert in San Francisco, California. They asked several famous artists to perform with them. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Muddy Waters appeared with them. A famous Hollywood movie director, Martin Scorsese, filmed the concert. Some critics have called “The Last Waltz” one of the greatest rock and roll movies of all time. It is now being shown again in several American cities. A new album of music from the concert also has been released. Here is one of the songs from the movie and the album. It is called “Rag Mama Rag.” ((CUT TWO: RAG MAMA RAG)) Experts say the Band’s music influenced many other performers. They say its music still sounds powerful and new, more than twenty-five years later. We leave you now with the Band performing “It Makes No Difference.” ((CUT THREE: IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. George Mason held few public offices. Yet his ideas influenced both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution. Later, his ideas were used in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Rights. George Mason was born in the colony of Virginia in Seventeen-Twenty-Five. He studied law and supervised his family’s property. Mister Mason became active in his community. He was famous for opposing the British colonial government. However, he refused public office many times. He enjoyed being a private citizen. Finally, George Mason became a delegate to the Virginia Convention in Seventeen-Seventy-Five. The following year, he was chosen to write Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. It became his most important work. The Virginia Declaration of Rights has been called the first American bill of rights. The declaration called for freedom of the press. It called for an official policy that permitted different religions. It also declared an individual’s right to a fair and speedy trial. A few years later, George Mason took part in creating the United States Constitution. However, he strongly disagreed with parts of it. He objected to a compromise that permitted the importation of slaves to continue until Eighteen-Oh-Eight. Mister Mason owned slaves, but he was one of the few southern state delegates to oppose slavery. He believed that slaves should be educated and later freed. George Mason had other concerns about the proposed Constitution. He wanted a bill of rights to protect individuals against possible interference by the federal government. George Mason refused to sign the Constitution. And he opposed the document when it was offered to the states for approval. But he lived to see the Bill of Rights added to the Constitution in Seventeen-Ninety-One. That was one year before George Mason died. International Space Station HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Bouahom Damrong asks about the International Space Station. Some scientists have called the International Space Station the largest and most important international scientific project in history. The Space Station will be a permanent laboratory to test new industrial materials and communications devices and to carry out medical research. The space station will be used for such research because gravity, temperature and pressure can be controlled and changed in ways impossible to do in laboratories on Earth. The building of the International Space Station began in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight with the launch of the Zarya spacecraft from Russia. Project planners say it will take about forty-four launches of Russian rockets and American space shuttles to complete the structure. They hope to have the work done by Two-Thousand-Four. The complete space station will be one-hundred-nine meters across and eighty-eight meters long. It will weigh more than four-hundred-fifty-thousand kilograms. Large devices that collect sunlight and change it to electric power will extend over an area of almost one-half hectare. The space station will provide working and living areas for a crew of up to seven astronauts and scientists. These areas will be about the same size as two huge passenger planes. The International Space Station is a joint effort of the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Brazil and eleven members of the European Space Agency. Many of these countries build parts for the space station. Each piece is then taken into space and linked together by astronauts. American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have been living on the space station for more than a year. They have already completed several scientific experiments. The first crew of three to live on the space station left Earth in October, Two-Thousand and spent more than one-hundred-thirty-eight days there. The fifth group is expected to arrive in June and leave in October. The United States space agency’s Kennedy Space Center Internet Web site provides much more information about the International Space Station. The Internet address is www.ksc.nasa.gov. The Band HOST: A famous rock and roll group called the Band was popular in the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies. It is popular again because of a movie and an album called “The Last Waltz.” Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: The members of the group first started performing with singer Ronnie Hawkins as the Hawks. Then Bob Dylan asked them to perform with him. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, they began performing on their own as the Band. The Band’s songs are like many traditional American songs -- they tell stories. This song is about the Civil War between the northern and southern states in the Eighteen-Sixties. It is called “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” ((CUT ONE: THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN)) The Band decided to stop performing in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. The members held one last concert in San Francisco, California. They asked several famous artists to perform with them. Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Muddy Waters appeared with them. A famous Hollywood movie director, Martin Scorsese, filmed the concert. Some critics have called “The Last Waltz” one of the greatest rock and roll movies of all time. It is now being shown again in several American cities. A new album of music from the concert also has been released. Here is one of the songs from the movie and the album. It is called “Rag Mama Rag.” ((CUT TWO: RAG MAMA RAG)) Experts say the Band’s music influenced many other performers. They say its music still sounds powerful and new, more than twenty-five years later. We leave you now with the Band performing “It Makes No Difference.” ((CUT THREE: IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 5, 2002: Fred Astaire
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a VOA Special English program about famous Americans of the past. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of dancer and movie star, Fred Astaire. ANNCR: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a VOA Special English program about famous Americans of the past. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of dancer and movie star, Fred Astaire. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year is Nineteen Thirty-Two. The United States is suffering the greatest economic depression in its history. Jobs are hard to find. One young man is attempting to get a job dancing in the movies. Earlier, he and his sister had made a short film showing how they danced and sang. A motion picture company official watches the film. He writes this about the young man: "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." (THEME) VOICE ONE: The year is Nineteen Thirty-Two. The United States is suffering the greatest economic depression in its history. Jobs are hard to find. One young man is attempting to get a job dancing in the movies. Earlier, he and his sister had made a short film showing how they danced and sang. A motion picture company official watches the film. He writes this about the young man: "Can't act. Can't sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little." Even with this poor report, the young man still gets a job in the movies. And -- in time -- his acting, singing and dancing changed the American motion picture musical. His name was Fred Astaire. ((TAPE CUT One: "I Want to Be a Dancing Man")) VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire was born in the middle western city of Omaha, Nebraska, in Eighteen Ninety-Nine. He was the second child of an Austrian beer maker, Frederick Austerlitz, and his wife, Ann Gelius Austerlitz. Fred and his sister, Adele, learned to dance when they were very young. Their mother took them to New York to study dance. They performed in their first professional show when Fred was ten years old and Adele was twelve. Later, as teen-agers, the two danced in many shows throughout the United States. Their first big success was on Broadway in Nineteen-Seventeen. One critic wrote that Fred danced as if he had no bones. VOICE ONE: Even with this poor report, the young man still gets a job in the movies. And -- in time -- his acting, singing and dancing changed the American motion picture musical. His name was Fred Astaire. ((TAPE CUT One: "I Want to Be a Dancing Man")) VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire was born in the middle western city of Omaha, Nebraska, in Eighteen Ninety-Nine. He was the second child of an Austrian beer maker, Frederick Austerlitz, and his wife, Ann Gelius Austerlitz. Fred and his sister, Adele, learned to dance when they were very young. Their mother took them to New York to study dance. They performed in their first professional show when Fred was ten years old and Adele was twelve. Later, as teen-agers, the two danced in many shows throughout the United States. Their first big success was on Broadway in Nineteen-Seventeen. One critic wrote that Fred danced as if he had no bones. VOICE ONE: The Astaires -- as they were known -- quickly became Broadway stars. During the Nineteen-Twenties, they sang and danced in eleven different shows. They also performed in England. In Nineteen Thirty-Two, Adele Astaire married a British man, and stopped performing. Critics had always considered her a better dancer than her brother. But Fred did not give up. He would go on alone ... in the movies. Many years later in the film, "The Bandwagon," he played a man in a similar situation. ((TAPE CUT Two: "By Myself, Alone")) VOICE TWO: One of Fred's first films was called, "Flying Down To Rio." It was in this movie that he first danced with a young woman named Ginger Rogers. Fred and Ginger were not the stars of the picture. But when they danced this dance, The Carioca, everyone knew that something important was happening in the world of movie dancing. ((TAPE CUT Three: "The Carioca")) VOICE ONE: The Astaires -- as they were known -- quickly became Broadway stars. During the Nineteen-Twenties, they sang and danced in eleven different shows. They also performed in England. In Nineteen Thirty-Two, Adele Astaire married a British man, and stopped performing. Critics had always considered her a better dancer than her brother. But Fred did not give up. He would go on alone ... in the movies. Many years later in the film, "The Bandwagon," he played a man in a similar situation. ((TAPE CUT Two: "By Myself, Alone")) VOICE TWO: One of Fred's first films was called, "Flying Down To Rio." It was in this movie that he first danced with a young woman named Ginger Rogers. Fred and Ginger were not the stars of the picture. But when they danced this dance, The Carioca, everyone knew that something important was happening in the world of movie dancing. ((TAPE CUT Three: "The Carioca")) VOICE ONE: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made nine movies together. Their dancing was considered -- and still is considered -- the best ballroom dancing in the world. Dance critic Arlene Croce wrote: "Astaire and Rogers became the most popular team the movies have ever known. Their dancing was a vehicle of serious emotion between a man and a woman. It never happened in the movies again." Many great American song writers wanted to write songs for Fred and Ginger. Among them were Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George and Ira Gershwin. They liked the way Fred sang a song. He did it simply, with respect for the words. One of these songs was Cole Porter's "Night and Day." Fred sang it to Ginger in the movie, "The Gay Divorcee." ((TAPE CUT Four: "Night and Day")) VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire made forty other films. In addition to Ginger Rogers, he danced with many other talented women. Rita Hayworth. Eleanor Powell. Judy Garland. Cyd Charisse. Leslie Caron. Fred also danced alone in some very unusual places. He danced up walls and on the ceiling in the film, "Royal Wedding". He danced on rooftops in "The Belle of New York". He danced on roller skates in "Shall We Dance?". And he danced with firecrackers exploding at his feet in "Holiday Inn". VOICE ONE: Fred Astaire made all this look easy. But it was not. Critics have said his technical skill was the greatest in the history of the movie musical. He said: "Dancing is a sweat job. You cannot just sit down and do it. You have to get up on your feet. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable. I always try to get to know my dance so well that I do not have to think, 'what comes next?'. Everything should fall into line. And then I know I have got control of the floor." VOICE TWO: Before each movie was filmed, Fred Astaire and his partner worked for as many as six weeks to plan each step and movement. He also planned how the cameras would photograph them, so that as much dancing as possible could be filmed at one time. Earlier, movie directors had photographed dancers showing one part of their body at a time as they danced. Fred would not permit this. He wanted movie-goers to see his whole body at all times. And he would not permit any camera tricks to make his dancing appear smoother or faster than it was. In Nineteen Forty-Nine, Fred Astaire won a special award for his film work from America's Motion Picture Academy. He also won awards from the television industry for a number of his television programs. VOICE ONE: Fred stopped dancing in Nineteen-Seventy. He was more than seventy years old at the time. He said a dancer could not continue dancing forever. He said he did not want to disappoint anyone, even himself. He danced again in public only once after that. It was with another great male dancer, Gene Kelly, in the movie, "That's Entertainment, Part Two". Fred did not always appear as a dancing man. He had a dramatic part in the movie, "On The Beach", in Nineteen Fifty-Nine. And he starred in a non-dancing television series called, "It Takes a Thief". VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire and his first wife, Phyllis, raised three children. Phyllis died in Nineteen Fifty-Four. Twenty-five years later, Fred married race horse rider Robyn Smith. Fred Astaire died on June Twenty-Second, Nineteen Eighty-Seven. He was eighty-eight years old. He was called the greatest dancer in the world. His dancing was called perfect. And movie-goers everywhere will remember him as a great performer whose work will live forever in his films. ((TAPE CUT Five: "I Want to Be a Dancing Man")) ANNCR: You have been listening to People In America -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe were the narrators. I'm Shirley Griffith. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made nine movies together. Their dancing was considered -- and still is considered -- the best ballroom dancing in the world. Dance critic Arlene Croce wrote: "Astaire and Rogers became the most popular team the movies have ever known. Their dancing was a vehicle of serious emotion between a man and a woman. It never happened in the movies again." Many great American song writers wanted to write songs for Fred and Ginger. Among them were Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George and Ira Gershwin. They liked the way Fred sang a song. He did it simply, with respect for the words. One of these songs was Cole Porter's "Night and Day." Fred sang it to Ginger in the movie, "The Gay Divorcee." ((TAPE CUT Four: "Night and Day")) VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire made forty other films. In addition to Ginger Rogers, he danced with many other talented women. Rita Hayworth. Eleanor Powell. Judy Garland. Cyd Charisse. Leslie Caron. Fred also danced alone in some very unusual places. He danced up walls and on the ceiling in the film, "Royal Wedding". He danced on rooftops in "The Belle of New York". He danced on roller skates in "Shall We Dance?". And he danced with firecrackers exploding at his feet in "Holiday Inn". VOICE ONE: Fred Astaire made all this look easy. But it was not. Critics have said his technical skill was the greatest in the history of the movie musical. He said: "Dancing is a sweat job. You cannot just sit down and do it. You have to get up on your feet. It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable. I always try to get to know my dance so well that I do not have to think, 'what comes next?'. Everything should fall into line. And then I know I have got control of the floor." VOICE TWO: Before each movie was filmed, Fred Astaire and his partner worked for as many as six weeks to plan each step and movement. He also planned how the cameras would photograph them, so that as much dancing as possible could be filmed at one time. Earlier, movie directors had photographed dancers showing one part of their body at a time as they danced. Fred would not permit this. He wanted movie-goers to see his whole body at all times. And he would not permit any camera tricks to make his dancing appear smoother or faster than it was. In Nineteen Forty-Nine, Fred Astaire won a special award for his film work from America's Motion Picture Academy. He also won awards from the television industry for a number of his television programs. VOICE ONE: Fred stopped dancing in Nineteen-Seventy. He was more than seventy years old at the time. He said a dancer could not continue dancing forever. He said he did not want to disappoint anyone, even himself. He danced again in public only once after that. It was with another great male dancer, Gene Kelly, in the movie, "That's Entertainment, Part Two". Fred did not always appear as a dancing man. He had a dramatic part in the movie, "On The Beach", in Nineteen Fifty-Nine. And he starred in a non-dancing television series called, "It Takes a Thief". VOICE TWO: Fred Astaire and his first wife, Phyllis, raised three children. Phyllis died in Nineteen Fifty-Four. Twenty-five years later, Fred married race horse rider Robyn Smith. Fred Astaire died on June Twenty-Second, Nineteen Eighty-Seven. He was eighty-eight years old. He was called the greatest dancer in the world. His dancing was called perfect. And movie-goers everywhere will remember him as a great performer whose work will live forever in his films. ((TAPE CUT Five: "I Want to Be a Dancing Man")) ANNCR: You have been listening to People In America -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe were the narrators. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - May 6, 2002: Memphis, Tennessee
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The music called blues was born in this southern American city. Rock and roll music also began here. This month, the city is celebrating its musical traditions. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: The music called blues was born in this southern American city. Rock and roll music also began here. This month, the city is celebrating its musical traditions. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The city of Memphis, Tennessee is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: "Memphis Blues")) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The city of Memphis, Tennessee is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: "Memphis Blues")) VOICE ONE: Memphis is the largest city in the southern state of Tennessee. The Mississippi River flows along the west side of the city. Memphis is the chief center of business, industry and transportation in Tennessee. Six-hundred-fifty-thousand people live in the city. More than one-million people live in the area. Memphis is famous as the birthplace of two major kinds of American music – the blues and rock and roll. It also is well known for soul music. VOICE TWO: Memphis, Tennessee began as a settlement in Eighteen-Nineteen. Three men -- John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson – started it. Andrew Jackson would later become president of the United States. They built the settlement where the Wolf River flowed into the Mississippi River. Mister Jackson named it after the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, which was also built along a famous river, the Nile. Memphis became an important city when a railroad bridge was completed across the Mississippi River in Eighteen-Ninety-Two. The bridge increased trade between the east and the southwestern United States. By Nineteen-Hundred, Memphis was the world’s largest market for cotton and wood products. Graceland Memphis is the largest city in the southern state of Tennessee. The Mississippi River flows along the west side of the city. Memphis is the chief center of business, industry and transportation in Tennessee. Six-hundred-fifty-thousand people live in the city. More than one-million people live in the area. Memphis is famous as the birthplace of two major kinds of American music – the blues and rock and roll. It also is well known for soul music. VOICE TWO: Memphis, Tennessee began as a settlement in Eighteen-Nineteen. Three men -- John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson – started it. Andrew Jackson would later become president of the United States. They built the settlement where the Wolf River flowed into the Mississippi River. Mister Jackson named it after the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, which was also built along a famous river, the Nile. Memphis became an important city when a railroad bridge was completed across the Mississippi River in Eighteen-Ninety-Two. The bridge increased trade between the east and the southwestern United States. By Nineteen-Hundred, Memphis was the world’s largest market for cotton and wood products. VOICE ONE: Like many other American cities, Memphis has had racial problems. About forty-eight percent of the city’s population is African American. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, city workers who collect waste went on strike. Most of the workers were black. The famous civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior went to Memphis to support the workers. On April Fourth, Reverend King was murdered in Memphis by James Earl Ray. After Mister King’s death, the city worked to improve living conditions for black people. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, voters elected W-E Herenton the city’s first black mayor. That same year, Memphis opened the National Civil Rights Museum. It was built next to the place where Martin Luther King was killed. Many people visit the museum to learn about the history of the American civil rights movement. VOICE TWO: The center of Memphis extends for almost two-and-one-half kilometers along the Mississippi River. One of the most famous streets in America – Beale Street – is in the southern part of the city. Composer W-C Handy worked there as a musician in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Handy was known as the “Father of the Blues.” In Nineteen-Sixteen, he wrote a song about the city’s famous street. Here is Louis Armstrong singing “Beale Street Blues.” ((CUT TWO: "Beale Street Blues")) VOICE ONE: Many visitors go to Beale Street at night to hear blues music performed. The street has become a major music center in Memphis. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, the famous guitar player B-B King opened his own Blues Club on Beale Street. When he is in Memphis, B-B King still performs with his guitar Lucille at his Beale Street Blues Club. In fact, he performed there last month. Here he performs the song “Caldonia.” ((CUT THREE: "Caldonia")) VOICE TWO: Blues was not the only music born in Memphis. Many experts say that rock and roll music began in the city. Sam Phillips was a white record producer there in the Nineteen-Fifties. He produced records by local black musicians at his recording company, Sun Studio. He also produced early recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. One day, an eighteen-year-old truck driver came to his studio to record a song to give to his mother. The young man was Elvis Presley. Sam Phillips produced Presley’s first real record in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was called “That’s All Right.” Many experts consider it to be the first recorded rock and roll song. ((CUT FOUR: "That's All Right")) VOICE ONE: Today, people from across the United States and around the world visit Memphis. Tourism has become a major industry. The most popular place to visit in Memphis is Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. Presley lived there for twenty years until his death on August sixteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. He is buried on the grounds of Graceland, along with his parents. As many as seven-hundred-thousand people visit Graceland every year. VOICE TWO: There are other interesting places to visit in Memphis. The Smithsonian Institution opened the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum two years ago. The museum explores the music and culture of the city. It shows how blues, country, and soul music came together in Memphis. It is the Smithsonian’s first permanent exhibition outside Washington, D-C and New York City. VOICE ONE: There is a large and beautiful hotel in Memphis, called the Peabody. It was built in Eighteen-Sixty-Nine. Many famous people have stayed at the Peabody. But it is best known for some birds that live in a special place on top of the hotel – the Peabody Marching Ducks. Every morning, the four ducks ride in an elevator down to the first floor. They march across the main room of the hotel to a small pool of water where they spend the day. Every afternoon, they leave their pool and march back across the room. They ride the elevator back up to their home. Two times a day, hundreds of people watch the Peabody Marching Ducks. ((MUSIC BRIDGE: MEMPHIS BLUES)) VOICE TWO: Many people are visiting Memphis to take part in special events held each year at this time. This celebration is called “Memphis in May International Festival.” Each year, Memphis honors a different country during International Week, which is being held this week. The city is honoring Argentina this year with a celebration of its customs and culture. There will be tango dancing, Argentine food and artwork. VOICE ONE: “The Memphis in May International Festival” also celebrates the traditions of the city. Music, of course, is one tradition. Another is food. Traditional Memphis food includes barbecued pork that is cooked outdoors over a fire. Other traditional foods are fried chicken, catfish, fried green tomatoes and pecan pie. Visitors can enjoy these foods at the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and the Great Southern Food Festival. The Beale Street Music Festival was held last weekend outdoors in a park. It is one of the largest music festivals in the country. More than sixty bands performed. VOICE TWO: Later this month, the W-C Handy Awards for blues performances will be presented. Nominees this year include B-B King, Ike Turner and Buddy Guy. A song called “Memphis Blues” is often played in the city. W-C Handy wrote it ninety years ago. We leave you with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra performing that song, honoring Memphis and its music. ((MUSIC: "Memphis Blues")) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Like many other American cities, Memphis has had racial problems. About forty-eight percent of the city’s population is African American. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, city workers who collect waste went on strike. Most of the workers were black. The famous civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Junior went to Memphis to support the workers. On April Fourth, Reverend King was murdered in Memphis by James Earl Ray. After Mister King’s death, the city worked to improve living conditions for black people. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, voters elected W-E Herenton the city’s first black mayor. That same year, Memphis opened the National Civil Rights Museum. It was built next to the place where Martin Luther King was killed. Many people visit the museum to learn about the history of the American civil rights movement. VOICE TWO: The center of Memphis extends for almost two-and-one-half kilometers along the Mississippi River. One of the most famous streets in America – Beale Street – is in the southern part of the city. Composer W-C Handy worked there as a musician in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Handy was known as the “Father of the Blues.” In Nineteen-Sixteen, he wrote a song about the city’s famous street. Here is Louis Armstrong singing “Beale Street Blues.” ((CUT TWO: "Beale Street Blues")) VOICE ONE: Many visitors go to Beale Street at night to hear blues music performed. The street has become a major music center in Memphis. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, the famous guitar player B-B King opened his own Blues Club on Beale Street. When he is in Memphis, B-B King still performs with his guitar Lucille at his Beale Street Blues Club. In fact, he performed there last month. Here he performs the song “Caldonia.” ((CUT THREE: "Caldonia")) VOICE TWO: Blues was not the only music born in Memphis. Many experts say that rock and roll music began in the city. Sam Phillips was a white record producer there in the Nineteen-Fifties. He produced records by local black musicians at his recording company, Sun Studio. He also produced early recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. One day, an eighteen-year-old truck driver came to his studio to record a song to give to his mother. The young man was Elvis Presley. Sam Phillips produced Presley’s first real record in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was called “That’s All Right.” Many experts consider it to be the first recorded rock and roll song. ((CUT FOUR: "That's All Right")) VOICE ONE: Today, people from across the United States and around the world visit Memphis. Tourism has become a major industry. The most popular place to visit in Memphis is Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. Presley lived there for twenty years until his death on August sixteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. He is buried on the grounds of Graceland, along with his parents. As many as seven-hundred-thousand people visit Graceland every year. VOICE TWO: There are other interesting places to visit in Memphis. The Smithsonian Institution opened the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum two years ago. The museum explores the music and culture of the city. It shows how blues, country, and soul music came together in Memphis. It is the Smithsonian’s first permanent exhibition outside Washington, D-C and New York City. VOICE ONE: There is a large and beautiful hotel in Memphis, called the Peabody. It was built in Eighteen-Sixty-Nine. Many famous people have stayed at the Peabody. But it is best known for some birds that live in a special place on top of the hotel – the Peabody Marching Ducks. Every morning, the four ducks ride in an elevator down to the first floor. They march across the main room of the hotel to a small pool of water where they spend the day. Every afternoon, they leave their pool and march back across the room. They ride the elevator back up to their home. Two times a day, hundreds of people watch the Peabody Marching Ducks. ((MUSIC BRIDGE: MEMPHIS BLUES)) VOICE TWO: Many people are visiting Memphis to take part in special events held each year at this time. This celebration is called “Memphis in May International Festival.” Each year, Memphis honors a different country during International Week, which is being held this week. The city is honoring Argentina this year with a celebration of its customs and culture. There will be tango dancing, Argentine food and artwork. VOICE ONE: “The Memphis in May International Festival” also celebrates the traditions of the city. Music, of course, is one tradition. Another is food. Traditional Memphis food includes barbecued pork that is cooked outdoors over a fire. Other traditional foods are fried chicken, catfish, fried green tomatoes and pecan pie. Visitors can enjoy these foods at the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and the Great Southern Food Festival. The Beale Street Music Festival was held last weekend outdoors in a park. It is one of the largest music festivals in the country. More than sixty bands performed. VOICE TWO: Later this month, the W-C Handy Awards for blues performances will be presented. Nominees this year include B-B King, Ike Turner and Buddy Guy. A song called “Memphis Blues” is often played in the city. W-C Handy wrote it ninety years ago. We leave you with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra performing that song, honoring Memphis and its music. ((MUSIC: "Memphis Blues")) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – May 6, 2002: International Education Plan
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. International finance ministers have approved a World Bank plan aimed at educating every child in developing countries. The plan is called “Education for All.” Its goal is to provide an education for all children between the ages of five and eleven by the year two-thousand-fifteen. The announcement came at the close of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last month in Washington, D.C. African children (WHO photo) This is the VOA Special English Development Report. International finance ministers have approved a World Bank plan aimed at educating every child in developing countries. The plan is called “Education for All.” Its goal is to provide an education for all children between the ages of five and eleven by the year two-thousand-fifteen. The announcement came at the close of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings last month in Washington, D.C. The World Bank estimates that about one-hundred-twenty-five-million children between the ages of five and eleven in poor countries do not attend school. That is about one of every five children. About seventy-five percent of these uneducated children live in southern Africa and South Asia. Finance ministers at the meeting strongly praised the education plan. However, they failed to settle a dispute about how to pay for it. The United States wants the World Bank to give money called grants to poor nations instead of loans that have to be repaid. European nations are opposed to this policy. They say the grants would use up the World Bank’s resources. So far, only a few industrialized countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, have promised to provide money for the program. The World Bank plans to launch the new education program in the next three months. Officials will provide money to ten poor countries. They will choose countries that have developed strong education reform plans but lack the money to put them in place. Tanzania, Malawi, Senegal, Bangladesh and India are among the nations being considered for this project. It is expected to cost up to five-thousand-million dollars. World Bank President James Wolfensohn hopes the ten countries will be chosen by late June. That is when the world’s seven leading industrial countries will gather in Canada for their yearly economic meeting. Mister Wolfensohn hopes an agreement to fully pay for the “Education for All” program can be reached during those talks. In time, the World Bank plans to give money to eighty-eight developing countries that have a large number of uneducated children. The bank says that at least one-fourth of the countries are in southern Africa and South Asia. Latin America and the Middle East are also areas in need of assistance. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. The World Bank estimates that about one-hundred-twenty-five-million children between the ages of five and eleven in poor countries do not attend school. That is about one of every five children. About seventy-five percent of these uneducated children live in southern Africa and South Asia. Finance ministers at the meeting strongly praised the education plan. However, they failed to settle a dispute about how to pay for it. The United States wants the World Bank to give money called grants to poor nations instead of loans that have to be repaid. European nations are opposed to this policy. They say the grants would use up the World Bank’s resources. So far, only a few industrialized countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, have promised to provide money for the program. The World Bank plans to launch the new education program in the next three months. Officials will provide money to ten poor countries. They will choose countries that have developed strong education reform plans but lack the money to put them in place. Tanzania, Malawi, Senegal, Bangladesh and India are among the nations being considered for this project. It is expected to cost up to five-thousand-million dollars. World Bank President James Wolfensohn hopes the ten countries will be chosen by late June. That is when the world’s seven leading industrial countries will gather in Canada for their yearly economic meeting. Mister Wolfensohn hopes an agreement to fully pay for the “Education for All” program can be reached during those talks. In time, the World Bank plans to give money to eighty-eight developing countries that have a large number of uneducated children. The bank says that at least one-fourth of the countries are in southern Africa and South Asia. Latin America and the Middle East are also areas in need of assistance. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 4, 2002: UN Special Meeting On Children
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. This Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly opens a special meeting on children. Leaders of more than seventy nations are expected to attend. The heads of several U-N agencies, including the World Health Organization and the World Food Program, also plan to take part. More than one-thousand-four-hundred delegates representing about eight-hundred non-governmental agencies are expected. A number of civil and business leaders will attend the meeting too. Former South African President Nelson Mandela and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will be among them. They are to speak about the involvement of private business in helping children. The U-N General Assembly is expected to approve a final document containing twenty-one goals for improving the lives of the world’s young people. The goals were developed from targets set at the nineteen-ninety World Summit for Children. One of the goals in the document is to expand clean water and waste systems to reach more people. Another is to reduce deaths among babies and mothers. The document also calls for providing early education for all children. And, it calls for a special effort to deal with the problem of the AIDS disease. The U-N special meeting on children is historic for several reasons. Hundreds of children from around the world will travel to New York to attend the meeting. They will take part in a conference called “Children’s Forum” in the two days before the General Assembly meets. The children will prepare positions on issues to be considered at the special meeting. Then, two children will be chosen to present the final product of the Children’s Forum to the General Assembly. There will also be many chances for all the children to interact with world leaders during the conference. This is the first time children have taken part in General Assembly activities in such size and number. Carol Bellamy is the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund, known as UNICEF. She said it may seem like common sense to invite children. But, she said, it is a major change for such high level meetings. This U-N meeting also involves a large number of non-governmental organizations that have not had an official link to the U-N in the past. UNICEF invited hundreds of community groups it works with in countries around the world. These include children’s rights groups and non-profit groups that deal in development. UNICEF also invited some religion-based organizations. U-N officials say these groups will help provide a new understanding of children’s needs on a community level. The General Assembly special meeting on children was supposed to be held last September. It was postponed after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. This Wednesday, the United Nations General Assembly opens a special meeting on children. Leaders of more than seventy nations are expected to attend. The heads of several U-N agencies, including the World Health Organization and the World Food Program, also plan to take part. More than one-thousand-four-hundred delegates representing about eight-hundred non-governmental agencies are expected. A number of civil and business leaders will attend the meeting too. Former South African President Nelson Mandela and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will be among them. They are to speak about the involvement of private business in helping children. The U-N General Assembly is expected to approve a final document containing twenty-one goals for improving the lives of the world’s young people. The goals were developed from targets set at the nineteen-ninety World Summit for Children. One of the goals in the document is to expand clean water and waste systems to reach more people. Another is to reduce deaths among babies and mothers. The document also calls for providing early education for all children. And, it calls for a special effort to deal with the problem of the AIDS disease. The U-N special meeting on children is historic for several reasons. Hundreds of children from around the world will travel to New York to attend the meeting. They will take part in a conference called “Children’s Forum” in the two days before the General Assembly meets. The children will prepare positions on issues to be considered at the special meeting. Then, two children will be chosen to present the final product of the Children’s Forum to the General Assembly. There will also be many chances for all the children to interact with world leaders during the conference. This is the first time children have taken part in General Assembly activities in such size and number. Carol Bellamy is the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund, known as UNICEF. She said it may seem like common sense to invite children. But, she said, it is a major change for such high level meetings. This U-N meeting also involves a large number of non-governmental organizations that have not had an official link to the U-N in the past. UNICEF invited hundreds of community groups it works with in countries around the world. These include children’s rights groups and non-profit groups that deal in development. UNICEF also invited some religion-based organizations. U-N officials say these groups will help provide a new understanding of children’s needs on a community level. The General Assembly special meeting on children was supposed to be held last September. It was postponed after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – May 7, 2002: Russia Lifts Ban on American Chickens
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American agriculture is recovering from a Russian ban on chicken imports from the United States. The Russian government ended its month-long ban on American chicken and other poultry products last month. Yet the effects of the trade ban continue to affect American farmers and the American meat industry. In recent weeks, prices for chicken and other poultry products dropped because of fewer exports. Many Americans bought more chicken, but spent less on beef and pork products. Because of this, beef and pork prices dropped, too. That is good news for most people, but bad news for farmers. Russia is the largest market for American poultry exports. Last year, American producers earned more than six-hundred-million dollars from poultry exports to Russia. Russian officials announced the import ban in early March. They said American poultry processing centers were not clean. They also objected to the poultry being fed antibiotic drugs and other chemicals. American officials denied the poultry producers were in violation of Russian health rules. Some trade experts suspect the ban had little to do with chicken or poultry products. They said Russian officials were angry about a decision by President Bush to order high taxes on steel imports entering the United States. Steel is a major Russian export. For weeks, American officials negotiated with the Russian government to end the ban on poultry imports. Mister Bush even called Russian leader Vladimir Putin to urge an end to the dispute. In late March, the two sides signed an agreement. Russia agreed to end the ban on imports from all but four American states. Russian inspectors reportedly found diseased chickens from those states. As part of the agreement, American agricultural officials now require poultry producers to have a new health permit. They also require new methods to test chickens for salmonella bacteria. Salmonella has been linked to food poisoning. The day after the ban ended, Russia’s Agriculture Ministry announced that Russian companies must have a new permit if they plan to import American poultry. American officials warned that this requirement could delay the recovery of American poultry sales. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American agriculture is recovering from a Russian ban on chicken imports from the United States. The Russian government ended its month-long ban on American chicken and other poultry products last month. Yet the effects of the trade ban continue to affect American farmers and the American meat industry. In recent weeks, prices for chicken and other poultry products dropped because of fewer exports. Many Americans bought more chicken, but spent less on beef and pork products. Because of this, beef and pork prices dropped, too. That is good news for most people, but bad news for farmers. Russia is the largest market for American poultry exports. Last year, American producers earned more than six-hundred-million dollars from poultry exports to Russia. Russian officials announced the import ban in early March. They said American poultry processing centers were not clean. They also objected to the poultry being fed antibiotic drugs and other chemicals. American officials denied the poultry producers were in violation of Russian health rules. Some trade experts suspect the ban had little to do with chicken or poultry products. They said Russian officials were angry about a decision by President Bush to order high taxes on steel imports entering the United States. Steel is a major Russian export. For weeks, American officials negotiated with the Russian government to end the ban on poultry imports. Mister Bush even called Russian leader Vladimir Putin to urge an end to the dispute. In late March, the two sides signed an agreement. Russia agreed to end the ban on imports from all but four American states. Russian inspectors reportedly found diseased chickens from those states. As part of the agreement, American agricultural officials now require poultry producers to have a new health permit. They also require new methods to test chickens for salmonella bacteria. Salmonella has been linked to food poisoning. The day after the ban ended, Russia’s Agriculture Ministry announced that Russian companies must have a new permit if they plan to import American poultry. American officials warned that this requirement could delay the recovery of American poultry sales. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 7, 2002: Humans and Chimps: What's the Difference? / Thousands of Ancient Remains Found in Peru / Rice Genes Mapped
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. Inca mummy VOICE ONE: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about some genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees. We tell about the discovery of the remains of thousands of ancient people in Peru. And we tell about the genetic map of rice. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about some genetic differences between humans and chimpanzees. We tell about the discovery of the remains of thousands of ancient people in Peru. And we tell about the genetic map of rice. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Humans are more closely related to chimpanzees than any other animal. Humans and chimpanzees have more than ninety-eight percent of the same genetic material. Yet scientists have had trouble explaining why humans and chimps are so different if they have almost all of the same genes. A new study has provided information to explain some of the differences. Scientists from Germany, the Netherlands and the United States used genetic tests to get their answer. Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany led the study. The publication Science reported the findings. The scientists used modern genetic technology to study tissue from chimps and people who had died of natural causes. They measured and compared the activity of genes that both species share. Genes send messages to cells. These messages direct the cells to make proteins and other substances used by the body. VOICE TWO: The European and American scientists examined blood, liver and brain cells from the humans and chimps. They found that humans and chimps are genetically similar, except for the gene activity in their brains. Gene activity levels in the human brains were greatly different from those in the chimp brains. For example, the scientists showed that a gene might produce a lot of proteins in human brain cells but few proteins in chimp brain cells. However, the genetic activity in the blood and liver cells of humans and chimps looked similar. The report said this suggests that the human brain grew quickly after the two creatures developed separately from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Humans developed a brain that is about two times the size of a chimp’s brain. VOICE ONE: Ajit Varki is a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego. He helped write the study. He said the genetic comparison of chimps and humans might lead to better treatments for diseases. He said scientists may learn more about the genetics of diseases that harm humans but not chimps. For example, he noted that chimps can become infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS in humans. However, the animals almost never get sick from the disease. Doctor Varki said the study does not mean that chimps should be used in laboratory experiments. He said chimps and humans are so closely related that future research on chimps should obey the same rules as research on humans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Peruvian archeologists have discovered thousands of human remains under a town near the Peruvian capital, Lima. The remains were recovered from a burial area that may contain as many as ten-thousand bodies. The bodies are about five-hundred years old. This is when the Inca ruled the area. Experts say the discovery may change their understanding of Inca society. The Inca once ruled large parts of South America, from what is now Colombia to Chile. However, invading Spanish explorers defeated them in fifteen-thirty-three. VOICE ONE: Peruvian archeologist Guillermo Cock led the members of the team. They made the discovery in the small, coastal town of Tupac Amaru at an area called Puruchuco. Mister Cock says his team found at least two-thousand-two-hundred bodies of men, women and children. They are believed to be from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Spanish explorers began arriving in the area. In the past, information about Inca culture has come from a limited number of burial places. The recent discovery includes rich and poor people of all ages, from babies to old people. VOICE TWO: Many of the bodies were found wrapped together in many pieces of cloth material. These are called mummy bundles. Some mummy bundles held as many as seven individuals and their objects. These mummy bundles weighed as much as one-hundred-eighty kilograms. Several bodies still wore clothing that showed the person’s importance in Inca society. About forty of the large mummy bundles had false heads on top. Such heads were attached to mummy bundles that included leading members of Inca society. The archeologists also found more than fifty-thousand objects along with the bodies. They include personal valuable objects, food, cloth materials, pottery and cooking equipment. VOICE ONE: The archeologists say nothing special was done to protect the bodies before burial. Thick pieces of cloth around the bodies trapped any body fluids. The dry, sandy soil also helped protect the bodies. As a result, there was little damage over the past few centuries. The greatest damage, however, came from human wastes and other fluids left by people who lived in Tupac Amaru. The wastes and liquids sank into the ground, damaging the bodies. In addition, earth-moving equipment destroyed other burial areas in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. The research team worked quickly during the past three years to save what it could. Peru’s government and the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., provided money for the project. VOICE TWO: Mister Cock says this is one of the most important discoveries in the history of Inca archeology. He says it will take years to study all of it. He says archeologists will learn much about the lives, health and culture of the Inca people as well as their social, economic and political systems. The discovery has already disputed some beliefs about Inca life. For example, Mister Cock says it disputes the idea that common people were not involved in Inca culture. He says even the poorest individuals show strong ties to the Inca. The archeologist says he has no plans to dig again in the area. Yet he remains concerned because hundreds of other bodies remain buried underground. Small buildings cover most of the unexplored areas. School children play on the dusty field where many of the remains were found. Their feet crush tiny pieces of Inca corn and human hair that remain on the surface. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have identified almost all the genes found in rice. Two teams published separate versions of the genetic information for rice plants last month. This is the first time scientists have mapped the genes of an important crop. The scientists say this genetic information could lead to improved kinds of rice and better rice production in developing countries. They also expect the information to be useful in improving other grains, such as corn and wheat. Rice feeds more than half the world’s population. However, weather conditions, disease and insects can restrict its production. That may change because of the efforts of the scientific teams. They reported their findings in the publication Science. VOICE TWO: One group was led by Jun Yu of the Beijing Genomics Institute in China and the University of Washington in Seattle. His group studied indica, the rice most commonly grown in China. The group says it has identified more than ninety percent of the genes in indica rice. The other scientists work for the Syngenta company based in Switzerland. They did the research at the company’s Torrey Mesa Research Institute in La Jolla, (La HOY-ah) California. They created a map of japonica, a short-grain rice grown in warm climates. Syngenta claims its map is more than ninety-nine percent complete and ninety-nine percent correct.The chief editor of Science magazine said he believes the rice genome could prove more important in the next few years than the human genome. He noted that more people depend on rice than any other crop. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Humans are more closely related to chimpanzees than any other animal. Humans and chimpanzees have more than ninety-eight percent of the same genetic material. Yet scientists have had trouble explaining why humans and chimps are so different if they have almost all of the same genes. A new study has provided information to explain some of the differences. Scientists from Germany, the Netherlands and the United States used genetic tests to get their answer. Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany led the study. The publication Science reported the findings. The scientists used modern genetic technology to study tissue from chimps and people who had died of natural causes. They measured and compared the activity of genes that both species share. Genes send messages to cells. These messages direct the cells to make proteins and other substances used by the body. VOICE TWO: The European and American scientists examined blood, liver and brain cells from the humans and chimps. They found that humans and chimps are genetically similar, except for the gene activity in their brains. Gene activity levels in the human brains were greatly different from those in the chimp brains. For example, the scientists showed that a gene might produce a lot of proteins in human brain cells but few proteins in chimp brain cells. However, the genetic activity in the blood and liver cells of humans and chimps looked similar. The report said this suggests that the human brain grew quickly after the two creatures developed separately from a common ancestor millions of years ago. Humans developed a brain that is about two times the size of a chimp’s brain. VOICE ONE: Ajit Varki is a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego. He helped write the study. He said the genetic comparison of chimps and humans might lead to better treatments for diseases. He said scientists may learn more about the genetics of diseases that harm humans but not chimps. For example, he noted that chimps can become infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS in humans. However, the animals almost never get sick from the disease. Doctor Varki said the study does not mean that chimps should be used in laboratory experiments. He said chimps and humans are so closely related that future research on chimps should obey the same rules as research on humans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Peruvian archeologists have discovered thousands of human remains under a town near the Peruvian capital, Lima. The remains were recovered from a burial area that may contain as many as ten-thousand bodies. The bodies are about five-hundred years old. This is when the Inca ruled the area. Experts say the discovery may change their understanding of Inca society. The Inca once ruled large parts of South America, from what is now Colombia to Chile. However, invading Spanish explorers defeated them in fifteen-thirty-three. VOICE ONE: Peruvian archeologist Guillermo Cock led the members of the team. They made the discovery in the small, coastal town of Tupac Amaru at an area called Puruchuco. Mister Cock says his team found at least two-thousand-two-hundred bodies of men, women and children. They are believed to be from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Spanish explorers began arriving in the area. In the past, information about Inca culture has come from a limited number of burial places. The recent discovery includes rich and poor people of all ages, from babies to old people. VOICE TWO: Many of the bodies were found wrapped together in many pieces of cloth material. These are called mummy bundles. Some mummy bundles held as many as seven individuals and their objects. These mummy bundles weighed as much as one-hundred-eighty kilograms. Several bodies still wore clothing that showed the person’s importance in Inca society. About forty of the large mummy bundles had false heads on top. Such heads were attached to mummy bundles that included leading members of Inca society. The archeologists also found more than fifty-thousand objects along with the bodies. They include personal valuable objects, food, cloth materials, pottery and cooking equipment. VOICE ONE: The archeologists say nothing special was done to protect the bodies before burial. Thick pieces of cloth around the bodies trapped any body fluids. The dry, sandy soil also helped protect the bodies. As a result, there was little damage over the past few centuries. The greatest damage, however, came from human wastes and other fluids left by people who lived in Tupac Amaru. The wastes and liquids sank into the ground, damaging the bodies. In addition, earth-moving equipment destroyed other burial areas in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. The research team worked quickly during the past three years to save what it could. Peru’s government and the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., provided money for the project. VOICE TWO: Mister Cock says this is one of the most important discoveries in the history of Inca archeology. He says it will take years to study all of it. He says archeologists will learn much about the lives, health and culture of the Inca people as well as their social, economic and political systems. The discovery has already disputed some beliefs about Inca life. For example, Mister Cock says it disputes the idea that common people were not involved in Inca culture. He says even the poorest individuals show strong ties to the Inca. The archeologist says he has no plans to dig again in the area. Yet he remains concerned because hundreds of other bodies remain buried underground. Small buildings cover most of the unexplored areas. School children play on the dusty field where many of the remains were found. Their feet crush tiny pieces of Inca corn and human hair that remain on the surface. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have identified almost all the genes found in rice. Two teams published separate versions of the genetic information for rice plants last month. This is the first time scientists have mapped the genes of an important crop. The scientists say this genetic information could lead to improved kinds of rice and better rice production in developing countries. They also expect the information to be useful in improving other grains, such as corn and wheat. Rice feeds more than half the world’s population. However, weather conditions, disease and insects can restrict its production. That may change because of the efforts of the scientific teams. They reported their findings in the publication Science. VOICE TWO: One group was led by Jun Yu of the Beijing Genomics Institute in China and the University of Washington in Seattle. His group studied indica, the rice most commonly grown in China. The group says it has identified more than ninety percent of the genes in indica rice. The other scientists work for the Syngenta company based in Switzerland. They did the research at the company’s Torrey Mesa Research Institute in La Jolla, (La HOY-ah) California. They created a map of japonica, a short-grain rice grown in warm climates. Syngenta claims its map is more than ninety-nine percent complete and ninety-nine percent correct.The chief editor of Science magazine said he believes the rice genome could prove more important in the next few years than the human genome. He noted that more people depend on rice than any other crop. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - May 8, 2002: Hormone Replacement Questioned
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An international team of health experts says there is no scientific evidence that hormone replacement can treat serious conditions suffered by older women. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. Women can no longer become pregnant. This period of life is called menopause. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems. These include heart disease, mental depression, Alzheimer’s disease and broken bones caused by osteoporosis. However, hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer if used for many years. The new report was paid for by the United States National Institutes of Health and the private Giovanni Loren Zini Medical Science Foundation in Italy. The full report will be published in June. But the part concerning hormone replacement and other treatments was released at a recent scientific meeting at the N-I-H. The report examined the results of many women’s health studies. Twenty-eight doctors and scientists wrote the report. They are from the United States, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia. The group’s goal was to present all the information in one report for doctors around the world. The group examined only studies that used the scientific method called a randomized control trial. In such studies, people are given either the treatment being tested or an inactive substance called a placebo. The results show if the treatment was more effective than the placebo. The report said that hormone replacement is useful to ease the hot feelings that some women experience during menopause. But it said scientific evidence does not support its use for other problems. For example, three recent studies show that taking hormones increases instead of reduces the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Studies have shown that taking hormones does not help women with early Alzheimer’s disease or mental depression. The report said taking hormones can slow bone loss. But the loss continues after women stop taking the hormones. And it said that no large studies have been done to see if taking hormones reduces the number of broken bones suffered by older women. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An international team of health experts says there is no scientific evidence that hormone replacement can treat serious conditions suffered by older women. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. Women can no longer become pregnant. This period of life is called menopause. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems. These include heart disease, mental depression, Alzheimer’s disease and broken bones caused by osteoporosis. However, hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of breast cancer if used for many years. The new report was paid for by the United States National Institutes of Health and the private Giovanni Loren Zini Medical Science Foundation in Italy. The full report will be published in June. But the part concerning hormone replacement and other treatments was released at a recent scientific meeting at the N-I-H. The report examined the results of many women’s health studies. Twenty-eight doctors and scientists wrote the report. They are from the United States, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia. The group’s goal was to present all the information in one report for doctors around the world. The group examined only studies that used the scientific method called a randomized control trial. In such studies, people are given either the treatment being tested or an inactive substance called a placebo. The results show if the treatment was more effective than the placebo. The report said that hormone replacement is useful to ease the hot feelings that some women experience during menopause. But it said scientific evidence does not support its use for other problems. For example, three recent studies show that taking hormones increases instead of reduces the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Studies have shown that taking hormones does not help women with early Alzheimer’s disease or mental depression. The report said taking hormones can slow bone loss. But the loss continues after women stop taking the hormones. And it said that no large studies have been done to see if taking hormones reduces the number of broken bones suffered by older women. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - May 8, 2002: Hubble's New Camera
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Last week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released four new pictures. They were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope’s new Advanced Camera for Surveys. Today we tell about the photographs the camera took and the excitement they have caused among scientists who study the universe. ((THEME)) Cone NebulaNASA photo VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Last week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released four new pictures. They were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope’s new Advanced Camera for Surveys. Today we tell about the photographs the camera took and the excitement they have caused among scientists who study the universe. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Holland Ford is a scientist at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also the leading scientist for Hubble Space Telescope’s new Advanced Camera for Surveys known as A-S-C. The new camera was expected to give the Hubble telescope ten times more power than the older camera on Hubble. NASA scientists say the new camera is much better than expected. Mister Ford said he and his team of scientists were shocked and surprised by Hubble’s increased power. He said the new camera is like having a new window that permits us to see the universe. He said this new window is very large and extremely clear. Mister Ford said, “We can now see galaxy after galaxy.” VOICE TWO: NASA released four photographs taken by the space telescope. One of the photographs shows the Omega Nebula. There are hundreds of stars in this Nebula, surrounded by clouds of cold, dark hydrogen. Omega is also called the Swan Nebula and is about five-thousand-five hundred light years away from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. 'Tadpole' VOICE ONE: Holland Ford is a scientist at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also the leading scientist for Hubble Space Telescope’s new Advanced Camera for Surveys known as A-S-C. The new camera was expected to give the Hubble telescope ten times more power than the older camera on Hubble. NASA scientists say the new camera is much better than expected. Mister Ford said he and his team of scientists were shocked and surprised by Hubble’s increased power. He said the new camera is like having a new window that permits us to see the universe. He said this new window is very large and extremely clear. Mister Ford said, “We can now see galaxy after galaxy.” VOICE TWO: NASA released four photographs taken by the space telescope. One of the photographs shows the Omega Nebula. There are hundreds of stars in this Nebula, surrounded by clouds of cold, dark hydrogen. Omega is also called the Swan Nebula and is about five-thousand-five hundred light years away from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. A photograph of the Cone Nebula was also released. It is a beautiful red color. It shows a tall structure made of gas and dust with many bright stars near the top. Another photograph shows two small galaxies named the Mice. They are three hundred million light years away from Earth. They seem to be chasing each other. However, they are about to crash together. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most exciting picture shows a galaxy four-hundred-twenty-million light-years from Earth. The galaxy is called the Tadpole. The Tadpole is a group of stars that seems to be spinning in space, surrounded by clouds of gas. It has a long tail of stars that follow behind it. The galaxy is shaped like a tadpole, which is a small, developing toad or frog with a big head and long tail. NASA says the galaxy has this unusual shape because it is really two galaxies that crashed into each other millions of years ago. The photograph of the Tadpole Galaxy is extremely beautiful. Mister Ford was quick to say that the photographs were much more than just pretty pictures. He said the new photographs taken by the A-S-C of the Tadpole show about six-thousand other galaxies behind it. This is about two times as many as could be seen by Hubble’s earlier camera. Hubble first photographed the Tadpole Galaxy in nineteen-ninety-five. Mister Ford said some the galaxies behind the Tadpole are more than ten-thousand-million light years from Earth. He said this is almost at the edge of the universe that we can observe. He also said new photographs provide huge amounts of new and valuable information. VOICE TWO: NASA says the new Advanced Camera for Surveys has such great power because it is able to gather very small amounts of light that come from extreme distances. This amount of light is so small that it can not be seen by the human eye. The A-S-C takes photographs by gathering these small amounts of light for several hours at a time. It can then produce a photograph from all the light that has been gathered. The A-C-S carries equipment that can control light that enters the camera. It does this by placing different pieces of glass in front of the eye of the camera. The A-S-C can take photographs of a much larger area than the earlier camera. This will let space scientists see much larger areas of the universe. The new camera records what it sees in electronic information called megapixels. This is similar to the electronic information recorded by electronic or digital cameras that anyone can buy. The more magapixels a camera has the better the quality of the photograph. Most digital cameras that can be bought today in a photography store use two to four magapixels to record a picture. Hubble’s new camera records with sixteen million magapixels. This means the A-S-C photographs show sharp details of objects farther away than have been seen before. VOICE ONE: Astronomers say the new A-S-C will make it possible to look so far back in time that they can study how stars and galaxies appeared as they were forming. It will also let astronomers study how these galaxies have changed through time. Astronomers also hope to use the new Advanced Camera for Surveys to make maps of galaxies. These maps will show how different galaxies develop and are held together. They will help researchers better understand how the universe is expanding. The maps also will permit astronomers to search areas near distant stars for planets that are similar to Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The new Advanced Camera for Surveys is just one of many devices that were repaired or placed in the space telescope in March. The work was done by the crew of the Space Shuttle Colombia. The Hubble Space Telescope is the first scientific instrument ever designed to be repaired and rebuilt by astronauts who work in space. Ninety percent of its parts can be repaired or replaced by space shuttle astronauts. Besides the A-S-C, the space telescope also received new equipment so it can make electric power from sunlight. Radiation and small space objects had damaged the old power supply equipment. The new equipment looks like large wings. The wings are called solar arrays. The new solar arrays are smaller than the ones they replaced, but they produce twenty-seven percent more power. VOICE ONE: Hubble’s electric power control device also was replaced. It now lets the telescope use all of the increased power provided by the new solar arrays. Astronauts repaired an instrument called the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. They replaced the cooling system that the camera needed to operate. A NASA spokesman says the new cooling system is working well. They hope to release the first photographs from this camera in June. VOICE TWO: The space shuttle crew also successfully repaired Hubble’s communications system and its computers. NASA says the only repair problem that remains involves the devices that are used to point the telescope at distant objects. The Hubble’s pointing system is extremely important. It is used to find and lock the telescope on objects so they can be studied. The pointing system has a small computer that looks for any movement or mistakes forty times a second. If movement occurs, spinning wheels change speeds to bring the telescope back into the correct position. NASA says the pointing system may have a shorter working life than expected. Experts say it could fail because it uses more electricity than it should. A second device can be used if the first one fails. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Hubble Space Telescope is an eye in space that lets people around the world see pictures of the distant universe. It orbits six-hundred kilometers above the Earth. The telescope works twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week helping astronomers unlock the secrets of the universe. It provides information and photographs of distant parts of the universe that cannot be seen from Earth because of clouds or atmospheric conditions. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided thousands of photographs of distant objects in the universe. Many of these objects are millions of light years away from Earth. The space telescope has provided evidence of the birth of stars and their deaths. A NASA official says the space telescope has provided twelve years of great science and wonderful pictures. Yet, he said, the new camera has already shown us that what we will see in the future will be even more exciting. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see several thousand photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The four new ones taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys are among them. Have your computer search for the word Hubble. That is H-U-B-B-L-E. Your computer will provide several Web sites that will permit you to see millions of kilometers into our universe. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Darryl Smith. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. A photograph of the Cone Nebula was also released. It is a beautiful red color. It shows a tall structure made of gas and dust with many bright stars near the top. Another photograph shows two small galaxies named the Mice. They are three hundred million light years away from Earth. They seem to be chasing each other. However, they are about to crash together. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most exciting picture shows a galaxy four-hundred-twenty-million light-years from Earth. The galaxy is called the Tadpole. The Tadpole is a group of stars that seems to be spinning in space, surrounded by clouds of gas. It has a long tail of stars that follow behind it. The galaxy is shaped like a tadpole, which is a small, developing toad or frog with a big head and long tail. NASA says the galaxy has this unusual shape because it is really two galaxies that crashed into each other millions of years ago. The photograph of the Tadpole Galaxy is extremely beautiful. Mister Ford was quick to say that the photographs were much more than just pretty pictures. He said the new photographs taken by the A-S-C of the Tadpole show about six-thousand other galaxies behind it. This is about two times as many as could be seen by Hubble’s earlier camera. Hubble first photographed the Tadpole Galaxy in nineteen-ninety-five. Mister Ford said some the galaxies behind the Tadpole are more than ten-thousand-million light years from Earth. He said this is almost at the edge of the universe that we can observe. He also said new photographs provide huge amounts of new and valuable information. VOICE TWO: NASA says the new Advanced Camera for Surveys has such great power because it is able to gather very small amounts of light that come from extreme distances. This amount of light is so small that it can not be seen by the human eye. The A-S-C takes photographs by gathering these small amounts of light for several hours at a time. It can then produce a photograph from all the light that has been gathered. The A-C-S carries equipment that can control light that enters the camera. It does this by placing different pieces of glass in front of the eye of the camera. The A-S-C can take photographs of a much larger area than the earlier camera. This will let space scientists see much larger areas of the universe. The new camera records what it sees in electronic information called megapixels. This is similar to the electronic information recorded by electronic or digital cameras that anyone can buy. The more magapixels a camera has the better the quality of the photograph. Most digital cameras that can be bought today in a photography store use two to four magapixels to record a picture. Hubble’s new camera records with sixteen million magapixels. This means the A-S-C photographs show sharp details of objects farther away than have been seen before. VOICE ONE: Astronomers say the new A-S-C will make it possible to look so far back in time that they can study how stars and galaxies appeared as they were forming. It will also let astronomers study how these galaxies have changed through time. Astronomers also hope to use the new Advanced Camera for Surveys to make maps of galaxies. These maps will show how different galaxies develop and are held together. They will help researchers better understand how the universe is expanding. The maps also will permit astronomers to search areas near distant stars for planets that are similar to Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The new Advanced Camera for Surveys is just one of many devices that were repaired or placed in the space telescope in March. The work was done by the crew of the Space Shuttle Colombia. The Hubble Space Telescope is the first scientific instrument ever designed to be repaired and rebuilt by astronauts who work in space. Ninety percent of its parts can be repaired or replaced by space shuttle astronauts. Besides the A-S-C, the space telescope also received new equipment so it can make electric power from sunlight. Radiation and small space objects had damaged the old power supply equipment. The new equipment looks like large wings. The wings are called solar arrays. The new solar arrays are smaller than the ones they replaced, but they produce twenty-seven percent more power. VOICE ONE: Hubble’s electric power control device also was replaced. It now lets the telescope use all of the increased power provided by the new solar arrays. Astronauts repaired an instrument called the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. They replaced the cooling system that the camera needed to operate. A NASA spokesman says the new cooling system is working well. They hope to release the first photographs from this camera in June. VOICE TWO: The space shuttle crew also successfully repaired Hubble’s communications system and its computers. NASA says the only repair problem that remains involves the devices that are used to point the telescope at distant objects. The Hubble’s pointing system is extremely important. It is used to find and lock the telescope on objects so they can be studied. The pointing system has a small computer that looks for any movement or mistakes forty times a second. If movement occurs, spinning wheels change speeds to bring the telescope back into the correct position. NASA says the pointing system may have a shorter working life than expected. Experts say it could fail because it uses more electricity than it should. A second device can be used if the first one fails. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Hubble Space Telescope is an eye in space that lets people around the world see pictures of the distant universe. It orbits six-hundred kilometers above the Earth. The telescope works twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week helping astronomers unlock the secrets of the universe. It provides information and photographs of distant parts of the universe that cannot be seen from Earth because of clouds or atmospheric conditions. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided thousands of photographs of distant objects in the universe. Many of these objects are millions of light years away from Earth. The space telescope has provided evidence of the birth of stars and their deaths. A NASA official says the space telescope has provided twelve years of great science and wonderful pictures. Yet, he said, the new camera has already shown us that what we will see in the future will be even more exciting. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see several thousand photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The four new ones taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys are among them. Have your computer search for the word Hubble. That is H-U-B-B-L-E. Your computer will provide several Web sites that will permit you to see millions of kilometers into our universe. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Darryl Smith. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 9, 2002: The War in Europe, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) In December nineteen-forty-one, the United States was at war. It declared war against Japan after Japanese planes destroyed American air and naval forces in Hawaii. And a few days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. President Franklin Roosevelt quickly decided that America could not fight major campaigns in the Pacific and in Europe at the same time. He and his advisors decided to fight first against the Germans and Italians. Then, when victory in Europe seemed sure, the United States could turn to fight the Japanese in Asia. VOICE 2: This left the Japanese free to extend their power throughout Asia and the western Pacific. Soon after the attack at Hawaii, Japanese forces invaded Hong Kong, Malaya, and the Philippines. American land and air forces in the Philippines were destroyed or captured. And Manila fell to Japanese troops. In February, nineteen-forty-two, Japan's forces won a great victory against the British in Singapore. Japanese forces marched into Burma. They attacked Ceylon and captured the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The Japanese military forces seemed too strong to stop. VOICE 1: President Roosevelt sent some forces to the pacific. And he began to re-build the American naval forces destroyed at pearl harbor. But he sent most of America's military strength to Europe. The United States rushed troops and war equipment to help Britain survive against Hitler's Germany. American military leaders wanted to fight Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposed this. He and others feared such an invasion might fail. So, British and American forces attacked Italian and German occupation troops in north Africa. They defeated them, then crossed the Mediterranean sea to attack enemy forces in Sicily. Within weeks, they pushed the Germans out of Sicily to the Italian mainland. The allied invasion of Italy followed. VOICE 2: Hitler could not strengthen his forces in north Africa and Italy, because Germany also was fighting hard in the Soviet Union. Hitler's decision early in the war to attack the Soviet Union was a serious mistake. It divided his men and materials. His plan was to defeat Soviet forces quickly with one strong attack. But he failed. And his failure cost him valuable troops and supplies that might have helped him win the battles for north Africa and Italy. Germany's attack on the Soviet Union began with great success. In the middle of nineteen-forty-one, a German force of more than three-million men invaded the Soviet Union. It captured the Ukraine, took control of Kiev, and marched deep into Russia. VOICE 1: The situation changed the following year. Soviet forces under Marshal Zhukov won a terrible, fierce battle for the city of Stalingrad [Volgograd]. A great many German soldiers died from cold and hunger during the bitter winter months that followed. Zhukov's forces attacked the German troops and pushed back the invaders. Other Soviet troops forced Nazi soldiers away from the city of Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. By the middle of nineteen-forty-four, Nazi forces throughout the Soviet Union were retreating. And Soviet forces were preparing to push them over the border and invade Germany themselves. VOICE 2: The fighting by land forces was terrible. Huge numbers of soldiers and civilians were killed. Fighting also was fierce on the seas. The two sides had been fighting on the oceans from the first day of the war, when a German submarine sank a British ship. The main goal of the German navy during the war was to prevent the United States from sending ships to Britain with war materials, food, and troops. At first, the Germans were very successful. Some people in Britain were hungry in nineteen-forty-one, because so few food-carrying ships could cross the ocean. German submarines were the greatest danger to ships crossing the Atlantic. They could hide below the surface and attack without warning. The submarine problem did not improve until new technology was developed in nineteen-forty-three. Allied scientists improved sonar and radar systems that helped find submarines on the surface and underwater. More of the enemy submarines were found and destroyed. The Allies slowly gained control of the Atlantic. VOICE 1: Surface warships of the two sides fought a number of traditional naval battles. But airplanes had a more important part than in the past. British planes and ships destroyed a powerful German battleship, the Bismarck. The most famous air battle of the war in Europe took place over the English Channel. Luftwaffe pilots from Germany tried to destroy the smaller British air force. But they failed to do so, mainly because of the skill of the British fliers. The British victory in the air helped prevent a German invasion of Britain. VOICE 2: In may, nineteen-forty-two, the British air force made an attack on Germany with one-thousand bomber planes. It was just the first of many such attacks by United States and British planes. The planes bombed German military and industrial centers. They also bombed civilian targets in an effort to teach the German people the price of Germany's aggression. The German cities of cologne, Dresden, and Hamburg suffered terrible damage. The allied bombing attacks continued until the war's end in nineteen-forty-five. VOICE 1: Hitler's victories in the early months of the war had caused fear in the hearts of people throughout the world. Hitler and his allies had won battle after battle. They had captured western Europe, except for Britain, and had invaded the Soviet Union. They had seized north Africa. And their submarines controlled the Atlantic Ocean. Germany continued to seem strong during the first months after the United States entered the war in Europe. But the situation began to change. German strength and control were greatest in November nineteen-forty-two. After then, the mighty German military machine began to slow down. VOICE 2: Germany and its allies suffered serious losses in the first six months of nineteen-forty-three. German losses were extremely heavy in the Soviet Union. One-hundred-sixty-thousand German troops died at Stalingrad [Volgograd], and more than one-hundred-ten-thousand others surrendered. Two-hundred fifty-thousand German and Italian troops were captured in north Africa. Many more thousands were killed or captured in Sicily and Italy. German submarines were being destroyed in the north Atlantic, allowing more allied troops and supplies to reach Britain. VOICE 1: By the end of nineteen-forty-three, Hitler and his armies no longer seemed so strong. But German forces continued to occupy France, Belgium, and much of the rest of western Europe. Now, the time had come for the Allies to invade German-held Europe from Britain. Allied forces planned the greatest military invasion in history to break the German control of Europe and win the war. That invasion, the famous D-Day battle of Normandy, will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. THE MAKING OF A NATION is written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) In December nineteen-forty-one, the United States was at war. It declared war against Japan after Japanese planes destroyed American air and naval forces in Hawaii. And a few days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. President Franklin Roosevelt quickly decided that America could not fight major campaigns in the Pacific and in Europe at the same time. He and his advisors decided to fight first against the Germans and Italians. Then, when victory in Europe seemed sure, the United States could turn to fight the Japanese in Asia. VOICE 2: This left the Japanese free to extend their power throughout Asia and the western Pacific. Soon after the attack at Hawaii, Japanese forces invaded Hong Kong, Malaya, and the Philippines. American land and air forces in the Philippines were destroyed or captured. And Manila fell to Japanese troops. In February, nineteen-forty-two, Japan's forces won a great victory against the British in Singapore. Japanese forces marched into Burma. They attacked Ceylon and captured the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. The Japanese military forces seemed too strong to stop. VOICE 1: President Roosevelt sent some forces to the pacific. And he began to re-build the American naval forces destroyed at pearl harbor. But he sent most of America's military strength to Europe. The United States rushed troops and war equipment to help Britain survive against Hitler's Germany. American military leaders wanted to fight Germany quickly by launching an attack across the English Channel. But British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposed this. He and others feared such an invasion might fail. So, British and American forces attacked Italian and German occupation troops in north Africa. They defeated them, then crossed the Mediterranean sea to attack enemy forces in Sicily. Within weeks, they pushed the Germans out of Sicily to the Italian mainland. The allied invasion of Italy followed. VOICE 2: Hitler could not strengthen his forces in north Africa and Italy, because Germany also was fighting hard in the Soviet Union. Hitler's decision early in the war to attack the Soviet Union was a serious mistake. It divided his men and materials. His plan was to defeat Soviet forces quickly with one strong attack. But he failed. And his failure cost him valuable troops and supplies that might have helped him win the battles for north Africa and Italy. Germany's attack on the Soviet Union began with great success. In the middle of nineteen-forty-one, a German force of more than three-million men invaded the Soviet Union. It captured the Ukraine, took control of Kiev, and marched deep into Russia. VOICE 1: The situation changed the following year. Soviet forces under Marshal Zhukov won a terrible, fierce battle for the city of Stalingrad [Volgograd]. A great many German soldiers died from cold and hunger during the bitter winter months that followed. Zhukov's forces attacked the German troops and pushed back the invaders. Other Soviet troops forced Nazi soldiers away from the city of Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. By the middle of nineteen-forty-four, Nazi forces throughout the Soviet Union were retreating. And Soviet forces were preparing to push them over the border and invade Germany themselves. VOICE 2: The fighting by land forces was terrible. Huge numbers of soldiers and civilians were killed. Fighting also was fierce on the seas. The two sides had been fighting on the oceans from the first day of the war, when a German submarine sank a British ship. The main goal of the German navy during the war was to prevent the United States from sending ships to Britain with war materials, food, and troops. At first, the Germans were very successful. Some people in Britain were hungry in nineteen-forty-one, because so few food-carrying ships could cross the ocean. German submarines were the greatest danger to ships crossing the Atlantic. They could hide below the surface and attack without warning. The submarine problem did not improve until new technology was developed in nineteen-forty-three. Allied scientists improved sonar and radar systems that helped find submarines on the surface and underwater. More of the enemy submarines were found and destroyed. The Allies slowly gained control of the Atlantic. VOICE 1: Surface warships of the two sides fought a number of traditional naval battles. But airplanes had a more important part than in the past. British planes and ships destroyed a powerful German battleship, the Bismarck. The most famous air battle of the war in Europe took place over the English Channel. Luftwaffe pilots from Germany tried to destroy the smaller British air force. But they failed to do so, mainly because of the skill of the British fliers. The British victory in the air helped prevent a German invasion of Britain. VOICE 2: In may, nineteen-forty-two, the British air force made an attack on Germany with one-thousand bomber planes. It was just the first of many such attacks by United States and British planes. The planes bombed German military and industrial centers. They also bombed civilian targets in an effort to teach the German people the price of Germany's aggression. The German cities of cologne, Dresden, and Hamburg suffered terrible damage. The allied bombing attacks continued until the war's end in nineteen-forty-five. VOICE 1: Hitler's victories in the early months of the war had caused fear in the hearts of people throughout the world. Hitler and his allies had won battle after battle. They had captured western Europe, except for Britain, and had invaded the Soviet Union. They had seized north Africa. And their submarines controlled the Atlantic Ocean. Germany continued to seem strong during the first months after the United States entered the war in Europe. But the situation began to change. German strength and control were greatest in November nineteen-forty-two. After then, the mighty German military machine began to slow down. VOICE 2: Germany and its allies suffered serious losses in the first six months of nineteen-forty-three. German losses were extremely heavy in the Soviet Union. One-hundred-sixty-thousand German troops died at Stalingrad [Volgograd], and more than one-hundred-ten-thousand others surrendered. Two-hundred fifty-thousand German and Italian troops were captured in north Africa. Many more thousands were killed or captured in Sicily and Italy. German submarines were being destroyed in the north Atlantic, allowing more allied troops and supplies to reach Britain. VOICE 1: By the end of nineteen-forty-three, Hitler and his armies no longer seemed so strong. But German forces continued to occupy France, Belgium, and much of the rest of western Europe. Now, the time had come for the Allies to invade German-held Europe from Britain. Allied forces planned the greatest military invasion in history to break the German control of Europe and win the war. That invasion, the famous D-Day battle of Normandy, will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. THE MAKING OF A NATION is written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – May 9, 2002: Privatization of Public Schools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Last month, a state committee voted to give control of forty-two public schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to seven private companies, organizations and universities. The committee acted because students in these schools are failing to learn required skills. The privatization of public schools in Philadelphia is the largest such action anywhere in the United States. Several private education companies receive money to operate public schools. Such a company works to improve education. It also seeks to earn a profit. The company decides what will be taught. It trains teachers. It buys books, supplies and equipment. Some experts say schools operated by private companies provide more interesting and effective subject material. They also say parents have more influence on these schools than on traditional public schools operated by local public officials. The Pennsylvania committee named Edison Schools Incorporated to control twenty failing schools in Philadelphia. Edison is the largest for-profit operator of public schools in the United States. The company began in Nineteen-Ninety-Five with four schools. Now it operates more than one-hundred-thirty schools in more than twenty states from Pennsylvania to California. The Pennsylvania state committee gave control of other failing public schools to universities, non-profit organizations, and other companies. The University of Pennsylvania and Temple University will control a total of eight schools. A for-profit company called Chancellor Beacon Academies will operate five schools. A non-profit organization called Foundations Incorporated will operate four schools. Two other companies will control the remaining schools. The amount of responsibility the companies will have has not been decided. It must be negotiated with the state committee, labor unions representing teachers and parents of children in the schools. However, state officials believe the companies will make major changes in the failing schools. Many experts believe that private companies operating public schools can improve education for students. However, some students in Philadelphia protested the action. They say it is undemocratic for a company that makes a profit to operate a public school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Last month, a state committee voted to give control of forty-two public schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to seven private companies, organizations and universities. The committee acted because students in these schools are failing to learn required skills. The privatization of public schools in Philadelphia is the largest such action anywhere in the United States. Several private education companies receive money to operate public schools. Such a company works to improve education. It also seeks to earn a profit. The company decides what will be taught. It trains teachers. It buys books, supplies and equipment. Some experts say schools operated by private companies provide more interesting and effective subject material. They also say parents have more influence on these schools than on traditional public schools operated by local public officials. The Pennsylvania committee named Edison Schools Incorporated to control twenty failing schools in Philadelphia. Edison is the largest for-profit operator of public schools in the United States. The company began in Nineteen-Ninety-Five with four schools. Now it operates more than one-hundred-thirty schools in more than twenty states from Pennsylvania to California. The Pennsylvania state committee gave control of other failing public schools to universities, non-profit organizations, and other companies. The University of Pennsylvania and Temple University will control a total of eight schools. A for-profit company called Chancellor Beacon Academies will operate five schools. A non-profit organization called Foundations Incorporated will operate four schools. Two other companies will control the remaining schools. The amount of responsibility the companies will have has not been decided. It must be negotiated with the state committee, labor unions representing teachers and parents of children in the schools. However, state officials believe the companies will make major changes in the failing schools. Many experts believe that private companies operating public schools can improve education for students. However, some students in Philadelphia protested the action. They say it is undemocratic for a company that makes a profit to operate a public school. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 9, 2002 - Weasel Words
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 9, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: May 12, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- advice for battling weasels of a wordy sort. RS: Weasels are small, nasty animals. Their reputation gives us slang expressions like "weasel words" -- language that's deceptive or evasive, or just simply does not say much. AA: Ronald Walters has seen plenty of weasel words in thirty years of grading student papers. He's a professor of American history at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. High on his list of words to avoid are phrases that could sound self-important, like "one might conclude" or "as it were" -- as in this recent example: WALTERS: "'One might conclude that we are in a depression, as it were,' instead of 'we're in a depression.'" RS: "Now do students use these words because that's the way they talk?" WALTERS: "I think they use them partly because they don't want to take too strong a stand and some of them they use because they want to sound important. So 'one might conclude that,' I think, is just pretentious. They just want to sound like they're writing in an academic style, even though that's not an academic style. Phrases like 'to a certain degree,' 'in some cases,' 'it may seem that,' I think they're just hedging." AA: "Isn't that what some of these hedge words are for, where you want to qualify and say, well in some case it's this, and to a certain extent it's that?" WALTERS: "Yeah, and I think it's distinguishing those from the just-hedging-bets that makes them so insidious, because there are times when they do mean something and times when they don't mean anything. It must be tough for people coming to English to try to deal with language patterns that either mean nothing or may mean something at one point and not mean anything at another point." RS: "Well, how would a person who is learning English as a foreign language know to distinguish these words from any other words?" WALTERS: "That, I think, is hard, and it's hard in other languages, too, and I think -- this is going to be a flip answer -- but I think, be relaxed about it and try to tune your ear to the context. So, does the speaker really mean 'in some cases,' or does the speaker just not want to take a stand? I'll give you another example of what I have in mind that's really coming into the speech I hear among students and adults, and it's coming into their writing too, and that's ending a sentence with 'and all' or 'and such' or 'and the like' or 'and everything.'" AA: "For example, do you have a sentence there you can ... " WALTERS: "Yeah, this one I really loved -- 'she started dating boys and all.' (laughter)" AA: "And all what?" WALTERS: "That was the question in my mind, I was interested in what else she was dating. But if your doctor walks into the room with a chart and says 'you have a problem with high blood pressure and all.'" RS: "And you go, 'what else?'" WALTERS: "You really want to know whether it means something or doesn't mean something." AA: Professor Ronald Walters says he would give English learners who need help with writing the same advice he gives his history students: WALTERS: "First, pay attention to the structure of what it is that you want to say, to the organization of it. Worry less about getting the perfect sentence and knowing more the order of the things that you want to say and the transitions between points. I also tell them to take a piece of non-fiction that they feel is well written and take maybe two to five pages, just take them apart, paragraph by paragraph. Pay attention to the topic sentence, the first sentence of each paragraph, and maybe even just read four or five pages just reading the first sentences. What they'll commonly find out is that you can tell an awful lot about what they're reading just by doing that, because the authors are using the beginnings of paragraphs very clearly to state a main point. And that helps potential writers begin to think of paragraphs as units of analysis." RS: Ronald Walters at Johns Hopkins University once wrote a style guide with one of his students. AA: We found it posted on the Internet. Just do a search for "weasel words" (that's W-E-A-S-E-L) and "Ronald Walters." RS: To find Avi and me, go to www.voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Pop Goes the Weasel"/Disney Silly Songs Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 9, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: May 12, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- advice for battling weasels of a wordy sort. RS: Weasels are small, nasty animals. Their reputation gives us slang expressions like "weasel words" -- language that's deceptive or evasive, or just simply does not say much. AA: Ronald Walters has seen plenty of weasel words in thirty years of grading student papers. He's a professor of American history at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. High on his list of words to avoid are phrases that could sound self-important, like "one might conclude" or "as it were" -- as in this recent example: WALTERS: "'One might conclude that we are in a depression, as it were,' instead of 'we're in a depression.'" RS: "Now do students use these words because that's the way they talk?" WALTERS: "I think they use them partly because they don't want to take too strong a stand and some of them they use because they want to sound important. So 'one might conclude that,' I think, is just pretentious. They just want to sound like they're writing in an academic style, even though that's not an academic style. Phrases like 'to a certain degree,' 'in some cases,' 'it may seem that,' I think they're just hedging." AA: "Isn't that what some of these hedge words are for, where you want to qualify and say, well in some case it's this, and to a certain extent it's that?" WALTERS: "Yeah, and I think it's distinguishing those from the just-hedging-bets that makes them so insidious, because there are times when they do mean something and times when they don't mean anything. It must be tough for people coming to English to try to deal with language patterns that either mean nothing or may mean something at one point and not mean anything at another point." RS: "Well, how would a person who is learning English as a foreign language know to distinguish these words from any other words?" WALTERS: "That, I think, is hard, and it's hard in other languages, too, and I think -- this is going to be a flip answer -- but I think, be relaxed about it and try to tune your ear to the context. So, does the speaker really mean 'in some cases,' or does the speaker just not want to take a stand? I'll give you another example of what I have in mind that's really coming into the speech I hear among students and adults, and it's coming into their writing too, and that's ending a sentence with 'and all' or 'and such' or 'and the like' or 'and everything.'" AA: "For example, do you have a sentence there you can ... " WALTERS: "Yeah, this one I really loved -- 'she started dating boys and all.' (laughter)" AA: "And all what?" WALTERS: "That was the question in my mind, I was interested in what else she was dating. But if your doctor walks into the room with a chart and says 'you have a problem with high blood pressure and all.'" RS: "And you go, 'what else?'" WALTERS: "You really want to know whether it means something or doesn't mean something." AA: Professor Ronald Walters says he would give English learners who need help with writing the same advice he gives his history students: WALTERS: "First, pay attention to the structure of what it is that you want to say, to the organization of it. Worry less about getting the perfect sentence and knowing more the order of the things that you want to say and the transitions between points. I also tell them to take a piece of non-fiction that they feel is well written and take maybe two to five pages, just take them apart, paragraph by paragraph. Pay attention to the topic sentence, the first sentence of each paragraph, and maybe even just read four or five pages just reading the first sentences. What they'll commonly find out is that you can tell an awful lot about what they're reading just by doing that, because the authors are using the beginnings of paragraphs very clearly to state a main point. And that helps potential writers begin to think of paragraphs as units of analysis." RS: Ronald Walters at Johns Hopkins University once wrote a style guide with one of his students. AA: We found it posted on the Internet. Just do a search for "weasel words" (that's W-E-A-S-E-L) and "Ronald Walters." RS: To find Avi and me, go to www.voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Pop Goes the Weasel"/Disney Silly Songs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 10, 2002: Music by Pink / Question About Mother's Day / Some Americans Who Went Back in Time
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 10, 2002 HOST: Rosa Aldrete and daughter Rosalba, Age 1 1/2 Broadcast: May 10, 2002 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music by Pink ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music by Pink ... Answer a question about Mother’s Day ... And report about some Americans who went back in time. Frontier House HOST: A recent American television program recorded the experiences of three families who traveled back in time to live in the year eighteen-eighty-three. Sound impossible? Jim Tedder explains. ANNCR: The American public broadcasting system created the five month long experiment. It wanted to find out if twenty-first century American families could survive on the western frontier as it existed in the eighteen-hundreds. Five-thousand families wanted to take part in such an experiment. Three were chosen. The largest family group -- two adults and four children--was from California. The second family of two adults and two children lived in Tennessee. The third family was a newly married couple from Massachusetts. They all spent five months living in Montana, far from the modern world. The television program that came out of this experience was called “Frontier House.” For six hours, people watching television saw the families living the same way as people did who first settled in Montana more than one-hundred years ago. The families were given some supplies at the start. And they were taught about how people lived in the American west in eighteen-eighty-three. Then they had to build their own shelter, take care of animals, grow their food and prepare it just as if they were living more than one-hundred years ago. The families talked to a camera during the filming. Each spoke about the problems and joys of living on a farm without modern equipment. They found the life extremely difficult. They said all they did every day was work from the time they got up in the morning until they went to bed. The experience had a huge effect on everyone. The husband and wife in one family separated at the end of the experiment. Another family was able to survive the five months only by cheating. They bought extra food and used a few modern devices during the experiment. The youngest husband and wife in the group were the most successful. They worked well together as a team. It was the children who seemed to learn the most from the experience. After returning to their twenty-first century lives, each said, in a different way, that living on the frontier taught them a lot about themselves. They said the experience helped them deal better with modern life. Mother’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Trang Thao asks about Mother’s Day. Sunday is Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, but not always on the same day. Some historians say the holiday comes from ancient spring festivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother’s Day began in the seventeenth century in Britain. The writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace. Mother’s Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor her mother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held the ceremony on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Later, she and others wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day. President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a day of public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. It became popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy to their mothers on Mother’s Day. Today, children of all ages still give their mothers special gifts on Mother’s Day. Older children may travel to visit their mothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with a message of love. Or they send flowers. They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wish them a happy day. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for America’s telephone companies. Some families get together on Mother’s Day to honor all the women in the family who are mothers. Many go to a restaurant for a special Mother’s Day meal. Pink HOST: A popular American singer is known as “Pink.” How did she get her name? Is it because of her colorful hair? Mary Tillotson has that answer and tells us more about her. ANNCR: Pink’s real name is Alicia Moore. She is twenty-two years old. People began calling Alicia “Pink” because of the natural appearance of her skin. Years later, she thought it would be funny if “Pink” also had pink hair. Music always has been a part of Pink’s life. She says her father played guitar and taught her songs. She began singing and dancing when she was a teenager. By age nineteen, Pink had recorded her first album. It is called “Can’t Take Me Home.” Three of its songs were hits. Here she sings “There You Go.” ((CUT ONE - “There You Go”)) Pink recently received a Grammy Award for a new recording of the song “Lady Marmalade” (MAR-ma-lahd). The song was in the movie “Moulin Rouge.” It was a hit for the rhythm and blues group LaBelle in the Nineteen-Seventies. Listen now as Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, and Mya sing “Lady Marmalade.” ((CUT TWO – “Lady Marmalade”)) Pink’s latest album is called “Missundaztood.” She helped write most of the songs. We leave you a song from that album, “Get the Party Started.” ((CUT THREE – “Get the Party Started”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Answer a question about Mother’s Day ... And report about some Americans who went back in time. Frontier House HOST: A recent American television program recorded the experiences of three families who traveled back in time to live in the year eighteen-eighty-three. Sound impossible? Jim Tedder explains. ANNCR: The American public broadcasting system created the five month long experiment. It wanted to find out if twenty-first century American families could survive on the western frontier as it existed in the eighteen-hundreds. Five-thousand families wanted to take part in such an experiment. Three were chosen. The largest family group -- two adults and four children--was from California. The second family of two adults and two children lived in Tennessee. The third family was a newly married couple from Massachusetts. They all spent five months living in Montana, far from the modern world. The television program that came out of this experience was called “Frontier House.” For six hours, people watching television saw the families living the same way as people did who first settled in Montana more than one-hundred years ago. The families were given some supplies at the start. And they were taught about how people lived in the American west in eighteen-eighty-three. Then they had to build their own shelter, take care of animals, grow their food and prepare it just as if they were living more than one-hundred years ago. The families talked to a camera during the filming. Each spoke about the problems and joys of living on a farm without modern equipment. They found the life extremely difficult. They said all they did every day was work from the time they got up in the morning until they went to bed. The experience had a huge effect on everyone. The husband and wife in one family separated at the end of the experiment. Another family was able to survive the five months only by cheating. They bought extra food and used a few modern devices during the experiment. The youngest husband and wife in the group were the most successful. They worked well together as a team. It was the children who seemed to learn the most from the experience. After returning to their twenty-first century lives, each said, in a different way, that living on the frontier taught them a lot about themselves. They said the experience helped them deal better with modern life. Mother’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thi Trang Thao asks about Mother’s Day. Sunday is Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, but not always on the same day. Some historians say the holiday comes from ancient spring festivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother’s Day began in the seventeenth century in Britain. The writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace. Mother’s Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor her mother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held the ceremony on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Later, she and others wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day. President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finally agreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a day of public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. It became popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy to their mothers on Mother’s Day. Today, children of all ages still give their mothers special gifts on Mother’s Day. Older children may travel to visit their mothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with a message of love. Or they send flowers. They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wish them a happy day. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for America’s telephone companies. Some families get together on Mother’s Day to honor all the women in the family who are mothers. Many go to a restaurant for a special Mother’s Day meal. Pink HOST: A popular American singer is known as “Pink.” How did she get her name? Is it because of her colorful hair? Mary Tillotson has that answer and tells us more about her. ANNCR: Pink’s real name is Alicia Moore. She is twenty-two years old. People began calling Alicia “Pink” because of the natural appearance of her skin. Years later, she thought it would be funny if “Pink” also had pink hair. Music always has been a part of Pink’s life. She says her father played guitar and taught her songs. She began singing and dancing when she was a teenager. By age nineteen, Pink had recorded her first album. It is called “Can’t Take Me Home.” Three of its songs were hits. Here she sings “There You Go.” ((CUT ONE - “There You Go”)) Pink recently received a Grammy Award for a new recording of the song “Lady Marmalade” (MAR-ma-lahd). The song was in the movie “Moulin Rouge.” It was a hit for the rhythm and blues group LaBelle in the Nineteen-Seventies. Listen now as Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, and Mya sing “Lady Marmalade.” ((CUT TWO – “Lady Marmalade”)) Pink’s latest album is called “Missundaztood.” She helped write most of the songs. We leave you a song from that album, “Get the Party Started.” ((CUT THREE – “Get the Party Started”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – May 10, 2002: Effects of Global Warming
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists say the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere has begun to affect plant and animal life around the world. Scientists from the University of Hanover in Germany reported their findings in the publication Nature. They say global warming is affecting endangered species, sea life and the change in seasonal activities of organisms. Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Studies show that the Earth’s climate has warmed by about six-tenths of one degree Celsius during the past one-hundred years. Most of the increase has taken place in the last thirty years. The German scientists studied different animal and plant populations around the world in the past thirty years. They say some species will disappear because they can not move to new areas when their home climate gets too warm. The scientists say one of the biggest signs of climate change has been the worldwide reduction in coral reefs. Rising temperatures in the world’s warm ocean waters have caused coral to lose color and die. In the coldest areas of the world, winter freezing periods are now happening later and ending earlier. Researchers say these changes are having severe effects on animals such as penguins, seals and polar bears. Changes in temperature and wetness in the air can also affect the reproduction of some reptiles and amphibians. For example, the sex of baby painted turtles is linked to the average temperature in July. Scientists say even small temperature increases can threaten the production of male turtles. In Europe, scientists say warmer temperatures are affecting the spring and autumn seasons. This is affecting the growth of plants and delaying the flight of birds from one place to another. Scientists are concerned about invasions of warm weather species into traditionally colder areas. Rising temperatures have been linked with diseases spread by mosquito insects in areas of Asia, East Africa and Latin America. Britain’s Meteorological Office says worldwide temperatures will continue to rise during the next one-hundred years. It says how much temperatures increase will depend on the success of worldwide policies designed to slow global warming. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists say the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere has begun to affect plant and animal life around the world. Scientists from the University of Hanover in Germany reported their findings in the publication Nature. They say global warming is affecting endangered species, sea life and the change in seasonal activities of organisms. Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Studies show that the Earth’s climate has warmed by about six-tenths of one degree Celsius during the past one-hundred years. Most of the increase has taken place in the last thirty years. The German scientists studied different animal and plant populations around the world in the past thirty years. They say some species will disappear because they can not move to new areas when their home climate gets too warm. The scientists say one of the biggest signs of climate change has been the worldwide reduction in coral reefs. Rising temperatures in the world’s warm ocean waters have caused coral to lose color and die. In the coldest areas of the world, winter freezing periods are now happening later and ending earlier. Researchers say these changes are having severe effects on animals such as penguins, seals and polar bears. Changes in temperature and wetness in the air can also affect the reproduction of some reptiles and amphibians. For example, the sex of baby painted turtles is linked to the average temperature in July. Scientists say even small temperature increases can threaten the production of male turtles. In Europe, scientists say warmer temperatures are affecting the spring and autumn seasons. This is affecting the growth of plants and delaying the flight of birds from one place to another. Scientists are concerned about invasions of warm weather species into traditionally colder areas. Rising temperatures have been linked with diseases spread by mosquito insects in areas of Asia, East Africa and Latin America. Britain’s Meteorological Office says worldwide temperatures will continue to rise during the next one-hundred years. It says how much temperatures increase will depend on the success of worldwide policies designed to slow global warming. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - May 13, 2002: Sondheim Celebration
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C currently is honoring the work of one of America’s finest composers. The first of six popular musical shows written by Stephen Sondheim opened at the center last week. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C currently is honoring the work of one of America’s finest composers. The first of six popular musical shows written by Stephen Sondheim opened at the center last week. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. The music of Stephen Sondheim is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. The music of Stephen Sondheim is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Americans love the music of Stephen Sondheim. Many theater critics say he re-invented American musical plays. This is because his plays are different from traditional musicals. His plays are often about serious subjects. They have more interesting and unusual characters. And they are about complex emotions. The Kennedy Center is presenting six of his most popular musical shows starring famous Broadway musical performers. The Sondheim Celebration will continue through August twenty-fifth. VOICE TWO: Stephen Sondheim was born in nineteen-thirty in New York City. He was the son of clothing manufacturers. His parents ended their marriage when he was ten years old. His mother took Stephen to live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They lived near Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote the words to many of the greatest musical plays on Broadway in New York. He helped Stephen develop his musical abilities. VOICE ONE: While still a young man, Stephen Sondheim wrote the words to the songs Leonard Bernstein composed for the musical “West Side Story.” It opened on Broadway in Nineteen-Sixty. It is considered one of the finest works of American musical theater. Sondheim also wrote the words to the songs in another very successful show, “Gypsy.” These productions helped launch Mister Sondheim in the musical theater. Since the early Nineteen-Sixties, he has written the words and music to more than one-hundred songs. He has written or helped write about twenty musical shows. They have won many awards for the best musicals on Broadway. VOICE TWO: Now, we tell about the six musicals being performed in the Sondheim Celebration in Washington this summer. One of these is “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” It was created by Sondheim and Broadway producer Hal Prince. It is the story of a man who was unfairly sent to prison in London. The show tells about how he punishes his enemies for this injustice. It is funny as well as frightening. Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou sing “A Little Priest.” ((CUT TWO: "A Little Priest")) VOICE ONE: The team of Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince also wrote “Merrily We Roll Along.” This story is about three successful people who once were friends. Here, Maria Friedman urges an old friend to remember their warm feelings for one another. She sings “Old Friends: Who’s Like Us?” ((CUT THREE: "Old Friends: Who’s Like Us?)) VOICE TWO: Another Sondheim show being performed in Washington is “Sunday in the Park with George.” The play is based on a famous nineteenth century painting by French artist George Seurat. Mister Sondheim said he wrote the musical to prove that creating art is difficult. Mandy Patinkin, as George, thinks about doing something new. Bernadette Peters, as his girlfriend, urges him to do so. They sing “Move On.” ((CUT FOUR: "Move On")) VOICE ONE: People at the Kennedy Center also will see “A Little Night Music.” This musical is based on a movie by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. It is about love, foolishness and old age. Jean Simmons sings one of Stephen Sondheim’s most famous and beautiful songs, “Send in the Clowns.” ((CUT FIVE: "Send in the Clowns")) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center also is presenting the Sondheim musical show, “Passion.” It takes place in Italy during the eighteen-sixties. In this story, a young soldier must choose between a beautiful lover and a dying woman. The show is more emotionally complex than other Broadway musicals. Here, Jere Shea and Marin Mazzie describe their feelings for one another in “Happiness.” ((CUT SIX: "Happiness")) VOICE ONE: The Sondheim show “Company” tells about an unmarried man named Robert. Robert sings about the woman he could love. This woman is perfect. She has all the qualities of five of his women friends who are married. Dean Jones sings “Someone is Waiting.” ((CUT SEVEN: "Someone Is Waiting")) VOICE TWO: Thousands of people have bought tickets to the Sondheim Celebration. Some are travelling from other cities to see one or more of the shows. As one critic said, “Stephen Sondheim is the father of the modern musical theater.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Darryl Smith. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Americans love the music of Stephen Sondheim. Many theater critics say he re-invented American musical plays. This is because his plays are different from traditional musicals. His plays are often about serious subjects. They have more interesting and unusual characters. And they are about complex emotions. The Kennedy Center is presenting six of his most popular musical shows starring famous Broadway musical performers. The Sondheim Celebration will continue through August twenty-fifth. VOICE TWO: Stephen Sondheim was born in nineteen-thirty in New York City. He was the son of clothing manufacturers. His parents ended their marriage when he was ten years old. His mother took Stephen to live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They lived near Oscar Hammerstein, who wrote the words to many of the greatest musical plays on Broadway in New York. He helped Stephen develop his musical abilities. VOICE ONE: While still a young man, Stephen Sondheim wrote the words to the songs Leonard Bernstein composed for the musical “West Side Story.” It opened on Broadway in Nineteen-Sixty. It is considered one of the finest works of American musical theater. Sondheim also wrote the words to the songs in another very successful show, “Gypsy.” These productions helped launch Mister Sondheim in the musical theater. Since the early Nineteen-Sixties, he has written the words and music to more than one-hundred songs. He has written or helped write about twenty musical shows. They have won many awards for the best musicals on Broadway. VOICE TWO: Now, we tell about the six musicals being performed in the Sondheim Celebration in Washington this summer. One of these is “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” It was created by Sondheim and Broadway producer Hal Prince. It is the story of a man who was unfairly sent to prison in London. The show tells about how he punishes his enemies for this injustice. It is funny as well as frightening. Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou sing “A Little Priest.” ((CUT TWO: "A Little Priest")) VOICE ONE: The team of Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince also wrote “Merrily We Roll Along.” This story is about three successful people who once were friends. Here, Maria Friedman urges an old friend to remember their warm feelings for one another. She sings “Old Friends: Who’s Like Us?” ((CUT THREE: "Old Friends: Who’s Like Us?)) VOICE TWO: Another Sondheim show being performed in Washington is “Sunday in the Park with George.” The play is based on a famous nineteenth century painting by French artist George Seurat. Mister Sondheim said he wrote the musical to prove that creating art is difficult. Mandy Patinkin, as George, thinks about doing something new. Bernadette Peters, as his girlfriend, urges him to do so. They sing “Move On.” ((CUT FOUR: "Move On")) VOICE ONE: People at the Kennedy Center also will see “A Little Night Music.” This musical is based on a movie by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. It is about love, foolishness and old age. Jean Simmons sings one of Stephen Sondheim’s most famous and beautiful songs, “Send in the Clowns.” ((CUT FIVE: "Send in the Clowns")) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center also is presenting the Sondheim musical show, “Passion.” It takes place in Italy during the eighteen-sixties. In this story, a young soldier must choose between a beautiful lover and a dying woman. The show is more emotionally complex than other Broadway musicals. Here, Jere Shea and Marin Mazzie describe their feelings for one another in “Happiness.” ((CUT SIX: "Happiness")) VOICE ONE: The Sondheim show “Company” tells about an unmarried man named Robert. Robert sings about the woman he could love. This woman is perfect. She has all the qualities of five of his women friends who are married. Dean Jones sings “Someone is Waiting.” ((CUT SEVEN: "Someone Is Waiting")) VOICE TWO: Thousands of people have bought tickets to the Sondheim Celebration. Some are travelling from other cities to see one or more of the shows. As one critic said, “Stephen Sondheim is the father of the modern musical theater.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Darryl Smith. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – May 13, 2002: Solar Cookers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day. It is often difficult to find wood for the fire. People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel. However, there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun. Solar cookers, or ovens, have been used for centuries. A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in seventeen-sixty-seven. Today, people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world. People use solar ovens to cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms. There are three kinds of solar ovens. The first is a box cooker. It is designed with a special wall that shines or reflects sunlight into the box. Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top of the cooker. A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food. The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker. It includes several flat walls, or panels, that directly reflect the sun’s light onto the food. The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat energy. People can build panel cookers quickly and with very few supplies. They do not cost much. In Kenya, for example, panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars. The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic cooker. It has rounded walls that aim sunlight directly into the bottom of the oven. Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens. However, these cookers are hard to make. They must be re-aimed often to follow the sun. Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and eye injuries if they are not used correctly. You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper. They will not catch fire. Paper burns at two-hundred-thirty-two degrees Celsius. A solar cooker never gets that hot. Solar ovens cook food at low temperatures over long periods of time. This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other things. To learn more about solar cooking, you can write to Solar Cookers International. The address is nineteen-nineteen Twenty-First Street, Sacramento, California, nine-five-eight-one-four, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet Web site. The address is www.solarcooking.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Millions of people around the world cook their food over a smoky fire every day. It is often difficult to find wood for the fire. People who do not have wood must spend large amounts of money on cooking fuel. However, there is a much easier way to cook food using energy from the sun. Solar cookers, or ovens, have been used for centuries. A Swiss scientist made the first solar oven in seventeen-sixty-seven. Today, people are using solar cookers in many countries around the world. People use solar ovens to cook food and to heat drinking water to kill bacteria and other harmful organisms. There are three kinds of solar ovens. The first is a box cooker. It is designed with a special wall that shines or reflects sunlight into the box. Heat gets trapped under a piece of glass or plastic covering the top of the cooker. A box oven is effective for slow cooking of large amounts of food. The second kind of solar oven is a panel cooker. It includes several flat walls, or panels, that directly reflect the sun’s light onto the food. The food is inside a separate container of plastic or glass that traps heat energy. People can build panel cookers quickly and with very few supplies. They do not cost much. In Kenya, for example, panel cookers are being manufactured for just two dollars. The third kind of solar oven is a parabolic cooker. It has rounded walls that aim sunlight directly into the bottom of the oven. Food cooks quickly in parabolic ovens. However, these cookers are hard to make. They must be re-aimed often to follow the sun. Parabolic cookers can also cause burns and eye injuries if they are not used correctly. You can make solar ovens from boxes or heavy paper. They will not catch fire. Paper burns at two-hundred-thirty-two degrees Celsius. A solar cooker never gets that hot. Solar ovens cook food at low temperatures over long periods of time. This permits people to leave food to cook while they do other things. To learn more about solar cooking, you can write to Solar Cookers International. The address is nineteen-nineteen Twenty-First Street, Sacramento, California, nine-five-eight-one-four, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet Web site. The address is www.solarcooking.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 12, 2002: Dorothy West
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 11, 2002: Aung San Suu Kyi Released
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was freed Monday after nineteen months of house arrest. Thousands of supporters welcomed the leader of the National League for Democracy as she travelled to party headquarters. People gathered in the streets of Rangoon to cheer her release. Mizz Aung San Suu Kyi said her release was a “new dawn” for Burma. She said the military government placed no conditions on her release. She also said she was ready to cooperate with the military government. The government also seemed to express a new willingness to change. It announced that it firmly believed in letting all citizens take part in the political process. Government officials also said that Mizz Suu Kyi will be permitted to travel anywhere in Burma. But, they said she would be provided security. Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San who led Burma to its independence from Britain in nineteen-forty-eight. He was killed shortly before that independence became official. Her mother held important political positions after Aung San’s death, including serving as Burma’s ambassador to India. Aung San Suu Kyi entered Oxford University in Britain in nineteen-sixty-four. She studied politics and economics. She married student Michael Aris. Their two children were born in the early Nineteen-Seventies. In nineteen-eighty-eight, Mizz Suu Kyi made a trip back to Burma to care for her sick mother. When she arrived her country was in political crisis. There was growing activism against Burmese military rulers. Aung San Suu Kyi joined in the activism. She soon became the leader of the opposition. She formed the National League for Democracy. She travelled the country speaking to huge gatherings of supporters although such meetings were banned. The Burmese government arrested the N-L-D leader for the first time in nineteen-eighty-nine. She was restricted to her house in Rangoon for the next six years. In Nineteen-Ninety, Burma held parliamentary elections. The N-L-D won eighty-two percent of the seats. However, the military government canceled the results. The Burmese Parliament never met. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-ninety-one. Her sons accepted the award for their mother. The Burmese opposition leader had refused a government offer to let her leave the country if she would never return. United Nations official Razali Ismail helped secure the release of Mizz Suu Kyi Monday. He had organized secret talks between the opposition leader and the Burmese military government in October, two-thousand. Thursday, the government said it was preparing for more such talks. Aung San Suu Kyi says the next step is discussions about policy. This Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 14, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a link between too much weight gain during pregnancy and breast cancer. We tell about some fishy space food. We also tell about a new treatment for a serious skin disease. And we tell about a new study of hormone replacement. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a link between too much weight gain during pregnancy and breast cancer. We tell about some fishy space food. We also tell about a new treatment for a serious skin disease. And we tell about a new study of hormone replacement. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new study has shown a possible link between too much weight gain during pregnancy and breast cancer. It found that women who gain more than seventeen kilograms during pregnancy may increase their risk of breast cancer later in life. The study found such women may have a forty percent greater risk of breast cancer later in life than women who gain less weight. It also found that weight gain during pregnancy had no effect on a woman’s risk of breast cancer during her reproductive years. The findings were released at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Representatives of the group met in San Francisco, California, last month. VOICE TWO: In the study, researchers from the United States and Finland examined medical information about more than twenty-thousand Finnish women. For record-keeping purposes, the researchers divided the women into two groups. More than seventeen-thousand women were in one group. Ninety-eight of these women developed breast cancer at an average age of forty-seven. Each of them was still having fertile periods. The second group included more than three-thousand women. One-hundred-eighty-five of these women developed breast cancer at an average age of fifty-eight. They all were too old to have fertile periods. A new study has shown a possible link between too much weight gain during pregnancy and breast cancer. It found that women who gain more than seventeen kilograms during pregnancy may increase their risk of breast cancer later in life. The study found such women may have a forty percent greater risk of breast cancer later in life than women who gain less weight. It also found that weight gain during pregnancy had no effect on a woman’s risk of breast cancer during her reproductive years. The findings were released at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Representatives of the group met in San Francisco, California, last month. VOICE TWO: In the study, researchers from the United States and Finland examined medical information about more than twenty-thousand Finnish women. For record-keeping purposes, the researchers divided the women into two groups. More than seventeen-thousand women were in one group. Ninety-eight of these women developed breast cancer at an average age of forty-seven. Each of them was still having fertile periods. The second group included more than three-thousand women. One-hundred-eighty-five of these women developed breast cancer at an average age of fifty-eight. They all were too old to have fertile periods. Leena Hilakivi-Clarke (LAY-na HILL-ah-kee-vee-CLARK) of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., was one of the study’s investigators. She said the study shows that women who kept the added weight after pregnancy are at the greatest risk. She said the additional weight may cause changes in breast tissue that increase the risk of breast cancer later in life. VOICE ONE: Doctor Hilakivi-Clarke said the increased risk that results from weight gain during pregnancy is usually small. She noted that many doctors urge a woman to gain between eleven and sixteen kilograms during pregnancy. She said such a weight gain is not linked with an increased risk of breast cancer. The researcher also noted the link between high levels of the female hormone estrogen and the risk of breast cancer. She said that at least one study has shown that women who gain the most weight during pregnancy have higher estrogen levels than women who gain less. She said women who have the highest estrogen levels during pregnancy are more likely to develop breast cancer. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Have you ever wondered what it is like to eat in space? Scientists at the American space agency have studied the question of food for astronauts since the beginning of the space program. Without the force of gravity, objects like small pieces of food float freely inside a spaceship. This could be dangerous in a small area filled with electronic devices. So, NASA made space food into thick, unpleasant substances that do not break into small pieces. VOICE ONE: John Glenn, an astronaut for project Mercury, was the first American to eat in space. Most early astronauts regretted the experience. Yet, NASA has done a lot of research to improve the food that astronauts eat. The space agency also wants to develop renewable food resources that can make astronauts depend less on materials brought from Earth. Today, NASA runs a whole center for food research at the Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, Texas. NASA has improved the taste of space food through the years. For example, astronauts on the International Space Station now enjoy foods common to many different cultures. However, some of the new ideas for making foods that can be used on long space flights may seem very unusual, or “out of this world.” VOICE TWO: One NASA researcher thinks astronauts some day may eat meat that is grown in chemicals. Morris Benjaminson is a scientist at Touro College in Bay Shore, New York. He has been investigating new ways to make food to feed astronauts on long space trips. Mister Benjaminson performed an experiment using a special fluid taken from the blood of an unborn cow. The fluid is normally used to grow cells. Mister Benjaminson and his team put a small piece of fish in the fluid. After one week, Mister Benjaminson found that the piece of fish had grown by fourteen percent. The biology researchers then cooked the piece of fish. All the researchers agreed that it looked and smelled like fish. But, no one would eat it. Mister Benjaminson pointed out that the researchers could not eat the strange food because it was experimental. He explained that the fish had not been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Doctors from the United States and Saudi Arabia have discovered a new treatment for the form of leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis) disease that affects the skin. Leishmaniasis is caused by tiny organisms called parasites. Small insects called sand flies spread the disease. The disease causes serious wounds on the face, arms and legs. This form of leishmaniasis is the most common and represents up to seventy-five percent of all new cases. The Saudi and American doctors found that the drug fluconazole (floo-KAHN-uh-zol) can be used to treat cutaneous or skin-related leishmaniasis. Fluconazole is used to treat other skin diseases. VOICE TWO: James Maguire is an expert on parasite diseases at the United States Centers for Disease Control. He took part in the latest study. It tested fluconazole on more than one-hundred patients in Saudi Arabia. One group of patients was given the drug every day for six weeks. The other group was given an inactive substance. The doctors found that almost eighty percent of the patients taking fluconazole were completely healed. The doctors also discovered that patients experienced fewer side effects from fluconazole compared to older drugs used to treat leishmaniasis. The doctors say the drug is effective against the most common form of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Middle East and parts of Africa. However, they say it does not work well on the kind of the disease found in South Asia and South America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: An international team of health experts says there is no scientific evidence that hormone replacement can treat serious conditions suffered by older women. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems. These include heart disease, mental depression, Alzheimer’s disease and broken bones caused by the disease osteoporosis. VOICE TWO: The report examined the results of many women’s health studies. Twenty-eight doctors and scientists wrote the report. They are from the United States, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia. The group examined only studies that used the scientific method called a randomized control trial. In such studies, people are given either the treatment being tested or an inactive substance called a placebo. The results show if the treatment was more effective than the placebo. VOICE ONE: The report said that hormone replacement is useful to ease the hot feelings that some older women experience. But it said scientific evidence does not support its use for other problems. For example, three recent studies show that taking hormones increases instead of reduces the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Studies have shown that taking hormones does not help women with early Alzheimer’s disease or mental depression. The report said taking hormones can slow bone loss. But the loss continues after women stop taking the hormones. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Mario Ritter, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Leena Hilakivi-Clarke (LAY-na HILL-ah-kee-vee-CLARK) of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., was one of the study’s investigators. She said the study shows that women who kept the added weight after pregnancy are at the greatest risk. She said the additional weight may cause changes in breast tissue that increase the risk of breast cancer later in life. VOICE ONE: Doctor Hilakivi-Clarke said the increased risk that results from weight gain during pregnancy is usually small. She noted that many doctors urge a woman to gain between eleven and sixteen kilograms during pregnancy. She said such a weight gain is not linked with an increased risk of breast cancer. The researcher also noted the link between high levels of the female hormone estrogen and the risk of breast cancer. She said that at least one study has shown that women who gain the most weight during pregnancy have higher estrogen levels than women who gain less. She said women who have the highest estrogen levels during pregnancy are more likely to develop breast cancer. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Have you ever wondered what it is like to eat in space? Scientists at the American space agency have studied the question of food for astronauts since the beginning of the space program. Without the force of gravity, objects like small pieces of food float freely inside a spaceship. This could be dangerous in a small area filled with electronic devices. So, NASA made space food into thick, unpleasant substances that do not break into small pieces. VOICE ONE: John Glenn, an astronaut for project Mercury, was the first American to eat in space. Most early astronauts regretted the experience. Yet, NASA has done a lot of research to improve the food that astronauts eat. The space agency also wants to develop renewable food resources that can make astronauts depend less on materials brought from Earth. Today, NASA runs a whole center for food research at the Space Food Systems Laboratory in Houston, Texas. NASA has improved the taste of space food through the years. For example, astronauts on the International Space Station now enjoy foods common to many different cultures. However, some of the new ideas for making foods that can be used on long space flights may seem very unusual, or “out of this world.” VOICE TWO: One NASA researcher thinks astronauts some day may eat meat that is grown in chemicals. Morris Benjaminson is a scientist at Touro College in Bay Shore, New York. He has been investigating new ways to make food to feed astronauts on long space trips. Mister Benjaminson performed an experiment using a special fluid taken from the blood of an unborn cow. The fluid is normally used to grow cells. Mister Benjaminson and his team put a small piece of fish in the fluid. After one week, Mister Benjaminson found that the piece of fish had grown by fourteen percent. The biology researchers then cooked the piece of fish. All the researchers agreed that it looked and smelled like fish. But, no one would eat it. Mister Benjaminson pointed out that the researchers could not eat the strange food because it was experimental. He explained that the fish had not been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Doctors from the United States and Saudi Arabia have discovered a new treatment for the form of leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis) disease that affects the skin. Leishmaniasis is caused by tiny organisms called parasites. Small insects called sand flies spread the disease. The disease causes serious wounds on the face, arms and legs. This form of leishmaniasis is the most common and represents up to seventy-five percent of all new cases. The Saudi and American doctors found that the drug fluconazole (floo-KAHN-uh-zol) can be used to treat cutaneous or skin-related leishmaniasis. Fluconazole is used to treat other skin diseases. VOICE TWO: James Maguire is an expert on parasite diseases at the United States Centers for Disease Control. He took part in the latest study. It tested fluconazole on more than one-hundred patients in Saudi Arabia. One group of patients was given the drug every day for six weeks. The other group was given an inactive substance. The doctors found that almost eighty percent of the patients taking fluconazole were completely healed. The doctors also discovered that patients experienced fewer side effects from fluconazole compared to older drugs used to treat leishmaniasis. The doctors say the drug is effective against the most common form of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the Middle East and parts of Africa. However, they say it does not work well on the kind of the disease found in South Asia and South America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: An international team of health experts says there is no scientific evidence that hormone replacement can treat serious conditions suffered by older women. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems. These include heart disease, mental depression, Alzheimer’s disease and broken bones caused by the disease osteoporosis. VOICE TWO: The report examined the results of many women’s health studies. Twenty-eight doctors and scientists wrote the report. They are from the United States, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia. The group examined only studies that used the scientific method called a randomized control trial. In such studies, people are given either the treatment being tested or an inactive substance called a placebo. The results show if the treatment was more effective than the placebo. VOICE ONE: The report said that hormone replacement is useful to ease the hot feelings that some older women experience. But it said scientific evidence does not support its use for other problems. For example, three recent studies show that taking hormones increases instead of reduces the chance of a heart attack or stroke. Studies have shown that taking hormones does not help women with early Alzheimer’s disease or mental depression. The report said taking hormones can slow bone loss. But the loss continues after women stop taking the hormones. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Mario Ritter, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – May 14, 2002: Wood Chips Protect Waterways
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American scientists are developing ways to limit pollution from agricultural fertilizers in rivers and other waterways. The scientists say they found one method that provides a natural line of defense. Their method involves small pieces of wood called wood chips. The scientists buried a large amount of wood chips near crops treated with nitrate fertilizer. They found that the areas filled with wood chips reduced the nitrate in the water by as much as seventy percent. Dan Jaynes of the United States Agricultural Research Service is leading the study. He works at the Soil and Water Quality office in Ames, Iowa. In the United States, devices called drainage tiles can speed the removal of extra water from cropland. Farmers build drainage tiles near their fields. The devices help direct unneeded water to nearby waterways. Mister Jaynes notes that farmers use drainage tiles on thirty percent of all cropland in the central United States. However, when water is removed from fertilized crops, nitrate may not reach deep into the soil. As a result, the fertilizer cannot help plant roots. Often the nitrate fertilizer is washed into rivers and other waterways. It feeds the growth of underwater plants. As the plants die and break down, they use up all the oxygen in the water. This causes a condition known as hypoxia. Plants and animal life cannot live in the water if it does not contain enough oxygen. High levels of nitrate have also caused problems for communities that use rivers for drinking water. The American scientists carried out their experiment on land with corn and soybean crops. They dug large holes around the fields. These trenches are two meters deep and about two-thirds of a meter wide. They extend in the same direction as the drainage tiles. The scientists filled the trenches with wood chips up to about one-third of a meter below the surface. Then they covered the chips with soil. The wood chips create a natural barrier that helps change nitrate into nitrogen gas, which is common in the atmosphere. Mister Jaynes says the method works equally well for small and large farms. He said farmers do not need to supervise the system. The scientists now will study how long the wood chips are effective before they break down. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American scientists are developing ways to limit pollution from agricultural fertilizers in rivers and other waterways. The scientists say they found one method that provides a natural line of defense. Their method involves small pieces of wood called wood chips. The scientists buried a large amount of wood chips near crops treated with nitrate fertilizer. They found that the areas filled with wood chips reduced the nitrate in the water by as much as seventy percent. Dan Jaynes of the United States Agricultural Research Service is leading the study. He works at the Soil and Water Quality office in Ames, Iowa. In the United States, devices called drainage tiles can speed the removal of extra water from cropland. Farmers build drainage tiles near their fields. The devices help direct unneeded water to nearby waterways. Mister Jaynes notes that farmers use drainage tiles on thirty percent of all cropland in the central United States. However, when water is removed from fertilized crops, nitrate may not reach deep into the soil. As a result, the fertilizer cannot help plant roots. Often the nitrate fertilizer is washed into rivers and other waterways. It feeds the growth of underwater plants. As the plants die and break down, they use up all the oxygen in the water. This causes a condition known as hypoxia. Plants and animal life cannot live in the water if it does not contain enough oxygen. High levels of nitrate have also caused problems for communities that use rivers for drinking water. The American scientists carried out their experiment on land with corn and soybean crops. They dug large holes around the fields. These trenches are two meters deep and about two-thirds of a meter wide. They extend in the same direction as the drainage tiles. The scientists filled the trenches with wood chips up to about one-third of a meter below the surface. Then they covered the chips with soil. The wood chips create a natural barrier that helps change nitrate into nitrogen gas, which is common in the atmosphere. Mister Jaynes says the method works equally well for small and large farms. He said farmers do not need to supervise the system. The scientists now will study how long the wood chips are effective before they break down. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – May 15, 2002: National Aviation Hall of Fame
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT- May 15, 2002: Fish and a Healthy Heart
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers are reporting new studies showing that eating oily fish reduces the chance of dying from a heart attack. Oily fish have large amounts of a substance called omega-three fatty acid. These fish include herring, mackerel and salmon. One study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts studied about twenty-two-thousand male doctors. The doctors took part in the Physicians Health Study in nineteen-eighty-two. All were free of heart disease. Fifteen-thousand of the doctors provided the researchers with small amounts of their blood. Ninety-four of the men who had given blood died suddenly during the next seventeen years. The researchers measured the amount of omega-three fatty acids in their blood. They also measured the fatty acids in blood from one-hundred-eighty surviving members of the study. The researchers found that the men who died had lower amounts of the fatty acids in their blood. The men with the highest levels of fatty acids had an eighty percent lower risk of sudden death than the men with the lowest levels. A second study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another group of researchers in Boston studied eighty-five-thousand female nurses. The women were part of the Nurses Health Study that began in nineteen-seventy-six. The researchers spoke to the women five times in fourteen years to find out how much fish they ate. They found that the women who ate the most fish were least likely to suffer a heart attack or die of heart problems. Women who ate fish once a week had a thirty percent lower chance of heart attack or sudden death than those who never ate fish. A third study appeared in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association. Researchers in Italy studied more than eleven-thousand people who had suffered heart attacks. Half the group took a fish oil pill every day. The others took an inactive pill. The people who took the fish oil pills had a forty-two percent lower rate of sudden death from heart problems. The researchers said their findings must be confirmed by other studies before they would tell people to take fish oil in pills. But all the researchers said that eating oily fish two times a week can protect against heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers are reporting new studies showing that eating oily fish reduces the chance of dying from a heart attack. Oily fish have large amounts of a substance called omega-three fatty acid. These fish include herring, mackerel and salmon. One study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts studied about twenty-two-thousand male doctors. The doctors took part in the Physicians Health Study in nineteen-eighty-two. All were free of heart disease. Fifteen-thousand of the doctors provided the researchers with small amounts of their blood. Ninety-four of the men who had given blood died suddenly during the next seventeen years. The researchers measured the amount of omega-three fatty acids in their blood. They also measured the fatty acids in blood from one-hundred-eighty surviving members of the study. The researchers found that the men who died had lower amounts of the fatty acids in their blood. The men with the highest levels of fatty acids had an eighty percent lower risk of sudden death than the men with the lowest levels. A second study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another group of researchers in Boston studied eighty-five-thousand female nurses. The women were part of the Nurses Health Study that began in nineteen-seventy-six. The researchers spoke to the women five times in fourteen years to find out how much fish they ate. They found that the women who ate the most fish were least likely to suffer a heart attack or die of heart problems. Women who ate fish once a week had a thirty percent lower chance of heart attack or sudden death than those who never ate fish. A third study appeared in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association. Researchers in Italy studied more than eleven-thousand people who had suffered heart attacks. Half the group took a fish oil pill every day. The others took an inactive pill. The people who took the fish oil pills had a forty-two percent lower rate of sudden death from heart problems. The researchers said their findings must be confirmed by other studies before they would tell people to take fish oil in pills. But all the researchers said that eating oily fish two times a week can protect against heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 16, 2002: The War in Europe, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) On June fifth, nineteen-forty-four, a huge Allied force waited for the order to invade German-occupied France. The invasion had been planned for the day before. But a storm forced a delay. At three-thirty in the morning, the Allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, was meeting with his assistants. The storm still blew outside the building. General Eisenhower and his generals were discussing whether they should attack the next day. June 6, 1944: General Eisenhower with American paratroopers in England(Library of Congress) (Theme) On June fifth, nineteen-forty-four, a huge Allied force waited for the order to invade German-occupied France. The invasion had been planned for the day before. But a storm forced a delay. At three-thirty in the morning, the Allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, was meeting with his assistants. The storm still blew outside the building. General Eisenhower and his generals were discussing whether they should attack the next day. VOICE 2: A weatherman entered the room. He reported that the weather soon would improve. All eyes turned to Eisenhower. The decision was his. His face was serious. And for a long time he was silent. Finally he spoke. "Okay," he said. "We will go. " And so the greatest military invasion in the history of the world, D-Day, took place on June sixth, nineteen-forty-four. VOICE 1: The German leader, Adolph Hitler, had known the invasion was coming. But he did not know where the Allied force would strike. Most Germans expected the Allies would attack at Calais, in France. But they were wrong. Eisenhower planned to strike at the French coast of Normandy, across the English Channel. The Second World War was then almost five years old. The Germans had won the early battles and gained control of most of Europe. But in nineteen-forty-two and forty-three, the Allies slowly began to gain back land from the Germans in northern Africa, Italy, and Russia. And now, finally, the British, American, Canadian, and other Allied forces felt strong enough to attack across the English Channel. VOICE 2: Eisenhower had one-hundred-fifty-thousand men, twelve-thousand airplanes and many supplies for the attack. But most important, he had surprise on his side. Even after the invasion began, General Erwin Rommel and other top German military experts could not believe that the Allies had really attacked at Normandy. But attack they did. On the night of June fifth, airplanes dropped thousands of Allied parachute soldiers behind German lines. Then Allied planes began dropping bombs on German defenses. And in the morning, thousands of ships approached the beaches, carrying men and supplies. VOICE 1: The battle quickly became fierce and bloody. The Germans had strong defenses. They were better protected than the Allied troops on the beaches. But the Allied soldiers had greater numbers. Slowly they moved forward on one part of the beach, then another. VOICE 2: The Allies continued to build up their forces in France. They brought nearly ninety-thousand vehicles and six-hundred-thousand men into France within one week. And they pushed ahead. Hitler was furious. He screamed at his generals for not blocking the invasion. And he ordered his troops from nearby areas to join the fight and stop the Allied force. But the Allies would not be stopped. VOICE 1: In late August, the Allied forces captured Paris. The French people cheered wildly as General Charles de Gaulle and free French forces marched into the center of the city. The allies then moved east into Belgium. They captured the great Belgian port of Antwerp. This made it easier for them to send supplies and fuel to their troops. Only when Allied troops tried to move into the Netherlands did the Germans succeed in stopping them. American parachute soldiers won battles at Eindhoven and Njmegen. But German forces defeated British "Red Devil" troops in a terrible fight at Arnhem. Germany's brief victory stopped the Allied invasion for the moment. But in less than four months, General Eisenhower and the Allied forces had regained almost all of France. VOICE 2: At the same time, in nineteen-forty-four, the Soviets were attacking Germany from the east. Earlier, Soviet forces had succeeded in breaking German attacks at Stalingrad [Volgograd], Moscow, and Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. Soviet forces re-captured Russian cities and farms one by one. They entered Finland, Poland, and Romania. By the end of July, Soviet soldiers were just fifteen kilometers from the Polish capital, Warsaw. VOICE 1: What happened next was one of the most terrible events of the war. Moscow radio called on the people of Poland to rise up against the German occupation forces. Nearly forty-thousand men in the Polish underground army listened to the call. And they attacked the Germans. The citizens of Warsaw probably could have defeated the German occupation forces if the soviet army had helped them. But Soviet leader Josef Stalin betrayed the Poles. He knew that many members of the Polish underground forces opposed communism as much as they opposed the Germans. He feared they would block his efforts to establish a new Polish government that was friendly to Moscow. For this reason, Stalin held his forces outside Warsaw. He waited while the Germans and Poles killed each other in great numbers. The Germans finally forced the citizens of Warsaw to surrender. The real winner of the battle, however, was the Soviet Union. Both the Germans and the Poles suffered terrible losses during the fighting. The Soviet Army had little trouble taking over the city with the help of Polish Communists. And after the war, the free Polish forces were too weak to oppose a Communist government loyal to Moscow. VOICE 2: Adolf Hitler was in serious trouble. Allied forces were attacking from the west. Soviet troops were passing through Poland and moving in from the east. And at home, several German military officials tried to assassinate him. The German leader narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in a meeting room. But Hitler refused to surrender. Instead, he planned a surprise attack in December nineteen-forty-four. He ordered his forces to move quietly through the Ardennes Forest and attack the center of the Allied line. He hoped to break through the line, separate the Allied forces, and regain control of the war. VOICE 1: The Germans attacked American troops tired from recent fighting in another battle. It was winter. The weather was so bad that Allied planes could not drop bombs on the German forces. The Germans quickly broke through the American line. But the German success did not last long. Allied forces from nearby areas raced to the battle-front to help. And good weather allowed Allied planes to begin attacking the Germans. The battle ended by the middle of the following month in a great defeat for Hitler and the Germans. The German army lost more than one-hundred-thousand men and great amounts of supplies. VOICE 2: The end of the war in Europe was now in sight. By late February, nineteen-forty-five, the Germans were forced to retreat across the Rhine River. American forces led by General Patton drove deep into the German heartland. To the east, Soviet forces also were marching into Germany. It did not take long for the American and Soviet forces to meet in victory. The war in Europe was ended. VOICE 1: Adolf Hitler waited until Russian troops were destroying Berlin. Bombs and shells were falling everywhere. Hitler took his own life by shooting himself in the head. One week later, the German army surrendered officially to Eisenhower and the allies. VOICE 2: The defeat of Germany was cause for great celebration in Britain, the United States, and other Allied nations. But two facts made the celebrations less joyful than they might have been. One was the discovery by Allied troops of the terrible German death camps. Only at the end of the war did most of the world learn that the Nazis had murdered millions of innocent Jews and other people. The second fact was that the pacific war had not ended. Japanese and American forces were still fighting bitterly. That war in the Pacific will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 2: A weatherman entered the room. He reported that the weather soon would improve. All eyes turned to Eisenhower. The decision was his. His face was serious. And for a long time he was silent. Finally he spoke. "Okay," he said. "We will go. " And so the greatest military invasion in the history of the world, D-Day, took place on June sixth, nineteen-forty-four. VOICE 1: The German leader, Adolph Hitler, had known the invasion was coming. But he did not know where the Allied force would strike. Most Germans expected the Allies would attack at Calais, in France. But they were wrong. Eisenhower planned to strike at the French coast of Normandy, across the English Channel. The Second World War was then almost five years old. The Germans had won the early battles and gained control of most of Europe. But in nineteen-forty-two and forty-three, the Allies slowly began to gain back land from the Germans in northern Africa, Italy, and Russia. And now, finally, the British, American, Canadian, and other Allied forces felt strong enough to attack across the English Channel. VOICE 2: Eisenhower had one-hundred-fifty-thousand men, twelve-thousand airplanes and many supplies for the attack. But most important, he had surprise on his side. Even after the invasion began, General Erwin Rommel and other top German military experts could not believe that the Allies had really attacked at Normandy. But attack they did. On the night of June fifth, airplanes dropped thousands of Allied parachute soldiers behind German lines. Then Allied planes began dropping bombs on German defenses. And in the morning, thousands of ships approached the beaches, carrying men and supplies. VOICE 1: The battle quickly became fierce and bloody. The Germans had strong defenses. They were better protected than the Allied troops on the beaches. But the Allied soldiers had greater numbers. Slowly they moved forward on one part of the beach, then another. VOICE 2: The Allies continued to build up their forces in France. They brought nearly ninety-thousand vehicles and six-hundred-thousand men into France within one week. And they pushed ahead. Hitler was furious. He screamed at his generals for not blocking the invasion. And he ordered his troops from nearby areas to join the fight and stop the Allied force. But the Allies would not be stopped. VOICE 1: In late August, the Allied forces captured Paris. The French people cheered wildly as General Charles de Gaulle and free French forces marched into the center of the city. The allies then moved east into Belgium. They captured the great Belgian port of Antwerp. This made it easier for them to send supplies and fuel to their troops. Only when Allied troops tried to move into the Netherlands did the Germans succeed in stopping them. American parachute soldiers won battles at Eindhoven and Njmegen. But German forces defeated British "Red Devil" troops in a terrible fight at Arnhem. Germany's brief victory stopped the Allied invasion for the moment. But in less than four months, General Eisenhower and the Allied forces had regained almost all of France. VOICE 2: At the same time, in nineteen-forty-four, the Soviets were attacking Germany from the east. Earlier, Soviet forces had succeeded in breaking German attacks at Stalingrad [Volgograd], Moscow, and Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. Soviet forces re-captured Russian cities and farms one by one. They entered Finland, Poland, and Romania. By the end of July, Soviet soldiers were just fifteen kilometers from the Polish capital, Warsaw. VOICE 1: What happened next was one of the most terrible events of the war. Moscow radio called on the people of Poland to rise up against the German occupation forces. Nearly forty-thousand men in the Polish underground army listened to the call. And they attacked the Germans. The citizens of Warsaw probably could have defeated the German occupation forces if the soviet army had helped them. But Soviet leader Josef Stalin betrayed the Poles. He knew that many members of the Polish underground forces opposed communism as much as they opposed the Germans. He feared they would block his efforts to establish a new Polish government that was friendly to Moscow. For this reason, Stalin held his forces outside Warsaw. He waited while the Germans and Poles killed each other in great numbers. The Germans finally forced the citizens of Warsaw to surrender. The real winner of the battle, however, was the Soviet Union. Both the Germans and the Poles suffered terrible losses during the fighting. The Soviet Army had little trouble taking over the city with the help of Polish Communists. And after the war, the free Polish forces were too weak to oppose a Communist government loyal to Moscow. VOICE 2: Adolf Hitler was in serious trouble. Allied forces were attacking from the west. Soviet troops were passing through Poland and moving in from the east. And at home, several German military officials tried to assassinate him. The German leader narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in a meeting room. But Hitler refused to surrender. Instead, he planned a surprise attack in December nineteen-forty-four. He ordered his forces to move quietly through the Ardennes Forest and attack the center of the Allied line. He hoped to break through the line, separate the Allied forces, and regain control of the war. VOICE 1: The Germans attacked American troops tired from recent fighting in another battle. It was winter. The weather was so bad that Allied planes could not drop bombs on the German forces. The Germans quickly broke through the American line. But the German success did not last long. Allied forces from nearby areas raced to the battle-front to help. And good weather allowed Allied planes to begin attacking the Germans. The battle ended by the middle of the following month in a great defeat for Hitler and the Germans. The German army lost more than one-hundred-thousand men and great amounts of supplies. VOICE 2: The end of the war in Europe was now in sight. By late February, nineteen-forty-five, the Germans were forced to retreat across the Rhine River. American forces led by General Patton drove deep into the German heartland. To the east, Soviet forces also were marching into Germany. It did not take long for the American and Soviet forces to meet in victory. The war in Europe was ended. VOICE 1: Adolf Hitler waited until Russian troops were destroying Berlin. Bombs and shells were falling everywhere. Hitler took his own life by shooting himself in the head. One week later, the German army surrendered officially to Eisenhower and the allies. VOICE 2: The defeat of Germany was cause for great celebration in Britain, the United States, and other Allied nations. But two facts made the celebrations less joyful than they might have been. One was the discovery by Allied troops of the terrible German death camps. Only at the end of the war did most of the world learn that the Nazis had murdered millions of innocent Jews and other people. The second fact was that the pacific war had not ended. Japanese and American forces were still fighting bitterly. That war in the Pacific will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jack Weitzel. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Home Schooling
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 16, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than one-million children in the United States do not go to school. Instead, they learn at home. Most often, their parents are their teachers. Educational companies, libraries and the Internet provide many families with teaching material. Other parents create teaching methods to meet the needs of individual children. Parents choose home schooling for several reasons. Some choose it because of their religious beliefs. Others say it provides more time for the family to be together. They say the home offers a better place for learning. Some parents believe home schooling avoids problems of traditional schools. These include classes that have too many students. Critics, however, say children need to attend school with other children. They also say that some home-schooled children do not get a good education. All fifty American states and the District of Columbia permit home schooling. Some states do not require much preparation by parents or testing of children. Other states have more requirements for home schooling. Home-schooling in the United States began when the country was established. In farm areas, people often lived far from a school. Widespread home schooling took place until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, in eighteen-fifty-two, the state of Massachusetts passed the first law requiring children to attend school. Over the years, the American public education system strengthened and grew. By the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies, however, some Americans believed that traditional education was not helping their children. So a number of parents began home-schooling. Home-school expert Linda Dobson says many people have helped the movement grow. She says some parents began teaching their children at home after changes in tax laws forced some private religious schools to close. That happened in the nineteen-eighties. And, most recently, she says many kinds of people have joined the movement. She says these include rich people and poor people. They represent many races, religions and political beliefs. Mizz Dobson says the number of home-schooled children has increased an estimated fifteen to twenty percent each year during the last fifteen years. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. Broadcast: May 16, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than one-million children in the United States do not go to school. Instead, they learn at home. Most often, their parents are their teachers. Educational companies, libraries and the Internet provide many families with teaching material. Other parents create teaching methods to meet the needs of individual children. Parents choose home schooling for several reasons. Some choose it because of their religious beliefs. Others say it provides more time for the family to be together. They say the home offers a better place for learning. Some parents believe home schooling avoids problems of traditional schools. These include classes that have too many students. Critics, however, say children need to attend school with other children. They also say that some home-schooled children do not get a good education. All fifty American states and the District of Columbia permit home schooling. Some states do not require much preparation by parents or testing of children. Other states have more requirements for home schooling. Home-schooling in the United States began when the country was established. In farm areas, people often lived far from a school. Widespread home schooling took place until about the middle of the nineteenth century. Then, in eighteen-fifty-two, the state of Massachusetts passed the first law requiring children to attend school. Over the years, the American public education system strengthened and grew. By the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies, however, some Americans believed that traditional education was not helping their children. So a number of parents began home-schooling. Home-school expert Linda Dobson says many people have helped the movement grow. She says some parents began teaching their children at home after changes in tax laws forced some private religious schools to close. That happened in the nineteen-eighties. And, most recently, she says many kinds of people have joined the movement. She says these include rich people and poor people. They represent many races, religions and political beliefs. Mizz Dobson says the number of home-schooled children has increased an estimated fifteen to twenty percent each year during the last fifteen years. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 16, 2002 - Persuasion and Resistance
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of persuasion, from an expert. RS: Eric Knowles is a social psychologist at the University of Arkansas. He heads a laboratory group that recently held a Symposium on Resistance and Persuasion, with the National Science Foundation as a sponsor. KNOWLES: "Persuasion and sales and offers of all sorts of things have become so regular, so frequent, that people often turn them off, they just tune them out and respond to them in a very scripted or stereotypic or automatic kind of way, typically saying 'no, I don't do that,' that sort of thing. So one of the things we find effective is to throw in an unexpected phrase or element into the offer." AA: In one experiment involving sales messages, students of Professor Knowles went door-to-door selling some note cards drawn by children for a local charity. The price was three dollars. Sales nearly doubled, though, when they said the price in coins -- "three-hundred pennies" -- and then remarked: "Actually it's a pretty good bargain." RS: Another experiment involved selling a kind of pastry for the campus Psychology Club. We normally call this kind of pastry a cupcake. But when the seller called them by the odd name of "half-cake," guess what happened. KNOWLES: " What you need to do is visualize the interaction, and here is a student on campus, a nice young lady, with a tray full of a dozen cupcakes, half of them white frosting and half of them chocolate frosting. And people look at her and they look at the tray and nobody was in doubt what she was selling or how much it cost. It's just when we said it in a slightly funny way that she got about twenty percent more sales than when she just said it in the normal way." AA: "A cupcake." KNOWLES: "A cupcake. Now interestingly in that research, one of the ladies who was doing this research had just gotten back from France, spending a semester abroad, and so she sold cupcakes walking up to people in the middle of Arkansas and saying: 'We're selling these petite gateaux for fifty cents, they're delicious would you like to buy one?' That produced sales that were less, although not quite significantly less -- they were kind of in-between the other two. It led us to think that maybe you can say something that's too odd and makes the interaction become suspicious." AA: "We laugh about this, but do you ever worry about the potential for misuse of your research?" KNOWLES: "Sure. Here's -- my concern is not that, it's not that the disruption is devious. The disruption by itself is not effective at all in increasing sales. So to go door-to-door and say 'we're selling these for three-hundred pennies' doesn't increase sales at all over 'we're selling them for three dollars.' But it makes the reason that one gives afterwards more persuasive. That is, I think what it does is to wake people up to thinking about and listening to the offer." AA: According to Professor Knowles, most persuasion research has focused on how to make offers more attractive through such things as added incentives. He thinks a better way to persuade people is to try to reduce their resistance -- in other words, take away their reasons to say no. RS: The idea is that when people do finally say yes, they will feel more strongly about their decision than if they had simply been persuaded grudgingly with more incentives. And one thing his research shows, Professor Knowles says, is that people are more likely to make a decision when they know they can reverse it. AA: With sales, that would translate into being able to return an item if they don't like it. KNOWLES: "Here, I live in northwest Arkansas and our major employer is the Wal-Mart headquarters. And Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, made a fortune in a number of ways, but one of the important things he did was to institute a no-questions-asked return policy in his stores." AA: Professor Eric Knowles, head of the Omega Lab at the University of Arkansas. Omega is the Greek letter used as a symbol for "resistance." RS: Now should you feel persuaded to write to us, our address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Hidden Persuasion"/Frank Sinatra AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the language of persuasion, from an expert. RS: Eric Knowles is a social psychologist at the University of Arkansas. He heads a laboratory group that recently held a Symposium on Resistance and Persuasion, with the National Science Foundation as a sponsor. KNOWLES: "Persuasion and sales and offers of all sorts of things have become so regular, so frequent, that people often turn them off, they just tune them out and respond to them in a very scripted or stereotypic or automatic kind of way, typically saying 'no, I don't do that,' that sort of thing. So one of the things we find effective is to throw in an unexpected phrase or element into the offer." AA: In one experiment involving sales messages, students of Professor Knowles went door-to-door selling some note cards drawn by children for a local charity. The price was three dollars. Sales nearly doubled, though, when they said the price in coins -- "three-hundred pennies" -- and then remarked: "Actually it's a pretty good bargain." RS: Another experiment involved selling a kind of pastry for the campus Psychology Club. We normally call this kind of pastry a cupcake. But when the seller called them by the odd name of "half-cake," guess what happened. KNOWLES: " What you need to do is visualize the interaction, and here is a student on campus, a nice young lady, with a tray full of a dozen cupcakes, half of them white frosting and half of them chocolate frosting. And people look at her and they look at the tray and nobody was in doubt what she was selling or how much it cost. It's just when we said it in a slightly funny way that she got about twenty percent more sales than when she just said it in the normal way." AA: "A cupcake." KNOWLES: "A cupcake. Now interestingly in that research, one of the ladies who was doing this research had just gotten back from France, spending a semester abroad, and so she sold cupcakes walking up to people in the middle of Arkansas and saying: 'We're selling these petite gateaux for fifty cents, they're delicious would you like to buy one?' That produced sales that were less, although not quite significantly less -- they were kind of in-between the other two. It led us to think that maybe you can say something that's too odd and makes the interaction become suspicious." AA: "We laugh about this, but do you ever worry about the potential for misuse of your research?" KNOWLES: "Sure. Here's -- my concern is not that, it's not that the disruption is devious. The disruption by itself is not effective at all in increasing sales. So to go door-to-door and say 'we're selling these for three-hundred pennies' doesn't increase sales at all over 'we're selling them for three dollars.' But it makes the reason that one gives afterwards more persuasive. That is, I think what it does is to wake people up to thinking about and listening to the offer." AA: According to Professor Knowles, most persuasion research has focused on how to make offers more attractive through such things as added incentives. He thinks a better way to persuade people is to try to reduce their resistance -- in other words, take away their reasons to say no. RS: The idea is that when people do finally say yes, they will feel more strongly about their decision than if they had simply been persuaded grudgingly with more incentives. And one thing his research shows, Professor Knowles says, is that people are more likely to make a decision when they know they can reverse it. AA: With sales, that would translate into being able to return an item if they don't like it. KNOWLES: "Here, I live in northwest Arkansas and our major employer is the Wal-Mart headquarters. And Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, made a fortune in a number of ways, but one of the important things he did was to institute a no-questions-asked return policy in his stores." AA: Professor Eric Knowles, head of the Omega Lab at the University of Arkansas. Omega is the Greek letter used as a symbol for "resistance." RS: Now should you feel persuaded to write to us, our address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com. And we're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Hidden Persuasion"/Frank Sinatra 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - May 17, 2002: Whooping Crane Recovery Project
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists are trying to create the first migrating group of whooping cranes in the eastern United States in more than one-hundred years. Migrating birds fly long distances to different areas of the country when the seasons change. For example, they fly from cold areas to warm areas to spend the winter. Whooping cranes endangered species This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists are trying to create the first migrating group of whooping cranes in the eastern United States in more than one-hundred years. Migrating birds fly long distances to different areas of the country when the seasons change. For example, they fly from cold areas to warm areas to spend the winter. The migration project is designed to increase the number of whooping cranes. These large, beautiful birds are in danger of disappearing. Cranes are one of the most threatened families of birds in the world. Whooping cranes are the rarest of all cranes. There are fewer than three-hundred-fifty birds left in the world. Whooping cranes do not produce many baby birds. That makes it difficult to replace birds killed by hunting, natural events, animals, accidents and disease. Scientists hope the migration effort will lead to increased reproduction among whooping cranes. In October, researchers trained eight young whooping cranes to fly behind small airplanes. The planes led the endangered birds on their first migration. They flew from the middle western state of Wisconsin to a protected area in the southeastern state of Florida for the winter. Whooping Cranes following ultralight plane in Wisconsin (Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership photo) The migration project is designed to increase the number of whooping cranes. These large, beautiful birds are in danger of disappearing. Cranes are one of the most threatened families of birds in the world. Whooping cranes are the rarest of all cranes. There are fewer than three-hundred-fifty birds left in the world. Whooping cranes do not produce many baby birds. That makes it difficult to replace birds killed by hunting, natural events, animals, accidents and disease. Scientists hope the migration effort will lead to increased reproduction among whooping cranes. In October, researchers trained eight young whooping cranes to fly behind small airplanes. The planes led the endangered birds on their first migration. They flew from the middle western state of Wisconsin to a protected area in the southeastern state of Florida for the winter. The cranes and planes arrived in Florida in December, following a fifty-day flight. They flew across seven states. One crane died during the trip. Two others were killed by animals in Florida. The five remaining whooping cranes returned to the Necedah (neh-SEE-dah) National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin on their own last month. The return north was the cranes’ first unassisted migration. They were guided only by their natural abilities. Scientists from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the International Crane Foundation have been studying the birds since they began their northern migration. They say their flight back to Wisconsin was quicker than anyone had expected. It took ten days and covered almost two-thousand kilometers. Scientists had known that existing wild whooping cranes were able to fly great distances during migration. But they did not know if they could teach young whooping cranes to migrate. The scientists will observe these whooping cranes during the summer and as they migrate back south in the fall. Scientists hope the effort will teach them more about how to save the endangered birds. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. The cranes and planes arrived in Florida in December, following a fifty-day flight. They flew across seven states. One crane died during the trip. Two others were killed by animals in Florida. The five remaining whooping cranes returned to the Necedah (neh-SEE-dah) National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin on their own last month. The return north was the cranes’ first unassisted migration. They were guided only by their natural abilities. Scientists from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the International Crane Foundation have been studying the birds since they began their northern migration. They say their flight back to Wisconsin was quicker than anyone had expected. It took ten days and covered almost two-thousand kilometers. Scientists had known that existing wild whooping cranes were able to fly great distances during migration. But they did not know if they could teach young whooping cranes to migrate. The scientists will observe these whooping cranes during the summer and as they migrate back south in the fall. Scientists hope the effort will teach them more about how to save the endangered birds. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 17, 2002: 'Spider-Man' the Movie / Music by Jill Scott / New Rules for Foreign Visitors to U.S.
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: May 17, 2002 HOST: Broadcast: May 17, 2002 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music by Jill Scott ... Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music by Jill Scott ... Answer a question about changes in rules for foreigners visiting the United States ... And report about a popular new movie. Spider-Man HOST: The latest “Star Wars” movie has just opened in the United States. Movie experts are wondering if it will sell as many tickets as another action movie, “Spider-Man,” that opened two weeks ago. “Spider-Man” earned more money for an opening weekend than any other movie in history. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Movie experts were surprised at the huge number of people who went to see “Spider-Man” after it opened. In its first three days, “Spider-Man” sold almost one-hundred-fifteen-million dollars worth of tickets. That was more than the ninety-million dollar record set six months ago by the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Critics said there are several reasons for this. They said “Spider-Man” is not as long as other movies and was shown many times a day. They also said “Spider-Man” is a movie for people of all ages. Boys wanted to see it because they like action movies and enjoyed the comic books on which the movie is based. Girls liked the movie because it includes a love story. And adults wanted to see a movie they could enjoy with their children. The young actor Toby Maguire stars as “Spider-Man.” He plays a quiet teen-aged boy named Peter Parker. Peter likes a girl in his school, Mary Jane Watson. One day, Peter is bitten by a genetically engineered spider in a laboratory. This changes his body. Peter Parker becomes “Spider-Man.” He becomes extremely strong and fast. And he has special powers. For example, he can climb up walls and leap from one tall building to another. He uses these powers to help people and defeat evil. Peter hides this secret life from everyone, including his family and his friends. His main enemy is the Green Goblin. In normal life the Green Goblin is the father of Peter’s best friend, Harry. Elika Naraghi (pronounced na-RA-gee; hard "g" like in gear) is twenty-two years old. She saw “Spider-Man” on its opening weekend near Washington, D.C. Elika says “Spider-Man” is fun and exciting. She also praised the actors and the special effects. Elika said she is looking forward to the second “Spider-Man” movie that is planned for two-thousand-four. New INS Rules HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Hoang Van Quang asks about new United States government policies for visitors from foreign countries. The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service has changed some of its policies for foreign visitors since the terrorist attacks in September. That is because some of the airplane hijackers had come to the United States as visitors and later became students. At the time of the attacks, about six-hundred-thousand foreign students were taking classes at American colleges and universities. Government officials have admitted that they did not know where many of these foreign students were. The officials said they would make changes in the system. Last month, the I-N-S announced new rules for travel permission documents for students, called visas. Foreigners will no longer be able to take college classes while in the United States on a business or visitor visa. The I-N-S will give student visas only to people who let the agency know their plans before entering the country. The reason for this change is national security. It will give federal officials time to do a security investigation on each foreigner who wants to study in the United States. Earlier this month, the Bush administration announced the creation of a new committee to investigate foreigners who want to study in American science and technology programs. Officials said the goal is to make sure foreign students do not get training that could be used against the United States. The new group will advise the I-N-S about people who want to study subjects that could give them information or skills that could possibly threaten the United States. These subjects include nuclear and missile technology, information security and aircraft technology. There also are rule changes that affect other foreign visitors. These new rules reduce from six months to thirty days the amount of time most foreign visitors can stay in the United States. They limit most business travelers to six months. Visitors may extend their stays only if they can show unexpected or humanitarian reasons such as medical treatment or an important business meeting. Officials say the changes reduce the chance that illegal immigrants will establish permanent ties in the United States and will remain in the country illegally. Jill Scott HOST: Poet and singer Jill Scott says a school project changed her life. It led to her serious interest in writing and music. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Jill Scott says when she was a teenager, one of her teachers gave the students a list of names. Each student was to choose someone from the list to write about. Jill chose poet Nikki Giovanni. She did not know who Nikki Giovanni was at the time. But when Jill began to read Mizz Giovanni’s poems, she felt as if the poet was talking to her. Jill says that is how she became interested in writing. Jill Scott wrote poetry for seven years before she began singing. She took part in spoken-word events in her home city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She wrote the songs for her first album. It is called “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Volume One.” She mixes words of poetry with sounds of rap, hip-hop, jazz and blues. Here Jill Scott sings “It’s Love.” ((Cut One – “It’s Love”)) Jill Scott says many of the songs on her album are about her life. She recently married her longtime friend Lyzel Williams. Jill has written many songs about Lyzel. She sings about him on the song “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”. ((Cut Two - “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”)) Jill Scott’s latest album is called “Experience: Jill Scott. ” It includes songs from live performances and studio recordings. We leave you with a song from this album. It is called “Gotta Get Up.” ((Cut Three – “Gotta Get Up”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Martin Hansberry. And our producer was Caty Weaver. Answer a question about changes in rules for foreigners visiting the United States ... And report about a popular new movie. Spider-Man HOST: The latest “Star Wars” movie has just opened in the United States. Movie experts are wondering if it will sell as many tickets as another action movie, “Spider-Man,” that opened two weeks ago. “Spider-Man” earned more money for an opening weekend than any other movie in history. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Movie experts were surprised at the huge number of people who went to see “Spider-Man” after it opened. In its first three days, “Spider-Man” sold almost one-hundred-fifteen-million dollars worth of tickets. That was more than the ninety-million dollar record set six months ago by the movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” Critics said there are several reasons for this. They said “Spider-Man” is not as long as other movies and was shown many times a day. They also said “Spider-Man” is a movie for people of all ages. Boys wanted to see it because they like action movies and enjoyed the comic books on which the movie is based. Girls liked the movie because it includes a love story. And adults wanted to see a movie they could enjoy with their children. The young actor Toby Maguire stars as “Spider-Man.” He plays a quiet teen-aged boy named Peter Parker. Peter likes a girl in his school, Mary Jane Watson. One day, Peter is bitten by a genetically engineered spider in a laboratory. This changes his body. Peter Parker becomes “Spider-Man.” He becomes extremely strong and fast. And he has special powers. For example, he can climb up walls and leap from one tall building to another. He uses these powers to help people and defeat evil. Peter hides this secret life from everyone, including his family and his friends. His main enemy is the Green Goblin. In normal life the Green Goblin is the father of Peter’s best friend, Harry. Elika Naraghi (pronounced na-RA-gee; hard "g" like in gear) is twenty-two years old. She saw “Spider-Man” on its opening weekend near Washington, D.C. Elika says “Spider-Man” is fun and exciting. She also praised the actors and the special effects. Elika said she is looking forward to the second “Spider-Man” movie that is planned for two-thousand-four. New INS Rules HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Hoang Van Quang asks about new United States government policies for visitors from foreign countries. The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service has changed some of its policies for foreign visitors since the terrorist attacks in September. That is because some of the airplane hijackers had come to the United States as visitors and later became students. At the time of the attacks, about six-hundred-thousand foreign students were taking classes at American colleges and universities. Government officials have admitted that they did not know where many of these foreign students were. The officials said they would make changes in the system. Last month, the I-N-S announced new rules for travel permission documents for students, called visas. Foreigners will no longer be able to take college classes while in the United States on a business or visitor visa. The I-N-S will give student visas only to people who let the agency know their plans before entering the country. The reason for this change is national security. It will give federal officials time to do a security investigation on each foreigner who wants to study in the United States. Earlier this month, the Bush administration announced the creation of a new committee to investigate foreigners who want to study in American science and technology programs. Officials said the goal is to make sure foreign students do not get training that could be used against the United States. The new group will advise the I-N-S about people who want to study subjects that could give them information or skills that could possibly threaten the United States. These subjects include nuclear and missile technology, information security and aircraft technology. There also are rule changes that affect other foreign visitors. These new rules reduce from six months to thirty days the amount of time most foreign visitors can stay in the United States. They limit most business travelers to six months. Visitors may extend their stays only if they can show unexpected or humanitarian reasons such as medical treatment or an important business meeting. Officials say the changes reduce the chance that illegal immigrants will establish permanent ties in the United States and will remain in the country illegally. Jill Scott HOST: Poet and singer Jill Scott says a school project changed her life. It led to her serious interest in writing and music. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Jill Scott says when she was a teenager, one of her teachers gave the students a list of names. Each student was to choose someone from the list to write about. Jill chose poet Nikki Giovanni. She did not know who Nikki Giovanni was at the time. But when Jill began to read Mizz Giovanni’s poems, she felt as if the poet was talking to her. Jill says that is how she became interested in writing. Jill Scott wrote poetry for seven years before she began singing. She took part in spoken-word events in her home city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She wrote the songs for her first album. It is called “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Volume One.” She mixes words of poetry with sounds of rap, hip-hop, jazz and blues. Here Jill Scott sings “It’s Love.” ((Cut One – “It’s Love”)) Jill Scott says many of the songs on her album are about her life. She recently married her longtime friend Lyzel Williams. Jill has written many songs about Lyzel. She sings about him on the song “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”. ((Cut Two - “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”)) Jill Scott’s latest album is called “Experience: Jill Scott. ” It includes songs from live performances and studio recordings. We leave you with a song from this album. It is called “Gotta Get Up.” ((Cut Three – “Gotta Get Up”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Martin Hansberry. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 19, 2002: Burl Ives
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Burl Ives. He won a Grammy award for his music and an Oscar for his acting. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Burl Ives. He won a Grammy award for his music and an Oscar for his acting. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-eight Burl Ives appeared in the western movie, "The Big Country." He played the part of a man who controls huge amounts of land. In the movie, he is not a nice man. He is mean and respects nothing but power. He causes problems for the people around him. Burl Ives won the Academy Award Oscar that year as the Best Supporting Actor. People who knew him well say it was really great acting. That is because Burl Ives was one of the nicest men they had ever met. Burl Ives was not mean. He was a large, friendly man who loved to make people happy with his acting and especially with his music. Except when he was acting in a movie, Burl Ives always smiled. He loved making music and wanted other people to enjoy the music he made. If you listen closely to his voice, you can tell he was smiling when he sang his songs. Listen now as he sings “Blue Tail Fly.” ((CUT ONE: “BLUE TAIL FLY”)) VOICE TWO: Burl Ives was one of seven children. He was born in June, nineteen-oh-nine in the middle western state of Illinois. Mister Ives said he began learning songs as a very little boy. His grandmother taught him to sing while she smoked tobacco in a pipe. As a young man, Burl wanted to teach history. So, he began attending Eastern Illinois Teacher’s College in nineteen-twenty-seven. But he was not a very good student. The president of the college told him one day he would never be a very good teacher. He said, “Burl why don’t you look around a little. You are always singing, why don’t you try that.” VOICE ONE: Burl Ives said he did not even go back to his room to pick up his clothing. He just went down the road and never looked back. He took his guitar and began traveling around the United States. He worked at many jobs. He also learned many songs. Songs from cowboys. Songs from farmers. Songs from people who worked on ships. Songs from people who worked in mines. He learned songs from anyone who would teach him something new. Burl Ives went to New York City in the early nineteen-thirties. He was admitted to the famous Julliard School of Music to study. He also got jobs in New York. He sang in small eating and drinking places. He sang the songs he had learned. By nineteen-thirty-eight he was performing in theaters. He was singing on the radio and was part of a group called The Weavers, which became famous. He began recording the folk songs he had learned. Critics said no one ever sung them better. He recorded “Blue Tail Fly” and made it famous. Another of his songs that became very popular was called, “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” The song is a funny story about a homeless man who tells of a place where you do not have to work, where food is free and tobacco is free. It is a place called Big Rock Candy Mountain. ((CUT TWO: “BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN.”)) VOICE TWO: Songs like “Big Rock Candy Mountain” could be heard on the Burl Ives radio program each week. The radio program was called "The Wayfaring Stranger." It was first broadcast in nineteen-forty. Burl Ives had recorded many songs but he did not have a major hit until nineteen-forty-seven. That song was “Lavender Blue.” ((CUT THREE: “LAVENDER BLUE”)) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen fifties, Burl Ives recorded hundreds of songs on many albums. He also began serious movie work. He had played the part of Big Daddy in the famous Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway in New York City. He was asked to play the same part in the movie of the same name. Movie experts praised his powerful performance as "Big Daddy." The movie was released in nineteen-fifty-eight, the same year he won his Oscar for the movie "Big Country." In nineteen-sixty-one, Burl Ives recorded a song that became another major hit. It made the top ten list of hit songs in country and western and popular music. The song was “Little Bitty Tear.” ((CUT FOUR: “LITTLE BITTY TEAR”)) VOICE TWO: “Little Bitty Tear” was followed a year later with another hit, “It’s Just My Funny Way of Laughin.” The song earned Burl Ives a Grammy Award that year for Best Country and Western Recording. Burl Ives never seemed to slow down. He was always extremely busy. He had another hit record in nineteen-sixty-four with his recording of “ Pearly Shells.” And, while he was recording songs for adults, he was also recording songs for children. VOICE ONE: It is his songs for children that will perhaps keep Burl Ives’ memory alive for many years to come. His most famous are two Christmas songs, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer,” and “Frosty the Snowman.” These songs were used in cartoon movies first shown on American television in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. Burl Ives provided the voice of some of the animals and people. He also sang most of the songs. A snowman in one of the movies even looks like Burl Ives. Both of these moves are still shown on television during the Christmas holiday season each year. They have become Christmas traditions. Here, Burl Ives sings “Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer.” ((CUT FIVE: "RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED RAINDEER")) VOICE TWO: Burl Ives never really retired. He moved to the northwestern state of Washington in his last years, but he continued to sing as long as he could. He died of cancer on April Fourteenth, nineteen-ninety-five. He was eighty-five years old. ((CUT SIX: "IT’S JUST MY FUNNY WAY OF LAUGHIN’")) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and directed by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. In nineteen-fifty-eight Burl Ives appeared in the western movie, "The Big Country." He played the part of a man who controls huge amounts of land. In the movie, he is not a nice man. He is mean and respects nothing but power. He causes problems for the people around him. Burl Ives won the Academy Award Oscar that year as the Best Supporting Actor. People who knew him well say it was really great acting. That is because Burl Ives was one of the nicest men they had ever met. Burl Ives was not mean. He was a large, friendly man who loved to make people happy with his acting and especially with his music. Except when he was acting in a movie, Burl Ives always smiled. He loved making music and wanted other people to enjoy the music he made. If you listen closely to his voice, you can tell he was smiling when he sang his songs. Listen now as he sings “Blue Tail Fly.” ((CUT ONE: “BLUE TAIL FLY”)) VOICE TWO: Burl Ives was one of seven children. He was born in June, nineteen-oh-nine in the middle western state of Illinois. Mister Ives said he began learning songs as a very little boy. His grandmother taught him to sing while she smoked tobacco in a pipe. As a young man, Burl wanted to teach history. So, he began attending Eastern Illinois Teacher’s College in nineteen-twenty-seven. But he was not a very good student. The president of the college told him one day he would never be a very good teacher. He said, “Burl why don’t you look around a little. You are always singing, why don’t you try that.” VOICE ONE: Burl Ives said he did not even go back to his room to pick up his clothing. He just went down the road and never looked back. He took his guitar and began traveling around the United States. He worked at many jobs. He also learned many songs. Songs from cowboys. Songs from farmers. Songs from people who worked on ships. Songs from people who worked in mines. He learned songs from anyone who would teach him something new. Burl Ives went to New York City in the early nineteen-thirties. He was admitted to the famous Julliard School of Music to study. He also got jobs in New York. He sang in small eating and drinking places. He sang the songs he had learned. By nineteen-thirty-eight he was performing in theaters. He was singing on the radio and was part of a group called The Weavers, which became famous. He began recording the folk songs he had learned. Critics said no one ever sung them better. He recorded “Blue Tail Fly” and made it famous. Another of his songs that became very popular was called, “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” The song is a funny story about a homeless man who tells of a place where you do not have to work, where food is free and tobacco is free. It is a place called Big Rock Candy Mountain. ((CUT TWO: “BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN.”)) VOICE TWO: Songs like “Big Rock Candy Mountain” could be heard on the Burl Ives radio program each week. The radio program was called "The Wayfaring Stranger." It was first broadcast in nineteen-forty. Burl Ives had recorded many songs but he did not have a major hit until nineteen-forty-seven. That song was “Lavender Blue.” ((CUT THREE: “LAVENDER BLUE”)) VOICE ONE: During the nineteen fifties, Burl Ives recorded hundreds of songs on many albums. He also began serious movie work. He had played the part of Big Daddy in the famous Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway in New York City. He was asked to play the same part in the movie of the same name. Movie experts praised his powerful performance as "Big Daddy." The movie was released in nineteen-fifty-eight, the same year he won his Oscar for the movie "Big Country." In nineteen-sixty-one, Burl Ives recorded a song that became another major hit. It made the top ten list of hit songs in country and western and popular music. The song was “Little Bitty Tear.” ((CUT FOUR: “LITTLE BITTY TEAR”)) VOICE TWO: “Little Bitty Tear” was followed a year later with another hit, “It’s Just My Funny Way of Laughin.” The song earned Burl Ives a Grammy Award that year for Best Country and Western Recording. Burl Ives never seemed to slow down. He was always extremely busy. He had another hit record in nineteen-sixty-four with his recording of “ Pearly Shells.” And, while he was recording songs for adults, he was also recording songs for children. VOICE ONE: It is his songs for children that will perhaps keep Burl Ives’ memory alive for many years to come. His most famous are two Christmas songs, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer,” and “Frosty the Snowman.” These songs were used in cartoon movies first shown on American television in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. Burl Ives provided the voice of some of the animals and people. He also sang most of the songs. A snowman in one of the movies even looks like Burl Ives. Both of these moves are still shown on television during the Christmas holiday season each year. They have become Christmas traditions. Here, Burl Ives sings “Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer.” ((CUT FIVE: "RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED RAINDEER")) VOICE TWO: Burl Ives never really retired. He moved to the northwestern state of Washington in his last years, but he continued to sing as long as he could. He died of cancer on April Fourteenth, nineteen-ninety-five. He was eighty-five years old. ((CUT SIX: "IT’S JUST MY FUNNY WAY OF LAUGHIN’")) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and directed by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - May 20, 2002: B&O Railroad Museum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The American city of Baltimore, Maryland is home to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum. Museum officials have organized a special sixteen-month event. It celebrates the one-hundred-seventy-fifth anniversary of railroads in America. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: The American city of Baltimore, Maryland is home to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum. Museum officials have organized a special sixteen-month event. It celebrates the one-hundred-seventy-fifth anniversary of railroads in America. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This celebration of American railroads is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((Sound of old steam engine and whistle)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This celebration of American railroads is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((Sound of old steam engine and whistle)) VOICE ONE: The one-hundred-seventy-fifth anniversary celebration honors two important dates in railroad history. The first is when lawmakers in Maryland approved a resolution to create the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. That happened on February twenty-seventh, eighteen-twenty-seven. The other event is the ceremonial laying of the first stone to build the railroad. That happened on July fourth, eighteen-twenty-eight. The B-and-O Railroad Museum in Baltimore has planned a number of activities during the anniversary period. The museum will present special shows, train trips and other events through July of next year. The celebration is called “One-Hundred-Seventy-Five Years: America On Track.” VOICE TWO: Courtney Wilson is the Railroad Museum’s executive director and a historian. He says one way to study American history is through the development of American railroads. Baltimore, Maryland is a major port in the eastern United States. Early in the nineteenth century, the Erie Canal threatened Baltimore’s economy. The Erie Canal was the first major waterway built in America. It provided an easy way to transport goods from the Great Lakes area to the port of New York City. Mister Wilson notes that people in England created what we know today as the railroad. He says businessmen from Baltimore sent representatives to England to study the early railroad technology. When the railroad was brought to the United States, the technology almost had to be reinvented. The English countryside was mostly flat. The Baltimore area, however, had large rivers, mountains, and roads that were not straight. VOICE ONE: The name Baltimore and Ohio comes from the idea of operating a railroad from Baltimore in the East to the Ohio River in the Middle West. At first, there were disputes about exactly where the railroad would be built. Organizers asked United States Army engineers to design a path to the West. Difficult negotiations and a political debate followed. Finally, the Carroll family, one of the oldest in Maryland, provided land for the railroad’s headquarters. The B-and-O Railroad Museum now occupies the property. ((Sound of railroad crossing and old steam engine)) The B-and-O Railroad was the first railroad built in North America. The first railroad line was powered by horses. By Eighteen-Thirty, the B-and-O operated three horse-powered trains each day to the nearby town of Ellicott’s Mills. Soon, the railroad was carrying more than four-hundred passengers a day. The company added new cars to the system as soon as they were built. VOICE TWO: By this time, trains powered by steam had been successfully tested in England. This development was of great interest to Peter Cooper, an inventor from New York. He told B-and-O officials that he had an idea for building a steam-powered engine. Mister Cooper developed the first steam engine for the new railroad. The engine was later called “Tom Thumb.” One story says the Tom Thumb steam engine once raced against a horse pulling a passenger train car. Just as the little engine moved into the lead, a piece of equipment broke. After that, the horse easily won the race. The details have never been confirmed, but the story is often repeated. VOICE ONE: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was never the largest or most powerful railroad in the United States. However, it was the first railroad in many ways. The B-and-O was the first to publish a timetable -- the list of the times the trains left and arrived. The B-and-O operated America’s first train station to earn money from paying passengers. The B-and-O was the first railroad to enter the nation’s capital, Washington, D-C. It also was the first railroad to have an agreement with the federal government to transport the mail. The B-and-O was the first railroad from the eastern United States to reach the Ohio River. That happened in Eighteen-Fifty-Two. Forty-three years later, the B-and-O was the first American railroad to use an electric-powered train. ((Sound of old steam engine)) VOICE TWO: One reason for the B-and-O’s success was the Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore. This is where workers repaired engines, train cars and other equipment. The Mount Clare Shops also were active in research and development. Courtney Wilson says the shops developed all the ideas for railroads in America. This included how to build a rail line and what kinds of materials would be used. At one time, the Mount Clare Shops employed more than four-thousand people. Steam engines, passenger and freight cars were built here. Once, workers built a bridge, and then transported it by train to its new home. For more than one-hundred years, the B-and-O and the Mount Clare Shops were the largest employers in Baltimore. Mount Clare is now part of the museum. VOICE ONE: Today, the B-and-O Railroad Museum occupies fifteen hectares of land in the center of Baltimore. It is a short walk from the city’s popular Inner Harbor area. About one-hundred-sixty-thousand people visit the museum each year. It operates as a private business. The government provides little financial help. Much of the money comes from people who pay to visit the museum or to become supporting members. Other money comes as gifts from individuals, businesses and non-profit groups. VOICE TWO: The B-and-O Railroad Museum occupies five buildings. One is called The Roundhouse. The Roundhouse is not really round, but has twenty-two sides. It also may be the world’s largest circular industrial building. It is more than thirty-seven meters tall. When first built, the Roundhouse was a place where passenger cars were repaired. In the center is a turntable. It turns in a circle to move engines and cars from one train track to another. The museum has more than two-hundred major pieces of railroad equipment, records and other objects. Visitors are permitted to study and explore a number of historic railroad engines and cars. Some are more than one-hundred years old. ((Train sounds)) VOICE ONE: One room in the museum has paintings of people who were important to the development of American railroads. For example, one painting shows the man who started the meat business Swift and Company. In the late eighteen-hundreds, Gustavus Swift developed the first refrigerator car – a railroad car that was kept cold. He had the idea of killing farm animals in one area and transporting their meat across the country. For this to be done safely, the meat had to be kept cold in such a refrigerator car. Mister Swift’s idea was a great success. Another painting at the Railroad Museum shows a young Abraham Lincoln. Before he became President, Lincoln worked as a lawyer for a railroad company. As President, Lincoln supported calls to build a railroad across the country. He died in Eighteen-Sixty-Five, four years before the railroad line was completed. ((Train sounds)) VOICE TWO: For many months, B-and-O Railroad Museum officials have been organizing the celebration of American railroads. The main event will be held next summer. It is called “The Fair of the Iron Horse, One-Hundred-Seventy-Five.” It will include historic trains from railroads and private collections around the world. The trains will operate on the first mile of railroad built in the United States. The event also will include railroad technology, toy trains and other activities. Museum officials say they expect as many as two-million visitors during the railroad anniversary. The visitors will help celebrate an important part of American history. For more information, you can write to the B-and-O Railroad Museum, nine-oh-one West Pratt Street; Baltimore, Maryland, two-one-two-two-three, U-S-A. Computer users can find this information at w-w-w-dot-b-o-r-a-i-l-dot-o-r-g. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. The one-hundred-seventy-fifth anniversary celebration honors two important dates in railroad history. The first is when lawmakers in Maryland approved a resolution to create the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. That happened on February twenty-seventh, eighteen-twenty-seven. The other event is the ceremonial laying of the first stone to build the railroad. That happened on July fourth, eighteen-twenty-eight. The B-and-O Railroad Museum in Baltimore has planned a number of activities during the anniversary period. The museum will present special shows, train trips and other events through July of next year. The celebration is called “One-Hundred-Seventy-Five Years: America On Track.” VOICE TWO: Courtney Wilson is the Railroad Museum’s executive director and a historian. He says one way to study American history is through the development of American railroads. Baltimore, Maryland is a major port in the eastern United States. Early in the nineteenth century, the Erie Canal threatened Baltimore’s economy. The Erie Canal was the first major waterway built in America. It provided an easy way to transport goods from the Great Lakes area to the port of New York City. Mister Wilson notes that people in England created what we know today as the railroad. He says businessmen from Baltimore sent representatives to England to study the early railroad technology. When the railroad was brought to the United States, the technology almost had to be reinvented. The English countryside was mostly flat. The Baltimore area, however, had large rivers, mountains, and roads that were not straight. VOICE ONE: The name Baltimore and Ohio comes from the idea of operating a railroad from Baltimore in the East to the Ohio River in the Middle West. At first, there were disputes about exactly where the railroad would be built. Organizers asked United States Army engineers to design a path to the West. Difficult negotiations and a political debate followed. Finally, the Carroll family, one of the oldest in Maryland, provided land for the railroad’s headquarters. The B-and-O Railroad Museum now occupies the property. ((Sound of railroad crossing and old steam engine)) The B-and-O Railroad was the first railroad built in North America. The first railroad line was powered by horses. By Eighteen-Thirty, the B-and-O operated three horse-powered trains each day to the nearby town of Ellicott’s Mills. Soon, the railroad was carrying more than four-hundred passengers a day. The company added new cars to the system as soon as they were built. VOICE TWO: By this time, trains powered by steam had been successfully tested in England. This development was of great interest to Peter Cooper, an inventor from New York. He told B-and-O officials that he had an idea for building a steam-powered engine. Mister Cooper developed the first steam engine for the new railroad. The engine was later called “Tom Thumb.” One story says the Tom Thumb steam engine once raced against a horse pulling a passenger train car. Just as the little engine moved into the lead, a piece of equipment broke. After that, the horse easily won the race. The details have never been confirmed, but the story is often repeated. VOICE ONE: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was never the largest or most powerful railroad in the United States. However, it was the first railroad in many ways. The B-and-O was the first to publish a timetable -- the list of the times the trains left and arrived. The B-and-O operated America’s first train station to earn money from paying passengers. The B-and-O was the first railroad to enter the nation’s capital, Washington, D-C. It also was the first railroad to have an agreement with the federal government to transport the mail. The B-and-O was the first railroad from the eastern United States to reach the Ohio River. That happened in Eighteen-Fifty-Two. Forty-three years later, the B-and-O was the first American railroad to use an electric-powered train. ((Sound of old steam engine)) VOICE TWO: One reason for the B-and-O’s success was the Mount Clare Shops in Baltimore. This is where workers repaired engines, train cars and other equipment. The Mount Clare Shops also were active in research and development. Courtney Wilson says the shops developed all the ideas for railroads in America. This included how to build a rail line and what kinds of materials would be used. At one time, the Mount Clare Shops employed more than four-thousand people. Steam engines, passenger and freight cars were built here. Once, workers built a bridge, and then transported it by train to its new home. For more than one-hundred years, the B-and-O and the Mount Clare Shops were the largest employers in Baltimore. Mount Clare is now part of the museum. VOICE ONE: Today, the B-and-O Railroad Museum occupies fifteen hectares of land in the center of Baltimore. It is a short walk from the city’s popular Inner Harbor area. About one-hundred-sixty-thousand people visit the museum each year. It operates as a private business. The government provides little financial help. Much of the money comes from people who pay to visit the museum or to become supporting members. Other money comes as gifts from individuals, businesses and non-profit groups. VOICE TWO: The B-and-O Railroad Museum occupies five buildings. One is called The Roundhouse. The Roundhouse is not really round, but has twenty-two sides. It also may be the world’s largest circular industrial building. It is more than thirty-seven meters tall. When first built, the Roundhouse was a place where passenger cars were repaired. In the center is a turntable. It turns in a circle to move engines and cars from one train track to another. The museum has more than two-hundred major pieces of railroad equipment, records and other objects. Visitors are permitted to study and explore a number of historic railroad engines and cars. Some are more than one-hundred years old. ((Train sounds)) VOICE ONE: One room in the museum has paintings of people who were important to the development of American railroads. For example, one painting shows the man who started the meat business Swift and Company. In the late eighteen-hundreds, Gustavus Swift developed the first refrigerator car – a railroad car that was kept cold. He had the idea of killing farm animals in one area and transporting their meat across the country. For this to be done safely, the meat had to be kept cold in such a refrigerator car. Mister Swift’s idea was a great success. Another painting at the Railroad Museum shows a young Abraham Lincoln. Before he became President, Lincoln worked as a lawyer for a railroad company. As President, Lincoln supported calls to build a railroad across the country. He died in Eighteen-Sixty-Five, four years before the railroad line was completed. ((Train sounds)) VOICE TWO: For many months, B-and-O Railroad Museum officials have been organizing the celebration of American railroads. The main event will be held next summer. It is called “The Fair of the Iron Horse, One-Hundred-Seventy-Five.” It will include historic trains from railroads and private collections around the world. The trains will operate on the first mile of railroad built in the United States. The event also will include railroad technology, toy trains and other activities. Museum officials say they expect as many as two-million visitors during the railroad anniversary. The visitors will help celebrate an important part of American history. For more information, you can write to the B-and-O Railroad Museum, nine-oh-one West Pratt Street; Baltimore, Maryland, two-one-two-two-three, U-S-A. Computer users can find this information at w-w-w-dot-b-o-r-a-i-l-dot-o-r-g. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-16-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – May 20, 2002: AIDS Clinic Competition
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An American organization called Architecture for Humanity has announced an international competition to design a traveling medical center. The organization says the medical center will be used to fight AIDS in Africa. The vehicle will carry equipment to test and treat people with the disease. Medical experts will also use the vehicle to provide information about AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An American organization called Architecture for Humanity has announced an international competition to design a traveling medical center. The organization says the medical center will be used to fight AIDS in Africa. The vehicle will carry equipment to test and treat people with the disease. Medical experts will also use the vehicle to provide information about AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. United Nations officials estimate that about twenty-five-million people in Africa are infected with AIDS or H-I-V. However, only about two-hundred-thousand victims living in cities are able to get treatment. AIDS victims living in farming areas rarely get the medicine they need. This is where traveling medical centers are needed. Cameron Sinclair launched Architecture for Humanity in nineteen-ninety-nine. The organization supports using design to solve social and humanitarian problems around the world. Mister Sinclair says the competition is not restricted to just building designers. Anyone can enter a plan. He says the goal is to design a health center that medical experts could drive around Africa. Builders should be able to make the vehicle with materials found in Africa. The medical center should also be designed to help meet other health care needs of the population. For example, officials may also use the centers to treat people with malaria and tuberculosis. Proposals must be received by Architecture for Humanity by November first. A team of health experts, building designers and research officials will judge the proposals. They will announce the winning plan in New York City on Worlds AIDS Day December first. Then, an example of the vehicle will be developed before a final version is built in Africa. In time, officials hope the traveling medical centers will be reproduced in other parts of the world. There is no prize for winning this competition. Instead, Mister Sinclair says the winner will have the honor of creating a modern medical center that could save millions of lives. To find out more about the competition, write to Architecture for Humanity, one-six-five West Twentieth Street, New York, New York, one-zero-zero-one-one, U-S-A. Or, visit the group’s Web site at w-w-w-dot-architectureforhumanity-dot-org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. United Nations officials estimate that about twenty-five-million people in Africa are infected with AIDS or H-I-V. However, only about two-hundred-thousand victims living in cities are able to get treatment. AIDS victims living in farming areas rarely get the medicine they need. This is where traveling medical centers are needed. Cameron Sinclair launched Architecture for Humanity in nineteen-ninety-nine. The organization supports using design to solve social and humanitarian problems around the world. Mister Sinclair says the competition is not restricted to just building designers. Anyone can enter a plan. He says the goal is to design a health center that medical experts could drive around Africa. Builders should be able to make the vehicle with materials found in Africa. The medical center should also be designed to help meet other health care needs of the population. For example, officials may also use the centers to treat people with malaria and tuberculosis. Proposals must be received by Architecture for Humanity by November first. A team of health experts, building designers and research officials will judge the proposals. They will announce the winning plan in New York City on Worlds AIDS Day December first. Then, an example of the vehicle will be developed before a final version is built in Africa. In time, officials hope the traveling medical centers will be reproduced in other parts of the world. There is no prize for winning this competition. Instead, Mister Sinclair says the winner will have the honor of creating a modern medical center that could save millions of lives. To find out more about the competition, write to Architecture for Humanity, one-six-five West Twentieth Street, New York, New York, one-zero-zero-one-one, U-S-A. Or, visit the group’s Web site at w-w-w-dot-architectureforhumanity-dot-org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - May 18, 2002: US/Russia Arms Reduction Agreement
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Russia and the United States have reached an agreement to reduce the number of nuclear weapons they possess. Russian and American diplomats have been negotiating the deal for months. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin say they will sign the treaty next week when Mister Bush visits Moscow. Mister Bush said the signing will begin a new period in relations between the United States and Russia. He said it will make the world more peaceful and put old aggressions in the past. President Putin said he was pleased that negotiators had been able to settle the final differences. The agreement calls for each country to cut its nuclear weapons by two-thirds during the next ten years. That would mean a reduction for each side from about six-thousand nuclear weapons now to as few as one-thousand-seven-hundred. However, the weapons do not have to be destroyed. They can be removed from deployment and stored. The United States has always demanded that the weapons not have to be destroyed. Russia always objected to this demand. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov says his government still opposes the American position that the weapons only need to be taken out of deployment. Some lawmakers in the United States also think the agreement should call for the destruction of the weapons. Democratic Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts called the agreement a great step. But, he said destroying weapons would make sure that terrorists would never gain possession of them. Russia made other compromises to reach agreement. For example, the plan does not contain any restrictions on the United States plan to build a missile defense system. The agreement also permits either side to withdraw from the treaty if such a withdrawal is announced at least ninety days before it happens. And, the treaty ends in ten years with no conditions that it be extended. President Bush’s administration wanted these terms if there was to be any treaty at all. Mister Bush had earlier suggested that he would be satisfied with a spoken agreement. But, Mister Putin wanted an official and legal treaty. Experts believe the treaty will generally help the Russia in its effort to become a more involved member of the international community. The cuts will permit the Russian government to spend more money on anti-terrorism measures and the fight against the illegal drug trade. Russian and American negotiators still have work to do on issues linked to the new weapons agreement. For example, they did not decide how to confirm weapons reductions. But they believe they will be able to create such a plan during more talks after the treaty is signed next week. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Russia and the United States have reached an agreement to reduce the number of nuclear weapons they possess. Russian and American diplomats have been negotiating the deal for months. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin say they will sign the treaty next week when Mister Bush visits Moscow. Mister Bush said the signing will begin a new period in relations between the United States and Russia. He said it will make the world more peaceful and put old aggressions in the past. President Putin said he was pleased that negotiators had been able to settle the final differences. The agreement calls for each country to cut its nuclear weapons by two-thirds during the next ten years. That would mean a reduction for each side from about six-thousand nuclear weapons now to as few as one-thousand-seven-hundred. However, the weapons do not have to be destroyed. They can be removed from deployment and stored. The United States has always demanded that the weapons not have to be destroyed. Russia always objected to this demand. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov says his government still opposes the American position that the weapons only need to be taken out of deployment. Some lawmakers in the United States also think the agreement should call for the destruction of the weapons. Democratic Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts called the agreement a great step. But, he said destroying weapons would make sure that terrorists would never gain possession of them. Russia made other compromises to reach agreement. For example, the plan does not contain any restrictions on the United States plan to build a missile defense system. The agreement also permits either side to withdraw from the treaty if such a withdrawal is announced at least ninety days before it happens. And, the treaty ends in ten years with no conditions that it be extended. President Bush’s administration wanted these terms if there was to be any treaty at all. Mister Bush had earlier suggested that he would be satisfied with a spoken agreement. But, Mister Putin wanted an official and legal treaty. Experts believe the treaty will generally help the Russia in its effort to become a more involved member of the international community. The cuts will permit the Russian government to spend more money on anti-terrorism measures and the fight against the illegal drug trade. Russian and American negotiators still have work to do on issues linked to the new weapons agreement. For example, they did not decide how to confirm weapons reductions. But they believe they will be able to create such a plan during more talks after the treaty is signed next week. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 21, 2002: First electronically controlled animals / Study of mothers and their sons / Effects of global warming
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: VOICE ONE: Broadcast: VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the first electronically controlled animals. We tell about a study of mothers and their sons. And we tell about some effects of the warming of the Earth on plants and animals. ((THEME)) This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the first electronically controlled animals. We tell about a study of mothers and their sons. And we tell about some effects of the warming of the Earth on plants and animals. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have controlled the movements of rats by attaching electrical controls to the animals’ brains. The scientists work at the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. John Chaplin worked on the experiment. He said scientists have controlled the way animals act using other methods in the past. However, this is the first time scientists have been able to directly control another creature with electronic signals. The experiments were reported in the publication Nature. In the experiments, the team attached wires to areas in the brains of five rats. They also attached very small cameras and communications equipment to the rats. The scientists then sent radio signals to the rats’ brains through the communications equipment. The signals caused the rats to move in the direction the researcher wanted to send them. VOICE TWO: The electronics were attached to the rats’ brains in a complex way. The scientists made two electronic connections to the right and left side of the animals’ brains. Those places in the rats’ brains control the sense of touch on their whiskers, the long hairs on either side of a rat’s nose. The researchers could cause the rats to feel as if their whiskers had been touched. The researchers trained the rats to turn left or right when they felt a signal in their whiskers. The scientists also made an electrical connection to a place in the rats’ brains believed to control enjoyment. The researchers rewarded the rats for going in the right direction by affecting that brain area and making the rats feel good. This process is known as behavior conditioning. It is very similar to giving food to an animal as a reward for doing a desired action. But, in the recent experiment, it was done electronically. VOICE ONE: The researchers electronically guided the rats to do several things. Some rats climbed trees even though the rats had never seen a tree before or had ever been outside. Some rats walked through big, bright, open fields, although they normally avoid such areas. Other rats climbed steps and crossed narrow paths in high places. The scientists used computers up to five-hundred meters away to control the animals. The researchers received support for their experiment from the Army’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. Military officials hope that an electronically controlled rat could be used to spy or to find land mines. VOICE TWO: The researchers also say that a controlled rat could be used to save lives after events like earthquakes. Rats could find people trapped under wreckage. Rats can move through very small spaces and can carry very small cameras permitting rescuers to look for survivors hidden under tons of material. Some reports have called these electronically controlled rats living robots. However, the rats are not true robots. That is because the rats were rewarded for doing what the researchers wanted them to do. A robot does not need a reward to act. It simply follows electronic signals. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many mothers believe that sons are more difficult to care for than daughters. Some mothers have said, “My son will be the death of me yet.” A new study says there may be some truth in what those mothers say. The study examined mothers who lived more than one-hundred years ago. It showed that women who had many sons did not live as long as women who had many daughters. Science magazine published the findings. Scientists from Finland and Britain examined family records for the Sami (SAH-me) people who lived in northern Europe between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The scientists studied family records kept by church officials between sixteen-forty and eighteen-seventy. They studied three-hundred-seventy-five women who lived to be older than fifty. VOICE TWO: One of the scientists was Virpi Lummaa (VEER-pee LOOM-mah) of Cambridge University in England. She says the records contain detailed information on the life events of the Sami. The Sami were a people who traveled from place to place to follow groups of reindeer because they depended on the animals for food. They did not have modern medicine. She said her team found that the length of a woman’s life was not connected to the number of children but to the sex of the children. Women who raised many sons had the shortest lives. The study said that giving birth and raising each son reduced a woman’s life by an average of thirty-four weeks. The study also found that having a daughter increased a woman’s life by an average of twenty-three weeks. Among the Sami, women with many adult daughters had the longest lives. VOICE ONE: Samuli Helle (SAH-moo-lee HEY-leh) of the University of Turku in Finland helped supervise the study. He says the reason for this difference may be linked to fewer problems giving birth to and caring for a daughter. He noted that daughters often help their mothers with work in the home. He said this could make life easier for women who had many children. The scientists also noted that there could also be biological reasons for this. Male fetuses produce the hormone testosterone that might suppress the mother’s defense system against disease. The scientists also noted that baby boys often weigh more than baby girls. This results in more problems for mothers when giving birth. Baby boys also require more care after birth. The scientists say the results of the study may not be the same for women in industrial countries today. These women have fewer children, healthier lives and modern medical care. But they said these kinds of effects might still be found among women in developing countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere has begun to affect plant and animal life around the world. Scientists from the University of Hanover in Germany say global warming is affecting endangered species, sea life and the change in seasonal activities of organisms. Carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere cause global warming. Studies show that the Earth’s climate has warmed by about six-tenths of one degree Celsius during the past one-hundred years. Most of the increase has taken place in the last thirty years. The German scientists studied different animal and plant populations around the world in the past thirty years. They say some species will disappear because they can not move to new areas when their home climate gets too warm. VOICE ONE: The scientists say one of the biggest signs of climate change has been the worldwide reduction in coral reefs. Rising temperatures in the world’s warm ocean waters have caused coral to lose color and die. In the coldest areas of the world, winter freezing periods are now happening later and ending earlier. Researchers say these changes are having severe effects on animals such as penguins, seals and polar bears. Changes in temperature in the air can also affect the reproduction of some reptiles and amphibians. For example, the sex of baby painted turtles is linked to the average temperature in July. Scientists say even small temperature increases can threaten the production of male turtles. VOICE TWO: In Europe, scientists say warmer temperatures are affecting the spring and autumn seasons. This is affecting the growth of plants and delaying the flight of birds from one place to another. Scientists also are concerned about invasions of warm weather species into traditionally colder areas. Rising temperatures have been linked with diseases spread by mosquito insects in areas of Asia, East Africa and Latin America. Britain’s Meteorological Office says worldwide temperatures will continue to rise during the next one-hundred years. It says how much these temperatures increase will depend on the success of worldwide policies designed to slow global warming. VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Scientists have controlled the movements of rats by attaching electrical controls to the animals’ brains. The scientists work at the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. John Chaplin worked on the experiment. He said scientists have controlled the way animals act using other methods in the past. However, this is the first time scientists have been able to directly control another creature with electronic signals. The experiments were reported in the publication Nature. In the experiments, the team attached wires to areas in the brains of five rats. They also attached very small cameras and communications equipment to the rats. The scientists then sent radio signals to the rats’ brains through the communications equipment. The signals caused the rats to move in the direction the researcher wanted to send them. VOICE TWO: The electronics were attached to the rats’ brains in a complex way. The scientists made two electronic connections to the right and left side of the animals’ brains. Those places in the rats’ brains control the sense of touch on their whiskers, the long hairs on either side of a rat’s nose. The researchers could cause the rats to feel as if their whiskers had been touched. The researchers trained the rats to turn left or right when they felt a signal in their whiskers. The scientists also made an electrical connection to a place in the rats’ brains believed to control enjoyment. The researchers rewarded the rats for going in the right direction by affecting that brain area and making the rats feel good. This process is known as behavior conditioning. It is very similar to giving food to an animal as a reward for doing a desired action. But, in the recent experiment, it was done electronically. VOICE ONE: The researchers electronically guided the rats to do several things. Some rats climbed trees even though the rats had never seen a tree before or had ever been outside. Some rats walked through big, bright, open fields, although they normally avoid such areas. Other rats climbed steps and crossed narrow paths in high places. The scientists used computers up to five-hundred meters away to control the animals. The researchers received support for their experiment from the Army’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. Military officials hope that an electronically controlled rat could be used to spy or to find land mines. VOICE TWO: The researchers also say that a controlled rat could be used to save lives after events like earthquakes. Rats could find people trapped under wreckage. Rats can move through very small spaces and can carry very small cameras permitting rescuers to look for survivors hidden under tons of material. Some reports have called these electronically controlled rats living robots. However, the rats are not true robots. That is because the rats were rewarded for doing what the researchers wanted them to do. A robot does not need a reward to act. It simply follows electronic signals. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many mothers believe that sons are more difficult to care for than daughters. Some mothers have said, “My son will be the death of me yet.” A new study says there may be some truth in what those mothers say. The study examined mothers who lived more than one-hundred years ago. It showed that women who had many sons did not live as long as women who had many daughters. Science magazine published the findings. Scientists from Finland and Britain examined family records for the Sami (SAH-me) people who lived in northern Europe between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The scientists studied family records kept by church officials between sixteen-forty and eighteen-seventy. They studied three-hundred-seventy-five women who lived to be older than fifty. VOICE TWO: One of the scientists was Virpi Lummaa (VEER-pee LOOM-mah) of Cambridge University in England. She says the records contain detailed information on the life events of the Sami. The Sami were a people who traveled from place to place to follow groups of reindeer because they depended on the animals for food. They did not have modern medicine. She said her team found that the length of a woman’s life was not connected to the number of children but to the sex of the children. Women who raised many sons had the shortest lives. The study said that giving birth and raising each son reduced a woman’s life by an average of thirty-four weeks. The study also found that having a daughter increased a woman’s life by an average of twenty-three weeks. Among the Sami, women with many adult daughters had the longest lives. VOICE ONE: Samuli Helle (SAH-moo-lee HEY-leh) of the University of Turku in Finland helped supervise the study. He says the reason for this difference may be linked to fewer problems giving birth to and caring for a daughter. He noted that daughters often help their mothers with work in the home. He said this could make life easier for women who had many children. The scientists also noted that there could also be biological reasons for this. Male fetuses produce the hormone testosterone that might suppress the mother’s defense system against disease. The scientists also noted that baby boys often weigh more than baby girls. This results in more problems for mothers when giving birth. Baby boys also require more care after birth. The scientists say the results of the study may not be the same for women in industrial countries today. These women have fewer children, healthier lives and modern medical care. But they said these kinds of effects might still be found among women in developing countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists say the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere has begun to affect plant and animal life around the world. Scientists from the University of Hanover in Germany say global warming is affecting endangered species, sea life and the change in seasonal activities of organisms. Carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere cause global warming. Studies show that the Earth’s climate has warmed by about six-tenths of one degree Celsius during the past one-hundred years. Most of the increase has taken place in the last thirty years. The German scientists studied different animal and plant populations around the world in the past thirty years. They say some species will disappear because they can not move to new areas when their home climate gets too warm. VOICE ONE: The scientists say one of the biggest signs of climate change has been the worldwide reduction in coral reefs. Rising temperatures in the world’s warm ocean waters have caused coral to lose color and die. In the coldest areas of the world, winter freezing periods are now happening later and ending earlier. Researchers say these changes are having severe effects on animals such as penguins, seals and polar bears. Changes in temperature in the air can also affect the reproduction of some reptiles and amphibians. For example, the sex of baby painted turtles is linked to the average temperature in July. Scientists say even small temperature increases can threaten the production of male turtles. VOICE TWO: In Europe, scientists say warmer temperatures are affecting the spring and autumn seasons. This is affecting the growth of plants and delaying the flight of birds from one place to another. Scientists also are concerned about invasions of warm weather species into traditionally colder areas. Rising temperatures have been linked with diseases spread by mosquito insects in areas of Asia, East Africa and Latin America. Britain’s Meteorological Office says worldwide temperatures will continue to rise during the next one-hundred years. It says how much these temperatures increase will depend on the success of worldwide policies designed to slow global warming. VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter, George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - May 21, 2002: Irrigation and Salt
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Irrigation is the watering of land by other than natural methods. Irrigation projects provide water for crops in areas that have long periods of little or no rainfall. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that only seventeen percent of all cropland is irrigated. However, irrigated land provides forty percent of the world’s food. Irrigation is said to increase production of most crops by one-hundred to four-hundred percent. However, F-A-O officials say about ten percent of all irrigated land has been damaged by salt. This is most severe in extremely dry areas. As much as twenty-five percent of the land is affected in these areas. F-A-O officials say this has become a threat to food security. In the past, the U-N agency said that increasing the use of irrigation could be the answer to feeding the world’s people. Now, it warns that rising salt levels in the soil threaten much existing irrigated land. Salinization is the build-up of salt in the soil. F-A-O officials say salinization reduces productivity and can seriously damage the soil. It warns that salinization is reducing the world’s irrigated land by one to two percent each year. All soil contains some salt. As water wears away rocks and soil, small amounts of mineral salts are carried into rivers and other waterways. If a field has too little water, the mineral salts are not washed away. They remain in the soil. However, the worst danger to the soil is from too much water. When the ground is too wet, water levels rise. The water evaporates. However, salt remains underground, around plant roots. This interferes with the ability of the roots to take in needed water. The F-A-O says there are several ways to prevent or reduce salinization. One is for farmers to use just a little more water than the crops need. The extra water can carry salt away from the roots of the plants. Farmers can also build underground pipes or dig deep holes near crops. This can help remove extra water. Finally, farmers can flood their fields. This can sometimes treat badly salinized land that can on longer be used for agriculture. Adding a lot of water can be costly. But F-A-O officials say it may be a wise economic decision, depending on the value of the land and crops. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Irrigation is the watering of land by other than natural methods. Irrigation projects provide water for crops in areas that have long periods of little or no rainfall. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that only seventeen percent of all cropland is irrigated. However, irrigated land provides forty percent of the world’s food. Irrigation is said to increase production of most crops by one-hundred to four-hundred percent. However, F-A-O officials say about ten percent of all irrigated land has been damaged by salt. This is most severe in extremely dry areas. As much as twenty-five percent of the land is affected in these areas. F-A-O officials say this has become a threat to food security. In the past, the U-N agency said that increasing the use of irrigation could be the answer to feeding the world’s people. Now, it warns that rising salt levels in the soil threaten much existing irrigated land. Salinization is the build-up of salt in the soil. F-A-O officials say salinization reduces productivity and can seriously damage the soil. It warns that salinization is reducing the world’s irrigated land by one to two percent each year. All soil contains some salt. As water wears away rocks and soil, small amounts of mineral salts are carried into rivers and other waterways. If a field has too little water, the mineral salts are not washed away. They remain in the soil. However, the worst danger to the soil is from too much water. When the ground is too wet, water levels rise. The water evaporates. However, salt remains underground, around plant roots. This interferes with the ability of the roots to take in needed water. The F-A-O says there are several ways to prevent or reduce salinization. One is for farmers to use just a little more water than the crops need. The extra water can carry salt away from the roots of the plants. Farmers can also build underground pipes or dig deep holes near crops. This can help remove extra water. Finally, farmers can flood their fields. This can sometimes treat badly salinized land that can on longer be used for agriculture. Adding a lot of water can be costly. But F-A-O officials say it may be a wise economic decision, depending on the value of the land and crops. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – May 22, 2002: The Mississippi River
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - May 22, 2002: Guggulsterone & Cholesterol
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say that a natural substance found in some trees can control high cholesterol in laboratory animals. Cholesterol is a fatty substance in the blood. Too much of it can attach to the inside of blood vessels, restrict blood flow, and cause heart disease. The guggul (GOO-gle) tree grows in dry areas of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A substance found inside the guggul tree has been used in India for two-thousand years to control weight and treat arthritis. About forty years ago, an Indian researcher found that the substance was effective against heart disease. Later studies in India showed that it lowered cholesterol. In India, the substance has been an approved treatment for high cholesterol for almost twenty years. American researchers at the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, Texas reported the results of recent work on the substance in the publication Science. They showed that the liquid inside the guggul tree contains a compound called guggulsterone (GOO-gle-STER-own). They discovered how guggulsterone controls cholesterol levels. It blocks the action of a receptor called F-X-R. A receptor is a protein that sends messages to cells. F-X-R helps control the amount of cholesterol in the body. Blocking the action of the F-X-R receptor would mean that more cholesterol is naturally removed from the body. Other researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas tested guggulsterone on two groups of mice. One group had normal F-X-R receptors. The other group had no F-X-R receptors. The cholesterol levels dropped in the livers of mice with the F-X-R receptor, but not in the others. The researchers say this proves that guggulsterone works by affecting the F-X-R receptor. The researchers do not know how guggulsterone affects the F-X-R receptor. They say more tests must be done. However, they say the substance might be used to control cholesterol in people who cannot take the drugs now used for that purpose. The researchers say the discovery supports the idea that some traditional medicines may have important uses in modern medicine. Guggulsterone can be bought in stores around the world. However, the researchers say people should not use it without medical advice. They say guggulsterone can affect the action of other drugs. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers say that a natural substance found in some trees can control high cholesterol in laboratory animals. Cholesterol is a fatty substance in the blood. Too much of it can attach to the inside of blood vessels, restrict blood flow, and cause heart disease. The guggul (GOO-gle) tree grows in dry areas of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A substance found inside the guggul tree has been used in India for two-thousand years to control weight and treat arthritis. About forty years ago, an Indian researcher found that the substance was effective against heart disease. Later studies in India showed that it lowered cholesterol. In India, the substance has been an approved treatment for high cholesterol for almost twenty years. American researchers at the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, Texas reported the results of recent work on the substance in the publication Science. They showed that the liquid inside the guggul tree contains a compound called guggulsterone (GOO-gle-STER-own). They discovered how guggulsterone controls cholesterol levels. It blocks the action of a receptor called F-X-R. A receptor is a protein that sends messages to cells. F-X-R helps control the amount of cholesterol in the body. Blocking the action of the F-X-R receptor would mean that more cholesterol is naturally removed from the body. Other researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas tested guggulsterone on two groups of mice. One group had normal F-X-R receptors. The other group had no F-X-R receptors. The cholesterol levels dropped in the livers of mice with the F-X-R receptor, but not in the others. The researchers say this proves that guggulsterone works by affecting the F-X-R receptor. The researchers do not know how guggulsterone affects the F-X-R receptor. They say more tests must be done. However, they say the substance might be used to control cholesterol in people who cannot take the drugs now used for that purpose. The researchers say the discovery supports the idea that some traditional medicines may have important uses in modern medicine. Guggulsterone can be bought in stores around the world. However, the researchers say people should not use it without medical advice. They say guggulsterone can affect the action of other drugs. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 23, 2002: The War in the Pacific
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) American military planners had to make an important decision when the United States entered the Second World War in late nineteen-forty-one. They could not fight effectively at the same time in Asia and Europe. They decided to use most of their forces to defeat the German troops of Adolf Hitler. Only after victory was clear in Europe would they use all of America's strength to fight against Japan in Asia and the Pacific. This decision had important results. Japan was able to win many of the early battles of the war in Asia. Our program today is about the fighting in the Pacific. (Theme) American military planners had to make an important decision when the United States entered the Second World War in late nineteen-forty-one. They could not fight effectively at the same time in Asia and Europe. They decided to use most of their forces to defeat the German troops of Adolf Hitler. Only after victory was clear in Europe would they use all of America's strength to fight against Japan in Asia and the Pacific. This decision had important results. Japan was able to win many of the early battles of the war in Asia. Our program today is about the fighting in the Pacific. Voice two ((sfx: planes)) Japanese planes. Out of the sky they came -- suddenly, secretly -- bombing the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a deadly attack. The Japanese raid in December nineteen-forty-one marked the beginning of several major victories for Tokyo. The Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor. They attacked American bases in the Philippines and destroyed those, too. Within days, Japan captured the American island of Guam. Japanese troops landed in Thailand, marched into Malaya, and seized Hong Kong. The Japanese moved into Indonesia and Burma. Even Hitler's troops in Europe had not moved so quickly or successfully. As one American historian wrote later, the Pacific Ocean looked like a Japanese lake. VOICE 1: Washington tried to fight back. A group of American planes successfully bombed Tokyo in a surprise raid. However, Japan knew it was winning the war. Its leaders believed no army could stop them. So they expanded their goals and launched new campaigns. This was Japan's mistake. It stretched its forces too thin, too quickly. The military leaders in Tokyo believed that the United States could not resist because it was busy fighting the war in Europe. But not even Japan could extend its communications and fighting power over such a great distance and continue to win. VOICE 2: The turning point came in June nineteen-forty-two in the central Pacific in the great battle of Midway Island. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched the battle. He wanted to meet and destroy the remaining ships of the American fleet before Washington had time to rebuild them. Yamamoto had one-hundred sixty-two ships. The American admiral, Chester Nimitz, had just seventy-six. But the United States had learned how to understand the secret messages of the Japanese forces. For this reason, Nimitz and the Americans knew exactly where the Japanese ships would sail. And they put their own ships in the best places to stop them. The fighting between the two sides was fierce. But when it ended, the Americans had won a great victory. Admiral Yamamoto was forced to call off his attack and sail home. For the first time, the Japanese Navy had been defeated. VOICE 1: The next big battle was at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific. Guadalcanal's beaches were wide and flat. Japanese officers decided to build a military airbase there. The United States learned of this. It decided it had to prevent Japan from establishing such a base. American marines quickly landed on the island. They were joined by troops from Australia and New Zealand. But Japanese ships launched a surprise attack and destroyed many of the American ships in the harbor. Allied forces on the island were left without naval support and suffered terrible losses. For six months, the two sides fought for control of the island. Historian Samuel Eliot Morrison later described the action this way: VOICE 2: "For us who were there," Morrison wrote, "Guadalcanal is not a name but an emotion. Remembering terrible fights in the air. Fierce naval battles. Bloody fighting in the jungle. Nights broken by screaming bombs and the loud explosions of naval guns." VOICE 1: The fighting continued, seemingly forever. But finally, in February, nineteen-forty-three, the Japanese were forced to leave Guadalcanal. The battle was an important defeat for Japan. It opened the door for the American and other Allied forces to go on the attack after months of defensive fighting. VOICE 2: American military planners did not agree about the best way to launch such an attack. Admiral Nimitz of the Navy wanted to capture the small groups of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, then seize Taiwan, and finally attack Japan itself. But General Douglas MacArthur of the Army thought it best to attack through New Guinea and the Philippines. The American leadership finally decided to launch both attacks at once. Both Nimitz and MacArthur succeeded. Nimitz and his Navy forces moved quickly through the Marianas and other islands. General MacArthur attacked through new Guinea and into the Philippines. In the battle for Leyte Gulf, American ships completely destroyed Japanese naval power. Throughout the Pacific Ocean and eastern Asia, the fighting continued. Many of the fiercest battles were fought on tiny Pacific islands. Japanese troops captured the islands early in the war. And they quickly built strong defenses to prevent Allies from invading. Allied military leaders found a way to defeat the Japanese plan. They simply avoided the islands where the Japanese were strong and attacked other islands. But sometimes the Allies could not avoid battle. They had to land on some islands to seize airfields for American planes. VOICE 1: The names of these islands became well-known to soldiers and families throughout the world. Tarawa in the Gilbert islands. Truk in the Marshall Islands. Saipan in the Marianas. And other islands, too, such as Guam and Tinian. The two sides fought fiercely in the battle of Iwo Jima. And Japanese forces on Okinawa resisted for eighty-three days before finally being defeated by Allied troops. VOICE 2: After the defeat at Okinawa, many Japanese people understood that the war was lost, even if Japan had not yet surrendered. The emperor appointed a new prime minister and ordered him to explore the possibilities of peace. But both sides still expected the Allies to launch a final invasion into Japan itself. And everyone knew that the cost in human life would be terrible for both sides. But the final invasion never came. For years, American scientists had been developing a secret weapon, the atomic bomb. The United States dropped one of the bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki. More than one-hundred-thousand persons were killed. Tokyo surrendered within days. VOICE 1: Suddenly, sooner than expected, the war was ended. More than twenty-five-million soldiers and civilians had died during the six years of fighting. Germany and Japan were defeated. The soviet union was strong in much of eastern Europe. And the United States found it had become the world's strongest military, economic, and political power. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Voice two ((sfx: planes)) Japanese planes. Out of the sky they came -- suddenly, secretly -- bombing the American military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a deadly attack. The Japanese raid in December nineteen-forty-one marked the beginning of several major victories for Tokyo. The Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor. They attacked American bases in the Philippines and destroyed those, too. Within days, Japan captured the American island of Guam. Japanese troops landed in Thailand, marched into Malaya, and seized Hong Kong. The Japanese moved into Indonesia and Burma. Even Hitler's troops in Europe had not moved so quickly or successfully. As one American historian wrote later, the Pacific Ocean looked like a Japanese lake. VOICE 1: Washington tried to fight back. A group of American planes successfully bombed Tokyo in a surprise raid. However, Japan knew it was winning the war. Its leaders believed no army could stop them. So they expanded their goals and launched new campaigns. This was Japan's mistake. It stretched its forces too thin, too quickly. The military leaders in Tokyo believed that the United States could not resist because it was busy fighting the war in Europe. But not even Japan could extend its communications and fighting power over such a great distance and continue to win. VOICE 2: The turning point came in June nineteen-forty-two in the central Pacific in the great battle of Midway Island. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched the battle. He wanted to meet and destroy the remaining ships of the American fleet before Washington had time to rebuild them. Yamamoto had one-hundred sixty-two ships. The American admiral, Chester Nimitz, had just seventy-six. But the United States had learned how to understand the secret messages of the Japanese forces. For this reason, Nimitz and the Americans knew exactly where the Japanese ships would sail. And they put their own ships in the best places to stop them. The fighting between the two sides was fierce. But when it ended, the Americans had won a great victory. Admiral Yamamoto was forced to call off his attack and sail home. For the first time, the Japanese Navy had been defeated. VOICE 1: The next big battle was at Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific. Guadalcanal's beaches were wide and flat. Japanese officers decided to build a military airbase there. The United States learned of this. It decided it had to prevent Japan from establishing such a base. American marines quickly landed on the island. They were joined by troops from Australia and New Zealand. But Japanese ships launched a surprise attack and destroyed many of the American ships in the harbor. Allied forces on the island were left without naval support and suffered terrible losses. For six months, the two sides fought for control of the island. Historian Samuel Eliot Morrison later described the action this way: VOICE 2: "For us who were there," Morrison wrote, "Guadalcanal is not a name but an emotion. Remembering terrible fights in the air. Fierce naval battles. Bloody fighting in the jungle. Nights broken by screaming bombs and the loud explosions of naval guns." VOICE 1: The fighting continued, seemingly forever. But finally, in February, nineteen-forty-three, the Japanese were forced to leave Guadalcanal. The battle was an important defeat for Japan. It opened the door for the American and other Allied forces to go on the attack after months of defensive fighting. VOICE 2: American military planners did not agree about the best way to launch such an attack. Admiral Nimitz of the Navy wanted to capture the small groups of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, then seize Taiwan, and finally attack Japan itself. But General Douglas MacArthur of the Army thought it best to attack through New Guinea and the Philippines. The American leadership finally decided to launch both attacks at once. Both Nimitz and MacArthur succeeded. Nimitz and his Navy forces moved quickly through the Marianas and other islands. General MacArthur attacked through new Guinea and into the Philippines. In the battle for Leyte Gulf, American ships completely destroyed Japanese naval power. Throughout the Pacific Ocean and eastern Asia, the fighting continued. Many of the fiercest battles were fought on tiny Pacific islands. Japanese troops captured the islands early in the war. And they quickly built strong defenses to prevent Allies from invading. Allied military leaders found a way to defeat the Japanese plan. They simply avoided the islands where the Japanese were strong and attacked other islands. But sometimes the Allies could not avoid battle. They had to land on some islands to seize airfields for American planes. VOICE 1: The names of these islands became well-known to soldiers and families throughout the world. Tarawa in the Gilbert islands. Truk in the Marshall Islands. Saipan in the Marianas. And other islands, too, such as Guam and Tinian. The two sides fought fiercely in the battle of Iwo Jima. And Japanese forces on Okinawa resisted for eighty-three days before finally being defeated by Allied troops. VOICE 2: After the defeat at Okinawa, many Japanese people understood that the war was lost, even if Japan had not yet surrendered. The emperor appointed a new prime minister and ordered him to explore the possibilities of peace. But both sides still expected the Allies to launch a final invasion into Japan itself. And everyone knew that the cost in human life would be terrible for both sides. But the final invasion never came. For years, American scientists had been developing a secret weapon, the atomic bomb. The United States dropped one of the bombs on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki. More than one-hundred-thousand persons were killed. Tokyo surrendered within days. VOICE 1: Suddenly, sooner than expected, the war was ended. More than twenty-five-million soldiers and civilians had died during the six years of fighting. Germany and Japan were defeated. The soviet union was strong in much of eastern Europe. And the United States found it had become the world's strongest military, economic, and political power. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – May 23, 2002: Teach for America
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Teach for America is one of the nation’s most successful educational programs. This year, a record fourteen-thousand recent college graduates have asked to join the program. More than one-thousand-seven-hundred young men and women will be chosen for their intelligence and strong personal skills. They will receive special training. Then they will teach children from poor families in schools in seventeen areas of the country. They will teach for two years. A student at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, had the idea for Teach for America in nineteen-eighty-nine. Wendy Kopp recognized that children from poor families have more problems learning than other children do. She wrote a paper proposing a national teaching organization. People soon supported her idea. Money from major companies helped launch the program. About five-hundred young people began teaching in the program in nineteen-ninety.Today, Mizz Kopp still leads the organization. Over the years, eight-thousand teachers in the program have taught more than one-million children. Teach for America has received money from individuals, organizations, companies and the federal government.Money also comes from individuals and businesses in communities where the teachers work. Sometimes the Teach for America teachers organize events to help provide money for supplies for their classrooms. Many of their schools do not have enough money for supplies. School officials praise the Teach for America teachers. Sixty percent of the teachers continue in educational work after finishing their two years. Most express satisfaction at having made a difference in children’s lives. For example, Nicole Sherrin taught mathematics to teenage students in Phoenix, Arizona. When she began, her one-hundred-twenty students were the least successful students in the area. Mizz Sherrin developed ways to get her students to do well in math. She organized them into groups and gave them special things when all the members succeeded. She got to know her students and their families outside of school as a way of gaining their trust. By the end of the year, two-thirds of her students performed at the highest level on a special math test. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Teach for America is one of the nation’s most successful educational programs. This year, a record fourteen-thousand recent college graduates have asked to join the program. More than one-thousand-seven-hundred young men and women will be chosen for their intelligence and strong personal skills. They will receive special training. Then they will teach children from poor families in schools in seventeen areas of the country. They will teach for two years. A student at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, had the idea for Teach for America in nineteen-eighty-nine. Wendy Kopp recognized that children from poor families have more problems learning than other children do. She wrote a paper proposing a national teaching organization. People soon supported her idea. Money from major companies helped launch the program. About five-hundred young people began teaching in the program in nineteen-ninety.Today, Mizz Kopp still leads the organization. Over the years, eight-thousand teachers in the program have taught more than one-million children. Teach for America has received money from individuals, organizations, companies and the federal government.Money also comes from individuals and businesses in communities where the teachers work. Sometimes the Teach for America teachers organize events to help provide money for supplies for their classrooms. Many of their schools do not have enough money for supplies. School officials praise the Teach for America teachers. Sixty percent of the teachers continue in educational work after finishing their two years. Most express satisfaction at having made a difference in children’s lives. For example, Nicole Sherrin taught mathematics to teenage students in Phoenix, Arizona. When she began, her one-hundred-twenty students were the least successful students in the area. Mizz Sherrin developed ways to get her students to do well in math. She organized them into groups and gave them special things when all the members succeeded. She got to know her students and their families outside of school as a way of gaining their trust. By the end of the year, two-thirds of her students performed at the highest level on a special math test. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 24, 2002: Child poet Mattie Stepanek  / Music by Cassandra Wilson / Question About the U.S. Educational System
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – May 24, 2002: Less Gas from Farm Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in New Zealand have found a way to reduce methane gases released by cows and sheep. The new study showed that feeding some crops to farm animals can reduce methane gas by as much as sixteen percent. Reports say the finding could help efforts to reduce greenhouse gases – harmful gases that cause warming of the Earth. Methane and other greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Scientists say increased temperatures on Earth will have serious effects on the environment, plants, animals, agriculture and sea levels. Sheep and cattle expel methane gas in their breath. The gas is a product of chemical processes in their feed. Sheep and cows are two members of a group of animals called ruminants. About ninety percent of New Zealand’s methane gas releases comes from ruminants. In New Zealand, the average cow produces about ninety kilograms of methane each year. Reducing greenhouse gases is an important goal in New Zealand. It is one of the countries that must reduce its levels of greenhouse gases under an international treaty called the Kyoto Protocol. Scientists Garry Waghorn and Michael Tavendale supervised the new study. They found that chemicals in some grasses can directly reduce the release of methane from sheep and cattle. New Zealand’s agricultural research center, AgResearch, reported their findings. The scientists tested different kinds of plants in grasslands where the animals feed. They found that natural plant chemicals called condensed tannins have a major effect on the amount of methane produced. Condensed tannins are found in some grasses. They also are found in apples, cocoa and wine, a drink made from grapes. The New Zealand team studied a legume plant, the lotus, which contains naturally condensed tannin compounds. AgResearch notes the discovery is only the first step. It says scientists will continue to investigate how diets containing condensed tannins can be used to lower methane production in farm animals. Scientists say condensed tannins also are helpful to farm animals in other ways. They increase weight gain and milk production. They also decrease the risk of some diseases. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists in New Zealand have found a way to reduce methane gases released by cows and sheep. The new study showed that feeding some crops to farm animals can reduce methane gas by as much as sixteen percent. Reports say the finding could help efforts to reduce greenhouse gases – harmful gases that cause warming of the Earth. Methane and other greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Scientists say increased temperatures on Earth will have serious effects on the environment, plants, animals, agriculture and sea levels. Sheep and cattle expel methane gas in their breath. The gas is a product of chemical processes in their feed. Sheep and cows are two members of a group of animals called ruminants. About ninety percent of New Zealand’s methane gas releases comes from ruminants. In New Zealand, the average cow produces about ninety kilograms of methane each year. Reducing greenhouse gases is an important goal in New Zealand. It is one of the countries that must reduce its levels of greenhouse gases under an international treaty called the Kyoto Protocol. Scientists Garry Waghorn and Michael Tavendale supervised the new study. They found that chemicals in some grasses can directly reduce the release of methane from sheep and cattle. New Zealand’s agricultural research center, AgResearch, reported their findings. The scientists tested different kinds of plants in grasslands where the animals feed. They found that natural plant chemicals called condensed tannins have a major effect on the amount of methane produced. Condensed tannins are found in some grasses. They also are found in apples, cocoa and wine, a drink made from grapes. The New Zealand team studied a legume plant, the lotus, which contains naturally condensed tannin compounds. AgResearch notes the discovery is only the first step. It says scientists will continue to investigate how diets containing condensed tannins can be used to lower methane production in farm animals. Scientists say condensed tannins also are helpful to farm animals in other ways. They increase weight gain and milk production. They also decrease the risk of some diseases. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 23, 2002 - Lida Baker: Making a Request
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 23, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: May 26, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- how to make a request, as in, "Could you help us out?" RS: That's what we asked our friend Lida Baker. She teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and she writes textbooks for English learners. AA: We'll start with the simplest form of request, the imperative form: "Close the door." "Sit down." "Read this." Beware, though: Unless you're saying this in a friendly way to someone you feel comfortable with, you could offend people. That's because it sounds more like an order than a request. BAKER: "Most Americans, I think, would agree that the imperative form is a little bit too direct." RS: "It doesn't give you a sense of security or politeness." BAKER: "Right. So what we do is that we can take that imperative form and we can add words and phrases that we call softeners. So 'close the door doesn't sound very polite, but as soon as we say 'please close the door' it becomes a lot more acceptable." RS: Now if that's not polite enough, Lida Baker says, you can take it a step further. BAKER: "Would you mind closing the door' or 'would you mind telling me where the cafeteria is?' So we also use the form 'would you mind' followed by the -ing form if we're trying to be very polite. "Now an interesting thing about requests is if we think that we're asking for something that's an imposition on the other person, or if the other person has a lot more authority than we have, then we might tend to make the request longer and we would add these softeners at the beginning that are kind of a combination of the things that we have already talked about. "So we start with 'close the door.' We add 'please close the door,' and to make it softer, we could say, 'Could you please close the door,' and to make it even softer, we could say, 'Could I ask you to please close the door?'" AA: Lida Baker says you'll never offend anybody if you begin a request with a phrase like "could you" or "would you," as in, "Would you mind closing the door?" BAKER: "By the way there's something interesting about the form 'would you mind closing the door.' How do you answer that?" AA: "Yes, I mind. (laughter)" RS: "You don't answer that. You just say yes." AA: "It's rhetorical." BAKER: "OK, if I say to you, 'would you mind lending me your English book?'" RS: "I might say 'no problem.'" BAKER: "That's right. You don't say 'yes' or ‘no.’ You say 'no problem' or you say 'sure.' But what does it mean if you say 'no'?" RS: "No, I wouldn't mind lending you (the) book' -- which means yes! (laughter)" BAKER: "That's right. It's funny with this expression 'would you mind,' that 'no' means 'yes.' 'No, I wouldn't mind' means 'yes, I'm going to lend you my book.'" RS: "You know, the problem here is the question is not a yes or a no question, so you can't answer it with a yes or a no." BAKER: "That's exactly right. If they agree to do what you want, they'll say 'sure' or no problem and if they're not able to do the thing that you're asking them to do, they'll say something like 'sorry' and then they'll give you an excuse. So if you say 'would you mind lending me your English book tonight,' they'll say, sorry, I can't. I need it.' "Here's another one that we haven't mentioned before, if you REALLY want to be polite, you could say to somebody: 'I hope I'm not imposing, but could you please lend me your English book." AA: "But you would reserve that for a situation where you're really asking for an imposition." BAKER: "You suspect that what you're asking for is asking the person to go out of their way for you." AA: Lida Baker -- whose books are available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company -- cannot reply to messages personally. But she does go out of her way to answer questions on the air, so keep sending them in! RS: Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. E-mail is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Could You Use Me" [from George and Ira Gershwin's Great Depression-era Broadway show "Girl Crazy"] Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 23, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: May 26, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- how to make a request, as in, "Could you help us out?" RS: That's what we asked our friend Lida Baker. She teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles, and she writes textbooks for English learners. AA: We'll start with the simplest form of request, the imperative form: "Close the door." "Sit down." "Read this." Beware, though: Unless you're saying this in a friendly way to someone you feel comfortable with, you could offend people. That's because it sounds more like an order than a request. BAKER: "Most Americans, I think, would agree that the imperative form is a little bit too direct." RS: "It doesn't give you a sense of security or politeness." BAKER: "Right. So what we do is that we can take that imperative form and we can add words and phrases that we call softeners. So 'close the door doesn't sound very polite, but as soon as we say 'please close the door' it becomes a lot more acceptable." RS: Now if that's not polite enough, Lida Baker says, you can take it a step further. BAKER: "Would you mind closing the door' or 'would you mind telling me where the cafeteria is?' So we also use the form 'would you mind' followed by the -ing form if we're trying to be very polite. "Now an interesting thing about requests is if we think that we're asking for something that's an imposition on the other person, or if the other person has a lot more authority than we have, then we might tend to make the request longer and we would add these softeners at the beginning that are kind of a combination of the things that we have already talked about. "So we start with 'close the door.' We add 'please close the door,' and to make it softer, we could say, 'Could you please close the door,' and to make it even softer, we could say, 'Could I ask you to please close the door?'" AA: Lida Baker says you'll never offend anybody if you begin a request with a phrase like "could you" or "would you," as in, "Would you mind closing the door?" BAKER: "By the way there's something interesting about the form 'would you mind closing the door.' How do you answer that?" AA: "Yes, I mind. (laughter)" RS: "You don't answer that. You just say yes." AA: "It's rhetorical." BAKER: "OK, if I say to you, 'would you mind lending me your English book?'" RS: "I might say 'no problem.'" BAKER: "That's right. You don't say 'yes' or ‘no.’ You say 'no problem' or you say 'sure.' But what does it mean if you say 'no'?" RS: "No, I wouldn't mind lending you (the) book' -- which means yes! (laughter)" BAKER: "That's right. It's funny with this expression 'would you mind,' that 'no' means 'yes.' 'No, I wouldn't mind' means 'yes, I'm going to lend you my book.'" RS: "You know, the problem here is the question is not a yes or a no question, so you can't answer it with a yes or a no." BAKER: "That's exactly right. If they agree to do what you want, they'll say 'sure' or no problem and if they're not able to do the thing that you're asking them to do, they'll say something like 'sorry' and then they'll give you an excuse. So if you say 'would you mind lending me your English book tonight,' they'll say, sorry, I can't. I need it.' "Here's another one that we haven't mentioned before, if you REALLY want to be polite, you could say to somebody: 'I hope I'm not imposing, but could you please lend me your English book." AA: "But you would reserve that for a situation where you're really asking for an imposition." BAKER: "You suspect that what you're asking for is asking the person to go out of their way for you." AA: Lida Baker -- whose books are available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company -- cannot reply to messages personally. But she does go out of her way to answer questions on the air, so keep sending them in! RS: Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. E-mail is word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Could You Use Me" [from George and Ira Gershwin's Great Depression-era Broadway show "Girl Crazy"] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - May 28, 2002: Breast-Feeding and Intelligence Linked? / Americans on the Internet / Design a Traveling AIDS Medical Center for Africa
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a link between breast-feeding and intelligence. We tell about how Americans use the Internet computer system. We tell about a new crew for the International Space Station. And we tell about a competition to design a traveling medical center. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a link between breast-feeding and intelligence. We tell about how Americans use the Internet computer system. We tell about a new crew for the International Space Station. And we tell about a competition to design a traveling medical center. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new study is adding more evidence to the connection between breast-feeding and intelligence. The study links intelligence in adults to how long they were fed their mother’s milk as a baby. It found that babies who were breast-fed for nine months grew up to be more intelligent than those breast-fed for less than one month. Researchers at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark carried out the study. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported the findings. Other studies have examined the link between mother’s milk and intelligence in children. Organizers of the new study say theirs is the first to show a link between breast-feeding and adult intelligence. The organizers say their study also examined other considerations, such as a mother’s education and economic situation. VOICE TWO: The study involved more than three-thousand young Danish men and women. They were born in Copenhagen between nineteen-fifty-nine and nineteen-sixty-one. When the children were one year old, the mothers were asked how long they had breast-fed their babies. In the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties, researchers used two tests to measure the intelligence of those children. One test was given to almost two-thousand-three-hundred men when they entered the Danish military. Their average age was nineteen. A different test was given to about nine-hundred-seventy men and women. Their average age was twenty-seven. The Danish and American scientists found that babies who had been breast-fed for nine months did better on the intelligence tests as adults. Breast-feeding longer than nine months had no additional effect on the test results. VOICE ONE: It is not clear why breast-fed babies may perform better in intelligence tests as adults. However, the scientists note that mothers’ milk contains substances not found in cow’s milk or milk products for babies. For example, breast milk contains two fatty acids that appear to support brain development. They are among hundreds of nutrients found in breast milk and not in other milk products. The scientists say the physical and emotional relationship between a mother and child that develops during breast-feeding also might be important. They say women who breast-feed their babies may spend more time with them. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Reports say more than ninety-million Americans use the Internet computer system at home. A new study shows that Americans are using the Internet to make important decisions. They use it to make decisions about health care, education, changing jobs, investments and major purchase. About forty-five percent of Internet users said the Internet influenced a major event or decision in the past two years. The Internet is the world’s biggest system linking computers. Almost anyone who has a computer can send and receive electronic mail through the Internet. Internet users can get many kinds of information. And they can use the system to purchase products or services. VOICE ONE: An American organization called the Pew Research Center organized the new study. Researchers spoke by telephone with more than one-thousand-four-hundred American Internet users in January. The researchers asked the Internet users if they had experienced fifteen major decisions or events in the past two years. Then the researchers asked about their use of the Internet and its effect on their decisions. Many of those questioned said Internet use was important in improving their education or work skills. The study estimates that fourteen-million Americans used the Internet to get more education or training. It also estimates that fourteen-million Americans examined information from the Internet before buying a car. VOICE TWO: An estimated eleven-million Americans used the Internet to help a family member deal with sickness. More than four-million Americans used it to deal with their own struggle with a major disease. Eleven-million Americans used the Internet to choose a school or college for themselves or for their child. The Internet was also important in making decisions about a major investment, changing jobs or finding a new place to live. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The American space agency NASA says the Space Shuttle Endeavour will carry the next crew to the International Space Station. The Endeavour is expected to be launched this Thursday, May thirtieth, from the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida. Endeavour will be carrying the fifth crew to live and work on the International Space Station. They are Russian Cosmonauts Valeri Korzun and Sergei Treschev, and American Astronaut Peggy Whitson. The fourth crew will be returning to Earth from the space station on Endeavour. They are cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko and Astronauts Carl Walz and Dan Bursch. They have been in orbit for six months. VOICE TWO: The Endeavour will also carry more than two tons of supplies and experiments to the space station in a device built in Italy. The Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module is similar to a truck that carries supplies. It will be linked to the space station. The Endeavour and the Space Station crews will unload the experiments and supplies from Leonardo. They will then use Leonardo to take completed experiments and unneeded equipment back to Earth. The Space Shuttle Endeavour will also carry the equipment needed to complete the space station’s Canadian Mobile Service System. The Mobile Service System uses a mechanical arm to move and lift objects. It will also be used to link new parts of the space station when they arrive. The large mechanical arm moves to different parts of the space station on a device similar to a railroad track. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: An American organization called Architecture for Humanity has announced an international competition to design a traveling medical center. The organization says the medical center will be used to fight AIDS in Africa, especially in areas far from cities. The vehicle will carry equipment to test and treat people with the disease. Medical experts will also use the vehicle to provide information about AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. Cameron Sinclair launched Architecture for Humanity in nineteen-ninety-nine. The organization supports using design to solve social and humanitarian problems around the world. Mister Sinclair says the competition is not restricted to just building designers. Anyone can enter a plan. VOICE TWO: He says the goal is to design a health center that medical experts could drive around Africa. Builders should be able to make the vehicle with materials found in Africa. The medical center should also be designed to help meet other health care needs of the population. For example, officials may also use the centers to treat people with malaria and tuberculosis. Proposals must be received by Architecture for Humanity by November first. A team of health experts, building designers and research officials will judge the proposals. They will announce the winning plan in New York City on World AIDS Day December first. Then, an example of the vehicle will be developed before a final version is built in Africa. In time, officials hope the traveling medical centers will be reproduced in other parts of the world. There is no prize for winning this competition. Instead, Mister Sinclair says the winner will have the honor of creating a modern medical center that could save millions of lives. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. A new study is adding more evidence to the connection between breast-feeding and intelligence. The study links intelligence in adults to how long they were fed their mother’s milk as a baby. It found that babies who were breast-fed for nine months grew up to be more intelligent than those breast-fed for less than one month. Researchers at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark carried out the study. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported the findings. Other studies have examined the link between mother’s milk and intelligence in children. Organizers of the new study say theirs is the first to show a link between breast-feeding and adult intelligence. The organizers say their study also examined other considerations, such as a mother’s education and economic situation. VOICE TWO: The study involved more than three-thousand young Danish men and women. They were born in Copenhagen between nineteen-fifty-nine and nineteen-sixty-one. When the children were one year old, the mothers were asked how long they had breast-fed their babies. In the nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties, researchers used two tests to measure the intelligence of those children. One test was given to almost two-thousand-three-hundred men when they entered the Danish military. Their average age was nineteen. A different test was given to about nine-hundred-seventy men and women. Their average age was twenty-seven. The Danish and American scientists found that babies who had been breast-fed for nine months did better on the intelligence tests as adults. Breast-feeding longer than nine months had no additional effect on the test results. VOICE ONE: It is not clear why breast-fed babies may perform better in intelligence tests as adults. However, the scientists note that mothers’ milk contains substances not found in cow’s milk or milk products for babies. For example, breast milk contains two fatty acids that appear to support brain development. They are among hundreds of nutrients found in breast milk and not in other milk products. The scientists say the physical and emotional relationship between a mother and child that develops during breast-feeding also might be important. They say women who breast-feed their babies may spend more time with them. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Reports say more than ninety-million Americans use the Internet computer system at home. A new study shows that Americans are using the Internet to make important decisions. They use it to make decisions about health care, education, changing jobs, investments and major purchase. About forty-five percent of Internet users said the Internet influenced a major event or decision in the past two years. The Internet is the world’s biggest system linking computers. Almost anyone who has a computer can send and receive electronic mail through the Internet. Internet users can get many kinds of information. And they can use the system to purchase products or services. VOICE ONE: An American organization called the Pew Research Center organized the new study. Researchers spoke by telephone with more than one-thousand-four-hundred American Internet users in January. The researchers asked the Internet users if they had experienced fifteen major decisions or events in the past two years. Then the researchers asked about their use of the Internet and its effect on their decisions. Many of those questioned said Internet use was important in improving their education or work skills. The study estimates that fourteen-million Americans used the Internet to get more education or training. It also estimates that fourteen-million Americans examined information from the Internet before buying a car. VOICE TWO: An estimated eleven-million Americans used the Internet to help a family member deal with sickness. More than four-million Americans used it to deal with their own struggle with a major disease. Eleven-million Americans used the Internet to choose a school or college for themselves or for their child. The Internet was also important in making decisions about a major investment, changing jobs or finding a new place to live. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The American space agency NASA says the Space Shuttle Endeavour will carry the next crew to the International Space Station. The Endeavour is expected to be launched this Thursday, May thirtieth, from the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida. Endeavour will be carrying the fifth crew to live and work on the International Space Station. They are Russian Cosmonauts Valeri Korzun and Sergei Treschev, and American Astronaut Peggy Whitson. The fourth crew will be returning to Earth from the space station on Endeavour. They are cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko and Astronauts Carl Walz and Dan Bursch. They have been in orbit for six months. VOICE TWO: The Endeavour will also carry more than two tons of supplies and experiments to the space station in a device built in Italy. The Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module is similar to a truck that carries supplies. It will be linked to the space station. The Endeavour and the Space Station crews will unload the experiments and supplies from Leonardo. They will then use Leonardo to take completed experiments and unneeded equipment back to Earth. The Space Shuttle Endeavour will also carry the equipment needed to complete the space station’s Canadian Mobile Service System. The Mobile Service System uses a mechanical arm to move and lift objects. It will also be used to link new parts of the space station when they arrive. The large mechanical arm moves to different parts of the space station on a device similar to a railroad track. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: An American organization called Architecture for Humanity has announced an international competition to design a traveling medical center. The organization says the medical center will be used to fight AIDS in Africa, especially in areas far from cities. The vehicle will carry equipment to test and treat people with the disease. Medical experts will also use the vehicle to provide information about AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. Cameron Sinclair launched Architecture for Humanity in nineteen-ninety-nine. The organization supports using design to solve social and humanitarian problems around the world. Mister Sinclair says the competition is not restricted to just building designers. Anyone can enter a plan. VOICE TWO: He says the goal is to design a health center that medical experts could drive around Africa. Builders should be able to make the vehicle with materials found in Africa. The medical center should also be designed to help meet other health care needs of the population. For example, officials may also use the centers to treat people with malaria and tuberculosis. Proposals must be received by Architecture for Humanity by November first. A team of health experts, building designers and research officials will judge the proposals. They will announce the winning plan in New York City on World AIDS Day December first. Then, an example of the vehicle will be developed before a final version is built in Africa. In time, officials hope the traveling medical centers will be reproduced in other parts of the world. There is no prize for winning this competition. Instead, Mister Sinclair says the winner will have the honor of creating a modern medical center that could save millions of lives. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – May 28, 2002: Farm Bill
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. President Bush has signed a major farm bill. The new law increases government support programs for farmers. It is estimated to cost one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars over the next ten years. That is eighty-three-thousand-million dollars more than the cost of continuing current programs. The law ends efforts by Mister Bush’s Republican Party to reduce federal aid to farmers. Many in the party had urged the president to veto the bill. The measure replaces a farm program passed in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. That program ended most restrictions on the amount of a crop that can be grown. It also ended traditional price support payments for American farmers. Mister Bush said the new law provides economic security for farmers. He said it will do this without lowering prices for crops or supporting crop production that is not needed. The President noted that, in the past, Congress would pass a farm bill for a period of years, and then approve additional money each year. He said the additional payments made it difficult for Congress to operate within its budget. He said it also created problems for farmers. The new law raises payment rates to growers of grain and cotton. It re-establishes a system that provides federal aid to farmers when crop prices drop too low. The law also re-establishes aid for producers of wool and honey. There is an eighty percent increase in the amount of money spent on farm programs to protect the environment. The law also includes food aid for non-citizens who have lived in the United States legally for at least five years. The farm bill has critics in the United States and in other countries. Conservatives say the government will spend too much money on agriculture when the budget is in deficit. Others say the measure is an effort to win political support for the President and members of Congress in important farm states. Australia, Canada, the European Union and other countries have said the new law is in opposition to American calls for freer farm trade. Some critics say the increased aid may violate international trade rules. However, President Bush says the farm program is within the limits set by the World Trade Organization. He says the success of America’s farmers is necessary for the success of the American economy. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. President Bush has signed a major farm bill. The new law increases government support programs for farmers. It is estimated to cost one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars over the next ten years. That is eighty-three-thousand-million dollars more than the cost of continuing current programs. The law ends efforts by Mister Bush’s Republican Party to reduce federal aid to farmers. Many in the party had urged the president to veto the bill. The measure replaces a farm program passed in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. That program ended most restrictions on the amount of a crop that can be grown. It also ended traditional price support payments for American farmers. Mister Bush said the new law provides economic security for farmers. He said it will do this without lowering prices for crops or supporting crop production that is not needed. The President noted that, in the past, Congress would pass a farm bill for a period of years, and then approve additional money each year. He said the additional payments made it difficult for Congress to operate within its budget. He said it also created problems for farmers. The new law raises payment rates to growers of grain and cotton. It re-establishes a system that provides federal aid to farmers when crop prices drop too low. The law also re-establishes aid for producers of wool and honey. There is an eighty percent increase in the amount of money spent on farm programs to protect the environment. The law also includes food aid for non-citizens who have lived in the United States legally for at least five years. The farm bill has critics in the United States and in other countries. Conservatives say the government will spend too much money on agriculture when the budget is in deficit. Others say the measure is an effort to win political support for the President and members of Congress in important farm states. Australia, Canada, the European Union and other countries have said the new law is in opposition to American calls for freer farm trade. Some critics say the increased aid may violate international trade rules. However, President Bush says the farm program is within the limits set by the World Trade Organization. He says the success of America’s farmers is necessary for the success of the American economy. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – May 27, 2002: Memorial Day
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. It is the national holiday when Americans honor the military men and women who died in battle. Visitors to Washington, D-C, can see four major memorials to these men and women. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: Monday is Memorial Day in the United States. It is the national holiday when Americans honor the military men and women who died in battle. Visitors to Washington, D-C, can see four major memorials to these men and women. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. The story of Washington's war memorials is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "TAPS")) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. The story of Washington's war memorials is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "TAPS")) VOICE ONE: That music is called "Taps." It is played at military funerals to honor soldiers who have died. The sound of Taps is being heard at cemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its war dead. The Memorial Day holiday started in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. The purpose was to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between America's northern and southern states. Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day. People used flowers and ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killed during the war. Today, Memorial Day honors the men and women who died in all of America's wars. VOICE TWO: The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is the largest and most famous national burial place in the United States. It includes about two-hundred hectares of rolling hills. Up and down the hills are lines of simple, white stones marking the graves where the soldiers are buried. About two-hundred-thousand soldiers are buried there. They include military and political leaders, cabinet officers, and Supreme Court judges. VOICE ONE: Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One is William Howard Taft. He was president in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. The other is John Kennedy. He was president in the early Nineteen-Sixties. He was murdered during his first term in office. A fire burns all the time over President Kennedy's burial place. More people have visited his grave than any other in the United States. That music is called "Taps." It is played at military funerals to honor soldiers who have died. The sound of Taps is being heard at cemeteries throughout the United States as America honors its war dead. The Memorial Day holiday started in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. The purpose was to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between America's northern and southern states. Back then, the holiday was called Decoration Day. People used flowers and ribbons to decorate the burial places of those killed during the war. Today, Memorial Day honors the men and women who died in all of America's wars. VOICE TWO: The first yearly observance of Memorial Day was at the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The cemetery is across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It is the largest and most famous national burial place in the United States. It includes about two-hundred hectares of rolling hills. Up and down the hills are lines of simple, white stones marking the graves where the soldiers are buried. About two-hundred-thousand soldiers are buried there. They include military and political leaders, cabinet officers, and Supreme Court judges. VOICE ONE: Only two American presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. One is William Howard Taft. He was president in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. The other is John Kennedy. He was president in the early Nineteen-Sixties. He was murdered during his first term in office. A fire burns all the time over President Kennedy's burial place. More people have visited his grave than any other in the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The ceremonies honor Americans killed in fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of Jan Scruggs. Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After the war, he was deeply troubled. He and others felt that American soldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten. So, he organized efforts to build a monument to honor them. He wanted to put on the monument the name of every American who died or was missing in the Vietnam War. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a national competition. The veterans' group invited American artists to create a memorial to help unite the nation after the Vietnam War had divided it. Eight famous designers and artists were the judges. They judged more than one-thousand-four-hundred designs. They chose the design of Maya Lin. Mizz Lin was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls. The memorial opened in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. VOICE TWO: The two black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They form a wide letter "V". As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you. Cut into the walls are the names of the fifty-eight-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine Americans who died or are still missing. The names are listed in the order that the soldiers died. Those who died together are remembered together. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Memorial Day ceremonies also are being held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. The ceremonies honor Americans killed in fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of Jan Scruggs. Mister Scruggs fought in Vietnam. After the war, he was deeply troubled. He and others felt that American soldiers killed in Vietnam had been forgotten. So, he organized efforts to build a monument to honor them. He wanted to put on the monument the name of every American who died or was missing in the Vietnam War. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a national competition. The veterans' group invited American artists to create a memorial to help unite the nation after the Vietnam War had divided it. Eight famous designers and artists were the judges. They judged more than one-thousand-four-hundred designs. They chose the design of Maya Lin. Mizz Lin was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls. The memorial opened in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. VOICE TWO: The two black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They form a wide letter "V". As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you. Cut into the walls are the names of the fifty-eight-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine Americans who died or are still missing. The names are listed in the order that the soldiers died. Those who died together are remembered together. Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names. VOICE ONE: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in Washington. About one and one-half million people visit it every year. People who go there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place. Almost any time of day, you can see people standing at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. They are looking at the name of a family member or friend who died in Vietnam. Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it. They rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper. In this way, they are able to take part of the memorial with them. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial influenced veterans of the Korean War to press for a memorial of their own. Congress approved the idea. In July, Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the Korean War Veterans Memorial opened. It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It honors the men and women who served, and those who died, in the Korean War from Nineteen-Fifty to Nineteen-Fifty-Three. VOICE ONE: The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts. The war has been called "the last foot soldier's war." So, the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking. Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters high. The soldiers seem to be moving up a hill toward a large American flag. On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway. It shows the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. It shows images of more than two-thousand-four-hundred support troops. These include nurses, cooks, and truck drivers. The faces were reproduced from photographs taken during the war. VOICE TWO: The last part of the memorial is the round Pool of Remembrance. The pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces who died, or who were wounded, captured, or missing in the war. The number totals more than two-million. Cut into the wall above the pool is the simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free." ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The newest war memorial in the Washington area has a long name. It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It is very different from the other war memorials. It recognizes the service of all the women who served in all of the nation's wars. One-million-eight-hundred-thousand American women were part of the country's military forces. Former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in Nineteen-Eighty-Six to honor American women in the military. A retired air force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial. The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost more than twenty-one million dollars. VOICE TWO: The women's military memorial opened in October Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial. It is a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle. In front of the memorial, two-hundred jets of water meet in a pool. The designers say this water fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. The memorial also has information about military women on a computer. It includes names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two-hundred-fifty-thousand military women. VOICE ONE: General Vaught says it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been recognized. She says the Women in Military Service for America Memorial will help tell a story that has never been told before. (MUSIC: THE MARINES’ HYMN) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Efim Drucker. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in Washington. About one and one-half million people visit it every year. People who go there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place. Almost any time of day, you can see people standing at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. They are looking at the name of a family member or friend who died in Vietnam. Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it. They rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper. In this way, they are able to take part of the memorial with them. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial influenced veterans of the Korean War to press for a memorial of their own. Congress approved the idea. In July, Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the Korean War Veterans Memorial opened. It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It honors the men and women who served, and those who died, in the Korean War from Nineteen-Fifty to Nineteen-Fifty-Three. VOICE ONE: The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts. The war has been called "the last foot soldier's war." So, the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking. Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters high. The soldiers seem to be moving up a hill toward a large American flag. On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway. It shows the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. It shows images of more than two-thousand-four-hundred support troops. These include nurses, cooks, and truck drivers. The faces were reproduced from photographs taken during the war. VOICE TWO: The last part of the memorial is the round Pool of Remembrance. The pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces who died, or who were wounded, captured, or missing in the war. The number totals more than two-million. Cut into the wall above the pool is the simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free." ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The newest war memorial in the Washington area has a long name. It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It is very different from the other war memorials. It recognizes the service of all the women who served in all of the nation's wars. One-million-eight-hundred-thousand American women were part of the country's military forces. Former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in Nineteen-Eighty-Six to honor American women in the military. A retired air force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial. The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost more than twenty-one million dollars. VOICE TWO: The women's military memorial opened in October Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial. It is a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle. In front of the memorial, two-hundred jets of water meet in a pool. The designers say this water fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals. Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels. The memorial also has information about military women on a computer. It includes names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two-hundred-fifty-thousand military women. VOICE ONE: General Vaught says it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been recognized. She says the Women in Military Service for America Memorial will help tell a story that has never been told before. (MUSIC: THE MARINES’ HYMN) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Efim Drucker. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-24-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - May 26, 2002: Lucille Ball
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the much-loved performer Lucille Ball. Her famous television series, “I Love Lucy,” was first broadcast in nineteen-fifty-one. ((CUT 1: “I Love Lucy Theme”) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the much-loved performer Lucille Ball. Her famous television series, “I Love Lucy,” was first broadcast in nineteen-fifty-one. ((CUT 1: “I Love Lucy Theme”) VOICE ONE: The “I Love Lucy” show was a huge success. It was the most popular television show of the Nineteen-fifties. The kind of television program Mizz Ball helped develop is called a situation comedy. Some television experts give her credit for inventing this kind of series. Today, some of the most popular television programs in America are situation comedies. VOICE TWO: One reason for the great popularity of “I Love Lucy” may have been its real-life connection with Mizz Ball’s family. On the show, she was Lucy, the wife of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban musician. Ricky was played by band leader Desi Arnaz, who was Lucille Ball’s husband in real life. The show combined issues common to the life of married people living in the city with musical performances and comic theater. Often, a show would include a part with Mister Arnaz acting seriously while Mizz Ball added a funny element. In the following piece, Mister Arnaz tries to sing normally and Mizz Ball adds the comedy: (CUT 2: By the Waters of the Minnetonka") VOICE ONE: The “I Love Lucy” show was a huge success. It was the most popular television show of the Nineteen-fifties. The kind of television program Mizz Ball helped develop is called a situation comedy. Some television experts give her credit for inventing this kind of series. Today, some of the most popular television programs in America are situation comedies. VOICE TWO: One reason for the great popularity of “I Love Lucy” may have been its real-life connection with Mizz Ball’s family. On the show, she was Lucy, the wife of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban musician. Ricky was played by band leader Desi Arnaz, who was Lucille Ball’s husband in real life. The show combined issues common to the life of married people living in the city with musical performances and comic theater. Often, a show would include a part with Mister Arnaz acting seriously while Mizz Ball added a funny element. In the following piece, Mister Arnaz tries to sing normally and Mizz Ball adds the comedy: (CUT 2: By the Waters of the Minnetonka") VOICE ONE: Also on the “I Love Lucy” show were Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Mizz Vance played Ethel Mertz and Mister Frawley played Ethel’s husband, Fred Mertz. On the show, the Mertzes were friends of the Ricardos and owned the building in which they all lived. Fred Mertz loved baseball, which was America’s most popular sport at the time. “I Love Lucy,” often showed Fred Mertz intensely watching baseball or some other sport like boxing while Ethel added her own funny comments: (CUT 3: “Seeing a baseball game is fun”) VOICE TWO: A well-known story about the “I Love Lucy Show” concerns the birth of the Arnaz’s son, Desi Junior. Officials of the broadcasting company wondered what to do when Mizz Ball became pregnant in nineteen-fifty-two. Mizz Ball explains that her husband, Desi, came up with a solution: (CUT 4: “Why don’t we have it on the show?”) VOICE ONE: Mizz Ball’s pregnancy was made part of the show. In fact, critics say the show in which Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky that she is pregnant is one of the best. In it, Lucy goes to the entertainment place where Ricky’s band is playing to tell him that they are going to have a baby. Ricky suddenly understands that he is going to be a father after Lucy secretly requests the song, “We’re having a Baby:” Also on the “I Love Lucy” show were Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Mizz Vance played Ethel Mertz and Mister Frawley played Ethel’s husband, Fred Mertz. On the show, the Mertzes were friends of the Ricardos and owned the building in which they all lived. Fred Mertz loved baseball, which was America’s most popular sport at the time. “I Love Lucy,” often showed Fred Mertz intensely watching baseball or some other sport like boxing while Ethel added her own funny comments: (CUT 3: “Seeing a baseball game is fun”) VOICE TWO: A well-known story about the “I Love Lucy Show” concerns the birth of the Arnaz’s son, Desi Junior. Officials of the broadcasting company wondered what to do when Mizz Ball became pregnant in nineteen-fifty-two. Mizz Ball explains that her husband, Desi, came up with a solution: (CUT 4: “Why don’t we have it on the show?”) VOICE ONE: Mizz Ball’s pregnancy was made part of the show. In fact, critics say the show in which Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky that she is pregnant is one of the best. In it, Lucy goes to the entertainment place where Ricky’s band is playing to tell him that they are going to have a baby. Ricky suddenly understands that he is going to be a father after Lucy secretly requests the song, “We’re having a Baby:” (Cut 5: “We’re Having a Baby”) VOICE ONE: Mizz Ball gave birth to her second child on the same day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth. In fact, Desi Junior’s birth date was planned to happen on the same day as the broadcast. The show in which Lucy gave birth was one of the most popular television programs ever broadcast in America. (In fact, the story is that Desi Junior’s birth replaced reports about Dwight Eisenhower’s first presidential ceremony on the front pages of America’s newspapers.) ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The success of the “I Love Lucy” show did not come early in Lucille Ball’s life, or easily. Instead, it was the result of years of hard work. Mizz Ball was born near Jamestown, New York, in nineteen-eleven. She tried to get into show business at an early age. Early on, she went to the same acting school as the famous actress Bettie Davis. However, she left when she was told that she did not have enough acting ability. In the early Nineteen-Thirties, she moved to Hollywood. She appeared in a number of movies, but was not well-known. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty, she met the leader of a musical group who had been born in Cuba. His full name was Desiderio Alberto Arnaz de Acha the Third. They worked together in a movie and married soon after they met. For the next ten years, she appeared in movies and on radio. He travelled a lot with his band. In Nineteen-Fifty, the broadcasting company, C-B-S, decided to make a television program based on the radio show, “My Favorite Husband.” Lucille Ball was the star of the radio show. She wanted Mister Arnaz to play the part of her husband on the television show. C-B-S rejected the idea. But, she refused to give up. She and Desi travelled around the country performing in a show together to prove that they would do well on television. Their show was a success. C-B-S offered them both jobs. VOICE TWO: Mizz Ball had another demand. She wanted her show to be a production of the best quality. Early television pictures were not of good quality. Mizz Ball wanted her program to be filmed, which would improve the picture, and then broadcast later. Yet she wanted people to watch the program as it was being filmed so the sound of their reactions could be captured. Mizz Ball also wanted to film the shows in Hollywood. C-B-S did not want the extra costs. So, Mizz Ball and Mister Arnaz agreed to work for less pay. In exchange, C-B-S let them own the program. That agreement made them owners of what would become one of the most successful programs on television. VOICE ONE: During the fifties, Mizz Ball won almost every honor there was for television actors including several Emmy Awards. Yet, even the most popular performers could not escape the political realities of the time. Conservative lawmakers accused Lucille Ball of being a Communist. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a secret record of information about her, just as it did about many Hollywood actors at that time. VOICE TWO: Mister Arnaz supervised their company, Desilu Productions. The company produced sixteen different television programs and ran three production centers, called studios. In Nineteen-Sixty, Lucille Ball and Mister Arnaz legally ended their marriage. Mister Arnaz sold his part of the company to his ex-wife. Mizz Ball became the first woman to head a major production company. It was one of the biggest in Hollywood. Mizz Ball also was the star of several other shows of her own. “The Lucy Show” was broadcast from nineteen-sixty-two to nineteen-sixty-eight. “Here’s Lucy” followed until nineteen-seventy-four. Mizz Ball later sold her production company to Paramount Studios. VOICE ONE: “I Love Lucy” showed Mizz Ball at her best. Mister Arnaz added something that was unusual for American television at the time. Many of the songs on the show were in Spanish. One song, “Babalu,” is popularly connected with “I Love Lucy”. Its words are Spanish and its sound is Latin American. It is this mixture along with the excellent performances that made the show special: (CUT 6: “Babalu") VOICE TWO: Mizz Ball died in nineteen-eighty-nine after a heart operation. Yet, she still makes people laugh. Her programs are rebroadcast on television and there are hundreds of Internet sites about her. After all these years, everyone still loves Lucy. (CUT 7: “I Love Lucy") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. (Cut 5: “We’re Having a Baby”) VOICE ONE: Mizz Ball gave birth to her second child on the same day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth. In fact, Desi Junior’s birth date was planned to happen on the same day as the broadcast. The show in which Lucy gave birth was one of the most popular television programs ever broadcast in America. (In fact, the story is that Desi Junior’s birth replaced reports about Dwight Eisenhower’s first presidential ceremony on the front pages of America’s newspapers.) ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The success of the “I Love Lucy” show did not come early in Lucille Ball’s life, or easily. Instead, it was the result of years of hard work. Mizz Ball was born near Jamestown, New York, in nineteen-eleven. She tried to get into show business at an early age. Early on, she went to the same acting school as the famous actress Bettie Davis. However, she left when she was told that she did not have enough acting ability. In the early Nineteen-Thirties, she moved to Hollywood. She appeared in a number of movies, but was not well-known. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty, she met the leader of a musical group who had been born in Cuba. His full name was Desiderio Alberto Arnaz de Acha the Third. They worked together in a movie and married soon after they met. For the next ten years, she appeared in movies and on radio. He travelled a lot with his band. In Nineteen-Fifty, the broadcasting company, C-B-S, decided to make a television program based on the radio show, “My Favorite Husband.” Lucille Ball was the star of the radio show. She wanted Mister Arnaz to play the part of her husband on the television show. C-B-S rejected the idea. But, she refused to give up. She and Desi travelled around the country performing in a show together to prove that they would do well on television. Their show was a success. C-B-S offered them both jobs. VOICE TWO: Mizz Ball had another demand. She wanted her show to be a production of the best quality. Early television pictures were not of good quality. Mizz Ball wanted her program to be filmed, which would improve the picture, and then broadcast later. Yet she wanted people to watch the program as it was being filmed so the sound of their reactions could be captured. Mizz Ball also wanted to film the shows in Hollywood. C-B-S did not want the extra costs. So, Mizz Ball and Mister Arnaz agreed to work for less pay. In exchange, C-B-S let them own the program. That agreement made them owners of what would become one of the most successful programs on television. VOICE ONE: During the fifties, Mizz Ball won almost every honor there was for television actors including several Emmy Awards. Yet, even the most popular performers could not escape the political realities of the time. Conservative lawmakers accused Lucille Ball of being a Communist. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a secret record of information about her, just as it did about many Hollywood actors at that time. VOICE TWO: Mister Arnaz supervised their company, Desilu Productions. The company produced sixteen different television programs and ran three production centers, called studios. In Nineteen-Sixty, Lucille Ball and Mister Arnaz legally ended their marriage. Mister Arnaz sold his part of the company to his ex-wife. Mizz Ball became the first woman to head a major production company. It was one of the biggest in Hollywood. Mizz Ball also was the star of several other shows of her own. “The Lucy Show” was broadcast from nineteen-sixty-two to nineteen-sixty-eight. “Here’s Lucy” followed until nineteen-seventy-four. Mizz Ball later sold her production company to Paramount Studios. VOICE ONE: “I Love Lucy” showed Mizz Ball at her best. Mister Arnaz added something that was unusual for American television at the time. Many of the songs on the show were in Spanish. One song, “Babalu,” is popularly connected with “I Love Lucy”. Its words are Spanish and its sound is Latin American. It is this mixture along with the excellent performances that made the show special: (CUT 6: “Babalu") VOICE TWO: Mizz Ball died in nineteen-eighty-nine after a heart operation. Yet, she still makes people laugh. Her programs are rebroadcast on television and there are hundreds of Internet sites about her. After all these years, everyone still loves Lucy. (CUT 7: “I Love Lucy") VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-24-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – May 27, 2002: Child Nutrition Program
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new program has been launched to provide children in developing countries with more healthy foods. Officials made the announcement this month during a three-day special conference on children at the United Nations. The new program is called “Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition,” or GAIN. It aims to save at least two-thousand-million children around the world from health problems linked to the lack of healthy foods. Eating foods that lack nutrients can lead to serious health problems. For example, when pregnant mothers do not get enough nutrients, their babies may be born with development problems. The baby’s brain might not grow to full size. A lack of important vitamins and minerals in food causes many serious health problems including blindness. Many important people in both government and business are working on the GAIN program. They include the richest man in America, Bill Gates. He started Microsoft, the company that makes computer programs and operating systems. Two years ago, Mister Gates and his wife Melinda decided to use some of their money to create a private foundation in Seattle, Washington. The foundation is the biggest not-for-profit organization in the world, with twenty-four-thousand-million dollars. The Gates Foundation will give fifty-million dollars over five years to the GAIN program. The money will be used to add vitamins and minerals to common foods, such as oil, flour and rice. Several large American food companies are also involved in the program. They are Kraft Foods, Procter and Gamble, and H-J-Heinz. These companies manufacture food products that are sold around the world. Through GAIN, the companies will add extra vitamins and minerals to foods sold in poor nations. The companies will also provide governments and small food producers with technology to improve the nutritional value of foods eaten in local communities. Some of the added nutrients include iron, vitamin A, iodine and folic acid. The World Health Organization, several other U-N agencies and the World Bank are involved in the GAIN project. So are the governments of Japan, Germany and the United States. Organizers say the program is an investment in the future and could save millions of lives. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new program has been launched to provide children in developing countries with more healthy foods. Officials made the announcement this month during a three-day special conference on children at the United Nations. The new program is called “Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition,” or GAIN. It aims to save at least two-thousand-million children around the world from health problems linked to the lack of healthy foods. Eating foods that lack nutrients can lead to serious health problems. For example, when pregnant mothers do not get enough nutrients, their babies may be born with development problems. The baby’s brain might not grow to full size. A lack of important vitamins and minerals in food causes many serious health problems including blindness. Many important people in both government and business are working on the GAIN program. They include the richest man in America, Bill Gates. He started Microsoft, the company that makes computer programs and operating systems. Two years ago, Mister Gates and his wife Melinda decided to use some of their money to create a private foundation in Seattle, Washington. The foundation is the biggest not-for-profit organization in the world, with twenty-four-thousand-million dollars. The Gates Foundation will give fifty-million dollars over five years to the GAIN program. The money will be used to add vitamins and minerals to common foods, such as oil, flour and rice. Several large American food companies are also involved in the program. They are Kraft Foods, Procter and Gamble, and H-J-Heinz. These companies manufacture food products that are sold around the world. Through GAIN, the companies will add extra vitamins and minerals to foods sold in poor nations. The companies will also provide governments and small food producers with technology to improve the nutritional value of foods eaten in local communities. Some of the added nutrients include iron, vitamin A, iodine and folic acid. The World Health Organization, several other U-N agencies and the World Bank are involved in the GAIN project. So are the governments of Japan, Germany and the United States. Organizers say the program is an investment in the future and could save millions of lives. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-24-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – May 25, 2002: New Nation of East Timor
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. A new nation was born this week. On Monday, East Timor officially declared its independence in a ceremony in Dili. Thousands of people attended the celebration. They watched as United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan lowered the U-N flag marking the end of U-N supervision of the former Indonesian territory. Xanana Gusmao This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. A new nation was born this week. On Monday, East Timor officially declared its independence in a ceremony in Dili. Thousands of people attended the celebration. They watched as United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan lowered the U-N flag marking the end of U-N supervision of the former Indonesian territory. East Timor’s new president, Xanana Gusmao, was immediately sworn in. Mister Gusmao led the resistance to Indonesian rule. He spent seven years in an Indonesian jail as a result. President Gusmao urged the new nation to build a democracy for all its eight-hundred-thousand citizens. He said the independence East Timor had gained would have no value if its people continue to live in poor conditions. Mister Gusmao praised several international leaders. He gave special thanks to Secretary General Annan for his support. Mister Gusmao also noted the courage of former Indonesian President B-J Habibie. International leaders praised East Timor. Mister Annan said the people’s path to independence had not been easy. Former American President Bill Clinton said East Timor’s freedom had been paid for by blood and sacrifice. Indonesian Prime Minister Megawati Sukarnoputri also was a guest at the independence ceremony. She had been opposed to independence. Mister Gusmao welcomed the Indonesian leader. He said the difficult relations between East Timor and Indonesia were the result of a mistake that belonged to the past. For hundreds of years, East Timor was a colony of Portugal. In nineteen-seventy-five, Indonesia invaded East Timor after Portugal withdrew. More than one-hundred-thousand East Timorese were killed or died of hunger or disease in the next four years. In nineteen-ninety-eight, longtime Indonesian dictator President Suharto resigned. The new leader, President Habibie, suggested self rule for East Timor. The following year East Timor held a vote about independence from Indonesia. A large majority of East Timorese supported the proposal. However, pro-Indonesian armed groups began a campaign of terror after the vote. Much of Dili and other areas were destroyed. The fighting eased as the U-N took control of East Timor. East Timor still has many problems. There are deep cultural divides. For example, Mister Gusmao has made Portuguese the official language. Yet, only about five percent of the people speak it. Many speak Indonesian. Others speak a local language called Tetum. East Timor’s main problem is that it is one of the poorest countries in the world. It suffers from a lack of health and education resources. Yet, many countries are promising financial aid to the new nation. And, East Timor hopes to profit from the development of natural gas resources near its coast. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. East Timor’s new president, Xanana Gusmao, was immediately sworn in. Mister Gusmao led the resistance to Indonesian rule. He spent seven years in an Indonesian jail as a result. President Gusmao urged the new nation to build a democracy for all its eight-hundred-thousand citizens. He said the independence East Timor had gained would have no value if its people continue to live in poor conditions. Mister Gusmao praised several international leaders. He gave special thanks to Secretary General Annan for his support. Mister Gusmao also noted the courage of former Indonesian President B-J Habibie. International leaders praised East Timor. Mister Annan said the people’s path to independence had not been easy. Former American President Bill Clinton said East Timor’s freedom had been paid for by blood and sacrifice. Indonesian Prime Minister Megawati Sukarnoputri also was a guest at the independence ceremony. She had been opposed to independence. Mister Gusmao welcomed the Indonesian leader. He said the difficult relations between East Timor and Indonesia were the result of a mistake that belonged to the past. For hundreds of years, East Timor was a colony of Portugal. In nineteen-seventy-five, Indonesia invaded East Timor after Portugal withdrew. More than one-hundred-thousand East Timorese were killed or died of hunger or disease in the next four years. In nineteen-ninety-eight, longtime Indonesian dictator President Suharto resigned. The new leader, President Habibie, suggested self rule for East Timor. The following year East Timor held a vote about independence from Indonesia. A large majority of East Timorese supported the proposal. However, pro-Indonesian armed groups began a campaign of terror after the vote. Much of Dili and other areas were destroyed. The fighting eased as the U-N took control of East Timor. East Timor still has many problems. There are deep cultural divides. For example, Mister Gusmao has made Portuguese the official language. Yet, only about five percent of the people speak it. Many speak Indonesian. Others speak a local language called Tetum. East Timor’s main problem is that it is one of the poorest countries in the world. It suffers from a lack of health and education resources. Yet, many countries are promising financial aid to the new nation. And, East Timor hopes to profit from the development of natural gas resources near its coast. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – May 29, 2002: Silk Road Folklife Festival
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. Sergei Charkov of Khakasia, Russia, will perform at the Folklife Festival(Photo - Chloe Drieu) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about plans for the thirty-sixth yearly Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. It will be the first Folklife Festival that honors only one subject – the ancient Silk Road. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about plans for the thirty-sixth yearly Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. It will be the first Folklife Festival that honors only one subject – the ancient Silk Road. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: About two-thousand-five-hundred years ago, Asia and Europe were linked by trade paths. Much later, these paths became known as the Silk Road, named for the most famous trade product, silk material from China. The series of paths that made up the Silk Road stretched through Central Asia from Japan to Italy. Goods, ideas, art and music were exchanged along this road for about two-thousand years. This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is celebrating the living traditions of the Silk Road, the evidence of the centuries of exchange. It will also show the influence of these cultures on American life today. The festival will be held for ten days beginning June twenty-sixth on the grassy Mall area in the center of Washington. The festival is called “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust.” VOICE TWO: Richard Kennedy is one of the main organizers of this year’s Folklife Festival. He says planning began almost four years ago for what is the most complex and costly festival yet. About four-hundred people will take part in the festival. They are coming from more than twenty countries that reach from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and from the United States. They include musicians, artists, cooks, storytellers, dancers and presenters. For most of them, this will be the first time outside their countries. The yearly Folklife Festival was started in the nineteen-sixties. Mister Kennedy says it was a new way of considering what museums should be. The Folklife Festival used the model of the museum exhibit, but centered on living people rather than objects. It also was a way to try to increase the numbers and kinds of people who visit the Smithsonian and take part in its activities. VOICE ONE: Mister Kennedy says the kinds of arts included in the Folklife Festival are not the kinds of arts shown in national museums. Yet, he says many of the skills and arts of the people at the festival are worthy of the same kind of respect as the art that hangs in a museum. Mister Kennedy says that organizing a Folklife Festival generally begins with identifying artists who represent community traditions. Arts and traditions help hold a community together. Mister Kennedy says the feeling is that when these traditions and arts disappear, then the communities disappear. The Smithsonian Folklife Festivals are a way to honor and support the surviving traditions, music and arts of different communities. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Visitors to this year’s Folklife Festival will be transported to the ancient Silk Road. They will experience the sounds, sights and smells of many different cultures. And they will see how East and West were brought closer together through the exchange of culture, goods and religions. What will this festival look like? Visitors will not see the white cloth tents that seem to appear each June like huge mushrooms rising from the green grass of the Mall. Instead, the major performance areas will be covered with beautiful cloth made in India. Rajeev Sethi and the Asian Heritage Foundation designed this year’s festival. It will include five performance centers that represent important stops on the Silk Road. Near each center will be areas where people demonstrate the creation of some of the major products exchanged along the trade road. VOICE ONE: Visitors can begin to follow the Silk Road from either Italy or Japan. They will travel through five major structures that have been designed to look as though they belong on the Silk Road. At the east end of the Mall, toward the Capitol building, will be a copy of the Nara Gate in Japan. At the west end, near the Washington Monument, will be a structure that looks like Saint Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy. In between, visitors will move through the bell tower of Chang’un, now Xi’an, China; Registan Square in Samarkand, now Uzbekistan; and Hagia Sophia, a religious building in Istanbul, Turkey. Near each area, people from many countries will demonstrate the making of some of the major products exchanged along the Silk Road. VOICE TWO: What will visitors see and hear in each area? Music, art and handmade crafts made in Central Asia are the main themes of the festival. There will be musical instrument players, wandering storytellers, puppet shows and Sufi dancers known as whirling dervishes. There will be weavers of silk, clothing designers and stone carvers. At each of the five main areas, there will be demonstrations by artists and craftsmen throughout the day. Visitors will be able to see how arts and skills that began in one area changed as they moved to other areas. For example, papermaking started in China and moved through Japan to Italy. Paper was made in a different way in each country because of local materials and local needs. At the festival, papermakers from Fabriano, Italy, will demonstrate how they make handmade paper with special marks on it. VOICE ONE: For hundreds of years, traders who moved along the Silk Road carried cloth, jewelry, paper and woven rugs. Glass and stone beads worn by women were always popular and were easy to transport. Festival visitors will be able to see jewelers from Syria, Turkey and India and bead makers from Pakistan and Europe demonstrate the ancient traditions. Tribal nomads from Iran to Mongolia provided supplies and transportation for the Silk Road traders. Nomads do not live in settlements. They move from place to place with their animals. On the Mall next month, camels will carry nomad houses called yurts which are easily transported from place to place. And a Pakistani truck painted in bright colors will demonstrate that travel continues along the Silk Road today. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is being produced in cooperation with the Silk Road Project. The world famous cello player, Yo-Yo Ma, started the Silk Road Project in nineteen-ninety-eight. It is providing music concerts, cultural activities and educational programs across the United States, Europe and Asia. The Silk Road Project has several purposes. It shows how the Silk Road led to a mixing of arts, technologies and musical traditions. It identifies the people that best represent those cultural traditions today. And it supports cooperation among musicians and artists from the Silk Road countries and the West. The Silk Road Project is supported by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Ford Motor Company and the German company Siemens. Yo-Yo Ma says he hopes that the Folklife Festival will help develop a sense of community among artists, musicians and visitors from different areas. And he hopes it will create a strong interest in the cultures of the Silk Road. VOICE ONE: Music is always an important part of the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival. But this year it is even more so, partly because of the help of Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Project. Richard Kennedy says there are two different music traditions in most of the Silk Road countries. Courtly music is the traditional music of cities and settlements. It is called maqam (MAH-cahm). Groups from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, China and Iran will perform different forms of maqam music. Another kind of music in the Silk Road countries is called Aitys (EYE-tis). Musicians compete in storytelling, singing and playing of instruments. Eighteen singing storytellers will perform Aitys music from nomadic groups along the Silk Road. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Children’s activities are a very important part of the Silk Road Folklife Festival. Learning while having fun is the goal. All during the festival, the family activity shelter will provide children’s activities. Children can try Chinese writing called calligraphy, watch Indian magicians and puppeteers, or make their own musical instruments from re-used materials. Special passports will be given to young visitors. The passports will include a map and interesting facts. Children can get a special mark on their passports at each performance area. Richard Kennedy says that this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival will be a chance to celebrate the historic links between East and West. It will show that the exchange that began centuries ago along the Silk Road still continues today. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and directed by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. About two-thousand-five-hundred years ago, Asia and Europe were linked by trade paths. Much later, these paths became known as the Silk Road, named for the most famous trade product, silk material from China. The series of paths that made up the Silk Road stretched through Central Asia from Japan to Italy. Goods, ideas, art and music were exchanged along this road for about two-thousand years. This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is celebrating the living traditions of the Silk Road, the evidence of the centuries of exchange. It will also show the influence of these cultures on American life today. The festival will be held for ten days beginning June twenty-sixth on the grassy Mall area in the center of Washington. The festival is called “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust.” VOICE TWO: Richard Kennedy is one of the main organizers of this year’s Folklife Festival. He says planning began almost four years ago for what is the most complex and costly festival yet. About four-hundred people will take part in the festival. They are coming from more than twenty countries that reach from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and from the United States. They include musicians, artists, cooks, storytellers, dancers and presenters. For most of them, this will be the first time outside their countries. The yearly Folklife Festival was started in the nineteen-sixties. Mister Kennedy says it was a new way of considering what museums should be. The Folklife Festival used the model of the museum exhibit, but centered on living people rather than objects. It also was a way to try to increase the numbers and kinds of people who visit the Smithsonian and take part in its activities. VOICE ONE: Mister Kennedy says the kinds of arts included in the Folklife Festival are not the kinds of arts shown in national museums. Yet, he says many of the skills and arts of the people at the festival are worthy of the same kind of respect as the art that hangs in a museum. Mister Kennedy says that organizing a Folklife Festival generally begins with identifying artists who represent community traditions. Arts and traditions help hold a community together. Mister Kennedy says the feeling is that when these traditions and arts disappear, then the communities disappear. The Smithsonian Folklife Festivals are a way to honor and support the surviving traditions, music and arts of different communities. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Visitors to this year’s Folklife Festival will be transported to the ancient Silk Road. They will experience the sounds, sights and smells of many different cultures. And they will see how East and West were brought closer together through the exchange of culture, goods and religions. What will this festival look like? Visitors will not see the white cloth tents that seem to appear each June like huge mushrooms rising from the green grass of the Mall. Instead, the major performance areas will be covered with beautiful cloth made in India. Rajeev Sethi and the Asian Heritage Foundation designed this year’s festival. It will include five performance centers that represent important stops on the Silk Road. Near each center will be areas where people demonstrate the creation of some of the major products exchanged along the trade road. VOICE ONE: Visitors can begin to follow the Silk Road from either Italy or Japan. They will travel through five major structures that have been designed to look as though they belong on the Silk Road. At the east end of the Mall, toward the Capitol building, will be a copy of the Nara Gate in Japan. At the west end, near the Washington Monument, will be a structure that looks like Saint Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy. In between, visitors will move through the bell tower of Chang’un, now Xi’an, China; Registan Square in Samarkand, now Uzbekistan; and Hagia Sophia, a religious building in Istanbul, Turkey. Near each area, people from many countries will demonstrate the making of some of the major products exchanged along the Silk Road. VOICE TWO: What will visitors see and hear in each area? Music, art and handmade crafts made in Central Asia are the main themes of the festival. There will be musical instrument players, wandering storytellers, puppet shows and Sufi dancers known as whirling dervishes. There will be weavers of silk, clothing designers and stone carvers. At each of the five main areas, there will be demonstrations by artists and craftsmen throughout the day. Visitors will be able to see how arts and skills that began in one area changed as they moved to other areas. For example, papermaking started in China and moved through Japan to Italy. Paper was made in a different way in each country because of local materials and local needs. At the festival, papermakers from Fabriano, Italy, will demonstrate how they make handmade paper with special marks on it. VOICE ONE: For hundreds of years, traders who moved along the Silk Road carried cloth, jewelry, paper and woven rugs. Glass and stone beads worn by women were always popular and were easy to transport. Festival visitors will be able to see jewelers from Syria, Turkey and India and bead makers from Pakistan and Europe demonstrate the ancient traditions. Tribal nomads from Iran to Mongolia provided supplies and transportation for the Silk Road traders. Nomads do not live in settlements. They move from place to place with their animals. On the Mall next month, camels will carry nomad houses called yurts which are easily transported from place to place. And a Pakistani truck painted in bright colors will demonstrate that travel continues along the Silk Road today. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is being produced in cooperation with the Silk Road Project. The world famous cello player, Yo-Yo Ma, started the Silk Road Project in nineteen-ninety-eight. It is providing music concerts, cultural activities and educational programs across the United States, Europe and Asia. The Silk Road Project has several purposes. It shows how the Silk Road led to a mixing of arts, technologies and musical traditions. It identifies the people that best represent those cultural traditions today. And it supports cooperation among musicians and artists from the Silk Road countries and the West. The Silk Road Project is supported by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Ford Motor Company and the German company Siemens. Yo-Yo Ma says he hopes that the Folklife Festival will help develop a sense of community among artists, musicians and visitors from different areas. And he hopes it will create a strong interest in the cultures of the Silk Road. VOICE ONE: Music is always an important part of the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival. But this year it is even more so, partly because of the help of Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Project. Richard Kennedy says there are two different music traditions in most of the Silk Road countries. Courtly music is the traditional music of cities and settlements. It is called maqam (MAH-cahm). Groups from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, China and Iran will perform different forms of maqam music. Another kind of music in the Silk Road countries is called Aitys (EYE-tis). Musicians compete in storytelling, singing and playing of instruments. Eighteen singing storytellers will perform Aitys music from nomadic groups along the Silk Road. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Children’s activities are a very important part of the Silk Road Folklife Festival. Learning while having fun is the goal. All during the festival, the family activity shelter will provide children’s activities. Children can try Chinese writing called calligraphy, watch Indian magicians and puppeteers, or make their own musical instruments from re-used materials. Special passports will be given to young visitors. The passports will include a map and interesting facts. Children can get a special mark on their passports at each performance area. Richard Kennedy says that this year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival will be a chance to celebrate the historic links between East and West. It will show that the exchange that began centuries ago along the Silk Road still continues today. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and directed by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - May 29, 2002: Staph Vaccine
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say they have developed the first vaccine medicine that can prevent a staphylococcus bacterial infection. The staphylococcus aureus bacterium is known as staph. It is a common and usually harmless bacterium that lives in a person’s body. It can cause minor skin infections and infections in wounds. However, it can be deadly if it invades the blood. It can cause the lung disease pneumonia and life-threatening blood poisoning. Staph infections are a serious problem in American hospitals. They affect two-million people each year. About ten-million hospital patients are in danger of developing staph infections each year. These patients have weak defense systems against disease. Doctors say the new vaccine may provide a way to prevent these serious infections in hospitals. Researchers reported their vaccine test results in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved more than one-thousand-eight-hundred adults at seventy-three medical centers in California. All of the patients had kidney disease and were getting kidney dialysis. This is a treatment that removes dangerous chemicals from the blood. The researchers chose this group because dialysis patients are among the most likely to get staph infections. These patients also are least likely to get good results from a vaccine. Half of the dialysis patients received the vaccine. The other half got an inactive substance. Among the group getting the inactive substance, twenty-six people developed staph infections. Only eleven people who got the vaccine became infected. The researchers found that one injection of the vaccine provided protection against staph for ten months. The vaccine caused the body to make new antibodies against the staph bacteria. Eighty-six percent of the patients who got the vaccine showed high levels of an antibody for the bacteria. The vaccine is called StaphVAX. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C. created the vaccine. Scientists at the Nabi Corporation of Boca Raton, Florida, are developing the vaccine. The company paid for the study. The company is planning another study involving a larger number of dialysis patients to confirm these results. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American researchers say they have developed the first vaccine medicine that can prevent a staphylococcus bacterial infection. The staphylococcus aureus bacterium is known as staph. It is a common and usually harmless bacterium that lives in a person’s body. It can cause minor skin infections and infections in wounds. However, it can be deadly if it invades the blood. It can cause the lung disease pneumonia and life-threatening blood poisoning. Staph infections are a serious problem in American hospitals. They affect two-million people each year. About ten-million hospital patients are in danger of developing staph infections each year. These patients have weak defense systems against disease. Doctors say the new vaccine may provide a way to prevent these serious infections in hospitals. Researchers reported their vaccine test results in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved more than one-thousand-eight-hundred adults at seventy-three medical centers in California. All of the patients had kidney disease and were getting kidney dialysis. This is a treatment that removes dangerous chemicals from the blood. The researchers chose this group because dialysis patients are among the most likely to get staph infections. These patients also are least likely to get good results from a vaccine. Half of the dialysis patients received the vaccine. The other half got an inactive substance. Among the group getting the inactive substance, twenty-six people developed staph infections. Only eleven people who got the vaccine became infected. The researchers found that one injection of the vaccine provided protection against staph for ten months. The vaccine caused the body to make new antibodies against the staph bacteria. Eighty-six percent of the patients who got the vaccine showed high levels of an antibody for the bacteria. The vaccine is called StaphVAX. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C. created the vaccine. Scientists at the Nabi Corporation of Boca Raton, Florida, are developing the vaccine. The company paid for the study. The company is planning another study involving a larger number of dialysis patients to confirm these results. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - May 30, 2002: World War Two / Home Front
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The United States entered the Second World War late in nineteen-forty-one after a surprise attack by Japanese forces on Hawaii. The time and the place of the attack was a surprise. But American military and political leaders had believed that the United States, sooner or later, would be pulled into the fighting. And they began to prepare for war. VOICE 2: (Theme) The United States entered the Second World War late in nineteen-forty-one after a surprise attack by Japanese forces on Hawaii. The time and the place of the attack was a surprise. But American military and political leaders had believed that the United States, sooner or later, would be pulled into the fighting. And they began to prepare for war. VOICE 2: President Franklin Roosevelt had been assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War One. He remembered how American troops were not ready for that war. Now that he was president, Roosevelt wanted to be sure that the United States would be ready when it had to fight. Throughout nineteen-forty-one, Roosevelt urged American industries to produce more arms and military goods. And he established new government agencies to work with private industry to increase arms production. Some business leaders resisted Roosevelt's efforts. They felt there was no need to produce more arms while the United States was still at peace. But many others cooperated. And by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the American economy was producing millions of guns and other weapons. VOICE 1: This still was not enough to fight a war. After the Japanese attack, Roosevelt increased his demands on American industry. He called for sixty- thousand war planes, forty-five-thousand tanks, and twenty-thousand anti-aircraft guns. And he wanted all these within one year. President Franklin Roosevelt had been assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War One. He remembered how American troops were not ready for that war. Now that he was president, Roosevelt wanted to be sure that the United States would be ready when it had to fight. Throughout nineteen-forty-one, Roosevelt urged American industries to produce more arms and military goods. And he established new government agencies to work with private industry to increase arms production. Some business leaders resisted Roosevelt's efforts. They felt there was no need to produce more arms while the United States was still at peace. But many others cooperated. And by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the American economy was producing millions of guns and other weapons. VOICE 1: This still was not enough to fight a war. After the Japanese attack, Roosevelt increased his demands on American industry. He called for sixty- thousand war planes, forty-five-thousand tanks, and twenty-thousand anti-aircraft guns. And he wanted all these within one year. One month after the Pearl Harbor raid, Roosevelt organized a special committee to direct this military production. He created another group to help companies find men and women for defense work. And he established a new office where the nation's best scientists and engineers could work together to design new weapons. These new government organizations faced several problems. Sometimes factories produced too much of one product and not enough of another. Sometimes tools broke. And some business owners refused to accept government orders. But the weapons were produced. American troops soon had the guns and supplies they needed. VOICE 2: The federal government had to expand its own workforce rapidly to meet war needs. Federal spending increased from just six-thousand- million dollars in nineteen-forty to eighty-nine thousand-million in nineteen-forty-four. This was a fifteen-hundred-percent increase in just five years. In fact, total spending by the federal government during the war was twice as much as the government had spent since its beginning in seventeen-eighty-seven. Roosevelt had to take strong steps to get the money for all this spending. He put limits on wages. He increased taxes to as high as ninety-four percent of pay. And he asked the American people to lend money to the federal government. The people answered with almost one-hundred thousand-million dollars. VOICE 1: The great increase in public spending raised the threat of economic inflation. There was much more money in the economy just at the time that factories were producing fewer goods for people to buy. More money and fewer goods usually makes prices rise rapidly. One month after the Pearl Harbor raid, Roosevelt organized a special committee to direct this military production. He created another group to help companies find men and women for defense work. And he established a new office where the nation's best scientists and engineers could work together to design new weapons. These new government organizations faced several problems. Sometimes factories produced too much of one product and not enough of another. Sometimes tools broke. And some business owners refused to accept government orders. But the weapons were produced. American troops soon had the guns and supplies they needed. VOICE 2: The federal government had to expand its own workforce rapidly to meet war needs. Federal spending increased from just six-thousand- million dollars in nineteen-forty to eighty-nine thousand-million in nineteen-forty-four. This was a fifteen-hundred-percent increase in just five years. In fact, total spending by the federal government during the war was twice as much as the government had spent since its beginning in seventeen-eighty-seven. Roosevelt had to take strong steps to get the money for all this spending. He put limits on wages. He increased taxes to as high as ninety-four percent of pay. And he asked the American people to lend money to the federal government. The people answered with almost one-hundred thousand-million dollars. VOICE 1: The great increase in public spending raised the threat of economic inflation. There was much more money in the economy just at the time that factories were producing fewer goods for people to buy. More money and fewer goods usually makes prices rise rapidly. Roosevelt was able to prevent this problem by using taxes and borrowing to reduce the amount of money that people had. But he also created a special office with the power to control prices. Many Americans agreed with the idea of price controls. But everyone wanted somebody else's prices controlled, not their own. Federal officials had to work hard to keep prices and supplies under control. They restricted how much meat and gasoline and other goods people could buy. The price control program generally worked. Its success kept the American economy strong to support the troops fighting in Europe and Asia. VOICE 2: One reason these strong economic steps worked was because the American people fully supported the war effort. One can look at photographs of people of those times and see in their faces how strongly they felt. In one photograph from the state of North Carolina, a group of men are standing in front of old rubber tires collected from automobiles. They are planning to give the tires to the Army to be fixed and used for army vehicles. Another photo shows a woman visiting a hospital. She is singing a song to a soldier to lift his spirits. Still another photo shows a man who owns a small food store. He is placing special signs on his meats and cans of food to tell people how much they are allowed to buy. VOICE 1: Radio cannot show the faces in the pictures. But you can get an idea about their feelings by the names of some of the popular songs of the period. One of the most famous was "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Another was "He Is One-Aye in the Army, and He's One-Aye in My Heart." And one of the most hopeful songs was "When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World." VOICE 2: Not all Americans supported the war. A small number of persons refused to fight, because fighting violated their religious beliefs. And a few Americans supported the ideas of Hitler and other fascists. But almost everyone else supported the war effort. They wanted to win the war quickly and return to normal life. Japanese-Americans felt the same way. Many of them served with honor in the military forces. But many Americans were suspicious of anyone whose family had come from Japan. They refused to trust even Japanese-American families who lived in the United States for more than a century. Banks refused to lend money to Japanese-Americans. Stores would not sell to them. An American Army general, John Dewitt, spoke for many citizens when he said, "A Japanese is a Japanese. It makes no difference whether he is an American or not." The federal government ordered all Japanese-Americans to live in restricted areas for the rest of the war. Only after the war ended did it release them. Years later, people agreed that Japanese-Americans had been badly treated. VOICE 1: Another American minority made progress during the war: black Americans. For years, black American citizens had been kept in low-paying jobs and poor living conditions. But black leaders spoke out to say it was unfair to fight a war for freedom in Europe while blacks at home were not as free as white citizens. In nineteen-forty-one, black leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a giant march on Washington for black rights. President Roosevelt reacted by issuing an order that made it a crime to deny blacks a chance for jobs in defense industries. He also ordered the armed forces to change some of their rules for blacks. Blacks made progress in these government-controlled areas. But most private industries still refused to give them an equal chance. Major progress for blacks would come in the years after the war, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. VOICE 2: Life was busy during the war years with all the changes in the economy, business, music, race relations, and other areas. But in many ways, life continued as it always does. Americans did what they could during the hard years of World War Two to keep life as normal as possible. But almost everyone understood that the first job was to support the troops overseas and win the war. This strength of purpose at home gave American soldiers the support they needed. And it also helped President Roosevelt as he negotiated with other world leaders during the fighting. Diplomacy and foreign relations were extremely complex during the war. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jim Tedder. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Roosevelt was able to prevent this problem by using taxes and borrowing to reduce the amount of money that people had. But he also created a special office with the power to control prices. Many Americans agreed with the idea of price controls. But everyone wanted somebody else's prices controlled, not their own. Federal officials had to work hard to keep prices and supplies under control. They restricted how much meat and gasoline and other goods people could buy. The price control program generally worked. Its success kept the American economy strong to support the troops fighting in Europe and Asia. VOICE 2: One reason these strong economic steps worked was because the American people fully supported the war effort. One can look at photographs of people of those times and see in their faces how strongly they felt. In one photograph from the state of North Carolina, a group of men are standing in front of old rubber tires collected from automobiles. They are planning to give the tires to the Army to be fixed and used for army vehicles. Another photo shows a woman visiting a hospital. She is singing a song to a soldier to lift his spirits. Still another photo shows a man who owns a small food store. He is placing special signs on his meats and cans of food to tell people how much they are allowed to buy. VOICE 1: Radio cannot show the faces in the pictures. But you can get an idea about their feelings by the names of some of the popular songs of the period. One of the most famous was "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Another was "He Is One-Aye in the Army, and He's One-Aye in My Heart." And one of the most hopeful songs was "When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World." VOICE 2: Not all Americans supported the war. A small number of persons refused to fight, because fighting violated their religious beliefs. And a few Americans supported the ideas of Hitler and other fascists. But almost everyone else supported the war effort. They wanted to win the war quickly and return to normal life. Japanese-Americans felt the same way. Many of them served with honor in the military forces. But many Americans were suspicious of anyone whose family had come from Japan. They refused to trust even Japanese-American families who lived in the United States for more than a century. Banks refused to lend money to Japanese-Americans. Stores would not sell to them. An American Army general, John Dewitt, spoke for many citizens when he said, "A Japanese is a Japanese. It makes no difference whether he is an American or not." The federal government ordered all Japanese-Americans to live in restricted areas for the rest of the war. Only after the war ended did it release them. Years later, people agreed that Japanese-Americans had been badly treated. VOICE 1: Another American minority made progress during the war: black Americans. For years, black American citizens had been kept in low-paying jobs and poor living conditions. But black leaders spoke out to say it was unfair to fight a war for freedom in Europe while blacks at home were not as free as white citizens. In nineteen-forty-one, black leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a giant march on Washington for black rights. President Roosevelt reacted by issuing an order that made it a crime to deny blacks a chance for jobs in defense industries. He also ordered the armed forces to change some of their rules for blacks. Blacks made progress in these government-controlled areas. But most private industries still refused to give them an equal chance. Major progress for blacks would come in the years after the war, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. VOICE 2: Life was busy during the war years with all the changes in the economy, business, music, race relations, and other areas. But in many ways, life continued as it always does. Americans did what they could during the hard years of World War Two to keep life as normal as possible. But almost everyone understood that the first job was to support the troops overseas and win the war. This strength of purpose at home gave American soldiers the support they needed. And it also helped President Roosevelt as he negotiated with other world leaders during the fighting. Diplomacy and foreign relations were extremely complex during the war. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Jim Tedder. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – May 30, 2002: Single-Sex Schools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. There are many private schools in the United States that accept only boys or only girls. But there are only eleven single-sex public schools. A twelfth will open next fall in Houston, Texas. The Bush administration recently announced support for separate public schools for boys and girls. The decision represents a major change in American educational policy. For thirty years, the government has generally disapproved of these single-sex public schools. It has done so because of a nineteen-seventy-two law called Title Nine. This law bans unequal treatment based on sex. Under Title Nine, single-sex schools face possible legal action. In January, however, Congress passed an Administration measure that provides three-million dollars for single-sex schools. Congress also told the Education Department to change the way it administers Title Nine. Education Department officials say they will reconsider the law. The goal will be to give local officials more choice in operating their schools without violating the law. More single-sex schools may be able to receive federal money as long as both boys and girls have equal chances to learn. However, some legal experts say these schools would still violate the law. They say the new policy will be tested in the courts. Some educators believe children can learn better in single-sex schools. Others say children need to be with children of the opposite sex. Scientists have shown that boys and girls learn information in different ways. However, research about the effects of same-sex schools has shown mixed results. Most of the research has involved girls. During the nineteen-nineties, the American Association of University Women completed major studies on education. The organization said girls who attend school with boys may not do as well as the boys. It said some teachers and schools do not treat girls equally. But it also said single-sex education generally does not appear to help girls. The oldest single-sex public school in the United States has gained great success. Western High School in Baltimore, Maryland was established in eighteen-forty-four. More than one-thousand girls from several races, ethnic groups and religions attend Western. Almost all of the girls go on to college. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. There are many private schools in the United States that accept only boys or only girls. But there are only eleven single-sex public schools. A twelfth will open next fall in Houston, Texas. The Bush administration recently announced support for separate public schools for boys and girls. The decision represents a major change in American educational policy. For thirty years, the government has generally disapproved of these single-sex public schools. It has done so because of a nineteen-seventy-two law called Title Nine. This law bans unequal treatment based on sex. Under Title Nine, single-sex schools face possible legal action. In January, however, Congress passed an Administration measure that provides three-million dollars for single-sex schools. Congress also told the Education Department to change the way it administers Title Nine. Education Department officials say they will reconsider the law. The goal will be to give local officials more choice in operating their schools without violating the law. More single-sex schools may be able to receive federal money as long as both boys and girls have equal chances to learn. However, some legal experts say these schools would still violate the law. They say the new policy will be tested in the courts. Some educators believe children can learn better in single-sex schools. Others say children need to be with children of the opposite sex. Scientists have shown that boys and girls learn information in different ways. However, research about the effects of same-sex schools has shown mixed results. Most of the research has involved girls. During the nineteen-nineties, the American Association of University Women completed major studies on education. The organization said girls who attend school with boys may not do as well as the boys. It said some teachers and schools do not treat girls equally. But it also said single-sex education generally does not appear to help girls. The oldest single-sex public school in the United States has gained great success. Western High School in Baltimore, Maryland was established in eighteen-forty-four. More than one-thousand girls from several races, ethnic groups and religions attend Western. Almost all of the girls go on to college. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: May 30, 2002 - Spider-Related Expressions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 30, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 2, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- etymology meets entomology! The new movie "Spider-Man" inspired us to untangle some spider-related expressions. RS: Meet a real spider man, not the comic book superhero. Al York is a professor of entomology at Purdue University in Indiana. He teaches a popular course all about our eight-legged friends. AA: So why are people so fascinated? For one thing, says Professor York, we have a long history together. YORK: "They live with us. They tend to inhabit homes, probably because there are flies and insects in the homes and the spiders are looking to eat, they spend most of their time trying to acquire a meal, and since they only eat living organisms, they tend to be where those things are. And I think they're obvious too because of the cobwebs, which they form. Cobwebs are generally throughout literature used as symbols of dirt and disuse and abandonment, but we notice those and then we notice the spiders." AA: Professor York says the word "web," meaning a spider web, spun out of a different meaning originally. YORK: "The interconnection in web actually meant woven cloth. This was Indo-Germanic and showed up back in the 600s, 700s in print, and then turned into spider web." RS: "And then into our World Wide Web on our Internet." YORK: "And then came World Wide Web. And in fact, spiders, of the technical people, spiders are in fact search engines which go out and search the World Wide Web." AA: "Right, and can you talk a little about why the World Wide Web is called the World Wide Web?" YORK: "Probably because it's so interconnected, it's reached out to connect all these different units, and you can pass from one unit to another along a particular trunk line and then from there you can go to another, and in fact it's frequently envisioned as a web." AA: In American English, at least one kind of spider has found a special place. We're talking about a North American spider with a notorious reputation: the black widow. RS: Yes, its bite is poisonous. But that's not why a woman who kills her husband might be nicknamed a "black widow." Al York describes the habits of the female black widow spider YORK: "They do eat the male after copulation. They may and they may not, it depends on whether they're hungry. Frequently they do, frequently they don't. But this is not just the black widow. Almost any spider, female, will eat a male after copulation if she can catch him." AA: "Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practise to deceive!" Sir Walter Scott wrote these words in a poem in eighteen-oh-eight. This saying remains popular, even at the risk of sounding cliched. RS: Same with this classic way to describe being lured: "'Come into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly." As Professor York explains, it's from another nineteenth century verse, this one by the English poet Mary Howitt. YORK: "It was a children's poem. Now, flies are not lured into spider's webs, but in fact just wander into them, although I'll tell you a real interesting little tale. There is a spider called a bola, spider b-o-l-a. This spider manufactures a chemical which smells like a female moth, and she puts this on a little sticky round drop of silk, extended by a cord form her body. "Now she spins this bola around and as she does so the smell of the female moth is exuded into the air and it attracts male moths of the same species, in which case then they come up and they get stuck to this bola. But other than that, 'come into my parlor' doesn't fit the biology of the spider at all." AA: "Last question, have you seen the movie 'Spider-Man'?" YORK: "No, but I have an old Spider-Man mask that I wear to class. [Laughter]" RS: Al York at Purdue University. Before we go we’d like to thank listener Abdul Karim Muhammad from Zaria, Nigeria, for sharing a spider-related expression that he hears locally. He says young people use the saying, "what a cobweb reason." AA: This, he says, means that a reason given is confused and has no meaningful or strong point. RS: . . . though we suspect that a spider might disagree! But speaking of webs, you'll find Avi and me at www.voanews.com/wordmaster, or write to word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Spider-Man" movie theme Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": May 30, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 2, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- etymology meets entomology! The new movie "Spider-Man" inspired us to untangle some spider-related expressions. RS: Meet a real spider man, not the comic book superhero. Al York is a professor of entomology at Purdue University in Indiana. He teaches a popular course all about our eight-legged friends. AA: So why are people so fascinated? For one thing, says Professor York, we have a long history together. YORK: "They live with us. They tend to inhabit homes, probably because there are flies and insects in the homes and the spiders are looking to eat, they spend most of their time trying to acquire a meal, and since they only eat living organisms, they tend to be where those things are. And I think they're obvious too because of the cobwebs, which they form. Cobwebs are generally throughout literature used as symbols of dirt and disuse and abandonment, but we notice those and then we notice the spiders." AA: Professor York says the word "web," meaning a spider web, spun out of a different meaning originally. YORK: "The interconnection in web actually meant woven cloth. This was Indo-Germanic and showed up back in the 600s, 700s in print, and then turned into spider web." RS: "And then into our World Wide Web on our Internet." YORK: "And then came World Wide Web. And in fact, spiders, of the technical people, spiders are in fact search engines which go out and search the World Wide Web." AA: "Right, and can you talk a little about why the World Wide Web is called the World Wide Web?" YORK: "Probably because it's so interconnected, it's reached out to connect all these different units, and you can pass from one unit to another along a particular trunk line and then from there you can go to another, and in fact it's frequently envisioned as a web." AA: In American English, at least one kind of spider has found a special place. We're talking about a North American spider with a notorious reputation: the black widow. RS: Yes, its bite is poisonous. But that's not why a woman who kills her husband might be nicknamed a "black widow." Al York describes the habits of the female black widow spider YORK: "They do eat the male after copulation. They may and they may not, it depends on whether they're hungry. Frequently they do, frequently they don't. But this is not just the black widow. Almost any spider, female, will eat a male after copulation if she can catch him." AA: "Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practise to deceive!" Sir Walter Scott wrote these words in a poem in eighteen-oh-eight. This saying remains popular, even at the risk of sounding cliched. RS: Same with this classic way to describe being lured: "'Come into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly." As Professor York explains, it's from another nineteenth century verse, this one by the English poet Mary Howitt. YORK: "It was a children's poem. Now, flies are not lured into spider's webs, but in fact just wander into them, although I'll tell you a real interesting little tale. There is a spider called a bola, spider b-o-l-a. This spider manufactures a chemical which smells like a female moth, and she puts this on a little sticky round drop of silk, extended by a cord form her body. "Now she spins this bola around and as she does so the smell of the female moth is exuded into the air and it attracts male moths of the same species, in which case then they come up and they get stuck to this bola. But other than that, 'come into my parlor' doesn't fit the biology of the spider at all." AA: "Last question, have you seen the movie 'Spider-Man'?" YORK: "No, but I have an old Spider-Man mask that I wear to class. [Laughter]" RS: Al York at Purdue University. Before we go we’d like to thank listener Abdul Karim Muhammad from Zaria, Nigeria, for sharing a spider-related expression that he hears locally. He says young people use the saying, "what a cobweb reason." AA: This, he says, means that a reason given is confused and has no meaningful or strong point. RS: . . . though we suspect that a spider might disagree! But speaking of webs, you'll find Avi and me at www.voanews.com/wordmaster, or write to word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Spider-Man" movie theme 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - May 31, 2002: Music of Tony-Nominated Broadway Shows / Question About U.S. Security Agencies / Reading Campaign for Washington
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music from Broadway shows nominated for Tony Awards ... Answer a question about several American government agencies ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music from Broadway shows nominated for Tony Awards ... Answer a question about several American government agencies ... And report about a new reading campaign in the nation’s capital. D.C. We Read HOST: City officials in Washington, D-C are making final plans for a month-long reading campaign. The city government is urging everyone in Washington to read the same book during the month of June. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The name of the campaign is “D-C We Read Two-Thousand-Two.” Its goal is to get more people interested in reading. The idea of having everyone in a city read the same book started in nineteen-ninety-seven in Seattle, Washington. Now Seattle does it every year. Several other cities have followed the example. Next month, the people of Washington will attempt to read the same book at the same time. The book is called “Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First One-Hundred Years.” Two African-American women wrote the book about their lives. Sarah Delaney was known as Sadie, and Anne Elizabeth was called Bessie. They were one-hundred-three and one-hundred-one years old when their book was published in nineteen-ninety-three. Their story was later made into a play. The Delaney sisters were born in the southern state of North Carolina. Their father was a slave. He became a teacher and the first black leader of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Sadie and Bessie had eight brothers and sisters. They all finished college and were professionally successful. Sadie and Bessie Delaney attended Columbia University in New York City. Sadie became the first black home economics teacher there. Bessie became the city’s second black female dentist. Neither woman ever married. They lived together almost all their lives. Their book is about family, education, racism, independence and the great changes that took place in America during the past one-hundred years. The reading campaign urges people to talk about ideas presented in the Delaney Sisters’ book. Washington’s public library system has almost two-thousand copies of the book. Library officials have planned discussions and will show a film based on the book. Molly Raphael is director of the D-C Library. She says she will consider the campaign a success if it influences at least one person who normally does not read to pick up the book. Government Security Agencies HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Malaysia. Ong Chin Heng asks about three American government agencies - the FBI, the CIA and the NSA. All three are responsible in different ways for the safety and security of the United States and its people. The letters FBI represent the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the main investigating agency of the Department of Justice. The FBI investigates more than two-hundred-fifty different kinds of federal crimes such as kidnapping and hijacking. It gathers information about people or groups it believes are dangerous to national security. It helps capture dangerous criminals and spies. The FBI also provides services to other law enforcement agencies in the United States and in foreign countries. It has the world’s largest collection of fingerprints and one of the world’s best crime laboratories. The letters CIA represent the Central Intelligence Agency. This agency collects foreign intelligence information to help top government officials make decisions about national security. The CIA may take part in secret activities if ordered by the President. It is barred by law from collecting information about the activities of American citizens within the United States. It is also restricted in the collection of intelligence directed against American citizens. Such collection is permitted only if there is a reason to believe an American is involved in spying or international terrorism activities. NSA is the National Security Agency. The NSA also provides intelligence information to American civilian and military leaders. The NSA protects all important secret information that is kept or sent through United States government equipment. It invents new technology through scientific research. It develops secret methods of sending information. It also develops methods of reading secret information used by other governments. And it is a center of foreign language study and research. All three of these agencies have different parts to play in protecting the national security of the United States. Agency officials are working to increase cooperation since the terrorist attacks against the United States last September. The FBI recently announced that it will increase its anti-terrror forces under a major re-organization plan. The Tony Awards HOST: On Sunday, June second, the Tony Awards ceremony will honor the best plays on Broadway in New York City. Mary Tillotson tells us about these awards. ANNCR: The Tony Awards are the work of a group called the American Theater Wing. The group began as a way for theater people to help in the war effort during World War One. It continued this work during World War Two. Later, the Theater Wing helped returning soldiers. It opened a school to train people to work in the theater. And it began presenting the Tony Awards to honor the best Broadway plays. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, a producer, director and American Theater Wing official. The name “Tony” is short for Antoinette, so the awards became known as the Tonys. The first Tonys were given in nineteen-forty-seven. The awards are presented to many people who work on Broadway shows -- actors, directors, set designers, clothing designers, and music composers. Tony Awards are also given to the best dramatic play and the best musical play of the year. This year, four shows are nominated for Best Musical. “Mamma Mia!” presents songs made popular by the Swedish rock group, Abba. Here is the title song: ((CUT 1: MAMMA MIA)) “Sweet Smell of Success” tells about a newspaper writer. “Thoroughly Modern Millie” is about a young woman from Kansas who tries to succeed in New York in the nineteen-twenties. Both musicals are based on well-known American movies. The last play nominated for Best Musical is about a time in the future when there is not enough water. People are forced to pay money to use public toilets. We leave you now with the title song from “Urinetown: The Musical.” ((CUT 2: URINETOWN)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynam. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And report about a new reading campaign in the nation’s capital. D.C. We Read HOST: City officials in Washington, D-C are making final plans for a month-long reading campaign. The city government is urging everyone in Washington to read the same book during the month of June. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The name of the campaign is “D-C We Read Two-Thousand-Two.” Its goal is to get more people interested in reading. The idea of having everyone in a city read the same book started in nineteen-ninety-seven in Seattle, Washington. Now Seattle does it every year. Several other cities have followed the example. Next month, the people of Washington will attempt to read the same book at the same time. The book is called “Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First One-Hundred Years.” Two African-American women wrote the book about their lives. Sarah Delaney was known as Sadie, and Anne Elizabeth was called Bessie. They were one-hundred-three and one-hundred-one years old when their book was published in nineteen-ninety-three. Their story was later made into a play. The Delaney sisters were born in the southern state of North Carolina. Their father was a slave. He became a teacher and the first black leader of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Sadie and Bessie had eight brothers and sisters. They all finished college and were professionally successful. Sadie and Bessie Delaney attended Columbia University in New York City. Sadie became the first black home economics teacher there. Bessie became the city’s second black female dentist. Neither woman ever married. They lived together almost all their lives. Their book is about family, education, racism, independence and the great changes that took place in America during the past one-hundred years. The reading campaign urges people to talk about ideas presented in the Delaney Sisters’ book. Washington’s public library system has almost two-thousand copies of the book. Library officials have planned discussions and will show a film based on the book. Molly Raphael is director of the D-C Library. She says she will consider the campaign a success if it influences at least one person who normally does not read to pick up the book. Government Security Agencies HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Malaysia. Ong Chin Heng asks about three American government agencies - the FBI, the CIA and the NSA. All three are responsible in different ways for the safety and security of the United States and its people. The letters FBI represent the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the main investigating agency of the Department of Justice. The FBI investigates more than two-hundred-fifty different kinds of federal crimes such as kidnapping and hijacking. It gathers information about people or groups it believes are dangerous to national security. It helps capture dangerous criminals and spies. The FBI also provides services to other law enforcement agencies in the United States and in foreign countries. It has the world’s largest collection of fingerprints and one of the world’s best crime laboratories. The letters CIA represent the Central Intelligence Agency. This agency collects foreign intelligence information to help top government officials make decisions about national security. The CIA may take part in secret activities if ordered by the President. It is barred by law from collecting information about the activities of American citizens within the United States. It is also restricted in the collection of intelligence directed against American citizens. Such collection is permitted only if there is a reason to believe an American is involved in spying or international terrorism activities. NSA is the National Security Agency. The NSA also provides intelligence information to American civilian and military leaders. The NSA protects all important secret information that is kept or sent through United States government equipment. It invents new technology through scientific research. It develops secret methods of sending information. It also develops methods of reading secret information used by other governments. And it is a center of foreign language study and research. All three of these agencies have different parts to play in protecting the national security of the United States. Agency officials are working to increase cooperation since the terrorist attacks against the United States last September. The FBI recently announced that it will increase its anti-terrror forces under a major re-organization plan. The Tony Awards HOST: On Sunday, June second, the Tony Awards ceremony will honor the best plays on Broadway in New York City. Mary Tillotson tells us about these awards. ANNCR: The Tony Awards are the work of a group called the American Theater Wing. The group began as a way for theater people to help in the war effort during World War One. It continued this work during World War Two. Later, the Theater Wing helped returning soldiers. It opened a school to train people to work in the theater. And it began presenting the Tony Awards to honor the best Broadway plays. The award is named for Antoinette Perry, a producer, director and American Theater Wing official. The name “Tony” is short for Antoinette, so the awards became known as the Tonys. The first Tonys were given in nineteen-forty-seven. The awards are presented to many people who work on Broadway shows -- actors, directors, set designers, clothing designers, and music composers. Tony Awards are also given to the best dramatic play and the best musical play of the year. This year, four shows are nominated for Best Musical. “Mamma Mia!” presents songs made popular by the Swedish rock group, Abba. Here is the title song: ((CUT 1: MAMMA MIA)) “Sweet Smell of Success” tells about a newspaper writer. “Thoroughly Modern Millie” is about a young woman from Kansas who tries to succeed in New York in the nineteen-twenties. Both musicals are based on well-known American movies. The last play nominated for Best Musical is about a time in the future when there is not enough water. People are forced to pay money to use public toilets. We leave you now with the title song from “Urinetown: The Musical.” ((CUT 2: URINETOWN)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynam. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - May 31, 2002: Coqui Frogs Invade Hawaii
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Experts say the American state of Hawaii has been invaded by a small frog called the coqui (ko-KEE). There may be millions of the small frogs in Hawaii. However, they do not belong there. They are normally found in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and in the southeastern United States. The coqui frogs are harming Hawaii’s environment. And the extremely loud noise they make is causing problems for Hawaiian citizens and visitors. The coqui invaders arrived in Hawaii about ten years ago. They were believed to have been brought in accidentally in shipments of plants from Puerto Rico or Florida. Their numbers have sharply increased. They have quickly spread around the Hawaiian Islands hidden in plants. The coqui is a brown frog about five centimeters long. During the day, the frogs hide in wet protected areas, such as under plant leaves. At night, the frogs move onto trees to feed, call to females and mate. In their native Puerto Rico, local people celebrate coqui frogs. But in Hawaii, the foreign frog has been condemned as a harmful animal. The coqui frogs are a major threat to Hawaii’s environmental system. The frogs eat thousands of insects every night. These insects are important for the reproduction of plants. The insects also are important food for Hawaii’s native, rare birds. The frogs also are affecting the tourism industry in Hawaii. Increasing numbers of hotels, visitors and local people have protested about the loud calls made by male coqui frogs to female frogs. At night, the noise often makes it difficult for people to sleep. The mating call of the male coqui sounds like: “Ko-Kee! Ko-Kee!” That is how they got their name. The frogs do not have any natural enemies in Hawaii to reduce their population size. The warm weather permits them to lay eggs all year long.There are many efforts in Hawaii designed to stop the spread of the coqui. It is a crime to transport, sell or release the frogs there. The Hawaiian Department of Agriculture is trying to find an effective chemical that can be safely used to kill the frogs. For now, the frogs may only be captured by hand. The Hawaiian Department of Agriculture says the greatest threat to the economy and environment of the state is from harmful invasive species, like the coqui. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Experts say the American state of Hawaii has been invaded by a small frog called the coqui (ko-KEE). There may be millions of the small frogs in Hawaii. However, they do not belong there. They are normally found in the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and in the southeastern United States. The coqui frogs are harming Hawaii’s environment. And the extremely loud noise they make is causing problems for Hawaiian citizens and visitors. The coqui invaders arrived in Hawaii about ten years ago. They were believed to have been brought in accidentally in shipments of plants from Puerto Rico or Florida. Their numbers have sharply increased. They have quickly spread around the Hawaiian Islands hidden in plants. The coqui is a brown frog about five centimeters long. During the day, the frogs hide in wet protected areas, such as under plant leaves. At night, the frogs move onto trees to feed, call to females and mate. In their native Puerto Rico, local people celebrate coqui frogs. But in Hawaii, the foreign frog has been condemned as a harmful animal. The coqui frogs are a major threat to Hawaii’s environmental system. The frogs eat thousands of insects every night. These insects are important for the reproduction of plants. The insects also are important food for Hawaii’s native, rare birds. The frogs also are affecting the tourism industry in Hawaii. Increasing numbers of hotels, visitors and local people have protested about the loud calls made by male coqui frogs to female frogs. At night, the noise often makes it difficult for people to sleep. The mating call of the male coqui sounds like: “Ko-Kee! Ko-Kee!” That is how they got their name. The frogs do not have any natural enemies in Hawaii to reduce their population size. The warm weather permits them to lay eggs all year long.There are many efforts in Hawaii designed to stop the spread of the coqui. It is a crime to transport, sell or release the frogs there. The Hawaiian Department of Agriculture is trying to find an effective chemical that can be safely used to kill the frogs. For now, the frogs may only be captured by hand. The Hawaiian Department of Agriculture says the greatest threat to the economy and environment of the state is from harmful invasive species, like the coqui. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - June 3, 2002: Weddings
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Almost two-and-one-half million marriages are performed each year in the United States. June is one of the most popular months for these wedding ceremonies. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: Almost two-and-one-half million marriages are performed each year in the United States. June is one of the most popular months for these wedding ceremonies. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about weddings on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: “TRUMPET VOLUNTARY”)) VOICE ONE: Almost five-million Americans get married each year. Some of these people will have a traditional wedding ceremony in a religious center, a hotel or a social club. These couples may invite hundreds of people to their celebrations. Other couples will have a simple ceremony performed by a judge in a public building. They will invite only close family members and friends. They may not have the money to spend on a big wedding. Or they may want to save money for a wedding trip to a faraway place or to help them buy a house. Americans get married in different ways. But the meaning of all these wedding is the same. The bride and groom promise to spend the rest of their lives together. VOICE TWO: Big weddings have created a huge business in the United States. A big wedding requires special clothing, flowers, food preparation, photographs and music. Experts say the average American wedding costs about twenty-thousand dollars or more. Some estimates say Americans spend as much as seventy-thousand-million dollars a year for everything connected with weddings. Traditionally, the bride’s parents plan and pay for the wedding. Sometimes the groom’s parents share this responsibility. Today many Americans are older when they get married. So they often organize and pay for their own weddings. VOICE ONE: Two computer experts from Reston, Virginia, were married Saturday. They had a traditional American wedding. The bride wore a long white dress and a white head covering called a veil. She also wore four other traditional things: Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. And something blue. These four things are supposed to bring her good luck. During the ceremony she and the groom accepted each other as husband and wife. They promised to love and honor each other always. The groom placed a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the bride’s left hand. The bride placed a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the groom’s left hand. The clergy member performing the ceremony declared them husband and wife. Then the bride and groom kissed. During the past year the couple organized all the plans for their wedding. For several months, they could not decide what music they wanted to be played at their ceremony. Finally, they chose music often heard at weddings – “Sheep May Safely Graze” by Johann Sebastian Bach. ((CUT TWO: “SHEEP MAY SAFELY GRAZE”)) VOICE TWO: Couples planning their weddings can get advice in many different ways. They can ask their married friends. They can study magazines published especially for people getting married. Couples who are very busy sometimes hire a wedding planner to help them with their preparations. For example, the planner helps the bride find a wedding dress. The planner helps find a place for the party after the ceremony. This person organizes the food, the music and all the details for the party. VOICE ONE: Couples also can use the Internet computer system to prepare for their wedding. Modern Bride magazine says almost half of Americans getting married buy wedding products and services on the Internet. The bride and groom can use the Internet to communicate with family members and friends who will take part in the celebration. They can look at pictures of wedding clothes. They can choose flowers. They can decide where to hold the wedding party, and what foods and drinks will be served. They can study where to take their trip after the wedding. This trip is called the “honeymoon.” They can buy airplane tickets and decide on a hotel. Some couples who are planning a wedding also establish their own Web sites. This way, they can provide needed information to people invited to the wedding from distant places. The Web site advises guests about places to stay and things to do in the area. It provides maps showing how to reach the church and the place where the wedding dinner will be served. VOICE TWO: Wedding guests traditionally give gifts to the bride and groom. Computer technology also is making it easier for guests to find the perfect gift. Sometimes guests can do this without leaving home. For example, a man and woman who are getting married can go to a store and choose gifts they would like to receive. These include things for their home like dishes and cooking equipment. The store can print a list of all these things. This list also can be found on the Internet. Guests can buy a gift at the store or on the Internet and have it sent to the couple. VOICE ONE: Sometimes the bride and groom give gifts to their guests. These gifts may be small baskets filled with candy and little bottles of wine. The baskets may contain objects that will help guests remember the wedding celebration. For example, a bride from New York City loves chocolate candy. Her gift baskets included large chocolate candies in the shape of hearts. The couple’s names and the date of their wedding ceremony were written on the candies. There is another way that guests can remember a wedding. There are small cameras that do not cost much and are used to take only about twenty or thirty pictures. Many couples give such a camera to each group of guests at the party after the ceremony. One of the guests takes pictures of all the other guests sitting around the table. Later, the wedding couple or their families develop the film and send copies of these pictures to all the guests. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say about half of American weddings this year will not be costly or require months of planning. Sometimes people have simple marriage ceremonies so they can take a costly wedding trip. Many travel companies offer trips for the wedding couple to faraway places. For example, a bride and groom can enjoy a wedding trip to a historic castle in Britain. Or they can sail to islands in the Caribbean Sea on a large ship. Some people have simple, nontraditional weddings. They have their weddings at home, sometimes in a garden if the weather is nice. Friends may provide food and play music for the party after the ceremony. Other couples are married by a judge in a public building. A public relations worker in Baltimore, Maryland, and an airline pilot from Washington, D.C., recently decided to get married. The pilot knew he would soon be called back into active service in the Marine Corps. So the couple was married in a small room in a church called a chapel. Only family members attended the ceremony. VOICE ONE: Other couples choose a special place for their wedding ceremony. For example, a businessman and a health worker in Greenville, South Carolina are in their middle thirties. Each has been married before. This couple drove to Miami, Florida to be married. A clergyman performed their ceremony on a beautiful Atlantic Ocean beach. Many young couples plan nontraditional weddings that include traditions from their cultures. For example, one bride is from Shanghai, China. She is studying in the United States. The groom is an American lawyer. Their ceremony will honor both his Jewish religious traditions and her Chinese customs. A Protestant clergyman in the state of Maryland has performed hundreds of wedding ceremonies over the years. He advises couples to remember that their wedding takes place in a single day. However, he says their feelings for one another must last a lifetime. ((CUT THREE: “WEDDING MARCH” FROM “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about weddings on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: “TRUMPET VOLUNTARY”)) VOICE ONE: Almost five-million Americans get married each year. Some of these people will have a traditional wedding ceremony in a religious center, a hotel or a social club. These couples may invite hundreds of people to their celebrations. Other couples will have a simple ceremony performed by a judge in a public building. They will invite only close family members and friends. They may not have the money to spend on a big wedding. Or they may want to save money for a wedding trip to a faraway place or to help them buy a house. Americans get married in different ways. But the meaning of all these wedding is the same. The bride and groom promise to spend the rest of their lives together. VOICE TWO: Big weddings have created a huge business in the United States. A big wedding requires special clothing, flowers, food preparation, photographs and music. Experts say the average American wedding costs about twenty-thousand dollars or more. Some estimates say Americans spend as much as seventy-thousand-million dollars a year for everything connected with weddings. Traditionally, the bride’s parents plan and pay for the wedding. Sometimes the groom’s parents share this responsibility. Today many Americans are older when they get married. So they often organize and pay for their own weddings. VOICE ONE: Two computer experts from Reston, Virginia, were married Saturday. They had a traditional American wedding. The bride wore a long white dress and a white head covering called a veil. She also wore four other traditional things: Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. And something blue. These four things are supposed to bring her good luck. During the ceremony she and the groom accepted each other as husband and wife. They promised to love and honor each other always. The groom placed a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the bride’s left hand. The bride placed a gold wedding ring on the third finger of the groom’s left hand. The clergy member performing the ceremony declared them husband and wife. Then the bride and groom kissed. During the past year the couple organized all the plans for their wedding. For several months, they could not decide what music they wanted to be played at their ceremony. Finally, they chose music often heard at weddings – “Sheep May Safely Graze” by Johann Sebastian Bach. ((CUT TWO: “SHEEP MAY SAFELY GRAZE”)) VOICE TWO: Couples planning their weddings can get advice in many different ways. They can ask their married friends. They can study magazines published especially for people getting married. Couples who are very busy sometimes hire a wedding planner to help them with their preparations. For example, the planner helps the bride find a wedding dress. The planner helps find a place for the party after the ceremony. This person organizes the food, the music and all the details for the party. VOICE ONE: Couples also can use the Internet computer system to prepare for their wedding. Modern Bride magazine says almost half of Americans getting married buy wedding products and services on the Internet. The bride and groom can use the Internet to communicate with family members and friends who will take part in the celebration. They can look at pictures of wedding clothes. They can choose flowers. They can decide where to hold the wedding party, and what foods and drinks will be served. They can study where to take their trip after the wedding. This trip is called the “honeymoon.” They can buy airplane tickets and decide on a hotel. Some couples who are planning a wedding also establish their own Web sites. This way, they can provide needed information to people invited to the wedding from distant places. The Web site advises guests about places to stay and things to do in the area. It provides maps showing how to reach the church and the place where the wedding dinner will be served. VOICE TWO: Wedding guests traditionally give gifts to the bride and groom. Computer technology also is making it easier for guests to find the perfect gift. Sometimes guests can do this without leaving home. For example, a man and woman who are getting married can go to a store and choose gifts they would like to receive. These include things for their home like dishes and cooking equipment. The store can print a list of all these things. This list also can be found on the Internet. Guests can buy a gift at the store or on the Internet and have it sent to the couple. VOICE ONE: Sometimes the bride and groom give gifts to their guests. These gifts may be small baskets filled with candy and little bottles of wine. The baskets may contain objects that will help guests remember the wedding celebration. For example, a bride from New York City loves chocolate candy. Her gift baskets included large chocolate candies in the shape of hearts. The couple’s names and the date of their wedding ceremony were written on the candies. There is another way that guests can remember a wedding. There are small cameras that do not cost much and are used to take only about twenty or thirty pictures. Many couples give such a camera to each group of guests at the party after the ceremony. One of the guests takes pictures of all the other guests sitting around the table. Later, the wedding couple or their families develop the film and send copies of these pictures to all the guests. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say about half of American weddings this year will not be costly or require months of planning. Sometimes people have simple marriage ceremonies so they can take a costly wedding trip. Many travel companies offer trips for the wedding couple to faraway places. For example, a bride and groom can enjoy a wedding trip to a historic castle in Britain. Or they can sail to islands in the Caribbean Sea on a large ship. Some people have simple, nontraditional weddings. They have their weddings at home, sometimes in a garden if the weather is nice. Friends may provide food and play music for the party after the ceremony. Other couples are married by a judge in a public building. A public relations worker in Baltimore, Maryland, and an airline pilot from Washington, D.C., recently decided to get married. The pilot knew he would soon be called back into active service in the Marine Corps. So the couple was married in a small room in a church called a chapel. Only family members attended the ceremony. VOICE ONE: Other couples choose a special place for their wedding ceremony. For example, a businessman and a health worker in Greenville, South Carolina are in their middle thirties. Each has been married before. This couple drove to Miami, Florida to be married. A clergyman performed their ceremony on a beautiful Atlantic Ocean beach. Many young couples plan nontraditional weddings that include traditions from their cultures. For example, one bride is from Shanghai, China. She is studying in the United States. The groom is an American lawyer. Their ceremony will honor both his Jewish religious traditions and her Chinese customs. A Protestant clergyman in the state of Maryland has performed hundreds of wedding ceremonies over the years. He advises couples to remember that their wedding takes place in a single day. However, he says their feelings for one another must last a lifetime. ((CUT THREE: “WEDDING MARCH” FROM “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – June 3, 2002: Internally Displaced Persons
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The word “refugee” describes a person who flees his or her own country because of violence, natural tragedies or political problems. However, many people do not know about “internally displaced persons” or I-D-P’s. I-D-P’s are driven from their homes for the same reasons as refugees. Yet, they do not leave their native countries or cross international borders. The United States Committee for Refugees estimates there are about fifteen-million refugees around the world. The number of internally displaced persons is much higher, as many as twenty-five-million. Supporters of these homeless victims are trying to increase public knowledge about their problem. When large numbers of refugees cross into other countries, their arrival usually results in large amounts of international aid. The receiving country will often ask the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for help in the emergency. Other U-N agencies and the International Red Cross may also be asked to help. These relief groups help set up camps, hand out food and give emergency health care to victims. Yet, it is often difficult for relief organizations to help I-D-P’s. Their crisis rarely gets international consideration. The victims often go unprotected and receive little help because international refugee laws do not apply to them. In fact, sometimes governments try to keep aid agencies out because they do not want to show any weakness. The Global I-D-P Project estimates about four-million internally displaced people live in both Angola and Sudan. There are about two-million I-D-P’s in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the Americas, Colombia has the most displaced people with more the two-million. Indonesia leads the list for Asia with as many as two-million I-D-P’s. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, the United Nations Refugee Convention clearly defined refugees and demanded that they be protected. There is no similar document defining internally displaced people. The U-N has released a guide that describes how I-D-P’s should be treated. The document offers a set of rules for governments and non-governmental organizations to follow in their efforts to help displaced people. Yet, countries are not required to follow them. International aid organizations hope this changes soon. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The word “refugee” describes a person who flees his or her own country because of violence, natural tragedies or political problems. However, many people do not know about “internally displaced persons” or I-D-P’s. I-D-P’s are driven from their homes for the same reasons as refugees. Yet, they do not leave their native countries or cross international borders. The United States Committee for Refugees estimates there are about fifteen-million refugees around the world. The number of internally displaced persons is much higher, as many as twenty-five-million. Supporters of these homeless victims are trying to increase public knowledge about their problem. When large numbers of refugees cross into other countries, their arrival usually results in large amounts of international aid. The receiving country will often ask the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for help in the emergency. Other U-N agencies and the International Red Cross may also be asked to help. These relief groups help set up camps, hand out food and give emergency health care to victims. Yet, it is often difficult for relief organizations to help I-D-P’s. Their crisis rarely gets international consideration. The victims often go unprotected and receive little help because international refugee laws do not apply to them. In fact, sometimes governments try to keep aid agencies out because they do not want to show any weakness. The Global I-D-P Project estimates about four-million internally displaced people live in both Angola and Sudan. There are about two-million I-D-P’s in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the Americas, Colombia has the most displaced people with more the two-million. Indonesia leads the list for Asia with as many as two-million I-D-P’s. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, the United Nations Refugee Convention clearly defined refugees and demanded that they be protected. There is no similar document defining internally displaced people. The U-N has released a guide that describes how I-D-P’s should be treated. The document offers a set of rules for governments and non-governmental organizations to follow in their efforts to help displaced people. Yet, countries are not required to follow them. International aid organizations hope this changes soon. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 2, 2002: Cochise
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (THEME) During the eighteenth century Indians tried to halt the move of white settlers into territory in the American West. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we tell the story of one of the leaders of the Indian resistance, Apache chief Cochise. (THEME) During the eighteenth century Indians tried to halt the move of white settlers into territory in the American West. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today we tell the story of one of the leaders of the Indian resistance, Apache chief Cochise. (THEME) VOICE TWO: In the middle eighteen-hundreds, there were only a few white settlers in the southwestern United States. This was Apache territory. The Chiricahuas were one of several Apache groups that lived in what today is southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Chiricahua war chief, Cochise had become used to American travelers and military officials stopping at Apache Pass. It was the only place in the area where drinking water could be found. The Chiricahuas lived at peace with the settlers. They sold wood to the settlers. And, in eighteen-fifty-eight, Cochise had permitted the Butterfield Overland Mail Company to build a rest area at Apache Pass. He let mail carriers and other travelers pass safely through the area on their way to California. In February of eighteen-sixty-one, an American military officer asked to speak with Cochise. He wanted to discuss several problems. Some cattle were missing. And a boy had been taken from a farm in the area. Second Lieutenant George Bascom had been ordered to do whatever was necessary to find the child. He did not have any experience in dealing with Indians. VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE TWO: In the middle eighteen-hundreds, there were only a few white settlers in the southwestern United States. This was Apache territory. The Chiricahuas were one of several Apache groups that lived in what today is southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Chiricahua war chief, Cochise had become used to American travelers and military officials stopping at Apache Pass. It was the only place in the area where drinking water could be found. The Chiricahuas lived at peace with the settlers. They sold wood to the settlers. And, in eighteen-fifty-eight, Cochise had permitted the Butterfield Overland Mail Company to build a rest area at Apache Pass. He let mail carriers and other travelers pass safely through the area on their way to California. In February of eighteen-sixty-one, an American military officer asked to speak with Cochise. He wanted to discuss several problems. Some cattle were missing. And a boy had been taken from a farm in the area. Second Lieutenant George Bascom had been ordered to do whatever was necessary to find the child. He did not have any experience in dealing with Indians. VOICE ONE: Cochise was tall for an Apache -- almost six feet. He had strong cheekbones and a straight nose. He wore his black hair to his shoulders in the traditional Apache way. He carried himself as a person with power does. One American officer said he stood "... straight as an arrow, built, from the ground up, as perfect as a man could be." The Chiricahua Apaches believed that a leader was one who was wise and able to win in war. They believed that a leader is not chosen, but just recognized. Cochise was the son of a Chiricahua Apache chief. He had been trained to lead from a young age. The whites who knew him both feared and respected him. Friends as well as enemies considered him to be an honest man. He always told the truth and expected others to do the same. By the time he met with Lieutenant Bascom, Cochise was about fifty-five years old. He was an unusually powerful Apache leader. VOICE TWO: Lieutenant Bascom knew nothing about Cochise. The officer was concerned only with succeeding at his first command. Cochise was not responsible for the raid against the farm. So, the Apache chief believed the American soldiers had come in peace. He went to meet them with his wife and four other people. These included his brother, his young son, and two other relatives. That he came with his family was a sign of trust. But, Lieutenant Bascom did not understand the sign. They met in Lieutenant Bascom's cloth tent. Cochise told the officer that his people were not involved in the raid. Cochise said he would do what he could to help them find the boy. He told Lieutenant Bascom that he believed the boy had been taken by the White Mountain Apaches, a group that lived north of the Chiricahuas. Years later, this was found to be true. VOICE ONE: Lieutenant Bascom, however, was sure Cochise was hiding the boy. He accused Cochise of lying. At first, Cochise did not understand. He thought the American was joking. Then Lieutenant Bascom told Cochise that he and his family would be held prisoner until the cattle and the boy were returned. Cochise reacted quickly. He stood up, pulled out his knife and cut a hole in the tent. He escaped through the hole. The soldiers waiting outside were taken by surprise. They shot at Cochise three times but could not stop him. One of Cochise's relatives also tried to jump through the tent. But the soldiers captured him. Cochise later told an American that he ran all the way up the hill with his coffee cup still in his hand. VOICE TWO: Cochise captured four Americans and left a message for Lieutenant Bascom about exchanging prisoners. But Bascom did not find Cochise's message until two days later. By then, it was too late. The Americans already had hung Cochise's brother and two other relatives. They released Cochise's son and wife. Cochise immediately made plans to repay the Americans for the deaths of his relatives. Cochise killed his prisoners. He decided that Americans could never be trusted. He said, "I was at peace with the whites until they tried to kill me for what other Indians did; I now live and die at war them." VOICE ONE: The incident led to years of violence and terror. Cochise united the Apaches. They attacked the United States army and the increasing number of white settlers moving into the southwest. The Apaches fought so fiercely that troops, settlers and traders were forced to withdraw from the territory. It appeared for a time that the Apaches controlled Arizona. News of Cochise's bravery in battle became widely known. He fought as if he believed he was protected from harm. One American soldier described how his shots missed Cochise. He said Cochise would drop to the side of his horse, hang on its neck and use its body as protection. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-sixty-two, about two-thousand men marched from California to Apache Pass. General James Carleton commanded them. They were trying to re-establish communications between the Pacific coast and the eastern United States. Cochise had five-hundred Apache fighters hidden near Apache Pass. The Apaches attacked fiercely. Suddenly the Americans fired two large cannons. The Indians fled. Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Chihenne Apaches, was badly wounded. He survived. Six months later, he tried to make a peace treaty with a group of American soldiers. He was taken prisoner, shot and killed. Mangas's murder confirmed Cochise's belief that Americans must never be trusted. VOICE ONE: Cochise became the main chief of all the Apache tribes. He and his warriors rode through southeastern Arizona torturing and killing everyone they found, including small children. The federal government began a campaign to kill or capture all Apaches. Cochise and two-hundred followers escaped capture by hiding in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. During this time, new white settlements were built. The Apaches continued to raid and return to hide in the mountains. For twelve years, Cochise escaped capture by troops from the United States and Mexico. Officials in Arizona named him "public enemy number one." The story spread that no white person could look at Cochise and live to tell about it. VOICE TWO: Cochise refused to go to Washington for negotiations of any kind. He did not trust the United States government. Yet he permitted his son, Taza, to go. Taza got the disease pneumonia and died. He is buried in the American capital. In eighteen-seventy, General George Crook took command of the territory of Arizona. He won the loyalty of a number of Apaches. He got many of them to live on reservations, the public lands set aside for the Indians. But his main target was Cochise. VOICE ONE: Cochise agreed to come out of the mountains to discuss moving his people to a reservation in Arizona. But the federal government began moving other Apache tribes to a reservation in New Mexico. Cochise refused to agree to move to any place but his home territory. He returned to the mountains to hide. In the spring of eighteen-seventy-two, he decided to negotiate a peace treaty. General Oliver Otis Howard met with Cochise in his hidden mountain headquarters. That summer, they agreed to establish a reservation in Chiricahua territory in Arizona. General Howard promised Cochise that his people would be allowed to live on their homeland forever. Cochise surrendered. He lived on the reservation peacefully until his death, in eighteen-seventy-four. VOICE TWO: Two years later, the federal government broke the treaty and forced the Apaches to move. Some of them refused. Led by Geronimo and Cochise's son Naiche, they fled to the mountains. For ten years, they continued raiding. Finally, they too surrendered and were moved far away. Cochise had fought fiercely to protect the land the Apaches considered home. But he lost. He once said, "Wars are fought to see who owns the land, but in the end it posesses man. Who dares say he owns it--is he not buried beneath it?" ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Cochise was tall for an Apache -- almost six feet. He had strong cheekbones and a straight nose. He wore his black hair to his shoulders in the traditional Apache way. He carried himself as a person with power does. One American officer said he stood "... straight as an arrow, built, from the ground up, as perfect as a man could be." The Chiricahua Apaches believed that a leader was one who was wise and able to win in war. They believed that a leader is not chosen, but just recognized. Cochise was the son of a Chiricahua Apache chief. He had been trained to lead from a young age. The whites who knew him both feared and respected him. Friends as well as enemies considered him to be an honest man. He always told the truth and expected others to do the same. By the time he met with Lieutenant Bascom, Cochise was about fifty-five years old. He was an unusually powerful Apache leader. VOICE TWO: Lieutenant Bascom knew nothing about Cochise. The officer was concerned only with succeeding at his first command. Cochise was not responsible for the raid against the farm. So, the Apache chief believed the American soldiers had come in peace. He went to meet them with his wife and four other people. These included his brother, his young son, and two other relatives. That he came with his family was a sign of trust. But, Lieutenant Bascom did not understand the sign. They met in Lieutenant Bascom's cloth tent. Cochise told the officer that his people were not involved in the raid. Cochise said he would do what he could to help them find the boy. He told Lieutenant Bascom that he believed the boy had been taken by the White Mountain Apaches, a group that lived north of the Chiricahuas. Years later, this was found to be true. VOICE ONE: Lieutenant Bascom, however, was sure Cochise was hiding the boy. He accused Cochise of lying. At first, Cochise did not understand. He thought the American was joking. Then Lieutenant Bascom told Cochise that he and his family would be held prisoner until the cattle and the boy were returned. Cochise reacted quickly. He stood up, pulled out his knife and cut a hole in the tent. He escaped through the hole. The soldiers waiting outside were taken by surprise. They shot at Cochise three times but could not stop him. One of Cochise's relatives also tried to jump through the tent. But the soldiers captured him. Cochise later told an American that he ran all the way up the hill with his coffee cup still in his hand. VOICE TWO: Cochise captured four Americans and left a message for Lieutenant Bascom about exchanging prisoners. But Bascom did not find Cochise's message until two days later. By then, it was too late. The Americans already had hung Cochise's brother and two other relatives. They released Cochise's son and wife. Cochise immediately made plans to repay the Americans for the deaths of his relatives. Cochise killed his prisoners. He decided that Americans could never be trusted. He said, "I was at peace with the whites until they tried to kill me for what other Indians did; I now live and die at war them." VOICE ONE: The incident led to years of violence and terror. Cochise united the Apaches. They attacked the United States army and the increasing number of white settlers moving into the southwest. The Apaches fought so fiercely that troops, settlers and traders were forced to withdraw from the territory. It appeared for a time that the Apaches controlled Arizona. News of Cochise's bravery in battle became widely known. He fought as if he believed he was protected from harm. One American soldier described how his shots missed Cochise. He said Cochise would drop to the side of his horse, hang on its neck and use its body as protection. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-sixty-two, about two-thousand men marched from California to Apache Pass. General James Carleton commanded them. They were trying to re-establish communications between the Pacific coast and the eastern United States. Cochise had five-hundred Apache fighters hidden near Apache Pass. The Apaches attacked fiercely. Suddenly the Americans fired two large cannons. The Indians fled. Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Chihenne Apaches, was badly wounded. He survived. Six months later, he tried to make a peace treaty with a group of American soldiers. He was taken prisoner, shot and killed. Mangas's murder confirmed Cochise's belief that Americans must never be trusted. VOICE ONE: Cochise became the main chief of all the Apache tribes. He and his warriors rode through southeastern Arizona torturing and killing everyone they found, including small children. The federal government began a campaign to kill or capture all Apaches. Cochise and two-hundred followers escaped capture by hiding in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. During this time, new white settlements were built. The Apaches continued to raid and return to hide in the mountains. For twelve years, Cochise escaped capture by troops from the United States and Mexico. Officials in Arizona named him "public enemy number one." The story spread that no white person could look at Cochise and live to tell about it. VOICE TWO: Cochise refused to go to Washington for negotiations of any kind. He did not trust the United States government. Yet he permitted his son, Taza, to go. Taza got the disease pneumonia and died. He is buried in the American capital. In eighteen-seventy, General George Crook took command of the territory of Arizona. He won the loyalty of a number of Apaches. He got many of them to live on reservations, the public lands set aside for the Indians. But his main target was Cochise. VOICE ONE: Cochise agreed to come out of the mountains to discuss moving his people to a reservation in Arizona. But the federal government began moving other Apache tribes to a reservation in New Mexico. Cochise refused to agree to move to any place but his home territory. He returned to the mountains to hide. In the spring of eighteen-seventy-two, he decided to negotiate a peace treaty. General Oliver Otis Howard met with Cochise in his hidden mountain headquarters. That summer, they agreed to establish a reservation in Chiricahua territory in Arizona. General Howard promised Cochise that his people would be allowed to live on their homeland forever. Cochise surrendered. He lived on the reservation peacefully until his death, in eighteen-seventy-four. VOICE TWO: Two years later, the federal government broke the treaty and forced the Apaches to move. Some of them refused. Led by Geronimo and Cochise's son Naiche, they fled to the mountains. For ten years, they continued raiding. Finally, they too surrendered and were moved far away. Cochise had fought fiercely to protect the land the Apaches considered home. But he lost. He once said, "Wars are fought to see who owns the land, but in the end it posesses man. Who dares say he owns it--is he not buried beneath it?" ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-05/a-2002-05-31-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - June 1, 2002: Spying Limits in U.S. Eased to Fight Terror
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The Justice Department has approved new powers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy inside the United States. Robert Mueller This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The Justice Department has approved new powers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy inside the United States. On Thursday, Attorney General John Ashcroft eased restrictions on the F-B-I in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks. The restrictions began in the nineteen-seventies, in reaction to demands for reforms of the agency. Agents now will have more freedom to gather information from the Internet and libraries to search for possible terrorists. They will have more power to collect information on religious and political organizations. The new guidelines will permit agents to go anywhere the public can go, including religious centers. Civil rights groups say the changes threaten privacy and free speech rights. The American Civil Liberties Union says the rewritten guidelines will do little to make Americans safer, but will make them less free. Muslim groups also expressed concern. On Wednesday, F-B-I Director Robert Mueller announced a reorganization of the agency. Mister Mueller said the first duty of the F-B-I will be to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The F-B-I is hiring more agents. It also is to work more closely with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mister Mueller agreed this week that the F-B-I might have had enough information to lead agents to those involved in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. The hijacked planes crashed into New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Next week, Congress will begin hearings. There has been criticism that officials missed warning signs. Last July, an F-B-I agent in Phoenix, Arizona, had urged headquarters to investigate some Middle Eastern men training at American flight schools. Agent Kenneth Williams said the men might be linked to Osama bin Laden. The F-B-I has also been criticized about the case of the only person charged in the attacks of September eleventh. Zacarias Moussaoui has been in jail since August. A flight school in Minnesota had become suspicious of him and called the F-B-I. Officials arrested the French citizen on immigration charges. Recently, the F-B-I director got a letter from Coleen Rowley. She is a lawyer and F-B-I agent in Minnesota. She says bureau officials had blocked efforts to further investigate Mister Moussaoui. Officials now believe he was training to be the twentieth hijacker. The attacks killed more than three-thousand people, most of them at the World Trade Center. New York City held a ceremony Thursday at the huge hole known as ground zero to mark the clearing of the ruins. A truck carried away the last big piece of steel. An emergency vehicle carried an American flag to honor the victims whose remains have not been found. Then, as a crowd of thousands watched, firefighters, police officers and clean-up workers silently marched out in a long line. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Avi Arditti. This is Steve Ember. On Thursday, Attorney General John Ashcroft eased restrictions on the F-B-I in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks. The restrictions began in the nineteen-seventies, in reaction to demands for reforms of the agency. Agents now will have more freedom to gather information from the Internet and libraries to search for possible terrorists. They will have more power to collect information on religious and political organizations. The new guidelines will permit agents to go anywhere the public can go, including religious centers. Civil rights groups say the changes threaten privacy and free speech rights. The American Civil Liberties Union says the rewritten guidelines will do little to make Americans safer, but will make them less free. Muslim groups also expressed concern. On Wednesday, F-B-I Director Robert Mueller announced a reorganization of the agency. Mister Mueller said the first duty of the F-B-I will be to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The F-B-I is hiring more agents. It also is to work more closely with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mister Mueller agreed this week that the F-B-I might have had enough information to lead agents to those involved in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. The hijacked planes crashed into New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Next week, Congress will begin hearings. There has been criticism that officials missed warning signs. Last July, an F-B-I agent in Phoenix, Arizona, had urged headquarters to investigate some Middle Eastern men training at American flight schools. Agent Kenneth Williams said the men might be linked to Osama bin Laden. The F-B-I has also been criticized about the case of the only person charged in the attacks of September eleventh. Zacarias Moussaoui has been in jail since August. A flight school in Minnesota had become suspicious of him and called the F-B-I. Officials arrested the French citizen on immigration charges. Recently, the F-B-I director got a letter from Coleen Rowley. She is a lawyer and F-B-I agent in Minnesota. She says bureau officials had blocked efforts to further investigate Mister Moussaoui. Officials now believe he was training to be the twentieth hijacker. The attacks killed more than three-thousand people, most of them at the World Trade Center. New York City held a ceremony Thursday at the huge hole known as ground zero to mark the clearing of the ruins. A truck carried away the last big piece of steel. An emergency vehicle carried an American flag to honor the victims whose remains have not been found. Then, as a crowd of thousands watched, firefighters, police officers and clean-up workers silently marched out in a long line. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Avi Arditti. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – June 4, 2002: Tsetse Fly Threat to Agriculture
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The tsetse (TSEET-see) fly is a serious problem in many parts of Africa. Tsetse flies cause problems in an area of almost ten-million square kilometers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says some of this area is fertile land that could be used for agriculture. F-A-O officials say stopping the insect would help African farmers reclaim land and increase food production. Tsetse flies feed on the blood of humans and animals. The fly carries a parasite that attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims. This organism causes trypanosomiasis (tri-PAN-oh-so-MY-ah-sis), a disease known as nagana (nah-GAH-nah) in farm animals. In humans, the disease is called sleeping sickness. Trypanosimiasis kills eighty percent of infected victims. The disease affects an estimated five-hundred-thousand people. It kills three-million farm animals each year. Thirty-seven countries in Africa are affected by tsetse flies. Thirty-two of these countries are among the poorest in the world. Each year, it costs at least six-hundred-million dollars to attempts to control the disease and in direct losses of meat and milk production. Jorge Hendrichs is an insect control expert with the F-A-O. He says the tsetse fly keeps people poor by preventing them from producing the food they need to survive. The tsetse fly and trypanosimiasis have slowed the development of agriculture in Africa. One-hundred-fifty-five-million cattle are being raised in tsetse-free areas south of the Sahara Desert. The area of land that is tsetse-free is small. It is being overused by both cattle and people. One method that has proved successful in fighting the tsetse is the sterile insect treatment. Male flies treated with radiation become sterile, or unable to reproduce. The insects then are released into areas with other flies. After mating, the eggs of the wild females do not develop. The F-A-O says the sterile insect treatment has been used with traps and other methods to end the tsetse fly problem on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. Mister Hendrichs says these efforts have no long-lasting side effects on the environment. Use of these methods may seem costly, especially in some parts of Africa. Yet, Mister Hendrichs says the question is not how much such methods cost, but how much living with the tsetse costs. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The tsetse (TSEET-see) fly is a serious problem in many parts of Africa. Tsetse flies cause problems in an area of almost ten-million square kilometers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says some of this area is fertile land that could be used for agriculture. F-A-O officials say stopping the insect would help African farmers reclaim land and increase food production. Tsetse flies feed on the blood of humans and animals. The fly carries a parasite that attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims. This organism causes trypanosomiasis (tri-PAN-oh-so-MY-ah-sis), a disease known as nagana (nah-GAH-nah) in farm animals. In humans, the disease is called sleeping sickness. Trypanosimiasis kills eighty percent of infected victims. The disease affects an estimated five-hundred-thousand people. It kills three-million farm animals each year. Thirty-seven countries in Africa are affected by tsetse flies. Thirty-two of these countries are among the poorest in the world. Each year, it costs at least six-hundred-million dollars to attempts to control the disease and in direct losses of meat and milk production. Jorge Hendrichs is an insect control expert with the F-A-O. He says the tsetse fly keeps people poor by preventing them from producing the food they need to survive. The tsetse fly and trypanosimiasis have slowed the development of agriculture in Africa. One-hundred-fifty-five-million cattle are being raised in tsetse-free areas south of the Sahara Desert. The area of land that is tsetse-free is small. It is being overused by both cattle and people. One method that has proved successful in fighting the tsetse is the sterile insect treatment. Male flies treated with radiation become sterile, or unable to reproduce. The insects then are released into areas with other flies. After mating, the eggs of the wild females do not develop. The F-A-O says the sterile insect treatment has been used with traps and other methods to end the tsetse fly problem on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. Mister Hendrichs says these efforts have no long-lasting side effects on the environment. Use of these methods may seem costly, especially in some parts of Africa. Yet, Mister Hendrichs says the question is not how much such methods cost, but how much living with the tsetse costs. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – June 6, 2002: Geography Competition
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The National Geographic Society is a private organization that studies and explores the world. In nineteen-eighty-eight, the Society did a study of what people knew about geography. The results showed that Americans knew less about places on the Earth than did other people around the world. So the National Geographic Society started an education campaign to improve knowledge about geography. One part of the campaign was a geography competition for school children. Since nineteen-eighty-nine, young American students have competed for the National Geographic championship. Final judging of this year’s competition was held in May in Washington, D.C. The youngest person in the National Geographic competition won the event. Calvin McCarter of Jenison, Michigan, won twenty-five-thousand dollars to attend college. Calvin will have to wait a while to start university studies, however. He is only ten years old. He defeated nine older students in the final event of the geography competition. An estimated five-million students took part in earlier competitions at their schools and at state contests. Calvin won by correctly saying that the Lop Nur nuclear test center is in China. He does not attend school. His mother teaches him at home. Eleven others taking part in the final event of the National Geographic competition also study at home. The second-place winner was Matthew Russell of Bradford, Pennsylvania. He won fifteen-thousand dollars for college. Erik Miller of Kent, Washington won third place and ten-thousand dollars for college. Matthew and Erik are both fourteen years old. The winners answered a number of questions like this one: In what country are the rivers called Churchill, Slave and Peace? The answer is Canada. Or, name the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia. The answer is Serbia and Montenegro. Or, which country controlled Papua New Guinea before it became independent in Nineteen-Seventy-Five? The answer is Australia. The final of the National Geographic competition was broadcast on television. Some adults who watched said they wished they knew half as much about geography as the children did. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The National Geographic Society is a private organization that studies and explores the world. In nineteen-eighty-eight, the Society did a study of what people knew about geography. The results showed that Americans knew less about places on the Earth than did other people around the world. So the National Geographic Society started an education campaign to improve knowledge about geography. One part of the campaign was a geography competition for school children. Since nineteen-eighty-nine, young American students have competed for the National Geographic championship. Final judging of this year’s competition was held in May in Washington, D.C. The youngest person in the National Geographic competition won the event. Calvin McCarter of Jenison, Michigan, won twenty-five-thousand dollars to attend college. Calvin will have to wait a while to start university studies, however. He is only ten years old. He defeated nine older students in the final event of the geography competition. An estimated five-million students took part in earlier competitions at their schools and at state contests. Calvin won by correctly saying that the Lop Nur nuclear test center is in China. He does not attend school. His mother teaches him at home. Eleven others taking part in the final event of the National Geographic competition also study at home. The second-place winner was Matthew Russell of Bradford, Pennsylvania. He won fifteen-thousand dollars for college. Erik Miller of Kent, Washington won third place and ten-thousand dollars for college. Matthew and Erik are both fourteen years old. The winners answered a number of questions like this one: In what country are the rivers called Churchill, Slave and Peace? The answer is Canada. Or, name the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia. The answer is Serbia and Montenegro. Or, which country controlled Papua New Guinea before it became independent in Nineteen-Seventy-Five? The answer is Australia. The final of the National Geographic competition was broadcast on television. Some adults who watched said they wished they knew half as much about geography as the children did. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - June 4, 2002: Malaria
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. MRTC trains scientists to combat malariaPhoto by VOA's Nico Colombant VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about malaria, a disease that affects millions of people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Malaria is a common and serious disease that has affected people for thousands of years. Today, it continues to be a major public health problem throughout the world. It is most common in developing countries, especially in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as five-hundred-million cases of malaria develop each year. More than one-million people die from the disease each year. Most of them are children in African countries. VOICE TWO: Malaria is spread by a common insect, the mosquito. The Anopheles mosquito carries the parasite that causes the disease. Very small parasites develop in the stomach of the mosquito. Parasites are organisms that live on or in another animal and get their food from that animal. The general name for the malaria parasite is Plasmodium. Mosquitoes pass the parasites to people when they drink blood through the skin. However, only the female Anopheles mosquitoes drink blood. The male Anopheles mosquitoes feed only on plant juices. VOICE ONE: The female Anopheles mosquito drinks blood from humans and animals by breaking through the skin with its long, tube-like feeding device. The parasites enter the victim’s blood. The blood carries the parasites to the victim’s liver. From there they invade cells and reproduce. After nine to sixteen days, the parasites return to the blood and enter the red blood cells. Then they reproduce again. As they do this they destroy the blood cells. In a short time, the victim develops a high body temperature. The victim becomes weak and is unable to carry out normal activities. Other signs of malaria include pain in the muscles, headache, chills and shaking. Patients with severe malaria may develop liver and kidney failure, seizures and coma. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: These signs of malaria have been observed since the beginning of history. Researchers studying bodies of ancient Egyptians have found evidence of the disease in people who lived at least three-thousand years ago. And scientists have found mosquitoes in fossil remains millions of years old. However, the real cause of the disease was unknown to ancient peoples. At one time, it was believed that malaria was caused by bad air. People believed this bad air came from areas of water that were not deep and did not move. It seemed that malaria was most common near these swamps. Ancient people suspected that mosquitoes were linked to the spread of malaria. Greek historian Herodotus lived about two-thousand-four-hundred years ago. He noted that in swampy areas of Egypt, some people slept in tall structures where mosquitoes could not go. Or they slept under special material called nets that mosquitoes could not go through. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Seventy-Six, British scientist Patrick Manson discovered that mosquitoes were responsible for passing the disease to humans. More exactly, he discovered that insects carry the parasites and pass them to humans. In Eighteen-Eighty, French doctor Alphonse Laveran discovered that the Plasmodium parasite causes the disease. In Eighteen-Ninety-Seven, a British scientist, Ronald Ross, found the malaria parasite in the Anopheles mosquito. For his discovery of the cause of malaria and other scientific work, Doctor Laveran received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. Mister Ross received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Oh-Two for his work on malaria. The discoveries of the three scientists soon led to efforts to control malaria. Then, the discovery of the insect poison D-D-T led to efforts to try to end the disease completely. VOICE TWO: Between Nineteen-Fifty-Five and Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Eradication Program carried out a series of campaigns against the disease. The goal was to use chemicals to kill mosquitoes inside homes around the world. The effort was successful in large areas of North America, southern Europe, the former Soviet Union and some parts of Asia and South America. The spread of the disease in these areas was halted. However, the disease continued in Central America, some parts of South America, and most Asian countries. The W-H-O program never was attempted in Africa. This is because it was too difficult and costly for most African countries. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, malaria suddenly spread rapidly among people in Sri Lanka, where it was believed the disease no longer existed. The disease also spread in Central America and Southeast Asian countries, as well as in parts of Africa. Efforts to end malaria throughout the world were suspended in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. Today, the W-H-O says that malaria control programs must be developed for local areas. It says such programs must involve everyone in each community – citizens, health experts and people involved in development. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are four different kinds of malaria. They are caused by four different kinds of parasites. Three kinds of parasites cause victims to suffer high body temperatures, or fevers, every few days. But they do not cause death. However, the most common malaria parasite also is the most dangerous. This parasite causes infections that can lead to death. The best way to prevent malaria is to avoid the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasites. The female Anopheles mosquito takes blood from its victims mainly at night. So, people can place special nets treated with insect poison over their beds at night while they sleep. People can also put anti-insect chemicals on their skin, on clothing and in sleeping areas. They also can wear clothes that cover most of the body. VOICE ONE: If the mosquitoes get past barriers used to block them, drugs are necessary for treatment. Drugs can destroy the malaria parasite as soon as it enters the human body. This prevents the parasites from entering the red blood cells and dividing. Some drugs can prevent the parasite from establishing itself in the liver. However, malaria must be treated early for the treatment to be effective. Well before the fifteenth century, people in what is now Peru knew that the covering or bark from the cinchona tree was effective in treating the signs of malaria. In Eighteen-Twenty, two French researchers identified the substance in the bark as quinine. Until the twentieth century, quinine was the chief drug used to prevent and cure some forms of malaria. Today, manufactured drugs are mostly effective in treating the disease. These drugs are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body and causing malaria. VOICE TWO: The most commonly used malaria prevention drug is chloroquine. It is suggested for use in Mexico, Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Middle East. Another drug, called mefloquine, is used in all other areas of the world where malaria is a threat. Both drugs must be taken once a week on the same day each week. Another commonly used anti-malaria drug is doxycycline. It must be taken every day. Although these drugs are effective in preventing malaria, great numbers of people still die every year from the disease. In almost all cases, this is because of delayed treatment or no treatment at all. International health organizations are increasing efforts to reduce the deaths from malaria in the next ten years. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about malaria, a disease that affects millions of people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Malaria is a common and serious disease that has affected people for thousands of years. Today, it continues to be a major public health problem throughout the world. It is most common in developing countries, especially in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as five-hundred-million cases of malaria develop each year. More than one-million people die from the disease each year. Most of them are children in African countries. VOICE TWO: Malaria is spread by a common insect, the mosquito. The Anopheles mosquito carries the parasite that causes the disease. Very small parasites develop in the stomach of the mosquito. Parasites are organisms that live on or in another animal and get their food from that animal. The general name for the malaria parasite is Plasmodium. Mosquitoes pass the parasites to people when they drink blood through the skin. However, only the female Anopheles mosquitoes drink blood. The male Anopheles mosquitoes feed only on plant juices. VOICE ONE: The female Anopheles mosquito drinks blood from humans and animals by breaking through the skin with its long, tube-like feeding device. The parasites enter the victim’s blood. The blood carries the parasites to the victim’s liver. From there they invade cells and reproduce. After nine to sixteen days, the parasites return to the blood and enter the red blood cells. Then they reproduce again. As they do this they destroy the blood cells. In a short time, the victim develops a high body temperature. The victim becomes weak and is unable to carry out normal activities. Other signs of malaria include pain in the muscles, headache, chills and shaking. Patients with severe malaria may develop liver and kidney failure, seizures and coma. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: These signs of malaria have been observed since the beginning of history. Researchers studying bodies of ancient Egyptians have found evidence of the disease in people who lived at least three-thousand years ago. And scientists have found mosquitoes in fossil remains millions of years old. However, the real cause of the disease was unknown to ancient peoples. At one time, it was believed that malaria was caused by bad air. People believed this bad air came from areas of water that were not deep and did not move. It seemed that malaria was most common near these swamps. Ancient people suspected that mosquitoes were linked to the spread of malaria. Greek historian Herodotus lived about two-thousand-four-hundred years ago. He noted that in swampy areas of Egypt, some people slept in tall structures where mosquitoes could not go. Or they slept under special material called nets that mosquitoes could not go through. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Seventy-Six, British scientist Patrick Manson discovered that mosquitoes were responsible for passing the disease to humans. More exactly, he discovered that insects carry the parasites and pass them to humans. In Eighteen-Eighty, French doctor Alphonse Laveran discovered that the Plasmodium parasite causes the disease. In Eighteen-Ninety-Seven, a British scientist, Ronald Ross, found the malaria parasite in the Anopheles mosquito. For his discovery of the cause of malaria and other scientific work, Doctor Laveran received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. Mister Ross received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Oh-Two for his work on malaria. The discoveries of the three scientists soon led to efforts to control malaria. Then, the discovery of the insect poison D-D-T led to efforts to try to end the disease completely. VOICE TWO: Between Nineteen-Fifty-Five and Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Eradication Program carried out a series of campaigns against the disease. The goal was to use chemicals to kill mosquitoes inside homes around the world. The effort was successful in large areas of North America, southern Europe, the former Soviet Union and some parts of Asia and South America. The spread of the disease in these areas was halted. However, the disease continued in Central America, some parts of South America, and most Asian countries. The W-H-O program never was attempted in Africa. This is because it was too difficult and costly for most African countries. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, malaria suddenly spread rapidly among people in Sri Lanka, where it was believed the disease no longer existed. The disease also spread in Central America and Southeast Asian countries, as well as in parts of Africa. Efforts to end malaria throughout the world were suspended in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. Today, the W-H-O says that malaria control programs must be developed for local areas. It says such programs must involve everyone in each community – citizens, health experts and people involved in development. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are four different kinds of malaria. They are caused by four different kinds of parasites. Three kinds of parasites cause victims to suffer high body temperatures, or fevers, every few days. But they do not cause death. However, the most common malaria parasite also is the most dangerous. This parasite causes infections that can lead to death. The best way to prevent malaria is to avoid the mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasites. The female Anopheles mosquito takes blood from its victims mainly at night. So, people can place special nets treated with insect poison over their beds at night while they sleep. People can also put anti-insect chemicals on their skin, on clothing and in sleeping areas. They also can wear clothes that cover most of the body. VOICE ONE: If the mosquitoes get past barriers used to block them, drugs are necessary for treatment. Drugs can destroy the malaria parasite as soon as it enters the human body. This prevents the parasites from entering the red blood cells and dividing. Some drugs can prevent the parasite from establishing itself in the liver. However, malaria must be treated early for the treatment to be effective. Well before the fifteenth century, people in what is now Peru knew that the covering or bark from the cinchona tree was effective in treating the signs of malaria. In Eighteen-Twenty, two French researchers identified the substance in the bark as quinine. Until the twentieth century, quinine was the chief drug used to prevent and cure some forms of malaria. Today, manufactured drugs are mostly effective in treating the disease. These drugs are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body and causing malaria. VOICE TWO: The most commonly used malaria prevention drug is chloroquine. It is suggested for use in Mexico, Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Middle East. Another drug, called mefloquine, is used in all other areas of the world where malaria is a threat. Both drugs must be taken once a week on the same day each week. Another commonly used anti-malaria drug is doxycycline. It must be taken every day. Although these drugs are effective in preventing malaria, great numbers of people still die every year from the disease. In almost all cases, this is because of delayed treatment or no treatment at all. International health organizations are increasing efforts to reduce the deaths from malaria in the next ten years. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - June 5, 2002: Increasing Good Cholesterol
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A medical study in the Netherlands shows that a new substance can increase the level of good cholesterol in the blood. Doctors say this could protect people against heart attacks. Many people are taking drugs now to lower bad cholesterol. Yet some research suggests that the level of good cholesterol is more important than the level of bad cholesterol. The fatty substance known as cholesterol is important for human life. The body needs it to create cells and hormones, and to operate the nervous system. All the cholesterol a person needs is produced naturally in the liver. This cholesterol is sent into the blood so that cells can get some when they need it. Low density lipoproteins, or LDL, transport cholesterol into the blood. LDL in the blood that has not been used by the cells is called bad cholesterol. High density lipoproteins are known as HDL. HDL are considered good because they gather up the cholesterol not used by the cells and move it back to the liver to be destroyed. If LDL levels are too high, there is more cholesterol in the blood than the HDL can remove. The extra cholesterol attaches to the inside of the arteries. It can block blood flow and cause heart attack or stroke. If HDL levels are high, the HDL is moving the unneeded cholesterol out of the blood, back to the liver. This prevents the cholesterol from attaching to the arteries. As a result, medical researchers are looking for ways to increase the HDL, or good cholesterol. The drug involved in the new test was developed in Japan. It is called a C-E-T-P inhibitor. It blocks the action of a protein that lowers the amount of HDL in the body. Researchers in the Netherlands tested it on one-hundred-ninety-eight people. They found that it increased the good HDL cholesterol by as much as thirty-four percent. CETP also lowered the bad LDL cholesterol in some people by seven percent. The results were reported in the magazine, Circulation. John Kastelein of the University of Amsterdam wrote the report. He said it is the first published study showing good results in people from a drug that increases HDL cholesterol. More studies must be done to show if the drug really decreases the chance of heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A medical study in the Netherlands shows that a new substance can increase the level of good cholesterol in the blood. Doctors say this could protect people against heart attacks. Many people are taking drugs now to lower bad cholesterol. Yet some research suggests that the level of good cholesterol is more important than the level of bad cholesterol. The fatty substance known as cholesterol is important for human life. The body needs it to create cells and hormones, and to operate the nervous system. All the cholesterol a person needs is produced naturally in the liver. This cholesterol is sent into the blood so that cells can get some when they need it. Low density lipoproteins, or LDL, transport cholesterol into the blood. LDL in the blood that has not been used by the cells is called bad cholesterol. High density lipoproteins are known as HDL. HDL are considered good because they gather up the cholesterol not used by the cells and move it back to the liver to be destroyed. If LDL levels are too high, there is more cholesterol in the blood than the HDL can remove. The extra cholesterol attaches to the inside of the arteries. It can block blood flow and cause heart attack or stroke. If HDL levels are high, the HDL is moving the unneeded cholesterol out of the blood, back to the liver. This prevents the cholesterol from attaching to the arteries. As a result, medical researchers are looking for ways to increase the HDL, or good cholesterol. The drug involved in the new test was developed in Japan. It is called a C-E-T-P inhibitor. It blocks the action of a protein that lowers the amount of HDL in the body. Researchers in the Netherlands tested it on one-hundred-ninety-eight people. They found that it increased the good HDL cholesterol by as much as thirty-four percent. CETP also lowered the bad LDL cholesterol in some people by seven percent. The results were reported in the magazine, Circulation. John Kastelein of the University of Amsterdam wrote the report. He said it is the first published study showing good results in people from a drug that increases HDL cholesterol. More studies must be done to show if the drug really decreases the chance of heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-5-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – June 7, 2002: Tornadoes
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Every year in the United States people watch for dangerous windstorms called tornadoes. A tornado is a violently turning pipe of air suspended from a dense cloud. It forms when winds blowing in separate directions meet in the clouds and begin to turn in circles. Warm air rising from below causes the wind pipe to reach toward the ground. It is not officially a tornado unless it has touched the ground. A tornado can destroy anything in its path. Home devastated by tornado (VOA photo - R. Skirble) This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Every year in the United States people watch for dangerous windstorms called tornadoes. A tornado is a violently turning pipe of air suspended from a dense cloud. It forms when winds blowing in separate directions meet in the clouds and begin to turn in circles. Warm air rising from below causes the wind pipe to reach toward the ground. It is not officially a tornado unless it has touched the ground. A tornado can destroy anything in its path. Tornadoes come in many sizes. They can be thin pipes with openings on the ground just a few meters across. Or they can be huge pipes that stretch as far as one-and-a-half kilometers. A tornado’s size is not linked to its strength. Large tornadoes can be very weak, and some of the smallest can be the most damaging. No matter how big or small, however, the strongest winds on Earth are in tornadoes. Tornadoes are most common in the central part of the United States called “Tornado Alley.” This area stretches south from western Iowa down to Texas. Weather experts have done a lot of research in Tornado Alley. They have discovered that unlike severe ocean storms, tornadoes can strike without warning. Usually weather experts can report days before a severe ocean storm hits. However, tornadoes can form within minutes. There is almost no time for public warnings before they strike. The force of a tornado is judged not by its size, but by the total damage caused to human-made structures. The Fujita Scale is the device used to measure tornadoes. It is named after Ted Fujita. He was a University of Chicago weather expert who developed the measure in the nineteen-seventies. There are six levels on the measure. Tornadoes that cause only light damage are an F-zero. The ones with the highest winds that destroy well-built homes and throw vehicles more than one-hundred meters are an F-five. In the nineteen-sixties, about six-hundred-fifty tornadoes were reported each year in the United States. Now, more than one-thousand tornadoes are seen yearly. Weather experts do not think the increase is caused by climate changes. Instead, they say Americans are moving away from cities into more open farming areas. This means that they see and report tornadoes more often. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jill Moss. Tornadoes come in many sizes. They can be thin pipes with openings on the ground just a few meters across. Or they can be huge pipes that stretch as far as one-and-a-half kilometers. A tornado’s size is not linked to its strength. Large tornadoes can be very weak, and some of the smallest can be the most damaging. No matter how big or small, however, the strongest winds on Earth are in tornadoes. Tornadoes are most common in the central part of the United States called “Tornado Alley.” This area stretches south from western Iowa down to Texas. Weather experts have done a lot of research in Tornado Alley. They have discovered that unlike severe ocean storms, tornadoes can strike without warning. Usually weather experts can report days before a severe ocean storm hits. However, tornadoes can form within minutes. There is almost no time for public warnings before they strike. The force of a tornado is judged not by its size, but by the total damage caused to human-made structures. The Fujita Scale is the device used to measure tornadoes. It is named after Ted Fujita. He was a University of Chicago weather expert who developed the measure in the nineteen-seventies. There are six levels on the measure. Tornadoes that cause only light damage are an F-zero. The ones with the highest winds that destroy well-built homes and throw vehicles more than one-hundred meters are an F-five. In the nineteen-sixties, about six-hundred-fifty tornadoes were reported each year in the United States. Now, more than one-thousand tornadoes are seen yearly. Weather experts do not think the increase is caused by climate changes. Instead, they say Americans are moving away from cities into more open farming areas. This means that they see and report tornadoes more often. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-6-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - June 5, 2002: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. Saturn(Photo NASA JPL) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. We tell about an experiment in space that should answer a question. We report about NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that is on its way to Saturn. And we tell about the discovery of eleven more small moons that orbit the planet Jupiter. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. We tell about an experiment in space that should answer a question. We report about NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that is on its way to Saturn. And we tell about the discovery of eleven more small moons that orbit the planet Jupiter. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A team of astronomers in Hawaii has discovered eleven more small moons that orbit the planet Jupiter. Thirty-nine moons now are known to orbit Jupiter. That is nine more moons than the planet Saturn has. For many years Saturn was thought to have more moons than any other planet. Thirty moons have been seen around it. The University of Hawaii team leaders were Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt. Jan Kleyna of Cambridge University in Britain was also a member of the team. Mister Sheppard and Mister Jewitt have already discovered eleven other small moons in orbit around Jupiter. They made the earlier discovery in two-thousand. VOICE TWO: The discovery team used a three-point-six meter telescope in Hawaii to make the latest discovery. This telescope is one of the largest electronic imaging cameras in the world. It is owned by Canada, France and the University of Hawaii. The team of astronomers used the ability of the large telescope to gather images from a wide area around Jupiter. The team also used computers to search the images to confirm the orbits of suspected moons. The computers rejected space rocks that may have been traveling through the area. The team used the University of Hawaii’s two-point-two meter telescope to continue to follow the orbits of suspected moons. VOICE ONE: Robert Jacobson is a scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Brian Marsden is a scientist with the combined research effort between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. The two scientists say that all eleven of the moons travel in an orbit that is opposite to the direction that Jupiter turns. The two scientists say these orbits are also very long and travel in many different directions. They said these unusual orbits are evidence that these small moons may have been large space rocks which were captured by Saturn’s gravity. They said the moons may have been captured when Saturn was first being formed as a planet. Scientists have been discovering moons in orbit around Jupiter for almost four hundred years. The first moons of Jupiter to be discovered are the four largest. They were discovered in the year sixteen-ten by Italian scientist Galileo Galilei. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE TWO: NASA reports that its Cassini spacecraft is in good condition and is speeding toward the planet Saturn. Cassini will arrive to begin orbiting Saturn on July first, two-thousand-four. The spacecraft was launched in October nineteen-ninety-seven. It has already traveled more than three-thousand-million kilometers toward Saturn. Robert Mitchell is NASA’s manager for the Cassini-Huygens [HI-genz] program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Mitchell says the Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed a series of recent tests. These included test pictures taken of a star. The test was done to see if the camera could see clearly. The extreme cold of space had fogged the lens the camera sees through so clear pictures were not possible. NASA corrected by problem by turning on heat devices built into the camera. The cameras were warmed to a temperature just above freezing. Tests showed that more than ninety percent of the problem had been corrected. Another warming period was begun May Ninth to further correct the problem. VOICE ONE: The Cassini spacecraft was named in honor of the Italian-French Astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini. He was the scientist who first saw the famous rings that surround the planet Saturn. He discovered four of the planet’s moons in sixteen-seventy-five. Cassini is an international project supported by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. Several European universities and major companies also are involved with the project. Cassini carries the equipment needed to do twenty-seven scientific investigations of Saturn and its moons. The huge spacecraft weighs about five-thousand-three-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: Cassini also carries a special device named for a Dutch scientist, Christiaan Huygens. He discovered Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. He lived and worked in the sixteen-hundreds. The European Space Agency built the Huygens instrument. It will leave the Cassini spacecraft and parachute to the surface of Titan. It will take photographs, study the temperature and atmosphere and do other scientific tests of the moon. The Huygens landing device is one of the most important instruments on the Cassini project. Scientists have been interested in Titan for a long time. Saturn’s moon Titan is about the same size as the planet Mercury. Scientists say Titan is extremely interesting because it has an atmosphere. It has the only other known atmosphere in our solar system besides that of Earth. VOICE ONE: The flight of the Cassini spacecraft has been designed to gather large amounts of information about Saturn and its moons, and return this information to Earth. The information will include a study of Saturn’s atmosphere and its clouds. The spacecraft will study the material found in Saturn’s rings. And it will study small particles collected by the spacecraft’s instruments. NASA says the information gathered by Cassini will be added to what has been learned from past flights. This information will be used to plan flights far into the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: We have a question for you today. When you plant a seed and it grows, how does the plant know which way is up? How does the top of the plant know to push its way through the dirt and into the sunlight? How does the bottom of the plant know to grow down into the dirt? The question may sound funny, but scientists do not really know the answer. They do know that if you plant a seed up-side down, the plant will still grow in the correct direction. Scientists also know that sunlight is not the answer. Trees in the far north still grow straight up, although the sun is never directly over them. Scientists believe the pull of Earth’s gravity is involved somehow. Yet, they are not sure just what the pull of gravity does. They do not know how a plant can feel gravity. VOICE ONE: Plant experts say they have two possible answers to the question. First, plant cells contain some fluid. The pull of Earth’s gravity may pull the fluid downward enough to cause pressure on the cell walls of a growing seed. This might serve as a sign that helps a plant decide which is up and which is down, and which direction to grow. Scientists say another theory concerns the fact that all plants have a material called starch. They say the starch material may be pulled down by gravity. Scientists do not know which of these answers is correct. VOICE TWO: The question about how plants know which way to grow may be answered this summer during the flight of Space Shuttle Colombia. The Colombia is to be launched on July nineteenth, for a sixteen-day flight. It will carry a plant experiment to be done in the weightlessness of space. Scientists hope it will prove which theory is correct. The experiment will involve a common plant called flax. Once in space, a computer-controlled amount of water will start the flax seeds growing. Unlike flax seeds growing on Earth, these seeds will not feel the pull of gravity. The water and the starch material in their cells will float rather than be pulled in any direction by gravity. After the plants have been growing for awhile, astronauts will create a false gravity using special magnets. Scientists know this false gravity will affect only the starch material in the cells. It will not affect the water in the cells. VOICE ONE: Karl Hasenstein is the top researcher for the experiment. He says the question will be answered by changing the gravity effect on the starch material. This will prove which one of the theories is correct. He says if the starch material theory is correct, the flax seed plants should start to grow in the direction of false gravity caused by the special magnets. If the way seeds grow is affected by gravity’s pull on the fluid in the cell walls, the magnets will have no affect. We will report the results of the experiment in a future Explorations program. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. A team of astronomers in Hawaii has discovered eleven more small moons that orbit the planet Jupiter. Thirty-nine moons now are known to orbit Jupiter. That is nine more moons than the planet Saturn has. For many years Saturn was thought to have more moons than any other planet. Thirty moons have been seen around it. The University of Hawaii team leaders were Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt. Jan Kleyna of Cambridge University in Britain was also a member of the team. Mister Sheppard and Mister Jewitt have already discovered eleven other small moons in orbit around Jupiter. They made the earlier discovery in two-thousand. VOICE TWO: The discovery team used a three-point-six meter telescope in Hawaii to make the latest discovery. This telescope is one of the largest electronic imaging cameras in the world. It is owned by Canada, France and the University of Hawaii. The team of astronomers used the ability of the large telescope to gather images from a wide area around Jupiter. The team also used computers to search the images to confirm the orbits of suspected moons. The computers rejected space rocks that may have been traveling through the area. The team used the University of Hawaii’s two-point-two meter telescope to continue to follow the orbits of suspected moons. VOICE ONE: Robert Jacobson is a scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Brian Marsden is a scientist with the combined research effort between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. The two scientists say that all eleven of the moons travel in an orbit that is opposite to the direction that Jupiter turns. The two scientists say these orbits are also very long and travel in many different directions. They said these unusual orbits are evidence that these small moons may have been large space rocks which were captured by Saturn’s gravity. They said the moons may have been captured when Saturn was first being formed as a planet. Scientists have been discovering moons in orbit around Jupiter for almost four hundred years. The first moons of Jupiter to be discovered are the four largest. They were discovered in the year sixteen-ten by Italian scientist Galileo Galilei. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE TWO: NASA reports that its Cassini spacecraft is in good condition and is speeding toward the planet Saturn. Cassini will arrive to begin orbiting Saturn on July first, two-thousand-four. The spacecraft was launched in October nineteen-ninety-seven. It has already traveled more than three-thousand-million kilometers toward Saturn. Robert Mitchell is NASA’s manager for the Cassini-Huygens [HI-genz] program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Mitchell says the Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed a series of recent tests. These included test pictures taken of a star. The test was done to see if the camera could see clearly. The extreme cold of space had fogged the lens the camera sees through so clear pictures were not possible. NASA corrected by problem by turning on heat devices built into the camera. The cameras were warmed to a temperature just above freezing. Tests showed that more than ninety percent of the problem had been corrected. Another warming period was begun May Ninth to further correct the problem. VOICE ONE: The Cassini spacecraft was named in honor of the Italian-French Astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini. He was the scientist who first saw the famous rings that surround the planet Saturn. He discovered four of the planet’s moons in sixteen-seventy-five. Cassini is an international project supported by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. Several European universities and major companies also are involved with the project. Cassini carries the equipment needed to do twenty-seven scientific investigations of Saturn and its moons. The huge spacecraft weighs about five-thousand-three-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: Cassini also carries a special device named for a Dutch scientist, Christiaan Huygens. He discovered Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. He lived and worked in the sixteen-hundreds. The European Space Agency built the Huygens instrument. It will leave the Cassini spacecraft and parachute to the surface of Titan. It will take photographs, study the temperature and atmosphere and do other scientific tests of the moon. The Huygens landing device is one of the most important instruments on the Cassini project. Scientists have been interested in Titan for a long time. Saturn’s moon Titan is about the same size as the planet Mercury. Scientists say Titan is extremely interesting because it has an atmosphere. It has the only other known atmosphere in our solar system besides that of Earth. VOICE ONE: The flight of the Cassini spacecraft has been designed to gather large amounts of information about Saturn and its moons, and return this information to Earth. The information will include a study of Saturn’s atmosphere and its clouds. The spacecraft will study the material found in Saturn’s rings. And it will study small particles collected by the spacecraft’s instruments. NASA says the information gathered by Cassini will be added to what has been learned from past flights. This information will be used to plan flights far into the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: We have a question for you today. When you plant a seed and it grows, how does the plant know which way is up? How does the top of the plant know to push its way through the dirt and into the sunlight? How does the bottom of the plant know to grow down into the dirt? The question may sound funny, but scientists do not really know the answer. They do know that if you plant a seed up-side down, the plant will still grow in the correct direction. Scientists also know that sunlight is not the answer. Trees in the far north still grow straight up, although the sun is never directly over them. Scientists believe the pull of Earth’s gravity is involved somehow. Yet, they are not sure just what the pull of gravity does. They do not know how a plant can feel gravity. VOICE ONE: Plant experts say they have two possible answers to the question. First, plant cells contain some fluid. The pull of Earth’s gravity may pull the fluid downward enough to cause pressure on the cell walls of a growing seed. This might serve as a sign that helps a plant decide which is up and which is down, and which direction to grow. Scientists say another theory concerns the fact that all plants have a material called starch. They say the starch material may be pulled down by gravity. Scientists do not know which of these answers is correct. VOICE TWO: The question about how plants know which way to grow may be answered this summer during the flight of Space Shuttle Colombia. The Colombia is to be launched on July nineteenth, for a sixteen-day flight. It will carry a plant experiment to be done in the weightlessness of space. Scientists hope it will prove which theory is correct. The experiment will involve a common plant called flax. Once in space, a computer-controlled amount of water will start the flax seeds growing. Unlike flax seeds growing on Earth, these seeds will not feel the pull of gravity. The water and the starch material in their cells will float rather than be pulled in any direction by gravity. After the plants have been growing for awhile, astronauts will create a false gravity using special magnets. Scientists know this false gravity will affect only the starch material in the cells. It will not affect the water in the cells. VOICE ONE: Karl Hasenstein is the top researcher for the experiment. He says the question will be answered by changing the gravity effect on the starch material. This will prove which one of the theories is correct. He says if the starch material theory is correct, the flax seed plants should start to grow in the direction of false gravity caused by the special magnets. If the way seeds grow is affected by gravity’s pull on the fluid in the cell walls, the magnets will have no affect. We will report the results of the experiment in a future Explorations program. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-7-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - June 6, 2002: World War Two / Diplomacy
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) History is full of examples of leaders joining together to meet common goals. But rarely have two leaders worked together with such friendship and cooperation as American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The two men had much in common. They both were born to wealthy families and were active in politics for many years. Both men loved the sea and the navy, history and nature. Roosevelt and Churchill first met when they were lower-level officials in World War One. But neither man remembered much about that meeting. However, as they worked together during the Second World War, they came to like and trust each other. VOICE 2: (Theme) History is full of examples of leaders joining together to meet common goals. But rarely have two leaders worked together with such friendship and cooperation as American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The two men had much in common. They both were born to wealthy families and were active in politics for many years. Both men loved the sea and the navy, history and nature. Roosevelt and Churchill first met when they were lower-level officials in World War One. But neither man remembered much about that meeting. However, as they worked together during the Second World War, they came to like and trust each other. VOICE 2: Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged more than one-thousand-seven-hundred letters and messages during five-and-a-half years. They met many times, at large national gatherings and in private talks. But the closeness of their friendship might be seen best in a story told by one of Roosevelt's close advisors, Harry Hopkins. Hopkins remembered how Churchill was visiting Roosevelt at the White House one day. Roosevelt went into Churchill's room in the morning to say hello. But the president was shocked to see Churchill coming from the washing room with no clothes at all. Roosevelt immediately apologized to the British leader for seeing him naked. But Churchill reportedly said: "The prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the president of the United States." And then both men laughed. VOICE 1: The United States and great Britain were only two of several nations that joined together in the war to resist Hitler and his allies. In January, nineteen-forty-two, twenty-six of these nations signed an agreement promising to fight for peace, religious freedom, human rights, and justice. The three major Allies, however, were the most important for the war effort: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Washington and London did not always agree. For example, they disagreed about when to attack Hitler in western Europe. And Churchill resisted Roosevelt's suggestions that Britain give up some of its colonies. But in general, the friendship between Roosevelt and Churchill, and between the United States and Britain, led the two nations to cooperate closely. Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged more than one-thousand-seven-hundred letters and messages during five-and-a-half years. They met many times, at large national gatherings and in private talks. But the closeness of their friendship might be seen best in a story told by one of Roosevelt's close advisors, Harry Hopkins. Hopkins remembered how Churchill was visiting Roosevelt at the White House one day. Roosevelt went into Churchill's room in the morning to say hello. But the president was shocked to see Churchill coming from the washing room with no clothes at all. Roosevelt immediately apologized to the British leader for seeing him naked. But Churchill reportedly said: "The prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the president of the United States." And then both men laughed. VOICE 1: The United States and great Britain were only two of several nations that joined together in the war to resist Hitler and his allies. In January, nineteen-forty-two, twenty-six of these nations signed an agreement promising to fight for peace, religious freedom, human rights, and justice. The three major Allies, however, were the most important for the war effort: the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Washington and London did not always agree. For example, they disagreed about when to attack Hitler in western Europe. And Churchill resisted Roosevelt's suggestions that Britain give up some of its colonies. But in general, the friendship between Roosevelt and Churchill, and between the United States and Britain, led the two nations to cooperate closely. VOICE 2: This was not true with the Soviet Union. Moscow did not share the same history or political system as Washington or London. And it had its own interests to protect along its borders and in other areas. Relations between the Soviet Union and the western Allies were mixed. On the one hand, Hitler's invasion deep into the Soviet Union had forced Stalin and other Soviet leaders to make victory their top goal. On the other hand, shadows of future problems already could be seen. The Soviet Union was making clear its desire to keep political control over Poland. And it was supporting communist fighters in Yugoslavia and Greece. VOICE 1: These differences were not discussed much as the foreign ministers of the three nations gathered in Moscow in nineteen-forty-three. Instead, the ministers reached several general agreements, including a plan to establish a new organization called the United Nations. Finally, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met together for the first time. They met in Tehran in late nineteen-forty-three mainly to discuss the military situation. However, the three leaders also considered such political questions as the future of Germany, eastern Europe, east Asia, and future international organizations. Later, the allies made further plans for the new united nations organization. They arranged for new international economic organizations -- the world bank and the international monetary fund. And the Allies agreed to divide Germany into different parts after the war for a temporary period. The Soviet Union would occupy the eastern part while Britain, France, and the United States would occupy the western part. VOICE 2: Washington, London, and Moscow were united during the early years of the war because of military need. They knew they must fight together to defeat the common enemy. But this unity faded as allied troops marched toward the German border. Roosevelt continued to call on the world to wait to plan the peace until the last bullet was fired. But Churchill, Stalin, and other leaders already were trying to shape the world that would follow the war. Now, differences between the allies became more serious. VOICE 1: The most important question was Poland. Hitler's attack on Poland back in nineteen-thirty-nine had started the war. Roosevelt and Churchill believed strongly that the Polish people should have the right to choose their own leaders after victory was won. Churchill supported a group of Polish resistance leaders who had an office in London. But Stalin had other ideas. He demanded that Poland's border be changed to give more land to the Soviet Union. And he refused to help the Polish leaders in London. Instead, he supported a group of Polish communists and helped them establish a new government in Poland. VOICE 2: Churchill visited Stalin late in nineteen-forty-four. The two leaders joined with Roosevelt a few months later in Yalta. All agreed that free elections should be held quickly in Poland. And they traded ideas about the future of eastern Europe, China, and other areas of the world. Roosevelt was in good spirits when he reported to the Congress after his return. "I Come home from the conference with a firm belief that we have made a good start on the road to a world of peace," he said. "the Peace cannot be a completely perfect system, at first. But it can be a peace based on the idea of freedom. " Churchill had the same high hopes. "Marshall Stalin and the Soviet leaders wish to live in honorable friendship," he told the British parliament after the conference. "I also know that their word is honest. " VOICE 1: Roosevelt and Churchill were wrong. In the months after the Yalta conference, relations between Moscow and the western democracies grew steadily worse. The Soviet Union moved to seize control of eastern Europe. Stalin began making strong speeches charging that Washington and London were holding secret peace negotiations with Germany. And the Soviet Union refused to discuss ways to bring democracy to Poland. "I have always held the brave Russian people in high honor," Churchill wrote later. "But their shadow darkened the picture after the war. Britain and America had gone to war not just to defend the smaller countries, but also to fight for individual rights and freedoms. "But," Said Churchill, "the Soviet Union had other goals. Her hold tightened on eastern Europe after the Soviet Army gained control. After the long suffering and efforts of World War Two," Churchill said, "it seemed that half of Europe had just exchanged one dictator for another." VOICE 2: Churchill and Roosevelt agreed in secret letters that they must try to oppose the Soviet effort. But before they could act, Roosevelt died. And the world would live through a new war -- the Cold War -- in the years to follow. Roosevelt's death also ended the deep personal friendship between himself and Winston Churchill. The British leader wrote later about the day he heard the news of the death of his close friend in the White House. "I felt as if I had been struck with a physical blow," Churchill wrote. "My relations with this shining man had played so large a part in the long, terrible years we had worked together. Now they had come to an end. And I was overpowered by a sense of deep and permanent loss " VOICE 1: The free world joined Churchill in mourning the loss of so strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt. But it could not weep for long. War was giving way to peace. A new world was forming. And as we will see in our future programs, it was a world that few people expected. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jim Tedder. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE 2: This was not true with the Soviet Union. Moscow did not share the same history or political system as Washington or London. And it had its own interests to protect along its borders and in other areas. Relations between the Soviet Union and the western Allies were mixed. On the one hand, Hitler's invasion deep into the Soviet Union had forced Stalin and other Soviet leaders to make victory their top goal. On the other hand, shadows of future problems already could be seen. The Soviet Union was making clear its desire to keep political control over Poland. And it was supporting communist fighters in Yugoslavia and Greece. VOICE 1: These differences were not discussed much as the foreign ministers of the three nations gathered in Moscow in nineteen-forty-three. Instead, the ministers reached several general agreements, including a plan to establish a new organization called the United Nations. Finally, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met together for the first time. They met in Tehran in late nineteen-forty-three mainly to discuss the military situation. However, the three leaders also considered such political questions as the future of Germany, eastern Europe, east Asia, and future international organizations. Later, the allies made further plans for the new united nations organization. They arranged for new international economic organizations -- the world bank and the international monetary fund. And the Allies agreed to divide Germany into different parts after the war for a temporary period. The Soviet Union would occupy the eastern part while Britain, France, and the United States would occupy the western part. VOICE 2: Washington, London, and Moscow were united during the early years of the war because of military need. They knew they must fight together to defeat the common enemy. But this unity faded as allied troops marched toward the German border. Roosevelt continued to call on the world to wait to plan the peace until the last bullet was fired. But Churchill, Stalin, and other leaders already were trying to shape the world that would follow the war. Now, differences between the allies became more serious. VOICE 1: The most important question was Poland. Hitler's attack on Poland back in nineteen-thirty-nine had started the war. Roosevelt and Churchill believed strongly that the Polish people should have the right to choose their own leaders after victory was won. Churchill supported a group of Polish resistance leaders who had an office in London. But Stalin had other ideas. He demanded that Poland's border be changed to give more land to the Soviet Union. And he refused to help the Polish leaders in London. Instead, he supported a group of Polish communists and helped them establish a new government in Poland. VOICE 2: Churchill visited Stalin late in nineteen-forty-four. The two leaders joined with Roosevelt a few months later in Yalta. All agreed that free elections should be held quickly in Poland. And they traded ideas about the future of eastern Europe, China, and other areas of the world. Roosevelt was in good spirits when he reported to the Congress after his return. "I Come home from the conference with a firm belief that we have made a good start on the road to a world of peace," he said. "the Peace cannot be a completely perfect system, at first. But it can be a peace based on the idea of freedom. " Churchill had the same high hopes. "Marshall Stalin and the Soviet leaders wish to live in honorable friendship," he told the British parliament after the conference. "I also know that their word is honest. " VOICE 1: Roosevelt and Churchill were wrong. In the months after the Yalta conference, relations between Moscow and the western democracies grew steadily worse. The Soviet Union moved to seize control of eastern Europe. Stalin began making strong speeches charging that Washington and London were holding secret peace negotiations with Germany. And the Soviet Union refused to discuss ways to bring democracy to Poland. "I have always held the brave Russian people in high honor," Churchill wrote later. "But their shadow darkened the picture after the war. Britain and America had gone to war not just to defend the smaller countries, but also to fight for individual rights and freedoms. "But," Said Churchill, "the Soviet Union had other goals. Her hold tightened on eastern Europe after the Soviet Army gained control. After the long suffering and efforts of World War Two," Churchill said, "it seemed that half of Europe had just exchanged one dictator for another." VOICE 2: Churchill and Roosevelt agreed in secret letters that they must try to oppose the Soviet effort. But before they could act, Roosevelt died. And the world would live through a new war -- the Cold War -- in the years to follow. Roosevelt's death also ended the deep personal friendship between himself and Winston Churchill. The British leader wrote later about the day he heard the news of the death of his close friend in the White House. "I felt as if I had been struck with a physical blow," Churchill wrote. "My relations with this shining man had played so large a part in the long, terrible years we had worked together. Now they had come to an end. And I was overpowered by a sense of deep and permanent loss " VOICE 1: The free world joined Churchill in mourning the loss of so strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt. But it could not weep for long. War was giving way to peace. A new world was forming. And as we will see in our future programs, it was a world that few people expected. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Jim Tedder. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-03-8-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - June 10, 2002: Biltmore Estate
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: VOICE 1: Broadcast: VOICE 1: It was built more than one-hundred years ago near the mountains of North Carolina. It is still the largest private home in the United States. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of "Biltmore" is our report today on the VOA Special English program This Is America. It was built more than one-hundred years ago near the mountains of North Carolina. It is still the largest private home in the United States. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of "Biltmore" is our report today on the VOA Special English program This Is America. ((Music)) VOICE 1: An estate is a property, usually large, owned by one person or a family. The man who owned the Biltmore estate in North Carolina was George Vanderbilt. He was born in eighteen-sixty-two and died in nineteen-fourteen. His father and grandfather were two of the richest and most powerful businessmen in America. They made their money in shipping and railroads. When his father died, George Vanderbilt received millions of dollars. He chose to spend a good deal of that money building his home in North Carolina. More than one-thousand people began the work on it in eighteen-eighty-nine. The structure was ready six years later in December eighteen-ninety-five. Biltmore is now open to the public. It is well worth a visit. So, close your eyes and imagine you are going there. ((Music)) VOICE 2: ((Music)) VOICE 1: An estate is a property, usually large, owned by one person or a family. The man who owned the Biltmore estate in North Carolina was George Vanderbilt. He was born in eighteen-sixty-two and died in nineteen-fourteen. His father and grandfather were two of the richest and most powerful businessmen in America. They made their money in shipping and railroads. When his father died, George Vanderbilt received millions of dollars. He chose to spend a good deal of that money building his home in North Carolina. More than one-thousand people began the work on it in eighteen-eighty-nine. The structure was ready six years later in December eighteen-ninety-five. Biltmore is now open to the public. It is well worth a visit. So, close your eyes and imagine you are going there. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Our car has just turned off one of the main roads in the city of Asheville, North Carolina. We have entered a private road that leads to the main house on the Biltmore estate. The sides of the road are lined with trees. When we leave the car, we walk through a wooded area. The air is clean. It smells of flowers. The trees are dark and very large. They block us from seeing anything. At last we come to an open area and turn to the right. The main house is several hundred meters in front of us. VOICE 1: Biltmore is huge. It looks like a king's palace. It measures two-hundred-thirty-eight meters from side to side. It is the color of milk, with maybe just a little chocolate added to make it light brown. As we walk closer, it seems to grow bigger and bigger. It has hundreds of windows. Strange, stone creatures look down from the top. They seem to be guarding the house. Two big stone lions guard the front door. Biltmore really has two front doors. The first is made of glass and black iron. We pass through it to a second door. This one is made of rich dark wood. Both doors are several meters high. The opening is big enough for perhaps six people to walk through, side-by-side. VOICE 2: A book has been written about the Biltmore estate. It includes many pictures of the house, other buildings, gardens, and the Vanderbilt family. The book says the house has two-hundred-fifty rooms. We cannot see and count them all. Only sixty-five are open to the public. One room that can be seen looks like a garden. It is alive with flowers. In the center is a statue with water running from it. When we look up, we see the sky through hundreds of windows. Eight big lights hang from the top. Then we come to a room in which dinner can be served to many guests. The table is large enough for more than sixty people. The top of this room is more than twenty-one meters high. The walls are covered with cloth pictures, flags, and the heads of wild animals. VOICE 1: Each room at Biltmore is more beautiful than the last. Many include paintings by famous artists, like French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American artist John Singer Sargent. The chairs, beds, and other furniture were made by artists who worked in wood, leather, glass, marble, and cloth. One room was designed for reading. It contains more than twenty-three-thousand books in eight languages. Stairs on the side of the room permit visitors to reach books that are kept near the top. The paintings in this reading room are beautiful, too. VOICE 2: Later, we visit rooms below ground level. The people who worked for the Vanderbilt family lived in this lower part. The Vanderbilts employed about eighty people to take care of the house. This included cooks, bakers, and house cleaners. Other workers took care of the many horses the Vanderbilts owned. Many of these workers lived in the main house, but some lived in the nearby town. One of the biggest rooms below ground level is the kitchen. And there are separate rooms for keeping food fresh and cold, and for washing the Vanderbilt's clothes. Past these rooms we find an indoor swimming pool. This area has several separate small rooms where guests could change into swimming clothes. VOICE 1: We finally come back to the front door of the house. Yet there is still much to see at the Biltmore estate. To the left of the front door, about fifty meters away, is where the Vanderbilt family kept its horses. It is no longer used for horses, however. It now has several small stores that sell gifts to visitors. Visitors can also enjoy a meal or buy cold drinks and ice cream. VOICE 2: In addition to seeing the main house at Biltmore, you can walk through the gardens. Hundreds of different flowers grow there. A big stone and glass building holds young plants before they are placed in the ground outside. Past the gardens is the dark, green forest. Trees seem to grow everywhere. The place seems wild. At the same time, there is a feeling of calm order. There was once a dairy farm on the Biltmore estate. It is gone now. The milk cows were sold. Some of the land was planted with grapes. And the cow barn was turned into a building for making wine. VOICE 1: As we continue to walk, we come to an unusual house in the forest. The road on which we are walking passes through the house. The house was used many years ago by the gate keeper. Visitors traveled from this gate house to the main house. The distance between the two is almost five kilometers. The trees surrounding Biltmore look like a natural forest. Yet all of the area was planned, built, and planted by the men who designed the estate. None of it is natural. Now you may have begun to wonder about the history of Biltmore. Who designed it. How did they plan it. How and why was it built. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 2: The Biltmore estate was the idea of George Vanderbilt. The buildings were designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Mr. Hunt was one of the most famous building designers of his day. He designed and helped build several other big homes in the United States. Several of them were for other members of the Vanderbilt family. Mr. Hunt also designed the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. VOICE 1: Another famous man of the time designed the gardens at Biltmore. He was Frederick Law Olmsted. He is most famous for designing Central Park in New York City and the grounds around the capitol building in Washington, D-C. One of Mr. Olmsted's first projects at Biltmore was to plant and grow the millions of flowers that would be used for the gardens there. VOICE 2: Another man named Gifford Pinchot was also part of the team that designed Biltmore. While there, he started the first scientifically managed forest in the United States. He cut diseased or dead trees and planted new ones. He improved the growth of many kinds of trees. It is because of his work that the wild forest at Biltmore has an ordered and peaceful look. Gifford Pinchot left Biltmore to start the school of forestry at Yale university. Later he helped to establish the United States Forest Service. Biltmore is surrounded by more than one-thousand eight-hundred hectares of forest. The forest provides a wood crop that helps pay the costs of operating the estate. It was the work begun by Gifford Pinchot that makes this possible. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Today, Biltmore belongs to the grandchildren of George Vanderbilt. However, it is no longer used as a private home. Many years ago, the family decided to open it to the public. Visitors help pay the cost of caring for and operating it. Biltmore employs more than six-hundred-fifty people who work in the house and gardens. The family says George Vanderbilt liked to have guests at Biltmore. They say he enjoyed showing it to others. Now, each year, about seven-hundred fifty-thousand people visit the Vanderbilt home in Asheville, North Carolina. The family says their grandfather would have liked that. (Theme) VOICE 2: Our program today was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America. Our car has just turned off one of the main roads in the city of Asheville, North Carolina. We have entered a private road that leads to the main house on the Biltmore estate. The sides of the road are lined with trees. When we leave the car, we walk through a wooded area. The air is clean. It smells of flowers. The trees are dark and very large. They block us from seeing anything. At last we come to an open area and turn to the right. The main house is several hundred meters in front of us. VOICE 1: Biltmore is huge. It looks like a king's palace. It measures two-hundred-thirty-eight meters from side to side. It is the color of milk, with maybe just a little chocolate added to make it light brown. As we walk closer, it seems to grow bigger and bigger. It has hundreds of windows. Strange, stone creatures look down from the top. They seem to be guarding the house. Two big stone lions guard the front door. Biltmore really has two front doors. The first is made of glass and black iron. We pass through it to a second door. This one is made of rich dark wood. Both doors are several meters high. The opening is big enough for perhaps six people to walk through, side-by-side. VOICE 2: A book has been written about the Biltmore estate. It includes many pictures of the house, other buildings, gardens, and the Vanderbilt family. The book says the house has two-hundred-fifty rooms. We cannot see and count them all. Only sixty-five are open to the public. One room that can be seen looks like a garden. It is alive with flowers. In the center is a statue with water running from it. When we look up, we see the sky through hundreds of windows. Eight big lights hang from the top. Then we come to a room in which dinner can be served to many guests. The table is large enough for more than sixty people. The top of this room is more than twenty-one meters high. The walls are covered with cloth pictures, flags, and the heads of wild animals. VOICE 1: Each room at Biltmore is more beautiful than the last. Many include paintings by famous artists, like French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir and American artist John Singer Sargent. The chairs, beds, and other furniture were made by artists who worked in wood, leather, glass, marble, and cloth. One room was designed for reading. It contains more than twenty-three-thousand books in eight languages. Stairs on the side of the room permit visitors to reach books that are kept near the top. The paintings in this reading room are beautiful, too. VOICE 2: Later, we visit rooms below ground level. The people who worked for the Vanderbilt family lived in this lower part. The Vanderbilts employed about eighty people to take care of the house. This included cooks, bakers, and house cleaners. Other workers took care of the many horses the Vanderbilts owned. Many of these workers lived in the main house, but some lived in the nearby town. One of the biggest rooms below ground level is the kitchen. And there are separate rooms for keeping food fresh and cold, and for washing the Vanderbilt's clothes. Past these rooms we find an indoor swimming pool. This area has several separate small rooms where guests could change into swimming clothes. VOICE 1: We finally come back to the front door of the house. Yet there is still much to see at the Biltmore estate. To the left of the front door, about fifty meters away, is where the Vanderbilt family kept its horses. It is no longer used for horses, however. It now has several small stores that sell gifts to visitors. Visitors can also enjoy a meal or buy cold drinks and ice cream. VOICE 2: In addition to seeing the main house at Biltmore, you can walk through the gardens. Hundreds of different flowers grow there. A big stone and glass building holds young plants before they are placed in the ground outside. Past the gardens is the dark, green forest. Trees seem to grow everywhere. The place seems wild. At the same time, there is a feeling of calm order. There was once a dairy farm on the Biltmore estate. It is gone now. The milk cows were sold. Some of the land was planted with grapes. And the cow barn was turned into a building for making wine. VOICE 1: As we continue to walk, we come to an unusual house in the forest. The road on which we are walking passes through the house. The house was used many years ago by the gate keeper. Visitors traveled from this gate house to the main house. The distance between the two is almost five kilometers. The trees surrounding Biltmore look like a natural forest. Yet all of the area was planned, built, and planted by the men who designed the estate. None of it is natural. Now you may have begun to wonder about the history of Biltmore. Who designed it. How did they plan it. How and why was it built. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 2: The Biltmore estate was the idea of George Vanderbilt. The buildings were designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Mr. Hunt was one of the most famous building designers of his day. He designed and helped build several other big homes in the United States. Several of them were for other members of the Vanderbilt family. Mr. Hunt also designed the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. VOICE 1: Another famous man of the time designed the gardens at Biltmore. He was Frederick Law Olmsted. He is most famous for designing Central Park in New York City and the grounds around the capitol building in Washington, D-C. One of Mr. Olmsted's first projects at Biltmore was to plant and grow the millions of flowers that would be used for the gardens there. VOICE 2: Another man named Gifford Pinchot was also part of the team that designed Biltmore. While there, he started the first scientifically managed forest in the United States. He cut diseased or dead trees and planted new ones. He improved the growth of many kinds of trees. It is because of his work that the wild forest at Biltmore has an ordered and peaceful look. Gifford Pinchot left Biltmore to start the school of forestry at Yale university. Later he helped to establish the United States Forest Service. Biltmore is surrounded by more than one-thousand eight-hundred hectares of forest. The forest provides a wood crop that helps pay the costs of operating the estate. It was the work begun by Gifford Pinchot that makes this possible. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Today, Biltmore belongs to the grandchildren of George Vanderbilt. However, it is no longer used as a private home. Many years ago, the family decided to open it to the public. Visitors help pay the cost of caring for and operating it. Biltmore employs more than six-hundred-fifty people who work in the house and gardens. The family says George Vanderbilt liked to have guests at Biltmore. They say he enjoyed showing it to others. Now, each year, about seven-hundred fifty-thousand people visit the Vanderbilt home in Asheville, North Carolina. The family says their grandfather would have liked that. (Theme) VOICE 2: Our program today was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: June 6, 2002 - Grammar Lady: Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 6, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 9, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we call on our old friend Grammar Lady, Mary Newton Bruder, to help us answer some listener mail. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 6, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 9, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, we call on our old friend Grammar Lady, Mary Newton Bruder, to help us answer some listener mail. RS: We start with a question from Kim in Osaka, Japan. She would like to know the meaning of the expression "the devil is in the details." BRUDER: "It means that it's very easy to make a broad plan and get a big idea about something, but carrying it out is much more difficult, and that's where the devil is -- the hard part is in the details of getting the plan done." RS: "We have another question also about an idiom from Asako, also from Japan: 'I've wanted to ask someone for a long time. People say something like this: "When she goes on a picnic, she always wants to take everything but the kitchen sink." Why the kitchen sink?'" BRUDER: "It refers to the excessive luggage that people take when they go traveling, as your example of going on a picnic. If you have to have everything at home when you go someplace, you even have to take the kitchen sink." AA: "She goes on to say, but why kitchen sink? 'My guess is that there was a joke about an empty kitchen (no food, no furniture) or a joke about a debt collector. Wrong guess?' Says, 'The dictionaries I referred to only say this expression is a "jocular" one but don't explain the origin of it.'" BRUDER: "My origin books didn't have it either." RS: Now back to Kim for a grammar-related question for Grammar Lady. AA: Actually it's from one of Kim's college students, who asked her about the difference between these two sentences: "We look forward to your reply" and "we're (that's w-e-apostrophe-r-e) looking forward to your reply." RS: "Two ways of saying the same thing?" BRUDER: "Yes." RS: " The first -- 'we look forward to your reply' -- might be a little bit more formal." BRUDER: "Yes, that's the distinction." AA: "'We look forward to your reply' is what verb tense, that's just simple ... " BRUDER: "Simple present." RS: "Simple present." BRUDER: "And the other one is progressive." RS: "But it's also using a contraction, which is more informal speech, 'we're looking forward to your reply.'" BRUDER: "Yes, right." AA: Now a question from Brazil about the verb "to regret." Carl Highsetland gave us these two sentences: "I regret lending him money. He never paid me back." Carl's wondering: "Shouldn't it be 'I regret having lent him money'?" RS: Again, which one is correct: "I regret lending him money" or "I regret having lent him money." BRUDER: "'They're both correct and they have practically the same meaning." AA: "So I guess the simple past tense 'he never paid me back' would refer to an instance, a specific instance, rather than 'he never pays me back." BRUDER: "Right." AA: " 'I regret lending him money, he never pays me back' would be continually; you lend him money, he never pays you back." BRUDER: "And then it's silly of you to keep on lending him the money." RS: In other words, you wouldn't call it very smart. That's the cue for our next question for Grammar Lady. It's from Ivan Dolezal in the Czech Republic: AA: He writes, "Recently I was trying to find out when to use 'smart' and when to use 'clever.' I wasn't able to distinguish between these words with my dictionary." BRUDER: "Well, basically, 'smart' is an overall intelligence. He 's smart about everything, he has a lot of knowledge, and he is very good at doing things. 'Clever,' I think, refers to a quick, sharp intelligence. 'She gives clever answers to the questions.' You can be clever at doing crossword puzzles. You also have to be smart to do crossword puzzles, but I think it refers to a quickness, a sharp intelligence." AA: "Ivan also says here, 'how would you explain the word "wise"?'" BRUDER: "I think wise refers to age. Older people tend to have wisdom that has been learned over the years." RS: "He also says, 'How about "cunning" and "sly"? Are these really used, or do I have a dictionary with words from the nineteenth century?'" BRUDER: "Someone who does something in a cunning or sly manner is also smart to do it but in a deceiving way." AA: "Although 'cunning' -- if you say, 'that was a cunning plot,' that does sound a little kind of dated, or 'boy you were really sly about that.'" RS: "I think sly, we do -- 'sly guy.'" AA: "Sly? 'Sly guy.' [Laughter] You know, 'on the sly,' meaning kind of secretly." RS: "Sneaky." AA: "Sneaky." BRUDER: "Right, sneaky -- those two definitely have negative connotations." RS: Linguist Mary Newton Bruder, speaking to us on the Grammar Hotline she operates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She's also on the Internet, at www.grammarlady.com, and she's author of the book "The Grammar Lady." AA: Keep sending those questions about American English! Our address is word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Sly Old Crow/Old Blair Store" [folk song]/John McCutcheon RS: We start with a question from Kim in Osaka, Japan. She would like to know the meaning of the expression "the devil is in the details." BRUDER: "It means that it's very easy to make a broad plan and get a big idea about something, but carrying it out is much more difficult, and that's where the devil is -- the hard part is in the details of getting the plan done." RS: "We have another question also about an idiom from Asako, also from Japan: 'I've wanted to ask someone for a long time. People say something like this: "When she goes on a picnic, she always wants to take everything but the kitchen sink." Why the kitchen sink?'" BRUDER: "It refers to the excessive luggage that people take when they go traveling, as your example of going on a picnic. If you have to have everything at home when you go someplace, you even have to take the kitchen sink." AA: "She goes on to say, but why kitchen sink? 'My guess is that there was a joke about an empty kitchen (no food, no furniture) or a joke about a debt collector. Wrong guess?' Says, 'The dictionaries I referred to only say this expression is a "jocular" one but don't explain the origin of it.'" BRUDER: "My origin books didn't have it either." RS: Now back to Kim for a grammar-related question for Grammar Lady. AA: Actually it's from one of Kim's college students, who asked her about the difference between these two sentences: "We look forward to your reply" and "we're (that's w-e-apostrophe-r-e) looking forward to your reply." RS: "Two ways of saying the same thing?" BRUDER: "Yes." RS: " The first -- 'we look forward to your reply' -- might be a little bit more formal." BRUDER: "Yes, that's the distinction." AA: "'We look forward to your reply' is what verb tense, that's just simple ... " BRUDER: "Simple present." RS: "Simple present." BRUDER: "And the other one is progressive." RS: "But it's also using a contraction, which is more informal speech, 'we're looking forward to your reply.'" BRUDER: "Yes, right." AA: Now a question from Brazil about the verb "to regret." Carl Highsetland gave us these two sentences: "I regret lending him money. He never paid me back." Carl's wondering: "Shouldn't it be 'I regret having lent him money'?" RS: Again, which one is correct: "I regret lending him money" or "I regret having lent him money." BRUDER: "'They're both correct and they have practically the same meaning." AA: "So I guess the simple past tense 'he never paid me back' would refer to an instance, a specific instance, rather than 'he never pays me back." BRUDER: "Right." AA: " 'I regret lending him money, he never pays me back' would be continually; you lend him money, he never pays you back." BRUDER: "And then it's silly of you to keep on lending him the money." RS: In other words, you wouldn't call it very smart. That's the cue for our next question for Grammar Lady. It's from Ivan Dolezal in the Czech Republic: AA: He writes, "Recently I was trying to find out when to use 'smart' and when to use 'clever.' I wasn't able to distinguish between these words with my dictionary." BRUDER: "Well, basically, 'smart' is an overall intelligence. He 's smart about everything, he has a lot of knowledge, and he is very good at doing things. 'Clever,' I think, refers to a quick, sharp intelligence. 'She gives clever answers to the questions.' You can be clever at doing crossword puzzles. You also have to be smart to do crossword puzzles, but I think it refers to a quickness, a sharp intelligence." AA: "Ivan also says here, 'how would you explain the word "wise"?'" BRUDER: "I think wise refers to age. Older people tend to have wisdom that has been learned over the years." RS: "He also says, 'How about "cunning" and "sly"? Are these really used, or do I have a dictionary with words from the nineteenth century?'" BRUDER: "Someone who does something in a cunning or sly manner is also smart to do it but in a deceiving way." AA: "Although 'cunning' -- if you say, 'that was a cunning plot,' that does sound a little kind of dated, or 'boy you were really sly about that.'" RS: "I think sly, we do -- 'sly guy.'" AA: "Sly? 'Sly guy.' [Laughter] You know, 'on the sly,' meaning kind of secretly." RS: "Sneaky." AA: "Sneaky." BRUDER: "Right, sneaky -- those two definitely have negative connotations." RS: Linguist Mary Newton Bruder, speaking to us on the Grammar Hotline she operates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She's also on the Internet, at www.grammarlady.com, and she's author of the book "The Grammar Lady." AA: Keep sending those questions about American English! Our address is word@voanews.com or VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Sly Old Crow/Old Blair Store" [folk song]/John McCutcheon 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 7, 2002: Who Is Uncle Sam / Digital Movies / Country Music Awards
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs that won awards from the Academy of Country Music ... Answer a question about Uncle Sam ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs that won awards from the Academy of Country Music ... Answer a question about Uncle Sam ... And report about a new way to make movies. Digital Movies HOST: Most people who enjoy movies do not really care how they are made. They want to enjoy a good story. Movie producer and director George Lucas wants people to see the best made movie possible. So, his latest Star Wars movie was made without using film. Shep O'Neal explains. ANNCR: “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” was made using digital cameras. A digital camera does not use traditional film. It captures an image on videotape. The images recorded on videotape are then placed in a computer. Alan Jackson And report about a new way to make movies. Digital Movies HOST: Most people who enjoy movies do not really care how they are made. They want to enjoy a good story. Movie producer and director George Lucas wants people to see the best made movie possible. So, his latest Star Wars movie was made without using film. Shep O'Neal explains. ANNCR: “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones” was made using digital cameras. A digital camera does not use traditional film. It captures an image on videotape. The images recorded on videotape are then placed in a computer. George Lucas says that using digital cameras permits him to have much more control over the final product. For example, the image can be changed after it is placed in a computer. An expert can change color, add or take out objects, add people or beings who are not real. Much of what is seen in the new Stars Wars movie is not real. Huge buildings, spacecraft and alien beings from other worlds were produced in a computer. The effects then were added to each part of the movie. Movie experts say digital technology is the real future of the motion picture industry. A theater will no longer have to wait days or weeks to show a new movie. Theaters will be able receive copies of new movies by linking computers. Or they will use small computer disks to get a copy of the movie. When the new Star Wars movie was released last month, only ninety-four theaters around the world had the digital equipment needed to show it. So Mister Lucas’ company produced about six-thousand copies of the new digital movie on traditional film for release in most theaters. However, most people who have seen the movie say these film copies are a much better quality than other filmed movies. Critics say the new digital technology is very costly. Many theater owners will not buy the new technology…yet. Many of the people who worked on the new Star Wars movie say they would not like to work with film again. They said using digital equipment was faster, and videotape is much less costly than film. One cameraman said the director of a movie can immediately see what was just recorded, something impossible to do with film. Those who have worked with the new digital method of making movies say the new Star Wars movie is only the beginning. They say movies may quickly become all digital. Uncle Sam HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia. Franky Tan asks why the imaginary man called Uncle Sam is linked with the United States. Uncle Sam is a fun name for the United States government. The drawing of a man called Uncle Sam is used to represent the federal government on large signs called posters. His name, Uncle Sam, uses the same first letters as the words United States—a “U” and an “S”. History experts are not really sure how Uncle Sam was created or how he was named. However, some say the name was first used on supply containers during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. People in the northeastern city of Troy, New York think they know the true story. They say that Uncle Sam was a person named Samuel Wilson. Many people in Troy believe that Mister Wilson is linked to the first use of the term “Uncle Sam” to represent the United States. This is their story: Samuel Wilson worked as a meat packer in Troy during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. He often was called Uncle Sam because he was so friendly and fair. Mister Wilson supplied large amounts of meat to the Army. The meat was sent to the troops in rounded wooden containers. The barrels were marked with the letters “U S” to show they were meant for the government. Someone suggested that the letters represented “Uncle Sam” Wilson. The idea that the meat came from “Uncle Sam” led to the idea that Uncle Sam represented the federal government. Samuel Wilson did not look like the drawing of Uncle Sam. The most famous drawings show him dressed in clothes showing stars and stripes. They appeared in political cartoons. Famous newspaper cartoonist Thomas Nast produced many of the earliest drawings of Uncle Sam in the eighteen thirties. In the twentieth century, Uncle Sam was shown with a short white beard, high hat and long-tailed coat. The single most famous picture of him is a large sign painted by James Montgomery Flagg in about nineteen-seventeen. Its aim was to influence young American young men to go into the army during World War One. It shows Uncle Sam pointing his finger. Above him are written the words “I Want You.” Congress approved Uncle Sam as an official representation of the United States in nineteen-sixty-one. Country Music Awards HOST: The Academy of Country Music presented its awards last week. It is the thirty-seventh year the Academy has honored people who create country music. Mary Tillotson tells us about some of the winners. ANNCR: The awards presented at the ceremony included Entertainer of the Year, Top New Male Singer, Top New Female Singer and Top Country Video. One singer-songwriter won three awards -- top male singer, song of the year and single record of the year. The artist is Alan Jackson. He was honored with the three awards for a special song he wrote following the terrorist attacks on the United States in September. It is called “Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?” ((CUT 1: WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE WORLD STOPPED TURNING?)) The Academy of Country Music named a movie soundtrack as the Album of the Year. It is “O Brother Where Art Thou?” from the movie of the same name. One song from that album won the Top Vocal Event of the Year award. We leave you now with that song, “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow.” The Soggy Bottom Boys sing it. ((CUT 2: I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. And our producer was Caty Weaver. George Lucas says that using digital cameras permits him to have much more control over the final product. For example, the image can be changed after it is placed in a computer. An expert can change color, add or take out objects, add people or beings who are not real. Much of what is seen in the new Stars Wars movie is not real. Huge buildings, spacecraft and alien beings from other worlds were produced in a computer. The effects then were added to each part of the movie. Movie experts say digital technology is the real future of the motion picture industry. A theater will no longer have to wait days or weeks to show a new movie. Theaters will be able receive copies of new movies by linking computers. Or they will use small computer disks to get a copy of the movie. When the new Star Wars movie was released last month, only ninety-four theaters around the world had the digital equipment needed to show it. So Mister Lucas’ company produced about six-thousand copies of the new digital movie on traditional film for release in most theaters. However, most people who have seen the movie say these film copies are a much better quality than other filmed movies. Critics say the new digital technology is very costly. Many theater owners will not buy the new technology…yet. Many of the people who worked on the new Star Wars movie say they would not like to work with film again. They said using digital equipment was faster, and videotape is much less costly than film. One cameraman said the director of a movie can immediately see what was just recorded, something impossible to do with film. Those who have worked with the new digital method of making movies say the new Star Wars movie is only the beginning. They say movies may quickly become all digital. Uncle Sam HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia. Franky Tan asks why the imaginary man called Uncle Sam is linked with the United States. Uncle Sam is a fun name for the United States government. The drawing of a man called Uncle Sam is used to represent the federal government on large signs called posters. His name, Uncle Sam, uses the same first letters as the words United States—a “U” and an “S”. History experts are not really sure how Uncle Sam was created or how he was named. However, some say the name was first used on supply containers during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. People in the northeastern city of Troy, New York think they know the true story. They say that Uncle Sam was a person named Samuel Wilson. Many people in Troy believe that Mister Wilson is linked to the first use of the term “Uncle Sam” to represent the United States. This is their story: Samuel Wilson worked as a meat packer in Troy during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. He often was called Uncle Sam because he was so friendly and fair. Mister Wilson supplied large amounts of meat to the Army. The meat was sent to the troops in rounded wooden containers. The barrels were marked with the letters “U S” to show they were meant for the government. Someone suggested that the letters represented “Uncle Sam” Wilson. The idea that the meat came from “Uncle Sam” led to the idea that Uncle Sam represented the federal government. Samuel Wilson did not look like the drawing of Uncle Sam. The most famous drawings show him dressed in clothes showing stars and stripes. They appeared in political cartoons. Famous newspaper cartoonist Thomas Nast produced many of the earliest drawings of Uncle Sam in the eighteen thirties. In the twentieth century, Uncle Sam was shown with a short white beard, high hat and long-tailed coat. The single most famous picture of him is a large sign painted by James Montgomery Flagg in about nineteen-seventeen. Its aim was to influence young American young men to go into the army during World War One. It shows Uncle Sam pointing his finger. Above him are written the words “I Want You.” Congress approved Uncle Sam as an official representation of the United States in nineteen-sixty-one. Country Music Awards HOST: The Academy of Country Music presented its awards last week. It is the thirty-seventh year the Academy has honored people who create country music. Mary Tillotson tells us about some of the winners. ANNCR: The awards presented at the ceremony included Entertainer of the Year, Top New Male Singer, Top New Female Singer and Top Country Video. One singer-songwriter won three awards -- top male singer, song of the year and single record of the year. The artist is Alan Jackson. He was honored with the three awards for a special song he wrote following the terrorist attacks on the United States in September. It is called “Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?” ((CUT 1: WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE WORLD STOPPED TURNING?)) The Academy of Country Music named a movie soundtrack as the Album of the Year. It is “O Brother Where Art Thou?” from the movie of the same name. One song from that album won the Top Vocal Event of the Year award. We leave you now with that song, “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow.” The Soggy Bottom Boys sing it. ((CUT 2: I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT — June 10, 2002: Campaign Against Polio
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. In nineteen-eighty-eight, world health leaders started a campaign to end the disease polio around the world. The World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s organization, the United States Centers for Disease Control and the group Rotary International organized the campaign. It is called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. In nineteen-eighty-eight, officials estimated three-hundred-fifty-thousand children around the world had polio. Recently, the W-H-O reported only five-hundred-thirty-seven new cases of polio in ten countries last year. This is the lowest rate of polio in history. It is also a sign that the campaign to end the disease has been almost a complete success. Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It can affect people at any age. But polio usually affects children under age three. The virus enters through the mouth and then grows inside the throat and intestines. Signs of polio include a high body temperature, stomach sickness, and pain in the head and neck. Once the poliovirus becomes established in the intestines, it can spread to the blood and nervous system. As a result, victims of polio often become unable to move their bodies. This paralysis is almost always permanent. In very serious cases, the paralysis can lead to death because victims are not able to breathe. There is no cure for polio, so the best treatment is prevention. A few drops of a powerful vaccine medicine will protect a child for life. The vaccine must be given over several years to be fully effective. Last year, international health groups gave the vaccine to more than five-hundred-seventy-five-million children in ninety-four countries. That vaccine effort is continuing. The W-H-O wants to stop the spread of polio by the end of this year. The countries with the highest rates of polio are India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Niger. Countries with lower rates of polio are Angola, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Egypt. However, efforts to finally end the disease are being threatened by conflicts in several parts of the world. In Angola, for example, civil war has prevented vaccine medicine from reaching children. If the campaign succeeds, polio would become the second disease in history to be ended by a medical campaign. The first disease that was ended around world was smallpox. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 9, 2002: Jesse Owens
* Byline: 

 Anncr: People in America -- a Special English program about people who were important in the history of the United States. Today Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world. Anncr: People in America -- a Special English program about people who were important in the history of the United States. Today Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world. (Theme) VOICE 1: In the summer of nineteen-thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Jesse joined the best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Germany, in the city of Berlin. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year. (Theme) VOICE 1: In the summer of nineteen-thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Jesse joined the best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Germany, in the city of Berlin. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year. Adolf Hitler was ruler of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people -- were the best race of people on earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- were almost less than human. In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition. After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man. VOICE 2: Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen-thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Jesse was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability. Jesse spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler. He said later: "I was looking only at the finish line. I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me." VOICE 1: We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic Games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games. The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany. Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the gold medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fasted time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. VOICE 2: Jesse's Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job. For many years after the nineteen-thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times. VOICE 1: Poverty was not new to Jesse. He was born in nineteen-thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel to heat the house in winter. Some of Jesse's brothers and sisters died while still young. Jesse, himself, was a sickly child. Partly because of this, and partly because of the racial hatred they saw around them, Jesse's parents decided to leave the south. They moved north, to Cleveland, Ohio, when Jesse was about ten years old. The large family lived in a few small rooms in a part of the city that was neither friendly nor pleasant to look at. Jesse's father was no longer young or strong. He was unable to find a good job. Most of the time, no one would give him any work at all. But Jesse's older brothers were able to get jobs in factories. So life was a little better than it had been in the south. VOICE 2: Jesse, especially, was lucky. He entered a school where one white teacher, Charles Riley, took a special interest in him. Jesse looked thin and unhealthy, and Riley wanted to make him stronger. Through the years that Jesse remained in school, Riley brought him food in the morning. He often invited the boy to eat with his family in the evening. And every day before school, he taught Jesse how to run like an athlete. At first, the idea was only to make the boy stronger. But soon Riley saw that Jesse was a champion. By the time Jesse had completed high school, his name was known across the nation. Ohio State University wanted him to attend there. So it offered him a free education. While at Ohio State, he set new world records in several track and field events. And he was accepted as a member of the United States Olympic team. VOICE 1: Jesse always remembered the white man who helped change his life. Charles Riley did not seem to care what color a person's skin was. Jesse learned to think the same way. Later in life, Jesse put all his energy into working with young people. He wanted to tell them some of the things he had learned about life, work and success. That it is important to choose a goal and always work toward it. That there are good people in the world who will help you to reach your goal. That if you try again and again, you will succeed. People who heard Jesse's speeches say he spoke almost as well as he ran. Jesse received awards for his work with boys and girls. The United States government sent him around the world as a kind of sports ambassador. The International Olympic Committee asked for his advice. VOICE 2: In about nineteen-seventy, Jesse Owens wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called "Blackthink." In the book, Jesse denounced young black militants who blamed society for their troubles. He said young black people had the same chance to succeed in the United States as white people. Many black civil rights activists reacted angrily. They said what Jesse had written was not true for everyone. Jesse later admitted that he had been wrong. He saw that not all blacks were given the same chances and help that he had been given. In a second book, Jesse tried to explain what he had meant in his first book. He called it I have changed. Jesse said that, in his earlier book, he did not write about life as it was for everyone ... But about life as it was for him. He said he truly wanted to believe that if you think you can succeed--- and you really try -- then you have a chance. If you do not think you have a chance, then you probably will fail. He said these beliefs had worked for him. And he wanted all young people to believe them, too. VOICE 1: These were the same beliefs he tried to express when he spoke around the world about being an Olympic athlete. "The road to the Olympics," he said, "leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads -- in the end -- to the best within us." Jesse Owens died of cancer in nineteen-eighty. (Theme) Anncr: This program was written by Barbara Dash. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this same time for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. Adolf Hitler was ruler of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people -- were the best race of people on earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- were almost less than human. In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition. After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man. VOICE 2: Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen-thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Jesse was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability. Jesse spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler. He said later: "I was looking only at the finish line. I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me." VOICE 1: We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic Games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games. The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany. Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the gold medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fasted time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. VOICE 2: Jesse's Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job. For many years after the nineteen-thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times. VOICE 1: Poverty was not new to Jesse. He was born in nineteen-thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel to heat the house in winter. Some of Jesse's brothers and sisters died while still young. Jesse, himself, was a sickly child. Partly because of this, and partly because of the racial hatred they saw around them, Jesse's parents decided to leave the south. They moved north, to Cleveland, Ohio, when Jesse was about ten years old. The large family lived in a few small rooms in a part of the city that was neither friendly nor pleasant to look at. Jesse's father was no longer young or strong. He was unable to find a good job. Most of the time, no one would give him any work at all. But Jesse's older brothers were able to get jobs in factories. So life was a little better than it had been in the south. VOICE 2: Jesse, especially, was lucky. He entered a school where one white teacher, Charles Riley, took a special interest in him. Jesse looked thin and unhealthy, and Riley wanted to make him stronger. Through the years that Jesse remained in school, Riley brought him food in the morning. He often invited the boy to eat with his family in the evening. And every day before school, he taught Jesse how to run like an athlete. At first, the idea was only to make the boy stronger. But soon Riley saw that Jesse was a champion. By the time Jesse had completed high school, his name was known across the nation. Ohio State University wanted him to attend there. So it offered him a free education. While at Ohio State, he set new world records in several track and field events. And he was accepted as a member of the United States Olympic team. VOICE 1: Jesse always remembered the white man who helped change his life. Charles Riley did not seem to care what color a person's skin was. Jesse learned to think the same way. Later in life, Jesse put all his energy into working with young people. He wanted to tell them some of the things he had learned about life, work and success. That it is important to choose a goal and always work toward it. That there are good people in the world who will help you to reach your goal. That if you try again and again, you will succeed. People who heard Jesse's speeches say he spoke almost as well as he ran. Jesse received awards for his work with boys and girls. The United States government sent him around the world as a kind of sports ambassador. The International Olympic Committee asked for his advice. VOICE 2: In about nineteen-seventy, Jesse Owens wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called "Blackthink." In the book, Jesse denounced young black militants who blamed society for their troubles. He said young black people had the same chance to succeed in the United States as white people. Many black civil rights activists reacted angrily. They said what Jesse had written was not true for everyone. Jesse later admitted that he had been wrong. He saw that not all blacks were given the same chances and help that he had been given. In a second book, Jesse tried to explain what he had meant in his first book. He called it I have changed. Jesse said that, in his earlier book, he did not write about life as it was for everyone ... But about life as it was for him. He said he truly wanted to believe that if you think you can succeed--- and you really try -- then you have a chance. If you do not think you have a chance, then you probably will fail. He said these beliefs had worked for him. And he wanted all young people to believe them, too. VOICE 1: These were the same beliefs he tried to express when he spoke around the world about being an Olympic athlete. "The road to the Olympics," he said, "leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads -- in the end -- to the best within us." Jesse Owens died of cancer in nineteen-eighty. (Theme) Anncr: This program was written by Barbara Dash. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this same time for another People in America program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – June 8, 2002: Loya Jirga
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In The News. Next week, a traditional national council called a loya jirga will meet in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul. About one-thousand-five-hundred delegates will choose a new leader for Afghanistan and a temporary government. The loya jirga tradition began hundreds of years ago. Tribal leaders from all over Afghanistan would be called together to accept or reject national policies, to settle disputes between tribes or to consider new constitutions. Most loya jirgas in the past have been all male. The loya jirga is a temporary decision- making group. It is not a permanent part of the Afghan government. The loya jirga is a representative process although it is not considered fully democratic. Representatives of the most honored or most powerful Afghan families choose the people who elect loya jirga members. The current loya jirga process began in December of last year. Afghan groups agreed to set up a six-month government following the ousting of Taleban rulers. That agreement also called for an emergency loya jirga to be held at the end of the six-month term to appoint a longer-term temporary government. In January, Afghanistan appointed an independent committee to establish rules and methods for the loya jirga. The committee had to decide on a process for choosing loya jirga members. It also had to make sure that women and minorities had representation on the loya jirga. One-hundred-sixty seats were guaranteed for female delegates. The process of choosing loya jirga members has gone through several steps. First, local leadership councils chose electors. The number of electors for an area was based on population. Then, last week, the electors went to Kandahar for the final voting. They chose the final group of loya jirga members from among themselves. The process was not free of problems. There were reports of vote-buying. There also were reports that electors had been threatened. There were delays in the voting as well. The process was not completed until Friday, two days later than planned. Afghanistan’s former King Mohammad Zahir Shah will open the loya jirga Monday. He returned to the country recently after living in exile for more than twenty years. Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan for forty years and is still considered influential with many Afghans. However, his part in the loya jirga is ceremonial. The loya jirga is to complete its work by June sixteenth. Many experts believe it will choose Hamid Karzai, the current temporary leader of Afghanistan, to continue as its next leader. Mister Karzai says he will accept the position if it is offered. The new temporary leader and government of Afghanistan will serve for two years. Then the country hopes to hold free and fair elections to choose a fully representative government. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - June 11, 2002: Using Mosquitoes to Help Fight Malaria / Can Aspirin Reduce Colon-Cancer Risk? / Tsetse Flies a Threat to Agriculture
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. Broadcast: VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about mosquitoes that were genetically changed to reduce the spread of malaria. We tell about a possible use of aspirin to reduce the risk of colon cancer. And we tell about the threat of the tsetse (TSET-see) fly to agriculture. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about mosquitoes that were genetically changed to reduce the spread of malaria. We tell about a possible use of aspirin to reduce the risk of colon cancer. And we tell about the threat of the tsetse (TSET-see) fly to agriculture. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have reported progress in efforts to disarm mosquitoes that carry the disease malaria. The scientists say they changed the genes of some mosquitoes so that the insects are less effective in spreading malaria. The study is said to be the first to suggest that genetic engineering could be used to fight the deadly disease. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. VOICE TWO: Malaria is caused by an organism carried by some kinds of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes take in the organism when they feed on the blood of an infected person or animal. The malaria parasite then moves from the insect’s stomach into the salivary glands near its mouth. When the mosquito bites its next victim, the parasite enters the victim’s blood. As many as five-hundred-million people around the world are infected with malaria each year. The disease kills as many as three-million people each year. Most of the victims are children in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. Experts say traditional methods are failing to control the mosquitoes that carry malaria. Chemical sprays can be harmful to both human health and the environment. Also, the malaria parasite is becoming increasingly resistant to many drugs. VOICE ONE: In the new study, an international team of scientists changed the genes of a version of mosquitoes that infects mice with malaria. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena (mahr-SELL-oh JAY-cubs-luh-REHN-ah) of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, directed the study. Last year, his team identified a molecule called S-M-One. S-M-One stops the malaria parasite from passing from a mosquito’s stomach to its salivary gland. The team put the gene for the molecule into the mosquitoes. The gene was added to a molecular system that produces the enzymes the insects need to feed on blood. VOICE TWO: The scientists carried out two kinds of experiments with the genetically-engineered mosquitoes. In the first, they studied what happened to the mosquitoes when they bit malaria-infected mice. The scientists found that only half of the insects became infected with malaria parasites. The results of the second experiment were even more successful. The scientists wanted to see if the genetically-engineered mosquitoes could pass malaria to uninfected mice. In two of three tests, none of the mice bitten by the mosquitoes became infected with the disease. In the other test, the number of mice that became infected was greatly reduced. Scientists say genetically engineered mosquitoes could possibly be mated with wild mosquitoes to produce insects that could not spread the malaria parasite. VOICE ONE: Nature magazine published the findings. The magazine also published comments by other scientists. Fotis Kafatos (FOH-tis kah-FAH-toes) of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany praised the study. He said this is the first time that humans have reduced the ability of mosquitoes to spread malaria. However, he said it is not known if the research would work with malaria in humans. A different form of the parasite causes the disease in humans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Aspirin is one of the world’s oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs. Aspirin is a common treatment for headaches, colds and flu. It reduces other kinds of pain, such as pain caused by arthritis in the areas where bones are joined. Aspirin also may help prevent some forms of cancer. One recent study showed that it can slow the development of unusual growths, or adenomas, in the colon. Adenomas are early signs of changes that can lead to colon cancer. VOICE ONE: Colon cancer is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, after lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates fifty-six-thousand Americans will die from the disease this year. The group says that about one-third of those deaths could be avoided by testing to find and remove adenomas. John Baron of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, directed the new study. He reported his team’s findings at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. VOICE TWO: The study involved more than one-thousand patients in nine American cities. All the patients had had at least one adenoma removed within the past three months. The patients had no known heart disease or other conditions sometimes treated with aspirin. They also had no history of cancer in their families. The patients were divided into three groups. Some patients took one common three-hundred-twenty-five milligram aspirin each day. Another group of patients took one low-strength aspirin that was only eighty milligrams. The other patients took an inactive substance. VOICE ONE: Doctors examined the patients for new adenomas a year or more after the study started. The study found that the people who took one low-strength aspirin each day reduced their risk of developing new adenomas by nineteen percent. Among patients who had a more aggressive kind of adenoma, the low-strength aspirin reduced the risk by forty percent. Doctor Baron believes aspirin may block the action of an enzyme needed for the growth of cancer tumors. However, the normal strength aspirin did not have this same preventive effect. VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans take a low-strength aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks. The results of the study suggest that aspirin may be helping these people in other ways. The results confirm increasing amounts of evidence that aspirin can reduce the risk of some cancers. However, doctors do not believe aspirin is safe for everyone. The drug often causes problems in the stomach or intestines, especially if taken in large amounts. These problems can include life-threatening bleeding. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The tsetse fly is a serious problem in many parts of Africa. Tsetse flies cause problems in an area of almost ten-million square kilometers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says some of this area is fertile land that could be used for agriculture. F-A-O officials say stopping the insect would help African farmers reclaim land and increase food production. Tsetse flies feed on the blood of humans and animals. The fly carries a parasite that attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims. This organism causes Trypanosomiasis (trih-PAN-oh-so-MY-ah-sis), a disease known as nagana (nah-GAH-nah) in farm animals. In humans, the disease is called sleeping sickness. VOICE TWO: Trypanosomiasis kills eighty percent of infected victims. The disease affects an estimated five-hundred-thousand people. It kills three-million farm animals each year. Thirty-seven countries in Africa are affected by tsetse flies. Jorge Hendrichs is an insect control expert with the F-A-O. He says the tsetse fly keeps people poor by preventing them from producing the food they need to survive. The tsetse fly and trypanosimiasis have slowed the development of agriculture in Africa. One-hundred-fifty-five-million cattle are being raised in tsetse-free areas south of the Sahara Desert. The area of land that is tsetse-free is small. It is being overused by both cattle and people. VOICE ONE: One method that has proved successful in fighting the tsetse is the sterile insect treatment. Male flies treated with radiation become sterile, or unable to reproduce. The insects then are released into areas with other flies. After mating, the eggs of the wild females do not develop. The F-A-O says the sterile insect treatment has been used with traps and other methods to end the tsetse fly problem on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. Mister Hendrichs says these efforts have no long-lasting side effects on the environment. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Scientists have reported progress in efforts to disarm mosquitoes that carry the disease malaria. The scientists say they changed the genes of some mosquitoes so that the insects are less effective in spreading malaria. The study is said to be the first to suggest that genetic engineering could be used to fight the deadly disease. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. VOICE TWO: Malaria is caused by an organism carried by some kinds of mosquitoes. Mosquitoes take in the organism when they feed on the blood of an infected person or animal. The malaria parasite then moves from the insect’s stomach into the salivary glands near its mouth. When the mosquito bites its next victim, the parasite enters the victim’s blood. As many as five-hundred-million people around the world are infected with malaria each year. The disease kills as many as three-million people each year. Most of the victims are children in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. Experts say traditional methods are failing to control the mosquitoes that carry malaria. Chemical sprays can be harmful to both human health and the environment. Also, the malaria parasite is becoming increasingly resistant to many drugs. VOICE ONE: In the new study, an international team of scientists changed the genes of a version of mosquitoes that infects mice with malaria. Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena (mahr-SELL-oh JAY-cubs-luh-REHN-ah) of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, directed the study. Last year, his team identified a molecule called S-M-One. S-M-One stops the malaria parasite from passing from a mosquito’s stomach to its salivary gland. The team put the gene for the molecule into the mosquitoes. The gene was added to a molecular system that produces the enzymes the insects need to feed on blood. VOICE TWO: The scientists carried out two kinds of experiments with the genetically-engineered mosquitoes. In the first, they studied what happened to the mosquitoes when they bit malaria-infected mice. The scientists found that only half of the insects became infected with malaria parasites. The results of the second experiment were even more successful. The scientists wanted to see if the genetically-engineered mosquitoes could pass malaria to uninfected mice. In two of three tests, none of the mice bitten by the mosquitoes became infected with the disease. In the other test, the number of mice that became infected was greatly reduced. Scientists say genetically engineered mosquitoes could possibly be mated with wild mosquitoes to produce insects that could not spread the malaria parasite. VOICE ONE: Nature magazine published the findings. The magazine also published comments by other scientists. Fotis Kafatos (FOH-tis kah-FAH-toes) of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany praised the study. He said this is the first time that humans have reduced the ability of mosquitoes to spread malaria. However, he said it is not known if the research would work with malaria in humans. A different form of the parasite causes the disease in humans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Aspirin is one of the world’s oldest, least costly and most widely used drugs. Aspirin is a common treatment for headaches, colds and flu. It reduces other kinds of pain, such as pain caused by arthritis in the areas where bones are joined. Aspirin also may help prevent some forms of cancer. One recent study showed that it can slow the development of unusual growths, or adenomas, in the colon. Adenomas are early signs of changes that can lead to colon cancer. VOICE ONE: Colon cancer is the second leading cause of death from cancer in the United States, after lung cancer. The National Cancer Institute estimates fifty-six-thousand Americans will die from the disease this year. The group says that about one-third of those deaths could be avoided by testing to find and remove adenomas. John Baron of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, directed the new study. He reported his team’s findings at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. VOICE TWO: The study involved more than one-thousand patients in nine American cities. All the patients had had at least one adenoma removed within the past three months. The patients had no known heart disease or other conditions sometimes treated with aspirin. They also had no history of cancer in their families. The patients were divided into three groups. Some patients took one common three-hundred-twenty-five milligram aspirin each day. Another group of patients took one low-strength aspirin that was only eighty milligrams. The other patients took an inactive substance. VOICE ONE: Doctors examined the patients for new adenomas a year or more after the study started. The study found that the people who took one low-strength aspirin each day reduced their risk of developing new adenomas by nineteen percent. Among patients who had a more aggressive kind of adenoma, the low-strength aspirin reduced the risk by forty percent. Doctor Baron believes aspirin may block the action of an enzyme needed for the growth of cancer tumors. However, the normal strength aspirin did not have this same preventive effect. VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans take a low-strength aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks. The results of the study suggest that aspirin may be helping these people in other ways. The results confirm increasing amounts of evidence that aspirin can reduce the risk of some cancers. However, doctors do not believe aspirin is safe for everyone. The drug often causes problems in the stomach or intestines, especially if taken in large amounts. These problems can include life-threatening bleeding. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The tsetse fly is a serious problem in many parts of Africa. Tsetse flies cause problems in an area of almost ten-million square kilometers. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says some of this area is fertile land that could be used for agriculture. F-A-O officials say stopping the insect would help African farmers reclaim land and increase food production. Tsetse flies feed on the blood of humans and animals. The fly carries a parasite that attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims. This organism causes Trypanosomiasis (trih-PAN-oh-so-MY-ah-sis), a disease known as nagana (nah-GAH-nah) in farm animals. In humans, the disease is called sleeping sickness. VOICE TWO: Trypanosomiasis kills eighty percent of infected victims. The disease affects an estimated five-hundred-thousand people. It kills three-million farm animals each year. Thirty-seven countries in Africa are affected by tsetse flies. Jorge Hendrichs is an insect control expert with the F-A-O. He says the tsetse fly keeps people poor by preventing them from producing the food they need to survive. The tsetse fly and trypanosimiasis have slowed the development of agriculture in Africa. One-hundred-fifty-five-million cattle are being raised in tsetse-free areas south of the Sahara Desert. The area of land that is tsetse-free is small. It is being overused by both cattle and people. VOICE ONE: One method that has proved successful in fighting the tsetse is the sterile insect treatment. Male flies treated with radiation become sterile, or unable to reproduce. The insects then are released into areas with other flies. After mating, the eggs of the wild females do not develop. The F-A-O says the sterile insect treatment has been used with traps and other methods to end the tsetse fly problem on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. Mister Hendrichs says these efforts have no long-lasting side effects on the environment. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - June 12, 2002: The Hudson River
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. Photo by Joe Deutsch VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a famous river on the east coast of the United States, the Hudson. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Upper Hudson river near Olana, Photo by Ted Spiegel VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a famous river on the east coast of the United States, the Hudson. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The first European explorer of the New World to see the mouth of the Hudson River was Englishman John Cabot in Fourteen Ninety-Eight. Yet it was not until Sixteen-Oh-Nine that a European explorer entered the river. He sailed north from the Atlantic Ocean as far as his ship could go, about two-hundred-fifty kilometers. That explorer was Henry Hudson. Captain Hudson and his sailors – English and Dutch – were working for the Dutch East India Company. Like the other explorers, they were looking for the northwest passage, a way to China and India that did not exist. VOICE TWO: At first, Captain Hudson did not know that the water he entered was a river. After all, the water flowed from the ocean in the south toward the north. The water was very salty, like the ocean. On both sides of the river, Captain Hudson saw great hills and mountains. After sailing for two-hundred-fifty-kilometers, the ship reached the point on the river where the city of Albany, New York stands today. From that point to the north, the river was not deep enough for his ship to sail. Hudson saw that the river did not provide a way to India and China. He had failed. He turned his ship around and sailed back to the Atlantic Ocean and then home to Holland. When he returned to Holland, Henry Hudson told about the friendly natives and how good the land was along the river. Hudson river fallsPhoto by Rich Schiafo The first European explorer of the New World to see the mouth of the Hudson River was Englishman John Cabot in Fourteen Ninety-Eight. Yet it was not until Sixteen-Oh-Nine that a European explorer entered the river. He sailed north from the Atlantic Ocean as far as his ship could go, about two-hundred-fifty kilometers. That explorer was Henry Hudson. Captain Hudson and his sailors – English and Dutch – were working for the Dutch East India Company. Like the other explorers, they were looking for the northwest passage, a way to China and India that did not exist. VOICE TWO: At first, Captain Hudson did not know that the water he entered was a river. After all, the water flowed from the ocean in the south toward the north. The water was very salty, like the ocean. On both sides of the river, Captain Hudson saw great hills and mountains. After sailing for two-hundred-fifty-kilometers, the ship reached the point on the river where the city of Albany, New York stands today. From that point to the north, the river was not deep enough for his ship to sail. Hudson saw that the river did not provide a way to India and China. He had failed. He turned his ship around and sailed back to the Atlantic Ocean and then home to Holland. When he returned to Holland, Henry Hudson told about the friendly natives and how good the land was along the river. VOICE ONE: No one knows how long native Americans lived along the great river. The first people to settle along the Hudson were called the Algonkin Indians. They called the Hudson “the river that runs two ways,” because it flows both north and south at its southern end. This is because the ocean tides push water up the river as it flows down to the south. There were many different tribes among the Algonkins. Some of the names of these tribes were Raritan, Hackensack, Tappan, and Haverstraw. Another tribe was called Manhattan. Today, that is the name of the most important part of New York City. Manhattan is a long, thin island, with its southern end pointing into New York Bay. When the Indians lived there, and when the Europeans first saw it, the island was green and covered with forests. They would not recognize it today. Trees and forests have been replaced by tall buildings and busy streets crowded with cars, trucks, buses, and millions of people. VOICE TWO: For twelve years after Henry Hudson explored the river named after him, there was little interest in his discovery. Just a few ships came to Manhattan Island to trade with the Indians. In Sixteen-Twenty-One, the government of Holland created the Dutch West India Company to govern this new land. Three years later, thirty Dutch families sailed on a ship from Holland to North America. They were seeking religious freedom in the New World. Some of these people settled on Manhattan Island. They named their settlement Fort Amsterdam. The ship they sailed on continued up the Hudson River, stopping where the city of Albany is today. Eighteen families settled there. They called this place Fort Orange. Now there were two communities on the river – both of them Dutch. VOICE ONE: The religious freedom promised by the Dutch West India Company brought other people to the Hudson River. Among them were Huguenots from France, Presbyterians from Scotland, Jews and Quakers. However, for almost fifty years – until Sixteen-Hundred-Sixty-Four – the Hudson River country was Dutch. The official language of the area was Dutch, as were the government, the politics and the customs. Even today, many places along the Hudson River still have Dutch names, such as Yonkers, Peekskill, Catskill, and Rensselaer (Renn-sa-LEER). VOICE TWO: The most famous leader of the Dutch colony in the New World was Peter Stuyvesant. The Dutch West India Company sent him to be the governor of the colony. Mister Stuyvesant was a strong man who very quickly made the settlers understand that they must obey the laws of the colony. Peter Stuyvesant’s government did not last long. In Sixteen-Sixty-Four, five English warships stopped at Fort Amsterdam, which was now called New Amsterdam. The commander of the ships ordered Governor Stuyvesant to surrender the colony to the king of England. The English said the land was theirs because Manhattan Island had been discovered by Englishmen such as John Cabot. They also said that since Henry Hudson was an Englishman, everything he discovered belonged to the king of England. Peter Stuyvesant and the other Dutch officials returned to Holland. VOICE ONE: The English period now began on the river. The official language became English, instead of Dutch. Also, the names of many places on the Hudson were changed. The colony of New Netherland became New York, in honor of James, the duke of York. He was the brother of England’s King Charles, the Second. To honor him further, the settlement of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island was also called New York. For more than one-hundred years, the English ruled the colony of New York. During this time thousands of people came from Europe to live along the river. Many were English. However, settlers came from across Europe – Germany, France, and Holland. Even then, it seemed that New York and the Hudson River country were places where people of all nations were welcomed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: When the American Revolution began in Seventeen-Seventy-Six, British troops quickly seized control of New York. They wanted it because of its military, political, and economic importance. During the seven years of fighting, no part of the thirteen American colonies saw as much military action as the Hudson River area. Both the American Revolutionary Army under George Washington, and the British Army understood that control of the Hudson River meant victory. Some of the most famous battles of the American Revolutionary War were fought along the Hudson River. The British had more soldiers, more guns, and more bullets than the Americans did. But the Americans fought fiercely and won. After the treaty of peace was signed in Paris in Seventeen-Eighty-Three, General Washington moved with the new government to New York City. The Hudson River now belonged to a new and free nation – the United States of America. VOICE ONE: One of the greatest signs of progress in the newly established United States was a new kind of ship that traveled up and down the Hudson River. In Eighteen-Hundred-Seven, a steam boat called the Clermont sailed north up the river from New York to Albany. An engineer named Robert Fulton built the boat. Soon there were many such boats traveling up and down the river, helping industry and trade to grow along the Hudson. For many years, Americans dreamed that it would be possible to travel by water between the East and the West of the United States. In Eighteen-Twenty-Five, the Erie Canal opened. It was a river built by men. It went from the Hudson River near Albany west for more than four-hundred kilometers to the city of Buffalo, on Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. Now, ships could carry people and products from New York City west to the central part of the country, opening a way to the West. VOICE TWO: As Hudson River transportation grew, the population along the river grew, especially in New York City. There, business and industry developed with great speed. New York became the industrial and political center of the United States. It also became one of the great cities of the world. The real beginning of the Hudson River is near Mount Marcy, the highest of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. Close to Mount Marcy, melting snow feeds a little lake named Lake Tear of the Clouds. From the lake, a small stream runs down the mountain. As it continues to flow south, other streams join it. The stream becomes the Hudson River near the town of Newcombe. The Hudson is wild and fast for those first two-hundred-fifty kilometers from Lake Tear of the Clouds to Albany. Then, near Albany, the fresh water of the river meets the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean water has been carried up the river for two-hundred-fifty kilometers. At this point, the Hudson becomes a wide river, the same quiet river that Henry Hudson sailed on in the year Sixteen-Oh-Nine. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was directed by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: No one knows how long native Americans lived along the great river. The first people to settle along the Hudson were called the Algonkin Indians. They called the Hudson “the river that runs two ways,” because it flows both north and south at its southern end. This is because the ocean tides push water up the river as it flows down to the south. There were many different tribes among the Algonkins. Some of the names of these tribes were Raritan, Hackensack, Tappan, and Haverstraw. Another tribe was called Manhattan. Today, that is the name of the most important part of New York City. Manhattan is a long, thin island, with its southern end pointing into New York Bay. When the Indians lived there, and when the Europeans first saw it, the island was green and covered with forests. They would not recognize it today. Trees and forests have been replaced by tall buildings and busy streets crowded with cars, trucks, buses, and millions of people. VOICE TWO: For twelve years after Henry Hudson explored the river named after him, there was little interest in his discovery. Just a few ships came to Manhattan Island to trade with the Indians. In Sixteen-Twenty-One, the government of Holland created the Dutch West India Company to govern this new land. Three years later, thirty Dutch families sailed on a ship from Holland to North America. They were seeking religious freedom in the New World. Some of these people settled on Manhattan Island. They named their settlement Fort Amsterdam. The ship they sailed on continued up the Hudson River, stopping where the city of Albany is today. Eighteen families settled there. They called this place Fort Orange. Now there were two communities on the river – both of them Dutch. VOICE ONE: The religious freedom promised by the Dutch West India Company brought other people to the Hudson River. Among them were Huguenots from France, Presbyterians from Scotland, Jews and Quakers. However, for almost fifty years – until Sixteen-Hundred-Sixty-Four – the Hudson River country was Dutch. The official language of the area was Dutch, as were the government, the politics and the customs. Even today, many places along the Hudson River still have Dutch names, such as Yonkers, Peekskill, Catskill, and Rensselaer (Renn-sa-LEER). VOICE TWO: The most famous leader of the Dutch colony in the New World was Peter Stuyvesant. The Dutch West India Company sent him to be the governor of the colony. Mister Stuyvesant was a strong man who very quickly made the settlers understand that they must obey the laws of the colony. Peter Stuyvesant’s government did not last long. In Sixteen-Sixty-Four, five English warships stopped at Fort Amsterdam, which was now called New Amsterdam. The commander of the ships ordered Governor Stuyvesant to surrender the colony to the king of England. The English said the land was theirs because Manhattan Island had been discovered by Englishmen such as John Cabot. They also said that since Henry Hudson was an Englishman, everything he discovered belonged to the king of England. Peter Stuyvesant and the other Dutch officials returned to Holland. VOICE ONE: The English period now began on the river. The official language became English, instead of Dutch. Also, the names of many places on the Hudson were changed. The colony of New Netherland became New York, in honor of James, the duke of York. He was the brother of England’s King Charles, the Second. To honor him further, the settlement of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island was also called New York. For more than one-hundred years, the English ruled the colony of New York. During this time thousands of people came from Europe to live along the river. Many were English. However, settlers came from across Europe – Germany, France, and Holland. Even then, it seemed that New York and the Hudson River country were places where people of all nations were welcomed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: When the American Revolution began in Seventeen-Seventy-Six, British troops quickly seized control of New York. They wanted it because of its military, political, and economic importance. During the seven years of fighting, no part of the thirteen American colonies saw as much military action as the Hudson River area. Both the American Revolutionary Army under George Washington, and the British Army understood that control of the Hudson River meant victory. Some of the most famous battles of the American Revolutionary War were fought along the Hudson River. The British had more soldiers, more guns, and more bullets than the Americans did. But the Americans fought fiercely and won. After the treaty of peace was signed in Paris in Seventeen-Eighty-Three, General Washington moved with the new government to New York City. The Hudson River now belonged to a new and free nation – the United States of America. VOICE ONE: One of the greatest signs of progress in the newly established United States was a new kind of ship that traveled up and down the Hudson River. In Eighteen-Hundred-Seven, a steam boat called the Clermont sailed north up the river from New York to Albany. An engineer named Robert Fulton built the boat. Soon there were many such boats traveling up and down the river, helping industry and trade to grow along the Hudson. For many years, Americans dreamed that it would be possible to travel by water between the East and the West of the United States. In Eighteen-Twenty-Five, the Erie Canal opened. It was a river built by men. It went from the Hudson River near Albany west for more than four-hundred kilometers to the city of Buffalo, on Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. Now, ships could carry people and products from New York City west to the central part of the country, opening a way to the West. VOICE TWO: As Hudson River transportation grew, the population along the river grew, especially in New York City. There, business and industry developed with great speed. New York became the industrial and political center of the United States. It also became one of the great cities of the world. The real beginning of the Hudson River is near Mount Marcy, the highest of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State. Close to Mount Marcy, melting snow feeds a little lake named Lake Tear of the Clouds. From the lake, a small stream runs down the mountain. As it continues to flow south, other streams join it. The stream becomes the Hudson River near the town of Newcombe. The Hudson is wild and fast for those first two-hundred-fifty kilometers from Lake Tear of the Clouds to Albany. Then, near Albany, the fresh water of the river meets the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean water has been carried up the river for two-hundred-fifty kilometers. At this point, the Hudson becomes a wide river, the same quiet river that Henry Hudson sailed on in the year Sixteen-Oh-Nine. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was directed by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – June 11, 2002: Featherless Chickens
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Humans have long wanted to change animals to meet their needs. Now, an Israeli scientist is developing chickens without the feathers that cover a bird’s body. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Humans have long wanted to change animals to meet their needs. Now, an Israeli scientist is developing chickens without the feathers that cover a bird’s body. The new chickens have red skins. They look unusual. Yet the scientist says they have less fat and may grow faster than other chickens. He adds that the lack of feathers will keep the birds cool in the Middle East and other warm climates. Avigdor Cahaner (AH-vig-dor cah-HA-ner) is a genetic scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also is a vice president of the World Poultry Science Association, an industry trade group. Mister Cahaner hopes to create what he believes the world needs -- a meaty, low-fat chicken. Other scientists have developed chickens that gain weight quickly. These large birds are called broiler chickens. Mister Cahaner notes that broiler chickens must eat a lot of food in order to grow quickly. This means they also produce a lot of body heat. The birds will die if their body temperatures rise too high. In warm climates, farmers who raise chickens often are required to use air-cooling systems in buildings where the birds live. Mister Cahaner says poor farmers in developing countries often do not have the money needed for the cooling equipment. The Israeli scientist has already produced a number of chickens without feathers. He started with a natural version of a featherless chicken discovered fifty years ago. He has been mating these birds with normal chickens. Mister Cahaner says the new chickens will save money in processing costs because they do not need to have their feathers removed. He notes that feather removal requires the use of large amounts of water and electric power. He says the birds are better for the environment because they produce less waste in the form of feathers. He also says the chicken meat is more nutritious. Animal rights activists have criticized his experiments. The activists say chickens without feathers suffer more than other birds. They say feathers help protect chickens from harmful organisms and sunburn. Mister Cahaner says his featherless birds are not designed for cooler climates. Currently, his birds are smaller than other chickens. He hopes that additional experiments will help increase their size. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. The new chickens have red skins. They look unusual. Yet the scientist says they have less fat and may grow faster than other chickens. He adds that the lack of feathers will keep the birds cool in the Middle East and other warm climates. Avigdor Cahaner (AH-vig-dor cah-HA-ner) is a genetic scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also is a vice president of the World Poultry Science Association, an industry trade group. Mister Cahaner hopes to create what he believes the world needs -- a meaty, low-fat chicken. Other scientists have developed chickens that gain weight quickly. These large birds are called broiler chickens. Mister Cahaner notes that broiler chickens must eat a lot of food in order to grow quickly. This means they also produce a lot of body heat. The birds will die if their body temperatures rise too high. In warm climates, farmers who raise chickens often are required to use air-cooling systems in buildings where the birds live. Mister Cahaner says poor farmers in developing countries often do not have the money needed for the cooling equipment. The Israeli scientist has already produced a number of chickens without feathers. He started with a natural version of a featherless chicken discovered fifty years ago. He has been mating these birds with normal chickens. Mister Cahaner says the new chickens will save money in processing costs because they do not need to have their feathers removed. He notes that feather removal requires the use of large amounts of water and electric power. He says the birds are better for the environment because they produce less waste in the form of feathers. He also says the chicken meat is more nutritious. Animal rights activists have criticized his experiments. The activists say chickens without feathers suffer more than other birds. They say feathers help protect chickens from harmful organisms and sunburn. Mister Cahaner says his featherless birds are not designed for cooler climates. Currently, his birds are smaller than other chickens. He hopes that additional experiments will help increase their size. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – June 13, 2002: Latin Language Teaching
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Latin was the language of the ancient Roman Empire. It was the main language of western Europe for hundreds of years. Seventy years ago, many American students studied Latin in school. Then, over the years, the subject lost popularity. However, now it has become very popular again. Public and private schools are trying to find more people who can teach Latin. It is unclear exactly how many young people in the United States are studying Latin. However, officials say about one-hundred-thirty-five-thousand students are taking a test called the National Latin Exam this year. In nineteen seventy-eight, only six-thousand students took the test. The National Junior Classical League is an organization for students interested in Latin and Greek. It has grown one-hundred percent in the last twenty-five years. It has more than fifty-thousand members in the United States, Canada and Australia. Latin has not been spoken as a language since the early fifteen-hundreds. However, educators say there are good reasons for students to study it today. For example, knowing Latin can help people understand their own language better. Many modern and scientific terms came from Latin. Most words in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French had their beginnings in Latin. People who know Latin can read ancient books like the “Aeneid” (ee-NEE-id) by the Roman poet Virgil. Some experts say young people who have studied Latin do better in college. Methods of teaching Latin in American schools have changed. Older Americans who learned Latin as children spent a lot of time repeating different forms of the words. They read books in Latin about ancient battles and wars. Today, however, many Latin schoolbooks tell about the lives of young people in ancient Rome. Students learn about Roman culture while they study the language. Some schools offer special activities for their students. For example, the public schools of Chicago, Illinois hold a yearly event called Latin Olympics. It takes place at the University of Illinois. Students take part in three competitions, depending on their age. Competitions include written tests in reading Latin, Roman life and history. Other competitions offer awards for the best Roman art and clothing. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Latin was the language of the ancient Roman Empire. It was the main language of western Europe for hundreds of years. Seventy years ago, many American students studied Latin in school. Then, over the years, the subject lost popularity. However, now it has become very popular again. Public and private schools are trying to find more people who can teach Latin. It is unclear exactly how many young people in the United States are studying Latin. However, officials say about one-hundred-thirty-five-thousand students are taking a test called the National Latin Exam this year. In nineteen seventy-eight, only six-thousand students took the test. The National Junior Classical League is an organization for students interested in Latin and Greek. It has grown one-hundred percent in the last twenty-five years. It has more than fifty-thousand members in the United States, Canada and Australia. Latin has not been spoken as a language since the early fifteen-hundreds. However, educators say there are good reasons for students to study it today. For example, knowing Latin can help people understand their own language better. Many modern and scientific terms came from Latin. Most words in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French had their beginnings in Latin. People who know Latin can read ancient books like the “Aeneid” (ee-NEE-id) by the Roman poet Virgil. Some experts say young people who have studied Latin do better in college. Methods of teaching Latin in American schools have changed. Older Americans who learned Latin as children spent a lot of time repeating different forms of the words. They read books in Latin about ancient battles and wars. Today, however, many Latin schoolbooks tell about the lives of young people in ancient Rome. Students learn about Roman culture while they study the language. Some schools offer special activities for their students. For example, the public schools of Chicago, Illinois hold a yearly event called Latin Olympics. It takes place at the University of Illinois. Students take part in three competitions, depending on their age. Competitions include written tests in reading Latin, Roman life and history. Other competitions offer awards for the best Roman art and clothing. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-5-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - June 14, 2002: Global Warming Threatens Himalayas
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new report says the Himalayan mountains of south Asia are threatened by the warming of the Earth’s climate. The report says human activities are partly responsible for the warming temperatures. The climate changes threaten people’s lives, the local economy and the environment. The United Nations Environment Program produced the report with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, based in Nepal. It was released June fifth in connection with World Environment Day and the United Nations Year of the Mountain. The Himalayas are the highest mountain system in the world. They extend from Pakistan across Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayas include Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. A team of mountain climbers from Britain, New Zealand and Chile recently traveled to the Himalayas. They gathered information about the environment. They spoke to Buddhist monks, local people and other travelers about the condition of the world’s most famous mountains. Their findings confirmed the U-N report. The mountain climbers found that warmer weather has been melting huge mountains of ice in the Himalayas. These melting glaciers are creating lakes that could overflow and flood wide areas. Temperatures in the area have risen one degree Celsius during the past thirty years. Satellite maps show that the glaciers are shrinking at a rate of thirty to forty meters each year. The study identified almost five-thousand glacier lakes in Nepal and Bhutan. Researchers say forty-four of these lakes could overflow during the next five years. U-N officials say this flooding could have serious effects on local communities and the environment. However, they say it may be possible to remove water from the lakes before they overflow and use that water to create energy. Researchers say the Himalayas have been harmed by an increase in visitors to the area, over-cutting of trees and other environmental destruction. Observers say community action is helping to restore the mountain environment. However, U-N officials say the glacier melt in the Himalayas should be a warning to industrial countries to reduce heat-trapping gases that cause global warming. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new report says the Himalayan mountains of south Asia are threatened by the warming of the Earth’s climate. The report says human activities are partly responsible for the warming temperatures. The climate changes threaten people’s lives, the local economy and the environment. The United Nations Environment Program produced the report with the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, based in Nepal. It was released June fifth in connection with World Environment Day and the United Nations Year of the Mountain. The Himalayas are the highest mountain system in the world. They extend from Pakistan across Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayas include Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. A team of mountain climbers from Britain, New Zealand and Chile recently traveled to the Himalayas. They gathered information about the environment. They spoke to Buddhist monks, local people and other travelers about the condition of the world’s most famous mountains. Their findings confirmed the U-N report. The mountain climbers found that warmer weather has been melting huge mountains of ice in the Himalayas. These melting glaciers are creating lakes that could overflow and flood wide areas. Temperatures in the area have risen one degree Celsius during the past thirty years. Satellite maps show that the glaciers are shrinking at a rate of thirty to forty meters each year. The study identified almost five-thousand glacier lakes in Nepal and Bhutan. Researchers say forty-four of these lakes could overflow during the next five years. U-N officials say this flooding could have serious effects on local communities and the environment. However, they say it may be possible to remove water from the lakes before they overflow and use that water to create energy. Researchers say the Himalayas have been harmed by an increase in visitors to the area, over-cutting of trees and other environmental destruction. Observers say community action is helping to restore the mountain environment. However, U-N officials say the glacier melt in the Himalayas should be a warning to industrial countries to reduce heat-trapping gases that cause global warming. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-6-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - June 12, 2002: Lutein
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Recent research has suggested that a nutrient called lutein (LOO-teen) may improve health in more ways than had been thought. Lutein is found in green, leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce. It is also found in other fruits and vegetables such as oranges, corn and broccoli. And it is found in the yellow part of eggs. Lutein is also found in the human eye. Lutein and similar substances known as carotenoids (ca-ROT-en-oids) make up the color in the macula, the area of the eye responsible for seeing fine detail. Studies have suggested that greater amounts of carotenoids increase the color of the macula. Scientists believe that more color protects the macula from damage. A study in the publication “Optometry” says that eating more foods with lutein may improve vision in people with eye problems. Another study linked greater levels of carotenoids with reduced early signs of macular damage. And two large studies have linked lutein to fewer problems with the eye condition called cataracts. Now, research has begun to show that lutein can protect health in other ways. A report in the publication, "Circulation," says it may reduce the chance of heart attack and stroke. People with higher blood levels of lutein had less of a harmful substance inside their blood vessels. One study found that people in Toulouse, France had high levels of lutein and a low rate of heart disease. The study also found that people in Belfast, Ireland had much lower levels of lutein and a much higher rate of heart disease. Other studies have suggested that lutein may protect against cancers of the breast and colon. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts, have shown that lutein in dark green, leafy vegetables can protect the skin against sun damage. The researchers fed foods containing lutein to a group of mice for two weeks. Another group of mice got normal food. The researchers shined ultraviolet light on all the mice for twenty-two weeks. The mice treated with lutein developed fewer and smaller cancerous growths and survived longer than the others. Some people try to increase their lutein levels by taking the nutrient in a pill. However, experts say the protection thought to be provided by lutein could be the result of many nutrients in the foods tested. They say people should eat more foods that contain lutein. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Recent research has suggested that a nutrient called lutein (LOO-teen) may improve health in more ways than had been thought. Lutein is found in green, leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce. It is also found in other fruits and vegetables such as oranges, corn and broccoli. And it is found in the yellow part of eggs. Lutein is also found in the human eye. Lutein and similar substances known as carotenoids (ca-ROT-en-oids) make up the color in the macula, the area of the eye responsible for seeing fine detail. Studies have suggested that greater amounts of carotenoids increase the color of the macula. Scientists believe that more color protects the macula from damage. A study in the publication “Optometry” says that eating more foods with lutein may improve vision in people with eye problems. Another study linked greater levels of carotenoids with reduced early signs of macular damage. And two large studies have linked lutein to fewer problems with the eye condition called cataracts. Now, research has begun to show that lutein can protect health in other ways. A report in the publication, "Circulation," says it may reduce the chance of heart attack and stroke. People with higher blood levels of lutein had less of a harmful substance inside their blood vessels. One study found that people in Toulouse, France had high levels of lutein and a low rate of heart disease. The study also found that people in Belfast, Ireland had much lower levels of lutein and a much higher rate of heart disease. Other studies have suggested that lutein may protect against cancers of the breast and colon. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts, have shown that lutein in dark green, leafy vegetables can protect the skin against sun damage. The researchers fed foods containing lutein to a group of mice for two weeks. Another group of mice got normal food. The researchers shined ultraviolet light on all the mice for twenty-two weeks. The mice treated with lutein developed fewer and smaller cancerous growths and survived longer than the others. Some people try to increase their lutein levels by taking the nutrient in a pill. However, experts say the protection thought to be provided by lutein could be the result of many nutrients in the foods tested. They say people should eat more foods that contain lutein. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-10-7-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - June 13, 2002: World War Two / Science
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Hiroshima(Picture - U.S. National Library of Medicine) VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) World War Two ended with one of the most important events in the history of warfare, science, and technology. A team of American scientists, working in secrecy, designed and built the first atomic bombs. President Harry Truman made the decision to use these weapons against Japan. America's use of atomic weapons brought to an end a terrible worldwide conflict. But it also marked the beginning of the modern nuclear period. And it showed the growing importance of science and technology in a modern economy and military system. VOICE 2: The leaders of the United States have been interested in science since the early days of the nation. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were famous not only as great political leaders, but as inventors and scientists. President Abraham Lincoln and the Congress established the National Academy of Sciences during the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. And in the early nineteen-hundreds, the nation created scientific offices to study and improve agriculture, public health, and air travel. by The start of World War One in nineteen-fourteen, the federal government was using scientists in many ways. President Woodrow Wilson created the National Research Council to organize the work of scientists and engineers to win the war. However, government support for science before World War Two generally was quite limited. The government was willing to pay for research only to meet certain clear goals, such as better weapons or military transport systems. VOICE 1: World War Two greatly changed the traditional, limited relationship between American scientists and the federal government in Washington. In the early years of the war, the German forces of Adolf Hitler showed the world the strength of their new tanks, guns, and other weapons. American President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the United States would need to develop modern weapons of its own if it entered the war. For this reason, Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in nineteen-forty to support and organize research on weapons. The new committee included some of the top scientists in America. Among its members were the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Bell Laboratories. The committee did its work so well that Roosevelt later formed an even more powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development. VOICE 2: The leader of both groups was a great scientist and organizer named Vannevar Bush. Bush had long experience as a professor of electrical engineering and as an inventor. Many scientists knew him. Bush put together a hard-working team. And in the years that followed, American scientists and engineers developed one invention after another to help the war effort. Scientists developed new devices to help the navy find German submarines. They improved methods for bomber planes to find their targets. And they developed more powerful rockets to protect American troops when they landed on foreign beaches. American scientists and doctors also made great progress in improving the methods of wartime medicine. World War Two may well have been the first war in history in which a wounded soldier was more likely to survive than to die. VOICE 1: The most important scientific development by far, however, was the invention of the atomic bomb. In nineteen-thirty-nine, scientist Albert Einstein wrote President Roosevelt a letter. Einstein told the president that it might soon be possible to build a weapon that would use the power of the atom to cause terrible destruction. And he urged Roosevelt to get American scientists to build the atomic bomb before German scientists could build one. Roosevelt agreed. He created a special team of scientists. Their work became known as the Manhattan Project. Roosevelt made sure that these scientists got all the money and supplies they needed. VOICE 2: Roosevelt died before the scientists could complete their work. But in April, nineteen-forty-five, the scientists told the new president, Harry Truman, that they were almost ready to test the atomic bomb. And just three months later, they exploded the world's first atomic weapon in a test in the southwestern state of New Mexico. Truman had to make a difficult decision. He knew the atomic weapon would cause major death and suffering if it was used on a Japanese city. But he was willing to do anything to avoid the need for American troops to invade Japan. Such an invasion surely would be a long, bloody struggle. A new prime minister and government in Japan were searching for a way to end the war. But Truman believed that the Japanese still were not ready to surrender. And he felt it was his duty to end the war as soon as possible. VOICE 1: On August sixth, nineteen-forty-five, the first bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. It killed nearly eighty-thousand people and destroyed a great many buildings. Three days later, a second bomb fell on the city of Nagasaki. It, too, caused great destruction in human life and property. The bombs left Japan's rulers with no choice. In less than one week, they surrendered. Truman always defended his decision strongly. "I understand the tragic importance of the atomic bomb," he told the world by radio shortly after the two bombings. "We knew our enemies also were searching for this secret. And we know the disaster that would have come to this nation and to all peaceful nations if they had found it. "Having found the bomb," said Truman, "We have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us. And we have used it to shorten the suffering of war, and to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans." VOICE 2: American scientists and engineers proved that wars could be won with research as well as with bullets. And all Americans learned how much could be gained when government, scientists, and universities worked together for common goals. Roosevelt had understood this long before the war ended. He asked Vannevar Bush to study how the federal government could work with scientists and universities in peacetime. Bush studied the problem. And he offered a number of ideas to president Truman at the end of the war. Bush told the president that science was important to America's progress and safety. He called on the federal government to support scientific study and education. Professor Bush said that the nation's universities should be greatly strengthened. He called for the creation of a new government agency to provide money for useful science projects. VOICE 1: Truman and the Congress agreed with Bush. And in the next few years, they helped the American scientific and research effort to grow to new size and strength. In nineteen-forty-six, an office of naval research was created to support basic science study in the universities. In the same year, the government created the atomic energy commission to develop nuclear energy for military and peaceful uses. And in nineteen-fifty, it created the powerful National Science Foundation to provide support to thousands of the nation's best scientists. VOICE 2: In the years that followed, American science would grow beyond the wildest dreams of Vannevar Bush or the other scientists who worked during World War Two. Universities would add thousands of new students. They would build new laboratories, book collections, and study centers. By the middle of the nineteen-sixties, the federal government would spend more than thirteen-thousand-million dollars each year for research and development. And five-hundred new centers of higher learning would be created. This investment would help Make the United States the world's leader in such fields as computer science, genetics, and space travel. (Theme) Voice one You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. (Theme) World War Two ended with one of the most important events in the history of warfare, science, and technology. A team of American scientists, working in secrecy, designed and built the first atomic bombs. President Harry Truman made the decision to use these weapons against Japan. America's use of atomic weapons brought to an end a terrible worldwide conflict. But it also marked the beginning of the modern nuclear period. And it showed the growing importance of science and technology in a modern economy and military system. VOICE 2: The leaders of the United States have been interested in science since the early days of the nation. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were famous not only as great political leaders, but as inventors and scientists. President Abraham Lincoln and the Congress established the National Academy of Sciences during the Civil War in the eighteen-sixties. And in the early nineteen-hundreds, the nation created scientific offices to study and improve agriculture, public health, and air travel. by The start of World War One in nineteen-fourteen, the federal government was using scientists in many ways. President Woodrow Wilson created the National Research Council to organize the work of scientists and engineers to win the war. However, government support for science before World War Two generally was quite limited. The government was willing to pay for research only to meet certain clear goals, such as better weapons or military transport systems. VOICE 1: World War Two greatly changed the traditional, limited relationship between American scientists and the federal government in Washington. In the early years of the war, the German forces of Adolf Hitler showed the world the strength of their new tanks, guns, and other weapons. American President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the United States would need to develop modern weapons of its own if it entered the war. For this reason, Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in nineteen-forty to support and organize research on weapons. The new committee included some of the top scientists in America. Among its members were the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Bell Laboratories. The committee did its work so well that Roosevelt later formed an even more powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development. VOICE 2: The leader of both groups was a great scientist and organizer named Vannevar Bush. Bush had long experience as a professor of electrical engineering and as an inventor. Many scientists knew him. Bush put together a hard-working team. And in the years that followed, American scientists and engineers developed one invention after another to help the war effort. Scientists developed new devices to help the navy find German submarines. They improved methods for bomber planes to find their targets. And they developed more powerful rockets to protect American troops when they landed on foreign beaches. American scientists and doctors also made great progress in improving the methods of wartime medicine. World War Two may well have been the first war in history in which a wounded soldier was more likely to survive than to die. VOICE 1: The most important scientific development by far, however, was the invention of the atomic bomb. In nineteen-thirty-nine, scientist Albert Einstein wrote President Roosevelt a letter. Einstein told the president that it might soon be possible to build a weapon that would use the power of the atom to cause terrible destruction. And he urged Roosevelt to get American scientists to build the atomic bomb before German scientists could build one. Roosevelt agreed. He created a special team of scientists. Their work became known as the Manhattan Project. Roosevelt made sure that these scientists got all the money and supplies they needed. VOICE 2: Roosevelt died before the scientists could complete their work. But in April, nineteen-forty-five, the scientists told the new president, Harry Truman, that they were almost ready to test the atomic bomb. And just three months later, they exploded the world's first atomic weapon in a test in the southwestern state of New Mexico. Truman had to make a difficult decision. He knew the atomic weapon would cause major death and suffering if it was used on a Japanese city. But he was willing to do anything to avoid the need for American troops to invade Japan. Such an invasion surely would be a long, bloody struggle. A new prime minister and government in Japan were searching for a way to end the war. But Truman believed that the Japanese still were not ready to surrender. And he felt it was his duty to end the war as soon as possible. VOICE 1: On August sixth, nineteen-forty-five, the first bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. It killed nearly eighty-thousand people and destroyed a great many buildings. Three days later, a second bomb fell on the city of Nagasaki. It, too, caused great destruction in human life and property. The bombs left Japan's rulers with no choice. In less than one week, they surrendered. Truman always defended his decision strongly. "I understand the tragic importance of the atomic bomb," he told the world by radio shortly after the two bombings. "We knew our enemies also were searching for this secret. And we know the disaster that would have come to this nation and to all peaceful nations if they had found it. "Having found the bomb," said Truman, "We have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us. And we have used it to shorten the suffering of war, and to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans." VOICE 2: American scientists and engineers proved that wars could be won with research as well as with bullets. And all Americans learned how much could be gained when government, scientists, and universities worked together for common goals. Roosevelt had understood this long before the war ended. He asked Vannevar Bush to study how the federal government could work with scientists and universities in peacetime. Bush studied the problem. And he offered a number of ideas to president Truman at the end of the war. Bush told the president that science was important to America's progress and safety. He called on the federal government to support scientific study and education. Professor Bush said that the nation's universities should be greatly strengthened. He called for the creation of a new government agency to provide money for useful science projects. VOICE 1: Truman and the Congress agreed with Bush. And in the next few years, they helped the American scientific and research effort to grow to new size and strength. In nineteen-forty-six, an office of naval research was created to support basic science study in the universities. In the same year, the government created the atomic energy commission to develop nuclear energy for military and peaceful uses. And in nineteen-fifty, it created the powerful National Science Foundation to provide support to thousands of the nation's best scientists. VOICE 2: In the years that followed, American science would grow beyond the wildest dreams of Vannevar Bush or the other scientists who worked during World War Two. Universities would add thousands of new students. They would build new laboratories, book collections, and study centers. By the middle of the nineteen-sixties, the federal government would spend more than thirteen-thousand-million dollars each year for research and development. And five-hundred new centers of higher learning would be created. This investment would help Make the United States the world's leader in such fields as computer science, genetics, and space travel. (Theme) Voice one You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: June 13, 2002 - Slangman: Whimsy
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 13, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 16, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, some whimsy to liven up your vocabulary! RS: Slangman David Burke brings us some words and phrases that, in most cases, have been around a long time, and are just plain fun to say. AA: How did David find these words? Well, it seems that he just got a letter from his mother ... BURKE: "To my dear son, Slangman, today I went to your rich Aunt Janet's housewarming because she wanted me to see her new nice apartment. She kept telling me how nice it was. Nice-shmice. It was so fancy-shamcny." AA: "You're making fun of it." BURKE: "When you make fun of it, you kind of have contempt for it, you feel negative toward it. But fancy-shmancy is really popular, and that word we tend to use not just negatively but also when we're kind of impressed too. It depends on the context. We could easily walk into a house and say, 'Wow this is really fancy-shmancy.' "So then she continues and says, 'I could never live in a place that was so frou-frou.' This is a very common word which means overly decorated. And then she goes on to say, 'All the paintings were so artsy-fartsy.' I love this one." RS: So do a lot of people. It's an adjective meaning "pretentiously or affectedly artistic," according to American Heritage Dictionary -- which also warns that its usage might be considered vulgar. AA: Now back to rich Aunt Janet's new apartment, which is filled with lots of little things. Trivial stuff. And what word does "Slangmom" choose for that? One that the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary dates back to 1682. RS: That word is "knickknacks." BURKE: "There were so many knickknacks there it was hard to find a place to sit. And as for her taste in decorating, her apartment was a mishmash of different styles.' Now we'd say mishmash or mishmosh, I've heard both, which means a jumbled, confused mix. 'At least she keeps her apartment spick-and-span.' Well, spick-and-span is extremely clean, you can't get much cleaner than spick-and-span. And what's interesting, because Americans use reductions, just for casual conversations, sometimes a reduction must be used or it isn't really correct. So spick-and-span is never pronounced that way. We always say 'spick-n-span,' and it needs to be pronounced that way. "So my mother continues and she says, 'Anyway, your aunt introduced me to the other guests who were all so hoity-toity.' This is a great word. 'Hoity-toity' means really pretentious, overly pretentious. 'I felt like riff-raff compared to these people.' Well, 'riff-raff' is a derogatory term for common people, people who don't have a lot of money, they're just average, everyday people, but they're considered lower class, at least compared to people who are hoity-toity." RS: "The people who are hoity-toity are looking down at the riff-raff." BURKE: "Exactly, hoity-toity people look down on the riff-raff. Well, 'then some woman wearing expensive shoes which frankly, in my opinion, looked more like flip-flops.'" RS: "Sandals." BURKE: "Flip-flops are sandals, right. 'Well, this woman came up to chitchat with me.' To chitchat is either a verb or a noun. To chitchat means to have a light, friendly conversation. 'She went on-and-on.' Now we use a lot of repeating words. On-and-on simply means to continue to talk non-stop. 'This woman went on-and-on with all her exaggerated stories. "In fact, after 20 minutes, it was clear she wasn't on the up-and-up,' which means she wasn't really being completely honest. Now we don't say 'up-and-up.' We must use the reduction, apostrophe-n, to be on the up 'n up, to be honest. So she wasn't really on the up-and-up, 'and we couldn't see eye-to-eye.' Again, another repeating group." AA: "One thing, getting back to up-and-up and on-and-on, when you write those out, though, you do spell out the a-n-d rather than ... " BURKE: "You know, it's interesting. There's really a choice there, because if you're writing something more formally, you would say 'the person spoke to me and went on and on.' However, in a comic strip, for example, we tend to write how we speak, so in a comic strip you would probably see 'on 'n on.'" RS: Now, we could go on 'n on, but we're running out of time, so we'll playfully say 'tah-tah' … or goodbye … for now to our friend, Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. AA: You can learn all about his English teaching books and other materials at slangman.com. Now to find the script and audio of this and other Wordmaster programs, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "On and On"/Stephen Bishop 1977 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 13, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 16, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, some whimsy to liven up your vocabulary! RS: Slangman David Burke brings us some words and phrases that, in most cases, have been around a long time, and are just plain fun to say. AA: How did David find these words? Well, it seems that he just got a letter from his mother ... BURKE: "To my dear son, Slangman, today I went to your rich Aunt Janet's housewarming because she wanted me to see her new nice apartment. She kept telling me how nice it was. Nice-shmice. It was so fancy-shamcny." AA: "You're making fun of it." BURKE: "When you make fun of it, you kind of have contempt for it, you feel negative toward it. But fancy-shmancy is really popular, and that word we tend to use not just negatively but also when we're kind of impressed too. It depends on the context. We could easily walk into a house and say, 'Wow this is really fancy-shmancy.' "So then she continues and says, 'I could never live in a place that was so frou-frou.' This is a very common word which means overly decorated. And then she goes on to say, 'All the paintings were so artsy-fartsy.' I love this one." RS: So do a lot of people. It's an adjective meaning "pretentiously or affectedly artistic," according to American Heritage Dictionary -- which also warns that its usage might be considered vulgar. AA: Now back to rich Aunt Janet's new apartment, which is filled with lots of little things. Trivial stuff. And what word does "Slangmom" choose for that? One that the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary dates back to 1682. RS: That word is "knickknacks." BURKE: "There were so many knickknacks there it was hard to find a place to sit. And as for her taste in decorating, her apartment was a mishmash of different styles.' Now we'd say mishmash or mishmosh, I've heard both, which means a jumbled, confused mix. 'At least she keeps her apartment spick-and-span.' Well, spick-and-span is extremely clean, you can't get much cleaner than spick-and-span. And what's interesting, because Americans use reductions, just for casual conversations, sometimes a reduction must be used or it isn't really correct. So spick-and-span is never pronounced that way. We always say 'spick-n-span,' and it needs to be pronounced that way. "So my mother continues and she says, 'Anyway, your aunt introduced me to the other guests who were all so hoity-toity.' This is a great word. 'Hoity-toity' means really pretentious, overly pretentious. 'I felt like riff-raff compared to these people.' Well, 'riff-raff' is a derogatory term for common people, people who don't have a lot of money, they're just average, everyday people, but they're considered lower class, at least compared to people who are hoity-toity." RS: "The people who are hoity-toity are looking down at the riff-raff." BURKE: "Exactly, hoity-toity people look down on the riff-raff. Well, 'then some woman wearing expensive shoes which frankly, in my opinion, looked more like flip-flops.'" RS: "Sandals." BURKE: "Flip-flops are sandals, right. 'Well, this woman came up to chitchat with me.' To chitchat is either a verb or a noun. To chitchat means to have a light, friendly conversation. 'She went on-and-on.' Now we use a lot of repeating words. On-and-on simply means to continue to talk non-stop. 'This woman went on-and-on with all her exaggerated stories. "In fact, after 20 minutes, it was clear she wasn't on the up-and-up,' which means she wasn't really being completely honest. Now we don't say 'up-and-up.' We must use the reduction, apostrophe-n, to be on the up 'n up, to be honest. So she wasn't really on the up-and-up, 'and we couldn't see eye-to-eye.' Again, another repeating group." AA: "One thing, getting back to up-and-up and on-and-on, when you write those out, though, you do spell out the a-n-d rather than ... " BURKE: "You know, it's interesting. There's really a choice there, because if you're writing something more formally, you would say 'the person spoke to me and went on and on.' However, in a comic strip, for example, we tend to write how we speak, so in a comic strip you would probably see 'on 'n on.'" RS: Now, we could go on 'n on, but we're running out of time, so we'll playfully say 'tah-tah' … or goodbye … for now to our friend, Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles. AA: You can learn all about his English teaching books and other materials at slangman.com. Now to find the script and audio of this and other Wordmaster programs, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. RS: And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "On and On"/Stephen Bishop 1977 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 14, 2002: New Memorial to Dr. Seuss / Question About Father's Day / Music by Bonnie Raitt
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs from Bonnie Raitt ... Answer a question about Father’s Day ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some songs from Bonnie Raitt ... Answer a question about Father’s Day ... And report about a new memorial to a famous writer of children’s books. Doctor Seuss Memorial HOST: The writer Theodor Seuss Geisel has been honored with a new memorial in Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel was better known as Doctor Seuss. He became famous because of the books he wrote for children. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield in nineteen-oh-four. He spent his early years there, before attending college. Geisel hoped to become a writer of serious literature. However, in the nineteen-thirties the American economy entered a period known as the Great Depression. This forced him to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. Instead, he found work as a creator of advertising campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew pictures for popular magazines. And report about a new memorial to a famous writer of children’s books. Doctor Seuss Memorial HOST: The writer Theodor Seuss Geisel has been honored with a new memorial in Springfield, Massachusetts. Geisel was better known as Doctor Seuss. He became famous because of the books he wrote for children. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield in nineteen-oh-four. He spent his early years there, before attending college. Geisel hoped to become a writer of serious literature. However, in the nineteen-thirties the American economy entered a period known as the Great Depression. This forced him to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. Instead, he found work as a creator of advertising campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew pictures for popular magazines. Geisel began to write books for children in nineteen-thirty-seven. He called himself Doctor Seuss. His first book is called “And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Geisel wrote more than forty books for children. Doctor Seuss books are fun to read. Yet they deal with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. The books contain pictures of funny creatures and plants. Geisel was not trained in art. Yet he drew the pictures for most of his books. Doctor Seuss books are popular with young readers and their parents. Children enjoy the invented words. They also like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat and Sam-I-Am. The new Doctor Seuss National Memorial opened earlier this month, eleven years after Theodor Geisel died. The opening celebrations included public readings of his books and a parade down Springfield’s own Mulberry Street. The memorial park has several metal statues of Doctor Seuss creations. There is even one of the writer himself. It shows him busy at work, with the Cat in the Hat at his side. Children can climb on the statues. For example, visitors can explore a statue of Horton the Elephant that is almost five meters tall. Horton and other creatures appear to be spilling out of an open book. There also is a large chair and a book that is more than three meters tall. The book has all the words of Doctor Seuss’s last book, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.” Father’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Fei Zhang asks about Father’s Day in America. The idea for Father’s Day started in nineteen-oh-nine. A woman named Sonora Dodd was living in the northwestern state of Washington. She thought about starting a Father’s Day holiday while listening to a Mother’s Day speech at church. Misses Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. He had fought in the American Civil War. Later, his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mister Smart raised the baby and his other five children on a farm in Washington state. When Sonora Dodd became an adult, she recognized how kind and loving her father had been while raising his six children alone. She believed her father had worked very hard to make sure his children grew up healthy and strong. Sonora’s father was born in June. So she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on June nineteenth, nineteen-ten. In nineteen-twenty-four, President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the idea of a national Father’s Day. Then, in nineteen-sixty-six, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential statement declaring the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. In early times, wearing flowers was a traditional way to celebrate Father’s Day. People wore red roses to honor fathers who were still living. White flowers were worn to honor fathers who had died. Today, Americans celebrate Father’s Day in many different ways. Some families take their fathers out to a restaurant for a meal. Others give their fathers gifts or cards with special messages of thanks. Children living far away call their fathers on the telephone to wish them a happy Father’s Day. However the holiday is celebrated, the idea is for children to let their father know that he is valued and loved. As one historian in America has said, “Lucky is the man who hears many small voices call him father.” Bonnie Raitt HOST: Bonnie Raitt has released a new album called “Silver Lining.” It is her sixteenth record album since nineteen-seventy-one. Mizz Raitt says making the album was a good experience. She says she worked on the quality of her music, instead of being worried about earning money or becoming more famous. Now, the fifty-two-year-old musician feels she has reached the best part of her life. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Bonnie Raitt says she loves to make records so that she can travel and perform in public. Her age has not slowed her down. Mizz Raitt believes she is more creative and has more energy today than when she was younger. Bonnie Raitt says one song on her new album best describes where she is in her life. That song is “Time of Our Lives.” ((CUT 1: TIME OF OUR LIVES)) Bonnie Raitt is known for mixing country and blues music with rock and roll and folk music. However, this album also has an international sound. Her trips to Africa and Cuba helped influence some of the music. Habib Koite (ha-BEEB ko-EE-tay) from Mali helped write the song “Back Around.” Traditional blues music from America mixes with African beats to create a new sound for Bonnie Raitt. ((CUT 2: BACK AROUND)) “Silver Lining” also includes music written by new and mostly unknown songwriters. For example, British musician David Gray wrote the title song on the album. Bonnie Raitt says she spent the last few years searching the world for excellent new songwriters. We leave you with the title song from her latest album, “Silver Lining.” ((CUT 3: SILVER LINING)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Jill Moss. Our studio engineer was Tom O’Brien. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Geisel began to write books for children in nineteen-thirty-seven. He called himself Doctor Seuss. His first book is called “And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Geisel wrote more than forty books for children. Doctor Seuss books are fun to read. Yet they deal with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment. The books contain pictures of funny creatures and plants. Geisel was not trained in art. Yet he drew the pictures for most of his books. Doctor Seuss books are popular with young readers and their parents. Children enjoy the invented words. They also like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat and Sam-I-Am. The new Doctor Seuss National Memorial opened earlier this month, eleven years after Theodor Geisel died. The opening celebrations included public readings of his books and a parade down Springfield’s own Mulberry Street. The memorial park has several metal statues of Doctor Seuss creations. There is even one of the writer himself. It shows him busy at work, with the Cat in the Hat at his side. Children can climb on the statues. For example, visitors can explore a statue of Horton the Elephant that is almost five meters tall. Horton and other creatures appear to be spilling out of an open book. There also is a large chair and a book that is more than three meters tall. The book has all the words of Doctor Seuss’s last book, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go.” Father’s Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Fei Zhang asks about Father’s Day in America. The idea for Father’s Day started in nineteen-oh-nine. A woman named Sonora Dodd was living in the northwestern state of Washington. She thought about starting a Father’s Day holiday while listening to a Mother’s Day speech at church. Misses Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. He had fought in the American Civil War. Later, his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mister Smart raised the baby and his other five children on a farm in Washington state. When Sonora Dodd became an adult, she recognized how kind and loving her father had been while raising his six children alone. She believed her father had worked very hard to make sure his children grew up healthy and strong. Sonora’s father was born in June. So she chose to hold the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on June nineteenth, nineteen-ten. In nineteen-twenty-four, President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the idea of a national Father’s Day. Then, in nineteen-sixty-six, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential statement declaring the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. In early times, wearing flowers was a traditional way to celebrate Father’s Day. People wore red roses to honor fathers who were still living. White flowers were worn to honor fathers who had died. Today, Americans celebrate Father’s Day in many different ways. Some families take their fathers out to a restaurant for a meal. Others give their fathers gifts or cards with special messages of thanks. Children living far away call their fathers on the telephone to wish them a happy Father’s Day. However the holiday is celebrated, the idea is for children to let their father know that he is valued and loved. As one historian in America has said, “Lucky is the man who hears many small voices call him father.” Bonnie Raitt HOST: Bonnie Raitt has released a new album called “Silver Lining.” It is her sixteenth record album since nineteen-seventy-one. Mizz Raitt says making the album was a good experience. She says she worked on the quality of her music, instead of being worried about earning money or becoming more famous. Now, the fifty-two-year-old musician feels she has reached the best part of her life. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Bonnie Raitt says she loves to make records so that she can travel and perform in public. Her age has not slowed her down. Mizz Raitt believes she is more creative and has more energy today than when she was younger. Bonnie Raitt says one song on her new album best describes where she is in her life. That song is “Time of Our Lives.” ((CUT 1: TIME OF OUR LIVES)) Bonnie Raitt is known for mixing country and blues music with rock and roll and folk music. However, this album also has an international sound. Her trips to Africa and Cuba helped influence some of the music. Habib Koite (ha-BEEB ko-EE-tay) from Mali helped write the song “Back Around.” Traditional blues music from America mixes with African beats to create a new sound for Bonnie Raitt. ((CUT 2: BACK AROUND)) “Silver Lining” also includes music written by new and mostly unknown songwriters. For example, British musician David Gray wrote the title song on the album. Bonnie Raitt says she spent the last few years searching the world for excellent new songwriters. We leave you with the title song from her latest album, “Silver Lining.” ((CUT 3: SILVER LINING)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Jill Moss. Our studio engineer was Tom O’Brien. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – June 17, 2002: Reform of the FBI
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 16, 2002: Billy Wilder
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Billy Wilder. He was the director of some of the greatest American movies. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Billy Wilder. He was the director of some of the greatest American movies. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many experts say that Billy Wilder changed the history of American movies. He is often called the best moviemaker Hollywood has ever had. He was known for making movies that offered sharp social comment and adult sexual situations. Wilder was one of the first directors to do this. Between the middle nineteen-thirties and the nineteen-eighties, Billy Wilder made almost fifty movies. During that time he received more than twenty nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He won six of the Oscar awards. His movies have been seen by people around the world. Wilder made famous movies like “Sunset Boulevard”, “Some Like It Hot”, and “Double Indemnity.” He also directed “The Lost Weekend”, “The Apartment”, and the “The Seven Year Itch.” VOICE TWO: Samuel Wilder was born in nineteen-six in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birthplace is now part of Poland. His mother had enjoyed spending several years in the United States when she was young. So she called him Billy because she thought it sounded American. Billy Wilder started law school in Vienna, Austria. Then he decided not to become a lawyer. Instead, he began reporting for a Vienna newspaper. By the nineteen-twenties, he was writing movies in Germany. However, the Nazis had risen to power in the nation. Wilder was Jewish, and he recognized that he had no future in Nazi Germany. In nineteen-thirty-three, he went to Paris. There he directed a movie for the first time. It was called “The Bad Seed.” Then he received word that producers in the United States had accepted one of his scripts. Billy Wilder left Europe for America. VOICE ONE: Billy Wilder had only eleven dollars when he arrived to settle in the United States in nineteen-thirty-four. He decided to live in the center of American movie making: Hollywood, California. At the time, many people who had left Germany were working there. They helped Wilder get jobs. After a while he formed a writing team with Charles Brackett. The two writers created many films together. Wilder and Brackett wrote several successful movies. One was the nineteen-thirty-nine movie, “Ninotchka”, starring Greta Garbo. Ernst Lubitsch (LOO bich) directed the film. Wilder always praised this man as a friend and teacher whose humor and expert direction greatly influenced his work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In his love stories, Billy Wilder did not follow the Hollywood tradition of sweet boy-meets-girl situations. He had an unusual way of showing relations between men and women. For example, one of his most successful films was “Hold Back the Dawn.” The French actor Charles Boyer plays a refugee in this nineteen-forty-one film. He marries an American woman so he can enter the United States. In nineteen-forty-four, Billy Wilder made a film called “Double Indemnity.” Some critics said this movie established him as one of the greatest Hollywood directors. It told a vicious story about a married woman and her boyfriend. They plot the death of her husband. Charles Brackett thought the story was not moral. So the famous American mystery writer Raymond Chandler was asked to help write the script. VOICE ONE: As a director, Billy Wilder often violated Hollywood customs about social issues. For example, someone who drinks too much alcohol had rarely been a movie subject. Then Wilder directed “The Lost Weekend” in nineteen-forty-five. Charles Brackett returned to work on the movie with him. They developed the script from a book by Charles Jackson. Ray Milland plays the part of an alcoholic writer in the movie. It shows the alcohol rules his life yet he does not admit it. He hides alcohol in his home and says he is not drinking. VOICE TWO: Reports at the time said manufacturers of alcoholic drinks tried to suppress the movie. They did not succeed. The public and critics praised “The Lost Weekend” for its painful honesty. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Ray Milland the best-actor award. Billy Wilder won two Academy Awards. One honored his part in writing the script. The other honored his direction. “The Lost Weekend” also won the first Grand Prix –first prize --of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Wilder had become an American citizen in nineteen-thirty-nine. After the war, Wilder was asked by the United States Army to go to Germany to help re-organize the movie industry and radio media. The Nazi government had used both for its propaganda. While in Germany, Wilder learned that the Nazis had murdered his sister, his mother and his mother’s husband. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty, Wilder made “Sunset Boulevard.” This movie told of an aging actress in silent movies. She plans to return to movies. Gloria Swanson played this star. More than fifty years later, movie-lovers can still repeat some of her lines. In one of the famous lines in “Sunset Boulevard,” Miz Swanson remembers telling the famous director Cecil B. DeMille that she is prepared for him to start filming: ((CUT ONE: “I’m ready for my close-up, Mister DeMille.”)) VOICE TWO: “Sunset Boulevard” won three Academy awards. One honored the writing team of Wilder, Brackett and D. M. Marshman Junior. The movie marked the last time Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote together. Wilder also was highly praised for “Stalag Seventeen”, which he both produced and directed. The movie mixes humor and wartime realism. William Holden plays a dishonest American war prisoner in a World War Two German camp for Allied servicemen. Holden won the nineteen-fifty-three Academy Award for his part. Wilder was nominated for best director. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-four, Billy Wilder became an independent producer. He left Paramount Pictures, the motion-picture company he had worked with for many years. He left after company officials cut many anti-Nazi comments from a version of “Stalag Seventeen.” That version was to be shown in Germany. The next year, Wilder’s first movie as an independent filmmaker was a huge success. It was “The Seven Year Itch.” He developed the movie from a play by George Axelrod. In this movie, a married man wants to cheat on his wife with a beautiful golden-haired young woman. Marilyn Monroe played the young woman. The part launched her as a major Hollywood success. Some critics said Marilyn Monroe gave her best performances under Billy Wilder’s direction. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-nine, Wilder made a funny movie that was very popular. I. A. L. Diamond joined Wilder in writing “Some Like It Hot.” It tells about two jazz musicians being chased by criminals. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play the musicians. They decide to wear women’s clothes and join a band in which all the musicians were women. Marilyn Monroe plays one of the band members. She wants to make Lemmon and Curtis believe she is a musician. MONROE: “I’m Sugar Kane." MAN: "Hi." WOMAN: "Sugar Kane?" MONROE: "Yeah, I changed it. It used to be Sugar Kowalczyk." MAN: "Polish?" MONROE: "Yes. I come from this musical family. My mother is a piano teacher. My father was a conductor." WOMAN: ”Where did he conduct?" MONROE: "On the Baltimore and Ohio [railroad]." VOICE ONE: Billy Wilder continued to make interesting movies through the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies. As usual, he filled his movies with social comment and sexual situations. Over the years, however, other writers and directors also did this. By the nineteen-eighties Wilder no longer was considered the most unusual creative moviemaker in Hollywood. VOICE TWO: In recent years, however, Billy Wilder received many more awards and honors. Critics praised his gifts to movie making. In nineteen-eighty-seven, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. It is the highest award a producer can receive. Wilder died in March, two-thousand-two. He was ninety-five. A current Hollywood producer said, “Billy Wilder made movies that people will never forget.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Many experts say that Billy Wilder changed the history of American movies. He is often called the best moviemaker Hollywood has ever had. He was known for making movies that offered sharp social comment and adult sexual situations. Wilder was one of the first directors to do this. Between the middle nineteen-thirties and the nineteen-eighties, Billy Wilder made almost fifty movies. During that time he received more than twenty nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He won six of the Oscar awards. His movies have been seen by people around the world. Wilder made famous movies like “Sunset Boulevard”, “Some Like It Hot”, and “Double Indemnity.” He also directed “The Lost Weekend”, “The Apartment”, and the “The Seven Year Itch.” VOICE TWO: Samuel Wilder was born in nineteen-six in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. His birthplace is now part of Poland. His mother had enjoyed spending several years in the United States when she was young. So she called him Billy because she thought it sounded American. Billy Wilder started law school in Vienna, Austria. Then he decided not to become a lawyer. Instead, he began reporting for a Vienna newspaper. By the nineteen-twenties, he was writing movies in Germany. However, the Nazis had risen to power in the nation. Wilder was Jewish, and he recognized that he had no future in Nazi Germany. In nineteen-thirty-three, he went to Paris. There he directed a movie for the first time. It was called “The Bad Seed.” Then he received word that producers in the United States had accepted one of his scripts. Billy Wilder left Europe for America. VOICE ONE: Billy Wilder had only eleven dollars when he arrived to settle in the United States in nineteen-thirty-four. He decided to live in the center of American movie making: Hollywood, California. At the time, many people who had left Germany were working there. They helped Wilder get jobs. After a while he formed a writing team with Charles Brackett. The two writers created many films together. Wilder and Brackett wrote several successful movies. One was the nineteen-thirty-nine movie, “Ninotchka”, starring Greta Garbo. Ernst Lubitsch (LOO bich) directed the film. Wilder always praised this man as a friend and teacher whose humor and expert direction greatly influenced his work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In his love stories, Billy Wilder did not follow the Hollywood tradition of sweet boy-meets-girl situations. He had an unusual way of showing relations between men and women. For example, one of his most successful films was “Hold Back the Dawn.” The French actor Charles Boyer plays a refugee in this nineteen-forty-one film. He marries an American woman so he can enter the United States. In nineteen-forty-four, Billy Wilder made a film called “Double Indemnity.” Some critics said this movie established him as one of the greatest Hollywood directors. It told a vicious story about a married woman and her boyfriend. They plot the death of her husband. Charles Brackett thought the story was not moral. So the famous American mystery writer Raymond Chandler was asked to help write the script. VOICE ONE: As a director, Billy Wilder often violated Hollywood customs about social issues. For example, someone who drinks too much alcohol had rarely been a movie subject. Then Wilder directed “The Lost Weekend” in nineteen-forty-five. Charles Brackett returned to work on the movie with him. They developed the script from a book by Charles Jackson. Ray Milland plays the part of an alcoholic writer in the movie. It shows the alcohol rules his life yet he does not admit it. He hides alcohol in his home and says he is not drinking. VOICE TWO: Reports at the time said manufacturers of alcoholic drinks tried to suppress the movie. They did not succeed. The public and critics praised “The Lost Weekend” for its painful honesty. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Ray Milland the best-actor award. Billy Wilder won two Academy Awards. One honored his part in writing the script. The other honored his direction. “The Lost Weekend” also won the first Grand Prix –first prize --of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. World War Two ended in nineteen-forty-five. Wilder had become an American citizen in nineteen-thirty-nine. After the war, Wilder was asked by the United States Army to go to Germany to help re-organize the movie industry and radio media. The Nazi government had used both for its propaganda. While in Germany, Wilder learned that the Nazis had murdered his sister, his mother and his mother’s husband. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty, Wilder made “Sunset Boulevard.” This movie told of an aging actress in silent movies. She plans to return to movies. Gloria Swanson played this star. More than fifty years later, movie-lovers can still repeat some of her lines. In one of the famous lines in “Sunset Boulevard,” Miz Swanson remembers telling the famous director Cecil B. DeMille that she is prepared for him to start filming: ((CUT ONE: “I’m ready for my close-up, Mister DeMille.”)) VOICE TWO: “Sunset Boulevard” won three Academy awards. One honored the writing team of Wilder, Brackett and D. M. Marshman Junior. The movie marked the last time Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote together. Wilder also was highly praised for “Stalag Seventeen”, which he both produced and directed. The movie mixes humor and wartime realism. William Holden plays a dishonest American war prisoner in a World War Two German camp for Allied servicemen. Holden won the nineteen-fifty-three Academy Award for his part. Wilder was nominated for best director. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-fifty-four, Billy Wilder became an independent producer. He left Paramount Pictures, the motion-picture company he had worked with for many years. He left after company officials cut many anti-Nazi comments from a version of “Stalag Seventeen.” That version was to be shown in Germany. The next year, Wilder’s first movie as an independent filmmaker was a huge success. It was “The Seven Year Itch.” He developed the movie from a play by George Axelrod. In this movie, a married man wants to cheat on his wife with a beautiful golden-haired young woman. Marilyn Monroe played the young woman. The part launched her as a major Hollywood success. Some critics said Marilyn Monroe gave her best performances under Billy Wilder’s direction. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-fifty-nine, Wilder made a funny movie that was very popular. I. A. L. Diamond joined Wilder in writing “Some Like It Hot.” It tells about two jazz musicians being chased by criminals. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis play the musicians. They decide to wear women’s clothes and join a band in which all the musicians were women. Marilyn Monroe plays one of the band members. She wants to make Lemmon and Curtis believe she is a musician. MONROE: “I’m Sugar Kane." MAN: "Hi." WOMAN: "Sugar Kane?" MONROE: "Yeah, I changed it. It used to be Sugar Kowalczyk." MAN: "Polish?" MONROE: "Yes. I come from this musical family. My mother is a piano teacher. My father was a conductor." WOMAN: ”Where did he conduct?" MONROE: "On the Baltimore and Ohio [railroad]." VOICE ONE: Billy Wilder continued to make interesting movies through the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies. As usual, he filled his movies with social comment and sexual situations. Over the years, however, other writers and directors also did this. By the nineteen-eighties Wilder no longer was considered the most unusual creative moviemaker in Hollywood. VOICE TWO: In recent years, however, Billy Wilder received many more awards and honors. Critics praised his gifts to movie making. In nineteen-eighty-seven, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. It is the highest award a producer can receive. Wilder died in March, two-thousand-two. He was ninety-five. A current Hollywood producer said, “Billy Wilder made movies that people will never forget.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – June 17, 2002: New TB Vaccine to be Tested
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists are preparing to test the safety of a new vaccine medicine that could protect people against tuberculosis. Earlier this month, researchers at the World Congress on Tuberculosis in Washington, D.C., announced the testing. It is to begin by the end of this year in San Francisco, California. This will be the first time in nearly eighty years that a new vaccine has been tested against T-B. Researchers say the new vaccine is a form of an old vaccine called B-C-G. This vaccine is only partly effective in preventing the disease. It is used in developing countries to prevent severe tuberculosis in children. However, B-C-G does not protect adults from the disease. About two-million people die from T-B each year. Currently, about one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Their infection is inactive. T-B infection can remain inactive in a person’s lungs for years, or even a lifetime. The disease becomes active in about ten percent of all cases. T-B causes a high body temperature and coughing. Infected people spread the disease by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. Someone with active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt progression of the disease. The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that T-B patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course, or DOTS. Health officials are working hard to expand the program around the world. However, only twenty-seven percent of all tuberculosis cases are discovered and treated within the DOTS program. Health experts say a new vaccine to prevent T-B is very important. The last new drug to treat T-B was created more than forty years ago. Since that time, different forms of the disease have become resistant to drugs currently being used. However, researchers believe this is about to change because of the discovery of the genetic structure of the bacterium that causes the disease. That discovery four years ago has helped scientists better understand how T-B bacteria work. It also has given researchers information to help them develop new drugs and vaccines. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Scientists are preparing to test the safety of a new vaccine medicine that could protect people against tuberculosis. Earlier this month, researchers at the World Congress on Tuberculosis in Washington, D.C., announced the testing. It is to begin by the end of this year in San Francisco, California. This will be the first time in nearly eighty years that a new vaccine has been tested against T-B. Researchers say the new vaccine is a form of an old vaccine called B-C-G. This vaccine is only partly effective in preventing the disease. It is used in developing countries to prevent severe tuberculosis in children. However, B-C-G does not protect adults from the disease. About two-million people die from T-B each year. Currently, about one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Their infection is inactive. T-B infection can remain inactive in a person’s lungs for years, or even a lifetime. The disease becomes active in about ten percent of all cases. T-B causes a high body temperature and coughing. Infected people spread the disease by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. Someone with active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt progression of the disease. The World Health Organization has a five-step program to guarantee that T-B patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course, or DOTS. Health officials are working hard to expand the program around the world. However, only twenty-seven percent of all tuberculosis cases are discovered and treated within the DOTS program. Health experts say a new vaccine to prevent T-B is very important. The last new drug to treat T-B was created more than forty years ago. Since that time, different forms of the disease have become resistant to drugs currently being used. However, researchers believe this is about to change because of the discovery of the genetic structure of the bacterium that causes the disease. That discovery four years ago has helped scientists better understand how T-B bacteria work. It also has given researchers information to help them develop new drugs and vaccines. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - June 15, 2002: Bush Proposes New Security Department
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. President Bush has proposed creating a new federal agency. If approved by Congress, the Department of Homeland Security would become the fifteenth cabinet-level department of the United States government. Its creation would be the largest government re-organization in more than fifty years. The proposal calls for the new agency to be divided into four parts. One part, Border and Transportation Security, would unite control of federal security operations linked to borders, territorial waters and transportation systems. A second part of the agency would be Emergency Preparedness and Response. It would supervise federal government assistance in training emergency workers and direct the government’s disaster reaction efforts. Another part would deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. It would lead efforts to prepare for and react to terrorist threats involving such weapons. And, the fourth part of the proposed department would combine and examine intelligence and other information gathered by many organizations. The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are among the organizations that gather information. Parts of about twenty-two separate government organizations would be included in the Department of Homeland Security. The Secret Service, the Customs Service, the Coast Guard, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service are among them. About one-hundred-seventy-thousand people would be employed in the new agency. Its proposed first year budget is about thirty-seven-thousand-million dollars. That is about one-tenth the current budget for the Department of Defense. The President has not yet named possible candidates to lead the proposed department. The head of the new department would be a member of the cabinet. Many observers expect the current director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, will be a nominee. Congressional leaders of both parties have been calling for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security for months. They have met with Mister Bush to discuss his proposal. Both parties say they expect several congressional committees will get chances to re-shape the proposal. Congressional leaders promised to pass some version of it by September eleventh. That will be the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States. Several lawmakers have said that they want a new homeland security department to have more control over the C-I-A and the F-B-I. The House and Senate are currently holding hearings about possible intelligence failures by those agencies in connection with the September eleventh attacks. This VOA Special English In The News program was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. President Bush has proposed creating a new federal agency. If approved by Congress, the Department of Homeland Security would become the fifteenth cabinet-level department of the United States government. Its creation would be the largest government re-organization in more than fifty years. The proposal calls for the new agency to be divided into four parts. One part, Border and Transportation Security, would unite control of federal security operations linked to borders, territorial waters and transportation systems. A second part of the agency would be Emergency Preparedness and Response. It would supervise federal government assistance in training emergency workers and direct the government’s disaster reaction efforts. Another part would deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats. It would lead efforts to prepare for and react to terrorist threats involving such weapons. And, the fourth part of the proposed department would combine and examine intelligence and other information gathered by many organizations. The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are among the organizations that gather information. Parts of about twenty-two separate government organizations would be included in the Department of Homeland Security. The Secret Service, the Customs Service, the Coast Guard, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service are among them. About one-hundred-seventy-thousand people would be employed in the new agency. Its proposed first year budget is about thirty-seven-thousand-million dollars. That is about one-tenth the current budget for the Department of Defense. The President has not yet named possible candidates to lead the proposed department. The head of the new department would be a member of the cabinet. Many observers expect the current director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, will be a nominee. Congressional leaders of both parties have been calling for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security for months. They have met with Mister Bush to discuss his proposal. Both parties say they expect several congressional committees will get chances to re-shape the proposal. Congressional leaders promised to pass some version of it by September eleventh. That will be the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States. Several lawmakers have said that they want a new homeland security department to have more control over the C-I-A and the F-B-I. The House and Senate are currently holding hearings about possible intelligence failures by those agencies in connection with the September eleventh attacks. This VOA Special English In The News program was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - June 18, 2002: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about problems in medical reporting. We tell about the use of a drug that makes baseball players stronger. And we tell about powerful ocean storms called hurricanes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about problems in medical reporting. We tell about the use of a drug that makes baseball players stronger. And we tell about powerful ocean storms called hurricanes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The Journal of the American Medical Association -- JAMA -- is one of the world’s leading medical publications. It provides reports on the latest developments in medicine. This month, the magazine examined the way it and other medical publications do their work. It discovered problems in the quality of information produced by the publications. One JAMA report found that published studies often use numbers that make experimental drugs or treatments look better than they really are. The report said some of the problem is caused by conflicts of interest among scientists. VOICE TWO: Medical publications use a system called “peer review.” Under this system, scientists write a report about their research and send it to a medical publication. The editor of the publication sends the report to other medical experts for advice. Those experts check for mistakes and make suggestions that the editor uses in deciding to publish the report or reject it. However, there may be conflicts of interest among scientists doing similar research. VOICE ONE: Catherine DeAngelis is editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. She said problems were most likely to happen in research paid for by drug companies. Drug companies are interested in findings that make their products look good. Editors of medical publications are concerned that drug companies sometimes influence how researchers report study results and may even suppress some findings. Many top medical publications require researchers to tell if they have any ties to drug companies. Editors at these publications depend on researchers to be honest about such ties. But that does not always happen. VOICE TWO: In another report in JAMA, the editor of The Lancet studied ten medical research reports published in his magazine. He found that some of the writers did not include critical comments from other people involved in the research. He said disagreements among researchers about a study’s findings happened often but were not always included in the reports. Another report in JAMA criticized medical publications for the information they provide to newspapers and other media. Most publications prepare press releases about studies they publish. These press releases are written to increase the chance that newspapers will publish stories about the studies. Two American doctors examined more than one-hundred press releases from JAMA and six other medical publications. They found that press releases often lacked important information, such as limitations of the study or that a drug company paid for the study. VOICE ONE: JAMA also dealt with the issue of reporting about medical research presented at scientific conferences. It said the media often report about this research even though the research may not be completed. Sometimes the research findings are later found to contain mistakes. The media often present early research results to the public as scientifically correct evidence when this may not be true. Critics are concerned that findings presented in medical publications and other media are not always correct. Doctor DeAngelis said the special issue of JAMA is an attempt to examine medical publications and to make sure they are as correct and honest as possible. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Drugs called anabolic steroids are back in the news. Anabolic steroids increase the size and strength of muscles. Ken Caminiti, a former baseball player, admitted last month that he used steroids. Caminiti told Sports Illustrated magazine that he took the drugs to improve his performance in nineteen-ninety-six. That is when he was named the Most Valuable Player in North American baseball’s National League. Caminiti and another recently retired player say that steroid use is common among professional baseball players. Their comments have caused much discussion throughout the United States. VOICE ONE: Steroids are products of the male hormone testosterone. A normal adult male produces between two and eleven milligrams of testosterone a day. A steroid user takes more than one-hundred milligrams a day. Side effects of steroid use can include heart and liver damage, stroke, high blood cholesterol levels, aggression and disorders of the reproductive system. In young people, steroids can affect the bones, limiting a person’s height. VOICE TWO: In the United States, anabolic steroids are illegal, unless a doctor advises their use for health reasons. The National Football League and National Basketball Association ban steroids. They test players to make sure they are not using the drugs. The International Olympic Committee also bans the drugs. Major League Baseball, however, has no policy on steroids and does not test players for the drugs. Yet baseball’s top administrator admits that steroids are a problem. A ban on steroid use in baseball would have to be negotiated as part of an agreement between team owners and the players. Some players say they want testing for steroids. Others say that would be an invasion of their privacy rights. Ken Caminiti is recovering from problems with alcohol and illegal drugs. He says steroids made him bigger and stronger. Yet he admits that he now suffers side effects from using the drugs. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Early every summer, weather scientists in North America prepare for a new season of powerful ocean storms. These storms are called hurricanes. The word “hurricane” comes from the language of people who lived on islands in the Caribbean Sea before Europeans arrived. They experienced strong ocean storms usually caused by weather movements off the coast of North Africa. These weather events gather force as they move west toward the Caribbean and North America. A storm is called a hurricane when its wind speed becomes greater than one-hundred-twenty kilometers an hour. Some huge storms cause great loss of life and thousands of millions of dollars in damage. VOICE TWO: Understanding the movements of storms and hurricanes is the job of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Today, many electronic tools make the job of weather scientists, or meteorologists, easier. Satellites observe weather from space. New radar instruments gain information about weather movements. And, airplanes can drop special instruments into storms that record large amounts of information about air movements. One computer program, called Hurritrack, permits meteorologists to see all the information about weather that the National Hurricane Center collects. VOICE ONE: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has estimated the number of hurricanes for each year since nineteen-ninety-eight. This year, NOAA expects six to eight hurricanes and nine to thirteen powerful Atlantic Ocean storms. Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean lasts from the beginning of June to the end of November. Also, a weather event called El Nino will affect storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean this year. El Nino is caused by unusual warm currents of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It affects weather around the world. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-seven, El Nino caused storms, floods and severe weather that were blamed for more than twenty-thousand deaths. NOAA expects this year’s El Nino to be weaker than in past years. Yet, meteorologists warn that this year’s hurricane season could be severe. Mike Black is the field director of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA. He says that hurricanes remain a mystery to meteorologists even though they have more tools to study them than ever before. He says the complex forces that cause hurricanes to grow in strength are still not well understood. Meteorology still cannot tell us what weather events like hurricanes will do in the future. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. The Journal of the American Medical Association -- JAMA -- is one of the world’s leading medical publications. It provides reports on the latest developments in medicine. This month, the magazine examined the way it and other medical publications do their work. It discovered problems in the quality of information produced by the publications. One JAMA report found that published studies often use numbers that make experimental drugs or treatments look better than they really are. The report said some of the problem is caused by conflicts of interest among scientists. VOICE TWO: Medical publications use a system called “peer review.” Under this system, scientists write a report about their research and send it to a medical publication. The editor of the publication sends the report to other medical experts for advice. Those experts check for mistakes and make suggestions that the editor uses in deciding to publish the report or reject it. However, there may be conflicts of interest among scientists doing similar research. VOICE ONE: Catherine DeAngelis is editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. She said problems were most likely to happen in research paid for by drug companies. Drug companies are interested in findings that make their products look good. Editors of medical publications are concerned that drug companies sometimes influence how researchers report study results and may even suppress some findings. Many top medical publications require researchers to tell if they have any ties to drug companies. Editors at these publications depend on researchers to be honest about such ties. But that does not always happen. VOICE TWO: In another report in JAMA, the editor of The Lancet studied ten medical research reports published in his magazine. He found that some of the writers did not include critical comments from other people involved in the research. He said disagreements among researchers about a study’s findings happened often but were not always included in the reports. Another report in JAMA criticized medical publications for the information they provide to newspapers and other media. Most publications prepare press releases about studies they publish. These press releases are written to increase the chance that newspapers will publish stories about the studies. Two American doctors examined more than one-hundred press releases from JAMA and six other medical publications. They found that press releases often lacked important information, such as limitations of the study or that a drug company paid for the study. VOICE ONE: JAMA also dealt with the issue of reporting about medical research presented at scientific conferences. It said the media often report about this research even though the research may not be completed. Sometimes the research findings are later found to contain mistakes. The media often present early research results to the public as scientifically correct evidence when this may not be true. Critics are concerned that findings presented in medical publications and other media are not always correct. Doctor DeAngelis said the special issue of JAMA is an attempt to examine medical publications and to make sure they are as correct and honest as possible. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Drugs called anabolic steroids are back in the news. Anabolic steroids increase the size and strength of muscles. Ken Caminiti, a former baseball player, admitted last month that he used steroids. Caminiti told Sports Illustrated magazine that he took the drugs to improve his performance in nineteen-ninety-six. That is when he was named the Most Valuable Player in North American baseball’s National League. Caminiti and another recently retired player say that steroid use is common among professional baseball players. Their comments have caused much discussion throughout the United States. VOICE ONE: Steroids are products of the male hormone testosterone. A normal adult male produces between two and eleven milligrams of testosterone a day. A steroid user takes more than one-hundred milligrams a day. Side effects of steroid use can include heart and liver damage, stroke, high blood cholesterol levels, aggression and disorders of the reproductive system. In young people, steroids can affect the bones, limiting a person’s height. VOICE TWO: In the United States, anabolic steroids are illegal, unless a doctor advises their use for health reasons. The National Football League and National Basketball Association ban steroids. They test players to make sure they are not using the drugs. The International Olympic Committee also bans the drugs. Major League Baseball, however, has no policy on steroids and does not test players for the drugs. Yet baseball’s top administrator admits that steroids are a problem. A ban on steroid use in baseball would have to be negotiated as part of an agreement between team owners and the players. Some players say they want testing for steroids. Others say that would be an invasion of their privacy rights. Ken Caminiti is recovering from problems with alcohol and illegal drugs. He says steroids made him bigger and stronger. Yet he admits that he now suffers side effects from using the drugs. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Early every summer, weather scientists in North America prepare for a new season of powerful ocean storms. These storms are called hurricanes. The word “hurricane” comes from the language of people who lived on islands in the Caribbean Sea before Europeans arrived. They experienced strong ocean storms usually caused by weather movements off the coast of North Africa. These weather events gather force as they move west toward the Caribbean and North America. A storm is called a hurricane when its wind speed becomes greater than one-hundred-twenty kilometers an hour. Some huge storms cause great loss of life and thousands of millions of dollars in damage. VOICE TWO: Understanding the movements of storms and hurricanes is the job of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Today, many electronic tools make the job of weather scientists, or meteorologists, easier. Satellites observe weather from space. New radar instruments gain information about weather movements. And, airplanes can drop special instruments into storms that record large amounts of information about air movements. One computer program, called Hurritrack, permits meteorologists to see all the information about weather that the National Hurricane Center collects. VOICE ONE: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has estimated the number of hurricanes for each year since nineteen-ninety-eight. This year, NOAA expects six to eight hurricanes and nine to thirteen powerful Atlantic Ocean storms. Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean lasts from the beginning of June to the end of November. Also, a weather event called El Nino will affect storms forming in the Atlantic Ocean this year. El Nino is caused by unusual warm currents of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It affects weather around the world. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-seven, El Nino caused storms, floods and severe weather that were blamed for more than twenty-thousand deaths. NOAA expects this year’s El Nino to be weaker than in past years. Yet, meteorologists warn that this year’s hurricane season could be severe. Mike Black is the field director of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA. He says that hurricanes remain a mystery to meteorologists even though they have more tools to study them than ever before. He says the complex forces that cause hurricanes to grow in strength are still not well understood. Meteorology still cannot tell us what weather events like hurricanes will do in the future. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – June 18, 2002: Sunflower Rubber
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Many farmers grow sunflower plants. The tall plants produce beautiful flowers and seeds that are good to eat. They also produce a high quality oil for cooking. American scientists are hoping that sunflowers soon will become known for their rubber. The scientists are attempting to improve the quality and amount of latex from sunflower plants. Latex is made of rubber particles, water and other plant substances. It is a higher value product than solid rubber. The scientists believe that sunflowers could reduce America’s dependence on imported natural rubber and rubber made from oil products. The United States imports more than one-million tons of natural rubber each year. The Department of Agriculture says the rubber imports cost about one-thousand-million dollars a year. Katrina Cornish is an expert on how plants produce rubber. She works with the United States government’s Agricultural Research Service office in Albany, California. Mizz Cornish notes that more than two-thousand-five-hundred kinds of plants produce natural latex. However, she says that few of the plants have the qualities that scientists want. Most plants are too small or grow too slowly. Others do not produce enough latex, or the latex they produce is not good enough. Mizz Cornish says sunflowers are large and grow quickly. Currently, the quality and amount of latex produced from sunflowers is not good enough to be used to make products. However, scientists expect to improve it through methods of genetic engineering. Mizz Cornish and her team are experimenting with several different kinds of sunflowers. She is working with scientists from Colorado State University and Oregon State University. They are interested in the kinds of plants that produce the highest amounts of latex in stems and leaves. They are working with sunflower plants that grow in northern areas where most of the American sunflower crop is grown. Mizz Cornish plans to add laboratory-made genes for latex production to sunflower tissue. Next, she will test the tissue to find out if the new genes are working inside the sunflower’s cells. Later tests will identify the genetically engineered plants that produce the highest amounts of the best quality latex. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Many farmers grow sunflower plants. The tall plants produce beautiful flowers and seeds that are good to eat. They also produce a high quality oil for cooking. American scientists are hoping that sunflowers soon will become known for their rubber. The scientists are attempting to improve the quality and amount of latex from sunflower plants. Latex is made of rubber particles, water and other plant substances. It is a higher value product than solid rubber. The scientists believe that sunflowers could reduce America’s dependence on imported natural rubber and rubber made from oil products. The United States imports more than one-million tons of natural rubber each year. The Department of Agriculture says the rubber imports cost about one-thousand-million dollars a year. Katrina Cornish is an expert on how plants produce rubber. She works with the United States government’s Agricultural Research Service office in Albany, California. Mizz Cornish notes that more than two-thousand-five-hundred kinds of plants produce natural latex. However, she says that few of the plants have the qualities that scientists want. Most plants are too small or grow too slowly. Others do not produce enough latex, or the latex they produce is not good enough. Mizz Cornish says sunflowers are large and grow quickly. Currently, the quality and amount of latex produced from sunflowers is not good enough to be used to make products. However, scientists expect to improve it through methods of genetic engineering. Mizz Cornish and her team are experimenting with several different kinds of sunflowers. She is working with scientists from Colorado State University and Oregon State University. They are interested in the kinds of plants that produce the highest amounts of latex in stems and leaves. They are working with sunflower plants that grow in northern areas where most of the American sunflower crop is grown. Mizz Cornish plans to add laboratory-made genes for latex production to sunflower tissue. Next, she will test the tissue to find out if the new genes are working inside the sunflower’s cells. Later tests will identify the genetically engineered plants that produce the highest amounts of the best quality latex. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – June 19, 2002: Walking
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers agree that intense physical exercise is not the only way to gain better health. Studies show that walking several times a week can lower the risk of many diseases. They include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bone loss, arthritis and depression. Walking also can help you lose weight. Fast walking is good for the heart. It lowers the blood pressure. It raises the amount of good cholesterol in the blood. Researchers say walking can reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack by as much as fifty percent. Studies have shown that walking for thirty minutes a day can delay and possibly prevent the development of Type Two Diabetes. It can prevent diabetes among people who are overweight and at risk for the disease. Walking strengthens the muscles and builds up the bones to which they are attached. Studies show that women who walked and took calcium decreased their risk of developing osteoporosis or thinning of the bones. Walking also helps ease the pain of arthritis in areas where bones are joined by strengthening the muscles around the bones. Walking several times a week is a good way to control your weight and even lose body fat. Studies show it also helps ease depression, feelings of extreme sadness. Experts say walking is one of the safest ways to exercise. There is a low risk of injuries. So it is good for people who are starting an exercise program for the first time and for older people. A walking program is easy to start. You should wear loose clothes and good shoes. Shoes designed for walking are best. You should stretch the muscles in your arms, legs, and back before and after you walk. Stretching is an important part of any exercise program. It helps prevent injury and muscle pain. How fast should you walk? You should be breathing hard while you are walking. Yet, you should be able to talk. Let your arms move back and forward at your sides while you walk. There are no rules to starting a walking program. You may walk short distances. Or you may walk up hills to strengthen your leg muscles. Health experts say you can gain the most from a walking program if you walk about five kilometers an hour for thirty minutes a day. You should do this about five times a week. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Researchers agree that intense physical exercise is not the only way to gain better health. Studies show that walking several times a week can lower the risk of many diseases. They include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, bone loss, arthritis and depression. Walking also can help you lose weight. Fast walking is good for the heart. It lowers the blood pressure. It raises the amount of good cholesterol in the blood. Researchers say walking can reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack by as much as fifty percent. Studies have shown that walking for thirty minutes a day can delay and possibly prevent the development of Type Two Diabetes. It can prevent diabetes among people who are overweight and at risk for the disease. Walking strengthens the muscles and builds up the bones to which they are attached. Studies show that women who walked and took calcium decreased their risk of developing osteoporosis or thinning of the bones. Walking also helps ease the pain of arthritis in areas where bones are joined by strengthening the muscles around the bones. Walking several times a week is a good way to control your weight and even lose body fat. Studies show it also helps ease depression, feelings of extreme sadness. Experts say walking is one of the safest ways to exercise. There is a low risk of injuries. So it is good for people who are starting an exercise program for the first time and for older people. A walking program is easy to start. You should wear loose clothes and good shoes. Shoes designed for walking are best. You should stretch the muscles in your arms, legs, and back before and after you walk. Stretching is an important part of any exercise program. It helps prevent injury and muscle pain. How fast should you walk? You should be breathing hard while you are walking. Yet, you should be able to talk. Let your arms move back and forward at your sides while you walk. There are no rules to starting a walking program. You may walk short distances. Or you may walk up hills to strengthen your leg muscles. Health experts say you can gain the most from a walking program if you walk about five kilometers an hour for thirty minutes a day. You should do this about five times a week. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-17-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT — June 20, 2002: ESOL and Glebe School
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of students in American schools today are recent immigrants or children of immigrants. About ninety-percent of their families come from countries where English is not spoken. To succeed in school, the students need help to learn English. Many take part in a program called English for Speakers of Other Languages or ESOL (EE-sol). For example, Glebe Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia, has almost three-hundred students. More than twenty-five percent of these children study ESOL. Most of the children’s families are from Central and South America. Others are from Russia, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and East Asia. Students at the school have families from more than twenty-five countries. Some of these students recently helped VOA celebrate its sixtieth anniversary of broadcasting. They made birthday pictures and messages that are being shown at VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C. For example, Damaris Gaitan (Dah- MAHR-ees Guy-TAN) drew a round world to show that VOA broadcasts internationally. Damaris is in the fourth year of studies at Glebe Elementary School. Her family came here from El Salvador. Pat Nomina (NAHM-in-ah) teaches ESOL at Glebe Elementary School. Mizz Nomina uses several teaching methods. For example, she develops study guides about subjects like the seasons, science, history and the weather. Mizz Nomina says her students enjoy singing songs with English words. She says songs that repeat words are especially helpful. Students, parents and educators have praised the school’s ESOL program. However, education experts say many other American schools are not helping immigrant children who do not speak English well. They say not enough teachers are trained to work with these students. Schools may fail to check on their progress. Children may lose interest because they cannot understand what they hear and read. A new group formed by the federal government may improve this situation. Thirteen experts serve on this National Literacy Panel. They will examine research about teaching English to young speakers of other languages. Educators hope the experts’ work will help develop better ways to help immigrant children. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of students in American schools today are recent immigrants or children of immigrants. About ninety-percent of their families come from countries where English is not spoken. To succeed in school, the students need help to learn English. Many take part in a program called English for Speakers of Other Languages or ESOL (EE-sol). For example, Glebe Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia, has almost three-hundred students. More than twenty-five percent of these children study ESOL. Most of the children’s families are from Central and South America. Others are from Russia, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and East Asia. Students at the school have families from more than twenty-five countries. Some of these students recently helped VOA celebrate its sixtieth anniversary of broadcasting. They made birthday pictures and messages that are being shown at VOA headquarters in Washington, D.C. For example, Damaris Gaitan (Dah- MAHR-ees Guy-TAN) drew a round world to show that VOA broadcasts internationally. Damaris is in the fourth year of studies at Glebe Elementary School. Her family came here from El Salvador. Pat Nomina (NAHM-in-ah) teaches ESOL at Glebe Elementary School. Mizz Nomina uses several teaching methods. For example, she develops study guides about subjects like the seasons, science, history and the weather. Mizz Nomina says her students enjoy singing songs with English words. She says songs that repeat words are especially helpful. Students, parents and educators have praised the school’s ESOL program. However, education experts say many other American schools are not helping immigrant children who do not speak English well. They say not enough teachers are trained to work with these students. Schools may fail to check on their progress. Children may lose interest because they cannot understand what they hear and read. A new group formed by the federal government may improve this situation. Thirteen experts serve on this National Literacy Panel. They will examine research about teaching English to young speakers of other languages. Educators hope the experts’ work will help develop better ways to help immigrant children. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-17-5-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - June 21, 2002: International Whaling Commission
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Delegations from around the world attended a yearly meeting of the International Whaling Commission last month in Japan. The commission is deeply divided about the issue of whale hunting. Countries including Japan want to lift the ban on whale hunting ordered in nineteen-eighty-six. Countries including the United States support the ban. The whaling commission defeated a proposal to permit limited whale hunting for native people in the United States and Russia. These native people depend on whale meat for food. The commission voted to continue the worldwide ban on whale hunting. Japan has fought to end the ban on hunting some kinds of whales. Whale hunting is a cultural tradition in Japan. Environmental groups are opposed to killing whales. But Japan says whale populations have risen sharply since the ban was established. A year after the ban, Japan began hunting hundreds of whales. Japanese officials said these yearly hunts are necessary in order to study how whales feed and move in the oceans. Japan is permitted to sell meat collected during these whale hunts. But opponents dispute the value of Japan’s research. They say Japan is doing research in order to kill whales. They say whales can be studied without killing them. Japan says many kinds of whales have increased quickly and are eating too many fish. It says whales are harming the fishing industry. But American experts at the conference say there is no scientific evidence that whales are causing a decrease of fish in the oceans. They say decreasing fish populations are caused by people, not whales. This year, Japan plans to kill seven-hundred whales during hunts in Antarctic waters and the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The hunt includes one kind of whale that the World Conservation Union considers to be endangered. The international movement against whale hunting is having an effect in Japan. Some Japanese say they no longer want to eat whale meat because it costs too much and it is no longer a popular food. Norway is the only other major whale-hunting nation in the International Whaling Commission. Norway objected to the organization’s ban on killing whales and has continued to hunt them. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Delegations from around the world attended a yearly meeting of the International Whaling Commission last month in Japan. The commission is deeply divided about the issue of whale hunting. Countries including Japan want to lift the ban on whale hunting ordered in nineteen-eighty-six. Countries including the United States support the ban. The whaling commission defeated a proposal to permit limited whale hunting for native people in the United States and Russia. These native people depend on whale meat for food. The commission voted to continue the worldwide ban on whale hunting. Japan has fought to end the ban on hunting some kinds of whales. Whale hunting is a cultural tradition in Japan. Environmental groups are opposed to killing whales. But Japan says whale populations have risen sharply since the ban was established. A year after the ban, Japan began hunting hundreds of whales. Japanese officials said these yearly hunts are necessary in order to study how whales feed and move in the oceans. Japan is permitted to sell meat collected during these whale hunts. But opponents dispute the value of Japan’s research. They say Japan is doing research in order to kill whales. They say whales can be studied without killing them. Japan says many kinds of whales have increased quickly and are eating too many fish. It says whales are harming the fishing industry. But American experts at the conference say there is no scientific evidence that whales are causing a decrease of fish in the oceans. They say decreasing fish populations are caused by people, not whales. This year, Japan plans to kill seven-hundred whales during hunts in Antarctic waters and the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The hunt includes one kind of whale that the World Conservation Union considers to be endangered. The international movement against whale hunting is having an effect in Japan. Some Japanese say they no longer want to eat whale meat because it costs too much and it is no longer a popular food. Norway is the only other major whale-hunting nation in the International Whaling Commission. Norway objected to the organization’s ban on killing whales and has continued to hunt them. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-17-6-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - June 24, 2002: 'Facts for Life'
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Children’s Agency, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization have released a new version of a publication aimed at saving the lives of children. The book is called “Facts for Life.” It is filled with information about effective, low-cost ways to protect the health of young people. International health experts estimate nearly eleven-million children under the age of five die each year from preventable and treatable causes. About ninety percent of these deaths happen at home. Gro Harlem Brundtland heads the World Health Organization. She says that many deaths of children could be prevented if people understood what to do when children get sick. People should also know when to seek medical help. Doctor Brundtland says that pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles are the main killers of babies. She says diarrhea and measles can be treated for a very small amount of money. “Facts for Life” was first published in nineteen-eighty-nine. Since that time, officials say it has become one of the most widely-read books in the world. More than fifteen-million copies are being used in two- hundred countries. The information is important for parents, caregivers, health workers, teachers and government officials. This latest version has thirteen parts, each dealing with one major cause of child sickness and death. For example, one part deals mainly with AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. Other parts of the book have information about giving birth and breastfeeding. There is also information about child development, early learning, preventative medicines, healthy food, clean living conditions, emergencies and accidents. “Facts for Life” is offered in two-hundred-fifteen languages. The book is written in simple language so that all people can understand the medical information. The information in the book is based on the latest scientific findings. “Facts for Life” costs about seven dollars. You can order it or download the information from the UNICEF Internet Web site. The address is www.unicef.org. Or you can contact the UNICEF office or committee in your country. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Children’s Agency, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization have released a new version of a publication aimed at saving the lives of children. The book is called “Facts for Life.” It is filled with information about effective, low-cost ways to protect the health of young people. International health experts estimate nearly eleven-million children under the age of five die each year from preventable and treatable causes. About ninety percent of these deaths happen at home. Gro Harlem Brundtland heads the World Health Organization. She says that many deaths of children could be prevented if people understood what to do when children get sick. People should also know when to seek medical help. Doctor Brundtland says that pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles are the main killers of babies. She says diarrhea and measles can be treated for a very small amount of money. “Facts for Life” was first published in nineteen-eighty-nine. Since that time, officials say it has become one of the most widely-read books in the world. More than fifteen-million copies are being used in two- hundred countries. The information is important for parents, caregivers, health workers, teachers and government officials. This latest version has thirteen parts, each dealing with one major cause of child sickness and death. For example, one part deals mainly with AIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. Other parts of the book have information about giving birth and breastfeeding. There is also information about child development, early learning, preventative medicines, healthy food, clean living conditions, emergencies and accidents. “Facts for Life” is offered in two-hundred-fifteen languages. The book is written in simple language so that all people can understand the medical information. The information in the book is based on the latest scientific findings. “Facts for Life” costs about seven dollars. You can order it or download the information from the UNICEF Internet Web site. The address is www.unicef.org. Or you can contact the UNICEF office or committee in your country. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - June 19, 2002: Robert Goddard
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we report on some of the early research in the development of rockets. We tell the story of American physicist and rocket scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard. (THEME) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we report on some of the early research in the development of rockets. We tell the story of American physicist and rocket scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard once said that "the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." It was his scientific work that gave hope to many of our dreams about space ... and then turned them into reality. Robert Goddard's many studies and tests in the early Nineteen-Hundreds led to the first rocket. Then he developed rockets with more than one engine. Each engine pushed the rocket higher and higher out of Earth's atmosphere. His ideas are still used today. So, in a way, every rocket that flies today is a Goddard rocket. VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard was far ahead of his time. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in Nineteen-Oh-Three. Other scientists and inventors after that experimented with planes. But Robert Goddard wanted to make a machine that flew in a different way from a plane. He called his first two designs, "rocket apparatus." Goddard developed and flew many rockets that got their power from solid fuels -- chemicals made hard. Then, in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he made and tested the first rocket engine using a soft chemical fuel. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, he successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket. Many historians consider that rocket flight as important as the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers. Goddard's work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in Worcester, in the state of Massachusetts, in Eighteen-Eighty-Two. His father knew a lot about machines. When Robert was a child, his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. There his father became a part owner of a business that made knives for different machines. Robert was the only child. His mother suffered from the lung disease tuberculosis. She was sick and weak, because at that time, there were no medicines to treat tuberculosis successfully. Robert, too, was often sick. He could not keep up with his school work. His family moved back to Worcester when he was seventeen. He was almost too old to remain in high school. Yet he was behind other children his age. He was not a good student. He hated mathematics. This subject, of course, was what would help make him famous later. VOICE TWO: One beautiful autumn day, Robert was sitting in a tree in the back of his house. He was reading a book by British author H. G. Wells. The book was called War of the Worlds. Something strange happened to him. He later thought that perhaps Wells' book had something to do with it. "As I looked toward the fields in the east," he said, "I imagined how wonderful it would be to make something that could rise to the planet Mars. I imagined how this thing, in a small size, would look if sent up from the ground at my feet. I was a different boy when I came down from that tree. For, at last, my life seemed to have some purpose." VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard never talked much about what happened to him up in the tree on that day, October Nineteenth. But he celebrated October Nineteenth as a holiday for the rest of his life. On that day, he had formed the idea of making something that would go higher then anything had ever gone before. He felt this was the whole purpose of his life. He was sure he could do it. "I know," he said, "the first thing I must do is to get an education, especially in mathematics. Yes, I must become an expert in mathematics, even if I hate it." VOICE TWO: Two years passed before Robert was healthy enough to go back to school. He entered South High School in Worcester. He worked and worked until he no longer hated mathematics. Robert's father spent all his money to care for his sick wife. He did not have enough to pay for Robert's education after high school. Robert got financial help from others so he could go to a technical school in Worcester. There he had very good teachers. They helped him become an expert in mathematics and physics. VOICE ONE: Robert completed his studies at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and became a teacher of physics there. He also continued his studies at Clark University. He began to develop the idea of multiple-stage rockets. These were rockets with more than one engine. Each engine would push the rocket higher and higher. The power for the rockets would come from burning two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. After one year at Clark University, Robert went to Princeton College in New Jersey to do more studies on rockets. VOICE TWO: "Often," he said, "I worked all through the night. At last I learned how to send a rocket higher than anything had ever gone before. But the work was too much for me. I was feeling sick again. I had to stop my work and go to a doctor. "X-rays showed that, like my mother, I was very sick with tuberculosis. The doctor said I had just two weeks to live. He put me in bed for a long rest. But I meant to live. I told myself I could not die. I had work to do." VOICE ONE: At the end of two weeks, Robert Goddard was still alive. In time, he started to work again. In October, Nineteen-Thirteen, Goddard completed plans for his first rocket. In May of the next year, he completed plans for another rocket. These two plans are the first ever made for a rocket that would carry people into space. In Nineteen-Fourteen, he received two patents from the United States government to protect his rights to his inventions. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard received money from the Smithsonian Institution to help him continue his work. In Nineteen-Nineteen, the Smithsonian published several of his reports explaining his research. The publication was called "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." It told about his search for methods of raising weather recording instruments higher than balloons could go. It told about how he developed the mathematical theories of rockets. In the report, Goddard also noted the possibility of a rocket reaching the moon. There was a big dispute in the press about the possibility of this. Many people thought he was foolish for suggesting such an impossible thing. VOICE ONE: Goddard continued to need money to continue his research. The world famous pilot Charles Lindbergh helped him get money from the Guggenheim Foundation. Goddard quickly began to work on plans for bigger rockets. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he tested his rockets at a research center in Roswell, New Mexico. He tested the first rocket controlled by electricity. The control equipment was three-hundred meters from the place of launching. He also tested the first rocket controlled by a gyroscope. Gyroscopes help keep rockets aimed in the right direction. VOICE TWO: Goddard did all his work in the United States, yet his work became known around the world. Scientists in Germany used his ideas to help build the V-Two rocket that was used in World War Two. During World War Two, Goddard helped the United States Navy develop some rocket motors and ways to launch jet planes. He continued work he had begun at the end of World War One that led to the bazooka, a weapon that fires small rockets. VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard died in Ninety-Forty-Five of cancer. He was sixty-three years old. He had been sick most of his life, but he died a happy man. He received many honors for his work. He believed his life had been a full one. He felt lucky that the great dream that came to him, out of nowhere, when he was only seventeen years old had become real. VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard received a special honor many years after his death. In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the United States established the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington, D-C. It was the government's first major scientific laboratory used completely for space science. The Goddard Space Flight Center honors the man whose work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, on the Voice of America. Robert Goddard once said that "the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." It was his scientific work that gave hope to many of our dreams about space ... and then turned them into reality. Robert Goddard's many studies and tests in the early Nineteen-Hundreds led to the first rocket. Then he developed rockets with more than one engine. Each engine pushed the rocket higher and higher out of Earth's atmosphere. His ideas are still used today. So, in a way, every rocket that flies today is a Goddard rocket. VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard was far ahead of his time. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in Nineteen-Oh-Three. Other scientists and inventors after that experimented with planes. But Robert Goddard wanted to make a machine that flew in a different way from a plane. He called his first two designs, "rocket apparatus." Goddard developed and flew many rockets that got their power from solid fuels -- chemicals made hard. Then, in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he made and tested the first rocket engine using a soft chemical fuel. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, he successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket. Many historians consider that rocket flight as important as the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers. Goddard's work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in Worcester, in the state of Massachusetts, in Eighteen-Eighty-Two. His father knew a lot about machines. When Robert was a child, his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. There his father became a part owner of a business that made knives for different machines. Robert was the only child. His mother suffered from the lung disease tuberculosis. She was sick and weak, because at that time, there were no medicines to treat tuberculosis successfully. Robert, too, was often sick. He could not keep up with his school work. His family moved back to Worcester when he was seventeen. He was almost too old to remain in high school. Yet he was behind other children his age. He was not a good student. He hated mathematics. This subject, of course, was what would help make him famous later. VOICE TWO: One beautiful autumn day, Robert was sitting in a tree in the back of his house. He was reading a book by British author H. G. Wells. The book was called War of the Worlds. Something strange happened to him. He later thought that perhaps Wells' book had something to do with it. "As I looked toward the fields in the east," he said, "I imagined how wonderful it would be to make something that could rise to the planet Mars. I imagined how this thing, in a small size, would look if sent up from the ground at my feet. I was a different boy when I came down from that tree. For, at last, my life seemed to have some purpose." VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard never talked much about what happened to him up in the tree on that day, October Nineteenth. But he celebrated October Nineteenth as a holiday for the rest of his life. On that day, he had formed the idea of making something that would go higher then anything had ever gone before. He felt this was the whole purpose of his life. He was sure he could do it. "I know," he said, "the first thing I must do is to get an education, especially in mathematics. Yes, I must become an expert in mathematics, even if I hate it." VOICE TWO: Two years passed before Robert was healthy enough to go back to school. He entered South High School in Worcester. He worked and worked until he no longer hated mathematics. Robert's father spent all his money to care for his sick wife. He did not have enough to pay for Robert's education after high school. Robert got financial help from others so he could go to a technical school in Worcester. There he had very good teachers. They helped him become an expert in mathematics and physics. VOICE ONE: Robert completed his studies at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and became a teacher of physics there. He also continued his studies at Clark University. He began to develop the idea of multiple-stage rockets. These were rockets with more than one engine. Each engine would push the rocket higher and higher. The power for the rockets would come from burning two gases, hydrogen and oxygen. After one year at Clark University, Robert went to Princeton College in New Jersey to do more studies on rockets. VOICE TWO: "Often," he said, "I worked all through the night. At last I learned how to send a rocket higher than anything had ever gone before. But the work was too much for me. I was feeling sick again. I had to stop my work and go to a doctor. "X-rays showed that, like my mother, I was very sick with tuberculosis. The doctor said I had just two weeks to live. He put me in bed for a long rest. But I meant to live. I told myself I could not die. I had work to do." VOICE ONE: At the end of two weeks, Robert Goddard was still alive. In time, he started to work again. In October, Nineteen-Thirteen, Goddard completed plans for his first rocket. In May of the next year, he completed plans for another rocket. These two plans are the first ever made for a rocket that would carry people into space. In Nineteen-Fourteen, he received two patents from the United States government to protect his rights to his inventions. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard received money from the Smithsonian Institution to help him continue his work. In Nineteen-Nineteen, the Smithsonian published several of his reports explaining his research. The publication was called "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." It told about his search for methods of raising weather recording instruments higher than balloons could go. It told about how he developed the mathematical theories of rockets. In the report, Goddard also noted the possibility of a rocket reaching the moon. There was a big dispute in the press about the possibility of this. Many people thought he was foolish for suggesting such an impossible thing. VOICE ONE: Goddard continued to need money to continue his research. The world famous pilot Charles Lindbergh helped him get money from the Guggenheim Foundation. Goddard quickly began to work on plans for bigger rockets. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he tested his rockets at a research center in Roswell, New Mexico. He tested the first rocket controlled by electricity. The control equipment was three-hundred meters from the place of launching. He also tested the first rocket controlled by a gyroscope. Gyroscopes help keep rockets aimed in the right direction. VOICE TWO: Goddard did all his work in the United States, yet his work became known around the world. Scientists in Germany used his ideas to help build the V-Two rocket that was used in World War Two. During World War Two, Goddard helped the United States Navy develop some rocket motors and ways to launch jet planes. He continued work he had begun at the end of World War One that led to the bazooka, a weapon that fires small rockets. VOICE ONE: Robert Goddard died in Ninety-Forty-Five of cancer. He was sixty-three years old. He had been sick most of his life, but he died a happy man. He received many honors for his work. He believed his life had been a full one. He felt lucky that the great dream that came to him, out of nowhere, when he was only seventeen years old had become real. VOICE TWO: Robert Goddard received a special honor many years after his death. In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the United States established the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington, D-C. It was the government's first major scientific laboratory used completely for space science. The Goddard Space Flight Center honors the man whose work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - June 20, 2002: Post-World War Two / Population
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) World War Two ended finally in the summer of nineteen-forty-five. Life in the United States began to return to normal. Soldiers began to come home and find peacetime jobs. Industry stopped producing war equipment and began to produce goods that made peacetime life pleasant. The American economy was stronger than ever. Some major changes began to take place in the American population. Many Americans were not satisfied with their old ways of life. They wanted something better. And many people were earning enough money to look for a better life. Millions of them moved out of cities and small towns to buy newly-built homes in the suburbs. Our program today will look at the growth of suburbs and other changes in the American population in the years after World War Two. VOICE 2: The United States has always counted its population every ten years. The government needed to know how many people lived in each state so it would know how many congressmen each state should have. The first count was made two-hundred years ago. At that time, the country had about four-million persons. One-hundred years later, the population had increased to about sixty-three-million persons. By nineteen-fifty, there were more than one-hundred-fifty-million persons in the United States. In the early years of America, the average mother had eight to ten children. Living conditions were hard. Many children died at an early age. Families needed a lot of help on the farm. So it was good to have many children. This changed in the years that followed. Families began to have fewer and fewer children. By nineteen-hundred, the average woman only had three or four children and by nineteen-thirty-six, during the great economic depression, the average American mother gave birth to only two children. VOICE 1: This changed immediately after World War Two. Suddenly, it seemed, every family started having babies. Parents were hopeful about the future. There were lots of jobs. And people everywhere felt the need for a family and security after the long, difficult years of the war. So the birth rate increased suddenly. The number of children between the ages of five and fourteen increased by more than ten-million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. VOICE 2: Many of the new parents moved to homes in the new suburbs. The word suburb comes from the word urban, or having to do with cities. A suburb was sub, or something less than, a city. It usually was created on an empty piece of land just outside a city. A businessman would buy the land and build houses on it. Young families would buy the houses with money that they borrowed from local banks. Life was different in the suburbs. There were all sorts of group activities. VOICE 1: There were boy scout groups for the boys. Girl scout groups for the girls. The parent-teachers association at the school. Barbecue parties where families gathered to cook and eat outside. Historian William Manchester described life in the suburbs in this way: "The new suburbs were free, open, and honestly friendly to anyone except black people, whose time had not yet come." Manchester wrote, "Families moving in found that their new friends were happy to help them get settled. Children in the suburbs exchanged toys and clothes almost as though they were group property. If little Bobby out-grew his clothes, his mother gave them to little Billy across the street. Front doors were not locked. Friends felt free to enter without knocking or asking permission." VOICE 2: Parents did everything they could to make life good for their children. The number of boys playing on Little League baseball teams increased from less than one-million to almost six-million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. During the same period, the number of Girl Scouts increased by two-million. And twice as many bicycles were sold. Parents also tried to improve their children's education. In nineteen-sixty, parents bought almost three times more educational books for children than ten years earlier. Parents also bought millions of dollars' worth of pianos, violins, and other musical instruments for their children. Families in the suburbs wanted a new life, a good life, for their children. VOICE 1: It was true that the average number of children per family was increasing. But the total population of the United States did not increase as much during this period as one might have expected. The reason for this was that fewer immigrants were coming from foreign countries. In fact, the number of immigrants to the United States had been dropping for many years. In nineteen-ten, eleven immigrants were coming to America for every thousand Americans already living here. By nineteen-fifty, just one-and-a-half immigrants were coming for every thousand Americans. The kinds of immigrants were changing, too. In the past, most came from northern and western Europe. But now, growing numbers of people came to the United States from Latin America, Asia, and southern and eastern European countries. VOICE 2: Many Americans moved to different parts of the country in the nineteen-fifties. Most Americans continued to live in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the country. But growing numbers moved to the western states. The population of the western states increased by almost forty percent during the nineteen-fifties. America's biggest city in nineteen-fifty was New York, with almost eight-million persons. Second was Chicago, with more than three- and-a-half million. Then came Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Saint Louis. VOICE 1: Another population change was in life expectancy. In the early nineteen-hundreds, the average newborn American could only expect to live about forty-seven years. But by the nineteen-fifties, most American babies could expect to live well past their sixtieth birthday. This increase in life expectancy was due to improvements in living conditions and medical care. And it would continue to increase steadily in the years that followed. VOICE 2: The United States was a changing country, a nation on the move. And political leaders battled each other for the right to lead it. We will look in our next program at political events during this period and look at the presidency of Harry Truman. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfledt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. (Theme) World War Two ended finally in the summer of nineteen-forty-five. Life in the United States began to return to normal. Soldiers began to come home and find peacetime jobs. Industry stopped producing war equipment and began to produce goods that made peacetime life pleasant. The American economy was stronger than ever. Some major changes began to take place in the American population. Many Americans were not satisfied with their old ways of life. They wanted something better. And many people were earning enough money to look for a better life. Millions of them moved out of cities and small towns to buy newly-built homes in the suburbs. Our program today will look at the growth of suburbs and other changes in the American population in the years after World War Two. VOICE 2: The United States has always counted its population every ten years. The government needed to know how many people lived in each state so it would know how many congressmen each state should have. The first count was made two-hundred years ago. At that time, the country had about four-million persons. One-hundred years later, the population had increased to about sixty-three-million persons. By nineteen-fifty, there were more than one-hundred-fifty-million persons in the United States. In the early years of America, the average mother had eight to ten children. Living conditions were hard. Many children died at an early age. Families needed a lot of help on the farm. So it was good to have many children. This changed in the years that followed. Families began to have fewer and fewer children. By nineteen-hundred, the average woman only had three or four children and by nineteen-thirty-six, during the great economic depression, the average American mother gave birth to only two children. VOICE 1: This changed immediately after World War Two. Suddenly, it seemed, every family started having babies. Parents were hopeful about the future. There were lots of jobs. And people everywhere felt the need for a family and security after the long, difficult years of the war. So the birth rate increased suddenly. The number of children between the ages of five and fourteen increased by more than ten-million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. VOICE 2: Many of the new parents moved to homes in the new suburbs. The word suburb comes from the word urban, or having to do with cities. A suburb was sub, or something less than, a city. It usually was created on an empty piece of land just outside a city. A businessman would buy the land and build houses on it. Young families would buy the houses with money that they borrowed from local banks. Life was different in the suburbs. There were all sorts of group activities. VOICE 1: There were boy scout groups for the boys. Girl scout groups for the girls. The parent-teachers association at the school. Barbecue parties where families gathered to cook and eat outside. Historian William Manchester described life in the suburbs in this way: "The new suburbs were free, open, and honestly friendly to anyone except black people, whose time had not yet come." Manchester wrote, "Families moving in found that their new friends were happy to help them get settled. Children in the suburbs exchanged toys and clothes almost as though they were group property. If little Bobby out-grew his clothes, his mother gave them to little Billy across the street. Front doors were not locked. Friends felt free to enter without knocking or asking permission." VOICE 2: Parents did everything they could to make life good for their children. The number of boys playing on Little League baseball teams increased from less than one-million to almost six-million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. During the same period, the number of Girl Scouts increased by two-million. And twice as many bicycles were sold. Parents also tried to improve their children's education. In nineteen-sixty, parents bought almost three times more educational books for children than ten years earlier. Parents also bought millions of dollars' worth of pianos, violins, and other musical instruments for their children. Families in the suburbs wanted a new life, a good life, for their children. VOICE 1: It was true that the average number of children per family was increasing. But the total population of the United States did not increase as much during this period as one might have expected. The reason for this was that fewer immigrants were coming from foreign countries. In fact, the number of immigrants to the United States had been dropping for many years. In nineteen-ten, eleven immigrants were coming to America for every thousand Americans already living here. By nineteen-fifty, just one-and-a-half immigrants were coming for every thousand Americans. The kinds of immigrants were changing, too. In the past, most came from northern and western Europe. But now, growing numbers of people came to the United States from Latin America, Asia, and southern and eastern European countries. VOICE 2: Many Americans moved to different parts of the country in the nineteen-fifties. Most Americans continued to live in the eastern, central, and southern parts of the country. But growing numbers moved to the western states. The population of the western states increased by almost forty percent during the nineteen-fifties. America's biggest city in nineteen-fifty was New York, with almost eight-million persons. Second was Chicago, with more than three- and-a-half million. Then came Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Saint Louis. VOICE 1: Another population change was in life expectancy. In the early nineteen-hundreds, the average newborn American could only expect to live about forty-seven years. But by the nineteen-fifties, most American babies could expect to live well past their sixtieth birthday. This increase in life expectancy was due to improvements in living conditions and medical care. And it would continue to increase steadily in the years that followed. VOICE 2: The United States was a changing country, a nation on the move. And political leaders battled each other for the right to lead it. We will look in our next program at political events during this period and look at the presidency of Harry Truman. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfledt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: June 20, 2002 - Lida Baker: Modals
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 20, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 23, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, meet the modals! RS: Modals are words like can, could, will, would, may, might, and must. The list goes on. And they can be tricky to learn. AA: We get more of an introduction from English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. BAKER: The modals have descended from verbs but they don't have the same characteristics. For example, modals never take an 's' ending. So a verb, for example, you say 'I go,' 'you go,' 'he goes.' But with modals it would be 'I would,' 'you would,' 'he would.' There's no difference." RS: "Why are they so difficult to learn?" BAKER: "One of the reasons is that almost every modal can be used in more than one way. As an example, the modal 'can' can have the meaning of ability, like 'I can swim.' But it can also have kind of a predictive meaning, where you can something like 'it can rain later today.'" AA: "Now what about the word 'must.' Talk a little bit about 'must.'" BAKER: "'Must' is a very interesting word. We don't use 'must' a whole lot in the U-S. It's used a lot more in Britain. But we do use the quasi-modal 'have to' a lot in the United States, and we pronounce it as 'hafta,' as if it were one word. 'Must' and 'have to' have the same meaning. They have this meaning of obligation, like 'I can't go to the movies with you tonight because I have to do my homework.' Now something that's interesting about the words 'must' and 'have to' is, what's the opposite? Is it 'must not'?" AA: "Sure, 'you must not go." BAKER: "Aha -- wrong!" AA: "Oh." BAKER: "In fact, the opposite of 'must' isn't 'must not.' The opposite of must is 'don't have to,' because what we're talking about here is the sense of obligation. 'Must' and 'have to' mean you have to do something because you're obliged. What we're looking for is something that has the meaning of no obligation, and the way we do that in English is to say 'don't have to.' 'You don't have to do you homework now, you can do it later.' And by the way 'mustn’t is almost never said in U-S English." AA: "It's British." BAKER: "It's very British." AA: "Now here's an example, you walk into a room, you want to sit down, you want to ask the other person for permission, just to be courteous. What should you say?" Do you say 'may I' -- " BAKER: "'May I sit down.'" AA: "'May I sit down.'" RS: "Or 'can I sit down.'" BAKER: "Now, depending on the circumstances, you see. Because another function of modals is to express degrees of formality. So if you're in a bar, and it's noisy and it's very casual, you might say 'can I sit here.' You'll use 'can.' If you want to make it a little bit more formal, a little more polite, 'could I please sit here?' If you're in an elegant restaurant or something like that, or if you're speaking to someone who clearly is -- I don't want to say above you in status, that's a very un-American way of thinking." AA: "Someone in authority." BAKER" But someone who has more authority than you or is older than you, you might use 'may' because it's more formal, it's more polite, 'may I please sit here?'" So we use modals to express degrees of formality." RS: "So simply by listening and perhaps jotting down what you hear, or questioning when someone says something you don't understand that has a modal in it, and keeping a list of those in the context, might help you." BAKER: "That's one technique. Another technique is an eavesdropping technique where when you hear people talking, you kind of in your mind repeat what they've just said. So if you hear someone in a restaurant say 'could I please have some more coffee,' you sort of repeat that to yourself, 'could I please have some more coffee, could I please have some more coffee." AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes textbooks for English learners, available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. RS: However, Lida Baker cannot reply to messages personally. So send your questions to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA, or word@voanews.com. And, you can find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better"/Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell [Song from the play "Annie Get Your Gun"] Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 20, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 23, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, meet the modals! RS: Modals are words like can, could, will, would, may, might, and must. The list goes on. And they can be tricky to learn. AA: We get more of an introduction from English teacher Lida Baker in Los Angeles. BAKER: The modals have descended from verbs but they don't have the same characteristics. For example, modals never take an 's' ending. So a verb, for example, you say 'I go,' 'you go,' 'he goes.' But with modals it would be 'I would,' 'you would,' 'he would.' There's no difference." RS: "Why are they so difficult to learn?" BAKER: "One of the reasons is that almost every modal can be used in more than one way. As an example, the modal 'can' can have the meaning of ability, like 'I can swim.' But it can also have kind of a predictive meaning, where you can something like 'it can rain later today.'" AA: "Now what about the word 'must.' Talk a little bit about 'must.'" BAKER: "'Must' is a very interesting word. We don't use 'must' a whole lot in the U-S. It's used a lot more in Britain. But we do use the quasi-modal 'have to' a lot in the United States, and we pronounce it as 'hafta,' as if it were one word. 'Must' and 'have to' have the same meaning. They have this meaning of obligation, like 'I can't go to the movies with you tonight because I have to do my homework.' Now something that's interesting about the words 'must' and 'have to' is, what's the opposite? Is it 'must not'?" AA: "Sure, 'you must not go." BAKER: "Aha -- wrong!" AA: "Oh." BAKER: "In fact, the opposite of 'must' isn't 'must not.' The opposite of must is 'don't have to,' because what we're talking about here is the sense of obligation. 'Must' and 'have to' mean you have to do something because you're obliged. What we're looking for is something that has the meaning of no obligation, and the way we do that in English is to say 'don't have to.' 'You don't have to do you homework now, you can do it later.' And by the way 'mustn’t is almost never said in U-S English." AA: "It's British." BAKER: "It's very British." AA: "Now here's an example, you walk into a room, you want to sit down, you want to ask the other person for permission, just to be courteous. What should you say?" Do you say 'may I' -- " BAKER: "'May I sit down.'" AA: "'May I sit down.'" RS: "Or 'can I sit down.'" BAKER: "Now, depending on the circumstances, you see. Because another function of modals is to express degrees of formality. So if you're in a bar, and it's noisy and it's very casual, you might say 'can I sit here.' You'll use 'can.' If you want to make it a little bit more formal, a little more polite, 'could I please sit here?' If you're in an elegant restaurant or something like that, or if you're speaking to someone who clearly is -- I don't want to say above you in status, that's a very un-American way of thinking." AA: "Someone in authority." BAKER" But someone who has more authority than you or is older than you, you might use 'may' because it's more formal, it's more polite, 'may I please sit here?'" So we use modals to express degrees of formality." RS: "So simply by listening and perhaps jotting down what you hear, or questioning when someone says something you don't understand that has a modal in it, and keeping a list of those in the context, might help you." BAKER: "That's one technique. Another technique is an eavesdropping technique where when you hear people talking, you kind of in your mind repeat what they've just said. So if you hear someone in a restaurant say 'could I please have some more coffee,' you sort of repeat that to yourself, 'could I please have some more coffee, could I please have some more coffee." AA: Lida Baker teaches at the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. She also writes textbooks for English learners, available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. RS: However, Lida Baker cannot reply to messages personally. So send your questions to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA, or word@voanews.com. And, you can find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better"/Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell [Song from the play "Annie Get Your Gun"] 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 21, 2002: New 'Star Wars' Movie / Food Songs / Seeds of Peace
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today we: Play some songs about food ... Report about the popular new “Star Wars” movie ... (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today we: Play some songs about food ... Report about the popular new “Star Wars” movie ... And tell about one attempt to make progress toward world peace. Seeds of Peace HOST: Peacemakers throughout history have faced huge problems trying to solve international conflicts. A special summer program in the United States teaches young people from areas of conflict how to understand each other. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNC: The program is called Seeds of Peace. Each summer, organizers hold three two-week meetings at a camp in the state of Maine. The camp is for young people ages fourteen to seventeen. They come from many areas, including several countries in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Greece, Turkey, and the former Yugoslavia. The camp provides a safe and supportive place for young people to speak about conflict. They spend their time in classes discovering how to communicate and listen to each other. They learn how to solve their conflicts through discussion instead of violence. They also live together, play team sports and take part in art and music activities. The goal is to help the students discover that the so-called enemy is human, and can even be a friend. Each two-week camp ends with a trip to Washington, D-C. The young people visit the White House and State Department. They also meet with members of Congress and their own ambassadors to the United States. This part of the program teaches the students that world leaders value their ideas and want to learn from them. Writer John Wallach started Seeds of Peace in nineteen-ninety-three. At that time, organizers brought only Arab and Israeli students together. Today the program has expanded to welcome students from many other parts of the world where conflict exists. The students speak English at the camp. About three-hundred students are chosen to attend the camp each year from more than two-thousand who ask to attend. They are nominated by their governments for their ability to lead and their good school performance. Their economic and social positions are not considered. To find out more about Seeds of Peace, visit the organization’s Internet Web site at www.seedsofpeace.org. Seeds of peace is all one word. Or you can write to Seeds of Peace, three-seven-zero Lexington Avenue, New York, New York, one-zero-zero-one-seven, U-S-A. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones HOST: Movie fans are enjoying the new Star Wars movie, “Attack of the Clones.” It has earned more than two-hundred-fifty-million dollars since its release five weeks ago. The movie is the fifth in a series written and directed by George Lucas. They tell a continuing story about a young man named Anakin Skywalker in an imaginary galaxy of planets. Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: In “Attack of the Clones,” a group of separatists wants independence from a government called The Republic. The Republic has prepared an army of biologically engineered men called clones. A civil war begins between the separatists’ army of mechanical men and the Republic’s clones. At the same time, Anakin Skywalker is training to become a special fighter called a Jedi knight. But Anakin falls in love with a beautiful young woman senator, Padme Amidala. The rules of the Jedi ban such feelings. So the two young people begin a secret relationship. Some critics have said that much of the writing in “Attack of the Clones” is so bad that it is funny. They also said the story’s political mysteries are confusing and often just stupid. But most critics agree that the movie is fun to watch. George Lucas used computers to create worlds of huge buildings, water or deserts. He designed battles in space and on land. Huge armies and dangerous creatures fight fierce battles using unusual space vehicles and weapons. Almost all the critics agreed that watching the last battle between the Jedi master Yoda and the mysterious Count Dooku is worth the price of the ticket. And many critics said that the release of any “Star Wars” movie is one of the major cultural events of the year. Most critics agree that in the “Star Wars” series, George Lucas has created one of the most important stories of the late twentieth century. Its cultural importance guarantees that people will continue to watch the movies as long as George Lucas continues to produce them. The sixth and final “Star Wars” movie is expected to be released in two-thousand-five. Junk Food HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Xia Jianxun asks about “junk food.” Junk food is what Americans call food that is not healthy. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines the word “junk” as something that is useless or worthless. Junk food does not have nutrients and is often processed with chemicals. Some examples of junk food are candy, sweets and potato chips. These foods are high in sugar, cholesterol or fat. About thirty years ago, American singer Larry Groce (GROSS) had a hit record called “Junk Food Junkie.” It is about a man known to eat healthy, natural foods. Yet he secretly eats foods that are bad for him. The word “junkie” is American slang for a person who cannot stop doing something. In the song, the man cannot resist eating foods that are bad. ((CUT 1: JUNK FOOD JUNKIE)) Another funny song about food includes both healthy and junk food. It was written and performed by Weird Al Yankovic (YANK-o-vik). He made up new words to Michael Jackson’s hit song, “Beat It” and won a Grammy for it. We leave you now with Weird Al’s song, “Eat It.” How many different kinds of foods can you hear him say? ((CUT 2: EAT IT)) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And tell about one attempt to make progress toward world peace. Seeds of Peace HOST: Peacemakers throughout history have faced huge problems trying to solve international conflicts. A special summer program in the United States teaches young people from areas of conflict how to understand each other. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNC: The program is called Seeds of Peace. Each summer, organizers hold three two-week meetings at a camp in the state of Maine. The camp is for young people ages fourteen to seventeen. They come from many areas, including several countries in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Greece, Turkey, and the former Yugoslavia. The camp provides a safe and supportive place for young people to speak about conflict. They spend their time in classes discovering how to communicate and listen to each other. They learn how to solve their conflicts through discussion instead of violence. They also live together, play team sports and take part in art and music activities. The goal is to help the students discover that the so-called enemy is human, and can even be a friend. Each two-week camp ends with a trip to Washington, D-C. The young people visit the White House and State Department. They also meet with members of Congress and their own ambassadors to the United States. This part of the program teaches the students that world leaders value their ideas and want to learn from them. Writer John Wallach started Seeds of Peace in nineteen-ninety-three. At that time, organizers brought only Arab and Israeli students together. Today the program has expanded to welcome students from many other parts of the world where conflict exists. The students speak English at the camp. About three-hundred students are chosen to attend the camp each year from more than two-thousand who ask to attend. They are nominated by their governments for their ability to lead and their good school performance. Their economic and social positions are not considered. To find out more about Seeds of Peace, visit the organization’s Internet Web site at www.seedsofpeace.org. Seeds of peace is all one word. Or you can write to Seeds of Peace, three-seven-zero Lexington Avenue, New York, New York, one-zero-zero-one-seven, U-S-A. Star Wars: Attack of the Clones HOST: Movie fans are enjoying the new Star Wars movie, “Attack of the Clones.” It has earned more than two-hundred-fifty-million dollars since its release five weeks ago. The movie is the fifth in a series written and directed by George Lucas. They tell a continuing story about a young man named Anakin Skywalker in an imaginary galaxy of planets. Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: In “Attack of the Clones,” a group of separatists wants independence from a government called The Republic. The Republic has prepared an army of biologically engineered men called clones. A civil war begins between the separatists’ army of mechanical men and the Republic’s clones. At the same time, Anakin Skywalker is training to become a special fighter called a Jedi knight. But Anakin falls in love with a beautiful young woman senator, Padme Amidala. The rules of the Jedi ban such feelings. So the two young people begin a secret relationship. Some critics have said that much of the writing in “Attack of the Clones” is so bad that it is funny. They also said the story’s political mysteries are confusing and often just stupid. But most critics agree that the movie is fun to watch. George Lucas used computers to create worlds of huge buildings, water or deserts. He designed battles in space and on land. Huge armies and dangerous creatures fight fierce battles using unusual space vehicles and weapons. Almost all the critics agreed that watching the last battle between the Jedi master Yoda and the mysterious Count Dooku is worth the price of the ticket. And many critics said that the release of any “Star Wars” movie is one of the major cultural events of the year. Most critics agree that in the “Star Wars” series, George Lucas has created one of the most important stories of the late twentieth century. Its cultural importance guarantees that people will continue to watch the movies as long as George Lucas continues to produce them. The sixth and final “Star Wars” movie is expected to be released in two-thousand-five. Junk Food HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Xia Jianxun asks about “junk food.” Junk food is what Americans call food that is not healthy. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines the word “junk” as something that is useless or worthless. Junk food does not have nutrients and is often processed with chemicals. Some examples of junk food are candy, sweets and potato chips. These foods are high in sugar, cholesterol or fat. About thirty years ago, American singer Larry Groce (GROSS) had a hit record called “Junk Food Junkie.” It is about a man known to eat healthy, natural foods. Yet he secretly eats foods that are bad for him. The word “junkie” is American slang for a person who cannot stop doing something. In the song, the man cannot resist eating foods that are bad. ((CUT 1: JUNK FOOD JUNKIE)) Another funny song about food includes both healthy and junk food. It was written and performed by Weird Al Yankovic (YANK-o-vik). He made up new words to Michael Jackson’s hit song, “Beat It” and won a Grammy for it. We leave you now with Weird Al’s song, “Eat It.” How many different kinds of foods can you hear him say? ((CUT 2: EAT IT)) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Bob Brumfield, Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - June 24, 2002: Women Spies
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 23, 2002: Maria Callas
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about one of the most famous opera singers of this century, Maria Callas. ((MUSIC: March From "Norma" instead of theme)) VOICE 1: VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about one of the most famous opera singers of this century, Maria Callas. ((MUSIC: March From "Norma" instead of theme)) VOICE 1: Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes. Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States. VOICE 2: Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen-fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well-known operas remain very popular today. Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. Her real name was Maria Kalogeropoulous [ka-lo-yer-OH-pu-los]. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years. In nineteen-forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen-forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Aida" [eye-EE-da] by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt. ((MUSIC: "Ritorna Vincitor" from "Aida")) VOICE 1: During the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world. In nineteen-fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of gaul, became one of her most famous parts. ((MUSIC: "Casta Diva" from "Norma")) VOICE 2: During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this. When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time. VOICE 1: In nineteen-fifty-nine, her marriage to Mr. Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen-sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera. ((MUSIC: "Vissi d'Arte" from "Tosca")) VOICE 2: Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen-sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy. Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen-seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard school in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "master class." VOICE 1: Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and east Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice. Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen-seventy-seven. She was fifty-three. VOICE 2: Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning." People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world. ((MUSIC: March from "Norma")) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes. Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States. VOICE 2: Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen-fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well-known operas remain very popular today. Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. Her real name was Maria Kalogeropoulous [ka-lo-yer-OH-pu-los]. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years. In nineteen-forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen-forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Aida" [eye-EE-da] by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt. ((MUSIC: "Ritorna Vincitor" from "Aida")) VOICE 1: During the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world. In nineteen-fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of gaul, became one of her most famous parts. ((MUSIC: "Casta Diva" from "Norma")) VOICE 2: During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this. When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time. VOICE 1: In nineteen-fifty-nine, her marriage to Mr. Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen-sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera. ((MUSIC: "Vissi d'Arte" from "Tosca")) VOICE 2: Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen-sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy. Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen-seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard school in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "master class." VOICE 1: Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and east Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice. Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen-seventy-seven. She was fifty-three. VOICE 2: Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning." People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world. ((MUSIC: March from "Norma")) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – June 22, 2002: Group of Eight Meeting
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Leaders from the Group of Eight nations begin their yearly meeting Wednesday in the western Canadian province of Alberta. They will gather for two days in the Kananaskis mountain area. Experts say President Bush will be seeking strong support for his war on terrorism. The G-Eight leaders will also discuss increasing aid for African development. And they are expected to discuss ways to strengthen international economic growth and support development that is environmentally safe. The members of the Group of Eight are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The European Commission President will take part in the meeting as an observer. So will the President of Spain, the country currently filling the European Union presidency. The G-Eight is an organization of the world’s leading industrial nations. The group’s main goals are to support economic growth, reduce poverty and increase peace and security around the world. The Chairman of the Group of Eight changes each year among members. The yearly leaders’ meeting is held in the country of the Chairman. The meeting gives heads of governments a chance to hold direct talks about current major issues The Chairman serves as a communication link for the Group of Eight with other nations as well as non-governmental organizations. This year the G-Eight chairman is Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He has invited four African leaders to the meeting to discuss details of a document called the New Partnership for African Development. As is traditional, Canada has held several smaller meetings in preparation for the leaders’ conference. Last week, finance ministers of seven of the group of eight nations met in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Russia is not officially part of the G-Seven finance ministers meetings. The G-Seven finance ministers meet four times a year. At the recent meeting, some finance ministers criticized American Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill for trade decisions by the United States. The main dispute is over American government assistance to farmers. Canadian Finance Minister John Manley argued that farm support in the United States makes it difficult for developing countries to compete in the agriculture industry. Security is a concern for the leaders’ meeting next week. Demonstrations took place at the G-Seven finance ministers’ meeting in Halifax. Protesters and police fought on the last day. At the G-Eight meeting last year, about one-hundred-thousand protesters demonstrated in Genoa, Italy. One person was killed. A security area of about six kilometers will surround the meeting next week of the leaders of the Group of Eight. The public will not be permitted into this area. This VOA Special English program was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Leaders from the Group of Eight nations begin their yearly meeting Wednesday in the western Canadian province of Alberta. They will gather for two days in the Kananaskis mountain area. Experts say President Bush will be seeking strong support for his war on terrorism. The G-Eight leaders will also discuss increasing aid for African development. And they are expected to discuss ways to strengthen international economic growth and support development that is environmentally safe. The members of the Group of Eight are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The European Commission President will take part in the meeting as an observer. So will the President of Spain, the country currently filling the European Union presidency. The G-Eight is an organization of the world’s leading industrial nations. The group’s main goals are to support economic growth, reduce poverty and increase peace and security around the world. The Chairman of the Group of Eight changes each year among members. The yearly leaders’ meeting is held in the country of the Chairman. The meeting gives heads of governments a chance to hold direct talks about current major issues The Chairman serves as a communication link for the Group of Eight with other nations as well as non-governmental organizations. This year the G-Eight chairman is Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He has invited four African leaders to the meeting to discuss details of a document called the New Partnership for African Development. As is traditional, Canada has held several smaller meetings in preparation for the leaders’ conference. Last week, finance ministers of seven of the group of eight nations met in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Russia is not officially part of the G-Seven finance ministers meetings. The G-Seven finance ministers meet four times a year. At the recent meeting, some finance ministers criticized American Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill for trade decisions by the United States. The main dispute is over American government assistance to farmers. Canadian Finance Minister John Manley argued that farm support in the United States makes it difficult for developing countries to compete in the agriculture industry. Security is a concern for the leaders’ meeting next week. Demonstrations took place at the G-Seven finance ministers’ meeting in Halifax. Protesters and police fought on the last day. At the G-Eight meeting last year, about one-hundred-thousand protesters demonstrated in Genoa, Italy. One person was killed. A security area of about six kilometers will surround the meeting next week of the leaders of the Group of Eight. The public will not be permitted into this area. This VOA Special English program was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - June 25, 2002: Headaches
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Sarah Long. VOICE 2: And this is bob doughty, with science in the news, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we discuss treatments for three different kinds of a common disorder. (Theme) VOICE 1: Recently, three people working for the same organization began suffering from severe pain in their heads on the same day. Such pain is known as a headache. In each of the three people, the cause of the headache was different. One person had a migraine headache, another had a cluster headache. The third worker had a tension headache. Several years ago, these three people might have suffered severe pain for some time before their headaches ended. On this day, however, each one used a different treatment that either reduced the pain or ended it. VOICE 2: People who get migraine headaches get them repeatedly -- month after month, year after year. Some of them say they have difficulty seeing before the severe pain begins. Others cannot see at all when the headaches begin. Some may have difficulty thinking. Others see strange lights in front of their eyes. Many have upset stomachs and cannot keep food down. Seventy-five percent of those who get migraine headaches are women. In the United States, one of every five women gets migraine headaches. Doctor Glen Solomon is a headache expert at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Doctor Solomon says migraine headaches cost a great deal in human suffering. He says they also cause major financial losses because migraine sufferers are unable to work when they get the headaches. Doctor Solomon says the average migraine patient is between twenty-five and fifty-five years old. VOICE 1: Carolyn is a person who suffers from migraine headaches. For many years Carolyn's life was limited because of repeated migraine headaches. Her story is similar to many who suffer such headaches. Other members of her family had the same problem. That is true of ninety percent of migraine patients. Researchers believe that parents can pass the problem of migraine headaches to their children. Carolyn had her first migraine headache when she was a young adult. It was so severe that she remained in bed for sixteen hours. During that time she could not eat. She could not keep food in her stomach. She says the pain was on one side of her head. It felt as if someone had struck her with a heavy stick. For a while Carolyn thought she would die. The next day, Carolyn felt better. Sadly, however, it was only the beginning of her experience with migraine headaches. She began to have the headaches every month. VOICE 2: Doctors ordered medicines for her that were designed to reduce pain. They also suggested she make some changes in her life. They told Carolyn to stop eating chocolate and cheese. They told her to stop drinking alcohol. She was advised not to sleep late in the morning -- even if she needed more rest. The doctors told her not to look at bright lights. They also told her to avoid being angry or sad. The pain medicine helped reduce Carolyn's pain. However, it also made her want to sleep. She had to plan all her activities around the headaches. Recently, all that changed for Carolyn. She began taking the drug flurbiprofen (floor-by-'pro-fin). Now she can eat and drink what she wants. And she can sleep late if she needs more rest. VOICE 1: Doctor Solomon says flurbiprofen provides a new life to those who suffer from migraine headaches. It can be taken every day to prevent the headaches from starting. Or it can be taken to reduce pain after the headaches begin. Doctors must order flurbiprofen for their patients with migraine headaches. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first medicine for migraine headaches that people can buy without a doctor’s order. It is called Excedrin Migraine. It contains the common medicines aspirin and acetaminophen to ease pain. It also contains caffeine, a substance found in coffee and chocolate. VOICE 2: Doctors believe that most migraine headaches begin when blood passages in the brain begin to enlarge. Caffeine helps the blood passages reduce to their normal size. VOICE 1: Developments in medicine have not yet helped Richard, who suffers from cluster headaches. People who get this kind of headache say they almost would choose to die instead of suffering the pain they experience. However, like Carolyn, Richard is living a more normal life because of new medicine. Doctors say cluster headaches most often strike men who are more than thirty years old. About one person in every thousand people gets the headaches. Richard was thirty-seven when he had his first cluster headache. VOICE 2: Richard says he felt a terrible pain in his face, around one of his eyes. He says the pain felt as if someone was stabbing him in the eye with a knife. After several hours the pain stopped. But soon he had another headache. Then he had another. Some lasted only thirty minutes. Others lasted as long as three hours. Like other victims of cluster headaches, Richard had them in a series each time. Sometimes he had no headaches for months. Then he would have another series of headaches causing severe pain. It was suggested that the headaches might be caused by worrying or emotional problems. Yet, Richard could not find any connection between unpleasant events in his life and the cluster headaches. He could not link them to anything he ate or drank. VOICE 1: For several years, doctors tried different drugs to treat Richard's headaches. The most effective treatment was a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is found in red peppers. It gives the peppers a hot, spicy taste. Doctor Solomon says that the chemical is partly effective in stopping the series of headaches. He says the patient places capsaicin in his or her nose when the headache starts. The treatment causes some brief pain. However, the cluster headaches do stop, and capsaicin does not cause the possibly harmful side effects of other treatments. VOICE 2: A tension headache is not so severe as a migraine headache or as cluster headaches. Still, tension headaches interfere with the lives of many Americans especially women. A study says women are fifteen percent more likely to get tension headaches than men. Pain from tension headaches usually affects both sides of a person's head. Muscles in the neck, face, jaws or shoulders may become extremely tight. Common anti-pain medicines often can reduce the effects of tension headaches. Yet, there is good reason to seek medical help if this kind of headache continues and is severe. Doctor Solomon says the cause of tension headaches may be chemical depression. People who suffer from tension headaches sometimes have difficulty sleeping or remembering things. They also may feel very sad and have difficulty keeping their minds on what they are doing. These problems also describe the condition of people suffering from emotional depression. VOICE 1: For many years, Clare had tension headaches repeatedly. Sometimes they could be cured by rest and the anti-pain drug aspirin. However, there were times when nothing helped reduce Clare's headache pain. She had difficulty remembering things, and could work for short periods only. Finally, Clare spoke to her doctor about the problem. The doctor ordered tests. After studying the test results, the doctor suggested she take small amounts of a thyroid substance. The thyroid is an organ found in the neck. It produces hormones that control the chemical and physical processes of the body. The thyroid substance helped reduce the pain of Clare's headaches. Although the headaches are not completely gone, Clare is now able to work for long periods. Also, her headaches interfere less with her ability to remember. VOICE 2: Everyone has a headache at one time or another. Pain can be caused by many different problems. These could be eye difficulties, or blood problems. Headaches also can be the result of life-threatening conditions such as bleeding in the brain or a cancerous growth in the head. Doctors say a person should seek medical help if headaches happen often, or are especially severe. ((Theme)) VOICE 2: This science in the news program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Shelley Gollust. This is bob doughty. VOICE 1: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: This is Sarah Long. VOICE 2: And this is bob doughty, with science in the news, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we discuss treatments for three different kinds of a common disorder. (Theme) VOICE 1: Recently, three people working for the same organization began suffering from severe pain in their heads on the same day. Such pain is known as a headache. In each of the three people, the cause of the headache was different. One person had a migraine headache, another had a cluster headache. The third worker had a tension headache. Several years ago, these three people might have suffered severe pain for some time before their headaches ended. On this day, however, each one used a different treatment that either reduced the pain or ended it. VOICE 2: People who get migraine headaches get them repeatedly -- month after month, year after year. Some of them say they have difficulty seeing before the severe pain begins. Others cannot see at all when the headaches begin. Some may have difficulty thinking. Others see strange lights in front of their eyes. Many have upset stomachs and cannot keep food down. Seventy-five percent of those who get migraine headaches are women. In the United States, one of every five women gets migraine headaches. Doctor Glen Solomon is a headache expert at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Doctor Solomon says migraine headaches cost a great deal in human suffering. He says they also cause major financial losses because migraine sufferers are unable to work when they get the headaches. Doctor Solomon says the average migraine patient is between twenty-five and fifty-five years old. VOICE 1: Carolyn is a person who suffers from migraine headaches. For many years Carolyn's life was limited because of repeated migraine headaches. Her story is similar to many who suffer such headaches. Other members of her family had the same problem. That is true of ninety percent of migraine patients. Researchers believe that parents can pass the problem of migraine headaches to their children. Carolyn had her first migraine headache when she was a young adult. It was so severe that she remained in bed for sixteen hours. During that time she could not eat. She could not keep food in her stomach. She says the pain was on one side of her head. It felt as if someone had struck her with a heavy stick. For a while Carolyn thought she would die. The next day, Carolyn felt better. Sadly, however, it was only the beginning of her experience with migraine headaches. She began to have the headaches every month. VOICE 2: Doctors ordered medicines for her that were designed to reduce pain. They also suggested she make some changes in her life. They told Carolyn to stop eating chocolate and cheese. They told her to stop drinking alcohol. She was advised not to sleep late in the morning -- even if she needed more rest. The doctors told her not to look at bright lights. They also told her to avoid being angry or sad. The pain medicine helped reduce Carolyn's pain. However, it also made her want to sleep. She had to plan all her activities around the headaches. Recently, all that changed for Carolyn. She began taking the drug flurbiprofen (floor-by-'pro-fin). Now she can eat and drink what she wants. And she can sleep late if she needs more rest. VOICE 1: Doctor Solomon says flurbiprofen provides a new life to those who suffer from migraine headaches. It can be taken every day to prevent the headaches from starting. Or it can be taken to reduce pain after the headaches begin. Doctors must order flurbiprofen for their patients with migraine headaches. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first medicine for migraine headaches that people can buy without a doctor’s order. It is called Excedrin Migraine. It contains the common medicines aspirin and acetaminophen to ease pain. It also contains caffeine, a substance found in coffee and chocolate. VOICE 2: Doctors believe that most migraine headaches begin when blood passages in the brain begin to enlarge. Caffeine helps the blood passages reduce to their normal size. VOICE 1: Developments in medicine have not yet helped Richard, who suffers from cluster headaches. People who get this kind of headache say they almost would choose to die instead of suffering the pain they experience. However, like Carolyn, Richard is living a more normal life because of new medicine. Doctors say cluster headaches most often strike men who are more than thirty years old. About one person in every thousand people gets the headaches. Richard was thirty-seven when he had his first cluster headache. VOICE 2: Richard says he felt a terrible pain in his face, around one of his eyes. He says the pain felt as if someone was stabbing him in the eye with a knife. After several hours the pain stopped. But soon he had another headache. Then he had another. Some lasted only thirty minutes. Others lasted as long as three hours. Like other victims of cluster headaches, Richard had them in a series each time. Sometimes he had no headaches for months. Then he would have another series of headaches causing severe pain. It was suggested that the headaches might be caused by worrying or emotional problems. Yet, Richard could not find any connection between unpleasant events in his life and the cluster headaches. He could not link them to anything he ate or drank. VOICE 1: For several years, doctors tried different drugs to treat Richard's headaches. The most effective treatment was a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin is found in red peppers. It gives the peppers a hot, spicy taste. Doctor Solomon says that the chemical is partly effective in stopping the series of headaches. He says the patient places capsaicin in his or her nose when the headache starts. The treatment causes some brief pain. However, the cluster headaches do stop, and capsaicin does not cause the possibly harmful side effects of other treatments. VOICE 2: A tension headache is not so severe as a migraine headache or as cluster headaches. Still, tension headaches interfere with the lives of many Americans especially women. A study says women are fifteen percent more likely to get tension headaches than men. Pain from tension headaches usually affects both sides of a person's head. Muscles in the neck, face, jaws or shoulders may become extremely tight. Common anti-pain medicines often can reduce the effects of tension headaches. Yet, there is good reason to seek medical help if this kind of headache continues and is severe. Doctor Solomon says the cause of tension headaches may be chemical depression. People who suffer from tension headaches sometimes have difficulty sleeping or remembering things. They also may feel very sad and have difficulty keeping their minds on what they are doing. These problems also describe the condition of people suffering from emotional depression. VOICE 1: For many years, Clare had tension headaches repeatedly. Sometimes they could be cured by rest and the anti-pain drug aspirin. However, there were times when nothing helped reduce Clare's headache pain. She had difficulty remembering things, and could work for short periods only. Finally, Clare spoke to her doctor about the problem. The doctor ordered tests. After studying the test results, the doctor suggested she take small amounts of a thyroid substance. The thyroid is an organ found in the neck. It produces hormones that control the chemical and physical processes of the body. The thyroid substance helped reduce the pain of Clare's headaches. Although the headaches are not completely gone, Clare is now able to work for long periods. Also, her headaches interfere less with her ability to remember. VOICE 2: Everyone has a headache at one time or another. Pain can be caused by many different problems. These could be eye difficulties, or blood problems. Headaches also can be the result of life-threatening conditions such as bleeding in the brain or a cancerous growth in the head. Doctors say a person should seek medical help if headaches happen often, or are especially severe. ((Theme)) VOICE 2: This science in the news program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Shelley Gollust. This is bob doughty. VOICE 1: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – June 25, 2002: Organic Farming Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Agricultural scientists in Switzerland have demonstrated the long-term effects of organic farming methods. Organic farms use no man-made chemicals to increase crops or control insects and disease. The study showed that organic fields produced fewer crops, on average, than other fields. However, the scientists say the organic methods improved the health of the soil and used half as much energy. Scientists at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Frick, Switzerland, supervised the study. They reported their findings in Science magazine, the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was one of the longest-running studies of its kind. The Swiss scientists compared the effects of organic and traditional farming methods over a period of more than twenty years. They grew crops on four fields of land in Switzerland. Two fields were grown using traditional farming methods. The others were grown using organic farming methods. The scientists grew potatoes, barley, winter wheat, beets and grass clover. The crops, planting methods, and soil use were similar in all the fields studied. The study found that the organic fields produced about twenty percent fewer crops than the other fields. However, the farmers used less fertilizer and energy on the organic fields. They found the organic fields were healthier. The scientists say the organic fields had more nutrients in the soil. The soils in the organic fields also had more biological activity than the other fields. The organic fields had more helpful organisms and a larger number of different organisms. The organic fields had almost two times as many insects, including helpful insects. In traditional farming, chemicals designed to kill harmful insects also can kill helpful ones. The researchers say the findings show that organic crop production rates change little over time, and that soil fertility increases. They say the findings suggest that organic farmers can help the environment by increasing soil fertility. Organic farming is becoming increasingly popular in some countries. Many people believe that eating organic food is more healthful than eating food grown with chemicals. Some people are willing to pay more money to buy organic food. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Agricultural scientists in Switzerland have demonstrated the long-term effects of organic farming methods. Organic farms use no man-made chemicals to increase crops or control insects and disease. The study showed that organic fields produced fewer crops, on average, than other fields. However, the scientists say the organic methods improved the health of the soil and used half as much energy. Scientists at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Frick, Switzerland, supervised the study. They reported their findings in Science magazine, the publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was one of the longest-running studies of its kind. The Swiss scientists compared the effects of organic and traditional farming methods over a period of more than twenty years. They grew crops on four fields of land in Switzerland. Two fields were grown using traditional farming methods. The others were grown using organic farming methods. The scientists grew potatoes, barley, winter wheat, beets and grass clover. The crops, planting methods, and soil use were similar in all the fields studied. The study found that the organic fields produced about twenty percent fewer crops than the other fields. However, the farmers used less fertilizer and energy on the organic fields. They found the organic fields were healthier. The scientists say the organic fields had more nutrients in the soil. The soils in the organic fields also had more biological activity than the other fields. The organic fields had more helpful organisms and a larger number of different organisms. The organic fields had almost two times as many insects, including helpful insects. In traditional farming, chemicals designed to kill harmful insects also can kill helpful ones. The researchers say the findings show that organic crop production rates change little over time, and that soil fertility increases. They say the findings suggest that organic farmers can help the environment by increasing soil fertility. Organic farming is becoming increasingly popular in some countries. Many people believe that eating organic food is more healthful than eating food grown with chemicals. Some people are willing to pay more money to buy organic food. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - June 26, 2002: Diabetes Research Update
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American medical researchers say that a new drug has been shown to stop the progress of one form of the disease diabetes. Some researchers say the results of this latest study provide hope for finding a cure for the disease. More than one-hundred-thirty-million people around the world have diabetes. They have high levels of the sugar called glucose in their blood. Glucose levels increase when the body lacks or cannot use the hormone insulin. The pancreas is the organ of the body that produces insulin. Insulin helps glucose enter cells all over the body so that it can be used as fuel. Without insulin, glucose levels increase. This results in diabetes. The disease damages blood vessels. Diabetes also injures the kidneys, eyes and nerves. It stops blood flow to the feet and legs. And it increases the chance of heart disease and strokes. There are two kinds of diabetes. Type two or adult onset diabetes usually develops after the age of thirty. The body is not able to use the insulin that is produced. The other kind of diabetes is called type one, or juvenile diabetes. It usually develops in children or young adults. It results when the body’s defense system mistakenly attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. This is the kind of diabetes that researchers hope the new drug can control. Researchers at Columbia University in New York City and the University of California at San Francisco reported their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. They experimented with a drug that suppresses the body’s defense system. The drug stops white blood cells from attacking the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. The study involved twenty-four young people with type one diabetes. Twelve people received the drug directly into their blood vessels every day for two weeks. The other twelve were not treated. After a year, nine people who were given the drug had little if any loss in their ability to produce insulin. Ten of the twelve people who were not treated lost a great deal of the ability to produce insulin. The researchers said the drug could give people better control over type one diabetes. However, the study was very small. Scientists say more research is needed. They are planning a two-year study that involves eighty patients. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American medical researchers say that a new drug has been shown to stop the progress of one form of the disease diabetes. Some researchers say the results of this latest study provide hope for finding a cure for the disease. More than one-hundred-thirty-million people around the world have diabetes. They have high levels of the sugar called glucose in their blood. Glucose levels increase when the body lacks or cannot use the hormone insulin. The pancreas is the organ of the body that produces insulin. Insulin helps glucose enter cells all over the body so that it can be used as fuel. Without insulin, glucose levels increase. This results in diabetes. The disease damages blood vessels. Diabetes also injures the kidneys, eyes and nerves. It stops blood flow to the feet and legs. And it increases the chance of heart disease and strokes. There are two kinds of diabetes. Type two or adult onset diabetes usually develops after the age of thirty. The body is not able to use the insulin that is produced. The other kind of diabetes is called type one, or juvenile diabetes. It usually develops in children or young adults. It results when the body’s defense system mistakenly attacks and destroys cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. This is the kind of diabetes that researchers hope the new drug can control. Researchers at Columbia University in New York City and the University of California at San Francisco reported their work in the New England Journal of Medicine. They experimented with a drug that suppresses the body’s defense system. The drug stops white blood cells from attacking the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. The study involved twenty-four young people with type one diabetes. Twelve people received the drug directly into their blood vessels every day for two weeks. The other twelve were not treated. After a year, nine people who were given the drug had little if any loss in their ability to produce insulin. Ten of the twelve people who were not treated lost a great deal of the ability to produce insulin. The researchers said the drug could give people better control over type one diabetes. However, the study was very small. Scientists say more research is needed. They are planning a two-year study that involves eighty patients. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - June 26, 2002: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. From left: Daniel Bursch, Yuri Onufrienko and Carl Walz.(Photo - NASA) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the last task of the space vehicle, Galileo. We tell about the successful flight of NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. And we tell about exciting evidence of water ice on the planet Mars. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: On Io, an area of volcanic craters called the Tvashtar Catena.(Image - NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the last task of the space vehicle, Galileo. We tell about the successful flight of NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. And we tell about exciting evidence of water ice on the planet Mars. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: NASA has announced the best direct evidence of water ice on the planet Mars. A NASA spacecraft, the two-thousand-one Mars Odyssey, found the evidence. William Boynton is a researcher at the University of Arizona. He is also the top investigator for one of the scientific instruments carried by the Odyssey Spacecraft. The gamma ray spectrometer can discover what is below the surface of Mars to a depth as great as one meter. Mister Boynton is excited about the evidence produced by the gamma ray spectrometer. He says, “We were hopeful that we could find some evidence of ice, but what we have found is much more ice than we ever expected.” VOICE TWO: Scientists used Odyssey’s gamma ray spectrometer instrument to find hydrogen, which is extremely good evidence of the presence of water ice. They found the main hydrogen evidence in the top meter of soil in a large area surrounding the south pole of Mars. Mister Boynton says it is really an area of ice that is full of dirt. It is dirty ice, not dirt that contains ice. The amount of hydrogen discovered shows more than fifty percent ice between thirty and sixty centimeters below the surface. This means if a container of this soil was heated it might produce more than half a container of water. This direct evidence of water ice is extremely important to future exploration of Mars. Finding water on Mars means a manned spacecraft could be launched from Earth without having to carry huge supplies of water. This would greatly cut the time and cost of planning a flight to Mars. VOICE ONE: Stephen Saunders is the Odyssey project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California. He says scientists have suspected for a long time that large amounts of water were present on Mars. Mister Saunders says the big questions they are trying to answer are ‘where did all that water go?’…and…’what does this water mean for life?’ NASA scientists believe this ice may have once supported life in a time when the climate of Mars was much warmer. Mister Saunders says there could still be life on Mars. He says that living organisms can be found in cold environments on Earth. Jim Garvin is the Mars program scientist at the NASA headquarters, in Washington, D-C. He says it is important to measure and map the icy soils in the polar areas of Mars. He says NASA needs to continue searching perhaps deeper underground to find what happened to the rest of the water scientists think was once on Mars. The surface of Mars has provided good evidence that the planet was once covered by large areas of water. Now NASA wants to find it. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The two American members of the fourth crew of the International Space Station have set a new record. They returned to Earth on the American space shuttle Endeavour last week. Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch spent one-hundred-ninety-six days in space. They broke the record set by American astronaut Shannon Lucid. She spent one-hundred-eighty-eight days in space when she lived on the Russian space station, Mir, in nineteen-ninety-six. NASA did not plan for the two Americans to break for the record for a single stay in space. But delays caused by rain at Cape Kennedy in Florida postponed the planned launch of the Endeavour. And bad weather again at Cape Kennedy forced the landing to be postponed for three days. Endeavor finally landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California last Wednesday. The space shuttle also returned to Earth Cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko (yoory oh-NEW-free-ehn-kaw) who was the third member of the space station crew. Endeavour carried into space the fifth crew that will live and work on the International Space Station. The new crew members are Russian cosmonauts Valeri Korzun (vah-LARRY koor-ZOON) and Sergei Treschev (sehr-GAY TRESS-chev), and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. VOICE ONE: The Endeavour also carried to the space station more than two tons of supplies and experiments in a device built in Italy. The device is called the Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module. It is similar to a truck that carries supplies. The module was carried inside Endeavour until the shuttle reached the space station. It was then taken out of the Endeavour’s cargo space and linked to the space station. The crews of the Endeavour and the space station unloaded the experiments and supplies from Leonardo into the space station. Leonardo then was filled with completed experiments and equipment no longer needed on the station. Leonardo returned to Earth in Endeavour. VOICE TWO: Endeavour also carried to the space station a new device called the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The European Space Agency designed and built it. The Glovebox is an airtight container or box. Space station crewmembers can reach inside this closed box by using two rubber gloves that are built into its plastic front. This lets them to do work with materials inside the box yet have their hands and the space station’s environment protected at the same time. The front of the box is clear plastic so the crewmembers can see inside. The Glovebox is a safety device. It lets the crewmembers do science experiments involving dangerous fluids, chemicals, flames, and gases. The Glovebox is designed to stay in the space station for ten years. VOICE ONE: The Space Shuttle Endeavour also carried the equipment needed on the space station to complete the Canadian Mobile Service System. The Mobile Service System uses a huge mechanical arm to move and lift objects from one place to another on the space station. The Mobile Service System is really a large tool. One of its main purposes is to link new parts of the space station when they arrive. The large arm can move to different parts of the space station on something similar to a railroad track. Shuttle crewmembers worked outside the shuttle to complete this track. VOICE TWO: Although the American record for longest single stay in space was broken, Russian Valery Polyakov is still the all-time record holder. Cosmonaut Polyakov spent four-hundred-thirty-eight days on the Mir space station in nineteen-ninety-four and ninety-five. Astronauts Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch said they would not want to try to break that record. They said they were ready to come home. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has sent back new pictures of Jupiter’s moon, Io. Taking photographs of Io was Galileo’s last task. Galileo was launched from the space shuttle Atlantis in nineteen-eight-nine. The spacecraft flew by Venus, Earth and two asteroids on its way to Jupiter. It has been in orbit around Jupiter since December, nineteen-ninety-five. Scientists planned for Galileo to orbit Jupiter for two years. But it has survived as a successful scientific instrument now for more than six years. Galileo flew more than thirty times near Jupiter’s four largest moons. It found evidence for liquid saltwater on the moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. It found volcanoes on the moon Io. Galileo found more volcanoes during its last flight near Io. It has found evidence of more than one-hundred-twenty volcanoes on Io and taken pictures of seventy-four of them. VOICE TWO: Galileo has returned to Earth about fourteen-thousand photographs of Jupiter and its moons. It will soon pass through an area of extreme space radiation near Jupiter. It will also fly near the moon Amalthea for the first time in November. NASA says it has no plans at this time for Galileo to take photographs of Amalthea. NASA officials say the fuel used to control the space vehicle is almost gone. They say Galileo will pass Amalthea and circle one last time away from Jupiter. Then it will turn back and fall into Jupiter’s atmosphere. Galileo will be destroyed by Jupiter’s atmosphere in September, two-thousand-three. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. NASA has announced the best direct evidence of water ice on the planet Mars. A NASA spacecraft, the two-thousand-one Mars Odyssey, found the evidence. William Boynton is a researcher at the University of Arizona. He is also the top investigator for one of the scientific instruments carried by the Odyssey Spacecraft. The gamma ray spectrometer can discover what is below the surface of Mars to a depth as great as one meter. Mister Boynton is excited about the evidence produced by the gamma ray spectrometer. He says, “We were hopeful that we could find some evidence of ice, but what we have found is much more ice than we ever expected.” VOICE TWO: Scientists used Odyssey’s gamma ray spectrometer instrument to find hydrogen, which is extremely good evidence of the presence of water ice. They found the main hydrogen evidence in the top meter of soil in a large area surrounding the south pole of Mars. Mister Boynton says it is really an area of ice that is full of dirt. It is dirty ice, not dirt that contains ice. The amount of hydrogen discovered shows more than fifty percent ice between thirty and sixty centimeters below the surface. This means if a container of this soil was heated it might produce more than half a container of water. This direct evidence of water ice is extremely important to future exploration of Mars. Finding water on Mars means a manned spacecraft could be launched from Earth without having to carry huge supplies of water. This would greatly cut the time and cost of planning a flight to Mars. VOICE ONE: Stephen Saunders is the Odyssey project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California. He says scientists have suspected for a long time that large amounts of water were present on Mars. Mister Saunders says the big questions they are trying to answer are ‘where did all that water go?’…and…’what does this water mean for life?’ NASA scientists believe this ice may have once supported life in a time when the climate of Mars was much warmer. Mister Saunders says there could still be life on Mars. He says that living organisms can be found in cold environments on Earth. Jim Garvin is the Mars program scientist at the NASA headquarters, in Washington, D-C. He says it is important to measure and map the icy soils in the polar areas of Mars. He says NASA needs to continue searching perhaps deeper underground to find what happened to the rest of the water scientists think was once on Mars. The surface of Mars has provided good evidence that the planet was once covered by large areas of water. Now NASA wants to find it. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The two American members of the fourth crew of the International Space Station have set a new record. They returned to Earth on the American space shuttle Endeavour last week. Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch spent one-hundred-ninety-six days in space. They broke the record set by American astronaut Shannon Lucid. She spent one-hundred-eighty-eight days in space when she lived on the Russian space station, Mir, in nineteen-ninety-six. NASA did not plan for the two Americans to break for the record for a single stay in space. But delays caused by rain at Cape Kennedy in Florida postponed the planned launch of the Endeavour. And bad weather again at Cape Kennedy forced the landing to be postponed for three days. Endeavor finally landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California last Wednesday. The space shuttle also returned to Earth Cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko (yoory oh-NEW-free-ehn-kaw) who was the third member of the space station crew. Endeavour carried into space the fifth crew that will live and work on the International Space Station. The new crew members are Russian cosmonauts Valeri Korzun (vah-LARRY koor-ZOON) and Sergei Treschev (sehr-GAY TRESS-chev), and American astronaut Peggy Whitson. VOICE ONE: The Endeavour also carried to the space station more than two tons of supplies and experiments in a device built in Italy. The device is called the Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module. It is similar to a truck that carries supplies. The module was carried inside Endeavour until the shuttle reached the space station. It was then taken out of the Endeavour’s cargo space and linked to the space station. The crews of the Endeavour and the space station unloaded the experiments and supplies from Leonardo into the space station. Leonardo then was filled with completed experiments and equipment no longer needed on the station. Leonardo returned to Earth in Endeavour. VOICE TWO: Endeavour also carried to the space station a new device called the Microgravity Science Glovebox. The European Space Agency designed and built it. The Glovebox is an airtight container or box. Space station crewmembers can reach inside this closed box by using two rubber gloves that are built into its plastic front. This lets them to do work with materials inside the box yet have their hands and the space station’s environment protected at the same time. The front of the box is clear plastic so the crewmembers can see inside. The Glovebox is a safety device. It lets the crewmembers do science experiments involving dangerous fluids, chemicals, flames, and gases. The Glovebox is designed to stay in the space station for ten years. VOICE ONE: The Space Shuttle Endeavour also carried the equipment needed on the space station to complete the Canadian Mobile Service System. The Mobile Service System uses a huge mechanical arm to move and lift objects from one place to another on the space station. The Mobile Service System is really a large tool. One of its main purposes is to link new parts of the space station when they arrive. The large arm can move to different parts of the space station on something similar to a railroad track. Shuttle crewmembers worked outside the shuttle to complete this track. VOICE TWO: Although the American record for longest single stay in space was broken, Russian Valery Polyakov is still the all-time record holder. Cosmonaut Polyakov spent four-hundred-thirty-eight days on the Mir space station in nineteen-ninety-four and ninety-five. Astronauts Carl Walz and Daniel Bursch said they would not want to try to break that record. They said they were ready to come home. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has sent back new pictures of Jupiter’s moon, Io. Taking photographs of Io was Galileo’s last task. Galileo was launched from the space shuttle Atlantis in nineteen-eight-nine. The spacecraft flew by Venus, Earth and two asteroids on its way to Jupiter. It has been in orbit around Jupiter since December, nineteen-ninety-five. Scientists planned for Galileo to orbit Jupiter for two years. But it has survived as a successful scientific instrument now for more than six years. Galileo flew more than thirty times near Jupiter’s four largest moons. It found evidence for liquid saltwater on the moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. It found volcanoes on the moon Io. Galileo found more volcanoes during its last flight near Io. It has found evidence of more than one-hundred-twenty volcanoes on Io and taken pictures of seventy-four of them. VOICE TWO: Galileo has returned to Earth about fourteen-thousand photographs of Jupiter and its moons. It will soon pass through an area of extreme space radiation near Jupiter. It will also fly near the moon Amalthea for the first time in November. NASA says it has no plans at this time for Galileo to take photographs of Amalthea. NASA officials say the fuel used to control the space vehicle is almost gone. They say Galileo will pass Amalthea and circle one last time away from Jupiter. Then it will turn back and fall into Jupiter’s atmosphere. Galileo will be destroyed by Jupiter’s atmosphere in September, two-thousand-three. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - June 27, 2002: Harry Truman
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Harry Truman making his first speech as president.(Photo - Library of Congress) VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The House of Representatives of the Congress closed for business early on the rainy afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen-forty-five. The House Democratic leader, Sam Rayburn, stepped down from his chair and invited a friend to come by his office for a drink. "Be there around five o'clock," Rayburn said. "Harry Truman is coming over." The Second World War was not yet over. But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt was in the state of Georgia. He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The president's wife, Eleanor, was at the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations organization. Vice President Harry Truman was at the Senate. But he was not interested in the debate. He spent most of his time writing a letter to his mother and sister back in the state of Missouri. When the debate finished, he went to the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink. It was an afternoon Truman would never forget. President Harry Truman, speaking at VOA (Theme) The House of Representatives of the Congress closed for business early on the rainy afternoon of April twelfth, nineteen-forty-five. The House Democratic leader, Sam Rayburn, stepped down from his chair and invited a friend to come by his office for a drink. "Be there around five o'clock," Rayburn said. "Harry Truman is coming over." The Second World War was not yet over. But it was a quiet afternoon in Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt was in the state of Georgia. He was resting after his recent trip to Yalta to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The president's wife, Eleanor, was at the White House, working on a speech supporting the new United Nations organization. Vice President Harry Truman was at the Senate. But he was not interested in the debate. He spent most of his time writing a letter to his mother and sister back in the state of Missouri. When the debate finished, he went to the office of House leader Rayburn to join him for a drink. It was an afternoon Truman would never forget. VOICE 2: Rayburn and his other friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived. Suddenly the telephone rang. It was the White House. A voice asked whether Vice President Truman had arrived yet. "No," Rayburn replied. "Tell him to call the White House," the voice said, "as soon as he gets there." Truman entered a minute later. He immediately called the White House. As he talked, his face became white. He put down the phone and raced out the door to find his car. VOICE 1: Truman arrived at the White House within minutes. An assistant took him up to the private living area for the president. Mr. Roosevelt was waiting for him there. "Harry," she said to Truman, "the president is dead." Truman was shocked. He asked Missus Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her. But her reply made clear to him that his own life had suddenly changed. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Missus Roosevelt asked the new president. "You are the one in trouble now." VOICE 2: Within hours, the world knew the news. Franklin Roosevelt was dead. Americans were shocked and afraid. Roosevelt had led them since early nineteen-thirty-three. He was the only president many young Americans had ever known. Who would lead them now. The answer was Harry Truman, the vice president. Truman had been a surprise choice for vice president. Delegates at the Democratic presidential convention of nineteen-forty-four chose him to be with Roosevelt only after considering several other candidates. Roosevelt and Truman easily defeated their Republican Party opponents. And, when Roosevelt died, Truman became president. VOICE 1: Truman lacked the fame, the rich family, and the strong speaking voice of Franklin Roosevelt. He was a much simpler man. He grew up in the central state of Missouri. Truman only studied through high school and some night-time law school classes. He worked for many years as a farmer and a small businessman, but without much success. Truman had long been interested in politics. When he was almost forty years old, he finally won several low-level jobs in his home state. By nineteen-thirty-four, he was popular enough in the state to be nominated and elected to the United States Senate. And he won re-election six years later. VOICE 2: Most Americans, however, knew little about Truman when he became president. They knew he had close ties to the Democratic Party political machine in his home state. But they also had heard that he was a very honest man. They could see that Truman had strongly supported President Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. But they could not be sure what kind of president Truman would become. VOICE 1: History gave Truman little time to learn about his new job. In one of his first weeks as president, Truman signed a paper on his desk without reading it completely. Only later did he learn that his signing the paper had stopped the shipment of American goods to Britain under the "lend-lease" program. Truman's mistake caused problems for people in both the United States and Britain. But it also taught the new president how much power he now had, and how carefully he must use it. VOICE 2: The most important power he now possessed was the power of atomic weapons. And, soon after he became president, he faced the decision to use that terrible power or not. Truman understood the tragic importance of using atomic bombs to end World War Two. Yet he firmly believed that using such bombs was the only way to force Japan to surrender. So in August, nineteen-forty-five, he gave the orders to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war in Europe had ended several months earlier. Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and soviet leader Joseph Stalin to plan the peace. The three leaders agreed that their nations and France would occupy Germany jointly. They also agreed to end the Nazi party in Germany, to hold trials for Nazi war criminals, and to break up some German businesses. Foreign ministers of the Allied nations later negotiated peace treaties with Germany's wartime allies and other countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Romania. The east European nations all agreed to protect the political and economic freedom of their citizens. However, western political experts were becoming more fearful each day that the soviet union would block any effort for real democracy in eastern Europe. VOICE 1: Truman did not trust the soviets. And as he made plans for Asia, he promised himself that he would not allow Moscow any part in controlling Japan. For this reason, the allied occupation of Japan was mainly American. The American leader in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, acted quickly to hold a series of trials for Japanese war crimes. He also launched a series of reforms to move Japan toward becoming a modern Western democracy. Women were given the right to vote. Land was divided among farmers. Shinto was ended as the national religion. And the educational system was reorganized. Japan began to recover very soon, becoming stronger than ever before as an economic power. VOICE 2: While Truman and other world leaders dealt with the problems of making peace, they also were trying to establish a new system for keeping the peace. The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the other Allies had formed the United Nations as a wartime organization. But soon after Truman took office, they met in San Francisco to discuss ways to make the United Nations a permanent organization for peace. At the same time, many of the world's economic experts were meeting to organize a new economic system for the world. They created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help nations rebuild their economies. VOICE 1: At the center of all the action was Harry Truman. It was not long before he showed Americans and the world that he had the ability to be a good president. He was honest, strong, and willing to make decisions. "I was sworn-in one night and the next morning I had to get right to the job at hand," Truman remembered years later. "I was afraid. But, of course, I didn't let anybody know that. And I knew that I would not be called on to do anything that I was not able to do. That's something I learned from reading history. "People in the past have had much bigger problems. Somehow, the best of them just went ahead and did what they had to do. And they usually did all right. "The job I had in the White House was not so very different from other jobs," Truman said. "I didn't let it worry me. Worrying never does you any good. So I have never worried about things much. " (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE 2: Rayburn and his other friend were talking in the office before Truman arrived. Suddenly the telephone rang. It was the White House. A voice asked whether Vice President Truman had arrived yet. "No," Rayburn replied. "Tell him to call the White House," the voice said, "as soon as he gets there." Truman entered a minute later. He immediately called the White House. As he talked, his face became white. He put down the phone and raced out the door to find his car. VOICE 1: Truman arrived at the White House within minutes. An assistant took him up to the private living area for the president. Mr. Roosevelt was waiting for him there. "Harry," she said to Truman, "the president is dead." Truman was shocked. He asked Missus Roosevelt if there was anything he could do to help her. But her reply made clear to him that his own life had suddenly changed. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Missus Roosevelt asked the new president. "You are the one in trouble now." VOICE 2: Within hours, the world knew the news. Franklin Roosevelt was dead. Americans were shocked and afraid. Roosevelt had led them since early nineteen-thirty-three. He was the only president many young Americans had ever known. Who would lead them now. The answer was Harry Truman, the vice president. Truman had been a surprise choice for vice president. Delegates at the Democratic presidential convention of nineteen-forty-four chose him to be with Roosevelt only after considering several other candidates. Roosevelt and Truman easily defeated their Republican Party opponents. And, when Roosevelt died, Truman became president. VOICE 1: Truman lacked the fame, the rich family, and the strong speaking voice of Franklin Roosevelt. He was a much simpler man. He grew up in the central state of Missouri. Truman only studied through high school and some night-time law school classes. He worked for many years as a farmer and a small businessman, but without much success. Truman had long been interested in politics. When he was almost forty years old, he finally won several low-level jobs in his home state. By nineteen-thirty-four, he was popular enough in the state to be nominated and elected to the United States Senate. And he won re-election six years later. VOICE 2: Most Americans, however, knew little about Truman when he became president. They knew he had close ties to the Democratic Party political machine in his home state. But they also had heard that he was a very honest man. They could see that Truman had strongly supported President Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs. But they could not be sure what kind of president Truman would become. VOICE 1: History gave Truman little time to learn about his new job. In one of his first weeks as president, Truman signed a paper on his desk without reading it completely. Only later did he learn that his signing the paper had stopped the shipment of American goods to Britain under the "lend-lease" program. Truman's mistake caused problems for people in both the United States and Britain. But it also taught the new president how much power he now had, and how carefully he must use it. VOICE 2: The most important power he now possessed was the power of atomic weapons. And, soon after he became president, he faced the decision to use that terrible power or not. Truman understood the tragic importance of using atomic bombs to end World War Two. Yet he firmly believed that using such bombs was the only way to force Japan to surrender. So in August, nineteen-forty-five, he gave the orders to drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war in Europe had ended several months earlier. Truman met in Potsdam, Germany, with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and soviet leader Joseph Stalin to plan the peace. The three leaders agreed that their nations and France would occupy Germany jointly. They also agreed to end the Nazi party in Germany, to hold trials for Nazi war criminals, and to break up some German businesses. Foreign ministers of the Allied nations later negotiated peace treaties with Germany's wartime allies and other countries, including Italy, Hungary, and Romania. The east European nations all agreed to protect the political and economic freedom of their citizens. However, western political experts were becoming more fearful each day that the soviet union would block any effort for real democracy in eastern Europe. VOICE 1: Truman did not trust the soviets. And as he made plans for Asia, he promised himself that he would not allow Moscow any part in controlling Japan. For this reason, the allied occupation of Japan was mainly American. The American leader in Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, acted quickly to hold a series of trials for Japanese war crimes. He also launched a series of reforms to move Japan toward becoming a modern Western democracy. Women were given the right to vote. Land was divided among farmers. Shinto was ended as the national religion. And the educational system was reorganized. Japan began to recover very soon, becoming stronger than ever before as an economic power. VOICE 2: While Truman and other world leaders dealt with the problems of making peace, they also were trying to establish a new system for keeping the peace. The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and the other Allies had formed the United Nations as a wartime organization. But soon after Truman took office, they met in San Francisco to discuss ways to make the United Nations a permanent organization for peace. At the same time, many of the world's economic experts were meeting to organize a new economic system for the world. They created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to help nations rebuild their economies. VOICE 1: At the center of all the action was Harry Truman. It was not long before he showed Americans and the world that he had the ability to be a good president. He was honest, strong, and willing to make decisions. "I was sworn-in one night and the next morning I had to get right to the job at hand," Truman remembered years later. "I was afraid. But, of course, I didn't let anybody know that. And I knew that I would not be called on to do anything that I was not able to do. That's something I learned from reading history. "People in the past have had much bigger problems. Somehow, the best of them just went ahead and did what they had to do. And they usually did all right. "The job I had in the White House was not so very different from other jobs," Truman said. "I didn't let it worry me. Worrying never does you any good. So I have never worried about things much. " (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – June 27, 2002: Teacher Shortage
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American public schools do not have enough well-trained people to teach mathematics and science. Education experts say fewer than half the people currently teaching mathematics are well prepared. These teachers have not studied enough mathematics in college. Or they have not successfully completed examinations for mathematics teachers. State and local governments supervise public schools in the United States. Almost thirty percent of current mathematics teachers do not have official state approval of their skills. Almost twenty percent of science teachers also lack this certification. Schools in the richest areas of the nation have the money to hire the best mathematics and science teachers. However, other schools in crowded cities and small towns have problems finding good teachers. Like many other areas of the nation, the state of California does not have enough mathematics teachers. However, mathematics requirements for students have increased. For example, high school students now must demonstrate skill in the mathematics subject called algebra or they cannot graduate. To deal with this situation, California is employing people to work as emergency teachers. Some of these people work in private industry. Their employers pay them to teach mathematics in the public schools. Some emergency teachers have left other jobs to work in the schools. These emergency teachers have strong mathematics skills. However, they lack intensive college preparation in mathematics. And many have never taught school before. The city of Cleveland, Ohio, is dealing with the lack of mathematics and science teachers another way. Last year, the city employed fifty teachers newly arrived from India. They are highly trained people who have taught school in their native country. They have agreed to teach in the Cleveland schools for three years. There are some problems. Sometimes the teachers and students have trouble understanding each other. Sometimes the students do not cooperate with the teachers. But only two of the Indian teachers have returned home. They did so for family reasons. School system officials say Cleveland schools are happy to have the Indian teachers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American public schools do not have enough well-trained people to teach mathematics and science. Education experts say fewer than half the people currently teaching mathematics are well prepared. These teachers have not studied enough mathematics in college. Or they have not successfully completed examinations for mathematics teachers. State and local governments supervise public schools in the United States. Almost thirty percent of current mathematics teachers do not have official state approval of their skills. Almost twenty percent of science teachers also lack this certification. Schools in the richest areas of the nation have the money to hire the best mathematics and science teachers. However, other schools in crowded cities and small towns have problems finding good teachers. Like many other areas of the nation, the state of California does not have enough mathematics teachers. However, mathematics requirements for students have increased. For example, high school students now must demonstrate skill in the mathematics subject called algebra or they cannot graduate. To deal with this situation, California is employing people to work as emergency teachers. Some of these people work in private industry. Their employers pay them to teach mathematics in the public schools. Some emergency teachers have left other jobs to work in the schools. These emergency teachers have strong mathematics skills. However, they lack intensive college preparation in mathematics. And many have never taught school before. The city of Cleveland, Ohio, is dealing with the lack of mathematics and science teachers another way. Last year, the city employed fifty teachers newly arrived from India. They are highly trained people who have taught school in their native country. They have agreed to teach in the Cleveland schools for three years. There are some problems. Sometimes the teachers and students have trouble understanding each other. Sometimes the students do not cooperate with the teachers. But only two of the Indian teachers have returned home. They did so for family reasons. School system officials say Cleveland schools are happy to have the Indian teachers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - June 28, 2002: Soccer in America / Richard Rodgers Music / Question about 'Chinatown'
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music written by Richard Rogers ... Answer a listener’s question about “Chinatown” ... Richard Rodgers, seated, with Oscar Hammerstein.(Photo - Library of Congress) (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we: Play some music written by Richard Rogers ... Answer a listener’s question about “Chinatown” ... And report about the growing popularity of soccer football in the United States. Soccer in the U.S. HOST: On Sunday, June thirtieth, an important soccer football game will be played in the city of Yokohama, Japan. That game will decide the World Cup champion of soccer football. Americans are becoming more interested in this great international game. Steve Ember explains. ANNCR: In its first game in the World Cup matches this year, the United States defeated a strong team from Portugal by a score of three-to-two. That is the first time a United States team had scored three points in World Cup competition since a game in nineteen-thirty against Paraguay. The American team finally lost to Germany, one to nothing, in a very close quarterfinal game. American soccer fans were happy about the results. It was the best an American team had done in more than seventy years in World Cup competition. However, most of the American public showed little interest. Many people in the United States still have no idea how important the World Cup soccer championship games are to the rest of the world. Many Americans do not know how the game is played. The American public has never shown much interest in soccer. Sports experts say this is only true of older Americans. They never played soccer when they were children. They did not grow up with the sport as people in other countries have. Sports like American football, baseball and basketball have always been much more popular. The United States Soccer Federation says about eighteen-million people today play soccer in the United States. But those who play are very young. Seventy-eight percent are under the age of eighteen. Sports experts say it is these children who are making the sport popular in the United States. The experts say soccer has become popular with children because almost anyone can play. There are teams for girls, boys, older children and young adults. Many Americans are becoming interested in soccer because their children play. This has produced the new American expression “Soccer Mom.” This is a mother who spends a lot of time driving her children to soccer games in the family car. The United States Soccer Federation says it is helping children improve their playing skills. It provides special training for young players at soccer camps during the summer. Federation officials say the United States may one day have a World Cup champion team, but it will be sometime in the future. Soccer fans in the United States will have to wait until young soccer players grow up playing the world’s most popular sport. Chinatown HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Chung Tanquoc asks about Chinatown. Many large cities in the United States and around the world have an ethnic area called Chinatown. Each was settled by people who came from China. For example, Chinatown in San Francisco, California, began in the eighteen-forties. Gold had been discovered in California. Chinese immigrants came to America in search of wealth. They settled in an area that later became known as Chinatown. Nearly all the immigrants were men. Their hard work was quickly recognized. In eighteen-fifty, San Francisco Mayor John Geary held a ceremony honoring Chinese efforts to improve the city. Today, Chinatown is a leading cultural influence in San Francisco. Many people visit the area. Chinatowns were also established in cities in the western states of Oregon and Washington during the middle of the nineteenth century. Many Chinese settlers in these areas helped build the first railroad system across the United States. However, after the work ended in eighteen-sixty-nine, many Chinese moved to the eastern and middle parts of the United States. The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Chicago, Illinois, in the eighteen-seventies. Many of these first immigrants opened clothes-cleaning businesses and low-cost eating places. Chicago’s Chinatown has grown over the years. The largest number of immigrants came after communists took control of mainland China in nineteen-forty-eight. Chinatowns also can be found in cities outside the United States. For example, the first Chinese settlers in London arrived in the late eighteenth century. They were men who worked for the East India Company. Later, Chinese immigrants operated small stores and eating places that were visited by Chinese sailors traveling through the city. Today, many people visit London’s Chinatown. It has special Chinese Gates and walking areas for visitors. Chinatowns around the world are not only places where Chinese people live and work. They are also places where visitors can learn more about Chinese culture and traditions. Richard Rodgers HOST: June twenty-eighth is the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the most successful writers of Broadway show music. Richard Rodgers was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-two. He died in nineteen-seventy-nine. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Richard Rodgers wrote about forty Broadway musical plays, ten movie musicals, and two television musicals. He also wrote music for television and the ballet. He won many awards for his work. His first Broadway show was “Garrick Gaities” in nineteen-twenty-five. He wrote the music. Lorenz Hart wrote the words. Rodgers and Hart worked together on twenty-five other shows, including “Pal Joey” in nineteen-forty. It was later made into a movie. One of the most popular songs from “Pal Joey” is “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Frank Sinatra played Joey in the movie. He sings the famous song. ((THE LADY IS A TRAMP)) Richard Rodgers later created nine popular Broadway shows with Oscar Hammerstein. They were the most successful songwriting team in Broadway history. Their first show opened in nineteen-forty-three. That show is now being performed again on Broadway in New York City. It is called “Oklahoma.” Here is the title song. ((OKLAHOMA)) Richard Rodgers also wrote both the words and music for Broadway shows. Perhaps the best known of these is “No Strings.” It opened on Broadway in nineteen-sixty-two. The title describes the idea of love without responsibility. It also means that Rogers did not use any string instruments in the orchestra. We leave you now with a song from Richard Rodgers’ show, “No Strings,” performed by Richard Kiley and Diahann (di-ANNE) Carroll. It is called “The Sweetest Sounds.” ((THE SWEETEST SOUNDS)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And report about the growing popularity of soccer football in the United States. Soccer in the U.S. HOST: On Sunday, June thirtieth, an important soccer football game will be played in the city of Yokohama, Japan. That game will decide the World Cup champion of soccer football. Americans are becoming more interested in this great international game. Steve Ember explains. ANNCR: In its first game in the World Cup matches this year, the United States defeated a strong team from Portugal by a score of three-to-two. That is the first time a United States team had scored three points in World Cup competition since a game in nineteen-thirty against Paraguay. The American team finally lost to Germany, one to nothing, in a very close quarterfinal game. American soccer fans were happy about the results. It was the best an American team had done in more than seventy years in World Cup competition. However, most of the American public showed little interest. Many people in the United States still have no idea how important the World Cup soccer championship games are to the rest of the world. Many Americans do not know how the game is played. The American public has never shown much interest in soccer. Sports experts say this is only true of older Americans. They never played soccer when they were children. They did not grow up with the sport as people in other countries have. Sports like American football, baseball and basketball have always been much more popular. The United States Soccer Federation says about eighteen-million people today play soccer in the United States. But those who play are very young. Seventy-eight percent are under the age of eighteen. Sports experts say it is these children who are making the sport popular in the United States. The experts say soccer has become popular with children because almost anyone can play. There are teams for girls, boys, older children and young adults. Many Americans are becoming interested in soccer because their children play. This has produced the new American expression “Soccer Mom.” This is a mother who spends a lot of time driving her children to soccer games in the family car. The United States Soccer Federation says it is helping children improve their playing skills. It provides special training for young players at soccer camps during the summer. Federation officials say the United States may one day have a World Cup champion team, but it will be sometime in the future. Soccer fans in the United States will have to wait until young soccer players grow up playing the world’s most popular sport. Chinatown HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Chung Tanquoc asks about Chinatown. Many large cities in the United States and around the world have an ethnic area called Chinatown. Each was settled by people who came from China. For example, Chinatown in San Francisco, California, began in the eighteen-forties. Gold had been discovered in California. Chinese immigrants came to America in search of wealth. They settled in an area that later became known as Chinatown. Nearly all the immigrants were men. Their hard work was quickly recognized. In eighteen-fifty, San Francisco Mayor John Geary held a ceremony honoring Chinese efforts to improve the city. Today, Chinatown is a leading cultural influence in San Francisco. Many people visit the area. Chinatowns were also established in cities in the western states of Oregon and Washington during the middle of the nineteenth century. Many Chinese settlers in these areas helped build the first railroad system across the United States. However, after the work ended in eighteen-sixty-nine, many Chinese moved to the eastern and middle parts of the United States. The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Chicago, Illinois, in the eighteen-seventies. Many of these first immigrants opened clothes-cleaning businesses and low-cost eating places. Chicago’s Chinatown has grown over the years. The largest number of immigrants came after communists took control of mainland China in nineteen-forty-eight. Chinatowns also can be found in cities outside the United States. For example, the first Chinese settlers in London arrived in the late eighteenth century. They were men who worked for the East India Company. Later, Chinese immigrants operated small stores and eating places that were visited by Chinese sailors traveling through the city. Today, many people visit London’s Chinatown. It has special Chinese Gates and walking areas for visitors. Chinatowns around the world are not only places where Chinese people live and work. They are also places where visitors can learn more about Chinese culture and traditions. Richard Rodgers HOST: June twenty-eighth is the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the most successful writers of Broadway show music. Richard Rodgers was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-two. He died in nineteen-seventy-nine. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Richard Rodgers wrote about forty Broadway musical plays, ten movie musicals, and two television musicals. He also wrote music for television and the ballet. He won many awards for his work. His first Broadway show was “Garrick Gaities” in nineteen-twenty-five. He wrote the music. Lorenz Hart wrote the words. Rodgers and Hart worked together on twenty-five other shows, including “Pal Joey” in nineteen-forty. It was later made into a movie. One of the most popular songs from “Pal Joey” is “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Frank Sinatra played Joey in the movie. He sings the famous song. ((THE LADY IS A TRAMP)) Richard Rodgers later created nine popular Broadway shows with Oscar Hammerstein. They were the most successful songwriting team in Broadway history. Their first show opened in nineteen-forty-three. That show is now being performed again on Broadway in New York City. It is called “Oklahoma.” Here is the title song. ((OKLAHOMA)) Richard Rodgers also wrote both the words and music for Broadway shows. Perhaps the best known of these is “No Strings.” It opened on Broadway in nineteen-sixty-two. The title describes the idea of love without responsibility. It also means that Rogers did not use any string instruments in the orchestra. We leave you now with a song from Richard Rodgers’ show, “No Strings,” performed by Richard Kiley and Diahann (di-ANNE) Carroll. It is called “The Sweetest Sounds.” ((THE SWEETEST SOUNDS)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - June 28, 2002: Rooftop Gardens
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Officials in Chicago, Illinois, are hoping to help the environment by planting gardens on the tops of buildings. They say plants and trees have the ability to clean the air and decrease the temperature. They say rooftop gardens can keep buildings cooler, save energy and extend the useful life of a roof. Almost half of the streets, parking areas for cars, and buildings in Chicago have dark-colored surfaces. More than sixty percent of Chicago’s rooftops are dark in color. During the summer, dark-colored surfaces take in and trap heat from the sun. This causes the temperature to rise higher in the city than in surrounding areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect. It is felt most in the summer when temperatures are already high. More energy is needed to cool buildings as a result of the temperature increase. The heat island effect also increases air pollution. Not all cities experience the heat island effect. It depends on the weather and the condition of streets, buildings and other man-made structures. It also depends on the number of natural areas with plants and trees, such as parks and gardens. In addition to Chicago, several North American cities experience the heat island effect. They include Atlanta, Georgia; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Toronto, Canada. The city of Chicago’s Department of Environment wants building owners to do what they can to reduce the heat island effect. City officials say one way to do this is by planting gardens on the roofs of buildings. One example is the rooftop garden on Chicago’s City Hall. Workers planted trees and other plants on the roof. They chose native plants that need less water. Many kinds of insects and birds have made their homes in the rooftop garden. Workers also replaced surfaces with light-colored materials. They say this has helped reduce energy use inside the building to keep the building cooler. Officials say the Chicago City Hall rooftop garden also helps prevent rainwater from overflowing in the streets. The water is taken in by the plants, trees and soil. Officials say the overflow of rainwater would be reduced if enough buildings in the city had rooftop gardens. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Officials in Chicago, Illinois, are hoping to help the environment by planting gardens on the tops of buildings. They say plants and trees have the ability to clean the air and decrease the temperature. They say rooftop gardens can keep buildings cooler, save energy and extend the useful life of a roof. Almost half of the streets, parking areas for cars, and buildings in Chicago have dark-colored surfaces. More than sixty percent of Chicago’s rooftops are dark in color. During the summer, dark-colored surfaces take in and trap heat from the sun. This causes the temperature to rise higher in the city than in surrounding areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect. It is felt most in the summer when temperatures are already high. More energy is needed to cool buildings as a result of the temperature increase. The heat island effect also increases air pollution. Not all cities experience the heat island effect. It depends on the weather and the condition of streets, buildings and other man-made structures. It also depends on the number of natural areas with plants and trees, such as parks and gardens. In addition to Chicago, several North American cities experience the heat island effect. They include Atlanta, Georgia; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Toronto, Canada. The city of Chicago’s Department of Environment wants building owners to do what they can to reduce the heat island effect. City officials say one way to do this is by planting gardens on the roofs of buildings. One example is the rooftop garden on Chicago’s City Hall. Workers planted trees and other plants on the roof. They chose native plants that need less water. Many kinds of insects and birds have made their homes in the rooftop garden. Workers also replaced surfaces with light-colored materials. They say this has helped reduce energy use inside the building to keep the building cooler. Officials say the Chicago City Hall rooftop garden also helps prevent rainwater from overflowing in the streets. The water is taken in by the plants, trees and soil. Officials say the overflow of rainwater would be reduced if enough buildings in the city had rooftop gardens. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: June 27, 2002 - Medical Interpreters
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 27, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 30, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a special report about the linguistic challenges that health care workers face in the United States as a result of the nation’s growing immigrant population. RS: A recent study found that hospitals could lower medical risk and enhance their treatment of immigrant patients by providing interpreters to translate a diagnosis or procedure. The study involved a survey of patients who did not have medical insurance. AA: The study was conducted by the Access Project, a resource center in Boston, Massachusetts, for community health initiatives. The center is affiliated with Brandeis University. VOA correspondent Laurie Kassman sums up the findings. TEXT: Access Project Executive Director Mark Rukavina says the study highlights the advantages language interpreters provide for the patient and the hospital -- and the dangers when they do not. RUKAVINA: "One of the more troubling findings from our report was that people who needed but did not get interpretation were much more likely to leave the encounter with the clinicians without a clear understanding of the medication or the instructions or how to pay for the care that they received." TEXT: The Access Project surveyed four-thousand patients at 23 hospitals in 16 U-S cities, including many who did not speak English well. One in five of those who responded that they did not have an interpreter said they did not understand how to take the medicine they received. Only two percent of those who needed and got a proper interpreter cited this as a problem. Often, immigrant families who speak little English depend on their child or relative who does. But Washington attorney Mara Youdelman of the National Health Law Program says that can create added family tensions and more problems: YOUDELMAN: "First and foremost, many children do not have the competency in English or medical terminology to accurately translate. Secondly, many children are brought in at inappropriate circumstances. For example, a ten-year-old child was asked to translate and explain to his mother that she had just been diagnosed with cancer." TEXT: Access Project director Mark Rukavina says many hospitals may agree on the need for the service but see the added cost as an obstacle. Ironically, he says, only five U-S states currently take advantage of federal health insurance programs that will subsidize interpreter services for their public hospitals. Ms. Youdelman says the federal government reminded state health services two years ago of the availability of federal funding. YOUDELMAN: "We still believe there is an educational effort that needs to be undertaken so that states are aware of the federal reimbursement and make them understand that providing interpretation up front can reduce health care costs in the long term." TEXT: Ms. Youdelman's law center recently studied 14 community health programs that use interpreters to see how handle the problem. Mr. Rukavina says many urban hospitals and clinics that service large immigrant communities already have come up with a variety of programs to meet their needs and their budgets from pooling interpreter services or using telephone language hot-lines, to training bilingual, non-medical staff in medical terminology. RUKAVINA: "There is an emerging field of study on how to effectively and efficiently provide these interpreter services and there is more attention being paid in the medical community as well." TEXT: Immigration activists say it is not just the medical community that needs to take action. Last month, hundreds of immigrants in New York City marched to show their support for legislation that would require the city's health, welfare and employment agencies to use interpreters, too. AA: VOA's Laurie Kassman reporting. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail is word@voanews.com. And you can find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": June 27, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: June 30, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: a special report about the linguistic challenges that health care workers face in the United States as a result of the nation’s growing immigrant population. RS: A recent study found that hospitals could lower medical risk and enhance their treatment of immigrant patients by providing interpreters to translate a diagnosis or procedure. The study involved a survey of patients who did not have medical insurance. AA: The study was conducted by the Access Project, a resource center in Boston, Massachusetts, for community health initiatives. The center is affiliated with Brandeis University. VOA correspondent Laurie Kassman sums up the findings. TEXT: Access Project Executive Director Mark Rukavina says the study highlights the advantages language interpreters provide for the patient and the hospital -- and the dangers when they do not. RUKAVINA: "One of the more troubling findings from our report was that people who needed but did not get interpretation were much more likely to leave the encounter with the clinicians without a clear understanding of the medication or the instructions or how to pay for the care that they received." TEXT: The Access Project surveyed four-thousand patients at 23 hospitals in 16 U-S cities, including many who did not speak English well. One in five of those who responded that they did not have an interpreter said they did not understand how to take the medicine they received. Only two percent of those who needed and got a proper interpreter cited this as a problem. Often, immigrant families who speak little English depend on their child or relative who does. But Washington attorney Mara Youdelman of the National Health Law Program says that can create added family tensions and more problems: YOUDELMAN: "First and foremost, many children do not have the competency in English or medical terminology to accurately translate. Secondly, many children are brought in at inappropriate circumstances. For example, a ten-year-old child was asked to translate and explain to his mother that she had just been diagnosed with cancer." TEXT: Access Project director Mark Rukavina says many hospitals may agree on the need for the service but see the added cost as an obstacle. Ironically, he says, only five U-S states currently take advantage of federal health insurance programs that will subsidize interpreter services for their public hospitals. Ms. Youdelman says the federal government reminded state health services two years ago of the availability of federal funding. YOUDELMAN: "We still believe there is an educational effort that needs to be undertaken so that states are aware of the federal reimbursement and make them understand that providing interpretation up front can reduce health care costs in the long term." TEXT: Ms. Youdelman's law center recently studied 14 community health programs that use interpreters to see how handle the problem. Mr. Rukavina says many urban hospitals and clinics that service large immigrant communities already have come up with a variety of programs to meet their needs and their budgets from pooling interpreter services or using telephone language hot-lines, to training bilingual, non-medical staff in medical terminology. RUKAVINA: "There is an emerging field of study on how to effectively and efficiently provide these interpreter services and there is more attention being paid in the medical community as well." TEXT: Immigration activists say it is not just the medical community that needs to take action. Last month, hundreds of immigrants in New York City marched to show their support for legislation that would require the city's health, welfare and employment agencies to use interpreters, too. AA: VOA's Laurie Kassman reporting. And that's Wordmaster for this week. RS: Our postal address is VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail is word@voanews.com. And you can find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - June 30, 2002: Lou Gehrig
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. A North American Major League baseball record was established in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. The man who set it played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing one. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Lou Gehrig was born on June Nineteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. He was a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany. They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money. Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends. Then one of Lou's high-school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games. VOICE TWO: Years later, Lou said, "When I saw so many people and heard all the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game. So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player. VOICE ONE: A representative of a Major League team, the New York Giants, came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a Major League player. It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school. He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and without a job. VOICE TWO: The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team. But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college. Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit. VOICE ONE: Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments for their home. The New York Yankees Major League baseball organization came to the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three-thousand-five-hundred dollars to finish the Nineteen-Twenty-Three baseball season. That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems. VOICE TWO: The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games. VOICE ONE: The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended. Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed. Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly. VOICE TWO: Gehrig continued to improve as a player. By Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series. Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an operation. He felt he should be with her. Misses Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother recovered. More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. His back, legs and hands were injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate. Another Yankee player said, "Every time he played, it hurt him." VOICE ONE: Gehrig felt good in Nineteen-Thirty. He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water. Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of Nineteen-Thirty-Two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig, "I did not think a player could be that good." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell. Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly. As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it. An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury. VOICE ONE: Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May Thirty-First, Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before. Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three-hundred. He scored one-hundred-fifteen runs. He batted in almost as many runs. But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy catches and throws. Yet his manager commented, "Everybody is asking what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club doing as poorly as he is doing." VOICE TWO: Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several times the next winter while ice-skating with Eleanor. He had trouble holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened. In May Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, he finally told his manager he could not play. Lou Gehrig had played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing any that his team played. Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June Nineteenth. That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. VOICE ONE: Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act frightened or sad. On July Fourth, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, more than sixty-thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky. His words echoed throughout the stadium. (LOU GEHRIG AT YANKEE STADIUM) "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." VOICE TWO: Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He died on June Second, Nineteen-Forty-One. He was thirty-seven years old. America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. A North American Major League baseball record was established in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. The man who set it played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing one. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the record was broken by Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles. But there is not much chance that the man who set the first record will be forgotten. Today Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember tell about Lou Gehrig whose record lasted for fifty-six years. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Lou Gehrig was born on June Nineteenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. He was a huge baby. He weighed six-and-one-third kilograms. His parents, Heinrich and Christina Gehrig, had come to America from Germany. They worked hard. But they always had trouble earning enough money. Lou loved to play baseball games on the streets of New York City, where he grew up. Yet he did not try to play on any sports teams when he entered high school. He thought of himself as a ball player only for informal games with friends. Then one of Lou's high-school teachers heard that he could hit the ball very hard. The teacher ordered Lou to come to one of the school games. VOICE TWO: Years later, Lou said, "When I saw so many people and heard all the noise at the game, I was so scared I went home." The teacher threatened to fail Lou in school if he did not attend the next game. So Lou Gehrig went to that game. He became a valued member of the high school team. He also played other sports. The boy who feared noise and people was on his way to becoming a star baseball player. VOICE ONE: A representative of a Major League team, the New York Giants, came to watch him. He got Lou a chance to play for the manager of the Giants' team, John McGraw. McGraw thought Gehrig needed more experience before becoming a Major League player. It was suggested that Lou get that experience on a minor league team in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Lou played in Hartford that summer after completing high school. He earned money to help his parents. His father was often sick and without a job. VOICE TWO: The money Lou earned also helped him attend Columbia University in New York City. The university had offered him financial help if he would play baseball on the Columbia team. But, the fact that Gehrig had accepted money for playing professional baseball got him into trouble. Officials of teams in Columbia's baseball league learned that Lou had played for the professional team in Hartford. The other teams got him banned from playing for Columbia during his first year at the college. Gehrig was permitted to play during his second year, though. He often hit the ball so far that people walking in the streets near the baseball field were in danger of being hit. VOICE ONE: Lou's mother earned money as a cook and house cleaner. But she became very sick. The family could not make their monthly payments for their home. The New York Yankees Major League baseball organization came to the rescue. The Yankees offered Lou three-thousand-five-hundred dollars to finish the Nineteen-Twenty-Three baseball season. That was a great deal of money in those days. Gehrig happily accepted the offer. His parents were sad that he was leaving Columbia. Yet his decision ended their financial problems. VOICE TWO: The Yankees recognized that Gehrig was a good hitter. They wanted him to add to the team's hitting power provided by its star player, Babe Ruth. But Gehrig had trouble throwing and catching the ball. So they sent him back to the minor league team in Hartford. While playing there he improved his fielding. He also had sixty-nine hits in fifty-nine games. VOICE ONE: The next spring Gehrig went to spring training camp with the Yankees. Again he was sent to Hartford to get more experience. And again, the Yankees called him back in September. He hit six hits in twelve times at the bat before that baseball season ended. Lou Gehrig began to play first base for the Yankees regularly in early June of Nineteen-Twenty-Five. He played well that day and for the two weeks that followed. Then Gehrig was hit in the head by a throw to second base. He should have left the game. But he refused to. He thought that if he left, he never again would have a chance to play regularly. VOICE TWO: Gehrig continued to improve as a player. By Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, pitchers for opposing teams were having bad dreams about Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. Ruth hit sixty home runs that year. Gehrig hit forty-seven and won the American League's Most Valuable Player Award. Nobody was surprised when the Yankees won the World Series. Gehrig, however, almost did not play. His mother had to have an operation. He felt he should be with her. Misses Gehrig and the Yankees' manager urged him to play in the World Series. His mother recovered. More major threats to Gehrig's record of continuous games played took place in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. His back, legs and hands were injured. He was hit on the head by a throw one day as he tried to reach home plate. Another Yankee player said, "Every time he played, it hurt him." VOICE ONE: Gehrig felt good in Nineteen-Thirty. He said his secret was getting ten hours of sleep each night and drinking a large amount of water. Lou Gehrig now was becoming one of the greatest players in baseball history. He hit three home runs in the World Series of Nineteen-Thirty-Two. His batting average was five-twenty-nine. The manager of an opposing team, the Chicago Cubs, said of Gehrig, "I did not think a player could be that good." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Gehrig married Eleanor Twitchell. Eleanor helped him take his place as one of baseball's most famous players. The younger Lou Gehrig had stayed away from strangers when he could. The married Lou Gehrig was much more friendly. As time went on, Gehrig played in game after game. He appeared not to have thought about his record number of continuous games played until a newspaper reporter talked to him about it. An accident during a special game played in Virginia almost broke the record. Gehrig was taken to a hospital after being hit in the head with a pitch. He played the next day, though. He just wore a bigger hat so people could not see his injury. VOICE ONE: Gehrig completed his two-thousandth game on May Thirty-First, Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. That was almost two times as many continuous games as anyone ever had played before. Gehrig finished that season with a batting average of almost three-hundred. He scored one-hundred-fifteen runs. He batted in almost as many runs. But the Lou Gehrig of that year was not the Lou Gehrig of earlier years. He walked and ran like an old man. He had trouble with easy catches and throws. Yet his manager commented, "Everybody is asking what is wrong with Gehrig. I wish I had more players on this club doing as poorly as he is doing." VOICE TWO: Gehrig thought his problems were temporary. Then he fell several times the next winter while ice-skating with Eleanor. He had trouble holding onto things. And he failed to hit in three games as the next season opened. In May Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, he finally told his manager he could not play. Lou Gehrig had played in two-thousand-one-hundred-thirty games without missing any that his team played. Gehrig observed his thirty-sixth birthday on June Nineteenth. That same day, doctors told him he had a deadly disease that attacks the muscles in the body. The disease is called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Today, it is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. VOICE ONE: Gehrig did not act like a dying man, though. He refused to act frightened or sad. On July Fourth, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, more than sixty-thousand people went to Yankee Stadium to honor one of America's greatest baseball players. Gehrig told the crowd he still felt he was lucky. His words echoed throughout the stadium. (LOU GEHRIG AT YANKEE STADIUM) "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you." VOICE TWO: Gehrig fought his sickness. But he became weaker and weaker. He died on June Second, Nineteen-Forty-One. He was thirty-seven years old. America mourned the loss of a great baseball hero. Those who knew him best - family, friends, baseball players -- mourned the loss of a gentle man. (THEME) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – July 1, 2002: Songs that Celebrate America
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: July Fourth is America's most important national holiday: Independence Day. Americans will celebrate the anniversary of their declaration of independence from Britain in seventeen-seventy-six. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: July Fourth is America's most important national holiday: Independence Day. Americans will celebrate the anniversary of their declaration of independence from Britain in seventeen-seventy-six. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. In honor of this holiday, we present songs that celebrate America on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER)) VOICE ONE: Ray Charles VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. In honor of this holiday, we present songs that celebrate America on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER)) VOICE ONE: Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with family gatherings, parades, speeches and fireworks. They also celebrate with patriotic music.The official song of the United States is "The Star-Spangled Banner." Francis Scott Key wrote the words in eighteen-fourteen. At that time, America and Britain were at war. Francis Scott Key watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the smoke and fire, he could see a huge American flag flying over the army base. VOICE TWO: The next morning, after the battle, he looked to see which flag flew over Fort McHenry. It would tell which side had won. Key saw that the American flag still flew. He wrote a poem re-creating the event. Soon after, music was added to his words. The United States Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national song in nineteen-thirty-one. Americans sing it at the beginning of many public meetings and sports events. Here is America’s national song, performed by Faith Hill. ((STAR-SPANGLED BANNER)) Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with family gatherings, parades, speeches and fireworks. They also celebrate with patriotic music.The official song of the United States is "The Star-Spangled Banner." Francis Scott Key wrote the words in eighteen-fourteen. At that time, America and Britain were at war. Francis Scott Key watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the smoke and fire, he could see a huge American flag flying over the army base. VOICE TWO: The next morning, after the battle, he looked to see which flag flew over Fort McHenry. It would tell which side had won. Key saw that the American flag still flew. He wrote a poem re-creating the event. Soon after, music was added to his words. The United States Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national song in nineteen-thirty-one. Americans sing it at the beginning of many public meetings and sports events. Here is America’s national song, performed by Faith Hill. ((STAR-SPANGLED BANNER)) VOICE ONE: Some people say "The Star-Spangled Banner" is difficult to sing. Others do not like the words. Some people have suggested that the United States change its national song. They say many other songs that celebrate America would be better. VOICE TWO: One of these is called "America." It is also known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Samuel Smith wrote it in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. The music is the same as the British national song, "God Save the Queen." The Southwestern Christian College Chorus sings “America.” ((AMERICA)) VOICE ONE: Some people think "America the Beautiful" is one of the best songs that celebrates America. Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words in eighteen-ninety-three. Samuel Ward wrote the music. Many singers and groups have recorded "America the Beautiful." VOICE ONE: Some people say "The Star-Spangled Banner" is difficult to sing. Others do not like the words. Some people have suggested that the United States change its national song. They say many other songs that celebrate America would be better. VOICE TWO: One of these is called "America." It is also known as "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Samuel Smith wrote it in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. The music is the same as the British national song, "God Save the Queen." The Southwestern Christian College Chorus sings “America.” ((AMERICA)) VOICE ONE: Some people think "America the Beautiful" is one of the best songs that celebrates America. Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words in eighteen-ninety-three. Samuel Ward wrote the music. Many singers and groups have recorded "America the Beautiful." Ray Charles sings his version. ((AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL)) VOICE TWO: Many people think "God Bless America" is the best song that celebrates America. Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen-seventeen. It became popular twenty years later when Kate Smith sang it on a national radio broadcast. Listen now to the young voices of the American Boychoir as they perform “God Bless America.” ((GOD BLESS AMERICA)) VOICE ONE: Other people would like America's national song to be "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie wrote the words in nineteen-forty. It became one of the most popular folk songs in America. Pete Seeger and the Weavers sing "This Land is Your Land." ((THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND)) VOICE TWO: Years ago, Lee Greenwood recorded a song called “God Bless the U.S.A.” This song has gained new meaning and popularity since the terrorist attacks on the United States, September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Listen as Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.” ((GOD BLESS THE U.S.A)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER)) Ray Charles sings his version. ((AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL)) VOICE TWO: Many people think "God Bless America" is the best song that celebrates America. Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen-seventeen. It became popular twenty years later when Kate Smith sang it on a national radio broadcast. Listen now to the young voices of the American Boychoir as they perform “God Bless America.” ((GOD BLESS AMERICA)) VOICE ONE: Other people would like America's national song to be "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie wrote the words in nineteen-forty. It became one of the most popular folk songs in America. Pete Seeger and the Weavers sing "This Land is Your Land." ((THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND)) VOICE TWO: Years ago, Lee Greenwood recorded a song called “God Bless the U.S.A.” This song has gained new meaning and popularity since the terrorist attacks on the United States, September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Listen as Lee Greenwood sings “God Bless the U.S.A.” ((GOD BLESS THE U.S.A)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 1, 2002: Reproductive Health Report
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report has been released about sexual and reproductive health education for young people around the world. Population Action International carried out the study. This not-for-profit organization is based in New York City. Researchers examined how seven countries dealt with the reproductive health needs of their young people. The countries are Mexico, Iran, India, Ghana, Mali, the Netherlands and the United States. The study found that, except for the Netherlands, most countries are not doing enough to teach young people the information they need about reproductive health. For example, there are a growing number of reproductive health programs in Mali. Yet seventy percent of the nineteen-year-old women in Mali are pregnant or have a child. Twenty percent of the women are married by age fifteen. In Mexico, the government supports a program of sex education and family planning. However, teachers receive little or no training on the subject. Some do not teach the subject at all. Amy Coen is the head of Population Action International. She says the need for reproductive health policies around the world has never been greater. The group estimates that half of the world’s population is younger than twenty-five. That is three-thousand-million young people. Within the next fifteen years, all of them will have reached reproductive age. Population Action International says that countries will suffer if they fail to provide boys and girls with the information they need to stay healthy and in school. It says young people need to know about sexuality, family planning and having babies. It says young people also should have the ability to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancies. In many countries, talking about sex and reproduction is considered wrong or against tradition. The group reports a strong resistance among parents, teachers and policy makers to discuss issues of sexuality with young people. It says this lack of openness is putting young people at risk. Young people have a high risk of diseases spread by sexual activity, including AIDS. Half of all new infections of the AIDS virus are among people younger than twenty-five. Population Action International says countries that avoid open communication about this subject harm their populations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new report has been released about sexual and reproductive health education for young people around the world. Population Action International carried out the study. This not-for-profit organization is based in New York City. Researchers examined how seven countries dealt with the reproductive health needs of their young people. The countries are Mexico, Iran, India, Ghana, Mali, the Netherlands and the United States. The study found that, except for the Netherlands, most countries are not doing enough to teach young people the information they need about reproductive health. For example, there are a growing number of reproductive health programs in Mali. Yet seventy percent of the nineteen-year-old women in Mali are pregnant or have a child. Twenty percent of the women are married by age fifteen. In Mexico, the government supports a program of sex education and family planning. However, teachers receive little or no training on the subject. Some do not teach the subject at all. Amy Coen is the head of Population Action International. She says the need for reproductive health policies around the world has never been greater. The group estimates that half of the world’s population is younger than twenty-five. That is three-thousand-million young people. Within the next fifteen years, all of them will have reached reproductive age. Population Action International says that countries will suffer if they fail to provide boys and girls with the information they need to stay healthy and in school. It says young people need to know about sexuality, family planning and having babies. It says young people also should have the ability to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancies. In many countries, talking about sex and reproduction is considered wrong or against tradition. The group reports a strong resistance among parents, teachers and policy makers to discuss issues of sexuality with young people. It says this lack of openness is putting young people at risk. Young people have a high risk of diseases spread by sexual activity, including AIDS. Half of all new infections of the AIDS virus are among people younger than twenty-five. Population Action International says countries that avoid open communication about this subject harm their populations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-06/a-2002-06-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – June 29, 2002: Palestinian Elections and Arafat
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The Palestinian Authority announced Wednesday that presidential and legislative elections will be held in January. Two days earlier, President Bush called on the Palestinians to elect new leaders who reject terrorism. He also called for a Palestinian constitution and other democratic reforms before a Palestinian state can be created. A Palestinian official said Yasser Arafat will again seek the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. Mister Arafat has been a leader of the Palestinian people for more than thirty years. He was named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. The P-L-O was formed five years earlier from a number of groups that wanted to return Palestine to the Palestinians. Most of that area is now Israel. For most of the P-L-O’s history the organization did not recognize Israel’s right to exist. The P-L-O says Yasser Arafat was born in the city of Jerusalem, in what was then British-ruled Palestine. His birth documents say he was born in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Yasser Arafat graduated in Nineteen-Fifty-Six from King Faud University in Cairo with a degree in civil engineering. He joined the Palestine National Movement and began service in the Egyptian Army. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, he helped formed the al Fatah movement, which called for armed struggle to free Palestinian lands. In the Nineteen-Sixties, Mister Arafat helped plan many al Fatah attacks against Israel. Israel attacked P-L-O bases in return. When Mister Arafat became chairman of the P-L-O thirty-two years ago, al Fatah became the most powerful guerrilla group in the organization. The P-L-O first was based in Jordan but was expelled because of its attacks on Israel. The P-L-O later established headquarters in Tunisia. In Ninety-Seventy-Four, Arab governments recognized the P-L-O as the only legal official representative of the Palestinian people. In the same year, the U-N agreed and admitted the Palestine Liberation Organization to the U-N as an observer. In Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, the P-L-O announced a major policy change. Mister Arafat told the U-N that the P-L-O had rejected terrorism and accepted Israel’s right to exist along with a state of Palestine. Five years later, Israel and the P-L-O reached a historic agreement in Oslo, Norway, whose goal was to create peace in the area. It gave Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, Palestinians elected him president of the Palestinian National Authority. Some Middle East experts see a risk in calling for new Palestinian leadership. They are concerned about who the Palestinians might elect. This VOA Special English In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The Palestinian Authority announced Wednesday that presidential and legislative elections will be held in January. Two days earlier, President Bush called on the Palestinians to elect new leaders who reject terrorism. He also called for a Palestinian constitution and other democratic reforms before a Palestinian state can be created. A Palestinian official said Yasser Arafat will again seek the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. Mister Arafat has been a leader of the Palestinian people for more than thirty years. He was named chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. The P-L-O was formed five years earlier from a number of groups that wanted to return Palestine to the Palestinians. Most of that area is now Israel. For most of the P-L-O’s history the organization did not recognize Israel’s right to exist. The P-L-O says Yasser Arafat was born in the city of Jerusalem, in what was then British-ruled Palestine. His birth documents say he was born in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Yasser Arafat graduated in Nineteen-Fifty-Six from King Faud University in Cairo with a degree in civil engineering. He joined the Palestine National Movement and began service in the Egyptian Army. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, he helped formed the al Fatah movement, which called for armed struggle to free Palestinian lands. In the Nineteen-Sixties, Mister Arafat helped plan many al Fatah attacks against Israel. Israel attacked P-L-O bases in return. When Mister Arafat became chairman of the P-L-O thirty-two years ago, al Fatah became the most powerful guerrilla group in the organization. The P-L-O first was based in Jordan but was expelled because of its attacks on Israel. The P-L-O later established headquarters in Tunisia. In Ninety-Seventy-Four, Arab governments recognized the P-L-O as the only legal official representative of the Palestinian people. In the same year, the U-N agreed and admitted the Palestine Liberation Organization to the U-N as an observer. In Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, the P-L-O announced a major policy change. Mister Arafat told the U-N that the P-L-O had rejected terrorism and accepted Israel’s right to exist along with a state of Palestine. Five years later, Israel and the P-L-O reached a historic agreement in Oslo, Norway, whose goal was to create peace in the area. It gave Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, Palestinians elected him president of the Palestinian National Authority. Some Middle East experts see a risk in calling for new Palestinian leadership. They are concerned about who the Palestinians might elect. This VOA Special English In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 2, 2002: Purple Carrots
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The carrot is a plant with a root that is eaten as a vegetable. Carrots are grown throughout the world. When people think about carrots, they create a mental picture of a long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. Yet carrots come in many different sizes, shapes and colors. This summer, food stores in Britain will have a new product: purple-colored carrots. However, purple carrots are not really new. Reports say the carrot is simply returning to its true color. The history of the carrot dates back thousands of years. Purple carrots are native to the Middle East and the area that is now Afghanistan. There are reports that pictures made in Egypt four-thousand years ago show a plant believed to be a purple carrot. People in ancient Greece and Rome grew carrots that had thin, hard roots. They used the plants as a medicine, not as a food. Carrots similar to modern ones were common in Europe by the thirteenth century. They were several different colors. It was not until about four-hundred years ago that carrots became orange. That is when farmers in The Netherlands produced orange carrots from yellow and red ones in honor of their national color. Carrots are easy to grow and harvest. They grow best in deep, rich soil that contains sand or soft, wet dirt. A crop takes about one-hundred days to grow. Carrots have a pleasing taste. People eat uncooked carrots alone or with other vegetables. Cooked carrots also are popular.Orange carrots contain carotene, a substance used by the human body to produce Vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for healthy skin and eyes. Carrots also contain other vitamins and are rich in sugar and the element potassium. Farmers in eastern England are growing the new purple-colored carrots. They call their crop Purple Haze. The vegetables are purple on the outside and orange in the inside. The carrots contain anthocyanin (an-tho-S(EYE)-ah-nihn), a substance believed to increase protection against cancer. Food store officials in Britain say they hope children will eat more of the brightly colored carrots. They say the new product will cost a little more than other carrots. Reports say carrot buyers in Britain soon will have other colors to choose from, including yellow, red, and even black and white. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The carrot is a plant with a root that is eaten as a vegetable. Carrots are grown throughout the world. When people think about carrots, they create a mental picture of a long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. Yet carrots come in many different sizes, shapes and colors. This summer, food stores in Britain will have a new product: purple-colored carrots. However, purple carrots are not really new. Reports say the carrot is simply returning to its true color. The history of the carrot dates back thousands of years. Purple carrots are native to the Middle East and the area that is now Afghanistan. There are reports that pictures made in Egypt four-thousand years ago show a plant believed to be a purple carrot. People in ancient Greece and Rome grew carrots that had thin, hard roots. They used the plants as a medicine, not as a food. Carrots similar to modern ones were common in Europe by the thirteenth century. They were several different colors. It was not until about four-hundred years ago that carrots became orange. That is when farmers in The Netherlands produced orange carrots from yellow and red ones in honor of their national color. Carrots are easy to grow and harvest. They grow best in deep, rich soil that contains sand or soft, wet dirt. A crop takes about one-hundred days to grow. Carrots have a pleasing taste. People eat uncooked carrots alone or with other vegetables. Cooked carrots also are popular.Orange carrots contain carotene, a substance used by the human body to produce Vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for healthy skin and eyes. Carrots also contain other vitamins and are rich in sugar and the element potassium. Farmers in eastern England are growing the new purple-colored carrots. They call their crop Purple Haze. The vegetables are purple on the outside and orange in the inside. The carrots contain anthocyanin (an-tho-S(EYE)-ah-nihn), a substance believed to increase protection against cancer. Food store officials in Britain say they hope children will eat more of the brightly colored carrots. They say the new product will cost a little more than other carrots. Reports say carrot buyers in Britain soon will have other colors to choose from, including yellow, red, and even black and white. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 2, 2002: Space Shuttle Flights Halted / Researchers Study Icelanders' Genes / Another Reason to Eat Green, Leafy Vegetables
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 2, 2002 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: July 2, 2002 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell why researchers are studying the genes of people in Iceland. We tell why American space officials have suspended the launch of the space shuttles. And we tell why you should eat green, leafy vegetables. ((THEME)) (Picture - Laretta Geren) This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell why researchers are studying the genes of people in Iceland. We tell why American space officials have suspended the launch of the space shuttles. And we tell why you should eat green, leafy vegetables. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Genes are the parts of cells that control the growth and development of living things, including people. Now, a company in Iceland is working to create the most detailed map yet of all known human genes. The company, Decode (Dee-code) Genetics, is based in Reykjavik, Iceland. Kari Stefansson (COW-ree STEF-ahn-son) is head of the company. Doctor Stefansson believes that the people of Iceland present a special chance to study the human genome and how some genes cause disease. Iceland has a very small population – about two-hundred-eighty-thousand people. The majority of the population shares a small group of common ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. The people of Iceland keep extensive records of their ancestors. In addition, Iceland has an excellent health care system. Doctor Stefansson says his researchers are studying genetic diseases in many families over hundreds of years. VOICE TWO: Decode paid Iceland about two-hundred-million dollars to do the study. So far, researchers have examined the genes of at least one-hundred-forty-six families. The Iceland genome project is using a much larger group of individuals to observe differences in human genes than any other project. For example, American scientists made a genetic map based on only eight large families in France. Decode plans to examine genetic information from a huge number of Icelanders. The New York Times newspaper reports that Decode has collected blood from about sixty-five-thousand Icelanders. That is about one-third the adult population of Iceland. VOICE ONE: Huntington Willard is a genetic scientist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He says that the information provided by the Iceland genome project will help complete a map of the human genome. He says that the genome published in Science magazine in February of last year by a group of researchers was not complete and contained many mistakes. Two years ago, scientist J. Craig Venter made the surprising announcement that his company, Celera Genomics, (suh-LAIR-uh Jeh-NO-mix) had mapped the whole human genome. Mister Venter is no longer the head of Celera. The company had hoped to gain legal rights to some parts of the human genome and to sell the use of that information. However, Doctor Willard says the new information shows how to correct problems with the current human genome map. The Decode map’s success is partly based on its larger base of information. VOICE TWO: Human beings have almost exactly the same genes. Small genetic differences make us look different from each other. These differences can also make us more likely to get some diseases. Decode’s main project is to identify genes that cause disease. Scientists believe most common diseases are caused by several abnormal genes working together. The Icelandic company says it has mapped the general area of genes for twenty common diseases. These include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. The company claims to have found three disease-causing genes already. They are linked to a mental disease and two kinds of strokes. Decode uses a process that can identify very small molecular differences. This permits scientists to find disease-causing genes more easily. Decode’s more detailed method for studying genes also permits it to create a clearer map of genes. This is why Decode has shown errors in earlier genome maps. VOICE ONE: Experts say the Icelandic study appears to be important for creating a truly useful genetic map. The United States government’s National Institutes of Health is also working on a map of the human genome. The N-I-H says that a new, corrected map should be finished next year. It says the announcement should be in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the structure of human D-N-A. D-N-A is the nucleic acid found in genes. Two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, were the first to describe the structure of D-N-A in nineteen-fifty-three. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine along with Maurice Wilkins in nineteen-sixty-two. The three scientists discovered the structure of D-N-A. However, fifty years later, geneticists are still trying to learn what that structure means. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American space agency officials have temporarily suspended launch plans for the Space Shuttle Columbia. Columbia was to have been launched July nineteenth. NASA officials decided to delay the launch after several damaged areas were found in the fuel lines on the main engines of the shuttles Atlantis and Discovery. These are two of the four vehicles that take astronauts into space and to the International Space Station. James Hartsfield is a spokesman for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He said NASA’s main concern is the possibility that a piece of metal in the fuel line would separate and move into the space shuttle’s engine area. This would damage the engine and cause it to shut down. VOICE ONE: Mister Hartsfield said NASA workers have never seen the damage before. He said the parts of the space shuttles that are now damaged have been on the vehicles since they were built. He said the workers do not know if the damage was caused by age or if other problems are involved. He said they consider the problem to be a major safety concern. Ron Dittemore is the Space Shuttle program manager. He says that NASA has more questions than answers about the damage. He says NASA workers are investigating the situation. Workers will inspect the Space Shuttle Columbia for similar damage. Columbia is the oldest of the four space shuttles. It is twenty-one years old. NASA says it takes a week or more to remove a space shuttle’s engines and the same amount of time to replace them. Officials say they do not yet know how long all United States shuttle flights will be suspended. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Recent research has suggested that a nutrient called lutein (LOO-teen) may improve health in more ways than had been thought. Lutein is found in green, leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce. It is also found in other fruits and vegetables such as oranges, corn and broccoli. And it is found in the yellow part of eggs. Lutein is also found in the human eye. Lutein and similar substances known as carotenoids (ca-ROT-en-oids) make up the color in the macula, the area of the eye responsible for seeing fine detail. Studies have suggested that greater amounts of carotenoids increase the color of the macula. Scientists believe that more color protects the macula from damage. A study in the publication Optometry says that eating more foods with lutein may improve vision in people with eye problems. Another study linked greater levels of carotenoids with reduced early signs of macular damage. And two large studies have linked lutein to fewer problems with the eye condition called cataracts. VOICE ONE: Now, research has begun to show that lutein can protect health in other ways. A report in the publication Circulation says it may reduce the chance of heart attacks and strokes. People with higher blood levels of lutein had less of a harmful substance inside their blood vessels.Other studies have suggested that lutein may protect against cancers of the breast and colon. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts have shown that lutein in dark green, leafy vegetables can protect the skin against damage from the sun. They experimented with mice that were fed foods containing lutein. Experts say people should eat foods that contain lutein every day. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter, Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Genes are the parts of cells that control the growth and development of living things, including people. Now, a company in Iceland is working to create the most detailed map yet of all known human genes. The company, Decode (Dee-code) Genetics, is based in Reykjavik, Iceland. Kari Stefansson (COW-ree STEF-ahn-son) is head of the company. Doctor Stefansson believes that the people of Iceland present a special chance to study the human genome and how some genes cause disease. Iceland has a very small population – about two-hundred-eighty-thousand people. The majority of the population shares a small group of common ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. The people of Iceland keep extensive records of their ancestors. In addition, Iceland has an excellent health care system. Doctor Stefansson says his researchers are studying genetic diseases in many families over hundreds of years. VOICE TWO: Decode paid Iceland about two-hundred-million dollars to do the study. So far, researchers have examined the genes of at least one-hundred-forty-six families. The Iceland genome project is using a much larger group of individuals to observe differences in human genes than any other project. For example, American scientists made a genetic map based on only eight large families in France. Decode plans to examine genetic information from a huge number of Icelanders. The New York Times newspaper reports that Decode has collected blood from about sixty-five-thousand Icelanders. That is about one-third the adult population of Iceland. VOICE ONE: Huntington Willard is a genetic scientist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He says that the information provided by the Iceland genome project will help complete a map of the human genome. He says that the genome published in Science magazine in February of last year by a group of researchers was not complete and contained many mistakes. Two years ago, scientist J. Craig Venter made the surprising announcement that his company, Celera Genomics, (suh-LAIR-uh Jeh-NO-mix) had mapped the whole human genome. Mister Venter is no longer the head of Celera. The company had hoped to gain legal rights to some parts of the human genome and to sell the use of that information. However, Doctor Willard says the new information shows how to correct problems with the current human genome map. The Decode map’s success is partly based on its larger base of information. VOICE TWO: Human beings have almost exactly the same genes. Small genetic differences make us look different from each other. These differences can also make us more likely to get some diseases. Decode’s main project is to identify genes that cause disease. Scientists believe most common diseases are caused by several abnormal genes working together. The Icelandic company says it has mapped the general area of genes for twenty common diseases. These include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. The company claims to have found three disease-causing genes already. They are linked to a mental disease and two kinds of strokes. Decode uses a process that can identify very small molecular differences. This permits scientists to find disease-causing genes more easily. Decode’s more detailed method for studying genes also permits it to create a clearer map of genes. This is why Decode has shown errors in earlier genome maps. VOICE ONE: Experts say the Icelandic study appears to be important for creating a truly useful genetic map. The United States government’s National Institutes of Health is also working on a map of the human genome. The N-I-H says that a new, corrected map should be finished next year. It says the announcement should be in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the structure of human D-N-A. D-N-A is the nucleic acid found in genes. Two scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, were the first to describe the structure of D-N-A in nineteen-fifty-three. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine along with Maurice Wilkins in nineteen-sixty-two. The three scientists discovered the structure of D-N-A. However, fifty years later, geneticists are still trying to learn what that structure means. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American space agency officials have temporarily suspended launch plans for the Space Shuttle Columbia. Columbia was to have been launched July nineteenth. NASA officials decided to delay the launch after several damaged areas were found in the fuel lines on the main engines of the shuttles Atlantis and Discovery. These are two of the four vehicles that take astronauts into space and to the International Space Station. James Hartsfield is a spokesman for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He said NASA’s main concern is the possibility that a piece of metal in the fuel line would separate and move into the space shuttle’s engine area. This would damage the engine and cause it to shut down. VOICE ONE: Mister Hartsfield said NASA workers have never seen the damage before. He said the parts of the space shuttles that are now damaged have been on the vehicles since they were built. He said the workers do not know if the damage was caused by age or if other problems are involved. He said they consider the problem to be a major safety concern. Ron Dittemore is the Space Shuttle program manager. He says that NASA has more questions than answers about the damage. He says NASA workers are investigating the situation. Workers will inspect the Space Shuttle Columbia for similar damage. Columbia is the oldest of the four space shuttles. It is twenty-one years old. NASA says it takes a week or more to remove a space shuttle’s engines and the same amount of time to replace them. Officials say they do not yet know how long all United States shuttle flights will be suspended. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Recent research has suggested that a nutrient called lutein (LOO-teen) may improve health in more ways than had been thought. Lutein is found in green, leafy vegetables like spinach and lettuce. It is also found in other fruits and vegetables such as oranges, corn and broccoli. And it is found in the yellow part of eggs. Lutein is also found in the human eye. Lutein and similar substances known as carotenoids (ca-ROT-en-oids) make up the color in the macula, the area of the eye responsible for seeing fine detail. Studies have suggested that greater amounts of carotenoids increase the color of the macula. Scientists believe that more color protects the macula from damage. A study in the publication Optometry says that eating more foods with lutein may improve vision in people with eye problems. Another study linked greater levels of carotenoids with reduced early signs of macular damage. And two large studies have linked lutein to fewer problems with the eye condition called cataracts. VOICE ONE: Now, research has begun to show that lutein can protect health in other ways. A report in the publication Circulation says it may reduce the chance of heart attacks and strokes. People with higher blood levels of lutein had less of a harmful substance inside their blood vessels.Other studies have suggested that lutein may protect against cancers of the breast and colon. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts have shown that lutein in dark green, leafy vegetables can protect the skin against damage from the sun. They experimented with mice that were fed foods containing lutein. Experts say people should eat foods that contain lutein every day. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter, Paul Thompson and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - July 3, 2002: Sudden Cardiac Death
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An American professional baseball player, Darryl Kile, died recently. He was thirty-three years old and seemed to be in good health. An examination of his body showed that two of the three blood vessels leading to his heart were almost completely blocked. Doctors call this condition atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. It develops when arteries become narrowed and cannot carry blood to the heart. The arteries may contain fatty substances that block the flow of blood. These conditions can lead to a heart attack or sudden death. Kile’s body showed no evidence of a heart attack. However, doctors say that people with severe blockages of a heart artery can die from an abnormal heart beat. This is what they think happened to Kile. The death of a seemingly healthy professional athlete surprised many people. Doctors say that such a serious amount of blockage is very unusual for someone so young. However, Darryl Kile’s father died after a stroke at the age of forty-four. Strokes often result from a build-up of fatty substances in the blood vessels of the brain. Doctors say the death of a close family member from a heart attack or stroke is one sign that a person has an increased chance of developing a similar problem. They say that knowing your family’s medical history may be one of the most important things you can do to protect your health. They say this is especially true if the family member died before the age of fifty. This could mean that a genetic problem exists. People in this situation should ask their doctor for tests to measure the health of major arteries. Doctors can usually treat such problems. Other things also increase the chance of developing heart problems or a stroke. These include smoking cigarettes, weighing too much and not exercising. Still other risk factors include having high cholesterol, high blood pressure or the disease diabetes. The World Heart Federation says heart attacks and strokes kill seventeen-million people around the world each year. That is thirty percent of all deaths. The organization says people can reduce their chances of a heart attack or stroke by exercising, stopping smoking and eating foods low in fat. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - July 4, 2002: Medical Residents
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. To become a doctor in the United States, students usually attend four years of medical school after they complete college. Then these young doctors work in hospitals for several years to complete a training program called a residency. These medical residents provide hospitals with needed services in return for not much pay. They work under the supervision of medical professors and more experienced doctors. Medical residents treat patients. They carry out tests. They perform operations. They complete records. In hospitals with few nurses, residents also do work formerly done by nurses. Some medical residents work one-hundred or more hours in a single week. They often work for more than thirty-six hours at a time before they can rest. Critics of this system say medical residents work too long and do not get enough rest. They say these young doctors may be too tired to perform their medical duties effectively. Now, however, an organization that supervises the training of medical residents has intervened. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education says it will limit the number of hours that residents can work. It acted because of concerns that hospital workers are responsible for many serious mistakes. The new work limits will begin in about a year. They will affect about one-hundred-thousand medical residents. Most doctors in training will be limited to eighty hours of work each week. They will have work periods of no more than twenty-four hours at one time. They will have ten hours of rest between work periods. Medical residents will have one day each week when they do not have to work. Any work they accept outside their hospitals will be limited. Experienced doctors and medical professors will closely supervise the residents to make sure they are not too tired to work. Many medical residents welcomed the work limits. Others, however, said the new policy may interfere with patient care and their own medical education. The new work limits almost surely will mean higher costs for many hospitals where residents work. This may increase hospital costs by many millions of dollars across the United States. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. To become a doctor in the United States, students usually attend four years of medical school after they complete college. Then these young doctors work in hospitals for several years to complete a training program called a residency. These medical residents provide hospitals with needed services in return for not much pay. They work under the supervision of medical professors and more experienced doctors. Medical residents treat patients. They carry out tests. They perform operations. They complete records. In hospitals with few nurses, residents also do work formerly done by nurses. Some medical residents work one-hundred or more hours in a single week. They often work for more than thirty-six hours at a time before they can rest. Critics of this system say medical residents work too long and do not get enough rest. They say these young doctors may be too tired to perform their medical duties effectively. Now, however, an organization that supervises the training of medical residents has intervened. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education says it will limit the number of hours that residents can work. It acted because of concerns that hospital workers are responsible for many serious mistakes. The new work limits will begin in about a year. They will affect about one-hundred-thousand medical residents. Most doctors in training will be limited to eighty hours of work each week. They will have work periods of no more than twenty-four hours at one time. They will have ten hours of rest between work periods. Medical residents will have one day each week when they do not have to work. Any work they accept outside their hospitals will be limited. Experienced doctors and medical professors will closely supervise the residents to make sure they are not too tired to work. Many medical residents welcomed the work limits. Others, however, said the new policy may interfere with patient care and their own medical education. The new work limits almost surely will mean higher costs for many hospitals where residents work. This may increase hospital costs by many millions of dollars across the United States. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-01-5-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - July 5, 2002: Conditions in China
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Environmental officials in China say the government has taken steps to reduce pollution in the country. However, they say there are still serious environmental problems. The country is dealing with water and air pollution, land destruction and technological waste. The State Environmental Protection Administration has released its yearly report about the condition of China’s environment. The report says the government will invest about eighty-five-thousand-million dollars in a clean-up campaign during the next ten years. Zhu Guangyao is vice minister of China’s environmental protection agency. He says water pollution is one of the most serious problems. Mister Zhu says all seven of the country’s major river systems and several major lakes are polluted with poisonous chemicals and other waste. Rivers near cities are the most severely affected. Mister Zhu says acid rain containing harmful sulfur dioxide falls over ninety percent of the cities in southern and eastern China. Acid rain is caused by industrial pollution. It affects one-third of the country. The report says two-thirds of Chinese cities have unacceptable levels of air pollution. Mister Zhu notes that some cities, such as Beijing, have improved their air. He says this improvement is partly a result of the city reducing its dependence on burning coal for energy. Beijing is getting more of its energy from natural gas and water power. Mister Zhu says China is also fighting land destruction, which is ruining two-million hectares of grassland a year. He says ninety percent of China’s natural grasslands have been damaged. One-hundred-thirty-five hectares of land have become desert areas. Mister Zhu says a lack of water and strong winds are the main reasons why these areas have become deserts. But he says the activities of people make the problem much worse. These include cutting down too many trees, having too many animals eating grasses and wasting water. China is also dealing with a new environmental threat from illegal imports of old computers and other technological waste. Officials say such waste releases dangerous chemicals into the air and water. Environmental officials say China is taking steps to stop these illegal imports which they say come mostly from the United States. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Environmental officials in China say the government has taken steps to reduce pollution in the country. However, they say there are still serious environmental problems. The country is dealing with water and air pollution, land destruction and technological waste. The State Environmental Protection Administration has released its yearly report about the condition of China’s environment. The report says the government will invest about eighty-five-thousand-million dollars in a clean-up campaign during the next ten years. Zhu Guangyao is vice minister of China’s environmental protection agency. He says water pollution is one of the most serious problems. Mister Zhu says all seven of the country’s major river systems and several major lakes are polluted with poisonous chemicals and other waste. Rivers near cities are the most severely affected. Mister Zhu says acid rain containing harmful sulfur dioxide falls over ninety percent of the cities in southern and eastern China. Acid rain is caused by industrial pollution. It affects one-third of the country. The report says two-thirds of Chinese cities have unacceptable levels of air pollution. Mister Zhu notes that some cities, such as Beijing, have improved their air. He says this improvement is partly a result of the city reducing its dependence on burning coal for energy. Beijing is getting more of its energy from natural gas and water power. Mister Zhu says China is also fighting land destruction, which is ruining two-million hectares of grassland a year. He says ninety percent of China’s natural grasslands have been damaged. One-hundred-thirty-five hectares of land have become desert areas. Mister Zhu says a lack of water and strong winds are the main reasons why these areas have become deserts. But he says the activities of people make the problem much worse. These include cutting down too many trees, having too many animals eating grasses and wasting water. China is also dealing with a new environmental threat from illegal imports of old computers and other technological waste. Officials say such waste releases dangerous chemicals into the air and water. Environmental officials say China is taking steps to stop these illegal imports which they say come mostly from the United States. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – July 3, 2002: Life on the International Space Station
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATON - July 4, 2002: Marshall Plan
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Throughout history, power passes from one nation to another. Persia, for example, was the world's most powerful nation at the time of Alexander the Great. Rome became a great power under Julius Caesar. And France was so under Napoleon. Through the middle of the twentieth century, Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. Britain, however, suffered terribly during World War Two. And, after the war, power passed to the United States. VOICE 2: (Theme) Throughout history, power passes from one nation to another. Persia, for example, was the world's most powerful nation at the time of Alexander the Great. Rome became a great power under Julius Caesar. And France was so under Napoleon. Through the middle of the twentieth century, Britain was the most powerful nation in the world. Britain, however, suffered terribly during World War Two. And, after the war, power passed to the United States. VOICE 2: One can almost name the day when this happened. It was February twenty-first, nineteen-forty-seven. Officials at the British Embassy in Washington called the American State Department. They had two messages from their government. The first was about Greece. The situation there was critical. Greece had been occupied by Germany during the war. Now it was split by a bitter civil war. On one side of the fighting was the royal family supported by Britain. On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist during nineteen-forty-four and nineteen-forty-five. A few years later, Britain could no longer help. It needed all its strength to rebuild from the world war. So, on that February day in nineteen-forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for Greece. VOICE 1: Britain's second message that day was about Turkey. Turkey was stronger than Greece. But it, too, might become communist unless it received outside help. Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across eastern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat. Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world. The United States was ready to accept its new position. VOICE 2: For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse. The two countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War. But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people. The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and eastern Europe. It wanted to extend its own influence, instead. So, after the war, it forced the establishment of communist governments in a number of countries. In Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, it sent troops to make sure its political demands were met. Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, spoke about the situation in a speech at a college in the American state of Missouri. Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power. He described it as an "iron curtain" falling across the middle of Europe. The Iron Curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a democratic west. VOICE 1: The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China. China was a divided nation at the end of World War Two. The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek controlled the southwest part of the country. Communist forces under Mao Tse-Tung controlled the north. Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be able to unite China. VOICE 2: Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists. But Mao and his forces used the people's growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support. Slowly, they began to win battles and capture arms. Early in nineteen-forty-nine, communist forces took control of Beijing and Tientsin. Then they captured Shanghai and Canton. By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of Taiwan. VOICE 1: The fall of the Nationalist government in China caused a bitter political debate in America. Some critics of the Truman administration charged that the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists. The Truman administration rejected the charges. It said Chiang caused his own defeat by failing to reform and win the support of the Chinese people. Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the defeat this way: "Nothing that the United States did, or could have done, within the limits of its powers, could have changed the result. It was the product of forces within China. It was the product of forces which the United States tried to influence, but could not." VOICE 2: The United States was more successful in its policies toward Europe. The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey caused President Truman to speak to the Congress. He said, "I believe it must be our policy to support free people who are fighting attempted overthrow by armed minorities or outside pressures." Truman called on the Congress to give him four-hundred-million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey. After a brief but intense national debate, the Congress agreed. Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek economy and reorganize the Greek army. Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to Greek rebels. the Civil War in Greece ended. VOICE 1: American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the "Truman doctrine." The goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world. Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism. But he also believed it was equally important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves. VOICE 2: Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two. There were severe shortages of food and fuel. Crops were destroyed. Many Europeans were beginning to look to the communists -- to anybody -- to save them. This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe. Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the idea. It soon became known as the "Marshall Plan." VOICE 1: President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan. People were starving, he said. There had been food riots in France and Italy. People were cold. There was not enough fuel. And people were sick. Tuberculosis was breaking out. "Something had to be done," Truman said later. "The British had no money. They were pulling out of Greece and Turkey. They could not help. The United States had to do it, had to do it all." VOICE 2: Marshall Plan aid was offered to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused help. Sixteen other countries, however, welcomed the aid. From nineteen-forty-eight to nineteen-fifty-two, the economic cooperation administration of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries. It spent thirteen thousand-million dollars. The plan worked. Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent. Overall industrial production increased by thirty-five percent. Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more. There were political results, too. Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy. Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few people could argue that the plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Rich Kleinfeldt and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by David Jarmul. Join us again next week at this same time for another program about the history of the United States. One can almost name the day when this happened. It was February twenty-first, nineteen-forty-seven. Officials at the British Embassy in Washington called the American State Department. They had two messages from their government. The first was about Greece. The situation there was critical. Greece had been occupied by Germany during the war. Now it was split by a bitter civil war. On one side of the fighting was the royal family supported by Britain. On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist during nineteen-forty-four and nineteen-forty-five. A few years later, Britain could no longer help. It needed all its strength to rebuild from the world war. So, on that February day in nineteen-forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for Greece. VOICE 1: Britain's second message that day was about Turkey. Turkey was stronger than Greece. But it, too, might become communist unless it received outside help. Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across eastern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat. Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world. The United States was ready to accept its new position. VOICE 2: For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse. The two countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War. But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people. The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and eastern Europe. It wanted to extend its own influence, instead. So, after the war, it forced the establishment of communist governments in a number of countries. In Hungary, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia, it sent troops to make sure its political demands were met. Britain's wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, spoke about the situation in a speech at a college in the American state of Missouri. Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power. He described it as an "iron curtain" falling across the middle of Europe. The Iron Curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a democratic west. VOICE 1: The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China. China was a divided nation at the end of World War Two. The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek controlled the southwest part of the country. Communist forces under Mao Tse-Tung controlled the north. Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be able to unite China. VOICE 2: Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists. But Mao and his forces used the people's growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support. Slowly, they began to win battles and capture arms. Early in nineteen-forty-nine, communist forces took control of Beijing and Tientsin. Then they captured Shanghai and Canton. By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of Taiwan. VOICE 1: The fall of the Nationalist government in China caused a bitter political debate in America. Some critics of the Truman administration charged that the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists. The Truman administration rejected the charges. It said Chiang caused his own defeat by failing to reform and win the support of the Chinese people. Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the defeat this way: "Nothing that the United States did, or could have done, within the limits of its powers, could have changed the result. It was the product of forces within China. It was the product of forces which the United States tried to influence, but could not." VOICE 2: The United States was more successful in its policies toward Europe. The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey caused President Truman to speak to the Congress. He said, "I believe it must be our policy to support free people who are fighting attempted overthrow by armed minorities or outside pressures." Truman called on the Congress to give him four-hundred-million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey. After a brief but intense national debate, the Congress agreed. Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek economy and reorganize the Greek army. Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to Greek rebels. the Civil War in Greece ended. VOICE 1: American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the "Truman doctrine." The goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world. Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism. But he also believed it was equally important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves. VOICE 2: Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two. There were severe shortages of food and fuel. Crops were destroyed. Many Europeans were beginning to look to the communists -- to anybody -- to save them. This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe. Secretary of State George Marshall proposed the idea. It soon became known as the "Marshall Plan." VOICE 1: President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan. People were starving, he said. There had been food riots in France and Italy. People were cold. There was not enough fuel. And people were sick. Tuberculosis was breaking out. "Something had to be done," Truman said later. "The British had no money. They were pulling out of Greece and Turkey. They could not help. The United States had to do it, had to do it all." VOICE 2: Marshall Plan aid was offered to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused help. Sixteen other countries, however, welcomed the aid. From nineteen-forty-eight to nineteen-fifty-two, the economic cooperation administration of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries. It spent thirteen thousand-million dollars. The plan worked. Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent. Overall industrial production increased by thirty-five percent. Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more. There were political results, too. Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy. Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few people could argue that the plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Rich Kleinfeldt and Ray Freeman. Our program was written by David Jarmul. Join us again next week at this same time for another program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 5, 2002: Folklife Festival - Silk Road
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we present a special report about a festival now taking place on the Mall in Washington, D.C. It honors the people who lived and worked along the ancient Silk Road between Europe and Asia. Silk Road Visit HOST: Each year, the Smithsonian Institution holds a Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. on the Mall between the Capital building and the Washington Monument. This year the festival is called “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust.” Traders in the ancient world used the Silk Road to transport goods across Asia to Europe. They carried goods from Japan to Italy and to all of the countries in between. World famous musician Yo-Yo Ma created the Silk Road Project to teach people about the nations and people of the Silk Road today. He joined with the Smithsonian Institution to honor the people and the countries of the Silk Road at the festival in Washington. Yo-Yo Ma says the ancient Silk Road was very much like the modern computer communications system called the Internet. It permitted the exchange of ideas, music, food, technology and culture. During the Silk Road Folklife Festival, visitors are meeting people from many countries and learning about their cultures. The countries include Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Russia, and the city of Venice, Italy. Visitors can hear Chinese storytellers. They can watch men from Mongolia demonstrate their sport of wrestling. They can eat Japanese food while listening to music from Afghanistan. They can watch artists make Indian and Syrian jewelry. Best of all, they can talk to the people who do this beautiful work -- people like Ahmet Sahin of Kutahya, Turkey. Mister Sahin makes ceramic dishes and wall hangings. He trained with his grandfather, also named Ahmet Sahin. Grandfather Ahmet Sahin is considered the greatest master of Islamic ceramics of the twentieth century. The Sahins traveled to Washington, D.C to take part in the festival. They sell their ceramics and urge people to visit Turkey. The Silk Road Folklife Festival celebrates the living traditions of the ancient Silk Road lands. It is presenting more than three-hundred artists and crafts people, musicians and dancers from more than twenty countries. And, for the two weeks of the festival, these people of the Silk Road are sharing their many different cultures with one another and more than one-million visitors. Food on the Silk Road HOST: An important part of the yearly Smithsonian Folklife Festival is the food. This is especially true at the Silk Road festival. Visitors can buy foods from Japan, China, Afghanistan and Italy. And cooks from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Italy, India and Uzbekistan show how to prepare foods from their countries. Mary Tillotson tells us more about food and the Silk Road. ANNCR: People along the trade paths exchanged vegetables, fruits, and spices that would influence the kinds of food they prepared. Each country on the Silk Road has its own kind of cooking, yet is linked to all the others. Bread is one example. People eat flat bread in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and much of China. Rice has become an important part of cooking all over the world. Noodles are also found in many countries. For many years, people believed that the Italian explorer Marco Polo brought noodles, or pasta, from China to Italy in the thirteenth century. But food history experts say that is probably not true. They say that pasta probably was created first in Iran. An Arab cook book written in the tenth century describes the first food made of pasta, and says it was invented by a Persian king. Food history experts say the Arabs probably first brought pasta and the wheat needed to make it to Italy in the ninth century. No one knows how the Chinese learned to make pasta. But the names of some Chinese foods made of noodles are similar to those in other countries along the Silk Road. For example, “mantou” is the Chinese name for a sweet food similar to bread. In Japan, a steamed bread is called “manzu.” In Korea, pasta filled with meat is called “mandu.” In Tibet, people eat stuffed dumplings and call them “momo.” And countries of central Asia prepare a steamed filled pasta called “manti.” Smithsonian experts say that the link among all these foods and their names is a sign of early communication among the cultures of the Silk Road. In this way, food traditions traveled along the ancient Silk Road and are still influencing cultures all over the world today. Music of the Silk Road HOST: Music is an important part of the cultures of people who live along the ancient trading paths that went from East Asia to Europe. It also is an important part of the Silk Road Folklife Festival. Shep O’Neal tells about some of the kinds of traditional music being played at the Festival. ANNCR: Music is often said to be a bridge between cultures. This is a strong belief of the organizers of this year’s Silk Road Folklife Festival. So during the festival visitors can enjoy live performances of unusual music from many areas of the world. There are throat singers from Khakasia, Russia. The Beijing Opera. Music from the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan. Venetian folk music from Italy. To continue this musical exchange, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has produced a two-CD set called “The Silk Road: a Musical Caravan.” It contains examples of the different kinds of music being performed at the Festival. It gives a taste of the rich musical life that exists today in the lands of the Silk Road. And it shows how musical instruments and sounds were exchanged. This Armenian song is played on a kind of clarinet called a duduk and a kind of drum called a dhol. The song is called “Dance of Tamir Agha.” ((CUT ONE: Dance of Tamir Agha)) The Khakas live in the republic of Khakasia in southern Siberia. Their rich musical traditional includes throat singing called Khai. Here, a Khaka sings a Khai while playing a stringed instrument. ((CUT TWO: Khai)) We leave the Silk Road now with a traditional piece from the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, China. It shows the influence of Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian, Arab and Persian music. ((CUT THREE: Chabbiyat Tazi Marghul)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Allerby. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we present a special report about a festival now taking place on the Mall in Washington, D.C. It honors the people who lived and worked along the ancient Silk Road between Europe and Asia. Silk Road Visit HOST: Each year, the Smithsonian Institution holds a Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. on the Mall between the Capital building and the Washington Monument. This year the festival is called “The Silk Road: Connecting Cultures, Creating Trust.” Traders in the ancient world used the Silk Road to transport goods across Asia to Europe. They carried goods from Japan to Italy and to all of the countries in between. World famous musician Yo-Yo Ma created the Silk Road Project to teach people about the nations and people of the Silk Road today. He joined with the Smithsonian Institution to honor the people and the countries of the Silk Road at the festival in Washington. Yo-Yo Ma says the ancient Silk Road was very much like the modern computer communications system called the Internet. It permitted the exchange of ideas, music, food, technology and culture. During the Silk Road Folklife Festival, visitors are meeting people from many countries and learning about their cultures. The countries include Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Russia, and the city of Venice, Italy. Visitors can hear Chinese storytellers. They can watch men from Mongolia demonstrate their sport of wrestling. They can eat Japanese food while listening to music from Afghanistan. They can watch artists make Indian and Syrian jewelry. Best of all, they can talk to the people who do this beautiful work -- people like Ahmet Sahin of Kutahya, Turkey. Mister Sahin makes ceramic dishes and wall hangings. He trained with his grandfather, also named Ahmet Sahin. Grandfather Ahmet Sahin is considered the greatest master of Islamic ceramics of the twentieth century. The Sahins traveled to Washington, D.C to take part in the festival. They sell their ceramics and urge people to visit Turkey. The Silk Road Folklife Festival celebrates the living traditions of the ancient Silk Road lands. It is presenting more than three-hundred artists and crafts people, musicians and dancers from more than twenty countries. And, for the two weeks of the festival, these people of the Silk Road are sharing their many different cultures with one another and more than one-million visitors. Food on the Silk Road HOST: An important part of the yearly Smithsonian Folklife Festival is the food. This is especially true at the Silk Road festival. Visitors can buy foods from Japan, China, Afghanistan and Italy. And cooks from Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Italy, India and Uzbekistan show how to prepare foods from their countries. Mary Tillotson tells us more about food and the Silk Road. ANNCR: People along the trade paths exchanged vegetables, fruits, and spices that would influence the kinds of food they prepared. Each country on the Silk Road has its own kind of cooking, yet is linked to all the others. Bread is one example. People eat flat bread in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and much of China. Rice has become an important part of cooking all over the world. Noodles are also found in many countries. For many years, people believed that the Italian explorer Marco Polo brought noodles, or pasta, from China to Italy in the thirteenth century. But food history experts say that is probably not true. They say that pasta probably was created first in Iran. An Arab cook book written in the tenth century describes the first food made of pasta, and says it was invented by a Persian king. Food history experts say the Arabs probably first brought pasta and the wheat needed to make it to Italy in the ninth century. No one knows how the Chinese learned to make pasta. But the names of some Chinese foods made of noodles are similar to those in other countries along the Silk Road. For example, “mantou” is the Chinese name for a sweet food similar to bread. In Japan, a steamed bread is called “manzu.” In Korea, pasta filled with meat is called “mandu.” In Tibet, people eat stuffed dumplings and call them “momo.” And countries of central Asia prepare a steamed filled pasta called “manti.” Smithsonian experts say that the link among all these foods and their names is a sign of early communication among the cultures of the Silk Road. In this way, food traditions traveled along the ancient Silk Road and are still influencing cultures all over the world today. Music of the Silk Road HOST: Music is an important part of the cultures of people who live along the ancient trading paths that went from East Asia to Europe. It also is an important part of the Silk Road Folklife Festival. Shep O’Neal tells about some of the kinds of traditional music being played at the Festival. ANNCR: Music is often said to be a bridge between cultures. This is a strong belief of the organizers of this year’s Silk Road Folklife Festival. So during the festival visitors can enjoy live performances of unusual music from many areas of the world. There are throat singers from Khakasia, Russia. The Beijing Opera. Music from the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan. Venetian folk music from Italy. To continue this musical exchange, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings has produced a two-CD set called “The Silk Road: a Musical Caravan.” It contains examples of the different kinds of music being performed at the Festival. It gives a taste of the rich musical life that exists today in the lands of the Silk Road. And it shows how musical instruments and sounds were exchanged. This Armenian song is played on a kind of clarinet called a duduk and a kind of drum called a dhol. The song is called “Dance of Tamir Agha.” ((CUT ONE: Dance of Tamir Agha)) The Khakas live in the republic of Khakasia in southern Siberia. Their rich musical traditional includes throat singing called Khai. Here, a Khaka sings a Khai while playing a stringed instrument. ((CUT TWO: Khai)) We leave the Silk Road now with a traditional piece from the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, China. It shows the influence of Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian, Arab and Persian music. ((CUT THREE: Chabbiyat Tazi Marghul)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Al Allerby. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 7, 2002 - Grammar Lady: Verb Phrases
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on VOA News Now: July 7, 2002 [First broadcast: July 29, 2001] AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- a lesson in verb phrases! These are verbs with particles added. For instance, take the verb "call." To "call up" means to telephone. To "call on" means to visit a person or to ask for something -- and we called on Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder to help explain phrasal verbs. Broadcast on VOA News Now: July 7, 2002 [First broadcast: July 29, 2001] AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- a lesson in verb phrases! These are verbs with particles added. For instance, take the verb "call." To "call up" means to telephone. To "call on" means to visit a person or to ask for something -- and we called on Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder to help explain phrasal verbs. BRUDER: "One type is a verb where the preposition can move, so 'I called up my friend' or 'I called my friend up.'" RS: "Meaning the same thing." BRUDER: "Meaning exactly the same thing. And the other kind, as in 'call on' -- 'I called on my friend' -- in that case, the preposition doesn't move." RS: "That is so difficult in American English." BRUDER: "You just have to memorize them. So if you say, for example, 'I called up my friend,' or 'I called my friend up,' the problem is when you have a pronoun -- 'I called him up' or 'I called her up' -- with the pronoun it's always fixed. The pronoun has to be in the middle. AA: For example, take the sentence, "I'm going to pick up the paper." If you replace "paper" with the pronoun "it," "I'm going to pick up the paper" becomes "I'm going to pick it up," not "I'm going to pick up it." That's what Grammar Lady means when she says the pronoun has to be in the middle. Now take a sentence like "I'm writing up the reports." You could also say "I'm writing the reports up." But in either case, the correct pronoun form is "I'm writing them up," not "I'm writing up them." BRUDER: "So I'll give you a few phrases and you change them to the pronoun. So if I say, 'I'm going to give the clothes away,' you change it to 'I'm going to give them away.' OK? 'I'm going to throw the papers away.'" RS: "I'm going to throw them away." BRUDER: "I'm going to take the stray dogs in." RS: "I'm going to take them in." BRUDER: "I'm going to lay the book down." RS: "I'm going to lay it down." BRUDER: "I'm going to write the names down." RS: "I'm going to write them down. Now, you say the best way to learn these is to memorize them. And so what I would think is, if you memorized them in some sort of context, not just the two words ..." BRUDER: "No, you have to memorize them with the meaning, because it won't make any sense in the long run, unless you have the meaning with them too." RS: "Right, so memorize them in sentences, in phrases, in situations, so that you can better remember them in the long run, as you say." BRUDER: "Right, OK, now the type B, I've called them verbs with non-movable prepositions, and the example I gave you is to 'call on,' meaning to visit, 'I called on my friend. I called on him.' There aren't as many of these, but they are very, very commonly used in English. So, 'we're going to look at the picture,' 'I'm going to look at it.' In these the verb and the preposition form a single unit and it doesn't change when you put in the pronoun. OK, so, here we go. 'Think of the answer,' and you'd say 'I'm going to think of it' or something like that." RS: "Right." BRUDER: "OK, 'I asked for some information.'" RS: "'Asked for some,' or 'asked for it.'" BRUDER: "Decide on the answer." RS: "Decide on it." BRUDER: "'I'm going to look for some,' what ..." RS: "Some cookies." BRUDER: "Some cookies, OK." AA: "I'm going to look for them." BRUDER: "Right here on lunch time. OK, we'll look for them. Now in this category too there are some very common three-word verbs. To 'drop in on,' meaning to drop in unannounced. 'I'm going to drop in on my friends down the street.' To 'run out of,' to use up completely, 'I ran out of gas on the freeway,' for example." AA: "These are idioms, common idioms." BRUDER: "Very common ones, right. 'Brush up on,' to review something, 'I'm going to brush up on my Spanish before I go to Spain. To 'make up for,' to compensate, 'he wrote with his right hand to make up for ... ' I can't think of a good sentence for that one." AA: "And these are perfectly acceptable in formal writing." BRUDER: "Right, yes. 'Brush up on,' I mean, 'I'm going to brush up on my Spanish'? I think that's perfectly fine." AA: To brush up on your English, you can visit Mary Newton Bruder on the Web at www.grammarlady.com. That's all our time for Wordmaster this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Time Don't Run Out on Me"/Anne Murray BRUDER: "One type is a verb where the preposition can move, so 'I called up my friend' or 'I called my friend up.'" RS: "Meaning the same thing." BRUDER: "Meaning exactly the same thing. And the other kind, as in 'call on' -- 'I called on my friend' -- in that case, the preposition doesn't move." RS: "That is so difficult in American English." BRUDER: "You just have to memorize them. So if you say, for example, 'I called up my friend,' or 'I called my friend up,' the problem is when you have a pronoun -- 'I called him up' or 'I called her up' -- with the pronoun it's always fixed. The pronoun has to be in the middle. AA: For example, take the sentence, "I'm going to pick up the paper." If you replace "paper" with the pronoun "it," "I'm going to pick up the paper" becomes "I'm going to pick it up," not "I'm going to pick up it." That's what Grammar Lady means when she says the pronoun has to be in the middle. Now take a sentence like "I'm writing up the reports." You could also say "I'm writing the reports up." But in either case, the correct pronoun form is "I'm writing them up," not "I'm writing up them." BRUDER: "So I'll give you a few phrases and you change them to the pronoun. So if I say, 'I'm going to give the clothes away,' you change it to 'I'm going to give them away.' OK? 'I'm going to throw the papers away.'" RS: "I'm going to throw them away." BRUDER: "I'm going to take the stray dogs in." RS: "I'm going to take them in." BRUDER: "I'm going to lay the book down." RS: "I'm going to lay it down." BRUDER: "I'm going to write the names down." RS: "I'm going to write them down. Now, you say the best way to learn these is to memorize them. And so what I would think is, if you memorized them in some sort of context, not just the two words ..." BRUDER: "No, you have to memorize them with the meaning, because it won't make any sense in the long run, unless you have the meaning with them too." RS: "Right, so memorize them in sentences, in phrases, in situations, so that you can better remember them in the long run, as you say." BRUDER: "Right, OK, now the type B, I've called them verbs with non-movable prepositions, and the example I gave you is to 'call on,' meaning to visit, 'I called on my friend. I called on him.' There aren't as many of these, but they are very, very commonly used in English. So, 'we're going to look at the picture,' 'I'm going to look at it.' In these the verb and the preposition form a single unit and it doesn't change when you put in the pronoun. OK, so, here we go. 'Think of the answer,' and you'd say 'I'm going to think of it' or something like that." RS: "Right." BRUDER: "OK, 'I asked for some information.'" RS: "'Asked for some,' or 'asked for it.'" BRUDER: "Decide on the answer." RS: "Decide on it." BRUDER: "'I'm going to look for some,' what ..." RS: "Some cookies." BRUDER: "Some cookies, OK." AA: "I'm going to look for them." BRUDER: "Right here on lunch time. OK, we'll look for them. Now in this category too there are some very common three-word verbs. To 'drop in on,' meaning to drop in unannounced. 'I'm going to drop in on my friends down the street.' To 'run out of,' to use up completely, 'I ran out of gas on the freeway,' for example." AA: "These are idioms, common idioms." BRUDER: "Very common ones, right. 'Brush up on,' to review something, 'I'm going to brush up on my Spanish before I go to Spain. To 'make up for,' to compensate, 'he wrote with his right hand to make up for ... ' I can't think of a good sentence for that one." AA: "And these are perfectly acceptable in formal writing." BRUDER: "Right, yes. 'Brush up on,' I mean, 'I'm going to brush up on my Spanish'? I think that's perfectly fine." AA: To brush up on your English, you can visit Mary Newton Bruder on the Web at www.grammarlady.com. That's all our time for Wordmaster this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Time Don't Run Out on Me"/Anne Murray 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - July 8, 2002: The Catholic Church in America
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Almost sixty-four-million Christians in the United States belong to the Roman Catholic Church. Sexual wrongdoing by clergymen against children has caused a crisis in the Catholic Church. I’m Mary Tillotson. We Are the Church group protest against secrecy of the Church VOICE ONE: Almost sixty-four-million Christians in the United States belong to the Roman Catholic Church. Sexual wrongdoing by clergymen against children has caused a crisis in the Catholic Church. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Catholic Church is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last month, Roman Catholic Church leaders in the United States declared a new policy about sexual wrongdoing by clergymen against children. Those priests found guilty of even one incident of sexual abuse of a child would be barred from all public duties connected to the church. They could no longer take part in the Catholic religious service. However, they would continue to be priests. Almost three-hundred church leaders approved the new policy at a meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas, Texas. The bishops also apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests. Several of these victims were at the meeting and told about their sexual abuse by priests. Pope John Paul is the head of the Roman Catholic Church around the world. Officials in Rome who advise the Pope will now consider the American bishops’ new policy. If the officials approve, the American bishops will be expected to enforce it. VOICE TWO: In the United States, it is a crime for an adult to have sexual relations with anyone under the age of eighteen. Hundreds of Catholic priests have been accused of having sexual relations with children. The priests reportedly abused thousands of boys and young men. Some women have also charged priests with sexual wrongdoing. Some of these accusations involve incidents that happened as many as thirty years ago. Roman Catholic priests are banned from marrying. They are not permitted to have sexual relations of any kind. VOICE ONE: For many years, some Catholics have demanded that their bishops take a strong position against sexually abusive priests. These people say some bishops have protected guilty priests while failing to protect the children they harmed. Victims of sexual crimes by priests have repeatedly demanded apologies from the church. They have demanded justice in the courts. American courts have ordered the Roman Catholic Church to pay millions of dollars in damages to victims. VOICE TWO: Many American Catholics are not satisfied with the new policy declared by the bishops. They want priests found guilty of sexual abuse of children to be dismissed as priests. Many Catholics point to the seriousness of the offense and the harm it has done to young victims. Many American Catholics do not believe the bishops’ policy is severe enough. They made this clear in recent opinion studies. In one study, two-thirds of Catholics said they did not believe the new policy would end abuse of children. In another study, almost ninety percent wanted guilty priests dismissed from the priesthood. Almost all of the Catholics in this study said they wanted action by Pope John Paul. They want the Pope to punish bishops who do not act against known abusers. VOICE ONE: Roman Catholic bishops govern churches in one-hundred-eleven areas in the United States. One media report says bishops in almost sixty percent of these areas have attempted to hide sex crimes by priests. In at least several cases, the church paid victims large amounts of money. The money was meant to keep the victims from telling the media about what happened to them. Reports say some bishops sent guilty priests for treatment by mental health experts. But the bishops did not report the crimes to police. Then the bishops sent the priests to work in churches in other cities. They did not warn church members about these priests. Some law-enforcement officials say these bishops should be punished. They have suggested charging these bishops with aiding a crime. VOICE TWO: Some experts say the church has protected guilty priests because it lacks enough priests. The number of Roman Catholic churches in the United States keeps growing. However, the number of men studying to be priests has decreased. Almost thirty percent of Roman Catholic churches do not have a priest serving only one church. Instead, some priests travel to serve two or more churches.The Catholic Church does not permit women to become priests. However, men who are not priests can perform some church ceremonies. These men are called deacons. They are permitted to be married. Husbands and wives, called parish ministers, also may assist in some ceremonies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Roman Catholicism has a long history in America. The first Roman Catholics were explorers from Europe. The religion was established before the area became the United States. At times, the British colonies approved anti-Catholic legislation. But Catholics usually could observe their religion freely. During the nineteenth century, many immigrants came to the United States. Large groups of Catholics came from Germany, Ireland, Austria-Hungary and Poland. Historians say Irish-Americans became the most influential Catholics by the beginning of the twentieth century. By that time, the Catholic Church in America was becoming increasingly strong. VOICE TWO: Catholics established their own schools for young children. These schools became known for excellent education. The church also established high schools and colleges. For example, Catholic University opened in Washington, D.C in eighteen-eighty-seven. Over the years, many Catholic aid groups have assisted millions of people who are poor, sick or old. These aid groups have helped people of all religions. Catholics sometimes suffered mistreatment by other Americans. But as time passed, many Catholics gained important positions. For example, Roman Catholics were elected to positions of power in big cities like New York, Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois. In nineteen-sixty, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic elected president of the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: American Catholics share beliefs with Roman Catholics around the world. They believe Jesus Christ established the church. They believe their church has kept and continued his teachings over the years. Still, Catholic churches in the United States have established some traditions all their own. For example, some churches use folk and other kinds of music during their masses. Many churches hold special dinners, parties and game events for their members. Some have sports teams for adults as well as children. Committees of members advise the priest about local church administration. VOICE TWO: The activities of Catholic churches in America require many millions of dollars. Church officials are concerned about gaining enough money for all these activities. This concern has deepened since reports of sexual crimes by priests have appeared in the media. Some Catholics are not giving as much money to their church as they did in the past. The crisis also has helped increase debate about two other issues. For years, some American Catholics have urged that priests be permitted to marry. A number of Catholics also say women should be able to become priests. Those opposed to these proposals say they would violate church tradition. However, supporters say such changes would help increase the number of priests and ease the shortage. They also believe the changes might help prevent sexual offenses by priests. They say that most Protestant Christian churches permit their clergy to marry. In addition, a number of Protestant churches have female priests or ministers. These churches report far fewer cases of sexual abuse by clergy than the Catholic Church. VOICE ONE: In recent public opinion studies, few Catholics say the crisis about priests would cause them to leave the church. Loyal American Catholics praise the rich spiritual life they gain from their church and its religious service, the mass. However, many Catholics now say they want more influence in church life. They want church officials to consider their opinions about important issues. A high school teacher from the Middle West has been active in his Catholic church for twenty years. He says members want bishops to continue to advise them in spiritual life. But he believes the unquestioned leadership by the bishops is over. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Catholic Church is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last month, Roman Catholic Church leaders in the United States declared a new policy about sexual wrongdoing by clergymen against children. Those priests found guilty of even one incident of sexual abuse of a child would be barred from all public duties connected to the church. They could no longer take part in the Catholic religious service. However, they would continue to be priests. Almost three-hundred church leaders approved the new policy at a meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas, Texas. The bishops also apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests. Several of these victims were at the meeting and told about their sexual abuse by priests. Pope John Paul is the head of the Roman Catholic Church around the world. Officials in Rome who advise the Pope will now consider the American bishops’ new policy. If the officials approve, the American bishops will be expected to enforce it. VOICE TWO: In the United States, it is a crime for an adult to have sexual relations with anyone under the age of eighteen. Hundreds of Catholic priests have been accused of having sexual relations with children. The priests reportedly abused thousands of boys and young men. Some women have also charged priests with sexual wrongdoing. Some of these accusations involve incidents that happened as many as thirty years ago. Roman Catholic priests are banned from marrying. They are not permitted to have sexual relations of any kind. VOICE ONE: For many years, some Catholics have demanded that their bishops take a strong position against sexually abusive priests. These people say some bishops have protected guilty priests while failing to protect the children they harmed. Victims of sexual crimes by priests have repeatedly demanded apologies from the church. They have demanded justice in the courts. American courts have ordered the Roman Catholic Church to pay millions of dollars in damages to victims. VOICE TWO: Many American Catholics are not satisfied with the new policy declared by the bishops. They want priests found guilty of sexual abuse of children to be dismissed as priests. Many Catholics point to the seriousness of the offense and the harm it has done to young victims. Many American Catholics do not believe the bishops’ policy is severe enough. They made this clear in recent opinion studies. In one study, two-thirds of Catholics said they did not believe the new policy would end abuse of children. In another study, almost ninety percent wanted guilty priests dismissed from the priesthood. Almost all of the Catholics in this study said they wanted action by Pope John Paul. They want the Pope to punish bishops who do not act against known abusers. VOICE ONE: Roman Catholic bishops govern churches in one-hundred-eleven areas in the United States. One media report says bishops in almost sixty percent of these areas have attempted to hide sex crimes by priests. In at least several cases, the church paid victims large amounts of money. The money was meant to keep the victims from telling the media about what happened to them. Reports say some bishops sent guilty priests for treatment by mental health experts. But the bishops did not report the crimes to police. Then the bishops sent the priests to work in churches in other cities. They did not warn church members about these priests. Some law-enforcement officials say these bishops should be punished. They have suggested charging these bishops with aiding a crime. VOICE TWO: Some experts say the church has protected guilty priests because it lacks enough priests. The number of Roman Catholic churches in the United States keeps growing. However, the number of men studying to be priests has decreased. Almost thirty percent of Roman Catholic churches do not have a priest serving only one church. Instead, some priests travel to serve two or more churches.The Catholic Church does not permit women to become priests. However, men who are not priests can perform some church ceremonies. These men are called deacons. They are permitted to be married. Husbands and wives, called parish ministers, also may assist in some ceremonies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Roman Catholicism has a long history in America. The first Roman Catholics were explorers from Europe. The religion was established before the area became the United States. At times, the British colonies approved anti-Catholic legislation. But Catholics usually could observe their religion freely. During the nineteenth century, many immigrants came to the United States. Large groups of Catholics came from Germany, Ireland, Austria-Hungary and Poland. Historians say Irish-Americans became the most influential Catholics by the beginning of the twentieth century. By that time, the Catholic Church in America was becoming increasingly strong. VOICE TWO: Catholics established their own schools for young children. These schools became known for excellent education. The church also established high schools and colleges. For example, Catholic University opened in Washington, D.C in eighteen-eighty-seven. Over the years, many Catholic aid groups have assisted millions of people who are poor, sick or old. These aid groups have helped people of all religions. Catholics sometimes suffered mistreatment by other Americans. But as time passed, many Catholics gained important positions. For example, Roman Catholics were elected to positions of power in big cities like New York, Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois. In nineteen-sixty, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic elected president of the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: American Catholics share beliefs with Roman Catholics around the world. They believe Jesus Christ established the church. They believe their church has kept and continued his teachings over the years. Still, Catholic churches in the United States have established some traditions all their own. For example, some churches use folk and other kinds of music during their masses. Many churches hold special dinners, parties and game events for their members. Some have sports teams for adults as well as children. Committees of members advise the priest about local church administration. VOICE TWO: The activities of Catholic churches in America require many millions of dollars. Church officials are concerned about gaining enough money for all these activities. This concern has deepened since reports of sexual crimes by priests have appeared in the media. Some Catholics are not giving as much money to their church as they did in the past. The crisis also has helped increase debate about two other issues. For years, some American Catholics have urged that priests be permitted to marry. A number of Catholics also say women should be able to become priests. Those opposed to these proposals say they would violate church tradition. However, supporters say such changes would help increase the number of priests and ease the shortage. They also believe the changes might help prevent sexual offenses by priests. They say that most Protestant Christian churches permit their clergy to marry. In addition, a number of Protestant churches have female priests or ministers. These churches report far fewer cases of sexual abuse by clergy than the Catholic Church. VOICE ONE: In recent public opinion studies, few Catholics say the crisis about priests would cause them to leave the church. Loyal American Catholics praise the rich spiritual life they gain from their church and its religious service, the mass. However, many Catholics now say they want more influence in church life. They want church officials to consider their opinions about important issues. A high school teacher from the Middle West has been active in his Catholic church for twenty years. He says members want bishops to continue to advise them in spiritual life. But he believes the unquestioned leadership by the bishops is over. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 7, 2002: Gwendolyn Brooks
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of award-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She had more than twenty books published. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote many poems about being black during the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her material looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment house in Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO(cont): In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago. The South Side of Chicago is where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection. Here she is reading from her Nineteen-Forty-Five collection, “A Street in Bronzeville.” CUT ONE - GWENDOLYN BROOKS ACT (13 Secs) “My father, it is surely a blue place and straight. Right, regular, where I shall find no need for scholarly nonchalance or looks a little to the left or guards upon the heart.” VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen.” “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Mizz Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life. Her next work was a novel written in Nineteen-Fifty-Three called “Maud Martha.” “Maud Martha” received little notice when it first was published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote poems about the black experience in America. She described the anger many blacks had about racial injustice and the feeling of being different. She used poetry to criticize those who did not show respect for the poor. Yet for all the anger in her writing, Gwendolyn Brooks was considered by many to be a gentle spirit and a very giving person. VOICE TWO(cont): By the early Nineteen-Sixties, Mizz Brooks had reached a high point in her writing career. She was considered one of America’s leading black writers. She was a popular teacher. She was praised for her use of language and the way people identified with her writing. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in Nineteen-Seventeen. But she grew up in Chicago. She began writing when she was eleven years old. She mailed several poems to a community newspaper in Chicago to surprise her family. In a radio broadcast in Nineteen-Sixty-One, Mizz Brooks said her mother urged her to develop her poetic skills: CUT TWO – GWENDOLYN BROOKS ACT (23 Secs) “My mother took me to the library when I was about four or five. I enjoyed reading poetry and I tried to write it when I was about seven, at the time that I first tried to put rhymes together. And I have loved it ever since.” VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks married Henry L. Blakely in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. Henry Blakely was a young writer who later published his own poetry. They lived in Chicago for the next thirty years, divorced in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, but re-united in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. They had two children, Nora Brooks Blakely and Henry Blakely. Throughout her life, Mizz Brooks supported herself through speaking appearances, poetry readings and part time teaching in colleges. She also received money from organizations that offered grants designed to support the arts. VOICE ONE: One of Gwendolyn Brooks most famous poems is called “We Real Cool”. It is a short poem that talks about young people feeling hopeless: “We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.” VOICE TWO: By the end of the Nineteen-Sixties, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues. She won praise for her sharper, real-life poetic style. Gwendolyn Brooks was affected by the civil rights struggles and social changes taking place in America. She began to question her relations with whites. She said she felt that black poets should write for black people. That became evident in her next collection of poetry in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight called “In the Mecca.” Critics suggested Mizz Brooks had become too political and seemed to be writing only for black people. Her new poems received little notice in the press. VOICE ONE: In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks’ described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, “Corners on the Curving Sky”: Our earth is round, and, among other things That means that you and I can hold completely different Points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, While mine, at the same moment, Spreads beautiful to darkness. Still, we must choose how we separately corner The circling universe of our experience Once chosen, our cornering will determine The message of any star and darkness we encounter. VOICE TWO: Although her poetry did not receive much notice in the press, Gwendolyn Brooks continued to receive honors. She was chosen poet laureate of the state of Illinois in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she became the first black woman to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. And she was named the Nineteen-Ninety-Four Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That is the highest honor given by the federal government for work in the humanities. Mizz Brooks once said that of all the awards she received, there was only one that meant a lot to her. It was given to her at a workshop in an old theater in Chicago. She said “I was given an award for just being me, and that’s what poetry is to me – just being me.” VOICE ONE: Although she was well-known, Gwendolyn Brooks lived a quiet life. She said her greatest interest was being involved with young people. She spent time giving readings at schools, prisons and hospitals. She also attended yearly poetry competitions for Chicago children. She often paid for the awards given to the winners. Haki Madhubuti directs the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Creative Writing and Black Literature at Chicago State University. He said Mizz Brooks felt children would help lead the way toward healing the wounds of the United States civil rights movement of the Nineteen-Sixties. One young student talked about how Mizz Brooks’ poetry affected her. She said that Gwendolyn Brooks’ writings influenced her to write down how she truly feel deep inside. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks influenced many African-American writers. Friends say her prize-winning works also helped other black Americans to develop their own sense of identity and culture. Doctors discovered Mizz Brooks had cancer in November, Two-Thousand. She died December Third at her home in Chicago. She was eighty-three. The funeral service was held on the South Side, the same area of the city that had been a window for much of Mizz Brooks’s poetry. The service was at times filled with laughter. There were warm remembrances of a woman whose life and words had touched people forever. African drums sounded and dancers leaped. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of award-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. She was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She had more than twenty books published. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote many poems about being black during the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. Her poems described conditions among the poor, racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her material looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment house in Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO(cont): In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago. The South Side of Chicago is where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection. Here she is reading from her Nineteen-Forty-Five collection, “A Street in Bronzeville.” CUT ONE - GWENDOLYN BROOKS ACT (13 Secs) “My father, it is surely a blue place and straight. Right, regular, where I shall find no need for scholarly nonchalance or looks a little to the left or guards upon the heart.” VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen.” “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Mizz Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life. Her next work was a novel written in Nineteen-Fifty-Three called “Maud Martha.” “Maud Martha” received little notice when it first was published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote poems about the black experience in America. She described the anger many blacks had about racial injustice and the feeling of being different. She used poetry to criticize those who did not show respect for the poor. Yet for all the anger in her writing, Gwendolyn Brooks was considered by many to be a gentle spirit and a very giving person. VOICE TWO(cont): By the early Nineteen-Sixties, Mizz Brooks had reached a high point in her writing career. She was considered one of America’s leading black writers. She was a popular teacher. She was praised for her use of language and the way people identified with her writing. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in Nineteen-Seventeen. But she grew up in Chicago. She began writing when she was eleven years old. She mailed several poems to a community newspaper in Chicago to surprise her family. In a radio broadcast in Nineteen-Sixty-One, Mizz Brooks said her mother urged her to develop her poetic skills: CUT TWO – GWENDOLYN BROOKS ACT (23 Secs) “My mother took me to the library when I was about four or five. I enjoyed reading poetry and I tried to write it when I was about seven, at the time that I first tried to put rhymes together. And I have loved it ever since.” VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks married Henry L. Blakely in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. Henry Blakely was a young writer who later published his own poetry. They lived in Chicago for the next thirty years, divorced in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, but re-united in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. They had two children, Nora Brooks Blakely and Henry Blakely. Throughout her life, Mizz Brooks supported herself through speaking appearances, poetry readings and part time teaching in colleges. She also received money from organizations that offered grants designed to support the arts. VOICE ONE: One of Gwendolyn Brooks most famous poems is called “We Real Cool”. It is a short poem that talks about young people feeling hopeless: “We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.” VOICE TWO: By the end of the Nineteen-Sixties, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues. She won praise for her sharper, real-life poetic style. Gwendolyn Brooks was affected by the civil rights struggles and social changes taking place in America. She began to question her relations with whites. She said she felt that black poets should write for black people. That became evident in her next collection of poetry in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight called “In the Mecca.” Critics suggested Mizz Brooks had become too political and seemed to be writing only for black people. Her new poems received little notice in the press. VOICE ONE: In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks’ described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, “Corners on the Curving Sky”: Our earth is round, and, among other things That means that you and I can hold completely different Points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show Stars in your window. I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, While mine, at the same moment, Spreads beautiful to darkness. Still, we must choose how we separately corner The circling universe of our experience Once chosen, our cornering will determine The message of any star and darkness we encounter. VOICE TWO: Although her poetry did not receive much notice in the press, Gwendolyn Brooks continued to receive honors. She was chosen poet laureate of the state of Illinois in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In Nineteen-Seventy-Six, she became the first black woman to be elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. And she was named the Nineteen-Ninety-Four Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That is the highest honor given by the federal government for work in the humanities. Mizz Brooks once said that of all the awards she received, there was only one that meant a lot to her. It was given to her at a workshop in an old theater in Chicago. She said “I was given an award for just being me, and that’s what poetry is to me – just being me.” VOICE ONE: Although she was well-known, Gwendolyn Brooks lived a quiet life. She said her greatest interest was being involved with young people. She spent time giving readings at schools, prisons and hospitals. She also attended yearly poetry competitions for Chicago children. She often paid for the awards given to the winners. Haki Madhubuti directs the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Creative Writing and Black Literature at Chicago State University. He said Mizz Brooks felt children would help lead the way toward healing the wounds of the United States civil rights movement of the Nineteen-Sixties. One young student talked about how Mizz Brooks’ poetry affected her. She said that Gwendolyn Brooks’ writings influenced her to write down how she truly feel deep inside. VOICE TWO: Gwendolyn Brooks influenced many African-American writers. Friends say her prize-winning works also helped other black Americans to develop their own sense of identity and culture. Doctors discovered Mizz Brooks had cancer in November, Two-Thousand. She died December Third at her home in Chicago. She was eighty-three. The funeral service was held on the South Side, the same area of the city that had been a window for much of Mizz Brooks’s poetry. The service was at times filled with laughter. There were warm remembrances of a woman whose life and words had touched people forever. African drums sounded and dancers leaped. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-05-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 8, 2002: World Day Against Child Labor
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations International Labor Organization has launched a yearly event to help end child labor around the world. The first “World Day Against Child Labor” was held on June twelfth. There were special ceremonies, worker training programs, media events and public activities around the world. The I-L-O organized the day to help spread the message that child labor remains an international problem. Officials plan to hold the event every year to increase support for an international campaign against child labor. Almost two-hundred-fifty-million children between the ages of five and seventeen are forced to work. That represents one of every six children around the world. Seventy-five percent of them are doing dangerous jobs. The I-L-O is working with governments to end the worst forms of child labor. These include slavery, the illegal drug trade, the sex trade, armed conflicts and other dangerous jobs. These forms of child labor threaten children’s physical and mental health. The I-L-O says the worst forms of child labor are found everywhere in the world. Both boys and girls are equally at risk. Most child laborers are forced to work in farming areas in parts of Asia and Africa. They spend many hours in extreme heat. They may be affected by dangerous chemicals used to kill insects. And they suffer high rates of injury. There are many reasons for child labor. They include political conflict, poverty and economic problems. For example, officials say many family businesses use children when they cannot pay adult workers. Illegal child labor continues because of a lack of law enforcement. The I-L-O says that any effort to end child labor requires direct action at the local, national and international levels. Officials believe it is possible to end the worst forms of child labor in twelve to fifteen years. However, before this can happen, countries must decide to act on this problem. The first step is for governments to accept special programs with time limits to reduce and finally end child labor. The International Labor Organization has provided countries with training, legislation and ways to enforce laws banning child labor. Officials believe improvements are beginning in some countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations International Labor Organization has launched a yearly event to help end child labor around the world. The first “World Day Against Child Labor” was held on June twelfth. There were special ceremonies, worker training programs, media events and public activities around the world. The I-L-O organized the day to help spread the message that child labor remains an international problem. Officials plan to hold the event every year to increase support for an international campaign against child labor. Almost two-hundred-fifty-million children between the ages of five and seventeen are forced to work. That represents one of every six children around the world. Seventy-five percent of them are doing dangerous jobs. The I-L-O is working with governments to end the worst forms of child labor. These include slavery, the illegal drug trade, the sex trade, armed conflicts and other dangerous jobs. These forms of child labor threaten children’s physical and mental health. The I-L-O says the worst forms of child labor are found everywhere in the world. Both boys and girls are equally at risk. Most child laborers are forced to work in farming areas in parts of Asia and Africa. They spend many hours in extreme heat. They may be affected by dangerous chemicals used to kill insects. And they suffer high rates of injury. There are many reasons for child labor. They include political conflict, poverty and economic problems. For example, officials say many family businesses use children when they cannot pay adult workers. Illegal child labor continues because of a lack of law enforcement. The I-L-O says that any effort to end child labor requires direct action at the local, national and international levels. Officials believe it is possible to end the worst forms of child labor in twelve to fifteen years. However, before this can happen, countries must decide to act on this problem. The first step is for governments to accept special programs with time limits to reduce and finally end child labor. The International Labor Organization has provided countries with training, legislation and ways to enforce laws banning child labor. Officials believe improvements are beginning in some countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-05-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 6, 2002: WorldCom
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Several major American companies have admitted recently to dishonest reporting of their financial condition. The latest wrongdoing happened at the huge communications company WorldCom. It has admitted to mis-representing thousands of millions of dollars of company costs. It reported the costs as profits instead. WorldCom also says there may be problems with its reporting of reserve accounts. Reserve accounts are special money supplies that companies set up so they will be able to pay future costs. WorldCom made the statement in a new financial report to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. One of the duties of the S-E-C is to supervise financial reporting by companies whose shares are traded on the stock market. The federal agency has charged WorldCom with wrongdoing. The leader of WorldCom is Chief Executive Officer John Sidgmore. He says he is not sure if the company will have to declare bankruptcy. Failing companies often declare bankruptcy to seek government protection from their debts. WorldCom has about four-thousand-million dollars worth of debts. Mister Sidgmore says WorldCom has two-thousand-million dollars of money right now. He says the company also has other property of considerable financial value. WorldCom is the world’s largest provider of Internet service. Mister Sidgmore says WorldCom operations provide Internet service in more than one hundred countries. The company also serves several large government agencies, including the Department of Defense. WorldCom’s telephone service, M-C-I, is the second biggest in the United States. Mister Sidgmore says that the survival of his company is in the interest of national security. Mister Sidgmore has tried to distance himself from WorldCom’s false financial reporting. He dismissed the Chief Financial Officer, Scott Sullivan, who had listed the expenses as profits. Mister Sidgmore also has repeatedly noted that he did not become WorldCom’s leader until April. He replaced Bernard Ebbers who resigned. The false financial reports are for Two-Thousand-One and the first three months of this year. Officials want to learn what Mister Ebbers may have known about the actions of the Chief Financial Officer. Reports say Mister Ebbers and Mister Sullivan worked very closely together. Mister Sullivan continues to say that he believes the actions he took with WorldCom finances were completely legal. President Bush has strongly criticized WorldCom. He has warned that company officials will be held responsible for failing their companies through dishonesty and wrongdoing. WorldCom officials are to answer questions before a Congressional committee on Monday. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Several major American companies have admitted recently to dishonest reporting of their financial condition. The latest wrongdoing happened at the huge communications company WorldCom. It has admitted to mis-representing thousands of millions of dollars of company costs. It reported the costs as profits instead. WorldCom also says there may be problems with its reporting of reserve accounts. Reserve accounts are special money supplies that companies set up so they will be able to pay future costs. WorldCom made the statement in a new financial report to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. One of the duties of the S-E-C is to supervise financial reporting by companies whose shares are traded on the stock market. The federal agency has charged WorldCom with wrongdoing. The leader of WorldCom is Chief Executive Officer John Sidgmore. He says he is not sure if the company will have to declare bankruptcy. Failing companies often declare bankruptcy to seek government protection from their debts. WorldCom has about four-thousand-million dollars worth of debts. Mister Sidgmore says WorldCom has two-thousand-million dollars of money right now. He says the company also has other property of considerable financial value. WorldCom is the world’s largest provider of Internet service. Mister Sidgmore says WorldCom operations provide Internet service in more than one hundred countries. The company also serves several large government agencies, including the Department of Defense. WorldCom’s telephone service, M-C-I, is the second biggest in the United States. Mister Sidgmore says that the survival of his company is in the interest of national security. Mister Sidgmore has tried to distance himself from WorldCom’s false financial reporting. He dismissed the Chief Financial Officer, Scott Sullivan, who had listed the expenses as profits. Mister Sidgmore also has repeatedly noted that he did not become WorldCom’s leader until April. He replaced Bernard Ebbers who resigned. The false financial reports are for Two-Thousand-One and the first three months of this year. Officials want to learn what Mister Ebbers may have known about the actions of the Chief Financial Officer. Reports say Mister Ebbers and Mister Sullivan worked very closely together. Mister Sullivan continues to say that he believes the actions he took with WorldCom finances were completely legal. President Bush has strongly criticized WorldCom. He has warned that company officials will be held responsible for failing their companies through dishonesty and wrongdoing. WorldCom officials are to answer questions before a Congressional committee on Monday. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 9, 2002: Tuberculosis
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. A male patient takes his daily dosage of DOTS drugs(WHO photo - TDR/Crump) VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says tuberculosis is a serious health problem around the world. It says one-third of the world’s population is infected with the T-B bacteria. Between five and ten percent of people who are infected with T-B become sick at some time during their life. Eight-million people become sick with the disease each year. Two-million people die of the disease each year. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Most people infected with the tuberculosis bacteria never develop active T-B. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. T-B can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious sickness. The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated T-B bacteria in their lungs or throat. The bacteria are spread into the air when people with the disease talk, cough or sneeze. VOICE TWO: People who breathe the infected air from a T-B victim can become infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, most people with active tuberculosis do not expel very many T-B bacteria. So, the spread of the disease usually does not happen unless a person spends a great deal of time with a T-B victim. Those most at risk are family members, friends and people who work closely with a T-B victim. If a person becomes infected with the tuberculosis bacteria, it does not mean he or she has the disease. Having a tuberculosis infection means that the T-B bacteria are in the body, but they may be inactive. VOICE ONE: After the T-B bacteria enter the body, the body’s defense system usually acts to surround them and prevent them from spreading. The immune system does this by building a wall around the bacteria similar to the way blood hardens around a cut on the skin. The bacteria can stay alive in an inactive condition inside these walls for many years. When T-B bacteria are inactive, they cannot damage the body. Also, they cannot spread to other people. People with inactive T-B bacteria are infected, but they are not sick. They probably do not know that they are infected. Millions of people have the T-B infection. For most of them, the bacteria will always be inactive. They will never suffer signs of tuberculosis. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: If the body’s defense system is weak, however, a person can get tuberculosis soon after the T-B bacteria enter the body. Also, inactive T-B bacteria may become active if the body’s immune system becomes weak. When this happens, the bacteria can break through the protective walls. Then they begin reproducing and damaging the lungs or other organs. When T-B bacteria become active, they can cause serious sickness. The inactive T-B bacteria can become active under several conditions. When a person becomes old, the immune system may become too weak to protect against the bacteria. A serious sickness can weaken the immune system enough to free the T-B bacteria. H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS, can cause T-B bacteria to become active. Also, doctors warn that people who use many illegal drugs or drink too much alcohol have a higher risk of becoming sick from the tuberculosis bacteria. VOICE ONE: T-B can attack any part of the body. However, the lungs are the most common target of the bacteria. People with the disease show several signs. They have a cough that continues for a long period of time. People with a more severe case of tuberculosis may cough up blood. People with the disease often suffer from high body temperatures. They suffer what are called night sweats, during which their bodies give off large amounts of water through the skin. T-B victims are also tired all the time. They are not interested in eating. So they lose weight. One thing that is especially dangerous about T-B is that people with moderate signs of the disease may not know they have it. They may spread the disease to others without even knowing it. So, it is very important for people to get tested for tuberculosis. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are several ways to test for T-B. The first is the Mantoux skin test. The test can identify most people infected with tuberculosis six to eight weeks after the bacteria entered their bodies. A substance called purified protein derivative is injected under the skin of the arm. The place of the injection is examined two to three days later. If a raised red area forms, the person may have been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, this does not always mean the disease is active. VOICE ONE: If the skin test shows that T-B bacteria have entered the body, doctors can use other methods to discover if the person has active T-B. However, this sometimes can be difficult because tuberculosis may appear similar to other diseases. Doctors must consider other physical signs. Also, they must decide if a person’s history shows that he or she has been in situations where tuberculosis was present. Doctors also use an X-ray examination to show if there is evidence of T-B infection, such as damage to the lungs. Another way to test for the presence of active tuberculosis is to examine the fluids from a person’s body, especially those taken from the mouth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: It is very important for doctors to identify which kind of T-B bacteria are present so they can decide which drugs to use to treat the disease. More than ninety percent of T-B cases can be cured with medicines. However, the death rate for untreated T-B patients is between forty and sixty percent. Successful treatment of T-B requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Patients must take medicine for six to twelve months to destroy all signs of the bacteria. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the T-B bacteria becoming resistant to drugs and growing stronger, more dangerous and more difficult to treat. Because of this, many doctors and other health care workers directly observe and supervise treatment of the disease in their patients. VOICE ONE: Experts say T-B is a preventable disease. In the United States, the goal of health organizations is to quickly identify infected people – especially those who have the highest risk of developing the disease. There are several drugs that can prevent tuberculosis in people who are at risk of becoming infected. These people include those who live or work closely with people who have T-B. Others at risk are people who are infected with tuberculosis bacteria but do not have the active disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to limit the spread of tuberculosis. All T-B patients must learn to cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze. It also is important to keep air flowing through rooms so that the T-B bacteria cannot gather and infect people. Also, ultraviolet light and other devices can be used to clean infectious bacteria from the air in closed rooms. Tuberculosis can be cured if it is discovered early and if patients take their medicine correctly. And, like other diseases, education and understanding are extremely important in preventing and curing T-B. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says tuberculosis is a serious health problem around the world. It says one-third of the world’s population is infected with the T-B bacteria. Between five and ten percent of people who are infected with T-B become sick at some time during their life. Eight-million people become sick with the disease each year. Two-million people die of the disease each year. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Most people infected with the tuberculosis bacteria never develop active T-B. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. T-B can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious sickness. The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated T-B bacteria in their lungs or throat. The bacteria are spread into the air when people with the disease talk, cough or sneeze. VOICE TWO: People who breathe the infected air from a T-B victim can become infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, most people with active tuberculosis do not expel very many T-B bacteria. So, the spread of the disease usually does not happen unless a person spends a great deal of time with a T-B victim. Those most at risk are family members, friends and people who work closely with a T-B victim. If a person becomes infected with the tuberculosis bacteria, it does not mean he or she has the disease. Having a tuberculosis infection means that the T-B bacteria are in the body, but they may be inactive. VOICE ONE: After the T-B bacteria enter the body, the body’s defense system usually acts to surround them and prevent them from spreading. The immune system does this by building a wall around the bacteria similar to the way blood hardens around a cut on the skin. The bacteria can stay alive in an inactive condition inside these walls for many years. When T-B bacteria are inactive, they cannot damage the body. Also, they cannot spread to other people. People with inactive T-B bacteria are infected, but they are not sick. They probably do not know that they are infected. Millions of people have the T-B infection. For most of them, the bacteria will always be inactive. They will never suffer signs of tuberculosis. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: If the body’s defense system is weak, however, a person can get tuberculosis soon after the T-B bacteria enter the body. Also, inactive T-B bacteria may become active if the body’s immune system becomes weak. When this happens, the bacteria can break through the protective walls. Then they begin reproducing and damaging the lungs or other organs. When T-B bacteria become active, they can cause serious sickness. The inactive T-B bacteria can become active under several conditions. When a person becomes old, the immune system may become too weak to protect against the bacteria. A serious sickness can weaken the immune system enough to free the T-B bacteria. H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS, can cause T-B bacteria to become active. Also, doctors warn that people who use many illegal drugs or drink too much alcohol have a higher risk of becoming sick from the tuberculosis bacteria. VOICE ONE: T-B can attack any part of the body. However, the lungs are the most common target of the bacteria. People with the disease show several signs. They have a cough that continues for a long period of time. People with a more severe case of tuberculosis may cough up blood. People with the disease often suffer from high body temperatures. They suffer what are called night sweats, during which their bodies give off large amounts of water through the skin. T-B victims are also tired all the time. They are not interested in eating. So they lose weight. One thing that is especially dangerous about T-B is that people with moderate signs of the disease may not know they have it. They may spread the disease to others without even knowing it. So, it is very important for people to get tested for tuberculosis. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are several ways to test for T-B. The first is the Mantoux skin test. The test can identify most people infected with tuberculosis six to eight weeks after the bacteria entered their bodies. A substance called purified protein derivative is injected under the skin of the arm. The place of the injection is examined two to three days later. If a raised red area forms, the person may have been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, this does not always mean the disease is active. VOICE ONE: If the skin test shows that T-B bacteria have entered the body, doctors can use other methods to discover if the person has active T-B. However, this sometimes can be difficult because tuberculosis may appear similar to other diseases. Doctors must consider other physical signs. Also, they must decide if a person’s history shows that he or she has been in situations where tuberculosis was present. Doctors also use an X-ray examination to show if there is evidence of T-B infection, such as damage to the lungs. Another way to test for the presence of active tuberculosis is to examine the fluids from a person’s body, especially those taken from the mouth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: It is very important for doctors to identify which kind of T-B bacteria are present so they can decide which drugs to use to treat the disease. More than ninety percent of T-B cases can be cured with medicines. However, the death rate for untreated T-B patients is between forty and sixty percent. Successful treatment of T-B requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Patients must take medicine for six to twelve months to destroy all signs of the bacteria. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the T-B bacteria becoming resistant to drugs and growing stronger, more dangerous and more difficult to treat. Because of this, many doctors and other health care workers directly observe and supervise treatment of the disease in their patients. VOICE ONE: Experts say T-B is a preventable disease. In the United States, the goal of health organizations is to quickly identify infected people – especially those who have the highest risk of developing the disease. There are several drugs that can prevent tuberculosis in people who are at risk of becoming infected. These people include those who live or work closely with people who have T-B. Others at risk are people who are infected with tuberculosis bacteria but do not have the active disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to limit the spread of tuberculosis. All T-B patients must learn to cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze. It also is important to keep air flowing through rooms so that the T-B bacteria cannot gather and infect people. Also, ultraviolet light and other devices can be used to clean infectious bacteria from the air in closed rooms. Tuberculosis can be cured if it is discovered early and if patients take their medicine correctly. And, like other diseases, education and understanding are extremely important in preventing and curing T-B. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - July 9, 2002: Popcorn
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Americans love popcorn. They eat it at home, at sports events, and in movie theaters. Popcorn has smaller pieces or kernels than other kinds of corn. The kernels have a hard outside shell and a soft center. When the kernels are heated, the outside shells burst. The soft centers expand and become filled with air. The resulting popcorn looks like small, white balls of cotton. Corn grows on the parts of the plant commonly called “ears.” Corn, including popcorn, was developed in North and South America thousands of years ago.The oldest ears of popcorn were discovered in the American state of New Mexico. They were reported to be more than five-thousand years old. In Peru, scientists discovered one-thousand-year-old popcorn kernels in a human burial area. Early explorers to the Americas were the first Europeans to see popcorn. Four hundred years ago, French explorers saw members of the Iroquois native American tribe make popcorn with heated sand in a clay container. They said the Iroquois used popcorn to make a liquid food, or soup. The Europeans who settled in North America loved popcorn. Some colonial families ate popcorn with sugar and milk for their first meal of the day. In the United States, popcorn became very popular during the first part of the twentieth century. Large and small businesses sold popcorn wherever crowds gathered. Today, the United States produces almost all of the world’s popcorn. Farmers must choose the right time to harvest popcorn. It is best to delay harvesting until the corn is fully developed. However, farmers also must guard against corn plants falling down or becoming too wet. American farmers use machines to pick the ears of corn from the plants. After picking, the corn must be dried. There are different ways to dry and store popcorn for future use. Some growers like natural air-drying. Others use large machines. After drying, the corn is taken to a processing center. Machines remove the kernels from the ears. Separators and other equipment remove damaged kernels or other material. Then, the kernels are sent through machines that clean them. After that, the popcorn is prepared to be sent to stores. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Americans love popcorn. They eat it at home, at sports events, and in movie theaters. Popcorn has smaller pieces or kernels than other kinds of corn. The kernels have a hard outside shell and a soft center. When the kernels are heated, the outside shells burst. The soft centers expand and become filled with air. The resulting popcorn looks like small, white balls of cotton. Corn grows on the parts of the plant commonly called “ears.” Corn, including popcorn, was developed in North and South America thousands of years ago.The oldest ears of popcorn were discovered in the American state of New Mexico. They were reported to be more than five-thousand years old. In Peru, scientists discovered one-thousand-year-old popcorn kernels in a human burial area. Early explorers to the Americas were the first Europeans to see popcorn. Four hundred years ago, French explorers saw members of the Iroquois native American tribe make popcorn with heated sand in a clay container. They said the Iroquois used popcorn to make a liquid food, or soup. The Europeans who settled in North America loved popcorn. Some colonial families ate popcorn with sugar and milk for their first meal of the day. In the United States, popcorn became very popular during the first part of the twentieth century. Large and small businesses sold popcorn wherever crowds gathered. Today, the United States produces almost all of the world’s popcorn. Farmers must choose the right time to harvest popcorn. It is best to delay harvesting until the corn is fully developed. However, farmers also must guard against corn plants falling down or becoming too wet. American farmers use machines to pick the ears of corn from the plants. After picking, the corn must be dried. There are different ways to dry and store popcorn for future use. Some growers like natural air-drying. Others use large machines. After drying, the corn is taken to a processing center. Machines remove the kernels from the ears. Separators and other equipment remove damaged kernels or other material. Then, the kernels are sent through machines that clean them. After that, the popcorn is prepared to be sent to stores. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - July 10, 2002: Acrylamide in Fried Foods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Twenty-three international health experts say they are concerned about the possible health effects of a harmful chemical found in some popular foods. The experts made the announcement at the end of a recent meeting of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The W-H-O and the Food and Agriculture Organization called the meeting to examine the results of earlier studies of the chemical, acrylamide (a-KRILL-a-mide). Acrylamide causes cancer in laboratory animals. There is no proof that it causes cancer in humans. However, it is known to damage the human nervous system. In April, Swedish scientists found high levels of acrylamide in several kinds of carbohydrate foods that are fried or baked at high temperatures. They include French fried potatoes, potato chips, crackers, breakfast cereals and bread. Millions of people around the world eat these foods. Sweden’s National Food Administration tested more than one-hundred different kinds of carbohydrate foods. It found that a bag of potato chips contained five-hundred times more acrylamide than is considered safe by the W-H-O. Researchers also tested French fried potatoes from an American fast-food eating place. They found one-hundred times the safe limit of acrylamide. They also found high levels of the chemical in some cereals. Similar results were found in later studies done in Norway, Britain, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. These results led the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to call the meeting in Geneva. The experts at the meeting called the situation a serious problem. They urged the food industry to reduce levels of acrylamide in their products. But they said more study is needed to find out the risk from foods containing acrylamide. They want to create a group that will examine the results of all the studies from governments, universities and industries around the world. The scientists said they did not have enough information to warn people not to eat foods containing acrylamide. But they said people should eat a balanced diet with more fruits and vegetables and limited amounts of fatty and fried foods. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Twenty-three international health experts say they are concerned about the possible health effects of a harmful chemical found in some popular foods. The experts made the announcement at the end of a recent meeting of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The W-H-O and the Food and Agriculture Organization called the meeting to examine the results of earlier studies of the chemical, acrylamide (a-KRILL-a-mide). Acrylamide causes cancer in laboratory animals. There is no proof that it causes cancer in humans. However, it is known to damage the human nervous system. In April, Swedish scientists found high levels of acrylamide in several kinds of carbohydrate foods that are fried or baked at high temperatures. They include French fried potatoes, potato chips, crackers, breakfast cereals and bread. Millions of people around the world eat these foods. Sweden’s National Food Administration tested more than one-hundred different kinds of carbohydrate foods. It found that a bag of potato chips contained five-hundred times more acrylamide than is considered safe by the W-H-O. Researchers also tested French fried potatoes from an American fast-food eating place. They found one-hundred times the safe limit of acrylamide. They also found high levels of the chemical in some cereals. Similar results were found in later studies done in Norway, Britain, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. These results led the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to call the meeting in Geneva. The experts at the meeting called the situation a serious problem. They urged the food industry to reduce levels of acrylamide in their products. But they said more study is needed to find out the risk from foods containing acrylamide. They want to create a group that will examine the results of all the studies from governments, universities and industries around the world. The scientists said they did not have enough information to warn people not to eat foods containing acrylamide. But they said people should eat a balanced diet with more fruits and vegetables and limited amounts of fatty and fried foods. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 14, 2002: Frank and Jesse James
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: People in America, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: People in America, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Two of the most famous outlaws of the old American West were brothers. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Maurice Joyce and I tell about Frank and Jesse James. We begin their story on a cold day in February eighteen-sixty-six. VOICE 2: Liberty, Missouri. Two o'clock in the afternoon. ((Sound of horses)) Twelve men on horses ride slowly into town. Their hats are low on their faces. They stop in front of the Clay County Savings Bank. Two of the men get off their horses and enter the bank. The bank manager asks if he can help them. The two men pull out guns from under their heavy coats. They demand money. In less than two minutes, they return to the street. Now the gang is in a great hurry. All twelve men begin shooting. ((Gunshots, shouting, horse sounds) Several people are wounded. A young college student is killed. VOICE 1: What happened on that day was the first bank robbery, during business hours, in peacetime, in the United States. History books say the two men who went into the bank were Frank James and his younger brother Jesse. But this was never proved. Frank and Jesse James told lawmen they were home that day. Several of their friends confirmed the story. True or not, during the next sixteen years, the James brothers did become two of the most famous outlaws in America. VOICE 2: History experts say they robbed at least twelve banks, perhaps many more. They stopped seven trains, taking money from passengers and the United States Postal Service. They robbed as many as seven stagecoaches, the horse-pulled vehicles used back then as public transportation. They traveled from their home in Clay County, Missouri, to Minnesota in the north and to Texas in the west. Hundreds of lawmen hunted them. But the James brothers were never caught. Much later, their story was told in songs. (("Jesse James")) Who were Frank and Jesse James? Why were they so famous? VOICE 1: Frank and Jesse were the sons of Robert James, a religious minister who owned a farm in Clay County, Missouri. People who knew the family said the James boys were polite and friendly. At least until the time of America's Civil War. Many people in Missouri believed in the cause of the Southern, or Confederate, states during the Civil War. However, Missouri was on the border between the North and the South. Almost as many people there supported the Union as the Confederacy. Terrible fighting took place in Missouri and in other border states. Guerrilla groups from both sides were responsible for the fighting. VOICE 2: History experts say much of the violence in the American West was a result of the situation after the Civil War. Many former Confederate soldiers returned home, but did not put down their guns. They continued to fight what they saw as symbols of Northern oppression. These included banks and railroads. Many local people agreed with the former soldiers and supported them. A lack of government control in the West also led to increased violence after the war. Records show that violent crime increased at that time by as much as fifty percent. VOICE 1: Frank and Jesse James are perhaps the most famous examples of the soldier-turned-outlaw. During the Civil War, the James family suffered attacks by union guerrillas. As a way of fighting back, Frank and Jesse became Confederate guerrillas. They rode with two of the most violent guerrilla groups. After the war, they continued their violent ways. The James brothers were extremely successful. Their gang rode for sixteen years. Hundreds of government lawmen tried to catch them. Agents of the private Pinkerton National Detective Agency tried, too. But no one did. Most lawmen did not even know what the two brothers looked like. VOICE 2: Jesse James enjoyed being famous. He often wrote letters to newspapers denying that he was guilty of any crime. Once, he ate dinner with a well-known Pinkerton detective who was searching for him. The detective got a big surprise later when he opened a letter from Jesse James. Jesse said how much he enjoyed their dinner together. He also wished him "good luck"! Stories like this were printed in newspapers all over the country. They helped make the James brothers famous. People liked the stories. Those who had been robbed did not. Soon, large amounts of money were offered for the capture of Frank and Jesse James. The state of Missouri offered as much as ten-thousand dollars for the brothers ... dead or alive. VOICE 1: It was easy for the James brothers to hide in their home area. Yet most often they hid in large cities. Many years later, Frank James told reporters that it was easy to hide in a city, because everyone there looked like everybody else. When one place became too dangerous, the James brothers moved to another. That was one reason they decided to go to Minnesota. There they planned to rob the bank in the town of Northfield. Frank and Jesse rode to Northfield with six friends. Three of the friends were brothers: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. Like the James brothers, the Youngers were former Confederate guerrillas, now outlaws. VOICE 2: From the beginning, their attempted robbery of the bank in Northfield was a failure. First, when Jesse demanded money from bank workers, they said the safe could not be opened. Next, the gang decided to get out of town fast. But the people of Northfield knew something was wrong. Many had gone to their homes or offices for their guns. Then the shooting began. Two members of the gang were killed in town. Another was killed later. And Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were captured. Only two men escaped -- Frank and Jesse James. Frank was wounded, but he stayed on his horse. Lawmen chased him and his brother for more than a week before they lost their trail. In the years that followed, the James brothers tried again to form another gang. They were never very successful. ((cut 7: music bridge)) VOICE 1: In eighteen-eighty-two, Jesse James was living in Saint Joseph, Missouri, with his wife and children. People knew him as Mister Howard. One day, another outlaw, Bob Ford, shot him in the back of the head. He killed Jesse James for the money that had been offered for his capture. Bob Ford never collected the money. He was tried for murder, instead. Several months later, Frank James surrendered to the governor of Missouri. He was charged with several crimes and tried two times. Both juries refused to find him guilty. VOICE 2: Cole, Jim and Bob younger spent many years in prison for their part in the Northfield, Minnesota, raid. After Cole was released from prison, he and Frank James earned money by speaking to groups. They told about their days as outlaws -- and the evils of crime. Frank James lived to be seventy-two years old. He died in the same room in which he was born, on the James family farm in Clay County, Missouri. Today, that farmhouse is a museum that tells the story of the two most famous outlaws of the American West. ((music)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. (Theme) Two of the most famous outlaws of the old American West were brothers. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Maurice Joyce and I tell about Frank and Jesse James. We begin their story on a cold day in February eighteen-sixty-six. VOICE 2: Liberty, Missouri. Two o'clock in the afternoon. ((Sound of horses)) Twelve men on horses ride slowly into town. Their hats are low on their faces. They stop in front of the Clay County Savings Bank. Two of the men get off their horses and enter the bank. The bank manager asks if he can help them. The two men pull out guns from under their heavy coats. They demand money. In less than two minutes, they return to the street. Now the gang is in a great hurry. All twelve men begin shooting. ((Gunshots, shouting, horse sounds) Several people are wounded. A young college student is killed. VOICE 1: What happened on that day was the first bank robbery, during business hours, in peacetime, in the United States. History books say the two men who went into the bank were Frank James and his younger brother Jesse. But this was never proved. Frank and Jesse James told lawmen they were home that day. Several of their friends confirmed the story. True or not, during the next sixteen years, the James brothers did become two of the most famous outlaws in America. VOICE 2: History experts say they robbed at least twelve banks, perhaps many more. They stopped seven trains, taking money from passengers and the United States Postal Service. They robbed as many as seven stagecoaches, the horse-pulled vehicles used back then as public transportation. They traveled from their home in Clay County, Missouri, to Minnesota in the north and to Texas in the west. Hundreds of lawmen hunted them. But the James brothers were never caught. Much later, their story was told in songs. (("Jesse James")) Who were Frank and Jesse James? Why were they so famous? VOICE 1: Frank and Jesse were the sons of Robert James, a religious minister who owned a farm in Clay County, Missouri. People who knew the family said the James boys were polite and friendly. At least until the time of America's Civil War. Many people in Missouri believed in the cause of the Southern, or Confederate, states during the Civil War. However, Missouri was on the border between the North and the South. Almost as many people there supported the Union as the Confederacy. Terrible fighting took place in Missouri and in other border states. Guerrilla groups from both sides were responsible for the fighting. VOICE 2: History experts say much of the violence in the American West was a result of the situation after the Civil War. Many former Confederate soldiers returned home, but did not put down their guns. They continued to fight what they saw as symbols of Northern oppression. These included banks and railroads. Many local people agreed with the former soldiers and supported them. A lack of government control in the West also led to increased violence after the war. Records show that violent crime increased at that time by as much as fifty percent. VOICE 1: Frank and Jesse James are perhaps the most famous examples of the soldier-turned-outlaw. During the Civil War, the James family suffered attacks by union guerrillas. As a way of fighting back, Frank and Jesse became Confederate guerrillas. They rode with two of the most violent guerrilla groups. After the war, they continued their violent ways. The James brothers were extremely successful. Their gang rode for sixteen years. Hundreds of government lawmen tried to catch them. Agents of the private Pinkerton National Detective Agency tried, too. But no one did. Most lawmen did not even know what the two brothers looked like. VOICE 2: Jesse James enjoyed being famous. He often wrote letters to newspapers denying that he was guilty of any crime. Once, he ate dinner with a well-known Pinkerton detective who was searching for him. The detective got a big surprise later when he opened a letter from Jesse James. Jesse said how much he enjoyed their dinner together. He also wished him "good luck"! Stories like this were printed in newspapers all over the country. They helped make the James brothers famous. People liked the stories. Those who had been robbed did not. Soon, large amounts of money were offered for the capture of Frank and Jesse James. The state of Missouri offered as much as ten-thousand dollars for the brothers ... dead or alive. VOICE 1: It was easy for the James brothers to hide in their home area. Yet most often they hid in large cities. Many years later, Frank James told reporters that it was easy to hide in a city, because everyone there looked like everybody else. When one place became too dangerous, the James brothers moved to another. That was one reason they decided to go to Minnesota. There they planned to rob the bank in the town of Northfield. Frank and Jesse rode to Northfield with six friends. Three of the friends were brothers: Cole, Jim and Bob Younger. Like the James brothers, the Youngers were former Confederate guerrillas, now outlaws. VOICE 2: From the beginning, their attempted robbery of the bank in Northfield was a failure. First, when Jesse demanded money from bank workers, they said the safe could not be opened. Next, the gang decided to get out of town fast. But the people of Northfield knew something was wrong. Many had gone to their homes or offices for their guns. Then the shooting began. Two members of the gang were killed in town. Another was killed later. And Cole, Jim and Bob Younger were captured. Only two men escaped -- Frank and Jesse James. Frank was wounded, but he stayed on his horse. Lawmen chased him and his brother for more than a week before they lost their trail. In the years that followed, the James brothers tried again to form another gang. They were never very successful. ((cut 7: music bridge)) VOICE 1: In eighteen-eighty-two, Jesse James was living in Saint Joseph, Missouri, with his wife and children. People knew him as Mister Howard. One day, another outlaw, Bob Ford, shot him in the back of the head. He killed Jesse James for the money that had been offered for his capture. Bob Ford never collected the money. He was tried for murder, instead. Several months later, Frank James surrendered to the governor of Missouri. He was charged with several crimes and tried two times. Both juries refused to find him guilty. VOICE 2: Cole, Jim and Bob younger spent many years in prison for their part in the Northfield, Minnesota, raid. After Cole was released from prison, he and Frank James earned money by speaking to groups. They told about their days as outlaws -- and the evils of crime. Frank James lived to be seventy-two years old. He died in the same room in which he was born, on the James family farm in Clay County, Missouri. Today, that farmhouse is a museum that tells the story of the two most famous outlaws of the American West. ((music)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 10, 2002: National Museum of the American Indian
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about plans for the new Museum of the American Indian. It will open in two-thousand-four near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: “This museum is being given birth, not being planned … The land where it will sit has a spirit … This museum has to be connected not only to us, but to our children.” These are the words of a Hopi Indian talking about the new National Museum of the American Indian. The building is rising along the National Mall in the center of Washington, D.C. The museum is to be a gathering place for living cultures. Its goal is to save, study and show the life, languages, history and arts of the Native people of North, Central and South America. The most important words in the museum’s goal are “living cultures.” Museums usually are storehouses of objects from the past. Museum experts and scientists are responsible for explaining and describing objects in the museums. This museum will show American Indian objects from the past, and also from the present. The explanations about the meaning and importance of the objects will be provided by Native people. Members of these living cultures are playing an important part in creating the new museum and deciding what will be shown to the public and how it will be shown. VOICE TWO: Richard West has been the director of the Museum of the American Indian since nineteen-ninety. He is a member of the southern Cheyenne tribe. Mister West says the museum will show the success of Native people in keeping their way of life and overcoming pressures against them. He says it “will be a place to show and tell the world who we are and to use our own voices in the telling.” Building the museum in the very heart of the nation’s capital represents a kind of cultural justice. It is considered a sign of a long delayed cooperation between people whose ancestors came to these shores and people who were already here. VOICE ONE: The National Museum of the American Indian contains about eight-hundred-thousand objects. They are from the collection of one man, American businessman George Gustav Heye (HIGH). He spent the first fifty years of the last century gathering American Indian objects to create one of the largest collections in the world. The material he collected from the far northern Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America has great artistic, historic and cultural meaning. In nineteen-twenty-two, the Heye Foundation opened a private museum in New York City to show the collection. However, the museum had space to show the public only a small part of the collection. The foundation did not have enough money to expand the museum or to correctly care for the huge number of objects being stored. After years of negotiations, agreement was reached to make the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian part of the Smithsonian Institution. Congress passed legislation approving the move in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. In nineteen-ninety-four, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian opened in the old Custom House in New York City. It is one of the most visited museums in New York. It will continue to offer major exhibits and public programs. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Thomas Sweeney is the head of public relations for the National Museum of the American Indian. He says tribal representatives from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America were asked for their ideas about the new building. Their suggestions were recorded in a guide called “The Way of the People.” They said the building needed roundness, light and open space, natural materials, water and plants. The finished design includes all this. The building will cover only about twenty-five percent of the two hectares of land that surrounds it. It will fit into the setting on the Mall, yet show traditional American Indian values. The outside wall is made of different size blocks of gray limestone. It looks like waves of stone. The wall seems to flow as if formed by wind and water. Glass window areas extend the length of the stone wall to provide light and a connection between inside and out. VOICE ONE: The main entrance to the building faces east, like the doorway in a traditional American Indian home. The building will be surrounded by trees like those from a local hardwood forest and a grassy area called a meadow. Native American crops – beans, corn and squash – will be grown. Water will be very much a part of the building’s surroundings. It will flow over and around some huge rocks and continue down to a small, round lake area. The rocks are called grandfather rocks. They show the respect of Native Americans for ancient things that existed in the area long before people arrived. VOICE TWO: Visitors to the museum will enter a large central circular space. It has a rounded top more than thirty-three meters up that is similar to the dome of the nearby Capitol building. This area is called Potomac, which in the native local language means, ”place where the goods are brought in.” Live demonstrations like canoe building, story telling, music, and dance will take place here. The public will be able to experience the living traditions and skills of Native people. VOICE ONE: The exhibition areas are called Our Universes, Our Peoples and Our Lives. Our Universes explores Native peoples’ theories about the world around them and their spiritual worlds. It will contain objects and stories to educate visitors about the values and beliefs of eight different native cultures. In Our Peoples, twelve different Native communities will present their tribal histories. They will choose the objects, pictures, songs and other materials from the museum’s collections to tell about their past and their present. Our Lives will examine the differences among Native cultures. It will look at relationships in the family and community. VOICE TWO: The new Museum of the American Indian will have two theaters. In the performing arts theater, three-hundred people will be able to watch Native dance theater and other performances. The other theater will show a film explaining the museum. Hungry visitors will be able buy food at the Mitsitam (MIT-zi-tom) Café, whose name in the local Indian language means, “Let’s eat.” Handmade Native arts and crafts, books and games will be sold in the museum’s gift shop. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Another important part of the National Museum of the American Indian is the Cultural Resources Center. It opened in nineteen-ninety-eight in Suitland, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. The Heye collection is being moved from the place where it is stored in New York City to the new center. In preparation for the five-year move, museum employees began to develop a record of the condition and description of everything in the collection. The Cultural Resources Center is designed to honor the wishes of Native people about how they want the objects cared for and protected. Native and non-Native people can do research there. And training will be given to people who work in tribal museums. VOICE TWO: The resources building itself shows a Native desire to connect architecture to the environment. The roofline and the walls suggest forms commonly found in nature such as a spider web, a butterfly wing and a shell. Thomas Sweeney says the resources center helps both tribal communities and museum employees. Tribal members visit the center to share their stories about the meaning and use of tribal objects. These stories educate non-Natives, sometimes correcting theories developed years ago by collectors and non-tribal people. VOICE ONE: One of the most important parts of the new National Museum of the American Indian is called the Fourth Museum. This is not a physical structure. It is the Community Services office, a link between the museum and Native communities throughout North and South America. Native people have been employed to work with individuals, communities and organizations to develop museum programs. They are creating travelling exhibits, educational materials and an Internet Web site. The address is www.americanindian.si.edu. The National Museum of the American Indian will use these to inform people around the world about the living native cultures of the Americas. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about plans for the new Museum of the American Indian. It will open in two-thousand-four near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: “This museum is being given birth, not being planned … The land where it will sit has a spirit … This museum has to be connected not only to us, but to our children.” These are the words of a Hopi Indian talking about the new National Museum of the American Indian. The building is rising along the National Mall in the center of Washington, D.C. The museum is to be a gathering place for living cultures. Its goal is to save, study and show the life, languages, history and arts of the Native people of North, Central and South America. The most important words in the museum’s goal are “living cultures.” Museums usually are storehouses of objects from the past. Museum experts and scientists are responsible for explaining and describing objects in the museums. This museum will show American Indian objects from the past, and also from the present. The explanations about the meaning and importance of the objects will be provided by Native people. Members of these living cultures are playing an important part in creating the new museum and deciding what will be shown to the public and how it will be shown. VOICE TWO: Richard West has been the director of the Museum of the American Indian since nineteen-ninety. He is a member of the southern Cheyenne tribe. Mister West says the museum will show the success of Native people in keeping their way of life and overcoming pressures against them. He says it “will be a place to show and tell the world who we are and to use our own voices in the telling.” Building the museum in the very heart of the nation’s capital represents a kind of cultural justice. It is considered a sign of a long delayed cooperation between people whose ancestors came to these shores and people who were already here. VOICE ONE: The National Museum of the American Indian contains about eight-hundred-thousand objects. They are from the collection of one man, American businessman George Gustav Heye (HIGH). He spent the first fifty years of the last century gathering American Indian objects to create one of the largest collections in the world. The material he collected from the far northern Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America has great artistic, historic and cultural meaning. In nineteen-twenty-two, the Heye Foundation opened a private museum in New York City to show the collection. However, the museum had space to show the public only a small part of the collection. The foundation did not have enough money to expand the museum or to correctly care for the huge number of objects being stored. After years of negotiations, agreement was reached to make the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian part of the Smithsonian Institution. Congress passed legislation approving the move in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. In nineteen-ninety-four, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian opened in the old Custom House in New York City. It is one of the most visited museums in New York. It will continue to offer major exhibits and public programs. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Thomas Sweeney is the head of public relations for the National Museum of the American Indian. He says tribal representatives from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America were asked for their ideas about the new building. Their suggestions were recorded in a guide called “The Way of the People.” They said the building needed roundness, light and open space, natural materials, water and plants. The finished design includes all this. The building will cover only about twenty-five percent of the two hectares of land that surrounds it. It will fit into the setting on the Mall, yet show traditional American Indian values. The outside wall is made of different size blocks of gray limestone. It looks like waves of stone. The wall seems to flow as if formed by wind and water. Glass window areas extend the length of the stone wall to provide light and a connection between inside and out. VOICE ONE: The main entrance to the building faces east, like the doorway in a traditional American Indian home. The building will be surrounded by trees like those from a local hardwood forest and a grassy area called a meadow. Native American crops – beans, corn and squash – will be grown. Water will be very much a part of the building’s surroundings. It will flow over and around some huge rocks and continue down to a small, round lake area. The rocks are called grandfather rocks. They show the respect of Native Americans for ancient things that existed in the area long before people arrived. VOICE TWO: Visitors to the museum will enter a large central circular space. It has a rounded top more than thirty-three meters up that is similar to the dome of the nearby Capitol building. This area is called Potomac, which in the native local language means, ”place where the goods are brought in.” Live demonstrations like canoe building, story telling, music, and dance will take place here. The public will be able to experience the living traditions and skills of Native people. VOICE ONE: The exhibition areas are called Our Universes, Our Peoples and Our Lives. Our Universes explores Native peoples’ theories about the world around them and their spiritual worlds. It will contain objects and stories to educate visitors about the values and beliefs of eight different native cultures. In Our Peoples, twelve different Native communities will present their tribal histories. They will choose the objects, pictures, songs and other materials from the museum’s collections to tell about their past and their present. Our Lives will examine the differences among Native cultures. It will look at relationships in the family and community. VOICE TWO: The new Museum of the American Indian will have two theaters. In the performing arts theater, three-hundred people will be able to watch Native dance theater and other performances. The other theater will show a film explaining the museum. Hungry visitors will be able buy food at the Mitsitam (MIT-zi-tom) Café, whose name in the local Indian language means, “Let’s eat.” Handmade Native arts and crafts, books and games will be sold in the museum’s gift shop. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Another important part of the National Museum of the American Indian is the Cultural Resources Center. It opened in nineteen-ninety-eight in Suitland, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. The Heye collection is being moved from the place where it is stored in New York City to the new center. In preparation for the five-year move, museum employees began to develop a record of the condition and description of everything in the collection. The Cultural Resources Center is designed to honor the wishes of Native people about how they want the objects cared for and protected. Native and non-Native people can do research there. And training will be given to people who work in tribal museums. VOICE TWO: The resources building itself shows a Native desire to connect architecture to the environment. The roofline and the walls suggest forms commonly found in nature such as a spider web, a butterfly wing and a shell. Thomas Sweeney says the resources center helps both tribal communities and museum employees. Tribal members visit the center to share their stories about the meaning and use of tribal objects. These stories educate non-Natives, sometimes correcting theories developed years ago by collectors and non-tribal people. VOICE ONE: One of the most important parts of the new National Museum of the American Indian is called the Fourth Museum. This is not a physical structure. It is the Community Services office, a link between the museum and Native communities throughout North and South America. Native people have been employed to work with individuals, communities and organizations to develop museum programs. They are creating travelling exhibits, educational materials and an Internet Web site. The address is www.americanindian.si.edu. The National Museum of the American Indian will use these to inform people around the world about the living native cultures of the Americas. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 11, 2002: Post-War Economy / Berlin Airlift
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The surrender of Japan in August nineteen-forty-five ended the Second World War. Americans looked to their new president, Harry Truman of the state of Missouri, to lead them into a new period of peace. No one expected President Truman to be as strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt had been. And at first, they were right. Truman had one problem after another during his first months in the White House. VOICE 2: Truman's first big problem was the economy. In the days after the war ended, almost two-million Americans lost their jobs as arms factories closed. Americans everywhere worried about what would happen next. Only a few years before, the nation had suffered through the worst economic crisis in American history. No one wanted to return to the closed banks, hungry children, and other sad memories of the Great Depression. In some ways, the economy did better than experts hoped. The gross national product dropped only a small amount. Many Americans still had money they had saved during the war. And Congress passed a law to help people to keep their jobs. The situation could have been much worse than it was. VOICE 1: However, the economy also could have been better. Much better. Suddenly, almost overnight, the price of everything began to rise. Clothes that cost five or six dollars yesterday now cost ten to fifteen dollars. Used automobile tires sold for the surprisingly high price of twenty dollars. President Truman tried to stop the increases through a special price control agency that had been created during the war. However, people by the thousands refused to follow the government price control rules. Instead, they set their own prices for goods. VOICE 2: Store owners would tell government officials that they were still obeying the price rules. But often they charged whatever they wanted for goods. A meat salesman, for example, might say there was no good meat that day. But for three dollars extra, he would suddenly find a thick piece of meat to sell. A car salesman would sell his cars at the controlled price. But he might insist that the buyers also buy his dog for five-hundred dollars. And his dog would return home that night. VOICE 1: It was not just store owners who were charging more and refusing to obey government price rules. It was also the woman who rented a house to a young family. The farmer selling food. And finally, most importantly, it was organized labor. President Truman had always been a friend of labor unions. But during the first months of his administration, he became involved in a fierce struggle with coal miners and railroad workers. VOICE 2: The first sign of trouble came in September, nineteen-forty-five. A group of workers closed down automobile factories at the Ford company. Then, workers at the general motors auto company went on strike. Soon there were strikes everywhere. Workers went on strike in the oil industry, the clothing industry, the wood-cutting industry, and the electrical industry. The strikes made Truman angry. He believed the striking workers were threatening the economy and security of the United States. He got even angrier when representatives of striking steel and railroad workers came to the White House and refused to accept a compromise wage offer. "You are crazy," Truman told the union leader, "if you think I am going to sit here and let you stop this whole country." VOICE 1: Truman ordered government forces to take over the railroads and the coal mines. And within a short time, the striking coal miners returned to work. However, the president had less success with the railroad workers. He became so angry with them that he asked Congress to give him the power to draft all striking rail workers into the armed forces. The rail strike finally ended. But millions of Americans lost faith in Truman's ability to lead the country, to bring people together, and end disputes peacefully. VOICE 2: By late nineteen-forty-six, most Americans believed that the man in the White House did not know what he was doing. Truman seemed weak and unable to control events. Union members disliked him because of his violent opposition to the coal and rail strikes. Farmers opposed Truman because of the administration's effort to keep meat prices low. Conservatives did not trust the reforms that Truman promised in his speeches. And liberal Democrats watched with worry as many old advisers of Franklin Roosevelt left the government because they could not work well with Truman. VOICE 1: In November, nineteen-forty-six, the people voted in congressional and state elections. The results showed they were not satisfied with Truman and the Democratic Party. Republicans won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in eighteen years. And Republicans were elected governor in twenty-five states. The election was a serious defeat for the Democrats. But it was a disaster for Truman. Some members of his party even called on him to resign. Few people gave Truman much chance of winning a second term in the White House. However, Harry Truman began to change in the months that followed. He started speaking with more strength and firmness. He showed more understanding of the powers of the presidency. And in matters of foreign policy, he began to act more like a president. This was especially true in Truman's reaction to Soviet aggression in Germany. VOICE 2: Truman wanted to rebuild Germany, as well as the other countries of western Europe. His administration worked closely with west European leaders to rescue their broken economies through the Marshall Plan. But the Soviets did not want to see Germany rebuild, at least not so quickly. So at first, they flooded Germany with extra German currency in an effort to destroy the value of the German mark. They walked out of economic conferences. And finally, in early nineteen-forty-eight, they blocked all the roads to Berlin to try to cut off the city from the western powers. VOICE 1: The Soviet actions were a direct threat to the west. Truman had three difficult choices. If he did nothing, the world would think the United States was weak and unable to stop Soviet aggression. If he fought the blockade with armed force, he might start a third world war. But there was another choice. That was to fly supplies to the city. The American military commander in Germany proposed the idea of dropping thousands of kilograms of food, fuel, and other goods to the people of Berlin by parachute. Not just once, but every day, as long as the Russians continued their blockade. VOICE 2: It would be a difficult job. West Berlin was home to two-and-a-half-million people. No one had ever tried to supply so large a city by air. Large C-forty-seven transport airplanes would have to take off every three-and-a-half-minutes all through the day and night, every day, to supply the people of Berlin with enough food. The people of Berlin gave needed support from the ground. More than twenty-thousand Berliners worked day and night to build an extra landing field for the American airplanes. It was not long before it became clear that the American air rescue would succeed. West Berlin would remain free of Soviet control. The Russians soon understood this fact, too. In may of nineteen-forty-nine, almost one year after they had started their blockade, they ended it. VOICE 1: The crisis in Berlin changed the way many Americans saw their president. Harry Truman no longer seemed so weak or unsure of himself. Instead, he was acting as a leader who could take an active part in world affairs. Truman's popularity increased. However, most Americans did not expect him to win the presidential election in nineteen-forty-eight. Almost everyone believed that the Republican candidate would capture the office. The election campaign that year turned out to be one of the most exciting and surprising in the entire history of the nation. That nineteen-forty-eight election will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. (Theme) The surrender of Japan in August nineteen-forty-five ended the Second World War. Americans looked to their new president, Harry Truman of the state of Missouri, to lead them into a new period of peace. No one expected President Truman to be as strong a leader as Franklin Roosevelt had been. And at first, they were right. Truman had one problem after another during his first months in the White House. VOICE 2: Truman's first big problem was the economy. In the days after the war ended, almost two-million Americans lost their jobs as arms factories closed. Americans everywhere worried about what would happen next. Only a few years before, the nation had suffered through the worst economic crisis in American history. No one wanted to return to the closed banks, hungry children, and other sad memories of the Great Depression. In some ways, the economy did better than experts hoped. The gross national product dropped only a small amount. Many Americans still had money they had saved during the war. And Congress passed a law to help people to keep their jobs. The situation could have been much worse than it was. VOICE 1: However, the economy also could have been better. Much better. Suddenly, almost overnight, the price of everything began to rise. Clothes that cost five or six dollars yesterday now cost ten to fifteen dollars. Used automobile tires sold for the surprisingly high price of twenty dollars. President Truman tried to stop the increases through a special price control agency that had been created during the war. However, people by the thousands refused to follow the government price control rules. Instead, they set their own prices for goods. VOICE 2: Store owners would tell government officials that they were still obeying the price rules. But often they charged whatever they wanted for goods. A meat salesman, for example, might say there was no good meat that day. But for three dollars extra, he would suddenly find a thick piece of meat to sell. A car salesman would sell his cars at the controlled price. But he might insist that the buyers also buy his dog for five-hundred dollars. And his dog would return home that night. VOICE 1: It was not just store owners who were charging more and refusing to obey government price rules. It was also the woman who rented a house to a young family. The farmer selling food. And finally, most importantly, it was organized labor. President Truman had always been a friend of labor unions. But during the first months of his administration, he became involved in a fierce struggle with coal miners and railroad workers. VOICE 2: The first sign of trouble came in September, nineteen-forty-five. A group of workers closed down automobile factories at the Ford company. Then, workers at the general motors auto company went on strike. Soon there were strikes everywhere. Workers went on strike in the oil industry, the clothing industry, the wood-cutting industry, and the electrical industry. The strikes made Truman angry. He believed the striking workers were threatening the economy and security of the United States. He got even angrier when representatives of striking steel and railroad workers came to the White House and refused to accept a compromise wage offer. "You are crazy," Truman told the union leader, "if you think I am going to sit here and let you stop this whole country." VOICE 1: Truman ordered government forces to take over the railroads and the coal mines. And within a short time, the striking coal miners returned to work. However, the president had less success with the railroad workers. He became so angry with them that he asked Congress to give him the power to draft all striking rail workers into the armed forces. The rail strike finally ended. But millions of Americans lost faith in Truman's ability to lead the country, to bring people together, and end disputes peacefully. VOICE 2: By late nineteen-forty-six, most Americans believed that the man in the White House did not know what he was doing. Truman seemed weak and unable to control events. Union members disliked him because of his violent opposition to the coal and rail strikes. Farmers opposed Truman because of the administration's effort to keep meat prices low. Conservatives did not trust the reforms that Truman promised in his speeches. And liberal Democrats watched with worry as many old advisers of Franklin Roosevelt left the government because they could not work well with Truman. VOICE 1: In November, nineteen-forty-six, the people voted in congressional and state elections. The results showed they were not satisfied with Truman and the Democratic Party. Republicans won control of both houses of Congress for the first time in eighteen years. And Republicans were elected governor in twenty-five states. The election was a serious defeat for the Democrats. But it was a disaster for Truman. Some members of his party even called on him to resign. Few people gave Truman much chance of winning a second term in the White House. However, Harry Truman began to change in the months that followed. He started speaking with more strength and firmness. He showed more understanding of the powers of the presidency. And in matters of foreign policy, he began to act more like a president. This was especially true in Truman's reaction to Soviet aggression in Germany. VOICE 2: Truman wanted to rebuild Germany, as well as the other countries of western Europe. His administration worked closely with west European leaders to rescue their broken economies through the Marshall Plan. But the Soviets did not want to see Germany rebuild, at least not so quickly. So at first, they flooded Germany with extra German currency in an effort to destroy the value of the German mark. They walked out of economic conferences. And finally, in early nineteen-forty-eight, they blocked all the roads to Berlin to try to cut off the city from the western powers. VOICE 1: The Soviet actions were a direct threat to the west. Truman had three difficult choices. If he did nothing, the world would think the United States was weak and unable to stop Soviet aggression. If he fought the blockade with armed force, he might start a third world war. But there was another choice. That was to fly supplies to the city. The American military commander in Germany proposed the idea of dropping thousands of kilograms of food, fuel, and other goods to the people of Berlin by parachute. Not just once, but every day, as long as the Russians continued their blockade. VOICE 2: It would be a difficult job. West Berlin was home to two-and-a-half-million people. No one had ever tried to supply so large a city by air. Large C-forty-seven transport airplanes would have to take off every three-and-a-half-minutes all through the day and night, every day, to supply the people of Berlin with enough food. The people of Berlin gave needed support from the ground. More than twenty-thousand Berliners worked day and night to build an extra landing field for the American airplanes. It was not long before it became clear that the American air rescue would succeed. West Berlin would remain free of Soviet control. The Russians soon understood this fact, too. In may of nineteen-forty-nine, almost one year after they had started their blockade, they ended it. VOICE 1: The crisis in Berlin changed the way many Americans saw their president. Harry Truman no longer seemed so weak or unsure of himself. Instead, he was acting as a leader who could take an active part in world affairs. Truman's popularity increased. However, most Americans did not expect him to win the presidential election in nineteen-forty-eight. Almost everyone believed that the Republican candidate would capture the office. The election campaign that year turned out to be one of the most exciting and surprising in the entire history of the nation. That nineteen-forty-eight election will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – July 11, 2002: School Vouchers
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States Supreme Court has made an important decision about American education. Last month, the court ruled that poor parents can receive public money to send their children to private schools. These include religious schools. Under this voucher program, the government helps parents send their children to schools that require payment. American public schools are free. President Bush called the Supreme Court decision a great victory for American students and parents. He says it provides children from poor families an equal chance for a good education. The American Constitution requires the separation of church and state. Five of the nine Supreme Court judges ruled that an educational voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio, is constitutional. The majority decision said vouchers are acceptable because parents choose which school their child will attend. The government does not. The government provides only financial aid. Parents in the Cleveland voucher program can receive up to about two-thousand dollars. Critics say this means that most families choose religious schools because they cost less than other private schools. Almost all of the children in the Cleveland voucher program attend religious schools. The Ohio legislature enacted the voucher program in Cleveland after a federal court placed the city’s schools under state control. The court did so because the schools were not providing students with a good education.Supporters of school vouchers say the public school system is not helping millions of minority children in big cities. Many parents whose children attend poor quality schools support vouchers. However, public school teachers and others oppose the voucher system. They say it is wrong to take needed government money from public schools. They believe public schools should be supported and improved. Several other American cities have voucher programs. However, at least twenty-six state legislatures have rejected proposals for voucher programs. Voters in several states also have rejected the use of school vouchers. And recent opinion studies show that a majority of Americans approve of the nation’s public schools. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: July 11, 2002 - Getting a Job, Part 1: Resume and Cover Letter
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: July 11, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 14, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: It's a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps people find jobs. She says the first step is to draft a short resume -- no more than two pages. ARMSTRONG: "It should be customized to the company or position you're going for. By that I mean it should use the lingo of the industry. It should be clear and targeted, easy to read, on good bond paper, and it should be perfect. There should be no spelling and no grammar mistakes. So you should use spell check and then have two or three friends at a minimum review it before you send it out." RS: "You say 'customized.' How do you know that language, the language of the company?" ARMSTRONG: "If it isn't your industry, you talk to people, you do informational interviews, you read their reports, you get your hands on everything that you can that would give you any type of information that will lead you to a good cover letter and resume." RS: "How do you structure a resume? What sections are necessary in a resume?" ARMSTRONG: "I think the first thing that I'm seeing in a lot of good resumes, the very first area that you would have, is called a qualifications summary, where you identify three or four important skills that you have that will be appealing to the new employer." AA: "Give us an example." ARMSTRONG: "I actually wrote one. Let's say someone is going for a project manager job. The summary up at the very top would read: 'Project manager skilled at coordinating complex information management projects; proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships; proficient at negotiating vendor contacts; particularly adept at analyzing information for patterns and trends and summarizing complex issues concisely; can-do attitude.' "So in the first couple of seconds an employer is going to read the top of that and then they're going to know whether they should continue to read. So you want to grab them right away with something strong." RS: "What other sections should follow?" ARMSTRONG: "Right after the qualifications summary, I would do work experience, unless you just recently completed a degree, in which case you want to probably highlight your education. But I would do the experience, then the education, then skills -- either computer skills or interpersonal skills -- and then a tag line at the bottom about references, just to kind of close it and end it." AA: "Should you include references, or do you just put the standard 'references upon request.'" ARMSTRONG: "I would put the standard, quite honestly, because again this is the resume first going out, you don't know even if there's interest." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about a cover letter." ARMSTRONG: "Should be no more than one page, it should be addressed to a specific person. It shouldn't be a 'to whom it may concern.' So you should have title for the person and the correct spelling of their name -- people are very sensitive about that -- and the company name correctly spelled as well. In the cover letter you should come right to the point, identify the position that you're interested it, how you heard about it." AA: "Now what are some things to avoid?" ARMSTRONG: "Ones that go on and on, two or three pages -- avoid that. Ones that reiterate what's in the resume." AA: "Do you begin with 'greetings' -- what works?" ARMSTRONG: "I think you go right to the point: 'Dear Mister Smith, I recently heard of your opening,' and then you go on. In fact, I did bring a sample one for you: 'I'm applying for the Web developer position that was advertised in the local paper this week. The position seems to fit very well with my education, experience and career interests. Your position requires skills in various types of programming and software used in Web development. My academic program in computer studies emphasized ... 'And then you go on to indicate exactly what is targeted, not only in your academic program but also in your work experience. 'My enclosed resume provides more details on my qualifications. My background and career goals seem to match your job requirements well. I'm confidant that I can perform the job effectively.' "And then (add) a little assertiveness at the end. Telling me they're going to give me a call, asking me specifically or an interview, telling me in clear terms how to reach them and when to reach them, either by e-mail or by phone, and good times to reach them. And I would also customize it by doing some research about the company, so that each letter cannot be just a cookie-cutter approach. It has to be a specific letter to that specific company. People rarely do that, and it makes such a difference." AA: "And the language to use -- plain, simple English?" ARMSTRONG: "That's a good point, Avi, because people will write it in a very stilted way that they would never talk. It's so odd, you know, 'attached please find my ... ' You say 'enclosed is my resume.' Or just something that is a normal way that you would talk." RS: Sharon Armstrong is a consultant in Washington. She calls her business Human Resources 9-1-1. Nine-one-one is the telephone number Americans call in an emergency. Next week Ms. Armstrong will walk us through a job interview. AA: You'll find today's program, plus our archives, on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on Coast to Coast: July 11, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 14, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: It's a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps people find jobs. She says the first step is to draft a short resume -- no more than two pages. ARMSTRONG: "It should be customized to the company or position you're going for. By that I mean it should use the lingo of the industry. It should be clear and targeted, easy to read, on good bond paper, and it should be perfect. There should be no spelling and no grammar mistakes. So you should use spell check and then have two or three friends at a minimum review it before you send it out." RS: "You say 'customized.' How do you know that language, the language of the company?" ARMSTRONG: "If it isn't your industry, you talk to people, you do informational interviews, you read their reports, you get your hands on everything that you can that would give you any type of information that will lead you to a good cover letter and resume." RS: "How do you structure a resume? What sections are necessary in a resume?" ARMSTRONG: "I think the first thing that I'm seeing in a lot of good resumes, the very first area that you would have, is called a qualifications summary, where you identify three or four important skills that you have that will be appealing to the new employer." AA: "Give us an example." ARMSTRONG: "I actually wrote one. Let's say someone is going for a project manager job. The summary up at the very top would read: 'Project manager skilled at coordinating complex information management projects; proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships; proficient at negotiating vendor contacts; particularly adept at analyzing information for patterns and trends and summarizing complex issues concisely; can-do attitude.' "So in the first couple of seconds an employer is going to read the top of that and then they're going to know whether they should continue to read. So you want to grab them right away with something strong." RS: "What other sections should follow?" ARMSTRONG: "Right after the qualifications summary, I would do work experience, unless you just recently completed a degree, in which case you want to probably highlight your education. But I would do the experience, then the education, then skills -- either computer skills or interpersonal skills -- and then a tag line at the bottom about references, just to kind of close it and end it." AA: "Should you include references, or do you just put the standard 'references upon request.'" ARMSTRONG: "I would put the standard, quite honestly, because again this is the resume first going out, you don't know even if there's interest." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about a cover letter." ARMSTRONG: "Should be no more than one page, it should be addressed to a specific person. It shouldn't be a 'to whom it may concern.' So you should have title for the person and the correct spelling of their name -- people are very sensitive about that -- and the company name correctly spelled as well. In the cover letter you should come right to the point, identify the position that you're interested it, how you heard about it." AA: "Now what are some things to avoid?" ARMSTRONG: "Ones that go on and on, two or three pages -- avoid that. Ones that reiterate what's in the resume." AA: "Do you begin with 'greetings' -- what works?" ARMSTRONG: "I think you go right to the point: 'Dear Mister Smith, I recently heard of your opening,' and then you go on. In fact, I did bring a sample one for you: 'I'm applying for the Web developer position that was advertised in the local paper this week. The position seems to fit very well with my education, experience and career interests. Your position requires skills in various types of programming and software used in Web development. My academic program in computer studies emphasized ... 'And then you go on to indicate exactly what is targeted, not only in your academic program but also in your work experience. 'My enclosed resume provides more details on my qualifications. My background and career goals seem to match your job requirements well. I'm confidant that I can perform the job effectively.' "And then (add) a little assertiveness at the end. Telling me they're going to give me a call, asking me specifically or an interview, telling me in clear terms how to reach them and when to reach them, either by e-mail or by phone, and good times to reach them. And I would also customize it by doing some research about the company, so that each letter cannot be just a cookie-cutter approach. It has to be a specific letter to that specific company. People rarely do that, and it makes such a difference." AA: "And the language to use -- plain, simple English?" ARMSTRONG: "That's a good point, Avi, because people will write it in a very stilted way that they would never talk. It's so odd, you know, 'attached please find my ... ' You say 'enclosed is my resume.' Or just something that is a normal way that you would talk." RS: Sharon Armstrong is a consultant in Washington. She calls her business Human Resources 9-1-1. Nine-one-one is the telephone number Americans call in an emergency. Next week Ms. Armstrong will walk us through a job interview. AA: You'll find today's program, plus our archives, on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: July 18, 2002 - Getting a Job, Part 2: The Interview
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: July 18, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 21, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- surviving a job interview! RS: Here's the first bit of advice from human resources consultant Sharon Armstrong: It's not just words you have to think about, but also how you express them. Avoid, she says, a flat monotone voice that people sometimes get when they are nervous. ARMSTRONG: "It loses something. And I think that it can add so much if you show your excitement and your eagerness to work for that company." AA: Next: Be prepared for a common approach known as behavioral-based interviewing. ARMSTRONG: "And that is where past performance will indicate future performance. So good interviewers will ask you very detailed questions where they'll put you on the spot and they'll want to know specifically your role in what you did for a particular project. "And so the key to giving a good answer to a behavioral interview question is to do what I call a STAR, S-T-A-R. The S and the T stand for explaining a situation or a task that you were given, the A is the action you took and the R is the results." RS: "So what you're saying is that you need to be prepared before you walk in the door." ARMSTRONG: "Go through some mock interviews, if you can have friends ask you questions. Practice in the mirror, answering questions. Go in with three or four things you really want to stress about yourself. And then you can bring those out no matter what the question is asked." RS: "How do you follow up after the interview?" ARMSTRONG: "Please send a thank you letter. I'm begging you. And you can do it by e-mail. And in that thank you letter you do a couple of things. You make sure that you express sincere appreciation for the time that they spent interviewing you. You have an opportunity to re-emphasize some of your strongest qualities. You have another chance to make that case as to how your skills match their needs. "If there was something that you wish you had said a little more about, again an opportunity to do it here. Now that sounds like a lot to cover, but you do it very briefly, in a short couple of paragraphs and get it out right away." RS: "Keep it short, keep it simple?" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. Again, they're business people; they don't have a lot of time. Just getting it is going to make a big difference. I talk to recruiters all the time. They never get thank you letters. It's such a simple business etiquette that people just don't take the time to do it." AA: These days, Sharon Armstrong says interviewers ask tougher questions than they used to. ARMSTRONG: "It's no longer 'what do you see yourself doing in five years?' Those are old questions. They're asking questions that are going to get at more specific things. For example: 'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front of others. How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' They're trying to get at your communication skills. "'Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?' That's your assertiveness. So be ready for these kinds of questions, and if you have this experience in your background, just be able to communicate it effectively. You don't have to use the proper language all the time, just get across your results and your accomplishments." RS: "And you probably shouldn't be afraid to say 'well, I don't understand that question.'" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. And don't feel like you have to answer immediately. Take a moment. Pausing is a comfortable -- if you're comfortable with it, it will seem comfortable. But if you sometimes launch into an answer right away, you might head down a road you don't want to go. Say 'what an interesting question. May I think about that for a moment?' No one would say 'no, you can't.' AA: "What kind of answer would you give to that first one?" ARMSTRONG: "'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front others? How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' I think it's a hard question and you've got to be careful that you're answering it honestly but effectively. They don't want to know that you flew off the handle and you have a very negative response. "They're going to want to know that you have some teamwork skills and you tried to engage that person and question them a little more about what they found negative perhaps about your idea, and how they might add to it and make it more workable." AA: "What if that's not the truth. What if the last time someone criticized you, you -- as you say -- flew off the handle, got angry?" ARMSTRONG: "I would say that honestly, say that 'I've learned from that and I don't do it anymore.' The secret is to take a weakness and make it into a positive. So say 'I used to have a very bad habit of not being able to handle that well, but I recognized that that wasn't getting me anywhere in the business world.'" RS: And finally, at the end, Sharon Armstrong says be sure to ask some of your own questions, questions like: "What are some of the objectives you would like accomplished in this job?" "What would you like to have done within the next two or three months?" ARMSTRONG: "Remember that you are assessing the company as much as they are assessing you, and if you fail to ask questions at the end of the interview, they might interpret that as you not being interested." AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a consulting business in Washington called Human Resources 9-1-1, a name that plays off the emergency telephone number in America. RS: You can find today's program at our Web site -- voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Get a Job"/The Silhouettes Broadcast on Coast to Coast: July 18, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 21, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- surviving a job interview! RS: Here's the first bit of advice from human resources consultant Sharon Armstrong: It's not just words you have to think about, but also how you express them. Avoid, she says, a flat monotone voice that people sometimes get when they are nervous. ARMSTRONG: "It loses something. And I think that it can add so much if you show your excitement and your eagerness to work for that company." AA: Next: Be prepared for a common approach known as behavioral-based interviewing. ARMSTRONG: "And that is where past performance will indicate future performance. So good interviewers will ask you very detailed questions where they'll put you on the spot and they'll want to know specifically your role in what you did for a particular project. "And so the key to giving a good answer to a behavioral interview question is to do what I call a STAR, S-T-A-R. The S and the T stand for explaining a situation or a task that you were given, the A is the action you took and the R is the results." RS: "So what you're saying is that you need to be prepared before you walk in the door." ARMSTRONG: "Go through some mock interviews, if you can have friends ask you questions. Practice in the mirror, answering questions. Go in with three or four things you really want to stress about yourself. And then you can bring those out no matter what the question is asked." RS: "How do you follow up after the interview?" ARMSTRONG: "Please send a thank you letter. I'm begging you. And you can do it by e-mail. And in that thank you letter you do a couple of things. You make sure that you express sincere appreciation for the time that they spent interviewing you. You have an opportunity to re-emphasize some of your strongest qualities. You have another chance to make that case as to how your skills match their needs. "If there was something that you wish you had said a little more about, again an opportunity to do it here. Now that sounds like a lot to cover, but you do it very briefly, in a short couple of paragraphs and get it out right away." RS: "Keep it short, keep it simple?" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. Again, they're business people; they don't have a lot of time. Just getting it is going to make a big difference. I talk to recruiters all the time. They never get thank you letters. It's such a simple business etiquette that people just don't take the time to do it." AA: These days, Sharon Armstrong says interviewers ask tougher questions than they used to. ARMSTRONG: "It's no longer 'what do you see yourself doing in five years?' Those are old questions. They're asking questions that are going to get at more specific things. For example: 'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front of others. How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' They're trying to get at your communication skills. "'Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?' That's your assertiveness. So be ready for these kinds of questions, and if you have this experience in your background, just be able to communicate it effectively. You don't have to use the proper language all the time, just get across your results and your accomplishments." RS: "And you probably shouldn't be afraid to say 'well, I don't understand that question.'" ARMSTRONG: "Absolutely. And don't feel like you have to answer immediately. Take a moment. Pausing is a comfortable -- if you're comfortable with it, it will seem comfortable. But if you sometimes launch into an answer right away, you might head down a road you don't want to go. Say 'what an interesting question. May I think about that for a moment?' No one would say 'no, you can't.' AA: "What kind of answer would you give to that first one?" ARMSTRONG: "'Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticized your work in front others? How did you respond? How has that event shaped the way you communicate with others?' I think it's a hard question and you've got to be careful that you're answering it honestly but effectively. They don't want to know that you flew off the handle and you have a very negative response. "They're going to want to know that you have some teamwork skills and you tried to engage that person and question them a little more about what they found negative perhaps about your idea, and how they might add to it and make it more workable." AA: "What if that's not the truth. What if the last time someone criticized you, you -- as you say -- flew off the handle, got angry?" ARMSTRONG: "I would say that honestly, say that 'I've learned from that and I don't do it anymore.' The secret is to take a weakness and make it into a positive. So say 'I used to have a very bad habit of not being able to handle that well, but I recognized that that wasn't getting me anywhere in the business world.'" RS: And finally, at the end, Sharon Armstrong says be sure to ask some of your own questions, questions like: "What are some of the objectives you would like accomplished in this job?" "What would you like to have done within the next two or three months?" ARMSTRONG: "Remember that you are assessing the company as much as they are assessing you, and if you fail to ask questions at the end of the interview, they might interpret that as you not being interested." AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a consulting business in Washington called Human Resources 9-1-1, a name that plays off the emergency telephone number in America. RS: You can find today's program at our Web site -- voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Get a Job"/The Silhouettes 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/2006-12-14-voa1.cfm
* Headline: July 11, 2002 - Getting a Job, Part 1: Resume and Cover Letter
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: July 11, 2002Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 14, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster, advice on getting a job. RS: It's a question several listeners have asked us, so we turned to a human resources consultant for answers. AA: Sharon Armstrong runs a company that helps people find jobs. She says the first step is to draft a short resume -- no more than two pages. ARMSTRONG: "It should be customized to the company or position you're going for. By that I mean it should use the lingo of the industry. It should be clear and targeted, easy to read, on good bond paper, and it should be perfect. There should be no spelling and no grammar mistakes. So you should use spell check and then have two or three friends at a minimum review it before you send it out." RS: "You say 'customized.' How do you know that language, the language of the company?" ARMSTRONG: "If it isn't your industry, you talk to people, you do informational interviews, you read their reports, you get your hands on everything that you can that would give you any type of information that will lead you to a good cover letter and resume." RS: "How do you structure a resume? What sections are necessary in a resume?" ARMSTRONG: "I think the first thing that I'm seeing in a lot of good resumes, the very first area that you would have, is called a qualifications summary, where you identify three or four important skills that you have that will be appealing to the new employer." AA: "Give us an example." ARMSTRONG: "I actually wrote one. Let's say someone is going for a project manager job. The summary up at the very top would read: 'Project manager skilled at coordinating complex information management projects; proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships; proficient at negotiating vendor contacts; particularly adept at analyzing information for patterns and trends and summarizing complex issues concisely; can-do attitude.' "So in the first couple of seconds an employer is going to read the top of that and then they're going to know whether they should continue to read. So you want to grab them right away with something strong." RS: "What other sections should follow?" ARMSTRONG: "Right after the qualifications summary, I would do work experience, unless you just recently completed a degree, in which case you want to probably highlight your education. But I would do the experience, then the education, then skills -- either computer skills or interpersonal skills -- and then a tag line at the bottom about references, just to kind of close it and end it." AA: "Should you include references, or do you just put the standard 'references upon request.'" ARMSTRONG: "I would put the standard, quite honestly, because again this is the resume first going out, you don't know even if there's interest." AA: "Let's talk a little bit about a cover letter." ARMSTRONG: "Should be no more than one page, it should be addressed to a specific person. It shouldn't be a 'to whom it may concern.' So you should have title for the person and the correct spelling of their name -- people are very sensitive about that -- and the company name correctly spelled as well. In the cover letter you should come right to the point, identify the position that you're interested it, how you heard about it." AA: "Now what are some things to avoid?" ARMSTRONG: "Ones that go on and on, two or three pages -- avoid that. Ones that reiterate what's in the resume." AA: "Do you begin with 'greetings' -- what works?" ARMSTRONG: "I think you go right to the point: 'Dear Mister Smith, I recently heard of your opening,' and then you go on. In fact, I did bring a sample one for you: 'I'm applying for the Web developer position that was advertised in the local paper this week. The position seems to fit very well with my education, experience and career interests. Your position requires skills in various types of programming and software used in Web development. My academic program in computer studies emphasized ... 'And then you go on to indicate exactly what is targeted, not only in your academic program but also in your work experience. 'My enclosed resume provides more details on my qualifications. My background and career goals seem to match your job requirements well. I'm confident that I can perform the job effectively.' "And then (add) a little assertiveness at the end. Telling me they're going to give me a call, asking me specifically or an interview, telling me in clear terms how to reach them and when to reach them, either by e-mail or by phone, and good times to reach them. And I would also customize it by doing some research about the company, so that each letter cannot be just a cookie-cutter approach. It has to be a specific letter to that specific company. People rarely do that, and it makes such a difference." AA: "And the language to use -- plain, simple English?" ARMSTRONG: "That's a good point, Avi, because people will write it in a very stilted way that they would never talk. It's so odd, you know, 'attached please find my ... ' You say 'enclosed is my resume.' Or just something that is a normal way that you would talk." RS: Sharon Armstrong is a consultant in Washington. She calls her business Human Resources 9-1-1. Nine-one-one is the telephone number Americans call in an emergency. Next week Ms. Armstrong will walk us through a job interview. AA: You'll find today's program, plus our archives, on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 12, 2002: Balloonist Steve Fossett / Songs by Rosemary Clooney / Question About Actor Bruce Lee
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Rosemary Clooney ... Answer a listener’s question about actor Bruce Lee ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Rosemary Clooney ... Answer a listener’s question about actor Bruce Lee ... And report about the man who recently broke a world flying record. Steve Fossett’s Balloon Flight HOST: Last week, American businessman Steve Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. He landed his balloon in Australia on July fourth, American Independence Day. Mary Tillotson tells us about his record-breaking trip. ANNCR: This was fifty-eight-year-old Steve Fossett’s sixth attempt to fly around the world in a balloon. He called the balloon the “Spirit of Freedom.” It was forty-two meters tall and powered by helium and hot air. He rode in a small area a little more than two meters long underneath the large balloon. This capsule was not pressurized, forcing Mister Fossett to use oxygen much of the time. He was able to sleep only about four hours each day, usually forty-five minutes at a time. And report about the man who recently broke a world flying record. Steve Fossett’s Balloon Flight HOST: Last week, American businessman Steve Fossett became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. He landed his balloon in Australia on July fourth, American Independence Day. Mary Tillotson tells us about his record-breaking trip. ANNCR: This was fifty-eight-year-old Steve Fossett’s sixth attempt to fly around the world in a balloon. He called the balloon the “Spirit of Freedom.” It was forty-two meters tall and powered by helium and hot air. He rode in a small area a little more than two meters long underneath the large balloon. This capsule was not pressurized, forcing Mister Fossett to use oxygen much of the time. He was able to sleep only about four hours each day, usually forty-five minutes at a time. Mister Fossett chose to fly over the southern part of the world to avoid the need to get permission to fly over many countries. He experienced very few problems during his flight. Some days, winds pushed the balloon at speeds of up to three-hundred-twenty kilometers an hour. Mister Fossett had more problems attempting to land. High winds forced him to continue flying after he set the record. Then he had to put out an equipment fire on the balloon in the middle of the night of July third. Steve Fossett began the trip on June eighteenth in Northam, Australia. He landed the Spirit of Freedom in that country on July fourth. He broke the record for distance flown by a balloon, traveling more than thirty-one-thousand kilometers. He set his record on July second, thirteen days and twelve hours after he first lifted off. But he had spent almost fifteen days in the air by the time he landed the balloon about one-thousand-four-hundred kilometers northeast of Sydney. Steve Fossett now holds world records in flying balloons, flying airplanes and sailing ships. Over the years he has done many difficult activities. For example, he climbed many of the world’s highest mountains and swam across the English Channel. He also completed the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska and drove in the Twenty-Four Hours of Le Mans car race. Steve Fossett is already planning his next adventure. He plans to fly a glider plane into the stratosphere -- eighteen-thousand meters above the ground in southern New Zealand. Bruce Lee HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Israel. Rafi Halabbi asks about actor Bruce Lee. His name was Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam when he was born in San Francisco, California in nineteen-forty. A nurse at the hospital said he should have an American name too. She suggested the name “Bruce.” Bruce’s father was a movie actor. Young Bruce appeared in his first movie with his father when he was only two months old. Bruce and his parents returned to their home in Hong Kong in ninety-forty-one. Bruce began to act in Chinese movies at the age of six. In Hong Kong, Bruce Lee began his life-long interest in the Chinese system of self-defense called Kung Fu. He studied with Yip Man, a master of the famous Wing Chun Kung Fu. Bruce was also involved in many street fights. His parents decided this must stop. They sent him back to the United States. He became a student at the University of Washington in Seattle. Later he opened a school to teach Kung Fu in Oakland, California. Bruce Lee was not a big man. However, people who saw him fight could not understand how he could be so powerful. He seemed to have the strength of several men. In nineteen-sixty-six, Bruce Lee acted in an American television series called “The Green Hornet.” The program was not a success. But many Hollywood movie actors began studying Kung Fu with him. He appeared in several other television programs. Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong in nineteen-seventy-one to act in a Chinese movie known in the United States as “Fists of Fury.” The movie was extremely popular in Asia. He followed this with another film, “The Chinese Connection.” It too was extremely popular. In nineteen-seventy-three, Bruce Lee made his most famous movie, “Enter the Dragon.” It was the first movie made in cooperation between American and Chinese movie companies. But Bruce Lee died a few weeks before the movie was released. He was thirty-two years old. Doctors said his death was caused by swelling of the brain. More than twenty-thousand people attended his funeral in Hong Kong before his body was taken to Seattle, Washington for burial. “Enter the Dragon” became a major hit. It made Bruce Lee an internationally famous movie star. Movie critics say his early death ended what would have been a very successful movie career. Rosemary Clooney HOST: Rosemary Clooney died last month of lung cancer. She was seventy-four years old. Millions of people around the world have enjoyed listening to her sing for the past fifty years. Shep O’Neal tells us about her. ANNCR: Rosemary Clooney was born in the small town of Maysville, Kentucky and began singing as a child. She moved to New York City at the age of twenty-one. She began recording for Columbia Records. Mizz Clooney was ordered to record a song she did not like. It became a huge hit record. It is called “Come On-a My House.” ((COME ON-A MY HOUSE)) Rosemary Clooney sang on radio programs. She later had her own television show. She also performed in the movies. Her best known film is “White Christmas.” Listen as she sings a song from that movie, “Count Your Blessings.” ((COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS)) Rosemary Clooney married the actor Jose Ferrer. They had five children in five years. But they were not happy and they ended their marriage. Later, Mizz Clooney suffered from the mental disease depression and dependence on alcohol. But she always returned to her singing. In nineteen-ninety-five, Rosemary Clooney celebrated fifty years in the music business by recording the album “Demi-Centennial.” We leave you now with one of her biggest hit songs -- the only hit she included on that album. Here is Rosemary Clooney singing ”Mambo Italiano.” ((MAMBO ITALIANO)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Mister Fossett chose to fly over the southern part of the world to avoid the need to get permission to fly over many countries. He experienced very few problems during his flight. Some days, winds pushed the balloon at speeds of up to three-hundred-twenty kilometers an hour. Mister Fossett had more problems attempting to land. High winds forced him to continue flying after he set the record. Then he had to put out an equipment fire on the balloon in the middle of the night of July third. Steve Fossett began the trip on June eighteenth in Northam, Australia. He landed the Spirit of Freedom in that country on July fourth. He broke the record for distance flown by a balloon, traveling more than thirty-one-thousand kilometers. He set his record on July second, thirteen days and twelve hours after he first lifted off. But he had spent almost fifteen days in the air by the time he landed the balloon about one-thousand-four-hundred kilometers northeast of Sydney. Steve Fossett now holds world records in flying balloons, flying airplanes and sailing ships. Over the years he has done many difficult activities. For example, he climbed many of the world’s highest mountains and swam across the English Channel. He also completed the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska and drove in the Twenty-Four Hours of Le Mans car race. Steve Fossett is already planning his next adventure. He plans to fly a glider plane into the stratosphere -- eighteen-thousand meters above the ground in southern New Zealand. Bruce Lee HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Israel. Rafi Halabbi asks about actor Bruce Lee. His name was Lee Jun Fan Yuen Kam when he was born in San Francisco, California in nineteen-forty. A nurse at the hospital said he should have an American name too. She suggested the name “Bruce.” Bruce’s father was a movie actor. Young Bruce appeared in his first movie with his father when he was only two months old. Bruce and his parents returned to their home in Hong Kong in ninety-forty-one. Bruce began to act in Chinese movies at the age of six. In Hong Kong, Bruce Lee began his life-long interest in the Chinese system of self-defense called Kung Fu. He studied with Yip Man, a master of the famous Wing Chun Kung Fu. Bruce was also involved in many street fights. His parents decided this must stop. They sent him back to the United States. He became a student at the University of Washington in Seattle. Later he opened a school to teach Kung Fu in Oakland, California. Bruce Lee was not a big man. However, people who saw him fight could not understand how he could be so powerful. He seemed to have the strength of several men. In nineteen-sixty-six, Bruce Lee acted in an American television series called “The Green Hornet.” The program was not a success. But many Hollywood movie actors began studying Kung Fu with him. He appeared in several other television programs. Bruce Lee returned to Hong Kong in nineteen-seventy-one to act in a Chinese movie known in the United States as “Fists of Fury.” The movie was extremely popular in Asia. He followed this with another film, “The Chinese Connection.” It too was extremely popular. In nineteen-seventy-three, Bruce Lee made his most famous movie, “Enter the Dragon.” It was the first movie made in cooperation between American and Chinese movie companies. But Bruce Lee died a few weeks before the movie was released. He was thirty-two years old. Doctors said his death was caused by swelling of the brain. More than twenty-thousand people attended his funeral in Hong Kong before his body was taken to Seattle, Washington for burial. “Enter the Dragon” became a major hit. It made Bruce Lee an internationally famous movie star. Movie critics say his early death ended what would have been a very successful movie career. Rosemary Clooney HOST: Rosemary Clooney died last month of lung cancer. She was seventy-four years old. Millions of people around the world have enjoyed listening to her sing for the past fifty years. Shep O’Neal tells us about her. ANNCR: Rosemary Clooney was born in the small town of Maysville, Kentucky and began singing as a child. She moved to New York City at the age of twenty-one. She began recording for Columbia Records. Mizz Clooney was ordered to record a song she did not like. It became a huge hit record. It is called “Come On-a My House.” ((COME ON-A MY HOUSE)) Rosemary Clooney sang on radio programs. She later had her own television show. She also performed in the movies. Her best known film is “White Christmas.” Listen as she sings a song from that movie, “Count Your Blessings.” ((COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS)) Rosemary Clooney married the actor Jose Ferrer. They had five children in five years. But they were not happy and they ended their marriage. Later, Mizz Clooney suffered from the mental disease depression and dependence on alcohol. But she always returned to her singing. In nineteen-ninety-five, Rosemary Clooney celebrated fifty years in the music business by recording the album “Demi-Centennial.” We leave you now with one of her biggest hit songs -- the only hit she included on that album. Here is Rosemary Clooney singing ”Mambo Italiano.” ((MAMBO ITALIANO)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT — July 12, 2002: Elk Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A mysterious disease is killing animals in one of America’s most popular natural areas. The animals are large deer called elk. Elk once lived in most areas of the United States. But hunters killed so many of them that they survived only in the western states. Some elk have been brought back to other areas of the country. Wildlife officials recently decided to re-establish elk populations in the eastern part of the country. In the past two years, they have brought two groups of elk from Canada to an area in the state of North Carolina. The National Park Service released the elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Now, three of the elk have died mysteriously. Some biologists fear that the elk may have died from chronic wasting disease. Biologists say there were no signs of infection in the elk until they became weak and died. Some biologists say the disease cannot be observed except in a dead animal. It is not known if the disease can spread to cattle or other farm animals. However, chronic wasting disease is linked with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Wildlife experts say the only way to stop the disease from spreading is to kill thousands of elk. The elk in North Carolina first came from a protected area in Alberta, Canada. A total of about fifty elk were released into the Cataloochee area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Everything seemed to be going well until a park biologist found three dead female elk. Two of the animals were pregnant. The animals appeared to have been starved. The National Park Service reported the deaths in late April. Now, state biologists have banned transporting elk into and out of the area. Concern over diseases affecting wild animals like elk has increased recently in the United States. The state of Wisconsin announced a plan to destroy fifteen-thousand deer. Officials in Wisconsin fear that some deer in the state may carry chronic wasting disease. The disease was first found in the western state of Colorado in the nineteen-sixties. Since then, it has been found in deer and elk populations in several states. Some national park biologists do not believe that chronic wasting disease killed the elk in North Carolina. They hope that studies of the dead animals will soon show that they are right. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A mysterious disease is killing animals in one of America’s most popular natural areas. The animals are large deer called elk. Elk once lived in most areas of the United States. But hunters killed so many of them that they survived only in the western states. Some elk have been brought back to other areas of the country. Wildlife officials recently decided to re-establish elk populations in the eastern part of the country. In the past two years, they have brought two groups of elk from Canada to an area in the state of North Carolina. The National Park Service released the elk in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Now, three of the elk have died mysteriously. Some biologists fear that the elk may have died from chronic wasting disease. Biologists say there were no signs of infection in the elk until they became weak and died. Some biologists say the disease cannot be observed except in a dead animal. It is not known if the disease can spread to cattle or other farm animals. However, chronic wasting disease is linked with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Wildlife experts say the only way to stop the disease from spreading is to kill thousands of elk. The elk in North Carolina first came from a protected area in Alberta, Canada. A total of about fifty elk were released into the Cataloochee area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Everything seemed to be going well until a park biologist found three dead female elk. Two of the animals were pregnant. The animals appeared to have been starved. The National Park Service reported the deaths in late April. Now, state biologists have banned transporting elk into and out of the area. Concern over diseases affecting wild animals like elk has increased recently in the United States. The state of Wisconsin announced a plan to destroy fifteen-thousand deer. Officials in Wisconsin fear that some deer in the state may carry chronic wasting disease. The disease was first found in the western state of Colorado in the nineteen-sixties. Since then, it has been found in deer and elk populations in several states. Some national park biologists do not believe that chronic wasting disease killed the elk in North Carolina. They hope that studies of the dead animals will soon show that they are right. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 15, 2002: US Money for AIDS in Africa
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. President Bush has announced a new five-hundred-million dollar plan to help prevent the spread of the AIDS virus in developing countries. Mister Bush said the money will be used in several countries in Africa and the Caribbean to prevent pregnant women from passing the AIDS virus to their babies. Each day, more than two-thousand babies become infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. Infected mothers pass the virus to their babies either during pregnancy, birth or while breast-feeding. The Bush proposal seeks to provide medicine for one-million pregnant women and their babies each year during the next five years. The goal is to reduce the number of infected babies by forty percent. The program also hopes to build health systems so that mothers and other adults can receive tests and treatment for AIDS and H-I-V. Earlier this year, Congress approved two-hundred-million dollars to fight AIDS. The new Bush plan will increase that amount by three-hundred-million dollars over the next two years. President Bush says the money will be spent in ten African and Caribbean countries. They are Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Guyana, and Haiti. United States government agencies will carry out the plan. President Bush announced his new plan last month before traveling to Canada for a meeting of the world’s seven leading industrialized countries and Russia. A top issue discussed at the Group of Eight meeting was aid to Africa. The Bush Administration had been under growing international pressure to show support for poor countries. Administration officials hope its new AIDS proposal will ease criticism about American aid to developing nations. Last year, more than five-million people were infected with H-I-V. About seven-hundred-thousand of those victims were babies. President Bush said that medical science has provided the power to help save these young lives. He said this is something the United States must do. Mister Bush recently announced he will visit Africa next year. He said the trip will seek to increase trade between the United States and African nations. He said other goals are to reduce poverty, protect workers’ rights and support human rights. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. President Bush has announced a new five-hundred-million dollar plan to help prevent the spread of the AIDS virus in developing countries. Mister Bush said the money will be used in several countries in Africa and the Caribbean to prevent pregnant women from passing the AIDS virus to their babies. Each day, more than two-thousand babies become infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. Infected mothers pass the virus to their babies either during pregnancy, birth or while breast-feeding. The Bush proposal seeks to provide medicine for one-million pregnant women and their babies each year during the next five years. The goal is to reduce the number of infected babies by forty percent. The program also hopes to build health systems so that mothers and other adults can receive tests and treatment for AIDS and H-I-V. Earlier this year, Congress approved two-hundred-million dollars to fight AIDS. The new Bush plan will increase that amount by three-hundred-million dollars over the next two years. President Bush says the money will be spent in ten African and Caribbean countries. They are Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Guyana, and Haiti. United States government agencies will carry out the plan. President Bush announced his new plan last month before traveling to Canada for a meeting of the world’s seven leading industrialized countries and Russia. A top issue discussed at the Group of Eight meeting was aid to Africa. The Bush Administration had been under growing international pressure to show support for poor countries. Administration officials hope its new AIDS proposal will ease criticism about American aid to developing nations. Last year, more than five-million people were infected with H-I-V. About seven-hundred-thousand of those victims were babies. President Bush said that medical science has provided the power to help save these young lives. He said this is something the United States must do. Mister Bush recently announced he will visit Africa next year. He said the trip will seek to increase trade between the United States and African nations. He said other goals are to reduce poverty, protect workers’ rights and support human rights. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 16, 2002: Rules for Treatment of Farm Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. People rarely consider the life of a chicken whose meat they are planning to eat. Yet the way chickens and other farm animals are treated has become a big issue in the United States. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. People rarely consider the life of a chicken whose meat they are planning to eat. Yet the way chickens and other farm animals are treated has become a big issue in the United States. Last month, two American trade groups announced measures designed to improve the living conditions and treatment of farm animals. The groups are the Food Marketing Institute and the National Council of Chain Restaurants. They represent thousands of food stores and eating places across the country. Animal rights activists have long urged the American food industry to establish rules for the treatment of farm animals. They say the new measures are a good first step. American agriculture has changed greatly over the past century. For example, some farms today have thousands of animals. The systems used to raise animals have become increasingly like those used in factories. In recent years, pressure to improve conditions has increased. An animal rights group called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is leading the effort. PETA organized a campaign against the McDonald’s fast-food company in nineteen-ninety-nine. A year later, McDonald’s approved rules for its suppliers. The company said it would not use suppliers who violated the rules. PETA then targeted other companies. All agreed to make changes. The Food Marketing Institute and the National Council of Chain Restaurants spent almost two years developing the new measures. They asked a team of scientists and experts to study existing rules for the treatment of chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs. Team members identified problems and suggested changes. The new measures call for all farm animals to have enough food, water and space to live. They include a number of issues about the treatment of farm animals. For example, one measure says farmers should stop starving chickens to make them lay more eggs. Another says pregnant pigs should not be housed in very small metal boxes. And all animals should be unconscious and feel no pain before they are killed. The trade groups say they are now developing ways to make sure food suppliers honor the new measures. They say additional measures will be announced in October. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. Last month, two American trade groups announced measures designed to improve the living conditions and treatment of farm animals. The groups are the Food Marketing Institute and the National Council of Chain Restaurants. They represent thousands of food stores and eating places across the country. Animal rights activists have long urged the American food industry to establish rules for the treatment of farm animals. They say the new measures are a good first step. American agriculture has changed greatly over the past century. For example, some farms today have thousands of animals. The systems used to raise animals have become increasingly like those used in factories. In recent years, pressure to improve conditions has increased. An animal rights group called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is leading the effort. PETA organized a campaign against the McDonald’s fast-food company in nineteen-ninety-nine. A year later, McDonald’s approved rules for its suppliers. The company said it would not use suppliers who violated the rules. PETA then targeted other companies. All agreed to make changes. The Food Marketing Institute and the National Council of Chain Restaurants spent almost two years developing the new measures. They asked a team of scientists and experts to study existing rules for the treatment of chickens, turkeys, cows and pigs. Team members identified problems and suggested changes. The new measures call for all farm animals to have enough food, water and space to live. They include a number of issues about the treatment of farm animals. For example, one measure says farmers should stop starving chickens to make them lay more eggs. Another says pregnant pigs should not be housed in very small metal boxes. And all animals should be unconscious and feel no pain before they are killed. The trade groups say they are now developing ways to make sure food suppliers honor the new measures. They say additional measures will be announced in October. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-11-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – July 15, 2002: Medical Education
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Students must study and work for many years to become a doctor in the United States. Working conditions are often very difficult. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about doctors in training on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Men and women in the United States who want to become doctors attend four years of college or university. They usually study science intensively. They study biology, chemistry and other sciences. If they do not, they may have to return to college for more education in science before trying to enter medical school. Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they try to seek a place in a medical college. There are one-hundred-twenty-five medical colleges in the United States. More than sixty-six-thousand students are attending medical colleges. It is difficult to gain entrance to them. Those who do the best in their studies have a greater chance of entering medical school. Each student also must pass a national examination to enter medical school. Those who get the top scores have the best chance of being accepted. Most people who want to study medicine seek to enter as many as ten medical schools. This increases their chances of being accepted by one. Last year, about thirty-five-thousand students applied to medical schools in the United States. About seventeen-thousand were accepted. A medical education is very costly. It costs as much as thirty-thousand dollars for each year. VOICE TWO: After entering medical school, students spend the next four years studying only medical sciences. The first two years of medical school are spent mainly in class. The students learn about the body and all its systems. They learn about chemistry and medicines. And they begin studying diseases and how to recognize and treat them. Many students say the first year of medical school is the most difficult. They must remember a great deal of information. For example, many schools require that students remember the names of every bone in the body. VOICE ONE: By the third year of medical school, students are ready to use their knowledge to begin helping sick people in a hospital. These students work under the guidance of experienced doctors. Students observe the treatment of patients. They also examine patients and advise treatment. As the students watch and learn, they think about the kind of medicine they would like to practice when they become doctors. Do they want to care for children? Or do they want to care for pregnant women and assist at the birth of babies? Do they want to treat patients with broken bones? Or do they want to operate on the body or the brain? During the fourth year of medical school, students begin seeking to enter a medical training program in a hospital. This training program is called a medical residency. Medical school graduates face strong competition to gain a resident position at the hospitals they want most. Hospitals want the top medical school graduates. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Most states require that a person complete at least one year of medical residency before being permitted to take examinations to practice medicine. Some doctors work for many years as residents in hospitals, depending on which medical field they have chosen. For example, surgeons spend many years as medical residents to gain the needed experience performing operations. Some doctors work in hospitals as residents for as many as ten years before they begin working on their own. VOICE ONE: These medical residents provide hospitals with needed services in return for not much pay. They work under the supervision of medical professors and more experienced doctors. Medical residents treat patients. They carry out tests. They perform operations. They complete records. In hospitals with few nurses, residents also do work formerly done by nurses. During their first year of residency, these doctors in training work in a number of medical services. For example, they may work in emergency care for one month. Then they may care for children. The next month, they may work in the operating room. During this time they get a chance to decide what kind of doctor they want to become. VOICE TWO: Some medical residents work one-hundred or more hours in a single week. They often work for more than thirty-six hours at a time before they can rest. Critics of this system say medical residents work too long and do not get enough rest. They say these young doctors may be too tired to provide the best care for their patients. Now, however, an organization that supervises the training of medical residents has decided to change this policy. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education says it will limit the number of hours that residents can work. It acted because of concerns that hospital workers are responsible for many serious mistakes. VOICE ONE: The new work limits will begin in about a year. They will affect about one-hundred-thousand medical residents. Most doctors in training will be limited to eighty hours of work each week. They will have work periods of no more than twenty-four hours at one time. They will have ten hours of rest between work periods. Medical residents will have one day each week when they do not have to work. Any work they do outside their hospitals will be limited. Experienced doctors and medical professors will closely supervise the residents to make sure they are not too tired to work. VOICE TWO: Many medical residents welcome the new policy. They say they often work under tense conditions. Their decisions may mean the difference between life and death. A young family care doctor in the state of Virginia says she learned a lot as a medical resident at a southern hospital. But she says she might have learned even more if she had not been so tired. Some residents, however, oppose the changes. They say they need extended time with patients to note changes in their conditions. And some believe they need to work as much as they can to gain the experience they need to become good doctors. VOICE ONE: Reducing working hours for residents means that other people will have to do some of their work. Some hospitals will have to employ more doctors, nurses and other medical workers. This will mean increased expenses for hospitals around the country. About thirteen years ago, the state of New York passed a law similar to the new policy. It limited the work of medical residents to eighty hours of work each week. The state spent more than two-hundred-million dollars a year to carry out the law. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Three years ago, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences studied deaths in American hospitals. Its report estimated that mistakes in hospitals kill at least forty-four thousand Americans each year. There are no estimates of how many medical residents may have been responsible for these deadly mistakes. However, its seems likely that a doctor who has not slept in days might make a mistake. Some hospital investigations reportedly have blamed tired residents for ordering the wrong amount of medicine for their patients. VOICE ONE: Even with their new, reduced hours, medical residents will be working much longer than most Americans. Most Americans work about eight hours a day. They work about forty hours a week. Some young doctors in hospitals will be working two times as many hours a week. However, experts say this is not just a problem of long hours. A medical educator in the state of Illinois has worked with medical residents. Paul Rockey says medical residencies today are more difficult than they were in the past. This is because patients do not stay as long in the hospital as they once did. Doctor Rockey says this change puts a lot of pressure on young doctors to learn quickly from their patients. Doctor Rockey says the difficulties of modern medical education may be great. But he says young people get great satisfaction in seeing themselves gain the knowledge and experience to become good doctors. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Students must study and work for many years to become a doctor in the United States. Working conditions are often very difficult. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we tell about doctors in training on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Men and women in the United States who want to become doctors attend four years of college or university. They usually study science intensively. They study biology, chemistry and other sciences. If they do not, they may have to return to college for more education in science before trying to enter medical school. Some students work for a year or two in a medical or research job before they try to seek a place in a medical college. There are one-hundred-twenty-five medical colleges in the United States. More than sixty-six-thousand students are attending medical colleges. It is difficult to gain entrance to them. Those who do the best in their studies have a greater chance of entering medical school. Each student also must pass a national examination to enter medical school. Those who get the top scores have the best chance of being accepted. Most people who want to study medicine seek to enter as many as ten medical schools. This increases their chances of being accepted by one. Last year, about thirty-five-thousand students applied to medical schools in the United States. About seventeen-thousand were accepted. A medical education is very costly. It costs as much as thirty-thousand dollars for each year. VOICE TWO: After entering medical school, students spend the next four years studying only medical sciences. The first two years of medical school are spent mainly in class. The students learn about the body and all its systems. They learn about chemistry and medicines. And they begin studying diseases and how to recognize and treat them. Many students say the first year of medical school is the most difficult. They must remember a great deal of information. For example, many schools require that students remember the names of every bone in the body. VOICE ONE: By the third year of medical school, students are ready to use their knowledge to begin helping sick people in a hospital. These students work under the guidance of experienced doctors. Students observe the treatment of patients. They also examine patients and advise treatment. As the students watch and learn, they think about the kind of medicine they would like to practice when they become doctors. Do they want to care for children? Or do they want to care for pregnant women and assist at the birth of babies? Do they want to treat patients with broken bones? Or do they want to operate on the body or the brain? During the fourth year of medical school, students begin seeking to enter a medical training program in a hospital. This training program is called a medical residency. Medical school graduates face strong competition to gain a resident position at the hospitals they want most. Hospitals want the top medical school graduates. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Most states require that a person complete at least one year of medical residency before being permitted to take examinations to practice medicine. Some doctors work for many years as residents in hospitals, depending on which medical field they have chosen. For example, surgeons spend many years as medical residents to gain the needed experience performing operations. Some doctors work in hospitals as residents for as many as ten years before they begin working on their own. VOICE ONE: These medical residents provide hospitals with needed services in return for not much pay. They work under the supervision of medical professors and more experienced doctors. Medical residents treat patients. They carry out tests. They perform operations. They complete records. In hospitals with few nurses, residents also do work formerly done by nurses. During their first year of residency, these doctors in training work in a number of medical services. For example, they may work in emergency care for one month. Then they may care for children. The next month, they may work in the operating room. During this time they get a chance to decide what kind of doctor they want to become. VOICE TWO: Some medical residents work one-hundred or more hours in a single week. They often work for more than thirty-six hours at a time before they can rest. Critics of this system say medical residents work too long and do not get enough rest. They say these young doctors may be too tired to provide the best care for their patients. Now, however, an organization that supervises the training of medical residents has decided to change this policy. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education says it will limit the number of hours that residents can work. It acted because of concerns that hospital workers are responsible for many serious mistakes. VOICE ONE: The new work limits will begin in about a year. They will affect about one-hundred-thousand medical residents. Most doctors in training will be limited to eighty hours of work each week. They will have work periods of no more than twenty-four hours at one time. They will have ten hours of rest between work periods. Medical residents will have one day each week when they do not have to work. Any work they do outside their hospitals will be limited. Experienced doctors and medical professors will closely supervise the residents to make sure they are not too tired to work. VOICE TWO: Many medical residents welcome the new policy. They say they often work under tense conditions. Their decisions may mean the difference between life and death. A young family care doctor in the state of Virginia says she learned a lot as a medical resident at a southern hospital. But she says she might have learned even more if she had not been so tired. Some residents, however, oppose the changes. They say they need extended time with patients to note changes in their conditions. And some believe they need to work as much as they can to gain the experience they need to become good doctors. VOICE ONE: Reducing working hours for residents means that other people will have to do some of their work. Some hospitals will have to employ more doctors, nurses and other medical workers. This will mean increased expenses for hospitals around the country. About thirteen years ago, the state of New York passed a law similar to the new policy. It limited the work of medical residents to eighty hours of work each week. The state spent more than two-hundred-million dollars a year to carry out the law. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Three years ago, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences studied deaths in American hospitals. Its report estimated that mistakes in hospitals kill at least forty-four thousand Americans each year. There are no estimates of how many medical residents may have been responsible for these deadly mistakes. However, its seems likely that a doctor who has not slept in days might make a mistake. Some hospital investigations reportedly have blamed tired residents for ordering the wrong amount of medicine for their patients. VOICE ONE: Even with their new, reduced hours, medical residents will be working much longer than most Americans. Most Americans work about eight hours a day. They work about forty hours a week. Some young doctors in hospitals will be working two times as many hours a week. However, experts say this is not just a problem of long hours. A medical educator in the state of Illinois has worked with medical residents. Paul Rockey says medical residencies today are more difficult than they were in the past. This is because patients do not stay as long in the hospital as they once did. Doctor Rockey says this change puts a lot of pressure on young doctors to learn quickly from their patients. Doctor Rockey says the difficulties of modern medical education may be great. But he says young people get great satisfaction in seeing themselves gain the knowledge and experience to become good doctors. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-11-6-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - July 17, 2002: Vasectomy Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A major study has failed to find any link between a man having a vasectomy operation and developing prostate cancer. A vasectomy is an operation in which a doctor cuts the tubes that carry a man’s sperm from the testes. It is one of the most effective and widely used methods of birth control around the world. Experts say about five-hundred-thousand men have vasectomies every year in the United States alone. Doctors have been concerned for some time about a possible link between the operation and the development of prostate cancer. Studies done in the past had conflicting results. Some studies showed no link. But others said men who had vasectomies had an increased chance of developing prostate cancer. Two studies were done in the United States in nineteen-ninety-three. The studies said men with vasectomies had a sixty-six percent higher chance of developing prostate cancer than men who did not have the operation. But the new study says the operation does not increase the risk of cancer. The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was carried out in New Zealand by researchers at the Dunedin (da-NEE-din) and Wellington Schools of Medicine. New Zealand has extremely good reporting of cancer cases. And it has the highest rate of vasectomy in the world. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reports that about forty percent of men ages forty to seventy years old have had the operation. The researchers spoke to more than two-thousand men. Almost half had recently developed prostate cancer. The others did not have the disease. All the men were between the ages of forty and seventy-four. The researchers asked them about their medical histories and those of family members. They also asked about activities like smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. The researchers found no difference in the cancer rates among the men who had vasectomies and those who did not have the operation. They also found no increased chance of prostate cancer among men who had vasectomies twenty-five or more years earlier. Other researchers say the New Zealand study is the best one done so far about vasectomy and prostate cancer. They say it was large enough to have found any link that might exist. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A major study has failed to find any link between a man having a vasectomy operation and developing prostate cancer. A vasectomy is an operation in which a doctor cuts the tubes that carry a man’s sperm from the testes. It is one of the most effective and widely used methods of birth control around the world. Experts say about five-hundred-thousand men have vasectomies every year in the United States alone. Doctors have been concerned for some time about a possible link between the operation and the development of prostate cancer. Studies done in the past had conflicting results. Some studies showed no link. But others said men who had vasectomies had an increased chance of developing prostate cancer. Two studies were done in the United States in nineteen-ninety-three. The studies said men with vasectomies had a sixty-six percent higher chance of developing prostate cancer than men who did not have the operation. But the new study says the operation does not increase the risk of cancer. The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was carried out in New Zealand by researchers at the Dunedin (da-NEE-din) and Wellington Schools of Medicine. New Zealand has extremely good reporting of cancer cases. And it has the highest rate of vasectomy in the world. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reports that about forty percent of men ages forty to seventy years old have had the operation. The researchers spoke to more than two-thousand men. Almost half had recently developed prostate cancer. The others did not have the disease. All the men were between the ages of forty and seventy-four. The researchers asked them about their medical histories and those of family members. They also asked about activities like smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. The researchers found no difference in the cancer rates among the men who had vasectomies and those who did not have the operation. They also found no increased chance of prostate cancer among men who had vasectomies twenty-five or more years earlier. Other researchers say the New Zealand study is the best one done so far about vasectomy and prostate cancer. They say it was large enough to have found any link that might exist. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 13, 2002: AIDS Conference
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: July 13, 2002 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. A new report says that the disease AIDS will cause a sharp drop in life expectancy in fifty-one countries by the year Two-Thousand-Ten. A study by the United States Census Bureau was released during the International AIDS Conference this week in Barcelona, Spain. Experts say several nations are losing one-hundred years of progress in extending the length of life of their citizens. AIDS has killed more than twenty-million people around the world. Experts say about forty-million people are infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. More than six-million people are infected in Asian countries. Most of them live in India, China and Indonesia. AIDS is also spreading quickly in Russia, Latin America and the Caribbean. But Africa has been hardest hit by the disease. Almost thirty-million people are infected with the virus. Seven countries in southern Africa now have life expectancies of less than forty years. For example, in Botswana, life expectancy is thirty-nine years. By Two-Thousand-Ten, it could be less than twenty-seven years. Mozambique is expected to have a similar reduction in life expectancy. Lives would also be shortened in other southern African countries. Without AIDS, officials say the average life expectancy in southern Africa by Two-Thousand-Ten would have been about seventy years. There are also many more babies dying from AIDS in southern Africa. Researchers say that in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia, more babies will die from AIDS by Two-Thousand-Ten than from all other causes. American Census Bureau official Karen Stanecki says there soon will be more deaths than births in southern African countries because of AIDS. She says as adults die, millions of children will grow up without parents. A United Nations report says about thirteen-million children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS in eighty-eight countries. Most of these orphans live in southern African countries. The report estimates that there will be at least twenty-five million AIDS orphans by Two-Thousand-Ten. Some non-governmental organizations say that number is far too low. They say there will be almost one-hundred-million orphans by Two-Thousand-Ten. Carol Bellamy is the director of the United Nations Children’s Fund. She says AIDS orphans face many problems, even if they are not infected. They are often mistreated by the communities, forced out of school, and sometimes become targets for illegal activities. She says girls are the group most at risk. AIDS officials say ten-thousand-million dollars is needed each year for research, treatment and care for people with AIDS. Yet, they say wealthy nations have agreed to pay less than one-third of that amount. This VOA Special English IN THE NEWS was written by Cynthia Kirk in Barcelona. This is Bob Doughty. Broadcast: July 13, 2002 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. A new report says that the disease AIDS will cause a sharp drop in life expectancy in fifty-one countries by the year Two-Thousand-Ten. A study by the United States Census Bureau was released during the International AIDS Conference this week in Barcelona, Spain. Experts say several nations are losing one-hundred years of progress in extending the length of life of their citizens. AIDS has killed more than twenty-million people around the world. Experts say about forty-million people are infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. More than six-million people are infected in Asian countries. Most of them live in India, China and Indonesia. AIDS is also spreading quickly in Russia, Latin America and the Caribbean. But Africa has been hardest hit by the disease. Almost thirty-million people are infected with the virus. Seven countries in southern Africa now have life expectancies of less than forty years. For example, in Botswana, life expectancy is thirty-nine years. By Two-Thousand-Ten, it could be less than twenty-seven years. Mozambique is expected to have a similar reduction in life expectancy. Lives would also be shortened in other southern African countries. Without AIDS, officials say the average life expectancy in southern Africa by Two-Thousand-Ten would have been about seventy years. There are also many more babies dying from AIDS in southern Africa. Researchers say that in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia, more babies will die from AIDS by Two-Thousand-Ten than from all other causes. American Census Bureau official Karen Stanecki says there soon will be more deaths than births in southern African countries because of AIDS. She says as adults die, millions of children will grow up without parents. A United Nations report says about thirteen-million children have already lost one or both parents to AIDS in eighty-eight countries. Most of these orphans live in southern African countries. The report estimates that there will be at least twenty-five million AIDS orphans by Two-Thousand-Ten. Some non-governmental organizations say that number is far too low. They say there will be almost one-hundred-million orphans by Two-Thousand-Ten. Carol Bellamy is the director of the United Nations Children’s Fund. She says AIDS orphans face many problems, even if they are not infected. They are often mistreated by the communities, forced out of school, and sometimes become targets for illegal activities. She says girls are the group most at risk. AIDS officials say ten-thousand-million dollars is needed each year for research, treatment and care for people with AIDS. Yet, they say wealthy nations have agreed to pay less than one-third of that amount. This VOA Special English IN THE NEWS was written by Cynthia Kirk in Barcelona. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 17, 2002: W. Edward Deming
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about an American who was better known in Japan than in the United States. W. Edwards Deming was responsible for shaping the industrial rebirth of Japan following World War Two. (THEME) VOICE ONE: W. Edwards Deming was born in the state of Iowa in nineteen-hundred. His family soon moved to a small town in Wyoming. His family was very poor. As a child, he earned money for his family by working after school carrying wood and coal to a nearby hotel. This early experience had a lasting effect. It reportedly gave Mister Deming a deep sympathy for poor people and a bitter hatred of waste. Mister Deming said that his parents believed in the importance of education, although his family did not have very much money. He was able to attend the University of Wyoming where he studied engineering. He earned a Masters' degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Colorado. He received a doctorate in physics from Yale University in nineteen-twenty-eight. VOICE TWO: After he graduated from Yale, Mister Deming worked as a federal government employee in Washington for several years. He later joined the Census Bureau as its chief mathmetician. He developed many new methods for collecting information about the population of the United States. In nineteen-forty-seven, he was sent to Japan to help with population studies there. Japan was governed by an occupying force led by American General Douglas MacArthur in the first years after World War Two. One of General MacArthur's goals was to rebuild Japanese industry. VOICE ONE: Mister Deming already was recognized for his knowledge about the operation of companies. During the war, he had developed a plan to train American engineers in ideas needed to improve production. Japanese industrial leaders were especially interested in learning his ideas. They knew that Japan lacked many natural resources. They believed that their country would be successful only if Japanese companies could sell goods on world markets. So, they invited Mister Deming to teach them his methods to produce the best-made goods possible. In nineteen-fifty, Mister Deming taught for eight days in Japan. Eighty percent of Japan's top business and industrial leaders attended the classes. He told them that they could do a better job than American companies if they would try to fill the demands of people who buy their products. He discussed ways to produce goods that would not break or wear out easily. His main ideas became known as methods of quality control. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In general, W Edwards Deming believed that managers who supervised workers -- and not the workers -- were responsible for most production problems. He said effective managers should spend most of their time setting goals for the company. He said managers should communicate with their workers. And he said cooperation, not competition, was important in a company. Mister Deming rejected the idea of using inspectors to judge the work of company employees. He denounced company rules that set production limits for workers. He also criticized the system of giving workers money awards. Mister Deming argued that the real secret to producing better goods is to depend on workers to do the job correctly the first time. He often said people have the right to enjoy their work and feel that they have control over their job. He believed that people do their best work when they are urged to use their minds and their skills on the job. VOICE ONE: Mister Deming believed that another important goal for any company is to work to reduce waste. Motions by a worker that do not add value to the final product are waste, he said. So are supplies that companies do not use for long periods of time. Mister Deming also was known for his money-saving methods in his personal life. One of his daughters says he would write dates on eggs in the refrigerator. He was sure then that the oldest egg would be eaten first. No egg would be wasted! ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Japanese companies closely followed Mister Deming's advice about industrial management. In about twenty years, products made by Japanese companies easily beat their competition in international markets. For example, Japanese companies, like Sony and Panasonic, almost forced American television and radio industries out of business. At about the same time, Japanese car companies captured huge markets once led by the American automobile industry. VOICE ONE: After Mister Deming's first trip to Japan, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers collected his notes. They published the ideas as a book named, "Elementary Principles of the Statistical Control of Quality." Mister Deming refused to accept any money earned from the book. Instead, he suggested that the money be used to support efforts aimed at improving production. So the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers created the Deming Prize. It rewards companies that produce some of the best designed goods. The award became one of the most highly sought prizes by Japanese companies. Yet, the man recognized for leading Japan's industrial revolution remained almost unknown in the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-eighty, American industries were in trouble. Japanese products continued to be leading sellers in all major markets. American managers sought to find ways to compete with Japanese companies. They finally began to notice W. Edwards Deming. VOICE ONE: The Ford Motor Company was one of the first large American companies to seek help from Mister Deming. Ford officials asked him to visit their headquarters in Michigan in nineteen-eighty-one. The company's sales were falling. Ford was losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Ford officials were expecting to learn quick new ways to improve their cars. Mister Deming, instead, began questioning the company's culture and the way its managers operated. He told the officials that management actions are responsible for eighty-five percent of all problems in developing better cars. Ford officials followed his advice. In a few years, Ford Motor Company led the American automobile industry in improvements. VOICE TWO: As the success of Ford Motor Company grew, demand for Mister Deming's services increased. He worked only with a small number of companies. He also refused to provide advice for companies that did not let him meet with their top officials. He said that the only way to bring about change was to have direct meetings with top-level company managers. Companies that followed Mister Deming's methods often found that they had to change the way they operated. For example, separate parking spaces and dining rooms for company officials were taken away. Factory workers thought that special treatment for managers was unfair. The move helped show workers that managers really did want to work with them as equals. VOICE ONE: W. Edwards Deming continued to give educational speeches to managers until shortly before his death In Nineteen-Ninety-Three. He was ninety-three years old. In recent years, many American businessmen and managers were influenced by Mister Deming's theories. Former President Bill Clinton said the theories of W. Edwards Deming led to the effort to reinvent government in the nineteen-nineties. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Mister Deming's advice resulted not just in better goods and services, but in better lives for millions of people. Business experts say W. Edwards Deming's ideas about business should continue to find new life in companies throughout the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Gayle Shiraki and directed by Cynthia Kirk. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about an American who was better known in Japan than in the United States. W. Edwards Deming was responsible for shaping the industrial rebirth of Japan following World War Two. (THEME) VOICE ONE: W. Edwards Deming was born in the state of Iowa in nineteen-hundred. His family soon moved to a small town in Wyoming. His family was very poor. As a child, he earned money for his family by working after school carrying wood and coal to a nearby hotel. This early experience had a lasting effect. It reportedly gave Mister Deming a deep sympathy for poor people and a bitter hatred of waste. Mister Deming said that his parents believed in the importance of education, although his family did not have very much money. He was able to attend the University of Wyoming where he studied engineering. He earned a Masters' degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Colorado. He received a doctorate in physics from Yale University in nineteen-twenty-eight. VOICE TWO: After he graduated from Yale, Mister Deming worked as a federal government employee in Washington for several years. He later joined the Census Bureau as its chief mathmetician. He developed many new methods for collecting information about the population of the United States. In nineteen-forty-seven, he was sent to Japan to help with population studies there. Japan was governed by an occupying force led by American General Douglas MacArthur in the first years after World War Two. One of General MacArthur's goals was to rebuild Japanese industry. VOICE ONE: Mister Deming already was recognized for his knowledge about the operation of companies. During the war, he had developed a plan to train American engineers in ideas needed to improve production. Japanese industrial leaders were especially interested in learning his ideas. They knew that Japan lacked many natural resources. They believed that their country would be successful only if Japanese companies could sell goods on world markets. So, they invited Mister Deming to teach them his methods to produce the best-made goods possible. In nineteen-fifty, Mister Deming taught for eight days in Japan. Eighty percent of Japan's top business and industrial leaders attended the classes. He told them that they could do a better job than American companies if they would try to fill the demands of people who buy their products. He discussed ways to produce goods that would not break or wear out easily. His main ideas became known as methods of quality control. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In general, W Edwards Deming believed that managers who supervised workers -- and not the workers -- were responsible for most production problems. He said effective managers should spend most of their time setting goals for the company. He said managers should communicate with their workers. And he said cooperation, not competition, was important in a company. Mister Deming rejected the idea of using inspectors to judge the work of company employees. He denounced company rules that set production limits for workers. He also criticized the system of giving workers money awards. Mister Deming argued that the real secret to producing better goods is to depend on workers to do the job correctly the first time. He often said people have the right to enjoy their work and feel that they have control over their job. He believed that people do their best work when they are urged to use their minds and their skills on the job. VOICE ONE: Mister Deming believed that another important goal for any company is to work to reduce waste. Motions by a worker that do not add value to the final product are waste, he said. So are supplies that companies do not use for long periods of time. Mister Deming also was known for his money-saving methods in his personal life. One of his daughters says he would write dates on eggs in the refrigerator. He was sure then that the oldest egg would be eaten first. No egg would be wasted! ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Japanese companies closely followed Mister Deming's advice about industrial management. In about twenty years, products made by Japanese companies easily beat their competition in international markets. For example, Japanese companies, like Sony and Panasonic, almost forced American television and radio industries out of business. At about the same time, Japanese car companies captured huge markets once led by the American automobile industry. VOICE ONE: After Mister Deming's first trip to Japan, the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers collected his notes. They published the ideas as a book named, "Elementary Principles of the Statistical Control of Quality." Mister Deming refused to accept any money earned from the book. Instead, he suggested that the money be used to support efforts aimed at improving production. So the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers created the Deming Prize. It rewards companies that produce some of the best designed goods. The award became one of the most highly sought prizes by Japanese companies. Yet, the man recognized for leading Japan's industrial revolution remained almost unknown in the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: By nineteen-eighty, American industries were in trouble. Japanese products continued to be leading sellers in all major markets. American managers sought to find ways to compete with Japanese companies. They finally began to notice W. Edwards Deming. VOICE ONE: The Ford Motor Company was one of the first large American companies to seek help from Mister Deming. Ford officials asked him to visit their headquarters in Michigan in nineteen-eighty-one. The company's sales were falling. Ford was losing hundreds of millions of dollars. Ford officials were expecting to learn quick new ways to improve their cars. Mister Deming, instead, began questioning the company's culture and the way its managers operated. He told the officials that management actions are responsible for eighty-five percent of all problems in developing better cars. Ford officials followed his advice. In a few years, Ford Motor Company led the American automobile industry in improvements. VOICE TWO: As the success of Ford Motor Company grew, demand for Mister Deming's services increased. He worked only with a small number of companies. He also refused to provide advice for companies that did not let him meet with their top officials. He said that the only way to bring about change was to have direct meetings with top-level company managers. Companies that followed Mister Deming's methods often found that they had to change the way they operated. For example, separate parking spaces and dining rooms for company officials were taken away. Factory workers thought that special treatment for managers was unfair. The move helped show workers that managers really did want to work with them as equals. VOICE ONE: W. Edwards Deming continued to give educational speeches to managers until shortly before his death In Nineteen-Ninety-Three. He was ninety-three years old. In recent years, many American businessmen and managers were influenced by Mister Deming's theories. Former President Bill Clinton said the theories of W. Edwards Deming led to the effort to reinvent government in the nineteen-nineties. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Mister Deming's advice resulted not just in better goods and services, but in better lives for millions of people. Business experts say W. Edwards Deming's ideas about business should continue to find new life in companies throughout the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Gayle Shiraki and directed by Cynthia Kirk. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – July 18, 2002: School Choice Program
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States has about ninety-thousand public schools. The Department of Education reported this month that nine percent of these schools have failed to meet learning requirements. Education Department officials say they had not expected so many schools to perform poorly. States identified more than eight-thousand schools as failing to provide a good education. They did so after students in these schools did not perform well on tests for two years. Many of the failing schools are in poor areas of big cities. There are about forty-seven-million students in public schools in the United States. Most of these students must attend the school closest to their homes. Now, a law approved earlier this year provides a new choice. President Bush signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in January. The act says children in failing public schools can choose to attend better schools in their local school area. The school systems must help pay transportation costs for students who choose to attend other schools. The law also calls for all students in grades three through eight to be tested each year in reading and mathematics. Department of Education officials praise the law as especially helpful to poor families who live in areas with failing schools. The law is to take effect in the fall when the new school year begins. Some states, however, are having difficulty deciding how and when to enact it. Massachusetts, for example, says it will not know until next winter which schools it should identify as failing. That is when the state will receive the results of the most recent student tests. Other school systems have already put the law into effect. Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, has completed the process. Ten of its schools were judged as failing. About six-thousand children attend these schools. More than half of the students come from poor families. School officials communicated with the families of all students at the ten schools. They wrote letters to the parents in several languages. However, only about one-hundred children have changed schools. And, almost none of them are from poor families. A guidance official in Montgomery County says she believes the law is a good idea. But she says she hopes it can be used to help more poor children in the future. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. The United States has about ninety-thousand public schools. The Department of Education reported this month that nine percent of these schools have failed to meet learning requirements. Education Department officials say they had not expected so many schools to perform poorly. States identified more than eight-thousand schools as failing to provide a good education. They did so after students in these schools did not perform well on tests for two years. Many of the failing schools are in poor areas of big cities. There are about forty-seven-million students in public schools in the United States. Most of these students must attend the school closest to their homes. Now, a law approved earlier this year provides a new choice. President Bush signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in January. The act says children in failing public schools can choose to attend better schools in their local school area. The school systems must help pay transportation costs for students who choose to attend other schools. The law also calls for all students in grades three through eight to be tested each year in reading and mathematics. Department of Education officials praise the law as especially helpful to poor families who live in areas with failing schools. The law is to take effect in the fall when the new school year begins. Some states, however, are having difficulty deciding how and when to enact it. Massachusetts, for example, says it will not know until next winter which schools it should identify as failing. That is when the state will receive the results of the most recent student tests. Other school systems have already put the law into effect. Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, has completed the process. Ten of its schools were judged as failing. About six-thousand children attend these schools. More than half of the students come from poor families. School officials communicated with the families of all students at the ten schools. They wrote letters to the parents in several languages. However, only about one-hundred children have changed schools. And, almost none of them are from poor families. A guidance official in Montgomery County says she believes the law is a good idea. But she says she hopes it can be used to help more poor children in the future. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-12-4-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – July 16, 2002: Foods That Protect Against Disease
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about research that says some foods may protect people against disease. We tell about why eating foods with vitamins E and C may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. We tell about why eating broccoli may prevent stomach ulcers and cancer. And we tell why eating fish is good for your heart. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Two new studies suggest that some vitamins found in foods can protect a person from developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a condition of the brain that usually affects older people. It begins slowly and becomes worse over time. At first, victims forget recent events. Later, they lose memory and the ability to care for themselves. The latest studies were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They both suggest that foods that contain vitamins E and C can protect against Alzheimer’s. Foods high in vitamin E include nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, whole grains and green, leafy vegetables. Vitamin C is found in vegetables and fruits such as grapefruit and oranges. Vitamins E and C are called antioxidants. These are substances that block damage to cells in the body. This damage is caused by oxygen molecules called free radicals during normal body processes. Researchers have found evidence of this cell damage in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Scientists believe that a build-up of cell damage called by free radicals is linked to several other diseases. VOICE TWO: The first study involved more than eight-hundred people in the American city of Chicago, Illinois. The people were older than sixty-four. Half of the people were white. The others were black. Researchers asked them about the foods they ate and studied their health for about four years. About one-hundred-thirty people developed Alzheimer’s disease during that time. The disease developed in fourteen percent of those who ate the smallest amount of vitamin E in foods. It developed in only about six percent of those eating the largest amount of vitamin E. The researchers said the group eating foods with the most vitamin E had a seventy percent lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s than the others. However, vitamin E did not provide a protective effect among people who have a gene that is linked to a higher risk for the disease. VOICE ONE: The second study involved more than five-thousand people in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. All of the people were older than fifty-four. Researchers studied them for six years. More than one-hundred-forty people developed Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that eating foods with vitamins E and C were linked with lower rates of the disease. Researchers say these studies do not prove that the vitamins can prevent Alzheimer’s. They are looking for that proof in studies now being done. The studies are examining the health differences among groups of older people taking vitamins and those taking inactive substances. Results of these studies are not expected for five to seven years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: New research has shown that eating the green vegetable broccoli may protect a person from developing sores in the stomach called ulcers and stomach cancer. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland have found that a substance in broccoli appears more effective than drugs against the bacteria that cause these diseases. The substance is sulforaphane (sul-FOR-ah-fane). Ten years ago, these researchers showed that sulforaphane could destroy cancer-causing chemicals. Later, they found that it could prevent breast and colon cancers in mice. VOICE ONE:Broccoli contains a chemical that the human body changes into sulforaphane. The researchers discovered that three-day-old broccoli plants called sprouts have at least twenty times more of this chemical than full-grown broccoli plants. The researchers started a company to grow and sell broccoli sprouts to stores. They also decided to study the sprouts’ effects on the bacterium called Helicobacter pylori (hell-e-ko-BAK-ter pie-LOW-ree). This bacterium causes stomach ulcers and increases the chances of developing stomach cancer. They did the studies with scientists from the National Center for Scientific Research in Nancy, (nahn-SEE) France. The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In laboratory studies, they found that sulforaphane killed Helicobacter pylori better than antibiotic medicines. It even killed bacteria in human stomach cells. In other studies, the researchers gave mice a chemical known to cause stomach cancer. Mice that had been given sulforaphane had thirty-nine percent fewer cancerous growths than the other mice. VOICE TWO: The researchers say their results do not mean that eating broccoli can cure ulcers or prevent stomach cancer in people. But they are trying to find out if this is true. They are preparing to begin studies in Japan to test broccoli sprouts in people infected with Helicobacter pylori. About eighty percent of the people in Japan have the bacteria in their stomachs. The same is true among people in other parts of Asia, and in some parts of Central America, South America and Africa. Scientists say stomach cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer in many of these areas. Helicobacter pylori bacteria can usually be treated with antibiotic medicines. But these medicines are very costly in some developing countries. The researchers say that finding a way to kill these dangerous bacteria without the use of drugs would be a great help to people in many parts of the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Researchers are reporting new studies showing that eating oily fish reduces the chance of dying from a heart attack. Oily fish have large amounts of a substance called omega-three fatty acid. These fish include herring, mackerel and salmon. One study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts studied about twenty-two-thousand male doctors. The doctors took part in the Physicians Health Study in nineteen-eighty-two. All were free of heart disease. Fifteen-thousand of the doctors provided the researchers with small amounts of their blood. VOICE TWO: Ninety-four of the men who had given blood died suddenly during the next seventeen years. The researchers measured the amount of omega-three fatty acid in their blood. They also measured the fatty acids in blood from one-hundred-eighty surviving members of the study. The researchers found that the men who died had lower amounts of the fatty acids in their blood. The men with the highest levels of fatty acids had an eighty percent lower risk of sudden death than the men with the lowest levels. VOICE ONE: A second study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another group of researchers in Boston studied eighty-five-thousand female nurses. The women were part of the Nurses Health Study that began in nineteen-seventy-six. The researchers spoke to the women five times in fourteen years to find out how much fish they ate. They found that the women who ate the most fish were least likely to suffer a heart attack or die of heart problems. Women who ate fish once a week had a thirty percent lower chance of heart attack or sudden death than those who never ate fish. VOICE TWO: A third study appeared in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association. Researchers in Italy studied more than eleven-thousand people who had suffered heart attacks. Half the group took a fish oil pill every day. The others took an inactive pill. The people who took the fish oil pills had a forty-two percent lower rate of sudden death from heart problems. The researchers said their findings must be confirmed by other studies before they would tell people to take fish oil in pills. But all the researchers said that eating oily fish two times a week can protect against heart disease. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about research that says some foods may protect people against disease. We tell about why eating foods with vitamins E and C may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. We tell about why eating broccoli may prevent stomach ulcers and cancer. And we tell why eating fish is good for your heart. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Two new studies suggest that some vitamins found in foods can protect a person from developing Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is a condition of the brain that usually affects older people. It begins slowly and becomes worse over time. At first, victims forget recent events. Later, they lose memory and the ability to care for themselves. The latest studies were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They both suggest that foods that contain vitamins E and C can protect against Alzheimer’s. Foods high in vitamin E include nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, whole grains and green, leafy vegetables. Vitamin C is found in vegetables and fruits such as grapefruit and oranges. Vitamins E and C are called antioxidants. These are substances that block damage to cells in the body. This damage is caused by oxygen molecules called free radicals during normal body processes. Researchers have found evidence of this cell damage in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Scientists believe that a build-up of cell damage called by free radicals is linked to several other diseases. VOICE TWO: The first study involved more than eight-hundred people in the American city of Chicago, Illinois. The people were older than sixty-four. Half of the people were white. The others were black. Researchers asked them about the foods they ate and studied their health for about four years. About one-hundred-thirty people developed Alzheimer’s disease during that time. The disease developed in fourteen percent of those who ate the smallest amount of vitamin E in foods. It developed in only about six percent of those eating the largest amount of vitamin E. The researchers said the group eating foods with the most vitamin E had a seventy percent lower chance of developing Alzheimer’s than the others. However, vitamin E did not provide a protective effect among people who have a gene that is linked to a higher risk for the disease. VOICE ONE: The second study involved more than five-thousand people in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. All of the people were older than fifty-four. Researchers studied them for six years. More than one-hundred-forty people developed Alzheimer's disease. The researchers found that eating foods with vitamins E and C were linked with lower rates of the disease. Researchers say these studies do not prove that the vitamins can prevent Alzheimer’s. They are looking for that proof in studies now being done. The studies are examining the health differences among groups of older people taking vitamins and those taking inactive substances. Results of these studies are not expected for five to seven years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: New research has shown that eating the green vegetable broccoli may protect a person from developing sores in the stomach called ulcers and stomach cancer. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland have found that a substance in broccoli appears more effective than drugs against the bacteria that cause these diseases. The substance is sulforaphane (sul-FOR-ah-fane). Ten years ago, these researchers showed that sulforaphane could destroy cancer-causing chemicals. Later, they found that it could prevent breast and colon cancers in mice. VOICE ONE:Broccoli contains a chemical that the human body changes into sulforaphane. The researchers discovered that three-day-old broccoli plants called sprouts have at least twenty times more of this chemical than full-grown broccoli plants. The researchers started a company to grow and sell broccoli sprouts to stores. They also decided to study the sprouts’ effects on the bacterium called Helicobacter pylori (hell-e-ko-BAK-ter pie-LOW-ree). This bacterium causes stomach ulcers and increases the chances of developing stomach cancer. They did the studies with scientists from the National Center for Scientific Research in Nancy, (nahn-SEE) France. The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In laboratory studies, they found that sulforaphane killed Helicobacter pylori better than antibiotic medicines. It even killed bacteria in human stomach cells. In other studies, the researchers gave mice a chemical known to cause stomach cancer. Mice that had been given sulforaphane had thirty-nine percent fewer cancerous growths than the other mice. VOICE TWO: The researchers say their results do not mean that eating broccoli can cure ulcers or prevent stomach cancer in people. But they are trying to find out if this is true. They are preparing to begin studies in Japan to test broccoli sprouts in people infected with Helicobacter pylori. About eighty percent of the people in Japan have the bacteria in their stomachs. The same is true among people in other parts of Asia, and in some parts of Central America, South America and Africa. Scientists say stomach cancer causes more deaths than any other cancer in many of these areas. Helicobacter pylori bacteria can usually be treated with antibiotic medicines. But these medicines are very costly in some developing countries. The researchers say that finding a way to kill these dangerous bacteria without the use of drugs would be a great help to people in many parts of the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Researchers are reporting new studies showing that eating oily fish reduces the chance of dying from a heart attack. Oily fish have large amounts of a substance called omega-three fatty acid. These fish include herring, mackerel and salmon. One study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts studied about twenty-two-thousand male doctors. The doctors took part in the Physicians Health Study in nineteen-eighty-two. All were free of heart disease. Fifteen-thousand of the doctors provided the researchers with small amounts of their blood. VOICE TWO: Ninety-four of the men who had given blood died suddenly during the next seventeen years. The researchers measured the amount of omega-three fatty acid in their blood. They also measured the fatty acids in blood from one-hundred-eighty surviving members of the study. The researchers found that the men who died had lower amounts of the fatty acids in their blood. The men with the highest levels of fatty acids had an eighty percent lower risk of sudden death than the men with the lowest levels. VOICE ONE: A second study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another group of researchers in Boston studied eighty-five-thousand female nurses. The women were part of the Nurses Health Study that began in nineteen-seventy-six. The researchers spoke to the women five times in fourteen years to find out how much fish they ate. They found that the women who ate the most fish were least likely to suffer a heart attack or die of heart problems. Women who ate fish once a week had a thirty percent lower chance of heart attack or sudden death than those who never ate fish. VOICE TWO: A third study appeared in Circulation, published by the American Heart Association. Researchers in Italy studied more than eleven-thousand people who had suffered heart attacks. Half the group took a fish oil pill every day. The others took an inactive pill. The people who took the fish oil pills had a forty-two percent lower rate of sudden death from heart problems. The researchers said their findings must be confirmed by other studies before they would tell people to take fish oil in pills. But all the researchers said that eating oily fish two times a week can protect against heart disease. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 18, 2002: Election of 1948
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Presidential elections are exciting events in American politics. Few elections for the White House have been as exciting as the one in nineteen-forty-eight. And few have had such surprising results. VOICE 2: Four candidates were nominated for president in the nineteen-forty-eight election. One was the man already in the White House, the candidate of the Democratic Party, President Harry Truman. Truman had been the party's successful vice presidential candidate in nineteen-forty-four. When President Franklin Roosevelt died a year later, Truman became president. (Theme) Presidential elections are exciting events in American politics. Few elections for the White House have been as exciting as the one in nineteen-forty-eight. And few have had such surprising results. VOICE 2: Four candidates were nominated for president in the nineteen-forty-eight election. One was the man already in the White House, the candidate of the Democratic Party, President Harry Truman. Truman had been the party's successful vice presidential candidate in nineteen-forty-four. When President Franklin Roosevelt died a year later, Truman became president. Truman did not do well during his first few months in office. He made several serious mistakes. He had trouble with the economy and organized labor. His party lost control of the Senate and the house of representatives in the congressional elections of nineteen-forty-six. Most Americans had little faith in Truman's ability as a leader. They expected that he would lose the presidential election in nineteen-forty-eight if he chose to be a candidate. VOICE 1: President Truman chose to run for another term in the White House. And he planned to win. In the months following the democratic defeat in the congressional election, he took several strong steps to show his leadership. Truman called on the Congress to pass a number of laws to help black people. He took firm actions in his foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. And he began to speak out with much more strength to the American people. VOICE 2: Truman succeeded in winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. "I will win this election," Truman told the Democratic convention that nominated him. "and I will make the Republicans like it!" The Republicans nominated New York state governor Thomas Dewey. Dewey was a wise and courageous man. He also was very serious. Truman campaigned by telling the voters that Dewey did not understand the needs of the average American. He called Dewey a candidate of rich people. One day, Dewey got angry at a railroad engineer because his campaign train was late for a speech. Truman charged that this proved that Dewey did not understand the problems of railroad engineers and other working Americans. He tried to make the election a choice between hard-working Democrats and rich Republicans. VOICE 1: Two other men also were candidates for the presidency. Both were from newly created parties. One was Strom Thurmond of the state of South Carolina. He was the candidate of the States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrat Party. Most of his supporters were white Americans from the southeastern part of the country. They opposed giving full rights to black people. The other candidate was Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party. His supporters believed that Truman had turned away from the progressive ideas of Franklin Roosevelt. VOICE 2: Both Thurmond and Wallace had broken away from the Democratic Party. Most political experts believed those two candidates would take votes away from President Truman. They believed Republican candidate Dewey surely would win the election. This seemed especially true because President Truman did not have strong public support. Harry Truman, however, was a fighter. He did not believe the election was lost. He took his campaign to the American people. VOICE 1: "I had always campaigned," said Mister Truman, "by going around talking to people and meeting them. Running for president was no different. "I just got on a train," Truman said, "and started across the country to tell people what was going on. I wanted to talk to them face to face. When you are standing there in front of them and talking to them, the people can tell whether you are telling them the facts or not." VOICE 2: Truman campaigned with great energy. He made hundreds of speeches as his train moved across the country. He spoke to farmers in Iowa. He visited a children's home in Texas. And he discussed issues with small groups of people who came to visit his train when it stopped in rural areas of Montana and Idaho. Dewey and the Republicans laughed at Truman's campaign. They said it showed that Truman needed votes so badly that he had to spend his time looking for them in small villages. Truman said the criticism proved that Republicans did not care for the average American. VOICE 1: Dewey also campaigned across the country by train. But he showed little of the fire and emotion in his speeches that made Truman's campaign so exciting. A reporter wrote: "Governor Dewey is acting like a man who has already been elected and is only passing time, waiting to take office. " Dewey had good reasons to feel so sure of being elected. Almost every political expert in the country said Truman had no chance to win. The Wall Street Journal newspaper, for example, printed a story about what Dewey would do in the White House after the election. And the New York Times said that Dewey would win the election by a large vote. VOICE 2: Truman refused to accept these views. Instead, he spoke with more and more emotion against Dewey. Most Americans still believed that Truman would lose. But they liked his courage in fighting until the end. At the end of one speech, a citizen shouted, "Give them hell, Harry! We will win!" And soon, Truman supporters across the country were shouting "Give 'em hell, Harry!" Truman campaigned until Election Day. He made a special appeal to working people, Jews, blacks, Catholics, and other traditional supporters of the Democratic Party. In his final radio speech, he promised to work for peace and a government that would help all people. Then he went to his home in the state of Missouri to wait with the rest of the country for the election results. VOICE 1: Republicans across the country greeted Election Day happily. They were sure that this was the day that the people would choose to send a Republican back to the White House after sixteen years. Some of the early voting results from the northeastern states showed Truman winning. But few Republicans worried. They were sure Dewey would be the winner when all the votes were counted. The editor of the Chicago Tribune newspaper also was sure Dewey would be the next president. He published a newspaper with a giant story that said "Dewey Defeats Truman." VOICE 2: The Chicago Tribune was wrong. Everyone was wrong. Everyone, that is, except Harry Truman and the Americans who gave him their votes. Truman went to bed on election night before all the votes were counted. He told his assistant that he would win. Truman woke early the next morning to learn that he was right. Not only did he defeat Dewey, but he won by a good number of votes. And he helped many Democratic congressional candidates win as well. The Democrats captured both houses of Congress. Harry Truman would go on to serve four more years in the White House. He would make many difficult decisions as America moved into the second half of the twentieth century. VOICE 1: Many of the decisions were necessary because of America's new responsibilities as leader of the Western world. Mister Truman would send American troops to South Korea to help the United Nations defend South Korea against aggression from North Korea. He would join other Western leaders in establishing a new alliance, NATO, to provide for the joint defense of Europe and North America. Mister Truman and later presidents would make decisions to send economic and military aid, in huge amounts, to countries all around the world. VOICE 2: These worldwide responsibilities produced many changes in the United States, especially in the policies and actions of the United States government. But the system of the government did not change. It remained the same as that created by the Constitution in seventeen-eighty-seven. Only a few details were changed to better protect and represent the people of the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Truman did not do well during his first few months in office. He made several serious mistakes. He had trouble with the economy and organized labor. His party lost control of the Senate and the house of representatives in the congressional elections of nineteen-forty-six. Most Americans had little faith in Truman's ability as a leader. They expected that he would lose the presidential election in nineteen-forty-eight if he chose to be a candidate. VOICE 1: President Truman chose to run for another term in the White House. And he planned to win. In the months following the democratic defeat in the congressional election, he took several strong steps to show his leadership. Truman called on the Congress to pass a number of laws to help black people. He took firm actions in his foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. And he began to speak out with much more strength to the American people. VOICE 2: Truman succeeded in winning the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. "I will win this election," Truman told the Democratic convention that nominated him. "and I will make the Republicans like it!" The Republicans nominated New York state governor Thomas Dewey. Dewey was a wise and courageous man. He also was very serious. Truman campaigned by telling the voters that Dewey did not understand the needs of the average American. He called Dewey a candidate of rich people. One day, Dewey got angry at a railroad engineer because his campaign train was late for a speech. Truman charged that this proved that Dewey did not understand the problems of railroad engineers and other working Americans. He tried to make the election a choice between hard-working Democrats and rich Republicans. VOICE 1: Two other men also were candidates for the presidency. Both were from newly created parties. One was Strom Thurmond of the state of South Carolina. He was the candidate of the States Rights Democratic Party, also known as the Dixiecrat Party. Most of his supporters were white Americans from the southeastern part of the country. They opposed giving full rights to black people. The other candidate was Henry Wallace of the Progressive Party. His supporters believed that Truman had turned away from the progressive ideas of Franklin Roosevelt. VOICE 2: Both Thurmond and Wallace had broken away from the Democratic Party. Most political experts believed those two candidates would take votes away from President Truman. They believed Republican candidate Dewey surely would win the election. This seemed especially true because President Truman did not have strong public support. Harry Truman, however, was a fighter. He did not believe the election was lost. He took his campaign to the American people. VOICE 1: "I had always campaigned," said Mister Truman, "by going around talking to people and meeting them. Running for president was no different. "I just got on a train," Truman said, "and started across the country to tell people what was going on. I wanted to talk to them face to face. When you are standing there in front of them and talking to them, the people can tell whether you are telling them the facts or not." VOICE 2: Truman campaigned with great energy. He made hundreds of speeches as his train moved across the country. He spoke to farmers in Iowa. He visited a children's home in Texas. And he discussed issues with small groups of people who came to visit his train when it stopped in rural areas of Montana and Idaho. Dewey and the Republicans laughed at Truman's campaign. They said it showed that Truman needed votes so badly that he had to spend his time looking for them in small villages. Truman said the criticism proved that Republicans did not care for the average American. VOICE 1: Dewey also campaigned across the country by train. But he showed little of the fire and emotion in his speeches that made Truman's campaign so exciting. A reporter wrote: "Governor Dewey is acting like a man who has already been elected and is only passing time, waiting to take office. " Dewey had good reasons to feel so sure of being elected. Almost every political expert in the country said Truman had no chance to win. The Wall Street Journal newspaper, for example, printed a story about what Dewey would do in the White House after the election. And the New York Times said that Dewey would win the election by a large vote. VOICE 2: Truman refused to accept these views. Instead, he spoke with more and more emotion against Dewey. Most Americans still believed that Truman would lose. But they liked his courage in fighting until the end. At the end of one speech, a citizen shouted, "Give them hell, Harry! We will win!" And soon, Truman supporters across the country were shouting "Give 'em hell, Harry!" Truman campaigned until Election Day. He made a special appeal to working people, Jews, blacks, Catholics, and other traditional supporters of the Democratic Party. In his final radio speech, he promised to work for peace and a government that would help all people. Then he went to his home in the state of Missouri to wait with the rest of the country for the election results. VOICE 1: Republicans across the country greeted Election Day happily. They were sure that this was the day that the people would choose to send a Republican back to the White House after sixteen years. Some of the early voting results from the northeastern states showed Truman winning. But few Republicans worried. They were sure Dewey would be the winner when all the votes were counted. The editor of the Chicago Tribune newspaper also was sure Dewey would be the next president. He published a newspaper with a giant story that said "Dewey Defeats Truman." VOICE 2: The Chicago Tribune was wrong. Everyone was wrong. Everyone, that is, except Harry Truman and the Americans who gave him their votes. Truman went to bed on election night before all the votes were counted. He told his assistant that he would win. Truman woke early the next morning to learn that he was right. Not only did he defeat Dewey, but he won by a good number of votes. And he helped many Democratic congressional candidates win as well. The Democrats captured both houses of Congress. Harry Truman would go on to serve four more years in the White House. He would make many difficult decisions as America moved into the second half of the twentieth century. VOICE 1: Many of the decisions were necessary because of America's new responsibilities as leader of the Western world. Mister Truman would send American troops to South Korea to help the United Nations defend South Korea against aggression from North Korea. He would join other Western leaders in establishing a new alliance, NATO, to provide for the joint defense of Europe and North America. Mister Truman and later presidents would make decisions to send economic and military aid, in huge amounts, to countries all around the world. VOICE 2: These worldwide responsibilities produced many changes in the United States, especially in the policies and actions of the United States government. But the system of the government did not change. It remained the same as that created by the Constitution in seventeen-eighty-seven. Only a few details were changed to better protect and represent the people of the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 19, 2002: Music by Vanessa Carlton / Tennis Greats Venus and Serena Williams / Question About America’s National Game
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Vanessa Carlton ... Answer a listener’s question about America’s national game ... And report about the American sisters who are the best tennis players in the world. The Williams Sisters HOST: Recently, two young American women played against each other for the top prize in professional tennis -- the Women’s Championship at Wimbledon, England. The two women are sisters. Shep O’Neal tells us about Serena and Venus Williams. ANNCR: Venus Williams is twenty-two years old. Serena is twenty. Earlier this month, Serena defeated Venus to win the championship at Wimbledon. That victory is perhaps the most important event in professional tennis. And it was only one of many victories in the past three years. Serena had already won the French Open tennis championship before her win in England. Serena’s recent victories mean that one of the Williams sisters has won seven of the last twelve major international tennis tournaments. Venus won the Wimbledon Championship in two-thousand and two-thousand-one. She also won the United States Open championship both of those years. And the two sisters also won the women’s doubles match at Wimbledon earlier this month. Tennis experts say Richard Williams is the main reason that his daughters are the two top players in women’s professional tennis. He taught them how to play the game and he taught them well. Both women say their father is the reason for their success. About fifteen years ago, he told Venus that she was going to be one of the best tennis players in the world. He then told Venus and Serena that one day they would compete for the championship of professional tennis at Wimbledon. No one would have believed Richard Williams at the time. The Williams family lived in a poor area of Los Angeles, California. And only one other African-American woman had ever won the championship at Wimbledon. That was Althea Gibson in the nineteen-fifties. Critics say the two sisters do not play their best tennis against each other. The Williams sisters deny this. But they say that they know each other’s game extremely well because they have played against each other since they were children. Sports reporters say the two Williams sisters are not only great tennis players. They are also intelligent and strong young women. One reporter asked Serena if Venus was upset or angry about losing to her sister. Serena looked a little confused. Then she said, “No, Venus is not angry. She is happy for me. We will always be family first, and then tennis players.” America’s National Game HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Ranveer Jayani asks what is the national game of the United States. Americans enjoy playing and watching many sports, including football, soccer, basketball and hockey. But if you ask most Americans what is the national game, they would probably answer baseball. Perhaps no other sport is as deeply rooted in American life. None has created so many popular traditions. These include poems, songs, books and movies. Famous players of the past and present are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Baseball words have even become part of the language. For example, Americans may admit to “striking out” when failing at something. Part of the reason Americans love baseball is that they have been playing it for more than one-hundred-fifty years. No one knows for sure when the modern game began. Many people believe it developed from a game called “rounders” that was played in the eighteen-hundreds. Some history experts say Abner Doubleday invented baseball in eighteen-thirty-nine. Others say it was Alexander Cartwright in eighteen-forty-five. He developed a list of rules and formed the first baseball team, the New York Knickerbockers. Today, Americans of all ages play baseball. Thousands of teams are organized across the country -- school teams, company teams and teams supported by religious groups. And millions of Americans attend professional baseball games and watch them on television. More than three-hundred-fifty-thousand people travel each year to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The Hall of Fame explains the history of baseball. It also honors great players of the past and present. This year, the museum has put together a traveling show called “Baseball as America.” The show includes more than five-hundred baseball objects. It explores the relationship between the game of baseball and American culture. Vanessa Carlton Host: Singer and songwriter Vanessa Carlton released her first album earlier this year. Mary Tillotson tells us about her and her music. ANNCR: Vanessa Carlton’s first album is called “Be Not Nobody.” Listen as she sings “A Thousand Miles.” ((CUT ONE - “A THOUSAND MILES”)) Vanessa Carlton is twenty-one years old. She was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. Vanessa began playing the piano at age two. She wrote her first song when she was eight years old. Yet Vanessa Carlton wanted to be a professional dancer. At the age of fourteen she was accepted at the School of American Ballet in New York City. She became one of the top students. But she was very unhappy with the intense training that is required to become a ballet dancer. Instead, she found a piano at her school and started playing and writing songs. After completing high school, Vanessa decided to be a singer instead of a dancer. Here is another of her songs. It is called “Unsung.” ((CUT TWO – “UNSUNG”)) Music experts are saying good things about Vanessa Carlton’s music. They praise her voice. They say her training as a piano player can be heard in her songs. We leave you now with a song from her album “Be Not Nobody.” Here is Vanessa Carlton performing “Ordinary Day.” ((CUT THREE – “ORDINARY DAY”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. And our producer was Paul Thompson (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Vanessa Carlton ... Answer a listener’s question about America’s national game ... And report about the American sisters who are the best tennis players in the world. The Williams Sisters HOST: Recently, two young American women played against each other for the top prize in professional tennis -- the Women’s Championship at Wimbledon, England. The two women are sisters. Shep O’Neal tells us about Serena and Venus Williams. ANNCR: Venus Williams is twenty-two years old. Serena is twenty. Earlier this month, Serena defeated Venus to win the championship at Wimbledon. That victory is perhaps the most important event in professional tennis. And it was only one of many victories in the past three years. Serena had already won the French Open tennis championship before her win in England. Serena’s recent victories mean that one of the Williams sisters has won seven of the last twelve major international tennis tournaments. Venus won the Wimbledon Championship in two-thousand and two-thousand-one. She also won the United States Open championship both of those years. And the two sisters also won the women’s doubles match at Wimbledon earlier this month. Tennis experts say Richard Williams is the main reason that his daughters are the two top players in women’s professional tennis. He taught them how to play the game and he taught them well. Both women say their father is the reason for their success. About fifteen years ago, he told Venus that she was going to be one of the best tennis players in the world. He then told Venus and Serena that one day they would compete for the championship of professional tennis at Wimbledon. No one would have believed Richard Williams at the time. The Williams family lived in a poor area of Los Angeles, California. And only one other African-American woman had ever won the championship at Wimbledon. That was Althea Gibson in the nineteen-fifties. Critics say the two sisters do not play their best tennis against each other. The Williams sisters deny this. But they say that they know each other’s game extremely well because they have played against each other since they were children. Sports reporters say the two Williams sisters are not only great tennis players. They are also intelligent and strong young women. One reporter asked Serena if Venus was upset or angry about losing to her sister. Serena looked a little confused. Then she said, “No, Venus is not angry. She is happy for me. We will always be family first, and then tennis players.” America’s National Game HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from India. Ranveer Jayani asks what is the national game of the United States. Americans enjoy playing and watching many sports, including football, soccer, basketball and hockey. But if you ask most Americans what is the national game, they would probably answer baseball. Perhaps no other sport is as deeply rooted in American life. None has created so many popular traditions. These include poems, songs, books and movies. Famous players of the past and present are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Baseball words have even become part of the language. For example, Americans may admit to “striking out” when failing at something. Part of the reason Americans love baseball is that they have been playing it for more than one-hundred-fifty years. No one knows for sure when the modern game began. Many people believe it developed from a game called “rounders” that was played in the eighteen-hundreds. Some history experts say Abner Doubleday invented baseball in eighteen-thirty-nine. Others say it was Alexander Cartwright in eighteen-forty-five. He developed a list of rules and formed the first baseball team, the New York Knickerbockers. Today, Americans of all ages play baseball. Thousands of teams are organized across the country -- school teams, company teams and teams supported by religious groups. And millions of Americans attend professional baseball games and watch them on television. More than three-hundred-fifty-thousand people travel each year to the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The Hall of Fame explains the history of baseball. It also honors great players of the past and present. This year, the museum has put together a traveling show called “Baseball as America.” The show includes more than five-hundred baseball objects. It explores the relationship between the game of baseball and American culture. Vanessa Carlton Host: Singer and songwriter Vanessa Carlton released her first album earlier this year. Mary Tillotson tells us about her and her music. ANNCR: Vanessa Carlton’s first album is called “Be Not Nobody.” Listen as she sings “A Thousand Miles.” ((CUT ONE - “A THOUSAND MILES”)) Vanessa Carlton is twenty-one years old. She was born in a small town in Pennsylvania. Vanessa began playing the piano at age two. She wrote her first song when she was eight years old. Yet Vanessa Carlton wanted to be a professional dancer. At the age of fourteen she was accepted at the School of American Ballet in New York City. She became one of the top students. But she was very unhappy with the intense training that is required to become a ballet dancer. Instead, she found a piano at her school and started playing and writing songs. After completing high school, Vanessa decided to be a singer instead of a dancer. Here is another of her songs. It is called “Unsung.” ((CUT TWO – “UNSUNG”)) Music experts are saying good things about Vanessa Carlton’s music. They praise her voice. They say her training as a piano player can be heard in her songs. We leave you now with a song from her album “Be Not Nobody.” Here is Vanessa Carlton performing “Ordinary Day.” ((CUT THREE – “ORDINARY DAY”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. And our producer was Paul Thompson 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - July 19, 2002: Yucca Mountain
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Last week, the United States Senate gave final congressional approval for a project to bury nuclear waste material under Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada. The project calls for burying more than seventy-thousand tons of radioactive nuclear waste material. The entrance to Yucca Mountain This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Last week, the United States Senate gave final congressional approval for a project to bury nuclear waste material under Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada. The project calls for burying more than seventy-thousand tons of radioactive nuclear waste material. The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at power centers around the country. However, these power centers have little storage space left. The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dispute about burying nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain has continued for many years. Bush Administration officials support the nuclear waste burial project. They say it is scientifically acceptable. They say the area is a good place to bury nuclear waste because of its lack of population and low rainfall. They also say placing all of the country’s nuclear waste in one place would help protect against terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. Supporters of the plan say it is important for the future of the nuclear power industry. However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups, Nevada state officials and many members of Congress. They say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say the rock might not be able to hold the waste and keep it from entering water underground. Opponents also say the dangerous nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across about forty states. They fear accidents or threats from terrorists could endanger the population in many areas. Now that Congress has approved the plan, the Energy Department must request and receive permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Department must provide evidence about the safety of the project. Supporters of the project hope it will begin in two-thousand-ten. However, opponents say they will continue to fight against it. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at power centers around the country. However, these power centers have little storage space left. The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dispute about burying nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain has continued for many years. Bush Administration officials support the nuclear waste burial project. They say it is scientifically acceptable. They say the area is a good place to bury nuclear waste because of its lack of population and low rainfall. They also say placing all of the country’s nuclear waste in one place would help protect against terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. Supporters of the plan say it is important for the future of the nuclear power industry. However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups, Nevada state officials and many members of Congress. They say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say the rock might not be able to hold the waste and keep it from entering water underground. Opponents also say the dangerous nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across about forty states. They fear accidents or threats from terrorists could endanger the population in many areas. Now that Congress has approved the plan, the Energy Department must request and receive permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Energy Department must provide evidence about the safety of the project. Supporters of the project hope it will begin in two-thousand-ten. However, opponents say they will continue to fight against it. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – July 22, 2002: US World Cup Team
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The United States soccer team did very well in the World Cup Championship in South Korea and Japan last month. This surprised many Americans. I’m Sarah Long. Bruce Arena VOICE ONE: The United States soccer team did very well in the World Cup Championship in South Korea and Japan last month. This surprised many Americans. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Soccer in the United States is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Soccer in the United States is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nobody was more surprised than the American public at the success of its soccer team in the World Cup championship. Often success takes a great deal of time to develop in international soccer—or football as it is known to all non-Americans. Also, there are many ways to measure success in a competition that is also the world’s most watched event. Many Americans do not realize that, early in the competition, many of the best teams in the world do not win all their games. In reality, most teams hope to score the same number of goals as their opponent, which is called playing to a tie. The two-thousand-two World Cup started with few people expecting the United States to do well. However, these low expectations already represent a success. The World Cup competition is actually the World Cup final. Teams that make the final have played in area competitions for three years to earn the right to play in the final. VOICE TWO: This year, the United States finished third in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Association competition. Their performance was just good enough to include them among teams in the World Cup final. The head of the American team, Bruce Arena (ah-REE-nah) chose a mixture of older and younger players to be on the final team. The coach also included several members who play professionally in Europe. He mixed experienced players with younger players. Nobody was more surprised than the American public at the success of its soccer team in the World Cup championship. Often success takes a great deal of time to develop in international soccer—or football as it is known to all non-Americans. Also, there are many ways to measure success in a competition that is also the world’s most watched event. Many Americans do not realize that, early in the competition, many of the best teams in the world do not win all their games. In reality, most teams hope to score the same number of goals as their opponent, which is called playing to a tie. The two-thousand-two World Cup started with few people expecting the United States to do well. However, these low expectations already represent a success. The World Cup competition is actually the World Cup final. Teams that make the final have played in area competitions for three years to earn the right to play in the final. VOICE TWO: This year, the United States finished third in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Association competition. Their performance was just good enough to include them among teams in the World Cup final. The head of the American team, Bruce Arena (ah-REE-nah) chose a mixture of older and younger players to be on the final team. The coach also included several members who play professionally in Europe. He mixed experienced players with younger players. VOICE ONE: In their first game, the Americans surprised one of Europe’s leading teams, Portugal, three-to-two. American John O’Brien made the first goal in only the fourth minute of the game. Another young player, Landon Donovan, scored in the thirtieth minute. Brian McBride made the final American goal in only the thirty-sixth minute of the first half. The Portuguese team was shocked. They made a great offensive effort. Yet, Portugal made only one goal offensively. An American player accidentally scored the second Portuguese goal. VOICE TWO: In the next game, South Korea was the opponent for the United States. Both sides made goals in the first half. The rest of the game, including extra time, was a defensive effort. The one-to-one tie left both teams with a good chance to continue in the competition. Yet, in their next game, the Americans appeared to lose all chance of going on to the next level of the competition. The first part of the World Cup final matches teams playing in eight groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group continue in the competition. Each team that loses is out. Each team that wins moves on to play one of the winners. This is the second level or the “knock-out stage” of the competition. VOICE ONE: In their first game, the Americans surprised one of Europe’s leading teams, Portugal, three-to-two. American John O’Brien made the first goal in only the fourth minute of the game. Another young player, Landon Donovan, scored in the thirtieth minute. Brian McBride made the final American goal in only the thirty-sixth minute of the first half. The Portuguese team was shocked. They made a great offensive effort. Yet, Portugal made only one goal offensively. An American player accidentally scored the second Portuguese goal. VOICE TWO: In the next game, South Korea was the opponent for the United States. Both sides made goals in the first half. The rest of the game, including extra time, was a defensive effort. The one-to-one tie left both teams with a good chance to continue in the competition. Yet, in their next game, the Americans appeared to lose all chance of going on to the next level of the competition. The first part of the World Cup final matches teams playing in eight groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group continue in the competition. Each team that loses is out. Each team that wins moves on to play one of the winners. This is the second level or the “knock-out stage” of the competition. VOICE ONE: Poland was America’s last opponent in group D. Poland had lost both its games and could not move on. Yet, the United States played very poorly and lost three-to-one. It appeared that it would not reach the “knock-out stage” of the competition. Then came another shocking result. Portugal lost to South Korea one-to-zero. Most experts had chosen Portugal to win group D. Portugal had one of the world’s best players in Luis Figo (lou-EES FEE-go). Yet, Portugal’s two losses meant that America would continue to the “knock-out stage.” Soccer is often called a game of luck. The Americans enjoyed some good luck by continuing to the next level of the competition. However, they made the best of what luck gave them. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The American team’s next opponent was Mexico. The two North American nations had played each other several times. Mexico had also surprised the world by taking first place in group G, which included powerful Italy. Mexico pressured the United States in the first minutes of the game. However, luck changed quickly and American team captain Claudio Reyna (CLOU-dee-oh RAY-nah) made a long run toward the Mexican goal. He passed the ball to Brian McBride who made a goal in only the eighth minute. Mexico kept the ball for most of the game, pushing the ball forward offensively and trying to get the tying goal. But, a second American goal came just as suddenly as the first. Landon Donovan made the final goal of the game in the sixty-fifth minute. The Americans held the ball only one-third of the time, but won the game two-to-zero. They had defeated a strong team from Mexico. VOICE ONE: Poland was America’s last opponent in group D. Poland had lost both its games and could not move on. Yet, the United States played very poorly and lost three-to-one. It appeared that it would not reach the “knock-out stage” of the competition. Then came another shocking result. Portugal lost to South Korea one-to-zero. Most experts had chosen Portugal to win group D. Portugal had one of the world’s best players in Luis Figo (lou-EES FEE-go). Yet, Portugal’s two losses meant that America would continue to the “knock-out stage.” Soccer is often called a game of luck. The Americans enjoyed some good luck by continuing to the next level of the competition. However, they made the best of what luck gave them. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The American team’s next opponent was Mexico. The two North American nations had played each other several times. Mexico had also surprised the world by taking first place in group G, which included powerful Italy. Mexico pressured the United States in the first minutes of the game. However, luck changed quickly and American team captain Claudio Reyna (CLOU-dee-oh RAY-nah) made a long run toward the Mexican goal. He passed the ball to Brian McBride who made a goal in only the eighth minute. Mexico kept the ball for most of the game, pushing the ball forward offensively and trying to get the tying goal. But, a second American goal came just as suddenly as the first. Landon Donovan made the final goal of the game in the sixty-fifth minute. The Americans held the ball only one-third of the time, but won the game two-to-zero. They had defeated a strong team from Mexico. VOICE ONE: The victory over Mexico put the United States among the last eight teams remaining in the competition. This would be the team’s best finish in the World Cup since nineteen-thirty. In that year, the United States was among the final four teams, losing only to Argentina. However, the next opponent was Germany. The German team has a fine tradition in international soccer and has won the World Cup three times. The United States played its best game of the World Cup against Germany. The team pressed the German defenders and tried to score quickly. Landon Donovan and team captain Claudio Reyna had good chances to make a goal in the first thirty minutes. However, German player Michael Ballack (BAL-ahk) scored the only goal of the game in the thirty-ninth minute. The United States came very close to tying the score. But, German goal-keeper Oliver Kahn was too strong. Kahn would win the award for best goal-keeper of this year’s World Cup. Experts agreed that the game between Germany and the United States was one of the best of the World Cup. VOICE TWO: The two-thousand-two World Cup was a huge success for the United States. Yet, the last two World Cups have been successes as well. The United States has made the final field of teams for every World Cup since Nineteen-Ninety. Traditional soccer powers France and England have not done that. Only one team, Brazil, has played in all the World Cup Final competitions. For Americans, this World Cup will be remembered as a great success. And for the first time, sports experts in America may finally understand the key to success in World Cup competition. It is being able to succeed beyond everyone’s expectations. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many sports experts say that the American public has never shown much interest in soccer. However, experts say this is only true of older Americans. They never played soccer when they were children. They did not grow up with the sport as people in other countries have. Sports like American football, baseball and basketball have always been more popular in the United States than soccer. The International Federation of Football Association, or FIFA (FEE-fuh), keeps records of soccer activities around the world. FIFA says the United States has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world — almost eighteen-million. The United States Soccer Federation also says about eighteen-million people today play soccer in the United States. But those who play are very young. Seventy-eight percent are under the age of eighteen. VOICE TWO: Sports experts say these children are making the sport more popular in the United States. The experts say soccer has become popular with children because almost anyone can play. There are teams for girls, boys, older children and young adults. Many Americans are becoming interested in soccer because their children play. This has produced a new American expression, “soccer mom.” This is a mother who spends a lot of time driving her children to soccer games and watching them compete. The United States Soccer Federation says it is helping children improve their playing skills. It provides special training for young players at soccer camps during the summer. Federation officials say the United States may one day have a World Cup champion team, but it will be sometime in the future. Soccer fans in the United States will have to wait until young soccer players grow up playing the world’s most popular sport. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: The victory over Mexico put the United States among the last eight teams remaining in the competition. This would be the team’s best finish in the World Cup since nineteen-thirty. In that year, the United States was among the final four teams, losing only to Argentina. However, the next opponent was Germany. The German team has a fine tradition in international soccer and has won the World Cup three times. The United States played its best game of the World Cup against Germany. The team pressed the German defenders and tried to score quickly. Landon Donovan and team captain Claudio Reyna had good chances to make a goal in the first thirty minutes. However, German player Michael Ballack (BAL-ahk) scored the only goal of the game in the thirty-ninth minute. The United States came very close to tying the score. But, German goal-keeper Oliver Kahn was too strong. Kahn would win the award for best goal-keeper of this year’s World Cup. Experts agreed that the game between Germany and the United States was one of the best of the World Cup. VOICE TWO: The two-thousand-two World Cup was a huge success for the United States. Yet, the last two World Cups have been successes as well. The United States has made the final field of teams for every World Cup since Nineteen-Ninety. Traditional soccer powers France and England have not done that. Only one team, Brazil, has played in all the World Cup Final competitions. For Americans, this World Cup will be remembered as a great success. And for the first time, sports experts in America may finally understand the key to success in World Cup competition. It is being able to succeed beyond everyone’s expectations. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many sports experts say that the American public has never shown much interest in soccer. However, experts say this is only true of older Americans. They never played soccer when they were children. They did not grow up with the sport as people in other countries have. Sports like American football, baseball and basketball have always been more popular in the United States than soccer. The International Federation of Football Association, or FIFA (FEE-fuh), keeps records of soccer activities around the world. FIFA says the United States has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world — almost eighteen-million. The United States Soccer Federation also says about eighteen-million people today play soccer in the United States. But those who play are very young. Seventy-eight percent are under the age of eighteen. VOICE TWO: Sports experts say these children are making the sport more popular in the United States. The experts say soccer has become popular with children because almost anyone can play. There are teams for girls, boys, older children and young adults. Many Americans are becoming interested in soccer because their children play. This has produced a new American expression, “soccer mom.” This is a mother who spends a lot of time driving her children to soccer games and watching them compete. The United States Soccer Federation says it is helping children improve their playing skills. It provides special training for young players at soccer camps during the summer. Federation officials say the United States may one day have a World Cup champion team, but it will be sometime in the future. Soccer fans in the United States will have to wait until young soccer players grow up playing the world’s most popular sport. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 21, 2002 : The Marx Brothers
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 22, 2002: Maternal Deaths Study
* Byline: 

 This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, more than five-hundred-thousand women in developing countries die while giving birth to babies. One of the causes for many of these deaths is a condition called pre-eclampsia. Up to eight percent of all pregnant women around the world develop this condition. Signs of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure and protein in the fluid waste from a woman’s body. If the condition is not identified and treated, pre-eclampsia can quickly progress to a severe condition called eclampsia. This condition can result in death for the mother if it is not treated. Researchers estimate fifty-thousand women in mostly poor countries die of eclampsia each year. Scientists say that a simple drug called magnesium sulphate can treat pre-eclampsia. Researchers recently studied the effects of the drug on more than ten-thousand pregnant women living in thirty-three countries. All the women were being treated in hospitals for pre-eclampsia. The researchers gave half the women injections of magnesium sulphate. The other women were given an injection of an inactive substance, known as a placebo. Scientists found that magnesium sulphate stopped the progression to eclampsia in fifty-eight percent of the women. They say the drug also probably reduced the risk of death among the women who received it. A researcher at the Institute for Health at Oxford University in Britain organized the study. The results were published last month in The Lancet. Scientists do not know what causes pre-eclampsia. However, doctors say women with high blood pressure or those pregnant for the first time are most at risk. Women who are very young or very old at the time they become pregnant are also more at risk. Women in the United States with pre-eclampsia have been treated with magnesium sulphate for many years. The drug does not cost much money. However, women with the condition must receive the drug by injection while in a hospital. The drug does not work if it is swallowed. Researchers hope the World Health Organization will press drug companies to produce more magnesium sulphate. Then there would be enough of the drug for the countries that need it. Experts say this would save the lives of thousands of women every year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bill White. This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. Each year, more than five-hundred-thousand women in developing countries die while giving birth to babies. One of the causes for many of these deaths is a condition called pre-eclampsia. Up to eight percent of all pregnant women around the world develop this condition. Signs of pre-eclampsia include high blood pressure and protein in the fluid waste from a woman’s body. If the condition is not identified and treated, pre-eclampsia can quickly progress to a severe condition called eclampsia. This condition can result in death for the mother if it is not treated. Researchers estimate fifty-thousand women in mostly poor countries die of eclampsia each year. Scientists say that a simple drug called magnesium sulphate can treat pre-eclampsia. Researchers recently studied the effects of the drug on more than ten-thousand pregnant women living in thirty-three countries. All the women were being treated in hospitals for pre-eclampsia. The researchers gave half the women injections of magnesium sulphate. The other women were given an injection of an inactive substance, known as a placebo. Scientists found that magnesium sulphate stopped the progression to eclampsia in fifty-eight percent of the women. They say the drug also probably reduced the risk of death among the women who received it. A researcher at the Institute for Health at Oxford University in Britain organized the study. The results were published last month in The Lancet. Scientists do not know what causes pre-eclampsia. However, doctors say women with high blood pressure or those pregnant for the first time are most at risk. Women who are very young or very old at the time they become pregnant are also more at risk. Women in the United States with pre-eclampsia have been treated with magnesium sulphate for many years. The drug does not cost much money. However, women with the condition must receive the drug by injection while in a hospital. The drug does not work if it is swallowed. Researchers hope the World Health Organization will press drug companies to produce more magnesium sulphate. Then there would be enough of the drug for the countries that need it. Experts say this would save the lives of thousands of women every year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bill White. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 20, 2002: Global Summit of Women
* Byline: 

 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. About six-hundred business, professional and governmental leaders gathered in Barcelona, Spain, last week for the Global Summit of Women. The three-day meeting dealt with economic development for women around the world. The Global Summit of Women brought together women from more than seventy countries. The largest delegations this year were from Spain, the United States and Kazakhstan. Several governments sent trade officials to the summit, including the United States, Iceland and Canada. The American group was led by Assistant Secretary of Commerce Maria Cino (SEE-no). Female business leaders and government officials spoke at the meeting. They included vice presidents, deputy prime ministers and ministers of employment, science and technology from several countries. The Global Summit of Women began in nineteen-ninety. It has been held every year since nineteen-ninety-seven. The majority of women attending the meeting are owners of small businesses. The meeting offers women a chance to increase business and professional relationships and to exchange ideas. It aims to increase women’s economic progress even though there are cultural barriers in many countries. The summit dealt with problems that women face in starting or expanding businesses. It provided information in many areas. For example, the meeting provided information about doing business on the Internet computer system and developing effective Web sites. The women also discussed how to get financial support for business owners and form important business alliances. Other issues included how health crises and environmental concerns influence business. The women discussed how to turn traditional activities into successful modern businesses. And they also discussed how women can balance many concerns in their lives, including work, family and health. The director of the Global Summit of Women is Irene Natividad of the United States. Mizz Natividad says in Europe, Canada and the United States, at least one-third of all small and medium-size businesses are now owned by women. And she says eighty percent of small businesses in developing countries are owned and led by women. Mizz Natividad says small businesses are an important part of every free market economy. Mizz Natividad says women are also an important part of every economy. Yet she says many businesses fail to recognize the importance of women. She says women must do more to gain economic equality. She also called on women to do more to improve the education of girls and women around the world, especially in science and math. She says this is important for the new world economy. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. About six-hundred business, professional and governmental leaders gathered in Barcelona, Spain, last week for the Global Summit of Women. The three-day meeting dealt with economic development for women around the world. The Global Summit of Women brought together women from more than seventy countries. The largest delegations this year were from Spain, the United States and Kazakhstan. Several governments sent trade officials to the summit, including the United States, Iceland and Canada. The American group was led by Assistant Secretary of Commerce Maria Cino (SEE-no). Female business leaders and government officials spoke at the meeting. They included vice presidents, deputy prime ministers and ministers of employment, science and technology from several countries. The Global Summit of Women began in nineteen-ninety. It has been held every year since nineteen-ninety-seven. The majority of women attending the meeting are owners of small businesses. The meeting offers women a chance to increase business and professional relationships and to exchange ideas. It aims to increase women’s economic progress even though there are cultural barriers in many countries. The summit dealt with problems that women face in starting or expanding businesses. It provided information in many areas. For example, the meeting provided information about doing business on the Internet computer system and developing effective Web sites. The women also discussed how to get financial support for business owners and form important business alliances. Other issues included how health crises and environmental concerns influence business. The women discussed how to turn traditional activities into successful modern businesses. And they also discussed how women can balance many concerns in their lives, including work, family and health. The director of the Global Summit of Women is Irene Natividad of the United States. Mizz Natividad says in Europe, Canada and the United States, at least one-third of all small and medium-size businesses are now owned by women. And she says eighty percent of small businesses in developing countries are owned and led by women. Mizz Natividad says small businesses are an important part of every free market economy. Mizz Natividad says women are also an important part of every economy. Yet she says many businesses fail to recognize the importance of women. She says women must do more to gain economic equality. She also called on women to do more to improve the education of girls and women around the world, especially in science and math. She says this is important for the new world economy. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 23, 2002: Watermelon Studies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Watermelon is popular in the United States. Many people enjoy eating it on a hot, summer day. Watermelon has a hard outer skin and a soft area on the inside. About ninety-three percent of the fruit is water. Most watermelons have many seeds. However, some are grown to have no seeds. American scientists are studying how watermelon influences human health. They are finding that it has vitamins, minerals and other chemicals important for good health. Watermelon contains the vitamins A, B-six, C and thiamin. It also contains potassium. Watermelon also is one of the few foods that contain large amounts of lycopene (LIE-ko-peen). Lycopene is a red chemical found in some plants. It also is present in tomatoes, red and pink grapefruit and guava. Many studies have shown that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer. Scientists have found that lycopene in the diet reduces the risk of some cancers. Lycopene in fat tissue has been linked with a reduced risk of heart attack. Until recently, most lycopene studies have involved tomatoes. However, scientists with the Agricultural Research Service are studying lycopene levels in watermelon. They want to learn how well the human body breaks down and uses lycopene. Agricultural Research Service scientists in Oklahoma grew and studied thirteen kinds of watermelon. They measured the amounts of lycopene in the melons. The scientists found that the watermelons without seeds generally had more lycopene. Tests also showed that watermelon had as much or more lycopene as uncooked tomatoes. Two years ago, Agricultural Research scientists in Maryland organized a nineteen-week study to identify the health effects of lycopene. For the study, twenty-three adults ate a controlled diet and drank watermelon juice during three treatment periods. Later, the people received either watermelon or tomato juice. The study found that both liquids increased lycopene levels in the blood. In the United States, there is interest in selling watermelon juice. A company in California is making an all-natural version of the product. It is selling watermelon juice in California and Oregon. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Watermelon is popular in the United States. Many people enjoy eating it on a hot, summer day. Watermelon has a hard outer skin and a soft area on the inside. About ninety-three percent of the fruit is water. Most watermelons have many seeds. However, some are grown to have no seeds. American scientists are studying how watermelon influences human health. They are finding that it has vitamins, minerals and other chemicals important for good health. Watermelon contains the vitamins A, B-six, C and thiamin. It also contains potassium. Watermelon also is one of the few foods that contain large amounts of lycopene (LIE-ko-peen). Lycopene is a red chemical found in some plants. It also is present in tomatoes, red and pink grapefruit and guava. Many studies have shown that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of heart disease and cancer. Scientists have found that lycopene in the diet reduces the risk of some cancers. Lycopene in fat tissue has been linked with a reduced risk of heart attack. Until recently, most lycopene studies have involved tomatoes. However, scientists with the Agricultural Research Service are studying lycopene levels in watermelon. They want to learn how well the human body breaks down and uses lycopene. Agricultural Research Service scientists in Oklahoma grew and studied thirteen kinds of watermelon. They measured the amounts of lycopene in the melons. The scientists found that the watermelons without seeds generally had more lycopene. Tests also showed that watermelon had as much or more lycopene as uncooked tomatoes. Two years ago, Agricultural Research scientists in Maryland organized a nineteen-week study to identify the health effects of lycopene. For the study, twenty-three adults ate a controlled diet and drank watermelon juice during three treatment periods. Later, the people received either watermelon or tomato juice. The study found that both liquids increased lycopene levels in the blood. In the United States, there is interest in selling watermelon juice. A company in California is making an all-natural version of the product. It is selling watermelon juice in California and Oregon. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – July 23, 2002: International AIDS Conference
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT- July 24, 2002: Hormone Replacement Therapy Study Halted
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American government researchers have halted a national women’s health study because they found harmful effects from hormone replacement therapy, or H-R-T. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. This period of life is called menopause. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems like heart disease. Recent studies have disagreed, however. The latest study is the largest ever done to investigate the effects of H-R-T on healthy, older women. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health carried out the study. It involved more than sixteen-thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. Half of the women took a pill that contains the hormones estrogen and progestin. The other women took an inactive substance. After five years, the women who took the hormones were twenty-six percent more likely to develop breast cancer than the others. The study found that the hormones also increased the chances of heart attacks by twenty-nine percent and strokes by forty-one percent. The researchers did find that the treatment reduced the number of broken bones and colon cancers. But officials decided to stop the study three years early because they believed the hormones did more harm than good. The study tested the hormone progestin mixed with a kind of estrogen. About six-million American women use this kind of hormone replacement therapy. Adding progestin to the estrogen is necessary to prevent the risk of cancer of the uterus. A similar combination is used in Europe. The study results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Some experts said women should use the hormones only to ease severe problems during menopause, such as feelings of extreme heat. They said women should not take hormone replacement therapy for more than a few years. They said women should protect their hearts and bones with other drugs and exercise. The researchers said more testing is needed to see if other kinds of H-R-T have similar effects. For example, they said it may be safer to use smaller amounts of estrogen and progestin that can be placed on the skin. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American government researchers have halted a national women’s health study because they found harmful effects from hormone replacement therapy, or H-R-T. Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty. This period of life is called menopause. Until now, medical experts believed that taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems like heart disease. Recent studies have disagreed, however. The latest study is the largest ever done to investigate the effects of H-R-T on healthy, older women. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health carried out the study. It involved more than sixteen-thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. Half of the women took a pill that contains the hormones estrogen and progestin. The other women took an inactive substance. After five years, the women who took the hormones were twenty-six percent more likely to develop breast cancer than the others. The study found that the hormones also increased the chances of heart attacks by twenty-nine percent and strokes by forty-one percent. The researchers did find that the treatment reduced the number of broken bones and colon cancers. But officials decided to stop the study three years early because they believed the hormones did more harm than good. The study tested the hormone progestin mixed with a kind of estrogen. About six-million American women use this kind of hormone replacement therapy. Adding progestin to the estrogen is necessary to prevent the risk of cancer of the uterus. A similar combination is used in Europe. The study results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Some experts said women should use the hormones only to ease severe problems during menopause, such as feelings of extreme heat. They said women should not take hormone replacement therapy for more than a few years. They said women should protect their hearts and bones with other drugs and exercise. The researchers said more testing is needed to see if other kinds of H-R-T have similar effects. For example, they said it may be safer to use smaller amounts of estrogen and progestin that can be placed on the skin. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - July 25, 2002: SAT Examination
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Each year, millions of people around the world apply to study at American colleges or universities. The most widely used college admissions test is called the S-A-T. More than three-million of the tests were given last year. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Each year, millions of people around the world apply to study at American colleges or universities. The most widely used college admissions test is called the S-A-T. More than three-million of the tests were given last year. The S-A-T was first used for college admissions in nineteen-twenty-six. Its purpose was to help college officials identify which students would be successful in college. Critics say the test has not always done this. Research suggests that students from rich families do better on the S-A-T test than students whose parents are poor. For example, many rich students are able to improve their scores on the test after taking costly preparation classes. Critics also say many African-American and Hispanic teenagers score lower on the test than students of other ethnic groups. The College Board is a non-profit higher education association that owns the S-A-T. It recently announced major changes in the test. It says the new S-A-T will better test a student’s reasoning and thinking skills. Education experts say the new test will show how well students have learned material taught in high school. The first change will end analogy questions on the S-A-T. Analogies are words with meanings that are linked. Critics have said that such questions show only a knowledge of words, not reasoning skills. The analogy questions will be replaced with questions that better show the student’s reading ability. The second major change will add higher level mathematics questions. The final change will add a writing test. Students will have about thirty minutes to write about their reactions to a question or statement. Last year, the president of the University of California, Richard Atkinson, called on his school to stop using the S-A-T as an entrance requirement. He said the skills it tests are not taught in high school. He said the results of the test do not show if students are prepared to attend college. College Board officials say those comments caused them to move quickly to change the test. However, they say they had been discussing such changes for some time. They say students will begin taking the new S-A-T in March, two-thousand-five. It will affect students planning to enter college in the fall of two-thousand-six. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. The S-A-T was first used for college admissions in nineteen-twenty-six. Its purpose was to help college officials identify which students would be successful in college. Critics say the test has not always done this. Research suggests that students from rich families do better on the S-A-T test than students whose parents are poor. For example, many rich students are able to improve their scores on the test after taking costly preparation classes. Critics also say many African-American and Hispanic teenagers score lower on the test than students of other ethnic groups. The College Board is a non-profit higher education association that owns the S-A-T. It recently announced major changes in the test. It says the new S-A-T will better test a student’s reasoning and thinking skills. Education experts say the new test will show how well students have learned material taught in high school. The first change will end analogy questions on the S-A-T. Analogies are words with meanings that are linked. Critics have said that such questions show only a knowledge of words, not reasoning skills. The analogy questions will be replaced with questions that better show the student’s reading ability. The second major change will add higher level mathematics questions. The final change will add a writing test. Students will have about thirty minutes to write about their reactions to a question or statement. Last year, the president of the University of California, Richard Atkinson, called on his school to stop using the S-A-T as an entrance requirement. He said the skills it tests are not taught in high school. He said the results of the test do not show if students are prepared to attend college. College Board officials say those comments caused them to move quickly to change the test. However, they say they had been discussing such changes for some time. They say students will begin taking the new S-A-T in March, two-thousand-five. It will affect students planning to enter college in the fall of two-thousand-six. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-22-5-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 24, 2002: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about plans to build a new international space research center at Cape Kennedy. We tell about new pictures of a star that exploded ten-thousand years ago. And we begin with a report about a new space communications system that is being built in Spain. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Spanish workers are building a huge communications device near Madrid. It will soon be used to communicate with all spacecraft. It will also help NASA study the planet Mars and comets that travel through space. The large device looks like a huge round dish. It is thirty-four meters across. It weighs more than five-hundred tons. The device is a radio antenna. It sends and receives radio signals to and from spacecraft. It also guides the radio signals to a protected, underground electronics room. VOICE TWO: The antenna is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California is responsible for the Deep Space Network. The network connects different kinds of radio communications for spacecraft exploring the solar system. It operates huge antenna dishes in California, Spain and Australia. These communications stations take turns linking with different spacecraft as the Earth turns. The Deep Space Network antennas catch information sent from spacecraft. These spacecraft can be as near as an orbit around Earth, or millions of kilometers away. The antennas also send commands to spacecraft. The new antenna in Madrid will increase the communicating power of the center in Spain by thirty-three percent. VOICE ONE: Finishing the new antenna on time is extremely important. NASA needs this antenna to communicate with several new projects. The need for space communications will greatly expand by November of next year. NASA says that for three months beginning in November, two-thousand-three, the Deep Space Network will be very busy. The network will be communicating with three devices that will land and explore some of the surface of Mars. It also will communicate with two other spacecraft in orbit around Mars. The five spacecraft orbiting and landing on Mars are from the United States, Europe and Japan. At the same time, two other new spacecraft will be gathering information about comets. The Deep Space Network will also have to keep in communication with all of the other spacecraft that are already traveling through the galaxy. VOICE TWO: The device that is being built in Spain will join five other thirty-four meter antennas. Three are at the network’s Goldstone station near the city of Barstow in the western American state of California. One is already at the communications station near Madrid. Another is near Canberra, Australia. Each of the three communications stations also has a seventy-meter antenna and several smaller antennas. The new addition to the Deep Space Network will help provide exciting new discoveries to report in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE ONE: Once there was a huge star, millions of kilometers from Earth. This huge star was almost twenty-five times larger than our Sun. Space scientists say large stars like this do not live long. They burn their fuel a thousand times faster than our Sun. They use up their supply of nuclear fuel in tens of millions of years. When their fuel is almost gone, a series of events takes place. The star first begins to cool. In the end, the material of the star begins to fall back into itself. This causes gravity to increase by large amounts. In the end, a huge explosion results. The material from the explosion travels into space at more than seventy-two million kilometers per hour. A star that explodes like this is called a supernova. VOICE TWO: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has sent to Earth photographs of the remains of a huge star. NASA scientists say it exploded more than ten-thousand years ago. Light from that explosion first reached Earth in the sixteen-hundreds. That light had traveled ten thousand light years. It was so bright it could even be seen during the day. All that is left of the huge star are long, thin clouds that look like ribbons. The Hubble pictures show them as long pieces of red, green, pink and blue. NASA scientists say the colors are caused by different chemicals. The dark blue color is caused by oxygen. The color red is created by sulfur. The photographs were made by the Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera Two. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, designed and built the camera. The remains of the dead star are called Cassiopeia A, or just “Cas A” for short. Cas A is the youngest known supernova that remains in our Milky Way galaxy. VOICE ONE: The new photographs of Cas A are permitting scientists to study the supernova’s remains very clearly. For the first time, scientists can study the material from the dead star. Scientists say the new pictures show this material has become thousands of small groups of gas particles which are slowly cooling. They say each group will someday become new stars and planets. NASA officials say the new Hubble photographs were taken in January two-thousand and January two-thousand and two. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see Hubble’s beautiful picture of Cas A. Type in w-w-w dot v-o-a-n-e-w-s dot c-o-m and follow the link to Special English. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In February two-thousand-one, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the state of Florida agreed to design, build and operate a new science center. The building is named the Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory. It will serve as a major link to the International Space Station for science experiments. It will also be used for experiments in biological science here on Earth. And it will be used for research about the ecology of the area surrounding Kennedy Space Center. Scientists who work in life science research being done on the International Space Station will use the new building. They will prepare experiments to be launched on the Space Shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center to the Space Station. VOICE ONE: The Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory represents a joint effort between NASA and Florida. The state will provide thirty-million dollars to build the science laboratory. The building is expected to be ready for use in two-thousand-four. The new science laboratory is the first building in the International Space Research Park at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The new space research park is to be a research and development center for the exploration of space. NASA says it will combine research strengths in areas such as space technology, energy, ecology sciences and biology sciences. The International Space Research Park will be the major area where science experiments are prepared for the International Space Station. NASA would like it to provide a base for groups interesting in working in space science and space exploration. It hopes to include both government and private groups. These private groups would include major research universities and industries involved in advanced technology. NASA planners say they believe that top scientists and space technology engineers will want to work at the new center. They will want to do this because the new research center will be linked to the Kennedy Space Center. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say the International Space Research Park will be built on more than one-hundred-sixty hectares of land. They hope the space research center will be used by countries around the world that are interested in space research. NASA says it will provide the most modern structures for this kind of research. It also says the research center will not be used for the building of large space vehicles or equipment that might be a danger to others who use the strutures. NASA says the International Space Research Park will support the exploration of space and help improve the economy of the state of Florida. Officials say the new research center will make the Kennedy Space Center the world’s leader in space science, development and exploration. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about plans to build a new international space research center at Cape Kennedy. We tell about new pictures of a star that exploded ten-thousand years ago. And we begin with a report about a new space communications system that is being built in Spain. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Spanish workers are building a huge communications device near Madrid. It will soon be used to communicate with all spacecraft. It will also help NASA study the planet Mars and comets that travel through space. The large device looks like a huge round dish. It is thirty-four meters across. It weighs more than five-hundred tons. The device is a radio antenna. It sends and receives radio signals to and from spacecraft. It also guides the radio signals to a protected, underground electronics room. VOICE TWO: The antenna is part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California is responsible for the Deep Space Network. The network connects different kinds of radio communications for spacecraft exploring the solar system. It operates huge antenna dishes in California, Spain and Australia. These communications stations take turns linking with different spacecraft as the Earth turns. The Deep Space Network antennas catch information sent from spacecraft. These spacecraft can be as near as an orbit around Earth, or millions of kilometers away. The antennas also send commands to spacecraft. The new antenna in Madrid will increase the communicating power of the center in Spain by thirty-three percent. VOICE ONE: Finishing the new antenna on time is extremely important. NASA needs this antenna to communicate with several new projects. The need for space communications will greatly expand by November of next year. NASA says that for three months beginning in November, two-thousand-three, the Deep Space Network will be very busy. The network will be communicating with three devices that will land and explore some of the surface of Mars. It also will communicate with two other spacecraft in orbit around Mars. The five spacecraft orbiting and landing on Mars are from the United States, Europe and Japan. At the same time, two other new spacecraft will be gathering information about comets. The Deep Space Network will also have to keep in communication with all of the other spacecraft that are already traveling through the galaxy. VOICE TWO: The device that is being built in Spain will join five other thirty-four meter antennas. Three are at the network’s Goldstone station near the city of Barstow in the western American state of California. One is already at the communications station near Madrid. Another is near Canberra, Australia. Each of the three communications stations also has a seventy-meter antenna and several smaller antennas. The new addition to the Deep Space Network will help provide exciting new discoveries to report in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE ONE: Once there was a huge star, millions of kilometers from Earth. This huge star was almost twenty-five times larger than our Sun. Space scientists say large stars like this do not live long. They burn their fuel a thousand times faster than our Sun. They use up their supply of nuclear fuel in tens of millions of years. When their fuel is almost gone, a series of events takes place. The star first begins to cool. In the end, the material of the star begins to fall back into itself. This causes gravity to increase by large amounts. In the end, a huge explosion results. The material from the explosion travels into space at more than seventy-two million kilometers per hour. A star that explodes like this is called a supernova. VOICE TWO: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has sent to Earth photographs of the remains of a huge star. NASA scientists say it exploded more than ten-thousand years ago. Light from that explosion first reached Earth in the sixteen-hundreds. That light had traveled ten thousand light years. It was so bright it could even be seen during the day. All that is left of the huge star are long, thin clouds that look like ribbons. The Hubble pictures show them as long pieces of red, green, pink and blue. NASA scientists say the colors are caused by different chemicals. The dark blue color is caused by oxygen. The color red is created by sulfur. The photographs were made by the Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera Two. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, designed and built the camera. The remains of the dead star are called Cassiopeia A, or just “Cas A” for short. Cas A is the youngest known supernova that remains in our Milky Way galaxy. VOICE ONE: The new photographs of Cas A are permitting scientists to study the supernova’s remains very clearly. For the first time, scientists can study the material from the dead star. Scientists say the new pictures show this material has become thousands of small groups of gas particles which are slowly cooling. They say each group will someday become new stars and planets. NASA officials say the new Hubble photographs were taken in January two-thousand and January two-thousand and two. If you have a computer that can link with the Internet, you can see Hubble’s beautiful picture of Cas A. Type in w-w-w dot v-o-a-n-e-w-s dot c-o-m and follow the link to Special English. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In February two-thousand-one, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the state of Florida agreed to design, build and operate a new science center. The building is named the Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory. It will serve as a major link to the International Space Station for science experiments. It will also be used for experiments in biological science here on Earth. And it will be used for research about the ecology of the area surrounding Kennedy Space Center. Scientists who work in life science research being done on the International Space Station will use the new building. They will prepare experiments to be launched on the Space Shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center to the Space Station. VOICE ONE: The Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory represents a joint effort between NASA and Florida. The state will provide thirty-million dollars to build the science laboratory. The building is expected to be ready for use in two-thousand-four. The new science laboratory is the first building in the International Space Research Park at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The new space research park is to be a research and development center for the exploration of space. NASA says it will combine research strengths in areas such as space technology, energy, ecology sciences and biology sciences. The International Space Research Park will be the major area where science experiments are prepared for the International Space Station. NASA would like it to provide a base for groups interesting in working in space science and space exploration. It hopes to include both government and private groups. These private groups would include major research universities and industries involved in advanced technology. NASA planners say they believe that top scientists and space technology engineers will want to work at the new center. They will want to do this because the new research center will be linked to the Kennedy Space Center. VOICE TWO: NASA officials say the International Space Research Park will be built on more than one-hundred-sixty hectares of land. They hope the space research center will be used by countries around the world that are interested in space research. NASA says it will provide the most modern structures for this kind of research. It also says the research center will not be used for the building of large space vehicles or equipment that might be a danger to others who use the strutures. NASA says the International Space Research Park will support the exploration of space and help improve the economy of the state of Florida. Officials say the new research center will make the Kennedy Space Center the world’s leader in space science, development and exploration. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-22-6-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – July 26, 2002: Galapagos Oil Spill
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists say that as many as fifteen-thousand marine iguanas died on one of the Galapagos Islands after an oil spill last year. The scientists are not exactly sure what killed the creatures. Yet they suspect the oil spill was to blame. Marine iguanas are found only in the Galapagos Islands. They are the only lizards that live in the sea. They are found along coastal rocks. They dive underwater to search for plants to eat. The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific Ocean, about nine-hundred kilometers west of Ecuador. They are famous for the unusual plants and animals that live there. That is because the plants and animals developed differently from those on the nearest continent, South America. An Ecuadoran oil transport ship hit the coast of San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos in January, two-thousand-one. Hundreds of thousands of liters of oil spilled into the sea. Only a few creatures died immediately after the shipwreck. The weather and ocean currents broke up most of the oil spill. However, a new report says the spill had a far greater effect. Martin Wikelski is an ecologist at Princeton University in the American state of New Jersey. He and his team have studied Galapagos marine iguanas since nineteen-eighty-seven. Their latest findings were reported in Nature magazine. The scientists estimate that the iguana population on one island, Santa Fe, dropped sharply during the eleven months after the oil spill. They say the number of marine iguanas fell from twenty-five-thousand to ten-thousand. The scientists found that the oil spill did not seem to harm other areas. They found no change in the death rate of marine iguanas on the island of Genovesa. Mister Wikelski is still trying to find out why the marine iguanas on Santa Fe Island died. He suspects the creatures swallowed oil and it killed bacteria in their stomachs. He thinks the bacteria help marine iguanas break down the plants they eat. As a result, the iguanas that lacked the bacteria may have starved to death. Mister Wikelski says even small amounts of pollution can have severe effects on wild animals. He and officials of the Galapagos National Park are taking legal action against Ecuador’s state oil company, which owned the ship. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists say that as many as fifteen-thousand marine iguanas died on one of the Galapagos Islands after an oil spill last year. The scientists are not exactly sure what killed the creatures. Yet they suspect the oil spill was to blame. Marine iguanas are found only in the Galapagos Islands. They are the only lizards that live in the sea. They are found along coastal rocks. They dive underwater to search for plants to eat. The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific Ocean, about nine-hundred kilometers west of Ecuador. They are famous for the unusual plants and animals that live there. That is because the plants and animals developed differently from those on the nearest continent, South America. An Ecuadoran oil transport ship hit the coast of San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos in January, two-thousand-one. Hundreds of thousands of liters of oil spilled into the sea. Only a few creatures died immediately after the shipwreck. The weather and ocean currents broke up most of the oil spill. However, a new report says the spill had a far greater effect. Martin Wikelski is an ecologist at Princeton University in the American state of New Jersey. He and his team have studied Galapagos marine iguanas since nineteen-eighty-seven. Their latest findings were reported in Nature magazine. The scientists estimate that the iguana population on one island, Santa Fe, dropped sharply during the eleven months after the oil spill. They say the number of marine iguanas fell from twenty-five-thousand to ten-thousand. The scientists found that the oil spill did not seem to harm other areas. They found no change in the death rate of marine iguanas on the island of Genovesa. Mister Wikelski is still trying to find out why the marine iguanas on Santa Fe Island died. He suspects the creatures swallowed oil and it killed bacteria in their stomachs. He thinks the bacteria help marine iguanas break down the plants they eat. As a result, the iguanas that lacked the bacteria may have starved to death. Mister Wikelski says even small amounts of pollution can have severe effects on wild animals. He and officials of the Galapagos National Park are taking legal action against Ecuador’s state oil company, which owned the ship. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 25, 2002: Harry Truman's Second Term
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: Before the election of nineteen-forty-eight, Harry Truman sometimes was called an "accidental" president. That meant the citizens had not elected him to lead the nation. He became America's thirty-third president because he was vice president when Franklin Roosevelt died. Today, we tell about President Truman and events during his second term in office. VOICE 2: In nineteen-forty-eight, Harry Truman had been America's leader for more than three years. The people now voted for his return to office. They chose him over Republican Party candidate, Thomas Dewey, governor of New York. The voters also elected a Congress with a majority from Mister Truman's Democratic Party. The president might have expected such a Congress to support his policies. It did not, however, always support him. Time after time, Democrats from the southern part of the United States joined with conservative Republicans in voting. Together, these lawmakers defeated some of Truman's most important proposals. This included a bill for health care insurance for every American. VOICE 1: Fear of communism was a major issue during Truman's second term. After World War Two, Americans watched as communists took control of one east European nation after another. They watched as China became communist. They watched as the leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. Before the election of nineteen-forty-eight, Harry Truman sometimes was called an "accidental" president. That meant the citizens had not elected him to lead the nation. He became America's thirty-third president because he was vice president when Franklin Roosevelt died. Today, we tell about President Truman and events during his second term in office. VOICE 2: In nineteen-forty-eight, Harry Truman had been America's leader for more than three years. The people now voted for his return to office. They chose him over Republican Party candidate, Thomas Dewey, governor of New York. The voters also elected a Congress with a majority from Mister Truman's Democratic Party. The president might have expected such a Congress to support his policies. It did not, however, always support him. Time after time, Democrats from the southern part of the United States joined with conservative Republicans in voting. Together, these lawmakers defeated some of Truman's most important proposals. This included a bill for health care insurance for every American. VOICE 1: Fear of communism was a major issue during Truman's second term. After World War Two, Americans watched as communists took control of one east European nation after another. They watched as China became communist. They watched as the leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. At this tense time, there were charges that communists held important jobs in the government of the United States. Many citizens accepted the charges. The fear of communism, real or imagined, threatened the American legal tradition that a person is innocent until proven guilty. VOICE 2: A Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, led the search for communists in America. In speeches and congressional hearings, he accused hundreds of people of being communists or communist supporters. His targets included the Department of State, the Army, and the entertainment industry in Hollywood. Senator McCarthy often had little evidence to support his accusations. Many of his charges would not have been accepted in a court of law. But the rules governing congressional hearings were different. So, he was able to make his accusations freely. Some people denounced as communists lost their jobs. Some had to use false names to get work. A few went to jail briefly for refusing to cooperate with him. Joseph McCarthy continued his anti-communist investigations for several years. By the early nineteen-fifties, more people began to question his methods. Critics said he had violated democratic traditions. In nineteen-fifty-four, the Senate voted to condemn his actions. Soon after, he became sick with cancer, and his political life ended. He died in nineteen-fifty-seven. ((bridge Music)) VOICE 1: At this tense time, there were charges that communists held important jobs in the government of the United States. Many citizens accepted the charges. The fear of communism, real or imagined, threatened the American legal tradition that a person is innocent until proven guilty. VOICE 2: A Republican senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, led the search for communists in America. In speeches and congressional hearings, he accused hundreds of people of being communists or communist supporters. His targets included the Department of State, the Army, and the entertainment industry in Hollywood. Senator McCarthy often had little evidence to support his accusations. Many of his charges would not have been accepted in a court of law. But the rules governing congressional hearings were different. So, he was able to make his accusations freely. Some people denounced as communists lost their jobs. Some had to use false names to get work. A few went to jail briefly for refusing to cooperate with him. Joseph McCarthy continued his anti-communist investigations for several years. By the early nineteen-fifties, more people began to question his methods. Critics said he had violated democratic traditions. In nineteen-fifty-four, the Senate voted to condemn his actions. Soon after, he became sick with cancer, and his political life ended. He died in nineteen-fifty-seven. ((bridge Music)) VOICE 1: In addition to the problems caused by the fear of communism at home, President Truman had to deal with the threat of communism in other countries. He agreed to send American aid to Greece and Turkey. He also supported continuing the Marshall Plan. This plan had helped rebuild the economies of western Europe after World War Two. Historians agree that it prevented western Europe from becoming communist. VOICE 2: The defense of western Europe against communism led president Truman to support the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in nineteen-forty-nine. In the beginning, NATO included the United States, Britain, Canada, France, and eight other nations. More nations joined later. The NATO treaty stated that a military attack on any member would be considered an attack on all of them. Truman named General Dwight Eisenhower to be supreme commander of the new organization. General Eisenhower had been supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe in World War Two. VOICE 1: President Truman believed that other problems in the world could be settled by cooperative international efforts. In his swearing-in speech in nineteen-forty-nine, he urged the United States to lend money to other countries to aid their development. He also wanted to share American science and technology. Months later, Congress approved twenty-five thousand-million dollars for the first part of this program. In nineteen-fifty-one, President Truman asked Congress to establish a new foreign aid program. The aid was for some countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and South Asia, and Latin America. These countries were threatened by communist forces. President Truman believed the United States would be stronger if its allies were stronger. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Harry Truman supported and used military power throughout his presidency. On June twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty, forces from North Korea invaded South Korea. Two days later, the united nations security council approved a resolution on the conflict. It urged U-N members to help South Korea resist the invasion. President Truman approved sending American planes and ships. Then he approved sending American ground forces. The president knew his decision could start World War Three if the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of North Korea. Yet he felt the United States had to act. Later, he said it was the most difficult decision he made as president. VOICE 1: General Douglas MacArthur was named commander of all United Nations forces in South Korea. By the autumn of nineteen-fifty, the U-N forces had pushed the North Koreans back across the border. People talked hopefully of ending the war by the Christmas holiday on December twenty-fifth. In late November, however, troops from China joined the North Koreans. Thousands of Chinese soldiers helped push the U-N troops south. General MacArthur wanted to attack Chinese bases in Manchuria. President Truman said no. The fighting must not spread outside Korea. Again he feared that such a decision might start another world war. VOICE 2: General MacArthur believed he could end the war quickly if he could do what he wanted. So, he publicly denounced the American policy. In April, nineteen-fifty-one, the president dismissed him. Some citizens approved. They believed a military leader must obey his commander in chief. Others, however, supported General MacArthur. Millions greeted him when he returned to the United States. VOICE 1: Most of the fighting in the Korean war took place along the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel. This line formed the border between the north and south. Many victories were only temporary. One side would capture a hill. Then the other side would recapture it. Ceasefire talks began in July, nineteen-fifty-one. But the negotiations failed to make progress. By the time the conflict ended two years later, millions of soldiers on both sides had been killed or wounded. VOICE 2: Nineteen-fifty-two would be a presidential election year in the United States. Harry Truman was losing popularity because of the Korean War. At the same time, the military hero of World War Two, General Dwight Eisenhower, was thinking about running for president. The need to make difficult choices had made Harry Truman's presidency among the most decisive in American history. In March, he made another important decision. He announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election. Truman said, "I have served my country. I do not think it my duty to spend another four years in the White House." (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. In addition to the problems caused by the fear of communism at home, President Truman had to deal with the threat of communism in other countries. He agreed to send American aid to Greece and Turkey. He also supported continuing the Marshall Plan. This plan had helped rebuild the economies of western Europe after World War Two. Historians agree that it prevented western Europe from becoming communist. VOICE 2: The defense of western Europe against communism led president Truman to support the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in nineteen-forty-nine. In the beginning, NATO included the United States, Britain, Canada, France, and eight other nations. More nations joined later. The NATO treaty stated that a military attack on any member would be considered an attack on all of them. Truman named General Dwight Eisenhower to be supreme commander of the new organization. General Eisenhower had been supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe in World War Two. VOICE 1: President Truman believed that other problems in the world could be settled by cooperative international efforts. In his swearing-in speech in nineteen-forty-nine, he urged the United States to lend money to other countries to aid their development. He also wanted to share American science and technology. Months later, Congress approved twenty-five thousand-million dollars for the first part of this program. In nineteen-fifty-one, President Truman asked Congress to establish a new foreign aid program. The aid was for some countries in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and South Asia, and Latin America. These countries were threatened by communist forces. President Truman believed the United States would be stronger if its allies were stronger. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Harry Truman supported and used military power throughout his presidency. On June twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty, forces from North Korea invaded South Korea. Two days later, the united nations security council approved a resolution on the conflict. It urged U-N members to help South Korea resist the invasion. President Truman approved sending American planes and ships. Then he approved sending American ground forces. The president knew his decision could start World War Three if the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of North Korea. Yet he felt the United States had to act. Later, he said it was the most difficult decision he made as president. VOICE 1: General Douglas MacArthur was named commander of all United Nations forces in South Korea. By the autumn of nineteen-fifty, the U-N forces had pushed the North Koreans back across the border. People talked hopefully of ending the war by the Christmas holiday on December twenty-fifth. In late November, however, troops from China joined the North Koreans. Thousands of Chinese soldiers helped push the U-N troops south. General MacArthur wanted to attack Chinese bases in Manchuria. President Truman said no. The fighting must not spread outside Korea. Again he feared that such a decision might start another world war. VOICE 2: General MacArthur believed he could end the war quickly if he could do what he wanted. So, he publicly denounced the American policy. In April, nineteen-fifty-one, the president dismissed him. Some citizens approved. They believed a military leader must obey his commander in chief. Others, however, supported General MacArthur. Millions greeted him when he returned to the United States. VOICE 1: Most of the fighting in the Korean war took place along the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel. This line formed the border between the north and south. Many victories were only temporary. One side would capture a hill. Then the other side would recapture it. Ceasefire talks began in July, nineteen-fifty-one. But the negotiations failed to make progress. By the time the conflict ended two years later, millions of soldiers on both sides had been killed or wounded. VOICE 2: Nineteen-fifty-two would be a presidential election year in the United States. Harry Truman was losing popularity because of the Korean War. At the same time, the military hero of World War Two, General Dwight Eisenhower, was thinking about running for president. The need to make difficult choices had made Harry Truman's presidency among the most decisive in American history. In March, he made another important decision. He announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election. Truman said, "I have served my country. I do not think it my duty to spend another four years in the White House." (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: July 25, 2002 - TOEFL
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": July 25, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 28, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- TOEFL tips! RS: Each year close to one million people around the world take the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Since it's required to get into many colleges and universities in America, we get a lot of questions about it. AA: So we turn to Mari [pronounced Mary] Pearlman at the Educational Testing Service, the private organization in Princeton, New Jersey, that administers the TOEFL exam. PEARLMAN: "It takes about two-and-a-half hours, whether it's paper-and-pencil or computer-based. Students are asked to read relatively lengthy academic passages. Let's say there might be a reading comprehension passage about the greenhouse effect. There might be another reading passage about twentieth century architecture. There might be a third passage about great social movements in Europe from 1860 to 1900. "Those passages are followed by comprehension questions, comprehension both of the subject matter in the passage -- did they understand what they read -- also did they understand how the language works, did they get the signals. For example, in English, when we qualify an assertion, we use certain linguistic signals. Can they see what those particular kinds of signals are doing." RS: The TOEFL also tests for listening comprehension. Recordings are played. PEARLMAN: "Sometimes they sound like lectures in a classroom, sometimes they're conversations between two or three speakers. In either case, students are asked to listen through headphones, and then they're asked comprehension questions about both the content of what was said and how the speakers interacted if it was a conversation." AA: In another section, students must recognize and correct grammatical errors in sentences. And then there is an essay. PEARLMAN: "Usually the essay questions are things like this: 'Some people say that young people are the source of all really innovative ideas. Others say that it is only after people have aged and raised their own children that they have true wisdom. Which of these would you agree with? Give two specific examples to support your point of view.'" RS: Mari Pearlman is vice president of teaching and learning at the Educational Testing Service. PEARLMAN: "One of the things that is pretty clear to us is that, in the United States, what you want to find out is what people do in response to things they don't know yet. That is, unfamiliar material. Since going to university and graduate school is largely a process of encountering things you don't yet know -- that's why you're there -- this seems like a good measure of certain skills that are important." RS: Yet in many places in the world, Mari Pearlman says, that is an unfamiliar definition of knowledge. PEARLMAN: "So, for a lot of students, how to prepare for TOEFL is mysterious, because their whole model of learning is that they just memorize lots and lots and lots and lots, and they expect to see some portion of that on the test. And that's not the way this test works." AA: Since the TOEFL is a test of academic language, Mari Pearlman says the best way to prepare is to read a lot of high-level material in English. The Educational Testing Service and others sell test preparation materials. RS: She says another thing to do is to listen to a lot of English. And, once a speaking test is added to the TOEFL next year, it will be important to practice speaking. PEARLMAN: "That is probably the thing that's most neglected, sounding like an English speaker, which is hard. I mean it's hard for any of us to sound like a speaker of another language. That's the hardest part." RS: "When it's not our native language. Of course." PEARLMAN: "Intelligibility is obviously part of what we score, but it's also the key to knowing whether the person can actually address the content as well." AA: In 2004, the fortieth anniversary of the TOEFL, the Education Testing Service will introduce what it calls the "next generation" of the exam. Mari Pearlman says E-T-S has been working for about ten years with researchers to develop the new test. Instead of testing each language skill separately, the new TOEFL will integrate reading, writing and speaking. RS: This September E-T-S will come out with a CD-ROM to help teachers prepare students for the new TOEFL. Mari Pearlman says her organization hopes the new exam will have a "big effect" on the teaching of English as a foreign language, to better prepare students for academic life. To learn more about the test, there's a TOEFL Web site; it's TOEFL (that's T-O-E-F-L) dot o-r-g. RS: You'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": July 25, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: July 28, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- TOEFL tips! RS: Each year close to one million people around the world take the TOEFL -- the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Since it's required to get into many colleges and universities in America, we get a lot of questions about it. AA: So we turn to Mari [pronounced Mary] Pearlman at the Educational Testing Service, the private organization in Princeton, New Jersey, that administers the TOEFL exam. PEARLMAN: "It takes about two-and-a-half hours, whether it's paper-and-pencil or computer-based. Students are asked to read relatively lengthy academic passages. Let's say there might be a reading comprehension passage about the greenhouse effect. There might be another reading passage about twentieth century architecture. There might be a third passage about great social movements in Europe from 1860 to 1900. "Those passages are followed by comprehension questions, comprehension both of the subject matter in the passage -- did they understand what they read -- also did they understand how the language works, did they get the signals. For example, in English, when we qualify an assertion, we use certain linguistic signals. Can they see what those particular kinds of signals are doing." RS: The TOEFL also tests for listening comprehension. Recordings are played. PEARLMAN: "Sometimes they sound like lectures in a classroom, sometimes they're conversations between two or three speakers. In either case, students are asked to listen through headphones, and then they're asked comprehension questions about both the content of what was said and how the speakers interacted if it was a conversation." AA: In another section, students must recognize and correct grammatical errors in sentences. And then there is an essay. PEARLMAN: "Usually the essay questions are things like this: 'Some people say that young people are the source of all really innovative ideas. Others say that it is only after people have aged and raised their own children that they have true wisdom. Which of these would you agree with? Give two specific examples to support your point of view.'" RS: Mari Pearlman is vice president of teaching and learning at the Educational Testing Service. PEARLMAN: "One of the things that is pretty clear to us is that, in the United States, what you want to find out is what people do in response to things they don't know yet. That is, unfamiliar material. Since going to university and graduate school is largely a process of encountering things you don't yet know -- that's why you're there -- this seems like a good measure of certain skills that are important." RS: Yet in many places in the world, Mari Pearlman says, that is an unfamiliar definition of knowledge. PEARLMAN: "So, for a lot of students, how to prepare for TOEFL is mysterious, because their whole model of learning is that they just memorize lots and lots and lots and lots, and they expect to see some portion of that on the test. And that's not the way this test works." AA: Since the TOEFL is a test of academic language, Mari Pearlman says the best way to prepare is to read a lot of high-level material in English. The Educational Testing Service and others sell test preparation materials. RS: She says another thing to do is to listen to a lot of English. And, once a speaking test is added to the TOEFL next year, it will be important to practice speaking. PEARLMAN: "That is probably the thing that's most neglected, sounding like an English speaker, which is hard. I mean it's hard for any of us to sound like a speaker of another language. That's the hardest part." RS: "When it's not our native language. Of course." PEARLMAN: "Intelligibility is obviously part of what we score, but it's also the key to knowing whether the person can actually address the content as well." AA: In 2004, the fortieth anniversary of the TOEFL, the Education Testing Service will introduce what it calls the "next generation" of the exam. Mari Pearlman says E-T-S has been working for about ten years with researchers to develop the new test. Instead of testing each language skill separately, the new TOEFL will integrate reading, writing and speaking. RS: This September E-T-S will come out with a CD-ROM to help teachers prepare students for the new TOEFL. Mari Pearlman says her organization hopes the new exam will have a "big effect" on the teaching of English as a foreign language, to better prepare students for academic life. To learn more about the test, there's a TOEFL Web site; it's TOEFL (that's T-O-E-F-L) dot o-r-g. RS: You'll find our programs on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Talking Dictionaries / VOA Pronunciation Guide
* Byline: 

 Some dictionary publishers offer free online lookups with audio files. Clicking on either of the examples below will open a new window on your browser: Merriam-Webster The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 26, 2002: Our New Theme Music / Question About a Book on American Indians, 'Hanta Yo' / A Celebration of American Theater
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play a song we have chosen to be our new theme music ... Answer a listener’s question about the book “Hanta Yo” ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play a song we have chosen to be our new theme music ... Answer a listener’s question about the book “Hanta Yo” ... And report about a celebration of American theater. Contemporary American Theater Festival HOST: Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia. Every summer, it presents several of the newest American plays during the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near the Potomac River. American Indians lived in the area long before the first Europeans arrived in the early seventeen-hundreds. Many of the first settlers were German. The main street in Shepherdstown is still called German Street. Bela Fleck And report about a celebration of American theater. Contemporary American Theater Festival HOST: Shepherdstown is the oldest town in the state of West Virginia. Every summer, it presents several of the newest American plays during the Contemporary American Theater Festival. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is on a hill near the Potomac River. American Indians lived in the area long before the first Europeans arrived in the early seventeen-hundreds. Many of the first settlers were German. The main street in Shepherdstown is still called German Street. Shepherd College was established in eighteen-seventy-one to teach students languages and science. Every summer since nineteen-ninety-one the Contemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at the college. Ed Herendeen started the theater festival and continues as its director. During three weeks each summer, the festival presents new American plays. Some plays were written by famous writers. Some were written by those who are not well known. Four plays are being presented this summer. One is called “The Late Henry Moss.” The famous playwright Sam Shepard wrote it. It takes place in the American West. Two brothers deal with their violent past, the death of their father and family secrets. The Contemporary American Theater Festival is also presenting “Thief River” by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. It is about the love between two men from a farming community in the state of Minnesota. The play tells about their relationships with each other and their families from the nineteen-fifties to the present time. Another new play is called “Orange Flower Water” by Craig Wright. It also takes place in a small town in Minnesota. It tells the story of a man and woman whose love for each other hurts their families. The fourth play is called “Silence of God” by Catherine Filloux. It is about a woman whose friend is a survivor of the killings by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the nineteen-seventies. The woman becomes a reporter to find out why evil exists in the world. She meets with former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Yet the meeting raises more questions than it provides answers. Many people from the Washington, D-C, area travel to Shepherdstown for the yearly theater festival. They want to be among the first people to see some new American plays. Hanta Yo HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Emmanuel Komolafe asks about an American book called “Hanta Yo.” The full title of the book is “Hanta Yo: An American Saga.” It was published in nineteen-seventy-nine and was very popular. It sold many copies. It stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months. “Hanta Yo” was written by Ruth Beebe Hill. It is the story of native American Indians at a time before white people arrived on their land. It describes the activities of two families of the Sioux Indian tribe from the seventeen-hundreds to the eighteen-thirties. The book describes the values of the Lakota or Sioux Indian culture by showing their effects on a man called Ahbleza. The book is about his life and the people in his group, the Mahto. People who have read “Hanta Yo” say the book describes many activities of the Indians’ lives. These include working, hunting and caring for children. However, not all the Indians are shown as good people. Some of them are violent and full of hate. Women are shown as severely oppressed with little or no decision-making power. Children and animals are treated poorly. Ruth Beebe Hill described all this as an Indian would, using Lakota words and judgements. She also linked the real world and the spiritual world in which the Sioux lived. Both were important to the Sioux. Ruth Beebe Hill studied the Sioux Indian culture for many years before writing “Hanta Yo.” She was very careful about the language she used. She translated the book from English to the Sioux language. Then she translated it back into English. She said this kept her from using any words that were not part of the Lakota language. She also did not use words or ideas that were not part of the Sioux culture. For example, the Lakota language has no word that means “forgive.” The word and the idea did not exist in their culture. Many people think “Hanta Yo” is an excellent book. However, it is becoming more difficult to find. It can still be found in libraries and used bookstores. The book is still celebrated as a true picture of a Native American culture that has disappeared. New Mosaic Theme ((MUSIC FROM "LOVER’S LEAP")) HOST: Each week we play music on American Mosaic. We only play part of each song because our program is only fifteen minutes long. We try to give our listeners a good idea of what the song is like. Sometimes this is difficult. The music we want to play today is a good example. The song is a little more than six minutes long so we can’t play all of it. However, we want to play as much as possible because we think it is not only good, but different. We like it so much that we have decided to make it the new theme for American Mosaic. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Many of you may know the name Bela Fleck. He has played here at VOA and we have played his music on American Mosaic. Bela Fleck plays jazz on the banjo. He and his band, The Flecktones, often experiment with different sounds. Our recording today shows this. The song is called “Lover’s Leap”. It is on his record called “Live at the Quick.” “Lover’s Leap” is unusual because Bela Fleck has brought together instruments that are usually not heard in combination. These include the electric banjo, French horn, oboe, bass guitar, electric drums, clarinet and a musical instrument usually found in the islands of the Caribbean. It is called a steel pan. Steel pans or steel drums usually play music of the West Indies. Together, these instruments make a very unusual sound. We think you will like it as much as we do. So, we leave you now with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones playing “Lover’s Leap.” ((CUT 1: "LOVER’S LEAP")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Shepherd College was established in eighteen-seventy-one to teach students languages and science. Every summer since nineteen-ninety-one the Contemporary American Theater Festival has taken place at the college. Ed Herendeen started the theater festival and continues as its director. During three weeks each summer, the festival presents new American plays. Some plays were written by famous writers. Some were written by those who are not well known. Four plays are being presented this summer. One is called “The Late Henry Moss.” The famous playwright Sam Shepard wrote it. It takes place in the American West. Two brothers deal with their violent past, the death of their father and family secrets. The Contemporary American Theater Festival is also presenting “Thief River” by award-winning playwright Lee Blessing. It is about the love between two men from a farming community in the state of Minnesota. The play tells about their relationships with each other and their families from the nineteen-fifties to the present time. Another new play is called “Orange Flower Water” by Craig Wright. It also takes place in a small town in Minnesota. It tells the story of a man and woman whose love for each other hurts their families. The fourth play is called “Silence of God” by Catherine Filloux. It is about a woman whose friend is a survivor of the killings by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the nineteen-seventies. The woman becomes a reporter to find out why evil exists in the world. She meets with former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Yet the meeting raises more questions than it provides answers. Many people from the Washington, D-C, area travel to Shepherdstown for the yearly theater festival. They want to be among the first people to see some new American plays. Hanta Yo HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Emmanuel Komolafe asks about an American book called “Hanta Yo.” The full title of the book is “Hanta Yo: An American Saga.” It was published in nineteen-seventy-nine and was very popular. It sold many copies. It stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months. “Hanta Yo” was written by Ruth Beebe Hill. It is the story of native American Indians at a time before white people arrived on their land. It describes the activities of two families of the Sioux Indian tribe from the seventeen-hundreds to the eighteen-thirties. The book describes the values of the Lakota or Sioux Indian culture by showing their effects on a man called Ahbleza. The book is about his life and the people in his group, the Mahto. People who have read “Hanta Yo” say the book describes many activities of the Indians’ lives. These include working, hunting and caring for children. However, not all the Indians are shown as good people. Some of them are violent and full of hate. Women are shown as severely oppressed with little or no decision-making power. Children and animals are treated poorly. Ruth Beebe Hill described all this as an Indian would, using Lakota words and judgements. She also linked the real world and the spiritual world in which the Sioux lived. Both were important to the Sioux. Ruth Beebe Hill studied the Sioux Indian culture for many years before writing “Hanta Yo.” She was very careful about the language she used. She translated the book from English to the Sioux language. Then she translated it back into English. She said this kept her from using any words that were not part of the Lakota language. She also did not use words or ideas that were not part of the Sioux culture. For example, the Lakota language has no word that means “forgive.” The word and the idea did not exist in their culture. Many people think “Hanta Yo” is an excellent book. However, it is becoming more difficult to find. It can still be found in libraries and used bookstores. The book is still celebrated as a true picture of a Native American culture that has disappeared. New Mosaic Theme ((MUSIC FROM "LOVER’S LEAP")) HOST: Each week we play music on American Mosaic. We only play part of each song because our program is only fifteen minutes long. We try to give our listeners a good idea of what the song is like. Sometimes this is difficult. The music we want to play today is a good example. The song is a little more than six minutes long so we can’t play all of it. However, we want to play as much as possible because we think it is not only good, but different. We like it so much that we have decided to make it the new theme for American Mosaic. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Many of you may know the name Bela Fleck. He has played here at VOA and we have played his music on American Mosaic. Bela Fleck plays jazz on the banjo. He and his band, The Flecktones, often experiment with different sounds. Our recording today shows this. The song is called “Lover’s Leap”. It is on his record called “Live at the Quick.” “Lover’s Leap” is unusual because Bela Fleck has brought together instruments that are usually not heard in combination. These include the electric banjo, French horn, oboe, bass guitar, electric drums, clarinet and a musical instrument usually found in the islands of the Caribbean. It is called a steel pan. Steel pans or steel drums usually play music of the West Indies. Together, these instruments make a very unusual sound. We think you will like it as much as we do. So, we leave you now with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones playing “Lover’s Leap.” ((CUT 1: "LOVER’S LEAP")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 28, 2002: Willa Cather
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Tony Riggs with People in America. Today we tell about writer Willa Cather. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The second half of the nineteeth century brought major changes to the United States. From its earliest days, America had been an agricultural society. But after the end of the Civil War in eighteen-sixty-five, the country became increasingly industrial. And as the population grew, America became less unified. After railroads linked the Atlantic coast with the Pacific coast, the huge middle west of the country was open to settlement. The people who came were almost all from Europe. There were Swedes and Norwegians, Poles and Russians, Bohemians and Germans. Many of them failed in their new home. Some fled back to their old homeland. But those who suffered through the freezing winters and the burning summers and the failed crops became the new pioneers. They were the men and women celebrated by the American writer Willa Cather. VOICE TWO: Cather's best stories are about these pioneers. She told what they sought and what they gained. She wrote of their difficult relations with those who followed. And she developed a way of writing, both beautiful and simple, that made her a pioneer too. For many women in the nineteenth century writing novels was just one of the things they did. For Willa Cather, writing was her life. VOICE ONE: Willa Cather was born in the southern state of Virginia in eighteen-seventy-three. At the age of eight, her family moved to the new state of Nebraska in the middle west. She and Nebraska grew up together. Willa lived in the small town of Red Cloud. As a child she showed writing ability. And, she was helped by good teachers, who were uncommon in the new frontier states. Few women of her time went to a university. Willa Cather, however, went to the University of Nebraska. She wrote for the university literary magazine, among her other activities. She graduated from the university in eighteen-ninety-five. VOICE TWO: Most American writers of her time looked to the eastern United States as the cultural center of the country. It was a place where exciting things were possible. It was an escape from the flatness of the land and culture of the middle west. From eighteen-ninety-six to nineteen-oh-one Cather worked for the Pittsburgh Daily Leader newspaper. It was in Pennsylvania, not New York, but it was farther east than Nebraska. Cather began to publish stories and poems in nineteen-hundred. And she became an English teacher in nineteen-oh-one. For five years, she taught English at Pittsburgh Central High School and at nearby Allegheny High School. She published her first book in nineteen-oh-three. It was a book of poetry. Two years later she published a book of stories called The Troll Garden. VOICE ONE: The owner of a New York magazine, S.S. McLure, read her stories. He asked her to come to New York City and work as an editor at McLure's Magazine. She was finally in the cultural capital of the country. She stayed with the magazine from nineteen-oh-six to nineteen-twelve. One of the people who influenced her to leave the magazine was the American woman writer, Sarah Orne Jewett. Jewett advised Cather to write only fiction and to deal with the places and characters she knew best. Jewett said it was the only way to write anything that would last. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-twelve Willa Cather published her first novel, Alexander's Bridge. By that time, Cather had enough faith in herself to leave magazine work and use all her time to write fiction. She remembered Jewett's advice and turned to the land and people she knew best, the farmers of the Middle West. In Red Cloud she had lived among Bohemians, French-Canadians, Germans, Scandinavians, and other immigrants. She saw that the mixture of all these new Americans produced a new society. "There was nothing but land," she wrote. "Not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made." It was this material she used to create her books. VOICE ONE: Like all good writers, she wanted her novels to show the world she described, not just tell about it. Later in her life, she described the way she wrote. She called it "novels without furniture." What she meant was that she removed from her novels everything that was not necessary to tell the story. Fiction in the nineteenth century was filled with social detail. It had pages of description and comments by the author. Cather did not write this way. She looked to the past for her ideas, but she drew from the present for her art. A year after Alexander's Bridge, Cather published her second novel. It was the first of her books to take place in the Middle West. It is called O Pioneers. It established her as one of the best writers of her time. O Pioneers tells the story of the first small groups of Bohemians, Czechs, French, Russians, and Swedes who set about to conquer the land. Cather said they acted as if they were a natural force, as strong or stronger than Nature. She said they were people who owned the land for a little while because they loved it. "Spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring," Cather wrote. "Always the same field...trees...lives." VOICE TWO: Cather's heroes are pioneers, settlers of unknown or unclaimed land. They also are pioneers of the human spirit. They are, Cather said, the people who would dream great railroads across the continent. Yet she saw something more in them. It was something permanent within a world of continuous change. A sense of order in what appeared to be disorder. In Cather's mind, her writings about the Middle West, her prairie years, became a way to show approval of the victory of traditional values against countless difficulties. The fight to remain human and in love with life in spite of everything gives the people in her stories purpose and calm. VOICE ONE: Willa Cather continued to write about these new pioneers in The Song of the Lark in nineteen-fifteen. She followed that with the novel that many consider her best, My Antonia. (PRON: An-tone-ee-ya). By the nineteen-twenties, however, her stories began to change. She saw more defeats, fewer victories. She began to write -- not about great dreams -- but about the smallness of man's vision. She mourned for the loss of values others would never miss. Willa Cather never married. She began living with another woman from Nebraska in nineteen-oh-eight. They lived together until Cather died. In nineteen-twenty-two, Cather suffered a nervous breakdown. A number of things caused her condition. Her health was not good. She was unhappy with her publisher. And, she was angry about the changes in society brought by new technology. In nineteen-twenty-three, Cather wrote the last of her Nebraska novels, A Lost Lady. Two years later she produced another novel, The Professor's House. It was clear by then that she was moving in a different direction. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Her next two novels, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Shadows in the Rock, take place in the distant past. They are stories about heroic failure. Death Comes for the Archbishop takes place in the American Southwest in the sixteenth century. It describes the experiences of two priests who are sent to what became New Mexico. The action is in the past. But the place is one that Cather felt always would remain the same -- the deserts of the American Southwest. Where her earlier books described a person's search for solid ground, these books describe the solid ground itself. They came from a deep unhappiness with modern life. VOICE ONE: Although Cather turned away from modern life, she was very much a modern writer. Her writing became increasingly important to a new group of writers -- Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Near the end of her life she wrote: "Nothing really matters but living. Get all you can out of it. I am an old woman, and I know. Sometimes people disappoint us. And sometimes we disappoint ourselves. But the thing is to go right on living." Willa Cather went right on living until the age of seventy-four. She died in nineteen-forty-seven. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Tony Riggs. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And I'm Tony Riggs with People in America. Today we tell about writer Willa Cather. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The second half of the nineteeth century brought major changes to the United States. From its earliest days, America had been an agricultural society. But after the end of the Civil War in eighteen-sixty-five, the country became increasingly industrial. And as the population grew, America became less unified. After railroads linked the Atlantic coast with the Pacific coast, the huge middle west of the country was open to settlement. The people who came were almost all from Europe. There were Swedes and Norwegians, Poles and Russians, Bohemians and Germans. Many of them failed in their new home. Some fled back to their old homeland. But those who suffered through the freezing winters and the burning summers and the failed crops became the new pioneers. They were the men and women celebrated by the American writer Willa Cather. VOICE TWO: Cather's best stories are about these pioneers. She told what they sought and what they gained. She wrote of their difficult relations with those who followed. And she developed a way of writing, both beautiful and simple, that made her a pioneer too. For many women in the nineteenth century writing novels was just one of the things they did. For Willa Cather, writing was her life. VOICE ONE: Willa Cather was born in the southern state of Virginia in eighteen-seventy-three. At the age of eight, her family moved to the new state of Nebraska in the middle west. She and Nebraska grew up together. Willa lived in the small town of Red Cloud. As a child she showed writing ability. And, she was helped by good teachers, who were uncommon in the new frontier states. Few women of her time went to a university. Willa Cather, however, went to the University of Nebraska. She wrote for the university literary magazine, among her other activities. She graduated from the university in eighteen-ninety-five. VOICE TWO: Most American writers of her time looked to the eastern United States as the cultural center of the country. It was a place where exciting things were possible. It was an escape from the flatness of the land and culture of the middle west. From eighteen-ninety-six to nineteen-oh-one Cather worked for the Pittsburgh Daily Leader newspaper. It was in Pennsylvania, not New York, but it was farther east than Nebraska. Cather began to publish stories and poems in nineteen-hundred. And she became an English teacher in nineteen-oh-one. For five years, she taught English at Pittsburgh Central High School and at nearby Allegheny High School. She published her first book in nineteen-oh-three. It was a book of poetry. Two years later she published a book of stories called The Troll Garden. VOICE ONE: The owner of a New York magazine, S.S. McLure, read her stories. He asked her to come to New York City and work as an editor at McLure's Magazine. She was finally in the cultural capital of the country. She stayed with the magazine from nineteen-oh-six to nineteen-twelve. One of the people who influenced her to leave the magazine was the American woman writer, Sarah Orne Jewett. Jewett advised Cather to write only fiction and to deal with the places and characters she knew best. Jewett said it was the only way to write anything that would last. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-twelve Willa Cather published her first novel, Alexander's Bridge. By that time, Cather had enough faith in herself to leave magazine work and use all her time to write fiction. She remembered Jewett's advice and turned to the land and people she knew best, the farmers of the Middle West. In Red Cloud she had lived among Bohemians, French-Canadians, Germans, Scandinavians, and other immigrants. She saw that the mixture of all these new Americans produced a new society. "There was nothing but land," she wrote. "Not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made." It was this material she used to create her books. VOICE ONE: Like all good writers, she wanted her novels to show the world she described, not just tell about it. Later in her life, she described the way she wrote. She called it "novels without furniture." What she meant was that she removed from her novels everything that was not necessary to tell the story. Fiction in the nineteenth century was filled with social detail. It had pages of description and comments by the author. Cather did not write this way. She looked to the past for her ideas, but she drew from the present for her art. A year after Alexander's Bridge, Cather published her second novel. It was the first of her books to take place in the Middle West. It is called O Pioneers. It established her as one of the best writers of her time. O Pioneers tells the story of the first small groups of Bohemians, Czechs, French, Russians, and Swedes who set about to conquer the land. Cather said they acted as if they were a natural force, as strong or stronger than Nature. She said they were people who owned the land for a little while because they loved it. "Spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring," Cather wrote. "Always the same field...trees...lives." VOICE TWO: Cather's heroes are pioneers, settlers of unknown or unclaimed land. They also are pioneers of the human spirit. They are, Cather said, the people who would dream great railroads across the continent. Yet she saw something more in them. It was something permanent within a world of continuous change. A sense of order in what appeared to be disorder. In Cather's mind, her writings about the Middle West, her prairie years, became a way to show approval of the victory of traditional values against countless difficulties. The fight to remain human and in love with life in spite of everything gives the people in her stories purpose and calm. VOICE ONE: Willa Cather continued to write about these new pioneers in The Song of the Lark in nineteen-fifteen. She followed that with the novel that many consider her best, My Antonia. (PRON: An-tone-ee-ya). By the nineteen-twenties, however, her stories began to change. She saw more defeats, fewer victories. She began to write -- not about great dreams -- but about the smallness of man's vision. She mourned for the loss of values others would never miss. Willa Cather never married. She began living with another woman from Nebraska in nineteen-oh-eight. They lived together until Cather died. In nineteen-twenty-two, Cather suffered a nervous breakdown. A number of things caused her condition. Her health was not good. She was unhappy with her publisher. And, she was angry about the changes in society brought by new technology. In nineteen-twenty-three, Cather wrote the last of her Nebraska novels, A Lost Lady. Two years later she produced another novel, The Professor's House. It was clear by then that she was moving in a different direction. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Her next two novels, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Shadows in the Rock, take place in the distant past. They are stories about heroic failure. Death Comes for the Archbishop takes place in the American Southwest in the sixteenth century. It describes the experiences of two priests who are sent to what became New Mexico. The action is in the past. But the place is one that Cather felt always would remain the same -- the deserts of the American Southwest. Where her earlier books described a person's search for solid ground, these books describe the solid ground itself. They came from a deep unhappiness with modern life. VOICE ONE: Although Cather turned away from modern life, she was very much a modern writer. Her writing became increasingly important to a new group of writers -- Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and John Dos Passos. Near the end of her life she wrote: "Nothing really matters but living. Get all you can out of it. I am an old woman, and I know. Sometimes people disappoint us. And sometimes we disappoint ourselves. But the thing is to go right on living." Willa Cather went right on living until the age of seventy-four. She died in nineteen-forty-seven. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Tony Riggs. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - July 29, 2002: National Museum of American History
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. collects, cares for and protects more than one-hundred-forty-million historical objects. Some of them can be seen at the National Museum of American History. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. collects, cares for and protects more than one-hundred-forty-million historical objects. Some of them can be seen at the National Museum of American History. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This historical museum and its collection of objects is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This historical museum and its collection of objects is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: There are sixteen museums in the Smithsonian Institution. They include the National Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum of modern art. All the museums are free to the public and open almost every day of the year. A visitor would need more than a week to see all of the Smithsonian museums. In fact, it takes almost a full day to walk through the National Museum of American History. This museum is in the area of Washington called the National Mall. Last year, more than five-million people visited the National Museum of American History. VOICE TWO: The museum’s collection gives visitors a better understanding of American history, science and culture. The American History Museum cares for and protects more than eighteen-million objects. These special objects include the nation’s most famous flag -- the Star-Spangled Banner. The table that Thomas Jefferson used while writing the Declaration of Independence. The papers showing music written by the great jazz musician, Duke Ellington. However, the museum can show only a small percent of its collection at one time. The museum is open for seven-and-one-half hours each day. But this may not be enough time to see everything inside. Visitors may want to plan their day at the museum to fit their personal interests. Maybe they want to see the special exhibits that are shown for a limited amount of time. Or perhaps they want to see the permanent exhibits that have been in the museum since it opened in nineteen-sixty-four. There are sixteen museums in the Smithsonian Institution. They include the National Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum of modern art. All the museums are free to the public and open almost every day of the year. A visitor would need more than a week to see all of the Smithsonian museums. In fact, it takes almost a full day to walk through the National Museum of American History. This museum is in the area of Washington called the National Mall. Last year, more than five-million people visited the National Museum of American History. VOICE TWO: The museum’s collection gives visitors a better understanding of American history, science and culture. The American History Museum cares for and protects more than eighteen-million objects. These special objects include the nation’s most famous flag -- the Star-Spangled Banner. The table that Thomas Jefferson used while writing the Declaration of Independence. The papers showing music written by the great jazz musician, Duke Ellington. However, the museum can show only a small percent of its collection at one time. The museum is open for seven-and-one-half hours each day. But this may not be enough time to see everything inside. Visitors may want to plan their day at the museum to fit their personal interests. Maybe they want to see the special exhibits that are shown for a limited amount of time. Or perhaps they want to see the permanent exhibits that have been in the museum since it opened in nineteen-sixty-four. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One permanent exhibit on the first floor of the museum examines science in American life. During the past one-hundred-twenty-five years, scientific research and technology have greatly influenced American culture. This exhibit includes historic pictures and objects that bring scientific ideas to life. For example, visitors can learn more about America’s effort to develop an atomic bomb during World War Two. This program was called the Manhattan Project. One of the first pieces of equipment scientists used to break up atoms is here. This early “atom smasher” looks like a round tube that can be turned by hand. Before leaving the science exhibit, people can visit the Hands On Science Center. Experts here can explain how science affects American culture and society. Anyone can ask the experts questions. There are also games and projects for children. VOICE TWO: Next to the Hands On Science Center is an exhibit on information technology. More than seven-hundred objects and pictures are in this area. The exhibit explains how information technology has changed the way people live around the world. Visitors can use computers and other kinds of technology in this exhibit. The history of information technology began in the eighteen-thirties with the creation of the telegraph. This was the first device to send communication over long distances. Samuel Morse developed the telegraph in eighteen-thirty-seven. Messages were sent and received using a series of electric beats representing words. This type of immediate communication is called Morse Code. VOICE ONE: Visitors can experiment with Morse Code using a telegraph device. Eleven-year-old Mark Wheeler from California typed out a warning signal using Morse Code. The message represents the letters “C-Q-D,” which mean “come quick, distress.” It was the same message the Titanic passenger ship sent out before it sank in nineteen-twelve. Mark said he learned Morse Code from the Internet computer system. He said he knows other signals, but “C-Q-D” was the most common and useful Morse Code message. The information technology exhibit also teaches visitors about the history of radio and television. There is even an area explaining how computer and satellite technology spread news and information today. VOICE TWO: Information technology would not work without electricity. So visitors might want to examine the next exhibit called the “Nature of Electricity.” Visitors learn about Thomas Edison and the invention of early electric light. The first part of the exhibit tells about nineteenth century forms of power, such as batteries and magnets. There are even some early electric lights that helped form the technical base for Mister Edison’s work. The exhibit also tells about Thomas Edison’s family and the people he worked with. Mister Edison produced not just a light bulb, but an electrical system. The exhibit even has a model of his first central power station in New York City. The Pearl Street station began producing power in eighteen-eighty-two. Electricity became the world’s leading form of power in fewer than twenty years after Mister Edison’s invention. A revolution had taken place. Low cost electric power had made new industrial growth possible. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: An exhibit about the history of money and metals is on the top floor of the American History Museum. Visitors can see how American money has changed over time. For example, there are one-hundred-dollar bills dating back from the late eighteen-hundreds until today. Visitors can see the different dollar bills issued by the American colonies in the late seventeen-hundreds. There are also examples of memorial coins released for special events in the United States. There are also Japanese gold and silver coins given to President Ulysses S. Grant in eighteen-eighty-one. This exhibit also shows the world’s oldest known coins dating back more than two-thousand-six-hundred years. The coins are from the ancient territory of Lydia in what is now Turkey. However, one of the most interesting parts of this exhibit is a collection of gold coins from ancient times to the present. The coins are from North and South America, Europe and Asia. VOICE TWO: An exhibit of American popular culture is also on the third floor. Visitors can see things used by famous Americans. For example, they can see the boxing gloves worn by boxer Mohammad Ali. They can see the red shoes worn by Judy Garland in the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” Visitors can also see the musical instrument played by American jazz artist Dizzy Gillespie. Nearby is an exhibit about musical instruments. Visitors can examine early string instruments made by skilled creators like Antonio Stradivari. Many of these early violins, violas and cellos were made during the seventeenth century. There are also early brass and keyboard instruments. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One very popular exhibit at the National Museum of American History is about the American presidency. Visitors can learn more about the men who have held the office, and some of the objects they used. Equally important to American history were the women married to this country’s presidents. An exhibit on the second floor examines the part these “first ladies” played in American culture and their work serving the public. VOICE TWO: Finally, a visit to the National Museum of American History would not be complete without seeing the nation’s most famous flag, the Star-Spangled Banner. Some historians say the flag is the most recognized sign of American identity. It was made in eighteen-thirteen. The flag hung in the museum for many years. However, age, light and dirt weakened its material. Museum officials and scientists have been working in a special laboratory to repair the flag. Visitors can watch this process through a glass window. The project is expected to be finished at the end of this year. At that time, museum officials will return the Star-Spangled Banner to its permanent exhibit. Then millions of visitors will be able to see the famous flag and other important objects that tell America’s story. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One permanent exhibit on the first floor of the museum examines science in American life. During the past one-hundred-twenty-five years, scientific research and technology have greatly influenced American culture. This exhibit includes historic pictures and objects that bring scientific ideas to life. For example, visitors can learn more about America’s effort to develop an atomic bomb during World War Two. This program was called the Manhattan Project. One of the first pieces of equipment scientists used to break up atoms is here. This early “atom smasher” looks like a round tube that can be turned by hand. Before leaving the science exhibit, people can visit the Hands On Science Center. Experts here can explain how science affects American culture and society. Anyone can ask the experts questions. There are also games and projects for children. VOICE TWO: Next to the Hands On Science Center is an exhibit on information technology. More than seven-hundred objects and pictures are in this area. The exhibit explains how information technology has changed the way people live around the world. Visitors can use computers and other kinds of technology in this exhibit. The history of information technology began in the eighteen-thirties with the creation of the telegraph. This was the first device to send communication over long distances. Samuel Morse developed the telegraph in eighteen-thirty-seven. Messages were sent and received using a series of electric beats representing words. This type of immediate communication is called Morse Code. VOICE ONE: Visitors can experiment with Morse Code using a telegraph device. Eleven-year-old Mark Wheeler from California typed out a warning signal using Morse Code. The message represents the letters “C-Q-D,” which mean “come quick, distress.” It was the same message the Titanic passenger ship sent out before it sank in nineteen-twelve. Mark said he learned Morse Code from the Internet computer system. He said he knows other signals, but “C-Q-D” was the most common and useful Morse Code message. The information technology exhibit also teaches visitors about the history of radio and television. There is even an area explaining how computer and satellite technology spread news and information today. VOICE TWO: Information technology would not work without electricity. So visitors might want to examine the next exhibit called the “Nature of Electricity.” Visitors learn about Thomas Edison and the invention of early electric light. The first part of the exhibit tells about nineteenth century forms of power, such as batteries and magnets. There are even some early electric lights that helped form the technical base for Mister Edison’s work. The exhibit also tells about Thomas Edison’s family and the people he worked with. Mister Edison produced not just a light bulb, but an electrical system. The exhibit even has a model of his first central power station in New York City. The Pearl Street station began producing power in eighteen-eighty-two. Electricity became the world’s leading form of power in fewer than twenty years after Mister Edison’s invention. A revolution had taken place. Low cost electric power had made new industrial growth possible. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: An exhibit about the history of money and metals is on the top floor of the American History Museum. Visitors can see how American money has changed over time. For example, there are one-hundred-dollar bills dating back from the late eighteen-hundreds until today. Visitors can see the different dollar bills issued by the American colonies in the late seventeen-hundreds. There are also examples of memorial coins released for special events in the United States. There are also Japanese gold and silver coins given to President Ulysses S. Grant in eighteen-eighty-one. This exhibit also shows the world’s oldest known coins dating back more than two-thousand-six-hundred years. The coins are from the ancient territory of Lydia in what is now Turkey. However, one of the most interesting parts of this exhibit is a collection of gold coins from ancient times to the present. The coins are from North and South America, Europe and Asia. VOICE TWO: An exhibit of American popular culture is also on the third floor. Visitors can see things used by famous Americans. For example, they can see the boxing gloves worn by boxer Mohammad Ali. They can see the red shoes worn by Judy Garland in the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” Visitors can also see the musical instrument played by American jazz artist Dizzy Gillespie. Nearby is an exhibit about musical instruments. Visitors can examine early string instruments made by skilled creators like Antonio Stradivari. Many of these early violins, violas and cellos were made during the seventeenth century. There are also early brass and keyboard instruments. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One very popular exhibit at the National Museum of American History is about the American presidency. Visitors can learn more about the men who have held the office, and some of the objects they used. Equally important to American history were the women married to this country’s presidents. An exhibit on the second floor examines the part these “first ladies” played in American culture and their work serving the public. VOICE TWO: Finally, a visit to the National Museum of American History would not be complete without seeing the nation’s most famous flag, the Star-Spangled Banner. Some historians say the flag is the most recognized sign of American identity. It was made in eighteen-thirteen. The flag hung in the museum for many years. However, age, light and dirt weakened its material. Museum officials and scientists have been working in a special laboratory to repair the flag. Visitors can watch this process through a glass window. The project is expected to be finished at the end of this year. At that time, museum officials will return the Star-Spangled Banner to its permanent exhibit. Then millions of visitors will be able to see the famous flag and other important objects that tell America’s story. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – July 29, 2002: Tools for Development
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Building things or making clothes can be difficult in developing countries, especially without the correct tools. However, an international humanitarian organization called CARE is trying to change this. CARE runs a special program called Tools for Development to help workers in developing countries. The Tools for Development program sells used tools and equipment at low cost to people who have small businesses. The tools are priced low enough so that poor people can buy them. Roy Megarry (Ma-GARY) started Tools for Development fifteen years ago. At the time, he was the publisher of the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper. Mister Megarry got the idea for the program while visiting a technical training school for boys in Lima, Peru. The Catholic priest who operated the school told Mister Megarry that the school needed equipment for its training program. Mister Megarry sent a letter to the president of Sears Company in Canada requesting help. The company gave equipment to the school in exchange for advertising in the newspaper. Today, Tools for Development receives free equipment and gifts from companies and organizations all over the world. Since the program began, more than two-thousand people have purchased more than six-thousand tools and equipment. They paid a total cost of one-million-two-hundred-thousand dollars. Mister Megarry says at least ten-thousand jobs have been saved or created because of the program. Money gained from the sale of the tools is used for loans, training and shipping costs. People can buy many kinds of equipment through Tools for Development. For example, there are tools for metal workers, shoemakers, pipe builders, clothing makers and people who fix vehicles. Some computers are also sold. Tools for Development is currently operating in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Jamaica. However, CARE is hoping to expand the program to other developing nations. You can learn more about Tools for Development. Write to CARE Canada, the Globe and Mail newspaper, four-four-four Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M-five-V, two-S-nine, Canada. Or you can visit the CARE Canada Internet Web site at w-w-w-dot-c-a-r-e-dot-c-a. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Building things or making clothes can be difficult in developing countries, especially without the correct tools. However, an international humanitarian organization called CARE is trying to change this. CARE runs a special program called Tools for Development to help workers in developing countries. The Tools for Development program sells used tools and equipment at low cost to people who have small businesses. The tools are priced low enough so that poor people can buy them. Roy Megarry (Ma-GARY) started Tools for Development fifteen years ago. At the time, he was the publisher of the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper. Mister Megarry got the idea for the program while visiting a technical training school for boys in Lima, Peru. The Catholic priest who operated the school told Mister Megarry that the school needed equipment for its training program. Mister Megarry sent a letter to the president of Sears Company in Canada requesting help. The company gave equipment to the school in exchange for advertising in the newspaper. Today, Tools for Development receives free equipment and gifts from companies and organizations all over the world. Since the program began, more than two-thousand people have purchased more than six-thousand tools and equipment. They paid a total cost of one-million-two-hundred-thousand dollars. Mister Megarry says at least ten-thousand jobs have been saved or created because of the program. Money gained from the sale of the tools is used for loans, training and shipping costs. People can buy many kinds of equipment through Tools for Development. For example, there are tools for metal workers, shoemakers, pipe builders, clothing makers and people who fix vehicles. Some computers are also sold. Tools for Development is currently operating in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Jamaica. However, CARE is hoping to expand the program to other developing nations. You can learn more about Tools for Development. Write to CARE Canada, the Globe and Mail newspaper, four-four-four Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M-five-V, two-S-nine, Canada. Or you can visit the CARE Canada Internet Web site at w-w-w-dot-c-a-r-e-dot-c-a. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 27, 2002: The Stock Market
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. Values of American stocks have fallen sharply in recent trading on United States markets. One measure of the value of American stocks is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It follows the stock prices of the thirty leading industrial companies in the United States. Although the Dow had its second largest one-day gain in history this week, it still has lost about fifteen percent of its value in the past month. That is its worst loss since the American stock market problems of Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. A measure of the wider American market is called the Standard and Poor’s Five-Hundred. It follows stock prices of a greater number of leading American companies. These companies are not necessarily industrial. In the past year, the S-and-P 500 has fallen more than thirty percent. That is its worst yearly performance since Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. The NASDAQ Composite Index is the third main measure of the value of shares of American companies. NASDAQ stands for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System. It is an electronic stock market. Many of the companies on NASDAQ are linked to technology. All buying and selling of NASDAQ stocks takes place on the computer. NASDAQ has lot about thirty-five percent of its value so far this year. Some experts call the current situation a “bear market.” It describes a period when most stock prices are falling as investors sell shares. A “bull market” is the opposite. This is a period when stock prices are climbing. Financial problems and suspected wrongdoing by American companies are partly to blame for the current bear market. Investors are worried that they might not be able to trust the financial reporting provided by big companies. For example, the failed energy company Enron is being investigated for possible false reporting. Its financial examiner, the Arthur Andersen company, is close to failure also. Last month, the huge telecommunications company, WorldCom, admitted to falsely claiming thousands of millions of dollars of costs as earnings. It has since declared financial failure and is seeking legal protection from its debts. The government is investigating the financial activities of some other big companies. Thursday, Congress approved new legislation in an attempt to make the financial reporting of companies honest and open. The current economic downturn also is the result of too much investment in telecommunications businesses. These are companies that provide telephone, Internet and other electronic communication services. There has been huge growth in the industry in the past several years. Now it appears that demand is less than was expected for telecommunications products and services. This has driven profits down among companies and stock prices have followed. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. Values of American stocks have fallen sharply in recent trading on United States markets. One measure of the value of American stocks is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It follows the stock prices of the thirty leading industrial companies in the United States. Although the Dow had its second largest one-day gain in history this week, it still has lost about fifteen percent of its value in the past month. That is its worst loss since the American stock market problems of Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. A measure of the wider American market is called the Standard and Poor’s Five-Hundred. It follows stock prices of a greater number of leading American companies. These companies are not necessarily industrial. In the past year, the S-and-P 500 has fallen more than thirty percent. That is its worst yearly performance since Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. The NASDAQ Composite Index is the third main measure of the value of shares of American companies. NASDAQ stands for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System. It is an electronic stock market. Many of the companies on NASDAQ are linked to technology. All buying and selling of NASDAQ stocks takes place on the computer. NASDAQ has lot about thirty-five percent of its value so far this year. Some experts call the current situation a “bear market.” It describes a period when most stock prices are falling as investors sell shares. A “bull market” is the opposite. This is a period when stock prices are climbing. Financial problems and suspected wrongdoing by American companies are partly to blame for the current bear market. Investors are worried that they might not be able to trust the financial reporting provided by big companies. For example, the failed energy company Enron is being investigated for possible false reporting. Its financial examiner, the Arthur Andersen company, is close to failure also. Last month, the huge telecommunications company, WorldCom, admitted to falsely claiming thousands of millions of dollars of costs as earnings. It has since declared financial failure and is seeking legal protection from its debts. The government is investigating the financial activities of some other big companies. Thursday, Congress approved new legislation in an attempt to make the financial reporting of companies honest and open. The current economic downturn also is the result of too much investment in telecommunications businesses. These are companies that provide telephone, Internet and other electronic communication services. There has been huge growth in the industry in the past several years. Now it appears that demand is less than was expected for telecommunications products and services. This has driven profits down among companies and stock prices have followed. This VOA Special English program, In The News, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 30, 2002: Study of Centenarians / How Sleep Improves Learning / New York Requires Abortion Training for Some New Doctors
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. Child sleeping VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about people who live to be one-hundred years old. We tell about how sleep improves learning. We tell about required training for some doctors in New York City. And we tell about a plan to bury nuclear waste in the state of Nevada. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Pregnant woman VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about people who live to be one-hundred years old. We tell about how sleep improves learning. We tell about required training for some doctors in New York City. And we tell about a plan to bury nuclear waste in the state of Nevada. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists are trying to find out how some people live to be one-hundred years old and older. They say the brothers and sisters of people who are at least one-hundred years old have a much greater chance of reaching that age than the general population. Thomas Perls of the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts led the study. He and other researchers studied the family health histories of more than four-hundred families with at least one member who to lived be one-hundred. People who are at least one-hundred years old are called centenarians. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the death rates of the brothers and sisters in the study with the death rates for Americans born in nineteen-hundred. The researchers said the brothers of centenarians were seventeen times more likely to reach one-hundred years old, compared with the general population. The sisters were eight times more likely to reach that age. There are currently about fifty-thousand centenarians in the United States. Doctor Perls said about eighty-five percent of them are women. Fifteen-percent are men. However, the men are in better physical condition than the women. He said the centenarian men have fewer diseases than the women and are more independent. VOICE ONE: Scientists are trying to find out how some people live to be one-hundred years old and older. They say the brothers and sisters of people who are at least one-hundred years old have a much greater chance of reaching that age than the general population. Thomas Perls of the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts led the study. He and other researchers studied the family health histories of more than four-hundred families with at least one member who to lived be one-hundred. People who are at least one-hundred years old are called centenarians. VOICE TWO: The researchers compared the death rates of the brothers and sisters in the study with the death rates for Americans born in nineteen-hundred. The researchers said the brothers of centenarians were seventeen times more likely to reach one-hundred years old, compared with the general population. The sisters were eight times more likely to reach that age. There are currently about fifty-thousand centenarians in the United States. Doctor Perls said about eighty-five percent of them are women. Fifteen-percent are men. However, the men are in better physical condition than the women. He said the centenarian men have fewer diseases than the women and are more independent. VOICE ONE: Researchers believe successful aging depends on many things, including genes. They believe centenarians may have genes that protect them against deadly diseases and enable them to live longer. They have not identified those genes. But they say they have found an area on one chromosome where such anti-aging genes may exist. The findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists have discovered a good reason to sleep a little longer in the morning. The scientists found that a little extra sleep helps people learn better. They demonstrated that people who learn a new skill, and then sleep well, are better at performing the skill the next day. The publication Neuron reported their findings. Matthew Walker of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his team studied the effects of sleep on the ability to learn to do simple skills. They tested sixty-two people who carried out a number of small experiments. The people were trained to perform a simple skill with their fingers. They were asked to push a series of numbers on a computer keyboard as quickly as possible. They used the hand they do not normally use for such activities. VOICE ONE: The people were trained in the morning, and then tested twelve hours later. The scientists found that their speed and performance did not improve greatly. Yet the results were different when the people were trained at night and tested the next day. After a good night’s sleep, their performance improved by about twenty percent. The researchers looked closely at the sleep activity of the people in the study. They found the improvement seemed to be directly linked to a kind of sleep at the end of a person’s normal sleeping period. Doctor Walker says this is the kind of sleep that many people do not experience if they get up early in the morning. The findings could help musicians, doctors or anyone else who is learning difficult skills that have to be repeated. The findings may help answer other questions, such as why babies sleep so much. Doctor Walker says the intensity of learning new skills and information may increase the brain’s need for many hours of sleep. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: New York City has changed its policy for training new doctors to perform operations to end unwanted pregnancies. Starting this month, New York’s public hospital system requires that doctors training to care for women learn how to perform abortions. The training will include the latest methods to end unwanted pregnancies, including use of a new pill. Doctors who oppose abortion may refuse the training for moral or religious reasons. No other American city requires that doctors who treat women receive abortion training as part of their advanced education. VOICE ONE: The organization Planned Parenthood says more than one-million American women have abortions each year. Officials say that abortion is one of the most common kinds of operations performed in the United States. However, experts say eighty-four percent of local areas in the United States have no doctors trained to provide abortions. They say the lack of such doctors forces many women to travel more than eighty kilometers to find a doctor who will perform an abortion. VOICE TWO: Experts say medical training programs that offer abortion have increased around the country in recent years. Women’s rights activists say the new policy in New York’s public hospitals may cause other hospitals to require doctors who treat women to have abortion training. They also hope that the training will increase the number of doctors able to perform the operation around the country. However, anti-abortion activists are opposed to the operation because they say abortions kill unborn children. Some activists have threatened doctors who perform the operations. One New York anti-abortion group warned that there would be severe results when doctors trained in New York begin to perform abortions around the country. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: President Bush has approved a project to bury nuclear waste material under Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada. The project calls for burying more than seventy-thousand tons of radioactive nuclear waste material. The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at more than one-hundred-thirty power centers in almost forty states. However, these power centers have little storage space left. The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dispute about burying nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain has continued for twenty years. Bush Administration officials say the nuclear waste burial project is scientifically acceptable. They also say placing all of the country’s nuclear waste in one place would help protect against terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. Supporters of the plan say it is important for the future of the nuclear power industry. VOICE TWO: However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups and Nevada state officials. They say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say the rock might not be able to hold the waste and keep it from entering water underground. Opponents also say the dangerous nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across about forty states. They fear accidents or threats from terrorists could endanger the population in many areas. Opponents are trying to block the plan through legal action in the courts. Now the Energy Department must request and receive permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This process could last for five years. The Energy Department must provide evidence about the safety of the project. Supporters of the project hope it will begin in two-thousand-ten. However, opponents say they will continue to fight against it. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, George Grow, Bob Brumfield and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Researchers believe successful aging depends on many things, including genes. They believe centenarians may have genes that protect them against deadly diseases and enable them to live longer. They have not identified those genes. But they say they have found an area on one chromosome where such anti-aging genes may exist. The findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists have discovered a good reason to sleep a little longer in the morning. The scientists found that a little extra sleep helps people learn better. They demonstrated that people who learn a new skill, and then sleep well, are better at performing the skill the next day. The publication Neuron reported their findings. Matthew Walker of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his team studied the effects of sleep on the ability to learn to do simple skills. They tested sixty-two people who carried out a number of small experiments. The people were trained to perform a simple skill with their fingers. They were asked to push a series of numbers on a computer keyboard as quickly as possible. They used the hand they do not normally use for such activities. VOICE ONE: The people were trained in the morning, and then tested twelve hours later. The scientists found that their speed and performance did not improve greatly. Yet the results were different when the people were trained at night and tested the next day. After a good night’s sleep, their performance improved by about twenty percent. The researchers looked closely at the sleep activity of the people in the study. They found the improvement seemed to be directly linked to a kind of sleep at the end of a person’s normal sleeping period. Doctor Walker says this is the kind of sleep that many people do not experience if they get up early in the morning. The findings could help musicians, doctors or anyone else who is learning difficult skills that have to be repeated. The findings may help answer other questions, such as why babies sleep so much. Doctor Walker says the intensity of learning new skills and information may increase the brain’s need for many hours of sleep. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: New York City has changed its policy for training new doctors to perform operations to end unwanted pregnancies. Starting this month, New York’s public hospital system requires that doctors training to care for women learn how to perform abortions. The training will include the latest methods to end unwanted pregnancies, including use of a new pill. Doctors who oppose abortion may refuse the training for moral or religious reasons. No other American city requires that doctors who treat women receive abortion training as part of their advanced education. VOICE ONE: The organization Planned Parenthood says more than one-million American women have abortions each year. Officials say that abortion is one of the most common kinds of operations performed in the United States. However, experts say eighty-four percent of local areas in the United States have no doctors trained to provide abortions. They say the lack of such doctors forces many women to travel more than eighty kilometers to find a doctor who will perform an abortion. VOICE TWO: Experts say medical training programs that offer abortion have increased around the country in recent years. Women’s rights activists say the new policy in New York’s public hospitals may cause other hospitals to require doctors who treat women to have abortion training. They also hope that the training will increase the number of doctors able to perform the operation around the country. However, anti-abortion activists are opposed to the operation because they say abortions kill unborn children. Some activists have threatened doctors who perform the operations. One New York anti-abortion group warned that there would be severe results when doctors trained in New York begin to perform abortions around the country. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: President Bush has approved a project to bury nuclear waste material under Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada. The project calls for burying more than seventy-thousand tons of radioactive nuclear waste material. The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at more than one-hundred-thirty power centers in almost forty states. However, these power centers have little storage space left. The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dispute about burying nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain has continued for twenty years. Bush Administration officials say the nuclear waste burial project is scientifically acceptable. They also say placing all of the country’s nuclear waste in one place would help protect against terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. Supporters of the plan say it is important for the future of the nuclear power industry. VOICE TWO: However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups and Nevada state officials. They say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say the rock might not be able to hold the waste and keep it from entering water underground. Opponents also say the dangerous nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across about forty states. They fear accidents or threats from terrorists could endanger the population in many areas. Opponents are trying to block the plan through legal action in the courts. Now the Energy Department must request and receive permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This process could last for five years. The Energy Department must provide evidence about the safety of the project. Supporters of the project hope it will begin in two-thousand-ten. However, opponents say they will continue to fight against it. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, George Grow, Bob Brumfield and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 30, 2002: Chemicals on Organic Food
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Farmers who grow organic food do not use chemicals to increase their crops or control insects and disease. However, a new study shows that chemicals can still be found on organically grown food. The study showed that organic crops had far fewer chemicals than other fruits and vegetables. The publication Food Additives and Contaminants reported the findings. Organic food is one of the fastest growing areas in American agriculture. Industry officials estimate that American stores sold almost eight-thousand-million dollars worth of such food in the year two-thousand. That is a twenty-percent increase in sales from the year before. Many Americans believe that eating organic food is more healthful than eating food grown with chemicals. Some people are willing to pay more for such food. Yet several reports claim that some organic foods have just as many chemicals as other crops. Scientists with the American group Consumers Union supervised the new study. Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports magazine. The scientists collected and examined information from three earlier reports on chemicals in the American food supply. Consumers Union, the United States Department of Agriculture and the state of California prepared the earlier reports. The combined reports studied more than twenty different crops and more than ninety-four-thousand fruits and vegetables. The scientists found that chemical pesticides to kill insects were present on almost twenty-five percent of the organic fruits and vegetables. The chemicals also were found on almost seventy-five percent of other crops. Two of the reports included foods that were not organically grown. They were grown with reduced use of chemicals. Foods in this group had chemical levels between those for organic and traditional crops. The scientists also examined why organic foods contain any chemicals at all. They found that most of the chemicals in organic foods were unavoidable results of earlier chemical use in the environment. They say other chemicals may have been blown onto the organic fields from nearby farms. They also say some of the food tested may have been sold as organic although it was not organically grown. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Farmers who grow organic food do not use chemicals to increase their crops or control insects and disease. However, a new study shows that chemicals can still be found on organically grown food. The study showed that organic crops had far fewer chemicals than other fruits and vegetables. The publication Food Additives and Contaminants reported the findings. Organic food is one of the fastest growing areas in American agriculture. Industry officials estimate that American stores sold almost eight-thousand-million dollars worth of such food in the year two-thousand. That is a twenty-percent increase in sales from the year before. Many Americans believe that eating organic food is more healthful than eating food grown with chemicals. Some people are willing to pay more for such food. Yet several reports claim that some organic foods have just as many chemicals as other crops. Scientists with the American group Consumers Union supervised the new study. Consumers Union publishes Consumer Reports magazine. The scientists collected and examined information from three earlier reports on chemicals in the American food supply. Consumers Union, the United States Department of Agriculture and the state of California prepared the earlier reports. The combined reports studied more than twenty different crops and more than ninety-four-thousand fruits and vegetables. The scientists found that chemical pesticides to kill insects were present on almost twenty-five percent of the organic fruits and vegetables. The chemicals also were found on almost seventy-five percent of other crops. Two of the reports included foods that were not organically grown. They were grown with reduced use of chemicals. Foods in this group had chemical levels between those for organic and traditional crops. The scientists also examined why organic foods contain any chemicals at all. They found that most of the chemicals in organic foods were unavoidable results of earlier chemical use in the environment. They say other chemicals may have been blown onto the organic fields from nearby farms. They also say some of the food tested may have been sold as organic although it was not organically grown. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 31, 2002: The Columbia River
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. Columbia River(Photo - Bonneville Power Administration) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Columbia River that flows through the American Northwest. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is said by many that the Columbia River is the most beautiful river in North America. It flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United States through the northwestern state of Washington. It is the fourth largest river in North America, and the largest that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia begins its two-thousand kilometer trip to the Pacific Ocean in Canada at Columbia Lake. That is just west of the main part of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern British Columbia. It flows mainly south into the northwestern United States until it makes a big turn to begin flowing west. It is at this point that the Snake River enters the Columbia. As it flows west, the Columbia forms much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington before it reaches the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: The great river flows through deep valleys and narrow places called canyons. It passes through two large series of mountains – the Cascades and the Coast mountains -- and it crosses desert areas and flows through lands of great forests. The Columbia and the rivers that flow into it gather water from a huge area of more than six-hundred-seventy-thousand square kilometers. That is about the size of France. VOICE ONE: Large ocean going ships can sail up the lower Columbia River, as far as Vancouver, Washington. Smaller ships can continue up the river about three-hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. However, these ships must pass through devices known as locks. Locks can change the level of the water. In a lock, a ship can be raised or lowered to another level where it can sail on. Small boats can travel another two-hundred-twenty kilometers up the river. There are locks for river traffic along this part of the river too. These locks and the many dams on the river were built in the last century as part of development projects. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The first white explorer to see the Columbia River was an American named Robert Gray. Seeking increased trade for the new United States, he sailed from the eastern city of Boston in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven to the Pacific Northwest. He found the river in Seventeen-Ninety-Two. Robert Gray named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. On a second trip to the area, he explored the lower parts of the river. Gray’s exploration of the river helped the United States claim what became known later as the Oregon Territory. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Oh-Five, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Columbia River area by traveling across land from the east. They were the first explorers to do this. The two men had been sent to explore what was called the Louisiana Territory. The United States had purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in Eighteen-Oh-Three. VOICE ONE(cont): President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the territory. He hoped that the explorers would find a river that could provide a direct waterway across the North American continent that could be used for trade and business. The two-year trip probably is the most famous story of American exploration. VOICE TWO: When Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in Eighteen-Oh-Five, Americans were already living there. Fur traders such as David Thompson had settled there earlier. Thompson was with a company dealing especially in animal skins used in making clothes in the eastern United States and in Europe. In Eighteen-Eleven, members of the Pacific Fur Company arrived in the area to establish their business. The company was owned by John Jacob Astor. They established Fort Astoria on the edge of the Columbia River in what later became the state of Oregon. The fort became the modern town of Astoria. It is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: The Columbia River was at the center of the new American settlement in Pacific Northwestern territory, then known as the Oregon Territory. For many early settlers it was known as the Oregon River or the River of the West. However, the name given to the river in Seventeen-Ninety-Two became its final name – the Columbia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Native Americans had lived in the Columbia River area for an estimated ten-thousand years. To them, the river represented the center of life for the surrounding land. The river provided these first Americans with their most important food, fish known as the Pacific Salmon. Salmon can grow to weigh as much as twenty-five kilograms. They spend most of their lives in the salt waters of the northern oceans. But they are born in the fresh waters of rivers. When the huge fish are ready to reproduce, they swim hundreds of kilometers from the ocean up the rivers to the places where they first knew life. VOICE TWO(cont): After laying their eggs at the end of this long trip, the salmon die, their circle of life completed. No one knows how many thousands and thousands of years the salmon have been doing this. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Sixty-Six, the first salmon processing factory was built on the edge of the Columbia River. In less than twenty years about thirty similar factories were supplying world markets with salmon caught on the river in nets, traps, and wheels. In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, almost twenty-million kilograms of salmon were caught on the river. By the Nineteen-Sixties, only two-million kilograms of Columbia River salmon was sent to markets. The salmon population has been severely reduced because humans have blocked the flow of the river. The salmon can no longer go back to the places of their birth on the Columbia and the other rivers that flow into it. VOICE TWO: In the Twentieth Century, huge dams were built on the Columbia. There are fourteen dams on the river. These dams serve at least three purposes. They provide electric power. They provide river water to grow crops. And they control flooding. The largest of the dams on the Columbia is the Grand Coulee Dam. It is about halfway between the beginning and the end of the river. It was completed in Nineteen-Forty-One. Before then, about twenty-five-thousand salmon swam up the Columbia River into Canada to lay their eggs. Thousands of them would swim all the way to Columbia Lake, where the river begins. When the dam was completed, the salmon could no longer swim up the river. VOICE ONE: All the fourteen dams on the Columbia are not like the Grand Coulee Dam. Some of them were built with what are called fish ladders. These ladders permit salmon to swim past the dams to go up the river. Many of the two-hundred-fifty dams on the rivers that flow into the Columbia also have such devices built into them. Yet the dams have changed the Columbia from a free flowing river to a series of lakes linked by the water that is permitted to flow through. The dams produce great amounts of electricity. The result is energy whose costs are lower for expanding development in the Pacific Northwest. The lakes that remain behind the dams provide water for agriculture along the river. This is especially true in what once were dry, desert areas in central Washington State. So, the Columbia River and the dams are extremely important to the economy of the Pacific Northwest. VOICE TWO: There are many people who believe that dams are not good. Biologists, environmentalists, Indian tribes, and fishermen argue that at least some of the dams should be removed or changed to permit water to flow as it once did. They say that there is no longer a natural balance of the river. Opponents of the dams say humans should make an effort to live together with other life forms on Earth. Supporters of the dams believe the river should be controlled for human use even though other life forms may be harmed. This argument is expected to last many years. VOICE ONE: Most of the great rivers of North America and the rest of the world have great cities on them. But not the Columbia River. The Hudson River has New York City. The Mississippi River has a number of great cities along it. The Seine has Paris. The Nile River has Cairo. Along the Columbia, however, the human population is spread more thinly. And, most of the people who live along the beautiful Columbia River would not want to live anywhere else. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Columbia River that flows through the American Northwest. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is said by many that the Columbia River is the most beautiful river in North America. It flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United States through the northwestern state of Washington. It is the fourth largest river in North America, and the largest that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia begins its two-thousand kilometer trip to the Pacific Ocean in Canada at Columbia Lake. That is just west of the main part of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern British Columbia. It flows mainly south into the northwestern United States until it makes a big turn to begin flowing west. It is at this point that the Snake River enters the Columbia. As it flows west, the Columbia forms much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington before it reaches the Pacific Ocean. VOICE TWO: The great river flows through deep valleys and narrow places called canyons. It passes through two large series of mountains – the Cascades and the Coast mountains -- and it crosses desert areas and flows through lands of great forests. The Columbia and the rivers that flow into it gather water from a huge area of more than six-hundred-seventy-thousand square kilometers. That is about the size of France. VOICE ONE: Large ocean going ships can sail up the lower Columbia River, as far as Vancouver, Washington. Smaller ships can continue up the river about three-hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. However, these ships must pass through devices known as locks. Locks can change the level of the water. In a lock, a ship can be raised or lowered to another level where it can sail on. Small boats can travel another two-hundred-twenty kilometers up the river. There are locks for river traffic along this part of the river too. These locks and the many dams on the river were built in the last century as part of development projects. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The first white explorer to see the Columbia River was an American named Robert Gray. Seeking increased trade for the new United States, he sailed from the eastern city of Boston in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven to the Pacific Northwest. He found the river in Seventeen-Ninety-Two. Robert Gray named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. On a second trip to the area, he explored the lower parts of the river. Gray’s exploration of the river helped the United States claim what became known later as the Oregon Territory. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Oh-Five, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Columbia River area by traveling across land from the east. They were the first explorers to do this. The two men had been sent to explore what was called the Louisiana Territory. The United States had purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in Eighteen-Oh-Three. VOICE ONE(cont): President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the territory. He hoped that the explorers would find a river that could provide a direct waterway across the North American continent that could be used for trade and business. The two-year trip probably is the most famous story of American exploration. VOICE TWO: When Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in Eighteen-Oh-Five, Americans were already living there. Fur traders such as David Thompson had settled there earlier. Thompson was with a company dealing especially in animal skins used in making clothes in the eastern United States and in Europe. In Eighteen-Eleven, members of the Pacific Fur Company arrived in the area to establish their business. The company was owned by John Jacob Astor. They established Fort Astoria on the edge of the Columbia River in what later became the state of Oregon. The fort became the modern town of Astoria. It is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. VOICE ONE: The Columbia River was at the center of the new American settlement in Pacific Northwestern territory, then known as the Oregon Territory. For many early settlers it was known as the Oregon River or the River of the West. However, the name given to the river in Seventeen-Ninety-Two became its final name – the Columbia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Native Americans had lived in the Columbia River area for an estimated ten-thousand years. To them, the river represented the center of life for the surrounding land. The river provided these first Americans with their most important food, fish known as the Pacific Salmon. Salmon can grow to weigh as much as twenty-five kilograms. They spend most of their lives in the salt waters of the northern oceans. But they are born in the fresh waters of rivers. When the huge fish are ready to reproduce, they swim hundreds of kilometers from the ocean up the rivers to the places where they first knew life. VOICE TWO(cont): After laying their eggs at the end of this long trip, the salmon die, their circle of life completed. No one knows how many thousands and thousands of years the salmon have been doing this. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Sixty-Six, the first salmon processing factory was built on the edge of the Columbia River. In less than twenty years about thirty similar factories were supplying world markets with salmon caught on the river in nets, traps, and wheels. In Eighteen-Eighty-Three, almost twenty-million kilograms of salmon were caught on the river. By the Nineteen-Sixties, only two-million kilograms of Columbia River salmon was sent to markets. The salmon population has been severely reduced because humans have blocked the flow of the river. The salmon can no longer go back to the places of their birth on the Columbia and the other rivers that flow into it. VOICE TWO: In the Twentieth Century, huge dams were built on the Columbia. There are fourteen dams on the river. These dams serve at least three purposes. They provide electric power. They provide river water to grow crops. And they control flooding. The largest of the dams on the Columbia is the Grand Coulee Dam. It is about halfway between the beginning and the end of the river. It was completed in Nineteen-Forty-One. Before then, about twenty-five-thousand salmon swam up the Columbia River into Canada to lay their eggs. Thousands of them would swim all the way to Columbia Lake, where the river begins. When the dam was completed, the salmon could no longer swim up the river. VOICE ONE: All the fourteen dams on the Columbia are not like the Grand Coulee Dam. Some of them were built with what are called fish ladders. These ladders permit salmon to swim past the dams to go up the river. Many of the two-hundred-fifty dams on the rivers that flow into the Columbia also have such devices built into them. Yet the dams have changed the Columbia from a free flowing river to a series of lakes linked by the water that is permitted to flow through. The dams produce great amounts of electricity. The result is energy whose costs are lower for expanding development in the Pacific Northwest. The lakes that remain behind the dams provide water for agriculture along the river. This is especially true in what once were dry, desert areas in central Washington State. So, the Columbia River and the dams are extremely important to the economy of the Pacific Northwest. VOICE TWO: There are many people who believe that dams are not good. Biologists, environmentalists, Indian tribes, and fishermen argue that at least some of the dams should be removed or changed to permit water to flow as it once did. They say that there is no longer a natural balance of the river. Opponents of the dams say humans should make an effort to live together with other life forms on Earth. Supporters of the dams believe the river should be controlled for human use even though other life forms may be harmed. This argument is expected to last many years. VOICE ONE: Most of the great rivers of North America and the rest of the world have great cities on them. But not the Columbia River. The Hudson River has New York City. The Mississippi River has a number of great cities along it. The Seine has Paris. The Nile River has Cairo. Along the Columbia, however, the human population is spread more thinly. And, most of the people who live along the beautiful Columbia River would not want to live anywhere else. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - July 31, 2002: Tobacco and Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A recent report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer says the dangers of tobacco smoke are greater than had been thought. The International Agency for Research on Cancer is part of the World Health Organization. It is based in Lyon, France. The agency researches the causes of cancer. It identifies the number of people who develop cancer around the world. And it develops programs aimed at finding ways to prevent the disease. The new report is part of a series written by independent international experts on the dangers of different chemicals. A committee of twenty-nine experts from twelve countries developed the report. These scientists examined more than fifty medical studies concerning tobacco smoking. The group says that tobacco use is the largest cause of preventable cancers around the world. Experts say that more than one-thousand-million people around the world smoke tobacco. The report says that one-half of all people who smoke cigarettes will die from diseases caused by smoking tobacco. These include cancers of the lung, stomach, liver, kidney and blood. The report also says tobacco use causes an even greater number of deaths from lung diseases, heart disease and stroke. The report says other kinds of tobacco use also increase the chances of developing cancers of the lung, head and neck. These include smoking cigars, pipes and bidis -- tobacco rolled in a leaf that is popular in South Asia. The report also says that people who smoke endanger the health of non-smokers who breathe in tobacco smoke. These non-smokers are breathing in a smaller amount of cancer-causing chemicals than active smokers get. But it is still enough to cause deadly lung cancer. However, the scientists found no increased risk of cancer among children who breathe in this second-hand smoke. But they say they do not know the long-term effect of tobacco smoke on children as they grow older. The scientists also say their research found that smoking tobacco does not cause some kinds of cancer. There is clear evidence that smoking has little or no effect on developing breast cancer or prostate cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A recent report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer says the dangers of tobacco smoke are greater than had been thought. The International Agency for Research on Cancer is part of the World Health Organization. It is based in Lyon, France. The agency researches the causes of cancer. It identifies the number of people who develop cancer around the world. And it develops programs aimed at finding ways to prevent the disease. The new report is part of a series written by independent international experts on the dangers of different chemicals. A committee of twenty-nine experts from twelve countries developed the report. These scientists examined more than fifty medical studies concerning tobacco smoking. The group says that tobacco use is the largest cause of preventable cancers around the world. Experts say that more than one-thousand-million people around the world smoke tobacco. The report says that one-half of all people who smoke cigarettes will die from diseases caused by smoking tobacco. These include cancers of the lung, stomach, liver, kidney and blood. The report also says tobacco use causes an even greater number of deaths from lung diseases, heart disease and stroke. The report says other kinds of tobacco use also increase the chances of developing cancers of the lung, head and neck. These include smoking cigars, pipes and bidis -- tobacco rolled in a leaf that is popular in South Asia. The report also says that people who smoke endanger the health of non-smokers who breathe in tobacco smoke. These non-smokers are breathing in a smaller amount of cancer-causing chemicals than active smokers get. But it is still enough to cause deadly lung cancer. However, the scientists found no increased risk of cancer among children who breathe in this second-hand smoke. But they say they do not know the long-term effect of tobacco smoke on children as they grow older. The scientists also say their research found that smoking tobacco does not cause some kinds of cancer. There is clear evidence that smoking has little or no effect on developing breast cancer or prostate cancer. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-29-5-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – August 1, 2002: National Education Association
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American public education activist Reg Weaver has been elected president of the National Education Association. The N-E-A is the country’s largest employee organization for professional workers. It has two-million-seven-hundred-thousand members. Most of them are teachers. Administrators and other school employees also belong to this union. The National Education Association works to increase pay for teachers and improve public education. Mister Weaver formerly taught science for thirty-five years in a school near Chicago, Illinois. He has been N-E-A vice president since nineteen-ninety-six. He is the fourth African-American elected to lead the union in its one-hundred-forty-five-year history. N-E-A delegates elected Mister Weaver to a three-year term during their yearly policy meeting. About nine-thousand delegates attended the meeting last month in Dallas, Texas. The delegates discussed several important issues, including a recently passed law aimed at educational reform. The law is called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. N-E-A officials say they will work to get more money for schools than the act currently provides. They also will try to help minority and other students do better in school. The education law also provides for yearly testing of student progress and judgment of teacher performance. N-E-A delegates voted to develop new ways to measure progress besides testing. The National Education Association also will oppose the development of more educational voucher programs. Voucher programs let poor students in failing public schools use public money to attend private schools, including religious schools. Public schools are free, but private schools cost money to attend. The N-E-A says it is wrong to take needed government money from public schools and use it for students to attend private schools. Union officials say public schools should be supported and improved. The National Education Association began in eighteen-fifty-seven. Over the years it joined with other groups of school employees. School administrators led the N-E-A for a long time. By the middle of the nineteen-sixties, however, teachers controlled almost all N-E-A positions. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. American public education activist Reg Weaver has been elected president of the National Education Association. The N-E-A is the country’s largest employee organization for professional workers. It has two-million-seven-hundred-thousand members. Most of them are teachers. Administrators and other school employees also belong to this union. The National Education Association works to increase pay for teachers and improve public education. Mister Weaver formerly taught science for thirty-five years in a school near Chicago, Illinois. He has been N-E-A vice president since nineteen-ninety-six. He is the fourth African-American elected to lead the union in its one-hundred-forty-five-year history. N-E-A delegates elected Mister Weaver to a three-year term during their yearly policy meeting. About nine-thousand delegates attended the meeting last month in Dallas, Texas. The delegates discussed several important issues, including a recently passed law aimed at educational reform. The law is called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. N-E-A officials say they will work to get more money for schools than the act currently provides. They also will try to help minority and other students do better in school. The education law also provides for yearly testing of student progress and judgment of teacher performance. N-E-A delegates voted to develop new ways to measure progress besides testing. The National Education Association also will oppose the development of more educational voucher programs. Voucher programs let poor students in failing public schools use public money to attend private schools, including religious schools. Public schools are free, but private schools cost money to attend. The N-E-A says it is wrong to take needed government money from public schools and use it for students to attend private schools. Union officials say public schools should be supported and improved. The National Education Association began in eighteen-fifty-seven. Over the years it joined with other groups of school employees. School administrators led the N-E-A for a long time. By the middle of the nineteen-sixties, however, teachers controlled almost all N-E-A positions. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-29-6-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 1, 2002: Election of 1952 / Dwight Eisenhower
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. Adlai Stevenson VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today we tell about America's presidential election of nineteen-fifty-two. And we tell about the man who won that election, Dwight Eisenhower. Cartoon of 'I like Ike' campaign buttons chasing Eisenhower VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today we tell about America's presidential election of nineteen-fifty-two. And we tell about the man who won that election, Dwight Eisenhower. VOICE 1: America's presidential election campaign of nineteen-fifty-two probably opened on the day President Harry Truman said, "no." He said he would not be a candidate for re-election. In later years, Harry Truman would be called one of America's better presidents. Near the end of nineteen-fifty-one, however, he had lost the support of many Americans. The continuing war in Korea, and economic problems at home, had robbed him of much of his popularity. His Democratic Party needed a new candidate for president. VOICE 2: In the spring of nineteen-fifty-two, Mister Truman named the man he wanted the party to nominate. His choice was Adlai Stevenson, governor of Illinois. Mister Stevenson, however, said he was not interested in any job except the one he had. It appeared that he meant what he said. Someone asked what he would do if the Democratic Party chose him as its presidential candidate. Mister Stevenson answered, "I guess I would have to shoot myself." So, President Truman and other party leaders discussed different candidates. Each one, however, seemed to have some political weakness. VOICE 1: The Republican Party also was discussing possible candidates. It was much easier for the Republicans to choose. Earlier, General Dwight Eisenhower had said he would campaign. "Ike" Eisenhower was the hugely popular commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two. Many members of both parties wanted him as their candidate. General Eisenhower agreed to campaign as a Republican. His closest competitor for the Republican nomination was Robert Taft, a senator from Ohio. He was the son of a former president, William Howard Taft. VOICE 2: Senator Taft sometimes was called "Mister Republican." He had strong party support for his conservative policies. However, he did not receive enough votes at the party's national convention to defeat Eisenhower for the nomination. In his acceptance speech, Eisenhower told the convention delegates that they had called him to lead a great campaign. He described it as a campaign for freedom in America and for freedom in the world. Eisenhower chose senator Richard Nixon of California as his vice presidential candidate. By that time, Mister Nixon was known throughout the United States for his strong opposition to communism. Earlier, as a member of the House of Representatives, he had led the investigation of a former State Department official, Alger Hiss. Hiss was accused of helping provide secret information to the soviet union. Hiss denied the accusation. He was never officially charged with spying. But he was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury and was sentenced to prison. VOICE 1: The Democratic Party held its national convention ten days after the Republicans. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson welcomed the delegates. The words of his speech made it seem that he did not want to be a candidate for president. This made the delegates want him even more. They voted two times. No one received enough votes to win the nomination. On the third vote, Governor Stevenson did. And he accepted. In his acceptance speech, he urged Democrats to campaign with honor. VOICE 2: After the conventions, a political expert wrote about the differences between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower. The expert said Stevenson was a man of thought, and Eisenhower was a man of action. The Republican Party quickly employed an advertising company to help its candidates. Advertising companies mostly designed campaigns to sell products. In the presidential election of nineteen-fifty-two, the company designed a campaign to "sell" Mister Eisenhower and Mister Nixon to the American public. VOICE 1: Eisenhower did not always agree with the company's advice. One time, he became very angry. He said, "All they talk about is my honesty. Nobody ever says I have a brain in my head!" There was no question that the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, had a brain. He was known as an intellectual or "egghead". When he launched his campaign, he dismissed some traditional political advisers and replaced them with eggheads. VOICE 2: Communism was the biggest issue in the campaign. Governor Stevenson said America needed to guard against it. Yet he repeatedly criticized the actions of senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. For years, the senator had been denouncing government officials and others as communists. Eisenhower did not criticize McCarthy, even when the senator accused Eisenhower's good friend, general George Marshall, of being a traitor. VOICE 1: The Republican campaign went smoothly until someone discovered that Richard Nixon had received money for extra campaign costs. Some newspapers said Nixon should withdraw. That led to his famous "Checkers" speech. Nixon made the speech on national television. In it, he defended his decision to keep a special gift from a political supporter. That gift was a dog, named Checkers. He said he kept the dog because his two little girls loved it. The speech was a success. Thousands of voters told the Republican Party that Nixon should remain as the vice presidential candidate. VOICE 2: A few weeks before the election, Eisenhower made a powerful speech. He talked about ending the war in Korea. TAPE: "Now, where will a new administration begin. It will begin with its president taking a firm, simple resolution. That resolution will be to forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean war, until that job is honorably done. That job requires a personal trip to Korea. Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace. I shall go to Korea. " VOICE 1: Adlai Stevenson ended his campaign with a powerful speech, too. In it, he told of his vision of America. VOICE 3: "I see an America where no man fears to think as he pleases, or say what he thinks ... I see an America where no man is another's master -- where no man's mind is dark with fear. I see an America at peace with the world. I see an America as the horizon of human hopes." VOICE 2: The people voted in November. Eisenhower won almost thirty-four million votes. That was more votes than a presidential candidate had ever received. Stevenson won about twenty-seven million votes. VOICE 1: Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as America's thirty-fourth president in January nineteen-fifty-three. He was sixty-two years old. Many problems awaited him. Republicans had only a small majority in Congress. Many Republican lawmakers were very conservative. They probably would not vote for the new president's programs. The cost of living in America was rising. Senator Joseph McCarthy was still hunting communists. And the war in Korea was not yet over. President Eisenhower did not seem troubled by these problems. After all, he had been called on many times to help his country. VOICE 2: Eisenhower came from a large family in Abilene, Kansas. His family did not have much money. He received a free university education when he went to the United States military academy at west point, New York. He remained in military service for many years. By the time the United States entered World War Two in nineteen-forty-one, he had become a top officer. In nineteen-forty-four, he led the allied invasion of Europe. In nineteen-fifty, president Harry Truman named him supreme commander of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. VOICE 1: When Dwight Eisenhower ran for president, people shouted, "I like Ike!" voters liked him because he always seemed calm, even in difficult situations. As the country's president, he would face a number of difficult situations. One of the first was the continuing war in Korea. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE 1: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 1: America's presidential election campaign of nineteen-fifty-two probably opened on the day President Harry Truman said, "no." He said he would not be a candidate for re-election. In later years, Harry Truman would be called one of America's better presidents. Near the end of nineteen-fifty-one, however, he had lost the support of many Americans. The continuing war in Korea, and economic problems at home, had robbed him of much of his popularity. His Democratic Party needed a new candidate for president. VOICE 2: In the spring of nineteen-fifty-two, Mister Truman named the man he wanted the party to nominate. His choice was Adlai Stevenson, governor of Illinois. Mister Stevenson, however, said he was not interested in any job except the one he had. It appeared that he meant what he said. Someone asked what he would do if the Democratic Party chose him as its presidential candidate. Mister Stevenson answered, "I guess I would have to shoot myself." So, President Truman and other party leaders discussed different candidates. Each one, however, seemed to have some political weakness. VOICE 1: The Republican Party also was discussing possible candidates. It was much easier for the Republicans to choose. Earlier, General Dwight Eisenhower had said he would campaign. "Ike" Eisenhower was the hugely popular commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War Two. Many members of both parties wanted him as their candidate. General Eisenhower agreed to campaign as a Republican. His closest competitor for the Republican nomination was Robert Taft, a senator from Ohio. He was the son of a former president, William Howard Taft. VOICE 2: Senator Taft sometimes was called "Mister Republican." He had strong party support for his conservative policies. However, he did not receive enough votes at the party's national convention to defeat Eisenhower for the nomination. In his acceptance speech, Eisenhower told the convention delegates that they had called him to lead a great campaign. He described it as a campaign for freedom in America and for freedom in the world. Eisenhower chose senator Richard Nixon of California as his vice presidential candidate. By that time, Mister Nixon was known throughout the United States for his strong opposition to communism. Earlier, as a member of the House of Representatives, he had led the investigation of a former State Department official, Alger Hiss. Hiss was accused of helping provide secret information to the soviet union. Hiss denied the accusation. He was never officially charged with spying. But he was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury and was sentenced to prison. VOICE 1: The Democratic Party held its national convention ten days after the Republicans. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson welcomed the delegates. The words of his speech made it seem that he did not want to be a candidate for president. This made the delegates want him even more. They voted two times. No one received enough votes to win the nomination. On the third vote, Governor Stevenson did. And he accepted. In his acceptance speech, he urged Democrats to campaign with honor. VOICE 2: After the conventions, a political expert wrote about the differences between Adlai Stevenson and Dwight Eisenhower. The expert said Stevenson was a man of thought, and Eisenhower was a man of action. The Republican Party quickly employed an advertising company to help its candidates. Advertising companies mostly designed campaigns to sell products. In the presidential election of nineteen-fifty-two, the company designed a campaign to "sell" Mister Eisenhower and Mister Nixon to the American public. VOICE 1: Eisenhower did not always agree with the company's advice. One time, he became very angry. He said, "All they talk about is my honesty. Nobody ever says I have a brain in my head!" There was no question that the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, had a brain. He was known as an intellectual or "egghead". When he launched his campaign, he dismissed some traditional political advisers and replaced them with eggheads. VOICE 2: Communism was the biggest issue in the campaign. Governor Stevenson said America needed to guard against it. Yet he repeatedly criticized the actions of senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. For years, the senator had been denouncing government officials and others as communists. Eisenhower did not criticize McCarthy, even when the senator accused Eisenhower's good friend, general George Marshall, of being a traitor. VOICE 1: The Republican campaign went smoothly until someone discovered that Richard Nixon had received money for extra campaign costs. Some newspapers said Nixon should withdraw. That led to his famous "Checkers" speech. Nixon made the speech on national television. In it, he defended his decision to keep a special gift from a political supporter. That gift was a dog, named Checkers. He said he kept the dog because his two little girls loved it. The speech was a success. Thousands of voters told the Republican Party that Nixon should remain as the vice presidential candidate. VOICE 2: A few weeks before the election, Eisenhower made a powerful speech. He talked about ending the war in Korea. TAPE: "Now, where will a new administration begin. It will begin with its president taking a firm, simple resolution. That resolution will be to forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean war, until that job is honorably done. That job requires a personal trip to Korea. Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace. I shall go to Korea. " VOICE 1: Adlai Stevenson ended his campaign with a powerful speech, too. In it, he told of his vision of America. VOICE 3: "I see an America where no man fears to think as he pleases, or say what he thinks ... I see an America where no man is another's master -- where no man's mind is dark with fear. I see an America at peace with the world. I see an America as the horizon of human hopes." VOICE 2: The people voted in November. Eisenhower won almost thirty-four million votes. That was more votes than a presidential candidate had ever received. Stevenson won about twenty-seven million votes. VOICE 1: Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in as America's thirty-fourth president in January nineteen-fifty-three. He was sixty-two years old. Many problems awaited him. Republicans had only a small majority in Congress. Many Republican lawmakers were very conservative. They probably would not vote for the new president's programs. The cost of living in America was rising. Senator Joseph McCarthy was still hunting communists. And the war in Korea was not yet over. President Eisenhower did not seem troubled by these problems. After all, he had been called on many times to help his country. VOICE 2: Eisenhower came from a large family in Abilene, Kansas. His family did not have much money. He received a free university education when he went to the United States military academy at west point, New York. He remained in military service for many years. By the time the United States entered World War Two in nineteen-forty-one, he had become a top officer. In nineteen-forty-four, he led the allied invasion of Europe. In nineteen-fifty, president Harry Truman named him supreme commander of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. VOICE 1: When Dwight Eisenhower ran for president, people shouted, "I like Ike!" voters liked him because he always seemed calm, even in difficult situations. As the country's president, he would face a number of difficult situations. One of the first was the continuing war in Korea. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE 1: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-07/a-2002-07-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: August 1, 2002 - Slangman: Corporate Crime
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 1, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: August 4, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a timely accounting of some slang related to business fraud. BUSH: "Every corporate official who has chosen to commit a crime can expect to face the consequences. No more easy money for corporate criminals, just hard time." RS: "Hard time." That's slang for prison time. That's what President Bush was talking about when he signed a corporate responsibility law on Tuesday. AA: Well, we called up Slangman David Burke to get the lowdown on some terms we hear when people talk about the current financial scandals. Slangman just happened to have a letter that he says he sent to his mother. BURKE: "'Dear Slangmom, my vacation was great! Too bad it was so short. Anyway, you won't believe what happened while I was gone. Well, you know that our company has been making a killing each year.' Now, when you 'make a killing,' you don't really kill anything, it just means you make a lot of money. 'We made a killing, but last week the employees and investors were told that the profits of our company suddenly nose-dived.' Which means went down very fast, like an airplane that's about to crash. "'Well, the first thing I thought was, great, we're all about to get Enroned.' I love this one -- which means to be cheated out of money, because of the big Enron scandal where investors and employees did get cheated out of money. So the last thing you want to do is get Enroned, and this I would say is our most current slang word right now. 'Our company was always in the black,' which means in good financial condition. 'And now suddenly we're in the red?' which is in bad financial condition." RS: Why black and red? Well, when accountants kept handwritten ledger books, it became traditional to use black ink to record earnings and red ink to record losses. AA: Now back to Slangman's tale of woe. BURKE: "'So how would a cash cow' -- which is a profitable company or product -- 'suddenly go belly up?' which means to fail. We say 'belly up,' meaning to fail, because when a fish dies in the water it floats up to the top belly up. We also say 'to tank.' I don't know why, I love that one. 'The company tanked,' or it went 'bust,' which also means it failed miserably. 'Well, it didn't make sense, because business ways always booming' -- a very popular expression meaning when business goes very well. "'Something was fishy.' Of course, that means suspicious. I think we say that because when something is fishy, a fish that's really old starts to smell, and so it kind of makes your face have a weird look on it, like 'yuck!,' and when something is suspicious you have the same kind of a look. 'Well, thanks to a whistle-blower in the company' -- and a whistle-blower is an informant, somebody who reports you to the authorities, they blow the whistle on you. 'So thanks to a whistle-blower in the company, we discovered that our bean counter was cooking the books.'" RS: Boy, how's that for a mouthful of slang -- although some people really do talk that way! BURKE: "A 'bean counter' is a popular word for an accountant. And the bean counter or accountant was 'cooking the books.' Now that means to falsify records. 'Well, not only that, but the bean counter was paying himself under the table.' 'Under the table,' in finances, means to pay yourself without reporting the money. "'Of course, our bean counter got canned immediately.' 'Canned' is a wonderful expression; we hear it all the time. We also say to 'get sacked,' to 'get booted' or to 'get the boot,' which gives you the image of somebody getting kicked in the backside by a boss, so they get thrown out of the building." RS: Meaning lost his job ... AA: In plain English. Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles is the author of close to thirty books on slang and idioms. If you'd like more information about Slangman, or how to order his books, visit his new Web site at slangman.com. RS: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. Before we go, we want to thank Nancy Smart, our editor since the beginning. As Nancy rides off into retirement on her new horse, Taj, we wish her happy trails. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Happy Trails"/Daughters of the Purple Sage Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 1, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: August 4, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a timely accounting of some slang related to business fraud. BUSH: "Every corporate official who has chosen to commit a crime can expect to face the consequences. No more easy money for corporate criminals, just hard time." RS: "Hard time." That's slang for prison time. That's what President Bush was talking about when he signed a corporate responsibility law on Tuesday. AA: Well, we called up Slangman David Burke to get the lowdown on some terms we hear when people talk about the current financial scandals. Slangman just happened to have a letter that he says he sent to his mother. BURKE: "'Dear Slangmom, my vacation was great! Too bad it was so short. Anyway, you won't believe what happened while I was gone. Well, you know that our company has been making a killing each year.' Now, when you 'make a killing,' you don't really kill anything, it just means you make a lot of money. 'We made a killing, but last week the employees and investors were told that the profits of our company suddenly nose-dived.' Which means went down very fast, like an airplane that's about to crash. "'Well, the first thing I thought was, great, we're all about to get Enroned.' I love this one -- which means to be cheated out of money, because of the big Enron scandal where investors and employees did get cheated out of money. So the last thing you want to do is get Enroned, and this I would say is our most current slang word right now. 'Our company was always in the black,' which means in good financial condition. 'And now suddenly we're in the red?' which is in bad financial condition." RS: Why black and red? Well, when accountants kept handwritten ledger books, it became traditional to use black ink to record earnings and red ink to record losses. AA: Now back to Slangman's tale of woe. BURKE: "'So how would a cash cow' -- which is a profitable company or product -- 'suddenly go belly up?' which means to fail. We say 'belly up,' meaning to fail, because when a fish dies in the water it floats up to the top belly up. We also say 'to tank.' I don't know why, I love that one. 'The company tanked,' or it went 'bust,' which also means it failed miserably. 'Well, it didn't make sense, because business ways always booming' -- a very popular expression meaning when business goes very well. "'Something was fishy.' Of course, that means suspicious. I think we say that because when something is fishy, a fish that's really old starts to smell, and so it kind of makes your face have a weird look on it, like 'yuck!,' and when something is suspicious you have the same kind of a look. 'Well, thanks to a whistle-blower in the company' -- and a whistle-blower is an informant, somebody who reports you to the authorities, they blow the whistle on you. 'So thanks to a whistle-blower in the company, we discovered that our bean counter was cooking the books.'" RS: Boy, how's that for a mouthful of slang -- although some people really do talk that way! BURKE: "A 'bean counter' is a popular word for an accountant. And the bean counter or accountant was 'cooking the books.' Now that means to falsify records. 'Well, not only that, but the bean counter was paying himself under the table.' 'Under the table,' in finances, means to pay yourself without reporting the money. "'Of course, our bean counter got canned immediately.' 'Canned' is a wonderful expression; we hear it all the time. We also say to 'get sacked,' to 'get booted' or to 'get the boot,' which gives you the image of somebody getting kicked in the backside by a boss, so they get thrown out of the building." RS: Meaning lost his job ... AA: In plain English. Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles is the author of close to thirty books on slang and idioms. If you'd like more information about Slangman, or how to order his books, visit his new Web site at slangman.com. RS: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. Before we go, we want to thank Nancy Smart, our editor since the beginning. As Nancy rides off into retirement on her new horse, Taj, we wish her happy trails. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Happy Trails"/Daughters of the Purple Sage 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 2, 2002: Songs by Norah Jones / Question About the Library of Congress / Air Conditioner Turns 100
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Jefferson Building, Library of Congress HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Norah Jones ... Answer a listener’s question about the Library of Congress ... Gold dome, Main Reading Room, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Norah Jones ... Answer a listener’s question about the Library of Congress ... And report about the one-hundredth anniversary of an important invention. Air Conditioning Anniversary HOST: The weather this summer has been extremely hot in many areas of the United States. This has led most Americans to use air conditioning equipment to cool the air inside their homes and businesses. They are happy to observe the one-hundredth anniversary of the invention of air conditioning. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The birth date of the air conditioner is July seventeenth, nineteen-oh-two. That was when the first air conditioning system was placed in a printing factory in Brooklyn, New York. Its purpose was to help reduce the amount of heat and wetness in the air that was damaging the ink and paper used in printing. Norah Jones album cover And report about the one-hundredth anniversary of an important invention. Air Conditioning Anniversary HOST: The weather this summer has been extremely hot in many areas of the United States. This has led most Americans to use air conditioning equipment to cool the air inside their homes and businesses. They are happy to observe the one-hundredth anniversary of the invention of air conditioning. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The birth date of the air conditioner is July seventeenth, nineteen-oh-two. That was when the first air conditioning system was placed in a printing factory in Brooklyn, New York. Its purpose was to help reduce the amount of heat and wetness in the air that was damaging the ink and paper used in printing. A young engineer named Willis Carrier invented that first air conditioner. He and six friends started their own air conditioning company in Syracuse, New York. Today, the Carrier company earns about nine-thousand-million dollars a year. It does business in more than one-hundred-seventy countries. The Carrier system was the first that cooled, cleaned and dried the air. The company put air conditioning equipment into a movie theater in New York City in nineteen-twenty-five. It also air-conditioned the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in nineteen-twenty-eight. The White House got air conditioning in nineteen-thirty. But air conditioning did not become popular in American homes until after World War Two. Today, eighty percent of Americans have some kind of air conditioning in their homes. Ninety-six percent of all the houses in the American South are air-conditioned. Experts say air conditioning has changed more than the air temperature. It has changed the way people live and work. Their activities are not linked to the weather. People can cook hot foods in the summer months, attend a movie or go shopping during hot weather. Air conditioning has improved the production of food products, medical supplies and drugs. It has made possible the growth of southern cities. Officials of the Carrier company say air conditioning technology continues to improve. They say future air conditioning systems will be able to change the temperature based on the number of people in the room or even the kind of clothes a person is wearing. Library of Congress HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Khachonesack Douangphoutha asks about the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Library of Congress is America’s national library. It has more than one-hundred-twenty-million books and other objects. It has newspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest. It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordings and musical instruments. The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday through Saturday, except for government holidays. Anyone may go there and read anything in the collection. But no one is permitted to take books out of the building. The Library of Congress was established in eighteen-hundred. It started with eleven boxes of books in one room of the Capitol Building. By eighteen-fourteen, the collection had increased to about three-thousand books. They were destroyed that year when the Capitol was burned during America’s war with Britain. To help re-build the library, Congress bought the books of President Thomas Jefferson. Mister Jefferson’s collection included seven-thousand books in seven languages. In eighteen-ninety-seven, the Library moved to its own building across the street from the Capitol. Today, three buildings hold the library’s collection. The Library of Congress provides books and materials to the United States Congress. It also lends books to other American libraries, government agencies and foreign libraries. It buys some of its books and gets others as gifts. It also gets materials through its copyright office. Anyone who wants copyright protection for a publication must send two copies to the library. This means the Library of Congress receives almost everything published in the United States. Computer users can learn more about the Library of Congress and its collection on the Internet. The address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dot g-o-v. Again, the Library of Congress web address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dot g-o-v. Norah Jones HOST: Singer and piano player Norah Jones won three Down Beat Magazine Student Music Awards when she was in high school. Two were for Best Jazz Vocalist. The other was for Best Original Composition. Mary Tillitson tells us more about her. ANNCR: Norah Jones has been playing the piano since she was seven years old. She worked as a singer and piano player at a local coffeehouse when she was sixteen. She continued to perform at similar places. Norah Jones is twenty-three years old now. She is enjoying the success of her first album, called “Come Away with Me.” Listen as Norah Jones sings “Don’t Know Why.” ((CUT ONE – “DON’T KNOW WHY")) Norah Jones says her mother was her greatest musical influence. Norah’s mother had a large record collection. It included songs by such great singers as Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. Norah listened to the songs again and again. She says she loves the music of the past. She learned this next song by listening to a recording by Nina Simone. Here is Norah Jones singing “Turn Me On.” ((CUT TWO – “TURN ME ON”)) Norah Jones’s music is a mix of pop, country, soul, and jazz. Music critics have praised her music. We leave you with another song from the album “Come Away with Me.” Norah Jones sings “Shoot the Moon.” ((CUT THREE - “SHOOT THE MOON”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. A young engineer named Willis Carrier invented that first air conditioner. He and six friends started their own air conditioning company in Syracuse, New York. Today, the Carrier company earns about nine-thousand-million dollars a year. It does business in more than one-hundred-seventy countries. The Carrier system was the first that cooled, cleaned and dried the air. The company put air conditioning equipment into a movie theater in New York City in nineteen-twenty-five. It also air-conditioned the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in nineteen-twenty-eight. The White House got air conditioning in nineteen-thirty. But air conditioning did not become popular in American homes until after World War Two. Today, eighty percent of Americans have some kind of air conditioning in their homes. Ninety-six percent of all the houses in the American South are air-conditioned. Experts say air conditioning has changed more than the air temperature. It has changed the way people live and work. Their activities are not linked to the weather. People can cook hot foods in the summer months, attend a movie or go shopping during hot weather. Air conditioning has improved the production of food products, medical supplies and drugs. It has made possible the growth of southern cities. Officials of the Carrier company say air conditioning technology continues to improve. They say future air conditioning systems will be able to change the temperature based on the number of people in the room or even the kind of clothes a person is wearing. Library of Congress HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Khachonesack Douangphoutha asks about the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Library of Congress is America’s national library. It has more than one-hundred-twenty-million books and other objects. It has newspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest. It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordings and musical instruments. The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday through Saturday, except for government holidays. Anyone may go there and read anything in the collection. But no one is permitted to take books out of the building. The Library of Congress was established in eighteen-hundred. It started with eleven boxes of books in one room of the Capitol Building. By eighteen-fourteen, the collection had increased to about three-thousand books. They were destroyed that year when the Capitol was burned during America’s war with Britain. To help re-build the library, Congress bought the books of President Thomas Jefferson. Mister Jefferson’s collection included seven-thousand books in seven languages. In eighteen-ninety-seven, the Library moved to its own building across the street from the Capitol. Today, three buildings hold the library’s collection. The Library of Congress provides books and materials to the United States Congress. It also lends books to other American libraries, government agencies and foreign libraries. It buys some of its books and gets others as gifts. It also gets materials through its copyright office. Anyone who wants copyright protection for a publication must send two copies to the library. This means the Library of Congress receives almost everything published in the United States. Computer users can learn more about the Library of Congress and its collection on the Internet. The address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dot g-o-v. Again, the Library of Congress web address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dot g-o-v. Norah Jones HOST: Singer and piano player Norah Jones won three Down Beat Magazine Student Music Awards when she was in high school. Two were for Best Jazz Vocalist. The other was for Best Original Composition. Mary Tillitson tells us more about her. ANNCR: Norah Jones has been playing the piano since she was seven years old. She worked as a singer and piano player at a local coffeehouse when she was sixteen. She continued to perform at similar places. Norah Jones is twenty-three years old now. She is enjoying the success of her first album, called “Come Away with Me.” Listen as Norah Jones sings “Don’t Know Why.” ((CUT ONE – “DON’T KNOW WHY")) Norah Jones says her mother was her greatest musical influence. Norah’s mother had a large record collection. It included songs by such great singers as Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. Norah listened to the songs again and again. She says she loves the music of the past. She learned this next song by listening to a recording by Nina Simone. Here is Norah Jones singing “Turn Me On.” ((CUT TWO – “TURN ME ON”)) Norah Jones’s music is a mix of pop, country, soul, and jazz. Music critics have praised her music. We leave you with another song from the album “Come Away with Me.” Norah Jones sings “Shoot the Moon.” ((CUT THREE - “SHOOT THE MOON”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – August 2, 2002: Navy Sonar and Ocean Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. American officials have approved a plan for the United States Navy to use loud, low-frequency sound wave devices on two ships in the world’s oceans. The new sonar system will be used to search for especially quiet submarines. The device works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed. The new sonar system can find objects ten times farther away than the sonar used now. The Navy plans to use the new system in eighty percent of the world’s oceans. The noise from the sonar device is about as loud as a large airplane leaving the ground. The Navy has permission to use the new sonar system for five years. Officials say the Navy will have to follow rules on when and where to use the sonar devices. They say the Navy will not be permitted to use the sonar if whales are seen within two kilometers of the ships. The sonar also will be banned within nineteen kilometers of any coast. The Navy also is required to investigate the possible effects of the sound waves on ocean animals. This includes the ability of whales to communicate with each other. The officials say these measures will protect the animals from any serious harm. However, environmental activists do not agree. One group, the National Resources Defense Council, may take legal action to try to stop the Navy’s plans. The group criticizes putting the system into operation before knowing its possible effects. The National Resources Defense Council also notes that past military sonar has killed whales. Two years ago, the Navy used very loud sonar devices in deep waters around the Bahama Islands. More than fifteen whales and a dolphin later were found trapped on land along several coasts. At least six of the whales and the dolphin died. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Navy investigated the incident. Investigators said the noise from the sonar led to the deaths of the ocean animals. They also found that all but one of the dead whales had bled around the brain and ear bones. The Navy says the new sonar system is necessary because other nations are developing quiet submarines. It says the effect on sea life will be minor. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. American officials have approved a plan for the United States Navy to use loud, low-frequency sound wave devices on two ships in the world’s oceans. The new sonar system will be used to search for especially quiet submarines. The device works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed. The new sonar system can find objects ten times farther away than the sonar used now. The Navy plans to use the new system in eighty percent of the world’s oceans. The noise from the sonar device is about as loud as a large airplane leaving the ground. The Navy has permission to use the new sonar system for five years. Officials say the Navy will have to follow rules on when and where to use the sonar devices. They say the Navy will not be permitted to use the sonar if whales are seen within two kilometers of the ships. The sonar also will be banned within nineteen kilometers of any coast. The Navy also is required to investigate the possible effects of the sound waves on ocean animals. This includes the ability of whales to communicate with each other. The officials say these measures will protect the animals from any serious harm. However, environmental activists do not agree. One group, the National Resources Defense Council, may take legal action to try to stop the Navy’s plans. The group criticizes putting the system into operation before knowing its possible effects. The National Resources Defense Council also notes that past military sonar has killed whales. Two years ago, the Navy used very loud sonar devices in deep waters around the Bahama Islands. More than fifteen whales and a dolphin later were found trapped on land along several coasts. At least six of the whales and the dolphin died. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Navy investigated the incident. Investigators said the noise from the sonar led to the deaths of the ocean animals. They also found that all but one of the dead whales had bled around the brain and ear bones. The Navy says the new sonar system is necessary because other nations are developing quiet submarines. It says the effect on sea life will be minor. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 5, 2002: Presidential Medal of Freedom
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: President Bush recognized twelve people at a White House ceremony last month. The twelve were officially honored with the nation’s highest civilian award. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the people who received this award -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is America’s highest government honor given to civilians. It recognizes people for their special efforts for national security, world peace, culture or other public service. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was created in nineteen-forty-five. President Harry Truman established the award to honor civilians for their service during World War Two. After the war, the medal was not given until the early nineteen-sixties. That is when President John F. Kennedy decided to re-start the program as a peacetime honor. VOICE TWO: President Kennedy was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom after his death. Every president since then has presented the award. Recent honorees have included former President Ronald Reagan and former German leader Helmut Kohl. American civil rights activist Rosa Parks and racecar driver Richard Petty also have received the medal. Last month, more than one-hundred people gathered in the East Room of the White House for the award ceremony. President Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to eight men and one woman. Another woman honored, Katharine Graham, died last year. Two other honorees, Placido Domingo and Nelson Mandela, were unable to attend. VOICE ONE: The twelve honorees were recognized for their leadership in the arts, politics, science, business and sports. One of the honorees is Hank Aaron. He is one of the most famous players in baseball history. He played for twenty-three years in North American baseball’s Major Leagues. He holds a number of Major League records, including the most homeruns hit by any player. As a young man, Mister Aaron played with a baseball team for African Americans. Then, he joined a Major League team, the Milwaukee Braves. The Braves sent him to a small team in Jacksonville, Florida. He was one of the first African Americans to play for a professional team in the southern United States. Over the years, Hank Aaron experienced racial hatred. Yet it did not stop him from becoming one of the game’s great players. (MUSIC BRIDGE – The Cosby Show Theme) VOICE TWO: A famous funnyman also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bill Cosby became one of the most popular television performers in the United States during the nineteen-eighties. His program, The Cosby Show, changed the way American television programs showed African Americans. Bill Cosby once said that you cannot bring racial groups together by joking about their differences. He wanted to talk about their similarities instead. Mister Bush praised him for using the power of laughter to heal wounds and build bridges among people. (MUSIC BRIDGE – Placido Domingo) VOICE ONE: Opera singer Placido Domingo was honored for his forty-four years as an entertainer. He has performed in one-hundred-eighteen different opera parts. That is more than any other tenor in the history of opera performance. Placido Domingo also has directed performances at famous opera houses like the Metropolitan in New York City. He currently serves as the artistic director of the Washington Opera and the Los Angeles Opera. VOICE TWO: President Bush also honored Peter Drucker, one of the world’s top experts on operating businesses. Mister Drucker is a leading supporter of ideas such as privatization and giving powers from a central leadership to local officials. Over the years, he has advised many governments, public service organizations and businesses. He currently offers advice to religious organizations. VOICE ONE: Newspaper publisher Katharine Graham, who died last year, also was honored. Missus Graham helped lead the Washington Post to its position as one of the country’s leading newspapers. During her leadership, the Post aggressively reported on secret documents that described American involvement in the Vietnam War. The newspaper also investigated and reported about the break-in at the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate building. This investigation led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. VOICE TWO: Another honoree, D.A. Henderson, is best known for his work for the World Health Organization. Between nineteen-sixty-six and nineteen-seventy-seven, Doctor Henderson led the W-H-O campaign to end the threat from the disease smallpox. He also helped establish the W-H-O’s program to stop the spread of six major diseases. This program now provides vaccine medicines to eighty percent of the world’s children. Currently, Doctor Henderson serves as the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies in Baltimore, Maryland. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Conservative American thinker and writer Irving Kristol also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Professor Kristol taught at New York University and its Graduate School of Business Administration. Mister Kristol helped influence conservative thought in the United States. His thinking mixed traditional conservative ideas with important issues in modern society. Mister Bush said Irving Kristol’s writings have helped change American politics. VOICE TWO: Nelson Mandela also was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mister Mandela led the fight to end the system of racial separation in South Africa. The South African government jailed Mister Mandela in nineteen-sixty-two. He was released in nineteen-ninety. Later, Mister Mandela was elected president of the African National Congress. He was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-ninety-three. The following year, he became South Africa’s first democratically elected president. VOICE ONE: Inventor and businessman Gordon Moore also was honored. He helped establish the Intel Corporation. Intel successfully developed the microchip, an important part in computers. Mister Moore retired from the company in nineteen-ninety-five. Since then, he and his wife have become involved in activities to help others. They have given thousands of millions of dollars to create a foundation that supports education, scientific research and the environment. VOICE TWO: Another honoree is Nancy Reagan, the wife of former President Ronald Reagan. During her husband’s presidency, Missus Reagan traveled around the country and urged young people to “Just Say No” to illegal drugs. In recent years, she has continued her work against illegal drug use. She also has increased support for a program that involves older adults and children with special needs. (MUSIC BRIDGE – “Mister Rogers Neighborhood”) VOICE ONE: Fred Rogers produced and appeared in a popular children’s television show for more than thirty years. It is called “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The goal of his work is to help support the healthy emotional growth of children and their families. “The whole idea,” he says, “is to look at the television camera and present as much love as you possibly could to a person who needs it.” President Bush said this message has won Fred Rogers a very special place in the hearts of mothers and fathers across America. VOICE TWO: Another Medal of Freedom honoree, A.M. Rosenthal, worked as a reporter, editor and writer for the New York Times newspaper. He reported about the suffering of oppressed people, especially religious minorities. He was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Poland in nineteen-sixty. Three years later, Mister Rosenthal returned to New York City to help supervise the newspaper. He supervised daily news operations of the New York Times for almost sixteen years. At the White House ceremony, President Bush noted that each honoree has improved the life of America and the world. He said all twelve have left a lasting influence of hope, strength and action. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: President Bush recognized twelve people at a White House ceremony last month. The twelve were officially honored with the nation’s highest civilian award. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the people who received this award -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is America’s highest government honor given to civilians. It recognizes people for their special efforts for national security, world peace, culture or other public service. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was created in nineteen-forty-five. President Harry Truman established the award to honor civilians for their service during World War Two. After the war, the medal was not given until the early nineteen-sixties. That is when President John F. Kennedy decided to re-start the program as a peacetime honor. VOICE TWO: President Kennedy was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom after his death. Every president since then has presented the award. Recent honorees have included former President Ronald Reagan and former German leader Helmut Kohl. American civil rights activist Rosa Parks and racecar driver Richard Petty also have received the medal. Last month, more than one-hundred people gathered in the East Room of the White House for the award ceremony. President Bush presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to eight men and one woman. Another woman honored, Katharine Graham, died last year. Two other honorees, Placido Domingo and Nelson Mandela, were unable to attend. VOICE ONE: The twelve honorees were recognized for their leadership in the arts, politics, science, business and sports. One of the honorees is Hank Aaron. He is one of the most famous players in baseball history. He played for twenty-three years in North American baseball’s Major Leagues. He holds a number of Major League records, including the most homeruns hit by any player. As a young man, Mister Aaron played with a baseball team for African Americans. Then, he joined a Major League team, the Milwaukee Braves. The Braves sent him to a small team in Jacksonville, Florida. He was one of the first African Americans to play for a professional team in the southern United States. Over the years, Hank Aaron experienced racial hatred. Yet it did not stop him from becoming one of the game’s great players. (MUSIC BRIDGE – The Cosby Show Theme) VOICE TWO: A famous funnyman also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bill Cosby became one of the most popular television performers in the United States during the nineteen-eighties. His program, The Cosby Show, changed the way American television programs showed African Americans. Bill Cosby once said that you cannot bring racial groups together by joking about their differences. He wanted to talk about their similarities instead. Mister Bush praised him for using the power of laughter to heal wounds and build bridges among people. (MUSIC BRIDGE – Placido Domingo) VOICE ONE: Opera singer Placido Domingo was honored for his forty-four years as an entertainer. He has performed in one-hundred-eighteen different opera parts. That is more than any other tenor in the history of opera performance. Placido Domingo also has directed performances at famous opera houses like the Metropolitan in New York City. He currently serves as the artistic director of the Washington Opera and the Los Angeles Opera. VOICE TWO: President Bush also honored Peter Drucker, one of the world’s top experts on operating businesses. Mister Drucker is a leading supporter of ideas such as privatization and giving powers from a central leadership to local officials. Over the years, he has advised many governments, public service organizations and businesses. He currently offers advice to religious organizations. VOICE ONE: Newspaper publisher Katharine Graham, who died last year, also was honored. Missus Graham helped lead the Washington Post to its position as one of the country’s leading newspapers. During her leadership, the Post aggressively reported on secret documents that described American involvement in the Vietnam War. The newspaper also investigated and reported about the break-in at the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate building. This investigation led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. VOICE TWO: Another honoree, D.A. Henderson, is best known for his work for the World Health Organization. Between nineteen-sixty-six and nineteen-seventy-seven, Doctor Henderson led the W-H-O campaign to end the threat from the disease smallpox. He also helped establish the W-H-O’s program to stop the spread of six major diseases. This program now provides vaccine medicines to eighty percent of the world’s children. Currently, Doctor Henderson serves as the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies in Baltimore, Maryland. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Conservative American thinker and writer Irving Kristol also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Professor Kristol taught at New York University and its Graduate School of Business Administration. Mister Kristol helped influence conservative thought in the United States. His thinking mixed traditional conservative ideas with important issues in modern society. Mister Bush said Irving Kristol’s writings have helped change American politics. VOICE TWO: Nelson Mandela also was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mister Mandela led the fight to end the system of racial separation in South Africa. The South African government jailed Mister Mandela in nineteen-sixty-two. He was released in nineteen-ninety. Later, Mister Mandela was elected president of the African National Congress. He was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in nineteen-ninety-three. The following year, he became South Africa’s first democratically elected president. VOICE ONE: Inventor and businessman Gordon Moore also was honored. He helped establish the Intel Corporation. Intel successfully developed the microchip, an important part in computers. Mister Moore retired from the company in nineteen-ninety-five. Since then, he and his wife have become involved in activities to help others. They have given thousands of millions of dollars to create a foundation that supports education, scientific research and the environment. VOICE TWO: Another honoree is Nancy Reagan, the wife of former President Ronald Reagan. During her husband’s presidency, Missus Reagan traveled around the country and urged young people to “Just Say No” to illegal drugs. In recent years, she has continued her work against illegal drug use. She also has increased support for a program that involves older adults and children with special needs. (MUSIC BRIDGE – “Mister Rogers Neighborhood”) VOICE ONE: Fred Rogers produced and appeared in a popular children’s television show for more than thirty years. It is called “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” The goal of his work is to help support the healthy emotional growth of children and their families. “The whole idea,” he says, “is to look at the television camera and present as much love as you possibly could to a person who needs it.” President Bush said this message has won Fred Rogers a very special place in the hearts of mothers and fathers across America. VOICE TWO: Another Medal of Freedom honoree, A.M. Rosenthal, worked as a reporter, editor and writer for the New York Times newspaper. He reported about the suffering of oppressed people, especially religious minorities. He was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Poland in nineteen-sixty. Three years later, Mister Rosenthal returned to New York City to help supervise the newspaper. He supervised daily news operations of the New York Times for almost sixteen years. At the White House ceremony, President Bush noted that each honoree has improved the life of America and the world. He said all twelve have left a lasting influence of hope, strength and action. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – August 4, 2002: Ann Landers
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about advice writer Ann Landers. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many newspapers in the United States have writers who give advice. Some are experts about issues like gardening, food, health or money. People will write to the expert about a problem and he or she will try to solve it. There also are advice writers who deal with the more personal issues in life. They answer questions about all kinds of things—love, children, mental health problems, morals. This was the kind of advice column that Esther Lederer wrote. She wrote it under the name of Ann Landers. VOICE TWO: Mizz Lederer did not study to become a newspaper writer. In fact, she did not finish her university studies at Morningside College, in Sioux City, Iowa. She was born in Sioux City on July fourth, nineteen-eighteen. Her parents named her Esther Pauline Friedman. Esther’s younger sister was born a few minutes later. She was given the same two first names in opposite order--Pauline Esther. The twins, Eppie and Popo as they were called, had two older sisters. Their father, Abraham Friedman had come to the United States from Russia. He sold chickens when he first arrived. Soon, he became a successful businessman who owned movie theaters in several states. Eppie said she owed a lot to her parents and her childhood in the Middle West. She says both provided her with morals and values that helped her a lot in life. VOICE ONE: Eppie Friedman was in college when she met Jules Lederer. She left school to marry him in nineteen-thirty-nine. Mister Lederer was a businessman. He helped establish a car service called Budget Rent-A-Car. It became very successful. Mister and Missus Lederer had their first and only child, Margo, in Nineteen-Forty. For years Eppie Lederer was happy to stay home and raise her child while her husband’s business grew. They lived in Wisconsin at first. Missus Lederer became politically active in the Democratic Party there. In nineteen-fifty-five, the Lederers moved to Chicago, Illinois. That same year, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper held a competition among its employees. The paper wanted to find a replacement for its advice columnist who wrote under the name Ann Landers. Eppie Lederer heard about the competition from a friend at the paper and decided to enter. She was one of thirty people who sought the job. The competition was simple. Competitors were given several letters from people requesting help on different issues. The person who wrote the answers the newspaper officials liked best would win the job. VOICE TWO: Missus Lederer used the help of powerful friends to decide the best advice. For example, one letter writer asked about a tree that dropped nuts on her property. The tree grew on land owned by someone else. The letter writer wanted to know what she could do with the nuts. Eppie Lederer decided that this was really a legal question so she sought help from a friend who knew about the law. That friend just happened to be a judge on the United States Supreme Court! Another letter was about a Roman Catholic Church issue. So Eppie Lederer talked to the president of a famous Catholic university, Notre Dame. The Chicago Sun Times reportedly called Missus Lederer a few days after the competition ended. When she answered the telephone a newspaper official said “Good Morning, Ann Landers.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The new Ann Landers discovered the job was not easy. She reportedly was deeply affected by many of the sad letters she received from troubled people. Missus Lederer later said that one Sun-Times editor helped her harden herself to those stories. He said she must separate herself from her readers and their problems. She said she would not have been successful in her work if it were not for that advice. Ann Landers’ popularity grew quickly. She immediately established herself as different from advice writers of the past. She became known for her easy writing style and her often funny answers. She related to her readers as if they were old friends. She seemed to say exactly what she thought, even when doing so might hurt the feelings of those seeking help. Most people considered Ann Landers’ advice to be good, common sense. For example, early in her work a young person wrote to ask Ann Landers opinion of sexual activity among teenagers. She explained her objection to such activity by saying, “a lemon squeezed too many times is considered garbage.” VOICE TWO: As Ann Landers gained fame so did many of her words. People began to repeat some her short, pointed sentences. One of the most famous of these was when she told readers to “wake up and smell the coffee.” She would use this comment when advice seekers seemed to be denying situations that made them unhappy or uncomfortable. Another well-known Ann Landers saying was “forty lashes with a wet noodle.” She would say this if she believed someone had done something mean, dishonest or just stupid. Ann Landers did not protect herself from such criticism, however. She often published letters from readers who argued against advice she had given. When she agreed with their criticism, she sometimes ordered the forty lashes for herself! Ann Landers took a lot of risks in her column. She spoke out about many issues that some people considered offensive or socially unacceptable. She discussed homosexuality, alcoholism, drug dependency and mistreatment of children by parents to list a few. VOICE ONE: Ann Landers also spoke out on political issues. She expressed her strong opposition to American involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. She was a major supporter of gun control and the right of a woman to choose to end a pregnancy. She also supported using animals in medical research. These opinions made her an enemy of several groups, including the National Rifle Association, abortion opponents, and animal protection organizations. But, their pressure did not appear to worry Ann Landers. In fact, she once said she felt proud that these groups hated her. Her political activism was sometimes powerful. She expressed her support of legislation for cancer research in her column in nineteen-seventy-one. President Richard Nixon received hundreds of thousands of copies of the column from Ann Landers readers. He soon signed the one-hundred-million dollar National Cancer Act. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-seventy-five, Eppie Lederer’s life changed. Her husband, Jules, told her he was involved with another woman. That relationship had been going on for several years. Mister and Missus Lederer separated. This experience affected Ann Landers’ advice about seriously troubled marriages. She had always advised couples to stay together to avoid hurting their children. After her separation from her husband she wrote a column about her decision to end her marriage. She received tens of thousands of letters from her readers offering their support and sympathy. Ann Landers continued to suggest that a husband and wife in a troubled marriage seek counseling. But she was now more willing to consider that a marriage might be beyond repair. VOICE ONE: Eppie Lederer’s sister Popo also became an advice columnist. Her column was called Dear Abby. Like Ann Landers, Dear Abby was published in thousands of newspapers. Some reports say the competition between the two advice columns led to a dispute between the twin sisters. They reportedly did not speak for five years. Eppie Lederer’s daughter Margo Howard is an advice columnist as well. But, neither her daughter or her sister won the kind of fame and following that Ann Landers did. Her column appeared in The Chicago Tribune and about one-thousand-two-hundred other newspapers around the world. Her advice reached tens of millions of people every day. That was her goal. She said having many readers was more important to her than winning a famous prize. VOICE TWO: In January two-thousand-two, doctors discovered that Eppie Lederer had multiple myeloma. It is a very serious form of cancer of the bone marrow. Her death came just six months later, on June twenty-second. She was eighty-three. Eppie Lederer owned the rights to the Ann Landers name and did not want it to be used after she died. So millions of people around the world have received the last words of advice from Ann Landers. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about advice writer Ann Landers. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many newspapers in the United States have writers who give advice. Some are experts about issues like gardening, food, health or money. People will write to the expert about a problem and he or she will try to solve it. There also are advice writers who deal with the more personal issues in life. They answer questions about all kinds of things—love, children, mental health problems, morals. This was the kind of advice column that Esther Lederer wrote. She wrote it under the name of Ann Landers. VOICE TWO: Mizz Lederer did not study to become a newspaper writer. In fact, she did not finish her university studies at Morningside College, in Sioux City, Iowa. She was born in Sioux City on July fourth, nineteen-eighteen. Her parents named her Esther Pauline Friedman. Esther’s younger sister was born a few minutes later. She was given the same two first names in opposite order--Pauline Esther. The twins, Eppie and Popo as they were called, had two older sisters. Their father, Abraham Friedman had come to the United States from Russia. He sold chickens when he first arrived. Soon, he became a successful businessman who owned movie theaters in several states. Eppie said she owed a lot to her parents and her childhood in the Middle West. She says both provided her with morals and values that helped her a lot in life. VOICE ONE: Eppie Friedman was in college when she met Jules Lederer. She left school to marry him in nineteen-thirty-nine. Mister Lederer was a businessman. He helped establish a car service called Budget Rent-A-Car. It became very successful. Mister and Missus Lederer had their first and only child, Margo, in Nineteen-Forty. For years Eppie Lederer was happy to stay home and raise her child while her husband’s business grew. They lived in Wisconsin at first. Missus Lederer became politically active in the Democratic Party there. In nineteen-fifty-five, the Lederers moved to Chicago, Illinois. That same year, the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper held a competition among its employees. The paper wanted to find a replacement for its advice columnist who wrote under the name Ann Landers. Eppie Lederer heard about the competition from a friend at the paper and decided to enter. She was one of thirty people who sought the job. The competition was simple. Competitors were given several letters from people requesting help on different issues. The person who wrote the answers the newspaper officials liked best would win the job. VOICE TWO: Missus Lederer used the help of powerful friends to decide the best advice. For example, one letter writer asked about a tree that dropped nuts on her property. The tree grew on land owned by someone else. The letter writer wanted to know what she could do with the nuts. Eppie Lederer decided that this was really a legal question so she sought help from a friend who knew about the law. That friend just happened to be a judge on the United States Supreme Court! Another letter was about a Roman Catholic Church issue. So Eppie Lederer talked to the president of a famous Catholic university, Notre Dame. The Chicago Sun Times reportedly called Missus Lederer a few days after the competition ended. When she answered the telephone a newspaper official said “Good Morning, Ann Landers.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The new Ann Landers discovered the job was not easy. She reportedly was deeply affected by many of the sad letters she received from troubled people. Missus Lederer later said that one Sun-Times editor helped her harden herself to those stories. He said she must separate herself from her readers and their problems. She said she would not have been successful in her work if it were not for that advice. Ann Landers’ popularity grew quickly. She immediately established herself as different from advice writers of the past. She became known for her easy writing style and her often funny answers. She related to her readers as if they were old friends. She seemed to say exactly what she thought, even when doing so might hurt the feelings of those seeking help. Most people considered Ann Landers’ advice to be good, common sense. For example, early in her work a young person wrote to ask Ann Landers opinion of sexual activity among teenagers. She explained her objection to such activity by saying, “a lemon squeezed too many times is considered garbage.” VOICE TWO: As Ann Landers gained fame so did many of her words. People began to repeat some her short, pointed sentences. One of the most famous of these was when she told readers to “wake up and smell the coffee.” She would use this comment when advice seekers seemed to be denying situations that made them unhappy or uncomfortable. Another well-known Ann Landers saying was “forty lashes with a wet noodle.” She would say this if she believed someone had done something mean, dishonest or just stupid. Ann Landers did not protect herself from such criticism, however. She often published letters from readers who argued against advice she had given. When she agreed with their criticism, she sometimes ordered the forty lashes for herself! Ann Landers took a lot of risks in her column. She spoke out about many issues that some people considered offensive or socially unacceptable. She discussed homosexuality, alcoholism, drug dependency and mistreatment of children by parents to list a few. VOICE ONE: Ann Landers also spoke out on political issues. She expressed her strong opposition to American involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. She was a major supporter of gun control and the right of a woman to choose to end a pregnancy. She also supported using animals in medical research. These opinions made her an enemy of several groups, including the National Rifle Association, abortion opponents, and animal protection organizations. But, their pressure did not appear to worry Ann Landers. In fact, she once said she felt proud that these groups hated her. Her political activism was sometimes powerful. She expressed her support of legislation for cancer research in her column in nineteen-seventy-one. President Richard Nixon received hundreds of thousands of copies of the column from Ann Landers readers. He soon signed the one-hundred-million dollar National Cancer Act. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In nineteen-seventy-five, Eppie Lederer’s life changed. Her husband, Jules, told her he was involved with another woman. That relationship had been going on for several years. Mister and Missus Lederer separated. This experience affected Ann Landers’ advice about seriously troubled marriages. She had always advised couples to stay together to avoid hurting their children. After her separation from her husband she wrote a column about her decision to end her marriage. She received tens of thousands of letters from her readers offering their support and sympathy. Ann Landers continued to suggest that a husband and wife in a troubled marriage seek counseling. But she was now more willing to consider that a marriage might be beyond repair. VOICE ONE: Eppie Lederer’s sister Popo also became an advice columnist. Her column was called Dear Abby. Like Ann Landers, Dear Abby was published in thousands of newspapers. Some reports say the competition between the two advice columns led to a dispute between the twin sisters. They reportedly did not speak for five years. Eppie Lederer’s daughter Margo Howard is an advice columnist as well. But, neither her daughter or her sister won the kind of fame and following that Ann Landers did. Her column appeared in The Chicago Tribune and about one-thousand-two-hundred other newspapers around the world. Her advice reached tens of millions of people every day. That was her goal. She said having many readers was more important to her than winning a famous prize. VOICE TWO: In January two-thousand-two, doctors discovered that Eppie Lederer had multiple myeloma. It is a very serious form of cancer of the bone marrow. Her death came just six months later, on June twenty-second. She was eighty-three. Eppie Lederer owned the rights to the Ann Landers name and did not want it to be used after she died. So millions of people around the world have received the last words of advice from Ann Landers. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – August 5, 2002: River Blindness
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors in Cameroon have found that giving the drug that fights river blindness more often can reduce the organisms that cause the disease. Ivermectin tabletsWHO/APOC/TDR/Crump photo This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Doctors in Cameroon have found that giving the drug that fights river blindness more often can reduce the organisms that cause the disease. Eighteen-million people suffer from river blindness. Almost all of them are in southern Africa. A smaller number of people in Latin America also have the disease. The medical name for the disease is onchocerciasis (on-ko-sir-KYE-uh-sis). It is caused by a parasitic worm organism that lives for as many as fourteen years in humans. Each adult female worm grows to be one-half meter in length. The females produce millions of tiny baby worms that move through the body. The movement of these baby worms can cause skin and eye problems, including blindness. Black fly insects pass the parasite to humans. Doctors usually give patients the drug ivermectin (eye-ver-MEK-tin) one or two times a year to kill the baby worms. However, this treatment does not kill the adult female worms, which keep reproducing. Because of this, doctors have to keep treating patients until the adult worms die of old age. This can take a long time. And it is difficult to reach patients in some villages in parts of Africa and Latin America. However, a recent study in Cameroon has found that more treatments of ivermectin can reduce the number of adult worms in patients. Brian Duke of the River Blindness Foundation in Lancaster, England led the research. The scientists studied about seven-hundred patients with the disease for three years. Some of the patients were given ivermectin every three months. Some of them got the medicine once a year. The results showed that about one-third more adult worms died in the patients who were treated with the drug every three months. Details of the study were reported in The Lancet. Scientists say the results of the study are important. However, they believe more research is needed to test if ivermectin reduces the spread of river blindness. If it does, health experts believe the disease could be ended in Latin America. That area has only one percent of the world’s river blindness cases. Doctors believe they may be able to reduce the number of cases in Africa. Health officials say that giving ivermectin more often would not cost more money. Currently, the American drug company Merck provides the medicine at no cost. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. Eighteen-million people suffer from river blindness. Almost all of them are in southern Africa. A smaller number of people in Latin America also have the disease. The medical name for the disease is onchocerciasis (on-ko-sir-KYE-uh-sis). It is caused by a parasitic worm organism that lives for as many as fourteen years in humans. Each adult female worm grows to be one-half meter in length. The females produce millions of tiny baby worms that move through the body. The movement of these baby worms can cause skin and eye problems, including blindness. Black fly insects pass the parasite to humans. Doctors usually give patients the drug ivermectin (eye-ver-MEK-tin) one or two times a year to kill the baby worms. However, this treatment does not kill the adult female worms, which keep reproducing. Because of this, doctors have to keep treating patients until the adult worms die of old age. This can take a long time. And it is difficult to reach patients in some villages in parts of Africa and Latin America. However, a recent study in Cameroon has found that more treatments of ivermectin can reduce the number of adult worms in patients. Brian Duke of the River Blindness Foundation in Lancaster, England led the research. The scientists studied about seven-hundred patients with the disease for three years. Some of the patients were given ivermectin every three months. Some of them got the medicine once a year. The results showed that about one-third more adult worms died in the patients who were treated with the drug every three months. Details of the study were reported in The Lancet. Scientists say the results of the study are important. However, they believe more research is needed to test if ivermectin reduces the spread of river blindness. If it does, health experts believe the disease could be ended in Latin America. That area has only one percent of the world’s river blindness cases. Doctors believe they may be able to reduce the number of cases in Africa. Health officials say that giving ivermectin more often would not cost more money. Currently, the American drug company Merck provides the medicine at no cost. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 3, 2002: U.S. Trade Bill
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The United States Congress has passed a new trade bill. The Senate passed the bill Thursday by a vote of sixty to thirty-four. Opposition was stronger in the House of Representatives where the bill passed by only three votes. It has gone to President Bush to be signed. The bill gives the president and United States trade representatives what is called “fast track” power on trade negotiation issues. That means they will have more freedom to negotiate trade agreements. The bill limits congressional debate on trade agreements brought before it. Lawmakers have to vote on the agreements within ninety days. Also, they no longer are permitted to make changes to the agreements. They have to accept or reject the agreement as it is written. The new trade bill requires that the administration communicate with congressional committees while trade negotiations are being held. The bill says the administration must consider the protection of workers’ rights and the environment as negotiating goals. And, negotiators have to consider United States laws designed to fight unfair business activities by foreign countries. Yet, the bill only requires these issues be considered during trade negotiations. It does not demand that negotiators honor the goals in reaching agreements. Congress first passed fast track legislation in nineteen-seventy-four. American presidents enjoyed the power for the next twenty years. In nineteen-ninety-four, Congress voted against extending the power to then president, Bill Clinton. Lawmakers of Mister Clinton’s Democratic party led the opposition to the legislation. They argued that more congressional control in trade issues would help protect workers rights and the environment. Democrats led the opposition to this latest fast track bill. And they won some compromises. For example, the bill provides more than one-thousand-million dollars yearly for health insurance and other aid to United States workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition. The bill also guarantees help for some workers whose factories are moved to foreign countries. The new trade bill could help a number of South American countries. It includes the Andean Trade Preference that offers lower import taxes to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. However, the countries must show that they are taking steps to fight trade in illegal drugs. President Bush says he will sign the trade bill into law next week. It will be in effect for five years. Mister Bush says the bill will open markets and create jobs for American workers and farmers. American Trade Representative Robert Zoellic campaigned hard for the bill. He argued that countries refuse to negotiate with him while lawmakers can interfere with the terms he negotiates. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. Broadcast: This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The United States Congress has passed a new trade bill. The Senate passed the bill Thursday by a vote of sixty to thirty-four. Opposition was stronger in the House of Representatives where the bill passed by only three votes. It has gone to President Bush to be signed. The bill gives the president and United States trade representatives what is called “fast track” power on trade negotiation issues. That means they will have more freedom to negotiate trade agreements. The bill limits congressional debate on trade agreements brought before it. Lawmakers have to vote on the agreements within ninety days. Also, they no longer are permitted to make changes to the agreements. They have to accept or reject the agreement as it is written. The new trade bill requires that the administration communicate with congressional committees while trade negotiations are being held. The bill says the administration must consider the protection of workers’ rights and the environment as negotiating goals. And, negotiators have to consider United States laws designed to fight unfair business activities by foreign countries. Yet, the bill only requires these issues be considered during trade negotiations. It does not demand that negotiators honor the goals in reaching agreements. Congress first passed fast track legislation in nineteen-seventy-four. American presidents enjoyed the power for the next twenty years. In nineteen-ninety-four, Congress voted against extending the power to then president, Bill Clinton. Lawmakers of Mister Clinton’s Democratic party led the opposition to the legislation. They argued that more congressional control in trade issues would help protect workers rights and the environment. Democrats led the opposition to this latest fast track bill. And they won some compromises. For example, the bill provides more than one-thousand-million dollars yearly for health insurance and other aid to United States workers who lose their jobs to foreign competition. The bill also guarantees help for some workers whose factories are moved to foreign countries. The new trade bill could help a number of South American countries. It includes the Andean Trade Preference that offers lower import taxes to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. However, the countries must show that they are taking steps to fight trade in illegal drugs. President Bush says he will sign the trade bill into law next week. It will be in effect for five years. Mister Bush says the bill will open markets and create jobs for American workers and farmers. American Trade Representative Robert Zoellic campaigned hard for the bill. He argued that countries refuse to negotiate with him while lawmakers can interfere with the terms he negotiates. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – August 6, 2002: Heat and Health
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some health problems linked to extreme heat. And we tell about what you can do to prevent and treat these problems. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Floods, storms and other terrible natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. Health experts say that since the year nineteen-hundred, extremely hot weather has killed more people in the United States than any other natural event. One year -- the unusually hot summer of nineteen-eighty -- heat caused about one-thousand-seven-hundred deaths in the United States. In nineteen-ninety-five, more than six-hundred people died in a similar heat wave in one city -- Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: To measure extreme heat, government weather experts have developed the Mean Heat Index. It measures the average of how hot it felt all day on an extremely hot day. Experts say it is the total heat of a hot day or several hot days that can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become deadly when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes intense stress on the human body. Doctors say there are many things people can do to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. They say to stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink large amounts of cool s. Wear loose clothes made of light-colored, natural materials. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. There are many causes for heat stress. These include hard work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is much more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE TWO: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors say severe heat also increases problems for very small children, older people and people suffering the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood circulation, nervousness or depression. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. It is a process during which the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. The person’s ability to work and think becomes sharply limited. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a fast heart beat, breathing problems, headache, chest pain and a general feeling of sickness. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious. Doctors say that if the body temperature goes higher than forty-two degrees Celsius, the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say treatment should begin immediately or the person could die before medical help arrives. VOICE TWO: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Then, take off the person’s clothes. Pour water over the victim’s body. And put pieces of ice in areas where blood vessels are close to the skin. These areas include the neck and under the arms. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water also is needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water each day to replace all the body water lost in urine and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cold liquids is best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. However, researchers say that sweet drinks are not good to drink in hot weather. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through urine. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking lots of cool water, doctors say there are other things to do to protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, light-weight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. And when possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. If possible, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Health experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about some health problems linked to extreme heat. And we tell about what you can do to prevent and treat these problems. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Floods, storms and other terrible natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. Health experts say that since the year nineteen-hundred, extremely hot weather has killed more people in the United States than any other natural event. One year -- the unusually hot summer of nineteen-eighty -- heat caused about one-thousand-seven-hundred deaths in the United States. In nineteen-ninety-five, more than six-hundred people died in a similar heat wave in one city -- Chicago, Illinois. VOICE TWO: To measure extreme heat, government weather experts have developed the Mean Heat Index. It measures the average of how hot it felt all day on an extremely hot day. Experts say it is the total heat of a hot day or several hot days that can affect health. Several hot days are considered a heat wave. Experts say heat waves often become deadly when the nighttime temperature does not drop much from the highest daytime temperature. This causes intense stress on the human body. Doctors say there are many things people can do to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. They say to stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink large amounts of cool s. Wear loose clothes made of light-colored, natural materials. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. There are many causes for heat stress. These include hard work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is much more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE TWO: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors say severe heat also increases problems for very small children, older people and people suffering the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood circulation, nervousness or depression. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. It is a process during which the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. The person’s ability to work and think becomes sharply limited. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. VOICE TWO: A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a fast heart beat, breathing problems, headache, chest pain and a general feeling of sickness. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious. Doctors say that if the body temperature goes higher than forty-two degrees Celsius, the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook. Permanent brain damage and death may result. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say treatment should begin immediately or the person could die before medical help arrives. VOICE TWO: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Then, take off the person’s clothes. Pour water over the victim’s body. And put pieces of ice in areas where blood vessels are close to the skin. These areas include the neck and under the arms. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water also is needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of water each day to replace all the body water lost in urine and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. They say we should drink water even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, drinking cold liquids is best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. However, researchers say that sweet drinks are not good to drink in hot weather. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through urine. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking lots of cool water, doctors say there are other things to do to protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, light-weight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. And when possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. If possible, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Health experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 6, 2002: Caviar from California
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Serge Doroshov Broadcast: This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The American state of California is famous for its agriculture. Now, scientists are working to make California a world leader in the production of caviar. Caviar is made from the eggs of the large fish called sturgeon. Caviar is a popular and very costly food in many parts of the world. The University of California at Davis reports that California is already the world’s leading producer of white sturgeon. It says the state’s success is partly the result of work by one of its professors. Serge Doroshov (surge DOOR-uh-shof) joined the university’s animal science department twenty-five years ago. He and his team showed that it is possible to speed up the rate at which sturgeon develop sexually. To do this, they successfully changed the environment where the fish develop. They also used hormones to influence the production of eggs and male reproductive fluid. Sturgeon and their ancestors are thought to have lived as long ago as two-hundred-million years. That is long before the appearance of most modern fish. Sturgeon have long, thin bodies covered with a series of bony plates. The head is also well protected with these hard structures. Sturgeon can live for more than one-hundred years. Some weigh more than four-hundred-fifty kilograms. However, the fish develop slowly. Females in the wild are not able to reproduce until they are fifteen to twenty-five years old. Most sturgeon move from salt water into inland waterways when they are ready to reproduce. However, some live permanently in fresh waters. Sturgeon were once common in North America. However, too much fishing, building projects and pollution have greatly reduced their number. Today, Iran and Russia produce most of the world’s caviar from sturgeon. The most valuable caviar comes from a kind of sturgeon called beluga (ba-LOO-ga). Professor Doroshov showed that sturgeon could be raised in small bodies of water and large containers. He also showed that the fish will eat food not found in their natural environment. He and other scientists are now attempting to grow bigger, longer-living sturgeon that produce large amounts of caviar. Professor Doroshov has also helped develop methods to raise other kinds of fish. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. The American state of California is famous for its agriculture. Now, scientists are working to make California a world leader in the production of caviar. Caviar is made from the eggs of the large fish called sturgeon. Caviar is a popular and very costly food in many parts of the world. The University of California at Davis reports that California is already the world’s leading producer of white sturgeon. It says the state’s success is partly the result of work by one of its professors. Serge Doroshov (surge DOOR-uh-shof) joined the university’s animal science department twenty-five years ago. He and his team showed that it is possible to speed up the rate at which sturgeon develop sexually. To do this, they successfully changed the environment where the fish develop. They also used hormones to influence the production of eggs and male reproductive fluid. Sturgeon and their ancestors are thought to have lived as long ago as two-hundred-million years. That is long before the appearance of most modern fish. Sturgeon have long, thin bodies covered with a series of bony plates. The head is also well protected with these hard structures. Sturgeon can live for more than one-hundred years. Some weigh more than four-hundred-fifty kilograms. However, the fish develop slowly. Females in the wild are not able to reproduce until they are fifteen to twenty-five years old. Most sturgeon move from salt water into inland waterways when they are ready to reproduce. However, some live permanently in fresh waters. Sturgeon were once common in North America. However, too much fishing, building projects and pollution have greatly reduced their number. Today, Iran and Russia produce most of the world’s caviar from sturgeon. The most valuable caviar comes from a kind of sturgeon called beluga (ba-LOO-ga). Professor Doroshov showed that sturgeon could be raised in small bodies of water and large containers. He also showed that the fish will eat food not found in their natural environment. He and other scientists are now attempting to grow bigger, longer-living sturgeon that produce large amounts of caviar. Professor Doroshov has also helped develop methods to raise other kinds of fish. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: test
* Byline: 

 Date = 8-15-2002 August 15, 2002 Type = Special English Feature Number = 7-23084 Title = Special English THE MAKING OF A NATION #206-the nineteen-fifties Byline = Jeri watson telephone=619-2585 Dateline = Washington editor= Content = (music Inserts not available in Special English. ) (Theme) VOICE 1: This is phil murray. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a v-o-a Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell what life was like in America during the nineteen-fifties. VOICE 1: Imagine that you are visiting the United States. What would you expect to see. In the nineteen-fifties, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength. It was a nation whose population was growing as never before. ((bridge Music)) VOICE 2: After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be peaceful for awhile. By nineteen-fifty, however, political tensions were high again. The United States and the soviet union, allies in war, had become enemies. The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another. And soviet leader josef stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. The soviet union had strengthened its armed forces after the war. The United States had taken many steps to disarm. Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb. America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-nine, a United States air force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them. The answer came quickly: the soviet union had exploded an atomic bomb. The race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction. Would these weapons ever be used. The American publication, "the bulletin of the atomic scientists," always showed a picture of a clock. By nineteen-forty-nine, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight. That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction. The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced. They were even more afraid of what science could produce. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty, north Korea invaded south Korea. The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb. That was the hydrogen bomb. The soviets were developing such a weapon, too. Many Americans were afraid. Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes. They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack. VOICE 1: Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid. In nineteen-fifty-two, the military hero of World War Two, dwight Eisenhower, was elected president. The economy improved. Americans looked to the future with hope. One sign of hope was the baby boom. This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war. The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. The bigger families needed houses. In nineteen-fifty alone, one-million four-hundred-thousand houses were built in America. Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better. They also liked having more space for their children to play. VOICE 2: Many Americans remember the nineteen-fifties as the fad years. A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the nineteen-fifties was the hula hoop. The hula hoop was a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle. To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion. This kept it spinning around your body. The motion was like one used by polynesian people in their native dance, the hula. Other fads in the nineteen-fifties involved clothes or hair. Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog. Actress mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the broadway play, "south pacific. " VOICE 1: In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous. Not everyone thought she was a great actress. But she had shining golden hair. And she had what was considered a perfect body. Marilyn Monroe's success did not Make her happy. She killed herself in the nineteen-sixties, when she was thirty-six years old. Another famous actor of those days was James dean. To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young. In fact, one of his films was called, "rebel without a cause. " James dean died in a car accident in nineteen-fifty-five. He was twenty-four. VOICE 2: The nineteen-fifties saw a rebellion in American literature. As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life. These were the writers and poets of the beat generation, including gregory corso, jack kerouac, and allen ginsberg. They said life was empty in nineteen-fifties America. They described the people as dead in brain and spirit. Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art. Pollock did not paint things the way they looked. Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased. He was asked again and again: "what do your paintings mean. " He answered: "do not worry about what they mean. They are just there. . . Like flowers. " VOICE 1: In music, the rebel was elvis presley. He was the king of rock-and-roll. ((tape Cut 1:"blue suede shoes" :36)) elvis presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time. He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual. Parents and religious leaders criticized him. Young people screamed for more. They could not get enough rock-and-roll. They played it on records. They heard it on the radio. And they listened to it on the television program "American bandstand. " ((tape Cut 2: "American bandstand" :11)) this program became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras. VOICE 2: During the nineteen-forties, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the nineteen-fifties, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day. Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as milton berle and lucille ball. They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur godfrey and ed Sullivan. VOICE 1: People from other countries watching American television in the nineteen-fifties might have thought that all Americans were white Christians. At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions. Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television. Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people. A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the nineteen-fifties. Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools. By the nineteen-sixties, the civil rights movement would shake the nation. ((bridge Music)) VOICE 2: Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the nineteen-fifties. He faced the problems of communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions. He had a calm way of speaking. And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way. Some citizens felt he was like a father to the nation. With Mr. Eisenhower in the white house, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson and produced by paul thompson. This is phil murray. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another v-o-a Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 7, 2002: International Spy Museum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. Subminiature wristwatch camera. 1949.Germany. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a museum that has just opened in Washington D-C. This unusual museum is becoming very popular, very quickly. It is the International Spy Museum. (SPY MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The International Spy Museum opened on Friday, July nineteenth. The next day a crowd of people waited in the summer heat for as long as two hours to enter. After they got in the museum, they learned about famous spies. They saw unusual communications equipment, special weapons and other items. They also saw many objects that used to be secret, including different cameras used by spies. Some of the cameras can see through walls. The museum has a huge collection of pictures of spies. It provides information about what it is like to be a spy. And, it has shows what happens to some spies when they are caught. Some of its information about spies is history. Other information is new, some only a few months old. Among the stories the museum tells is about two American men who were found guilty in recent years of spying. Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen are spending the rest of their lives in prison. VOICE TWO: Information is extremely useful to a government and its leaders. Almost all governments employ people who collect information. National leaders use this information to make the best possible decisions when their country is involved in a crisis or other difficult situation. The correct information can help a leader prevent war. It can save lives, improve the economy and protect the citizens of a nation. Valuable information does not have to be secret. It can be found in newspapers, magazines and books. However, some people collect information that a government considers secret. These people are spies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: History experts say that spies have always existed. The International Spy Museum says the first known document about spies is almost four-thousand years old. It is a small piece of pottery made of clay that was found in Syria. The information written in the clay tells about the capture of several spies. It does not say what happened to them. The museum has a copy of a military book written two-thousand-five hundred years ago. Chinese military expert General Sun Tzu wrote the book, “The Art of War.” It is still read today in military schools. In the book, Sun Tzu explains spies should be used and can find good information almost anywhere. The International Spy Museum says the first known successful group of spies may have worked in Britain. The Museum says Sir Francis Walsingham was the Secretary of State for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth the First. He became her Secretary of State in fifteen-seventy-three. Mister Walsingham controlled a large group of spies who gathered information about people in Britain. Experts say there may have been one-thousand-five-hundred spies in this group. Mister Walsingham also collected information about foreign governments. However, he was more interested in anyone who might be a threat to Queen Elizabeth and her rule. History experts judge these efforts to have been successful because he was able to protect the queen from several enemies who tried to overthrow her government. VOICE TWO: American military commanders used spies against the British during the American Revolution. George Washington’s letter about the use of spies is in the International Spy Museum. There also is material from spies on both sides of the American Civil War and from spies from countries that took part in World War One. The museum has a large collection of material about World War Two. Spies did very useful work for both sides during the war. They gathered information about enemy plans and caused problems for the enemy deep in occupied lands. The Museum also explains how almost every government has used spies to gather secret information during peacetime. It tells how the secrets for making the atomic bomb were stolen. The work of spying is not just history. It continues today. The International Spy Museum says more spies are working now in Washington D-C, than in any other city in the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: If you were going to build a museum that cost more than forty-million dollars to tell the story of spies, how would you do it? The company that owns the International Spy Museum asked the advice of a long list of experts. Several are retired members of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Two members of this group are Admiral Stansfield Turner and William Webster. Both are former heads of the C-I-A. The museum’s experts also include General Oleg Kalugin. He once was the head of the former Soviet Union’s intelligence service, the K-G-B. General Kalugin says he worked with the museum so all sides of the spy story could be represented. The International Spy Museum attempts to represent the work that spies do. It is not trying to present a political idea, or the story of one country or government. The museum makes it clear that a person considered a dangerous spy in one country can be considered a hero in another country. VOICE TWO: The International Spy Museum is in a group of older buildings near the center of Washington D-C. Inside, the museum is extremely modern. It uses the newest electronic technology to tell the story of spying. Visitors are surrounded by steel and glass walls. On one wall is the warning, “All is not as it seems.” Many of the walls hold television equipment that shows information as the visitors walk through an area. On many of these television sets, different pictures appear telling the same story. The museum also includes several small theaters that show films about spies and spying. A visitor soon realizes there is a lot to see and a lot to learn. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to the new museum say the information provided is very interesting. They especially like the objects used by spies. Many of these items are unusual. They look like common items, but they are not. Some are extremely small. For example, a button on a man’s coat is really the lens on a camera. Another camera looks like a wristwatch. A small, brown suitcase is really a radio used by allied spies working in German occupied France during World War Two. The suitcase radio was used to send and receive messages from the spy’s headquarters in Britain. The museum also has many different weapons that are difficult to recognize. One looks like the round lipstick tube a woman uses to place red color on her lips. It is really a small gun that can fire one bullet. Another gun looks like a large ring. It can fire five very small bullets. VOICE TWO: The International Spy Museum is too small to have an airplane inside it. Yet airplanes are very important to the story of spying. The museum has pictures of spy planes and the photographs they have taken. One interesting camera was used by a bird. This happened before the invention of airplanes. A special small camera was attached to the bird’s chest. The bird flew into the air and the camera began taking photographs. The result was not always useful, but provided some information. Many years later, the United States used the fastest aircraft ever built to gather photographic intelligence. It was called the S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird. It could travel at three times the speed of sound. The Blackbird’s powerful cameras could take photographs of objects as small as a child’s ball from as high as twenty-six-thousand meters. VOICE ONE: The International Spy Museum is owned by a company that plans to build museums for profit. An adult has to pay eleven dollars to enter the International Spy Museum. A child must pay eight dollars. The museum also includes a large gift shop and two places to eat. Some critics say eleven dollars is too much to charge. Yet, the people who must wait in long lines to enter the museum do not seem to mind paying that amount. Oh… we almost forgot to tell you. If you visit the spy museum, be careful what you say while you are there. As you pass through the museum’s twenty-four rooms, hidden devices are recording what you say. As you finish your visit, you can listen to these recordings of visitors’ comments. In the International Spy Museum, nothing is as it seems. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a museum that has just opened in Washington D-C. This unusual museum is becoming very popular, very quickly. It is the International Spy Museum. (SPY MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The International Spy Museum opened on Friday, July nineteenth. The next day a crowd of people waited in the summer heat for as long as two hours to enter. After they got in the museum, they learned about famous spies. They saw unusual communications equipment, special weapons and other items. They also saw many objects that used to be secret, including different cameras used by spies. Some of the cameras can see through walls. The museum has a huge collection of pictures of spies. It provides information about what it is like to be a spy. And, it has shows what happens to some spies when they are caught. Some of its information about spies is history. Other information is new, some only a few months old. Among the stories the museum tells is about two American men who were found guilty in recent years of spying. Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen are spending the rest of their lives in prison. VOICE TWO: Information is extremely useful to a government and its leaders. Almost all governments employ people who collect information. National leaders use this information to make the best possible decisions when their country is involved in a crisis or other difficult situation. The correct information can help a leader prevent war. It can save lives, improve the economy and protect the citizens of a nation. Valuable information does not have to be secret. It can be found in newspapers, magazines and books. However, some people collect information that a government considers secret. These people are spies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: History experts say that spies have always existed. The International Spy Museum says the first known document about spies is almost four-thousand years old. It is a small piece of pottery made of clay that was found in Syria. The information written in the clay tells about the capture of several spies. It does not say what happened to them. The museum has a copy of a military book written two-thousand-five hundred years ago. Chinese military expert General Sun Tzu wrote the book, “The Art of War.” It is still read today in military schools. In the book, Sun Tzu explains spies should be used and can find good information almost anywhere. The International Spy Museum says the first known successful group of spies may have worked in Britain. The Museum says Sir Francis Walsingham was the Secretary of State for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth the First. He became her Secretary of State in fifteen-seventy-three. Mister Walsingham controlled a large group of spies who gathered information about people in Britain. Experts say there may have been one-thousand-five-hundred spies in this group. Mister Walsingham also collected information about foreign governments. However, he was more interested in anyone who might be a threat to Queen Elizabeth and her rule. History experts judge these efforts to have been successful because he was able to protect the queen from several enemies who tried to overthrow her government. VOICE TWO: American military commanders used spies against the British during the American Revolution. George Washington’s letter about the use of spies is in the International Spy Museum. There also is material from spies on both sides of the American Civil War and from spies from countries that took part in World War One. The museum has a large collection of material about World War Two. Spies did very useful work for both sides during the war. They gathered information about enemy plans and caused problems for the enemy deep in occupied lands. The Museum also explains how almost every government has used spies to gather secret information during peacetime. It tells how the secrets for making the atomic bomb were stolen. The work of spying is not just history. It continues today. The International Spy Museum says more spies are working now in Washington D-C, than in any other city in the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: If you were going to build a museum that cost more than forty-million dollars to tell the story of spies, how would you do it? The company that owns the International Spy Museum asked the advice of a long list of experts. Several are retired members of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Two members of this group are Admiral Stansfield Turner and William Webster. Both are former heads of the C-I-A. The museum’s experts also include General Oleg Kalugin. He once was the head of the former Soviet Union’s intelligence service, the K-G-B. General Kalugin says he worked with the museum so all sides of the spy story could be represented. The International Spy Museum attempts to represent the work that spies do. It is not trying to present a political idea, or the story of one country or government. The museum makes it clear that a person considered a dangerous spy in one country can be considered a hero in another country. VOICE TWO: The International Spy Museum is in a group of older buildings near the center of Washington D-C. Inside, the museum is extremely modern. It uses the newest electronic technology to tell the story of spying. Visitors are surrounded by steel and glass walls. On one wall is the warning, “All is not as it seems.” Many of the walls hold television equipment that shows information as the visitors walk through an area. On many of these television sets, different pictures appear telling the same story. The museum also includes several small theaters that show films about spies and spying. A visitor soon realizes there is a lot to see and a lot to learn. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to the new museum say the information provided is very interesting. They especially like the objects used by spies. Many of these items are unusual. They look like common items, but they are not. Some are extremely small. For example, a button on a man’s coat is really the lens on a camera. Another camera looks like a wristwatch. A small, brown suitcase is really a radio used by allied spies working in German occupied France during World War Two. The suitcase radio was used to send and receive messages from the spy’s headquarters in Britain. The museum also has many different weapons that are difficult to recognize. One looks like the round lipstick tube a woman uses to place red color on her lips. It is really a small gun that can fire one bullet. Another gun looks like a large ring. It can fire five very small bullets. VOICE TWO: The International Spy Museum is too small to have an airplane inside it. Yet airplanes are very important to the story of spying. The museum has pictures of spy planes and the photographs they have taken. One interesting camera was used by a bird. This happened before the invention of airplanes. A special small camera was attached to the bird’s chest. The bird flew into the air and the camera began taking photographs. The result was not always useful, but provided some information. Many years later, the United States used the fastest aircraft ever built to gather photographic intelligence. It was called the S-R-Seventy-One Blackbird. It could travel at three times the speed of sound. The Blackbird’s powerful cameras could take photographs of objects as small as a child’s ball from as high as twenty-six-thousand meters. VOICE ONE: The International Spy Museum is owned by a company that plans to build museums for profit. An adult has to pay eleven dollars to enter the International Spy Museum. A child must pay eight dollars. The museum also includes a large gift shop and two places to eat. Some critics say eleven dollars is too much to charge. Yet, the people who must wait in long lines to enter the museum do not seem to mind paying that amount. Oh… we almost forgot to tell you. If you visit the spy museum, be careful what you say while you are there. As you pass through the museum’s twenty-four rooms, hidden devices are recording what you say. As you finish your visit, you can listen to these recordings of visitors’ comments. In the International Spy Museum, nothing is as it seems. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - August 7, 2002: Bacteria in Food
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An American food company recently recalled about eight-million kilograms of ground beef that is used to make hamburgers. The meat had sickened at least twenty-six people in five states. food This is the VOA Special English Health Report. An American food company recently recalled about eight-million kilograms of ground beef that is used to make hamburgers. The meat had sickened at least twenty-six people in five states. The beef contained the bacteria E. coli. The bacteria are passed from one person to another through infected solid human waste. Most people with E. coli infections have pains in the stomach. They may have diarrhea – waste that is loose and watery instead of solid. Children under the age of five and older people might die if the bacteria destroy red blood cells and cause kidney failure. Experts say people should drink only pasteurized milk that has been heated to kill bacteria. And people should drink only water that has been treated with chemicals to kill bacteria. They also say all ground beef should be cooked well to kill any bacteria that might be present. Listeria are other dangerous bacteria spread in food. They are found naturally in the soil and water. Vegetables can become infected from the soil or from solid waste materials used as fertilizer. Unpasteurized milk may also contain the bacteria. hand washing The beef contained the bacteria E. coli. The bacteria are passed from one person to another through infected solid human waste. Most people with E. coli infections have pains in the stomach. They may have diarrhea – waste that is loose and watery instead of solid. Children under the age of five and older people might die if the bacteria destroy red blood cells and cause kidney failure. Experts say people should drink only pasteurized milk that has been heated to kill bacteria. And people should drink only water that has been treated with chemicals to kill bacteria. They also say all ground beef should be cooked well to kill any bacteria that might be present. Listeria are other dangerous bacteria spread in food. They are found naturally in the soil and water. Vegetables can become infected from the soil or from solid waste materials used as fertilizer. Unpasteurized milk may also contain the bacteria. People suffering from listeria infection have a high body temperature, muscle aches and diarrhea. Experts say cooking all foods until they are very hot and washing uncooked vegetables can prevent the infection. They also say people who cook foods should always wash their hands and cooking tools after touching uncooked foods. Other dangerous bacteria are salmonella. This infection is spread by eating foods that contain particles of animal waste. The victim gets a high fever, diarrhea and stomach pain. Salmonella infection can kill a person if it spreads through the bloodstream untreated. It can be prevented by making sure that eggs, chicken and meat are cooked well. Campylobacter is yet another bacterial disease. It is spread by eating chicken or turkey meat that is not cooked well enough. It is also spread in unpasteurized milk or untreated water. Camplylobacter victims suffer stomach pains, diarrhea and fever for about one week. Experts say the best way to prevent infection is to cook meat well and make sure that the liquid from uncooked meat does not touch other foods. Doctors say most of these bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotic medicines in severe cases. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. People suffering from listeria infection have a high body temperature, muscle aches and diarrhea. Experts say cooking all foods until they are very hot and washing uncooked vegetables can prevent the infection. They also say people who cook foods should always wash their hands and cooking tools after touching uncooked foods. Other dangerous bacteria are salmonella. This infection is spread by eating foods that contain particles of animal waste. The victim gets a high fever, diarrhea and stomach pain. Salmonella infection can kill a person if it spreads through the bloodstream untreated. It can be prevented by making sure that eggs, chicken and meat are cooked well. Campylobacter is yet another bacterial disease. It is spread by eating chicken or turkey meat that is not cooked well enough. It is also spread in unpasteurized milk or untreated water. Camplylobacter victims suffer stomach pains, diarrhea and fever for about one week. Experts say the best way to prevent infection is to cook meat well and make sure that the liquid from uncooked meat does not touch other foods. Doctors say most of these bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotic medicines in severe cases. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - August 8, 2002: Magnet Schools
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Many American students attend public schools called magnet schools. They are called magnet schools because they include students from all areas of a city or community. Students can choose to attend a magnet school instead of the school closest to their home if they meet the requirements. Magnet schools offer programs designed for students with special abilities or needs. For example, a sixteen-year-old boy has unusual abilities in science and technology. He attends a magnet school that places special importance on these subjects. Another boy, eleven years old, cannot hear. This child attends a magnet school for the deaf. There have been schools like these in the United States for more than one-hundred years. However, the Performing and Visual Arts School in Houston, Texas probably was the first to call itself a magnet school in the early nineteen-seventies. At that time, American courts were ordering public schools to end racial separation. The law required public school children to attend schools so that there would be a racial balance. Then came a legal decision about school attendance in Detroit, Michigan. It added a choice. The decision gave students a chance to attend a magnet school. Today, magnet schools operate throughout the nation. Like traditional public schools, they receive government support. Magnet programs are based on special subjects. They include communications, international studies, the arts, and mathematics and science. For example, one of America’s best known magnet schools is the Bronx High School of Science in New York City. It began in nineteen-thirty-eight. Its first students were three-hundred young men. Today, about three-thousand male and female students attend Bronx Science, as it is called. Thousands of students from all areas of New York City take competitive examinations to attend the school. To be chosen, students must show excellence in mathematics and reading and writing skills. Students at Bronx Science must study all the sciences, mathematics, English, world and American history and a foreign language. Many students at Bronx Science later have become successful scientists, doctors, lawyers and writers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Many American students attend public schools called magnet schools. They are called magnet schools because they include students from all areas of a city or community. Students can choose to attend a magnet school instead of the school closest to their home if they meet the requirements. Magnet schools offer programs designed for students with special abilities or needs. For example, a sixteen-year-old boy has unusual abilities in science and technology. He attends a magnet school that places special importance on these subjects. Another boy, eleven years old, cannot hear. This child attends a magnet school for the deaf. There have been schools like these in the United States for more than one-hundred years. However, the Performing and Visual Arts School in Houston, Texas probably was the first to call itself a magnet school in the early nineteen-seventies. At that time, American courts were ordering public schools to end racial separation. The law required public school children to attend schools so that there would be a racial balance. Then came a legal decision about school attendance in Detroit, Michigan. It added a choice. The decision gave students a chance to attend a magnet school. Today, magnet schools operate throughout the nation. Like traditional public schools, they receive government support. Magnet programs are based on special subjects. They include communications, international studies, the arts, and mathematics and science. For example, one of America’s best known magnet schools is the Bronx High School of Science in New York City. It began in nineteen-thirty-eight. Its first students were three-hundred young men. Today, about three-thousand male and female students attend Bronx Science, as it is called. Thousands of students from all areas of New York City take competitive examinations to attend the school. To be chosen, students must show excellence in mathematics and reading and writing skills. Students at Bronx Science must study all the sciences, mathematics, English, world and American history and a foreign language. Many students at Bronx Science later have become successful scientists, doctors, lawyers and writers. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 8, 2002: Korean War
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the Korean War. VOICE 1: The biggest problem facing Dwight Eisenhower when he became president of the United States was the continuing conflict in Korea. Eisenhower was elected in November nineteen-fifty-two. At the time, the United States had been helping South Korea fight North Korea for more than two years. About twenty other members of the United Nations were helping South Korea, too. They provided troops, equipment, and medical aid. VOICE 2: During the last days of the American presidential election campaign, Eisenhower announced that he would go to Korea. He thought such a trip would help end the war. Eisenhower kept his promise. He went to Korea after he won the election, but before he was sworn-in as president. Yet there was no permanent peace in Korea until July of the next year, nineteen-fifty-three. ((music)) VOICE 1: The war started when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Both sides believed they should control all of the country. The dream of a united Korea was a powerful one. From nineteen-ten until World War Two, Japan ruled Korea. In an agreement at the end of the war, Soviet troops occupied the North. They accepted the surrender of Japanese troops and set up a military government. American troops did the same in the South. The border dividing north and south was the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel. VOICE 2: A few years later, the United Nations General Assembly ordered free elections for all of Korea. With U-N help, the South established the Republic of Korea. Syngman rhee was elected the first president. On the other side of the thirty-eighth parallel, however, the Soviets refused to permit U-N election officials to enter the North. They established a communist government there, called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Il-sung was named premier. VOICE 1: Five years after the end of World War Two, the United States had withdrawn almost all its troops from South Korea. It was not clear if America would defend the South from attack. South Korea had an army. But it was smaller and less powerful than the North Korean army. North Korea decided the time was right to invade. On June twenty-fifth, North Korean soldiers crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. The U-N Security Council demanded that they go back. Two days later, it approved military support for South Korea. The Soviet delegate had boycotted the meeting that day. If he had been present, the resolution would have been defeated. VOICE 2: The U-N demand did not stop the North Korean troops. They continued to push south. In a week, they were on the edge of the capital, Seoul. America's president at that time, Harry Truman, ordered air and sea support for South Korea. A few days later, he announced that American ground forces would be sent, too. Truman wanted an American to command U-N troops in Korea. The U-N approved his choice: General Douglas MacArthur. VOICE 1: Week after week, more U-N forces arrived. Yet by August, they had been pushed back to the Pusan perimeter. This was a battle line around an area near the port city of Pusan in the southeast corner of Korea. North Korean forces tried to break through the Pusan perimeter. They began a major attack August sixth. They lost many men, however. By the end of the month, they withdrew. VOICE 2: The next month, general MacArthur directed a surprise landing of troops in South Korea. They arrived at the port of Inchon on the northwest coast. The landing was extremely dangerous. The daily change in the level of the sea was as much as nine meters. The boats had to get close to shore and land at high tide. If they waited too long, the water level would drop, and they would be trapped in the mud with little protection. The soldiers on the boats would be easy targets. VOICE 1: The landing at Inchon was successful. The additional troops quickly divided the North Korean forces, which had been stretched from north to south. At the same time, U-N air and sea power destroyed the northern army's lines of communication. On October first, South Korean troops moved into North Korea. They captured the capital, Pyongyang. Then they moved toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. China warned against moving closer to the border. General MacArthur ordered the troops to continue their attacks. He repeatedly said he did not believe that China would enter the war in force. VOICE 2: He was wrong. Several hundred thousand Chinese soldiers crossed into North Korea in October and November. Still, General MacArthur thought the war would be over by the Christmas holiday, December twenty-fifth. That was not to happen. The U-N troops were forced to withdraw from Pyongyang. And, by the day before Christmas, there had been a huge withdrawal by sea from the coastal city of Hungnam. ((music)) VOICE 1: In the first days of nineteen-fifty-one, the North Koreans recaptured Seoul. The U-N troops withdrew about forty kilometers south of the city. They re-organized and, two months later, took control of Seoul again. Then the war changed. The two sides began fighting along a line north of the thirty-eighth parallel. They exchanged control of the same territory over and over again. Men were dying, but no one was winning. The cost in lives was huge. VOICE 2: General MacArthur had wanted to cross into China and drop bombs on Manchuria. He also had wanted to use Nationalist Chinese troops against the communists. President Truman feared these actions might start another world war. He would not take this chance. When MacArthur disagreed with his policies in public, Truman dismissed him. VOICE 1: In June, nineteen-fifty-one, the Soviet delegate to the united nations proposed a ceasefire for Korea. Peace talks began, first at Kaesong, then at Panmunjom. By November, hope was strong for a settlement. But negotiators could not agree about several issues, including the return of prisoners. The U-N demanded that prisoners of war be permitted to choose if they wanted to go home. The different issues could not be resolved after more than a year. Finally, in October, nineteen-fifty-two, the peace talks were suspended. VOICE 2: Fighting continued during the negotiations. As it did, president Truman lost support. This was one reason why he decided not to run for re-election. The new president, Dwight Eisenhower, took office in January, nineteen-fifty-three. Eisenhower had campaigned to end the war. He was willing to use severe measures to do this. Years later, he wrote that he secretly threatened to expand the war and use nuclear weapons, if the Soviets did not help re-start the peace talks. VOICE 1: Such measures were not necessary. In a few months, North Korea accepted an earlier U-N offer to trade prisoners who were sick or wounded. The two sides finally signed a peace treaty on July twenty-seventh, nineteen-fifty-three. The treaty provided for the exchange of about ninety-thousand prisoners of war. It also permitted prisoners to choose if they wanted to go home. VOICE 2: The war in Korea damaged almost all of the country. As many as two-million people may have died, including many civilians. After the war, the United States provided hundreds of thousands of soldiers to help the South guard against attack from the north. Today, about fifty-thousand Americans are deployed in South Korea. Almost half a century has passed since the truce. Yet Korea is still divided. And many of the same issues still threaten the Korean people, and the world. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the Korean War. VOICE 1: The biggest problem facing Dwight Eisenhower when he became president of the United States was the continuing conflict in Korea. Eisenhower was elected in November nineteen-fifty-two. At the time, the United States had been helping South Korea fight North Korea for more than two years. About twenty other members of the United Nations were helping South Korea, too. They provided troops, equipment, and medical aid. VOICE 2: During the last days of the American presidential election campaign, Eisenhower announced that he would go to Korea. He thought such a trip would help end the war. Eisenhower kept his promise. He went to Korea after he won the election, but before he was sworn-in as president. Yet there was no permanent peace in Korea until July of the next year, nineteen-fifty-three. ((music)) VOICE 1: The war started when North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Both sides believed they should control all of the country. The dream of a united Korea was a powerful one. From nineteen-ten until World War Two, Japan ruled Korea. In an agreement at the end of the war, Soviet troops occupied the North. They accepted the surrender of Japanese troops and set up a military government. American troops did the same in the South. The border dividing north and south was the geographic line known as the thirty-eighth parallel. VOICE 2: A few years later, the United Nations General Assembly ordered free elections for all of Korea. With U-N help, the South established the Republic of Korea. Syngman rhee was elected the first president. On the other side of the thirty-eighth parallel, however, the Soviets refused to permit U-N election officials to enter the North. They established a communist government there, called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Il-sung was named premier. VOICE 1: Five years after the end of World War Two, the United States had withdrawn almost all its troops from South Korea. It was not clear if America would defend the South from attack. South Korea had an army. But it was smaller and less powerful than the North Korean army. North Korea decided the time was right to invade. On June twenty-fifth, North Korean soldiers crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. The U-N Security Council demanded that they go back. Two days later, it approved military support for South Korea. The Soviet delegate had boycotted the meeting that day. If he had been present, the resolution would have been defeated. VOICE 2: The U-N demand did not stop the North Korean troops. They continued to push south. In a week, they were on the edge of the capital, Seoul. America's president at that time, Harry Truman, ordered air and sea support for South Korea. A few days later, he announced that American ground forces would be sent, too. Truman wanted an American to command U-N troops in Korea. The U-N approved his choice: General Douglas MacArthur. VOICE 1: Week after week, more U-N forces arrived. Yet by August, they had been pushed back to the Pusan perimeter. This was a battle line around an area near the port city of Pusan in the southeast corner of Korea. North Korean forces tried to break through the Pusan perimeter. They began a major attack August sixth. They lost many men, however. By the end of the month, they withdrew. VOICE 2: The next month, general MacArthur directed a surprise landing of troops in South Korea. They arrived at the port of Inchon on the northwest coast. The landing was extremely dangerous. The daily change in the level of the sea was as much as nine meters. The boats had to get close to shore and land at high tide. If they waited too long, the water level would drop, and they would be trapped in the mud with little protection. The soldiers on the boats would be easy targets. VOICE 1: The landing at Inchon was successful. The additional troops quickly divided the North Korean forces, which had been stretched from north to south. At the same time, U-N air and sea power destroyed the northern army's lines of communication. On October first, South Korean troops moved into North Korea. They captured the capital, Pyongyang. Then they moved toward the Yalu River, the border between North Korea and China. China warned against moving closer to the border. General MacArthur ordered the troops to continue their attacks. He repeatedly said he did not believe that China would enter the war in force. VOICE 2: He was wrong. Several hundred thousand Chinese soldiers crossed into North Korea in October and November. Still, General MacArthur thought the war would be over by the Christmas holiday, December twenty-fifth. That was not to happen. The U-N troops were forced to withdraw from Pyongyang. And, by the day before Christmas, there had been a huge withdrawal by sea from the coastal city of Hungnam. ((music)) VOICE 1: In the first days of nineteen-fifty-one, the North Koreans recaptured Seoul. The U-N troops withdrew about forty kilometers south of the city. They re-organized and, two months later, took control of Seoul again. Then the war changed. The two sides began fighting along a line north of the thirty-eighth parallel. They exchanged control of the same territory over and over again. Men were dying, but no one was winning. The cost in lives was huge. VOICE 2: General MacArthur had wanted to cross into China and drop bombs on Manchuria. He also had wanted to use Nationalist Chinese troops against the communists. President Truman feared these actions might start another world war. He would not take this chance. When MacArthur disagreed with his policies in public, Truman dismissed him. VOICE 1: In June, nineteen-fifty-one, the Soviet delegate to the united nations proposed a ceasefire for Korea. Peace talks began, first at Kaesong, then at Panmunjom. By November, hope was strong for a settlement. But negotiators could not agree about several issues, including the return of prisoners. The U-N demanded that prisoners of war be permitted to choose if they wanted to go home. The different issues could not be resolved after more than a year. Finally, in October, nineteen-fifty-two, the peace talks were suspended. VOICE 2: Fighting continued during the negotiations. As it did, president Truman lost support. This was one reason why he decided not to run for re-election. The new president, Dwight Eisenhower, took office in January, nineteen-fifty-three. Eisenhower had campaigned to end the war. He was willing to use severe measures to do this. Years later, he wrote that he secretly threatened to expand the war and use nuclear weapons, if the Soviets did not help re-start the peace talks. VOICE 1: Such measures were not necessary. In a few months, North Korea accepted an earlier U-N offer to trade prisoners who were sick or wounded. The two sides finally signed a peace treaty on July twenty-seventh, nineteen-fifty-three. The treaty provided for the exchange of about ninety-thousand prisoners of war. It also permitted prisoners to choose if they wanted to go home. VOICE 2: The war in Korea damaged almost all of the country. As many as two-million people may have died, including many civilians. After the war, the United States provided hundreds of thousands of soldiers to help the South guard against attack from the north. Today, about fifty-thousand Americans are deployed in South Korea. Almost half a century has passed since the truce. Yet Korea is still divided. And many of the same issues still threaten the Korean people, and the world. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Words That Have Made Their Way from Nautical Language into Everyday English
* Byline: 

 (Note of explanation: "1666||1681" means that a term was, according to the 2nd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, first recorded in nautical use in 1666 and in general use in 1681. The average lag between first nautical appearance and first general use is more than 100 years, but, as that includes some odd cases with very long gaps, I’d be inclined to say instead that it’s usually a matter of “a few decades.”) Before proceeding to sea, the crew will BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES in order to prevent flooding below decks that might cause the ship to FOUNDER (1600||1613). A ship just leaving its moorings GETS UNDER WAY (1743||1822): way is the forward (or sometimes backward) motion of a ship. If the ship continues on its desired course, it will MAKE HEADWAY (1748||1775), the ship’s bow being called the head. (The analogous nautical term sternway never made it into popular English: we prefer progress to reversals.) A ship making a lot of headway will leave a slower one in its WAKE (1627||1806), the track it leaves in the sea. A ship that sails well BY AND LARGE (1669||1706) sails well into (by) the wind as well as with a following (large) wind, that is, under most conditions. A ship that sails really well by the wind can stay ALOOF (1532||1583) from (upwind of) other vessels. It will sail best if it is nearly ON AN EVEN KEEL, drawing the same depth of water along its whole length, rather than being much deeper at the bow or the stern. To FORGE AHEAD (1769||1861), to proceed with effort and determination, probably comes from a common Mediterranean nautical expression meaning "to press ahead by force of oars or sail" (cf. Italian forza di remo/di vela). To FATHOM meant originally to measure the water’s depth by the fathom (6 feet), roughly the span of a man’s outstretched arms, and later to understand the depth of a subject. Failure to watch the depth carefully might leave the ship HARD AND FAST (1867||1867) aground, and perhaps even HIGH AND DRY (1822||1838) when the tide goes out. A ship may wait IN THE OFFING (1627||1779), or off-shore, if it is inconvenient or dangerous to approach the coast. At night or in unfavorable weather (to WEATHER A STORM), a ship might stand ON AND OFF the coast, that is, take a zigzag course alternately toward and away from the coast, giving the dangerous shore a WIDE BERTH (1829||1829) and assuring adequate LEEWAY (1669||1827), or room to maneuver, if the wind starts to blow the ship toward the lee shore. Jogging on and off requires the ship to make a leg in one direction and then TAKE A DIFFERENT TACK, a course different with respect to the direction of the wind. Masts and other spars and rigging may GO BY THE BOARD (1630||1859), or GO OVERBOARD, by an accident at sea. "By the board" now refers to something no longer in effect: “Those regulations have gone by the board.” The main-mast might go by the board if the enemy—like a FIRST-RATE (1666||1681) man-of-war of 100 guns, firing a BROADSIDE (1597||1833) that raked the ship FROM STEM TO STERN (1627||1842)—shot away the MAIN-STAY (1485||1787, Thomas Jefferson). The main-stay is the heavy rope leading down and forward that supports the main-mast. It might be necessary to JURY-RIG a spare mast, that is, set it up temporarily until the ship could reach a port where proper repairs could be made. In rigging, it won’t do to use JUNK (1485||1842), old or inferior rope. The word probably comes from Old French "jonc," a rope made of rushes (such a rope being weak and inferior); compare with jonquil, a plant with leaves shaped like those of the rush. Damage to ship or cargo is legally called AVERAGE (1491||1735), which is derived ultimately from an Arabic word for damaged goods. The damages had to be distributed equitably, or averaged, among those owning interests in the ship or cargo. Maneuvering in CLOSE QUARTERS (1753||1809), one ship might easily RUN AFOUL (1809||1824) of another. FENDERS (1626||1919, U.S.), made of such things as old rope, serve to protect a ship during contact with a dock or another ship. The pilot will SEE HOW THE LAND LIES (1700||1809) and use LANDMARKS (1570||1667)— distinctive features on shore—to keep the ship in the designated channel, or FAIRWAY (1854||1910, in golfing), and STEER CLEAR of obstructions. (In poor visibility, as in rainy or HAZY (1615||1665) weather, the pilot might LOSE HIS BEARINGS.) A river-boat might HIT A SNAG (1804, Lewis and Clark||1829), which is an old tree-trunk or branch forming a dangerous obstruction. If the ship finds a SAFE BERTH (safe anchorage), it can ride securely by its CABLE, the heavy rope used specifically for anchoring. If the crew lets nearly all the cable run out while anchoring, the rope will come to its BITTER END (1627||1849). (A bitter is a turn of the cable around the mooring bitts at the ship’s bow.) If the captain believes his anchored ship in imminent danger from the weather or an enemy, he may give the order to CUT AND RUN (1704||1861). After receiving a CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH from the port authorities, the crew might RUMMAGE (1544||1616) the hold, removing cargo for drying or for more efficient stowing, as we might nowadays “rummage around” in the attic. Rummage later came to refer to a thorough search of a ship's holds, as by a customs inspector. A RUMMAGE SALE (1858||1890) was a sale of confiscated or unclaimed freight. OVERHAUL (1626||1705) originally meant to pull apart the blocks of a tackle to slacken a rope, and then, by extension, to pull anything apart for inspection and repair. One might overhaul a block-and-tackle that was CHOCK-A-BLOCK (1840, U.S.||1850, U.S.), that is, whose blocks were tight against one another. The captain may TIDE his ship OVER (1627||1821), proceeding upriver with the incoming tide and anchoring during the EBB (1000||1420), or receding, tide. (“Lunch isn’t much, but it'll tide you over till supper: I trust your appetite won’t ebb.”) He may also BACK AND FILL (1777||1854, U.S.) the ship in confined waters by letting a favorable tide carry it along more or less crosswise while alternately filling the sails to go a short distance ahead and backing the sails to go a little astern. If too strong a gust of wind strikes the ship head on, the sails will be suddenly and unexpectedly TAKEN ABACK (1754||1840), a startling situation that may result in serious damage to spars and rigging. Sailors and GALOOTS (1812||1866)— sailor-slang for "soldier, marine" — that were told to STAND BY awaiting orders might gather briefly around the SCUTTLEBUTT (1805||1901, U.S.) for a drink of water and some gossip. The water butt, or barrel, has a scuttle cut in it through which drinking-water is dipped out. A ship may be sunk intentionally, or SCUTTLED (1642||1888), by cutting a similar hole in the hull to flood it. A sailor who drinks too much grog, the standard navy-issue watered rum, is GROGGY (1770||1832), or even THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND (??||1821), staggering as might a ship whose sails weren’t properly trimmed (taut). A ship with well trimmed sails is a TIGHT SHIP (1971||1972, U.S.) Caution: tight also has the much older [1568] nautical meaning "water-tight.") References: Batchelder, S., Some sea terms in land speech: New England Quarterly, 1929 Manwayring, H., The Sea-mans Dictionary, 1644 O’Scanlan, T., Diccionario Marítimo, 1831; has an interesting English word-list Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition Smith, Capt. John, An Accidence..Necessary for all Young Sea-men, 1626 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: August 8, 2002 - Maritime Terms in Everyday English
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 8, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: August 11, 2002 SFX: Sounds of seagulls, ship horn AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the catch of the day, terms from the sea. Lots of nautical expressions have washed ashore into everyday English. Alan Hartley researches them for the Oxford English Dictionary -- that is, when he's not supervising the loading of grain onto foreign ships in the Great Lakes. We called him at his office in Minnesota, and immediately made headway. HARTLEY: "When you make 'headway,' you're making progress forward. 'Way' is usually the forward motion of a ship. It could also be rearward motion, and that was called 'sternway.' But there are a lot of analogous terms in English that never made it into the general vocabulary. 'Headway' and 'sternway' are a good example of a pair, one of which made it and the other didn't.'" AA: Maritime metaphors lend themselves to all kinds of situations on land. Let's say you're making headway on that big project at work, going "full steam ahead." It's all "smooth sailing" toward that big promotion. Or so it seems. All of a sudden you're "weathering a storm." You reach the "end of your rope" (anchor rope, that is). You look for "safe harbor." You "go overboard" to make things better. The last thing you want is to "scuttle" your career and wind up "on the rocks," all because you've "run afoul" of the boss. HARTLEY: "If you encountered another ship accidentally, you got too close to it, maybe you got tangled in its anchor cable, in that case you have 'run afoul' of the other ship and had an accident, essentially." AA: "And today we might talk about to 'run afoul of the law.'" HARTLEY: "Sure, exactly. It's a very typical case of the extension into everyday English. And it shows that, you know, the word would be kicking around in nautical use for a few decades and gradually it would be picked up in general use." RS: "Some of these words I find interesting because I didn't even know that they were maritime words." HARTLEY: "Same for me. 'High and dry,' for instance, is something you say all the time. A ship got stuck on the mud flats or on a reef, the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry." RS: "Well, here's an expression I never associated with the seas, usually associated with my doctor. When I go to the doctor I really like to come out with a 'clean bill of health.'" HARTLEY: "Everybody does. And the crew of an old sailing ship would have felt the same way. It didn't mean quite the same thing then, but a ship on arriving at a port would have to be cleared by the local port authorities as having no communicable disease on board. And once they were cleared they got a 'clean bill of health.' Sometimes that took a long time. They would be in quarantine, which was a forty-day period. That's where the 'quarant' comes from." RS: "Do you have a favorite maritime expression?" HARTLEY: "The one that's maybe most striking to me is that phrase we use nowadays, the phrase 'to be taken aback.' A person is taken aback if he is surprised in a negative way, and that derives from an old sailing term in which if the ship were headed too close to the direction of the wind, the wind would strike the sails on the forward surface instead of the after -- or rear -- surface. "So if the wind got around too much toward the bow, toward the front of the ship, it could stop you in your tracks. But also, if you were taken aback hard enough, you could break the entire mast that the sail was suspended from. So it was a very dangerous and startling situation." AA: Nowadays, don't look to the sea for many new expressions. Alan Hartley points out that we're still using mostly terms from the days of sailing ships. HARTLEY: "A lot of the vocabulary that's developed since then is very technical, very specific to modern ships. It has very little application in everyday life." AA: Alan Hartley is a ship-loading superintendent in Minnesota and a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary. He's put together a list of nautical language for our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com Time to set sail! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Across the Sea"/Bobby Darin Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 8, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: August 11, 2002 SFX: Sounds of seagulls, ship horn AA: I'm Avi Arditti, with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the catch of the day, terms from the sea. Lots of nautical expressions have washed ashore into everyday English. Alan Hartley researches them for the Oxford English Dictionary -- that is, when he's not supervising the loading of grain onto foreign ships in the Great Lakes. We called him at his office in Minnesota, and immediately made headway. HARTLEY: "When you make 'headway,' you're making progress forward. 'Way' is usually the forward motion of a ship. It could also be rearward motion, and that was called 'sternway.' But there are a lot of analogous terms in English that never made it into the general vocabulary. 'Headway' and 'sternway' are a good example of a pair, one of which made it and the other didn't.'" AA: Maritime metaphors lend themselves to all kinds of situations on land. Let's say you're making headway on that big project at work, going "full steam ahead." It's all "smooth sailing" toward that big promotion. Or so it seems. All of a sudden you're "weathering a storm." You reach the "end of your rope" (anchor rope, that is). You look for "safe harbor." You "go overboard" to make things better. The last thing you want is to "scuttle" your career and wind up "on the rocks," all because you've "run afoul" of the boss. HARTLEY: "If you encountered another ship accidentally, you got too close to it, maybe you got tangled in its anchor cable, in that case you have 'run afoul' of the other ship and had an accident, essentially." AA: "And today we might talk about to 'run afoul of the law.'" HARTLEY: "Sure, exactly. It's a very typical case of the extension into everyday English. And it shows that, you know, the word would be kicking around in nautical use for a few decades and gradually it would be picked up in general use." RS: "Some of these words I find interesting because I didn't even know that they were maritime words." HARTLEY: "Same for me. 'High and dry,' for instance, is something you say all the time. A ship got stuck on the mud flats or on a reef, the tide went out and the ship was left high and dry." RS: "Well, here's an expression I never associated with the seas, usually associated with my doctor. When I go to the doctor I really like to come out with a 'clean bill of health.'" HARTLEY: "Everybody does. And the crew of an old sailing ship would have felt the same way. It didn't mean quite the same thing then, but a ship on arriving at a port would have to be cleared by the local port authorities as having no communicable disease on board. And once they were cleared they got a 'clean bill of health.' Sometimes that took a long time. They would be in quarantine, which was a forty-day period. That's where the 'quarant' comes from." RS: "Do you have a favorite maritime expression?" HARTLEY: "The one that's maybe most striking to me is that phrase we use nowadays, the phrase 'to be taken aback.' A person is taken aback if he is surprised in a negative way, and that derives from an old sailing term in which if the ship were headed too close to the direction of the wind, the wind would strike the sails on the forward surface instead of the after -- or rear -- surface. "So if the wind got around too much toward the bow, toward the front of the ship, it could stop you in your tracks. But also, if you were taken aback hard enough, you could break the entire mast that the sail was suspended from. So it was a very dangerous and startling situation." AA: Nowadays, don't look to the sea for many new expressions. Alan Hartley points out that we're still using mostly terms from the days of sailing ships. HARTLEY: "A lot of the vocabulary that's developed since then is very technical, very specific to modern ships. It has very little application in everyday life." AA: Alan Hartley is a ship-loading superintendent in Minnesota and a researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary. He's put together a list of nautical language for our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com Time to set sail! With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Across the Sea"/Bobby Darin 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 9, 2002: Elvis Week in Memphis / Question About What Americans Think Is Funny / Tour de France Cycling Champion Lance Armstrong
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. An Elvis beach towel, at Elvis Week 2001(Photo - elvis.com) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We tell about a special celebration honoring Elvis Presley ... Answer a listener’s question about what Americans think is funny ... And report about the winner of the Tour de France bicycle race. Lance Armstrong HOST: On July twenty-eighth, American Lance Armstrong won the most famous bicycle race in the world, the Tour de France. Experts say the race is one of the most difficult competitions in all of sports. And Lance Armstrong has won it four times. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Thirty-year-old Lance Armstrong is only the second American to win the famous race. The first was Greg LeMond. LeMond won three races with a European team. Armstrong has won his four races as a member of the United States Postal Service team. Experts say Lance Armstrong is important in sports history not just because he has won four Tour de France races. He is important because he has done it as a cancer survivor. In nineteen-ninety-seven, doctors found that Lance Armstrong had cancer of the reproductive organs. The cancer had spread to his lungs and his brain. Doctors removed the affected testicle. They also operated on his brain. Later, Armstrong was treated with powerful and dangerous anti-cancer drugs. Lance Armstrong survived the cancer and the treatments. His condition improved. Armstrong said he survived because he had excellent doctors and because he truly believed he would get better. He also considers himself to be very lucky. Lance Armstrong began riding his racing bicycle as soon as he was feeling better. Then he began racing. He again became one of the top bicycle racers in the world. No one thought he could be good enough to win the Tour de France, however. But he did. He won his first Tour de France race in nineteen-ninety-nine. He has won every Tour de France for the past four years. Last week, after winning the Tour de France, Armstrong said that he will continue to compete in the race for two more years. After that, he wants to spend more time with his wife, son and two daughters. But winning many races is not what Lance Armstrong says he wants to be remembered for. He wants people to remember that the winner was a cancer survivor. Lance Armstrong says his Tour de France victories are a message to all cancer survivors. That message says that they can return to what they were doing before the disease affected them and become even better. American Sense of Humor HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Russia. Alexander Kukushkin asks if we can explain the American sense of humor and give some examples of what Americans think is funny. That is a difficult question. Almost everyone will laugh at the same thing if they see something that is really funny. For example, many years ago the movie actor Charlie Chaplin made several films about a funny-looking man known as “The Little Tramp.” This little tramp had no money and was always getting into trouble. How he got out of trouble was very funny. Chaplin’s films were popular around the world. Some film critics say the little man Chaplin played in his films was the most popular funny person in the Twentieth Century. It did not matter what language people spoke when they saw one of Charlie Chaplin’s great films. He made most of his films before sound was used in movies. Americans like to watch many kinds of funny movies. The most popular movie right now is called “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” It makes fun of spy movies. Several critics say it is a terrible movie but it is also very funny. American humor is really not much different from humor in other countries. One exception might be humor from or about the American south. “Redneck” is a word that describes a white man from the South who is not very smart. Jeff Foxworthy is an American comedian from the southern state of Georgia. He has become successful telling jokes about rednecks. “If you’ve ever cut your grass and found a car, you might be a redneck. (LAUGHTER) If your dad walks you to school because you’re in the same grade, you might be a redneck. (LAUGHTER) If you’ve ever been too drunk to fish, you might be a redneck” (APPLAUSE.) Elvis Week HOST: Every August, people who love the music of Elvis Presley gather in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee for a celebration called “Elvis Week.” This year, many more people are expected to be there. Jim Tedder tells us more. ANNCR: Elvis Week will be held August tenth through August eighteenth. This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death on August sixteenth, nineteen-seventy-seven. More than one-hundred-thousand people are expected to gather in Memphis for Elvis Week. They will celebrate the life and music of the King of Rock and Roll. More than fifty events will be held in and around Memphis. They include music concerts, dance parties, parades, discussions, sports and social events. Money earned from some of the events will be used to help people in need. The biggest event will be a twenty-fifth anniversary concert at the Pyramid arena in Memphis on August sixteenth. Musicians and singers who worked with Elvis Presley will perform in front of huge television screens showing Elvis singing. ((CUT ONE: "JAILHOUSE ROCK")) Another special event will take place during the night of August fifteenth. Thousands of people will take part in a ceremony at Presley’s burial place on the grounds of his home, Graceland. About seven-hundred-thousand people visit Graceland every year. Music writer and singer Paul Simon wrote a song about a visit to Graceland. ((CUT TWO: "GRACELAND")) HOST: You can hear more about the life and music of Elvis Presley Sunday on the VOA Special English program People In America. This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. And our producer was Paul Thompson. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We tell about a special celebration honoring Elvis Presley ... Answer a listener’s question about what Americans think is funny ... And report about the winner of the Tour de France bicycle race. Lance Armstrong HOST: On July twenty-eighth, American Lance Armstrong won the most famous bicycle race in the world, the Tour de France. Experts say the race is one of the most difficult competitions in all of sports. And Lance Armstrong has won it four times. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Thirty-year-old Lance Armstrong is only the second American to win the famous race. The first was Greg LeMond. LeMond won three races with a European team. Armstrong has won his four races as a member of the United States Postal Service team. Experts say Lance Armstrong is important in sports history not just because he has won four Tour de France races. He is important because he has done it as a cancer survivor. In nineteen-ninety-seven, doctors found that Lance Armstrong had cancer of the reproductive organs. The cancer had spread to his lungs and his brain. Doctors removed the affected testicle. They also operated on his brain. Later, Armstrong was treated with powerful and dangerous anti-cancer drugs. Lance Armstrong survived the cancer and the treatments. His condition improved. Armstrong said he survived because he had excellent doctors and because he truly believed he would get better. He also considers himself to be very lucky. Lance Armstrong began riding his racing bicycle as soon as he was feeling better. Then he began racing. He again became one of the top bicycle racers in the world. No one thought he could be good enough to win the Tour de France, however. But he did. He won his first Tour de France race in nineteen-ninety-nine. He has won every Tour de France for the past four years. Last week, after winning the Tour de France, Armstrong said that he will continue to compete in the race for two more years. After that, he wants to spend more time with his wife, son and two daughters. But winning many races is not what Lance Armstrong says he wants to be remembered for. He wants people to remember that the winner was a cancer survivor. Lance Armstrong says his Tour de France victories are a message to all cancer survivors. That message says that they can return to what they were doing before the disease affected them and become even better. American Sense of Humor HOST: Our VOA listener question this week is from Russia. Alexander Kukushkin asks if we can explain the American sense of humor and give some examples of what Americans think is funny. That is a difficult question. Almost everyone will laugh at the same thing if they see something that is really funny. For example, many years ago the movie actor Charlie Chaplin made several films about a funny-looking man known as “The Little Tramp.” This little tramp had no money and was always getting into trouble. How he got out of trouble was very funny. Chaplin’s films were popular around the world. Some film critics say the little man Chaplin played in his films was the most popular funny person in the Twentieth Century. It did not matter what language people spoke when they saw one of Charlie Chaplin’s great films. He made most of his films before sound was used in movies. Americans like to watch many kinds of funny movies. The most popular movie right now is called “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” It makes fun of spy movies. Several critics say it is a terrible movie but it is also very funny. American humor is really not much different from humor in other countries. One exception might be humor from or about the American south. “Redneck” is a word that describes a white man from the South who is not very smart. Jeff Foxworthy is an American comedian from the southern state of Georgia. He has become successful telling jokes about rednecks. “If you’ve ever cut your grass and found a car, you might be a redneck. (LAUGHTER) If your dad walks you to school because you’re in the same grade, you might be a redneck. (LAUGHTER) If you’ve ever been too drunk to fish, you might be a redneck” (APPLAUSE.) Elvis Week HOST: Every August, people who love the music of Elvis Presley gather in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee for a celebration called “Elvis Week.” This year, many more people are expected to be there. Jim Tedder tells us more. ANNCR: Elvis Week will be held August tenth through August eighteenth. This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death on August sixteenth, nineteen-seventy-seven. More than one-hundred-thousand people are expected to gather in Memphis for Elvis Week. They will celebrate the life and music of the King of Rock and Roll. More than fifty events will be held in and around Memphis. They include music concerts, dance parties, parades, discussions, sports and social events. Money earned from some of the events will be used to help people in need. The biggest event will be a twenty-fifth anniversary concert at the Pyramid arena in Memphis on August sixteenth. Musicians and singers who worked with Elvis Presley will perform in front of huge television screens showing Elvis singing. ((CUT ONE: "JAILHOUSE ROCK")) Another special event will take place during the night of August fifteenth. Thousands of people will take part in a ceremony at Presley’s burial place on the grounds of his home, Graceland. About seven-hundred-thousand people visit Graceland every year. Music writer and singer Paul Simon wrote a song about a visit to Graceland. ((CUT TWO: "GRACELAND")) HOST: You can hear more about the life and music of Elvis Presley Sunday on the VOA Special English program People In America. This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Holly Capehart. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 9, 2002: US Proposes Ban on Snakehead Fish
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. American Interior Secretary Gale Norton has proposed a ban on importing and selling twenty-eight kinds of fish known as the snakehead. Experts say the fish is a threat to the environment because it eats other fish, plants and animals. Snakehead fish wanted sign This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. American Interior Secretary Gale Norton has proposed a ban on importing and selling twenty-eight kinds of fish known as the snakehead. Experts say the fish is a threat to the environment because it eats other fish, plants and animals. The snakehead fish is native to the Yangtze River in China. It has appeared in at least seven American states. It can grow to be almost one meter long. The snakehead can breathe air and can stay out of the water for as many as three days. The fish can leave the water and move across land to find food in other bodies of water. The snakehead has a wide mouth, sharp teeth and powerful jaws. Some people say it looks like a snake’s head. The fish can swallow other large fish. It also eats small animals, including frogs, birds and mammals. Biologists say the snakehead has no known enemies. Snakeheads are usually sold in fish markets or in pet stores in the United States. They are known for their excellent taste. In May, a northern snakehead was discovered in a small lake in Crofton, Maryland. A local man has since admitted that he put two snakeheads into the pond two years ago. He said he had bought the fish from a market in New York City. At first, he was going to cook the fish and eat them, but he later decided not to do this. Biologists recently caught about one-hundred baby snakeheads in the pond in Crofton. They fear that hundreds more may be in the water. If the fish escape from the pond, they could move to the Little Patuxent River, about seventy meters away. Scientists fear the fish could kill the wildlife in the river. A group of scientists decided that the fish had to be killed before this could happen. After several tests, they decided that poisoning the pond with chemicals was the best way to kill the snakeheads. The northern snakehead is only one of many kinds of snakeheads. But it is of most concern because it is the only kind that can survive through winters. Other species require warmer climates for survival. Snakeheads also have been discovered in Hawaii, Florida, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. But Maryland is the only state where reproduction of the species has been confirmed. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. The snakehead fish is native to the Yangtze River in China. It has appeared in at least seven American states. It can grow to be almost one meter long. The snakehead can breathe air and can stay out of the water for as many as three days. The fish can leave the water and move across land to find food in other bodies of water. The snakehead has a wide mouth, sharp teeth and powerful jaws. Some people say it looks like a snake’s head. The fish can swallow other large fish. It also eats small animals, including frogs, birds and mammals. Biologists say the snakehead has no known enemies. Snakeheads are usually sold in fish markets or in pet stores in the United States. They are known for their excellent taste. In May, a northern snakehead was discovered in a small lake in Crofton, Maryland. A local man has since admitted that he put two snakeheads into the pond two years ago. He said he had bought the fish from a market in New York City. At first, he was going to cook the fish and eat them, but he later decided not to do this. Biologists recently caught about one-hundred baby snakeheads in the pond in Crofton. They fear that hundreds more may be in the water. If the fish escape from the pond, they could move to the Little Patuxent River, about seventy meters away. Scientists fear the fish could kill the wildlife in the river. A group of scientists decided that the fish had to be killed before this could happen. After several tests, they decided that poisoning the pond with chemicals was the best way to kill the snakeheads. The northern snakehead is only one of many kinds of snakeheads. But it is of most concern because it is the only kind that can survive through winters. Other species require warmer climates for survival. Snakeheads also have been discovered in Hawaii, Florida, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. But Maryland is the only state where reproduction of the species has been confirmed. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 11, 2002: Elvis Presley
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember tell about singer Elvis Presley who died twenty-five years ago this week. VOA photo - M. Kennedy ANNCR: Now, PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember tell about singer Elvis Presley who died twenty-five years ago this week. ((MUSIC: "HOUND DOG")) VOICE ONE: That song, “Hound Dog,” was one of Elvis Presley’s most popular records. It sold five-million copies in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. Music industry experts say more than one-thousand-million of Elvis’s recordings have sold throughout the world. He was a success in many different kinds of music -- popular, country, religious, and rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley won many awards from nations all over the world, yet he did not record in any language other than English. He never performed outside the United States, except for three shows in Canada. Yet, his recordings and films have been, and are still, enjoyed by people all over the world. ((MUSIC: "HOUND DOG")) VOICE ONE: That song, “Hound Dog,” was one of Elvis Presley’s most popular records. It sold five-million copies in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. Music industry experts say more than one-thousand-million of Elvis’s recordings have sold throughout the world. He was a success in many different kinds of music -- popular, country, religious, and rhythm and blues. Elvis Presley won many awards from nations all over the world, yet he did not record in any language other than English. He never performed outside the United States, except for three shows in Canada. Yet, his recordings and films have been, and are still, enjoyed by people all over the world. VOICE TWO: Elvis Aaron Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi, on January eighth, Nineteen-Thirty-Five. His family was extremely poor. During his childhood, he sang in church with his parents. He also listened to music that influenced his later singing, including country, rhythm and blues, and religious music. Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was thirteen. After high school, he had several jobs, including driving a truck. In Nineteen-Fifty-Three, he made his first recording, of this song, “My Happiness”: ((MUSIC: MY HAPPINESS)) VOICE ONE: GracelandVOA photo - M. Kennedy VOICE TWO: Elvis Aaron Presley was born in the southern town of Tupelo, Mississippi, on January eighth, Nineteen-Thirty-Five. His family was extremely poor. During his childhood, he sang in church with his parents. He also listened to music that influenced his later singing, including country, rhythm and blues, and religious music. Elvis and his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee when he was thirteen. After high school, he had several jobs, including driving a truck. In Nineteen-Fifty-Three, he made his first recording, of this song, “My Happiness”: ((MUSIC: MY HAPPINESS)) VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley recorded the song at the Memphis Recording Service. The story is that he paid four dollars to make a recording for his mother. A woman who worked at the public recording studio had another job with a local independent record company called Sun Records. She made a second recording of Elvis’s songs because she thought the owner of Sun Records should hear him sing. VOICE TWO: The owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, had been looking for a white performer who could sing black rhythm and blues. He suggested Elvis work with a guitar player and a bass player. Several months later Mister Phillips agreed to have the group make a record. It was released on July nineteenth, Nineteen-Fifty-Four. One of the songs was “That’s All Right”: ((MUSIC: "THAT’S ALL RIGHT")) The record sold well in Memphis, and was a played a lot on local radio stations. To let others hear Elvis, Sam Phillips organized a series of performances at country fairs in the area. One of the people who heard Elvis perform at these shows was Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis signed an agreement that Colonel Parker would organize his appearances. One of Elvis’ first new recordings became a huge hit, and led to his many appearances on television. It was “Heartbreak Hotel”: ((MUSIC: "HEARTBREAK HOTEL")) VOICE ONE: By the middle of the Nineteen-Fifties, Elvis Presley was known around the world as the young man who moved his hips in a sexual way as he sang rock and roll music. Many adults said he and his music were bad influences on young people. Young women loved him. Huge crowds attended his performances. He made his first movie in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. It was “Love Me Tender.” The title song was a big hit. ((MUSIC: "LOVE ME TENDER")) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood for a number of years in the Nineteen-Fifties. He acted in thirty-one movies. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, just as he finished making the movie “King Creole,” Elvis received notice that he had to serve in the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany where he lived in a large house and dated a lot of beautiful women. One young girl he met in Germany was Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Army officer. She was fourteen years old. Later, after Elvis had finished his army service, she came to live with him in Memphis. They married in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, when she was twenty-one years old. He was thirty-two. They became parents nine months later of a baby girl, Lisa Marie. VOICE ONE: Colonel Parker made sure that songs Elvis had recorded earlier were released during the years he was in the army. So Elvis was just as popular after his military service as he was before it. Elvis Presley won the three of the music industry’s highest award, the Grammy. He received the first one in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. It was for “How Great Thou Art,” an album of religious music. ((MUSIC: "HOW GREAT THOU ART")) VOICE TWO: Elvis returned to performing live shows in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He then traveled around the country performing before huge crowds. He began to take drugs to help him sleep. He gained a lot of weight so he took drugs to help control his weight. And he took extremely strong drugs to reduce pain Elvis also suffered from the emotional sickness, depression. It became worse after his marriage ended. Elvis never permitted Priscilla to stay with him in Las Vegas or travel with him around the country. He also did not want Priscilla to see other people when he was away from home. And he spent time with other women. Priscilla finally left him in Nineteen-Seventy-Two for another man. VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley released many recordings of his performances during the Nineteen-Seventies. He also enjoyed great success on television. His Nineteen-Seventy-Three television show from Hawaii was seen in forty countries by more than one-thousand-million people. His last record album was called “Moody Blue.” He recorded it in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. One of its hit songs was called “Way Down”: ((MUSIC: "WAY DOWN")) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley died on August sixteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. First reports said he had a heart attack, but later tests showed many drugs in his body. Experts agree that these drugs probably caused his death. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis every year. Fans continue to buy his music, making him the most popular recording artist ever. Elvis Presley remains the undisputed King of Rock and Roll. ((MUSIC: "GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT")) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember were the narrators. The producer was Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Elvis Presley recorded the song at the Memphis Recording Service. The story is that he paid four dollars to make a recording for his mother. A woman who worked at the public recording studio had another job with a local independent record company called Sun Records. She made a second recording of Elvis’s songs because she thought the owner of Sun Records should hear him sing. VOICE TWO: The owner of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, had been looking for a white performer who could sing black rhythm and blues. He suggested Elvis work with a guitar player and a bass player. Several months later Mister Phillips agreed to have the group make a record. It was released on July nineteenth, Nineteen-Fifty-Four. One of the songs was “That’s All Right”: ((MUSIC: "THAT’S ALL RIGHT")) The record sold well in Memphis, and was a played a lot on local radio stations. To let others hear Elvis, Sam Phillips organized a series of performances at country fairs in the area. One of the people who heard Elvis perform at these shows was Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis signed an agreement that Colonel Parker would organize his appearances. One of Elvis’ first new recordings became a huge hit, and led to his many appearances on television. It was “Heartbreak Hotel”: ((MUSIC: "HEARTBREAK HOTEL")) VOICE ONE: By the middle of the Nineteen-Fifties, Elvis Presley was known around the world as the young man who moved his hips in a sexual way as he sang rock and roll music. Many adults said he and his music were bad influences on young people. Young women loved him. Huge crowds attended his performances. He made his first movie in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. It was “Love Me Tender.” The title song was a big hit. ((MUSIC: "LOVE ME TENDER")) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley was one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood for a number of years in the Nineteen-Fifties. He acted in thirty-one movies. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, just as he finished making the movie “King Creole,” Elvis received notice that he had to serve in the United States Army. He was stationed in Germany where he lived in a large house and dated a lot of beautiful women. One young girl he met in Germany was Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Army officer. She was fourteen years old. Later, after Elvis had finished his army service, she came to live with him in Memphis. They married in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven, when she was twenty-one years old. He was thirty-two. They became parents nine months later of a baby girl, Lisa Marie. VOICE ONE: Colonel Parker made sure that songs Elvis had recorded earlier were released during the years he was in the army. So Elvis was just as popular after his military service as he was before it. Elvis Presley won the three of the music industry’s highest award, the Grammy. He received the first one in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. It was for “How Great Thou Art,” an album of religious music. ((MUSIC: "HOW GREAT THOU ART")) VOICE TWO: Elvis returned to performing live shows in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, in Las Vegas, Nevada. He then traveled around the country performing before huge crowds. He began to take drugs to help him sleep. He gained a lot of weight so he took drugs to help control his weight. And he took extremely strong drugs to reduce pain Elvis also suffered from the emotional sickness, depression. It became worse after his marriage ended. Elvis never permitted Priscilla to stay with him in Las Vegas or travel with him around the country. He also did not want Priscilla to see other people when he was away from home. And he spent time with other women. Priscilla finally left him in Nineteen-Seventy-Two for another man. VOICE ONE: Elvis Presley released many recordings of his performances during the Nineteen-Seventies. He also enjoyed great success on television. His Nineteen-Seventy-Three television show from Hawaii was seen in forty countries by more than one-thousand-million people. His last record album was called “Moody Blue.” He recorded it in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. One of its hit songs was called “Way Down”: ((MUSIC: "WAY DOWN")) VOICE TWO: Elvis Presley died on August sixteenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. First reports said he had a heart attack, but later tests showed many drugs in his body. Experts agree that these drugs probably caused his death. Hundreds of thousands of people still visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis every year. Fans continue to buy his music, making him the most popular recording artist ever. Elvis Presley remains the undisputed King of Rock and Roll. ((MUSIC: "GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT")) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Rich Kleinfeldt and Steve Ember were the narrators. The producer was Paul Thompson. I’m Mary Tillotson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – August 12, 2002: Campaign Against Tetanus
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has launched a new program to protect thousands of women and their babies against tetanus. Organisms that enter the body through a cut or wound cause the disease. It can lead to serious muscle problems. Tetanus can also cause difficulty opening the mouth or swallowing. Doctors call this condition lockjaw. The UNICEF campaign will target women in poor communities in Africa that are difficult to reach. Recently, health workers gave injections of vaccine medicine to more than one-hundred-thousand women in two areas of Mali. The vaccine will protect the women and their newly born children from tetanus. Women at risk must receive at least three injections of the vaccine over a one-year period to be fully protected. Health workers use a special device called a UniJect to give the vaccination. This device includes a needle and the amount of medicine needed for one patient. UNICEF says that people with little or no medical training can successfully use the Uniject device. For example, teachers and community workers can be trained in areas where there are no health centers. UNICEF says more people can by vaccinated in a short time by using temporary health workers instead of medical experts. Marc Vergara is a spokesperson for UNICEF. He says the Uniject device has been in use for about twelve years. The tetanus vaccination has been used for about seventy years. And international campaigns to protect people against disease have been carried out for many years. Mister Vergara says this is the first time all three have been combined. Mister Vergara says the UNICEF campaign will extend to other parts of Mali later this year. If it succeeds, UNICEF and other aid organizations will plan similar campaigns in other countries. They include Ghana, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda. UNICEF reports that tetanus killed two-hundred-thousand newly born babies and thirty-thousand women in fifty-seven developing countries last year. Ninety percent of all tetanus cases are in twenty-seven countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. As many as seventy percent of all babies who develop the disease die in their first months of life. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has launched a new program to protect thousands of women and their babies against tetanus. Organisms that enter the body through a cut or wound cause the disease. It can lead to serious muscle problems. Tetanus can also cause difficulty opening the mouth or swallowing. Doctors call this condition lockjaw. The UNICEF campaign will target women in poor communities in Africa that are difficult to reach. Recently, health workers gave injections of vaccine medicine to more than one-hundred-thousand women in two areas of Mali. The vaccine will protect the women and their newly born children from tetanus. Women at risk must receive at least three injections of the vaccine over a one-year period to be fully protected. Health workers use a special device called a UniJect to give the vaccination. This device includes a needle and the amount of medicine needed for one patient. UNICEF says that people with little or no medical training can successfully use the Uniject device. For example, teachers and community workers can be trained in areas where there are no health centers. UNICEF says more people can by vaccinated in a short time by using temporary health workers instead of medical experts. Marc Vergara is a spokesperson for UNICEF. He says the Uniject device has been in use for about twelve years. The tetanus vaccination has been used for about seventy years. And international campaigns to protect people against disease have been carried out for many years. Mister Vergara says this is the first time all three have been combined. Mister Vergara says the UNICEF campaign will extend to other parts of Mali later this year. If it succeeds, UNICEF and other aid organizations will plan similar campaigns in other countries. They include Ghana, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda. UNICEF reports that tetanus killed two-hundred-thousand newly born babies and thirty-thousand women in fifty-seven developing countries last year. Ninety percent of all tetanus cases are in twenty-seven countries in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. As many as seventy percent of all babies who develop the disease die in their first months of life. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 12, 2002:  Sports Halls of Fame
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 10, 2002: Latin American Economic Crisis
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The International Monetary Fund has agreed to provide an additional thirty-thousand-million dollars in loans to Brazil. I-M-F Managing Director Horst Koehler announced the agreement Wednesday. Experts say the loan is designed to ease growing concerns about Brazil’s financial markets. The thirty-thousand-million dollar loan is the largest ever given by the I-M-F. Financial experts say it shows the I-M-F’s strong support for the economic program that Brazil is following. Brazil already received a fifteen-thousand-million dollar loan from the I-M-F last year. Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America. But investors and bankers are concerned about Brazil’s huge public debt. It is more than two-hundred-fifty-thousand-million dollars. There also is concern about Brazil’s presidential election in October. The two main candidates have sharply criticized the current government’s support of I-M-F policies aimed at cutting spending, reducing inflation and increasing free trade. These concerns have weakened financial markets and caused a sharp drop in the value of Brazilian money in recent weeks. The government has been forced to pay interest rates of more than thirty-percent on what it borrows. Many fear that Brazil may not be able to pay its huge debt. The I-M-F loan agreement requires that Brazil keep its budget at three-point-seventy-five percent of its total economic production. And it must reduce inflation during the next year and a half. American Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill visited Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina this week. Uruguay received an emergency loan from the United States Monday of one-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. The loan was made to help Uruguay re-open its banks. They had been closed to keep people from withdrawing too much money. On Thursday, the I-M-F agreed to extend its line of credit to Uruguay so it could borrow more money. Argentina, however, did not receive help this week. The American treasury secretary said the Argentine government must complete more economic reforms and improve its banking system before it can receive aid. Argentina has one-hundred-forty-thousand-million dollars in government debt. And it owes large repayments on past loans from the I-M-F and other international lenders. About twenty-two percent of workers are unemployed in Argentina and more than half the country’s thirty-six million people are poor. Until recent years, Argentina was South America’s richest nation. Argentines protested Mister O’Neill’s visit. They accused the United States and the I-M-F of blocking badly needed aid. The United States is the largest and most influential shareholder in the I-M-F. Mister O’Neill said he wants to help negotiate an agreement between the I-M-F and Argentina to pull the country out of a four year recession. . This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The International Monetary Fund has agreed to provide an additional thirty-thousand-million dollars in loans to Brazil. I-M-F Managing Director Horst Koehler announced the agreement Wednesday. Experts say the loan is designed to ease growing concerns about Brazil’s financial markets. The thirty-thousand-million dollar loan is the largest ever given by the I-M-F. Financial experts say it shows the I-M-F’s strong support for the economic program that Brazil is following. Brazil already received a fifteen-thousand-million dollar loan from the I-M-F last year. Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America. But investors and bankers are concerned about Brazil’s huge public debt. It is more than two-hundred-fifty-thousand-million dollars. There also is concern about Brazil’s presidential election in October. The two main candidates have sharply criticized the current government’s support of I-M-F policies aimed at cutting spending, reducing inflation and increasing free trade. These concerns have weakened financial markets and caused a sharp drop in the value of Brazilian money in recent weeks. The government has been forced to pay interest rates of more than thirty-percent on what it borrows. Many fear that Brazil may not be able to pay its huge debt. The I-M-F loan agreement requires that Brazil keep its budget at three-point-seventy-five percent of its total economic production. And it must reduce inflation during the next year and a half. American Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill visited Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina this week. Uruguay received an emergency loan from the United States Monday of one-and-one-half-thousand-million dollars. The loan was made to help Uruguay re-open its banks. They had been closed to keep people from withdrawing too much money. On Thursday, the I-M-F agreed to extend its line of credit to Uruguay so it could borrow more money. Argentina, however, did not receive help this week. The American treasury secretary said the Argentine government must complete more economic reforms and improve its banking system before it can receive aid. Argentina has one-hundred-forty-thousand-million dollars in government debt. And it owes large repayments on past loans from the I-M-F and other international lenders. About twenty-two percent of workers are unemployed in Argentina and more than half the country’s thirty-six million people are poor. Until recent years, Argentina was South America’s richest nation. Argentines protested Mister O’Neill’s visit. They accused the United States and the I-M-F of blocking badly needed aid. The United States is the largest and most influential shareholder in the I-M-F. Mister O’Neill said he wants to help negotiate an agreement between the I-M-F and Argentina to pull the country out of a four year recession. . This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 13, 2002: Head Bones of a Very Distant Family Member / Freezing the Dead / Tobacco Dangers Greater Than Believed
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. Ted Williams VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the discovery of head bones from the earliest member of the human family. We tell about the science of freezing dead people. And we tell about the links between smoking tobacco and cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Cigarette smoke VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the discovery of head bones from the earliest member of the human family. We tell about the science of freezing dead people. And we tell about the links between smoking tobacco and cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: An international team of anthropologists says it has discovered bones of the earliest member of the human family. The scientists say the creature may be the oldest ancestor of humans. Michel Brunet (ME-shell broo-NAY) of the University of Poitiers (pwah-TEE-AY) in France and his team announced the discovery in the publication Nature last month. The group found the head bones of the creature last year in the central African nation of Chad. They say the creature was about the size of a modern chimpanzee, the animal most like humans. They say the brain area is like that of a chimpanzee. However, the face and teeth are more like those of a human. The discovery suggests that the head bones are closely related to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. The scientists are not sure if the creature walked on two legs because they did not find any bones below the head. However, they say the place where the backbone extended into the head is similar to that of creatures that walked on two legs. VOICE TWO: The scientists say the bones are almost seven-million years old. They say the bones represent the first human-like creature on Earth. Experts say the discovery pushed back the date of the beginning of human life to a period about which nothing is known. Until now, experts have believed that the first creature to walk on two legs lived about four-million years ago. Experts say the skull is the oldest ever found. Its modern-looking face has only been seen on creatures thought to have lived about one-million years ago. Some experts say this means the creature was similar to humans, but did not survive into modern times. The anthropologists call the ancient creature “Toumai” (TOO-my). This means “hope of life” in the Goran language. VOICE ONE: Five independent experts studied the bones. A few scientists do not agree about their meaning. One said he thinks the bones are the head of an ancient female gorilla. Two others described the creature as pre-human. They suggested further research is needed to find out if it was a human. The critics do agree, however, that the discovery is important for scientists studying how humans developed on Earth. Other experts say it will never be possible to know exactly where or when human beings first developed. But they say the new discovery shows that the spread of human ancestors was not limited to eastern and southern Africa as had been thought. Experts say the discovery means scientists will increase their explorations in Chad. The area in northern Chad where the bones were found is now a desert. But scientists believe it once had plants, trees and water. In the past eight years, experts have found more than ten-thousand bones from many different kinds of animals in the area. Many experts say the new discovery is a sign that many other kinds of bones will be found in the future. These discoveries may change what we know about how life on Earth developed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Cryonics is a method of freezing the bodies of people who have died. Cryonics activists believe that scientific technology in the future could bring those people back to life. Public interest in cryonics has increased since the death of American baseball player Ted Williams. Williams died last month in Florida. He was eighty-three years old. There were reports soon after Williams’ death that his body had been transported to a cryonics company in Arizona. The company freezes and stores the bodies of people who have just died. VOICE ONE: People have long talked about the idea of awakening someone from a suspended condition. Some people have made jokes about this. Cryonics has been shown in funny American movies including the “Austin Powers” series and Woody Allen’s movie called “Sleeper.” However, other people are serious about cryonics. Robert Ettinger is the man most responsible for bringing cryonics into the real world. He became famous after the publication of his book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” in nineteen-sixty-four. The book said that people in the future could possess the technology to bring dead people back to life and cure them. Mister Ettinger says an increasing number of people like the idea of being frozen after death. He formed the Cryonics Institute in Michigan. The business has frozen and stores forty-one bodies. The company is actively accepting bodies for what is called cryonic suspension. VOICE TWO: There currently are about one-hundred people and animals in cryonic suspension in the United States. The first was frozen in nineteen-sixty-seven. It costs between thirty-thousand dollars and more than one-hundred-thousand dollars to freeze and store a body or a head. The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the country’s largest cryonics laboratory. Alcor was established in nineteen-seventy-two. It moved to Arizona eight years ago. The company reports that almost six-hundred people are waiting to have their remains frozen. VOICE ONE: The process starts as soon as someone is declared legally dead. Special teams start preparations for freezing the remains. The body is taken to a cryonics laboratory immediately after death to slow the chemical break down of genetic material. The remains are put on dry ice and work begins on the heart and lungs. Then, blood is carefully removed from the body. A glycerin liquid is pumped in to protect the body from freeze damage. Slowly, the body is cooled to a temperature of about one-hundred-ninety-six degrees below zero Celsius. The body is placed upside down in a tall metal container. Each month, liquid nitrogen is added to keep the body frozen. VOICE TWO: The Alcor company argues that cryonics is not a way to store dead bodies. The company says it is a new method of saving lives. Alcor says the condition we call dying is not a sudden event. It is much more like a deep sleep. Alcor says studies have shown that individual cells in the body are still alive several hours after the declaration of death. It says these cells are still able to operate normally.However, scientists dispute this argument. They say there is no evidence to support the idea that future technology could bring anyone back from the dead. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A recent report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer says the dangers of tobacco smoke are greater than had been thought. The agency is part of the World Health Organization. The new report is part of a series written by independent international experts on the dangers of different chemicals. A committee of twenty-nine experts from twelve countries developed the report. These scientists examined more than fifty medical studies concerning tobacco smoking. The group says that tobacco use is the largest cause of preventable cancers around the world. Experts say that more than one-thousand-million people around the world smoke tobacco. VOICE TWO: The report says that one-half of all people who smoke cigarettes will die from diseases caused by smoking tobacco. These include cancers of the lung, stomach, liver, kidney and blood. The report also says tobacco use causes an even greater number of deaths from lung diseases, heart disease and stroke. The report says other kinds of tobacco use also increase the chances of developing cancers of the lung, head and neck. These include smoking cigars, pipes and bidis -- tobacco rolled in a leaf that is popular in South Asia. The report also says that people who smoke endanger the health of non-smokers who breathe in tobacco smoke. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. An international team of anthropologists says it has discovered bones of the earliest member of the human family. The scientists say the creature may be the oldest ancestor of humans. Michel Brunet (ME-shell broo-NAY) of the University of Poitiers (pwah-TEE-AY) in France and his team announced the discovery in the publication Nature last month. The group found the head bones of the creature last year in the central African nation of Chad. They say the creature was about the size of a modern chimpanzee, the animal most like humans. They say the brain area is like that of a chimpanzee. However, the face and teeth are more like those of a human. The discovery suggests that the head bones are closely related to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans. The scientists are not sure if the creature walked on two legs because they did not find any bones below the head. However, they say the place where the backbone extended into the head is similar to that of creatures that walked on two legs. VOICE TWO: The scientists say the bones are almost seven-million years old. They say the bones represent the first human-like creature on Earth. Experts say the discovery pushed back the date of the beginning of human life to a period about which nothing is known. Until now, experts have believed that the first creature to walk on two legs lived about four-million years ago. Experts say the skull is the oldest ever found. Its modern-looking face has only been seen on creatures thought to have lived about one-million years ago. Some experts say this means the creature was similar to humans, but did not survive into modern times. The anthropologists call the ancient creature “Toumai” (TOO-my). This means “hope of life” in the Goran language. VOICE ONE: Five independent experts studied the bones. A few scientists do not agree about their meaning. One said he thinks the bones are the head of an ancient female gorilla. Two others described the creature as pre-human. They suggested further research is needed to find out if it was a human. The critics do agree, however, that the discovery is important for scientists studying how humans developed on Earth. Other experts say it will never be possible to know exactly where or when human beings first developed. But they say the new discovery shows that the spread of human ancestors was not limited to eastern and southern Africa as had been thought. Experts say the discovery means scientists will increase their explorations in Chad. The area in northern Chad where the bones were found is now a desert. But scientists believe it once had plants, trees and water. In the past eight years, experts have found more than ten-thousand bones from many different kinds of animals in the area. Many experts say the new discovery is a sign that many other kinds of bones will be found in the future. These discoveries may change what we know about how life on Earth developed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Cryonics is a method of freezing the bodies of people who have died. Cryonics activists believe that scientific technology in the future could bring those people back to life. Public interest in cryonics has increased since the death of American baseball player Ted Williams. Williams died last month in Florida. He was eighty-three years old. There were reports soon after Williams’ death that his body had been transported to a cryonics company in Arizona. The company freezes and stores the bodies of people who have just died. VOICE ONE: People have long talked about the idea of awakening someone from a suspended condition. Some people have made jokes about this. Cryonics has been shown in funny American movies including the “Austin Powers” series and Woody Allen’s movie called “Sleeper.” However, other people are serious about cryonics. Robert Ettinger is the man most responsible for bringing cryonics into the real world. He became famous after the publication of his book, “The Prospect of Immortality,” in nineteen-sixty-four. The book said that people in the future could possess the technology to bring dead people back to life and cure them. Mister Ettinger says an increasing number of people like the idea of being frozen after death. He formed the Cryonics Institute in Michigan. The business has frozen and stores forty-one bodies. The company is actively accepting bodies for what is called cryonic suspension. VOICE TWO: There currently are about one-hundred people and animals in cryonic suspension in the United States. The first was frozen in nineteen-sixty-seven. It costs between thirty-thousand dollars and more than one-hundred-thousand dollars to freeze and store a body or a head. The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is the country’s largest cryonics laboratory. Alcor was established in nineteen-seventy-two. It moved to Arizona eight years ago. The company reports that almost six-hundred people are waiting to have their remains frozen. VOICE ONE: The process starts as soon as someone is declared legally dead. Special teams start preparations for freezing the remains. The body is taken to a cryonics laboratory immediately after death to slow the chemical break down of genetic material. The remains are put on dry ice and work begins on the heart and lungs. Then, blood is carefully removed from the body. A glycerin liquid is pumped in to protect the body from freeze damage. Slowly, the body is cooled to a temperature of about one-hundred-ninety-six degrees below zero Celsius. The body is placed upside down in a tall metal container. Each month, liquid nitrogen is added to keep the body frozen. VOICE TWO: The Alcor company argues that cryonics is not a way to store dead bodies. The company says it is a new method of saving lives. Alcor says the condition we call dying is not a sudden event. It is much more like a deep sleep. Alcor says studies have shown that individual cells in the body are still alive several hours after the declaration of death. It says these cells are still able to operate normally.However, scientists dispute this argument. They say there is no evidence to support the idea that future technology could bring anyone back from the dead. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A recent report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer says the dangers of tobacco smoke are greater than had been thought. The agency is part of the World Health Organization. The new report is part of a series written by independent international experts on the dangers of different chemicals. A committee of twenty-nine experts from twelve countries developed the report. These scientists examined more than fifty medical studies concerning tobacco smoking. The group says that tobacco use is the largest cause of preventable cancers around the world. Experts say that more than one-thousand-million people around the world smoke tobacco. VOICE TWO: The report says that one-half of all people who smoke cigarettes will die from diseases caused by smoking tobacco. These include cancers of the lung, stomach, liver, kidney and blood. The report also says tobacco use causes an even greater number of deaths from lung diseases, heart disease and stroke. The report says other kinds of tobacco use also increase the chances of developing cancers of the lung, head and neck. These include smoking cigars, pipes and bidis -- tobacco rolled in a leaf that is popular in South Asia. The report also says that people who smoke endanger the health of non-smokers who breathe in tobacco smoke. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach and George Grow. It was produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 13, 2002: American Trade Proposal
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The United States has proposed a plan to reform international trade rules for farm products. The United States is proposing to cut government assistance to American farmers. In exchange, it wants other countries to make deep cuts in their agricultural spending. The proposal comes two months after President Bush signed a major farm bill. The new law increases government aid for farmers. It is estimated to cost one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars over the next ten years. Critics say the measure forces down world crop prices and reduces the money earned by farmers in developing countries. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman described the new proposal last month at a meeting of agriculture ministers in Nara, Japan. The ministers were from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Australia and Japan. She said the proposal would end all government assistance for farm exports over five years. The United States also urged other countries to cut taxes on food and agricultural imports. Mizz Veneman said the world average for such taxes is sixty-two percent. She said the proposal would reduce the tax rate to fifteen percent. It also would result in no tax higher than twenty-five percent. Currently, the average American tax on imported farm products is twelve percent. The proposal also would limit government aid for farmers to five percent of the value of a country’s agricultural production. The United States currently spends nineteen-thousand-million dollars each year on such farm aid programs. The proposal would reduce the amount to ten-thousand-million dollars. For the European Union, the decrease in farm aid would be even greater. It would drop from more than sixty-thousand-million dollars to twelve-thousand-million dollars a year. In Japan, the amount would drop from thirty-three-thousand-million dollars to four-thousand-million dollars a year. E-U and Japanese officials have criticized the American proposal. They say it requires a great deal more effort from other countries than from the United States. However, the top farm officials from Australia and Canada expressed general support for the American position. American farm groups also expressed support for the proposal. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The United States has proposed a plan to reform international trade rules for farm products. The United States is proposing to cut government assistance to American farmers. In exchange, it wants other countries to make deep cuts in their agricultural spending. The proposal comes two months after President Bush signed a major farm bill. The new law increases government aid for farmers. It is estimated to cost one-hundred-ninety-thousand-million dollars over the next ten years. Critics say the measure forces down world crop prices and reduces the money earned by farmers in developing countries. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman described the new proposal last month at a meeting of agriculture ministers in Nara, Japan. The ministers were from the United States, Canada, the European Union, Australia and Japan. She said the proposal would end all government assistance for farm exports over five years. The United States also urged other countries to cut taxes on food and agricultural imports. Mizz Veneman said the world average for such taxes is sixty-two percent. She said the proposal would reduce the tax rate to fifteen percent. It also would result in no tax higher than twenty-five percent. Currently, the average American tax on imported farm products is twelve percent. The proposal also would limit government aid for farmers to five percent of the value of a country’s agricultural production. The United States currently spends nineteen-thousand-million dollars each year on such farm aid programs. The proposal would reduce the amount to ten-thousand-million dollars. For the European Union, the decrease in farm aid would be even greater. It would drop from more than sixty-thousand-million dollars to twelve-thousand-million dollars a year. In Japan, the amount would drop from thirty-three-thousand-million dollars to four-thousand-million dollars a year. E-U and Japanese officials have criticized the American proposal. They say it requires a great deal more effort from other countries than from the United States. However, the top farm officials from Australia and Canada expressed general support for the American position. American farm groups also expressed support for the proposal. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – August 14, 2002: Obesity and Heart Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. More people around the world are becoming too fat. The World Heart Federation in Geneva, Switzerland, reports that the number of overweight and obese people is increasing. The organization says about seven-hundred-million people around the world weigh too much. It says about three-hundred-million adults are obese. Obese people are fatter than those who are simply overweight. Health experts fear this increase in obesity will lead to an increase in the number of people with heart disease and stroke. The World Heart Federation estimates seventeen-million people around the world die each year from heart disease or stroke. Research shows these two conditions are among the most common health problems related to obesity. Others include diabetes and high blood pressure. A new American study says being even moderately overweight increases the chances of developing heart failure. The study says the risk of heart failure is one-hundred percent higher among obese people, compared with those of normal weight. The risk is thirty-four percent higher among overweight people. Janet Voute (JAH-net VOTE) heads the World Heart Federation. She says that obesity is not just a problem in rich countries. It has also become a problem in developing nations. Mizz Voute says people’s lives become less healthy when they move from farming areas to cities. For example, as people earn more money, they stop walking or riding bicycles and instead buy a car. Also, people in cities eat fewer fruits and vegetables and more fatty foods and foods with no nutritional value.The World Heart Federation is also concerned that obesity in children is increasing. The World Health Organization estimates that about twenty-two-million children under age five are overweight. In the United States, eleven percent of children are obese. In Beijing, China, twenty percent of school children are obese. Sixteen percent of schoolboys in Saudi Arabia are considered obese. The World Heart Federation is urging governments to support healthy ways of living as part of its campaign against obesity. Officials say the best ways to prevent obesity is to increase physical exercise, reduce television watching and eat more healthy foods. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. This is 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 15, 2002: The 1950s
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Phil Murray. Book on 1950s televison VOICE 1: This is Phil Murray. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell what life was like in America during the nineteen-fifties. 1950s fallout shelter with food and other supplies. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell what life was like in America during the nineteen-fifties. VOICE 1: Imagine that you are visiting the United States. What would you expect to see? In the nineteen-fifties, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength. It was a nation whose population was growing as never before. ((Music)) VOICE 2: After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be peaceful for awhile. By nineteen-fifty, however, political tensions were high again. The United States and the Soviet Union, allies in war, had become enemies. Äóàéò Ýéçåíõàóýð VOICE 1: Imagine that you are visiting the United States. What would you expect to see? In the nineteen-fifties, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength. It was a nation whose population was growing as never before. ((Music)) VOICE 2: After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be peaceful for awhile. By nineteen-fifty, however, political tensions were high again. The United States and the Soviet Union, allies in war, had become enemies. The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another. And Soviet leader Josef Stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. The Soviet Union had strengthened its armed forces after the war. The United States had taken many steps to disarm. Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb. America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-nine, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them. The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb. The race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction. Would these weapons ever be used. The American publication, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, always showed a picture of a clock. By nineteen-forty-nine, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight. That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction. The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced. They were even more afraid of what science could produce. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty, north Korea invaded south Korea. The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb. That was the hydrogen bomb. The Soviets were developing such a weapon, too. The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another. And Soviet leader Josef Stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world. The Soviet Union had strengthened its armed forces after the war. The United States had taken many steps to disarm. Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb. America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon. VOICE 1: In nineteen-forty-nine, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them. The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb. The race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction. Would these weapons ever be used. The American publication, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, always showed a picture of a clock. By nineteen-forty-nine, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight. That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction. The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced. They were even more afraid of what science could produce. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty, north Korea invaded south Korea. The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb. That was the hydrogen bomb. The Soviets were developing such a weapon, too. Many Americans were afraid. Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes. They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack. VOICE 1: Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid. In nineteen-fifty-two, the military hero of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president. The economy improved. Americans looked to the future with hope. One sign of hope was the Baby Boom. This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war. The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. The bigger families needed houses. In nineteen-fifty alone, one-million four-hundred-thousand houses were built in America. Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better. They also liked having more space for their children to play. VOICE 2: Many Americans remember the nineteen-fifties as the fad years. A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the nineteen-fifties was the Hula Hoop. The Hula Hoop was a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle. To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion. This kept it spinning around your body. The motion was like one used by Polynesian people in their native dance, the hula. Other fads in the nineteen-fifties involved clothes or hair. Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog. Actress Mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the Broadway play, "South Pacific. " VOICE 1: In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous. Not everyone thought she was a great actress. But she had shining golden hair. And she had what was considered a perfect body. Marilyn Monroe's success did not make her happy. She killed herself in the nineteen-sixties, when she was thirty-six years old. Another famous actor of those days was James Dean. To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young. In fact, one of his films was called, "Rebel Without a Cause. " James Dean died in a car accident in nineteen-fifty-five. He was twenty-four. VOICE 2: The nineteen-fifties saw a rebellion in American literature. As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life. These were the writers and poets of the Beat generation, including Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. They said life was empty in nineteen-fifties America. They described the people as dead in brain and spirit. Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art. Pollock did not paint things the way they looked. Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased. He was asked again and again: "What do your paintings mean? " He answered: "Do not worry about what they mean. They are just there . . . like flowers. " VOICE 1: In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley. He was the king of rock-and-roll. ((MUSIC: "Blue Suede Shoes")) Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time. He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual. Parents and religious leaders criticized him. Young people screamed for more. They could not get enough rock-and-roll. They played it on records. They heard it on the radio. And they listened to it on the television program "American Bandstand. " ((TAPE: "American Bandstand")) This program became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras. VOICE 2: During the nineteen-forties, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the nineteen-fifties, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day. Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan. VOICE 1: People from other countries watching American television in the nineteen-fifties might have thought that all Americans were white Christians. At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions. Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television. Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people. A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the nineteen-fifties. Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools. By the nineteen-sixties, the civil rights movement would shake the nation. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the nineteen-fifties. He faced the problems of communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions. He had a calm way of speaking. And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way. Some citizens felt he was like a father to the nation. With Mister Eisenhower in the White House, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Many Americans were afraid. Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes. They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack. VOICE 1: Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid. In nineteen-fifty-two, the military hero of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president. The economy improved. Americans looked to the future with hope. One sign of hope was the Baby Boom. This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war. The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between nineteen-fifty and nineteen-sixty. The bigger families needed houses. In nineteen-fifty alone, one-million four-hundred-thousand houses were built in America. Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better. They also liked having more space for their children to play. VOICE 2: Many Americans remember the nineteen-fifties as the fad years. A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the nineteen-fifties was the Hula Hoop. The Hula Hoop was a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle. To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion. This kept it spinning around your body. The motion was like one used by Polynesian people in their native dance, the hula. Other fads in the nineteen-fifties involved clothes or hair. Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog. Actress Mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the Broadway play, "South Pacific. " VOICE 1: In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous. Not everyone thought she was a great actress. But she had shining golden hair. And she had what was considered a perfect body. Marilyn Monroe's success did not make her happy. She killed herself in the nineteen-sixties, when she was thirty-six years old. Another famous actor of those days was James Dean. To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young. In fact, one of his films was called, "Rebel Without a Cause. " James Dean died in a car accident in nineteen-fifty-five. He was twenty-four. VOICE 2: The nineteen-fifties saw a rebellion in American literature. As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life. These were the writers and poets of the Beat generation, including Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. They said life was empty in nineteen-fifties America. They described the people as dead in brain and spirit. Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art. Pollock did not paint things the way they looked. Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased. He was asked again and again: "What do your paintings mean? " He answered: "Do not worry about what they mean. They are just there . . . like flowers. " VOICE 1: In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley. He was the king of rock-and-roll. ((MUSIC: "Blue Suede Shoes")) Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time. He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual. Parents and religious leaders criticized him. Young people screamed for more. They could not get enough rock-and-roll. They played it on records. They heard it on the radio. And they listened to it on the television program "American Bandstand. " ((TAPE: "American Bandstand")) This program became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras. VOICE 2: During the nineteen-forties, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the nineteen-fifties, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day. Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan. VOICE 1: People from other countries watching American television in the nineteen-fifties might have thought that all Americans were white Christians. At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions. Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television. Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people. A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the nineteen-fifties. Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools. By the nineteen-sixties, the civil rights movement would shake the nation. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the nineteen-fifties. He faced the problems of communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions. He had a calm way of speaking. And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way. Some citizens felt he was like a father to the nation. With Mister Eisenhower in the White House, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 14, 2002: Shadow Wolves
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. Trackers on the Tohono O'Odham reservation in Arizona.(Customs Service photo - James R. Tourtellotte) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit the desert of the American Southwest to learn about a group of people called the Shadow Wolves. ((INDIAN MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: A Shadow Wolf is hunting. He is not looking for animals. He is hunting people. The Shadow Wolf walks slowly across the extremely hot desert sand. His eyes move slowly over the ground. Most people would only see sand, dirt, rocks and some small plants. The Shadow Wolf sees a story. He looks closely at the ground. He can tell that five men passed this way. Four of them carried heavy loads. He can also tell they are moving quickly. They are not yet running, but they are moving as fast as their heavy loads permit. One is not carrying a heavy load. The Shadow Wolf knows this person is the group’s leader. The Shadow Wolf increases his own speed across the dry, hot desert. Soon, he can tell that the five men are running. They know he is following them. Moments later, in the far distance, a group of birds suddenly flies away from the ground. The five men have frightened the birds. The Shadow Wolf slowly pulls out his radio and calls for help. The five men are captured within an hour. They are arrested for trying to bring illegal drugs into the United States. Once again, the Shadow Wolf hunters of the United States Customs Service have been successful. VOICE TWO For thousands of years, people were hunter-gatherers. They survived by hunting wild animals and gathering kinds of food that were not easily found. Their hunting skills were extremely important. The ancient hunter-gatherers of the world learned to follow the signs or marks left on the ground as animals moved along a path. This skill is called tracking. A good tracker would often spend days following the signs of a group of animals until he could make a successful kill for food. VOICE ONE: These skills have disappeared in most of the modern world. Yet, special members of the United States Customs Service use them to find and arrest people who try to sell illegal drugs. These Customs Service agents are Native Americans. The group is called the Shadow Wolves. There are Eighteen men and one woman in the group. They belong to a number of different tribes, including Tohono O’Odham (tuh-HO-no ode-um), Navajo (NA-veh-ho), Lakota, Omaha, Pima(PEE-mah), Yorock (YORE-ock) and Sac&fox (sack n' fox). The Shadow Wolves live by a saying that tells a lot about them and their work. The saying is, ”In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, for I am the Shadow Wolf.” ((INDIAN MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves have been members of the United States Custom Service for about thirty years. They work on the second largest area of American Indian land in the United States. It is called the Tohono O’Odham Reservation. It is a few kilometers west of the city of Tucson, in the southwestern state of Arizona. The huge reservation shares a one-hundred-twenty-kilometer border with Mexico. People who want to sell illegal drugs in the United States carry the drugs on their backs across the desert land of the Tohono O’odham Reservation. They try to move from the border to the nearest road, about forty kilometers away. Usually about three or four people carry the drugs through the reservation at night. Their shoes leave marks in the dirt. The Shadow Wolves follow these shoe marks to find the drug dealers and arrest them. The Shadow Wolves have been very successful at this. VOICE ONE: The Congress of the United States approved the idea of the Shadow Wolves thirty years ago for several reasons. Police agencies in Arizona and the United States Custom Service had all the modern technology needed to help catch people who tried to sell illegal drugs. But they lacked the skills of the ancient hunter-gatherers who could follow the signs left by people as they passed through the desert. Customs Service officials knew drug dealers were coming across the border and into the Tohono O’Odham Reservation. The government asked Indians who lived on the reservation to help in the fight against the drug dealers. The first members of the Shadow Wolves were members of the Tohono O’Odham tribe. A few years ago, the first members of the unusual group began to retire. The group asked if skilled trackers from other tribes wanted to become Shadow Wolves. The answer was yes. VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves do not use only their ancient tracking skills. They also use modern devices that help them see in the dark. They use modern radios to communicate. They use airplanes, helicopters and other methods of transportation in their work. They have a very good record. In the first fifteen days of March two-thousand-one, the Shadow Wolves tracked and captured almost one-thousand-fifty kilograms of illegal drugs. In the following six months, they captured more than eighteen-thousand kilograms of illegal drugs. One day in April of this year, they seized dealers carrying more than one-million-six-hundred-thousand dollars worth of drugs through the Tohono O’Odham Reservation. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Shadow Wolves main task is finding and stopping illegal drug dealers. Sometimes they are asked to help rescue people who become lost in the desert. Three of the Shadow Wolves are Gary Ortega, Jason Garcia and Lambert Cross. Lambert Cross has been a tracker for almost thirty years. In two-thousand-one, the three Shadow Wolves saved the life of a little boy who had become lost in the desert. The child and his dog left their home and walked into the desert. No one could find them. Search aircraft were used. Experts with dogs were called. The aircraft and the dog experts searched but could not find the little boy. The three Shadow Wolves then joined the search. They found very little evidence of the boy in the desert. But they found just enough for them to begin tracking the child. They continued to follow the marks left by the little boy until they found him and his dog. They returned them to their home. VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves also share their skills with other law agencies. Jason Garcia and two other members of the group traveled to Kosovo. They trained border guards there to track people who deal in stolen weapons. They also helped train police and border guards in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The police and border guards in those countries were often surprised when the Shadow Wolves began teaching them ancient methods of tracking. The Shadow Wolves say the police and guards expected to learn how to use some kind of modern electronic equipment. Instead they were taught ancient hunting skills. VOICE ONE: Bryan Nez is from the Navajo tribe. He has worked with the Shadow Wolves group for twelve years. He learned to track as a child. Mister Nez says he learned more by finding lost children and people on holiday who became lost in the desert. Other Customs Officers say it is interesting to watch him work. Most people would not see anything unusual in an area. Yet, Mister Nez sees a lot of evidence of people passing through. He says anyone can be followed because they leave signs on the ground. He says he can follow them even at night, or over rocks. Sometimes, he says, the evidence he needs is something that he sees. Other times the evidence is something that he does not see. Sometimes it is just a feeling that he has. VOICE TWO: The work of the Shadow Wolves is dangerous. Sometimes the illegal drug dealers carry weapons. Shots have been fired more than once. Each of the Shadow Wolves wears a small gray colored feather on his clothing. It reminds them that their work can be dangerous. It also honors Shadow Wolf Glenn Miles. He was shot and killed by illegal drug dealers in nineteen-eighty-seven. The person responsible for the crime was never caught. Several of the Shadow Wolves followed the killer. The signs he left on the ground crossed the Mexican border nine kilometers from where the shooting took place. VOICE ONE: Each month, the Shadow Wolves find hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and arrest those carrying the drugs. The group knows it will never catch all the criminals who try to move illegal drugs through their area. However, the Shadow Wolves will continue to prove that ancient skills can be used to solve modern crimes. ((INDIAN MUSIC, FADES INTO THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit the desert of the American Southwest to learn about a group of people called the Shadow Wolves. ((INDIAN MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: A Shadow Wolf is hunting. He is not looking for animals. He is hunting people. The Shadow Wolf walks slowly across the extremely hot desert sand. His eyes move slowly over the ground. Most people would only see sand, dirt, rocks and some small plants. The Shadow Wolf sees a story. He looks closely at the ground. He can tell that five men passed this way. Four of them carried heavy loads. He can also tell they are moving quickly. They are not yet running, but they are moving as fast as their heavy loads permit. One is not carrying a heavy load. The Shadow Wolf knows this person is the group’s leader. The Shadow Wolf increases his own speed across the dry, hot desert. Soon, he can tell that the five men are running. They know he is following them. Moments later, in the far distance, a group of birds suddenly flies away from the ground. The five men have frightened the birds. The Shadow Wolf slowly pulls out his radio and calls for help. The five men are captured within an hour. They are arrested for trying to bring illegal drugs into the United States. Once again, the Shadow Wolf hunters of the United States Customs Service have been successful. VOICE TWO For thousands of years, people were hunter-gatherers. They survived by hunting wild animals and gathering kinds of food that were not easily found. Their hunting skills were extremely important. The ancient hunter-gatherers of the world learned to follow the signs or marks left on the ground as animals moved along a path. This skill is called tracking. A good tracker would often spend days following the signs of a group of animals until he could make a successful kill for food. VOICE ONE: These skills have disappeared in most of the modern world. Yet, special members of the United States Customs Service use them to find and arrest people who try to sell illegal drugs. These Customs Service agents are Native Americans. The group is called the Shadow Wolves. There are Eighteen men and one woman in the group. They belong to a number of different tribes, including Tohono O’Odham (tuh-HO-no ode-um), Navajo (NA-veh-ho), Lakota, Omaha, Pima(PEE-mah), Yorock (YORE-ock) and Sac&fox (sack n' fox). The Shadow Wolves live by a saying that tells a lot about them and their work. The saying is, ”In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, for I am the Shadow Wolf.” ((INDIAN MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves have been members of the United States Custom Service for about thirty years. They work on the second largest area of American Indian land in the United States. It is called the Tohono O’Odham Reservation. It is a few kilometers west of the city of Tucson, in the southwestern state of Arizona. The huge reservation shares a one-hundred-twenty-kilometer border with Mexico. People who want to sell illegal drugs in the United States carry the drugs on their backs across the desert land of the Tohono O’odham Reservation. They try to move from the border to the nearest road, about forty kilometers away. Usually about three or four people carry the drugs through the reservation at night. Their shoes leave marks in the dirt. The Shadow Wolves follow these shoe marks to find the drug dealers and arrest them. The Shadow Wolves have been very successful at this. VOICE ONE: The Congress of the United States approved the idea of the Shadow Wolves thirty years ago for several reasons. Police agencies in Arizona and the United States Custom Service had all the modern technology needed to help catch people who tried to sell illegal drugs. But they lacked the skills of the ancient hunter-gatherers who could follow the signs left by people as they passed through the desert. Customs Service officials knew drug dealers were coming across the border and into the Tohono O’Odham Reservation. The government asked Indians who lived on the reservation to help in the fight against the drug dealers. The first members of the Shadow Wolves were members of the Tohono O’Odham tribe. A few years ago, the first members of the unusual group began to retire. The group asked if skilled trackers from other tribes wanted to become Shadow Wolves. The answer was yes. VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves do not use only their ancient tracking skills. They also use modern devices that help them see in the dark. They use modern radios to communicate. They use airplanes, helicopters and other methods of transportation in their work. They have a very good record. In the first fifteen days of March two-thousand-one, the Shadow Wolves tracked and captured almost one-thousand-fifty kilograms of illegal drugs. In the following six months, they captured more than eighteen-thousand kilograms of illegal drugs. One day in April of this year, they seized dealers carrying more than one-million-six-hundred-thousand dollars worth of drugs through the Tohono O’Odham Reservation. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Shadow Wolves main task is finding and stopping illegal drug dealers. Sometimes they are asked to help rescue people who become lost in the desert. Three of the Shadow Wolves are Gary Ortega, Jason Garcia and Lambert Cross. Lambert Cross has been a tracker for almost thirty years. In two-thousand-one, the three Shadow Wolves saved the life of a little boy who had become lost in the desert. The child and his dog left their home and walked into the desert. No one could find them. Search aircraft were used. Experts with dogs were called. The aircraft and the dog experts searched but could not find the little boy. The three Shadow Wolves then joined the search. They found very little evidence of the boy in the desert. But they found just enough for them to begin tracking the child. They continued to follow the marks left by the little boy until they found him and his dog. They returned them to their home. VOICE TWO: The Shadow Wolves also share their skills with other law agencies. Jason Garcia and two other members of the group traveled to Kosovo. They trained border guards there to track people who deal in stolen weapons. They also helped train police and border guards in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The police and border guards in those countries were often surprised when the Shadow Wolves began teaching them ancient methods of tracking. The Shadow Wolves say the police and guards expected to learn how to use some kind of modern electronic equipment. Instead they were taught ancient hunting skills. VOICE ONE: Bryan Nez is from the Navajo tribe. He has worked with the Shadow Wolves group for twelve years. He learned to track as a child. Mister Nez says he learned more by finding lost children and people on holiday who became lost in the desert. Other Customs Officers say it is interesting to watch him work. Most people would not see anything unusual in an area. Yet, Mister Nez sees a lot of evidence of people passing through. He says anyone can be followed because they leave signs on the ground. He says he can follow them even at night, or over rocks. Sometimes, he says, the evidence he needs is something that he sees. Other times the evidence is something that he does not see. Sometimes it is just a feeling that he has. VOICE TWO: The work of the Shadow Wolves is dangerous. Sometimes the illegal drug dealers carry weapons. Shots have been fired more than once. Each of the Shadow Wolves wears a small gray colored feather on his clothing. It reminds them that their work can be dangerous. It also honors Shadow Wolf Glenn Miles. He was shot and killed by illegal drug dealers in nineteen-eighty-seven. The person responsible for the crime was never caught. Several of the Shadow Wolves followed the killer. The signs he left on the ground crossed the Mexican border nine kilometers from where the shooting took place. VOICE ONE: Each month, the Shadow Wolves find hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and arrest those carrying the drugs. The group knows it will never catch all the criminals who try to move illegal drugs through their area. However, the Shadow Wolves will continue to prove that ancient skills can be used to solve modern crimes. ((INDIAN MUSIC, FADES INTO THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – August 15, 2002: U.S. Early Childhood Education
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. About forty years ago, only five percent of American children who were three or four years old attended early education programs. Today, about two-thirds of the children of that age go to preschools, nursery schools or daycare centers with educational programs. Many education experts say this is a good situation. They say young children who have some kind of preschool education do much better when they attend school. Young children in preschool programs learn colors and numbers. They identify common objects and letters of the alphabet to prepare them for reading. They sing and play games that use numbers and maps. They learn to cooperate with teachers and other children. Many preschool programs include activities to help young children learn about the world around them. For example, children visit places like zoos, museums and fire and police stations. After preschool, most American children attend kindergarten in public schools. Most children start kindergarten at about age five. Many American kindergartens now require skills taught in early education programs. So children who have not attended a preschool program may not be ready for kindergarten. Many families, however, lack enough money to send their children to private nursery schools or preschools. Such schools may cost several thousand dollars a year, as much as a public university. To help poor families, the government operates an education program for young children called Head Start. Studies have shown that many children from poor families do not do well in school. Studies also have shown that children in Head Start programs perform equally well or better than other children when they start school. But the government currently is providing Head Start with enough money to serve only about sixty percent of the children who need this program. Educators have expressed concern that some early childhood education programs are not good enough. The United States has about eighty-thousand preschools, nursery schools and daycare centers. The National Association for the Education of Young Children studies these schools. The association says it has approved only about ten percent of the preschools in the country. Experts say American children need more and better preschool education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report. About forty years ago, only five percent of American children who were three or four years old attended early education programs. Today, about two-thirds of the children of that age go to preschools, nursery schools or daycare centers with educational programs. Many education experts say this is a good situation. They say young children who have some kind of preschool education do much better when they attend school. Young children in preschool programs learn colors and numbers. They identify common objects and letters of the alphabet to prepare them for reading. They sing and play games that use numbers and maps. They learn to cooperate with teachers and other children. Many preschool programs include activities to help young children learn about the world around them. For example, children visit places like zoos, museums and fire and police stations. After preschool, most American children attend kindergarten in public schools. Most children start kindergarten at about age five. Many American kindergartens now require skills taught in early education programs. So children who have not attended a preschool program may not be ready for kindergarten. Many families, however, lack enough money to send their children to private nursery schools or preschools. Such schools may cost several thousand dollars a year, as much as a public university. To help poor families, the government operates an education program for young children called Head Start. Studies have shown that many children from poor families do not do well in school. Studies also have shown that children in Head Start programs perform equally well or better than other children when they start school. But the government currently is providing Head Start with enough money to serve only about sixty percent of the children who need this program. Educators have expressed concern that some early childhood education programs are not good enough. The United States has about eighty-thousand preschools, nursery schools and daycare centers. The National Association for the Education of Young Children studies these schools. The association says it has approved only about ten percent of the preschools in the country. Experts say American children need more and better preschool education. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: August 15, 2002 - Lida Baker: Exceptional Verbs
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 15, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: August 18, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. With me this week on Wordmaster is our English teacher friend Lida Baker in Los Angeles, to talk about a few verbs that can cause trouble for even the best-trained non-native speakers. BAKER: "I got the idea for this segment because for the past six weeks I've been working with a group of brand-new English teachers from Hong Kong. Their English is superb, but I noticed here and there that there were still little errors that persisted, and one of those errors was with the word 'let.' One of the students got up to do a presentation and she made a sentence something like, 'and at this point I would let the students to talk among themselves.' To my native ear, of course, that 'to' shouldn't be there. "And, you know, there's a very logical explanation for why a student would make a mistake like this. Let's take a sentence like 'letting the students to sit down' and think about what it really means. Well, it means that the teacher allowed -- or will allow -- the students to sit down. With a verb like 'allow,' it's necessary for us to include the preposition 'to,' but with 'let' it isn't." AA: "So it would be like, 'Allow me to introduce myself. Let me sit down.'" BAKER: "Exactly. Or 'let me introduce myself.' So what students do is they generalize from one form to another and therefore make the mistake. There's a few other verbs that act like 'let.' Think of this sentence: 'My mother made me clean my room.' It wouldn't be correct to say 'my mother made me to clean my room.' But it's perfectly correct to say 'my mother forced me to clean my room,' right?" AA: "Right, exactly." BAKER: "So with the verb 'make,' it isn't correct to use the preposition 'to.' Another example is a structure like this: 'I had the waiter bring me some water.' We use this structure -- I-had-someone-do-something-for-me -- in the sense of somebody that we hire in some cases to do a service for us. So 'I had the plumber fix the leak in my sink' or 'I had the dry cleaner remove the stain from my silk suit.' "I think the best way to approach this from the learner's point of view is to think of verbs like 'let' and 'make' and 'have' as exceptions, because the normal pattern would be to include the preposition 'to.' So once the student is aware of the fact that these verbs don't act like others, then the student can start kind of paying attention and looking for them when they listen to the news, when they listen to the radio, when they watch television. "Another really good way to learn these verbs is to look for them in song lyrics. Think of all the songs that have 'let' in them: 'Let Me Go,' 'You Made Me Love You.'" (laughter) MUSIC: "You Made Me Love You"/Judy Garland BAKER: "So I would tell my students to go to the Internet, because on the Internet you can find song lyrics, there are thousands of song lyrics on the Internet, and look for your favorite songs and read the lyrics. You're going to find lots of examples of sentences with 'let' and 'make' and 'have.' And if you start humming those songs in your head, it's really going to help the student to remember how to use these verbs correctly. Can you think of any others?" AA: "Uh ... " BAKER: "'You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,' 'You Make Me Want to Sing,' 'You Make Me Want to Shout.'" (laughter) MUSIC: "You Make Me Want to Shout"/Otis Day & the Knights AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center, part of the University of California at Los Angeles Extension program. She also writes textbooks for English learners, available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. And while Lida cannot answer questions personally, send them to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Shout" Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 15, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: August 18, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is away. With me this week on Wordmaster is our English teacher friend Lida Baker in Los Angeles, to talk about a few verbs that can cause trouble for even the best-trained non-native speakers. BAKER: "I got the idea for this segment because for the past six weeks I've been working with a group of brand-new English teachers from Hong Kong. Their English is superb, but I noticed here and there that there were still little errors that persisted, and one of those errors was with the word 'let.' One of the students got up to do a presentation and she made a sentence something like, 'and at this point I would let the students to talk among themselves.' To my native ear, of course, that 'to' shouldn't be there. "And, you know, there's a very logical explanation for why a student would make a mistake like this. Let's take a sentence like 'letting the students to sit down' and think about what it really means. Well, it means that the teacher allowed -- or will allow -- the students to sit down. With a verb like 'allow,' it's necessary for us to include the preposition 'to,' but with 'let' it isn't." AA: "So it would be like, 'Allow me to introduce myself. Let me sit down.'" BAKER: "Exactly. Or 'let me introduce myself.' So what students do is they generalize from one form to another and therefore make the mistake. There's a few other verbs that act like 'let.' Think of this sentence: 'My mother made me clean my room.' It wouldn't be correct to say 'my mother made me to clean my room.' But it's perfectly correct to say 'my mother forced me to clean my room,' right?" AA: "Right, exactly." BAKER: "So with the verb 'make,' it isn't correct to use the preposition 'to.' Another example is a structure like this: 'I had the waiter bring me some water.' We use this structure -- I-had-someone-do-something-for-me -- in the sense of somebody that we hire in some cases to do a service for us. So 'I had the plumber fix the leak in my sink' or 'I had the dry cleaner remove the stain from my silk suit.' "I think the best way to approach this from the learner's point of view is to think of verbs like 'let' and 'make' and 'have' as exceptions, because the normal pattern would be to include the preposition 'to.' So once the student is aware of the fact that these verbs don't act like others, then the student can start kind of paying attention and looking for them when they listen to the news, when they listen to the radio, when they watch television. "Another really good way to learn these verbs is to look for them in song lyrics. Think of all the songs that have 'let' in them: 'Let Me Go,' 'You Made Me Love You.'" (laughter) MUSIC: "You Made Me Love You"/Judy Garland BAKER: "So I would tell my students to go to the Internet, because on the Internet you can find song lyrics, there are thousands of song lyrics on the Internet, and look for your favorite songs and read the lyrics. You're going to find lots of examples of sentences with 'let' and 'make' and 'have.' And if you start humming those songs in your head, it's really going to help the student to remember how to use these verbs correctly. Can you think of any others?" AA: "Uh ... " BAKER: "'You Make Me Feel Like Dancing,' 'You Make Me Want to Sing,' 'You Make Me Want to Shout.'" (laughter) MUSIC: "You Make Me Want to Shout"/Otis Day & the Knights AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center, part of the University of California at Los Angeles Extension program. She also writes textbooks for English learners, available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. And while Lida cannot answer questions personally, send them to us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com, and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Shout" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 16, 2002: Question About American Families / Folk and Blues Music / Washington's Spy Museum
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Alan Lomax HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some American folk and blues music ... Answer a listener’s question about American families ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some American folk and blues music ... Answer a listener’s question about American families ... And report about a new museum in Washington, D.C. Spy Museum HOST: Washington, D.C., is famous for its many fine museums, like the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. Now, a new museum has opened to share information that once was very secret. Bob Cohen tells us about the new International Spy Museum. ANNCR: The International Spy Museum presents the stories of men and women who worked as spies for countries around the world. The museum is careful to explain that a spy may be considered guilty of treason in one country and a hero in another country. The new museum opened a few weeks ago. It is already very popular. Visitors often must wait for thirty minutes or more before they can enter the building. The museum tells the stories of spies from ancient times to the present. There are photographs of many famous spies. More popular, however, are the hundreds of pieces of unusual equipment that were used by spies. Visitors can see examples of radios that spies used to send and receive information during World War Two. They can see some special cameras used to take secret photographs. One special camera looks like a package of cigarettes. The museum also has a collection of weapons used by spies. These include special pistols that do not look like guns. One gun looks like a man’s leather glove that fits over the hand. The International Spy Museum also tells what happens to people who were caught spying. One of these was a woman known as Mata Hari. She was convicted of spying for the German government. She was executed during World War Two. The museum makes sure visitors understand that spying is a very dangerous game. The International Spy Museum is owned by a company that is building museums for profit. It costs eleven dollars for an adult and eight dollars for a child to enter the museum. Critics say the price is too high. But the people waiting in long lines outside the museum do not seem to care. They appear happy to pay the money for a chance to enter the secret world of spies. American Families HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nepal. Sunil Dhungana asks about the different kinds of families in America. There have been many changes in American families in the past few years. So there are many different kinds of families today. There are fewer traditional families in the United States today than in the past. The traditional family includes a man and woman who are married and their children. Fewer than twenty-five percent of American homes have these traditional families. One major influence on families is the high number of marriages than end in divorce. More single parents are raising their children today. There is also a high rate of unmarried women having babies. Research has found that the marriage rate in the United States is dropping. More men and women are choosing to live together and have children, but not get married. Population experts say that the number of unmarried parents in the United States increased more than seventy percent in the past ten years. Another kind of American family is the stepfamily. A stepfamily includes a married man and woman and at least one child from a former marriage or relationship. Many stepfamilies include children of both the man and woman from earlier marriages and children from their current marriage. Foster families are also a part of American life. A child who does not have parents is placed in the home of a foster family until the child can be adopted. Adoption is the legal process by which a child becomes part of a family. Many men and women who are not able to produce children will adopt a child instead. Some people who have given birth to their own children choose to give a home to other children through adoption. Studies also show an increase in the number of children who have parents of the same sex. Sometimes, one of the adults is the biological parent of the child. Sometimes the children are adopted. So, as you can see, the traditional family in the United States is changing. However, many Americans say it is not important if family members are related through biology or not. The important thing in a family is love. Alan Lomax HOST: Alan Lomax died last month in Florida. He was eighty-seven years old. He played an important part in discovering and recording traditional American songs. Shirley Griffith tells us about him. ANNCR: Alan Lomax traveled around the United States and the world recording the folk, blues and jazz music of common people. His father, John Lomax, studied the music of the people in the American West and South. During the nineteen-thirties, Alan Lomax joined his father in a trip across the South to collect American folk songs for the United States Library of Congress. They recorded many of these songs by men in prisons. One of these recordings is a song called “Po’ Lazarus” by James Carter and the Prisoners. The song was included in the very successful movie and album called “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” ((MUSIC: "PO’ LAZARUS")) John and Alan Lomax also recorded songs by another prisoner, Huddie (HUD-dee) Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly. They helped him get released from prison. He became their driver. He also became a very successful folk and blues singer. Here is a recording of Leadbelly’s song “Midnight Special.” ((MUSIC: "MIDNIGHT SPECIAL")) Alan Lomax recorded thousands of folk songs across the United States and in Britain, Italy, Spain and the Caribbean. He developed a collection of folk songs from around the world in an effort to increase understanding among people. In the nineteen-forties, Alan Lomax recorded music by a guitar player named McKinley Morganfield. He was a farm worker in Mississippi. Millions of blues fans around the world would later know him as Muddy Waters. We leave you now with Muddy Waters’ recording of “Take a Walk With Me.” ((MUSIC: "TAKE A WALK WITH ME")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Caty Weaver. And report about a new museum in Washington, D.C. Spy Museum HOST: Washington, D.C., is famous for its many fine museums, like the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. Now, a new museum has opened to share information that once was very secret. Bob Cohen tells us about the new International Spy Museum. ANNCR: The International Spy Museum presents the stories of men and women who worked as spies for countries around the world. The museum is careful to explain that a spy may be considered guilty of treason in one country and a hero in another country. The new museum opened a few weeks ago. It is already very popular. Visitors often must wait for thirty minutes or more before they can enter the building. The museum tells the stories of spies from ancient times to the present. There are photographs of many famous spies. More popular, however, are the hundreds of pieces of unusual equipment that were used by spies. Visitors can see examples of radios that spies used to send and receive information during World War Two. They can see some special cameras used to take secret photographs. One special camera looks like a package of cigarettes. The museum also has a collection of weapons used by spies. These include special pistols that do not look like guns. One gun looks like a man’s leather glove that fits over the hand. The International Spy Museum also tells what happens to people who were caught spying. One of these was a woman known as Mata Hari. She was convicted of spying for the German government. She was executed during World War Two. The museum makes sure visitors understand that spying is a very dangerous game. The International Spy Museum is owned by a company that is building museums for profit. It costs eleven dollars for an adult and eight dollars for a child to enter the museum. Critics say the price is too high. But the people waiting in long lines outside the museum do not seem to care. They appear happy to pay the money for a chance to enter the secret world of spies. American Families HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nepal. Sunil Dhungana asks about the different kinds of families in America. There have been many changes in American families in the past few years. So there are many different kinds of families today. There are fewer traditional families in the United States today than in the past. The traditional family includes a man and woman who are married and their children. Fewer than twenty-five percent of American homes have these traditional families. One major influence on families is the high number of marriages than end in divorce. More single parents are raising their children today. There is also a high rate of unmarried women having babies. Research has found that the marriage rate in the United States is dropping. More men and women are choosing to live together and have children, but not get married. Population experts say that the number of unmarried parents in the United States increased more than seventy percent in the past ten years. Another kind of American family is the stepfamily. A stepfamily includes a married man and woman and at least one child from a former marriage or relationship. Many stepfamilies include children of both the man and woman from earlier marriages and children from their current marriage. Foster families are also a part of American life. A child who does not have parents is placed in the home of a foster family until the child can be adopted. Adoption is the legal process by which a child becomes part of a family. Many men and women who are not able to produce children will adopt a child instead. Some people who have given birth to their own children choose to give a home to other children through adoption. Studies also show an increase in the number of children who have parents of the same sex. Sometimes, one of the adults is the biological parent of the child. Sometimes the children are adopted. So, as you can see, the traditional family in the United States is changing. However, many Americans say it is not important if family members are related through biology or not. The important thing in a family is love. Alan Lomax HOST: Alan Lomax died last month in Florida. He was eighty-seven years old. He played an important part in discovering and recording traditional American songs. Shirley Griffith tells us about him. ANNCR: Alan Lomax traveled around the United States and the world recording the folk, blues and jazz music of common people. His father, John Lomax, studied the music of the people in the American West and South. During the nineteen-thirties, Alan Lomax joined his father in a trip across the South to collect American folk songs for the United States Library of Congress. They recorded many of these songs by men in prisons. One of these recordings is a song called “Po’ Lazarus” by James Carter and the Prisoners. The song was included in the very successful movie and album called “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” ((MUSIC: "PO’ LAZARUS")) John and Alan Lomax also recorded songs by another prisoner, Huddie (HUD-dee) Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly. They helped him get released from prison. He became their driver. He also became a very successful folk and blues singer. Here is a recording of Leadbelly’s song “Midnight Special.” ((MUSIC: "MIDNIGHT SPECIAL")) Alan Lomax recorded thousands of folk songs across the United States and in Britain, Italy, Spain and the Caribbean. He developed a collection of folk songs from around the world in an effort to increase understanding among people. In the nineteen-forties, Alan Lomax recorded music by a guitar player named McKinley Morganfield. He was a farm worker in Mississippi. Millions of blues fans around the world would later know him as Muddy Waters. We leave you now with Muddy Waters’ recording of “Take a Walk With Me.” ((MUSIC: "TAKE A WALK WITH ME")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 16, 2002: UN Report on Africa
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A report by the United Nations Environment Program says Africa faces severe environmental problems unless urgent action is taken. It says Africa faces increases in air and water pollution, land destruction, water shortages and wildlife losses. The report involved hundreds of experts. The U-N Environment Program says it is the most complete study of Africa’s environment ever produced. During the past thirty years, many things have harmed Africa’s environment. They include growing populations, wars, rising national debt, natural disasters and disease. Experts say there will be many new threats during the next thirty years. They include climate change, the spread of non-native plants and animals, uncontrolled expansion of cities and pollution from cars and industry. Africa’s people and economies depend on agriculture. Records show that yearly rainfall has been decreasing since nineteen-sixty-eight. Experts say this may be a result of the warming climate caused by man-made carbon-dioxide gas in the atmosphere. They say Africa could suffer greatly from the effects of global warming because of its dependence on agriculture. Experts also say natural disasters in Africa have become more common and more severe. A lack of rain in some areas and floods in other areas are harming the land and have led to the displacement of people and wildlife. Air pollution from industries and from old cars is another serious problem. The continent’s wildlife is threatened by the destruction of forests, hunting, the presence of non-native species, and a lack of enforcement of protection laws. Many African countries are beginning to deal with some of these environmental problems. But experts say more efforts are needed by African countries and other countries. They say more could be done to reduce Africa’s debt, increase aid and help give local communities more power. They say countries need to help enforce environmental agreements, produce clean technologies and open international markets to African goods and services. The head of the U-N Environmental Program says the report will be important for nations meeting at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. That meeting opens at the end of this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. Broadcast: This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A report by the United Nations Environment Program says Africa faces severe environmental problems unless urgent action is taken. It says Africa faces increases in air and water pollution, land destruction, water shortages and wildlife losses. The report involved hundreds of experts. The U-N Environment Program says it is the most complete study of Africa’s environment ever produced. During the past thirty years, many things have harmed Africa’s environment. They include growing populations, wars, rising national debt, natural disasters and disease. Experts say there will be many new threats during the next thirty years. They include climate change, the spread of non-native plants and animals, uncontrolled expansion of cities and pollution from cars and industry. Africa’s people and economies depend on agriculture. Records show that yearly rainfall has been decreasing since nineteen-sixty-eight. Experts say this may be a result of the warming climate caused by man-made carbon-dioxide gas in the atmosphere. They say Africa could suffer greatly from the effects of global warming because of its dependence on agriculture. Experts also say natural disasters in Africa have become more common and more severe. A lack of rain in some areas and floods in other areas are harming the land and have led to the displacement of people and wildlife. Air pollution from industries and from old cars is another serious problem. The continent’s wildlife is threatened by the destruction of forests, hunting, the presence of non-native species, and a lack of enforcement of protection laws. Many African countries are beginning to deal with some of these environmental problems. But experts say more efforts are needed by African countries and other countries. They say more could be done to reduce Africa’s debt, increase aid and help give local communities more power. They say countries need to help enforce environmental agreements, produce clean technologies and open international markets to African goods and services. The head of the U-N Environmental Program says the report will be important for nations meeting at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. That meeting opens at the end of this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 18, 2002: Carl Rowan
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the life of writer and reporter, Carl Rowan. He was one of the most honored reporters in the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was known for the powerful stories that he wrote for major newspapers. His columns were published in more than one-hundred newspapers across the United States. He was the first black newspaper columnist to have his work appear in major newspapers. Carl Rowan called himself a newspaperman. Yet, he was also a writer of best selling books. He wrote about the lives of African American civil rights leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and United States Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Carl Rowan also was a radio broadcaster and a popular public speaker. For thirty years, he appeared on a weekly television show about American politics. VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan won praise over the years for his reports about race relations in America. He provided a public voice for poor people and minorities in America. He influenced people in positions of power. Mister Rowan opened many doors for African Americans. He was the first black deputy Secretary of State in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. And he was the first black director of the United States Information Agency which at the time supervised the Voice of America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was born in Nineteen-Twenty-Five in the southern city of Ravenscroft, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression, one of the worst economic times in the United States. His family was very poor. His father stacked wood used for building, when he had work. His mother worked cleaning the homes of white people when she could. The Rowan family had no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no radio. Carl said he would sometimes steal food or drink warm milk from the cows on nearby farms. The Rowans did not even have a clock. As a boy, Carl said he knew if it was time to go to school by the sound of a train. He said if the train was late, he was late. VOICE TWO: Growing up, Carl had very little hope for any change. There were not many jobs for blacks in the south. The schools were not good. Racial tensions were high. Laws were enforced to keep blacks and whites separate. It was a teacher who urged Carl to make something of himself. Bessie Taylor Gwynn taught him to believe he could be a poet or a writer. She urged him to write as much as possible. She would even get books for him because blacks were banned from public libraries. Bessie Taylor Gwynn made sure that Carl finished high school. And he did. He graduated at the top of his class. VOICE ONE: Carl entered Tennessee State College in Nineteen-Forty-Two. He almost had to leave college after the first few months because he did not have enough money. But on the way to catch a bus, his luck changed. He found the twenty dollars he needed to stay in college. Carl Rowan did so well in college that he was chosen by the United States Navy to become one of the first fifteen black Navy officers. He said that experience changed his life. Carl served on ships during World War Two. Afterward, he returned to college and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He went on to receive his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Carl Rowan became a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in Minnesota. He was one of the first black reporters to write for a major daily newspaper. As a young reporter, he covered racial tensions in the south during the civil rights movement. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he traveled to the Middle East to cover the war over the Suez Canal. He also reported from Europe, India and other parts of Asia. He won several major reporting awards. VOICE ONE: Mister Rowan’s reports on race relations in the south interested President John F. Kennedy. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, President Kennedy appointed Mister Rowan deputy assistant secretary of state. He served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban missile crisis in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Mister Rowan later was appointed ambassador to Finland. During his years in President Kennedy’s administration, Carl Rowan got to know Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became president after President Kennedy’s was assassinated in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, President Johnson named Carl Rowan director of the United States Information Agency. The position made him the highest level African American in the United States government. Mister Rowan said being chosen to head the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America was one of the great honors of his life. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Carl Rowan left the government and started writing for newspapers. He wrote a column that told his opinions about important social, economic and political issues. It appeared several times a week in a number of newspapers. Radio and television jobs followed. Mister Rowan often wrote intensely about race relations. Yet, he wrote with more feeling about one subject than any other: that education and hard work will help young African Americans move forward. Carl Rowan was angered by the ideas of some young blacks. He said they believed that to study hard and perform well in school was “acting white.” He deplored the idea that excellence is for whites only. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, Mister Rowan created a program called “Project Excellence.” The program rewards black students who do well in school. Over the years, the program has provided millions of dollars to help African American students get money for college. Throughout his life, Carl Rowan was a strong voice for racial justice in America. Yet, he also demanded excellence from other black Americans. He wrote about wrongdoing within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP fights for the civil rights of African Americans. Mister Rowan’s columns led to the resignation of its chairman and helped speed the organization’s financial recovery. VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan lived with his wife, Vivien Murphy, in a large house in Washington, D.C. They had three children and four grandchildren. He had been a strong supporter of gun control laws. But in Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, he was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. He shot and wounded a teenager who was on his property illegally. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family. The jury failed to reach a decision in the case. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Carl Rowan wrote a book about his life called “Breaking Barriers.” Several years later, he wrote a book called “The Coming Race War in America.” The book describes the exploding anger between blacks and whites and the possibility of a future race war. Some people praised the book. Others thought it was harmful and irresponsible. VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was the first black president of an organization of top reporters in Washington called the Gridiron Club. The group does a show every year that makes fun of the American political process. Mister Rowan often performed by singing or leading a comedy act. Carl Rowan used simple words when he spoke, yet he was very direct. He was criticized sometimes for that. Some people thought that his ideas were too liberal. Others thought he was too moderate. But most people thought his stories generally were very fair. Mister Rowan talks about his life in his book, “Breaking Barriers”: CUT 1 – CARL ROWAN ACT VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan died September Twenty-Third, Two-Thousand, in Washington, DC. He was seventy-five years old. During the last years of his life, he suffered from diabetes and heart problems. But he never failed to write his newspaper column. He never let bad things slow him down. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. Broadcast: VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about the life of writer and reporter, Carl Rowan. He was one of the most honored reporters in the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was known for the powerful stories that he wrote for major newspapers. His columns were published in more than one-hundred newspapers across the United States. He was the first black newspaper columnist to have his work appear in major newspapers. Carl Rowan called himself a newspaperman. Yet, he was also a writer of best selling books. He wrote about the lives of African American civil rights leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Junior and United States Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Carl Rowan also was a radio broadcaster and a popular public speaker. For thirty years, he appeared on a weekly television show about American politics. VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan won praise over the years for his reports about race relations in America. He provided a public voice for poor people and minorities in America. He influenced people in positions of power. Mister Rowan opened many doors for African Americans. He was the first black deputy Secretary of State in the administration of President John F. Kennedy. And he was the first black director of the United States Information Agency which at the time supervised the Voice of America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was born in Nineteen-Twenty-Five in the southern city of Ravenscroft, Tennessee. He grew up during the Great Depression, one of the worst economic times in the United States. His family was very poor. His father stacked wood used for building, when he had work. His mother worked cleaning the homes of white people when she could. The Rowan family had no electricity, no running water, no telephone and no radio. Carl said he would sometimes steal food or drink warm milk from the cows on nearby farms. The Rowans did not even have a clock. As a boy, Carl said he knew if it was time to go to school by the sound of a train. He said if the train was late, he was late. VOICE TWO: Growing up, Carl had very little hope for any change. There were not many jobs for blacks in the south. The schools were not good. Racial tensions were high. Laws were enforced to keep blacks and whites separate. It was a teacher who urged Carl to make something of himself. Bessie Taylor Gwynn taught him to believe he could be a poet or a writer. She urged him to write as much as possible. She would even get books for him because blacks were banned from public libraries. Bessie Taylor Gwynn made sure that Carl finished high school. And he did. He graduated at the top of his class. VOICE ONE: Carl entered Tennessee State College in Nineteen-Forty-Two. He almost had to leave college after the first few months because he did not have enough money. But on the way to catch a bus, his luck changed. He found the twenty dollars he needed to stay in college. Carl Rowan did so well in college that he was chosen by the United States Navy to become one of the first fifteen black Navy officers. He said that experience changed his life. Carl served on ships during World War Two. Afterward, he returned to college and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He went on to receive his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Carl Rowan became a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper in Minnesota. He was one of the first black reporters to write for a major daily newspaper. As a young reporter, he covered racial tensions in the south during the civil rights movement. In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, he traveled to the Middle East to cover the war over the Suez Canal. He also reported from Europe, India and other parts of Asia. He won several major reporting awards. VOICE ONE: Mister Rowan’s reports on race relations in the south interested President John F. Kennedy. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, President Kennedy appointed Mister Rowan deputy assistant secretary of state. He served as a delegate to the United Nations during the Cuban missile crisis in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Mister Rowan later was appointed ambassador to Finland. During his years in President Kennedy’s administration, Carl Rowan got to know Lyndon B. Johnson. Lyndon Johnson became president after President Kennedy’s was assassinated in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, President Johnson named Carl Rowan director of the United States Information Agency. The position made him the highest level African American in the United States government. Mister Rowan said being chosen to head the United States Information Agency and the Voice of America was one of the great honors of his life. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Carl Rowan left the government and started writing for newspapers. He wrote a column that told his opinions about important social, economic and political issues. It appeared several times a week in a number of newspapers. Radio and television jobs followed. Mister Rowan often wrote intensely about race relations. Yet, he wrote with more feeling about one subject than any other: that education and hard work will help young African Americans move forward. Carl Rowan was angered by the ideas of some young blacks. He said they believed that to study hard and perform well in school was “acting white.” He deplored the idea that excellence is for whites only. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Eighty-Seven, Mister Rowan created a program called “Project Excellence.” The program rewards black students who do well in school. Over the years, the program has provided millions of dollars to help African American students get money for college. Throughout his life, Carl Rowan was a strong voice for racial justice in America. Yet, he also demanded excellence from other black Americans. He wrote about wrongdoing within the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP fights for the civil rights of African Americans. Mister Rowan’s columns led to the resignation of its chairman and helped speed the organization’s financial recovery. VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan lived with his wife, Vivien Murphy, in a large house in Washington, D.C. They had three children and four grandchildren. He had been a strong supporter of gun control laws. But in Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, he was charged for firing a gun that he did not legally own. He shot and wounded a teenager who was on his property illegally. Rowan was arrested and tried. During the trial, he argued that he had the right to use whatever means necessary to protect himself and his family. The jury failed to reach a decision in the case. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Carl Rowan wrote a book about his life called “Breaking Barriers.” Several years later, he wrote a book called “The Coming Race War in America.” The book describes the exploding anger between blacks and whites and the possibility of a future race war. Some people praised the book. Others thought it was harmful and irresponsible. VOICE ONE: Carl Rowan was the first black president of an organization of top reporters in Washington called the Gridiron Club. The group does a show every year that makes fun of the American political process. Mister Rowan often performed by singing or leading a comedy act. Carl Rowan used simple words when he spoke, yet he was very direct. He was criticized sometimes for that. Some people thought that his ideas were too liberal. Others thought he was too moderate. But most people thought his stories generally were very fair. Mister Rowan talks about his life in his book, “Breaking Barriers”: CUT 1 – CARL ROWAN ACT VOICE TWO: Carl Rowan died September Twenty-Third, Two-Thousand, in Washington, DC. He was seventy-five years old. During the last years of his life, he suffered from diabetes and heart problems. But he never failed to write his newspaper column. He never let bad things slow him down. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 19, 2002: Ravinia and Tanglewood Music Parks
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: VOICE ONE: Broadcast: VOICE ONE: Every summer, millions of Americans enjoy listening to music concerts at parks in the open air. They can hear some of the nation’s best performers. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The story of two of America’s most famous open-air music parks is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "BRAHMS SYMPHONY NUMBER ONE")) Every summer, millions of Americans enjoy listening to music concerts at parks in the open air. They can hear some of the nation’s best performers. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The story of two of America’s most famous open-air music parks is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: "BRAHMS SYMPHONY NUMBER ONE")) VOICE ONE: It is summer at Ravinia Park, near the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois. The night is hot. But the wind moves the branches of trees and cools the darkness. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is performing Symphony Number One by Johannes Brahms. Thousands of people are in the park. A husband and wife sit on the ground, far from where the musicians are playing. Their two little boys look at picture books. When the sky becomes dark, the boys sit close to their parents. Every so often, they all look at the stars. The sound of the Brahms music surrounds them. ((CUT TWO: MORE BRAHMS SYMPHONY NUMBER ONE)) VOICE TWO: These people are among the millions of Americans who attend outdoor music concerts each summer. The concerts are performed at open air music parks across the country. As someone once said, “Music played outside, especially after dark, is one of the great pleasures of summer.” VOICE ONE: It is summer at Ravinia Park, near the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois. The night is hot. But the wind moves the branches of trees and cools the darkness. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is performing Symphony Number One by Johannes Brahms. Thousands of people are in the park. A husband and wife sit on the ground, far from where the musicians are playing. Their two little boys look at picture books. When the sky becomes dark, the boys sit close to their parents. Every so often, they all look at the stars. The sound of the Brahms music surrounds them. ((CUT TWO: MORE BRAHMS SYMPHONY NUMBER ONE)) VOICE TWO: These people are among the millions of Americans who attend outdoor music concerts each summer. The concerts are performed at open air music parks across the country. As someone once said, “Music played outside, especially after dark, is one of the great pleasures of summer.” Some American music parks serve as the summer home for a city orchestra. At these parks, musicians may play well known classical music, like the Brahms symphony. Or they may play folk music, jazz or popular music. VOICE ONE: Ravinia Festival park is about thirty kilometers north of Chicago. The park has a large area of open land where people sit on the ground. People also can sit inside in a building called a pavilion. The front and sides of the pavilion are open so everyone can see the performers. The music of some of America's most popular composers floats out from the pavilion into the summer darkness. Listen as Betty Buckley sings "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by George Gershwin. ((MUSIC: "HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON?")) VOICE TWO: People have been enjoying summer on this same land for almost a century. During the early nineteen-hundreds the area had a baseball field. There were rooms for eating and dancing. And there was an open-air theater. An early version of the present Ravinia Festival opened in nineteen-eleven. By nineteen-nineteen, it had become a summer home for some of the world’s great performers. Over the years visitors heard performances by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For people who liked jazz, there were Benny Goodman, Harry James and Lionel Hampton. Some American music parks serve as the summer home for a city orchestra. At these parks, musicians may play well known classical music, like the Brahms symphony. Or they may play folk music, jazz or popular music. VOICE ONE: Ravinia Festival park is about thirty kilometers north of Chicago. The park has a large area of open land where people sit on the ground. People also can sit inside in a building called a pavilion. The front and sides of the pavilion are open so everyone can see the performers. The music of some of America's most popular composers floats out from the pavilion into the summer darkness. Listen as Betty Buckley sings "How Long Has This Been Going On?" by George Gershwin. ((MUSIC: "HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON?")) VOICE TWO: People have been enjoying summer on this same land for almost a century. During the early nineteen-hundreds the area had a baseball field. There were rooms for eating and dancing. And there was an open-air theater. An early version of the present Ravinia Festival opened in nineteen-eleven. By nineteen-nineteen, it had become a summer home for some of the world’s great performers. Over the years visitors heard performances by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For people who liked jazz, there were Benny Goodman, Harry James and Lionel Hampton. VOICE ONE: The great economic Depression forced the Ravinia organization to close in nineteen-thirty-one. But several years later, businessmen formed the Ravinia Festival Corporation. They brought the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the park in nineteen-thirty-six. One of the most famous conductors to lead the symphony orchestra at Ravinia is James Levine (Leh-VINE). He was appointed music director in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. He continued serving at Ravinia until nineteen-ninety-three. Ravinia’s fame has now spread far beyond the city of Chicago. There is good reason to believe that Ravinia will be offering summer music in the park for many years to come. ((MUSIC: "BRAHMS SYMPHONY NUMBER ONE")) VOICE TWO: Another of America's most famous music parks is called Tanglewood. The Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood is in the Berkshire Mountains in the eastern state of Massachusetts. It is the summer home of the Boston symphony orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra also performs at Tanglewood. Listen as John Williams leads the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus singers in the traditional spiritual, "Deep River." ((MUSIC: "DEEP RIVER")) VOICE ONE: Tanglewood exists mainly because of Serge Koussevitsky (sairzh koo-suh-VIHT-skee), who was born in Russia. He earned great success in Europe as a musician. He also formed his own orchestra. Then he came to the United States. Koussevitsky began leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in nineteen-twenty-four. His dream of presenting music in a beautiful mountain area came true in the middle nineteen-thirties. That is when he led the Boston orchestra in its first concerts at Tanglewood. Koussevitsky also helped open the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in nineteen-forty. The center has provided classes for some of America's most promising music students, including American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein later directed students at the music center. VOICE TWO: Another famous American composer, Aaron Copland, served as Koussevitsky's first assistant director at Tanglewood. The two men prepared programs of music written by composers hundreds of years earlier. They also prepared programs by modern composers paid to write for the Boston Symphony. The orchestra also played the works of two composers Koussevitsky had helped make famous in Europe: Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. Over the years, Tanglewood has won praise for presenting operas, traditional musical dramas that are sung. Here is music from "Falstaff”, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. ((MUSIC: FROM "FALSTAFF")) VOICE ONE: Classical, jazz and folk music all are popular at Tanglewood. We leave you now with the music of Bill Crofut of the United States and Benjamin Luxon of England. They sing a combined folk song: the American "Simple Gifts" and the British "Lord of the Dance." ((MUSIC: "SIMPLE GIFTS/LORD OF THE DANCE")) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineers were John Ellison and Tony Harris. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: The great economic Depression forced the Ravinia organization to close in nineteen-thirty-one. But several years later, businessmen formed the Ravinia Festival Corporation. They brought the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the park in nineteen-thirty-six. One of the most famous conductors to lead the symphony orchestra at Ravinia is James Levine (Leh-VINE). He was appointed music director in nineteen-seventy-three. He was thirty years old. He continued serving at Ravinia until nineteen-ninety-three. Ravinia’s fame has now spread far beyond the city of Chicago. There is good reason to believe that Ravinia will be offering summer music in the park for many years to come. ((MUSIC: "BRAHMS SYMPHONY NUMBER ONE")) VOICE TWO: Another of America's most famous music parks is called Tanglewood. The Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood is in the Berkshire Mountains in the eastern state of Massachusetts. It is the summer home of the Boston symphony orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra also performs at Tanglewood. Listen as John Williams leads the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus singers in the traditional spiritual, "Deep River." ((MUSIC: "DEEP RIVER")) VOICE ONE: Tanglewood exists mainly because of Serge Koussevitsky (sairzh koo-suh-VIHT-skee), who was born in Russia. He earned great success in Europe as a musician. He also formed his own orchestra. Then he came to the United States. Koussevitsky began leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in nineteen-twenty-four. His dream of presenting music in a beautiful mountain area came true in the middle nineteen-thirties. That is when he led the Boston orchestra in its first concerts at Tanglewood. Koussevitsky also helped open the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in nineteen-forty. The center has provided classes for some of America's most promising music students, including American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein later directed students at the music center. VOICE TWO: Another famous American composer, Aaron Copland, served as Koussevitsky's first assistant director at Tanglewood. The two men prepared programs of music written by composers hundreds of years earlier. They also prepared programs by modern composers paid to write for the Boston Symphony. The orchestra also played the works of two composers Koussevitsky had helped make famous in Europe: Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. Over the years, Tanglewood has won praise for presenting operas, traditional musical dramas that are sung. Here is music from "Falstaff”, an opera by Giuseppe Verdi. ((MUSIC: FROM "FALSTAFF")) VOICE ONE: Classical, jazz and folk music all are popular at Tanglewood. We leave you now with the music of Bill Crofut of the United States and Benjamin Luxon of England. They sing a combined folk song: the American "Simple Gifts" and the British "Lord of the Dance." ((MUSIC: "SIMPLE GIFTS/LORD OF THE DANCE")) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineers were John Ellison and Tony Harris. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – August 19, 2002: Malaria Organism
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Researchers in the United States have discovered that the organism that causes the disease malaria is genetically more developed, and much older, than earlier thought. Because of this, they say it will be harder to develop medicines to prevent and treat the deadly disease. Plasmodium falciparum (plas-MO-dee-um fall-SIP-ah-rum) is the parasite that causes the most deadly kind of malaria. Each year, the disease kills more than two-million people and infects more than two-hundred-million people. In the past, doctors used the drug chloroquine (KLOR-oh-kwine) to treat malaria. However, over the past few decades the falciparum parasite has developed resistance to the medicine. This resistance to chloroquine was first discovered in parts of South America and Southeast Asia in the nineteen-fifties. Health experts believed resistance to the drug then spread to other parts of the world. However, a new study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D-C, disputes this idea. The researchers studied the genetic structures of eighty-seven falciparum parasites collected from around the world. They learned that the parasites had been developing resistance to chloroquine independently in two areas in South America, one area in Papua New Guinea and one area in Southeast Asia. In a second study, the scientists examined more than two-hundred genes from five falciparum parasites. The parasites were collected in South Asia, Africa, South America, Central America and Papua New Guinea. The researchers discovered several genetic differences among the parasites. They also learned that the parasites have been developing separately for at least one-hundred-thousand years. For several years, scientists have debated when malaria first developed. A few years ago, a genetic study of falciparum parasites found the disease to be between three-thousand and five-thousand years old. The study also found the parasites to be genetically similar. This latest research disputes those results. Xin-zhuan Su (sin-schwan soo) led the two studies published last month in the publication Nature. He says that new treatments to fight malaria may be possible as scientists learn more about the history of the falciparum parasite. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Researchers in the United States have discovered that the organism that causes the disease malaria is genetically more developed, and much older, than earlier thought. Because of this, they say it will be harder to develop medicines to prevent and treat the deadly disease. Plasmodium falciparum (plas-MO-dee-um fall-SIP-ah-rum) is the parasite that causes the most deadly kind of malaria. Each year, the disease kills more than two-million people and infects more than two-hundred-million people. In the past, doctors used the drug chloroquine (KLOR-oh-kwine) to treat malaria. However, over the past few decades the falciparum parasite has developed resistance to the medicine. This resistance to chloroquine was first discovered in parts of South America and Southeast Asia in the nineteen-fifties. Health experts believed resistance to the drug then spread to other parts of the world. However, a new study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D-C, disputes this idea. The researchers studied the genetic structures of eighty-seven falciparum parasites collected from around the world. They learned that the parasites had been developing resistance to chloroquine independently in two areas in South America, one area in Papua New Guinea and one area in Southeast Asia. In a second study, the scientists examined more than two-hundred genes from five falciparum parasites. The parasites were collected in South Asia, Africa, South America, Central America and Papua New Guinea. The researchers discovered several genetic differences among the parasites. They also learned that the parasites have been developing separately for at least one-hundred-thousand years. For several years, scientists have debated when malaria first developed. A few years ago, a genetic study of falciparum parasites found the disease to be between three-thousand and five-thousand years old. The study also found the parasites to be genetically similar. This latest research disputes those results. Xin-zhuan Su (sin-schwan soo) led the two studies published last month in the publication Nature. He says that new treatments to fight malaria may be possible as scientists learn more about the history of the falciparum parasite. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 17, 2002: World Weather
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Severe weather is affecting people in many countries. In areas of south and east Asia, about seven-hundred people have been killed in floods and resulting landslides during the past month. The hardest hit countries include North and South Korea, Vietnam, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In India, the flooding is the worst the country has experienced in twenty-five years. Areas in Assam and Bihar states have suffered from heavy rains and flooding. Twenty million people have been affected. Indian officials say more than three hundred people have died as a result of the weather conditions. The number of dead in Nepal is even higher. More than four hundred people have been killed in floods and landslides in mountain villages there. Another one-hundred-fifty people have died in similar weather in Bangladesh. Flooding was also especially severe in China this year where about nine-hundred people have died. Yet, there also are intensely dry conditions in parts of Asia. For example, although floods are affecting part of the Indian state of Bihar, the seasonal rains have not begun as expected in other areas of the same state. The lack of water is killing crops. A spokesman for the aid organization Red Cross says that ninety-five percent of crops in Bihar probably will not survive. Huge floods also are continuing in several European countries. The heavy rains began about two weeks ago. More than sixty people were killed in sudden floods in southern Russia. Similar weather hit the Czech Republic. Czech safety officials ordered tens of thousands of people to leave the capital, Prague, this week. The rain and overflowing rivers also have damaged hundreds of smaller towns and villages in the Czech Republic. Roads and railroads are underwater in a number of places. Bridges have been carried away by water. Czech officials estimate hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. The rains and floods are also damaging parts of Germany. Thousands of people have been removed from the historic city of Dresden. The Elbe river in Dresden reached its highest levels in more than one-hundred-fifty years. The intense rains have also done great damage in Austria. Other affected countries include Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Hungary and Ukraine. Officials estimate thousands of millions of dollars of damage across Europe. Many environmental experts say human activities are involved in large climate changes. For example, many scientists believe that the release of industrial wastes is warming the Earth’s atmosphere. Yet no one has proven a direct link between human activity and specific incidents of weather. And, some scientists argue that climate changes are the result of natural causes. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Severe weather is affecting people in many countries. In areas of south and east Asia, about seven-hundred people have been killed in floods and resulting landslides during the past month. The hardest hit countries include North and South Korea, Vietnam, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In India, the flooding is the worst the country has experienced in twenty-five years. Areas in Assam and Bihar states have suffered from heavy rains and flooding. Twenty million people have been affected. Indian officials say more than three hundred people have died as a result of the weather conditions. The number of dead in Nepal is even higher. More than four hundred people have been killed in floods and landslides in mountain villages there. Another one-hundred-fifty people have died in similar weather in Bangladesh. Flooding was also especially severe in China this year where about nine-hundred people have died. Yet, there also are intensely dry conditions in parts of Asia. For example, although floods are affecting part of the Indian state of Bihar, the seasonal rains have not begun as expected in other areas of the same state. The lack of water is killing crops. A spokesman for the aid organization Red Cross says that ninety-five percent of crops in Bihar probably will not survive. Huge floods also are continuing in several European countries. The heavy rains began about two weeks ago. More than sixty people were killed in sudden floods in southern Russia. Similar weather hit the Czech Republic. Czech safety officials ordered tens of thousands of people to leave the capital, Prague, this week. The rain and overflowing rivers also have damaged hundreds of smaller towns and villages in the Czech Republic. Roads and railroads are underwater in a number of places. Bridges have been carried away by water. Czech officials estimate hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. The rains and floods are also damaging parts of Germany. Thousands of people have been removed from the historic city of Dresden. The Elbe river in Dresden reached its highest levels in more than one-hundred-fifty years. The intense rains have also done great damage in Austria. Other affected countries include Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Hungary and Ukraine. Officials estimate thousands of millions of dollars of damage across Europe. Many environmental experts say human activities are involved in large climate changes. For example, many scientists believe that the release of industrial wastes is warming the Earth’s atmosphere. Yet no one has proven a direct link between human activity and specific incidents of weather. And, some scientists argue that climate changes are the result of natural causes. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 20, 2002:  U.S. Doctors Separate Guatemalan Sisters Joined at the Heath / West Nile Virus Spreads in the United States
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: VOICE ONE: This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about an operation that separated twin babies joined at the head. And we tell about the spread of West Nile virus in the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, doctors in California separated two baby sisters joined at the top of the head. A large operating team successfully divided the head bones and skin of Maria Teresa (mah-REE-ah teh-RAY-sah) and Maria de Jesus Quiej-Alvarez (mah-REE-ah deh hay-SOOS key-ek-AHL-veh-rez). The doctors also disconnected and re-directed some of the girls’ blood vessels. This operation on the one-year-old twins took twenty-two hours. A few hours later, doctors operated on one of the babies to stop bleeding on the brain. Doctors performed the operations at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles. The two Marias were born in Belen (beh-LEHN), Guatemala, with their heads joined at the top. The babies faced opposite directions. Experts say this condition is extremely rare. Only about one in two-and-one-half-million live births results in twins being joined at the head. It is one of the rarest examples of conjoined or connected twins. Normal twins who are exactly alike result when a fertilized egg separates into two embryos early in the mother’s pregnancy. Twins become connected when a fertilized egg fails to completely separate. VOICE TWO: At least fifty medical experts took part in the operation on the Guatemalan babies. To separate the sisters’ heads, the doctors had to disconnect blood vessels that the babies shared. However, the twins did not share a major vein called the sagittal (SAJ-it-al) sinus. This vein passes over the top of the skull from the front to the back. Then it divides to take blood back to the heart. Doctors said the fact that each girl had her own sagittal sinus was very good news. It meant the doctors did not have to decide which twin would get the vein, or try to build one vein for each child. The babies did share some bone structure. Each, however, had a separate brain. In the future, the doctors say they will have to rebuild areas around the girls’ brains and skulls. This operation will make their heads appear more normal. VOICE ONE: Doctors were pleased that the girls were moving their hands and feet after the operation. The babies also were looking around and reacting to their nurses. However, it will not be known for some time if either or both suffered brain damage. A group in Spokane, Washington, called Healing the Children, brought the babies and their parents to Los Angeles for the operation. The girls’ parents decided on the operation to separate the twins after being told their babies might not survive without it. Most twins connected at the head die. Between forty and fifty cases of twins joined this way have been reported over the years. Only about fifteen percent lived to age five. Only one set grew up to become adults. Organ failure usually causes the deaths. The heart and kidneys of one twin carry most of the responsibility for both bodies. When the organs fail, both twins die. In the past, about thirty operations were performed to separate twins joined at the head. Most of the babies suffered brain damage. Half of them died. VOICE TWO: Two other conjoined twin girls were separated in an operation in Baltimore, Maryland, in April. These babies were joined at the chest. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center operated on Loice (low-EES) and Christine Onziga (kris-TEEN ahn-ZEE-gah). The babies were born in October of last year in Leiko, (LAY-co) a village in northern Uganda. The twins shared a liver. First, the doctors separated that organ. Then they temporarily tied off a blood vessel that connected the babies’ hearts. The doctors were extremely pleased to see that each heart could beat independently. This permitted them to cut the blood vessel. Each girl was left with a small opening in her heart. Doctors say they can repair this without further surgery. The doctors also rebuilt part of the walls of the twins’ chests and abdomens. And, they rebuilt part of the muscular tissue that separates the abdomen and chest. Loice and Christine now appear to be developing normally. They are expected to return to Uganda with their parents in October if they continue to do well. VOICE ONE: Years ago, connected twins were called “Siamese twins.” This was because the first well known joined twins were born in Siam, now called Thailand. The twins, Chang and Eng, were born to Chinese parents in eighteen-eleven. A narrow piece of skin joined their lower chests. Their livers were connected through that skin. Chang and Eng grew up and married sisters in the eighteen-forties. Over the years, the two became fathers of twenty-one children. Several times during their lives, Chang and Eng considered separation surgery. But they decided against it. They died in eighteen-seventy-four. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: A viral disease is infecting people in many parts of the United States. By the end of last week, the West Nile virus had killed at least nine people. It has infected more than one-hundred-sixty people in at least twelve states and the District of Columbia. The virus has been discovered in at least thirty-eight states in horses, birds or mosquito insects. Health officials say West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes that feed on the blood of infected birds and then bite people. Recently, the director of the Centers for Disease Control said Americans will have to deal with the virus for a long time. Julie Gerberding said the virus is well established among populations of birds and mosquitoes in this country. However, the time of year of the current outbreak has concerned health officials. Doctor Gerberding noted that people developed West Nile virus in August and September in the past. Yet, this current outbreak began in June. It appears to be getting worse at the time when the disease usually begins. VOICE ONE: West Nile virus was first observed in the West Nile area of Uganda in nineteen-thirty-seven. Forms of the virus have appeared in recent years in widely separated countries. In the nineteen-nineties, the disease was reported in Algeria, Romania, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, the United States, France and Israel. West Nile virus was first reported in the United States in nineteen-ninety-nine. That outbreak in New York City killed seven people. It also caused more than sixty people to seek treatment in hospitals. The virus has been spreading to other states since then. West Nile virus is one of a group of viruses that can cause high body temperature and pain. The viruses can also affect the senses and balance of a person. It is among a group of organisms called flavi-viruses (FLAY.vi.vie.rus.es). The disease Japanese encephalitis is similar to West Nile virus. VOICE TWO: Only about one in five people who are infected with the virus become sick. Signs of the disease include muscle aches, pain in areas where bones are joined, high body temperature, headache and tiredness. West Nile virus can cause serious disease or death among older people and people whose defense system against disease is weakened. It can cause encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. It can also cause meningitis, inflammation of tissues around the brain or spinal cord. However, fewer than one percent of people infected with the virus become seriously sick. VOICE ONE: John Barry is a biology researcher. He wrote in the New York Times newspaper that the current outbreak is not really unusual. He noted that a virus closely related to West Nile virus, called Saint Louis encephalitis, infected about two-thousand people in nineteen-seventy-five. It then almost disappeared. Lyle Petersen of the Centers for Disease Control also noted that the hot summer weather may have caused an increase in the viral infections. Warm temperatures make it possible for mosquitoes to reproduce more effectively. Cases of West Nile virus are expected to decrease as autumn comes and temperatures drop. Several experts say it may take years before they understand the development of the disease in this country. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Mario Ritter. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Broadcast: VOICE ONE: This is Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about an operation that separated twin babies joined at the head. And we tell about the spread of West Nile virus in the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, doctors in California separated two baby sisters joined at the top of the head. A large operating team successfully divided the head bones and skin of Maria Teresa (mah-REE-ah teh-RAY-sah) and Maria de Jesus Quiej-Alvarez (mah-REE-ah deh hay-SOOS key-ek-AHL-veh-rez). The doctors also disconnected and re-directed some of the girls’ blood vessels. This operation on the one-year-old twins took twenty-two hours. A few hours later, doctors operated on one of the babies to stop bleeding on the brain. Doctors performed the operations at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles. The two Marias were born in Belen (beh-LEHN), Guatemala, with their heads joined at the top. The babies faced opposite directions. Experts say this condition is extremely rare. Only about one in two-and-one-half-million live births results in twins being joined at the head. It is one of the rarest examples of conjoined or connected twins. Normal twins who are exactly alike result when a fertilized egg separates into two embryos early in the mother’s pregnancy. Twins become connected when a fertilized egg fails to completely separate. VOICE TWO: At least fifty medical experts took part in the operation on the Guatemalan babies. To separate the sisters’ heads, the doctors had to disconnect blood vessels that the babies shared. However, the twins did not share a major vein called the sagittal (SAJ-it-al) sinus. This vein passes over the top of the skull from the front to the back. Then it divides to take blood back to the heart. Doctors said the fact that each girl had her own sagittal sinus was very good news. It meant the doctors did not have to decide which twin would get the vein, or try to build one vein for each child. The babies did share some bone structure. Each, however, had a separate brain. In the future, the doctors say they will have to rebuild areas around the girls’ brains and skulls. This operation will make their heads appear more normal. VOICE ONE: Doctors were pleased that the girls were moving their hands and feet after the operation. The babies also were looking around and reacting to their nurses. However, it will not be known for some time if either or both suffered brain damage. A group in Spokane, Washington, called Healing the Children, brought the babies and their parents to Los Angeles for the operation. The girls’ parents decided on the operation to separate the twins after being told their babies might not survive without it. Most twins connected at the head die. Between forty and fifty cases of twins joined this way have been reported over the years. Only about fifteen percent lived to age five. Only one set grew up to become adults. Organ failure usually causes the deaths. The heart and kidneys of one twin carry most of the responsibility for both bodies. When the organs fail, both twins die. In the past, about thirty operations were performed to separate twins joined at the head. Most of the babies suffered brain damage. Half of them died. VOICE TWO: Two other conjoined twin girls were separated in an operation in Baltimore, Maryland, in April. These babies were joined at the chest. Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center operated on Loice (low-EES) and Christine Onziga (kris-TEEN ahn-ZEE-gah). The babies were born in October of last year in Leiko, (LAY-co) a village in northern Uganda. The twins shared a liver. First, the doctors separated that organ. Then they temporarily tied off a blood vessel that connected the babies’ hearts. The doctors were extremely pleased to see that each heart could beat independently. This permitted them to cut the blood vessel. Each girl was left with a small opening in her heart. Doctors say they can repair this without further surgery. The doctors also rebuilt part of the walls of the twins’ chests and abdomens. And, they rebuilt part of the muscular tissue that separates the abdomen and chest. Loice and Christine now appear to be developing normally. They are expected to return to Uganda with their parents in October if they continue to do well. VOICE ONE: Years ago, connected twins were called “Siamese twins.” This was because the first well known joined twins were born in Siam, now called Thailand. The twins, Chang and Eng, were born to Chinese parents in eighteen-eleven. A narrow piece of skin joined their lower chests. Their livers were connected through that skin. Chang and Eng grew up and married sisters in the eighteen-forties. Over the years, the two became fathers of twenty-one children. Several times during their lives, Chang and Eng considered separation surgery. But they decided against it. They died in eighteen-seventy-four. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: A viral disease is infecting people in many parts of the United States. By the end of last week, the West Nile virus had killed at least nine people. It has infected more than one-hundred-sixty people in at least twelve states and the District of Columbia. The virus has been discovered in at least thirty-eight states in horses, birds or mosquito insects. Health officials say West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes that feed on the blood of infected birds and then bite people. Recently, the director of the Centers for Disease Control said Americans will have to deal with the virus for a long time. Julie Gerberding said the virus is well established among populations of birds and mosquitoes in this country. However, the time of year of the current outbreak has concerned health officials. Doctor Gerberding noted that people developed West Nile virus in August and September in the past. Yet, this current outbreak began in June. It appears to be getting worse at the time when the disease usually begins. VOICE ONE: West Nile virus was first observed in the West Nile area of Uganda in nineteen-thirty-seven. Forms of the virus have appeared in recent years in widely separated countries. In the nineteen-nineties, the disease was reported in Algeria, Romania, the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia, the United States, France and Israel. West Nile virus was first reported in the United States in nineteen-ninety-nine. That outbreak in New York City killed seven people. It also caused more than sixty people to seek treatment in hospitals. The virus has been spreading to other states since then. West Nile virus is one of a group of viruses that can cause high body temperature and pain. The viruses can also affect the senses and balance of a person. It is among a group of organisms called flavi-viruses (FLAY.vi.vie.rus.es). The disease Japanese encephalitis is similar to West Nile virus. VOICE TWO: Only about one in five people who are infected with the virus become sick. Signs of the disease include muscle aches, pain in areas where bones are joined, high body temperature, headache and tiredness. West Nile virus can cause serious disease or death among older people and people whose defense system against disease is weakened. It can cause encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. It can also cause meningitis, inflammation of tissues around the brain or spinal cord. However, fewer than one percent of people infected with the virus become seriously sick. VOICE ONE: John Barry is a biology researcher. He wrote in the New York Times newspaper that the current outbreak is not really unusual. He noted that a virus closely related to West Nile virus, called Saint Louis encephalitis, infected about two-thousand people in nineteen-seventy-five. It then almost disappeared. Lyle Petersen of the Centers for Disease Control also noted that the hot summer weather may have caused an increase in the viral infections. Warm temperatures make it possible for mosquitoes to reproduce more effectively. Cases of West Nile virus are expected to decrease as autumn comes and temperatures drop. Several experts say it may take years before they understand the development of the disease in this country. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Mario Ritter. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 20, 2002: Exploding Meat
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American scientist Morse Solomon has developed an unusual method to make meat softer. First, put a kilogram or more of firm meat in a container filled with water. Add a small amount of explosives. Then, mix carefully and explode. No, Mister Morse is not attempting to destroy the meat. Instead, he is making it softer and also killing harmful bacteria. Mister Solomon is a meat scientist with the United States Agricultural Research Service. He began to explore the use of shock waves to soften meat ten years ago. His method is called the Hydrodynamic Pressure Process. The theory is simple. Shock waves from an explosion travel through water to the meat. The shock waves tear small pieces of muscle and other particles away from the meat. This makes the meat softer and easier to eat. The shock waves also reduce the amount of bacteria in the meat. The Department of Agriculture says the process could increase food safety for companies that sell meat. Uncooked meat may contain organisms such as the Escherichia coli (esh-eh-RICK-ee-ah COLE-eye) bacteria, also known as E. coli. E. coli can make people sick if they eat meat that is not well cooked. The Hydrodynamic Pressure Process may help reduce concerns about harmful bacteria in meat. Other American scientists attempted to improve the process. They used a thick-walled metal container that was buried in the ground. This device did not improve the quality of the meat as much as the simpler method. However, the scientists found there seemed to be fewer bacteria in the meat than before the process. Scientists had demonstrated that the Hydrodynamic Pressure Process could improve large pieces of meat. Next, they wanted to see if the process reduced bacteria levels in smaller pieces of ground beef that is used to make hamburgers. Their tests showed a reduction of bacteria in ground beef products. Other studies showed that ground beef containing E. coli had no measurable levels of the bacteria after the treatment. The Hydrodynamic Pressure Process does not kill all bacteria in the meat, however. Mister Solomon says some good bacteria remain. The agricultural scientists say more studies are needed to see if the method could be used in the meat processing industry. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. American scientist Morse Solomon has developed an unusual method to make meat softer. First, put a kilogram or more of firm meat in a container filled with water. Add a small amount of explosives. Then, mix carefully and explode. No, Mister Morse is not attempting to destroy the meat. Instead, he is making it softer and also killing harmful bacteria. Mister Solomon is a meat scientist with the United States Agricultural Research Service. He began to explore the use of shock waves to soften meat ten years ago. His method is called the Hydrodynamic Pressure Process. The theory is simple. Shock waves from an explosion travel through water to the meat. The shock waves tear small pieces of muscle and other particles away from the meat. This makes the meat softer and easier to eat. The shock waves also reduce the amount of bacteria in the meat. The Department of Agriculture says the process could increase food safety for companies that sell meat. Uncooked meat may contain organisms such as the Escherichia coli (esh-eh-RICK-ee-ah COLE-eye) bacteria, also known as E. coli. E. coli can make people sick if they eat meat that is not well cooked. The Hydrodynamic Pressure Process may help reduce concerns about harmful bacteria in meat. Other American scientists attempted to improve the process. They used a thick-walled metal container that was buried in the ground. This device did not improve the quality of the meat as much as the simpler method. However, the scientists found there seemed to be fewer bacteria in the meat than before the process. Scientists had demonstrated that the Hydrodynamic Pressure Process could improve large pieces of meat. Next, they wanted to see if the process reduced bacteria levels in smaller pieces of ground beef that is used to make hamburgers. Their tests showed a reduction of bacteria in ground beef products. Other studies showed that ground beef containing E. coli had no measurable levels of the bacteria after the treatment. The Hydrodynamic Pressure Process does not kill all bacteria in the meat, however. Mister Solomon says some good bacteria remain. The agricultural scientists say more studies are needed to see if the method could be used in the meat processing industry. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 29, 2002 - Grammar Lady: Only One You
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 29, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 1, 2002 MUSIC: "Only You"/The Platters AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- what to do when there's only one "you." RS: We're talking about forms of address. Speakers of other languages may be used to having two ways to address someone -- one formal, the other informal. In Spanish, for instance, there's the formal "usted" and the casual "tu." But in English it's "you" and only "you." AA: So, you may ask yourself, does that mean English speakers have no way to differentiate between formal and informal situations? We asked this question to our friend Mary Newton Bruder, the linguist better known as Grammar Lady. BRUDER: "We do it by using people's names. So if we want to be very formal with somebody that we've just met, we use a title plus last name. So 'Dr. Snow' or 'Mrs. Jones' or 'Miss Scafe,' for example. But if we wanted to be less formal and we know the people better, then we use their first names. And the rules for calling people by their first names, generally the older person will suggest, 'Oh, please call me Joe -- don't call me Dr. Smith, call me Joe,' or something like that." AA: OK, let's say you've just met a person. Rosanne had this question for Grammar Lady: What happens when it's a situation where it's not immediately clear how formal you should be? RS: "The reason I'm asking is because we have a young man living with us this summer. He's from Atlanta, and he's a college student. And, he calls me 'ma'am.' And that's not really something I'm used to." BRUDER: "And does he call your husband 'sir'?" RS: "Uh-huh." BRUDER: "OK, I think Southerners tend to be more formal. He'll probably have to be there quite a long time before he'll call you by your first name." RS: "Is this generally a big problem for people coming in from other cultures because in their own languages they have these two levels." BRUDER: "I think it is a problem because the rules are not necessarily explicit, and people will not say to a non-English speaker, 'Don't call me Mary, call me Dr. Bruder,' for example. I would never say that. I would never correct someone even though I felt uncomfortable with the use of my first name." AA: "And I guess one thing you never use as a form of address is to call someone 'mizz.' You never say that, 'Excuse me, mizz.' You'd say 'miss.'" BRUDER: "And you wouldn't say 'missus' either." RS: "Right." BRUDER: "You would say 'miss' or 'ma'am.'" AA: "So I suppose people, they've come over, they're meeting with a prospective employer or a prospective school, university, that they want to attend, your advice is to be formal, but if the other person, the person in authority, suggests that you loosen up, then you should." BRUDER: "Then you should do that, yes." AA: "But still refer to the person by last name, mister or miss or doctor or professor." BRUDER: "Yes, unless specifically invited on more than one occasion, I would continue to use title, last name, continue to be formal for quite awhile." RS: "Mary, I think it also has to do with how you feel, or how the person feels talking to you. I can tell someone not to call me 'ma'am' but I think they have to reach a certain comfort level before they're able to do that." BRUDER: "That's right, because what happens if you ask them to do that before they're ready, what you get is avoidance. They don't call you anything." AA: "What bugs me sometimes is when people use my name too much. It's usually salespeople, where they keep using your name. So I guess when you're talking in a situation like a job interview or speaking with a professor, how do you know how often to use the name -- or is it just better to avoid it." BRUDER: "Use it at the beginning and at the end. There's no real need to use it in-between time because you know you're speaking to the person. I think that's what bothers you, Avi, is that the person who's trying to sell you something is trying to capture your attention. But he already has your attention and it annoys you to have him keep repeating your name." AA: "And also when store clerks read your name off your credit card and start calling you by that." BRUDER: "Especially by your first name. That drives me crazy, too. (laughter)" RS: If things like forms of address are driving you crazy, you might want to look by Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder called "Speaking Naturally: Communication Skills in American English." You can also visit her Web site at www.grammarlady.com. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Only You"/The Platters Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 29, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 1, 2002 MUSIC: "Only You"/The Platters AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster -- what to do when there's only one "you." RS: We're talking about forms of address. Speakers of other languages may be used to having two ways to address someone -- one formal, the other informal. In Spanish, for instance, there's the formal "usted" and the casual "tu." But in English it's "you" and only "you." AA: So, you may ask yourself, does that mean English speakers have no way to differentiate between formal and informal situations? We asked this question to our friend Mary Newton Bruder, the linguist better known as Grammar Lady. BRUDER: "We do it by using people's names. So if we want to be very formal with somebody that we've just met, we use a title plus last name. So 'Dr. Snow' or 'Mrs. Jones' or 'Miss Scafe,' for example. But if we wanted to be less formal and we know the people better, then we use their first names. And the rules for calling people by their first names, generally the older person will suggest, 'Oh, please call me Joe -- don't call me Dr. Smith, call me Joe,' or something like that." AA: OK, let's say you've just met a person. Rosanne had this question for Grammar Lady: What happens when it's a situation where it's not immediately clear how formal you should be? RS: "The reason I'm asking is because we have a young man living with us this summer. He's from Atlanta, and he's a college student. And, he calls me 'ma'am.' And that's not really something I'm used to." BRUDER: "And does he call your husband 'sir'?" RS: "Uh-huh." BRUDER: "OK, I think Southerners tend to be more formal. He'll probably have to be there quite a long time before he'll call you by your first name." RS: "Is this generally a big problem for people coming in from other cultures because in their own languages they have these two levels." BRUDER: "I think it is a problem because the rules are not necessarily explicit, and people will not say to a non-English speaker, 'Don't call me Mary, call me Dr. Bruder,' for example. I would never say that. I would never correct someone even though I felt uncomfortable with the use of my first name." AA: "And I guess one thing you never use as a form of address is to call someone 'mizz.' You never say that, 'Excuse me, mizz.' You'd say 'miss.'" BRUDER: "And you wouldn't say 'missus' either." RS: "Right." BRUDER: "You would say 'miss' or 'ma'am.'" AA: "So I suppose people, they've come over, they're meeting with a prospective employer or a prospective school, university, that they want to attend, your advice is to be formal, but if the other person, the person in authority, suggests that you loosen up, then you should." BRUDER: "Then you should do that, yes." AA: "But still refer to the person by last name, mister or miss or doctor or professor." BRUDER: "Yes, unless specifically invited on more than one occasion, I would continue to use title, last name, continue to be formal for quite awhile." RS: "Mary, I think it also has to do with how you feel, or how the person feels talking to you. I can tell someone not to call me 'ma'am' but I think they have to reach a certain comfort level before they're able to do that." BRUDER: "That's right, because what happens if you ask them to do that before they're ready, what you get is avoidance. They don't call you anything." AA: "What bugs me sometimes is when people use my name too much. It's usually salespeople, where they keep using your name. So I guess when you're talking in a situation like a job interview or speaking with a professor, how do you know how often to use the name -- or is it just better to avoid it." BRUDER: "Use it at the beginning and at the end. There's no real need to use it in-between time because you know you're speaking to the person. I think that's what bothers you, Avi, is that the person who's trying to sell you something is trying to capture your attention. But he already has your attention and it annoys you to have him keep repeating your name." AA: "And also when store clerks read your name off your credit card and start calling you by that." BRUDER: "Especially by your first name. That drives me crazy, too. (laughter)" RS: If things like forms of address are driving you crazy, you might want to look by Grammar Lady Mary Newton Bruder called "Speaking Naturally: Communication Skills in American English." You can also visit her Web site at www.grammarlady.com. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Only You"/The Platters 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – August 21, 2002: Testing for Depression
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Depression is a medical condition that causes intense feelings of sadness. Depression interferes with daily life. PET scan of recovered brain(Photo - U.S. National Institutes of Health) This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Depression is a medical condition that causes intense feelings of sadness. Depression interferes with daily life. Common signs of depression are lack of energy, loss of interest in things you once enjoyed, difficulty thinking, problems sleeping or eating and thoughts of death. Depression also can be hidden by physical problems such as headache, back pain, and stomach sickness. Often, people suffering depression do not realize their feelings of sadness are due to a medical condition. They do not seek medical treatment. Medical experts say depression can affect anyone. There is no way to prevent it. However, the disease can be treated successfully. The sooner an affected person gets medical help, the better the chances of a quick and full recovery. Depression is a common illness in the United States. It affects about twenty-million adults. However, as many as two-thirds of them do not seek medical treatment for depression. The United States Preventive Services Task Force is a group of health experts. The group examines published research and makes suggestions about preventive health care. The Preventive Services Task Force recently published a study that says doctors should test all adult patients for depression during normal office visits. Alfred Berg of the University of Washington in Seattle led the study. Doctor Berg says there is no evidence that one method of testing for depression works better than another method. He says asking two simple questions worked as well as using more complex methods. The two questions are: “Have you felt sad or hopeless during the past two weeks?” And, “Have you felt little interest or happiness in doing things?” If a patient answered “yes” to either question, the doctor asked more detailed questions. These questions helped establish whether the problems were temporary or if they had lasted longer than a normal time. The questions also established if the problems interfered with the patient’s daily activities. Medical experts say patients can be successfully treated for depression with medicines or by talking with a trained professional who treats mental disorders. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. Common signs of depression are lack of energy, loss of interest in things you once enjoyed, difficulty thinking, problems sleeping or eating and thoughts of death. Depression also can be hidden by physical problems such as headache, back pain, and stomach sickness. Often, people suffering depression do not realize their feelings of sadness are due to a medical condition. They do not seek medical treatment. Medical experts say depression can affect anyone. There is no way to prevent it. However, the disease can be treated successfully. The sooner an affected person gets medical help, the better the chances of a quick and full recovery. Depression is a common illness in the United States. It affects about twenty-million adults. However, as many as two-thirds of them do not seek medical treatment for depression. The United States Preventive Services Task Force is a group of health experts. The group examines published research and makes suggestions about preventive health care. The Preventive Services Task Force recently published a study that says doctors should test all adult patients for depression during normal office visits. Alfred Berg of the University of Washington in Seattle led the study. Doctor Berg says there is no evidence that one method of testing for depression works better than another method. He says asking two simple questions worked as well as using more complex methods. The two questions are: “Have you felt sad or hopeless during the past two weeks?” And, “Have you felt little interest or happiness in doing things?” If a patient answered “yes” to either question, the doctor asked more detailed questions. These questions helped establish whether the problems were temporary or if they had lasted longer than a normal time. The questions also established if the problems interfered with the patient’s daily activities. Medical experts say patients can be successfully treated for depression with medicines or by talking with a trained professional who treats mental disorders. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Lawan Davis. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 21, 2002: National Geographic Explorers
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about new activities of the National Geographic Society. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Current magazine cover, showing a meerkat VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about new activities of the National Geographic Society. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The largest non-profit scientific and educational organization in the world has taught millions of people. It has taught them about the world they live in, outer space and the deep oceans. Now it is trying to educate people about what is being lost in their world. VOICE TWO: The National Geographic Society began in eighteen-eighty-eight. Thirty-three men gathered at a social club in Washington. The group included scientists, explorers, military officers and teachers. Most of them had traveled widely. They were excited about new discoveries. And they believed in the importance of geography -- the study of the Earth. The men believed travel helps people understand their world and other cultures. So they formed the National Geographic Society. Anyone interested in gaining knowledge about the world could pay to become a member. Nine months later the first effort to communicate this information was published and sent to members. It was the official record of the society. The record is now a popular magazine called “National Geographic.” It is published in nineteen languages. Each month, forty-million people around the world read the magazine. The Society also reaches people through four other magazines, and through books, videos, the Internet and television. The National Geographic Channel is seen on televisions in more than one-hundred-forty million homes in one-hundred-forty-one countries. VOICE ONE: The main goal of the National Geographic Society still is to increase knowledge about geography and spread that knowledge around the world. Yet it has also become concerned about saving what has been discovered during its years of explorations. John Fahey is president of the Society. He says, “These days as we explore, the places and treasures we find are too often threatened with destruction. Today’s explorer must also be a conservationist.” Rebecca Martin is executive director of the Expeditions Council. She says people have become very concerned about what is disappearing from the Earth. So the Society is expanding its job and tries to educate people about how to prevent this destruction. One of the ways it is doing this is through the new Explorers-in-Residence program. The National Geographic already was supporting the work of many of these explorers. But it decided to expand the relationship. Through the Society’s communications network, these explorers spread their expert knowledge. They inform people around the world about the animals, plants, people and environments that are in danger of disappearing. VOICE TWO: For more than one-hundred years, the National Geographic Society has supported explorers seeking to increase knowledge about our world. From the beginning, the Society provided grant money through its committee for research and exploration. These grants go to scientists at universities or other institutions. The Society has supported more than seven-thousand research projects chosen for their scientific value. In nineteen-ninety-eight, the Expeditions Council began awarding grants. It supports explorations into the unrecorded or little known areas of the world from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains. It looks for projects that may not be scientific but that add to understanding about the world we live in. Rebecca Martin says the Expeditions Council supports the work of citizen scientists. These people present the information they gain in an exciting way. About eighteen months ago, the National Geographic Conservation Trust was established. Environmentalist Thomas Lovejoy heads the group. It provides grant money to support conservation projects that help save the Earth’s biological and cultural resources. Among its earliest projects is an effort to save the endangered orangutans in Indonesia’s Gunung Palung National Park. This project includes an education program designed to increase local interest in protecting the park. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: In April, two-thousand, the National Geographic announced the appointment of seven Explorers-in-Residence. The eighth was announced in July. They all are continuing their special explorations and research, but are adding new projects. They share what they learn about the world through National Geographic magazines, books, speeches and television programs. The eight Explorers-in-Residence are Stephen Ambrose, Robert Ballard, Wade Davis, Sylvia Earle, Jane Goodall, Johan Reinhard, Paul Sereno and Zahi Hawass. Stephen Ambrose is a historian and teacher. He has written many popular books about the history of World War Two and the explorers Lewis and Clark. He says he thinks of himself as sitting down at the end of an interesting day telling stories that he hopes will have readers wanting to know what happens next. Robert Ballard is an underwater explorer. He is best known for his discovery of the sunken passenger ship Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck. He is the creator of the JASON project. It lets schoolchildren travel with him by satellite and computer as he explores the underwater world. Wade Davis is an anthropologist and plant expert. He lived among fifteen native groups in eight Latin American countries. He collected more than six-thousand plants from those areas. He has written seven books. His latest, “Light at the Edge of the World,” was published by the National Geographic Society. VOICE TWO: Sylvia Earle is an ocean explorer and expert on ocean plant life. She has spent more than six-thousand hours exploring the underwater world. Mizz Earle is director of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions. It is a five-year joint project of the National Geographic Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Its goal is to explore and take pictures of the deep waters of twelve national underwater parks and the creatures that live in them. Jane Goodall is world famous for her study of chimpanzees. She began her study of wild chimpanzees forty-two years ago when she established the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania. Through the years her research has shown how similar chimpanzees are to humans. Johan Reinhard is an archeologist who studies past human life and activities in mountain areas of the world. He has discovered frozen bodies of Inca Indians in the high Andes mountains of Peru and Argentina. Paul Sereno is a paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago. He studies and photographs dinosaur remains in China, Mongolia, Argentina and Africa. He discovered new kinds of dinosaurs on several continents. The latest addition to the Explorers-in-Residence is Zahi Hawass. He is an archeologist and director of Egypt’s Giza Pyramids. Mister Hawass has made major discoveries that have added to knowledge about how the pyramids were built. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The Explorers-in-Residence have made some exciting discoveries. For example, last year the National Geographic announced that Paul Sereno’s team found the remains of a huge ancient crocodile in Niger. The creature grew as long as twelve meters. The finding led to a television program on this “SuperCroc,” a story in the National Geographic magazine and an exhibit in the National Geographic museum, Explorer’s Hall. Last month, Robert Ballard announced that his team had found the remains of John F. Kennedy’s World War Two boat in the Solomon Islands. The man who later became president of the United States swam to safety after the boat was sunk by a Japanese destroyer. Through its new programs, the National Geographic has created an environment where explorers can meet. People who are experts in very different subjects and areas of the world can make new connections that will lead to new projects. The National Geographic Society will continue to educate people around the world about these discoveries and about natural and cultural resources that are in danger of disappearing. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. The largest non-profit scientific and educational organization in the world has taught millions of people. It has taught them about the world they live in, outer space and the deep oceans. Now it is trying to educate people about what is being lost in their world. VOICE TWO: The National Geographic Society began in eighteen-eighty-eight. Thirty-three men gathered at a social club in Washington. The group included scientists, explorers, military officers and teachers. Most of them had traveled widely. They were excited about new discoveries. And they believed in the importance of geography -- the study of the Earth. The men believed travel helps people understand their world and other cultures. So they formed the National Geographic Society. Anyone interested in gaining knowledge about the world could pay to become a member. Nine months later the first effort to communicate this information was published and sent to members. It was the official record of the society. The record is now a popular magazine called “National Geographic.” It is published in nineteen languages. Each month, forty-million people around the world read the magazine. The Society also reaches people through four other magazines, and through books, videos, the Internet and television. The National Geographic Channel is seen on televisions in more than one-hundred-forty million homes in one-hundred-forty-one countries. VOICE ONE: The main goal of the National Geographic Society still is to increase knowledge about geography and spread that knowledge around the world. Yet it has also become concerned about saving what has been discovered during its years of explorations. John Fahey is president of the Society. He says, “These days as we explore, the places and treasures we find are too often threatened with destruction. Today’s explorer must also be a conservationist.” Rebecca Martin is executive director of the Expeditions Council. She says people have become very concerned about what is disappearing from the Earth. So the Society is expanding its job and tries to educate people about how to prevent this destruction. One of the ways it is doing this is through the new Explorers-in-Residence program. The National Geographic already was supporting the work of many of these explorers. But it decided to expand the relationship. Through the Society’s communications network, these explorers spread their expert knowledge. They inform people around the world about the animals, plants, people and environments that are in danger of disappearing. VOICE TWO: For more than one-hundred years, the National Geographic Society has supported explorers seeking to increase knowledge about our world. From the beginning, the Society provided grant money through its committee for research and exploration. These grants go to scientists at universities or other institutions. The Society has supported more than seven-thousand research projects chosen for their scientific value. In nineteen-ninety-eight, the Expeditions Council began awarding grants. It supports explorations into the unrecorded or little known areas of the world from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains. It looks for projects that may not be scientific but that add to understanding about the world we live in. Rebecca Martin says the Expeditions Council supports the work of citizen scientists. These people present the information they gain in an exciting way. About eighteen months ago, the National Geographic Conservation Trust was established. Environmentalist Thomas Lovejoy heads the group. It provides grant money to support conservation projects that help save the Earth’s biological and cultural resources. Among its earliest projects is an effort to save the endangered orangutans in Indonesia’s Gunung Palung National Park. This project includes an education program designed to increase local interest in protecting the park. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: In April, two-thousand, the National Geographic announced the appointment of seven Explorers-in-Residence. The eighth was announced in July. They all are continuing their special explorations and research, but are adding new projects. They share what they learn about the world through National Geographic magazines, books, speeches and television programs. The eight Explorers-in-Residence are Stephen Ambrose, Robert Ballard, Wade Davis, Sylvia Earle, Jane Goodall, Johan Reinhard, Paul Sereno and Zahi Hawass. Stephen Ambrose is a historian and teacher. He has written many popular books about the history of World War Two and the explorers Lewis and Clark. He says he thinks of himself as sitting down at the end of an interesting day telling stories that he hopes will have readers wanting to know what happens next. Robert Ballard is an underwater explorer. He is best known for his discovery of the sunken passenger ship Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck. He is the creator of the JASON project. It lets schoolchildren travel with him by satellite and computer as he explores the underwater world. Wade Davis is an anthropologist and plant expert. He lived among fifteen native groups in eight Latin American countries. He collected more than six-thousand plants from those areas. He has written seven books. His latest, “Light at the Edge of the World,” was published by the National Geographic Society. VOICE TWO: Sylvia Earle is an ocean explorer and expert on ocean plant life. She has spent more than six-thousand hours exploring the underwater world. Mizz Earle is director of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions. It is a five-year joint project of the National Geographic Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Its goal is to explore and take pictures of the deep waters of twelve national underwater parks and the creatures that live in them. Jane Goodall is world famous for her study of chimpanzees. She began her study of wild chimpanzees forty-two years ago when she established the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania. Through the years her research has shown how similar chimpanzees are to humans. Johan Reinhard is an archeologist who studies past human life and activities in mountain areas of the world. He has discovered frozen bodies of Inca Indians in the high Andes mountains of Peru and Argentina. Paul Sereno is a paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago. He studies and photographs dinosaur remains in China, Mongolia, Argentina and Africa. He discovered new kinds of dinosaurs on several continents. The latest addition to the Explorers-in-Residence is Zahi Hawass. He is an archeologist and director of Egypt’s Giza Pyramids. Mister Hawass has made major discoveries that have added to knowledge about how the pyramids were built. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The Explorers-in-Residence have made some exciting discoveries. For example, last year the National Geographic announced that Paul Sereno’s team found the remains of a huge ancient crocodile in Niger. The creature grew as long as twelve meters. The finding led to a television program on this “SuperCroc,” a story in the National Geographic magazine and an exhibit in the National Geographic museum, Explorer’s Hall. Last month, Robert Ballard announced that his team had found the remains of John F. Kennedy’s World War Two boat in the Solomon Islands. The man who later became president of the United States swam to safety after the boat was sunk by a Japanese destroyer. Through its new programs, the National Geographic has created an environment where explorers can meet. People who are experts in very different subjects and areas of the world can make new connections that will lead to new projects. The National Geographic Society will continue to educate people around the world about these discoveries and about natural and cultural resources that are in danger of disappearing. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – August 22, 2002: Special Education
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than six-million American students have physical or mental problems. These disabilities make it difficult for them to do normal schoolwork. Some of these children cannot see, hear, or learn normally. Other children have mental problems that prevent them from cooperating in a classroom. Some disabled students attend special public or private schools operated to provide for their needs. However, many disabled children attend special classes in public schools. Students with minor learning problems often study one or two subjects in programs designed for them. They also attend classes with non-disabled children. For years, most children with special needs were not permitted to attend public schools. As recently as twenty-seven years ago, public schools accepted only one in five disabled children. Many states had laws that barred children with mental problems or limited intelligence. They also barred those who could not see or hear. By nineteen-seventy-five, however, Americans had demanded legislation to improve life for people with special needs. That year, Congress passed the Education for all Handicapped Children Act. The law is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It orders public schools to accept and educate all children. The Office of Special Education Programs in the Department of Education supervises programs for disabled students. The office says the law has meant many gains for disabled children and their families. The majority of such children now attend their local public schools in classrooms with non-disabled children. Many more disabled students complete high school than in the past. And many more disabled students are now going to college. However, experts say there are still problems in special education in the United States. For example, some schools do not have teachers trained to work with disabled students. Other schools lack needed equipment or supplies. Parents of disabled students often must become activists to get the right services for their children. The nation currently spends more than seven-thousand-million dollars a year on special education. Experts and families say much more is needed to provide necessary services. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. More than six-million American students have physical or mental problems. These disabilities make it difficult for them to do normal schoolwork. Some of these children cannot see, hear, or learn normally. Other children have mental problems that prevent them from cooperating in a classroom. Some disabled students attend special public or private schools operated to provide for their needs. However, many disabled children attend special classes in public schools. Students with minor learning problems often study one or two subjects in programs designed for them. They also attend classes with non-disabled children. For years, most children with special needs were not permitted to attend public schools. As recently as twenty-seven years ago, public schools accepted only one in five disabled children. Many states had laws that barred children with mental problems or limited intelligence. They also barred those who could not see or hear. By nineteen-seventy-five, however, Americans had demanded legislation to improve life for people with special needs. That year, Congress passed the Education for all Handicapped Children Act. The law is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It orders public schools to accept and educate all children. The Office of Special Education Programs in the Department of Education supervises programs for disabled students. The office says the law has meant many gains for disabled children and their families. The majority of such children now attend their local public schools in classrooms with non-disabled children. Many more disabled students complete high school than in the past. And many more disabled students are now going to college. However, experts say there are still problems in special education in the United States. For example, some schools do not have teachers trained to work with disabled students. Other schools lack needed equipment or supplies. Parents of disabled students often must become activists to get the right services for their children. The nation currently spends more than seven-thousand-million dollars a year on special education. Experts and families say much more is needed to provide necessary services. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 22, 2002: Cold War
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the period known as the cold war. VOICE 1: The cold war began after World War Two. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The cold war got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, they fought each other indirectly. They supported conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to Make each other look foolish. VOICE 2: Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the cold war continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. Historians disagree about how long the cold war lasted. Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in nineteen-eighty-nine. VOICE 1: The cold war world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West. This group included countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This group included countries with communist political systems. The Non-Aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East. VOICE 2: Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the cold war. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey. Another policy was the Marshall Plan. This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in western Europe. VOICE 1: A major event in the cold war was the Berlin Airlift. In June nineteen-forty-eight, the Soviets blocked all ways into the western part of Berlin, Germany. President Truman quickly ordered military planes to fly coal, food, and medicine to the city. The planes kept coming, sometimes landing every few minutes, for more than a year. The United States received help from Britain and France. Together, they provided almost two and one-half million tons of supplies on about two-hundred-eighty thousand flights. VOICE 2: The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in nineteen-forty-nine. NATO was a joint military group. Its purpose was to defend against Soviet forces in Europe. The first members of NATO were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. The Soviet Union and its east European allies formed their own joint military group -- the Warsaw Pact -- six years later. VOICE 1: In nineteen-fifty-three, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died. His death gave the new American president, Dwight Eisenhower, a chance to deal with new Soviet leaders. In July, nineteen-fifty-five, Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva, Switzerland. The leaders of Britain and France also attended. Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Soviets agree to let their military bases be inspected by air by the other side. The Soviets later rejected the proposal. Yet the meeting in Geneva was not considered a failure. After all, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations had shaken hands. VOICE 2: Cold war tensions increased, then eased, then increased again over the years. The changes came as both sides actively tried to influence political and economic developments around the world. For example, the Soviet Union provided military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments in Asia. The United States then helped eight Asian nations fight communism by establishing the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. In the middle nineteen-fifties, the United States began sending military advisers to help south Vietnam defend itself against communist North Vietnam. That aid would later expand into a long and bloody period of American involvement in Vietnam. VOICE 1: The cold war also affected the Middle East. In the nineteen-fifties, both East and West offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The west cancelled its offer, however, after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government of Czechoslovakia. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal. A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt. France and Britain joined the invasion. VOICE 2: For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue. Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The Suez crisis was a political victory for the Soviets. When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the Arab world. VOICE 1: In nineteen-fifty-nine, cold war tensions eased a little. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschchev, visited Dwight Eisenhower at his holiday home near Washington. The meeting was very friendly. But the next year, relations got worse again. An American military plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Eisenhower admitted that such planes had been spying on the Soviets for four years. In a speech at the United Nations, Khruschchev got so angry that he took off his shoe and beat it on a table. VOICE 2: John Kennedy followed Eisenhower as president in nineteen-sixty-one. During his early days in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. They wanted to oust the communist government of Fidel Castro. The exiles had been trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency. The United States failed to send military planes to protect them during the invasion. As a result, almost all were killed or taken prisoner. In Europe, tens of thousands of East Germans had fled to the West. East Germany's communist government decided to stop them. It built a wall separating the eastern and western parts of the city of Berlin. Guards shot at anyone who tried to flee by climbing over. VOICE 1: During Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence reports discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union denied they were there. American photographs proved they were. The Cuban missile crisis easily could have resulted in a nuclear war. But it ended after a week. Khruschchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States agreed not to interfere in Cuba. VOICE 2: Some progress was made in easing cold war tensions when Kennedy was president. In nineteen-sixty-three, the two sides reached a major arms control agreement. They agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space. They also established a direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin. Relations between East and West also improved when Richard Nixon was president. He and Leonid Brezhnev met several times. They reached several arms control agreements. One reduced the number of missiles used to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons. It also banned the testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years. VOICE 1: A major change in the cold war took place in nineteen-eighty-five. That is when Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev held four meetings with President Ronald Reagan. He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. And he signed an agreement with the United States to destroy all middle-distance and short-distance nuclear missiles. VOICE 2: By nineteen-eighty-nine, there was widespread unrest in eastern Europe. Gorbachev did not intervene as these countries cut their ties with the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall, the major symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in November. In less than a year, East and West Germany became one nation again. A few months after that, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. The cold war was over. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the period known as the cold war. VOICE 1: The cold war began after World War Two. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The cold war got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, they fought each other indirectly. They supported conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to Make each other look foolish. VOICE 2: Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the cold war continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. Historians disagree about how long the cold war lasted. Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in nineteen-eighty-nine. VOICE 1: The cold war world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West. This group included countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This group included countries with communist political systems. The Non-Aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East. VOICE 2: Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the cold war. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey. Another policy was the Marshall Plan. This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in western Europe. VOICE 1: A major event in the cold war was the Berlin Airlift. In June nineteen-forty-eight, the Soviets blocked all ways into the western part of Berlin, Germany. President Truman quickly ordered military planes to fly coal, food, and medicine to the city. The planes kept coming, sometimes landing every few minutes, for more than a year. The United States received help from Britain and France. Together, they provided almost two and one-half million tons of supplies on about two-hundred-eighty thousand flights. VOICE 2: The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in nineteen-forty-nine. NATO was a joint military group. Its purpose was to defend against Soviet forces in Europe. The first members of NATO were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States. The Soviet Union and its east European allies formed their own joint military group -- the Warsaw Pact -- six years later. VOICE 1: In nineteen-fifty-three, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died. His death gave the new American president, Dwight Eisenhower, a chance to deal with new Soviet leaders. In July, nineteen-fifty-five, Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva, Switzerland. The leaders of Britain and France also attended. Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Soviets agree to let their military bases be inspected by air by the other side. The Soviets later rejected the proposal. Yet the meeting in Geneva was not considered a failure. After all, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations had shaken hands. VOICE 2: Cold war tensions increased, then eased, then increased again over the years. The changes came as both sides actively tried to influence political and economic developments around the world. For example, the Soviet Union provided military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments in Asia. The United States then helped eight Asian nations fight communism by establishing the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. In the middle nineteen-fifties, the United States began sending military advisers to help south Vietnam defend itself against communist North Vietnam. That aid would later expand into a long and bloody period of American involvement in Vietnam. VOICE 1: The cold war also affected the Middle East. In the nineteen-fifties, both East and West offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The west cancelled its offer, however, after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government of Czechoslovakia. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal. A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt. France and Britain joined the invasion. VOICE 2: For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue. Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The Suez crisis was a political victory for the Soviets. When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the Arab world. VOICE 1: In nineteen-fifty-nine, cold war tensions eased a little. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khruschchev, visited Dwight Eisenhower at his holiday home near Washington. The meeting was very friendly. But the next year, relations got worse again. An American military plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Eisenhower admitted that such planes had been spying on the Soviets for four years. In a speech at the United Nations, Khruschchev got so angry that he took off his shoe and beat it on a table. VOICE 2: John Kennedy followed Eisenhower as president in nineteen-sixty-one. During his early days in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. They wanted to oust the communist government of Fidel Castro. The exiles had been trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency. The United States failed to send military planes to protect them during the invasion. As a result, almost all were killed or taken prisoner. In Europe, tens of thousands of East Germans had fled to the West. East Germany's communist government decided to stop them. It built a wall separating the eastern and western parts of the city of Berlin. Guards shot at anyone who tried to flee by climbing over. VOICE 1: During Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence reports discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union denied they were there. American photographs proved they were. The Cuban missile crisis easily could have resulted in a nuclear war. But it ended after a week. Khruschchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States agreed not to interfere in Cuba. VOICE 2: Some progress was made in easing cold war tensions when Kennedy was president. In nineteen-sixty-three, the two sides reached a major arms control agreement. They agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space. They also established a direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin. Relations between East and West also improved when Richard Nixon was president. He and Leonid Brezhnev met several times. They reached several arms control agreements. One reduced the number of missiles used to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons. It also banned the testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years. VOICE 1: A major change in the cold war took place in nineteen-eighty-five. That is when Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev held four meetings with President Ronald Reagan. He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. And he signed an agreement with the United States to destroy all middle-distance and short-distance nuclear missiles. VOICE 2: By nineteen-eighty-nine, there was widespread unrest in eastern Europe. Gorbachev did not intervene as these countries cut their ties with the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall, the major symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in November. In less than a year, East and West Germany became one nation again. A few months after that, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. The cold war was over. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: August 22, 2002 - Web Accessibility
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 22, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: August 25, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble has the week off. This week on Wordmaster -- making the Web more welcoming to the disabled. John Slatin is director of the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin. He travels near and far, promoting ways to make the Internet more accessible to persons with disabilities. His fellow frequent flier is Dillon. Dillon, a golden Labrador retriever, is a guide dog for the blind. John Slatin was an adult when he lost most of his sight. Professor Slatin says the key to making a Web page more accessible is what he calls "principled redundancy." JOHN SLATIN: "Rather than just providing the information in one form, say a paragraph or a complex image, you're providing both things. So there's both an image that illustrates a process or an idea or whatever, and a prose description of that same idea, a prose explanation -- so that, for example, a blind person who can't see the image can read the prose description. "Whereas somebody who for whatever reason can't read the prose -- perhaps they have dyslexia or a brain injury that makes it difficult for them to process information in text form, or perhaps they're not familiar or very comfortable with the native language in which the explanation is written -- the image can help them. And you might go even further and add a sound explanation, perhaps somebody saying the same thing or explaining the same idea, and yet a slightly different form." AA: Since the late 1980s, John Slatin has concentrated his teaching and research on information technology. That was a switch from his earlier passion: twentieth-century American poetry. Ironically, John Slatin says the elements that go into making a Web page accessible go against his conventional training as an English teacher. JOHN SLATIN: "We would have talked about that as redundancy and meant something negative about that, whereas now in Web design we're looking for principled ways of allowing the use of multimedia, different media and different formats, to help different people with different needs get to the same idea." AA: "In general, how accessible is the World Wide Web to the disabled?" JOHN SLATIN: "The short answer is, not very. The longer answer is that it depends partly on what kind of disability you have. For people with visual impairments, in particular, it's still a very, very difficult environment to operate in, because it's a very visual medium and a lot of the people who design for it are primarily visual thinkers, and that's what they're focused on. "And so a lot of the work to provide alternatives in text form that the assistive technology that people who are blind use, such as screen readers or talking Web browsers, doesn't have material to work with as often as it should. Or the material isn't of the quality that it needs to be yet." AA: "How difficult is it for a programmer to add some elements that make it more accessible?" JOHN SLATIN: "In many respects making a Web site more accessible to people with disabilities is quite simple. There are easy techniques for associating text material with images, so that, again, screen-reading software or talking Web browsers -- or what are called refreshable Braille displays that some people who are blind, and some people who are both blind and deaf, use -- read the text instead of coming up against a blank wall in the form of an image that they can't process. As the techniques become more familiar, I'm confident that more and more sites will be more accessible." AA: John Slatin heads the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin. Now meet one of his assistants, "Reed." REED: "Designers sometimes, quote, slice, quote, large, comma, complex images into several smaller images in order to speed up the time it takes for the complete page to appear on the screen, period. This technique has some important advantages, comma, but there are potential disadvantages from an accessibility standpoint, period." AA: Reed is one of the voices on a screen-reading program called JAWS which John Slatin has on his laptop computer. As you can tell, Reed verbalizes whatever is written in a document -- punctuation and all. Now if he sounds a little fast to you, you can slow him down: REED: "There's a difference between what users see on their screen and what screen readers, comma, talking browsers, comma, and Braille displays, quote, see, quote, when they process the HTML source code, period." AA: If you're still not happy, with a few more clicks ... SHELLEY: "There's a difference between what users see on their screen and what screen readers ... " AA: You can let "Shelley" do the talking ... another example of a way to make information technology more adaptable to persons with disabilities. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": August 22, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: August 25, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble has the week off. This week on Wordmaster -- making the Web more welcoming to the disabled. John Slatin is director of the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin. He travels near and far, promoting ways to make the Internet more accessible to persons with disabilities. His fellow frequent flier is Dillon. Dillon, a golden Labrador retriever, is a guide dog for the blind. John Slatin was an adult when he lost most of his sight. Professor Slatin says the key to making a Web page more accessible is what he calls "principled redundancy." JOHN SLATIN: "Rather than just providing the information in one form, say a paragraph or a complex image, you're providing both things. So there's both an image that illustrates a process or an idea or whatever, and a prose description of that same idea, a prose explanation -- so that, for example, a blind person who can't see the image can read the prose description. "Whereas somebody who for whatever reason can't read the prose -- perhaps they have dyslexia or a brain injury that makes it difficult for them to process information in text form, or perhaps they're not familiar or very comfortable with the native language in which the explanation is written -- the image can help them. And you might go even further and add a sound explanation, perhaps somebody saying the same thing or explaining the same idea, and yet a slightly different form." AA: Since the late 1980s, John Slatin has concentrated his teaching and research on information technology. That was a switch from his earlier passion: twentieth-century American poetry. Ironically, John Slatin says the elements that go into making a Web page accessible go against his conventional training as an English teacher. JOHN SLATIN: "We would have talked about that as redundancy and meant something negative about that, whereas now in Web design we're looking for principled ways of allowing the use of multimedia, different media and different formats, to help different people with different needs get to the same idea." AA: "In general, how accessible is the World Wide Web to the disabled?" JOHN SLATIN: "The short answer is, not very. The longer answer is that it depends partly on what kind of disability you have. For people with visual impairments, in particular, it's still a very, very difficult environment to operate in, because it's a very visual medium and a lot of the people who design for it are primarily visual thinkers, and that's what they're focused on. "And so a lot of the work to provide alternatives in text form that the assistive technology that people who are blind use, such as screen readers or talking Web browsers, doesn't have material to work with as often as it should. Or the material isn't of the quality that it needs to be yet." AA: "How difficult is it for a programmer to add some elements that make it more accessible?" JOHN SLATIN: "In many respects making a Web site more accessible to people with disabilities is quite simple. There are easy techniques for associating text material with images, so that, again, screen-reading software or talking Web browsers -- or what are called refreshable Braille displays that some people who are blind, and some people who are both blind and deaf, use -- read the text instead of coming up against a blank wall in the form of an image that they can't process. As the techniques become more familiar, I'm confident that more and more sites will be more accessible." AA: John Slatin heads the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin. Now meet one of his assistants, "Reed." REED: "Designers sometimes, quote, slice, quote, large, comma, complex images into several smaller images in order to speed up the time it takes for the complete page to appear on the screen, period. This technique has some important advantages, comma, but there are potential disadvantages from an accessibility standpoint, period." AA: Reed is one of the voices on a screen-reading program called JAWS which John Slatin has on his laptop computer. As you can tell, Reed verbalizes whatever is written in a document -- punctuation and all. Now if he sounds a little fast to you, you can slow him down: REED: "There's a difference between what users see on their screen and what screen readers, comma, talking browsers, comma, and Braille displays, quote, see, quote, when they process the HTML source code, period." AA: If you're still not happy, with a few more clicks ... SHELLEY: "There's a difference between what users see on their screen and what screen readers ... " AA: You can let "Shelley" do the talking ... another example of a way to make information technology more adaptable to persons with disabilities. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our e-mail address is word@voanews.com and our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 23, 2002: Tom Cruise in 'Minority Report' / South of the Border / A Question About the Rock Group R.E.M.
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Pedroland Park HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today: We answer a listener’s question about the rock group R.E.M. ... Visit a popular stop for travelers called South of the Border ... R.E.M. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today: We answer a listener’s question about the rock group R.E.M. ... Visit a popular stop for travelers called South of the Border ... And tell about one of America’s most popular movie actors. Tom Cruise HOST: One of America’s top actors has another one-hundred-million dollar movie. Mary Tillotson tells the latest news about Tom Cruise. ANNCR: Tom Cruise was on the cover of five major American magazines when his latest movie was released earlier this summer. It is called “Minority Report.” It is a science-fiction, mystery and action movie. It takes place in the year two-thousand-fifty-four. This is a time when special beings can see crimes like murder before they happen. Cruise plays a policeman who heads a group called Precrime. These police arrest would-be murderers before they can carry out their crime. Cruise is accused of a future murder and must hide from the other police and solve the mystery of the crime. “Minority Report” has become Tom Cruise’s tenth movie out of twenty-four to make one-hundred-million dollars or more. Like other top actors Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, Cruise is considered a very safe investment in Hollywood. But, he is an investment. Tom Cruise demands about twenty-million dollars to star in a film. He also often gets a percentage of the movie’s profits. Two years ago, Cruise made about seventy-five-million dollars from his movie “Mission: Impossible Two.” Tom Cruise has received praise along with big earnings. The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated him two times for Best Actor and once for Best Supporting Actor. He has won two Golden Globe awards. People Magazine has included Cruise on its yearly list of the most beautiful people three times. The magazine also named him the sexiest man alive. And, last year, Forbes magazine named Tom Cruise number one on its list of the most powerful people in entertainment. Tom Cruise is forty years old. He was born in Syracuse, New York, but moved around a lot growing up. Cruise was a member of the Roman Catholic Church for most of his life. He had planned on becoming a clergyman. But, at age eighteen, he moved from New Jersey to New York to try acting instead. Cruise now belongs to the Church of Scientology. Tom Cruise’s next two movies are “The Last Samurai” and “Mission: Impossible Three.” South of the Border HOST: This summer, many Americans are traveling on the huge road system that connects the states. They can drive hundreds of kilometers across state borders without having to stop. What happens when drivers and their families become hungry? Or when their car needs more fuel? Where can they stop for food or gasoline or just to stretch their legs after sitting in a car for many hours? One of the most famous rest areas for travelers in the United States is called “South of the Border” in Dillon, South Carolina. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: South of the Border is a popular rest area for people driving on the main road through the eastern United States from Maine to Florida. It is just south of the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. During summer weekends, as many as forty-thousand American holiday travelers stop there. Every traveler knows where it is. That is because there are huge signs, or billboards, for South of the Border, starting many kilometers away from the area. There are more than one-hundred South of the Border billboards along major roads in the southeastern United States. All the billboards are colorful. They make fun of the place and a character named Pedro. At the entrance to South of the Border is the biggest sign of all. It is a sign of Pedro that is thirty meters tall. South of the Border is an unusual mix of the traditional American South and Old Mexico. At first, you wonder why there are so many seemingly Mexican things in South Carolina. South of the Border is nowhere near Mexico. That is part of the joke. South of the Border has six eating places, fifteen stores and a large hotel for tired travelers. There are plenty of things to do at South of the Border. Visitors can play golf or ride a machine that looks like a cow. They can ride up a tall structure shaped liked a Mexican hat. Or they can buy a Mexican hat, fireworks and many other things. A man named Alan Schafer started South of the Border more than fifty years ago. At first, there was only one store that sold beer. Through the many billboards and marketing efforts, South of the Border grew and became a huge success. When Mister Shafer died last year, the business reportedly was worth about fifty-million dollars. R.E.M. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Hong Kong. Eric Pun asks about the rock music group R.E.M. The band was formed in nineteen-eighty. The members were Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and lead singer, Michael Stipe. The band formed while all four men were attending classes at the University of Georgia, in Athens. They first played together in an empty church where two of the members lived. This song is from R.E.M.'s first album, called “Chronic Town.” It is called “Carnival of Sorts.” ((MUSIC: "Carnival of Sorts")) The name of the band stands for “rapid eye movement.” This is the movement of the eyes during the period of sleep when a person is dreaming. The band did not choose the name R.E.M. until after its first performance twenty-two years ago. During that show, the four members of the band wrote ideas for names on the floor. In the morning, they settled on R.E.M. This popular song, “Radio Free Europe,” is from the band’s second album. ((MUSIC: "Radio Free Europe")) Since nineteen-eighty-eight, several of the group’s albums have reached number one on the Billboard list based on total sales. The band has also won several Grammy and M-T-V music awards. In nineteen-ninety-seven, drum player Bill Berry left the band after suffering health problems. The remaining members of R.E.M. have continued to release albums. The most recent, called “Reveal,” came out last year. We leave you with a song from the album. It is called “The Lifting.” ((MUSIC: "The Lifting")) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Jill Moss. Our studio engineer was Eva Nenicka. And our producer was Caty Weaver. And tell about one of America’s most popular movie actors. Tom Cruise HOST: One of America’s top actors has another one-hundred-million dollar movie. Mary Tillotson tells the latest news about Tom Cruise. ANNCR: Tom Cruise was on the cover of five major American magazines when his latest movie was released earlier this summer. It is called “Minority Report.” It is a science-fiction, mystery and action movie. It takes place in the year two-thousand-fifty-four. This is a time when special beings can see crimes like murder before they happen. Cruise plays a policeman who heads a group called Precrime. These police arrest would-be murderers before they can carry out their crime. Cruise is accused of a future murder and must hide from the other police and solve the mystery of the crime. “Minority Report” has become Tom Cruise’s tenth movie out of twenty-four to make one-hundred-million dollars or more. Like other top actors Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, Cruise is considered a very safe investment in Hollywood. But, he is an investment. Tom Cruise demands about twenty-million dollars to star in a film. He also often gets a percentage of the movie’s profits. Two years ago, Cruise made about seventy-five-million dollars from his movie “Mission: Impossible Two.” Tom Cruise has received praise along with big earnings. The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated him two times for Best Actor and once for Best Supporting Actor. He has won two Golden Globe awards. People Magazine has included Cruise on its yearly list of the most beautiful people three times. The magazine also named him the sexiest man alive. And, last year, Forbes magazine named Tom Cruise number one on its list of the most powerful people in entertainment. Tom Cruise is forty years old. He was born in Syracuse, New York, but moved around a lot growing up. Cruise was a member of the Roman Catholic Church for most of his life. He had planned on becoming a clergyman. But, at age eighteen, he moved from New Jersey to New York to try acting instead. Cruise now belongs to the Church of Scientology. Tom Cruise’s next two movies are “The Last Samurai” and “Mission: Impossible Three.” South of the Border HOST: This summer, many Americans are traveling on the huge road system that connects the states. They can drive hundreds of kilometers across state borders without having to stop. What happens when drivers and their families become hungry? Or when their car needs more fuel? Where can they stop for food or gasoline or just to stretch their legs after sitting in a car for many hours? One of the most famous rest areas for travelers in the United States is called “South of the Border” in Dillon, South Carolina. Shep O’Neal tells us about it. ANNCR: South of the Border is a popular rest area for people driving on the main road through the eastern United States from Maine to Florida. It is just south of the border between North Carolina and South Carolina. During summer weekends, as many as forty-thousand American holiday travelers stop there. Every traveler knows where it is. That is because there are huge signs, or billboards, for South of the Border, starting many kilometers away from the area. There are more than one-hundred South of the Border billboards along major roads in the southeastern United States. All the billboards are colorful. They make fun of the place and a character named Pedro. At the entrance to South of the Border is the biggest sign of all. It is a sign of Pedro that is thirty meters tall. South of the Border is an unusual mix of the traditional American South and Old Mexico. At first, you wonder why there are so many seemingly Mexican things in South Carolina. South of the Border is nowhere near Mexico. That is part of the joke. South of the Border has six eating places, fifteen stores and a large hotel for tired travelers. There are plenty of things to do at South of the Border. Visitors can play golf or ride a machine that looks like a cow. They can ride up a tall structure shaped liked a Mexican hat. Or they can buy a Mexican hat, fireworks and many other things. A man named Alan Schafer started South of the Border more than fifty years ago. At first, there was only one store that sold beer. Through the many billboards and marketing efforts, South of the Border grew and became a huge success. When Mister Shafer died last year, the business reportedly was worth about fifty-million dollars. R.E.M. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Hong Kong. Eric Pun asks about the rock music group R.E.M. The band was formed in nineteen-eighty. The members were Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and lead singer, Michael Stipe. The band formed while all four men were attending classes at the University of Georgia, in Athens. They first played together in an empty church where two of the members lived. This song is from R.E.M.'s first album, called “Chronic Town.” It is called “Carnival of Sorts.” ((MUSIC: "Carnival of Sorts")) The name of the band stands for “rapid eye movement.” This is the movement of the eyes during the period of sleep when a person is dreaming. The band did not choose the name R.E.M. until after its first performance twenty-two years ago. During that show, the four members of the band wrote ideas for names on the floor. In the morning, they settled on R.E.M. This popular song, “Radio Free Europe,” is from the band’s second album. ((MUSIC: "Radio Free Europe")) Since nineteen-eighty-eight, several of the group’s albums have reached number one on the Billboard list based on total sales. The band has also won several Grammy and M-T-V music awards. In nineteen-ninety-seven, drum player Bill Berry left the band after suffering health problems. The remaining members of R.E.M. have continued to release albums. The most recent, called “Reveal,” came out last year. We leave you with a song from the album. It is called “The Lifting.” ((MUSIC: "The Lifting")) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Jill Moss. Our studio engineer was Eva Nenicka. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 23, 2002: Fires in Russia
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Clouds of thick smoke have spread across some of Russia’s largest cities. The smoke has affected millions of people. Russian officials say it is the thickest smoke to cover the area in thirty years. Most of the smoke has been caused by forest fires and peat bog fires. Peat is decaying plant material. When it is dry, it burns very easily. It is often used as fuel. Forest and peat bog fires have burned more than one-million hectares of land in Russia this summer. Hundreds of firefighters and emergency workers have been sent to fight the fires. Russia’s Emergency Situation Ministry also has sent helicopters and planes to assist in the effort. The peat bog fires are most severe in the Shatura area, southeast of Moscow. Peat bog fires are hard to put out. That is because flames follow the layers of peat as far as fifteen meters into the earth. Several fires start every day. And they spread quickly. The fires threaten homes and forests. Peat bog fires are common in Moscow and other large cities in Russia. This year, however, the number of fires has increased because of the long period of hot weather in the area. There also has been little rain or wind. Smoke from the fires has increased the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the air in parts of Moscow. Environmental officials say the carbon dioxide levels are twenty percent higher than acceptable levels. Health officials in Moscow say the increased pollutants have caused people to have headaches, watery eyes and increased tiredness. They have urged people with breathing or heart problems to stay indoors or leave the city if possible. However, officials say no severe health effects have been reported so far. Government officials say structures will be built to redirect rivers in an effort to flood the land. The canals are expected to be operating by next year. In nineteen-seventy-two, similar hot, dry weather also led to fires in peat bogs in the same area. The smoke covered the area for weeks. Emergency workers have prevented the current fires from causing widespread destruction. But they can do little to prevent the thick smoke. Weather experts say rain, wind and lower temperatures are the only ways to stop the fires. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Clouds of thick smoke have spread across some of Russia’s largest cities. The smoke has affected millions of people. Russian officials say it is the thickest smoke to cover the area in thirty years. Most of the smoke has been caused by forest fires and peat bog fires. Peat is decaying plant material. When it is dry, it burns very easily. It is often used as fuel. Forest and peat bog fires have burned more than one-million hectares of land in Russia this summer. Hundreds of firefighters and emergency workers have been sent to fight the fires. Russia’s Emergency Situation Ministry also has sent helicopters and planes to assist in the effort. The peat bog fires are most severe in the Shatura area, southeast of Moscow. Peat bog fires are hard to put out. That is because flames follow the layers of peat as far as fifteen meters into the earth. Several fires start every day. And they spread quickly. The fires threaten homes and forests. Peat bog fires are common in Moscow and other large cities in Russia. This year, however, the number of fires has increased because of the long period of hot weather in the area. There also has been little rain or wind. Smoke from the fires has increased the amount of carbon dioxide gas in the air in parts of Moscow. Environmental officials say the carbon dioxide levels are twenty percent higher than acceptable levels. Health officials in Moscow say the increased pollutants have caused people to have headaches, watery eyes and increased tiredness. They have urged people with breathing or heart problems to stay indoors or leave the city if possible. However, officials say no severe health effects have been reported so far. Government officials say structures will be built to redirect rivers in an effort to flood the land. The canals are expected to be operating by next year. In nineteen-seventy-two, similar hot, dry weather also led to fires in peat bogs in the same area. The smoke covered the area for weeks. Emergency workers have prevented the current fires from causing widespread destruction. But they can do little to prevent the thick smoke. Weather experts say rain, wind and lower temperatures are the only ways to stop the fires. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 25, 2002: Richard Rodgers
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. ((MUSIC: "VICTORY AT SEA")) VOICE ONE: That is music from the television show “Victory At Sea” written in nineteen-fifty-two. The man who composed that beautiful music is known mainly as a writer of show songs. He wrote more than one-thousand songs that helped tell stories in theaters, on television and in the movies. His music has been heard in more than two-hundred movies and two-thousand television shows. Some experts say his music created more happiness than that of any other American popular composer. His name was Richard Rodgers. Today, we tell his story. ((MUSIC: "VICTORY AT SEA")) VOICE TWO: Richard Charles Rodgers was born in New York City on June twenty-eighth, nineteen-oh-two. Both his parents enjoyed singing and playing the piano. His grandparents loved opera and took their grandson to many productions. Richard attended many Broadway shows as a child. Richard Rodgers began playing the piano by the age of three. At the age of fifteen, he decided that he would work in the musical theater. That same year, he wrote the music for a stage show presented by a local group of young people. Then, he wrote music for a production by students at Columbia University. Other future show business leaders were also involved in the Columbia productions. Two of these men would be very important in Richard Rodgers’ life -- Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart. VOICE ONE: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart worked as a songwriting team for more than twenty years. Their first hit song was in the musical “The Garrick Gaities” produced in nineteen-twenty-five. The song is still performed today. Here is Mickey Rooney singing “Manhattan.” ((MUSIC)) Rodgers wrote the music first, then Hart put words to the music. They also wrote songs for the movies. One of their most widely known songs comes from a movie, ”Blue Moon.” Many singers have recorded it since it was written in nineteen-thirty-four. It was even a rock and roll hit for the Marcels in the nineteen-sixties. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart stopped working together in the early nineteen-forties. Hart was an unhappy man. He was in poor health as a result of a serious drinking problem. It was increasingly difficult for Rodgers to work with him. Richard Rodgers turned to another old friend...Oscar Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein worked differently than did Rodgers and Hart. Oscar Hammerstein would write the words and give them to Rodgers. Rodgers then would write music to go with the words. Their first show together was the historic “Oklahoma!” It opened in nineteen-forty-three. Critics have called it a revolution in American theater. Rodgers and Hammerstein were praised for writing songs that developed the show and helped tell the story. “Oklahoma!” still is performed on Broadway and in other theaters around the world. Here is the famous title song from the first Broadway production: ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the songs for nine musical plays, including “The King And I,” “Flower Drum Song,” and “The Sound of Music.” Their musical plays were also made as movies. Their songs expressed love and pain and told about social problems. One example is this song from the musical “South Pacific” that opened in nineteen-forty-nine. One of the men in the musical is in love with a woman of a different race. He sings a song expressing the conflict between his racial feelings and his love. The song is called “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.” Listen to William Tabbert who sang it first on Broadway. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Richard Rodgers wrote both the words and the music for Broadway shows following Oscar Hammerstein’s death in nineteen-sixty. Critics say the best of these is “No Strings”. It explored a romance between a black woman and a white man. The main song is “The Sweetest Sounds.” Richard Kiley and Diahann Carroll sang it on Broadway. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Richard Rodgers and his wife Dorothy had two daughters and six grandchildren. One daughter and two grandsons also write music. Richard Rogers died in nineteen-seventy-nine. He was seventy-seven years old. Books written about his life describe him as a cold man who was often depressed. Family members say he was only able to express himself through music. Richard Rodgers once said the show he liked the best was “Carousel,” the second musical he wrote with Oscar Hammerstein. It is a sad story about a young girl who marries a thief. One of the songs in the show now is considered to have a religious influence. Here is the song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Music experts say that a Richard Rodgers show is always playing somewhere in the world—on Broadway, in theaters in different countries, in local school productions. And people all over the world still enjoy the movies linked to Richard Rodgers. Movies with wonderful music such as “State Fair”, “South Pacific”, “Pal Joey”, “The Sound of Music”, “Oklahoma” and “Carousel”. ((MUSIC: "CAROUSEL WALTZ")) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson_. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. ((MUSIC: "VICTORY AT SEA")) VOICE ONE: That is music from the television show “Victory At Sea” written in nineteen-fifty-two. The man who composed that beautiful music is known mainly as a writer of show songs. He wrote more than one-thousand songs that helped tell stories in theaters, on television and in the movies. His music has been heard in more than two-hundred movies and two-thousand television shows. Some experts say his music created more happiness than that of any other American popular composer. His name was Richard Rodgers. Today, we tell his story. ((MUSIC: "VICTORY AT SEA")) VOICE TWO: Richard Charles Rodgers was born in New York City on June twenty-eighth, nineteen-oh-two. Both his parents enjoyed singing and playing the piano. His grandparents loved opera and took their grandson to many productions. Richard attended many Broadway shows as a child. Richard Rodgers began playing the piano by the age of three. At the age of fifteen, he decided that he would work in the musical theater. That same year, he wrote the music for a stage show presented by a local group of young people. Then, he wrote music for a production by students at Columbia University. Other future show business leaders were also involved in the Columbia productions. Two of these men would be very important in Richard Rodgers’ life -- Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart. VOICE ONE: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart worked as a songwriting team for more than twenty years. Their first hit song was in the musical “The Garrick Gaities” produced in nineteen-twenty-five. The song is still performed today. Here is Mickey Rooney singing “Manhattan.” ((MUSIC)) Rodgers wrote the music first, then Hart put words to the music. They also wrote songs for the movies. One of their most widely known songs comes from a movie, ”Blue Moon.” Many singers have recorded it since it was written in nineteen-thirty-four. It was even a rock and roll hit for the Marcels in the nineteen-sixties. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart stopped working together in the early nineteen-forties. Hart was an unhappy man. He was in poor health as a result of a serious drinking problem. It was increasingly difficult for Rodgers to work with him. Richard Rodgers turned to another old friend...Oscar Hammerstein. Rodgers and Hammerstein worked differently than did Rodgers and Hart. Oscar Hammerstein would write the words and give them to Rodgers. Rodgers then would write music to go with the words. Their first show together was the historic “Oklahoma!” It opened in nineteen-forty-three. Critics have called it a revolution in American theater. Rodgers and Hammerstein were praised for writing songs that developed the show and helped tell the story. “Oklahoma!” still is performed on Broadway and in other theaters around the world. Here is the famous title song from the first Broadway production: ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the songs for nine musical plays, including “The King And I,” “Flower Drum Song,” and “The Sound of Music.” Their musical plays were also made as movies. Their songs expressed love and pain and told about social problems. One example is this song from the musical “South Pacific” that opened in nineteen-forty-nine. One of the men in the musical is in love with a woman of a different race. He sings a song expressing the conflict between his racial feelings and his love. The song is called “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.” Listen to William Tabbert who sang it first on Broadway. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Richard Rodgers wrote both the words and the music for Broadway shows following Oscar Hammerstein’s death in nineteen-sixty. Critics say the best of these is “No Strings”. It explored a romance between a black woman and a white man. The main song is “The Sweetest Sounds.” Richard Kiley and Diahann Carroll sang it on Broadway. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Richard Rodgers and his wife Dorothy had two daughters and six grandchildren. One daughter and two grandsons also write music. Richard Rogers died in nineteen-seventy-nine. He was seventy-seven years old. Books written about his life describe him as a cold man who was often depressed. Family members say he was only able to express himself through music. Richard Rodgers once said the show he liked the best was “Carousel,” the second musical he wrote with Oscar Hammerstein. It is a sad story about a young girl who marries a thief. One of the songs in the show now is considered to have a religious influence. Here is the song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Music experts say that a Richard Rodgers show is always playing somewhere in the world—on Broadway, in theaters in different countries, in local school productions. And people all over the world still enjoy the movies linked to Richard Rodgers. Movies with wonderful music such as “State Fair”, “South Pacific”, “Pal Joey”, “The Sound of Music”, “Oklahoma” and “Carousel”. ((MUSIC: "CAROUSEL WALTZ")) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson_. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 26, 2002: Mount Vernon
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Millions of people have visited the beautiful country home of the first president of the United States. It is Mount Vernon in the state of Virginia. I’m Sarah Long. Cupola(VOA Photo - Steve Ember) VOICE ONE: Millions of people have visited the beautiful country home of the first president of the United States. It is Mount Vernon in the state of Virginia. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we take you to the beloved home of George Washington on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The woman who welcomes you to Mount Vernon wears a long dress. On her head is a small white hat that was popular hundreds of years ago. This guide looks like a picture from the eighteenth century. But then, so does almost everything else at the country home of America’s first military hero and president. Visiting here is like traveling more than two centuries into the past. Everything seems quiet and calm on the green Virginia hillside of Mount Vernon. The long wooden building looks over the Potomac River. The home is only twenty-four kilometers south of Washington, D-C. But here, you feel far from the busy city. The warm afternoon sun is starting to sink lower in the sky. Before too long, darkness will fall on the white house that George Washington helped design. VOICE TWO: The woods around the home show the deep green of summer leaves. Birds sing, but there are few other sounds. No boats sail by on the Potomac River. On the hill leading down from the home to the river, goats sleep in the grass.Farming still takes place at Mount Vernon, just as it did when George Washington and his wife Martha lived here. The guide urges you to think what life was life for them in this place, so long ago. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Mount Vernon was home to George Washington for more than forty-five years. But he spent many years away from his home. In seventeen-seventy-five, he commanded the Continental Army of the American colonies in their war of independence from Britain. After the war he was the most famous leader of the new nation. He was elected president two times without opposition. And he was offered a third term. But he refused. He wanted to return to the life he had led at Mount Vernon before the war. George Washington returned to live on his large farm after serving as president. Mount Vernon tells us about his informal, unofficial life. During those last years, he led the life of a rich farmer. He planned and directed the work of the five farms. He supervised Mount Vernon’s crops and animals. As a farmer, he was always interested in new ideas and methods. He and his wife Martha provided meals for many friends in their beautiful dining room. The Washingtons also provided sleeping rooms and food for many travelers. Very few hotels existed then. So George and Martha Washington offered shelter to about six-hundred visitors a year. Many were strangers. VOICE TWO: Sadly, George Washington was able to enjoy retirement at Mount Vernon for less than three years. He died there in seventeen-ninety-nine. The sixty-seven-year old American hero became sick with a cold and throat disease. Modern doctors believe he died of a severe infection. When George Washington died, citizens throughout the new nation mourned. The United States was a very young country at that time. The American people felt a terrible loss at the death of their revolutionary war hero and first president. George Washington was often called “the father of his country.” Historians say the United States might never have been created or survived long without him. More than seven-hundred speakers throughout the country honored him. Small towns and villages held funeral marches. Businesses were closed for days. Bells rang without stopping. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There is much to see on more than two-hundred hectares at Mount Vernon. You can walk through the great house, two museums and more than twelve small buildings. You can also see four gardens, the farm area and guided nature paths. The guide suggests we start in the main house. It has three levels. George Washington was responsible for much of the design. His office is on the ground level. It contains many of his books. This is the room where George Washington planned the activities of his farm. It also is where he wrote to other political leaders. One writer called this room “the center of political intelligence for the new world.” Another guide leads you up the steps to the two higher levels of the main house. Mount Vernon contains eight sleeping rooms. George and Martha Washington needed all these bedrooms for their visitors. Above the bedrooms is one of Washington’s own inventions – a cupola. This small room has glass on all sides. Hot summer air from inside the house escaped through these windows. VOICE TWO: More than one-hundred-twenty-five black people from Africa worked as slaves at Mount Vernon. They played an important part in its operation. Slaves and some paid workers operated the five farms. Each farm had its own buildings, supervisor, workers, equipment and animals. Together, the farms covered more than one-thousand hectares. Other slaves built houses and furniture. Still others cooked and performed many services in the house. You can see the burial places of George Washington’s slaves on Mount Vernon property. Historians say George Washington must carry the blame and dishonor of having kept slaves. Still, as he grew older he came to disapprove of slavery. He ordered that his slaves be freed after he and his wife died. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: After George and Martha Washington died, Mount Vernon was given to other family members. By the eighteen-fifties, the person who owned it did not have enough money to keep it in good condition. He offered to sell Mount Vernon to the state of Virginia or to the federal government. Both refused the offer. That is when an organization called the Mount Vernon Ladies Association rescued the home. The group was able to buy the property with gifts of money from citizens. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association still operates the property today. It manages the home, farm and museums. It also operates libraries and teaching and research centers. VOICE TWO: Mount Vernon officials recently began a campaign to add three more buildings. They are working to raise eighty-three-million dollars for new learning centers and technologies. The officials want visitors to have a better idea of George Washington’s personal life. They say Mount Vernon should better describe him as a man. They also say Mount Vernon needs technology that will increase its interest among young people. This means devices that young visitors can operate to get information. One new building would be a visitors’ center. There, people could see a film about the life and times of America’s first president. A George Washington Education Center would present exhibits. The exhibits would show the first president’s life in the military, in politics and in business. A new museum would show documents and personal goods linked to George Washington’s life. Also included in the plans for Mount Vernon are educational programs for schools and communities across the nation. Published materials, C-D-Roms and Internet Web sites would tell about President Washington’s life and work. VOICE ONE: The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has made a number of changes over the years. Many visitors praise the organization for keeping the historical spirit of Mount Vernon while improving the property.Now, however, some experts question if that spirit will survive the planned changes. They express concern that the changes could make Mount Vernon seem too modern. As you end your visit to Mount Vernon, the sun is setting. You turn around for one more look at George Washington’s home. You close your eyes and picture George and Martha Washington reading in their library. Then you walk away, into the gathering darkness and the twenty-first century. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today we take you to the beloved home of George Washington on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The woman who welcomes you to Mount Vernon wears a long dress. On her head is a small white hat that was popular hundreds of years ago. This guide looks like a picture from the eighteenth century. But then, so does almost everything else at the country home of America’s first military hero and president. Visiting here is like traveling more than two centuries into the past. Everything seems quiet and calm on the green Virginia hillside of Mount Vernon. The long wooden building looks over the Potomac River. The home is only twenty-four kilometers south of Washington, D-C. But here, you feel far from the busy city. The warm afternoon sun is starting to sink lower in the sky. Before too long, darkness will fall on the white house that George Washington helped design. VOICE TWO: The woods around the home show the deep green of summer leaves. Birds sing, but there are few other sounds. No boats sail by on the Potomac River. On the hill leading down from the home to the river, goats sleep in the grass.Farming still takes place at Mount Vernon, just as it did when George Washington and his wife Martha lived here. The guide urges you to think what life was life for them in this place, so long ago. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Mount Vernon was home to George Washington for more than forty-five years. But he spent many years away from his home. In seventeen-seventy-five, he commanded the Continental Army of the American colonies in their war of independence from Britain. After the war he was the most famous leader of the new nation. He was elected president two times without opposition. And he was offered a third term. But he refused. He wanted to return to the life he had led at Mount Vernon before the war. George Washington returned to live on his large farm after serving as president. Mount Vernon tells us about his informal, unofficial life. During those last years, he led the life of a rich farmer. He planned and directed the work of the five farms. He supervised Mount Vernon’s crops and animals. As a farmer, he was always interested in new ideas and methods. He and his wife Martha provided meals for many friends in their beautiful dining room. The Washingtons also provided sleeping rooms and food for many travelers. Very few hotels existed then. So George and Martha Washington offered shelter to about six-hundred visitors a year. Many were strangers. VOICE TWO: Sadly, George Washington was able to enjoy retirement at Mount Vernon for less than three years. He died there in seventeen-ninety-nine. The sixty-seven-year old American hero became sick with a cold and throat disease. Modern doctors believe he died of a severe infection. When George Washington died, citizens throughout the new nation mourned. The United States was a very young country at that time. The American people felt a terrible loss at the death of their revolutionary war hero and first president. George Washington was often called “the father of his country.” Historians say the United States might never have been created or survived long without him. More than seven-hundred speakers throughout the country honored him. Small towns and villages held funeral marches. Businesses were closed for days. Bells rang without stopping. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There is much to see on more than two-hundred hectares at Mount Vernon. You can walk through the great house, two museums and more than twelve small buildings. You can also see four gardens, the farm area and guided nature paths. The guide suggests we start in the main house. It has three levels. George Washington was responsible for much of the design. His office is on the ground level. It contains many of his books. This is the room where George Washington planned the activities of his farm. It also is where he wrote to other political leaders. One writer called this room “the center of political intelligence for the new world.” Another guide leads you up the steps to the two higher levels of the main house. Mount Vernon contains eight sleeping rooms. George and Martha Washington needed all these bedrooms for their visitors. Above the bedrooms is one of Washington’s own inventions – a cupola. This small room has glass on all sides. Hot summer air from inside the house escaped through these windows. VOICE TWO: More than one-hundred-twenty-five black people from Africa worked as slaves at Mount Vernon. They played an important part in its operation. Slaves and some paid workers operated the five farms. Each farm had its own buildings, supervisor, workers, equipment and animals. Together, the farms covered more than one-thousand hectares. Other slaves built houses and furniture. Still others cooked and performed many services in the house. You can see the burial places of George Washington’s slaves on Mount Vernon property. Historians say George Washington must carry the blame and dishonor of having kept slaves. Still, as he grew older he came to disapprove of slavery. He ordered that his slaves be freed after he and his wife died. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: After George and Martha Washington died, Mount Vernon was given to other family members. By the eighteen-fifties, the person who owned it did not have enough money to keep it in good condition. He offered to sell Mount Vernon to the state of Virginia or to the federal government. Both refused the offer. That is when an organization called the Mount Vernon Ladies Association rescued the home. The group was able to buy the property with gifts of money from citizens. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association still operates the property today. It manages the home, farm and museums. It also operates libraries and teaching and research centers. VOICE TWO: Mount Vernon officials recently began a campaign to add three more buildings. They are working to raise eighty-three-million dollars for new learning centers and technologies. The officials want visitors to have a better idea of George Washington’s personal life. They say Mount Vernon should better describe him as a man. They also say Mount Vernon needs technology that will increase its interest among young people. This means devices that young visitors can operate to get information. One new building would be a visitors’ center. There, people could see a film about the life and times of America’s first president. A George Washington Education Center would present exhibits. The exhibits would show the first president’s life in the military, in politics and in business. A new museum would show documents and personal goods linked to George Washington’s life. Also included in the plans for Mount Vernon are educational programs for schools and communities across the nation. Published materials, C-D-Roms and Internet Web sites would tell about President Washington’s life and work. VOICE ONE: The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has made a number of changes over the years. Many visitors praise the organization for keeping the historical spirit of Mount Vernon while improving the property.Now, however, some experts question if that spirit will survive the planned changes. They express concern that the changes could make Mount Vernon seem too modern. As you end your visit to Mount Vernon, the sun is setting. You turn around for one more look at George Washington’s home. You close your eyes and picture George and Martha Washington reading in their library. Then you walk away, into the gathering darkness and the twenty-first century. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – August 26, 2002: Human Development Report
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Human Development Program has released its yearly study on the quality of life for people around the world. The U-N report was started in nineteen-ninety to measure the progress of nations based on the lives of their citizens. This year’s report lists one-hundred-seventy-three countries. It is based on the length of time citizens are expected to live, their education level and the amount of money they earn. Norway was listed as the country providing the best quality of life for the second year. It was followed by Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Australia and the United States. The twenty-four countries at the bottom of the list are all in Africa. The report says many countries in East Asia have made progress since nineteen-ninety. They include China, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. In Latin America and the Caribbean, as many as nine countries improved since nineteen-ninety. They include Chile, Costa Rica and Panama. At the same time, many countries in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union lost progress in the quality of life for their citizens. This was because of problems with economic reforms. They include Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Tajikistan. This year’s human development report centered on the issue of democracy. Researchers found that a majority of people live in countries claiming to be democratic. However, civil rights and political freedoms were limited in one-hundred-six nations. Also, the number of voters taking part in elections is decreasing. In addition, cheating, wrongdoing and unfair politics have weakened the democratic process. In some countries, elected governments have not carried out democratic reforms. This has led to public opposition to the government and a return to military rule. U-N officials say that democratic changes are slow in some countries. However, the report shows that international development goals set at the start of the twenty-first century can be met. For this to happen, they say developing countries need to move quicker toward economic, social and political reforms. And they say rich countries must become more open to trade while increasing aid and other resources. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Human Development Program has released its yearly study on the quality of life for people around the world. The U-N report was started in nineteen-ninety to measure the progress of nations based on the lives of their citizens. This year’s report lists one-hundred-seventy-three countries. It is based on the length of time citizens are expected to live, their education level and the amount of money they earn. Norway was listed as the country providing the best quality of life for the second year. It was followed by Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Australia and the United States. The twenty-four countries at the bottom of the list are all in Africa. The report says many countries in East Asia have made progress since nineteen-ninety. They include China, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. In Latin America and the Caribbean, as many as nine countries improved since nineteen-ninety. They include Chile, Costa Rica and Panama. At the same time, many countries in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union lost progress in the quality of life for their citizens. This was because of problems with economic reforms. They include Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Tajikistan. This year’s human development report centered on the issue of democracy. Researchers found that a majority of people live in countries claiming to be democratic. However, civil rights and political freedoms were limited in one-hundred-six nations. Also, the number of voters taking part in elections is decreasing. In addition, cheating, wrongdoing and unfair politics have weakened the democratic process. In some countries, elected governments have not carried out democratic reforms. This has led to public opposition to the government and a return to military rule. U-N officials say that democratic changes are slow in some countries. However, the report shows that international development goals set at the start of the twenty-first century can be met. For this to happen, they say developing countries need to move quicker toward economic, social and political reforms. And they say rich countries must become more open to trade while increasing aid and other resources. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 24, 2002: Johannesburg Summit
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. On Monday, the United Nations will open an important environmental conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. At least twenty-thousand people plan to attend the ten-day event. They include more than one-hundred presidents and prime ministers, fifty leaders of large businesses, and sixty high court judges. Conference organizers also expect thousands of representatives of financial organizations, non-governmental organizations, community leaders and activists. The official name of the conference is the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Sustainable development permits people to meet their needs without harming the environment. It means that people living today do not use up resources needed in the future. U-N officials say sustainable development requires a new kind of cooperation among nations. They say countries must realize that decisions they make may affect people in other parts of the world. Last week, the U-N released a report warning that current development activities are harming humans and the Earth. “Global Challenge, Global Opportunity,” was published by the U-N Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It examines a number of issues considered central to the conference, including world water and waste systems, energy, agriculture and human health. The report says one-thousand-million people in the world lack safe drinking water. It says this number will increase by more than two times by twenty-twenty-five. The report says northern Africa and western Asia will be the most affected areas. The U-N report also discusses the increase in the use of fuels such as oil and gas. The report notes increasing signs that the pollution produced by burning these fossil fuels is causing climate changes. Food demands are rising as the world population grows. But, the report says current methods of producing food and getting it to people will not be able to meet the increasing needs. The U-N says in many areas land has been damaged by too much farming for too many years. The U-N report also warns about the effects of human activity on ecological systems. It notes that ninety-million hectares of forest were destroyed in the nineteen-nineties. That is an area larger than Venezuela. The report says this destruction kills more than trees. When forests are lost so are huge numbers of animals, birds and plants that live in forests. Nitin Desai is Secretary General of the World Summit. He says the goals of human progress and environmental protection depend on each other. Mister Desai says the action plan developed ten years ago at the Earth Summit in Brazil is based on that idea. He says the world conference in Johannesburg is a chance for governments, businesses and citizens to expand on that plan. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. On Monday, the United Nations will open an important environmental conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. At least twenty-thousand people plan to attend the ten-day event. They include more than one-hundred presidents and prime ministers, fifty leaders of large businesses, and sixty high court judges. Conference organizers also expect thousands of representatives of financial organizations, non-governmental organizations, community leaders and activists. The official name of the conference is the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Sustainable development permits people to meet their needs without harming the environment. It means that people living today do not use up resources needed in the future. U-N officials say sustainable development requires a new kind of cooperation among nations. They say countries must realize that decisions they make may affect people in other parts of the world. Last week, the U-N released a report warning that current development activities are harming humans and the Earth. “Global Challenge, Global Opportunity,” was published by the U-N Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It examines a number of issues considered central to the conference, including world water and waste systems, energy, agriculture and human health. The report says one-thousand-million people in the world lack safe drinking water. It says this number will increase by more than two times by twenty-twenty-five. The report says northern Africa and western Asia will be the most affected areas. The U-N report also discusses the increase in the use of fuels such as oil and gas. The report notes increasing signs that the pollution produced by burning these fossil fuels is causing climate changes. Food demands are rising as the world population grows. But, the report says current methods of producing food and getting it to people will not be able to meet the increasing needs. The U-N says in many areas land has been damaged by too much farming for too many years. The U-N report also warns about the effects of human activity on ecological systems. It notes that ninety-million hectares of forest were destroyed in the nineteen-nineties. That is an area larger than Venezuela. The report says this destruction kills more than trees. When forests are lost so are huge numbers of animals, birds and plants that live in forests. Nitin Desai is Secretary General of the World Summit. He says the goals of human progress and environmental protection depend on each other. Mister Desai says the action plan developed ten years ago at the Earth Summit in Brazil is based on that idea. He says the world conference in Johannesburg is a chance for governments, businesses and citizens to expand on that plan. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-5-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 27, 2002: World Food Prize
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Pedro Sanchez (PAY-dro SAHN-chez) of the United States has won the World Food Prize for this year. The prize will be presented in October at Iowa State University. Mister Sanchez will receive the award and two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars. The World Food Prize honors people who have improved the quality of world food supplies. Mister Sanchez is chairman of the United Nations Task Force on World Hunger. The award recognizes his years of work to improve soil productivity in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. The World Food Prize Foundation says his methods have helped feed people in the developing world while protecting the environment. Pedro Sanchez was born in Havana, Cuba, in nineteen-forty. His father was an agricultural expert. As a boy, Pedro observed his father’s efforts to help farmers use fertilizers more effectively. This influenced his decision to study agricultural science in Havana. In nineteen-fifty-eight, Mister Sanchez came to the United States and continued his studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In the nineteen-seventies, he led North Carolina State University’s Rice Research Program in Peru. The World Food Prize Foundation says Mister Sanchez helped Peru increase its rice production. In just three years, Peru was producing enough rice to feed its population.Mister Sanchez found that many people in Peru’s Amazon River area had believed their soil was useless for agriculture. Mister Sanchez then led an effort to develop a soil management program in a huge area of unproductive land in Brazil. His team and Brazil’s Agricultural Research Program developed methods to make the area productive. As a result of this work, thirty-million hectares were made productive. Average crop production increased by sixty percent. In nineteen-ninety-one, Mister Sanchez became head of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya. There, he developed a method to improve soil with nutrients from local rock phosphate and by planting trees on farmland. The World Food Prize Foundation says his methods have provided natural, low-cost ways for African farmers to fertilize their soils. These methods have increased food production for many African farmers by as much as four-hundred percent. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Pedro Sanchez (PAY-dro SAHN-chez) of the United States has won the World Food Prize for this year. The prize will be presented in October at Iowa State University. Mister Sanchez will receive the award and two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars. The World Food Prize honors people who have improved the quality of world food supplies. Mister Sanchez is chairman of the United Nations Task Force on World Hunger. The award recognizes his years of work to improve soil productivity in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. The World Food Prize Foundation says his methods have helped feed people in the developing world while protecting the environment. Pedro Sanchez was born in Havana, Cuba, in nineteen-forty. His father was an agricultural expert. As a boy, Pedro observed his father’s efforts to help farmers use fertilizers more effectively. This influenced his decision to study agricultural science in Havana. In nineteen-fifty-eight, Mister Sanchez came to the United States and continued his studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In the nineteen-seventies, he led North Carolina State University’s Rice Research Program in Peru. The World Food Prize Foundation says Mister Sanchez helped Peru increase its rice production. In just three years, Peru was producing enough rice to feed its population.Mister Sanchez found that many people in Peru’s Amazon River area had believed their soil was useless for agriculture. Mister Sanchez then led an effort to develop a soil management program in a huge area of unproductive land in Brazil. His team and Brazil’s Agricultural Research Program developed methods to make the area productive. As a result of this work, thirty-million hectares were made productive. Average crop production increased by sixty percent. In nineteen-ninety-one, Mister Sanchez became head of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya. There, he developed a method to improve soil with nutrients from local rock phosphate and by planting trees on farmland. The World Food Prize Foundation says his methods have provided natural, low-cost ways for African farmers to fertilize their soils. These methods have increased food production for many African farmers by as much as four-hundred percent. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-6-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 27, 2002: U.S. Nursing Shortage / Depression and Alzheimer's Linked? / New Findings About Malaria
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE ONE: This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about problems caused by a lack of nurses working in American hospitals. We tell about a possible link between depression and Alzheimer’s disease. We tell about a poisonous weed discovered in the eastern United States. And we tell new information about the organism that causes malaria. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: (Photo - King County, Washington State) VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about problems caused by a lack of nurses working in American hospitals. We tell about a possible link between depression and Alzheimer’s disease. We tell about a poisonous weed discovered in the eastern United States. And we tell new information about the organism that causes malaria. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A new report says a lack of nurses in American hospitals is putting hospital patients at risk. The report says the lack of trained medical workers is partly to blame for incidents that kill or injure patients. It urges the federal government and the health care industry to take steps to deal with the problem. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations released the report. The commission is a private group that inspects and judges the quality of American hospitals. Most nurses work in hospitals. They care for sick people and help them get better. Other nurses work in medical offices, schools or retirement centers for older adults. Visiting nurses go to the homes of sick people to care for them. VOICE TWO: The new report warns that more than one-hundred-twenty-six-thousand nursing positions in the United States have not been filled. It says that number is expected to rise in the next few years, when millions of older Americans will need health care services. The report also says ninety percent of nursing homes for old people who are sick do not have enough nurses to provide even the most common care. It notes that some home health care agencies are being forced to refuse new patients. A new report says a lack of nurses in American hospitals is putting hospital patients at risk. The report says the lack of trained medical workers is partly to blame for incidents that kill or injure patients. It urges the federal government and the health care industry to take steps to deal with the problem. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations released the report. The commission is a private group that inspects and judges the quality of American hospitals. Most nurses work in hospitals. They care for sick people and help them get better. Other nurses work in medical offices, schools or retirement centers for older adults. Visiting nurses go to the homes of sick people to care for them. VOICE TWO: The new report warns that more than one-hundred-twenty-six-thousand nursing positions in the United States have not been filled. It says that number is expected to rise in the next few years, when millions of older Americans will need health care services. The report also says ninety percent of nursing homes for old people who are sick do not have enough nurses to provide even the most common care. It notes that some home health care agencies are being forced to refuse new patients. The commission based its findings on a study of unexpected problems in American hospitals that resulted in death or injury. The hospitals reported one-thousand-six-hundred such cases involving deaths or serious injury since nineteen-ninety-six. The report says the lack of nurses was partly responsible for twenty-four percent of the problems that resulted in death or injury to hospital patients. For example, a lack of nurses was found partly responsible for fifty percent of all problems involving breathing equipment. Nursing shortages also were partly to blame for forty-two percent of incidents involving medical operations and nineteen percent of problems involving medicine. VOICE ONE: Experts say there are several reasons for the shortage of nurses in hospitals. Many hospitals are trying to cut costs and save money by employing fewer nurses. Many nurses leave the profession because they must work too many hours each day. They also say the job is difficult and stressful. Many more people are leaving the nursing profession than are entering it. The report suggests three ways to increase the number of nurses. One is to improve the working conditions for nurses. The report also proposes improving training for nursing students. And it suggests giving more federal money to hospitals. Last month, Congress approved a measure designed to ease the nursing shortage. The measure provides financial aid for nursing students who agree to work for at least two years at a hospital with a shortage of nurses. President Bush recently signed the bill into law. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists say they have established a possible link between the medical condition depression and Alzheimer’s disease. They say older adults who report signs of depression may be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than other people. The findings are reported in “Neurology,” a publication of the American Academy of Neurology. Alzheimer's disease affects millions of people throughout the world. It destroys their ability to think and remember. In the United States alone, an estimated one in ten people over the age of sixty-five suffers from this disease. VOICE ONE: The new study involved more than six-hundred-fifty men and women over the age of sixty-five. They all were members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. The study included yearly examinations of the nervous system and tests of thinking and memory. Damage to short-term memory is one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s. About half of the people reported no signs of depression at the start of the study. The other half had between one and eight common signs of the condition. Depression causes intense feelings of sadness. Common signs are lack of energy and loss of interest in things a person once enjoyed. Other signs are difficulty thinking, problems sleeping or eating and thoughts of death. VOICE TWO: At the end of seven years, one-hundred-eight people in the study had developed Alzheimer’s disease. Robert Wilson of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago, Illinois led the study. He says there was an almost twenty percent increase in the risk of Alzheimer’s with each sign of depression reported at the beginning of the study. He says he and his team believe these signs appear to be linked to the risk of developing the disease. Mister Wilson is an expert in measuring how memory works in older adults. He says it is difficult to say why there appears to be a connection between depression and Alzheimer’s. He notes that evidence of Alzheimer’s has been found in the brains of older people after they die. However, not all of those people had the common signs of the disease. He also says it is possible that other processes not understood by scientists might show how well a person is able to fight the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A huge poisonous plant from the Caucasus Mountains of central Asia is now growing in several parts of the United States. Officials in Massachusetts confirmed the presence of this giant hogweed last month. It was the first time the weed has been identified in the state. Officials in other areas also warn about hogweed. It has been reported in about six states in other parts of the country. Massachusetts agricultural experts discovered the hogweed when a woman suffered hand and leg wounds after she cut back a tall weed. The hogweed was growing on her farm near Springfield, Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Hogweed can be easily recognized by its size. It can grow to a height of more than four-and-one-half meters. Its leaves grow to be about one-and-one-half meters across. Hogweed produces white flowers from late spring to the middle of summer. It also produces flat, dry fruits.One agricultural expert called the weed evil. Fluid from the weed contains a harmful chemical that destroys the ability of the skin to block damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun. This causes severe burns that can permanently mark the skin. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe hogweed is about one-hundred years old. It comes from an area between the Caspian and Black seas in central Asia. Scientists are not sure exactly when it first arrived in the United States. It was introduced in the United States, Canada and Britain as an unusual plant for the garden. After its poisonous effects were discovered, it was barred from entering the United States. But some experts say its continues to arrive with travelers from other countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Researchers in the United States have discovered that the organism that causes the disease malaria is genetically more developed and much older than earlier thought. Because of this, they say it will be harder to develop medicines to prevent and treat the deadly disease. Plasmodium falciparum (plas-MO-dee-um fall-SIP-ah-rum) is the parasite that causes the most deadly kind of malaria. Each year, the disease kills more than two-million people and infects more than two-hundred-million people. In the past, doctors used the drug chloroquine (KLOR-oh-kwine) to treat malaria. However, over the past few decades the falciparum parasite has developed resistance to the medicine. Xin-zhuan Su (sin-SCHWAN soo) led the two studies published last month in the publication Nature. He says that new treatments to fight malaria may be possible as scientists learn more about the history of the falciparum parasite. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. The commission based its findings on a study of unexpected problems in American hospitals that resulted in death or injury. The hospitals reported one-thousand-six-hundred such cases involving deaths or serious injury since nineteen-ninety-six. The report says the lack of nurses was partly responsible for twenty-four percent of the problems that resulted in death or injury to hospital patients. For example, a lack of nurses was found partly responsible for fifty percent of all problems involving breathing equipment. Nursing shortages also were partly to blame for forty-two percent of incidents involving medical operations and nineteen percent of problems involving medicine. VOICE ONE: Experts say there are several reasons for the shortage of nurses in hospitals. Many hospitals are trying to cut costs and save money by employing fewer nurses. Many nurses leave the profession because they must work too many hours each day. They also say the job is difficult and stressful. Many more people are leaving the nursing profession than are entering it. The report suggests three ways to increase the number of nurses. One is to improve the working conditions for nurses. The report also proposes improving training for nursing students. And it suggests giving more federal money to hospitals. Last month, Congress approved a measure designed to ease the nursing shortage. The measure provides financial aid for nursing students who agree to work for at least two years at a hospital with a shortage of nurses. President Bush recently signed the bill into law. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: American scientists say they have established a possible link between the medical condition depression and Alzheimer’s disease. They say older adults who report signs of depression may be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than other people. The findings are reported in “Neurology,” a publication of the American Academy of Neurology. Alzheimer's disease affects millions of people throughout the world. It destroys their ability to think and remember. In the United States alone, an estimated one in ten people over the age of sixty-five suffers from this disease. VOICE ONE: The new study involved more than six-hundred-fifty men and women over the age of sixty-five. They all were members of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. The study included yearly examinations of the nervous system and tests of thinking and memory. Damage to short-term memory is one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s. About half of the people reported no signs of depression at the start of the study. The other half had between one and eight common signs of the condition. Depression causes intense feelings of sadness. Common signs are lack of energy and loss of interest in things a person once enjoyed. Other signs are difficulty thinking, problems sleeping or eating and thoughts of death. VOICE TWO: At the end of seven years, one-hundred-eight people in the study had developed Alzheimer’s disease. Robert Wilson of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago, Illinois led the study. He says there was an almost twenty percent increase in the risk of Alzheimer’s with each sign of depression reported at the beginning of the study. He says he and his team believe these signs appear to be linked to the risk of developing the disease. Mister Wilson is an expert in measuring how memory works in older adults. He says it is difficult to say why there appears to be a connection between depression and Alzheimer’s. He notes that evidence of Alzheimer’s has been found in the brains of older people after they die. However, not all of those people had the common signs of the disease. He also says it is possible that other processes not understood by scientists might show how well a person is able to fight the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A huge poisonous plant from the Caucasus Mountains of central Asia is now growing in several parts of the United States. Officials in Massachusetts confirmed the presence of this giant hogweed last month. It was the first time the weed has been identified in the state. Officials in other areas also warn about hogweed. It has been reported in about six states in other parts of the country. Massachusetts agricultural experts discovered the hogweed when a woman suffered hand and leg wounds after she cut back a tall weed. The hogweed was growing on her farm near Springfield, Massachusetts. VOICE TWO: Hogweed can be easily recognized by its size. It can grow to a height of more than four-and-one-half meters. Its leaves grow to be about one-and-one-half meters across. Hogweed produces white flowers from late spring to the middle of summer. It also produces flat, dry fruits.One agricultural expert called the weed evil. Fluid from the weed contains a harmful chemical that destroys the ability of the skin to block damaging ultraviolet rays from the sun. This causes severe burns that can permanently mark the skin. VOICE ONE: Scientists believe hogweed is about one-hundred years old. It comes from an area between the Caspian and Black seas in central Asia. Scientists are not sure exactly when it first arrived in the United States. It was introduced in the United States, Canada and Britain as an unusual plant for the garden. After its poisonous effects were discovered, it was barred from entering the United States. But some experts say its continues to arrive with travelers from other countries. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Researchers in the United States have discovered that the organism that causes the disease malaria is genetically more developed and much older than earlier thought. Because of this, they say it will be harder to develop medicines to prevent and treat the deadly disease. Plasmodium falciparum (plas-MO-dee-um fall-SIP-ah-rum) is the parasite that causes the most deadly kind of malaria. Each year, the disease kills more than two-million people and infects more than two-hundred-million people. In the past, doctors used the drug chloroquine (KLOR-oh-kwine) to treat malaria. However, over the past few decades the falciparum parasite has developed resistance to the medicine. Xin-zhuan Su (sin-SCHWAN soo) led the two studies published last month in the publication Nature. He says that new treatments to fight malaria may be possible as scientists learn more about the history of the falciparum parasite. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Phoebe Zimmerman. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-7-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 28, 2002: Rio Grande, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Rio Grande. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The Rio Grande is the fifth longest river on the North American continent. It forms the border between the southwestern state of Texas and Mexico. The Rio Grande been has important in the history and development of the United States and Mexico. However, the river has a different name in Mexico. It is called Rio Bravo del Norte. The Rio Grande begins its three-thousand kilometer trip to the Gulf of Mexico high in the Rocky Mountains in the state of Colorado. It begins almost four-thousand meters up where the river is fed by melting snow. Soon, other small streams flow into the river, increasing its size as it flows generally south through the state of New Mexico. Its waters flow through deep mountain canyons. Some of them are more than five-hundred meters deep. It continues across great flat plains areas, and deserts, feeding rich agricultural areas along the way. VOICE TWO: The Rio Grande flows south to the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Then it turns in a southeast direction. Here it becomes the border line between the United States and Mexico for two-thousand kilometers. From this point in the most western part of Texas, the Rio Grande flows east to where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Along its way, the river flows through or past the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico, by El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez. The last cities it touches are Brownsville, Texas on one side of the border and Matamoros, Mexico on the other. On its long trip to the sea, the Rio Grande expands as a number of rivers flow into it. In the United States, those rivers include the Pecos, Devils, Chama, and Puerco rivers. In Mexico, the Conchos, Salado, and San Juan rivers provide waters to the Rio Grande. VOICE ONE: In some places the river is more than ten meters deep. But in many places on the river, there is not much water flowing. This lack of water is a sign that much of the river is used for growing crops and providing water supplies for the expanding population. This is not a new use for the Rio Grande. There is much evidence that the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico used water from the river to grow crops for thousands of years. The Pueblo ancestors arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States about two-thousand years ago. Although their food mostly came from hunting, they grew some crops for food. The Pueblo civilization went through a number of changes over time. Some of those changes were caused by invasions by other Indian groups such as the Navajo and Apache Indians. A severe dry period more than six-hundred years ago also affected the Pueblo civilization. The weather is believed to be one reason some of the great cities of the southwest area were left empty as the Pueblo ancestors moved closer to the Rio Grande. A major change for these people began soon after the first Europeans came to the Rio Grande. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In the early Fifteen-Hundreds, Spanish ships sailed to the mouth of the Rio Grande. They first were looking for a way to the Pacific Ocean. Soon they were more interested in searching for riches such as those captured by Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes. In Fifteen-Twenty-One, Cortes conquered the great Aztec Empire in what is modern Mexico. Cortes seized huge amounts of gold and jewels from the Aztecs. Many Spanish explorers heard the stories about the wealth of the Aztecs. They hoped to find similar wealth among other Indian groups in North America. Some explorers hoped that the Rio Grande would lead them to Indian nations that also possessed gold and jewels. The most famous explorer of the Rio Grande territory was Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. He arrived at the Rio Grande in Fifteen-Forty. VOICE ONE: Earlier explorers of the Rio Grande area said they had heard of great Indian cities on a river in the north. The stories they heard were about cities that had treasures of costly stones, such as turquoise and emeralds. The Spanish explorers also believed there was gold, silver, iron and copper in the mountains to the north. Spain had already taken great wealth from the Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico. Why not also take the riches of the Indians cities north of Mexico? So, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico gave an order which would change the history of North America. He asked Coronado to lead an army of Spanish soldiers to the north. They were ordered to conquer new land for the king of Spain -- land that the Spaniards called Cibola. VOICE TWO: Coronado and his soldiers did not find the cities of gold that they were seeking. Instead they found many Indian towns with tall houses and rich fields full of corn and other plants. The people were peaceful farmers. They did not remain peaceful. The Spanish soldiers did things to the Pueblo Indians that made them angry. So, the Indians decided to push the Spaniards out of their land. The Spanish soldiers won the battles with the Pueblo Indians and destroyed many of their towns. Then the Spanish searched for gold and silver. They found none. They returned to Mexico with nothing to show for their struggles in the areas of the Rio Grande River. Coronado died in Mexico City in Fifteen-fifty-four. He was forty-four years old. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: After Coronado left the Rio Grande country in Fifteen-Forty-Two, the area again belonged to the Indians. Again the Spanish tried to establish a colony in the area. They tried four times and failed each time. In Fifteen-Ninety-Eight, a large Spanish army marched north from Mexico. The King of Spain ordered that a colony be established on the river north of Mexico. The name of the new colony was to be New Mexico. VOICE TWO: Traveling with this army were many families, Roman Catholic priests, and thousands of cattle. They established a colony on the river where some Pueblo Indians already lived. The Spanish called it San Juan. The Indians seemed to accept them. But the peace did not last. Suffering and tragedy spread through the land as the Spanish and Indians fought. The Spanish priests and the settlers in San Juan began to protest against the cruel treatment of the Indians. It would be better, they said, not to have any Spanish colony in New Mexico than to built one on such crimes against the native peoples. Finally, in Sixteen-Six, the King of Spain ordered the end of the colony at San Juan. The Spanish settlers left but the Indians remained at what is now San Juan Pueblo. The Spanish would be back. VOICE ONE: In Sixteen-Ten, a new governor of New Mexico arrived. A new capital was built, called Santa Fe. It still is the capital. This time the goal of the Spanish government was to spread the Christian religion among the Indians. The Brothers of the Order of Saint Francis were not like the earlier Spaniards. At first the Indians resisted them. But, over time, they understood that these men did not want to oppress them. The Franciscans wanted to teach the Indians about Jesus Christ. The Franciscans helped the Pueblo Indians build many beautiful churches throughout the area. The churches were built with local materials. They did not look like the traditional churches of Europe. Some of these churches still stand today. They are very popular with artists. VOICE TWO: The Spanish government and the Franciscans argued about how to treat the Indians. The government wanted to use them as slaves. The Franciscans wanted the Indians to be protected. The Indians were not sure who they should obey. While this dispute was taking place there was a long dry period that caused people in the area to starve. Then, the disease smallpox began taking the lives of many Indians and Spanish settlers. There was a violent rebellion by the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish were forced to leave the Rio Grande area. Yet, they were not to be pushed out for long. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the second part of this EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Rio Grande. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The Rio Grande is the fifth longest river on the North American continent. It forms the border between the southwestern state of Texas and Mexico. The Rio Grande been has important in the history and development of the United States and Mexico. However, the river has a different name in Mexico. It is called Rio Bravo del Norte. The Rio Grande begins its three-thousand kilometer trip to the Gulf of Mexico high in the Rocky Mountains in the state of Colorado. It begins almost four-thousand meters up where the river is fed by melting snow. Soon, other small streams flow into the river, increasing its size as it flows generally south through the state of New Mexico. Its waters flow through deep mountain canyons. Some of them are more than five-hundred meters deep. It continues across great flat plains areas, and deserts, feeding rich agricultural areas along the way. VOICE TWO: The Rio Grande flows south to the cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Then it turns in a southeast direction. Here it becomes the border line between the United States and Mexico for two-thousand kilometers. From this point in the most western part of Texas, the Rio Grande flows east to where the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Along its way, the river flows through or past the cities of Albuquerque and Las Cruces, New Mexico, by El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez. The last cities it touches are Brownsville, Texas on one side of the border and Matamoros, Mexico on the other. On its long trip to the sea, the Rio Grande expands as a number of rivers flow into it. In the United States, those rivers include the Pecos, Devils, Chama, and Puerco rivers. In Mexico, the Conchos, Salado, and San Juan rivers provide waters to the Rio Grande. VOICE ONE: In some places the river is more than ten meters deep. But in many places on the river, there is not much water flowing. This lack of water is a sign that much of the river is used for growing crops and providing water supplies for the expanding population. This is not a new use for the Rio Grande. There is much evidence that the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians in New Mexico used water from the river to grow crops for thousands of years. The Pueblo ancestors arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States about two-thousand years ago. Although their food mostly came from hunting, they grew some crops for food. The Pueblo civilization went through a number of changes over time. Some of those changes were caused by invasions by other Indian groups such as the Navajo and Apache Indians. A severe dry period more than six-hundred years ago also affected the Pueblo civilization. The weather is believed to be one reason some of the great cities of the southwest area were left empty as the Pueblo ancestors moved closer to the Rio Grande. A major change for these people began soon after the first Europeans came to the Rio Grande. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: In the early Fifteen-Hundreds, Spanish ships sailed to the mouth of the Rio Grande. They first were looking for a way to the Pacific Ocean. Soon they were more interested in searching for riches such as those captured by Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes. In Fifteen-Twenty-One, Cortes conquered the great Aztec Empire in what is modern Mexico. Cortes seized huge amounts of gold and jewels from the Aztecs. Many Spanish explorers heard the stories about the wealth of the Aztecs. They hoped to find similar wealth among other Indian groups in North America. Some explorers hoped that the Rio Grande would lead them to Indian nations that also possessed gold and jewels. The most famous explorer of the Rio Grande territory was Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. He arrived at the Rio Grande in Fifteen-Forty. VOICE ONE: Earlier explorers of the Rio Grande area said they had heard of great Indian cities on a river in the north. The stories they heard were about cities that had treasures of costly stones, such as turquoise and emeralds. The Spanish explorers also believed there was gold, silver, iron and copper in the mountains to the north. Spain had already taken great wealth from the Incas of Peru and the Aztecs of Mexico. Why not also take the riches of the Indians cities north of Mexico? So, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico gave an order which would change the history of North America. He asked Coronado to lead an army of Spanish soldiers to the north. They were ordered to conquer new land for the king of Spain -- land that the Spaniards called Cibola. VOICE TWO: Coronado and his soldiers did not find the cities of gold that they were seeking. Instead they found many Indian towns with tall houses and rich fields full of corn and other plants. The people were peaceful farmers. They did not remain peaceful. The Spanish soldiers did things to the Pueblo Indians that made them angry. So, the Indians decided to push the Spaniards out of their land. The Spanish soldiers won the battles with the Pueblo Indians and destroyed many of their towns. Then the Spanish searched for gold and silver. They found none. They returned to Mexico with nothing to show for their struggles in the areas of the Rio Grande River. Coronado died in Mexico City in Fifteen-fifty-four. He was forty-four years old. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: After Coronado left the Rio Grande country in Fifteen-Forty-Two, the area again belonged to the Indians. Again the Spanish tried to establish a colony in the area. They tried four times and failed each time. In Fifteen-Ninety-Eight, a large Spanish army marched north from Mexico. The King of Spain ordered that a colony be established on the river north of Mexico. The name of the new colony was to be New Mexico. VOICE TWO: Traveling with this army were many families, Roman Catholic priests, and thousands of cattle. They established a colony on the river where some Pueblo Indians already lived. The Spanish called it San Juan. The Indians seemed to accept them. But the peace did not last. Suffering and tragedy spread through the land as the Spanish and Indians fought. The Spanish priests and the settlers in San Juan began to protest against the cruel treatment of the Indians. It would be better, they said, not to have any Spanish colony in New Mexico than to built one on such crimes against the native peoples. Finally, in Sixteen-Six, the King of Spain ordered the end of the colony at San Juan. The Spanish settlers left but the Indians remained at what is now San Juan Pueblo. The Spanish would be back. VOICE ONE: In Sixteen-Ten, a new governor of New Mexico arrived. A new capital was built, called Santa Fe. It still is the capital. This time the goal of the Spanish government was to spread the Christian religion among the Indians. The Brothers of the Order of Saint Francis were not like the earlier Spaniards. At first the Indians resisted them. But, over time, they understood that these men did not want to oppress them. The Franciscans wanted to teach the Indians about Jesus Christ. The Franciscans helped the Pueblo Indians build many beautiful churches throughout the area. The churches were built with local materials. They did not look like the traditional churches of Europe. Some of these churches still stand today. They are very popular with artists. VOICE TWO: The Spanish government and the Franciscans argued about how to treat the Indians. The government wanted to use them as slaves. The Franciscans wanted the Indians to be protected. The Indians were not sure who they should obey. While this dispute was taking place there was a long dry period that caused people in the area to starve. Then, the disease smallpox began taking the lives of many Indians and Spanish settlers. There was a violent rebellion by the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish were forced to leave the Rio Grande area. Yet, they were not to be pushed out for long. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for the second part of this EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-8-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - August 29, 2002: Adult Education
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of Americans take part in adult education programs. Some adults are completing high school, college or graduate school work. They attend classes designed especially for working people on weekends or at night. Other adults take classes by mail or on their computers. For example, the University of Arizona Extended University is one of many colleges now providing such courses. Other adults learn job skills like computer science or wood-working. Still other adult students learn to read or improve their English. Some adult students are not trying to finish their education or learn job skills. Instead, they want to explore new interests. They want to learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument or take good pictures. They attend continuing education programs at a community college or public school. For example, Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, offers many classes. They teach adults how to build a house or how to write their memories. An agency in the federal government’s Department of Education supervises public adult education programs. The Departments of Agriculture and Defense offer many subjects for adults. So do private companies, labor unions and organizations. These subjects include the arts, science and business. Adult education classes meet in schools, public libraries and business offices. They also meet in religious centers or shopping centers. Classes in nature sciences and sports often take place outside. Education experts say the large numbers of retired Americans are a major reason for the popularity of adult education. These people say they want to continue developing their brains. Some programs for older adults include travel. For example, the nonprofit organization Elderhostel serves hundreds of thousands of people over age fifty-five. One Elderhostel program takes place in the famous southern American city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The program teaches older adults about the special culture of the city. Students travel there to learn about New Orleans food, music, history, art and building design. Today, more and more American adults are proving that education is not only for young people. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of Americans take part in adult education programs. Some adults are completing high school, college or graduate school work. They attend classes designed especially for working people on weekends or at night. Other adults take classes by mail or on their computers. For example, the University of Arizona Extended University is one of many colleges now providing such courses. Other adults learn job skills like computer science or wood-working. Still other adult students learn to read or improve their English. Some adult students are not trying to finish their education or learn job skills. Instead, they want to explore new interests. They want to learn to speak a foreign language, play a musical instrument or take good pictures. They attend continuing education programs at a community college or public school. For example, Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, offers many classes. They teach adults how to build a house or how to write their memories. An agency in the federal government’s Department of Education supervises public adult education programs. The Departments of Agriculture and Defense offer many subjects for adults. So do private companies, labor unions and organizations. These subjects include the arts, science and business. Adult education classes meet in schools, public libraries and business offices. They also meet in religious centers or shopping centers. Classes in nature sciences and sports often take place outside. Education experts say the large numbers of retired Americans are a major reason for the popularity of adult education. These people say they want to continue developing their brains. Some programs for older adults include travel. For example, the nonprofit organization Elderhostel serves hundreds of thousands of people over age fifty-five. One Elderhostel program takes place in the famous southern American city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The program teaches older adults about the special culture of the city. Students travel there to learn about New Orleans food, music, history, art and building design. Today, more and more American adults are proving that education is not only for young people. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-9-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 30, 2002: Asian Brown Cloud
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A United Nations study says a thick cloud of pollution covering southern Asia threatens the lives of millions of people. Scientists say the pollution could increase lung diseases and cause early deaths. The cloud is also damaging agriculture and affecting rainfall levels. Scientists are calling it the Asian Brown Cloud. It has affected Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The pollution cloud is three kilometers high. Scientists say it can move halfway around the world in a week. The cloud is a mixture of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles. It is the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural waste, and huge increases in the burning of fuels by vehicles, industries and power stations. Pollution from millions of bad cooking stoves has made the problem worse. Many poor people burn fuels like wood and animal waste in such stoves. Scientists say the cloud of pollution appears to cool the land and oceans by blocking sunlight. They say it reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface by as much as fifteen percent. At the same time, heat inside the cloud warms the lower parts of the atmosphere. Scientists say this combination could be changing winter rainfall levels in Asia. They say rainfall has increased over the eastern coast of Asia. But it has dropped sharply over parts of northwestern Asia. The report says the cloud could reduce rainfall over northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan and western China by up to forty percent. Harmful chemicals from the cloud are mixing with rainfall. This acid rain damages crops and trees and threatens public health. Scientists are concerned that the pollution will intensify during the next thirty years as the population of Asia increases to an estimated five-thousand-million people. Scientists say the Asian Brown Cloud could affect other parts of the world unless steps are taken to reduce pollution. Environmental groups say action is needed to find clean, renewable energy sources. More than two-hundred scientists took part in the U-N study. The U-N Environment Program prepared the study for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. That meeting is taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa through September fourth. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-10-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – August 28, 2002: Post-Polio Condition
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In nineteen-eighty-eight, a major campaign to end the disease polio was launched. A virus causes polio. It can infect people at any age, but it especially affects children under age three. The virus enters through the mouth and then grows inside the throat and intestines. Once the poliovirus becomes established in the intestines, it can spread to the blood and nervous system. As a result, victims of polio often lose the ability to move. This paralysis is almost always permanent. In very serious cases, the paralysis can lead to death because victims are not able to breathe. There is no cure for polio, so the best treatment is prevention. A few drops of a powerful vaccine medicine will protect a child for life. The vaccine must be given over several years to be fully effective. Health experts want the world to know that many years later, polio victims may suffer from a condition called post-polio sequelae, or P-P-S. This condition affects polio survivors about thirty-five years after their first polio attack. There are about two-million polio survivors in North America and twenty-million around the world. About seventy-five percent of paralyzed polio survivors and forty percent of non-paralyzed survivors suffer from P-P-S. Signs of the condition include muscle weakness, pain in the head, neck and back, tiredness, and trouble sleeping, breathing and swallowing. Richard Bruno is an expert on Post-Polio Sequelae. He says the condition is caused when nerves damaged earlier by the poliovirus become tired and overworked. There is no cure. However, rest and less physical activity can help treat the condition. He says polio survivors must stop over-using their bodies. They should walk less and use devices to help them walk. They also should have rest periods throughout the day. And they should eat small meals throughout the day that are high in protein and low in fat. Doctor Bruno heads the Post Polio Institute in the United States. This organization has started a letter campaign to educate every doctor and polio survivor in the world about Post-Polio Sequelae. More information about this health condition can be found on the Internet computer system. The address is www-dot-postpolioinfo-dot-com. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. In nineteen-eighty-eight, a major campaign to end the disease polio was launched. A virus causes polio. It can infect people at any age, but it especially affects children under age three. The virus enters through the mouth and then grows inside the throat and intestines. Once the poliovirus becomes established in the intestines, it can spread to the blood and nervous system. As a result, victims of polio often lose the ability to move. This paralysis is almost always permanent. In very serious cases, the paralysis can lead to death because victims are not able to breathe. There is no cure for polio, so the best treatment is prevention. A few drops of a powerful vaccine medicine will protect a child for life. The vaccine must be given over several years to be fully effective. Health experts want the world to know that many years later, polio victims may suffer from a condition called post-polio sequelae, or P-P-S. This condition affects polio survivors about thirty-five years after their first polio attack. There are about two-million polio survivors in North America and twenty-million around the world. About seventy-five percent of paralyzed polio survivors and forty percent of non-paralyzed survivors suffer from P-P-S. Signs of the condition include muscle weakness, pain in the head, neck and back, tiredness, and trouble sleeping, breathing and swallowing. Richard Bruno is an expert on Post-Polio Sequelae. He says the condition is caused when nerves damaged earlier by the poliovirus become tired and overworked. There is no cure. However, rest and less physical activity can help treat the condition. He says polio survivors must stop over-using their bodies. They should walk less and use devices to help them walk. They also should have rest periods throughout the day. And they should eat small meals throughout the day that are high in protein and low in fat. Doctor Bruno heads the Post Polio Institute in the United States. This organization has started a letter campaign to educate every doctor and polio survivor in the world about Post-Polio Sequelae. More information about this health condition can be found on the Internet computer system. The address is www-dot-postpolioinfo-dot-com. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-23-11-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 1, 2002: Louisa May Alcott
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Steve Ember VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Louisa May Alcott. She wrote one of America's best loved children's books. VOICE 1: In eighteen-sixty-eight, an American publisher asked a struggling young writer to write a book for girls. At first, the writer, Louisa May Alcott, was not sure she wanted to do it. She said she never liked girls. And she never knew many, except her sisters. She thought her family's activities and experiences might be interesting to others. But, she said, probably not. VOICE 2: Alcott decided to write the book anyway. She told about her experiences growing up in the northeastern United States during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her book proved to be more than interesting. "Little Women" became one of the most popular children's books in American literature. It has been published in more than fifty languages. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott was born in Pennsylvania in eighteen-thirty-two. She was the second of four daughters. She had one older sister, Anna. And two younger sisters, ElizaBeth, called Beth, and may. Her parents were Bronson and Abigail Alcott. Her father was an educator and social reformer. The Alcotts later settled in Concord, Massachusetts. Several great American writers were friends of the family. They included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Mister Alcott provided the girls' education. He taught them many subjects. He also made them write about their personal thoughts and experiences. VOICE 2: The Alcotts did not have much money. Louisa worked to help support her family. She tried teaching, sewing, and taking care of children. She did not like any of these Jobs. Louisa thought of herself as a writer. At the age of sixteen, she wrote her first book. It was called flower fables. She decided to sell what she wrote. She wrote many kinds of poems, stories, and plays. Her stories were exciting, but unrealistic. She sold them to newspapers and magazines for small amounts of money. VOICE 1: In eighteen-sixty-two, during the American civil war, Louisa May Alcott went to Washington, D-C. She served as a nurse in a military hospital. She cared for sick and wounded soldiers. She wrote letters to her family about her experiences. She included these letters in a book that was published the next year. Critics praised it but it did not bring her much money. And, working in the hospital damaged her health. VOICE 2: In eighteen-sixty-five she visited Europe as a helper to an older woman. Alcott hoped to re-gain her health. She spent a long time away from her family. Her health did not improve. But she thought about her writing. When she returned, she agreed to her publisher's request that she write a book for girls based on the life she knew. "Little Women" was published in eighteen-sixty-eight. The book was immediately popular with people of all ages. It brought Alcott fame and a lot of money. She continued writing other popular books for young people. These included an old-fashioned girl, little men, and eight cousins. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott wrote books for adults, as well as children. She published these under another name -- A.M. Barnard. These books were published before "Little Women" made her famous. They were very different from her children's stories. They were about love, power, and unhappiness. They have been published again in the United States. One book is called "Behind a Mask: the Unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott." The book includes four mystery stories. Another is called the lost stories of Louisa May Alcott. These stories are about love, betrayal, and illegal drugs. VOICE 2: Alcott wrote a story called "A Long Fatal Love Chase." It is about an independent young woman. She marries an older man who already has a wife. She flees from him. He follows her throughout Europe. The book tells of insanity, violence, and death. Louisa May Alcott tried to get the book published in eighteen-sixty-six. The publisher rejected it. He said it was too shocking. A man who collected Alcott materials found the unpublished story in a bookstore in New York City. He bought it for about fifty-thousand dollars a few years ago. He reportedly sold it to a major American publisher for about one-million dollars. VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott wrote many exciting stories about love. Yet she never married. She continued to support her family during the last years of her life. In fact, she cared for the young daughter of her sister may who died in eighteen-seventy-nine. Alcott was involved in the movements to end slavery and to gain voting rights for women. She wrote that "I ... take more pride in the very small help we Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote." Louisa May Alcott died in eighteen-eighty-eight. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Louisa May Alcott's most famous book, "Little Women", tells the story of the March family of Concord, Massachusetts. The story begins during the American civil war in the eighteen-sixties. Mr. March is away from home. He is with the troops of the Union Army. He is a religious worker. Mister March is raising her four daughters by herself. The March family is very close. They do many things together. They do not have much money. They suffer shortages caused by the war. Yet they share what they have with people who are in need. VOICE 1: The four daughters are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They are strong, brave, and loving. Jo is the most important person in the book. She is smart. She has a good imagination. She writes stories. And she creates plays that the sisters perform together. Jo also is independent. She chooses a non-traditional life. She goes to New York to become a writer. There she meets an older man, a professor. She returns home to care for her parents. She writes stories that become very popular. Later, Jo marries the professor. Together, they establish a school. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: The March family in "Little Women" is very much like Louisa May Alcott's family. Her sisters are like the sisters in the book. And the leading person, Jo, is like Louisa. Jo must work to support her family, just as Louisa had to do. One of Jo's jobs is to help a family member, an old woman called aunt March. Jo does not really like aunt March. But she loves the old woman's house, especially the large library with hundreds of books. This is how Alcott writes about this place: VOICE 1: "The dim, dusty room ... the cozy chairs, the globes, and, best of all, the wilderness of books in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her. The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet space, and, curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures, like a regular bookworm." All of these wonderful books put great ideas into Jo's head. Jo wanted to do something very wonderful, Alcott writes. "What it was she had no idea as yet, but left it for time to tell her." VOICE 2: Jo's beloved sister Beth dies young, as Alcott's own sister Beth did. Jo is very unhappy. Her mother tells her to write because that always made her happy. Jo writes a story "that went straight to the hearts of those who read it." Jo can not understand how her simple little story became so popular. Her father explains, "there is truth in it, Jo, that's the secret; ... You have found your style at last. You wrote with no thought of fame or money, and put your heart into it ... ; You have had the bitter, now comes the sweet." VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott's book, ""Little Women"," is still extremely popular. Women who read the book when they were young often give it to their daughters. Some famous American women even claim they decided to become writers after reading how Jo March became a writer in "Little Women". (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: I'm Steve Ember VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Louisa May Alcott. She wrote one of America's best loved children's books. VOICE 1: In eighteen-sixty-eight, an American publisher asked a struggling young writer to write a book for girls. At first, the writer, Louisa May Alcott, was not sure she wanted to do it. She said she never liked girls. And she never knew many, except her sisters. She thought her family's activities and experiences might be interesting to others. But, she said, probably not. VOICE 2: Alcott decided to write the book anyway. She told about her experiences growing up in the northeastern United States during the middle of the nineteenth century. Her book proved to be more than interesting. "Little Women" became one of the most popular children's books in American literature. It has been published in more than fifty languages. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott was born in Pennsylvania in eighteen-thirty-two. She was the second of four daughters. She had one older sister, Anna. And two younger sisters, ElizaBeth, called Beth, and may. Her parents were Bronson and Abigail Alcott. Her father was an educator and social reformer. The Alcotts later settled in Concord, Massachusetts. Several great American writers were friends of the family. They included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Mister Alcott provided the girls' education. He taught them many subjects. He also made them write about their personal thoughts and experiences. VOICE 2: The Alcotts did not have much money. Louisa worked to help support her family. She tried teaching, sewing, and taking care of children. She did not like any of these Jobs. Louisa thought of herself as a writer. At the age of sixteen, she wrote her first book. It was called flower fables. She decided to sell what she wrote. She wrote many kinds of poems, stories, and plays. Her stories were exciting, but unrealistic. She sold them to newspapers and magazines for small amounts of money. VOICE 1: In eighteen-sixty-two, during the American civil war, Louisa May Alcott went to Washington, D-C. She served as a nurse in a military hospital. She cared for sick and wounded soldiers. She wrote letters to her family about her experiences. She included these letters in a book that was published the next year. Critics praised it but it did not bring her much money. And, working in the hospital damaged her health. VOICE 2: In eighteen-sixty-five she visited Europe as a helper to an older woman. Alcott hoped to re-gain her health. She spent a long time away from her family. Her health did not improve. But she thought about her writing. When she returned, she agreed to her publisher's request that she write a book for girls based on the life she knew. "Little Women" was published in eighteen-sixty-eight. The book was immediately popular with people of all ages. It brought Alcott fame and a lot of money. She continued writing other popular books for young people. These included an old-fashioned girl, little men, and eight cousins. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott wrote books for adults, as well as children. She published these under another name -- A.M. Barnard. These books were published before "Little Women" made her famous. They were very different from her children's stories. They were about love, power, and unhappiness. They have been published again in the United States. One book is called "Behind a Mask: the Unknown thrillers of Louisa May Alcott." The book includes four mystery stories. Another is called the lost stories of Louisa May Alcott. These stories are about love, betrayal, and illegal drugs. VOICE 2: Alcott wrote a story called "A Long Fatal Love Chase." It is about an independent young woman. She marries an older man who already has a wife. She flees from him. He follows her throughout Europe. The book tells of insanity, violence, and death. Louisa May Alcott tried to get the book published in eighteen-sixty-six. The publisher rejected it. He said it was too shocking. A man who collected Alcott materials found the unpublished story in a bookstore in New York City. He bought it for about fifty-thousand dollars a few years ago. He reportedly sold it to a major American publisher for about one-million dollars. VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott wrote many exciting stories about love. Yet she never married. She continued to support her family during the last years of her life. In fact, she cared for the young daughter of her sister may who died in eighteen-seventy-nine. Alcott was involved in the movements to end slavery and to gain voting rights for women. She wrote that "I ... take more pride in the very small help we Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote." Louisa May Alcott died in eighteen-eighty-eight. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Louisa May Alcott's most famous book, "Little Women", tells the story of the March family of Concord, Massachusetts. The story begins during the American civil war in the eighteen-sixties. Mr. March is away from home. He is with the troops of the Union Army. He is a religious worker. Mister March is raising her four daughters by herself. The March family is very close. They do many things together. They do not have much money. They suffer shortages caused by the war. Yet they share what they have with people who are in need. VOICE 1: The four daughters are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They are strong, brave, and loving. Jo is the most important person in the book. She is smart. She has a good imagination. She writes stories. And she creates plays that the sisters perform together. Jo also is independent. She chooses a non-traditional life. She goes to New York to become a writer. There she meets an older man, a professor. She returns home to care for her parents. She writes stories that become very popular. Later, Jo marries the professor. Together, they establish a school. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: The March family in "Little Women" is very much like Louisa May Alcott's family. Her sisters are like the sisters in the book. And the leading person, Jo, is like Louisa. Jo must work to support her family, just as Louisa had to do. One of Jo's jobs is to help a family member, an old woman called aunt March. Jo does not really like aunt March. But she loves the old woman's house, especially the large library with hundreds of books. This is how Alcott writes about this place: VOICE 1: "The dim, dusty room ... the cozy chairs, the globes, and, best of all, the wilderness of books in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her. The moment Aunt March took her nap, or was busy with company, Jo hurried to this quiet space, and, curling herself up in the easy chair, devoured poetry, romance, history, travels, and pictures, like a regular bookworm." All of these wonderful books put great ideas into Jo's head. Jo wanted to do something very wonderful, Alcott writes. "What it was she had no idea as yet, but left it for time to tell her." VOICE 2: Jo's beloved sister Beth dies young, as Alcott's own sister Beth did. Jo is very unhappy. Her mother tells her to write because that always made her happy. Jo writes a story "that went straight to the hearts of those who read it." Jo can not understand how her simple little story became so popular. Her father explains, "there is truth in it, Jo, that's the secret; ... You have found your style at last. You wrote with no thought of fame or money, and put your heart into it ... ; You have had the bitter, now comes the sweet." VOICE 1: Louisa May Alcott's book, ""Little Women"," is still extremely popular. Women who read the book when they were young often give it to their daughters. Some famous American women even claim they decided to become writers after reading how Jo March became a writer in "Little Women". (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 29, 2002: Space Race
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Phil Murray. Soviet Sputnik postage stamp VOICE 1: This is Phil Murray. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the race to explore outer space. VOICE 1: On a cold October day in nineteen-fifty-seven, the Soviet Union launched a small satellite into orbit around the Earth. Radio Moscow made the announcement. ((TAPE: Radio Moscow)) [English translation:] "The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created. This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR." The world's first satellite was called Sputnik One. Sputnik was an important propaganda victory for the Soviets in its cold war with the United States. Many people believed the nation that controlled the skies could win any war. And the Soviet Union had reached outer space first. VOICE 2: The technology that launched Sputnik probably began in the late nineteenth century. A Russian teacher of that time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, decided that a rocket engine could provide power for a space vehicle. In the early nineteen-hundreds, another teacher -- American Robert Goddard -- tested the idea. He experimented with small rockets to see how high and how far they could travel. In nineteen-twenty-three, a Romanian student in Germany, Hermann Oberth, showed how a spaceship might be built and launched to other planets. VOICE 1: Rocket technology improved during World War Two. It was used to produce bombs. Thousands of people in Britain and Belgium died as a result of V-Two rocket attacks. The V-Two rockets were launched from Germany. After the war, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union -- allies in wartime -- would become enemies in peacetime. So, both countries employed German scientists to help them win the race to space. VOICE 2: The Soviets took the first step by creating Sputnik. This satellite was about the size of a basketball. It got its power from a rocket. It orbited Earth for three months. Within weeks, the Soviets launched another satellite into Earth orbit, Sputnik Two. It was much bigger and heavier than Sputnik one. It also carried a passenger: a dog named Laika. Laika orbited Earth for seven days. VOICE 1: The United States joined the space race about three months later, it launched a satellite from Cape Canaveral, in the southeastern state of Florida. This satellite was called Explorer One. It weighed about fourteen kilograms. Explorer One went into a higher orbit than either Sputnik. And its instruments made an important discovery. They found an area of radiation about nine-hundred-sixty kilometers above Earth. VOICE 2: The next major space victory belonged to the Soviets. They sent the first man into space. In April, nineteen-sixty-one, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched in the vehicle known as Vostok. He remained in space for less than two hours. He landed safely by parachute near a village in Russia. Less than a month later, the United States sent its first astronaut into space. He was Alan Shepard. Shepard remained in space only about fifteen minutes. He did not go into Earth orbit. That flight came in February, nineteen-sixty-two, with John Glenn. VOICE 1: By nineteen-sixty-five, the United States and the Soviet Union were experimenting to see if humans could survive outside a spacecraft. In March, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to do so. A special rope connected him to the spacecraft. It provided him with oxygen to breathe. And it permitted him to float freely at the other end. After about ten minutes, Leonov had to return to the spacecraft. He said he regretted the decision. He was having such a good time! A little more than two months later, an American would walk outside his spacecraft. Astronaut Edward White had a kind of rocket gun. This gave him some control of his movements in space. Like Leonov, White was sorry when he had to return to his spacecraft. VOICE 2: Later that year, nineteen-sixty-five, the United States tried to have one spacecraft get very close to another spacecraft while in orbit. This was the first step in getting spacecraft to link, or dock, together. Docking would be necessary to land men on the moon. The plan called for a Gemini spacecraft carrying two astronauts to get close to an unmanned satellite. The attempt failed. The target satellite exploded as it separated from its main rocket. America's space agency decided to move forward. It would launch the next in its Gemini series. Then someone had an idea: why not launch both Geminis. The second one could chase the first one, instead of a satellite. Again, things did not go as planned. VOICE 1: It took two tries to launch the second Gemini. By that time, the first one had been in orbit about eleven days. Time was running out. The astronauts on the second Gemini moved their spacecraft into higher orbits. They got closer and closer to the Gemini ahead of them. They needed to get within six-hundred meters to be considered successful. After all the problems on the ground, the events in space went smoothly. The two spacecraft got within one-third of a meter of each other. The astronauts had made the operation seem easy. VOICE 2: In January, nineteen-fifty-nine, the Soviets launched a series of unmanned Luna rockets. The third of these flights took pictures of the far side of the moon. This was the side no one on Earth had ever seen. The United States planned to explore the moon with its unmanned Ranger spacecraft. There were a number of failures before Ranger Seven took pictures of the moon. These pictures were made from a distance. The world did not get pictures from the surface of the moon until the Soviet Luna nine landed there in February, nineteen-sixty-six. VOICE 1: For the next few years, both the United States and Soviet Union continued their exploration of the moon. Yet the question remained: which one would be the first to put a man there. In December, nineteen-sixty-eight, the United States launched Apollo eight with three astronauts. The flight proved that a spacecraft could orbit the moon and return to Earth safely. VOICE 2: The Apollo nine spacecraft had two vehicles. One was the command module. It could orbit the moon, but could not land on it. The other was the Lunar module. On a flight to the moon, it would separate from the command module and land on the moon's surface. Apollo ten astronauts unlinked the Lunar module and flew it close to the moon's surface. VOICE 1: After those flights, everything was ready. On July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty-nine, three American astronauts lifted off in Apollo eleven. On the twentieth, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the Lunar module, called the Eagle. Michael Collins remained in the command module, the Columbia. The two vehicles separated. It was a dangerous time. The Eagle could crash. Or it could fall over after it landed. That meant the astronauts would die on the moon. VOICE 2: Millions of people watched on television or listened on the radio. They waited for Armstrong's message: "The Eagle has landed. " Then they waited again. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations needed to leave the Lunar module. Finally, the door opened. Neil Armstrong climbed down first. He put one foot on the moon. Then the other foot. And then came his words, from so far away: ((TAPE: “That's one small step for man … one giant leap for mankind.")) That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. VOICE 1: Armstrong walked around. Soon, Aldrin joined him. The two men placed an American flag on the surface of the moon. They also collected moon rocks and soil. When it was time to leave, they returned to the Eagle and guided it safely away. They reunited with the Columbia and headed for home. The United States had won the race to the moon. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another v-o-a Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the race to explore outer space. VOICE 1: On a cold October day in nineteen-fifty-seven, the Soviet Union launched a small satellite into orbit around the Earth. Radio Moscow made the announcement. ((TAPE: Radio Moscow)) [English translation:] "The first artificial Earth satellite in the world has now been created. This first satellite was today successfully launched in the USSR." The world's first satellite was called Sputnik One. Sputnik was an important propaganda victory for the Soviets in its cold war with the United States. Many people believed the nation that controlled the skies could win any war. And the Soviet Union had reached outer space first. VOICE 2: The technology that launched Sputnik probably began in the late nineteenth century. A Russian teacher of that time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, decided that a rocket engine could provide power for a space vehicle. In the early nineteen-hundreds, another teacher -- American Robert Goddard -- tested the idea. He experimented with small rockets to see how high and how far they could travel. In nineteen-twenty-three, a Romanian student in Germany, Hermann Oberth, showed how a spaceship might be built and launched to other planets. VOICE 1: Rocket technology improved during World War Two. It was used to produce bombs. Thousands of people in Britain and Belgium died as a result of V-Two rocket attacks. The V-Two rockets were launched from Germany. After the war, it became clear that the United States and the Soviet Union -- allies in wartime -- would become enemies in peacetime. So, both countries employed German scientists to help them win the race to space. VOICE 2: The Soviets took the first step by creating Sputnik. This satellite was about the size of a basketball. It got its power from a rocket. It orbited Earth for three months. Within weeks, the Soviets launched another satellite into Earth orbit, Sputnik Two. It was much bigger and heavier than Sputnik one. It also carried a passenger: a dog named Laika. Laika orbited Earth for seven days. VOICE 1: The United States joined the space race about three months later, it launched a satellite from Cape Canaveral, in the southeastern state of Florida. This satellite was called Explorer One. It weighed about fourteen kilograms. Explorer One went into a higher orbit than either Sputnik. And its instruments made an important discovery. They found an area of radiation about nine-hundred-sixty kilometers above Earth. VOICE 2: The next major space victory belonged to the Soviets. They sent the first man into space. In April, nineteen-sixty-one, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched in the vehicle known as Vostok. He remained in space for less than two hours. He landed safely by parachute near a village in Russia. Less than a month later, the United States sent its first astronaut into space. He was Alan Shepard. Shepard remained in space only about fifteen minutes. He did not go into Earth orbit. That flight came in February, nineteen-sixty-two, with John Glenn. VOICE 1: By nineteen-sixty-five, the United States and the Soviet Union were experimenting to see if humans could survive outside a spacecraft. In March, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to do so. A special rope connected him to the spacecraft. It provided him with oxygen to breathe. And it permitted him to float freely at the other end. After about ten minutes, Leonov had to return to the spacecraft. He said he regretted the decision. He was having such a good time! A little more than two months later, an American would walk outside his spacecraft. Astronaut Edward White had a kind of rocket gun. This gave him some control of his movements in space. Like Leonov, White was sorry when he had to return to his spacecraft. VOICE 2: Later that year, nineteen-sixty-five, the United States tried to have one spacecraft get very close to another spacecraft while in orbit. This was the first step in getting spacecraft to link, or dock, together. Docking would be necessary to land men on the moon. The plan called for a Gemini spacecraft carrying two astronauts to get close to an unmanned satellite. The attempt failed. The target satellite exploded as it separated from its main rocket. America's space agency decided to move forward. It would launch the next in its Gemini series. Then someone had an idea: why not launch both Geminis. The second one could chase the first one, instead of a satellite. Again, things did not go as planned. VOICE 1: It took two tries to launch the second Gemini. By that time, the first one had been in orbit about eleven days. Time was running out. The astronauts on the second Gemini moved their spacecraft into higher orbits. They got closer and closer to the Gemini ahead of them. They needed to get within six-hundred meters to be considered successful. After all the problems on the ground, the events in space went smoothly. The two spacecraft got within one-third of a meter of each other. The astronauts had made the operation seem easy. VOICE 2: In January, nineteen-fifty-nine, the Soviets launched a series of unmanned Luna rockets. The third of these flights took pictures of the far side of the moon. This was the side no one on Earth had ever seen. The United States planned to explore the moon with its unmanned Ranger spacecraft. There were a number of failures before Ranger Seven took pictures of the moon. These pictures were made from a distance. The world did not get pictures from the surface of the moon until the Soviet Luna nine landed there in February, nineteen-sixty-six. VOICE 1: For the next few years, both the United States and Soviet Union continued their exploration of the moon. Yet the question remained: which one would be the first to put a man there. In December, nineteen-sixty-eight, the United States launched Apollo eight with three astronauts. The flight proved that a spacecraft could orbit the moon and return to Earth safely. VOICE 2: The Apollo nine spacecraft had two vehicles. One was the command module. It could orbit the moon, but could not land on it. The other was the Lunar module. On a flight to the moon, it would separate from the command module and land on the moon's surface. Apollo ten astronauts unlinked the Lunar module and flew it close to the moon's surface. VOICE 1: After those flights, everything was ready. On July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty-nine, three American astronauts lifted off in Apollo eleven. On the twentieth, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin entered the Lunar module, called the Eagle. Michael Collins remained in the command module, the Columbia. The two vehicles separated. It was a dangerous time. The Eagle could crash. Or it could fall over after it landed. That meant the astronauts would die on the moon. VOICE 2: Millions of people watched on television or listened on the radio. They waited for Armstrong's message: "The Eagle has landed. " Then they waited again. It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete the preparations needed to leave the Lunar module. Finally, the door opened. Neil Armstrong climbed down first. He put one foot on the moon. Then the other foot. And then came his words, from so far away: ((TAPE: “That's one small step for man … one giant leap for mankind.")) That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind. VOICE 1: Armstrong walked around. Soon, Aldrin joined him. The two men placed an American flag on the surface of the moon. They also collected moon rocks and soil. When it was time to leave, they returned to the Eagle and guided it safely away. They reunited with the Columbia and headed for home. The United States had won the race to the moon. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another v-o-a Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 30, 2002: Dolly Parton's New Album / A Question About Presidential Pens / eBay
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA's radio magazine in Special English. President Bush giving away pens after a signing ceremony.(Photo - White House) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA's radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today: We play music by Dolly Parton ... Answer a question from a listener about the pens that presidents use to sign important documents ... Dolly Parton's latest album (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today: We play music by Dolly Parton ... Answer a question from a listener about the pens that presidents use to sign important documents ... And tell about the world's biggest electronic auction. eBay HOST: Every day, about five-hundred-thousand things are sold on the Internet computer Web site called eBay. It has been called the most successful business in Internet history. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: eBay is an international electronic auction. Computer users around the world compete to buy things for sale on the eBay Web site. The person who offers the most money buys the object. You can buy and sell almost anything on eBay. This includes art, books, electronic equipment, clothing, cameras, sports equipment, jewelry, movies and music. You can even buy and sell cars, property and places to spend your holiday. There are about eleven-million things for sale on eBay at one time. Many people buy and sell special things that they collect, like toy trains or dolls. Some of these things become very valuable over the years. For example, a woman in Palm Bay, Florida has collected the toys called Barbie dolls since she was a little girl. She knows which ones are valuable because they are rare. Recently she bought one doll for a few dollars at someone's yard sale. She later sold it for several hundred dollars on eBay. Some things on eBay sell for only a few dollars. Others sell for many thousands of dollars, such as old cars or rare money collections. Some Americans have started their own businesses selling things on eBay. More than one hundred thousand businesses now operate only on eBay. The headquarters of eBay are in San Jose, California. A young man named Pierre Omidyar started eBay. He worked as a computer programmer in California. Mister Omidyar's idea was to create a perfect, international marketplace where everyone was equal. His idea began as a Web site called AuctionWeb in nineteen-ninety-five. Three years later it became a public company. It was then valued at more than two-thousand-million dollars. eBay does not sell anything itself. Instead, it connects buyers and sellers. It collects money from the sellers for every object sold. eBay has links to Web sites in twenty other countries. Almost fifty-million people around the world buy and sell things on eBay. Presidential Pens HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Vu Hoai Thu wants to know why President Bush uses a lot of pens when he signs an official document. Also, what happens to all these pens after the President signs his name on a document? For the answers, we turn to Bill Bushong (BUSH-ong). He is a historian with the White House Historical Association. Mister Bushong says it is a tradition for presidents to use many writing instruments at official signing ceremonies. He says a president often uses twelve or more pens during a single ceremony. Each pen serves as a memento, or something that helps someone remember an event. Most of the pens are given to people considered important to the approval of a bill or treaty, such as members of Congress. A few private citizens attending the ceremony also may receive a pen. Mister Bushong says the White House sends one pen used by the president and a copy of the signed document to the National Archives. The National Archives is the federal agency that collects and saves official records. The president also may decide to keep one of the pens. It may be included with other important objects in a presidential library after he leaves office. Members of the president's family may keep a few of the pens used at official ceremonies. The pens rarely are offered to the general public. However, you might be able to buy one from someone who attended a signing ceremony. Such pens are sometimes sold in special stores. Computer users also can search for them on Internet auction Web sites, like eBay. Another way to get a pen from the White House is through the official White House store. The White House gift shop sells a number of writing instruments. Some pens come in beautiful wooden boxes and cost twenty-five or thirty dollars. Other pens cost from four dollars to ten dollars. You can also buy twelve White House pencils for about four dollars. Now, some final thoughts about presidential pens. For more than fifty years, pens made by the Parker company were used at White House signing ceremonies. However, the current president uses pens made by another company, Shaeffer. Dolly Parton HOST: One of the most popular country music artists has released a new album. Shep O'Neal tells about Dolly Parton's record, "Halos and Horns." ANNCR: Dolly Parton grew up poor in the Great Smoky Mountain area of Tennessee. She listened to traditional mountain music called bluegrass. Mizz Parton's recent albums, including "Halos and Horns," have honored that kind of music. The banjo, fiddle and mandolin are some of the most common instruments used in bluegrass music. Listen for these instruments in "Sugar Hill," a song about memories of mountain life. (MUSIC) Dolly Parton is as famous for writing songs as she is for singing them. She has published more than three-thousand songs. Many of her songs have become hit recordings for other artists. Last year, the National Academy of Popular Music chose Mizz Parton to be included in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Dolly Parton wrote two songs for "Halos and Horns" in reaction to the terrorist attacks on the United States last September. In "Raven Dove" she sings about a time when there is no war or hate. (MUSIC) Dolly Parton also re-recorded a famous rock and roll song for "Halos and Horns." Critics were surprised by her choice of "Stairway to Heaven" by the band Led Zeppelin. But most critics praised her version. We leave you now with Dolly Parton singing "Stairway to Heaven." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA's radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Shelley Gollust. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And tell about the world's biggest electronic auction. eBay HOST: Every day, about five-hundred-thousand things are sold on the Internet computer Web site called eBay. It has been called the most successful business in Internet history. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: eBay is an international electronic auction. Computer users around the world compete to buy things for sale on the eBay Web site. The person who offers the most money buys the object. You can buy and sell almost anything on eBay. This includes art, books, electronic equipment, clothing, cameras, sports equipment, jewelry, movies and music. You can even buy and sell cars, property and places to spend your holiday. There are about eleven-million things for sale on eBay at one time. Many people buy and sell special things that they collect, like toy trains or dolls. Some of these things become very valuable over the years. For example, a woman in Palm Bay, Florida has collected the toys called Barbie dolls since she was a little girl. She knows which ones are valuable because they are rare. Recently she bought one doll for a few dollars at someone's yard sale. She later sold it for several hundred dollars on eBay. Some things on eBay sell for only a few dollars. Others sell for many thousands of dollars, such as old cars or rare money collections. Some Americans have started their own businesses selling things on eBay. More than one hundred thousand businesses now operate only on eBay. The headquarters of eBay are in San Jose, California. A young man named Pierre Omidyar started eBay. He worked as a computer programmer in California. Mister Omidyar's idea was to create a perfect, international marketplace where everyone was equal. His idea began as a Web site called AuctionWeb in nineteen-ninety-five. Three years later it became a public company. It was then valued at more than two-thousand-million dollars. eBay does not sell anything itself. Instead, it connects buyers and sellers. It collects money from the sellers for every object sold. eBay has links to Web sites in twenty other countries. Almost fifty-million people around the world buy and sell things on eBay. Presidential Pens HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Vu Hoai Thu wants to know why President Bush uses a lot of pens when he signs an official document. Also, what happens to all these pens after the President signs his name on a document? For the answers, we turn to Bill Bushong (BUSH-ong). He is a historian with the White House Historical Association. Mister Bushong says it is a tradition for presidents to use many writing instruments at official signing ceremonies. He says a president often uses twelve or more pens during a single ceremony. Each pen serves as a memento, or something that helps someone remember an event. Most of the pens are given to people considered important to the approval of a bill or treaty, such as members of Congress. A few private citizens attending the ceremony also may receive a pen. Mister Bushong says the White House sends one pen used by the president and a copy of the signed document to the National Archives. The National Archives is the federal agency that collects and saves official records. The president also may decide to keep one of the pens. It may be included with other important objects in a presidential library after he leaves office. Members of the president's family may keep a few of the pens used at official ceremonies. The pens rarely are offered to the general public. However, you might be able to buy one from someone who attended a signing ceremony. Such pens are sometimes sold in special stores. Computer users also can search for them on Internet auction Web sites, like eBay. Another way to get a pen from the White House is through the official White House store. The White House gift shop sells a number of writing instruments. Some pens come in beautiful wooden boxes and cost twenty-five or thirty dollars. Other pens cost from four dollars to ten dollars. You can also buy twelve White House pencils for about four dollars. Now, some final thoughts about presidential pens. For more than fifty years, pens made by the Parker company were used at White House signing ceremonies. However, the current president uses pens made by another company, Shaeffer. Dolly Parton HOST: One of the most popular country music artists has released a new album. Shep O'Neal tells about Dolly Parton's record, "Halos and Horns." ANNCR: Dolly Parton grew up poor in the Great Smoky Mountain area of Tennessee. She listened to traditional mountain music called bluegrass. Mizz Parton's recent albums, including "Halos and Horns," have honored that kind of music. The banjo, fiddle and mandolin are some of the most common instruments used in bluegrass music. Listen for these instruments in "Sugar Hill," a song about memories of mountain life. (MUSIC) Dolly Parton is as famous for writing songs as she is for singing them. She has published more than three-thousand songs. Many of her songs have become hit recordings for other artists. Last year, the National Academy of Popular Music chose Mizz Parton to be included in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Dolly Parton wrote two songs for "Halos and Horns" in reaction to the terrorist attacks on the United States last September. In "Raven Dove" she sings about a time when there is no war or hate. (MUSIC) Dolly Parton also re-recorded a famous rock and roll song for "Halos and Horns." Critics were surprised by her choice of "Stairway to Heaven" by the band Led Zeppelin. But most critics praised her version. We leave you now with Dolly Parton singing "Stairway to Heaven." (MUSIC) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA's radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver, George Grow and Shelley Gollust. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 31, 2002: Rules on Making War
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. American officials and the public are debating if the United States should take military action against Iraq. Officials say Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is expanding his biological and chemical weapons program and seeking to build nuclear weapons. President Bush says he must be removed from power. There is support for action against Iraq among most leaders of Mister Bush’s Republican Party and many Democrats. Yet some of them say the United States should not act alone. Leaders of many countries have expressed concern about the possibility of an attack by the United States. The Bush administration claims it already has Congressional permission to go into Iraq. It says a resolution passed by Congress in nineteen-ninety-one approving the Persian Gulf War is still in effect. However, some political experts and members of Congress say new congressional approval would be required for military action against Iraq. On Thursday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, called for Congress to debate and vote before any possible military action. He said the United States Constitution demands it and the American people expect it. Article One of the Constitution gives the legislature of the United States government the power and right to declare war. Article Two makes the president the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. So, Congress is responsible for declaring war and the president is responsible for carrying it out. In ninety-seventy-three, Congress passed a law linked to those parts of the Constitution. It is called the War Powers Act. It says the president must tell Congress when he deploys troops into areas where hostile actions are probable. The same law orders the president to withdraw troops within sixty days unless Congress declares war, approves the military action, or extends the time limit. In nineteen-seventy-five, Gerald Ford became the first president to use the War Powers Act. He sent troops to re-capture an American transport ship captured by the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia. He took quick and limited military action against Cambodia and reported to Congress about it as required. Since then, other presidents have taken military action without following the War Powers Act. For example, President Reagan sent troops to assist Kuwaiti ships during the Iran-Iraq war in nineteen-eighty-seven. He said that action did not require use of the law. On Thursday, Vice-President Dick Cheney said that President Bush understands the importance of public and congressional support for any military action. He said Mister Bush would seek some kind of congressional approval for action in Iraq if he decides it is necessary. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. American officials and the public are debating if the United States should take military action against Iraq. Officials say Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is expanding his biological and chemical weapons program and seeking to build nuclear weapons. President Bush says he must be removed from power. There is support for action against Iraq among most leaders of Mister Bush’s Republican Party and many Democrats. Yet some of them say the United States should not act alone. Leaders of many countries have expressed concern about the possibility of an attack by the United States. The Bush administration claims it already has Congressional permission to go into Iraq. It says a resolution passed by Congress in nineteen-ninety-one approving the Persian Gulf War is still in effect. However, some political experts and members of Congress say new congressional approval would be required for military action against Iraq. On Thursday, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, called for Congress to debate and vote before any possible military action. He said the United States Constitution demands it and the American people expect it. Article One of the Constitution gives the legislature of the United States government the power and right to declare war. Article Two makes the president the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. So, Congress is responsible for declaring war and the president is responsible for carrying it out. In ninety-seventy-three, Congress passed a law linked to those parts of the Constitution. It is called the War Powers Act. It says the president must tell Congress when he deploys troops into areas where hostile actions are probable. The same law orders the president to withdraw troops within sixty days unless Congress declares war, approves the military action, or extends the time limit. In nineteen-seventy-five, Gerald Ford became the first president to use the War Powers Act. He sent troops to re-capture an American transport ship captured by the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia. He took quick and limited military action against Cambodia and reported to Congress about it as required. Since then, other presidents have taken military action without following the War Powers Act. For example, President Reagan sent troops to assist Kuwaiti ships during the Iran-Iraq war in nineteen-eighty-seven. He said that action did not require use of the law. On Thursday, Vice-President Dick Cheney said that President Bush understands the importance of public and congressional support for any military action. He said Mister Bush would seek some kind of congressional approval for action in Iraq if he decides it is necessary. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 2, 2002: Dengue Fever
* Byline: 

 This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says dengue (DEN-gay) fever is increasing in parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia. Health officials say the disease continues to be a major public health concern in countries with hot climates. People suffer from the disease in more than one-hundred nations in Africa, the Americas, the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Mosquito insects spread the dengue virus when they feed on the blood of an infected person. The disease spreads quickly in big cities where living conditions are not clean. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water storage areas or where bodily waste is collected. The W-H-O says better waste removal and water storage systems could stop mosquitoes from reproducing in those places. There are four different forms of the dengue virus. Because of this, no drug has been developed to fully prevent the disease. However, researchers believe a medical vaccine may be developed in several years. The last major increase in dengue fever was reported in nineteen-ninety-eight. The World Health Organization says more than one-million cases were reported that year. Health officials say this was a record number. However, they suspect that more than fifty-million people are infected with the disease around the world each year. The W-H-O estimates that about forty percent of the world’s population is at risk of getting dengue fever. The disease affects babies, children and young adults. A person with dengue fever has a high body temperature and severe pain in the head, muscles and bones. People infected with the disease do not usually die. However, the most serious form of the disease is dengue hemorrhagic fever. It kills about five percent of victims. Most of them are very young. Signs of this form of the disease include bleeding inside the body. The only method to control or prevent dengue fever is to kill mosquitoes carrying the disease. Most countries already use chemicals to kill mosquitoes. However, health problems develop when countries stop controlling mosquitoes when the number of cases of the disease is low. The W-H-O says the spread of dengue fever could be reduced if mosquito control programs were carried out all the time. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bill White. This is Bill White with the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says dengue (DEN-gay) fever is increasing in parts of Latin America and Southeast Asia. Health officials say the disease continues to be a major public health concern in countries with hot climates. People suffer from the disease in more than one-hundred nations in Africa, the Americas, the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Mosquito insects spread the dengue virus when they feed on the blood of an infected person. The disease spreads quickly in big cities where living conditions are not clean. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water storage areas or where bodily waste is collected. The W-H-O says better waste removal and water storage systems could stop mosquitoes from reproducing in those places. There are four different forms of the dengue virus. Because of this, no drug has been developed to fully prevent the disease. However, researchers believe a medical vaccine may be developed in several years. The last major increase in dengue fever was reported in nineteen-ninety-eight. The World Health Organization says more than one-million cases were reported that year. Health officials say this was a record number. However, they suspect that more than fifty-million people are infected with the disease around the world each year. The W-H-O estimates that about forty percent of the world’s population is at risk of getting dengue fever. The disease affects babies, children and young adults. A person with dengue fever has a high body temperature and severe pain in the head, muscles and bones. People infected with the disease do not usually die. However, the most serious form of the disease is dengue hemorrhagic fever. It kills about five percent of victims. Most of them are very young. Signs of this form of the disease include bleeding inside the body. The only method to control or prevent dengue fever is to kill mosquitoes carrying the disease. Most countries already use chemicals to kill mosquitoes. However, health problems develop when countries stop controlling mosquitoes when the number of cases of the disease is low. The W-H-O says the spread of dengue fever could be reduced if mosquito control programs were carried out all the time. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is Bill White. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 3, 2002: Stress and Illness
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Stress is a condition of mental or emotional tension. Today, we tell about the effects of stress on people’s health. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many people suffered mental and emotional problems after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States last year. Terrorism creates fear and fear often leads to severe stress. Studies suggest that stress can reduce the body’s ability to fight disease and can lead to serious health problems. Stress affects everybody every day. It is your body’s reaction to physical, chemical, emotional or environmental influences. Some stress is unavoidable and may even be good for us. Stress can keep our bodies and minds strong. It gives us the push we need to react to an urgent situation. Some people say it makes them more productive at work and gives them more energy. VOICE TWO: Too much stress, however, can be harmful. It may make an existing health problem worse. Or it can lead to illness if a person is at risk for the condition. For example, your body reacts to stressful situations by raising your blood pressure and making your heart work harder. This is especially dangerous is you already have heart or artery disease or high blood pressure. Stress is more likely to be harmful if you feel helpless to deal with the problem or situation that causes the stress. VOICE ONE: Anything you see as a problem can cause stress. It can be caused by everyday situations or by major problems. Stress results when something causes your body to act as if it were under attack. Sources of stress can be physical, such as injury or illness. Or they can be mental, such as problems with your family, job, health or finances. Many visits to doctors are for conditions related to stress. The tension of stress can interfere with sleep or cause uncontrollable anger or sadness. A person may become more forgetful or find it harder to concentrate. Losing one’s sense of humor is another sign of an unhealthy amount of stress. Stress can lead to many other health problems if people try to ease it by smoking, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or by eating more or less than normal. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Chronic stress lasts a long time or happens often. Chronic stress causes the body to produce too much of the hormones cortisol and adrenalin. Cortisol is called the “worry” hormone. It is produced when we are afraid. Adrenalin is known as the “fight or flight” hormone. It prepares the body to react physically to a threat. People under chronic stress produce too much of these hormones for too long. Too much cortisol and adrenalin can result in physical problems and even changes that lead to stress-related illnesses. Cortisol provides high levels of energy during important periods. However, scientists have become concerned about the hormone’s long-term effects on our health. Evidence shows that extended periods of cortisol in the body weakens bones, damages nerve cells in the brain and weakens the body’s defense system against disease. This makes it easier to get viral and bacterial infections. VOICE ONE: Chronic stress has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. Research suggests that people who are easily stressed develop blockages in their arteries faster than other people who are more calm. A recent study of women was carried out in Japan. It found that women who reported high levels of stress were more than two times as likely to die from stroke and heart disease as other women. High stress levels have been found to cause asthma attacks that make it difficult to breathe. Stress is also linked to mental conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders. Research also shows that chronic stress reduces the levels of the hormone estrogen in women. This might put some women at greater risk for heart disease or the bone-thinning disease, osteoporosis. Experts say long-term stress also can weaken your resistance to infections such as colds and influenza, as well as your ability to recover from these diseases. Extended periods of stress are also linked to headaches, difficulty sleeping, stomach problems and skin problems. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Mental and health experts believe personality is an important part in how we experience stress. Personality is the way a person acts, feels and thinks. Many things influence the development of a person’s personality, including genetics and experience. Some people, for example, are aggressive and always in a hurry. They often become angry when things do not happen the way they planned. They are called “Type A” personalities. Studies suggest that these people often get stress-related illnesses. The “Type B” personality is a much more calm person. These people are able to deal with all kinds of situations more easily. As a result, they are less affected by stress. VOICE ONE: Studies show that men and women deal with stress differently. Women usually have stronger social support systems to help them in times of trouble. These social supports may help explain why many women seem to be better able to deal with stress than men are. However, experts say women are three times more likely to develop depression in reaction to the stress in their lives. VOICE TWO: Chronic stress is most common among people in the workplace, especially among women. Scientists studying stress in the workplace say many working women are under severe stress because of the pressures of work, marriage and children. Some experts say that pressure can cause a chemical imbalance in the brain that can lead to depression. More than thirty-million American women suffer from depression. These problems are linked to their stress-filled lives and constant hurrying. VOICE ONE: People who care for family members who are old or sick also suffer from high levels of stress. Most caregivers in the United States are women. Several studies have been done on people who care for family members with Alzheimer’s disease. The studies showed that the caregivers had high cortisol levels in their bodies. This greatly weakened their immune systems against disease. For example, one study in the United States found that women who cared for family members with Alzheimer’s took an average of nine days longer to heal a small wound. The researchers found that the blood cells from the caregivers produced lower amounts of substances that are important for healing and for fighting disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several ways to deal with stress. They include deep breathing and a method of guided thought called meditation. They also include exercise, eating healthy foods, getting enough rest and balancing the time spent working and playing. Doctors say people should limit the amounts of alcohol and caffeine in their diets. People who have many drinks with caffeine, like coffee, experience more stress and produce more stress hormones. Experts say exercise is one of the most effective stress-reduction measures. Running, walking or playing sports causes physical changes that make you feel better. Exercise also improves the body’s defense system against disease. And a recent study has found that it helps protect against a decrease in mental ability. Doctors say deep, slow breathing is also helpful. And many medical studies have shown that clearing the mind through quiet meditation helps you become calm. This causes lower blood pressure, reduced muscle tension and decreased heart rate. VOICE ONE: Experts also say keeping stress to yourself can make problems worse. Researchers have linked the inability to identify and express emotions to many health conditions. These include eating disorders, fear disorders and high blood pressure. They say expressing emotions to friends or family members or writing down your feelings can help reduce stress. Experts say people should try to accept or change stressful situations whenever possible. Reducing stress may help you feel better and live longer. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Stress is a condition of mental or emotional tension. Today, we tell about the effects of stress on people’s health. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many people suffered mental and emotional problems after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States last year. Terrorism creates fear and fear often leads to severe stress. Studies suggest that stress can reduce the body’s ability to fight disease and can lead to serious health problems. Stress affects everybody every day. It is your body’s reaction to physical, chemical, emotional or environmental influences. Some stress is unavoidable and may even be good for us. Stress can keep our bodies and minds strong. It gives us the push we need to react to an urgent situation. Some people say it makes them more productive at work and gives them more energy. VOICE TWO: Too much stress, however, can be harmful. It may make an existing health problem worse. Or it can lead to illness if a person is at risk for the condition. For example, your body reacts to stressful situations by raising your blood pressure and making your heart work harder. This is especially dangerous is you already have heart or artery disease or high blood pressure. Stress is more likely to be harmful if you feel helpless to deal with the problem or situation that causes the stress. VOICE ONE: Anything you see as a problem can cause stress. It can be caused by everyday situations or by major problems. Stress results when something causes your body to act as if it were under attack. Sources of stress can be physical, such as injury or illness. Or they can be mental, such as problems with your family, job, health or finances. Many visits to doctors are for conditions related to stress. The tension of stress can interfere with sleep or cause uncontrollable anger or sadness. A person may become more forgetful or find it harder to concentrate. Losing one’s sense of humor is another sign of an unhealthy amount of stress. Stress can lead to many other health problems if people try to ease it by smoking, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, or by eating more or less than normal. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Chronic stress lasts a long time or happens often. Chronic stress causes the body to produce too much of the hormones cortisol and adrenalin. Cortisol is called the “worry” hormone. It is produced when we are afraid. Adrenalin is known as the “fight or flight” hormone. It prepares the body to react physically to a threat. People under chronic stress produce too much of these hormones for too long. Too much cortisol and adrenalin can result in physical problems and even changes that lead to stress-related illnesses. Cortisol provides high levels of energy during important periods. However, scientists have become concerned about the hormone’s long-term effects on our health. Evidence shows that extended periods of cortisol in the body weakens bones, damages nerve cells in the brain and weakens the body’s defense system against disease. This makes it easier to get viral and bacterial infections. VOICE ONE: Chronic stress has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease. Research suggests that people who are easily stressed develop blockages in their arteries faster than other people who are more calm. A recent study of women was carried out in Japan. It found that women who reported high levels of stress were more than two times as likely to die from stroke and heart disease as other women. High stress levels have been found to cause asthma attacks that make it difficult to breathe. Stress is also linked to mental conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders. Research also shows that chronic stress reduces the levels of the hormone estrogen in women. This might put some women at greater risk for heart disease or the bone-thinning disease, osteoporosis. Experts say long-term stress also can weaken your resistance to infections such as colds and influenza, as well as your ability to recover from these diseases. Extended periods of stress are also linked to headaches, difficulty sleeping, stomach problems and skin problems. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Mental and health experts believe personality is an important part in how we experience stress. Personality is the way a person acts, feels and thinks. Many things influence the development of a person’s personality, including genetics and experience. Some people, for example, are aggressive and always in a hurry. They often become angry when things do not happen the way they planned. They are called “Type A” personalities. Studies suggest that these people often get stress-related illnesses. The “Type B” personality is a much more calm person. These people are able to deal with all kinds of situations more easily. As a result, they are less affected by stress. VOICE ONE: Studies show that men and women deal with stress differently. Women usually have stronger social support systems to help them in times of trouble. These social supports may help explain why many women seem to be better able to deal with stress than men are. However, experts say women are three times more likely to develop depression in reaction to the stress in their lives. VOICE TWO: Chronic stress is most common among people in the workplace, especially among women. Scientists studying stress in the workplace say many working women are under severe stress because of the pressures of work, marriage and children. Some experts say that pressure can cause a chemical imbalance in the brain that can lead to depression. More than thirty-million American women suffer from depression. These problems are linked to their stress-filled lives and constant hurrying. VOICE ONE: People who care for family members who are old or sick also suffer from high levels of stress. Most caregivers in the United States are women. Several studies have been done on people who care for family members with Alzheimer’s disease. The studies showed that the caregivers had high cortisol levels in their bodies. This greatly weakened their immune systems against disease. For example, one study in the United States found that women who cared for family members with Alzheimer’s took an average of nine days longer to heal a small wound. The researchers found that the blood cells from the caregivers produced lower amounts of substances that are important for healing and for fighting disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several ways to deal with stress. They include deep breathing and a method of guided thought called meditation. They also include exercise, eating healthy foods, getting enough rest and balancing the time spent working and playing. Doctors say people should limit the amounts of alcohol and caffeine in their diets. People who have many drinks with caffeine, like coffee, experience more stress and produce more stress hormones. Experts say exercise is one of the most effective stress-reduction measures. Running, walking or playing sports causes physical changes that make you feel better. Exercise also improves the body’s defense system against disease. And a recent study has found that it helps protect against a decrease in mental ability. Doctors say deep, slow breathing is also helpful. And many medical studies have shown that clearing the mind through quiet meditation helps you become calm. This causes lower blood pressure, reduced muscle tension and decreased heart rate. VOICE ONE: Experts also say keeping stress to yourself can make problems worse. Researchers have linked the inability to identify and express emotions to many health conditions. These include eating disorders, fear disorders and high blood pressure. They say expressing emotions to friends or family members or writing down your feelings can help reduce stress. Experts say people should try to accept or change stressful situations whenever possible. Reducing stress may help you feel better and live longer. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-30-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 2, 2002: Labor Movement Songs
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Labor Day is an American holiday that honors working people. It is celebrated each year on the first Monday of September. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we play some songs from the American labor movement on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The labor movement in the United States has been very successful. It has won many rights for American workers. The struggle for these rights was long and difficult. Yet few people remember the battles. Americans know about them mostly through music. For music was an important part of the campaign for workers' rights. The songs are stories of struggle and pride. Struggle to win good pay and working conditions. Pride in work that is well done. Some of the songs tell of working long hours for little pay. Some tell of the bitter, sometimes violent, struggle between workers and business owners. VOICE TWO: Union activists knew that songs could be weapons. The music was a way to help people feel strong and united. So most labor songs express the workers' hope that a union could make life better. The people who wrote labor songs were workers and activists, not professional musicians. Usually they did not write new music. They wrote new words to old songs. One example is the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song. Here is folksinger Pete Seeger. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Many of the best labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the southern United States. Coal mining was perhaps the most dangerous job in America. There were few health or safety rules to protect workers. The labor movement demanded action. But mine owners bitterly opposed miners' unions. In some areas, there was open war between labor activists and coal companies. VOICE TWO: Once in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to the home of one man. They did not find him there. So, they waited outside for several days. The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are You On?" Again, here is Pete Seeger. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Joe Hill was probably the most famous labor song writer in America. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in the early nineteen-hundreds. He worked as an unskilled laborer. Joe Hill joined a labor union called the I-W-W, the Industrial Workers of the World. More than any other union, the I-W-W used music in its campaigns. It told its members to "sing and fight." One of Joe Hill's best-known songs is "Casey Jones." It uses the music from a song about a train engineer. In the old song, Jones is a hero. He bravely keeps his train running in very difficult conditions. In Joe Hill's version, Casey Jones is no hero. His train is unsafe. Yet he continues to operate it after other workers have called a strike against the railroad company. Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers sing "Casey Jones – The Union Scab.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: When labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill was thirty-three years old, he was accused of murder. Some historians believe that police falsely accused him of murder to stop his labor activities. Others say there was strong evidence that he was guilty. Joe Hill was executed in nineteen-fifteen in the state of Utah. Reports say these were his last words: "Do not waste time feeling sad about my death. Organize the workers." The song "Joe Hill" was written by Earl Robinson and Alfred Hayes. It is sung here by Joan Baez. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Labor historian and musician Joe Glazer says the unofficial song of America's labor movement is the song called "Solidarity Forever." It was written in nineteen-fifteen by Ralph Chaplin. He was a poet and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World union. Ralph Chaplin wanted to write a song of revolution. He said it should show that workers would always unite to claim their rights. Here is “Solidarity Forever,” sung by the Whiteville Choir. These singers are members of a clothing workers union in Whiteville, North Carolina. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: To most Americans today, labor songs are part of the past. One reason is that labor unions have gotten smaller. Another reason is that American culture has changed. People do not sing in group meetings as much as they once did. Still, many workers enjoy hearing and singing labor songs. One popular historical song is called “Bread and Roses.” Clothing workers used these words to describe their movement in nineteen-oh-eight. That year, one-hundred-twenty-eight women died in a factory fire in New York City. Fifteen-thousand women marched to protest unsafe conditions in the factory. VOICE ONE: Four years later, the words “Bread and Roses” appeared on a flag carried by textile workers during a strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That gave a member of the International Workers of the World the idea for a song. James Oppenheim wrote the song “Bread and Roses.” Pat Humphries sings it. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Labor Day is an American holiday that honors working people. It is celebrated each year on the first Monday of September. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we play some songs from the American labor movement on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The labor movement in the United States has been very successful. It has won many rights for American workers. The struggle for these rights was long and difficult. Yet few people remember the battles. Americans know about them mostly through music. For music was an important part of the campaign for workers' rights. The songs are stories of struggle and pride. Struggle to win good pay and working conditions. Pride in work that is well done. Some of the songs tell of working long hours for little pay. Some tell of the bitter, sometimes violent, struggle between workers and business owners. VOICE TWO: Union activists knew that songs could be weapons. The music was a way to help people feel strong and united. So most labor songs express the workers' hope that a union could make life better. The people who wrote labor songs were workers and activists, not professional musicians. Usually they did not write new music. They wrote new words to old songs. One example is the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song. Here is folksinger Pete Seeger. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Many of the best labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the southern United States. Coal mining was perhaps the most dangerous job in America. There were few health or safety rules to protect workers. The labor movement demanded action. But mine owners bitterly opposed miners' unions. In some areas, there was open war between labor activists and coal companies. VOICE TWO: Once in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to the home of one man. They did not find him there. So, they waited outside for several days. The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are You On?" Again, here is Pete Seeger. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Joe Hill was probably the most famous labor song writer in America. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in the early nineteen-hundreds. He worked as an unskilled laborer. Joe Hill joined a labor union called the I-W-W, the Industrial Workers of the World. More than any other union, the I-W-W used music in its campaigns. It told its members to "sing and fight." One of Joe Hill's best-known songs is "Casey Jones." It uses the music from a song about a train engineer. In the old song, Jones is a hero. He bravely keeps his train running in very difficult conditions. In Joe Hill's version, Casey Jones is no hero. His train is unsafe. Yet he continues to operate it after other workers have called a strike against the railroad company. Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers sing "Casey Jones – The Union Scab.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: When labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill was thirty-three years old, he was accused of murder. Some historians believe that police falsely accused him of murder to stop his labor activities. Others say there was strong evidence that he was guilty. Joe Hill was executed in nineteen-fifteen in the state of Utah. Reports say these were his last words: "Do not waste time feeling sad about my death. Organize the workers." The song "Joe Hill" was written by Earl Robinson and Alfred Hayes. It is sung here by Joan Baez. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Labor historian and musician Joe Glazer says the unofficial song of America's labor movement is the song called "Solidarity Forever." It was written in nineteen-fifteen by Ralph Chaplin. He was a poet and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World union. Ralph Chaplin wanted to write a song of revolution. He said it should show that workers would always unite to claim their rights. Here is “Solidarity Forever,” sung by the Whiteville Choir. These singers are members of a clothing workers union in Whiteville, North Carolina. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: To most Americans today, labor songs are part of the past. One reason is that labor unions have gotten smaller. Another reason is that American culture has changed. People do not sing in group meetings as much as they once did. Still, many workers enjoy hearing and singing labor songs. One popular historical song is called “Bread and Roses.” Clothing workers used these words to describe their movement in nineteen-oh-eight. That year, one-hundred-twenty-eight women died in a factory fire in New York City. Fifteen-thousand women marched to protest unsafe conditions in the factory. VOICE ONE: Four years later, the words “Bread and Roses” appeared on a flag carried by textile workers during a strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That gave a member of the International Workers of the World the idea for a song. James Oppenheim wrote the song “Bread and Roses.” Pat Humphries sings it. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-08/a-2002-08-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - September 3, 2002: Mulch
* Byline: 

 This is Bill White with the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made of organic material, or material from plants. Mulch protects the soil against wind and water damage. It helps keep the soil wet and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing. Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil. The United States Department of Agriculture says it is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds. The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. Mulched areas usually warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down slowly in autumn. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil. Mulch used to help moderate the effects of winter weather can be added late in autumn. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals probably will find another place to live. Farmers use mulch in many ways. Some farmers keep the remains of corn or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. This is called conservation tillage. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is Bill White. This is Bill White with the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made of organic material, or material from plants. Mulch protects the soil against wind and water damage. It helps keep the soil wet and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing. Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides a good environment for earthworms and other helpful organisms in the soil. The United States Department of Agriculture says it is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from newspapers works well in controlling weeds. The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. Mulched areas usually warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down slowly in autumn. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil. Mulch used to help moderate the effects of winter weather can be added late in autumn. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals probably will find another place to live. Farmers use mulch in many ways. Some farmers keep the remains of corn or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. This is called conservation tillage. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is Bill White. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: September 5, 2002 - Finding Words for Sept. 11, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 4, 2002: Rio Grande, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we finish the story of one of the most important rivers in the United States, the Rio Grande. The river flows from the mountains of Colorado south to the Gulf of Mexico. It forms the border between the United States and Mexico for two thousand kilometers. VOICE ONE: By the early fifteen-hundreds Spanish explorers arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States. They moved up the Rio Grande looking for gold and treasure. They found none. The native Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were friendly until they were treated badly by the Spanish. Then the Indians pushed the invaders out. But the Spanish returned in Sixteen-Ninety-Three. After some fighting, they finally made peace with the Pueblo Indians. More and more settlers arrived and established new towns along the Rio Grande. Soon people from other countries began arriving. They came from France, England, and, by the end of the Seventeen Hundreds, from the newly formed United States to the east. VOICE TWO: By the early nineteenth century, Americans had begun settling in the Rio Grande area, especially in the territory of Texas, east of New Mexico. The Spanish government in the American Southwest began to lose control as Spain became less powerful in Europe. Soon more and more people settling near the Rio Grande began to think of themselves as Americans. In Eighteen-Twelve, the Mexican territory of Texas rebelled and declared itself an independent republic. Spain regained control of Texas, but the seeds of revolution had been planted. In Eighteen Twenty-One, Spain withdrew from the Americas. VOICE ONE: A new age was beginning in North America. Two young nations, the United States and Mexico, would now decide their own futures and the future of the Rio Grande area. One of the most important questions facing the two countries was who would control Texas. That was not an easy decision to make. In Eighteen-Twenty-Three, the Mexican government agreed to permit a group of Americans to live in Texas. Mexico said the Americans, led by Stephen Austin, could stay there permanently. More Americans settled in Texas. Many people wanted to make Texas a part of the United States. At the same time, more Mexicans wanted to push all Americans out of Texas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: South of the Rio Grande, there were three revolutions in Mexico’s first eight years of independence. North of the river, Americans were more and more unhappy with Mexican rule. In Eighteen-Thirty-Two, Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to ask that Texas become a separate Mexican state. At this time, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was struggling to gain control of Mexico and become its ruler. He faced a number of rebellions in different parts of the country. General Santa Anna told Stephen Austin he would make Texas a separate Mexican state. Yet events were moving in another direction. VOICE ONE: In Texas, demands for change became demands for independence from Mexico. This led to an invasion across the Rio Grande of thousands of soldiers led by General Santa Anna. He planned to quickly crush the rebellion. As Santa Anna moved his army into Texas in Eighteen-Thirty-Six, a group of Texans signed a document declaring Texas an independent nation. To answer this, General Santa Anna led a strong attack against a group of rebels near the city of San Antonio. The place they attacked was called The Alamo. There were one-hundred-twenty-eight men in the building defending it against the many thousands of soldiers in Santa Anna’s army. After many days of fighting, the Mexican army broke through the defenses of the Alamo and killed everyone inside. VOICE TWO: Santa Anna and his army began a march across Texas. They burned towns and villages. They chased the small army of Texans but were unable to catch them. The Mexican soldiers were tired. The Texans attacked, shouting “Remember the Alamo”. There was a fierce battle. Only forty Mexican soldiers escaped. All the others were killed, wounded or captured. General Santa Anna was among those captured. General Santa Anna met with Texas leader, General Sam Houston. The Mexican leader agreed that in return for his freedom Texas would become independent from Mexico. He agreed that the Rio Grande would be the border between Texas and Mexico. General Santa Anna went home to Mexico City. The new Republic of Texas looked to the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The future was not all good. President Santa Anna declared war on Texas eight years after his defeat by the Texan army. However, he never carried out his threat of war. He was removed from office. And the next year, Eighteen-Forty-Five, the United States government invited Texas to become a state. This was not acceptable to Mexico. War began. In Eighteen-Forty-Six, Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande. The Americans quickly defeated the invading army and began moving into Mexico, toward Mexico City. Other American soldiers began moving west into New Mexico. The government in Santa Fe quickly surrendered. VOICE TWO: In February Eighteen-Forty-Eight, Mexico surrendered to the American army. The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo declared the border between the United States and Mexico to be along the Rio Grande and then west to the Pacific Ocean. The new land belonging to the United States included New Mexico, Arizona and Upper California. For all this territory, the United States paid Mexico fifteen-million dollars. Becoming a part of the United States presented both political and social problems for Texas. The state of Texas permitted slavery. Governor Sam Houston opposed joining the Confederate states that also permitted slavery and were seeking to separate from the United States. He was removed from office. Texas joined the southern states in the Civil War. After the northern forces won the long war and the country united, Texas was re-admitted as a state. At this time, the expanding population of the Rio Grande country faced other problems. Criminals from both sides of the Rio Grande attacked the people. Also, Indian tribes such as the Apache and Comanche resisted the spread of white settlers into their lands. The settlers were destroying the Indians’ way of life. The Indians attacked and killed many white settlers. By Eighteen Seventy Four, government troops had forced many Indian tribes out of their traditional lands. VOICE ONE: The United States army also was ordered to take action to stop criminal activities along the Rio Grande. It was given permission to chase criminals across the river into Mexico. Also, the army acted to stop Indian attacks. Over time, fighting ended in the Rio Grande Valley and the surrounding territory. The United States and Mexico developed friendly relations. Yet tensions continue along the border between the two countries today. One problem is illegal immigrants. The other is illegal drugs. No one knows for sure how many people cross the border from Mexico to the United States. Officials have estimated that the number is in the millions. The illegal immigrants come from Mexico, and from Central and South America. Most come to the United States for economic or political reasons. A few come to sell illegal drugs. Many of the illegal drugs in the United States are transported across the border. VOICE TWO: The river itself can create problems too. The Rio Grande flows where it wants to flow. Dams, canals and other man-made devices cannot always control it. Most of the water from the upper Rio Grande does not flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Almost all of the water is completely used for agriculture and by cities and towns along the upper part of the river. VOICE ONE: Down the river, many springs and several other rivers flow into the Rio Grande, renewing the water supply. Two major dams create electric power and provide water for agriculture and other needs of people living along the lower part of the river. Yet man-made controls do not prevent changes in the path the river takes in many places. Some changes make it difficult to know exactly where the border is between the United States and Mexico. The great river, the Rio Grande, continues to flow across the land and through the history of two countries. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we finish the story of one of the most important rivers in the United States, the Rio Grande. The river flows from the mountains of Colorado south to the Gulf of Mexico. It forms the border between the United States and Mexico for two thousand kilometers. VOICE ONE: By the early fifteen-hundreds Spanish explorers arrived in the southwest of what is now the United States. They moved up the Rio Grande looking for gold and treasure. They found none. The native Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were friendly until they were treated badly by the Spanish. Then the Indians pushed the invaders out. But the Spanish returned in Sixteen-Ninety-Three. After some fighting, they finally made peace with the Pueblo Indians. More and more settlers arrived and established new towns along the Rio Grande. Soon people from other countries began arriving. They came from France, England, and, by the end of the Seventeen Hundreds, from the newly formed United States to the east. VOICE TWO: By the early nineteenth century, Americans had begun settling in the Rio Grande area, especially in the territory of Texas, east of New Mexico. The Spanish government in the American Southwest began to lose control as Spain became less powerful in Europe. Soon more and more people settling near the Rio Grande began to think of themselves as Americans. In Eighteen-Twelve, the Mexican territory of Texas rebelled and declared itself an independent republic. Spain regained control of Texas, but the seeds of revolution had been planted. In Eighteen Twenty-One, Spain withdrew from the Americas. VOICE ONE: A new age was beginning in North America. Two young nations, the United States and Mexico, would now decide their own futures and the future of the Rio Grande area. One of the most important questions facing the two countries was who would control Texas. That was not an easy decision to make. In Eighteen-Twenty-Three, the Mexican government agreed to permit a group of Americans to live in Texas. Mexico said the Americans, led by Stephen Austin, could stay there permanently. More Americans settled in Texas. Many people wanted to make Texas a part of the United States. At the same time, more Mexicans wanted to push all Americans out of Texas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: South of the Rio Grande, there were three revolutions in Mexico’s first eight years of independence. North of the river, Americans were more and more unhappy with Mexican rule. In Eighteen-Thirty-Two, Stephen Austin went to Mexico City to ask that Texas become a separate Mexican state. At this time, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was struggling to gain control of Mexico and become its ruler. He faced a number of rebellions in different parts of the country. General Santa Anna told Stephen Austin he would make Texas a separate Mexican state. Yet events were moving in another direction. VOICE ONE: In Texas, demands for change became demands for independence from Mexico. This led to an invasion across the Rio Grande of thousands of soldiers led by General Santa Anna. He planned to quickly crush the rebellion. As Santa Anna moved his army into Texas in Eighteen-Thirty-Six, a group of Texans signed a document declaring Texas an independent nation. To answer this, General Santa Anna led a strong attack against a group of rebels near the city of San Antonio. The place they attacked was called The Alamo. There were one-hundred-twenty-eight men in the building defending it against the many thousands of soldiers in Santa Anna’s army. After many days of fighting, the Mexican army broke through the defenses of the Alamo and killed everyone inside. VOICE TWO: Santa Anna and his army began a march across Texas. They burned towns and villages. They chased the small army of Texans but were unable to catch them. The Mexican soldiers were tired. The Texans attacked, shouting “Remember the Alamo”. There was a fierce battle. Only forty Mexican soldiers escaped. All the others were killed, wounded or captured. General Santa Anna was among those captured. General Santa Anna met with Texas leader, General Sam Houston. The Mexican leader agreed that in return for his freedom Texas would become independent from Mexico. He agreed that the Rio Grande would be the border between Texas and Mexico. General Santa Anna went home to Mexico City. The new Republic of Texas looked to the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The future was not all good. President Santa Anna declared war on Texas eight years after his defeat by the Texan army. However, he never carried out his threat of war. He was removed from office. And the next year, Eighteen-Forty-Five, the United States government invited Texas to become a state. This was not acceptable to Mexico. War began. In Eighteen-Forty-Six, Mexican soldiers crossed the Rio Grande. The Americans quickly defeated the invading army and began moving into Mexico, toward Mexico City. Other American soldiers began moving west into New Mexico. The government in Santa Fe quickly surrendered. VOICE TWO: In February Eighteen-Forty-Eight, Mexico surrendered to the American army. The Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo declared the border between the United States and Mexico to be along the Rio Grande and then west to the Pacific Ocean. The new land belonging to the United States included New Mexico, Arizona and Upper California. For all this territory, the United States paid Mexico fifteen-million dollars. Becoming a part of the United States presented both political and social problems for Texas. The state of Texas permitted slavery. Governor Sam Houston opposed joining the Confederate states that also permitted slavery and were seeking to separate from the United States. He was removed from office. Texas joined the southern states in the Civil War. After the northern forces won the long war and the country united, Texas was re-admitted as a state. At this time, the expanding population of the Rio Grande country faced other problems. Criminals from both sides of the Rio Grande attacked the people. Also, Indian tribes such as the Apache and Comanche resisted the spread of white settlers into their lands. The settlers were destroying the Indians’ way of life. The Indians attacked and killed many white settlers. By Eighteen Seventy Four, government troops had forced many Indian tribes out of their traditional lands. VOICE ONE: The United States army also was ordered to take action to stop criminal activities along the Rio Grande. It was given permission to chase criminals across the river into Mexico. Also, the army acted to stop Indian attacks. Over time, fighting ended in the Rio Grande Valley and the surrounding territory. The United States and Mexico developed friendly relations. Yet tensions continue along the border between the two countries today. One problem is illegal immigrants. The other is illegal drugs. No one knows for sure how many people cross the border from Mexico to the United States. Officials have estimated that the number is in the millions. The illegal immigrants come from Mexico, and from Central and South America. Most come to the United States for economic or political reasons. A few come to sell illegal drugs. Many of the illegal drugs in the United States are transported across the border. VOICE TWO: The river itself can create problems too. The Rio Grande flows where it wants to flow. Dams, canals and other man-made devices cannot always control it. Most of the water from the upper Rio Grande does not flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Almost all of the water is completely used for agriculture and by cities and towns along the upper part of the river. VOICE ONE: Down the river, many springs and several other rivers flow into the Rio Grande, renewing the water supply. Two major dams create electric power and provide water for agriculture and other needs of people living along the lower part of the river. Yet man-made controls do not prevent changes in the path the river takes in many places. Some changes make it difficult to know exactly where the border is between the United States and Mexico. The great river, the Rio Grande, continues to flow across the land and through the history of two countries. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - September 4, 2002: Melanoma Research
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists have discovered a genetic change that can cause malignant melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer. The cancer then spreads through the body. Malignant melanoma kills almost forty-thousand people around the world each year. The new research was reported in the publication Nature. The work was done by medical scientists involved in the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The aim of the Cancer Genome Project is to find which of the thirty-thousand human genes are involved in cancer. Genes contain material called D-N-A. The order of the D-N-A in a gene is represented by a series of letters. A change, or mutation, happens when the order of the letters changes. Mutations happen in two ways. Chemicals, radiation or viruses can damage D-N-A. Damage also can result from mistakes before cells divide. Most of these mutations are harmless. However, sometimes a mutation in a gene will cause cells to act in an unusual way. For example, a changed gene will cause a cell to divide when it should stop dividing. Or the cell will move away from its normal place and into another organ. This is how cancer begins. Experts say it takes about twenty-five years from the time of the first gene mutation until a cancerous growth appears in adults. Cancer Genome Project researchers have been examining human genes to find the abnormal genes that cause cells to become cancerous. The change that causes malignant melanoma is the first one they have found. It is in the gene called B-R-A-F, one of a group of genes that must all be turned on for a cell to grow and divide. Scientists say when a gene causes a cell to grow and divide it is “turned on.” Normally, it then “turns off” and stops the cell from dividing any more. The Genome Project scientists found that the mutation makes the gene stay turned on all the time. It causes the cells to divide and never stop. This leads to cancer. The researchers say the finding could lead to effective drugs to treat melanoma. They have already started searching for drugs to make the gene turn off and stop the growth of the cancer. But they also say that people should try to prevent malignant melanoma from developing by staying out of the sun as much as possible. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists have discovered a genetic change that can cause malignant melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer. The cancer then spreads through the body. Malignant melanoma kills almost forty-thousand people around the world each year. The new research was reported in the publication Nature. The work was done by medical scientists involved in the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The aim of the Cancer Genome Project is to find which of the thirty-thousand human genes are involved in cancer. Genes contain material called D-N-A. The order of the D-N-A in a gene is represented by a series of letters. A change, or mutation, happens when the order of the letters changes. Mutations happen in two ways. Chemicals, radiation or viruses can damage D-N-A. Damage also can result from mistakes before cells divide. Most of these mutations are harmless. However, sometimes a mutation in a gene will cause cells to act in an unusual way. For example, a changed gene will cause a cell to divide when it should stop dividing. Or the cell will move away from its normal place and into another organ. This is how cancer begins. Experts say it takes about twenty-five years from the time of the first gene mutation until a cancerous growth appears in adults. Cancer Genome Project researchers have been examining human genes to find the abnormal genes that cause cells to become cancerous. The change that causes malignant melanoma is the first one they have found. It is in the gene called B-R-A-F, one of a group of genes that must all be turned on for a cell to grow and divide. Scientists say when a gene causes a cell to grow and divide it is “turned on.” Normally, it then “turns off” and stops the cell from dividing any more. The Genome Project scientists found that the mutation makes the gene stay turned on all the time. It causes the cells to divide and never stop. This leads to cancer. The researchers say the finding could lead to effective drugs to treat melanoma. They have already started searching for drugs to make the gene turn off and stop the growth of the cancer. But they also say that people should try to prevent malignant melanoma from developing by staying out of the sun as much as possible. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – September 5, 2002: Schools Around the World
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Teachers in eight nations and Hong Kong are taking part in an unusual exchange of information. They are sharing excellent work by their students in mathematics and science. The program is called Schools Around the World. Teachers taking part in the program use computer technology to exchange work by students. One goal is to develop and continue student excellence in mathematics and science. Another is to improve the skills of teachers in the program. A national organization called the Council for Basic Education in Washington, D.C. operates Schools Around the World. Carol Stoel (STOLE) directs the program. She says about five-hundred teachers are involved in Schools Around the World. These teachers take part in the program after being trained. Schools Around the World enables educators separated by distance to communicate by computer. They increase knowledge about the subjects they teach. They also learn new ways of measuring student learning and progress. Schools Around the World committee members meet two times each year to help guide the organization. Members are from Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Britain, the United States and Hong Kong. The United States Department of Education helps support the program. So do large companies and organizations like the Knight Foundation. The program also helps organize programs in schools and groups of schools in the United States. About twenty teachers from the same school often form a group to hold meetings. The head of the school and mathematics and science supervisors also attend these workshops. Group members read student work provided through information bases on the Internet or on CD-ROMs. Members then examine their own educational goals. They consider the work they give students to reach those goals. They judge how well their students perform. The teachers also exchange suggestions about methods and materials. They comment on the effectiveness of each other’s teaching.Educators who have been in the program praise Schools Around the World for helping them improve their skills. You can find out more about Schools Around the World by visiting its Web site. The address is www.s-a-w.org. Again, the address: w-w-w dot s-hyphen-a-hyphen-w dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Teachers in eight nations and Hong Kong are taking part in an unusual exchange of information. They are sharing excellent work by their students in mathematics and science. The program is called Schools Around the World. Teachers taking part in the program use computer technology to exchange work by students. One goal is to develop and continue student excellence in mathematics and science. Another is to improve the skills of teachers in the program. A national organization called the Council for Basic Education in Washington, D.C. operates Schools Around the World. Carol Stoel (STOLE) directs the program. She says about five-hundred teachers are involved in Schools Around the World. These teachers take part in the program after being trained. Schools Around the World enables educators separated by distance to communicate by computer. They increase knowledge about the subjects they teach. They also learn new ways of measuring student learning and progress. Schools Around the World committee members meet two times each year to help guide the organization. Members are from Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Britain, the United States and Hong Kong. The United States Department of Education helps support the program. So do large companies and organizations like the Knight Foundation. The program also helps organize programs in schools and groups of schools in the United States. About twenty teachers from the same school often form a group to hold meetings. The head of the school and mathematics and science supervisors also attend these workshops. Group members read student work provided through information bases on the Internet or on CD-ROMs. Members then examine their own educational goals. They consider the work they give students to reach those goals. They judge how well their students perform. The teachers also exchange suggestions about methods and materials. They comment on the effectiveness of each other’s teaching.Educators who have been in the program praise Schools Around the World for helping them improve their skills. You can find out more about Schools Around the World by visiting its Web site. The address is www.s-a-w.org. Again, the address: w-w-w dot s-hyphen-a-hyphen-w dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 5, 2002: Election of 1960
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Richard Rael. VOICE 2: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the American presidential campaign and election of nineteen-sixty. VOICE 1: Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in nineteen-fifty-two by nineteen-sixty, he had served two terms. The twenty-second amendment to the constitution said he could not be re-elected. Eisenhower was hugely popular when he first came to office. And his first term was considered successful. He created a new government agency for education and health care. He led a congressional effort to improve the tax system. And, under his leadership, a peace treaty ending the Korean War was signed. Eisenhower also met with Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev. This began a tradition of meetings between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union. Experts believe these meetings probably helped prevent a nuclear war between the two countries. VOICE 2: At the end of Eisenhower's first term, he was still very popular. He had suffered a heart attack. But he felt strong enough to campaign again. His Democratic Party opponent was Adlai Stevenson. They had been the candidates in the presidential election four years earlier. This time, Eisenhower won almost ten-million votes more than Stevenson. That was an even bigger victory than in nineteen-fifty-two. VOICE 1: Eisenhower's second term, however, presented problems. The Soviet Union launched the space age by putting the world's first satellite into earth orbit. Fidel Castro established a communist government in Cuba. Many white Americans were fighting the supreme court's decision to end racial separation in schools. And the American economy suffered a recession. Eisenhower's popularity dropped during his second term. This would make it more difficult for the Republican Party's next candidate for president. VOICE 2: The delegates who attended the Republican nominating convention in the summer of nineteen-sixty feared that the party would lose the election in November. They had to find the strongest candidate possible. Many believed that Richard Nixon was the strongest. Nixon had been a senator and a member of the house of representatives. He had been Eisenhower's vice president for eight years. When Eisenhower suffered several serious illnessess, Nixon had a chance to show his abilities to lead the nation. He showed great strength while facing an angry crowd during a trip to South America. He also gained support when he defended the United States in an unofficial debate with Khrushchev during a trip to the Soviet Union. VOICE 1: Nixon's closest opponent for the Republican nomination was nelson rockefeller. Rockefeller was governor of New York. He came from one of the richest families in America. At the convention, Richard Nixon easily won the support of the Republican Party. The delegates elected him on the first vote. He accepted the nomination. And he called for new efforts for peace and freedom around the world. VOICE 2: The race for the Democratic nomination was much more difficult. He Democratic Party thought it would have no problem winning the presidential election. Many candidates entered the competition for the nomination. One was Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Another was Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts. Humphrey had been elected to the Senate three times. He was a strong activist for civil rights, peace, and social improvements. Kennedy was a Navy hero in World War Two. He was handsome and only forty-three years old. He also was a member of the roman catholic church. And no catholic had ever been elected president of the United States. VOICE 1: Kennedy and Humphrey began to enter local primary elections in different states. The purpose of the primaries is to test voter support for candidates. Kennedy won an important primary in the state of Wisconsin. However, the Protestant Christian areas of the state did not support him. The question then became: could he win in West Virginia. Most of the voters in that state were Protestants. VOICE 2: On the last night of the primary campaign in West Virginia, Kennedy spoke about his religion. He said the president of the United States promises to defend the constitution. And that, he said, includes the separation of the government from any religion or church. Kennedy won a large victory in West Virginia. He then went on to win many votes in other primary elections. He received the nomination on the first vote of the Democratic Party convention. In his acceptance speech, he said he would ask Americans to help their country. He said he would ask them to sacrifice for their country. VOICE 1: After the party conventions, the two candidates -- Kennedy and Nixon -- began to campaign around the nation. Nixon charged that Kennedy was too young to be president. He said Kennedy did not know enough about governing. Kennedy attacked the Republican record of the past eight years. He said president Eisenhower and vice President Nixon had not done enough to bring progress to the nation. Protestant groups expressed concerns about Kennedy's religion. They wondered if he would be influenced by the pope. They asked if the leader of the Roman Catholic Church would try to make policy for the United States. Kennedy answered by repeating his strong support for the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state. VOICE 2: Public opinion studies showed the election campaign to be very, very close. Then, the candidates agreed to hold four debates. The debates would be broadcast on television. In the first debate, they showed they did not differ too widely on major issues. Kennedy, however, appeared calm and sure. Nixon, who did not feel well, appeared thin and tired. Many people who had not considered voting for Kennedy now began to change their minds. To them, he looked like a president. VOICE 1: In the fourth debate, they expressed widely different opinions about whether the United States was making progress. Kennedy believed there had been little progress under Eisenhower and Nixon. He said: KENNEDY: "Franklin Roosevelt said in nineteen-thirty-six that that generation of Americans had a rendezvous with destiny. I believe in nineteen-sixty and sixty-one and two and three, we have a rendezvous with destiny. And I believe it incumbent upon us to be defenders of the United States and the defenders of freedom. And to do that, we must give this country leadership. And we must get America moving again." VOICE 2: Nixon disagreed sharply. He believed the United States had not been standing still. Yet he believed it could not rest, either. He said: NIXON: "It is essential with the conflict that we have around the world that we not just hold our own, that we not keep just freedom for ourselves. It is essential that we extend freedom, extend it to all the world. And this means more than what we've been doing. It means keeping America even stronger militarily than she is. It means seeing that our economy moves forward even faster than it has. It means making more progress in civil rights than we have, so that we can be a splendid example for all the world to see." VOICE 1: Another issue of the nineteen-sixty presidential debates was the Chinese attack on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in the Formosa [Taiwan] Strait. Another was how to deal with Soviet leader Nikita khrushchev. Most people seemed to feel that Kennedy won the first debate. Experts thought Nixon probably won the second one. And both men did about the same in the last two. VOICE 2: After the debates, the presidential candidates campaigned around the country again. Nixon proposed a trip to eastern Europe and a meeting with Khrushchev, if he were elected. Kennedy proposed what he called a Peace Corps. The Peace Corps would be a program to send Americans to developing countries to provide technical aid and other help. VOICE 1: On election day in November, the voters chose John Kennedy. His victory, however, was a close one. Almost sixty-nine million people voted. He won by fewer than one-hundred-twenty thousand votes. The United States now had its thirty-fifth president. He was the youngest and the first Roman Catholic. The beginning of John Kennedy's administration will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 1: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: September 5, 2002 - Finding Words for Sept. 11, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": September 5, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 8, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look at some of the words chosen to commemorate the first anniversary of the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": September 5, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 8, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- we look at some of the words chosen to commemorate the first anniversary of the September eleventh terrorist attacks. GETTYSBURG ADDRESS [Note - the text follows historical records at www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/]: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure." RS: The president whose words you just heard recited in a recording by country singer Johnny Cash was, of course, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln wrote the speech to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863. Tens of thousands of soldiers had died there in a battle considered the turning point of the U-S Civil War. GETTYSBURG ADDRESS: "We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. "But in a larger sense we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." AA: The Gettysburg Address, just 272 words long, will be read in New York during the September 11th anniversary observance. Parts of the Declaration of Independence, as well as "The Four Freedoms" speech by President Franklin Roosevelt will also be read. So will the names of the almost three-thousand victims in the World Trade Center towers. RS: The aim is to avoid any politics. Yet the absence of plans for any original speeches left some disappointed. JANICE JOSEPHSON: "I guess that the language of terror, the language of horror, is very limited." RS: Janice Josephson is a suburban New Yorker who volunteers teaching American civics to foreign-born adults. It helps that this retiree has lived through all the major events since the 1920s. JANICE JOSEPHSON: "You know, you think of the infinite ways of expressing a feeling of love, and we don't have those words to draw on for terror. So we've turned to symbols like the American flag." RS: Janice Josephson caught our attention when she wrote to the New York Times, opposing the use of the Gettysburg Address to observe the September 11th anniversary. JANICE JOSEPHSON: "Because the Gettysburg Address was probably the most moving speech given by anyone anywhere in our history. Now for us to use the Gettysburg Address in this context of this tragedy here in New York City seems not only morally wrong, but even though we're so bound by what's politically correct, I think it's totally politically incorrect. Our leaders, if they choose to lead, they have a responsibility that goes beyond taking words that are truly not appropriate for this anniversary commemoration." AA: "You mention political correctness. What role do you think that is playing right now in the choice of words to use to mark the anniversary?" JANICE JOSEPHSON: "I think everybody is scared. They don't want to say the wrong thing. They don't want to offend any contingency whatsoever, so it's much safer to use the tried and true. And in the climate that we live in, where sensitivities run as high as they do, that's understandable, but it is really not a solution we would like to see our leaders turn to. "People aren't trained in rhetoric today, so I don't know quite whether it's the way language is used today, the way language evolves, the shorthand that we use today when we speak. I guess they are all factors that go into it. But I know that eloquence is not a gift of the day." RS: The thoughts of Janice Josephson, who lives about thirty kilometers from "ground zero." Next week, we'll look at the impact "nine-eleven" has had on American English. AA: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. GETTYSBURG ADDRESS [Note - the text follows historical records at www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/]: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure." RS: The president whose words you just heard recited in a recording by country singer Johnny Cash was, of course, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln wrote the speech to dedicate a cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863. Tens of thousands of soldiers had died there in a battle considered the turning point of the U-S Civil War. GETTYSBURG ADDRESS: "We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. "But in a larger sense we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." AA: The Gettysburg Address, just 272 words long, will be read in New York during the September 11th anniversary observance. Parts of the Declaration of Independence, as well as "The Four Freedoms" speech by President Franklin Roosevelt will also be read. So will the names of the almost three-thousand victims in the World Trade Center towers. RS: The aim is to avoid any politics. Yet the absence of plans for any original speeches left some disappointed. JANICE JOSEPHSON: "I guess that the language of terror, the language of horror, is very limited." RS: Janice Josephson is a suburban New Yorker who volunteers teaching American civics to foreign-born adults. It helps that this retiree has lived through all the major events since the 1920s. JANICE JOSEPHSON: "You know, you think of the infinite ways of expressing a feeling of love, and we don't have those words to draw on for terror. So we've turned to symbols like the American flag." RS: Janice Josephson caught our attention when she wrote to the New York Times, opposing the use of the Gettysburg Address to observe the September 11th anniversary. JANICE JOSEPHSON: "Because the Gettysburg Address was probably the most moving speech given by anyone anywhere in our history. Now for us to use the Gettysburg Address in this context of this tragedy here in New York City seems not only morally wrong, but even though we're so bound by what's politically correct, I think it's totally politically incorrect. Our leaders, if they choose to lead, they have a responsibility that goes beyond taking words that are truly not appropriate for this anniversary commemoration." AA: "You mention political correctness. What role do you think that is playing right now in the choice of words to use to mark the anniversary?" JANICE JOSEPHSON: "I think everybody is scared. They don't want to say the wrong thing. They don't want to offend any contingency whatsoever, so it's much safer to use the tried and true. And in the climate that we live in, where sensitivities run as high as they do, that's understandable, but it is really not a solution we would like to see our leaders turn to. "People aren't trained in rhetoric today, so I don't know quite whether it's the way language is used today, the way language evolves, the shorthand that we use today when we speak. I guess they are all factors that go into it. But I know that eloquence is not a gift of the day." RS: The thoughts of Janice Josephson, who lives about thirty kilometers from "ground zero." Next week, we'll look at the impact "nine-eleven" has had on American English. AA: Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - September 6, 2002: Geckos and Their Sticky Feet
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Geckos are small lizards that live in warm climates. These lizards can stick to any surface. For example, geckos can climb up walls and across the top of a room. Scientists have studied the little lizards for hundreds of years to learn the secret of how they stick to things. Now, they say they have finally solved the mystery. They hope the finding will help them develop powerful materials that hold things together. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Geckos are small lizards that live in warm climates. These lizards can stick to any surface. For example, geckos can climb up walls and across the top of a room. Scientists have studied the little lizards for hundreds of years to learn the secret of how they stick to things. Now, they say they have finally solved the mystery. They hope the finding will help them develop powerful materials that hold things together. A team of American biologists and engineers carried out the study. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Geckos have millions of very small hairs on their toes. The end of each hair splits into as many as one-thousand smaller hairs. So the gecko’s foot has hundreds of millions of tiny hairs that touch a surface. Scientists have debated the purpose of these hairs. Some thought the hairs dug into a surface. Others thought geckos released a natural sticky substance onto their hairy toes to hold onto a surface, like a leaf, and prevent enemies from pulling them loose. Over the years, scientists have put geckos into water to see if they would stick. They do. They have dropped them into strong devices, but their sticking ability was not weakened. Scientists also have used radiation to neutralize static electricity. They thought electrostatic force helped the animals hold on to a surface. Scientists say the gecko’s sticking power comes from something called the van der Waals force. The term was named after the Dutch scientist who first described it more than one-hundred years ago. The force is the attraction between molecules at the ends of the gecko’s toe hairs and the surface of an object. When molecules are so close together, the unbalanced electrical charges around the molecules can attract one another. This provides the attraction between the foot of the gecko and a wall or other object. The scientists showed that a single gecko toe hair has enough holding power to lift an insect. They say a small group of hairs the size of a coin could possibly lift a small child. Scientists say they have created the first sticky substance based on the geckos’ hairs. They hope to use the powerful substance to develop new products. The scientists recently joined with a company to develop robots that can climb walls. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. A team of American biologists and engineers carried out the study. Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Geckos have millions of very small hairs on their toes. The end of each hair splits into as many as one-thousand smaller hairs. So the gecko’s foot has hundreds of millions of tiny hairs that touch a surface. Scientists have debated the purpose of these hairs. Some thought the hairs dug into a surface. Others thought geckos released a natural sticky substance onto their hairy toes to hold onto a surface, like a leaf, and prevent enemies from pulling them loose. Over the years, scientists have put geckos into water to see if they would stick. They do. They have dropped them into strong devices, but their sticking ability was not weakened. Scientists also have used radiation to neutralize static electricity. They thought electrostatic force helped the animals hold on to a surface. Scientists say the gecko’s sticking power comes from something called the van der Waals force. The term was named after the Dutch scientist who first described it more than one-hundred years ago. The force is the attraction between molecules at the ends of the gecko’s toe hairs and the surface of an object. When molecules are so close together, the unbalanced electrical charges around the molecules can attract one another. This provides the attraction between the foot of the gecko and a wall or other object. The scientists showed that a single gecko toe hair has enough holding power to lift an insect. They say a small group of hairs the size of a coin could possibly lift a small child. Scientists say they have created the first sticky substance based on the geckos’ hairs. They hope to use the powerful substance to develop new products. The scientists recently joined with a company to develop robots that can climb walls. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 6, 2002: Sept. 11 Anniversary Observances / Music from Bruce Springsteen's 'The Rising'
* Byline: 

 <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:73440| height="150" width="150" alt="Album cover of "The Rising"" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/amazon_bruce_springsteen_the_rising_9-11_5sept02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> Album cover of "The Rising" HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we play music by Bruce Springsteen and tell how Americans plan to remember the events of September eleventh of last year. Observances in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania HOST: Ground Zero VOA photo - E. Monnac (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we play music by Bruce Springsteen and tell how Americans plan to remember the events of September eleventh of last year. Observances in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania HOST: Wednesday, September eleventh, will be the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States. Officials in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania are preparing ceremonies to remember, and to honor those who were killed. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Ceremonies in New York City will begin early Wednesday morning with people playing bagpipes and drums in each of the five areas of the city. These groups will begin marching toward the attack area known as Ground Zero. They will meet there at eight o’clock. A service will begin forty-six minutes later, when the terrorists crashed the first hijacked plane into the first building of the World Trade Center. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will begin reading the names of the more than two-thousand-eight-hundred people who died in the attack in New York. Several other people will continue reading until all the names are read. The ceremony will end at ten-twenty-nine, the time the second World Trade Center tower fell. City officials want all religious centers in the city and the country to ring bells at that time. Families of the victims will then walk into the area to place roses in a vase that will become part of a permanent memorial. Wednesday, September eleventh, will be the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the United States. Officials in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania are preparing ceremonies to remember, and to honor those who were killed. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Ceremonies in New York City will begin early Wednesday morning with people playing bagpipes and drums in each of the five areas of the city. These groups will begin marching toward the attack area known as Ground Zero. They will meet there at eight o’clock. A service will begin forty-six minutes later, when the terrorists crashed the first hijacked plane into the first building of the World Trade Center. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will begin reading the names of the more than two-thousand-eight-hundred people who died in the attack in New York. Several other people will continue reading until all the names are read. The ceremony will end at ten-twenty-nine, the time the second World Trade Center tower fell. City officials want all religious centers in the city and the country to ring bells at that time. Families of the victims will then walk into the area to place roses in a vase that will become part of a permanent memorial. Leaders from around the world are expected to attend other ceremonies in New York at sunset. And candlelight ceremonies will take place in all parts of the city at night. President Bush is expected to visit Ground Zero during the day. He will also visit the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D-C, which terrorists also attacked with a hijacked airplane. And he will visit the place in Pennsylvania where the fourth hijacked plane crashed. Officials in Arlington, Virginia are calling for people in the city to fly American flags at nine-thirty-seven in the morning. That was when the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon. A huge flag will be flown over the Potomac River from the Key Bridge. And a bronze bell in Arlington’s Gateway Park will ring one-hundred-eighty-four times in honor of those who were killed at the Pentagon. Other events will honor the police, fire and emergency medical workers who were the first to arrive after the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon. About thirty-thousand people are expected to attend a memorial service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the town where the fourth hijacked plane crashed. A bell will ring forty times at the ceremony—one for each victim. Observances Across the Nation HOST: Americans in other parts of the country also will be observing the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The United States Conference of Mayors says more than one-hundred-seventy cities and towns across the country have planned official events on September eleventh. Reports say more than one-hundred-fifty organizations and communities asked the city of New York for pieces of the World Trade Center ruins. They want to use pieces of the buildings during their remembrance ceremonies. VOA Photo Leaders from around the world are expected to attend other ceremonies in New York at sunset. And candlelight ceremonies will take place in all parts of the city at night. President Bush is expected to visit Ground Zero during the day. He will also visit the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D-C, which terrorists also attacked with a hijacked airplane. And he will visit the place in Pennsylvania where the fourth hijacked plane crashed. Officials in Arlington, Virginia are calling for people in the city to fly American flags at nine-thirty-seven in the morning. That was when the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon. A huge flag will be flown over the Potomac River from the Key Bridge. And a bronze bell in Arlington’s Gateway Park will ring one-hundred-eighty-four times in honor of those who were killed at the Pentagon. Other events will honor the police, fire and emergency medical workers who were the first to arrive after the hijacked plane hit the Pentagon. About thirty-thousand people are expected to attend a memorial service in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the town where the fourth hijacked plane crashed. A bell will ring forty times at the ceremony—one for each victim. Observances Across the Nation HOST: Americans in other parts of the country also will be observing the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The United States Conference of Mayors says more than one-hundred-seventy cities and towns across the country have planned official events on September eleventh. Reports say more than one-hundred-fifty organizations and communities asked the city of New York for pieces of the World Trade Center ruins. They want to use pieces of the buildings during their remembrance ceremonies. Bagpipes and church bells are expected to ring out at eight-forty-six in the morning, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Officials in Houston, Texas are expecting more than five-thousand people to take part in a ceremony at City Hall. They will place three-thousand flowers in a pool of water. The flowers represent those who died in the attacks. The International Association of Fire Chiefs has called for sirens and church bells to ring at the times when the two towers fell. Officials in Elkhart, Indiana say their ceremony will take place at the same time as the one in New York. Officials there will be reading the names of the police officers, fireman and emergency medical workers who died. A woman and her daughter from Denver, Colorado have created a huge flag from more than three-thousand pieces of cloth from across the country. The flag will be shown at the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. next week. High school students in Allentown, Pennsylvania created a mosaic picture of the events. They will present it at ceremonies in their town. The city of Anchorage, Alaska will offer free telephone calls for people to speak to loved ones far away. And a memory wall will be built there for people to sign and leave flowers. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, people will plant trees as remembrances that create new life. Many Americans say it is important that the ceremonies remember the horrible events of last year and those who were killed. But they say the ceremonies also should express the love of Americans for their country and their hope for a better, more peaceful future. Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” HOST: Bruce Springsteen’s new album was released July thirtieth. It is number one in record sales in more than ten countries. Most of its songs are about the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Shep O’Neal plays some of the songs on the album, “The Rising.” ANNCR: VOA Photo Bagpipes and church bells are expected to ring out at eight-forty-six in the morning, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Officials in Houston, Texas are expecting more than five-thousand people to take part in a ceremony at City Hall. They will place three-thousand flowers in a pool of water. The flowers represent those who died in the attacks. The International Association of Fire Chiefs has called for sirens and church bells to ring at the times when the two towers fell. Officials in Elkhart, Indiana say their ceremony will take place at the same time as the one in New York. Officials there will be reading the names of the police officers, fireman and emergency medical workers who died. A woman and her daughter from Denver, Colorado have created a huge flag from more than three-thousand pieces of cloth from across the country. The flag will be shown at the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. next week. High school students in Allentown, Pennsylvania created a mosaic picture of the events. They will present it at ceremonies in their town. The city of Anchorage, Alaska will offer free telephone calls for people to speak to loved ones far away. And a memory wall will be built there for people to sign and leave flowers. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, people will plant trees as remembrances that create new life. Many Americans say it is important that the ceremonies remember the horrible events of last year and those who were killed. But they say the ceremonies also should express the love of Americans for their country and their hope for a better, more peaceful future. Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” HOST: Bruce Springsteen’s new album was released July thirtieth. It is number one in record sales in more than ten countries. Most of its songs are about the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Shep O’Neal plays some of the songs on the album, “The Rising.” ANNCR: “You’re Missing” is probably the saddest song on “The Rising.” A woman’s husband has died. She and her children see the many things that belonged to him around the house, but he is gone. (MUSIC) “Into the Fire” is about one of the hundreds of police, firefighters and rescue workers who died in the terrorist attacks. The song honors the love and sense of duty he showed that day. It is also a prayer for the strength and hope that his sacrifice represents. (MUSIC) Songs on “The Rising” also express anger about the attacks. But, the anger is mostly a personal statement, not a political one. The song “Empty Skies” describes the desire to strike back that a person feels after a senseless loss. (MUSIC) The album’s title song appeals to listeners to come together and heal each other. We leave you now with Bruce Springsteen’s hopeful title song, “The Rising.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. “You’re Missing” is probably the saddest song on “The Rising.” A woman’s husband has died. She and her children see the many things that belonged to him around the house, but he is gone. (MUSIC) “Into the Fire” is about one of the hundreds of police, firefighters and rescue workers who died in the terrorist attacks. The song honors the love and sense of duty he showed that day. It is also a prayer for the strength and hope that his sacrifice represents. (MUSIC) Songs on “The Rising” also express anger about the attacks. But, the anger is mostly a personal statement, not a political one. The song “Empty Skies” describes the desire to strike back that a person feels after a senseless loss. (MUSIC) The album’s title song appeals to listeners to come together and heal each other. We leave you now with Bruce Springsteen’s hopeful title song, “The Rising.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 7, 2002: UN General Assembly Meeting
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The General Assembly of the United Nations will officially open its fifty-seventh meeting on Tuesday. Representatives from around the world will attend the yearly meeting at U-N headquarters in New York City. The meeting usually lasts about three months. The United Nations was created after World War Two. It was established by fifty-one countries in October, Nineteen-Forty-Five. It was formed to strengthen international peace and security and to help settle conflicts among nations. Now, almost every nation in the world belongs to the U-N General Assembly. Each member nation has one vote in the Assembly. Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic is the current General Assembly president. Mister Kavan was elected in July. He replaces Han Seung-soo of South Korea. On Wednesday, U-N officials plan to attend ceremonies honoring those killed last year in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Many diplomats experienced shock after terrorists hijacked two airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center buildings in New York. Last year, the General Assembly meeting was to begin on September eleventh. Because of the attacks, the U-N headquarters was forced to close. Leaders of many nations speak to the General Assembly during the first weeks of the meeting. President Bush will speak on Thursday. He is expected to call for action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The President says Iraq has failed to act on international agreements to stop developing biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. He says the Iraqi leader could help terrorists get such weapons. Mister Bush wants Saddam Hussein removed from power. Leaders of many countries oppose military action against Iraq. Earlier this week, Arab League foreign ministers declared support for restarting the U-N arms inspection program in Iraq. But they rejected the use of military force. A major goal of the U-N is to help prevent conflicts and end wars. General Assembly members will discuss situations of tension and fighting in many areas of the world. The U-N provides peacekeeping forces that have been deployed around the world. It also holds international meetings on important issues. For example, the U-N World Summit on Sustainable Development ended this week in Johannesburg, South Africa. Delegates agreed on a plan designed to protect the environment and help poor people in developing countries. However, many activists are unhappy with the agreement. Such disputes at U-N organizations and meetings are not unusual. Neither are criticisms of the international organization. Some people say the U-N is weak. Yet others say the United Nations is extremely important for world peace. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The General Assembly of the United Nations will officially open its fifty-seventh meeting on Tuesday. Representatives from around the world will attend the yearly meeting at U-N headquarters in New York City. The meeting usually lasts about three months. The United Nations was created after World War Two. It was established by fifty-one countries in October, Nineteen-Forty-Five. It was formed to strengthen international peace and security and to help settle conflicts among nations. Now, almost every nation in the world belongs to the U-N General Assembly. Each member nation has one vote in the Assembly. Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic is the current General Assembly president. Mister Kavan was elected in July. He replaces Han Seung-soo of South Korea. On Wednesday, U-N officials plan to attend ceremonies honoring those killed last year in the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Many diplomats experienced shock after terrorists hijacked two airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center buildings in New York. Last year, the General Assembly meeting was to begin on September eleventh. Because of the attacks, the U-N headquarters was forced to close. Leaders of many nations speak to the General Assembly during the first weeks of the meeting. President Bush will speak on Thursday. He is expected to call for action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The President says Iraq has failed to act on international agreements to stop developing biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. He says the Iraqi leader could help terrorists get such weapons. Mister Bush wants Saddam Hussein removed from power. Leaders of many countries oppose military action against Iraq. Earlier this week, Arab League foreign ministers declared support for restarting the U-N arms inspection program in Iraq. But they rejected the use of military force. A major goal of the U-N is to help prevent conflicts and end wars. General Assembly members will discuss situations of tension and fighting in many areas of the world. The U-N provides peacekeeping forces that have been deployed around the world. It also holds international meetings on important issues. For example, the U-N World Summit on Sustainable Development ended this week in Johannesburg, South Africa. Delegates agreed on a plan designed to protect the environment and help poor people in developing countries. However, many activists are unhappy with the agreement. Such disputes at U-N organizations and meetings are not unusual. Neither are criticisms of the international organization. Some people say the U-N is weak. Yet others say the United Nations is extremely important for world peace. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 9, 2002: Health Problems in Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Afghanistan is facing a severe health care crisis. There is not enough food, shelter and clothing for all the people. There is also a serious lack of health care workers. In addition, drugs, medical equipment and fuel are in limited supply. Repairs at health centers are also needed. The World Health Organization estimates six-million people in Afghanistan can not get any health care. Life expectancy for the people of Afghanistan is among the lowest in the world. Men live to be about forty-five years old while women live to about age forty-seven. Also, more than twenty-five percent of all children in Afghanistan die before the age of five. More than half of these young children suffer from poor nutrition. The W-H-O also says the number of women in Afghanistan who die during childbirth is the second highest in the world. This is partly because fewer than fifteen percent of all births in the country are attended by a trained health care worker. Many humanitarian organizations are working to improve the situation in Afghanistan. For example, the medical group Doctors without Borders is providing treatment and food at refugee camps along the Afghan border. The American-based group Direct Relief International has also given Afghan hospitals and medical centers millions of dollars in medicines and supplies. The W-H-O says many deaths could be prevented if Afghans were better informed, especially about pregnancy risks. Usually, male family members decide when a woman should visit a health center. Based on this, the W-H-O and other aid groups produced a short film that was shown in more than two-hundred villages. In the film, two brothers must decide whether to take their wives to a hospital when the women develop problems with their pregnancies. One brother seeks medical help for his wife, who later gives birth to two healthy babies. The other brother refuses to seek medical help and his wife dies from bleeding. The W-H-O also is launching a new radio program to provide information about health and how to prevent disease. Female Afghan reporters will broadcast the radio programs two times a week. The broadcasts are expected to begin next month. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 8, 2002: Edward Weston
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-06-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 9, 2002: One Year After Sept. 11
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Last year on September eleventh, more than three-thousand people were killed in terrorist attacks on the United States. It was the worst terrorist attack in American history. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. The United States after the terrorist attacks is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Last September eleventh, Islamist terrorists hijacked two passenger airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York City. The two giant buildings were destroyed. Another hijacked plane struck and damaged the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D.C. Still another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The victims included Americans of many races and religions. Many foreign citizens also died in the attacks. Now, a year later, some Americans say life seems normal again. Others say the United States will never be the same again. VOICE TWO: Religious services and other programs will observe the anniversary throughout the nation. White House officials helped organize a Concert for America. It will be broadcast on television Wednesday. Many Americans will watch other television programs about the attacks. However, other Americans say they will not observe the anniversary. They say they can best honor the victims by making life as normal as possible. Now, we share some memories of what America was like after September eleventh, two-thousand-one. VOICE ONE: New York City changed forever that day. The attacks destroyed a huge part of the financial center of the city. Everyone seemed to know someone who died in the attacks. A young financial worker says his office will always seem empty because so many workers were killed. Again and again, Americans heard the sounds of bagpipes as musicians played “Amazing Grace.” The song honored the memory of three-hundred-forty-three firefighters and twenty-three police officers. They died trying to save people in the World Trade Center. The song also honors more than two-thousand-four-hundred civilians who did not escape. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Near Washington, D-C, people left flowers and messages near one heavily damaged wall of the Defense Department headquarters. One hundred-eighty-four military service members and civilians died there. In both target areas, rescue teams worked day and night to recover people and bodies from the wreckage. Some survivors had terrible burns and crushing injuries. No one survived the plane crash in Pennsylvania. VOICE ONE: After the attacks, many Americans prayed. They crowded into Christian churches, Jewish temples and Islamic mosques. A Protestant clergyman in the state of Maryland said he had never before seen so many people at services. People across America experienced great shock, fear, sadness and loss. They also felt a renewed love for their country. They put American flags on their houses, cars and businesses. And they sang patriotic songs like “God Bless America.” For days after the attacks, most planes stopped flying. Only military aircraft could be seen in the air. When normal flights began again, many people decided not to travel by air because they were afraid. The airline and travel industries suffered. Thousands of hotel workers and others lost their jobs. Many other businesses suffered as well. Financial markets showed major losses. VOICE TWO: Thousands of Islamic American citizens, other Arabs and people from Middle Eastern countries had no connection with terrorism. But many reported being insulted or attacked. Some lost their jobs. In October, the United States began a war against terrorism in Afghanistan. The United States led a coalition against the terrorists and their supporters. The United States defeated the Taleban rulers in Afghanistan and removed them from power. It also captured a number of Taleban fighters and al-Qaida terrorists. VOICE ONE: The United States government also seized more than five-hundred foreign citizens and held them in secret. Most of these people had violated immigration laws. No terrorism charges were brought against them. Human rights activists and some legal experts protested the treatment of the prisoners. The activists said holding people in secret without trial violates the United States Constitution. Later, there was some criticism that government agencies did not cooperate to gather intelligence that might have prevented the terrorist attacks. President Bush created a new Office of Homeland Security. Its job is to strengthen preparations and defenses against terrorism. VOICE TWO: As time passed, the public learned more about the forty civilian passengers on the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. The passengers found out about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. They were killed trying to prevent their plane from crashing into another important building. One of them called out “Let’s roll!” as they tried to regain control of the plane from the terrorists. Americans soon made “Let’s roll!” a common expression. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: One year later, the nation has taken many steps toward recovery. Still, the events of September eleventh strongly influence our lives. Many Americans called to military service have returned to civilian life. A Marine Corps pilot who flew supply planes in the Middle East says home means more to him now than ever before. Some Americans whose family members were killed in the attacks are taking legal action. They are trying to recover financial damages from individuals and banks they believe share responsibility for the terrorist attacks. A few families have accepted money from the United States government in settlement for the loss of loved ones. VOICE TWO: Workers completed the cleanup of the area where the World Trade Center stood in May. Every day, almost thirty-thousand people visit the area to see where the attack took place and to honor those who died there. Design experts from around the world have proposed plans for new buildings in the area. There will be a memorial to the victims as well as a business center. VOICE ONE: Mental health experts across the nation have been helping people suffering from sadness and fear after the attacks. Family members of victims have attended meetings of support groups to help them recover from their loss. Many World Trade Center victims lived in Rockville Centre, New York. A family support center there has a special wall for prayers and messages. Children who lost a parent can write their thoughts and place them on the wall. Many people around the country were not directly affected by the tragedy. Still, they say their lives have changed. They say they now spend less time working and more time with their families. They also say they telephone family members in other cities more often. VOICE TWO: The American economy is showing signs of recovery. However, many people have lost savings for their old age. A retired clergyman in the state of Florida says he and his wife are worried about their economic future. The travel industry and related businesses are still having problems. Many Americans still are driving cars for short trips instead of flying. People who do fly say it is much more difficult because of increased security at airports. A businesswoman from California must fly often as part of her job. She says she dislikes waiting in security lines that take much longer than they did before September eleventh. VOICE ONE: For many Americans, daily life continues much as it did before the attacks. But people often ask each other where they were on September eleventh. Marie Reeder lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She knows exactly what she was doing on that day. She was celebrating her eighty-second birthday with family members. Her birthday had always been a happy event. This year, however, it will not be the same. Marie Reeder will celebrate her birthday. But she will also think about what happened to America on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Last year on September eleventh, more than three-thousand people were killed in terrorist attacks on the United States. It was the worst terrorist attack in American history. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. The United States after the terrorist attacks is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Last September eleventh, Islamist terrorists hijacked two passenger airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York City. The two giant buildings were destroyed. Another hijacked plane struck and damaged the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D.C. Still another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The victims included Americans of many races and religions. Many foreign citizens also died in the attacks. Now, a year later, some Americans say life seems normal again. Others say the United States will never be the same again. VOICE TWO: Religious services and other programs will observe the anniversary throughout the nation. White House officials helped organize a Concert for America. It will be broadcast on television Wednesday. Many Americans will watch other television programs about the attacks. However, other Americans say they will not observe the anniversary. They say they can best honor the victims by making life as normal as possible. Now, we share some memories of what America was like after September eleventh, two-thousand-one. VOICE ONE: New York City changed forever that day. The attacks destroyed a huge part of the financial center of the city. Everyone seemed to know someone who died in the attacks. A young financial worker says his office will always seem empty because so many workers were killed. Again and again, Americans heard the sounds of bagpipes as musicians played “Amazing Grace.” The song honored the memory of three-hundred-forty-three firefighters and twenty-three police officers. They died trying to save people in the World Trade Center. The song also honors more than two-thousand-four-hundred civilians who did not escape. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Near Washington, D-C, people left flowers and messages near one heavily damaged wall of the Defense Department headquarters. One hundred-eighty-four military service members and civilians died there. In both target areas, rescue teams worked day and night to recover people and bodies from the wreckage. Some survivors had terrible burns and crushing injuries. No one survived the plane crash in Pennsylvania. VOICE ONE: After the attacks, many Americans prayed. They crowded into Christian churches, Jewish temples and Islamic mosques. A Protestant clergyman in the state of Maryland said he had never before seen so many people at services. People across America experienced great shock, fear, sadness and loss. They also felt a renewed love for their country. They put American flags on their houses, cars and businesses. And they sang patriotic songs like “God Bless America.” For days after the attacks, most planes stopped flying. Only military aircraft could be seen in the air. When normal flights began again, many people decided not to travel by air because they were afraid. The airline and travel industries suffered. Thousands of hotel workers and others lost their jobs. Many other businesses suffered as well. Financial markets showed major losses. VOICE TWO: Thousands of Islamic American citizens, other Arabs and people from Middle Eastern countries had no connection with terrorism. But many reported being insulted or attacked. Some lost their jobs. In October, the United States began a war against terrorism in Afghanistan. The United States led a coalition against the terrorists and their supporters. The United States defeated the Taleban rulers in Afghanistan and removed them from power. It also captured a number of Taleban fighters and al-Qaida terrorists. VOICE ONE: The United States government also seized more than five-hundred foreign citizens and held them in secret. Most of these people had violated immigration laws. No terrorism charges were brought against them. Human rights activists and some legal experts protested the treatment of the prisoners. The activists said holding people in secret without trial violates the United States Constitution. Later, there was some criticism that government agencies did not cooperate to gather intelligence that might have prevented the terrorist attacks. President Bush created a new Office of Homeland Security. Its job is to strengthen preparations and defenses against terrorism. VOICE TWO: As time passed, the public learned more about the forty civilian passengers on the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. The passengers found out about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. They were killed trying to prevent their plane from crashing into another important building. One of them called out “Let’s roll!” as they tried to regain control of the plane from the terrorists. Americans soon made “Let’s roll!” a common expression. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: One year later, the nation has taken many steps toward recovery. Still, the events of September eleventh strongly influence our lives. Many Americans called to military service have returned to civilian life. A Marine Corps pilot who flew supply planes in the Middle East says home means more to him now than ever before. Some Americans whose family members were killed in the attacks are taking legal action. They are trying to recover financial damages from individuals and banks they believe share responsibility for the terrorist attacks. A few families have accepted money from the United States government in settlement for the loss of loved ones. VOICE TWO: Workers completed the cleanup of the area where the World Trade Center stood in May. Every day, almost thirty-thousand people visit the area to see where the attack took place and to honor those who died there. Design experts from around the world have proposed plans for new buildings in the area. There will be a memorial to the victims as well as a business center. VOICE ONE: Mental health experts across the nation have been helping people suffering from sadness and fear after the attacks. Family members of victims have attended meetings of support groups to help them recover from their loss. Many World Trade Center victims lived in Rockville Centre, New York. A family support center there has a special wall for prayers and messages. Children who lost a parent can write their thoughts and place them on the wall. Many people around the country were not directly affected by the tragedy. Still, they say their lives have changed. They say they now spend less time working and more time with their families. They also say they telephone family members in other cities more often. VOICE TWO: The American economy is showing signs of recovery. However, many people have lost savings for their old age. A retired clergyman in the state of Florida says he and his wife are worried about their economic future. The travel industry and related businesses are still having problems. Many Americans still are driving cars for short trips instead of flying. People who do fly say it is much more difficult because of increased security at airports. A businesswoman from California must fly often as part of her job. She says she dislikes waiting in security lines that take much longer than they did before September eleventh. VOICE ONE: For many Americans, daily life continues much as it did before the attacks. But people often ask each other where they were on September eleventh. Marie Reeder lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She knows exactly what she was doing on that day. She was celebrating her eighty-second birthday with family members. Her birthday had always been a happy event. This year, however, it will not be the same. Marie Reeder will celebrate her birthday. But she will also think about what happened to America on September eleventh, two-thousand-one. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 10, 2002: South Asia's Pollution / El Nino in the Pacific / Anthrax-Eating Enzyme
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. An earlier El Nino (white area)(Photo - NOAA) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about an enzyme that can destroy the deadly anthrax bacterium. We tell about the effects of a weaker weather condition called El Nino. And we tell about a cloud of pollution covering much of southern Asia. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American scientists say they have developed an enzyme that can destroy the deadly anthrax bacterium. The scientists say the enzyme could effectively treat people infected with the bacterium, including drug-resistant forms of the disease. They say the enzyme also could be used to immediately identify areas thought to contain anthrax particles. Scientists with the Rockefeller University in New York Cuty developed the anthrax-killing protein. They described their work in the British publication Nature. VOICE TWO: Anthrax is a severe infectious disease that mainly attacks animals. However, anthrax also can infect humans. Usually, people get the disease by touching infected animals or animal products. However, anthrax particles were blamed for five deaths in the United States last year after the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Many other people became sick. The particles were found on letters sent to political leaders and members of the media. The discovery of the letters containing anthrax temporarily slowed mail service in the United States. No suspects have yet been charged in the investigation. VOICE ONE: The United States Defense Department provided money for the new research on anthrax. The Rockefeller University scientists developed the anthrax-killing enzyme by using a virus that attacks bacteria. Viruses can infect both humans and bacteria. Viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages or “bacteria-eating viruses.” They are also known as phage (fayj). Phage are the most common life form on Earth. They can be found in soil, water or anywhere else that bacteria live. Phage have been battling anthrax and other kinds of bacteria for millions of years. Like viruses that infect humans, phage inject their genetic material into the bacterial cell. Then, the virus reproduces and bursts out before attacking the next cell. VOICE TWO: The Rockefeller University scientists worked with phage that infect the anthrax bacterium. They identified the enzyme that allows the phage to burst out and escape from the anthrax bacterium. The scientists showed that just a small amount of the enzyme can quickly destroy a laboratory container filled with anthrax. The scientists say this enzyme will attack only anthrax because it was developed from a phage that only infects the anthrax bacterium. The scientists tested the enzyme on mice infected with a disease similar to anthrax. All of the mice usually die within four hours of being infected with this disease. The scientists injected the new enzyme into the mice fifteen minutes after they were infected with the disease. As many as eighty percent of the injected animals survived. VOICE ONE: Vincent Fischetti of the Rockefeller University helped organize the study. He believes that the anthrax-killing enzyme would work as well in humans, with almost no bad effects. He also thinks the bacterium used in the anthrax attacks last year will not develop a resistance to the new treatment. That is because the enzyme is its natural enemy. The scientists also described how the enzyme can be used to confirm the presence of anthrax particles in places like buildings. They say the test for anthrax can be done in as few as ten or fifteen minutes. Some current tests require several days to identify the presence of anthrax. The new tests are done with a hand-held light meter. The device shows glowing particles if anthrax is present. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The El Nino weather condition has returned. However, officials at the United States National Weather Service say El Nino is weaker than usual this year. El Nino is a change in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. It happens every four to five years. El Nino is Spanish for “the little one” or “the Christ child.” The weather condition is called El Nino because its effects increase in December, at about Christmas time. Normally, water temperatures in the western Pacific Ocean increase near the end of the year. This causes more rainfall in Indonesia, Australia and other nearby places. At the same time, cold ocean water causes less rainfall in the eastern Pacific Ocean, near South America. The opposite happens during El Nino. Pacific Ocean temperatures increase near South America, causing unusually high amounts of rainfall there. And, El Nino causes dry weather in Indonesia and Australia. VOICE ONE: A strong El Nino can severely affect the weather all over the world. The last powerful El Nino was in nineteen-ninety-seven and nineteen-ninety-eight. It caused major floods around the world. El Nino also led to extremely dry weather in some areas. Reports say the weather condition caused the deaths of about twenty-four-thousand people. So experts say having a weaker El Nino this year is good news. Weather scientists say rainfall has been higher than usual in South America. The experts say the effects of El Nino will begin in November in the United States. Drier weather is expected in the northwestern states. The northern states may have a warmer winter. But, scientists say El Nino will not be strong enough to prevent this year’s powerful storms in the Atlantic Ocean. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: A United Nations study says a thick cloud of pollution covering southern Asia threatens the lives of millions of people. Scientists say the pollution could increase lung diseases and cause early deaths. The cloud is also damaging agriculture and affecting rainfall levels. Scientists are calling it the Asian Brown Cloud. It has affected Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The pollution cloud is three kilometers high. Scientists say it can move halfway around the world in a week. VOICE ONE: The cloud is a mixture of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles. It is the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural waste, and huge increases in the burning of fuels by vehicles, industries and power stations. Pollution from millions of bad cooking stoves has made the problem worse. Many poor people burn fuels like wood and animal waste in such stoves. Scientists say the cloud of pollution appears to cool the land and oceans by blocking sunlight. They say it reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface by as much as fifteen percent. At the same time, heat inside the cloud warms the lower parts of the atmosphere. VOICE TWO: Scientists say this combination could be changing winter rainfall levels in Asia. They say rainfall has increased over the eastern coast of Asia. But it has dropped sharply over parts of northwestern Asia. The report says the cloud could reduce rainfall over northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan and western China by up to forty percent. Harmful chemicals from the cloud are mixing with rainfall. This acid rain damages crops and trees and threatens public health. Scientists are concerned that the pollution will intensify during the next thirty years as the population of Asia increases to an estimated five-thousand-million people. Scientists say the Asian Brown Cloud could affect other parts of the world unless steps are taken to reduce pollution. Environmental groups say action is needed to find clean, renewable energy sources. More than two-hundred scientists took part in the U-N study. The U-N Environment Program prepared the study for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. That meeting took place in Johannesburg, South Africa. It ended last week. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Doreen Baingana and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about an enzyme that can destroy the deadly anthrax bacterium. We tell about the effects of a weaker weather condition called El Nino. And we tell about a cloud of pollution covering much of southern Asia. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American scientists say they have developed an enzyme that can destroy the deadly anthrax bacterium. The scientists say the enzyme could effectively treat people infected with the bacterium, including drug-resistant forms of the disease. They say the enzyme also could be used to immediately identify areas thought to contain anthrax particles. Scientists with the Rockefeller University in New York Cuty developed the anthrax-killing protein. They described their work in the British publication Nature. VOICE TWO: Anthrax is a severe infectious disease that mainly attacks animals. However, anthrax also can infect humans. Usually, people get the disease by touching infected animals or animal products. However, anthrax particles were blamed for five deaths in the United States last year after the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Many other people became sick. The particles were found on letters sent to political leaders and members of the media. The discovery of the letters containing anthrax temporarily slowed mail service in the United States. No suspects have yet been charged in the investigation. VOICE ONE: The United States Defense Department provided money for the new research on anthrax. The Rockefeller University scientists developed the anthrax-killing enzyme by using a virus that attacks bacteria. Viruses can infect both humans and bacteria. Viruses that infect bacteria are called bacteriophages or “bacteria-eating viruses.” They are also known as phage (fayj). Phage are the most common life form on Earth. They can be found in soil, water or anywhere else that bacteria live. Phage have been battling anthrax and other kinds of bacteria for millions of years. Like viruses that infect humans, phage inject their genetic material into the bacterial cell. Then, the virus reproduces and bursts out before attacking the next cell. VOICE TWO: The Rockefeller University scientists worked with phage that infect the anthrax bacterium. They identified the enzyme that allows the phage to burst out and escape from the anthrax bacterium. The scientists showed that just a small amount of the enzyme can quickly destroy a laboratory container filled with anthrax. The scientists say this enzyme will attack only anthrax because it was developed from a phage that only infects the anthrax bacterium. The scientists tested the enzyme on mice infected with a disease similar to anthrax. All of the mice usually die within four hours of being infected with this disease. The scientists injected the new enzyme into the mice fifteen minutes after they were infected with the disease. As many as eighty percent of the injected animals survived. VOICE ONE: Vincent Fischetti of the Rockefeller University helped organize the study. He believes that the anthrax-killing enzyme would work as well in humans, with almost no bad effects. He also thinks the bacterium used in the anthrax attacks last year will not develop a resistance to the new treatment. That is because the enzyme is its natural enemy. The scientists also described how the enzyme can be used to confirm the presence of anthrax particles in places like buildings. They say the test for anthrax can be done in as few as ten or fifteen minutes. Some current tests require several days to identify the presence of anthrax. The new tests are done with a hand-held light meter. The device shows glowing particles if anthrax is present. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The El Nino weather condition has returned. However, officials at the United States National Weather Service say El Nino is weaker than usual this year. El Nino is a change in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. It happens every four to five years. El Nino is Spanish for “the little one” or “the Christ child.” The weather condition is called El Nino because its effects increase in December, at about Christmas time. Normally, water temperatures in the western Pacific Ocean increase near the end of the year. This causes more rainfall in Indonesia, Australia and other nearby places. At the same time, cold ocean water causes less rainfall in the eastern Pacific Ocean, near South America. The opposite happens during El Nino. Pacific Ocean temperatures increase near South America, causing unusually high amounts of rainfall there. And, El Nino causes dry weather in Indonesia and Australia. VOICE ONE: A strong El Nino can severely affect the weather all over the world. The last powerful El Nino was in nineteen-ninety-seven and nineteen-ninety-eight. It caused major floods around the world. El Nino also led to extremely dry weather in some areas. Reports say the weather condition caused the deaths of about twenty-four-thousand people. So experts say having a weaker El Nino this year is good news. Weather scientists say rainfall has been higher than usual in South America. The experts say the effects of El Nino will begin in November in the United States. Drier weather is expected in the northwestern states. The northern states may have a warmer winter. But, scientists say El Nino will not be strong enough to prevent this year’s powerful storms in the Atlantic Ocean. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: A United Nations study says a thick cloud of pollution covering southern Asia threatens the lives of millions of people. Scientists say the pollution could increase lung diseases and cause early deaths. The cloud is also damaging agriculture and affecting rainfall levels. Scientists are calling it the Asian Brown Cloud. It has affected Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The pollution cloud is three kilometers high. Scientists say it can move halfway around the world in a week. VOICE ONE: The cloud is a mixture of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles. It is the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural waste, and huge increases in the burning of fuels by vehicles, industries and power stations. Pollution from millions of bad cooking stoves has made the problem worse. Many poor people burn fuels like wood and animal waste in such stoves. Scientists say the cloud of pollution appears to cool the land and oceans by blocking sunlight. They say it reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface by as much as fifteen percent. At the same time, heat inside the cloud warms the lower parts of the atmosphere. VOICE TWO: Scientists say this combination could be changing winter rainfall levels in Asia. They say rainfall has increased over the eastern coast of Asia. But it has dropped sharply over parts of northwestern Asia. The report says the cloud could reduce rainfall over northwestern Pakistan, Afghanistan and western China by up to forty percent. Harmful chemicals from the cloud are mixing with rainfall. This acid rain damages crops and trees and threatens public health. Scientists are concerned that the pollution will intensify during the next thirty years as the population of Asia increases to an estimated five-thousand-million people. Scientists say the Asian Brown Cloud could affect other parts of the world unless steps are taken to reduce pollution. Environmental groups say action is needed to find clean, renewable energy sources. More than two-hundred scientists took part in the U-N study. The U-N Environment Program prepared the study for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. That meeting took place in Johannesburg, South Africa. It ended last week. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Doreen Baingana and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – September 10, 2002: U.S. Black Farmers Protest
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Hezekiah Gibson operates a farm in Manning, South Carolina. Last month, he and about sixty other black farmers traveled to a one-day protest in Washington, D-C. The farmers and their supporters demonstrated near the headquarters of the United States Department of Agriculture. They were protesting measures by the U-S-D-A they say have caused many blacks to lose their farms. They also accuse the government of failing to honor an agreement to pay black farmers for years of unfair treatment. Mister Gibson said he did not like having to come to Washington. But he said he is tired of waiting for justice. Three years ago, the government agreed to pay at least fifty-thousand dollars to each farmer who suffered unfair treatment. However, the protesters say few farmers have received their money. The Department of Agriculture is a huge government agency. It lends money to farmers who have been refused loans by private banks. Farm activists and civil rights officials have long blamed unfair treatment by the U-S-D-A for causing many blacks to leave farming. The number of black farmers in the United States continues to decrease. About twelve percent of the American population is black. Yet only about one percent of farmers are black. A group of black farmers started legal action against the Department of Agriculture in nineteen-ninety-seven. Two years later, a settlement between the two sides was announced. Under the settlement, U-S-D-A officials agreed there were cases of unfair treatment of blacks after nineteen-eighty-three. That was when former President Ronald Reagan closed the U-S-D-A office of civil rights. That office was re-opened six years ago. The government has paid more than six-hundred-million dollars to almost thirteen-thousand black farmers. It also canceled millions of dollars in unpaid loans. However, more than eight-thousand cases have been denied. Other farmers are still waiting for a decision. A top U-S-D-A official says the Justice Department is examining the remaining claims. He added that the government is not opposed to making payments to the black farmers. He said it is more an issue of following through on the settlement. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: September 12, 2002 - Finding Words for Sept. 11, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: September 12, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 15, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we look at how American English has kept up with a tumultuous year. RS: Some old terms have gained new meanings since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. METCALF: "I think the most successful one that's come in is the term 'ground zero.'" AA: Allan Metcalf of the American Dialect Society is author of the forthcoming book "Predicting New Words." METCALF: "Ground zero is a term that was originally used to designate the place on the ground underneath the explosion of the bomb, the atomic bomb. I think that as long as there is some remembrance of the events of September 11th to be found at ground zero, we will be using ground zero. If for some reason they completely rebuild it and don't leave much of a memorial, that would be the only way that term would lose its potency." RS: "So we have '9-11,' 'ground zero,' and what about 'homeland security'? We weren't talking much about that last year." AA: "That's a term I guess some people would associate with the Nazis in Germany." METCALF: "Yes, the problem with 'homeland' is that we associate it with Europe, perhaps with the Nazis, but even if not with the Nazis, we think of 'homeland' as more a place where Americans have come from to settle in America, rather than our own country being a homeland." AA: Allan Metcalf says it's not unusual that the lexicon created by last year's attacks has been limited. METCALF: "Most words crop up just naturally, and they come up through using familiar words in new ways or new combinations. 'Ground zero,' again, is a very good example of that. Another term that arose in the wake of September 11th is 'weapons-grade.' It refers to uranium enriched sufficiently to be useful as a weapon. But it has been extended. "It was used for 'weapons-grade anthrax,' and then people began talking about weapons-grade salsa, mascara, mozzarella. 'Weapons-grade' became a new way of expressing super-strength, and the fact that people were using it with these further meanings is an indication that weapons-grade is likely to be successful." AA: We also checked with John Morse, president of Merriam-Webster, a leading publisher of American dictionaries. We asked what his staff has found about the extent to which last year's attacks have influenced American English. MORSE: "I think where we've seen more new-word formation really goes to our own financial problems in this country with the collapse of the dot-coms and some of the other corporate problems. That is really giving us an interesting array of coinages, phrases like 'pump-and-dump' for pushing up the price of a stock. I can't really point to anything quite like that that I think has come out of any of the terrorist-related or any of the other problems or violence that we've had." AA: "Now what about increased frequency of certain words, or words taking on new meanings as a result of either what happened on September 11th or the war that's been taking place since then?" MORSE: "Well, I think what is happening is that some words, if they're not taking on exactly new meanings, they are taking on a new resonance. They bring with them additional connotations that they might not have had before. I think of, for instance, the word 'surreal' which was a word that came to many people's minds on the day of September 11th as they searched for words to try to find a meaning and description for what had happened, and I think that was used so frequently in the wake of September 11th that I think that word's always going to carry a bit of that connotation. "Certainly another word that I think resonates with us now maybe in ways it didn't prior to September 11th is the simple word 'hero.' I think that on September 11th we all were confronted with real examples of heroism and people for whom we knew the term hero was very appropriate." RS: John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. You can find us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on Coast to Coast: September 12, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 15, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- we look at how American English has kept up with a tumultuous year. RS: Some old terms have gained new meanings since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. METCALF: "I think the most successful one that's come in is the term 'ground zero.'" AA: Allan Metcalf of the American Dialect Society is author of the forthcoming book "Predicting New Words." METCALF: "Ground zero is a term that was originally used to designate the place on the ground underneath the explosion of the bomb, the atomic bomb. I think that as long as there is some remembrance of the events of September 11th to be found at ground zero, we will be using ground zero. If for some reason they completely rebuild it and don't leave much of a memorial, that would be the only way that term would lose its potency." RS: "So we have '9-11,' 'ground zero,' and what about 'homeland security'? We weren't talking much about that last year." AA: "That's a term I guess some people would associate with the Nazis in Germany." METCALF: "Yes, the problem with 'homeland' is that we associate it with Europe, perhaps with the Nazis, but even if not with the Nazis, we think of 'homeland' as more a place where Americans have come from to settle in America, rather than our own country being a homeland." AA: Allan Metcalf says it's not unusual that the lexicon created by last year's attacks has been limited. METCALF: "Most words crop up just naturally, and they come up through using familiar words in new ways or new combinations. 'Ground zero,' again, is a very good example of that. Another term that arose in the wake of September 11th is 'weapons-grade.' It refers to uranium enriched sufficiently to be useful as a weapon. But it has been extended. "It was used for 'weapons-grade anthrax,' and then people began talking about weapons-grade salsa, mascara, mozzarella. 'Weapons-grade' became a new way of expressing super-strength, and the fact that people were using it with these further meanings is an indication that weapons-grade is likely to be successful." AA: We also checked with John Morse, president of Merriam-Webster, a leading publisher of American dictionaries. We asked what his staff has found about the extent to which last year's attacks have influenced American English. MORSE: "I think where we've seen more new-word formation really goes to our own financial problems in this country with the collapse of the dot-coms and some of the other corporate problems. That is really giving us an interesting array of coinages, phrases like 'pump-and-dump' for pushing up the price of a stock. I can't really point to anything quite like that that I think has come out of any of the terrorist-related or any of the other problems or violence that we've had." AA: "Now what about increased frequency of certain words, or words taking on new meanings as a result of either what happened on September 11th or the war that's been taking place since then?" MORSE: "Well, I think what is happening is that some words, if they're not taking on exactly new meanings, they are taking on a new resonance. They bring with them additional connotations that they might not have had before. I think of, for instance, the word 'surreal' which was a word that came to many people's minds on the day of September 11th as they searched for words to try to find a meaning and description for what had happened, and I think that was used so frequently in the wake of September 11th that I think that word's always going to carry a bit of that connotation. "Certainly another word that I think resonates with us now maybe in ways it didn't prior to September 11th is the simple word 'hero.' I think that on September 11th we all were confronted with real examples of heroism and people for whom we knew the term hero was very appropriate." RS: John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster. AA: That's Wordmaster for this week. You can find us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - September 11, 2002: McDonald’s Changes its Oil
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. McDonald’s says its fast-food eating places in the United States will start frying foods in a healthier kind of oil. It says the new kind of oil will reduce the most harmful kinds of fat in the fried foods, including the company’s famous French fried potatoes. McDonald’s says it will improve the corn and soybean oil that it now uses to fry foods. Officials say the new kind of oil will reduce by half the amount of trans fatty acids in the fried foods. The new oil also will have increased amounts of a more healthy kind of fat. Earlier this year, the National Academy of Sciences released a report about the dangers of trans fat. Trans fat has been linked to heart disease. It increases the levels of harmful cholesterol in the blood. Some researchers believe that trans fat in vegetable oil may be extremely dangerous. That is because it lowers the levels of good cholesterol while increasing the levels of bad cholesterol. Trans fats are most commonly found in hard vegetable shortening and oil. They are present in many baked and fried foods bought in stores and restaurants. The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to require information about trans fat to appear on food products sold in the United States.McDonald’s officials say the new vegetable oil also reduces the amount of saturated fat in the fried foods. Experts believe that such fat also is linked to heart disease. McDonald’s has been using canola oil that is low in trans fat in its fast food restaurants in Europe for several years. Company officials say they will have the new vegetable oil in all thirteen-thousand American McDonald’s restaurants by February. They also hope to continue reducing the amount of trans fats in their products until no food sold by the company contains trans fats. Food experts have praised the company’s decision to make its products healthier for the public. American Heart Association officials have called on other food companies to make similar changes. But the officials also say that people must remember that French fried potatoes are still high in fat and calories. Eating too many can cause weight gain that can also be harmful to health. One expert from the Center for Science in the Public Interest called the move a step forward. But she said it will not make French fries a healthy food. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. McDonald’s says its fast-food eating places in the United States will start frying foods in a healthier kind of oil. It says the new kind of oil will reduce the most harmful kinds of fat in the fried foods, including the company’s famous French fried potatoes. McDonald’s says it will improve the corn and soybean oil that it now uses to fry foods. Officials say the new kind of oil will reduce by half the amount of trans fatty acids in the fried foods. The new oil also will have increased amounts of a more healthy kind of fat. Earlier this year, the National Academy of Sciences released a report about the dangers of trans fat. Trans fat has been linked to heart disease. It increases the levels of harmful cholesterol in the blood. Some researchers believe that trans fat in vegetable oil may be extremely dangerous. That is because it lowers the levels of good cholesterol while increasing the levels of bad cholesterol. Trans fats are most commonly found in hard vegetable shortening and oil. They are present in many baked and fried foods bought in stores and restaurants. The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to require information about trans fat to appear on food products sold in the United States.McDonald’s officials say the new vegetable oil also reduces the amount of saturated fat in the fried foods. Experts believe that such fat also is linked to heart disease. McDonald’s has been using canola oil that is low in trans fat in its fast food restaurants in Europe for several years. Company officials say they will have the new vegetable oil in all thirteen-thousand American McDonald’s restaurants by February. They also hope to continue reducing the amount of trans fats in their products until no food sold by the company contains trans fats. Food experts have praised the company’s decision to make its products healthier for the public. American Heart Association officials have called on other food companies to make similar changes. But the officials also say that people must remember that French fried potatoes are still high in fat and calories. Eating too many can cause weight gain that can also be harmful to health. One expert from the Center for Science in the Public Interest called the move a step forward. But she said it will not make French fries a healthy food. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 11, 2002: Reaction to September 11
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. One year ago, the United States suffered the worst terrorist attack in American history. There are many stories being told about that day and its effects. Today, we will tell about messages from some of you, our listeners. We will also tell how one company is dealing with the effects of September eleventh. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. One year ago, the United States suffered the worst terrorist attack in American history. There are many stories being told about that day and its effects. Today, we will tell about messages from some of you, our listeners. We will also tell how one company is dealing with the effects of September eleventh. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: One year ago, Islamist terrorists hijacked two passenger airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York City. The two huge buildings were destroyed. Another hijacked plane struck and damaged the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D.C. Still another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The events of September eleventh did not only affect Americans. The attacks united people around the world in sympathy for the families and friends of those who were killed. Millions of people in all areas of the world were touched by the events of that terrible day. People who were not Americans were also killed in the attacks. The media company C-N-N keeps records of the victims of the attacks. Almost five-hundred foreigners were among the more than three-thousand people who lost their lives September eleventh. They were citizens of at least thirteen foreign countries. They were in the World Trade Center and on the airplanes that crashed. Soon after the attacks, expressions of sympathy from all around the world reached those of us working in VOA Special English. Hundreds of letters and e-mails offered support for the American people and denounced terrorism. We received messages such as this one from France: “Deeply in my heart, I am American now. I pray for all the victims as if they were cherished friends.” VOICE TWO: Listeners of many cultures and religions wanted to express their sympathy. One listener wrote: “I’m Egyptian and Muslim. I want to say that all Egyptians (Muslims, Christians and Jews) condemn these killings. God help you, God help America.” A listener in Somalia wrote, “We extend our heartfelt sympathy to you during this period of hellish tragedy that occurred to the American people in [the] New York and Washington attack.” One listener in Costa Rica wrote reminding us that courage and wisdom cannot be separated: “…Have for the present courage in front of the sadness, and a great wisdom when you will answer your enemies.” Still others pointed to the important ideas that America represents to them. A listener in Cambodia wrote us: “It’s an important fact that the two buildings and a part of the Pentagon have already fallen … but … democracy is still alive and even getting stronger.” VOICE ONE: Some listeners who have experienced the effects of terrorism offered advice. A listener in Spain wrote that the United States should “try not to cause suffering to civilian populations, because the medicine will be worse than the sickness.” He said that the Spanish people have an understanding of terrorism from thirty years of fighting the separatist group ETA. One listener in England wrote: “I know you…will have thousands of messages like this but, as a victim of I-R-A attacks, I know what it feels like. My prayers are with your country tonight.” VOICE TWO: Terrorist attacks are not new, but the huge size of the September eleventh event was something never seen before. Many people from very different cultures wrote saying they felt a new connection with Americans. A listener in China wrote: “I am shocked at the news about the terrorist attacks. I am really worried about many citizens’ lives. They and I may be strangers to each other, but we are human beings with the same feelings, life, and love of the world.” VOICE ONE: Radio, television and the press throughout the world covered every detail of the attacks and their results. Video recordings of the World Trade Center buildings burning and then falling were broadcast continuously for a long time — even days after the events. New York City and Washington, D-C, are among the largest media centers in the world. This meant that the attacks and their effects were broadcast to the whole world as they were happening. VOICE TWO: The pictures and descriptions affected almost everyone who saw them. Many messages from listeners offered friendship and support that helped us get through a difficult time. A listener in Tajikistan wrote, “It was really horrible to hear that bad news about the crashes of planes and buildings in New York and about the death of thousands of people. Please accept our deep feelings and sympathy. We are with you dear friends!!!” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The World Trade Center not only represented American economic power, but also international business cooperation. Businesses and governments of many countries had offices in the World Trade Center. The attack affected people all over the world not only economically, but personally. The greatest loss of life on September eleventh was not among a group of rescue workers. It was a business. Cantor Fitzgerald occupied five floors in the north building of the World Trade Center. Those floors were hit almost directly by American Airlines Flight Eleven, a passenger airplane that carried about ninety people. VOICE TWO: Cantor Fitzgerald is a financial company. It trades certain investments. It creates money-making instruments that are highly complex. Cantor Fitzgerald also has developed services to trade what are called “greenhouse gas credits.” These kinds of credits are required by the international environmental agreement, the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The credits are traded among countries that have agreed to the Kyoto Protocol. The United States is not one of them. The most recent reports show that six-hundred-fifty-eight workers at Cantor Fitzgerald were killed on September eleventh. About one-thousand people worked for the company in its New York offices. The business could have failed because of the loss of sixty-five percent of its employees. However, the chairman of the company, Howard Lutnick, and other officials wanted everyone to know that the company had survived the attack and still was strong. VOICE ONE: In May of this year, Cantor Fitzgerald started a television campaign. The four-million dollar campaign was meant to show that the company was open for business. In it, current employees and survivors of the September eleventh attacks spoke about the event and its effects. The television campaign shows how the workers at Cantor Fitzgerald want to move to the future by connecting with the past. Each brief television presentation shows an employee explaining his or her reaction to the loss of friends. The Cantor Fitzgerald employees seem to express the need to continue on with life even after experiencing a tragic event. In one presentation, employee Chris Crosby says, “Everyone who I lost would have said ‘go to work.’” Phil Marber says the victims he worked with would demand that the survivors move forward. He says, “Every single one of them would have wanted us to be rebuilding.” Joe Noviello says, “There is only one thing that we could do…restore what is ours.” VOICE TWO: Some people have criticized Cantor Fitzgerald for using the September eleventh attack as part of a television campaign. However, the company says it has made a great effort to help support the families of the victims by providing health care and sharing profits. The company says it also is trying to make sure that it is successful in the future. The television campaign by Cantor Fitzgerald shows survivors dealing with the tragic events of one year ago. It is part of a national effort to move to the future. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Many of the stories about the September Eleventh attacks and their worldwide effects are evidence of some of the best human qualities. The employees of Cantor Fitzgerald showed how human nature seeks to return to normal. They decided that returning to work was the best way they could honor their friends who died in the attack. Messages from Special English listeners show the strong links between people of different countries, religions and cultures. A listener in China expressed it this way, “I think all our world is a big family, so we should live peacefully.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. One year ago, Islamist terrorists hijacked two passenger airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York City. The two huge buildings were destroyed. Another hijacked plane struck and damaged the Defense Department headquarters near Washington, D.C. Still another hijacked plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The events of September eleventh did not only affect Americans. The attacks united people around the world in sympathy for the families and friends of those who were killed. Millions of people in all areas of the world were touched by the events of that terrible day. People who were not Americans were also killed in the attacks. The media company C-N-N keeps records of the victims of the attacks. Almost five-hundred foreigners were among the more than three-thousand people who lost their lives September eleventh. They were citizens of at least thirteen foreign countries. They were in the World Trade Center and on the airplanes that crashed. Soon after the attacks, expressions of sympathy from all around the world reached those of us working in VOA Special English. Hundreds of letters and e-mails offered support for the American people and denounced terrorism. We received messages such as this one from France: “Deeply in my heart, I am American now. I pray for all the victims as if they were cherished friends.” VOICE TWO: Listeners of many cultures and religions wanted to express their sympathy. One listener wrote: “I’m Egyptian and Muslim. I want to say that all Egyptians (Muslims, Christians and Jews) condemn these killings. God help you, God help America.” A listener in Somalia wrote, “We extend our heartfelt sympathy to you during this period of hellish tragedy that occurred to the American people in [the] New York and Washington attack.” One listener in Costa Rica wrote reminding us that courage and wisdom cannot be separated: “…Have for the present courage in front of the sadness, and a great wisdom when you will answer your enemies.” Still others pointed to the important ideas that America represents to them. A listener in Cambodia wrote us: “It’s an important fact that the two buildings and a part of the Pentagon have already fallen … but … democracy is still alive and even getting stronger.” VOICE ONE: Some listeners who have experienced the effects of terrorism offered advice. A listener in Spain wrote that the United States should “try not to cause suffering to civilian populations, because the medicine will be worse than the sickness.” He said that the Spanish people have an understanding of terrorism from thirty years of fighting the separatist group ETA. One listener in England wrote: “I know you…will have thousands of messages like this but, as a victim of I-R-A attacks, I know what it feels like. My prayers are with your country tonight.” VOICE TWO: Terrorist attacks are not new, but the huge size of the September eleventh event was something never seen before. Many people from very different cultures wrote saying they felt a new connection with Americans. A listener in China wrote: “I am shocked at the news about the terrorist attacks. I am really worried about many citizens’ lives. They and I may be strangers to each other, but we are human beings with the same feelings, life, and love of the world.” VOICE ONE: Radio, television and the press throughout the world covered every detail of the attacks and their results. Video recordings of the World Trade Center buildings burning and then falling were broadcast continuously for a long time — even days after the events. New York City and Washington, D-C, are among the largest media centers in the world. This meant that the attacks and their effects were broadcast to the whole world as they were happening. VOICE TWO: The pictures and descriptions affected almost everyone who saw them. Many messages from listeners offered friendship and support that helped us get through a difficult time. A listener in Tajikistan wrote, “It was really horrible to hear that bad news about the crashes of planes and buildings in New York and about the death of thousands of people. Please accept our deep feelings and sympathy. We are with you dear friends!!!” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The World Trade Center not only represented American economic power, but also international business cooperation. Businesses and governments of many countries had offices in the World Trade Center. The attack affected people all over the world not only economically, but personally. The greatest loss of life on September eleventh was not among a group of rescue workers. It was a business. Cantor Fitzgerald occupied five floors in the north building of the World Trade Center. Those floors were hit almost directly by American Airlines Flight Eleven, a passenger airplane that carried about ninety people. VOICE TWO: Cantor Fitzgerald is a financial company. It trades certain investments. It creates money-making instruments that are highly complex. Cantor Fitzgerald also has developed services to trade what are called “greenhouse gas credits.” These kinds of credits are required by the international environmental agreement, the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The credits are traded among countries that have agreed to the Kyoto Protocol. The United States is not one of them. The most recent reports show that six-hundred-fifty-eight workers at Cantor Fitzgerald were killed on September eleventh. About one-thousand people worked for the company in its New York offices. The business could have failed because of the loss of sixty-five percent of its employees. However, the chairman of the company, Howard Lutnick, and other officials wanted everyone to know that the company had survived the attack and still was strong. VOICE ONE: In May of this year, Cantor Fitzgerald started a television campaign. The four-million dollar campaign was meant to show that the company was open for business. In it, current employees and survivors of the September eleventh attacks spoke about the event and its effects. The television campaign shows how the workers at Cantor Fitzgerald want to move to the future by connecting with the past. Each brief television presentation shows an employee explaining his or her reaction to the loss of friends. The Cantor Fitzgerald employees seem to express the need to continue on with life even after experiencing a tragic event. In one presentation, employee Chris Crosby says, “Everyone who I lost would have said ‘go to work.’” Phil Marber says the victims he worked with would demand that the survivors move forward. He says, “Every single one of them would have wanted us to be rebuilding.” Joe Noviello says, “There is only one thing that we could do…restore what is ours.” VOICE TWO: Some people have criticized Cantor Fitzgerald for using the September eleventh attack as part of a television campaign. However, the company says it has made a great effort to help support the families of the victims by providing health care and sharing profits. The company says it also is trying to make sure that it is successful in the future. The television campaign by Cantor Fitzgerald shows survivors dealing with the tragic events of one year ago. It is part of a national effort to move to the future. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Many of the stories about the September Eleventh attacks and their worldwide effects are evidence of some of the best human qualities. The employees of Cantor Fitzgerald showed how human nature seeks to return to normal. They decided that returning to work was the best way they could honor their friends who died in the attack. Messages from Special English listeners show the strong links between people of different countries, religions and cultures. A listener in China expressed it this way, “I think all our world is a big family, so we should live peacefully.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 12, 2002: John Kennedy, Part 1 / First 100 Days
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. John F. Kennedy VOICE 1: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Our program today is about the beginning of the administration of President John Kennedy. ((Music)) VOICE 1: January twentieth, nineteen-sixty-one. John Kennedy was to be sworn-in that day as president of the United States. It had snowed heavily the night before. Few cars were in the streets of Washington. Yet, somehow, people got to the ceremony at the Capitol building. VOICE 2: The outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower, was seventy years old. John Kennedy was just forty-three. He was the first American president born in the twentieth century. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy served in the military in World War Two. Eisenhower served at the top. He was commander of allied forces in Europe. Kennedy was one of many young navy officers in the pacific battle area. Eisenhower was a hero of the war and was an extremely popular man. Kennedy was extremely popular, too, especially among young people. He was a fresh face in American politics. To millions of Americans, he represented a chance for a new beginning. VOICE 1: Not everyone liked John Kennedy, however. Many people thought he was too young to be president. Many opposed him because he belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of Christians in America were Protestant. There had never been a Roman Catholic president of the United States. John Kennedy would be the first. VOICE 2: Dwight Eisenhower served two terms during the nineteen-fifties. That was the limit for American presidents. His vice president, Richard Nixon, ran against Kennedy in the election of nineteen-sixty. Many Americans supported Nixon. They believed he was a stronger opponent of communism than Kennedy. Some also feared that Kennedy might give more consideration to the needs of black Americans than to white Americans. The election of nineteen-sixty was one of the closest in American history. Kennedy defeated Nixon by fewer than one-hundred-twenty thousand popular votes. Now, he would be sworn-in as the nation's thirty-fifth president. ((Music)) VOICE 1: One of the speakers at the ceremony was Robert Frost. He was perhaps America's most popular poet at the time. Robert Frost planned to read from a long work he wrote especially for the ceremony. But he was unable to read much of it. The bright winter sun shone blindingly on the snow. The cold winter wind blew the paper in his old hands. VOICE 2: John Kennedy stood to help him. Still, the poet could not continue. Those in the crowd felt concerned for the eighty-six-year-old man. Suddenly, he stopped trying to say his special poem. Instead, he began to say the words of another one, one he knew from memory. It was called "The Gift Outright." Here is part of that poem by Robert Frost, read by Stan Busby: The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years before we were her people ... Something we were withholding made us weak until we found out that it was ourselves we were withholding from our land of living ... Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. VOICE 1: Soon it was time for the new president to speak. People watching on television could see his icy breath as he stood. He was not wearing a warm coat. His head was uncovered. Kennedy's speech would, one day, be judged to be among the best in American history. The time of his inauguration was a time of tension and fear about nuclear weapons. The United States had nuclear weapons. Its main political enemy, the Soviet Union, had them, too. If hostilities broke out, would such terrible weapons be used? VOICE 2: Kennedy spoke about the issue. He warned of the danger of what he called "the deadly atom." He said the United States and communist nations should make serious proposals for the inspection and control of nuclear weapons. He urged both sides to explore the good in science, instead of its terrors. KENNEDY: "Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce ... Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved." VOICE 1: Kennedy also spoke about a torch -- a light of leadership being passed from older Americans to younger Americans. He urged the young to take the torch and accept responsibility for the future. He also urged other countries to work with the United States to create a better world. KENNEDY: "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: John Kennedy's first one-hundred days as president were busy ones. He was in office less than two weeks when the Soviet Union freed two American airmen. The Soviets had shot down their spy plane over the Bering Sea. About sixty-million people watched as Kennedy announced the airmen's release. It was the first presidential news conference broadcast live on television in the United States. Kennedy welcomed the release as a step toward better relations with the Soviet Union. The next month, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made another move toward better relations. He sent Kennedy a message. The message said that disarmament would be a great joy for all people on earth. VOICE 1: A few weeks later, President Kennedy announced the creation of the peace corps. He had talked about this program during the election campaign. The peace corps would send thousands of Americans to developing countries to provide technical help. Another program, the alliance for progress, was announced soon after the peace corps was created. The purpose of the alliance for progress was to provide economic aid to latin American nations for ten years. VOICE 2: The space program was another thing Kennedy had talked about during the election campaign. He believed the United States should continue to explore outer space. The Soviet Union had gotten there first. It launched the world's first satellite in nineteen-fifty-seven. Then, in April, nineteen-sixty-one, he Soviet Union sent the first manned spacecraft into orbit around the earth. VOICE 1: The worst failure of Kennedy's administration came that same month. On April seventeenth, more than one-thousand cuban exiles landed on a beach in western Cuba. They had received training and equipment from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. They were to lead a revolution to overthrow the communist government of Cuba. The place where they landed was called Bahia de Cochinos -- the Bay of Pigs. The plan failed. Most of the exiles were killed or captured by the Cuban army. VOICE 2: It had not been President Kennedy's idea to start a revolution against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Officials in the last administration had planned it. However, most of Kennedy's advisers supported the idea. And he approved it. In public, the president said he was responsible for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In private, he said, "All my life I have known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid." VOICE 1: John Kennedy's popularity was badly damaged by what happened in Cuba. His next months in office would be a struggle to regain the support of the people. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE 1: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Our program today is about the beginning of the administration of President John Kennedy. ((Music)) VOICE 1: January twentieth, nineteen-sixty-one. John Kennedy was to be sworn-in that day as president of the United States. It had snowed heavily the night before. Few cars were in the streets of Washington. Yet, somehow, people got to the ceremony at the Capitol building. VOICE 2: The outgoing president, Dwight Eisenhower, was seventy years old. John Kennedy was just forty-three. He was the first American president born in the twentieth century. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy served in the military in World War Two. Eisenhower served at the top. He was commander of allied forces in Europe. Kennedy was one of many young navy officers in the pacific battle area. Eisenhower was a hero of the war and was an extremely popular man. Kennedy was extremely popular, too, especially among young people. He was a fresh face in American politics. To millions of Americans, he represented a chance for a new beginning. VOICE 1: Not everyone liked John Kennedy, however. Many people thought he was too young to be president. Many opposed him because he belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of Christians in America were Protestant. There had never been a Roman Catholic president of the United States. John Kennedy would be the first. VOICE 2: Dwight Eisenhower served two terms during the nineteen-fifties. That was the limit for American presidents. His vice president, Richard Nixon, ran against Kennedy in the election of nineteen-sixty. Many Americans supported Nixon. They believed he was a stronger opponent of communism than Kennedy. Some also feared that Kennedy might give more consideration to the needs of black Americans than to white Americans. The election of nineteen-sixty was one of the closest in American history. Kennedy defeated Nixon by fewer than one-hundred-twenty thousand popular votes. Now, he would be sworn-in as the nation's thirty-fifth president. ((Music)) VOICE 1: One of the speakers at the ceremony was Robert Frost. He was perhaps America's most popular poet at the time. Robert Frost planned to read from a long work he wrote especially for the ceremony. But he was unable to read much of it. The bright winter sun shone blindingly on the snow. The cold winter wind blew the paper in his old hands. VOICE 2: John Kennedy stood to help him. Still, the poet could not continue. Those in the crowd felt concerned for the eighty-six-year-old man. Suddenly, he stopped trying to say his special poem. Instead, he began to say the words of another one, one he knew from memory. It was called "The Gift Outright." Here is part of that poem by Robert Frost, read by Stan Busby: The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years before we were her people ... Something we were withholding made us weak until we found out that it was ourselves we were withholding from our land of living ... Such as we were we gave ourselves outright. VOICE 1: Soon it was time for the new president to speak. People watching on television could see his icy breath as he stood. He was not wearing a warm coat. His head was uncovered. Kennedy's speech would, one day, be judged to be among the best in American history. The time of his inauguration was a time of tension and fear about nuclear weapons. The United States had nuclear weapons. Its main political enemy, the Soviet Union, had them, too. If hostilities broke out, would such terrible weapons be used? VOICE 2: Kennedy spoke about the issue. He warned of the danger of what he called "the deadly atom." He said the United States and communist nations should make serious proposals for the inspection and control of nuclear weapons. He urged both sides to explore the good in science, instead of its terrors. KENNEDY: "Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce ... Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved." VOICE 1: Kennedy also spoke about a torch -- a light of leadership being passed from older Americans to younger Americans. He urged the young to take the torch and accept responsibility for the future. He also urged other countries to work with the United States to create a better world. KENNEDY: "The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: John Kennedy's first one-hundred days as president were busy ones. He was in office less than two weeks when the Soviet Union freed two American airmen. The Soviets had shot down their spy plane over the Bering Sea. About sixty-million people watched as Kennedy announced the airmen's release. It was the first presidential news conference broadcast live on television in the United States. Kennedy welcomed the release as a step toward better relations with the Soviet Union. The next month, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made another move toward better relations. He sent Kennedy a message. The message said that disarmament would be a great joy for all people on earth. VOICE 1: A few weeks later, President Kennedy announced the creation of the peace corps. He had talked about this program during the election campaign. The peace corps would send thousands of Americans to developing countries to provide technical help. Another program, the alliance for progress, was announced soon after the peace corps was created. The purpose of the alliance for progress was to provide economic aid to latin American nations for ten years. VOICE 2: The space program was another thing Kennedy had talked about during the election campaign. He believed the United States should continue to explore outer space. The Soviet Union had gotten there first. It launched the world's first satellite in nineteen-fifty-seven. Then, in April, nineteen-sixty-one, he Soviet Union sent the first manned spacecraft into orbit around the earth. VOICE 1: The worst failure of Kennedy's administration came that same month. On April seventeenth, more than one-thousand cuban exiles landed on a beach in western Cuba. They had received training and equipment from the United States Central Intelligence Agency. They were to lead a revolution to overthrow the communist government of Cuba. The place where they landed was called Bahia de Cochinos -- the Bay of Pigs. The plan failed. Most of the exiles were killed or captured by the Cuban army. VOICE 2: It had not been President Kennedy's idea to start a revolution against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Officials in the last administration had planned it. However, most of Kennedy's advisers supported the idea. And he approved it. In public, the president said he was responsible for the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In private, he said, "All my life I have known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid." VOICE 1: John Kennedy's popularity was badly damaged by what happened in Cuba. His next months in office would be a struggle to regain the support of the people. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray. VOICE 1: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – September 12, 2002: 'Liberty’s Kids' Television Show
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A new public television program is helping American children learn how their nation began. The Public Broadcasting Service is offering forty half-hour programs about early American history. Public television stations in the United States are showing the program, called “Liberty’s Kids.” The stories tell about the period from seventeen-seventy-three to seventeen-eighty-nine. That is when thirteen American colonies demanded and won independence from Britain. Artists drew the characters that appear in the animated cartoon program. Live actors and famous Americans speak the words. For example, former television reporter Walter Cronkite reads the part of inventor and independence activist Benjamin Franklin. Franklin operated the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. “Liberty’s Kids” is about four young people who observe historic events. One character is Sarah Phillips, a young British girl. She is loyal to England. Another character is James Hiller. He helps Benjamin Franklin print his newspaper. James wants America to be independent. The two teenagers try to report the events taking place for the newspaper. They compete to tell their sides of the story and get the truth to people all across America. Sarah and James share the action with two other young people. They are a former slave who bought his freedom and an eight-year-old boy who has no parents. The four young people have exciting experiences as they live through revolutionary events. For example, one program tells about the Boston Tea Party. This took place in Boston Harbor in Massachusetts in seventeen-seventy-three. Independence fighters dressed as Indians invaded British ships carrying tea and threw the tea into the ocean. They were protesting British taxes on tea for the colonies. Sarah gets angry at the rebellious colonists. But James supports them. Another program tells about the acceptance of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in seventeen-seventy-six. This document declared America’s freedom from Britain. Historians studied the programs to make sure they contain correct information. American educators hope “Liberty’s Kids” will teach children more about the time when their nation was established. This VOA Special English Education report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Education Report. A new public television program is helping American children learn how their nation began. The Public Broadcasting Service is offering forty half-hour programs about early American history. Public television stations in the United States are showing the program, called “Liberty’s Kids.” The stories tell about the period from seventeen-seventy-three to seventeen-eighty-nine. That is when thirteen American colonies demanded and won independence from Britain. Artists drew the characters that appear in the animated cartoon program. Live actors and famous Americans speak the words. For example, former television reporter Walter Cronkite reads the part of inventor and independence activist Benjamin Franklin. Franklin operated the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper. “Liberty’s Kids” is about four young people who observe historic events. One character is Sarah Phillips, a young British girl. She is loyal to England. Another character is James Hiller. He helps Benjamin Franklin print his newspaper. James wants America to be independent. The two teenagers try to report the events taking place for the newspaper. They compete to tell their sides of the story and get the truth to people all across America. Sarah and James share the action with two other young people. They are a former slave who bought his freedom and an eight-year-old boy who has no parents. The four young people have exciting experiences as they live through revolutionary events. For example, one program tells about the Boston Tea Party. This took place in Boston Harbor in Massachusetts in seventeen-seventy-three. Independence fighters dressed as Indians invaded British ships carrying tea and threw the tea into the ocean. They were protesting British taxes on tea for the colonies. Sarah gets angry at the rebellious colonists. But James supports them. Another program tells about the acceptance of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in seventeen-seventy-six. This document declared America’s freedom from Britain. Historians studied the programs to make sure they contain correct information. American educators hope “Liberty’s Kids” will teach children more about the time when their nation was established. This VOA Special English Education report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 13, 2002: Native American Pow Wow in Washington / A Question About Colonel Sanders / Music of Lionel Hampton
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Lionel Hampton … Answer a question about the man whose picture is seen at eating places all over the world ... Lionel Hampton (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Lionel Hampton … Answer a question about the man whose picture is seen at eating places all over the world ... And tell about a celebration of Native Americans. Pow Wow on the Mall HOST: A Native American powwow is a celebration of ancient traditions. A large one is being held this weekend near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Mary Tillotson tells us about it. ANNCR: The National Museum of the American Indian will not open to visitors for a year. But it already is providing activities for American Indians and the public. This weekend it will hold a national powwow to honor Native people and their traditions. There will be music, dancing and American Indian foods. The celebration will be held on the grassy Mall next to the unfinished museum. Powwows are social gatherings of Native Americans who compete to perform dances started centuries ago by their ancestors. The dancers wear colorful traditional clothes. They move to the music of drums and singing. Two groups of drummers will provide the strong beats for the dancers this weekend. One group of drummers are Blackfeet Indians from Washington state. The other are Kiowa (KAI–oh–wa) from Oklahama. The Smithsonian’s powpow will include dancers representing hundreds of tribes. They will compete in seven traditional kinds of dances. These include men’s grass dancing, women’s jingle dress, and a tiny tots dance for children under five years of age. Judges will choose the winners. Almost eighty-thousand dollars in prize money will be given. George Horse Capture is advisor to the director of the National Museum of the American Indian. He says the powwow may have begun with the Omaha tribe as a victory dance by warriors. It was first called the grass dance. By the middle eighteen-seventies, other tribes began learning the dance, changing it to meet their needs. George Horse Capture says that the cultural life of many tribes today centers on the powwow. Members make great efforts to attend their tribe’s yearly event. It is a time to honor special members, to remember those who have died, and to celebrate the first time a child dances. Thousands of American Indians from tribes in the United States and Canada are expected to attend the powwow in Washington this weekend. Thousands of other people will come to watch as the dancers and drummers honor their ancestors. Colonel Sanders HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bulgaria. Svetlina Kirilova wants to know about the picture of the smiling, old man she sees at every Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants can be found in eighty-two countries around the world. That smiling, old man shown in each of them is the American man who started the business, Colonel Harland Sanders. Harland Sanders was born in the middle western state of Indiana in eighteen-ninety. He began working at the age of ten for two dollars a month on a farm. He was poor for much of his life. He held many different jobs. He was a farmer and a street car operator. He worked on the railroad and on river boats. He studied law and was a businessman. He was also a soldier for six months, but not a colonel. At the age of forty, Harland Sanders began cooking for travelers who stopped at his gas station in the southern state of Kentucky. More and more people began arriving just for the good food. So he started a small restaurant across the street. It was there that he developed a new way to cook a special kind of chicken. He became famous in the state of Kentucky. The governor made him a Kentucky Colonel to honor him for his work in nineteen-thirty-five. Years later, in nineteen-fifty-two, Harland Sanders began teaching other restaurant owners his secret method of cooking chicken. He drove across the country, cooking chicken for restaurant owners. If they liked the chicken, they would agree to a business deal and change their restaurants to ones that served the special chicken. Colonel Sanders called the restaurants Kentucky Fried Chicken. He started the business when he was sixty-five years old. By nineteen-sixty-four, more than six-hundred restaurants were cooking chicken using Harland Sanders’ secret method. He then sold the company for two-million dollars. But he remained its spokesman until his death in nineteen-eighty. Today, Kentucky Fried Chicken has grown to become one of the largest food service systems in the world. Lionel Hampton HOST: American jazz musician Lionel Hampton died last month in New York City following a heart attack. He was ninety-four years old. Lionel Hampton is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Lionel Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but later moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois. He joined his first band as a teenager. Later, he traveled with many bands, and learned to play an electronic instrument called the vibraphone. Listen as he plays it in this famous recording, “Memories of You”. ((MUSIC)) In the nineteen-thirties, Lionel Hampton joined Benny Goodman’s jazz group. It was the first time that blacks and whites performed together in a major musical group. Here, the group plays a song always linked to Lionel Hampton because he wrote it. Hampton once said he probably performed this song more than three-hundred times a year for fifty years. It is “Flyin’ Home.” ((MUSIC)) Lionel Hampton wrote more than two-hundred pieces of music and traveled all over the world playing them. He continued to perform most of his life. He won many awards, including the National Medal of Arts. He also established music schools and helped students pay for their educations. We leave you now with another Lionel Hampton jazz recording, “Stomp.” ((MUSIC)) HOST: Every two years or so, AMERICAN MOSAIC has included a series about how foreign students can attend college in the United States. This year, the series will be heard on the weekly EDUCATION REPORT instead. The foreign student series will begin on the EDUCATION REPORT next Thursday, September nineteenth. ((MUSIC)) This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Gary Spiezler. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And tell about a celebration of Native Americans. Pow Wow on the Mall HOST: A Native American powwow is a celebration of ancient traditions. A large one is being held this weekend near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Mary Tillotson tells us about it. ANNCR: The National Museum of the American Indian will not open to visitors for a year. But it already is providing activities for American Indians and the public. This weekend it will hold a national powwow to honor Native people and their traditions. There will be music, dancing and American Indian foods. The celebration will be held on the grassy Mall next to the unfinished museum. Powwows are social gatherings of Native Americans who compete to perform dances started centuries ago by their ancestors. The dancers wear colorful traditional clothes. They move to the music of drums and singing. Two groups of drummers will provide the strong beats for the dancers this weekend. One group of drummers are Blackfeet Indians from Washington state. The other are Kiowa (KAI–oh–wa) from Oklahama. The Smithsonian’s powpow will include dancers representing hundreds of tribes. They will compete in seven traditional kinds of dances. These include men’s grass dancing, women’s jingle dress, and a tiny tots dance for children under five years of age. Judges will choose the winners. Almost eighty-thousand dollars in prize money will be given. George Horse Capture is advisor to the director of the National Museum of the American Indian. He says the powwow may have begun with the Omaha tribe as a victory dance by warriors. It was first called the grass dance. By the middle eighteen-seventies, other tribes began learning the dance, changing it to meet their needs. George Horse Capture says that the cultural life of many tribes today centers on the powwow. Members make great efforts to attend their tribe’s yearly event. It is a time to honor special members, to remember those who have died, and to celebrate the first time a child dances. Thousands of American Indians from tribes in the United States and Canada are expected to attend the powwow in Washington this weekend. Thousands of other people will come to watch as the dancers and drummers honor their ancestors. Colonel Sanders HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bulgaria. Svetlina Kirilova wants to know about the picture of the smiling, old man she sees at every Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants can be found in eighty-two countries around the world. That smiling, old man shown in each of them is the American man who started the business, Colonel Harland Sanders. Harland Sanders was born in the middle western state of Indiana in eighteen-ninety. He began working at the age of ten for two dollars a month on a farm. He was poor for much of his life. He held many different jobs. He was a farmer and a street car operator. He worked on the railroad and on river boats. He studied law and was a businessman. He was also a soldier for six months, but not a colonel. At the age of forty, Harland Sanders began cooking for travelers who stopped at his gas station in the southern state of Kentucky. More and more people began arriving just for the good food. So he started a small restaurant across the street. It was there that he developed a new way to cook a special kind of chicken. He became famous in the state of Kentucky. The governor made him a Kentucky Colonel to honor him for his work in nineteen-thirty-five. Years later, in nineteen-fifty-two, Harland Sanders began teaching other restaurant owners his secret method of cooking chicken. He drove across the country, cooking chicken for restaurant owners. If they liked the chicken, they would agree to a business deal and change their restaurants to ones that served the special chicken. Colonel Sanders called the restaurants Kentucky Fried Chicken. He started the business when he was sixty-five years old. By nineteen-sixty-four, more than six-hundred restaurants were cooking chicken using Harland Sanders’ secret method. He then sold the company for two-million dollars. But he remained its spokesman until his death in nineteen-eighty. Today, Kentucky Fried Chicken has grown to become one of the largest food service systems in the world. Lionel Hampton HOST: American jazz musician Lionel Hampton died last month in New York City following a heart attack. He was ninety-four years old. Lionel Hampton is considered one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Lionel Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but later moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois. He joined his first band as a teenager. Later, he traveled with many bands, and learned to play an electronic instrument called the vibraphone. Listen as he plays it in this famous recording, “Memories of You”. ((MUSIC)) In the nineteen-thirties, Lionel Hampton joined Benny Goodman’s jazz group. It was the first time that blacks and whites performed together in a major musical group. Here, the group plays a song always linked to Lionel Hampton because he wrote it. Hampton once said he probably performed this song more than three-hundred times a year for fifty years. It is “Flyin’ Home.” ((MUSIC)) Lionel Hampton wrote more than two-hundred pieces of music and traveled all over the world playing them. He continued to perform most of his life. He won many awards, including the National Medal of Arts. He also established music schools and helped students pay for their educations. We leave you now with another Lionel Hampton jazz recording, “Stomp.” ((MUSIC)) HOST: Every two years or so, AMERICAN MOSAIC has included a series about how foreign students can attend college in the United States. This year, the series will be heard on the weekly EDUCATION REPORT instead. The foreign student series will begin on the EDUCATION REPORT next Thursday, September nineteenth. ((MUSIC)) This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Gary Spiezler. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - September 13, 2002: Summit on Sustainable Development
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Last week, delegates from almost two-hundred nations agreed on a plan designed to protect the environment and help poor people in developing countries. They met at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The action plan calls for countries to reduce by half the number of people living without clean water and waste removal systems by the year two-thousand-fifteen. Delegates also promised to reduce the loss of plant and animal species and to protect the world’s fish supply. They agreed to urge businesses to work to protect the environment. The plan also includes promises to deal with such issues as foreign occupation, terrorism, and AIDS. The goal of the meeting was to find ways to put into effect the ideas that were discussed ten years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, many delegates were unhappy with the meeting in Johannesburg. They said most of the summit was a fight to stop governments from weakening already-existing agreements. Environmental groups said the summit was a failure. They said the final agreement lacked clear targets to deal with climate change. They also said it failed to end government payments to farmers in some countries. These payments make it difficult for developing nations to compete in world markets. Environmental groups criticized the United States for blocking agreement on a stronger final plan. For example, the United States helped block a proposal by the European Union to set goals for using renewable energy, such as power from the sun. The delegates condemned the Bush administration for rejecting the Kyoto treaty on global warming last year. They said President Bush’s decision not to attend the summit showed he is not serious about environmental protection. American Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke during the conference. But he was repeatedly forced to halt his speech as demonstrators shouted and held signs in protest. The criticism began when Mister Powell condemned the government in Zimbabwe for its land reform policies. He said the policies are causing widespread starvation.United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the agreement reached at the summit is an important beginning. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Last week, delegates from almost two-hundred nations agreed on a plan designed to protect the environment and help poor people in developing countries. They met at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The action plan calls for countries to reduce by half the number of people living without clean water and waste removal systems by the year two-thousand-fifteen. Delegates also promised to reduce the loss of plant and animal species and to protect the world’s fish supply. They agreed to urge businesses to work to protect the environment. The plan also includes promises to deal with such issues as foreign occupation, terrorism, and AIDS. The goal of the meeting was to find ways to put into effect the ideas that were discussed ten years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. However, many delegates were unhappy with the meeting in Johannesburg. They said most of the summit was a fight to stop governments from weakening already-existing agreements. Environmental groups said the summit was a failure. They said the final agreement lacked clear targets to deal with climate change. They also said it failed to end government payments to farmers in some countries. These payments make it difficult for developing nations to compete in world markets. Environmental groups criticized the United States for blocking agreement on a stronger final plan. For example, the United States helped block a proposal by the European Union to set goals for using renewable energy, such as power from the sun. The delegates condemned the Bush administration for rejecting the Kyoto treaty on global warming last year. They said President Bush’s decision not to attend the summit showed he is not serious about environmental protection. American Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke during the conference. But he was repeatedly forced to halt his speech as demonstrators shouted and held signs in protest. The criticism began when Mister Powell condemned the government in Zimbabwe for its land reform policies. He said the policies are causing widespread starvation.United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the agreement reached at the summit is an important beginning. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 17, 2002: Ginkgo as Memory Aid Disputed / New Findings About Deadly Skin Cancer / Hair and Sex Lives of Lions
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. I wish I had his hair. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new study of a product people take to improve their memory. We tell some new information about lions. We tell about an unusual side effect of an anti-cancer drug. And we tell some new research about a deadly form of skin cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Would he have gone through with it? VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new study of a product people take to improve their memory. We tell some new information about lions. We tell about an unusual side effect of an anti-cancer drug. And we tell some new research about a deadly form of skin cancer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Memory problems are a sign of old age. A number of products claim to have the ability to improve memory and other mental activities. Many older adults around the world take a substance called ginkgo in an effort to treat the problem. Now, a new study is disputing the effectiveness of ginkgo. Ginkgo is an herb, the part of a plant valued for its medical uses. It comes from the leaves of the ginkgo biloba tree. Ginkgo is an anti-oxidant, much like vitamins C and E. Scientists believe anti-oxidants protect the body from damage caused by harmful oxygen particles called free radicals. VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans take ginkgo as a way to improve their memory. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ginkgo products. Doctors in Germany commonly suggest ginkgo for treating mental problems. Scientists from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts organized the new ginkgo study. It involved more than two-hundred people over sixty years of age. All of the people were in good mental health. For six weeks, half the group took forty milligrams of ginkgo three times a day. The other half took an inactive substance or placebo. The people did not know which substance they were taking. <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:73471| height="100" width="150" alt="Malignant MelanomaFrom web site: www.aad.org" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/malignant_melanoma_example_150_amer_acad_dermatology_website.jpg" border="0"> Malignant MelanomaFrom web site: www.aad.org Memory problems are a sign of old age. A number of products claim to have the ability to improve memory and other mental activities. Many older adults around the world take a substance called ginkgo in an effort to treat the problem. Now, a new study is disputing the effectiveness of ginkgo. Ginkgo is an herb, the part of a plant valued for its medical uses. It comes from the leaves of the ginkgo biloba tree. Ginkgo is an anti-oxidant, much like vitamins C and E. Scientists believe anti-oxidants protect the body from damage caused by harmful oxygen particles called free radicals. VOICE TWO: Millions of Americans take ginkgo as a way to improve their memory. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ginkgo products. Doctors in Germany commonly suggest ginkgo for treating mental problems. Scientists from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts organized the new ginkgo study. It involved more than two-hundred people over sixty years of age. All of the people were in good mental health. For six weeks, half the group took forty milligrams of ginkgo three times a day. The other half took an inactive substance or placebo. The people did not know which substance they were taking. VOICE ONE: The Williams College researchers questioned a close friend of each person about any changes in mental ability. No differences were observed. Everyone in the study also took a series of tests designed to show their mental abilities including memory before, during and after the study. The scientists found no measurable improvement in memory or any other mental ability. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported the findings. The National Institute on Aging provided money for the study. VOICE TWO: In recent years, the American government has approved such studies to examine claims made by producers of herbal products. The Food and Drug Administration sets rules for medicines sold in the United States, but not for herbal products. Makers of ginkgo were quick to dispute the findings. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals made the ginkgo products used in the study. A company official said that other studies have found that ginkgo improved people’s memory. An industry trade group added that larger studies are necessary. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The lion is perhaps the most famous member of the cat family. Lions are well known for their power and beauty. Adult male lions are the only cats with manes. This long, thick hair covers the animal’s head and neck. For years, biologists have wondered why lions have manes or what purpose they serve. One suggestion is that the thick hair protects a lion’s neck during fights with other males. Another idea is that the mane is a sign of the male’s physical condition. This idea says the hair frightens other males and helps females choose successful mates. VOICE TWO: Now, a new American study suggests that manes strongly influence the sex life of lions. Two University of Minnesota scientists found that female lions in Tanzania like males with dark manes. Science magazine reported their findings. Peyton West and Craig Packer studied lions in Tanzania’s world famous Serengeti National Park. They set up life-size models of lions near where the wild animals live. The models of the lions had different kinds of manes. Then, they waited to see how the lions would react to the models. VOICE ONE: The scientists say the results were clear. Male lions were not afraid to move toward the model lions with short and light-colored manes. The females were less concerned about hair length. However, they avoided the model lions with lighter manes. Ninety percent of the time, the females moved toward the model lions with dark hair. Mizz West said the females seemed to be reacting to the physical condition of the males. She said lions with dark manes usually have higher levels of the male hormone testosterone. She notes that such lions are more aggressive fighters. They win fights more often. Her studies show that male lions with dark manes are more likely to recover from wounds. They also are able to frighten other lions and defend their families. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: A drug normally used to treat cancer has been found to have a surprising side effect. It appears to restore color to gray hair in some people. Doctors from the Victor Segalen University in Bordeaux, France were testing the drug, called Gleevec. Last year, American officials approved Gleevec for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare form of blood cancer. The French doctors gave the drug to one-hundred-thirty-three leukemia patients. The drug darkened the hair of nine patients who had gray hair. The darkening effect began two to fourteen months after the patients began taking the drug. VOICE ONE: One doctor said the effect may have been found in even more patients. It was difficult to identify the true numbers because some patients had used hair coloring products to darken their hair. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. Gleevec has strong side effects. It can damage the liver and blood. So doctors say the drug should not be used as a hair-coloring product. But scientists have begun to study the unusual side effect. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists have discovered a genetic change that can cause malignant melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer. The cancer spreads through the body. Malignant melanoma kills almost forty-thousand people around the world each year. The new research was reported in the publication Nature. The work was done by medical scientists involved in the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The aim of the Cancer Genome Project is to find which of the thirty-thousand human genes are involved in cancer. VOICE ONE: Genes contain material called D-N-A. The order of the D-N-A in a gene is represented by a series of letters. A change, or mutation, happens when the order of the letters changes. Mutations happen in two ways. Chemicals, radiation or viruses can damage D-N-A. Damage also can result from mistakes before cells divide. Most of these mutations are harmless. However, sometimes a mutation in a gene will cause cells to act in an unusual way. For example, a changed gene will cause a cell to divide when it should stop dividing. Or the cell will move away from its normal place and into another organ. This is how cancer begins. Experts say it takes about twenty-five years from the time of the first gene mutation until a cancerous growth appears in adults. VOICE TWO: Cancer Genome Project researchers have been examining human genes to find the abnormal genes that cause cells to become cancerous. The change that causes malignant melanoma is the first one they have found. It is in the gene called B-R-A-F, one of a group of genes that must all be turned on for a cell to grow and divide. Scientists say when a gene causes a cell to grow and divide it is “turned on.” Normally, it then “turns off” and stops the cell from dividing any more. The Genome Project scientists found that the mutation makes the gene stay turned on all the time. It causes the cells to divide and never stop. This leads to cancer. The researchers say the finding could lead to effective drugs to treat melanoma. They have already started searching for drugs to make the gene turn off and stop the growth of the cancer. But they also say that people should try to prevent malignant melanoma from developing by staying out of the sun as much as possible. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: The Williams College researchers questioned a close friend of each person about any changes in mental ability. No differences were observed. Everyone in the study also took a series of tests designed to show their mental abilities including memory before, during and after the study. The scientists found no measurable improvement in memory or any other mental ability. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported the findings. The National Institute on Aging provided money for the study. VOICE TWO: In recent years, the American government has approved such studies to examine claims made by producers of herbal products. The Food and Drug Administration sets rules for medicines sold in the United States, but not for herbal products. Makers of ginkgo were quick to dispute the findings. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals made the ginkgo products used in the study. A company official said that other studies have found that ginkgo improved people’s memory. An industry trade group added that larger studies are necessary. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The lion is perhaps the most famous member of the cat family. Lions are well known for their power and beauty. Adult male lions are the only cats with manes. This long, thick hair covers the animal’s head and neck. For years, biologists have wondered why lions have manes or what purpose they serve. One suggestion is that the thick hair protects a lion’s neck during fights with other males. Another idea is that the mane is a sign of the male’s physical condition. This idea says the hair frightens other males and helps females choose successful mates. VOICE TWO: Now, a new American study suggests that manes strongly influence the sex life of lions. Two University of Minnesota scientists found that female lions in Tanzania like males with dark manes. Science magazine reported their findings. Peyton West and Craig Packer studied lions in Tanzania’s world famous Serengeti National Park. They set up life-size models of lions near where the wild animals live. The models of the lions had different kinds of manes. Then, they waited to see how the lions would react to the models. VOICE ONE: The scientists say the results were clear. Male lions were not afraid to move toward the model lions with short and light-colored manes. The females were less concerned about hair length. However, they avoided the model lions with lighter manes. Ninety percent of the time, the females moved toward the model lions with dark hair. Mizz West said the females seemed to be reacting to the physical condition of the males. She said lions with dark manes usually have higher levels of the male hormone testosterone. She notes that such lions are more aggressive fighters. They win fights more often. Her studies show that male lions with dark manes are more likely to recover from wounds. They also are able to frighten other lions and defend their families. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: A drug normally used to treat cancer has been found to have a surprising side effect. It appears to restore color to gray hair in some people. Doctors from the Victor Segalen University in Bordeaux, France were testing the drug, called Gleevec. Last year, American officials approved Gleevec for treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare form of blood cancer. The French doctors gave the drug to one-hundred-thirty-three leukemia patients. The drug darkened the hair of nine patients who had gray hair. The darkening effect began two to fourteen months after the patients began taking the drug. VOICE ONE: One doctor said the effect may have been found in even more patients. It was difficult to identify the true numbers because some patients had used hair coloring products to darken their hair. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. Gleevec has strong side effects. It can damage the liver and blood. So doctors say the drug should not be used as a hair-coloring product. But scientists have begun to study the unusual side effect. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists have discovered a genetic change that can cause malignant melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer. The cancer spreads through the body. Malignant melanoma kills almost forty-thousand people around the world each year. The new research was reported in the publication Nature. The work was done by medical scientists involved in the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The aim of the Cancer Genome Project is to find which of the thirty-thousand human genes are involved in cancer. VOICE ONE: Genes contain material called D-N-A. The order of the D-N-A in a gene is represented by a series of letters. A change, or mutation, happens when the order of the letters changes. Mutations happen in two ways. Chemicals, radiation or viruses can damage D-N-A. Damage also can result from mistakes before cells divide. Most of these mutations are harmless. However, sometimes a mutation in a gene will cause cells to act in an unusual way. For example, a changed gene will cause a cell to divide when it should stop dividing. Or the cell will move away from its normal place and into another organ. This is how cancer begins. Experts say it takes about twenty-five years from the time of the first gene mutation until a cancerous growth appears in adults. VOICE TWO: Cancer Genome Project researchers have been examining human genes to find the abnormal genes that cause cells to become cancerous. The change that causes malignant melanoma is the first one they have found. It is in the gene called B-R-A-F, one of a group of genes that must all be turned on for a cell to grow and divide. Scientists say when a gene causes a cell to grow and divide it is “turned on.” Normally, it then “turns off” and stops the cell from dividing any more. The Genome Project scientists found that the mutation makes the gene stay turned on all the time. It causes the cells to divide and never stop. This leads to cancer. The researchers say the finding could lead to effective drugs to treat melanoma. They have already started searching for drugs to make the gene turn off and stop the growth of the cancer. But they also say that people should try to prevent malignant melanoma from developing by staying out of the sun as much as possible. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 22, 2002: Duke Ellington, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Richard Rael. VOICE 1: I'm Richard Rael. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we finish our report about the great jazz musician, Duke Ellington. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: That song is "Take the 'A' Train." It is like a musical sign that says, "You are listening to Duke Ellington and his Orchestra." Music fans around the world know the song is linked closely to Duke Ellington. Yet they may not know that he did not write it. "Take the 'A' Train" was written by a close friend and orchestra member, Billy Strayhorn. Billy and Duke had a very close working relationship for almost thirty years. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell which man had written a new song for the orchestra. Members of the group often argued about who had written it ... Duke or Billy Strayhorn. VOICE 2: Duke Ellington always wrote music. Music experts say he may have written as many as two-thousand different songs. He wrote music wherever he went. He wrote late at night. He wrote on the train or bus or airplane when the orchestra traveled. Friends say he wrote music even in eating places while he waited for his food. Listen to this Ellington song, played by Russell Procope. Procope played the clarinet in the Ellington orchestra for many years. In this song, Procope was able to play his part a different way each time. Ellington let individual players create their own parts. This means it is almost impossible today to reproduce the sound of Duke Ellington's orchestra. The song is called, "Four-Thirty Blues." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: Duke Ellington tried many new and different ways to play music. For example, he put different instruments together in groups that no one had tried before. He also was the first song writer to use a human voice as an instrument. He wrote music for a singer ... but no words. The song is called "Creole Love Call." The singer here is Adelaide Hall. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Duke Ellington was one of the most popular musicians in the twentieth century. Yet, music experts and critics say he was much more important as a song writer and orchestra leader than as a piano player. Billy Strayhorn once said, "Duke plays piano. But his real instrument is the orchestra." The orchestra was Duke Ellington's first love. In later years, when large orchestras were not popular, Duke often paid his musicians with his own money to keep the group together. To him, the orchestra was everything. VOICE 1: Duke Ellington always was looking for ways to Make his orchestra sound better. Like many song writers, he often took old songs, changed them, and made them new again. Last week, we played a song called "Concerto for Cootie." In later years, a singer named Al Hibbler joined the Ellington orchestra. Duke added words to the song. Then he changed its name to "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me." Both songs were major hits for the orchestra. Listen as Al Hibbler sings, "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Duke Ellington and his orchestra played around the world before millions of people. More than eight-hundred musicians played with the Ellington orchestra at one time or another. After doctors told Duke that he had lung cancer, he continued to perform. One of his last concerts was at Westminister Abbey in London. His orchestra performed religious music. Duke Ellington was honored by people around the world. Former President Richard Nixon give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- America's highest civilian honor. Leaders from around the world wrote him letters to thank him for his music. Duke Ellington died on may twenty-fourth, nineteen-seventy-four. VOICE 1: If you really want to know the real Duke Ellington, you must listen to his music. The music he left the world is truly a great gift. We leave you with Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing like they always did. This recording was made in a room full of people dancing to his music. The place is McElroy's Ballroom in the city of Portland, Oregon. It is near the end of the evening. You can hear the crowd in the big room. The people have been dancing and do not want to stop. Duke Ellington, sitting at the piano, starts another song. It is his signal to the orchestra. Once again, the Duke Ellington Orchestra begins to play: "Things Ain't What They Used to Be." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Richard Rael. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we finish our report about the great jazz musician, Duke Ellington. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: That song is "Take the 'A' Train." It is like a musical sign that says, "You are listening to Duke Ellington and his Orchestra." Music fans around the world know the song is linked closely to Duke Ellington. Yet they may not know that he did not write it. "Take the 'A' Train" was written by a close friend and orchestra member, Billy Strayhorn. Billy and Duke had a very close working relationship for almost thirty years. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell which man had written a new song for the orchestra. Members of the group often argued about who had written it ... Duke or Billy Strayhorn. VOICE 2: Duke Ellington always wrote music. Music experts say he may have written as many as two-thousand different songs. He wrote music wherever he went. He wrote late at night. He wrote on the train or bus or airplane when the orchestra traveled. Friends say he wrote music even in eating places while he waited for his food. Listen to this Ellington song, played by Russell Procope. Procope played the clarinet in the Ellington orchestra for many years. In this song, Procope was able to play his part a different way each time. Ellington let individual players create their own parts. This means it is almost impossible today to reproduce the sound of Duke Ellington's orchestra. The song is called, "Four-Thirty Blues." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: Duke Ellington tried many new and different ways to play music. For example, he put different instruments together in groups that no one had tried before. He also was the first song writer to use a human voice as an instrument. He wrote music for a singer ... but no words. The song is called "Creole Love Call." The singer here is Adelaide Hall. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Duke Ellington was one of the most popular musicians in the twentieth century. Yet, music experts and critics say he was much more important as a song writer and orchestra leader than as a piano player. Billy Strayhorn once said, "Duke plays piano. But his real instrument is the orchestra." The orchestra was Duke Ellington's first love. In later years, when large orchestras were not popular, Duke often paid his musicians with his own money to keep the group together. To him, the orchestra was everything. VOICE 1: Duke Ellington always was looking for ways to Make his orchestra sound better. Like many song writers, he often took old songs, changed them, and made them new again. Last week, we played a song called "Concerto for Cootie." In later years, a singer named Al Hibbler joined the Ellington orchestra. Duke added words to the song. Then he changed its name to "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me." Both songs were major hits for the orchestra. Listen as Al Hibbler sings, "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Duke Ellington and his orchestra played around the world before millions of people. More than eight-hundred musicians played with the Ellington orchestra at one time or another. After doctors told Duke that he had lung cancer, he continued to perform. One of his last concerts was at Westminister Abbey in London. His orchestra performed religious music. Duke Ellington was honored by people around the world. Former President Richard Nixon give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- America's highest civilian honor. Leaders from around the world wrote him letters to thank him for his music. Duke Ellington died on may twenty-fourth, nineteen-seventy-four. VOICE 1: If you really want to know the real Duke Ellington, you must listen to his music. The music he left the world is truly a great gift. We leave you with Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing like they always did. This recording was made in a room full of people dancing to his music. The place is McElroy's Ballroom in the city of Portland, Oregon. It is near the end of the evening. You can hear the crowd in the big room. The people have been dancing and do not want to stop. Duke Ellington, sitting at the piano, starts another song. It is his signal to the orchestra. Once again, the Duke Ellington Orchestra begins to play: "Things Ain't What They Used to Be." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written, produced and directed by Paul Thompson. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Richard Rael. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 16, 2002: Vietnam and Malaria
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization reports a malaria control program in Vietnam has reduced the number of cases by ninety percent. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization reports a malaria control program in Vietnam has reduced the number of cases by ninety percent. The Roll Back Malaria study was carried out over five years in Vietnam’s southern Phan Tien village. Officials say several methods were used to prevent and control the deadly disease. Mosquito insects spread malaria. The disease can cause fever, head pain, stomach sickness and uncontrollable shaking. The most deadly form of malaria often causes a severe lack of iron in the blood. This is the most common reason for death from the disease. All villagers in the study were given special material, or nets, to cover their beds while they slept. These bednets were treated with chemicals to kill mosquitoes. Research shows that children who sleep under such bednets are fifty percent less likely to get malaria. In addition, a community-based healthcare system was set up to provide early identification and quick treatment of malaria. Ten community members were also appointed as health co-workers. Each year, they carried out malaria studies at the end of the rainy season. The community health workers also taught the villagers how to avoid malaria infection or seek treatment. At the end of the five-year program, the number of villagers with malaria infection in their blood dropped from forty-two percent to four percent. Kamini Mendis is the top advisor in the W-H-O Roll Back Malaria program. Doctor Mendis says community involvement is necessary to guarantee success. This is especially true in farming areas where there are few health services. Doctor Mendis says other villages in Vietnam are now carrying out the Roll Back Malaria program. The W-H-O also believes the program can be used successfully in Africa and other malaria-infected parts of the world. Up to two-million people around the world die each year of malaria. Most victims are young children living in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Since the development of chemically-treated bednets in the nineteen-eighties, no new method of controlling malaria has been discovered. Bednets reduce malaria infection, but they cannot prevent or control the disease on their own. So the W-H-O says identification and treatment are also important. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. ----- Adapted from a VOA story by Lisa Schlein The Roll Back Malaria study was carried out over five years in Vietnam’s southern Phan Tien village. Officials say several methods were used to prevent and control the deadly disease. Mosquito insects spread malaria. The disease can cause fever, head pain, stomach sickness and uncontrollable shaking. The most deadly form of malaria often causes a severe lack of iron in the blood. This is the most common reason for death from the disease. All villagers in the study were given special material, or nets, to cover their beds while they slept. These bednets were treated with chemicals to kill mosquitoes. Research shows that children who sleep under such bednets are fifty percent less likely to get malaria. In addition, a community-based healthcare system was set up to provide early identification and quick treatment of malaria. Ten community members were also appointed as health co-workers. Each year, they carried out malaria studies at the end of the rainy season. The community health workers also taught the villagers how to avoid malaria infection or seek treatment. At the end of the five-year program, the number of villagers with malaria infection in their blood dropped from forty-two percent to four percent. Kamini Mendis is the top advisor in the W-H-O Roll Back Malaria program. Doctor Mendis says community involvement is necessary to guarantee success. This is especially true in farming areas where there are few health services. Doctor Mendis says other villages in Vietnam are now carrying out the Roll Back Malaria program. The W-H-O also believes the program can be used successfully in Africa and other malaria-infected parts of the world. Up to two-million people around the world die each year of malaria. Most victims are young children living in Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Since the development of chemically-treated bednets in the nineteen-eighties, no new method of controlling malaria has been discovered. Bednets reduce malaria infection, but they cannot prevent or control the disease on their own. So the W-H-O says identification and treatment are also important. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. ----- Adapted from a VOA story by Lisa Schlein 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – September 17, 2002: Genetically Engineered Food Aid
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A food crisis in southern Africa has added to the debate about the use of genetic engineering in agriculture. The United Nations says almost thirteen-million people in southern Africa need emergency food aid. U-N officials have urged other countries to provide food and money. The U-N said only one-fourth of the money needed to provide food assistance has been offered. America’s top agriculture official reacted to the U-N report with a statement. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman noted that the United States is the largest provider of food aid to southern Africa. But Mizz Veneman said opponents of genetically engineered food have limited the ability of the United States to send food. She accused them of providing "misguided statements about the American food system." She said the goal is to create fear. Mizz Veneman said the food the United States is offering is safe and the same food that Americans eat. The American official did not name any organization in her statement. But her spokesman gave Greenpeace as an example. Representatives denied the charges. Earlier this month, President Robert Mugabe announced that Zimbabwe will accept genetically engineered maize from the U-N World Food Program. This was a change in policy. But in Zambia, President Levy Mwanawasa has called genetically engineered food "poison" and "dangerous." The Zambian government argues that such food could mix with native crops. It says a genetically engineered crop could threaten Zambian exports. European countries refuse genetically engineered food. More than two-million people in Zambia need emergency food aid. The president says Zambia can produce enough food to last until December. In Malawi, President Bakili Muluzi said any genetically engineered food aid must be processed, to protect native crops. Jacques Diouf heads the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization. Mister Diouf says he recognizes there are concerns about possible risks to the environment and to agriculture. But he urged southern African countries to consider scientific information. He says that, based on current knowledge, the food being offered "is not likely to present a human health risk." This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A food crisis in southern Africa has added to the debate about the use of genetic engineering in agriculture. The United Nations says almost thirteen-million people in southern Africa need emergency food aid. U-N officials have urged other countries to provide food and money. The U-N said only one-fourth of the money needed to provide food assistance has been offered. America’s top agriculture official reacted to the U-N report with a statement. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman noted that the United States is the largest provider of food aid to southern Africa. But Mizz Veneman said opponents of genetically engineered food have limited the ability of the United States to send food. She accused them of providing "misguided statements about the American food system." She said the goal is to create fear. Mizz Veneman said the food the United States is offering is safe and the same food that Americans eat. The American official did not name any organization in her statement. But her spokesman gave Greenpeace as an example. Representatives denied the charges. Earlier this month, President Robert Mugabe announced that Zimbabwe will accept genetically engineered maize from the U-N World Food Program. This was a change in policy. But in Zambia, President Levy Mwanawasa has called genetically engineered food "poison" and "dangerous." The Zambian government argues that such food could mix with native crops. It says a genetically engineered crop could threaten Zambian exports. European countries refuse genetically engineered food. More than two-million people in Zambia need emergency food aid. The president says Zambia can produce enough food to last until December. In Malawi, President Bakili Muluzi said any genetically engineered food aid must be processed, to protect native crops. Jacques Diouf heads the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization. Mister Diouf says he recognizes there are concerns about possible risks to the environment and to agriculture. But he urged southern African countries to consider scientific information. He says that, based on current knowledge, the food being offered "is not likely to present a human health risk." This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-5-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 14, 2002: Sharia Law in Nigeria
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. There is a dispute about a major women’s beauty competition to be held in Nigeria. The Miss World competition is to take place November thirtieth in Abuja, the capital. Women representing countries around the world compete in the beauty contest. They wear bathing suits for part of the competition. Amina Lawal(April 2002 VOA photo - J. Kamara) This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. There is a dispute about a major women’s beauty competition to be held in Nigeria. The Miss World competition is to take place November thirtieth in Abuja, the capital. Women representing countries around the world compete in the beauty contest. They wear bathing suits for part of the competition. Conservative Muslim Nigerians have severely criticized the competition as immoral. They say the contest will incite immoral sexual activity and lead to the spread of diseases like AIDS. They are especially angered that the Miss World contest is to take place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The contest will be held in Nigeria this year because a Nigerian woman won the contest last year. Agbani Darego became the first black African woman to be named Miss World. The event is broadcast to more than one-hundred-forty countries. Some militant Muslim groups in Nigeria have threatened to interfere with the event. They say Miss World and similar competitions are offensive to the Muslim religion. They also say such competitions violate Islamic law called Sharia. A number of competitors in the Miss World contest have threatened to boycott the competition for another reason. These women say they are angered by the severe form of Islamic law that has been established in parts of Nigeria. They are protesting a Sharia court’s recent decision that sentenced a woman to death in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina. Amina Lawal was found guilty of having sex when she was not married. The court ordered that she be stoned to death. The execution is to be carried out after she finishes breastfeeding her nine-month-old baby. The court says this must happen by early two-thousand-four. Earlier this week, the European Parliament’s committee on women’s rights approved a motion calling for a boycott of the Miss World contest to protest the death sentence. A large majority of the population in northern Nigeria is Muslim. The twelve states in the area have used Sharia in cases of civil law. However, those states began pushing for complete rule by Sharia in nineteen-ninety-nine after a civilian government was established in Nigeria. The non-religious federal government of Nigeria has said it opposes the use of Shariah in criminal cases in northern Nigeria. However, it says it has no power to act against the states that use it. Sentences of death by stoning are not believed to be common. However, several other countries also use very restrictive Islamic law. Several human rights organizations and women’s rights groups have expressed concern about the Sharia law in effect in northern Nigeria. Amnesty International has protested stonings and other severe punishments. The human rights group also says the law treats people unfairly based on their sex. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. Conservative Muslim Nigerians have severely criticized the competition as immoral. They say the contest will incite immoral sexual activity and lead to the spread of diseases like AIDS. They are especially angered that the Miss World contest is to take place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The contest will be held in Nigeria this year because a Nigerian woman won the contest last year. Agbani Darego became the first black African woman to be named Miss World. The event is broadcast to more than one-hundred-forty countries. Some militant Muslim groups in Nigeria have threatened to interfere with the event. They say Miss World and similar competitions are offensive to the Muslim religion. They also say such competitions violate Islamic law called Sharia. A number of competitors in the Miss World contest have threatened to boycott the competition for another reason. These women say they are angered by the severe form of Islamic law that has been established in parts of Nigeria. They are protesting a Sharia court’s recent decision that sentenced a woman to death in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina. Amina Lawal was found guilty of having sex when she was not married. The court ordered that she be stoned to death. The execution is to be carried out after she finishes breastfeeding her nine-month-old baby. The court says this must happen by early two-thousand-four. Earlier this week, the European Parliament’s committee on women’s rights approved a motion calling for a boycott of the Miss World contest to protest the death sentence. A large majority of the population in northern Nigeria is Muslim. The twelve states in the area have used Sharia in cases of civil law. However, those states began pushing for complete rule by Sharia in nineteen-ninety-nine after a civilian government was established in Nigeria. The non-religious federal government of Nigeria has said it opposes the use of Shariah in criminal cases in northern Nigeria. However, it says it has no power to act against the states that use it. Sentences of death by stoning are not believed to be common. However, several other countries also use very restrictive Islamic law. Several human rights organizations and women’s rights groups have expressed concern about the Sharia law in effect in northern Nigeria. Amnesty International has protested stonings and other severe punishments. The human rights group also says the law treats people unfairly based on their sex. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-6-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 16, 2002: Agricultural Fairs
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Every year in summer and early autumn, more than one-hundred-million people visit agricultural fairs in the United States. I’m Mary Tillotson. Montgomery County Agricultural Fair ribbon VOICE ONE: Every year in summer and early autumn, more than one-hundred-million people visit agricultural fairs in the United States. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This celebration of America’s agricultural past is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People can do many things at an agricultural fair. They can see animals racing. They can see sheep getting their wool cut. They can watch cows being milked. They can watch horses jumping like great Olympic competitors. Visitors also can look at new home products or farm equipment. They can see products made by people who live on farms. Children and adults can go on rides that go very fast or travel high above the fair grounds. They can play games of skill. They can listen to people play and sing all kinds of music. Or, people can just walk around the fairgrounds and eat tasty food. VOICE TWO: It is easy to find an agricultural fair to attend. Almost all fifty American states have a state fair. Parts of states called counties also have fairs. They take place in August, September or October each year. They last for one, two or three weeks. Agricultural fairs help Americans remember their nation’s history. One-hundred years ago, most Americans lived outside cities in farm areas. Today, more than eighty percent of the population live and work in city areas. Many people learn about animals they would never see except at agricultural fairs. Experts say such fairs are important because people need to remember that they are connected to the Earth and its products. They say people need to remember that they depend on animals for many things. VOICE ONE: Some people say you are not at a real fair unless you can smell the animals. Most fairs have competitions for the best farm animals. More than ten-thousand animals compete for awards at the biggest state fairs. People who live on farms raise the animals. People whose animals win prizes can sell them for a lot of money. Young winners sometimes use the money to go to college. Many children and young people whose animals compete at state and county fairs belong to a group called the Four-H Clubs of America. The expression Four-H means head, heart, hands and health. Four-H offers the largest unofficial education program in the United States. About five-million young people take part in activities organized by the group. Many of them take part in projects like raising and caring for a cow, pig or other animal. VOICE TWO: Many Four-H members and their animals took part in the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair last month. The fair was held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, near Washington, D-C. In one building, Four-H members prepared their dairy goats for judging. The goats were entered in milk production competitions. The physical condition of an animal often shows how long it will be healthy and produce large amounts of milk. Goat producers use this information to help improve the physical condition and health of future animals. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to a state or county fair should arrive hungry. Food is as important as animals at these fairs. Thousands of people take part in competitions to prepare the best foods. For example, baked goods such as cakes and pies are judged and sold at these events. Farm families sell breads made at home. They also make sweet jams and jellies to put on the breads. These jams and jellies are made from apples, berries, oranges or other fruits. VOICE TWO: Many others kinds of food are sold at state and county fairs. One popular food is the corn dog. It is a hot dog on a wooden stick. It is covered with cornmeal and then cooked in hot oil. Another popular food also cooked in hot oil is called a funnel cake. However, it is really a kind of bread. Cotton candy sold at fairs is especially popular with children. It is made of sugar that is spun very fast. Then the spun sugar is gathered around a paper stick. Cotton candy looks like a big pink cloud of cotton. Children always seem to get it in their hair. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Modern American fairs probably developed from fairs that began in the early nineteenth century. Some historians say a man named Elijah Watson first had the idea for a state fair in the United States. He organized a small sheep demonstration in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in eighteen-oh-seven. Other people say New Jersey and New York held the first state fairs in the eighteen-forties. Other early state fairs were held in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. VOICE TWO: Today, the New York State Fair in Syracuse is the biggest one in the northeastern part of the United States. Last year, more than one-million people visited that fair. This summer, the fair showed the best of New York state’s agriculture, education, industry, technology and entertainment. There were also water shows with sea lions and sharks. And there were car races. The New York State Fair also had an Iroquois Indian village to show how Native Americans lived in the state long ago. In the evenings, there were performances by famous singers and groups. However, the largest state in the United States also has the largest state fair. The Texas State Fair in Dallas starts next week and continues for more than three weeks. There will be more than sixty rides for adults and children. There will also be a small farm for children. Visitors will be able to watch a college football game. Every night, there will be a huge show of fireworks, water, music and light. And every night there will be a parade. Visitors also will be able to attend a two-day Big Tex Music Festival. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: State and county fairs are important to many Americans. They provide many kinds of information. Farm families teach visitors about their way of life. Political candidates often attend state and county fairs to speak directly to American voters. Businesses use fairs to sell products or services. Many businesses and government agencies were represented at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. In one small area, for example, visitors could buy sweet foods, playthings for children and objects for the home. They also could find people interested in talking about Christianity, local history and farming. One area offered many publications from the Maryland Department of Agriculture. For example, the publications described how to use fertilizers safely or how to raise horses. VOICE TWO: Visitors to the Montgomery County Fair had many other activities to choose from. There were animal shows with live tigers. For something a little more traditional, boys and girls could ride on young horses. The children also could feed other farm animals, including a llama and a pot-bellied pig. Nearby, children and adults enjoyed a performance by Chinese acrobats. The acrobats demonstrated unusual skill at balancing objects spinning on sticks. People of all ages visited an exhibit called the Great American Railway. Model trains may be only a few centimeters high, but many look real. Several model trains traveled in a big circle through a series of make-believe mountains, rivers and towns. The exhibit included a small version of the fairgrounds, complete with small rides and animals. VOICE ONE: Some non-profit groups raised money at the Montgomery County Fair. Habitat for Humanity, for example, sold chances to win a prize. The winning ticket was chosen on the final day of the fair. Any additional money raised will help the group in its efforts to build houses for poor people. As night arrived, many visitors began to feel tired. Some were happy to sit and watch a show in the grandstand area. On some nights, country music singers performed. On other nights, there were bull-riding competitions and demonstrations of powerful farm equipment. The crowds also enjoyed three nights of “demolition derbies.” Tired but happy people cheered wildly as they watched cars crash into each other. As the day ended, people of all ages seemed to enjoy their time at the county fair. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. This celebration of America’s agricultural past is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: People can do many things at an agricultural fair. They can see animals racing. They can see sheep getting their wool cut. They can watch cows being milked. They can watch horses jumping like great Olympic competitors. Visitors also can look at new home products or farm equipment. They can see products made by people who live on farms. Children and adults can go on rides that go very fast or travel high above the fair grounds. They can play games of skill. They can listen to people play and sing all kinds of music. Or, people can just walk around the fairgrounds and eat tasty food. VOICE TWO: It is easy to find an agricultural fair to attend. Almost all fifty American states have a state fair. Parts of states called counties also have fairs. They take place in August, September or October each year. They last for one, two or three weeks. Agricultural fairs help Americans remember their nation’s history. One-hundred years ago, most Americans lived outside cities in farm areas. Today, more than eighty percent of the population live and work in city areas. Many people learn about animals they would never see except at agricultural fairs. Experts say such fairs are important because people need to remember that they are connected to the Earth and its products. They say people need to remember that they depend on animals for many things. VOICE ONE: Some people say you are not at a real fair unless you can smell the animals. Most fairs have competitions for the best farm animals. More than ten-thousand animals compete for awards at the biggest state fairs. People who live on farms raise the animals. People whose animals win prizes can sell them for a lot of money. Young winners sometimes use the money to go to college. Many children and young people whose animals compete at state and county fairs belong to a group called the Four-H Clubs of America. The expression Four-H means head, heart, hands and health. Four-H offers the largest unofficial education program in the United States. About five-million young people take part in activities organized by the group. Many of them take part in projects like raising and caring for a cow, pig or other animal. VOICE TWO: Many Four-H members and their animals took part in the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair last month. The fair was held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, near Washington, D-C. In one building, Four-H members prepared their dairy goats for judging. The goats were entered in milk production competitions. The physical condition of an animal often shows how long it will be healthy and produce large amounts of milk. Goat producers use this information to help improve the physical condition and health of future animals. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to a state or county fair should arrive hungry. Food is as important as animals at these fairs. Thousands of people take part in competitions to prepare the best foods. For example, baked goods such as cakes and pies are judged and sold at these events. Farm families sell breads made at home. They also make sweet jams and jellies to put on the breads. These jams and jellies are made from apples, berries, oranges or other fruits. VOICE TWO: Many others kinds of food are sold at state and county fairs. One popular food is the corn dog. It is a hot dog on a wooden stick. It is covered with cornmeal and then cooked in hot oil. Another popular food also cooked in hot oil is called a funnel cake. However, it is really a kind of bread. Cotton candy sold at fairs is especially popular with children. It is made of sugar that is spun very fast. Then the spun sugar is gathered around a paper stick. Cotton candy looks like a big pink cloud of cotton. Children always seem to get it in their hair. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Modern American fairs probably developed from fairs that began in the early nineteenth century. Some historians say a man named Elijah Watson first had the idea for a state fair in the United States. He organized a small sheep demonstration in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in eighteen-oh-seven. Other people say New Jersey and New York held the first state fairs in the eighteen-forties. Other early state fairs were held in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. VOICE TWO: Today, the New York State Fair in Syracuse is the biggest one in the northeastern part of the United States. Last year, more than one-million people visited that fair. This summer, the fair showed the best of New York state’s agriculture, education, industry, technology and entertainment. There were also water shows with sea lions and sharks. And there were car races. The New York State Fair also had an Iroquois Indian village to show how Native Americans lived in the state long ago. In the evenings, there were performances by famous singers and groups. However, the largest state in the United States also has the largest state fair. The Texas State Fair in Dallas starts next week and continues for more than three weeks. There will be more than sixty rides for adults and children. There will also be a small farm for children. Visitors will be able to watch a college football game. Every night, there will be a huge show of fireworks, water, music and light. And every night there will be a parade. Visitors also will be able to attend a two-day Big Tex Music Festival. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: State and county fairs are important to many Americans. They provide many kinds of information. Farm families teach visitors about their way of life. Political candidates often attend state and county fairs to speak directly to American voters. Businesses use fairs to sell products or services. Many businesses and government agencies were represented at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. In one small area, for example, visitors could buy sweet foods, playthings for children and objects for the home. They also could find people interested in talking about Christianity, local history and farming. One area offered many publications from the Maryland Department of Agriculture. For example, the publications described how to use fertilizers safely or how to raise horses. VOICE TWO: Visitors to the Montgomery County Fair had many other activities to choose from. There were animal shows with live tigers. For something a little more traditional, boys and girls could ride on young horses. The children also could feed other farm animals, including a llama and a pot-bellied pig. Nearby, children and adults enjoyed a performance by Chinese acrobats. The acrobats demonstrated unusual skill at balancing objects spinning on sticks. People of all ages visited an exhibit called the Great American Railway. Model trains may be only a few centimeters high, but many look real. Several model trains traveled in a big circle through a series of make-believe mountains, rivers and towns. The exhibit included a small version of the fairgrounds, complete with small rides and animals. VOICE ONE: Some non-profit groups raised money at the Montgomery County Fair. Habitat for Humanity, for example, sold chances to win a prize. The winning ticket was chosen on the final day of the fair. Any additional money raised will help the group in its efforts to build houses for poor people. As night arrived, many visitors began to feel tired. Some were happy to sit and watch a show in the grandstand area. On some nights, country music singers performed. On other nights, there were bull-riding competitions and demonstrations of powerful farm equipment. The crowds also enjoyed three nights of “demolition derbies.” Tired but happy people cheered wildly as they watched cars crash into each other. As the day ended, people of all ages seemed to enjoy their time at the county fair. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-13-7-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 15, 2002: Duke Ellington, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the great jazz musician, Edward Kennedy Ellington. He was better known to the world as "Duke" Ellington. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: That was Duke Ellington's orchestra playing "Take the 'A' Train." Just the first few notes of that song are enough to tell any music expert who is playing. It is like a musical sign. The sign says, "Listen! You are about to hear something by Duke Ellington's Orchestra." It was always the first song his orchestra played. "Take the 'A' Train" was only one of hundreds of songs he played all over the world. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April twenty-ninth, eighteen ninety-nine, in Washington, D-C. His family lived in the African-American area of Washington. It was a time when racial separation was the law in much of the United States. Racial laws and racial hatred were to follow Edward Kennedy Ellington all through his life. Young Edward liked clothes. A friend once looked at him and said, "you look like a duke." He meant that Edward's clothes were so good that he looked like a member of a royal family. Other friends laughed. Yet they all began calling him "Duke." The name stayed with him the rest of his life. VOICE 1: When he was about seven years old, Duke Ellington began to play the piano. When he was in high school, he began to paint. He became very good at both. A famous art school in New York City invited him to take classes there. But he had already decided to become a musician. He got his first professional job in nineteen-sixteen. He played music at night and painted business signs during the day. The most popular music back then was called ragtime. Duke listened to ragtime piano players who visited Washington. Then he tried to play as well, or better than, they did. Years later, he recorded a song that showed how well he could play the piano. It is a ragtime song called "Lots O' Fingers." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Duke Ellington moved to New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. He had a small band. Soon it was playing at the famous cotton club, where it would play for many years. Duke and his band could play at the cotton club. But they could not come to hear anyone else, because they were black. Duke did not become angry. He did not become filled with hatred toward white people. He let his music speak for him. VOICE 1: In time, Duke Ellington's band got bigger. It was a jazz orchestra. More people began hearing the orchestra's music. They could hear it on a radio program from the cotton club. The program often could be heard all over the United States. At the same time, Duke Ellington and the members of his orchestra began recording their songs. Their first hit record was one of their most famous. It was recorded in October of nineteen-thirty. It was called "Dreamy Blues. " Later, Duke changed the name. It is still considered a great blues song and is often played today. It is called "Mood Indigo." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: An orchestra is a team made up of individual players. Like any team, the individuals in an orchestra must cooperate to produce good music. The leader of a team, or an orchestra, must learn the strength and the weakness of each member. And a good leader will use this knowledge to make the team or orchestra produce the best result. In the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties, members of a dance orchestra never stayed with one group for long. Musicians moved from group to group. Yet, when a musician played with Duke Ellington, he usually stayed, sometimes for many years. VOICE 1: This had an effect on the group's music. Duke would write music especially for musicians in the orchestra. His songs used the strengths of one or two individuals. The rest of the orchestra cooperated with them. This cooperation became the method Ellington used again and again to produce beautiful sound colors. His music could make people feel deep emotions -- feelings of happiness, or sadness, or loneliness, or Joy. VOICE 2: Some members of the Duke Ellington orchestra were the best jazz musicians of their day. Their cooperation produced a sound that is almost impossible for others to re-create. To create that same sound, you would need the musicians who first played the music. One of those musicians was "Cootie" Williams. He played the trumpet in the Duke Ellington orchestra for many years. Duke Ellington used the strength of Cootie Williams when he wrote a song called, "A Concerto for Cootie." Critics said this work showed the unity between the music writer, the leader of the orchestra, and its members. Listen as Cootie Williams seems to lead the orchestra. Hear how the other members cooperate with him to produce a very beautiful and special sound. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for the second part of our People in America program about Duke Ellington on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about the great jazz musician, Edward Kennedy Ellington. He was better known to the world as "Duke" Ellington. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: That was Duke Ellington's orchestra playing "Take the 'A' Train." Just the first few notes of that song are enough to tell any music expert who is playing. It is like a musical sign. The sign says, "Listen! You are about to hear something by Duke Ellington's Orchestra." It was always the first song his orchestra played. "Take the 'A' Train" was only one of hundreds of songs he played all over the world. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April twenty-ninth, eighteen ninety-nine, in Washington, D-C. His family lived in the African-American area of Washington. It was a time when racial separation was the law in much of the United States. Racial laws and racial hatred were to follow Edward Kennedy Ellington all through his life. Young Edward liked clothes. A friend once looked at him and said, "you look like a duke." He meant that Edward's clothes were so good that he looked like a member of a royal family. Other friends laughed. Yet they all began calling him "Duke." The name stayed with him the rest of his life. VOICE 1: When he was about seven years old, Duke Ellington began to play the piano. When he was in high school, he began to paint. He became very good at both. A famous art school in New York City invited him to take classes there. But he had already decided to become a musician. He got his first professional job in nineteen-sixteen. He played music at night and painted business signs during the day. The most popular music back then was called ragtime. Duke listened to ragtime piano players who visited Washington. Then he tried to play as well, or better than, they did. Years later, he recorded a song that showed how well he could play the piano. It is a ragtime song called "Lots O' Fingers." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: Duke Ellington moved to New York City in nineteen-twenty-three. He had a small band. Soon it was playing at the famous cotton club, where it would play for many years. Duke and his band could play at the cotton club. But they could not come to hear anyone else, because they were black. Duke did not become angry. He did not become filled with hatred toward white people. He let his music speak for him. VOICE 1: In time, Duke Ellington's band got bigger. It was a jazz orchestra. More people began hearing the orchestra's music. They could hear it on a radio program from the cotton club. The program often could be heard all over the United States. At the same time, Duke Ellington and the members of his orchestra began recording their songs. Their first hit record was one of their most famous. It was recorded in October of nineteen-thirty. It was called "Dreamy Blues. " Later, Duke changed the name. It is still considered a great blues song and is often played today. It is called "Mood Indigo." ((MUSIC)) VOICE 2: An orchestra is a team made up of individual players. Like any team, the individuals in an orchestra must cooperate to produce good music. The leader of a team, or an orchestra, must learn the strength and the weakness of each member. And a good leader will use this knowledge to make the team or orchestra produce the best result. In the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties, members of a dance orchestra never stayed with one group for long. Musicians moved from group to group. Yet, when a musician played with Duke Ellington, he usually stayed, sometimes for many years. VOICE 1: This had an effect on the group's music. Duke would write music especially for musicians in the orchestra. His songs used the strengths of one or two individuals. The rest of the orchestra cooperated with them. This cooperation became the method Ellington used again and again to produce beautiful sound colors. His music could make people feel deep emotions -- feelings of happiness, or sadness, or loneliness, or Joy. VOICE 2: Some members of the Duke Ellington orchestra were the best jazz musicians of their day. Their cooperation produced a sound that is almost impossible for others to re-create. To create that same sound, you would need the musicians who first played the music. One of those musicians was "Cootie" Williams. He played the trumpet in the Duke Ellington orchestra for many years. Duke Ellington used the strength of Cootie Williams when he wrote a song called, "A Concerto for Cootie." Critics said this work showed the unity between the music writer, the leader of the orchestra, and its members. Listen as Cootie Williams seems to lead the orchestra. Hear how the other members cooperate with him to produce a very beautiful and special sound. ((MUSIC)) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week at this time for the second part of our People in America program about Duke Ellington on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - September 18, 2002: West Nile Virus Update
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The United States Centers for Disease Control says more than one-thousand-two hundred people across the country have been infected by the West Nile virus this year. At least forty-five people in fourteen states have died from sicknesses caused by the virus. The West Nile virus is commonly found in Africa, West Asia and the Middle East. It can infect mosquitoes, people, birds, horses and other animals such as cats and rabbits. The virus is passed to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. The West Nile virus usually causes a minor sickness known as West Nile fever. Many people do not even know they have it. It lasts only a few days and does not seem to cause any permanent health effects. The virus can also cause much more serious diseases that can kill. These include West Nile encephalitis and West Nile meningitis. In these diseases, the virus spreads through the blood system and enters the brain. It affects the central nervous system and causes swelling of brain tissue. Older people and those with weakened defense systems against disease are more at risk of developing serious diseases from the West Nile virus. West Nile virus was first found in the United States in the summer of nineteen-ninety-nine in the state of New York. It has spread every summer since then. Scientists say it is now permanently established in this part of the world. Four people developed West Nile virus infections after receiving organs from a woman killed in a car accident. The West Nile virus was later found in the woman’s blood. She had received blood transfusions in the hospital before she died. It is not known if she became infected with the virus from that blood or if she was infected from a mosquito. Public health officials are trying to answer this question. They are also investigating whether several other people may have gotten the virus from blood they received in hospitals. The United States Food and Drug Administration has published a warning to organizations involved in collecting blood. It told officials not to take blood from people who seem to have signs of West Nile fever. There is no test that will tell if collected blood contains the virus. The Centers for Disease Control says public health officials will work to develop such a test if it is shown that the virus can be spread through blood. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The United States Centers for Disease Control says more than one-thousand-two hundred people across the country have been infected by the West Nile virus this year. At least forty-five people in fourteen states have died from sicknesses caused by the virus. The West Nile virus is commonly found in Africa, West Asia and the Middle East. It can infect mosquitoes, people, birds, horses and other animals such as cats and rabbits. The virus is passed to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. The West Nile virus usually causes a minor sickness known as West Nile fever. Many people do not even know they have it. It lasts only a few days and does not seem to cause any permanent health effects. The virus can also cause much more serious diseases that can kill. These include West Nile encephalitis and West Nile meningitis. In these diseases, the virus spreads through the blood system and enters the brain. It affects the central nervous system and causes swelling of brain tissue. Older people and those with weakened defense systems against disease are more at risk of developing serious diseases from the West Nile virus. West Nile virus was first found in the United States in the summer of nineteen-ninety-nine in the state of New York. It has spread every summer since then. Scientists say it is now permanently established in this part of the world. Four people developed West Nile virus infections after receiving organs from a woman killed in a car accident. The West Nile virus was later found in the woman’s blood. She had received blood transfusions in the hospital before she died. It is not known if she became infected with the virus from that blood or if she was infected from a mosquito. Public health officials are trying to answer this question. They are also investigating whether several other people may have gotten the virus from blood they received in hospitals. The United States Food and Drug Administration has published a warning to organizations involved in collecting blood. It told officials not to take blood from people who seem to have signs of West Nile fever. There is no test that will tell if collected blood contains the virus. The Centers for Disease Control says public health officials will work to develop such a test if it is shown that the virus can be spread through blood. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 18, 2002: National Cryptologic Museum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. A version of the German Enigma.<Photo - NSA) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit a small museum in the state of Maryland. It is called the National Cryptologic Museum. It is filled with information that was once very secret. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The little National Cryptologic Museum is on the Fort George G. Meade military base near Washington, D-C. It tells the story of cryptology and the men and women who have worked in this unusual profession. The word cryptology comes from the Greek kryptos logos. It means “hidden word.” Cryptology is writing or communicating using secret methods to hide the meaning of your words. VOICE TWO: The museum shows many pieces of equipment that were once used to make information secret. It also has equipment that was used in an effort to read secret information. One unusual example is a kind of bed covering called a quilt. Quilts are made by hand. They usually have a colorful design sewn on them. One special kind of quilt was used to pass on secret information. In the early history of the United States, black people from Africa were used as slaves in the southern states. Slaves sewed quilts that had very unusual designs. These quilts really told stories. The quilts were made with designs that told slaves how to escape to freedom in the northern states. The museum has an example that shows a design that represents the North Star. Slaves knew they had to travel from the South to the North to escape to freedom. The quilt tells a slave to follow the North Star. Other designs in the quilt represent roads and a small house. History experts say about sixty-thousand slaves escaped to freedom during the period of slavery. The experts do not know how much the quilts really helped, but they did provide needed information for those trying to escape. VOICE ONE: The Cryptologic Museum has several examples that show the importance of creating secret information, or trying to read secret information written by foreign nations. Secret information is also called code. One of the most important displays at the museum shows American attempts to read Japanese military information codes during World War Two. The Japanese Navy used special machines to change their written information into secret codes. This coded information was then transmitted by radio to ships and bases. Much of this information contained secret military plans and orders. The leaders of the Japanese Navy believed no one could read or understand the secret codes. They were wrong. An American Naval officer named Joseph Rochefort worked very hard to break the Japanese code. He did this in an effort to learn what the Japanese Navy was planning. Mister Rochefort did his work in a small building on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was early in nineteen-forty-two. The American naval commander in the Pacific Ocean was Admiral Chester Nimitz. His forces were much smaller than the Japanese Naval forces. And the Japanese had been winning many victories. ((SOUND: High-speed Morse code)) VOICE TWO: Joseph Rochefort had worked for several months to read the secret Japanese Naval code called J-N-Twenty-Five. If he could read enough of the code, Mister Rochefort would be able to provide Admiral Nimitz with very valuable information. Admiral Nimitz could use this information to make the necessary decisions to plan for battle. By the early part of the year, Mister Rochefort and the men who worked with him could read a little less than twenty percent of the Japanese J-N-Twenty-Five code. VOICE ONE: From the beginning of nineteen-forty-two, the Japanese code carried information that discussed a place called “A-F.” Mister Rochefort felt the Japanese were planning an important battle aimed at “A-F.” But where was “A-F”? After several weeks, Mister Rochefort and other naval experts told Admiral Nimitz that their best idea was that the “A-F” in the Japanese code was the American-held island of Midway. Admiral Nimitz said he could not plan an attack or a defense based on only an idea. He needed more information. VOICE TWO: The Navy experts decided to try a trick. They told the American military force on Midway to broadcast a false message. The message would say the island was having problems with its water-processing equipment. The message asked that fresh water be sent immediately to the island. This message was not sent in code. Several days later, a Japanese radio broadcast in the J-N-Twenty-Five code said that “A-F” had little water. Mister Rochefort had the evidence he needed. “A-F” was now known to be the island of Midway. He also told Admiral Nimitz the Japanese would attack Midway on June Third. Admiral Nimitz used this information to secretly move his small force to an area near Midway and wait for the Japanese Navy. The battle that followed was a huge American victory. History experts now say the Battle of Midway was the beginning of the American victory in the Pacific. That victory was possible because Joseph Rochefort learned to read enough of the Japanese code to discover the meaning of the two letters “A-F.” ((SOUND: Morse code)) VOICE ONE: One American code has never been broken. Perhaps it never will. It was used in the Pacific during World War Two. For many years the government would not discuss this secret code. Listen for a moment to this very unusual code. Then you may understand why the Japanese military forces were never able to understand any of it. ((MUSIC: Navajo song)) You may have guessed that the code is in the voice of a Native American. The man you just heard is singing a simple song in the Navajo language. Very few people outside the Navajo nation are able to speak any of their very difficult language. At the beginning of World War Two, the United States Marine Corps asked members of the Navajo tribe to train as Code Talkers. VOICE ONE: The Cryptologic Museum says about four-hundred Navajos served as Marine Corps Code Talkers during the war. They could take a sentence in English and change it into their language in about twenty seconds. A code machine at that time took about thirty minutes to do the same work. The Navajo Code Talkers took part in every battle the Marines entered in the Pacific during World War Two. The Japanese were very skilled at breaking codes. But they were never able to understand any of what they called “The Marine Code.” For many years after the war, the American public did not know about the valuable work done by the Marine Navajo Code Talkers. The United States government kept their work a secret and their language continued to be a valuable method of passing secret information. ((MUSIC: Navajo song)) VOICE TWO: The Cryptologic Museum has many pieces of mechanical and electric equipment used to change words into code. It also has almost as many examples of machines used to try to change code back into useful words. Perhaps the most famous is a World War Two German code machine called the Enigma. The word “enigma” means a puzzle or a problem that is difficult to solve. The German Enigma machine was used by the German military to pass orders and plans. The United States, Britain, and the government of Poland were all successful in learning to read information transmitted by the Enigma. It took thousands of people and cost millions of dollars to read the Enigma information. However, the time, effort and money resulted in a quicker end to the war against Nazi Germany. VOICE ONE: The National Cryptologic Museum belongs to the United States National Security Agency. The agency is usually called the N-S-A. One of the N-S-A’s many jobs is cryptography for the United States government. The work of the N-S-A is not open to the public. However, the National Cryptologic Museum tells the story of the men and women who work at the N-S-A long after their work is no longer secret. Each part of the museum shows the value of this secret, difficult and demanding work. Visitors say it is really fun to see equipment and read documents that were once very important and very, very secret. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we visit a small museum in the state of Maryland. It is called the National Cryptologic Museum. It is filled with information that was once very secret. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The little National Cryptologic Museum is on the Fort George G. Meade military base near Washington, D-C. It tells the story of cryptology and the men and women who have worked in this unusual profession. The word cryptology comes from the Greek kryptos logos. It means “hidden word.” Cryptology is writing or communicating using secret methods to hide the meaning of your words. VOICE TWO: The museum shows many pieces of equipment that were once used to make information secret. It also has equipment that was used in an effort to read secret information. One unusual example is a kind of bed covering called a quilt. Quilts are made by hand. They usually have a colorful design sewn on them. One special kind of quilt was used to pass on secret information. In the early history of the United States, black people from Africa were used as slaves in the southern states. Slaves sewed quilts that had very unusual designs. These quilts really told stories. The quilts were made with designs that told slaves how to escape to freedom in the northern states. The museum has an example that shows a design that represents the North Star. Slaves knew they had to travel from the South to the North to escape to freedom. The quilt tells a slave to follow the North Star. Other designs in the quilt represent roads and a small house. History experts say about sixty-thousand slaves escaped to freedom during the period of slavery. The experts do not know how much the quilts really helped, but they did provide needed information for those trying to escape. VOICE ONE: The Cryptologic Museum has several examples that show the importance of creating secret information, or trying to read secret information written by foreign nations. Secret information is also called code. One of the most important displays at the museum shows American attempts to read Japanese military information codes during World War Two. The Japanese Navy used special machines to change their written information into secret codes. This coded information was then transmitted by radio to ships and bases. Much of this information contained secret military plans and orders. The leaders of the Japanese Navy believed no one could read or understand the secret codes. They were wrong. An American Naval officer named Joseph Rochefort worked very hard to break the Japanese code. He did this in an effort to learn what the Japanese Navy was planning. Mister Rochefort did his work in a small building on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was early in nineteen-forty-two. The American naval commander in the Pacific Ocean was Admiral Chester Nimitz. His forces were much smaller than the Japanese Naval forces. And the Japanese had been winning many victories. ((SOUND: High-speed Morse code)) VOICE TWO: Joseph Rochefort had worked for several months to read the secret Japanese Naval code called J-N-Twenty-Five. If he could read enough of the code, Mister Rochefort would be able to provide Admiral Nimitz with very valuable information. Admiral Nimitz could use this information to make the necessary decisions to plan for battle. By the early part of the year, Mister Rochefort and the men who worked with him could read a little less than twenty percent of the Japanese J-N-Twenty-Five code. VOICE ONE: From the beginning of nineteen-forty-two, the Japanese code carried information that discussed a place called “A-F.” Mister Rochefort felt the Japanese were planning an important battle aimed at “A-F.” But where was “A-F”? After several weeks, Mister Rochefort and other naval experts told Admiral Nimitz that their best idea was that the “A-F” in the Japanese code was the American-held island of Midway. Admiral Nimitz said he could not plan an attack or a defense based on only an idea. He needed more information. VOICE TWO: The Navy experts decided to try a trick. They told the American military force on Midway to broadcast a false message. The message would say the island was having problems with its water-processing equipment. The message asked that fresh water be sent immediately to the island. This message was not sent in code. Several days later, a Japanese radio broadcast in the J-N-Twenty-Five code said that “A-F” had little water. Mister Rochefort had the evidence he needed. “A-F” was now known to be the island of Midway. He also told Admiral Nimitz the Japanese would attack Midway on June Third. Admiral Nimitz used this information to secretly move his small force to an area near Midway and wait for the Japanese Navy. The battle that followed was a huge American victory. History experts now say the Battle of Midway was the beginning of the American victory in the Pacific. That victory was possible because Joseph Rochefort learned to read enough of the Japanese code to discover the meaning of the two letters “A-F.” ((SOUND: Morse code)) VOICE ONE: One American code has never been broken. Perhaps it never will. It was used in the Pacific during World War Two. For many years the government would not discuss this secret code. Listen for a moment to this very unusual code. Then you may understand why the Japanese military forces were never able to understand any of it. ((MUSIC: Navajo song)) You may have guessed that the code is in the voice of a Native American. The man you just heard is singing a simple song in the Navajo language. Very few people outside the Navajo nation are able to speak any of their very difficult language. At the beginning of World War Two, the United States Marine Corps asked members of the Navajo tribe to train as Code Talkers. VOICE ONE: The Cryptologic Museum says about four-hundred Navajos served as Marine Corps Code Talkers during the war. They could take a sentence in English and change it into their language in about twenty seconds. A code machine at that time took about thirty minutes to do the same work. The Navajo Code Talkers took part in every battle the Marines entered in the Pacific during World War Two. The Japanese were very skilled at breaking codes. But they were never able to understand any of what they called “The Marine Code.” For many years after the war, the American public did not know about the valuable work done by the Marine Navajo Code Talkers. The United States government kept their work a secret and their language continued to be a valuable method of passing secret information. ((MUSIC: Navajo song)) VOICE TWO: The Cryptologic Museum has many pieces of mechanical and electric equipment used to change words into code. It also has almost as many examples of machines used to try to change code back into useful words. Perhaps the most famous is a World War Two German code machine called the Enigma. The word “enigma” means a puzzle or a problem that is difficult to solve. The German Enigma machine was used by the German military to pass orders and plans. The United States, Britain, and the government of Poland were all successful in learning to read information transmitted by the Enigma. It took thousands of people and cost millions of dollars to read the Enigma information. However, the time, effort and money resulted in a quicker end to the war against Nazi Germany. VOICE ONE: The National Cryptologic Museum belongs to the United States National Security Agency. The agency is usually called the N-S-A. One of the N-S-A’s many jobs is cryptography for the United States government. The work of the N-S-A is not open to the public. However, the National Cryptologic Museum tells the story of the men and women who work at the N-S-A long after their work is no longer secret. Each part of the museum shows the value of this secret, difficult and demanding work. Visitors say it is really fun to see equipment and read documents that were once very important and very, very secret. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 19, 2002: John Kennedy, Part 2
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT- September 19, 2002: Foreign Student Series # 1 >Introduction
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. This week, we are starting a series of EDUCATION REPORTS about how people from foreign countries can attend college in the United States. We have done this before on the Special English program AMERICAN MOSAIC. The last series was broadcast two years ago. Since then, we have received many letters about American higher education and how foreign students can take part. So we decided to offer new reports that contain the latest information. The series will begin next week. Each week, the EDUCATION REPORT will discuss a part of the process of becoming an international student in the United States. Each report also will be on the Special English Web site at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Foreign students who want to study in the United States have many questions. Some of these include: How do I find out about American colleges? How do I choose the right one for me? What tests must I take? What kinds of official documents will I need? How much will it cost? We will answer these kinds of questions in our reports. We will discuss the American system of higher education. We will tell about financial aid. We will describe rules concerning foreign students who want to work while studying. We will explain the English language requirement. We will discuss required tests. We will tell how to prepare for them. And we will tell you where to find help in your own country. Some of the programs will tell about a few of the three-thousand colleges and universities in the United States. These reports will discuss study programs that may interest you. We will tell about living at an American college. We also will explain about ways to use a computer to study at an American university without leaving home. And we will discuss how the terrorist attacks last year have changed some of the rules for foreign students in the United States. To prepare these reports, we talked to government officials, foreign students and university officials in different parts of the country. Most students say planning ahead helped make their American educational experience successful. That is the purpose of this series — to help you plan. Our reports about attending college in the United States begin next week. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. This week, we are starting a series of EDUCATION REPORTS about how people from foreign countries can attend college in the United States. We have done this before on the Special English program AMERICAN MOSAIC. The last series was broadcast two years ago. Since then, we have received many letters about American higher education and how foreign students can take part. So we decided to offer new reports that contain the latest information. The series will begin next week. Each week, the EDUCATION REPORT will discuss a part of the process of becoming an international student in the United States. Each report also will be on the Special English Web site at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Foreign students who want to study in the United States have many questions. Some of these include: How do I find out about American colleges? How do I choose the right one for me? What tests must I take? What kinds of official documents will I need? How much will it cost? We will answer these kinds of questions in our reports. We will discuss the American system of higher education. We will tell about financial aid. We will describe rules concerning foreign students who want to work while studying. We will explain the English language requirement. We will discuss required tests. We will tell how to prepare for them. And we will tell you where to find help in your own country. Some of the programs will tell about a few of the three-thousand colleges and universities in the United States. These reports will discuss study programs that may interest you. We will tell about living at an American college. We also will explain about ways to use a computer to study at an American university without leaving home. And we will discuss how the terrorist attacks last year have changed some of the rules for foreign students in the United States. To prepare these reports, we talked to government officials, foreign students and university officials in different parts of the country. Most students say planning ahead helped make their American educational experience successful. That is the purpose of this series — to help you plan. Our reports about attending college in the United States begin next week. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - January 20, 2002: Music by Dixie Chicks / Question About Grand Canyon / New Museum Honors 'Peanuts' Cartoonist Charles Schulz
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by the Dixie Chicks ... Answer a question about the Grand Canyon ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by the Dixie Chicks ... Answer a question about the Grand Canyon ... And tell about a new museum to honor a popular cartoonist. Charles Schulz Museum HOST: A new museum has opened in Santa Rosa, California. It celebrates the life and work of an artist who created and drew a newspaper comic strip for almost fifty years. The comic strip was “Peanuts.” The artist was Charles Schulz. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Charles Schulz stopped writing “Peanuts” shortly before he died in February, two-thousand. At that time, “Peanuts” appeared in two-thousand-six-hundred newspapers in seventy-five countries. And tell about a new museum to honor a popular cartoonist. Charles Schulz Museum HOST: A new museum has opened in Santa Rosa, California. It celebrates the life and work of an artist who created and drew a newspaper comic strip for almost fifty years. The comic strip was “Peanuts.” The artist was Charles Schulz. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Charles Schulz stopped writing “Peanuts” shortly before he died in February, two-thousand. At that time, “Peanuts” appeared in two-thousand-six-hundred newspapers in seventy-five countries. Many people around the world still enjoy earlier “Peanuts” comic strips in local newspapers. Now, they can also enjoy Charles Schulz’s work in the new museum. Charles Schulz agreed to the idea of a museum before he died. Its purpose is to provide a place where people can see the first drawings of all his comic strips and to help people learn about his work. The museum also includes drawings he made for the popular television shows about the “Peanuts” characters. They include the children Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Schroeder. The museum also shows works by other artists that honor “Peanuts”. For example, Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani created a picture of Charlie Brown and Lucy made of more than three-thousand tile copies of the comic strip. He also made a woodcut sculpture that honors the “Peanuts” characters, including Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy. Works of other comic strip artists will also be shown in the museum. The first such exhibit shows comic strips by other artists that honored the “Peanuts” characters when Schulz became sick and retired. Another part of the museum re-creates the room where Charles Schulz drew his cartoons. Another part of the building shows things from his childhood and awards he received. The museum has no computers because Charles Schulz did not use them in his work. The museum was built very near the place where Charles Schulz wrote and drew “Peanuts.” It is also across the street from the ice skating arena he built for the town of Santa Rosa. His wife Jean said she wanted the museum to show not only his work, but also how he lived. Missus Schulz said she wants visitors to feel as if they are taking part in his daily life. The Grand Canyon HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Thai Thu Thu asks about the Grand Canyon in the southwestern state of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is considered one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It is one of America’s most famous national parks. Visitors to the canyon come from all parts of the world. Officials say about five-million people visit the Grand Canyon each year. The canyon extends four-hundred-fifty kilometers. But the surrounding area does not suggest the existence of such a large opening in the Earth. Visitors come upon the canyon suddenly, when they reach the edge. Then they are looking at a land like nothing else in the world. Walls of rock fall away sharply. In some places, the canyon walls are more than a kilometer deep. Far below is the dark, turning line of the Colorado River. On the other side of the canyon, sunshine lights up the rock walls in red, orange and gold. The bright colors are the result of minerals in the rocks. Their appearance changes with the light, the time of year and the weather. At sunset, when the sun has moved across the sky, the canyon walls take on quieter colors of blue, purple and green. Hundreds of rocky points rise from the bottom of the canyon. Some are very tall. Yet all are below the level of an observer on the edge, looking over. There are several ways to see the Grand Canyon. Many visitors walk along paths part way down into the canyon. It takes several hours to walk to the bottom. It takes two times as long to walk back up. Some visitors ride mules to the bottom of the canyon and back. Mules are strong animals that look like horses. They are known for their ability to walk slowly and safely on the paths. Many people see the Grand Canyon by air. They pay a helicopter or airplane pilot to fly them above and around the canyon. Others see it from the Colorado River. They ride boats over the fast moving water. These trips can last from one week to three weeks. America’s National Park Service is responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon from the effects of so many visitors. Visitors must carry all waste materials out of the area. All rocks, historical objects, plants and wildlife must be left untouched. The National Park tells its visitors, “Take only photographs. Leave only footprints.” The Dixie Chicks HOST: The Dixie Chicks have released another hit album with Sony Music following a ten-month legal battle against the company. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: The dispute began last summer. Sony took legal action against the Dixie Chicks after they said they were leaving the company. The Dixie Chicks then took legal action against Sony, saying it had stolen money from the band. The two sides settled their dispute in June. The Dixie Chicks say their new agreement with Sony is everything they wanted. Their new album, “Home,” has been at the top of American record sales since its release last month. “Home” already has sold more than one-million copies. Listen now to “Long Time Gone.” It was the first single the band released from the album. (MUSIC) “Home” includes a re-make of the Fleetwood Mac song “Landslide.” Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines says she identified with the song. Chicks fiddle player Martie Maguire says the band re-recorded it with a bluegrass sound. (MUSIC) Last year, Natalie Maines gave birth to a baby boy. Dixie Chick Emily Robison is expecting a baby next month. The Dixie Chicks sing about a parent’s love for a young son. We leave you now with the song ”Godspeed.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Many people around the world still enjoy earlier “Peanuts” comic strips in local newspapers. Now, they can also enjoy Charles Schulz’s work in the new museum. Charles Schulz agreed to the idea of a museum before he died. Its purpose is to provide a place where people can see the first drawings of all his comic strips and to help people learn about his work. The museum also includes drawings he made for the popular television shows about the “Peanuts” characters. They include the children Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Schroeder. The museum also shows works by other artists that honor “Peanuts”. For example, Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani created a picture of Charlie Brown and Lucy made of more than three-thousand tile copies of the comic strip. He also made a woodcut sculpture that honors the “Peanuts” characters, including Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy. Works of other comic strip artists will also be shown in the museum. The first such exhibit shows comic strips by other artists that honored the “Peanuts” characters when Schulz became sick and retired. Another part of the museum re-creates the room where Charles Schulz drew his cartoons. Another part of the building shows things from his childhood and awards he received. The museum has no computers because Charles Schulz did not use them in his work. The museum was built very near the place where Charles Schulz wrote and drew “Peanuts.” It is also across the street from the ice skating arena he built for the town of Santa Rosa. His wife Jean said she wanted the museum to show not only his work, but also how he lived. Missus Schulz said she wants visitors to feel as if they are taking part in his daily life. The Grand Canyon HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Thai Thu Thu asks about the Grand Canyon in the southwestern state of Arizona. The Grand Canyon is considered one of the seven wonders of the natural world. It is one of America’s most famous national parks. Visitors to the canyon come from all parts of the world. Officials say about five-million people visit the Grand Canyon each year. The canyon extends four-hundred-fifty kilometers. But the surrounding area does not suggest the existence of such a large opening in the Earth. Visitors come upon the canyon suddenly, when they reach the edge. Then they are looking at a land like nothing else in the world. Walls of rock fall away sharply. In some places, the canyon walls are more than a kilometer deep. Far below is the dark, turning line of the Colorado River. On the other side of the canyon, sunshine lights up the rock walls in red, orange and gold. The bright colors are the result of minerals in the rocks. Their appearance changes with the light, the time of year and the weather. At sunset, when the sun has moved across the sky, the canyon walls take on quieter colors of blue, purple and green. Hundreds of rocky points rise from the bottom of the canyon. Some are very tall. Yet all are below the level of an observer on the edge, looking over. There are several ways to see the Grand Canyon. Many visitors walk along paths part way down into the canyon. It takes several hours to walk to the bottom. It takes two times as long to walk back up. Some visitors ride mules to the bottom of the canyon and back. Mules are strong animals that look like horses. They are known for their ability to walk slowly and safely on the paths. Many people see the Grand Canyon by air. They pay a helicopter or airplane pilot to fly them above and around the canyon. Others see it from the Colorado River. They ride boats over the fast moving water. These trips can last from one week to three weeks. America’s National Park Service is responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon from the effects of so many visitors. Visitors must carry all waste materials out of the area. All rocks, historical objects, plants and wildlife must be left untouched. The National Park tells its visitors, “Take only photographs. Leave only footprints.” The Dixie Chicks HOST: The Dixie Chicks have released another hit album with Sony Music following a ten-month legal battle against the company. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: The dispute began last summer. Sony took legal action against the Dixie Chicks after they said they were leaving the company. The Dixie Chicks then took legal action against Sony, saying it had stolen money from the band. The two sides settled their dispute in June. The Dixie Chicks say their new agreement with Sony is everything they wanted. Their new album, “Home,” has been at the top of American record sales since its release last month. “Home” already has sold more than one-million copies. Listen now to “Long Time Gone.” It was the first single the band released from the album. (MUSIC) “Home” includes a re-make of the Fleetwood Mac song “Landslide.” Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines says she identified with the song. Chicks fiddle player Martie Maguire says the band re-recorded it with a bluegrass sound. (MUSIC) Last year, Natalie Maines gave birth to a baby boy. Dixie Chick Emily Robison is expecting a baby next month. The Dixie Chicks sing about a parent’s love for a young son. We leave you now with the song ”Godspeed.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - January 20, 2002: Jordan and Israel Seek to Help Dead Sea
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Israel and Jordan recently announced that they would work together to help save the Dead Sea from shrinking. Government officials said the joint project would help the sea, protect the area’s unusual wildlife and increase the number of visitors to the area. The announcement was made during the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development earlier this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Dead Sea is on the border between Israel and Jordan. It is three-hundred-sixty-five meters below sea level. That is the lowest point on Earth. The Dead Sea is the saltiest large body of water in the world. The area around the Dead Sea has ancient places that are important to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Minerals in the Dead Sea are used for health treatments. The strange beauty of the sea brings many visitors to the area. But the Dead Sea is shrinking by almost one meter each year. Most of the water that flows into the Dead Sea comes from the Jordan River. However, water flowing from the Jordan River has been redirected for other uses in the area. Officials say within the next fifty years, the Dead Sea could shrink to less than half of its current size. To prevent that, Israel and Jordan plan to build a pipeline more than three-hundred kilometers long. The pipeline would pump water from the Red Sea through both countries into the Dead Sea. After the pipeline is built, the officials hope to build a canal and a salt removal system that will provide fresh water to Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians. The pipeline will take at least three years to build. The project will cost as much as one-thousand-million dollars. Israel and Jordan hope to pay for it with help from other countries. The project is expected to begin after a nine-month study is completed. Israel and Jordan had hoped to cooperate closely on a number of issues after they signed a peace agreement in nineteen-ninety-four. However, tensions have increased between them since the current Palestinian uprising began two years ago. Officials from Israel and Jordan described the water project as a major step forward. Experts say the agreement sends a message that the environment, ecology and nature are more important than borders or political conflicts. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Israel and Jordan recently announced that they would work together to help save the Dead Sea from shrinking. Government officials said the joint project would help the sea, protect the area’s unusual wildlife and increase the number of visitors to the area. The announcement was made during the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development earlier this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Dead Sea is on the border between Israel and Jordan. It is three-hundred-sixty-five meters below sea level. That is the lowest point on Earth. The Dead Sea is the saltiest large body of water in the world. The area around the Dead Sea has ancient places that are important to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Minerals in the Dead Sea are used for health treatments. The strange beauty of the sea brings many visitors to the area. But the Dead Sea is shrinking by almost one meter each year. Most of the water that flows into the Dead Sea comes from the Jordan River. However, water flowing from the Jordan River has been redirected for other uses in the area. Officials say within the next fifty years, the Dead Sea could shrink to less than half of its current size. To prevent that, Israel and Jordan plan to build a pipeline more than three-hundred kilometers long. The pipeline would pump water from the Red Sea through both countries into the Dead Sea. After the pipeline is built, the officials hope to build a canal and a salt removal system that will provide fresh water to Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians. The pipeline will take at least three years to build. The project will cost as much as one-thousand-million dollars. Israel and Jordan hope to pay for it with help from other countries. The project is expected to begin after a nine-month study is completed. Israel and Jordan had hoped to cooperate closely on a number of issues after they signed a peace agreement in nineteen-ninety-four. However, tensions have increased between them since the current Palestinian uprising began two years ago. Officials from Israel and Jordan described the water project as a major step forward. Experts say the agreement sends a message that the environment, ecology and nature are more important than borders or political conflicts. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: September 19, 2002 - 'Predicting New Words'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on Coast to Coast: September 19, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 22, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- "Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success." RS: That's the title of a new book by our friend at the American Dialect Society, Allan Metcalf. METCALF: "The most successful new words are what I call 'stealth words' that enter the language and enter our vocabulary without us even noticing that they are new. And the least successful are ones that stick out like a sore thumb. For example: 'schmooseoisie." AA & RS: "Hmm." METCALF: "That's exactly the kind of reaction you hear at 'schmooseoisie': hmm. It's the term that was invented by some smart person for people who earn a living by their talk. Get it? From bourgeoisie and schmoozing? And you might say that's pretty clever, but so what?" RS: "What about the impact of ethnic diversity in the United States, in particular the Spanish-speaking world, on American English?" METCALF: "There really isn't that much influence except in cultural areas where the whole culture has adopted things. So in foods, for example -- salsa, for example, is something that everyone knows, or tacos. The basic rule of thumb is that the dominant language usually does not pick up terminology from the subordinate language. "So, for example, the English spoken in California, at least by those who are not of Hispanic background, has very little of Hispanic words even though there are several million people living in California who either speak Spanish or whose culture is Hispanic." RS: "In the last chapter of your book you talk about 'my new word,' about new words and how we could actually begin to invent words. What are some of your suggestions for doing that?" METCALF: "Yes, well, choose a word that seems so natural that it seems like it's already been around, then begin using it. And use it yourself in any way you can, use it naturally though. But don't ever succumb to the temptation to claim, 'Guess what, you've just used my new word, because that will turn people off." AA: "Does it basically come down to that every new word could, if you really traced it, be traced back to say one person?" METCALF: "Well, I think a lot of new words can be traced back to multiple creations. You know there's the term 'brunch' for the meal that combines breakfast and lunch. Well, there is no commonly accepted word for the combination of lunch and dinner. But somebody sent me a message saying that she had invented a word for that, and she called it 'linner.'" AA: So Allan Metcalf looked on the Internet search engine Google. METCALF: "And I found out that, guess what, about 100 or so other people -- at least -- had also thought of linner." RS: "'Linner' seems a little awkward to me." METCALF: "It does, and it's not used much. But every now and then somebody wants to use it, so they invent it again." AA: "But what if, let's say, the president or a celebrity gets up there on television and says 'well, I'm going off to linner right now.'" METCALF: "That would help." AA: "That would help?" METCALF: "I'll give you one example of a truly new creation that has become a standard phrase, and that's the term 'couch potato.' Nobody talked about couch potato until about thirty years ago. There were some people in California, they were television fans, and one of them referred to another as a 'couch potato.' And he did this as a joke, because television is the 'tube,' and so someone who watches the tube would be a tuber, and a tuber is a potato. So you sit on your couch and you're a tuber -- you're a couch potato. "After awhile people forgot the joke part of it, and now we can talk about a couch potato with a straight face, we can even have a serious discussion of 'Americans are becoming couch potatoes and they're losing their physical fitness,' but if we had consciously in our minds that terrible pun, we would avoid it, it's too much." RS: Allan Metcalf is an English professor at MacMurray College in Illinois, and author of "Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success." AA: And that's all for this week. Look for us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Couch Potato"/Tim Briggs Broadcast on Coast to Coast: September 19, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 22, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on WORDMASTER -- "Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success." RS: That's the title of a new book by our friend at the American Dialect Society, Allan Metcalf. METCALF: "The most successful new words are what I call 'stealth words' that enter the language and enter our vocabulary without us even noticing that they are new. And the least successful are ones that stick out like a sore thumb. For example: 'schmooseoisie." AA & RS: "Hmm." METCALF: "That's exactly the kind of reaction you hear at 'schmooseoisie': hmm. It's the term that was invented by some smart person for people who earn a living by their talk. Get it? From bourgeoisie and schmoozing? And you might say that's pretty clever, but so what?" RS: "What about the impact of ethnic diversity in the United States, in particular the Spanish-speaking world, on American English?" METCALF: "There really isn't that much influence except in cultural areas where the whole culture has adopted things. So in foods, for example -- salsa, for example, is something that everyone knows, or tacos. The basic rule of thumb is that the dominant language usually does not pick up terminology from the subordinate language. "So, for example, the English spoken in California, at least by those who are not of Hispanic background, has very little of Hispanic words even though there are several million people living in California who either speak Spanish or whose culture is Hispanic." RS: "In the last chapter of your book you talk about 'my new word,' about new words and how we could actually begin to invent words. What are some of your suggestions for doing that?" METCALF: "Yes, well, choose a word that seems so natural that it seems like it's already been around, then begin using it. And use it yourself in any way you can, use it naturally though. But don't ever succumb to the temptation to claim, 'Guess what, you've just used my new word, because that will turn people off." AA: "Does it basically come down to that every new word could, if you really traced it, be traced back to say one person?" METCALF: "Well, I think a lot of new words can be traced back to multiple creations. You know there's the term 'brunch' for the meal that combines breakfast and lunch. Well, there is no commonly accepted word for the combination of lunch and dinner. But somebody sent me a message saying that she had invented a word for that, and she called it 'linner.'" AA: So Allan Metcalf looked on the Internet search engine Google. METCALF: "And I found out that, guess what, about 100 or so other people -- at least -- had also thought of linner." RS: "'Linner' seems a little awkward to me." METCALF: "It does, and it's not used much. But every now and then somebody wants to use it, so they invent it again." AA: "But what if, let's say, the president or a celebrity gets up there on television and says 'well, I'm going off to linner right now.'" METCALF: "That would help." AA: "That would help?" METCALF: "I'll give you one example of a truly new creation that has become a standard phrase, and that's the term 'couch potato.' Nobody talked about couch potato until about thirty years ago. There were some people in California, they were television fans, and one of them referred to another as a 'couch potato.' And he did this as a joke, because television is the 'tube,' and so someone who watches the tube would be a tuber, and a tuber is a potato. So you sit on your couch and you're a tuber -- you're a couch potato. "After awhile people forgot the joke part of it, and now we can talk about a couch potato with a straight face, we can even have a serious discussion of 'Americans are becoming couch potatoes and they're losing their physical fitness,' but if we had consciously in our minds that terrible pun, we would avoid it, it's too much." RS: Allan Metcalf is an English professor at MacMurray College in Illinois, and author of "Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success." AA: And that's all for this week. Look for us on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Couch Potato"/Tim Briggs 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 23, 2002: Bushmeat Hunting in Ghana
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An American-based environmental group says hunting wild animals in Ghana has become a serious problem. Conservation International reports that more than thirty percent of wild animal meat supplied to local markets in Ghana contains dangerous chemicals. This is creating serious health and environmental risks in the country. Conservation International says hunters use extreme methods to kill wild animals. These include poison, forest fires and guns. These methods are dangerous for people, wildlife and the environment. The country now suffers from a lack of wildlife because so many animals have been killed. The crisis was the subject of a two-day conference in Accra last month. More than two-hundred people attended. They included government officials, non-governmental organizations, tribal leaders and representatives of the animal meat trade. Their goal was to find ways to limit the amount of bushmeat eaten by Ghanaians and to create other economic possibilities. Currently, the country’s animal meat trade is a three-hundred-fifty-million dollar industry. Officials released an action plan at the close of the Accra conference. It calls on the Ghanaian government to examine and improve its wildlife laws. It also urges a ban on the use of extreme hunting methods and a halt to wildlife exports. The action plan also calls for stronger government supervision of the bushmeat industry to protect public health and the dying out of rare animals. In addition to health and environmental concerns created by this crisis, officials say Ghanaian culture also could be affected. Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei (oh-chee-YA-mee am-pa-DOO ah-JAY) is the head of Conservation International in Ghana. He says that most ethnic groups in the country believe the animals being hunted are linked to the people’s ancestors. Local tribes consider the animals to be signs of their history and family traditions. Mister Ampadu-Agyei says Ghanaian culture and history is in danger. In the past, local rulers helped protect the country’s wild animals by enforcing traditional rules and customs. Mister Ampadu-Agyei says if Ghana is not careful, all its wildlife will disappear and nothing will be left to show the nation’s children. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. An American-based environmental group says hunting wild animals in Ghana has become a serious problem. Conservation International reports that more than thirty percent of wild animal meat supplied to local markets in Ghana contains dangerous chemicals. This is creating serious health and environmental risks in the country. Conservation International says hunters use extreme methods to kill wild animals. These include poison, forest fires and guns. These methods are dangerous for people, wildlife and the environment. The country now suffers from a lack of wildlife because so many animals have been killed. The crisis was the subject of a two-day conference in Accra last month. More than two-hundred people attended. They included government officials, non-governmental organizations, tribal leaders and representatives of the animal meat trade. Their goal was to find ways to limit the amount of bushmeat eaten by Ghanaians and to create other economic possibilities. Currently, the country’s animal meat trade is a three-hundred-fifty-million dollar industry. Officials released an action plan at the close of the Accra conference. It calls on the Ghanaian government to examine and improve its wildlife laws. It also urges a ban on the use of extreme hunting methods and a halt to wildlife exports. The action plan also calls for stronger government supervision of the bushmeat industry to protect public health and the dying out of rare animals. In addition to health and environmental concerns created by this crisis, officials say Ghanaian culture also could be affected. Okyeame Ampadu-Agyei (oh-chee-YA-mee am-pa-DOO ah-JAY) is the head of Conservation International in Ghana. He says that most ethnic groups in the country believe the animals being hunted are linked to the people’s ancestors. Local tribes consider the animals to be signs of their history and family traditions. Mister Ampadu-Agyei says Ghanaian culture and history is in danger. In the past, local rulers helped protect the country’s wild animals by enforcing traditional rules and customs. Mister Ampadu-Agyei says if Ghana is not careful, all its wildlife will disappear and nothing will be left to show the nation’s children. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Naval Observatory in Washington
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: September 23, 2002 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: September 23, 2002 VOICE ONE: The United States Naval Observatory performs an important scientific duty for the United States, the Navy, and the Department of Defense. This job helps keep America secure. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D-C, is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) The United States Naval Observatory performs an important scientific duty for the United States, the Navy, and the Department of Defense. This job helps keep America secure. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D-C, is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The purpose of the United States Naval Observatory is to discover the exact position and motion of the Earth, sun, moon, planets, stars and other space objects. In addition, the observatory establishes exact time, measures the turning of the Earth, and keeps the Master Clock for the United States. These astronomical and timing records are very important for the American Navy and Department of Defense. The Navy uses the information to help boats find their direction through navigation. The Defense Department needs the information to support communication on Earth and in space. Also, scientists use the astronomical and timing records to carry out research linked to the purpose of the Observatory. VOICE TWO: People who visit the Naval Observatory can see some surprising things. For example, there are more than eighty-thousand books related to time and space in the Observatory library. This is one of the most complete collections of historic and current scientific publications. The library also serves as a storage area for many rare books and publications dating back to the fifteenth century. They include works by British mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, who developed the theory of gravitation. This theory says gravity pulls all objects in the Earth’s atmosphere toward the center of the Earth. VOICE ONE: The purpose of the United States Naval Observatory is to discover the exact position and motion of the Earth, sun, moon, planets, stars and other space objects. In addition, the observatory establishes exact time, measures the turning of the Earth, and keeps the Master Clock for the United States. These astronomical and timing records are very important for the American Navy and Department of Defense. The Navy uses the information to help boats find their direction through navigation. The Defense Department needs the information to support communication on Earth and in space. Also, scientists use the astronomical and timing records to carry out research linked to the purpose of the Observatory. VOICE TWO: People who visit the Naval Observatory can see some surprising things. For example, there are more than eighty-thousand books related to time and space in the Observatory library. This is one of the most complete collections of historic and current scientific publications. The library also serves as a storage area for many rare books and publications dating back to the fifteenth century. They include works by British mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, who developed the theory of gravitation. This theory says gravity pulls all objects in the Earth’s atmosphere toward the center of the Earth. VOICE ONE: Works written by the Italian scientist Galileo are also stored in the Observatory library. Galileo discovered the four large moons of Jupiter in the early sixteen-hundreds. The moons are named Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto. They are also sometimes called the Galilean moons or the Galilean satellites. Several works written by other famous scientists are also stored at the Naval Observatory. These include works by German astronomer Johannes Kepler and Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The library mostly serves the needs of scientists who work at the observatory. However, private researchers are also welcome to use the books. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are several interesting telescopes at the Naval Observatory. The largest telescope at the Observatory has a glass lens that measures sixty-six centimeters across. This telescope has an interesting history. It was completed in eighteen-seventy-three at a cost of fifty-thousand dollars. At that time, it was the largest refracting telescope in the world. Refracting astronomical telescopes need two lenses to examine images in space. Alvan Clark made the large lens and a support system for the telescope. He and his two sons owned a lens building company in the eastern state of Massachusetts. Visitors to the Naval Observatory can hear how Mister Clark had the glass specially made for the sixty-six centimeter lens. For two years, he rejected several pieces of glass because they were not perfect. Finally, he decided on one piece made with two different kinds of glass. Mister Clark used his hands to rub down and shine the glass into its current shape. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-seven, just four years after the telescope was in place, astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the two moons of Mars. This discovery of Phobos and Deimos made the Naval Observatory famous. Mister Hall was honored by many of the world’s leading scientific organizations. In eighteen-seventy-nine, the astronomer received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain. Members of the Hall family gave the medal to the Naval Observatory as a gift six years ago. VOICE TWO: The family also gave the Observatory a special award given to Mister Hall by President Abraham Lincoln in eighteen-sixty-four. Visitors can see these two awards and several others given to Mister Hall in the Observatory library. Today, Naval Observatory astronomers still use the telescope that Asaph Hall used to make his famous discovery. They use it to measure stars and the position of the moons of the furthest planets. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Naval Observatory is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the country. It was first built in eighteen-thirty in the area of Washington, D-C called Foggy Bottom. At that time, the agency was called the Depot of Charts and Instruments. It was responsible for the care of all maps, sea documents and other navigational equipment used by the United States Navy. In eighteen-forty-four, the responsibilities of the organization increased and it was renamed the United States Naval Observatory. The ground at Foggy Bottom was often wet because of flooding along the Potomac River. The conditions were unhealthy. So in eighteen-ninety-three, the Observatory moved north to its current area. Richard Morris Hunt designed several of the main buildings on the new Observatory grounds. He was a famous nineteenth-century American architect. VOICE TWO: Today, the most famous building on the grounds of the Observatory is the home of the American vice president. The house had been built in eighteen-ninety-three for the supervisor of the Observatory. In nineteen-seventy-four, Congress selected the house to be the home for all future vice presidents. Before this time, vice presidents either bought a temporary house in Washington or stayed at hotels. Vice President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty were the first people permitted to live in the house. However, the resignation of President Richard Nixon came before repairs on the house were completed. Instead, the Fords moved into the White House when Gerald Ford became President. VOICE ONE: Mister Ford’s vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, was a wealthy man who had his own home in Washington. Mister Rockefeller did not live in the National Observatory home. Instead, he used the house mainly as a place to meet special guests. The house finally got its first family in nineteen-seventy-seven. Walter Mondale and his wife Joan moved in at the beginning of the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Every vice president since then has lived in the home on the grounds of the Naval Observatory. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Naval Observatory has many important responsibilities. For example, one main duty is to declare official time used in the United States. This exact timekeeping is performed with atomic clocks known as master clocks. The time is correct to within one nanosecond a day. That is one-thousand-millionth of a second. The United States military uses this exact time to help with communications and navigation. VOICE ONE: The Observatory also produces three very important publications each year. They are The Astronomical Almanac, The Nautical Almanac and The Air Almanac. These three publications include exact information about the position of the sun, moon, planets and stars in relation to air, space and water navigation. In several years, the Observatory hopes to launch a new satellite space telescope. The United States space agency, NASA, will take part in the project. The space telescope will be used to find the position, distance, motion, brightness and color of about forty-million stars in space. By studying these stars, the Naval Observatory hopes to improve the world’s knowledge of the universe and its size. VOICE TWO: People can visit the United States Naval Observatory every other Monday. Visits begin at night and include a presentation of the history and purpose of the organization. Visitors can see several historic buildings and the Observatory library. Also, if the weather is clear, visitors can use the Observatory’s smaller thirty-centimeter telescope to look at the stars in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Works written by the Italian scientist Galileo are also stored in the Observatory library. Galileo discovered the four large moons of Jupiter in the early sixteen-hundreds. The moons are named Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto. They are also sometimes called the Galilean moons or the Galilean satellites. Several works written by other famous scientists are also stored at the Naval Observatory. These include works by German astronomer Johannes Kepler and Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The library mostly serves the needs of scientists who work at the observatory. However, private researchers are also welcome to use the books. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are several interesting telescopes at the Naval Observatory. The largest telescope at the Observatory has a glass lens that measures sixty-six centimeters across. This telescope has an interesting history. It was completed in eighteen-seventy-three at a cost of fifty-thousand dollars. At that time, it was the largest refracting telescope in the world. Refracting astronomical telescopes need two lenses to examine images in space. Alvan Clark made the large lens and a support system for the telescope. He and his two sons owned a lens building company in the eastern state of Massachusetts. Visitors to the Naval Observatory can hear how Mister Clark had the glass specially made for the sixty-six centimeter lens. For two years, he rejected several pieces of glass because they were not perfect. Finally, he decided on one piece made with two different kinds of glass. Mister Clark used his hands to rub down and shine the glass into its current shape. VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-seven, just four years after the telescope was in place, astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the two moons of Mars. This discovery of Phobos and Deimos made the Naval Observatory famous. Mister Hall was honored by many of the world’s leading scientific organizations. In eighteen-seventy-nine, the astronomer received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain. Members of the Hall family gave the medal to the Naval Observatory as a gift six years ago. VOICE TWO: The family also gave the Observatory a special award given to Mister Hall by President Abraham Lincoln in eighteen-sixty-four. Visitors can see these two awards and several others given to Mister Hall in the Observatory library. Today, Naval Observatory astronomers still use the telescope that Asaph Hall used to make his famous discovery. They use it to measure stars and the position of the moons of the furthest planets. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Naval Observatory is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the country. It was first built in eighteen-thirty in the area of Washington, D-C called Foggy Bottom. At that time, the agency was called the Depot of Charts and Instruments. It was responsible for the care of all maps, sea documents and other navigational equipment used by the United States Navy. In eighteen-forty-four, the responsibilities of the organization increased and it was renamed the United States Naval Observatory. The ground at Foggy Bottom was often wet because of flooding along the Potomac River. The conditions were unhealthy. So in eighteen-ninety-three, the Observatory moved north to its current area. Richard Morris Hunt designed several of the main buildings on the new Observatory grounds. He was a famous nineteenth-century American architect. VOICE TWO: Today, the most famous building on the grounds of the Observatory is the home of the American vice president. The house had been built in eighteen-ninety-three for the supervisor of the Observatory. In nineteen-seventy-four, Congress selected the house to be the home for all future vice presidents. Before this time, vice presidents either bought a temporary house in Washington or stayed at hotels. Vice President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty were the first people permitted to live in the house. However, the resignation of President Richard Nixon came before repairs on the house were completed. Instead, the Fords moved into the White House when Gerald Ford became President. VOICE ONE: Mister Ford’s vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, was a wealthy man who had his own home in Washington. Mister Rockefeller did not live in the National Observatory home. Instead, he used the house mainly as a place to meet special guests. The house finally got its first family in nineteen-seventy-seven. Walter Mondale and his wife Joan moved in at the beginning of the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Every vice president since then has lived in the home on the grounds of the Naval Observatory. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Naval Observatory has many important responsibilities. For example, one main duty is to declare official time used in the United States. This exact timekeeping is performed with atomic clocks known as master clocks. The time is correct to within one nanosecond a day. That is one-thousand-millionth of a second. The United States military uses this exact time to help with communications and navigation. VOICE ONE: The Observatory also produces three very important publications each year. They are The Astronomical Almanac, The Nautical Almanac and The Air Almanac. These three publications include exact information about the position of the sun, moon, planets and stars in relation to air, space and water navigation. In several years, the Observatory hopes to launch a new satellite space telescope. The United States space agency, NASA, will take part in the project. The space telescope will be used to find the position, distance, motion, brightness and color of about forty-million stars in space. By studying these stars, the Naval Observatory hopes to improve the world’s knowledge of the universe and its size. VOICE TWO: People can visit the United States Naval Observatory every other Monday. Visits begin at night and include a presentation of the history and purpose of the organization. Visitors can see several historic buildings and the Observatory library. Also, if the weather is clear, visitors can use the Observatory’s smaller thirty-centimeter telescope to look at the stars in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 21, 2002: Iraq Update
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. President Bush asked the United States Congress Thursday for power to do whatever he considers necessary against Iraq. The president sent Congress his version of a proposed resolution on Iraq. He asked the lawmakers to act before they prepare for congressional elections in November. The resolution would let the president use force against Iraq to make it obey United Nations Security Council demands to disarm. Congressional leaders generally support the proposal. However, some lawmakers say it gives Mister Bush too much power and must be changed. Iraq agreed to a series of Security Council demands when it accepted a permanent cease-fire after the Persian Gulf War. The best known of these requires Iraq to destroy, remove or disarm all biological, chemical or nuclear weapons it possesses. Iraq agreed to let a U-N team supervise the destruction of these weapons. The Council also barred Iraq from getting, developing or using such weapons in the future. U-N weapons inspectors have not been in Iraq since nineteen-ninety-eight. The inspectors left because they were not permitted to visit all the areas they wanted to examine. Iraq denies that it has any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. It also says it is not attempting to develop them. Last Monday, Iraq offered to let the U-N inspectors return without any conditions. Other nations welcomed the Iraqi offer. Russia said there now is no immediate need for a new U-N resolution on Iraq. Russia has veto power in the Security Council. On Friday, President Bush urged Russia to support the American position on Iraq. He met at the White House with Russia’s foreign and defense ministers. Earlier in the day, Mister Bush spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian officials say Mister Putin called for the earliest possible beginning of U-N inspections. Another Council member, China, says any attack on Iraq must have U-N approval. Several Arab countries also oppose American intervention. President Bush says the Security Council and the international community should not be fooled by Iraq’s offer. He says it is just a delaying effort. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also dismissed the offer. He says the goal is not inspections, but Iraqi disarmament. The Bush administration and British allies are developing a resolution to present to the Council. The new proposal calls for use of force if Iraq does not obey U-N resolutions. The measure is expected to include a new guide for weapons inspectors and a time limit for Iraq’s disarmament. The Bush administration has suggested that countries other than Britain would support the United States if it took action against Iraq. Mister Bush has said that, if the Council does not deal with the problem, the United States and its friends will. This VOA Special English program was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. President Bush asked the United States Congress Thursday for power to do whatever he considers necessary against Iraq. The president sent Congress his version of a proposed resolution on Iraq. He asked the lawmakers to act before they prepare for congressional elections in November. The resolution would let the president use force against Iraq to make it obey United Nations Security Council demands to disarm. Congressional leaders generally support the proposal. However, some lawmakers say it gives Mister Bush too much power and must be changed. Iraq agreed to a series of Security Council demands when it accepted a permanent cease-fire after the Persian Gulf War. The best known of these requires Iraq to destroy, remove or disarm all biological, chemical or nuclear weapons it possesses. Iraq agreed to let a U-N team supervise the destruction of these weapons. The Council also barred Iraq from getting, developing or using such weapons in the future. U-N weapons inspectors have not been in Iraq since nineteen-ninety-eight. The inspectors left because they were not permitted to visit all the areas they wanted to examine. Iraq denies that it has any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. It also says it is not attempting to develop them. Last Monday, Iraq offered to let the U-N inspectors return without any conditions. Other nations welcomed the Iraqi offer. Russia said there now is no immediate need for a new U-N resolution on Iraq. Russia has veto power in the Security Council. On Friday, President Bush urged Russia to support the American position on Iraq. He met at the White House with Russia’s foreign and defense ministers. Earlier in the day, Mister Bush spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian officials say Mister Putin called for the earliest possible beginning of U-N inspections. Another Council member, China, says any attack on Iraq must have U-N approval. Several Arab countries also oppose American intervention. President Bush says the Security Council and the international community should not be fooled by Iraq’s offer. He says it is just a delaying effort. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also dismissed the offer. He says the goal is not inspections, but Iraqi disarmament. The Bush administration and British allies are developing a resolution to present to the Council. The new proposal calls for use of force if Iraq does not obey U-N resolutions. The measure is expected to include a new guide for weapons inspectors and a time limit for Iraq’s disarmament. The Bush administration has suggested that countries other than Britain would support the United States if it took action against Iraq. Mister Bush has said that, if the Council does not deal with the problem, the United States and its friends will. This VOA Special English program was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 24, 2002: Importance of Exercise for Women / Progress for Injured Actor Christopher Reeve / Tree Disease in California
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. Christopher Reeve VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a famous actor who is making progress in recovering from a severe injury. We tell about the importance of exercise for women. And we tell about a disease affecting trees in California. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a famous actor who is making progress in recovering from a severe injury. We tell about the importance of exercise for women. And we tell about a disease affecting trees in California. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American actor Christopher Reeve is making progress in his recovery from spinal cord injuries suffered seven years ago. Reeve has regained some movement and physical sensation in his hands and feet. He is able to feel a person’s touch over most of his body. He also can tell the difference between hot and cold. Spinal cord injury experts say his partial improvement is a result of progress in treatment for severe back injuries. Yet they warned other patients not to expect too much. Christopher Reeve is best known for acting as “Superman” in four movies. He now heads the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a non-profit group. It reports that about eleven-thousand Americans suffer spinal cord injuries each year. These injuries may cause people to become paralyzed. They may not be able to walk, move their arms, or control other body parts. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve was injured in a horse riding accident in nineteen-ninety-five. He was thrown from a horse that was jumping over a large object. Reeve landed on his head and suffered broken bones in his neck. At the time of the accident, Reeve had no sensation and could not move his body from the neck down. His doctors said that he would never be able to feel or move below his head. He remained in this condition for more than four years. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Reeve began to take part in an experimental treatment at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. His treatment includes a combination of activities to restart Reeve’s movement skills. He exercises at least three times a week on a special bicycle. His legs are connected to wires from a computer. The computer sends electrical messages to make his leg muscles move up and down. Coast redwood(Photo - National Park Service) American actor Christopher Reeve is making progress in his recovery from spinal cord injuries suffered seven years ago. Reeve has regained some movement and physical sensation in his hands and feet. He is able to feel a person’s touch over most of his body. He also can tell the difference between hot and cold. Spinal cord injury experts say his partial improvement is a result of progress in treatment for severe back injuries. Yet they warned other patients not to expect too much. Christopher Reeve is best known for acting as “Superman” in four movies. He now heads the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a non-profit group. It reports that about eleven-thousand Americans suffer spinal cord injuries each year. These injuries may cause people to become paralyzed. They may not be able to walk, move their arms, or control other body parts. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve was injured in a horse riding accident in nineteen-ninety-five. He was thrown from a horse that was jumping over a large object. Reeve landed on his head and suffered broken bones in his neck. At the time of the accident, Reeve had no sensation and could not move his body from the neck down. His doctors said that he would never be able to feel or move below his head. He remained in this condition for more than four years. In nineteen-ninety-nine, Reeve began to take part in an experimental treatment at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. His treatment includes a combination of activities to restart Reeve’s movement skills. He exercises at least three times a week on a special bicycle. His legs are connected to wires from a computer. The computer sends electrical messages to make his leg muscles move up and down. In other treatments, electrical messages are sent to the nerves that control other muscles in his body. Reeve also exercises in water. And he takes drugs designed to keep his bones strong. Reeve spends about five-hundred-thousand dollars a year for medical costs. VOICE ONE: This month, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation released a statement about his condition. A spokeswoman said Reeve can feel the sense of touch on most of his body. She said he has regained the ability to make small movements with his fingers, wrist, elbows, hips and knees. However, he has little or no balance control for sitting, standing or walking. The statement said Reeve still needs a machine to breathe most of the time. However, he can breathe for more than one hour without the machine. John McDonald is the director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Washington University. Doctor McDonald says Reeve has made great progress. He said he has never seen a case where someone recovered this much so many years after a severe injury. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve will be fifty years old on Wednesday. He had said that he hoped to walk before his fiftieth birthday. Reeve now says, “Even if your body does not work the way it used to, the heart and the mind and the spirit are not decreased. It is as simple as that.” Christopher Reeve can now feel when his wife and children put their arms around him. He told People magazine that "To be able to feel just the lightest touch is really a gift.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A new study says walking is just as effective as more difficult exercise in reducing the risk of heart disease or stroke in women. It suggests that even small amounts of exercise can be good for women’s health. Federal researchers in the United States carried out the study. The research is part of the federal government’s Women’s Health Initiative. Researchers are studying many health questions important to older women. The researchers observed almost seventy-four-thousand women during a six-year period. The women were between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. They answered questions about their activity levels. The researchers divided the women into five groups, from the least active to the most active. VOICE TWO: The study found that fast walking for about two-and-one-half hours a week cut the risk of heart disease or stroke by one-third. This good effect was about the same in women who spent an equal amount of time doing more difficult exercise. The good effects increased as the women spent more time and energy taking part in such exercises. Women who spent even a small amount of time walking reduced their risk of heart disease or stroke by about nine percent. The study also found that sitting in a chair for at least sixteen hours each day could increase the risk of heart disease and stroke whether a person exercised or not. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. VOICE ONE: A second unrelated study in the same journal showed that girls become less active as they get older. The study found that a majority of American girls get almost no daily exercise by the time they are eighteen years old. The study was part of a federal effort to find out why more black women than white women are overweight. Sue Kimm of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania led the study. The researchers gathered information from about two-thousand-five-hundred girls during a nine-year period. More than half the girls were black. The other girls were white. The girls were about nine years old when the study began. The girls answered a series of questions throughout the study about their diets and activity. The researchers recorded after-school exercise such as sports, bicycle riding, dancing and swimming. By the time they were sixteen years old, more than half of the black girls and almost one-third of the white girls said they did not exercise outside of school. The study confirms other research that shows many American children, especially teenagers, are inactive. Researchers say this could help to explain why increasing numbers of American young adults are overweight. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists in California say two kinds of trees important to the state’s economy are infected with a fast-spreading disease. The scientists found the infection on coast redwood and Douglas fir trees in two areas in northern California. The disease is known as sudden oak death syndrome. It has killed tens of thousands of oak trees since its discovery in northern California seven years ago. No cure has been found. Recent tests by the scientists confirmed the presence of Phytophthora ramorum (fy-TOFF-thor-uh rah-MOR-um), an organism that causes sudden oak death syndrome. They found the organism in young trees that had shown signs of infection. Matteo Garbelotto (mah-TAY-oh gar-beh-LOT-oh) of the University of California at Berkeley was one of the scientists. He says he was surprised to find the infection in young redwoods in all the places his team tested. He said the infected Douglas fir trees were found in only one place. But he said they seemed to show a stronger reaction to infection. VOICE ONE: Redwood and Douglas fir trees are important to California’s environment and economy. The state’s redwood trees are world famous. They can grow to be more than one-hundred meters high. Some redwoods live to be two-thousand years old. Douglas fir trees are harvested for their wood and to be used as Christmas trees in people’s homes. These harvests are worth more than one-thousand-million dollars each year in the United States. Federal rules ban transport of infected plants or their products across state borders. There also are restrictions on the covering, or bark, of infected trees. Small pieces of bark are used to cover soil. The scientists say it may be years before they know how seriously the disease will affect California’s Douglas fir and redwood forests. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. In other treatments, electrical messages are sent to the nerves that control other muscles in his body. Reeve also exercises in water. And he takes drugs designed to keep his bones strong. Reeve spends about five-hundred-thousand dollars a year for medical costs. VOICE ONE: This month, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation released a statement about his condition. A spokeswoman said Reeve can feel the sense of touch on most of his body. She said he has regained the ability to make small movements with his fingers, wrist, elbows, hips and knees. However, he has little or no balance control for sitting, standing or walking. The statement said Reeve still needs a machine to breathe most of the time. However, he can breathe for more than one hour without the machine. John McDonald is the director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Washington University. Doctor McDonald says Reeve has made great progress. He said he has never seen a case where someone recovered this much so many years after a severe injury. VOICE TWO: Christopher Reeve will be fifty years old on Wednesday. He had said that he hoped to walk before his fiftieth birthday. Reeve now says, “Even if your body does not work the way it used to, the heart and the mind and the spirit are not decreased. It is as simple as that.” Christopher Reeve can now feel when his wife and children put their arms around him. He told People magazine that "To be able to feel just the lightest touch is really a gift.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A new study says walking is just as effective as more difficult exercise in reducing the risk of heart disease or stroke in women. It suggests that even small amounts of exercise can be good for women’s health. Federal researchers in the United States carried out the study. The research is part of the federal government’s Women’s Health Initiative. Researchers are studying many health questions important to older women. The researchers observed almost seventy-four-thousand women during a six-year period. The women were between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. They answered questions about their activity levels. The researchers divided the women into five groups, from the least active to the most active. VOICE TWO: The study found that fast walking for about two-and-one-half hours a week cut the risk of heart disease or stroke by one-third. This good effect was about the same in women who spent an equal amount of time doing more difficult exercise. The good effects increased as the women spent more time and energy taking part in such exercises. Women who spent even a small amount of time walking reduced their risk of heart disease or stroke by about nine percent. The study also found that sitting in a chair for at least sixteen hours each day could increase the risk of heart disease and stroke whether a person exercised or not. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. VOICE ONE: A second unrelated study in the same journal showed that girls become less active as they get older. The study found that a majority of American girls get almost no daily exercise by the time they are eighteen years old. The study was part of a federal effort to find out why more black women than white women are overweight. Sue Kimm of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania led the study. The researchers gathered information from about two-thousand-five-hundred girls during a nine-year period. More than half the girls were black. The other girls were white. The girls were about nine years old when the study began. The girls answered a series of questions throughout the study about their diets and activity. The researchers recorded after-school exercise such as sports, bicycle riding, dancing and swimming. By the time they were sixteen years old, more than half of the black girls and almost one-third of the white girls said they did not exercise outside of school. The study confirms other research that shows many American children, especially teenagers, are inactive. Researchers say this could help to explain why increasing numbers of American young adults are overweight. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists in California say two kinds of trees important to the state’s economy are infected with a fast-spreading disease. The scientists found the infection on coast redwood and Douglas fir trees in two areas in northern California. The disease is known as sudden oak death syndrome. It has killed tens of thousands of oak trees since its discovery in northern California seven years ago. No cure has been found. Recent tests by the scientists confirmed the presence of Phytophthora ramorum (fy-TOFF-thor-uh rah-MOR-um), an organism that causes sudden oak death syndrome. They found the organism in young trees that had shown signs of infection. Matteo Garbelotto (mah-TAY-oh gar-beh-LOT-oh) of the University of California at Berkeley was one of the scientists. He says he was surprised to find the infection in young redwoods in all the places his team tested. He said the infected Douglas fir trees were found in only one place. But he said they seemed to show a stronger reaction to infection. VOICE ONE: Redwood and Douglas fir trees are important to California’s environment and economy. The state’s redwood trees are world famous. They can grow to be more than one-hundred meters high. Some redwoods live to be two-thousand years old. Douglas fir trees are harvested for their wood and to be used as Christmas trees in people’s homes. These harvests are worth more than one-thousand-million dollars each year in the United States. Federal rules ban transport of infected plants or their products across state borders. There also are restrictions on the covering, or bark, of infected trees. Small pieces of bark are used to cover soil. The scientists say it may be years before they know how seriously the disease will affect California’s Douglas fir and redwood forests. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - September 24, 2002: Soybeans
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soybeans are a valuable part of the world’s food supply. They are grown in many countries. The major producers are the United States, Brazil, China and Argentina. Many food products are made from soybeans. For example, oil from soybeans is the largest single source of vegetable oil in the world. Twenty percent of the soybean is oil. Fatty acids in the oil are thought to protect against heart attacks. The solid substance that remains after the oil has been removed from soybeans is called soy cake or meal. It has a large amount of protein, about forty percent by weight. Often the soy cake or meal is used to feed animals. Young soybean plants, called sprouts, are a popular food in Asian countries. The sprouts grow from dry beans. The beans are placed in water for about twelve hours and then placed in a covered container for five to ten days. Water can also be added to crushed whole soybeans to make soy milk. It has about the same amount of nutrients as cow’s milk. But it has less fat than cow’s milk. And it does not harm people who have a bad reaction to a substance in cow’s milk called lactose. Other products can be made from soy milk. One of them is soy curd, better known as tofu. Tofu can be cooked, dried or frozen to make many different kinds of food. Other products are made from soybeans in a process similar to making alcoholic drinks. One of them is soy sauce. It is a dark brown liquid that has a salty taste. Soy sauce can be added to many meats and vegetables. In many countries, soybean protein is mixed with maize and wheat to produce a very nutritious food. In Guatemala, the mixture is called “incaparina.” In Ethiopia it is called “faffa.” In Bolivia it is called “maisoy.” And in South Africa it is called “pro nutro.” The very large increase in soybean production is due to the increasing popularity of soy as food oil and as cake for animal feed. In addition, soy protein is low in cost and has many nutrients. Eating more soy beans can mean better nutrition around the world. You can get more information about soybeans from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address, w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soybeans are a valuable part of the world’s food supply. They are grown in many countries. The major producers are the United States, Brazil, China and Argentina. Many food products are made from soybeans. For example, oil from soybeans is the largest single source of vegetable oil in the world. Twenty percent of the soybean is oil. Fatty acids in the oil are thought to protect against heart attacks. The solid substance that remains after the oil has been removed from soybeans is called soy cake or meal. It has a large amount of protein, about forty percent by weight. Often the soy cake or meal is used to feed animals. Young soybean plants, called sprouts, are a popular food in Asian countries. The sprouts grow from dry beans. The beans are placed in water for about twelve hours and then placed in a covered container for five to ten days. Water can also be added to crushed whole soybeans to make soy milk. It has about the same amount of nutrients as cow’s milk. But it has less fat than cow’s milk. And it does not harm people who have a bad reaction to a substance in cow’s milk called lactose. Other products can be made from soy milk. One of them is soy curd, better known as tofu. Tofu can be cooked, dried or frozen to make many different kinds of food. Other products are made from soybeans in a process similar to making alcoholic drinks. One of them is soy sauce. It is a dark brown liquid that has a salty taste. Soy sauce can be added to many meats and vegetables. In many countries, soybean protein is mixed with maize and wheat to produce a very nutritious food. In Guatemala, the mixture is called “incaparina.” In Ethiopia it is called “faffa.” In Bolivia it is called “maisoy.” And in South Africa it is called “pro nutro.” The very large increase in soybean production is due to the increasing popularity of soy as food oil and as cake for animal feed. In addition, soy protein is low in cost and has many nutrients. Eating more soy beans can mean better nutrition around the world. You can get more information about soybeans from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address, w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - September 25, 2002: World Heart Day
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Heart Federation has declared Sunday, September twenty-ninth to be World Heart Day. The World Heart Federation is a non-government organization with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Its purpose is the prevention and control of diseases of the vascular system. The group wants to help people all over the world live longer by preventing heart attacks and strokes. These conditions kill seventeen-million people around the world each year. The World Heart Federation includes one-hundred-sixty-six heart organizations in ninety-seven countries. Health experts say that lack of exercise increases the chances of developing high blood pressure and diabetes. Both conditions lead to heart disease. Experts also say that between sixty-five and eighty-five percent of all people fail to get enough exercise. This is especially true for women and children. The World Heart Federation says more than two-million people die every year as a result of a lack of physical exercise. World Heart Day will be a time to help people change their lives by deciding to eat low-fat foods, stop smoking cigarettes and exercising more. International actor Chow Yun Fat has become the “goodwill ambassador” for the World Heart Federation. He says thirty minutes of exercise every day helps control weight and improve mental health. He also urges people to follow his example by eating less red meat and more fish, rice, vegetables and oatmeal. Seventy-nine countries are taking part in World Heart Day this year. Heart organizations in these nations have planned sports activities, concerts and public talks that urge people to improve their heart health. For example, the Ecuadorian Society of Cardiology is holding a Great Walk for the public on September twenty-ninth. The Nigerian Heart Foundation organized a golf tournament in Abuja and a musical concert in Lagos. It will also hold a special dinner and present awards to school students who wrote excellent essays about heart health. The World Heart Federation says everyone can help improve their heart health by walking more. The experts say people should walk up and down stairs instead of using elevators at work. They should stand up instead of sitting down during the day and plan time for organized exercise. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The World Heart Federation has declared Sunday, September twenty-ninth to be World Heart Day. The World Heart Federation is a non-government organization with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Its purpose is the prevention and control of diseases of the vascular system. The group wants to help people all over the world live longer by preventing heart attacks and strokes. These conditions kill seventeen-million people around the world each year. The World Heart Federation includes one-hundred-sixty-six heart organizations in ninety-seven countries. Health experts say that lack of exercise increases the chances of developing high blood pressure and diabetes. Both conditions lead to heart disease. Experts also say that between sixty-five and eighty-five percent of all people fail to get enough exercise. This is especially true for women and children. The World Heart Federation says more than two-million people die every year as a result of a lack of physical exercise. World Heart Day will be a time to help people change their lives by deciding to eat low-fat foods, stop smoking cigarettes and exercising more. International actor Chow Yun Fat has become the “goodwill ambassador” for the World Heart Federation. He says thirty minutes of exercise every day helps control weight and improve mental health. He also urges people to follow his example by eating less red meat and more fish, rice, vegetables and oatmeal. Seventy-nine countries are taking part in World Heart Day this year. Heart organizations in these nations have planned sports activities, concerts and public talks that urge people to improve their heart health. For example, the Ecuadorian Society of Cardiology is holding a Great Walk for the public on September twenty-ninth. The Nigerian Heart Foundation organized a golf tournament in Abuja and a musical concert in Lagos. It will also hold a special dinner and present awards to school students who wrote excellent essays about heart health. The World Heart Federation says everyone can help improve their heart health by walking more. The experts say people should walk up and down stairs instead of using elevators at work. They should stand up instead of sitting down during the day and plan time for organized exercise. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 29, 2002: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. Scott and Zelda on their honeymoon(Photo - Library of Congress) VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. VOICE 1: Early in nineteen-twenty, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was poor and unknown. He was twenty-four years old. The girl he wanted to marry had rejected him. Her family said he could not support her. Later that same year, Fitzgerald's first novel, "This Side of Paradise," was accepted for publication. He said that when the news arrived in the mail: "I left my job. I paid my debts, bought a suit of clothes and woke in the morning to a world of promise." He quickly became rich and famous. That year before "This Side of Paradise" was published, he said he earned eight-hundred dollars by writing. The following year, with his first book published, he earned eighteen-thousand dollars by writing. Yet by the time F. Scott Fitzgerald died in nineteen-forty, at the age of forty-four, his money was gone, and so was his fame. Most people could not believe that he had not died years before. The problem was that he was so much a part of the age he described, the "Roaring Twenties." So when the period ended people thought he must have ended with it. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties began with high hopes. World War One, the "war to end all wars," was over. The twenties ended with a huge drop in stock market prices that began the Great Depression. Fitzgerald was a representative of the years of fast living in between. The nation's values had changed. Many Americans were concerned mainly with having a good time. People broke the law by drinking alcohol. They danced to jazz music. Women wore short skirts. Money differences between one group of Americans and another had become sharper at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the nineteen-twenties, many people believed that gaining the material things one desired could bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the lives of people who lived as if that were true. VOICE 1: There was more to Fitzgerald than a desire for material things. "The test of a first-rate intelligence," he said, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still have the ability to act." His two opposing ideas involved seeking happiness from material things, and knowing that material things only brought unhappiness. Of his own time, he said: "There seemed no question about what was going to happen. America was going on the greatest party in its history and there was going to be plenty to tell about." Yet if he described only the party, his writings would have been forgotten when the party ended. "All the stories that came into my head," he said, "had a touch of unhappiness in them. The lovely young women in my stories were ruined, the diamond mountains exploded. In life these things had not happened yet. But I was sure that living was not the careless business that people thought." Fitzgerald was able to experience the wild living of the period yet write about its effect on people as though he were just an observer. That is a major reason his writings still are popular. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in the middle-western city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. He grew up there. In his mother's family there were Southern landowners and politicians. The member of the family for whom he was named had written the words to "The Star Spangled Banner," America's national song. His father was a businessman who did not do well. Scott went to free public schools and, when he was fifteen, a costly private school where he learned how the rich lived. When F. Scott Fitzgerald was seventeen, he entered Princeton University. VOICE 1: Fitzgerald was not a good student. He spent more time writing for school plays and magazines at Princeton than studying. His poor record troubled him less than the fact that he was not a good enough athlete to be on the university's football team. University officials warned him he had to do better in his studies or he would be expelled. So he decided to leave the university after three years to join the United States Army. It was World War One, but the war ended before he saw active duty. He met his future wife while he was at one of the bases where he trained. The girl, Zelda Sayre, was a local beauty in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. She and Fitzgerald agreed to marry. Then she rejected him when her family said that Fitzgerald could not give her the life she expected. VOICE 2: Fitzgerald was crushed. He went to New York City in nineteen-nineteen with two goals. One was to make a lot of money. The other was to win the girl he loved. He rewrote and completed a novel that he had started in college. The book, "This Side of Paradise," was published in nineteen-twenty. It was an immediate success. Fitzgerald told his publisher that he did not expect more than twenty-thousand copies of the book to be sold. The publisher laughed and said five-thousand copies of a first novel would be very good. Within one week, however, twenty-thousand copies of the book were sold. At twenty-four, Fitzgerald was famous and rich. A week after the novel appeared Scott and Zelda were married. F. Scott Fitzgerald had gained the two goals he had set for himself. At this point the fairy tale should end with the expression: "They lived happily ever after." But that was not to be the ending for the Fitzgeralds. VOICE 1: Fitzgerald is reported to have said to his friend, the American writer Ernest Hemingway: "The very rich are different from you and me." Hemingway is reported to have answered, "Yes, they have more money." The exchange tells a great deal about each writer. Hemingway saw a democratic world where people were measured by their ability, not by what they owned. Fitzgerald saw the deep differences between groups of people that money creates. He decided to be among the rich. To do this he sold short stories to magazines and, when he had time, continued to write novels. He also continued to live as though his life was one long party. For several years he was successful at everything. Editors paid more for a story by Fitzgerald than by any other writer. And he sold everything he wrote. Some stories were very good. He wrote very fast, though. So some stories were bad. Even the bad ones, however, had a spirit and a life that belonged to Fitzgerald. As soon as he had enough good stories he collected them in a book. VOICE 2: Fitzgerald quickly learned that a life of partying all the time did not help him write his best. But he could not give up the fun. Scott and Zelda lived in New York City. He drank too much. She spent too much money. He promised himself to live a less costly life. Always, however, he spent more than he earned from writing. In addition to the individual stories, two collections of his stories, "Flappers and Philosophers" and "Tales of the Jazz Age," appeared in nineteen-twenty and nineteen-twenty-two. A second novel, "The Beautiful and Damned," also was published in nineteen-twenty-two. VOICE 1: The novel was well received, but it was nothing like the success of his first novel. Fitzgerald was unhappy with the critics and unhappy with the money the book earned. He and his wife moved to France with their baby daughter. They made many friends among the Americans who had fled to Paris. But they failed to cut their living costs. Fitzgerald was always in debt. He owed money to his publisher and the man who helped to sell his writings. In his stories he says repeatedly that no one can have everything. He seemed to try, though. It looked for a brief time like he might succeed. VOICE 2: Fitzgerald continued to be affected by the problems that would finally kill him: the drinking and the debts. Yet by nineteen-twenty-five his best novel, "The Great Gatsby," was published. It is the story of a young man's search for his idea of love. It also is a story of what the young man must do to win that love before he discovers that it is not worth having. Next week we shall discuss this important novel. And we shall tell you about the rest of Fitzgerald's short life. (Theme) VOICE 1: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week as we conclude the story of the life of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. VOICE 1: Early in nineteen-twenty, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was poor and unknown. He was twenty-four years old. The girl he wanted to marry had rejected him. Her family said he could not support her. Later that same year, Fitzgerald's first novel, "This Side of Paradise," was accepted for publication. He said that when the news arrived in the mail: "I left my job. I paid my debts, bought a suit of clothes and woke in the morning to a world of promise." He quickly became rich and famous. That year before "This Side of Paradise" was published, he said he earned eight-hundred dollars by writing. The following year, with his first book published, he earned eighteen-thousand dollars by writing. Yet by the time F. Scott Fitzgerald died in nineteen-forty, at the age of forty-four, his money was gone, and so was his fame. Most people could not believe that he had not died years before. The problem was that he was so much a part of the age he described, the "Roaring Twenties." So when the period ended people thought he must have ended with it. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties began with high hopes. World War One, the "war to end all wars," was over. The twenties ended with a huge drop in stock market prices that began the Great Depression. Fitzgerald was a representative of the years of fast living in between. The nation's values had changed. Many Americans were concerned mainly with having a good time. People broke the law by drinking alcohol. They danced to jazz music. Women wore short skirts. Money differences between one group of Americans and another had become sharper at the beginning of the twentieth century. By the nineteen-twenties, many people believed that gaining the material things one desired could bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the lives of people who lived as if that were true. VOICE 1: There was more to Fitzgerald than a desire for material things. "The test of a first-rate intelligence," he said, "is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still have the ability to act." His two opposing ideas involved seeking happiness from material things, and knowing that material things only brought unhappiness. Of his own time, he said: "There seemed no question about what was going to happen. America was going on the greatest party in its history and there was going to be plenty to tell about." Yet if he described only the party, his writings would have been forgotten when the party ended. "All the stories that came into my head," he said, "had a touch of unhappiness in them. The lovely young women in my stories were ruined, the diamond mountains exploded. In life these things had not happened yet. But I was sure that living was not the careless business that people thought." Fitzgerald was able to experience the wild living of the period yet write about its effect on people as though he were just an observer. That is a major reason his writings still are popular. ((Music)) VOICE 2: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in the middle-western city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. He grew up there. In his mother's family there were Southern landowners and politicians. The member of the family for whom he was named had written the words to "The Star Spangled Banner," America's national song. His father was a businessman who did not do well. Scott went to free public schools and, when he was fifteen, a costly private school where he learned how the rich lived. When F. Scott Fitzgerald was seventeen, he entered Princeton University. VOICE 1: Fitzgerald was not a good student. He spent more time writing for school plays and magazines at Princeton than studying. His poor record troubled him less than the fact that he was not a good enough athlete to be on the university's football team. University officials warned him he had to do better in his studies or he would be expelled. So he decided to leave the university after three years to join the United States Army. It was World War One, but the war ended before he saw active duty. He met his future wife while he was at one of the bases where he trained. The girl, Zelda Sayre, was a local beauty in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. She and Fitzgerald agreed to marry. Then she rejected him when her family said that Fitzgerald could not give her the life she expected. VOICE 2: Fitzgerald was crushed. He went to New York City in nineteen-nineteen with two goals. One was to make a lot of money. The other was to win the girl he loved. He rewrote and completed a novel that he had started in college. The book, "This Side of Paradise," was published in nineteen-twenty. It was an immediate success. Fitzgerald told his publisher that he did not expect more than twenty-thousand copies of the book to be sold. The publisher laughed and said five-thousand copies of a first novel would be very good. Within one week, however, twenty-thousand copies of the book were sold. At twenty-four, Fitzgerald was famous and rich. A week after the novel appeared Scott and Zelda were married. F. Scott Fitzgerald had gained the two goals he had set for himself. At this point the fairy tale should end with the expression: "They lived happily ever after." But that was not to be the ending for the Fitzgeralds. VOICE 1: Fitzgerald is reported to have said to his friend, the American writer Ernest Hemingway: "The very rich are different from you and me." Hemingway is reported to have answered, "Yes, they have more money." The exchange tells a great deal about each writer. Hemingway saw a democratic world where people were measured by their ability, not by what they owned. Fitzgerald saw the deep differences between groups of people that money creates. He decided to be among the rich. To do this he sold short stories to magazines and, when he had time, continued to write novels. He also continued to live as though his life was one long party. For several years he was successful at everything. Editors paid more for a story by Fitzgerald than by any other writer. And he sold everything he wrote. Some stories were very good. He wrote very fast, though. So some stories were bad. Even the bad ones, however, had a spirit and a life that belonged to Fitzgerald. As soon as he had enough good stories he collected them in a book. VOICE 2: Fitzgerald quickly learned that a life of partying all the time did not help him write his best. But he could not give up the fun. Scott and Zelda lived in New York City. He drank too much. She spent too much money. He promised himself to live a less costly life. Always, however, he spent more than he earned from writing. In addition to the individual stories, two collections of his stories, "Flappers and Philosophers" and "Tales of the Jazz Age," appeared in nineteen-twenty and nineteen-twenty-two. A second novel, "The Beautiful and Damned," also was published in nineteen-twenty-two. VOICE 1: The novel was well received, but it was nothing like the success of his first novel. Fitzgerald was unhappy with the critics and unhappy with the money the book earned. He and his wife moved to France with their baby daughter. They made many friends among the Americans who had fled to Paris. But they failed to cut their living costs. Fitzgerald was always in debt. He owed money to his publisher and the man who helped to sell his writings. In his stories he says repeatedly that no one can have everything. He seemed to try, though. It looked for a brief time like he might succeed. VOICE 2: Fitzgerald continued to be affected by the problems that would finally kill him: the drinking and the debts. Yet by nineteen-twenty-five his best novel, "The Great Gatsby," was published. It is the story of a young man's search for his idea of love. It also is a story of what the young man must do to win that love before he discovers that it is not worth having. Next week we shall discuss this important novel. And we shall tell you about the rest of Fitzgerald's short life. (Theme) VOICE 1: This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week as we conclude the story of the life of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – September 25, 2002: Appalachian Trail
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about one of the most popular walking paths in the United States, the Appalachian Trail. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about one of the most popular walking paths in the United States, the Appalachian Trail. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths throughout the country. This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States. Some of these paths, or trails, are short. Some are only a few kilometers. Others are many hundreds of kilometers. One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System. The trails system was established by Congress and the President in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Trail is more than three-thousand-four-hundred kilometers long. It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia. The trail goes through fourteen states. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains. They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama. VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth. They first began forming about one-thousand-million years ago. During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind. Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them. Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail. And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail. Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments. Some parts are not protected by the government directly. Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property. VOICE TWO: Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains. They can took down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers. Farm land in the valleys is rich and productive. And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys. For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye. Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in Nineteen-Twenty-One. Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected. In Nineteen-Twenty-Five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D-C and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference. Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia. It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery. Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed. This happened on August fourteenth, Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. VOICE TWO: Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people. But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening. Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly. Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world. However, it is not the longest hiking trail. Two others in the western United States are longer. They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous. VOICE ONE: People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail. The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world. Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago. This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States. The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day. Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail. For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking. They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days. These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents. VOICE ONE: In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps. The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference. Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. The Appalachian Mountain Club has more than ninety-four-thousand members. It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail. Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food. Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one. These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead. It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends. Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families. Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family. She found it very different from what her family does every day at home. She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp. There are no radios or televisions. So families spend time talking with each other. After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience. VOICE ONE: The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people. The first part is difficult. But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying. This may be enough for most people. But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail. These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end. They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring. Generally, they hike the more than three-thousand-four-hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months. VOICE TWO: One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson. Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book A Walk in the Woods. However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned. At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail. After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip. Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it. He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness. He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts. At the end of A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths throughout the country. This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States. Some of these paths, or trails, are short. Some are only a few kilometers. Others are many hundreds of kilometers. One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System. The trails system was established by Congress and the President in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Trail is more than three-thousand-four-hundred kilometers long. It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia. The trail goes through fourteen states. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains. They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama. VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth. They first began forming about one-thousand-million years ago. During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind. Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them. Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail. And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail. Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments. Some parts are not protected by the government directly. Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property. VOICE TWO: Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains. They can took down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers. Farm land in the valleys is rich and productive. And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys. For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye. Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in Nineteen-Twenty-One. Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected. In Nineteen-Twenty-Five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D-C and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference. Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia. It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery. Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed. This happened on August fourteenth, Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. VOICE TWO: Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people. But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening. Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly. Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world. However, it is not the longest hiking trail. Two others in the western United States are longer. They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous. VOICE ONE: People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail. The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world. Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago. This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States. The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day. Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail. For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking. They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days. These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents. VOICE ONE: In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps. The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference. Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service. The Appalachian Mountain Club has more than ninety-four-thousand members. It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States. VOICE TWO: The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail. Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food. Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one. These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead. It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends. Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families. Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family. She found it very different from what her family does every day at home. She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp. There are no radios or televisions. So families spend time talking with each other. After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience. VOICE ONE: The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people. The first part is difficult. But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying. This may be enough for most people. But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail. These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end. They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring. Generally, they hike the more than three-thousand-four-hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months. VOICE TWO: One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson. Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book A Walk in the Woods. However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned. At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail. After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip. Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it. He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness. He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts. At the end of A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-24-4-1.cfm
* Headline: September 26, 2002 - Memory Improvement
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": September 26, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 29, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER – some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: "We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place." RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches memory skills. One technique she uses she calls the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve. ELDH: "That is, you have to say, what is the piece of information I want to learn, and you record that. Then you have to figure out where you're going to put it. I don't just throw it in my brain. Am I going to put it with car information, will I put it with insurance information. So you actually get disciplined enough to organize the information you retain in some kind of filing system. And then when you're ready to retrieve it, you know where to get it, just like filing information in a filing cabinet." RS: "But this is your head." [laughter] ELDH: "Exactly." AA: "Is your brain set up that way?" ELDH: "Sometimes. It takes a lot of work. And I would say that in addition to the epiphany of learning that until you learn it you can't forget it, I think the other thing to realize about memory is that it takes a tremendous amount of discipline." RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that?" ELDH: "Well, there are many different memory techniques. I would say that the majority of them have to do with using very intense visual images. The more elaborate, the more bright, the more it draws on all your senses, the better you'll remember. Let's say somebody's name is Campbell. How are you going to remember Campbell? Well, break it up -- camp bell. You want to see that person at a campsite. He's got a huge bell in his hand and he's ringing it. And you see that in your mind, and you hear the bell ringing, very loudly, and you smell the pine needles. Now, you're never going to forget Mister Campbell." AA: "So you file that, what file do you put that under?" ELDH: "I'm going to put that under names, and I would probably file it -- depending on the scenario -- under a workplace name. Now that is a danger, though, because then we have what is called 'queue dependency." RS: "Aren't you at risk of forgetting your cue?" [laughter] ELDH: "You definitely are, and in fact that is one of the ways that we forget. We forget from decay. If you've studied another language, you know that if you don't use it, you lose it. And we've all heard that. Another is depression. When we have either a mental or a physical illness, our ability to remember and retain information goes down dramatically." RS: "How would you apply these techniques that you've been talking about, the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve -- to learning a foreign language?" ELDH: "I think that I would use a lot of the pneumonic devices where you make associations with words. I would also use the device that we use where you use the first letter of each of the words that you have to memorize. I'll give you an example: In America, we have what are known as the Great Lakes. Of course, we all know that. How do we remember the Great Lakes. Can either one of you remember how you ... " AA: "Let's see, Huron, Michigan, Superior -- what are the other two?" [laughter] RS: "Erie." AA: "Erie, right, of course." ELDH: "Now, I'll tell you an easier way to memorize this. You take the H for Huron, the O for Ontario, the M for Michigan, the E for Erie and the S for Superior and you make the word homes. Now you don't stop there -- and this is what I really want people to get from this information, that you don't just stop at homes, you don't just stop at an acronym, you take it further. You see homes -- it can be floating homes, on the lake, and you see people talking about their homes on the lake, and they're saying 'aren't these lakes beautiful that we float around on in our homes.' And so you can see you deepen the image that you have." RS: "At one point in my life, I really, really wanted to be good at telling jokes. I never told many jokes and I thought it would be really fun to do that. And so what I did is -- but I could never remember the punch lines of the jokes that I'd hear. So I would write the punch lines down or a word or two, and all of a sudden I had a repertoire of jokes. So I think that writing down reinforces in some ways the things you're trying to remember." AA: "Assuming you can remember where you put the paper. You know that situation ... " ELDH: "Absolutely." AA: "You write something down and you can't -- is there a simple way to remember where you put the paper?" ELDH: "Ahhh ... " RS: Memory and communications trainer Wendi Eldh. Now let's see if you can remember some addresses. AA: The first address is our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. Next, our e-mail address. That's word@voanews.com. And, finally, our postal address. It's VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Thanks for the Memory"/Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, from the film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": September 26, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: September 29, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER – some ways to help you improve your memory. ELDH: "We don't forget, we just haven't learned it in the first place." RS: That's Wendi Eldh. She's a communications trainer who teaches memory skills. One technique she uses she calls the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve. ELDH: "That is, you have to say, what is the piece of information I want to learn, and you record that. Then you have to figure out where you're going to put it. I don't just throw it in my brain. Am I going to put it with car information, will I put it with insurance information. So you actually get disciplined enough to organize the information you retain in some kind of filing system. And then when you're ready to retrieve it, you know where to get it, just like filing information in a filing cabinet." RS: "But this is your head." [laughter] ELDH: "Exactly." AA: "Is your brain set up that way?" ELDH: "Sometimes. It takes a lot of work. And I would say that in addition to the epiphany of learning that until you learn it you can't forget it, I think the other thing to realize about memory is that it takes a tremendous amount of discipline." RS: "Well, how do you go about doing that?" ELDH: "Well, there are many different memory techniques. I would say that the majority of them have to do with using very intense visual images. The more elaborate, the more bright, the more it draws on all your senses, the better you'll remember. Let's say somebody's name is Campbell. How are you going to remember Campbell? Well, break it up -- camp bell. You want to see that person at a campsite. He's got a huge bell in his hand and he's ringing it. And you see that in your mind, and you hear the bell ringing, very loudly, and you smell the pine needles. Now, you're never going to forget Mister Campbell." AA: "So you file that, what file do you put that under?" ELDH: "I'm going to put that under names, and I would probably file it -- depending on the scenario -- under a workplace name. Now that is a danger, though, because then we have what is called 'queue dependency." RS: "Aren't you at risk of forgetting your cue?" [laughter] ELDH: "You definitely are, and in fact that is one of the ways that we forget. We forget from decay. If you've studied another language, you know that if you don't use it, you lose it. And we've all heard that. Another is depression. When we have either a mental or a physical illness, our ability to remember and retain information goes down dramatically." RS: "How would you apply these techniques that you've been talking about, the three R's -- record, retain and retrieve -- to learning a foreign language?" ELDH: "I think that I would use a lot of the pneumonic devices where you make associations with words. I would also use the device that we use where you use the first letter of each of the words that you have to memorize. I'll give you an example: In America, we have what are known as the Great Lakes. Of course, we all know that. How do we remember the Great Lakes. Can either one of you remember how you ... " AA: "Let's see, Huron, Michigan, Superior -- what are the other two?" [laughter] RS: "Erie." AA: "Erie, right, of course." ELDH: "Now, I'll tell you an easier way to memorize this. You take the H for Huron, the O for Ontario, the M for Michigan, the E for Erie and the S for Superior and you make the word homes. Now you don't stop there -- and this is what I really want people to get from this information, that you don't just stop at homes, you don't just stop at an acronym, you take it further. You see homes -- it can be floating homes, on the lake, and you see people talking about their homes on the lake, and they're saying 'aren't these lakes beautiful that we float around on in our homes.' And so you can see you deepen the image that you have." RS: "At one point in my life, I really, really wanted to be good at telling jokes. I never told many jokes and I thought it would be really fun to do that. And so what I did is -- but I could never remember the punch lines of the jokes that I'd hear. So I would write the punch lines down or a word or two, and all of a sudden I had a repertoire of jokes. So I think that writing down reinforces in some ways the things you're trying to remember." AA: "Assuming you can remember where you put the paper. You know that situation ... " ELDH: "Absolutely." AA: "You write something down and you can't -- is there a simple way to remember where you put the paper?" ELDH: "Ahhh ... " RS: Memory and communications trainer Wendi Eldh. Now let's see if you can remember some addresses. AA: The first address is our Web site: voanews.com/wordmaster. Next, our e-mail address. That's word@voanews.com. And, finally, our postal address. It's VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. RS: With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Thanks for the Memory"/Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, from the film "The Big Broadcast of 1938" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - September 27, 2002: Chronic Wasting Disease in Animals in U.S.
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Chronic wasting disease is infecting large animals like deer and elk in several areas in the United States. The disease was first discovered in nineteen-sixty-seven at a wildlife research center in the western state of Colorado. It was identified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in nineteen-seventy-eight. Biologists believe an abnormal form of a protein causes the disease. The protein infects tissue and spreads quickly. Chronic wasting disease causes weight loss and death in animals like deer and elk. In the nineteen-eighties, the disease was found in wild deer and elk in Colorado and Wyoming. Wild groups of animals and deer raised on farms in other areas developed the disease. Today, chronic wasting disease is found in at least eight American states and two provinces of Canada. Biologists are concerned about chronic wasting disease because it may be similar to mad cow disease, the common name of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Mad cow disease can be spread to humans. The human form of the disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. It causes brain damage that leads to death. The New York Times reports that about three-hundred Americans become infected with that disease each year. Currently, there is no evidence that chronic wasting disease can affect humans. The United States Department of Agriculture also says it does not believe that the disease can be spread to other kinds of animals. The middle western state of Wisconsin has found thirty-one wild deer infected with chronic wasting disease. The state has ordered that twenty-five- thousand deer be destroyed. It wants to test another twenty-five- thousand animals for the disease. However, some people oppose destroying so many animals. They say less than three percent of the deer tested for the disease had it. They say it is impossible to completely destroy the disease in the wild. Hunting for deer in Wisconsin is a huge industry. Experts say the disease will hurt the state’s economy. Also, many people who hunt for food may have to change their way of life. Experts say the spread of chronic wasting disease may affect the tradition of hunting in America. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Chronic wasting disease is infecting large animals like deer and elk in several areas in the United States. The disease was first discovered in nineteen-sixty-seven at a wildlife research center in the western state of Colorado. It was identified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in nineteen-seventy-eight. Biologists believe an abnormal form of a protein causes the disease. The protein infects tissue and spreads quickly. Chronic wasting disease causes weight loss and death in animals like deer and elk. In the nineteen-eighties, the disease was found in wild deer and elk in Colorado and Wyoming. Wild groups of animals and deer raised on farms in other areas developed the disease. Today, chronic wasting disease is found in at least eight American states and two provinces of Canada. Biologists are concerned about chronic wasting disease because it may be similar to mad cow disease, the common name of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Mad cow disease can be spread to humans. The human form of the disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. It causes brain damage that leads to death. The New York Times reports that about three-hundred Americans become infected with that disease each year. Currently, there is no evidence that chronic wasting disease can affect humans. The United States Department of Agriculture also says it does not believe that the disease can be spread to other kinds of animals. The middle western state of Wisconsin has found thirty-one wild deer infected with chronic wasting disease. The state has ordered that twenty-five- thousand deer be destroyed. It wants to test another twenty-five- thousand animals for the disease. However, some people oppose destroying so many animals. They say less than three percent of the deer tested for the disease had it. They say it is impossible to completely destroy the disease in the wild. Hunting for deer in Wisconsin is a huge industry. Experts say the disease will hurt the state’s economy. Also, many people who hunt for food may have to change their way of life. Experts say the spread of chronic wasting disease may affect the tradition of hunting in America. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 27, 2002: George Catlin's Indian Paintings / Football Great Johnny Unitas Dies / Question About (and Music by) Pink Floyd
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Pink Floyd ... Report about the death of an American football hero. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Pink Floyd ... Report about the death of an American football hero. And tell about an American artist who painted Native Americans of the Old West. George Catlin Exhibit HOST: The Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. has opened an exhibition of four-hundred paintings and other objects by American artist George Catlin. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: George Catlin was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in seventeen-ninety-six. He went to school to learn to be a lawyer. But he always wanted to be an artist. He soon quit the legal profession and became a painter. In the early eighteen-twenties, George Catlin saw a delegation of American Indians on their way to Washington, D.C. He was extremely interested in them. He decided to paint as many of the tribes of Native Americans as he could find. From about eighteen-thirty to eighteen-thirty-six, George Catlin traveled deep into areas of the country where few white people had ever been. He traveled thousands of kilometers and painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of the land. He painted men, women, children, clothing and animals. He painted religious ceremonies, dances and ball games. He often painted as many as three pictures a day. George Catlin visited as many as fifty different tribes of American Indians. His paintings show a people and culture that were very difficult for many white people of the time to accept. His paintings show an intelligent people who had a highly developed culture. Few white people understood this. George Catlin displayed his paintings for several years. He took them to Britain and France. But he was never very successful. Late in his life he was forced to sell his Indian paintings. Later, they were given to the Smithsonian Institution. Elizabeth Broun [pronounced brune] is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She says Catlin’s paintings add to our understanding of Native Americans. She also says they show Catlin’s deep feelings for the rich culture of the tribes he visited. If you have a computer and can link with the Internet’s World Wide Web you can find more information about George Catlin and his paintings. Type the letters N-M-A-A in a search. Or type the letters C-A-T-L-I-N. Enjoy the paintings. Johnny Unitas HOST: One of the best American football players of all time died of a heart attack earlier this month in Baltimore, Maryland. He was sixty-nine years old. His name was Johnny Unitas. Mary Tillotson tells us about him. ANNCR: Johnny Unitas was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played football in college at the University of Louisville. The experts said he was too small to play the game professionally. But he proved them wrong. Johnny Unitas played professional football for eighteen years, seventeen of them with the Baltimore Colts. Unitas was a quarterback. That is the leader of the team’s offense. The quarterback tells the other players what to do each time their team has the ball. He receives the ball as the two teams line up facing each other. Then the quarterback either hands the ball to another player, throws it to another player or runs with the ball himself. Johnny Unitas was the first quarterback to throw the ball for more than forty-thousand yards. He set twenty-two National Football League records. These include most passes attempted and completed, most yards gained passing, most touchdown passes and most years leading the league in touchdown passes. He completed at least one touchdown pass in forty-seven games without interruption between nineteen-fifty-six and nineteen-sixty. Johnny Unitas led the Baltimore Colts to the National Football League championship three times. He also led the team to a Super Bowl victory in nineteen-seventy-one. He was named most valuable player three times. Unitas also was chosen as a member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame. He retired from football after the nineteen-seventy-three season. Johnny Unitas has been called the greatest quarterback of all time. But people said he was much more than that. More than two-thousand people attended his funeral in Baltimore, Maryland last week. Family members and friends talked about his life and his love of football. Football fans said they wanted to honor the man who brought sports excellence to their city and who always treated everyone like they were his friends. Pink Floyd HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Arash Abedi asks about the rock group Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd is a British rock band famous for its use of electronics and special effects. It began recording in the nineteen-sixties. Yet its music continues to be extremely popular all over the world. The group took its name from the first names of two American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. At first, the band played rock, and rhythm and blues music. But it quickly began to experiment with electronic sounds, and used lights in its stage performances. Its first real international hit album was “Dark Side of the Moon” in nineteen-seventy-three. It is still one of the most popular rock albums around the world. Here is a song from that album, “Money.” (MUSIC) Another extremely popular album by Pink Floyd is “The Wall.” The songs are about the kinds of walls modern people build around themselves for survival. One of the hits from “The Wall” is this song, “Another Brick in the Wall.” (MUSIC) Pink Floyd was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-six. The group released a greatest hits album last year called “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.” We leave you now with the title song from that album, “Echoes.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Audrius Reegus. And our producer was Caty Weaver. And tell about an American artist who painted Native Americans of the Old West. George Catlin Exhibit HOST: The Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. has opened an exhibition of four-hundred paintings and other objects by American artist George Catlin. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: George Catlin was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in seventeen-ninety-six. He went to school to learn to be a lawyer. But he always wanted to be an artist. He soon quit the legal profession and became a painter. In the early eighteen-twenties, George Catlin saw a delegation of American Indians on their way to Washington, D.C. He was extremely interested in them. He decided to paint as many of the tribes of Native Americans as he could find. From about eighteen-thirty to eighteen-thirty-six, George Catlin traveled deep into areas of the country where few white people had ever been. He traveled thousands of kilometers and painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of the land. He painted men, women, children, clothing and animals. He painted religious ceremonies, dances and ball games. He often painted as many as three pictures a day. George Catlin visited as many as fifty different tribes of American Indians. His paintings show a people and culture that were very difficult for many white people of the time to accept. His paintings show an intelligent people who had a highly developed culture. Few white people understood this. George Catlin displayed his paintings for several years. He took them to Britain and France. But he was never very successful. Late in his life he was forced to sell his Indian paintings. Later, they were given to the Smithsonian Institution. Elizabeth Broun [pronounced brune] is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She says Catlin’s paintings add to our understanding of Native Americans. She also says they show Catlin’s deep feelings for the rich culture of the tribes he visited. If you have a computer and can link with the Internet’s World Wide Web you can find more information about George Catlin and his paintings. Type the letters N-M-A-A in a search. Or type the letters C-A-T-L-I-N. Enjoy the paintings. Johnny Unitas HOST: One of the best American football players of all time died of a heart attack earlier this month in Baltimore, Maryland. He was sixty-nine years old. His name was Johnny Unitas. Mary Tillotson tells us about him. ANNCR: Johnny Unitas was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played football in college at the University of Louisville. The experts said he was too small to play the game professionally. But he proved them wrong. Johnny Unitas played professional football for eighteen years, seventeen of them with the Baltimore Colts. Unitas was a quarterback. That is the leader of the team’s offense. The quarterback tells the other players what to do each time their team has the ball. He receives the ball as the two teams line up facing each other. Then the quarterback either hands the ball to another player, throws it to another player or runs with the ball himself. Johnny Unitas was the first quarterback to throw the ball for more than forty-thousand yards. He set twenty-two National Football League records. These include most passes attempted and completed, most yards gained passing, most touchdown passes and most years leading the league in touchdown passes. He completed at least one touchdown pass in forty-seven games without interruption between nineteen-fifty-six and nineteen-sixty. Johnny Unitas led the Baltimore Colts to the National Football League championship three times. He also led the team to a Super Bowl victory in nineteen-seventy-one. He was named most valuable player three times. Unitas also was chosen as a member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame. He retired from football after the nineteen-seventy-three season. Johnny Unitas has been called the greatest quarterback of all time. But people said he was much more than that. More than two-thousand people attended his funeral in Baltimore, Maryland last week. Family members and friends talked about his life and his love of football. Football fans said they wanted to honor the man who brought sports excellence to their city and who always treated everyone like they were his friends. Pink Floyd HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Arash Abedi asks about the rock group Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd is a British rock band famous for its use of electronics and special effects. It began recording in the nineteen-sixties. Yet its music continues to be extremely popular all over the world. The group took its name from the first names of two American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. At first, the band played rock, and rhythm and blues music. But it quickly began to experiment with electronic sounds, and used lights in its stage performances. Its first real international hit album was “Dark Side of the Moon” in nineteen-seventy-three. It is still one of the most popular rock albums around the world. Here is a song from that album, “Money.” (MUSIC) Another extremely popular album by Pink Floyd is “The Wall.” The songs are about the kinds of walls modern people build around themselves for survival. One of the hits from “The Wall” is this song, “Another Brick in the Wall.” (MUSIC) Pink Floyd was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-six. The group released a greatest hits album last year called “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.” We leave you now with the title song from that album, “Echoes.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Audrius Reegus. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 30, 2002: Dog Collars and Leishmaniasis
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Up to five-hundred-million people are infected each year with a disease called leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis). Most of the victims are young children in poor countries. An organism called the leishmaniasis parasite causes the disease. It is spread by the bite of a sandfly. The insect passes the parasite from dogs to humans. Recently, a study found that children could be protected from visceral leishmaniasis if dogs wear collars with chemicals to guard against insect bites. Dog collars are worn around the neck. They usually are made of metal or animal skin. There are four forms of leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis causes high body temperature. It also can affect some organs of the body. Victims may not produce enough white blood cells. The disease will kill if it is not treated. Most victims of visceral leishmaniasis are in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan. In the study, research scientists from Britain and Tabriz University in Iran studied eighteen Iranian villages during a period when leishmaniasis often is spread. The researchers gave chemically treated collars to dog owners. After one year, the researchers tested dogs and children in all the villages for the parasite, known as Leishmaniasis infantum. The infection rate was cut by fifty-four percent in dogs. The rate in children dropped by forty-two percent. Using chemically treated dog collars is one of several ways to control the spread of leishmaniasis. One method is to cover or spray houses with chemicals designed to kill insects. Another way is to destroy dogs without owners and other animals that show signs of the disease. These methods are reported to have helped in China. However, they have not been very effective in other areas. In Brazil, for example, the number of leishmaniasis cases has risen slowly during the past twenty years. The researchers report that two-hundred-thousand homes in Brazil were sprayed and twenty-thousand dogs destroyed each year during this period. The World Health Organization estimates that twelve-million people are infected with leishmaniasis worldwide. The W-H-O estimates that at least three-hundred-fifty-million people in eighty-eight countries may be at risk of infection. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Up to five-hundred-million people are infected each year with a disease called leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis). Most of the victims are young children in poor countries. An organism called the leishmaniasis parasite causes the disease. It is spread by the bite of a sandfly. The insect passes the parasite from dogs to humans. Recently, a study found that children could be protected from visceral leishmaniasis if dogs wear collars with chemicals to guard against insect bites. Dog collars are worn around the neck. They usually are made of metal or animal skin. There are four forms of leishmaniasis. Visceral leishmaniasis causes high body temperature. It also can affect some organs of the body. Victims may not produce enough white blood cells. The disease will kill if it is not treated. Most victims of visceral leishmaniasis are in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan. In the study, research scientists from Britain and Tabriz University in Iran studied eighteen Iranian villages during a period when leishmaniasis often is spread. The researchers gave chemically treated collars to dog owners. After one year, the researchers tested dogs and children in all the villages for the parasite, known as Leishmaniasis infantum. The infection rate was cut by fifty-four percent in dogs. The rate in children dropped by forty-two percent. Using chemically treated dog collars is one of several ways to control the spread of leishmaniasis. One method is to cover or spray houses with chemicals designed to kill insects. Another way is to destroy dogs without owners and other animals that show signs of the disease. These methods are reported to have helped in China. However, they have not been very effective in other areas. In Brazil, for example, the number of leishmaniasis cases has risen slowly during the past twenty years. The researchers report that two-hundred-thousand homes in Brazil were sprayed and twenty-thousand dogs destroyed each year during this period. The World Health Organization estimates that twelve-million people are infected with leishmaniasis worldwide. The W-H-O estimates that at least three-hundred-fifty-million people in eighty-eight countries may be at risk of infection. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 30, 2002: Book Clubs
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Reading is an important activity for many Americans. Today, thousands of men, women and children belong to groups to discuss the books they read. I’m Mary Tillotson. Oprah Winfrey VOICE ONE: Reading is an important activity for many Americans. Today, thousands of men, women and children belong to groups to discuss the books they read. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. A report about book clubs is our story today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: No one is sure how many Americans belong to reading groups called book clubs. Yet publishers and bookstores report that more and more people throughout the United States are joining them. Most of the clubs work the same way. Members read the same book at the same time. Then they meet to talk about the book. Members may be friends or people who live near each other. Or, they may be people who work together. Some book clubs develop from other organizations. Religious and community groups often establish book clubs. Some Americans belong to reading groups on the computer service known as the Internet. These groups include people around the world who communicate about books they read. These people send electronic mail instead of meeting to discuss books. VOICE TWO: Book clubs may be for only women or only men. Or, they can be for husbands and wives together. Some are family groups where parents attend with their children. Children may belong to book clubs of their own. Most reading groups study books by a number of writers. However, some groups read the work of a single writer, usually one that has been famous for awhile. William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Jane Austen, George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain are examples. Other groups may be named for an important person in the work of the writer, like a Sherlock Holmes Club. Holmes is the great British crime investigator created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Members of these book clubs often are experts about their chosen reading material. For example, one member of a Holmes reading group can identify almost every person in every Sherlock Holmes story. VOICE ONE: Some book clubs meet in homes. Other clubs meet in a religious center or work place. Some gather in a bookstore, a public information center or library. A few always have a meal at the same eating place. Highly organized groups may enforce reading rules. They may say that members who have not read the required material may not be permitted to comment at meetings. National clubs often provide a list of required or suggested reading. Some book clubs require their members to pay hundreds of dollars for a one-year club membership. These clubs usually have an expert leader, like a professor. Other book clubs are not as organized. They have no official leader. Members exchange the responsibility of directing meetings. Books are chosen by voting on suggestions by members. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Oprah Winfrey is the star of a popular American television show. Six years ago, she started a reading group called Oprah’s Book Club. Each month during autumn, winter and spring, Mizz Winfrey chose a book she liked. She announced her choice on the show. She asked people to read the book. Then, they wrote to the show with their thoughts and opinions. Oprah’s Book Club was successful because Mizz Winfrey would invite writers to her show to discuss their books. Her club greatly influenced what Americans read. For example, some libraries reported that several hundred people had to wait to borrow one of the books she suggested. Publishers also felt the effects of Mizz Winfrey’s book club. They would often need to make thousands of extra copies of a book to satisfy public demand. Earlier this year, Oprah Winfrey decided to drop the book club from her television show. However, computer users can still find her book choices on her Internet website. Also, people who write books continue to make appearances on her show. VOICE ONE: In recent months, several new, national book clubs were formed. The newspaper U-S-A Today started its club in April. Every six weeks, the U-S-A Today Book Club chooses a new book. Members can discuss the books with writers and other people electronically. One of the first books chosen was “Empire Falls” by Richard Russo. “Empire Falls” was chosen a short time after it won a Pulitzer Prize, America’s highest writing award. Winning the Pulitzer is known to increase a book’s sales. VOICE TWO: At least four television shows also have formed book clubs. A-B-C Television’s “Good Morning America” started a program called, “Read This.” It invites members of existing book clubs to suggest things to read. This is different from a new club organized by N-B-C Television’s “Today Show.” On that show, best-selling writers are asked to suggest a book. In the first program, writer John Grisham chose “The Emperor of Ocean Park” by Stephen Carter. At first, there were two-hundred-forty-thousand copies of “The Emperor of Ocean Park” in publication. After the “Today Show” announcement, the number of copies in American bookstores rose to almost five-hundred-thousand. On C-N-N television, financial reporter Lou Dobbs chooses books that he believes investors will enjoy. Many of the books he suggests deal with economics or financial issues. Another television show, “Live with Regis and Kelly,” has a less serious book club. All books chosen there are said to be easy reading with no deep hidden messages. Club members say reading for them is meant to be fun and light. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Several cities in the United States, such as Chicago and Seattle, also have started book clubs. Public library officials in Washington, D-C, hope their club will create a feeling of togetherness in the city, and help those people who can not read. Smaller, local clubs may read works that already have been popular for centuries, like "The Odyssey" of Homer. They may read poetry or mystery stories or love stories. Or, they may read books about people, politics, or current events. VOICE TWO: Book clubs are more than reading groups. They are social groups, too. Most of the book clubs have only women as members. The women often become good friends. They discuss their families and jobs, as well as the books they read. The meetings give members a chance to learn what other women are thinking. One club member says she thinks it is valuable to talk about what you read with good friends. Other clubs help unmarried men and women meet each other. A Christian religious center in Cincinnati, Ohio organized one such club. Members have to be unmarried and more than forty years old. This group reads a lot of books about relationships between men and women. One was called “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” John Gray, an expert on communication and relationships, wrote this book. It discusses differences in how men and women think and act. VOICE ONE: Some reading clubs in the United States are for husbands and wives. One woman says this is a great idea for a book club. She says husbands and wives often talk to each other only about their children, or work, or money problems. “Talking about books,” she says, “opens a whole new level of communication.” American children belong to reading clubs, too. They may be as young as four years old or as old as eighteen. Some children’s clubs get help from the Great Book Foundation. This educational organization provides lists of books to read. It also trains people to lead discussions about the books. VOICE TWO: Young children read stories like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen. Other popular books for young readers include “How the Elephant Became” by Ted Hughes. Older children might read works such as “Antigone” by Sophocles and “On the Limits of Government” by John Locke. One woman has belonged to a book club in Washington, D.C. for more than twenty-nine years. She says some of the best books she has read are the ones she would NEVER read if she did not belong to a club. She says her reading group has opened her eyes to a wider and more interesting world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Maurice Williams. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. A report about book clubs is our story today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: No one is sure how many Americans belong to reading groups called book clubs. Yet publishers and bookstores report that more and more people throughout the United States are joining them. Most of the clubs work the same way. Members read the same book at the same time. Then they meet to talk about the book. Members may be friends or people who live near each other. Or, they may be people who work together. Some book clubs develop from other organizations. Religious and community groups often establish book clubs. Some Americans belong to reading groups on the computer service known as the Internet. These groups include people around the world who communicate about books they read. These people send electronic mail instead of meeting to discuss books. VOICE TWO: Book clubs may be for only women or only men. Or, they can be for husbands and wives together. Some are family groups where parents attend with their children. Children may belong to book clubs of their own. Most reading groups study books by a number of writers. However, some groups read the work of a single writer, usually one that has been famous for awhile. William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Jane Austen, George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain are examples. Other groups may be named for an important person in the work of the writer, like a Sherlock Holmes Club. Holmes is the great British crime investigator created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Members of these book clubs often are experts about their chosen reading material. For example, one member of a Holmes reading group can identify almost every person in every Sherlock Holmes story. VOICE ONE: Some book clubs meet in homes. Other clubs meet in a religious center or work place. Some gather in a bookstore, a public information center or library. A few always have a meal at the same eating place. Highly organized groups may enforce reading rules. They may say that members who have not read the required material may not be permitted to comment at meetings. National clubs often provide a list of required or suggested reading. Some book clubs require their members to pay hundreds of dollars for a one-year club membership. These clubs usually have an expert leader, like a professor. Other book clubs are not as organized. They have no official leader. Members exchange the responsibility of directing meetings. Books are chosen by voting on suggestions by members. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Oprah Winfrey is the star of a popular American television show. Six years ago, she started a reading group called Oprah’s Book Club. Each month during autumn, winter and spring, Mizz Winfrey chose a book she liked. She announced her choice on the show. She asked people to read the book. Then, they wrote to the show with their thoughts and opinions. Oprah’s Book Club was successful because Mizz Winfrey would invite writers to her show to discuss their books. Her club greatly influenced what Americans read. For example, some libraries reported that several hundred people had to wait to borrow one of the books she suggested. Publishers also felt the effects of Mizz Winfrey’s book club. They would often need to make thousands of extra copies of a book to satisfy public demand. Earlier this year, Oprah Winfrey decided to drop the book club from her television show. However, computer users can still find her book choices on her Internet website. Also, people who write books continue to make appearances on her show. VOICE ONE: In recent months, several new, national book clubs were formed. The newspaper U-S-A Today started its club in April. Every six weeks, the U-S-A Today Book Club chooses a new book. Members can discuss the books with writers and other people electronically. One of the first books chosen was “Empire Falls” by Richard Russo. “Empire Falls” was chosen a short time after it won a Pulitzer Prize, America’s highest writing award. Winning the Pulitzer is known to increase a book’s sales. VOICE TWO: At least four television shows also have formed book clubs. A-B-C Television’s “Good Morning America” started a program called, “Read This.” It invites members of existing book clubs to suggest things to read. This is different from a new club organized by N-B-C Television’s “Today Show.” On that show, best-selling writers are asked to suggest a book. In the first program, writer John Grisham chose “The Emperor of Ocean Park” by Stephen Carter. At first, there were two-hundred-forty-thousand copies of “The Emperor of Ocean Park” in publication. After the “Today Show” announcement, the number of copies in American bookstores rose to almost five-hundred-thousand. On C-N-N television, financial reporter Lou Dobbs chooses books that he believes investors will enjoy. Many of the books he suggests deal with economics or financial issues. Another television show, “Live with Regis and Kelly,” has a less serious book club. All books chosen there are said to be easy reading with no deep hidden messages. Club members say reading for them is meant to be fun and light. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Several cities in the United States, such as Chicago and Seattle, also have started book clubs. Public library officials in Washington, D-C, hope their club will create a feeling of togetherness in the city, and help those people who can not read. Smaller, local clubs may read works that already have been popular for centuries, like "The Odyssey" of Homer. They may read poetry or mystery stories or love stories. Or, they may read books about people, politics, or current events. VOICE TWO: Book clubs are more than reading groups. They are social groups, too. Most of the book clubs have only women as members. The women often become good friends. They discuss their families and jobs, as well as the books they read. The meetings give members a chance to learn what other women are thinking. One club member says she thinks it is valuable to talk about what you read with good friends. Other clubs help unmarried men and women meet each other. A Christian religious center in Cincinnati, Ohio organized one such club. Members have to be unmarried and more than forty years old. This group reads a lot of books about relationships between men and women. One was called “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” John Gray, an expert on communication and relationships, wrote this book. It discusses differences in how men and women think and act. VOICE ONE: Some reading clubs in the United States are for husbands and wives. One woman says this is a great idea for a book club. She says husbands and wives often talk to each other only about their children, or work, or money problems. “Talking about books,” she says, “opens a whole new level of communication.” American children belong to reading clubs, too. They may be as young as four years old or as old as eighteen. Some children’s clubs get help from the Great Book Foundation. This educational organization provides lists of books to read. It also trains people to lead discussions about the books. VOICE TWO: Young children read stories like “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen. Other popular books for young readers include “How the Elephant Became” by Ted Hughes. Older children might read works such as “Antigone” by Sophocles and “On the Limits of Government” by John Locke. One woman has belonged to a book club in Washington, D.C. for more than twenty-nine years. She says some of the best books she has read are the ones she would NEVER read if she did not belong to a club. She says her reading group has opened her eyes to a wider and more interesting world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. Our producer was Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Maurice Williams. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-25-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 26, 2002: Lyndon Johnson, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Phil Murray. VOICE 2: And this is Richard rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. ((Theme)) Today, we begin the story of president Lyndon Johnson. VOICE 1: Lyndon Baines Johnson became America's thirty-sixth president very suddenly. It happened on November twenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three. On that day, President John Kennedy was murdered. Kennedy and Johnson -- his vice president -- were visiting Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was shot to death as his open car drove through the streets of the city. Within a few hours, Johnson was sworn in as president on a plane that would take him back to Washington. The new president said, "I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help, and God's." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Before being elected vice president, Lyndon Johnson had served for many years in both the Senate and the house of representatives. He liked making decisions. And he loved politics. He grew up in small towns in Texas. After completing high school, he traveled and worked for a while. He said he was afraid of more studying. But after a few years, he entered southwest Texas State Teachers College. There he was a student leader and political activist. VOICE 1: Johnson went to Washington as secretary to a congressman in nineteen-thirty-one. Four years later, President Franklin Roosevelt named him to a leadership position in a national social program for young people. Two years after that, he decided to campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. When World War Two began, Johnson was the first member of Congress to join the armed forces. He served in the House for twelve years. After the war, he campaigned for the Senate, where he also served for twelve years. As a senator, he became an expert in the operation of government. VOICE 2: Lyndon Johnson would need all of this knowledge as president. On the day he was sworn in, American faced serious problems. Communist forces in Vietnam were fighting troops supported by the United States. There was a continuing possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. At home, there was racial conflict. Many Americans did not have jobs. And there was a threat of a major railroad strike. VOICE 1: President Johnson began his White House days by working hard for legislation President Kennedy had proposed. Although he had voted against civil rights legislation when he served in the Senate, he now urged Congress to pass a civil rights bill. Congress did. The nineteen-sixty-four Civil Rights Act was a law to help guarantee equal chances for jobs for all Americans. It also helped guarantee equal treatment for minorities in stores, eating places, and other businesses. VOICE 2: When Johnson signed the bill, he said: JOHNSON: "We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings -- not because of their own failures -- but because of the color of their skin." The president said that such a situation could not continue in America. To treat people unfairly because of their race, he said, violated the Constitution, the idea of democracy, and the law he was about to sign. VOICE 1: Lyndon Johnson succeeded in getting Congress to pass more civil rights legislation in nineteen-sixty-five and nineteen-sixty-eight. The nineteen-sixty-five bill said states could not prevent citizens from voting just because they did not do well on reading or other tests. The purpose of the law was to make sure all black Americans could vote. The civil rights law of nineteen-sixty-eight dealt with housing. For many years, black Americans could not get the home they wanted in the place they wanted. Many times, property companies forced them to pay a lot for poor housing. The purpose of the bill was to guarantee free choice and fair treatment in the housing market. VOICE 2: Political experts said president Johnson succeeded with Congress in a way that president Kennedy could never have equaled. Because Johnson was from the South, he could talk easily with Southern members of Congress. He was able to get them to agree that African Americans were treated unfairly. In addition, his own years in Congress had taught him how to get people to do what he wanted. VOICE 1: President Johnson gave a name to his dream of a better America. He called it the "Great Society. " He spoke about it in a speech at the University of Michigan: JOHNSON: "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The great society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. " The Great Society was both an idea and a goal. To reach that goal, Johnson created several government programs. One was the "war on poverty. " The war on poverty was a series of bills to help poor people. It was designed to create new jobs and build the economy. VOICE 2: Congress did not approve a large amount of money for the war on poverty. But it did strongly support the president's early proposals. Support dropped, however, when Congress said the nation could not pay for both social programs at home and a war overseas. Vietnam was not the only place where Johnson used American troops to fight communism. He would send about twenty-thousand soldiers to the Dominican Republic, too. He feared that a rebellion there would lead to a communist takeover of the country. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of John Kennedy's term. In nineteen-sixty-four, he campaigned for election to a full term of his own. His Democratic Party gave him the strongest support possible. It accepted his choice of Hubert Humphrey to be the party's candidate for vice president. Humphrey was a liberal senator from the state of Minnesota. VOICE 2: Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans had a difficult time choosing their candidates for the election. Delegates to the party's national convention finally chose Barry Goldwater to be their candidate for president. Goldwater was a strongly conservative senator from the state of Arizona. The delegates chose William Miller, a congressman from New York state, to be their candidate for vice president. VOICE 1: The nation voted in November, nineteen-sixty-four. Lyndon Johnson won more than sixty percent of the popular votes. Strangely, however, he was not pleased. He had wanted the largest victory in American history. He had wanted proof that Americans were voting for him, and not for the shadow of John Kennedy. VOICE 2: In his inaugural speech, Johnson talked of changes. He said his Great Society was never finished. It was always growing and improving. To Johnson, this meant passing a health care plan for older Americans. It meant appointing blacks to important national positions. He succeeded in these goals -- and more -- during the next four years. Congress passed the Medicare bill to provide health care for older people. And Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to be the first black justice to the Supreme Court. VOICE 1: As Johnson went back to work in the White House, however, a huge problem awaited him. Americans were fighting to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. More and more were being killed. The war in Vietnam would become extremely unpopular among American citizens. It would destroy Johnson's chances of being remembered as a great president. That will be our story next week. ((Theme)) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Richard Rael. VOICE 1: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 1: This is Phil Murray. VOICE 2: And this is Richard rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. ((Theme)) Today, we begin the story of president Lyndon Johnson. VOICE 1: Lyndon Baines Johnson became America's thirty-sixth president very suddenly. It happened on November twenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three. On that day, President John Kennedy was murdered. Kennedy and Johnson -- his vice president -- were visiting Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was shot to death as his open car drove through the streets of the city. Within a few hours, Johnson was sworn in as president on a plane that would take him back to Washington. The new president said, "I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help, and God's." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Before being elected vice president, Lyndon Johnson had served for many years in both the Senate and the house of representatives. He liked making decisions. And he loved politics. He grew up in small towns in Texas. After completing high school, he traveled and worked for a while. He said he was afraid of more studying. But after a few years, he entered southwest Texas State Teachers College. There he was a student leader and political activist. VOICE 1: Johnson went to Washington as secretary to a congressman in nineteen-thirty-one. Four years later, President Franklin Roosevelt named him to a leadership position in a national social program for young people. Two years after that, he decided to campaign for a seat in the House of Representatives. When World War Two began, Johnson was the first member of Congress to join the armed forces. He served in the House for twelve years. After the war, he campaigned for the Senate, where he also served for twelve years. As a senator, he became an expert in the operation of government. VOICE 2: Lyndon Johnson would need all of this knowledge as president. On the day he was sworn in, American faced serious problems. Communist forces in Vietnam were fighting troops supported by the United States. There was a continuing possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. At home, there was racial conflict. Many Americans did not have jobs. And there was a threat of a major railroad strike. VOICE 1: President Johnson began his White House days by working hard for legislation President Kennedy had proposed. Although he had voted against civil rights legislation when he served in the Senate, he now urged Congress to pass a civil rights bill. Congress did. The nineteen-sixty-four Civil Rights Act was a law to help guarantee equal chances for jobs for all Americans. It also helped guarantee equal treatment for minorities in stores, eating places, and other businesses. VOICE 2: When Johnson signed the bill, he said: JOHNSON: "We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings -- not because of their own failures -- but because of the color of their skin." The president said that such a situation could not continue in America. To treat people unfairly because of their race, he said, violated the Constitution, the idea of democracy, and the law he was about to sign. VOICE 1: Lyndon Johnson succeeded in getting Congress to pass more civil rights legislation in nineteen-sixty-five and nineteen-sixty-eight. The nineteen-sixty-five bill said states could not prevent citizens from voting just because they did not do well on reading or other tests. The purpose of the law was to make sure all black Americans could vote. The civil rights law of nineteen-sixty-eight dealt with housing. For many years, black Americans could not get the home they wanted in the place they wanted. Many times, property companies forced them to pay a lot for poor housing. The purpose of the bill was to guarantee free choice and fair treatment in the housing market. VOICE 2: Political experts said president Johnson succeeded with Congress in a way that president Kennedy could never have equaled. Because Johnson was from the South, he could talk easily with Southern members of Congress. He was able to get them to agree that African Americans were treated unfairly. In addition, his own years in Congress had taught him how to get people to do what he wanted. VOICE 1: President Johnson gave a name to his dream of a better America. He called it the "Great Society. " He spoke about it in a speech at the University of Michigan: JOHNSON: "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The great society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. " The Great Society was both an idea and a goal. To reach that goal, Johnson created several government programs. One was the "war on poverty. " The war on poverty was a series of bills to help poor people. It was designed to create new jobs and build the economy. VOICE 2: Congress did not approve a large amount of money for the war on poverty. But it did strongly support the president's early proposals. Support dropped, however, when Congress said the nation could not pay for both social programs at home and a war overseas. Vietnam was not the only place where Johnson used American troops to fight communism. He would send about twenty-thousand soldiers to the Dominican Republic, too. He feared that a rebellion there would lead to a communist takeover of the country. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of John Kennedy's term. In nineteen-sixty-four, he campaigned for election to a full term of his own. His Democratic Party gave him the strongest support possible. It accepted his choice of Hubert Humphrey to be the party's candidate for vice president. Humphrey was a liberal senator from the state of Minnesota. VOICE 2: Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans had a difficult time choosing their candidates for the election. Delegates to the party's national convention finally chose Barry Goldwater to be their candidate for president. Goldwater was a strongly conservative senator from the state of Arizona. The delegates chose William Miller, a congressman from New York state, to be their candidate for vice president. VOICE 1: The nation voted in November, nineteen-sixty-four. Lyndon Johnson won more than sixty percent of the popular votes. Strangely, however, he was not pleased. He had wanted the largest victory in American history. He had wanted proof that Americans were voting for him, and not for the shadow of John Kennedy. VOICE 2: In his inaugural speech, Johnson talked of changes. He said his Great Society was never finished. It was always growing and improving. To Johnson, this meant passing a health care plan for older Americans. It meant appointing blacks to important national positions. He succeeded in these goals -- and more -- during the next four years. Congress passed the Medicare bill to provide health care for older people. And Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to be the first black justice to the Supreme Court. VOICE 1: As Johnson went back to work in the White House, however, a huge problem awaited him. Americans were fighting to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. More and more were being killed. The war in Vietnam would become extremely unpopular among American citizens. It would destroy Johnson's chances of being remembered as a great president. That will be our story next week. ((Theme)) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Richard Rael. VOICE 1: And this is Phil Murray. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-25-6-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT- September 26, 2002: Foreign Student Series #2 >First Steps
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. This week, we start a series of reports about how people from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. Copies of these reports can be found on the Special English Web site at w-w-w dot voa specialenglish dot com. Experts say you must plan early if you want to study in the United States. They say to begin at least two years before you want to start your studies. The first step is to visit an American educational advising center. There are more than four-hundred such offices around the world. You can find the one closest to your home by using a computer. Go to this Education Report on the Special English Web site and click on the link to the State Department Education Foreign Student Web page. Or ask the Public Affairs Office at the United States Embassy in your country to tell you where the nearest American educational advising center is. Educational advising centers have information about American colleges. They have computers so you can do a search to find the best school for you. Colleges and universities in the United States offer different kinds of degrees that require one or more years of study. For example, some schools offer certificate programs. These programs offer one year of training in subjects like office work, computer programming or car repair. You may also choose a two-year junior college or community college. Such programs lead to an associate degree. For example, some two-year programs prepare students for skilled jobs in electronics. Studying at a community college costs much less than at a four-year college. Many colleges and universities accept community college work as the first two years toward a four-year bachelor’s degree. To get a bachelor’s degree, you study general subjects like English, history, mathematics, and science during the first two years. During the last two years you take classes in your major area of study. If you already have a college degree, you may want to get an advanced degree at an American graduate school. A master’s degree usually takes two or three more years of full-time study in one subject. You must attend graduate school if you want to be a college professor, medical doctor or lawyer. These special degree programs require between three and six years of additional study. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 1, 2002: Alzheimer’s Disease
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about people who have the brain disorder called Alzheimer’s disease. ((THEME))) VOICE ONE: Irene lives near Rochester, New York. She is eighty years old, but she is not always sure about her age. Sometimes she says she is twenty-seven. At other times she says she is ninety-seven. Often Irene cannot remember names of people she has known for many years. Also, she struggles to find words to say what she wants to say. And sometimes she forgets what she was talking about. She is no longer permitted to drive a car. She almost had a terrible accident one day when she turned at a place where she should not have turned. Her husband Dick told her she should not drive because it was too dangerous. This has made some parts of Irene’s life difficult. Now she must depend on others to drive her to the many community activities that she has always been involved in. Still, Irene lives a very full life. But there are new restrictions on her abilities, restrictions that seem to increase almost daily. VOICE TWO: Irene discovered recently that she has Alzheimer’s disease. She is among more than four-million Americans suffering from the disease. As the population of the United States grows older, many millions more are expected to have the disease in years to come. Doctors describe Alzheimer’s disease as a slowly increasing brain disorder. It affects memory and personality - those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Victims of the disease slowly lose their ability to deal with everyday life. At first they forget simple things, like where they put something, or a person’s name. As time passes they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husband, wife, or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally they remember nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the rest of their body dies. Victims of Alzheimer’s do die from the disease, but not always right away. VOICE ONE: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of a disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead dementia is a group of signs of certain conditions and diseases. Some forms of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they are caused by drugs, alcohol, infection, sight or hearing problems, heart or lung problems, or head injury. Other forms of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones or vitamins in the body. However, in victims of Alzheimer’s disease, brain cells die and are not replaced. As the ability to remember and think decreases, victims can become angry and violent. Often they shout and move about with no purpose or goal. Media reports often tell about older people found walking in places far from their homes, not knowing where they are, or where they came from. Generally these people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Although Alzheimer’s disease develops differently in each person, there are early signs of the disease that are common. Often, victims of the disease may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them. Probably the most common early sign of Alzheimer’s disease is short-term memory loss. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking processes become more difficult. For example, they find themselves unable to understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or do simple tasks. Another sign of Alzheimer’s is difficulty in solving easy problems, such as what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble trying to follow directions or find the way to nearby places. Another sign is victims struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer’s seem to change. Quiet people may become noisier and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others. VOICE ONE: Alzheimer’s is considered an old people’s disease. It normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. However, a few rare cases have been discovered in people younger than forty. The average age of those found to have the disease is about eighty years old. Alzheimer’s disease is found in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By age ninety, half of all people are found to have signs of the disease. Alzheimer’s affects people of all races equally. However, women are more likely than men to develop the disease. This is partly because women generally live longer than men. There is no simple test to tell if someone has Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors who suspect a person has the disease must test a patient for many other disabilities first. If the tests fail to show that other disabilities are responsible for the problems, then a doctor suspects that Alzheimer’s disease is responsible. Still, a doctor cannot be completely sure a patient has the disease. The only way to be sure is to examine a patient’s brain cells after he or she dies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In his book, “The Notebook”, Nicholas Sparks calls Alzheimer’s disease “a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories.” British writer Iris Murdoch, who died of Alzheimer’s disease, said it was a dark and terrible place. Irene, who also is a writer, refuses to surrender to that opinion. Instead, she is writing a book about her experience. Also, she has written a short letter giving advice to those suffering from Alzheimer’s. She writes that she lives with the disease hopefully. She says: “We know that negative emotions can be harmful to health, and a strong will to live may well strengthen the body’s defense system. So, it seems wise to not spend time looking into the future, but to get the most from each day as it comes.” At the end of her letter, Irene writes about care givers. She says she greatly honors those who take care of Alzheimer’s patients, because that job is so very hard. And that is one of the most tragic things about Alzheimer’s disease – care for the patient becomes more and more difficult. Often the care giver’s help is rejected, as Alzheimer’s victims grow more and more distant and more difficult to control. And often, the care giver is a family member. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Former President Ronald Reagan probably is the most famous person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Mister Reagan wrote a letter to the American people announcing that his doctor had told him he has the disease. Mister Reagan wrote about the fears and difficulties presented by Alzheimer’s. He said that he and his wife, Nancy, hoped that their public announcement would lead to greater understanding of the condition among individuals and families affected by it. Mister Reagan and Irene seem to be different from many victims of Alzheimer’s disease. Instead of becoming extremely sad, they seem to show different signs. In their letters, they expressed hope, a desire to continue their lives as they have in the past, and concern for those who must care for them. VOICE TWO: Researchers are working to find ways to treat Alzheimer’s disease, and to cure or prevent the disease. In recent years, there have been some hopeful developments in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers are finding new information about the possible causes of the disease. They have developed some new drugs that have shown to be effective in slowing the development of the disease. Still, there is nothing yet that can stop the disease or ease the pain of those caring for victims of Alzheimer’s. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about people who have the brain disorder called Alzheimer’s disease. ((THEME))) VOICE ONE: Irene lives near Rochester, New York. She is eighty years old, but she is not always sure about her age. Sometimes she says she is twenty-seven. At other times she says she is ninety-seven. Often Irene cannot remember names of people she has known for many years. Also, she struggles to find words to say what she wants to say. And sometimes she forgets what she was talking about. She is no longer permitted to drive a car. She almost had a terrible accident one day when she turned at a place where she should not have turned. Her husband Dick told her she should not drive because it was too dangerous. This has made some parts of Irene’s life difficult. Now she must depend on others to drive her to the many community activities that she has always been involved in. Still, Irene lives a very full life. But there are new restrictions on her abilities, restrictions that seem to increase almost daily. VOICE TWO: Irene discovered recently that she has Alzheimer’s disease. She is among more than four-million Americans suffering from the disease. As the population of the United States grows older, many millions more are expected to have the disease in years to come. Doctors describe Alzheimer’s disease as a slowly increasing brain disorder. It affects memory and personality - those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Victims of the disease slowly lose their ability to deal with everyday life. At first they forget simple things, like where they put something, or a person’s name. As time passes they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husband, wife, or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally they remember nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the rest of their body dies. Victims of Alzheimer’s do die from the disease, but not always right away. VOICE ONE: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of a disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead dementia is a group of signs of certain conditions and diseases. Some forms of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they are caused by drugs, alcohol, infection, sight or hearing problems, heart or lung problems, or head injury. Other forms of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones or vitamins in the body. However, in victims of Alzheimer’s disease, brain cells die and are not replaced. As the ability to remember and think decreases, victims can become angry and violent. Often they shout and move about with no purpose or goal. Media reports often tell about older people found walking in places far from their homes, not knowing where they are, or where they came from. Generally these people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Although Alzheimer’s disease develops differently in each person, there are early signs of the disease that are common. Often, victims of the disease may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them. Probably the most common early sign of Alzheimer’s disease is short-term memory loss. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking processes become more difficult. For example, they find themselves unable to understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or do simple tasks. Another sign of Alzheimer’s is difficulty in solving easy problems, such as what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble trying to follow directions or find the way to nearby places. Another sign is victims struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer’s seem to change. Quiet people may become noisier and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others. VOICE ONE: Alzheimer’s is considered an old people’s disease. It normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. However, a few rare cases have been discovered in people younger than forty. The average age of those found to have the disease is about eighty years old. Alzheimer’s disease is found in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By age ninety, half of all people are found to have signs of the disease. Alzheimer’s affects people of all races equally. However, women are more likely than men to develop the disease. This is partly because women generally live longer than men. There is no simple test to tell if someone has Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors who suspect a person has the disease must test a patient for many other disabilities first. If the tests fail to show that other disabilities are responsible for the problems, then a doctor suspects that Alzheimer’s disease is responsible. Still, a doctor cannot be completely sure a patient has the disease. The only way to be sure is to examine a patient’s brain cells after he or she dies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In his book, “The Notebook”, Nicholas Sparks calls Alzheimer’s disease “a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories.” British writer Iris Murdoch, who died of Alzheimer’s disease, said it was a dark and terrible place. Irene, who also is a writer, refuses to surrender to that opinion. Instead, she is writing a book about her experience. Also, she has written a short letter giving advice to those suffering from Alzheimer’s. She writes that she lives with the disease hopefully. She says: “We know that negative emotions can be harmful to health, and a strong will to live may well strengthen the body’s defense system. So, it seems wise to not spend time looking into the future, but to get the most from each day as it comes.” At the end of her letter, Irene writes about care givers. She says she greatly honors those who take care of Alzheimer’s patients, because that job is so very hard. And that is one of the most tragic things about Alzheimer’s disease – care for the patient becomes more and more difficult. Often the care giver’s help is rejected, as Alzheimer’s victims grow more and more distant and more difficult to control. And often, the care giver is a family member. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Former President Ronald Reagan probably is the most famous person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Mister Reagan wrote a letter to the American people announcing that his doctor had told him he has the disease. Mister Reagan wrote about the fears and difficulties presented by Alzheimer’s. He said that he and his wife, Nancy, hoped that their public announcement would lead to greater understanding of the condition among individuals and families affected by it. Mister Reagan and Irene seem to be different from many victims of Alzheimer’s disease. Instead of becoming extremely sad, they seem to show different signs. In their letters, they expressed hope, a desire to continue their lives as they have in the past, and concern for those who must care for them. VOICE TWO: Researchers are working to find ways to treat Alzheimer’s disease, and to cure or prevent the disease. In recent years, there have been some hopeful developments in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers are finding new information about the possible causes of the disease. They have developed some new drugs that have shown to be effective in slowing the development of the disease. Still, there is nothing yet that can stop the disease or ease the pain of those caring for victims of Alzheimer’s. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-09/a-2002-09-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 1, 2002: Soil Conservation Methods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soil conservation efforts protect soil from wind and water that can blow or wash it away. Good soil produces food crops for both humans and animals. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant windbreaks in lines around their fields. They are very important when grains such as wheat are grown. For example, in parts of West Africa, studies have shown that grain harvests can be twenty per cent higher on fields protected by windbreaks compared to those without such protection. Windbreaks are effective when a wall of trees and other plants blocks the wind. The windbreaks should also limit violent motions of the wind to those areas closest to the windbreak. Windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty per cent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be formed from shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. Locally-grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its World Wide Web address, w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Soil conservation efforts protect soil from wind and water that can blow or wash it away. Good soil produces food crops for both humans and animals. One important form of soil conservation is the use of windbreaks. Windbreaks stop the wind from blowing soil away. They also keep the wind from destroying or damaging crops. Windbreaks are barriers formed by trees and other plants with many leaves. Farmers plant windbreaks in lines around their fields. They are very important when grains such as wheat are grown. For example, in parts of West Africa, studies have shown that grain harvests can be twenty per cent higher on fields protected by windbreaks compared to those without such protection. Windbreaks are effective when a wall of trees and other plants blocks the wind. The windbreaks should also limit violent motions of the wind to those areas closest to the windbreak. Windbreaks seem to work best when they allow a little wind to pass through. If the wall of trees and plants stops wind completely, then violent air motions will take place close to the ground. These motions cause the soil to lift up into the air where it will be blown away. For this reason, a windbreak is best if it has only sixty to eighty per cent of the trees and plants needed to make a solid line. An easy rule to remember is that windbreaks can protect areas up to ten times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. There should be at least two lines in each windbreak. One line should be large trees. The second line, right next to it, can be formed from shorter trees and other plants with leaves. Windbreaks not only protect land and crops from the wind. They can also provide wood products. These include wood for fuel and longer pieces for making fences. Locally-grown trees and plants are best for windbreaks. You can get more information about windbreaks and other forms of soil conservation from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is an organization that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its World Wide Web address, w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - October 2, 2002: Prostate Cancer Update
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists in Sweden have shown that removing a cancerous prostate gland reduces the chance of dying from prostate cancer. Yet their findings have failed to stop debate over how best to treat the disease. The prostate is a small gland in men. A gland is a tissue or organ that produces a useful chemical substance. The prostate is important for sexual activity. Cancer of the prostate usually develops in men over the age of fifty. Prostate cancer is most common in northwestern Europe and North America. In the United States alone, the disease will be discovered in one-hundred-eighty-nine-thousand men this year. Prostate cancer can kill if it spreads to other parts of the body. Yet it can be cured if discovered early. Men in need of treatment have a number of choices. One is an operation to remove the cancerous prostate. Another is radiation. Both treatments affect the patient in other ways. They can make a man unable to perform sexually. Or they can make him unable to control the release of liquid waste from his body. Many doctors say that men with early prostate cancer may not need any immediate treatment. Prostate cancer grows slowly. Treatment can be started later if the cancer grows. Medical experts had no evidence that an operation or other treatment was better than doing nothing. The Swedish study attempted to answer that question. Its results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved almost seven-hundred men with prostate cancer. Half had operations to remove the cancerous gland between nineteen-eighty-nine and nineteen-ninety-nine. The other men received no treatment. After about six years, thirty-one men in the no treatment group had died of prostate cancer. The disease killed sixteen of the men who had the operation. However, survival rates for men in both groups were about the same. Supporters of the aggressive treatment praised the findings. Other doctors say the study does not help prostate cancer patients because it did not look at other treatments, such as radiation. They say men still do not really know what treatment choice is best. Medical experts say men with prostate cancer must understand their own situations and make the decision with their doctors. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Scientists in Sweden have shown that removing a cancerous prostate gland reduces the chance of dying from prostate cancer. Yet their findings have failed to stop debate over how best to treat the disease. The prostate is a small gland in men. A gland is a tissue or organ that produces a useful chemical substance. The prostate is important for sexual activity. Cancer of the prostate usually develops in men over the age of fifty. Prostate cancer is most common in northwestern Europe and North America. In the United States alone, the disease will be discovered in one-hundred-eighty-nine-thousand men this year. Prostate cancer can kill if it spreads to other parts of the body. Yet it can be cured if discovered early. Men in need of treatment have a number of choices. One is an operation to remove the cancerous prostate. Another is radiation. Both treatments affect the patient in other ways. They can make a man unable to perform sexually. Or they can make him unable to control the release of liquid waste from his body. Many doctors say that men with early prostate cancer may not need any immediate treatment. Prostate cancer grows slowly. Treatment can be started later if the cancer grows. Medical experts had no evidence that an operation or other treatment was better than doing nothing. The Swedish study attempted to answer that question. Its results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study involved almost seven-hundred men with prostate cancer. Half had operations to remove the cancerous gland between nineteen-eighty-nine and nineteen-ninety-nine. The other men received no treatment. After about six years, thirty-one men in the no treatment group had died of prostate cancer. The disease killed sixteen of the men who had the operation. However, survival rates for men in both groups were about the same. Supporters of the aggressive treatment praised the findings. Other doctors say the study does not help prostate cancer patients because it did not look at other treatments, such as radiation. They say men still do not really know what treatment choice is best. Medical experts say men with prostate cancer must understand their own situations and make the decision with their doctors. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 2, 2002: George Catlin, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. Pigeon's Egg Head (The Light) Going to and Returning from Washington, 1837–39 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. A new exhibit of paintings is being shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D-C. Today, we tell about the man who painted them. His name was George Catlin. And in this first part of two programs, we tell how he became one of the most important artists in American history. ((THEME))) VOICE ONE: Comanche Feats of Horsemanship, 1834–35 VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. A new exhibit of paintings is being shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D-C. Today, we tell about the man who painted them. His name was George Catlin. And in this first part of two programs, we tell how he became one of the most important artists in American history. ((THEME))) VOICE ONE: George Catlin loved people. He loved their faces. He loved to paint faces expressing feelings. He understood how to paint feelings. You can look at one of his paintings of a person and see pride, honor, respect, intelligence and humor. George Catlin is most famous for painting Native Americans. In the eighteen-thirties, George Catlin traveled into areas of the American West to paint and record the history of Native Americans. He learned more about the culture of Native Americans than most other white people of his time. George Catlin spent a good part of his life trying to show these people to the world. VOICE TWO: George Catlin showed his paintings in Washington, D-C; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Thousands of people came to see them. Thousands more came to see them in London, England and in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. George Catlin probably did more than any other person to educate the public about the great people who lived in North America before Europeans arrived. We begin our story just a few years after George Catlin was born, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was born in seventeen-ninety-six. His family soon moved to New York State near the great Susquehanna River. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) George Catlin loved people. He loved their faces. He loved to paint faces expressing feelings. He understood how to paint feelings. You can look at one of his paintings of a person and see pride, honor, respect, intelligence and humor. George Catlin is most famous for painting Native Americans. In the eighteen-thirties, George Catlin traveled into areas of the American West to paint and record the history of Native Americans. He learned more about the culture of Native Americans than most other white people of his time. George Catlin spent a good part of his life trying to show these people to the world. VOICE TWO: George Catlin showed his paintings in Washington, D-C; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City. Thousands of people came to see them. Thousands more came to see them in London, England and in the famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. George Catlin probably did more than any other person to educate the public about the great people who lived in North America before Europeans arrived. We begin our story just a few years after George Catlin was born, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He was born in seventeen-ninety-six. His family soon moved to New York State near the great Susquehanna River. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: George Catlin always said his early years were fun. He said he had to have a book in one hand because he was in school. In the other hand he most often had a fishing pole. When he was not reading or fishing, he was drawing the natural world he saw outside each day. George Catlin had little training in art. He mostly taught himself. However, his father made sure that he had a good education. His father was a lawyer and he wanted George to be a lawyer too. George did as his father wished and became a lawyer. However he was not happy. VOICE TWO: As a young man George Catlin was only happy when he was painting. He truly loved to paint. He decided to stop being a lawyer and become an artist. He moved into a small building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began to paint pictures of people. He was good at this and he loved the work. He painted very small pictures of people. The pictures are called miniatures. Women often wore this kind of painting tied to a ribbon around their necks. Soon, he moved to New York City. He painted miniatures and larger pictures. He was becoming a well-known artist. He began painting pictures of important people. One was the governor of the state of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Life seemed good for the young artist. George Catlin was doing what he loved and he was making a living as an artist. However, he thought something was missing from his life and his work. He wanted very much to paint something that was important. He wanted to give something to the world of art that would be different. But he had no idea what this could possibly be. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-twenties, George Catlin saw something that would change his life forever. It was a delegation of Native Americans. About fifteen representatives from several tribes were passing through Philadelphia. They were on their way to Washington, D-C to meet with the president of the United States. George Catlin had never seen anything like these Native Americans. Their skin was the color of the metal copper. Their hair and eyes were dark black. They wore clothes made of animal skins. They seemed fierce and dangerous. Within a few days, George Catlin made an important decision. He told his family and friends he would study and paint Native Americans. His family was opposed to the idea. They told him it was extremely dangerous. They told him he might be killed. George Catlin answered his friends and family. He said, “Nothing but the loss of my life will prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In eighteen-thirty, George Catlin traveled to the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. At that time Saint Louis was one of the last cities or towns you would find if you were traveling west. There was not much beyond Saint Louis but the Great Plains. There was nothing but wild, unexplored country. The country beyond Saint Louis could be extremely dangerous. Few white people had ever been further than Saint Louis. However, George Catlin met someone who knew about the lands of the far West and had been there. He also knew many of the Native American tribes that George Catlin wanted to visit. That man was William Clark. Twenty-six years before, William Clark was part of the famous team of Lewis and Clark who were the first white Americans to explore the far West. They had traveled from Saint Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. VOICE ONE: George Catlin immediately had a friend in William Clark. Mister Clark liked his idea of painting and learning about Native Americans. He did not think George Catlin’s idea was dangerous. He did his best to help. General William Clark was the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He immediately took Mister Catlin along on a trip up the Mississippi River to a place called Prairie du Chien. Here George Catlin saw a gathering of Native American tribes. He saw their clothes. He watched them and learned about their culture. He listened to their language. This trip was important to George Catlin because it strengthened his idea and plans to learn about and paint pictures of Native Americans. VOICE TWO: George Catlin quickly returned home to Philadelphia to raise money for his project. Within a year he traveled west again. This time he went north to Fort Union in an area called the Dakotas. Here he set up his painting equipment and began to paint. He said of this experience, “I have this day been painting a picture of the head chief of the Blackfoot nation. He is surrounded by his own warriors. He is an important man.” The man George Catlin painted that day was named Stu-mick-o-sucks. He was chief of the Blood Tribe of the Kainai Blackfoot. George Catlin said the Blackfoot were a fierce and war-like tribe. They lived in the area that is now the border between the United States and Canada. VOICE ONE: The beautiful painting of Stu-mick-o-sucks shows this fierce chief at the height of his powers. The chief of the Blood Tribe was about thirty years old when George Catlin painted his picture. His face is a deep copper color. He has red paint on his jaw. His eyes are intelligent and watchful. His black hair hangs down to his shoulders. Part of his hair falls down between his eyes and is cut straight across. A head covering made of small feathers surrounds his hair. One large feather is worn to the right side of his head. Stu-mick-o-sucks is dressed in his best clothing for this painting. It is clothing that he would wear for special ceremonies. On his chest is a round design made with several colors. The shoulders of his shirt are covered with pieces of cloth and hair to form other designs. George Catlin captured in paint a man of honor and courage, a leader of his people. The artist had wanted to go west to paint Native Americans. With this painting and the many that were to follow, George Catlin succeeded. He had found his life’s work. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: Join us again next week when we continue the story of George Catlin and his efforts to paint the people of the American West. If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you can see Mister Catlin’s famous painting of Blackfoot Chief Stu-mick-o-sucks and many others. Use a search engine and type the name George Catlin, C-A-T-L-I-N. Or type Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: George Catlin always said his early years were fun. He said he had to have a book in one hand because he was in school. In the other hand he most often had a fishing pole. When he was not reading or fishing, he was drawing the natural world he saw outside each day. George Catlin had little training in art. He mostly taught himself. However, his father made sure that he had a good education. His father was a lawyer and he wanted George to be a lawyer too. George did as his father wished and became a lawyer. However he was not happy. VOICE TWO: As a young man George Catlin was only happy when he was painting. He truly loved to paint. He decided to stop being a lawyer and become an artist. He moved into a small building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and began to paint pictures of people. He was good at this and he loved the work. He painted very small pictures of people. The pictures are called miniatures. Women often wore this kind of painting tied to a ribbon around their necks. Soon, he moved to New York City. He painted miniatures and larger pictures. He was becoming a well-known artist. He began painting pictures of important people. One was the governor of the state of New York, DeWitt Clinton. Life seemed good for the young artist. George Catlin was doing what he loved and he was making a living as an artist. However, he thought something was missing from his life and his work. He wanted very much to paint something that was important. He wanted to give something to the world of art that would be different. But he had no idea what this could possibly be. VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-twenties, George Catlin saw something that would change his life forever. It was a delegation of Native Americans. About fifteen representatives from several tribes were passing through Philadelphia. They were on their way to Washington, D-C to meet with the president of the United States. George Catlin had never seen anything like these Native Americans. Their skin was the color of the metal copper. Their hair and eyes were dark black. They wore clothes made of animal skins. They seemed fierce and dangerous. Within a few days, George Catlin made an important decision. He told his family and friends he would study and paint Native Americans. His family was opposed to the idea. They told him it was extremely dangerous. They told him he might be killed. George Catlin answered his friends and family. He said, “Nothing but the loss of my life will prevent me from visiting their country and becoming their historian.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In eighteen-thirty, George Catlin traveled to the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, near the Mississippi River. At that time Saint Louis was one of the last cities or towns you would find if you were traveling west. There was not much beyond Saint Louis but the Great Plains. There was nothing but wild, unexplored country. The country beyond Saint Louis could be extremely dangerous. Few white people had ever been further than Saint Louis. However, George Catlin met someone who knew about the lands of the far West and had been there. He also knew many of the Native American tribes that George Catlin wanted to visit. That man was William Clark. Twenty-six years before, William Clark was part of the famous team of Lewis and Clark who were the first white Americans to explore the far West. They had traveled from Saint Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. VOICE ONE: George Catlin immediately had a friend in William Clark. Mister Clark liked his idea of painting and learning about Native Americans. He did not think George Catlin’s idea was dangerous. He did his best to help. General William Clark was the United States Superintendent of Indian Affairs. He immediately took Mister Catlin along on a trip up the Mississippi River to a place called Prairie du Chien. Here George Catlin saw a gathering of Native American tribes. He saw their clothes. He watched them and learned about their culture. He listened to their language. This trip was important to George Catlin because it strengthened his idea and plans to learn about and paint pictures of Native Americans. VOICE TWO: George Catlin quickly returned home to Philadelphia to raise money for his project. Within a year he traveled west again. This time he went north to Fort Union in an area called the Dakotas. Here he set up his painting equipment and began to paint. He said of this experience, “I have this day been painting a picture of the head chief of the Blackfoot nation. He is surrounded by his own warriors. He is an important man.” The man George Catlin painted that day was named Stu-mick-o-sucks. He was chief of the Blood Tribe of the Kainai Blackfoot. George Catlin said the Blackfoot were a fierce and war-like tribe. They lived in the area that is now the border between the United States and Canada. VOICE ONE: The beautiful painting of Stu-mick-o-sucks shows this fierce chief at the height of his powers. The chief of the Blood Tribe was about thirty years old when George Catlin painted his picture. His face is a deep copper color. He has red paint on his jaw. His eyes are intelligent and watchful. His black hair hangs down to his shoulders. Part of his hair falls down between his eyes and is cut straight across. A head covering made of small feathers surrounds his hair. One large feather is worn to the right side of his head. Stu-mick-o-sucks is dressed in his best clothing for this painting. It is clothing that he would wear for special ceremonies. On his chest is a round design made with several colors. The shoulders of his shirt are covered with pieces of cloth and hair to form other designs. George Catlin captured in paint a man of honor and courage, a leader of his people. The artist had wanted to go west to paint Native Americans. With this painting and the many that were to follow, George Catlin succeeded. He had found his life’s work. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: Join us again next week when we continue the story of George Catlin and his efforts to paint the people of the American West. If you have a computer that can link to the Internet, you can see Mister Catlin’s famous painting of Blackfoot Chief Stu-mick-o-sucks and many others. Use a search engine and type the name George Catlin, C-A-T-L-I-N. Or type Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – September 26, 2002: IMF-World Bank Meetings Protest
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are holding their yearly meetings in Washington. Representatives from more than one-hundred-eighty countries have gathered for the talks. They plan to discuss debt forgiveness for developing countries, economic development and the world economy. Some groups have organized protests against the financial organizations. Others want to protest American foreign policy. Washington police say they expect as many as twenty-thousand demonstrators. Three-thousand police officers have been deployed in the city to keep order. Hundreds of people were arrested during similar demonstrations at the I-M-F and World Bank meetings in April of two-thousand. The United States and its allies created the I-M-F and the World Bank after World War Two. The two organizations control thousands of millions of dollars in assistance. The I-M-F and the World Bank have a close relationship but different responsibilities. The main job of the International Monetary Fund is to support world economic growth. It provides loans to countries dealing with short-term difficulties. The I-M-F often requires that countries make economic reforms in exchange for the loans. Some of the required reforms are unpopular. I-M-F officials also advise on financial policy. The World Bank provides loans to governments and private organizations for development projects. These include projects to build or improve transportation, health and education systems. The World Bank is the leading provider of such assistance. It also makes loans to reform the structure of national economic systems. I-M-F and World Bank opponents say the two organizations represent the interests of big business and the very rich. The opponents say World Bank development projects usually include money to pay for materials and technical help from industrial nations. They say it would be better to support projects in which materials and technical support could be found locally. Protesters also argue that I-M-F lending policies have made conditions worse in developing countries. Opponents say the activities of both organizations have damaged the environment. A recent United Nations report also criticizes policies supported by I-M-F and World Bank officials. The U-N Trade and Development agency report says those policies may have increased poverty in Africa instead of reducing it. It says the number of people living on less than one dollar a day in Africa’s poorest nations has risen by more than ten percent over the past thirty years. A writer of the U-N report, Yilmaz Akyuz, says the main reason for the rise may be the structural reform policies that the financial organizations support. He says the International Monetary Fund and World Bank urgently need to change their policies. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are holding their yearly meetings in Washington. Representatives from more than one-hundred-eighty countries have gathered for the talks. They plan to discuss debt forgiveness for developing countries, economic development and the world economy. Some groups have organized protests against the financial organizations. Others want to protest American foreign policy. Washington police say they expect as many as twenty-thousand demonstrators. Three-thousand police officers have been deployed in the city to keep order. Hundreds of people were arrested during similar demonstrations at the I-M-F and World Bank meetings in April of two-thousand. The United States and its allies created the I-M-F and the World Bank after World War Two. The two organizations control thousands of millions of dollars in assistance. The I-M-F and the World Bank have a close relationship but different responsibilities. The main job of the International Monetary Fund is to support world economic growth. It provides loans to countries dealing with short-term difficulties. The I-M-F often requires that countries make economic reforms in exchange for the loans. Some of the required reforms are unpopular. I-M-F officials also advise on financial policy. The World Bank provides loans to governments and private organizations for development projects. These include projects to build or improve transportation, health and education systems. The World Bank is the leading provider of such assistance. It also makes loans to reform the structure of national economic systems. I-M-F and World Bank opponents say the two organizations represent the interests of big business and the very rich. The opponents say World Bank development projects usually include money to pay for materials and technical help from industrial nations. They say it would be better to support projects in which materials and technical support could be found locally. Protesters also argue that I-M-F lending policies have made conditions worse in developing countries. Opponents say the activities of both organizations have damaged the environment. A recent United Nations report also criticizes policies supported by I-M-F and World Bank officials. The U-N Trade and Development agency report says those policies may have increased poverty in Africa instead of reducing it. It says the number of people living on less than one dollar a day in Africa’s poorest nations has risen by more than ten percent over the past thirty years. A writer of the U-N report, Yilmaz Akyuz, says the main reason for the rise may be the structural reform policies that the financial organizations support. He says the International Monetary Fund and World Bank urgently need to change their policies. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 3, 2002: Lyndon Johnson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 1: This is Doug Johnson. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we continue the story of America's thirty-sixth president, Lyndon Johnson. Protests at the University of Texas, 1965. VOICE 2: And this is Phil Murray with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we continue the story of America's thirty-sixth president, Lyndon Johnson. (Theme) VOICE 1: After John Kennedy was murdered, Vice President Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of Kennedy's term. He then was elected to his own full term. It began in January, nineteen-sixty-five. Much of his time and energy would be taken up by the war in Vietnam. By early nineteen-sixty-four, America had about seventeen-thousand troops in Vietnam. The troops were there to advise and train the South Vietnamese military. VOICE 2: Vietnam had gained its independence from France in nineteen-fifty-four. The country was divided into North and South. The North had a Communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. The South had an anti-Communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. In nineteen-fifty-seven, Communist rebels -- Vietcong -- began a campaign of terrorism in South Vietnam. They were supported by the government of North Vietnam and later by North Vietnamese troops. Their goal was to overthrow the anti-Communist government in the South. President Johnson believed that the United States had to support South Vietnam. Many other Americans agreed. They believed that without American help, South Vietnam would become Communist. Then, all of Southeast Asia would become Communist, too. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: As Johnson's term began, his military advisers told him the Communists were losing the war. They told him that North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong forces would soon stop fighting. On February sixth, however, the Vietcong attacked American camps at Pleiku and Qui Phon. The Johnson administration immediately ordered air attacks against military targets in the North. VOICE 2: Some observers in the United States questioned the administration's policy. For example, a leading newspaper writer, James Reston, said President Johnson was carrying out an undeclared and unexplained war in Vietnam. Johnson defended his policies. He said withdrawal would not bring an end to the conflict. He said the battle would continue in one country, and then another. VOICE 1: In March, nineteen-sixty-five, the first American ground troops arrived in South Vietnam. Congress supported the president's actions at that time. However, the number of Americans who opposed the war began to grow. These people said the war was a civil war. They said the United States had no right, or reason, to intervene. VOICE 2: For six days in may, the United States halted air attacks on North Vietnam. The administration hoped this would help get the North Vietnamese government to begin negotiations. The North refused. And the United States began to build up its forces in the South. By July, one-hundred twenty-five thousand Americans were fighting in Vietnam. VOICE 1: Some Americans became angry. Anti-war demonstrations took place in the cities of San Francisco and Chicago. More and more students began to protest. They wanted the war to end quickly. Writer James Reston commented that the anti-war demonstrations were not helping to bring peace to Vietnam. He said they were postponing it. He believed the demonstrations would make Ho Chi Minh think America did not support its troops. And that, he said, would make president Ho continue the war. VOICE 2: In December, nineteen-sixty-five, the United States again halted air attacks against North Vietnam. Again, it invited the North Vietnamese government to negotiate an end to the fighting. And again, the North refused. Ho Chi Minh's conditions for peace were firm. He demanded an end to the bombing and a complete American withdrawal. Withdrawal would mean defeat for the South. It would mean that all of Vietnam would become Communist. President Johnson would not accept these terms. So he offered his own proposals. The most important was an immediate ceasefire. Neither side would compromise, however. And the fighting went on. VOICE 1: In nineteen-sixty-six, President Johnson renewed the bombing attacks in North Vietnam. He also increased the number of American troops in South Vietnam. He condemned those who opposed his policies. He said: "The American people will stand united until every soldier is brought home safely. They will stand united until the people of South Vietnam can choose their own government." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Local and state elections were held in the United States that year. The war in Vietnam had an effect on those elections. The opposition Republican Party generally supported the president's war efforts. Yet it criticized him and other Democrats for economic problems linked to the war. The war cost two-thousand-million dollars every month. The price of many goods in the United States began to rise. The value of the dollar began to drop. The result was inflation. Then economic activity slowed, and the result was recession. VOICE 1: To answer the criticism, administration officials said progress was being made in Vietnam. But some Americans began to suspect that the government was not telling the truth about the war. Several news writers, for example, said the number of enemy soldiers killed was much lower than the government reported. Opposition to the war and to the administration's war policies led to bigger and bigger anti-war demonstrations. Studies were done to measure Americans' opinion on the issue. In a study in July, nineteen-sixty-seven, a little more than half the people questioned said they did not approve of the president's policies. Yet most Americans believed he would run again for president the next year. VOICE 2: Johnson strongly defended the use of American soldiers in Vietnam. In a speech to a group of lawmakers he said: "Since World War Two, this nation has met and has mastered many challenges -- challenges in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba. We met them because brave men were willing to risk their lives for their nation's security. And braver men have never lived than those who carry our colors in Vietnam this very hour." VOICE 1: Then came Tet -- the Vietnamese lunar new year -- in January nineteen-sixty-eight. The Communists launched a major military campaign. They attacked thirty-one of the forty-four provinces of South Vietnam. They even struck at the American embassy in the capital, Saigon. Fifty-thousand Communist soldiers were killed during the Tet offensive. Fourteen-thousand South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. And two-thousand American soldiers were killed. Thousands of Vietnamese civilians were killed, too. VOICE 2: Many Americans were surprised, even shocked, that the Communists could launch such a major attack against South Vietnam. For several years, they had been told that Communist forces were small and were losing badly. As a result, popular support for the administration fell even more. Democrats who opposed President Johnson seized this chance. Several ran against him in the primary elections held before the party's presidential nominating convention. These included Senator Robert Kennedy of New York and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. Kennedy and McCarthy did well in the early primary elections. Johnson did poorly. VOICE 1: At the end of March, nineteen-sixty-eight, the president spoke to the American people on television. He told of his proposal to end American bombing of North Vietnam. He told of the appointment of a special ambassador to start peace negotiations. And he told of his decision about his own future: JOHNSON: "I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office -- the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson and produced by paul thompson. This is phil murray. VOICE 1: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: After John Kennedy was murdered, Vice President Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of Kennedy's term. He then was elected to his own full term. It began in January, nineteen-sixty-five. Much of his time and energy would be taken up by the war in Vietnam. By early nineteen-sixty-four, America had about seventeen-thousand troops in Vietnam. The troops were there to advise and train the South Vietnamese military. VOICE 2: Vietnam had gained its independence from France in nineteen-fifty-four. The country was divided into North and South. The North had a Communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. The South had an anti-Communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. In nineteen-fifty-seven, Communist rebels -- Vietcong -- began a campaign of terrorism in South Vietnam. They were supported by the government of North Vietnam and later by North Vietnamese troops. Their goal was to overthrow the anti-Communist government in the South. President Johnson believed that the United States had to support South Vietnam. Many other Americans agreed. They believed that without American help, South Vietnam would become Communist. Then, all of Southeast Asia would become Communist, too. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: As Johnson's term began, his military advisers told him the Communists were losing the war. They told him that North Vietnamese troops and Vietcong forces would soon stop fighting. On February sixth, however, the Vietcong attacked American camps at Pleiku and Qui Phon. The Johnson administration immediately ordered air attacks against military targets in the North. VOICE 2: Some observers in the United States questioned the administration's policy. For example, a leading newspaper writer, James Reston, said President Johnson was carrying out an undeclared and unexplained war in Vietnam. Johnson defended his policies. He said withdrawal would not bring an end to the conflict. He said the battle would continue in one country, and then another. VOICE 1: In March, nineteen-sixty-five, the first American ground troops arrived in South Vietnam. Congress supported the president's actions at that time. However, the number of Americans who opposed the war began to grow. These people said the war was a civil war. They said the United States had no right, or reason, to intervene. VOICE 2: For six days in may, the United States halted air attacks on North Vietnam. The administration hoped this would help get the North Vietnamese government to begin negotiations. The North refused. And the United States began to build up its forces in the South. By July, one-hundred twenty-five thousand Americans were fighting in Vietnam. VOICE 1: Some Americans became angry. Anti-war demonstrations took place in the cities of San Francisco and Chicago. More and more students began to protest. They wanted the war to end quickly. Writer James Reston commented that the anti-war demonstrations were not helping to bring peace to Vietnam. He said they were postponing it. He believed the demonstrations would make Ho Chi Minh think America did not support its troops. And that, he said, would make president Ho continue the war. VOICE 2: In December, nineteen-sixty-five, the United States again halted air attacks against North Vietnam. Again, it invited the North Vietnamese government to negotiate an end to the fighting. And again, the North refused. Ho Chi Minh's conditions for peace were firm. He demanded an end to the bombing and a complete American withdrawal. Withdrawal would mean defeat for the South. It would mean that all of Vietnam would become Communist. President Johnson would not accept these terms. So he offered his own proposals. The most important was an immediate ceasefire. Neither side would compromise, however. And the fighting went on. VOICE 1: In nineteen-sixty-six, President Johnson renewed the bombing attacks in North Vietnam. He also increased the number of American troops in South Vietnam. He condemned those who opposed his policies. He said: "The American people will stand united until every soldier is brought home safely. They will stand united until the people of South Vietnam can choose their own government." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Local and state elections were held in the United States that year. The war in Vietnam had an effect on those elections. The opposition Republican Party generally supported the president's war efforts. Yet it criticized him and other Democrats for economic problems linked to the war. The war cost two-thousand-million dollars every month. The price of many goods in the United States began to rise. The value of the dollar began to drop. The result was inflation. Then economic activity slowed, and the result was recession. VOICE 1: To answer the criticism, administration officials said progress was being made in Vietnam. But some Americans began to suspect that the government was not telling the truth about the war. Several news writers, for example, said the number of enemy soldiers killed was much lower than the government reported. Opposition to the war and to the administration's war policies led to bigger and bigger anti-war demonstrations. Studies were done to measure Americans' opinion on the issue. In a study in July, nineteen-sixty-seven, a little more than half the people questioned said they did not approve of the president's policies. Yet most Americans believed he would run again for president the next year. VOICE 2: Johnson strongly defended the use of American soldiers in Vietnam. In a speech to a group of lawmakers he said: "Since World War Two, this nation has met and has mastered many challenges -- challenges in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin, in Korea, in Cuba. We met them because brave men were willing to risk their lives for their nation's security. And braver men have never lived than those who carry our colors in Vietnam this very hour." VOICE 1: Then came Tet -- the Vietnamese lunar new year -- in January nineteen-sixty-eight. The Communists launched a major military campaign. They attacked thirty-one of the forty-four provinces of South Vietnam. They even struck at the American embassy in the capital, Saigon. Fifty-thousand Communist soldiers were killed during the Tet offensive. Fourteen-thousand South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. And two-thousand American soldiers were killed. Thousands of Vietnamese civilians were killed, too. VOICE 2: Many Americans were surprised, even shocked, that the Communists could launch such a major attack against South Vietnam. For several years, they had been told that Communist forces were small and were losing badly. As a result, popular support for the administration fell even more. Democrats who opposed President Johnson seized this chance. Several ran against him in the primary elections held before the party's presidential nominating convention. These included Senator Robert Kennedy of New York and Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. Kennedy and McCarthy did well in the early primary elections. Johnson did poorly. VOICE 1: At the end of March, nineteen-sixty-eight, the president spoke to the American people on television. He told of his proposal to end American bombing of North Vietnam. He told of the appointment of a special ambassador to start peace negotiations. And he told of his decision about his own future: JOHNSON: "I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office -- the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson and produced by paul thompson. This is phil murray. VOICE 1: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 3, 2002: Foreign Student Series #3 >College or University?
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. This week, we continue our reports about how people from around the world can attend a college or university in the United States. We tell the difference between a college and a university in the United States. A copy of this report can be found on the Special English web page at w-w-w dot voa special english dot c-o-m. People attend a college or university to continue their education after high school. This prepares them for work. It also provides them with a greater understanding of the world and its past. And, it helps them value the arts and sciences. Students usually attend a college for four years to complete a program of study. Those who are successful receive a bachelor’s degree. Colleges generally do not offer additional study programs or support research projects. Universities often are much larger than colleges. Universities carry out research. They also offer several programs in many areas of study. Universities offer bachelor’s degrees after four years of study. They also offer graduate degrees that require additional years of study. Modern universities developed from those of Europe’s Middle Ages. They took their name from the Latin word “universitas.” It meant a group of people organized for one purpose. The first European colleges were groups of students who came together because of the same interests. In England, colleges were formed to provide students with living places. Usually each group was studying the same thing, so the word “college” came to mean one area of study. Today, most American colleges offer an area of study called liberal arts. The liberal arts are subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They trained a person’s mind. They were considered different from subjects that were useful in life. The word “college” also means a part of a university that teaches one area of study. That is because the first American universities divided their studies into many areas and called each one a college. For example, the University of Texas at Austin has fourteen different colleges. It also has the most students of any single university in the country. This year, more than fifty-two-thousand men and women are studying there. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 4, 2002: Ultimate Frisbee / Question About Houston, Texas / Music by Hackberry Ramblers
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by a group called the Hackberry Ramblers. We answer a listeners question about the American city of Houston, Texas. Houston skyline(VOA photo - G. Flakus) (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by a group called the Hackberry Ramblers. We answer a listeners question about the American city of Houston, Texas. And, we report about a popular new sport. Frisbee HOST: A sport called Ultimate Frisbee is growing in popularity in the United States. The sport requires just one piece of equipment -- a flat, round piece of plastic, called a Frisbee. Shep O'Neal has more about the Frisbee and the American who developed it. ANNCR: Edward Headrick designed the first modern Frisbee almost forty years ago. At the time, he worked for Wham-O, a California company that made playthings for children. And, we report about a popular new sport. Frisbee HOST: A sport called Ultimate Frisbee is growing in popularity in the United States. The sport requires just one piece of equipment -- a flat, round piece of plastic, called a Frisbee. Shep O'Neal has more about the Frisbee and the American who developed it. ANNCR: Edward Headrick designed the first modern Frisbee almost forty years ago. At the time, he worked for Wham-O, a California company that made playthings for children. Wham-O began selling a simple version of the Frisbee in the nineteen-fifties. Mister Headrick improved the Frisbee by adding round lines to its top. These circles helped Frisbees fly fast and straight. The United States Patent and Trademark Office gave Mister Headrick property rights to his design in nineteen-sixty-seven. His design still is used in Frisbee competitions. Later, Mister Headrick created Frisbee games for adults. He formed two groups: the International Frisbee Association and the Professional Disc Golf Association. Edward Headrick died in August of this year. He was seventy-eight years old. Today, the Frisbee remains as popular as ever. Some students are known to spend hours throwing Frisbees. One game you can play with a Frisbee is called Disc Golf. In Disc Golf, players throw the Frisbee at a metal box. The player with the fewest throws wins. About four-million people are said to play this game. Another game is Ultimate Frisbee. It is similar to European football, or soccer. However, players are not permitted to run with the Frisbee. Instead, they must throw it down the field. Each team has seven members. The first team to get fifteen points wins. Americans of all ages have formed Ultimate Frisbee teams. For many, the sport is a way to meet friends. Ultimate Frisbee also is popular because it supports an idea called “Spirit of the Game.” In Ultimate Frisbee, team members are expected to play fairly. Competition is urged. Yet there should never be tension between opposing players. Teams are expected to honor all players, and call their own violations to the rules. Under “Spirit of the Game,” winning is important. However, playing fairly and with honor is more important than winning. Houston, Texas HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Khachonesack Douangphoutha asks about the American city of Houston, Texas. Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. Two-million people live there. More than two-million others live in nearby areas. Houston is in southeast Texas, about eighty kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico. A waterway called the Houston Ship Channel links the city to the Gulf. The Ship Channel has made Houston one of the world’s major ports. Houston is one of the nation’s leading oil centers. It also has become famous for the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. That is the headquarters for manned flight programs of America’s space agency, NASA. The city also is home to the largest medical center in the world. More than fifty-two thousand people work at the Texas Medical Center. It treats almost five-million patients each year. Houston was named for General Sam Houston. He led the army that won Texas’ independence from Mexico in eighteen-thirty-six. Two brothers, Augustus and John Allen, founded the town that year. Houston became the capital of the Republic of Texas in eighteen-thirty-seven. The people of Houston turned to shipping and trade after the capital was moved to Austin. Late in the nineteenth century, workers began building the Houston Ship Channel. The waterway opened in nineteen-fourteen. The discovery of oil in east Texas in the early nineteen-hundreds increased the city’s growth. Industrial expansion during and after World War Two brought thousands of new people to the area. Then, in nineteen-sixty-four, NASA’s space center opened. City leaders have worked to improve Houston’s economy so that it is not dependent on oil. Today, eighteen large American companies have their headquarters in Houston. More than forty colleges and universities also are there. So are more than five-hundred cultural and arts organizations. The city also has more than eleven-thousand eating places. Houston officials say people there go out to eating places more often than people in any other American city! That could be a problem. For the past two years, Men’s Fitness Magazine has said that the people in Houston are the fattest people in the country. The Hackberry Ramblers HOST: Many music groups do not stay together for very long. Yet today, we tell about a current group that was formed almost seventy years ago. It is called the Hackberry Ramblers. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Luderin Darbone is eighty-nine years old. Edwin Duhon is ninety-two. They started The Hackberry Ramblers in the southern state of Louisiana in nineteen-thirty-three. The men say that more than seventy other musicians have been part of the group over the years. The Hackberry Ramblers play American country, western and Cajun songs. The group was one of the first to use an electric sound system to make their music easy to hear. For many years, the Hackberry Ramblers played at eating and drinking places in Louisiana and Texas. Let’s listen to some of their music. ((MUSIC)) The Hackberry Ramblers have performed all over the United States in the past ten years. In nineteen-ninety-three, the group recorded its first modern album, or collection of songs. Here is ”Cajun Boogie.” ((MUSIC)) Earlier this year, the Hackberry Ramblers went to Europe. The group performed in the Netherlands and France. Members say they like being the oldest band in the United States. They also say they will never retire. In nineteen-ninety-seven, members of the American recording industry nominated the group’s latest album for an award. We leave you now with a song from that album. Here are the Hackberry Ramblers with “Proud Mary.” ((MUSIC)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Byner. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Wham-O began selling a simple version of the Frisbee in the nineteen-fifties. Mister Headrick improved the Frisbee by adding round lines to its top. These circles helped Frisbees fly fast and straight. The United States Patent and Trademark Office gave Mister Headrick property rights to his design in nineteen-sixty-seven. His design still is used in Frisbee competitions. Later, Mister Headrick created Frisbee games for adults. He formed two groups: the International Frisbee Association and the Professional Disc Golf Association. Edward Headrick died in August of this year. He was seventy-eight years old. Today, the Frisbee remains as popular as ever. Some students are known to spend hours throwing Frisbees. One game you can play with a Frisbee is called Disc Golf. In Disc Golf, players throw the Frisbee at a metal box. The player with the fewest throws wins. About four-million people are said to play this game. Another game is Ultimate Frisbee. It is similar to European football, or soccer. However, players are not permitted to run with the Frisbee. Instead, they must throw it down the field. Each team has seven members. The first team to get fifteen points wins. Americans of all ages have formed Ultimate Frisbee teams. For many, the sport is a way to meet friends. Ultimate Frisbee also is popular because it supports an idea called “Spirit of the Game.” In Ultimate Frisbee, team members are expected to play fairly. Competition is urged. Yet there should never be tension between opposing players. Teams are expected to honor all players, and call their own violations to the rules. Under “Spirit of the Game,” winning is important. However, playing fairly and with honor is more important than winning. Houston, Texas HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Laos. Khachonesack Douangphoutha asks about the American city of Houston, Texas. Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. Two-million people live there. More than two-million others live in nearby areas. Houston is in southeast Texas, about eighty kilometers from the Gulf of Mexico. A waterway called the Houston Ship Channel links the city to the Gulf. The Ship Channel has made Houston one of the world’s major ports. Houston is one of the nation’s leading oil centers. It also has become famous for the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. That is the headquarters for manned flight programs of America’s space agency, NASA. The city also is home to the largest medical center in the world. More than fifty-two thousand people work at the Texas Medical Center. It treats almost five-million patients each year. Houston was named for General Sam Houston. He led the army that won Texas’ independence from Mexico in eighteen-thirty-six. Two brothers, Augustus and John Allen, founded the town that year. Houston became the capital of the Republic of Texas in eighteen-thirty-seven. The people of Houston turned to shipping and trade after the capital was moved to Austin. Late in the nineteenth century, workers began building the Houston Ship Channel. The waterway opened in nineteen-fourteen. The discovery of oil in east Texas in the early nineteen-hundreds increased the city’s growth. Industrial expansion during and after World War Two brought thousands of new people to the area. Then, in nineteen-sixty-four, NASA’s space center opened. City leaders have worked to improve Houston’s economy so that it is not dependent on oil. Today, eighteen large American companies have their headquarters in Houston. More than forty colleges and universities also are there. So are more than five-hundred cultural and arts organizations. The city also has more than eleven-thousand eating places. Houston officials say people there go out to eating places more often than people in any other American city! That could be a problem. For the past two years, Men’s Fitness Magazine has said that the people in Houston are the fattest people in the country. The Hackberry Ramblers HOST: Many music groups do not stay together for very long. Yet today, we tell about a current group that was formed almost seventy years ago. It is called the Hackberry Ramblers. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Luderin Darbone is eighty-nine years old. Edwin Duhon is ninety-two. They started The Hackberry Ramblers in the southern state of Louisiana in nineteen-thirty-three. The men say that more than seventy other musicians have been part of the group over the years. The Hackberry Ramblers play American country, western and Cajun songs. The group was one of the first to use an electric sound system to make their music easy to hear. For many years, the Hackberry Ramblers played at eating and drinking places in Louisiana and Texas. Let’s listen to some of their music. ((MUSIC)) The Hackberry Ramblers have performed all over the United States in the past ten years. In nineteen-ninety-three, the group recorded its first modern album, or collection of songs. Here is ”Cajun Boogie.” ((MUSIC)) Earlier this year, the Hackberry Ramblers went to Europe. The group performed in the Netherlands and France. Members say they like being the oldest band in the United States. They also say they will never retire. In nineteen-ninety-seven, members of the American recording industry nominated the group’s latest album for an award. We leave you now with a song from that album. Here are the Hackberry Ramblers with “Proud Mary.” ((MUSIC)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Byner. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - October 4, 2002: Sport Utility Vehicles
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. One of the most popular kinds of car in the United States is not really a car at all. It is a combination of a car and a truck. It is called a sports utility vehicle, or S-U-V. Some people criticize the vehicles. They say S-U-Vs use too much fuel and increase air pollution. They also say the vehicles may even be dangerous in some situations. The market for S-U-Vs continues to grow. About twenty-two percent of all cars and trucks sold in America are S-U-Vs. One reason may be that the S-U-V seems like a vehicle that can do many different things. Brock Yates is an official for Car & Driver Magazine. He says that women like S-U-Vs. He says the vehicles have a lot of space to transport children and food. Many Americans like the feeling they get from driving an S-U-V. The vehicles are larger than other cars on the road. This gives many drivers a feeling of safety. Yet, the size of S-U-Vs is a concern. S-U-Vs use more fuel than passenger cars. S-U-Vs are designed with larger engines because they are meant to carry heavy loads. In fact, they are considered light trucks by the government. Car-makers have been designing larger S-U-Vs as the vehicles grow more popular. For this reason, the average fuel use for light trucks has not changed much since nineteen-eighty-five. S-U-Vs also produce more pollution than passenger cars do. S-U-Vs create large amounts of carbon dioxide, a gas that is said to cause climate change. One study found that an S-U-V will release about two times as much carbon dioxide as a car over the life of the vehicle. Critics say S-U-Vs also produce more substances like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. These gases form polluted air, or smog. There is evidence that S-U-Vs may not be as safe as many people believe. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration compared S-U-Vs and normal cars in deadly accidents. Its study found that car passengers died in eighty percent of deadly accidents between cars and S-U-Vs. Other studies showed that S-U-Vs can turn over more easily than cars. The vehicles do not have the same safety requirements as passenger cars. The Department of Transportation continues to study information about S-U-Vs. For now, the vehicles remain among the most popular in America. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. One of the most popular kinds of car in the United States is not really a car at all. It is a combination of a car and a truck. It is called a sports utility vehicle, or S-U-V. Some people criticize the vehicles. They say S-U-Vs use too much fuel and increase air pollution. They also say the vehicles may even be dangerous in some situations. The market for S-U-Vs continues to grow. About twenty-two percent of all cars and trucks sold in America are S-U-Vs. One reason may be that the S-U-V seems like a vehicle that can do many different things. Brock Yates is an official for Car & Driver Magazine. He says that women like S-U-Vs. He says the vehicles have a lot of space to transport children and food. Many Americans like the feeling they get from driving an S-U-V. The vehicles are larger than other cars on the road. This gives many drivers a feeling of safety. Yet, the size of S-U-Vs is a concern. S-U-Vs use more fuel than passenger cars. S-U-Vs are designed with larger engines because they are meant to carry heavy loads. In fact, they are considered light trucks by the government. Car-makers have been designing larger S-U-Vs as the vehicles grow more popular. For this reason, the average fuel use for light trucks has not changed much since nineteen-eighty-five. S-U-Vs also produce more pollution than passenger cars do. S-U-Vs create large amounts of carbon dioxide, a gas that is said to cause climate change. One study found that an S-U-V will release about two times as much carbon dioxide as a car over the life of the vehicle. Critics say S-U-Vs also produce more substances like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. These gases form polluted air, or smog. There is evidence that S-U-Vs may not be as safe as many people believe. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration compared S-U-Vs and normal cars in deadly accidents. Its study found that car passengers died in eighty percent of deadly accidents between cars and S-U-Vs. Other studies showed that S-U-Vs can turn over more easily than cars. The vehicles do not have the same safety requirements as passenger cars. The Department of Transportation continues to study information about S-U-Vs. For now, the vehicles remain among the most popular in America. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 3, 2002 - Wordtree Reverse Dictionary
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 3, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: October 6, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- The Wordtree. It's a reverse dictionary that, through a series of "branchings," takes you from an idea to a precise verb. An anthropologist named Henry Burger is the publisher. He says it's different from using a thesaurus, like Roget's, to find words with similar or opposite meanings. The Wordtree works on the slight differences between words. BURGER: "For example, the difference between, let's say, 'escort' and 'chaperone' is probably something like 'respectable,' because chaperoning adds the moral implication to escorting. So The Wordtree would show escort on the E pages, 'escort and respectablize equal chaperone' -- by the way, there really is a verb, I didn't make that up, 'respectablize' -- then on the R page it would say 'respectablize while escorting equals chaperone.' On the C page, it would say 'chaperone equals escort and respectablize.' So we differentiate by the nuances, the opposite of Roget -- that's a brilliant book, I'm certainly not criticizing it." AA: "Do you have any other examples of words with such nuancing?" BURGER: "Surely. Take one like 'to enlarge and develop equals to grow,' 'to grow and to complete equals to mature.' And we've done this with the entire English language, the verbs, which represent actions. We've done this with the 21-or-so-thousand English verbs, so if you're looking for a precise word, you think of any part of the idea, look it up alphabetically and it presents a menu to you right there." AA: Henry Burger is now at work on a second edition of The Wordtree, first published in 1984. He says it grew out of his work as an anthropologist, studying social engineering. He was trying to discover the factors that cause success or failure in sensitive situations, where opposing sides are bargaining and trying to convince the other side. BURGER: "The government of, let's say, Peru wanted to move villages out of this area and they succeeded by doing the following. And I had about five-thousand summary sheets, about five-thousand cases of success and failure, and I was looking for principles. One day, when I felt I was pretty near the end of my knowledge there, I started spreading them out on a bed and they ran onto a second bed, and then they were -- enough were there that I felt I should be able to divine something from them. "I looked at them and instantly it appeared to me that the successful method was a process, not a structure like corn or maize or a structure like some bureaucracy but the process let's say of persuading, the process of let's say moving, the process of razzle-dazzling. Whatever it was, the process name -- which in English is the transitive verb -- was the key to it, and once you do that, you overskip country names and food names and so on, you get a world of action." RS: "So how do you hope The Wordtree is used in ... " AA: "Who is using it already?" RS: "Who is using it?" BURGER: "A lot of large companies and government offices. We've had orders from Europe and so on. Probably the poor, downtrodden person who really needs it most cannot get to it, but at least his state library may well have it." AA: Henry Burger is an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri and publisher of The Wordtree, which, if you're wondering, is one-hundred-forty-nine dollars a copy. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 3, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: October 6, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- The Wordtree. It's a reverse dictionary that, through a series of "branchings," takes you from an idea to a precise verb. An anthropologist named Henry Burger is the publisher. He says it's different from using a thesaurus, like Roget's, to find words with similar or opposite meanings. The Wordtree works on the slight differences between words. BURGER: "For example, the difference between, let's say, 'escort' and 'chaperone' is probably something like 'respectable,' because chaperoning adds the moral implication to escorting. So The Wordtree would show escort on the E pages, 'escort and respectablize equal chaperone' -- by the way, there really is a verb, I didn't make that up, 'respectablize' -- then on the R page it would say 'respectablize while escorting equals chaperone.' On the C page, it would say 'chaperone equals escort and respectablize.' So we differentiate by the nuances, the opposite of Roget -- that's a brilliant book, I'm certainly not criticizing it." AA: "Do you have any other examples of words with such nuancing?" BURGER: "Surely. Take one like 'to enlarge and develop equals to grow,' 'to grow and to complete equals to mature.' And we've done this with the entire English language, the verbs, which represent actions. We've done this with the 21-or-so-thousand English verbs, so if you're looking for a precise word, you think of any part of the idea, look it up alphabetically and it presents a menu to you right there." AA: Henry Burger is now at work on a second edition of The Wordtree, first published in 1984. He says it grew out of his work as an anthropologist, studying social engineering. He was trying to discover the factors that cause success or failure in sensitive situations, where opposing sides are bargaining and trying to convince the other side. BURGER: "The government of, let's say, Peru wanted to move villages out of this area and they succeeded by doing the following. And I had about five-thousand summary sheets, about five-thousand cases of success and failure, and I was looking for principles. One day, when I felt I was pretty near the end of my knowledge there, I started spreading them out on a bed and they ran onto a second bed, and then they were -- enough were there that I felt I should be able to divine something from them. "I looked at them and instantly it appeared to me that the successful method was a process, not a structure like corn or maize or a structure like some bureaucracy but the process let's say of persuading, the process of let's say moving, the process of razzle-dazzling. Whatever it was, the process name -- which in English is the transitive verb -- was the key to it, and once you do that, you overskip country names and food names and so on, you get a world of action." RS: "So how do you hope The Wordtree is used in ... " AA: "Who is using it already?" RS: "Who is using it?" BURGER: "A lot of large companies and government offices. We've had orders from Europe and so on. Probably the poor, downtrodden person who really needs it most cannot get to it, but at least his state library may well have it." AA: Henry Burger is an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri and publisher of The Wordtree, which, if you're wondering, is one-hundred-forty-nine dollars a copy. And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 6, 2002: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English Program, People in America. Every week, we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Theme) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-five, just five years after his first novel appeared, F. Scott Fitzgerald published ""The Great Gatsby"." It was a major event in american writing. ""The Great Gatsby"" is a story about success -- American success -- and what one must do to gain it. It is a story about appearance and reality. It is a story about love, hate, loyalty, and disloyalty. This is how the story begins: VOICE TWO: "In my younger years, my father gave me some advice. The ability to do what is good and right is not given out equally at birth. The rich and powerful -- who should have it -- often do not. And those who were born knowing neither good nor right, sometimes know it best." VOICE ONE: Jay Gatsby, the main character in the book, learns this moral lesson. He dies at the end of the story. Yet his spirit survives, because of his great gift for hope. It was the kind of hope, Fitzgerald said, that he had never found in any person. yet it was hope that used Gatsby and finally, in the end,Y destroyed him. Gatsby is a self-made man. Almost everything about his life is invented, even his name. He was born Jimmy Gatz. As a child, Jimmy Gatz sets a daily program of self-improvement. These are the things he feels he must do every day to make himself a success. VOICE TWO: When Jimmy Gatz invents himself as Jay Gatsby, part of his dream of success is the love of a beautiful woman. He finds the woman to love -- as Fitzgerald did -- while training in the Army during World War One. The other part of his dream is to be very rich. That, too, was part of Fitzgerald's dream. In just three years, Gatsby gains more money than he thought possible. All he needs to do now is to claim the woman he loves. In those same three years, however, she has married someone else. The story of ""The Great Gatsby"" is told by a narrator, Nick Carraway. When Gatsby seeks to renew his earlier love, Carraway says, "I would not ask too much. You cannot repeat the past." Gatsby answers, "Cannot repeat the past? Why, of course you can!" VOICE ONE: For a brief time, Gatsby seems to succeed. He does not know that he can never succeed completely. The woman he loves, Daisy Buchanan, is part of the very rich world that Fitzgerald found so different. It is a group that does not share what it has with people like Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald wrote: VOICE TWO: "They were careless people. They smashed up things and creatures. Then they retreated back into their money, or their great carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together. They retreated and let other people clean up the messes they had made." VOICE ONE: The mess they make in ""The Great Gatsby"" is a tragic one. They hit a woman with a car, and kill her. Gatsby accepts the blame, so Daisy will not be charged. He, then, is killed by the dead woman's husband. Not even Gatsby's few friends come to his funeral. Of all the hundreds of people who came to his parties, no one will come when the party is over. After Gatsby's death, Nick Carraway, the storyteller, says: VOICE TWO: "I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first recognized the green light at the end of Daisy's boat dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn. His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to hold it. He did not know that it was already behind him ... "Gatsby believed in the future that, year by year, moves away from us ... "So we beat on -- boats against the current -- carried back endlessly into the past." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE ONE: ""The Great Gatsby"" was not the popular success F. Scott Fitzgerald expected. Yet other writers saw immediately how skillful he had become. His first books showed that he could write. "The Great Gatsby" proved that he had become an expert in the art of writing. The story is told by a third person. He is a part of the story, But he rejects the story he is telling. His answers are like those heard in an ancient Greek play. The chorus in the play tells us what to think about what we see. "The Great Gatsby" is a short novel whose writing shines like a jewel. The picture it paints of life in America at that time -- the parties, the automobiles, the endless fields of waste -- are unforgettable. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald wrote at great speed to make money. Yet no matter how fast he wrote, he could not stay out of debt. By the end of the nineteen-twenties, the Jazz Age had ended. Hard times were coming for the country and for the Fitzgeralds. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty, Zelda Fitzgerald became mentally sick. She lived most of the rest of her life in mental hospitals. Scott Fitzgerald also became sick from drinking too much alcohol. And he had developed the disease diabetes. In nineteen-thirty-one, the Fitzgeralds returned to the United States from Europe. Zelda entered a mental hospital in the state of Maryland. Scott lived nearby in the city of Baltimore. Zelda lived until nineteen-forty-seven. She died in a fire at another mental hospital. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-four, Fitzgerald wrote another novel, "Tender Is the Night." He thought it was his best. Many critics disagreed. They said Fitzgerald no longer recognized what was happening in the United States. They said he did not understand what was important to the country during the great economic depression. "Tender Is the Night" tells the story of a young American doctor and his marriage to a rich, beautiful patient. In the early part of his life, he believes in success through hard work. Slowly, however, his wife's great wealth ruins him. His energy is weakened, his work destroyed. His wife recovers her health while he becomes worse. In the end, she seems to have stolen his energy and intelligence. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-six, Fitzgerald wrote a book he called "The Crack-Up." It describes his own breakdown, and how he attempted to put himself and his life together. "It seemed a romantic business to be a successful writer," he said. "Of course ... you were never satisfied. But I, for one, would not have chosen any other work." At the age of thirty-nine, he realized that his life had cracked into pieces. It became a time for him to look at himself. He realized that he had not taken care of the people and things he loved. "I had not been a very good caretaker of most of the things left in my hands," he said, "even of my own skills." Out of the wreckage of his life and health, he tried to rebuild himself. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald had always written many stories. Some were very good. Others were not good. He wrote quickly for the money he always needed. After his crack-up, however, he discovered he was no longer welcome at the magazines that had paid him well. So, to earn a living, he moved to Hollywood and began writing for the motion picture industry. He had stopped drinking. He planned to start writing novels and short stories again. It was too late. His health was ruined. He died in Hollywood in nineteen-forty at the age of forty-four. There were few people who could believe that he had not died years before. VOICE ONE: Fitzgerald was working on a novel when he died. He called it, "The Last Tycoon." Fitzgerald's friend from Princeton University, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, helped to get it published. Wilson did the same thing for a book of Fitzgerald's notes and other pieces of writing. These books re-established Fitzgerald's fame as both an observer of his times and a skilled artist. That fame rests on just a few books and stories, but it seems secure. (Theme) VOICE TWO: Today's program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program, in Special English, on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English Program, People in America. Every week, we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, we complete the story of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Theme) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-twenty-five, just five years after his first novel appeared, F. Scott Fitzgerald published ""The Great Gatsby"." It was a major event in american writing. ""The Great Gatsby"" is a story about success -- American success -- and what one must do to gain it. It is a story about appearance and reality. It is a story about love, hate, loyalty, and disloyalty. This is how the story begins: VOICE TWO: "In my younger years, my father gave me some advice. The ability to do what is good and right is not given out equally at birth. The rich and powerful -- who should have it -- often do not. And those who were born knowing neither good nor right, sometimes know it best." VOICE ONE: Jay Gatsby, the main character in the book, learns this moral lesson. He dies at the end of the story. Yet his spirit survives, because of his great gift for hope. It was the kind of hope, Fitzgerald said, that he had never found in any person. yet it was hope that used Gatsby and finally, in the end,Y destroyed him. Gatsby is a self-made man. Almost everything about his life is invented, even his name. He was born Jimmy Gatz. As a child, Jimmy Gatz sets a daily program of self-improvement. These are the things he feels he must do every day to make himself a success. VOICE TWO: When Jimmy Gatz invents himself as Jay Gatsby, part of his dream of success is the love of a beautiful woman. He finds the woman to love -- as Fitzgerald did -- while training in the Army during World War One. The other part of his dream is to be very rich. That, too, was part of Fitzgerald's dream. In just three years, Gatsby gains more money than he thought possible. All he needs to do now is to claim the woman he loves. In those same three years, however, she has married someone else. The story of ""The Great Gatsby"" is told by a narrator, Nick Carraway. When Gatsby seeks to renew his earlier love, Carraway says, "I would not ask too much. You cannot repeat the past." Gatsby answers, "Cannot repeat the past? Why, of course you can!" VOICE ONE: For a brief time, Gatsby seems to succeed. He does not know that he can never succeed completely. The woman he loves, Daisy Buchanan, is part of the very rich world that Fitzgerald found so different. It is a group that does not share what it has with people like Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald wrote: VOICE TWO: "They were careless people. They smashed up things and creatures. Then they retreated back into their money, or their great carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together. They retreated and let other people clean up the messes they had made." VOICE ONE: The mess they make in ""The Great Gatsby"" is a tragic one. They hit a woman with a car, and kill her. Gatsby accepts the blame, so Daisy will not be charged. He, then, is killed by the dead woman's husband. Not even Gatsby's few friends come to his funeral. Of all the hundreds of people who came to his parties, no one will come when the party is over. After Gatsby's death, Nick Carraway, the storyteller, says: VOICE TWO: "I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first recognized the green light at the end of Daisy's boat dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn. His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to hold it. He did not know that it was already behind him ... "Gatsby believed in the future that, year by year, moves away from us ... "So we beat on -- boats against the current -- carried back endlessly into the past." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE ONE: ""The Great Gatsby"" was not the popular success F. Scott Fitzgerald expected. Yet other writers saw immediately how skillful he had become. His first books showed that he could write. "The Great Gatsby" proved that he had become an expert in the art of writing. The story is told by a third person. He is a part of the story, But he rejects the story he is telling. His answers are like those heard in an ancient Greek play. The chorus in the play tells us what to think about what we see. "The Great Gatsby" is a short novel whose writing shines like a jewel. The picture it paints of life in America at that time -- the parties, the automobiles, the endless fields of waste -- are unforgettable. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald wrote at great speed to make money. Yet no matter how fast he wrote, he could not stay out of debt. By the end of the nineteen-twenties, the Jazz Age had ended. Hard times were coming for the country and for the Fitzgeralds. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty, Zelda Fitzgerald became mentally sick. She lived most of the rest of her life in mental hospitals. Scott Fitzgerald also became sick from drinking too much alcohol. And he had developed the disease diabetes. In nineteen-thirty-one, the Fitzgeralds returned to the United States from Europe. Zelda entered a mental hospital in the state of Maryland. Scott lived nearby in the city of Baltimore. Zelda lived until nineteen-forty-seven. She died in a fire at another mental hospital. VOICE TWO: In nineteen thirty-four, Fitzgerald wrote another novel, "Tender Is the Night." He thought it was his best. Many critics disagreed. They said Fitzgerald no longer recognized what was happening in the United States. They said he did not understand what was important to the country during the great economic depression. "Tender Is the Night" tells the story of a young American doctor and his marriage to a rich, beautiful patient. In the early part of his life, he believes in success through hard work. Slowly, however, his wife's great wealth ruins him. His energy is weakened, his work destroyed. His wife recovers her health while he becomes worse. In the end, she seems to have stolen his energy and intelligence. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-thirty-six, Fitzgerald wrote a book he called "The Crack-Up." It describes his own breakdown, and how he attempted to put himself and his life together. "It seemed a romantic business to be a successful writer," he said. "Of course ... you were never satisfied. But I, for one, would not have chosen any other work." At the age of thirty-nine, he realized that his life had cracked into pieces. It became a time for him to look at himself. He realized that he had not taken care of the people and things he loved. "I had not been a very good caretaker of most of the things left in my hands," he said, "even of my own skills." Out of the wreckage of his life and health, he tried to rebuild himself. VOICE TWO: Fitzgerald had always written many stories. Some were very good. Others were not good. He wrote quickly for the money he always needed. After his crack-up, however, he discovered he was no longer welcome at the magazines that had paid him well. So, to earn a living, he moved to Hollywood and began writing for the motion picture industry. He had stopped drinking. He planned to start writing novels and short stories again. It was too late. His health was ruined. He died in Hollywood in nineteen-forty at the age of forty-four. There were few people who could believe that he had not died years before. VOICE ONE: Fitzgerald was working on a novel when he died. He called it, "The Last Tycoon." Fitzgerald's friend from Princeton University, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, helped to get it published. Wilson did the same thing for a book of Fitzgerald's notes and other pieces of writing. These books re-established Fitzgerald's fame as both an observer of his times and a skilled artist. That fame rests on just a few books and stories, but it seems secure. (Theme) VOICE TWO: Today's program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 7, 2002: Unusual Museums
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The United States has thousands of museums. Some museums show large collections of art. Some show objects about science or history. Other museums show collections of unusual things. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: The United States has thousands of museums. Some museums show large collections of art. Some show objects about science or history. Other museums show collections of unusual things. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We visit some unusual museums on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We visit some unusual museums on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Some museums in the United States have huge collections of interesting things. The museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., are a good example. But the United States also has some very different museums. Smaller places throughout the country collect and show one kind of object. For example, some museums exhibit only medical instruments or different kinds of soap. Or, they present information about just one subject. Many Americans visit these unusual museums every year. VOICE TWO: One such place is the Drug Enforcement Administration museum. It is in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D-C. Its subject is a history of illegal drugs in America. People of all ages visit the museum. But it is especially popular with school groups. The museum's exhibits begin with the nineteenth century Opium Wars. And, they continue to the illegal drug operations in South America today. One area of the museum shows a collection of objects used by people who take illegal drugs. Visitors also can see a gun with diamonds on it. It belonged to a drug criminal. There are pictures of famous people who used illegal drugs. These include musicians Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Both died after taking too much of the drug heroin. Some museums in the United States have huge collections of interesting things. The museums of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., are a good example. But the United States also has some very different museums. Smaller places throughout the country collect and show one kind of object. For example, some museums exhibit only medical instruments or different kinds of soap. Or, they present information about just one subject. Many Americans visit these unusual museums every year. VOICE TWO: One such place is the Drug Enforcement Administration museum. It is in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D-C. Its subject is a history of illegal drugs in America. People of all ages visit the museum. But it is especially popular with school groups. The museum's exhibits begin with the nineteenth century Opium Wars. And, they continue to the illegal drug operations in South America today. One area of the museum shows a collection of objects used by people who take illegal drugs. Visitors also can see a gun with diamonds on it. It belonged to a drug criminal. There are pictures of famous people who used illegal drugs. These include musicians Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Both died after taking too much of the drug heroin. Retired Drug Enforcement Administration agents often show visitors around the museum. They talk about anti-drug operations. They tell exciting stories of arrests they made. VOICE ONE: A very different but equally interesting place is the Museum of Bad Art. It is in Dedham, Massachusetts, near Boston. The museum has more than two-hundred terrible-looking paintings. Scott Wilson started this museum. He found the first painting for the museum among unwanted objects on a Boston street. This place may be the only art museum in America where officials are pleased when visitors say the paintings are ugly. What exactly is bad art? It is hard to describe. But Mister Wilson said he knows bad art when he sees it. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Several interesting American museums tell about health subjects. One is the Doctor Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry. It is at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. That is where the first college in the world to train dentists began. The museum tells about the history of the medical treatment of teeth. Visitors can see some frightening devices that once were used to remove infected teeth. They also can see sets of teeth made of animal bone. They were made for a famous American -- the first President, George Washington. Most people do not consider a visit to the dentist their idea of a good time. However, the director of the museum says he wanted to make the museum a fun place to visit. He says he also wants to teach visitors about the importance of taking care of their teeth. Retired Drug Enforcement Administration agents often show visitors around the museum. They talk about anti-drug operations. They tell exciting stories of arrests they made. VOICE ONE: A very different but equally interesting place is the Museum of Bad Art. It is in Dedham, Massachusetts, near Boston. The museum has more than two-hundred terrible-looking paintings. Scott Wilson started this museum. He found the first painting for the museum among unwanted objects on a Boston street. This place may be the only art museum in America where officials are pleased when visitors say the paintings are ugly. What exactly is bad art? It is hard to describe. But Mister Wilson said he knows bad art when he sees it. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Several interesting American museums tell about health subjects. One is the Doctor Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry. It is at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. That is where the first college in the world to train dentists began. The museum tells about the history of the medical treatment of teeth. Visitors can see some frightening devices that once were used to remove infected teeth. They also can see sets of teeth made of animal bone. They were made for a famous American -- the first President, George Washington. Most people do not consider a visit to the dentist their idea of a good time. However, the director of the museum says he wanted to make the museum a fun place to visit. He says he also wants to teach visitors about the importance of taking care of their teeth. VOICE ONE: Another museum collects devices that help people hear. The Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum is at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The museum has more than three-thousand hearing aids from around the world. They include old and strange devices. Some hearing aids were made to look like other objects. That is because in the past many people did not want anyone to know they were wearing a hearing aid. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Some popular foods in America also have museums. One is the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, New York. Jell-O is the name of a popular American food that shakes when you move it. You mix the Jell-O powder with hot water to melt the particles. You add cold water. Then you put the container in a cold place until the liquid becomes solid. Jell-O tastes like different kinds of fruits. It also is the color of fruit -- red, orange, yellow or green. Jell-O was invented in eighteen-ninety-seven. The museum tells about the history of the product. VOICE ONE: Another unusual museum also tells about a popular food product -- mustard. Mustard is a spicy substance made from mustard seeds. People have added it to their food for centuries. The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum is in Wisconsin. It has more than three-thousand different kinds of mustard. There are mustards from almost every American state and from several foreign countries. The museum shows how mustard is made. Visitors can taste three-hundred kinds of mustard. VOICE ONE: Another museum collects devices that help people hear. The Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum is at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The museum has more than three-thousand hearing aids from around the world. They include old and strange devices. Some hearing aids were made to look like other objects. That is because in the past many people did not want anyone to know they were wearing a hearing aid. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Some popular foods in America also have museums. One is the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, New York. Jell-O is the name of a popular American food that shakes when you move it. You mix the Jell-O powder with hot water to melt the particles. You add cold water. Then you put the container in a cold place until the liquid becomes solid. Jell-O tastes like different kinds of fruits. It also is the color of fruit -- red, orange, yellow or green. Jell-O was invented in eighteen-ninety-seven. The museum tells about the history of the product. VOICE ONE: Another unusual museum also tells about a popular food product -- mustard. Mustard is a spicy substance made from mustard seeds. People have added it to their food for centuries. The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum is in Wisconsin. It has more than three-thousand different kinds of mustard. There are mustards from almost every American state and from several foreign countries. The museum shows how mustard is made. Visitors can taste three-hundred kinds of mustard. VOICE TWO: An unusual museum in Boston, Massachusetts, collects a very common substance. But it is not a substance that you would want to eat. You would not want to have this substance inside your house, either. It is the Museum of Dirt. This museum has more than three-hundred small containers of dirt given by people from around the world. There is dirt from famous people and famous places. For example, there is dirt from Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. There is red sand from Nome, Alaska, containing gold. There is dirt from Mount Fuji in Japan. And there is dirt from the Yankee’s baseball stadium in New York City. The head of the museum says the dirt tells stories about the famous people and places where it was found. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Speaking of famous people, a museum in Victorville, California, tells about the King of the Cowboys and his wife -- Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. They were famous in cowboy movies and on television during the nineteen-forties and nineteen-fifties. They helped keep the spirit of the American West alive. Memories of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans crowd the museum. There are western hats and clothing. Letters and records. Photographs. Popular Roy Rogers toys. Even Roy’s horse, Trigger, is stuffed and mounted in the museum. It is one of the most popular things in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum. VOICE TWO: Another museum celebrates the memory of two of the most popular television entertainers, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Lucy-Desi Museum is in Jamestown, New York. That was Lucy's hometown. Lucy and Desi appeared in one of America’s best-loved television programs, "I Love Lucy." Millions of people watched the program during the nineteen-ffties. Even today, millions of people watch repeated broadcasts of these programs. The museum includes clothing and other objects of the famous couple. VOICE ONE: One museum has the world's largest collection of things linked to actor James Dean. The James Dean Gallery is in Fairmount, Indiana. That is the town where Dean grew up. James Dean was a film star in the Nineteen-Fifties. He appeared in only three movies: "East of Eden", "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Each time he played a young man angry at the world. Many Americans remember James Dean as a young man rebelling against society. David Loehr started the James Dean museum twelve years ago to honor the actor. James Dean was killed in a car crash in nineteen-fifty-five. He was only twenty-four years old. VOICE TWO: Another unusual museum is the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center. It is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It honors actors who paint their faces and perform in the circus. Clowns also make people laugh at other public events. Many clowns entertain sick children in hospitals. The museum shows pictures and objects from the lives of a number of famous clowns. Perhaps the most famous clown remembered there is Emmett Kelly. He performed for the Ringling Brothers circus. Emmett Kelly was a clown for more than sixty years. He began in nineteen-seventeen. And he was still making people laugh with his clown performance until he died at age eighty. VOICE ONE: If you visit one of these small and unusual museums you will not find huge crowds. But you will find people who think these collections represent memories worth sharing. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: An unusual museum in Boston, Massachusetts, collects a very common substance. But it is not a substance that you would want to eat. You would not want to have this substance inside your house, either. It is the Museum of Dirt. This museum has more than three-hundred small containers of dirt given by people from around the world. There is dirt from famous people and famous places. For example, there is dirt from Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. There is red sand from Nome, Alaska, containing gold. There is dirt from Mount Fuji in Japan. And there is dirt from the Yankee’s baseball stadium in New York City. The head of the museum says the dirt tells stories about the famous people and places where it was found. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Speaking of famous people, a museum in Victorville, California, tells about the King of the Cowboys and his wife -- Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. They were famous in cowboy movies and on television during the nineteen-forties and nineteen-fifties. They helped keep the spirit of the American West alive. Memories of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans crowd the museum. There are western hats and clothing. Letters and records. Photographs. Popular Roy Rogers toys. Even Roy’s horse, Trigger, is stuffed and mounted in the museum. It is one of the most popular things in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum. VOICE TWO: Another museum celebrates the memory of two of the most popular television entertainers, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Lucy-Desi Museum is in Jamestown, New York. That was Lucy's hometown. Lucy and Desi appeared in one of America’s best-loved television programs, "I Love Lucy." Millions of people watched the program during the nineteen-ffties. Even today, millions of people watch repeated broadcasts of these programs. The museum includes clothing and other objects of the famous couple. VOICE ONE: One museum has the world's largest collection of things linked to actor James Dean. The James Dean Gallery is in Fairmount, Indiana. That is the town where Dean grew up. James Dean was a film star in the Nineteen-Fifties. He appeared in only three movies: "East of Eden", "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Each time he played a young man angry at the world. Many Americans remember James Dean as a young man rebelling against society. David Loehr started the James Dean museum twelve years ago to honor the actor. James Dean was killed in a car crash in nineteen-fifty-five. He was only twenty-four years old. VOICE TWO: Another unusual museum is the International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center. It is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It honors actors who paint their faces and perform in the circus. Clowns also make people laugh at other public events. Many clowns entertain sick children in hospitals. The museum shows pictures and objects from the lives of a number of famous clowns. Perhaps the most famous clown remembered there is Emmett Kelly. He performed for the Ringling Brothers circus. Emmett Kelly was a clown for more than sixty years. He began in nineteen-seventeen. And he was still making people laugh with his clown performance until he died at age eighty. VOICE ONE: If you visit one of these small and unusual museums you will not find huge crowds. But you will find people who think these collections represent memories worth sharing. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 7, 2002: AIDS Increasing in Five Countries
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT. A new American report warns that rates of infection from the AIDS virus will rise sharply by the year two-thousand-ten. The National Intelligence Council prepared the report for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It says the increase will result mainly from the spread of AIDS in five countries. They are China, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Russia. The report estimates that the number of people infected in those countries could increase to between fifty-million and seventy-five-million. That is three times the number currently estimated. It also is far more than the number of AIDS cases expected in central and southern Africa. That number is expected to increase to as many as thirty-five-million people. China, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Russia have more than forty percent of the world’s population. Officials warn that the increase of AIDS could harm the economic, social, political and military systems in these countries. The report estimates that India might have as many as twenty-five-million AIDS victims by two-thousand-ten. That is the highest estimate of any country. The report says the AIDS virus is spreading at different rates in the five countries. It says that risky sexual activity is increasing infection rates in all five. The problem is reported to be most severe in Nigeria and Ethiopia. For example, the report notes that in Nigeria the virus has spread from high-risk groups to the general population. Nigeria’s government has attempted to increase public understanding of the virus that causes AIDS. The report warns that the disease could affect one-fourth of all adults in the country within eight years. In Ethiopia, the release of soldiers from the armed forces has greatly influenced the spread of the disease. The report says many Ethiopian soldiers and sex workers became infected during the civil war in the nineteen-eighties. It says Ethiopia and Nigeria have few public health services to fight the disease. The report says that the main cause of rising AIDS infections in Russia is illegal drug use. It says the release of large numbers of infected prisoners and rising numbers of sex workers are helping the disease to spread. In China, one reason the disease is increasing is because of unsafe methods in the collection and sale of blood. This VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 5, 2002: US West Coast Ports Shut Down
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. A labor dispute in the United States closed twenty-nine ports along the West Coast at the beginning of this week. The ports are extremely important to the economy. About three-hundred-thousand-million dollars worth of goods pass through them every year. Half of all American imports and exports pass through the West Coast ports. Financial experts say the closings cost the United States economy as much as one-thousand-million dollars a day. The Pacific Maritime Association ordered the closings. It represents West Coast shipping companies and port operators. It says port workers had been purposely and illegally slowing operations. The port owners say they would not continue to pay the workers if they were not going to work at full production levels. The men and women who work at the ports are called longshoremen or dockworkers. Some of the workers load and unload ships. Others carry out administrative duties. The workers belong to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, a powerful labor group. The shutdown of the ports forced more than ten-thousand dockworkers to stop working. The union denies that its members had purposely slowed their work. It says that workers were simply following safety rules and other work terms more closely than in the past. Union officials say they ordered the workers to do so after the deaths of five longshoremen this year. The longshoremen’s union and the port operators have been trying to negotiate a new labor agreement since May. The last work agreement ended in July. Both sides say there is one major disagreement blocking the agreement. It is a dispute over the possible use of new technology that would speed the movement of goods. The port operators say the technology is needed for their businesses to compete fairly. But, the union says the technology threatens the jobs of its workers. The closings of the ports caused more than one-hundred huge ships to wait near the West Coast of the United States. Most of the ships are too large to travel on the Panama Canal to get to East Coast ports. The ships are filled with millions of containers of goods from Asia. These include cars, electronics, sports goods, clothes and food for American stores. The ships also carry parts needed for building automobiles, computers, machinery and many other products. Some companies are considering shipping some goods by air. However, that costs about four times more than transport by sea. On Thursday, a federal labor official began meeting with representatives of the Pacific Maritime Association and the Longshore and Warehouse Union. They are trying to settle the dispute. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 8, 2002: Asthma
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about the disease asthma. It affects as many as one-hundred-fifty-million people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Asthma is a serious lung disease that causes breathing problems. These problems, called asthma attacks, can kill. Asthma can affect people of all age groups but often begins in childhood. It can be controlled but not cured. Sufferers must deal with the disease every day. Stavros Kontzias (cun-ZEE-ahs) is a six-year-old boy living near Washington, D-C. He developed asthma when he was about two years old. His parents, Susie and Zack, say the breathing problems would appear whenever Stavros got sick with a cold or lung infection. His father remembers those experiences as very frightening. He says Stavros coughed a lot. The boy struggled to breathe. His breathing became very loud and had a strange sound. That kind of breathing is called wheezing. Mister Kontzias says his son never turned blue from a lack of oxygen. But, he says it was apparent that little air was getting into Stavros’s lungs. VOICE TWO: The Kontziases made several emergency visits to the hospital with Stavros during these sicknesses. Once there, doctors gave Stavros drugs called steroids. Mister Kontzias says the steroids worked very fast to open his son’s air passages. But, he says he began to worry about long-term effects of high amounts of steroids as the trips to the hospital increased. So, his parents took Stavros to a pulmonary pediatric specialist. That is a doctor who is an expert in diseases that affect children’s lungs. The doctor listened to the boy’s lungs. He also used measuring devices to test the child’s airflow limitations. The combination of the test results and Stavros’s medical history showed he had asthma. VOICE ONE: Today, Stavros takes four medicines a day to control his asthma. His trips to the hospital emergency room now are rare events. His parents say they hope that Stavros will stop suffering from the disease as he gets older. The Kontziases take steps other than medicine to control their son’s asthma. They help Stavros avoid activities that can lead to an asthma attack. For example, the boy stopped playing the sport of soccer. The continuous running required to play the sport severely decreased his breathing ability. So Stavros now plays baseball instead. It gives him more time to rest and requires much less running. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say exercise is one of the things that can start an asthma attacks. Things that lead to asthma attacks are called triggers. Although doctors do not know the cause of asthma, they have identified most of its triggers. For example, the common cold can cause an asthma attack in a person who has the disease. There are also several air pollutants that can lead to an asthma attack. Pollen is one such pollutant. Pollen is a fine dust that comes from plants that produce seeds. However, almost any kind of dust can cause an asthma attack if enough of it is in the air. This includes common dust found in houses. Air pollution from burning fuel also can cause an asthma attack. Tobacco smoke can do the same. Some kinds of animal fur are a trigger for asthma. And, even some insects in the home can lead to asthma attacks. VOICE ONE: Several things happen in the lungs when an asthma sufferer has an attack. Cells in the air passages begin to produce too much of a thick, sticky substance called mucous. The mucous creates blocked areas in the air passages. The tissue that lines the air passages begins to expand at the same time. And, the muscles in the passages tighten. All these changes cause the air passages to narrow. This reduces the amount of air that can flow in and out of the lungs. The sufferer can not get a good, deep, breath of air. The narrowed airways also cause coughing and a tight feeling in the chest. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Health experts say asthma cases are increasing around the world. The World Health Organization says asthma rates worldwide are increasing on average by fifty percent every ten years. The W-H-O says asthma cases in western Europe have increased by two times in ten years. The W-H-O says the number of asthma sufferers has increased in the United States by about sixty percent in the past twenty years. American experts give an even higher number. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says the rise was seventy-five percent in about the same time period. It also says an estimated seventeen-million Americans have the disease. The number of deaths from asthma also has risen in the United States. The W-H-O says about five-thousand Americans die from asthma attacks each year. In the early nineteen-eighties, the yearly death rate from asthma in the United States was about half that. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says asthma is not just a problem in industrial countries. It says the disease affects people in developing nations as well. However, the incidence of the disease differs greatly from area to area. The W-H-O says as many as twenty-million people suffer from the disease in India. It says an estimated fifteen percent of Indian children suffer from the disease. The W-H-O says almost twenty percent of children in Kenya show signs of asthma. Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Uruguay also have a high rate of childhood asthma. The W-H-O says as many as thirty percent of children in those countries show signs of asthma. VOICE TWO: Asthma kills about one-hundred-eighty-thousand people a year. The W-H-O says it also has huge economic costs. The costs linked to asthma are believed to be higher than those of tuberculosis and AIDS combined. The W-H-O says the United States spends six-thousand-million dollars a year on health care and other economic costs of the disease. It says Britain spends almost a third of that on health care for asthma and lost productivity of workers.The World Health Organization says greater international action is needed to deal with asthma. It says asthma sufferers, healthcare providers and the general public must learn more about the disease and the problems linked to it. The W-H-O says a worldwide system should be put into effect to observe and record asthma rates around the world. And, it says more research is needed to find the cause of asthma and develop new ways to treat it. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Medical experts have suspected for some time that there was a genetic link to asthma. A child has a greater chance of developing asthma if his or her parent is asthmatic. Recently, however, British and American scientists said they may have found a gene involved in the disease. Three groups of researchers took part in the study. One group works for Genome Therapeutics, a drug company in Waltham, Massachusetts. The other scientists are from the drug company Schering-Plough and the University of Southampton in Britain. VOICE TWO: The gene is called ADAM-thirty-three. The scientists identified it through genetic testing of more than four-hundred families in the United States and Britain whose members have the disease. The researchers say the gene alone does not cause asthma. But, they say its presence appears to increase a person’s chances of developing the disease. They say the gene may be involved in the main condition of asthma — the narrowing of airway passages. However, the researchers say it is too early to say what percentage of asthma sufferers may have an abnormal gene. Scientists say the finding could lead to new research about the causes of asthma and new drugs to treat the disease. It could also lead to methods to identify people most at risk for asthma and early treatment to help prevent the development of the disease. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by George Grow with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we tell about the disease asthma. It affects as many as one-hundred-fifty-million people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Asthma is a serious lung disease that causes breathing problems. These problems, called asthma attacks, can kill. Asthma can affect people of all age groups but often begins in childhood. It can be controlled but not cured. Sufferers must deal with the disease every day. Stavros Kontzias (cun-ZEE-ahs) is a six-year-old boy living near Washington, D-C. He developed asthma when he was about two years old. His parents, Susie and Zack, say the breathing problems would appear whenever Stavros got sick with a cold or lung infection. His father remembers those experiences as very frightening. He says Stavros coughed a lot. The boy struggled to breathe. His breathing became very loud and had a strange sound. That kind of breathing is called wheezing. Mister Kontzias says his son never turned blue from a lack of oxygen. But, he says it was apparent that little air was getting into Stavros’s lungs. VOICE TWO: The Kontziases made several emergency visits to the hospital with Stavros during these sicknesses. Once there, doctors gave Stavros drugs called steroids. Mister Kontzias says the steroids worked very fast to open his son’s air passages. But, he says he began to worry about long-term effects of high amounts of steroids as the trips to the hospital increased. So, his parents took Stavros to a pulmonary pediatric specialist. That is a doctor who is an expert in diseases that affect children’s lungs. The doctor listened to the boy’s lungs. He also used measuring devices to test the child’s airflow limitations. The combination of the test results and Stavros’s medical history showed he had asthma. VOICE ONE: Today, Stavros takes four medicines a day to control his asthma. His trips to the hospital emergency room now are rare events. His parents say they hope that Stavros will stop suffering from the disease as he gets older. The Kontziases take steps other than medicine to control their son’s asthma. They help Stavros avoid activities that can lead to an asthma attack. For example, the boy stopped playing the sport of soccer. The continuous running required to play the sport severely decreased his breathing ability. So Stavros now plays baseball instead. It gives him more time to rest and requires much less running. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say exercise is one of the things that can start an asthma attacks. Things that lead to asthma attacks are called triggers. Although doctors do not know the cause of asthma, they have identified most of its triggers. For example, the common cold can cause an asthma attack in a person who has the disease. There are also several air pollutants that can lead to an asthma attack. Pollen is one such pollutant. Pollen is a fine dust that comes from plants that produce seeds. However, almost any kind of dust can cause an asthma attack if enough of it is in the air. This includes common dust found in houses. Air pollution from burning fuel also can cause an asthma attack. Tobacco smoke can do the same. Some kinds of animal fur are a trigger for asthma. And, even some insects in the home can lead to asthma attacks. VOICE ONE: Several things happen in the lungs when an asthma sufferer has an attack. Cells in the air passages begin to produce too much of a thick, sticky substance called mucous. The mucous creates blocked areas in the air passages. The tissue that lines the air passages begins to expand at the same time. And, the muscles in the passages tighten. All these changes cause the air passages to narrow. This reduces the amount of air that can flow in and out of the lungs. The sufferer can not get a good, deep, breath of air. The narrowed airways also cause coughing and a tight feeling in the chest. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Health experts say asthma cases are increasing around the world. The World Health Organization says asthma rates worldwide are increasing on average by fifty percent every ten years. The W-H-O says asthma cases in western Europe have increased by two times in ten years. The W-H-O says the number of asthma sufferers has increased in the United States by about sixty percent in the past twenty years. American experts give an even higher number. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology says the rise was seventy-five percent in about the same time period. It also says an estimated seventeen-million Americans have the disease. The number of deaths from asthma also has risen in the United States. The W-H-O says about five-thousand Americans die from asthma attacks each year. In the early nineteen-eighties, the yearly death rate from asthma in the United States was about half that. VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says asthma is not just a problem in industrial countries. It says the disease affects people in developing nations as well. However, the incidence of the disease differs greatly from area to area. The W-H-O says as many as twenty-million people suffer from the disease in India. It says an estimated fifteen percent of Indian children suffer from the disease. The W-H-O says almost twenty percent of children in Kenya show signs of asthma. Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru and Uruguay also have a high rate of childhood asthma. The W-H-O says as many as thirty percent of children in those countries show signs of asthma. VOICE TWO: Asthma kills about one-hundred-eighty-thousand people a year. The W-H-O says it also has huge economic costs. The costs linked to asthma are believed to be higher than those of tuberculosis and AIDS combined. The W-H-O says the United States spends six-thousand-million dollars a year on health care and other economic costs of the disease. It says Britain spends almost a third of that on health care for asthma and lost productivity of workers.The World Health Organization says greater international action is needed to deal with asthma. It says asthma sufferers, healthcare providers and the general public must learn more about the disease and the problems linked to it. The W-H-O says a worldwide system should be put into effect to observe and record asthma rates around the world. And, it says more research is needed to find the cause of asthma and develop new ways to treat it. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Medical experts have suspected for some time that there was a genetic link to asthma. A child has a greater chance of developing asthma if his or her parent is asthmatic. Recently, however, British and American scientists said they may have found a gene involved in the disease. Three groups of researchers took part in the study. One group works for Genome Therapeutics, a drug company in Waltham, Massachusetts. The other scientists are from the drug company Schering-Plough and the University of Southampton in Britain. VOICE TWO: The gene is called ADAM-thirty-three. The scientists identified it through genetic testing of more than four-hundred families in the United States and Britain whose members have the disease. The researchers say the gene alone does not cause asthma. But, they say its presence appears to increase a person’s chances of developing the disease. They say the gene may be involved in the main condition of asthma — the narrowing of airway passages. However, the researchers say it is too early to say what percentage of asthma sufferers may have an abnormal gene. Scientists say the finding could lead to new research about the causes of asthma and new drugs to treat the disease. It could also lead to methods to identify people most at risk for asthma and early treatment to help prevent the development of the disease. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by George Grow with audio assistance from Dwayne Collins. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 8, 2002: Raising Chickens
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Raising chickens or other birds for the eggs and meat they produce is a popular family and business activity almost everywhere in the world. The birds eat grain, seeds and grasses. They also eat small pieces of food that people throw away. Many of these materials would be wasted if the birds did not eat them. Chicken eggs and meat contain high quality protein and other substances important in the human diet. For many centuries, chickens were allowed to run free to find food by themselves. Then people used fences to keep small groups of birds known as flocks from running away. After the chickens were kept inside a fence, people had to provide food for them. Early in the last century, raising flocks of thousands of birds became a successful business for many people. But the size of these flocks caused some serious problems, including pollution caused by chicken waste. Disease is one of the biggest problems in large flocks. The birds are kept close together all the time. So if one bird becomes sick, the sickness spreads. All the chickens in a flock can die from a serious disease. Diseases that affect chickens are different in different areas of the world. So medicines that have been successful in treating chickens in local areas should be used People who raise chickens should try to prevent disease. Experts advise these steps: Feed the birds a balanced diet. This will help them resist infections. Do not add adult birds to your flocks. If you must add adult birds, keep them separate from the flock for five to fifteen days to make sure they are healthy. Cover the floor of the buildings where the chickens are kept with material like straw, rice husks or sawdust. Change this material often. After you sell the chickens, completely empty the building where they were kept. Clean and wash the building. Then leave it empty for four weeks before putting in new chickens. Diseases affecting birds are not simple to understand and treat, so expert medical advice is important. You can get more information about caring for chickens and other birds from the organization Volunteers in Technical Assistance. Computer users can reach VITA through the Internet at w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Raising chickens or other birds for the eggs and meat they produce is a popular family and business activity almost everywhere in the world. The birds eat grain, seeds and grasses. They also eat small pieces of food that people throw away. Many of these materials would be wasted if the birds did not eat them. Chicken eggs and meat contain high quality protein and other substances important in the human diet. For many centuries, chickens were allowed to run free to find food by themselves. Then people used fences to keep small groups of birds known as flocks from running away. After the chickens were kept inside a fence, people had to provide food for them. Early in the last century, raising flocks of thousands of birds became a successful business for many people. But the size of these flocks caused some serious problems, including pollution caused by chicken waste. Disease is one of the biggest problems in large flocks. The birds are kept close together all the time. So if one bird becomes sick, the sickness spreads. All the chickens in a flock can die from a serious disease. Diseases that affect chickens are different in different areas of the world. So medicines that have been successful in treating chickens in local areas should be used People who raise chickens should try to prevent disease. Experts advise these steps: Feed the birds a balanced diet. This will help them resist infections. Do not add adult birds to your flocks. If you must add adult birds, keep them separate from the flock for five to fifteen days to make sure they are healthy. Cover the floor of the buildings where the chickens are kept with material like straw, rice husks or sawdust. Change this material often. After you sell the chickens, completely empty the building where they were kept. Clean and wash the building. Then leave it empty for four weeks before putting in new chickens. Diseases affecting birds are not simple to understand and treat, so expert medical advice is important. You can get more information about caring for chickens and other birds from the organization Volunteers in Technical Assistance. Computer users can reach VITA through the Internet at w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. www.vita.org. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 9, 2002: George Catlin, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our program about American artist George Catlin and his paintings of Native Americans. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how George Catlin had begun his working life as a lawyer. However, he was not happy with this work. He gave up the law and began painting, first in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later in New York City. He became a successful painter. He painted large and small paintings of people. But he still felt that he needed to paint something that was important. George Catlin decided to paint Native Americans after he saw a delegation of Indians on their way to Washington, D-C. By the year eighteen-thirty, he had traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri. From there he traveled north into lands that few white Americans had ever seen. It was here that he met the first of the many American Indians he would paint. VOICE TWO: George Catlin left many letters telling about his travels. He wrote that he often traveled alone, with only his horse, “Charlie.” He carried his painting supplies and enough food for a few days. He also carried a rifle for hunting. Between eighteen-thirty and eighteen thirty-six, Mister Catlin made five trips into areas of the West that were considered unexplored Indian country. He traveled many thousands of kilometers and visited fifty different tribes. VOICE ONE: George Catlin painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of unusual land that no white person had ever seen before. He painted Native American men, women, and children. He painted their clothes, weapons and villages. He painted the people taking part in religious ceremonies, dances and the hunting of buffalo. He often painted three pictures in one day. George Catlin tried to capture in paint the Native American people and their culture. For example, he painted many pictures of Indians playing a ball game. The game is played with a stick that has a small net at one end. The net is used to control the ball. This Native American game is still played in the United States and other countries today. It is called by the name the French gave it – “lacrosse.” George Catlin also kept exact records of the people, places and events. Most of his paintings include the names of the people and when they were painted. VOICE TWO: George Catlin began to have deep feelings about the people that he painted. He learned a great deal about them. He learned that they were honest. They were intelligent. They represented different cultures that had great value. George Catlin believed that many of the men he painted were great leaders in their own culture and would have been great leaders in any culture. He believed the Native American Indians were people of great worth. He also understood that the Indians could not block or stop the westward movement of white people in America. He believed that the American Indian would quickly disappear. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: George Catlin put together a collection of his many paintings. He called the display George Catlin’s Indian Gallery. He began showing the paintings in many cities in the United States. He also gave long speeches about the Indians he lived with. He told those who came to his talks that he had never felt afraid while living in Native American villages. He said no one ever threatened him or stole anything from him. He tried to make people understand what a great people Native Americans were. He said huge areas of the country should be left for Native Americans to enjoy life as they always had. VOICE TWO: Many people criticized George Catlin. Some said the people in his pictures did not really look as intelligent and brave as he had painted them. They said the religious ceremonies he painted were false and that Indians did not really have ball games. Some critics said George Catlin had invented these people. The critics made George Catlin angry. He began to seek white Americans who had traveled in Indian country. He asked army officers, fur traders and others to sign documents that said the people and events he painted were real. The critics stopped saying his paintings were a lie. VOICE ONE: George Catlin took his collection of paintings to Europe. He also took many objects made by American Indians. The George Catlin Indian Gallery was popular in London, England and in Paris, France. French art experts praised his paintings. His paintings and speeches were popular. Many people paid money to visit his Indian Gallery, but he did not earn enough money. He soon had financial problems. Mister Catlin returned to the United States. There were about five-hundred paintings in his Indian Gallery. He offered to sell them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D-C. Several people worked to have the United States government buy the paintings for the Smithsonian. However, Congress never approved a measure needed for the sale. VOICE TWO: George Catlin found a buyer for his Indian Gallery. It was Joseph Harrison, a businessman in Philadelphia. Mister Harrison bought the paintings but did nothing with them. For many years they were left in a room in his factory. Mister Catlin was able to pay most of his debts from the money he earned by selling his paintings. He began painting again. His new paintings were displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s famous building called the castle. For the last year of his life, he worked in a room in that building provided by the museum. George Catlin died in eighteen-seventy-two. His famous Indian Gallery paintings were still in a room in Mister Harrison’s factory. A fire at the factory almost destroyed them. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-nine, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was Spencer Baird. Mister Baird knew the historic value of George Catlin’s paintings. The owner of the paintings, Joseph Harrison, had died. So Mister Baird began to negotiate with Joseph Harrison’s wife, Sarah. He asked her to give the collection to the Smithsonian. Missus Harrison agreed. She gave George Catlin’s famous Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian. The gift also included many Indian objects that Catlin had collected. These included maps books, letters and other papers that told George Catlin’s story. Sarah Harrison’s gift was one of the most important ever received by the Smithsonian. For more than one-hundred-twenty-five years, the public has been able to see George Catlin’s paintings. Art critics, art students and western history experts have studied and examined them. VOICE TWO: Today, George Catlin’s Indian Gallery is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The paintings have been carefully cleaned for this event. They look new and fresh, as if they were painted recently. Many of the objects that appear in his paintings are also on display: An Indian chief’s war shirt. A child’s bed. Bows and arrows. Shoes. Art experts have praised and criticized George Catlin’s work. Some say he was not a good artist and could not paint the human body well. Others say this is because he painted very quickly. Most critics say his paintings of people’s faces are beautiful. They seem alive and real. VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian will hold many special events at the Renwick Gallery that deal with Native Americans, George Catlin and art. These include demonstrations of traditional Native American dances, decorating clothing, music and songs. Experts will discuss the meaning and design of the decorations on Indian clothing. In two-thousand-four, many of the Catlin paintings will travel to Kansas City, Missouri; then to Los Angeles, California, and then to Houston, Texas. You can see many of George Catlin’s paintings on the Internet by using a search engine. Type the name George Catlin, C-A-T-L-I-N or the Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. VOICE TWO: George Catlin was afraid the American Indian would disappear from the Earth. That was one of the reasons he painted so many different tribes and different people. He wanted a record to leave for history. George Catlin was wrong. The American Indian did not disappear. But his paintings provide a close look at the people, places and events from a time that is now long gone. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our program about American artist George Catlin and his paintings of Native Americans. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last week, we told how George Catlin had begun his working life as a lawyer. However, he was not happy with this work. He gave up the law and began painting, first in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and later in New York City. He became a successful painter. He painted large and small paintings of people. But he still felt that he needed to paint something that was important. George Catlin decided to paint Native Americans after he saw a delegation of Indians on their way to Washington, D-C. By the year eighteen-thirty, he had traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri. From there he traveled north into lands that few white Americans had ever seen. It was here that he met the first of the many American Indians he would paint. VOICE TWO: George Catlin left many letters telling about his travels. He wrote that he often traveled alone, with only his horse, “Charlie.” He carried his painting supplies and enough food for a few days. He also carried a rifle for hunting. Between eighteen-thirty and eighteen thirty-six, Mister Catlin made five trips into areas of the West that were considered unexplored Indian country. He traveled many thousands of kilometers and visited fifty different tribes. VOICE ONE: George Catlin painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of unusual land that no white person had ever seen before. He painted Native American men, women, and children. He painted their clothes, weapons and villages. He painted the people taking part in religious ceremonies, dances and the hunting of buffalo. He often painted three pictures in one day. George Catlin tried to capture in paint the Native American people and their culture. For example, he painted many pictures of Indians playing a ball game. The game is played with a stick that has a small net at one end. The net is used to control the ball. This Native American game is still played in the United States and other countries today. It is called by the name the French gave it – “lacrosse.” George Catlin also kept exact records of the people, places and events. Most of his paintings include the names of the people and when they were painted. VOICE TWO: George Catlin began to have deep feelings about the people that he painted. He learned a great deal about them. He learned that they were honest. They were intelligent. They represented different cultures that had great value. George Catlin believed that many of the men he painted were great leaders in their own culture and would have been great leaders in any culture. He believed the Native American Indians were people of great worth. He also understood that the Indians could not block or stop the westward movement of white people in America. He believed that the American Indian would quickly disappear. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: George Catlin put together a collection of his many paintings. He called the display George Catlin’s Indian Gallery. He began showing the paintings in many cities in the United States. He also gave long speeches about the Indians he lived with. He told those who came to his talks that he had never felt afraid while living in Native American villages. He said no one ever threatened him or stole anything from him. He tried to make people understand what a great people Native Americans were. He said huge areas of the country should be left for Native Americans to enjoy life as they always had. VOICE TWO: Many people criticized George Catlin. Some said the people in his pictures did not really look as intelligent and brave as he had painted them. They said the religious ceremonies he painted were false and that Indians did not really have ball games. Some critics said George Catlin had invented these people. The critics made George Catlin angry. He began to seek white Americans who had traveled in Indian country. He asked army officers, fur traders and others to sign documents that said the people and events he painted were real. The critics stopped saying his paintings were a lie. VOICE ONE: George Catlin took his collection of paintings to Europe. He also took many objects made by American Indians. The George Catlin Indian Gallery was popular in London, England and in Paris, France. French art experts praised his paintings. His paintings and speeches were popular. Many people paid money to visit his Indian Gallery, but he did not earn enough money. He soon had financial problems. Mister Catlin returned to the United States. There were about five-hundred paintings in his Indian Gallery. He offered to sell them to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D-C. Several people worked to have the United States government buy the paintings for the Smithsonian. However, Congress never approved a measure needed for the sale. VOICE TWO: George Catlin found a buyer for his Indian Gallery. It was Joseph Harrison, a businessman in Philadelphia. Mister Harrison bought the paintings but did nothing with them. For many years they were left in a room in his factory. Mister Catlin was able to pay most of his debts from the money he earned by selling his paintings. He began painting again. His new paintings were displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s famous building called the castle. For the last year of his life, he worked in a room in that building provided by the museum. George Catlin died in eighteen-seventy-two. His famous Indian Gallery paintings were still in a room in Mister Harrison’s factory. A fire at the factory almost destroyed them. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE ONE: In eighteen-seventy-nine, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution was Spencer Baird. Mister Baird knew the historic value of George Catlin’s paintings. The owner of the paintings, Joseph Harrison, had died. So Mister Baird began to negotiate with Joseph Harrison’s wife, Sarah. He asked her to give the collection to the Smithsonian. Missus Harrison agreed. She gave George Catlin’s famous Indian Gallery to the Smithsonian. The gift also included many Indian objects that Catlin had collected. These included maps books, letters and other papers that told George Catlin’s story. Sarah Harrison’s gift was one of the most important ever received by the Smithsonian. For more than one-hundred-twenty-five years, the public has been able to see George Catlin’s paintings. Art critics, art students and western history experts have studied and examined them. VOICE TWO: Today, George Catlin’s Indian Gallery is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The paintings have been carefully cleaned for this event. They look new and fresh, as if they were painted recently. Many of the objects that appear in his paintings are also on display: An Indian chief’s war shirt. A child’s bed. Bows and arrows. Shoes. Art experts have praised and criticized George Catlin’s work. Some say he was not a good artist and could not paint the human body well. Others say this is because he painted very quickly. Most critics say his paintings of people’s faces are beautiful. They seem alive and real. VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian will hold many special events at the Renwick Gallery that deal with Native Americans, George Catlin and art. These include demonstrations of traditional Native American dances, decorating clothing, music and songs. Experts will discuss the meaning and design of the decorations on Indian clothing. In two-thousand-four, many of the Catlin paintings will travel to Kansas City, Missouri; then to Los Angeles, California, and then to Houston, Texas. You can see many of George Catlin’s paintings on the Internet by using a search engine. Type the name George Catlin, C-A-T-L-I-N or the Renwick Gallery, R-E-N-W-I-C-K. VOICE TWO: George Catlin was afraid the American Indian would disappear from the Earth. That was one of the reasons he painted so many different tribes and different people. He wanted a record to leave for history. George Catlin was wrong. The American Indian did not disappear. But his paintings provide a close look at the people, places and events from a time that is now long gone. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - October 9, 2002: Lasker Awards for Medical Research
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards were presented last month. The awards honor scientists and doctors whose work has improved the understanding, prevention, treatment and cure of many dangerous diseases. The director of the National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni, spoke at the awards ceremony in New York City. He spoke about the social importance of medical research at a time of rising health costs in the United States. The Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research was given to James Rothman of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York and Randy Schekman of the University of California at Berkeley. Their discoveries concerned the movement of proteins from one part of a cell to another part. Scientists say their work provided new and needed information about the structure of a cell. Experts say their findings increase the understanding of diseases caused by genetic changes and the production of proteins, hormones and chemicals. The Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research went to Willem Kolff of the University of Utah School of Medicine and Belding Scribner of the University of Washington School of Medicine. They developed a man-made or artificial kidney that permits millions of people around the world to live with kidney failure. The invention is the only man-made device that can permanently replace a necessary body organ. The Special Achievement in Medical Research Award went to James Darnell of Rockefeller University in New York. Doctor Darnell was honored for his forty-five years of work in genetics. The award committee said Doctor Darnell has expanded two areas of biology and increased the understanding of the genetic material R-N-A. He was also recognized for teaching and supporting the work of more than one-hundred-twenty-five scientists. The Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards have been presented each year since nineteen-forty-six. They were started by Albert and Mary Lasker. Many medical experts consider the Lasker Awards to be the American Nobel Prizes. Sixty-five Lasker Award winners have later received the Nobel Prize. In the past ten years, every scientist who has won a Nobel Prize had earlier received a Lasker Award in Medical Research. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 10, 2002: Civil Rights Movement
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Richard Rael. Troops sent by the state governor to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, September 2, 1957. VOICE 1: This is Richard Rael. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans. Rosa Parks VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: The day is August twenty-eighth, nineteen sixty-three. More than two-hundred fifty-thousand people are gathered in Washington. Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans. The nation's most famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, is speaking. KING: "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation. " VOICE 2: Early in its history, black Africans were brought to America as slaves. They were bought and sold, like animals. By the time of America's Civil War in the eighteen-sixties, many had been freed by their owners. Many, however, still worked as slaves on the big farms of the South. By the end of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional. But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality. VOICE 1: Most people of color could not get good jobs. They could not get good housing. They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans. For about one-hundred years, blacks made slow gains. Widespread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War Two. During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces. When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too. An organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty-one, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka, Kansas. The man, Oliver Brown, and twelve others had brought legal action against the city. They wanted to end racial separation in their children's schools. At that time, two of every five public schools in America had all white students or all black students. The law said all public schools must be equal, but they were not. Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children. The situation was worst in Southern states. VOICE 1: The case against the city of Topeka -- Brown versus the Board of Education -- was finally settled by the nation's highest court. In nineteen-fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children. The next year, it said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. VOICE 2: In September nineteen-fifty-seven, a black girl tried to enter an all-white school in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. An angry crowd screamed at her. State guards blocked her way. The guards had been sent by the state governor, Orville Faubus. After three weeks, a federal court ordered Governor Faubus to remove the guards. The girl, Elizabeth Eckford, and seven other black students were able to enter the school. After one day, however, riots forced the black students to leave. VOICE 1: President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock. They helped black students get into the white school safely. However, angry white citizens closed all the city's public schools. The schools stayed closed for two years. In nineteen-sixty-two, a black student named James Meredith tried to attend the University of Mississippi. School officials refused. John Kennedy, the president at that time, sent federal law officers to help him. James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. VOICE 2: In addition to fighting for equal treatment in education, black Americans fought for equal treatment in housing and transportation. In many cities of the South, blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses. In nineteen-fifty-five, a black woman named Rosa Parks got on a bus in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. She sat in the back. The bus became crowded. There were no more seats for white people. So, the bus driver ordered Missus Parks to stand and give her seat to a white person. She refused. Her feet were tired after a long day at work. Rosa Parks was arrested. VOICE 1: The Reverend Martin Luther King organized the black citizens of Montgomery. They were the major users of the bus system. They agreed to stop using the buses. The boycott lasted a little more than a year. It seriously affected the earnings of the bus company. In the end, racial separation on the buses in Montgomery was declared illegal. Rosa Parks's tired feet had helped win black Americans another victory in their struggle for equal rights. And, the victory had been won without violence. VOICE 2: The Reverend King was following the teachings of Indian spiritual leader, Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi urged his followers to reach their political goals without violence. One of the major tools of non-violence in the civil rights struggle in America was the "sit-in". In a sit-in, protesters entered a store or public eating place. They quietly asked to be served. Sometimes, they were arrested. Sometimes, they remained until the business closed. But they were not served. Some went hours without food or water. VOICE 1: Another kind of protest was the "freedom ride." This involved buses that traveled through states from the North to the South. On freedom rides, blacks and whites sat together to make it difficult for officials to enforce racial separation laws on the buses. Many freedom rides -- and much violence -- took place in the summer of nineteen-sixty-four. Sometimes, the freedom riders were arrested. Sometimes, angry crowds of whites beat the freedom riders. VOICE 2: Perhaps the most dangerous part of the civil rights movement was the campaign to win voting rights for black Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution said a citizen could not be denied the right to vote because of race or color. Several Southern states, however, passed laws to try to deny voting rights to blacks for other reasons. VOICE 1: Martin Luther King and his supporters demonstrated to demand new legislation to guarantee the right to vote. They held protests in the state of Alabama. In the city of Birmingham, the chief law officer ordered his men to fight the protesters with high-pressure water hoses and fierce dogs. People throughout the country watched the demonstration on television. The sight of children being beaten by policemen and bitten by dogs awakened many citizens to the civil rights struggle. Federal negotiators reached a compromise. The compromise was, in fact, a victory for the protesters. They promised to stop their demonstrations. In exchange, they would be permitted to vote. VOICE 2: President Johnson signed a major civil rights bill in nineteen-sixty-four. Yet violence continued in some places. Three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. One was murdered in Alabama. Martin Luther King kept working toward the goal of equal rights. He died working. On April fourth, nineteen-sixty-eight, he was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. He had gone there to support a strike by waste collection workers. A white man, James Earl Ray, was tried and found guilty of the crime. VOICE 1: A wave of unrest followed the murder of Martin Luther King. Blacks in more than one-hundred cities in America rioted. In some cities, areas affected by the riots were not rebuilt for many years. The movement for civil rights for black Americans continued. But it became increasingly violent. The struggle produced angry, bitter memories. Yet it also produced some of the greatest words spoken in American history. KING: "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!'" (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: The day is August twenty-eighth, nineteen sixty-three. More than two-hundred fifty-thousand people are gathered in Washington. Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans. The nation's most famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, is speaking. KING: "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation. " VOICE 2: Early in its history, black Africans were brought to America as slaves. They were bought and sold, like animals. By the time of America's Civil War in the eighteen-sixties, many had been freed by their owners. Many, however, still worked as slaves on the big farms of the South. By the end of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional. But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality. VOICE 1: Most people of color could not get good jobs. They could not get good housing. They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans. For about one-hundred years, blacks made slow gains. Widespread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War Two. During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces. When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too. An organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way. VOICE 2: In nineteen-fifty-one, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka, Kansas. The man, Oliver Brown, and twelve others had brought legal action against the city. They wanted to end racial separation in their children's schools. At that time, two of every five public schools in America had all white students or all black students. The law said all public schools must be equal, but they were not. Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children. The situation was worst in Southern states. VOICE 1: The case against the city of Topeka -- Brown versus the Board of Education -- was finally settled by the nation's highest court. In nineteen-fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children. The next year, it said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. VOICE 2: In September nineteen-fifty-seven, a black girl tried to enter an all-white school in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. An angry crowd screamed at her. State guards blocked her way. The guards had been sent by the state governor, Orville Faubus. After three weeks, a federal court ordered Governor Faubus to remove the guards. The girl, Elizabeth Eckford, and seven other black students were able to enter the school. After one day, however, riots forced the black students to leave. VOICE 1: President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock. They helped black students get into the white school safely. However, angry white citizens closed all the city's public schools. The schools stayed closed for two years. In nineteen-sixty-two, a black student named James Meredith tried to attend the University of Mississippi. School officials refused. John Kennedy, the president at that time, sent federal law officers to help him. James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. VOICE 2: In addition to fighting for equal treatment in education, black Americans fought for equal treatment in housing and transportation. In many cities of the South, blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses. In nineteen-fifty-five, a black woman named Rosa Parks got on a bus in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. She sat in the back. The bus became crowded. There were no more seats for white people. So, the bus driver ordered Missus Parks to stand and give her seat to a white person. She refused. Her feet were tired after a long day at work. Rosa Parks was arrested. VOICE 1: The Reverend Martin Luther King organized the black citizens of Montgomery. They were the major users of the bus system. They agreed to stop using the buses. The boycott lasted a little more than a year. It seriously affected the earnings of the bus company. In the end, racial separation on the buses in Montgomery was declared illegal. Rosa Parks's tired feet had helped win black Americans another victory in their struggle for equal rights. And, the victory had been won without violence. VOICE 2: The Reverend King was following the teachings of Indian spiritual leader, Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi urged his followers to reach their political goals without violence. One of the major tools of non-violence in the civil rights struggle in America was the "sit-in". In a sit-in, protesters entered a store or public eating place. They quietly asked to be served. Sometimes, they were arrested. Sometimes, they remained until the business closed. But they were not served. Some went hours without food or water. VOICE 1: Another kind of protest was the "freedom ride." This involved buses that traveled through states from the North to the South. On freedom rides, blacks and whites sat together to make it difficult for officials to enforce racial separation laws on the buses. Many freedom rides -- and much violence -- took place in the summer of nineteen-sixty-four. Sometimes, the freedom riders were arrested. Sometimes, angry crowds of whites beat the freedom riders. VOICE 2: Perhaps the most dangerous part of the civil rights movement was the campaign to win voting rights for black Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution said a citizen could not be denied the right to vote because of race or color. Several Southern states, however, passed laws to try to deny voting rights to blacks for other reasons. VOICE 1: Martin Luther King and his supporters demonstrated to demand new legislation to guarantee the right to vote. They held protests in the state of Alabama. In the city of Birmingham, the chief law officer ordered his men to fight the protesters with high-pressure water hoses and fierce dogs. People throughout the country watched the demonstration on television. The sight of children being beaten by policemen and bitten by dogs awakened many citizens to the civil rights struggle. Federal negotiators reached a compromise. The compromise was, in fact, a victory for the protesters. They promised to stop their demonstrations. In exchange, they would be permitted to vote. VOICE 2: President Johnson signed a major civil rights bill in nineteen-sixty-four. Yet violence continued in some places. Three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. One was murdered in Alabama. Martin Luther King kept working toward the goal of equal rights. He died working. On April fourth, nineteen-sixty-eight, he was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. He had gone there to support a strike by waste collection workers. A white man, James Earl Ray, was tried and found guilty of the crime. VOICE 1: A wave of unrest followed the murder of Martin Luther King. Blacks in more than one-hundred cities in America rioted. In some cities, areas affected by the riots were not rebuilt for many years. The movement for civil rights for black Americans continued. But it became increasingly violent. The struggle produced angry, bitter memories. Yet it also produced some of the greatest words spoken in American history. KING: "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!'" (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT – October 10, 2002: Foreign Student Series #4 >Online Education
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. This week, we continue our series of reports about how people from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. A copy of this report can be found on the Special English web site at www dot voaspecialenglish dot com. One way to earn a degree at an American college or university is to stay at home and use a computer. American universities have been offering classes online for a number of years. Students who have taken online classes say they like them. One reason is because they do not have to travel to a building at a set time to listen to a professor. Professors say they have better communication with students through electronic mail notes than they do in many traditional classes. Some colleges offer academic degrees online. One is Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado. Its web site says it is the first fully online accredited university. It offers both bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees. The University of Phoenix in Arizona has been offering degrees online since nineteen-eighty-nine. University officials say they try to provide students with a social experience as well as an educational one. For example, in some programs, groups of the same six students progress through all their classes together. They communicate by computer. Another online school is Cardean (CAR-dee-an) University, near Chicago, Illinois. It began operations two years ago. It is offering online classes leading to a Master’s of Business Administration degree. Cardean University uses a problem-solving method of teaching. Students attempt to solve real problems in their classes online instead of reading information. Anyone with a computer can find information on the Internet about these schools and others. You can use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Type “online education,” and choose from a list of schools. Each will provide information about its programs and costs. However, experts say you should not send money to any school that says you can get a college degree without doing any work. These are illegal operations. Experts also say that you should find out if such college degrees are recognized in your country before you decide to get an education online. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 10, 2002 - Lida Baker: Names in America
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 10, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: October 13, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is on assignment. This week on Wordmaster -- names in America. And now here's a name that should be familiar by now to our listeners: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. I asked her for some advice for students who come here and wonder what to call themselves. BAKER: "One way to select a name that they're going to use in this country would be just to translate their name from their native language. Now a lot of other students, what they do, is that they choose an American name that sounds similar to their name in their native language. So, for example, right now I have a student from Korea, a man whose name is Jong-il, and he calls himself John. "Another thing that students often do is that they'll just simply use their native name. Or they might shorten it in some way. A lot of Japanese students, for example -- Japanese names are not very difficult for Americans to pronounce. If you take a name like Masahiro, we can say that. And so students will tell you to use their actual name or just maybe shorten it to something like Masa or something like Hiro. That's not a problem for Americans." AA: "You don't have to go through the courts to do this, do you?" BAKER: "Oh, no, no, no. No, you just use it as a nickname. On legal documents, I would tell students that they have to use the name that's in their passport. But in any situation where people are asking them, 'Well, what would you like us to call you?' they can choose any name that they like." AA: But Lida Baker says it's a good idea to ask a native English speaker whether a name may have an unintended meaning. She gives an example of students she's had from Thailand. Thai names can have many syllables. BAKER: "What Thai students very often do is that they ask us to pull out one of those syllables and they use that as a nickname in class. I would want to counsel that student not to pull out the syllable P-O-R-N and use that as a name in the United States." AA: "Because it would refer to sexual ... " BAKER: "Pornography." AA: "Right." BAKER: "I try to counsel students not to choose names that have any kind of sexual connotation." AA: And there are other connotations to consider to avoid possible embarrassment. BAKER: "One example would be the Chinese family name Fat, very common in Chinese, but of course in English the word 'fat' has not the nicest meaning." AA: "It means overweight. " BAKER: "Right, it means overweight, and Americans would find it very strange if a person asked to be called Fat." AA: There are even some names that are perfectly fine, yet people might want to avoid. BAKER: "A couple of examples would be -- and these were students who were in my classes -- I had a woman whose name that she wanted us to use was Fifi and another student, a man, who asked us to call him Lucky. What these students didn't know is that those names are often used for dogs in the United States. And I had a student who wanted us to call her Meow -- M-E-O-W -- which is the sound that a cat makes. And it turned out that she really liked cats, and so that's why she chose that name. But again I had to tell her that Americans might find that amusing." AA: "And now speaking about cultural norms, let's talk a little bit about the order of names in typical American names." BAKER" "OK, well, my name is Lida Rosemary Baker. Lida is my first name, Rosemary is my middle name and Baker is my last name. So the normal word order for names in the United States is first name, middle name, last name. However, there is an exception to that. Anytime that you're filling out a form or an application, such as an application for a driver's license or something like that, they always ask you to list your last name first. So the order in that case would be last name, comma, first name, middle name. So I would be Baker, comma, Lida Rosemary. AA: "And so now in a situation where you know someone's name, maybe you work with that person, when should you call that person just by his or her last name? Is that ever appropriate?" BAKER: "I hear it in sports, when there's a bunch of guys out playing basketball together." AA: "Well, you know what's funny is just yesterday my daughter was playing in a lacrosse game, and one of the things she really liked was that the coach had called her by her last name. She got a kick out of that and enjoyed it." BAKER: "It's done in sports, but it's not done in business and it's not done among friends very much." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the UCLA Extension program in Los Angeles. Her textbooks for English learners are available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 10, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: October 13, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti, Rosanne Skirble is on assignment. This week on Wordmaster -- names in America. And now here's a name that should be familiar by now to our listeners: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles. I asked her for some advice for students who come here and wonder what to call themselves. BAKER: "One way to select a name that they're going to use in this country would be just to translate their name from their native language. Now a lot of other students, what they do, is that they choose an American name that sounds similar to their name in their native language. So, for example, right now I have a student from Korea, a man whose name is Jong-il, and he calls himself John. "Another thing that students often do is that they'll just simply use their native name. Or they might shorten it in some way. A lot of Japanese students, for example -- Japanese names are not very difficult for Americans to pronounce. If you take a name like Masahiro, we can say that. And so students will tell you to use their actual name or just maybe shorten it to something like Masa or something like Hiro. That's not a problem for Americans." AA: "You don't have to go through the courts to do this, do you?" BAKER: "Oh, no, no, no. No, you just use it as a nickname. On legal documents, I would tell students that they have to use the name that's in their passport. But in any situation where people are asking them, 'Well, what would you like us to call you?' they can choose any name that they like." AA: But Lida Baker says it's a good idea to ask a native English speaker whether a name may have an unintended meaning. She gives an example of students she's had from Thailand. Thai names can have many syllables. BAKER: "What Thai students very often do is that they ask us to pull out one of those syllables and they use that as a nickname in class. I would want to counsel that student not to pull out the syllable P-O-R-N and use that as a name in the United States." AA: "Because it would refer to sexual ... " BAKER: "Pornography." AA: "Right." BAKER: "I try to counsel students not to choose names that have any kind of sexual connotation." AA: And there are other connotations to consider to avoid possible embarrassment. BAKER: "One example would be the Chinese family name Fat, very common in Chinese, but of course in English the word 'fat' has not the nicest meaning." AA: "It means overweight. " BAKER: "Right, it means overweight, and Americans would find it very strange if a person asked to be called Fat." AA: There are even some names that are perfectly fine, yet people might want to avoid. BAKER: "A couple of examples would be -- and these were students who were in my classes -- I had a woman whose name that she wanted us to use was Fifi and another student, a man, who asked us to call him Lucky. What these students didn't know is that those names are often used for dogs in the United States. And I had a student who wanted us to call her Meow -- M-E-O-W -- which is the sound that a cat makes. And it turned out that she really liked cats, and so that's why she chose that name. But again I had to tell her that Americans might find that amusing." AA: "And now speaking about cultural norms, let's talk a little bit about the order of names in typical American names." BAKER" "OK, well, my name is Lida Rosemary Baker. Lida is my first name, Rosemary is my middle name and Baker is my last name. So the normal word order for names in the United States is first name, middle name, last name. However, there is an exception to that. Anytime that you're filling out a form or an application, such as an application for a driver's license or something like that, they always ask you to list your last name first. So the order in that case would be last name, comma, first name, middle name. So I would be Baker, comma, Lida Rosemary. AA: "And so now in a situation where you know someone's name, maybe you work with that person, when should you call that person just by his or her last name? Is that ever appropriate?" BAKER: "I hear it in sports, when there's a bunch of guys out playing basketball together." AA: "Well, you know what's funny is just yesterday my daughter was playing in a lacrosse game, and one of the things she really liked was that the coach had called her by her last name. She got a kick out of that and enjoyed it." BAKER: "It's done in sports, but it's not done in business and it's not done among friends very much." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the UCLA Extension program in Los Angeles. Her textbooks for English learners are available through the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 11, 2002: Question About Native Alaskans / Music by Raphael Saadiq / TV's Oprah Winfrey Wins a Special Emmy
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (Photo - Alaska Division of Tourism) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Raphael Saadiq ... We answer a listener’s question about the native people who live in the state of Alaska ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Raphael Saadiq ... We answer a listener’s question about the native people who live in the state of Alaska ... And, we report about a new Emmy Award winner. Emmy Winner Oprah Winfrey HOST: Each year, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presents Emmy Awards for excellent work in American television. The Academy honors programs, actors, directors and writers. This year, the Academy presented a new award. Shep O'Neal has more. ANNCR: The first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award was presented at the Emmy Award show last month. Bob Hope had his own television show for many years. Academy officials created an award in his name to honor his work in television and his work helping people around the world. The winner of the special award was Oprah Winfrey. Television experts say she is one of the most influential people in the American television industry. Oprah Winfrey is the producer and host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” It is broadcast every afternoon, Monday through Friday. People on the show talk about different issues. Twenty-six-million people a week watch the show in the United States. It is also broadcast in more than one-hundred other countries. It has won thirty-five Emmy Awards and is the most popular talk show in television history. Oprah Winfrey also is an actor and producer who has appeared in movies and in dramatic plays on television. Oprah Winfrey has used her great success to help people in need around the world. In nineteen-ninety-seven, she created Oprah's Angel Network, a campaign to urge people to help those in need. Oprah’s Angel Network has gained more than twelve-million dollars. The money helps poor students pay for their college educations. It also is used to build homes for poor people. The money also has been used to build thirty-four schools in ten countries. Two years ago, Oprah’s Angel Network began honoring people with the “Use Your Life Award”. The network gives money to people who are using their lives to improve the lives of others. At least fifty of these awards have been given. Oprah Winfrey said she is honored to receive the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. She said she will continue to give back to the world what it has given to her so that she might be worthy of the honor. Natives of Alaska HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. It concerns the Native people who live in the northern American state of Alaska. Three racially different groups of Native people live in Alaska -- the Aleuts, Inuits and Indians. Experts say the presence of these different Native people shows Alaska’s position between Asia and the Americas. Experts say that modern Native Americans developed from Asiatic people who traveled to Alaska about twelve-thousand years ago. Some of those people settled in Alaska. Others traveled to other parts of North America and to South America. Today, about six-hundred-twenty-thousand people live in the state of Alaska. Fewer than half the people who live in Alaska were born there. About sixteen percent of the state’s population are Native people. The largest group of Native people in Alaska are the Inuit. Some people still call the Inuit people Eskimos. Many Inuit reject this name. They want to be called Inuit, which means “the people” or “real people” in their own language. Inuit culture developed more than one-thousand years ago. Most Inuit have always lived near the sea which provided much of their food. They also hunted animals and used their skins to make their clothes and homes. Most Inuit people in Alaska today live in small settlements. They still hunt and fish for their food. Yet much of their traditional way of life has ended. The Inuit live in wooden houses instead of the traditional ones. They wear modern clothing. They speak English. And Christianity has taken the place of traditional beliefs. Alaska’s Native people have long claimed much of the land in the state. In nineteen-seventy-one, the United States Congress approved a law in response to these claims. The law gave almost one-thousand-million dollars and rights to about ten percent of Alaska to the state’s Native people. Raphael Saadiq HOST: Singer Raphael Saadiq (SAH-dik) has been a member of two very popular rhythm and blues groups. Now he performs on his own. Mary Tillotson tells us about him. ANNCR: Raphael Saadiq is best known as a founder, producer and member of the soul band Tony! Toni! Tone! (pronounced tony, tony, tony) The group recorded three successful albums between nineteen-eighty-eight and nineteen-ninety-seven. Their hit songs include “Little Walter,” “Whatever You Want,” and this one, “It Never Rains.” (MUSIC) In nineteen-ninety-nine, Raphael Saadiq formed the group Lucy Pearl. Dawn Robinson and Ali Shaheed Muhammad joined him. Dawn and Ali each had been members of other popular music groups. Dawn Robinson had recently left the singing group En Vogue. Ali Shaheed Muhammad had performed with the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Music critics called Lucy Pearl a supergroup. Two years ago, the group released an album called “Lucy Pearl.” Here is a song from that record, “Everyday.” (MUSIC) Raphael Saadiq released a new album recently. It is called “Instant Vintage.” This is the first time he has recorded an album on his own. He mixes the sounds of soul, hip-hop, funk, rock, and jazz. We leave you now with a song from “Instant Vintage.” Here Raphael Saadiq sings “Tick Tock.“ (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Jim Sleeman. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And, we report about a new Emmy Award winner. Emmy Winner Oprah Winfrey HOST: Each year, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presents Emmy Awards for excellent work in American television. The Academy honors programs, actors, directors and writers. This year, the Academy presented a new award. Shep O'Neal has more. ANNCR: The first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award was presented at the Emmy Award show last month. Bob Hope had his own television show for many years. Academy officials created an award in his name to honor his work in television and his work helping people around the world. The winner of the special award was Oprah Winfrey. Television experts say she is one of the most influential people in the American television industry. Oprah Winfrey is the producer and host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” It is broadcast every afternoon, Monday through Friday. People on the show talk about different issues. Twenty-six-million people a week watch the show in the United States. It is also broadcast in more than one-hundred other countries. It has won thirty-five Emmy Awards and is the most popular talk show in television history. Oprah Winfrey also is an actor and producer who has appeared in movies and in dramatic plays on television. Oprah Winfrey has used her great success to help people in need around the world. In nineteen-ninety-seven, she created Oprah's Angel Network, a campaign to urge people to help those in need. Oprah’s Angel Network has gained more than twelve-million dollars. The money helps poor students pay for their college educations. It also is used to build homes for poor people. The money also has been used to build thirty-four schools in ten countries. Two years ago, Oprah’s Angel Network began honoring people with the “Use Your Life Award”. The network gives money to people who are using their lives to improve the lives of others. At least fifty of these awards have been given. Oprah Winfrey said she is honored to receive the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. She said she will continue to give back to the world what it has given to her so that she might be worthy of the honor. Natives of Alaska HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. It concerns the Native people who live in the northern American state of Alaska. Three racially different groups of Native people live in Alaska -- the Aleuts, Inuits and Indians. Experts say the presence of these different Native people shows Alaska’s position between Asia and the Americas. Experts say that modern Native Americans developed from Asiatic people who traveled to Alaska about twelve-thousand years ago. Some of those people settled in Alaska. Others traveled to other parts of North America and to South America. Today, about six-hundred-twenty-thousand people live in the state of Alaska. Fewer than half the people who live in Alaska were born there. About sixteen percent of the state’s population are Native people. The largest group of Native people in Alaska are the Inuit. Some people still call the Inuit people Eskimos. Many Inuit reject this name. They want to be called Inuit, which means “the people” or “real people” in their own language. Inuit culture developed more than one-thousand years ago. Most Inuit have always lived near the sea which provided much of their food. They also hunted animals and used their skins to make their clothes and homes. Most Inuit people in Alaska today live in small settlements. They still hunt and fish for their food. Yet much of their traditional way of life has ended. The Inuit live in wooden houses instead of the traditional ones. They wear modern clothing. They speak English. And Christianity has taken the place of traditional beliefs. Alaska’s Native people have long claimed much of the land in the state. In nineteen-seventy-one, the United States Congress approved a law in response to these claims. The law gave almost one-thousand-million dollars and rights to about ten percent of Alaska to the state’s Native people. Raphael Saadiq HOST: Singer Raphael Saadiq (SAH-dik) has been a member of two very popular rhythm and blues groups. Now he performs on his own. Mary Tillotson tells us about him. ANNCR: Raphael Saadiq is best known as a founder, producer and member of the soul band Tony! Toni! Tone! (pronounced tony, tony, tony) The group recorded three successful albums between nineteen-eighty-eight and nineteen-ninety-seven. Their hit songs include “Little Walter,” “Whatever You Want,” and this one, “It Never Rains.” (MUSIC) In nineteen-ninety-nine, Raphael Saadiq formed the group Lucy Pearl. Dawn Robinson and Ali Shaheed Muhammad joined him. Dawn and Ali each had been members of other popular music groups. Dawn Robinson had recently left the singing group En Vogue. Ali Shaheed Muhammad had performed with the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Music critics called Lucy Pearl a supergroup. Two years ago, the group released an album called “Lucy Pearl.” Here is a song from that record, “Everyday.” (MUSIC) Raphael Saadiq released a new album recently. It is called “Instant Vintage.” This is the first time he has recorded an album on his own. He mixes the sounds of soul, hip-hop, funk, rock, and jazz. We leave you now with a song from “Instant Vintage.” Here Raphael Saadiq sings “Tick Tock.“ (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Jim Sleeman. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - October 11, 2002: China's Plan for Dams Called Threat to Mekong River
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Several southeast Asian countries are concerned about China’s plans to build dams along the Mekong River. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam share the lower area of the Mekong. Environmental experts say Chinese dams threaten people, wildlife and water systems on the river. The Mekong River is the twelfth longest river in the world. It is four-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers long. It flows through China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. More than sixty-million people depend on the Mekong for food, water and transportation. The yearly periods of floods and dry conditions are important for the production of rice and vegetables. The Mekong also supports many different kinds of fish. But environmental activists say this system is threatened. During the past ten years, more than one-hundred large dams have been proposed for the Mekong. Groups such as the Asian Development Bank have proposed these dams. Some of these projects have already been built. Environmental experts say one of the greatest threats is China’s plan to build eight dams along the upper Mekong River. Two of these dams already have been completed. China began building the third dam in January. China says these dams can produce power on the Mekong without harming the flow of the river system. It says the dams will reduce flooding and water shortages in the countries in the lower part of the Mekong. But environmental experts say the dams could increase flooding, harm the fishing industry, damage the environment and block transportation links. Flooding on the Mekong has killed hundreds of people in the past two years. That number is expected to rise as the water flow changes. Experts say the worst effects could happen in Cambodia and Laos. These poor countries have become dependent on Chinese investment and aid. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are part of the Mekong River Commission, based in Phnom Penh. The group manages development projects and protection of the Mekong River. China has refused to join the group. The governments of the commission are said to be too fearful of China to make any public protest about its development plans. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Several southeast Asian countries are concerned about China’s plans to build dams along the Mekong River. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam share the lower area of the Mekong. Environmental experts say Chinese dams threaten people, wildlife and water systems on the river. The Mekong River is the twelfth longest river in the world. It is four-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers long. It flows through China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. More than sixty-million people depend on the Mekong for food, water and transportation. The yearly periods of floods and dry conditions are important for the production of rice and vegetables. The Mekong also supports many different kinds of fish. But environmental activists say this system is threatened. During the past ten years, more than one-hundred large dams have been proposed for the Mekong. Groups such as the Asian Development Bank have proposed these dams. Some of these projects have already been built. Environmental experts say one of the greatest threats is China’s plan to build eight dams along the upper Mekong River. Two of these dams already have been completed. China began building the third dam in January. China says these dams can produce power on the Mekong without harming the flow of the river system. It says the dams will reduce flooding and water shortages in the countries in the lower part of the Mekong. But environmental experts say the dams could increase flooding, harm the fishing industry, damage the environment and block transportation links. Flooding on the Mekong has killed hundreds of people in the past two years. That number is expected to rise as the water flow changes. Experts say the worst effects could happen in Cambodia and Laos. These poor countries have become dependent on Chinese investment and aid. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are part of the Mekong River Commission, based in Phnom Penh. The group manages development projects and protection of the Mekong River. China has refused to join the group. The governments of the commission are said to be too fearful of China to make any public protest about its development plans. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 12, 2002: Bush Invokes Taft-Hartley in Port Shutdown
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Twenty-nine industrial ports in the western United States are operating again. A judge in California this week ordered the Pacific Maritime Association to re-open the ports. The association represents port operators and shipping companies. It closed the West Coast ports in late September because of a dispute with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The longshoremen’s union represents ten-thousand-five-hundred port workers. President Bush asked for the judge’s order. The president was permitted to do so under a measure called the Taft-Hartley Act. He argued that the port closings were harming the nation’s economy and security. The closings affected more than two-hundred ships filled with goods. Some reports said the dispute was costing the United States about one-thousand-million dollars a day. The Taft-Hartley Act became a law in nineteen-forty-seven. Its official name is the Labor Management Relations Act. The measure reformed the National Labor Relations Act of nineteen-thirty-five. That law gave American workers rights they had never known before. Its main goal was to give workers the right to form labor unions so that they would have some power in dealing with their employers. The National Labor Relations Act led to a huge increase in the number of union members. The number is reported to have risen from fewer than four-million in nineteen-thirty-five to fifteen-million in nineteen-forty-seven. The power of unions expanded greatly as a result. After World War Two, Congress moved to limit the power of organized labor. The Taft-Hartley Act barred rules that had required union membership for all employees of a company. It also gave the president power to take steps to end a work stoppage if it threatens national health or safety. Mostly the act has been used to stop labor disputes. The president can seek a court order to force workers to return to their jobs for eighty days. That is commonly called a “cooling off” period. The goal is to permit time and create pressure for employers and workers to negotiate fairly. However, unions oppose President Bush’s intervention. They say it shows that his administration supports business in labor disputes. American Presidents have used the Taft-Hartley Act thirty-six times since it became law. The last time was in nineteen-seventy-seven. President Jimmy Carter attempted to use the act to halt a strike by coal miners. The miners refused to obey a judge’s back-to-work order. However, they later approved an agreement with the coal companies. Taft-Hartley also was used against the longshoreman’s union in nineteen-seventy-one. That was when a strike forced the closing of all West Coast ports. President Nixon ordered a return to work and a cooling off period. That strike ended after one-hundred-thirty-four days. This Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - October 14, 2002: Selling Kidneys
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Kidneys are important organs in the human body. Under normal conditions, the body can perform with just one kidney, even though most people are born with two. Many people develop kidney disease and their kidneys do not operate normally. Some of these people are able to get a new kidney in a transplant operation. However, many countries do not have enough kidneys for transplantation. In developing countries, some poor people sell their kidneys to earn money and improve their living conditions. Researchers say this is becoming a problem. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that people who sold a kidney suffered financial and health problems over time. Doctors carried out the study last year in southern India. Madhav (MA-thev) Goyal of the Geisinger Health System in State College, Pennsylvania headed the study. He wanted to learn the economic and health effects of selling a kidney. The researchers questioned about three-hundred poor people in the city of Chennai (chen-NIGH). Each person had sold his or her kidney about six years earlier for about one-thousand dollars. Almost all of the people sold their kidneys to pay back money they owed. However, six years later, seventy-five percent of the people said they were still in debt. The average family earnings had dropped by one-third following the operation. Also, eighty-six percent of the people said their health had worsened since the operation. Doctor Goyal says one possible reason for this is that most of the people had to continue physically difficult work immediately after their operations. This probably weakened their health. The researchers said almost seventy-five percent of the kidney donors were women. Doctor Goyal says this is troubling because women in India may be pressured to sell their organs more than men. Finally, the researchers found that almost eighty percent of the people would not suggest that others sell a kidney for money. Most countries, including India, have laws against buying and selling organs from living donors. But in India officials at hospitals often fail to enforce the laws. Doctor Goyal says policy makers should re-examine the value of using money to increase the supply of organs for transplantation. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Kidneys are important organs in the human body. Under normal conditions, the body can perform with just one kidney, even though most people are born with two. Many people develop kidney disease and their kidneys do not operate normally. Some of these people are able to get a new kidney in a transplant operation. However, many countries do not have enough kidneys for transplantation. In developing countries, some poor people sell their kidneys to earn money and improve their living conditions. Researchers say this is becoming a problem. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that people who sold a kidney suffered financial and health problems over time. Doctors carried out the study last year in southern India. Madhav (MA-thev) Goyal of the Geisinger Health System in State College, Pennsylvania headed the study. He wanted to learn the economic and health effects of selling a kidney. The researchers questioned about three-hundred poor people in the city of Chennai (chen-NIGH). Each person had sold his or her kidney about six years earlier for about one-thousand dollars. Almost all of the people sold their kidneys to pay back money they owed. However, six years later, seventy-five percent of the people said they were still in debt. The average family earnings had dropped by one-third following the operation. Also, eighty-six percent of the people said their health had worsened since the operation. Doctor Goyal says one possible reason for this is that most of the people had to continue physically difficult work immediately after their operations. This probably weakened their health. The researchers said almost seventy-five percent of the kidney donors were women. Doctor Goyal says this is troubling because women in India may be pressured to sell their organs more than men. Finally, the researchers found that almost eighty percent of the people would not suggest that others sell a kidney for money. Most countries, including India, have laws against buying and selling organs from living donors. But in India officials at hospitals often fail to enforce the laws. Doctor Goyal says policy makers should re-examine the value of using money to increase the supply of organs for transplantation. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 13, 2002: Pocahontas
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) She lived almost four hundred years ago in what became the American state of Virginia. She was the first Native American to marry a white person. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Today, we tell about Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan [POW-a-tan] Indian tribe. (Theme) VOICE 1: Pocahontas was born in fifteen-ninety-five. She was one of twenty children of Chief Powhatan. Powhatan ruled a group of more than twenty Indian tribes in territory that is now the eastern state of Virginia. In sixteen-oh-seven, the Virginia Company in England sent colonists to settle the land that later became the United States of America. The leader of the English settlers was John Ratcliffe. He claimed the land for King James of England. He named the new colony Jamestown, Virginia. The English colonists did not know that the area already was settled by Indians. VOICE 2: The Powhatan Indians lived in the area where the English colonists landed. They were part of a large group of American tribes who spoke the Algonquian language. The Powhatans had lived in the area for almost one-thousand years. They built villages. They grew beans, corn, squash and melons. They created a strong political system, led by powerful chiefs like Powhatan. His power and wealth were evident. Women of the tribes controlled the houses and the fields. They made clothing of animal skins and containers of clay. Men hunted and fished for food. Both men and women wore earrings and other objects made of shells, pearls and copper. The young Pocahontas often visited Jamestown during the colony's first months. She was about twelve years old. The colonists knew her well. She became an important link between the colonists and her father, Powhatan. VOICE 1: The Indians' culture was very different from that of the English settlers. The two groups did not understand each other. The misunderstandings led to hostile incidents between the colonists and the Indians. John Smith was an explorer, soldier and a leader of the Jamestown colony. He was captured in sixteen-oh-seven by followers of Powhatan. Captain Smith wrote about this incident in a book that was published in sixteen-twenty-four. He wrote that Pocahontas saved him from being executed by Powhatan. This story has been repeated for hundreds of years. This is what most people know about Pocahontas. VOICE 2: Most historians, however, do not believe that Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith. Some believe that Captain Smith invented the story after reading about a similar event that took place in Florida. That event involved a captured Spanish explorer, an Indian chief and the chief's daughter. Some historians do not believe that John Smith's life was in danger. They say that what captain Smith thought was to be his execution was really an Indian ceremony. The ceremony was meant to show that Powhatan accepted Smith as part of his tribe. Historians say the Indian chief wanted to make the English colonists his allies. VOICE 1: After Captain Smith's capture, the Indians and the colonists agreed to a truce. Pocahontas visited Jamestown more often. She may not have really saved John Smith's life. But most experts agree that Pocahontas helped the colonists. She brought them corn when they were starving. She once was said to have warned the colonists about a surprise attack by the Indians. John Smith had been wounded during his capture. He returned to England. Hostilities once again broke out between the Indians and the English settlers. In sixteen-eleven, Thomas Dale became acting governor of the colony. He started a new aggressive policy toward the Indians. Two years later, an English soldier, Samuel Argall, kidnapped Pocahontas. She was about eighteen years old. The colonists kidnapped her because they wanted to prevent more attacks by the Indians. They also wanted to force Chief Powhatan to negotiate a peace agreement. VOICE 2: Pocahontas lived as a hostage in the Jamestown settlement for more than a year. A colonist, John Rolfe, taught her English. He also taught her the Christian religion. Pocahontas was the first native American to become Christian. She changed her name to Rebecca. In sixteen-fourteen, she married John Rolfe in the church in Jamestown. She was the first Indian woman to marry a white man. Her husband believed that their marriage would be good for the colony. John Rolfe said he married Pocahontas "for the honor of our country, for the glory of God." VOICE 1: Governor dale immediately opened negotiations with Powhatan. The result was a period of peace that lasted for about eight years. Pocahontas' husband was a tobacco grower. She taught him the Indian way of planting tobacco. This method improved the tobacco crop. Tobacco later became America's first successful crop. VOICE 2: In sixteen-fifteen, Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a son. They named him Thomas. The next year Pocahontas and her family sailed to England for a visit. In London, she was treated like a famous person. She was officially presented to King James the first. She also met John Smith again. The Virginia Company said her visit proved that it was possible to have good relations between the English colonists and the Indians. The company urged more people to move from England to the Virginia colony. Pocahontas had her picture painted while visiting England. She is wearing the clothes she wore when she met the king. They are the kind of clothes that were popular in England in the sixteen-hundreds. This picture is the only one that really is of her. VOICE 1: Pocahontas and her family stayed in England for seven months. They prepared to return to Jamestown. But Pocahontas became sick with smallpox. She died from the disease. She was buried in Gravesend, England. She was twenty-two years old. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was raised in England. When he was twenty, he returned to Virginia. He lived as a settler in his mother's native land. He married and had a daughter. Through Thomas Rolfe, a number of famous Virginians have family ties to Pocahontas. These families are proud to claim their ties to Pocahontas. They call her "Virginia's first lady." VOICE 2: Pocahontas left no writings of her own. The only reports about her from the time were written by John Smith. His reports may not all have been true. Yet the story of her rescue of captain Smith became a popular folk story. Americans know that Pocahontas played a part in the early history of Virginia. They remember her bravery and friendship. Americans also remember her for what she represented as a native American: the hope of close relations between the white people and the Indians. VOICE 1: Pocahontas is honored in the United States capitol building in Washington, D.C. There are three art works of her in the large, round, main hall of the capitol. There are more representations of her than any other American except for the nation's first president, George Washington. The three art works show the popular stories about Pocahontas. One is a painting of Pocahontas taking part in a religious ceremony in which she became a Christian. Two others show her saving the life of Captain John Smith. VOICE 2: Many different American groups have used the name and some version of a picture of Pocahontas. Whale hunters in the nineteenth century named ships after Pocahontas in honor of her bravery. They also put small statues of her on their ships. Both the Confederate forces in the South and the Union forces in the North used her name or picture during the American Civil War. A picture of Pocahontas was on the flag of a division of Confederate forces called the guard of the daughters of Powhatan. Union forces named a warship after the Indian woman. Many American writers have written about Pocahontas. The Walt Disney Company produced a popular children's movie about her. VOICE 1: Today, visitors to the Jamestown settlement in Virginia can see what life was like there in the sixteen-hundreds. They can see copies of the ships that brought the English settlers. And they can see statues of three of the people important in early America: John Smith, Chief Powhatan, and his daughter -- Pocahontas. (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) She lived almost four hundred years ago in what became the American state of Virginia. She was the first Native American to marry a white person. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Today, we tell about Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief of the Powhatan [POW-a-tan] Indian tribe. (Theme) VOICE 1: Pocahontas was born in fifteen-ninety-five. She was one of twenty children of Chief Powhatan. Powhatan ruled a group of more than twenty Indian tribes in territory that is now the eastern state of Virginia. In sixteen-oh-seven, the Virginia Company in England sent colonists to settle the land that later became the United States of America. The leader of the English settlers was John Ratcliffe. He claimed the land for King James of England. He named the new colony Jamestown, Virginia. The English colonists did not know that the area already was settled by Indians. VOICE 2: The Powhatan Indians lived in the area where the English colonists landed. They were part of a large group of American tribes who spoke the Algonquian language. The Powhatans had lived in the area for almost one-thousand years. They built villages. They grew beans, corn, squash and melons. They created a strong political system, led by powerful chiefs like Powhatan. His power and wealth were evident. Women of the tribes controlled the houses and the fields. They made clothing of animal skins and containers of clay. Men hunted and fished for food. Both men and women wore earrings and other objects made of shells, pearls and copper. The young Pocahontas often visited Jamestown during the colony's first months. She was about twelve years old. The colonists knew her well. She became an important link between the colonists and her father, Powhatan. VOICE 1: The Indians' culture was very different from that of the English settlers. The two groups did not understand each other. The misunderstandings led to hostile incidents between the colonists and the Indians. John Smith was an explorer, soldier and a leader of the Jamestown colony. He was captured in sixteen-oh-seven by followers of Powhatan. Captain Smith wrote about this incident in a book that was published in sixteen-twenty-four. He wrote that Pocahontas saved him from being executed by Powhatan. This story has been repeated for hundreds of years. This is what most people know about Pocahontas. VOICE 2: Most historians, however, do not believe that Pocahontas saved the life of John Smith. Some believe that Captain Smith invented the story after reading about a similar event that took place in Florida. That event involved a captured Spanish explorer, an Indian chief and the chief's daughter. Some historians do not believe that John Smith's life was in danger. They say that what captain Smith thought was to be his execution was really an Indian ceremony. The ceremony was meant to show that Powhatan accepted Smith as part of his tribe. Historians say the Indian chief wanted to make the English colonists his allies. VOICE 1: After Captain Smith's capture, the Indians and the colonists agreed to a truce. Pocahontas visited Jamestown more often. She may not have really saved John Smith's life. But most experts agree that Pocahontas helped the colonists. She brought them corn when they were starving. She once was said to have warned the colonists about a surprise attack by the Indians. John Smith had been wounded during his capture. He returned to England. Hostilities once again broke out between the Indians and the English settlers. In sixteen-eleven, Thomas Dale became acting governor of the colony. He started a new aggressive policy toward the Indians. Two years later, an English soldier, Samuel Argall, kidnapped Pocahontas. She was about eighteen years old. The colonists kidnapped her because they wanted to prevent more attacks by the Indians. They also wanted to force Chief Powhatan to negotiate a peace agreement. VOICE 2: Pocahontas lived as a hostage in the Jamestown settlement for more than a year. A colonist, John Rolfe, taught her English. He also taught her the Christian religion. Pocahontas was the first native American to become Christian. She changed her name to Rebecca. In sixteen-fourteen, she married John Rolfe in the church in Jamestown. She was the first Indian woman to marry a white man. Her husband believed that their marriage would be good for the colony. John Rolfe said he married Pocahontas "for the honor of our country, for the glory of God." VOICE 1: Governor dale immediately opened negotiations with Powhatan. The result was a period of peace that lasted for about eight years. Pocahontas' husband was a tobacco grower. She taught him the Indian way of planting tobacco. This method improved the tobacco crop. Tobacco later became America's first successful crop. VOICE 2: In sixteen-fifteen, Pocahontas and John Rolfe had a son. They named him Thomas. The next year Pocahontas and her family sailed to England for a visit. In London, she was treated like a famous person. She was officially presented to King James the first. She also met John Smith again. The Virginia Company said her visit proved that it was possible to have good relations between the English colonists and the Indians. The company urged more people to move from England to the Virginia colony. Pocahontas had her picture painted while visiting England. She is wearing the clothes she wore when she met the king. They are the kind of clothes that were popular in England in the sixteen-hundreds. This picture is the only one that really is of her. VOICE 1: Pocahontas and her family stayed in England for seven months. They prepared to return to Jamestown. But Pocahontas became sick with smallpox. She died from the disease. She was buried in Gravesend, England. She was twenty-two years old. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was raised in England. When he was twenty, he returned to Virginia. He lived as a settler in his mother's native land. He married and had a daughter. Through Thomas Rolfe, a number of famous Virginians have family ties to Pocahontas. These families are proud to claim their ties to Pocahontas. They call her "Virginia's first lady." VOICE 2: Pocahontas left no writings of her own. The only reports about her from the time were written by John Smith. His reports may not all have been true. Yet the story of her rescue of captain Smith became a popular folk story. Americans know that Pocahontas played a part in the early history of Virginia. They remember her bravery and friendship. Americans also remember her for what she represented as a native American: the hope of close relations between the white people and the Indians. VOICE 1: Pocahontas is honored in the United States capitol building in Washington, D.C. There are three art works of her in the large, round, main hall of the capitol. There are more representations of her than any other American except for the nation's first president, George Washington. The three art works show the popular stories about Pocahontas. One is a painting of Pocahontas taking part in a religious ceremony in which she became a Christian. Two others show her saving the life of Captain John Smith. VOICE 2: Many different American groups have used the name and some version of a picture of Pocahontas. Whale hunters in the nineteenth century named ships after Pocahontas in honor of her bravery. They also put small statues of her on their ships. Both the Confederate forces in the South and the Union forces in the North used her name or picture during the American Civil War. A picture of Pocahontas was on the flag of a division of Confederate forces called the guard of the daughters of Powhatan. Union forces named a warship after the Indian woman. Many American writers have written about Pocahontas. The Walt Disney Company produced a popular children's movie about her. VOICE 1: Today, visitors to the Jamestown settlement in Virginia can see what life was like there in the sixteen-hundreds. They can see copies of the ships that brought the English settlers. And they can see statues of three of the people important in early America: John Smith, Chief Powhatan, and his daughter -- Pocahontas. (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-11-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 14, 2002: Patents and Inventions
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: An office of the American government has helped to protect the legal rights of inventors for two-hundred years. The United States Patent and Trademark Office gives inventors property rights to their inventions. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: An office of the American government has helped to protect the legal rights of inventors for two-hundred years. The United States Patent and Trademark Office gives inventors property rights to their inventions. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Patent and Trademark Office is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every week, thousands of people send their inventions to the United States Patent and Trademark Office near Washington, D-C. The Patent Office examines each invention. Those that are judged to be new and useful will receive a patent. The term of a new patent is twenty years. During that time, the inventor controls the legal right to make, use or sell the invention in the United States. After twenty years, anyone can make or sell the invention. VOICE TWO: Patents protect inventors’ chances to make money from their creations. A patent gives both inventors and investors time to develop and market a product. Patents also provide a good way to share and spread technical information. The Patent Office’s responsibilities also include trademarks. A trademark is anything that helps to identify the ownership of goods. It could be a name, sign or device. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a similar mark. Yet, such rights may not prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods under a clearly different mark. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Almost since its creation, the United States has been seen as a country of inventors. It is not surprising that the men who established the United States included patent protection in the Constitution. They wrote that Congress should support the progress of science by giving inventors all rights to their discoveries, for a limited time. In seventeen-ninety, President George Washington signed into law the first Patent Act of the United States. Under the measure, inventors asked the Secretary of State to consider a request for a patent. Next, the Secretary would discuss the request with the Secretary of War and Attorney General. They would decide if the invention or discovery was useful and important. At that time, both the President and the Secretary of State signed patents. VOICE TWO: The first American patent for an invention was given in seventeen-ninety to Samuel Hopkins. Mister Hopkins’ invention was an improved way to make the chemical potash. As the number of patent requests grew, it became necessary to develop an organized process to deal with all the requests. The job of receiving and approving patents was given to a group of State Department employees in seventeen-ninety-three. In eighteen-oh-two, a State Department official named William Thornton was appointed to serve as the first clerk. He was the only person responsible for receiving and recording patent requests and approving requests. His office became the first Patent Office. Since then, more than six-million patents for inventions have been approved. They include Thomas Edison’s electric light, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flying machine. VOICE ONE: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has grown to fourteen agencies in the Department of Commerce. The agency occupies several buildings in Arlington, Virginia. It has more than five-thousand permanent employees. The Patent and Trademark Office has one of the largest collections of scientific and technical knowledge in the world. Each year, the agency receives more than three-hundred-twenty-six-thousand requests for patents. It also gets two-hundred-thirty-two-thousand requests for trademarks. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Suppose you have an idea for an invention. How do you get a patent to protect your rights? The first step is to write your idea on a piece of paper. You must be sure no one else has invented a device just like yours. So you must examine hundreds of descriptions of similar devices that already have patents. This can be a big job and take a long time. Many inventors pay special patent lawyers to do this job. The Patent and Trademark Office will examine your request once you know that the idea does not have a patent already. Because the agency gets so many requests, the examination process may last two or more years. You do not have to show that your invention works to receive a patent. All you must show is that your invention is a new idea. For example, Thomas Edison is famous for inventing the electric light bulb. Yet the light bulb design for which he received a patent never worked. VOICE ONE: Sometimes, two or more inventors get the same idea at the same time. This happened with the telephone. One of the men was Alexander Graham Bell. The people who invested money in his project told him not to work on the telephone’s design. They did not believe they could earn any money from the invention. However, Mister Bell continued to work on the telephone. He arrived at the Patent Office only two hours before a competing inventor, Elisha Gray. Mister Gray had developed exactly the same idea for a telephone. He, too, did not believe the invention would be very important. Yet he went to the Patent Office when he heard that Mister Bell was requesting a patent. He was too late. Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for inventing the telephone. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: What kinds of inventions can receive patents? American law names many kinds, such as new machines, methods and products. New uses for, or improvements to, old inventions. And new, improved kinds of plants and animals. An American patent protects an invention only in the United States. But you do not have to be an American citizen to receive a United States patent. Last year, nine of the ten companies that received the largest number of patents were foreign. VOICE ONE: Almost every nation in the world has a patent system of some kind to protect inventors. Most governments give a patent to an inventor who is the first to ask for it. Until recently, many countries honored an international treaty on patents. The treaty was signed more than one-hundred years ago. In nineteen-ninety-five, the World Trade Organization was established. W-T-O member countries are required to provide patent protection for inventions, while permitting exceptions. Under W-T-O rules, patent protection has to last at least twenty years from the date the patent request was first made. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: President Bush recently congratulated the United States Patent and Trademark Office on its two-hundredth anniversary. He said the agency has been an important influence in the nation’s development. As the Patent Office enters its third century, it faces a number of issues. One is what to do with the growing number of patent requests awaiting consideration. Currently, the agency is slowly working its way through about four-hundred-thousand such requests. One problem is a lack of money. The Patent and Trademark Office does not keep all of the money it collects. Over the past ten years, Congress has taken away more than seven-hundred-million dollars from the agency. The money is then spent on other government programs. VOICE ONE: Last year, the Bush administration appointed a former Congressman, James Rogan, as director of the Patent Office. Mister Rogan has proposed adding hundreds of new patent examiners to the agency. He also wants to reform the patent process. His plan includes negotiating international agreements to create an electronic-based patent system. Mister Rogan wants to limit the duties of agency employees to just the examination and approval of patents and trademarks. He also wants inventors to ask private investigators to carry out patent searches. The plan would increase the money that inventors and patent lawyers pay the Patent Office. However, critics say the increased costs would decrease investment in scientific research and development in new technologies. They also say the costs would stop some independent inventors and small companies from using the patent system. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Patent and Trademark Office is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Every week, thousands of people send their inventions to the United States Patent and Trademark Office near Washington, D-C. The Patent Office examines each invention. Those that are judged to be new and useful will receive a patent. The term of a new patent is twenty years. During that time, the inventor controls the legal right to make, use or sell the invention in the United States. After twenty years, anyone can make or sell the invention. VOICE TWO: Patents protect inventors’ chances to make money from their creations. A patent gives both inventors and investors time to develop and market a product. Patents also provide a good way to share and spread technical information. The Patent Office’s responsibilities also include trademarks. A trademark is anything that helps to identify the ownership of goods. It could be a name, sign or device. Trademark rights may be used to prevent others from using a similar mark. Yet, such rights may not prevent others from making the same goods or from selling the same goods under a clearly different mark. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Almost since its creation, the United States has been seen as a country of inventors. It is not surprising that the men who established the United States included patent protection in the Constitution. They wrote that Congress should support the progress of science by giving inventors all rights to their discoveries, for a limited time. In seventeen-ninety, President George Washington signed into law the first Patent Act of the United States. Under the measure, inventors asked the Secretary of State to consider a request for a patent. Next, the Secretary would discuss the request with the Secretary of War and Attorney General. They would decide if the invention or discovery was useful and important. At that time, both the President and the Secretary of State signed patents. VOICE TWO: The first American patent for an invention was given in seventeen-ninety to Samuel Hopkins. Mister Hopkins’ invention was an improved way to make the chemical potash. As the number of patent requests grew, it became necessary to develop an organized process to deal with all the requests. The job of receiving and approving patents was given to a group of State Department employees in seventeen-ninety-three. In eighteen-oh-two, a State Department official named William Thornton was appointed to serve as the first clerk. He was the only person responsible for receiving and recording patent requests and approving requests. His office became the first Patent Office. Since then, more than six-million patents for inventions have been approved. They include Thomas Edison’s electric light, Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone and Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flying machine. VOICE ONE: The United States Patent and Trademark Office has grown to fourteen agencies in the Department of Commerce. The agency occupies several buildings in Arlington, Virginia. It has more than five-thousand permanent employees. The Patent and Trademark Office has one of the largest collections of scientific and technical knowledge in the world. Each year, the agency receives more than three-hundred-twenty-six-thousand requests for patents. It also gets two-hundred-thirty-two-thousand requests for trademarks. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Suppose you have an idea for an invention. How do you get a patent to protect your rights? The first step is to write your idea on a piece of paper. You must be sure no one else has invented a device just like yours. So you must examine hundreds of descriptions of similar devices that already have patents. This can be a big job and take a long time. Many inventors pay special patent lawyers to do this job. The Patent and Trademark Office will examine your request once you know that the idea does not have a patent already. Because the agency gets so many requests, the examination process may last two or more years. You do not have to show that your invention works to receive a patent. All you must show is that your invention is a new idea. For example, Thomas Edison is famous for inventing the electric light bulb. Yet the light bulb design for which he received a patent never worked. VOICE ONE: Sometimes, two or more inventors get the same idea at the same time. This happened with the telephone. One of the men was Alexander Graham Bell. The people who invested money in his project told him not to work on the telephone’s design. They did not believe they could earn any money from the invention. However, Mister Bell continued to work on the telephone. He arrived at the Patent Office only two hours before a competing inventor, Elisha Gray. Mister Gray had developed exactly the same idea for a telephone. He, too, did not believe the invention would be very important. Yet he went to the Patent Office when he heard that Mister Bell was requesting a patent. He was too late. Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for inventing the telephone. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: What kinds of inventions can receive patents? American law names many kinds, such as new machines, methods and products. New uses for, or improvements to, old inventions. And new, improved kinds of plants and animals. An American patent protects an invention only in the United States. But you do not have to be an American citizen to receive a United States patent. Last year, nine of the ten companies that received the largest number of patents were foreign. VOICE ONE: Almost every nation in the world has a patent system of some kind to protect inventors. Most governments give a patent to an inventor who is the first to ask for it. Until recently, many countries honored an international treaty on patents. The treaty was signed more than one-hundred years ago. In nineteen-ninety-five, the World Trade Organization was established. W-T-O member countries are required to provide patent protection for inventions, while permitting exceptions. Under W-T-O rules, patent protection has to last at least twenty years from the date the patent request was first made. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: President Bush recently congratulated the United States Patent and Trademark Office on its two-hundredth anniversary. He said the agency has been an important influence in the nation’s development. As the Patent Office enters its third century, it faces a number of issues. One is what to do with the growing number of patent requests awaiting consideration. Currently, the agency is slowly working its way through about four-hundred-thousand such requests. One problem is a lack of money. The Patent and Trademark Office does not keep all of the money it collects. Over the past ten years, Congress has taken away more than seven-hundred-million dollars from the agency. The money is then spent on other government programs. VOICE ONE: Last year, the Bush administration appointed a former Congressman, James Rogan, as director of the Patent Office. Mister Rogan has proposed adding hundreds of new patent examiners to the agency. He also wants to reform the patent process. His plan includes negotiating international agreements to create an electronic-based patent system. Mister Rogan wants to limit the duties of agency employees to just the examination and approval of patents and trademarks. He also wants inventors to ask private investigators to carry out patent searches. The plan would increase the money that inventors and patent lawyers pay the Patent Office. However, critics say the increased costs would decrease investment in scientific research and development in new technologies. They also say the costs would stop some independent inventors and small companies from using the patent system. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: The Beginning of the Information Age
* Byline: Written by Paul Thompson

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we begin a series of three programs about modern communications. Our first program tells about the history of communications. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we begin a series of three programs about modern communications. Our first program tells about the history of communications. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Information always has been extremely important. Throughout history, some information has had value beyond measure. The lack of information often cost huge amounts of money and, sometimes, many lives. Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815One example of this took place near the American city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Britain and the United States were fighting the War of Eighteen-Twelve. American and British forces fought near New Orleans on January eighth, eighteen-fifteen. The battle of New Orleans is a famous battle. As in all large battles, hundreds of troops were killed or wounded. After the battle, the Americans and the British learned there had been no need to fight. Negotiators for the United States and Britain had signed a peace treaty in the city of Ghent, Belgium, two weeks earlier. Yet news of the treaty had not reached the United States before the opposing troops met in New Orleans. The battle had been a terrible waste. People died because information about the peace treaty traveled so slowly. VOICE TWO: From the beginning of human history, information traveled only as fast as a ship could sail. Or a horse could run. Or a person could walk. People experimented with other ways to send messages. Some people tried using birds to carry messages. Then they discovered it was not always a safe way to send or receive information. A faster method finally arrived with the invention of the telegraph. The first useful telegraphs were developed in Britain and the United States in the eighteen-thirties. The telegraph was the first instrument used to send information using wires and electricity. The telegraph sent messages between two places which were connected by telegraph wires. The person at one end would send the information. The second person would receive it. Each letter of the alphabet and each number had to be sent separately by a device called a telegraph key. The second person would write each letter on a piece of paper as it was received. Here is what it sounds like. For our example we will only send you three letters: V-O-A. We will send it two times. Listen closely. (SOUND: Telegraph key) VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-fifties, an expert with a telegraph key could send about thirty-five to forty words in a minute. It took several hours to send a lot of information. However, the telegraph permitted people who lived in cities to communicate much faster. Telegraph lines linked large city centers. The telegraph soon had a major influence on daily life. The telegraph provided information about everything. Governments, businesses and individuals used the telegraph to send information. At the same time, newspapers used the telegraph to get the information needed to tell readers what was happening in the world. Newspapers often were printed four or five times a day as new information about important stories was received over the telegraph. The telegraph was the quickest method of sending news from one place to another. VOICE TWO: On August fifth, eighteen-fifty-eight, the first message was transmitted by a wire cable under the Atlantic Ocean. The wire linked the United States and Europe by telegraph. This meant that a terrible mistake like the battle of New Orleans would not happen again. Reports of the daily news events in Europe began to appear in American newspapers. And the news of the United States appeared in European newspapers. Information now took only a matter of hours to reach most large cities in the world. This was true for the big cities linked by the telegraph. It was different, though, if you lived in a small farming town, kilometers away from the large cities. The news you got might be a day or two late. It took that long for you to receive your newspaper. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On November second, nineteen-twenty, radio station K-D-K-A in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcast the first radio program. That broadcast gave the results of a presidential election. Within a few short years, news and information could be heard anywhere a radio broadcast could reach. Radios did not cost much. So most people owned at least one radio. Radio reporters began to speak to the public from cities where important events were taking place. Political leaders also discovered that radio was a valuable political instrument. It permitted them to talk directly to the public. If you had a radio, you did not have to wait until your newspaper arrived. You could often hear important events as they happened. VOICE TWO: Some people learned quickly that information meant power. Many countries in the nineteen-thirties began controlling information. The government of Nazi Germany is a good example. Before and during World War Two, the government of Nazi Germany controlled all information the German people received. The government controlled all radio broadcasts and newspapers. The people of Germany only heard or read what the government wanted them to hear or read. It was illegal for them to listen to a foreign broadcast. VOICE ONE: After World War Two, a new invention appeared -- television. In the industrial countries, television quickly became common in most homes. Large companies were formed to produce television programs. These companies were called networks. Networks include many television stations linked together that could broadcast the same program at the same time. Most of the programs were designed to entertain people. There were movies, music programs and game programs. However, television also broadcast news and important information about world events. It broadcast some education programs too. The number of radio and television stations around the world increased. It became harder for a dictator to control information. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-fifties, two important events took place that greatly affected the communication of information. The first was a television broadcast that showed the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States at the same time. The two coasts were linked by a cable that carried the pictures. So people watching the program saw the Pacific Ocean on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen they saw the Atlantic Ocean. It was not a film. People could see two reporters talk to each other although they were separated by a continent. Modern technology made this possible. The other event happened on September twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty-six. That was when the first telephone cable under the Atlantic Ocean made it possible to make direct telephone calls from the United States to Europe. Less than six years later, in July nineteen-sixty-two, the first communications satellite was placed in orbit around the Earth. The speed of information again greatly increased. VOICE ONE: By the year nineteen-hundred, big city newspapers provided the people of the city with news that was only hours old. Now, both radio and television, with the aid of satellite communications, could provide information immediately. People who lived in a small village could listen to or watch world events as they happened. A good example is when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Millions of people around the world watched as he carefully stepped onto the moon on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. People in large cities, small towns and villages saw the event as it was happening. There was no delay in communicating this important information. VOICE TWO: Only a few years after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, the United States Department of Defense began an experiment. That experiment led to a system to pass huge amounts of information around the world in seconds. Experts called it the beginning of the Information Age. The story of that experiment will be our report next week on EXPLORATIONS. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week on the Voice of America for our second program about the Information Age. Information always has been extremely important. Throughout history, some information has had value beyond measure. The lack of information often cost huge amounts of money and, sometimes, many lives. Battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815One example of this took place near the American city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Britain and the United States were fighting the War of Eighteen-Twelve. American and British forces fought near New Orleans on January eighth, eighteen-fifteen. The battle of New Orleans is a famous battle. As in all large battles, hundreds of troops were killed or wounded. After the battle, the Americans and the British learned there had been no need to fight. Negotiators for the United States and Britain had signed a peace treaty in the city of Ghent, Belgium, two weeks earlier. Yet news of the treaty had not reached the United States before the opposing troops met in New Orleans. The battle had been a terrible waste. People died because information about the peace treaty traveled so slowly. VOICE TWO: From the beginning of human history, information traveled only as fast as a ship could sail. Or a horse could run. Or a person could walk. People experimented with other ways to send messages. Some people tried using birds to carry messages. Then they discovered it was not always a safe way to send or receive information. A faster method finally arrived with the invention of the telegraph. The first useful telegraphs were developed in Britain and the United States in the eighteen-thirties. The telegraph was the first instrument used to send information using wires and electricity. The telegraph sent messages between two places which were connected by telegraph wires. The person at one end would send the information. The second person would receive it. Each letter of the alphabet and each number had to be sent separately by a device called a telegraph key. The second person would write each letter on a piece of paper as it was received. Here is what it sounds like. For our example we will only send you three letters: V-O-A. We will send it two times. Listen closely. (SOUND: Telegraph key) VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-fifties, an expert with a telegraph key could send about thirty-five to forty words in a minute. It took several hours to send a lot of information. However, the telegraph permitted people who lived in cities to communicate much faster. Telegraph lines linked large city centers. The telegraph soon had a major influence on daily life. The telegraph provided information about everything. Governments, businesses and individuals used the telegraph to send information. At the same time, newspapers used the telegraph to get the information needed to tell readers what was happening in the world. Newspapers often were printed four or five times a day as new information about important stories was received over the telegraph. The telegraph was the quickest method of sending news from one place to another. VOICE TWO: On August fifth, eighteen-fifty-eight, the first message was transmitted by a wire cable under the Atlantic Ocean. The wire linked the United States and Europe by telegraph. This meant that a terrible mistake like the battle of New Orleans would not happen again. Reports of the daily news events in Europe began to appear in American newspapers. And the news of the United States appeared in European newspapers. Information now took only a matter of hours to reach most large cities in the world. This was true for the big cities linked by the telegraph. It was different, though, if you lived in a small farming town, kilometers away from the large cities. The news you got might be a day or two late. It took that long for you to receive your newspaper. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: On November second, nineteen-twenty, radio station K-D-K-A in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcast the first radio program. That broadcast gave the results of a presidential election. Within a few short years, news and information could be heard anywhere a radio broadcast could reach. Radios did not cost much. So most people owned at least one radio. Radio reporters began to speak to the public from cities where important events were taking place. Political leaders also discovered that radio was a valuable political instrument. It permitted them to talk directly to the public. If you had a radio, you did not have to wait until your newspaper arrived. You could often hear important events as they happened. VOICE TWO: Some people learned quickly that information meant power. Many countries in the nineteen-thirties began controlling information. The government of Nazi Germany is a good example. Before and during World War Two, the government of Nazi Germany controlled all information the German people received. The government controlled all radio broadcasts and newspapers. The people of Germany only heard or read what the government wanted them to hear or read. It was illegal for them to listen to a foreign broadcast. VOICE ONE: After World War Two, a new invention appeared -- television. In the industrial countries, television quickly became common in most homes. Large companies were formed to produce television programs. These companies were called networks. Networks include many television stations linked together that could broadcast the same program at the same time. Most of the programs were designed to entertain people. There were movies, music programs and game programs. However, television also broadcast news and important information about world events. It broadcast some education programs too. The number of radio and television stations around the world increased. It became harder for a dictator to control information. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-fifties, two important events took place that greatly affected the communication of information. The first was a television broadcast that showed the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States at the same time. The two coasts were linked by a cable that carried the pictures. So people watching the program saw the Pacific Ocean on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen they saw the Atlantic Ocean. It was not a film. People could see two reporters talk to each other although they were separated by a continent. Modern technology made this possible. The other event happened on September twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty-six. That was when the first telephone cable under the Atlantic Ocean made it possible to make direct telephone calls from the United States to Europe. Less than six years later, in July nineteen-sixty-two, the first communications satellite was placed in orbit around the Earth. The speed of information again greatly increased. VOICE ONE: By the year nineteen-hundred, big city newspapers provided the people of the city with news that was only hours old. Now, both radio and television, with the aid of satellite communications, could provide information immediately. People who lived in a small village could listen to or watch world events as they happened. A good example is when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Millions of people around the world watched as he carefully stepped onto the moon on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. People in large cities, small towns and villages saw the event as it was happening. There was no delay in communicating this important information. VOICE TWO: Only a few years after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, the United States Department of Defense began an experiment. That experiment led to a system to pass huge amounts of information around the world in seconds. Experts called it the beginning of the Information Age. The story of that experiment will be our report next week on EXPLORATIONS. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week on the Voice of America for our second program about the Information Age. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - October 16, 2002: Debate About Smallpox Vaccine
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American medical groups are urging the government to limit the use of the vaccine medicine to prevent the disease smallpox. Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Smallpox can damage the brain and other body organs. Smallpox kills about thirty percent of the people who get it. There is no treatment. The vaccine ended the threat of smallpox around the world in nineteen-seventy-seven. But now, American officials fear that terrorists may have the virus and could use it in a biological attack. The Bush administration’s top bioterrorism advisors have developed a plan to protect the American people. They would begin by giving the vaccine to five-hundred-thousand health care workers and ten-million emergency workers. The plan would also provide the vaccine to all Americans in two years. The experts say each person would decide if he or she wants the vaccine. The smallpox vaccine can be dangerous. It can even kill. The vaccine is a live virus that is related to the one that causes smallpox. The vaccine can spread throughout a person’s body and cause infection. Records from the nineteen-sixties show that one or two people died for every one-million people who received the vaccine. Nine other people suffered brain infections and more than one-hundred people developed severe skin infections. Hundreds of other people developed other health problems. Medical professionals expect that even more people would suffer such reactions today. This is because many more people have weakened body defense systems against disease. These include cancer patients who have been treated with chemotherapy drugs, people who are infected with the AIDS virus and people with skin diseases like eczema. Doctors also say the current smallpox vaccine has not been tested on children and may not be safe for them. The smallpox vaccine is effective against the disease four days after it is given. Doctors say that everyone should get the vaccine if smallpox was used in a biological attack. But many experts say it is too dangerous to give to the general public unless that happens. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. American medical groups are urging the government to limit the use of the vaccine medicine to prevent the disease smallpox. Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Smallpox can damage the brain and other body organs. Smallpox kills about thirty percent of the people who get it. There is no treatment. The vaccine ended the threat of smallpox around the world in nineteen-seventy-seven. But now, American officials fear that terrorists may have the virus and could use it in a biological attack. The Bush administration’s top bioterrorism advisors have developed a plan to protect the American people. They would begin by giving the vaccine to five-hundred-thousand health care workers and ten-million emergency workers. The plan would also provide the vaccine to all Americans in two years. The experts say each person would decide if he or she wants the vaccine. The smallpox vaccine can be dangerous. It can even kill. The vaccine is a live virus that is related to the one that causes smallpox. The vaccine can spread throughout a person’s body and cause infection. Records from the nineteen-sixties show that one or two people died for every one-million people who received the vaccine. Nine other people suffered brain infections and more than one-hundred people developed severe skin infections. Hundreds of other people developed other health problems. Medical professionals expect that even more people would suffer such reactions today. This is because many more people have weakened body defense systems against disease. These include cancer patients who have been treated with chemotherapy drugs, people who are infected with the AIDS virus and people with skin diseases like eczema. Doctors also say the current smallpox vaccine has not been tested on children and may not be safe for them. The smallpox vaccine is effective against the disease four days after it is given. Doctors say that everyone should get the vaccine if smallpox was used in a biological attack. But many experts say it is too dangerous to give to the general public unless that happens. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 15, 2002 : Gene Map of Malaria / Concerns About Genetic Engineering / AIDS Warning for Five Countries
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a major new discovery about the organisms that cause and spread the disease malaria. We tell about some concerns about genetic engineering. And we tell about a serious increase in the disease AIDS in five countries. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Two international teams of scientists have completed a map of the genetic material of the main organism that causes malaria. They also have mapped the genes of the mosquito insect that spreads the disease to people. Experts say this genetic information will speed the development of new drugs to treat or prevent the deadly disease. Malaria infects about five-hundred-million people each year. Ninety percent of them are in southern Africa. The disease kills more than two-and-one-half-million people a year. Most of the victims are children. Doctors say new drugs and chemicals against malaria are urgently needed. All of the major chemicals and drugs in use are old and their effectiveness is decreasing. VOICE TWO: The latest research appeared in the British publication Nature and the American publication Science. The results also were announced at news conferences in London and Washington, D.C. More than one-hundred-sixty scientists from ten countries identified the genetic maps. A number of public and private organizations paid for the research. American and British scientists led the effort to complete the genetic map of the Anopheles gambiae (an-OFF-oh-leez GAM-bee) mosquito. This insect is sometimes called a “malaria machine.” The female mosquito spreads the most severe kind of malaria. The insect breaks through human skin with its long, tube-like feeding device. The female mosquito bites people and drinks their blood. When it bites a person with malaria, the mosquito gets the organism that causes the disease. This organism is a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum (plas-MO-dee-um fall-SIP-ah-rum). The parasite invades the mosquito’s stomach and reproduces. The mosquito then bites other people and spreads the malaria parasite to them. VOICE ONE: The scientists collected genetic material from seven-hundred-sixty mosquitoes. A computer program showed that the mosquito has about fourteen-thousand genes. The researchers found seventy-nine genes that are probably involved in the mosquito’s sense of smell. They also found seventy-two genes probably involved in its sense of taste. This information could lead to better chemicals to protect people from mosquito bites. The researchers also identified which mosquito genes act after the mosquito drinks human blood. Some of these genes protect the insect. They remove poisons from iron in the blood. The mosquitoes would die if this process could be blocked. VOICE TWO: The researchers also identified the genes in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. They found that the parasite has about five-thousand-three-hundred genes. About two-thirds of these genes are not similar to any human genes. This suggests that chemicals developed to attack the parasite might not harm humans. One such drug has been proven effective in animals. The scientists also found the genes the parasite uses to invade red blood cells in humans. Malaria infection might be prevented if the action of those genes could be blocked. The parasite appears to have more than two-hundred genes that help it defeat the human body’s defense system against disease. VOICE ONE: Anthony Fauci (FOW-chee) directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases near Washington, D-C. Doctor Fauci praised the research. He noted that scientists now have identified the genes of the three organisms involved in malaria – the parasite, the mosquito and the human victim. A scientist with the World Health Organization said the research is an important development in the history of science. He said the powers of modern technology are being used against an ancient disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: A new report released by the National Academy of Sciences concerns genetically engineered plants and animals. The report says the greatest concern is that they may become mixed with wild animal and plant populations. A committee of the National Research Council wrote the report. The United States Food and Drug Administration requested the report. That agency is preparing to rule on the safety of animal and plant products that are developed through genetic engineering. VOICE ONE: The report says that genetically changed animals or plants may escape into the wild. Some kinds of animals like fish, birds and insects can move very quickly. They could easily spread and reproduce faster than wild animals. This means that wild animals might not be able to compete with genetically engineered ones for food and mates. The study also says that there are unknown dangers from the substances produced by genetically engineered animals. Genetically changed animals might produce proteins that cause serious health reactions in some people. These reactions are called allergies. A large percentage of people might react severely to some protein produced through an unknown side-effect of genetic change. VOICE TWO: Another issue of concern is the use of products that come from animals genetically engineered to produce non-food products. For example, a cow that is genetically changed for the qualities of its skin, or leather, should not be used for food. The committee says it is important to make sure that no food products come from such animals. This will require official action and new laws. The committee said the well-being of genetically changed animals is also a major issue. It found that there are several effects that scientists should investigate more carefully. For example, studies have found that genetically changed cows and sheep give birth to baby animals that are much larger than normal. This has caused an increase in births that require operations instead of natural births. Genetic engineering sometimes causes major genetic mistakes. The results of these genetic mistakes are animals with abnormal body parts or changed chemical qualities. The way animals act also can be changed genetically. Currently, there are few laws governing how to deal with genetically engineered animals and plants. The Food and Drug Administration has asked the owners of several hundred genetically copied cows to avoid selling them or permitting them to reproduce. The F-D-A has not yet decided if the cows or their products can safely be sold or used. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A new American report warns that rates of infection from the AIDS virus will rise sharply by the year two-thousand-ten. The National Intelligence Council prepared the report for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. It says the increase will result mainly from the spread of AIDS in five countries. They are China, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Russia. The report estimates that the number of people infected in those countries could increase to between fifty-million and seventy-five-million. That is three times the number currently estimated. It also is far more than the number of AIDS cases expected in central and southern Africa. That number is expected to increase to as many as thirty-five-million people. VOICE TWO: China, India, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Russia have more than forty percent of the world’s population. Officials warn that the increase of AIDS could harm the economic, social, political and military systems in these countries. The report estimates that India might have as many as twenty-five-million AIDS victims by two-thousand-ten. That is the highest estimate of any country. The report says the AIDS virus is spreading at different rates in the five countries. It says that risky sexual activity is increasing infection rates in all five. The problem is reported to be most severe in Nigeria and Ethiopia. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Mario Ritter and George Grow. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - October 15, 2002: Composting
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many farmers around the world are composting to improve their soil so they can produce better crops. Composting is mixing plant or animal wastes so they break down and produce simpler substances. Farmers add compost to their soils instead of burning plant and animal wastes or throwing them away. Compost is an example of a natural organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers help make soils rich so that they produce more crops for a longer time. During the growing season, plants take gases from the air such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They combine these gases with minerals from the soil. After the growing season ends, many parts of the plant die. Farmers gather a large amount of dead plant materials into small hills called compost piles. They may add animal wastes. They must add water so the materials will break down or decay. Soon the plants are attacked by insects and organisms, including worms and bacteria. Oxygen helps the organisms change the plant materials more quickly. The plants decay into a mixture that can be spread on farmland where crops are growing. The compost returns needed nutrients to the soil. Some rules need to be followed to produce the best quality compost. Good compost piles need water to speed the process of decay. Yet the piles should not be too wet or the plant material will be ruined. The temperature of the compost pile should not be too high or too low. The best temperature for a compost pile is between 30 degrees and 37 degrees Celsius. You can turn the pile over and over to help cool the material. Turning the compost pile over adds more oxygen to the mixture. This helps it decay. Sometimes small animals such as rats and mice like to eat the composting materials. You can prevent this by adding a thin amount of soil to the top of the compost pile. Farmers who use compost can increase the amount and quality of their crops. Computer users can find more information about composting from Volunteers in Technical Assistance or VITA. VITA is an organization based in the United States that helps people around the world use science and technology to solve problems. VITA’s Internet address is w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 17, 2002: The 1960s
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. Bus in Fourth of July parade, New Mexico, 1968.(Copyright - Lisa Law) VOICE 1: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 2: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen-sixties. (Copyright - Lisa Law) VOICE 2: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we tell about life in the United States during the nineteen-sixties. VOICE 1: The nineteen-sixties began with the election of the first president born in the twentieth century -- John Kennedy. For many Americans, the young president was the symbol of a spirit of hope for the nation. When Kennedy was murdered in nineteen-sixty-three, many felt that their hopes died, too. This was especially true of young people, and members and supporters of minority groups. VOICE 2: A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. More Americans protested to demand an end to the unfair treatment of black citizens. More protested to demand an end to the war in Vietnam. And more protested to demand full equality for women. By the middle of the nineteen-sixties, it had become almost impossible for President Lyndon Johnson to leave the White House without facing protesters against the war in Vietnam. In March of nineteen-sixty-eight, he announced that he would not run for another term. VOICE 1: (Copyright - Lisa Law) VOICE 1: The nineteen-sixties began with the election of the first president born in the twentieth century -- John Kennedy. For many Americans, the young president was the symbol of a spirit of hope for the nation. When Kennedy was murdered in nineteen-sixty-three, many felt that their hopes died, too. This was especially true of young people, and members and supporters of minority groups. VOICE 2: A time of innocence and hope soon began to look like a time of anger and violence. More Americans protested to demand an end to the unfair treatment of black citizens. More protested to demand an end to the war in Vietnam. And more protested to demand full equality for women. By the middle of the nineteen-sixties, it had become almost impossible for President Lyndon Johnson to leave the White House without facing protesters against the war in Vietnam. In March of nineteen-sixty-eight, he announced that he would not run for another term. VOICE 1: In addition to President John Kennedy, two other influential leaders were murdered during the nineteen-sixties. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen-sixty-eight. Several weeks later, Robert Kennedy -- John Kennedy's brother -- was shot in Los Angeles, California. He was campaigning to win his party's nomination for president. Their deaths resulted in riots in cities across the country. VOICE 2: The unrest and violence affected many young Americans. The effect seemed especially bad because of the time in which they had grown up. By the middle nineteen-fifties, most of their parents had jobs that paid well. They expressed satisfaction with their lives. They taught their children what were called "middle class" values. These included a belief in God, hard work, and service to their country. VOICE 1: Later, many young Americans began to question these beliefs. They felt that their parents' values were not enough to help them deal with the social and racial difficulties of the nineteen-sixties. They rebelled by letting their hair grow long and by wearing strange clothes. Their dissatisfaction was strongly expressed in music. Rock-and-roll music had become very popular in America in the nineteen-fifties. Some people, however, did not approve of it. They thought it was too sexual. These people disliked the rock-and-roll of the nineteen-sixties even more. They found the words especially unpleasant. VOICE 2: The musicians themselves thought the words were extremely important. As singer and song writer Bob Dylan said, "There would be no music without the words." Bob Dylan produced many songs of social protest. He wrote anti-war songs before the war in Vietnam became a violent issue. One was called "Blowin' in the Wind. " (MUSIC) VOICE 1: In addition to songs of social protest, rock-and-roll music continued to be popular in America during the nineteen-sixties. The most popular group, however, was not American. It was British -- the Beatles -- four rock-and-roll musicians from Liverpool. (MUSIC) That was the Beatles' song "I Want to Hold Your Hand. " It went on sale in the United States at the end of nineteen-sixty-three. Within five weeks, it was the biggest-selling record in America. VOICE 2: Other songs, including some by the Beatles, sounded more revolutionary. They spoke about drugs and sex, although not always openly. "Do your own thing" became a common expression. It meant to do whatever you wanted, without feeling guilty. Five-hundred-thousand young Americans "did their own thing" at the Woodstock music festival in nineteen-sixty-nine. They gathered at a farm in New York state. They listened to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez, and to groups such as The Who and Jefferson Airplane. Woodstock became a symbol of the young peoples' rebellion against traditional values. The young people themselves were called "hippies." Hippies believed there should be more love and personal freedom in America. VOICE 1: In nineteen-sixty-seven, poet Allen Ginsberg helped lead a gathering of hippies in San Francisco. No one knows exactly how many people considered themselves hippies. But twenty-thousand attended the gathering. Another leader of the event was Timothy Leary. He was a former university professor and researcher. Leary urged the crowd in San Francisco to "tune in and drop out". This meant they should use drugs and leave school or their job. One drug that was used in the nineteen-sixties was lysergic acid diethylamide, or L-S-D. L-S-D causes the brain to see strange, colorful images. It also can cause brain damage. Some people say the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was about L-S-D. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE 2: As many Americans were listening to songs about drugs and sex, many others were watching television programs with traditional family values. These included "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies. " At the movies, some films captured the rebellious spirit of the times. These included "Doctor Strangelove" and "The Graduate. " Others offered escape through spy adventures, like the James Bond films. VOICE 1: Many Americans refused to tune in and drop out in the nineteen-sixties. They took no part in the social revolution. Instead, they continued leading normal lives of work, family, and home. Others, the activists of American society, were busy fighting for peace, and racial and social justice. Women's groups, for example, were seeking equality with men. They wanted the same chances as men to get a good education and a good job. They also demanded equal pay for equal work. VOICE 2: A widely popular book on women in modern America was called the feminine mystique. It was written by Betty Friedan and published in nineteen-sixty-three. The idea known as the feminine mystique was the traditional idea that women have only one part to play in society. They are to have children and stay at home to raise them. In her book, Mizz Friedan urged women to establish professional lives of their own. VOICE 1: That same year, a committee was appointed to investigate the condition of women. It was led by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a former first lady. The committee's findings helped lead to new rules and laws. The nineteen-sixty-four civil rights act guaranteed equal treatment for all groups. This included women. After the law went into effect, however, many activists said it was not being enforced. The National Organization for Women -- NOW -- was started in an effort to correct the problem. VOICE 2: The movement for women's equality was known as the women's liberation movement. Activists were called "women's libbers." They called each other "sisters." Early activists were usually rich, liberal, white women. Later activists included women of all ages, women of color, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. They acted together to win recognition for the work done by all women in America. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 2: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. In addition to President John Kennedy, two other influential leaders were murdered during the nineteen-sixties. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, Tennessee, in nineteen-sixty-eight. Several weeks later, Robert Kennedy -- John Kennedy's brother -- was shot in Los Angeles, California. He was campaigning to win his party's nomination for president. Their deaths resulted in riots in cities across the country. VOICE 2: The unrest and violence affected many young Americans. The effect seemed especially bad because of the time in which they had grown up. By the middle nineteen-fifties, most of their parents had jobs that paid well. They expressed satisfaction with their lives. They taught their children what were called "middle class" values. These included a belief in God, hard work, and service to their country. VOICE 1: Later, many young Americans began to question these beliefs. They felt that their parents' values were not enough to help them deal with the social and racial difficulties of the nineteen-sixties. They rebelled by letting their hair grow long and by wearing strange clothes. Their dissatisfaction was strongly expressed in music. Rock-and-roll music had become very popular in America in the nineteen-fifties. Some people, however, did not approve of it. They thought it was too sexual. These people disliked the rock-and-roll of the nineteen-sixties even more. They found the words especially unpleasant. VOICE 2: The musicians themselves thought the words were extremely important. As singer and song writer Bob Dylan said, "There would be no music without the words." Bob Dylan produced many songs of social protest. He wrote anti-war songs before the war in Vietnam became a violent issue. One was called "Blowin' in the Wind. " (MUSIC) VOICE 1: In addition to songs of social protest, rock-and-roll music continued to be popular in America during the nineteen-sixties. The most popular group, however, was not American. It was British -- the Beatles -- four rock-and-roll musicians from Liverpool. (MUSIC) That was the Beatles' song "I Want to Hold Your Hand. " It went on sale in the United States at the end of nineteen-sixty-three. Within five weeks, it was the biggest-selling record in America. VOICE 2: Other songs, including some by the Beatles, sounded more revolutionary. They spoke about drugs and sex, although not always openly. "Do your own thing" became a common expression. It meant to do whatever you wanted, without feeling guilty. Five-hundred-thousand young Americans "did their own thing" at the Woodstock music festival in nineteen-sixty-nine. They gathered at a farm in New York state. They listened to musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez, and to groups such as The Who and Jefferson Airplane. Woodstock became a symbol of the young peoples' rebellion against traditional values. The young people themselves were called "hippies." Hippies believed there should be more love and personal freedom in America. VOICE 1: In nineteen-sixty-seven, poet Allen Ginsberg helped lead a gathering of hippies in San Francisco. No one knows exactly how many people considered themselves hippies. But twenty-thousand attended the gathering. Another leader of the event was Timothy Leary. He was a former university professor and researcher. Leary urged the crowd in San Francisco to "tune in and drop out". This meant they should use drugs and leave school or their job. One drug that was used in the nineteen-sixties was lysergic acid diethylamide, or L-S-D. L-S-D causes the brain to see strange, colorful images. It also can cause brain damage. Some people say the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was about L-S-D. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE 2: As many Americans were listening to songs about drugs and sex, many others were watching television programs with traditional family values. These included "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies. " At the movies, some films captured the rebellious spirit of the times. These included "Doctor Strangelove" and "The Graduate. " Others offered escape through spy adventures, like the James Bond films. VOICE 1: Many Americans refused to tune in and drop out in the nineteen-sixties. They took no part in the social revolution. Instead, they continued leading normal lives of work, family, and home. Others, the activists of American society, were busy fighting for peace, and racial and social justice. Women's groups, for example, were seeking equality with men. They wanted the same chances as men to get a good education and a good job. They also demanded equal pay for equal work. VOICE 2: A widely popular book on women in modern America was called the feminine mystique. It was written by Betty Friedan and published in nineteen-sixty-three. The idea known as the feminine mystique was the traditional idea that women have only one part to play in society. They are to have children and stay at home to raise them. In her book, Mizz Friedan urged women to establish professional lives of their own. VOICE 1: That same year, a committee was appointed to investigate the condition of women. It was led by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a former first lady. The committee's findings helped lead to new rules and laws. The nineteen-sixty-four civil rights act guaranteed equal treatment for all groups. This included women. After the law went into effect, however, many activists said it was not being enforced. The National Organization for Women -- NOW -- was started in an effort to correct the problem. VOICE 2: The movement for women's equality was known as the women's liberation movement. Activists were called "women's libbers." They called each other "sisters." Early activists were usually rich, liberal, white women. Later activists included women of all ages, women of color, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. They acted together to win recognition for the work done by all women in America. (Theme) VOICE 1: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 2: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 17, 2002: Foreign Student Series #5 >New Government Rules
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can attend a college or university in the United States. This report is on the Special English Internet Web site, w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. The State Department has rules for giving permission to foreign students to study in the United States. The rules can be found on the State Department’s travel Web site. The address is t-r-a-v-e-l dot s-t-a-t-e dot g-o-v. Under Services, go to Visas for Foreign Citizens to Come to the United States, Nonimmigrant Visas, Student and Exchange Visitor Visas and Applying for a Foreign Student Visa. Every foreign student who has been accepted by a college or university to study in this country must have a legal document called a visa from the United States government. The rules for getting a visa have changed since the terrorist attacks against the United States last year. National security is the most important issue in deciding if a person should be permitted to enter the United States. It now takes a longer time for a person to receive permission to enter the country. This past summer, a new policy took effect. It requires additional security investigations of men between the ages of sixteen and forty-five from twenty-six countries. Officials say these men are waiting the longest for their legal papers. A State Department spokesman said visa applications that used to be approved in days are now taking much longer. This is because officials must see if the name of each student appears on lists of foreigners with possible links to terrorists. Officials say that future security investigations are expected to take less than one month from the time of visa application. The State Department says international students are not being studied any more closely than people who want to enter the United States for other reasons. But students must enter the country before their college classes begin. So they must apply for the visa as soon as they can to permit enough time for approval. Other new rules have also taken effect. For example, universities must place a confirmation document on a State Department Web site for every international student they admit. We will have more information about this next week. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 18, 2002: Music by Heather Headley / Question from China about the U.S. Court System / National Book Festival
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Courtroom HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Heather Headley ... Answer a listener’s question about the United States court system ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Heather Headley ... Answer a listener’s question about the United States court system ... And report about a book festival in Washington, D.C. Book Festival HOST: On October twelfth, more than forty-thousand people gathered in Washington, D-C to see new educational technology and to hear writers speak about their books. The Library of Congress and President Bush’s wife, Laura Bush, organized the event. Steve Ember tells us more about the second National Book Festival. ANNCR: Large crowds visited tents on the National Mall and the West Lawn of the Capitol building. People of all ages heard music, enjoyed food and listened to readings. More than sixty writers and artists took part. This year, the Library of Congress wanted to show its progress in developing technology that helps researchers and the public. Library workers used computers to show visitors how to electronically search the library’s collection. Director of Public Services Diane Kresh said visitors can now reach librarians on the Internet’s World Wide Web. They can ask questions and get answers immediately. She said about one-thousand-million people use the collection of the Library of Congress. Most use computers. At the book festival, some of the most popular talks were given by writers of history. David Halberstam spoke about his book “Firehouse.” The book tells the story of the firefighters who died in the World Trade Center attack last year. Mister Halberstam told about their heroism in life and their sacrifice in death. Erik Weihenmayer is the first blind person to climb Mount Everest. He wrote the book, “Touch the Top of the World,” about his experiences. He is also a very good speaker. People laughed at his jokes as he made fun of himself and people’s difficulties in dealing with the blind. Nancy Milford spoke about her unusual experience researching her book “Savage Beauty.” The book tells about the life of poet Edna Saint Vincent Millay. Mizz Milford showed that Mizz Millay was once a very popular poet. Yet, today she is almost forgotten. The final speaker at the book festival was David McCullough. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for writing books called biographies that tell about the lives of real people. He praised Laura Bush for helping to organize the event. Mister McCullough spoke about what he thought made a good biography. He said, “You can have all the facts, but still miss the truth.” He said we must always remember the human side of history. U.S. Court System HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Baoming Shi asks about America’s courts of law. The United States court system includes federal and state courts. Federal courts deal with criminal and civil actions involving the United States Constitution or federal laws. Federal courts try cases involving the United States government. They hear cases between people from different states and cases involving other countries or their citizens. They also hear cases involving situations that took place on the sea and violations of ownership rights. Each state has at least one federal district court. District courts are the first courts to hear cases involving violations of federal laws. Then the cases may be heard again in appeals courts. The United States is divided into twelve district areas. Each one has a court of appeals. There is also a federal court of appeals. The federal court system also includes special courts. They try cases involving claims against the federal government, tax disputes, and military questions. State courts receive their power from state constitutions and laws. The first court that hears a case involving a state law is local, such as a county court. Other local courts hear only one kind of case. For example, small claims courts try cases involving small amounts of money. Probate courts handle family financial situations following a death. Other special courts deal with traffic accidents and disputes among family members. Higher state courts are known as circuit courts or superior courts. These hear more serious cases. The decisions from these cases may be appealed to an even higher court. The highest court in most states is its supreme court. The highest court in the nation is the United States Supreme Court. It decides questions concerning the Constitution. It also decides cases involving foreign ambassadors and disputes between states. A person who loses a case in a federal appeals court or in the highest state court may appeal to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court agrees to re-examine the case, its decision will be final. The only way to change a Supreme Court ruling on the Constitution is to change the Constitution. The only way to overturn a ruling on a federal law is to approve a new law. To learn more about the United States Supreme Court, listen to the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA on Monday. Heather Headley HOST: Singer Heather Headley is a theater performer. She was in one of the most successful musical plays in Broadway history. Now she has released an album of her own. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Heather Headley has performed in two major musical plays on Broadway in New York City. In nineteen-ninety-six, she performed in “The Lion King.” She played the part of Nala, a lion. Her performance led to a leading role in the Broadway musical play “Aida.” “Aida” is the story of a Nubian princess. Heather Headley won a Tony Award for that performance. Here she sings part of the song “Elaborate Lives” from the play “Aida.” (MUSIC) Heather Headley released a new album earlier this month. It is called “This is Who I Am.” She worked with some of the best known producers in the music industry. They praise her singing. Listen as she sings “He Is.” (MUSIC) Heather Headley helped write several songs for her album. She says she wants to perform them in concerts. We leave you now with another song from the album “This is Who I Am.” Here is the song “I Wish I Wasn’t.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And report about a book festival in Washington, D.C. Book Festival HOST: On October twelfth, more than forty-thousand people gathered in Washington, D-C to see new educational technology and to hear writers speak about their books. The Library of Congress and President Bush’s wife, Laura Bush, organized the event. Steve Ember tells us more about the second National Book Festival. ANNCR: Large crowds visited tents on the National Mall and the West Lawn of the Capitol building. People of all ages heard music, enjoyed food and listened to readings. More than sixty writers and artists took part. This year, the Library of Congress wanted to show its progress in developing technology that helps researchers and the public. Library workers used computers to show visitors how to electronically search the library’s collection. Director of Public Services Diane Kresh said visitors can now reach librarians on the Internet’s World Wide Web. They can ask questions and get answers immediately. She said about one-thousand-million people use the collection of the Library of Congress. Most use computers. At the book festival, some of the most popular talks were given by writers of history. David Halberstam spoke about his book “Firehouse.” The book tells the story of the firefighters who died in the World Trade Center attack last year. Mister Halberstam told about their heroism in life and their sacrifice in death. Erik Weihenmayer is the first blind person to climb Mount Everest. He wrote the book, “Touch the Top of the World,” about his experiences. He is also a very good speaker. People laughed at his jokes as he made fun of himself and people’s difficulties in dealing with the blind. Nancy Milford spoke about her unusual experience researching her book “Savage Beauty.” The book tells about the life of poet Edna Saint Vincent Millay. Mizz Milford showed that Mizz Millay was once a very popular poet. Yet, today she is almost forgotten. The final speaker at the book festival was David McCullough. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for writing books called biographies that tell about the lives of real people. He praised Laura Bush for helping to organize the event. Mister McCullough spoke about what he thought made a good biography. He said, “You can have all the facts, but still miss the truth.” He said we must always remember the human side of history. U.S. Court System HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Baoming Shi asks about America’s courts of law. The United States court system includes federal and state courts. Federal courts deal with criminal and civil actions involving the United States Constitution or federal laws. Federal courts try cases involving the United States government. They hear cases between people from different states and cases involving other countries or their citizens. They also hear cases involving situations that took place on the sea and violations of ownership rights. Each state has at least one federal district court. District courts are the first courts to hear cases involving violations of federal laws. Then the cases may be heard again in appeals courts. The United States is divided into twelve district areas. Each one has a court of appeals. There is also a federal court of appeals. The federal court system also includes special courts. They try cases involving claims against the federal government, tax disputes, and military questions. State courts receive their power from state constitutions and laws. The first court that hears a case involving a state law is local, such as a county court. Other local courts hear only one kind of case. For example, small claims courts try cases involving small amounts of money. Probate courts handle family financial situations following a death. Other special courts deal with traffic accidents and disputes among family members. Higher state courts are known as circuit courts or superior courts. These hear more serious cases. The decisions from these cases may be appealed to an even higher court. The highest court in most states is its supreme court. The highest court in the nation is the United States Supreme Court. It decides questions concerning the Constitution. It also decides cases involving foreign ambassadors and disputes between states. A person who loses a case in a federal appeals court or in the highest state court may appeal to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court agrees to re-examine the case, its decision will be final. The only way to change a Supreme Court ruling on the Constitution is to change the Constitution. The only way to overturn a ruling on a federal law is to approve a new law. To learn more about the United States Supreme Court, listen to the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA on Monday. Heather Headley HOST: Singer Heather Headley is a theater performer. She was in one of the most successful musical plays in Broadway history. Now she has released an album of her own. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Heather Headley has performed in two major musical plays on Broadway in New York City. In nineteen-ninety-six, she performed in “The Lion King.” She played the part of Nala, a lion. Her performance led to a leading role in the Broadway musical play “Aida.” “Aida” is the story of a Nubian princess. Heather Headley won a Tony Award for that performance. Here she sings part of the song “Elaborate Lives” from the play “Aida.” (MUSIC) Heather Headley released a new album earlier this month. It is called “This is Who I Am.” She worked with some of the best known producers in the music industry. They praise her singing. Listen as she sings “He Is.” (MUSIC) Heather Headley helped write several songs for her album. She says she wants to perform them in concerts. We leave you now with another song from the album “This is Who I Am.” Here is the song “I Wish I Wasn’t.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – October 18, 2002: Solar House Competition
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Experts say in the near future, many houses in the United States will be powered by energy from the sun. Many people in Washington, D-C, recently were able to see what some of those homes might look like. Several hundred college students from across the country took part in a competition to see who could build the best solar-powered house. The United States Department of Energy organized the competition. Students from fourteen colleges and universities took part in this Solar Decathlon competition. Student teams competed in a series of ten contests to see who could design, build and operate the best house powered only by the sun. The solar homes were built on the National Mall, the grassy open area between the United States Capitol building and the Washington Monument. The solar houses were set up in the middle. Each team included at least twenty students of design, architecture and building sciences. The students gained the money to buy equipment and materials for their house. Each house cost as much as two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars to build. A solar-powered house has a roof designed to take in the heat of the sun and change it to energy. That power is then stored in a battery bank which supplies power to the whole house. As part of the competition, the teams were expected to spend most of the day in their homes doing normal activities. The activities used electricity powered by the sun. For example, the students cooked food, used computers, operated lights and washed clothes in machines. They even drove around the solar village in electric cars powered by a solar battery. Richard King is the director of the United States Department of Energy’s solar energy programs. He created the idea for the Solar Decathlon. He says the contest is designed to show Americans that solar energy works. He says the use of solar energy in the United States is less than in other parts of the world. Seventy-percent of solar equipment made in the United States is sold to developing countries. Mister King says only about twenty-thousand American homes are solar-powered. He says contests such as the Solar Decathlon could influence more builders and homeowners to support the use of solar energy. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Experts say in the near future, many houses in the United States will be powered by energy from the sun. Many people in Washington, D-C, recently were able to see what some of those homes might look like. Several hundred college students from across the country took part in a competition to see who could build the best solar-powered house. The United States Department of Energy organized the competition. Students from fourteen colleges and universities took part in this Solar Decathlon competition. Student teams competed in a series of ten contests to see who could design, build and operate the best house powered only by the sun. The solar homes were built on the National Mall, the grassy open area between the United States Capitol building and the Washington Monument. The solar houses were set up in the middle. Each team included at least twenty students of design, architecture and building sciences. The students gained the money to buy equipment and materials for their house. Each house cost as much as two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars to build. A solar-powered house has a roof designed to take in the heat of the sun and change it to energy. That power is then stored in a battery bank which supplies power to the whole house. As part of the competition, the teams were expected to spend most of the day in their homes doing normal activities. The activities used electricity powered by the sun. For example, the students cooked food, used computers, operated lights and washed clothes in machines. They even drove around the solar village in electric cars powered by a solar battery. Richard King is the director of the United States Department of Energy’s solar energy programs. He created the idea for the Solar Decathlon. He says the contest is designed to show Americans that solar energy works. He says the use of solar energy in the United States is less than in other parts of the world. Seventy-percent of solar equipment made in the United States is sold to developing countries. Mister King says only about twenty-thousand American homes are solar-powered. He says contests such as the Solar Decathlon could influence more builders and homeowners to support the use of solar energy. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-17-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 17, 2002 - 'Who's on First?'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 17, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: October 20, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some baseball word play in honor of the World Series. RS: We've got a classic skit about baseball. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello perform a linguistically challenging bit of comedy called "Who's on First?" You'll find out -- but these two old-time comedians talk pretty quickly, so listen closely. [TAPE -- texts of "Who's on First?" can be found on the Internet] RS: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello with "Who's on First?" from the 1945 movie "Naughty Nineties." And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 17, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: October 20, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- some baseball word play in honor of the World Series. RS: We've got a classic skit about baseball. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello perform a linguistically challenging bit of comedy called "Who's on First?" You'll find out -- but these two old-time comedians talk pretty quickly, so listen closely. [TAPE -- texts of "Who's on First?" can be found on the Internet] RS: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello with "Who's on First?" from the 1945 movie "Naughty Nineties." And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 21, 2002: Supreme Court
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The highest court in the United States began its term this month. From now until the end of June, it will rule on issues that affect Americans in important ways. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: The highest court in the United States began its term this month. From now until the end of June, it will rule on issues that affect Americans in important ways. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Supreme Court is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Congress created the Supreme Court of the United States more than two-hundred years ago. The court has ruled on many disputed cases since then. Its duty is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the United States Constitution. The president appoints Supreme Court justices. The Senate approves them. The court has a chief justice and eight associate justices. The justices serve as long as they wish. Seven men and two women now serve on the court. They will hear eighty or more cases during the current term. The court already has accepted forty-five cases. Experts say the cases are likely to produce many decisions about important issues. These include criminal law, illegal immigrants, minority students in colleges and financing political campaigns. VOICE TWO: For example, the Supreme Court will consider a case about the length of prison sentences. The state of California has enacted a law affecting people found guilty of three crimes. The law orders that these people serve from twenty-five years to the rest of their lives in prison. It is the most severe in the country. Many people oppose this law. They say it violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution if a person’s third crime is a minor property crime. The Eighth Amendment protects against cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court justices will hear two cases about people punished under the California law. In one case, the criminal’s third crime was stealing about one-hundred-fifty dollars worth of videotapes. In the other case, a man stole three pieces of sports equipment. VOICE ONE: Lower courts are now dealing with some of America’s most important issues. But legal experts say the Supreme Court probably will consider some of these cases during its current term. Two such cases deal with anti-terrorism measures. The Justice Department has ordered hearings that are closed to the public for illegal immigrants it considers of special interest to its terrorism investigation. These hearings decide if the immigrants will be sent back to their own countries. Such hearings usually were public. But that changed after the terrorist attacks in the United States last year. One federal appeals court rejected closed hearings. It said, “Democracy dies behind closed doors.” Another court disagreed. It said the nation needs secret hearings to defend against terrorism. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court also will consider another anti-terrorism measure. The measure affects American citizens suspected of fighting for the enemy. These people may be held without charges and without legal advice. The Constitution guarantees citizens the right to be charged and have a quick trial. It also guarantees the right to a lawyer. But the government says these rights must be suspended to protect security. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court also may hear cases about how universities decide which students to accept. Students have brought two legal actions against the University of Michigan. The university has a program designed to accept more minority students. White students denounce this affirmative action policy. They claim it unfairly reduces their own chances to be accepted at the university. The students say affirmative action violates the Constitution. A nineteen-seventy-eight Supreme Court decision appeared to permit programs aimed at improving racial balance. Many colleges and universities began such plans after that decision. If the Court changes that decision, its action would have a major effect on higher education. VOICE TWO: The high court also may hear a case about money given to political campaigns. Congress recently passed a law meant to reform methods of campaign finance. It limits the amount of money that can be given to a candidate seeking office. It also limits a candidate’s advertisements – paid campaign messages. Senator Mitch McConnell brought legal action against the measure. The senator had led the fight against it in the Senate.Three judges of the United States District Court in Washington, D-C are to hear the case in early December. Legal experts say the side losing this case will surely appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: For each case, Supreme Court justices hear arguments by lawyers on both sides. The justices question the lawyers to get more information. They read a great deal of written information about the case. Then they discuss the case and vote. A majority of the votes of the nine justices decides what will become the law of the land. One of the justices who voted with the majority writes the opinion of the court. This opinion explains the decision made in the case. Some justices may disagree with the majority. When that happens, a justice who disagreed writes the dissenting opinion. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court was established in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. It was created as one of the three major divisions of the United States government. The American Constitution gave the legislative division -- the Congress -- the power to pass laws. It gave the executive division -- the president and other government agencies -- power to carry out these laws. And, it gave the judicial division -- the Supreme Court and lower courts -- the power to decide legal disputes involving these laws. At first, this seemed to make the judicial division the weakest part of the federal government. But then, in Eighteen-Oh-Three, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the Court could decide if laws already passed by Congress were constitutional. Since that time, the Supreme Court has played an important part in approving or disapproving actions taken by Congress and the president. VOICE ONE: Most of the cases the Supreme Court considers already have been judged in a lower court. The Supreme Court hears appeals of the decisions made by lower courts that involve federal and state laws. If the Court agrees to re-examine a case, then its decision is final. It cannot be vetoed by either the president or Congress. The president and members of Congress are elected every few years. To be re-elected, they must base their actions at least partly on what the voters want. However, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. Their loyalty is not to voters. It is to a permanent document, the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO: American presidents can play an important part in changing the Supreme Court. Most presidents have the chance to appoint one or more new justices to fill the places of justices who retire or die. President Bush may have this chance. Two current justices are over age seventy. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor could decide to retire during the next two years. VOICE ONE: At different times in American history, the Supreme Court has helped make major changes in American society. In Eighteen-Ninety-Six, for example, the Supreme Court said it was legal to have separate public places for black people and white people. The Court said this was legal as long as those places provided equally good services. That decision was used as a reason to permit racial separation in many American schools for almost sixty years. However, in Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Supreme Court said racial separation in American schools did violate the Constitution. It said separate schools never could be equally good schools. That decision helped end racial separation in the nation's schools. And it helped launch a major movement to gain racial equality for African Americans. VOICE TWO: Not all Supreme Court cases result in historic decisions. But many of them do. Experts say the Supreme Court judges could produce important rulings that will make this term a historic one. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The Supreme Court is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Congress created the Supreme Court of the United States more than two-hundred years ago. The court has ruled on many disputed cases since then. Its duty is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the United States Constitution. The president appoints Supreme Court justices. The Senate approves them. The court has a chief justice and eight associate justices. The justices serve as long as they wish. Seven men and two women now serve on the court. They will hear eighty or more cases during the current term. The court already has accepted forty-five cases. Experts say the cases are likely to produce many decisions about important issues. These include criminal law, illegal immigrants, minority students in colleges and financing political campaigns. VOICE TWO: For example, the Supreme Court will consider a case about the length of prison sentences. The state of California has enacted a law affecting people found guilty of three crimes. The law orders that these people serve from twenty-five years to the rest of their lives in prison. It is the most severe in the country. Many people oppose this law. They say it violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution if a person’s third crime is a minor property crime. The Eighth Amendment protects against cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court justices will hear two cases about people punished under the California law. In one case, the criminal’s third crime was stealing about one-hundred-fifty dollars worth of videotapes. In the other case, a man stole three pieces of sports equipment. VOICE ONE: Lower courts are now dealing with some of America’s most important issues. But legal experts say the Supreme Court probably will consider some of these cases during its current term. Two such cases deal with anti-terrorism measures. The Justice Department has ordered hearings that are closed to the public for illegal immigrants it considers of special interest to its terrorism investigation. These hearings decide if the immigrants will be sent back to their own countries. Such hearings usually were public. But that changed after the terrorist attacks in the United States last year. One federal appeals court rejected closed hearings. It said, “Democracy dies behind closed doors.” Another court disagreed. It said the nation needs secret hearings to defend against terrorism. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court also will consider another anti-terrorism measure. The measure affects American citizens suspected of fighting for the enemy. These people may be held without charges and without legal advice. The Constitution guarantees citizens the right to be charged and have a quick trial. It also guarantees the right to a lawyer. But the government says these rights must be suspended to protect security. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Supreme Court also may hear cases about how universities decide which students to accept. Students have brought two legal actions against the University of Michigan. The university has a program designed to accept more minority students. White students denounce this affirmative action policy. They claim it unfairly reduces their own chances to be accepted at the university. The students say affirmative action violates the Constitution. A nineteen-seventy-eight Supreme Court decision appeared to permit programs aimed at improving racial balance. Many colleges and universities began such plans after that decision. If the Court changes that decision, its action would have a major effect on higher education. VOICE TWO: The high court also may hear a case about money given to political campaigns. Congress recently passed a law meant to reform methods of campaign finance. It limits the amount of money that can be given to a candidate seeking office. It also limits a candidate’s advertisements – paid campaign messages. Senator Mitch McConnell brought legal action against the measure. The senator had led the fight against it in the Senate.Three judges of the United States District Court in Washington, D-C are to hear the case in early December. Legal experts say the side losing this case will surely appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: For each case, Supreme Court justices hear arguments by lawyers on both sides. The justices question the lawyers to get more information. They read a great deal of written information about the case. Then they discuss the case and vote. A majority of the votes of the nine justices decides what will become the law of the land. One of the justices who voted with the majority writes the opinion of the court. This opinion explains the decision made in the case. Some justices may disagree with the majority. When that happens, a justice who disagreed writes the dissenting opinion. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court was established in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. It was created as one of the three major divisions of the United States government. The American Constitution gave the legislative division -- the Congress -- the power to pass laws. It gave the executive division -- the president and other government agencies -- power to carry out these laws. And, it gave the judicial division -- the Supreme Court and lower courts -- the power to decide legal disputes involving these laws. At first, this seemed to make the judicial division the weakest part of the federal government. But then, in Eighteen-Oh-Three, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the Court could decide if laws already passed by Congress were constitutional. Since that time, the Supreme Court has played an important part in approving or disapproving actions taken by Congress and the president. VOICE ONE: Most of the cases the Supreme Court considers already have been judged in a lower court. The Supreme Court hears appeals of the decisions made by lower courts that involve federal and state laws. If the Court agrees to re-examine a case, then its decision is final. It cannot be vetoed by either the president or Congress. The president and members of Congress are elected every few years. To be re-elected, they must base their actions at least partly on what the voters want. However, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. Their loyalty is not to voters. It is to a permanent document, the United States Constitution. VOICE TWO: American presidents can play an important part in changing the Supreme Court. Most presidents have the chance to appoint one or more new justices to fill the places of justices who retire or die. President Bush may have this chance. Two current justices are over age seventy. Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor could decide to retire during the next two years. VOICE ONE: At different times in American history, the Supreme Court has helped make major changes in American society. In Eighteen-Ninety-Six, for example, the Supreme Court said it was legal to have separate public places for black people and white people. The Court said this was legal as long as those places provided equally good services. That decision was used as a reason to permit racial separation in many American schools for almost sixty years. However, in Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Supreme Court said racial separation in American schools did violate the Constitution. It said separate schools never could be equally good schools. That decision helped end racial separation in the nation's schools. And it helped launch a major movement to gain racial equality for African Americans. VOICE TWO: Not all Supreme Court cases result in historic decisions. But many of them do. Experts say the Supreme Court judges could produce important rulings that will make this term a historic one. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 20, 2002: Stephen Foster
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Stephen Foster, America's first popular professional songwriter. (music Bridge) VOICE 1: You may have heard the old traditional American songs "Oh! Susanna," "Camptown Races" and "My Old Kentucky Home. " But, do you know who wrote them. Stephen Foster. He wrote those and more than two hundred other songs during the eighteen-forties and eighteen-fifties. His best songs have become part of America's cultural history. They have become American folk songs. Many people in America learned to sing these songs when they were children. Most Americans can sing these songs today. VOICE 2: Stephen Collins Foster was born on July fourth, eighteen-twenty-six, in what is now part of the city of Pittsburgh, in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. He was the ninth child of William and Eliza Foster. He did not have much musical training. But he had a great natural ability for music. He taught himself to play several musical instruments. He could play any music just by listening to it. Stephen Foster began writing songs when he was fourteen. In eighteen-forty-seven, he wrote his first successful song, "Oh! Susanna. " Ken Emerson wrote a book about Stephen Foster. It is called "Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the rise of American popular culture. " Mr. Emerson says "Oh! Susanna" was the first internationally popular song written by an American that everyone can still recognize and sing today. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Stephen Foster married Jane McDowell in eighteen-fifty. He wrote many new songs. Some of them were about love. One of the best known is "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair " He wrote it for his wife when they were separated. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Stephen Foster wrote almost thirty songs for minstrel shows. Minstrel shows became popular in the United States in the eighteen-forties. White entertainers blackened their faces and performed as if they were black entertainers. Minstrel shows included music, dance and comedy. The shows were performed in almost every major American city, especially in the northeast. One of Foster's songs written for minstrel shows is "Camptown Races." Today, it is a popular song for children. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Minstrel songs described the culture of black American slaves in the southern states. Yet Foster did not really know anything about this subject. He lived in Pittsburgh for most of his life. He visited the south only once. However, some experts say Foster's minstrel songs showed he did understand how black people in the south lived before the Civil War. The people in Foster's songs love their families and work hard. Now, however, some of his songs are judged insulting to African-Americans. So, music publishers have changed some of the words. And a few of his songs are no longer sung. VOICE 2: In eighteen-fifty, Foster made an agreement with the leader of a successful minstrel group, E.P. Christy. The agreement meant that Christy's minstrels had the right to perform every new song Foster wrote. Foster also permitted Christy to name himself as the writer of the song "Old Folks at Home. " This became one of most successful songs written by Stephen Foster. It became the official song of the state of Florida in nineteen-thirty-five. It also is known as "Way Down Upon the Swanee River. " (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Stephen Foster wrote other songs about home and memories of times past. In his book, ken Emerson says Foster wrote songs about home in part because he almost never lived in one home for long. His father lost all his money when Stephen was a boy. So Stephen was forced to live with many different family members. Although Foster lived in the north, some of his songs suggest a desire to be back home in the American south. VOICE 2: "My Old Kentucky Home" is an example. Mr. Emerson says Foster wrote the song in honor of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." "My Old Kentucky Home" expresses great sympathy for enslaved African Americans. The black anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass praised the song. It later became the official song of the state of Kentucky. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Stephen Foster was America's first full-time professional songwriter. He was a good songwriter. But he was a poor businessman. He sold many of his most famous songs for very little money. He was not able to support his wife and daughter. In eighteen-sixty, he moved to New York City. His songs were not as popular as they had been. His marriage had ended. He had no money. For most of his life, he drank large amounts of alcohol. He died on January thirteenth, eighteen-sixty-four. He was only thirty-seven years old. VOICE 2: Stephen Foster was honored in several ways after his death. He was the first musician to be nominated to the hall of fame for great Americans. And he was the first American composer whose complete works were published together. Each year, on the anniversary of his death, people in Pittsburgh gather to remember Stephen Foster. They go to the church he attended as a child. They attend a show that honors him. Then they visit his burial place. The end of Stephen Foster's life was sad. But his songs have brought happiness to many people. One of his last songs was one of the most beautiful. It is called "Beautiful Dreamer. " (MUSIC) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Stephen Foster, America's first popular professional songwriter. (music Bridge) VOICE 1: You may have heard the old traditional American songs "Oh! Susanna," "Camptown Races" and "My Old Kentucky Home. " But, do you know who wrote them. Stephen Foster. He wrote those and more than two hundred other songs during the eighteen-forties and eighteen-fifties. His best songs have become part of America's cultural history. They have become American folk songs. Many people in America learned to sing these songs when they were children. Most Americans can sing these songs today. VOICE 2: Stephen Collins Foster was born on July fourth, eighteen-twenty-six, in what is now part of the city of Pittsburgh, in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania. He was the ninth child of William and Eliza Foster. He did not have much musical training. But he had a great natural ability for music. He taught himself to play several musical instruments. He could play any music just by listening to it. Stephen Foster began writing songs when he was fourteen. In eighteen-forty-seven, he wrote his first successful song, "Oh! Susanna. " Ken Emerson wrote a book about Stephen Foster. It is called "Doo-Dah! Stephen Foster and the rise of American popular culture. " Mr. Emerson says "Oh! Susanna" was the first internationally popular song written by an American that everyone can still recognize and sing today. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Stephen Foster married Jane McDowell in eighteen-fifty. He wrote many new songs. Some of them were about love. One of the best known is "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair " He wrote it for his wife when they were separated. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Stephen Foster wrote almost thirty songs for minstrel shows. Minstrel shows became popular in the United States in the eighteen-forties. White entertainers blackened their faces and performed as if they were black entertainers. Minstrel shows included music, dance and comedy. The shows were performed in almost every major American city, especially in the northeast. One of Foster's songs written for minstrel shows is "Camptown Races." Today, it is a popular song for children. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Minstrel songs described the culture of black American slaves in the southern states. Yet Foster did not really know anything about this subject. He lived in Pittsburgh for most of his life. He visited the south only once. However, some experts say Foster's minstrel songs showed he did understand how black people in the south lived before the Civil War. The people in Foster's songs love their families and work hard. Now, however, some of his songs are judged insulting to African-Americans. So, music publishers have changed some of the words. And a few of his songs are no longer sung. VOICE 2: In eighteen-fifty, Foster made an agreement with the leader of a successful minstrel group, E.P. Christy. The agreement meant that Christy's minstrels had the right to perform every new song Foster wrote. Foster also permitted Christy to name himself as the writer of the song "Old Folks at Home. " This became one of most successful songs written by Stephen Foster. It became the official song of the state of Florida in nineteen-thirty-five. It also is known as "Way Down Upon the Swanee River. " (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Stephen Foster wrote other songs about home and memories of times past. In his book, ken Emerson says Foster wrote songs about home in part because he almost never lived in one home for long. His father lost all his money when Stephen was a boy. So Stephen was forced to live with many different family members. Although Foster lived in the north, some of his songs suggest a desire to be back home in the American south. VOICE 2: "My Old Kentucky Home" is an example. Mr. Emerson says Foster wrote the song in honor of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery book, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." "My Old Kentucky Home" expresses great sympathy for enslaved African Americans. The black anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass praised the song. It later became the official song of the state of Kentucky. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Stephen Foster was America's first full-time professional songwriter. He was a good songwriter. But he was a poor businessman. He sold many of his most famous songs for very little money. He was not able to support his wife and daughter. In eighteen-sixty, he moved to New York City. His songs were not as popular as they had been. His marriage had ended. He had no money. For most of his life, he drank large amounts of alcohol. He died on January thirteenth, eighteen-sixty-four. He was only thirty-seven years old. VOICE 2: Stephen Foster was honored in several ways after his death. He was the first musician to be nominated to the hall of fame for great Americans. And he was the first American composer whose complete works were published together. Each year, on the anniversary of his death, people in Pittsburgh gather to remember Stephen Foster. They go to the church he attended as a child. They attend a show that honors him. Then they visit his burial place. The end of Stephen Foster's life was sad. But his songs have brought happiness to many people. One of his last songs was one of the most beautiful. It is called "Beautiful Dreamer. " (MUSIC) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-18-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 21, 2002: Meningitis in Africa
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Health experts from Africa and international aid agencies have agreed on a plan to fight a new, deadly form of meningitis in Africa. The plan was approved during a recent meeting in Ouagadougo, the capital of Burkina Faso. This West African country is the first nation in Africa to be affected by the new kind of meningitis, called W-one-hundred-thirty-five. So far, almost one-thousand-five-hundred people have died from the new form of meningitis. The World Health Organization warns that many more could die in the coming months. The disease is most widespread in Africa from November through May. Meningitis is caused by a bacterium. The disease affects the brain. About fifty percent of all patients die if the disease is not treated. The disease spreads through a part of Africa that extends from the West African coast to the eastern part of Somalia. W-H-O officials say the best way to save lives is to provide everyone in an infected area with vaccine medicine to prevent the disease. However, they say they do not have enough of the current vaccine to treat meningitis W-one-hundred-thirty-five. In addition, they say the cost of a single injection is too high -- as much as fifty dollars. Because of the cost, the W-H-O says aid agencies will not be able to carry out mass vaccination campaigns in Africa. There is already a less costly vaccine for the more common A and C forms of meningitis. Ian Simpson is a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. He says that the experts who met in Ouagadougo agreed to a two-step plan to fight the spread of this new form of meningitis. First, they will continue working with drug manufacturers to produce a less costly vaccine. The second part of the plan is to collect enough medicine and equipment to treat people who become infected. Mister Simpson called for a careful examination of patients at health centers and hospitals to help discover meningitis cases early. This way, people can receive treatment immediately. In addition, area laboratories that identify meningitis will serve as an early warning system. Mister Simpson also said that more testing of new medical treatments for meningitis patients is needed. He also called for improved efforts to quickly transport medicines to areas where they are needed. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. ----- Adapted from a VOA report by Lisa Schlein This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Health experts from Africa and international aid agencies have agreed on a plan to fight a new, deadly form of meningitis in Africa. The plan was approved during a recent meeting in Ouagadougo, the capital of Burkina Faso. This West African country is the first nation in Africa to be affected by the new kind of meningitis, called W-one-hundred-thirty-five. So far, almost one-thousand-five-hundred people have died from the new form of meningitis. The World Health Organization warns that many more could die in the coming months. The disease is most widespread in Africa from November through May. Meningitis is caused by a bacterium. The disease affects the brain. About fifty percent of all patients die if the disease is not treated. The disease spreads through a part of Africa that extends from the West African coast to the eastern part of Somalia. W-H-O officials say the best way to save lives is to provide everyone in an infected area with vaccine medicine to prevent the disease. However, they say they do not have enough of the current vaccine to treat meningitis W-one-hundred-thirty-five. In addition, they say the cost of a single injection is too high -- as much as fifty dollars. Because of the cost, the W-H-O says aid agencies will not be able to carry out mass vaccination campaigns in Africa. There is already a less costly vaccine for the more common A and C forms of meningitis. Ian Simpson is a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. He says that the experts who met in Ouagadougo agreed to a two-step plan to fight the spread of this new form of meningitis. First, they will continue working with drug manufacturers to produce a less costly vaccine. The second part of the plan is to collect enough medicine and equipment to treat people who become infected. Mister Simpson called for a careful examination of patients at health centers and hospitals to help discover meningitis cases early. This way, people can receive treatment immediately. In addition, area laboratories that identify meningitis will serve as an early warning system. Mister Simpson also said that more testing of new medical treatments for meningitis patients is needed. He also called for improved efforts to quickly transport medicines to areas where they are needed. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. ----- Adapted from a VOA report by Lisa Schlein 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-18-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 19, 2002: Bali Bombing
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Indonesian officials are investigating the bomb attacks in Bali. A powerful car bomb exploded last Saturday in Kuta, an area popular among foreign travelers. The explosion and resulting fire destroyed two businesses where people were eating, drinking and dancing. Nearby buildings were severely damaged. The bombing killed more than one-hundred-eighty people. More than three-hundred others were injured. Most of the victims were from Australia. However, Indonesians and citizens of other countries also were killed or injured. Indonesian officials are having trouble identifying the remains of those killed. Most of the bodies were so damaged that they are not recognizable. Australia has offered to help Indonesia investigate the Bali bombings. The United States and other countries have sent small teams to help in the effort. Indonesian police say they found evidence that complex plastic explosives were used in the attack. Similar explosives were used in the bombing of an American Navy ship in Yemen two years ago. United States officials blame al-Qaida terrorists for that attack. Singapore and Malaysia have described a group called Jemaah Islamiah as the Southeast Asian part of al-Qaida. The United States and other nations also say Jemaah Islamiah is linked to the terror group. Indonesia has resisted these claims. Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Thursday that officials are not sure who carried out the Bali bombing. He said it may have been the work of foreigners, possibly with the help of Indonesians. The minister denied that Jemaah Islamiah exists as an organization in his country. Yet he added that three of the group’s leaders are from Indonesia. He said one of them, Abu Bakar Bashir, could face legal action. Mister Bashir is the head of an Islamic school in central Java. On Saturday, police arrested the Muslim clergyman. Officials say they want to question him about bombings that killed nineteen people two years ago. The arrest order was not directly connected to the Bali bombing. Experts say Jemaah Islamiah began many years ago as a group for religious Muslims. They say it started to support extreme causes during a campaign led by the government of then-President Suharto. Mister Bashir and his followers fled to Malaysia in the nineteen-eighties. After Mister Suharto left office in nineteen-ninety-eight, the clergyman returned to Indonesia and continued his teachings. He supports creation of an Islamic government in Southeast Asia. Mister Bashir denies that Jemaah Islamiah exists. He says that any link between the Bali bombing and al-Qaeda is an invention of non-Muslims. He says the Indonesian government is surrendering too much to American influence. He warned that such a relationship between the two countries could lead to another attack in Indonesia. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS  - October 22, 2002: Nobel Science Prizes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about this year’s Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry were announced in Sweden earlier this month. The Nobel Prizes are the world’s most important honors for scientific work. The awards will be presented at ceremonies in Stockholm December tenth. The winners for each prize will share one-million dollars. The Nobel committee at the Karolinska Institute is giving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to three scientists. Two are British. One is Sydney Brenner of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. The other is John Sulston of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The third winner is American scientist Robert Horvitz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The three men will share the Medicine Prize for their discoveries of how healthy cells carry orders to kill themselves. The discoveries involve a process called programmed cell death. Programmed cell death is necessary for tissue and organ development. It also influences the development of many diseases. VOICE TWO: All three scientists made discoveries with an organism called C. elegans. Forty years ago, Sydney Brenner wanted to study how genes and cells are connected in complex animals. Yet the size of complex animals limited his work. So he proposed studying a soil worm, called C. elegans. The worm is only about one millimeter long. It has a clear skin and reproduces quickly. Scientists can watch its cells divide under a microscope. Doctor Brenner showed that a chemical could produce changes in the genes of C. elegans. He found that different changes could be linked to several genes and to effects on organ development. VOICE ONE: John Sulston developed methods to study cell division in C. elegans. He explained the process by which a fertilized egg develops into an adult organism. In nineteen-seventy-six, he described this process for part of the worm’s nervous system. Doctor Sulston showed that some cells in C. elegans are designed to die through programmed cell death. He discovered that cells divided more often than appeared necessary to make an adult organism. This led him to believe that some cells have genetic orders to die as part of their development. VOICE TWO: Robert Horvitz used C. elegans to discover the existence of a genetic program that controls cell death. In a series of experiments, he identified two genes required for cells to die. Later, he showed that another gene protects against cell death. He also identified genes that direct how the dead cell is removed. The Nobel committee said the three men’s work has made it possible to identify genes with similar controls in humans. The committee said their work has helped scientists better understand how cancer and many other diseases develop. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Nobel Prize in Physics this year also has three winners. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences praised their work in astrophysics, the physics of objects in space. It said the work has increased understanding of the universe. American Raymond Davis and Masatoshi Koshiba of Japan were honored for experiments that confirmed the existence of mysterious particles known as neutrinos. Neutrinos are formed in the sun and other stars when hydrogen gas changes into helium. However, neutrinos rarely react with other substances. As a result, scientists have had great difficulty confirming their existence. VOICE TWO: Raymond Davis of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was the first person to measure neutrinos from the sun. In the nineteen-sixties, he started work on a project to prove they exist. He placed a huge container underground in a gold mine in South Dakota. He filled the tank with six-hundred-fifteen metric tons of cleaning fluid. Mister Davis estimated that about twenty neutrinos would react with the chlorine in the cleaning fluid every month. This meant that twenty atoms of the chemical argon would be created. He developed a method to identify these atoms and measure their number. The American scientist collected information from his experiment until nineteen-ninety-four. By then, about two-thousand argon atoms were discovered in the tank. He used control experiments to show that no argon atoms were left in the chlorine. VOICE ONE: Masatoshi Koshiba of the University of Tokyo confirmed Mister Davis’s results. He and his team built another huge tank to measure neutrinos. It was placed deep in a mine in Japan. However, Mister Koshiba used a different liquid: water. The reaction of neutrinos with the water released electrons that produced bursts of light. He recorded the direction of the bursts of light. He was able to show for the first time that neutrinos came from the sun. VOICE TWO: The other half of the Nobel Physics Prize went to Riccardo Giacconi of Associated Universities, Incorporated, in Washington, D-C. He was the first scientist to discover X-ray radiation from areas outside our solar system. The Swedish Academy praised his work in experiments that resulted in new images from space. In nineteen-fifty-nine, Riccardo Giacconi began designing rocket-launched telescopes that could measure X-rays from the Sun. His first successful experiment discovered X-rays in the Scorpio star system. VOICE ONE: Since then, scientists have developed more modern X-ray telescopes to discover black holes and other stars. Those instruments have used versions of Mister Giacconi’s method. The Italian-born American scientist also helped to develop a satellite to study the sky for radiation. He also built an X-ray telescope that could provide detailed images. It has made a large number of discoveries. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Scientists from the United States, Japan and Switzerland won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The Royal Swedish Academy praised them for developing ways to identify and study the structure of large biological molecules such as proteins. One winner is American John Fenn of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Another winner is Koichi Tanaka of the Shimadzu Corporation in Kyoto, Japan. The Swedish Academy praised their work in improving a process called mass spectrometry to study large protein molecules. VOICE ONE: Mass spectrometry lets scientists quickly identify substances such as proteins. The process has been used in tests for illegal drugs or other substances. It has been used on small and moderate-sized molecules for much of the twentieth century. Mister Fenn and Mister Tanaka were honored for finding two ways to extend the process to larger molecules. The American scientist demonstrated a way to change proteins into a gas without losing their structure. He used a strong electrical field to spread electrically-charged particles containing the proteins. The particles explode into smaller particles. Then, the smaller particles explode into even smaller ones. Finally, only an electrically-charged protein remains. Mister Tanaka showed that low levels of laser light could change the proteins without breaking them apart. He was the first person to demonstrate that laser technology could be used for large biological molecules. VOICE TWO: Kurt Wuethrich of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland will also receive the Nobel Chemistry Prize. He was honored for improving a process called nuclear magnetic resonance. N-M-R providess information on the three-dimensional structure and scientific qualities of molecules. Mister Wuethrich developed an idea about how N-M-R could be extended to include biological molecules, such as proteins. He invented a method of identifying areas in the protein molecule. He also proposed a way to measure the distances between these areas. This method is called sequential assignment. Today, it is a necessary part of all N-M-R structural investigations. The Nobel committee says all three men have helped to show how proteins operate in cells. It says this has led to a better understanding of life processes and aided the development of new medicines. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about this year’s Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry were announced in Sweden earlier this month. The Nobel Prizes are the world’s most important honors for scientific work. The awards will be presented at ceremonies in Stockholm December tenth. The winners for each prize will share one-million dollars. The Nobel committee at the Karolinska Institute is giving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to three scientists. Two are British. One is Sydney Brenner of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. The other is John Sulston of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, England. The third winner is American scientist Robert Horvitz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The three men will share the Medicine Prize for their discoveries of how healthy cells carry orders to kill themselves. The discoveries involve a process called programmed cell death. Programmed cell death is necessary for tissue and organ development. It also influences the development of many diseases. VOICE TWO: All three scientists made discoveries with an organism called C. elegans. Forty years ago, Sydney Brenner wanted to study how genes and cells are connected in complex animals. Yet the size of complex animals limited his work. So he proposed studying a soil worm, called C. elegans. The worm is only about one millimeter long. It has a clear skin and reproduces quickly. Scientists can watch its cells divide under a microscope. Doctor Brenner showed that a chemical could produce changes in the genes of C. elegans. He found that different changes could be linked to several genes and to effects on organ development. VOICE ONE: John Sulston developed methods to study cell division in C. elegans. He explained the process by which a fertilized egg develops into an adult organism. In nineteen-seventy-six, he described this process for part of the worm’s nervous system. Doctor Sulston showed that some cells in C. elegans are designed to die through programmed cell death. He discovered that cells divided more often than appeared necessary to make an adult organism. This led him to believe that some cells have genetic orders to die as part of their development. VOICE TWO: Robert Horvitz used C. elegans to discover the existence of a genetic program that controls cell death. In a series of experiments, he identified two genes required for cells to die. Later, he showed that another gene protects against cell death. He also identified genes that direct how the dead cell is removed. The Nobel committee said the three men’s work has made it possible to identify genes with similar controls in humans. The committee said their work has helped scientists better understand how cancer and many other diseases develop. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Nobel Prize in Physics this year also has three winners. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences praised their work in astrophysics, the physics of objects in space. It said the work has increased understanding of the universe. American Raymond Davis and Masatoshi Koshiba of Japan were honored for experiments that confirmed the existence of mysterious particles known as neutrinos. Neutrinos are formed in the sun and other stars when hydrogen gas changes into helium. However, neutrinos rarely react with other substances. As a result, scientists have had great difficulty confirming their existence. VOICE TWO: Raymond Davis of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was the first person to measure neutrinos from the sun. In the nineteen-sixties, he started work on a project to prove they exist. He placed a huge container underground in a gold mine in South Dakota. He filled the tank with six-hundred-fifteen metric tons of cleaning fluid. Mister Davis estimated that about twenty neutrinos would react with the chlorine in the cleaning fluid every month. This meant that twenty atoms of the chemical argon would be created. He developed a method to identify these atoms and measure their number. The American scientist collected information from his experiment until nineteen-ninety-four. By then, about two-thousand argon atoms were discovered in the tank. He used control experiments to show that no argon atoms were left in the chlorine. VOICE ONE: Masatoshi Koshiba of the University of Tokyo confirmed Mister Davis’s results. He and his team built another huge tank to measure neutrinos. It was placed deep in a mine in Japan. However, Mister Koshiba used a different liquid: water. The reaction of neutrinos with the water released electrons that produced bursts of light. He recorded the direction of the bursts of light. He was able to show for the first time that neutrinos came from the sun. VOICE TWO: The other half of the Nobel Physics Prize went to Riccardo Giacconi of Associated Universities, Incorporated, in Washington, D-C. He was the first scientist to discover X-ray radiation from areas outside our solar system. The Swedish Academy praised his work in experiments that resulted in new images from space. In nineteen-fifty-nine, Riccardo Giacconi began designing rocket-launched telescopes that could measure X-rays from the Sun. His first successful experiment discovered X-rays in the Scorpio star system. VOICE ONE: Since then, scientists have developed more modern X-ray telescopes to discover black holes and other stars. Those instruments have used versions of Mister Giacconi’s method. The Italian-born American scientist also helped to develop a satellite to study the sky for radiation. He also built an X-ray telescope that could provide detailed images. It has made a large number of discoveries. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Scientists from the United States, Japan and Switzerland won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The Royal Swedish Academy praised them for developing ways to identify and study the structure of large biological molecules such as proteins. One winner is American John Fenn of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Another winner is Koichi Tanaka of the Shimadzu Corporation in Kyoto, Japan. The Swedish Academy praised their work in improving a process called mass spectrometry to study large protein molecules. VOICE ONE: Mass spectrometry lets scientists quickly identify substances such as proteins. The process has been used in tests for illegal drugs or other substances. It has been used on small and moderate-sized molecules for much of the twentieth century. Mister Fenn and Mister Tanaka were honored for finding two ways to extend the process to larger molecules. The American scientist demonstrated a way to change proteins into a gas without losing their structure. He used a strong electrical field to spread electrically-charged particles containing the proteins. The particles explode into smaller particles. Then, the smaller particles explode into even smaller ones. Finally, only an electrically-charged protein remains. Mister Tanaka showed that low levels of laser light could change the proteins without breaking them apart. He was the first person to demonstrate that laser technology could be used for large biological molecules. VOICE TWO: Kurt Wuethrich of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland will also receive the Nobel Chemistry Prize. He was honored for improving a process called nuclear magnetic resonance. N-M-R providess information on the three-dimensional structure and scientific qualities of molecules. Mister Wuethrich developed an idea about how N-M-R could be extended to include biological molecules, such as proteins. He invented a method of identifying areas in the protein molecule. He also proposed a way to measure the distances between these areas. This method is called sequential assignment. Today, it is a necessary part of all N-M-R structural investigations. The Nobel committee says all three men have helped to show how proteins operate in cells. It says this has led to a better understanding of life processes and aided the development of new medicines. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE Report – October 22, 2002: Aquaculture
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Aquaculture is the production of food through the controlled growth and harvesting of plants and animals that live in water. Using low-cost equipment and simple methods, aquaculture can supply more protein-rich foods than traditional agriculture like farming. One popular environment for aquaculture is small lakes or ponds surrounded by land, away from the ocean. Fish such as carp and tilapia are produced in this way. In most areas of the world, twenty-five percent of the fish pond must be at least three meters deep. You can plant grass on the bottom of the pond. But you should remove all trees from the bottom and sides of the pond in order to keep the level of oxygen high enough for the fish. You should also remove all bushes and rocks. And you should remove all trees within nine meters of the edge of the pond. This is so that leaves will not fall into the pond. Leaves can use up a lot of oxygen that fish need. You should place a pipe at the bottom of the pond big enough for all the water to escape in about five days. You can feed the fish many kinds of foods. These include cassava, sweet potatoes, banana and maize. Other foods include coffee and wastes from fruit-processing factories. Feed the fish only as much as they can eat in one day. You harvest the fish by opening the pipe and permitting some of the water to escape. Then the larger fish can be caught by hand or with nets made from rope. There should be enough water left so that the smaller fish continue to live in the pond. You can harvest the fish at any time, but it is best done in cool weather. The pond can also be dried at this time if necessary to fix any problems. Then the pond can be filled with water again and many new small fish can be added. Aquaculture is popular around the world because there is usually no need for costly equipment. Also, you can know ahead of time how many fish will be harvested. Bad weather does not usually affect the harvest. However, good quality water is necessary and you must know how much of it is available at all times. You can get more information about aquaculture from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Aquaculture is the production of food through the controlled growth and harvesting of plants and animals that live in water. Using low-cost equipment and simple methods, aquaculture can supply more protein-rich foods than traditional agriculture like farming. One popular environment for aquaculture is small lakes or ponds surrounded by land, away from the ocean. Fish such as carp and tilapia are produced in this way. In most areas of the world, twenty-five percent of the fish pond must be at least three meters deep. You can plant grass on the bottom of the pond. But you should remove all trees from the bottom and sides of the pond in order to keep the level of oxygen high enough for the fish. You should also remove all bushes and rocks. And you should remove all trees within nine meters of the edge of the pond. This is so that leaves will not fall into the pond. Leaves can use up a lot of oxygen that fish need. You should place a pipe at the bottom of the pond big enough for all the water to escape in about five days. You can feed the fish many kinds of foods. These include cassava, sweet potatoes, banana and maize. Other foods include coffee and wastes from fruit-processing factories. Feed the fish only as much as they can eat in one day. You harvest the fish by opening the pipe and permitting some of the water to escape. Then the larger fish can be caught by hand or with nets made from rope. There should be enough water left so that the smaller fish continue to live in the pond. You can harvest the fish at any time, but it is best done in cool weather. The pond can also be dried at this time if necessary to fix any problems. Then the pond can be filled with water again and many new small fish can be added. Aquaculture is popular around the world because there is usually no need for costly equipment. Also, you can know ahead of time how many fish will be harvested. Bad weather does not usually affect the harvest. However, good quality water is necessary and you must know how much of it is available at all times. You can get more information about aquaculture from the group Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - October 23, 2002: Folic Acid Reduces Fetal Deaths
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study in Sweden has confirmed another important health effect of the B-vitamin known as folic acid. Researchers at the United States National Institute of Child Health and Human Development worked with scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. They reported their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers were looking for a possible link between folic acid and fetal death in the early months of pregnancy. The study involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred pregnant women in Uppsala County, Sweden. The researchers measured the amount of folic acid in their blood during the sixth and twelfth weeks of pregnancy. Four-hundred-sixty-eight of the women had miscarriages. Their babies died between six and twelve weeks of pregnancy. Nine-hundred-twelve other women had normal pregnancies. The researchers found that the women with low levels of folic acid had a fifty percent increased risk of losing their babies early in pregnancy. Extremely high levels of folic acid were found to have no effects on the pregnancies. The researchers say that every woman between the ages of fifteen and forty-four should be getting four-hundred micrograms of folic acid every day. Earlier studies have shown that having enough folic acid in the early months of pregnancy can reduce the risk of having a baby born with a serious birth defect of the brain or spine. Experts say women need to have enough folic acid even before they become pregnant. Doctors say women of child-bearing age are not the only ones who need folic acid. The vitamin has been shown to protect against heart disease and stroke in older people as well. And some studies are suggesting that folic acid may reduce the chances of developing some kinds of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. The human body cannot make folic acid. It must get the vitamin from foods. Foods rich in folic acid include beans, green leafy vegetables, liver, eggs and fruits such as oranges and grapefruits. Medical experts say that women who are not sure they are getting enough folic acid from their food should take a vitamin pill every day. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study in Sweden has confirmed another important health effect of the B-vitamin known as folic acid. Researchers at the United States National Institute of Child Health and Human Development worked with scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. They reported their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers were looking for a possible link between folic acid and fetal death in the early months of pregnancy. The study involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred pregnant women in Uppsala County, Sweden. The researchers measured the amount of folic acid in their blood during the sixth and twelfth weeks of pregnancy. Four-hundred-sixty-eight of the women had miscarriages. Their babies died between six and twelve weeks of pregnancy. Nine-hundred-twelve other women had normal pregnancies. The researchers found that the women with low levels of folic acid had a fifty percent increased risk of losing their babies early in pregnancy. Extremely high levels of folic acid were found to have no effects on the pregnancies. The researchers say that every woman between the ages of fifteen and forty-four should be getting four-hundred micrograms of folic acid every day. Earlier studies have shown that having enough folic acid in the early months of pregnancy can reduce the risk of having a baby born with a serious birth defect of the brain or spine. Experts say women need to have enough folic acid even before they become pregnant. Doctors say women of child-bearing age are not the only ones who need folic acid. The vitamin has been shown to protect against heart disease and stroke in older people as well. And some studies are suggesting that folic acid may reduce the chances of developing some kinds of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. The human body cannot make folic acid. It must get the vitamin from foods. Foods rich in folic acid include beans, green leafy vegetables, liver, eggs and fruits such as oranges and grapefruits. Medical experts say that women who are not sure they are getting enough folic acid from their food should take a vitamin pill every day. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 23, 2002: Information Age, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our series about communications. We tell how computers are linking many millions of people around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week we told about the history of the communication of information. We described how the telegraph was the first important device that could move information quickly from one place to another. And we discussed the beginning of satellite communications. About six years after the first communications satellite was placed in orbit, the American Department of Defense began developing a new project. It began linking major research universities across the United States. The project began in the early nineteen-seventies. VOICE TWO: Professors at many American universities do research work for the United States Government. The Department of Defense wanted to link the universities together to help the professors cooperate in their work. Department of Defense officials decided to try to link these universities by computer. The officials believed the computer would make it easier for researchers to send large amounts of information from research center to research center. They believed they could link computers at these universities by telephone. VOICE ONE: They were right. It became very easy to pass information from one university to another. University researchers working on the same project could share large amounts of information very quickly. They no longer had to wait several days for the mail to bring a copy of the research reports. VOICE TWO: This is how the system works. The computer is linked to a telephone by a device called a modem. The modem changes computer information into electronic messages that are sounds. These messages pass through the telephone equipment to the modem at the other end of the telephone line. This receiving modem changes the sound messages back into information the computer can use. The first modern electronic communication device, the telegraph, sent only one letter of the alphabet at a time. A computer can send thousands of words in a very few seconds. VOICE ONE: The link between universities quickly grew to include most research centers and colleges in the United States. These links became a major network. Two or more computers that are linked together form a small network. They may be linked by a wire from one computer to another, or by telephone. A network can grow to almost any size. For example, let us start with two computers in the same room at a university. They are linked to each other by a wire. In another part of the university, two other computers also are linked using the same method. Then the four are connected with modems and a telephone line used only by the computers. This represents a small local network of four computers. Now, suppose this local network is linked by its modem through telephone lines to another university that has four computers. Then you have a network of eight computers. The other university can be anywhere, even thousands of kilometers away. These computers now can send any kind of information that can be received by a computer - messages, reports, drawings, pictures, sound recordings. And, the information is exchanged immediately. VOICE TWO: Some experts have said it is easier to understand this network of computers if you think of streets in a city. The streets make it possible to travel from one place in the city to another. Major streets called highways connect cities. They make it possible to travel from one city to another. Computers communicate information in much the same way. Local networks are like the city streets. And communication links between distant local networks are like the major highways. These highways make communication possible between networks in different areas of the world. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty-one this communication system linked only two-hundred-thirteen computers. Only nine years later, it linked more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand computers. Today experts say there are hundreds of millions of computers connected to networks that provide links with computers around the world. The experts say it is no longer possible to tell how many computers are linked to the information highway. The experts also say the system of computer networks is continuing to grow. VOICE TWO: This system of computer networks has had several different names since it began. It is now called the Internet. Almost every major university in the world is part of the Internet. So are smaller colleges and many public and private schools. Magazines, newspapers, libraries, businesses, government agencies, and people in their homes also are part of the Internet. VOICE ONE: Computer experts began to greatly expand the Internet system in the last years of the nineteen-eighties. This expansion was called the World Wide Web. It permits computer users to find and exchange written material and pictures much quicker than the older Internet system. How fast is the World Wide Web part of the Internet system? Here is an example. A computer user in London, England is seeking information about the volcanoes in the American state of Hawaii. She types in the words “Hawaii” and “volcano” in a World Wide Web search program. Within seconds the computer produces a list. She chooses to examine information from the National Park Service’s headquarters at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Park Service computer in Hawaii provides information about the huge volcanoes there, and how they were formed. It also has other useful information. The researcher in London looks at the information. Then she has her computer print a copy of it. Within seconds she has a paper copy of the National Park information including pictures. It has taken her less than five minutes to complete this research. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The Internet and the World Wide Web have become vehicles for speedy information exchange for most people who can use a computer. Much of the information on the Internet is very valuable. As a research tool, the Internet has no equal. Suppose you want a copy of this Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. You can find the information by looking for the Voice of America and Special English on the World Wide Web. The electronic address is www dot voa special english dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) You can find written copies of most of our programs and print them for your own use. Almost any kind of information can be found through the Internet. There are electronic magazines for poetry or children’s stories. There are areas within this electronic world where you can play games or discuss politics or science. You can find valuable medical information, read history, learn about new farming methods or just about anything that interests you. You can look at and collect the beautiful color pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can watch musicians perform their latest songs. You can even join a group that meets electronically to discuss the music of their favorite rock and roll music group. VOICE ONE: Who pays for the Internet? That is not easy to explain. Each network, small or large, pays for itself. Networks decide how much their members will pay for their part of the cost of the local service connecting time. Then all of the large networks decide how much each will pay to be part of the larger network that covers a major area of the country. The area network in turn pays the national network for the service it needs. Each person who has a computer at home pays a company that lets the computer connect to the Internet. These companies are called Internet service providers. Most charge less than twenty dollars a month for this service. VOICE TWO: Next week the EXPLORATIONS program will examine the future of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We will tell about modern technology that lets networks link with telephones that do not need wires. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week to the Voice of America for the last part of this series about the Information Age. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our series about communications. We tell how computers are linking many millions of people around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week we told about the history of the communication of information. We described how the telegraph was the first important device that could move information quickly from one place to another. And we discussed the beginning of satellite communications. About six years after the first communications satellite was placed in orbit, the American Department of Defense began developing a new project. It began linking major research universities across the United States. The project began in the early nineteen-seventies. VOICE TWO: Professors at many American universities do research work for the United States Government. The Department of Defense wanted to link the universities together to help the professors cooperate in their work. Department of Defense officials decided to try to link these universities by computer. The officials believed the computer would make it easier for researchers to send large amounts of information from research center to research center. They believed they could link computers at these universities by telephone. VOICE ONE: They were right. It became very easy to pass information from one university to another. University researchers working on the same project could share large amounts of information very quickly. They no longer had to wait several days for the mail to bring a copy of the research reports. VOICE TWO: This is how the system works. The computer is linked to a telephone by a device called a modem. The modem changes computer information into electronic messages that are sounds. These messages pass through the telephone equipment to the modem at the other end of the telephone line. This receiving modem changes the sound messages back into information the computer can use. The first modern electronic communication device, the telegraph, sent only one letter of the alphabet at a time. A computer can send thousands of words in a very few seconds. VOICE ONE: The link between universities quickly grew to include most research centers and colleges in the United States. These links became a major network. Two or more computers that are linked together form a small network. They may be linked by a wire from one computer to another, or by telephone. A network can grow to almost any size. For example, let us start with two computers in the same room at a university. They are linked to each other by a wire. In another part of the university, two other computers also are linked using the same method. Then the four are connected with modems and a telephone line used only by the computers. This represents a small local network of four computers. Now, suppose this local network is linked by its modem through telephone lines to another university that has four computers. Then you have a network of eight computers. The other university can be anywhere, even thousands of kilometers away. These computers now can send any kind of information that can be received by a computer - messages, reports, drawings, pictures, sound recordings. And, the information is exchanged immediately. VOICE TWO: Some experts have said it is easier to understand this network of computers if you think of streets in a city. The streets make it possible to travel from one place in the city to another. Major streets called highways connect cities. They make it possible to travel from one city to another. Computers communicate information in much the same way. Local networks are like the city streets. And communication links between distant local networks are like the major highways. These highways make communication possible between networks in different areas of the world. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty-one this communication system linked only two-hundred-thirteen computers. Only nine years later, it linked more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand computers. Today experts say there are hundreds of millions of computers connected to networks that provide links with computers around the world. The experts say it is no longer possible to tell how many computers are linked to the information highway. The experts also say the system of computer networks is continuing to grow. VOICE TWO: This system of computer networks has had several different names since it began. It is now called the Internet. Almost every major university in the world is part of the Internet. So are smaller colleges and many public and private schools. Magazines, newspapers, libraries, businesses, government agencies, and people in their homes also are part of the Internet. VOICE ONE: Computer experts began to greatly expand the Internet system in the last years of the nineteen-eighties. This expansion was called the World Wide Web. It permits computer users to find and exchange written material and pictures much quicker than the older Internet system. How fast is the World Wide Web part of the Internet system? Here is an example. A computer user in London, England is seeking information about the volcanoes in the American state of Hawaii. She types in the words “Hawaii” and “volcano” in a World Wide Web search program. Within seconds the computer produces a list. She chooses to examine information from the National Park Service’s headquarters at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Park Service computer in Hawaii provides information about the huge volcanoes there, and how they were formed. It also has other useful information. The researcher in London looks at the information. Then she has her computer print a copy of it. Within seconds she has a paper copy of the National Park information including pictures. It has taken her less than five minutes to complete this research. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The Internet and the World Wide Web have become vehicles for speedy information exchange for most people who can use a computer. Much of the information on the Internet is very valuable. As a research tool, the Internet has no equal. Suppose you want a copy of this Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. You can find the information by looking for the Voice of America and Special English on the World Wide Web. The electronic address is www dot voa special english dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) You can find written copies of most of our programs and print them for your own use. Almost any kind of information can be found through the Internet. There are electronic magazines for poetry or children’s stories. There are areas within this electronic world where you can play games or discuss politics or science. You can find valuable medical information, read history, learn about new farming methods or just about anything that interests you. You can look at and collect the beautiful color pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can watch musicians perform their latest songs. You can even join a group that meets electronically to discuss the music of their favorite rock and roll music group. VOICE ONE: Who pays for the Internet? That is not easy to explain. Each network, small or large, pays for itself. Networks decide how much their members will pay for their part of the cost of the local service connecting time. Then all of the large networks decide how much each will pay to be part of the larger network that covers a major area of the country. The area network in turn pays the national network for the service it needs. Each person who has a computer at home pays a company that lets the computer connect to the Internet. These companies are called Internet service providers. Most charge less than twenty dollars a month for this service. VOICE TWO: Next week the EXPLORATIONS program will examine the future of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We will tell about modern technology that lets networks link with telephones that do not need wires. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week to the Voice of America for the last part of this series about the Information Age. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 24, 2002: Foreign Student Series #6: New Security System
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can attend a college or university in the United States. This report is on the Special English Internet Web site, w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Last week, the Education Report discussed changes in the government rules for getting legal permission to enter the United States to study. Today, we tell about ways the government plans to follow foreign students inside the country. One way is by using a new computer security system called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System or SEVIS. All schools will enter information about their foreign students into this computer network. The SEVIS system will go into effect on January thirtieth, two-thousand-three. SEVIS will link about seventy-four-thousand American colleges, universities and technical schools to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It will give the I-N-S and the Justice Department detailed information about each student. The government will be able to tell if the student is attending classes or if the student leaves school. The government will also use the system to let the schools know that a student has entered the country. The new rules require schools to tell the I-N-S within thirty days if the student is attending classes. SEVIS is one of a number of ways that government officials are getting more control over foreign students. Earlier this year, officials said they may not approve requests from foreigners who want to study some kinds of science or technology subjects. These include subjects that could provide knowledge about how to make dangerous weapons. And the Justice Department has begun a new system to follow foreign visitors entering and leaving the country. The program involves fingerprinting a small percentage of foreign visitors. The fingerprints will be studied to see if they are the same as those of known criminals or terrorists. The fingerprinted visitors also must tell the government from time to time where they are living and what they are doing in the United States. They must also let officials know when they leave the country. Information about SEVIS can be found on the I-N-S Web site. The address is w-w-w dot i-n-s dot g-o-v. Then go to SEVIS Resources or Special Registration. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 24, 2002: Election of 1968
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Stan Busby. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) VOICE 1: Nineteen-sixty-eight was a presidential election year in the United States. It was also one of the saddest and most difficult years in modern American history. The nation was divided by disputes about civil rights and the war in Vietnam. VOICE 2: President Lyndon Johnson had helped win major civil rights legislation. Yet he had also greatly expanded American involvement in the war in Vietnam. By early nineteen-sixty-eight, it was almost impossible for him to leave the white house without facing anti-war protesters. Johnson wanted to run for another four-year term. But his popularity kept dropping as the war continued. He understood that he no longer had the support of a majority of the people. In March, he announced that he would not be a candidate. VOICE 1: One reason Johnson decided not to run was a senator from Minnesota, Eugene McCarthy. McCarthy competed against Johnson in several primary elections. The primaries are held months before a political party holds its presidential nominating convention. Delegates to the convention often are required to vote for the candidate their party members chose in the primary. Thousands of college students helped the McCarthy campaign before the primary election in New Hampshire. They told voters all over the state that their candidate would try to end the war. McCarthy received almost forty-two percent of the votes in New Hampshire. Johnson received less than fifty percent. For a president in office, the vote was an insult. VOICE 2: After McCarthy's success, senator Robert Kennedy of New York decided to enter the campaign, too. He was a brother of president John Kennedy, who had been murdered in nineteen-sixty-three. Robert Kennedy had served as attorney general, the nation's highest legal officer, in his brother's administration. Many people were pleased when Robert Kennedy announced his decision. They liked his message. He said: "I run to seek new policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities. I seek to lessen the differences between black and white, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the world." ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: On April fourth, nineteen-sixty-eight, the nation's top civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. Robert Kennedy spoke about king's death to a crowd of black citizens. KENNEDY: "What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom. And compassion toward one another. And a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black." VOICE 2: No words, however, could calm the anger of America's black community. Martin Luther King had led the civil rights movement with peaceful methods. Yet his death lead to violence in almost one-hundred-thirty cities in America. Soldiers were called to crush the riots. Hundreds of people were killed or injured. After the riots, another man decided to campaign for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. The new candidate was Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Traditional Democrats supported him. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: The primary elections continued. Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy tried to show how different they were. Many voters, however, saw little difference between their positions on major issues. Both men opposed the war in Vietnam. Both sought social reforms. Both sought improvement in civil rights in America. Kennedy defeated McCarthy in primaries in Indiana and Nebraska. McCarthy defeated Kennedy in Oregon. The next big primary was in California. Kennedy said that if he did not win this important contest, he would withdraw. He won. VOICE 2: Perhaps Robert Kennedy might have won his party's nomination for president. Perhaps he might have defeated the Republican Party candidate in the national election. The nation would never know. Kennedy made his California victory speech at a hotel in Los Angeles. As he was leaving the hotel, he was shot. He died a few hours later. The man who shot him was Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. He was a Palestinian refugee. He said he blamed Robert Kennedy for the problems of the Palestinians. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 1: The nation's two major political parties held their nominating conventions in the summer of nineteen-sixty-eight. The Republicans met first. It was soon clear that Richard Nixon would control the convention. Nixon had run for president in nineteen-sixty. He lost to John Kennedy. Eight years later, he won several primary elections. He was a strong candidate to win the Republican nomination again. The other candidates were Ronald Reagan, governor of California, and Nelson Rockefeller, governor of New York. On the first ballot, Nixon got more than two times as many votes as Rockefeller. Reagan was far behind. Most of the delegates then gave their support to Nixon, and he accepted the nomination. The delegates chose the governor of Maryland, Spiro Agnew, to be their vice presidential candidate. VOICE 2: The convention of the Democratic Party was very different from the convention of the Republicans. The Democrats were the party in power. Protests against the war in Vietnam were aimed at them. Thousands of anti-war protesters gathered in the city of Chicago during the political convention. The city's mayor, Richard Daley, had ordered the police to deal severely with all protesters. Many of the young people were beaten. Much later, the federal government ordered an investigation. The report said that the riots in Chicago were a result of the actions of the police themselves. VOICE 1: Inside the convention building, the delegates voted for their presidential candidate. They did not choose the man who had done so well in the early primary elections, Eugene McCarthy. Instead, they chose the more traditional candidate, Hubert Humphrey. For their vice presidential candidate, they chose Edmund Muskie, a senator from Maine. VOICE 2: The two men running for president, Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, supported American involvement in Vietnam. Yet during the campaign, both spoke about finding ways to end the conflict. Both also spoke about finding ways to end social unrest in the United States. Many voters saw little difference between the two candidates. About six weeks before election day, public opinion studies showed that the contest was even. VOICE 1: Nixon's major problem was his past. He had made enemies during his early political life. These people now tried to renew public fears about his record as a man who made fierce, unjust attacks on others. Vice President Humphrey's major problem was that he was vice president. He had to defend the administration's policies, even the unpopular ones. If he said anything that was different, another member of the administration intervened. VOICE 2: Once, for example, Humphrey said the United States would stop dropping bombs on north Vietnam. But President Johnson did not act for a month. He gave the order to stop only four days before the election. Later, Humphrey said the delay harmed his campaign so badly that he could not recover from the damage. VOICE 1: On election day, Richard Nixon won -- but not by much. He received a little more than forty-three percent of the votes. Hubert Humphrey received just a half a percent less. Nixon was about to become president. It was the position he had wanted for a long time. It was to be a presidency that would change American government for years to come. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 24, 2002 - Allen Walker Read / 'O.K.'
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 24, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: October 27, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a tribute to Allen Walker Read, who died this month at the age of 96. Mr. Read devoted his life to a kind of linguistic detective work on the origins of American speech. (Photo - Julia R. Huttar Bailey) Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 24, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: October 27, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- a tribute to Allen Walker Read, who died this month at the age of 96. Mr. Read devoted his life to a kind of linguistic detective work on the origins of American speech. RS: As an English professor at Columbia University in New York, Allen Read became most widely known for tracing the term "O.K." all the way back to the 1830s. AA: As his friend Richard Bailey at the University of Michigan tells the story, jokes with language were popular at the time, including those that used ridiculous abbreviations. BAILEY: "And in the course of this humorous exchange appeared in 1938 in Boston the expression 'O.K.,' standing for 'all correct' -- O-L-L K-O-R-R-E-C-T.'" RS: "Now that's misspelled." BAILEY: "Well, that was the joke, and the real point here is that these young men who made up all these expressions turned out dozens of them, and they all fell dead instantly except this one, and it was picked up just very soon after that by the campaign for the president of the United States, Martin Van Buren. Now, Van Buren lived in Kinderhook, New York. So they called him 'Old Kinderhook.' Now the reason that they could do this is that O.K. was still around and had a kind of slangy, fresh, exciting quality to it, so these political advisers seized on the O.K. and made use of it. And that's what people have done every since. RS: "But why did it have such staying powers?" BAILEY: "Well, there actually isn't an answer to that. Of course, it's short and easy to remember, but that would describe many creations. This is the one that succeeded. And one of Allen Walker Read's wonderful essays is about the folklore of O.K. and the fanciful tales that people have thought up to explain it." RS: "But he actually was the one to go back and take a look and pin it down and actually put a date on it." BAILEY: "That's right, and of course the contest is still open to all comers. Anybody who wants to go and find an example of O.K. before March 23, 1839, will win the prize." AA: "Which is?" BAILEY: "Well, being the O.K. expert. (laughter)" AA: "Now, O.K. has made its way around the world. I've heard it described as the first truly global term or word or whatever you want to call it." BAILEY: "That's exactly right. It's everywhere in the English speaking world and in almost all languages of the world. When you see in Asia garments with O.K. printed on them, it's because it somehow expresses this American freshness and flavor. What Allen Read wanted to do was to say this is so typically American." RS: "What do you think the contribution here is. What do you hope the people who read this work will come away with?" BAILEY: "Allen loved to talk about what he called the play spirit in language and the way people express joy through fooling with words. So Allen Walker Read was a wonderful man for identifying and bringing to our attention the playful in language." AA: "Now do you think if he were still around, he would be chronicling, let's say, the Internet speech where you've got spelling forever with the number 4 e-v-er and 'laughing out loud' as 'lol.' BAILEY: "Sure he would. Oh, absolutely. I mean, his apartment in New York was filled with papers, because he would read newspapers and write down things he saw on subway walls. And he made this huge data file, so having the Internet would be wonderful for him. His first book was sayings that he found written on outhouse walls on his travels around western America, and nobody had ever studied these, but he saw them as expressions of ordinary people often being playful with language." RS: "And expressions of who we are as Americans." BAILEY: "Yes, exactly." AA: Richard Bailey is the editor of a collection of Allen Read's essays called "Milestones in the History of English in America," published this year by Duke University Press. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. RS: As an English professor at Columbia University in New York, Allen Read became most widely known for tracing the term "O.K." all the way back to the 1830s. AA: As his friend Richard Bailey at the University of Michigan tells the story, jokes with language were popular at the time, including those that used ridiculous abbreviations. BAILEY: "And in the course of this humorous exchange appeared in 1938 in Boston the expression 'O.K.,' standing for 'all correct' -- O-L-L K-O-R-R-E-C-T.'" RS: "Now that's misspelled." BAILEY: "Well, that was the joke, and the real point here is that these young men who made up all these expressions turned out dozens of them, and they all fell dead instantly except this one, and it was picked up just very soon after that by the campaign for the president of the United States, Martin Van Buren. Now, Van Buren lived in Kinderhook, New York. So they called him 'Old Kinderhook.' Now the reason that they could do this is that O.K. was still around and had a kind of slangy, fresh, exciting quality to it, so these political advisers seized on the O.K. and made use of it. And that's what people have done every since. RS: "But why did it have such staying powers?" BAILEY: "Well, there actually isn't an answer to that. Of course, it's short and easy to remember, but that would describe many creations. This is the one that succeeded. And one of Allen Walker Read's wonderful essays is about the folklore of O.K. and the fanciful tales that people have thought up to explain it." RS: "But he actually was the one to go back and take a look and pin it down and actually put a date on it." BAILEY: "That's right, and of course the contest is still open to all comers. Anybody who wants to go and find an example of O.K. before March 23, 1839, will win the prize." AA: "Which is?" BAILEY: "Well, being the O.K. expert. (laughter)" AA: "Now, O.K. has made its way around the world. I've heard it described as the first truly global term or word or whatever you want to call it." BAILEY: "That's exactly right. It's everywhere in the English speaking world and in almost all languages of the world. When you see in Asia garments with O.K. printed on them, it's because it somehow expresses this American freshness and flavor. What Allen Read wanted to do was to say this is so typically American." RS: "What do you think the contribution here is. What do you hope the people who read this work will come away with?" BAILEY: "Allen loved to talk about what he called the play spirit in language and the way people express joy through fooling with words. So Allen Walker Read was a wonderful man for identifying and bringing to our attention the playful in language." AA: "Now do you think if he were still around, he would be chronicling, let's say, the Internet speech where you've got spelling forever with the number 4 e-v-er and 'laughing out loud' as 'lol.' BAILEY: "Sure he would. Oh, absolutely. I mean, his apartment in New York was filled with papers, because he would read newspapers and write down things he saw on subway walls. And he made this huge data file, so having the Internet would be wonderful for him. His first book was sayings that he found written on outhouse walls on his travels around western America, and nobody had ever studied these, but he saw them as expressions of ordinary people often being playful with language." RS: "And expressions of who we are as Americans." BAILEY: "Yes, exactly." AA: Richard Bailey is the editor of a collection of Allen Read's essays called "Milestones in the History of English in America," published this year by Duke University Press. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Internet at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 25, 2002: Question About the Electric Guitar / California Man's Unexpected Boat Trip / 2002 MacArthur Fellows
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play electric guitar music ... Tell about prizes given to creative people ... And report about a man whose short boat trip lasted much longer than he expected. Richard Van Pham HOST: Richard Van Pham recently returned from a long trip at sea. It lasted for more than three months and almost cost him his life. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: Richard Van Pham lived on his little sail boat, named the Sea Breeze. In May, he planned to sail from the town of Long Beach in Southern California to the island of Santa Catalina. It was a trip of forty kilometers that should have taken part of a day and one night. However, during that night, a heavy wind broke the pole that held the boat’s sail. And the small radio on his boat would not work. Mister Pham had little water and almost no food.Slowly, the little boat began to move south with the ocean. Mister Pham saw no other boats and no land. Soon he was without food or water. Mister Pham often used the boat for fishing. Now, to stay alive, he caught as many fish as possible. He used some of the fish to catch sea birds that came near his boat. He caught several and cooked them. To get water, he trapped rain with his useless sail. Day after day, week after week, the little boat kept moving south. He later told reporters, “I saw no tree, no people, nothing. I thought it was the end of my life.” He saw an airplane on September seventeenth. Within two hours, a United States Navy ship arrived. The ship was searching for people carrying illegal drugs. It found Richard Van Pham near the coast of Costa Rica, more than four-thousand kilometers from Long Beach, California. The sailors on the ship were shocked when they found Mister Pham and his little boat. The crew could not save his boat. But they collected money to pay for an airplane ticket so Mister Pham could return to California. Richard Van Pham said he was very sorry to lose his boat. It was also his home. When reporters asked him if he would ever go to sea again he said, “Yes, maybe some day… I love the ocean because God made it and gave it to the people. It is beautiful.” MacArthur Fellows HOST: How would you like to win a lot of money just for doing your job? That happened to twenty-four people in the United States last month. They won awards presented by a group called The MacArthur Foundation. Each winner will receive five-hundred-thousand dollars in unrestricted financial aid over the next five years. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: The MacArthur Fellowship is a program that honors individual men and women for their creativity. American businessman John MacArthur used his own money to establish the MacArthur Foundation in nineteen-seventy. It began to operate after he died eight years later. To be considered for the award, a person must be nominated. All nominees must be American citizens or live in the United States. They may not hold elective or appointed office in government. Each year, several hundred people are appointed to propose nominations. Each nominator is urged to identify men and women who demonstrate great creativity in their work. A twelve-member committee studies information about those nominated and proposes winners to the foundation’s directors. The foundation does not require or expect reports from individual winners. It also does not ask them how the money will be used. Six-hundred-thirty-five MacArthur Fellows have been named since the program started in nineteen-eighty-one. Between twenty and thirty winners are named each year. The twenty-four winners this year work in many different areas. They include scientists, writers, and musicians. Liza Lou of Los Angeles, California is an artist. She creates large, colorful works of art with pieces of glass and other materials. Another MacArthur Fellow is Daniela Rus, a professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. She is a computer scientist who develops robots that change shape to deal with changes in their environment. Brian Tucker of Palo Alto, California is another winner. Mister Tucker is an earthquake expert. He is president of a not-for-profit group called GeoHazards International. His group works with local officials in developing countries to make their areas safer against earthquakes. Mister Tucker says that being recognized as a MacArthur Fellow will make a huge difference for his company. Electric Guitar Music HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Long Quang Bui asks about the musical instrument called the electric guitar. Music experts say the guitar is probably the most popular musical instrument around the world today. It is used to play many different kinds of music. The electric guitar was one result of efforts by musicians to use electricity to create louder string instruments. They were not able to solve some of the technical problems until the nineteen-thirties. Les Paul was among the first to play an electric guitar. Listen to one of his hit recordings, “Meet Mister Callaghan." (MUSIC) In its early years, music experts debated the idea of the electric guitar being a true instrument. Some claimed it did not produce a real musical sound. But country and jazz musicians defended the music made by the electric guitar. One of these defenders was jazz man Charlie Christian. Music experts say he created the sound of the electric guitar that led to the modern electric guitar music of today. Listen to a recording of Charlie Christian playing with the Benny Goodman jazz group in nineteen-thirty-nine. The song is “Flying Home.” (MUSIC) One modern electric guitar player who followed Charlie Christian is the world famous blues musician B.B. King. He calls his guitar “Lucille”. We leave you now with B.B. King and Lucille playing their famous recording, “The Thrill Is Gone.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play electric guitar music ... Tell about prizes given to creative people ... And report about a man whose short boat trip lasted much longer than he expected. Richard Van Pham HOST: Richard Van Pham recently returned from a long trip at sea. It lasted for more than three months and almost cost him his life. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: Richard Van Pham lived on his little sail boat, named the Sea Breeze. In May, he planned to sail from the town of Long Beach in Southern California to the island of Santa Catalina. It was a trip of forty kilometers that should have taken part of a day and one night. However, during that night, a heavy wind broke the pole that held the boat’s sail. And the small radio on his boat would not work. Mister Pham had little water and almost no food.Slowly, the little boat began to move south with the ocean. Mister Pham saw no other boats and no land. Soon he was without food or water. Mister Pham often used the boat for fishing. Now, to stay alive, he caught as many fish as possible. He used some of the fish to catch sea birds that came near his boat. He caught several and cooked them. To get water, he trapped rain with his useless sail. Day after day, week after week, the little boat kept moving south. He later told reporters, “I saw no tree, no people, nothing. I thought it was the end of my life.” He saw an airplane on September seventeenth. Within two hours, a United States Navy ship arrived. The ship was searching for people carrying illegal drugs. It found Richard Van Pham near the coast of Costa Rica, more than four-thousand kilometers from Long Beach, California. The sailors on the ship were shocked when they found Mister Pham and his little boat. The crew could not save his boat. But they collected money to pay for an airplane ticket so Mister Pham could return to California. Richard Van Pham said he was very sorry to lose his boat. It was also his home. When reporters asked him if he would ever go to sea again he said, “Yes, maybe some day… I love the ocean because God made it and gave it to the people. It is beautiful.” MacArthur Fellows HOST: How would you like to win a lot of money just for doing your job? That happened to twenty-four people in the United States last month. They won awards presented by a group called The MacArthur Foundation. Each winner will receive five-hundred-thousand dollars in unrestricted financial aid over the next five years. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: The MacArthur Fellowship is a program that honors individual men and women for their creativity. American businessman John MacArthur used his own money to establish the MacArthur Foundation in nineteen-seventy. It began to operate after he died eight years later. To be considered for the award, a person must be nominated. All nominees must be American citizens or live in the United States. They may not hold elective or appointed office in government. Each year, several hundred people are appointed to propose nominations. Each nominator is urged to identify men and women who demonstrate great creativity in their work. A twelve-member committee studies information about those nominated and proposes winners to the foundation’s directors. The foundation does not require or expect reports from individual winners. It also does not ask them how the money will be used. Six-hundred-thirty-five MacArthur Fellows have been named since the program started in nineteen-eighty-one. Between twenty and thirty winners are named each year. The twenty-four winners this year work in many different areas. They include scientists, writers, and musicians. Liza Lou of Los Angeles, California is an artist. She creates large, colorful works of art with pieces of glass and other materials. Another MacArthur Fellow is Daniela Rus, a professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. She is a computer scientist who develops robots that change shape to deal with changes in their environment. Brian Tucker of Palo Alto, California is another winner. Mister Tucker is an earthquake expert. He is president of a not-for-profit group called GeoHazards International. His group works with local officials in developing countries to make their areas safer against earthquakes. Mister Tucker says that being recognized as a MacArthur Fellow will make a huge difference for his company. Electric Guitar Music HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Long Quang Bui asks about the musical instrument called the electric guitar. Music experts say the guitar is probably the most popular musical instrument around the world today. It is used to play many different kinds of music. The electric guitar was one result of efforts by musicians to use electricity to create louder string instruments. They were not able to solve some of the technical problems until the nineteen-thirties. Les Paul was among the first to play an electric guitar. Listen to one of his hit recordings, “Meet Mister Callaghan." (MUSIC) In its early years, music experts debated the idea of the electric guitar being a true instrument. Some claimed it did not produce a real musical sound. But country and jazz musicians defended the music made by the electric guitar. One of these defenders was jazz man Charlie Christian. Music experts say he created the sound of the electric guitar that led to the modern electric guitar music of today. Listen to a recording of Charlie Christian playing with the Benny Goodman jazz group in nineteen-thirty-nine. The song is “Flying Home.” (MUSIC) One modern electric guitar player who followed Charlie Christian is the world famous blues musician B.B. King. He calls his guitar “Lucille”. We leave you now with B.B. King and Lucille playing their famous recording, “The Thrill Is Gone.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - October 25, 2002: Chinook Salmon Deaths
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. American officials say at least twenty-thousand chinook salmon and other fish have died recently in the Klamath River in Northern California. Scientists are not sure what caused the die-off. But environmental groups say the Bush administration’s plan to redirect the flow of the river to provide water for crops may have caused water levels to drop too low. The Klamath River starts at Upper Klamath Lake in southern Oregon and flows into Northern California. Then river flows west into the Pacific Ocean. Water management of the Klamath River has been a major dispute between farmers on one side and fishermen, environmental groups and several Native American tribes on the other side. Six months ago, the Bush administration approved a plan to provide large amounts of water to farmers near the Klamath River for irrigation. Farmers depend on water from the upper Klamath Lake to irrigate more than eighty-thousand hectares of land. Administration officials said the plan would satisfy farmers and honor environmental laws. But opponents of the plan said it would severely harm the river and its fish. Several fishing groups and others have taken legal action against the federal government. They said the Bush administration gave too much water to farmers for irrigation at the risk of thousands of salmon. Some of the salmon, such as coho, are protected under the Endangered Species Act. However, chinook salmon do not have federal protection. Chinook were the main victims of the recent fish kill. Scientists disagree about what caused to the fish to die. Tests showed that most of the fish died of lack of oxygen due to infections that damaged their gills. Scientists say the organisms that caused the infection are common in the river. But rarely have the organisms led to so many deaths. Some scientists say warm and dry weather last month and low water flows in the Klamath River could be major reasons for the deaths. They say the river is too low for fish to move upstream to mate. They say the fish are dying of disease because they are crowded into small areas of water. Biologists have called for more water to be released into the river for at least six months. But so far, federal officials have agreed only to two weeks of additional water flows. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 26, 2002: APEC Meeting and North Korea
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. Leaders from many nations are attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in the holiday area of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. APEC was established in nineteen-eighty-nine as a trade group for the nations of Asia and the Americas. It was formed in reaction to the growing dependency among economies of countries that border the Pacific Ocean. Its goal was to support economic growth among those countries and to create a sense of community. APEC has twenty-one member economies. The combined population of APEC countries is about two-and-one-half-thousand-million people. The countries are responsible for almost half of all world trade. APEC foreign and trade ministers started talks earlier this week. On Thursday, the foreign ministers approved a joint statement that promised to suppress the financing of terrorism. The statement also promised to strengthen security for air travel and shipping of goods. President Bush and leaders of other APEC countries are meeting this weekend. Reports say Mister Bush will be trying to gain support for his campaigns against terrorism and its supporters and against Iraq. APEC leaders also are expected to discuss the latest situation involving North Korea. Earlier this month, the United States announced that North Korea had admitted it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The admission reportedly came during talks between a high level North Korean official and an American special diplomat. The diplomat reportedly had presented the official with American intelligence evidence about the suspected weapons program. A North Korean nuclear weapons program would violate an agreement between the two countries. In nineteen-ninety-four, North Korea agreed to halt its suspected weapons program. In exchange, the United States said it would provide North Korea with nuclear power reactors and supplies of heating fuel. North Korea says it does not believe the United States has honored the agreement. Experts say North Korea considered the agreement a promise by the United States to end hostile relations and establish normal relations. And, experts say that the relationship between the two countries has worsened in the last two years. North Korea says it wants new talks with the United States about the agreement. On Tuesday, North Korean officials threatened to take strong action if the United States would not agree to negotiations. However, North Korea did not say what form such action would take. The Bush administration has suggested that the issue can be settled through diplomatic action. But, administration officials have not answered the call for talks. They say the United States will decide what steps to take after APEC leaders discuss the issue. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program In The News. Leaders from many nations are attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in the holiday area of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. APEC was established in nineteen-eighty-nine as a trade group for the nations of Asia and the Americas. It was formed in reaction to the growing dependency among economies of countries that border the Pacific Ocean. Its goal was to support economic growth among those countries and to create a sense of community. APEC has twenty-one member economies. The combined population of APEC countries is about two-and-one-half-thousand-million people. The countries are responsible for almost half of all world trade. APEC foreign and trade ministers started talks earlier this week. On Thursday, the foreign ministers approved a joint statement that promised to suppress the financing of terrorism. The statement also promised to strengthen security for air travel and shipping of goods. President Bush and leaders of other APEC countries are meeting this weekend. Reports say Mister Bush will be trying to gain support for his campaigns against terrorism and its supporters and against Iraq. APEC leaders also are expected to discuss the latest situation involving North Korea. Earlier this month, the United States announced that North Korea had admitted it is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The admission reportedly came during talks between a high level North Korean official and an American special diplomat. The diplomat reportedly had presented the official with American intelligence evidence about the suspected weapons program. A North Korean nuclear weapons program would violate an agreement between the two countries. In nineteen-ninety-four, North Korea agreed to halt its suspected weapons program. In exchange, the United States said it would provide North Korea with nuclear power reactors and supplies of heating fuel. North Korea says it does not believe the United States has honored the agreement. Experts say North Korea considered the agreement a promise by the United States to end hostile relations and establish normal relations. And, experts say that the relationship between the two countries has worsened in the last two years. North Korea says it wants new talks with the United States about the agreement. On Tuesday, North Korean officials threatened to take strong action if the United States would not agree to negotiations. However, North Korea did not say what form such action would take. The Bush administration has suggested that the issue can be settled through diplomatic action. But, administration officials have not answered the call for talks. They say the United States will decide what steps to take after APEC leaders discuss the issue. This VOA Special English program In The News was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 27, 2002: Alan Shepard
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Each week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly in space. MISSION CONTROL: "Three, two, one, zero ... liftoff!" SHEPARD: "Roger, liftoff and the clock has started." VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Each week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about astronaut Alan Shepard, who was the first American to fly in space. MISSION CONTROL: "Three, two, one, zero ... liftoff!" SHEPARD: "Roger, liftoff and the clock has started." VOICE ONE: The clock has started. With those words, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. He was in a small spacecraft called Freedom Seven. It was on top of a huge rocket traveling at more than eight-thousand kilometers an hour. Fifteen minutes later, Freedom Seven came down in the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Shepard was a national hero. He had won an important victory for the United States. The date was May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a tense competition for world influence. And this competition was reaching even into the cold darkness of space. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, the Soviet Union launched the first electronic satellite, Sputnik One. The United States successfully launched its first spacecraft less than four months later. Now the two sides were racing to see who could launch the first human space traveler. On April Twelfth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew in space for one-hundred-eight minutes. He circled the Earth once. The Soviets again were winning the "space race," but not for long. Three weeks later the United States also put a man into space. He was a thirty-seven years old officer in the Navy -- Alan Shepard. VOICE ONE: The clock has started. With those words, Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into space. He was in a small spacecraft called Freedom Seven. It was on top of a huge rocket traveling at more than eight-thousand kilometers an hour. Fifteen minutes later, Freedom Seven came down in the Atlantic Ocean. Alan Shepard was a national hero. He had won an important victory for the United States. The date was May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a tense competition for world influence. And this competition was reaching even into the cold darkness of space. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, the Soviet Union launched the first electronic satellite, Sputnik One. The United States successfully launched its first spacecraft less than four months later. Now the two sides were racing to see who could launch the first human space traveler. On April Twelfth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew in space for one-hundred-eight minutes. He circled the Earth once. The Soviets again were winning the "space race," but not for long. Three weeks later the United States also put a man into space. He was a thirty-seven years old officer in the Navy -- Alan Shepard. VOICE ONE: Alan Bartlett Shepard, Junior, was born on November Eighteenth, Nineteen-Twenty-Three, in East Derry, New Hampshire. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Nineteen-Forty-Four. He married soon after his graduation. Then he served for a short time on a destroyer in the Pacific during World War Two. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Alan Shepard became a pilot in the Navy. Later he became a test pilot. The life of a test pilot can be very dangerous. It helped prepare Alan Shepard for an even greater danger in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The successes that the Soviet Union had with its Sputnik program caused the United States to speed up its plans for a space program. The Americans decided to launch a satellite as soon as possible. The first attempt failed. The rocket exploded during launch. Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. NASA's job was to be scientific space exploration. Its major goal was sending the first Americans into space. Within three months, the program had a name: Project Mercury. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods. While engineers built the spacecraft, NASA looked for men to fly them. NASA wanted military test pilots because they test fly new planes. Test pilots are trained to think quickly in dangerous situations. On April Seventh, Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the space agency announced the seven Mercury astronauts. They would be the first American space travelers. Alan Shepard was one. The others were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton. VOICE ONE: Nine months after the project started, NASA made its first test flight of the Mercury spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the next two years many other tests followed, all without astronauts. The final test flight was at the end of January, Nineteen-Sixty-One. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. Later, Alan Shepard often was asked how he became the first human American to fly in space. "They ran out of monkeys," he joked. VOICE TWO: There were some concerns about the safety of the huge Redstone rocket that was to carry the spacecraft. The launch had been delayed several times while more testswere done. By the time the rocket was ready for launch, Yuri Gagarin had already gone into space for the Soviet Union. The choice of Alan Shepard to be the first American to fly in space was announced just a few days before the launch. Flights planned for May Second and May Fourth had to be halted because of bad weather. On May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, a Friday, Alan Shepard struggled once again into his Mercury capsule. The vehicle was named Freedom Seven. There was almost no room to move. Shepard waited inside for four hours. Weather was partly the cause of the delay. There were clouds that would prevent filming the launch. Also some last-minute repairs had to be made to his radio. Shepard was tired of waiting. So he told the ground crew to hurry to solve the problems and fire the rocket. Finally, they did. VOICE ONE: The rocket slowly began climbing. Millions of radio listeners heard a voice from the Cape Canaveral control room say, "This is it Alan Shepard, there's no turning back. Good luck from all of us here at the Cape." The rocket rose higher and higher. For five minutes Alan Shepard felt the weightlessness of space. He felt himself floating. Freedom Seven flew one-hundred-eighty-five kilometers high. Then it re-entered the atmosphere and the spacecraft slowed. The fifteen-minute flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean about five-hundred kilometers from Cape Canaveral. Alan Shepard reported, "Everything is A-Okay." A helicopter pulled him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The flight was a complete success. Three weeks later President John F. Kennedy declared a new goal for the United States. He called for "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the Nineteen-Sixties. In July of Nineteen-Sixty-Nine that came true. Alan Shepard was not on that first Apollo moon flight . In fact, he almost never made it to the moon. He developed a disorder in his inner-ear. It kept him from spaceflight for a number of years. Finally, an operation cured his problem. NASA named Shepard to command Apollo Fourteen. The flight was launched at the end of January Nineteen-Seventy-One. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. Roosa orbited the moon while Shepard and Mitchell landed on the surface. They collected rocks and soil. Shepard also did something else. He played golf. He hit two small golf balls. It was not easy. Shepard was dressed in a big spacesuit. He described his difficulty to Mission Control in Houston. When Shepard did hit the golf balls, they traveled "for miles and miles," as he reported, because the gravity on the moon is one-sixth of the gravity on Earth. VOICE ONE: The only humans to walk on the moon were in the Apollo space flight program. Twelve American astronauts walked on the moon between Nineteen-Sixty-Nine and Nineteen-Seventy-Two. Alan Shepard was the fifth one. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, he retired from NASA and the Navy. Shepard became chairman of a building company in Houston, Texas. Later he began his own company, called Seven Fourteen Enterprises. It was named for his flights on Freedom Seven and Apollo Fourteen. He also wrote a book with astronaut "Deke" Slayton about his experiences. The book is called "Moon Shot." And he led a group raising college money for science and engineering students. VOICE TWO: Alan Shepard died on July Twenty-first, Nineteen-Ninety-Eight after a two-year fight with the blood disease leukemia. He was seventy-four years old. He had been married to his wife, Louise, for fifty-three years. Alan Shepard was the first American to fly in space. He rode into the sky on rocket fuel and the hopes and dreams of a nation. He will always be remembered as an American hero because of those fifteen minutes in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Lawan Davis. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Alan Bartlett Shepard, Junior, was born on November Eighteenth, Nineteen-Twenty-Three, in East Derry, New Hampshire. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Nineteen-Forty-Four. He married soon after his graduation. Then he served for a short time on a destroyer in the Pacific during World War Two. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Alan Shepard became a pilot in the Navy. Later he became a test pilot. The life of a test pilot can be very dangerous. It helped prepare Alan Shepard for an even greater danger in the future. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The successes that the Soviet Union had with its Sputnik program caused the United States to speed up its plans for a space program. The Americans decided to launch a satellite as soon as possible. The first attempt failed. The rocket exploded during launch. Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. NASA's job was to be scientific space exploration. Its major goal was sending the first Americans into space. Within three months, the program had a name: Project Mercury. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods. While engineers built the spacecraft, NASA looked for men to fly them. NASA wanted military test pilots because they test fly new planes. Test pilots are trained to think quickly in dangerous situations. On April Seventh, Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the space agency announced the seven Mercury astronauts. They would be the first American space travelers. Alan Shepard was one. The others were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton. VOICE ONE: Nine months after the project started, NASA made its first test flight of the Mercury spacecraft from Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the next two years many other tests followed, all without astronauts. The final test flight was at the end of January, Nineteen-Sixty-One. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. Later, Alan Shepard often was asked how he became the first human American to fly in space. "They ran out of monkeys," he joked. VOICE TWO: There were some concerns about the safety of the huge Redstone rocket that was to carry the spacecraft. The launch had been delayed several times while more testswere done. By the time the rocket was ready for launch, Yuri Gagarin had already gone into space for the Soviet Union. The choice of Alan Shepard to be the first American to fly in space was announced just a few days before the launch. Flights planned for May Second and May Fourth had to be halted because of bad weather. On May Fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-One, a Friday, Alan Shepard struggled once again into his Mercury capsule. The vehicle was named Freedom Seven. There was almost no room to move. Shepard waited inside for four hours. Weather was partly the cause of the delay. There were clouds that would prevent filming the launch. Also some last-minute repairs had to be made to his radio. Shepard was tired of waiting. So he told the ground crew to hurry to solve the problems and fire the rocket. Finally, they did. VOICE ONE: The rocket slowly began climbing. Millions of radio listeners heard a voice from the Cape Canaveral control room say, "This is it Alan Shepard, there's no turning back. Good luck from all of us here at the Cape." The rocket rose higher and higher. For five minutes Alan Shepard felt the weightlessness of space. He felt himself floating. Freedom Seven flew one-hundred-eighty-five kilometers high. Then it re-entered the atmosphere and the spacecraft slowed. The fifteen-minute flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean about five-hundred kilometers from Cape Canaveral. Alan Shepard reported, "Everything is A-Okay." A helicopter pulled him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The flight was a complete success. Three weeks later President John F. Kennedy declared a new goal for the United States. He called for "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the Nineteen-Sixties. In July of Nineteen-Sixty-Nine that came true. Alan Shepard was not on that first Apollo moon flight . In fact, he almost never made it to the moon. He developed a disorder in his inner-ear. It kept him from spaceflight for a number of years. Finally, an operation cured his problem. NASA named Shepard to command Apollo Fourteen. The flight was launched at the end of January Nineteen-Seventy-One. Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell were the other members of the crew. Roosa orbited the moon while Shepard and Mitchell landed on the surface. They collected rocks and soil. Shepard also did something else. He played golf. He hit two small golf balls. It was not easy. Shepard was dressed in a big spacesuit. He described his difficulty to Mission Control in Houston. When Shepard did hit the golf balls, they traveled "for miles and miles," as he reported, because the gravity on the moon is one-sixth of the gravity on Earth. VOICE ONE: The only humans to walk on the moon were in the Apollo space flight program. Twelve American astronauts walked on the moon between Nineteen-Sixty-Nine and Nineteen-Seventy-Two. Alan Shepard was the fifth one. In Nineteen-Seventy-Four, he retired from NASA and the Navy. Shepard became chairman of a building company in Houston, Texas. Later he began his own company, called Seven Fourteen Enterprises. It was named for his flights on Freedom Seven and Apollo Fourteen. He also wrote a book with astronaut "Deke" Slayton about his experiences. The book is called "Moon Shot." And he led a group raising college money for science and engineering students. VOICE TWO: Alan Shepard died on July Twenty-first, Nineteen-Ninety-Eight after a two-year fight with the blood disease leukemia. He was seventy-four years old. He had been married to his wife, Louise, for fifty-three years. Alan Shepard was the first American to fly in space. He rode into the sky on rocket fuel and the hopes and dreams of a nation. He will always be remembered as an American hero because of those fifteen minutes in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Avi Arditti and produced by Lawan Davis. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 28, 2002: UN World Food Report
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says hunger kills millions of people each year -- especially children. The U-N organization says millions more people will die unless more money is invested to fight against hunger. This is based on the results of a new U-N study called “The State of Food Insecurity in the World, Two-Thousand-Two.” It found that more than nine-million people die each year from hunger. Six-million of them are children younger than age five. Researchers also found that the number of starving people is growing in some parts of the world. The report says that about eight-hundred-forty-million people around the world are not getting enough food to eat. Ninety-five percent of these people are in developing countries. The number of hungry people in developing countries has been reduced by only about two-million people a year in the last ten years. At this rate, the total reduction will be less than ten percent by the year two-thousand-fifteen. This is far less than the fifty percent decrease in hunger called for by the World Food Summit in nineteen-ninety-six. Researchers say that any small gains against hunger were the result of progress in large countries. China, for example, reduced its number of hungry people by seventy-four- million. Six other countries also reduced their numbers of hungry people. They are Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Nigeria, Ghana and Peru. However, the situation worsened in forty-seven other countries. Nick Parsons is a spokesman for the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. He says the study shows that progress in the fight against world hunger has been slowed to almost a halt. As a result, the U-N food agency is calling on industrial and developing counties to increase public investment in agriculture. About seventy percent of people suffering from severe hunger live in farming areas of developing countries. But the report says government and international investment in agricultural development has been decreasing. The U-N Food and Agriculture Organization says investment in hunger reduction can have important economic effects for both rich and poor countries. It says that people who live longer and more productive lives can help improve the economy of their countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says hunger kills millions of people each year -- especially children. The U-N organization says millions more people will die unless more money is invested to fight against hunger. This is based on the results of a new U-N study called “The State of Food Insecurity in the World, Two-Thousand-Two.” It found that more than nine-million people die each year from hunger. Six-million of them are children younger than age five. Researchers also found that the number of starving people is growing in some parts of the world. The report says that about eight-hundred-forty-million people around the world are not getting enough food to eat. Ninety-five percent of these people are in developing countries. The number of hungry people in developing countries has been reduced by only about two-million people a year in the last ten years. At this rate, the total reduction will be less than ten percent by the year two-thousand-fifteen. This is far less than the fifty percent decrease in hunger called for by the World Food Summit in nineteen-ninety-six. Researchers say that any small gains against hunger were the result of progress in large countries. China, for example, reduced its number of hungry people by seventy-four- million. Six other countries also reduced their numbers of hungry people. They are Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Nigeria, Ghana and Peru. However, the situation worsened in forty-seven other countries. Nick Parsons is a spokesman for the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. He says the study shows that progress in the fight against world hunger has been slowed to almost a halt. As a result, the U-N food agency is calling on industrial and developing counties to increase public investment in agriculture. About seventy percent of people suffering from severe hunger live in farming areas of developing countries. But the report says government and international investment in agricultural development has been decreasing. The U-N Food and Agriculture Organization says investment in hunger reduction can have important economic effects for both rich and poor countries. It says that people who live longer and more productive lives can help improve the economy of their countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 28, 2002: Halloween and Edgar Allan Poe
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: October Thirty-First is Halloween. It is an unofficial holiday that celebrates the frightening and strange. We celebrate with a report about a nineteenth-century American writer. His stories were some of the most frightening and strange ever written. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: October Thirty-First is Halloween. It is an unofficial holiday that celebrates the frightening and strange. We celebrate with a report about a nineteenth-century American writer. His stories were some of the most frightening and strange ever written. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. The writer Edgar Allan Poe is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((SCARY MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Halloween is mostly a holiday for children, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observe Halloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe think Halloween is the best time of year to celebrate them. Poe is most famous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery, and terror. He wrote about people buried while still alive. About insanity and death. About dreams that become real ... or reality that seems like a dream. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore in Eighteen-Forty-Nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes place every Halloween. In the dark of night, visitors go to the church ground where Poe is buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe! (pause) No, it is just an actor, reading Poe's work. ((Scary MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Poe created many of these "short" stories. They appeared in different publications. Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing. Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story. Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries about crimes, such as murder. The mysteries are solved by an investigator called a detective. He or she is able to find important, hidden meanings in facts. The horror and detective stories Poe created remain extremely popular in books and movies. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read. His language is difficult to understand today. And most of his writing describes very unpleasant situations and events. His story "The Pit and the Pendulum," for example, is about the mental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himself from death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him. Another story is "The Masque of the Red Death." In it, a terrible disease -- the Red Death -- has killed half the population of a country. The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. He and his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by having parties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Edgar Poe was born in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. His parents were actors. At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman, John Allan. He then received his new name -- Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he came to dislike him strongly. As a young man, Edgar attended the University of Virginia. He was a good student. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did not have. John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. So, Edgar left the university. He began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. Yet he was not well-paid or well-known. His life was difficult. He was poor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind. Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drank alcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect on him. VOICE ONE: At the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She was the daughter of his father's sister. She was only thirteen years old. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. But his wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died in Eighteen-Forty-Seven. Poe died two years later, at the age of forty. He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories, poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yet he did not become famous until Eighteen-Forty-Five. That was when his poem "The Raven" was published. There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems in his life. One critic said Poe's spirit was torn. He said Poe's stories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in the story showed a different side of the writer. There is a question, however, about Poe's importance. Some critics say he was one of America's best writers. Others disagree. VOICE ONE: Critic Vincent Buranelli says Poe discovered a new artistic universe. It is a universe of dreams. It is a place where the line between reality and unreality is extremely thin. Even those who praise Poe agree that there are many difficulties in his work. These difficulties place Poe's writing outside the main body of American literature. Most American writing is realistic. Poe's interests and way of writing were not realistic at all. Poe's work has been praised most in France. He had a great influence on many French writers, including the poets Charles-Pierre Baudelaire and Stephane Mallarme. VOICE TWO: Poe's best-known poem is "The Raven." Some people love it. They say it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced and unnatural -- like bad music. "The Raven" is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died. She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness is gone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window. Here is the beginning of the poem: ANNOUNCER: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of for- gotten lore -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "Tis some visitor,” I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -- Only this and nothing more." VOICE TWO: The man looks out the window and sees only blackness. ANNOUNCER: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before: But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" Merely this and nothing more. VOICE TWO: But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird -- a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death and hopelessness. The raven can speak just one word: 'nevermore' -- meaning 'never again'. We know the raven will never leave the man's room. ANNOUNCER: But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther than he uttered -- not a feather then he fluttered -- Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before -- On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore." VOICE ONE: This program was written by Carolyn Weaver. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our poetry reader was Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. The writer Edgar Allan Poe is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((SCARY MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Halloween is mostly a holiday for children, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observe Halloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe think Halloween is the best time of year to celebrate them. Poe is most famous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery, and terror. He wrote about people buried while still alive. About insanity and death. About dreams that become real ... or reality that seems like a dream. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore in Eighteen-Forty-Nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes place every Halloween. In the dark of night, visitors go to the church ground where Poe is buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe! (pause) No, it is just an actor, reading Poe's work. ((Scary MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Poe created many of these "short" stories. They appeared in different publications. Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing. Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story. Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries about crimes, such as murder. The mysteries are solved by an investigator called a detective. He or she is able to find important, hidden meanings in facts. The horror and detective stories Poe created remain extremely popular in books and movies. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read. His language is difficult to understand today. And most of his writing describes very unpleasant situations and events. His story "The Pit and the Pendulum," for example, is about the mental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himself from death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him. Another story is "The Masque of the Red Death." In it, a terrible disease -- the Red Death -- has killed half the population of a country. The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. He and his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by having parties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Edgar Poe was born in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. His parents were actors. At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman, John Allan. He then received his new name -- Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he came to dislike him strongly. As a young man, Edgar attended the University of Virginia. He was a good student. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did not have. John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. So, Edgar left the university. He began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. Yet he was not well-paid or well-known. His life was difficult. He was poor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind. Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drank alcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect on him. VOICE ONE: At the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She was the daughter of his father's sister. She was only thirteen years old. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. But his wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died in Eighteen-Forty-Seven. Poe died two years later, at the age of forty. He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories, poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yet he did not become famous until Eighteen-Forty-Five. That was when his poem "The Raven" was published. There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems in his life. One critic said Poe's spirit was torn. He said Poe's stories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in the story showed a different side of the writer. There is a question, however, about Poe's importance. Some critics say he was one of America's best writers. Others disagree. VOICE ONE: Critic Vincent Buranelli says Poe discovered a new artistic universe. It is a universe of dreams. It is a place where the line between reality and unreality is extremely thin. Even those who praise Poe agree that there are many difficulties in his work. These difficulties place Poe's writing outside the main body of American literature. Most American writing is realistic. Poe's interests and way of writing were not realistic at all. Poe's work has been praised most in France. He had a great influence on many French writers, including the poets Charles-Pierre Baudelaire and Stephane Mallarme. VOICE TWO: Poe's best-known poem is "The Raven." Some people love it. They say it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced and unnatural -- like bad music. "The Raven" is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died. She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness is gone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window. Here is the beginning of the poem: ANNOUNCER: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of for- gotten lore -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "Tis some visitor,” I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -- Only this and nothing more." VOICE TWO: The man looks out the window and sees only blackness. ANNOUNCER: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before: But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" Merely this and nothing more. VOICE TWO: But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird -- a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death and hopelessness. The raven can speak just one word: 'nevermore' -- meaning 'never again'. We know the raven will never leave the man's room. ANNOUNCER: But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther than he uttered -- not a feather then he fluttered -- Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before -- On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore." VOICE ONE: This program was written by Carolyn Weaver. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our poetry reader was Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: VOA Special English Frequencies
* Byline: 

 Asia 0030-0100 UTC >1575 7215 9890 11760 15185 15290 17740 17820 kHz Latin America 0130-0200 UTC>7405 9775 13740 kHz [Monday through Friday local time] Asia 1530-1600 UTC>1575 6110 9760 9795 11995 15460 kHz Africa 1630-1700 UTC>13600 15445 17640 kHz Middle East 1930-2000 UTC>9785 12015 13640 kHz Asia 2330-2400 UTC>6180 7130 7205 9620 9780 11735 11805 13640 15135 15205 kHz 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 29, 2002: Distant Object in Solar System / Physicist Dismissed Over Claims / Biological Pacemaker
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new object discovered far away in the solar system. We tell about a physicist who was dismissed for scientific wrongdoing. And we tell about the development of a biological device to help the heart beat normally. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American astronomers have discovered a new object in our solar system, further away from Earth than the planet Pluto. It is the largest object discovered in the solar system since the discovery of Pluto in nineteen-thirty. It is also the farthest object in the solar system to be seen by a telescope. Scientists call the object “Quaoar” (KWAH-o-ar). It is about half the size of Pluto, too small to be considered a planet. Scientists estimate that Quaoar takes about two-hundred-eighty-eight years to orbit the sun. Astronomers call the area beyond Pluto the Kuiper (KY-per) Belt. It is a distant and dark area that contains objects that are made mostly of frozen gases. VOICE TWO: Two astronomers from the California Institute of Technology made the discovery in June. They used a telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory near Pasadena. However, Chadwick Trujillo (tru-HE-oh) and Michael Brown did not announce their discovery immediately. Instead, they gathered more information about the object. They used the Hubble Space Telescope to discover the size of the object. They also found what the new object was made of. Mister Brown and Mister Trujillo found that Quaoar is made of ice and rock. It contains substances like carbon dioxide, methane and even water. However, it is so far from the sun that even gases like carbon dioxide are frozen solid. The astronomers chose the name Quaoar from the Native American tradition of the Tongva people. They once lived near Los Angeles and not too far from the observatory where Mister Trujillo and Mister Brown discovered the object. Quaoar means the “great force of creation” in the Tongva language. VOICE ONE: The discovery of Quaoar has again raised questions about Pluto. Astronomers are no longer sure that Pluto should be considered a planet. Quaoar appears to be very similar in size and material. Pluto and Quaoar might represent a separate kind of object from the Kuiper Belt. Astronomers are considering changing what they call Pluto. Instead of a planet, it may be called a Kuiper Belt object in the future. Yet there are differences between Pluto and the new object. Pluto is two-thousand-three-hundred kilometers across. Quaoar is only about one-thousand-two-hundred kilometers across. Pluto has a moon, called Charon, which is about the size of Quaoar itself. However, some scientists consider these differences unimportant. VOICE TWO: The discovery of Quaoar may be part of a historic change in the way astronomers think about the solar system. A similar change happened in eighteen-oh-one. That year, the astronomer Guiseppe Piazzi in Palermo, Italy, discovered what he thought was a planet. Mister Piazzi found an object moving in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. He suggested the name Ceres. Within a few years, other astronomers discovered more small objects at about the same distance from the sun as Ceres. Today, we call these small objects, made of rock and metal, asteroids. Quaoar also may be one of many new discoveries. VOICE ONE: Mister Trujillo and Mister Brown believe there may be twenty more objects like Quaoar in the solar system. Most astronomers believe there are many more objects to be discovered in the distant Kuiper Belt. Perhaps Pluto is only the first of many similar objects orbiting in the darkness far beyond the sun. Astronomers would then have to change the current model of the solar system. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Investigators have found that claims made by scientists at a top American research laboratory were not based on fact. The investigators dismissed results from a number of studies published between nineteen-ninety-eight and two-thousand-one. Some of the claims once were said to be major developments in the study of physics. They included a claim that the scientists had created the smallest device to carry electrical current ever made. VOICE ONE: Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, ordered the investigation in May after other scientists raised questions about the claims. Bell Labs appointed a committee to investigate twenty-four accusations of scientific wrongdoing. The committee identified at least sixteen examples of scientific wrongdoing. It placed the blame on one Bell Labs physicist, Jan Hendrik Schon (YAHN HEN-drick SHERN). Mister Schon told the committee that he had no written records of the laboratory experiments. He also said much of the information in his computer had been destroyed. VOICE TWO: The investigators found that Mister Schon used information from earlier work to support his findings. They said he did this without the knowledge of the other scientists involved in the experiments. The investigators noted that Mister Schon and his group produced an average of one scientific paper every eight days. For most scientists, a few papers a year is considered productive. After the committee’s report was released, Bell Labs immediately dismissed Jan Hendrik Schon from his position. He was once thought to be a future Nobel Prize winner. After his dismissal, Mister Schon admitted he had made mistakes in his scientific work. He said he regretted those mistakes. He also said he believes the results reported in the studies are real. The incident has damaged the work of the other Bell Labs scientists who failed to report any problem. It also is bad news for Lucent Technologies, the company that operates Bell Labs. The company has been struggling with a series of financial problems during the past two years.Other scientists have criticized the magazines that published the results. Critics say the publications moved too quickly to report on the studies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A healthy human heart normally has a small group of special cells called pacemaker cells. Pacemaker cells produce an electrical current that causes the heart to beat. However, old age or disease can cause these cells to fail. Doctors use electronic pacemaker devices to fix the problem. In the United States, the small devices are placed in about two-hundred-fifty-thousand patients each year. Now, scientists in the United States have used genetic engineering to create a kind of biological pacemaker in guinea pigs. Their findings suggest that genetically engineered heart cells could one day be developed for humans. Such cells could possibly replace the electronic pacemakers currently used in many patients with heart disease. VOICE TWO: Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, led the new study. They found they could use the chemical potassium to trick normal heart cells in guinea pigs to act like pacemaker cells. Most heart muscle cells do not have the right level of potassium to produce electricity on their own. Nature magazine reported that the scientists used a virus to carry a gene that changed the balance of potassium. They injected the virus into the heart cells of guinea pigs. A few days later, some of the heart muscle cells in the animals began to act like pacemaker cells. VOICE ONE: Eduardo Marban (mar-BAN) was a member of the Johns Hopkins team. He said the research may lead to new treatments for people who need electronic pacemakers. He said it may be possible in the future to recreate pacemaker cells in humans. Or scientists may be able to develop other pacemakers that are part electronic and part biological. Doctor Marban said a biological pacemaker should be able to react to the body’s changing needs. He noted that an electronic pacemaker, in its simplest form, does not. The scientists said that more work needs to be done before a biological pacemaker can be tested in humans. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new object discovered far away in the solar system. We tell about a physicist who was dismissed for scientific wrongdoing. And we tell about the development of a biological device to help the heart beat normally. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American astronomers have discovered a new object in our solar system, further away from Earth than the planet Pluto. It is the largest object discovered in the solar system since the discovery of Pluto in nineteen-thirty. It is also the farthest object in the solar system to be seen by a telescope. Scientists call the object “Quaoar” (KWAH-o-ar). It is about half the size of Pluto, too small to be considered a planet. Scientists estimate that Quaoar takes about two-hundred-eighty-eight years to orbit the sun. Astronomers call the area beyond Pluto the Kuiper (KY-per) Belt. It is a distant and dark area that contains objects that are made mostly of frozen gases. VOICE TWO: Two astronomers from the California Institute of Technology made the discovery in June. They used a telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory near Pasadena. However, Chadwick Trujillo (tru-HE-oh) and Michael Brown did not announce their discovery immediately. Instead, they gathered more information about the object. They used the Hubble Space Telescope to discover the size of the object. They also found what the new object was made of. Mister Brown and Mister Trujillo found that Quaoar is made of ice and rock. It contains substances like carbon dioxide, methane and even water. However, it is so far from the sun that even gases like carbon dioxide are frozen solid. The astronomers chose the name Quaoar from the Native American tradition of the Tongva people. They once lived near Los Angeles and not too far from the observatory where Mister Trujillo and Mister Brown discovered the object. Quaoar means the “great force of creation” in the Tongva language. VOICE ONE: The discovery of Quaoar has again raised questions about Pluto. Astronomers are no longer sure that Pluto should be considered a planet. Quaoar appears to be very similar in size and material. Pluto and Quaoar might represent a separate kind of object from the Kuiper Belt. Astronomers are considering changing what they call Pluto. Instead of a planet, it may be called a Kuiper Belt object in the future. Yet there are differences between Pluto and the new object. Pluto is two-thousand-three-hundred kilometers across. Quaoar is only about one-thousand-two-hundred kilometers across. Pluto has a moon, called Charon, which is about the size of Quaoar itself. However, some scientists consider these differences unimportant. VOICE TWO: The discovery of Quaoar may be part of a historic change in the way astronomers think about the solar system. A similar change happened in eighteen-oh-one. That year, the astronomer Guiseppe Piazzi in Palermo, Italy, discovered what he thought was a planet. Mister Piazzi found an object moving in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. He suggested the name Ceres. Within a few years, other astronomers discovered more small objects at about the same distance from the sun as Ceres. Today, we call these small objects, made of rock and metal, asteroids. Quaoar also may be one of many new discoveries. VOICE ONE: Mister Trujillo and Mister Brown believe there may be twenty more objects like Quaoar in the solar system. Most astronomers believe there are many more objects to be discovered in the distant Kuiper Belt. Perhaps Pluto is only the first of many similar objects orbiting in the darkness far beyond the sun. Astronomers would then have to change the current model of the solar system. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Investigators have found that claims made by scientists at a top American research laboratory were not based on fact. The investigators dismissed results from a number of studies published between nineteen-ninety-eight and two-thousand-one. Some of the claims once were said to be major developments in the study of physics. They included a claim that the scientists had created the smallest device to carry electrical current ever made. VOICE ONE: Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, ordered the investigation in May after other scientists raised questions about the claims. Bell Labs appointed a committee to investigate twenty-four accusations of scientific wrongdoing. The committee identified at least sixteen examples of scientific wrongdoing. It placed the blame on one Bell Labs physicist, Jan Hendrik Schon (YAHN HEN-drick SHERN). Mister Schon told the committee that he had no written records of the laboratory experiments. He also said much of the information in his computer had been destroyed. VOICE TWO: The investigators found that Mister Schon used information from earlier work to support his findings. They said he did this without the knowledge of the other scientists involved in the experiments. The investigators noted that Mister Schon and his group produced an average of one scientific paper every eight days. For most scientists, a few papers a year is considered productive. After the committee’s report was released, Bell Labs immediately dismissed Jan Hendrik Schon from his position. He was once thought to be a future Nobel Prize winner. After his dismissal, Mister Schon admitted he had made mistakes in his scientific work. He said he regretted those mistakes. He also said he believes the results reported in the studies are real. The incident has damaged the work of the other Bell Labs scientists who failed to report any problem. It also is bad news for Lucent Technologies, the company that operates Bell Labs. The company has been struggling with a series of financial problems during the past two years.Other scientists have criticized the magazines that published the results. Critics say the publications moved too quickly to report on the studies. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A healthy human heart normally has a small group of special cells called pacemaker cells. Pacemaker cells produce an electrical current that causes the heart to beat. However, old age or disease can cause these cells to fail. Doctors use electronic pacemaker devices to fix the problem. In the United States, the small devices are placed in about two-hundred-fifty-thousand patients each year. Now, scientists in the United States have used genetic engineering to create a kind of biological pacemaker in guinea pigs. Their findings suggest that genetically engineered heart cells could one day be developed for humans. Such cells could possibly replace the electronic pacemakers currently used in many patients with heart disease. VOICE TWO: Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, led the new study. They found they could use the chemical potassium to trick normal heart cells in guinea pigs to act like pacemaker cells. Most heart muscle cells do not have the right level of potassium to produce electricity on their own. Nature magazine reported that the scientists used a virus to carry a gene that changed the balance of potassium. They injected the virus into the heart cells of guinea pigs. A few days later, some of the heart muscle cells in the animals began to act like pacemaker cells. VOICE ONE: Eduardo Marban (mar-BAN) was a member of the Johns Hopkins team. He said the research may lead to new treatments for people who need electronic pacemakers. He said it may be possible in the future to recreate pacemaker cells in humans. Or scientists may be able to develop other pacemakers that are part electronic and part biological. Doctor Marban said a biological pacemaker should be able to react to the body’s changing needs. He noted that an electronic pacemaker, in its simplest form, does not. The scientists said that more work needs to be done before a biological pacemaker can be tested in humans. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 29, 2002: Pest Management
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Since nineteen-forty-five, farmers have used pesticides, poisons made from chemicals, to kill insects that damage crops. One serious problem with pesticide use is that people get sick. Every year about five-hundred-thousand people are poisoned by pesticides. About ten-thousand people die. Some scientists are working to develop other ways to keep insects and disease organisms from harming crops. One method is to choose plants that show a natural resistance to certain insects. Then these plants are used to produce new plants. The new plants will have more resistance than the parent plants. For example, corn or maize plants grown to have more Vitamin A than normal plants can fight off insects that feed on their leaves. However, if levels of Vitamin A get too high, humans and animals that eat the maize may get sick. So it is important to study this kind of insect control very carefully. Some plants produce natural poisons against insects. For example, potato plants produce poisons everywhere in the plant, including sometimes in the potato itself. These poisons kill insects. But they can also kill people. People should never eat potatoes that have turned green after being left in the sun. Another method is to plant crops when the harmful insects are not present. In this way the plants grow before the insect population gets too large to damage them. Grains such as wheat and barley are planted in this way to protect them from an insect known as the Hessian fly. Water also can be used to limit harmful insect populations. One method is to add a lot of water to alfalfa plants growing in a field. Other smaller plants grow and limit insects like aphids. Limiting water in certain situations can have the same effect. Turning over the soil, called plowing or tilling, is a way to keep small organisms that cause disease from attacking the plant. Like the other methods, this must be done with care. Plowing can cause soil to be blown away by wind and water. The loss of soil from plowing has become a major environmental problem around the world. You can get more information about pest management from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g.(www.vita.org) This Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Since nineteen-forty-five, farmers have used pesticides, poisons made from chemicals, to kill insects that damage crops. One serious problem with pesticide use is that people get sick. Every year about five-hundred-thousand people are poisoned by pesticides. About ten-thousand people die. Some scientists are working to develop other ways to keep insects and disease organisms from harming crops. One method is to choose plants that show a natural resistance to certain insects. Then these plants are used to produce new plants. The new plants will have more resistance than the parent plants. For example, corn or maize plants grown to have more Vitamin A than normal plants can fight off insects that feed on their leaves. However, if levels of Vitamin A get too high, humans and animals that eat the maize may get sick. So it is important to study this kind of insect control very carefully. Some plants produce natural poisons against insects. For example, potato plants produce poisons everywhere in the plant, including sometimes in the potato itself. These poisons kill insects. But they can also kill people. People should never eat potatoes that have turned green after being left in the sun. Another method is to plant crops when the harmful insects are not present. In this way the plants grow before the insect population gets too large to damage them. Grains such as wheat and barley are planted in this way to protect them from an insect known as the Hessian fly. Water also can be used to limit harmful insect populations. One method is to add a lot of water to alfalfa plants growing in a field. Other smaller plants grow and limit insects like aphids. Limiting water in certain situations can have the same effect. Turning over the soil, called plowing or tilling, is a way to keep small organisms that cause disease from attacking the plant. Like the other methods, this must be done with care. Plowing can cause soil to be blown away by wind and water. The loss of soil from plowing has become a major environmental problem around the world. You can get more information about pest management from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. You can contact VITA through the Internet at its world wide web address w-w-w dot v-i-t-a dot o-r-g.(www.vita.org) This Development Report was written by Gary Garriott. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT - October 30, 2002: Breast Cancer Operation Studies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Two new long-term studies have compared two operations for early breast cancer. The studies showed no difference in survival rates among women who had only the cancerous growth removed and those who had the whole breast removed. The studies were carried out in the United States and Italy. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The American study was done at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. It involved more than one-thousand-eight-hundred women. Twenty years ago, they had cancerous growths in one breast measuring up to four centimeters in diameter. Among more than one-third of the patients, the cancer had spread to the lymph glands under the arm. The women were divided into three treatment groups. One group had a mastectomy operation to remove the breast. Another group had a lumpectomy operation to remove only the growth and surrounding tissue. The third group had a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatments. The study found no difference among the groups in the chance that the disease would spread. It found no difference in the rate of death from cancer, or in the rate of death for all causes. About forty-seven percent of the women were still alive twenty years later. However, the study also showed that radiation after a lumpectomy reduced the chance that another cancer would develop later in the same breast. The chance of this was about forty percent in women who had only a lumpectomy and about fourteen percent in those who had a lumpectomy and radiation. The other study was carried out at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. It involved about seven-hundred women who twenty years ago had cancerous growths in one breast no larger than two centimeters. The researchers found that mastectomy was no more effective than lumpectomy. One cancer expert says the studies show that there is no reason for a woman with early breast cancer to have a mastectomy. Other experts say that some women may choose to have a mastectomy because they do not want to have several weeks of radiation treatment after a lumpectomy. Most experts say the new studies should provide breast cancer patients with a choice of treatment. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Two new long-term studies have compared two operations for early breast cancer. The studies showed no difference in survival rates among women who had only the cancerous growth removed and those who had the whole breast removed. The studies were carried out in the United States and Italy. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The American study was done at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. It involved more than one-thousand-eight-hundred women. Twenty years ago, they had cancerous growths in one breast measuring up to four centimeters in diameter. Among more than one-third of the patients, the cancer had spread to the lymph glands under the arm. The women were divided into three treatment groups. One group had a mastectomy operation to remove the breast. Another group had a lumpectomy operation to remove only the growth and surrounding tissue. The third group had a lumpectomy followed by radiation treatments. The study found no difference among the groups in the chance that the disease would spread. It found no difference in the rate of death from cancer, or in the rate of death for all causes. About forty-seven percent of the women were still alive twenty years later. However, the study also showed that radiation after a lumpectomy reduced the chance that another cancer would develop later in the same breast. The chance of this was about forty percent in women who had only a lumpectomy and about fourteen percent in those who had a lumpectomy and radiation. The other study was carried out at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy. It involved about seven-hundred women who twenty years ago had cancerous growths in one breast no larger than two centimeters. The researchers found that mastectomy was no more effective than lumpectomy. One cancer expert says the studies show that there is no reason for a woman with early breast cancer to have a mastectomy. Other experts say that some women may choose to have a mastectomy because they do not want to have several weeks of radiation treatment after a lumpectomy. Most experts say the new studies should provide breast cancer patients with a choice of treatment. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 30, 2002: Information Age, Part 3
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we finish our three-part series about the history of communications. We tell about the Internet system called the World Wide Web. And we tell about the future of communications. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In our first two programs we discussed the history and importance of communicating information. We told how the invention of the telegraph increased the speed at which information could be sent. We told how satellites in space greatly increased the speed of communications. In our second program, we told about the development of the computer and the linking of computers into major systems called networks. These networks led to the high-speed sharing of information among major universities and research centers around the world. The largest of these systems, the Internet, has made it possible for almost anyone with a computer and a telephone to share in what is called the Information Age. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In July nineteen-forty-five, the Atlantic Monthly magazine printed a long report written by an important scientist. His name was Vannevar Bush. Mister Bush explained that researchers around the world were producing new ideas and useful information every day. He said the information was being produced faster than anyone could read it, remember it, or even know where to find it. He explained that the technology of nineteen-forty-five permitted information to be kept only in books or pictures. He said some new device must be invented that would make it possible to search for, find and use new information much more quickly. VOICE ONE: Mister Bush explained that research information is most valuable when it is new. One small piece of information could help a researcher finish an extremely important project. Mister Bush wrote that he hoped a device would be invented that could store information. He said people should be able to easily link with this device to search for and gather useful information. Such a device would greatly speed gathering information and would greatly aid research. VOICE TWO: The device that Mister Bush dreamed about in nineteen-forty-five is now very real. It is the modern computer, linked with other computers. The link is through the Internet and the World Wide Web communications system. The computer and the Internet now make it possible to find and gather information about any subject within a few minutes. Here is a good example. Oncology is the study of the disease cancer. There are many hundreds of medical research centers that are working to cure cancer. The Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is one of many publications that prints important cancer research information. The research papers tell about the results of treatment for many different kinds of cancer. The information in this journal is written for medical experts. VOICE ONE: The editors of this cancer research journal place valuable cancer research information on the World Wide Web. This makes it possible for health care professionals and researchers all over the world to use the information for educational or research purposes.By using the Internet, a researcher anywhere in the world is able to find information from the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology and print a copy in just a few minutes. To find the journal, a researcher would only have to type three words into an Internet search system on a computer. The three words are oncology, research and journal. Within seconds, the World Wide Web provides a list of several possible research papers from several countries. The study in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is only one of many valuable research papers that are on the World Wide Web. Not every search is easy. Sometimes it can take a while before the right combination of words produces the needed result. However, the World Wide Web and the Internet will almost always provide the researcher with a way to find the needed information. The computer provides a quick link to the new information that scientists like Vannaver Bush said was badly needed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Eric Benhamou is the head of a computer company called Three-Com Corporation. Mister Benhamou says people are using the computer and the Internet to communicate for work and to exchange information with their families and friends. He says people also use the Internet to learn new things and visit different places. Today almost one-hundred-fifty-million people use the Internet in the United States. A recent study showed they use the Internet for communication and for research. The study also showed that much of the research that is done leads to buying products with the aid of a computer and the Internet. The study also showed that more people than ever are now using the computer to buy products. VOICE ONE: Governments, private groups and individuals have criticized the Internet. Some governments do not trust the Internet because they say it is extremely difficult to control the information that is placed there. Some government officials say extremist groups place harmful information on the Internet. They say dangerous political information should be banned. Other groups say it is difficult to protect children from sexual information and pictures placed on the Internet. They say this kind of information should be banned. VOICE TWO: Other critics say that it is becoming extremely difficult to know if you can trust the information that is found on the Internet. They wonder if the information is true. Did the person who placed it on the Internet make any mistakes? Still other critics say the Internet is no longer a free exchange of information and ideas. They say it has become a big business that sells products, services and information. They want the Internet to be used only for research and education. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-five, scientist Vannevar Bush said researchers needed some device that would make information easier to find, use and store. The modern computer and the Internet now provide this and much more. They are an important method of communicating and doing business and will continue to be in the future. In the United States, many businesses expect their workers to know how to use computers. Children now begin learning to use computers in their first years of school. Many universities in the United States now require all new students to have their own computer. Most colleges provide special rooms that have computers for the use of all students. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: What is the future of communications and the Internet? Experts do not really know. Computers continue to grow smaller and more powerful with each passing year. Computers that were thought to be very powerful ten years ago are now considered extremely weak and slow. It is now possible to connect a computer with a wireless telephone that can link with communications satellites. A person with a small computer that can be easily carried can now link with other computers from anywhere in the world. A person can that use a computer that receives its electric power from batteries and is linked with a satellite telephone. This person can communicate from anywhere in the world. VOICE ONE: Some experts say that in the future people will not use large computers on their desks. They will use only small computer devices that link to the Internet. These devices will be easily carried from place to place. All the information people use for business or for fun will be on their own area of the World Wide Web. This has already happened. Many people already have their own private area on the World Wide Web. Businesses have their own special areas. A husband and a wife with a new baby place photographs of the baby in a special area so relatives can see the new addition to the family. People now communicate, listen to radio or watch television. They to do business buy or sell goods, write a letter or send a picture from anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night. And they will communicate around the world at almost the speed of light. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we finish our three-part series about the history of communications. We tell about the Internet system called the World Wide Web. And we tell about the future of communications. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In our first two programs we discussed the history and importance of communicating information. We told how the invention of the telegraph increased the speed at which information could be sent. We told how satellites in space greatly increased the speed of communications. In our second program, we told about the development of the computer and the linking of computers into major systems called networks. These networks led to the high-speed sharing of information among major universities and research centers around the world. The largest of these systems, the Internet, has made it possible for almost anyone with a computer and a telephone to share in what is called the Information Age. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In July nineteen-forty-five, the Atlantic Monthly magazine printed a long report written by an important scientist. His name was Vannevar Bush. Mister Bush explained that researchers around the world were producing new ideas and useful information every day. He said the information was being produced faster than anyone could read it, remember it, or even know where to find it. He explained that the technology of nineteen-forty-five permitted information to be kept only in books or pictures. He said some new device must be invented that would make it possible to search for, find and use new information much more quickly. VOICE ONE: Mister Bush explained that research information is most valuable when it is new. One small piece of information could help a researcher finish an extremely important project. Mister Bush wrote that he hoped a device would be invented that could store information. He said people should be able to easily link with this device to search for and gather useful information. Such a device would greatly speed gathering information and would greatly aid research. VOICE TWO: The device that Mister Bush dreamed about in nineteen-forty-five is now very real. It is the modern computer, linked with other computers. The link is through the Internet and the World Wide Web communications system. The computer and the Internet now make it possible to find and gather information about any subject within a few minutes. Here is a good example. Oncology is the study of the disease cancer. There are many hundreds of medical research centers that are working to cure cancer. The Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is one of many publications that prints important cancer research information. The research papers tell about the results of treatment for many different kinds of cancer. The information in this journal is written for medical experts. VOICE ONE: The editors of this cancer research journal place valuable cancer research information on the World Wide Web. This makes it possible for health care professionals and researchers all over the world to use the information for educational or research purposes.By using the Internet, a researcher anywhere in the world is able to find information from the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology and print a copy in just a few minutes. To find the journal, a researcher would only have to type three words into an Internet search system on a computer. The three words are oncology, research and journal. Within seconds, the World Wide Web provides a list of several possible research papers from several countries. The study in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is only one of many valuable research papers that are on the World Wide Web. Not every search is easy. Sometimes it can take a while before the right combination of words produces the needed result. However, the World Wide Web and the Internet will almost always provide the researcher with a way to find the needed information. The computer provides a quick link to the new information that scientists like Vannaver Bush said was badly needed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Eric Benhamou is the head of a computer company called Three-Com Corporation. Mister Benhamou says people are using the computer and the Internet to communicate for work and to exchange information with their families and friends. He says people also use the Internet to learn new things and visit different places. Today almost one-hundred-fifty-million people use the Internet in the United States. A recent study showed they use the Internet for communication and for research. The study also showed that much of the research that is done leads to buying products with the aid of a computer and the Internet. The study also showed that more people than ever are now using the computer to buy products. VOICE ONE: Governments, private groups and individuals have criticized the Internet. Some governments do not trust the Internet because they say it is extremely difficult to control the information that is placed there. Some government officials say extremist groups place harmful information on the Internet. They say dangerous political information should be banned. Other groups say it is difficult to protect children from sexual information and pictures placed on the Internet. They say this kind of information should be banned. VOICE TWO: Other critics say that it is becoming extremely difficult to know if you can trust the information that is found on the Internet. They wonder if the information is true. Did the person who placed it on the Internet make any mistakes? Still other critics say the Internet is no longer a free exchange of information and ideas. They say it has become a big business that sells products, services and information. They want the Internet to be used only for research and education. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-five, scientist Vannevar Bush said researchers needed some device that would make information easier to find, use and store. The modern computer and the Internet now provide this and much more. They are an important method of communicating and doing business and will continue to be in the future. In the United States, many businesses expect their workers to know how to use computers. Children now begin learning to use computers in their first years of school. Many universities in the United States now require all new students to have their own computer. Most colleges provide special rooms that have computers for the use of all students. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: What is the future of communications and the Internet? Experts do not really know. Computers continue to grow smaller and more powerful with each passing year. Computers that were thought to be very powerful ten years ago are now considered extremely weak and slow. It is now possible to connect a computer with a wireless telephone that can link with communications satellites. A person with a small computer that can be easily carried can now link with other computers from anywhere in the world. A person can that use a computer that receives its electric power from batteries and is linked with a satellite telephone. This person can communicate from anywhere in the world. VOICE ONE: Some experts say that in the future people will not use large computers on their desks. They will use only small computer devices that link to the Internet. These devices will be easily carried from place to place. All the information people use for business or for fun will be on their own area of the World Wide Web. This has already happened. Many people already have their own private area on the World Wide Web. Businesses have their own special areas. A husband and a wife with a new baby place photographs of the baby in a special area so relatives can see the new addition to the family. People now communicate, listen to radio or watch television. They to do business buy or sell goods, write a letter or send a picture from anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night. And they will communicate around the world at almost the speed of light. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 31, 2002: Richard Nixon, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 2: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we begin the story of America's thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon. VOICE 1: Richard Nixon was sworn-in as president in January, nineteen-sixty-nine. It was a difficult time in the United States. American forces, allied with the army of South Vietnam, were continuing to fight against the communist forces of North Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers and civilians were dying. Yet the Americans and South Vietnamese were making little progress. Critics of the war said they were making no progress at all. VOICE 2: At home, there were demonstrations against the war. There were demonstrations against racial injustice. Friends and families were in dispute as they took opposing positions on these issues. Fighting the war also meant there was less government money to spend on social problems. Former President Lyndon Johnson had proposed new legislation to help poor people and minorities. In some cases, Congress approved less money than he had requested. In other cases, lawmakers did not approve any money at all. VOICE 1: Richard Nixon seemed well prepared to deal with the difficulties of being president. He was known for his ability to fight, to lose, and to keep trying. Nixon was born in California. His family was poor. When he was about ten years old, he harvested vegetables to help earn money for his family. He earned the money he needed to go to college. Then he decided to study law. He was among the top students in his class. During World War Two, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific battle area. When he came home, he campaigned for and won a seat in the Congress. VOICE 2: As a member of the House of Representatives, Nixon became known throughout the nation for his part in the Alger Hiss case. Alger Hiss was a former official in the state department. He had been accused of helping provide secret information to the Soviet Union. He denied the accusation. Nixon demanded a congressional investigation of the case. Other members of the House thought it should be dropped. Nixon succeeded and led the investigation. Later, Hiss was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury. He was sentenced to prison. VOICE 1: Some Americans disliked Richard Nixon for the way he treated people during the investigation. They felt that some of his attacks were unjust. Fear of communism was very strong at that time. They thought he was using the situation to improve his political future. The future did, in fact, bring him success. In nineteen-fifty, he ran for the Senate. He competed against Helen Gahagan Douglas. He accused her of not recognizing the threat of Communism in America. Nixon won the election. In nineteen-fifty-two, the Republican Party chose him as its candidate for vice president. Dwight Eisenhower was the candidate for president. Eisenhower and Nixon won a huge victory over the candidates of the Democratic Party. They won again in nineteen-fifty-six. VOICE 2: During his eight years as vice president, Nixon visited sixty countries. He faced violent protesters during a visit to south American in nineteen-fifty-eight. He was praised for acting bravely under dangerous conditions. A year later, he visited the Soviet Union. He and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had a famous debate about world peace. Nixon became very angry. At one point, he said to Khrushchev, "You do not know everything." VOICE 1: In nineteen-sixty, Nixon accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president. He had many years of political experience and had gained recognition as vice president. Many people thought he would win the national election easily. But he lost to the young John Kennedy. It was the closest presidential election in American history since eighteen-eighty-four. After losing to Kennedy, Nixon moved back to California. He worked as a lawyer. In nineteen-sixty-two, he ran for governor, and lost. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: It seemed that Nixon's political life was over. He moved again, this time to New York City. He worked as a lawyer. But he made it clear that he would like to return to public life some day. Many Republicans began to see Richard Nixon as the statesman they wanted in the White House. By then, president Johnson had decided not to run for re-election. His Democratic Party was divided. The Republicans believed they had a good chance to win the election of nineteen-sixty-eight. VOICE 1: Nixon campaigned hard against the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey was vice president under president Johnson. Throughout the campaign, he had to defend the policies of the Johnson administration. The policies on Vietnam had become very unpopular. Some Americans felt the war should be expanded. Many others demanded an immediate withdrawal. VOICE 2: Both Humphrey and Nixon promised to work for peace in Vietnam. On election day, voters chose Nixon. He won by a small number of popular votes. But he won many more electoral votes than Humphrey. On the day after his victory, he spoke to a gathering of supporters. NIXON: "I saw many signs in this campaign. Some of them were not friendly. Some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most was ... a teenager held up the sign: 'bring us together'. And that will be the great objective of this administration, at the outset, to bring the American people together. " VOICE 1: Once in office, President Nixon proposed legislation to deal with problems at home. He called his proposals the "New Federalism". One proposal was for revenue sharing. Under this plan, the federal government would share tax money with state and local governments. For three years, Congress blocked its passage. In nineteen-seventy-two, the revenue sharing plan was finally approved. Lawmakers also approved legislation for some of President Nixon's other ideas. One changed the way American men were called into military service. VOICE 2: The new law said young men would now be called to serve by chance, with a lottery. This was a big change. Many people had criticized the earlier system. They said it had taken too many poor men and too many men from minority groups. These were the men who were fighting, and dying, in Vietnam. Congress also approved a change to the Constitution. The amendment would permit younger people to vote. It decreased the voting age from twenty-one years to eighteen years. Supporters of the amendment said that if citizens were old enough to fight and die in the nation's wars, they were old enough to vote in the nation's elections, too. The amendment became law when three-fourths of the states approved it in nineteen-seventy-one. VOICE 1: One of President Nixon's most important proposals was to build a system to defend against enemy missiles. He said the system was needed to protect American missile bases. The issue caused much debate. Critics said it would add to the arms race with the Soviet Union. Congress approved the plan in August nineteen-sixty-nine. VOICE 2: Nixon's first appointments to the nation's highest court also caused much debate. He named two conservative judges from the southern United States to serve on the Supreme Court. Congress rejected the nomination of the first one, Clement Haynsworth. Lawmakers said his court decisions had been unfair to black Americans. Congress also rejected the nomination of the second one, G. Harold Carswell. Lawmakers said he was not prepared for the job. VOICE 1: President Nixon faced these disappointments, and others. Yet he still had moments of great celebration during his first term. One came on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. On that day, he and millions of people around the world watched as two American astronauts became the first humans to land on the moon. We will continue the story of Richard Nixon next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson. This is Stan Busby. VOICE 1: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE 1: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 2: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (Theme) Today, we begin the story of America's thirty-seventh president, Richard Nixon. VOICE 1: Richard Nixon was sworn-in as president in January, nineteen-sixty-nine. It was a difficult time in the United States. American forces, allied with the army of South Vietnam, were continuing to fight against the communist forces of North Vietnam. Thousands of soldiers and civilians were dying. Yet the Americans and South Vietnamese were making little progress. Critics of the war said they were making no progress at all. VOICE 2: At home, there were demonstrations against the war. There were demonstrations against racial injustice. Friends and families were in dispute as they took opposing positions on these issues. Fighting the war also meant there was less government money to spend on social problems. Former President Lyndon Johnson had proposed new legislation to help poor people and minorities. In some cases, Congress approved less money than he had requested. In other cases, lawmakers did not approve any money at all. VOICE 1: Richard Nixon seemed well prepared to deal with the difficulties of being president. He was known for his ability to fight, to lose, and to keep trying. Nixon was born in California. His family was poor. When he was about ten years old, he harvested vegetables to help earn money for his family. He earned the money he needed to go to college. Then he decided to study law. He was among the top students in his class. During World War Two, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific battle area. When he came home, he campaigned for and won a seat in the Congress. VOICE 2: As a member of the House of Representatives, Nixon became known throughout the nation for his part in the Alger Hiss case. Alger Hiss was a former official in the state department. He had been accused of helping provide secret information to the Soviet Union. He denied the accusation. Nixon demanded a congressional investigation of the case. Other members of the House thought it should be dropped. Nixon succeeded and led the investigation. Later, Hiss was tried and found guilty of lying to a grand jury. He was sentenced to prison. VOICE 1: Some Americans disliked Richard Nixon for the way he treated people during the investigation. They felt that some of his attacks were unjust. Fear of communism was very strong at that time. They thought he was using the situation to improve his political future. The future did, in fact, bring him success. In nineteen-fifty, he ran for the Senate. He competed against Helen Gahagan Douglas. He accused her of not recognizing the threat of Communism in America. Nixon won the election. In nineteen-fifty-two, the Republican Party chose him as its candidate for vice president. Dwight Eisenhower was the candidate for president. Eisenhower and Nixon won a huge victory over the candidates of the Democratic Party. They won again in nineteen-fifty-six. VOICE 2: During his eight years as vice president, Nixon visited sixty countries. He faced violent protesters during a visit to south American in nineteen-fifty-eight. He was praised for acting bravely under dangerous conditions. A year later, he visited the Soviet Union. He and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had a famous debate about world peace. Nixon became very angry. At one point, he said to Khrushchev, "You do not know everything." VOICE 1: In nineteen-sixty, Nixon accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president. He had many years of political experience and had gained recognition as vice president. Many people thought he would win the national election easily. But he lost to the young John Kennedy. It was the closest presidential election in American history since eighteen-eighty-four. After losing to Kennedy, Nixon moved back to California. He worked as a lawyer. In nineteen-sixty-two, he ran for governor, and lost. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: It seemed that Nixon's political life was over. He moved again, this time to New York City. He worked as a lawyer. But he made it clear that he would like to return to public life some day. Many Republicans began to see Richard Nixon as the statesman they wanted in the White House. By then, president Johnson had decided not to run for re-election. His Democratic Party was divided. The Republicans believed they had a good chance to win the election of nineteen-sixty-eight. VOICE 1: Nixon campaigned hard against the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey was vice president under president Johnson. Throughout the campaign, he had to defend the policies of the Johnson administration. The policies on Vietnam had become very unpopular. Some Americans felt the war should be expanded. Many others demanded an immediate withdrawal. VOICE 2: Both Humphrey and Nixon promised to work for peace in Vietnam. On election day, voters chose Nixon. He won by a small number of popular votes. But he won many more electoral votes than Humphrey. On the day after his victory, he spoke to a gathering of supporters. NIXON: "I saw many signs in this campaign. Some of them were not friendly. Some were very friendly. But the one that touched me the most was ... a teenager held up the sign: 'bring us together'. And that will be the great objective of this administration, at the outset, to bring the American people together. " VOICE 1: Once in office, President Nixon proposed legislation to deal with problems at home. He called his proposals the "New Federalism". One proposal was for revenue sharing. Under this plan, the federal government would share tax money with state and local governments. For three years, Congress blocked its passage. In nineteen-seventy-two, the revenue sharing plan was finally approved. Lawmakers also approved legislation for some of President Nixon's other ideas. One changed the way American men were called into military service. VOICE 2: The new law said young men would now be called to serve by chance, with a lottery. This was a big change. Many people had criticized the earlier system. They said it had taken too many poor men and too many men from minority groups. These were the men who were fighting, and dying, in Vietnam. Congress also approved a change to the Constitution. The amendment would permit younger people to vote. It decreased the voting age from twenty-one years to eighteen years. Supporters of the amendment said that if citizens were old enough to fight and die in the nation's wars, they were old enough to vote in the nation's elections, too. The amendment became law when three-fourths of the states approved it in nineteen-seventy-one. VOICE 1: One of President Nixon's most important proposals was to build a system to defend against enemy missiles. He said the system was needed to protect American missile bases. The issue caused much debate. Critics said it would add to the arms race with the Soviet Union. Congress approved the plan in August nineteen-sixty-nine. VOICE 2: Nixon's first appointments to the nation's highest court also caused much debate. He named two conservative judges from the southern United States to serve on the Supreme Court. Congress rejected the nomination of the first one, Clement Haynsworth. Lawmakers said his court decisions had been unfair to black Americans. Congress also rejected the nomination of the second one, G. Harold Carswell. Lawmakers said he was not prepared for the job. VOICE 1: President Nixon faced these disappointments, and others. Yet he still had moments of great celebration during his first term. One came on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. On that day, he and millions of people around the world watched as two American astronauts became the first humans to land on the moon. We will continue the story of Richard Nixon next week. (Theme) VOICE 2: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by jeri watson. This is Stan Busby. VOICE 1: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - October 31, 2002: Foreign Student Series #7 >Applications
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT. We continue our series of reports about how people from foreign countries can attend a college or university in the United States. A copy of this script can be found on the Special English Web site at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. In earlier Education Reports, we have explained how to begin your search at an education advising center. We also described the new government rules for entering the country and studying in the United States. If you want to study in the United States, it is time to make a list of colleges and universities that interest you. Be sure to choose more than one college. Directors of foreign student admissions at American colleges say each student should apply to at least three schools. First, you must get applications from the colleges. An application is a form you must complete to ask the college to admit you as a student. You should request applications at least two years before you want to begin studying in the United States. You can find the address of the admissions office in the college’s catalog -- a publication that tells all about the school. You can also find such information on the college’s Web site on the Internet computer system. For example, the Ohio State University provides application forms for international students on its Web pages. You can answer all the questions on the computer and e-mail the application directly to the university. Or you can copy the application forms to your computer, print them, complete the questions and mail them to the university. Or, you can fill out a computer form to ask the university to send you an application in the mail. If you cannot use a computer, write a letter to the address given in the catalog. Ask the college to send you the international admission application. Write the letter clearly. List the schools you have attended and any degrees you already have. Explain what you want to study and what degree you are seeking. Explain when you want to begin studying. You will receive a letter or application from each school. Complete the application and return it to the college. Then you must wait until the college makes its decision. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: October 31, 2002 - Listener Mail
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 31, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: November 3, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER, we catch up on some listener mail. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": October 31, 2002 Re-broadcast on VOA News Now: November 3, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER, we catch up on some listener mail. RS: The first question is by e-mail from Paul, an English learner in China. He wants to know which is a better name for a hotel: "Hotel California" or "California Hotel." AA: Paul asks, "Is there any subtle difference? Under what circumstances shall I put 'hotel' before the name of a place?" RS: For answers, we check in with Tom Cullen, associate dean of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. CULLEN: "If I were a single property, I would choose 'Hotel California.' I also would like, I would certainly like, to get the tie-in with the song." RS: The first question is by e-mail from Paul, an English learner in China. He wants to know which is a better name for a hotel: "Hotel California" or "California Hotel." AA: Paul asks, "Is there any subtle difference? Under what circumstances shall I put 'hotel' before the name of a place?" RS: For answers, we check in with Tom Cullen, associate dean of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. CULLEN: "If I were a single property, I would choose 'Hotel California.' I also would like, I would certainly like, to get the tie-in with the song." MUSIC: "Hotel California" RS: That song is "Hotel California," the big hit from 1976 by the Eagles. It's about a strange hotel where -- to quote one of the lines -- you can check out [anytime you like] but you can never leave. CULLEN: "If I were building a hotel in China, 'Hotel California' would only be a good choice if what I wanted to indicate was here is a place where you're going to get American-style furnishings and comfort. Otherwise someone might say, 'Why would I stay in a Hotel California in China?' Now, having said that, there is a Hotel California in Paris and it does extremely well and has its own niche. So they do exist around the world." AA: So now what about the second part of Paul's question about hotel names: When should "hotel" come first? Tom Cullen in the Hotel School at Cornell University says the answer may depend on the "brand" of hotel, especially if it's part of a chain, like Holiday Inn or Hilton. The question is, how well is it known? CULLEN: "If the brand is well known, then normally the brand name will come first, followed by the word hotel. If the brand name is not well known, then the thinking is that the customer is searching for a hotel and wouldn't recognize the brand name and so then the name 'hotel' would traditionally come first. Historically this is partly due to the ease of locating a hotel name in a telephone directory. So if you were looking for a hotel, you would look under H. And if you were looking for the Hilton Hotel, you'd look under H as well, but in a different part of the H's." AA: Now on to a musical question from Sebastiao Albano of Lavrinhas, Brazil. He's a teacher of Portuguese and a VOA listener since the 1970s. His question is about a song by the late Frank Sinatra. MUSIC: "My Way" RS: "In the lyrics of 'My Way' Sinatra says: 'The record shows I took the blows.' What is the meaning of 'to take the blows'? I suppose it is slang, right?' AA: Right, Sebastiao -- "to take the blows" is slang, although we don't hear it used very much anymore. It means to take the punches, the way a boxer takes the blows. Metaphorically speaking, it means taking what life has to give. RS: Sebastiao told us that every week he waits for Wordmaster. So the least we can do is answer another question of his! Here it is: AA: "The other day, an American friend, seeing a photograph of me, wrote me and said I am a 'dead ringer' for a certain American actor. That expression made me curious. I suppose it means 'to look like,' right? If so, as I have never seen any film with the actor she mentioned, the only thing that comes to my head is: 'Poor guy, how did he manage to be an actor?'" RS: Sebastiao is right about the meaning. We looked up "dead ringer" in the Dictionary of American Slang, by the late linguist Robert L. Chapman. AA: It says "dead ringer" was in use by 1891. Quote -- "an exact duplicate, especially a person who is the double of another: from , meaning 'precise, exact,' and , meaning 'substitute, especially fraudulently,' an early-19th-century slang term for gambling." RS: And, you know, "dead ringer" is such a useful expression, it's still going strong in American speech. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Mail your questions to us at VOA Wordmaster Washington DC 20237 USA. Or send e-mail to word@voanews.com. RS: You'll find our programs on our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "My Way" MUSIC: "Hotel California" RS: That song is "Hotel California," the big hit from 1976 by the Eagles. It's about a strange hotel where -- to quote one of the lines -- you can check out [anytime you like] but you can never leave. CULLEN: "If I were building a hotel in China, 'Hotel California' would only be a good choice if what I wanted to indicate was here is a place where you're going to get American-style furnishings and comfort. Otherwise someone might say, 'Why would I stay in a Hotel California in China?' Now, having said that, there is a Hotel California in Paris and it does extremely well and has its own niche. So they do exist around the world." AA: So now what about the second part of Paul's question about hotel names: When should "hotel" come first? Tom Cullen in the Hotel School at Cornell University says the answer may depend on the "brand" of hotel, especially if it's part of a chain, like Holiday Inn or Hilton. The question is, how well is it known? CULLEN: "If the brand is well known, then normally the brand name will come first, followed by the word hotel. If the brand name is not well known, then the thinking is that the customer is searching for a hotel and wouldn't recognize the brand name and so then the name 'hotel' would traditionally come first. Historically this is partly due to the ease of locating a hotel name in a telephone directory. So if you were looking for a hotel, you would look under H. And if you were looking for the Hilton Hotel, you'd look under H as well, but in a different part of the H's." AA: Now on to a musical question from Sebastiao Albano of Lavrinhas, Brazil. He's a teacher of Portuguese and a VOA listener since the 1970s. His question is about a song by the late Frank Sinatra. MUSIC: "My Way" RS: "In the lyrics of 'My Way' Sinatra says: 'The record shows I took the blows.' What is the meaning of 'to take the blows'? I suppose it is slang, right?' AA: Right, Sebastiao -- "to take the blows" is slang, although we don't hear it used very much anymore. It means to take the punches, the way a boxer takes the blows. Metaphorically speaking, it means taking what life has to give. RS: Sebastiao told us that every week he waits for Wordmaster. So the least we can do is answer another question of his! Here it is: AA: "The other day, an American friend, seeing a photograph of me, wrote me and said I am a 'dead ringer' for a certain American actor. That expression made me curious. I suppose it means 'to look like,' right? If so, as I have never seen any film with the actor she mentioned, the only thing that comes to my head is: 'Poor guy, how did he manage to be an actor?'" RS: Sebastiao is right about the meaning. We looked up "dead ringer" in the Dictionary of American Slang, by the late linguist Robert L. Chapman. AA: It says "dead ringer" was in use by 1891. Quote -- "an exact duplicate, especially a person who is the double of another: from , meaning 'precise, exact,' and , meaning 'substitute, especially fraudulently,' an early-19th-century slang term for gambling." RS: And, you know, "dead ringer" is such a useful expression, it's still going strong in American speech. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Mail your questions to us at VOA Wordmaster Washington DC 20237 USA. Or send e-mail to word@voanews.com. RS: You'll find our programs on our Web site. That address is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "My Way" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 1, 2002: Music by James Taylor / Question About the Visa Lottery / Election Day
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by James Taylor ... Answer a listener’s question about the visa lottery ... And report about American election day next Tuesday. Election Day HOST: Tuesday, November fifth, is election day in the United States. Americans will go to voting places to choose all four-hundred-thirty-five members of the House of Representatives and thirty-four Senators. They will also elect thirty-six state governors and other state and local officials. And voters in forty states will vote to support or reject financial proposals. Such elections are always held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Shep O’Neal tells us why. ANNCR: The decision to hold elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was made by lawmakers many years ago. It involved the general and permanent laws of the United States. They are listed and kept in a group of books known as the United States Code. The Code is prepared and published by a legal office of the House of Representatives. In eighteen-forty-five, the code established that presidential electors would be appointed on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every fourth year. In eighteen-seventy-five, it established the date for electing members to the House of Representatives in every even-numbered year. In nineteen-fourteen, it established the date and the time for electing members to the Senate. The lawmakers chose early November because most Americans at that time lived on farms. They thought November was the best time for farmers and other workers to be able to travel to voting places. Their harvest was finished and the weather was still good enough in most of the country to permit such travel. The lawmakers chose Tuesdays because most of the people had to travel long distances to voting places. Monday was not considered a good day for an election. It would have forced people to begin their trips on Sunday, the day many people attended church services. The Federal Election Commission says lawmakers chose the Tuesday after the first Monday because they wanted to prevent Election Day from falling on the first of November. There were two reasons for this. November first is All Saints Day, a holy day for Roman Catholics. Also, most business owners worked on their financial records on the first day of each month. The Federal Election Commission says Congress was worried that the economic success or failure of the earlier month could influence those votes. Visa Lottery HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Patrick Anyanwu asks about America’s visa lottery program. Its official name is the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Each year, it offers people around the world the legal right to work and live permanently in the United States. The State Department’s National Visa Center supervises the program. This year, fifty-thousand people have a chance to win a permit known as an immigrant visa. It also is called a green card. To be considered, you must have completed high school. Or you must have two years of recent work experience in a job that requires at least two years of training or experience. Also, you or your husband or wife must be from a country permitted to take part in the visa lottery. The program is open only to people born in countries that have low rates of immigration to the United States. The visa lottery is not offered to people born in countries that have sent more than fifty-thousand immigrants to the United States during the past five years. These include Britain and its territories except Northern Ireland, Canada, mainland China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Other countries whose people may not take part are India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam. Again, people born in these countries may not take part in the visa lottery program this year. The winners of the visa lottery are chosen by a computer program. They are informed by mail. Every one chosen is given a chance to request the right to work and live permanently in the United States. The winners also are permitted to bring their husband or wife and any unmarried children under the age of twenty-one. It does not cost any money to enter the diversity visa lottery program. However, the winners must pay for the visa and other expenses.The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is open for a one-month period during October. Last year, the National Visa Center accepted visa requests from more than six-million-two-hundred-thousand people. This year, the visa requests must be received in the United States by November sixth. For more information, use a computer search engine and type the words visa lottery -- vi-s-a l-o-t-t-e-r-y. You can also talk with someone at the United States embassy or diplomatic office in your country. October Road HOST: American singer and songwriter James Taylor has been recording and performing music for more than thirty years. He has sold more than thirty-million records and won many Grammy Awards. Two years ago, he was named to both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. He recently released his first album in five years. Mary Tillotson tells us about it. ANNCR: The album is called “October Road”. James Taylor wrote most of the songs. He says that all his songs are personal because they come from his life. Here is one of these songs, “On the Fourth of July”. (MUSIC) Many of the songs on “October Road” are about the competing desires to stay in one place and to move around. One of these songs is called “My Traveling Star”. (MUSIC) James Taylor will be traveling for several months to perform songs from his new album. Critics say one of the best of these is a swinging jazz song called “Mean Old Man.” We leave you now with James Taylor singing that song from his new album, “October Road.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by James Taylor ... Answer a listener’s question about the visa lottery ... And report about American election day next Tuesday. Election Day HOST: Tuesday, November fifth, is election day in the United States. Americans will go to voting places to choose all four-hundred-thirty-five members of the House of Representatives and thirty-four Senators. They will also elect thirty-six state governors and other state and local officials. And voters in forty states will vote to support or reject financial proposals. Such elections are always held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Shep O’Neal tells us why. ANNCR: The decision to hold elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was made by lawmakers many years ago. It involved the general and permanent laws of the United States. They are listed and kept in a group of books known as the United States Code. The Code is prepared and published by a legal office of the House of Representatives. In eighteen-forty-five, the code established that presidential electors would be appointed on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every fourth year. In eighteen-seventy-five, it established the date for electing members to the House of Representatives in every even-numbered year. In nineteen-fourteen, it established the date and the time for electing members to the Senate. The lawmakers chose early November because most Americans at that time lived on farms. They thought November was the best time for farmers and other workers to be able to travel to voting places. Their harvest was finished and the weather was still good enough in most of the country to permit such travel. The lawmakers chose Tuesdays because most of the people had to travel long distances to voting places. Monday was not considered a good day for an election. It would have forced people to begin their trips on Sunday, the day many people attended church services. The Federal Election Commission says lawmakers chose the Tuesday after the first Monday because they wanted to prevent Election Day from falling on the first of November. There were two reasons for this. November first is All Saints Day, a holy day for Roman Catholics. Also, most business owners worked on their financial records on the first day of each month. The Federal Election Commission says Congress was worried that the economic success or failure of the earlier month could influence those votes. Visa Lottery HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Patrick Anyanwu asks about America’s visa lottery program. Its official name is the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Each year, it offers people around the world the legal right to work and live permanently in the United States. The State Department’s National Visa Center supervises the program. This year, fifty-thousand people have a chance to win a permit known as an immigrant visa. It also is called a green card. To be considered, you must have completed high school. Or you must have two years of recent work experience in a job that requires at least two years of training or experience. Also, you or your husband or wife must be from a country permitted to take part in the visa lottery. The program is open only to people born in countries that have low rates of immigration to the United States. The visa lottery is not offered to people born in countries that have sent more than fifty-thousand immigrants to the United States during the past five years. These include Britain and its territories except Northern Ireland, Canada, mainland China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Other countries whose people may not take part are India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam. Again, people born in these countries may not take part in the visa lottery program this year. The winners of the visa lottery are chosen by a computer program. They are informed by mail. Every one chosen is given a chance to request the right to work and live permanently in the United States. The winners also are permitted to bring their husband or wife and any unmarried children under the age of twenty-one. It does not cost any money to enter the diversity visa lottery program. However, the winners must pay for the visa and other expenses.The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is open for a one-month period during October. Last year, the National Visa Center accepted visa requests from more than six-million-two-hundred-thousand people. This year, the visa requests must be received in the United States by November sixth. For more information, use a computer search engine and type the words visa lottery -- vi-s-a l-o-t-t-e-r-y. You can also talk with someone at the United States embassy or diplomatic office in your country. October Road HOST: American singer and songwriter James Taylor has been recording and performing music for more than thirty years. He has sold more than thirty-million records and won many Grammy Awards. Two years ago, he was named to both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. He recently released his first album in five years. Mary Tillotson tells us about it. ANNCR: The album is called “October Road”. James Taylor wrote most of the songs. He says that all his songs are personal because they come from his life. Here is one of these songs, “On the Fourth of July”. (MUSIC) Many of the songs on “October Road” are about the competing desires to stay in one place and to move around. One of these songs is called “My Traveling Star”. (MUSIC) James Taylor will be traveling for several months to perform songs from his new album. Critics say one of the best of these is a swinging jazz song called “Mean Old Man.” We leave you now with James Taylor singing that song from his new album, “October Road.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-10/a-2002-10-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 1, 2002: Shrinking Ozone Hole over Antarctica
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Australian researchers say the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica probably would start closing within five years. They say it may be completely closed within fifty years. The ozone layer protects the Earth from dangerous radiation from the sun. The hole in the ozone layer was discovered over Antarctica almost thirty years ago. At the time, it was three times the size of Australia. Paul Fraser is chief researcher of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia. Mister Fraser led a study about the ozone layer for the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization. The report found that ozone-destroying gases in the upper atmosphere had been at or near their highest levels in the year two-thousand. But since then, there has been continued progress toward recovery of the ozone layer. Satellite information showed levels of ozone-destroying gases in the atmosphere are slowly decreasing. Chlorine from chlorofluorocarbons, or C-F-C’s, is responsible for destroying part of the ozone layer over Antarctica. C-F-C’s have been widely used since the nineteen-thirties in cooling devices such as refrigerators and air conditioners. C-F-C’s remain in the atmosphere for years. Government scientists say the level of chlorine in the atmosphere is decreasing because of restrictions on the use of chlorofluorocarbons. The chemicals were restricted under an international agreement called the Montreal Protocol in nineteen-eighty-seven. Under the Montreal agreement, developing countries promised to cut their use of chlorofluorocarbons in half by the year two-thousand-five. They also agreed to an eighty-five percent cut by the year two-thousand-seven. The ozone hole forms over Antarctica in August and September, when the temperatures are coldest. Thin clouds form in these cold conditions. Chemical reactions on the cloud particles help chlorine-based chemicals to rapidly destroy ozone. By early October, temperatures begin to warm and the ozone layer begins to recover. At its largest this year, the ozone hole covered more than fifteen-million square kilometers. That is down from an average of twenty-three-million square kilometers over the last six years. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 4, 2002: Florida Keys
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: In the northern part of the world, the autumn season is turning the leaves brown, red and gold. Winter’s cold will arrive in a few short weeks. This is not true in a group of islands that extends into the Atlantic Ocean from the southern state of Florida. These islands are called the Florida Keys. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: In the northern part of the world, the autumn season is turning the leaves brown, red and gold. Winter’s cold will arrive in a few short weeks. This is not true in a group of islands that extends into the Atlantic Ocean from the southern state of Florida. These islands are called the Florida Keys. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the famous Florida Keys in our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: "Volcano"/Jimmy Buffet) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about the famous Florida Keys in our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: "Volcano"/Jimmy Buffet) VOICE ONE: The first European to see the Florida Keys was Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in the year fifteen-thirteen. He was searching for special water that would keep people young forever. But he did not find that special water, or any other water that people could drink. Later, other Spanish explorers mapped the area as an aid to help their treasure ships return to Spain. Many of the Keys still have Spanish names, like Islamorada, Bahia Honda and Key Vaca. The word “keys” comes from the Spanish word “cayos” meaning “little island.” And many of the Florida Keys are little. Hundreds of the islands are only pieces of sand that extend a few feet out of the water. Many are only visited by sea birds. Yet some of the Keys are big enough to support large numbers of people. One of the most popular is Key West. It is the farthest south of the Keys that can be reached by car. VOICE TWO: A road extends southwest into the Florida Keys. It is called Highway One. It starts into the Keys from the state of Florida at a bridge that crosses the water to the island of Key Largo. The road is narrow and the traffic is often slow as it travels through each of the small towns of the Keys. Highway One is about one-hundred-fifty-seven kilometers from Key Largo to its end in Key West. It extends across many bridges between the islands. The longest of these bridges is eleven kilometers long. It is called Seven Mile Bridge and was completed in nineteen-eleven. At the time, it was considered one of the wonders of the world. No bridge crossed as much open water. The first European to see the Florida Keys was Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in the year fifteen-thirteen. He was searching for special water that would keep people young forever. But he did not find that special water, or any other water that people could drink. Later, other Spanish explorers mapped the area as an aid to help their treasure ships return to Spain. Many of the Keys still have Spanish names, like Islamorada, Bahia Honda and Key Vaca. The word “keys” comes from the Spanish word “cayos” meaning “little island.” And many of the Florida Keys are little. Hundreds of the islands are only pieces of sand that extend a few feet out of the water. Many are only visited by sea birds. Yet some of the Keys are big enough to support large numbers of people. One of the most popular is Key West. It is the farthest south of the Keys that can be reached by car. VOICE TWO: A road extends southwest into the Florida Keys. It is called Highway One. It starts into the Keys from the state of Florida at a bridge that crosses the water to the island of Key Largo. The road is narrow and the traffic is often slow as it travels through each of the small towns of the Keys. Highway One is about one-hundred-fifty-seven kilometers from Key Largo to its end in Key West. It extends across many bridges between the islands. The longest of these bridges is eleven kilometers long. It is called Seven Mile Bridge and was completed in nineteen-eleven. At the time, it was considered one of the wonders of the world. No bridge crossed as much open water. It was a strong bridge, too. Seven Mile Bridge survived many storms, including one huge ocean storm that damaged the Keys in nineteen-thirty-five. The first Seven Mile Bridge was replaced in nineteen-eighty-two, but you can still see the old bridge, close to the new one. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Today, the Florida Keys are a popular holiday area. Many of the islands have beautiful white sand beaches. Swimming and boating are major sports. Visitors can pay to go on a boat for a fishing trip. They can catch many different kinds of fish including huge fish called sailfish or marlin. People come from all over the world to fish in the Florida Keys. In fact, the people who live on Islamorada Key claim their island is the “Sports Fishing Capital of the World.” However, the people of other Keys say the fishing is just as good off their islands. Visitors can ride on other kinds of boats in the Florida Keys. Some are special party boats. These go out for the day or during the night. There are food and drinks on these boats. They might also have bands or recorded music for dancing. VOICE TWO: It was a strong bridge, too. Seven Mile Bridge survived many storms, including one huge ocean storm that damaged the Keys in nineteen-thirty-five. The first Seven Mile Bridge was replaced in nineteen-eighty-two, but you can still see the old bridge, close to the new one. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Today, the Florida Keys are a popular holiday area. Many of the islands have beautiful white sand beaches. Swimming and boating are major sports. Visitors can pay to go on a boat for a fishing trip. They can catch many different kinds of fish including huge fish called sailfish or marlin. People come from all over the world to fish in the Florida Keys. In fact, the people who live on Islamorada Key claim their island is the “Sports Fishing Capital of the World.” However, the people of other Keys say the fishing is just as good off their islands. Visitors can ride on other kinds of boats in the Florida Keys. Some are special party boats. These go out for the day or during the night. There are food and drinks on these boats. They might also have bands or recorded music for dancing. VOICE TWO: The music heard in the Florida Keys is unusual. You can hear Cuban music. You can hear music of the Caribbean islands, old calypso music from deep in the Caribbean and reggae from Jamaica. You can also hear a lot of music by American songwriter and singer Jimmy Buffet. His music is a mix of American country and western, rock and the sounds of the Caribbean islands. People who really like his music call themselves “Parrot Heads.” It is now time to take a little trip. Let us pretend we are traveling across the last bridge on Highway One to the island of Key West. Our car radio is playing one of Jimmy Buffet’s most famous songs, “Margaritaville.” (((CUT ONE: MARGARITAVILLE CDP-))) VOICE ONE: As we cross the bridge to Key West, we can see many boats. Some are fishing boats you can use for the day. Others belong to people who have sailed their boats here from many different places. In the city, the houses are almost all painted white. A few are pink or light blue. Many houses are very old and very small. Key West is a very old city. Many of the buildings are more than one-hundred years old. Many palm trees grow here. Colorful flowers grow in front of many of the little houses. You can stay in a room in one of these houses for the night. You can smell the ocean on the soft warm wind that blows across the island. We drive past several streets and then come to Whitehead Street. We turn left. Very soon we come to the end of the street. There is a monument here. The sign says this is the southernmost part of the United States. The sign says “American Begins Here.” Beyond the sign is the ocean. VOICE TWO: After taking a few photographs of the sign, we turn the car around and follow Whitehead Street to number nine-oh-seven. This house belonged to the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. For a few dollars, you can see the inside of the house. Hemingway had many cats when he lived here. He is gone, but the cats remain. Many are asleep on the beds or chairs. They are used to seeing people walking through the old house. VOICE ONE: After we leave the Hemingway house, we travel a little way to Green Street. There is a private museum here we want to visit. It is the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum. The museum is named after treasure hunter Mel Fisher. He discovered an old sunken Spanish treasure ship near Key West more than twenty years ago. That ship was the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Visitors can see some of the ship’s treasure at the museum. You can hold a huge, solid bar of gold worth many thousands of dollars. You can put your hands through a hole in a clear, plastic box and hold the huge piece of gold. But the box is built so you can not turn the bar toward the hole. You can not take the gold with you! However, the museum store will sell you real Spanish coins that were found on the famous ship. They are very costly. Or you can buy a copy of a coin for much less money. VOICE TWO: From Mel Fisher’s Museum, we walk the short distance to Mallory Square, the center of Key West’s historic area. The square is famous for the Key West sunset celebration that is held each night if the weather is good. It is really more famous for the unusual people and animals you can see here. For example, you can see people sing or play music. You can see cats perform tricks. You can watch trained birds. You can buy a hat. Or just watch the beautiful sunset. VOICE ONE: From Mallory Square we walk to Duval Street. This is where we find many good eating and drinking places. You can buy very good Cuban food. Cuba is only about one-hundred-forty kilometers from Key West. The Cuban influence can be strongly felt in the city. Or maybe you want to eat seafood instead. There are many good seafood restaurants. Singer Jimmy Buffet owns an eating place here, too. It is the Margaritaville Café where you can get a good American cheeseburger. You can also find drinking places that have bands. Some bands play rock music. Some play music of the Caribbean. Still others play country and western music. There seems to be a kind of music for everyone. There are many other businesses along Duval Street. Many stores sell clothing. Some stores sell the works of local Key West artists. Duval Street is a lively area. There seems to be a party here until very late into the night. VOICE TWO: There is much more to do and see in Key West. You can take a high-speed boat trip for about an hour to the Dry Tortugas National Park. A huge military fort was built there before the American Civil War. You can rent an aircraft and take photographs of the beautiful Keys from the air. You can learn to breathe under water using special equipment. And, when your holiday is finished, you can drive slowly up Highway One, through the many other Florida Keys, stopping to enjoy each one on the way home. (MUSIC: Jimmy Buffet) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. The music heard in the Florida Keys is unusual. You can hear Cuban music. You can hear music of the Caribbean islands, old calypso music from deep in the Caribbean and reggae from Jamaica. You can also hear a lot of music by American songwriter and singer Jimmy Buffet. His music is a mix of American country and western, rock and the sounds of the Caribbean islands. People who really like his music call themselves “Parrot Heads.” It is now time to take a little trip. Let us pretend we are traveling across the last bridge on Highway One to the island of Key West. Our car radio is playing one of Jimmy Buffet’s most famous songs, “Margaritaville.” (((CUT ONE: MARGARITAVILLE CDP-))) VOICE ONE: As we cross the bridge to Key West, we can see many boats. Some are fishing boats you can use for the day. Others belong to people who have sailed their boats here from many different places. In the city, the houses are almost all painted white. A few are pink or light blue. Many houses are very old and very small. Key West is a very old city. Many of the buildings are more than one-hundred years old. Many palm trees grow here. Colorful flowers grow in front of many of the little houses. You can stay in a room in one of these houses for the night. You can smell the ocean on the soft warm wind that blows across the island. We drive past several streets and then come to Whitehead Street. We turn left. Very soon we come to the end of the street. There is a monument here. The sign says this is the southernmost part of the United States. The sign says “American Begins Here.” Beyond the sign is the ocean. VOICE TWO: After taking a few photographs of the sign, we turn the car around and follow Whitehead Street to number nine-oh-seven. This house belonged to the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. For a few dollars, you can see the inside of the house. Hemingway had many cats when he lived here. He is gone, but the cats remain. Many are asleep on the beds or chairs. They are used to seeing people walking through the old house. VOICE ONE: After we leave the Hemingway house, we travel a little way to Green Street. There is a private museum here we want to visit. It is the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum. The museum is named after treasure hunter Mel Fisher. He discovered an old sunken Spanish treasure ship near Key West more than twenty years ago. That ship was the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Visitors can see some of the ship’s treasure at the museum. You can hold a huge, solid bar of gold worth many thousands of dollars. You can put your hands through a hole in a clear, plastic box and hold the huge piece of gold. But the box is built so you can not turn the bar toward the hole. You can not take the gold with you! However, the museum store will sell you real Spanish coins that were found on the famous ship. They are very costly. Or you can buy a copy of a coin for much less money. VOICE TWO: From Mel Fisher’s Museum, we walk the short distance to Mallory Square, the center of Key West’s historic area. The square is famous for the Key West sunset celebration that is held each night if the weather is good. It is really more famous for the unusual people and animals you can see here. For example, you can see people sing or play music. You can see cats perform tricks. You can watch trained birds. You can buy a hat. Or just watch the beautiful sunset. VOICE ONE: From Mallory Square we walk to Duval Street. This is where we find many good eating and drinking places. You can buy very good Cuban food. Cuba is only about one-hundred-forty kilometers from Key West. The Cuban influence can be strongly felt in the city. Or maybe you want to eat seafood instead. There are many good seafood restaurants. Singer Jimmy Buffet owns an eating place here, too. It is the Margaritaville Café where you can get a good American cheeseburger. You can also find drinking places that have bands. Some bands play rock music. Some play music of the Caribbean. Still others play country and western music. There seems to be a kind of music for everyone. There are many other businesses along Duval Street. Many stores sell clothing. Some stores sell the works of local Key West artists. Duval Street is a lively area. There seems to be a party here until very late into the night. VOICE TWO: There is much more to do and see in Key West. You can take a high-speed boat trip for about an hour to the Dry Tortugas National Park. A huge military fort was built there before the American Civil War. You can rent an aircraft and take photographs of the beautiful Keys from the air. You can learn to breathe under water using special equipment. And, when your holiday is finished, you can drive slowly up Highway One, through the many other Florida Keys, stopping to enjoy each one on the way home. (MUSIC: Jimmy Buffet) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 4, 2002: World Health Report 2002
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The life expectancy of people around the world could increase by five to ten years if action against common health risks is taken. This is one of the findings in this year’s World Health Report released recently by the World Health Organization. The report is called “Reducing Risks, Promoting Life.” Researchers found that ten major threats to good health are common around the world. The chief of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, called them the ten leading killers. They include unsafe sex, poor nutrition, high blood pressure, use of tobacco and alcohol, unsafe water and unclean living conditions. Also included are high levels of dangerous fat in the blood, indoor smoke from solid fuels, a lack of iron in the body and too much body weight, or obesity. Together, these ten health risks make up forty percent of the fifty-six-million deaths worldwide each year. Doctor Brundtland called for reducing the ten main health risks by twenty-five percent within ten years. If this were done, life expectancy in industrial countries could increase by ten years. In developing countries, it could increase by five years. Currently, the number of life years lost because of these health risks differs around the world. Doctor Brundtland says the differences these health risks create between rich and poor nations are shocking. For example, about one-hundred-seventy-million children in poor countries are underweight. They do not weigh enough because they do not get enough food. However, more than one-thousand-million adults around the world are too fat. These people are mostly in rich, industrial countries. Doctor Brundtland warns that the cost of inaction is serious. For example, she says nine-million deaths a year linked to smoking will be reported by two-thousand-twenty if steps are not taken soon. Currently, about five-million people die each year from diseases related to smoking. Doctor Brundtland says that AIDS and the H-I-V virus are having a huge effect on the length of life in Africa. Currently, life expectancy at birth in southern Africa is forty-seven years. The W-H-O estimates that ninety-five percent of H-I-V infections in Africa were caused by unsafe sex. She says there is an urgent need for sex education and the use of condom devices to prevent the spread of H-I-V. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss [adapted from a VOA report by Michael Drudge]. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The life expectancy of people around the world could increase by five to ten years if action against common health risks is taken. This is one of the findings in this year’s World Health Report released recently by the World Health Organization. The report is called “Reducing Risks, Promoting Life.” Researchers found that ten major threats to good health are common around the world. The chief of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, called them the ten leading killers. They include unsafe sex, poor nutrition, high blood pressure, use of tobacco and alcohol, unsafe water and unclean living conditions. Also included are high levels of dangerous fat in the blood, indoor smoke from solid fuels, a lack of iron in the body and too much body weight, or obesity. Together, these ten health risks make up forty percent of the fifty-six-million deaths worldwide each year. Doctor Brundtland called for reducing the ten main health risks by twenty-five percent within ten years. If this were done, life expectancy in industrial countries could increase by ten years. In developing countries, it could increase by five years. Currently, the number of life years lost because of these health risks differs around the world. Doctor Brundtland says the differences these health risks create between rich and poor nations are shocking. For example, about one-hundred-seventy-million children in poor countries are underweight. They do not weigh enough because they do not get enough food. However, more than one-thousand-million adults around the world are too fat. These people are mostly in rich, industrial countries. Doctor Brundtland warns that the cost of inaction is serious. For example, she says nine-million deaths a year linked to smoking will be reported by two-thousand-twenty if steps are not taken soon. Currently, about five-million people die each year from diseases related to smoking. Doctor Brundtland says that AIDS and the H-I-V virus are having a huge effect on the length of life in Africa. Currently, life expectancy at birth in southern Africa is forty-seven years. The W-H-O estimates that ninety-five percent of H-I-V infections in Africa were caused by unsafe sex. She says there is an urgent need for sex education and the use of condom devices to prevent the spread of H-I-V. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss [adapted from a VOA report by Michael Drudge]. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 3, 2002: Jacob Riis
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:73678| height="128" width="150" alt="Laborers in a sweat shop, from "How the Other Half Lives," first published in 1890." hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/gsa.gov_jacob_riis_1nov02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> Laborers in a sweat shop, from "How the Other Half Lives," first published in 1890. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Jacob Riis. He was a writer who used all his energy to make the world a better place for poor people. (Theme) VOICE 1: In the spring of eighteen-seventy, a young man traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. The young man came from Denmark. His name was Jacob Riis. He was just twenty-one years old. His first years in the United States were difficult, like those of most immigrants at that time. It was difficult to get a job. Jacob Riis went from place to place seeking work. He did any kind of work he could find. Farming, coal mining, brick-making. He even tried to earn money as a peddler. He went from house to house selling things. Many times he slept wherever he could. Soon he was beginning to lose hope. He decided to leave New York. He started to walk north. After a time, he arrived in the Bronx, the northern part of New York City. His feet burned with pain. And he was hungry. VOICE 2: "I Had not eaten a thing since the day before. I had no breakfast, and decided to have a swim in the Bronx River, instead. But that did not help. I was just as hungry when I came out of the water. "Then I walked slowly to Fordham College, which was not far from where I was. The doors to Fordham College were open, and I walked in, for no reason. I was just tired and had nothing else to do. "Fordham is a Catholic college. And an old monk came to me and asked in a kind voice if I was hungry. I still remember in my dreams at night the beautiful face of that old monk. I was terribly hungry, and said I was, although I did not mean to do so. I had never seen a real live monk before. My own religious education as a Lutheran did not teach me to like Catholic monks. "I ate the food that was brought to me. But I was troubled. I was afraid that after giving me food, the churchman would ask me to change my religious beliefs. I said to myself: 'I am not going to do it.' But when I had eaten, I was not asked to do anything. I was given more food when I left, and continued on my way. I was angry with myself for having such bad thoughts about the Catholic churchmen at Fordham College. For the first time, I learned something about how to live with people of different religious beliefs. " (Music Bridge) VOICE 1: Later, Jacob Riis learned more about liking people, even if they are different. This time, it happened while he was working on a railroad with men who did rough work and looked rough. VOICE 2: "I had never done that sort of work, and it was not the right job for me. I did my best to work like the other men. But my chest felt heavy, and my heart pounded in my body as if it were going to explode. There were nineteen Irishmen in the group. They were big, rough fellows. They had chosen me as the only 'Dutchman' -- as they called me -- to make them laugh. They were going to use me as part of their jokes. "But then they saw that the job was just too hard for me. This made them feel different about me. It showed another side to these fun-loving, big-hearted people. They thought of many ways to get me away from the very rough work. One, was to get me to bring water for them. They liked stronger things to drink than water. But now they suddenly wanted water all the time. I had to walk a long way for the water. But it stopped me from doing the work that was too hard for me. These people were very rough in their ways. But behind the roughness they were good men." VOICE 1: At last, Jacob Riis got a job writing for a newspaper in New York City. This was his chance. He finally had found a profession that would lead to his life work -- making the world a better place for poor people. The newspaper sent him to police headquarters for stories. There he saw life at its worst, especially in a very poor part of New York which was known as Mulberry Bend. VOICE 2: "It was no place for men and women. And surely no place for little children. It was a terrible slum -- as such places are called -- where too many are crowded together, where the houses and streets are dirty and full of rats. The place began to trouble me as the truth about it became clear. Others were not troubled. They had no way of finding out how terrible the lives of people were in Mulberry Bend. But as a newspaper reporter, I could find the truth. So I went through the dark dirty streets and houses, and saw how the people suffered in this area. And I wrote many stories about the life there. "I did good work as a police reporter, but wanted a change. My editor said, 'no.' He asked me to go back to Mulberry Bend and stay there. He said I was finding something there that needed me." VOICE 1: The words of Jacob Riis' editor proved to be very true. Riis started a personal war against slum houses, the sort he saw in Mulberry Bend. He learned to use a camera to show the public clearly what the Mulberry Bend slum was like. The camera in the eighteen-eighties was nothing like it is today. But Riis got his pictures. VOICE 2: "I made good use of them quickly. Words could get no action to change things. But the pictures did. What the camera showed was so powerful that the city's health officials started to do something. At last I had a strong partner in the fight against Mulberry Bend -- my camera. " (Music Bridge) VOICE 1: Jacob Riis continued the fight to clean up the slums for many years. There were not many people to help him. It was a lonely fight. But his camera and fighting words helped to get a law passed which would destroy the Mulberry Bend slum. Finally, the great day came. The slum housing was gone. The area had become a park. VOICE 2: "When they had fixed the ground so the grass could grow, I saw children dancing there in the sunlight. They were going to have a better life, thank God. We had given them their lost chance. I looked at these dancing children and saw how happy they were. This place that had been full of crime and murder became the most orderly in the city. "The murders and crimes disappeared when they let sunlight come into the bend. The sunlight that shone upon children who had, at last, the right to play. That was what the Mulberry Bend park meant. So the bend went. And I was very happy that I had helped to make it go." VOICE 1: That was not Riis' last battle to make life cleaner and better for many people. He had great energy. And his love for people was as great as his energy. He started a campaign to get clean water for the state of New York. He showed that water for the state was not healthy for people. State officials were forced to take actions that would clean the water. He also worked to get laws against child labor, and made sure that these laws were obeyed. In those days, when Riis was a fighting newspaper reporter, laws against child labor were something new. People did not object to making young children work long hours, in places that had bad air and bad light. But in the United States today, child labor is not legal. It was because of men like Jacob Riis that this is so. He was also successful in getting playgrounds for children. And he helped establish centers for education and fun for older people. His book, how the other half lives, was published in eighteen-ninety. He became famous. That book and his newspaper reports influenced many people. Theodore Roosevelt, who later became president of the United States, called Riis the most useful citizen in New York City. Riis continued to write about conditions that were in need of major reform. His twelve books including children of the poor helped improve conditions in the city. The books also made him popular as a speaker in other cities. Jacob Riis's concern for the poor kept him so busy writing and speaking around the country that he ruined his health. He died in nineteen-fourteen. (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Herbert Sutcliffe and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week at this time, the Voice of America tells about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Jacob Riis. He was a writer who used all his energy to make the world a better place for poor people. (Theme) VOICE 1: In the spring of eighteen-seventy, a young man traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. The young man came from Denmark. His name was Jacob Riis. He was just twenty-one years old. His first years in the United States were difficult, like those of most immigrants at that time. It was difficult to get a job. Jacob Riis went from place to place seeking work. He did any kind of work he could find. Farming, coal mining, brick-making. He even tried to earn money as a peddler. He went from house to house selling things. Many times he slept wherever he could. Soon he was beginning to lose hope. He decided to leave New York. He started to walk north. After a time, he arrived in the Bronx, the northern part of New York City. His feet burned with pain. And he was hungry. VOICE 2: "I Had not eaten a thing since the day before. I had no breakfast, and decided to have a swim in the Bronx River, instead. But that did not help. I was just as hungry when I came out of the water. "Then I walked slowly to Fordham College, which was not far from where I was. The doors to Fordham College were open, and I walked in, for no reason. I was just tired and had nothing else to do. "Fordham is a Catholic college. And an old monk came to me and asked in a kind voice if I was hungry. I still remember in my dreams at night the beautiful face of that old monk. I was terribly hungry, and said I was, although I did not mean to do so. I had never seen a real live monk before. My own religious education as a Lutheran did not teach me to like Catholic monks. "I ate the food that was brought to me. But I was troubled. I was afraid that after giving me food, the churchman would ask me to change my religious beliefs. I said to myself: 'I am not going to do it.' But when I had eaten, I was not asked to do anything. I was given more food when I left, and continued on my way. I was angry with myself for having such bad thoughts about the Catholic churchmen at Fordham College. For the first time, I learned something about how to live with people of different religious beliefs. " (Music Bridge) VOICE 1: Later, Jacob Riis learned more about liking people, even if they are different. This time, it happened while he was working on a railroad with men who did rough work and looked rough. VOICE 2: "I had never done that sort of work, and it was not the right job for me. I did my best to work like the other men. But my chest felt heavy, and my heart pounded in my body as if it were going to explode. There were nineteen Irishmen in the group. They were big, rough fellows. They had chosen me as the only 'Dutchman' -- as they called me -- to make them laugh. They were going to use me as part of their jokes. "But then they saw that the job was just too hard for me. This made them feel different about me. It showed another side to these fun-loving, big-hearted people. They thought of many ways to get me away from the very rough work. One, was to get me to bring water for them. They liked stronger things to drink than water. But now they suddenly wanted water all the time. I had to walk a long way for the water. But it stopped me from doing the work that was too hard for me. These people were very rough in their ways. But behind the roughness they were good men." VOICE 1: At last, Jacob Riis got a job writing for a newspaper in New York City. This was his chance. He finally had found a profession that would lead to his life work -- making the world a better place for poor people. The newspaper sent him to police headquarters for stories. There he saw life at its worst, especially in a very poor part of New York which was known as Mulberry Bend. VOICE 2: "It was no place for men and women. And surely no place for little children. It was a terrible slum -- as such places are called -- where too many are crowded together, where the houses and streets are dirty and full of rats. The place began to trouble me as the truth about it became clear. Others were not troubled. They had no way of finding out how terrible the lives of people were in Mulberry Bend. But as a newspaper reporter, I could find the truth. So I went through the dark dirty streets and houses, and saw how the people suffered in this area. And I wrote many stories about the life there. "I did good work as a police reporter, but wanted a change. My editor said, 'no.' He asked me to go back to Mulberry Bend and stay there. He said I was finding something there that needed me." VOICE 1: The words of Jacob Riis' editor proved to be very true. Riis started a personal war against slum houses, the sort he saw in Mulberry Bend. He learned to use a camera to show the public clearly what the Mulberry Bend slum was like. The camera in the eighteen-eighties was nothing like it is today. But Riis got his pictures. VOICE 2: "I made good use of them quickly. Words could get no action to change things. But the pictures did. What the camera showed was so powerful that the city's health officials started to do something. At last I had a strong partner in the fight against Mulberry Bend -- my camera. " (Music Bridge) VOICE 1: Jacob Riis continued the fight to clean up the slums for many years. There were not many people to help him. It was a lonely fight. But his camera and fighting words helped to get a law passed which would destroy the Mulberry Bend slum. Finally, the great day came. The slum housing was gone. The area had become a park. VOICE 2: "When they had fixed the ground so the grass could grow, I saw children dancing there in the sunlight. They were going to have a better life, thank God. We had given them their lost chance. I looked at these dancing children and saw how happy they were. This place that had been full of crime and murder became the most orderly in the city. "The murders and crimes disappeared when they let sunlight come into the bend. The sunlight that shone upon children who had, at last, the right to play. That was what the Mulberry Bend park meant. So the bend went. And I was very happy that I had helped to make it go." VOICE 1: That was not Riis' last battle to make life cleaner and better for many people. He had great energy. And his love for people was as great as his energy. He started a campaign to get clean water for the state of New York. He showed that water for the state was not healthy for people. State officials were forced to take actions that would clean the water. He also worked to get laws against child labor, and made sure that these laws were obeyed. In those days, when Riis was a fighting newspaper reporter, laws against child labor were something new. People did not object to making young children work long hours, in places that had bad air and bad light. But in the United States today, child labor is not legal. It was because of men like Jacob Riis that this is so. He was also successful in getting playgrounds for children. And he helped establish centers for education and fun for older people. His book, how the other half lives, was published in eighteen-ninety. He became famous. That book and his newspaper reports influenced many people. Theodore Roosevelt, who later became president of the United States, called Riis the most useful citizen in New York City. Riis continued to write about conditions that were in need of major reform. His twelve books including children of the poor helped improve conditions in the city. The books also made him popular as a speaker in other cities. Jacob Riis's concern for the poor kept him so busy writing and speaking around the country that he ruined his health. He died in nineteen-fourteen. (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Herbert Sutcliffe and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 2, 2002: Brazilians Elect Lula
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Brazilians elected a new president this week. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva won sixty-one percent of the vote to defeat Jose Serra, the ruling party candidate. The man popularly known as Lula will be sworn-in on January first. He replaces two-term President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Mister da Silva was born fifty-seven years ago in Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco. He came from a very poor family. His father was a farm worker. Luis left school while still a child. He earned money by shining shoes and selling food on the streets of Sao Paulo. By the age of fourteen, he became a metal-worker in a factory. In nineteen-seventy-five, Mister da Silva became head of the one-hundred-thousand-member Metalworkers Union. He came to represent opposition to Brazil’s military government. As a labor leader, he was jailed for organizing a series of strikes. After his release in nineteen-eighty, he helped to establish the Workers’ Party. It was the first major Socialist Party in the country’s history. Mister da Silva was a candidate for president in three earlier elections before his win on Sunday. At first, he urged landless farm workers to invade private property. He also said Brazil should stop making payments on its debt. In recent years, however, he has expressed moderate positions on some issues. An increase in his popularity followed. Brazil is the largest country in South America. About one-hundred-seventy-five-million live there. However, about thirty percent of the population is considered needy. Many of them do not get enough to eat. Mister da Silva says a top goal of his administration will be to end hunger in Brazil. He hopes to have all Brazilians eating three meals a day by the end of his four-year term in office. The president-elect also says he will create ten-million new jobs and work to keep inflation low. He says the majority of Brazilians voted for such a new economic and social model. Mister da Silva says he will honor Brazil’s agreements with lending organizations like the International Monetary Fund. And, he says Brazil will continue to make payments on its debt of two-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars. Some investors are concerned about Mister da Silva’s politics and his earlier criticism of lending organizations. In recent months, individuals and foreign banks have withdrawn thousands of millions of dollars from Brazil. The value of Brazil’s money has dropped sharply. Mister da Silva has made several moves to ease investors’ worries. He chose a wealthy businessman as his vice-president. Mister da Silva has offered to move forward on talks to establish a free trade area in the Americas. He also plans to name a traditional economist to head Brazil’s central bank. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Brazilians elected a new president this week. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva won sixty-one percent of the vote to defeat Jose Serra, the ruling party candidate. The man popularly known as Lula will be sworn-in on January first. He replaces two-term President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Mister da Silva was born fifty-seven years ago in Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco. He came from a very poor family. His father was a farm worker. Luis left school while still a child. He earned money by shining shoes and selling food on the streets of Sao Paulo. By the age of fourteen, he became a metal-worker in a factory. In nineteen-seventy-five, Mister da Silva became head of the one-hundred-thousand-member Metalworkers Union. He came to represent opposition to Brazil’s military government. As a labor leader, he was jailed for organizing a series of strikes. After his release in nineteen-eighty, he helped to establish the Workers’ Party. It was the first major Socialist Party in the country’s history. Mister da Silva was a candidate for president in three earlier elections before his win on Sunday. At first, he urged landless farm workers to invade private property. He also said Brazil should stop making payments on its debt. In recent years, however, he has expressed moderate positions on some issues. An increase in his popularity followed. Brazil is the largest country in South America. About one-hundred-seventy-five-million live there. However, about thirty percent of the population is considered needy. Many of them do not get enough to eat. Mister da Silva says a top goal of his administration will be to end hunger in Brazil. He hopes to have all Brazilians eating three meals a day by the end of his four-year term in office. The president-elect also says he will create ten-million new jobs and work to keep inflation low. He says the majority of Brazilians voted for such a new economic and social model. Mister da Silva says he will honor Brazil’s agreements with lending organizations like the International Monetary Fund. And, he says Brazil will continue to make payments on its debt of two-hundred-sixty-thousand-million dollars. Some investors are concerned about Mister da Silva’s politics and his earlier criticism of lending organizations. In recent months, individuals and foreign banks have withdrawn thousands of millions of dollars from Brazil. The value of Brazil’s money has dropped sharply. Mister da Silva has made several moves to ease investors’ worries. He chose a wealthy businessman as his vice-president. Mister da Silva has offered to move forward on talks to establish a free trade area in the Americas. He also plans to name a traditional economist to head Brazil’s central bank. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – November 5, 2002: National Arboretum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:73683| height="150" width="143" alt="There are many award-winning daylilies; this one is called "Almost Indecent."(Photo - U.S. National Arboretum)" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/usna_daylily_4nov02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> There are many award-winning daylilies; this one is called "Almost Indecent."(Photo - U.S. National Arboretum) VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the United States National Arboretum. It is a peaceful natural area in Washington, D-C. Yet the Arboretum is an active center for both scientific research and public education. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people who come to Washington act surprised when they first visit the United States National Arboretum. The National Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. However, visitors to the Arboretum often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. The National Arboretum covers one-hundred-eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. The area is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. About nine-thousand different kinds of plants and trees grow there. VOICE TWO: An arboretum is a place where trees and plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service operates the Arboretum. The goal of the Arboretum is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. The goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public. VOICE ONE: The National Arboretum is a popular stop for visitors to Washington. The grounds are open every day of the year except December twenty-fifth, the Christmas holiday. It does not cost money to visit the Arboretum. More than five-hundred-thousand people visit the Arboretum grounds each year. Another five-hundred-thousand visit with the help of computers. They use the Arboretum’s Internet web site to learn about how to care for plants and current research programs. Director Thomas Elias says Arboretum officials would like to see even more visitors. He says they believe that many people do not know it exists. VOICE TWO: Part of the problem may result from the fact that there is no local public transportation train station near the Arboretum. Many famous places in Washington are a short walk from the city’s Metro local train system. The Arboretum is easy to reach by automobile or bus, however. About fifteen kilometers of roads have been built on the property. The roads connect to major collections and seasonal flowers. The Arboretum also welcomes people on bicycles. Disabled people or those who want to walk only short distances may visit four beautiful areas that are close to each other. People who like longer walks will enjoy the Arboretum’s many pathways. There is a small eating place on the property or you may bring food to eat during your visit. There also is a small gift store that sells books and other things. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Early this year, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman opened a year-long celebration in honor of the National Arboretum’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Mizz Veneman praised the Arboretum as a national treasure. As part of the celebration, Mizz Veneman assisted in the planting of a tree near the United States Capitol building. The tree -- a Sun Valley red maple -- is one of the many award-winning plants developed by Arboretum scientists. The Sun Valley red maple was developed as part of a project to study the genetic qualities of leaf color and insect resistance. The tree produces leaves that remain bright red late into autumn. It was tested in the state of Maryland. The Sun Valley maple kept its colorful leaves for about two weeks before they fell to the ground. The tree also resisted the potato leafhopper, an insect that feeds on the leaves of trees. Agriculture Department officials say they expect the Sun Valley red maple will be ready for sale to the general public next year. VOICE TWO: Scientists at the Arboretum have developed many of the trees and flowers now found in the United States and many other countries. Over the years, the Arboretum and the Agricultural Research Service have released almost seven-hundred different plants. Each year, they offer several new plants. In the past, scientists there have developed new flowering plants and improved other kinds plants. They also have developed virus-resistant plants with processes of genetic engineering. In September, the Arboretum started a research program that examines national issues linked to another kind of plant -- turfgrass. Turfgrass often grows in open, green spaces around American homes and businesses. It also is grown near many public roads and other areas. Scientists at the Arboretum will carry out long-term studies to improve the quality of turfgrass. They hope to strengthen the grass’s resistance to dry weather, insects and disease. The program is being carried out with the industries and groups directly involved in turfgrass development, production and support. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Agricultural Research Service operates a number of centers and laboratories across the United States. The National Arboretum is best known for its beauty. Visitors can always find flowering plants. You can start looking for flowers in the Arboretum’s Asian Collections, Friendship Garden and National Boxwood Collection. This past summer, the unusual flowers and huge leaves of the Victoria water platters were extremely popular. The hotter than normal weather in Washington this past summer made the plants grow especially well. For the first time, all the Victoria water platters in the Arboretum’s aquatic garden area came from seeds. The Arboretum successfully grew enough plants to place sixteen in a large container filled with water. The other plants were given to other plant centers across the country. VOICE TWO: Last year, a severe wind storm damaged areas near the Arboretum, in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The storm caused major damage at the Agricultural Research Service laboratories in Beltsville, Maryland. Cars were destroyed, and parts of several A-R-S buildings were damaged. Many trees were damaged so badly that they had to be removed. Arboretum officials and scientists offered the Beltsville center plants to replace those lost during the storm. The Arboretum also has become famous through cooperative programs with other countries, including Japan, Russia, South Africa and South Korea. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Each year, the Arboretum offers a number of educational programs and special events. For example, last month there was a talk by a man who wrote a book about famous trees. There was a program about caring for small evergreen trees. Children were invited to a talk about the importance of composting. A scientist explained how plant remains can help other plants grow. An orchid show and sale also was held at the Arboretum in October. Visitors enjoyed botanical art and walked through a building filled with the beautiful flowers. Visitors talked with guides to learn more about growing orchids. Some of the plants were offered for sale. VOICE TWO: Officials say it would be difficult for the Arboretum to operate as well as it does without the support of private organizations. The Arboretum has about one-hundred employees. Yet it depends on many other people who offer their time and effort without payment. For example, the Friends of the National Arboretum is a non-profit group that provides financial support. The money is used for Arboretum training programs, the gardens and collections and special projects. The group also reports to Congress about the Arboretum’s special needs. Another support organization is the National Capital Area Foundation of Garden Clubs. The group has its headquarters at the Arboretum. Its members offer their time to help with the Arboretum’s plant collection. They also serve as guides for visitors. They help thousands of people enjoy the National Arboretum, this beautiful natural area in the nation’s capital. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the United States National Arboretum. It is a peaceful natural area in Washington, D-C. Yet the Arboretum is an active center for both scientific research and public education. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people who come to Washington act surprised when they first visit the United States National Arboretum. The National Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. However, visitors to the Arboretum often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. The National Arboretum covers one-hundred-eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. The area is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. About nine-thousand different kinds of plants and trees grow there. VOICE TWO: An arboretum is a place where trees and plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes. The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service operates the Arboretum. The goal of the Arboretum is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. The goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public. VOICE ONE: The National Arboretum is a popular stop for visitors to Washington. The grounds are open every day of the year except December twenty-fifth, the Christmas holiday. It does not cost money to visit the Arboretum. More than five-hundred-thousand people visit the Arboretum grounds each year. Another five-hundred-thousand visit with the help of computers. They use the Arboretum’s Internet web site to learn about how to care for plants and current research programs. Director Thomas Elias says Arboretum officials would like to see even more visitors. He says they believe that many people do not know it exists. VOICE TWO: Part of the problem may result from the fact that there is no local public transportation train station near the Arboretum. Many famous places in Washington are a short walk from the city’s Metro local train system. The Arboretum is easy to reach by automobile or bus, however. About fifteen kilometers of roads have been built on the property. The roads connect to major collections and seasonal flowers. The Arboretum also welcomes people on bicycles. Disabled people or those who want to walk only short distances may visit four beautiful areas that are close to each other. People who like longer walks will enjoy the Arboretum’s many pathways. There is a small eating place on the property or you may bring food to eat during your visit. There also is a small gift store that sells books and other things. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Early this year, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman opened a year-long celebration in honor of the National Arboretum’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Mizz Veneman praised the Arboretum as a national treasure. As part of the celebration, Mizz Veneman assisted in the planting of a tree near the United States Capitol building. The tree -- a Sun Valley red maple -- is one of the many award-winning plants developed by Arboretum scientists. The Sun Valley red maple was developed as part of a project to study the genetic qualities of leaf color and insect resistance. The tree produces leaves that remain bright red late into autumn. It was tested in the state of Maryland. The Sun Valley maple kept its colorful leaves for about two weeks before they fell to the ground. The tree also resisted the potato leafhopper, an insect that feeds on the leaves of trees. Agriculture Department officials say they expect the Sun Valley red maple will be ready for sale to the general public next year. VOICE TWO: Scientists at the Arboretum have developed many of the trees and flowers now found in the United States and many other countries. Over the years, the Arboretum and the Agricultural Research Service have released almost seven-hundred different plants. Each year, they offer several new plants. In the past, scientists there have developed new flowering plants and improved other kinds plants. They also have developed virus-resistant plants with processes of genetic engineering. In September, the Arboretum started a research program that examines national issues linked to another kind of plant -- turfgrass. Turfgrass often grows in open, green spaces around American homes and businesses. It also is grown near many public roads and other areas. Scientists at the Arboretum will carry out long-term studies to improve the quality of turfgrass. They hope to strengthen the grass’s resistance to dry weather, insects and disease. The program is being carried out with the industries and groups directly involved in turfgrass development, production and support. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Agricultural Research Service operates a number of centers and laboratories across the United States. The National Arboretum is best known for its beauty. Visitors can always find flowering plants. You can start looking for flowers in the Arboretum’s Asian Collections, Friendship Garden and National Boxwood Collection. This past summer, the unusual flowers and huge leaves of the Victoria water platters were extremely popular. The hotter than normal weather in Washington this past summer made the plants grow especially well. For the first time, all the Victoria water platters in the Arboretum’s aquatic garden area came from seeds. The Arboretum successfully grew enough plants to place sixteen in a large container filled with water. The other plants were given to other plant centers across the country. VOICE TWO: Last year, a severe wind storm damaged areas near the Arboretum, in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The storm caused major damage at the Agricultural Research Service laboratories in Beltsville, Maryland. Cars were destroyed, and parts of several A-R-S buildings were damaged. Many trees were damaged so badly that they had to be removed. Arboretum officials and scientists offered the Beltsville center plants to replace those lost during the storm. The Arboretum also has become famous through cooperative programs with other countries, including Japan, Russia, South Africa and South Korea. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Each year, the Arboretum offers a number of educational programs and special events. For example, last month there was a talk by a man who wrote a book about famous trees. There was a program about caring for small evergreen trees. Children were invited to a talk about the importance of composting. A scientist explained how plant remains can help other plants grow. An orchid show and sale also was held at the Arboretum in October. Visitors enjoyed botanical art and walked through a building filled with the beautiful flowers. Visitors talked with guides to learn more about growing orchids. Some of the plants were offered for sale. VOICE TWO: Officials say it would be difficult for the Arboretum to operate as well as it does without the support of private organizations. The Arboretum has about one-hundred employees. Yet it depends on many other people who offer their time and effort without payment. For example, the Friends of the National Arboretum is a non-profit group that provides financial support. The money is used for Arboretum training programs, the gardens and collections and special projects. The group also reports to Congress about the Arboretum’s special needs. Another support organization is the National Capital Area Foundation of Garden Clubs. The group has its headquarters at the Arboretum. Its members offer their time to help with the Arboretum’s plant collection. They also serve as guides for visitors. They help thousands of people enjoy the National Arboretum, this beautiful natural area in the nation’s capital. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – November 5, 2002: World Food Day
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. More than one-hundred countries celebrated World Food Day on October sixteenth. The event observed the establishment of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in nineteen-forty-five. The main message of this year’s World Food Day was “Water: Source of Food Security.” Officials want people to understand how a lack of water can help cause a lack of food. Officials say the world’s fresh water supply must be supervised more carefully in order to increase the world’s food supply. Water covers about seventy-five percent of the Earth’s surface. Yet, only a small amount is fresh water that can be used for crops. Experts say food production will decrease as the ability to use these fresh water sources becomes restricted. U-N officials estimate about seventy percent of the total amount of fresh water is used by farmers for their crops. Officials say the need for food increases as the world’s population grows. The U-N estimates that by the year two-thousand-thirty, the world will need sixty percent more food. Most of that increase in food will come from intensified agriculture supported by water irrigation. However, fresh water is already in short supply in many countries. Jacques Diouf is the director of the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization. He says that twenty countries do not have enough water to produce the food their populations need. Ten nations withdraw more than forty percent of their total fresh water resource for agriculture. Mister Diouf fears that the problem will only worsen as the need for water by people and industry grows. Mister Diouf warns that it takes one-thousand times more water to feed the human population than it does to satisfy its thirst for drinking water. Because of this, water is one of the most important issues in the world today. This year’s World Food Day attempted to increase public knowledge about Earth’s growing fresh water problem. Countries around the world marked the day with special events. Organizers urged policymakers to approve new measures to control water use for agriculture. The Food and Agriculture Organization will take part in the International Year of Freshwater next year. It will also be present at the third World Water Forum in Japan next year. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – November 6, 2002: Study Finds Autism Increase in California
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Autism is a mysterious and complex brain disorder that begins to affect a child during the first three years of life. Children sometimes develop normally for a year or more. Then they become unable to develop normal relationships with other people. They do not act normally in everyday life. They stop speaking. They repeat meaningless actions. Some autistic children express violent anger or injure themselves. New drugs appear to help control aggressive actions in severely autistic children. However, autism cannot be cured. No one knows what causes autism. Some scientists suspect that genetic influences or injuries during birth may be linked to the disorder. A new study by American scientists in California has failed to explain a major increase in autism in the state. California lawmakers ordered the study after learning of an increase of almost three-hundred percent in severe cases of autism. The California Department of Developmental Services said this increase took place between nineteen-eighty-seven and nineteen-ninety-eight. The department also said the number of autistic children continued to increase after that period. Robert Byrd of the University of California at Davis led the study. His team gathered information about almost seven-hundred children in the state. One group of children was from seven to nine years of age. The other children were seventeen to nineteen years old. More than half of the children suffered from severe autism. The others were mentally retarded. They had very low levels of intelligence. The researchers said the information about the children did not explain the increase in autism cases. Before the study, some experts blamed the increase in cases on better recognition of the disorder. Others said the number of cases was incorrectly reported. Doctor Byrd said a general increase in the state’s population caused about ten percent of the increase in cases. Doctors say that autistic children should receive intensive training while they are young. The experts suggest repeated training in performing small jobs. They say such training can help an autistic child develop more normally and lead a better quality of life. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 6, 2002: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. New moon, circled at top right. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a new space telescope. We tell about a new moon found near the planet Uranus. We tell about a NASA spacecraft that is on its way to Saturn. We also tell about new photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. And we tell about music written with the aid of sounds from space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a new space telescope. We tell about a new moon found near the planet Uranus. We tell about a NASA spacecraft that is on its way to Saturn. We also tell about new photographs taken by the Mars Global Surveyor. And we tell about music written with the aid of sounds from space. (THEME) VOICE ONE: NASA has chosen the T-R-W company of Redondo Beach, California, to build the next space telescope. Plans call for the telescope to be ready for launch in two-thousand-ten. NASA officials say the new telescope will be placed in orbit one-point-five-million kilometers in space. It will be in an area of space called the second Lagrange Point. This area of space is where the pull of gravity from the sun and the Earth are the same. NASA says the new telescope will be much stronger and will be able to look much farther into deep space than the older Hubble Space Telescope. VOICE TWO: A space telescope uses a special mirror to collect light from distant objects. The light the mirror captures produces the images of these objects. The new space telescope is stronger than the Hubble because it can collect much more light than the Hubble can. The Hubble’s light-collecting mirror is about two-and-one-half meters in diameter. The new space telescope’s mirror will be six meters in diameter. The new telescope will be able to see objects that give off much less light and are much farther away. NASA says the T-R-W company has agreed to design and build the new telescope for about eight-hundred-twenty-five million dollars. The T-R-W company will be responsible for placing the science instruments into the new space telescope. The company will also test the new space telescope before the flight and once it reaches its new home in space. VOICE ONE: The Hubble Space Telescope was named for American scientist Edwin Hubble. The new Space Telescope will be named the James Webb Space Telescope. Mister Webb was NASA’s second top administrator. He was responsible for leading NASA during the Apollo series of explorations that landed the first humans on the moon. He began several science programs at NASA and was responsible for more than seventy-five launches of spacecraft during his time as NASA administrator. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: A team of scientists has discovered a new moon in orbit around the planet Uranus. They named the new moon S/2001 U1 (s-two-thousand-one u-one). Uranus now has a total of twenty-one known moons. The new moon and five similar moons have very unusual orbits around the planet. Scientists think these unusual moons are the result of a crash of larger objects that took place when the planet was being formed. Christophe Dumas is a scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He was one of the scientists who discovered the new moon. Mister Dumas says this kind of moon is very difficult to find because it is so far from the planet. He says it is easily hidden among stars that can be seen in the distance behind Uranus. He also said the unusual orbit of the moon made it difficult to find. Two scientists first observed the new moon. They are Matthew Holman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachuttes and J-J Kavelaars of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada. They discovered the moon in images from the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The NASA spacecraft Cassini is traveling to the planet Saturn. Plans call for it to arrive there in July two-thousand-four. The Cassini is carrying an instrument called the Huygens [HOY-guns] Probe. The Huygens Probe is designed to be lowered by parachute to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. This will take place in January, two-thousand-five. Recently, an electronic report was sent by Cassini to Earth about the condition of the Huygens Probe. The electronic report was the result of about five hours of tests. Shaun Standley is a scientist with the European Space Agency. The Huygens Probe is a European Space Agency project. Mister Standley says the five hours of tests are done on the Huygens Probe about evey six months. The tests include making every moving part of the probe do its job. The tests also include an inspection of the space vehicle’s power, computers and radio communication devices. The recent tests showed the Huygens Probe is working perfectly. Scientists at the Huygens Probe Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany studied the results of the tests. VOICE TWO: The Huygens Probe carries many different instruments. One instrument will measure wind and wind direction as the parachute carries the Huygens Probe toward the surface of Titan. Other instruments include special cameras that will send back photographs of the surface of Titan. The probe also has equipment that will study and report about the surface of Titan after it lands. It also carries instruments that will measure different gases in the atmosphere of the large moon. The Cassini Spacecraft was launched in October, nineteen-ninety-seven. It still must travel through space for another two years before it reaches Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens Probe will provide information about an area of our solar system that we know little about. The information the two spacecraft gather will be shared with more than two-hundred scientists around the world. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: NASA’s Global Surveyor satellite is continuing to send home extremely good photographs of the planet Mars. It has sent back more than one-hundred-twelve-thousand images. The new images were taken between August of two-thousand-one and January of two-thousand-two. The images show several weather events including evidence of dust storms on Mars. One of the images taken by the Global Surveyor is now considered the best image ever taken of the red planet. The photograph is of an area called the Newton Basin. The photograph shows two areas that were made by space objects hitting the surface of Mars. Another photograph shows frozen water vapor or frost on the wall of the hole made by the space object. The photo also shows sand on the surface of Mars. VOICE TWO: Scientists hope to use many of these photographs to find good landing areas for the Mars Exploration Rover. Plans call for the Rover to be launched next year. Global Surveyor was launched in November, nineteen-ninety-six and entered its Martian orbit almost one year later. The Global Surveyor has now studied all of the Martian surface and atmosphere. It has returned more information about the red planet than all other Mars missions combined. If you have a computer and would like to see many of the Global Surveyor photographs, have your computer search for the two words NASA and MARS: N-A-S-A and M-A-R-S. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Don Gurnett is a scientist working at the University of Iowa. For many years he has placed scientific instruments on many spacecraft. These include NASA’s Voyagers, Galileo, Cassini and more than twenty-four other spacecraft. For more than forty years Mister Gurnett has used instruments to record the sounds of space. The sounds he records are created by electric energy in space. This energy can be heard as radio signals. Listen and you can hear some of the sounds Mister Gurnett recorded. (CUT: SPACE SOUNDS) VOICE TWO: Recently, musician Terry Riley wrote music using the sounds of space for the famous string instrument group, the Kronos Quartet. The new music is called “Sun Rings.” Part of the music is called “Earth Whistlers.” Another is called “Planet Elf Sindoori.” The music was performed for the first time last month at the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City, Iowa. The Kronos Quartet has not said if they will record the unusual music. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. NASA has chosen the T-R-W company of Redondo Beach, California, to build the next space telescope. Plans call for the telescope to be ready for launch in two-thousand-ten. NASA officials say the new telescope will be placed in orbit one-point-five-million kilometers in space. It will be in an area of space called the second Lagrange Point. This area of space is where the pull of gravity from the sun and the Earth are the same. NASA says the new telescope will be much stronger and will be able to look much farther into deep space than the older Hubble Space Telescope. VOICE TWO: A space telescope uses a special mirror to collect light from distant objects. The light the mirror captures produces the images of these objects. The new space telescope is stronger than the Hubble because it can collect much more light than the Hubble can. The Hubble’s light-collecting mirror is about two-and-one-half meters in diameter. The new space telescope’s mirror will be six meters in diameter. The new telescope will be able to see objects that give off much less light and are much farther away. NASA says the T-R-W company has agreed to design and build the new telescope for about eight-hundred-twenty-five million dollars. The T-R-W company will be responsible for placing the science instruments into the new space telescope. The company will also test the new space telescope before the flight and once it reaches its new home in space. VOICE ONE: The Hubble Space Telescope was named for American scientist Edwin Hubble. The new Space Telescope will be named the James Webb Space Telescope. Mister Webb was NASA’s second top administrator. He was responsible for leading NASA during the Apollo series of explorations that landed the first humans on the moon. He began several science programs at NASA and was responsible for more than seventy-five launches of spacecraft during his time as NASA administrator. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: A team of scientists has discovered a new moon in orbit around the planet Uranus. They named the new moon S/2001 U1 (s-two-thousand-one u-one). Uranus now has a total of twenty-one known moons. The new moon and five similar moons have very unusual orbits around the planet. Scientists think these unusual moons are the result of a crash of larger objects that took place when the planet was being formed. Christophe Dumas is a scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He was one of the scientists who discovered the new moon. Mister Dumas says this kind of moon is very difficult to find because it is so far from the planet. He says it is easily hidden among stars that can be seen in the distance behind Uranus. He also said the unusual orbit of the moon made it difficult to find. Two scientists first observed the new moon. They are Matthew Holman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachuttes and J-J Kavelaars of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, in Victoria, British Colombia, Canada. They discovered the moon in images from the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The NASA spacecraft Cassini is traveling to the planet Saturn. Plans call for it to arrive there in July two-thousand-four. The Cassini is carrying an instrument called the Huygens [HOY-guns] Probe. The Huygens Probe is designed to be lowered by parachute to the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. This will take place in January, two-thousand-five. Recently, an electronic report was sent by Cassini to Earth about the condition of the Huygens Probe. The electronic report was the result of about five hours of tests. Shaun Standley is a scientist with the European Space Agency. The Huygens Probe is a European Space Agency project. Mister Standley says the five hours of tests are done on the Huygens Probe about evey six months. The tests include making every moving part of the probe do its job. The tests also include an inspection of the space vehicle’s power, computers and radio communication devices. The recent tests showed the Huygens Probe is working perfectly. Scientists at the Huygens Probe Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany studied the results of the tests. VOICE TWO: The Huygens Probe carries many different instruments. One instrument will measure wind and wind direction as the parachute carries the Huygens Probe toward the surface of Titan. Other instruments include special cameras that will send back photographs of the surface of Titan. The probe also has equipment that will study and report about the surface of Titan after it lands. It also carries instruments that will measure different gases in the atmosphere of the large moon. The Cassini Spacecraft was launched in October, nineteen-ninety-seven. It still must travel through space for another two years before it reaches Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens Probe will provide information about an area of our solar system that we know little about. The information the two spacecraft gather will be shared with more than two-hundred scientists around the world. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: NASA’s Global Surveyor satellite is continuing to send home extremely good photographs of the planet Mars. It has sent back more than one-hundred-twelve-thousand images. The new images were taken between August of two-thousand-one and January of two-thousand-two. The images show several weather events including evidence of dust storms on Mars. One of the images taken by the Global Surveyor is now considered the best image ever taken of the red planet. The photograph is of an area called the Newton Basin. The photograph shows two areas that were made by space objects hitting the surface of Mars. Another photograph shows frozen water vapor or frost on the wall of the hole made by the space object. The photo also shows sand on the surface of Mars. VOICE TWO: Scientists hope to use many of these photographs to find good landing areas for the Mars Exploration Rover. Plans call for the Rover to be launched next year. Global Surveyor was launched in November, nineteen-ninety-six and entered its Martian orbit almost one year later. The Global Surveyor has now studied all of the Martian surface and atmosphere. It has returned more information about the red planet than all other Mars missions combined. If you have a computer and would like to see many of the Global Surveyor photographs, have your computer search for the two words NASA and MARS: N-A-S-A and M-A-R-S. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Don Gurnett is a scientist working at the University of Iowa. For many years he has placed scientific instruments on many spacecraft. These include NASA’s Voyagers, Galileo, Cassini and more than twenty-four other spacecraft. For more than forty years Mister Gurnett has used instruments to record the sounds of space. The sounds he records are created by electric energy in space. This energy can be heard as radio signals. Listen and you can hear some of the sounds Mister Gurnett recorded. (CUT: SPACE SOUNDS) VOICE TWO: Recently, musician Terry Riley wrote music using the sounds of space for the famous string instrument group, the Kronos Quartet. The new music is called “Sun Rings.” Part of the music is called “Earth Whistlers.” Another is called “Planet Elf Sindoori.” The music was performed for the first time last month at the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City, Iowa. The Kronos Quartet has not said if they will record the unusual music. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 7, 2002: Richard Nixon, Part 2
* Byline: 

 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - November 7, 2002: Foreign Student Series #8 >Tests
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our reports about how foreign students can attend an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web site, w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Today, we provide information about admission tests required by many American colleges. Experts say American college officials mainly consider three things when deciding which students to accept. Most important are the grades the student has earned in school. Officials also consider how difficult the student’s classes were. Colleges usually accept students who have shown that they are interested in learning and have taken difficult classes. The third thing they look at is scores on admissions tests. The college you want to attend may require that you take a test called the S-A-T One Reasoning Test. It is known by the letters S-A-T. The test measures a student’s understanding of mathematics and English. It also measures how well a student reads and understands what is read. The S-A-T is a three-hour test. It costs about twenty-six dollars. You can get detailed information at the College Board Web site, w-w-w dot college board dot com. That’s w-w-w dot c-o-l-l-e-g-e b-o-a-r-d dot c-o-m. The Web site will tell you where and when the S-A-T will be given in your country. If you do not have a computer, you can get the information at the United States Educational Advising Center in your country. Another test is called the Test of Spoken English. It is a twenty-minute test that involves speaking English. Many American universities want you to take this test if you plan to attend graduate school. Some universities also will tell you to take the Test of Written English. This is a thirty-minute test in which you write about something in English. It measures your ability to organize information and express ideas in correct English. The schools to which you apply probably will require a test known as TOEFL. TOEFL is a short way of saying Test of English as a Foreign Language. It measures your ability to understand, read and write English. We will tell about the TOEFL on our Education Report next week. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: November 7, 2002 - Slangman: Political Terms ('Cinderella')
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 7, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: November 10, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- slang and idioms in American politics. RS: Tuesday was Election Day, and Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles told us a story about one candidate who had no problem with name recognition: BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a young girl named Cinderella who woke up one morning and thought, 'This village is boring. I have an idea,' she thought. 'I know how I can make changes in this village. I'll run for office. And since the incumbent is a lame duck' -- which is, of course, an elected official who has no reason to do the current job well because he or she isn't planning on being re-elected." AA: "Or is about to leave office in a few months." BURKE: "Exactly. 'And since the incumbent is a lame duck, I'll be a shoe-in,' she thought. And a shoe-in is a person who has a sure chance of being chosen. Well, suddenly a voice from behind her said, 'Not so fast, sweetie.' 'Who are you?' Cinderella asked. 'I'm your fairy godmother, but as of today I'm throwing my hat in the ring.' And that, of course, means to compete also. "'Ha,' said Cinderella. 'I'll win by a landslide,' which means 'I will win easily and quickly.' And Cinderella added, 'Who's going to vote for a right-winger wearing pink high-heel shoes?' Well, a right-ringer is a politically conservative person in one's ideas and philosophies. That's right wing. And, of course, left-wing means you're extremely liberal. And the fairy godmother says, 'Oh, really? I think it's time we go barnstorming and we'll see who sweeps this election.' Well, barnstorming, it simply means to make political speeches, because a long time ago politicians would go to little communities where there were barns and they would make their political speeches in front of barns." RS: "From barn to barn." AA: "Right, sort of a rapid succession of going from barn to barn." BURKE: "Exactly. So off they went to begin stumping. Now stumping is the same thing as barnstorming. Stumping simply means when you stand on a tree stump to make your speeches. In a lot of communities that didn't have a lot of money to create a big area for a politician to stand to make speeches, the politician would simply get on top of a stump and make a speech. So they began stumping all over the village. They both pressed the flesh. To press the flesh means ... " RS: "To shake hands." BURKE: "We also say to glad hand. And they did nothing but grandstand for a week. To grandstand means to try a little too hard to impress an audience through speeches. But things got ugly when they debated together. Yes, the mudslinging began. Mudslinging means to insult and criticize each other. Sling is simply -- " RS: "To throw." BURKE: "Another word for 'to throw.' And the fairy godmother said, 'And who's going to vote for a pumpkin?' And, with that, the fairy godmother waived her magic wand and Cinderella was instantly transformed into a rather large orange gourd. Well, it was obvious at this point who was going to have the election all wrapped up. This is another political idiom, for to win for sure. But something strange happened at the polls. And the polls, that's the place where voters vote." AA: "P-O-L-L-S." BURKE: "Right, exactly, the polls, P-O-L-L-S, not P-O-L-E-S. So, according to the returns -- the votes -- everyone voted for the pumpkin -- I mean, Cinderella. Fortunately, however, in the crowd was Cinderella's political adviser, who is her staff spin-doctor. And, of course, a spin doctor means what?" AA: "Someone who improves a politician's image." BURKE: "Exactly. And, by the way, the spin-doctor just happened to be the village's prince. So the prince did what princes do, and what do princes do?" RS: "They kiss the princess." BURKE: "Exactly." RS: And, so, Cinderella's image is saved. No longer a pumpkin, she and her adviser the Prince fall in love and live happily -- if not ever after, then at least until the next Election Day. The end. AA: Another original tale for Wordmaster from Slangman David Burke, the author of many books on slang and idioms. You can check out his materials on his Web site -- slangman.com. RS: You can find all of our Slangman segments on our Web site, along with our other programs, at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "What Did You Do on Election Day?"/The Foremen Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 7, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: November 10, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- slang and idioms in American politics. RS: Tuesday was Election Day, and Slangman David Burke in Los Angeles told us a story about one candidate who had no problem with name recognition: BURKE: "Once upon a time there was a young girl named Cinderella who woke up one morning and thought, 'This village is boring. I have an idea,' she thought. 'I know how I can make changes in this village. I'll run for office. And since the incumbent is a lame duck' -- which is, of course, an elected official who has no reason to do the current job well because he or she isn't planning on being re-elected." AA: "Or is about to leave office in a few months." BURKE: "Exactly. 'And since the incumbent is a lame duck, I'll be a shoe-in,' she thought. And a shoe-in is a person who has a sure chance of being chosen. Well, suddenly a voice from behind her said, 'Not so fast, sweetie.' 'Who are you?' Cinderella asked. 'I'm your fairy godmother, but as of today I'm throwing my hat in the ring.' And that, of course, means to compete also. "'Ha,' said Cinderella. 'I'll win by a landslide,' which means 'I will win easily and quickly.' And Cinderella added, 'Who's going to vote for a right-winger wearing pink high-heel shoes?' Well, a right-ringer is a politically conservative person in one's ideas and philosophies. That's right wing. And, of course, left-wing means you're extremely liberal. And the fairy godmother says, 'Oh, really? I think it's time we go barnstorming and we'll see who sweeps this election.' Well, barnstorming, it simply means to make political speeches, because a long time ago politicians would go to little communities where there were barns and they would make their political speeches in front of barns." RS: "From barn to barn." AA: "Right, sort of a rapid succession of going from barn to barn." BURKE: "Exactly. So off they went to begin stumping. Now stumping is the same thing as barnstorming. Stumping simply means when you stand on a tree stump to make your speeches. In a lot of communities that didn't have a lot of money to create a big area for a politician to stand to make speeches, the politician would simply get on top of a stump and make a speech. So they began stumping all over the village. They both pressed the flesh. To press the flesh means ... " RS: "To shake hands." BURKE: "We also say to glad hand. And they did nothing but grandstand for a week. To grandstand means to try a little too hard to impress an audience through speeches. But things got ugly when they debated together. Yes, the mudslinging began. Mudslinging means to insult and criticize each other. Sling is simply -- " RS: "To throw." BURKE: "Another word for 'to throw.' And the fairy godmother said, 'And who's going to vote for a pumpkin?' And, with that, the fairy godmother waived her magic wand and Cinderella was instantly transformed into a rather large orange gourd. Well, it was obvious at this point who was going to have the election all wrapped up. This is another political idiom, for to win for sure. But something strange happened at the polls. And the polls, that's the place where voters vote." AA: "P-O-L-L-S." BURKE: "Right, exactly, the polls, P-O-L-L-S, not P-O-L-E-S. So, according to the returns -- the votes -- everyone voted for the pumpkin -- I mean, Cinderella. Fortunately, however, in the crowd was Cinderella's political adviser, who is her staff spin-doctor. And, of course, a spin doctor means what?" AA: "Someone who improves a politician's image." BURKE: "Exactly. And, by the way, the spin-doctor just happened to be the village's prince. So the prince did what princes do, and what do princes do?" RS: "They kiss the princess." BURKE: "Exactly." RS: And, so, Cinderella's image is saved. No longer a pumpkin, she and her adviser the Prince fall in love and live happily -- if not ever after, then at least until the next Election Day. The end. AA: Another original tale for Wordmaster from Slangman David Burke, the author of many books on slang and idioms. You can check out his materials on his Web site -- slangman.com. RS: You can find all of our Slangman segments on our Web site, along with our other programs, at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "What Did You Do on Election Day?"/The Foremen 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 8, 2002: How Many Americans Vote? / Music by Josh Groban / Remembering Our Friend Richard Thorman
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Josh Groban... Answer a listener’s question about how many Americans vote in general elections ... And tell about a former Special English writer who died recently. Richard Thorman HOST: The Voice of America has lost a good friend. Former Special English writer, editor and broadcaster Richard Thorman died recently at a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He was seventy-seven years old. People who listen to VOA Special English programs heard Richard Thorman’s work for many years. Mary Tillotson remembers him. ANNCR: Richard Thorman was born on Long Island in the state of New York. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and studied literature at Columbia University in New York City. During World War Two he served in the armed forces. For many years he worked as a broadcaster in New York State. He joined VOA Special English in nineteen-eighty-four and retired in nineteen-ninety-seven. During those years, Richard wrote and edited news programs for Special English. He wrote about science. He told about the lives of important Americans. Some of his programs described American writers like Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He especially enjoyed writing about fiction writers because he himself wrote books. Among his works are a novel, “Bachman’s Law” and “Hardly Working”, a collection of short stories. One of Richard Thorman’s stories was adapted for Special English. “The Stradivarius” told about a man who believed he had an extremely valuable violin. Part One of “The Stradivarius” will be broadcast Saturday on the Special English program “American Stories.” Our listeners came to know Mister Thorman’s speaking voice as well as his writings. For several years, Richard wrote and read a series of his comments on the air. “One Man’s Thoughts” told about many subjects. Listen to Richard Thorman as he remembers the happiest day of his life. It took place in Paris, France, when he was a young man. He was walking to a hotel to meet friends. RICHARD THORMAN: "Children played in the public gardens. Old people sat in the park enjoying the afternoon sun. Lovers walked along the edge of the River Seine. “I felt something in my throat that made it hard for me to swallow. Before I could stop myself, I jumped into the air and hit my heels together. I knew I would be happy again in some other places and at some other times. But it would never, never be exactly like this.” Midterm Elections HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Andercley Rodrigues Santos asks how many Americans vote on Election Day. That is a good question to answer just a few days after the general election in the United States. General elections are held in the United States every two years. Americans voted on Tuesday, November fifth in what is known as a midterm election. Midterm elections are held in the middle of the term of the president. President Bush was elected in two-thousand to a four-year term in office. The results of midterm elections often show how Americans feel about the policies of the president and the Congress. The results of the congressional races affect the ability of a president to govern for the rest of his term. On Tuesday, Americans voted for members of Congress and state and local officials. Voters in thirty-six of the fifty states elected a governor. Voters elected all four-hundred-thirty-five members of the House of Representatives. They also elected thirty-four of the one-hundred members of the Senate. An independent group, the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, estimated that seventy-seven-million Americans voted on Tuesday. This is only about thirty-nine percent of the voting-age citizens. Fewer Americans generally vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. Fifty-one percent of American voters took part in the presidential election in two-thousand. Americans give several reasons for not voting. Many say they are too busy to vote. Others say emergencies prevented them from getting to the voting place on election day. Still others say they are not interested in politics. This situation has led some people to say there should be a law that would require all Americans to vote. This has not been seriously considered. But some private organizations are trying to get more people to vote, especially young people. One such group is called “Rock the Vote”. It has been working for the past twelve years to increase the number of young people who vote in elections. “Rock the Vote” has reported some progress. The group’s leaders say that this year they influenced one-hundred-thousand young people to become new American voters. You can find out the results of the November fifth midterm election on the Special English program “In the News” on Saturday. Josh Groban HOST: Josh Groban is a young singer who performs classical and popular songs. His record album has sold more than one-million copies. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Josh Groban is twenty-one years old. He lives with his family in Los Angeles, California. He was discovered by a record company official when he performed at the inauguration of California Governor Gray Davis in nineteen-ninety-nine. His first recording was a song in the movie “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” with Lara Fabian. The song is called “For Always.” (MUSIC) Josh Groban released his own record album last year. It is called “Josh Groban.” He calls it pop music with classical influences. He sings songs in English, Italian and Spanish. One of the most popular songs on the album is this one, “To Where You Are.” (MUSIC) Josh Groban sang at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics earlier this year in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has appeared on many American television shows. He is also planning to perform his music across the United States. We leave you now with Josh Groban singing another song from his album. This one is sung in Spanish and is called “Alejate” (al-e-HOT-ay). (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jeri Watson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Josh Groban... Answer a listener’s question about how many Americans vote in general elections ... And tell about a former Special English writer who died recently. Richard Thorman HOST: The Voice of America has lost a good friend. Former Special English writer, editor and broadcaster Richard Thorman died recently at a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He was seventy-seven years old. People who listen to VOA Special English programs heard Richard Thorman’s work for many years. Mary Tillotson remembers him. ANNCR: Richard Thorman was born on Long Island in the state of New York. He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts and studied literature at Columbia University in New York City. During World War Two he served in the armed forces. For many years he worked as a broadcaster in New York State. He joined VOA Special English in nineteen-eighty-four and retired in nineteen-ninety-seven. During those years, Richard wrote and edited news programs for Special English. He wrote about science. He told about the lives of important Americans. Some of his programs described American writers like Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He especially enjoyed writing about fiction writers because he himself wrote books. Among his works are a novel, “Bachman’s Law” and “Hardly Working”, a collection of short stories. One of Richard Thorman’s stories was adapted for Special English. “The Stradivarius” told about a man who believed he had an extremely valuable violin. Part One of “The Stradivarius” will be broadcast Saturday on the Special English program “American Stories.” Our listeners came to know Mister Thorman’s speaking voice as well as his writings. For several years, Richard wrote and read a series of his comments on the air. “One Man’s Thoughts” told about many subjects. Listen to Richard Thorman as he remembers the happiest day of his life. It took place in Paris, France, when he was a young man. He was walking to a hotel to meet friends. RICHARD THORMAN: "Children played in the public gardens. Old people sat in the park enjoying the afternoon sun. Lovers walked along the edge of the River Seine. “I felt something in my throat that made it hard for me to swallow. Before I could stop myself, I jumped into the air and hit my heels together. I knew I would be happy again in some other places and at some other times. But it would never, never be exactly like this.” Midterm Elections HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Andercley Rodrigues Santos asks how many Americans vote on Election Day. That is a good question to answer just a few days after the general election in the United States. General elections are held in the United States every two years. Americans voted on Tuesday, November fifth in what is known as a midterm election. Midterm elections are held in the middle of the term of the president. President Bush was elected in two-thousand to a four-year term in office. The results of midterm elections often show how Americans feel about the policies of the president and the Congress. The results of the congressional races affect the ability of a president to govern for the rest of his term. On Tuesday, Americans voted for members of Congress and state and local officials. Voters in thirty-six of the fifty states elected a governor. Voters elected all four-hundred-thirty-five members of the House of Representatives. They also elected thirty-four of the one-hundred members of the Senate. An independent group, the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, estimated that seventy-seven-million Americans voted on Tuesday. This is only about thirty-nine percent of the voting-age citizens. Fewer Americans generally vote in midterm elections than in presidential elections. Fifty-one percent of American voters took part in the presidential election in two-thousand. Americans give several reasons for not voting. Many say they are too busy to vote. Others say emergencies prevented them from getting to the voting place on election day. Still others say they are not interested in politics. This situation has led some people to say there should be a law that would require all Americans to vote. This has not been seriously considered. But some private organizations are trying to get more people to vote, especially young people. One such group is called “Rock the Vote”. It has been working for the past twelve years to increase the number of young people who vote in elections. “Rock the Vote” has reported some progress. The group’s leaders say that this year they influenced one-hundred-thousand young people to become new American voters. You can find out the results of the November fifth midterm election on the Special English program “In the News” on Saturday. Josh Groban HOST: Josh Groban is a young singer who performs classical and popular songs. His record album has sold more than one-million copies. Shep O’Neal tells us about him. ANNCR: Josh Groban is twenty-one years old. He lives with his family in Los Angeles, California. He was discovered by a record company official when he performed at the inauguration of California Governor Gray Davis in nineteen-ninety-nine. His first recording was a song in the movie “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence” with Lara Fabian. The song is called “For Always.” (MUSIC) Josh Groban released his own record album last year. It is called “Josh Groban.” He calls it pop music with classical influences. He sings songs in English, Italian and Spanish. One of the most popular songs on the album is this one, “To Where You Are.” (MUSIC) Josh Groban sang at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics earlier this year in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has appeared on many American television shows. He is also planning to perform his music across the United States. We leave you now with Josh Groban singing another song from his album. This one is sung in Spanish and is called “Alejate” (al-e-HOT-ay). (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jeri Watson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 8, 2002: Kenya Lion Cares for Oryx
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists do not understand the unusual actions of a female lion in a protected wildlife park in northern Kenya. The lioness in the Samburu National Reserve has been caring for baby antelopes that it would normally kill and eat. The lioness has become the most popular animal in the wildlife park. Many people have visited the park to observe her unusual behavior. Scientists say the lioness has defied the laws of nature. Local people in Kenya named the lioness Kamuniak, which means “the blessed one” in the local Samburu language. She has cared for five young oryxes since January. An oryx is a kind of African antelope. At birth, the oryx is a light brown color. When it grows up, it develops black and white markings on its face. It develops long straight horns. Lions in the wild usually eat them. The lioness became famous in Kenya when pictures of her were published on the front page of a local newspaper. She was walking side by side and lying in the grass with a baby oryx. The lioness has cared for each of the five baby oryxes and protected them from other lions. Most of the oryxes later escaped with the help of their mothers. Sometimes, park officials had to intervene to rescue a baby oryx as it became weak from lack of food. Their mothers were usually too afraid of the lioness to get close enough to feed their young. One time, however, a baby oryx was eaten by a male lion while Kamuniak slept. The lioness usually does not hunt for food while raising the baby antelopes. Experts say she apparently is too concerned about the safety of the oryxes to leave them alone. Wildlife experts do not understand Kamuniak’s actions. Some have said the lioness wants to be like a mother to the baby antelopes because she is unable to give birth to her own babies. Others say she has a mental disorder. Park officials have welcomed nature experts and researchers to the park to study the lioness’s strange behavior. Last month, one of the oryxes died of starvation and the lioness ate it. It was the first time Kamuniak had eaten one of the young animals. A wildlife official at the park and many visitors were surprised to see this. But the official said it was only nature. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists do not understand the unusual actions of a female lion in a protected wildlife park in northern Kenya. The lioness in the Samburu National Reserve has been caring for baby antelopes that it would normally kill and eat. The lioness has become the most popular animal in the wildlife park. Many people have visited the park to observe her unusual behavior. Scientists say the lioness has defied the laws of nature. Local people in Kenya named the lioness Kamuniak, which means “the blessed one” in the local Samburu language. She has cared for five young oryxes since January. An oryx is a kind of African antelope. At birth, the oryx is a light brown color. When it grows up, it develops black and white markings on its face. It develops long straight horns. Lions in the wild usually eat them. The lioness became famous in Kenya when pictures of her were published on the front page of a local newspaper. She was walking side by side and lying in the grass with a baby oryx. The lioness has cared for each of the five baby oryxes and protected them from other lions. Most of the oryxes later escaped with the help of their mothers. Sometimes, park officials had to intervene to rescue a baby oryx as it became weak from lack of food. Their mothers were usually too afraid of the lioness to get close enough to feed their young. One time, however, a baby oryx was eaten by a male lion while Kamuniak slept. The lioness usually does not hunt for food while raising the baby antelopes. Experts say she apparently is too concerned about the safety of the oryxes to leave them alone. Wildlife experts do not understand Kamuniak’s actions. Some have said the lioness wants to be like a mother to the baby antelopes because she is unable to give birth to her own babies. Others say she has a mental disorder. Park officials have welcomed nature experts and researchers to the park to study the lioness’s strange behavior. Last month, one of the oryxes died of starvation and the lioness ate it. It was the first time Kamuniak had eaten one of the young animals. A wildlife official at the park and many visitors were surprised to see this. But the official said it was only nature. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 10, 2002: Patsy Cline
* Byline: 

 Anncr: Today I tell about a young woman who died more than thirty years ago. Her name was Virginia Patterson Hensley. No one but her family would remember that name. The world remembers her as Patsy Cline. (MUSIC) That song is called "Walkin' After Midnight." It was Patsy Cline's first big hit record. She recorded it in nineteen-fifty-seven. It became number three on the list of country music hit recordings and number twelve on the list of most popular music. Patsy had worked for many years to make that first successful record. She began singing when she was a young girl in her home town of Winchester, in the southern state of Virginia. Patsy sang anywhere she could. She sang at weddings and dances. She sang at public eating places for eight dollars a night. Those who knew her said she worked hard to improve her singing. In nineteen-fifty-four she won a country music competition near her home. She was twenty-two years old. She was asked to appear on a country music television program in Washington D-C. She also sang on radio programs in the Virginia area and recorded some records. In nineteen-fifty-seven, Patsy Cline appeared on a national television show in New York. It was on this program that millions of people first heard her sing. She sang "Walkin' After Midnight," a song she had recently recorded. Her appearance on the television program helped make that record a major hit. Patsy continued to record more songs. Within two years she had another major hit. It was called, "I Fall to Pieces." By this time Patsy's voice had already become something special. She had learned to control not only the sound but the feelings expressed in her songs. It was the slow, sad love songs that her fans enjoyed most, songs like "I Fall to Pieces." (MUSIC) Anncr: Patsy Cline's recording of "I Fall to Pieces" became her first number one country music hit. It was also a hit with fans of popular music. Patsy was a major star. She also had begun performing at the country music theater, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Those who knew her after she became a recording star say Patsy Cline was a very good friend. She liked to help young musicians. Later, many of these young musicians became important stars themselves. One of Patsy's biggest hit songs also helped two of these young musicians become known. The song is called, "Crazy." It was written by an unknown musician who later became a major country music star. His name is Willie Nelson. If you listen carefully to Patsy Cline's recording of "Crazy," you can hear the beautiful piano playing of another young musician, Floyd Cramer. He also became a major recording star. Listen to Patsy and Floyd perform Willie Nelson's song, "Crazy." (MUSIC) Anncr: on March sixth, nineteen-sixty-three, Patsy Cline was killed in the crash of a small airplane. She was only thirty years old. She was flying home to Nashville. She had taken part in a special concert in Kansas City to raise money for the family of a country music radio performer who recently had died. Patsy Cline was buried near her home town of Winchester, Virginia. Thousands of people came to her funeral. Ten years after her death, she became the first woman performer elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In nineteen-eighty-five, Hollywood producers made a movie about the life of Patsy Cline. It was called "sweet dreams. " Popular actress Jessica Lange played Patsy. No one really could sound like Patsy Cline. So the producers used her old records in the movie. Mizz Lange moved her mouth so she appeared to be singing. People who had never heard of Patsy Cline saw the movie and enjoyed her singing. They began buying her records. Today, her records still sell thousands of copies each year as new fans discover her. We leave you with a song Patsy Cline recorded only a month before she died. It sounds almost as though she was singing in Special English. The song is called "Faded Love." (MUSIC) Anncr: this Special English program was written and directed by Paul Thompson. I'm Dick Rael. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. Anncr: Today I tell about a young woman who died more than thirty years ago. Her name was Virginia Patterson Hensley. No one but her family would remember that name. The world remembers her as Patsy Cline. (MUSIC) That song is called "Walkin' After Midnight." It was Patsy Cline's first big hit record. She recorded it in nineteen-fifty-seven. It became number three on the list of country music hit recordings and number twelve on the list of most popular music. Patsy had worked for many years to make that first successful record. She began singing when she was a young girl in her home town of Winchester, in the southern state of Virginia. Patsy sang anywhere she could. She sang at weddings and dances. She sang at public eating places for eight dollars a night. Those who knew her said she worked hard to improve her singing. In nineteen-fifty-four she won a country music competition near her home. She was twenty-two years old. She was asked to appear on a country music television program in Washington D-C. She also sang on radio programs in the Virginia area and recorded some records. In nineteen-fifty-seven, Patsy Cline appeared on a national television show in New York. It was on this program that millions of people first heard her sing. She sang "Walkin' After Midnight," a song she had recently recorded. Her appearance on the television program helped make that record a major hit. Patsy continued to record more songs. Within two years she had another major hit. It was called, "I Fall to Pieces." By this time Patsy's voice had already become something special. She had learned to control not only the sound but the feelings expressed in her songs. It was the slow, sad love songs that her fans enjoyed most, songs like "I Fall to Pieces." (MUSIC) Anncr: Patsy Cline's recording of "I Fall to Pieces" became her first number one country music hit. It was also a hit with fans of popular music. Patsy was a major star. She also had begun performing at the country music theater, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Those who knew her after she became a recording star say Patsy Cline was a very good friend. She liked to help young musicians. Later, many of these young musicians became important stars themselves. One of Patsy's biggest hit songs also helped two of these young musicians become known. The song is called, "Crazy." It was written by an unknown musician who later became a major country music star. His name is Willie Nelson. If you listen carefully to Patsy Cline's recording of "Crazy," you can hear the beautiful piano playing of another young musician, Floyd Cramer. He also became a major recording star. Listen to Patsy and Floyd perform Willie Nelson's song, "Crazy." (MUSIC) Anncr: on March sixth, nineteen-sixty-three, Patsy Cline was killed in the crash of a small airplane. She was only thirty years old. She was flying home to Nashville. She had taken part in a special concert in Kansas City to raise money for the family of a country music radio performer who recently had died. Patsy Cline was buried near her home town of Winchester, Virginia. Thousands of people came to her funeral. Ten years after her death, she became the first woman performer elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In nineteen-eighty-five, Hollywood producers made a movie about the life of Patsy Cline. It was called "sweet dreams. " Popular actress Jessica Lange played Patsy. No one really could sound like Patsy Cline. So the producers used her old records in the movie. Mizz Lange moved her mouth so she appeared to be singing. People who had never heard of Patsy Cline saw the movie and enjoyed her singing. They began buying her records. Today, her records still sell thousands of copies each year as new fans discover her. We leave you with a song Patsy Cline recorded only a month before she died. It sounds almost as though she was singing in Special English. The song is called "Faded Love." (MUSIC) Anncr: this Special English program was written and directed by Paul Thompson. I'm Dick Rael. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 11, 2002: Veterans Day
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: November Eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. It honors the men and women of the American military forces. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The history of Veterans Day is our report today on the VOA Special English program, This is America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: More than nineteen-million men and women living in the United States have fought in the nation’s wars. Some of these people now are very old. Each day, one-thousand-five-hundred war veterans die. The United States Congress did not want the nation to lose its chance to hear the veterans’ stories. So, in October two-thousand, lawmakers created the Veterans History Project. The Library of Congress Folklife Center is gathering material for this project. The center is asking war veterans for recorded histories, letters, written memories, maps, photographs and home movies. The Veterans History Project includes veterans of World Wars One and Two. It also includes people who served in the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. All men and women who took part are invited to share their memories. This includes civilian helpers. In addition, all Americans are invited to talk to veterans who are family members and record their memories. Now we will tell about some of these conflicts and the Americans who fought in them. ((BATTLE SOUNDS)) VOICE TWO: World War One. At the time, it was called “the war to end all wars.” But, as everyone knows, other wars would be fought later. About two-million Americans served in Europe during World War One. More than one-hundred-sixteen-thousand of them were killed. Another two-hundred-thirty-five-thousand were wounded. The United States entered World War One in Nineteen-Seventeen. Its armed forces were very small. To prepare for war, the government ordered every man between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one to report for military duty. VOICE ONE: The men came from cities and farms. Some were rich. Some were poor. There were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, professional athletes and college students. Many were married. More than nine-and-one-half million men reported for duty in June, Nineteen-Seventeen. About six-hundred-thousand were chosen to serve. They were sent to military camps for training before going to France. The following year, the government expanded the call to serve in the military. It called on all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. More than thirteen-million reported for duty. The Army did not have enough bases to train all the new soldiers. So, it used many colleges and universities as military training centers. VOICE TWO: The Navy and Marine Corps had about eighty-two-thousand men when the United States entered World War One. A year later, there were almost three times that many sailors and Marines. Many women joined the armed forces, too. Most women got office jobs at military bases in the United States. Some, however, went to France as nurses in battlefield hospitals. Their work made it possible for more men to fight. ((MUSIC: "OVER THERE")) VOICE ONE: Finally, World War One ended. Germany surrendered at eleven o'clock in the morning on November Eleventh, Nineteen-Eighteen. It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. On that day, thousands of Americans were completing their military training in the United States. Others were either in France or on boats sailing to France. They had arrived there in troop ships over a period of about eighteen months. It would take almost that long to bring them home. While they waited to return, many had a chance to see the sights of France -- especially Paris. To the young men who grew up in big cities such as New York or Chicago, Paris was just another big city. But to the young men who grew up on farms or in small towns, Paris was unlike anything they had ever seen. VOICE TWO: When the war ended, American soldiers wanted to return to the life they knew before going to France. Almost overnight, the number of troops in the American armed services dropped to what it had been before the war. In Nineteen-Nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration naming November Eleventh as Armistice Day in the United States. It would be a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during World War One. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday. The federal government would close that day. Most state and local governments, and all public schools would close, too. Parades in almost every city honored the men and women who had helped bring peace to Europe. But even as they celebrated, new problems were on the way. VOICE ONE: The United States soon began to suffer severe economic problems. The stock market crashed in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Thousands of businesses closed. Many people lost their homes and all the money they had saved. In the early Nineteen-Thirties, huge dust storms destroyed farmland in the middle western states. Families were forced to move to other states to find work. Then political troubles began to appear in other parts of the world, especially in Europe and Asia. Soon, everyone knew that World War One had not been the war to end all wars. ((BATTLE SOUNDS)) VOICE TWO: More than four-million Americans served in the armed forces during the First World War. Four times that many would serve in the military during the next war. Most Americans who served in World War Two were young -- eighteen or nineteen years old. They were the sons and daughters of World War One veterans. They too hoped their war would be a final one. A few Americans were called back to duty because of their experience in World War One. Others joined because they had no jobs. The military gave them food, clothes and a place to sleep. VOICE ONE: The United States entered World War Two in Nineteen-Forty-One. Germany surrendered in May, Nineteen-Forty-Five, ending the war in Europe. Japan surrendered in August of that year, ending the war in the Pacific area. Armistice Day in Nineteen-Forty-Five was a very special day in the United States. Most of the men and women who had fought in the war had returned home. So, instead of just honoring veterans of World War One that year, Americans also honored veterans of World War Two. ((MUSIC: "ANCHORS AWEIGH")) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. By then almost six-million more Americans had served in another military campaign -- the Korean War. The number of veterans has continued to grow. Almost nine-million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. And thousands of others took part in military campaigns in the Caribbean nation of Grenada and in Panama. Hundreds of thousands of men and women served during the Persian Gulf War. Thousands also served as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia. Other American troops served to return the elected president to power in Haiti. And they helped keep peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian province of Kosovo. American troops defeated and ousted the Taleban rulers in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on the United States in Two-Thousand-One. Troops still are searching for Taleban and al-Qaida fighters there. VOICE ONE: The term "veteran" is not restricted to those who served only during wartime. It includes anyone who has served in the military at any time. On November Eleventh, America's military veterans will be remembered with ceremonies and parades in cities and towns across the nation. The president and other public officials will speak at Veterans Day ceremonies. Americans will observe the anniversary of Veterans Day. They will honor the men and women of the armed forces who have served their country in war and in peace. (MUSIC: "SEMPER FIDELIS" MARCH) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: November Eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. It honors the men and women of the American military forces. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. The history of Veterans Day is our report today on the VOA Special English program, This is America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: More than nineteen-million men and women living in the United States have fought in the nation’s wars. Some of these people now are very old. Each day, one-thousand-five-hundred war veterans die. The United States Congress did not want the nation to lose its chance to hear the veterans’ stories. So, in October two-thousand, lawmakers created the Veterans History Project. The Library of Congress Folklife Center is gathering material for this project. The center is asking war veterans for recorded histories, letters, written memories, maps, photographs and home movies. The Veterans History Project includes veterans of World Wars One and Two. It also includes people who served in the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. All men and women who took part are invited to share their memories. This includes civilian helpers. In addition, all Americans are invited to talk to veterans who are family members and record their memories. Now we will tell about some of these conflicts and the Americans who fought in them. ((BATTLE SOUNDS)) VOICE TWO: World War One. At the time, it was called “the war to end all wars.” But, as everyone knows, other wars would be fought later. About two-million Americans served in Europe during World War One. More than one-hundred-sixteen-thousand of them were killed. Another two-hundred-thirty-five-thousand were wounded. The United States entered World War One in Nineteen-Seventeen. Its armed forces were very small. To prepare for war, the government ordered every man between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one to report for military duty. VOICE ONE: The men came from cities and farms. Some were rich. Some were poor. There were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, professional athletes and college students. Many were married. More than nine-and-one-half million men reported for duty in June, Nineteen-Seventeen. About six-hundred-thousand were chosen to serve. They were sent to military camps for training before going to France. The following year, the government expanded the call to serve in the military. It called on all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. More than thirteen-million reported for duty. The Army did not have enough bases to train all the new soldiers. So, it used many colleges and universities as military training centers. VOICE TWO: The Navy and Marine Corps had about eighty-two-thousand men when the United States entered World War One. A year later, there were almost three times that many sailors and Marines. Many women joined the armed forces, too. Most women got office jobs at military bases in the United States. Some, however, went to France as nurses in battlefield hospitals. Their work made it possible for more men to fight. ((MUSIC: "OVER THERE")) VOICE ONE: Finally, World War One ended. Germany surrendered at eleven o'clock in the morning on November Eleventh, Nineteen-Eighteen. It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. On that day, thousands of Americans were completing their military training in the United States. Others were either in France or on boats sailing to France. They had arrived there in troop ships over a period of about eighteen months. It would take almost that long to bring them home. While they waited to return, many had a chance to see the sights of France -- especially Paris. To the young men who grew up in big cities such as New York or Chicago, Paris was just another big city. But to the young men who grew up on farms or in small towns, Paris was unlike anything they had ever seen. VOICE TWO: When the war ended, American soldiers wanted to return to the life they knew before going to France. Almost overnight, the number of troops in the American armed services dropped to what it had been before the war. In Nineteen-Nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration naming November Eleventh as Armistice Day in the United States. It would be a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during World War One. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday. The federal government would close that day. Most state and local governments, and all public schools would close, too. Parades in almost every city honored the men and women who had helped bring peace to Europe. But even as they celebrated, new problems were on the way. VOICE ONE: The United States soon began to suffer severe economic problems. The stock market crashed in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Thousands of businesses closed. Many people lost their homes and all the money they had saved. In the early Nineteen-Thirties, huge dust storms destroyed farmland in the middle western states. Families were forced to move to other states to find work. Then political troubles began to appear in other parts of the world, especially in Europe and Asia. Soon, everyone knew that World War One had not been the war to end all wars. ((BATTLE SOUNDS)) VOICE TWO: More than four-million Americans served in the armed forces during the First World War. Four times that many would serve in the military during the next war. Most Americans who served in World War Two were young -- eighteen or nineteen years old. They were the sons and daughters of World War One veterans. They too hoped their war would be a final one. A few Americans were called back to duty because of their experience in World War One. Others joined because they had no jobs. The military gave them food, clothes and a place to sleep. VOICE ONE: The United States entered World War Two in Nineteen-Forty-One. Germany surrendered in May, Nineteen-Forty-Five, ending the war in Europe. Japan surrendered in August of that year, ending the war in the Pacific area. Armistice Day in Nineteen-Forty-Five was a very special day in the United States. Most of the men and women who had fought in the war had returned home. So, instead of just honoring veterans of World War One that year, Americans also honored veterans of World War Two. ((MUSIC: "ANCHORS AWEIGH")) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. By then almost six-million more Americans had served in another military campaign -- the Korean War. The number of veterans has continued to grow. Almost nine-million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. And thousands of others took part in military campaigns in the Caribbean nation of Grenada and in Panama. Hundreds of thousands of men and women served during the Persian Gulf War. Thousands also served as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia. Other American troops served to return the elected president to power in Haiti. And they helped keep peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian province of Kosovo. American troops defeated and ousted the Taleban rulers in Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on the United States in Two-Thousand-One. Troops still are searching for Taleban and al-Qaida fighters there. VOICE ONE: The term "veteran" is not restricted to those who served only during wartime. It includes anyone who has served in the military at any time. On November Eleventh, America's military veterans will be remembered with ceremonies and parades in cities and towns across the nation. The president and other public officials will speak at Veterans Day ceremonies. Americans will observe the anniversary of Veterans Day. They will honor the men and women of the armed forces who have served their country in war and in peace. (MUSIC: "SEMPER FIDELIS" MARCH) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-08-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 11, 2002: WHO Tobacco Atlas
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has released a new report on smoking tobacco. It is called the “Tobacco Atlas.” The study says that five-hundred-sixty people die every hour from smoking tobacco. That is more than thirteen-thousand people each day, or almost five-million people every year. W-H-O officials say the Tobacco Atlas is the first of its kind for the health industry. They say it will help educate people and policy makers about the health problems tobacco has created for the world’s population. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped produce the Tobacco Atlas. It includes many colorful pictures, maps and images to help explain difficult information. World Health Organization officials say this will help readers understand the facts and use them effectively. Similarities and differences among countries are presented. There is also information about the risks from tobacco to individual health. And there is information about what governments must pay to fight the illegal transport of tobacco into their countries. Judith Mackay was one of the writers of the Tobacco Atlas. She says that tobacco is doing the most damage in developing countries, especially those in Asia. In China, for example, she says about seven-hundred-fifty-thousand people die each year from tobacco. Around the world, fifty percent of young smokers will die from tobacco-related causes. Doctor Mackay warns the problem will worsen over time. Doctor Mackay hopes that policy makers will use the Tobacco Atlas as they begin to consider national and international restrictions on tobacco. Officials from W-H-O member states met recently in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the issue. They hope to have an agreement on tobacco control ready for W-H-O approval by May of next year. The agreement could include a ban on advertisements for smoking and higher taxes on tobacco. The W-H-O says tobacco smoking may kill more than eight-million people a year by the year two-thousand-twenty if control measures are not put in place soon. Experts say more than seventy percent of the deaths will be in developing countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has released a new report on smoking tobacco. It is called the “Tobacco Atlas.” The study says that five-hundred-sixty people die every hour from smoking tobacco. That is more than thirteen-thousand people each day, or almost five-million people every year. W-H-O officials say the Tobacco Atlas is the first of its kind for the health industry. They say it will help educate people and policy makers about the health problems tobacco has created for the world’s population. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped produce the Tobacco Atlas. It includes many colorful pictures, maps and images to help explain difficult information. World Health Organization officials say this will help readers understand the facts and use them effectively. Similarities and differences among countries are presented. There is also information about the risks from tobacco to individual health. And there is information about what governments must pay to fight the illegal transport of tobacco into their countries. Judith Mackay was one of the writers of the Tobacco Atlas. She says that tobacco is doing the most damage in developing countries, especially those in Asia. In China, for example, she says about seven-hundred-fifty-thousand people die each year from tobacco. Around the world, fifty percent of young smokers will die from tobacco-related causes. Doctor Mackay warns the problem will worsen over time. Doctor Mackay hopes that policy makers will use the Tobacco Atlas as they begin to consider national and international restrictions on tobacco. Officials from W-H-O member states met recently in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the issue. They hope to have an agreement on tobacco control ready for W-H-O approval by May of next year. The agreement could include a ban on advertisements for smoking and higher taxes on tobacco. The W-H-O says tobacco smoking may kill more than eight-million people a year by the year two-thousand-twenty if control measures are not put in place soon. Experts say more than seventy percent of the deaths will be in developing countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-08-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – November 9, 2002: U.S. Midterm Elections
* Byline: 

 This is STEVE EMBER with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. For the first time in many years, one party will control both houses of the United States Congress and the White House. Members of President Bush’s Republican Party regained control of the Senate from the Democratic Party in elections Tuesday. Republicans will hold at least fifty-one of the one-hundred seats in the Senate. Democrats hold forty-seven seats. One senator is an independent. Another Senate seat still requires a special election. Republicans also increased their majority in the House of Representatives. Members of the new Congress will be sworn into office in January. The election results represent a major victory for Mister Bush. The president’s party usually loses congressional seats in an election held in the middle of his term. Mister Bush appeared publicly with a lot of Republican candidates in the weeks before the election. The Republican victories mean Mister Bush will have more chances to get his programs passed. Republican Trent Lott of Mississippi will be the new Senate majority leader. As such, he can decide which issues the Senate will consider and when they will consider them. Republicans also will lead Senate committees. This means Mister Bush also is likely to win Senate confirmation of his candidates for federal office. The Republicans won three seats they currently do not have in the Senate. Former Vice President Walter Mondale lost to Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota. Mister Mondale’s campaign lasted only a few days. The state’s Democratic Party nominated him after Senator Paul Wellstone died in an airplane crash last month. In Missouri, Senator Jean Carnahan lost to Republican Jim Talent, a former Congressman. Missus Carnahan had been appointed to fill a Senate seat won by her husband, Mel Carnahan. In Georgia, Democratic Senator Max Cleland lost to Republican Congressman Saxby Chambliss. During the election campaign, Mister Chambliss often spoke about his efforts as a policy-maker against terrorism. As a young man, Mister Cleland lost both legs and his right arm during the Vietnam War. Democrats, however, gained governorships in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- three states with large populations. In California, voters re-elected Governor Gray Davis, another Democrat. At the same time, Republicans won governors’ races in the traditionally Democratic states of Georgia and Maryland. On Thursday, President Bush said he would seek quick congressional approval of his Homeland Security Bill. The measure would pull together government agencies that fight terrorism. Mister Bush also hopes Congress will change the federal program to assist retired workers and make tax cuts permanent. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-08-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - November 12, 2002: Oldest Evidence of Jesus? / Mapping Genes that Cause Disease / 2002 World Health Report
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about an ancient stone box that may be the oldest evidence of Jesus. We tell about an effort to create a new human genome map to identify genes that cause disease. And we tell about the latest World Health Report. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Religious experts are excited about the discovery of what may be the oldest historic evidence of Jesus and the beginnings of the Christian religion. It is a small stone box that may have held the bones of a man said to be Jesus’ brother James. The box is called an ossuary (OSH-oo-ar-y). Two-thousand years ago, Jews used ossuaries to hold the remains of their dead. This box now belongs to a private collector in Israel. The owner purchased it from a dealer who said the box was found in an ancient burial area in Jerusalem. The box contains a message written in Aramaic, a language spoken in the Middle East two-thousand years ago. The writing says “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” VOICE TWO: Andre Lemaire is a researcher and expert on ancient languages at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. He examined the ossuary and wrote a study about it. The study was published in the Biblical Archeology Review. Herschel Shanks is publisher of the magazine. He says chemical tests done on the stone box show that the writing is as old as the box itself. Mister Shanks says the writing must have been on the box when it was first used two-thousand years ago. Mister Shanks also says tests have failed to find any metal particles on the writing. He says this shows the words probably were not made with a modern tool. VOICE ONE: James is identified as Jesus’ brother in the Christian holy book, the Bible. Two-thousand years ago, the name James was common in Jerusalem. So were the names Jesus and Joseph. Andre Lemaire considered the rate at which the three names appear in existing records from that time. He estimates there could have been no more than twenty men in Jerusalem named James who had fathers named Joseph and brothers named Jesus. Mister Lemaire and Mister Shanks say it was common for an ossuary to include the name of the dead person’s father. But they say there are only two reasons to include the name of the dead person’s brother as well. One reason was if the brother was responsible for the burial. However, the James noted in the Bible was killed thirty years after Jesus was executed. The other reason to include a brother’s name on the ossuary was if the brother was an extremely important person. VOICE TWO: Not all experts believe that the ossuary is a direct link to the man whom Christians believe is the son of God. Some people criticized the Biblical Archeology Review for publishing a study that involves an object that was stolen from a burial place. Other experts question the shape of some of the letters and the spelling of some of the names on the ossuary. The ossuary will be shown to the public for the first time at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada starting November sixteenth. Museum officials say the ancient box was damaged while it was being transported from Israel to Toronto. But they say the ossuary was expected to be repaired in time for the exhibition. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: International scientists have joined forces to create a new kind of map of all the genes of the human body. The effort is called the International HapMap Project. The project will compare genetic differences among individuals. Experts hope the project will lead to identifying genes responsible for diseases like cancer and diabetes. They believe it will help tell why some people get these diseases while others do not. The research will cost about one-hundred-million dollars. Project scientists estimate the work will take about three years. VOICE TWO: Fifteen research teams will begin the map after studying the genes of people of four ethnic groups. They are Japanese, Han Chinese, the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Americans of northern and western European ancestry. The researchers will examine blood from as many as four-hundred people. Project scientists are from government agencies, universities, nonprofit research laboratories and private companies. The researchers come from Japan, China, Britain, Canada and the United States. The United States National Institutes of Health is providing thirty-nine million dollars. That is the largest part of the research money for the project. VOICE ONE: The scientists are developing their work from recent findings about the human genome. Last year, researchers at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, made an important discovery about genetic material called D-N-A. They learned that, over time, people pass their D-N-A to their children in large, unchanged blocks. These blocks of D-N-A are called haplotypes (HAP-lo-types). Earlier, scientists had thought D-N-A became mixed as each set of parents had children. The goal of the new genetic map is to show where the haplotypes appear throughout the human genome. The International HapMap Project will also depend on the results of the Human Genome Project. Scientists produced a map of all human genes two years ago. But this human genome did not identify the genes that cause diseases. VOICE TWO: Some genetic research has resulted in identifying a single gene responsible for a disease. For example, scientists found the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a disease that affects a person’s lungs and other organs. The disease cannot be cured. People who suspect they carry this gene may now be tested for its presence. However, researchers say most common diseases do not result from a single gene but are thought to be caused by several genes acting together. These conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and a mental disease called schizophrenia. Scientists believe environmental influences also are linked to these diseases. VOICE ONE: Francis Collins is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He said the HapMap would provide a powerful tool to help doctors understand the influence of genes on common illnesses. However, some experts express less hope for the project. Some reject the description of the haplotypes in the human genome. Others do not believe that studying haplotypes will find genes that cause diseases. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The life expectancy of people around the world could increase by five to ten years if action against common health risks is taken. This is one of the findings in this year’s World Health Report released recently by the World Health Organization. The report is called “Reducing Risks, Promoting Life.” Researchers found that ten major threats to good health are common around the world. The chief of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, called them the ten leading killers. They include unsafe sex, poor nutrition, high blood pressure, use of tobacco and alcohol, unsafe water and unclean living conditions. Also included are high levels of dangerous fat in the blood, indoor smoke from solid fuels, a lack of iron in the body and too much body weight, or obesity. Together, these ten health risks make up forty percent of the fifty-six-million deaths worldwide each year. VOICE ONE: Doctor Brundtland called for reducing the ten main health risks by twenty-five percent within ten years. If this were done, life expectancy in industrial countries could increase by ten years. In developing countries, it could increase by five years. Currently, the number of life years lost because of these health risks differs around the world. Doctor Brundtland says the differences these health risks create between rich and poor nations are shocking. For example, about one-hundred-seventy-million children in poor countries are underweight. They do not weigh enough because they do not get enough food. However, more than one-thousand-million adults around the world are too fat. Most of these people live in rich, industrial countries. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.) VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about an ancient stone box that may be the oldest evidence of Jesus. We tell about an effort to create a new human genome map to identify genes that cause disease. And we tell about the latest World Health Report. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Religious experts are excited about the discovery of what may be the oldest historic evidence of Jesus and the beginnings of the Christian religion. It is a small stone box that may have held the bones of a man said to be Jesus’ brother James. The box is called an ossuary (OSH-oo-ar-y). Two-thousand years ago, Jews used ossuaries to hold the remains of their dead. This box now belongs to a private collector in Israel. The owner purchased it from a dealer who said the box was found in an ancient burial area in Jerusalem. The box contains a message written in Aramaic, a language spoken in the Middle East two-thousand years ago. The writing says “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” VOICE TWO: Andre Lemaire is a researcher and expert on ancient languages at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. He examined the ossuary and wrote a study about it. The study was published in the Biblical Archeology Review. Herschel Shanks is publisher of the magazine. He says chemical tests done on the stone box show that the writing is as old as the box itself. Mister Shanks says the writing must have been on the box when it was first used two-thousand years ago. Mister Shanks also says tests have failed to find any metal particles on the writing. He says this shows the words probably were not made with a modern tool. VOICE ONE: James is identified as Jesus’ brother in the Christian holy book, the Bible. Two-thousand years ago, the name James was common in Jerusalem. So were the names Jesus and Joseph. Andre Lemaire considered the rate at which the three names appear in existing records from that time. He estimates there could have been no more than twenty men in Jerusalem named James who had fathers named Joseph and brothers named Jesus. Mister Lemaire and Mister Shanks say it was common for an ossuary to include the name of the dead person’s father. But they say there are only two reasons to include the name of the dead person’s brother as well. One reason was if the brother was responsible for the burial. However, the James noted in the Bible was killed thirty years after Jesus was executed. The other reason to include a brother’s name on the ossuary was if the brother was an extremely important person. VOICE TWO: Not all experts believe that the ossuary is a direct link to the man whom Christians believe is the son of God. Some people criticized the Biblical Archeology Review for publishing a study that involves an object that was stolen from a burial place. Other experts question the shape of some of the letters and the spelling of some of the names on the ossuary. The ossuary will be shown to the public for the first time at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada starting November sixteenth. Museum officials say the ancient box was damaged while it was being transported from Israel to Toronto. But they say the ossuary was expected to be repaired in time for the exhibition. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: International scientists have joined forces to create a new kind of map of all the genes of the human body. The effort is called the International HapMap Project. The project will compare genetic differences among individuals. Experts hope the project will lead to identifying genes responsible for diseases like cancer and diabetes. They believe it will help tell why some people get these diseases while others do not. The research will cost about one-hundred-million dollars. Project scientists estimate the work will take about three years. VOICE TWO: Fifteen research teams will begin the map after studying the genes of people of four ethnic groups. They are Japanese, Han Chinese, the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Americans of northern and western European ancestry. The researchers will examine blood from as many as four-hundred people. Project scientists are from government agencies, universities, nonprofit research laboratories and private companies. The researchers come from Japan, China, Britain, Canada and the United States. The United States National Institutes of Health is providing thirty-nine million dollars. That is the largest part of the research money for the project. VOICE ONE: The scientists are developing their work from recent findings about the human genome. Last year, researchers at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, made an important discovery about genetic material called D-N-A. They learned that, over time, people pass their D-N-A to their children in large, unchanged blocks. These blocks of D-N-A are called haplotypes (HAP-lo-types). Earlier, scientists had thought D-N-A became mixed as each set of parents had children. The goal of the new genetic map is to show where the haplotypes appear throughout the human genome. The International HapMap Project will also depend on the results of the Human Genome Project. Scientists produced a map of all human genes two years ago. But this human genome did not identify the genes that cause diseases. VOICE TWO: Some genetic research has resulted in identifying a single gene responsible for a disease. For example, scientists found the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a disease that affects a person’s lungs and other organs. The disease cannot be cured. People who suspect they carry this gene may now be tested for its presence. However, researchers say most common diseases do not result from a single gene but are thought to be caused by several genes acting together. These conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and a mental disease called schizophrenia. Scientists believe environmental influences also are linked to these diseases. VOICE ONE: Francis Collins is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health. He said the HapMap would provide a powerful tool to help doctors understand the influence of genes on common illnesses. However, some experts express less hope for the project. Some reject the description of the haplotypes in the human genome. Others do not believe that studying haplotypes will find genes that cause diseases. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The life expectancy of people around the world could increase by five to ten years if action against common health risks is taken. This is one of the findings in this year’s World Health Report released recently by the World Health Organization. The report is called “Reducing Risks, Promoting Life.” Researchers found that ten major threats to good health are common around the world. The chief of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, called them the ten leading killers. They include unsafe sex, poor nutrition, high blood pressure, use of tobacco and alcohol, unsafe water and unclean living conditions. Also included are high levels of dangerous fat in the blood, indoor smoke from solid fuels, a lack of iron in the body and too much body weight, or obesity. Together, these ten health risks make up forty percent of the fifty-six-million deaths worldwide each year. VOICE ONE: Doctor Brundtland called for reducing the ten main health risks by twenty-five percent within ten years. If this were done, life expectancy in industrial countries could increase by ten years. In developing countries, it could increase by five years. Currently, the number of life years lost because of these health risks differs around the world. Doctor Brundtland says the differences these health risks create between rich and poor nations are shocking. For example, about one-hundred-seventy-million children in poor countries are underweight. They do not weigh enough because they do not get enough food. However, more than one-thousand-million adults around the world are too fat. Most of these people live in rich, industrial countries. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow, Jerilyn Watson and Jill Moss. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-08-6-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — November 12, 2002: Organic Food Labeling
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last month, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced a program that will set new rules for “organic” agricultural products in the United States. Mizz Venemen said the new rules will increase public trust in the organic food industry. Organic foods represent a fast-growing market of products that provide a choice for the American public. Americans can now buy products that are grown or raised without added chemicals. New laws for organic foods make the use of the word “organic” the same throughout the food industry. Americans who buy an organic product can now be sure that government rules support that claim. Under the new rules, organic meat, chicken, eggs and milk products must come from animals that have not been given drugs or chemicals to increase growth. Organic crops must be grown without using most chemical pesticides that kill insects and other crop-destroying organisms. There are also restrictions on the kind of fertilizers used for plants that are to be marked “organic.” In general, organic farmers grow or raise food using reusable resources. For the first time, any product that is marked “all organic” must now contain one-hundred-percent organic material. A product that calls itself “organic” must be at least ninety-five percent organic. And a product must contain seventy-percent organic material to claim that it is “made with organic” substances. The Department of Agriculture says it makes no claims that organic foods are safer than other products. However, many people consider organic foods healthier. Americans will now be able to know if a food product is organic by a newly designed sign, or label, from the Department of Agriculture. Food producers can chose to put the label on their products if they meet federal requirements. Organic foods are not a new development in food production. They have been grown in the United States since the late nineteen-forties. In fact, so-called organic ways of growing and raising food are the oldest ways. The need to show a difference between organic and non-organic production has come about in modern times. Oil-based fertilizers, genetic engineering and man-made growth chemicals have made labeling products “organic” necessary. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last month, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced a program that will set new rules for “organic” agricultural products in the United States. Mizz Venemen said the new rules will increase public trust in the organic food industry. Organic foods represent a fast-growing market of products that provide a choice for the American public. Americans can now buy products that are grown or raised without added chemicals. New laws for organic foods make the use of the word “organic” the same throughout the food industry. Americans who buy an organic product can now be sure that government rules support that claim. Under the new rules, organic meat, chicken, eggs and milk products must come from animals that have not been given drugs or chemicals to increase growth. Organic crops must be grown without using most chemical pesticides that kill insects and other crop-destroying organisms. There are also restrictions on the kind of fertilizers used for plants that are to be marked “organic.” In general, organic farmers grow or raise food using reusable resources. For the first time, any product that is marked “all organic” must now contain one-hundred-percent organic material. A product that calls itself “organic” must be at least ninety-five percent organic. And a product must contain seventy-percent organic material to claim that it is “made with organic” substances. The Department of Agriculture says it makes no claims that organic foods are safer than other products. However, many people consider organic foods healthier. Americans will now be able to know if a food product is organic by a newly designed sign, or label, from the Department of Agriculture. Food producers can chose to put the label on their products if they meet federal requirements. Organic foods are not a new development in food production. They have been grown in the United States since the late nineteen-forties. In fact, so-called organic ways of growing and raising food are the oldest ways. The need to show a difference between organic and non-organic production has come about in modern times. Oil-based fertilizers, genetic engineering and man-made growth chemicals have made labeling products “organic” necessary. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 13, 2002:  Volcanoes and Haleakala National Parks in Hawaii
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. Mauna Loa(Photo - U.S. Geological Survey) VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we visit two of the most unusual national parks in the United States. They are Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park, both in Hawaii. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Kilauea in July(Photo - U.S. Geological Survey) VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we visit two of the most unusual national parks in the United States. They are Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park, both in Hawaii. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Let me ask you a question: What is the tallest mountain on Earth? Most school children will say the answer is Mount Everest near the border between Nepal and Tibet. There is something that is three-hundred-four meters taller than Mount Everest. However, it is mainly underwater. It begins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and rises more than seventeen kilometers from the ocean floor. Its name is Mauna Loa. In the Hawaiian language, Mauna Loa means “Long Mountain.” Mauna Loa is more than half of the island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also the largest and most active volcano on Earth. It has produced liquid rock called lava more than thirty times since records were first kept in eighteen-forty-three. Today, Mauna Loa is quiet. It is not producing lava. However volcano experts say it is only a matter of time before this happens once again. VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa is not the only volcano on the island of Hawaii. There are four others. Three of them are no longer active. One of them still is active. It is named Kilauea. It has produced lava more than fifty times in the last one-hundred years. At this moment, red hot lava is pouring out of Kilauea. It has been doing this since nineteen-eighty-three. Let me ask you a question: What is the tallest mountain on Earth? Most school children will say the answer is Mount Everest near the border between Nepal and Tibet. There is something that is three-hundred-four meters taller than Mount Everest. However, it is mainly underwater. It begins at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and rises more than seventeen kilometers from the ocean floor. Its name is Mauna Loa. In the Hawaiian language, Mauna Loa means “Long Mountain.” Mauna Loa is more than half of the island of Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also the largest and most active volcano on Earth. It has produced liquid rock called lava more than thirty times since records were first kept in eighteen-forty-three. Today, Mauna Loa is quiet. It is not producing lava. However volcano experts say it is only a matter of time before this happens once again. VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa is not the only volcano on the island of Hawaii. There are four others. Three of them are no longer active. One of them still is active. It is named Kilauea. It has produced lava more than fifty times in the last one-hundred years. At this moment, red hot lava is pouring out of Kilauea. It has been doing this since nineteen-eighty-three. Sometimes the lava moves slowly. At other times it pours out very fast as huge amounts of pressure force it from the volcano. During these times, it moves almost as quickly as water moving down the side of a mountain. Sometimes Kilauea produces large amounts of lava that seem like rivers of fire. VOICE ONE: When the lava from Kilauea reaches the ocean, its fierce heat produces great amounts of steam that rise into the air. The lava is so hot it continues to burn underwater for some time. The lava from Kilauea continues to add land to the island as the volcanoes of Hawaii have always done. It is these volcanoes that formed the islands of Hawaii. Most of the time the lava of Kilauea seems to move peacefully toward the ocean. Yet it is not as peaceful as it seems from a distance. In recent years the lava destroyed one small town on the island. The liquid rock slowly covered the town. It blocked roads and destroyed them. Nothing can stop the lava of Kilauea. Experts say the volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea are a serious threat to property on many parts of the island. Experts say the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii are proof that the changing environment of Earth is and will always remain beyond human control. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa and Kilauea together form Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. But another national park has a huge volcano. It is on the island of Maui. It is the Haleakala National Park. Haleakala in the Hawaiian language means “House of the Sun.” (Photo - Tracy Erwin/National Park Service) Sometimes the lava moves slowly. At other times it pours out very fast as huge amounts of pressure force it from the volcano. During these times, it moves almost as quickly as water moving down the side of a mountain. Sometimes Kilauea produces large amounts of lava that seem like rivers of fire. VOICE ONE: When the lava from Kilauea reaches the ocean, its fierce heat produces great amounts of steam that rise into the air. The lava is so hot it continues to burn underwater for some time. The lava from Kilauea continues to add land to the island as the volcanoes of Hawaii have always done. It is these volcanoes that formed the islands of Hawaii. Most of the time the lava of Kilauea seems to move peacefully toward the ocean. Yet it is not as peaceful as it seems from a distance. In recent years the lava destroyed one small town on the island. The liquid rock slowly covered the town. It blocked roads and destroyed them. Nothing can stop the lava of Kilauea. Experts say the volcanoes of Mauna Loa and Kilauea are a serious threat to property on many parts of the island. Experts say the volcanoes of the island of Hawaii are proof that the changing environment of Earth is and will always remain beyond human control. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Mauna Loa and Kilauea together form Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii. But another national park has a huge volcano. It is on the island of Maui. It is the Haleakala National Park. Haleakala in the Hawaiian language means “House of the Sun.” Haleakala is another huge volcano. Together with a smaller, much older volcano it helped form the island of Maui. It is no longer considered to be active. In about seventeen-ninety, two areas in the side of the huge volcano opened and lava came out. The lava moved down the mountain and into the sea. That was the last recorded activity at Haleakala. The volcano that contains Haleakala National Park rises three-thousand-fifty meters above the sea. We would like to take you for a visit to Haleakala. For a few minutes, sit back while we drive the road up to the top of the volcano. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Our trip begins near the ocean today. We drive through the city of Kahului. We see businesses and homes, the buildings you find in any American city. There are more flowers than in many American cities. The Hawaiian Islands are famous for their flowers. Soon the road begins to go up. The road moves back and forth and around corners as it moves up the face of the mountain. At times our driver must slow the vehicle and turn very sharply. Soon, there are no more homes or stores. From the city of Kahului to the top of Haleakala is about fifty-five kilometers. We will be three-thousand-fifty meters higher at the top of the mountain. Very soon, we no longer see trees. We have traveled too high for them to survive. Soon there are only a few plants. Then there is nothing but black lava rock. At one place, we begin to enter the clouds that hang close to the mountain. Our driver turns on the head lights of the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we are above the clouds in the bright sunshine. The road is good, so the trip takes only about an hour. VOICE TWO: The National Park headquarters is about two kilometers from the top. Park officials at the information center tell you about the history of the volcano. They say that it is very safe ... today. They also tell you that it could very well become active again. The experts just do not know. We soon leave the park headquarters and travel up again, this time to the top. There is an area here to leave our vehicle. We walk the last few meters to the top. As we reach the top, almost everyone says similar things. How strange! Did the violence of a volcano form this? This is so beautiful! VOICE ONE: We are on the top looking down inside what was the most active part of the volcano. The shape is almost like a circle except the sides have been stretched, almost the shape of an egg but longer. There are only a few plants here and no trees. However the volcano has left thousands of different shapes of lava stone. Hundreds of years of rain and bright sun have cut long paths in the stone. Time has turned the oldest lava to a soft sand. There are huge mountains. There are also smaller hills that seem to be made of ash or sand. The place is a riot of color. One big mountain seems to be a deep dark red. Another area seems almost yellow. Another is green, and still another is a beautiful brown color. One area is colored gray that seems to move into a deep black. It looks as if some one has spilled many colors of paint over the huge area. The volcano produced these colors because the lava is very rich in many kinds of minerals. VOICE TWO: The area we are seeing stretches for a long distance. This morning, high on the mountain in the bright sun, we can see almost forty kilometers of the park. And this is only part of it. There are eleven-thousand-five-hundred-ninety-six hectares of land in the park. Some of the park is closed to visitors. Scientists do research in those areas. Experts are trying to learn how to grow and protect some of the very unusual plants that live in Haleakala. One of these plants is called the silver sword. It grows only in Hawaii. It has long thin silver leaves. It is very beautiful and unusual. The Hawaiian nay-nay goose also lives here. It is a large bird. Visitors are asked not to come too near the nay-nay. Experts are helping both the silver sword plants and the nay-nay geese to reproduce so they will not disappear from the Earth. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors each year enjoy Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii. Ships stop at the two islands and buses take the groups of visitors to see these huge volcanoes. Many people also fly over the volcanoes in airplanes or helicopters. This is a safe and popular method of watching Kilauea’s lava moving slowly toward the ocean. Other people see it from ships.Visitors also may walk into the rain forest created by the volcano thousands of years ago. Here they can see Waimoku Falls where water drops one-hundred-twenty meters down the face of a mountain. Both parks offer visitors a sight of nature that most people never have the chance to enjoy. Visitors can see how an active volcano adds mass to the island. And they can see inside a volcano that has been silent for hundreds of years. The United States Park Service is responsible for both Haleakala and the Hawaii National Volcanoes Park. It works hard to keep both these areas as nature created them. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our recording engineer today was Bob Phillips. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. Haleakala is another huge volcano. Together with a smaller, much older volcano it helped form the island of Maui. It is no longer considered to be active. In about seventeen-ninety, two areas in the side of the huge volcano opened and lava came out. The lava moved down the mountain and into the sea. That was the last recorded activity at Haleakala. The volcano that contains Haleakala National Park rises three-thousand-fifty meters above the sea. We would like to take you for a visit to Haleakala. For a few minutes, sit back while we drive the road up to the top of the volcano. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Our trip begins near the ocean today. We drive through the city of Kahului. We see businesses and homes, the buildings you find in any American city. There are more flowers than in many American cities. The Hawaiian Islands are famous for their flowers. Soon the road begins to go up. The road moves back and forth and around corners as it moves up the face of the mountain. At times our driver must slow the vehicle and turn very sharply. Soon, there are no more homes or stores. From the city of Kahului to the top of Haleakala is about fifty-five kilometers. We will be three-thousand-fifty meters higher at the top of the mountain. Very soon, we no longer see trees. We have traveled too high for them to survive. Soon there are only a few plants. Then there is nothing but black lava rock. At one place, we begin to enter the clouds that hang close to the mountain. Our driver turns on the head lights of the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we are above the clouds in the bright sunshine. The road is good, so the trip takes only about an hour. VOICE TWO: The National Park headquarters is about two kilometers from the top. Park officials at the information center tell you about the history of the volcano. They say that it is very safe ... today. They also tell you that it could very well become active again. The experts just do not know. We soon leave the park headquarters and travel up again, this time to the top. There is an area here to leave our vehicle. We walk the last few meters to the top. As we reach the top, almost everyone says similar things. How strange! Did the violence of a volcano form this? This is so beautiful! VOICE ONE: We are on the top looking down inside what was the most active part of the volcano. The shape is almost like a circle except the sides have been stretched, almost the shape of an egg but longer. There are only a few plants here and no trees. However the volcano has left thousands of different shapes of lava stone. Hundreds of years of rain and bright sun have cut long paths in the stone. Time has turned the oldest lava to a soft sand. There are huge mountains. There are also smaller hills that seem to be made of ash or sand. The place is a riot of color. One big mountain seems to be a deep dark red. Another area seems almost yellow. Another is green, and still another is a beautiful brown color. One area is colored gray that seems to move into a deep black. It looks as if some one has spilled many colors of paint over the huge area. The volcano produced these colors because the lava is very rich in many kinds of minerals. VOICE TWO: The area we are seeing stretches for a long distance. This morning, high on the mountain in the bright sun, we can see almost forty kilometers of the park. And this is only part of it. There are eleven-thousand-five-hundred-ninety-six hectares of land in the park. Some of the park is closed to visitors. Scientists do research in those areas. Experts are trying to learn how to grow and protect some of the very unusual plants that live in Haleakala. One of these plants is called the silver sword. It grows only in Hawaii. It has long thin silver leaves. It is very beautiful and unusual. The Hawaiian nay-nay goose also lives here. It is a large bird. Visitors are asked not to come too near the nay-nay. Experts are helping both the silver sword plants and the nay-nay geese to reproduce so they will not disappear from the Earth. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Thousands of visitors each year enjoy Haleakala National Park on the island of Maui, and Mauna Loa and Kilauea on the island of Hawaii. Ships stop at the two islands and buses take the groups of visitors to see these huge volcanoes. Many people also fly over the volcanoes in airplanes or helicopters. This is a safe and popular method of watching Kilauea’s lava moving slowly toward the ocean. Other people see it from ships.Visitors also may walk into the rain forest created by the volcano thousands of years ago. Here they can see Waimoku Falls where water drops one-hundred-twenty meters down the face of a mountain. Both parks offer visitors a sight of nature that most people never have the chance to enjoy. Visitors can see how an active volcano adds mass to the island. And they can see inside a volcano that has been silent for hundreds of years. The United States Park Service is responsible for both Haleakala and the Hawaii National Volcanoes Park. It works hard to keep both these areas as nature created them. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our recording engineer today was Bob Phillips. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – November 13, 2002: Aspirin After Bypass Surgery
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study says the common drug aspirin greatly reduces life-threatening problems after an operation to replace blocked blood vessels to the heart. The operation involves attaching new blood vessels onto the heart to bypass blockages in the arteries that feed blood to the heart. More than eight-hundred-thousand people around the world have this heart bypass surgery each year. The doctors who carried out the study say giving aspirin to patients soon after the operation could save thousands of lives. People usually take aspirin to control pain and reduce high body temperature. Doctors also advise some people to take aspirin to help prevent heart attacks. About ten to fifteen percent of bypass operations end in death or damage to the heart, kidneys or intestines. The new study said even a small amount of aspirin reduced such threats. The doctors said the chance of death for bypass patients in the hospital who took aspirin fell by sixty-seven percent. They said this was true if the aspirin was given within forty-eight hours of the operation. The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dennis Mangano (mahn-GAH-no) heads the Ischemia Research and Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco, California. Doctor Mangano led a team that examined the records of more than five-thousand patients in seventeen countries who had a heart bypass operation. Some patients received aspirin daily after the operation. Other patients did not receive aspirin. The doctors believe aspirin aids bypass surgery patients in two ways. They say it prevents blood from thickening and forming clots that block blood vessels. They also believe aspirin reduces inflammation in blood vessels which increases after an operation and can damage organs. Several medical organizations already advise that patients receive aspirin soon after bypass surgery because it helps the new blood vessels. However, many doctors have advised against aspirin both before and after operations. They fear it may cause severe bleeding. Doctor Mangano’s team did not report that bleeding was a problem. However, the doctors said people who have stomach or intestinal bleeding or other bad reactions from aspirin should NOT receive it after bypass surgery. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 14, 2002: Richard Nixon, Part 3
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we complete the story of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. (Cartoon - Robert Pryor, 1974) VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we complete the story of the thirty-seventh president of the United States, Richard Nixon. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon's first term as president ended with hope for complete American withdrawal from the fighting in Vietnam. Yet Americans still were very angry about the war and its effects on life at home. Paying for it was difficult. Inflation was high. Unemployment was high, too. Some political observers thought the president would not be elected to a second term. Nixon, however, was sure the American people would support him. He did not campaign in the local primary elections before the Republican convention. Instead, in the winter and spring of Nineteen-Seventy-Two, he visited China, Canada, Iran, Poland, and the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: On June Seventeenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Two, something happened in Washington, D-C. It was a small incident. But it would have a huge effect on the United States. 1970: A lighter moment in the White House. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon's first term as president ended with hope for complete American withdrawal from the fighting in Vietnam. Yet Americans still were very angry about the war and its effects on life at home. Paying for it was difficult. Inflation was high. Unemployment was high, too. Some political observers thought the president would not be elected to a second term. Nixon, however, was sure the American people would support him. He did not campaign in the local primary elections before the Republican convention. Instead, in the winter and spring of Nineteen-Seventy-Two, he visited China, Canada, Iran, Poland, and the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: On June Seventeenth, Nineteen-Seventy-Two, something happened in Washington, D-C. It was a small incident. But it would have a huge effect on the United States. Five men broke into a center of the National Committee of the Democratic Party. The building was called the Watergate. That name would become a symbol of political crime in the nation's highest office. VOICE ONE: At the time, the incident did not seem important. Police caught the criminals. Later, however, more was learned. The men had carried papers that linked them to top officials in the administration. The question was: Did President Nixon know what was going on? He told reporters he was not involved. In time, though, the Watergate case would lead to a congressional investigation of the president. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: For a while, the political conventions of the summer of Nineteen-Seventy-Two pushed the story of the Watergate break-in out of the major news of the day. The Democratic Party met and chose George McGovern as its candidate for president. McGovern was a senator from the state of South Dakota. The choice of the Republican Party was no surprise. Delegates re-nominated Richard Nixon. McGovern attacked Nixon for his policies about Vietnam. McGovern's anger made many voters see him as an extremist. Nixon won the election of Nineteen-Seventy-Two by a huge popular vote. He would not be able to complete his second term, however. This was because Watergate would not go away. VOICE ONE: Early in Nineteen-Seventy-Three, reporters found the evidence that linked the Watergate break-in to officials in the White House. The evidence also showed that the officials tried to use government agencies to hide the connection. Pressure grew for a complete investigation. In April, President Nixon ordered the Justice Department to do this. A special prosecutor was named to lead the government's investigation. VOICE TWO: A special Senate committee began its own investigation in May. A former White House lawyer provided the major evidence. By July, it was learned that President Nixon had secretly made tape recordings of some of his discussions and telephone calls. The Senate committee asked him for some of the tapes. Nixon refused. He said the president of the United States has a Constitutional right to keep such records private. VOICE ONE: A federal judge ordered the president to surrender the tapes. Lawyers for the president took the case to the nation's highest court. The Supreme Court supported the decision of the lower court. After that, pressure increased for Nixon to cooperate. In October, he offered to provide written versions of the most important parts of the tape recordings. The special prosecutor rejected the offer. So, Nixon ordered the head of the Justice Department to dismiss him. The Attorney General refused to do this, and resigned. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: President Nixon had another political problem, in addition to Watergate. In late Nineteen-Seventy-Three, his vice president, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign. A court had found Agnew guilty of violating tax laws. President Nixon asked Gerald Ford to become the new vice president. Ford was a long-time member of Congress from the state of Michigan. VOICE ONE: By that time, some members of Congress were talking about removing President Nixon from office. This is possible under American law if Congress finds that a president has done something criminal. Was Richard Nixon covering up important evidence in the case? Was he, in fact, guilty of wrongdoing? VOICE TWO: In April, Nineteen-Seventy-Four, Nixon surrendered some of his White House tape recordings. However, three important discussions on the tapes were missing. The Nixon administration explained. The tape machine had failed to record two of the discussions, it said. The third discussion had been destroyed accidentally. Many Americans did not believe these explanations. Two months later, the Supreme Court ruled that a president cannot hold back evidence in a criminal case. It said there is no presidential right of privacy in such a case. VOICE ONE: A committee of the House of Representatives also reached an historic decision in July, Nineteen-Seventy-Four. It proposed that the full House put the president on trial. If Richard Nixon were found guilty of crimes involved in the Watergate case, he would be removed from office. Finally, Nixon surrendered the last of the documents. They appeared to provide proof that the president had ordered evidence in the Watergate case to be covered up. VOICE TWO: The rights of citizens, as stated in the Constitution, are the basis of American democracy. Every president promises to protect and defend these Constitutional rights. During the congressional investigation of Watergate, lawmakers said that President Nixon had violated these rights. They said he planned to delay and block the investigation of the Watergate break-in and other unlawful activities. They said he repeatedly mis-used government agencies in an effort to hide wrong-doing and to punish his critics. And they said he refused repeated orders to surrender papers and other materials as part of the investigation. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon's long struggle to remain in office was over. He spoke to the nation on August Eighth. NIXON: "Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow." VOICE TWO: Never before had a president of the United States resigned. And never before did the United States have a president who had not been elected. Gerald Ford had been appointed to the office of vice president. Now, he would replace Richard Nixon. On August Ninth, Nineteen-Seventy-Four, he was sworn-in as the nation's thirty-eighth president. VOICE ONE: Soon after becoming president, Gerald Ford made a surprise announcement. He pardoned Richard Nixon. Many Americans criticized Ford for doing this. But he believed he had good reasons. Ford wanted to move ahead and deal with the other problems that faced the nation. He did not want Watergate to go on and on. The case did go on, however. Several top officials in the Nixon administration were tried, found guilty, and sent to prison. VOICE TWO: The effects of the case went on, too. Watergate influenced government policy and public opinion for years. For example, laws were passed to prevent an administration from using its power to punish opposition political groups. Intelligence agencies were forced to provide Congress with more information about their activities. And rules were approved to restrict the activities of public officials. The American public, and especially the press, felt the effects of Watergate. Many citizens and reporters felt less able to believe their government. As one writer said, "Never again will we trust our public officials in quite the same way." (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. Five men broke into a center of the National Committee of the Democratic Party. The building was called the Watergate. That name would become a symbol of political crime in the nation's highest office. VOICE ONE: At the time, the incident did not seem important. Police caught the criminals. Later, however, more was learned. The men had carried papers that linked them to top officials in the administration. The question was: Did President Nixon know what was going on? He told reporters he was not involved. In time, though, the Watergate case would lead to a congressional investigation of the president. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: For a while, the political conventions of the summer of Nineteen-Seventy-Two pushed the story of the Watergate break-in out of the major news of the day. The Democratic Party met and chose George McGovern as its candidate for president. McGovern was a senator from the state of South Dakota. The choice of the Republican Party was no surprise. Delegates re-nominated Richard Nixon. McGovern attacked Nixon for his policies about Vietnam. McGovern's anger made many voters see him as an extremist. Nixon won the election of Nineteen-Seventy-Two by a huge popular vote. He would not be able to complete his second term, however. This was because Watergate would not go away. VOICE ONE: Early in Nineteen-Seventy-Three, reporters found the evidence that linked the Watergate break-in to officials in the White House. The evidence also showed that the officials tried to use government agencies to hide the connection. Pressure grew for a complete investigation. In April, President Nixon ordered the Justice Department to do this. A special prosecutor was named to lead the government's investigation. VOICE TWO: A special Senate committee began its own investigation in May. A former White House lawyer provided the major evidence. By July, it was learned that President Nixon had secretly made tape recordings of some of his discussions and telephone calls. The Senate committee asked him for some of the tapes. Nixon refused. He said the president of the United States has a Constitutional right to keep such records private. VOICE ONE: A federal judge ordered the president to surrender the tapes. Lawyers for the president took the case to the nation's highest court. The Supreme Court supported the decision of the lower court. After that, pressure increased for Nixon to cooperate. In October, he offered to provide written versions of the most important parts of the tape recordings. The special prosecutor rejected the offer. So, Nixon ordered the head of the Justice Department to dismiss him. The Attorney General refused to do this, and resigned. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: President Nixon had another political problem, in addition to Watergate. In late Nineteen-Seventy-Three, his vice president, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign. A court had found Agnew guilty of violating tax laws. President Nixon asked Gerald Ford to become the new vice president. Ford was a long-time member of Congress from the state of Michigan. VOICE ONE: By that time, some members of Congress were talking about removing President Nixon from office. This is possible under American law if Congress finds that a president has done something criminal. Was Richard Nixon covering up important evidence in the case? Was he, in fact, guilty of wrongdoing? VOICE TWO: In April, Nineteen-Seventy-Four, Nixon surrendered some of his White House tape recordings. However, three important discussions on the tapes were missing. The Nixon administration explained. The tape machine had failed to record two of the discussions, it said. The third discussion had been destroyed accidentally. Many Americans did not believe these explanations. Two months later, the Supreme Court ruled that a president cannot hold back evidence in a criminal case. It said there is no presidential right of privacy in such a case. VOICE ONE: A committee of the House of Representatives also reached an historic decision in July, Nineteen-Seventy-Four. It proposed that the full House put the president on trial. If Richard Nixon were found guilty of crimes involved in the Watergate case, he would be removed from office. Finally, Nixon surrendered the last of the documents. They appeared to provide proof that the president had ordered evidence in the Watergate case to be covered up. VOICE TWO: The rights of citizens, as stated in the Constitution, are the basis of American democracy. Every president promises to protect and defend these Constitutional rights. During the congressional investigation of Watergate, lawmakers said that President Nixon had violated these rights. They said he planned to delay and block the investigation of the Watergate break-in and other unlawful activities. They said he repeatedly mis-used government agencies in an effort to hide wrong-doing and to punish his critics. And they said he refused repeated orders to surrender papers and other materials as part of the investigation. VOICE ONE: Richard Nixon's long struggle to remain in office was over. He spoke to the nation on August Eighth. NIXON: "Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort. Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow." VOICE TWO: Never before had a president of the United States resigned. And never before did the United States have a president who had not been elected. Gerald Ford had been appointed to the office of vice president. Now, he would replace Richard Nixon. On August Ninth, Nineteen-Seventy-Four, he was sworn-in as the nation's thirty-eighth president. VOICE ONE: Soon after becoming president, Gerald Ford made a surprise announcement. He pardoned Richard Nixon. Many Americans criticized Ford for doing this. But he believed he had good reasons. Ford wanted to move ahead and deal with the other problems that faced the nation. He did not want Watergate to go on and on. The case did go on, however. Several top officials in the Nixon administration were tried, found guilty, and sent to prison. VOICE TWO: The effects of the case went on, too. Watergate influenced government policy and public opinion for years. For example, laws were passed to prevent an administration from using its power to punish opposition political groups. Intelligence agencies were forced to provide Congress with more information about their activities. And rules were approved to restrict the activities of public officials. The American public, and especially the press, felt the effects of Watergate. Many citizens and reporters felt less able to believe their government. As one writer said, "Never again will we trust our public officials in quite the same way." (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - November 14, 2002: Foreign Student Series #9 >TOEFL
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our reports about how foreign students can attend an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web site, w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. TOEFL (TOE-full) is an important test for foreign students who want to study in the United States. TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. More than four-thousand American universities and other educational centers require students seeking admission to take the test. It measures a student’s ability to understand, read and write English. The Educational Testing Service now produces two kinds of TOEFL tests. In most areas of the world, people take the test on a computer in special testing centers. TOEFL also offers a version of the test taken with paper and pencil. Both TOEFL tests require listening, reading and writing in English. Some questions list a few possible answers. You must choose the correct one. The test also contains new kinds of questions. For example, you may be asked to respond to questions with more than one answer. Or you may be asked to connect a question with the correct answer from a list of possibilities. A writing test measures your ability to write in English. All together, the TOEFL takes between three-and-one-half and four hours to finish. You can take the TOEFL as many times as you wish. You must pay each time. Experts say it is a good idea to take it one or two times to experience it. They also say the best way to prepare for the TOEFL is to use English as much as you can. For example, listen to English radio broadcasts. You already are doing this by listening to our Special English programs. Listen to V-O-A’s normal English broadcasts, too. Tape one of these broadcasts. Then tell what the broadcast was about. You can also watch American movies. Read American publications. Speak English as much as you can. You can learn more about the TOEFL test on the Internet’s World Wide Web. The address is w-w-w dot t-o-e-f-l dot o-r-g. Or you can write for more information. The address is TOEFL Services, Educational Testing Services, Post Office Box six-one-five-one, Princeton, New Jersey, zero-eight-five-four-one, U-S-A. This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-13-3-1.cfm
* Headline: November 14, 2002 - Lida Baker: Listener Questions
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 14, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: November 17, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, English teacher Lida Baker answers some of your questions. RS: Starting with this from "Sunny," He Hong Feng, who asks: "May I say I am an English teacher or should I say I am a teacher of English, as I am a Chinese." BAKER: "If he says that he is an ENGLISH teacher, with the stress on the word English, it means that he is a teacher of the English language. So he is an ENGLISH teacher. Now, on the other hand, if you say 'I am an ENGLISH TEACHER,' notice that both of the words there are stressed equally, an ENGLISH TEACHER. That means that you are a teacher whose nationality is English. Now I just want to throw out a parallel case, quite a well-known one, which is: Where does the president of the United States live?" AA: "The White House." BAKER: "The White House. And you stressed the first word, WHITE House. Now, one the other hand, if you stressed both words equally and you say WHITE HOUSE, how would you use that?" AA: "I live in the white house." RS: "As opposed to the blue house or the green house." BAKER: "Correct." AA: "Moving on, Rick Ming is a junior majoring in English in China, and he would like to know how to get his classmates more interested in current affairs. He says: 'Unfortunately, not all my classmates care about current affairs. So the point is, how I am able to motivate them to express the views on news freely in class?'" BAKER: "People are interested in something or they're not. Most people are interested in things that are of some kind of relevance to their lives. So I would say if you want to discuss current events with your classmates, try to select topics or issues that affect their lives in one way or another. "But I suspect that a larger problem is, it's not that they're not interested in current events, but rather it may be that his classmates just feel that they don't have enough English to be able to do this competently. So some ideas that come to my mind are, instead of talking about, for example, Voice of America news headlines, to select the feature stories, which have the scripts, posted on the Internet. And before having the discussion with his classmates, each person could read the scripts and that would give them the opportunity to spend some time learning the vocabulary and thinking about the background of the topic involved. So that's one thought that I had. "Another one that I had was to give some thought to the linguistic skills that are necessary in order to sustain a conversation or a discussion in English. If you're talking about current events with somebody, you would need to know how to express an opinion. You would need to know how to agree with somebody or to disagree with somebody. You would need to know how to ask questions. You would need to know how to ask somebody to repeat what they have just said, or to explain what they have just said. "Now all of those how-to's that I've just mentioned are called language functions. And it might be useful for this student to approach his English teacher and ask the teacher to help him and his classmates learn some of these functions." RS: "It might also be a good idea for him to start a separate study group." BAKER: "I thought of that." RS: "A group that perhaps looks at an English language newspaper or looks at the VOA Web site, or -- " BAKER: "Or a club." RS: "Or a club, exactly, where interested people come together for this particular purpose." BAKER: "Sure. One other idea that I had is to make use of the Internet. There is a Web site, for example, called Dave's ESL Cafe. And there are all kinds of discussion forums. But if you went to a search engine and you typed in something like 'ESL discussion groups' I suspect you would find others as well. So I think it's very worthwhile to make use of the Internet, you know, via an online discussion group." RS: "And make new friends." BAKER: "That's right." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles -- that is, when she's not writing books for English learners. Lida can't answer questions personally, but send them to Rosanne and me. RS: Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 14, 2002 Rebroadcast on VOA News Now: November 17, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster, English teacher Lida Baker answers some of your questions. RS: Starting with this from "Sunny," He Hong Feng, who asks: "May I say I am an English teacher or should I say I am a teacher of English, as I am a Chinese." BAKER: "If he says that he is an ENGLISH teacher, with the stress on the word English, it means that he is a teacher of the English language. So he is an ENGLISH teacher. Now, on the other hand, if you say 'I am an ENGLISH TEACHER,' notice that both of the words there are stressed equally, an ENGLISH TEACHER. That means that you are a teacher whose nationality is English. Now I just want to throw out a parallel case, quite a well-known one, which is: Where does the president of the United States live?" AA: "The White House." BAKER: "The White House. And you stressed the first word, WHITE House. Now, one the other hand, if you stressed both words equally and you say WHITE HOUSE, how would you use that?" AA: "I live in the white house." RS: "As opposed to the blue house or the green house." BAKER: "Correct." AA: "Moving on, Rick Ming is a junior majoring in English in China, and he would like to know how to get his classmates more interested in current affairs. He says: 'Unfortunately, not all my classmates care about current affairs. So the point is, how I am able to motivate them to express the views on news freely in class?'" BAKER: "People are interested in something or they're not. Most people are interested in things that are of some kind of relevance to their lives. So I would say if you want to discuss current events with your classmates, try to select topics or issues that affect their lives in one way or another. "But I suspect that a larger problem is, it's not that they're not interested in current events, but rather it may be that his classmates just feel that they don't have enough English to be able to do this competently. So some ideas that come to my mind are, instead of talking about, for example, Voice of America news headlines, to select the feature stories, which have the scripts, posted on the Internet. And before having the discussion with his classmates, each person could read the scripts and that would give them the opportunity to spend some time learning the vocabulary and thinking about the background of the topic involved. So that's one thought that I had. "Another one that I had was to give some thought to the linguistic skills that are necessary in order to sustain a conversation or a discussion in English. If you're talking about current events with somebody, you would need to know how to express an opinion. You would need to know how to agree with somebody or to disagree with somebody. You would need to know how to ask questions. You would need to know how to ask somebody to repeat what they have just said, or to explain what they have just said. "Now all of those how-to's that I've just mentioned are called language functions. And it might be useful for this student to approach his English teacher and ask the teacher to help him and his classmates learn some of these functions." RS: "It might also be a good idea for him to start a separate study group." BAKER: "I thought of that." RS: "A group that perhaps looks at an English language newspaper or looks at the VOA Web site, or -- " BAKER: "Or a club." RS: "Or a club, exactly, where interested people come together for this particular purpose." BAKER: "Sure. One other idea that I had is to make use of the Internet. There is a Web site, for example, called Dave's ESL Cafe. And there are all kinds of discussion forums. But if you went to a search engine and you typed in something like 'ESL discussion groups' I suspect you would find others as well. So I think it's very worthwhile to make use of the Internet, you know, via an online discussion group." RS: "And make new friends." BAKER: "That's right." AA: Lida Baker teaches in the American Language Center at the University of California at Los Angeles -- that is, when she's not writing books for English learners. Lida can't answer questions personally, but send them to Rosanne and me. RS: Write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington, DC 20237 USA or word@voanews.com. And our Web site is voanews.com/wordmaster. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 15, 2002: Rap Loses a Popular Artist / Question About the John Kennedy Assassination / 20th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Broadcast: HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We tell about a rap musician who was killed recently ... Answer a listener’s question about the assassination of President John Kennedy ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We tell about a rap musician who was killed recently ... Answer a listener’s question about the assassination of President John Kennedy ... And report about the anniversary of an American memorial. Vietnam Memorial Anniversary HOST: On Monday, November eleventh, a ceremony was held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D-C. It observed the twentieth anniversary of what has become known as “The Wall.” The memorial recognizes and honors the American men and women who served in the Republic of Vietnam. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is not like most memorials that honor soldiers. It has no swords, no horses, no statues of famous generals. It is a very simple design. It is two black stone walls that are built into the ground. The two walls form a letter “V” with the arms of the letter spread wide. The gold names of fifty-eight-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine soldiers are cut into the black stone. These are the names of the soldiers who died or who are still missing as a result of their service in Vietnam. From left, Joseph 'Run' Simmons, Darryl 'DMC' McDaniels, Jason 'Jam Master Jay' Mizell. And report about the anniversary of an American memorial. Vietnam Memorial Anniversary HOST: On Monday, November eleventh, a ceremony was held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D-C. It observed the twentieth anniversary of what has become known as “The Wall.” The memorial recognizes and honors the American men and women who served in the Republic of Vietnam. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is not like most memorials that honor soldiers. It has no swords, no horses, no statues of famous generals. It is a very simple design. It is two black stone walls that are built into the ground. The two walls form a letter “V” with the arms of the letter spread wide. The gold names of fifty-eight-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine soldiers are cut into the black stone. These are the names of the soldiers who died or who are still missing as a result of their service in Vietnam. The Wall has the power to create strong feelings. The shiny black stone acts like a mirror. This mirror effect seems to draw in visitors so that they too are part of the Wall. This is especially emotional for those visitors who served in Vietnam and for the family members of those killed there. A former soldier named Jan Scruggs thought of the idea for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He formed an organization to raise the money to build the project. A competition was held to choose the design of the memorial. The judges considered more than one-thousand designs. They chose the design of a twenty-one-year-old Yale University student named Maya Ying Lin. Mizz Lin’s family members had come to the United States from China. Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial caused great debate. Many people criticized her design. They said it was too simple and did not show the heroic efforts of the soldiers. Some said the competition should be held over. But it was not. Today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin is the most visited memorial in the nation’s capital. The National Park Service is responsible for it. Officials say almost four-million people visit the Wall each year. Mister Scruggs says the Wall makes people feel the price of war. It makes them understand that the price has to be paid in human lives. The message of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial can be understood by all --veterans, families of veterans, international visitors, young people and those who will visit the memorial for many, many years to come. Kennedy Murder HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Babak Roshani asks about the murder of America’s thirty-fifth President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. That is a good question to answer one week before the thirty-ninth anniversary of the assassination. President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas on November twenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three. The news of the killing shocked millions of Americans. Almost all older Americans remember what they were doing when they heard the news. John F. Kennedy was elected president in nineteen-sixty. He was the youngest man ever elected president. He went to Texas in an effort to end a split in the state’s Democratic Party. Large, friendly crowds greeted the President’s open car as it drove through the streets of Dallas. Mister Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline, was sitting next to him. Suddenly, there were gunshots. President Kennedy was wounded in the neck and head. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he soon died. Television and radio reported the news of the shooting to a shocked world. Vice President Lyndon Johnson met Missus Kennedy at the airport. Mister Johnson was sworn in as President on the presidential airplane. Several people who saw the shooting said the shots that killed Mister Kennedy came from a building where schoolbooks were stored. Police raced to the Dallas Schoolbook Depository, but could not find the killer. Then they began searching for an employee of the building who had left the area a few minutes after the shooting. Police arrested the employee, Lee Harvey Oswald, a short time later. Oswald is said to have shot and killed a policeman while resisting arrest. He was charged with the murders of President Kennedy and the policeman. Police questioned Oswald for two days, but he denied the charges. The murder weapon was found hidden in the building where Oswald worked. He owned the gun and his handprints were found on the weapon. Two days later, police decided to move Oswald from the Dallas city jail to another jail. As he was being moved, a man named Jack Ruby shot and killed the suspect. Ruby died in prison three years later. President Johnson appointed a special committee to investigate the murder of President Kennedy. The committee’s final report found that Oswald had acted alone. However, many people did not agree with that finding. Many still do not. Jam Master Jay HOST: Rap music lost a popular artist last month. Jam Master Jay of the rap group Run-D-M-C was shot and killed at a recording studio in New York City. Mary Tillotson tells about the man and his music. ANNCR: Jam Master Jay’s real name was Jason Mizell. He served as D-J in the rap group Run-D-M-C. The D-J uses records in a special way to provide different sounds for the rappers. He finds drumbeats and other sounds he wants to use on a record. Then he uses his hands to move the record back and forth at different speeds under the needle of the record player. This creates different noises. The process is called scratching. Listen to Jam Master Jay scratch on the Run-D-M-C song, “Down with the King.” (MUSIC) Run-D-M-C formed in nineteen-eighty-two. Jam Master Jay helped the group become one of the most important hip-hop groups ever. Its music was popular with many different kinds of people. Run-D-M-C also mixed rap and rock music for the first time. Here is Run-D-M-C and the rock group Aerosmith performing the Aerosmith song “Walk This Way.” (CUT TWO-Walk This Way) Jam Master Jay was opposed to messages of violence in rap music. He said such violence represented everything rap was against. Jam Master Jay was thirty-seven years old when he died. The two surviving members of Run-D-M-C said they will no longer perform in honor of their former D-J. We leave you now with the Run-D-M-C song, “Jam Master Jay.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. The Wall has the power to create strong feelings. The shiny black stone acts like a mirror. This mirror effect seems to draw in visitors so that they too are part of the Wall. This is especially emotional for those visitors who served in Vietnam and for the family members of those killed there. A former soldier named Jan Scruggs thought of the idea for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He formed an organization to raise the money to build the project. A competition was held to choose the design of the memorial. The judges considered more than one-thousand designs. They chose the design of a twenty-one-year-old Yale University student named Maya Ying Lin. Mizz Lin’s family members had come to the United States from China. Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial caused great debate. Many people criticized her design. They said it was too simple and did not show the heroic efforts of the soldiers. Some said the competition should be held over. But it was not. Today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin is the most visited memorial in the nation’s capital. The National Park Service is responsible for it. Officials say almost four-million people visit the Wall each year. Mister Scruggs says the Wall makes people feel the price of war. It makes them understand that the price has to be paid in human lives. The message of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial can be understood by all --veterans, families of veterans, international visitors, young people and those who will visit the memorial for many, many years to come. Kennedy Murder HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Babak Roshani asks about the murder of America’s thirty-fifth President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. That is a good question to answer one week before the thirty-ninth anniversary of the assassination. President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas on November twenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three. The news of the killing shocked millions of Americans. Almost all older Americans remember what they were doing when they heard the news. John F. Kennedy was elected president in nineteen-sixty. He was the youngest man ever elected president. He went to Texas in an effort to end a split in the state’s Democratic Party. Large, friendly crowds greeted the President’s open car as it drove through the streets of Dallas. Mister Kennedy’s wife, Jacqueline, was sitting next to him. Suddenly, there were gunshots. President Kennedy was wounded in the neck and head. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he soon died. Television and radio reported the news of the shooting to a shocked world. Vice President Lyndon Johnson met Missus Kennedy at the airport. Mister Johnson was sworn in as President on the presidential airplane. Several people who saw the shooting said the shots that killed Mister Kennedy came from a building where schoolbooks were stored. Police raced to the Dallas Schoolbook Depository, but could not find the killer. Then they began searching for an employee of the building who had left the area a few minutes after the shooting. Police arrested the employee, Lee Harvey Oswald, a short time later. Oswald is said to have shot and killed a policeman while resisting arrest. He was charged with the murders of President Kennedy and the policeman. Police questioned Oswald for two days, but he denied the charges. The murder weapon was found hidden in the building where Oswald worked. He owned the gun and his handprints were found on the weapon. Two days later, police decided to move Oswald from the Dallas city jail to another jail. As he was being moved, a man named Jack Ruby shot and killed the suspect. Ruby died in prison three years later. President Johnson appointed a special committee to investigate the murder of President Kennedy. The committee’s final report found that Oswald had acted alone. However, many people did not agree with that finding. Many still do not. Jam Master Jay HOST: Rap music lost a popular artist last month. Jam Master Jay of the rap group Run-D-M-C was shot and killed at a recording studio in New York City. Mary Tillotson tells about the man and his music. ANNCR: Jam Master Jay’s real name was Jason Mizell. He served as D-J in the rap group Run-D-M-C. The D-J uses records in a special way to provide different sounds for the rappers. He finds drumbeats and other sounds he wants to use on a record. Then he uses his hands to move the record back and forth at different speeds under the needle of the record player. This creates different noises. The process is called scratching. Listen to Jam Master Jay scratch on the Run-D-M-C song, “Down with the King.” (MUSIC) Run-D-M-C formed in nineteen-eighty-two. Jam Master Jay helped the group become one of the most important hip-hop groups ever. Its music was popular with many different kinds of people. Run-D-M-C also mixed rap and rock music for the first time. Here is Run-D-M-C and the rock group Aerosmith performing the Aerosmith song “Walk This Way.” (CUT TWO-Walk This Way) Jam Master Jay was opposed to messages of violence in rap music. He said such violence represented everything rap was against. Jam Master Jay was thirty-seven years old when he died. The two surviving members of Run-D-M-C said they will no longer perform in honor of their former D-J. We leave you now with the Run-D-M-C song, “Jam Master Jay.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 15, 2002: Snow Melting on Mount Kilimanjaro
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new study says ancient snow on top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania could be gone in about twenty years. Huge layers of ice formed on the African mountain during a wet period about eleven-thousand years ago. But scientists say the ice on top of the mountain is melting because of rising temperatures in recent years. Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio led the study. It was published in Science magazine. The scientists used maps, modern navigational satellites and markers placed on the mountain to measure the ice. They found that the ice on Mount Kilimanjaro has shrunk from about twelve square kilometers in nineteen-twelve to about two square kilometers today. That is about an eighty percent reduction in the ice. Scientists say the ice will be gone by two-thousand-twenty if it continues to melt at its current rate. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. It is almost five-thousand-nine-hundred meters high. The top part of the mountain is covered with snow. The mountain rises above flat land, called the savannah. The land is home to many different kinds of animals. Many stories have been written about the famous mountain. The most famous is Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Some ancient beliefs in Africa consider the mountain to be a holy place. About twenty-thousand people visit Mount Kilimanjaro every year to see the famous snow-topped mountain. It even has its own international airport. The government of Tanzania fears that the melting ice will affect tourism and weaken the economy. The decreasing ice already has reduced the amount of water flowing from the mountain to some Tanzanian rivers. Water from the mountain supplies many villages. The scientists are working to save pieces of the shrinking ice for more study. The frozen layers tell about Africa’s weather in ancient times. The ice also provides information about the world’s climate. Experts say other ice glaciers around the world are melting because of climate change caused by human activities. But they say natural climate change could be the cause of Mount Kilimanjaro’s problems. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new study says ancient snow on top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania could be gone in about twenty years. Huge layers of ice formed on the African mountain during a wet period about eleven-thousand years ago. But scientists say the ice on top of the mountain is melting because of rising temperatures in recent years. Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio led the study. It was published in Science magazine. The scientists used maps, modern navigational satellites and markers placed on the mountain to measure the ice. They found that the ice on Mount Kilimanjaro has shrunk from about twelve square kilometers in nineteen-twelve to about two square kilometers today. That is about an eighty percent reduction in the ice. Scientists say the ice will be gone by two-thousand-twenty if it continues to melt at its current rate. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa. It is almost five-thousand-nine-hundred meters high. The top part of the mountain is covered with snow. The mountain rises above flat land, called the savannah. The land is home to many different kinds of animals. Many stories have been written about the famous mountain. The most famous is Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” Some ancient beliefs in Africa consider the mountain to be a holy place. About twenty-thousand people visit Mount Kilimanjaro every year to see the famous snow-topped mountain. It even has its own international airport. The government of Tanzania fears that the melting ice will affect tourism and weaken the economy. The decreasing ice already has reduced the amount of water flowing from the mountain to some Tanzanian rivers. Water from the mountain supplies many villages. The scientists are working to save pieces of the shrinking ice for more study. The frozen layers tell about Africa’s weather in ancient times. The ice also provides information about the world’s climate. Experts say other ice glaciers around the world are melting because of climate change caused by human activities. But they say natural climate change could be the cause of Mount Kilimanjaro’s problems. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 17, 2002: Walt Whitman, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about the well-known American poet, Walt Whitman. (Theme) VOICE 1: Walt Whitman was born in eighteen-nineteen when the United States was about thirty years old. During his long lifetime, he watched his country grow from an undeveloped, new nation to the great industrial power it became. Whitman did not celebrate this growth although other writers did. Instead, he wrote about the people and the spirit that produced American democracy. Whitman celebrated the common American. The person whose hands cut the trees and built the factories of industrial America. VOICE 2: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself," he wrote, "And what I assume you shall assume. "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. "I loaf and invite my soul, "I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass." VOICE 1: Whitman celebrated all men and women, the working people, but also criminals, the weak, and the hated. To Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was a law of nature. It was the natural form of government sought by healthy, happy, free human beings. Democracy, Whitman believed, honors the rights of every person and the equality of all people. VOICE 2: "I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul, "I am the poet of the woman the same as the man. " VOICE 1: As a boy, Whitman could visit the port in Brooklyn, New York. Across the Hudson River was New York City. He could watch the ships and the men who sailed the oceans of the world. The life of the growing port city never failed to interest him. All this became the subject of the poems he wrote later. Yet no one understands how Whitman developed into a poet. He left school at eleven and worked in the office of a group of lawyers. Then he worked for a doctor. By the age of twelve, Whitman was working in the printing office of a newspaper and doing some writing. When Whitman was fifteen, his family moved farther from New York. Whitman stayed. He often took the boat from Brooklyn, where he lived, to New York City. By the age of sixteen, he was working as a printer in New York. One year later he rejoined his family and became a teacher. He made his father angry by refusing to do farm work. And the fathers and mothers of the children he taught thought him unwilling to work hard enough. By eighteen-forty, when he was twenty-one, he had started a series of newspaper reports called "sun-down papers from the desk of a schoolmaster. " He went back to New York City and began to work for a series of newspapers. Dismissed from one newspaper, he would find work with another. In one job, he was required to read the best-known writers of the time and to write about their books. He even wrote a bad novel himself about the evils of drinking. He was thirty-six and had never known much success. Then he paid to have his first book of poetry published. It was called "Leaves of Grass." It was a thin book that contained twelve poems, written in free verse. Free verse means that the lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short, some long. Also, the words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme. The first poem in "Leaves of Grass" was a long one. When the book was first published that poem had no name. Whitman later called it "Song of Myself." Throughout the poem, Whitman writes about how grass covers the world and feeds us. He writes about grass as a sign of everlasting life. Grass links all living things in body and spirit, he says. We Make our bread from grass. And, we become grass when we die. VOICE 2: "A child said, what is the grass. Fetching it to me with full hands; "How could I answer the child. I do not know what it is any more than he. "I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. "Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, "A scented gift and rememberancer designedly dropped, "Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say whose. ... "And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. "Tenderly will I use you curling grass. "It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men ... "It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps ... "What do you think has become of the young and old men. "And what do you think has become of the women and children. "They are alive and well somewhere, the smallest sprout shows there is really no death, and if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it ... "All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, and to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier." VOICE 1: Whitman sent out copies of his book to other writers. He hoped for their praise and support. Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of best-known American thinkers and writers, immediately recognized the importance of the book. He wrote to Whitman, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I have great joy in it. " Most other poets and writers, however, remained silent about "Leaves of Grass." Some were shocked by Whitman's praise of the human body and sexual love. One newspaper critic wrote that the book was a "mass of stupid filth." Some people disliked Whitman's thoughts about society. He rejected the search for money and power. He denounced those who believed they were better than others in the eyes of God. He speaks these ideas in "Song of Myself." VOICE 2: "I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long. "They do not sweat and whine about their condition, "They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, "They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, "Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, "Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, "Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth." VOICE 1: Whitman's ideas of religion and god were unusual. So were his ideas about beauty and the worth of the human body. Some of these ideas were from nineteenth century spiritual thinkers. But no one had ever declared them so clearly. Some critics consider this part of "Song of Myself" one of Whitman's most beautiful pieces of writing: VOICE 2: "I have said that the soul is not more than the body. "And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, "And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is. ... "And I say to any man or woman, let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. "And I say to mankind, be not curious about God, "For I who am curious about each am not curious about God, "(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.) "I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, "Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. "Why should I wish to see God better than this day. "I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, "In the face of men and women I see God, and my own face in the glass. "I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, "And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoever I go, "Others will punctually come for ever and ever." VOICE 1: Leaves of grass was a living, growing work. Whitman re-published it every few years for the rest of his life. Each time, he added new poems. And he changed many lines of the old ones. The last version of the book contained more than four-hundred poems. By then Whitman's fame had spread around the world. Next week we will tell more about Walt Whitman's life and poetry. (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program, People in America, was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Rich Kleinfeldt read the poems. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about the well-known American poet, Walt Whitman. (Theme) VOICE 1: Walt Whitman was born in eighteen-nineteen when the United States was about thirty years old. During his long lifetime, he watched his country grow from an undeveloped, new nation to the great industrial power it became. Whitman did not celebrate this growth although other writers did. Instead, he wrote about the people and the spirit that produced American democracy. Whitman celebrated the common American. The person whose hands cut the trees and built the factories of industrial America. VOICE 2: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself," he wrote, "And what I assume you shall assume. "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. "I loaf and invite my soul, "I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass." VOICE 1: Whitman celebrated all men and women, the working people, but also criminals, the weak, and the hated. To Whitman, democracy was more than a political system or idea. It was a law of nature. It was the natural form of government sought by healthy, happy, free human beings. Democracy, Whitman believed, honors the rights of every person and the equality of all people. VOICE 2: "I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul, "I am the poet of the woman the same as the man. " VOICE 1: As a boy, Whitman could visit the port in Brooklyn, New York. Across the Hudson River was New York City. He could watch the ships and the men who sailed the oceans of the world. The life of the growing port city never failed to interest him. All this became the subject of the poems he wrote later. Yet no one understands how Whitman developed into a poet. He left school at eleven and worked in the office of a group of lawyers. Then he worked for a doctor. By the age of twelve, Whitman was working in the printing office of a newspaper and doing some writing. When Whitman was fifteen, his family moved farther from New York. Whitman stayed. He often took the boat from Brooklyn, where he lived, to New York City. By the age of sixteen, he was working as a printer in New York. One year later he rejoined his family and became a teacher. He made his father angry by refusing to do farm work. And the fathers and mothers of the children he taught thought him unwilling to work hard enough. By eighteen-forty, when he was twenty-one, he had started a series of newspaper reports called "sun-down papers from the desk of a schoolmaster. " He went back to New York City and began to work for a series of newspapers. Dismissed from one newspaper, he would find work with another. In one job, he was required to read the best-known writers of the time and to write about their books. He even wrote a bad novel himself about the evils of drinking. He was thirty-six and had never known much success. Then he paid to have his first book of poetry published. It was called "Leaves of Grass." It was a thin book that contained twelve poems, written in free verse. Free verse means that the lines do not follow any set form. Some lines are short, some long. Also, the words at the end of each line do not have a similar sound. They do not rhyme. The first poem in "Leaves of Grass" was a long one. When the book was first published that poem had no name. Whitman later called it "Song of Myself." Throughout the poem, Whitman writes about how grass covers the world and feeds us. He writes about grass as a sign of everlasting life. Grass links all living things in body and spirit, he says. We Make our bread from grass. And, we become grass when we die. VOICE 2: "A child said, what is the grass. Fetching it to me with full hands; "How could I answer the child. I do not know what it is any more than he. "I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven. "Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord, "A scented gift and rememberancer designedly dropped, "Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say whose. ... "And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves. "Tenderly will I use you curling grass. "It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men ... "It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps ... "What do you think has become of the young and old men. "And what do you think has become of the women and children. "They are alive and well somewhere, the smallest sprout shows there is really no death, and if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it ... "All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, and to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier." VOICE 1: Whitman sent out copies of his book to other writers. He hoped for their praise and support. Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of best-known American thinkers and writers, immediately recognized the importance of the book. He wrote to Whitman, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I have great joy in it. " Most other poets and writers, however, remained silent about "Leaves of Grass." Some were shocked by Whitman's praise of the human body and sexual love. One newspaper critic wrote that the book was a "mass of stupid filth." Some people disliked Whitman's thoughts about society. He rejected the search for money and power. He denounced those who believed they were better than others in the eyes of God. He speaks these ideas in "Song of Myself." VOICE 2: "I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long. "They do not sweat and whine about their condition, "They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, "They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, "Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, "Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, "Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth." VOICE 1: Whitman's ideas of religion and god were unusual. So were his ideas about beauty and the worth of the human body. Some of these ideas were from nineteenth century spiritual thinkers. But no one had ever declared them so clearly. Some critics consider this part of "Song of Myself" one of Whitman's most beautiful pieces of writing: VOICE 2: "I have said that the soul is not more than the body. "And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, "And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's self is. ... "And I say to any man or woman, let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. "And I say to mankind, be not curious about God, "For I who am curious about each am not curious about God, "(No array of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death.) "I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, "Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. "Why should I wish to see God better than this day. "I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, "In the face of men and women I see God, and my own face in the glass. "I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, "And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoever I go, "Others will punctually come for ever and ever." VOICE 1: Leaves of grass was a living, growing work. Whitman re-published it every few years for the rest of his life. Each time, he added new poems. And he changed many lines of the old ones. The last version of the book contained more than four-hundred poems. By then Whitman's fame had spread around the world. Next week we will tell more about Walt Whitman's life and poetry. (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program, People in America, was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Rich Kleinfeldt read the poems. I'm Shirley Griffith. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 18, 2002: UN Honors Six Anti-Poverty Activists
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Development Program recently observed the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The goal was to improve living conditions for the more than one-thousand-million poor people around the world who live on less than one dollar a day. More than fifty nations held special events. For example, sports events were held in Togo. In Vietnam, there was a group discussion about poverty and violence in the home. The U-N Development Program also honored six individuals who have worked throughout their lives to fight poverty in their communities. One of those honored was Edi Rama, the mayor of Tirana, Albania. He helped launch an environmental program to clean up the Lana River. The program is called Clean and Green. It has also helped reduce the number of unemployed people in the Albanian capital. Maqsood Sinha (Maq-SHOOD SIN-ha) and Iftekhar Enayetullah (IF-Te-Car Eh-NIGH-a-to-la) were also honored. These two men have formed a non-governmental organization in Bangladesh called Waste Concern. It helps communities turn organic waste into fertilizer using a simple technology. Grace Dotou (Gras DOO-too) was honored for her work in Benin. She has trained unemployed girls and women to collect used plastic bags and make useful products from them. The fifth person honored by the U-N Development Program is from Chile. Pablo Sandor started an organization that helps communities develop businesses while still protecting the land. He also has established an environmental high school and a research center. The sixth person honored was Aref Kodeih (AR-ef Ko-DAY). He has launched several environmental programs in Lebanon that have helped more than four-hundred-thousand people. The U-N Development Program also gave a special award to the head of MAC cosmetics company. John Demsey was honored for his work in the fight against the disease AIDS. He has given all the profits from one of his company’s products to a special AIDS program. The U-N Development Program hopes to end poverty around the world by two-thousand-fifteen. However, U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan says this could be especially difficult in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The number of people living in poverty in those areas has increased over the past three years. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 18, 2002: National Visionary Leadership Project
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: An organization in Washington, D-C, is teaching young people about black history in an interesting way. The National Visionary Leadership Project tells history in the words of those who lived it. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: An organization in Washington, D-C, is teaching young people about black history in an interesting way. The National Visionary Leadership Project tells history in the words of those who lived it. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The National Visionary Leadership Project is our report today on the VOA Special English program, This is America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The National Visionary Leadership Project is our report today on the VOA Special English program, This is America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The National Visionary Leadership Project tells about the lives and celebrates the success of older influential African Americans. They share their life stories on video recordings that help bring history to life. Organizers say the project offers much more than can be learned from simply a voice recording or words in a book. In oral histories, people tell about their lives. These are one of the oldest forms used to document events and provide an important link to our knowledge of the past. VOICE TWO: The National Visionary Leadership Project includes the voices of famous people, such as poet Maya Angelou. It also includes other influential but less known community leaders. Many of these African Americans have never told their stories. The project calls these important people “visionaries.” Their voices will serve as a cultural record for young African Americans. Some of these people are known in the United States and around the world. Others are known mainly in their local communities. All the visionaries are seventy years old or older. They are from business, the arts, law, politics, and education. Camille Cosby started the National Visionary Leadership Project. She is an educator and wife of television comedian Bill Cosby. She says it is important for people to tell these stories in their own words, instead of having other people tell them. She says this will protect the truth of their histories. VOICE ONE: Mizz Cosby says she became interested in living histories when she produced a play and a movie. They were based on a book about the lives of two African American sisters who were one-hundred years old. Mizz Cosby said she learned how valuable it is for older people to be honored in American culture. She says many young Americans do not communicate with older people. She says she loved to sit and talk with her grandparents when she was a child. Camille Cosby says now she is sitting down and talking with people who have influenced her life. Mizz Cosby provided the one-and-one-half-million dollar yearly budget for the project. Other organizations also support the project. They include the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture. The organizers hope to complete video recordings of sixty people every year for five years. The videotaped interviews are on the organization’s Internet Web site, w-w-w dot visionaryproject dot com. That is w-w-w dot v-i-s-i-o-n-a-r-y-p-r-o-j-e-c-t dot com. Mizz Cosby says although all of the visionaries are black, the histories they tell are meant to be heard by all people. She says their stories are part of American history. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The organizers of the project interviewed most of the visionaries. They also asked thirty students from historically black colleges to talk to interesting older people in their own communities. The organizers wanted the people to be honest and open about their lives. For example, politician Shirley Chisholm talks about her difficulties when she entered politics. She says her greatest opposition came from men. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “They gave me a hard time – because they said one thing about Shirley Chisholm: ‘She is too darn outspoken – and she is always raising questions – she never keeps quiet.’” VOICE ONE: Some of the visionaries told little-known facts about themselves. For example, political activist Andrew Young says he was a bad student. Yet he became a congressman, the American Ambassador to the United Nations and the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. ANDREW YOUNG: “I didn’t do well in school and I didn’t get along with teachers – I was always talking back and asking questions – challenging authority – all of those things that contributed to my leadership ability made me a bad student.” VOICE TWO: One of the most celebrated visionaries is Maya Angelou. Mizz Angelou is an internationally praised poet, writer and educator. She travels around the world speaking and reading her poetry. Her books about her life and poetry collections are widely read and continue to influence many people. She has received many awards for her work. Mizz Angelou tells why it is important for children to know their past. MAYA ANGELOU: “It is very clear …he, she, who does not learn from his or her history is doomed to repeat it; and repeat it and repeat it, ad nauseum…this is why this project -- why I said yes…absolutely yes, yes…I am a very good fountain of information. Humility says someone was here before me and I am here and I have something to do. I too have my responsibilities. And there will be someone coming behind me who I must prepare the way for.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Lee Archer is one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black fighter pilots who fought during World War Two in the United States Army Air Corps. Their success helped lead to the decision by President Harry Truman in nineteen-forty-eight to end racial separation in the military. The story of the Tuskegee Airmen began in nineteen-forty-one, when the United States Army was racially separated. Blacks were barred from the Army Air Corps and other special units. Pressure and legal action from civil rights groups forced the War Department to train blacks as officers and pilots in the Army Air Corps. VOICE TWO: Their training began after Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. She met flight trainer Charles “Chief” Anderson there. She asked him, “Can Negroes really fly airplanes?” He said, “Yes. Would you like to take an airplane ride?” Missus Roosevelt accepted. Her security officials ordered her not to go on the plane. But she went anyway. The security officials told the president, but he said there was nothing he could do to stop her. Tuskegee Airman Lee Archer says Missus Roosevelt’s flight changed history. LEE ARCHER: “She informed her husband that there is a possibility that you made a mistake – that African Americans can fly. And then he ordered the chief of the Army Air Corps and the chief of the Army to have a program in which they would select a group of young black men to see if they could learn to fly. And so she informed him that if you do this, you could garner the colored vote.” Many of the Tuskegee Airmen later became judges, politicians, religious leaders, educators and community leaders. They also began programs to help young people do well in school and get them interested in flying. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee have been actors, activists and husband-and-wife for more than fifty years. They have worked together on many projects for the stage, movies, television and radio. They have been praised for their work together and as individuals. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were close friends with many of America’s great leaders and thinkers, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. They also were leading activists during the civil rights period. Through it all, Ossie Davis says they never made work more important than family. OSSIE DAVIS AND RUBY DEE: “ ... We were smart enough always whenever possible to take the family with us wherever we went, so they would never have to wonder what mommy and daddy were doing out there…they went with us. I worked in Mexico, the whole family came; I did another film in Rome, the whole family came; Ruby went to Hollywood to do ‘Raisin in the Sun,’ the movie, whole family moved out.” Ruby Dee says she strongly supports efforts for children to hear the stories of older people. She says it is important that children learn how much they have experienced. VOICE TWO: Reporter Renee Poussaint is the executive director of the National Visionary Leadership Project. She says so much important information about African Americans is not included in American history. She says young people learn valuable lessons when they listen to the generations that came before them. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Jim Harmon. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. The National Visionary Leadership Project tells about the lives and celebrates the success of older influential African Americans. They share their life stories on video recordings that help bring history to life. Organizers say the project offers much more than can be learned from simply a voice recording or words in a book. In oral histories, people tell about their lives. These are one of the oldest forms used to document events and provide an important link to our knowledge of the past. VOICE TWO: The National Visionary Leadership Project includes the voices of famous people, such as poet Maya Angelou. It also includes other influential but less known community leaders. Many of these African Americans have never told their stories. The project calls these important people “visionaries.” Their voices will serve as a cultural record for young African Americans. Some of these people are known in the United States and around the world. Others are known mainly in their local communities. All the visionaries are seventy years old or older. They are from business, the arts, law, politics, and education. Camille Cosby started the National Visionary Leadership Project. She is an educator and wife of television comedian Bill Cosby. She says it is important for people to tell these stories in their own words, instead of having other people tell them. She says this will protect the truth of their histories. VOICE ONE: Mizz Cosby says she became interested in living histories when she produced a play and a movie. They were based on a book about the lives of two African American sisters who were one-hundred years old. Mizz Cosby said she learned how valuable it is for older people to be honored in American culture. She says many young Americans do not communicate with older people. She says she loved to sit and talk with her grandparents when she was a child. Camille Cosby says now she is sitting down and talking with people who have influenced her life. Mizz Cosby provided the one-and-one-half-million dollar yearly budget for the project. Other organizations also support the project. They include the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture. The organizers hope to complete video recordings of sixty people every year for five years. The videotaped interviews are on the organization’s Internet Web site, w-w-w dot visionaryproject dot com. That is w-w-w dot v-i-s-i-o-n-a-r-y-p-r-o-j-e-c-t dot com. Mizz Cosby says although all of the visionaries are black, the histories they tell are meant to be heard by all people. She says their stories are part of American history. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The organizers of the project interviewed most of the visionaries. They also asked thirty students from historically black colleges to talk to interesting older people in their own communities. The organizers wanted the people to be honest and open about their lives. For example, politician Shirley Chisholm talks about her difficulties when she entered politics. She says her greatest opposition came from men. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM: “They gave me a hard time – because they said one thing about Shirley Chisholm: ‘She is too darn outspoken – and she is always raising questions – she never keeps quiet.’” VOICE ONE: Some of the visionaries told little-known facts about themselves. For example, political activist Andrew Young says he was a bad student. Yet he became a congressman, the American Ambassador to the United Nations and the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. ANDREW YOUNG: “I didn’t do well in school and I didn’t get along with teachers – I was always talking back and asking questions – challenging authority – all of those things that contributed to my leadership ability made me a bad student.” VOICE TWO: One of the most celebrated visionaries is Maya Angelou. Mizz Angelou is an internationally praised poet, writer and educator. She travels around the world speaking and reading her poetry. Her books about her life and poetry collections are widely read and continue to influence many people. She has received many awards for her work. Mizz Angelou tells why it is important for children to know their past. MAYA ANGELOU: “It is very clear …he, she, who does not learn from his or her history is doomed to repeat it; and repeat it and repeat it, ad nauseum…this is why this project -- why I said yes…absolutely yes, yes…I am a very good fountain of information. Humility says someone was here before me and I am here and I have something to do. I too have my responsibilities. And there will be someone coming behind me who I must prepare the way for.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Lee Archer is one of the famous Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black fighter pilots who fought during World War Two in the United States Army Air Corps. Their success helped lead to the decision by President Harry Truman in nineteen-forty-eight to end racial separation in the military. The story of the Tuskegee Airmen began in nineteen-forty-one, when the United States Army was racially separated. Blacks were barred from the Army Air Corps and other special units. Pressure and legal action from civil rights groups forced the War Department to train blacks as officers and pilots in the Army Air Corps. VOICE TWO: Their training began after Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Alabama. Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt. She met flight trainer Charles “Chief” Anderson there. She asked him, “Can Negroes really fly airplanes?” He said, “Yes. Would you like to take an airplane ride?” Missus Roosevelt accepted. Her security officials ordered her not to go on the plane. But she went anyway. The security officials told the president, but he said there was nothing he could do to stop her. Tuskegee Airman Lee Archer says Missus Roosevelt’s flight changed history. LEE ARCHER: “She informed her husband that there is a possibility that you made a mistake – that African Americans can fly. And then he ordered the chief of the Army Air Corps and the chief of the Army to have a program in which they would select a group of young black men to see if they could learn to fly. And so she informed him that if you do this, you could garner the colored vote.” Many of the Tuskegee Airmen later became judges, politicians, religious leaders, educators and community leaders. They also began programs to help young people do well in school and get them interested in flying. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee have been actors, activists and husband-and-wife for more than fifty years. They have worked together on many projects for the stage, movies, television and radio. They have been praised for their work together and as individuals. Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were close friends with many of America’s great leaders and thinkers, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior. They also were leading activists during the civil rights period. Through it all, Ossie Davis says they never made work more important than family. OSSIE DAVIS AND RUBY DEE: “ ... We were smart enough always whenever possible to take the family with us wherever we went, so they would never have to wonder what mommy and daddy were doing out there…they went with us. I worked in Mexico, the whole family came; I did another film in Rome, the whole family came; Ruby went to Hollywood to do ‘Raisin in the Sun,’ the movie, whole family moved out.” Ruby Dee says she strongly supports efforts for children to hear the stories of older people. She says it is important that children learn how much they have experienced. VOICE TWO: Reporter Renee Poussaint is the executive director of the National Visionary Leadership Project. She says so much important information about African Americans is not included in American history. She says young people learn valuable lessons when they listen to the generations that came before them. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our audio engineer was Jim Harmon. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 16, 2002: Iraq Accepts UN Resolution
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Iraq has announced its acceptance of a United Nations resolution on weapons inspections. All fifteen members of the U-N Security Council passed the resolution last Friday. The measure gives U-N inspectors the right to search anywhere in Iraq for banned weapons. It calls for serious measures if Iraq is found to disobey U-N demands to disarm. On Wednesday, U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan received a letter signed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. The letter said Iraq is ready to receive the weapons inspectors. It said Iraq would deal with the resolution. Yet it criticized the measure’s substance. The Iraqi letter sharply criticized the United States and Britain – the two countries that proposed the resolution. It said they spread a false claim that Iraq had perhaps produced or was on its way to produce nuclear weapons. It said the United States and Britain wrongly accused Iraq of producing chemical and biological weapons. Iraq criticized other Security Council members for remaining silent. The letter said the United Nations had changed from an organization designed to protect world peace and security. It said the U-N now provides cover to those who want war, destruction, blockades and starvation. The letter said the important thing was to avoid any harm to the Iraqi people. It said Iraq would receive the inspectors within a time limit set by the resolution. Iraq has until December eighth to provide them with a declaration of all its chemical and biological weapons. The resolution requires the inspections to begin within fifteen days of that. The U-N’s chief weapons inspector must report to the Security Council sometime in the sixty days that follow. Reaction to the Iraqi letter was mixed. President Bush said there would be no negotiations with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mister Bush also said that his administration would not accept any lying or denials from Iraq. American officials disputed Iraq’s claim that it has no chemical or biological weapons. The officials said they would not release intelligence about the issue before Iraq declares its weapons programs to the inspectors. U-N Secretary General Annan welcomed Iraq’s acceptance of the resolution. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also welcomed the acceptance. Yet he warned that there would be serious results if Iraq failed to obey the resolution. Arab countries praised Iraq’s acceptance of the resolution. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said it is a step in the right direction. He said it would change the discussion on Iraq from war to inspections and how to make the inspections successful. Russia also praised the Iraqi decision. A Russian foreign ministry official said his government would discuss suspending U-N restrictions against Iraq if it honors the resolution. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: November 28, 2002 - Writing Thank-You Notes
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 28, 2002 MUSIC: "Thank You For ... "/Hall and Oates AA: No, thank you -- for listening! I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Some advice on how to write a thank-you note, as many people will do in this season of holiday gift giving. AA: Laura Kimoto is an instructor in the Intensive English Program at Hawaii Community College. She's been teaching her students from Asia what Americans learn about writing thank-you's -- which is, above all, give details about what you're saying thanks for. Laura Kimoto points out the need for students to vary their writing. For instance, instead of using the word "kindness" several times, she offers synonyms like "hospitality," "generosity" or "thoughtfulness." RS: Some things, though, are harder to teach, like the social customs that make some words better left unsaid. KIMOTO: "For example, a girl used the word 'cute' to refer to this elderly couple: 'You are a cute elderly couple.'" AA: What's wrong with being called a "cute elderly couple"? RS: Well, Americans generally avoid calling attention to age. And, to refer to an older couple as "cute" might seem a little condescending. AA: Of course the student had no idea! She was just trying to thank a nice couple she had met. RS: You even have to be careful with your closing salutation. AA: "Do you not end a thank-you note with love? Is that not a good idea?" KIMOTO: "I would say that is not a good idea, depending on who the person is you are writing to, but most likely not." RS: This time of year, Laura Kimoto suggests to her students at Hawaii Community College: "Wishing you health and peace for the New Year." AA: A phrase worthy of a professional greeting card -- which is what Sandra Louden has written lots of over the years. She says a thank-you should be "sincere" and "heartfelt" -- and, again, big on specifics! RS: Sandra Louden says that even if a person gives you a gift of money, you should tell the giver how you plan to use it. LOUDEN: "You always remember, in any type of note you write, especially a thank-you note, it should have that me-to-you quality. In other words I am writing this note to specifically thank you, so I have you in mind when I am writing this. So that me-to-you voice is always very nice, very heartfelt, very successful, it makes for a very successful thank-you note." RS: Sandra Louden says she likes to add a touch of humor, but knows that some people are afraid to include it, afraid that, as writers, they're too serious to be funny. If that's you, consider this: LOUDEN: "It's really not as hard as you think, if you think in a certain way, and one of those ways that I talk about in classes that I teach, is to think literally. You might try something like 'thanks a bunch' and on the front maybe draw a bunch of grapes and have yourself smiling and sitting in those bunch of grapes, and that would be 'thanks a bunch.' AA: "(laughing) I never thought of that!" LOUDEN: "And if you want to do 'thanks a bunch' again, just think of anything with a bunch. You could do a bunch of bananas. Now if you want to get into another expression, then you say like 'thanks a million,' maybe you want to tack some fake money on the front of the card you make. You want to hand make a card and you get some of those one-hundred-thousand-dollar bills that they sell in novelty shops, and you tack that on the front of your card and you say 'thanks a ... thanks a million.'" RS: And, she says, you can even employ humor on thank-you cards in a business setting. LOUDEN: "For a lawyer for instance, 'There is no reasonable doubt, we thank you very much.' Or for an accountant, 'when we tally our blessings, we count you among them. Thank you for your patronage.' I find that humor is a state of mind -- it cuts across age, gender, what have you. Everyone appreciates a good laugh and a smile. And with a thank you card, another component is to keep it very short and to the point, and if it's based on a pun or a play on words, even if it's very corny, it gets the message across and it adds that little extra punch that people remember." AA: Sandra Louden is author of the book "Write Well and Sell Greeting Cards." She also teaches an Internet course at www.writerscollege.com. RS: And we'd like you to remember our e-mail address: it's word@voanews.com. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Oh, and thank you in advance! AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Kind & Generous"/Natalie Merchant Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 28, 2002 MUSIC: "Thank You For ... "/Hall and Oates AA: No, thank you -- for listening! I'm Avi Arditti. RS: And I'm Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Some advice on how to write a thank-you note, as many people will do in this season of holiday gift giving. AA: Laura Kimoto is an instructor in the Intensive English Program at Hawaii Community College. She's been teaching her students from Asia what Americans learn about writing thank-you's -- which is, above all, give details about what you're saying thanks for. Laura Kimoto points out the need for students to vary their writing. For instance, instead of using the word "kindness" several times, she offers synonyms like "hospitality," "generosity" or "thoughtfulness." RS: Some things, though, are harder to teach, like the social customs that make some words better left unsaid. KIMOTO: "For example, a girl used the word 'cute' to refer to this elderly couple: 'You are a cute elderly couple.'" AA: What's wrong with being called a "cute elderly couple"? RS: Well, Americans generally avoid calling attention to age. And, to refer to an older couple as "cute" might seem a little condescending. AA: Of course the student had no idea! She was just trying to thank a nice couple she had met. RS: You even have to be careful with your closing salutation. AA: "Do you not end a thank-you note with love? Is that not a good idea?" KIMOTO: "I would say that is not a good idea, depending on who the person is you are writing to, but most likely not." RS: This time of year, Laura Kimoto suggests to her students at Hawaii Community College: "Wishing you health and peace for the New Year." AA: A phrase worthy of a professional greeting card -- which is what Sandra Louden has written lots of over the years. She says a thank-you should be "sincere" and "heartfelt" -- and, again, big on specifics! RS: Sandra Louden says that even if a person gives you a gift of money, you should tell the giver how you plan to use it. LOUDEN: "You always remember, in any type of note you write, especially a thank-you note, it should have that me-to-you quality. In other words I am writing this note to specifically thank you, so I have you in mind when I am writing this. So that me-to-you voice is always very nice, very heartfelt, very successful, it makes for a very successful thank-you note." RS: Sandra Louden says she likes to add a touch of humor, but knows that some people are afraid to include it, afraid that, as writers, they're too serious to be funny. If that's you, consider this: LOUDEN: "It's really not as hard as you think, if you think in a certain way, and one of those ways that I talk about in classes that I teach, is to think literally. You might try something like 'thanks a bunch' and on the front maybe draw a bunch of grapes and have yourself smiling and sitting in those bunch of grapes, and that would be 'thanks a bunch.' AA: "(laughing) I never thought of that!" LOUDEN: "And if you want to do 'thanks a bunch' again, just think of anything with a bunch. You could do a bunch of bananas. Now if you want to get into another expression, then you say like 'thanks a million,' maybe you want to tack some fake money on the front of the card you make. You want to hand make a card and you get some of those one-hundred-thousand-dollar bills that they sell in novelty shops, and you tack that on the front of your card and you say 'thanks a ... thanks a million.'" RS: And, she says, you can even employ humor on thank-you cards in a business setting. LOUDEN: "For a lawyer for instance, 'There is no reasonable doubt, we thank you very much.' Or for an accountant, 'when we tally our blessings, we count you among them. Thank you for your patronage.' I find that humor is a state of mind -- it cuts across age, gender, what have you. Everyone appreciates a good laugh and a smile. And with a thank you card, another component is to keep it very short and to the point, and if it's based on a pun or a play on words, even if it's very corny, it gets the message across and it adds that little extra punch that people remember." AA: Sandra Louden is author of the book "Write Well and Sell Greeting Cards." She also teaches an Internet course at www.writerscollege.com. RS: And we'd like you to remember our e-mail address: it's word@voanews.com. Or write us at VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237 USA. Oh, and thank you in advance! AA: With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "Kind & Generous"/Natalie Merchant 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS – November 19, 2002: Parkinson’s Disease
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: When he was elected pope in nineteen-seventy-eight, Karol Wojtyla almost immediately changed the traditional image of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He was known as a man who liked athletic activities. Pope John Paul the Second swam and walked great distances. He looked like an athlete, showing great energy and power in all his movements. Boxer Muhammad Ali also showed great energy and power in all his movements as he became the boxing champion of the world. He was probably one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. However, as they grew older, both men began to change. Their power and energy began to disappear. Their movements became slower. Their faces seemed to be made of stone. Although age makes all people lose the energy they had when they were younger, it was not age that changed these two men so much. Their physical changes were caused by a sickness known as Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system. It is a progressive disease that makes its victims increasingly unable to move. The disease affects a small area of cells in the middle of the brain called the substantia nigra. The cells slowly lose their ability to produce a chemical called dopamine. The decrease in the amount of dopamine can result in one or more of the general signs or symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms include shaking of the arm or leg on one side of the body, general slowness of movement, or severe difficulty in moving the arms and legs. Another symptom is difficulty walking and keeping balanced while standing or walking. Other signs observed in some people with Parkinson’s disease include restricted or decreased movement of the face. Also, victims of the disease may feel extremely sad or worried. Victims may swallow less often than normal. And they may have difficulty forming words while talking. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The disease is named after James Parkinson. He was a British doctor who first described the disease in eighteen-seventeen. But Doctor Parkinson did not know what caused it. During the nineteen-sixties, medical researchers discovered chemical and other changes in the brains of people suffering from the disease. These discoveries led to medicines to treat Parkinson’s disease. However, the cause of the disease is still a mystery. Most people have what is called idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Idiopathic means that the cause is unknown. Patients who develop the disease attempt to link it to some cause they can identify. These can include an accident, a medical operation, or extreme emotional problems. Most doctors, however, reject the idea of any direct link between these events or problems and Parkinson’s disease. The doctors point to other people who have similar problems and do not develop a movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease. However, doctors say such events or problems may cause signs of the disease to be seen earlier than normal. VOICE TWO: Although the causes of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease remain a mystery, there are other forms of Parkinson’s disease. Some medicines used to treat other problems can cause movement disorders similar to Parkinson’s disease. These include medicines used to treat older people who see things that do not exist. And they include drugs used to treat people suffering from extreme tension or from stomach problems. VOICE ONE: The disease encephalitis also can cause movement problems and other disorders like those of Parkinson’s disease. In the early Twentieth Century, encephalitis spread to many parts of the world. Many victims of the disease had symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. This led to widespread scientific investigations into the possibility that a virus caused Parkinson’s disease. However, no evidence was found to support this theory. One clear reason for rejecting the theory is that Parkinson’s disease cannot be passed from one person to another the way other viral diseases can. VOICE TWO: Another common theory was that the disease could be passed by parents to their children. There are some cases of many members of families having the disease. However, there is no evidence that there is a gene linked to idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Most of those suffering from the disease are older people. It reportedly affects one of every one-hundred people over sixty years old. However, fifteen percent of patients develop the disease before they are fifty years old. Also, it affects men a little more often than it affects women. And Parkinson’s disease can be found among people in all parts of the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Parkinson’s disease does not usually cause death for those suffering from the condition. New treatments to ease symptoms of the disease make it possible for many patients to continue to live almost normally. Patients who have lost their ability to do many things may be able to regain some of their old abilities with treatment. The most commonly used drug to treat the disease is levodopa. When it reaches the brain, levodopa is changed to dopamine. It replaces the natural substance dopamine, which is lacking in Parkinson’s disease patients. Although levodopa helps deal with the signs of the disease, it does not prevent more changes in the brain caused by the disease. Also, levodopa can produce bad effects in some people. These side effects include feeling extremely sick to the stomach. To prevent this from happening, other substances can be combined with levodopa. Most other drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease are designed to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. VOICE TWO: Other methods to treat Parkinson’s disease include operating. One operation is called a pallidotomy. It was used often in the past to treat the disease. However, it was used less often after the discovery of levodopa. More recently, improved medical technology has increased the chances of successful pallidotomies. The operation involves placing electrical devices directly on the brain. These devices target cells in the areas that cause unwanted movements of the body. The most serious risk from this treatment is the possibility of the patient suffering a stroke. VOICE ONE: The most recent development in treatment of Parkinson’s disease is brain tissue transplants. This involves replacing tissue in areas of the brain that cause symptoms of the disease. Early experiments involved using brain tissue from unborn babies. Doctors said the method appeared to have highly successful results. However, the experiment became a subject of moral debates among politicians and religious groups opposed to abortions, the ending of unwanted pregnancies. Researchers have begun working with genetically changed cells and different animal cells that can be made to produce dopamine. Still, most doctors agree that such operations should be considered only after it is clear that drugs are not effective in dealing with the signs of Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: There is no way to prevent or cure Parkinson’s disease. So, the victims of the disease need help in many ways. Also, husbands or wives, children, and friends of people with Parkinson’s disease need special help and guidance. Throughout the world, there are organizations that provide education and support services for patients and their families learning to live with the disease. As with many mysterious diseases, understanding and care can help make a major difference. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about Parkinson’s disease, a disorder of the central nervous system. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: When he was elected pope in nineteen-seventy-eight, Karol Wojtyla almost immediately changed the traditional image of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He was known as a man who liked athletic activities. Pope John Paul the Second swam and walked great distances. He looked like an athlete, showing great energy and power in all his movements. Boxer Muhammad Ali also showed great energy and power in all his movements as he became the boxing champion of the world. He was probably one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. However, as they grew older, both men began to change. Their power and energy began to disappear. Their movements became slower. Their faces seemed to be made of stone. Although age makes all people lose the energy they had when they were younger, it was not age that changed these two men so much. Their physical changes were caused by a sickness known as Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the central nervous system. It is a progressive disease that makes its victims increasingly unable to move. The disease affects a small area of cells in the middle of the brain called the substantia nigra. The cells slowly lose their ability to produce a chemical called dopamine. The decrease in the amount of dopamine can result in one or more of the general signs or symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. These symptoms include shaking of the arm or leg on one side of the body, general slowness of movement, or severe difficulty in moving the arms and legs. Another symptom is difficulty walking and keeping balanced while standing or walking. Other signs observed in some people with Parkinson’s disease include restricted or decreased movement of the face. Also, victims of the disease may feel extremely sad or worried. Victims may swallow less often than normal. And they may have difficulty forming words while talking. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The disease is named after James Parkinson. He was a British doctor who first described the disease in eighteen-seventeen. But Doctor Parkinson did not know what caused it. During the nineteen-sixties, medical researchers discovered chemical and other changes in the brains of people suffering from the disease. These discoveries led to medicines to treat Parkinson’s disease. However, the cause of the disease is still a mystery. Most people have what is called idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Idiopathic means that the cause is unknown. Patients who develop the disease attempt to link it to some cause they can identify. These can include an accident, a medical operation, or extreme emotional problems. Most doctors, however, reject the idea of any direct link between these events or problems and Parkinson’s disease. The doctors point to other people who have similar problems and do not develop a movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease. However, doctors say such events or problems may cause signs of the disease to be seen earlier than normal. VOICE TWO: Although the causes of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease remain a mystery, there are other forms of Parkinson’s disease. Some medicines used to treat other problems can cause movement disorders similar to Parkinson’s disease. These include medicines used to treat older people who see things that do not exist. And they include drugs used to treat people suffering from extreme tension or from stomach problems. VOICE ONE: The disease encephalitis also can cause movement problems and other disorders like those of Parkinson’s disease. In the early Twentieth Century, encephalitis spread to many parts of the world. Many victims of the disease had symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. This led to widespread scientific investigations into the possibility that a virus caused Parkinson’s disease. However, no evidence was found to support this theory. One clear reason for rejecting the theory is that Parkinson’s disease cannot be passed from one person to another the way other viral diseases can. VOICE TWO: Another common theory was that the disease could be passed by parents to their children. There are some cases of many members of families having the disease. However, there is no evidence that there is a gene linked to idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Most of those suffering from the disease are older people. It reportedly affects one of every one-hundred people over sixty years old. However, fifteen percent of patients develop the disease before they are fifty years old. Also, it affects men a little more often than it affects women. And Parkinson’s disease can be found among people in all parts of the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Parkinson’s disease does not usually cause death for those suffering from the condition. New treatments to ease symptoms of the disease make it possible for many patients to continue to live almost normally. Patients who have lost their ability to do many things may be able to regain some of their old abilities with treatment. The most commonly used drug to treat the disease is levodopa. When it reaches the brain, levodopa is changed to dopamine. It replaces the natural substance dopamine, which is lacking in Parkinson’s disease patients. Although levodopa helps deal with the signs of the disease, it does not prevent more changes in the brain caused by the disease. Also, levodopa can produce bad effects in some people. These side effects include feeling extremely sick to the stomach. To prevent this from happening, other substances can be combined with levodopa. Most other drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease are designed to increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. VOICE TWO: Other methods to treat Parkinson’s disease include operating. One operation is called a pallidotomy. It was used often in the past to treat the disease. However, it was used less often after the discovery of levodopa. More recently, improved medical technology has increased the chances of successful pallidotomies. The operation involves placing electrical devices directly on the brain. These devices target cells in the areas that cause unwanted movements of the body. The most serious risk from this treatment is the possibility of the patient suffering a stroke. VOICE ONE: The most recent development in treatment of Parkinson’s disease is brain tissue transplants. This involves replacing tissue in areas of the brain that cause symptoms of the disease. Early experiments involved using brain tissue from unborn babies. Doctors said the method appeared to have highly successful results. However, the experiment became a subject of moral debates among politicians and religious groups opposed to abortions, the ending of unwanted pregnancies. Researchers have begun working with genetically changed cells and different animal cells that can be made to produce dopamine. Still, most doctors agree that such operations should be considered only after it is clear that drugs are not effective in dealing with the signs of Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: There is no way to prevent or cure Parkinson’s disease. So, the victims of the disease need help in many ways. Also, husbands or wives, children, and friends of people with Parkinson’s disease need special help and guidance. Throughout the world, there are organizations that provide education and support services for patients and their families learning to live with the disease. As with many mysterious diseases, understanding and care can help make a major difference. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — November 19, 2002: Listeria Outbreak
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last month, news media reported that people in the northeastern United States were getting sick from eating some processed meats. Health officials reported that a form of food poisoning called listeria was making people sick. They discovered that meats processed at a factory in the state of Pennsylvania contained that bacteria. At least forty cases of food poisoning have been reported. At least seven deaths have been blamed on listeria. The meat-processing company ordered stores to remove more than twelve-million kilograms of processed meats. The products were cooked chicken and turkey meats. It was the largest food recall in American history. The recall shows that people who prepare meats for sale must be very careful. It does not matter if the meat is prepared in a factory or on a farm. People need to observe simple rules for preparing meats. In the case of the meat-processing company, listeria bacteria were first found on equipment that moves products. Then the bacteria were found in other parts of the factory. The bacteria generally spread through the waste products of animals and from animal to animal. Often, animals used for meat are processed in conditions that permit listeria to infect them. Only a few infected animals are needed to spread listeria to processing equipment. Once dirty equipment carries the bacteria, it can spread to meat products throughout a factory. That appears to be what happened in Pennsylvania. Listeria is most dangerous to pregnant women and their fetuses, children, and people who are already seriously sick. It can travel from the intestinal system to the blood and can infect the brain in some cases. The United States Food and Drug administration and the Department of Agriculture have published studies on listeria. The reports say that more than one-thousand-five hundred people are infected by listeria every year in America. Studies say about four-hundred people die from it each year. The best way to prevent listeria is to carefully clean equipment and surfaces where meat, eggs and milk products are prepared. People at risk should avoid uncooked meats or milk products that have not been heated to destroy bacteria. Cooking food completely destroys listeria. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – November 20, 2002: Quick HIV Test
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a fast new test for H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. The OraQuick test shows results in as little as twenty minutes. Experts say this means many more people probably will be tested. Results from most current H-I-V tests take days or even weeks. The F-D-A says the new test reports correct results almost one-hundred percent of the time. OraSure Technologies Incorporated of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania developed the OraQuick test It requires a single drop of blood from a person’s finger. The blood is placed in a small container with a special liquid. A testing stick is placed in the liquid. The test finds if antibodies to H-I-V are present in the person’s blood. Antibodies are proteins the body produces after an infection. However, people infected with H-I-V usually do not develop antibodies to the virus for three months. So people at risk should be tested again if a first test does not show antibodies. An estimated nine-hundred-thousand Americans are infected with H-I-V. But experts say up to twenty-five percent of these people do not know they are infected. Currently, about half the people tested for H-I-V in public health centers fail to return to learn the results of the test. Health officials say the new test will enable people with H-I-V to start treatment sooner. People who know they have the virus also can change their sexual activities to prevent spreading the virus to other people. Health officials also say the OraQuick test may reduce the spread of H-I-V from mothers to newborn babies. A pregnant woman could be tested before she gives birth. The test can also help health workers. It can tell if they have been threatened by blood from infected patients. If so, the workers can start drug treatment immediately to prevent getting the virus. The F-D-A has approved the test for use in hospitals, medical centers and doctors’ offices that meet federal laboratory requirements. But the government has asked the company that makes the test to request that these requirements be eased. This would mean that many more health centers could give the test. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson praised the test as a very important step in America’s fight against AIDS. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved a fast new test for H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. The OraQuick test shows results in as little as twenty minutes. Experts say this means many more people probably will be tested. Results from most current H-I-V tests take days or even weeks. The F-D-A says the new test reports correct results almost one-hundred percent of the time. OraSure Technologies Incorporated of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania developed the OraQuick test It requires a single drop of blood from a person’s finger. The blood is placed in a small container with a special liquid. A testing stick is placed in the liquid. The test finds if antibodies to H-I-V are present in the person’s blood. Antibodies are proteins the body produces after an infection. However, people infected with H-I-V usually do not develop antibodies to the virus for three months. So people at risk should be tested again if a first test does not show antibodies. An estimated nine-hundred-thousand Americans are infected with H-I-V. But experts say up to twenty-five percent of these people do not know they are infected. Currently, about half the people tested for H-I-V in public health centers fail to return to learn the results of the test. Health officials say the new test will enable people with H-I-V to start treatment sooner. People who know they have the virus also can change their sexual activities to prevent spreading the virus to other people. Health officials also say the OraQuick test may reduce the spread of H-I-V from mothers to newborn babies. A pregnant woman could be tested before she gives birth. The test can also help health workers. It can tell if they have been threatened by blood from infected patients. If so, the workers can start drug treatment immediately to prevent getting the virus. The F-D-A has approved the test for use in hospitals, medical centers and doctors’ offices that meet federal laboratory requirements. But the government has asked the company that makes the test to request that these requirements be eased. This would mean that many more health centers could give the test. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson praised the test as a very important step in America’s fight against AIDS. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 20, 2002: Harley-Davidson at 100
* Byline: 

 ((Sounds of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle)) VOICE ONE: ((Sounds of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle)) VOICE ONE: Many people around the world know exactly what that sound is. This is Mary Tillotson. ((Motorcycle sounds)) VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. The sound you just heard is the engine of a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle. Today, we tell about this famous American company. And, we tell about the year-long party that is celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. 1903: First production motorcycle Many people around the world know exactly what that sound is. This is Mary Tillotson. ((Motorcycle sounds)) VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. The sound you just heard is the engine of a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle. Today, we tell about this famous American company. And, we tell about the year-long party that is celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The history of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company began in nineteen-oh-three, in a small wooden building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Twenty-one-year-old William Harley and twenty-year-old Arthur Davidson built a machine that looked like a bicycle with a small engine. A friend of the two men bought one of the first motorcycles they made. They only made three motorcycles that year. On the door of the little wooden building, they painted a small sign. The sign said, “Harley-Davidson Motor Company.” VOICE TWO: 1908: Walter Davidson with the motorcycle he rode to a perfect 1,000 points at the 7th Annual Federation of American Morcyclists Endurance and Reliability Contest. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The history of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company began in nineteen-oh-three, in a small wooden building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Twenty-one-year-old William Harley and twenty-year-old Arthur Davidson built a machine that looked like a bicycle with a small engine. A friend of the two men bought one of the first motorcycles they made. They only made three motorcycles that year. On the door of the little wooden building, they painted a small sign. The sign said, “Harley-Davidson Motor Company.” VOICE TWO: The little company grew very quickly. In nineteen-oh-six, it opened a new factory on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee. The company now had a total of six workers. Two years later, in nineteen-oh-eight, the city of Detroit, Michigan bought the first motorcycle to be used by a police department in the United States. It was a Harley-Davidson. In nineteen-twelve, Harley-Davidson exported a motorcycle to another country for the first time. That country was Japan. By nineteen-twenty, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle company in the world. More than two-thousand dealers sold Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Most were in the United States. However, dealers sold the Harley-Davidson motorcycles in more than sixty-seven countries around the world. The motorcycle Harley-Davidson produced in the nineteen-twenties no longer looked like a bicycle with an engine. It was a fast, powerful machine that provided good transportation. Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders were winning races and setting speed records throughout the United States. VOICE ONE: Something else happened in nineteen-twenty that would have a lasting effect on the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The motorcycle became known as a “Hog.” The company tells this story to explain why. A motorcycle racer named Leslie Parkhurst broke twenty-three speed records on his Harley-Davidson. Mister Parkhurst’s racing team had a pet animal they took with them to the races. That pet animal was a small pig, also called a hog. When a member of the team won a race, he would take the pig for a ride around the racetrack. The racing fans loved the show. They would shout, “The Hog won again.” Today, if a motorcycle rider tells you he rides a Hog, you know he is talking about his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The little company grew very quickly. In nineteen-oh-six, it opened a new factory on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee. The company now had a total of six workers. Two years later, in nineteen-oh-eight, the city of Detroit, Michigan bought the first motorcycle to be used by a police department in the United States. It was a Harley-Davidson. In nineteen-twelve, Harley-Davidson exported a motorcycle to another country for the first time. That country was Japan. By nineteen-twenty, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle company in the world. More than two-thousand dealers sold Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Most were in the United States. However, dealers sold the Harley-Davidson motorcycles in more than sixty-seven countries around the world. The motorcycle Harley-Davidson produced in the nineteen-twenties no longer looked like a bicycle with an engine. It was a fast, powerful machine that provided good transportation. Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders were winning races and setting speed records throughout the United States. VOICE ONE: Something else happened in nineteen-twenty that would have a lasting effect on the Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The motorcycle became known as a “Hog.” The company tells this story to explain why. A motorcycle racer named Leslie Parkhurst broke twenty-three speed records on his Harley-Davidson. Mister Parkhurst’s racing team had a pet animal they took with them to the races. That pet animal was a small pig, also called a hog. When a member of the team won a race, he would take the pig for a ride around the racetrack. The racing fans loved the show. They would shout, “The Hog won again.” Today, if a motorcycle rider tells you he rides a Hog, you know he is talking about his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Harley-Davidson has made other products besides their famous motorcycle. Beginning in nineteen-twelve, the company began selling clothing for motorcycle riders. Most of this clothing had the name Harley-Davidson printed on it. In nineteen thirty-eight, Harley-Davidson began making a special motorcycle jacket for the New York City Police Department. The jacket was made of heavy leather material. Harley-Davidson still sells a very similar jacket today. It is still popular with motorcycle riders. It is also popular with people who just like leather jackets. Harley-Davidson also sells pants, shirts, shoes, boots and just about everything else a motorcycle rider might want. VOICE ONE: The Harley-Davidson Company has faced financial problems several times in its history. The nineteen-thirties was a period of severe economic problems known as the Great Depression. In nineteen-twenty, Harley-Davidson sold twenty-seven-thousand motorcycles. However, in nineteen-thirty-three, all of the American motorcycle companies sold only six-thousand machines. About one-hundred other American motorcycle companies failed during the Depression. Harley-Davidson survived. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-sixties, a new threat faced Harley-Davidson. Japanese motorcycle companies began selling their machines in the United States. Companies like Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki became popular. These companies produced good motorcycles that were not very costly. At the same time, Harley-Davidson had tried to expand too quickly. Their motorcycles were more costly than the others. The factory had production problems. Oil often leaked out of the engines. The engines often failed. People told a joke about Harley-Davidson. They said you had to buy two of their motorcycles -- one to ride and one for the extra parts you would need to repair it. 2001: President Bush visits the Milwaukee factory.(Photo - Moreen Ishikawa/White House) ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Harley-Davidson has made other products besides their famous motorcycle. Beginning in nineteen-twelve, the company began selling clothing for motorcycle riders. Most of this clothing had the name Harley-Davidson printed on it. In nineteen thirty-eight, Harley-Davidson began making a special motorcycle jacket for the New York City Police Department. The jacket was made of heavy leather material. Harley-Davidson still sells a very similar jacket today. It is still popular with motorcycle riders. It is also popular with people who just like leather jackets. Harley-Davidson also sells pants, shirts, shoes, boots and just about everything else a motorcycle rider might want. VOICE ONE: The Harley-Davidson Company has faced financial problems several times in its history. The nineteen-thirties was a period of severe economic problems known as the Great Depression. In nineteen-twenty, Harley-Davidson sold twenty-seven-thousand motorcycles. However, in nineteen-thirty-three, all of the American motorcycle companies sold only six-thousand machines. About one-hundred other American motorcycle companies failed during the Depression. Harley-Davidson survived. VOICE TWO: During the nineteen-sixties, a new threat faced Harley-Davidson. Japanese motorcycle companies began selling their machines in the United States. Companies like Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki became popular. These companies produced good motorcycles that were not very costly. At the same time, Harley-Davidson had tried to expand too quickly. Their motorcycles were more costly than the others. The factory had production problems. Oil often leaked out of the engines. The engines often failed. People told a joke about Harley-Davidson. They said you had to buy two of their motorcycles -- one to ride and one for the extra parts you would need to repair it. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-nine, Harley-Davidson officials sold control of the company to a much larger company. They planned to use the money they received in the sale to improve their products. Harley-Davidson struggled to stay in business during this time. The company says people who loved their motorcycles continued to buy them and helped keep the company from failing. In nineteen-eighty-one, thirteen top officials at Harley-Davidson bought the company. They started making improvements. They began developing a much better product. Two years later, Harley-Davidson asked the International Trade Commission for help. The International Trade Commission agreed and gave protection to Harley-Davidson for five years. This protection added to the price of large Japanese motorcycles. Less than four years later, Harley-Davidson asked the International Trade Commission to end the protection. No company had ever done this before. By lifting the protection, Harley-Davidson was saying it could compete with any motorcycle company. VOICE TWO: Today, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company is one of the most successful companies in the United States. It produces about two-hundred-forty-three-thousand motorcycles each year. It sells all of them. The company has about eight-thousand workers. About half of them ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. These riders include the top official of the company, Jeffrey Bleustein. Harley-Davidson workers not only make the product, they use it. They also help the company by suggesting improvements. Forbes Magazine is a top financial and business publication in the United States. Each year it lists the companies that it considers to be the most successful. Last year, Forbes Magazine named Harley-Davidson its Company of the Year. That same year, Harley-Davidson announced that the company had made a record-breaking profit during the past fifteen years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Harley-Davidson and the people who ride their famous motorcycles are busy celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the company. They are doing this by holding a year-long birthday party. The party began in July of this year and will end in August of next year. The celebrations this year are local birthday parties. Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders around the world are making plans to celebrate in many cities next year. For example, in March, the party will be held in Sydney, Australia. In April, the party will move to Tokyo, Japan. In June, riders in Europe will travel to Barcelona, Spain to celebrate. In July, Harley-Davidson owners will ride to Hamburg, Germany for the party. VOICE TWO: In August of next year, Harley-Davidson riders will begin what is called the “Ride Home.” Harley-Davidson riders will cross the United States from four directions. Most of these riders will come from the United States. However, many will come from Europe and Asia. There will be birthday parties held by Harley-Davidson dealers at several cities during the trip. Plans call for the “Ride Home” to end in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by August twenty-seventh. A four-day celebration and birthday party will follow. More than two-hundred-thousand Harley-Davidson riders are expected to attend the events. Top company official Jeffrey Bleustein says Harley-Davidson is very excited about sharing the company’s history with family and friends from around the world. ((Motorcycle sounds, fades to theme)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-sixty-nine, Harley-Davidson officials sold control of the company to a much larger company. They planned to use the money they received in the sale to improve their products. Harley-Davidson struggled to stay in business during this time. The company says people who loved their motorcycles continued to buy them and helped keep the company from failing. In nineteen-eighty-one, thirteen top officials at Harley-Davidson bought the company. They started making improvements. They began developing a much better product. Two years later, Harley-Davidson asked the International Trade Commission for help. The International Trade Commission agreed and gave protection to Harley-Davidson for five years. This protection added to the price of large Japanese motorcycles. Less than four years later, Harley-Davidson asked the International Trade Commission to end the protection. No company had ever done this before. By lifting the protection, Harley-Davidson was saying it could compete with any motorcycle company. VOICE TWO: Today, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company is one of the most successful companies in the United States. It produces about two-hundred-forty-three-thousand motorcycles each year. It sells all of them. The company has about eight-thousand workers. About half of them ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. These riders include the top official of the company, Jeffrey Bleustein. Harley-Davidson workers not only make the product, they use it. They also help the company by suggesting improvements. Forbes Magazine is a top financial and business publication in the United States. Each year it lists the companies that it considers to be the most successful. Last year, Forbes Magazine named Harley-Davidson its Company of the Year. That same year, Harley-Davidson announced that the company had made a record-breaking profit during the past fifteen years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Harley-Davidson and the people who ride their famous motorcycles are busy celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of the company. They are doing this by holding a year-long birthday party. The party began in July of this year and will end in August of next year. The celebrations this year are local birthday parties. Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders around the world are making plans to celebrate in many cities next year. For example, in March, the party will be held in Sydney, Australia. In April, the party will move to Tokyo, Japan. In June, riders in Europe will travel to Barcelona, Spain to celebrate. In July, Harley-Davidson owners will ride to Hamburg, Germany for the party. VOICE TWO: In August of next year, Harley-Davidson riders will begin what is called the “Ride Home.” Harley-Davidson riders will cross the United States from four directions. Most of these riders will come from the United States. However, many will come from Europe and Asia. There will be birthday parties held by Harley-Davidson dealers at several cities during the trip. Plans call for the “Ride Home” to end in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by August twenty-seventh. A four-day celebration and birthday party will follow. More than two-hundred-thousand Harley-Davidson riders are expected to attend the events. Top company official Jeffrey Bleustein says Harley-Davidson is very excited about sharing the company’s history with family and friends from around the world. ((Motorcycle sounds, fades to theme)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 21, 2002: Gerald Ford
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. August 9, 1974: Gerald Ford is sworn into office by Chief Justice Warren Burger as Betty Ford watches.(Photo - Ford Library) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-eighth president of the United States, Gerald Ford. VOICE ONE: Gerald Ford was sworn-in as president on August ninth, nineteen-seventy-four. The day before, President Richard Nixon had announced that he would resign. If he had not resigned, he probably would have been removed from office. A Congressional investigation had found evidence that Nixon violated the Constitutional rights of the American people during the Watergate case. The new president spoke about Watergate, and what it meant to America, on the day he was sworn-in. FORD: "Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. ... As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate -- more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars -- let us restore the 'Golden Rule' to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate." VOICE TWO: Gerald Ford became the only president in American history to serve as vice president and president without being elected. Richard Nixon nominated him for vice president in October, Nineteen-Seventy-Three. That was when Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned. When Nixon himself resigned, Ford became president. Ford was a long-time Congressman from the state of Michigan. He was well-liked. He had been a good student and a good athlete. He studied economics and political science at the University of Michigan. The he studied law at Yale University. During World War Two, he served as a Navy officer in the Pacific battle area. VOICE ONE: After the war, Ford entered politics. He was a member of the Republican Party. He was first elected to Congress in Nineteen-Forty-Eight. He won re-election twelve times. Other Republican members of the House of Representatives elected him minority leader during the presidential administration of Democrat Lyndon Johnson. Ford was still minority leader when Republican Richard Nixon was elected president in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In his leadership position, he helped win approval of a number of Nixon's proposals. He became known for his strong loyalty to the president. It was no surprise, then, that Nixon named Ford vice president. VOICE TWO: Gerald Ford became president suddenly. Almost as suddenly, he had to decide what to do about former president Nixon. After Nixon left office, he could have been charged with crimes for his part in the Watergate case. Instead, one month after Nixon resigned, President Ford settled the question. He pardoned Nixon of any crimes for which he might have been responsible. The pardon made many Americans angry. Some believed Nixon should have been put on trial. They thought he might have answered more questions about Watergate if he had not been pardoned. The new president did what he thought was right. He said he pardoned Nixon to end divisions in the country. For a while, owever, his action seemed to increase the divisions. VOICE ONE: Anger about the pardon was still strong when President Ford took another highly disputed action. He pardoned the men who illegally escaped military service in the Vietnam War. Most were not sent to prison. Instead, they were permitted to perform work for their communities. Many of the men did not accept the president's offer, however. They remained in hiding in the United States. Or they remained in other countries where they had fled. President Ford received much better public support when he asked Congress to control and limit the activities of the nation's intelligence agencies. He hoped this would prevent future administrations from interfering with the Constitutional rights of citizens. VOICE TWO: Other problems also caused trouble for President Ford. As vice president, he had described inflation as America's 'public enemy number one'. He proposed several measures to fight it. As president, he was forced to cancel some of these measures because there was an economic recession. During the recession, inflation decreased. But fewer Americans had jobs. Unemployment in Nineteen-Seventy-Five was at its highest rate since the great economic depression of the Nineteen-Thirties. VOICE ONE: In foreign policy, Ford usually took the advice of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger served as President Nixon's assistant for national security and as secretary of state. He kept those jobs under President Ford. Kissinger won much praise for his service to Richard Nixon. Yet he received much criticism, too. He was accused of interfering with civil liberties in the name of national security. And he was accused of supporting the overthrow of the leftist government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Still, President Ford was pleased that Kissinger would remain in the administration. Even Kissinger's worst critics admitted that he was excellent negotiator. VOICE TWO: At the time Ford became president, America's situation in the world was generally hopeful. Former President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had signed two agreements to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. Also, relations with China were less tense than before. However, American policy in parts of southeast Asia had failed completely. VOICE ONE: American involvement in the Vietnam war officially ended the year before Ford became president. But fighting continued between South Vietnam and communist forces from North Vietnam. The peace agreement signed by the United States and North Vietnam in Nineteen-Seventy-Three left South Vietnam to defend itself. By Nineteen-Seventy-Five, it became clear that South Vietnamese forces were in danger of defeat. President Ford tried to prevent a total communist take-over of the south. He asked Congress to approve seven-hundred-million dollars in military aid for South Vietnam. The American people, owever, were tired of paying for the war. Their representatives in Congress said no. VOICE TWO: What happened in Vietnam was like a bad dream. Communist forces moved into Saigon, capital of the south. Ford ordered the rescue of American citizens and of Vietnamese who had supported American efforts. Few who saw people trying to escape Saigon will ever forget the day. It was April Thirtieth, Nineteen-Seventy-Five. Terrified Vietnamese were screaming for help at the American embassy. Everyone was pushing, trying to escape. Some who reached the embassy's roof passed their children forward. At least, they hoped, they could get the children to safety on American military helicopters. Others held on to the helicopters from the outside as the overloaded aircraft tried to take off. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Ford administration also faced trouble in the Middle East. Israel and an alliance of Arab nations had fought two wars in about ten years. After the war of Nineteen-Seventy-Three, Henry Kissinger led negotiations to settle some issues. Israel agreed to give up some of the territory it had seized during the fighting. In return, the United States made a promise. It would not recognize or deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization as long as the P-L-O failed to meet certain conditions. In September, Nineteen-Seventy-Five, Israel and Egypt signed a ceasefire agreement. They also agreed to permit American civilians to act as observers along the ceasefire lines. Henry Kissinger received widespread praise for his peacemaking efforts. Yet the situation in the Middle East remained tense. VOICE TWO: The Ford administration could not fix all the problems of the world. Still, as the presidential election campaign of Nineteen-Seventy-Six began, things seemed better. The United States was not fighting any wars. Unemployment was high. But inflation had improved a little. Most important, erald Ford had led the country through the difficult days after Watergate. The election will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-eighth president of the United States, Gerald Ford. VOICE ONE: Gerald Ford was sworn-in as president on August ninth, nineteen-seventy-four. The day before, President Richard Nixon had announced that he would resign. If he had not resigned, he probably would have been removed from office. A Congressional investigation had found evidence that Nixon violated the Constitutional rights of the American people during the Watergate case. The new president spoke about Watergate, and what it meant to America, on the day he was sworn-in. FORD: "Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. ... As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate -- more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars -- let us restore the 'Golden Rule' to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate." VOICE TWO: Gerald Ford became the only president in American history to serve as vice president and president without being elected. Richard Nixon nominated him for vice president in October, Nineteen-Seventy-Three. That was when Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned. When Nixon himself resigned, Ford became president. Ford was a long-time Congressman from the state of Michigan. He was well-liked. He had been a good student and a good athlete. He studied economics and political science at the University of Michigan. The he studied law at Yale University. During World War Two, he served as a Navy officer in the Pacific battle area. VOICE ONE: After the war, Ford entered politics. He was a member of the Republican Party. He was first elected to Congress in Nineteen-Forty-Eight. He won re-election twelve times. Other Republican members of the House of Representatives elected him minority leader during the presidential administration of Democrat Lyndon Johnson. Ford was still minority leader when Republican Richard Nixon was elected president in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. In his leadership position, he helped win approval of a number of Nixon's proposals. He became known for his strong loyalty to the president. It was no surprise, then, that Nixon named Ford vice president. VOICE TWO: Gerald Ford became president suddenly. Almost as suddenly, he had to decide what to do about former president Nixon. After Nixon left office, he could have been charged with crimes for his part in the Watergate case. Instead, one month after Nixon resigned, President Ford settled the question. He pardoned Nixon of any crimes for which he might have been responsible. The pardon made many Americans angry. Some believed Nixon should have been put on trial. They thought he might have answered more questions about Watergate if he had not been pardoned. The new president did what he thought was right. He said he pardoned Nixon to end divisions in the country. For a while, owever, his action seemed to increase the divisions. VOICE ONE: Anger about the pardon was still strong when President Ford took another highly disputed action. He pardoned the men who illegally escaped military service in the Vietnam War. Most were not sent to prison. Instead, they were permitted to perform work for their communities. Many of the men did not accept the president's offer, however. They remained in hiding in the United States. Or they remained in other countries where they had fled. President Ford received much better public support when he asked Congress to control and limit the activities of the nation's intelligence agencies. He hoped this would prevent future administrations from interfering with the Constitutional rights of citizens. VOICE TWO: Other problems also caused trouble for President Ford. As vice president, he had described inflation as America's 'public enemy number one'. He proposed several measures to fight it. As president, he was forced to cancel some of these measures because there was an economic recession. During the recession, inflation decreased. But fewer Americans had jobs. Unemployment in Nineteen-Seventy-Five was at its highest rate since the great economic depression of the Nineteen-Thirties. VOICE ONE: In foreign policy, Ford usually took the advice of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger served as President Nixon's assistant for national security and as secretary of state. He kept those jobs under President Ford. Kissinger won much praise for his service to Richard Nixon. Yet he received much criticism, too. He was accused of interfering with civil liberties in the name of national security. And he was accused of supporting the overthrow of the leftist government of Salvador Allende in Chile. Still, President Ford was pleased that Kissinger would remain in the administration. Even Kissinger's worst critics admitted that he was excellent negotiator. VOICE TWO: At the time Ford became president, America's situation in the world was generally hopeful. Former President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had signed two agreements to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. Also, relations with China were less tense than before. However, American policy in parts of southeast Asia had failed completely. VOICE ONE: American involvement in the Vietnam war officially ended the year before Ford became president. But fighting continued between South Vietnam and communist forces from North Vietnam. The peace agreement signed by the United States and North Vietnam in Nineteen-Seventy-Three left South Vietnam to defend itself. By Nineteen-Seventy-Five, it became clear that South Vietnamese forces were in danger of defeat. President Ford tried to prevent a total communist take-over of the south. He asked Congress to approve seven-hundred-million dollars in military aid for South Vietnam. The American people, owever, were tired of paying for the war. Their representatives in Congress said no. VOICE TWO: What happened in Vietnam was like a bad dream. Communist forces moved into Saigon, capital of the south. Ford ordered the rescue of American citizens and of Vietnamese who had supported American efforts. Few who saw people trying to escape Saigon will ever forget the day. It was April Thirtieth, Nineteen-Seventy-Five. Terrified Vietnamese were screaming for help at the American embassy. Everyone was pushing, trying to escape. Some who reached the embassy's roof passed their children forward. At least, they hoped, they could get the children to safety on American military helicopters. Others held on to the helicopters from the outside as the overloaded aircraft tried to take off. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Ford administration also faced trouble in the Middle East. Israel and an alliance of Arab nations had fought two wars in about ten years. After the war of Nineteen-Seventy-Three, Henry Kissinger led negotiations to settle some issues. Israel agreed to give up some of the territory it had seized during the fighting. In return, the United States made a promise. It would not recognize or deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization as long as the P-L-O failed to meet certain conditions. In September, Nineteen-Seventy-Five, Israel and Egypt signed a ceasefire agreement. They also agreed to permit American civilians to act as observers along the ceasefire lines. Henry Kissinger received widespread praise for his peacemaking efforts. Yet the situation in the Middle East remained tense. VOICE TWO: The Ford administration could not fix all the problems of the world. Still, as the presidential election campaign of Nineteen-Seventy-Six began, things seemed better. The United States was not fighting any wars. Unemployment was high. But inflation had improved a little. Most important, erald Ford had led the country through the difficult days after Watergate. The election will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - November 21, 2002: Foreign Student Series #10 >Costs
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Today, we provide information about how much it costs to attend an American university. All foreign students must have enough money to pay for every year of study at an American college. You can find the costs in a university’s catalog or on its Internet web site. The cost of university courses is called tuition. Other costs include a place to live and food to eat at the college, which is called room and board. Other costs are for books and supplies. For example, the University of Colorado at Boulder says a foreign student must pay almost thirty-one-thousand dollars for each year of study. Experts say each foreign student should keep enough money in a local bank near the college to pay the costs for at least two months of college. More than one-thousand foreign students from more than one-hundred countries are attending the University of Colorado this year. There is generally no financial aid for undergraduate foreign students at the university. However, officials say some student musicians and athletes may get financial aid from the university if they show great skill in those areas. Foreign students must show on university admissions documents how they plan to pay for their education. For example, if you apply to the University of Colorado, you must state on the document who will pay for your education. That person must sign the document and send documents from a bank showing that he or she has the money to do this. If you will be paying the costs, a bank official in your country must write to confirm that you have enough money to do so. Many colleges in the United States cost much less than the University of Colorado. Some cost even more. Your government or your employer may help you pay some of the costs. It is a good idea to seek such financial aid at least eighteen months before you want to start your studies in the United States. Next week, we will discuss another cost of attending an American college or university — health insurance. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 22, 2002: Compromise on U.S. Navy Sonar
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. The United States Navy has agreed to temporarily limit testing of a new low-frequency sound wave device it wants to use on ships in the world’s oceans. This sonar device is used to find enemy submarines at great distances. The agreement is a compromise between the Navy and environmental groups. The groups took legal action to halt the testing of the new sonar system. They said the noise from the device would injure or kill whales and other animals that live in the oceans. Last month, a federal judge blocked the Navy from using the sonar because it possibly violated environmental protection laws. However, the judge also agreed with the Navy’s claim that banning the new sonar system could harm military readiness. She ordered the two sides to work out a plan that would balance environmental and military concerns. Under the new agreement, the Navy will test the new sonar system for seven months. The agreement limits testing of the sonar to a much smaller area of the northwestern Pacific Ocean than the Navy had planned. The area is not likely to have many large ocean animals. The new sonar system works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed. The new sonar can find objects ten times farther away than the sonar used now. The Navy wants to use the new system in about eighty percent of the world’s oceans. The noise from the sonar is about as loud as a large airplane leaving the ground. Concern about the effects of the Navy’s sonar has increased in recent years. More than fifteen whales and a dolphin were found trapped on land along several coasts two years ago. At least six of the whales and the dolphin died. The Navy had used very loud sonar devices in deep waters around the Bahama Islands. The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Navy investigated the incident. The investigators said the noise from the sonar led to the deaths of the ocean animals. Investigators found that the whales’ ears had been severely damaged by the loud sounds of the sonar. They found bleeding around their brains and ear bones. However, the Navy said that the type of sonar used in the Bahamas was different from the low-frequency systems it now wants to deploy. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 22, 2002: Elected Sisters in Congress / Question About Madeleine Albright / Country Music Awards
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Linda Sanchez HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play some award winning country music ... Answer a listener’s question about formere Secretary of State Madeleine Albright... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, We play some award winning country music ... Answer a listener’s question about formere Secretary of State Madeleine Albright... And report about two sisters recently elected to Congress. Sanchez Sisters HOST: Earlier this month, the voters in the western state of California elected Democrats Loretta Sanchez and her sister Linda to the United States House of Representatives. They are the first sisters elected to serve in Congress at the same time. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The parents of the Sanchez sisters came to the United States from Mexico. They raised seven children who all graduated from college. Alan Jackson accepts award for Male Vocalist of the Year(Courtesy Country Music Association and CBS Television) And report about two sisters recently elected to Congress. Sanchez Sisters HOST: Earlier this month, the voters in the western state of California elected Democrats Loretta Sanchez and her sister Linda to the United States House of Representatives. They are the first sisters elected to serve in Congress at the same time. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The parents of the Sanchez sisters came to the United States from Mexico. They raised seven children who all graduated from college. Loretta Sanchez was a businesswoman before she decided to enter politics. At first, she was a Democratic Party candidate for local office, but lost. Then the party nominated her for a congressional seat from Orange County, California. Orange County is known for its conservative politics. In a surprise victory, Mizz Sanchez defeated conservative Republican Congressman Robert Dornan in nineteen-ninety-six. Voters re-elected her in nineteen-ninety-eight and again two years later. Linda Sanchez is thirty-three, nine years younger than her sister Loretta. Linda Sanchez became a lawyer in nineteen-ninety-five. She gained experience in civil rights cases and employment law. She helped with her sister’s political campaigns in nineteen-ninety-six and nineteen-ninety-eight. Linda Sanchez worked for two labor unions that represent electrical workers. She became an active member of one of the unions. She also was a top official with Orange County’s Central Labor Council. This year, the Democrats nominated her as their candidate for a seat in a newly-created Congressional district. Many workers and Spanish-speaking Americans live in the area. The two sisters worked together to win the support of voters. They also received help from their mother, Maria Sanchez. She recorded messages in Spanish for local television stations. She urged people to vote for her daughters. Linda Sanchez’s Republican opponent criticized the television campaign. However, it was a success. Linda Sanchez won fifty-five percent of the vote. Loretta Sanchez received more than sixty percent of the vote in her re-election effort. On election night, the sisters held a joint party to celebrate the election results and their unusual place in history. Madeleine Albright HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Le Thi Bich Tu wants to know more about Madeleine Albright. She was Secretary of State during the second term of President Bill Clinton. Madeleine Korbel Albright was born in Czechoslovakia. She and her family came to the United States in nineteen-forty-eight. She completed programs of study at several American universities. Then she worked for a Democratic senator from the state of Maine, Edmund Muskie. She later worked for President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council. After President Carter was defeated for re-election, Mizz Albright became a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D-C. She also helped develop programs designed to increase the number of diplomatic positions for women. Mizz Albright’s ties with the Democratic Party strengthened in the nineteen-eighties. She served as a foreign policy adviser to presidential candidates Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. And she advised Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton when he was a candidate for President. After Mister Clinton’s election, Mizz Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She was a member of the President’s cabinet and National Security Council. In nineteen-ninety-seven, Mizz Albright became America’s first female Secretary of State. She was the highest level female official in the history of the United States government. She served as Secretary of State until the end of Mister Clinton’s presidency. Madeleine Albright is again a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She also teaches at the University of Michigan School of Business. And she is chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. The Institute’s goal is to strengthen and expand democracy around the world. Mizz Albright continues to speak out about the importance of democracy. She has warned the Bush administration against being in a hurry to launch a war with Iraq. She says the United States needs to finish its work in Afghanistan before dealing with Iraq. She also has spoken out about the importance of having support from international allies. Some people in government have criticized those who question a possible war. Mizz Albright says it is her duty as an American to ask questions. Country Music Awards HOST: The Country Music Association presented its yearly awards earlier this month. Singer Alan Jackson was the big winner this year, receiving five major awards. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Alan Jackson had been nominated for ten awards this year. He won his second entertainer of the year award. He also won song of the year, single record of the year, album of the year and male singer of the year. This song, “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning,” was honored as song of the year and single record of the year. Jackson wrote it after the September eleventh terrorist attacks against the United States. (MUSIC) The members of the Country Music Association named Martina McBride the female singer of the year. She won the same award in nineteen-ninety-nine. Listen to Martina McBride’s new record, “Concrete Angel.” (MUSIC) The Country Music Association gave Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn the vocal duo of the year award. The two-man group has won many awards, including entertainer of the year three times. Brooks and Dunn have had eighteen top country music hits. They have sold more than twenty-two-million records. We leave you now with Brooks and Dunn’s recording of “Good Girls Go To Heaven.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Loretta Sanchez was a businesswoman before she decided to enter politics. At first, she was a Democratic Party candidate for local office, but lost. Then the party nominated her for a congressional seat from Orange County, California. Orange County is known for its conservative politics. In a surprise victory, Mizz Sanchez defeated conservative Republican Congressman Robert Dornan in nineteen-ninety-six. Voters re-elected her in nineteen-ninety-eight and again two years later. Linda Sanchez is thirty-three, nine years younger than her sister Loretta. Linda Sanchez became a lawyer in nineteen-ninety-five. She gained experience in civil rights cases and employment law. She helped with her sister’s political campaigns in nineteen-ninety-six and nineteen-ninety-eight. Linda Sanchez worked for two labor unions that represent electrical workers. She became an active member of one of the unions. She also was a top official with Orange County’s Central Labor Council. This year, the Democrats nominated her as their candidate for a seat in a newly-created Congressional district. Many workers and Spanish-speaking Americans live in the area. The two sisters worked together to win the support of voters. They also received help from their mother, Maria Sanchez. She recorded messages in Spanish for local television stations. She urged people to vote for her daughters. Linda Sanchez’s Republican opponent criticized the television campaign. However, it was a success. Linda Sanchez won fifty-five percent of the vote. Loretta Sanchez received more than sixty percent of the vote in her re-election effort. On election night, the sisters held a joint party to celebrate the election results and their unusual place in history. Madeleine Albright HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Le Thi Bich Tu wants to know more about Madeleine Albright. She was Secretary of State during the second term of President Bill Clinton. Madeleine Korbel Albright was born in Czechoslovakia. She and her family came to the United States in nineteen-forty-eight. She completed programs of study at several American universities. Then she worked for a Democratic senator from the state of Maine, Edmund Muskie. She later worked for President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council. After President Carter was defeated for re-election, Mizz Albright became a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D-C. She also helped develop programs designed to increase the number of diplomatic positions for women. Mizz Albright’s ties with the Democratic Party strengthened in the nineteen-eighties. She served as a foreign policy adviser to presidential candidates Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. And she advised Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton when he was a candidate for President. After Mister Clinton’s election, Mizz Albright served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She was a member of the President’s cabinet and National Security Council. In nineteen-ninety-seven, Mizz Albright became America’s first female Secretary of State. She was the highest level female official in the history of the United States government. She served as Secretary of State until the end of Mister Clinton’s presidency. Madeleine Albright is again a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She also teaches at the University of Michigan School of Business. And she is chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. The Institute’s goal is to strengthen and expand democracy around the world. Mizz Albright continues to speak out about the importance of democracy. She has warned the Bush administration against being in a hurry to launch a war with Iraq. She says the United States needs to finish its work in Afghanistan before dealing with Iraq. She also has spoken out about the importance of having support from international allies. Some people in government have criticized those who question a possible war. Mizz Albright says it is her duty as an American to ask questions. Country Music Awards HOST: The Country Music Association presented its yearly awards earlier this month. Singer Alan Jackson was the big winner this year, receiving five major awards. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: Alan Jackson had been nominated for ten awards this year. He won his second entertainer of the year award. He also won song of the year, single record of the year, album of the year and male singer of the year. This song, “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning,” was honored as song of the year and single record of the year. Jackson wrote it after the September eleventh terrorist attacks against the United States. (MUSIC) The members of the Country Music Association named Martina McBride the female singer of the year. She won the same award in nineteen-ninety-nine. Listen to Martina McBride’s new record, “Concrete Angel.” (MUSIC) The Country Music Association gave Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn the vocal duo of the year award. The two-man group has won many awards, including entertainer of the year three times. Brooks and Dunn have had eighteen top country music hits. They have sold more than twenty-two-million records. We leave you now with Brooks and Dunn’s recording of “Good Girls Go To Heaven.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: November 21, 2002 - Law and Language
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 21, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster -- language and the law. RS: That's what our guest today writes about in a column for The Green Bag, which calls itself "An Entertaining Journal of Law." David Franklin is a visiting professor at New York's Cardozo Law School, and was a clerk on the U-S Supreme Court. AA: David Franklin says lawyers use words as tools of the trade, but in many cases misuse them. FRANKLIN: "First of all, lawyers have a big tendency to use Latinate rather than Anglo-Saxon words. So they'll say things like 'substantial' and 'significant,' instead of 'big' or 'large' or 'great.' Lawyers like to use words that sound sort of imposing, rather than simple words. So lawyers 'draft' documents instead of 'writing' them, and they 'review' documents instead of 'reading' them. And everything is a 'document,' not a 'book' or a 'paper' or a 'newspaper article.'" AA: "What about the civilian population, those of us who are not lawyers who nevertheless seem to sound like ones when we talk these days." RS: "Are we finding that because the lawyers speak this way, we end up speaking this way?" FRANKLIN: "I think there is some of that, and I'm not exactly sure why that is. Some of it is probably due to all of the crime shows on TV that are so popular. Some of it is probably also due to the fact that a lot of the politicians who monopolize the airwaves are lawyers or former lawyers. "Another bad tendency that lawyers have is to use two words where one will do. So lawyers have a tendency to say things like 'prior to' when they mean 'before,' or 'subsequent to' when they mean ‘after,’ or 'in the event that' where they mean 'if,' or 'with respect to' -- that's a lawyer's favorite, which just means 'about.' So I think there's more and more use of those sorts of circumlocutions by non-lawyers because they hear them around and they're in the air." RS: "I bet freshman English teachers at universities probably cross those words out quite a bit." FRANKLIN: "Yeah, there's probably a lot of red pencils working on those words even as we speak." RS: "Mister Franklin, do you have a pet peeve?" FRANKLIN: "(laughs) That's one of them. I think lawyers have a tendency to use the term 'fails to' to mean simply doesn't or can't. So they'll say 'if you fail to meet your deadline, certain results will follow.' I think that's sort of a fudge word, one of that really means 'if you don't get your paper in, I'll give you an F." AA: "Well, you know what's funny, reporters do that a lot too. You see that in a lot in stories where what would be more appropriate would be to say 'does not' or 'did not.' I mean, 'failed to,' I remember someone pointing out to me, really meant you had made an effort but did not succeed." FRANKLIN: "Right, 'I failed to get my golf score down to a zero handicap' -- meaning I tried but didn't get there. Another pet peeve that I have is nominalizations. And I think lawyers do lead the way in this bad direction. Lawyers have a tendency to convert verbs into nouns. So often we talk about the opposite, where people convert nouns into verbs and they say, you know, 'that movie really impacted me emotionally.' But I think lawyers have the tendency to go in the other direction. So instead of talking about what someone knows, they'll say 'did you have knowledge of Mister Smith's activities? Did you have knowledge of Mister Smith's conduct?" RS: "Instead of did you know about his conduct." FRANKLIN: "'Did you know what Mister Smith was doing?' So they've avoided knowing and doing and they've put them into noun forms, knowledge and activity. Or they'll say 'an adequate justification was not provided for the employee's termination.' Which simply means no one told us why the guy was fired." AA: David Franklin is a visiting professor at the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City, and a contributor to the law journal, The Green Bag. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Talk to My Lawyer"/Chuck Brodsky Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": November 21, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble and this week on Wordmaster -- language and the law. RS: That's what our guest today writes about in a column for The Green Bag, which calls itself "An Entertaining Journal of Law." David Franklin is a visiting professor at New York's Cardozo Law School, and was a clerk on the U-S Supreme Court. AA: David Franklin says lawyers use words as tools of the trade, but in many cases misuse them. FRANKLIN: "First of all, lawyers have a big tendency to use Latinate rather than Anglo-Saxon words. So they'll say things like 'substantial' and 'significant,' instead of 'big' or 'large' or 'great.' Lawyers like to use words that sound sort of imposing, rather than simple words. So lawyers 'draft' documents instead of 'writing' them, and they 'review' documents instead of 'reading' them. And everything is a 'document,' not a 'book' or a 'paper' or a 'newspaper article.'" AA: "What about the civilian population, those of us who are not lawyers who nevertheless seem to sound like ones when we talk these days." RS: "Are we finding that because the lawyers speak this way, we end up speaking this way?" FRANKLIN: "I think there is some of that, and I'm not exactly sure why that is. Some of it is probably due to all of the crime shows on TV that are so popular. Some of it is probably also due to the fact that a lot of the politicians who monopolize the airwaves are lawyers or former lawyers. "Another bad tendency that lawyers have is to use two words where one will do. So lawyers have a tendency to say things like 'prior to' when they mean 'before,' or 'subsequent to' when they mean ‘after,’ or 'in the event that' where they mean 'if,' or 'with respect to' -- that's a lawyer's favorite, which just means 'about.' So I think there's more and more use of those sorts of circumlocutions by non-lawyers because they hear them around and they're in the air." RS: "I bet freshman English teachers at universities probably cross those words out quite a bit." FRANKLIN: "Yeah, there's probably a lot of red pencils working on those words even as we speak." RS: "Mister Franklin, do you have a pet peeve?" FRANKLIN: "(laughs) That's one of them. I think lawyers have a tendency to use the term 'fails to' to mean simply doesn't or can't. So they'll say 'if you fail to meet your deadline, certain results will follow.' I think that's sort of a fudge word, one of that really means 'if you don't get your paper in, I'll give you an F." AA: "Well, you know what's funny, reporters do that a lot too. You see that in a lot in stories where what would be more appropriate would be to say 'does not' or 'did not.' I mean, 'failed to,' I remember someone pointing out to me, really meant you had made an effort but did not succeed." FRANKLIN: "Right, 'I failed to get my golf score down to a zero handicap' -- meaning I tried but didn't get there. Another pet peeve that I have is nominalizations. And I think lawyers do lead the way in this bad direction. Lawyers have a tendency to convert verbs into nouns. So often we talk about the opposite, where people convert nouns into verbs and they say, you know, 'that movie really impacted me emotionally.' But I think lawyers have the tendency to go in the other direction. So instead of talking about what someone knows, they'll say 'did you have knowledge of Mister Smith's activities? Did you have knowledge of Mister Smith's conduct?" RS: "Instead of did you know about his conduct." FRANKLIN: "'Did you know what Mister Smith was doing?' So they've avoided knowing and doing and they've put them into noun forms, knowledge and activity. Or they'll say 'an adequate justification was not provided for the employee's termination.' Which simply means no one told us why the guy was fired." AA: David Franklin is a visiting professor at the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City, and a contributor to the law journal, The Green Bag. RS: And that's Wordmaster for this week. Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "Talk to My Lawyer"/Chuck Brodsky 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 25, 2002: Thanksgiving
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: It is one of America’s most popular holidays. It is a day for expressing thanks for the good things in life, especially family and friends. I’m Mary Tillotson. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade VOICE ONE: It is one of America’s most popular holidays. It is a day for expressing thanks for the good things in life, especially family and friends. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of Thanksgiving is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. The writer O. Henry called it the one holiday that is purely American. Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning. Some Americans attend religious services on the day before Thanksgiving, or on Thanksgiving morning. Others travel long distances to be with their families. They have a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration. For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion. VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving is a celebration of home and family. But not everyone can spend Thanksgiving with their family. For example, Joan and Sandy Horwitt moved to the state of Virginia from their home in the Middle West more than twenty-five years ago. They regretted not being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with all their family members. But soon they met other people who also were separated from their families. So the Horwitts began holding a yearly Thanksgiving dinner for what they called their “extended family.” This included people in their community. All the guests bring food to share for Thanksgiving dinner. The group has grown over the years. Mister and Missus Horwitt now have to add small tables to their large one to make room for all the guests. At first, many of their friends brought their babies and young children. Now some of the first guests soon will be grandparents. VOICE ONE: Like many other Americans, Mister and Missus Horwitt and their visitors enjoy a long day of cooking, eating and talking. The traditional meal usually includes a turkey with a bread mixture cooked inside. Other traditional Thanksgiving foods served with turkey are sweet potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Stores sell more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. And many people eat more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. VOICE TWO: Not everyone cooks a Thanksgiving turkey, however. Some families like other meats. And in recent years a number of American homes have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners. This means no meat will be served. Some people go to public eating places on Thanksgiving. A retired husband and wife in Washington, D.C do this each year. They meet friends at a local restaurant for their holiday dinner. The women say they enjoy the day especially because they do not have to cook. VOICE ONE: Thanksgiving also is a time when Americans share what they have with people who do not have as much. All across America, thousands of religious and service organizations provide Thanksgiving meals for old people, the homeless, and the poor. Some people spend part of the day helping to prepare and serve the meals. Everyone expresses thanks for what they have. Here is some Thanksgiving music by American composer William Schuman. (MUSIC: "BE GLAD AMERICA”) VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The month of November is autumn in the United States, the season for harvesting crops. When the first European settlers in America gathered their crops, they celebrated and gave thanks for the food. Tradition says Pilgrim settlers from England celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Sixteen-Twenty-One. There is evidence that settlers in other parts of America held earlier Thanksgiving celebrations. But the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving story is the most popular. VOICE ONE: The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. They went first to the Netherlands. Then they left that country to establish a colony in North America. The Pilgrims landed in Sixteen-Twenty in what later became known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was difficult. Their first months in America were difficult, too. About one-hundred Pilgrims landed just as autumn was turning to winter. During the cold months that followed, about half of them died. VOICE TWO: When spring came, the pilgrims began to plant crops. A native American Indian named Squanto helped them. When summer ended, the Pilgrims had a good harvest of corn and barley. There was enough food to last through the winter. The Pilgrims decided to hold a celebration to give thanks for their harvest. Writings from that time say Pilgrim leader William Bradford set a date late in the year. He invited members of a nearby Indian tribe to take part. VOICE ONE: That Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. There were many kinds of food to eat. The meal included wild birds such as ducks, geese and turkeys. The Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving again until two years later. That celebration marked the end of a period of dry weather that had almost destroyed their crops. Historians believe the Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving in July. As the American colonies grew, many towns and settlements held Thanksgiving or harvest celebrations. Yet it was not until about two-hundred-fifty-years later that a national day for Thanksgiving was declared. Here are the Paul Hillier singers with “Thanksgiving Anthem.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The creation of a national Thanksgiving holiday resulted from the efforts of a writer named Sarah Josepha Hale. In the Eighteen-Twenties, she began a campaign to officially establish the holiday. Support for her idea grew slowly. Finally, in Eighteen Sixty-Three, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of Thanksgiving. Later, Congress declared that the holiday would be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and university football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television. Many people also like to watch Thanksgiving Day parades on television. Big stores in several cities organize these marches. But for many Americans, Thanksgiving is a time for memories. Former Special English writer and broadcaster Richard Thorman liked to remember the Thanksgivings when he was a young child. His family always ate a large dinner in the afternoon. Then the men would rest. Later, the family would eat again. Here is one young boy’s Thanksgiving memory: VOICE TWO: “In the early evening, when the outside light had begun to fade, the men would start to reappear. Then the food began to reappear. And everyone sat at the table and ate again as if no food had been served before. I never knew how the Thanksgiving celebration ended. I usually was asleep and had to be carried to the car for the long ride home.” VOICE ONE: On Thanksgiving, Americans gather with family and friends. We share what we have. And we give thanks for the good things of the past year. Here is the Boston Pops Orchestra and chorus performing “Prayer of Thanksgiving.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. The story of Thanksgiving is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. The writer O. Henry called it the one holiday that is purely American. Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning. Some Americans attend religious services on the day before Thanksgiving, or on Thanksgiving morning. Others travel long distances to be with their families. They have a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration. For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion. VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving is a celebration of home and family. But not everyone can spend Thanksgiving with their family. For example, Joan and Sandy Horwitt moved to the state of Virginia from their home in the Middle West more than twenty-five years ago. They regretted not being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with all their family members. But soon they met other people who also were separated from their families. So the Horwitts began holding a yearly Thanksgiving dinner for what they called their “extended family.” This included people in their community. All the guests bring food to share for Thanksgiving dinner. The group has grown over the years. Mister and Missus Horwitt now have to add small tables to their large one to make room for all the guests. At first, many of their friends brought their babies and young children. Now some of the first guests soon will be grandparents. VOICE ONE: Like many other Americans, Mister and Missus Horwitt and their visitors enjoy a long day of cooking, eating and talking. The traditional meal usually includes a turkey with a bread mixture cooked inside. Other traditional Thanksgiving foods served with turkey are sweet potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Stores sell more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. And many people eat more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. VOICE TWO: Not everyone cooks a Thanksgiving turkey, however. Some families like other meats. And in recent years a number of American homes have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners. This means no meat will be served. Some people go to public eating places on Thanksgiving. A retired husband and wife in Washington, D.C do this each year. They meet friends at a local restaurant for their holiday dinner. The women say they enjoy the day especially because they do not have to cook. VOICE ONE: Thanksgiving also is a time when Americans share what they have with people who do not have as much. All across America, thousands of religious and service organizations provide Thanksgiving meals for old people, the homeless, and the poor. Some people spend part of the day helping to prepare and serve the meals. Everyone expresses thanks for what they have. Here is some Thanksgiving music by American composer William Schuman. (MUSIC: "BE GLAD AMERICA”) VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The month of November is autumn in the United States, the season for harvesting crops. When the first European settlers in America gathered their crops, they celebrated and gave thanks for the food. Tradition says Pilgrim settlers from England celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Sixteen-Twenty-One. There is evidence that settlers in other parts of America held earlier Thanksgiving celebrations. But the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving story is the most popular. VOICE ONE: The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. They went first to the Netherlands. Then they left that country to establish a colony in North America. The Pilgrims landed in Sixteen-Twenty in what later became known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was difficult. Their first months in America were difficult, too. About one-hundred Pilgrims landed just as autumn was turning to winter. During the cold months that followed, about half of them died. VOICE TWO: When spring came, the pilgrims began to plant crops. A native American Indian named Squanto helped them. When summer ended, the Pilgrims had a good harvest of corn and barley. There was enough food to last through the winter. The Pilgrims decided to hold a celebration to give thanks for their harvest. Writings from that time say Pilgrim leader William Bradford set a date late in the year. He invited members of a nearby Indian tribe to take part. VOICE ONE: That Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. There were many kinds of food to eat. The meal included wild birds such as ducks, geese and turkeys. The Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving again until two years later. That celebration marked the end of a period of dry weather that had almost destroyed their crops. Historians believe the Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving in July. As the American colonies grew, many towns and settlements held Thanksgiving or harvest celebrations. Yet it was not until about two-hundred-fifty-years later that a national day for Thanksgiving was declared. Here are the Paul Hillier singers with “Thanksgiving Anthem.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: The creation of a national Thanksgiving holiday resulted from the efforts of a writer named Sarah Josepha Hale. In the Eighteen-Twenties, she began a campaign to officially establish the holiday. Support for her idea grew slowly. Finally, in Eighteen Sixty-Three, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of Thanksgiving. Later, Congress declared that the holiday would be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and university football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television. Many people also like to watch Thanksgiving Day parades on television. Big stores in several cities organize these marches. But for many Americans, Thanksgiving is a time for memories. Former Special English writer and broadcaster Richard Thorman liked to remember the Thanksgivings when he was a young child. His family always ate a large dinner in the afternoon. Then the men would rest. Later, the family would eat again. Here is one young boy’s Thanksgiving memory: VOICE TWO: “In the early evening, when the outside light had begun to fade, the men would start to reappear. Then the food began to reappear. And everyone sat at the table and ate again as if no food had been served before. I never knew how the Thanksgiving celebration ended. I usually was asleep and had to be carried to the car for the long ride home.” VOICE ONE: On Thanksgiving, Americans gather with family and friends. We share what we have. And we give thanks for the good things of the past year. Here is the Boston Pops Orchestra and chorus performing “Prayer of Thanksgiving.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 24, 2002: Walt Whitman, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And this is Doug Johnson with the Special English program, People in America. Today, we complete our report about the life and work of nineteenth-century American poet Walt Whitman. (Theme) VOICE 1: Last week we told about how Walt Whitman published his book of poems, "Leaves of Grass," in eighteen-fifty-five. He was thirty-six years old. "Leaves of Grass" was written in a new poetic language as natural as breath. Whitman had created a new kind of poetry, the first true American poetry. Narrator: "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars, "And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren ... "And the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue ... " VOICE 2: Whitman's poetry praises and celebrates the natural world of plants, animals, humans, rocks, stars and oceans. The long poem "Song of Myself" is his most famous. It begins: Narrator: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, "And what I assume you shall assume, "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you ... "The atmosphere is not a perfume ... it is odorless, "It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, "I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, "I am mad for it to be in contact with me. "The smoke of my own breath ... "My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs ... " VOICE 1: Some years ago, critic Malcolm Cowley wrote about how Walt Whitman became a poet. It was a mystery, he said. It happened almost overnight. Cowley said he believes Whitman's need to write poetry developed as he came to recognize his sexual nature. Whitman was homosexual; he loved men. As a poet of praise he wanted to praise his own true nature. But he also wanted to remain partly hidden and protected. So his language sometimes is direct and sometimes is not. Narrator: "I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you, "And you must not be abased to the other ... "I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning, "How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned over upon me, "And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare stripped heart ... " VOICE 2: To some British readers, Whitman's poetry sounded like the true voice of Americans. It was free and powerful. It was common and sweet as the open air. British writer Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that "Leaves of Grass" turned the world upside down for him. Yet most readers in Britain and the United States rejected Whitman. Many were shocked by the poetry's new form and open sexuality. Many booksellers refused to sell "Leaves of Grass". Most leading critics dismissed it. Whitman's brother even criticized the poetry. "Walt," he said, "hasn't the world made it plain that it would rather not have your book. Why then don't you call the game off." VOICE 1: America's civil war began in eighteen-sixty-one. The Southern states had broken away to protect their rights against the central government. They especially wanted to protect their legal right to own black slaves. The Northern states fought the South to save the Union and free the slaves. Walt Whitman had worked for many years for newspapers and groups that wanted the black man to be free. He believed that all people are equal in their humanity. So he supported the northern cause. But at forty-one years of age, he was too old to fight. His younger brother George, however, joined immediately. VOICE 2: In the second year of the war, a big battle was fought near Fredericksburg, Virginia. George Whitman was an officer in the union forces at Fredericksburg. Walt and his mother worried that George might have been wounded in the battle. So Walt went to look for George among the wounded. He looked for his brother at hospitals in Washington, the nation's capital. He did not find his brother there, so he traveled to Fredericksburg. His brother had been wounded, but not seriously. George asked Walt to stay at the camp for a few days. Walt stayed more than a week, helping care for the wounded. He even helped bury some of the dead. VOICE 1: Walt found satisfaction in what he was doing. He decided to spend time in Washington helping where he could. There were few nurses or visitors there. And there were hundreds of injured and dying soldiers at army hospitals. Walt Whitman was a tall, strong man. He was calm and kind. He sat beside the sick and dying men for hours. He wrote letters for them. He gave them water to drink. He brought them gifts of food and money. He hoped that his support and care would help some men to survive. VOICE 2: Whitman received no pay for his work among the wounded. He needed money to live in Washington. A friend found him a part-time job in the army pay office, copying papers for a few hours a day. The pay was low. But Whitman did not need much money. For three hours each morning, he worked at the pay office. Then he went to one of the many hospitals in the city to visit the wounded. Around four in the afternoon he usually left to eat his dinner. Then he would return to the hospital, staying until nine or ten at night. VOICE 1: Whitman often saw President Abraham Lincoln riding his horse between the White House and a home for soldiers just outside Washington. Whitman wrote: "Mr. Lincoln wears a black stiff hat, and looks as ordinary in dress as the commonest man. I see very clearly Lincoln's dark brown face, with the deep-cut lines ... The eyes, always to me, with a deep hidden sadness. We have got so that we exchange bows, very friendly ones. " In March, eighteen-sixty-four, Lincoln was sworn in as president for the second time. Whitman was in the crowd of thousands who watched the ceremony. VOICE 2: The days following the inauguration were beautiful spring days. The terrible Civil War was ending. Whitman wrote about the beautiful spring weather that made lilacs and other spring flowers bloom early. The nights were especially nice, he said. And a star in the western sky seemed to glow especially bright, as if it had something to tell the world. On the Friday before Easter, Whitman and the nation learned that Lincoln had been shot and killed. Whitman felt a deep personal loss. Slowly he built the poem he called "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." This is how it begins: Narrator: "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, "And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night, "I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. "O powerful western fallen star! ... "Here, coffin that slowly passes, "I give you my sprig of lilac." VOICE 1: Critic Malcolm Cowley wrote that Whitman's best poems seem to have been made just this morning. They seem freshly painted. And they make us see the world in a new way. VOICE 2: Whitman's last years were troubled by poverty and increasing sickness. He continued to write poetry. Every few years, he published a new edition of "Leaves of Grass", putting in new poems. Sales of the book increased a little. But few Americans recognized Whitman's greatness. In Britain, however, he was seen as the outstanding voice of the new world. Whitman's health began to fail when he was in his early fifties. He went to camden, New Jersey to live with his brother George. It was a lonely life in a strange town. To keep himself busy, Whitman wrote for New York newspapers and magazines. And he added more lines to "Leaves of Grass." Walt Whitman did not fear death, which came in eighteen-ninety-two. He was seventy-three. Many years earlier he had written: narrator: "And as to you, death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me ... "I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun ... "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, "If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles. "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, "But I shall be good health to you nevertheless. ... " (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman and Carolyn Weaver. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Rich Kleinfeldt read the poetry. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another People in America program on VOA. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And this is Doug Johnson with the Special English program, People in America. Today, we complete our report about the life and work of nineteenth-century American poet Walt Whitman. (Theme) VOICE 1: Last week we told about how Walt Whitman published his book of poems, "Leaves of Grass," in eighteen-fifty-five. He was thirty-six years old. "Leaves of Grass" was written in a new poetic language as natural as breath. Whitman had created a new kind of poetry, the first true American poetry. Narrator: "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars, "And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren ... "And the cow crunching with depressed head surpasses any statue ... " VOICE 2: Whitman's poetry praises and celebrates the natural world of plants, animals, humans, rocks, stars and oceans. The long poem "Song of Myself" is his most famous. It begins: Narrator: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, "And what I assume you shall assume, "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you ... "The atmosphere is not a perfume ... it is odorless, "It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it, "I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked, "I am mad for it to be in contact with me. "The smoke of my own breath ... "My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs ... " VOICE 1: Some years ago, critic Malcolm Cowley wrote about how Walt Whitman became a poet. It was a mystery, he said. It happened almost overnight. Cowley said he believes Whitman's need to write poetry developed as he came to recognize his sexual nature. Whitman was homosexual; he loved men. As a poet of praise he wanted to praise his own true nature. But he also wanted to remain partly hidden and protected. So his language sometimes is direct and sometimes is not. Narrator: "I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you, "And you must not be abased to the other ... "I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning, "How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turned over upon me, "And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your tongue to my bare stripped heart ... " VOICE 2: To some British readers, Whitman's poetry sounded like the true voice of Americans. It was free and powerful. It was common and sweet as the open air. British writer Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that "Leaves of Grass" turned the world upside down for him. Yet most readers in Britain and the United States rejected Whitman. Many were shocked by the poetry's new form and open sexuality. Many booksellers refused to sell "Leaves of Grass". Most leading critics dismissed it. Whitman's brother even criticized the poetry. "Walt," he said, "hasn't the world made it plain that it would rather not have your book. Why then don't you call the game off." VOICE 1: America's civil war began in eighteen-sixty-one. The Southern states had broken away to protect their rights against the central government. They especially wanted to protect their legal right to own black slaves. The Northern states fought the South to save the Union and free the slaves. Walt Whitman had worked for many years for newspapers and groups that wanted the black man to be free. He believed that all people are equal in their humanity. So he supported the northern cause. But at forty-one years of age, he was too old to fight. His younger brother George, however, joined immediately. VOICE 2: In the second year of the war, a big battle was fought near Fredericksburg, Virginia. George Whitman was an officer in the union forces at Fredericksburg. Walt and his mother worried that George might have been wounded in the battle. So Walt went to look for George among the wounded. He looked for his brother at hospitals in Washington, the nation's capital. He did not find his brother there, so he traveled to Fredericksburg. His brother had been wounded, but not seriously. George asked Walt to stay at the camp for a few days. Walt stayed more than a week, helping care for the wounded. He even helped bury some of the dead. VOICE 1: Walt found satisfaction in what he was doing. He decided to spend time in Washington helping where he could. There were few nurses or visitors there. And there were hundreds of injured and dying soldiers at army hospitals. Walt Whitman was a tall, strong man. He was calm and kind. He sat beside the sick and dying men for hours. He wrote letters for them. He gave them water to drink. He brought them gifts of food and money. He hoped that his support and care would help some men to survive. VOICE 2: Whitman received no pay for his work among the wounded. He needed money to live in Washington. A friend found him a part-time job in the army pay office, copying papers for a few hours a day. The pay was low. But Whitman did not need much money. For three hours each morning, he worked at the pay office. Then he went to one of the many hospitals in the city to visit the wounded. Around four in the afternoon he usually left to eat his dinner. Then he would return to the hospital, staying until nine or ten at night. VOICE 1: Whitman often saw President Abraham Lincoln riding his horse between the White House and a home for soldiers just outside Washington. Whitman wrote: "Mr. Lincoln wears a black stiff hat, and looks as ordinary in dress as the commonest man. I see very clearly Lincoln's dark brown face, with the deep-cut lines ... The eyes, always to me, with a deep hidden sadness. We have got so that we exchange bows, very friendly ones. " In March, eighteen-sixty-four, Lincoln was sworn in as president for the second time. Whitman was in the crowd of thousands who watched the ceremony. VOICE 2: The days following the inauguration were beautiful spring days. The terrible Civil War was ending. Whitman wrote about the beautiful spring weather that made lilacs and other spring flowers bloom early. The nights were especially nice, he said. And a star in the western sky seemed to glow especially bright, as if it had something to tell the world. On the Friday before Easter, Whitman and the nation learned that Lincoln had been shot and killed. Whitman felt a deep personal loss. Slowly he built the poem he called "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." This is how it begins: Narrator: "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, "And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night, "I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. "O powerful western fallen star! ... "Here, coffin that slowly passes, "I give you my sprig of lilac." VOICE 1: Critic Malcolm Cowley wrote that Whitman's best poems seem to have been made just this morning. They seem freshly painted. And they make us see the world in a new way. VOICE 2: Whitman's last years were troubled by poverty and increasing sickness. He continued to write poetry. Every few years, he published a new edition of "Leaves of Grass", putting in new poems. Sales of the book increased a little. But few Americans recognized Whitman's greatness. In Britain, however, he was seen as the outstanding voice of the new world. Whitman's health began to fail when he was in his early fifties. He went to camden, New Jersey to live with his brother George. It was a lonely life in a strange town. To keep himself busy, Whitman wrote for New York newspapers and magazines. And he added more lines to "Leaves of Grass." Walt Whitman did not fear death, which came in eighteen-ninety-two. He was seventy-three. Many years earlier he had written: narrator: "And as to you, death, and you bitter hug of mortality, it is idle to try to alarm me ... "I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun ... "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, "If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles. "You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, "But I shall be good health to you nevertheless. ... " (Theme) VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman and Carolyn Weaver. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Rich Kleinfeldt read the poetry. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Doug Johnson. Listen again next week for another People in America program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 25, 2002: Gates Foundation Fights AIDS in India
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The richest man in the world has given India one-hundred-million dollars to help stop the spread of AIDS. Bill Gates released the gift through a special organization that he and his wife started two years ago. The Gates Foundation is in Seattle, Washington. It is near the headquarters of the Microsoft computer company that Mister Gates started and operates. The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest not-for-profit organizations in the world. It has more than twenty-four-thousand-million dollars. Mister Gates and Microsoft have helped India develop its information technology industry. Bill Gates announced the one-hundred-million dollar gift in November during a visit to New Delhi. During the next five to ten years, the money will be used to support a program in India aimed at slowing the spread of AIDS and H-I-V, virus that causes the disease. The program will increase AIDS prevention services to people who continually move across state borders. This population includes truck drivers, builders and people who travel from job to job. Health officials believe this group of people carries the H-I-V virus from state to state. They say it is important to treat this mobile population so that the spread of H-I-V to the general public can be prevented. The Gates Foundation gift will also help support the work of several government ministries, including Health and Family Welfare, Railways and Labor. India’s government-run AIDS control program will also receive some support. Health experts believe that H-I-V infections in India could increase sharply if prevention plans are not put into effect. This could have harmful effects on the country’s health, economic and social systems. The Indian government estimates about four-million adults and children have H-I-V. United States government reports say India could have as many as twenty-five-million AIDS and H-I-V cases by two-thousand-ten. This would be the highest number of cases in the world. During his visit, Mister Gates said nations that act early enough can prevent the disease from becoming widespread. He said India could be a leader in the world’s fight against AIDS. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The richest man in the world has given India one-hundred-million dollars to help stop the spread of AIDS. Bill Gates released the gift through a special organization that he and his wife started two years ago. The Gates Foundation is in Seattle, Washington. It is near the headquarters of the Microsoft computer company that Mister Gates started and operates. The Gates Foundation is one of the biggest not-for-profit organizations in the world. It has more than twenty-four-thousand-million dollars. Mister Gates and Microsoft have helped India develop its information technology industry. Bill Gates announced the one-hundred-million dollar gift in November during a visit to New Delhi. During the next five to ten years, the money will be used to support a program in India aimed at slowing the spread of AIDS and H-I-V, virus that causes the disease. The program will increase AIDS prevention services to people who continually move across state borders. This population includes truck drivers, builders and people who travel from job to job. Health officials believe this group of people carries the H-I-V virus from state to state. They say it is important to treat this mobile population so that the spread of H-I-V to the general public can be prevented. The Gates Foundation gift will also help support the work of several government ministries, including Health and Family Welfare, Railways and Labor. India’s government-run AIDS control program will also receive some support. Health experts believe that H-I-V infections in India could increase sharply if prevention plans are not put into effect. This could have harmful effects on the country’s health, economic and social systems. The Indian government estimates about four-million adults and children have H-I-V. United States government reports say India could have as many as twenty-five-million AIDS and H-I-V cases by two-thousand-ten. This would be the highest number of cases in the world. During his visit, Mister Gates said nations that act early enough can prevent the disease from becoming widespread. He said India could be a leader in the world’s fight against AIDS. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 23, 2002: NATO Meeting
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, IN THE NEWS. Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in Prague this week. NATO member nations officially invited seven countries in eastern and central Europe to join the alliance. The proposed expansion would be NATO’s biggest since the end of the Soviet Union. The nineteen current members asked Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to join the alliance. Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia also were asked. Those invited are expected to join NATO in Two-Thousand-Four. President Bush spoke to the heads of state and government gathered at the Prague meeting. The president said that adding the seven countries would strengthen the alliance. He said the struggle these areas once faced under Soviet control would bring a moral clearness to NATO. He said their inclusion supports the idea of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace. Czech President Vaclav Havel said NATO’s expansion would end what he called the unnatural divide between western Europe and former Soviet allies. British Prime Minister Tony Blair also praised the expansion. He called it a major step toward improving European security. French President Jacques Chirac made similar comments. The countries asked to become NATO members are celebrating the event. Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha said the invitation was one of the most important events in modern Bulgarian history. Romanian President Ion Iliescu said his country’s invitation represents a total break with the past. He said joining the Alliance is a major step forward. NATO established requirements for countries seeking to become members. These include policies for military spending, rules for secure communications and civilian control of defense operations. NATO countries also have made clear the need for reforms in such areas as human rights, press freedoms and the fight against economic wrongdoing. Leaders at the Prague meeting made decisions on several other issues. They agreed to create a new security force that can be deployed more quickly than other NATO troops. The twenty-thousand member force will be trained in war operations to deal with possible terrorist threats. The leaders said they would re-organize the Alliance’s command structure. They also declared their support for efforts to disarm Iraq. Several NATO members said they planned to increase military spending and provide better equipment to the Alliance. They say improvements will be made to heavy transport aircraft, guided weapons and protection against chemical and biological weapons. President Bush flew to Russia Friday and met with President Vladimir Putin. After their talks, Mister Putin said Russia still believes that NATO’s expansion is unnecessary. Yet he also said Russia is prepared to increase its cooperation with the alliance. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - November 26, 2002: Dental Health
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about diseases of the teeth and gums, and ways to prevent and treat them. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: People have been troubled by tooth and gum problems for thousands of years. The earliest record of dental treatment comes from ancient Egypt. Books say the Egyptians treated gum swelling by using a substance made of spices and onions. The earliest known person to treat tooth problems was also from Egypt. He lived about five-thousand years ago. He was known as a “doctor of the tooth.” Experts say Chinese people living almost five-thousand years ago treated tooth pain by acupuncture -- placing small sharp needles in different parts of the body. About one-thousand-three-hundred years ago, the Chinese filled holes in the teeth with a mixture of the metals mercury, silver and tin. That was almost one-thousand years before a similar substance was first used in western countries. Some ancient people like the Maya did not treat dental disease. But they made their teeth pretty by placing pieces of stone and metal on them. VOICE TWO: The ancient Romans were careful about keeping their teeth clean. More than two-thousand years ago, the Romans treated toothaches, filled holes in teeth, and made false teeth to replace those that had been lost. From the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, Europeans with tooth problems went to people called barber-surgeons. These people performed many services, including cutting hair, pulling teeth and treating medical conditions. Dental treatment improved during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as doctors increased their knowledge about teeth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Modern dentistry began in the seventeen-hundreds in France. That was when Pierre Fauchard published his book called "The Surgeon Dentist." It was the first book about dental science. The book provided information about dental problems for other dentists to use. And it described ways to keep teeth healthy. Pierre Fauchard is considered the father of modern dentistry. His work was important in helping establish dentistry as a separate profession. Organized dentistry began in eighteen-forty. That is when the world’s first dental school opened in the American city of Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later, a dentist first used drugs to ease the pain during dental work. Two years after that, another dentist publicly demonstrated the use of the gas, ether, as a way to reduce pain. And in eighteen-fifty-eight, another American dentist invented a dental drill that was powered by stepping on a device. This machine made it possible for dentists to use both hands when working in a patient’s mouth. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-ninety, an American scientist showed that bacteria in the mouth act on sugars that remain on the teeth after eating. This action creates acid that damages the tooth. The damage appears as a hole in the tooth. It is called a cavity. The part of the tooth that has been destroyed by the acid is inside the cavity. It is known as tooth decay. Tooth decay is common in the United States and around the world. Dental professionals say the acid remaining in the mouth must be removed before it destroys the outer covering of the teeth. Dentists say the best thing people can do for their teeth is to keep them clean. After eating, people should use a toothbrush or other device to clean the teeth. Then they should use a thin string or dental floss to remove particles of food between the teeth. Visiting a dentist every six months can help keep the teeth healthy and prevent cavities. VOICE ONE: Experts say the greatest improvement in dental health during the twentieth century began in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Dentists in the small western town of Colorado Springs, Colorado found that children there had low rates of tooth decay. They discovered that the town’s water supply contained fluoride, an element found in rocks and minerals. Public health researchers thought that adding fluoride to water in other American cities could reduce the rates of tooth decay. In Nineteen-Forty-Five, a test program began in the middle western state of Michigan. Ten years later, results showed a fifty to seventy percent reduction in cavities in the children who drank water containing fluoride. Since then, many studies have confirmed the value of fluoride. Today, most of the American water supply contains fluoride. And international health organizations, including the World Health Organization, support water fluoridation programs. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Decay is not the only disease that can cause tooth loss. Another serious disease affects the gums, the tissue that surrounds the teeth. It is also caused by bacteria. If the bacteria are not removed every day, they form a substance that stays on the teeth. This substance is known as plaque. At first, the gums appear to be swollen, and may bleed when the teeth are brushed. This can lead to serious infection of the tissue around the teeth. The infection may damage the bone that supports the teeth and cause tooth loss and other health problems. Studies have found that people with severe gum disease have an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Gum disease can be treated by a special dentist called a periodontist. Periodontists are trained to repair the gum areas that have been damaged. This can be painful and costly. Dental health experts say the best thing to do is to stop gum disease before it starts. The way to do this is to clean the teeth every day. People also should use dental floss to remove plaque from between the teeth. Most experts also agree that another way to prevent tooth and gum problems is to eat foods high in calcium and vitamins and low in sugar. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists continue to develop better dental treatments and equipment. Improved technology may change the way people receive dental treatment in the future. For example, dentists are now using laser light to treat diseased gums and teeth. Dentists use computer technology to help them repair damaged teeth. Researchers have developed improved methods to repair bone that supports the teeth. And genetic research is expected to develop tests that will show the presence of disease-causing bacteria in the mouth. Such increased knowledge about dental diseases and ways to prevent them has improved the health of many people. Yet problems remain in some areas. In industrial countries, minorities and other groups have a high level of untreated dental disease. In developing countries, many areas do not have even emergency care services. The World Health Organization says people in countries in Africa have the most tooth and gum problems. VOICE TWO: World Health organization experts say the dental health situation is different for almost every country in the world. As a result, it has developed oral health programs separately for each area. The W-H-O oral health program is mainly for people living in poor areas. It provides them with information about mouth diseases and health care. It also studies preventive programs using fluoride in water, salt, milk and toothpaste. And it explores ways to include dental health in national health care systems. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many governments and other organizations provide help so people can get needed dental health services. But dental health professionals say people should take good care of their teeth and gums. They say people should keep their teeth as clean as possible. They should eat foods high in calcium and fiber. These include milk products, whole grain breads and cereals, vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts. Recent studies have shown that eating nuts can help slow the production of plaque on the teeth. Experts say these activities will help everyone improve their dental health throughout their lives. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about diseases of the teeth and gums, and ways to prevent and treat them. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: People have been troubled by tooth and gum problems for thousands of years. The earliest record of dental treatment comes from ancient Egypt. Books say the Egyptians treated gum swelling by using a substance made of spices and onions. The earliest known person to treat tooth problems was also from Egypt. He lived about five-thousand years ago. He was known as a “doctor of the tooth.” Experts say Chinese people living almost five-thousand years ago treated tooth pain by acupuncture -- placing small sharp needles in different parts of the body. About one-thousand-three-hundred years ago, the Chinese filled holes in the teeth with a mixture of the metals mercury, silver and tin. That was almost one-thousand years before a similar substance was first used in western countries. Some ancient people like the Maya did not treat dental disease. But they made their teeth pretty by placing pieces of stone and metal on them. VOICE TWO: The ancient Romans were careful about keeping their teeth clean. More than two-thousand years ago, the Romans treated toothaches, filled holes in teeth, and made false teeth to replace those that had been lost. From the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, Europeans with tooth problems went to people called barber-surgeons. These people performed many services, including cutting hair, pulling teeth and treating medical conditions. Dental treatment improved during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as doctors increased their knowledge about teeth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Modern dentistry began in the seventeen-hundreds in France. That was when Pierre Fauchard published his book called "The Surgeon Dentist." It was the first book about dental science. The book provided information about dental problems for other dentists to use. And it described ways to keep teeth healthy. Pierre Fauchard is considered the father of modern dentistry. His work was important in helping establish dentistry as a separate profession. Organized dentistry began in eighteen-forty. That is when the world’s first dental school opened in the American city of Baltimore, Maryland. Four years later, a dentist first used drugs to ease the pain during dental work. Two years after that, another dentist publicly demonstrated the use of the gas, ether, as a way to reduce pain. And in eighteen-fifty-eight, another American dentist invented a dental drill that was powered by stepping on a device. This machine made it possible for dentists to use both hands when working in a patient’s mouth. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-ninety, an American scientist showed that bacteria in the mouth act on sugars that remain on the teeth after eating. This action creates acid that damages the tooth. The damage appears as a hole in the tooth. It is called a cavity. The part of the tooth that has been destroyed by the acid is inside the cavity. It is known as tooth decay. Tooth decay is common in the United States and around the world. Dental professionals say the acid remaining in the mouth must be removed before it destroys the outer covering of the teeth. Dentists say the best thing people can do for their teeth is to keep them clean. After eating, people should use a toothbrush or other device to clean the teeth. Then they should use a thin string or dental floss to remove particles of food between the teeth. Visiting a dentist every six months can help keep the teeth healthy and prevent cavities. VOICE ONE: Experts say the greatest improvement in dental health during the twentieth century began in the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. Dentists in the small western town of Colorado Springs, Colorado found that children there had low rates of tooth decay. They discovered that the town’s water supply contained fluoride, an element found in rocks and minerals. Public health researchers thought that adding fluoride to water in other American cities could reduce the rates of tooth decay. In Nineteen-Forty-Five, a test program began in the middle western state of Michigan. Ten years later, results showed a fifty to seventy percent reduction in cavities in the children who drank water containing fluoride. Since then, many studies have confirmed the value of fluoride. Today, most of the American water supply contains fluoride. And international health organizations, including the World Health Organization, support water fluoridation programs. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Decay is not the only disease that can cause tooth loss. Another serious disease affects the gums, the tissue that surrounds the teeth. It is also caused by bacteria. If the bacteria are not removed every day, they form a substance that stays on the teeth. This substance is known as plaque. At first, the gums appear to be swollen, and may bleed when the teeth are brushed. This can lead to serious infection of the tissue around the teeth. The infection may damage the bone that supports the teeth and cause tooth loss and other health problems. Studies have found that people with severe gum disease have an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and stroke. Gum disease can be treated by a special dentist called a periodontist. Periodontists are trained to repair the gum areas that have been damaged. This can be painful and costly. Dental health experts say the best thing to do is to stop gum disease before it starts. The way to do this is to clean the teeth every day. People also should use dental floss to remove plaque from between the teeth. Most experts also agree that another way to prevent tooth and gum problems is to eat foods high in calcium and vitamins and low in sugar. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists continue to develop better dental treatments and equipment. Improved technology may change the way people receive dental treatment in the future. For example, dentists are now using laser light to treat diseased gums and teeth. Dentists use computer technology to help them repair damaged teeth. Researchers have developed improved methods to repair bone that supports the teeth. And genetic research is expected to develop tests that will show the presence of disease-causing bacteria in the mouth. Such increased knowledge about dental diseases and ways to prevent them has improved the health of many people. Yet problems remain in some areas. In industrial countries, minorities and other groups have a high level of untreated dental disease. In developing countries, many areas do not have even emergency care services. The World Health Organization says people in countries in Africa have the most tooth and gum problems. VOICE TWO: World Health organization experts say the dental health situation is different for almost every country in the world. As a result, it has developed oral health programs separately for each area. The W-H-O oral health program is mainly for people living in poor areas. It provides them with information about mouth diseases and health care. It also studies preventive programs using fluoride in water, salt, milk and toothpaste. And it explores ways to include dental health in national health care systems. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Many governments and other organizations provide help so people can get needed dental health services. But dental health professionals say people should take good care of their teeth and gums. They say people should keep their teeth as clean as possible. They should eat foods high in calcium and fiber. These include milk products, whole grain breads and cereals, vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts. Recent studies have shown that eating nuts can help slow the production of plaque on the teeth. Experts say these activities will help everyone improve their dental health throughout their lives. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — November 26, 2002: Corn, Part 1
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Corn is an important crop in many parts of the world. However, some people are concerned that corn has become too important in agricultural planning and production. Vaccination worker walks to remote settlement This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Corn is an important crop in many parts of the world. However, some people are concerned that corn has become too important in agricultural planning and production. Michael Pollan is an expert in plants and agriculture. He wrote a popular book called “The Botany of Desire.” The book discusses how humans and plants have developed together. Mister Pollan also has spoken about the use of corn in agriculture and other industries. He says that American farmers grow too much corn. Recently, Mister Pollan spoke to the Christian Science Monitor newspaper. He told the newspaper that corn is popular because it grows well with fertilizer. Today, farmers produce about six times more corn per hectare than farmers did one- hundred years ago. This is the result of new kinds of corn and the use of large amounts of fertilizer. Modern fertilizers can be made in a number of ways. Corn mostly uses fertilizer that is high in nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilizer is made by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas. In the United States, large oil companies produce the chemical base used for nitrogen fertilizer. Researchers for the Department of Agriculture have shown that corn requires about eighty-nine kilograms of fertilizer per hectare. Many crops require less fertilizer. Some crops require just as much. However, corn has lower amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals than other crops. Michael Pollan is an expert in plants and agriculture. He wrote a popular book called “The Botany of Desire.” The book discusses how humans and plants have developed together. Mister Pollan also has spoken about the use of corn in agriculture and other industries. He says that American farmers grow too much corn. Recently, Mister Pollan spoke to the Christian Science Monitor newspaper. He told the newspaper that corn is popular because it grows well with fertilizer. Today, farmers produce about six times more corn per hectare than farmers did one- hundred years ago. This is the result of new kinds of corn and the use of large amounts of fertilizer. Modern fertilizers can be made in a number of ways. Corn mostly uses fertilizer that is high in nitrogen. Nitrogen fertilizer is made by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen from natural gas. In the United States, large oil companies produce the chemical base used for nitrogen fertilizer. Researchers for the Department of Agriculture have shown that corn requires about eighty-nine kilograms of fertilizer per hectare. Many crops require less fertilizer. Some crops require just as much. However, corn has lower amounts of protein, vitamins and minerals than other crops. Corn is used to feed cows for about four months before they are killed for meat. The result is meat, or beef, that is high in fat, which makes the beef taste better. However, cattle do not normally eat grain. Their stomachs and intestines do not process grain well. Instead, their stomachs produce much more acid than is normal. Mister Pollan says this condition permits harmful bacteria to survive and reproduce. For this reason, farmers must give cattle drugs to control bacteria. Also, the meat of corn-fed cattle lacks some nutrients found in the meat of cattle that eat mostly grass. Corn has become the most important grain for feeding cattle raised for beef. Yet, some experts say it is not the best food for cattle. Next week, we will tell about other industrial uses for corn. Some of them may be surprising. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter Corn is used to feed cows for about four months before they are killed for meat. The result is meat, or beef, that is high in fat, which makes the beef taste better. However, cattle do not normally eat grain. Their stomachs and intestines do not process grain well. Instead, their stomachs produce much more acid than is normal. Mister Pollan says this condition permits harmful bacteria to survive and reproduce. For this reason, farmers must give cattle drugs to control bacteria. Also, the meat of corn-fed cattle lacks some nutrients found in the meat of cattle that eat mostly grass. Corn has become the most important grain for feeding cattle raised for beef. Yet, some experts say it is not the best food for cattle. Next week, we will tell about other industrial uses for corn. Some of them may be surprising. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – November 27, 2002: HeartStart Home Defibrillator
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Each year, about two-hundred-twenty-thousand Americans die when their hearts suddenly stop beating without warning. Most of these deaths take place at home. Recently the United States Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency device especially for use in the home. The Philips Electronics’ HeartStart Home Defibrillator uses electricity to restart a failing heart. The defibrillator includes directions for how to use it. The company that makes the device provided the F-D-A with studies showing that people who had never used the HeartStart could operate it. The home defibrillator will cost almost two-thousand-three-hundred dollars. A doctor’s order is required to buy it. People of any age can suffer sudden deadly heart failure. However, the average patient is a man in his sixties. Doctors say the person using the home defibrillator most often would probably be a woman trying to save her husband’s life. Other kinds of defibrillators now are being used in public places in the United States. These include offices, eating places, airports and stores. These places usually train someone to use the device. The public version of the defibrillator requires more skill than the home version. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is another method often used to restore the beating of the heart. A person must be trained to perform this method, called C-P-R. The American Red Cross praised the government’s decision to approve the home defibrillator. A Red Cross official said the organization looks forward to a time when all Americans will be able to use a defibrillator. He called the F-D-A ruling one step closer to that goal. However, the F-D-A decision has increased debate about ways to save a dying heart patient. Some experts say having a defibrillator at home may increase the chances of death. They say family members may waste valuable time trying to use the device instead of immediately calling for medical help. This means telephoning for emergency health workers. These paramedics administer immediate treatment. Then they rush the patient to a hospital. The American Heart Association says it cannot yet advise the use of home defibrillators. A spokesman said research is needed to show if the devices save lives. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Each year, about two-hundred-twenty-thousand Americans die when their hearts suddenly stop beating without warning. Most of these deaths take place at home. Recently the United States Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency device especially for use in the home. The Philips Electronics’ HeartStart Home Defibrillator uses electricity to restart a failing heart. The defibrillator includes directions for how to use it. The company that makes the device provided the F-D-A with studies showing that people who had never used the HeartStart could operate it. The home defibrillator will cost almost two-thousand-three-hundred dollars. A doctor’s order is required to buy it. People of any age can suffer sudden deadly heart failure. However, the average patient is a man in his sixties. Doctors say the person using the home defibrillator most often would probably be a woman trying to save her husband’s life. Other kinds of defibrillators now are being used in public places in the United States. These include offices, eating places, airports and stores. These places usually train someone to use the device. The public version of the defibrillator requires more skill than the home version. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is another method often used to restore the beating of the heart. A person must be trained to perform this method, called C-P-R. The American Red Cross praised the government’s decision to approve the home defibrillator. A Red Cross official said the organization looks forward to a time when all Americans will be able to use a defibrillator. He called the F-D-A ruling one step closer to that goal. However, the F-D-A decision has increased debate about ways to save a dying heart patient. Some experts say having a defibrillator at home may increase the chances of death. They say family members may waste valuable time trying to use the device instead of immediately calling for medical help. This means telephoning for emergency health workers. These paramedics administer immediate treatment. Then they rush the patient to a hospital. The American Heart Association says it cannot yet advise the use of home defibrillators. A spokesman said research is needed to show if the devices save lives. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - November 28, 2002: Foreign Student Series #11>Health Insurance
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Last week, we told about the costs of attending an American college or university. Today, we tell about one cost that foreign students may not know about — health insurance. Foreign students may not know about the requirement for health insurance, especially if they do not need it in their own countries. However, Americans are responsible for their own medical costs. These can be extremely high in cases of serious illness or accidents. The purpose of health insurance is to make sure that these costs will be paid for. Most full-time students at American universities must have health insurance. This is because colleges are not able to pay the high costs of medical care if a student suffers a serious accident or sickness. Many American colleges have health centers where doctors and nurses treat students’ medical problems. This service may be included in the cost of attending college. Health insurance is usually needed for extra services. Students may already be protected under their family’s health insurance plan. If not, many colleges offer their own insurance plans. For example, students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor are treated without charge for minor medical problems at the university health center. But the university suggests that students buy its health insurance plan to pay for other health services. The cost is about one-thousand-three-hundred dollars a year. Such health insurance plans generally pay for hospital services, emergency room care and visits to doctors. They usually do not pay for care of the teeth or eyeglasses. The University of Michigan requires international students to buy the university health insurance, or have private insurance that is approved by the university. Students can buy an independent insurance policy from insurance companies. The details of each policy are different. Usually, insurance pays for visits to doctors and hospital costs. Officials at American universities generally want to be sure that any possible health costs of their international students will be paid. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 28, 2002: Election of 1976
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: President Ford announces pardon of Richard M. Nixon, Sept. 8, 1974 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the presidential election of nineteen-seventy-six. VOICE ONE: When Vice President Gerald Ford became president in nineteen-seventy-four, he took office during a crisis. For the first time in American history, a president -- Richard Nixon -- had resigned. He resigned as a result of the case known as Watergate. It involved the cover-up of illegal activities. Officials in Richard Nixon's administration had lied about Watergate. They also had misled the public about the war in Vietnam. VOICE TWO: After Vietnam and Watergate, many Americans no longer believed their public officials. At this difficult time, Gerald Ford dealt with the public calmly and honestly. In one speech, for example, he said, "The state of the Union is not good." One political observer said President Ford brought respect back to the government. Yet just a little more than two years after Ford became president, American voters rejected him. In the presidential election of nineteen-seventy-six, they chose the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter, instead. Why? VOICE ONE: One reason was that Ford had pardoned Nixon. He announced a presidential pardon for any crimes for which Nixon might have been responsible. This made many people angry. Another reason was that Ford refused to give federal money to New York and other cities with special needs. Many voters felt this showed that he was not concerned about poor people and their problems. Others believe that unemployment and inflation defeated Gerald Ford. He was not able to deal effectively with these problems during his short presidency. For these reasons, there was competition for the Republican Party nomination in nineteen-seventy-six. Ford's chief opponent was Ronald Reagan, governor of California. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party thought that voter anger about Watergate would help the Democratic candidate become president. Eleven Democrats campaigned for the nomination. Two well-known politicians did not campaign. But they said they would serve if no other candidate won the party's support. They were former Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Edward Kennedy. VOICE ONE: One of the lesser-known candidates was the former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Political experts gave him little chance of winning the nomination, because most Democrats did not know him. Whenever his supporters talked about him, others always seemed to say, "Jimmy, who?" Carter used this problem to help win more recognition. Whenever he met voters, he would say, "Hello! I am Jimmy Carter, and I am running for president." VOICE TWO: People liked Jimmy Carter. Before becoming governor of Georgia, he had been a nuclear engineer and a peanut farmer. Again and again, he told people that he was not part of the established political power system in Washington. He also had strong religious beliefs. This appealed to a lot of Americans. Many voters supported Carter in the local Democratic primary elections before the party's nominating convention. His victory in the Florida primary was especially important. He defeated another southern politician, Governor George Wallace of Alabama. VOICE ONE: Carter represented what was called the "New South" in the United States. He made it clear that he opposed ideas of the "Old South". These included racial separation and mistreatment of black Americans. George Wallace spoke of creating a better life for both blacks and whites. Yet he had strongly defended racial separation for most of his political life. Many people remembered pictures of Governor Wallace at the University of Alabama in nineteen-sixty-three. The pictures showed him blocking the door to prevent two young blacks from attending the school. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Republican primaries had mixed results for President Ford. In New Hampshire, he won only fifty-one percent of the vote. Ronald Reagan won forty-nine percent. It was a poor showing for a president in office. But in Massachusetts he got two votes for every one vote that Reagan got. Reporters said Ford and Reagan debated about issues that were not very important or interesting. The campaign did show, however, that Reagan was more conservative than Ford. For example, Reagan talked strongly about United States control of the Panama Canal. "We built it," he said. "We paid for it. And we are going to keep it." In his campaign speeches, Ford denounced extremism. It was clear he was speaking about Reagan. VOICE ONE: Ford and Reagan won almost the same amount of support in the Republican primaries. Yet many convention delegates remained undecided. This was a dangerous situation for the Republican Party. Party leaders did not want a fight over undecided votes at the nominating convention. Such disunity could damage the chances of the party's candidate against the Democratic candidate in the general election. VOICE TWO: The situation was similar in the Democratic Party. As support for Jimmy Carter increased, Democrats who did not like him began to say, "Anybody but Carter." But Carter was not to be stopped. He kept repeating that he did not have ties to groups that tried to influence government policies. He would be different, he said. And that sounded like what the people wanted. VOICE ONE: Carter won the Democratic primaries in Georgia, Alabama, and Indiana. The other candidates fell hopelessly behind. At the party convention, he was nominated on the first vote. In his acceptance speech, he repeated the line he had made famous: "I am Jimmy Carter. And I am running for president." Carter said there was a fear that America's best years were over. He said the nation's best was still to come. The Democratic convention chose Walter Mondale, a senator from Minnesota, to be the party's vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: A month before the Republican Party convention, Ronald Reagan made a costly political mistake. He said that -- if he won the nomination -- he would want Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania to be the vice presidential candidate. Conservatives were angry, because Schweiker was a liberal Republican. Some political observers say this is why Reagan lost the nomination to President Ford. Ford won by one-hundred-seventeen votes. Many of the delegates then wanted Reagan to be the party's vice presidential candidate. But Reagan was not interested. Instead, the nomination went to Senator Robert Dole of Kansas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The general campaign started in September nineteen-seventy-six. In one speech, President Ford said, "The question in this campaign is not who has the better vision of America. The question is who will act to make the vision a reality." Political experts said that what happened during the next two months was uninteresting. One newspaper said the campaign left the voters feeling sleepy. Ford and Carter agreed to debate each other on television. Nobody had done that since Nineteen-Sixty, when Richard Nixon and John Kennedy held several television debates. VOICE TWO: Many people thought Ford did a little better than Carter in the first debate. In the second debate, however, President Ford made a mistake. He said the Soviet Union did not control eastern Europe -- and never would in a Ford administration. For some voters, the statement added to their belief that President Ford was not very intelligent. The third debate did not have a clear winner. Public opinion studies showed that many voters were still undecided. VOICE ONE: The race for the presidency was very close. Jimmy Carter won with fifty-one percent of the popular vote. President Ford won forty-eight percent. Two years before, most Americans had not known Jimmy Carter's name. Now, many of those same people had elected him the thirty-ninth president of the United States. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written nu Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Richard Rael. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the presidential election of nineteen-seventy-six. VOICE ONE: When Vice President Gerald Ford became president in nineteen-seventy-four, he took office during a crisis. For the first time in American history, a president -- Richard Nixon -- had resigned. He resigned as a result of the case known as Watergate. It involved the cover-up of illegal activities. Officials in Richard Nixon's administration had lied about Watergate. They also had misled the public about the war in Vietnam. VOICE TWO: After Vietnam and Watergate, many Americans no longer believed their public officials. At this difficult time, Gerald Ford dealt with the public calmly and honestly. In one speech, for example, he said, "The state of the Union is not good." One political observer said President Ford brought respect back to the government. Yet just a little more than two years after Ford became president, American voters rejected him. In the presidential election of nineteen-seventy-six, they chose the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter, instead. Why? VOICE ONE: One reason was that Ford had pardoned Nixon. He announced a presidential pardon for any crimes for which Nixon might have been responsible. This made many people angry. Another reason was that Ford refused to give federal money to New York and other cities with special needs. Many voters felt this showed that he was not concerned about poor people and their problems. Others believe that unemployment and inflation defeated Gerald Ford. He was not able to deal effectively with these problems during his short presidency. For these reasons, there was competition for the Republican Party nomination in nineteen-seventy-six. Ford's chief opponent was Ronald Reagan, governor of California. VOICE TWO: The Democratic Party thought that voter anger about Watergate would help the Democratic candidate become president. Eleven Democrats campaigned for the nomination. Two well-known politicians did not campaign. But they said they would serve if no other candidate won the party's support. They were former Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Edward Kennedy. VOICE ONE: One of the lesser-known candidates was the former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Political experts gave him little chance of winning the nomination, because most Democrats did not know him. Whenever his supporters talked about him, others always seemed to say, "Jimmy, who?" Carter used this problem to help win more recognition. Whenever he met voters, he would say, "Hello! I am Jimmy Carter, and I am running for president." VOICE TWO: People liked Jimmy Carter. Before becoming governor of Georgia, he had been a nuclear engineer and a peanut farmer. Again and again, he told people that he was not part of the established political power system in Washington. He also had strong religious beliefs. This appealed to a lot of Americans. Many voters supported Carter in the local Democratic primary elections before the party's nominating convention. His victory in the Florida primary was especially important. He defeated another southern politician, Governor George Wallace of Alabama. VOICE ONE: Carter represented what was called the "New South" in the United States. He made it clear that he opposed ideas of the "Old South". These included racial separation and mistreatment of black Americans. George Wallace spoke of creating a better life for both blacks and whites. Yet he had strongly defended racial separation for most of his political life. Many people remembered pictures of Governor Wallace at the University of Alabama in nineteen-sixty-three. The pictures showed him blocking the door to prevent two young blacks from attending the school. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Republican primaries had mixed results for President Ford. In New Hampshire, he won only fifty-one percent of the vote. Ronald Reagan won forty-nine percent. It was a poor showing for a president in office. But in Massachusetts he got two votes for every one vote that Reagan got. Reporters said Ford and Reagan debated about issues that were not very important or interesting. The campaign did show, however, that Reagan was more conservative than Ford. For example, Reagan talked strongly about United States control of the Panama Canal. "We built it," he said. "We paid for it. And we are going to keep it." In his campaign speeches, Ford denounced extremism. It was clear he was speaking about Reagan. VOICE ONE: Ford and Reagan won almost the same amount of support in the Republican primaries. Yet many convention delegates remained undecided. This was a dangerous situation for the Republican Party. Party leaders did not want a fight over undecided votes at the nominating convention. Such disunity could damage the chances of the party's candidate against the Democratic candidate in the general election. VOICE TWO: The situation was similar in the Democratic Party. As support for Jimmy Carter increased, Democrats who did not like him began to say, "Anybody but Carter." But Carter was not to be stopped. He kept repeating that he did not have ties to groups that tried to influence government policies. He would be different, he said. And that sounded like what the people wanted. VOICE ONE: Carter won the Democratic primaries in Georgia, Alabama, and Indiana. The other candidates fell hopelessly behind. At the party convention, he was nominated on the first vote. In his acceptance speech, he repeated the line he had made famous: "I am Jimmy Carter. And I am running for president." Carter said there was a fear that America's best years were over. He said the nation's best was still to come. The Democratic convention chose Walter Mondale, a senator from Minnesota, to be the party's vice presidential candidate. VOICE TWO: A month before the Republican Party convention, Ronald Reagan made a costly political mistake. He said that -- if he won the nomination -- he would want Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania to be the vice presidential candidate. Conservatives were angry, because Schweiker was a liberal Republican. Some political observers say this is why Reagan lost the nomination to President Ford. Ford won by one-hundred-seventeen votes. Many of the delegates then wanted Reagan to be the party's vice presidential candidate. But Reagan was not interested. Instead, the nomination went to Senator Robert Dole of Kansas. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The general campaign started in September nineteen-seventy-six. In one speech, President Ford said, "The question in this campaign is not who has the better vision of America. The question is who will act to make the vision a reality." Political experts said that what happened during the next two months was uninteresting. One newspaper said the campaign left the voters feeling sleepy. Ford and Carter agreed to debate each other on television. Nobody had done that since Nineteen-Sixty, when Richard Nixon and John Kennedy held several television debates. VOICE TWO: Many people thought Ford did a little better than Carter in the first debate. In the second debate, however, President Ford made a mistake. He said the Soviet Union did not control eastern Europe -- and never would in a Ford administration. For some voters, the statement added to their belief that President Ford was not very intelligent. The third debate did not have a clear winner. Public opinion studies showed that many voters were still undecided. VOICE ONE: The race for the presidency was very close. Jimmy Carter won with fifty-one percent of the popular vote. President Ford won forty-eight percent. Two years before, most Americans had not known Jimmy Carter's name. Now, many of those same people had elected him the thirty-ninth president of the United States. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written nu Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Richard Rael. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 27, 2002: Keiko the Whale
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about what has happened to Keiko (KAY-koh), the orca whale who appeared in the movie "Free Willy." Orcas are the black-and-white mammals sometimes called killer whales. ((SOUNDS: WHALES SINGING)) VOICE ONE: That is the sound of whales singing. Ten years ago, a very friendly whale named Keiko was filmed for the movie “Free Willy.” The movie tells about a whale named Willy. Humans capture and mistreat him. But the film ends happily as the huge animal escapes into the open ocean. In real life, however, nobody is sure what the future holds for Keiko. Like Willy, Keiko was rescued from poor conditions in an animal park. Since then many people have worked hard to give Keiko a better life. Expert trainers now are trying to teach him to survive independently in the open ocean. If he is able to do so, he would be the first orca ever returned to the wild after living most of his life under human control. VOICE TWO: Keiko’s story begins with his birth near Iceland in about nineteen-seventy-seven. He was captured at age two as he swam with his family. Then he spent three years in an Icelandic ocean center. Next he was sold to an entertainment center in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. There he learned to perform for people who paid to see trained sea animals. But he began to develop skin problems. His Canadian owners sold Keiko to an amusement park in Mexico City. Children there loved him. But the water in his container was too warm for an orca whale. And, at times, it was not deep enough even to cover the skin on his back. His skin problems worsened. He acted sad. VOICE ONE: The Warner Brothers production company entered Keiko’s life in nineteen-ninety-two. The company filmed him for the movie “Free Willy.” The movie told about a young boy who frees a whale called Willy from an entertainment park. The park is controlled by dishonest and uncaring operators. Millions of people saw this film and two others about Willy that followed. Keiko the actor-whale became famous. Interest in the whale caused an American publication to write about the sad conditions of Keiko’s life in Mexico. The owner of the Mexican park offered to give Keiko to a better home. Warner Brothers and an American businessman, Craig McCaw, promised they would create a better home for the popular animal. ((MUSIC: "AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES")) VOICE TWO: Warner Brothers, Mister McCaw and the Humane Society of the United States took part in a campaign to help Keiko. More than one-million children joined the effort. The owner of the Mexican park gave the whale to an organization called the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation. Mister McCaw and the movie company gave the last money needed to finish a new home for the whale. A special treatment center and aquarium were built in the northwest American state of Oregon. When Keiko arrived in this new home, he weighed nine-hundred kilograms less than he should have. His muscles were in poor condition. He had broken some of his teeth by biting on the sides of his container in Mexico. He could hold his breath under water for only a few minutes. VOICE ONE: In Oregon, Keiko’s skin growths disappeared. He learned to hold his breath for twenty minutes. He also ate live fish for the first time. Life at the aquarium was good for Keiko. And Keiko was good for the aquarium in return. Many people came to see the orca swim and play. After eighteen months in Oregon, Keiko had gained more than one ton. The Free Willy/Keiko Foundation decided he was ready for a return to the icy ocean where he was born. The next step for Keiko was to move him to Iceland. That took place in September nineteen-ninety-eight after careful scientific planning. An American Air Force plane flew him to Iceland. An international environmental organization, Ocean Futures, and the Humane Society paid for the trip. It cost two-million dollars. Keiko’s new home was a huge floating cage in Iceland’s Klettsvik (KLEETS-VEEK) Bay. For four years, animal experts worked to prepare Keiko for life in the wild. VOICE TWO: The keepers taught him skills he would need to live free. They developed his ability to catch live fish. They took him on what they called “walks” in the open ocean. This meant he would leave his floating cage and swim free. The keepers would watch him from a boat. During the summer, trainers released Keiko for an extended test. They wanted to see how well he had learned his lessons. After being freed, Keiko stayed in open waters for several weeks. He traveled more than one-thousand-two-hundred kilometers, joining other orcas for a while. But he did not stay with them. Instead, he followed boats and appealed for food. Keiko ended his trip by entering a protected area in Norway called Skaalvik Fjord (SKOLE-VEEK FEE-ORD) near the town of Halsa. (HOLE-zah). VOICE ONE: Near Halsa, he performed tricks for people who came to see him. His keepers appealed to people to leave Keiko alone. But hundreds of people touched him. Some visitors even rode on his back. Officials in Norway wanted to cooperate with the keepers. They wanted to help Keiko become independent. So the officials restricted crowds from getting near him. Even after that, however, he swam close to shore. He responded to a little girl playing music on her harmonica. A very similar incident had taken place in the movie “Free Willy.” Keiko, it seems, wants to be near people. ((MUSIC: "AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES")) VOICE TWO: The keepers say they still believe Keiko can learn to live in the ocean with other orcas. They say he is continuing to make progress toward this goal. Some animal experts say, however, that Keiko never can live completely free in the ocean. They say he is too old to learn all he needs to know. VOICE ONE: As the warmer season ended, Keiko’s trainers decided to lead him to another area, also near Halsa. His new home protects him from fierce winter storms. The trainers won the whale’s co-operation by offering him large amounts of herring. These fish are Keiko’s first choice of food. His trainers hope he will see more whales in the new home in Taknes (Tahk-NESS) Bay. Only a few farm families live nearby. There are no crowds to interfere with Keiko’s training. The trainers say they will continue their attempts to free him once the weather improves. But even if Keiko never becomes independent, his keepers say he can live the rest of his life in Norway under their care. VOICE TWO: Humane Society official Paul Irwin says he sees no reason to move Keiko again. Mister Irwin points out that Keiko chose where he wanted to be and seems happy there. He says he thinks Keiko can stay as long as Norway accepts his presence. Norwegian officials seem happy to do this. The nation bans hunting or capture of most kinds of whales. Norway recently resisted a request by an oceanic entertainment center to take Keiko to Miami, Florida. VOICE ONE: The Miami Seaquarium wanted to place Keiko with Lolita, its female orca. But animal rights activists say the Seaquarium water is too warm for orcas. And they say the container tank is too small. The activists point to the fact that orcas can swim as many as one-hundred kilometers a day. They say keeping them in restricted pools of water is cruel. The activists say captured orcas live less than one-half the normal lifetime of an orca in the ocean. But some animal experts dispute all these points. VOICE TWO: Marilee Menard heads the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums. Mizz Menard says she is pleased that Keiko is being cared for and watched. But she regrets that his independence training requires keeping him away from people. She hopes Keiko’s story has a happy ending. So do thousands of other people who know about the friendly orca. They hope that whatever happens to him, Keiko’s life ends as happily as the movie that made him famous. ((MUSIC: "AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES")) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about what has happened to Keiko (KAY-koh), the orca whale who appeared in the movie "Free Willy." Orcas are the black-and-white mammals sometimes called killer whales. ((SOUNDS: WHALES SINGING)) VOICE ONE: That is the sound of whales singing. Ten years ago, a very friendly whale named Keiko was filmed for the movie “Free Willy.” The movie tells about a whale named Willy. Humans capture and mistreat him. But the film ends happily as the huge animal escapes into the open ocean. In real life, however, nobody is sure what the future holds for Keiko. Like Willy, Keiko was rescued from poor conditions in an animal park. Since then many people have worked hard to give Keiko a better life. Expert trainers now are trying to teach him to survive independently in the open ocean. If he is able to do so, he would be the first orca ever returned to the wild after living most of his life under human control. VOICE TWO: Keiko’s story begins with his birth near Iceland in about nineteen-seventy-seven. He was captured at age two as he swam with his family. Then he spent three years in an Icelandic ocean center. Next he was sold to an entertainment center in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. There he learned to perform for people who paid to see trained sea animals. But he began to develop skin problems. His Canadian owners sold Keiko to an amusement park in Mexico City. Children there loved him. But the water in his container was too warm for an orca whale. And, at times, it was not deep enough even to cover the skin on his back. His skin problems worsened. He acted sad. VOICE ONE: The Warner Brothers production company entered Keiko’s life in nineteen-ninety-two. The company filmed him for the movie “Free Willy.” The movie told about a young boy who frees a whale called Willy from an entertainment park. The park is controlled by dishonest and uncaring operators. Millions of people saw this film and two others about Willy that followed. Keiko the actor-whale became famous. Interest in the whale caused an American publication to write about the sad conditions of Keiko’s life in Mexico. The owner of the Mexican park offered to give Keiko to a better home. Warner Brothers and an American businessman, Craig McCaw, promised they would create a better home for the popular animal. ((MUSIC: "AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES")) VOICE TWO: Warner Brothers, Mister McCaw and the Humane Society of the United States took part in a campaign to help Keiko. More than one-million children joined the effort. The owner of the Mexican park gave the whale to an organization called the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation. Mister McCaw and the movie company gave the last money needed to finish a new home for the whale. A special treatment center and aquarium were built in the northwest American state of Oregon. When Keiko arrived in this new home, he weighed nine-hundred kilograms less than he should have. His muscles were in poor condition. He had broken some of his teeth by biting on the sides of his container in Mexico. He could hold his breath under water for only a few minutes. VOICE ONE: In Oregon, Keiko’s skin growths disappeared. He learned to hold his breath for twenty minutes. He also ate live fish for the first time. Life at the aquarium was good for Keiko. And Keiko was good for the aquarium in return. Many people came to see the orca swim and play. After eighteen months in Oregon, Keiko had gained more than one ton. The Free Willy/Keiko Foundation decided he was ready for a return to the icy ocean where he was born. The next step for Keiko was to move him to Iceland. That took place in September nineteen-ninety-eight after careful scientific planning. An American Air Force plane flew him to Iceland. An international environmental organization, Ocean Futures, and the Humane Society paid for the trip. It cost two-million dollars. Keiko’s new home was a huge floating cage in Iceland’s Klettsvik (KLEETS-VEEK) Bay. For four years, animal experts worked to prepare Keiko for life in the wild. VOICE TWO: The keepers taught him skills he would need to live free. They developed his ability to catch live fish. They took him on what they called “walks” in the open ocean. This meant he would leave his floating cage and swim free. The keepers would watch him from a boat. During the summer, trainers released Keiko for an extended test. They wanted to see how well he had learned his lessons. After being freed, Keiko stayed in open waters for several weeks. He traveled more than one-thousand-two-hundred kilometers, joining other orcas for a while. But he did not stay with them. Instead, he followed boats and appealed for food. Keiko ended his trip by entering a protected area in Norway called Skaalvik Fjord (SKOLE-VEEK FEE-ORD) near the town of Halsa. (HOLE-zah). VOICE ONE: Near Halsa, he performed tricks for people who came to see him. His keepers appealed to people to leave Keiko alone. But hundreds of people touched him. Some visitors even rode on his back. Officials in Norway wanted to cooperate with the keepers. They wanted to help Keiko become independent. So the officials restricted crowds from getting near him. Even after that, however, he swam close to shore. He responded to a little girl playing music on her harmonica. A very similar incident had taken place in the movie “Free Willy.” Keiko, it seems, wants to be near people. ((MUSIC: "AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES")) VOICE TWO: The keepers say they still believe Keiko can learn to live in the ocean with other orcas. They say he is continuing to make progress toward this goal. Some animal experts say, however, that Keiko never can live completely free in the ocean. They say he is too old to learn all he needs to know. VOICE ONE: As the warmer season ended, Keiko’s trainers decided to lead him to another area, also near Halsa. His new home protects him from fierce winter storms. The trainers won the whale’s co-operation by offering him large amounts of herring. These fish are Keiko’s first choice of food. His trainers hope he will see more whales in the new home in Taknes (Tahk-NESS) Bay. Only a few farm families live nearby. There are no crowds to interfere with Keiko’s training. The trainers say they will continue their attempts to free him once the weather improves. But even if Keiko never becomes independent, his keepers say he can live the rest of his life in Norway under their care. VOICE TWO: Humane Society official Paul Irwin says he sees no reason to move Keiko again. Mister Irwin points out that Keiko chose where he wanted to be and seems happy there. He says he thinks Keiko can stay as long as Norway accepts his presence. Norwegian officials seem happy to do this. The nation bans hunting or capture of most kinds of whales. Norway recently resisted a request by an oceanic entertainment center to take Keiko to Miami, Florida. VOICE ONE: The Miami Seaquarium wanted to place Keiko with Lolita, its female orca. But animal rights activists say the Seaquarium water is too warm for orcas. And they say the container tank is too small. The activists point to the fact that orcas can swim as many as one-hundred kilometers a day. They say keeping them in restricted pools of water is cruel. The activists say captured orcas live less than one-half the normal lifetime of an orca in the ocean. But some animal experts dispute all these points. VOICE TWO: Marilee Menard heads the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums. Mizz Menard says she is pleased that Keiko is being cared for and watched. But she regrets that his independence training requires keeping him away from people. She hopes Keiko’s story has a happy ending. So do thousands of other people who know about the friendly orca. They hope that whatever happens to him, Keiko’s life ends as happily as the movie that made him famous. ((MUSIC: "AND GOD CREATED GREAT WHALES")) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 29, 2002: Native American Music and Movies / Question About Thanksgiving
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. To celebrate Native American Heritage Month on our program today: We play some award-winning Native American music ... Answer a question from two listeners about the holiday Thankgiving ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. To celebrate Native American Heritage Month on our program today: We play some award-winning Native American music ... Answer a question from two listeners about the holiday Thankgiving ... And report about new movies written and directed by Native Americans. Native American Movies HOST: November is the month the United States celebrates Native American history and culture. One way people can learn about Native American Indian culture is through motion pictures. Shirley Griffith explains. ANNCR: American Indians have been shown in American movies for many years. But they were often shown in false ways. They usually acted as the faithful friend to the white man, or as a fierce fighter threatening the white man or as a spiritual person guiding the white man. Native American Indians generally never wrote, directed or acted the leading part in movies. This, however, is changing. Several Native American film directors have begun creating their own movies about their culture and traditions. Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre is leading the movement. His nineteen-ninety-eight film called “Smoke Signals” received several honors at the Sundance Film Festival. The Miramax Film Company bought the movie and showed it widely around the country. The film has earned about six-million dollars. “Smoke Signals” is the story of two Native American Indians who take a road trip to collect the remains of one character’s father who has died. The two men in the film wanted to show that Native American Indians are like other people. They are funny, sad, strange and interesting. The film is based on a short story written by Native American writer Sherman Alexie. Mister Alexie also wrote and directed another Native American film released earlier this year. It is called “The Business of Fancydancing.” The film is about two boys who grow up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. The friends separate before leaving for college. Years later, they are reunited at the funeral of a friend. Perhaps the most surprising film about Native people this year is one spoken almost completely in the Inuit Indian language. The three-hour movie is called “The Fast Runner.” First-time moviemaker Zac Kunuk filmed it in the Canadian Arctic. All the actors and crewmembers in the film are Inuit Indians. Like recent Native American films, this one aims to change people’s ideas about Indians. Native American filmmakers are trying to educate people about their culture and customs. They want to change people’s ideas about the image of Indians created by filmmakers in Hollywood. Thanksgiving HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from listeners in India and Iran. Both Shan Sampath and Nima Faroud ask about the American holiday Thanksgiving. Yesterday, November twenty-eighth, was Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Friends and family members across the country gathered to celebrate. They attended religious services or watched sports on television. Almost everyone ate a huge meal. On Thanksgiving, Americans eat some of the same foods eaten at the first Thankgiving hundreds of years ago. These include turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Settlers from England called Pilgrims are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in sixteen-twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. Soon, more than half had died from disease or lack of food. Those who survived held a day of thanksgiving. They thanked God for protecting them. They also thanked the Native American Indians who lived in the area. These Indians were part of the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoags had helped save the Pilgrims by showing them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims celebrated for about three days. About ninety Wampanoag Indians joined the celebration. They ate deer, ducks, geese, turkeys and pumpkins. And the two groups made a peace and friendship agreement giving the Pilgrims an area in the forest to build their town. This friendship did not continue for long. More English settlers came to America. Unlike the Pilgrims, they did not need help from the Indians. Many settlers forgot about the help the Indians had provided. Within a few years, the Indians and the English settlers were at war. Many of the Wampanoags were killed in battle or died from diseases brought by the white people. Native Americans living today have criticized many of the happy stories that have been told through the years about the first Thanksgiving. They say everyone should learn the truth about what happened after the Europeans arrived in North America. NAMA Awards HOST: Earlier this year, the Native American Music Association held its fifth yearly awards ceremony. The awards honor musicians, singers and other Native American music makers. Mary Tillotson plays music by some of the winners. ANNCR: The Native American Music Association named Joanne Shenandoah Artist of the Year. She is a member of the Oneida tribe in the northeastern state of New York. Joanne Shenandoah is known for mixing traditional songs of her tribe with modern folk music. Here she performs a traditional chant,”Kaluhyanu:Wes” from her album, “Matriarch.” (MUSIC) Each year, The Native American Music Association names an artist to the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame. The winner this year was country and western singer Kitty Wells. Here is Kitty Wells singing her hit song from the nineteen-fifties, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” (MUSIC) The Native American Music Association honored Mary Youngblood with the Best New Age Recording Award. Mary Youngblood writes music and plays the Native American flute. Her award winning album is called “Beneath the Raven Moon.” We leave you now with the title song from that album. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And report about new movies written and directed by Native Americans. Native American Movies HOST: November is the month the United States celebrates Native American history and culture. One way people can learn about Native American Indian culture is through motion pictures. Shirley Griffith explains. ANNCR: American Indians have been shown in American movies for many years. But they were often shown in false ways. They usually acted as the faithful friend to the white man, or as a fierce fighter threatening the white man or as a spiritual person guiding the white man. Native American Indians generally never wrote, directed or acted the leading part in movies. This, however, is changing. Several Native American film directors have begun creating their own movies about their culture and traditions. Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker Chris Eyre is leading the movement. His nineteen-ninety-eight film called “Smoke Signals” received several honors at the Sundance Film Festival. The Miramax Film Company bought the movie and showed it widely around the country. The film has earned about six-million dollars. “Smoke Signals” is the story of two Native American Indians who take a road trip to collect the remains of one character’s father who has died. The two men in the film wanted to show that Native American Indians are like other people. They are funny, sad, strange and interesting. The film is based on a short story written by Native American writer Sherman Alexie. Mister Alexie also wrote and directed another Native American film released earlier this year. It is called “The Business of Fancydancing.” The film is about two boys who grow up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. The friends separate before leaving for college. Years later, they are reunited at the funeral of a friend. Perhaps the most surprising film about Native people this year is one spoken almost completely in the Inuit Indian language. The three-hour movie is called “The Fast Runner.” First-time moviemaker Zac Kunuk filmed it in the Canadian Arctic. All the actors and crewmembers in the film are Inuit Indians. Like recent Native American films, this one aims to change people’s ideas about Indians. Native American filmmakers are trying to educate people about their culture and customs. They want to change people’s ideas about the image of Indians created by filmmakers in Hollywood. Thanksgiving HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from listeners in India and Iran. Both Shan Sampath and Nima Faroud ask about the American holiday Thanksgiving. Yesterday, November twenty-eighth, was Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Friends and family members across the country gathered to celebrate. They attended religious services or watched sports on television. Almost everyone ate a huge meal. On Thanksgiving, Americans eat some of the same foods eaten at the first Thankgiving hundreds of years ago. These include turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Settlers from England called Pilgrims are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in sixteen-twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. Soon, more than half had died from disease or lack of food. Those who survived held a day of thanksgiving. They thanked God for protecting them. They also thanked the Native American Indians who lived in the area. These Indians were part of the Wampanoag tribe. The Wampanoags had helped save the Pilgrims by showing them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims celebrated for about three days. About ninety Wampanoag Indians joined the celebration. They ate deer, ducks, geese, turkeys and pumpkins. And the two groups made a peace and friendship agreement giving the Pilgrims an area in the forest to build their town. This friendship did not continue for long. More English settlers came to America. Unlike the Pilgrims, they did not need help from the Indians. Many settlers forgot about the help the Indians had provided. Within a few years, the Indians and the English settlers were at war. Many of the Wampanoags were killed in battle or died from diseases brought by the white people. Native Americans living today have criticized many of the happy stories that have been told through the years about the first Thanksgiving. They say everyone should learn the truth about what happened after the Europeans arrived in North America. NAMA Awards HOST: Earlier this year, the Native American Music Association held its fifth yearly awards ceremony. The awards honor musicians, singers and other Native American music makers. Mary Tillotson plays music by some of the winners. ANNCR: The Native American Music Association named Joanne Shenandoah Artist of the Year. She is a member of the Oneida tribe in the northeastern state of New York. Joanne Shenandoah is known for mixing traditional songs of her tribe with modern folk music. Here she performs a traditional chant,”Kaluhyanu:Wes” from her album, “Matriarch.” (MUSIC) Each year, The Native American Music Association names an artist to the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame. The winner this year was country and western singer Kitty Wells. Here is Kitty Wells singing her hit song from the nineteen-fifties, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” (MUSIC) The Native American Music Association honored Mary Youngblood with the Best New Age Recording Award. Mary Youngblood writes music and plays the Native American flute. Her award winning album is called “Beneath the Raven Moon.” We leave you now with the title song from that album. (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Kennedy Center Honors
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 2, 2002 VOICE ONE: James Levine Broadcast: December 2, 2002 VOICE ONE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will celebrate the work of five famous performing artists on Sunday, December eighth. They will be honored for many years of excellence. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about the winners of this year's Kennedy Center Honors on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: “MARCH” FROM “AIDA”)) Elizabeth Taylor The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will celebrate the work of five famous performing artists on Sunday, December eighth. They will be honored for many years of excellence. I'm Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about the winners of this year's Kennedy Center Honors on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC: “MARCH” FROM “AIDA”)) VOICE ONE: The lights of the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D-C, will shine next Sunday on five famous performing artists. The Kennedy Center will honor orchestra conductor and pianist James Levine (lah-VINE), actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor James Earl Jones. Other honorees are singer and songwriter Paul Simon and actress, dancer and singer Chita Rivera. VOICE TWO: Musical conductor and pianist James Levine (lah-VINE) is the youngest Kennedy Center Honors winner this year. The artistic director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City is fifty-nine years old. For thirty of those years Mister Levine has helped make the Metropolitan Opera one of the best in the world. He also will direct the Boston Symphony Orchestra beginning in two-thousand-four. James Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. At age ten, he played piano with the Cincinnati Symphony. He led his first Metropolitan Opera performance at age twenty-seven. In just four more years he became the opera’s musical director. Listen as James Levine leads the Metropolitan Orchestra and Chorus in music from “Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi. ((MUSIC)) James Earl Jones VOICE ONE: The lights of the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D-C, will shine next Sunday on five famous performing artists. The Kennedy Center will honor orchestra conductor and pianist James Levine (lah-VINE), actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor James Earl Jones. Other honorees are singer and songwriter Paul Simon and actress, dancer and singer Chita Rivera. VOICE TWO: Musical conductor and pianist James Levine (lah-VINE) is the youngest Kennedy Center Honors winner this year. The artistic director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City is fifty-nine years old. For thirty of those years Mister Levine has helped make the Metropolitan Opera one of the best in the world. He also will direct the Boston Symphony Orchestra beginning in two-thousand-four. James Levine was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. At age ten, he played piano with the Cincinnati Symphony. He led his first Metropolitan Opera performance at age twenty-seven. In just four more years he became the opera’s musical director. Listen as James Levine leads the Metropolitan Orchestra and Chorus in music from “Aida” by Giuseppe Verdi. ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center also is honoring actress and humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor. She has been acting for sixty of her seventy years. She has appeared in almost sixty movies. Mizz Taylor has won two Academy Awards for best leading actress from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has received many other honors from the film industry. Elizabeth Taylor was born in London, England. But her American parents took her to live in California before World War Two.Elizabeth first gained widespread fame in the movie “National Velvet” when she was only twelve years old. Later she gave outstanding performances in great films like “Giant,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Her first appearance in the theater earned her honors and critical praise. Mizz Taylor appeared in “The Little Foxes” in nineteen-eighty-one. Two years later a close friend of Mizz Taylor, actor Rock Hudson, died of the disease AIDS. This death led her to support and establish several organizations for AIDS research and treatment. Elizabeth Taylor has raised more than one-hundred-million dollars for the struggle against AIDS. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center is also honoring James Earl Jones. Mister Jones is known for his commanding acting presence and deep voice. Over the years he has played in theater, films and on radio and television. In the nineteen-sixties, he was one of the first African American actors to have a continuing part in daytime television dramas. Critics have praised his work in plays by William Shakespeare and as the voice of Darth Vader in the first “Star Wars” movies. Paul Simon VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center also is honoring actress and humanitarian Elizabeth Taylor. She has been acting for sixty of her seventy years. She has appeared in almost sixty movies. Mizz Taylor has won two Academy Awards for best leading actress from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has received many other honors from the film industry. Elizabeth Taylor was born in London, England. But her American parents took her to live in California before World War Two.Elizabeth first gained widespread fame in the movie “National Velvet” when she was only twelve years old. Later she gave outstanding performances in great films like “Giant,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Her first appearance in the theater earned her honors and critical praise. Mizz Taylor appeared in “The Little Foxes” in nineteen-eighty-one. Two years later a close friend of Mizz Taylor, actor Rock Hudson, died of the disease AIDS. This death led her to support and establish several organizations for AIDS research and treatment. Elizabeth Taylor has raised more than one-hundred-million dollars for the struggle against AIDS. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center is also honoring James Earl Jones. Mister Jones is known for his commanding acting presence and deep voice. Over the years he has played in theater, films and on radio and television. In the nineteen-sixties, he was one of the first African American actors to have a continuing part in daytime television dramas. Critics have praised his work in plays by William Shakespeare and as the voice of Darth Vader in the first “Star Wars” movies. James Earl Jones was born in the state of Mississippi in nineteen-thirty-one. He grew up in Michigan, cared for by his grandparents. As a child he suffered from a severe speech problem. This prevented him from talking much. He began to develop his voice with acting lessons at the University of Michigan. He had gone there to study medicine. Instead, he decided to become an actor. Here is James Earl Jones reading from “Lincoln Portrait” by Aaron Copland. “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said. “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We -- even we here -- hold the power and bear the responsibility.” VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center also is honoring singer and songwriter Paul Simon. His beautiful melodies have deeply influenced American music. Paul Simon has won many Grammy awards for the finest single records and collections of songs. Paul Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey in nineteen-forty-one. He went to high school in New York City. There he met Art Garfunkel, another student deeply interested in music. Paul Simon art Art Garfunkel soon began creating music together. At age sixteen, they recorded a song called “Hey Schoolgirl.” It sold many copies. The song led to an appearance on the popular television program “American Bandstand.” The two musical friends combined their voices again in nineteen-sixty-four on the song “Wednesday Morning, Three A-M.” Simon and Garfunkel were a successful singing team for several years. Their songs in the nineteen-sixty-seven film “The Graduate” became especially famous. In the early nineteen-seventies, Paul Simon started working alone. Since then he has produced many new songs. Some have included musical traditions and musicians from South Africa and Brazil. In nineteen-ninety he was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here are Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel singing Paul Simon’s song, “Missus Robinson.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: Chita Rivera James Earl Jones was born in the state of Mississippi in nineteen-thirty-one. He grew up in Michigan, cared for by his grandparents. As a child he suffered from a severe speech problem. This prevented him from talking much. He began to develop his voice with acting lessons at the University of Michigan. He had gone there to study medicine. Instead, he decided to become an actor. Here is James Earl Jones reading from “Lincoln Portrait” by Aaron Copland. “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history.” That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said. “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We -- even we here -- hold the power and bear the responsibility.” VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center also is honoring singer and songwriter Paul Simon. His beautiful melodies have deeply influenced American music. Paul Simon has won many Grammy awards for the finest single records and collections of songs. Paul Simon was born in Newark, New Jersey in nineteen-forty-one. He went to high school in New York City. There he met Art Garfunkel, another student deeply interested in music. Paul Simon art Art Garfunkel soon began creating music together. At age sixteen, they recorded a song called “Hey Schoolgirl.” It sold many copies. The song led to an appearance on the popular television program “American Bandstand.” The two musical friends combined their voices again in nineteen-sixty-four on the song “Wednesday Morning, Three A-M.” Simon and Garfunkel were a successful singing team for several years. Their songs in the nineteen-sixty-seven film “The Graduate” became especially famous. In the early nineteen-seventies, Paul Simon started working alone. Since then he has produced many new songs. Some have included musical traditions and musicians from South Africa and Brazil. In nineteen-ninety he was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here are Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel singing Paul Simon’s song, “Missus Robinson.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center is honoring Broadway and nightclub star Chita Rivera for many years of outstanding acting, singing and dancing. Chita Rivera was born in Washington, D-C, in nineteen-thirty-three. Her father was a musician who was born in Puerto Rico. He died when Chita was a young girl. Her mother supported her five children by working in a government office. In nineteen-forty-nine, Chita won money to attend George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. Chita Rivera first earned fame on Broadway singing and dancing in the musical “West Side Story” in nineteen-fifty-seven. She also has starred in Broadway musicals like “Can-Can,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” She has won praise and major awards for her work in theater. Here Chita Rivera sings “America” from “West Side Story.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: James Levine, Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Paul Simon, and Chita Rivera are special performers. The Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their gifts with people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. The Kennedy Center is honoring Broadway and nightclub star Chita Rivera for many years of outstanding acting, singing and dancing. Chita Rivera was born in Washington, D-C, in nineteen-thirty-three. Her father was a musician who was born in Puerto Rico. He died when Chita was a young girl. Her mother supported her five children by working in a government office. In nineteen-forty-nine, Chita won money to attend George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. Chita Rivera first earned fame on Broadway singing and dancing in the musical “West Side Story” in nineteen-fifty-seven. She also has starred in Broadway musicals like “Can-Can,” “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” She has won praise and major awards for her work in theater. Here Chita Rivera sings “America” from “West Side Story.” ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: James Levine, Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Paul Simon, and Chita Rivera are special performers. The Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their gifts with people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 1, 2002: Julia Ward Howe
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." ((MUSIC: FIFE AND DRUMS)) VOICE ONE: Marching soldiers. No end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land. They came from the Northern states fighting to keep the Union together. And they came from the Southern states fighting for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers marched on. The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation. VOICE TWO: Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have told of the soldiers fear and terror, their great and heroic acts, how they suffered and died, and how they sang before and after battle. One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta: ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This is the story of the woman who wrote the song. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The place was Washington D.C. The year was Eighteen-Sixty-One. It was a wet winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia. A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on. VOICE ONE: The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer. She was born in New York City in Eighteen-Nineteen. Her father was a wealthy banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five children. And she published several books of poetry. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery. They published an anti-slavery newspaper called the "Commonwealth." Missus Howe had met John Brown. Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist. She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves. Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery. In Eighteen-Fifty-Nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves. He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia. [Editor's note: That area did not become the state of West Virginia until 1863.] The town had a factory that made guns for the army. It also had a storage center for military equipment. The attack on Harper's Ferry failed. John Brown was put on trial for treason. He was found guilty and was executed. VOICE ONE: In the northern states, John Brown became a hero. His story was told through song. The song was most popular with soldiers. It became the unofficial marching song of the Union Army. Julia Ward Howe also liked to sing the song. She felt that the music was beautiful, but the words about John Brown were not. So she decided to write different words to the music. Those words came to her that night as she lay in her hotel room in Washington. She was awakened by her dreams of marching soldiers. VOICE TWO: "I found to my surprise that the words were forming themselves in my head. I lay still until the last line had completed itself in my thoughts. Then I quickly got out of bed. I thought I would forget the words if I did not write them immediately. I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Then I began to write the lines of a poem: 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.' I wrote until I was finished. Then I lay down again and fell asleep. I felt something important had happened to me." VOICE ONE: An American magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly," bought Missus Howe's poem. She was paid four dollars. The magazine published the poem in Eighteen-Sixty-Two. The poem became very popular. It had just the right words for the great marching music. The soldiers of the Union Army began to sing the words Julia Ward Howe had written. It soon became their official marching song -- "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe became famous. She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln. After dinner at the White House, the guests talked about the Civil War. They were sad. The Union army had suffered many defeats. Then someone began to sing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Missus Howe and President Lincoln joined in the singing. There were tears in the President's eyes. Here is the last part of the song, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: After the North won the Civil War in Eighteen-Sixty-Five, Julia Ward Howe became involved in other social reform movements. She became a leader in the movement to gain equal rights for American women, including the right to vote. She helped establish the New England Woman's Club in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. This organization worked for equal rights for women in education and business. She served as president of the group for more than thirty years. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe also became involved in the movement for peace. In Eighteen-Seventy, she issued an "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World." This was a call for an international conference of women to support the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The next year she helped organize the American group of the Woman's International Peace Association. She became president of the group. Julia Ward Howe continued to write books and make speeches about the issues she felt were important. Through the years, thousands of people came to hear her recite her most famous poem. She died in Nineteen-Ten. She was ninety-one years old. VOICE ONE: The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" still is one of America's great traditional songs. No one knows for sure who wrote the music. But the song lives on. And so does the name of the woman who made the music famous with her words: Julia Ward Howe. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." ((MUSIC: FIFE AND DRUMS)) VOICE ONE: Marching soldiers. No end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land. They came from the Northern states fighting to keep the Union together. And they came from the Southern states fighting for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers marched on. The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation. VOICE TWO: Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have told of the soldiers fear and terror, their great and heroic acts, how they suffered and died, and how they sang before and after battle. One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta: ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This is the story of the woman who wrote the song. ((MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The place was Washington D.C. The year was Eighteen-Sixty-One. It was a wet winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia. A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on. VOICE ONE: The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer. She was born in New York City in Eighteen-Nineteen. Her father was a wealthy banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five children. And she published several books of poetry. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery. They published an anti-slavery newspaper called the "Commonwealth." Missus Howe had met John Brown. Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist. She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves. Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery. In Eighteen-Fifty-Nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves. He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia. [Editor's note: That area did not become the state of West Virginia until 1863.] The town had a factory that made guns for the army. It also had a storage center for military equipment. The attack on Harper's Ferry failed. John Brown was put on trial for treason. He was found guilty and was executed. VOICE ONE: In the northern states, John Brown became a hero. His story was told through song. The song was most popular with soldiers. It became the unofficial marching song of the Union Army. Julia Ward Howe also liked to sing the song. She felt that the music was beautiful, but the words about John Brown were not. So she decided to write different words to the music. Those words came to her that night as she lay in her hotel room in Washington. She was awakened by her dreams of marching soldiers. VOICE TWO: "I found to my surprise that the words were forming themselves in my head. I lay still until the last line had completed itself in my thoughts. Then I quickly got out of bed. I thought I would forget the words if I did not write them immediately. I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Then I began to write the lines of a poem: 'Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.' I wrote until I was finished. Then I lay down again and fell asleep. I felt something important had happened to me." VOICE ONE: An American magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly," bought Missus Howe's poem. She was paid four dollars. The magazine published the poem in Eighteen-Sixty-Two. The poem became very popular. It had just the right words for the great marching music. The soldiers of the Union Army began to sing the words Julia Ward Howe had written. It soon became their official marching song -- "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe became famous. She was invited to the White House to meet President Abraham Lincoln. After dinner at the White House, the guests talked about the Civil War. They were sad. The Union army had suffered many defeats. Then someone began to sing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Missus Howe and President Lincoln joined in the singing. There were tears in the President's eyes. Here is the last part of the song, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: After the North won the Civil War in Eighteen-Sixty-Five, Julia Ward Howe became involved in other social reform movements. She became a leader in the movement to gain equal rights for American women, including the right to vote. She helped establish the New England Woman's Club in Eighteen-Sixty-Eight. This organization worked for equal rights for women in education and business. She served as president of the group for more than thirty years. VOICE TWO: Julia Ward Howe also became involved in the movement for peace. In Eighteen-Seventy, she issued an "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World." This was a call for an international conference of women to support the peaceful settlement of conflicts. The next year she helped organize the American group of the Woman's International Peace Association. She became president of the group. Julia Ward Howe continued to write books and make speeches about the issues she felt were important. Through the years, thousands of people came to hear her recite her most famous poem. She died in Nineteen-Ten. She was ninety-one years old. VOICE ONE: The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" still is one of America's great traditional songs. No one knows for sure who wrote the music. But the song lives on. And so does the name of the woman who made the music famous with her words: Julia Ward Howe. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-29-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 29, 2002: Effects of Oil Spill Near Spain
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A ship carrying more than seventy-five-million liters of oil sank November nineteenth in waters near the coast of northwestern Spain. Spanish officials say the ship spilled more than ten-million liters of fuel and oil. Environmental experts say the oil threatens fish and many different kinds of sea life near the coasts of Spain, Portugal and France. The ship, called the Prestige, was damaged during a severe storm. The ship began leaking oil November thirteenth after strong waves caused the ship’s hull to break open. Within a week, the ship split in two and sank. The ship went down near the coast of Spain’s Galicia area. Environmental experts believe the cold temperatures at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean will cause the remaining oil to harden and prevent it from spreading. Experts say the depth of the sea makes it almost impossible to pump the remaining oil from the tanks. Spain’s government says it plans to send a small submarine to examine the sunken ship for leaks. Devices on several anti-pollution ships were able to remove more than three-hundred-thousand liters of oil from the sea. However, oil from the Prestige has spread over more than three-hundred kilometers of coastline in the northwest Galicia area. Crews set up floating barriers to contain the oil. More than nine-hundred workers have used buckets and shovels to remove more than one-thousand-five-hundred tons of oil waste from one-hundred-forty beaches. The coastal waters of northwestern Spain support many kinds of sea life and birds. Workers have collected hundreds of oil-covered birds and sent them to a cleaning center in the city of La Coruna. Most of the birds were dying. Fishing and seafood harvesting has been banned along the coast of Galicia, forcing many fishermen out of work. Government officials promised financial aid for fishermen and others affected by the disaster. Environmental officials criticized Spain’s decision to order the ship far away from its coast after it began leaking. The ship was towed in open waters for several days because no European nation would permit it in their port. Spain said the decision avoided a much worse environmental disaster along its coast. However, experts say it will take years to correct the damage to the environment. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-29-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 2, 2002: Afghanistan and Maternal Deaths
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Afghanistan has one of the highest death rates in the world among pregnant women and women giving birth. This finding is from a study released in November by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Centers for Disease Control in the United States. Researchers questioned about thirteen-thousand families in four Afghan provinces. Many of the families live in small farming areas. The researchers collected information about eighty-five-thousand women who died in the past three years. They found that problems during pregnancy or birth caused forty-eight percent of all deaths among women between the ages of fifteen and forty-nine. Officials say the death rate is worse in farming areas because women do not get needed medical services. For example, in one farming area, sixty-five percent of all deaths among women were caused by problems during pregnancy or childbirth. However, in cities like Kabul, the rate is only sixteen percent. To help change this, the United States has launched a new program to build medical centers throughout Afghanistan. American Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, recently returned from a visit to Afghanistan. He says the United States is working to open a medical center in Kabul especially for women and children. Mister Thompson says that Afghan doctors who live in the United States will help train workers for the center. The United States also plans to set up additional medical centers in all of Afghanistan’s provinces. Each center will cost about one-million dollars. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has also launched a program to train female medical workers in the eastern part of Afghanistan. Currently, twenty-five women are being trained. After their training is completed, the women will work in farming communities throughout eastern Afghanistan. In time, officials hope to expand the program to western and southern Afghanistan. UNICEF says that women and their families need to be educated to recognize possible problems during pregnancy. It says that the majority of deaths among women in Afghanistan could be prevented, but only if the right steps are taken. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-11/a-2002-11-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – November 30, 2002: World AIDS Day
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Sunday is World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day was first declared at a conference in nineteen-eighty-eight. Each year, the observance gives governments, other organizations and individuals a chance to show the importance of the fight against AIDS. It also is a day to celebrate progress in efforts to stop the spread of the disease. The message for World AIDS Day this year is, “Live and Let Live.” Peter Piot is the head of the United Nations AIDS program. He says the world AIDS campaign for the next year is about the way people infected with the AIDS virus are treated. He says those infected can be treated unfairly in schools, workplaces, and religious centers. He is urging every one to fight this unfair treatment wherever it is found. He says that would help clear the way to progress in fighting AIDS itself. This week, U-N officials reported that about half of those infected worldwide are women. Until now, more men were infected. The U-N’s new report estimates that forty-two-million people are infected with the AIDS virus, also called H-I-V. Nearly thirty-nine-million of those infected are adults. More than nineteen-million of them are women. Last year, more than four-million adults became infected. Two-million of them are women. U-N officials say many women were infected through sex with infected men. Studies have found that H-I-V passes more easily from men to women than from women to men. The main reason for the rise in infected women is the AIDS crisis in southern Africa. There, fifty-eight percent of infected adults are women. The report says this is one cause for the drop in agricultural production in several African countries. In parts of Africa, women do much of the work on family farms. U-N officials say more than fourteen-million people are at risk of starving in six African countries. They are Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. More than five-million of the twenty-six-million adults in those countries are infected. U-N officials also report rising infection rates among women in North Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean Sea area. The report shows that Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the world’s fastest growing population of H-I-V carriers. This year, there were about two-hundred-fifty-thousand new infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. That represents about twenty percent of all infections there. In Asia and the Pacific Ocean area, more than seven-million people now have H-I-V. More than one-million people in China are infected. In India, almost four-million people have the AIDS virus. The United Nations estimates that at least ten-thousand-five-hundred-million dollars is required for AIDS programs in much of the world by two-thousand-five. That compares with current spending of three-thousand-million dollars a year. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Sunday is World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day was first declared at a conference in nineteen-eighty-eight. Each year, the observance gives governments, other organizations and individuals a chance to show the importance of the fight against AIDS. It also is a day to celebrate progress in efforts to stop the spread of the disease. The message for World AIDS Day this year is, “Live and Let Live.” Peter Piot is the head of the United Nations AIDS program. He says the world AIDS campaign for the next year is about the way people infected with the AIDS virus are treated. He says those infected can be treated unfairly in schools, workplaces, and religious centers. He is urging every one to fight this unfair treatment wherever it is found. He says that would help clear the way to progress in fighting AIDS itself. This week, U-N officials reported that about half of those infected worldwide are women. Until now, more men were infected. The U-N’s new report estimates that forty-two-million people are infected with the AIDS virus, also called H-I-V. Nearly thirty-nine-million of those infected are adults. More than nineteen-million of them are women. Last year, more than four-million adults became infected. Two-million of them are women. U-N officials say many women were infected through sex with infected men. Studies have found that H-I-V passes more easily from men to women than from women to men. The main reason for the rise in infected women is the AIDS crisis in southern Africa. There, fifty-eight percent of infected adults are women. The report says this is one cause for the drop in agricultural production in several African countries. In parts of Africa, women do much of the work on family farms. U-N officials say more than fourteen-million people are at risk of starving in six African countries. They are Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. More than five-million of the twenty-six-million adults in those countries are infected. U-N officials also report rising infection rates among women in North Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean Sea area. The report shows that Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the world’s fastest growing population of H-I-V carriers. This year, there were about two-hundred-fifty-thousand new infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. That represents about twenty percent of all infections there. In Asia and the Pacific Ocean area, more than seven-million people now have H-I-V. More than one-million people in China are infected. In India, almost four-million people have the AIDS virus. The United Nations estimates that at least ten-thousand-five-hundred-million dollars is required for AIDS programs in much of the world by two-thousand-five. That compares with current spending of three-thousand-million dollars a year. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - December 3, 2002: Diabetes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the disease diabetes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization estimates that as many as one-hundred-twenty-million people have the disease diabetes. Diabetes is the name for several diseases with one thing in common: there is too much glucose, or sugar, in the blood. The disease develops when the body does not produce enough insulin or produces no insulin. Or the disease develops when the body cannot use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is necessary to change sugar, carbohydrates and other food into energy. In healthy people, the body changes food into a sugar, called glucose. Glucose is the source of fuel for the body. When food is changed into glucose, it enters the bloodstream and is taken to all parts of the body to feed muscles, organs, and tissue. VOICE TWO: When the body senses that there is too much glucose in the blood, it sends a signal to the pancreas. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. The pancreas sends insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin lowers the level of blood sugar by letting it enter cells. Insulin helps muscles, organs and tissues take glucose and change it into energy. That is how the body operates normally, in most people. Diabetes is present when too much glucose remains in the bloodstream and does not enter cells. If the amount of glucose in the blood remains too high, the body begins showing signs of diabetes. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage. High glucose levels in the blood also can lead to strokes and heart disease. Blood circulation also is affected, especially in the legs. Often, victims of diabetes must have a foot or even a leg removed because of blood circulation problems linked to the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are two main kinds of diabetes, Type One and Type Two. Between five and ten percent of those suffering from diabetes have Type One. It usually begins before the age of thirty in people who are thin. It is most commonly found in children under the age of sixteen. It is caused by the body’s defense system. The bodies of Type One diabetes victims produce a substance that attacks and kills some cells in the pancreas, blocking the production of insulin. These cells are called islet (EYE-lit) cells. Scientists are not sure why this happens. They believe there may be a number of causes. They include viruses, the presence of insect-killing pesticides in the environment or molecules known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced as part of normal chemical processes in the body. In people with diabetes, too many of these free radicals are present in the body. Scientists are not sure which of these causes is the most important to the development of Type One diabetes. VOICE TWO: People suffering from Type One diabetes must carefully control their diets. And they must exercise often. People with this kind of diabetes almost always require insulin injections. Patients must always know their blood sugar levels. When the level of glucose in the blood is too high, they must inject insulin into their bodies to reduce the amount of glucose. The patients must inject insulin every day, often several times a day. In most developed countries, insulin is easy to get and does not cost much money. However, doctors believe that these injections can cause long-term problems. They believe that the injections cause levels of glucose to change often. Scientists believe that many quick changes in glucose levels can, over time, result in damage to the body. This damage can be blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, or poor blood flow in the body. VOICE ONE: Type One diabetes also is known as juvenile onset diabetes, because it usually starts in children or young people. Scientists believe it is the form of the disease that they will most likely be able to cure some day. Among the treatments being studied is a vaccine to prevent the disease. A vaccine is injected into the body or taken by mouth in the form of a pill. Another possible treatment for Type One diabetes is placing new islet cells into the pancreas to help it make insulin. Doctors have been transplanting islet cells into diabetes patients for several years. However, these healthy islet cells have failed to permanently replace the need for insulin injections. Scientists also are studying special cells called stem cells to treat the disease. Stem cells develop into all the different kinds of cells in the body. Scientists believe that stem cells from unborn babies could be used to treat diabetes and other diseases. However, it would be a long time before such treatment is possible. VOICE TWO: While some scientists continue to seek ways to cure Type One diabetes, others are searching for easier ways to get insulin into the body. New devices are being developed that could replace injections. One device being tested is an inhaler. This device would permit patients to breathe insulin into their bodies. The insulin is in the form of a powder, like dust. When the insulin reaches the lungs, it quickly moves into the bloodstream to reduce glucose levels. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Type Two diabetes generally is found in people more than forty years old. Most of these people are too fat. Their bodies can not produce enough insulin to reduce the levels of glucose in their blood. Or, their bodies do not react correctly to the action of insulin. Type Two diabetes is more complex than Type One. Experts say Type Two diabetes is really a group of diseases, with many possible causes. Scientists see little hope in developing a cure for this kind of diabetes. Instead, they are searching for better ways to control it. Many people suffering from the disease can control it with exercise and by carefully controlling their diet. Also, many of them do not need to inject insulin into their bodies. Type Two diabetes is sometimes called non-insulin dependent. Still, patients often need drugs to treat the disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of drugs that can be used. However, many of them can cause other problems. One of the drugs is called sulfonylurea. It has been used for many years to help the pancreas make more insulin. But after several years, the drug loses its effects on the pancreas. Also, it can cause patients to gain weight. The drug metformin appears to be more effective. It lowers the amounts of glucose in the blood. It does this by helping the body make better use of its own natural insulin. It does not cause weight gain. However, metformin can be dangerous for people with damaged kidneys. It should not be used by people who drink large amounts of alcohol, or those with kidney, liver or heart problems. VOICE ONE: Genes seem to be more important in the development of Type Two diabetes than in Type One. About ninety percent of those with Type Two diabetes have parents and ancestors who also had the disease. In recent years, scientists have found several genes that may be linked to Type Two diabetes. Some of these genes also are linked to extreme overweight, known as obesity. About eighty to ninety percent of people with Type Two diabetes are obese. Often doctors do not discover that patients have diabetes until one of the disease’s serious results is found. For example, a doctor examines a patient suffering several health problems. The doctor carries out tests and finds the problems are the results of poor kidney performance. Tests then show the patient is suffering from diabetes, which can cause kidney problems and even failure. VOICE TWO: Although great progress has been made in the treatment of diabetes, it is still widespread and threatens the health of millions of people. Scientists hope that their research will lead to a cure for Type One diabetes. And they hope they can find new ways to improve treatment of Type Two diabetes. In future programs we will discuss new developments in diabetes research as they are reported. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the disease diabetes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization estimates that as many as one-hundred-twenty-million people have the disease diabetes. Diabetes is the name for several diseases with one thing in common: there is too much glucose, or sugar, in the blood. The disease develops when the body does not produce enough insulin or produces no insulin. Or the disease develops when the body cannot use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is necessary to change sugar, carbohydrates and other food into energy. In healthy people, the body changes food into a sugar, called glucose. Glucose is the source of fuel for the body. When food is changed into glucose, it enters the bloodstream and is taken to all parts of the body to feed muscles, organs, and tissue. VOICE TWO: When the body senses that there is too much glucose in the blood, it sends a signal to the pancreas. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. The pancreas sends insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin lowers the level of blood sugar by letting it enter cells. Insulin helps muscles, organs and tissues take glucose and change it into energy. That is how the body operates normally, in most people. Diabetes is present when too much glucose remains in the bloodstream and does not enter cells. If the amount of glucose in the blood remains too high, the body begins showing signs of diabetes. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage. High glucose levels in the blood also can lead to strokes and heart disease. Blood circulation also is affected, especially in the legs. Often, victims of diabetes must have a foot or even a leg removed because of blood circulation problems linked to the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are two main kinds of diabetes, Type One and Type Two. Between five and ten percent of those suffering from diabetes have Type One. It usually begins before the age of thirty in people who are thin. It is most commonly found in children under the age of sixteen. It is caused by the body’s defense system. The bodies of Type One diabetes victims produce a substance that attacks and kills some cells in the pancreas, blocking the production of insulin. These cells are called islet (EYE-lit) cells. Scientists are not sure why this happens. They believe there may be a number of causes. They include viruses, the presence of insect-killing pesticides in the environment or molecules known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced as part of normal chemical processes in the body. In people with diabetes, too many of these free radicals are present in the body. Scientists are not sure which of these causes is the most important to the development of Type One diabetes. VOICE TWO: People suffering from Type One diabetes must carefully control their diets. And they must exercise often. People with this kind of diabetes almost always require insulin injections. Patients must always know their blood sugar levels. When the level of glucose in the blood is too high, they must inject insulin into their bodies to reduce the amount of glucose. The patients must inject insulin every day, often several times a day. In most developed countries, insulin is easy to get and does not cost much money. However, doctors believe that these injections can cause long-term problems. They believe that the injections cause levels of glucose to change often. Scientists believe that many quick changes in glucose levels can, over time, result in damage to the body. This damage can be blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, or poor blood flow in the body. VOICE ONE: Type One diabetes also is known as juvenile onset diabetes, because it usually starts in children or young people. Scientists believe it is the form of the disease that they will most likely be able to cure some day. Among the treatments being studied is a vaccine to prevent the disease. A vaccine is injected into the body or taken by mouth in the form of a pill. Another possible treatment for Type One diabetes is placing new islet cells into the pancreas to help it make insulin. Doctors have been transplanting islet cells into diabetes patients for several years. However, these healthy islet cells have failed to permanently replace the need for insulin injections. Scientists also are studying special cells called stem cells to treat the disease. Stem cells develop into all the different kinds of cells in the body. Scientists believe that stem cells from unborn babies could be used to treat diabetes and other diseases. However, it would be a long time before such treatment is possible. VOICE TWO: While some scientists continue to seek ways to cure Type One diabetes, others are searching for easier ways to get insulin into the body. New devices are being developed that could replace injections. One device being tested is an inhaler. This device would permit patients to breathe insulin into their bodies. The insulin is in the form of a powder, like dust. When the insulin reaches the lungs, it quickly moves into the bloodstream to reduce glucose levels. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Type Two diabetes generally is found in people more than forty years old. Most of these people are too fat. Their bodies can not produce enough insulin to reduce the levels of glucose in their blood. Or, their bodies do not react correctly to the action of insulin. Type Two diabetes is more complex than Type One. Experts say Type Two diabetes is really a group of diseases, with many possible causes. Scientists see little hope in developing a cure for this kind of diabetes. Instead, they are searching for better ways to control it. Many people suffering from the disease can control it with exercise and by carefully controlling their diet. Also, many of them do not need to inject insulin into their bodies. Type Two diabetes is sometimes called non-insulin dependent. Still, patients often need drugs to treat the disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of drugs that can be used. However, many of them can cause other problems. One of the drugs is called sulfonylurea. It has been used for many years to help the pancreas make more insulin. But after several years, the drug loses its effects on the pancreas. Also, it can cause patients to gain weight. The drug metformin appears to be more effective. It lowers the amounts of glucose in the blood. It does this by helping the body make better use of its own natural insulin. It does not cause weight gain. However, metformin can be dangerous for people with damaged kidneys. It should not be used by people who drink large amounts of alcohol, or those with kidney, liver or heart problems. VOICE ONE: Genes seem to be more important in the development of Type Two diabetes than in Type One. About ninety percent of those with Type Two diabetes have parents and ancestors who also had the disease. In recent years, scientists have found several genes that may be linked to Type Two diabetes. Some of these genes also are linked to extreme overweight, known as obesity. About eighty to ninety percent of people with Type Two diabetes are obese. Often doctors do not discover that patients have diabetes until one of the disease’s serious results is found. For example, a doctor examines a patient suffering several health problems. The doctor carries out tests and finds the problems are the results of poor kidney performance. Tests then show the patient is suffering from diabetes, which can cause kidney problems and even failure. VOICE TWO: Although great progress has been made in the treatment of diabetes, it is still widespread and threatens the health of millions of people. Scientists hope that their research will lead to a cure for Type One diabetes. And they hope they can find new ways to improve treatment of Type Two diabetes. In future programs we will discuss new developments in diabetes research as they are reported. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — December 13, 2002: Corn, Part 2
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we told about the use of corn to feed cows in the cattle industry. This week we tell about other industrial uses for the crop. For example, corn is the most important sweetener used in the American food industry. Sugars from corn can be found in a huge number of products. One sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, is found in popular drinks and sweet food. It is sweeter than natural sugar and also less costly. About seventy-percent of corn is starch. Cornstarch is a kind of complex carbohydrate. Cornstarch is added to many foods. It is also used to make paper and many other products. Corn is even used to make explosives. Surprisingly different substances can be made from corn products. Corn can be processed in one way to make oil for cooking. Processed another way, it can be used to make alcohol. Both alcoholic drinks and industrial alcohol can be made from a mixture of crushed corn. Corn can even be used as a fuel. The United States Department of Agriculture has supported research on ethanol, a fuel alcohol, for many years. Ethanol can be added to gasoline to make high quality fuel for cars. However, ethanol is more costly than gasoline. The research agency of the Department of Agriculture continues to look for ways to produce ethanol at a lower cost. The Agricultural Research Service has found a method to continuously produce ethanol more effectively than ever before. Farmers in the central part of the United States support ethanol as a new market for their crop. Yet there are problems with the increasing ethanol market. Ethanol becomes more useful economically when corn prices and gasoline prices are low. But these conditions reduce profits for the farmers who grow corn and reduce the need for ethanol. Also, programs to increase the use of ethanol have not been successful in the past. It may be surprising, but the first widely-produced car in America, the Ford Model T, could use ethanol fuel as well as gasoline. Yet ethanol has not been important in America since the end of World War Two. In many industries, new uses for corn are being found all the time. Corn continues to become more economically important. But, can a crop become too successful? Next week, we will tell about the hidden costs of corn. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we told about the use of corn to feed cows in the cattle industry. This week we tell about other industrial uses for the crop. For example, corn is the most important sweetener used in the American food industry. Sugars from corn can be found in a huge number of products. One sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, is found in popular drinks and sweet food. It is sweeter than natural sugar and also less costly. About seventy-percent of corn is starch. Cornstarch is a kind of complex carbohydrate. Cornstarch is added to many foods. It is also used to make paper and many other products. Corn is even used to make explosives. Surprisingly different substances can be made from corn products. Corn can be processed in one way to make oil for cooking. Processed another way, it can be used to make alcohol. Both alcoholic drinks and industrial alcohol can be made from a mixture of crushed corn. Corn can even be used as a fuel. The United States Department of Agriculture has supported research on ethanol, a fuel alcohol, for many years. Ethanol can be added to gasoline to make high quality fuel for cars. However, ethanol is more costly than gasoline. The research agency of the Department of Agriculture continues to look for ways to produce ethanol at a lower cost. The Agricultural Research Service has found a method to continuously produce ethanol more effectively than ever before. Farmers in the central part of the United States support ethanol as a new market for their crop. Yet there are problems with the increasing ethanol market. Ethanol becomes more useful economically when corn prices and gasoline prices are low. But these conditions reduce profits for the farmers who grow corn and reduce the need for ethanol. Also, programs to increase the use of ethanol have not been successful in the past. It may be surprising, but the first widely-produced car in America, the Ford Model T, could use ethanol fuel as well as gasoline. Yet ethanol has not been important in America since the end of World War Two. In many industries, new uses for corn are being found all the time. Corn continues to become more economically important. But, can a crop become too successful? Next week, we will tell about the hidden costs of corn. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – December 4, 2002: Galapagos Islands
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the unusual creatures that live there. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: (Photo - Rosalind Cohen, NOAA) VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the unusual creatures that live there. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Love is not easy to find when you are the last male of your kind. At least that is how it seems for the Galapagos Islands tortoise that scientists call Lonesome George. He is just one of the many animals and plants that live on the famous group of Pacific Ocean islands. The islands were named for the large land turtles that live on them. At one time, the islands were home to about fifteen different kinds of land turtles. The largest island, Isabela, has five different kinds of tortoises. But, Lonesome George is not one of them. He comes from a smaller island called Pinta. Scientists found George almost thirty years ago. Humans and non-native animals had caused much damage to the environment on his island. Some animals and plants had disappeared. Lonesome George was the only tortoise found on Pinta. VOICE TWO: Scientists took the turtle to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. They wanted to help him find a female tortoise for mating. The scientists had been successful in similar efforts for thousands of other tortoises. The researchers placed George in the same living area as females from the nearby island of Isabela. Scientists thought George would be more closely related to the females from Isabela than to other Galapagos tortoises. But, Lonesome George proved hard to please. Scientists say that George never showed any interest in getting close to the females around him. Scientists say hopes of finding a mate for George are decreasing. If no mate is found, the Pinta Island tortoises will disappear when George dies. (Photo - Rosalind Cohen, NOAA) Love is not easy to find when you are the last male of your kind. At least that is how it seems for the Galapagos Islands tortoise that scientists call Lonesome George. He is just one of the many animals and plants that live on the famous group of Pacific Ocean islands. The islands were named for the large land turtles that live on them. At one time, the islands were home to about fifteen different kinds of land turtles. The largest island, Isabela, has five different kinds of tortoises. But, Lonesome George is not one of them. He comes from a smaller island called Pinta. Scientists found George almost thirty years ago. Humans and non-native animals had caused much damage to the environment on his island. Some animals and plants had disappeared. Lonesome George was the only tortoise found on Pinta. VOICE TWO: Scientists took the turtle to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. They wanted to help him find a female tortoise for mating. The scientists had been successful in similar efforts for thousands of other tortoises. The researchers placed George in the same living area as females from the nearby island of Isabela. Scientists thought George would be more closely related to the females from Isabela than to other Galapagos tortoises. But, Lonesome George proved hard to please. Scientists say that George never showed any interest in getting close to the females around him. Scientists say hopes of finding a mate for George are decreasing. If no mate is found, the Pinta Island tortoises will disappear when George dies. VOICE ONE: Research suggested that scientists might have to look on other islands for a mate for George. D-N-A testing showed that George’s closest relatives do not live on Isabela as the scientists thought. Turtles most like George live on the islands of San Cristobal and Espanola. The finding surprised scientists because San Cristobal and Espanola are the farthest Galapagos islands from Pinta. They are almost three hundred kilometers to the south. The D-N-A discovery is just another mystery of the Galapagos. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Mystery always has been part of the Galapagos. In Fifteen-Thirty-Five, a ship carrying the Roman Catholic Bishop of Panama came upon the Galapagos accidentally. Tomas de Berlanga named the Galapagos group the Enchanted Isles. He was surprised to see land turtles that weighed almost three-hundred-kilograms. He said they were so large each could carry a man on top of itself. Bishop Berlanga also noted the unusual soil of the islands. He suggested that one island was so stony it seemed like stones had rained from the sky. VOICE ONE: The British nature scientist Charles Darwin is mainly responsible for the fame of the Galapagos Islands. He visited the islands in Eighteen-Thirty-Five. He collected plants and animals from several islands. After many years of research, he wrote the book “The Origin of Species.” He developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through the process of natural selection. The book changed the way people think about how living things developed and changed over time. Darwin said the Galapagos brought people near “to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on earth”. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: More than one-hundred-twenty-five land masses make up the Galapagos. Only nineteen are large enough to be considered islands. The Galapagos are a province of Ecuador. The island group lies across the equator about one-thousand kilometers west of the coast of South America. The Galapagos Islands are generally dry. Giant cactus and other smaller thorny desert plants grow just above the coast of the larger islands. Higher up is a wetter area that produces small trees. Above that are tall trees and bushes. That level can be foggy with wet clouds surrounding the tree tops. Sunflower trees live on the highest part of the tallest islands. They can grow more than fifteen meters in height. VOICE ONE: Scientists have been wondering for years about the position of the Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used to think that the islands were connected to the South American mainland and floated out to sea slowly. Today, most scientists think the islands were always where they are now. But, they think the islands once were a single land mass under water. Volcanic activity broke the large island into pieces that came to the surface of the sea over time. But scientists wonder how animals arrived on Galapagos if the islands were always so far from the mainland. Scientists think most Galapagos plants and animals floated to the islands. When rivers flood in South America, small pieces of land flow into the ocean. These rafts can hold trees and bushes. The rafts also can hold small mammals and reptiles. The adult Galapagos tortoise clearly is too big for a trip hundreds of kilometers across the ocean. But, turtle eggs or baby turtles would be small enough to float to the islands. VOICE TWO: The islands are home to many unusual birds, reptiles and small mammals. Some of the animals live no where else on Earth. The tortoise is the most famous Galapagos reptile. But it is not rarer than the marine iguana. It is the only iguana in the world that goes into the ocean. The marine iguana eats seaweed. It can dive at least fifteen meters below the ocean surface. And it can stay down there for more than thirty minutes. Several strange birds also live on the Galapagos. One of them is the only penguin that lives on the equator. Another is the frigate bird. It has loose skin on its throat that it can blow up into a huge red balloon-like structure. It does this to attract females who make observation flights over large groups of males. VOICE ONE: The Galapagos also are noted for a bird that likes water better than land or air. The cormorant is able to fly in all the other places it lives around the world. But, the Galapagos cormorant has extremely short wings. They can not support flight. But they work well for swimming. The Galapagos Islands also have a large collection of small birds called Darwin’s finches. Charles Darwin studied the finches carefully when he visited the Galapagos in Eighteen-Thirty-Five. He separated the birds by the shapes of their beaks. Finches that lived in different places and ate different foods had different shaped beaks. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists continue to study life on the Galapagos Islands. But, they have just begun to study the deepest parts of the ocean that surrounds the islands. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D-C sent marine biologist Carole Baldwin to the Galapagos. Mizz Baldwin traveled nine-hundred meters down to the bottom of the ocean near the islands. She did so in a clear plastic bubble watercraft called the Johnson Sea-Link Two. The Sea-Link has powerful lights to battle the extreme darkness of the deep. The watercraft also has several long robotic arms. They collect sealife. The trips to the bottom of the sea resulted in the discovery of more than ten new kinds of sea life. Some of the discoveries were captured on film. VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian currently is showing a special movie about Mizz Baldwin’s trip to the Galapagos. The movie was filmed using the Imax 3-D technique. The movie is shown on a huge screen at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D-C. Three-D movies on huge screens give images much more depth. People who watch the movie wear large glasses to observe the 3-D effect. They experience the movie in a different way. For example, some viewers reach out to touch a Galapagos tortoise because it seems so close. Other viewers throw back their heads to avoid the splash of a wave on a rock on Santa Cruz island. It is easy to forget that the images are on a screen and are not real. The movie tries to provide an experience similar to a forty-minute visit to the interesting and unusual Galapagos Islands. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: Research suggested that scientists might have to look on other islands for a mate for George. D-N-A testing showed that George’s closest relatives do not live on Isabela as the scientists thought. Turtles most like George live on the islands of San Cristobal and Espanola. The finding surprised scientists because San Cristobal and Espanola are the farthest Galapagos islands from Pinta. They are almost three hundred kilometers to the south. The D-N-A discovery is just another mystery of the Galapagos. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Mystery always has been part of the Galapagos. In Fifteen-Thirty-Five, a ship carrying the Roman Catholic Bishop of Panama came upon the Galapagos accidentally. Tomas de Berlanga named the Galapagos group the Enchanted Isles. He was surprised to see land turtles that weighed almost three-hundred-kilograms. He said they were so large each could carry a man on top of itself. Bishop Berlanga also noted the unusual soil of the islands. He suggested that one island was so stony it seemed like stones had rained from the sky. VOICE ONE: The British nature scientist Charles Darwin is mainly responsible for the fame of the Galapagos Islands. He visited the islands in Eighteen-Thirty-Five. He collected plants and animals from several islands. After many years of research, he wrote the book “The Origin of Species.” He developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through the process of natural selection. The book changed the way people think about how living things developed and changed over time. Darwin said the Galapagos brought people near “to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on earth”. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: More than one-hundred-twenty-five land masses make up the Galapagos. Only nineteen are large enough to be considered islands. The Galapagos are a province of Ecuador. The island group lies across the equator about one-thousand kilometers west of the coast of South America. The Galapagos Islands are generally dry. Giant cactus and other smaller thorny desert plants grow just above the coast of the larger islands. Higher up is a wetter area that produces small trees. Above that are tall trees and bushes. That level can be foggy with wet clouds surrounding the tree tops. Sunflower trees live on the highest part of the tallest islands. They can grow more than fifteen meters in height. VOICE ONE: Scientists have been wondering for years about the position of the Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used to think that the islands were connected to the South American mainland and floated out to sea slowly. Today, most scientists think the islands were always where they are now. But, they think the islands once were a single land mass under water. Volcanic activity broke the large island into pieces that came to the surface of the sea over time. But scientists wonder how animals arrived on Galapagos if the islands were always so far from the mainland. Scientists think most Galapagos plants and animals floated to the islands. When rivers flood in South America, small pieces of land flow into the ocean. These rafts can hold trees and bushes. The rafts also can hold small mammals and reptiles. The adult Galapagos tortoise clearly is too big for a trip hundreds of kilometers across the ocean. But, turtle eggs or baby turtles would be small enough to float to the islands. VOICE TWO: The islands are home to many unusual birds, reptiles and small mammals. Some of the animals live no where else on Earth. The tortoise is the most famous Galapagos reptile. But it is not rarer than the marine iguana. It is the only iguana in the world that goes into the ocean. The marine iguana eats seaweed. It can dive at least fifteen meters below the ocean surface. And it can stay down there for more than thirty minutes. Several strange birds also live on the Galapagos. One of them is the only penguin that lives on the equator. Another is the frigate bird. It has loose skin on its throat that it can blow up into a huge red balloon-like structure. It does this to attract females who make observation flights over large groups of males. VOICE ONE: The Galapagos also are noted for a bird that likes water better than land or air. The cormorant is able to fly in all the other places it lives around the world. But, the Galapagos cormorant has extremely short wings. They can not support flight. But they work well for swimming. The Galapagos Islands also have a large collection of small birds called Darwin’s finches. Charles Darwin studied the finches carefully when he visited the Galapagos in Eighteen-Thirty-Five. He separated the birds by the shapes of their beaks. Finches that lived in different places and ate different foods had different shaped beaks. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists continue to study life on the Galapagos Islands. But, they have just begun to study the deepest parts of the ocean that surrounds the islands. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D-C sent marine biologist Carole Baldwin to the Galapagos. Mizz Baldwin traveled nine-hundred meters down to the bottom of the ocean near the islands. She did so in a clear plastic bubble watercraft called the Johnson Sea-Link Two. The Sea-Link has powerful lights to battle the extreme darkness of the deep. The watercraft also has several long robotic arms. They collect sealife. The trips to the bottom of the sea resulted in the discovery of more than ten new kinds of sea life. Some of the discoveries were captured on film. VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian currently is showing a special movie about Mizz Baldwin’s trip to the Galapagos. The movie was filmed using the Imax 3-D technique. The movie is shown on a huge screen at the Museum of Natural History in Washington, D-C. Three-D movies on huge screens give images much more depth. People who watch the movie wear large glasses to observe the 3-D effect. They experience the movie in a different way. For example, some viewers reach out to touch a Galapagos tortoise because it seems so close. Other viewers throw back their heads to avoid the splash of a wave on a rock on Santa Cruz island. It is easy to forget that the images are on a screen and are not real. The movie tries to provide an experience similar to a forty-minute visit to the interesting and unusual Galapagos Islands. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another Explorations program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – December 4, 2002: Test Warns of Heart Attack Risk
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Since the nineteen-fifties, American doctors have tested their patients’ blood for cholesterol. High levels of this fatty substance help warn of a possible heart attack or stroke. Now a new study says a rarely performed test for a protein in the blood might do this better. The study showed that women with high levels of C-reactive protein were two times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as women with high cholesterol levels. The study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers studied almost twenty-eight-thousand healthy women for eight years. The women were forty-five years old or older. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts led the research. One group of women in the study had higher than normal levels of C-reactive protein. These same women had below average levels of low density lipoprotein or L-D-L. This is often called “bad” cholesterol. These women were considered at low risk for heart attacks and strokes. Another group had the opposite conditions. They had low levels of C-reactive protein and high levels of L-D-L. Over time, the women with high C-reactive protein and low L-D-L suffered more heart attacks and strokes. This led researchers to believe that people with good cholesterol levels may have a false feeling of security about their health. About half of the people with heart disease have normal cholesterol levels. Doctors test for cholesterol because it sticks to blood passages called arteries. In time, the substance can block arteries and reduce the flow of blood to the heart or brain. This can kill brain or heart cells. The rarely used test measures the levels of C-reactive protein made by the body when arteries are inflamed. Inflammation is a reaction to infection, injury or other causes. Many doctors suspect that continued inflammation helps cause artery disease, heart attacks and strokes. Millions of Americans who have normal cholesterol levels also have high C-reactive protein. Doctor Ridker said the C-reactive protein test could warn these people of possible trouble. They could then exercise, lose weight or take drugs called statins. Doctors advise these same measures to treat high cholesterol levels. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - December 5, 2002: Foreign Student Series #12 >Financial Aid
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) Today, we tell about financial aid. Most of this information can be found on the Internet. If you do not have a computer, you can use one at an advising center or local university. Many young people want to study in the United States but do not have the money to do so. It is a good idea to research this question when you first begin to explore the idea of studying in the United States. The Association of International Educators says more than two-thirds of foreign students in the United States pay for their education using their own or their family’s money. That is because there is very little financial aid for foreign students in the United States. Foreign graduate students have more chances than undergraduates do, but it still is limited. Most financial aid from public and private groups is restricted to American citizens. Some countries provide aid for their citizens to study in the United States on the guarantee that they will return to their own countries to work. The United States government provides aid for students from some countries. You can ask at the American Embassy or an Agency for International Development office if this is true in your country. A local university may also have such information. Some American colleges do provide money in the form of scholarships to foreign students. A list of these can be found at a very useful Internet Web site. The Web site also provides information about where to write for scholarships and loans. And it warns foreign students not to pay any money for scholarship applications. Such requests are illegal. The address is w-w-w dot e-d-u-p-a-s-s dot o-r-g. (www.edupass.org) I will repeat this address again at the end of this report. The same Web site also lists useful publications and tells how to order them. One example is a publication called “Funding for U-S Study -- A Guide for International Students and Professionals.” It lists more than six-hundred places international students can get money to pay for their studies. That Web site address again is w-w-w dot e-d-u-p-a-s-s dot o-r-g. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - December 5, 2002: Jimmy Carter
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin signed the Camp David peace agreement at the White House on September 17, 1978.(Photo - Carter Library) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-ninth president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: It is January Twentieth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. Inauguration Day. America's newly elected president, Jimmy Carter, is on his way to the White House after his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol building. But the new president is not riding in a car. He is walking. His wife, Rosalynn, and his daughter, Amy, walk with him. Crowds along Pennsylvania Avenue cheer. Bands play. On this cold day in Washington, Americans look to the future. Watergate -- the crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon -- is several years in the past. The Vietnam War is history, too. VOICE TWO: Republican Gerald Ford served the remaining years of Nixon's term. Many people believe he brought respect and order back to the government. Yet he lost the office to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the election of Nineteen-Seventy-Six. The nation still has problems. Unemployment is high. So is inflation. But the future of the nation looks bright. Jimmy Carter feels sure about his future, too. On the day before his inauguration, he said: CARTER: "I do feel that the people of this nation and, I think, the entire world wish me well and want to see me succeed as president. And that gives me a sense of reassurance and confidence. I think I'm ready now to be president." ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: During the election campaign, Carter often said he would be different from other presidents. He was not a member of the Washington political establishment. So he would do things in his own independent way. Carter was from Georgia -- the "Deep South" of the United States. There had not been a president born in the South in more than one-hundred years. Carter studied nuclear engineering and attended the United States Naval Academy. He planned to stay in the Navy. Then his father died. And he decided to return to Georgia to operate the family peanut farm. VOICE TWO: Carter began his political life on the committee that supervised schools in his hometown. He also served in other local offices. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, he failed to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia. For the next four years, he traveled around the state gathering support. He won the next election. As governor, Carter earned praise for reorganizing the state government. He also reformed state programs dealing with prisons and mental health care. In Nineteen-Seventy-Two, he offered himself as a candidate for vice president with presidential candidate George McGovern. But the Democratic Party chose someone else. VOICE ONE: Carter did not wait long to begin his next political move. He would try to win the Democratic presidential nomination in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. Jimmy Carter was not well-known outside the state of Georgia. Political experts gave him little chance. Even his mother was surprised to learn that he wanted to be president. "President of what?" she asked. VOICE TWO: The farmer and former governor had a plan, however. He would try to win his party's primary elections in the South. He believed this would give him enough support at the party convention to win the nomination. Other Democratic candidates tried to stop him, but his plan worked. By the time of the convention, he had enough support to win the nomination on the first ballot. In the general election, Carter defeated President Ford by about two percent of the popular vote. He lost in the West and Middle West, but won the South and Northeast. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: President Carter believed strongly in human rights. He hoped he could use his new position to support human rights throughout the world. On this and other issues, he was not afraid of being criticized when he believed he was right. For example, he believed it was right for the United States to end its control of the Panama Canal. He won Congressional support for treaties to give control to Panama by the year Two-Thousand. He believed it was right to give diplomatic recognition to Communist China. And he believed it was right to continue negotiations with the Soviet Union about limiting nuclear weapons, even though he denounced human rights violations there. In Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT Two treaty. However, Carter decided not to send the treaty to the Senate for approval after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan later that year. VOICE TWO: One of the finest moments of his presidency took place at Camp David. That is the holiday home of American presidents. There, in March Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. They signed a peace treaty ending thirty years of war between their countries. Both men said the treaty would not have been possible without President Carter's help. VOICE ONE: President Carter was not as successful in dealing with the economy. High unemployment and inflation continued. The federal deficit increased, although he had promised to end it. And there was a shortage of gasoline. The shortage resulted when oil-producing countries limited production and exports. Carter urged American companies to develop new sources of energy, in addition to oil. He said the United States must do this, because it could not always depend on getting enough oil from other countries. VOICE TWO: During the gasoline shortage, Americans had to wait in long lines to buy fuel. They did not like it and were angry. Many were even more angry about a different situation. Like the gasoline shortage, it was a result of actions in another place. In November Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Muslim extremists in Iran seized the American Embassy in Tehran. They took many hostages, including more than sixty Americans. The extremists said they were punishing the United States for being friendly with ousted Iranian leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi. VOICE ONE: The extremists refused to negotiate. They refused to release the hostages. In early April Nineteen-Eighty, President Carter broke relations with Iran. He then ordered American military forces to try to rescue the hostages in Tehran. The operation failed. A sandstorm caused two of the aircraft to crash into each other. They went down in the desert hundreds of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: The failed rescue attempt had a major effect on the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Many Americans felt it showed that he could not do the job. Their respect for him continued to decrease as the hostages continued to be held. Other things were beginning to go wrong, too. The president's younger brother admitted receiving a large amount of money from Libya. He took the money in exchange for supporting Libyan interests with American lawmakers. His mistake was that he did not list his name as a representative of a foreign government. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Nineteen-Eighty was a presidential election year in the United States. President Carter was expected to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. He almost ruined his chances, however, because of the situation in Iran. Carter hoped that concern for the hostages would unite the country behind him. Instead, support turned to blame. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts believed he could defeat Carter for the nomination. Kennedy won several important Democratic primary elections. It was not enough. The party re-nominated Carter. Kennedy offered Carter his support, but not very strongly. This left the party divided. VOICE TWO: The Republicans got ready to win back the White House. They hoped to do it with a strong appeal to American voters. The appeal came from a man who would become one of America's most popular presidents -- Ronald Reagan. That will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-ninth president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: It is January Twentieth, Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. Inauguration Day. America's newly elected president, Jimmy Carter, is on his way to the White House after his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol building. But the new president is not riding in a car. He is walking. His wife, Rosalynn, and his daughter, Amy, walk with him. Crowds along Pennsylvania Avenue cheer. Bands play. On this cold day in Washington, Americans look to the future. Watergate -- the crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon -- is several years in the past. The Vietnam War is history, too. VOICE TWO: Republican Gerald Ford served the remaining years of Nixon's term. Many people believe he brought respect and order back to the government. Yet he lost the office to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the election of Nineteen-Seventy-Six. The nation still has problems. Unemployment is high. So is inflation. But the future of the nation looks bright. Jimmy Carter feels sure about his future, too. On the day before his inauguration, he said: CARTER: "I do feel that the people of this nation and, I think, the entire world wish me well and want to see me succeed as president. And that gives me a sense of reassurance and confidence. I think I'm ready now to be president." ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: During the election campaign, Carter often said he would be different from other presidents. He was not a member of the Washington political establishment. So he would do things in his own independent way. Carter was from Georgia -- the "Deep South" of the United States. There had not been a president born in the South in more than one-hundred years. Carter studied nuclear engineering and attended the United States Naval Academy. He planned to stay in the Navy. Then his father died. And he decided to return to Georgia to operate the family peanut farm. VOICE TWO: Carter began his political life on the committee that supervised schools in his hometown. He also served in other local offices. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, he failed to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia. For the next four years, he traveled around the state gathering support. He won the next election. As governor, Carter earned praise for reorganizing the state government. He also reformed state programs dealing with prisons and mental health care. In Nineteen-Seventy-Two, he offered himself as a candidate for vice president with presidential candidate George McGovern. But the Democratic Party chose someone else. VOICE ONE: Carter did not wait long to begin his next political move. He would try to win the Democratic presidential nomination in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. Jimmy Carter was not well-known outside the state of Georgia. Political experts gave him little chance. Even his mother was surprised to learn that he wanted to be president. "President of what?" she asked. VOICE TWO: The farmer and former governor had a plan, however. He would try to win his party's primary elections in the South. He believed this would give him enough support at the party convention to win the nomination. Other Democratic candidates tried to stop him, but his plan worked. By the time of the convention, he had enough support to win the nomination on the first ballot. In the general election, Carter defeated President Ford by about two percent of the popular vote. He lost in the West and Middle West, but won the South and Northeast. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: President Carter believed strongly in human rights. He hoped he could use his new position to support human rights throughout the world. On this and other issues, he was not afraid of being criticized when he believed he was right. For example, he believed it was right for the United States to end its control of the Panama Canal. He won Congressional support for treaties to give control to Panama by the year Two-Thousand. He believed it was right to give diplomatic recognition to Communist China. And he believed it was right to continue negotiations with the Soviet Union about limiting nuclear weapons, even though he denounced human rights violations there. In Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT Two treaty. However, Carter decided not to send the treaty to the Senate for approval after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan later that year. VOICE TWO: One of the finest moments of his presidency took place at Camp David. That is the holiday home of American presidents. There, in March Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. They signed a peace treaty ending thirty years of war between their countries. Both men said the treaty would not have been possible without President Carter's help. VOICE ONE: President Carter was not as successful in dealing with the economy. High unemployment and inflation continued. The federal deficit increased, although he had promised to end it. And there was a shortage of gasoline. The shortage resulted when oil-producing countries limited production and exports. Carter urged American companies to develop new sources of energy, in addition to oil. He said the United States must do this, because it could not always depend on getting enough oil from other countries. VOICE TWO: During the gasoline shortage, Americans had to wait in long lines to buy fuel. They did not like it and were angry. Many were even more angry about a different situation. Like the gasoline shortage, it was a result of actions in another place. In November Nineteen-Seventy-Nine, Muslim extremists in Iran seized the American Embassy in Tehran. They took many hostages, including more than sixty Americans. The extremists said they were punishing the United States for being friendly with ousted Iranian leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi. VOICE ONE: The extremists refused to negotiate. They refused to release the hostages. In early April Nineteen-Eighty, President Carter broke relations with Iran. He then ordered American military forces to try to rescue the hostages in Tehran. The operation failed. A sandstorm caused two of the aircraft to crash into each other. They went down in the desert hundreds of kilometers away. VOICE TWO: The failed rescue attempt had a major effect on the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Many Americans felt it showed that he could not do the job. Their respect for him continued to decrease as the hostages continued to be held. Other things were beginning to go wrong, too. The president's younger brother admitted receiving a large amount of money from Libya. He took the money in exchange for supporting Libyan interests with American lawmakers. His mistake was that he did not list his name as a representative of a foreign government. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Nineteen-Eighty was a presidential election year in the United States. President Carter was expected to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. He almost ruined his chances, however, because of the situation in Iran. Carter hoped that concern for the hostages would unite the country behind him. Instead, support turned to blame. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts believed he could defeat Carter for the nomination. Kennedy won several important Democratic primary elections. It was not enough. The party re-nominated Carter. Kennedy offered Carter his support, but not very strongly. This left the party divided. VOICE TWO: The Republicans got ready to win back the White House. They hoped to do it with a strong appeal to American voters. The appeal came from a man who would become one of America's most popular presidents -- Ronald Reagan. That will be our story next time. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Stan Busby. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 5, 2002 - Rap Freestyling
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": December 5, 2002 MUSIC: "Lose Yourself"/Eminem ("8 Mile" soundtrack) AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the art of rap. This form of music sprang from the hip-hop culture of young, urban African Americans. RS: But, as often happens with black music, it is a white artist who is getting lots of attention lately -- especially now that he's starring in a semi-biographical movie, called "8 Mile." We're talking about Eminem. That's E-M-I-N-E-M, a play on the initials of his real name, Marshall Mathers. AA: A top rapper is known as an M-C, meaning "master of ceremonies" or "microphone controller." A few years ago Priest Da Nomad, a local M-C from Washington came into our studios to talk about rap. PRIEST DA NOMAD: "To rap is basically just like to speak, but it's to speak rhythmically. And when you -- you notice that when you talk anyway, you kind of define a rhythm, but we don't really notice it. So it's really like consciously doing it, and it's just using your brain, which is a muscle. So it's like everything you do, it's like going to the gym with your brain." AA: "And you have to keep working out and working out and getting stronger." PRIEST DA NOMAD: "And there's different aspects of rapping. The one I specialize in is improvisational rhyming, which is called freestyling." RS: Give him a word, he'll think up a rhyme. Here he goes off on the word "word." PRIEST DA NOMAD: "We're going to break it down, the W, O, R to the aura and the D -- that's me, representative from DC, calm MC's like sedative, and that's a word, meaning to calm down, down I don't know, maybe that's the way you go, adverb, when I come through, rhyming is absurd. Or should I say the subject and the predicate -- before I hit the predicate, you're looking at me, dang he got mike etiquette. Oh goodness, smooth with this flowing eye, bust over the styles and hit you with the flow -- it's like the Nile River, delivery, like poetry, hit the high notes, like Al Green, on the scene, sort of like Valvoline, my tongue was dipped in oil to slide by rhythms ... " AA: And he kept going. Priest Da Nomad started rapping when he was twelve. He annoyed his teachers by tapping out rhythms on his desk. RS: He mastered the art of freestyling with practice, but also speech training and working with others. PRIEST DA NOMAD: "We used to take speech exercises like doing debates, doing alliteration, going through the alphabet, doing story telling and environment rhyming, which is just picking things out in the environment and rhyming about them and just practicing like that. I read the newspaper every day. I try to feed my brain with as much data as possible, and then you practice drawing upon that data in a split second." AA: Priest Da Nomad says rap lyrics don't have to be violent or vulgar. But tell that to the record companies. PRIEST DA NOMAD: "When you talk about money becoming an aspect, that means things are going to happen to sell records. Certain artists and certain types of music are pushed because it talks about a certain lifestyle, and pop America -- white America -- is fascinated by that lifestyle." RS: "How different are you from the twelve-year-old who was pounding on his desk in junior high?" PRIEST DA NOMAD: "Well, I've grown and matured. I still have the same passion, though. My whole thing with what I do is when I feel something and when something moves me, I can't ignore it, and everyone from, like teachers and parents -- my mother used to tell me, 'why are you doing this?' She laughed at it at first because, she was like, 'OK, it's a phase he's going through.' And then after high school -- we were dealing with some record companies but before we could do a deal, one of them folded -- I went to school for a little bit, to college, and came back and got pulled back into music. Once I got back into it, I was like, this is where my heart is and I'm not ever stopping." MUSIC: "We Got" AA: We talked to Priest Da Nomad back in 1999, before he got the chance to perform at a nationally televised millennium celebration here in Washington. But, as he later told a Washington Post reporter, the lyrics they gave him -- written by basketball star Shaquille O'Neal and the rapper Coolio -- were "horrible." Too commercial. RS: So Priest ended up saying thanks but no thanks to the man who invited him: the legendary black music producer Quincy Jones. Believe it or not, Priest Da Nomad still has a career. In fact, he's featured on an album with another Washington D-C rapper, Storm the Unpredictable, coming out in January -- plus he tells us he's working on a new album of his own. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": December 5, 2002 MUSIC: "Lose Yourself"/Eminem ("8 Mile" soundtrack) AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- the art of rap. This form of music sprang from the hip-hop culture of young, urban African Americans. RS: But, as often happens with black music, it is a white artist who is getting lots of attention lately -- especially now that he's starring in a semi-biographical movie, called "8 Mile." We're talking about Eminem. That's E-M-I-N-E-M, a play on the initials of his real name, Marshall Mathers. AA: A top rapper is known as an M-C, meaning "master of ceremonies" or "microphone controller." A few years ago Priest Da Nomad, a local M-C from Washington came into our studios to talk about rap. PRIEST DA NOMAD: "To rap is basically just like to speak, but it's to speak rhythmically. And when you -- you notice that when you talk anyway, you kind of define a rhythm, but we don't really notice it. So it's really like consciously doing it, and it's just using your brain, which is a muscle. So it's like everything you do, it's like going to the gym with your brain." AA: "And you have to keep working out and working out and getting stronger." PRIEST DA NOMAD: "And there's different aspects of rapping. The one I specialize in is improvisational rhyming, which is called freestyling." RS: Give him a word, he'll think up a rhyme. Here he goes off on the word "word." PRIEST DA NOMAD: "We're going to break it down, the W, O, R to the aura and the D -- that's me, representative from DC, calm MC's like sedative, and that's a word, meaning to calm down, down I don't know, maybe that's the way you go, adverb, when I come through, rhyming is absurd. Or should I say the subject and the predicate -- before I hit the predicate, you're looking at me, dang he got mike etiquette. Oh goodness, smooth with this flowing eye, bust over the styles and hit you with the flow -- it's like the Nile River, delivery, like poetry, hit the high notes, like Al Green, on the scene, sort of like Valvoline, my tongue was dipped in oil to slide by rhythms ... " AA: And he kept going. Priest Da Nomad started rapping when he was twelve. He annoyed his teachers by tapping out rhythms on his desk. RS: He mastered the art of freestyling with practice, but also speech training and working with others. PRIEST DA NOMAD: "We used to take speech exercises like doing debates, doing alliteration, going through the alphabet, doing story telling and environment rhyming, which is just picking things out in the environment and rhyming about them and just practicing like that. I read the newspaper every day. I try to feed my brain with as much data as possible, and then you practice drawing upon that data in a split second." AA: Priest Da Nomad says rap lyrics don't have to be violent or vulgar. But tell that to the record companies. PRIEST DA NOMAD: "When you talk about money becoming an aspect, that means things are going to happen to sell records. Certain artists and certain types of music are pushed because it talks about a certain lifestyle, and pop America -- white America -- is fascinated by that lifestyle." RS: "How different are you from the twelve-year-old who was pounding on his desk in junior high?" PRIEST DA NOMAD: "Well, I've grown and matured. I still have the same passion, though. My whole thing with what I do is when I feel something and when something moves me, I can't ignore it, and everyone from, like teachers and parents -- my mother used to tell me, 'why are you doing this?' She laughed at it at first because, she was like, 'OK, it's a phase he's going through.' And then after high school -- we were dealing with some record companies but before we could do a deal, one of them folded -- I went to school for a little bit, to college, and came back and got pulled back into music. Once I got back into it, I was like, this is where my heart is and I'm not ever stopping." MUSIC: "We Got" AA: We talked to Priest Da Nomad back in 1999, before he got the chance to perform at a nationally televised millennium celebration here in Washington. But, as he later told a Washington Post reporter, the lyrics they gave him -- written by basketball star Shaquille O'Neal and the rapper Coolio -- were "horrible." Too commercial. RS: So Priest ended up saying thanks but no thanks to the man who invited him: the legendary black music producer Quincy Jones. Believe it or not, Priest Da Nomad still has a career. In fact, he's featured on an album with another Washington D-C rapper, Storm the Unpredictable, coming out in January -- plus he tells us he's working on a new album of his own. AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. We're on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster, and our e-mail address is word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - December 6, 2002: Muslims in America / A Question from Nigeria: What Does the 'D.C.' Stand for in Washington, D.C.? / Afro-Rumba-Flamenco-Worldbeat-Jazz-Pop Music by Jesse Cook
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. US Capitol in the snow HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by Jesse Cook ... Answer a listener’s question about Washington, D.C. ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music by Jesse Cook ... Answer a listener’s question about Washington, D.C. ... And report about Muslims in America. Ramadan HOST: Muslims around the world are completing their observance of Ramadan this week. Studies say that about six-million Muslims live in the United States. Shep O’Neal tells us how some of them observed the Muslim holy month. ANNCR: Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States. Yet American Muslims know they are a religious minority. This is especially true during Ramadan. In some countries where Muslims are the majority, businesses reduce their hours of operation during Ramadan. That does not happen in the United States. For many American Muslims, Ramadan has been taking place during a difficult period. The United States has threatened to use military force to disarm Iraq. One year ago, Ramadan took place after the terrorist attacks against the United States. Imam Elahi is a clergyman with the House of Wisdom, an Islamic center in Dearborn, Michigan. He says it has been a difficult year for Muslims since the terrorist attacks. He criticizes accusations made against Islam. He says most were made for political purposes or by people who do not understand the religion. Imam Elahi says he believes that Muslims need to find ways to communicate better with non-Muslims. He says the communications will fail if one side or both overestimate their own importance. Some Muslims say they are reaching out to other Americans and educating them about Islam. Others say they feel like they have to defend their religion and prove they are real Americans. This year, the American holiday of Thanksgiving was celebrated during Ramadan. Thanksgiving is a time when Americans gather with family and friends and have a special meal. During Ramadan, however, healthy Muslim adults are not permitted to eat or drink during the day. American Muslims say there is no reason why Thanksgiving should have been any different this year. They say Islam did not prevent anyone from cooking during the day. They note that having a meal at sundown always is an important part of Ramadan. A Muslim writer once said it is not always easy to live a truly Muslim life in America. However, she said it is worth the effort. Washington, D.C. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Augustine Alumonah asks about the meaning of the letters D and C in the name of the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. To answer the question, we must go back about two-hundred years, to the beginning of the United States. The states approved a Constitution for the country in seventeen-eighty-eight. But they could not decide where to build the permanent capital. Northern states did not want the capital in the south because of slavery. The Southern states did not want it in the north. Several places were proposed, but Congress could not agree on one. Then Thomas Jefferson of Virginia invited Alexander Hamilton of New York to dinner to discuss the dispute. Two congressmen from Virginia were also there. The four men talked politics. Southern votes had defeated a bill in Congress that Mister Hamilton wanted very much to be approved. It would have required the federal government to pay the money owed by the states for fighting the war to gain independence from Britain. The two Virginia congressmen agreed to change their votes against the bill. And Mister Hamilton agreed to find northern votes to support a proposal to build the capital along the Potomac River between the states of Virginia and Maryland. That is how Congress agreed to build the capital in a federal area on land provided by the two states. A year later, officials announced that the city would be called Washington, in honor of the country’s first president, George Washington. The larger federal area would be named the District of Columbia. Columbia had become another name for the United States, one that was used by poets and other writers. The name came from Christopher Columbus, the explorer who sailed from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to the Western Hemisphere. Today, Washington, D.C. is known to those who live in the area as the District. But if you want to write to us, our address is Washington, D.C. Jesse Cook HOST: Jesse Cook is a songwriter who produces his own records. But first and always he is a guitar player. His music is an unusual mix of Afro-rumba-flamenco-worldbeat-jazz-pop. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Jesse Cook was born in Paris, France to Canadian parents. He spent his early years in southern France and Spain. He began learning to play guitar when he was only three. He expanded his musical education in Canada and the United States before returning to Europe. He studied with great Spanish guitar masters in Andalusia, Cordoba, Granada and Madrid. There is little he can not do with a guitar. Listen to his recording of “Breathing Below Surface” from his album, “Vertigo.” (MUSIC) Critics call Jesse Cook’s music “World Music.” That is because he uses the sounds of many different places and music from many different lands. Listen to this mix of sounds in a recording called “Rattle and Burn.” (MUSIC) Jesse Cook recorded this next song at the Canadian Governor General’s Awards Ceremony in Ottawa. We leave you now with Jesse Cook playing a very fast Samba. The song is called “Mario Takes a Walk!” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johonson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. And report about Muslims in America. Ramadan HOST: Muslims around the world are completing their observance of Ramadan this week. Studies say that about six-million Muslims live in the United States. Shep O’Neal tells us how some of them observed the Muslim holy month. ANNCR: Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the United States. Yet American Muslims know they are a religious minority. This is especially true during Ramadan. In some countries where Muslims are the majority, businesses reduce their hours of operation during Ramadan. That does not happen in the United States. For many American Muslims, Ramadan has been taking place during a difficult period. The United States has threatened to use military force to disarm Iraq. One year ago, Ramadan took place after the terrorist attacks against the United States. Imam Elahi is a clergyman with the House of Wisdom, an Islamic center in Dearborn, Michigan. He says it has been a difficult year for Muslims since the terrorist attacks. He criticizes accusations made against Islam. He says most were made for political purposes or by people who do not understand the religion. Imam Elahi says he believes that Muslims need to find ways to communicate better with non-Muslims. He says the communications will fail if one side or both overestimate their own importance. Some Muslims say they are reaching out to other Americans and educating them about Islam. Others say they feel like they have to defend their religion and prove they are real Americans. This year, the American holiday of Thanksgiving was celebrated during Ramadan. Thanksgiving is a time when Americans gather with family and friends and have a special meal. During Ramadan, however, healthy Muslim adults are not permitted to eat or drink during the day. American Muslims say there is no reason why Thanksgiving should have been any different this year. They say Islam did not prevent anyone from cooking during the day. They note that having a meal at sundown always is an important part of Ramadan. A Muslim writer once said it is not always easy to live a truly Muslim life in America. However, she said it is worth the effort. Washington, D.C. HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Augustine Alumonah asks about the meaning of the letters D and C in the name of the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. To answer the question, we must go back about two-hundred years, to the beginning of the United States. The states approved a Constitution for the country in seventeen-eighty-eight. But they could not decide where to build the permanent capital. Northern states did not want the capital in the south because of slavery. The Southern states did not want it in the north. Several places were proposed, but Congress could not agree on one. Then Thomas Jefferson of Virginia invited Alexander Hamilton of New York to dinner to discuss the dispute. Two congressmen from Virginia were also there. The four men talked politics. Southern votes had defeated a bill in Congress that Mister Hamilton wanted very much to be approved. It would have required the federal government to pay the money owed by the states for fighting the war to gain independence from Britain. The two Virginia congressmen agreed to change their votes against the bill. And Mister Hamilton agreed to find northern votes to support a proposal to build the capital along the Potomac River between the states of Virginia and Maryland. That is how Congress agreed to build the capital in a federal area on land provided by the two states. A year later, officials announced that the city would be called Washington, in honor of the country’s first president, George Washington. The larger federal area would be named the District of Columbia. Columbia had become another name for the United States, one that was used by poets and other writers. The name came from Christopher Columbus, the explorer who sailed from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to the Western Hemisphere. Today, Washington, D.C. is known to those who live in the area as the District. But if you want to write to us, our address is Washington, D.C. Jesse Cook HOST: Jesse Cook is a songwriter who produces his own records. But first and always he is a guitar player. His music is an unusual mix of Afro-rumba-flamenco-worldbeat-jazz-pop. Mary Tillotson tells us more. ANNCR: Jesse Cook was born in Paris, France to Canadian parents. He spent his early years in southern France and Spain. He began learning to play guitar when he was only three. He expanded his musical education in Canada and the United States before returning to Europe. He studied with great Spanish guitar masters in Andalusia, Cordoba, Granada and Madrid. There is little he can not do with a guitar. Listen to his recording of “Breathing Below Surface” from his album, “Vertigo.” (MUSIC) Critics call Jesse Cook’s music “World Music.” That is because he uses the sounds of many different places and music from many different lands. Listen to this mix of sounds in a recording called “Rattle and Burn.” (MUSIC) Jesse Cook recorded this next song at the Canadian Governor General’s Awards Ceremony in Ottawa. We leave you now with Jesse Cook playing a very fast Samba. The song is called “Mario Takes a Walk!” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johonson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – American Birds Threatened
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 6, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A new report warns that many bird populations in the United States are in trouble. The report says about two-hundred kinds of birds are either decreasing in number, have restricted environments or are facing other threats. That represents about one-fourth of America’s bird populations. The National Audubon Society released the report. The society is one of the oldest and largest environmental protection organizations in the world. The report uses information gathered by scientists in the United States and other countries. This year, it includes birds of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, in addition to the birds of mainland North America. The National Audubon Society says the report confirms some unwelcome changes. It shows that many songbird populations have decreased by as much as fifty percent or more since nineteen-seventy. For example, it found that the cerulean warbler of the eastern United States has decreased by more than seventy percent. In the central United States, the Henslow’s sparrow population has dropped by eighty percent. The number of Hawaiian ‘Akikiki have dropped from six-thousand-eight-hundred birds thirty years ago to only one-thousand birds today. The National Audubon Society says these decreases come at a time when bird watching in the United States is more popular than ever. One study found that about seventy-million Americans took part in bird watching last year. That is up two-hundred-fifty percent from the number reported twenty years ago. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service reports that Americans spent forty-thousand-million dollars on wildlife watching last year. Frank Gill is an official with the National Audubon Society. He describes the new report as being like preventive medicine. He says the information is used mainly to get governments concerned about protecting bird populations before they become threatened. Mister Gill adds that birds are a good way to test the health of Earth’s environment. He says the things that harm birds also harm people who share the same space. He says people should think about what decreasing bird populations are telling us about the environment we share. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. Broadcast: December 6, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A new report warns that many bird populations in the United States are in trouble. The report says about two-hundred kinds of birds are either decreasing in number, have restricted environments or are facing other threats. That represents about one-fourth of America’s bird populations. The National Audubon Society released the report. The society is one of the oldest and largest environmental protection organizations in the world. The report uses information gathered by scientists in the United States and other countries. This year, it includes birds of Hawaii and Puerto Rico, in addition to the birds of mainland North America. The National Audubon Society says the report confirms some unwelcome changes. It shows that many songbird populations have decreased by as much as fifty percent or more since nineteen-seventy. For example, it found that the cerulean warbler of the eastern United States has decreased by more than seventy percent. In the central United States, the Henslow’s sparrow population has dropped by eighty percent. The number of Hawaiian ‘Akikiki have dropped from six-thousand-eight-hundred birds thirty years ago to only one-thousand birds today. The National Audubon Society says these decreases come at a time when bird watching in the United States is more popular than ever. One study found that about seventy-million Americans took part in bird watching last year. That is up two-hundred-fifty percent from the number reported twenty years ago. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service reports that Americans spent forty-thousand-million dollars on wildlife watching last year. Frank Gill is an official with the National Audubon Society. He describes the new report as being like preventive medicine. He says the information is used mainly to get governments concerned about protecting bird populations before they become threatened. Mister Gill adds that birds are a good way to test the health of Earth’s environment. He says the things that harm birds also harm people who share the same space. He says people should think about what decreasing bird populations are telling us about the environment we share. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 8, 2002: James Stewart
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell the story of actor James Stewart. His movies were loved by people around the world. (Theme) VOICE 1: James Maitland Stewart was born in the small eastern town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen-oh-eight. His father had a hardware store that had been owned by the Stewart family since the eighteen-fifties. During high school, Jimmy played football, and acted in plays. He also learned to play the accordion. He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical group called the Triangle Club. Through the club, he met students interested in performing. Jimmy studied architecture at Princeton. He graduated in nineteen-thirty-two. Just before graduation, a friend asked him to join an acting group for the summer. Jimmy agreed because he thought it would be a good way to meet girls. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart said later that if his friend had not asked him to join the summer theater group, he would never have been an actor. He would have returned home to help his father in the store. Instead, he met a number of good young actors while performing that summer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. One was Henry Fonda, who would be a friend throughout his life. VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart performed in Broadway plays in New York City until the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie company gave him an acting job. He moved to California in nineteen-thirty-five. He acted in more than twenty-four movies over the next six years. He appeared in all kinds of movies: funny ones, sad ones and musical ones. He even sang a song in the movie "Born to Dance." It is called "Easy to Love": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: The movie that made Jimmy Stewart a real Hollywood star was "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." It was released in nineteen-thirty-nine. The next year, he won an Academy Award for best actor in "The Philadelphia Story." The night he won the Academy Award, his father called him on the telephone from Pennsylvania. "I hear you won some kind of an award," Alex Stewart said. "You had better bring it back here and we'll put it in the window of the store." Jimmy Stewart's Oscar statue stayed in the window of Stewart's hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania, for twenty-five years. VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart was already an established and successful actor when World War Two started in Europe. Early in nineteen-forty-one, he tried to join the Army. But he was rejected because he did not weigh enough. So he started eating high fat foods and tried again. This time, he was accepted for military service. The Army put him in the Air Corps because he already knew how to pilot a plane. In nineteen-forty-three, he went to Europe as commander of an Air Force bomber group. He flew more than twenty combat missions, leading as many as one-thousand planes at a time over Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen-forty-five as a colonel. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart won several military awards for excellent performance under very dangerous conditions. He remained in the air force reserve after the war. In nineteen-fifty-nine he was made a general. Each year, he took part in two weeks of active military duty. In nineteen-sixty-six, he requested combat duty and took part in a bombing strike over Vietnam. VOICE 1: After World War Two, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood. He found that his new movies were not as popular as his earlier ones had been. One example was "It's a Wonderful Life." It was released in nineteen-forty-six. The movie was not a success at first. But over time it has become one of the best loved American movies. Jimmy Stewart said in later years that "It's a Wonderful Life" was the movie he liked best. It tells the story of a small town man who feels the world would have been better if he had never lived. An angel comes to him and shows him that this is not true. The movie celebrated values like loyalty and love of family. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart decided to play other kinds of parts after what seemed to be the failure of "It's a Wonderful Life." He was a reporter in "Call Northside Seven-Seven-Seven" the next year. He was a suspicious head of a school in the murder movie "Rope" in nineteen-forty-eight. In the nineteen-fifties, he appeared in many western movies such as "Winchester Seventy-Three" and "Broken Arrow." VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart enjoyed his greatest popularity in the nineteen-fifties. In nineteen-fifty-nine, he won awards from the Venice Film Festival, the New York Film Critics and the Film Daily Writers. The awards honored him for his performance in the movie "Anatomy of a Murder." He was the defense attorney for an army officer accused of murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for playing a man who has an imaginary rabbit friend, in the movie "Harvey." Jimmy Stewart is well-known for his work with the famous director of mystery movies, Alfred Hitchcock. These movies included "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Rear Window" and "Vertigo." Mr. Stewart also played real heroes in several movies. He was band leader Glenn Miller in "The Glenn Miller Story." And he was pilot Charles Lindbergh in "The Spirit of Saint Louis." VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart appeared in fewer films in the nineteen-sixties. He was a senator in the Old West in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." In "The Shootist" he was a doctor in a small town. He also appeared on television. But his two television shows were not successful. Mr. Stewart began experiencing health problems as he aged. He had heart disease, skin cancer and hearing loss. But he found time to travel. And he published a book of poetry in nineteen-eighty-nine. It sold more than three-hundred-thousand copies. VOICE 1: In nineteen-eighty, Jimmy Stewart was honored by the American Film Institute with an award for his lifetime work. Three years later, he received a Kennedy Center honor for his work. And in nineteen-eighty-five, President Ronald Reagan gave him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. People who knew Jimmy Stewart did not praise him just because he was a good actor and a war hero. They said Jimmy Stewart was one of the nicest people they had ever met. He was a man who lived by the values he was taught as a child in that small town in Pennsylvania. He went back to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen-eighty-three, for his seventieth birthday. The town held a huge celebration in his honor. President Reagan sent planes to fly over the court house. Parades were held. And a statue of him was placed in the town center. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean in nineteen-forty-nine. She had two sons from an earlier marriage. Jimmy raised them as his own. One of the boys was killed during the Vietnam War while serving in the Marine Corps. Jimmy and Gloria also had twin daughters. Gloria Stewart died in nineteen-ninety-four. Friends said Jimmy Stewart was never the same after that. They said he withdrew into his house because he did not know what to do without her. His health got worse. He died on July the second, nineteen-ninety-seven. VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart's daughter Kelly Harcourt spoke at his funeral in Beverly Hills. She reminded mourners of the message of her father's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" -- no man is poor who has friends. "Here's to our father," she said, "the richest man in town." (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on VOA. (THEME) VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today, we tell the story of actor James Stewart. His movies were loved by people around the world. (Theme) VOICE 1: James Maitland Stewart was born in the small eastern town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen-oh-eight. His father had a hardware store that had been owned by the Stewart family since the eighteen-fifties. During high school, Jimmy played football, and acted in plays. He also learned to play the accordion. He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical group called the Triangle Club. Through the club, he met students interested in performing. Jimmy studied architecture at Princeton. He graduated in nineteen-thirty-two. Just before graduation, a friend asked him to join an acting group for the summer. Jimmy agreed because he thought it would be a good way to meet girls. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart said later that if his friend had not asked him to join the summer theater group, he would never have been an actor. He would have returned home to help his father in the store. Instead, he met a number of good young actors while performing that summer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. One was Henry Fonda, who would be a friend throughout his life. VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart performed in Broadway plays in New York City until the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie company gave him an acting job. He moved to California in nineteen-thirty-five. He acted in more than twenty-four movies over the next six years. He appeared in all kinds of movies: funny ones, sad ones and musical ones. He even sang a song in the movie "Born to Dance." It is called "Easy to Love": (MUSIC) VOICE 2: The movie that made Jimmy Stewart a real Hollywood star was "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." It was released in nineteen-thirty-nine. The next year, he won an Academy Award for best actor in "The Philadelphia Story." The night he won the Academy Award, his father called him on the telephone from Pennsylvania. "I hear you won some kind of an award," Alex Stewart said. "You had better bring it back here and we'll put it in the window of the store." Jimmy Stewart's Oscar statue stayed in the window of Stewart's hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania, for twenty-five years. VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart was already an established and successful actor when World War Two started in Europe. Early in nineteen-forty-one, he tried to join the Army. But he was rejected because he did not weigh enough. So he started eating high fat foods and tried again. This time, he was accepted for military service. The Army put him in the Air Corps because he already knew how to pilot a plane. In nineteen-forty-three, he went to Europe as commander of an Air Force bomber group. He flew more than twenty combat missions, leading as many as one-thousand planes at a time over Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen-forty-five as a colonel. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart won several military awards for excellent performance under very dangerous conditions. He remained in the air force reserve after the war. In nineteen-fifty-nine he was made a general. Each year, he took part in two weeks of active military duty. In nineteen-sixty-six, he requested combat duty and took part in a bombing strike over Vietnam. VOICE 1: After World War Two, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood. He found that his new movies were not as popular as his earlier ones had been. One example was "It's a Wonderful Life." It was released in nineteen-forty-six. The movie was not a success at first. But over time it has become one of the best loved American movies. Jimmy Stewart said in later years that "It's a Wonderful Life" was the movie he liked best. It tells the story of a small town man who feels the world would have been better if he had never lived. An angel comes to him and shows him that this is not true. The movie celebrated values like loyalty and love of family. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart decided to play other kinds of parts after what seemed to be the failure of "It's a Wonderful Life." He was a reporter in "Call Northside Seven-Seven-Seven" the next year. He was a suspicious head of a school in the murder movie "Rope" in nineteen-forty-eight. In the nineteen-fifties, he appeared in many western movies such as "Winchester Seventy-Three" and "Broken Arrow." VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart enjoyed his greatest popularity in the nineteen-fifties. In nineteen-fifty-nine, he won awards from the Venice Film Festival, the New York Film Critics and the Film Daily Writers. The awards honored him for his performance in the movie "Anatomy of a Murder." He was the defense attorney for an army officer accused of murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for playing a man who has an imaginary rabbit friend, in the movie "Harvey." Jimmy Stewart is well-known for his work with the famous director of mystery movies, Alfred Hitchcock. These movies included "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Rear Window" and "Vertigo." Mr. Stewart also played real heroes in several movies. He was band leader Glenn Miller in "The Glenn Miller Story." And he was pilot Charles Lindbergh in "The Spirit of Saint Louis." VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart appeared in fewer films in the nineteen-sixties. He was a senator in the Old West in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." In "The Shootist" he was a doctor in a small town. He also appeared on television. But his two television shows were not successful. Mr. Stewart began experiencing health problems as he aged. He had heart disease, skin cancer and hearing loss. But he found time to travel. And he published a book of poetry in nineteen-eighty-nine. It sold more than three-hundred-thousand copies. VOICE 1: In nineteen-eighty, Jimmy Stewart was honored by the American Film Institute with an award for his lifetime work. Three years later, he received a Kennedy Center honor for his work. And in nineteen-eighty-five, President Ronald Reagan gave him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. People who knew Jimmy Stewart did not praise him just because he was a good actor and a war hero. They said Jimmy Stewart was one of the nicest people they had ever met. He was a man who lived by the values he was taught as a child in that small town in Pennsylvania. He went back to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen-eighty-three, for his seventieth birthday. The town held a huge celebration in his honor. President Reagan sent planes to fly over the court house. Parades were held. And a statue of him was placed in the town center. VOICE 2: Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean in nineteen-forty-nine. She had two sons from an earlier marriage. Jimmy raised them as his own. One of the boys was killed during the Vietnam War while serving in the Marine Corps. Jimmy and Gloria also had twin daughters. Gloria Stewart died in nineteen-ninety-four. Friends said Jimmy Stewart was never the same after that. They said he withdrew into his house because he did not know what to do without her. His health got worse. He died on July the second, nineteen-ninety-seven. VOICE 1: Jimmy Stewart's daughter Kelly Harcourt spoke at his funeral in Beverly Hills. She reminded mourners of the message of her father's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" -- no man is poor who has friends. "Here's to our father," she said, "the richest man in town." (Theme) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 9, 2002: Tuberculosis Control Program in India
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. There are more people with tuberculosis in India than in any other country in the world. Each year, tuberculosis infects about two-million people in India and kills nearly five-hundred-thousand people. However, this is starting to change. Researchers recently studied a tuberculosis control program in India. The study says the program has saved about two-hundred-thousand lives and more than four-hundred-million dollars. The New England Journal of Medicine published a study about the tuberculosis control program in October. The Indian government started the program in nineteen-ninety-three. Since that time, about three-and-one-half million patients have been examined for tuberculosis. Almost eight-hundred-thousand patients have received medical treatment. Also, more than forty percent of India’s population can now get tuberculosis services. And more than two-hundred-thousand health workers have been trained to examine and treat people with the disease. This makes India’s tuberculosis control program one of the world’s largest public health programs. Thomas Frieden (FREED-en) of the United States was one of the people who wrote the study. He says that India’s tuberculosis control program has strengthened the country’s general health care system. For example, he says the quality of work done in laboratories has improved. However, Doctor Frieden says the program includes only half of India. He says the goal is to continue the program while extending it to the rest of the country. Doctor Frieden believes this will be difficult because of health threats from the virus that causes AIDS and because some forms of tuberculosis are resistant to drugs. Currently, the World Health Organization estimates that about one-third of the world’s population are infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Tuberculosis becomes active in only about ten percent of all cases. However, it can remain in a victim’s lungs for years or even a lifetime. Infected people spread tuberculosis by releasing particles from their mouths when they cough, sneeze, spit or talk. Signs of the disease include high body temperature and coughing. A person with active T-B must take medicine each day for six to nine months to halt progression of the disease. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. ----- Adapted from a report by VOA's David McAlary 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 6, 2002: Saudis Dispute Terror Critics
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. This week, the government of Saudi Arabia announced measures to prevent money from reaching terror groups. The Saudi government also disputed accusations that it has failed to do this in the past. The administration of President Bush welcomed the Saudi announcement. The Bush administration had suggested recently that Saudi officials do more to fight terror. Adel al-Jubeir is an advisor to Saudi Arabia’s acting ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah. Mister al-Jubeir told reporters in Washington Tuesday that Saudi Arabia has been criticized unfairly. He said his nation is the victim of a campaign that borders on hate. Mister al-Jubeir condemned al-Qaida as a terrorist organization. He said Saudi Arabia is a target for Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaida leader was born there. He is thought to have plotted the attacks on America of September eleventh, two-thousand-one. Mister al-Jubeir noted that fifteen of the nineteen suspects killed in the attacks were Saudi citizens. He said al-Qaida did this on purpose to harm Saudi ties with the United States. A new report describes steps the Saudi government says it has taken since the September eleventh attacks. They include ordering financial investigations of Saudi organizations that give money to people suffering or the needy. Saudi officials created a government agency to supervise these charities. Saudi Arabia says it is establishing a process to follow the movement of charity money. It also is developing rules for sending charity money to other countries. Saudi charities receive as much as four-thousand-million dollars every year. Of that, Mister al-Jubeir said only about ten percent is sent out of the country. He said the Saudi government has not found evidence that charity money is reaching terrorists. He also said it was possible that terrorists may have received some money mistakenly or through other groups. Some reports say the Federal Bureau of Investigation had examined charity payments made by Princess Haifa al-Faisal. Her husband is the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Saudi Arabia says it suspended activity in thirty-three bank accounts containing more than five-million-five-hundred-thousand dollars. The money belonged to three people. One of them, Wael Hamza Julaidan, served as a director for a Saudi charity. He is suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden. Mister al-Jubeir said Saudi officials have questioned many people about al-Qaida. He said more than two-thousand people have been questioned since the attacks in the United States. He said more than one-hundred are still being held. Both the United States Treasury Department and the State Department praised Saudi cooperation in the campaign against terrorism. Political observers say the Bush Administration wants Saudi Arabia’s support if there is a war with Iraq. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-06-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - December 9, 2002: Songs About American Cities
* Byline: 

 (Theme) VOICE 1: (Theme) VOICE 1: Most Americans have a city they like best. It may be the city they were born in. It may be the city they would like to call home. Over the years, American songwriters have described these feelings in music. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of songs about American cities is our report today on the VOA Special English program, this is America. Most Americans have a city they like best. It may be the city they were born in. It may be the city they would like to call home. Over the years, American songwriters have described these feelings in music. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. The story of songs about American cities is our report today on the VOA Special English program, this is America. ("New York, New York"/Frank Sinatra) VOICE 1: "New York, New York." More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city. More than eight-million people live in New York. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Almost three-million people live in the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third-largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago." ("New York, New York"/Frank Sinatra) VOICE 1: "New York, New York." More songs have been written about America's biggest city than about any other city. More than eight-million people live in New York. Many others dream about leaving their small towns to go there. They want to become rich and famous. Frank Sinatra sings about this dream in the most popular song written about New York. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Almost three-million people live in the middle-western city of Chicago, Illinois. It is now America's third-largest city. It used to be the second largest city. So, of course, it needed its own song. Judy Garland sings the song, "Chicago, Chicago." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Near Chicago is the small industrial city of Gary, Indiana. This city was made famous by a song in a musical play called "The Music Man." The play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen-fifty-seven. In the musical, a young boy sings about his home town. Here, Eddie Hodges sings "Gary, Indiana." (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Right in the middle of America is the city of Kansas City. It is the largest city in the state of Missouri. In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber [lee-ber] and Mike Stoller [stole-er] wrote about going to Kansas City. Why? Because they said it was filled with many wonderful women. James Brown sings the song, "Kansas City." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Americans love cities near the ocean. One of the most popular is Miami, Florida. Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm. This song about Miami was written in nineteen-thirty-five. The Hot Mustard Jazz Band sings, "Moon Over Miami." (MUSIC) VOICE 2: One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. There you can play games of chance all night long. The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too. In nineteen-sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group Z-Z Top. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen-sixty-two. It sold more than three-million records. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second-largest city. More than three-million people live there. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song, "I Love L.A." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They call Los Angeles "a great big freeway." They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America. ("New York, New York"/Peter Nero instrumental) (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Near Chicago is the small industrial city of Gary, Indiana. This city was made famous by a song in a musical play called "The Music Man." The play opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen-fifty-seven. In the musical, a young boy sings about his home town. Here, Eddie Hodges sings "Gary, Indiana." (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Right in the middle of America is the city of Kansas City. It is the largest city in the state of Missouri. In the nineteen-sixties, songwriters Jerry Leiber [lee-ber] and Mike Stoller [stole-er] wrote about going to Kansas City. Why? Because they said it was filled with many wonderful women. James Brown sings the song, "Kansas City." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Americans love cities near the ocean. One of the most popular is Miami, Florida. Visitors go there all year because the weather is warm. This song about Miami was written in nineteen-thirty-five. The Hot Mustard Jazz Band sings, "Moon Over Miami." (MUSIC) VOICE 2: One of America's most exciting cities is Las Vegas, Nevada. There you can play games of chance all night long. The city's entertainment centers are open all night, too. In nineteen-sixty-four, Elvis Presley starred in a movie called "Viva Las Vegas." Here is the song from that movie. It is sung by the group Z-Z Top. (MUSIC) VOICE 1: One of the most beautiful cities in America is San Francisco, California. It is between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in the northern part of the state. The most popular song about the city is called "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Tony Bennett recorded it in nineteen-sixty-two. It sold more than three-million records. (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Many people love Los Angeles, California. It is now America's second-largest city. More than three-million people live there. Los Angeles is popular because the weather is warm and the sun shines almost all the time. Randy Newman sings about his feelings for the city in the song, "I Love L.A." (MUSIC) VOICE 1: Not everyone, however, loves Los Angeles. Some people do not like all the big roads around the city. They call Los Angeles "a great big freeway." They like living in a smaller place. A place like San Jose, California. Dionne Warwick sings about going back to this city. The song is, "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" (MUSIC) VOICE 2: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, this is America. ("New York, New York"/Peter Nero instrumental) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - December 10, 2002: Snow
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Photo by E. Conan VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Winter weather is returning to northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas. Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain. VOICE TWO: Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. Winter weather is returning to northern areas of the world. In much of the United States, winter means the return of snow. Snow is a subject of great interest to weather experts. Experts sometimes have difficulty estimating where, when or how much snow will fall. One reason is that heavy amounts of snow fall in surprisingly small areas. Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain. VOICE TWO: Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust. All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero Celsius. VOICE ONE: The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet. Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one-hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two-and-one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. VOICE ONE: Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced. Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther. VOICE TWO: Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance. Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four-thousand-nine-hundred meters above sea level. VOICE TWO: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one-hundred snow storms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen-seventy-one and nineteen-seventy-two. Two-thousand-eight-hundred-fifty centimeters of snow fell at Ranier Paradise Ranger Station in the northwestern state of Washington. VOICE ONE: People in many other areas have little or no snowfall. In nineteen-thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice. Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. A few years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States. It struck the Southeast in January, ninety-ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast. The storm was blamed for more than one-hundred deaths. It forced nine states to declare emergency measures. Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest. In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one-meter high. Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles. Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two. A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast. In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down. Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations. VOICE ONE: People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack. It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies. VOICE TWO: Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat. People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one-hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two-and-one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth’s atmosphere. Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two-and-one-half centimeters of rain. VOICE ONE: Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies. Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced. Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow’s surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther. VOICE TWO: Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance. Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four-thousand-nine-hundred meters above sea level. VOICE TWO: Each year, the continental United States has an average of one-hundred snow storms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days. Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes. The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen-seventy-one and nineteen-seventy-two. Two-thousand-eight-hundred-fifty centimeters of snow fell at Ranier Paradise Ranger Station in the northwestern state of Washington. VOICE ONE: People in many other areas have little or no snowfall. In nineteen-thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals. Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice. Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. A few years ago, a major storm caused serious problems in the eastern United States. It struck the Southeast in January, ninety-ninety-six, before moving up the East Coast. The storm was blamed for more than one-hundred deaths. It forced nine states to declare emergency measures. Virginia and West Virginia were hit hardest. In some areas there, snowfall amounts were more than one-meter high. Several states limited driving to emergency vehicles. Most major airports were closed for at least a day or two. A week later, two other storms brought additional snow to the East Coast. In the New York City area, the added weight of the snow forced the tops of some buildings to break down. Many travelers were forced to walk long distances through deep snow to get to train stations. VOICE ONE: People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of winter snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack. It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies. VOICE TWO: Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning. People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat. People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written and produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT — December 10, 2002: Corn, Part 3
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we told about the many uses for corn. It is America’s most successful crop. Today, we tell about the hidden costs of corn. American farmers grow about four times more corn than the country’s second biggest crop, soybeans. The United States controls seventy percent of the corn export market. In fact, forty percent of the world’s corn supply in grown in America. But, some experts say it is possible for a crop to be too successful. Michael Pollan, an expert in plants and agriculture, says that there are hidden costs to growing corn. He says government aid to corn growers represents a cost to all Americans who pay taxes. Mister Pollan also notes that it is very difficult to make a profit from growing corn. Farmers who grow corn receive more government aid than any other group of farmers. The Iowa Agriculture Review reports that corn growers received twenty-seven percent of all related farm aid in nineteen-ninety-nine. Yet, in the same year, corn produced only ten percent of the value of all crop sales. The price of corn continues to drop even though the price of products made from it continues to rise. For example, in the last five years, the price of food products made from grain, called cereal, increased by almost six percent. In the same time period, the price of corn decreased by forty-three percent. Corn production continues to increase, even though prices continue to drop. Today, farmers produce more corn per hectare than they did in the past. The Economic Research Service of the Department of Agriculture studies the causes of price changes in crop markets. It has found that farmers get about seventy-two percent more corn from their land than they did in nineteen-sixty-five. And far more land is used to grow corn today. Other forces cause corn prices to remain low. The Export Enhancement Program is one of several laws that gives payments to crop exporters. These payments help to keep prices low so that American crops can be sold in foreign markets. But, they also keep prices in the United States low and that hurts American corn growers. Experts say people have made corn more productive than it is naturally. Scientists have genetically changed corn so that it cannot be damaged by most insects. Michael Pollan likes to point out that corn now controls the people who use it. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Last week, we told about the many uses for corn. It is America’s most successful crop. Today, we tell about the hidden costs of corn. American farmers grow about four times more corn than the country’s second biggest crop, soybeans. The United States controls seventy percent of the corn export market. In fact, forty percent of the world’s corn supply in grown in America. But, some experts say it is possible for a crop to be too successful. Michael Pollan, an expert in plants and agriculture, says that there are hidden costs to growing corn. He says government aid to corn growers represents a cost to all Americans who pay taxes. Mister Pollan also notes that it is very difficult to make a profit from growing corn. Farmers who grow corn receive more government aid than any other group of farmers. The Iowa Agriculture Review reports that corn growers received twenty-seven percent of all related farm aid in nineteen-ninety-nine. Yet, in the same year, corn produced only ten percent of the value of all crop sales. The price of corn continues to drop even though the price of products made from it continues to rise. For example, in the last five years, the price of food products made from grain, called cereal, increased by almost six percent. In the same time period, the price of corn decreased by forty-three percent. Corn production continues to increase, even though prices continue to drop. Today, farmers produce more corn per hectare than they did in the past. The Economic Research Service of the Department of Agriculture studies the causes of price changes in crop markets. It has found that farmers get about seventy-two percent more corn from their land than they did in nineteen-sixty-five. And far more land is used to grow corn today. Other forces cause corn prices to remain low. The Export Enhancement Program is one of several laws that gives payments to crop exporters. These payments help to keep prices low so that American crops can be sold in foreign markets. But, they also keep prices in the United States low and that hurts American corn growers. Experts say people have made corn more productive than it is naturally. Scientists have genetically changed corn so that it cannot be damaged by most insects. Michael Pollan likes to point out that corn now controls the people who use it. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - December 11, 2002: Amelia Earhart
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: (Photo - ameliaearhart.com) ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about Amelia Earhart. She was one of America’s first female pilots. VOICE ONE: This Lockheed Vega 5B in which Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic in 1932 is in the Air & Space Museum in Washington.(Photo - Smithsonian Institution) This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about Amelia Earhart. She was one of America’s first female pilots. VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart was born in eighteen-ninety-seven in the middle western state of Kansas. She was not a child of her times. Most American girls at the beginning of the twentieth century were taught to sit quietly and speak softly. They were not permitted to play ball or climb trees. Those activities were considered fun for boys. They were considered wrong for girls. Amelia and her younger sister Muriel were lucky. Their parents believed all children needed physical activity to grow healthy and strong. So Amelia and Muriel were very active girls. They rode horses. They played baseball and basketball. They went fishing with their father. Other parents would not let their daughters play with Amelia and Muriel. VOICE TWO: The Earharts lived in a number of places in America’s middle west when the girls were growing up. The family was living in Chicago, Illinois when Amelia completed high school in nineteen-sixteen. Amelia then prepared to enter a university. During a holiday, she visited her sister in Toronto, Canada. World War One had begun by then. And Amelia was shocked by the number of wounded soldiers sent home from the fighting in France. She decided she would be more useful as a nurse than as a student. So she joined the Red Cross. VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart first became interested in flying while living in Toronto. She talked with many pilots who were treated at the soldiers’ hospital. She also spent time watching planes at a nearby military airfield. Flying seemed exciting. But the machinery – the plane itself – was exciting, too. After World War One ended, Amelia spent a year recovering from the disease pneumonia. She read poetry and went on long walks. She learned to play the banjo. And she went to school to learn about engines. When she was healthy again, she entered Columbia University in New York City. She studied medicine. After a year she went to California to visit her parents. During that trip, she took her first ride in an airplane. And when the plane landed, Amelia Earhart had a new goal in life. She would learn to fly. VOICE TWO: One of the world’s first female pilots, Neta Snook, taught Amelia to fly. It did not take long for Amelia to make her first flight by herself. She received her official pilot’s license in nineteen-twenty. Then she wanted a plane of her own. She earned most of the money to buy it by working for a telephone company. Her first plane had two sets of wings, a bi-plane. On June seventeenth, nineteen-twenty-eight, the plane left the eastern province of Newfoundland, Canada. The pilot and engine expert were men. The passenger was Amelia Earhart. The planed landed in Wales twenty hours and forty minutes later. For the first time, a woman had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air. VOICE ONE: Amelia did not feel very important, because she had not flown the plane. Yet the public did not care. People on both sides of the Atlantic were excited by the tall brave girl with short hair and gray eyes. They organized parties and parades in her honor. Suddenly, she was famous. Amelia Earhart had become the first lady of the air. She wrote a book about the flight. She made speeches about flying. And she continued to fly by herself across the United States and back. VOICE TWO: Flying was a new and exciting activity in the early nineteen-twenties. Pilots tested and demonstrated their skills in air shows. Amelia soon began taking part in these shows. She crashed one time in a field of cabbage plants. The accident did not stop her from flying. But she said it did decrease her desire to eat cabbages! Flying was fun, but costly. Amelia could not continue. She sold her bi-plane, bought a car and left California. She moved across the country to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. She taught English to immigrants and then became a social worker. VOICE ONE: In the last years of the nineteen-twenties, hundreds of record flights were made. A few were made by women. But no woman had flown across the Atlantic Ocean. A wealthy American woman, Amy Guest, bought a plane to do this. However, her family opposed the idea. So she looked for another woman to take her place. Friends proposed Amelia Earhart. VOICE TWO: American publisher George Putnam had helped organize the Atlantic Ocean flight that made Amelia famous. Afterwards, he continued to support her flying activities. In nineteen-thirty-one, George and Amelia were married. He helped provide financial support for her record flights. On May twentieth, nineteen-thirty-two, Amelia took off from Newfoundland. She headed east in a small red and gold plane. Amelia had problems with ice on the wings, fog from the ocean and instruments that failed. At one point, her plane dropped suddenly nine-hundred meters. She regained control. And after fifteen hours she landed in Ireland. She had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. VOICE ONE: In the next few years, Amelia Earhart set more records and received more honors. She was the first to fly from Hawaii to California alone. She was the first to fly from Mexico City to New York City without stopping. Amelia hoped her flights would prove that flying was safe for everyone. She hoped women would have jobs at every level of the industry when flying became a common form of transportation. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirty-five, the president of Purdue University in Indiana asked Amelia to do some work there. He wanted her to be an adviser on aircraft design and navigation. He also wanted her to be a special adviser to female students. Purdue University provided Amelia with a new all-metal, two-engine plane. It had so many instruments she called it the “Flying Laboratory.” It was the best airplane in the world at that time. Amelia decided to use this plane to fly around the world. She wanted to go around the equator. It was a distance of forty-three-thousand kilometers. No one had attempted to fly that way before. VOICE ONE: Amelia’s trip was planned carefully. The goal was not to set a speed record. The goal was to gather information. Crew members would study the effects of height and temperature on themselves and the plane. They would gather small amounts of air from the upper atmosphere. And they would examine the condition of airfields throughout the world. Amelia knew the trip would be dangerous. A few days before she left, she gave a small American flag to her friend Jacqueline Cochran, another female pilot. Amelia had carried the flag on all her major flights. Jacqueline did not want to take it until Amelia returned from her flight around the world. “No,” Amelia told her, “you had better take it now.” VOICE TWO: Amelia and three male crew members were to make the flight. However, a minor accident and weather conditions forced a change in plans. So on June first, nineteen-thirty-seven, a silver Lockheed Electra plane left Miami, Florida. It carried pilot Amelia Earhart and just one male crew member, navigator Fred Noonan. Amelia and Fred headed south toward the equator. They stopped in Puerto Rico, Surinam and Brazil. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where they stopped in Senegal, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Then they continued on to India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. VOICE ONE: When they reached New Guinea, they were about to begin the most difficult part of the trip. They would fly four-thousand kilometers to tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Three hours after leaving New Guinea, Amelia sent back a radio message. She said she was on a direct path to Howland Island. Later, Amelia’s radio signals were received by a United States Coast Guard ship near the island. The messages began to warn of trouble. Fuel was getting low. They could not find Howland Island. They could not see any land at all. VOICE TWO: The radio signals got weaker and weaker. A message on the morning of July second was incomplete. Then there was silence. American Navy ships and planes searched the area for fifteen days. They found nothing. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were officially declared “lost at sea.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. Amelia Earhart was born in eighteen-ninety-seven in the middle western state of Kansas. She was not a child of her times. Most American girls at the beginning of the twentieth century were taught to sit quietly and speak softly. They were not permitted to play ball or climb trees. Those activities were considered fun for boys. They were considered wrong for girls. Amelia and her younger sister Muriel were lucky. Their parents believed all children needed physical activity to grow healthy and strong. So Amelia and Muriel were very active girls. They rode horses. They played baseball and basketball. They went fishing with their father. Other parents would not let their daughters play with Amelia and Muriel. VOICE TWO: The Earharts lived in a number of places in America’s middle west when the girls were growing up. The family was living in Chicago, Illinois when Amelia completed high school in nineteen-sixteen. Amelia then prepared to enter a university. During a holiday, she visited her sister in Toronto, Canada. World War One had begun by then. And Amelia was shocked by the number of wounded soldiers sent home from the fighting in France. She decided she would be more useful as a nurse than as a student. So she joined the Red Cross. VOICE ONE: Amelia Earhart first became interested in flying while living in Toronto. She talked with many pilots who were treated at the soldiers’ hospital. She also spent time watching planes at a nearby military airfield. Flying seemed exciting. But the machinery – the plane itself – was exciting, too. After World War One ended, Amelia spent a year recovering from the disease pneumonia. She read poetry and went on long walks. She learned to play the banjo. And she went to school to learn about engines. When she was healthy again, she entered Columbia University in New York City. She studied medicine. After a year she went to California to visit her parents. During that trip, she took her first ride in an airplane. And when the plane landed, Amelia Earhart had a new goal in life. She would learn to fly. VOICE TWO: One of the world’s first female pilots, Neta Snook, taught Amelia to fly. It did not take long for Amelia to make her first flight by herself. She received her official pilot’s license in nineteen-twenty. Then she wanted a plane of her own. She earned most of the money to buy it by working for a telephone company. Her first plane had two sets of wings, a bi-plane. On June seventeenth, nineteen-twenty-eight, the plane left the eastern province of Newfoundland, Canada. The pilot and engine expert were men. The passenger was Amelia Earhart. The planed landed in Wales twenty hours and forty minutes later. For the first time, a woman had crossed the Atlantic Ocean by air. VOICE ONE: Amelia did not feel very important, because she had not flown the plane. Yet the public did not care. People on both sides of the Atlantic were excited by the tall brave girl with short hair and gray eyes. They organized parties and parades in her honor. Suddenly, she was famous. Amelia Earhart had become the first lady of the air. She wrote a book about the flight. She made speeches about flying. And she continued to fly by herself across the United States and back. VOICE TWO: Flying was a new and exciting activity in the early nineteen-twenties. Pilots tested and demonstrated their skills in air shows. Amelia soon began taking part in these shows. She crashed one time in a field of cabbage plants. The accident did not stop her from flying. But she said it did decrease her desire to eat cabbages! Flying was fun, but costly. Amelia could not continue. She sold her bi-plane, bought a car and left California. She moved across the country to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. She taught English to immigrants and then became a social worker. VOICE ONE: In the last years of the nineteen-twenties, hundreds of record flights were made. A few were made by women. But no woman had flown across the Atlantic Ocean. A wealthy American woman, Amy Guest, bought a plane to do this. However, her family opposed the idea. So she looked for another woman to take her place. Friends proposed Amelia Earhart. VOICE TWO: American publisher George Putnam had helped organize the Atlantic Ocean flight that made Amelia famous. Afterwards, he continued to support her flying activities. In nineteen-thirty-one, George and Amelia were married. He helped provide financial support for her record flights. On May twentieth, nineteen-thirty-two, Amelia took off from Newfoundland. She headed east in a small red and gold plane. Amelia had problems with ice on the wings, fog from the ocean and instruments that failed. At one point, her plane dropped suddenly nine-hundred meters. She regained control. And after fifteen hours she landed in Ireland. She had become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. VOICE ONE: In the next few years, Amelia Earhart set more records and received more honors. She was the first to fly from Hawaii to California alone. She was the first to fly from Mexico City to New York City without stopping. Amelia hoped her flights would prove that flying was safe for everyone. She hoped women would have jobs at every level of the industry when flying became a common form of transportation. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-thirty-five, the president of Purdue University in Indiana asked Amelia to do some work there. He wanted her to be an adviser on aircraft design and navigation. He also wanted her to be a special adviser to female students. Purdue University provided Amelia with a new all-metal, two-engine plane. It had so many instruments she called it the “Flying Laboratory.” It was the best airplane in the world at that time. Amelia decided to use this plane to fly around the world. She wanted to go around the equator. It was a distance of forty-three-thousand kilometers. No one had attempted to fly that way before. VOICE ONE: Amelia’s trip was planned carefully. The goal was not to set a speed record. The goal was to gather information. Crew members would study the effects of height and temperature on themselves and the plane. They would gather small amounts of air from the upper atmosphere. And they would examine the condition of airfields throughout the world. Amelia knew the trip would be dangerous. A few days before she left, she gave a small American flag to her friend Jacqueline Cochran, another female pilot. Amelia had carried the flag on all her major flights. Jacqueline did not want to take it until Amelia returned from her flight around the world. “No,” Amelia told her, “you had better take it now.” VOICE TWO: Amelia and three male crew members were to make the flight. However, a minor accident and weather conditions forced a change in plans. So on June first, nineteen-thirty-seven, a silver Lockheed Electra plane left Miami, Florida. It carried pilot Amelia Earhart and just one male crew member, navigator Fred Noonan. Amelia and Fred headed south toward the equator. They stopped in Puerto Rico, Surinam and Brazil. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Africa, where they stopped in Senegal, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Then they continued on to India, Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. VOICE ONE: When they reached New Guinea, they were about to begin the most difficult part of the trip. They would fly four-thousand kilometers to tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Three hours after leaving New Guinea, Amelia sent back a radio message. She said she was on a direct path to Howland Island. Later, Amelia’s radio signals were received by a United States Coast Guard ship near the island. The messages began to warn of trouble. Fuel was getting low. They could not find Howland Island. They could not see any land at all. VOICE TWO: The radio signals got weaker and weaker. A message on the morning of July second was incomplete. Then there was silence. American Navy ships and planes searched the area for fifteen days. They found nothing. Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan were officially declared “lost at sea.” ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. It was produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – December 11, 2002: Mercury Levels in Fish
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Two studies are adding to the debate about the health risks of eating fish containing high levels of the metal mercury. One study suggests that people who eat fish high in mercury may increase their risk of having a heart attack. Yet another study found no link between mercury and heart disease. Both studies were published in The New England Journal of Medicine in November. Mercury is a natural element. Some bodies of water have become polluted with mercury. High levels of the metal have been found in large fish, such as king mackerel, shark and swordfish. Scientists say mercury can be harmful to people. For example, it can harm the developing brain of a fetus or child. So some experts say that pregnant women should avoid eating fish containing high levels of mercury. However, the American Heart Association and other experts have advised Americans to eat fish at least two times a week. Fish contains important substances, including omega-three fatty acids. These are believed to reduce the risk of heart disease. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland organized one of the new studies. They examined medical records of more than one-thousand-four-hundred men from Israel and eight European countries. They compared men who had suffered a heart attack with healthy men. The scientists examined mercury levels in the men by studying toenail particles from the men’s feet. The study found that mercury levels in the men who had a heart attack were fifteen percent higher than those with no history of heart disease. It also showed that men with the highest mercury levels were about two times more likely to have a heart attack than men with the lowest levels. However, a study by the Harvard School of Public Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts disputes the findings. The Harvard scientists compared two groups of about five-hundred American men. All the men in one group had suffered a heart attack. The other men showed no evidence of heart disease. The Harvard scientists also examined toenail particles for mercury. They found no link between mercury and the risk of heart disease. Many doctors say people should not stop eating fish because of concerns about mercury. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - December 12, 2002: Election of 1980
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the campaign for president in Nineteen-Eighty and the election of President Ronald Reagan. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The president of the United States in Nineteen-Eighty was Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. The months before Election Day were difficult for him. Many Americans blamed Carter for high inflation, high unemployment, and the low value of the United States dollar. Many blamed him for not gaining the release of American hostages in Iran. About a year earlier, Muslim extremists had taken the Americans prisoner after seizing the United States embassy in Tehran. President Carter asked all Americans to support his administration during the crisis. As months went by, however, he made no progress in bringing the hostages home. The Iranians rejected negotiations for their release. Sometimes, they did not communicate with the Carter administration at all. The president appeared powerless. VOICE TWO: Carter's political weakness led another Democrat to compete for the party's presidential nomination. It was Edward Kennedy, brother of former President John Kennedy. He was a powerful senator from Massachusetts. Carter was re-nominated. So was his vice president, Walter Mondale. Kennedy did not support them very strongly. So the Democratic Party was divided for the general election. The Republican Party, however, was united behind a strong candidate. That was Ronald Reagan, a former actor and former governor of California. Reagan's vice presidential candidate was George Bush. Bush had served in Congress and as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. He had represented the United States in China and at the United Nations. VOICE ONE: The troubles of the Carter administration caused many Americans to feel that their country was no longer strong. Ronald Reagan promised to make it strong again. Several weeks before the election, Carter and Reagan debated each other on television. Some observers said Carter seemed angry and defensive. They said Reagan seemed calm and thoughtful. On Election Day, voters gave Reagan a huge victory. He won by more than eight-million popular votes. Republicans called it the "Reagan Revolution." VOICE TWO: On Inauguration Day, the new president spoke about the goals of his administration. A major goal was to reduce the size of the federal government. Reagan and other conservatives believed that the nation's economy was suffering because of high taxes and unnecessary laws. In this crisis, he said, government was not the solution to the problem, government was the problem. He urged Americans to join him in what he called a "new beginning". And he expressed hope that the people would work with him. REAGAN: "The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months. But they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now -- as we have had in the past -- to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom." VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was born in Nineteen-Eleven, in the little town of Tampico, Illinois. He was a good student and a good athlete. During the summer, he worked as a lifeguard at a local swimming area. One summer, he saved the lives of twenty-seven people. He studied economics and sociology at Eureka College, a small school in Illinois. At the college, he saw a theater production. When it was over, he said, "More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor's words." VOICE TWO: Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to be an actor. Instead, he tried to get a job as a sports announcer on radio. To show his abilities, he made a recording of an American football game in which he announced all the plays. There really was no game, however. He had invented all the action. A radio station in the small city of Davenport, Iowa, was pleased with his creativity. He got the job. VOICE ONE: Later, he worked at a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa. And then he moved to the big city of Chicago, Illinois. There he announced the action of baseball games. When the team went to California to play, Reagan went, too. This gave him a chance to take a screen test to become a movie actor. The Warner Brothers Motion Pictures company liked the friendly, handsome young man and offered him a job. VOICE TWO: Before long, Ronald Reagan was a Hollywood star. He appeared in many movies. These included "The Knute Rockne Story," "Bedtime for Bonzo," and "King's Row." They were not the very best motion pictures made in Hollywood, but they were popular. During one movie, he met actress Nancy Davis. They married after he was divorced from his first wife. Reagan became deeply interested in politics during his years in Hollywood. He was a liberal, but became increasingly conservative. He served six times as president of a union of movie actors. He was noted for his opposition to anyone in the movie industry who supported communism. VOICE ONE: By the early Nineteen-Fifties, Reagan had stopped appearing in movies. Instead, he appeared on television. He made advertisements and also presented a series of dramatic shows. By Nineteen-Sixty, he was making speeches for conservative Republican candidates. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, he became a candidate himself. He ran for governor of California. The Democratics did not think he was a serious candidate. They told jokes about some of his movies. They made a mistake. When the voting was over, Reagan had won by almost one-million votes. As governor, Reagan was praised for reducing the state's huge debt. However, he was criticized for raising taxes. He also was criticized for his severe policies for controlling unrest at the state's colleges. Yet he won re-election in Nineteen-Seventy. VOICE TWO: Reagan campaigned for the Republican nomination for president in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. He almost defeated President Gerald Ford for the nomination. One of the party's older senators spoke with Reagan after the convention. He said, "Son, you will be president some day. This just was not your year." Four years later, with President Jimmy Carter in trouble, Reagan's day had arrived. VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was sworn-in as America's fortieth president on January Twentieth, Nineteen-Eighty-One. For many Americans, the day turned out even happier than expected. Iran finally announced that it would free the hostages in Tehran. One of President Reagan's earliest proposals made many Americans happy, too. He began to work to get Congress to reduce taxes. He also began a weekly series of radio broadcasts. In these programs, he commented on developments in American life and political policy. The broadcasts were similar to those made by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Nineteen-Thirties. Some people started to call Reagan "The Great Communicator." VOICE TWO: Two months after Reagan took office, something unexpected and terrible happened. The president was leaving a meeting at a hotel in Washington. A gunman began to fire. A man guarding the president fell to the ground. So did the president's press assistant. Both were seriously wounded. Other guards quickly helped Reagan into his car. At first, observers did not think the president had been hit. But he had. There was a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart. Doctors removed the bullet. Reagan fought courageously to get well. . and he did. We will continue the story of President Ronald Reagan next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we tell about the campaign for president in Nineteen-Eighty and the election of President Ronald Reagan. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The president of the United States in Nineteen-Eighty was Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. The months before Election Day were difficult for him. Many Americans blamed Carter for high inflation, high unemployment, and the low value of the United States dollar. Many blamed him for not gaining the release of American hostages in Iran. About a year earlier, Muslim extremists had taken the Americans prisoner after seizing the United States embassy in Tehran. President Carter asked all Americans to support his administration during the crisis. As months went by, however, he made no progress in bringing the hostages home. The Iranians rejected negotiations for their release. Sometimes, they did not communicate with the Carter administration at all. The president appeared powerless. VOICE TWO: Carter's political weakness led another Democrat to compete for the party's presidential nomination. It was Edward Kennedy, brother of former President John Kennedy. He was a powerful senator from Massachusetts. Carter was re-nominated. So was his vice president, Walter Mondale. Kennedy did not support them very strongly. So the Democratic Party was divided for the general election. The Republican Party, however, was united behind a strong candidate. That was Ronald Reagan, a former actor and former governor of California. Reagan's vice presidential candidate was George Bush. Bush had served in Congress and as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. He had represented the United States in China and at the United Nations. VOICE ONE: The troubles of the Carter administration caused many Americans to feel that their country was no longer strong. Ronald Reagan promised to make it strong again. Several weeks before the election, Carter and Reagan debated each other on television. Some observers said Carter seemed angry and defensive. They said Reagan seemed calm and thoughtful. On Election Day, voters gave Reagan a huge victory. He won by more than eight-million popular votes. Republicans called it the "Reagan Revolution." VOICE TWO: On Inauguration Day, the new president spoke about the goals of his administration. A major goal was to reduce the size of the federal government. Reagan and other conservatives believed that the nation's economy was suffering because of high taxes and unnecessary laws. In this crisis, he said, government was not the solution to the problem, government was the problem. He urged Americans to join him in what he called a "new beginning". And he expressed hope that the people would work with him. REAGAN: "The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months. But they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now -- as we have had in the past -- to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom." VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was born in Nineteen-Eleven, in the little town of Tampico, Illinois. He was a good student and a good athlete. During the summer, he worked as a lifeguard at a local swimming area. One summer, he saved the lives of twenty-seven people. He studied economics and sociology at Eureka College, a small school in Illinois. At the college, he saw a theater production. When it was over, he said, "More than anything in the world, I wanted to speak the actor's words." VOICE TWO: Reagan did not have enough money to go to New York or Hollywood to be an actor. Instead, he tried to get a job as a sports announcer on radio. To show his abilities, he made a recording of an American football game in which he announced all the plays. There really was no game, however. He had invented all the action. A radio station in the small city of Davenport, Iowa, was pleased with his creativity. He got the job. VOICE ONE: Later, he worked at a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa. And then he moved to the big city of Chicago, Illinois. There he announced the action of baseball games. When the team went to California to play, Reagan went, too. This gave him a chance to take a screen test to become a movie actor. The Warner Brothers Motion Pictures company liked the friendly, handsome young man and offered him a job. VOICE TWO: Before long, Ronald Reagan was a Hollywood star. He appeared in many movies. These included "The Knute Rockne Story," "Bedtime for Bonzo," and "King's Row." They were not the very best motion pictures made in Hollywood, but they were popular. During one movie, he met actress Nancy Davis. They married after he was divorced from his first wife. Reagan became deeply interested in politics during his years in Hollywood. He was a liberal, but became increasingly conservative. He served six times as president of a union of movie actors. He was noted for his opposition to anyone in the movie industry who supported communism. VOICE ONE: By the early Nineteen-Fifties, Reagan had stopped appearing in movies. Instead, he appeared on television. He made advertisements and also presented a series of dramatic shows. By Nineteen-Sixty, he was making speeches for conservative Republican candidates. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, he became a candidate himself. He ran for governor of California. The Democratics did not think he was a serious candidate. They told jokes about some of his movies. They made a mistake. When the voting was over, Reagan had won by almost one-million votes. As governor, Reagan was praised for reducing the state's huge debt. However, he was criticized for raising taxes. He also was criticized for his severe policies for controlling unrest at the state's colleges. Yet he won re-election in Nineteen-Seventy. VOICE TWO: Reagan campaigned for the Republican nomination for president in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. He almost defeated President Gerald Ford for the nomination. One of the party's older senators spoke with Reagan after the convention. He said, "Son, you will be president some day. This just was not your year." Four years later, with President Jimmy Carter in trouble, Reagan's day had arrived. VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was sworn-in as America's fortieth president on January Twentieth, Nineteen-Eighty-One. For many Americans, the day turned out even happier than expected. Iran finally announced that it would free the hostages in Tehran. One of President Reagan's earliest proposals made many Americans happy, too. He began to work to get Congress to reduce taxes. He also began a weekly series of radio broadcasts. In these programs, he commented on developments in American life and political policy. The broadcasts were similar to those made by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Nineteen-Thirties. Some people started to call Reagan "The Great Communicator." VOICE TWO: Two months after Reagan took office, something unexpected and terrible happened. The president was leaving a meeting at a hotel in Washington. A gunman began to fire. A man guarding the president fell to the ground. So did the president's press assistant. Both were seriously wounded. Other guards quickly helped Reagan into his car. At first, observers did not think the president had been hit. But he had. There was a bullet in his left lung, close to his heart. Doctors removed the bullet. Reagan fought courageously to get well. . and he did. We will continue the story of President Ronald Reagan next week. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - December 12, 2002: Foreign Student Series #13 >Fulbright Program
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Last week, we gave information about financial aid for foreign students. Today, we tell about a special educational program that began more than fifty years ago. It is called the Fullbright Program. The Fulbright Program of the United States government helps people study or do research in other countries. Senator J. William Fulbright established the program in nineteen-forty-six. He believed that international exchange was a good way to improve world understanding. He also believed the program could educate future world leaders. Senator Fulbright thought that living and learning in another country would help people understand other ideas and ways of life. And he thought the experience would help them understand their own country, too. More than two-hundred-thirty-thousand students, teachers and researchers have taken part in the Fulbright Program. Some of them later became famous. Two examples are the former secretary general of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the former official poet of the United States, Rita Dove. Those who take part in the program are called Fulbright Scholars. Americans study or teach in foreign countries. People from other nations study and work in the United States. Fulbright Scholars receive enough money to pay for travel, education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United States government, governments of other countries, and private groups. Nearly five-thousand Fulbright grants are awarded each year for American and foreign students, teachers, professors and professionals. The program is organized by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. It operates in one-hundred-forty countries. You can get information about the Fulbright Program at the United States Embassy in your country. Or use a computer to get the details. Just type f-u-l-b-r-i-g-h-t p-r-o-g-r-a-m into an Internet search engine and you will find the Web site. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: December 12, 2002 - Excuses
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": December 12, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Just in time for those unattainable New Year's resolutions, the art -- and danger -- of making excuses. SCHLENKER: "What excuses do is try to diminish personal responsibility." RS: Barry Schlenker is a social psychologist at the University of Florida. SCHLENKER: "So it's an attempt to, in essence, say I'm not as responsible, and hence not as blameworthy, as you might otherwise think." AA: Professor Schlenker says that, in the 1980s, a lot was written about how people come up with excuses to explain their behavior. SCHLENKER: "Much of the research showed that excuses can actually produce beneficial consequences in the sense of salvaging self-esteem, making people feel better, maybe even allowing them to keep stronger relationships with others. Because it's a lot nicer if you make up an excuse, for example, for missing a lunch date or turning somebody down than if you say 'I didn't want to go out with you because I didn't like you' or 'I missed the lunch date because I had better things to do.' "But one of the things that my colleagues and I felt was that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way now. Indeed, you now see in the psychology literature recommendations that, in essence, therapists help their clients generate excuses to make them feel better, to try to focus them on why perhaps some of their problems are not really their fault, they're not bad people." AA: Professor Schlenker says he and his colleagues thought it was time to document what he calls "the other side of excuses" -- that is, the conditions under which people react very negatively to excuses. So the researchers recently did a study. They described various hypothetical situations to students, and asked them to evaluate the people involved. In each situation, though, different students got different explanations to evaluate. RS: For instance, a businessperson misses an important meeting and ends up losing a deal for the company. The person blames getting stuck in traffic. Some students were told that a news report said there had indeed been a traffic backup. Others were told that there had been an accident, but that other employees in the same building had arrived at work pretty much on time. AA: In another example, a person blames a case of the flu for not getting work completed. Some students were told that the flu was indeed going around and a lot of people in the building were having trouble with work. But other students were told that, while the flu was going around, this was about the only person having trouble getting work done. RS: So how did the students evaluate the various people and their excuses? SCHLENKER: "When there was no corroboration for the excuse, or it was poor, they tended to evaluate the character of the person very low. When asked how good or bad a person it was, they tended to rate him pretty negatively. They also regarded him as very deceitful, very ineffective -- in other words, not the kind of person you'd want to trust with an important job -- very self-absorbed as compared to interested in, say, the company or other people. They liked and respected them less, and they regarded the explanation as much less legitimate and they blamed him much more for the transgression." AA: And the lessons to be learned? SCHLENKER: "To the extent that an excuse can be communicated with the appearance of sincerity, with apparent corroboration, without the attempt to drag somebody else down, under those conditions the excuse then becomes transformed into the reason and I think people are much more likely to accept it. The danger occurs when maybe the apparent sincerity is not quite as great, when cracks seem to occur in the description -- so that maybe the corroboration doesn't turn out to look as good. But to the extent people begin to doubt it, wonder about the corroboration, wonder about if the person really is too self-absorbed, then they can backfire and do exactly the opposite of what the excuse-maker intended, which is to produce very negative evaluations and an even bigger problem." RS: "Let me ask you one last question. How would you rate this very popular excuse by schoolchildren: the dog ate my homework. (Laughter)" SCHLENKER: "Well, I think we can go back to corroboration on that one. That one has been used so often by so many people that it becomes remarkably ineffective." RS: "So even though we have a dog at home, and the dog does like homework, I should advise my son that that's not a great excuse to use at school." SCHLENKER: "Well, my general of thumb is that if you really believe that that is -- if that is really what happened, I'd go for it. But I would also not be surprised if the recipient of that excuse regarded it as a pretty self-serving excuse." RS: Professor Barry Schlenker at the University of Florida. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "I'm Sorry"/Brenda Lee Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": December 12, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: Just in time for those unattainable New Year's resolutions, the art -- and danger -- of making excuses. SCHLENKER: "What excuses do is try to diminish personal responsibility." RS: Barry Schlenker is a social psychologist at the University of Florida. SCHLENKER: "So it's an attempt to, in essence, say I'm not as responsible, and hence not as blameworthy, as you might otherwise think." AA: Professor Schlenker says that, in the 1980s, a lot was written about how people come up with excuses to explain their behavior. SCHLENKER: "Much of the research showed that excuses can actually produce beneficial consequences in the sense of salvaging self-esteem, making people feel better, maybe even allowing them to keep stronger relationships with others. Because it's a lot nicer if you make up an excuse, for example, for missing a lunch date or turning somebody down than if you say 'I didn't want to go out with you because I didn't like you' or 'I missed the lunch date because I had better things to do.' "But one of the things that my colleagues and I felt was that the pendulum may have swung too far the other way now. Indeed, you now see in the psychology literature recommendations that, in essence, therapists help their clients generate excuses to make them feel better, to try to focus them on why perhaps some of their problems are not really their fault, they're not bad people." AA: Professor Schlenker says he and his colleagues thought it was time to document what he calls "the other side of excuses" -- that is, the conditions under which people react very negatively to excuses. So the researchers recently did a study. They described various hypothetical situations to students, and asked them to evaluate the people involved. In each situation, though, different students got different explanations to evaluate. RS: For instance, a businessperson misses an important meeting and ends up losing a deal for the company. The person blames getting stuck in traffic. Some students were told that a news report said there had indeed been a traffic backup. Others were told that there had been an accident, but that other employees in the same building had arrived at work pretty much on time. AA: In another example, a person blames a case of the flu for not getting work completed. Some students were told that the flu was indeed going around and a lot of people in the building were having trouble with work. But other students were told that, while the flu was going around, this was about the only person having trouble getting work done. RS: So how did the students evaluate the various people and their excuses? SCHLENKER: "When there was no corroboration for the excuse, or it was poor, they tended to evaluate the character of the person very low. When asked how good or bad a person it was, they tended to rate him pretty negatively. They also regarded him as very deceitful, very ineffective -- in other words, not the kind of person you'd want to trust with an important job -- very self-absorbed as compared to interested in, say, the company or other people. They liked and respected them less, and they regarded the explanation as much less legitimate and they blamed him much more for the transgression." AA: And the lessons to be learned? SCHLENKER: "To the extent that an excuse can be communicated with the appearance of sincerity, with apparent corroboration, without the attempt to drag somebody else down, under those conditions the excuse then becomes transformed into the reason and I think people are much more likely to accept it. The danger occurs when maybe the apparent sincerity is not quite as great, when cracks seem to occur in the description -- so that maybe the corroboration doesn't turn out to look as good. But to the extent people begin to doubt it, wonder about the corroboration, wonder about if the person really is too self-absorbed, then they can backfire and do exactly the opposite of what the excuse-maker intended, which is to produce very negative evaluations and an even bigger problem." RS: "Let me ask you one last question. How would you rate this very popular excuse by schoolchildren: the dog ate my homework. (Laughter)" SCHLENKER: "Well, I think we can go back to corroboration on that one. That one has been used so often by so many people that it becomes remarkably ineffective." RS: "So even though we have a dog at home, and the dog does like homework, I should advise my son that that's not a great excuse to use at school." SCHLENKER: "Well, my general of thumb is that if you really believe that that is -- if that is really what happened, I'd go for it. But I would also not be surprised if the recipient of that excuse regarded it as a pretty self-serving excuse." RS: Professor Barry Schlenker at the University of Florida. And that's Wordmaster for this week. AA: Our programs are on the Web at voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is word@voanews.com With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. MUSIC: "I'm Sorry"/Brenda Lee 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - December 13, 2002: Bush Proposes to Ease Rules on Industrial Pollution
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. The Bush administration has announced new proposals designed to ease controls on industrial pollution. The proposals would permit older factories to put in modern equipment without requiring them to add costly anti-pollution devices. The Bush administration says the changes would lead to better energy use and decrease pollution. Environmental officials say the changes will cause more pollution. Pollution from older factories has been linked to serious illnesses and early deaths in the United States. It has been a main target of long-term efforts to clean up the nation’s air. The Clean Air Act of nineteen-seventy requires new factories and energy companies to use the most modern pollution control technology. But older factories are not required to honor the Clean Air Act unless they make major equipment changes. The Bush administration’s decision deals with a provision of the Clean Air Act called the New Source Review. The New Source Review rules require all older factories to add pollution control devices whenever they make major equipment changes. The energy industry has sought to ease enforcement of the rules since President Bush took office. Under the administration of President Clinton, the Environmental Protection Agency used the rules as a legal weapon against more than fifty older coal-burning factories in twelve states. It said the factories had made major equipment changes without adding modern pollution control devices. The companies that own the factories said the Clinton administration was unfairly enforcing the New Source Review. Energy companies and others said the provision was making it difficult for them to put in modern equipment, including devices that would reduce pollution. They called for the government to change the New Source Review. Bush administration officials say the New Source Review forces industries to obey rules that do not help reduce pollution. They say that easing parts of the law would help industries avoid legal battles when they make improvements. And they say it would permit industries to act aggressively on their own to find better ways to reduce pollution. However, officials in several northeastern states said they would take legal action against the new rules. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - December 13, 2002: Julia Child's Kitchen / Music by Nirvana / Question from China About Superstitions
* Byline: 

 (THEME) HOST: (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today: We play some music by the rock group Nirvana ... New album Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today: We play some music by the rock group Nirvana ... Answer a listener’s question about superstitions ... And report about a famous kitchen in a museum in Washington, D.C. Julia Child’s Kitchen HOST: People who love to cook are enjoying a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The exhibit shows the cooking center, or kitchen, of Julia Child, one of America’s most famous cooks. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Answer a listener’s question about superstitions ... And report about a famous kitchen in a museum in Washington, D.C. Julia Child’s Kitchen HOST: People who love to cook are enjoying a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The exhibit shows the cooking center, or kitchen, of Julia Child, one of America’s most famous cooks. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Julia Child entered the cooking profession after World War Two. She took a six-month training class at the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, France. Then, in nineteen-fifty-one, she and two friends started a private cooking school in Julia’s own kitchen. The three teachers later wrote a cookbook called “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The way Julia Child wrote showed Americans more than just how to cook French food. She also taught readers how to re-create the food. Julia Child became known to millions of Americans when she started her television program “The French Chef” almost forty years ago. During each program, Mizz Child explained simple cooking skills and methods. She also showed how to prepare special foods that were later included in many of her thirteen published cookbooks. “The French Chef” was America’s first television cooking show. It was broadcast for more than thirty-five years. Mizz Child is now ninety years old. She recently moved from the eastern state of Massachusetts to her home state of California. Before retiring, Mizz Child gave her famous kitchen to the National Museum of American History. This room was the main place where her television shows were recorded. Julia Child’s husband Paul designed the kitchen in nineteen-sixty-one. He wanted the room to be a useful area where two or three cooks could work together. Also, because Mizz Child is very tall, many of her cooking tools and equipment hung on boards from the floor to the top of the room. She could easily reach everything she needed. Visitors to the American History Museum in Washington can see exactly how Mizz Child’s kitchen was organized. They can see more than one-thousand of her cooking tools. They can also enjoy watching a video of her cooking shows. The exhibit will be open through February, two-thousand-four. Superstitions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zhou Fan asks about superstitions. That is a good question to answer today, on Friday the Thirteenth. Many people believe it is a very unlucky day. They believe bad things happen on Friday the Thirteenth. There is no good reason for them to feel that way. Their belief is not based on fact. It is a superstition. History experts say superstitions have existed in many different times and places. Many people believed some methods would bring good luck, tell the future and heal or prevent sickness and accidents. Today, many people say they do not believe in bad luck. But they are extra careful on Friday the Thirteenth. Why? Because Friday the Thirteenth mixes two of the strongest superstitions -- the day Friday and the number thirteen. Some say these superstitions began because Jesus was killed on a Friday and ate his last meal with twelve other people. Others tell about an old Scandinavian story of twelve gods who were invited to dinner. Thirteen came. One of the thirteen was killed. So, if you are superstitious, you do not eat at a table with twelve other people. Superstition says the first or the last person to leave the table will die within a year. Americans do not often say that they believe in things like bad luck or that they fear the number thirteen. But there is evidence that they do. For example, there is no thirteenth floor in most American buildings. And there is no gate number thirteen at many American airports. The numbers go from twelve to fourteen. There are many popular superstitions. One says that spilling salt means that you will soon get sick. Another superstition says that breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. Some people believe it is bad luck to walk under a ladder or permit a black cat to cross your path. Many superstitions concern cats that are black or any other color. In ancient times, people believed that witches turned themselves into black cats. So the animals were considered to be evil. However, some cats were thought to bring good luck, especially to men who worked at sea. That is why cats were often kept on ships to bring the voyage good luck. Nirvana HOST: The band Nirvana released a new album in late October. It includes one song never heard publicly before. Mary Tillotson tells about the new album and about the band. ANNCR: The band Nirvana now is drummer Dave Grohl and bass guitarist Krist Novoselic. The band’s lead singer and lead guitar player Kurt Cobain died in nineteen-ninety-four. Cobain shot himself at his home in Seattle, Washington. Kurt Cobain wrote most of Nirvana’s songs. However, all three members of the band wrote this huge hit song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” (MUSIC) Nirvana was formed in the late nineteen-eighties. Music critics say the group was responsible for making popular a kind of music called “grunge.” The sound is rough. The songs are about mostly serious subjects. The music was not like most songs on popular radio at the time. Here Kurt Cobain sings “Sliver” about a child whose parents will no longer care for him. (MUSIC) Nirvana recorded its last song about a month before Cobain died. His wife, musician Courtney Love, sought legal action to block its release. She said she should control the recording because her husband wrote the song. The legal action was settled recently, and the song became part of Nirvana’s new album. We leave you now with that song, “You Know You’re Right.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Julia Child entered the cooking profession after World War Two. She took a six-month training class at the famous Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, France. Then, in nineteen-fifty-one, she and two friends started a private cooking school in Julia’s own kitchen. The three teachers later wrote a cookbook called “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The way Julia Child wrote showed Americans more than just how to cook French food. She also taught readers how to re-create the food. Julia Child became known to millions of Americans when she started her television program “The French Chef” almost forty years ago. During each program, Mizz Child explained simple cooking skills and methods. She also showed how to prepare special foods that were later included in many of her thirteen published cookbooks. “The French Chef” was America’s first television cooking show. It was broadcast for more than thirty-five years. Mizz Child is now ninety years old. She recently moved from the eastern state of Massachusetts to her home state of California. Before retiring, Mizz Child gave her famous kitchen to the National Museum of American History. This room was the main place where her television shows were recorded. Julia Child’s husband Paul designed the kitchen in nineteen-sixty-one. He wanted the room to be a useful area where two or three cooks could work together. Also, because Mizz Child is very tall, many of her cooking tools and equipment hung on boards from the floor to the top of the room. She could easily reach everything she needed. Visitors to the American History Museum in Washington can see exactly how Mizz Child’s kitchen was organized. They can see more than one-thousand of her cooking tools. They can also enjoy watching a video of her cooking shows. The exhibit will be open through February, two-thousand-four. Superstitions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Zhou Fan asks about superstitions. That is a good question to answer today, on Friday the Thirteenth. Many people believe it is a very unlucky day. They believe bad things happen on Friday the Thirteenth. There is no good reason for them to feel that way. Their belief is not based on fact. It is a superstition. History experts say superstitions have existed in many different times and places. Many people believed some methods would bring good luck, tell the future and heal or prevent sickness and accidents. Today, many people say they do not believe in bad luck. But they are extra careful on Friday the Thirteenth. Why? Because Friday the Thirteenth mixes two of the strongest superstitions -- the day Friday and the number thirteen. Some say these superstitions began because Jesus was killed on a Friday and ate his last meal with twelve other people. Others tell about an old Scandinavian story of twelve gods who were invited to dinner. Thirteen came. One of the thirteen was killed. So, if you are superstitious, you do not eat at a table with twelve other people. Superstition says the first or the last person to leave the table will die within a year. Americans do not often say that they believe in things like bad luck or that they fear the number thirteen. But there is evidence that they do. For example, there is no thirteenth floor in most American buildings. And there is no gate number thirteen at many American airports. The numbers go from twelve to fourteen. There are many popular superstitions. One says that spilling salt means that you will soon get sick. Another superstition says that breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. Some people believe it is bad luck to walk under a ladder or permit a black cat to cross your path. Many superstitions concern cats that are black or any other color. In ancient times, people believed that witches turned themselves into black cats. So the animals were considered to be evil. However, some cats were thought to bring good luck, especially to men who worked at sea. That is why cats were often kept on ships to bring the voyage good luck. Nirvana HOST: The band Nirvana released a new album in late October. It includes one song never heard publicly before. Mary Tillotson tells about the new album and about the band. ANNCR: The band Nirvana now is drummer Dave Grohl and bass guitarist Krist Novoselic. The band’s lead singer and lead guitar player Kurt Cobain died in nineteen-ninety-four. Cobain shot himself at his home in Seattle, Washington. Kurt Cobain wrote most of Nirvana’s songs. However, all three members of the band wrote this huge hit song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” (MUSIC) Nirvana was formed in the late nineteen-eighties. Music critics say the group was responsible for making popular a kind of music called “grunge.” The sound is rough. The songs are about mostly serious subjects. The music was not like most songs on popular radio at the time. Here Kurt Cobain sings “Sliver” about a child whose parents will no longer care for him. (MUSIC) Nirvana recorded its last song about a month before Cobain died. His wife, musician Courtney Love, sought legal action to block its release. She said she should control the recording because her husband wrote the song. The legal action was settled recently, and the song became part of Nirvana’s new album. We leave you now with that song, “You Know You’re Right.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 15, 2002: Margaret Sanger
* Byline: 

 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them. Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year. This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress. Margaret Sanger was considered a rebel in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. VOICE TWO: The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Three in the eastern state of New York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins. Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said he taught her to be an independent thinker. Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies. She was always tired and sick. Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become a nurse. Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because of their low position in society. Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem. Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor union organizer. She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism. Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in Nineteen-Thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the United States prepared to change women’s lives. VOICE TWO: At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession. But, she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote. She decided to continue working alone. One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, Nineteen-Fourteen. The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution. Sanger had an immediate goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail. VOICE ONE: The Woman Rebel became well-known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper. Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods. In August, Nineteen-Fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act. Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women’s issues. VOICE TWO: Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women. While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her. VOICE ONE: Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in Nineteen-Sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One-hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail. With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one. Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. In the Nineteen-Thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control. VOICE TWO: Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the Nineteen-Twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents. Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements. VOICE ONE: Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In the Nineteen-Forty-Two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two. Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents. The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group. VOICE TWO: Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the twentieth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today, we tell about one of the leaders of the birth control movement, Margaret Sanger. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many women today have the freedom to decide when they will have children, if they want them. Until about fifty years ago, women spent most of their adult lives having children, year after year. This changed because of efforts by activists like Margaret Sanger. She believed that a safe and sure method of preventing pregnancy was a necessary condition for women’s freedom. She also believed birth control was necessary for human progress. Margaret Sanger was considered a rebel in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. VOICE TWO: The woman who changed other women’s lives was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Three in the eastern state of New York. Her parents were Michael and Anne Higgins. Margaret wrote several books about her life. She wrote that her father taught her to question everything. She said he taught her to be an independent thinker. Margaret said that watching her mother suffer from having too many children made her feel strongly about birth control. Her mother died at forty-eight years of age after eighteen pregnancies. She was always tired and sick. Margaret had to care for her mother and her ten surviving brothers and sisters. This experience led her to become a nurse. Margaret Higgins worked in the poor areas of New York City. Most people there had recently arrived in the United States from Europe. Margaret saw the suffering of hundreds of women who tried to end their pregnancies in illegal and harmful ways. She realized that this was not just a health problem. These women suffered because of their low position in society. Margaret saw that not having control over one’s body led to problems that were passed on from mother to daughter and through the family for years. She said she became tired of cures that did not solve the real problem. Instead, she wanted to change the whole life of a mother. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Oh-Two, Margaret married William Sanger. They had three children. Margaret compared her own middle-class life to that of the poor people she worked among. This increased her desire to deal with economic and social issues. At this time, Margaret Sanger became involved in the liberal political culture of an area of New York City known as Greenwich Village. Sanger became a labor union organizer. She learned methods of protest and propaganda, which she used in her birth control activism. Sanger traveled to Paris, France, in Nineteen-Thirteen, to research European methods of birth control. She also met with members of Socialist political groups who influenced her birth control policies. She returned to the United States prepared to change women’s lives. VOICE TWO: At first, Margaret Sanger sought the support of leaders of the women’s movement, members of the Socialist party, and the medical profession. But, she wrote that they told her to wait until women were permitted to vote. She decided to continue working alone. One of Margaret Sanger’s first important political acts was to publish a monthly newspaper called The Woman Rebel. She designed it. She wrote for it. And she paid for it. The newspaper called for women to reject the traditional woman’s position. The first copy was published in March, Nineteen-Fourteen. The Woman Rebel was an angry paper that discussed disputed and sometimes illegal subjects. These included labor problems, marriage, the sex business, and revolution. Sanger had an immediate goal. She wanted to change laws that prevented birth control education and sending birth control devices through the mail. VOICE ONE: The Woman Rebel became well-known in New York and elsewhere. Laws at that time banned the mailing of materials considered morally bad. This included any form of birth control information. The law was known as the Comstock Act. Officials ordered Sanger to stop sending out her newspaper. Sanger instead wrote another birth control document called Family Limitation. The document included detailed descriptions of birth control methods. In August, Nineteen-Fourteen, Margaret Sanger was charged with violating the Comstock Act. Margaret faced a prison sentence of as many as forty-five years if found guilty. She fled to Europe to escape the trial. She asked friends to release thousands of copies of Family Limitation. The document quickly spread among women across the United States. It started a public debate about birth control. The charges against Sanger also increased public interest in her and in women’s issues. VOICE TWO: Once again, Margaret Sanger used her time in Europe to research birth control methods. After about a year, she decided to return to the United States to face trial. She wanted to use the trial to speak out about the need for reproductive freedom for women. While Sanger was preparing for her trial, her five-year-old daughter, Peggy, died of pneumonia. The death made Sanger feel very weak and guilty. However, the death greatly increased public support for Sanger and the issue of birth control. The many reports in the media caused the United States government to dismiss charges against her. VOICE ONE: Margaret Sanger continued to oppose the Comstock Act by opening the first birth control center in the United States. It opened in Brownsville, New York in Nineteen-Sixteen. Sanger’s sister, Ethel Byrne, and a language expert helped her. One-hundred women came to the birth control center on the first day. After about a week, police arrested the three women, but later released them. Sanger immediately re-opened the health center, and was arrested again. The women were tried the next year. Sanger was sentenced to thirty days in jail. With some support from women’s groups, Sanger started a new magazine, the Birth Control Review. In Nineteen-Twenty-One, she organized the first American birth control conference. The conference led to the creation of the American Birth Control League. It was established to provide education, legal reform and research for better birth control. The group opened a birth control center in the United States in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Many centers that opened later across the country copied this one. Sanger was president of the American Birth Control League until Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. In the Nineteen-Thirties she helped win a judicial decision that permitted American doctors to give out information about birth control. VOICE TWO: Historians say Margaret Sanger changed her methods of political action during and after the Nineteen-Twenties. She stopped using direct opposition and illegal acts. She even sought support from her former opponents. Later, Sanger joined supporters of eugenics. This is the study of human improvement by genetic control. Extremists among that group believe that disabled, weak or “undesirable” human beings should not be born. Historians say Sanger supported eugenicists only as a way to gain her birth control goals. She later said she was wrong in supporting eugenics. But she still is criticized for these statements. VOICE ONE: Even though Margaret Sanger changed her methods, she continued her efforts for birth control. In the Nineteen-Forty-Two, she helped form the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It became a major national health organization after World War Two. Margaret Sanger moved into areas of international activism. Her efforts led to the creation of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two after an international conference in Bombay, India. Sanger was one of its first presidents. The organization was aimed at increasing the acceptance of family planning around the world. Almost every country in the world is now a member of the international group. VOICE TWO: Margaret Sanger lived to see the end of the Comstock Act and the invention of birth control medicine. She died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six in Tucson, Arizona. She was an important part of what has been called one of the most life-changing political movements of the twentieth century. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Doreen Baingana and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-12-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – December 16, 2002: Visiting a Dude Ranch
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (THEME) VOICE ONE: Thousands of holiday visitors come to the United States each year. Many visit cities like New York, Washington, San Francisco or Miami. Others come to the United States to visit the American West. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about holiday vacations in the American West on the Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Thousands of holiday visitors come to the United States each year. Many visit cities like New York, Washington, San Francisco or Miami. Others come to the United States to visit the American West. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about holiday vacations in the American West on the Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: Here is a list of some eating and drinking places that have bands playing country and western music. They are the ”Lone Star Café,” the “Chuck Wagon,” and the “Yellowstone.” If I asked where these places might be, you might guess Texas, Montana, Nevada or some other western American state. Would you be suprised to learn that they are all in the city of Tokyo, Japan? If I said “Laredo,” you might know that Laredo is a city in the American state of Texas. Did you know there is another small western town with the same name near London, England? Lubbock is also a city in Texas. But you can find a Lubbock Town in the German province of Westphalia, not far from the city of Cologne. VOICE TWO: The culture of the old American West is extremely popular in many parts of the world. American television programs about the Old West are very popular. People who have read or seen movies about the West often want to learn more. Some people come together to form organizations that study the history and culture of the old American West. In Europe, that interest began with the extremely popular books of German writer Karl May (MY). Karl May wrote a series of books about the American West. The books followed the adventures of two men -- a Mescalaro Apache named Winnnetou (VIN-AH-TOO) and his white friend, Old Shatterhand. Mister May finished his series of Western adventures in eighteen-ninety-three. More than one-hundred-million of Karl May’s books have been sold in more than thirty languages. VOICE ONE: Yet Karl May (MY) only visited the United States after he finished writing his series of books. And he never traveled further west than the city of Buffalo, New York. Karl May made many mistakes in his books. He knew very little about the real American West. But the stories he wrote were good and millions of readers do not care about the mistakes. Having read the popular books of Karl May is one of the reasons that many people spend their holidays in the American West. VOICE TWO: Those who visit the real American West often stay at places called dude ranches. A ranch is a kind of western farm. A dude ranch charges visitors money to stay and help work on the ranch. Or visitors can learn to ride and care for a horse. They can dance to country and western music, eat western foods and explore the surrounding areas. Many visitors also buy western clothes to wear. They like to wear the famous American cowboy hat and cowboy boots. A good cowboy hat and a good pair of boots can cost several hundred dollars each. You can even buy a new cowboy hat that is made to look very old and well used. VOICE ONE: The Dude Ranchers’ Association is an organization of American ranches that provide a western holiday for people who enjoy horse riding and learning about the western United States. Marcia Williams is the director of the association. Mizz Williams says the association has one-hundred-twenty-four member ranches. They are in most of the western United States. Some ranches have as few as eight guests at one time while others have as many as one-hundred-twenty guests each week. Some of these western ranches permit visitors all year while others have visitors only in the summer months. Mizz Williams says most foreign visitors who vacation at member ranches come from Britain. This is followed by visitors from Germany and Italy. She says it is not unusual to see a person dressed like an American cowboy and speaking English with a German or Italian accent. VOICE TWO: Dude ranch experts say about four-hundred ranches can provide the experience of living in the American West. An example is the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch in the northwestern state of Montana. It is a new Dude Ranch and a little different from many others. The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch is really a small town, very similar to several that were found in the American West during the eighteen-eighties. What is the ranch really like? Come with us for a few minutes while we visit this unusual place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We are in Montana now. Montana is forever linked to the old culture of the American West. The Little Big Horn battlefield is here. That is where General George Custer was defeated by the Lakota and the Cheyenne Indians. Many other famous Indian tribes lived here too -- the Blackfeet, the Crow, the Shoshone. The mighty Missiouri River crosses much of Montana. The famous Lewis and Clark exploration team used this river to first travel through the American West. The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch is high in the Rocky Mountains near the imaginary line that divides the North American continent. A nearby mountain is more than three- thousand meters tall. This is what is called “big sky country” in Montana. The air here is fresh and clean. You can smell the trees and grass. The sky is a sharp blue color. The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch includes a kind of hotel called a boarding house. Next door is a drinking place called a saloon. Just down the street is a large Indian temporary cloth house called a tipi. Another place to stay is an Indian house made of wood called a bark lodge. One house is made of logs and is called a log cabin. Another house is made of dirt that is held together by grass that has been growing for hundreds of years. This kind of very thick grass is called sod. The house is called a sod house or soddy. Visitors to the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch can stay in any of these places. Each may look like it is more than one-hundred years old. But they all have modern equipment inside, including electric power, water and modern bathrooms. VOICE TWO: We have sent a request to the ranch to stay in the sod house. American settlers in the West often built this kind of house because it cost almost nothing. All it took was extremely hard work. The dirt and grass sod is several meters thick. Each piece had to be cut and lifted out of the ground. These pieces were cut and fit together to make a warm, dry home. You could build a sod house any size you wanted. The one at the ranch is small but comfortable. The walls of the little sod house have been painted white inside. Our room is bright and clean. This little house is extremely unusual. Once, thousands of sod houses could be seen across the old American West. The little sod house at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch may be one of the last. It is truly a piece of American history. VOICE ONE: Now we will go to the store to buy a cowboy hat and western clothes. It takes only a few minutes to buy what we need. After changing clothes in our sod house, we look like real American cowboys or cowgirls. Now, with our new hats and clothes, we can ride horses into Montana’s high country. We can choose among many different trails. We can ride far back into the surrounding mountains to the high mountain lakes. Or we can stay close to the ranch in nearby Levengood Gulch. Or we can ride to Lost Creek Trail. We can ride and explore thousands of hectares of land. When the day is done, we return to the ranch. Dinner tonight will be a western barbecue. That is beef cooked over a fire, the way it was done in the old West. We planned to stay at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch for a week. The price we paid includes horse riding, three meals each day, entertainment and transportation to and from the airport in Butte, Montana. Our visit has ended and we experienced a little of what it was like to be a cowboy in the eighteen-hundreds. The unusual buildings at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch provided us with a history lesson. We learned to ride and care for a horse. And, best of all, we lived deep in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We will always remember the big sky country of Montana and the American West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. Here is a list of some eating and drinking places that have bands playing country and western music. They are the ”Lone Star Café,” the “Chuck Wagon,” and the “Yellowstone.” If I asked where these places might be, you might guess Texas, Montana, Nevada or some other western American state. Would you be suprised to learn that they are all in the city of Tokyo, Japan? If I said “Laredo,” you might know that Laredo is a city in the American state of Texas. Did you know there is another small western town with the same name near London, England? Lubbock is also a city in Texas. But you can find a Lubbock Town in the German province of Westphalia, not far from the city of Cologne. VOICE TWO: The culture of the old American West is extremely popular in many parts of the world. American television programs about the Old West are very popular. People who have read or seen movies about the West often want to learn more. Some people come together to form organizations that study the history and culture of the old American West. In Europe, that interest began with the extremely popular books of German writer Karl May (MY). Karl May wrote a series of books about the American West. The books followed the adventures of two men -- a Mescalaro Apache named Winnnetou (VIN-AH-TOO) and his white friend, Old Shatterhand. Mister May finished his series of Western adventures in eighteen-ninety-three. More than one-hundred-million of Karl May’s books have been sold in more than thirty languages. VOICE ONE: Yet Karl May (MY) only visited the United States after he finished writing his series of books. And he never traveled further west than the city of Buffalo, New York. Karl May made many mistakes in his books. He knew very little about the real American West. But the stories he wrote were good and millions of readers do not care about the mistakes. Having read the popular books of Karl May is one of the reasons that many people spend their holidays in the American West. VOICE TWO: Those who visit the real American West often stay at places called dude ranches. A ranch is a kind of western farm. A dude ranch charges visitors money to stay and help work on the ranch. Or visitors can learn to ride and care for a horse. They can dance to country and western music, eat western foods and explore the surrounding areas. Many visitors also buy western clothes to wear. They like to wear the famous American cowboy hat and cowboy boots. A good cowboy hat and a good pair of boots can cost several hundred dollars each. You can even buy a new cowboy hat that is made to look very old and well used. VOICE ONE: The Dude Ranchers’ Association is an organization of American ranches that provide a western holiday for people who enjoy horse riding and learning about the western United States. Marcia Williams is the director of the association. Mizz Williams says the association has one-hundred-twenty-four member ranches. They are in most of the western United States. Some ranches have as few as eight guests at one time while others have as many as one-hundred-twenty guests each week. Some of these western ranches permit visitors all year while others have visitors only in the summer months. Mizz Williams says most foreign visitors who vacation at member ranches come from Britain. This is followed by visitors from Germany and Italy. She says it is not unusual to see a person dressed like an American cowboy and speaking English with a German or Italian accent. VOICE TWO: Dude ranch experts say about four-hundred ranches can provide the experience of living in the American West. An example is the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch in the northwestern state of Montana. It is a new Dude Ranch and a little different from many others. The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch is really a small town, very similar to several that were found in the American West during the eighteen-eighties. What is the ranch really like? Come with us for a few minutes while we visit this unusual place. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: We are in Montana now. Montana is forever linked to the old culture of the American West. The Little Big Horn battlefield is here. That is where General George Custer was defeated by the Lakota and the Cheyenne Indians. Many other famous Indian tribes lived here too -- the Blackfeet, the Crow, the Shoshone. The mighty Missiouri River crosses much of Montana. The famous Lewis and Clark exploration team used this river to first travel through the American West. The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch is high in the Rocky Mountains near the imaginary line that divides the North American continent. A nearby mountain is more than three- thousand meters tall. This is what is called “big sky country” in Montana. The air here is fresh and clean. You can smell the trees and grass. The sky is a sharp blue color. The Eighteen-Eighties Ranch includes a kind of hotel called a boarding house. Next door is a drinking place called a saloon. Just down the street is a large Indian temporary cloth house called a tipi. Another place to stay is an Indian house made of wood called a bark lodge. One house is made of logs and is called a log cabin. Another house is made of dirt that is held together by grass that has been growing for hundreds of years. This kind of very thick grass is called sod. The house is called a sod house or soddy. Visitors to the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch can stay in any of these places. Each may look like it is more than one-hundred years old. But they all have modern equipment inside, including electric power, water and modern bathrooms. VOICE TWO: We have sent a request to the ranch to stay in the sod house. American settlers in the West often built this kind of house because it cost almost nothing. All it took was extremely hard work. The dirt and grass sod is several meters thick. Each piece had to be cut and lifted out of the ground. These pieces were cut and fit together to make a warm, dry home. You could build a sod house any size you wanted. The one at the ranch is small but comfortable. The walls of the little sod house have been painted white inside. Our room is bright and clean. This little house is extremely unusual. Once, thousands of sod houses could be seen across the old American West. The little sod house at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch may be one of the last. It is truly a piece of American history. VOICE ONE: Now we will go to the store to buy a cowboy hat and western clothes. It takes only a few minutes to buy what we need. After changing clothes in our sod house, we look like real American cowboys or cowgirls. Now, with our new hats and clothes, we can ride horses into Montana’s high country. We can choose among many different trails. We can ride far back into the surrounding mountains to the high mountain lakes. Or we can stay close to the ranch in nearby Levengood Gulch. Or we can ride to Lost Creek Trail. We can ride and explore thousands of hectares of land. When the day is done, we return to the ranch. Dinner tonight will be a western barbecue. That is beef cooked over a fire, the way it was done in the old West. We planned to stay at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch for a week. The price we paid includes horse riding, three meals each day, entertainment and transportation to and from the airport in Butte, Montana. Our visit has ended and we experienced a little of what it was like to be a cowboy in the eighteen-hundreds. The unusual buildings at the Eighteen-Eighties Ranch provided us with a history lesson. We learned to ride and care for a horse. And, best of all, we lived deep in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. We will always remember the big sky country of Montana and the American West. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-12-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 16, 2002: UN Population Study
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 16, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations Population Fund has released a new study on the condition of the world’s population. The main idea of the report is poverty and its relationship to population issues. It says that several steps need to be taken immediately to reduce poverty by half by the year two-thousand-fifteen. The first is to improve health care systems. In the world’s poorest countries, people are expected to live just forty-nine years. One in ten children do not reach their first birthday. The study says that poor health and poverty are linked. The report also says that women are affected most by poor health care systems, especially pregnant women. It says that better reproductive health can reduce poverty and build economic growth. The report says family planning and helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies are also ways to reduce poverty. The study says that when given a choice, poor people in developing countries have fewer children than their parents did. Smaller families have fewer expenses and more chances to increase their earnings and savings. Since nineteen-seventy, developing countries with lower birth rates and slower population growth have had faster economic growth. They have had higher productivity, more savings and more investment. The report also notes that poor people are more at risk for the infection that causes AIDS. This is because they lack the knowledge and power to protect themselves against the disease. The report says that investing in education, especially for women, can also reduce poverty. Educated women have more choices in life and are more likely to send their children to school. The study found that the right to an education has improved over the past ten years. However, poor people in many developing countries are still less likely to attend school. The report urges governments to change this and make sure all citizens learn to read and write. The U-N study also says that women and men should be treated equally. This means that legal and human rights for women should be strengthened, as well as their ability to earn money and speak out socially and politically.The U-N report says that half the world’s population live on less than two dollars a day. One-thousand-million people live on less than one dollar a day. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 14, 2002: Iraqi Weapons Declaration
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Last Saturday, the government of Iraq gave a declaration of its weapons programs to the United Nations. A U-N Security Council resolution ordered Iraq to report on its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs by December eighth. The time limit was widely considered Iraq’s final chance to prevent a military attack. The Security Council also required Iraq to agree to U-N weapons inspections. The first U-N inspectors arrived in late November. U-N weapons inspections were started after Iraq’s defeat in the nineteen-ninety-one Gulf War. Four years ago, inspectors left the country because they were not permitted to visit all the areas they wanted to examine. The U-N resolution required Iraq to surrender any weapons of mass destruction. It called for serious measures if Iraq failed to do so. Iraq could be found in violation of the resolution if its weapons declaration is believed to include false information or not complete. Iraq says the declaration proves it does not have weapons of mass destruction. It says the documents contain current, full and correct information. Iraqi Lieutenant General Hussam Mohammed Amin supervised preparation of the report. He said it would satisfy and answer all the questions that have been asked in recent years. The Iraqi official said the declaration explains the history of Iraq’s weapons programs. He said it describes civilian activities involving equipment and technology that could have military uses. He also said it identifies the companies and countries that sold Iraq technology and equipment to develop weapons of mass destruction in the past. Iraqi officials did not say if the declaration provides new evidence to support Iraq’s claim that it has destroyed all its old biological and chemical weapons. The United States claims there is evidence that Iraq still has some banned weapons programs. The United States has threatened to use military force if Iraq fails to honor U-N demands to disarm. Iraq has accused the United States of seeking to use the declaration to find a reason for aggression against Iraq. In the nineteen-nineties, Iraq admitted making three kinds of biological weapons, including one that spreads the deadly anthrax bacteria. But U-N inspectors were never able to confirm Iraq’s claims that it destroyed hundreds of missiles containing anthrax. Similar questions surround Iraq’s supply of the deadly V-X nerve agent. In the past, Iraq admitted making almost four tons of V-X. Iraq later said it had destroyed all the V-X. However, U-N inspectors said it never provided evidence to support the claim. Iraq says the new declaration shows it wants to cooperate to prevent war. It said the United States should accept the report as truthful. The United States has not yet presented proof that Iraq still has banned weapons. However, Bush administration officials said strong evidence would be given soon to U-N inspectors. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Vaccine Against Cervical Cancer? / Study Finds Women Over 50 Can Have Healthy Babies / Scientists Try Different Ways to Make Spider Silk
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 17, 2002 ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a new vaccine that may prevent a kind of cancer. We tell about a study that says older women can have healthy babies. And we tell about efforts to make silk by using genetic engineering. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: American scientists have developed the first vaccine that appears to prevent cancer of the cervix, the entrance to the uterus. The vaccine works by protecting women from developing a virus infection that causes many cases of cervical cancer. A new study shows that this experimental vaccine can protect against a form of human papilloma virus, or H-P-V. This virus is called H-P-V Sixteen. The researchers reported that the vaccine proved one-hundred-percent effective against H-P-V Sixteen. H-P-V Sixteen causes about half of all cervical cancers. The H-P-V virus is spread during sex. VOICE TWO: The study results appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Scientists from Merck Research Laboratories of West Point, Pennsylvania developed the vaccine. They carried out the study with researchers from sixteen universities. More testing will be done to confirm the results. If the results are confirmed, it could mean development of one of the first vaccines to prevent cancer. The vaccine was tested on more than one-thousand-five-hundred young women. They were between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five years old. About half of the women received three injections of the vaccine over six months. None of these women developed H-P-V-Sixteen infections or pre-cancerous growths on their cervix. The other women were injected with a harmless substance called a placebo. Forty-one women in this group developed H-P-V infections. Nine women developed abnormal cell growths on their cervix. Researchers made the vaccine from a protein that forms on the outer part of the H-P-V Sixteen virus. This vaccine causes the body to produce large amounts of antibodies that fight the virus. Scientists say the ability to produce so many antibodies is unusual. Women receiving the vaccine showed about sixty times more antibodies in their blood than women who got the H-P-V Sixteen virus. VOICE ONE: Infection with the human papilloma virus is very common. There are thirty different forms of this virus. Not all cause cancer. Having the infection does not mean a woman will necessarily develop cervical cancer. This cancer can take many years to develop. Still, reducing the risk of cervical cancer is a major medical goal. Cervical cancer kills about two-hundred-forty-thousand women in the world each year. Millions of American women have yearly tests for cervical cancer and abnormal growths. So the number of deaths from this cancer in the United States is small. However, most of the deaths from cervical cancer happen in developing countries where women are not tested for the disease. Cervical cancer kills more women than any other cancer in developing nations. Experts say vaccination could be a good way to prevent the disease in many parts of the world. VOICE TWO: Merck Research Laboratories says it is trying to produce an improved version of the vaccine. The National Cancer Institute and a private company in Maryland also are working to produce a vaccine. Some experts estimate that the general public may be able to get the vaccine by two-thousand-six. Only one vaccine currently in use prevents cancer. It protects against hepatitis B, a virus that causes liver disease. Infection with hepatitis B causes many cases of liver cancer in Asia and Africa. Experts say rates of hepatitis B and liver cancer have dropped in areas with vaccination programs. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: An American study has shown that a woman’s age need not stop her from having a baby. It found that women over the age of fifty can have healthy babies. However, older women’s bodies no longer release eggs, so they must use eggs provided by younger women.The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study is said to be the largest of its kind. Scientists at the University of Southern California organized the study. They used a process called in-vitro fertilization. It was developed for younger women who are unable to have children. VOICE TWO: During in-vitro fertilization, scientists combine a woman’s egg and male reproductive fluid in a laboratory dish. Then, they place the fertilized egg in the woman’s uterus. There, the egg grows and develops into a fetus. The California scientists used in-vitro fertilization in seventy-seven women between the ages of fifty and sixty-three. All of the women were in good health. They received eggs provided by younger women. Forty-two of the older women had babies. For twenty-six of the women, it was their first child. Richard Paulson led the study. He says the findings provide evidence that women over the age of fifty can become pregnant. He said there is no medical reason for barring such women from attempting pregnancy only because of their age. VOICE ONE: However, the study also showed that pregnancies in older women often are linked with health problems. There were no deaths among the mothers or their babies. Yet, many of the women experienced medical problems during their pregnancy. For example, one-third of the women had high blood pressure. One-fifth developed the disease diabetes. Most of the women had their babies delivered by an operation called a cesarean section. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Silk is a material made mainly by silkworms. It is stronger than steel even though it is very thin. Silk can stretch more than many other materials without breaking. The most common use of silk is for cloth. However, scientists are interested in the possible use of silk for industrial and medical purposes. Spiders also produce strong silk. They use it to build traps to capture insects. The traps hang in the air in complex designs called webs. Scientists consider some kinds of spider silk to be some of the strongest natural materials on Earth. However, unlike silkworms, spiders cannot be grown in large numbers on farms. This is because they attack and eat each other when put together. So it is almost impossible to get a large amount of spider silk naturally. VOICE ONE: Researchers are trying different ways to make spider silk. David Kaplan uses bacteria and genetic engineering. He works in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Mister Kaplan copies or clones a spider gene responsible for producing silk. He puts the gene copy into a bacterium such as E. coli. The bacterium grows into large numbers of bacteria. Later, small particles of silk are collected from the cells of the bacteria. Water is added to these particles and silk material is made from the mixture. VOICE TWO: Mister Kaplan notes that so far only small amounts of silk can be made by this method. However, a company called Nexia Biotechnologies says it can produce a lot more genetically engineered silk. The company is based in Montreal, Canada. It is one of the world’s largest producers of manmade silk. The head of Nexia, Jeffrey Turner, says his researchers put the spider gene for silk-making into goats. The milk from these goats has silk proteins. Mister Turner says goats can produce a lot of silk because they grow and reproduce quickly. VOICE ONE: The main question now is how to get silk of good quality from silk protein. Scientists agree that it is the way silk worms and spiders combine or spin proteins that makes silk so strong. Researchers are trying to find ways to spin genetically produced silk the same way spiders and silkworms spin natural silk. Successful results could lead to stronger ropes, parachutes, and materials for use in medical operations. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, George Grow and Doreen Baingana. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT December 17, 2002 — Irradiated Meat
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States government has approved methods of destroying bacteria in meat by using radiation. The government says using radiation to kill harmful organisms in meat is safe. The World Health Organization also supports the use of irradiation to control food-related sickness caused by dangerous organisms. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. The United States government has approved methods of destroying bacteria in meat by using radiation. The government says using radiation to kill harmful organisms in meat is safe. The World Health Organization also supports the use of irradiation to control food-related sickness caused by dangerous organisms. On average, there are more than three-million cases of food-related sicknesses each year in America. About one-thousand-six-hundred deaths are reported. However, studies for the Department of Agriculture say that harmful organisms in food cause as many as seventy-six-million sicknesses each year in the United States. Eighty-one percent of these sicknesses have unknown causes. Food irradiation can be done in three ways. One process uses a radioactive device made of the elements cobalt or cesium. These substances produce energy called gamma rays. Meat is exposed to gamma rays in a protected space surrounded by thick walls. The food is taken out of the space when it has been exposed to enough radiation. The gamma ray device is always radioactive so it must be stored in a large tank of water. Another process uses a device similar to one found in televisions. It is called an electron gun. It fires a stream of electrons strong enough to kill harmful organisms in the food. A newer process uses X-rays to kill bacteria. The amount of radiation used in some of these processes may be surprising. For example, the energy necessary to kill the bacterium salmonella in chicken is seven-million times greater than that used when a person gets a chest X-ray. The World Health Organization says that radiation levels are safe and do not change food in any important way. However, the Department of Agriculture has done studies on public support for irradiated food in the United States. Recent studies show that public support is decreasing. The government also found that the high cost of irradiating meat may affect its popularity. Studies estimate that it could cost between five and seventeen-million dollars a year for each factory that uses irradiation. Yet, irradiation does not protect meat from harmful organisms while it is processed in stores or in homes. So irradiated meat would still require careful preparation. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. On average, there are more than three-million cases of food-related sicknesses each year in America. About one-thousand-six-hundred deaths are reported. However, studies for the Department of Agriculture say that harmful organisms in food cause as many as seventy-six-million sicknesses each year in the United States. Eighty-one percent of these sicknesses have unknown causes. Food irradiation can be done in three ways. One process uses a radioactive device made of the elements cobalt or cesium. These substances produce energy called gamma rays. Meat is exposed to gamma rays in a protected space surrounded by thick walls. The food is taken out of the space when it has been exposed to enough radiation. The gamma ray device is always radioactive so it must be stored in a large tank of water. Another process uses a device similar to one found in televisions. It is called an electron gun. It fires a stream of electrons strong enough to kill harmful organisms in the food. A newer process uses X-rays to kill bacteria. The amount of radiation used in some of these processes may be surprising. For example, the energy necessary to kill the bacterium salmonella in chicken is seven-million times greater than that used when a person gets a chest X-ray. The World Health Organization says that radiation levels are safe and do not change food in any important way. However, the Department of Agriculture has done studies on public support for irradiated food in the United States. Recent studies show that public support is decreasing. The government also found that the high cost of irradiating meat may affect its popularity. Studies estimate that it could cost between five and seventeen-million dollars a year for each factory that uses irradiation. Yet, irradiation does not protect meat from harmful organisms while it is processed in stores or in homes. So irradiated meat would still require careful preparation. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: HEALTH REPORT – December 18, 2002: Eating Nuts Prevents Diabetes
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. A new study shows that eating nuts and peanut butter may help prevent one form of the disease diabetes. Adult-onset or Type Two diabetes affects about one-hundred-thirty-five-million people around the world. The disease results when the body cannot produce or use a substance called insulin. Insulin is produced in the organ called the pancreas. Insulin helps turn sugar in foods into energy. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings. Scientists from the Harvard University School of Public Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts completed the research. They studied more than eighty-three-thousand women for sixteen years. The women were thirty-four to fifty-nine years old. None of the women had diabetes, cancer or heart disease when the study began. During the study, more than three-thousand women developed diabetes. The women answered questions every four years between nineteen-eighty and nineteen-ninety-six. The researchers asked what they ate, including information about nuts and nut products. Some of the women ate nuts five days a week. The size of each serving weighed about thirty grams. Or, they ate a serving of peanut butter five days each week. Other women in the study did not eat nuts or peanut butter. Those who ate nuts five times a week were more than twenty percent less likely to develop Type Two diabetes than the women who did not eat nuts. Although the study involved only women, the researchers believe eating nuts would also be good for men. The scientists say more research is needed to confirm the findings. But the study suggests that the fats in nuts may improve the way the body makes and uses insulin. Nuts contain magnesium. This element helps balance insulin and levels of sugar in the blood. The fats in nuts also may improve the body’s ability to process sugar in the blood. People who suffer from diabetes have too much sugar in their blood and urine, the body’s liquid waste. Other research has shown that nuts are good for the health in other ways. For example, nuts contain good fats and other nutrients that help reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood and may prevent heart disease. This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS – December 18, 2002: Shopping on the Internet
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. It is the holiday gift-giving season in the United States. More and more people are using their computers and the Internet to buy their holiday gifts. Today we tell how the computer and the Internet are changing the way people buy products. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-five, a small company began selling books from its headquarters in the western city of Seattle, Washington. It was an unusual company. It did not have a store you could visit. The only way you could buy a book from the company was to use a computer linked with the Internet. The name of the company is Amazon-dot-com. It was one of the first businesses to offer products for sale using the Internet. The company made it easy to buy almost any book you wanted. You used your computer to link with the company so you could read about many different books. When you found the book you wanted, you placed an order and typed the number of your credit card to pay for it. A worker at the Amazon Company placed the book in a box and usually mailed it to you the next day. It was really very simple. VOICE TWO: Buying products using a computer and the Internet seemed very unusual in nineteen-ninety-five. At first, many people did not think is was safe to type their credit card information on the Internet. However, buying a book from Amazon.com was very easy. For many people, buying a book from Amazon.com was their first attempt at buying anything on the Internet. Today, Amazon.com sells books to millions of people in more than two-hundred-twenty countries. It is one of the most successful companies linked to the Internet. And, Amazon no longer sells just books. It sells toys, music, games, electronic equipment, and even computers. Because of Amazon.com’s success, many other companies began selling products with the aid of a computer linked to the Internet. Some of the first were other book companies, like Barnes and Noble. Today, thousands of large and small companies offer their products on the Internet. Buyers use their computers to order and pay for products. The company sends the products to the buyers. A few companies offer many more things on their Web sites than in their stores. For example, Barnes and Noble offers more than one-million books, far more than in any one store. VOICE ONE: Business experts say buying products using the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. They say buying on the Internet has increased as much as thirty-six percent over last year. Experts say people spent almost ten-thousand-million dollars buying products on the Internet during the first nine months of this year. Buyers are expected to spend almost fourteen-thousand-million dollars more during the last three months of this year. This large increase in buying is because of the holiday gift-giving season. The holiday buying season in the United States usually begins the day after Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November. It continues until Christmas Day, December twenty-fifth. VOICE TWO: Many stores in the United States depend on the holiday season for as much as fifty percent of their yearly profits. A poor holiday season for a store can cause serious financial problems. Many businesses quickly learned they could increase their holiday sales by offering their products on the Internet. Buying products with the aid of a computer is a quickly expanding sales idea. However, the idea of buying a product without ever visiting the store is not new. Only the method of buying has changed. This method of business has a very old name. It is called “mail order.” VOICE ONE: In eighteen-eighty-six, a young man named Richard Sears bought several watches. Mister Sears worked for the Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railroad Company. He sold the watches to other railroad workers. He soon hired a young watchmaker named Alvah Roebuck to make more watches. The Sears and Roebuck Watch Company soon settled in Chicago, Illinois. Mister Sears and Mister Roebuck knew that the majority of Americans lived on farms. They did not live close to stores where they could buy the products they needed. The Sears and Roebuck Watch Company soon began offering many other products that could be bought from their Chicago store. The Sears and Roebuck company could offer products for much less money than local stores. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-ninety-five, the Sears and Roebuck Company began printing a book that listed the products the company sold. The book had five-hundred-thirty-two pages. This kind of book is called a catalog. The Sears and Roebuck Catalog offered for sale almost every kind of equipment a farmer might need. It also offered clothing and shoes for men, women and children. It offered stoves, tables, chairs, glassware and bicycles. People could buy firearms, rings, watches, toys and many, many other products. The huge catalog had pictures of the products and told how to order and pay for the products. The Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog was really the sales computer of its day. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most unusual product ever sold by the Sears and Roebuck Company was a house. From nineteen-oh-eight until nineteen-forty, the Sears and Roebuck Company offered several different sized houses that could be ordered through the catalog. Each house arrived at the nearest railroad station. It came with everything needed to build the house -- more than thirty-thousand parts. This included wood, paint, nails electric wire, pipes for water and a seventy-five page book. The book told how to build the house. Sears, Roebuck and Company sold more than seventy-five-thousand of these built-it-yourself homes. Other companies also sold this kind of house. Perhaps the most famous of these houses is the one in California where former President Richard Nixon was born. That house is now part of the President Richard Nixon Library at Yorba Linda, California. VOICE TWO: The Sears company still prints several different catalogs. People can read about a product in the catalog and buy it by calling Sears on the telephone. They can also link with the company on the Internet and buy the product. Shoppers can pay extra money to have the product sent to their home, or they can pick it up at one of the many Sears stores. The story of the Sears Company is not different from many other companies. Large companies like Sears and even very small companies now use the Internet as a business tool. VOICE ONE: Experts who study the business use of the Internet say people buy more items for their home than any other product. This includes tables, chairs, lights, paintings, and rugs. The experts say the Internet sales of these things have increased one-hundred-forty-six percent over last year. People ordered sixty-six percent more clothing than last year, thirty-one percent more books and twenty-five percent more electronic devices. A huge winter storm affected much of the Eastern United States at the beginning of this month. One business report said the storm might have caused even more people to buy holiday gifts using their computers. The report said it was easier for people to buy products from their nice warm homes than to travel to a store in the middle of a snow or ice storm. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-five when Amazon.com began selling books, few items were for sale on the Internet. That has changed greatly. Now you can buy almost anything you want. There are even companies that help private individuals sell items on the Internet. Recently a man in Santa Rosa, California, offered a Russian-built jet fighter warplane for sale. The plane had once belonged to the Air Force of Poland. The man said he wanted at least twenty-five-thousand dollars for the aircraft. But he said the plane needed to be repaired before it could fly. And he said it no longer had its machine guns! (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. It is the holiday gift-giving season in the United States. More and more people are using their computers and the Internet to buy their holiday gifts. Today we tell how the computer and the Internet are changing the way people buy products. (THEME) VOICE ONE: In nineteen-ninety-five, a small company began selling books from its headquarters in the western city of Seattle, Washington. It was an unusual company. It did not have a store you could visit. The only way you could buy a book from the company was to use a computer linked with the Internet. The name of the company is Amazon-dot-com. It was one of the first businesses to offer products for sale using the Internet. The company made it easy to buy almost any book you wanted. You used your computer to link with the company so you could read about many different books. When you found the book you wanted, you placed an order and typed the number of your credit card to pay for it. A worker at the Amazon Company placed the book in a box and usually mailed it to you the next day. It was really very simple. VOICE TWO: Buying products using a computer and the Internet seemed very unusual in nineteen-ninety-five. At first, many people did not think is was safe to type their credit card information on the Internet. However, buying a book from Amazon.com was very easy. For many people, buying a book from Amazon.com was their first attempt at buying anything on the Internet. Today, Amazon.com sells books to millions of people in more than two-hundred-twenty countries. It is one of the most successful companies linked to the Internet. And, Amazon no longer sells just books. It sells toys, music, games, electronic equipment, and even computers. Because of Amazon.com’s success, many other companies began selling products with the aid of a computer linked to the Internet. Some of the first were other book companies, like Barnes and Noble. Today, thousands of large and small companies offer their products on the Internet. Buyers use their computers to order and pay for products. The company sends the products to the buyers. A few companies offer many more things on their Web sites than in their stores. For example, Barnes and Noble offers more than one-million books, far more than in any one store. VOICE ONE: Business experts say buying products using the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. They say buying on the Internet has increased as much as thirty-six percent over last year. Experts say people spent almost ten-thousand-million dollars buying products on the Internet during the first nine months of this year. Buyers are expected to spend almost fourteen-thousand-million dollars more during the last three months of this year. This large increase in buying is because of the holiday gift-giving season. The holiday buying season in the United States usually begins the day after Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday in November. It continues until Christmas Day, December twenty-fifth. VOICE TWO: Many stores in the United States depend on the holiday season for as much as fifty percent of their yearly profits. A poor holiday season for a store can cause serious financial problems. Many businesses quickly learned they could increase their holiday sales by offering their products on the Internet. Buying products with the aid of a computer is a quickly expanding sales idea. However, the idea of buying a product without ever visiting the store is not new. Only the method of buying has changed. This method of business has a very old name. It is called “mail order.” VOICE ONE: In eighteen-eighty-six, a young man named Richard Sears bought several watches. Mister Sears worked for the Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railroad Company. He sold the watches to other railroad workers. He soon hired a young watchmaker named Alvah Roebuck to make more watches. The Sears and Roebuck Watch Company soon settled in Chicago, Illinois. Mister Sears and Mister Roebuck knew that the majority of Americans lived on farms. They did not live close to stores where they could buy the products they needed. The Sears and Roebuck Watch Company soon began offering many other products that could be bought from their Chicago store. The Sears and Roebuck company could offer products for much less money than local stores. VOICE TWO: In eighteen-ninety-five, the Sears and Roebuck Company began printing a book that listed the products the company sold. The book had five-hundred-thirty-two pages. This kind of book is called a catalog. The Sears and Roebuck Catalog offered for sale almost every kind of equipment a farmer might need. It also offered clothing and shoes for men, women and children. It offered stoves, tables, chairs, glassware and bicycles. People could buy firearms, rings, watches, toys and many, many other products. The huge catalog had pictures of the products and told how to order and pay for the products. The Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog was really the sales computer of its day. VOICE ONE: Perhaps the most unusual product ever sold by the Sears and Roebuck Company was a house. From nineteen-oh-eight until nineteen-forty, the Sears and Roebuck Company offered several different sized houses that could be ordered through the catalog. Each house arrived at the nearest railroad station. It came with everything needed to build the house -- more than thirty-thousand parts. This included wood, paint, nails electric wire, pipes for water and a seventy-five page book. The book told how to build the house. Sears, Roebuck and Company sold more than seventy-five-thousand of these built-it-yourself homes. Other companies also sold this kind of house. Perhaps the most famous of these houses is the one in California where former President Richard Nixon was born. That house is now part of the President Richard Nixon Library at Yorba Linda, California. VOICE TWO: The Sears company still prints several different catalogs. People can read about a product in the catalog and buy it by calling Sears on the telephone. They can also link with the company on the Internet and buy the product. Shoppers can pay extra money to have the product sent to their home, or they can pick it up at one of the many Sears stores. The story of the Sears Company is not different from many other companies. Large companies like Sears and even very small companies now use the Internet as a business tool. VOICE ONE: Experts who study the business use of the Internet say people buy more items for their home than any other product. This includes tables, chairs, lights, paintings, and rugs. The experts say the Internet sales of these things have increased one-hundred-forty-six percent over last year. People ordered sixty-six percent more clothing than last year, thirty-one percent more books and twenty-five percent more electronic devices. A huge winter storm affected much of the Eastern United States at the beginning of this month. One business report said the storm might have caused even more people to buy holiday gifts using their computers. The report said it was easier for people to buy products from their nice warm homes than to travel to a store in the middle of a snow or ice storm. VOICE TWO: In nineteen-ninety-five when Amazon.com began selling books, few items were for sale on the Internet. That has changed greatly. Now you can buy almost anything you want. There are even companies that help private individuals sell items on the Internet. Recently a man in Santa Rosa, California, offered a Russian-built jet fighter warplane for sale. The plane had once belonged to the Air Force of Poland. The man said he wanted at least twenty-five-thousand dollars for the aircraft. But he said the plane needed to be repaired before it could fly. And he said it no longer had its machine guns! (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - December 19, 2002: Foreign Student Series #14 >Student Handbook
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w-dot-VOA-Special-English-dot-com. Today, we tell about a book that can provide much of the information needed by international students planning to study in the United States. It is called “The College Board International Student Handbook Two-Thousand-Three with Real Stuff CD-ROM.” It is published by the American College Entrance Examination Board. College Board officials say the book can help all international students. The book has more than three-hundred pages of information. It explains the American system of higher education. It tells how to apply for college in the United States. It explains college costs, living costs and what kinds of financial aid foreign students can get. It gives information about tests that a foreign student must take, and provides dates these tests are given. One part of the book provides information about more than two-thousand-five-hundred American colleges. This material is organized for undergraduate and graduate students. The College Board says this contains all the detailed information an international student needs. The book also includes a new CD-ROM to be used with a computer. The CD permits students to link with computer college search programs and financial aid search programs. It also provides links to preparation programs for the S-A-T college entrance test. The College Board publishes a new guide book each September, so the information is always correct. The book and CD-ROM cost about twenty-seven dollars. You can buy them by searching the College Board Internet Web site at www.collegeboard.com. Or you can write to the College Board, forty-five Columbus Avenue, New York, New York one-zero-zero-two-three, U-S-A. You may also be able to find the book and the CD-ROM for less money by searching the Web sites of companies that sell books on-line. These Web sites also list other publications that claim to provide similar information for international students. This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: December 19, 2002 - Campus Slang
* Byline: 

 Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": December 19, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- slang on campus. RS: Our friend Dianne Gray, an English teacher in Moscow, has a student who would like to know some of the slang used by students at American colleges and universities. Dianne writes, "I have not been back to the U.S. in nearly 5 years; I thought perhaps someone could give us an update about this." AA: That someone is Pam Munro. She's a linguistics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. She just completed a survey asking 300 students for current slang words used at UCLA. MUNRO: "The first one is the word 'hella,' h-e-l-l-a. It means something like 'very.'" AA: "Or 'hell of a.'" MUNRO: "But notice that when in standard language you say 'hell of a,' the thing that follows it is a noun or maybe an adjective plus a noun, so like 'he's a hell of a good guy.' But hella is used with an adjective, so like 'he's hella good.'" AA: "There's a song by No Doubt, by the group No Doubt with Gwen Stefani called 'Hella Good' -- MUNRO: "Sure. AA: "that's been getting a lot of play." MUSIC: "Hella Good"/No Doubt RS: Second on the list of top slang words at UCLA is "tight" -- not as in "close fitting," but meaning "good." MUNRO: "This is a word that is kind of amusing to me, because when you ask people for examples, they'll say things like, 'man, that shirt is tight.' It's a good example of why parents don't always understand what students mean when they're using slang. And the third one is the word 'chill.'" AA: "Used in the sense of if someone is agitated or .. " MUNRO: "It has two meanings. It can mean relax in the two senses that relax can have. So it can mean don't be so agitated or it can mean sit around doing nothing. 'Sick' is the number 4 word. 'Sick' is another positive word. 'That girl drives a sick car.' 'Your new hairdo is sick.'" RS: "Go on." AA: "So number 5." MUNRO: "Number 5 is 'cool.'" AA: "The perennial ... " MUNRO: "Right. I've been collecting slang from UCLA students since 1983 and working intensively with groups of students making little dictionaries since 1988 and all the students that I talk to about it always believe that 'cool' is absolutely current even though of course it's been around for a long time.' So the next one you might not have heard. The next one is 'a grip.'" RS: "Yes, I have." MUNRO: "So you've got a child in the right age range." RS: "Yes." AA: "As in 'get a grip.'" MUNRO: "No, no. Rosanne, what does it mean?" RS: "That's what I thought!" MUNRO: "Ha-ha-ha-ha. 'A grip' means like a lot. Here's an example. "Man, for Thanksgiving I ate a grip of food. I was so full I couldn't stand up for hours." AA: "I have never heard that." MUNRO: "We've been getting that at UCLA for I guess about six years, I would think." RS: "And number 7?" MUNRO: "I have many, many variants of this but I'm counting it as one. These are expressions that mean 'for sure.' So, the first one -- not in any particular order -- is 'fo sheezy,' then we have 'for shezy,' then we have 'forsheez,' then we have 'fo shizzle.'" AA: "Sounds like no one is quite sure how to spell that word, huh?" MUNRO: "They're not sure how to spell it, but notice that there are some different pronunciations too, so ... " RS: "What was number 8?" MUNRO: "Well, I have a tie for 8 between 'dope' which is another positive word. You know that one?" AA: "It can mean illegal drugs; in this case it means good." MUNRO: "No, it means good. I'll give you an example here: 'That movie was dope. It's worth seeing again.'" RS: "So 8B?" MUNRO: "This is a word that people spell in a number of different ways -- and, depending on how they speak English, might pronounce in different ways -- the word 'wack' or 'whack' or 'whacked' are the three spellings I have. This is a negative term. Do you know this one?" RS: "'Whacked out,' you mean like crazy? AA: "Crazy?" MUNRO: "No, that's not the sense in which they mean it. The definitions that they give are bad, boring, stupid, unfair, uncool, nerdy, crazy, strange, weird, lame, pointless, messed up and pathetic. So you saw some of those are actually slang definitions, but it gives you the idea. We had two number 8's, so we're going to skip to 10. We actually had a tie for 10. One of the two is 'sweet' -- 'dude, that new computer is sweet.'" RS: "What's tied with 'sweet'?" MUNRO: "'Shady.' Not trustworthy, unreliable, wrong, undependable, suspicious, questionable, deceitful, not nice, or evil." AA: "That's kind of standard English, though, isn't it." MUNRO: "I agree with you that 'shady' has a somewhat similar meaning in standard English, but I agree with these students that this is not -- that most of these examples are not things that you would hear in standard English. So, 'That guy just smacked his girlfriend. That's shady to do her so dirty like that.'" RS: Pam Munro is a linguistics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. We’ve posted the UCLA campus slang list on the Wordmaster Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And, if you’ve got questions about American English, you can write to us at word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- 1. hella (97 responses) 2. tight / tite / tyte (87) 3. chill / chil (34) 4. sick / sic (33) 5. cool (20) 6. a grip (19) 7. fo sheezy / for shezy / forsheez / fo shizzle / fo shizzy / for shizzle / fer shizzle / fa shigidy / fo sho (16) 8-9 (tie). dope (15) wack / whack / whacked (15) 10-11 (tie). shady (12) sweet (12) Broadcast on "Coast to Coast": December 19, 2002 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster -- slang on campus. RS: Our friend Dianne Gray, an English teacher in Moscow, has a student who would like to know some of the slang used by students at American colleges and universities. Dianne writes, "I have not been back to the U.S. in nearly 5 years; I thought perhaps someone could give us an update about this." AA: That someone is Pam Munro. She's a linguistics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. She just completed a survey asking 300 students for current slang words used at UCLA. MUNRO: "The first one is the word 'hella,' h-e-l-l-a. It means something like 'very.'" AA: "Or 'hell of a.'" MUNRO: "But notice that when in standard language you say 'hell of a,' the thing that follows it is a noun or maybe an adjective plus a noun, so like 'he's a hell of a good guy.' But hella is used with an adjective, so like 'he's hella good.'" AA: "There's a song by No Doubt, by the group No Doubt with Gwen Stefani called 'Hella Good' -- MUNRO: "Sure. AA: "that's been getting a lot of play." MUSIC: "Hella Good"/No Doubt RS: Second on the list of top slang words at UCLA is "tight" -- not as in "close fitting," but meaning "good." MUNRO: "This is a word that is kind of amusing to me, because when you ask people for examples, they'll say things like, 'man, that shirt is tight.' It's a good example of why parents don't always understand what students mean when they're using slang. And the third one is the word 'chill.'" AA: "Used in the sense of if someone is agitated or .. " MUNRO: "It has two meanings. It can mean relax in the two senses that relax can have. So it can mean don't be so agitated or it can mean sit around doing nothing. 'Sick' is the number 4 word. 'Sick' is another positive word. 'That girl drives a sick car.' 'Your new hairdo is sick.'" RS: "Go on." AA: "So number 5." MUNRO: "Number 5 is 'cool.'" AA: "The perennial ... " MUNRO: "Right. I've been collecting slang from UCLA students since 1983 and working intensively with groups of students making little dictionaries since 1988 and all the students that I talk to about it always believe that 'cool' is absolutely current even though of course it's been around for a long time.' So the next one you might not have heard. The next one is 'a grip.'" RS: "Yes, I have." MUNRO: "So you've got a child in the right age range." RS: "Yes." AA: "As in 'get a grip.'" MUNRO: "No, no. Rosanne, what does it mean?" RS: "That's what I thought!" MUNRO: "Ha-ha-ha-ha. 'A grip' means like a lot. Here's an example. "Man, for Thanksgiving I ate a grip of food. I was so full I couldn't stand up for hours." AA: "I have never heard that." MUNRO: "We've been getting that at UCLA for I guess about six years, I would think." RS: "And number 7?" MUNRO: "I have many, many variants of this but I'm counting it as one. These are expressions that mean 'for sure.' So, the first one -- not in any particular order -- is 'fo sheezy,' then we have 'for shezy,' then we have 'forsheez,' then we have 'fo shizzle.'" AA: "Sounds like no one is quite sure how to spell that word, huh?" MUNRO: "They're not sure how to spell it, but notice that there are some different pronunciations too, so ... " RS: "What was number 8?" MUNRO: "Well, I have a tie for 8 between 'dope' which is another positive word. You know that one?" AA: "It can mean illegal drugs; in this case it means good." MUNRO: "No, it means good. I'll give you an example here: 'That movie was dope. It's worth seeing again.'" RS: "So 8B?" MUNRO: "This is a word that people spell in a number of different ways -- and, depending on how they speak English, might pronounce in different ways -- the word 'wack' or 'whack' or 'whacked' are the three spellings I have. This is a negative term. Do you know this one?" RS: "'Whacked out,' you mean like crazy? AA: "Crazy?" MUNRO: "No, that's not the sense in which they mean it. The definitions that they give are bad, boring, stupid, unfair, uncool, nerdy, crazy, strange, weird, lame, pointless, messed up and pathetic. So you saw some of those are actually slang definitions, but it gives you the idea. We had two number 8's, so we're going to skip to 10. We actually had a tie for 10. One of the two is 'sweet' -- 'dude, that new computer is sweet.'" RS: "What's tied with 'sweet'?" MUNRO: "'Shady.' Not trustworthy, unreliable, wrong, undependable, suspicious, questionable, deceitful, not nice, or evil." AA: "That's kind of standard English, though, isn't it." MUNRO: "I agree with you that 'shady' has a somewhat similar meaning in standard English, but I agree with these students that this is not -- that most of these examples are not things that you would hear in standard English. So, 'That guy just smacked his girlfriend. That's shady to do her so dirty like that.'" RS: Pam Munro is a linguistics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. We’ve posted the UCLA campus slang list on the Wordmaster Web site at voanews.com/wordmaster. AA: And, if you’ve got questions about American English, you can write to us at word@voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti. --- 1. hella (97 responses) 2. tight / tite / tyte (87) 3. chill / chil (34) 4. sick / sic (33) 5. cool (20) 6. a grip (19) 7. fo sheezy / for shezy / forsheez / fo shizzle / fo shizzy / for shizzle / fer shizzle / fa shigidy / fo sho (16) 8-9 (tie). dope (15) wack / whack / whacked (15) 10-11 (tie). shady (12) sweet (12) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #224 - December 19, 2002: Ronald Reagan, part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Warren Scheer with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we continue the story of America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: Soon after Ronald Reagan's presidency began, there was an attempt on his life. A gunman shot him in March, nineteen-eighty-one. Doctors removed the bullet. He rested, regained his strength, and returned to the White House in twelve days. The new president's main goal was to reduce the size of the federal government. He and other conservative Republicans wanted less government interference in the daily lives of Americans. VOICE TWO: President Reagan won Congressional approval for his plan to reduce taxes on earnings. Many Americans welcomed the plan. Others were concerned about its affect on the national debt. They saw taxes go down while defense spending went up. To save money, the Reagan administration decided to cut spending for some social programs. This pleased conservatives. Liberals, however, said it limited poor peoples' chances for good housing, health care, and education. VOICE ONE: President Reagan also had to make decisions about using military force in other countries. In nineteen-eighty-Ttree, he sent Marines to Lebanon. They joined other peacekeeping troops to help stop fighting among several opposing groups. On October twenty-third, a Muslim extremist exploded a bomb in the building where the Marines were living. Two-hundred forty-one Americans died. VOICE TWO: Two days later, Marines led an invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Communist forces were rebelling against the government there. Cuban soldiers were guarding the streets. President Reagan said he feared for the safety of American students at Grenada's medical school. He sent the Marines to get them out safely. The Marines quickly defeated the communist forces. Many Americans were pleased. Others were angry. They said Grenada was invaded only to make people forget about what happened in Lebanon. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The next year, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, was another presidential election year. It looked like no one could stop President Reagan. His warm way with people had made him hugely popular. He gained support with the military victory in Grenada. And, by the time the campaign started, inflation was under control. The Republican Party re-nominated Ronald Reagan for president and George Bush for vice president. VOICE TWO: There were several candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination. One was the first African American to run for president, Jesse Jackson. He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. The candidate who finally won the nomination was Walter Mondale. He had been a senator and had served as vice president under President Jimmy Carter. The vice presidential candidate was Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro. It was the first time a major political party in the United States had nominated a woman for national office. VOICE ONE: One of the big issues in the campaign was taxes. Most candidates try not to talk about them. Democrat Mondale did. He said taxes would have to be raised to pay for new government programs. This was a serious political mistake. President Reagan gained even more support as a result. The two candidates agreed to debate on television. During one debate, President Reagan looked old and tired. He did not seem sure of his answers. Yet his popularity was not damaged. On Election Day, he won fifty-nine percent of the popular vote. On Inauguration Day, the weather was not so kind. It was bitterly cold in Washington. All inaugural activities, including the swearing-in ceremony, were held inside. VOICE TWO: President Reagan's first term began with an attempt on his life. Six months after his second term began, he faced another threat. Doctors discovered and removed a large growth from his colon. The growth was cancerous. The president was seventy-four years old. Yet, once again, he quickly regained his strength and returned to work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: For years, the United States had accused Libyan leader Muammar Kaddafi of supporting international terrorist groups. It said he provided them with weapons and a safe place for their headquarters. In January, Nineteen-Eighty-Six, the United States announced economic restrictions against Libya. Then it began military training exercises near the Libyan coast. Libya said the Americans were violating its territory and fired missiles at them. The Americans fired back, sinking two ships. VOICE TWO: On April Fifth, a bomb destroyed a public dance club in West Berlin. Two people died, including an American soldier. The United States said Libya was responsible. President Reagan ordered bomb attacks against the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Muammar Kaddafi escaped unharmed. But one of his children was killed. Some Americans said the raid was cruel. Others praised it. President Reagan said the United States did what it had to do. VOICE ONE: The president also wanted to intervene in Nicaragua. About fifteen-thousand rebel troops, called Contras, were fighting the communist government there. Reagan asked for military aid for the Contras. Congress rejected the request. It banned all aid to the Contras. At that same time, Muslim terrorists in Lebanon seized several Americans. The Reagan administration looked for ways to gain the hostages' release. It decided to sell missiles and missile parts to Iran in exchange for Iran's help. After the sale, Iran told the terrorists in Lebanon to release a few American hostages. VOICE TWO: Not long after, serious charges became public. Reports said that money from the sale of arms to Iran was used to aid the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Several members of the Reagan administration resigned. It appeared that some had violated the law. President Reagan said he regretted what had happened. But he said he had not known about it. Investigations and court trials of those involved continued into the Nineteen-Nineties. Several people were found guilty of illegal activities and of lying to Congress. No one went to jail. VOICE ONE: Most Americans did not blame President Reagan for the actions of others in his administration. They still supported him and his policies. They especially supported his efforts to deal with the Soviet Union. At the beginning of his first term, President Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire". To protect the United States against the Soviets, he increased military spending to the highest level in American history. Then, in Nineteen-Eighty-Five, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: The two leaders met in Switzerland, in Iceland, in Washington, and in Moscow. Each agreed to destroy hundreds of nuclear missiles. President Reagan also urged Mister Gorbachev to become more democratic. He spoke about the wall that communists had built to divide the city of Berlin, Germany. ((TAPE: Reagan about Berlin Wall: 25)) TRANSCRIPT: "No American who sees first-hand can ever again take for granted his or her freedom or the precious gift that is America. That gift of freedom is actually the birthright of all humanity. And that is why, as I stood there, I urged the Soviet leader, Mister Gorbachev, to send a new signal of openness to the world by tearing down that wall." ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was president as the American economy grew rapidly. He was president as a new sense of openness was beginning in the Soviet Union. Yet, at the end of his presidency, many Americans were concerned by what he left behind. Increased military spending, together with tax cuts, had made the national debt huge. The United States owed thousands of millions of dollars. The debt would be a political issue for presidents to come. (PAUSE) On our next program, we will discuss some social and cultural issues of the Reagan years. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Warren Scheer. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Warren Scheer with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. (THEME) Today, we continue the story of America's fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: Soon after Ronald Reagan's presidency began, there was an attempt on his life. A gunman shot him in March, nineteen-eighty-one. Doctors removed the bullet. He rested, regained his strength, and returned to the White House in twelve days. The new president's main goal was to reduce the size of the federal government. He and other conservative Republicans wanted less government interference in the daily lives of Americans. VOICE TWO: President Reagan won Congressional approval for his plan to reduce taxes on earnings. Many Americans welcomed the plan. Others were concerned about its affect on the national debt. They saw taxes go down while defense spending went up. To save money, the Reagan administration decided to cut spending for some social programs. This pleased conservatives. Liberals, however, said it limited poor peoples' chances for good housing, health care, and education. VOICE ONE: President Reagan also had to make decisions about using military force in other countries. In nineteen-eighty-Ttree, he sent Marines to Lebanon. They joined other peacekeeping troops to help stop fighting among several opposing groups. On October twenty-third, a Muslim extremist exploded a bomb in the building where the Marines were living. Two-hundred forty-one Americans died. VOICE TWO: Two days later, Marines led an invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Communist forces were rebelling against the government there. Cuban soldiers were guarding the streets. President Reagan said he feared for the safety of American students at Grenada's medical school. He sent the Marines to get them out safely. The Marines quickly defeated the communist forces. Many Americans were pleased. Others were angry. They said Grenada was invaded only to make people forget about what happened in Lebanon. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The next year, Nineteen-Eighty-Four, was another presidential election year. It looked like no one could stop President Reagan. His warm way with people had made him hugely popular. He gained support with the military victory in Grenada. And, by the time the campaign started, inflation was under control. The Republican Party re-nominated Ronald Reagan for president and George Bush for vice president. VOICE TWO: There were several candidates for the Democratic Party's nomination. One was the first African American to run for president, Jesse Jackson. He was a Protestant clergyman and a long-time human rights activist. The candidate who finally won the nomination was Walter Mondale. He had been a senator and had served as vice president under President Jimmy Carter. The vice presidential candidate was Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro. It was the first time a major political party in the United States had nominated a woman for national office. VOICE ONE: One of the big issues in the campaign was taxes. Most candidates try not to talk about them. Democrat Mondale did. He said taxes would have to be raised to pay for new government programs. This was a serious political mistake. President Reagan gained even more support as a result. The two candidates agreed to debate on television. During one debate, President Reagan looked old and tired. He did not seem sure of his answers. Yet his popularity was not damaged. On Election Day, he won fifty-nine percent of the popular vote. On Inauguration Day, the weather was not so kind. It was bitterly cold in Washington. All inaugural activities, including the swearing-in ceremony, were held inside. VOICE TWO: President Reagan's first term began with an attempt on his life. Six months after his second term began, he faced another threat. Doctors discovered and removed a large growth from his colon. The growth was cancerous. The president was seventy-four years old. Yet, once again, he quickly regained his strength and returned to work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: For years, the United States had accused Libyan leader Muammar Kaddafi of supporting international terrorist groups. It said he provided them with weapons and a safe place for their headquarters. In January, Nineteen-Eighty-Six, the United States announced economic restrictions against Libya. Then it began military training exercises near the Libyan coast. Libya said the Americans were violating its territory and fired missiles at them. The Americans fired back, sinking two ships. VOICE TWO: On April Fifth, a bomb destroyed a public dance club in West Berlin. Two people died, including an American soldier. The United States said Libya was responsible. President Reagan ordered bomb attacks against the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi. Muammar Kaddafi escaped unharmed. But one of his children was killed. Some Americans said the raid was cruel. Others praised it. President Reagan said the United States did what it had to do. VOICE ONE: The president also wanted to intervene in Nicaragua. About fifteen-thousand rebel troops, called Contras, were fighting the communist government there. Reagan asked for military aid for the Contras. Congress rejected the request. It banned all aid to the Contras. At that same time, Muslim terrorists in Lebanon seized several Americans. The Reagan administration looked for ways to gain the hostages' release. It decided to sell missiles and missile parts to Iran in exchange for Iran's help. After the sale, Iran told the terrorists in Lebanon to release a few American hostages. VOICE TWO: Not long after, serious charges became public. Reports said that money from the sale of arms to Iran was used to aid the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Several members of the Reagan administration resigned. It appeared that some had violated the law. President Reagan said he regretted what had happened. But he said he had not known about it. Investigations and court trials of those involved continued into the Nineteen-Nineties. Several people were found guilty of illegal activities and of lying to Congress. No one went to jail. VOICE ONE: Most Americans did not blame President Reagan for the actions of others in his administration. They still supported him and his policies. They especially supported his efforts to deal with the Soviet Union. At the beginning of his first term, President Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil empire". To protect the United States against the Soviets, he increased military spending to the highest level in American history. Then, in Nineteen-Eighty-Five, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: The two leaders met in Switzerland, in Iceland, in Washington, and in Moscow. Each agreed to destroy hundreds of nuclear missiles. President Reagan also urged Mister Gorbachev to become more democratic. He spoke about the wall that communists had built to divide the city of Berlin, Germany. ((TAPE: Reagan about Berlin Wall: 25)) TRANSCRIPT: "No American who sees first-hand can ever again take for granted his or her freedom or the precious gift that is America. That gift of freedom is actually the birthright of all humanity. And that is why, as I stood there, I urged the Soviet leader, Mister Gorbachev, to send a new signal of openness to the world by tearing down that wall." ((MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Ronald Reagan was president as the American economy grew rapidly. He was president as a new sense of openness was beginning in the Soviet Union. Yet, at the end of his presidency, many Americans were concerned by what he left behind. Increased military spending, together with tax cuts, had made the national debt huge. The United States owed thousands of millions of dollars. The debt would be a political issue for presidents to come. (PAUSE) On our next program, we will discuss some social and cultural issues of the Reagan years. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Warren Scheer. VOICE ONE: And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT– Wildfires Blamed For Climate
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 20, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. A new study has found that major forest fires can influence climate changes. The study showed that some wildfires release large amounts of carbon dioxide gas. Many scientists have blamed carbon dioxide and industrial gases for rising temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere. A team led by Susan Page of the University of Leicester in Britain organized the new study. Her team says large amounts of carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere after the huge forest fires in Indonesia in nineteen-ninety-seven. The study says the forest fires were a major cause of the biggest increase in carbon dioxide levels since record-keeping began in nineteen-fifty-seven. The fires destroyed almost one-million hectares of forest land. The fires produced thick smoke across much of Southeast Asia. Farmers and developers in parts of Indonesia often start fires to clear land for development. Reports say the fires in Indonesia were made worse by drier than normal weather. Mizz Page’s team studied satellite images of a two-million-five-hundred-thousand hectare area of Borneo island. The images were taken before and after the fires to study their effects. Her team found that thirty-two percent of the land area had burned. Most of the affected land was made of peat, which is the remains of plants on the bottom of the forest. The study found that the peat burned to a level of almost one-meter deep in some areas. The scientists say the fires released as much as two-thousand-million tons of carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere. They say that is equal to as much as forty percent of the carbon dioxide released by burning coal, oil and natural gas each year around the world. The scientists warned that the continued use of fires to clear land would lead to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere unless policies are changed. The British publication Nature described the study. A separate study by an Australian research team in the publication Global Biogeochemical Cycles confirmed the findings. Scientists with the United States National Center for Atmospheric Research wrote a commentary published with the Nature study. They said serious events affecting small areas can have a major effect on the release of carbon dioxide in the world. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Teddy Bears / Celebrating Christmas / Christmas music from Brooks and Dunn
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 20, 2002 (THEME) Broadcast: December 20, 2002 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas program today, we play some Christmas music by Brooks and Dunn...we answer a listener’s question about how Americans celebrate Christmas … and, report about the one-hundredth anniversary of a popular American toy. Teddy Bear Anniversary HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas program today, we play some Christmas music by Brooks and Dunn...we answer a listener’s question about how Americans celebrate Christmas … and, report about the one-hundredth anniversary of a popular American toy. Teddy Bear Anniversary Americans give and receive many gifts during the holiday season. One gift for children has remained popular for many years. It is the teddy bear. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: The American-made teddy bear celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary last month. In November, nineteen-oh-two, President Theodore Roosevelt made news when he refused to shoot a young bear while on a hunting trip. A cartoon of the incident appeared in newspapers. Morris and Rose Michtom of New York City saw the report and made a small bear from a piece of cloth. They called it Teddy’s Bear and put it in the window of their store. Soon, the huge public demand for the bears helped their store expand into the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. At the same time, the Steiff toy company in Germany was making toy bears for sale. The company also called them Teddy’s bears. An American toy company official saw the bears in Leipzig in nineteen-oh-three and ordered several thousand to sell in the United States. Soon, the popularity of these bears spread around the world, and the toys became known as teddy bears. And they have been popular ever since. Some experts say the teddy bear is the most popular toy ever produced. Mental health experts say teddy bears represent good things about people. Children love to play with them and even talk to them. These experts say that teddy bears can help children who have been hurt or scared. Some American police departments keep teddy bears in their police cars. Officers give them to children who have suffered in accidents or fires. Brooks & Dunn Americans give and receive many gifts during the holiday season. One gift for children has remained popular for many years. It is the teddy bear. Shep O’Neal explains. ANNCR: The American-made teddy bear celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary last month. In November, nineteen-oh-two, President Theodore Roosevelt made news when he refused to shoot a young bear while on a hunting trip. A cartoon of the incident appeared in newspapers. Morris and Rose Michtom of New York City saw the report and made a small bear from a piece of cloth. They called it Teddy’s Bear and put it in the window of their store. Soon, the huge public demand for the bears helped their store expand into the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. At the same time, the Steiff toy company in Germany was making toy bears for sale. The company also called them Teddy’s bears. An American toy company official saw the bears in Leipzig in nineteen-oh-three and ordered several thousand to sell in the United States. Soon, the popularity of these bears spread around the world, and the toys became known as teddy bears. And they have been popular ever since. Some experts say the teddy bear is the most popular toy ever produced. Mental health experts say teddy bears represent good things about people. Children love to play with them and even talk to them. These experts say that teddy bears can help children who have been hurt or scared. Some American police departments keep teddy bears in their police cars. Officers give them to children who have suffered in accidents or fires. One American group sends teddy bears to needy children around the world. Operation Teddy Care was started in nineteen-ninety-five by Barbara Moran and her husband Bob Baker. They asked people in their city, San Francisco, California, to give bears to send to the children in Kobe, Japan after the huge earthquake there. A local newspaper and radio station did stories about their appeal. Operation Teddy Care sent ten-thousand bears to Japan. The group has also sent teddy bears to children in areas of conflict in Europe. Teddy bears are not only popular with children. Adults love them too. Some people collect them and will pay a lot of money for them. What is the most money ever spent on a teddy bear? In nineteen-ninety-four, someone paid one-hundred-eighty-thousand dollars for a historic bear produced by the Steiff company in nineteen-oh-six. Celebrating Christmas HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. Amarkuu Ayulguisaikhan asks how Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is December twenty-fifth. But Americans who celebrate the holiday begin preparing long before that. They buy gifts for their families and friends. Many make their homes look special for Christmas. They put colorful lights in the windows and on the outside of their houses. They put branches from evergreen trees on the doors and tables. Almost every home where Americans celebrate Christmas has one important decoration — a Christmas tree. Some people cut down an evergreen tree themselves. Others buy one already cut. They put the tree inside the house. Then they cover it with lights and small objects made of glass, metal, paper or wood. Tradition says that a kind old man called Santa Claus travels to every house on the night before Christmas. He leaves gifts of toys and clothing for the children. Family members leave gifts covered with pretty paper for each other under the tree. Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. They may go to church or visit friends and other family members. They may eat a special holiday meal. Or they may take part in holiday activities for sick or homeless people. Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. Americans of other religions generally do not celebrate Christmas. However, many send holiday cards or gifts to their Christian friends. Some Americans do not observe Christmas as a religious holiday, but they decorate their homes with lights and a tree. Whatever Americans do at this time of the year, they usually wish each other “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays”. (MUSIC) Brooks and Dunn Christmas Album HOST: Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are the members of one of the most popular country music groups performing today. Brooks and Dunn have sold more than twenty-million record albums and have had at least eighteen hit records. This year, the group released a special album of Christmas music. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: The new Brooks and Dunn Christmas album is called “It Won’t Be Christmas Without You.” It includes eleven songs about the winter holiday. One example is this famous song, “White Christmas.” (MUSIC) Brooks and Dunn include some new holiday songs on their album. One of these is sung by Kix Brooks, “Santa’s Coming Over to Your House.” (MUSIC) Most of the songs on the new Brooks and Dunn Christmas album are traditional. We leave you now as Ronnie Dunn sings one of these songs. Some people know it as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.” Others call it “The Christmas Song.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Christmas program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. One American group sends teddy bears to needy children around the world. Operation Teddy Care was started in nineteen-ninety-five by Barbara Moran and her husband Bob Baker. They asked people in their city, San Francisco, California, to give bears to send to the children in Kobe, Japan after the huge earthquake there. A local newspaper and radio station did stories about their appeal. Operation Teddy Care sent ten-thousand bears to Japan. The group has also sent teddy bears to children in areas of conflict in Europe. Teddy bears are not only popular with children. Adults love them too. Some people collect them and will pay a lot of money for them. What is the most money ever spent on a teddy bear? In nineteen-ninety-four, someone paid one-hundred-eighty-thousand dollars for a historic bear produced by the Steiff company in nineteen-oh-six. Celebrating Christmas HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Mongolia. Amarkuu Ayulguisaikhan asks how Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is December twenty-fifth. But Americans who celebrate the holiday begin preparing long before that. They buy gifts for their families and friends. Many make their homes look special for Christmas. They put colorful lights in the windows and on the outside of their houses. They put branches from evergreen trees on the doors and tables. Almost every home where Americans celebrate Christmas has one important decoration — a Christmas tree. Some people cut down an evergreen tree themselves. Others buy one already cut. They put the tree inside the house. Then they cover it with lights and small objects made of glass, metal, paper or wood. Tradition says that a kind old man called Santa Claus travels to every house on the night before Christmas. He leaves gifts of toys and clothing for the children. Family members leave gifts covered with pretty paper for each other under the tree. Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. They may go to church or visit friends and other family members. They may eat a special holiday meal. Or they may take part in holiday activities for sick or homeless people. Christians celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus. Americans of other religions generally do not celebrate Christmas. However, many send holiday cards or gifts to their Christian friends. Some Americans do not observe Christmas as a religious holiday, but they decorate their homes with lights and a tree. Whatever Americans do at this time of the year, they usually wish each other “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays”. (MUSIC) Brooks and Dunn Christmas Album HOST: Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are the members of one of the most popular country music groups performing today. Brooks and Dunn have sold more than twenty-million record albums and have had at least eighteen hit records. This year, the group released a special album of Christmas music. Mary Tillotson has more. ANNCR: The new Brooks and Dunn Christmas album is called “It Won’t Be Christmas Without You.” It includes eleven songs about the winter holiday. One example is this famous song, “White Christmas.” (MUSIC) Brooks and Dunn include some new holiday songs on their album. One of these is sung by Kix Brooks, “Santa’s Coming Over to Your House.” (MUSIC) Most of the songs on the new Brooks and Dunn Christmas album are traditional. We leave you now as Ronnie Dunn sings one of these songs. Some people know it as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.” Others call it “The Christmas Song.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our special Christmas program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - European Union Expansion
* Byline: 

 BROADCAST: December 21, 2002 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The European Union has officially asked ten countries to join the organization in Two-Thousand-Four. The leaders of the fifteen current E-U member countries approved the invitations at a meeting in Copenhagen last week. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen led the meeting. He called the decision, a victory for liberty and democracy. He also said that, a new Europe is born. Eight of the invited countries are in Eastern Europe. Until nineteen-ninety-one, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania were part of the Soviet Union. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia all had Communist governments. The E-U also offered membership to Malta and the Greek-ruled part of Cyprus. The planned expansion would be the largest in the E-U’s history. It would create a community of more than four-hundred-fifty million people in twenty-five countries. The expansion also would create an economy of more than nine-million-million dollars. Such an economy would be close to that of the United States. Intense negotiations took place at the Copenhagen meeting about the financial terms under which new members will join. Candidates for E-U membership had demanded more aid. Most of them are poorer than the average country in Western Europe. They also have shorter histories as democracies and had problems with dishonest governments. Many people in the invited countries did not fully support efforts to join the E-U. Poland is the largest of the ten candidate countries. It had threatened to sabotage the expansion plans if it did not receive more aid. The agreement calls for the E-U to provide more than forty-thousand-million dollars in aid to the new members. The expansion is planned for May, Two-Thousand-Four. But first, citizens in each candidate country must approve E-U membership in a series of votes expected next year. E-U members had hoped that a United Nations-negotiated agreement to end the division of Cyprus would be signed during the Copenhagen meeting. Cyprus has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since nineteen-seventy-four. The E-U offered membership to the southern, Greek side of Cyprus. The Turkish north could enter later if it agrees on terms to end the island’s division. Now, only the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government will receive E-U membership. In another development, Turkey accepted an E-U decision to delay considering its membership until December, Two-Thousand-Four, at the earliest. E-U leaders said Turkey must make the political and human rights reforms necessary to begin talks about membership. The United States supports Turkey’s efforts to join the E-U. The Bush administration has been attempting to win Turkish support for possible military action against Iraq. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. BROADCAST: December 21, 2002 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The European Union has officially asked ten countries to join the organization in Two-Thousand-Four. The leaders of the fifteen current E-U member countries approved the invitations at a meeting in Copenhagen last week. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen led the meeting. He called the decision, a victory for liberty and democracy. He also said that, a new Europe is born. Eight of the invited countries are in Eastern Europe. Until nineteen-ninety-one, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania were part of the Soviet Union. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia all had Communist governments. The E-U also offered membership to Malta and the Greek-ruled part of Cyprus. The planned expansion would be the largest in the E-U’s history. It would create a community of more than four-hundred-fifty million people in twenty-five countries. The expansion also would create an economy of more than nine-million-million dollars. Such an economy would be close to that of the United States. Intense negotiations took place at the Copenhagen meeting about the financial terms under which new members will join. Candidates for E-U membership had demanded more aid. Most of them are poorer than the average country in Western Europe. They also have shorter histories as democracies and had problems with dishonest governments. Many people in the invited countries did not fully support efforts to join the E-U. Poland is the largest of the ten candidate countries. It had threatened to sabotage the expansion plans if it did not receive more aid. The agreement calls for the E-U to provide more than forty-thousand-million dollars in aid to the new members. The expansion is planned for May, Two-Thousand-Four. But first, citizens in each candidate country must approve E-U membership in a series of votes expected next year. E-U members had hoped that a United Nations-negotiated agreement to end the division of Cyprus would be signed during the Copenhagen meeting. Cyprus has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since nineteen-seventy-four. The E-U offered membership to the southern, Greek side of Cyprus. The Turkish north could enter later if it agrees on terms to end the island’s division. Now, only the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government will receive E-U membership. In another development, Turkey accepted an E-U decision to delay considering its membership until December, Two-Thousand-Four, at the earliest. E-U leaders said Turkey must make the political and human rights reforms necessary to begin talks about membership. The United States supports Turkey’s efforts to join the E-U. The Bush administration has been attempting to win Turkish support for possible military action against Iraq. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Hank Williams
* Byline: 

 BROADCAST: December 21, 2002 (THEME) VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams. ((TAPE CUT One: Hank Williams' demo record)) VOICE TWO: That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death. VOICE ONE: Hank Williams was born in Nineteen Twenty-Three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy. The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life. VOICE TWO: By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys." For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but was unknown nationally. Then, in Nineteen Forty-Nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues." ((TAPE CUT Two: "Lovesick Blues")) Hank WIlliams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the 'Grand Ol Opry' house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star. VOICE ONE: Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular styles. Either way, the songs will always be his. Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best. When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself. ((TAPE CUT Three: "Your Cheatin' Heart")) "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early Nineteen-Fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music. VOICE TWO: Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question. Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask, 'Why can't we make this marriage work?' Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too. ((TAPE CUT Three: "Cold Cold Heart")) VOICE ONE: Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have the emotional strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life. Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems. Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness. ((TAPE CUT Four: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry")) VOICE TWO: When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music. Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times. Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, Nineteen-Fifty-Three. He was twenty-nine years old. ((TAPE CUT Five: "Your Cheatin' Heart"/Count Basie & orchestra)) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson. BROADCAST: December 21, 2002 (THEME) VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams. ((TAPE CUT One: Hank Williams' demo record)) VOICE TWO: That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death. VOICE ONE: Hank Williams was born in Nineteen Twenty-Three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy. The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life. VOICE TWO: By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys." For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but was unknown nationally. Then, in Nineteen Forty-Nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues." ((TAPE CUT Two: "Lovesick Blues")) Hank WIlliams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the 'Grand Ol Opry' house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star. VOICE ONE: Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular styles. Either way, the songs will always be his. Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best. When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself. ((TAPE CUT Three: "Your Cheatin' Heart")) "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early Nineteen-Fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music. VOICE TWO: Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question. Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask, 'Why can't we make this marriage work?' Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too. ((TAPE CUT Three: "Cold Cold Heart")) VOICE ONE: Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have the emotional strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life. Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems. Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness. ((TAPE CUT Four: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry")) VOICE TWO: When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music. Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times. Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, Nineteen-Fifty-Three. He was twenty-nine years old. ((TAPE CUT Five: "Your Cheatin' Heart"/Count Basie & orchestra)) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA  - December 12, 2002: Christmas Traditions and Music
* Byline: 

 (THEME) ANNCR: (THEME) ANNCR: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely-celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December Twenty-Fifth. It is the most widely-celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (MUSIC: "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. (MUSIC: "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year") VOICE TWO: Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: (MUSIC: "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year") VOICE TWO: Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas -- he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC: "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. (MUSIC: "I'll Be Home for Christmas") VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas -- he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. (MUSIC: "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. (MUSIC: "I'll Be Home for Christmas") VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 23, 2002: Heifer International
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. One of the biggest problems in developing countries is hunger. An organization called Heifer International is working to improve this situation. The organization sends needed farm animals to families and communities around the world. An American farmer, Dan West, developed the idea for Heifer International in the nineteen-thirties. Mister West was working in Spain where he discovered a need for cows. Many families were starving because of a civil war in that country. So Mister West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The first Heifer animals were sent in nineteen-forty-four. Since that time, more than four-million people in one-hundred-fifteen countries have had better lives because of Heifer animals. The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves and become self-supporting. It provides more than twenty kinds of animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs and cows. Last year, Heifer International helped more than thirty-thousand families in forty-six countries. To receive a Heifer animal, groups must first explain their needs and goals. They must also make a plan which will allow them to become self-supporting. Local experts usually provide training. The organization says that animals must have food, water, shelter, health care, and the ability to reproduce. Without them, the animals will not remain healthy and productive. Heifer International also believes that groups must pass on some of their success to others in need. This belief guarantees that each person who takes part in the program also becomes a giver. Every family that receives a Heifer animal must agree to give that animal’s first female baby to other people in need. Families must also agree to pass on the skills and training they received from Heifer International. This concept of “passing on the gift” helps communities become self-supporting. You can learn more about Heifer International and how to request an animal. You can write to the organization at Heifer International, Post Office Box eight-zero-five-eight, Little Rock, Arkansas, seven-two-two-zero-three, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet web site at w-w-w dot h-e-i-f-e-r dot o-r-g.(www.heifer.org) This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: CHRISTMAS EVE FEATURE – December 24. 2002: Messiah Sing-Along
* Byline: 

 Now, a VOA Special English program for the Christmas holiday. Each December, thousands of Americans take part in a traditional musical event called the “Messiah Sing-Along.” In seventeen-forty-one, German composer George Frideric Handel started writing an oratorio or musical drama called “Messiah.” The music contains words from the Bible, the Christian holy book. The words tell of the coming birth of Jesus of Nazareth. They praise his life and tell of his death and return to life. Many professional musicians have performed and recorded “Messiah.” Every year, thousands of untrained singers from the public also perform this beautiful music. These people take part in a “Messiah Sing-Along” in churches or theaters. For example, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D-C holds this event each year before Christmas. Listen now as the Tallis Chamber Choir shows why so many people want to sing “Messiah.” (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: CHRISTMAS DAY FEATURE – December 25, 2002: Christmas Trees
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, a VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH program for the Christmas holiday. Some Christmas traditions involve trees or plants. One of the most popular is the evergreen tree. Shirley Griffith tells us how the evergreen developed into the modern Christmas Tree. VOICE: Many Americans buy an evergreen tree for Christmas. They put the tree in their home and hang small lights and colorful objects on it. The evergreen is usually a pine or a fir tree. It remains green during the cold, dark months of winter in the northern part of the world. So, it is a sign of everlasting life. The use of evergreens during winter holiday celebrations started in ancient times. Early Romans, for example, probably included evergreens with other plants during a celebration in honor of their god of agriculture. The Christmas tree may have developed in part from a popular play performed hundreds of years ago in what is now Germany. Traditionally, the play was held on December twenty-fourth, the day before Christmas. The play was about the first people that God created -- Adam and Eve. People put apples on an evergreen to represent the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. By the year Sixteen-Hundred, some Germans began bringing evergreen trees into their homes. They put fruit, nuts and sweets on the trees. They shared the food among family members and friends after the holiday season. Some people say the German religious reformer Martin Luther was the first person to add lighted candles to a tree. They say he did this to show how wonderful the stars had appeared to him as he traveled one night. In the early Eighteen-Hundreds, German settlers in the state of Pennsylvania were the first to celebrate the holiday with Christmas trees in the United States. The Christmas tree tradition spread to many parts of the world. Today, some form of Christmas tree is part of most Christmas celebrations. Some people put a star on top of their Christmas tree. It represents the star that led the three wise men to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. This is Shirley Griffith wishing you a joyous holiday season. (MUSIC: "O Tannenbaum") 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: CHRISTMAS DAY PROGRAM – Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 25, 2002 ANNCR: I’m Shirley Griffith with a VOA Special English program for the Christmas holiday. Christians around the world are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In the United States, people are observing the Christmas holiday in homes and religious centers. Music has always been an important part of Christmas. Holiday music fills the air. Today, we will hear a program of Christmas music performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (MUSIC) ANNCR: That was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with “Joy To the World.” The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is one of the largest singing groups in the world. It has more than three-hundred-singers. (MUSIC: “Carol of the Bells”) The members of the choir offer their time and skills without payment. All choir members are Mormons who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many Christmas songs sound most beautiful when sung by a large group. Here is the choir performing a Ukrainian song, “Carol of the Bells.” (MUSIC) ANNCR: “Silent Night” is perhaps the best known of all Christmas songs. An Austrian clergyman named Joseph Mohr wrote the words. His friend Franz Gruber wrote the music. The song was performed for the first time at a religious service on the night before Christmas in Eighteen-Eighteen. At that time, it was performed with a single musical instrument -- a guitar. Here are the men of the Tabernacle Choir with “Silent Night.” (MUSIC) The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is based at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. The choir made its first recording in Nineteen-Ten. Since then, it has made more than one-hundred-fifty recordings. One recording of holiday music is called “A Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas.” You are listening to music from that recording. (MUSIC: “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”) ANNCR: This is Shirley Griffith. We hope you enjoyed our program of Christmas music. This program was written and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Greg Burns. All of us in Special English wish you a very happy holiday season. (MUSIC: “Peal Bells”) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EDUCATION REPORT - Foreign Student Series #15 >Institute of International Education Report
* Byline: 

 Broadcast December 26, 2002 This is the VOA Special English Education Report. We continue our series of reports about how foreign students can study at an American college or university. This information also can be found on the Special English Web page at w-w-w dot voaspecialenglish dot com. Every year, the Institute of International Education publishes a report about foreign students who are studying in the United States. The report this year is called “Open Doors, Two-Thousand-Two.” The report gives information about the school year that began in September of last year and ended in May of this year. It says more than five-hundred-eighty-thousand international students attended American colleges and universities during that time. This was the largest number of international students ever. The University of Southern California at Los Angeles reported the largest number of foreign students. More than five-thousand-nine-hundred foreign students attended U-S-C last year. New York University had the second largest number of students, about five-thousand-five-hundred. The report says the state of California had the most foreign students, with about seventy-eight-thousand living there last year. New York state was next, with about sixty-two-thousand foreign students. Texas was third, with more than forty-four-thousand students. India sent the most foreign students to the United States last year. More than sixty-six-thousand students from India attended American schools. China sent the next highest number of students, more than sixty-three-thousand. South Korea was third, with forty-nine-thousand students. Japan was fourth, with more than forty-six-thousand students. The report says the most popular subjects of study for international students in the United States last year were business and management. Twenty percent of all foreign students were studying those subjects. Fifteen percent studied engineering. Thirteen percent studied mathematics and computer science. The report contains much more information than we have time to provide here. You can get details by using a computer to go to the Institute of International Education Web site. That address is w-w-w dot i-i-e dot o-r-g. (www.iie.org) This V-O-A Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - The 1970's & 1980's
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 26, 2002 VOICE ONE: Broadcast: December 26, 2002 VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell the story about some social and cultural issues of Nineteen-Seventies and Nineteen-Eighties. VOICE ONE: This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. Today, we tell the story about some social and cultural issues of Nineteen-Seventies and Nineteen-Eighties. VOICE ONE: An economics professor from the United States was teaching in Britain in the early Nineteen-Eighties. One of his students asked this question: "What is most important to Americans these days?" He said: "Earning money." Clearly, his answer was far too simple. Still, many observers would agree that great numbers of Americans in the Nineteen-Eighties were concerned with money. These people wanted the good life that they believed money could buy. VOICE TWO: In some ways, the Nineteen-Eighties were the opposite of the Nineteen-Sixties. The Nineteen-Sixties were years of protest and reform. Young Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War. African Americans demonstrated for civil rights. Women demonstrated for equal treatment. For many, society's hero was the person who helped others. For many in the Nineteen-Eighties, society's hero was the person who helped himself. Success seemed to be measured only by how much money a person made. VOICE ONE: The period of change came during the Nineteen-Seventies. For a while, these years remained tied to the social experiments and struggles of the Nineteen-Sixties. Then they showed signs of what American would be like in the Nineteen-Eighties. There were a number of reasons for the change. One reason was that the United States ended its military involvement in Vietnam. Another was that the civil rights movement and women's movements reached many of their goals. A third reason was the economy. During the Nineteen-Seventies, the United States suffered an economic recession. Interest rates and inflation were high. There was a shortage of imported oil. VOICE TWO: As the Nineteen-Seventies moved toward the Nineteen-Eighties,Americans became tired of social struggle. They became tired of losing money. They had been working together for common interests. Now, many wanted to spend more time on their own personal interests. This change appeared in many parts of American society. It affected popular culture, education, and politics. VOICE ONE: For example, one of the most popular television programs of that time was about serious social issues. It was called "All in the Family". It was about a factory worker who hates black people and opposes equal rights for women. His family slowly helps him to accept and value different kinds of people. Other television programs, however, were beginning to present an escape from serious issues. These included "Happy Days" and "Three's Company." Music showed the change, too. In the Nineteen-Sixties, folk music was very popular. Many folk songs were about social problems. In the Nineteen-Seventies, groups played hard rock and punk music, instead. VOICE TWO: Self-help books were another sign that Americans were becoming more concerned about their own lives. These books described ways to make people happier with themselves. One of the most popular was called I'm Okay, You're Okay. It was published in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. It led the way for many similar books throughout the Nineteen-Seventies. VOICE ONE: The Nineteen-Seventies also saw a change in education. In the Nineteen-Sixties, many young people expressed little interest in continuing their education after four years of study in college. They were busy working for social reforms. Many believed that more education only created unequal classes of people. By the middle Nineteen-Seventies, however, more young people decided it was acceptable to make a lot of money. Higher education was a way to get the skills to do this. Law schools and medical schools soon had long lists of students waiting to get in. VOICE TWO: Politically, the United States went through several changes during the Nineteen-Seventies. Theere were liberal Democratic administrations for most of the Nineteen-Sixties. Then a conservative Republican, Richard Nixon, was elected. During his second term, President Nixon was forced to resign because of the Watergate case. Vice President Gerald Ford became president after Nixon's resignation. About two years later, he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter. The election showed that Americans were angry with the Republican Party because of the Watergate case. But they soon became unhappy with President Carter, too. They blamed him for failing to improve the economy. He lost his campaign for re-election to conservative Republican Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: The Nineteen-Eighties were called the Reagan years, because he was president for eight of them. During his first term, the recession ended. Inflation was controlled. He reduced taxes. Americans felt hopeful that they could make money again. Observers created several expressions to describe some groups of people at that time. One expression was "the 'me' generation". This described Americans who were only concerned about themselves. Another expression was "yuppie". It meant "young urban professional". Both these groups seemed as if they lived just to make and spend money, money, and more money. Entertainment in the Nineteen-Eighties showed the interest society placed on financial success. The characters in a number of television programs, for example, lived in costly homes, wore costly clothes, and drove costly automobiles. They were not at all like average Americans. They lived lives that required huge amounts of money. Two of these television programs became extremely popular in the United States and in other countries. They were called "Dallas" and "Dynasty". VOICE TWO: At the movie theater, a very popular film was called "Wall Street". It was about a young, wealthy, dishonest -- powerful -- man who traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Power was a popular program idea in action films, too. The most successful action films were about a man called "Rambo". Rambo was impossibly heroic. Naturally, he always won. The films showed good winning over evil. But Rambo rejected established rules and was extremely violent. Another form of entertainment became popular in the Nineteen-Eighties. It was the television talk show. People appeared on these shows mostly to talk about themselves: their politics, their families, their sexual relations. They talked in public about things that were once considered private. Much of the popular music of the time also showed this new openness. Heavy metal rock groups sang about sex and drugs. And then there was the new form of music called "rap". In this form,words are spoken, not sung, over a heavy beat. Many Americans found all these kinds of music to be too shocking, too violent,too lawless, and too damaging to the human spirit. VOICE ONE: People may have talked and sung openly about sex and drugs in the Nineteen-Eighties. But as the years went by, many became increasingly careful about their own activities. This was because sex and drugs became deadly. A new disease appeared at that time. It was called AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The disease spread in several ways. One was through sexual relations. Another was through sharing the needles used to take illegal drugs. VOICE TWO: A big change in American life during the Nineteen-Eighties came as a result of the computer. Computers were invented forty years earlier. They were large machines and were used only at universities, big companies, and in the military. By the Nineteen-Eighties, computers had become much smaller.Anyone could learn how to use them, even children. Millions of Americans soon had a 'personal' computer in their home. They could use it to read newspaper stories, buy things, do schoolwork, and play games. Such technological improvement -- and a bright economy -- filled Americans of the early and middle Nineteen-Eighties with hope. Many felt there were almost no limits on the good life they could lead. VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. An economics professor from the United States was teaching in Britain in the early Nineteen-Eighties. One of his students asked this question: "What is most important to Americans these days?" He said: "Earning money." Clearly, his answer was far too simple. Still, many observers would agree that great numbers of Americans in the Nineteen-Eighties were concerned with money. These people wanted the good life that they believed money could buy. VOICE TWO: In some ways, the Nineteen-Eighties were the opposite of the Nineteen-Sixties. The Nineteen-Sixties were years of protest and reform. Young Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War. African Americans demonstrated for civil rights. Women demonstrated for equal treatment. For many, society's hero was the person who helped others. For many in the Nineteen-Eighties, society's hero was the person who helped himself. Success seemed to be measured only by how much money a person made. VOICE ONE: The period of change came during the Nineteen-Seventies. For a while, these years remained tied to the social experiments and struggles of the Nineteen-Sixties. Then they showed signs of what American would be like in the Nineteen-Eighties. There were a number of reasons for the change. One reason was that the United States ended its military involvement in Vietnam. Another was that the civil rights movement and women's movements reached many of their goals. A third reason was the economy. During the Nineteen-Seventies, the United States suffered an economic recession. Interest rates and inflation were high. There was a shortage of imported oil. VOICE TWO: As the Nineteen-Seventies moved toward the Nineteen-Eighties,Americans became tired of social struggle. They became tired of losing money. They had been working together for common interests. Now, many wanted to spend more time on their own personal interests. This change appeared in many parts of American society. It affected popular culture, education, and politics. VOICE ONE: For example, one of the most popular television programs of that time was about serious social issues. It was called "All in the Family". It was about a factory worker who hates black people and opposes equal rights for women. His family slowly helps him to accept and value different kinds of people. Other television programs, however, were beginning to present an escape from serious issues. These included "Happy Days" and "Three's Company." Music showed the change, too. In the Nineteen-Sixties, folk music was very popular. Many folk songs were about social problems. In the Nineteen-Seventies, groups played hard rock and punk music, instead. VOICE TWO: Self-help books were another sign that Americans were becoming more concerned about their own lives. These books described ways to make people happier with themselves. One of the most popular was called I'm Okay, You're Okay. It was published in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. It led the way for many similar books throughout the Nineteen-Seventies. VOICE ONE: The Nineteen-Seventies also saw a change in education. In the Nineteen-Sixties, many young people expressed little interest in continuing their education after four years of study in college. They were busy working for social reforms. Many believed that more education only created unequal classes of people. By the middle Nineteen-Seventies, however, more young people decided it was acceptable to make a lot of money. Higher education was a way to get the skills to do this. Law schools and medical schools soon had long lists of students waiting to get in. VOICE TWO: Politically, the United States went through several changes during the Nineteen-Seventies. Theere were liberal Democratic administrations for most of the Nineteen-Sixties. Then a conservative Republican, Richard Nixon, was elected. During his second term, President Nixon was forced to resign because of the Watergate case. Vice President Gerald Ford became president after Nixon's resignation. About two years later, he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter. The election showed that Americans were angry with the Republican Party because of the Watergate case. But they soon became unhappy with President Carter, too. They blamed him for failing to improve the economy. He lost his campaign for re-election to conservative Republican Ronald Reagan. VOICE ONE: The Nineteen-Eighties were called the Reagan years, because he was president for eight of them. During his first term, the recession ended. Inflation was controlled. He reduced taxes. Americans felt hopeful that they could make money again. Observers created several expressions to describe some groups of people at that time. One expression was "the 'me' generation". This described Americans who were only concerned about themselves. Another expression was "yuppie". It meant "young urban professional". Both these groups seemed as if they lived just to make and spend money, money, and more money. Entertainment in the Nineteen-Eighties showed the interest society placed on financial success. The characters in a number of television programs, for example, lived in costly homes, wore costly clothes, and drove costly automobiles. They were not at all like average Americans. They lived lives that required huge amounts of money. Two of these television programs became extremely popular in the United States and in other countries. They were called "Dallas" and "Dynasty". VOICE TWO: At the movie theater, a very popular film was called "Wall Street". It was about a young, wealthy, dishonest -- powerful -- man who traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Power was a popular program idea in action films, too. The most successful action films were about a man called "Rambo". Rambo was impossibly heroic. Naturally, he always won. The films showed good winning over evil. But Rambo rejected established rules and was extremely violent. Another form of entertainment became popular in the Nineteen-Eighties. It was the television talk show. People appeared on these shows mostly to talk about themselves: their politics, their families, their sexual relations. They talked in public about things that were once considered private. Much of the popular music of the time also showed this new openness. Heavy metal rock groups sang about sex and drugs. And then there was the new form of music called "rap". In this form,words are spoken, not sung, over a heavy beat. Many Americans found all these kinds of music to be too shocking, too violent,too lawless, and too damaging to the human spirit. VOICE ONE: People may have talked and sung openly about sex and drugs in the Nineteen-Eighties. But as the years went by, many became increasingly careful about their own activities. This was because sex and drugs became deadly. A new disease appeared at that time. It was called AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The disease spread in several ways. One was through sexual relations. Another was through sharing the needles used to take illegal drugs. VOICE TWO: A big change in American life during the Nineteen-Eighties came as a result of the computer. Computers were invented forty years earlier. They were large machines and were used only at universities, big companies, and in the military. By the Nineteen-Eighties, computers had become much smaller.Anyone could learn how to use them, even children. Millions of Americans soon had a 'personal' computer in their home. They could use it to read newspaper stories, buy things, do schoolwork, and play games. Such technological improvement -- and a bright economy -- filled Americans of the early and middle Nineteen-Eighties with hope. Many felt there were almost no limits on the good life they could lead. VOICE ONE: This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another V-O-A Special English program about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – Last Wild Places
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 27, 2002 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. More than two-hundred scientists have completed a two-year study to identify the most natural and undeveloped areas on Earth. Their findings are reported in a new book called Wilderness: Earth’s Last Wild Places. The environmental groups Conservation International and Agrupacion Sierra Madre worked together to produce the book. Conservation International provided money for the project. The new book describes thirty-seven wilderness areas around the world. Each has an area greater than ten-thousand square kilometers. The study considered only areas where at least seventy percent of all plants are native. There are wild areas on every continent. North and South America are home to the largest number of wilderness areas. There are sixteen such areas, from southern Argentina to Alaska and northern Canada. Africa has eight wilderness areas, including the thick forests of the Congo and the grasslands of the Serengeti. Australia and New Guinea share six areas. Europe has three areas and Asia has two. The Arabian Desert and Antarctica also are considered wilderness areas. The largest wilderness area is the Boreal Forest. It extends for sixteen-million square kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. The Boreal Forest extends across Alaska, Canada, northern Europe and Russia. The smallest of the thirty-seven wilderness areas is the Sundarbans. It is the world’s largest tidal mangrove forest. It covers ten-thousand square kilometers of land at the mouth of the Ganges River in India and Bangladesh. The study found that wilderness areas cover about forty-six percent of the Earth’s land surface. However, they are home to less than two-and-one-half percent of the world’s population. Nineteen of the wilderness areas have only about one person for each square kilometer. Native people usually live in these areas. Conservation International President Russell Mittermeier helped create the book. He notes that wilderness areas help to influence the world’s weather systems and rainfall. He says they also are home to many plants and animals. Mister Mittermeier says population growth and the spread of agriculture and mining operations threaten wilderness areas. He notes that just seven percent of all such areas have some form of official protection. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Whitehouse.gov / Question About America's Longest River / Music by Vivian Green
* Byline: 

 Broadcast: December 27, 2002 (THEME) Broadcast: December 27, 2002 (THEME) HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today, we play some music by Vivian Green ... answer a listener’s question about the Mississippi River ... and, report about a computer visit to the White House in Washington, DC., WhiteHouse.gov. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Steve Ember. On our program today, we play some music by Vivian Green ... answer a listener’s question about the Mississippi River ... and, report about a computer visit to the White House in Washington, DC., WhiteHouse.gov. HOST: How would you like to visit the White House in Washington, D-C, and have the President of the United States show you his home? You can, if you have a computer. The Web site address is WWW.WhiteHouse.gov. Sarah Long has more. ANNCR: The White House Web site lets the computer user visit the most famous home in America. One visit begins with President Bush. The President takes visitors on a seven-minute tour around his office, called the Oval Office. If your computer can play the video it is almost like having a private visit with the President of the United States. If your computer can not play the video, you can still visit the Oval Office. You can see all of the office using your computer. You can make your computer point the camera at famous paintings on the wall of the Oval Office or at the President’s desk. You can also see other rooms in the White House: the Blue Room, the Red Room, the State Dining Room and many more. The Web site also offers a collection of famous pictures taken in the White House. Many are older photographs that show former Presidents when they lived in the White House. White House officials say President Bush made the video recording last summer. Other videos were made more recently. The most recent ones show the White House decorated for the Christmas holiday. In one video, Laura Bush tells about the decorations in different rooms, including a small White House made from gingerbread. One funny video is called the Barney Cam. It follows Mister Bush’s dog Barney as he runs through the White House decorated for the holidays. The Web site and the recordings are part of the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the part of the White House known as the West Wing. The West Wing includes offices used by members of the Administration who work with the President every day. So if you would like to visit the White House, the computer address is w-w-w dot whitehouse dot g-o-v. White House is all one word. The address again is w-w-w-w dot whitehouse dot g-o-v. The Mississippi River HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guatemala. Alejandro Mata asks about the biggest river in the United States, the Mississippi. The Mississippi River flows from near the northern border of the United States south into the Gulf of Mexico. It flows for four-thousand kilometers through the center of the country. The Mississippi is one of the longest rivers in the world. Only the Amazon in South America and the Nile in eastern Africa are longer. The name Mississippi came from the Chippewa Indians. They lived in what is now the north central part of the United States. They called the river “maesi-sipu.” This meant “river of many fishes” in the Chippewa language. The word was not easy for European explorers to say. So they began calling it the Mississippi instead. The Mississippi River has always been important for the American economy. Large cities were established along the river. Two of these are found on the northernmost part of the river that is deep enough for trade ships to travel. They are Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The cities today are important centers for business and agriculture. About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. It is just a few kilometers from where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French trader first established a business there in seventeen-sixty-four. A few years later settlers named their new town after the thirteenth century French king, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christian saint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point for settlers travelling to the American West. Perhaps the most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river’s southern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The French explorers who first settled there named the town after the French city of Orleans (or-lay-onh). New Orleans was always an important trade center. A great battle was fought there between British and American forces during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. Today, New Orleans is probably most famous for its culture, music and food, and for its place at the end of the great Mississippi River. Vivian Green HOST: Singer and songwriter Vivian Green has experienced good and bad love relationships. The songs on her first album tell those stories. Here is Shep O’Neal with more about this young singer. ANNCR: Vivian Green is twenty-three years old. She has been singing and writing songs professionally since she was fifteen. Vivian wrote all of the songs for her first album, “A Love Story”. It was released last month. “A Love Story” tells about a relationship gone wrong. It is about learning to love yourself and then finding true love. The song “Emotional Rollercoaster” tells about being in a bad relationship and not knowing how to end it. (MUSIC) When Vivian was a child her mother sang different kinds of songs to her. You can hear the influence of popular jazz in this song. It is called “No Sittin’ by the Phone.” (MUSIC) Vivian Green says she can write a song very quickly. She wrote some of her songs the same day she recorded them. We leave you now with one of those songs. Here is “Superwoman” from the album “A Love Story.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Oliver Chanler, Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Jim Harmon. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: How would you like to visit the White House in Washington, D-C, and have the President of the United States show you his home? You can, if you have a computer. The Web site address is WWW.WhiteHouse.gov. Sarah Long has more. ANNCR: The White House Web site lets the computer user visit the most famous home in America. One visit begins with President Bush. The President takes visitors on a seven-minute tour around his office, called the Oval Office. If your computer can play the video it is almost like having a private visit with the President of the United States. If your computer can not play the video, you can still visit the Oval Office. You can see all of the office using your computer. You can make your computer point the camera at famous paintings on the wall of the Oval Office or at the President’s desk. You can also see other rooms in the White House: the Blue Room, the Red Room, the State Dining Room and many more. The Web site also offers a collection of famous pictures taken in the White House. Many are older photographs that show former Presidents when they lived in the White House. White House officials say President Bush made the video recording last summer. Other videos were made more recently. The most recent ones show the White House decorated for the Christmas holiday. In one video, Laura Bush tells about the decorations in different rooms, including a small White House made from gingerbread. One funny video is called the Barney Cam. It follows Mister Bush’s dog Barney as he runs through the White House decorated for the holidays. The Web site and the recordings are part of the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the part of the White House known as the West Wing. The West Wing includes offices used by members of the Administration who work with the President every day. So if you would like to visit the White House, the computer address is w-w-w dot whitehouse dot g-o-v. White House is all one word. The address again is w-w-w-w dot whitehouse dot g-o-v. The Mississippi River HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Guatemala. Alejandro Mata asks about the biggest river in the United States, the Mississippi. The Mississippi River flows from near the northern border of the United States south into the Gulf of Mexico. It flows for four-thousand kilometers through the center of the country. The Mississippi is one of the longest rivers in the world. Only the Amazon in South America and the Nile in eastern Africa are longer. The name Mississippi came from the Chippewa Indians. They lived in what is now the north central part of the United States. They called the river “maesi-sipu.” This meant “river of many fishes” in the Chippewa language. The word was not easy for European explorers to say. So they began calling it the Mississippi instead. The Mississippi River has always been important for the American economy. Large cities were established along the river. Two of these are found on the northernmost part of the river that is deep enough for trade ships to travel. They are Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The cities today are important centers for business and agriculture. About two-thousand kilometers south along the river is the city of Saint Louis, Missouri. It is just a few kilometers from where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi. A French trader first established a business there in seventeen-sixty-four. A few years later settlers named their new town after the thirteenth century French king, Louis the Ninth, who had been made a Christian saint. The city of Saint Louis was a popular starting point for settlers travelling to the American West. Perhaps the most famous city on the Mississippi is at the river’s southern end. It is the port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The French explorers who first settled there named the town after the French city of Orleans (or-lay-onh). New Orleans was always an important trade center. A great battle was fought there between British and American forces during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. Today, New Orleans is probably most famous for its culture, music and food, and for its place at the end of the great Mississippi River. Vivian Green HOST: Singer and songwriter Vivian Green has experienced good and bad love relationships. The songs on her first album tell those stories. Here is Shep O’Neal with more about this young singer. ANNCR: Vivian Green is twenty-three years old. She has been singing and writing songs professionally since she was fifteen. Vivian wrote all of the songs for her first album, “A Love Story”. It was released last month. “A Love Story” tells about a relationship gone wrong. It is about learning to love yourself and then finding true love. The song “Emotional Rollercoaster” tells about being in a bad relationship and not knowing how to end it. (MUSIC) When Vivian was a child her mother sang different kinds of songs to her. You can hear the influence of popular jazz in this song. It is called “No Sittin’ by the Phone.” (MUSIC) Vivian Green says she can write a song very quickly. She wrote some of her songs the same day she recorded them. We leave you now with one of those songs. Here is “Superwoman” from the album “A Love Story.” (MUSIC) HOST: This is Steve Ember. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Oliver Chanler, Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Jim Harmon. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - December 30, 2002: New Year's Traditions
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (Photo - Tournament of Roses) (THEME) VOICE ONE: On December thirty-first, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about New Year celebrations and traditions on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: It is December thirty-first in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten … nine …eight …” A huge glass New Year’s ball falls through the darkness. Someone says the ball looks like thousands of burning stars. Someone else says it looks like a huge, bright piece of snow. When the ball reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. They dance. They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship called “Auld Lang Syne.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, people arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They say “ooh” and “aah” when the electric company turns on the thousands of little lights in the ball. Then everyone waits for the beautiful object to fall. Families and friends attend this event together. People who have not met talk as if they had known each other all their lives. Many in the crowd jump around to keep warm. VOICE ONE: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on top of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball was dropped from the top of the building for the first time. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen-forty-two and nineteen-forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square. They observed a moment of silence. After that, bells rang from a vehicle in Times Square. (SOUND: BELLS RINGING) VOICE TWO: People do not pay to attend the Times Square celebration. But other New Year’s Eve celebrations can be costly. Many Americans observe the holiday at public eating and drinking places. Some people like to see the New Year arrive while traveling by boat. For example, people in Chicago, Illinois, can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. In San Diego, California, a ship company offers New Year’s Eve on the Pacific Ocean. It costs more than one-hundred dollars for each person. Other Americans have parties at home and invite all their friends. Many of these events are noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noisemakers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to music. Other Americans spend a quiet evening at home. They drink Champagne at midnight to welcome the New Year. Here, the Persuasions sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE TWO: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred-twenty American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in nineteen-seventy-six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. People in Boston can choose among two-hundred-fifty performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky over Boston Harbor. VOICE ONE: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Some of the top university teams play in these games. The most famous of these "bowl" games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses Parade includes many vehicles called floats. The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE TWO: Another famous parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. VOICE ONE: Sometimes families invite friends to visit them on New Year’s Day. They serve drinks and food at these open houses and wish everyone a good year. In some parts of the country, American children and adults still follow an ancient custom on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. Americans borrowed this tradition from ancient peoples in what is now Britain and Europe. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. Some people wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, men and women who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do celebrate the New Year, we wish you a very happy one. VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. On December thirty-first, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. We tell about New Year celebrations and traditions on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: It is December thirty-first in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten … nine …eight …” A huge glass New Year’s ball falls through the darkness. Someone says the ball looks like thousands of burning stars. Someone else says it looks like a huge, bright piece of snow. When the ball reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. They dance. They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship called “Auld Lang Syne.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Each year, people arrive in Times Square while it is still daylight. After dark, at about six o’clock, the New Year’s Eve ball is raised to its highest position. By this time thousands of people are gathered for the celebration ahead. They say “ooh” and “aah” when the electric company turns on the thousands of little lights in the ball. Then everyone waits for the beautiful object to fall. Families and friends attend this event together. People who have not met talk as if they had known each other all their lives. Many in the crowd jump around to keep warm. VOICE ONE: The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square took place in nineteen-oh-four. The owners of a building on Times Square held that first party on top of their building. Three years later, a New Year’s ball was dropped from the top of the building for the first time. The ball has been dropped every year except for two years during World War Two. In nineteen-forty-two and nineteen-forty-three, crowds still gathered in Times Square. They observed a moment of silence. After that, bells rang from a vehicle in Times Square. (SOUND: BELLS RINGING) VOICE TWO: People do not pay to attend the Times Square celebration. But other New Year’s Eve celebrations can be costly. Many Americans observe the holiday at public eating and drinking places. Some people like to see the New Year arrive while traveling by boat. For example, people in Chicago, Illinois, can choose from several special holiday trips on Lake Michigan. These cruises include dinner and dancing to music performed by a band. In San Diego, California, a ship company offers New Year’s Eve on the Pacific Ocean. It costs more than one-hundred dollars for each person. Other Americans have parties at home and invite all their friends. Many of these events are noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noisemakers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to music. Other Americans spend a quiet evening at home. They drink Champagne at midnight to welcome the New Year. Here, the Persuasions sing “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE TWO: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred-twenty American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in nineteen-seventy-six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. People in Boston can choose among two-hundred-fifty performances and exhibits around the city. People can look at huge statues made of ice. Families can watch fireworks early in the evening. Later, fireworks light the midnight sky over Boston Harbor. VOICE ONE: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some watch football games on television. Some of the top university teams play in these games. The most famous of these "bowl" games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Tournament of Roses Parade includes many vehicles called floats. The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE TWO: Another famous parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. VOICE ONE: Sometimes families invite friends to visit them on New Year’s Day. They serve drinks and food at these open houses and wish everyone a good year. In some parts of the country, American children and adults still follow an ancient custom on January first. They go from house to house singing to friends and neighbors. Americans borrowed this tradition from ancient peoples in what is now Britain and Europe. One popular song wishes people love and joy in the New Year. VOICE TWO: Many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. Some people wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, men and women who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do celebrate the New Year, we wish you a very happy one. VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 30, 2002: Adaptive Eyecare
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization estimates as many as one-thousand-million people around the world cannot see correctly. About ninety percent of these people are in poor countries. They need corrective glasses for their eyes, but cannot get them. This is partly because there are not enough trained eye doctors in most developing countries. In addition, corrective eyeglasses cost a lot of money. One man is trying to change this. Joshua Silver is a physicist at Oxford University in Britain. He has created eyeglasses that permit wearers to correct their own vision. The glasses are called adaptive glasses. The lenses of the glasses are filled with a special fluid. A person can change the strength of the lenses by turning a small device attached to the glasses. The device changes the amount of fluid in the lenses. A person changes the shape and power of the lenses until he can see most clearly. The whole process takes less than a minute. The glasses do not correct for astigmatism, or the abnormal shape of the eye. However, they improve the ability of people to see close up and far away. Mister Silver estimates that the glasses can help about ninety percent of the people who need to improve their vision.Mister Silver formed a company to research and develop the special glasses six years ago. It is called Adaptive Eyecare. The goal of the company is to provide low-cost corrective glasses to people in developing countries. Models of the glasses have been tested in Africa and Asia. Now, the company is preparing to sell several hundred-thousand glasses to Ghana for about ten dollars each. The Ghanaian government is seeking aid from the World Health Organization to help pay for the glasses. Mister Silver expects the price of the glasses to drop once technology and manufacturing improve. However, he says the glasses should not be a replacement for eye care or treatment for eye diseases. If you have a computer, you can find out more about these special glasses at the Adaptive Eyecare Internet Web page. The address is www dot adaptive dash eyecare dot com. (www.adaptive-eyecare.com). Or you can write to the company at Adaptive Eyecare Limited, the Oxford Center for Innovation, Mill Street, Oxford, oh-x-two, zero-j-x, United Kingdom. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – December 29, 2002: Remembering Six Important People
* Byline: 

 (THEME) VOICE ONE: (Photo - Random House) (THEME) VOICE ONE: I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about six important Americans who died during the past year. VOICE ONE: <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:73899| height="150" width="122" alt="In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: "Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere."(Photo - mwcil.org)" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/mwcil.org_justin_dart_27dec02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> In the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: "Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere."(Photo - mwcil.org) I’m Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, People in America. Today we tell about six important Americans who died during the past year. VOICE ONE: Remembering the many famous and important Americans who died during the year is difficult because there are so many worth discussing. There is not enough time to remember everyone. However, we will tell about several Americans whose involvement in society was important and valuable. We begin with the person likely to be missed most by young Americans. Millie Benson wrote books for young people. The main character in each of her books is a sixteen-year-old girl named Nancy Drew who solved mysteries. These books were extremely popular for many years. They gave teenage girls the idea that they could do anything that boys could do. This was especially important at a time when women were struggling for equality with men. VOICE TWO: Millie Benson began writing the "Nancy Drew" books in nineteen-thirty. She wrote twenty-three of the first twenty-five stories in the series under a false name, Carolyn Keene. This was because Mizz Benson signed an agreement with her publisher promising never to make public her identity. For more than fifty years, she was never officially recognized for writing the books. This changed in nineteen-eighty during a court case against the publisher. Mizz Benson was permitted to tell the world she was the true writer of the Nancy Drew series. The Nancy Drew mysteries have sold more than two-hundred-million books in seventeen languages. Millie Benson was also one of the first female newspaper reporters. She wrote for newspapers for more than sixty years. She was also a pilot and an adventurer. She made many trips to the jungles of Mexico and Central America to study archeology. Millie Benson was ninety-six years old when she died. Ted Williams Remembering the many famous and important Americans who died during the year is difficult because there are so many worth discussing. There is not enough time to remember everyone. However, we will tell about several Americans whose involvement in society was important and valuable. We begin with the person likely to be missed most by young Americans. Millie Benson wrote books for young people. The main character in each of her books is a sixteen-year-old girl named Nancy Drew who solved mysteries. These books were extremely popular for many years. They gave teenage girls the idea that they could do anything that boys could do. This was especially important at a time when women were struggling for equality with men. VOICE TWO: Millie Benson began writing the "Nancy Drew" books in nineteen-thirty. She wrote twenty-three of the first twenty-five stories in the series under a false name, Carolyn Keene. This was because Mizz Benson signed an agreement with her publisher promising never to make public her identity. For more than fifty years, she was never officially recognized for writing the books. This changed in nineteen-eighty during a court case against the publisher. Mizz Benson was permitted to tell the world she was the true writer of the Nancy Drew series. The Nancy Drew mysteries have sold more than two-hundred-million books in seventeen languages. Millie Benson was also one of the first female newspaper reporters. She wrote for newspapers for more than sixty years. She was also a pilot and an adventurer. She made many trips to the jungles of Mexico and Central America to study archeology. Millie Benson was ninety-six years old when she died. VOICE ONE: Stephen Jay Gould was an important American scientist. He worked as an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mister Gould studied fossils, the ancient remains of animals that lived during earlier periods in history. This permitted him to better understand how different animal groups, or species, developed over time. Mister Gould was a strong supporter of the evolutionary theory developed by Charles Darwin in the eighteen-hundreds. Mister Darwin argued that fossils could prove that plants and animals developed slowly over time from their earlier ancestors. Mister Gould supported this theory. However, he and another scientist, Niles Eldredge, believed that evolution was not a slow, peaceful process. In nineteen-seventy-two, the two men developed a new theory called “punctuated equilibrium.” They argued that evolution of species happened during short, fast bursts of change during longer periods of no change. During his more than thirty years at Harvard University, Mister Gould wrote more than twenty popular books. He also wrote three-hundred monthly commentaries published in the magazine Natural History. Many Americans will remember him because he tried to make science popular and easy to understand. Stephen Jay Gould died at the age of sixty. VOICE TWO: The next American we remember is Justin Dart, a longtime activist for the rights of disabled people. Such people are unable to see, hear or walk because of accident or disease. Many use special chairs with wheels to move around. Diseases like multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy or polio can leave people disabled. In fact, Justin Dart lost the use of his legs when he became infected with polio at age eighteen. He used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Mister Dart worked for more than fifty years to establish government policies to guarantee civil rights and health care for disabled people. He was considered one of the fathers of the Americans with Disabilities Act which became law in nineteen-ninety. This historic civil rights law has improved the treatment of disabled people across the country. It requires that all public buildings, transportation and other services be built or modernized so that disabled people can use them. Justin Dart received a great honor when President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen-ninety-eight. This is the highest honor given to civilians in the United States. Justin Dart died at the age of seventy-one. <IMG id=||CPIMAGE:73900| height="150" width="105" alt="1920: "Self Portrait with Hat"(Image - jo-an.com)" hspace=0 src="/specialenglish/Archive/images/jo-an.com_theresa_bernstein_27dec02_150_se.jpg" border="0"> 1920: "Self Portrait with Hat"(Image - jo-an.com) VOICE ONE: Stephen Jay Gould was an important American scientist. He worked as an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mister Gould studied fossils, the ancient remains of animals that lived during earlier periods in history. This permitted him to better understand how different animal groups, or species, developed over time. Mister Gould was a strong supporter of the evolutionary theory developed by Charles Darwin in the eighteen-hundreds. Mister Darwin argued that fossils could prove that plants and animals developed slowly over time from their earlier ancestors. Mister Gould supported this theory. However, he and another scientist, Niles Eldredge, believed that evolution was not a slow, peaceful process. In nineteen-seventy-two, the two men developed a new theory called “punctuated equilibrium.” They argued that evolution of species happened during short, fast bursts of change during longer periods of no change. During his more than thirty years at Harvard University, Mister Gould wrote more than twenty popular books. He also wrote three-hundred monthly commentaries published in the magazine Natural History. Many Americans will remember him because he tried to make science popular and easy to understand. Stephen Jay Gould died at the age of sixty. VOICE TWO: The next American we remember is Justin Dart, a longtime activist for the rights of disabled people. Such people are unable to see, hear or walk because of accident or disease. Many use special chairs with wheels to move around. Diseases like multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy or polio can leave people disabled. In fact, Justin Dart lost the use of his legs when he became infected with polio at age eighteen. He used a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Mister Dart worked for more than fifty years to establish government policies to guarantee civil rights and health care for disabled people. He was considered one of the fathers of the Americans with Disabilities Act which became law in nineteen-ninety. This historic civil rights law has improved the treatment of disabled people across the country. It requires that all public buildings, transportation and other services be built or modernized so that disabled people can use them. Justin Dart received a great honor when President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen-ninety-eight. This is the highest honor given to civilians in the United States. Justin Dart died at the age of seventy-one. VOICE ONE: The next American was perhaps the greatest hitter in the history of professional baseball. From his early days in school, Ted Williams wanted to be a baseball player. He started playing in the American minor leagues in nineteen-thirty-seven. Three years later, he began playing for the Boston Red Sox in the major leagues. He played for nineteen years with the Red Sox. During his time as a baseball player, Ted Williams had one of the highest batting averages in baseball history. A batting average is based on the number of hits a player gets divided by the number of times he comes up to bat. Ted Williams is best remembered for his season batting average of four-hundred-six in nineteen-forty-one. No other professional baseball player has reached this goal. Ted Williams had to interrupt his baseball playing two times when he was called to serve as a Marine fighter pilot during World War Two and the Korean War. Ted Williams retired from baseball in nineteen-sixty. He then went on to supervise the Washington Senators baseball team for three years. He also managed the team the first year it moved to Texas and became the Texas Rangers. President Bush is a former part owner of the Texas Rangers. When Ted Williams died in July, Mister Bush said “America has lost a baseball star who will be greatly missed.” Ted Williams was eighty-three years old. VOICE TWO: Theresa Bernstein was an artist. When she died this year she was believed to be about one-hundred-eleven years old. Mizz Bernstein gained recognition in the early nineteen-hundreds as one of the first women to paint in the Realist style. These artists painted realistic pictures of the lives of the common people. They were members of what was called the Ash Can School of realistic painting. Theresa Bernstein painted people and places in New York City. She was both praised and criticized for “painting like a man.” Some experts said she saw the city from a woman’s point of view and painted activities in women’s lives. For example, her paintings showed women at the New York Public Library, traveling to work on public transportation and making clothing in factories. Other experts said she was just a great painter. Theresa Bernstein continued to paint for more than eighty years. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of many major museums. In recent years, her paintings sold for as much as one-hundred-thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: VOICE ONE: The next American was perhaps the greatest hitter in the history of professional baseball. From his early days in school, Ted Williams wanted to be a baseball player. He started playing in the American minor leagues in nineteen-thirty-seven. Three years later, he began playing for the Boston Red Sox in the major leagues. He played for nineteen years with the Red Sox. During his time as a baseball player, Ted Williams had one of the highest batting averages in baseball history. A batting average is based on the number of hits a player gets divided by the number of times he comes up to bat. Ted Williams is best remembered for his season batting average of four-hundred-six in nineteen-forty-one. No other professional baseball player has reached this goal. Ted Williams had to interrupt his baseball playing two times when he was called to serve as a Marine fighter pilot during World War Two and the Korean War. Ted Williams retired from baseball in nineteen-sixty. He then went on to supervise the Washington Senators baseball team for three years. He also managed the team the first year it moved to Texas and became the Texas Rangers. President Bush is a former part owner of the Texas Rangers. When Ted Williams died in July, Mister Bush said “America has lost a baseball star who will be greatly missed.” Ted Williams was eighty-three years old. VOICE TWO: Theresa Bernstein was an artist. When she died this year she was believed to be about one-hundred-eleven years old. Mizz Bernstein gained recognition in the early nineteen-hundreds as one of the first women to paint in the Realist style. These artists painted realistic pictures of the lives of the common people. They were members of what was called the Ash Can School of realistic painting. Theresa Bernstein painted people and places in New York City. She was both praised and criticized for “painting like a man.” Some experts said she saw the city from a woman’s point of view and painted activities in women’s lives. For example, her paintings showed women at the New York Public Library, traveling to work on public transportation and making clothing in factories. Other experts said she was just a great painter. Theresa Bernstein continued to paint for more than eighty years. Her paintings are in the permanent collections of many major museums. In recent years, her paintings sold for as much as one-hundred-thousand dollars. VOICE ONE: The last American we remember this year is musician and songwriter Ray Conniff. Mister Conniff got his start in music during the big band period of the nineteen-thirties and forties. He moved to New York City as a young man and worked with such famous musicians as Artie Shaw and Harry James. In nineteen-sixty-six, Mister Conniff won a Grammy award for his recording of the song “Somewhere My Love.” This was also known as “Lara’s Theme” in the popular film “Doctor Zhivago.” Mister Conniff was one of the first songwriters to mix wordless singing with musical instruments. He often combined female voices with trumpets or clarinets and male voices with trombones or saxophones. Ray Conniff worked in the music business for more than sixty years. During that time, he recorded more than one-hundred albums. He produced more than twenty-five albums that were on the record industry’s “Top Forty” albums list. He sold more than seventy-million records around the world. Ray Conniff was eighty-five years old when he died. We leave you now with his most popular song, “Somewhere My Love.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another People in America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. The last American we remember this year is musician and songwriter Ray Conniff. Mister Conniff got his start in music during the big band period of the nineteen-thirties and forties. He moved to New York City as a young man and worked with such famous musicians as Artie Shaw and Harry James. In nineteen-sixty-six, Mister Conniff won a Grammy award for his recording of the song “Somewhere My Love.” This was also known as “Lara’s Theme” in the popular film “Doctor Zhivago.” Mister Conniff was one of the first songwriters to mix wordless singing with musical instruments. He often combined female voices with trumpets or clarinets and male voices with trombones or saxophones. Ray Conniff worked in the music business for more than sixty years. During that time, he recorded more than one-hundred albums. He produced more than twenty-five albums that were on the record industry’s “Top Forty” albums list. He sold more than seventy-million records around the world. Ray Conniff was eighty-five years old when he died. We leave you now with his most popular song, “Somewhere My Love.” (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another People in America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-27-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 28, 2002: Time Honors 3 Women
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. For many years, Time magazine has recognized a person or persons who made important news during a year. Recently, Time named three American women as its Persons of the Year for two-thousand-two. One of those honored is Coleen Rowley. She works for America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. Time also honored Cynthia Cooper, an official with the communications business WorldCom. The third winner is Sherron Watkins. She formerly worked for the energy trading company Enron. These women reported serious problems or wrongdoing in the places where they work. Each woman risked her job to tell the truth. Their actions have led to congressional investigations and calls for reform. Coleen Rowley wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller in May. She criticized the agency for failing to gather evidence before the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Mizz Rowley told how officials at FBI headquarters had dismissed information from the agency’s office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The information concerned a French citizen, Zacarias Moussaoui. Mister Moussaoui is now waiting to be tried in the state of Virginia. He is accused of helping plot the terrorist attacks. Missus Rowley wrote that an FBI agent had identified Mister Moussaoui as a terrorist threat one month before the attacks. The Minneapolis office asked FBI headquarters to let it seek a court order to search the suspect’s property. Agents especially wanted to search his computer. Yet higher-level FBI officials dismissed their appeals. Congress and the Bush Administration now are exploring ways to improve the agency’s performance. Cynthia Cooper examines financial records for the WorldCom Corporation in Clinton, Mississippi. In June, Mizz Cooper told a WorldCom financial committee that the company’s records were dishonest. Soon, WorldCom’s chief financial officer admitted that the company earned almost four-thousand-million dollars less than it had reported. Since then, the amount has grown to more than nine-thousand-million dollars. Owners of the company’s stock shares have lost three-thousand-million dollars. WorldCom reported that it is unable to pay its debts. Sherron Watkins was a communications officer with Enron, based in Houston, Texas. In August of last year, she wrote to then company chairman Kenneth Lay. Mizz Watkins told him about questionable financial methods at Enron. She also said the company should tell its shareholders the truth about its losses. Months later, the company began to fail. By then, Enron had lost about one-thousand-million dollars. The actions of Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper led to criminal charges against some Enron and WorldCom officials. Congress also is considering ways to prevent companies from lying about their finances. This VOA Special English broadcast was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. For many years, Time magazine has recognized a person or persons who made important news during a year. Recently, Time named three American women as its Persons of the Year for two-thousand-two. One of those honored is Coleen Rowley. She works for America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation. Time also honored Cynthia Cooper, an official with the communications business WorldCom. The third winner is Sherron Watkins. She formerly worked for the energy trading company Enron. These women reported serious problems or wrongdoing in the places where they work. Each woman risked her job to tell the truth. Their actions have led to congressional investigations and calls for reform. Coleen Rowley wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller in May. She criticized the agency for failing to gather evidence before the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Mizz Rowley told how officials at FBI headquarters had dismissed information from the agency’s office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The information concerned a French citizen, Zacarias Moussaoui. Mister Moussaoui is now waiting to be tried in the state of Virginia. He is accused of helping plot the terrorist attacks. Missus Rowley wrote that an FBI agent had identified Mister Moussaoui as a terrorist threat one month before the attacks. The Minneapolis office asked FBI headquarters to let it seek a court order to search the suspect’s property. Agents especially wanted to search his computer. Yet higher-level FBI officials dismissed their appeals. Congress and the Bush Administration now are exploring ways to improve the agency’s performance. Cynthia Cooper examines financial records for the WorldCom Corporation in Clinton, Mississippi. In June, Mizz Cooper told a WorldCom financial committee that the company’s records were dishonest. Soon, WorldCom’s chief financial officer admitted that the company earned almost four-thousand-million dollars less than it had reported. Since then, the amount has grown to more than nine-thousand-million dollars. Owners of the company’s stock shares have lost three-thousand-million dollars. WorldCom reported that it is unable to pay its debts. Sherron Watkins was a communications officer with Enron, based in Houston, Texas. In August of last year, she wrote to then company chairman Kenneth Lay. Mizz Watkins told him about questionable financial methods at Enron. She also said the company should tell its shareholders the truth about its losses. Months later, the company began to fail. By then, Enron had lost about one-thousand-million dollars. The actions of Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper led to criminal charges against some Enron and WorldCom officials. Congress also is considering ways to prevent companies from lying about their finances. This VOA Special English broadcast was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-27-5-1.cfm
* Headline: December 26, 2002 - American vs. British English
* Byline: 

 MUSIC: "Help!"/Beatles AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we talk about a few of the differences between American English and British English. RS: It's a question we often get. After all, some differences can lead to embarrassment, others to plain old confusion. AA: For instance, Americans put babies to sleep in a "crib." The British call the same kind of bed a "cot." RS: In America a cot is a flimsy, fold-up bed made of canvas. AA: Oh, you mean what the British call a "camp bed." RS: In Britain, "public school" is what Americans would call "private school," where you pay to have your children go. Now let's say you have "to go" -- or you're looking for the toilet. Here, it's not polite to ask where "the toilet" is. Say "bathroom" or "restroom" when speaking to an American. AA: Joining us now from New York is the author of a handy little book called "Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the U-S-A." Dileri Borunda Johnston lived in England, so she knows what it's like from both sides. JOHNSTON: "A lot of the grammar is slightly different, so you would have things in British English that perhaps you wouldn't want an American child to learn because it might sound slightly incorrect. Like you wouldn't say 'I haven't got any more.' You would rather an American kid would learn to say 'I don't have any more.'" AA: Let's say a speaker of British English steps off a plane in the States. Just to catch a bus or train into town from the airport requires a different vocabulary. JOHNSTON: "In England you would catch a 'coach' whereas here you take the 'bus,' or if you're taking the public transportation you would take the 'subway in America rather than the 'tube' or the 'underground' as you would in England." AA: Also, what the British call "lorries" we Americans call "trucks." RS: Now let's say the weather is cold and wet, and our traveler didn't pack the right clothes. Dileri Johnston pointed out some British terms that might confuse an American clerk. JOHNSTON: "Like, for example, 'jumper,' which in England is the most common thing to call a sweater." RS: "Here it's a dress." JOHNSTON: "And a jumper here is a dress, yes." AA: "And then here we have 'boots' and 'galoshes' and there..." JOHNSTON: "They have 'wellies,' yes." RS: "They have what?" JOHNSTON: "Wellies." AA: "Here we talk about 'boots,' but, again, a 'boot' is in British English the trunk of a car. Here it's a heavy shoe that you wear when you're going through puddles." JOHNSTON: "You use the word 'boot' in British English as well; you know, for regular boots or cowboy boots or riding boots or anything like that. But just the rubber boots are called 'wellies.'" RS: And the differences don't stop there! JOHNSTON: "'Pants' is the very big sort of trouble spot, because 'pants' here are quite -- you know, the common thing to call the things you put on your -- the long things you put on your legs, whereas 'pants' in England is always referring to underwear." RS: "So here that would be 'underpants.'" JOHNSTON: "Underpants, or underwear or boxers or whatever." RS: "So if you say, 'do you have a pair of pants to wear to the party,' that would be pretty inappropriate to say in England unless you were forewarned." JOHNSTON: "And over there they say 'trousers,' which is not a word that is completely unknown in American English, but it's not the most common one." RS: Along these lines, it seemed to us that a lot of the terms used in British English are older forms of the words used by Americans -- for instance, it might sound odd for an American to say "spectacles" instead of "glasses." JOHNSTON: "That's often the case. You know, you have 'spectacles,' you have 'trousers.' They tend to be sort of things that might be more common in regional varieties of American English. You know, like in England, it's quite common to say 'reckon,' which in American English is quite unusual, or you might here it in the South perhaps or in more old-fashioned contexts." AA: "Like, 'I reckon I'll go in when the sun gets too hot.'" JOHNSTON: "Yeah, and people in England say it sort of quite seriously, without meaning it to be funny or ironic or anything like that." RS: Same with some other terms that might strike Americans as funny. JOHNSTON: "You know, if you go shopping, for example, you don't really want to take a 'trolley' which is what Americans ride around in on the street, like say in San Francisco. Here you would rather use a 'shopping cart' when you go to do your groceries." AA: And, it's not just words that set American and British speakers apart. JOHNSTON: "Speakers of British English have to be very conscious of the fact that British accents are quite incomprehensible to Americans at times. I know from experience -- my husband, who's British, has a horrible time ordering water in restaurants. Nobody understands him when he asks for 'waw-tuh.' So he's tried to modify it and say 'waw-da, can I have some waw-da please.' (laughter) And he more or less gets understood nowadays." AA: Dileri Borunda Johnston, author of "Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the USA." RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Send your language questions to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "American English"/Wax UK MUSIC: "Help!"/Beatles AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster we talk about a few of the differences between American English and British English. RS: It's a question we often get. After all, some differences can lead to embarrassment, others to plain old confusion. AA: For instance, Americans put babies to sleep in a "crib." The British call the same kind of bed a "cot." RS: In America a cot is a flimsy, fold-up bed made of canvas. AA: Oh, you mean what the British call a "camp bed." RS: In Britain, "public school" is what Americans would call "private school," where you pay to have your children go. Now let's say you have "to go" -- or you're looking for the toilet. Here, it's not polite to ask where "the toilet" is. Say "bathroom" or "restroom" when speaking to an American. AA: Joining us now from New York is the author of a handy little book called "Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the U-S-A." Dileri Borunda Johnston lived in England, so she knows what it's like from both sides. JOHNSTON: "A lot of the grammar is slightly different, so you would have things in British English that perhaps you wouldn't want an American child to learn because it might sound slightly incorrect. Like you wouldn't say 'I haven't got any more.' You would rather an American kid would learn to say 'I don't have any more.'" AA: Let's say a speaker of British English steps off a plane in the States. Just to catch a bus or train into town from the airport requires a different vocabulary. JOHNSTON: "In England you would catch a 'coach' whereas here you take the 'bus,' or if you're taking the public transportation you would take the 'subway in America rather than the 'tube' or the 'underground' as you would in England." AA: Also, what the British call "lorries" we Americans call "trucks." RS: Now let's say the weather is cold and wet, and our traveler didn't pack the right clothes. Dileri Johnston pointed out some British terms that might confuse an American clerk. JOHNSTON: "Like, for example, 'jumper,' which in England is the most common thing to call a sweater." RS: "Here it's a dress." JOHNSTON: "And a jumper here is a dress, yes." AA: "And then here we have 'boots' and 'galoshes' and there..." JOHNSTON: "They have 'wellies,' yes." RS: "They have what?" JOHNSTON: "Wellies." AA: "Here we talk about 'boots,' but, again, a 'boot' is in British English the trunk of a car. Here it's a heavy shoe that you wear when you're going through puddles." JOHNSTON: "You use the word 'boot' in British English as well; you know, for regular boots or cowboy boots or riding boots or anything like that. But just the rubber boots are called 'wellies.'" RS: And the differences don't stop there! JOHNSTON: "'Pants' is the very big sort of trouble spot, because 'pants' here are quite -- you know, the common thing to call the things you put on your -- the long things you put on your legs, whereas 'pants' in England is always referring to underwear." RS: "So here that would be 'underpants.'" JOHNSTON: "Underpants, or underwear or boxers or whatever." RS: "So if you say, 'do you have a pair of pants to wear to the party,' that would be pretty inappropriate to say in England unless you were forewarned." JOHNSTON: "And over there they say 'trousers,' which is not a word that is completely unknown in American English, but it's not the most common one." RS: Along these lines, it seemed to us that a lot of the terms used in British English are older forms of the words used by Americans -- for instance, it might sound odd for an American to say "spectacles" instead of "glasses." JOHNSTON: "That's often the case. You know, you have 'spectacles,' you have 'trousers.' They tend to be sort of things that might be more common in regional varieties of American English. You know, like in England, it's quite common to say 'reckon,' which in American English is quite unusual, or you might here it in the South perhaps or in more old-fashioned contexts." AA: "Like, 'I reckon I'll go in when the sun gets too hot.'" JOHNSTON: "Yeah, and people in England say it sort of quite seriously, without meaning it to be funny or ironic or anything like that." RS: Same with some other terms that might strike Americans as funny. JOHNSTON: "You know, if you go shopping, for example, you don't really want to take a 'trolley' which is what Americans ride around in on the street, like say in San Francisco. Here you would rather use a 'shopping cart' when you go to do your groceries." AA: And, it's not just words that set American and British speakers apart. JOHNSTON: "Speakers of British English have to be very conscious of the fact that British accents are quite incomprehensible to Americans at times. I know from experience -- my husband, who's British, has a horrible time ordering water in restaurants. Nobody understands him when he asks for 'waw-tuh.' So he's tried to modify it and say 'waw-da, can I have some waw-da please.' (laughter) And he more or less gets understood nowadays." AA: Dileri Borunda Johnston, author of "Speak American: A Survival Guide to the Language and Culture of the USA." RS: That's Wordmaster for this week. Send your language questions to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC two-zero-two-three-seven USA or word@voanews.com. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. MUSIC: "American English"/Wax UK 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: January 2, 2003 - Palindromes
* Byline: 

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a look backward! RS: As we do each New Year, we're going to play one of our favorite recordings. It's a skit about a cowboy with an unusual speaking habit. AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER -- a look backward! RS: As we do each New Year, we're going to play one of our favorite recordings. It's a skit about a cowboy with an unusual speaking habit. AA: The piece is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." It's by Riders in The Sky, and it's from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" The vocalists in the group are Ranger Doug, Too Slim and Woody Paul. RS: Here's what the liner notes say: "Back in the 1950s Johnny Western co-wrote and sang the theme song for a popular television show about a gunfighter named Paladin. Too Slim changed the action from gun play to word play and wrote new lyrics to the theme. The result is the clever and funny 'Palindrome.' Johnny Western himself joins Riders in The Sky to sing this new version. Those big thick Hollywood twangs pouring out of your speakers come from a rootin' tootin' Danelectro guitar." AA: So now sit back and enjoy... ("The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western") RS: ... Riders in The Sky, from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" Like all good cowboys, you'll find them on the Web at ridersinthesky (all one word) dot com. AA: You know, numbers can also be palindromes -- like 2002. In fact, we won't have another palindromic year till twenty-one-twelve. So mark your calendars! RS: And that's Wordmaster. Wishing all our listeners around the world a happy New Year, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. AA: The piece is called "The Ballad of Palindrome." It's by Riders in The Sky, and it's from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" The vocalists in the group are Ranger Doug, Too Slim and Woody Paul. RS: Here's what the liner notes say: "Back in the 1950s Johnny Western co-wrote and sang the theme song for a popular television show about a gunfighter named Paladin. Too Slim changed the action from gun play to word play and wrote new lyrics to the theme. The result is the clever and funny 'Palindrome.' Johnny Western himself joins Riders in The Sky to sing this new version. Those big thick Hollywood twangs pouring out of your speakers come from a rootin' tootin' Danelectro guitar." AA: So now sit back and enjoy... ("The Ballad of Palindrome/Palindrome: The Scene with Johnny Western") RS: ... Riders in The Sky, from their album "A Great Big Western HOWDY!" Like all good cowboys, you'll find them on the Web at ridersinthesky (all one word) dot com. AA: You know, numbers can also be palindromes -- like 2002. In fact, we won't have another palindromic year till twenty-one-twelve. So mark your calendars! RS: And that's Wordmaster. Wishing all our listeners around the world a happy New Year, with Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: NEW YEAR’S EVE FEATURE – December 31, 2002: Auld Lang Syne
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, VOA Special English presents a special program for New Year’s Eve. (MUSIC: AULD LANG SYNE) That is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called “Auld Lang Syne.” It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Auld Lang Syne is an old Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends. The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since.” No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Burns was published in Seventeen-Ninety-Six. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later. The song is played in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve. The version you are hearing today is by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. As we end our program with “Auld Lang Syne,” I would like to wish all of our radio friends a very Happy New Year! This is Shep O’Neil. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: NEW YEAR’S EVE PROGRAM – December 31, 2002: Celebrations Around the World
* Byline: 

 (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Millions of people are taking part in New Year’s celebrations around the world. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about some of these activities on this VOA Special English New Year’s program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People around the world celebrate the coming of a New Year. The celebrations include parties and religious observances. Many people take part in special activities said to bring good luck and success in the New Year. Ancient Romans observed New Year’s Day on March first. Later, Roman leaders made January first the beginning of the year. One-thousand years ago, parts of Europe started the year on March twenty-fifth. By the year sixteen-hundred, many European nations agreed on a new system to measure time. It is called the Gregorian calendar. This calendar moved New Year’s Day to January first. VOICE TWO: Today, Europeans have many ways to celebrate the New Year. Scotland has a famous celebration called Hogmanay. No one knows for sure where the word came from. It could be from the Anglo-Saxon words for “holy month.” Another possibility is a Gaelic expression for “new morning.” Some people think Hogmanay could be from an old French word meaning “gift.” That is because it was common to give gifts at the new year. For many centuries, fire ceremonies have been an important part of Hogmanay. The Scots set small fires as a way to end the old year. Today, Hogmanay includes huge celebrations on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh on New Year’s Eve. More than one-hundred-thousand people attend these street parties. Bells ring at midnight. Everyone kisses each other and sings the traditional New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne. Poet Robert Burns based some of the song’s words on a Scottish poem. Another tradition is called First Footing. Many Scots believe that the first person to enter your house in the New Year will bring either good or bad luck. A tall, dark-haired visitor who comes with a gift is considered very good luck. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: January first is an important day in Greece. It is both the beginning of a New Year and Saint Basil’s Day. Saint Basil was a leader of the early Greek Orthodox Church. Stories say he would come in the night and leave presents for children in their shoes. Many children leave their shoes out by the fireplace in the hope that Saint Basil will visit them. In Greece, it is a New Year’s tradition to serve Basil’s Bread, or Vassilopitta. A piece of money is added to the bread before it is baked. When the bread is ready, it is divided in a traditional way. The first piece is cut for Saint Basil. The next goes to the oldest person in the house. Everyone is served, from the oldest to the youngest. Whoever finds the money in their piece of bread will have luck during the New Year. VOICE TWO: Other European countries have New Year’s traditions. In Belgium, for example, children write messages to their parents on colorful pieces of paper. The children read the messages to their families on New Year’s Day. In Spain, everyone must have at least twelve grapes ready on the final day of the year. One grape represents each month in the year. As the New Year begins, a person puts a grape in his or her mouth each time the clock rings. Each piece of fruit is said to bring good luck and happiness in the New Year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The New Year is celebrated in a big way in Japan. Japanese people often begin by cleaning their homes in late December. Some people hang long ropes across the front of their home. This is supposed to keep bad spirits away. Many Japanese people visit a Buddhist religious center, or shrine. Some people wear traditional Japanese clothing. Bells at Shinto shrines ring one-hundred-eight times. A traditional story says that there are one-hundred-eight desires in every person. The story says that people can clean their hearts by listening to the bells ringing. VOICE TWO: Shrines in Japan offer visitors a small piece of white paper. Each has a message about what will happen to that person in the future. Many people tie the paper to a tree near the shrine. January first is a special day for children because they often receive money from their parents. New Year’s greeting cards are another popular tradition. Millions of people write and send these cards to friends in December. Japan’s mail service works to guarantee that all the letters arrive by January first. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all countries celebrate the New Year at the same time. This is because people in different areas have different ways to measure time. Some systems are based on the movement of the moon. Others are based on the position of the sun. Still others are based on both the sun and the moon. Like much of Asia, Korea has two New Year celebrations. One is on January first. The other is on the first day of the Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year begins on the day of the first new moon of the new year. The first day of the Lunar New Year is called Sol-nal (sole-lahl). Sol-nal has many special meanings and events. It is a day for family members to re-unite. On the day before Sol-nal, Koreans place objects made of grass on their doors and walls. This is supposed to protect their families from evil spirits in the New Year. Some families attend a bell-ringing ceremony. VOICE TWO: Many Koreans make wishes for the New Year while watching the sunrise. Some wear traditional clothing. Family members gather early in the morning to remember their ancestors. After the observance, they eat a kind of rice cake soup. Koreans believe that eating this food will add an extra year to their life. After the meal, young people lower their heads to honor their parents and older adults. This means good health and good wishes. Many parents give the children money. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Vietnam’s New Year is officially known as Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet. It begins between January twenty-first and February nineteenth. The exact date changes from year to year. Tet lasts ten days. The first three days are the most important. Vietnamese people believe that how people act during those days will influence the whole year. As a result, they make every effort to avoid arguments and smile as much as possible. Many Vietnamese people prepare for the holiday by paying their debts and cleaning their homes. Some people believe that different gods live in their homes. They say these gods watch over and protect family members. VOICE TWO: Just before the first day of Tet, the mother or grandmother in each family lights a firecracker. This is done to welcome the New Year. Then people go to sleep and wait for the sun to rise. At sunrise, they get up and put on new clothes. Rice cake is a popular New Year’s food. Like people in Scotland, Vietnamese people believe that the first person through the door on New Year’s Day brings either good or bad luck. Children receive gifts of money, as they do in other countries. Some Vietnamese families give money or other gifts to visitors during the holiday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: British Columbia, Canada has an interesting New Year’s tradition. People of all ages put on swimwear and dive into the icy waters of English Bay, near Vancouver. The yearly event is called the Polar Bear Swim. It is named for the large, white animals native to northern Canada. The Polar Bear Swim started about eighty years ago. Today, the event has grown to more than two-thousand divers. Thousands of other people watch the event. VOICE TWO: In Brazil, New Year celebrations also involve water. But it is the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean. Millions of people go to the beach on New Year’s Eve to watch fireworks. They wear white clothes to welcome the New Year and to bring good luck. Some people jump over the waves and throw flowers into the water while they make wishes for the New Year. Others light candles on the beach. However you choose to celebrate the holiday, we in Special English wish all our listeners a Happy New Year! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English New Year’s program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Millions of people are taking part in New Year’s celebrations around the world. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about some of these activities on this VOA Special English New Year’s program. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: People around the world celebrate the coming of a New Year. The celebrations include parties and religious observances. Many people take part in special activities said to bring good luck and success in the New Year. Ancient Romans observed New Year’s Day on March first. Later, Roman leaders made January first the beginning of the year. One-thousand years ago, parts of Europe started the year on March twenty-fifth. By the year sixteen-hundred, many European nations agreed on a new system to measure time. It is called the Gregorian calendar. This calendar moved New Year’s Day to January first. VOICE TWO: Today, Europeans have many ways to celebrate the New Year. Scotland has a famous celebration called Hogmanay. No one knows for sure where the word came from. It could be from the Anglo-Saxon words for “holy month.” Another possibility is a Gaelic expression for “new morning.” Some people think Hogmanay could be from an old French word meaning “gift.” That is because it was common to give gifts at the new year. For many centuries, fire ceremonies have been an important part of Hogmanay. The Scots set small fires as a way to end the old year. Today, Hogmanay includes huge celebrations on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh on New Year’s Eve. More than one-hundred-thousand people attend these street parties. Bells ring at midnight. Everyone kisses each other and sings the traditional New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne. Poet Robert Burns based some of the song’s words on a Scottish poem. Another tradition is called First Footing. Many Scots believe that the first person to enter your house in the New Year will bring either good or bad luck. A tall, dark-haired visitor who comes with a gift is considered very good luck. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: January first is an important day in Greece. It is both the beginning of a New Year and Saint Basil’s Day. Saint Basil was a leader of the early Greek Orthodox Church. Stories say he would come in the night and leave presents for children in their shoes. Many children leave their shoes out by the fireplace in the hope that Saint Basil will visit them. In Greece, it is a New Year’s tradition to serve Basil’s Bread, or Vassilopitta. A piece of money is added to the bread before it is baked. When the bread is ready, it is divided in a traditional way. The first piece is cut for Saint Basil. The next goes to the oldest person in the house. Everyone is served, from the oldest to the youngest. Whoever finds the money in their piece of bread will have luck during the New Year. VOICE TWO: Other European countries have New Year’s traditions. In Belgium, for example, children write messages to their parents on colorful pieces of paper. The children read the messages to their families on New Year’s Day. In Spain, everyone must have at least twelve grapes ready on the final day of the year. One grape represents each month in the year. As the New Year begins, a person puts a grape in his or her mouth each time the clock rings. Each piece of fruit is said to bring good luck and happiness in the New Year. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The New Year is celebrated in a big way in Japan. Japanese people often begin by cleaning their homes in late December. Some people hang long ropes across the front of their home. This is supposed to keep bad spirits away. Many Japanese people visit a Buddhist religious center, or shrine. Some people wear traditional Japanese clothing. Bells at Shinto shrines ring one-hundred-eight times. A traditional story says that there are one-hundred-eight desires in every person. The story says that people can clean their hearts by listening to the bells ringing. VOICE TWO: Shrines in Japan offer visitors a small piece of white paper. Each has a message about what will happen to that person in the future. Many people tie the paper to a tree near the shrine. January first is a special day for children because they often receive money from their parents. New Year’s greeting cards are another popular tradition. Millions of people write and send these cards to friends in December. Japan’s mail service works to guarantee that all the letters arrive by January first. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Not all countries celebrate the New Year at the same time. This is because people in different areas have different ways to measure time. Some systems are based on the movement of the moon. Others are based on the position of the sun. Still others are based on both the sun and the moon. Like much of Asia, Korea has two New Year celebrations. One is on January first. The other is on the first day of the Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year begins on the day of the first new moon of the new year. The first day of the Lunar New Year is called Sol-nal (sole-lahl). Sol-nal has many special meanings and events. It is a day for family members to re-unite. On the day before Sol-nal, Koreans place objects made of grass on their doors and walls. This is supposed to protect their families from evil spirits in the New Year. Some families attend a bell-ringing ceremony. VOICE TWO: Many Koreans make wishes for the New Year while watching the sunrise. Some wear traditional clothing. Family members gather early in the morning to remember their ancestors. After the observance, they eat a kind of rice cake soup. Koreans believe that eating this food will add an extra year to their life. After the meal, young people lower their heads to honor their parents and older adults. This means good health and good wishes. Many parents give the children money. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Vietnam’s New Year is officially known as Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet. It begins between January twenty-first and February nineteenth. The exact date changes from year to year. Tet lasts ten days. The first three days are the most important. Vietnamese people believe that how people act during those days will influence the whole year. As a result, they make every effort to avoid arguments and smile as much as possible. Many Vietnamese people prepare for the holiday by paying their debts and cleaning their homes. Some people believe that different gods live in their homes. They say these gods watch over and protect family members. VOICE TWO: Just before the first day of Tet, the mother or grandmother in each family lights a firecracker. This is done to welcome the New Year. Then people go to sleep and wait for the sun to rise. At sunrise, they get up and put on new clothes. Rice cake is a popular New Year’s food. Like people in Scotland, Vietnamese people believe that the first person through the door on New Year’s Day brings either good or bad luck. Children receive gifts of money, as they do in other countries. Some Vietnamese families give money or other gifts to visitors during the holiday. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: British Columbia, Canada has an interesting New Year’s tradition. People of all ages put on swimwear and dive into the icy waters of English Bay, near Vancouver. The yearly event is called the Polar Bear Swim. It is named for the large, white animals native to northern Canada. The Polar Bear Swim started about eighty years ago. Today, the event has grown to more than two-thousand divers. Thousands of other people watch the event. VOICE TWO: In Brazil, New Year celebrations also involve water. But it is the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean. Millions of people go to the beach on New Year’s Eve to watch fireworks. They wear white clothes to welcome the New Year and to bring good luck. Some people jump over the waves and throw flowers into the water while they make wishes for the New Year. Others light candles on the beach. However you choose to celebrate the holiday, we in Special English wish all our listeners a Happy New Year! (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English New Year’s program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: NEW YEAR'S DAY FEATURE - January 1, 2003 : Celebrating New Year's
* Byline: 

 Announcer: Now a VOA Special English program for the new year's holiday. Here is Maurice Joyce. (MUSIC) Narrator: January first. The beginning of a new year. As far back in history as we can tell, people have celebrated the start of a new year. The people of ancient Egypt began their new year in summer. That is when the nile river flooded its banks, bringing water and fertility to the land. The people of ancient Babylonia and Persia began their new year on March twenty-first, the first day of spring. And, some Native American Indians began their new year when the nuts of the oak tree became ripe. That was usually in late summer. Now, almost everyone celebrates New Year's Day on January first. Today, as before, people observe the new year's holiday in many different ways. The ancient Babylonians celebrated by forcing their king to give up his crown and royal clothing. They made him get down on his knees and admit all the mistakes he had made during the past year. This Idea of admitting wrongs and finishing the business of the old year is found in many societies on New Year's. So is the idea of making resolutions. A resolution is a promise to change your ways. To stop smoking, for example. Or to get more physical exercise. Noise-making is another ancient custom at the new year. The noise is considered necessary to chase away the evil spirits of the old year. People around the world do different things to Make a lot of noise. They may hit sticks together. Or beat on drums. Or blow horns. Or explode fireworks. Americans celebrate the new year in many ways. Most do not have to go to work or school. So they visit family and friends. Attend church services. Share a holiday meal. Or watch New Year's parades on television. Two of the most famous parades are the Mummer's Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Both have existed for many years. Americans also watch football on television on New Year's Day. Most years, university teams play in special holiday games. For those who have been busy at work or school, new year's may be a day of rest. They spend the time thinking about, and preparing for, the demands of the new year. (MUSIC) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: VOA Special English Word Book
* Byline: 

 U under - prep. below; below the surface of; less than; as called for by a law, agreement or system ("The river flows under the bridge." "Such action is not permitted under the law.") understand - v. to know what is meant; to have knowledge of unite - v. to join together universe - n. all of space, including planets and stars university - n. a place of education that usually includes several colleges and research organizations unless - conj. except if it happens; on condition that ("I will not go, unless the rain stops.") until - conj. up to a time; before up - ad. to, in or at a higher position or value urge - v. to advise strongly; to make a great effort to get someone to do something urgent - ad. needing an immediate decision or action us - pro. the form of the word "we" used after a preposition ("He said he would write to us.") or used as an object of a verb ("They saw us yesterday.") use - v. to employ for a purpose; to put into action usual - ad. as is normal or common; as is most often done, seen or heard 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 4, 2001: Preparing Shuttle for Space Flight
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Our Explorations programs often tell about the launch of a NASA space shuttle from Florida’s Cape Kennedy. Today, we tell about the job of making the Space Shuttle Atlantis ready for its next flight. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For many hundreds of years, the only object on Earth made by humans that could be seen from space was the Great Wall of China. That is no longer true. The space shuttle landing area at Cape Kennedy, Florida is so big that it too can be seen from space. The landing area is more than four-thousand-five-hundred meters long and ninety meters wide. VOICE TWO: The men and women who work at the Kennedy Space Center of the American space agency say each new flight of the space shuttle begins as the shuttle safely returns to Earth. Preparations for the next launch into space begin when the astronauts leave the huge vehicle. The space shuttle is quickly linked to a large vehicle that pulls it into a building called the Orbiter Processing Facility. Once in the building, workers begin to prepare the shuttle to return to space. VOICE ONE: Work crews begin to immediately test, repair or replace each and every piece of the shuttle’s equipment. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is forgotten. Each system is studied to make sure it will work correctly during the next flight. The body of the shuttle is carefully examined for any damage. The inside of the shuttle is cleaned. And, workers recently began removing and replacing the engine on each shuttle with one that is better and safer. NASA says a shuttle will remain in the Orbiter Processing Facility for two or three months before it is declared ready for its next flight. When the cleaning and examining are finished, the shuttle is carefully moved to the Vehicle Assembly Building. VOICE TWO: NASA says the Vehicle Assembly Building is the largest building in the world. It is one-hundred-sixty meters tall. The building sits on more than three hectares of land. The Vehicle Assembly building is the first thing that people see when they visit Cape Kennedy. This huge building is where the space shuttle is prepared for launch. VOICE ONE: The Space Shuttle Atlantis is the next shuttle that will be launched. The necessary work on it was just finished in the Vehicle Assembly building. When Atlantis entered the building, each system was examined and final tests were completed. At the same time, two long objects called solid fuel booster rockets were placed on a device called a Mobile Launcher Platform. Then a larger, orange colored liquid fuel tank was placed on the platform. Work crews then used special equipment to pull Atlantis up into the air so that its nose was pointing toward the top of the building. Very slowly the shuttle was lowered to within centimeters of the large fuel tank and the two long booster rockets. Then, these three objects were linked to the underside of Atlantis. When this work was completed, Atlantis looked like it does when it is ready for launch. VOICE TWO: While NASA crews were busy in the Vehicle Assembly Building, the team of experts who control the launch of Atlantis gathered in the Launch Control Center. These experts direct, control and observe all efforts to prepare the Atlantis for launch. The Launch Control Center is crowded with computers. This center is often seen on television. It is the control center where the Launch Director gives the final commands that will send Atlantis up into space. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In June, work on Atlantis was completed inside the huge Vehicle Assembly Building. Atlantis was ready for its trip to the Cape Kennedy launch area. The Mobile Launch Platform was placed on a huge vehicle called a Crawler Transporter. It is the crawler’s job to safely move the space shuttle to the launch area. These giant vehicles are about half the size of a soccer football field. They move very slowly -- only about one and a half kilometers an hour. On June Twentieth, Atlantis was slowly moved out of the huge building. It was taken to the launch area. VOICE TWO: The Crawler Transporters take a shuttle to one of two launch areas called pads. These two areas are Launch Pads Thirty-Nine-“A” and Thirty-Nine-“B.” Both of these launch pads are the same. The Atlantis was taken to Launch Pad Thirty-Nine-“B”. On each of the pads are two large structures that reach high into the air. These are called the Fixed Service Structures. They are used by NASA crews to work on the shuttle. Each structure has a long, moveable device that looks like a huge arm. When it is time for launch, the crew of Atlantis will enter the space shuttle through this arm-like device. VOICE ONE: Another structure covers the space shuttle until it is ready for launch. It is called the Rotating Service Structure. It protects the shuttle from bad weather and permits workers to enter the cargo area of the shuttle. Atlantis will link with the International Space Station during its next flight. It will carry a device called an airlock. The airlock will permit crew members to leave the space station or to link the station with other space vehicles. The airlock was placed in the cargo area of Atlantis while the Rotating Service Structure surrounded it. VOICE TWO: As the date for the launch of the Atlantis gets closer, the Launch Control Center begins a process called a “count down.” Most count-downs begin three days before the planned launch. This is also called “L-Three.” A special clock begins moving backwards, showing forty-three hours to launch. The other twenty-nine hours in that three-day period of time are called “Holds.” The countdown clock is stopped during “Holds.” These time periods are used to slow the process and to observe, study and decide again if everything is ready. The experts in Launch Control may decide to delay the launch if they find a problem. This decision is usually made during a “Hold.” For Atlantis, L-Three will begin at eight hours U-T-C on July Ninth. The space shuttle is to be launched at eight-oh-four U-T-C on July Twelfth. VOICE ONE: The Atlantis astronauts have been in a special medical center in Houston, Texas. They are kept away from other people to make sure they do not become sick before the flight. Early on “L-Three” day, the Atlantis astronauts will leave Houston, Texas and fly to Cape Kennedy. At Cape Kennedy, they will again be placed in a special medical center to prevent them from coming near anyone who may be sick. VOICE TWO: When the count down clock moves to launch minus two days, or “L-Two,” liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be placed into special tanks inside Atlantis. The Atlantis crew will use these two extremely cold chemicals to produce electricity during the flight into space. Workers again will examine all of the Atlantis’ many systems. Other workers will use millions of liters of water to wash the area around the launch pad Thirty-Nine-“B”. They also will carefully inspect the area for objects that may cause damage during the launch. VOICE ONE: On launch day, almost two-million liters of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen will be placed inside the orange-colored temporary fuel tank. More fuel will also be placed in the shuttle. All of this fuel will be used by the shuttle’s three main engines. Three hours before launch, the astronauts will leave their special medical center and go to the launch pad. They will ride an elevator up to the service arm and enter the crew area of Atlantis. There, they will begin a series of communications tests with Launch Control at Cape Kennedy and with Mission Control in Houston. When the clock reaches nine minutes before launch, the last “Hold” will be reached and the clock will stop. The Flight Director will ask the engineers, medical advisors and others experts at launch control if all is ready. There are so many experts it is ten minutes before they can all answer his question. The Flight Director then asks the experts at Launch Pad-Thirty-Nine “B” if all is ready. If everything is normal, the countdown is started again. As soon as it starts, the Launch Control computers will begin launching the Atlantis. VOICE TWO: The computers on Atlantis will take control of the countdown when the clock reaches thirty-one seconds. Seconds later, the three main engines of the Atlantis will start. Fire will appear at the base of the two solid fuel rockets. Very slowly and loudly, the American space shuttle Atlantis will lift off Launch Pad-Thirty-Nine “B” for its flight into space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: An Explanation
* Byline: 

 The feature programs that appear in the center column of our home page do not contain audio files. We add RealAudio and MP3 files for download when scripts go into the Program Archives, usually within 24 hours. To hear the features sooner, click on Listen Now starting a few minutes after 0000 UT. Scripts and audio files for Saturday and Sunday programs are not archived until Monday. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 5, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) IN SEPTEMBER, NINETEEN-OH-ONE, PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY WAS ASSASSINATED. HIS VICE PRESIDENT, THEODORE ROOSEVELT, SUCCEEDED HIM. THIS IS SHEP O’NEAL. TODAY,MAURICE JOYCE AND I TELL THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. VOICE TWO: THEODORE ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. IT WAS A TIME OF RAPID CHANGES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. THE CHANGES WERE A RESULT OF TECHNOLOGY. GREAT PROGRESS HAD BEEN MADE, FOR EXAMPLE, IN TRANSPORTATION. ALMOST EVERY AMERICAN CITY HAD A STREET RAILROAD, OR TROLLEY. THESE SYSTEMS WERE POWERED BY ELECTRICITY. THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS OWNED AUTOMOBILES. AND HENRY FORD WAS PLANNING A LOW-COST VERSION WHICH EVEN MORE PEOPLE COULD BUY. GREAT PROGRESS HAD BEEN MADE IN COMMUNICATIONS. THERE WERE TELEPHONES IN ALMOST EVERY BUSINESS OFFICE IN THE CITIES AND IN MANY HOMES. AND ITALIAN INVENTOR GUGLIELMO MARCONI HAD SENT THE FIRST WIRELESS MESSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. VOICE ONE: IT WAS CLEAR THAT THE UNITED STATES HAD MADE GREAT PROGRESS IN TECHNOLOGY. YET MANY BELIEVED IT HAD MADE LITTLE PROGRESS IN SOCIAL ISSUES. THESE PEOPLE FELT AMERICA'S NATURAL RESOURCES WERE BEING MIS-USED. THEY FELT AMERICA'S FARMERS WERE POORER THAN THEY SHOULD BE. THEY FELT AMERICA'S INDUSTRIES WERE UNFAIR TO WORKERS. SINCE THE LATE EIGHTEEN-HUNDREDS, A SPIRIT OF REFORM HAD BEEN GROWING IN THE UNITED STATES. IT STARTED AMONG FARMERS AND LED TO THE CREATION OF A NEW POLITICAL PARTY -- THE POPULISTS. THEN ORGANIZED LABOR JOINED THE MOVEMENT. THEN MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS. NOT EVERYONE AGREED ON WAYS TO SOLVE SOCIETY'S PROBLEMS. BUT THEY WERE UNITED IN THE BELIEF THAT SOCIAL PROGRESS HAD TO BE MADE. THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY, THEY SAID, DEPENDED ON THE SUCCESS OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT. THE MAN WHO CAME TO REPRESENT THE SPIRIT OF REFORM MOST OF ALL WAS THE NEW PRESIDENT, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. VOICE TWO: ROOSEVELT WAS BORN TO A WEALTHY FAMILY IN NEW YORK CITY IN EIGHTEEN-FIFTY-EIGHT. HE WAS A WEAK CHILD WITH POOR EYESIGHT. HE SPENT MUCH OF HIS TIME READING. WHEN THEODORE WAS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD, HE GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT WITH TWO OTHER BOYS. HE TRIED TO FIGHT THEM. BUT HE WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH. THAT INCIDENT WAS A TURNING POINT IN ROOSEVELT'S LIFE. HE DECIDED TO OVERCOME HIS PHYSICAL WEAKNESSES THROUGH EXERCISE AND HARD WORK. HE LIFTED WEIGHTS, RAN LONG DISTANCES, AND LEARNED HOW TO BE A BOXER. HE CONTINUED THESE ACTIVITIES WHILE HE ATTENDED HARVARD UNIVERSITY. AFTER COLLEGE, ROOSEVELT MARRIED ALICE LEE AND RETURNED TO NEW YORK. HE BECAME ACTIVE IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. WHEN HE WAS JUST TWENTY-THREE YEARS OLD, HE WAS ELECTED TO THE STATE LEGISLATURE. ROOSEVELT QUICKLY BECAME KNOWN AS A REFORM POLITICIAN. HE DENOUNCED ALL FORMS OF DISHONESTY IN GOVERNMENT. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT'S FIRST POLITICAL CAREER DID NOT LAST LONG. HE WITHDREW AFTER FOUR YEARS, FOLLOWING THE DEATHS OF HIS WIFE AND MOTHER. HIS SADNESS WAS SO GREAT THAT HE COULD NOT CONTINUE. ROOSEVELT MOVED TO A RANCH IN THE DAKOTA TERRITORY OF THE AMERICAN WEST. HE BEGAN TO RAISE BEEF CATTLE. AT FIRST, THE LOCAL COWBOYS LAUGHED AT HIM. THEY CALLED HIM "FOUR EYES," BECAUSE HE WORE EYEGLASSES. THEY STOPPED LAUGHING WHEN THEY FOUND HE COULD DO THE HARD WORK OF A COWBOY AS WELL AS ANY OF THEM. VOICE TWO: ROOSEVELT SPENT TWO YEARS IN THE WEST. THEN HE RETURNED TO NEW YORK AND A LIFE IN POLITICS. HE BECAME THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY, BUT LOST THE ELECTION. THEN HE CAMPAIGNED FOR REPUBLICAN BENJAMIN HARRISON IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF EIGHTEEN-EIGHTY-EIGHT. HARRISON WON. AND HE NAMED ROOSEVELT HEAD OF THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. ROOSEVELT FOUGHT HARD TO KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. DEMOCRAT GROVER CLEVELAND WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT FOUR YEARS LATER. HE APPROVED OF ROOSEVELT'S CIVIL SERVICE REFORMS. HE ASKED HIM TO REMAIN IN THE JOB. ROOSEVELT DID SO FOR ANOTHER TWO YEARS. THEN HE BECAME COMMISSIONER OF POLICE IN NEW YORK CITY. ONCE AGAIN, HE PUSHED FOR REFORMS. HE REMOVED POLICEMEN FOUND GUILTY OF RECEIVING ILLEGAL PAYMENTS. VOICE ONE: IN EIGHTEEN-NINETY-SEVEN, PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY NAMED THEODORE ROOSEVELT ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. THE UNITED STATES WENT TO WAR AGAINST SPAIN A YEAR LATER. ROOSEVELT WANTED AN ACTIVE PART IN THE WAR. SO, HE RESIGNED AND JOINED THE ARMY. HE ORGANIZED A FORCE OF HORSE SOLDIERS KNOWN AS THE "ROUGH RIDERS." THEY WERE HONORED FOR BRAVERY IN THE BATTLE OF SAN JUAN HILL IN CUBA. ROOSEVELT WAS NOW A WAR HERO. REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS IN NEW YORK THOUGHT HE WOULD BE THE PERFECT CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. TEDDY, AS THE PUBLIC CALLED HIM, WON A CLOSE ELECTION. HE SOON MADE CLEAR HE WOULD NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM PARTY LEADERS. THE NEW GOVERNOR PROPOSED CONTROLS ON BUSINESSES. HIS MAIN TARGETS WERE COMPANIES THAT SUPPLIED THE PUBLIC WITH WATER, ELECTRICITY, AND NATURAL GAS. HE DEMANDED CHANGES IN THE FOOD AND DRUG INDUSTRIES. AND HE SHORTENED THE WORK DAY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN. VOICE TWO: THE PUBLIC PRAISED ROOSEVELT'S REFORM EFFORTS. LOCAL PARTY LEADERS DID NOT. AS ONE SAID: "I DO NOT WANT HIM RAISING HELL IN MY STATE ANY LONGER." LOCAL LEADERS DECIDED THE BEST WAY TO GET HIM OUT OF NEW YORK POLITICS WAS TO SUPPORT HIM FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. THE OFFICE GAVE A MAN VERY LITTLE VOICE OR POWER IN POLITICS. ROOSEVELT DID NOT WANT THE JOB, FOR THAT REASON. BY THEN HE WANTED JUST ONE THING: TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. HE WAS SURE BEING VICE PRESIDENT WOULD RUIN HIS CHANCES. BUT HE ACCEPTED THE NOMINATION AT THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. HE WOULD RUN ON THE TICKET WITH WILLIAM MCKINLEY. SADLY HE SAID: "I DO NOT EXPECT TO GO ANY FURTHER IN POLITICS." SEVERAL MONTHS AFTER HE WAS SWORN-IN AS VICE PRESIDENT, HE WAS SWORN-IN AS PRESIDENT. WILLIAM MCKINLEY WAS DEAD. THEODORE ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT AS THE RESULT OF AN ASSASSIN'S BULLET. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT PROMISED PARTY LEADERS THAT HE WOULD CONTINUE MCKINLEY'S POLICIES. HE SAID HE WOULD MOVE SLOWLY IN MAKING ANY CHANGES. IN HIS FIRST MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT OFFERED A FEW NEW PROPOSALS. HE ASKED FOR A DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR TO DEAL WITH INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS. HE CALLED FOR A STRONGER NAVY AND FOR LIMITS ON IMMIGRATION. AND HE PROPOSED BUILDING A CANAL IN CENTRAL AMERICA TO LINK THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS. VOICE TWO: BUSINESSMEN WHO FEARED THE WORSE WHEN ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT BEGAN TO BREATHE EASIER. IT SEEMED HE WAS NOT GOING TO PUSH FOR REFORMS AFTER ALL. BUT ROOSEVELT WAS ONLY FOLLOWING AN OLD HUNTING RULE OF AFRICAN TRIBESMEN. "SPEAK SOFTLY," THE RULE SAID, "AND CARRY A BIG STICK." ROOSEVELT SPOKE SOFTLY DURING HIS FIRST MONTHS AS PRESIDENT. HE WOULD USE THE BIG STICK LATER. WHEN THE BLOW CAME, IT WAS AGAINST BIG BUSINESS. A GROUP OF WEALTHY RAILROAD OWNERS HAD AGREED TO JOIN THEIR RAILROADS INTO ONE. THEY FORMED A COMPANY TO CONTROL IT. THE NEW COMPANY WOULD HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION IN THE AMERICAN WEST. THERE WOULD BE NO COMPETITION. VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT BELIEVED THE COMPANY VIOLATED THE SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST LAW. THE LAW SAID IT WAS ILLEGAL FOR BUSINESSES TO INTERFERE WITH TRADE AMONG THE STATES. THE LAW ALSO SAID IT WAS ILLEGAL FOR ANY PERSON OR GROUP TO GET CONTROL OF A WHOLE INDUSTRY. SINCE THE ANTI-TRUST LAW HAD BEEN PASSED IN EIGHTEEN-NINETY, FEW COMPANIES HAD BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF VIOLATING IT. SO, MANY PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED WHEN ROOSEVELT ANNOUNCED HE WAS TAKING ACTION UNDER THE LAW AGAINST THE RAILROAD TRUST. HE SAID THERE COULD BE NO COMPROMISE IN HOW THE LAW WAS ENFORCED. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE SHEP O’NEAL AND MAURICE JOYCE. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – July 5, 2001: Ancient Human Hunters
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Scientists have long debated what caused many kinds of large animals in North America and Australia to disappear. Two new studies blame ancient humans for the disappearance. They say human hunters on both continents may have killed the animals for food. Science magazine reported the findings. Thirteen-thousand years ago, North America was home to many large mammals. They included woolly mammoths, several kinds of horses, camels and oxen. However, these and many other animals died out soon after. More than seventy percent of the continent’s large mammals were affected. John Alroy of the University of California at Santa Barbara led one of the studies. He developed a computer program to study the effect of human hunters on forty-one kinds of large mammals. Mister Alroy based his study on evidence that humans first arrived in North America about thirteen-thousand years ago. He examined how a group of about one-hundred humans could grow in number over a period of one-thousand-two-hundred years. Mister Alroy estimated such things as reproduction rates and the amount of food humans need to survive. He found that it was possible for the small group of humans to expand to about three-hundred-thousand members during the period. Mister Alroy said ancient humans could have killed off many kinds of large animals native to North America. He said the animals that disappeared had low rates of reproduction. This would have prevented them from recovering from the attacks by humans. Science magazine also reported the findings of a study by Australian, French and American scientists. They studied fossil remains from twenty-eight areas across Australia and Papua New Guinea. The scientists said the fossils show that large animals in the area disappeared about forty-six-thousand years ago. That is a few thousand years after humans arrived. More than thirty years ago, Paul Martin of the University of Arizona described how the disappearance of large animals was linked with human expansion. He says the two studies support his position. Mister Martin adds that local climate may have influenced the disappearance of some animals. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-04-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Reading Exercises / Commonly Asked Questions / Using Our Audio Files / How to Find Us on Satellite TV / Note to Publishers / 'New Dynamic English' and 'Functioning in Business'
* Byline: 

 Reading Exercises Test Your Understanding with Questions Based on Our Reports ------ Commonly Asked Questions Questions from Listeners ------ Sound Files All feature texts are first posted without MP3 and RealAudio files. Audio files for programs broadcast Monday through Friday are usually added within a day. Audio files for Saturday and Sunday programs are usually added on Monday. ------ Special English on Satellite TV Each Sunday at 1230 UTC, five of our short features are broadcast by satellite as television programs. Each feature is about 4 minutes 20 seconds long and has captions. For schedule listings, click on any Sunday in the calendar. Choose "View Satellite Map" to see which satellite serves your area. Click for technical support To watch a low-resolution example of Special English TV, click here (RealPlayer required) ------ Note to Publishers If you are interested in using our materials, please contact us at special@voanews.com or write to: VOA Special English Washington, DC 20237 USA Fax: (202) 619-2543 ------ "New Dynamic English" and "Functioning in Business" These two English teaching programs air during the half-hour before each Special English broadcast. They are produced by DynEd International, Inc.: www.dyned.com. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 6, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC - VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today... We play songs by John Lee Hooker... answer a question about the American court system... and, tell about a statue of a character in an American television program. Statue to Mary (BRIDGE MUSIC: THEME FROM MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW)) HOST: That is the theme song from an American television program first broadcast in the Nineteen-Seventies. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” told about a young single woman named Mary Richards. She lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The people of that city are planning to honor her. Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is still being broadcast on an American cable television network called TV Land. Some critics say it was one of the best television shows ever produced. The TV Land network is paying about one-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars to build a metal statue of Mary Richards, played by Mary Tyler Moore. It says the statue will stand on the street in Minneapolis where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat into the air at the opening of each show. TV Land hopes to present the statue to the city in the fall. The mayor of Minneapolis has welcomed the planned statue. Sharon Sayles Belton said Mary Richards was an important character to millions of American women in the Nineteen-Seventies. She also noted that the program showed Minneapolis as a good place to live. Citizens of Minneapolis hope people will want to visit the statue. Other American cities have built similar statues. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has a statue of the character Rocky Balboa played by Sylvester Stallone in the movie “Rocky.” New York City honors a character from the old television show “The Honeymooners”. It has a statue of the bus driver Ralph Cramden, played by Jackie Gleason. The statue is outside New York’s main bus station. Some critics object to the idea of honoring people who never existed. They say it will only create confusion in the future about what was real and what was not. Evan Maurer is director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He says enough people are confused already. He lives in the house that is shown on television as the home of Mary Richards. He says people come to his door wanting to know if Mary Richards still lives there. United States' Court System HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from South Korea. Hoon Lee asks about the system of courts in the United States. The United States court system includes federal and state courts. Federal courts deal with criminal and civil actions involving the United States Constitution or federal laws. Federal courts hear cases involving the United States government. They hear cases between people from different states and cases involving other countries or their citizens. They also hear cases involving situations that took place on the sea and violations of patent and copyright ownership. Each state has at least one federal district court. District courts are the first courts to hear cases involving violations of federal laws. Then the cases may be tried in courts of appeals. The United States is divided into twelve district areas. Each one has a court of appeals. There is also a federal court of appeals. The federal court system also includes special courts. They try cases involving claims against the federal government, tax disputes, and military questions. The United States Supreme Court is the highest court in the nation. A person who loses a case either in a federal appeals court or in the highest state court may appeal to the Supreme Court. State courts receive their power from state constitutions and laws. The first court that hears a case involving a state law is local, such as a county court. Other local courts hear only one kind of case. For example, small claims courts try cases involving small amounts of money. Probate courts handle family financial situations following a death. Other special courts deal with traffic accidents and disputes among family members. Higher state courts are known as circuit courts, or superior courts. These hear more serious cases. The decisions from these cases may be appealed to an even higher court. The highest court in most states is its supreme court. John Lee Hooker HOST: Blues musician John Lee Hooker died at his home near San Francisco, California last month. He was eighty-three years old. Steve Ember tells about one of the most influential blues artists of all time. ANNCR: John Lee Hooker was born in Mississippi. His interest in music came early. He sang religious songs in church as a boy. Hooker’s father was a Christian clergyman. He did not approve of his son’s interest in music. But John Lee Hooker learned how to play the guitar anyway. Hooker dreamed of becoming a professional blues singer. His dream came true in Nineteen-Forty-Eight when his first recorded song became a hit. “Boogie Chillen” was one of the most popular Rhythm and Blues songs that year. (CUT ONE-BOOGIE CHILLEN) John Lee Hooker was a major influence on other musicians and rock and roll bands. He invited some of them to record with him. The result was Hooker’s album “The Healer” released in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. John Lee Hooker won a Grammy award for a song on the album. It is called “I’m In the Mood”. He performs it with Bonnie Raitt. (CUT TWO-I’M IN THE MOOD) “The Healer” became the best selling blues album of all time. Hooker said it was the finest recording he ever made.John Lee Hooker is honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame. He also won five music industry Grammy awards. Last year he received a special Grammy for his lifetime of music. We leave you now with John Lee Hooker singing “Mister Lucky.” (CUT THREE-MISTER LUCKY) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Gary Speizler. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - July 6, 2001: Pollution Linked to Heart Attacks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. New evidence suggests that air pollution found in many American cities may be linked to heart attacks. Researchers say the risk of heart attacks rises on days with high levels of pollution from cars and industry. The problem is believed to be caused by particulates -- very small pieces of a carbon substance called soot. Particulates are released by vehicles and factories. Increasing evidence suggests that breathing these particles can be harmful. Researchers say changes in the beating of a person’s heart may take place after breathing particle pollution. Healthy people may not be affected. But the effects may be dangerous for older people and people with heart disease. Earlier studies have shown that particulates may cause long-term heart disease. The new study is the first to examine short-term effects on the heart. The latest study was done in Boston, Massachusetts, a city with generally clean air. But researchers say the risks could be greater in cities where pollution levels are higher. These include Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California and New York City. Doctors at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center questioned almost eight-hundred heart attack patients. They found that a person’s heart attack risk was sixty-two percent higher on days with the highest levels of air pollution, compared to days when air pollution was low. Researchers say particle pollution appears to interfere with the ability of the heart to pump blood. Breathing these particles causes the lungs to release chemicals in the blood that are carried to the heart. The chemicals may interfere with the beating of the heart. The particles also may cause the blood to thicken and restrict the flow of blood to and through the heart. Studies suggest that people may die quickly after there is an increase in harmful particles in the air. Particulates may also be dangerous because they may include metals such as iron. But some researchers believe it is the small size of the particles, not what is in them, that causes the harm. Experts say particulate pollution may cause about ten-thousand deaths a year in the United States. They say the latest study could be used to urge federal environmental officials to consider stronger air pollution restrictions. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 7, 2001: Microsoft Ruling
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. In November, a Washington D-C judge found the Microsoft Corporation guilty of misusing its power to control the market for computer programs. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson announced his findings after months of trial. He said Microsoft uses its power to illegally block competition. Judge Jackson later ordered that Microsoft be divided into two smaller businesses. The Microsoft Corporation quickly appealed Judge Jackson’s ruling to a Federal Court. Last week, the Federal Appeals Court ruled on the case. It said Microsoft Corporation was guilty of creating a company that used its power to block competition. The seven Appeals Court judges agreed with Judge Jackson that Microsoft limited creativity in the computer industry and harmed the public. They said that Microsoft was guilty of violating several federal laws. However, the Federal Appeals Court also said the Washington D-C court must reconsider its order to divide Microsoft into two smaller companies. The federal court dismissed Judge Jackson’s decision. The appeals court judges accused Judge Jackson of not being fair during the Microsoft Trial. They severely criticized him for comments he made about Microsoft and its chairman to reporters during the trial. The Federal Appeals Court also said Judge Jackson repeated these mistakes several times. It said the public would lose its trust in a legal system that permits judges to speak their opinions to reporters during a trial. Legal experts say both the federal government and Microsoft can claim small victories with the Federal Appeals Court ruling. The experts say government lawyers were able to prove that Microsoft is guilt of violating federal laws. At the same time, Microsoft can claim a victory because it may not have to divide into two smaller companies. Legal experts say government lawyers and the lawyers for Microsoft must now choose one of three different possible paths. First, either side could appeal the Federal Court’s decision to the Supreme Court. Or, they could request a new trial before a different lower court judge to consider some of the unresolved legal questions. A third choice is for both sides to reopen negotiations to try to settle the case privately. Such efforts failed during the Clinton administration. .Bill Gates is the head of Microsoft Cooperation. He says it is now a good time for all the groups involved to discuss the situation and see what kind of solution could be negotiated. Most legal experts believe that the Microsoft company and government lawyers will come to an agreement during future negotiations. They say Microsoft may be punished by being forced to pay money. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - July 9, 2001: World Refugee Day
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations estimates that about twenty-two-million people in the world are refugees. To honor them, the U-N celebrated its first international “World Refugee Day” last month. The day also marked the fiftieth anniversary of an international agreement on the importance of refugees. The Nineteen-Fifty-One Convention on the Status of Refugees defined the legal rights of refugees. The agreement also established international rules for the treatment of refugees. One-hundred-thirty-nine countries have signed the convention or a similar agreement negotiated in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. For World Refugee Day, U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan praised the bravery of past and present refugees. He said refugees are the greatest survivors of our time because they survive even after losing everything but hope. The U-N headquarters observed World Refugee Day with a ceremony at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Events were also held at nearby Ellis Island. This is where millions of people from other countries arrived in the United States during the first part of the twentieth century. Jeff Drumta is a policy expert with the United States Committee for Refugees. He says the U-N refugee agency is facing the worst financial crisis in its history. He says the budget for the U-N agency has had a deficit of more than one-hundred-million dollars in each of the past two years. Mister Drumta says the deficit is largely because of reductions in money given by European countries. Refugee camps have been most severely affected by the lack of money. Mister Drumta says food and medical supplies have been reduced and living conditions have worsened. Another concern is the safety of people living in refugee camps. Bill Frelick is the policy director for the United States Committee for Refugees. He says rebels or militias often attack people seeking safety in refugee camps. For example, Mister Frelick says about two-million refugees fled from areas of war in Africa last year. Later they experienced violence in refugee camps. He says the safety of humanitarian workers is also an issue. During the past nine years, nearly two-hundred U-N aid workers have been killed. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - July 9, 2001: Route 66 Anniversary
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: It is called "the mother road." The main street of America. It extends from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California. This year it celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. The story of Route Sixty-Six is our report today on the VOA Special English program, This is America. (("ROUTE SIXTY-SIX" MUSIC INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: The idea for Route Sixty-Six started in the state of Oklahoma. Citizens wanted to link their state with states to the east and west. By the Nineteen-Twenties, federal officials wanted to connect state roads to provide a shorter, faster way across the country. So a plan was developed to connect existing state roads into one long national road. United States Highway Sixty-Six opened in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. It was one of America’s first national road systems. It crossed eight American states. It was three-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers long. People soon began calling Route Sixty-Six "the main street of America." Route Sixty-Six became the most famous road in America. The road extended through the centers of many American cities and towns. It crossed deserts, mountains, valleys and rivers. VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-thirties, Americans suffered through the Great Depression. Many poor farm families in the state of Oklahoma lost their farms because of severe dry weather. So they traveled west to California on Route Sixty-Six in search of a better life. In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, American writer John Steinbeck wrote a book called "The Grapes of Wrath" about these people. VOICE ONE: In the book, John Steinbeck wrote: "Sixty-Six -- the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map ... over the red lands and the gray lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert, and across the desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys.” Steinbeck wrote: "Sixty-Six is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land … Sixty-Six is the mother road, the road of flight." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Forty-Six, an American songwriter and his wife drove across the country to Los Angeles. Bobby Troup wrote a song about his trip on Route Sixty-Six. He wrote that people could have fun traveling on the road. The song said people could "get their kicks" on Route-Sixty-Six. When he arrived in Los Angeles, Bobby Troup took the song to Nat King Cole. Cole recorded the song. It became a huge hit. Here is Nat King Cole’s daughter, Natalie Cole, singing "Route Sixty-Six." ((TAPE CUT #1: "ROUTE SIXTY-SIX")) VOICE ONE: In the Nineteen-Fifties, many American families began to explore the western part of the country during their holidays. They enjoyed travelling on Route Sixty-Six. In the Nineteen-Sixties, Americans watched a popular television show called "Route Sixty-Six." It was about two young men driving across the country. Route Sixty-Six represented the spirit of movement and excitement. The television show was filmed in cities and towns across America. Yet only a few shows were filmed on the real Route Sixty-Six. VOICE TWO: Also in the Nineteen-Sixties, the federal government began building huge road systems through a number of states. Cars and trucks could travel at very high speeds. People started driving on these new interstate highways instead of on Route Sixty-Six. In Nineteen-Sixty-Two, parts of Route Sixty-Six were closed because they were in bad condition. Then in Nineteen-Eighty-Five, Route Sixty-Six was officially removed from the national highway system. During the past few years, however, people living near the old Route Sixty-Six have formed organizations. They have succeeded in saving parts of the road. They also are saving hundreds of eating places, places to stay and interesting places to visit along the way. VOICE ONE: Michael Wallis is one of America’s top experts on Route Sixty-Six. He wrote a book called "Route Sixty-Six: The Mother Road." Mister Wallis has lived in seven of the eight states that Route Sixty-Six crosses. He and his wife Suzanne have led groups of visitors on a two-week bus trip on Route Sixty-Six. Mister Wallis says there has been a huge increase in interest in Route Sixty-Six from Americans and people around the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Now it is our turn to take a trip on Route Sixty-Six. We will have to search for it at times. Many parts of it have new names or numbers. Some parts of it are included in other interstate highways. Our trip begins in the middle western city of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago is America’s third largest city. It has almost three-million people. From Chicago, the road goes southwest through many small towns in Illinois. One of them is Springfield, the home of America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. Now we drive through Saint Louis, Missouri, a city of more than three-hundred-thousand people. Saint Louis is called "The gateway to the west." Missouri has many natural wonders. One of the most famous on Route Sixty-Six is Meramec Caverns in Stanton. VOICE ONE: The next part of our drive takes us for a very short time through the state of Kansas. Then we enter the state of Oklahoma. Michael Wallis says Oklahoma remains the heart and soul of Route Sixty-Six. That is because there are more kilometers of the road in Oklahoma than in any other state. In Claremore, Oklahoma, a statue honors a famous American, Will Rogers. Rogers was born in Claremore. He became the most popular actor in Hollywood in the Nineteen-Thirties. We pass through many historic towns in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma City, we can visit the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. And in Clinton, we can see the Route Sixty-Six Museum. It is the first official museum that tells the complete history of the road and its importance to America. (MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Now we drive through the northern part of the state of Texas. The area is called the Texas panhandle. We stop near the town of Amarillo to look at an unusual kind of art that celebrates Route Sixty-Six. It is called "Cadillac Ranch." A Cadillac is a large costly American automobile. "Cadillac Ranch" has ten Cadillac cars half buried in the ground. Stanley Marsh, a rich farmer and art collector, created it to honor America’s roads. Continuing west, we travel through the states of New Mexico and Arizona. We pass through some of the most beautiful country in the southwest. Petrified Forest National Park is one of the wonders of Arizona. Trees that are hundreds of years old have been turned to stone in unusual shapes. North of Route Sixty-Six is the Painted Desert. It is named for the colorful red and yellow sand and rocks. VOICE ONE: We continue on our trip driving on a winding road up and down the Black Mountains. We arrive at the town of Oatman, Arizona. Long ago, Oatman was a rich gold-mining town. But everyone left the town when the mining ended. Today Oatman still looks like it did in the past. Now we enter the state of California. We pass through the Mojave Desert, some mountains and several interesting towns. But Route Sixty-Six becomes lost among the large road systems of Los Angeles. This "main street of America" ends at the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. VOICE TWO: Route Sixty-Six celebrates its seventy-fifty anniversary this year. Towns and cities in the eight states along the road are organizing activities to observe the anniversary. There will be special drives for cars and motorcycles along Route Sixty-Six. The largest anniversary events will take place in several cities in New Mexico this month. They include art shows, poetry readings, films, music, dances, and food. This year, people will be coming from all over the world to “get their kicks” on Route Sixty-Six. They will be honoring America’s most famous road. (("ROUTE SIXTY-SIX" INSTEAD OF THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, This is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-06-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 8, 2001: Douglas MacArthur
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long tell about one of the most unusual and successful American military leaders, General Douglas MacArthur. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: General Douglas MacArthur was a most unusual man. He was extremely intelligent and very demanding. He expected his orders to be followed exactly. Yet he had problems all his life following the orders of those who were his commanders. Douglas MacArthur was very intelligent and could remember things that others would easily forget. He could design battle plans that left the enemy no choice other than surrender and defeat. His battle plans defeated the enemy and saved as many of his own men as possible. At other times, he would make simple mistakes that made him appear stupid. He often said things that showed he felt important. Many people made jokes about him. Some of his soldiers sang songs that made fun of him. Others believed he was the best general ever to serve in the United States military. General Douglas MacArthur was extremely brave in battle, some times almost foolish. It often seemed as if he believed he could not be killed. He won him every medal and honor the United States can give a soldier. However, at the end of his life, he rejected war and warned American political leaders to stay away from armed conflict. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthur was born to be a soldier. His father, Arthur MacArthur, was a hero of the American Civil War and continued to serve in the army after the war ended in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. He became the top officer of the army in Nineteen-Oh-Six. Douglas was born on an Army base near the southern city of Little Rock, Arkansas in January, Eighteen-Eighty. He grew up on army bases where his father served. He said the first sounds he could remember as a child were those of the Army ... the sounds of horns, drums and soldiers marching. VOICE ONE: There was never been any question about what Douglas MacArthur would do with his life. He would join the army. He wanted to enter the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The Academy is a university that trains officers for the United States Army. School officials rejected him two times before he was accepted. He finished his four years at West Point as the best student in his class. VOICE TWO: Douglas MacArthur began his service in the Army by traveling to several Asian countries including Japan, and to the Philippines, then an American territory. He also served at several small bases in the United States. He became a colonel when World War One began. He led troops on very dangerous attacks against the enemy. He won many honors for his bravery and leadership. After that war, he served as head of the West Point Military Academy. He became a general. During the Nineteen-Thirties, President Herbert Hoover appointed him Chief of Staff of the Army, one of the most important jobs in the American military. In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, General MacArthur was appointed military advisor to the Philippines. He was to help the government build an army for defense purposes as the Philippines began planning for independence. He had retired from the army. He was the chief military advisor to the Philippine military forces when the United States entered World War Two in December, Nineteen-Forty-One. VOICE ONE: Japanese aggression in the Pacific developed very quickly. Japanese troops began arriving in the Philippines on December Eleventh, Nineteen-Forty-One. The fighting was extremely fierce. The Japanese were defeating the Philippine and American forces. General MacArthur had been recalled to active duty by President Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines to command American forces in the South Pacific. General MacArthur finally agreed to leave for Australia before the Philippines surrendered to Japan. But he made a promise to the Philippine people. He said, "I shall return." VOICE TWO: Military history experts continue to study General MacArthur's decisions during World War Two. He won battle after battle in the South Pacific area. Often, he would pass islands with strong enemy forces, cut off their supplies and leave them with no chance to fight. In Nineteen-Forty-Four, he returned to the Philippines ... with an army that defeated the Japanese. VOICE ONE: MacArthur was chosen to accept the Japanese surrender in September, Nineteen-Forty-Five. He was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the leader of the occupation forces that would rule Japan. As an American soldier, he had to follow the orders of the government in Washington. But in Japan, General MacArthur ruled like a dictator. VOICE TWO: The Japanese expected severe punishment. They saw MacArthur as a very conservative ruler who would make Japan suffer. MacArthur did charge some Japanese leaders with war crimes. But he did not try to punish the Japanese people. General MacArthur told the Japanese they must change, both politically and socially. He began with education. Before the war, female children in Japan received little if any education. MacArthur said education would be for everyone, including girls and women. He said women must have the right to vote in elections, and be permitted to hold political office. He said Japanese women would now have the same legal rights as men. And he said that every person had the same legal protection under the law. VOICE ONE: General MacArthur told the Japanese people they were now free to form political parties. And he ended the idea of an official government religion. Religion would be a matter of individual choice. He also said the Japanese government would no longer be controlled by a few powerful people. MacArthur told Japan it would now be ruled by a parliament that was freely elected by the people. He helped the people of Japan write a new constitution for a democratic form of government. (((MUSIC BRIDGE))) VOICE TWO: On June Twenty-Fifth, Nineteen-Fifty, North Korean troops invaded South Korea. Within two days, the United States decided to send armed forces to aid South Korea. Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of the United Nations forces in South Korea. As the weeks passed, the North Korean army forced the South Korean Army and its allies to retreat to the southern city of Pusan. Many military experts said South Korea was lost. General MacArthur did not agree. He wanted to attack from the sea, deep behind the enemy troops at the city of Inchon. MacArthur said the enemy would not be prepared. Most other military leaders believed this would be extremely dangerous. American Marines did attack Inchon September Fifteenth. It was a complete success. MacArthur had been right. VOICE ONE: General MacArthur often disagreed with political leaders. President Truman warned him several times not to disagree with government policy. General MacArthur continued to disagree and told reporters when he did. He often gave orders that were not approved by the president. MacArthur called for a total victory in Korea. He wanted to defeat communism in East Asia. He wanted to bomb Chinese bases in Manchuria and block Chinese ports. President Truman and his military advisers were concerned World War Three would start. In April, Nineteen-Fifty-One President Truman replaced MacArthur as head of the U.N. forces in Korea. Douglas MacArthur went home to the United States. It was the first time he had been there in more than fifteen years. He was honored as a returning hero. He was invited to speak before Congress. There was a huge parade to honor him in New York City. VOICE TWO: General MacArthur retired again. Some political leaders wanted him to compete for some political office, perhaps for president. Instead, he lived a quiet life with his wife and son. He died at the age of eighty-four on April fifth, Nineteen-Sixty-Four. Today, many Americans have forgotten Douglas MacArthur. However, the people of the Philippines built a statue to honor him for keeping his promise to return. And, many Japanese visitors go to General MacArthur's burial place in Norfolk, Virginia to remember what he did for Japan. ((THEME)) ANNCR: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Your narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long. I’m Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 10, 2001: StarLink Corn Not Linked to Allergies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Recently, American government scientists completed an investigation of a product called StarLink corn. StarLink is the only genetically-engineered crop grown in the United States that is not approved for human use. The scientists said they found no evidence that StarLink corn had made anyone sick. Reports said the announcement could help reduce public concern that the corn represents a threat to human health. A company called Aventis CropScience developed StarLink corn. Scientists developed the corn by a process of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. The changed gene directs the plant or other organism to do things it normally does not do. StarLink is among several kinds of genetically-engineered corn designed to resist insects. Three years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency approved StarLink corn as food for animals. However, E-P-A officials expressed concern that a protein in StarLink might cause allergic reactions in people. Groups opposed to genetic engineering have been testing food products for StarLink. Last year, tests showed it was present in some corn products for people. The makers of the corn products ordered their return.About fifty people told the Food and Drug Administration they had allergic reactions after eating products they thought contained the corn. In the new study, officials from the Centers for Disease Control questioned some of the people who reported allergic reactions. Scientists from the C-D-C and the F-D-A tested the blood of seventeen of the people. The scientists tested the blood for substances called antibodies. The presence of antibodies would show a reaction to the protein in the corn that was considered the possible allergen. No such antibodies were found. The C-D-C said the tests did not find any evidence that extreme sensitivity to the protein caused an allergic reaction. An independent laboratory confirmed the findings. Critics of genetic engineering say the investigation was too limited to show that the corn is safe. But a group that represents the biotechnology industry praised the findings. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 10, 2001: UN AIDS Conference
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about a special United Nations meeting aimed at fighting AIDS -- a disease that is killing millions of people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last month, the U-N General Assembly held its first conference about the disease AIDS. Representatives from the one-hundred-eighty-nine member General Assembly gathered to discuss the AIDS crisis. More than three-thousand government leaders, health experts, activists and people living with the disease took part. Nations recognize that AIDS threatens millions of lives and the economies of many nations, especially in Africa. The U-N AIDS program organized the three-day meeting. U-N AIDS is a joint group of agencies that supervises international AIDS efforts. U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan led the meeting. Its goal was to find ways to halt the spread of AIDS in countries most affected by the disease. Mister Annan opened the meeting by appealing for equal treatment for people with AIDS. He said AIDS must be dealt with by speaking clearly and openly about ways people can become infected and what they can do to avoid infection. VOICE TWO: The AIDS virus was discovered in the United States twenty years ago. Doctors first discovered the disease among men who had sex with men. Since then, it has killed almost twenty-two million people around the world. The disease has left thirteen-million children without parents. Three-million people died of AIDS last year, the most in any year. Fifteen-thousand people are infected with the virus every day. More than thirty-six million people are now infected with the disease. More than seventy-percent of them are in Africa. VOICE ONE: In some African countries, twenty-five percent of the population is infected with H-I-V. Many young people are dying. The disease has infected some of the most productive workers. The work force is shrinking. Businesses are failing because of a lack of trained workers and people to buy products. In many African nations, economic progress to improve living conditions has slowed. Experts say the disease has slowed development by ten years or more. Africa already suffers from lack of development, poor conditions, shortages of food, area conflicts and debt. VOICE TWO: Kenya and Nigeria are each home to more than two-million people with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS. In Botswana and Zimbabwe, more than twenty-percent of the adult population is infected. And in South Africa, AIDS is expected to shorten life expectancies by seventeen years. AIDS also has severely harmed the progress of women in Africa. Rates of infection among women in Africa are now close to that of men. And last year for the first time, more women than men were infected. VOICE ONE: Although the disease has hit hardest in Africa, its effect is worldwide. AIDS is the leading cause of death among people ages fifteen to forty-four. In Russia, there were more new infections last year than in all years combined. India will soon have more people infected with the AIDS virus than any other country. China is not far behind. Within five years, India and China are expected to have a combined ten-million or more infected people. VOICE TWO: However, there is some hopeful news about AIDS. Treatment programs have been successful in several countries. They include Senegal, Thailand Uganda and Brazil. Rates of infection in Uganda have decreased by two-thirds since Nineteen-Ninety-Three. Brazil is one of the few developing countries in the world to provide complete drug treatment for people with AIDS. As a result, AIDS deaths have been reduced by half during the past four years. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: During the U-N meeting, Secretary General Annan proposed an international AIDS fund designed to increase money to fight AIDS in developing nations. The fund would pay for prevention programs and treatment in existing health care centers. It also would be used to improve general health care systems in poor countries to help them provide effective treatment for people with AIDS.Mister Annan said the money would be provided to countries that request it as part of their national programs against AIDS. It would also be used to treat malaria and tuberculosis, which are diseases linked to AIDS. Mister Annan said he hopes to have the fund operating by the end of the year. VOICE TWO: The U-N has said that as much as ten-thousand-million dollars a year is needed to fight AIDS. Several countries, organizations, companies and individuals have promised money for the fund. But only about one-thousand-million dollars has been promised so far. Some European countries say they will give money after more is known about the international AIDS fund. Some countries fear that the money will be wasted in administrative costs or by dishonest governments. The United States has promised to give two-hundred-million dollars to the fund. But AIDS activists say that is a small amount for such a rich nation. Secretary of State Colin Powell promised that the United States would give more money later. Some American congressmen are seeking to increase spending for AIDS to more than one-thousand-million dollars by next year. VOICE ONE: Recently, some of the world’s largest drug companies have sharply reduced the prices of powerful AIDS drugs for developing countries. But AIDS experts say this will have a limited effect until many other problems are solved. For example, many Africans are not tested for the disease. Many African countries do not have the medical equipment to give necessary blood tests. And few doctors know how to give AIDS drugs and supervise their use. Some health experts worry that poor Africans will not take the AIDS drugs correctly. The medicines must be taken correctly to prevent the virus from becoming resistant to the drugs. But other experts say there are enough medical centers and doctors in most African cities to support AIDS drug programs. Activists say the problems with providing AIDS drugs can be solved. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The U-N General Assembly ended its historic three-day meeting with promises to start speaking openly about AIDS. The members promised to protect the rights of people with AIDS and H-I-V. They also promised to reduce infection rates and to treat those infected with the disease. The member nations agreed to provide the money to meet those goals. The promises were part of a Declaration of Commitment. The U-N General Assembly approved the sixteen-page declaration after intense debate by governments and AIDS activists. The document can not be legally enforced. But government officials and citizens are expected to use the document to demand action in their countries. VOICE ONE: The declaration calls for a twenty-five percent reduction in H-I-V infection rates among young people in the most affected countries within four years. The declaration also includes important national goals designed to give more power to women and girls. Infection rates are high among women and girls in some countries. This is mainly because of cultural traditions and national policies. Mister Annan said that the AIDS virus will continue to spread unless women and girls are fully educated and have control over their sexual lives. VOICE TWO: The declaration also calls for measures aimed at providing full human rights to people with AIDS and to groups that have a high risk for the disease.Countries will be expected to strengthen their health, education and legal systems to deal with the disease. Such efforts will require joint cooperation among non-governmental organizations, businesses and people infected with the AIDS virus. Most health experts agree that prevention, care, treatment and research are all necessary to slow the AIDS crisis. They say young people need to be taught how to avoid the disease. They say medicines should be provided to prevent mothers from passing the disease to their babies. And they say more research is needed to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS and a cure for the deadly disease. VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - July 11, 2001: Vitamin C and DNA
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. . cientists at the University of Pennsylvania experimented with vitamin C in test tubes. They published the results in the publication Science. The scientists studied the effects of vitamin C on a substance produced in the body from fat. That substance is called hydroperoxide. The hydroperoxide can be changed in a cell into substances that can damage DNA. The scientists found that vitamin C easily changed the hydroperoxide into the gene-damaging poisons. Such damage is the first step toward developing cancer. However, the scientists said the study does not mean that vitamin C causes cancer. But they said people should probably re-consider taking large amounts of vitamin C pills each day. They say it is well known that vitamin C is important for human health. But they say people can get enough vitamin C in the foods they eat. Earlier studies have shown that eating a lot of fruits, vegetables and grains can reduce the chance of developing both heart disease and cancer. Other researchers agreed. They said the latest study is important in understanding the chemistry of vitamin C. But they said the study did not involve people. The vitamin C was tested in the laboratory only. They said the results might be different in living cells. Mark Levine is a vitamin C expert at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C. He also questioned whether a similar study in people would produce the same results. Doctor Levine also said people should get their vitamin C in food instead of taking huge amounts in pills to stay healthy. He said research does not support taking a lot of vitamin C. The United States government says people should get about eighty milligrams of vitamin C each day in the foods they eat. Studies have shown that the body can not use more than two-hundred milligrams of vitamin C each day. Medical researchers say that taking vitamin C pills cannot replace the value of eating healthy foods. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 11, 2001: Jacqueline Cochran
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of American pilot Jacqueline Cochran. VOICE ONE: Some people's paths in life seem to be straight and true. From an early age, they are set on one goal. Other people's paths turn this way and that. The events of their lives are a surprise. Jacqueline Cochran was one of these people. No event in her early life was a sign of what she was to become -- one of the best fliers in the world. Jacqueline Cochran was known as Jackie. She said she was born in Nineteen-Ten. She did not really know. Her parents died when she was a baby. Another man and woman adopted her. They became her legal parents. These people were very poor. They lived in several towns in Florida and Georgia. Jackie went to school for just two years. Then she began work in a cotton factory. She was eight years old. She earned six cents an hour. VOICE TWO: Later, Jackie studied to be a nurse. But, she decided to be a beautician, a person who cuts and fixes other people's hair. She went to a special school and worked in several beauty shops in the South. Then, she decided to move to New York City. There she worked in a very fine beauty shop. On a business trip, she met wealthy financial expert, Floyd Odlum. Floyd Odlum urged Jackie to learn to fly. He also helped her establish what was to become a very successful business. Jackie had dreamed of selling her own beauty products. At that time, the United States was in severe economic trouble, the Great Depression. Floyd told Jackie it would be very difficult to sell enough beauty products to make her company successful. She would have to sell them all across America. To cover the territory, he said, she would need wings. She thought it was a great idea. VOICE ONE: Years later, Jackie Cochran remembered how she talked with her friends about learning to fly. They all warned her how difficult it would be. She did not think so. So she went to Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island to learn how. After two-and-a-half weeks of lessons, she received her official pilot's license. She immediately flew to Montreal, Canada. The year was Nineteen-Thirty-Two. Three years later, she competed in the Bendix Trophy Race from Los Angeles to Cleveland. The race was an important competition for both men and women pilots. In her first try, Cochran had trouble with her plane. She failed to finish. Another young female pilot, Amelia Earhart, finished fifth. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, Jackie and Floyd were married. She continued to operate her company, Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics. And he continued to support her flying activities. In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Amelia Earhart attempted to fly around the world. She disappeared during that flight. A group of female pilots held a memorial ceremony to honor her. Jackie Cochran spoke at the ceremony. "We can mourn her loss," Cochran said, "but not regret her effort. We will carry on her goals." VOICE ONE: A month after Earhart was declared lost at sea, Cochran flew again in the Bendix Trophy Race. She was the only female pilot. She finished in third place, ahead of several of America's toughest male pilots. The winner of that race flew a new kind of military plane. It was designed by Alexander de Seversky. He had come to the United States from Russia. Seversky wanted to sell his new long-distance plane to the United States Army Air Corps. He thought the army would notice his plane if a female pilot flew it in a race and did well. So he asked Cochran to fly it in the next Bendix race. She accepted immediately. VOICE TWO: Seversky added extra fuel containers in the wings. He wanted to show that the plane could fly long distances without stopping. Cochran would be the first pilot to use the new system. Twenty-one pilots flew a test course before the race. Only ten completed it successfully. Nine men and Jackie Cochran. The race began in Burbank, California, in the middle of the night. Forty-thousand persons were there to watch. Seversky's plane, with Cochran at the controls, speeded down the runway. Its silver wings and body shone in the lights around the airfield. The plane lifted off the runway, climbed up and disappeared into the darkness. VOICE ONE: Another crowd was waiting in Cleveland, Ohio. They cheered as the first plane landed and crossed the finish line. It was the silver plane flown by Jackie Cochran. She had won the race. Cochran had flown three-thousand two-hundred-seventy kilometers in eight hours and ten minutes. She had done it without stopping. But only she knew there was enough fuel left to fly just a few more minutes. Jackie Cochran won something else that year -- recognition. She received the Harmon Trophy, the highest award given to a pilot in America. She would win the Harmon Trophy thirteen more times. VOICE TWO: The next year, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, World War Two started in Europe. Cochran believed female pilots could help in the war effort. She thought they should be permitted to fly military transport planes. In that way, she said, more male pilots would be free to fly combat planes. In Nineteen-Forty, she tried to get the United States Army Air Forces to support her idea. Cochran wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor. She said the real problem in wartime was likely to be a lack of trained pilots. Many women, she noted, already were trained. VOICE ONE: Cochran received permission to go to England to observe female pilots in the newly-formed British Air Transport Auxiliary. She stayed there several years. By Nineteen-Forty-Three, the United States realized that it did need more pilots. The commander of America's Army Air Forces, General Henry Arnold, visited England. He asked Cochran to come home and organize a program for female pilots. The group would be known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. The group existed for two years. During that brief time, the women learned to fly seventy-seven kinds of military planes. One-thousand seventy-four women served as WASPs. They flew almost one-hundred-million kilometers. They were never officially part of the Army Air Forces. They were considered civilian employees. VOICE TWO: At the end of World War Two, the American government gave Jackie Cochran the Distinguished Service Medal for organizing the WASPs. She was the first civilian to receive the honor. After the war, she worked with General Arnold. She helped write a bill that created America's Air Force Reserve. She became the first female member. She was finally a member of the military. VOICE ONE: In the late Nineteen-Forties, Cochran started racing again. She set many more flying records. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, she entered the jet age. The Canadian government agreed to let her test its new fighter plane. In it, she became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound. In the early Nineteen-Sixties, she became a test pilot for the Lockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousand two-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. More than two times the speed of sound. It was the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot. VOICE TWO: Jackie Cochran sold her beauty products company in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. She died of a heart attack in Nineteen-Eighty. At the time of her death, she held more speed, distance and altitude records than any other pilot -- man or woman -- in aviation history. She had risen from a lowly beginning to the heights of business and flight. Jackie Cochran is not as well-known as some of the other great pilots. One history expert said people respected her, but did not really like her. She led the way for other female pilots. But she did not seek their company as friends. Jackie Cochran felt very much at home in the sky. She once described her feelings about flying. This is what she said: "Earth-bound souls know only that underside of the atmosphere in which they live. But go up higher, and the sky turns dark. High up enough, and one can see the stars at noon. I have. I have traveled with the wind and the stars." (THEME) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – July 12, 2001: Leaning Tower of Pisa Repaired
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Engineers are celebrating the completion of repairs to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Italian officials closed the Leaning Tower for safety reasons eleven years ago. Experts now say the repairs will make the building safe for at least a few more centuries. The Leaning Tower is famous around the world. Many visitors to Italy travel to the city of Pisa to see the unusual-looking structure. The round tower is more than eight-hundred years old. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is easy to recognize. The white stone building is sinking, or leaning, on one side. The tower is about fifty-five meters high. Its south side is much lower than its north side. The Leaning Tower is leaning because it was built on soft sandy soil. The soil cannot support its weight. The tower weighs about fourteen-thousand-five-hundred metric tons. The ground under the tower first started to sink soon after workers began building the structure in the year Eleven-Seventy-Three. In recent years, the Leaning Tower has continued to sink. Experts expressed concern that the tower might fall suddenly. In Nineteen-Eighty-Nine, a similar tower in the Italian city of Pavia fell. Four people were killed. The following year, Italian officials closed the Leaning Tower of Pisa. People were no longer permitted to walk up to the top. An international team of building experts began a project to make sure the Leaning Tower does not fall down. The project cost about twenty-five-million dollars. First, engineers placed eight-hundred-seventy metric tons of lead weights on the north side of the tower. This helped stop additional movement. Also, workers tied strong steel cables around the structure. These wires were connected to large weights in the area. Next, engineers slowly removed tons of soil from under the tower. They used special drills to remove small amounts of soil over several months. Slowly the tower moved back to where it stood hundreds of years ago. It still leans, but not as much as before the repairs. Last month, the area around the Leaning Tower opened to the public. However, visitors will have to wait until November before they are permitted to climb to the top. Italian officials say only about thirty visitors will be permitted to climb the tower at one time. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 12, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) THEODORE ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. IT WAS A TIME OF GREAT TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES. YET MANY PEOPLE FELT THERE WAS TOO LITTLE SOCIAL PROGRESS. THEY DEMANDED REFORMS IN POLITICS, INDUSTRY, AND THE USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES. THEODORE ROOSEVELT SUPPORTED THE CALL FOR REFORMS. HIS FIRST TARGET WAS BIG BUSINESS. I'M HARRY MONROE. TODAY, KAY GALLANT AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF ROOSEVELT'S ADMINISTRATION. VOICE TWO: IN THE EARLY NINETEEN-HUNDREDS, A GROUP OF WEALTHY AMERICAN BUSINESSMEN AGREED TO JOIN THEIR RAILROADS. THEY FORMED A COMPANY, OR TRUST, TO CONTROL THE JOINT RAILROAD. THE NEW COMPANY WOULD HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OF RAIL TRANSPORTATION IN THE AMERICAN WEST. THERE WOULD BE NO COMPETITION. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT BELIEVED THE NEW COMPANY VIOLATED THE SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST LAW. THE LAW SAID IT WAS ILLEGAL FOR BUSINESSES TO INTERFERE WITH TRADE AMONG THE STATES. ROOSEVELT SAID HE WOULD MAKE NO COMPROMISES IN ENFORCING THE LAW. HE ASKED THE SUPREME COURT TO BREAK UP THE RAILROAD TRUST. "WE ARE NOT," ROOSEVELT SAID, "ATTACKING THESE BIG COMPANIES. WE ARE ONLY TRYING TO DO AWAY WITH ANY EVIL IN THEM. WE ARE NOT HOSTILE TO THEM. BUT WE BELIEVE THEY MUST BE CONTROLLED TO SERVE THE PUBLIC GOOD." VOICE ONE: THE SUPREME COURT RULED AGAINST THE RAILROAD TRUST. IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, OTHER TRUSTS WOULD BE BROKEN UP IN THE SAME WAY. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CALLED THIS TRUST-BUSTING. AND THEY CALLED THEODORE ROOSEVELT THE TRUST-BUSTER. ROOSEVELT MADE SEVERAL SPEECHES EXPLAINING HIS POSITION ON BIG BUSINESS. EVERYWHERE HE WENT, HE FOUND WIDE PUBLIC SUPPORT. LATER, HE TOLD A FRIEND WHY PEOPLE LIKED HIM SO WELL. HE SAID: "I PUT INTO WORDS WHAT IS IN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS...BUT NOT IN THEIR MOUTHS." VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WON EVEN MORE PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR HIS ACTIONS DURING A LABOR CRISIS IN THE COAL INDUSTRY. THE INCIDENT WAS ONE OF MANY IN AMERICAN HISTORY IN WHICH A PRESIDENT HAD TO DECIDE IF HE SHOULD INTERFERE IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY. COAL MINERS WENT ON STRIKE IN THE SPRING OF NINETEEN-OH-TWO. THEY DEMANDED MORE PAY AND SAFER WORKING CONDITIONS. MINE OWNERS REFUSED TO NEGOTIATE. ONE EVEN INSULTED THE MINERS. HE SAID: "THE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS OF THE LABORING MAN WILL BE PROTECTED AND CARED FOR. IT WILL NOT BE THE LABOR ACTIVISTS WHO TAKE CARE OF HIM. IT WILL BE THE CHRISTIAN MEN TO WHOM GOD IN HIS GREAT WISDOM HAS GIVEN THE CONTROL OF THE PROPERTY INTERESTS OF THIS COUNTRY." THIS SELF-SERVING USE OF RELIGION MADE MANY AMERICANS SUPPORT THE STRIKING WORKERS. VOICE ONE: AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT INVITED COAL MINE OWNERS AND UNION LEADERS TO A MEETING IN WASHINGTON. HE ASKED THEM TO KEEP IN MIND THAT A THIRD GROUP WAS INVOLVED IN THEIR DISPUTE: THE PUBLIC. HE WARNED THAT THE NATION FACED THE POSSIBILITY OF A WINTER WITHOUT HEATING FUEL. ROOSEVELT SAID: "I DID NOT CALL THIS MEETING TO DISCUSS YOUR CLAIMS AND POSITIONS. I CALLED IT TO APPEAL TO YOUR LOVE OF COUNTRY." THE UNION LEADERS SAID THEY WERE WILLING TO HAVE THE PRESIDENT APPOINT AN INDEPENDENT COMMITTEE TO SETTLE THE STRIKE. THEY SAID THEY WOULD ACCEPT THE COMMITTEE'S DECISION AS FINAL. THE MINE OWNERS REJECTED THE IDEA. ONE WARNED THE PRESIDENT NOT EVEN TO TALK ABOUT IT. SUCH TALK, HE SAID, WAS ILLEGAL INTERFERENCE IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY. VOICE TWO: THAT MADE THEODORE ROOSEVELT ANGRY. LATER, HE SAID: "IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE HIGH OFFICE I HELD, I WOULD HAVE TAKEN HIM BY THE SEAT OF THE PANTS AND THE NAPE OF THE NECK AND THROWN HIM OUT THE WINDOW." FINALLY, ROOSEVELT GOT BOTH SIDES TO AGREE TO A COMPROMISE. MINE OWNERS AGREED TO HAVE AN INDEPENDENT COMMITTEE STUDY THE MINERS' DEMANDS. AND THE MINERS' AGREED TO RETURN TO WORK UNTIL THE STUDY WAS COMPLETED. SEVERAL MONTHS LATER, THE REPORT WAS READY. THE COMMITTEE PROPOSED THAT MINERS ACCEPT A SMALLER PAY INCREASE IN EXCHANGE FOR IMPROVED WORKING CONDITIONS. BOTH SIDES ACCEPTED THE PROPOSAL. THE COAL STRIKE ENDED. VOICE ONE: NOT EVERYONE WAS HAPPY. MANY PEOPLE STILL FELT ROOSEVELT HAD NO RIGHT TO INTERFERE. ROOSEVELT DISAGREED. "MY BUSINESS," HE SAID, "IS TO SEE FAIR PLAY AMONG ALL MEN -- CAPITALISTS OR WAGE-WORKERS. ALL I WANT TO DO IS SEE THAT EVERY MAN HAS A FAIR DEAL. NO MORE, NO LESS." ROOSEVELT BELIEVED THE UNITED STATES NEEDED A STRONG LEADER. HE PLANNED TO STRENGTHEN THE PRESIDENCY WHENEVER HE COULD. ROOSEVELT WAS AN ACTIVE, NOISY MAN. AS ONE WRITER DESCRIBED HIM: "THEODORE IS ALWAYS THE CENTER OF ACTION. WHEN HE GOES TO A WEDDING, HE WANTS TO BE THE BRIDE. WHEN HE GOES TO A FUNERAL, HE WANTS TO BE THE DEAD MAN." MANY OF ROOSEVELT'S FRIENDS THOUGHT HE WAS AN OVER-GROWN BOY. "YOU MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER," ONE SAID, "THAT THE PRESIDENT IS ABOUT SIX YEARS OLD." ANOTHER FRIEND SENT THIS MESSAGE TO ROOSEVELT ON HIS FORTY-SIXTH BIRTHDAY: "YOU HAVE MADE A VERY GOOD START IN LIFE. WE HAVE GREAT HOPES FOR YOU WHEN YOU GROW UP." VOICE TWO: THEODORE ROOSEVELT LOVED OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES. HE ESPECIALLY LOVED THE NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE LAND. HE WORRIED ABOUT ITS FUTURE. ROOSEVELT WROTE: "I RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT AND DUTY OF THIS GENERATION TO DEVELOP AND USE THE NATURAL RICHES OF OUR LAND. BUT I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE RIGHT TO WASTE THEM, NOR TO ROB -- BY WASTEFUL USE -- THE GENERATIONS THAT COME AFTER US." ROOSEVELT SET ASIDE LARGE AREAS OF FOREST LAND FOR NATIONAL USE. HE CREATED FIFTY SPECIAL AREAS TO PROTECT WILDLIFE. AND HE ESTABLISHED A NUMBER OF NATIONAL PARKS. VOICE ONE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT FACED THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF FOREIGN POLICY WITH THE SAME STRENGTH HE USED IN FACING NATIONAL PROBLEMS. HE FIRMLY BELIEVED IN EXPANDING AMERICAN POWER IN THE WORLD. "WE HAVE NO CHOICE," HE SAID, "AS TO WHETHER OR NOT WE WILL PLAY A GREAT PART IN THE WORLD. ALL THAT WE CAN DECIDE IS WHETHER WE WILL PLAY OUR PART WELL OR POORLY." TO PLAY WELL, ROOSEVELT SAID, THE UNITED STATES NEEDED A STRONG NAVY. IT ALSO NEEDED A CANAL ACROSS CENTRAL AMERICA SO THE NAVY COULD SAIL QUICKLY BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS. VOICE TWO: FOR MANY YEARS, PEOPLE HAD DREAMED OF SUCH A WATERWAY. WITH A CANAL ACROSS CENTRAL AMERICA, SHIPS COULD SAIL DIRECTLY FROM OCEAN TO OCEAN. THEY WOULD NOT HAVE TO MAKE THE LONG, COSTLY VOYAGE AROUND THE SOUTHERN END OF SOUTH AMERICA. THE MOST LIKELY PLACE TO BUILD SUCH A CANAL WAS AT THE THINNEST POINT OF LAND: PANAMA. ANOTHER POSSIBLE PLACE WAS JUST TO THE NORTH: NICARAGUA. OVER THE YEARS, SEVERAL ATTEMPTS WERE MADE TO BUILD THE CANAL. VOICE ONE: IN THE EIGHTEEN-EIGHTIES, FERDINAND DE LESSEPS -- BUILDER OF THE SUEZ CANAL -- FORMED A FRENCH COMPANY TO BUILD A WATERWAY ACROSS PANAMA. DE LESSEPS SPENT THREE-HUNDRED-MILLION DOLLARS TO BUILD JUST ONE-THIRD OF THE CANAL. HE COULD GET NO MORE MONEY. HIS COMPANY FAILED. IN THE EIGHTEEN-NINETIES, AN AMERICAN COMPANY TRIED TO BUILD A CANAL ACROSS NICARAGUA. IT MADE LITTLE PROGRESS. AFTER THREE YEARS, IT GAVE UP THE ATTEMPT. WHEN THEODORE ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT IN THE EARLY NINETEEN-HUNDREDS, HE WAS READY TO TRY AGAIN. VOICE TWO: A STUDY WAS MADE TO DECIDE WHICH WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE FOR THE CANAL -- PANAMA OR NICARAGUA. ENGINEERS SAID IT WOULD COST LESS TO COMPLETE THE CANAL DE LESSEPS HAD STARTED TWENTY YEARS EARLIER IN PANAMA. BUT DE LESSEPS' COMPANY STILL OWNED THE LAND ON WHICH THE CANAL WOULD BE BUILT. THE UNITED STATES WOULD HAVE TO BUY THE LAND, AS WELL AS THE RIGHTS TO BUILD THE WATERWAY. THE STUDY DECIDED IT WOULD BE LESS COSTLY, OVERALL, TO BUILD THE CANAL IN NICARAGUA. THE PROPOSAL WENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FOR APPROVAL. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, THE MAKING OF A NATION. YOUR NARRATORS WERE HARRY MONROE AND KAY GALLANT. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-11-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Fun with VOA Special English Words!
* Byline: 

 Charles Kelly, an English as a Second Language expert in Japan, has developed games and quizzes that use VOA Special English words. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 13, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... We play songs by Chet Atkins... answer a question about two American inventors... and, tell about a popular rock carving that has come to represent the American Southwest. Kokopeli HOST: Almost two-thousand years ago, a Native American used a sharp rock to cut a picture into a larger rock. He cut the image of a happy man playing a simple instrument called a flute. Members of the Hopi Tribe called this imaginary man Kokopeli. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: The old rock images of Kokopeli can be found in an area extending from Mexico to Arizona and further west to California. It is always easy to recognize him, a happy little man playing his flute with both hands. He usually has long hair or feathers that bend back from his head. He usually has one foot in the air. He seems to be dancing. It is very difficult not to smile when looking at the image of Kokopeli. To the Hopi Indians, Kokopeli represented happiness, joy and fertility. They believed this imaginary little man talked to the wind and the sky. When he played his flute, the sun would come out, snow would melt, grass would grow and birds would sing. The cold of winter would turn to the warmth of spring. All the animals would gather to hear his songs. He was also known to play tricks on people. And he was a teacher and storyteller. The Hopi believed that Kokopeli visited villages carrying seeds to plant corn. Everyone sang and danced through the night. When people got up the next morning they found the corn was almost full grown and Kokopeli was gone. They might also find that many of the young women of the village were pregnant. In recent years, the image of Kokopeli has been used to represent the American Southwest. Several different native American tribes from the Southwest make rings, pins and bracelets that carry the image of Kokopeli. There is more than one hotel named Kokopeli. You can buy T-shirts that carry his image. He is also found on women’s dresses. An eating place in Virginia that serves southwestern food has an alcoholic drink called Kokopeli Beer. Kokopeli can be found in many different shapes and sizes in almost any gift store in the Southwestern United States. If you would like to see a picture of Kokopeli, use a computer to search for his name. It is spelled K-O-K-O-P-E-L-I. Again, it is K-O-K-O-P-E-L-I. And when you see his happy little image, you too will smile. Farnsworth & Zworykin HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Venezuela. Luis Fernandez asks about two inventors, Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin (ZWAWR uh kihn). Both were involved in the development of television. Vladimir Zworykin was born in Russia in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. He came to the United States in Nineteen-Nineteen. He worked as a research engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Company. He invented the first successful television camera tube in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. He also invented one of the first television receivers. Later he worked for the Radio Corporation of America. He improved television technology and helped develop the electron microscope. The United States government gave him the National Medal of Science, the highest science award, in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. Vladimir Zworykin died in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. Philo Farnsworth was born in the western state of Utah in Nineteen-Oh-Six. He was much younger than Mister Zworykin. Yet he also developed an electronic television system in the Nineteen-Twenties. He was the first to show a television image on his system. Philo Farnsworth invented more than one-hundred devices that helped make modern television possible. He also developed early radar. And he worked on developing peaceful uses for atomic energy. He died in Nineteen-Seventy-One. During the Nineteen-Thirties, Philo Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin were involved in a dispute about the invention of television. The Radio Corporation of America began legal action against Mister Farnsworth. It said Mister Zworykin had invented television before Mister Farnsworth. Mister Zworykin was working for R-C-A at the time. The company wanted the right to produce and market televisions. Philo Farnsworth's high school science teacher was able to prove in court that Philo had the idea for television when he was only fourteen years old. So Philo Farnsworth won the legal action and the right to own the invention of television. However, he did not have the money or support to build a television industry. It was the Nineteen-Fifties before television became a major force in American life. Vladimir Zworykin and R-C-A were the names connected to the new industry. Chet Atkins HOST: American guitar player Chet Atkins died last month of cancer. He was known for his ability as a musician and for his work in the country music industry. Shirley Griffity tells us about him. ANNCR: Chester Burton Atkins was born in the southern state of Tennessee in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. His father and grandfather were musicians. Chet Atkins performed on local radio programs. Then he played for professional singers like the Carter Sisters. He started recording on his own in Nineteen-Forty-Seven. One of his first hit records was the song “Country Gentleman.” ((CIUT 1: COUNTRY GENTLEMAN)) Chet Atkins recorded seventy-five albums of country music. He sold more than seventy-five-million albums. He also played on hundreds of hit records, including those by Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, and The Everly Brothers. His own biggest hit was this song, “Yakety Axe”, recorded in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. ((CUT 2: YAKETY AXE)) Chet Atkins is remembered in the country music industry for saving country music after rock and roll became extremely popular. He produced country records that were popular with an expanded audience. He helped many young country music singers, including Dolly Parton, Charley Pride and Waylon Jennings. He also won many awards, including fourteen music industry Grammy awards. We leave you now with the song that won Chet Atkins his last Grammy award in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. It is called “Jam Man.” ((CUT 3: JAM MAN)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Skip Sisk. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - July 13, 2001: Penguins Dying
* Byline: 

 This is with the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Experts say a shortage of fish and other food is threatening many of the world's penguins. They say as many as ten of the seventeen kinds of penguins may be in danger of disappearing. For example, thousands of Magellanic penguins build their nests at Punta Tombo, Argentina. Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have studied these birds for eighteen years. They say the numbers of penguins have decreased by thirty percent since Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. Penguins are black and white birds that live in the southern half of the world. They are common to South America, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Many live near cold waters. But some live near warm waters in the Galapagos Islands, near the coast of Ecuador. Pengins cannot fly. But they are fine swimmers. Penguins eat fish. Some kinds of penguins eat a small shrimp-like crustacean called krill. Many scientists blame global warming for the decrease in penguin populations. They believe the heating of the atmosphere has caused ocean waters to become warmer. The scientists say higher water temperatures have reduced the supply of fish and krill. Rising air and water temperatures may have especially harmed Galapagos penguins. Researchers say that some years these birds are completely unable to reproduce. In addition, many adult penguins die of hunger. Widespread fishing, exploration for oil and oil leaks also threaten penguins. Poisonous organisms in ocean water are another danger. These toxic blooms result from changes in the ocean water. Some scientists believe the warming of the oceans is responsible. In Nineteen-Ninety, more than half the yellow-eyed penguins in New Zealand died suddenly. These endangered birds may have died of a mysterious disease. Penguins also have natural enemies, including wild dogs, sharks, seals and sea lions. News about penguins is not all bad, however. About a year ago, oil leaking from a ship threatened forty percent of the penguins in South Africa. The penguins became covered with oil. But thousands of people helped clean and treat the birds. Then they returned the penguins to the wild. Now these South African penguins are reproducing in higher numbers than before the oil spill. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 15, 2001: Flannery O'Connor
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND I'M RAY FREEMAN WITH THE VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. TODAY, WE TELL ABOUT WRITER FLANNERY O'CONNOR. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: LATE IN HER LIFE SOMEONE ASKED THE AMERICAN WRITER FLANNERY O'CONNOR WHY SHE WROTE. SHE SAID, "BECAUSE I AM GOOD AT IT." SHE WAS GOOD. YET, SHE WAS NOT ALWAYS AS GOOD A WRITER AS SHE BECAME. SHE IMPROVED BECAUSE SHE LISTENED TO OTHERS. SHE CHANGED HER STORIES. SHE RE-WROTE THEM, THEN RE-WROTE THEM AGAIN, ALWAYS WORKING TO IMPROVE WHAT SHE WAS CREATING. FLANNERY HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A WRITER. AFTER SHE GRADUATED FROM GEORGIA STATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, SHE ASKED TO BE ACCEPTED AT A WRITING PROGRAM AT THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. THE HEAD OF THE SCHOOL FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND HER SOUTHERN SPEECH. HE ASKED HER TO WRITE WHAT SHE WANTED. THEN HE ASKED TO SEE SOME EXAMPLES OF HER WORK. HE SAW IMMEDIATELY THAT THE WRITING WAS FULL OF IMAGINATION AND BRIGHT WITH KNOWLEDGE, LIKE FLANNERY O'CONNOR HERSELF. VOICE TWO: MARY FLANNERY O'CONNOR WAS BORN MARCH TWENTY-FIFTH, NINETEEN-TWENTY-FIVE, IN THE SOUTHERN CITY OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA. THE YEAR SHE WAS BORN, HER FATHER DEVELOPED A RARE DISEASE CALLED LUPUS. HE DIED OF THE DISEASE IN NINETEEN-FORTY-ONE. BY THAT TIME THE FAMILY WAS LIVING IN THE SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN OF MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, IN A HOUSE OWNED BY FLANNERY'S MOTHER. LIFE IN A SMALL TOWN IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH WAS WHAT O'CONNOR KNEW BEST. YET SHE SAID, "IF YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, YOU CAN GO ANYWHERE." VOICE ONE: MANY PEOPLE IN THE TOWN OF MILLEDGEVILLE THOUGHT SHE WAS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER GIRLS. SHE WAS KIND TO EVERYONE, BUT SHE SEEMED TO STAND TO ONE SIDE OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING, AS IF SHE WANTED TO SEE IT BETTER. HER MOTHER WAS HER EXAMPLE. HER MOTHER SAID, "I WAS BROUGHT UP TO BE NICE TO EVERYONE AND NOT TO TELL MY BUSINESS TO ANYONE." FLANNERY ALSO DID NOT TALK ABOUT HERSELF. BUT IN HER WRITING A SILENT AND DISTANT ANGER EXPLODES FROM THE QUIET SURFACE OF HER STORIES. SOME SEE HER AS A ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS WRITER. THEY SEE HER ANGER AS THE SEARCH TO SAVE HER MORAL BEING THROUGH HER BELIEF IN JESUS CHRIST. OTHERS DO NOT DENY HER ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. YET THEY SEE HER NOT WRITING ABOUT THINGS, BUT PRESENTING THE THINGS THEMSELVES. VOICE TWO: WHEN SHE LEFT THE WRITING PROGRAM AT IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY SHE WAS INVITED TO JOIN A GROUP OF WRITERS AT THE YADDO WRITERS' COLONY. YADDO IS AT SARATOGA SPRINGS IN NEW YORK STATE. IT PROVIDES A SMALL GROUP OF WRITERS WITH A HOME AND A PLACE TO WORK FOR A SHORT TIME. THE FOLLOWING YEAR, NINETEEN-FORTY-NINE, SHE MOVED TO NEW YORK CITY. SHE SOON LEFT THE CITY AND LIVED WITH HER FRIEND ROBERT FITZGERALD AND HIS FAMILY IN THE NORTHEASTERN STATE OF CONNECTICUT. FITZGERALD SAYS O'CONNOR NEEDED TO BE ALONE TO WORK DURING THE DAY. AND SHE NEEDED HER FRIENDS TO TALK TO WHEN HER WORK WAS DONE. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: WHILE WRITING HER FIRST NOVEL, WISE BLOOD, SHE WAS STRICKEN WITH THE DISEASE, LUPUS, THAT HAD KILLED HER FATHER. THE TREATMENT FOR LUPUS WEAKENED HER. SHE MOVED BACK TO GEORGIA AND LIVED THE REST OF HER LIFE WITH HER MOTHER ON A FARM OUTSIDE MILLEDGEVILLE. O'CONNOR WAS STILL ABLE TO WRITE, TRAVEL, AND GIVE SPEECHES. WISE BLOOD APPEARED IN NINETEEN-FIFTY-TWO. BOTH IT AND O'CONNOR'S SECOND NOVEL, THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY, ARE ABOUT A YOUNG MAN GROWING UP. IN BOTH BOOKS THE YOUNG MEN ARE UNWILLING TO ACCEPT THE WORK THEY WERE MOST FIT TO DO. LIKE ALL OF FLANNERY O'CONNOR'S WRITING, THE BOOK IS FILLED WITH HUMOR, EVEN WHEN HER MEANING IS SERIOUS. IT SHOWS THE MIX OF A TRADITIONAL WORLD WITH A MODERN WORLD. IT ALSO SHOWS A BATTLE OF IDEAS EXPRESSED IN THE SIMPLE, COUNTRY TALK THAT O'CONNOR KNEW VERY WELL. VOICE TWO: IN WISE BLOOD A YOUNG MAN, HAZEL MOTES, LEAVES THE ARMY BUT FINDS HIS HOME TOWN EMPTY. HE FLEES TO A CITY, LOOKING FOR "A PLACE TO BE." ON THE TRAIN HE ANNOUNCES THAT HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST. HE SAYS, "I WOULDN'T EVEN IF HE EXISTED. EVEN IF HE WAS ON THIS TRAIN." HIS MOVING TO THE CITY IS AN ATTEMPT TO MOVE AWAY FROM THE NATURAL WORLD AND BECOME A THING, A MACHINE. HE DECIDES THAT ALL HE CAN KNOW IS WHAT HE CAN TOUCH AND SEE. IN THE END, HOWEVER, HE DESTROYS HIS PHYSICAL SIGHT SO THAT HE MAY TRULY SEE, BECAUSE HE SAYS THAT WHEN HE HAD EYES HE WAS BLIND. CRITICS SAY HIS ACTION SEEMS TO SHOW THAT HE IS NO LONGER WILLING TO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS BUT NOW IS WILLING TO FOLLOW HIM INTO THE DARK. THE NOVEL RECEIVED HIGH PRAISE FROM CRITICS. IT DID NOT BECOME POPULAR WITH THE PUBLIC, HOWEVER. VOICE ONE: O'CONNOR'S SECOND NOVEL, THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY, WAS PUBLISHED IN NINETEEN-SIXTY. LIKE WISE BLOOD, IT IS A STORY ABOUT A YOUNG MAN LEARNING TO DEAL WITH LIFE. THE BOOK OPENS WITH THE YOUNG MAN, FRANCIS MARION TARWATER, REFUSING TO DO THE TWO THINGS HIS GRANDFATHER HAD ORDERED HIM TO DO. THESE ARE TO BURY THE OLD MAN DEEP IN THE GROUND, AND TO BRING RELIGION TO HIS UNCLE'S MENTALLY SICK CHILD. INSTEAD, TARWATER BURNS THE HOUSE WHERE HIS GRANDFATHER DIED AND LETS THE MENTALLY SICK CHILD DROWN DURING A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY. VOICE TWO: CRITICS SAY TARWATER'S VIOLENCE COMES FROM HIS ATTEMPT TO FIND TRUTH BY DENYING RELIGION. IN THE END, HOWEVER, HE ACCEPTS THAT HE HAS BEEN TOUCHED BY A DEEPER FORCE, THE FORCE OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND HE MUST ACCEPT THAT WORD. BOTH OF O'CONNOR'S NOVELS EXPLORE THE LONG MOMENT OF FEAR WHEN A YOUNG MAN MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN THE DIFFICULTIES OF GROWING UP AND THE SAFE WORLD OF A CHILD. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: FLANNERY O'CONNOR IS AT LEAST AS WELL KNOWN FOR HER STORIES AS FOR HER NOVELS. HER FIRST BOOK OF STORIES, A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, APPEARED IN NINETEEN FIFTY-FIVE. IN IT SHE DEALS WITH MANY OF THE IDEAS SHE WROTE ABOUT IN WISE BLOOD, SUCH AS THE SEARCH FOR JESUS CHRIST. IN MANY OF THE STORIES THERE IS A CONFLICT BETWEEN THE WORLD OF THE SPIRIT AND THE WORLD OF THE BODY. IN THE STORY, "THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN," A TRAVELLING WORKMAN WITH ONLY ONE ARM COMES TO A FARM. HE CLAIMS TO BE MORE CONCERNED WITH THINGS OF THE SPIRIT THAN WITH OBJECTS. VOICE TWO: THE WOMAN WHO OWNS THE FARM OFFERS TO LET HIM MARRY HER DEAF DAUGHTER. HE FINALLY AGREES WHEN THE MOTHER GIVES HIM THE FARM, HER CAR, AND SEVENTEEN DOLLARS FOR THE WEDDING TRIP. HE SAYS, "LADY, A MAN IS DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS, BODY AND SPIRIT....THE BODY, LADY, IS LIKE A HOUSE: IT DON'T GO ANYWHERE; BUT THE SPIRIT, LADY, IS LIKE A AUTOMOBILE, ALWAYS ON THE MOVE...." HE MARRIES THE DAUGHTER AND DRIVES OFF WITH HER. WHEN THEY STOP TO EAT, THE MAN LEAVES HER AND DRIVES OFF TOWARD THE CITY. ON THE WAY HE STOPS AND GIVES A RIDE TO A WANDERING BOY. WE LEARN THAT WHEN THE ONE-ARMED MAN WAS A CHILD HIS MOTHER LEFT HIM. CRITICS SAY THAT WHEN HE HELPS THE BOY HE IS HELPING HIMSELF. VOICE ONE: IN NINETEEN-SIXTY-FOUR, O'CONNOR WAS OPERATED ON FOR A STOMACH DISEASE. ONE RESULT OF THIS OPERATION WAS THE RETURN OF LUPUS, THE DISEASE THAT KILLED HER FATHER. ON AUGUST THIRD, NINETEEN-SIXTY-FOUR, FLANNERY O'CONNOR DIED. SHE WAS THIRTY-NINE YEARS OLD. NEAR THE END OF HER LIFE SHE SAID, "I'M A BORN CATHOLIC, AND DEATH HAS ALWAYS BEEN BROTHER TO MY IMAGINATION." VOICE TWO: THE NEXT YEAR, IN NINETEEN-SIXTY-FIVE, HER FINAL COLLECTION OF STORIES, EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE, APPEARED. IN IT SHE SPEAKS OF THE CRUELTY OF DISEASE AND THE DEEPER CRUELTY THAT EXISTS BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN. IN THESE STORIES, GROWN CHILDREN ARE IN A STRUGGLE WITH PARENTS THEY NEITHER LOVE NOR LEAVE. MANY OF THE CHILDREN FEEL GUILTY ABOUT HATING THE MOTHERS WHO, THE CHILDREN FEEL, HAVE DESTROYED THEM THROUGH LOVE. THE CHILDREN WANT TO REBEL VIOLENTLY, BUT THEY FEAR LOSING THEIR MOTHERS' PROTECTION. IN NINETEEN-SEVENTY-ONE, O'CONNOR'S COLLECTED STORIES WAS PUBLISHED. THE BOOK CONTAINS MOST OF WHAT SHE WROTE. IT HAS ALL THE STORIES OF HER EARLIER COLLECTIONS. IT ALSO HAS EARLY VERSIONS OF BOTH NOVELS THAT WERE FIRST PUBLISHED AS STORIES. AND IT HAS PARTS OF AN UNCOMPLETED NOVEL AND AN UNPUBLISHED STORY. IN NINETEEN-SEVENTY-TWO THIS LAST BOOK WON THE AMERICAN BOOK INDUSTRY'S HIGHEST PRIZE, THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD. AS ONE CRITIC NOTED, FLANNERY O'CONNOR DID NOT LIVE LONG, BUT SHE LIVED DEEPLY, AND WROTE BEAUTIFULLY. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THIS SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY RICHARD THORMAN. I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND I'M RAY FREEMAN. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER PEOPLE IN AMERICA PROGRAM ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – July 14, 2001: Chandra Levy Case
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The American media is closely following the case of a missing young woman. Chandra Levy disappeared in Washington, D-C, two months ago. New information about the investigation of her disappearance is reported by the media almost daily. Chandra Levy was last seen April Thirtieth in Washington. She had just completed a temporary job as an intern with the federal Bureau of Prisons. Mizz Levy was preparing to return home to California when she disappeared. She is twenty-four years old. Almost one-hundred thousand people are listed as missing in the United States now. The media interest in the Chandra Levy case is so intense because she had told family members she was having a relationship with a Congressman, Gary Condit. The fifty-three year old Congressman is married and has two children. He represents an area in central California where the Levy family lives. The Congressman’s spokesmen denied reports of the relationship. Mister Condit said Mizz Levy was a good friend. Yet, news reports said Mister Condit admitted to police he had a sexual relationship with the young woman. Mister Condit has denied any knowledge of what happened to Mizz Levy. And he has offered reward money for information about her. Police working on the case have questioned about one-hundred people. The police say Mister Condit is not a suspect in the case. His lawyers say he has agreed to help with the investigation. Earlier this week, Mister Condit permitted police to search his Washington home. Chandra Levy’s disappearance has increased public interest in the interns who work in Washington each year. Most interns are college students who work for no pay or very little pay. An internship offers a chance to experience the excitement of the nation’s capital. Some students are considering employment with the government or a public interest group. Almost every large organization in Washington has interns. Interns work hard to be successful because they hope to be offered full-time employment. Many do work like opening mail and answering telephones that no one else wants to do. Yet their work can put young interns close to powerful people. And experts say that being close to power can influence a person’s judgement. For some interns, the Washington experience can lead to trouble. The most famous intern in the Nineteen-Nineties was Monica Lewinsky. While she was working at the White House, she became sexually involved with President Bill Clinton. Critics say some people in power misuse interns. But others say interns are adults who can make their own decisions. And most of the thousands of interns in Washington each year praise their experience. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-16-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - July 16, 2001: Smithsonian Folklife Festival
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. is famous around the world. Each summer, the Smithsonian organizes a celebration of cultural traditions. It is called the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. We tell about the recent Smithsonian Folklife Festival on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to Washington usually spend some time on the open grassy area called the National Mall. The United States Capitol building is at the east end of the Mall. The monument honoring America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, is at the west end. Museums and Smithsonian Institution buildings are on the north and south sides of the Mall. Usually, the Mall is a place where people walk, sit or play. But for ten days each summer, part of the area is crowded with unusual sights, sounds and smells. That is when the Smithsonian holds its Folklife Festival. Today, we bring you some of these sights and sounds. ((CUT 1: CHINESE OPERA MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: That is the sound of Chinese classical music performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival this year. It was just one of many kinds of music that Festival visitors enjoyed. People have been visiting The Smithsonian Folklife Festival each summer for the past thirty-five years. The word folklife describes the cultural traditions of a people. It includes their music and art. Their stories and celebrations. The things they make for their homes and to sell. These cultural traditions are passed from old people to the young. Few traditions are taught in schools. Young people learn them from living within a cultural group. The Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage organized the festival. It ended on July eighth. Each festival is about different cultures and people. This year, the festival presented the cultures of New York City and the islands of Bermuda. VOICE ONE: Bermuda includes more than three-hundred islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. About sixty-three-thousand people live on twenty of the islands. One of these islands is also called Bermuda. About four-hundred-thousand people visit that island each year. Presentations at the Folklife Festival showed some of what those visitors see. Three-hundred artists and crafts workers showed the different kinds of work performed by people in Bermuda. These included a beekeeper and his bees and boat builders with their boats. One grassy area of the Mall was covered with small Bermudan boats and flowers common in the islands. Bermudan athletes played cricket while announcers explained the sport and told stories about it. Visitors saw a small Bermudan house. They learned about weddings and preparing food. A large tent sold traditional food from Bermuda. On the musical stage, Bermudan musicians performed native music. These included Bermudan jazz, religious songs, calypso and reggae. Here the calypso group called the Bermudan Strollers performs the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” ((CUT 2: DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY)) VOICE TWO: New York City was the other culture represented at the Folklife Festival. Festival officials decided to show the city as its own people see it. So the festival included people who demonstrated how stocks and bonds are bought and sold on Wall Street in the financial area of New York. The festival also included explanations and demonstrations of the different kinds of transportation used in New York. Visitors saw an underground rail car or subway. They also saw a taxicab and a city bus. New York City bus driver Tony Palombella told stories about his eighteen years driving a bus in New York. And he cooked some Italian food at the festival, too. He learned to cook Italian food from his mother. VOICE ONE: Another kind of food that is culturally linked to New York City is the bagel. A bagel is a thick, round piece of bread with a hole in the middle. Old stories say the bagel was first developed in Poland and brought to New York by Polish Jews. Bagels have become extremely popular in the United States. You can buy them just about anywhere in the country today. But many Americans say the best bagels are made and sold in New York City. Steve Ross probably would agree. He has owned a bagel shop in New York for more than sixty years. At the Folklife Festival, he demonstrated how to make bagels and another kind of bread, a bialy. A bialy is also a round piece of bread, but it is thinner than a bagel and has no hole in the middle. Instead, it has onions in the middle. VOICE TWO: The Folklife Festival representation of New York City was really a celebration of many different cultures. Each culture represented a group of people who came to the United States from a different country and settled in New York City. These people include Greeks, Indians, Chinese, Albanians, Caribbeans, Africans, Europeans, Lebanese, Ukrainians and many others. The Festival presented music of these different groups. Many New Yorkers still perform and enjoy this music as a way of keeping their culture alive. Here is an example -- Romanian-Gypsy music. ((CUT 3: MILLINO KOLO)) VOICE ONE: Artists were also represented in the New York celebration at the Folklife Festival. One group is called Tats Cru. It is a six-person graffiti organization. Graffiti is artwork painted on the subway cars in New York. Teenagers would paint the cars and the station walls with bright colors, words and pictures. Such graffiti has been illegal in New York for many years. The three founding members of Tats Cru started painting graffiti in New York twenty years ago. Tats Cru is now a legal business. It paints pictures on buildings. The artists have worked in the United States, Canada and Europe. At the Folklife Festival, they painted a large picture on a special wall. VOICE TWO: The musical shows presented on Broadway in New York were also represented at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. People who make clothes for performers in Broadway shows demonstrated their skills. So did a theatrical wig maker, a person who makes false hair for people acting in plays. Actors and singers showed how a Broadway musical is prepared. We leave you now with some music from that show, “Guys and Dolls”. ((CUT 4: "GUYS ANDS DOLLS" OVERTURE INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-16-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - July 16, 2001: WHO and Tuberculosis
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says the disease tuberculosis could be brought under control in the next five years if nations would provide more money. The health agency is asking member countries to give an additional four-hundred-million dollars a year to help fight the disease. Gro Harlem Brundtland heads the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Doctor Brundtland says tuberculosis will be a major target in the coming year. About eight-million people around the world are sick with tuberculosis, or T-B. However, only twenty-three percent of these people receive treatment. Between Nineteen-Ninety-Seven and Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, the total number of tuberculosis infections increased six percent. This rise in T-B was seen mostly in Africa. Experts say this is because the disease AIDS has decreased the ability of people’s defense systems to fight T-B. The W-H-O estimates that one-third of all the people who die from T-B also have AIDS. The health agency called for more financial help in a report to the organization’s one-hundred-ninety-one members. The report said about two-million people die each year from T-B. Nearly all of these deaths are in developing countries. The W-H-O plans to target twenty-two of the countries most affected by the disease. These include India, China, Indonesia and Nigeria. The W-H-O says the extra money will be used to train more health workers. The money is also needed to improve health systems in some countries. And it will be used to help officials who give out and supervise treatment. The cost of treatment for tuberculosis is low -- only about ten dollars for a full six-month series of drugs. Patients must take the medicine every day or the treatment will not be effective. If a patient stops taking the medicine, a new kind of T-B bacteria may develop which is resistant to the drugs. The World Health Organization says the additional money could extend T-B treatment to seventy percent of infected people around the world. The health agency believes the number of T-B deaths could be cut in half by the year Two-Thousand-Ten. However, without the additional money, the W-H-O expects tuberculosis deaths to increase by one-hundred percent over the next ten years. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-16-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 17, 2001: Heart  Devices
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about a patient who received a new kind of mechanical heart. And we tell about a device implanted in Vice President Dick Cheney to make his heart beat normally. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, American doctors placed a mechanical heart in the chest of a patient dying of heart disease. The new device has no wires or tubes connected to equipment outside the body. It was the first such implant ever placed in a human. The mechanical heart is called an AbioCor. It contains a pump that forces blood through the device to replace normal heart action. Abiomed Incorporated of Danvers, Massachusetts developed the mechanical heart. It is made of titanium and plastic. It weighs less than one kilogram. Laman Gray and Robert Dowling placed the AbioCor in the patient at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. The operation took seven hours. Its goal was to permit the patient to live a month or two longer. Hospital officials identified the patient only as a man in his fifties. He had suffered several damaging heart attacks. Examinations showed he had only days or weeks to live. He also had diabetes and kidney failure. This prevented him from receiving a human heart. VOICE TWO: During the operation, Doctor Gray and Doctor Dowling removed most of the man's diseased heart. Then they connected the AbioCor to the two upper parts of the remaining heart, the left and right atria. The doctors connected the mechanical heart to the aorta, the main artery to the body. They also connected the device to the pulmonary artery, which carries blood to the lungs. Unlike a human heart, the rhythm of the AbioCor depends on the level of blood pressure in the arteries. The human heart pumps blood to the body and lungs at the same time. The AbioCor works differently. It pumps blood to the body. Then it pumps blood to the lungs. Then it pumps blood to the body again. The AbioCor receives power from a battery worn on the body. The patient wears this battery pack around the waist, like a belt. It sends power across the skin to another battery inside the abdomen. Doctor Gray noted that the patient’s body does not reject the mechanical heart because it does not contain foreign tissue. VOICE ONE: Space engineers helped develop the AbioCor. They designed it to prevent blockages in blood vessels that cause strokes. They also designed it to prevent infections. These conditions harmed patients who received earlier mechanical hearts. The earlier devices depended on tubes from the patient to machines outside the body. Infections developed because the patient always had an open wound. And the patient could not move around without also moving the equipment. The federal government approved the AbioCor earlier this year for experimental use. Its developers say the goal of the device is to give severely sick patients another one to five years of life. But Abiomed officials also said they would consider their invention successful if the patient in Kentucky survived for sixty days. This is because his condition was so poor before receiving the device. Doctors also want to learn if the implant causes pain or robs the patient of any mental abilities. Several other patients with severe heart disease also may receive the mechanical hearts. Four other hospitals in the United States have been chosen to perform AbioCor implant operations. VOICE TWO: Experts not involved in the AbioCor implant disagreed about its value. Some doctors praised the AbioCor as a major development in treatment of heart disease. They said the mechanical heart could keep patients alive while they wait to receive a human heart. Other experts said better tools than the AbioCor are currently in use. For example, some patients with severe heart disease receive ventricular assist devices. Doctors implant this device in the patient’s chest without removing the heart. It helps the heart work better. Doctors have used ventricular assist devices for ten years. The first permanent mechanical heart was placed in a human patient in the United States in Nineteen-Eighty-Two. Robert Jarvik invented this device, the Jarvik-Seven. It was implanted in the chest of a man named Barney Clark. The Jarvik-Seven had tubes from the patient to large equipment outside his body. Mister Clark lived one-hundred-twelve days after the operation. During that time he suffered kidney failure and other severe problems. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Steve Ember in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE (CONT): Doctors in Washington, D.C. recently placed a special heart device in the chest of Vice President Dick Cheney. The goal was to help his heart beat normally. Mister Cheney had the operation at George Washington University Hospital. Doctors performed the operation to prevent trouble with the rhythm of his heart. Mister Cheney is sixty years old. He has suffered four heart attacks in the last twenty-three years. This was the third operation to treat a heart problem since he was elected vice president in November. The vice president received a device called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator or I-C-D. The electrical device has two purposes. One is to keep the heart beating at a normal rate. The other is to prevent the heart from fibrillating. Fibrillation is a dangerous process in which the heart beats wildly out of control. So the device is both a pacemaker and defibrillator. A pacemaker speeds up a heart that is beating too slowly. A defibrillator prevents death from a wildly beating heart. VOICE TWO: Doctors placed the small I-C-D in Mister Cheney’s body through a cut in the chest below the shoulder. The I-C-D records heart activity through wires called leads. These leads are passed through veins into the heart. There they act like a computer as they document heart action. An I-C-D speeds a patient's heartbeat if it falls below forty beats each minute. The device also slows the heartbeat if it becomes faster than one-hundred beats a minute. And the I-C-D sends more electricity if the heart starts beating out of control. This additional electricity can stop abnormally wild, fast heartbeats before they become deadly. When the device detects harmful rhythms, it sends a shock of electricity through the leads to correct the rhythms. Sometimes the patient does not feel this. Other times it can feel like being hit in the chest. VOICE ONE: Almost sixty-eight-thousand people around the world received I-C-D devices last year. The vice president decided to have the I-C-D after being examined by a heart monitor. This device records the electrical performance of the heart. Mister Cheney wore it for thirty-four hours. His doctor observed that Mister Cheney's heart beat abnormally fast four times during the test. This abnormal activity is called ventricular tachycardia. It happens when the main pumping part of the heart beats too quickly. Mister Cheney then had another test called an electrophysiology study. This test confirmed his need for the I-C-D. The vice president returned to work less than forty-eight hours after receiving his I-C-D. VOICE TWO: Dick Cheney had his first heart attack at age thirty-seven. He suffered his most recent heart attack last November. Doctors told him that that one artery was almost completely blocked. They placed a small metal tube device inside the artery to keep it open. This device is called a stent. VOICE TWO (CONT): Mister Cheney went to the hospital again after suffering chest pains in March. The doctors found a one-millimeter area of narrowing at one end of the stent. The doctors opened the blocked area using a method called balloon angioplasty. Vice President Cheney's heart trouble has caused some observers to question whether he can finish his term in office. But his doctors and other experts say Mister Cheney should be well enough to carry out his duties as vice president. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-16-6-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 17, 2001: Mad Cow Conference
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Animal health experts say all countries should guard against Mad Cow Disease. The experts urge countries to take steps to prevent Mad Cow Disease in animals. They also support measures to prevent the human form of the disease. The experts met at a conference in Paris, France last month. The World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Animal Health Organization organized the meeting. The official name of the cattle disease is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or B-S-E. It causes holes in the brain. Cows act strangely before they die. So it is known as Mad Cow Disease. B-S-E first appeared in Britain. All animals known to have the disease have been found in Europe or imports from Europe. Scientists believe that eating infected beef may cause a similar disease in humans. This deadly disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. It cannot be cured. In recent years, nearly one-hundred people in Europe have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Officials at the conference said more than thirty countries have banned the import of meat and bone meal and live cattle from western Europe. The officials said countries can be considered at risk for B-S-E if they imported such products from western Europe during the past twenty years. They said parts of Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East are at increased risk. The Food and Agriculture Organization says banning imports of meat and bone meal, cattle and beef is not the only way to control the spread of B-S-E. The F-A-O suggests testing high risk animals, especially imported animals. And it urges animal feed producers to test the quality of their products. F-A-O officials urge governments to establish a national action plan to control B-S-E. They say all countries should ban the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle, goats and sheep. The officials also urge countries to approve measures to control the killing of animals for food. They say this would reduce the chance of infected meat being sold as food for people. They also say the human food supply should not include the riskiest animal parts, such as the head and spinal cord. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - July 18, 2001: Men's Heart Risk
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A recent American study shows that a man’s race and where he lives affect his chances of dying of heart disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention carried out the study. Elizabeth Barnett of West Virginia University was the lead writer of the study. The scientists studied American men who died of heart disease between Nineteen-Ninety-One and Nineteen-Ninety-Five. The men were thirty-five or older. The study showed that African-American men are twenty-six percent more likely than white men to die of heart disease. Black men are almost two times as likely as Hispanic men to die of heart disease. White men are the second highest risk group. American Indians, Alaska Native men and Hispanic men of all races followed. Asian and Pacific Islander men have the fewest heart disease deaths. The study found that men who live in three southern states have the highest rate of dying of heart disease. They are Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky. Colorado, Utah and Hawaii have the lowest heart disease death rates. The researchers found that men who live in most major cities have low to moderate heart disease death rates. But New York City has some of the highest death rates for the disease. The researchers say they do not believe differences in genes increase heart disease risk. Instead, they blame social conditions like lack of jobs. For example, a number of southern areas with high unemployment had many heart disease deaths. The scientists also blame poor working conditions, bad diet and lack of good health services. Mizz Barnett said the highest death rates from heart disease are in states with the poorest economies and few health care resources. She said this is especially true in underdeveloped areas far from cities. The Surgeon General of the United States, David Satcher, also commented on the study. He said too many men, especially men of color, are dying from a disease that can be prevented. He said heart disease can be prevented by changing lifestyles and social conditions in communities. These changes include providing healthy foods, exercise centers and jobs in healthy workplaces. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 18, 2001: Cloning Trees
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program “EXPLORATIONS.” Today, we tell about an unusual project to save and reproduce some of the biggest and oldest trees in the United States. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Our story begins more than two-thousand meters high in the White Mountains in the western state of California. The White Mountains are near California’s border with Nevada. This is an area of weather extremes. In the winter the temperature is extremely cold. Snow can be very deep. In the summer, this same area can be extremely hot and suffer from a lack of water. The wind blows hard here almost all the time. Something very special is here, too. California’s White Mountains have something no mountains in the rest of the world can claim. They are home to the oldest living thing on Earth. VOICE TWO: The oldest living thing is a kind of tree called a Bristlecone Pine. The oldest of them is a Bristlecone Pine that local people call Methuselah. Methuselah is a person in the Christian holy book, the Bible, who is supposed to have lived nine-hundred-sixty-nine years. Methuselah the Bristlecone Pine is much older than the Methuselah written about in the Bible. It fact, experts say Methuselah the tree is almost five-thousand years old. This very old tree also looks very dead. It seems to be a collection of bent and twisted wood. It looks as if it has been shaped by the fierce wind that blows in the White Mountains. Methuselah looks more like a wood statue than a tree. But if you look closely you can see a few small green leaves. Methuselah is still very much alive. Methuselah is a very successful example of a Bristlecone pine tree. Experts say it is a true champion among trees. Methuselah would be an excellent choice if you wanted to make an exact copy of a Bristlecone Pine. And an environmental group has already made plans to do so. VOICE ONE: Our story now moves from the California mountains to a farm in the small town of Buckley in the middle western state of Michigan. George Svec is a farmer. He plants corn. A huge American Elm tree is in one of Mister Svec’s cornfields. It is more than thirty-four meters tall. Experts say it could be almost four-hundred years old. This huge American Elm tree is very unusual. It survived a tree disease that killed millions of American Elms beginning in the Nineteen-Fifties. American Elm trees are now in danger of disappearing from the Earth. Experts believe Mister Svec’s tree is resistant to the disease. They believe it was exposed to the disease but did not become infected. Mister Svec’s American Elm is another true champion among trees because of its size and the fact that it may have successfully protected itself against the disease. Mister Svec’s American Elm and Methuselah the Bristlecone Pine are both part of the Champion Tree Project. The people who created the project work to protect and copy as many of America’s champion trees as possible. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The first settlers to arrive on the East Coast of North America found a land filled with many different kinds of huge trees. Some forests were so thick it was difficult for travelers to find a path through them. The huge forests provided lumber to build homes. They also provided wood for cooking fires. Settlers removed many trees to clear the land and plant farm crops. In time, the trees slowly began to disappear. The Champion Tree Project hopes to help replace some of the trees that have been lost over the years. The project will use a method called cloning. Experts take a small living part from a champion tree and place it inside a cut made in a more common tree. The cut is then wrapped very tightly to prevent water or insects from entering it. As the cloned tree begins to grow, it will have all the genes of the parent champion tree. This kind of cloning is called grafting. It is a very old method used to successfully reproduce plants and trees. One tree that will be cloned is Mister Svec’s American Elm. It is a candidate for the Champion Tree Project because it is the largest tree of its kind. And cloning that tree would help make sure that the American Elm will survive. VOICE ONE: The Champion Tree Project is five years old now. It was the idea of David Milarch and his son Jared. They own a small tree and plant business in the town of Copemish, Michigan. At the age of sixteen, Jared Milarch asked his father why so many trees were dying. He asked why they could not copy or graft some of the champion trees he had seen. That is how the project began. The Milarchs’ first plans called for grafting one-hundred trees in the state of Michigan. The project expanded very quickly. The two were asked to graft and plant trees all around the country. They have financial help from the National Tree Trust, a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. In the years to come, the Milarchs hope to clone and reproduce the largest examples of more than eight-hundred different kinds of American trees. All of them are champion trees. These huge trees have been identified since Nineteen-Forty by the American Forests organization. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Mount Vernon is the home of the first president of the United States, George Washington. It is in the southern state of Virginia, near Washington D-C. More than one-million people visit Mount Vernon each year. The private organization that is responsible for Mount Vernon works very hard at keeping the president’s home as he left it. They say President Washington would recognize the house as it is today. However he would not be happy with the trees at Mount Vernon. Only thirteen trees remain that are believed to have been planted by George Washington more than two-hundred years ago. They are huge, beautiful trees. Other, younger trees are much smaller and are not the same kind as the older ones. George Washington was very careful about where he planted the trees on his huge farm. He wanted them to add beauty to his farm and to block the sun from the house. Dean Norton is responsible for trees and plants at Mount Vernon. The Milarch family offered to help him clone the thirteen original trees. Cuttings will soon be taken from the trees. The Milarchs hope to provide as many as thirty trees of each kind. VOICE ONE: David and Jared Milarch will also provide Mount Vernon with fourteen different kinds of champion trees from other parts of the United States. These will be clones from the oldest, strongest and largest of their kind. David Milarch says there is no real way to tell if the new trees will be as big and as strong as the parent trees. However, he says they have the genes that can make a huge, healthy tree possible. Mister Milarch hopes to provide Mister Norton with one-hundred new cloned trees each year for the next ten years. Mister Norton says he will use fences to protect the new trees from deer that like to eat young trees. VOICE TWO: John Alleyne works with the Florida Botanical Garden in North Largo, in the southern state of Florida. He is a gene research scientist. He says the Champion Tree Project is very important. He says the project is working to keep the genes of very old successful trees alive. Mister Alleyne says it is very important to keep these ancient tree genes alive so gene scientists can learn their secrets. There is something in their genes that permits them to reach an extreme old age. Mister Alleyne says science needs to learn about these secrets. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: High up in California’s White Mountains, the Bristlecone Pine known as Methuselah is waiting to be cloned. If the cloning is successful, the new Bristlecone pine tree will not be planted at Mount Vernon or anywhere else. It will be planted near its parent tree in the White Mountains of California. Bristlecone pine trees will not grow anywhere else. There are not many Bristlecone pine trees left in the world. Cloning Methuselah will help make sure these ancient trees will survive into the future. It will provide a new tree that carries genes that have already successfully survived for the last five-thousand years. Supporters of the Champion Tree Project hope it is possible a tree with those genes could survive another five-thousand years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 20, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... We play some hip-hop music ... answer a question about pizza ... and, tell about the new popularity of one of America’s first presidents. John Adams HOST: A recent book by American history writer David McCullough has renewed interest in America’s second president, John Adams. Shep O’Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Very few people in history have left a record as clear as John Adams. He carried a small book with him every day in which he wrote about his experiences. He also wrote thousands of letters to his family members and friends. History experts say John Adams has not been remembered as widely as President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the famous American Declaration of Independence. Yet the experts say it was John Adams who was greatly responsible for the approval of the Declaration of Independence. It was also John Adams who worked to have George Washington lead the army. And it was John Adams who demanded a fair legal system for the new country. He made sure that all court systems of the United States are separate from other parts of the government. David McCullough’s new book describes John Adams’ personal and political life. It tells of the events that took place around him. It tells of the thousands of kilometers he traveled and the dangers he faced. Mister McCullough’s book is also a love story. Abigail Adams was the second president’s wife and friend. She was also a political advisor to whom he always listened. During their long marriage they wrote thousands of letters to each other about their ideas and feelings. Recently, Mister McCullough appeared before Congress to support legislation to build a memorial to John Adams in Washington. Mister McCullough said no one except George Washington was more important in winning our independence and establishing our government than John Adams. He never failed to answer the call to serve his country. Congress is now preparing the legislation needed to provide land in Washington for a memorial to John Adams. The memorial will be built with money given by private citizens. Pizza HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Burma. Aye Ayethwe asks how to prepare the Italian food known as pizza. Pizza has a bread-like crust that is covered with tomato sauce, cheese and vegetables or meat. History experts say the idea of using bread to hold other foods began with the Greeks. They ate flat breads baked with oil, garlic and onions. The Romans also made a similar food. By the eighteenth century, the word “pizza” had developed from the Latin word “picea.” Experts say Raffaele Esposito of Naples, Italy baked the first modern pizza in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine. The stories say he baked pizza especially for the visit of the Italian King and Queen. He made his pizza in the colors of the Italian flag — green herbs, white mozzarella cheese and red tomatoes. The popularity of the food soon spread to Northern Italy and Europe. People from Italy brought pizza to the United States in the last half of the nineteenth century. Gennaro Lombardi opened the first American pizza shop in New York City in Nineteen-Oh-Five. But it was not until after World War Two that pizza became popular in America. That was when American soldiers demanded pizza they had eaten in Italy. Experts say the best pizza in the world is still made in Naples. Today, people all over the world make and love pizza. Why? Because it is fun to eat and tastes great. Pizza makers mix flour, yeast, salt and water for the crust. They form it into a large circular pie. They put tomato sauce and cheese on the crust. They may add onions, mushrooms, peppers or meat. Then they bake it in an extremely hot oven. Many Americans do not make their own pizza. They go to a pizza restaurant. Or they send out for it. This means they telephone a local pizza shop, order their favorite kind of pizza and wait for a store worker to bring it to their house. All this talk about pizza has made me hungry. Maybe I will send out for some pizza for lunch! Hip Hop Music Conference ((BRIDGE: I JUST WANNA LOVE YOU, instrumental)) HOST: The first yearly conference on hip-hop music took place in New York City last month. More than three-hundred rap music artists, producers, reporters, politicians, and spiritual leaders gathered for three days of discussions. They talked about the influence of hip-hop music on America’s young people and its future. Shirley Griffith tells us about hip-hop. ANNCR: Hip-hop music is also known as rap. It began about thirty years ago in the streets of New York City. Since then, the music has become a two-thousand-million dollar cultural force. Its popularity has spread beyond the black youth culture that created it. Now, seventy-five percent of hip-hop records are bought by white people. And the worldwide market continues to expand. Here is popular rap artist Eminem with the song, “The Real Slim Shady.” ((CUT 1: THE REAL SLIM SHADY)) Political leaders, religious leaders and even some fans have denounced rap music for using bad words and describing violent acts in songs. Rap singers have been criticized for spreading messages of hate against women and homosexuals in some of their songs. The main idea of the hip-hop conference was “taking back responsibility.” The rap industry is fighting to prevent the government from establishing laws to control hip-hop music. The people at the meeting agreed on a plan of action. They promised to create coalitions among people in the music industry and social organizations. They agreed to establish more programs to help young people. They promised to protect young people from adult material in their songs. They also agreed to work to protect rap music from what they consider attacks on freedom of speech. We leave you now with another popular rap song. Doctor Dre and Snoop Dogg perform “The Next Episode.” ((CUT 2: THE NEXT EPISODE )) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Paula Hickey. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 19, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 3
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) THEODORE ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN NINETEEN-OH-ONE. HE FIRMLY BELIEVED IN EXPANDING AMERICAN POWER IN THE WORLD. TO DO THIS, HE WANTED A STRONG NAVY. AND HE WANTED A WAY FOR THE NAVY TO SAIL QUICKLY BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS. ROOSEVELT DECIDED TO BUILD THAT WATERWAY. I'M MAURICE JOYCE. TODAY, RICHARD RAEL AND I TELL THE STORY OF THE PANAMA CANAL. VOICE TWO: FOR MANY YEARS, PEOPLE HAD DREAMED OF BUILDING A CANAL ACROSS CENTRAL AMERICA TO LINK THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS. THE MOST LIKELY PLACE WAS AT THE THINNEST POINT OF LAND: PANAMA. ANOTHER POSSIBLE PLACE WAS TO THE NORTH: NICARAGUA. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT APPOINTED A COMMITTEE TO DECIDE WHICH PLACE WOULD BE BETTER. ENGINEERS SAID IT WOULD COST LESS TO COMPLETE A CANAL THAT HAD BEEN STARTED IN THE EIGHTEEN-EIGHTIES IN PANAMA. BUT THE UNITED STATES WOULD HAVE TO BUY THE LAND AND BUILDING RIGHTS FROM A FRENCH COMPANY. THE PRICE WAS HIGH: MORE THAN ONE-HUNDRED-MILLION DOLLARS. SO, THE COMMITTEE DECIDED IT WOULD BE LESS COSTLY, OVERALL, TO BUILD A CANAL IN NICARAGUA. THE PROPOSAL WENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS FOR APPROVAL. VOICE ONE: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES QUICKLY PASSED A BILL TO BUILD THE NICARAGUA CANAL. THEN THE FRENCH COMPANY REDUCED ITS PRICE FOR THE LAND AND BUILDING RIGHTS IN PANAMA. IT DECIDED SOME MONEY WAS BETTER THAN NO MONEY AT ALL. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WAS PLEASED. HE GAVE HIS SUPPORT TO THE PANAMA PLAN. WHEN THE SENATE BEGAN DEBATE, HOWEVER, IT APPEARED THE NICARAGUA PLAN WOULD WIN. THEN A VOLCANO EXPLODED IN THE CARIBBEAN AREA. A CITY WAS DESTROYED. THIRTY-THOUSAND PEOPLE WERE KILLED. SOON, REPORTS SAID ANOTHER VOLCANO HAD BECOME ACTIVE AND WAS THREATENING A TOWN. THE VOLCANO WAS IN NICARAGUA. NICARAGUA'S PRESIDENT DENIED THERE WERE ANY ACTIVE VOLCANOES IN HIS COUNTRY. BUT ONE OF NICARAGUA'S POSTAL STAMPS SHOWED A PICTURE OF AN EXPLODING VOLCANO. THAT LITTLE STAMP WEAKENED SUPPORT FOR THE NICARAGUA CANAL. THE SENATE PASSED A BILL FOR A PANAMA CANAL, INSTEAD. THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHANGED ITS EARLIER DECISION. IT APPROVED THE SENATE BILL. VOICE TWO: AT THAT TIME, PANAMA WAS A STATE OF COLOMBIA. CANAL NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN AMERICA AND COLOMBIA DID NOT GO SMOOTHLY. AFTER NINE MONTHS, THE UNITED STATES THREATENED TO END THE TALKS AND BEGIN NEGOTIATIONS WITH NICARAGUA. THE THREAT WORKED. IN JANUARY, NINETEEN-OH-THREE, COLOMBIA SIGNED A TREATY TO PERMIT THE UNITED STATES TO BUILD THE PANAMA CANAL. THE TREATY GAVE THE UNITED STATES A CANAL ZONE. THIS WAS A PIECE OF LAND TEN KILOMETERS WIDE ACROSS PANAMA. THE UNITED STATES COULD USE THE CANAL ZONE FOR ONE-HUNDRED YEARS. IN EXCHANGE, IT WOULD PAY COLOMBIA TEN-MILLION DOLLARS, PLUS TWO-HUNDRED FIFTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR. THE UNITED STATES SENATE PASSED THE TREATY WITHIN TWO MONTHS. THE COLOMBIAN SENATE REJECTED IT. THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDED MORE MONEY. VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WAS FURIOUS. HE SAW THE ISSUE IN TERMS OF WORLD POLITICS...NOT SIMPLY COLOMBIA'S SOVEREIGNTY. HE SAID: "I DO NOT THINK COLOMBIA SHOULD BE PERMITTED TO BAR PERMANENTLY ONE OF THE FUTURE HIGHWAYS OF CIVILIZATION." ROOSEVELT WAS READY TO TAKE OVER PANAMA TO BUILD THE CANAL. THAT WAS NOT NECESSARY. A REVOLT WAS BEING PLANNED IN PANAMA TO GAIN INDEPENDENCE FROM COLOMBIA. THE UNITED STATES MADE NO PROMISES TO SUPPORT THE REBELS. BUT IT WANTED THE REBELS TO SUCCEED. UNDER AN OLD TREATY, COLOMBIA HAD GIVEN THE UNITED STATES THE RIGHT TO PREVENT INTERFERENCE WITH TRAVEL ACROSS PANAMA. NOW, THE UNITED STATES USED THE OLD TREATY TO PREVENT INTERFERENCE FROM COLOMBIAN TROOPS. SEVERAL AMERICAN WARSHIPS WERE SENT TO PANAMA. VOICE TWO: THE LOCAL LEADER OF THE PANAMANIAN REVOLT WAS MANUEL AMADOR. AMADOR HAD THE SUPPORT OF THE FRENCH COMPANY THAT STILL OWNED THE RIGHTS TO BUILD THE PANAMA CANAL. THE CHIEF REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COMPANY WAS PHILIPPE BUNAU-VARILLA. HE WORKED CLOSELY WITH AN AMERICAN LAWYER, WILLIAM CROMWELL. BUNAU-VARILLA AND CROMWELL PROVIDED MANUEL AMADOR WITH A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, A CONSTITUTION, AND MONEY. AMADOR USED THE MONEY TO BUY THE SUPPORT OF THE COLOMBIAN MILITARY COMMANDER IN PANAMA CITY, THE CAPITAL. HE ALSO GOT THE SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNOR, WHO AGREED TO LET HIMSELF BE ARRESTED ON THE DAY OF THE REVOLT. AMADOR FORMED A SMALL ARMY OF RAILROAD WORKERS AND FIRE FIGHTERS. THE REBEL ARMY PLANNED TO TAKE OVER PANAMA CITY ON NOVEMBER FOURTH, NINETEEN-OH-THREE. JUST BEFORE THAT DATE, FIVE-HUNDRED COLOMBIAN SOLDIERS LANDED AT COLON, EIGHTY KILOMETERS AWAY. THE SOLDIERS COULD NOT GET TO PANAMA CITY, HOWEVER. ALL BUT ONE RAILROAD CAR HAD BEEN MOVED TO THE CAPITAL. VOICE ONE: MANUEL AMADOR GAVE A SIGNAL. THE REVOLUTION BEGAN. THERE WAS A LITTLE SHOOTING, BUT NO ONE WAS HURT. MOST OF THE SHOTS WERE FIRED INTO THE AIR TO CELEBRATE THE CALL FOR PANAMA'S INDEPENDENCE. COLOMBIAN OFFICIALS WERE ARRESTED QUICKLY. THEN AMADOR MADE A SPEECH. HE SAID: "YESTERDAY, WE WERE SLAVES OF COLOMBIA. TODAY, WE ARE FREE. PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAS KEPT HIS WORD. LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA! LONG LIVE PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT!" COLOMBIA ASKED THE UNITED STATES TO HELP IT RE-GAIN CONTROL OF PANAMA. THE UNITED STATES REFUSED. IT SAID IT WOULD OPPOSE ANY ATTEMPT BY COLOMBIA TO SEND MORE FORCES THERE. THE UNITED STATES ALSO RECOGNIZED PANAMA'S INDEPENDENCE. AND, ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, IT STARTED NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE NEW GOVERNMENT ON A CANAL TREATY. VOICE TWO: THE TWO SIDES REACHED AGREEMENT QUICKLY. THE TREATY WAS ALMOST THE SAME AS THE ONE THE COLOMBIAN SENATE HAD REJECTED EARLIER. THIS TIME, HOWEVER, THE CANAL ZONE WOULD BE SIXTEEN KILOMETERS WIDE, INSTEAD OF TEN. AND THE UNITED STATES WOULD GET PERMANENT CONTROL OF THE CANAL ZONE. THE TREATY WAS SIGNED ON NOVEMBER EIGHTEENTH, NINETEEN-OH-THREE. THAT WAS JUST FIFTEEN DAYS AFTER PANAMA DECLARED ITS INDEPENDENCE. VOICE ONE: COLOMBIA PROTESTED. IT SAID THE UNITED STATES HAD ACTED ILLEGALLY IN PANAMA. MANY AMERICAN CITIZENS PROTESTED, TOO. THEY CALLED PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT A PIRATE. THEY SAID HE HAD ACTED SHAMEFULLY. SOME MEMBERS OF CONGRESS QUESTIONED THE ADMINISTRATION'S DEAL WITH THE FRENCH CANAL COMPANY IN PANAMA. SEVERAL INVESTIGATIONS EXAMINED THE DEAL. THEODORE ROOSEVELT DID NOT CARE. HE WAS PROUD OF HIS SUCCESS IN GETTING THE CANAL STARTED. HE SAID: "I TOOK THE CANAL ZONE AND LET CONGRESS DEBATE. AND WHILE THE DEBATE GOES ON...SO DOES WORK ON THE CANAL." VOICE TWO: IT TOOK TEN YEARS FOR THE UNITED STATES TO COMPLETE THE PANAMA CANAL. THE FIRST SHIP PASSED THROUGH IT IN AUGUST, NINETEEN-FOURTEEN. IN THAT SAME YEAR, THE UNITED STATES SIGNED AN AGREEMENT WITH COLOMBIA. THE AGREEMENT EXPRESSED AMERICA'S REGRET FOR ITS PART IN THE PANAMANIAN REVOLUTION. AND IT PROVIDED A PAYMENT OF TWENTY-FIVE-MILLION DOLLARS TO COLOMBIA. THEODORE ROOSEVELT WAS NO LONGER PRESIDENT WHEN THE AGREEMENT WAS SIGNED. BUT HE STILL HAD MANY FRIENDS IN THE SENATE. HE GOT THEM TO REJECT IT. AFTER ROOSEVELT'S DEATH, THE UNITED STATES SIGNED ANOTHER AGREEMENT WITH COLOMBIA. THE NEW AGREEMENT INCLUDED THE PAYMENT OF TWENTY-FIVE-MILLION DOLLARS. IT DID NOT INCLUDE THE STATEMENT OF REGRET. THE SENATE APPROVED THE NEW AGREEMENT. VOICE ONE: THE ISSUE OF AMERICA'S INVOLVEMENT IN PANAMA CAUSED MUCH BITTERNESS IN OTHER COUNTRIES OF LATIN AMERICA. SOME DID NOT FEEL SAFE FROM AMERICAN INTERFERENCE. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT SAID THE UNITED STATES WOULD NOT INTERFERE WITH ANY NATION THAT KEPT ORDER AND PAID WHAT IT OWED. ROOSEVELT WAS WORRIED BECAUSE SOME LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES WERE HAVING DIFFICULTY RE-PAYING LOANS FROM EUROPEAN BANKS. HE DID NOT WANT THE ISSUE OF NON-PAYMENT USED AS AN EXCUSE FOR EUROPEAN COUNTRIES TO SEIZE NEW TERRITORY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. ROOSEVELT SAID THE UNITED STATES WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING SURE THE DEBTS WERE PAID. HIS POLICY LED TO FURTHER UNITED STATES INVOLVEMENT IN LATIN AMERICA. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE MAURICE JOYCE AND RICHARD RAEL. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - July 19, 2001: Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland has received one-hundred-million dollars to develop new medicines to prevent and treat the disease malaria. The identity of the person who gave the money to Johns Hopkins is a secret. It is the largest financial gift given to the university for one single purpose – to fight malaria. Officials say the amount of money for the research will probably increase because of assistance from the National Institutes of Health. Alfred Sommer heads the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. He says the person who gave the money wanted it to be used to make a real difference in the world. The money will establish the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute. Four researchers already working at the school of public health will begin the project. Three or four more scientists will be added each year for several years. There will be at least one-hundred people involved in the project. They will include graduate students, assistant researchers and laboratory technicians. Doctor Sommer says many experts in medicine, genetics and human populations will be working at the new Malaria Institute. Many of them will have no earlier experience studying the disease. Doctor Sommer says this is good because the institute wants to develop a new way to attack the disease. He says there will be a lot of creative thinking from people with different kinds of training. Mosquito insects spread malaria to people by biting them. The disease attacks the liver and destroys red blood cells. The World Health Organization says the disease infects as many as five-hundred-million people every year. It kills more than one-million people each year. The W-H-O says most cases are in developing countries in very warm areas of the world. Doctor Sommer says malaria also affects the productivity of communities. The W-H-O estimates that the production of goods and services in southern Africa would be thirty-two percent larger if malaria had been ended thirty-five years ago. Doctor Sommer says he does not expect the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute to completely end the disease in the next ten years. But he says the goal is to develop a vaccine or drug to prevent or treat the disease. He says this would be a huge step forward in the struggle against malaria. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - July 20, 2001: Test for World War One Poisons
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The United States Army Corps of Engineers recently began intensive testing for harmful chemical substances buried in Washington, D.C. The engineers are examining soil taken from one-thousand-six-hundred properties. The area is in the northwest part of the city around American University. Dangerous levels of the poison arsenic were found there earlier. They were discovered at an American University child care center and sports field. Abnormal levels of arsenic also were discovered near homes around the university. Scientists say this poison can cause cancer. Health officials are studying reports of sickness in the area. The presence of arsenic may result from old chemical weapons experiments performed at the university. The government says chemical weapons were tested there more than eighty years ago. The tests took place between Nineteen-Fourteen and Nineteen-Eighteen, during World War One. The weapons tested included mustard gas. At the time, there was little developed land near the university. The Army Corps of Engineers first worked to clear buried weapons from the area in Nineteen-Ninety-Three. At that time, digging near the university uncovered explosives. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five, the engineers said they had completed the work. But more buried weapons were found several years later. They were uncovered under property belonging to the South Korean ambassador. Washington, D-C health officials have examined children at the day care center for the presence of arsenic. They also tested some American University students and employees. The results showed no abnormal levels of the poison. Health officials also studied reports of cancer in the area. Their report said the rate of cancer was not higher than in a nearby area. But a committee of scientists currently is advising that more people living in the area be examined. The tests would measure their hair for the presence of arsenic. A United States House of Representatives sub-committee is planning hearings about the buried chemicals later this month. The group is investigating reports that the Army Corps of Engineers and another agency knew about the weapons seven years before they were discovered. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 21, 2001: Olympics
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The International Olympic Committee this week chose a doctor from Belgium as its president. Jacques Rogge (RAWG) will serve at least eight years. He replaced Juan Antonio Samaranch of Spain who served as president for twenty-one years. Doctor Rogge received support from more than half the delegates in a second vote during a meeting in Moscow. He has worked for many years with the International Olympic Committee, known as the I-O-C. He is fifty-nine years old. Kim Un-yong of South Korea placed second in the secret voting for president of the committee. Other candidates were Dick Pound of Canada, Pal Schmitt of Hungary and Anita DeFrantz of the United States. Last week, the I-O-C chose Beijing, China, to hold the summer Olympic Games of Two-Thousand-Eight. Doctor Rogge will be the chief advisor to Beijing officials as they prepare for Olympic events. The city received more than two times as many votes as Toronto, Canada, its closest opponent. Paris, France, Istanbul, Turkey, and Osaka, Japan also were competing to hold the Olympic Games in Two-Thousand-Eight. Committee delegates said they hope the Chinese government will become more open as it prepares for the games. The delegates said they also hoped China’s human-rights and environmental policies will improve. China plans to begin its most important building project for the Olympics since the Great Wall was built. It has also announced plans for a costly program to reduce pollution. Observers called the election of Doctor Rogge a move to reform the worldwide sports organization. The new president says he will place great importance on preventing Olympic competitors from using banned drugs. Experts say his long record of honesty may help the Olympics recover from charges of illegal actions. The accusations are linked to the winter games of Two-Thousand-Two. Ten Olympic Committee members reportedly accepted gifts and large amounts of money to choose Salt Lake City, Utah, to hold the events. The American government charged five people in connection with these gifts. Earlier this week, a federal judge dismissed four of fifteen charges against two men who led Salt Lake City’s campaign to get the Olympics. The judge also postponed their trial. The new president of the International Olympic Committee has been active in the Olympics since he was a young man. Jacques Rogge is a champion sailor who competed in three Olympic sailing events, the last in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. He has been a member of the International Olympic Committee for ten years. Doctor Rogge had a major responsibility for plans for the Two-Thousand Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Those games were highly successful. This VOA Special English IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - July 23, 2001: Air and Space Museum Birthday
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This year, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C celebrates its twenty-fifth birthday. Almost two-hundred-twenty-million people have visited the museum since it opened. The Air and Space Museum is the most popular museum in the world. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The National Air and Space Museum is our report today on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: “The Future Takes Off From Here.” This is what National Air and Space Museum officials are calling their year-long anniversary celebration. The museum first opened its doors on July first, Nineteen-Seventy-Six. This was three days before the United States celebrated its two-hundredth birthday. At that time, President Gerald Ford called the museum a “perfect birthday gift from the American people to themselves.” And what a gift it has been for the millions of people who have visited the museum. About nine-million people visit the Air and Space Museum each year. VOICE TWO: Retired United States Marine Corps general and pilot John Dailey is the director of the Air and Space Museum. He says the museum has succeeded beyond everyone’s hopes. Now General Dailey says the museum is taking new steps to educate people and support discovery. During the next year, the museum plans to hold several special events. They include free talks by space experts, a series of films, and the release of several new books. General Dailey said the launch of the year-long celebration on July first was a chance for the museum to thank its friends and supporters. There was free food at the celebration, balloons for children, and music by the United States Air Force Band. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The National Air and Space Museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian includes sixteen museums, the National Zoo and several research centers. Nine of the Smithsonian’s museums, including Air and Space, are on the National Mall in Washington. They are between the United States Capitol building and the Washington Monument honoring America’s first president. The Air and Space Museum’s collection of historic objects dates back to the Eighteen-Seventies when China gave the United States twenty hand-held kites. A kite is an object that flies at the end of a rope. It is made with a small support or frame, and covered with paper or cloth. During the celebration at the museum, hundreds of children learned how to make their own kites. VOICE TWO: One of the most famous objects at the Air and Space Museum is the first airplane. In Nineteen-Oh-Three, Wilbur and Orville Wright built a wood and cloth plane called the Wright Flyer. The plane made its first flight from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville Wright was piloting the Wright Flyer. It flew thirty-six meters. This historic first flight lasted just twelve seconds. Yet it launched the discovery and development of flying machines. VOICE ONE: Visitors can see another famous American airplane at the Air and Space Museum. It is the Spirit of Saint Louis. In Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot in history to fly cross the Atlantic Ocean alone. The trip lasted thirty-three hours. Lindbergh flew from Long Island, New York to Paris, France. He flew more than five-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers without stopping. His successful trip in the Spirit of Saint Louis made Charles Lindbergh a world hero. VOICE TWO: The National Air and Space Museum also has the world’s fastest airplane. The North American X-Fifteen has a rocket for an engine. In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, it became the first plane with wings to travel more than four times faster than the speed of sound. Its top speed was more than seven-thousand kilometers an hour. The heaviest airplane in the world is also at the National Air and Space Museum. The Douglas D-C-Three was built in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. It was the first successful passenger plane to transport people all over the world. This plane weighs more than seven-thousand-five-hundred kilograms. Yet it hangs from the top of the museum as if it were a toy. The Air and Space Museum was designed to be able to hang airplanes and spacecraft. The museum has steel supports on its roof, which are hidden from the public. To bring airplanes in and out of the building, the glass wall at the museum’s west end opens like a huge sliding glass door. VOICE ONE: Children of all ages especially love the National Air and Space Museum. For three-year-old Everest from Maryland, the airplanes are the best part of the Air and Space Museum. (CUT ONE: FIRST LITTLE BOY) But Ian from New Jersey thought the museum’s spaceships and rockets were more exciting. (CUT TWO: SECOND LITTLE BOY) VOICE TWO: One of the most famous spacecraft in the museum is Columbia. It carried Apollo Eleven astronauts Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to step foot on the moon. Their historic success led to more Apollo trips to the moon during the late Nineteen-Sixties and early Nineteen-Seventies. The last Apollo trip to the moon was in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. Astronauts brought back a piece of the moon. Visitors to the Air and Space Museum can touch this moon rock. It is almost four-thousand-million years old. The museum also has many games and educational areas for children to learn more about space. This song, for example, teaches children about space and the planets in our solar system. (CUT THREE: SONG) VOICE ONE: Visitors usually enjoy all the objects at the National Air and Space Museum. But there was one airplane that caused much criticism. From Nineteen-Ninety-Five to Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, the museum displayed the Enola Gay. This American B-Twenty-Nine airplane dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan during World War Two. When the museum first announced its plans for the exhibit, former American soldiers and some members of Congress denounced it. They said the proposed exhibit would have showed the Americans as aggressors and the Japanese as victims. They said it would have provided too much information about nuclear war and not enough about the bravery of American soldiers. After much public criticism, the Air and Space Museum changed its plans. But other critics criticized the resulting exhibit as a limited view of history. The entire incident forced then-director Martin Harwit to resign as head of the museum. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The Air and Space Museum is huge. Yet it only holds about ten percent of the museum’s historic collection of objects. Another ten percent is on loan to other museums around the world. The remaining eighty percent of the collection is in a building in Maryland. The objects will be moved to a new structure currently being built near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. It will cost an estimated two-hundred-forty-million dollars to build. This new Air and Space Museum is expected to open in Two-Thousand-Three. It will show more than two-hundred airplanes, one-hundred-thirty-five spacecraft, and many other historical objects. Most of these objects have never been shown to the public. About twelve-million people are expected to visit the new museum each year. These visitors to the new Space Museum will be able to see many more interesting objects that show the exciting history of flight. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V-O-A Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-20-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT- July 23, 2001: Medical Information on the Internet
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Six major publishers have announced an agreement to provide developing countries with medical publications on the Internet computer system. The agreement includes about one-thousand of the top medical publications in the world. Some of the six publishers also plan to place medical books on the Internet in a similar way. The World Health Organization asked the publishers to take the action so doctors and researchers in poor countries could improve health care in their nations. The agreement is expected to help at least six-hundred institutions in one-hundred developing countries. These include universities, medical schools, hospitals and research centers. The program also includes teaching people how to find the medical information using a computer. It will go into effect in January. Scientific magazines have published medical research for more than fifty years. But many medical schools in developing countries cannot get the publications. One W-H-O official says most American medical schools get one-thousand or more publications. Most medical schools in developing countries get fewer than one-hundred. One reason is cost. Most scientific publications cost between two-hundred and one-thousand-five-hundred dollars a year. Some cost even more. An extreme example is the magazine “Brain Research.” It costs seventeen-thousand dollars a year. It is among the publications included under the new agreement. More than sixty of the poorest countries will receive the publications on the Internet for free. More than thirty other countries will pay a reduced cost for the scientific magazines. The publications will be on the Internet in a special place being created by the W-H-O. It will guarantee security and provide search tools. The W-H-O also is concerned that some countries still will not be able to get the information because they do not have computers. Officials say they are working on a plan to solve that problem. They plan to ask technology companies for help in providing more computers for researchers in developing countries. W-H-O director Gro Harlem Brundtland says the agreement is the biggest step ever taken to equalize health information among rich and poor countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-20-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 22, 2001: Paul Robeson
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the V-O-A Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about Paul Robeson [ROBE a son]. He was a singer, actor, and civil rights activist. In the Nineteen-Thirties, he was one of the best known and most widely honored black Americans. Later in his life he was condemned for supporting communism and the Soviet Union. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey in Eighteen-Ninety-Eight. His father was a former slave who became the religious leader of a Protestent church. Paul was an excellent student and athlete. Rutgers University in New Jersey gave him money so he could study there. He played four different sports while at Rutgers. He also was the top student in his class. Members of his class believed Paul Robeson would become the leader of black people in America. VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson graduated from Rutgers in Nineteen-Nineteen. He attended law school at Columbia University in New York City. He was only the third black person to attend Columbia Law School. On the weekends, he earned money by playing professional football. He also acted in plays. He married Eslanda Cordoza Goode while he was in law school. After he graduated in Nineteen-Twenty-Three, he got a job with a group of lawyers in New York. However, he left when he experienced unfair treatment because he was black. He decided not to work as a lawyer. Instead, he wanted to use his ability in theater and music to support African-American history and culture. VOICE ONE: Robeson became a professional actor. He joined the Provincetown Players, an acting group linked to American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robeson was the star in two famous productions by Eugene O'Neill in the Nineteen-Twenties. They were "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones." Critics praised his performances. Robeson became the most recognized black actor of his time. VOICE TWO: In London, he earned international praise for his leading part in William Shakespeare's great tragic play, "Othello." That was in Nineteen-Thirty. Thirteen years later, he played "Othello" on Broadway in New York. It was very popular. In "Othello," Robeson played an African general in ancient Venice. He is married to a young white woman. Othello kills his wife after being tricked into believing that she loves someone else. This is how Paul Robeson sounded in "Othello." (TAPE CUT #1: "MONOLOGUE FROM "OTHELLO") VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson also was famous for appearing in the popular American musical play "Show Boat." He performed the play in London in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight and on Broadway four years later. He played a riverboat worker. Jerome Kern wrote the music for "Show Boat." Paul Robeson sang the song "Ol' Man River." (TAPE CUT #2: "OL' MAN RIVER") VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson appeared in eleven movies in the Nineteen-Twenties and Nineteen-Thirties. However, he realized that his acting was limited by the small number of parts for black actors. He criticized the American movie industry for not showing the real lives of black people in America. He stopped making movies and decided to sing professionally instead. Robeson sang many kinds of music. He sang folk music from many countries. He sang songs to support the labor and social movements of his time. He sang songs for peace and justice. And, he sang African-American spiritual music. One of his famous songs was this spiritual, "Balm in Gilead." (TAPE CUT #3:"BALM IN GILEAD") VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson was recognized around the world for his fight for civil rights for black Americans. Separation of black people and white people was legal in the United States. Black people did not have the same rights as white people. They were not treated equally. For example, Robeson could not be served in some eating places in the United States. Violence against black people was common. Angry mobs of whites sometimes killed black people, especially in the southern United States. VOICE TWO: In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Paul Robeson became involved in national and international movements that sought peace and better labor conditions. He also supported independence for African colonies from their European rulers. He learned the languages and folk songs of other cultures. He said these folk songs expressed the same feelings that were in African-American music. He learned to speak, write and sing in more than twenty languages. VOICE ONE: Robeson traveled a great deal in Europe during the Nineteen-Thirties. He found that black people were treated better in Europe than in the United States. He met members of liberal political organizations, socialists and African nationalists. He also met many working people and poor people. For many years, he performed in concerts in many countries. The songs he sang supported the struggle for racial justice for black Americans, and for civil rights and economic justice for people around the world. He refused to perform at concerts where the people were separated by race. He said, "The idea of my concerts is to suggest that all men are brothers because of their music." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Four, Paul Robeson made the first of many trips to the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, he said, he was treated as an equal of whites for the first time in his life. He declared his friendship for the Soviet Union. And he spoke about the need for peaceful co-existence between the United States and the Soviet Union. Conservative groups in the United States strongly opposed his friendship with the Soviet Union and his support for other liberal issues. VOICE ONE: Paul Robeson went to Spain in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight during the Spanish Civil War. He sang for Spanish civilians. And he sang for the Loyalist forces fighting for the Spanish republic. One of the songs he sang was this Spanish Loyalist song, "The Four Insurgent Generals." (TAPE CUT #4: "THE FOUR INSURGENT GENERALS") VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Forties, many people in the United States were strongly opposed to Paul Robeson's political beliefs. They said he was too liberal or extreme. Next week, we will tell you about how opposition to his political beliefs affected the last part of his life. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This PEOPLE IN AMERICA program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again when we finish the story of Paul Robeson in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 24, 2001: Mad Cow Disease
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a disease in cows that can spread to other animals and to people. We also tell about recent scientific progress in developing a test for the disease. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The cattle disease is bovine spongiforn encephalopathy. It causes holes to develop in the brain. Cattle act strangely before they die. So it is known as Mad Cow Disease. B-S-E first appeared in Britain in Nineteen-Eighty-Five, and has spread across much of Europe. All animals known to have the disease since that time have been found in Europe or imports from Europe. Scientists believe that eating infected beef from a cow suffering B-S-E causes a similar disease in people. This deadly disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or C-J-D. It cannot be cured. C-J-D is rare. It usually affects people sixty-five years old or older. More than one-hundred people in Europe have died or are dying from it. Most of the victims live in Britain. VOICE TWO: Animal health experts recently met in Paris, France to discuss mad cow disease. They said more than thirty countries have banned the import of meat, bone meal and live cattle from western Europe. They said countries can be considered at risk for B-S-E if they imported such products from Western Europe during the past twenty years. They said parts of Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East are at increased risk. The officials also urged countries to approve measures to control the killing of animals for food. They say this would reduce the chance of infected meat being sold as food for people. They also said the human food supply should not include the animal parts thought most likely to carry the disease, such as the head and the spinal cord. The European Union now requires that all animals over thirty months old be tested for mad cow disease when they are killed. The idea is that older animals are likely to have more severe infections that are the greatest danger to people. VOICE ONE: American officials have taken steps to prevent Mad Cow Disease from entering the United States. The government restricts imports of cows and other animals from countries where B-S-E exists. Imports of some feed products from such areas also are restricted. Feed containing animal remains is suspected of causing the disease. American officials say more than two-hundred-fifty experts know how to recognize foreign animal diseases, including B-S-E. Information about the disease has been provided to federal and state agencies, laboratories and some colleges. American officials say they are inspecting animals for signs of B-S-E. Federal inspectors are examining all cows raised for meat. They examine the animals for disorders of the central nervous system. Any animal showing signs of such a disorder is destroyed. The meat is not permitted for use as human food. The brains of these animals are sent to the Agriculture Department for additional tests. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The only sure way to tell if an animal has B-S-E is to test a brain sample after it has been killed. Now, Israeli scientists say they have discovered the substance responsible for mad cow disease in the liquid waste of animals and people. Scientists believe B-S-E is caused by a kind of infectious particle known as a prion (PREE-on). Prions are proteins. They do not contain any genetic material so they cannot make copies of themselves. This makes them different from all other known infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Prions are found naturally in brain cells of people and animals. They do no harm. Sometimes, however, one changes shape. Other proteins known as enzymes can destroy normal proteins. But they cannot destroy changed prions. VOICE ONE: A few years ago, scientist Stanley Prusiner showed how these changed prions act on surrounding normal prions to change them too. More and more prions change, until the changed ones are spread throughout the brain. This kills brain tissue and causes human spongiform brain diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Doctor Prusiner also showed that prion disease could move from one kind of animal to another. For example, he showed that people could develop C-J-D by eating meat from cows infected with B-S-E. Doctor Prusiner won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven for his work. VOICE TWO: Ruth Gabizon was one of the researchers who worked with Doctor Prusiner. She continued her own research on human spongiform brain disease at the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. She was studying the part prions play in causing genetic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. This kind of C-J-D affects Jews whose families were from Libya. The researchers on her team were looking for evidence of changed prions in liquid waste or urine. They studied the urine of small laboratory animals called hamsters, cattle and people. They tested the urine from animals and people infected with known prion diseases and from those who were healthy. The kidneys contain urea, a substance that interferes with protein changing but does not destroy the proteins. The researchers suspected the prions might be changed by urea. VOICE ONE: To test this idea, they put the urine samples from the animals and people into a machine that removes urea. This permitted the proteins to go back to their normal shapes. These proteins were then treated with enzymes that destroy normal proteins but not prions. All the proteins were destroyed in the urine from healthy animals and people. But one protein survived in animals and people with prion diseases. The researchers said the presence of such a protein in urine is the way to tell if prion disease is present. The Israeli scientists also infected some hamsters with prion disease. Tests of their urine showed the changed protein several weeks before signs of the disease first appeared. VOICE TWO: A report of the Israeli research group’s experiments will be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in September. However, the publication has already placed the research on its Internet web site. Scientists who have seen the research say the experiment was simple and the results should easily be confirmed. Many laboratories all over the world are reportedly already trying to do this. If the results are confirmed, the new test could be used on groups of cattle. It could save uninfected cattle that are now killed after an infected animal is found. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: The Israeli scientists say their test will be able to tell which people and animals are infected with spongiform disease before signs appear. Other scientists say this could help make the blood supply safer around the world. It has not yet been proved that people with C-J-D can spread the disease by giving blood to other people. Yet officials are worried about that possibility. The American Red Cross will not accept blood from people who have lived in Britain for three months or in Europe for six months during the last twenty years. The proposed test may also help answer questions about sick deer and other wild animals in the western United States and Canada. The animals are suffering a brain condition known as chronic wasting disease. The disease has spread among wild deer and elk. Researchers do not know how it is spread. But they say the new test could help discover the answer. VOICE TWO: The Israeli scientists recognize that they are attempting to create a test for a disease that cannot be cured. In people, the period of time between infection and the first signs of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may be as long as twenty or thirty years. Would people want to know if they are infected with the disease so many years before they would become sick? That is a question people may have to answer in the future. For now, scientists say the new test may help them learn more about the prions responsible for spongiform disease before and after a person or animal becomes sick. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 24, 2001: Tobacco Farmers Going Fishing
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Many farmers in the United States face financial difficulty. Prices for crops have been low for several years. Costs for energy, fuel, fertilizers and farm equipment are rising. Across the country, producers of traditional crops are looking for ways to earn a bigger profit. The state of Kentucky is the second leading producer of tobacco plants in the country, after North Carolina. Each year, Kentucky farmers earn more than five-hundred-million dollars growing tobacco. However, more and more tobacco growers are exploring other ways to earn money. They note rising production costs and increases in foreign tobacco imports. Also, many Americans object to smoking for health reasons. Some tobacco farmers are now raising catfish. John Murdock is one such farmer. He says catfish farming is becoming more common and profitable in western Kentucky. Recently, Mister Murdock and forty other local farmers formed a group to support the development of catfish farming. It is called the Purchase Area Aquaculture Cooperative. Jessie Lopez heads the cooperative group. He says the group’s members wanted to develop a product that would support local growers. He says they also wanted to process and market the product. For most members of the group, catfish farming is not the only way they earn money. Mister Murdock says western Kentucky still depends on the production of tobacco, grains and other crops. He adds that raising catfish is not as profitable as growing tobacco. However, he says his group will also earn money through the processing and marketing of the fish. The Purchase Area Aquaculture Co-Op shows the continuing growth of catfish farming and processing in the United States. The Department of Agriculture says ninety-thousand hectares of ponds are currently being used for catfish farming. The Department expects American farmers to add more than two-thousand hectares of new ponds for raising catfish this year. Agriculture officials say the United States has almost three-hundred-fifty-million catfish ready for market. The fish are worth more than five-hundred-million dollars to catfish farmers nationwide. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - July 26, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt, Part 4
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) THEODORE ROOSEVELT WAS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE EARLY YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. HE WAS A FORCEFUL LEADER. HIS NATIONAL POLICIES LED TO SOCIAL REFORMS AND FEDERAL PROTECTION OF WILD AREAS. HIS FOREIGN POLICY LED TO GREATER AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN WORLD EVENTS. I'M HARRY MONROE. TODAY, KAY GALLANT AND I CONTINUE A REPORT ON THE PRESIDENCY OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT. VOICE TWO: IN NINETEEN-OH-THREE, PANAMA DECLARED ITS INDEPENDENCE FROM COLOMBIA. FIFTEEN DAYS LATER, PANAMA AND THE UNITED STATES SIGNED A TREATY. THE TREATY GAVE THE UNITED STATES THE RIGHT TO BUILD A CANAL ACROSS PANAMA. TO PROTECT THE CANAL, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT DECLARED GREATER RESPONSIBILITY FOR A WIDE AREA AROUND THE CANAL. THE GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY WAS FINANCIAL. ROOSEVELT SAID THE UNITED STATES WOULD GUARANTEE RE-PAYMENT OF LOANS MADE TO LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES. HE DID THIS TO PREVENT EUROPEAN COUNTRIES FROM USING THE ISSUE OF NON-PAYMENT AS AN EXCUSE TO SEIZE NEW TERRITORY IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. VOICE ONE: SOME LATIN AMERICAN NATIONS WERE IN SERIOUS ECONOMIC TROUBLE. VENEZUELA WAS ONE. AT THAT TIME, VENEZUELA OWED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO BRITAIN AND GERMANY. THE VENEZUELAN RULER REFUSED TO MAKE PAYMENTS ON THE LOANS. BRITAIN AND GERMANY DECIDED TO USE FORCE TO GET THE MONEY. THEIR SHIPS BEGAN BLOCKING VENEZUELA'S PORTS. WHEN THEY BEGAN SHELLING COASTAL AREAS, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT INTERVENED. HE URGED THEM TO LET THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE SETTLE THE DISPUTE. THEY AGREED. AND THE BLOCKADE OF VENEZUELA ENDED. VOICE TWO: LESS THAN TWO YEARS LATER, A SIMILAR FINANCIAL PROBLEM AROSE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. REVOLUTIONS AND DICTATORSHIPS THERE PREVENTED RE-PAYMENT OF FOREIGN LOANS. THE UNITED STATES OFFERED A SOLUTION. IT WOULD TAKE OVER COLLECTION OF IMPORT TAXES AT PORTS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. FORTY-FIVE PERCENT OF THE MONEY WOULD BE PAID TO THE DOMINICAN GOVERNMENT. THE OTHER FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT WOULD BE USED TO RE-PAY LOANS. THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AGREED. THE PLAN SUCCEEDED. SOME COUNTRIES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN QUESTIONED THE RIGHT OF THE UNITED STATES TO ACT AS POLICEMAN FOR THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE. BUT NONE OPENLY OPPOSED PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S POLICY. VOICE ONE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD BECOME PRESIDENT AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY. HE COMPLETED THE LAST THREE YEARS OF MCKINLEY'S TERM. THEN HE WAS READY TO BE ELECTED IN HIS OWN RIGHT. REPUBLICAN PARTY LEADERS, HOWEVER, WERE NOT SO SURE. ROOSEVELT HAD MADE BUSINESSMEN ANGRY, BECAUSE OF HIS ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL BIG COMPANIES. BUT HE MADE VOTERS HAPPY, BECAUSE OF HIS FIGHT FOR SOCIAL REFORMS. ROOSEVELT'S ONLY SERIOUS COMPETITOR FOR THE NOMINATION WAS A LONG-TIME SENATOR AND PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER. BUT THE MAN DIED BEFORE THE NOMINATING CONVENTION. SO, ROOSEVELT WON THE NOMINATION EASILY. VOICE TWO: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, IN THE PAST TWO ELECTIONS, HAD NOMINATED A PROGRESSIVE, CONGRESSMAN WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, AS ITS CANDIDATE. THIS TIME, THE DEMOCRATS CHOSE A MORE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE. HE WAS A NEW YORK JUDGE, ALTON PARKER. JUDGE PARKER HAD NO CHANCE TO WIN THE ELECTION. THEODORE ROOSEVELT WAS THE BEST-KNOWN MAN IN AMERICA. HE WON EASILY. ON INAUGURATION DAY, ROOSEVELT MADE A SHORT SPEECH. HE SAID AMERICA'S CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM HAD DONE MUCH GOOD FOR THE COUNTRY. BUT IT ALSO HAD CREATED A CRISIS IN SOCIAL RELATIONS. AND THE CRISIS HAD TO BE SOLVED. "IF WE FAIL," ROOSEVELT SAID, "THE CAUSE OF SELF-GOVERNMENT THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WILL SUFFER GREATLY." VOICE ONE: DURING HIS NEW TERM IN OFFICE, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WAS ABLE TO GET CONGRESS TO APPROVE TWO MAJOR NEW LAWS. ONE WAS THE HEPBURN ACT. THIS LAW GAVE THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION POWER TO LIMIT HOW MUCH RAILROADS COULD CHARGE FOR TRANSPORTING GOODS. THE PURPOSE WAS TO KEEP THE COST OF RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION REASONABLE. THE OTHER NEW LAW WAS THE PURE FOOD AND DRUG ACT. THIS LAW DECLARED IT ILLEGAL TO MAKE OR SELL FOODS AND MEDICINES CONTAINING HARMFUL CHEMICALS. THE PURPOSE WAS TO PROTECT THE HEALTH OF ALL AMERICANS. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MOST IMPORTANT FOREIGN POLICY SUCCESS CAME AS A RESULT OF A WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN. AT THAT TIME, RUSSIA OCCUPIED MANCHURIA IN NORTHERN CHINA. JAPAN OCCUPIED KOREA. JAPAN WANTED CONTROL OF MANCHURIA. IT NEEDED THAT AREA'S COAL AND IRON ORE. JAPAN ALSO WANTED TO END ANY RUSSIAN THREAT TO KOREA. SO, IT DECIDED TO FIGHT. JAPAN'S NAVY EASILY DEFEATED ALL THE RUSSIAN FLEETS SENT TO THE PACIFIC. BUT THE TWO SIDES CONTINUED TO FIGHT ON LAND. WHEN BOTH BEGAN TO RUN OUT OF MONEY, THEY ACCEPTED PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S OFFER TO MAKE PEACE. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT INVITED JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS TO MEET WITH HIM IN PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE. HE TOLD THEM HIS GREATEST HOPE AND PRAYER WAS FOR THEM TO FIND A JUST AND LASTING PEACE QUICKLY. A QUICK SETTLEMENT, HOWEVER, WAS NOT EASY. JAPAN DEMANDED SIX-HUNDRED-MILLION DOLLARS FOR WAR DAMAGES. IT ALSO WANTED SAKHALIN ISLAND. RUSSIA REJECTED BOTH DEMANDS. IT HAD AGREED TO GIVE UP SOUTHERN MANCHURIA. RUSSIA WOULD GIVE UP NOTHING ELSE. NEGOTIATIONS LASTED MANY DAYS. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT BECAME MORE AND MORE ANGRY WHEN NEITHER SIDE WOULD COMPROMISE. BUT HE REMAINED CALM AND KEPT THE TALKS GOING. LATER, HE SAID: "WHAT I REALLY WANTED TO DO WAS GIVE AN ANGRY SHOUT, JUMP UP, AND KNOCK THEIR HEADS TOGETHER." VOICE TWO: FINALLY, ROOSEVELT MADE A SECRET APPEAL TO THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN. HE ASKED THE EMPEROR TO DROP DEMANDS FOR MONEY AND FOR SAKHALIN ISLAND. HE WARNED THAT RUSSIA WAS READY TO FIGHT AGAIN IF THE PEACE TALKS FAILED. THE EMPEROR AGREED TO DROP THE DEMAND FOR MONEY. BUT HE STILL DEMANDED HALF OF SAKHALIN ISLAND. RUSSIA AGREED TO THIS COMPROMISE. THE TWO SIDES SIGNED A PEACE TREATY. VOICE ONE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT RECEIVED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR NEGOTIATING AN END TO THE RUSSIAN-JAPANESE WAR. HOWEVER, HIS EFFORTS WERE DENOUNCED IN JAPAN. ROOSEVELT WAS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LOSS OF WAR DAMAGE PAYMENTS. IT WAS MONEY JAPAN NEEDED BADLY. ANTI-AMERICAN RIOTS BROKE OUT IN SOME PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. AT THE SAME TIME, TENSE RELATIONS DEVELOPED BETWEEN AMERICAN CITIZENS AND JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA. POOR JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS WERE WILLING TO WORK FOR LOW PAY. AS A RESULT, AMERICANS LOST JOBS. THEY PROTESTED. THEN SCHOOL OFFICIALS IN SAN FRANCISCO BARRED JAPANESE CHILDREN FROM ATTENDING SCHOOL WITH WHITE CHILDREN. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT OPPOSED THE DECISION. HE ASKED THE OFFICIALS TO LIFT THE BAN. IN EXCHANGE, HE AGREED TO ASK JAPAN TO STOP ITS POOR FARMERS AND LABORERS FROM GOING TO LIVE IN AMERICA. JAPAN SAID IT WOULD. THE UNDERSTANDING BECAME KNOWN AS THE GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT. VOICE TWO: ROOSEVELT WORKED HARD TO IMPROVE AMERICA'S RELATIONS WITH JAPAN. YET HE MADE CLEAR THAT THE UNITED STATES WOULD DEFEND ITS INTERESTS IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC. AS A WARNING, HE SENT A NAVAL FORCE ON A VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD. THE FORCE INCLUDED SIXTEEN BATTLESHIPS AND TWELVE-THOUSAND MEN. IT WAS CALLED THE GREAT WHITE FLEET. THE VOYAGE LASTED FOURTEEN MONTHS. THE FLEET SAILED DOWN THE ATLANTIC COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA. IT WENT AROUND THE BOTTOM OF SOUTH AMERICA INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN, THEN ON TO HAWAII, AUSTRALIA, AND JAPAN. SURPRISINGLY, IT RECEIVED ITS WARMEST WELCOME IN JAPAN. AN AMERICAN REPORTER SAID: "THE FLEET MADE A DEEP AND FAR-REACHING IMPRESSION. IT CAUSED THE JAPANESE TO UNDERSTAND THE GREAT POWER OF THE UNITED STATES...AS NOTHING ELSE COULD POSSIBLY HAVE DONE." PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT BELIEVED THIS SHOW OF AMERICAN STRENGTH PREVENTED WAR WITH JAPAN. "SENDING OUT THE FLEET," HE SAID, "WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I DID FOR PEACE." VOICE ONE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT GREATLY ENJOYED PLAYING THE PART OF PEACE-MAKER. AFTER SUCCESSFULLY ENDING THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN, HE WAS ASKED TO SETTLE ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE. AT ISSUE WAS CONTROL OVER MOROCCO. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE HARRY MONROE AND KAY GALLANT. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – July 26, 2001: Rules for Genetically Engineered Foods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A group responsible for world food safety has agreed on the first international rules to govern the safety of foods made with genetic engineering. The Codex Alimentarius Commission approved the rules at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland earlier this month. Codex is a joint agency of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. One-hundred-sixty-five nations belong to the organization. Delegates to the Codex Commission meeting examined concerns about the safety of foods made with genetic engineering. Many groups and individuals have expressed concern that such foods could be harmful to human health and the environment. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. The changed gene directs the plant or other organism to do things it normally does not do. For example, some crops are genetically engineered to resist harmful insects. The technology has helped farmers increase crop production. It also reduces the need to use chemicals to kill insects. The Codex Commission agreed that food from genetically engineered organisms should be tested and approved by governments before it can be sold. The delegates said genetically engineered foods should be tested for anything that could cause allergic reactions in humans. They said information about anything known to cause such a reaction should be clearly shown on the product. However, the delegates were not able to agree on a proposal to require the identification of all foods made with genetic engineering. Jorgen Schlundt is the food safety chief with the World Health Organization. He says genetic engineering can be used to make very safe products. He adds that many foods made with the technology are probably safer than traditional products. But Doctor Schlundt says biotechnology also could be used to do very bad things. He says that is why a system is needed to measure the safety of each product. W-H-O director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland praised the Codex Commission agreement. She called it the first international step toward measuring the safety of genetically engineered foods. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-25-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – July 25, 2001: Reduction in Deep Sea Current
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists say there has been a reduction in the flow of a deep sea current during the past fifty years. The current of extremely cold water comes from the Arctic Ocean. It enters the Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Greenland. Bogi Hansen is a scientist for the Faroese Fisheries Laboratory in the city of Torshavn in the Faroe Islands. He led a team of researchers from Norway, Scotland and the Faroe Islands. They measured the current in an area of sea between the Faroe Islands and Scotland. There is a large piece of earth about five-hundred meters below the surface there. The coldest, saltiest water does not flow over this ridge. The water is too heavy. It sinks to deeper levels along the side of the ridge. However, there is a place on the ridge that drops to more than eight-hundred meters below the surface. Cold, heavy, deep water flows through the ridge and into the Atlantic Ocean. Then the water drops thousands of meters to the sea bottom. The researchers began measuring the flow through the opening in the ridge in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. They found the water flow decreased by two to four percent each year. They used other methods of measurement to estimate the decrease since Nineteen-Fifty. The researchers say there has been a twenty percent decrease in the amount of water in the past fifty years. Mister Hansen also says there is an increase in the speed at which the area is losing its cold deep water. He says the flow has decreased faster in the last five years than it did over the forty-five years before. The current is part of a flow of water that travels thousands of kilometers. Scientists say there is much they still do not understand about this flow of water. They say it can change greatly in different areas over different periods of time. Mister Hansen’s study gathered measurements over a longer period of time than any other study of the flow through the ridge. However, he says the measurements must continue before scientists can learn what is causing the decreased flow through the ridge. He says there is not enough information to decide whether the change is linked to warming of the atmosphere caused by human activity. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-25-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - July 25, 2001: The Price of Medicine in America
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is ____________. VOICE TWO: And this is _____________with the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell about the issue of how drug companies sell their products in the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Drug companies sold about one-hundred-fifty-thousand-million dollars worth of their products in the United States last year. This represents an increase of about nineteen percent over Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. The prices of the drugs rose on average almost four percent last year from the year before. Economic experts say Americans are spending more on drugs because the population is getting older. One report says the prices of fifty drugs most often ordered by doctors for older people rose more than the rate of inflation. The drug companies say the money paid for the drugs helps support research and development. An organization representing drug manufacturers says companies produced new treatments for thirty diseases in Two-Thousand. They included drugs for heart disease, cancer and AIDS. Critics say prices for drugs are too high partly because the drug industry spends too much money selling its products. VOICE TWO: People in the United States buy medicine in two ways. They can buy some medicines in a store without an order from a doctor. These are called over-the-counter drugs. They usually are mild, like aspirin. Over-the-counter drugs generally do not create unwanted effects on the body. Other medicines require the written or telephoned permission of a doctor for a person to buy them. These prescription medicines are usually more powerful than over-the-counter drugs. Under some conditions they can cause unpleasant or dangerous effects. Prescription drugs usually cost more than over-the-counter drugs. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: For many years, drug companies have used sales messages aimed at the public to help sell their over-the-counter products. They advertised their prescription drugs mainly in publications for doctors. In the last few years, the companies have increasingly tried to sell prescription drugs directly to the public. They spent thousands of millions of dollars on advertising the drugs last year. Some experts say that is why American doctors prescribed six-percent more drugs during Two-Thousand than the year before. Some companies buy advertising messages, known as ads, in newspapers and magazines, and on the Internet. A number of companies also buy ads on television. VOICE TWO: One such television ad shows people of different sexes, ages and races. They look tense and sad. An announcer says they are suffering from severe depression. He asks if people watching the ad have this problem, too. If so, he says, they should talk to their doctors about getting the drug. Drug-industry critics say such ads sometimes cause people to ask doctors for medicine they do not need. Or, people may ask for a costly medicine when a less costly one would be equally good. Drug companies say advertising is helpful. They say ads help people recognize health problems. They say advertising also increases public knowledge and choice of treatments. VOICE ONE: The Federal Food and Drug Administration began supervising ads for prescription drugs in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. This spring, the agency criticized eight manufacturers for their ads about drugs for HIV. The virus causes the deadly disease, AIDS. The government said the ads gave people wrong ideas. Officials told the companies to change the message. For example, one ad for an HIV drug shows a group of young people. They are climbing on a mountain. They look healthy and full of energy. But Food and Drug Administration officials and other health officials objected. They say the ad misled people. They say it communicated the false message that AIDS patients can live totally normal lives. VOICE TWO: The prescription drug Celebrex treats arthritis. This disease causes joint pain and difficulty moving. It affects the neck, back, knees and other parts of the body. A recent ad for Celebrex showed people doing demanding physical activities. At the same time, energetic music played. The people moved their bodies easily. They appeared to have no pain. The Food and Drug Administration said the ad promised too much improvement from taking the drug. Celebrex changed the ad. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Drug companies also pay millions of dollars to place ads in publications for doctors. In addition, the companies send sales representatives to doctors' offices. They tell the doctors more details about their products. The representatives also provide examples their products. Many companies offer doctors more than free samples. A half-century ago, drug manufacturers gave doctors small gifts like pens and writing paper. Today, some companies are paying for costly meals and holiday trips for doctors. In return, they hope the doctors will prescribe their drugs. VOICE TWO: Drug companies also ask doctors to take part in focus groups. These discussion groups meet to gather expert opinions on health issues. The companies sometimes pay as much as several thousand dollars to people taking part in the focus groups. Some doctors suspect the main purpose of these groups is to increase support for the companies' products. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people in the United States belong to health-insurance plans. These plans help pay for services by doctors and hospitals. Many insurance companies also pay part of the cost of prescription medicines. Yet insurance officials say increased prices may force them to stop doing this. One of America's largest health-insurance companies is proposing a way to cut prices. It has asked the Food and Drug Administration to permit three prescription drugs to be sold without prescription. These allergy medicines treat bad reactions to materials such as dust, trees and food. The insurance company says the drugs are safer than most over-the-counter products. It says people do not need a doctor's permission to take them. Experts for the drug companies, however, say these medicines might harm people if used without medical advice. VOICE TWO: Almost five-thousand-million dollars worth of the three allergy medicines were sold in the United States during Two-Thousand. One of the prescription drugs costs more than two dollars for each pill in the United States. The same drug sells over-the-counter in Canada. There, it costs seventy cents for each pill without tax. Legal experts say it does not appear that the drugs will be sold over the counter in the United States any time soon. They say no one is sure the Food and Drug Administration has the right to make such a decision. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Drug companies hold patents which give them the legal right to be the only seller of some of their drugs. These patents protect against competitors producing less costly copies of the drugs. The copies are called generic drugs. Protection against generics is not permanent. When the time limit for a patent ends, a competing company can sell its generic version of the drug. The more costly drug often loses about half its business within months after the generic drug is first sold. VOICE TWO: Some companies are trying to use legal action to delay producers of generics from introducing competing products. For example, the Schering-Plough Corporation now holds the patent to sell the allergy drug Claritin. But its patent ends in about seventeen months. So the corporation is bringing legal action against ten manufacturers of generics. Schering-Plough says people taking Claritin produce a substance in their livers called a metabolite. The corporation holds a separate patent for the metabolite. This patent does not end until Two-Thousand-Four. The corporation claims generics cannot be sold until its rights to the metabolite also end. This kind of argument has never won in court. But such legal action does delay introduction less costly generic drugs. VOICE ONE: Widespread concern about drug prices has caused President George W. Bush to propose a solution. The president proposes that drug companies help older people pay lower prices for drugs. Five big health-care companies have promised to co-operate with the plan. Many members of the opposition Democratic Party oppose the plan. They say the measure does not provide nearly enough help. There is only one agreement about the debate over the price of drugs and how they are sold in the United States. Everyone agrees that there are no easy answers. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by ___________. This is _______________. VOICE ONE: And this is ______________. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - July 28, 2001: Group of Eight Conference
* Byline: 

 This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Last week, the heads of government of the Group of Eight held a three-day meeting in Genoa, Italy. The members are the leading industrial nations --the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada--and also Russia. The leaders met to discuss world trade and economic development. They also discussed disease prevention, debt reduction, and other issues. Officials from several developing countries including Nigeria, Mali, Bangladesh and El Salvador were invited to take part in the conference for the first time. During the talks, about one-hundred-thousand protesters demonstrated outside the historic palace in Genoa where the meeting was held. They gathered there to express their anger about world trade. One person was killed during the protests. The Italian Interior Ministry says the demonstrator was shot in an act of self-defense by a member of Italy’s national police force. Many protesters condemned the deadly use of force by the Italian police. The Group of Eight leaders expressed sorrow for the death and urged demonstrators to reject violence. The protesters represented trade unions, environmental groups, farmers, and the unemployed. Most shared a concern about the effects of international trade. Many of the protesters believe world trade harms the people of poor countries. They say major international companies are becoming wealthy while harming the poor and the environment. Opponents of world trade want wealthy nations to reduce debt in developing countries. They also called for better education in poor countries and more money to treat diseases in Africa. The Group of Eight leaders said world trade helps all people. They promised to work to bring the poorest countries into the world economy. And they promised to continue to deal with issues important to all areas of the world. The leaders also discussed the worldwide AIDS crisis and other deadly diseases. They agreed to provide more than one-thousand-million dollars to support efforts to prevent and treat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These preventable diseases kill millions of people each year. Most of the victims live in poor countries. One of the most disputed issues at the G-Eight meeting was the Kyoto treaty to halt the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere. President Bush continues to reject the treaty. He says it would harm the American economy. Other leaders said they would work to put the treaty into effect. At the end of the conference, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced they would hold new arms talks. They said they want to link talks about reducing nuclear weapons with American plans to build a missile defense system. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - July 29, 2001: Paul Robeson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now,the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember finish the story of the life of Paul Robeson (ROBE-a-son). He was a singer and international political activist. (THEME) VOICE ONE: By the late Nineteen-Twenties, Paul Robeson had become the most highly praised black actor and singer of the time. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he became involved in national and international movements for peace, equal rights for black Americans, and better labor conditions. He traveled around the world singing his songs to support these struggles. However, his friendship with the Soviet Union brought strong opposition from conservative groups in the United States. Many people in the United States opposed Robeson's political beliefs as too liberal or extreme. As early as Nineteen-Forty-One, American government agencies, led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reportedly had targeted him as dangerous. They considered his political activism to be against the best interests of the American government. VOICE TWO: During World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union were allies fighting against Nazi Germany. Robeson recorded several Russian songs to honor the Soviet people's defense of their land against the Nazi invasion. These recordings were broadcast in the Soviet Union. Many Soviet soldiers were said to have heard Paul Robeson's voice before going into battle. This is one of those songs. It is called "Native Land." (TAPE CUT #1: "NATIVE LAND") VOICE ONE: After World War Two, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became tense. In the late Nineteen-Forties, Americans feared communism as a threat to their way of life. The people in the Soviet Union were denied the freedoms that Americans enjoyed. The United States joined with other nations to try to halt the spread of communism around the world. In addition, the crimes of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin became public. These included the killing of millions of people in the Soviet Union who opposed his policies. As a result, many former American supporters of communism stopped supporting the Soviet Union. VOICE TWO: Robeson, however, continued to support the Soviet Union. He still believed in the idea of communism. And he believed in friendship between the United States and the Soviet Union. A congressional committee began investigating Americans who supported communism or who were friends of people who supported it. The committee questioned Robeson. He refused to say if he was a communist. Robeson saw the questioning as an attack on the democratic rights of everyone who worked for international friendship and for equality. VOICE ONE: Robeson also was condemned in the United States because of his criticism of the United States government. He spoke at the World Peace Conference in Paris in April, Nineteen-Forty-Nine. He was reported to have said he did not believe black Americans would fight for the American government that oppressed them against the Soviet Union. This statement brought a strong reaction against him from some people in the American press, government and public. It led to rioting at a concert in New York State where Robeson was to appear. Hundreds of people were injured when crowds threw stones at people attending the concert. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty, the American State Department withdrew Robeson's travel document because of the political ideas he expressed. This prevented him from leaving the United States to perform in other countries. The State Department said his travel to other countries would not be in the best interest of the United States. Robeson also was barred from performing in many places in the United States. His concerts were canceled. His records were withdrawn from stores. Record companies refused to produce new recordings of his songs. Robeson said the actions against him were attempts to silence artistic expression. He said they were attempts to control whom people could hear and what they could hear. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, the Mine, Mill and Smelters Workers Union of British Columbia, Canada invited Robeson to attend its yearly meeting. Americans do not need a passport to enter Canada. But the United States government barred him from entering Canada anyway. So the union invited him to sing at an outdoor concert in the United States. The concert was held at Peace Arch Park. The park is in the northwestern state of Washington, on the border between the United States and Canada. Robeson sang to more than thirty-thousand people in both countries. Here is a recording from that concert. Robeson sang a famous labor union song called "Joe Hill." (TAPE CUT #2: "JOE HILL") VOICE TWO: Robeson performed at another outdoor concert at Peace Arch Park the following year. At the end of the program, Robeson spoke to the thousands of people attending. He promised to continue the fight for freedom as long as he could. Here is part of that speech. (TAPE CUT #3: 1953 CONCERT SPEECH) VOICE ONE: Nineteen-Fifty Eight was an important year for Paul Robeson. His regained his passport that year after a Supreme Court ruling on a similar case. The Supreme Court ruled that the State Department could not withhold passports of American citizens because of their suspected beliefs or the groups they joined. A book he wrote about his life, Here I Stand, also was published. And, that same year, he performed in a concert at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York. It was his first appearance there in eleven years. Every seat in the hall was filled. Paul Robeson sang an African-American spiritual called "Didn't My Lord Deliver." Here is a recording from that concert. (TAPE CUT #4: "DIDN'T MY LORD DELIVER") VOICE TWO: Paul Robeson and his wife Essie moved to London where he continued to sing and act. They also visited the Soviet Union often. In Nineteen-Sixty-Three, they returned to the United States. Paul Robeson was suffering from physical and mental problems. He retired from public life because of his bad health. Paul Robeson died in Nineteen-Seventy-Six, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, Paul Robeson had written these words: "I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope...in the face of...fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail." (THEME) ANNCR: You have been listening to the story of the life of singer and political activist Paul Robeson. This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. I’m Bob Doughty. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA – July 30, 2001: James Madison’s Montpelier
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The American state of Virginia is sometimes called the Mother of Presidents. Eight American Presidents were born there. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Shirley Griffith. The Virginia home of President James Madison -- Montpelier (mont-PEEL-yer) -- is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Montpelier is a huge property in the middle of Virginia’s farm country. The property covers more than one-thousand-one-hundred hectares of land. Montpelier is about one-hundred-thirty kilometers south of Washington, D-C. The Madison home is a short drive from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It also is only about forty-five kilometers from Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson. James Madison was the fourth President of the United States. He is known as the Father of the American Constitution. Mister Madison wrote the first plan for union of the new nation. He also was mainly responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights. VOICE TWO: This year, Americans are observing the two-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of James Madison’s birth. He was born at Port Conway, Virginia, on March Sixteenth, Seventeen-Fifty-One. Young James grew up in Orange County, on the Madison family home at Montpelier. James Madison’s grandfather, Ambrose Madison, first settled the land in Seventeen-Twenty-Three. James spent the first nine years of his life in a house built by his grandfather. James Madison’s father built the main house at Montpelier in about Seventeen-Sixty. The family moved there a short time later. ((MUSIC FROM “CRYSTAL FLUTE”)) VOICE ONE: James Madison was the oldest child in a family of twelve children. He was educated at home and at schools in Virginia until he was eighteen years old. Then he attended the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University. James completed his college education in just two years. He stayed in New Jersey almost one year longer for independent studies. James Madison returned to Montpelier in Seventeen-Seventy-Two. He was unsure of his future. He considered and then rejected positions in law, religion or business. Tensions between Britain and its American colonies increased in the early Seventeen-Seventies. This is about the time that James Madison’s political activism began. He served in local government before being elected to Virginia’s first House of Delegates. There he helped to write a new state constitution. VOICE TWO: Mister Madison represented Virginia at the Second Continental Congress during the American war of independence. After the war, he attended the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. Mister Madison successfully proposed the creation of a strong central government. He led efforts in Virginia and other states to approve the proposal. He helped write The Federalist, a series of reports explaining the strength of the proposed Constitution. After the Constitution was approved, Mister Madison continued as a leading member of the new federal government. He was elected to the first Congress. He led the fight to approve the first ten amendments to the constitution – the Bill of Rights. A few years later, he and Thomas Jefferson formed the political party known today as the Democratic Party. ((MUSIC FROM “CRYSTAL FLUTE”)) VOICE ONE: While in Congress, James Madison met a young woman named Dolley Payne Todd. Her husband had died from yellow fever the year before. Mister Madison proposed marriage to the young woman a short time after they met. They were married on September fifteenth, Seventeen-Ninety-Four. Dolley Madison often seemed larger in life than her famous husband. James was a small, quiet man. His wife was best known for her friendliness and for organizing large parties. Their marriage lasted forty-one years. But they had no children. James Madison left Congress in Seventeen-Ninety-Seven. He and Dolly retired to Montpelier. The retirement did not last long, however. Thomas Jefferson became President in Eighteen-Oh-One. Mister Jefferson appointed his friend James Madison as Secretary of State. Mister Madison served as America’s top diplomat for eight years. VOICE TWO: The Jefferson presidency was a period of growth for the new nation. In Eighteen-Oh-Three, the American government agreed to pay France about fifteen-million dollars for a huge piece of land. This agreement was called the Louisiana Purchase. It increased the area of the United States by one-hundred percent. However, there were some problems. Secretary of State Madison failed to force France and Great Britain to honor the rights of Americans on the high seas. Trade relations with these nations was the government’s biggest problem when James Madison became President in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. President Madison served for eight years. He led the United States through the War of Eighteen-Twelve. British troops invaded the country and burned Washington. The war ended in Eighteen-Fifteen with an American victory. VOICE ONE: President Madison’s second term in office ended in Eighteen-Seventeen. He and Dolley returned home to Montpelier. The former President remained active and interested in politics. He founded a group to help free slaves and transport them to Africa. He also took part in Virginia’s constitutional convention in Eighteen-Twenty-Nine. James Madison died at Montpelier on June twenty-eighth, Eighteen-Thirty-Six. He was eighty-five. His wife Dolley died thirteen years later. They are buried on the property. ((MUSIC FROM “CRYSTAL FLUTE”)) VOICE TWO: Today, Montpelier is a peaceful place. However, it has experienced many changes over the years. Two hundred years ago, the Madisons had about one-hundred slaves. Some worked in the fields or on the grounds. Others did housework. In Seventeen-Sixty, Montpelier’s main building started as an eight-room home. It had four rooms on the first floor, and four on the second floor. James Madison made two major additions and structural changes to his father’s home. He built private areas for family use. He also united existing rooms to create larger, public spaces for dinners and parties. VOICE ONE: Dolley Madison sold Montpelier to a friend in Eighteen-Forty-Four, eight years after her husband died. The property had five other owners before it was bought by William and Annie duPont in Nineteen-Oh-One. The duPonts enlarged the main building to its present size. Their daughter, Marion duPont Scott, added two large tracks for horse racing. The home remained in the duPont family until Nineteen-Eighty-Three. Then it was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Montpelier was opened to the public in Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. Last year, an independent group called the Montpelier Foundation accepted responsibility for the property. ((MUSIC INSERT:“CRYSTAL FLUTE”)) VOICE TWO: This music was recorded at Montpelier a few years ago. One of the instruments, the crystal flute, belonged to President Madison. ((MUSIC INSERT:“CRYSTAL FLUTE”)) VOICE ONE: Today, James Madison’s Montpelier includes more than one-hundred-thirty buildings, a large flower garden and farmland. Some trees on the grounds were alive when James Madison was alive. The James Madison Landmark Forest includes eighty hectares of wooded land near the back of the property. It is recognized as the best example of an old-growth forest in central Virginia. In March, Montpelier launched a year-long celebration of the life of James Madison. The main building now has two rooms with furniture used by the Madisons and other objects from the period. In another room, visitors can see a film about the President’s life. In April, family members of slaves who once worked at Montpelier gathered for their first meeting ever. The visitors could see where the former slaves are buried. Plans are currently being made for the observance of Constitution Day, a national holiday in September. Officials are inviting members of the United States armed forces to Montpelier to honor the Father of the Constitution. ((MUSIC FROM “CRYSTAL FLUTE” INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written and produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - July 30, 2001: United Nations Special Session on Children
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on children beginning September Nineteenth. The meeting will bring together government leaders, child activists, non-government organizations and many young people. The three-day gathering will give officials a valuable chance to change how the world thinks about children. Eleven years ago, the U-N held a similar meeting called the “World Summit for Children.” During that conference, seventy-one heads of state and government signed a treaty aimed at improving the lives of children around the world. Efforts to reach the goals established in that treaty have made the rights of children an important issue. The U-N agency for children, UNICEF, is supporting the special session. Officials are expected to produce a plan of action to guarantee that three important goals are reached. The goals are the best possible start in life for all children, a good education for all children and the chance for all children to become an important part of their communities. The session will also examine progress made since the Nineteen-Ninety World Summit for Children. Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela is working toward these goals. He is joined by his wife Graca Machel who is an activist for children. They are calling on community, business and government leaders to form an international movement aimed at improving the world for young people. The movement is hoping to build international support for a public campaign to help children. Several world leaders have joined the movement. They include South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and Queen Rania of Jordan. Movie stars, professional sports teams, and the creators of children’s television programs and books also have joined the movement. The group’s public campaign lists ten ways to improve the lives of young people. These include educating children, protecting them from war and fighting the disease AIDS. UNICEF officials say the goal of the movement is for people around the world to get involved, take action and work for change. They say that for every child who comes into the world, the hopes and dreams of the human race are reborn. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 31, 2001: Agent Orange
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Ray Freeman with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today we tell about a chemical used by American forces during the Vietnam War in the Nineteen-Sixties and Nineteen-Seventies. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The Vietnam War ended more than twenty-five years ago. South Vietnamese forces officially surrendered to North Vietnam on April thirtieth, Nineteen-Seventy-Five. The Vietnam War affected the lives of millions of people. Today, it still affects many lives. Studies say chemicals used during the war continue to affect people many years after the fighting stopped. VOICE TWO: During the war, American military forces attempted to destroy the natural hiding places of enemy forces. They sprayed about seventy-two-million liters of chemicals to kill plant growth over more than one-million hectares of what was then South Vietnam. They sprayed the chemicals between Nineteen-Sixty-Two and Nineteen-Seventy-One. Most of the chemical mixtures contained dioxin. Dioxin is a substance known to cause cancer and birth defects in animals. The chemical mixture used most often was called Agent Orange. VOICE ONE: Many Americans who fought in Vietnam experienced health problems after the war. Hundreds of the veterans blamed Agent Orange. One critic of Agent Orange was Elmo Zumwalt, Junior. Admiral Zumwalt served as Commander of American Naval Forces in Vietnam from Nineteen-Sixty-Eight to Nineteen-Seventy. Later, he served as Chief of Naval Operations and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Zumwalt thought the United States should not have been involved in the Vietnam War. For him, the war represented a useless loss of life. It also represented a painful personal loss. His oldest son served with the American navy in Vietnam. Several years later, he died of cancer -- possibly caused by Agent Orange. VOICE TWO: Admiral Zumwalt had ordered the spraying of Agent Orange along rivers guarded by his son’s boat. At the time, military officials did not know about the harmful effects of the chemical. After he retired, Admiral Zumwalt worked to correct the wrongs done by Agent Orange. He said government officials refused to admit the harm that had been done to Vietnam veterans. He said there were attempts to hide the link between Agent Orange and the diseases it may have caused. VOICE ONE: Veterans groups repeatedly criticized studies that showed little or no health problems caused by Agent Orange. One study in Nineteen-Ninety, for example, found no evidence of a link between Agent Orange and disease in humans. Another report said the chemical dioxin appeared to be less dangerous than some scientists believed. That study showed very high levels of dioxin can cause cancer in humans. But it also found dioxin might not be a cancer threat at lower levels. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Congress ordered an independent scientific study of the Agent Orange issue. The National Academy of Sciences organized the study. Congress also told the government to begin paying former soldiers who developed any of three diseases after serving in Vietnam. Two of the diseases are cancers – non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and soft tissue sarcoma. The other is a severe skin disease – chloracne. In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, a committee of the Institute of Medicine released its report. Committee members studied almost six-thousand-five-hundred scientific reports about the effects on humans of the chemicals used to kill plants. VOICE ONE: The committee found a link between two other health conditions and Agent Orange. One is another kind of cancer – Hodgkin’s disease. The second is a serious skin disease – porphyria cutanea tarda. The government added them to the list of diseases for which American veterans can receive payment and free medical treatment. Later, other cancers were added to the list. Government assistance also is offered to the children of some veterans. Studies found that veterans who worked with Agent Orange face an increased risk of having a child born with spina bifida. Spina bifida is a serious birth defect in which the baby’s spinal cord is not completely covered. VOICE TWO: Last year, the Defense Department released evidence linking Agent Orange to the disease diabetes. The information came from a study of one-thousand former members of the Air Force. They all had worked on airplanes that sprayed Agent Orange or other chemicals. The study found that the Air Force veterans were more likely than other war veterans to get diabetes. It also showed that the disease seemed to affect them sooner and more severely. VOICE ONE: A few months later, the National Academy of Sciences released another report on the effects of the chemicals used in Vietnam. The Academy reported limited evidence of a link between the chemicals and Type Two diabetes. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that about nine percent of Vietnam veterans have Type-Two diabetes. Three months ago, a study by the National Academy of Sciences also linked Agent Orange to a form of leukemia found in some children. It said the children of veterans exposed to the chemicals used in Vietnam might have an increased risk of developing the disease. Acute myelogenous leukemia is a cancer of the bone marrow cells that form two kinds of white blood cells. The disease spreads quickly, often killing its young victims. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Agent Orange also has affected many people in other countries. The government of Vietnam estimates that as many as two-million Vietnamese adults and their children have health problems caused by chemicals used during the war. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, a Vietnamese committee joined with a Canadian group, Hatfield Consultants, to begin studying the effects of Agent Orange. Research scientists selected the Aluoi Valley -- a place near the border with Laos -- as the main study area. The Aluoi Valley was heavily sprayed with Agent Orange and other chemicals from Nineteen-Sixty-Five to Nineteen-Seventy. The study was designed to follow the movement of dioxin through the environment. The researchers tested soil from a farm and a former American military base. They also tested tissue from fish and ducks, and blood from people living in the area. VOICE ONE: Tests showed soil from the former military base had the highest levels of dioxin. Fish and material from waterways also had high dioxin levels. Agent Orange dioxin also was found in human blood. High levels were found in people older than twenty-five, and in those between the ages of twelve and twenty-five. The researchers said the presence of dioxin in the young people provides evidence that the environment remains harmful. They say it shows dioxin is moving from the food grown in the area into humans. VOICE TWO: Two years ago, the researchers carried out more studies in the Aluoi Valley. The tests confirmed higher than normal levels of dioxin in soil taken from the valley and in food. High levels of the chemical also were found in fish and bird tissues. And high levels were found in human blood and human breast milk collected from a village near the former American military base. The researchers said adults and children born after the war continue to eat foods with higher than normal levels of dioxin. They said chemicals at the military base may be continuing to pollute the area. VOICE ONE: Earlier this month, scientists representing Vietnam and the United States met in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. The scientists agreed to work together to study the effects of Agent Orange on human health and the environment. They also agreed to examine the soil in Vietnam for dioxin. The American side included representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Vietnamese delegation included scientists from the National Center for Natural Science and Technology. The Vietnamese and American scientists also agreed to hold a joint scientific conference on the effects of Agent Orange. Plans call for the conference to open next April in Vietnam. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Ray Freeman. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-6-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - July 27, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... We play some music by India Arie ... answer a question about people paying to take trips in space ... and, tell about a recent international mathematics competition. International Mathematics Olympiad HOST: Earlier this month, almost five-hundred young people from eighty-three countries took part in a special contest near Washington, D-C. They were competing in the forty-second yearly International Mathematical Olympiad. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The International Mathematical Olympiad is the top mathematics competition in the world. This was the first year since Nineteen-Eighty-One that the competition was held in the United States. It was held at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Last year the contest was held in South Korea. Each country sent a team of teen-age students. During the competition, the students worked alone for nine hours over two days to solve six mathematics problems. They presented their solutions in writing, like reports written by research mathematics experts. Those experts judged the papers during the next several days. During the judging, the young people visited Washington, D.C. and its museums. They also experienced American life and culture. The six mathematics problems include algebra, calculus and geometry. They are too difficult to describe here. They are too difficult for many people to understand. The students taking part in the competition understood them, however. The team from China won the competition. The United States and Russia tied for second place. South Korea was fourth. No third place award was given. The students were also judged individually and received medals for their performances. One of the members of the United States team became the first four-time gold medalist at the Math Olympiad. Eighteen-year-old Reid Barton answered every question correctly each year for the past four years. Reid lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. He does not attend a high school. Instead he is taught at home. He will attend college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Reid will not be able to attend another International Mathematical Olympiad. But many other young people who love mathematics are already preparing for the contest next year. It will be held in Glasgow, Scotland. Space Tourism HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Russia. Denis Vladimirovich Efimov asks if people will pay to take trips to space in the future. It has already happened. In April, American businessman Dennis Tito travelled to the International Space Station. He paid the Russian space agency twenty-million dollars for eight days in space. However, the American space agency did not support Mister Tito’s trip. NASA officials said a non-professional space traveller should not visit the space station while it is being built. But Russian officials said the money Mister Tito was paying for the trip would help their space program. The two space agencies finally agreed on terms for the businessman’s visit. NASA barred Mister Tito from entering the American part of the space station alone. And Russia made him promise to pay if he damaged anything. Mister Tito flew with two Russian cosmonauts on the Soyuz spacecraft. The cosmonauts were transporting equipment to the space station. Mister Tito’s duties on the flight were minor. His trip was for pleasure. Mister Tito returned to Earth safely on May sixth. He described his trip as the deepest experience of his life -- a dream come true. And he says he plans to support the idea of space travel for pleasure. He will not be alone. The head of Russia’s space agency has expressed his support for the idea. He says Mister Tito’s trip has opened up a new period of space exploration that includes pleasure flights. Another Russian space official described the international space station as “open for business.” Reports say Russian officials are considering offers from other private individuals looking for a ride into space. Film director James Cameron is among those interested. The director of the film “Titanic” is among a small group of people who are able to pay the high price for a flight in space. When will the average person be able to take such a trip? Maybe sooner than you think. The German television production company Brainpool is creating a show in which people compete to win a space flight. Brainpool says it has an agreement to use Soyuz spacecrafts for flights that could begin as early as next year. India Arie HOST: India Arie (ar-EE) has been writing songs for five years. Her first album was released in March. It is called “Acoustic Soul.” Shirley Griffith tells us more. ANNCR: The songs on “Acoustic Soul” include messages about loving yourself. The song “Video” is about being happy with what you look like. ((CUT 1 – “Video”)) India Arie (ar-EE) is twenty-five years old. She began playing guitar while in college. In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, she performed with other female singers on the Lilith Fair tour. Major record companies became interested in her music. Critics praise her singing. They say the songs on “Acoustic Soul” show how non-electric instruments can add feeling to a song. Listen for guitar, cello and piano on this song, “Ready for Love.” ((Cut 2 – “Ready for Love”)) India Arie calls her music soul music because it comes from the heart. She says the message of music has the power to heal. We leave you now with another song from her new album. This one is called “Brown Skin.” ((CUT 3 – “Brown Skin”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-7-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - July 27, 2001: Carbon Dioxide
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Carbon dioxide makes up less than one percent of the Earth’s atmosphere. But the gas is very important to life on Earth. Scientists are finding that processes involving carbon dioxide affect our climate in ways that are difficult to understand. Last month, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington released a report. It confirmed that world temperatures increased about six-tenths of a degree Celsius in the last one-hundred years. The report also confirmed evidence that the level of carbon dioxide is increasing. The best information about climate in the past comes from tests of ice many kilometers deep in Antarctica and Greenland. The tests show changes in temperature during the past four-hundred-thousand years. These tests show that levels of carbon dioxide today are the highest ever measured. These findings have led scientists to believe that carbon dioxide is a major cause of climate warming. Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when fuel is burned. Oil, coal and wood are all fuels that release the gas. When biological waste breaks down, it also releases carbon dioxide. However, plants use carbon dioxide in the process called photosynthesis. This process provides food for almost all life on Earth. Some groups that support burning oil and coal want to increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They oppose international efforts to control carbon dioxide. Some scientists believe that forests and trees are able to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. Some groups even suggest that an increase in carbon dioxide could cause plants to grow faster. A recent study in North Carolina found that more carbon dioxide in the air can cause trees to grow faster. But the researchers found the effect appears to last for only three years. Another study showed that much of the carbon dioxide that is taken in by trees is released within three years. The study noted that leaves release carbon dioxide when they fall from trees and break down in the soil. Plants also naturally release carbon dioxide through the process of respiration. The natural balance of gases in the atmosphere is a complex scientific issue. The debate over carbon dioxide is only one part of efforts to understand world climate change. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-07/a-2001-07-31-8-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – July 31, 2001: Spying on Farm Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Wildlife experts like Jane Goodall are famous for studying animals in the wild. In recent years, a new kind of scientific study has developed. More and more experts are studying cows and pigs on farms. Such experts are called farm animal ethologists. They are similar to wildlife experts. They observe farm animals in their natural environment and interfere as little as possible. The United States Department of Agriculture employs two farm animal ethologists. They measure stress in farm animals as part of efforts to improve the way the animals are treated. Stress is a mental or emotional influence that is harmful to the body. Julie Morrow-Tesch was the first U-S-D-A farm animal ethologist. She says stress in animals can cause serious problems. These include slower growth, disease, injury and sometimes death. Mizz Morrow-Tesch and her team work from a large vehicle that has cameras and other equipment. They work near large, open feeding areas for cattle in the state of Texas. Team members use hidden cameras or sit on top of the vehicle to study the animals. They observe the actions of individual cows every fifteen minutes. Each feeding area has two-hundred or more cattle. The team can study several feeding areas at the same time. The vehicle keeps team members hidden from the cattle. The team uses special night-observation equipment to avoid the need for bright lights. Mizz Morrow-Tesch and her team studied more than five-thousand cattle in thirty-one feeding areas. They recorded the cows feeding, drinking, standing, lying and walking. They also recorded aggressive actions among the animals. Their observations already have identified some problems and possible answers. For example, they found that feeding the animals just before sunset instead of in the morning reduced aggression among the animals. Aggressive cattle may injure other animals. The team also identified the value of protecting cattle in hot weather. Cattle kept away from direct sunlight reached their market weight twenty days earlier than animals in unprotected areas. Also, the protected cattle weighed about twenty-seven kilograms more than the other animals. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - August 2, 2001: The Perseid Meteor Shower
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. This month, you can see with your own eyes how material from space falls to Earth. Space material, which is mostly rock, is often captured by Earth’s gravity and falls to the surface of our planet. These falling space rocks are called meteors. Large numbers of meteors fall during a meteor shower. The Perseid (PER-see-id) meteor shower is the most famous of these events. The Perseid meteor shower happens in early August every year. The largest number of meteors is expected to fall on August twelfth. Scientists measure meteor showers by the average number of meteors that fall in an hour. About ninety-five meteors fall in an hour during the most active day of the Perseid shower. The Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli named the Perseid meteor shower in Eighteen-Sixty-Six. He called it the Perseid meteor shower because its meteors appear to come from the group of stars called Perseus (PER-see-us). Meteor showers are named for the group of stars, or constellation, from which they come. Mister Schiaparelli discovered that the Perseid meteors had the same orbit as a comet, another kind of space object. A comet is a large body of gas, ice and rock. The Italian astronomer found that the Comet Swift-Tuttle had the same orbit as the Perseid meteors. Mister Schiaparelli’s discovery showed that meteor showers come from material left behind by comets. Traditionally, people believed that meteors were a weather event. Edward Herrick of New Haven, Connecticut, was one of the early theorists who suggested that meteors came from space. In Eighteen-Thirty-Eight, Mister Herrick published a report claiming to have discovered a meteor shower in August. But he soon found that people had observed the August meteor showers for centuries. One German tradition calls the Perseid meteors the “tears of Saint Lawrence.” This was in honor of a religious person who was put to death by the Romans in the Third Century. The anniversary of the death of Saint Lawrence is August tenth. To see the Perseids all you need to do is to watch the sky. This year, the moon will brighten the sky, making it more difficult to see meteors. But you still should be able to see about one meteor every minute during the early morning hours of August twelfth. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT- August 1, 2001: DDT Linked to Premature Births
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. American scientists have found that the chemical D-D-T increases the risk of pregnant women giving birth too soon. They say the use of D-D-T in the United States may have caused many premature births during the Nineteen-Sixties. Premature births can cause health problems in babies and increase the risk of death. D-D-T is a chemical used to kill insects. The United States banned it in Nineteen-Seventy-Two because of its unknown health effects on people. Other industrial countries have also restricted or banned the chemical. But it is still used in many developing countries to control mosquitoes that carry the disease malaria. Malaria affects as many as five-hundred-million people around the world each year. D-D-T is said to be effective in controlling the disease. D-D-T is part of the World Health Organization’s program to end malaria in twenty-five countries. So there are concerns about its effects in those countries. Scientists have long suspected a link between premature births and D-D-T. But evidence from earlier studies was not strong. The new study was carried out by three federal health agencies and the University of North Carolina. Researchers studied blood samples from almost two-thousand-four-hundred American women who had babies between Nineteen-Fifty-Nine and Nineteen-Sixty-Six. D-D-T is a compound of several chemicals and agents. One chemical remains in human tissue after many years. It is called D-D-E. Researchers tested the blood samples for levels of D-D-E. Among the mothers studied, more than five-hundred-eighty babies were either born premature or weighed less than most babies. The mothers of these babies had higher levels of D-D-E in their blood. Scientists say that these women were exposed to higher levels of D-D-T in the environment. Some researchers say other chemicals that are less harmful than D-D-T can be used to control malaria. But other experts say no other pesticides are as effective and cost as little. They say banning its use now would be harmful to developing countries where malaria is widespread. Experts say D-D-T could be restricted under a United Nations treaty on harmful chemicals if more evidence is found that it is dangerous to people. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-01-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION #152 - August 2, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt/Wm. Howard Taft, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) THE UNITED STATES PLAYED A SMALL PART IN WORLD EVENTS DURING THE EIGHTEEN-HUNDREDS. AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEEN-HUNDREDS, HOWEVER, IT EXPANDED ITS INTERESTS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. AMERICA'S PRESIDENT AT THAT TIME STRONGLY SUPPORTED THE EXPANSION. HE WAS THEODORE ROOSEVELT. I'M FRANK OLIVER. TODAY, SHIRLEY GRIFFITH AND I COMPLETE THE STORY OF AMERICA'S TWENTY-SIXTH PRESIDENT. VOICE TWO: THEODORE ROOSEVELT BECAME PRESIDENT IN NINETEEN-OH-ONE AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY. HE COMPLETED THE LAST THREE YEARS OF MCKINLEY'S TERM. THEN HE WAS ELECTED IN HIS OWN RIGHT. THOSE FOUR YEARS ARE SPOKEN OF AS ROOSEVELT'S SECOND TERM. IT WAS DURING THIS SECOND TERM THAT ROOSEVELT GAINED HIS MOST IMPORTANT FOREIGN POLICY SUCCESS. HE NEGOTIATED AN END TO A WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN. LATER, HE WAS ASKED TO SETTLE ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE. AT ISSUE WAS MOROCCO. VOICE ONE: IN NINETEEN-OH-FOUR, FRANCE AND BRITAIN SIGNED AN AGREEMENT ON NORTH AFRICA. THE AGREEMENT GAVE BRITAIN CONTROL OVER EGYPT. IT GAVE FRANCE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SECURITY AND REFORMS IN MOROCCO. GERMANY OPPOSED THE AGREEMENT. IT FELT THREATENED BY ANY FRENCH-BRITISH ALLIANCE. AND IT FEARED FRANCE WOULD BLOCK GERMAN TRADE TIES WITH MOROCCO. GERMANY DEMANDED AN "OPEN DOOR" POLICY THAT WOULD PERMIT ALL COUNTRIES TO TRADE FREELY IN MOROCCO. IT PROPOSED AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TO SETTLE THE DISPUTE. FRANCE AND BRITAIN REJECTED THE IDEA. THE RULER OF GERMANY, KAISER WILHELM THE SECOND, WARNED THAT THE DISPUTE COULD LEAD TO WAR. THE KAISER ASKED THEODORE ROOSEVELT TO INTERVENE. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AGREED TO HELP. SOME AMERICAN LAWMAKERS CRITICIZED HIM. THEY SAID IT WAS AN AMERICAN TRADITION NOT TO GET INVOLVED IN EUROPEAN DISPUTES. BUT ROOSEVELT BELIEVED PEACE WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TRADITION. HE SET UP THE CONFERENCE IN THE SPANISH SEAPORT OF ALGECIRAS. TWELVE EUROPEAN NATIONS AND THE UNITED STATES ATTENDED. THE CONFERENCE AGREED TO AN OPEN DOOR TRADE POLICY IN MOROCCO. IT ORGANIZED AN INTERNATIONAL BANK TO CONTROL MOROCCO'S FINANCES. AND IT GAVE FRANCE AND SPAIN ALMOST COMPLETE CONTROL OVER POLICE FORCES IN MOROCCO'S PORT CITIES. VOICE ONE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD BECOME A POWERFUL WORLD LEADER. AT HOME, HOWEVER, HE WAS LOSING POWER. ONE REASON WAS AN ECONOMIC DEPRESSION. BUSINESS LEADERS BLAMED IT ON ROOSEVELT. THEY SAID IT WAS THE RESULT OF HIS EFFORTS TO GAIN GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER INDUSTRY. THE OTHER REASON WAS ONE HE HAD CREATED HIMSELF. AT THAT TIME, THERE WAS NO LAW LIMITING A PRESIDENT'S TERM IN OFFICE. BUT AMERICA'S FIRST PRESIDENT, GEORGE WASHINGTON, HAD ESTABLISHED A TRADITION OF ONLY TWO TERMS. WHEN THEODORE ROOSEVELT WON THE ELECTION OF NINETEEN-OH-FOUR, HE ANNOUNCED HE WOULD NOT BE A CANDIDATE IN NINETEEN-OH-EIGHT. HE HAD COMPLETED THE TERM OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY. HE WOULD SERVE A FULL TERM OF HIS OWN. THAT WAS ENOUGH. LATER, HE SAID: "I WOULD BE WILLING TO CUT OFF MY HAND IF I COULD CALL BACK THAT STATEMENT." VOICE TWO: DURING HIS LAST YEAR IN OFFICE, ROOSEVELT WAS A "LAME DUCK" PRESIDENT. EVERYONE KNEW HE WOULD NOT BE BACK. THERE WAS LITTLE POLITICAL REASON TO SUPPORT HIM. HE FACED INCREASED OPPOSITION FROM CONGRESS AND FROM HIS OWN REPUBLICAN PARTY. HIS FINAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS WAS EXTREMELY BITTER. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ACCUSED CONGRESS AND THE COURT SYSTEM OF WORKING ONLY TO HELP RICH AMERICANS. HE CALLED FOR A TAX ON EARNINGS. HE CALLED FOR LEGISLATION TO GIVE WORKERS A GREATER SHARE OF THE NATION'S WEALTH. THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTED TO REJECT THE MESSAGE. IT SAID ROOSEVELT HAD FAILED TO SHOW RESPECT FOR THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT REFUSED TO GIVE UP HOPE FOR THE POLICIES HE BELIEVED AMERICA NEEDED. HE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FIGHT FOR THESE POLICIES HIMSELF. BUT HE COULD FIND A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO WOULD. HE WAS SURE THE PEOPLE WOULD VOTE FOR HIS CHOICE. HE DECIDED ON HIS CLOSE FRIEND, SECRETARY OF WAR WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT. TAFT HAD SPENT MOST OF HIS LIFE IN GOVERNMENT SERVICE. HE HAD BEEN A JUDGE IN BOTH A STATE COURT AND A FEDERAL COURT. HE HAD BEEN A LAWYER IN THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. AND HE HAD BEEN GOVERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINES. VOICE TWO: THERE WAS ONE PROBLEM, HOWEVER. TAFT DID NOT WANT TO BE PRESIDENT. HE REALLY WANTED TO BE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES. BUT THERE WERE NO IMMEDIATE OPENINGS ON THE SUPREME COURT. ALSO, HIS WIFE, HIS BROTHERS, AND HIS GOOD FRIEND -- THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- URGED HIM TO RUN. SO, TAFT AGREED TO BE A CANDIDATE FOR THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION IN NINETEEN-OH-EIGHT. WHEN HE WON THE NOMINATION, TAFT SAID: "MISTER ROOSEVELT LED THE WAY TO REFORM. MY JOB -- IF ELECTED -- WILL BE TO COMPLETE AND PERFECT HIS PROGRAMS." THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATED WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN. BRYAN HAD BEEN A CANDIDATE TWO TIMES BEFORE, WITHOUT SUCCESS. VOICE ONE: THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN WAS NOT ESPECIALLY EXCITING. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT DID NOT LIKE BEING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. HE WAS A BIG, HEAVY MAN. HE DID NOT LIKE TO TRAVEL. ROOSEVELT URGED HIM TO CAMPAIGN WITH MORE ENERGY. "HIT HARD, OLD MAN," ROOSEVELT SAID. "MAKE THE PEOPLE SEE THE TRUTH. LET THEM KNOW THAT FOR ALL YOUR GENTLENESS AND KINDLINESS, THERE NEVER EXISTED A MAN WHO WAS A BETTER FIGHTER WHEN THE NEED AROSE." ROOSEVELT'S ADVICE AND STRONG SUPPORT HELPED TAFT WIN A BIG VICTORY ON ELECTION DAY. VOICE TWO: A FEW WEEKS AFTER TAFT WAS SWORN-IN AS PRESIDENT, ROOSEVELT LEFT ON A YEAR-LONG TRIP OVERSEAS. HE SPENT MOST OF THE TIME HUNTING WILD ANIMALS IN AFRICA. PRESIDENT TAFT WROTE A WARM GOODBYE LETTER TO HIS FRIEND. HE PROMISED TO DO HIS BEST AS PRESIDENT. BUT HE ADMITTED HE COULD NOT LEAD AS ROOSEVELT HAD DONE. IN FACT, TAFT SAID, HE WAS STILL SURPRISED WHEN ANYONE CALLED HIM "MISTER PRESIDENT." EACH TIME IT HAPPENED, HE TURNED AROUND TO SEE IF ROOSEVELT WAS THERE. VOICE ONE: THERE WAS NO QUESTION THAT TAFT'S WAY OF LEADING WAS MUCH DIFFERENT FROM ROOSEVELT'S. TAFT BELIEVED A PRESIDENT SHOULD NOT INTERFERE TOO DEEPLY IN THE ACTIONS OF CONGRESS. HE ALSO BELIEVED A PRESIDENT SHOULD NOT CLAIM SPECIAL POWERS OR RIGHTS. HE BELIEVED IN THE SUPREME POWER OF THE LAW. . .EVEN IF THE LAW DID NOT WORK VERY WELL. THE PROGRESSIVES WHO HAD SUPPORTED ROOSEVELT DID NOT SUPPORT TAFT. THEY SAID HE WAS TOO FRIENDLY WITH CONSERVATIVES. THEY SAID HE HAD SURRENDERED TO SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS. TAFT, FOR HIS PART, DID NOT LIKE PROGRESSIVES. HE THOUGHT THEY WERE TOO EMOTIONAL AND EXTREME. VOICE TWO: YET TAFT WORKED HARD TO PUT INTO LAW MANY PARTS OF ROOSEVELT'S PROGRESSIVE PROGRAMS. HE WAS SUCCESSFUL IN SEVERAL AREAS. DURING HIS ADMINISTRATION, FOR EXAMPLE, A SEPARATE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR WAS ESTABLISHED. TWO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS WON CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL AND WERE SENT TO THE STATES FOR RATIFICATION. ONE AMENDMENT PROVIDED FOR A FEDERAL TAX ON EARNINGS. THE OTHER PROVIDED FOR DIRECT, POPULAR ELECTION OF SENATORS. TAFT ALSO WORKED EVEN HARDER THAN ROOSEVELT TO BREAK UP COMPANIES, OR TRUSTS, THAT BLOCKED ECONOMIC COMPETITION. VOICE ONE: AT THE SAME TIME, TAFT FAILED IN SEVERAL AREAS. HE SIGNED LEGISLATION THAT LOWERED IMPORT TAXES. NEITHER BUSINESSMEN NOR PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICANS LIKED IT. HE NEGOTIATED A FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH CANADA. THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT REJECTED IT. HE BELIEVED IN PROTECTING AMERICA'S WILDERNESS AREAS. YET HE DID NOT BELIEVE EXISTING LAWS GAVE HIM THE RIGHT TO CLOSE PUBLIC LANDS TO PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT. SO HE WAS SEEN AS AN ENEMY OF CONSERVATION. THESE STRUGGLES AND FAILURES MADE TAFT'S FOUR YEARS AS PRESIDENT THE UNHAPPIEST OF HIS LIFE. VOICE TWO: THE FINAL BLOW CAME IN AN EFFORT TO REDUCE THE POWERS OF THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. THE SPEAKER WAS A CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN. PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICANS OPPOSED HIM. THE ISSUE SPLIT THE PARTY. THEODORE ROOSEVELT -- FAR FROM HOME -- READ ABOUT THE TROUBLE. HE HAD PROMISED TO STAY OUT OF POLITICS. BUT EACH OF THE OPPOSING GROUPS IN HIS PARTY HAD ASKED FOR HIS SUPPORT. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE FRANK OLIVER AND SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-01-4-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 1, 2001: Albert Einstein
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: NOW THE VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, EXPLORATIONS. TODAY LARRY WEST AND FRANK OLIVER TELL ABOUT THE THE WORK OF THE GREAT SCIENTIST, ALBERT EINSTEIN. HIS THEORIES CHANGED THE WAY WE UNDERSTAND THE WORLD. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: IN THE YEAR NINETEEN-OH-FIVE, ALBERT EINSTEIN PUBLISHED A SCIENTIFIC PAPER. IT WAS ONLY THIRTY PAGES. BUT IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTS IN HISTORY. EINSTEIN'S PAPER -- FILLED WITH MATHEMATICS -- EXPLAINED WHAT CAME TO BE CALLED HIS "SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY." UNDERSTANDING EINSTEIN'S IDEA OF RELATIVITY IS NOT EASY FOR SOMEONE WHO IS NOT AN EXPERT IN MATHEMATICS. WE CAN UNDERSTAND IT FULLY ONLY BY UNDERSTANDING THE MATHEMATICAL STATEMENTS THAT EXPLAIN IT. PARTS OF THE THEORY SEEM IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE. BUT EXPERIMENTS PROVED THEY ARE TRUE. THE "SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY" IS ABOUT THE BASIC IDEAS THAT WE USE TO DESCRIBE NATURAL HAPPENINGS. IT IS ABOUT TIME, SPACE, MASS, MOVEMENT AND GRAVITY. VOICE TWO: ALBERT EINSTEIN WAS BORN IN ULM, GERMANY, IN EIGHTEEN-SEVENTY-NINE. HIS FATHER WAS A BUSINESSMAN. HE OWNED A FACTORY THAT MADE ELECTRICAL DEVICES. ALBERT WAS A QUIET CHILD WHO SPENT MUCH OF HIS TIME ALONE. HE WAS SLOW TO TALK AND HAD DIFFICULTY LEARNING TO READ. BUT HE WAS INTERESTED IN HOW THINGS WORKED. AND HE ASKED A LOT OF QUESTIONS. WHEN ALBERT WAS FIVE YEARS OLD, HIS FATHER GAVE HIM A COMPASS. THE CHILD WAS FILLED WITH WONDER WHEN HE DISCOVERED THAT THE COMPASS NEEDLE ALWAYS POINTED TO THE NORTH. HE ASKED HIS FATHER AND HIS UNCLE WHAT CAUSED THE NEEDLE TO MOVE. THEIR ANSWERS ABOUT MAGNETISM AND GRAVITY WERE DIFFICULT FOR THE BOY TO UNDERSTAND. BUT HE SPENT MUCH TIME THINKING ABOUT THEM. VOICE ONE: ALBERT DID NOT LIKE SCHOOL. THE GERMAN SCHOOLS OF THAT TIME WERE NOT PLEASANT. STUDENTS COULD NOT ASK QUESTIONS. ALBERT SAID HE FELT AS IF HE WERE IN PRISON. ALBERT TOLD HIS UNCLE JACOB HOW MUCH HE HATED SCHOOL, ESPECIALLY ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY. HIS UNCLE TOLD HIM TO SOLVE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS BY PRETENDING TO BE A POLICEMAN. "YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE," HE SAID, "BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO. CALL HIM 'X'. FIND HIM BY USING THE MATHEMATICAL TOOLS OF ALGEBRA AND GEOMETRY." VOICE TWO: UNCLE JACOB'S GAME MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE IN ALBERT'S SCHOOL WORK. HE LEARNED TO LOVE MATHEMATICS. ALBERT SOLVED ALL THE PROBLEMS IN HIS ALGEBRA BOOK. HE WAS STUDYING CALCULUS WHEN ALL HIS FRIENDS WERE STILL STUDYING SIMPLE MATHEMATICS. ALBERT EINSTEIN DECIDED THAT HE WANTED TO TEACH MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. EINSTEIN ATTENDED THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE IN ZURICH, SWITZERLAND. HE GRADUATED WITH HONORS. BUT HE COULD NOT GET A TEACHING JOB. SO HE TOOK A JOB IN THE SWISS GOVERNMENT PATENT OFFICE. THE JOB WAS EASY. HE HAD LOTS OF TIME TO WORK ON HIS OWN IDEAS. VOICE ONE: SOME OF THOSE IDEAS WERE ABOUT RELATIVITY. EINSTEIN HAD BEGUN TO BELIEVE THAT EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE WAS MOVING. EVERYTHING FROM THE SMALLEST ELECTRONS OF AN ATOM TO THE GREATEST PLANETS AND STARS. MEASURING ANY OF THESE MOVEMENTS DEPENDS ON WHERE THE MEASURER IS STANDING. IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT THAT YOU ARE DRIVING A CAR. YOUR SPEED, RELATIVE TO THE GROUND, IS FIFTY KILOMETERS AN HOUR. AN INSECT INSIDE THE CAR WITH YOU FLIES FROM THE BACK OF THE CAR TO THE FRONT. RELATIVE TO YOU, THE INSECT IS FLYING TEN KILOMETERS AN HOUR. BUT TO SOMEONE STANDING AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, THE INSECT'S SPEED WOULD BE SIXTY KILOMETERS AN HOUR. WHILE YOU AND THE INSECT ARE TRAVELING, THE EARTH IS MOVING AT THIRTY KILOMETERS A SECOND RELATIVE TO THE SUN. AND THE SUN IS MOVING AT TWO-HUNDRED-FORTY KILOMETERS A SECOND RELATIVE TO THE CENTER OF OUR MILKY WAY GALAXY. VOICE TWO: EINSTEIN SAID THAT THE SPEED OF LIGHT -- THREE-HUNDRED-THOUSAND KILOMETERS A SECOND -- NEVER CHANGES. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHERE THE LIGHT IS COMING FROM, OR WHO IS MEASURING ITS SPEED. IT IS ALWAYS THE SAME. HOWEVER, TIME CAN CHANGE. AND MASS CAN CHANGE. AND LENGTH CAN CHANGE. LET US USE OUR IMAGINATION AGAIN. IMAGINE TWO SPACESHIPS WITH A SCIENTIST IN EACH. ONE SPACESHIP IS RED. ONE IS BLUE. EXCEPT FOR COLOR, BOTH SPACESHIPS ARE EXACTLY ALIKE. THEY PASS EACH OTHER FAR OUT IN SPACE. NEITHER SCIENTIST FEELS THAT HIS SHIP IS MOVING. TO EACH, IT SEEMS THE OTHER SHIP IS MOVING, NOT HIS. AS THEY PASS AT HIGH SPEED, THE SCIENTIST IN EACH SHIP MEASURES HOW LONG IT TAKES A BEAM OF LIGHT TO TRAVEL FROM THE FLOOR TO THE TOP OF HIS SPACESHIP, HIT A MIRROR, AND RETURN TO THE FLOOR. BOTH SPACESHIPS HAVE A WINDOW THAT LETS EACH SCIENTIST WATCH THE EXPERIMENT OF THE OTHER. VOICE ONE: AT EXACTLY THE SAME MOMENT, THEY BEGIN THEIR EXPERIMENTS. THE SCIENTIST IN THE BLUE SHIP SEES HIS BEAM OF LIGHT GO STRAIGHT UP AND COME STRAIGHT DOWN. BUT HE SEES THAT THE LIGHT BEAM IN THE RED SHIP DOES NOT DO THIS. BECAUSE THE RED SHIP IS MOVING SO FAST, THE BEAM DOES NOT APPEAR TO GO STRAIGHT UP. IT GOES UP AT AN ANGLE AND COMES DOWN AT AN ANGLE. IT FORMS A PATH THAT LOOKS LIKE AN UPSIDE DOWN "V". THIS PATH IS LONGER THAN THE STRAIGHT UP-AND-DOWN PATH THAT THE BLUE SCIENTIST SAW IN HIS OWN SHIP. BECAUSE LIGHT TRAVELS AT THE SAME SPEED, TIME WOULD HAVE TO PASS MORE SLOWLY IN THE RED SHIP TO LET THE LIGHT BEAM TRAVEL THE LONGER PATH. VOICE TWO: THE SCIENTIST IN THE RED SHIP WOULD SEE EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS HE WATCHED THE EXPERIMENT BY THE BLUE SCIENTIST. HE WOULD SAY THAT TIME PASSED MORE SLOWLY IN THE OTHER SHIP. EACH SCIENTIST WOULD BE CORRECT, BECAUSE THE PASSING OF TIME IS RELATIVE. EACH WOULD BE RIGHT IN SAYING THAT THE OTHER SHIP HAD SLOWER TIME. EACH SCIENTIST ALSO WOULD SEE THAT THE OTHER SHIP WAS SHORTER THAN HIS OWN. THE HIGHER THEIR SPEEDS, THE SHORTER THE OTHER SHIP WOULD APPEAR. AND ALTHOUGH THE OTHER SHIP WOULD SEEM SHORTER, ITS MASS WOULD INCREASE. IT WOULD SEEM TO GET HEAVIER. THESE ARE DIFFICULT IDEAS TO ACCEPT. DOES TIME REALLY SLOW DOWN? DO OBJECTS GET SHORTER AND BECOME HEAVIER AT HIGH SPEEDS? EXPERIMENTS BY OTHER SCIENTISTS HAVE PROVED THAT EINSTEIN'S "SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY" IS CORRECT. NO EXPERIMENTS HAVE PROVED IT WRONG. VOICE ONE: TEN YEARS AFTER HIS PAPER ON THE SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY, EINSTEIN PUBLISHED ANOTHER PAPER. IT DESCRIBED WHAT HE CALLED HIS "GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY." IT OFFERED NEW IDEAS ABOUT GRAVITY, AND ABOUT THE CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATTER AND ENERGY. EINSTEIN SAID MATTER COULD BE CHANGED INTO ENERGY. HE DEVELOPED A SIMPLE MATHEMATICAL STATEMENT THAT MEASURED THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY IN MATTER. IT IS: "E EQUALS MC SQUARED." "E" IS THE ENERGY IN A PIECE OF MATTER. "M" IS THE MASS OF THE MATTER. "C SQUARED" IS THE SPEED OF LIGHT, MULTIPLIED BY ITSELF. THIS STATEMENT, OR FORMULA, SHOWED THE GREAT AMOUNT OF ENERGY THAT COULD COME FROM A TINY PIECE OF MATTER. IT EXPLAINED HOW THE SUN COULD GIVE OFF HEAT AND LIGHT FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. EINSTEIN'S FORMULA ALSO LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF ATOMIC ENERGY. VOICE TWO: EINSTEIN WON A NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS IN THE YEAR NINETEEN-TWENTY-ONE. HE RECEIVED THE AWARD -- NOT FOR HIS THEORIES OF RELATIVITY -- BUT FOR HIS DISCOVERY OF THE LAW OF THE PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT. THIS LAW EXPLAINED HOW AND WHY SOME METALS GIVE OFF ELECTRONS AFTER LIGHT FALLS ON THEIR SURFACES. THIS DISCOVERY LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN ELECTRONICS, INCLUDING RADIO AND TELEVISION. VOICE ONE: EINSTEIN BECAME A FAMOUS MAN. BUT HE HAD FEW CLOSE FRIENDS. "IT IS STRANGE," HE WROTE, "TO BE KNOWN BY SO MANY AND YET TO BE SO LONELY." HE WAS A MAN WHO SAW GOD IN NATURE. "WHAT I SEE IN NATURE," SAID EINSTEIN, "IS SOMETHING MAGNIFICENT THAT WE UNDERSTAND ONLY IMPERFECTLY." EINSTEIN LEFT GERMANY WHEN ADOLPH HITLER CAME TO POWER IN NINETEEN-THIRTY-THREE. HE SAID HE WOULD STAY IN A COUNTRY ONLY WHERE THERE WAS POLITICAL LIBERTY, TOLERATION AND EQUALITY OF ALL CITIZENS UNDER LAW. EINSTEIN CAME TO THE UNITED STATES TO CONTINUE HIS RESEARCH. HE WORKED AT THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY IN PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. EINSTEIN SPENT THE LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF HIS LIFE WORKING ON WHAT HE CALLED THE UNIFIED FIELD THEORY. HE HOPED TO FIND A COMMON MATHEMATICAL STATEMENT THAT COULD TIE TOGETHER ALL THE DIFFERENT FIELDS OF PHYSICS. IT WAS WORK THAT EINSTEIN NEVER COMPLETED. IN NINETEEN-FIFTY-FIVE, ALBERT EINSTEIN DIED. HE WAS SEVENTY-SIX YEARS OLD. (THEME) ANNCR: THIS SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY MARILYN CHRISTIANO AND FRANK BEARDSLEY. YOUR NARRATORS WERE LARRY WEST AND FRANK OLIVER. LISTEN AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS TIME FOR EXPLORATIONS ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 3, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... We play some music by Miles Davis ... answer a question about the Library of Congress ... and, tell about a famous religious building in the nation’s capital. Washington National Cathedral HOST: Last week, more than three-thousand people attended the funeral for the owner of the Washington Post newspaper, Katherine Graham. It was held in the National Cathedral in Washington. Shirley Griffith tells us about the historic building. ANNCR: The Washington National Cathedral is one of the largest and most famous religious centers in the country. It belongs to the Episcopal Church. The official name of the building is the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. But everyone calls it the National Cathedral because people of all religions are welcome to pray there. The National Cathedral was built with money from private citizens. The work started in Nineteen-Oh-Seven. The first stone was laid in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt. Every President of the United States since then has attended services or visited the Cathedral. The Cathedral was not completely finished until Nineteen-Ninety. It was built on seven-thousand hectares of land on one of the highest places in the city. It looks like many of the great religious centers built in Europe about eight hundred years ago. The building is shaped like a cross or the letter T. In the center is a bell tower ninety-one meters high. Two more towers stand at the bottom of the cross. Two-hundred windows are set high in the walls of the National Cathedral. Most are made of many pieces of colored glass. They color the sunlight as it enters the building and spills across the floor. Some windows have flower designs. Others have images from Christian stories or from American history. In one window is a rock that was brought back from the moon. The National Cathedral also celebrates American heroes. It has statues of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, for example. And more than one-hundred-fifty famous Americans are buried there. They include President Woodrow Wilson, business leader Andrew Mellon and writer Helen Keller. The Washington National Cathedral is open to all people for many religious events throughout the year. The Cathedral also holds Christian religious services, family activities, weddings, funerals, concerts and educational programs for children. Library of Congress HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Vientiane, Laos. Khachonesack Douangphoutha asks about the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Library of Congress is America’s national library. It has millions of books and other objects. It has newspapers, popular publications and letters of historical interest. It also has maps, photographs, art prints, movies, sound recordings and musical instruments. All together, it has more than one-hundred-million objects. The Library of Congress is open to the public Monday through Saturday, except for government holidays. Anyone may go there and read anything in the collection. But no one is permitted to take books out of the building. The Library of Congress was established in Eighteen-Hundred. It started with eleven boxes of books in one room of the Capitol building. By Eighteen-Fourteen, the collection had increased to about three-thousand books. They were all destroyed that year when the Capitol was burned during America’s war with Britain. To help re-build the library, Congress bought the books of President Thomas Jefferson. Mister Jefferson’s collection included seven-thousand books in seven languages. In Eighteen-Ninety-Seven, the Library moved into its own building, across the street from the Capitol. Today, three buildings hold the library’s collection. The Library of Congress provides books and materials to the United States Congress. It also lends books to other American libraries, government agencies and foreign libraries. It buys some of its books and gets others as gifts. It also gets materials through its copyright office. Anyone who wants copyright protection for a publication in the United States must send two copies to the library. This means the Library of Congress receives almost everything that is published in the United States. Computer users can learn more about the Library of Congress and its collection on the Internet Computer network. The address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dot g-o-v. Again, the Library of Congress web address is w-w-w dot l-o-c dot g-o-v. Miles Davis HOST: An art gallery in New York City is now showing paintings and drawings by the famous American trumpet player Miles Davis. He died ten years ago at the age of sixty-five. Miles Davis played jazz for almost fifty years with some of the best musicians in the world. Now, the Columbia record company has released all the music he recorded for them. Bob Doughty has more. ANNCR: Miles Davis said he decided to become a jazz musician after listening to records by Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. In Nineteen-Forty-Four, he was studying music in New York City. He met both these great musicians and joined them in concerts and recordings. Here they play a song written by Charlie Parker, “Now’s the Time.” ((CUT 1: NOW’S THE TIME)) Miles Davis began leading his own groups at the age of twenty-two. During that time, he recorded a historic album called “Birth of the Cool”. Critics praised it for a new kind of jazz called be-bop. Here is a song from that album, “Move.” ((CUT 2: MOVE)) Miles Davis was always searching for new ways to play jazz. His music was considered revolutionary. And he sometimes added electronic instruments. We leave you now with an example of this kind of Miles Davis jazz. The song is called “In a Silent Way.” ((CUT 3: IN A SILENT WAY)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about Amerian life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will be sent a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to Mosaic at V-O-A dot G-O-V. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT- August 3, 2001: African Dust Storms
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Researchers in the United States say dust clouds from dry African deserts may be a threat to the environment and human health. They say the dust may contain many small organisms that could be dangerous to some people. Each year, huge dust storms form in the Sahara and the Sahel deserts of northern Africa. Winds carry the dust across the Atlantic Ocean. The movement of dust across the Atlantic Ocean has been increasing in recent years because of longer periods without rain in Africa. From February to April, the dust settles in South America. From June to October, the winds change and transport the dust to North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The dust clouds travel several thousand meters above sea level. It takes five to seven days for the dust to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Researchers have long known that the dust clouds could travel long distances. But they thought few microorganisms could survive the trip because of damaging ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Researchers now believe that the dust clouds block enough of the light to protect viruses, bacteria and fungi in the dust. Researchers say these microorganisms may be a health risk to some people. About half of the bacteria and fungi that survive the trip from Africa are known to cause disease in people, animals or plants. More than half of the dust that reaches the United States settles in the state of Florida. For many years, it has caused the skies there to turn red. Now researchers say there may be a link between the dust storms and increased health risks in Florida. They believe the dust causes higher rates of asthma, allergies and other breathing problems in people there. The dust also has been linked to a large increase in lung problems in at least one Caribbean nation. Last year, American scientists published a study showing that the African dust is causing coral reef damage in the Caribbean. They identified organisms in the dust particles that cause coral diseases. Scientists at the United States Geological Survey reported the latest findings. They used satellites from NASA, the United States space agency, to carry out their work. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 5, 2001: Helen Keller, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher. (Theme) VOICE 1: The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen-eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the south during the American civil war. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child. Until she was a year-and-one half old, Helen Keller was just like any other child. She was very active. She began walking and talking early. Then, nineteen months after she was born, Helen became very sick. It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf. The doctor could not do anything for her. Her bright, happy world now was filled with silence and darkness. VOICE 2: From that time until she was almost seven years old, Helen could communicate only by making signs with her hands. But she learned how to be active in her silent, dark environment. The young child had strong desires. She knew what she wanted to do. No one could stop her from doing it. More and more, she wanted to communicate with others. Making simple signs with her hands was not enough. Something was ready to explode inside of her because she could not make people understand her. She screamed and struggled when her mother tried to control her. VOICE 1: When Helen was six, her father learned about a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. The doctor had successfully treated people who were blind. Helen's parents took her on the train to Baltimore. But the doctor said he could do nothing to help Helen. He suggested the Kellers get a teacher for the blind who could teach Helen to communicate. A teacher arrived from the Perkins Institution for the blind in Boston. Her name was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind. But she had regained her sight. At Perkins, she had learned the newest methods of teaching the blind. VOICE 2: Anne Sullivan began by teaching Helen that everything had a name. The secret to the names was the letters that formed them. The job was long and difficult. Helen had to learn how to use her hands and fingers to speak for her. But she was not yet ready to learn. First, she had to be taught how to obey, and how to control her anger. Miss Sullivan was quick to understand this. She wrote to friends in Boston about about her experiences teaching Helen. ((music Bridge)) Voice 3: The first night I arrived I gave Helen a doll. As she felt the doll with one hand I slowly formed the letters, d-o-l-l with my fingers in her other hand. Helen looked in wonder and surprise as she felt my hand. Then she formed the letters in my hand just as I had done in hers. She was quick to learn, but she was also quick in anger. For seven years, no one had taught her self-control. Instead of continuing to learn she picked up the doll and threw it on the floor. She was this way in almost everything she did. Even at the table, while eating, she did exactly as she pleased. She even put her hands in our plates and ate our food. The second morning, I would not let her put her hand on my plate. The family became troubled and left the room. I closed the door and continued to eat. Helen was on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull the chair out from under me. This continued for half an hour or so. Then she got up from the floor and came to find out what I was doing. Suddenly she hit me. Every time she did this I hit her hand. After a few minutes of this, she went to her place at the table and began to eat with her fingers. I gave her a spoon to eat with. She threw it on the floor. I forced her to get out of her chair to pick the spoon up. At last, after two hours, she sat down and ate like other people. I had to teach her to obey. But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished. So I asked them to let me move with Helen into a small one room house nearby. The first day Helen was away from her family she kicked and screamed most of the time. That night I could not make her get into bed. We struggled, but I held her down on the bed. Luckily I was stronger than she. The next morning I expected more of the same, but to my surprise she was calm, even peaceful. Two weeks later she had become a gentle child. She was ready to learn. My job now was pleasant. Helen learned quickly. Now I could lead and shape her intelligence. We spent all day together. I formed words in her hand, the names of everything we touched. But she had no idea what the words meant. As time passed, she learned how to sew clothes and make things. Every day we visited the farm animals and searched for eggs in the chicken houses. All the time, I was busy forming letters and words in her hand with my fingers. Then one day, about a month after I arrived, we were walking outside. Something important happened. We heard someone pumping water. I put Helen's hand under the cool water and formed the word w-a-t-e-r in her other hand. W-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r. I formed the word again and again in her hand. Helen looked straight up at the sky as if a lost memory or thought of some kind was coming back to her. Suddenly, the whole mystery of language seemed clear to her. I could see that the word w-a-t-e-r meant something wonderful and cool, that flowed over her hand. The word became alive for her. It awakened her spirit gave it light and hope. She ran toward the house. I ran after her. One by one she touched things and asked their name. I told her. She went on asking for names and more names. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: From that time on Helen left the house each day, searching for things to learn. Each new name brought new thoughts. Everything she touched seemed alive. One day, Helen remembered a doll she had broken. She searched everywhere for the pieces. She tried to put the pieces together but could not. She understood what she had done and was not happy. Miss Sullivan taught Helen many things -- to read and write, and even to use a typewriter. But most important, she taught Helen how to think. Voice two For the next three years, Helen learned more and more new words. All day Miss Sullivan kept touching Helen's hand, spelling words that gave Helen a language. In time, Helen showed she could learn foreign languages. She learned Latin, Greek, French, and German. Helen was able to learn many things, not just languages. She was never willing to leave a problem unfinished, even difficult problems in mathematics. One time, Miss Sullivan suggested leaving a problem to solve until the next day. But Helen wanted to keep trying. She said, "I think it will Make my mind stronger to do it now. " VOICE 1: Helen traveled a lot with her family or alone with Miss Sullivan. In eighteen-eighty-eight, Helen, her mother and Miss Sullivan went to Boston, Massachusetts. They visited the Perkins Institution where Miss Sullivan had learned to teach. They stayed for most of the summer at the home of family friends near the Atlantic Ocean. In Helen's first experience with the ocean she was caught by a wave and pulled under the water. Miss Sullivan rescued her. When Helen recovered, she demanded, "who put salt in the water." VOICE 2: Three years after Helen started to communicate with her hands, she began to learn to speak as other people did. She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word. Only one who is deaf can understand the loving way I talked to my dolls, to the stones, to birds and animals. Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command. " Those first days when Helen Keller developed the ability to talk were wonderful. But they proved to be just the beginning of her many successes. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to the first part of the story of Helen Keller. It was written by Katherine Clarke. Your narrators were Sarah Long, Ray Freeman and Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher. (Theme) VOICE 1: The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen-eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the south during the American civil war. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child. Until she was a year-and-one half old, Helen Keller was just like any other child. She was very active. She began walking and talking early. Then, nineteen months after she was born, Helen became very sick. It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf. The doctor could not do anything for her. Her bright, happy world now was filled with silence and darkness. VOICE 2: From that time until she was almost seven years old, Helen could communicate only by making signs with her hands. But she learned how to be active in her silent, dark environment. The young child had strong desires. She knew what she wanted to do. No one could stop her from doing it. More and more, she wanted to communicate with others. Making simple signs with her hands was not enough. Something was ready to explode inside of her because she could not make people understand her. She screamed and struggled when her mother tried to control her. VOICE 1: When Helen was six, her father learned about a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. The doctor had successfully treated people who were blind. Helen's parents took her on the train to Baltimore. But the doctor said he could do nothing to help Helen. He suggested the Kellers get a teacher for the blind who could teach Helen to communicate. A teacher arrived from the Perkins Institution for the blind in Boston. Her name was Anne Sullivan. She herself had once been almost completely blind. But she had regained her sight. At Perkins, she had learned the newest methods of teaching the blind. VOICE 2: Anne Sullivan began by teaching Helen that everything had a name. The secret to the names was the letters that formed them. The job was long and difficult. Helen had to learn how to use her hands and fingers to speak for her. But she was not yet ready to learn. First, she had to be taught how to obey, and how to control her anger. Miss Sullivan was quick to understand this. She wrote to friends in Boston about about her experiences teaching Helen. ((music Bridge)) Voice 3: The first night I arrived I gave Helen a doll. As she felt the doll with one hand I slowly formed the letters, d-o-l-l with my fingers in her other hand. Helen looked in wonder and surprise as she felt my hand. Then she formed the letters in my hand just as I had done in hers. She was quick to learn, but she was also quick in anger. For seven years, no one had taught her self-control. Instead of continuing to learn she picked up the doll and threw it on the floor. She was this way in almost everything she did. Even at the table, while eating, she did exactly as she pleased. She even put her hands in our plates and ate our food. The second morning, I would not let her put her hand on my plate. The family became troubled and left the room. I closed the door and continued to eat. Helen was on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull the chair out from under me. This continued for half an hour or so. Then she got up from the floor and came to find out what I was doing. Suddenly she hit me. Every time she did this I hit her hand. After a few minutes of this, she went to her place at the table and began to eat with her fingers. I gave her a spoon to eat with. She threw it on the floor. I forced her to get out of her chair to pick the spoon up. At last, after two hours, she sat down and ate like other people. I had to teach her to obey. But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished. So I asked them to let me move with Helen into a small one room house nearby. The first day Helen was away from her family she kicked and screamed most of the time. That night I could not make her get into bed. We struggled, but I held her down on the bed. Luckily I was stronger than she. The next morning I expected more of the same, but to my surprise she was calm, even peaceful. Two weeks later she had become a gentle child. She was ready to learn. My job now was pleasant. Helen learned quickly. Now I could lead and shape her intelligence. We spent all day together. I formed words in her hand, the names of everything we touched. But she had no idea what the words meant. As time passed, she learned how to sew clothes and make things. Every day we visited the farm animals and searched for eggs in the chicken houses. All the time, I was busy forming letters and words in her hand with my fingers. Then one day, about a month after I arrived, we were walking outside. Something important happened. We heard someone pumping water. I put Helen's hand under the cool water and formed the word w-a-t-e-r in her other hand. W-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r. I formed the word again and again in her hand. Helen looked straight up at the sky as if a lost memory or thought of some kind was coming back to her. Suddenly, the whole mystery of language seemed clear to her. I could see that the word w-a-t-e-r meant something wonderful and cool, that flowed over her hand. The word became alive for her. It awakened her spirit gave it light and hope. She ran toward the house. I ran after her. One by one she touched things and asked their name. I told her. She went on asking for names and more names. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: From that time on Helen left the house each day, searching for things to learn. Each new name brought new thoughts. Everything she touched seemed alive. One day, Helen remembered a doll she had broken. She searched everywhere for the pieces. She tried to put the pieces together but could not. She understood what she had done and was not happy. Miss Sullivan taught Helen many things -- to read and write, and even to use a typewriter. But most important, she taught Helen how to think. Voice two For the next three years, Helen learned more and more new words. All day Miss Sullivan kept touching Helen's hand, spelling words that gave Helen a language. In time, Helen showed she could learn foreign languages. She learned Latin, Greek, French, and German. Helen was able to learn many things, not just languages. She was never willing to leave a problem unfinished, even difficult problems in mathematics. One time, Miss Sullivan suggested leaving a problem to solve until the next day. But Helen wanted to keep trying. She said, "I think it will Make my mind stronger to do it now. " VOICE 1: Helen traveled a lot with her family or alone with Miss Sullivan. In eighteen-eighty-eight, Helen, her mother and Miss Sullivan went to Boston, Massachusetts. They visited the Perkins Institution where Miss Sullivan had learned to teach. They stayed for most of the summer at the home of family friends near the Atlantic Ocean. In Helen's first experience with the ocean she was caught by a wave and pulled under the water. Miss Sullivan rescued her. When Helen recovered, she demanded, "who put salt in the water." VOICE 2: Three years after Helen started to communicate with her hands, she began to learn to speak as other people did. She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word. Only one who is deaf can understand the loving way I talked to my dolls, to the stones, to birds and animals. Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command. " Those first days when Helen Keller developed the ability to talk were wonderful. But they proved to be just the beginning of her many successes. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to the first part of the story of Helen Keller. It was written by Katherine Clarke. Your narrators were Sarah Long, Ray Freeman and Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 6, 2001: Visiting Washington
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: More than twenty-million people visited the capital of the United States last year. Many people who live in Washington, D.C., take their visitors around the city, especially during spring and summer. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. A visit to Washington, D.C. is our story today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is August. An education advisor in the Washington area, Suzy Karpel, (car-PELL) gets a phone call. Friends from the Middle West are coming to visit. There are four members in the family. They say they want to see the city. They want to see everything. But they can stay only a day or two. Mizz Karpel knows they cannot possibly see everything in such a short time. She knows that the weather may be very hot. She knows their feet will get tired. But she wants her visitors to have wonderful memories of their visit. VOICE TWO: Mizz Karpel decides they will do most of their travelling by using the city public transportation system, the Metro, instead of her car. This will save time in traffic. It also will avoid the problem of finding a place to leave the car. The group plans to see museums during the day, and visit outdoor memorials at night. That way, they will be inside buildings during the hottest part of the day. But which of the many Washington museums should they see? And what will they choose to see in each one? VOICE ONE: The visitors have two children. So Mizz Karpel decides they should begin their visit at the National Museum of Natural History. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution. It is along the green area called the Mall in the center of Washington. The Natural History Museum contains objects about human cultures and mineral sciences. It also explains the biological sciences. And, it presents research about plants and animals. The children are excited at seeing the dinosaurs, like the fierce looking Triceratops that disappeared from Earth long ago. Some huge creatures in the museum are copies. Others are bones of real creatures that scientists have put together. VOICE TWO: One of the areas the visitors like best in the Natural History Museum is the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals. Here, the famous huge, blue Hope Diamond shines brightly from a container that keeps turning so the jewel can be seen from all sides. Many people crowd into the geology hall, trying to see all the beautiful jewels. The visitors enjoy the nearby area showing uncut minerals of bright beautiful colors. VOICE ONE: The group now walks along the Mall to the nearby National Museum of American History. This museum has millions of objects important to the development of the United States. Some of them are well known: dresses of the wives of American presidents or the walking stick given to George Washington by Benjamin Franklin. The visitors also enjoy objects that are not as well known. One of these is the table on which Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in Seventeen-Seventy-Six. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Next, the group visits the National Air and Space Museum. It is the most popular museum in the world. Here, the family looks at the command vehicle of the Apollo Eleven spacecraft that first landed on the moon in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. And they all have a chance to touch a rock from the moon. By now, everyone is hungry and a little tired. To save time, they buy some food at an eating place in the museum. VOICE ONE: After eating lunch, the visitors decide they do not have the time or energy to see the National Gallery of Art. Instead they visit a smaller art museum, the Freer Gallery of Art. It contains art from Asia and the United States. At the Freer, they inspect an unusual room. It is called the Peacock Room. James McNeill Whistler painted it. Large golden birds with shining tail feathers are painted on the walls. Blue and white containers line walls covered with leather material. VOICE TWO: The last stop for Mizz Karpel and her visitors is the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. American paper money is produced in this building. Bureau workers also print treasury notes, military documents and postage stamps. The children are able to buy sheets of uncut money. By now, everyone is ready for some quiet time and dinner. They return to Mizz Karpel's home by Metro. After resting and eating, they start out again. They will ride in Mizz Karpel's car to see the city’s famous memorials. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Now it is getting dark. The visitors will do some of their sightseeing by moonlight, when the temperature is cooler. They start at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. This memorial honors the American president who served longest in office -- from Nineteen-Thirty-Three until his death in Nineteen-Forty-Five. His memorial opened in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It contains four large areas. Each area represents one of his terms in office. VOICE TWO: The group then goes to the Korean War Veterans' Memorial. It honors those who served in the Korean conflict, from Nineteen-Fifty to Nineteen-Fifty-Three. Statues of soldiers wearing battle clothing stand in the center of this memorial. Lights shine on their faces. They look very real. They look as though they might move at any moment. From there, the visitors walk to the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. He led the nation through the Civil War. His memorial is a huge, white building. It is partly open so you can see from a distance the larger-than-life size statue of the president. He is seated. He looks toward a body of water called the Reflecting Pool. Next the group walks by the black wall of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. On the wall are the names of the more than fifty-eight-thousand Americans who died in the Vietnam War. Many people leave flowers and notes at this memorial. VOICE ONE: After all the walking, Mizz Karpel's group is glad to return to her car. Now they will drive around the Jefferson Memorial. This monument honors the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. A statue of him stands in the middle of a circular building. On this moonlit night, our visitors can see the image of the memorial in the water of the Tidal Basin. Mizz Karpel then drives by the Washington Monument. It honors George Washington, the first president of the United States. The Washington Monument is made of white stone. Its narrow form reaches more than one-hundred-sixty-nine meters toward the sky. It is late now, and the visitors decide to end their day. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The next morning, Mizz Karpel's group is up early to get in line for free tickets to visit the White House. This building has been home to every American President except George Washington. After waiting in line, the visitors walk through five main public rooms, including the red room, the blue room and the east room. In that room, the wife of President John Adams once hung the family’s clothes after they were washed. Today it is used for parties and other events requiring a large space. Before they leave Washington, the visitors want to see the Capitol. They enter the famous building where American laws are made. They visit the large rooms where members of the House of Representatives and the Senate meet to discuss and vote on laws. And they see the paintings and statues that fill the long halls of the Capitol. VOICE ONE: Later that day, Mizz Karpel's visitors will end their visit and fly home. They saw many interesting things in Washington. Yet there are many more places they would like to see. Among them are the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court of the United States and the National Zoo. So the visitors begin a list of places to see on a future trip to Washington. And Mizz Karpel tries to get some rest before her next visitors arrive ready to see the nation's capital. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, This is America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-03-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - August 6, 2001: African Sleeping Sickness
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. African Sleeping Sickness is once again threatening many countries south of the Sahara Desert. The disease is caused by the trypanosome parasite. The parasite enters the human body through the bite of the tsetse fly. Doctors say it takes very few parasites to infect a person. If the infection is not treated, a person’s defense system cannot destroy the parasite, and the person dies. Sleeping sickness has been affecting people in Africa for thousands of years. It is found only in African tsetse flies. Researchers do not know why tsetse flies carry the disease in Africa, but not in other parts of the world. Sleeping sickness has been a major problem in Africa two other times in the past century. The disease was almost destroyed in the Nineteen-Sixties, but has since returned. The World Health Organization says twenty to fifty percent of people suffer the disease in some villages in Angola, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. About forty-five-thousand sleeping sickness infections are reported to the W-H-O every year. But officials say as many as four-hundred-thousand people probably suffer from the disease each year. Medical experts say early treatment can cure African Sleeping Sickness. But it is difficult to tell if a person has the disease. Early signs include high body temperature, muscle pain and a tired feeling. The signs become worse later when the parasite invades the brain. Then the victim acts strangely or sleeps all day.Treating sleeping sickness is costly. The drug used to treat the early signs of the disease is also used to kill a parasite that affects some people with the disease AIDS. This has increased its price. The drug used in more severe Sleeping Sickness infections is a poison that can kill up to ten percent of the patients who use it. A safer medicine had stopped being produced recently. However, the W-H-O negotiated an agreement with a drug company to provide all the medicines to treat sleeping sickness free of charge. Sleeping sickness experts say more people in Africa should be examined for the disease. They also say that leaders of affected countries must improve national health care systems to prevent the disease. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-03-6-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 4, 2001: New FBI Director
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, In The News. America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation has a new director. He is a former Marine who served with honors in the Vietnam War. On Thursday the Senate confirmed President Bush's choice of Robert Mueller to lead the F-B-I. Mister Mueller is a lawyer in the Justice Department, which includes the F-B-I. He also held a high-level Justice Department job under President Bush's father. Now Mister Mueller will begin a ten-year term as director of the nation's top law enforcement agency. Almost thirty-thousand men and women work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. More than eleven-thousand of them are special agents. They investigate hundreds of kinds of federal cases. These include organized crime, spying and international terrorism. A Senate committee held hearings this week on Mister Mueller's nomination. He answered questions about how he would lead the agency. Mostly the senators expressed concern about a series of problems at the F-B-I. These include the discovery of an agent who, for most of his twenty-five years at the F-B-I, spied for the Soviet Union and Russia. Robert Hanssen sold information at the same time he supervised other agents in the hunt for spies in the United States. He faces a life term at his sentencing in January. The F-B-I was also sharply criticized this year in the case of Timothy McVeigh, the admitted bomber of a federal building in Oklahoma City. The F-B-I had thousands of documents that his lawyers should have received for his trial. That discovery led to a month-long postponement of McVeigh’s execution. And, just recently, the F-B-I announced that hundreds of its weapons and computers had been lost or stolen. At least one computer contained secret information. The new F-B-I director replaces Louis Freeh who resigned. Robert Mueller promised during his confirmation hearings that he would move quickly to improve the F-B-I. He said his main goal would be for the agency to re-earn the trust of the American people. He said the F-B-I must not try to hide mistakes or blame others. "Nobody is perfect," Mister Mueller told the Senate committee. He said the F-B-I “must tell the truth and let the facts speak for themselves.” He noted the successful investigations of terrorist bombings at the World Trade Center in New York and two American embassies in Africa. Robert Mueller is leaving his job as head of the United States Attorney's Office in San Francisco, California. That office had serious problems before he took over. He carried out a major re-organization. He put more women and minorities into leadership positions. More cases came to trial. Judges, federal agents and defense lawyers all praised his work. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 7, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about a mysterious creature called the Loch Ness monster. We tell about an operation for childbirth. And we tell about a way for developing countries to get medical information from the Internet computer system. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Many groups of people have ancient stories about huge frightening creatures called monsters. However, the existence of such animals has never been proven scientifically. One of the most well-known mystery animals is the Loch Ness monster. It is said to live in a lake in Scotland called Loch Ness. For years, people have searched and studied the lake. But they have never found any unusual creature. Now, an Italian scientist may have finally discovered what makes the Loch Ness monster seem to appear. Luigi Piccardi says earthquakes under the lake cause the waters to roll and shake strongly. This makes people believe there is a huge powerful animal in the water. Mister Piccardi presented his study of the Loch Ness monster at a geology conference in Edinburgh, Scotland recently. He studies the origin, history and structure of the Earth. Mister Piccardi uses the science of geology to help explain ancient traditional stories. VOICE TWO: The scientist says the first known writing about the Loch Ness monster was in the seventh century. The document described a terrible animal that arrived “with a strong shaking” and left “shaking herself.” Mister Piccardi explains that Loch Ness is directly over an active fault line. This line is the division between two pieces of the Earth. An earthquake happens when these pieces move against each other. The quake happens along the fault line. These movements of the Earth cause loud noises. The quakes also cause the water to shake strongly. Mister Piccardi says this may be why ancient people said there was a monster under the water. VOICE ONE: An American scientist disagrees. Robert Rines is the head of the Academy of Applied Science in Concord, New Hampshire. He says Mister Piccardi’s theory does not explain every sighting of the Loch Ness monster. Mister Rines says that in Nineteen-Seventy-Two, he saw an animal in the Scottish lake that looked like the back of an elephant. The scientist led a team to study the lake in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. They used sound waves to search Loch Ness. Mister Rines says they recorded something in the water. He began another larger study of Loch Ness with expert underwater scientists last month. He says they are using the most modern underwater equipment in the world. Other scientists have used strong lights and underwater cameras to search for the Loch Ness monster. But they have found no strong evidence of the creature. VOICE TWO: Some scientists agreed that earthquakes are the most believable explanation of the Loch Ness monster mystery. They say geology has been used to explain other ancient stories. For example, the Jewish and Christian holy book, the Bible, includes a story of a flood that covered the whole Earth. A man named Noah was one of the few people who survived. Scientists say there was a real flood in the Black Sea area that explains that ancient story. Mister Piccardi also has studied ancient religious places around the Mediterranean Sea. He says similar stories of monsters are linked to places where earthquakes and other earth movements have happened. This scientific explanation may end the mystery that has interested people for such a long time. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Steve Ember in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) A new study suggests that women who have given birth by a medical operation called a cesarean section may want to use that method in later pregnancies. A cesarean section is also called a c-section. It is an operation to remove the baby through a cut in the woman’s abdomen. A doctor may perform a c-section when the baby is not in the right position to come through the vagina. A woman may also have a c-section if she is not progressing fast enough in the childbirth process. Or a doctor may perform a c-section if there are signs that the health of the baby or mother is in danger. VOICE TWO: The New England Journal of Medicine published the new study about cesarean sections. Scientists examined the hospital records of about twenty-thousand women in the state of Washington. The records were from Nineteen-Eighty-Seven to Nineteen-Ninety-Six. All the women had given birth to their first child by a cesarean section. The women also had a second child during the same time period. The study said women who attempted a vaginal birth after a c-section were three times as likely to suffer a tear in their uterus as those who had a second c-section. The rate was fifteen times as high among women who were given hormones to help ready the uterus for labor. VOICE ONE: For many years, doctors believed that women who had c-sections should always repeat the operation for later pregnancies. Doctors thought the healed cut from the first operation would weaken the uterus. They believed that the labor of childbirth could cause the uterus to tear. This condition is rare but extremely dangerous. It can kill the mother, the child, or both. However, in the Nineteen-Eighties, support grew for attempting a vaginal birth after a c-section. Studies then suggested that women could safely have a vaginal birth after having an earlier c-section. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Six major publishers have announced an agreement to provide developing countries with medical publications on the Internet computer system. The agreement includes about one-thousand of the top medical publications in the world. Some of the six publishers also plan to place medical books on the Internet in a similar way. The World Health Organization asked the publishers to take the action so doctors and researchers in poor countries could improve health care in their nations. The agreement is expected to help at least six-hundred institutions in one-hundred developing countries. These include universities, medical schools, hospitals and research centers. The program also includes teaching people how to find the medical information using a computer. It will go into effect in January. VOICE ONE: Scientific magazines have published medical research for more than fifty years. But many medical schools in developing countries cannot get the publications. One W-H-O official says most American medical schools get one-thousand or more publications. Most medical schools in developing countries get fewer than one-hundred. One reason is cost. Most scientific publications cost between two-hundred and one-thousand-five-hundred dollars a year. Some cost even more. An extreme example is the magazine “Brain Research.” It costs seventeen-thousand dollars a year. It is among the publications included under the new agreement.More than sixty of the poorest countries will receive the publications on the Internet for free. More than thirty other countries will pay a reduced cost for the scientific magazines. VOICE TWO: The publications will be on the Internet in a special place being created by the W-H-O. It will guarantee security and provide search tools. The W-H-O also is concerned that some countries still will not be able to get the information because they do not have computers. Officials say they are working on a plan to solve that problem. They plan to ask technology companies for help in providing more computers for researchers in developing countries. W-H-O director Gro Harlem Brundtland says the agreement is the biggest step ever taken to equalize health information among rich and poor countries. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Doreen Baingana, Caty Weaver and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 7, 2001: Cheese from Camels
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Camels have carried people and their goods for centuries. However, camels do more than provide transportation across deserts. People in desert areas use camel hair to make rugs, temporary housing and clothes. They burn the solid waste from the animals for fuel. People also use camels for meat and milk in areas where growing food is difficult. However, camel milk is rarely made into cheese, a food made from the milk of other animals. One reason is that camel milk is more difficult to curdle or thicken than other kinds of milk. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is helping people solve the problem. The main goal in cheese-making is to get the milk to form curds and whey. Curd is a soft substance made from treated milk. The curd contains a liquid called whey. The whey must be expelled from the curd before cheese is made. Modern cheese-making methods help the curdling process by adding a bacterial substance or starter. The starter produces lactic acid and rennet, a substance from cows that contains a special enzyme. The enzyme speeds up the separation of liquids and solids. Camel milk is different from other kinds of milk because traditional rennet does not affect it. F-A-O officials say fifty percent of camel milk is wasted in some cultures because people use it only as a fresh drink. They say making cheese is a way to save milk and create a product for use in trade. Several years ago, the F-A-O ordered a study of the problem. J.P. Ramet is a French agricultural expert. Mister Ramet carried out experiments in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. He found a way to curdle camel milk by adding the chemical calcium phosphate and vegetable rennet. The next step was to see how camel cheese production might work. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, the F-A-O began assisting a milk production center in Mauritania with camel cheese production. F-A-O officials provided technical help and machinery. The milk center successfully produced camel cheese. However, many Mauritanians are not used to eating cheese. So only small amounts of the camel cheese are being sold in Mauritania’s capital. F-A-O officials believe the technology for making camel cheese could help many people in desert areas. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: What Am I?
* Byline: 

 (From AMERICAN MOSAIC, May 16, 1997) Our VOA listener question this week comes from Lagos, Nigeria. Leonard Ama read about the animal mascot of Special English in the VOA Guide last year. He wrote to disagree with using a turtle to represent our slow-speed way of speaking. "Turtles live most of their lives in water and are known to be fast swimmers," he said. The saying "slow and steady wins the race," he noted, is from the story of a race involving a tortoise. The slow and steady tortoise defeated the rabbit -- or the hare, to be exact. So, he said, our mascot should be the tortoise instead of the turtle. Maybe... Or maybe not. Just what is a tortoise? It is a kind of turtle that lives only on land. More than 40 of the 250 kinds of turtles in the world are tortoises. Tortoises are sometimes called land turtles. However, tortoises and sea turtles are different. Sea turtles have feet designed for swimming. Their toes are connected. Tortoises' legs are designed for walking. They have short legs and feet. And their toes are not connected. People may think all land turtles are slow. Many are. Yet some are fast. The World Book encyclopedia says that on flat ground, the smooth softshell turtle of North America can run faster than a person! It is true that Special English writers do not work in water; our computers and recording equipment would fail. Our job, however, is to use simple words. A tortoise is a turtle, and turtle is a simpler, more common word. So our mascot will remain the turtle. Seruwu Sulaiman of Mbale, Uganda, also wrote to us about our collection of turtles and tortoises. He says he asked local officials if he could mail us a live turtle in water, and they said yes. We must say no, however. We would have no place to keep a live turtle in our office, but we all thank Seruwu for the kind offer. (From AMERICAN MOSAIC, May 16, 1997) Our VOA listener question this week comes from Lagos, Nigeria. Leonard Ama read about the animal mascot of Special English in the VOA Guide last year. He wrote to disagree with using a turtle to represent our slow-speed way of speaking. "Turtles live most of their lives in water and are known to be fast swimmers," he said. The saying "slow and steady wins the race," he noted, is from the story of a race involving a tortoise. The slow and steady tortoise defeated the rabbit -- or the hare, to be exact. So, he said, our mascot should be the tortoise instead of the turtle. Maybe... Or maybe not. Just what is a tortoise? It is a kind of turtle that lives only on land. More than 40 of the 250 kinds of turtles in the world are tortoises. Tortoises are sometimes called land turtles. However, tortoises and sea turtles are different. Sea turtles have feet designed for swimming. Their toes are connected. Tortoises' legs are designed for walking. They have short legs and feet. And their toes are not connected. People may think all land turtles are slow. Many are. Yet some are fast. The World Book encyclopedia says that on flat ground, the smooth softshell turtle of North America can run faster than a person! It is true that Special English writers do not work in water; our computers and recording equipment would fail. Our job, however, is to use simple words. A tortoise is a turtle, and turtle is a simpler, more common word. So our mascot will remain the turtle. Seruwu Sulaiman of Mbale, Uganda, also wrote to us about our collection of turtles and tortoises. He says he asked local officials if he could mail us a live turtle in water, and they said yes. We must say no, however. We would have no place to keep a live turtle in our office, but we all thank Seruwu for the kind offer. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-06-4-1.cfm
* Headline: A Note to Publishers
* Byline: 

 If you are interested in using our materials, please contact us at special@voanews.com or write to: VOA Special English Washington, DC 20237 USA Fax: (202) 619-2543 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – August 8, 2001: Iceman’s Death
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists have announced the cause of death for a man who died five-thousand-three-hundred years ago. The scientists say the man was killed by an arrow that tore through his back. They say the discovery of the arrow in the victim’s body settles questions of how he died. Two German climbers discovered the body in northern Italy ten years ago. The climbers were high in the Alps Mountains, more than three-thousand meters above sea level. Suddenly, they saw the body of a man in a piece of ice. He wore leather clothing and carried food, tools and weapons. Newspapers called him the Iceman. The ice had protected the body for thousands of years. It was the oldest and best preserved ancient body ever found. The Iceman was in such good condition that scientists could discover many things about him. They discovered where he came from, how he lived and what he ate for his last meal before he died. When the Iceman was discovered, some scientists suggested that he had fallen asleep and died in the snow or was killed in a fall. A bow and arrows were found with the Iceman. This led some people to believe that he died while hunting animals. Later, his remains and other objects were transported to Bolzano, Italy, near the border with Austria. They are now kept at the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology in Bolzano. The body is kept cool in a special observation area at the museum. In the new study, scientists used special x-ray equipment to produce several different images of the Iceman’s upper chest. This process is called computerized tomography. Scientists had examined the body several times in the past. But this was the first time they produced x-ray images of the chest area from more than one position. The scientists discovered the arrowhead under the Iceman’s left shoulder. The object was less than two-and-one-half centimeters long. The scientists say the arrow tore through the nerves and blood vessels of his left arm. It stopped near his lungs. The museum’s director Alex Susanna said the discovery changes many theories about the Iceman. He said scientists must now carry out new research. An international conference on the Iceman will be held in Bolzano in September. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 8, 2001: The Intrepid Museum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program “EXPLORATIONS.” Today, we visit the Intrepid Sea-Air-and Space Museum in New York City. It is an unusual museum that seeks to preserve old ships as an educational experience and as a memorial to peace. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: A visit to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum begins with a ship that carried fighter planes. This aircraft carrier is the U-S-S Intrepid. The Intrepid is a very honored name among ships of the United States Navy. The huge aircraft carrier is the fourth ship to have that name. The first was a small wooden sailing ship that was built in Eighteen-Oh-Three. It was lost a year later in battle against pirates. The U-S-S Intrepid that visitors see today in New York City sailed during World War Two. Few ships are as famous as the Intrepid. It was so successful in battles during World War Two in the Pacific Ocean that the Japanese Navy began calling it “The Ghost Ship.” The Japanese believed they had sunk the Intrepid several different times. The ship may have been seriously damaged, but it always came back to fight again and again. The Intrepid took part in many battles. The most famous of these may have been the battle of Leyte Gulf, near the Philippines. It was the largest naval battle in history. The ship also supported the landings of Allied troops in their effort to free the Philippine Islands from Japanese control. VOICE TWO: During the last months of World War Two, the Japanese military attacked American ships by crashing airplanes into them. The Japanese pilots gave their lives in an effort to cause as much damage as possible. The U-S-S Intrepid was one of the first American aircraft carriers to suffer this kind of an attack. On October twenty-ninth, Nineteen-Forty-Four, a Japanese aircraft crashed into the left side of the ship. Ten American sailors were killed. That was only the first time this kind of attack would happen to the Intrepid. To better understand happened during these attacks, imagine for a few moments we are on the U-S-S Intrepid on November twenty-fifth, Nineteen-Forty-Four. ((CUT ONE: MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS)) VOICE ONE: It is a bright clear day in the Phillipines. It is a little after one in the afternoon. High above the Intrepid, a group of several Japanese airplanes flies over the American force. The Intrepid’s crewmembers are at their battle stations. They quickly begin shooting at the small Japanese planes. The crew of the Intrepid knows that an aircraft carrier is the first choice of the Japanese pilots who want to crash their planes into American ships. One Japanese pilot points the front of his airplane down. He increases his speed. He is aiming his plane at the Intrepid. Faster and faster he dives toward the large carrier. Gunfire from the ship hits his airplane many times. But the pilot continues toward the carrier and his sure death. High above the ship, another Japanese pilot pushes the control that aims his airplane toward the large carrier. Within five minutes, the two Japanese airplanes crash into the Intrepid. One explodes below the huge carrier’s landing area. This area is called a hanger deck. It is where aircraft are kept when they are not flying. Huge fires begin immediately. Smoke fills the sky. The ship burns for about six hours. Sixty-nine crew members of the Intrepid are killed. Another eighty-five are seriously injured. The Intrepid can no longer take part in the battle. The skill and bravery of the crew saves the Intrepid. Slowly, the carrier leaves the battle area to return to the United States for repairs. When the repairs are completed, the U-S-S Intrepid and its crew return to battle again. ((CUT TWO: MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS)) VOICE TWO: The U-S-S Intrepid also took part in battles during the Korean War and the War in Vietnam. But not all of its working life was in battle. It was used in the American space program. It recovered some space vehicles that landed in the ocean after their flights into space. The Intrepid was the ship that rescued American astronaut Scott Carpenter after his flight in May of Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Later it was the recovery ship for Astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young as part of the Gemini space program. VOICE ONE: In October, Nineteen-Seventy-Six, the Intrepid was the official Navy and Marine Corps ship used in cerebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the United States. The ship was retired from active duty in Nineteen-Seventy-Four. When old ships can no longer continue in active duty, they are sold for the metal that can be taken from them and reused. By Nineteen-Eighty, the Intrepid, which had such a proud past, seemed to have no future. Then, a number of interested people formed a group called the Intrepid Museum Foundation. Their main goal was to save the ship and turn it into a museum. One member of that group became the economic force behind the effort. That man was Zachary Fisher of New York City. Mister Fisher spent twenty-four million dollars of his own money in order to save the Intrepid. He wanted to make the Intrepid a lasting memorial to those who gave their lives in defense of their country. He also wanted it made into an educational museum. VOICE TWO: The United States Navy agreed. The Navy permanently lent the U-S-S Intrepid to the Museum Foundation. In August, Nineteen-Eighty-Two, the Museum opened to the public on the Hudson River on the west side of New York City. The goal of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum is to educate the public about the history of the Intrepid and the men who served as members of the crew. The museum also wants it to represent the peace that these men worked so hard to protect. Later two other ships were added to the Museum’s collection. They are both much smaller than the Intrepid. One is the a submarine, the U-S-S Growler. It was in active duty for only six years. The Growler is the only missile submarine open to the public anywhere in the world. It offers visitors a close look at life on a submarine. Just behind the Growler is the U-S-S Edson. The Edson is a destroyer. It was built in Nineteen-Fifty-Eight. The Edson served as an active ship for more than thirty years. It is named for Marine Corps General Mike Edson, a hero of battles in the Pacific during World War Two. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Last year, about six-hundred-thousand people visited the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Museum officials say that number is increasing each year. The first thing these visitors see when they arrive at the Museum is the Intrepid. It is very hard to miss the huge ship. It weighs more than forty-thousand tons and is more than two-hundred-seventy meters long. On the long flight deck of the carrier are airplanes. Some are very large. Other countries owned several of them. There is a British plane, a French plane, and a Russian built jet fighter that once belonged to the Polish air force. Perhaps the most famous airplane on the Intrepid is the Lockheed A-Twelve Blackbird. This spy plane could fly higher and faster than any other plane. It could travel faster than three times the speed of sound. One of these planes once flew from Los Angeles, California to Washington D-C in a little more than one hour. VOICE TWO: Visitors can move about the Intrepid and see how the crew lived and worked. They can climb the stairs to the room that controlled the ship. Many people bring cameras and have their picture taken with their hands on the wheel that was used to guide the huge aircraft carrier. On the area called the hanger deck visitors can inspect aircraft used in World War Two. They can also watch movies and see how airplanes took off from and landed on the carrier. They can see pictures of important events in the history of the ship. Very often visitors can talk to several older men who were members of the crew of the Intrepid. These men give freely of their time to tell the story of the “Ghost Ship.” (((THEME))) VOICE ONE: You can learn more about the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum and see pictures of its famous ships by entering the word Intrepid in a World Wide Web search. It is spelled…I-N-T-R-E-P-I-D. That is I-N-T-R-E-P-I-D. This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by George Grow. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 9, 2001: Theodore Roosevelt and Wm. Howard Taft, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH. (THEME) JUNE EIGHTEENTH, NINETEEN-TEN, WAS AN EXCITING DAY FOR THEODORE ROOSEVELT. IT WAS THE DAY THE FORMER AMERICAN PRESIDENT RETURNED FROM A LONG TRIP TO AFRICA AND EUROPE. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WERE IN NEW YORK CITY TO WELCOME HIM HOME. THERE WERE SPEECHES AND BANDS AND A PARADE. VOICE TWO: IT WAS THE PERFECT END TO A TRIP THAT BEGAN THREE WEEKS AFTER THEODORE ROOSEVELT COMPLETED HIS PRESIDENCY. MOST OF THE TRIP WAS A HUGE SUCCESS. IN AFRICA, THEODORE ROOSEVELT SPENT MONTHS HUNTING WILD ANIMALS. HE SHOT MANY LIONS, ELEPHANTS, AND OTHER ANIMALS. HE BROUGHT ALL OF THEM BACK AND GAVE THEM TO THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. AFTER HUNTING IN AFRICA, HE AND HIS WIFE, EDITH, WENT TO EUROPE. VOICE ONE: THE ROOSEVELTS VISITED ITALY AND MET THE KING AND QUEEN. THEY VISITED VIENNA AND MET THE RULER OF AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY. IN GERMANY, THEY MET KAISER WILHELM THE SECOND. KAISER WILHELM INVITED THE FORMER AMERICAN PRESIDENT TO WATCH A BIG PARADE OF GERMAN TROOPS. HE TOLD HIM: "YOU ARE THE FIRST CIVILIAN WHO HAS EVER JOINED THE KAISER IN REVIEWING THE TROOPS OF GERMANY." THE TWO MEN WERE PHOTOGRAPHED SHAKING HANDS. ON THE BACK OF THE PHOTOGRAPH, THE KAISER WROTE: "WHEN WE SHAKE HANDS, WE SHAKE THE WORLD." THE ROOSEVELTS MET THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF NORWAY, BELGIUM, AND THE NETHERLANDS. THEY MET THE CROWN PRINCES OF SWEDEN AND DENMARK. AND, WHILE IN ENGLAND, MISTER ROOSEVELT SERVED AS AMERICA'S OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE AT THE FUNERAL OF KING EDWARD THE SEVENTH. VOICE TWO: THEODORE ROOSEVELT MADE A NUMBER OF SPEECHES AT SEVERAL UNIVERSITIES, INCLUDING OXFORD AND THE SORBONNE. YET ALL THESE ACTIVITIES DID NOT KEEP HIM FROM READING NEWSPAPERS AND LETTERS FROM HOME. THE NEWS TROUBLED HIM. HE HAD LED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WITH GREAT SUCCESS. NOW, THE PARTY SEEMED TO BE FALLING APART. IT HAD SPLIT INTO TWO GROUPS. ONE GROUP INCLUDED CONSERVATIVES WHO SUPPORTED PRESIDENT WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT. THE OTHER GROUP INCLUDED PROGRESSIVES WHO OPPOSED TAFT. THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD WORKED HARD TO GET WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT ELECTED. PRESIDENT TAFT HAD BEEN IN OFFICE A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR. YET IN THAT SHORT TIME, HE HAD BROKEN ALMOST COMPLETELY WITH THE PROGRESSIVES WHO HAD SUPPORTED ROOSEVELT. VOICE ONE: THE SPLIT DEVELOPED BECAUSE PROGRESSIVES EXPECTED TAFT TO RULE AS ROOSEVELT HAD DONE -- WITH ENERGY AND EMOTION. THEY WANTED A MAN WHO COULD EXCITE PEOPLE WITH DREAMS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS. THEODORE ROOSEVELT WAS SUCH A MAN. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT WAS NOT. HE WAS A BIG, SLOW-MOVING MAN. HE REFUSED TO MAKE QUICK DECISIONS. AS A FORMER JUDGE, HE DEPENDED ON FACTS, NOT EMOTION, TO MAKE DECISIONS. PRESIDENT TAFT DID MUCH TO CARRY OUT THE REFORM PROGRAMS THEODORE ROOSEVELT HAD BEGUN. BUT HIS METHODS LED PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT HE WAS REALLY TRYING TO KILL THE PROGRAMS. VOICE TWO: TAFT WROTE TO ROOSEVELT SHORTLY BEFORE THE FORMER PRESIDENT SAILED FOR HOME. "I DO NOT KNOW IF I HAVE HAD HARDER LUCK THAN OTHER PRESIDENTS," HE SAID. "BUT I DO KNOW I HAVE SUCCEEDED FAR LESS THAN OTHERS. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CARRY OUT YOUR POLICIES. BUT MY METHOD OF DOING SO HAS NOT WORKED SMOOTHLY." A FEW WEEKS LATER, THEODORE ROOSEVELT RETURNED HOME. IN A SPEECH TO THOSE WHO WELCOMED HIM IN NEW YORK, HE SAID: "I AM READY AND WILLING TO DO MY PART TO HELP SOLVE AMERICA'S PROBLEMS. AND THESE PROBLEMS MUST BE SOLVED IF THIS COUNTRY IS TO REACH THE HIGH LEVEL OF ITS HOPES." TO PRESIDENT TAFT, ROOSEVELT WROTE: "I WILL MAKE NO SPEECHES OR SAY ANYTHING FOR TWO MONTHS. BUT I WILL KEEP MY MIND OPEN. . .AS I KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT." VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT TAFT INVITED THEODORE ROOSEVELT TO VISIT HIM AT THE WHITE HOUSE. ROOSEVELT SAID HE COULD NOT. HOWEVER, HE DID MEET WITH MANY OF THE PROGRESSIVE OPPONENTS OF THE PRESIDENT. LATER, HE MET WITH TAFT AT THE PRESIDENT'S SUMMER HOME IN MASSACHUSETTS. IT WAS NOT A HAPPY MEETING. THE TWO FRIENDS WERE TENSE. BY THIS TIME, ROOSEVELT HAD DECIDED THAT HE AGREED WITH THE PROGRESSIVES. HE BELIEVED PRESIDENT TAFT HAD TURNED BACK MANY OF ROOSEVELT'S POLICIES. VOICE TWO: ROOSEVELT DECIDED IT WAS TIME FOR HIM TO GO TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. HE ACCEPTED AN INVITATION TO A CELEBRATION IN WYOMING. HE TRAVELED WEST BY TRAIN. HE STOPPED IN MANY TOWNS AND CITIES TO MAKE SPEECHES. HE SPOKE OF PARTY UNITY. HE TRIED TO HEAL THE SPLIT THAT HAD WEAKENED THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. BUT THE POLICIES HE PROPOSED WERE PROGRESSIVE. CONSERVATIVES REFUSED TO SUPPORT THEM. PRESIDENT TAFT COULD NOT UNDERSTAND ROOSEVELT'S PURPOSES. "IF I ONLY KNEW WHAT HE WANTED," TAFT SAID, "I WOULD DO IT. BUT HE HAS TOLD ME NOTHING. I AM DEEPLY WOUNDED. HE GIVES ME NO CHANCE TO EXPLAIN MY POSITION OR TO LEARN HIS." VOICE ONE: THEODORE ROOSEVELT HOPED HIS SPEAKING TRIP WOULD HELP REPUBLICAN PARTY CANDIDATES WIN IN THE NINETEEN-TEN CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS. HIS EFFORTS SEEMED TO FAIL. REPUBLICANS WERE DEFEATED IN MANY STATES. FOR A YEAR AFTER THE PARTY'S DEFEAT IN THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS, THEODORE ROOSEVELT REMAINED SILENT. THEN, NEAR THE END OF NINETEEN-ELEVEN, AMERICA'S POLITICAL PARTIES BEGAN TO PREPARE FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION THAT WOULD BE HELD THE FOLLOWING YEAR. ROOSEVELT WAS SURE TAFT COULD NOT BE RE-ELECTED. TAFT HAD BECOME VERY CONSERVATIVE. HE HAD CLOSE TIES TO BUSINESS INTERESTS. WHAT THE PEOPLE WANTED, THOUGHT ROOSEVELT, WAS A PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENT. WHAT THEY WANTED WAS A MAN LIKE HIMSELF. SO, THEODORE ROOSEVELT BEGAN TO SPEAK OUT AGAIN IN OPPOSITION TO MANY OF THE THINGS PRESIDENT TAFT WAS DOING. FOR EXAMPLE, PRESIDENT TAFT HAD PROPOSED TREATIES WITH CANADA, BRITAIN, AND FRANCE. ROOSEVELT CRITICIZED THEM. VOICE TWO: TAFT WAS TROUBLED. HE TOLD A FRIEND: "IT IS VERY HARD TO TAKE ALL THESE BLOWS FROM ROOSEVELT. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT HE IS TRYING TO DO, EXCEPT TO MAKE MY WAY MORE DIFFICULT. IT IS VERY HARD TO SEE A CLOSE FRIENDSHIP GOING TO PIECES LIKE A ROPE OF SAND." BY NOW IT WAS CLEAR TO TAFT THAT ROOSEVELT WANTED TO BE THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE ELECTION OF NINETEEN-TWELVE. EARLIER, THIS WOULD HAVE PLEASED TAFT. HE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAPPY TO LEAVE THE WHITE HOUSE. BUT THE SITUATION WAS DIFFERENT NOW. ROOSEVELT HAD CHANGED. TAFT FELT THAT THE POLICIES HE PROPOSED SEEMED TOO EXTREME. TAFT DECIDED IT WAS HIS DUTY TO OPPOSE ROOSEVELT AND THE PROGRESSIVES. HE WOULD SEEK RE-ELECTION. TAFT BELIEVED HE COULD WIN THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. HE STILL HAD THE SUPPORT OF MANY PARTY LEADERS. VOICE ONE: FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATING CONVENTION OPENED, SEVERAL PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS APPEALED TO ROOSEVELT. THEY URGED HIM TO DECLARE HIMSELF A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. ROOSEVELT, THEY SAID, WAS THE MAN TO LEAD THE NATION INTO A NEW ERA OF SOCIAL PROGRESS. THEN TAFT MADE A STRONG STATEMENT AGAINST THE PROGRESSIVES. "THEY ARE SEEKING," HE SAID, "TO PULL DOWN THE TEMPLE OF FREEDOM AND REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT." A REPORTER ASKED ROOSEVELT TO ANSWER TAFT'S STATEMENT. ROOSEVELT SAID: "MY HAT IS IN THE RING." THAT MEANT HE WAS A CANDIDATE. NOW, THE CONFLICT WAS IN THE OPEN. AND ROOSEVELT WAS READY TO FIGHT. VOICE TWO: IN HIS SPEECHES, ROOSEVELT CRITICIZED TAFT BITTERLY. IN A VOICE SHAKING WITH HATRED, HE SAID TAFT WAS CONTROLLED BY CONSERVATIVE POLITICIANS. HE SAID TAFT STOOD IN THE WAY OF PROGRESS. HE SAID TAFT WAS DISLOYAL. TAFT HAD TO ANSWER. IN ONE SPEECH, HE SAID: "THIS TEARS MY SOUL. I AM HERE TO ANSWER AN OLD AND TRUE FRIEND WHO HAS MADE MANY CHARGES. I DENY ALL THOSE CHARGES. I DO NOT WANT TO FIGHT THEODORE ROOSEVELT. BUT I AM GOING TO FIGHT HIM." AFTER THE SPEECH, A REPORTER LOOKED FOR THE PRESIDENT. HE FOUND HIM SITTING ALONE, HIS HEAD IN HIS HANDS. HIS EYES WERE FILLED WITH TEARS. "ROOSEVELT WAS MY CLOSEST FRIEND," TAFT SAID. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, THE MAKING OF A NATION. YOUR NARRATORS WERE TONY RIGGS AND FRANK OLIVER. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - August 9, 2001: Female Hormones and Heart Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. The American Heart Association has changed its advice about older women and female hormones. The organization now says healthy order women should not take the hormones to prevent heart disease. And it says women with heart disease also should not take the hormones. The association says there is growing evidence that the hormones may not help and might even cause harm. Many older women take estrogen and progesterone to replace the hormones that their bodies no longer produce. This is called hormone replacement therapy. The hormones can ease the physical changes taking place in the body. They strengthen the bones and protect against the disease osteoporosis. They also ease feelings of extreme heat that older women sometimes experience. The hormones also were thought to prevent heart disease in women. The American Heart Association had advised that all women with heart disease should consider taking estrogen. Now, however, the Heart Association says women should not take the hormones to prevent heart attacks and strokes. New research is showing that the hormones might increase the chances that women with heart disease will suffer these problems. The Heart Association announced its new decision in its publication, “Circulation.” The decision was based on a four-year study of women with heart disease. In the first year, women taking the hormones had fifty-two percent more heart-related illnesses than those taking an inactive substance. The researchers also found a greater number of women in the hormone group suffered blood clots and gall bladder disease. A similar result was seen in a fifteen-year study that involves more than twenty-seven-thousand women. After four years, the researchers found a small increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes among healthy women taking hormones. About twenty-million women in the United States take hormone replacement therapy. There has been much debate about whether older women should take the hormones. Research also has shown that taking the hormones for more than five years can increase some women’s chances of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 10, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... we celebrate New York City. We play some songs about the city ... answer a question about its buildings ... and tell about an unusual museum that explores its past. Lower East Side Tenement Museum HOST: The United States was settled by people who came from other nations. Many of those immigrants lived in New York City. People can learn about their lives by visiting the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Shirley Griffith tells us about it. ANNCR: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is in a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. The building was one of the first tenements in New York City. It was built in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. “Tenement” is a word that describes an old and often crowded apartment building. A tenement building included many small apartments where families lived. Workers at the Tenement Museum researched the history of the building. They know that about seven-thousand people from more than twenty countries lived there. The building closed in Nineteen-Thirty-Five because the owner did not pay to improve it as required by new city laws. The tenement building had twenty apartments. The museum shows four of them. It recreated how they would have looked during four time periods. Visitors can learn about the lives of four families who lived in the building. One was the Gumpertz (GUM-pertz) family. They were Jews from Germany who lived there in the Eighteen-Seventies. Visitors can also see the apartment of the Rogarshevskys (RO-ga-shef-skeez) an Eastern European Jewish family who lived there in Nineteen-Eighteen. And they can see the rooms where the Italian Baldizzi (bal-DEET-see) family lived during the Nineteen-Thirties. A fourth apartment shows the life of the Confino (con-FEE-no) family, Jews from Turkey who lived there in Nineteen-Sixteen. Visitors can touch the Confino family’s clothes and other belongings. They can listen to music on the record player. They can meet a performer who is dressed like teen-aged Victoria Confino. They can talk to Victoria about her life in the new country. Visitors to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum say it teaches everyone about the lives of people starting out in a new country. And it makes them want to find out how their own families lived when they first arrived in the United States. Skyscrapers HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen Trung Dung asks about skyscrapers. Skyscrapers are the world’s tallest buildings. They are called “skyscrapers” because they rise so high that they seem to touch the sky. Skyscrapers provide space for offices, eating places, homes and hotels. The first one was built in Chicago, Illinois in Eighteen-Eighty-Five. It was almost fifty-five meters tall. Today, skyscrapers are much taller. The world’s tallest skyscrapers are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are the Petronas Towers. Each building is four-hundred-fifty-two meters high. New York City has more skyscrapers than any other city in the world. New York is also home to the world’s most famous skyscraper -- the Empire State Building. It was built in Nineteen-Thirty-One. It was the world’s tallest building for more than forty years. It is still one of the most popular. Each year, more than three-million people ride an elevator to the top of the Empire State Building. They stand outdoors in a special observation area almost three-hundred-eighty meters above the ground. Last month, the American Society of Civil Engineers honored the Empire State Building as one of the greatest structures of the twentieth century. The group called it a “Monument of the Millennium.” Other famous skyscrapers in New York include the two buildings of the World Trade Center. The Center was built in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. It occupies six-and-one-half hectares of land. Its two buildings are more than four-hundred-ten meters tall. They once were the tallest buildings in the world. About fifty-thousand people work in the World Trade Center. About seventy-thousand others visit the two buildings every day. One place to learn more about skyscrapers is the Skyscraper Museum in New York City. It was organized in Nineteen-Ninety-Six to show visitors the tall buildings of the past, present and future. The museum explains the history, design, building and operation of skyscrapers. The Skyscraper Museum is not among the most well known museums in New York. But its managers say people should see it first, before visiting other areas of New York City. New York Songs HOST: New York City is home to musical plays, music clubs and dance halls. And many writers have celebrated the city in song. American singer Mel Torme recorded a whole record of songs about New York. Here is Shep O’Neal to play a few of them. ANNCR: One traditional song about New York is old, but is still well-known today. Listen as Mel Torme sings “Sidewalks of New York.” ((CUT 1: SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK)) Perhaps the most famous street in New York City is Broadway. Many visitors go to New York just to see plays performed in theaters on or near Broadway. Here is a song about it. ((CUT 2: BROADWAY)) Another song about New York was written in the Nineteen-Forties for a movie called “On the Town.” The movie is about three sailors who are visiting New York for just one day. We leave you now with Mel Torme singing the most famous song from that film, “New York, New York”. ((CUT 3: NEW YORK, NEW YORK)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today about New York. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will be sent a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to mosaic@voa.gov. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 10, 2001: Climate Change Agreement
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Representatives from one-hundred-seventy-eight countries have agreed to a complex plan meant to improve the environment. The nations agreed to limit the production of gases that cause climate change. The United States was the only industrial country that did not approve the plan at the meeting in Bonn, Germany. The agreement is part of a developing document called the Kyoto Protocol. In Nineteen-Ninety-Seven, more than one-hundred nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate a plan to limit “greenhouse gases.” Scientists say such gases cause warming of the Earth. However, exact requirements for the plan were not settled. Last month, delegates met in Bonn to set the requirements for reducing carbon-based gases. The requirements would have the force of international law. But several compromises had to be reached before major industrial nations would agree to the document. The Kyoto Protocol had required industrial nations to reduce the amount of gases released, or emissions, by five-point-two percent. But the current compromise requires only a one-point-eight percent reduction in emissions each year. However, an important issue concerning enforcement appears to be settled. The agreement will become international law for countries that sign it. Japan, Russia and Australia negotiated to have special consideration for a period of time, if they do not meet their requirements. The compromise also counts forest land against carbon emissions. This permits countries with large forest areas, like Russia and Canada, to have smaller reductions in emissions. The delegates also agreed to put more than five-hundred million dollars into the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund. The money will be used to develop cleaner kinds of energy technology. Part of that money is meant to aid oil-producing nations to improve their economies so that they depend less on oil. Developing nations will not have to meet the emissions requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, industrial nations will receive credit for their own emissions if they invest in cleaner technologies in developing nations. The compromise reached in Bonn will be developed further in Marrakech, Morocco, later this year. Fifty-five countries must accept the agreement before it can go into effect. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 11, 2001: Testing of Drugs
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Earlier this summer, a young woman in Baltimore, Maryland died as a result of taking part in a medical study. The study was designed to learn how people with healthy lungs and people who have the breathing problem, asthma, react to particles or substances. The medical researchers at Johns Hopkins University had a number of healthy people breathe into their lungs a drug called hexamethonium. Twenty-four year old Ellen Roche was one of the nine people who agreed to take part in the study. She died on June second as a result of inhaling the drug. In July, the federal government criticized the university’s system that is supposed to protect people involved in such studies. An investigation found that the researchers failed to consider information about the possible harmful effects of the drug on the lungs. The people who took part in the study were never told that the drug is not approved for human use. And they were not warned about possible dangers. Government officials decided to require stronger controls over the two-thousand other medical studies being done at Johns Hopkins. Some of these studies are different from the one that included Mizz Roche. That study gave a drug to healthy people. Other studies test a drug to see if it can effectively treat or cure a disease. These studies are called clinical trials. People involved in clinical trials are those who suffer the disease the drug is designed to treat. The scientists divide them into two groups. One group gets the drug being tested. The second group gets an inactive substance. Neither the scientists or the people involved know who is getting what. The researchers follow both groups to see what effect the drug has on the disease. People who volunteer to be part of a clinical trial usually do so because they want the new drug. They hope it will improve their health. Yet scientists say there is no way to make sure this will be the result. The drug may help. But it could make their condition worse. Or the volunteers may be in the group that gets the inactive substance. Medical researchers carry out such experiments at universities and medical schools all over the world. They say that such studies must be carefully controlled to make sure they are generally safe. And they warn people considering taking part in such studies to ask questions of the researchers about the possible dangers. Many researchers say they believe that volunteers in clinical trials are protected as well as they can be. Reports say that about sixty-thousand clinical trials are carried out each year. Only a small number have problems. Most medical researchers say the risks of such tests are the only way to make progress against disease. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 12, 2001: Helen Keller, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 1: I'm Ray Freeman. VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America - a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week we tell about someone who was important in the history of the United States. This week we finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf. (Theme) VOICE 1: We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days. VOICE 2: "One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. 'What is it,' I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time. . . Nothing in all the world was like this." VOICE 1: Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. VOICE 2: "One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunder storm. I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me. . . It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with Joy to feel the solid earth under my feet. " ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands. The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind. During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote. VOICE 2: "My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages. " VOICE 1: All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings. To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older. She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words. She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of Joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm. She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth. Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch. When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music. She also liked to go to museums. She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material. What did Helen Keller think of herself. What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing. This is what she wrote as a young girl: VOICE 2: "Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'there is joy in forgetting one's self'. And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun. . . The music in others' ears my symphony. . . The smile on others' lips my happiness. " ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Helen Keller was tall and strong. When, she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others. Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems. The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties. Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her. VOICE 2: "It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful. My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch. " VOICE 1: Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been just heard the last part of the story of Helen Keller. Our Special English program was written by katherine clarke and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: And I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE 2: And I'm Shirley Griffith with People in America - a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week we tell about someone who was important in the history of the United States. This week we finish the story of a writer and educator, Helen Keller. She helped millions of people who, like her, were blind and deaf. (Theme) VOICE 1: We reported last week that Helen Keller suffered from a strange sickness when she was only nineteen months old. It made her completely blind and deaf. For the next five years she had no way of successfully communicating with other people. Then, a teacher -- Anne Sullivan -- arrived from Boston to help her. Miss Sullivan herself had once been blind. She tried to teach Helen to live like other people. She taught her how to use her hands as a way of speaking. Miss Sullivan took Helen out into the woods to explore nature. They also went to the circus, the theater, and even to factories. Miss Sullivan explained everything in the language she and Helen used -- a language of touch -- of fingers and hands. Helen also learned how to ride a horse, to swim, to row a boat and, even to climb trees. Helen Keller once wrote about these early days. VOICE 2: "One beautiful spring morning I was alone in my room, reading. Suddenly, a wonderful smell in the air made me get up and put out my hands. The spirit of spring seemed to be passing in my room. 'What is it,' I asked. The next minute I knew it was coming from the mimosa tree outside. I walked outside to the edge of the garden, toward the tree. There it was, shaking in the warm sunshine. Its long branches, so heavy with flowers, almost touched the ground. I walked through the flowers to the tree itself and then just stood silent. Then I put my foot on the tree and pulled myself up into it. I climbed higher and higher until I reached a little seat. Long ago someone had put it there. I sat for a long time. . . Nothing in all the world was like this." VOICE 1: Later, Helen learned that nature could be cruel as well as beautiful. Strangely enough she discovered this in a different kind of tree. VOICE 2: "One day my teacher and I were returning from a long walk. It was a fine morning. But it started to get warm and heavy. We stopped to rest two or three times. Our last stop was under a cherry tree a short way from the house. The shade was nice and the tree was easy to climb. Miss Sullivan climbed with me. It was so cool up in the tree we decided to have lunch there. I promised to sit still until she went to the house for some food. Suddenly a change came over the tree. I knew the sky was black because all the heat, which meant light to me had died out of the air. A strange odor came up to me from the earth. I knew it -- it was the odor which always comes before a thunder storm. I felt alone, cut off from friends, high above the firm earth. I was frightened, and wanted my teacher. I wanted to get down from that tree quickly. But I was no help to myself. There was a moment of terrible silence. Then a sudden and violent wind began to shake the tree and its leaves kept coming down all around me. I almost fell. I wanted to jump, but was afraid to do so. I tried to make myself small in the tree, as the branches rubbed against me. Just as I thought that both the tree and I were going to fall, a hand touched me. . . It was my teacher. I held her with all my strength then shook with Joy to feel the solid earth under my feet. " ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Miss Sullivan stayed with Helen for many years. She taught Helen how to read, how to write and how to speak. She helped her to get ready for school and college. More than anything, Helen wanted to do what others did, and do it just as well. In time, Helen did go to college and completed her studies with high honors. But it was a hard struggle. Few of the books she needed were written in the braille language that the blind could read by touching pages. Miss Sullivan and others had to teach her what was in these books by forming words in her hands. The study of geometry and physics was especially difficult. Helen could only learn about squares, triangles, and other geometrical forms by making them with wires. She kept feeling the different shapes of these wires until she could see them in her mind. During her second year at college, Miss Keller wrote the story of her life and what college meant to her. This is what she wrote. VOICE 2: "My first day at Radcliffe College was of great interest. Some powerful force inside me made me test my mind. I wanted to learn if it was as good as that of others. I learned many things at college. One thing, I slowly learned was that knowledge does not just mean power, as some people say. Knowledge leads to happiness, because to have it is to know what is true and real. To know what great men of the past have thought, said and done is to feel the heartbeat of humanity down through the ages. " VOICE 1: All of Helen Keller's knowledge reached her mind through her sense of touch and smell, and of course her feelings. To know a flower was to touch it, feel it, and smell it. This sense of touch became greatly developed as she got older. She once said that hands speak almost as loudly as words. She said the touch of some hands frightened her. The people seem so empty of Joy that when she touched their cold fingers it is as if she were shaking hands with a storm. She found the hands of others full of sunshine and warmth. Strangely enough, Helen Keller learned to love things she could not hear, music for example. She did this through her sense of touch. When waves of air beat against her, she felt them. Sometimes she put her hand to a singer's throat. She often stood for hours with her hands on a piano while it was played. Once, she listened to an organ. Its powerful sounds made her move her body in rhythm with the music. She also liked to go to museums. She thought she understood sculpture as well as others. Her fingers told her the true size, and the feel of the material. What did Helen Keller think of herself. What did she think about the tragic loss of her sight and hearing. This is what she wrote as a young girl: VOICE 2: "Sometimes a sense of loneliness covers me like a cold mist -- I sit alone and wait at life's shut door. Beyond, there is light and music and sweet friendship, but I may not enter. Silence sits heavy upon my soul. Then comes hope with a sweet smile and says softly, 'there is joy in forgetting one's self'. And so I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun. . . The music in others' ears my symphony. . . The smile on others' lips my happiness. " ((music Bridge)) VOICE 1: Helen Keller was tall and strong. When, she spoke, her face looked very alive. It helped give meaning to her words. She often felt the faces of close friends when she was talking to them to discover their feelings. She and Miss Sullivan both were known for their sense of humor. They enjoyed jokes and laughing at funny things that happened to themselves or others. Helen Keller had to work hard to support herself after she finished college. She spoke to many groups around the country. She wrote several books. And she made one movie based on her life. Her main goal was to increase public interest in the difficulties of people with physical problems. The work Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan did has been written and talked about for many years. Their success showed how people can conquer great difficulties. Anne Sullivan died in nineteen thirty-six, blind herself. Before Miss Sullivan died, Helen wrote and said many kind things about her. VOICE 2: "It was the genius of my teacher, her sympathy, her love which made my first years of education so beautiful. My teacher is so near to me that I do not think of myself as apart from her. All the best of me belongs to her. Everything I am today was awakened by her loving touch. " VOICE 1: Helen Keller died on June first, nineteen sixty-eight. She was eighty-seven years old. Her message of courage and hope remains. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been just heard the last part of the story of Helen Keller. Our Special English program was written by katherine clarke and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: And I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week to another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 13, 2001: Summer Camps
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: More than nine-million American children are spending part of their summer at a camp. They are swimming, playing sports, making music or learning to use a computer. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about summer camps today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Traditional American summer camps offer children a chance to play many sports outdoors. These camps may be in the mountains, in the woods or at a lake. Other camps teach activities like painting, music or computer programming. Children at all kinds of camps meet new friends, learn new skills and develop independence. Some children go to camp during the day and return home at night. Others stay at camp all day and all night. Most children who attend camp are between the ages of about six and sixteen. Some children stay at an overnight camp for one or two weeks. Others stay for as many as eight weeks. Parents pay from one hundred to more than seven-hundred dollars a week for overnight camps. VOICE TWO: Children from poor families who live in a big city might not get the chance to go to a summer camp. The Fresh Air Fund is a well-known organization that gives children in New York City that chance. People around the country give money to support the Fresh Air Fund. Each summer, it sends more than ten-thousand poor children from the city to stay with families in the country or to five camps in New York State. Since Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, the Fresh Air Fund has helped almost two-million of New York City's most needy children.These children do what they cannot do in the city: breathe fresh air, play on green grass and swim in a lake. Some children begin staying with the same family when they are very young and continue for a number of summers. (MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE:The American tradition of sending children to summer camp began more than one-hundred years ago. The first organized American camp probably was the Gunnery Camp. Frederick W. Gunn and his wife Abigail Gunn started it. They operated a school for boys in the state of Connecticut. In Eighteen Sixty-One, Mister and Missus Gunn took their students on a two-week trip. They walked to the chosen area and set up camp. The students fished, hunted, and traveled by boat. VOICE TWO: Today, summer camps for children have become very important to millions of families. Many American women now work outside the home. Working parents need a place where their children can be cared for during the summer when they are not in school. Camps help children, too. For most children, overnight camp is the only time during the year when they are away from their parents. Camp gives them a chance to feel that they are independent. Campers live together in cloth tents or in wood cabins. They eat their meals together in a large dining room. Sometimes, however, the first time at summer camp can be difficult. Children might not like living with other campers. They might not like the food. Or, they might not like to do things like swim in a cold lake. Some new campers miss their parents very much. VOICE ONE: Mental health expert Chris Thurber studied almost three-hundred-thirty boy campers. The boys were between the ages of eight and sixteen. They were staying at an overnight camp. Eighty-three percent reported that they wished they were home at least one day during their time at camp. The American Camping Association suggests that parents prepare children before sending them to camp. They say parents should let children help choose the camp. And they advise parents to discuss what the camp will be like and what campers will need to know. For example, parents can show their children how to use a flashlight to find a bathroom at night. Experts say young children may feel better at camp if they bring a toy from home. And parents can write letters to their children often. VOICE TWO: Most young people have a good time at camp. Many return to the same camp every summer until they are old enough to have a job. Then they might return to the camp to work as a group leader for the younger children. For example, a woman from the state of Illinois attended camp in nearby Wisconsin every summer for more than ten years. Then she became a group leader at the camp. Many years later her own children attended the same camp. Now she says that someday her grandchildren will go there, too. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are about nine-thousand camps in the United States. Most of them are overnight camps. There are camps for children with many kinds of interests.For example, a camp called Roughing It is in the San Francisco Bay area of California. It offers traditional activities for children and teenagers. Campers climb mountains, take long walks and ride horses. They play sports, swim and fish. Other camps offer just one main activity. Children can go to a camp where they play just one sport, like tennis, soccer, baseball or basketball. Young people who like the arts can spend the summer learning about art, music, dance, acting or writing. VOICE TWO: The best known camp for young artists is the Interlochen Arts Camp. It is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the state of Michigan. Its music program is especially well known. More than two-thousand young people from the United States and forty other countries are attending the arts camp this summer. Camps that offer programs in science and environmental studies are popular, too. For example, the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama welcomes adults as well as children. Whole families can live together in a place like a real space station. They take part in activities similar to those carried out during real space shuttle flights. VOICE ONE: Another special camp is Seacamp in Big Pine Key, Florida. Teenage campers learn to dive under water using breathing equipment. They study the ocean environment. Some older children like wilderness adventure camps. Campers take long trips by bicycle or canoe. They climb big rocks and explore caves. Each year, an increasing number of children develop their knowledge of technology at computer camps. This summer, more than thirty-thousand young people are attending the top computer camps in the United States. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The United States also has many camps for sick or disabled children. At these camps, children take part in traditional activities and receive special medical care. While the children are away, their parents get a rest. Handi Kids in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, has a day camp for children and young adults with health problems. The campers have poor hearing or sight. But this does not stop them from enjoying water sports, arts, dance, music and other activities. Perhaps the most famous camp for sick children is called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in the state of Connecticut. It is for children with AIDS, cancer, and serious blood diseases. The famous actor Paul Newman started the first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. Similar camps have been established in other parts of the United States, Ireland and France. VOICE ONE: For many children in overnight camps across the United States, the day ends in a traditional way. They gather around the campfire to cook and eat a sweet dessert food called "s'mores." The campers cook marshmallows over the fire. They put the marshmallows and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. This food got its name because after campers eat one, they ask for "some more," or s’more for short. As the fire dies, the campers join in singing traditional songs like this one. ((CUT ONE: THE WHEELS ON THE BUS – CDP-2820)) Chances are, the children will always remember the fun they had and the songs they sang in the firelight of summer camp. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE ONE: More than nine-million American children are spending part of their summer at a camp. They are swimming, playing sports, making music or learning to use a computer. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. We tell about summer camps today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Traditional American summer camps offer children a chance to play many sports outdoors. These camps may be in the mountains, in the woods or at a lake. Other camps teach activities like painting, music or computer programming. Children at all kinds of camps meet new friends, learn new skills and develop independence. Some children go to camp during the day and return home at night. Others stay at camp all day and all night. Most children who attend camp are between the ages of about six and sixteen. Some children stay at an overnight camp for one or two weeks. Others stay for as many as eight weeks. Parents pay from one hundred to more than seven-hundred dollars a week for overnight camps. VOICE TWO: Children from poor families who live in a big city might not get the chance to go to a summer camp. The Fresh Air Fund is a well-known organization that gives children in New York City that chance. People around the country give money to support the Fresh Air Fund. Each summer, it sends more than ten-thousand poor children from the city to stay with families in the country or to five camps in New York State. Since Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, the Fresh Air Fund has helped almost two-million of New York City's most needy children.These children do what they cannot do in the city: breathe fresh air, play on green grass and swim in a lake. Some children begin staying with the same family when they are very young and continue for a number of summers. (MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE:The American tradition of sending children to summer camp began more than one-hundred years ago. The first organized American camp probably was the Gunnery Camp. Frederick W. Gunn and his wife Abigail Gunn started it. They operated a school for boys in the state of Connecticut. In Eighteen Sixty-One, Mister and Missus Gunn took their students on a two-week trip. They walked to the chosen area and set up camp. The students fished, hunted, and traveled by boat. VOICE TWO: Today, summer camps for children have become very important to millions of families. Many American women now work outside the home. Working parents need a place where their children can be cared for during the summer when they are not in school. Camps help children, too. For most children, overnight camp is the only time during the year when they are away from their parents. Camp gives them a chance to feel that they are independent. Campers live together in cloth tents or in wood cabins. They eat their meals together in a large dining room. Sometimes, however, the first time at summer camp can be difficult. Children might not like living with other campers. They might not like the food. Or, they might not like to do things like swim in a cold lake. Some new campers miss their parents very much. VOICE ONE: Mental health expert Chris Thurber studied almost three-hundred-thirty boy campers. The boys were between the ages of eight and sixteen. They were staying at an overnight camp. Eighty-three percent reported that they wished they were home at least one day during their time at camp. The American Camping Association suggests that parents prepare children before sending them to camp. They say parents should let children help choose the camp. And they advise parents to discuss what the camp will be like and what campers will need to know. For example, parents can show their children how to use a flashlight to find a bathroom at night. Experts say young children may feel better at camp if they bring a toy from home. And parents can write letters to their children often. VOICE TWO: Most young people have a good time at camp. Many return to the same camp every summer until they are old enough to have a job. Then they might return to the camp to work as a group leader for the younger children. For example, a woman from the state of Illinois attended camp in nearby Wisconsin every summer for more than ten years. Then she became a group leader at the camp. Many years later her own children attended the same camp. Now she says that someday her grandchildren will go there, too. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are about nine-thousand camps in the United States. Most of them are overnight camps. There are camps for children with many kinds of interests.For example, a camp called Roughing It is in the San Francisco Bay area of California. It offers traditional activities for children and teenagers. Campers climb mountains, take long walks and ride horses. They play sports, swim and fish. Other camps offer just one main activity. Children can go to a camp where they play just one sport, like tennis, soccer, baseball or basketball. Young people who like the arts can spend the summer learning about art, music, dance, acting or writing. VOICE TWO: The best known camp for young artists is the Interlochen Arts Camp. It is part of the Interlochen Center for the Arts in the state of Michigan. Its music program is especially well known. More than two-thousand young people from the United States and forty other countries are attending the arts camp this summer. Camps that offer programs in science and environmental studies are popular, too. For example, the United States Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama welcomes adults as well as children. Whole families can live together in a place like a real space station. They take part in activities similar to those carried out during real space shuttle flights. VOICE ONE: Another special camp is Seacamp in Big Pine Key, Florida. Teenage campers learn to dive under water using breathing equipment. They study the ocean environment. Some older children like wilderness adventure camps. Campers take long trips by bicycle or canoe. They climb big rocks and explore caves. Each year, an increasing number of children develop their knowledge of technology at computer camps. This summer, more than thirty-thousand young people are attending the top computer camps in the United States. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The United States also has many camps for sick or disabled children. At these camps, children take part in traditional activities and receive special medical care. While the children are away, their parents get a rest. Handi Kids in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, has a day camp for children and young adults with health problems. The campers have poor hearing or sight. But this does not stop them from enjoying water sports, arts, dance, music and other activities. Perhaps the most famous camp for sick children is called the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in the state of Connecticut. It is for children with AIDS, cancer, and serious blood diseases. The famous actor Paul Newman started the first Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. Similar camps have been established in other parts of the United States, Ireland and France. VOICE ONE: For many children in overnight camps across the United States, the day ends in a traditional way. They gather around the campfire to cook and eat a sweet dessert food called "s'mores." The campers cook marshmallows over the fire. They put the marshmallows and a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers. This food got its name because after campers eat one, they ask for "some more," or s’more for short. As the fire dies, the campers join in singing traditional songs like this one. ((CUT ONE: THE WHEELS ON THE BUS – CDP-2820)) Chances are, the children will always remember the fun they had and the songs they sang in the firelight of summer camp. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - August 13, 2001: WHO Leprosy
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization says its ten-year campaign to remove leprosy as a world health problem has been successful. Doctor Gro Harlem Brundtland is head of the Geneva-based W-H-O. She says the number of leprosy cases around the world has been cut by ninety percent during the past ten years. She says efforts continue to completely end the disease. Leprosy is caused by bacteria spread through liquid from the nose and mouth. The disease mainly affects the skin and nerves. However, if leprosy is not treated leprosy it can cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, eyes, arms or legs. In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, an international campaign began to end leprosy. The World Health Organization, governments of countries most affected by the disease, and several other groups are part of the campaign. This alliance guarantees that all leprosy patients, even if they are poor, have a right to the most modern treatment. Mizz Brundtland says leprosy has affected humans since the very beginning of recorded history. However, she says it is no longer a disease that requires life-long treatments by medical experts. Instead, patients can take what is called a “multi-drug therapy,” or M-D-T. This modern treatment will cure leprosy in six to twelve months, depending on the form of the disease. The treatment combines several drugs taken daily or once a month. The W-H-O has given M-D-T to patients free for the last five years. The international drug company Novartis has been manufacturing and providing the treatment without cost. It says it will continue to provide M-D-T until Two-Thousand-Five. The members of the alliance against leprosy plan to target the countries still threatened by leprosy. Among the estimated six-hundred-thousand victims around the world, the W-H-O believes about seventy percent are in India. The disease also remains a problem in South America, especially in Brazil. The biggest barriers to completely controlling leprosy may be in Africa. The World Health Organization says this continent is the second most affected area in the world. Yet, the rise of AIDS and other deadly diseases along with armed conflicts and social tension make treating leprosy in Africa difficult. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 14, 2001: Heat and Health
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS. Today, we will tell about some health problems linked to heat. And we tell about what you can do to prevent and treat these problems. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Extremely hot weather is common in many parts of the world. Although hot weather just makes most people hot, it can cause medical problems -- and death. Parts of the United States have had extremely hot weather recently. One professional football player died of heat stroke after training in the heat in Mankato, Minnestoa two weeks ago. At least fifteen people have died as a result of the hot weather in Chicago, Illinois so far this summer. In Nineteen-Ninety-Five, more than six-hundred people died in a similar heat wave in Chicago.Floods, storms and other terrible natural events kill thousands of people every year. And, as expected, we hear much about them in news reports. We generally hear little, however, about what experts say may be nature’s deadliest killer -- heat. VOICE TWO: Health experts say that since the year Nineteen-Hundred, extremely hot weather has killed more people in the United States than any other natural event. One year -- the unusually hot summer of Nineteen-Eighty -- heat was linked to more than one-thousand deaths in the United States. Doctors say there are many things people can do to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat. They say to stay out of the sun, if possible. Drink large amounts of cool water. Wear loose clothes made from light-colored natural materials. And learn the danger signs of the medical problems that are linked to heat. VOICE ONE: The most common medical problem caused by hot weather is heat stress. Usually, it also is the least severe. There are many causes for heat stress. These include hard work or exercise, heavy clothes, hot weather or high humidity. Humidity is the amount of water in the air. Several of these conditions together can raise a person’s body temperature above safe limits. The person perspires heavily, losing large amounts of body water and salt. VOICE TWO: For most people, the only result of heat stress is muscle pain. The pain is a warning that the body is becoming too hot. Doctors say drinking water will help the pain disappear after the body again has the right amounts of water and salt. For some people, however, the result is much more serious. For people who are not in good health, heat can make an existing medical problem worse. VOICE ONE: For example, doctors say some people face a greatly increased danger from heat stress. These people have a weak or damaged heart, high blood pressure, or other problems of the blood system. Severe heat can help cause a heart attack or stroke. Health experts say this is the most common cause of death linked to hot weather. Doctors say severe heat also increases problems for very small children, older people and people suffering the disease diabetes. It also is bad for people who weigh too much and have too much body fat, and for people who drink alcohol. Hot weather also increases dangers for people who must take medicine for high blood pressure, poor blood circulation, nervousness or depression. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: If heat stress is not treated, it can lead to a more serious problem called heat exhaustion. Perspiration is one of the body’s defenses against heat. It is a process during which the body releases water to cool the skin. However, a person suffering from heat exhaustion loses too much water through perspiration. The person becomes dehydrated. The person’s ability to work and think becomes sharply limited. Experts say a reduction of only four or five percent in body water leads to a drop of twenty to thirty percent in work ability. The loss of salt through perspiration also reduces the amount of work that muscles can do. A person suffering from heat exhaustion feels weak and extremely tired. He or she may have trouble walking normally. Heat exhaustion also may produce a fast heart beat, breathing problems, headache, chest pain and a general feeling of sickness. Doctors say people suffering from these problems should move to a cool place and drink water. VOICE ONE: Heat exhaustion can develop quickly. But it also can develop slowly, over several days. Doctors call this disorder dehydration exhaustion. Each day, a person’s body loses only a little more water than is taken in. The person may not even know the problem is developing. But if the problem continues for several days, the effects will be the same as the usual kind of heat exhaustion. The treatment for dehydration exhaustion is the same as for heat exhaustion. Drink large amounts of water, and rest in a cool place if possible. VOICE TWO: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke if it is not treated. With heat stroke, the body temperature rises to more than forty degrees Celsius. The body stops perspiring. And the skin becomes dry and very hot. A person may even become unconscious. Doctors say that if the body temperature goes higher than forty-two degrees Celsius, the body’s tissues and organs begin to cook. Permanent brain damage may result. Often death results. Immediate medical help is necessary for someone with heat stroke. Doctors say treatment should begin immediately or the person could die before medical help arrives. VOICE ONE: Immediate treatment should begin by moving the victim out of the sun. Then, take off the person’s clothes. Pour water over the victim’s body. And, if possible, put pieces of ice in areas where blood vessels are close to the skin. These areas include the neck, under the arms and where the legs join. The purpose is to cool the victim as quickly as possible to stop the body’s temperature from increasing. Experts say it is important to know the danger signs of each of the medical disorders linked to hot weather. And they say you should know what to do if the signs appear. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts say water is important for many health reasons. The body itself is mostly water -- more than sixty-five percent water. Water in blood carries hormones and antibodies through the body. Water in urine carries away waste materials. Water also is needed for cooling the body on hot days, and when we are working or exercising. Water carries body heat to the surface of the skin. There, the heat is lost through perspiration. VOICE ONE: Health experts say adults should drink about two liters of liquids each day to replace all the body water lost in urine and perspiration. They say people should drink more than that in hot weather. They say we should drink liquids even before we start to feel like we need something to drink. This is because we sometimes do not feel thirsty until we already have lost a lot of body liquid. We get some of the water we need in the foods we eat. Most fruits and vegetables are more than eighty percent water. VOICE TWO: In hot weather, cold liquids are best. They do more than just replace lost body water. Doctors say cold liquids also help cool us faster than warm liquids. This is because they take up more heat inside the body and carry it away faster. Researchers also say, however, that sweet drinks are not good. The sugar slows the liquid from getting into the blood system. Tea and coffee also are not effective. Doctors also warn against alcoholic drinks. Alcohol speeds the loss of body water through urine. VOICE ONE: In addition to drinking lots of cool water, doctors say there are other things to do to protect against the health dangers of heat. Stay out of the sun, if possible. Wear loose, light-weight and light-colored clothes. Wear a hat or other head cover while in the sun. Eat fewer hot and heavy foods. And when possible, cook foods during cooler times of the day. If possible, rest more often. Physical activity produces body heat. Health experts say these simple steps can prevent the dangerous health problems linked to heat. They will prevent sickness, help you feel better and may even save your life. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - August 14, 2001: Genetic Engineering Crop Debate
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. New reports are adding to the debate about genetic engineering. The reports offer conflicting information about genetically-engineered crops. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. Genes are parts of cells that control growth and development. A changed gene directs a plant or other organism to do things it normally does not do. Last month, the United Nations Development Program released its yearly Human Development Report. It supports the use of genetically-engineered crops in developing countries. It criticizes environmental groups that oppose the use of such products. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is the report’s lead writer. She says many people have forgotten about the problem of world hunger. She adds that at least eight-hundred-million people still do not have enough to eat. She says genetic engineering can help to increase the amount of farmers produce quickly and effectively. Critics of genetic engineering say the U-N report does not deal with the possible risks of genetic engineering. They say the technology represents a threat to human health and the environment. Food First is a policy research group based in the United States. Food First agrees that genetically-engineered crops may be good in the future. Yet the group says it would support a ban on the use of these crops until tests show they are safe. In the past, we reported on a product called StarLink corn. StarLink is the only genetically-engineered crop grown in the United States that is not approved for human use. Three years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency approved StarLink corn as food for animals only. The E-P-A expressed concern that a protein in StarLink might cause allergic reactions in people. A few weeks ago, a group of American scientists found no evidence that StarLink corn had made anyone sick. An independent laboratory confirmed the findings. Yet, the E-P-A has just decided not to permit even small amounts of StarLink corn in human food. The decision followed the release of a report by an agency advisory group. The advisors said there is not enough evidence to dismiss the possibility of allergic reactions. They said StarLink had not been proven safe for people. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – August 15, 2001: Designer Antibiotics
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Researchers in La Jolla, California, have taken steps toward developing effective new antibiotic drugs. M. Reza Ghadiri and other researchers from the Scripps Research Institute have developed structures called “nanotubes.” Nanotubes are molecules of amino acid that can build themselves into tubes that are smaller than a cell. Mister Ghadiri’s team recently reported its findings in the publication, NATURE. The researchers said the nanotubes killed a number of bacteria in animals and in laboratory tests. They also reported that the structures helped mice recover from normally deadly bacterial attacks. These same bacteria resisted a traditional antibiotic drug used to kill harmful bacteria. The team said the central structure of the nanotubes contains rings called cyclic peptides. These circular structures are made of either six or eight amino acids. The researchers chose the amino acids because their molecules form themselves into tubes only in the correct chemical environment. During their experiments the researchers placed the rings inside the covering of bacteria. The rings lined up to form tubes that are empty in the middle. The tubes killed the bacteria by making holes in them. The bacteria died when the material inside them leaked out. In test-tube experiments the team found nanotubes formed in bacteria but did not form in red blood cells. The amino acid nanotubes also protected animals sick with Staphylococcus Aureus. This disease affects more than two-million hospital patients in the United States every year. Current antibiotic drugs often attack one special molecule within bacteria. Bacteria can develop resistance to such drugs over time. They do this by changing the shape of the targeted molecule. Or, they may keep the drugs away from their molecular target. Mister Ghadiri says he hopes nanotubes have a long life. This would force bacteria to make more changes to resist treatment. He says changing amino acids in the peptide rings could create many different versions of the nanotubes. Mister Ghadiri’s team has given mice the drugs by forcing them through the skin. But he believes these new kinds of antibiotics can some day be produced to take by mouth, in pill form. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 15, 2001: Tuskegee Airmen
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots. (THEME) VOICE ONE: There was a little fog near the ground. But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew into the air. It was only a few minutes before the planes were flying over the Mediterranean Sea. The sea was calm, and very blue. It was July First, Nineteen-Forty-Three. The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. They were responsible for guarding bomber airplanes travelling to Italy. The pilots tested their guns. When they were satisfied that their guns were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers. At the target area, the bombers began to unload their bombs. Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions. VOICE TWO: A group of enemy fighters immediately appeared to attack the bomber planes. The enemy airplanes flew near. The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them. In the battle that followed, the men of the Ninety-Ninth gained their first victory. Lieutenant Charles B. Hall shot down a German airplane. He said it was the first time he had seen the enemy close enough to shoot at. He saw two German airplanes following the bombers just after the bombs were dropped. "I headed for the space between the fighters and bombers...I fired a long burst and saw my tracers penetrate the second aircraft. He was turning left, but suddenly fell off and headed straight into the ground." Charles Hall won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service that day. He and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama, to fight that battle. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty, blacks made up about one-point-five percent of the American Army and Navy. But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes. They had begun fighting for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One. In Nineteen-Seventeen, blacks who requested acceptance into pilot training programs were told that colored air groups were not being formed at the time. Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many whites that blacks could not fight. In Nineteen-Thirty-One, Walter White and Robert R. Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps for pilot training. Mister White was an official of an important organization for blacks, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mister Moton was president of a respected college for blacks, the Tuskegee Institute. The War Department refused their request. It said that the Air Corps chose men with technical experience. The department also said that blacks were not that interested in flying. And, it said so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many whites had to be refused acceptance. VOICE TWO: The War Department's refusal led many to feel that blacks would be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps only through legislation by Congress. Black leaders used the United States' preparation for and entry into World War Two to pressure Congress. They attacked the unfair treatment of blacks in the armed services. In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, Congress passed a bill that guaranteed blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots. It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established at Tuskegee, Alabama. VOICE ONE: Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military. Yet they continued to attack the military policy of racial separation. The War Department answered the criticisms by making plans to form several new black fighting groups. It also promoted a black Colonel, Benjamin O. Davis Senior, to Brigadier General. And, the department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, who was head of Howard University Law School, as Civilian Aide on Negro Affairs. VOICE TWO: Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flying training school at Tuskegee. He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separately. The Air Corps, however, said there was no room in other programs. It said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training program. Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition to the plan, even though he was not satisfied with it. Fred Patterson was president of the Tuskegee Institute then. He also objected to the separate training of black pilots at Tuskegee. He said that it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation. Mister Patterson finally accepted the program at Tuskegee. He realized blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States. He saw Tuskegee as a beginning. At least blacks were now able to be military pilots. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying. On March Seventh, Nineteen-Forty-Two, the first group of African-Americans ever to be trained as fighter pilots completed the program at Tuskegee. General Davis's son, Benjamin O. Davis Junior, was among the first graduates. Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces. Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron. It was organized in October of Nineteen-Forty-Two. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Junior commanded it. The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, Nineteen-Forty-Three. The pilots were able to gain fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy. In June of Nineteen-Forty-Three, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. It was the first time "air power alone...completely destroyed all enemy resistance." The Tuskegee airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy. These included the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. At Anzio, in January of Nineteen-Forty-Four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth squadron shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Their performance earned them two awards. And, their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war. VOICE TWO: In September, Nineteen-Forty-Three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three-Hundred-Thirty-Second Fighter Group. The Ninety-Ninth squadron became a part of the group. There were four-hundred-fifty pilots in the all-black group. They flew more than fifteen-thousand-five-hundred flights in southern France, Greece, the Balkans and finally in Germany. The Tuskegee airmen guarded bomber airplanes. They destroyed more than one-hundred enemy airplanes in the air and one-hundred-fifty others on the ground. They flew more than two-hundred combat flights in Germany in Nineteen-Forty-Five. Not one allied bomber fell to enemy fighters when guarded by the Tuskegee airmen. They were considered the best at their job. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Nine-Hundred-Ninety-Six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield before World War Two ended. For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee airmen represented both honor and inequality. Eighty-five of them won the Distinguished Flying Cross during the war. Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the racial policies of the military. History books say the Tuskegee airman proved that black men could fly modern airplanes in highly successful combat operations. And, the success of the group helped end the separate racial policies of the American military. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, President Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen. The next year, the Air Force, which no longer was part of the army, announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated. Back in civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airman became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors. Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment. At home, their continued fighting spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Vivian Bournazian. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – August 16, 2001: OxyContin Warning
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The federal government and manufacturers of the drug OxyContin have increased warnings about its use. Directions on the containers of the pain-killing medicine are being changed. They now must include a warning that the effects of OxyContin are like morphine, another drug that fights pain. The warning also must say that misusing the drug can kill. Law-enforcement officials say misuse of OxyContin is linked to as many as one-hundred deaths. The new warning labels also carry the message that only some patients should take OxyContin. The drug is meant for people suffering moderate to severe pain over extended periods. A doctor must write an order for this medicine. Doctors say people can become physically dependent on OxyContin. People can suffer from withdrawal problems if they cannot get it. Drugstore owners report that people are stealing the drug from their stores. Illegal drug dealers are selling OxyContin on the streets. OxyContin pills contain the pain-killing substance oxycodone. OxyContin can release oxycodone over a twelve-hour period. Taken correctly, an OxyContin pill is swallowed whole. However, an increasing number of people are crushing OxyContin into powder. They breathe the powder in, or force it through the skin with a needle. These methods release the effects of the medicine at one time. This results in a temporary feeling of happiness similar to the effect of the illegal drug, heroin. The company Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Connecticut began selling the drug in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. Many doctors praise its effectiveness in treating cancer, severe burns and other painful conditions. Yet protests against misuse of the drug are spreading. So is legal action against Purdue Pharma and a company it works with, Abbott Laboratories in Chicago. For example, West Virginia began legal cases against the two companies in June. The state accuses them of helping cause misuse of the drug by using aggressive sales methods. A Purdue spokesman said the company has stopped selling OxyContin pills that contain large amounts of the drug. He said Purdue has warned doctors about the drug in several ways. He also says the company has spent millions to dollars to research pain-killers that could not be easily misused. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 16, 2001: Election of 1912
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH. (THEME) THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY IN AMERICA WERE SHAPED BY THE STRONG LEADERSHIP OF PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT. AND IN THE SECOND DECADE, ROOSEVELT RETURNED TO NATIONAL POLITICS TO BRING, ONCE MORE, DRAMATIC CHANGES TO THE UNITED STATES. IN NINETEEN-TWELVE, HE ORGANIZED A NEW POLITICAL PARTY: THE PROGRESSIVES. ROOSEVELT CREATED THIS NEW PARTY AFTER HE FAILED TO WIN THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION. THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF NINETEEN-TWELVE HAD BEEN CONTROLLED BY CONSERVATIVE SUPPORTERS OF PRESIDENT WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT. AND THEY NOMINATED TAFT FOR FOUR MORE YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE. VOICE TWO: AS A RESULT, ROOSEVELT BROKE WITH THE REPUBLICANS. AND HE AND HIS SUPPORTERS HELD THEIR OWN CONVENTION. THEY FORMED THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY AND APPROVED A PLATFORM THAT PROMISED REFORMS. THESE REFORMS WERE PROPOSED TO MAKE THE GOVERNMENT SERVE THE PEOPLE AND CARRY OUT MORE FULLY THEIR DESIRE FOR SOCIAL PROGRESS. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ALSO NOMINATED A CANDIDATE WHO SUPPORTED PROGRESSIVE IDEAS. THE DEMOCRATS CHOSE GOVERNOR WOODROW WILSON OF NEW JERSEY, A FORMER PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. SO, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS, THERE WERE THREE MAJOR CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT. WILSON CLEARLY HAD THE BEST CHANCE TO WIN. HE HAD THE SUPPORT OF ALMOST ALL THE DEMOCRATS. THE REPUBLICANS, HOWEVER, WERE SPLIT. SOME SUPPORTED TAFT. THE OTHERS WERE FOR ROOSEVELT. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT REFUSED TO ACCEPT THE IDEA OF DEFEAT. HE CAMPAIGNED HARD, VISITING MANY CITIES AND TOWNS, MAKING SPEECH AFTER SPEECH. WILSON ALSO CAMPAIGNED HARD. HE SEEMED TO ENJOY IT AS MUCH AS ROOSEVELT. TAFT DID NOT LIKE IT AT ALL. HE REFUSED TO DO MUCH CAMPAIGNING. HE SPENT MOST OF THE TIME AT HIS SUMMER HOME. IT WAS A QUIET ELECTION CAMPAIGN. . .UNTIL THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER. THEN, ONLY THREE WEEKS BEFORE ELECTION DAY, ROOSEVELT WAS SHOT. VOICE TWO: IT HAPPENED IN MILWAUKEE. ROOSEVELT HAD JUST LEFT HIS HOTEL AND CLIMBED INTO THE AUTOMOBILE THAT WOULD CARRY HIM TO THE HALL WHERE HE PLANNED TO MAKE A SPEECH. AS HE STOOD IN THE OPEN CAR, AN EXTREMIST NAMED JOHN SCHRANK RAN UP TO HIM, PULLED A GUN FROM HIS COAT, AND FIRED A BULLET INTO ROOSEVELT'S CHEST. THE BULLET KNOCKED HIM DOWN. ROOSEVELT SAID IT FELT AS IF HE HAD BEEN KICKED BY A MULE. HE JUMPED UP AND PUT HIS HAND TO THE WOUND. THE BULLET HAD PASSED THROUGH THE INSIDE POCKET OF HIS COAT. IT STRUCK A STEEL CASE THAT HELD HIS GLASSES, AND WENT THROUGH THE FOLDED FIFTY PAGES OF HIS WRITTEN SPEECH. THESE SLOWED THE BULLET, AND IT WENT ONLY A FEW CENTIMETERS INTO HIS CHEST. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT DID NOT KNOW IF HE WAS SERIOUSLY WOUNDED. HE PUT HIS HAND TO HIS MOUTH AND COUGHED. NO BLOOD CAME. AND HE KNEW THE SHOT HAD NOT DAMAGED HIS LUNGS. ROOSEVELT ORDERED THE CROWD AROUND TO STOP BEATING SCHRANK. "BRING HIM TO ME," HE SAID. HE LOOKED DOWN AT THE MAN. "YOU POOR CREATURE," SAID ROOSEVELT. THEN HE TURNED AWAY. DOCTORS ARRIVED. THEY SAID ROOSEVELT MUST GO AT ONCE TO THE HOSPITAL. BUT ROOSEVELT REFUSED. HE SAID HE WOULD GO TO THE HALL. "I WILL MAKE THIS SPEECH," HE SAID, "OR DIE. IT WILL BE ONE OR THE OTHER." ON HIS WAY TO THE HALL, HE TOLD A FRIEND: "IT TAKES MORE THAN THAT TO KILL A ROOSEVELT. I DO NOT CARE A RAP ABOUT BEING SHOT. NOT A RAP." VOICE TWO: AT THE HALL, HE STOOD BEFORE THE BIG CROWD. HIS FACE WAS WHITE. BUT HE STOOD STRAIGHT, WITHOUT HELP. SOMEONE ANNOUNCED THAT ROOSEVELT HAD BEEN WOUNDED, BUT STILL PLANNED TO SPEAK. ROOSEVELT'S VOICE WAS VERY LOW, ALMOST A WHISPER. "I AM GOING TO ASK YOU TO BE VERY QUIET. AND PLEASE EXCUSE ME FROM MAKING A LONG SPEECH. I WILL DO THE BEST I CAN. BUT THERE IS A BULLET IN ME." HE PAUSED AND THEN CONTINUED. "IT IS NOTHING. I AM NOT HURT BADLY. I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. AND I WILL SAY IT AS LONG AS THERE IS LIFE IN MY BODY." VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT'S SPEECH WAS NOT IMPORTANT. HE SAID NOTHING THAT HE HAD NOT ALREADY SAID MANY TIMES BEFORE. WHAT WAS IMPORTANT, HOWEVER, WAS HIS COOL COURAGE. MEN DID NOT SEE HIS ACT AS FOOLISH OR OVERLY-DRAMATIC. THEY SAW IT AS THE BRAVE ACT OF A STRONG MAN. TO THE PUBLIC, HE WAS A HERO. ROOSEVELT SPOKE FOR ALMOST AN HOUR. FINALLY, VERY WEAK, HE LET HIMSELF BE HELPED FROM THE HALL. HE WAS RUSHED TO A HOSPITAL WHERE DOCTORS COULD EXAMINE THE WOUND. VOICE TWO: THE DOCTORS FOUND THAT THE BULLET HAD BROKEN A RIB, BUT CAUSED NO SERIOUS DAMAGE. THEY DECIDED TO LEAVE THE BULLET WHERE IT WAS. THE NEXT DAY, ROOSEVELT MADE A STATEMENT FROM HIS HOSPITAL BED. "TELL THE PEOPLE NOT TO WORRY ABOUT ME. FOR IF I GO DOWN, ANOTHER WILL TAKE MY PLACE." PRESIDENT TAFT AND WOODROW WILSON SENT MESSAGES OF REGRET TO ROOSEVELT. THEY ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WOULD NOT CAMPAIGN UNTIL ROOSEVELT WAS ABLE TO DO SO. VOICE ONE: ROOSEVELT'S CONDITION IMPROVED QUICKLY. AFTER TWO WEEKS OF REST, HE WAS READY TO CONTINUE HIS CAMPAIGN FOR THE PRESIDENCY. HE MADE A SPEECH TO A BIG CROWD AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN IN NEW YORK CITY. EVERYONE WAS SURPRISED TO SEE HOW STRONG AND HEALTHY HE SEEMED. WILSON ENDED HIS CAMPAIGN IN NEW YORK CITY THE NEXT DAY. HE TOLD A CHEERING CROWD OF DEMOCRATS: "WHAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PROPOSES TO DO IS TO GO INTO POWER AND DO THE THINGS THAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT FOR SIXTEEN YEARS." VOICE TWO: ON NOVEMBER FIFTH, THE PEOPLE VOTED. THE WINNER WAS WOODROW WILSON. HE RECEIVED MORE THAN SIX-MILLION VOTES. ROOSEVELT WAS SECOND WITH FOUR-MILLION. TAFT RECEIVED ONLY ABOUT THREE AND A HALF MILLION. WILSON'S VICTORY WAS EVEN GREATER IN THE ELECTORAL VOTE. HE GOT FOUR-HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE. ROOSEVELT GOT ONLY EIGHTY-EIGHT. AND TAFT RECEIVED ONLY THE EIGHT ELECTORAL VOTES OF UTAH AND VERMONT. THE DEMOCRATS WON NOT ONLY THE WHITE HOUSE, BUT ALSO CONTROL OF CONGRESS. AND A NUMBER OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS WERE ELECTED IN STATES FORMERLY CONTROLLED BY REPUBLICANS. VOICE ONE: THE NINETEEN-TWELVE CAMPAIGN ENDED PUBLIC LIFE FOR THEODORE ROOSEVELT. SOON AFTER THE ELECTION, A FRIEND VISITED ROOSEVELT AND TALKED OF POSSIBLE VICTORY IN NINETEEN-SIXTEEN. "I THOUGHT YOU WERE A BETTER POLITICIAN," ROOSEVELT SAID. "THE FIGHT IS OVER. WE ARE BEATEN. THERE IS ONLY ONE THING TO DO. THAT IS TO GO BACK TO THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. YOU CANNOT HOLD A PARTY LIKE THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY TOGETHER. THERE ARE NO LOAVES AND FISHES. . .NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT." VOICE TWO: WAR WAS SOON TO BREAK OUT IN EUROPE. THE UNITED STATES WOULD ENTER THE STRUGGLE IN NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN. AS ALWAYS, ROOSEVELT WAS READY TO JOIN IN A FIGHT. HE ASKED FOR PERMISSION TO ORGANIZE AN AMERICAN FORCE AND LEAD IT INTO BATTLE IN FRANCE. PRESIDENT WILSON, HOWEVER, TURNED DOWN THE REQUEST. ROOSEVELT WAS SURE THAT IT WAS A POLITICAL DECISION. HE NEVER FORGAVE WILSON FOR KEEPING HIM OUT OF THE WAR. ALTHOUGH ROOSEVELT HIMSELF COULD NOT FIGHT, FOUR OF HIS SONS WENT INTO BATTLE. ONE -- HIS YOUNGEST SON QUENTIN -- DID NOT RETURN. WHEN HE RECEIVED NEWS OF HIS SON'S DEATH, ROOSEVELT WROTE THESE WORDS TO HONOR HIM: VOICE ONE: "ONLY THOSE ARE FIT TO LIVE WHO DO NOT FEAR TO DIE. AND NONE ARE FIT TO DIE WHO HAVE SHRUNK FROM THE JOY OF LIFE. BOTH LIFE AND DEATH ARE PARTS OF THE SAME GREAT ADVENTURE. ALL OF US WHO GIVE SERVICE AND STAND READY FOR SACRIFICE ARE TORCH BEARERS. WE RUN WITH THE TORCHES UNTIL WE FALL, SATISFIED IF WE CAN THEN PASS THEM TO THE HANDS OF OTHER RUNNERS. "THE TORCHES WHOSE FLAME IS BRIGHTEST ARE CARRIED BY THE BRAVE MEN ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND BY THE BRAVE WOMEN WHOSE HUSBANDS, LOVERS, SONS, AND BROTHERS STRUGGLE THERE. THESE ARE THE TORCH BEARERS. THESE ARE THEY WHO HAVE DARED THE GREAT ADVENTURE." VOICE TWO: ROOSEVELT'S OWN GREAT ADVENTURE WAS ITSELF COMING TO AN END. HE SUFFERED FROM PAINFUL ATTACKS OF INFLAMMATORY RHEUMATISM AND FROM A SERIOUS EAR INFECTION. HE HAD DIFFICULTY IN HEARING AND COULD NOT WALK. BUT THE OLD MAN WAS STILL CHEERFUL. HE SPENT HIS SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY IN THE HOSPITAL. AND TO HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS, HE SAID: "I AM AHEAD OF THE GAME. NOBODY EVER PACKED MORE KINDS OF FUN AND INTEREST INTO SIXTY YEARS." DEATH CAME TO ROOSEVELT AS HE SLEPT ON THE NIGHT OF JANUARY SIXTH, NINETEEN-NINETEEN. SAID VICE PRESIDENT THOMAS MARSHALL: "DEATH HAD TO TAKE HIM SLEEPING. FOR IF ROOSEVELT HAD BEEN AWAKE, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A FIGHT." (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM THE MAKING OF A NATION. YOUR NARRATORS WERE MAURICE JOYCE AND LEO SCULLY. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 22, 2001: Meridian International Center
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C. It is an organization that works to increase understanding among people from different cultures. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Imagine what you would do if you traveled to the United States, but immediately became lost after arriving. Instead of flying to Washington State on the west coast, you accidentally arrived in Washington, D.C. on the east coast. This recently happened to a Greek woman and her two children. However, the Meridian International Center was able to help. Meridian runs an information center at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. The family arrived there and recognized the mistake. A Meridian worker came to the rescue. He called another Meridian employee, Hassan Rateb, who spoke Greek. Mister Rateb was able to reach members of the family living in Washington State. He then made plans for the visitors to fly there the next day. The Meridian Center also helped the family find a room at a local hotel. The center even sent a representative to help the family get on the correct plane the following day. This kind of work is just one example of what Meridian International Center does for foreigners in the United States. VOICE TWO: Meridian International Center was established in Nineteen-Sixty. Since that time, it has become a leading organization in the area of cultural understanding. Its purpose is to increase international understanding through the exchange of people, ideas and the arts. Meridian Center serves as a door to the United States for visitors from other countries. Its programs and special training services provide foreigners with knowledge about life in this country. In addition, the Meridian Center supports educational programs for Americans who are interested in world issues. One of the more popular programs operated by Meridian is an exchange between professional workers. This program brings people together from all over the world. International visitors working in government, business or education can meet Americans who do similar work to exchange ideas and information. These meetings help professionals expand their knowledge and develop lasting relationships. Each year, more than two-thousand international professionals take part in the exchange program of Meridian International Center. VOICE ONE: The center also offers cultural training for Americans preparing to work in another country. It teaches them the customs and traditions of the country. Foreigners coming to the United States to work or study can receive help in understanding American culture. Meridian also runs an educational program designed to improve cultural understanding in Washington-area schools. This program is called “International Classroom.” Representatives from foreign countries discuss information about their native lands with students. Often, the representatives bring things from their home country to the schools to show the children. They usually wear traditional clothes. Earlier this year, Germany’s B-M-W Group honored Meridian’s International Classroom program with an award. The German car-maker also gave Meridian a financial gift to be used for more teaching about foreign cultures in schools. VOICE TWO: Meridian International Center also supports art programs and international art shows. The center works with museums and cultural organizations around the world to present foreign art in America. Many of the shows travel to museums around the United States after opening in Washington. The program helps build understanding and support for international art in the United States. The Meridian Center also sends American art to foreign countries for people to enjoy. Music, dance, literature readings, and other cultural events are also supported by the center. Karen Jacob is the Communications Director for Meridian. She says the cultural programs run by the center are very popular. The public, she says, can learn a lot about a foreign culture through art. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Earlier this year, the wives of South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak spoke at the Meridian Center. They were in the United States for official visits with their husbands. Missus Lee Hee’ho of South Korea discussed her family’s efforts to support democracy in Korea. Missus Suzanne Mubarak discussed the position of women in Egypt. Both women spoke as part of Meridian’s Professional Women’s Series. The center also recently supported an international committee that was investigating violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Former Senator George Mitchell led the committee. The international committee proposed measures to reach peace in the Middle East. Meridian Center worked with the committee in Washington, New York and Jerusalem. VOICE TWO: The center also recently organized a series of training programs to improve humanitarian aid to Iraqi refugees. Exiled people from northern and southern Iraq took part in the training. They represented non-governmental organizations working to help the refugees. In April, Meridian opened an important show of Iranian art. The show includes eighty-eight modern paintings by fifty-four Iranian artists. It was organized with the help of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. The show is the first major cultural exchange of its kind in many years. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Meridian International Center uses two interesting houses as its headquarters in Washington … Meridian House and the White-Meyer House. John Russell Pope designed both buildings. Mister Pope was a famous American architect. In addition to Meridian House, he designed the Jefferson Memorial, the National Gallery, and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Meridian House and the White-Meyer House are on a national list of historical places. An iron fence, trees and beautiful plants surround the center for privacy. VOICE TWO: Ambassador Irwin Boyle Laughlin had Meridian House built in the early Twentieth Century. He purchased the land in Nineteen-Twelve, but delayed building the house until his retirement in Nineteen-Twenty. The building is filled with art collected by Ambassador Laughlin during his service as an American diplomat. The ninety-year-old house still has the electric lift system, or elevator, put in when the building was first built. People who work at the center say the Laughlins had to run a wire from the city’s street car system to power the elevator. VOICE ONE: The Laughlins’ daughter, Gertrude, lived at the Meridian House while growing up. The house became hers when they died. In Nineteen-Sixty, she sold the house to a private group that worked to improve international understanding. The group later became Meridian International Center. Today, financial support for the center comes from public groups, businesses and gifts from individuals. VOICE TWO: The White-Meyer house is just next to the Meridian building. American diplomat Henry White had the house built in Nineteen-Twelve. Mister White was a good friend of Mister Laughlin. The two diplomats had planned to buy property next to each other. When Henry White died in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, the house became his son’s. Several years later, the owner of the Washington Post Newspaper, Eugene Meyer, purchased the home. The White-Meyer home became part of Meridian International Center in Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. VOICE ONE: A garden with trees and flowers surrounds both homes. There is also an area filled with water and rocks behind the buildings. The rock garden has become a popular meeting place for young and old visitors from many countries. They have gathered there because they have found the Meridian International Center opens the door to understanding world cultures. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Keith Holems. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. (THEME) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – August 22, 2001: Cloning Mount Vernon’s Trees
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Tree experts have begun an effort to rebuild forests near the home of America’s first president, George Washington. Earlier this month, workers gathered buds from tall, old trees on the grounds of George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. It is in the state of Virginia, near Washington, D-C. The experts hope to produce genetic copies, or clones, of the trees and plant them on the property. Tree experts David Milarch (MILL-ark) and his son, Jared, are leading the efforts. They gained experience in cloning old trees through the Champion Tree Project. They started the project to produce genetic copies of the largest trees in the United States. Over the next ten years, the project plans to provide Mount Vernon with one-thousand trees for planting in nearby wooded areas. During the past century, Mount Vernon has lost more than seventy trees that were planted when George Washington was alive. As a special project, David and Jared Milarch offered to make clones of the thirteen oldest trees at Mount Vernon. They are huge, beautiful trees. George Washington supervised the planting of these trees more than two-hundred years ago. The Milarch family plans to grow fifty copies of each tree in tree nurseries in Alabama and Oregon. They will return the trees to be planted at Mount Vernon in two years. Some copies of the trees will be sent to the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts for safe keeping. Grafting is the name of the process used to clone trees. It has been done for thousands of years. A method called the T-bud technique often is used to copy trees. Workers begin by cutting the bark, or covering, on the side of a young tree. The cut is made in the shape of a cross, or the letter T. Next, the workers find a bud, or small growth, on the tree to be copied. A small piece of wood under the bud is carefully removed from the tree. The bud is then put into the hole on the other tree. The bud is tightly tied in place and begins to grow. Mount Vernon officials say George Washington was interested in his tree collection. The officials add that he was a strong environmentalist. They say the old trees are important because they existed when America’s first president was alive. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 21, 2001: Utah’s Insect Invasion
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Mormon crickets and grasshoppers have invaded the American state of Utah. State officials say the attack this summer might be the worst since the Nineteen-Forties. The insects have already attacked eight-hundred-thousand hectares of Utah farmland. Officials blame the Mormon crickets and grasshoppers for more than twenty-five million dollars in crop damage. Utah Governor Mike Leavitt has declared an agricultural state of emergency. The state has asked for federal government assistance to control the problem. Large insects have been a problem in Utah since the first Mormon settlers arrived more than one-hundred-fifty years ago. The most famous incident was in the spring of Eighteen-Forty-Eight. The settlers are said to have pulled ropes across their wheat crops to force crickets off the plants. The crops were saved only when large numbers of birds began eating the insects. Today, many parts of Utah are still largely undeveloped. Experts say this creates a good environment for Mormon crickets and grasshoppers. The insects attack small grain plants, cornfields and other vegetable crops. The insects compete with farm animals for food. They can remove leaves and protective bark from young trees and even some older trees. This can kill the tree. Experts at Utah State University say that some female grasshoppers produce up to one-hundred eggs at a time. The insects leave their eggs in the soil during August, September and October. The experts say some chemical products such as Dursban, Malathion or Sevin are effective weapons against grasshoppers. They say the best time to spray the pesticides is in the spring and early summer, soon after the young insects are first observed. When the insects become adults, it is more difficult to kill them with liquid sprays. The experts say the removal of unwanted plants from open areas can help reduce the insect population. They also advise the plowing of open areas. Breaking up the soil forces the eggs out into the open. This causes the eggs to die. Also, extreme winter weather and cold can destroy the eggs. So many Utah farmers this year are hoping for a cold and early winter. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 17, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some music made famous on M-T-V ... answer a question about pensions ... and, tell about an unusual American, George Dawson. George Dawson HOST: George Dawson spent the first ninety-eight years of his life doing many different things. Yet he could not read or write. His life changed five years ago, when he decided to go back to school and learn to read and write. Since then, his story has been changing other lives, too. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: George Dawson was born in the state of Texas. He was the grandson of slaves. He began working on the family farm when he was four. When he was twelve, he worked on a nearby farm to help feed his parents and four younger brothers and sisters. For the next eighty-five years, he held a number of different jobs, most of them involving hard labor. As a young man, George Dawson traveled often, usually by stealing rides on trains. He visited Mexico. He went to Canada to see snow. George Dawson lived a happy life even though conditions were difficult. When he was ten years old, he saw a young African-American man murdered. He said his two biggest problems were racial unfairness in America and his inability to read and write. George Dawson kept it a secret that he could not read. But he said he always dreamed that he would learn. Although he had no education, he taught his children to work hard in school. George Dawson’s life changed in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. A man came to his house in Dallas, Texas, and told him that adult education classes were being taught at a nearby school. So the man who had signed his name with an “X” for almost one-hundred years went to school. People wondered why Mister Dawson did not go to school earlier. He said he never had the time because of his farm work. And he never knew about adult education programs. George Dawson’s efforts to learn to read influenced students of all ages. He spoke to young people about the importance of learning to read and write. Mister Dawson received many honors for his efforts. He appeared on television shows and received honorary awards from universities. Last year, a schoolteacher from Washington state helped him write a book about his life. The book is called “Life Is So Good.” George Dawson died last month at the age of one-hundred-three. He attended school every day until his death. Pensions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Japan. Teruko Hagiya asks about the pension system in the United States. A pension is the money that a worker or his or her family receives after a worker retires, is unable to work or dies. People have pension plans from working in private industry, in the armed forces or in government. People can also establish their own pension plans. Many of those who create their own plans work for themselves or for a company that does not provide a pension plan. Reports say most American workers have some kind of pension plan. Most pensions of people who worked for the government are paid for with money that came jointly from workers and their agencies. Most private pension plans are paid for by the employer. A federal government program called Social Security provides money to most American workers after they retire. Social Security is the largest retirement program in the United States. Workers pay into the program a percent of what they earn each month. Their employers do the same. Most self-employed people also pay into Social Security. These people then will receive money each month after they retire for as long as they live. The Social Security program was established in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. It was never meant to fully support someone who has no other money. Especially today, money received from Social Security is not enough to provide for most people’s needs. Many companies have their own retirement plans for their workers. Federal law requires companies to give pension rights to all people who have worked for the company for a set number of years. People can also establish individual pension plans through banks or insurance companies. They put in so much money each month, then receive payments after they reach about sixty-five years of age. Most Americans say they cannot live as they would like on money provided by only one pension plan. So they have more than one. For example, a man who retires after twenty years of military service receives pension money each month from the federal government. He may also collect money from the Social Security system, and from other private investments he has made. MTV Anniversary HOST: The television company M-T-V celebrated its twentieth anniversary earlier this month. It has become the biggest television network in the world. MTV is known for its short movies of the music of popular artists. Shirley Griffith tells us about the history of M-T-V and plays some of the music its videos have made famous. ANNCR: M-T-V broadcast its first music video on August first, Nineteen-Eighty-One. It was made by a group called the Buggles. The name of the song is “Video Killed the Radio Star.” (CUT ONE: VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR) Radio is still very much alive. But, M-T-V did grow to be as important as radio to the creators of popular music. M-T-V reaches almost three-hundred-fifty-million houses in one-hundred-forty countries around the world. It is broadcast in seventeen languages. This year, M-T-V will probably earn seven-hundred-million dollars just from selling broadcast time to companies that want to advertise their products. M-T-V played music videos twenty-four hours a day when it first began broadcasting. Later, it created shows like “Real World.” That show records the lives of young people as they live together in houses in different cities of the world. Television critics consider “Real World” the first reality television program. Some videos on M-T-V seem like Hollywood movies. In Nineteen-Eighty-Three, Michael Jackson created a fourteen-minute video that became extremely famous. Here is : “Thriller.” (CUT TWO: THRILLER) We leave you now with a song that will be recognized by M-T-V fans all over the world. It has become the unofficial song of M-T-V. It is Dire Straits singing “Money for Nothing.” (CUT THREE: MONEY FOR NOTHING) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – August 20, 2001: World Population
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT. A new study has found that the population of the world may stop growing sooner than expected. The world population now is more than six-thousand-million people. The new study estimates that the population could increase to about nine-thousand-million people during the next seventy years. The study also found there is an eighty-five percent chance that the world population will stop growing by the next century. It estimates the population could drop to eight-thousand-four-hundred-million by the year Twenty-One-Hundred. Researchers say the main reason is a decrease in fertility around the world. Nature magazine reported the findings. Research scientists with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria organized the study. The researchers say they developed a computer program that produced the population estimates. They say they used the latest information about birth and death rates, and the movement of people from one area to another. The new study found that most of the population growth this century will be in developing countries. For example, it found that the population in some parts of Africa is likely to increase one-hundred percent during the next twenty years. The researchers said such an increase is likely, even though the deadly disease AIDS has decreased the life expectancy in parts of Africa. The study noted that China and South Asia had about the same population size last year. But it estimates that China will have about seven-hundred-million fewer people than South Asia by the middle of the century. The study noted decreasing populations in eastern Europe and the European part of the former Soviet Union. It estimated that average populations there are likely to decrease during the next twenty years. The study also found an increase in the percentage of adults sixty years of age or older. Currently, older people are ten percent of the world population. They are expected to increase to about thirty-four percent of the population in the next one-hundred years. Experts say this may create problems. They say it will become very costly for developing countries to care for their older populations. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-4-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 17, 2001: Sea Turtle Recovery Plan
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Endangered turtles in the Indian Ocean and waters of Southeast Asia are about to receive some help. Countries in the area have agreed to a plan to save six important kinds of turtles. These species are at risk of disappearing because of the demand for their meat and their eggs. The nests where they lay their eggs are also being destroyed. And many sea turtles are caught accidentally in fishing operations. Delegates from twenty-one countries met recently in the Philippines as part of the Convention on Migratory Species. They agreed to establish programs designed to increase the number of sea turtles across the wide ocean area. The agreement is to take effect next month. The six species of turtles to be rescued in the project are the loggerhead, olive ridley, green, hawksbill, leatherback and flatback. Sea turtles have existed on Earth for millions of years. They are an important part of the ocean’s environmental system. The turtles help scientists understand the health of the environment in which they live. Most sea turtles live in warm waters. However, the leatherback turtle has been found in cold waters as far north as Nova Scotia, Canada. Sea turtles spend their life in the ocean. They return to the beach where they were hatched to lay their eggs. Some leatherback turtles can weigh more than almost five-hundred kilograms. Human activities have greatly reduced the number of sea turtles in the world. The new rescue plan is an important step in efforts to increase the sea turtle population. India, Pakistan and Iran are among the countries that have already begun major projects to save sea turtles. Long-term projects have also been established in Australia and South Africa. Many countries are also working with local and international wildlife groups. In Terengganu, Malaysia, a team of scientists has rescued more than two-hundred-fifty-thousand turtle eggs. Thousands of young turtles have hatched and returned to the ocean. Similar egg rescue plans are taking place in other parts of Malaysia led by the Malaysian Department of Fisheries and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The United States, Australia and the United Nations Environment Programme have agreed to support an organization to supervise the sea turtle rescue project. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-5-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - August 18, 2001: Stem Cell Research
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Last week, President Bush approved limited federal government support of research on special human cells. The research involves stem cells taken from fertilized human eggs called embryos. Many groups disagree with the President’s decision. Some religious groups believe that all research on stem cells from embryos should be banned. Yet, many scientists and some lawmakers believe no limits should be put on the research. Private laboratories that do not use federal money are not affected by the limits on the stem cell research. Stem cells have qualities that may make them highly useful in the treatment of many diseases. The stem cells from embryos are the most useful. They are able to develop into all the tissues of the body. Embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos created in laboratories to help women become pregnant. During the first days, the cells in the embryo divide quickly. Each of these cells is able to become any one of more than two-hundred different kinds of cells in the body. After about four days of development, the embryos are destroyed and the stem cells removed. Adult stem cells are taken from human tissue. These cells have not yet developed to become cells of an organ or a kind of tissue. Removing stem cells does not harm an adult. But adult stem cells are difficult to identify. And, scientists do not know if adult stem cells have the ability to become cells of any kind of organ or tissue. Research suggests that stem cells from embryos can help organs rebuild damaged tissue. Currently, adult stem cells, taken from bone tissue, are used to grow several kinds of blood and bone cells. However, researchers believe that embryonic stem cells could treat diseases of the brain, liver, kidneys and heart. Some experts say new tissue could be grown to replace damaged nerve, muscle and even brain cells. President Bush limited government financial support to sixty existing groups of cells already taken from embryos. These groups of stem cells are now reproducing by themselves in laboratories worldwide. This week, President Bush threatened to veto any bill that offers federal support for research on additional stem cells. Yet, some scientists say that it is impossible to know how many groups of stem cells from embryos will be needed to make discoveries that can save lives. A number of congressmen want expanded research to have full federal support. The religious groups that oppose stem cell research consider it the same as taking human life. Other religious groups accept the research because it could lead to cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes. A national debate continues over the scientific and moral issues involved in research on embryonic stem cells. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-6-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 19, 2001: Gunther Gebel-Williams
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Today, we tell about the famous circus performer, Gunther Gebel-Williams. He was known for his gentle ways of training wild animals. ((MUSIC: “THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH”)) VOICE ONE: The lights of the circus shone brightly on Gunther Gebel-Williams as he stood in the center ring. Big tigers surrounded him. He spoke quietly to the animals. Then he said a few more words to horses that waited in a line nearby. Thousands of people watched as the wild tigers climbed onto the horses’ backs to take a ride. It did not seem like anything that either a tiger or a horse would want to do. But they paraded under the shining lights. Some of the animals even looked pleased with themselves. The crowd under the circus tent in Boston, Massachusetts, shouted its approval. Mister Gebel-Williams gave the tigers little pieces of meat and offered other food to the horses. “Thank you,” he told them. VOICE TWO: Many people said the world had lost its greatest animal trainer when Mister Gebel-Williams died. He was sixty-six years old when he died of brain cancer in July of Two-Thousand-One. Gunther Gebel-Williams and his animals traveled across the United States with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for more than twenty years. He was the most famous circus performer in the nation. Gunther Gebel-Williams started working with animals as a child in Germany. He became famous as a circus performer and animal trainer in Europe. Mister Gebel-Williams came to the United States in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. He became an American citizen in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. VOICE ONE: Gunther Gebel-Williams was wounded sometimes by his animals. But he gave about twelve-thousand performances without missing a show for injury or sickness. He retired from performing in Nineteen-Ninety. At the time he was working with about thirty-eight horses, twenty-two tigers and twenty-one elephants. Four zebras, three camels and a llama or two also took part in his performances. After leaving the show he remained with the circus as a trainer, officer and part owner. Gunther Gebel-Williams never made a secret of how he got animals to do what he wanted. He said he built a special world around them. In this world he was the father. The lions, tigers and other animals were his children. His methods changed the way Americans train and treat performing animals. ((TAPE CUT ONE: CIRCUS NOISE: LIONS ROARING, ELEPHANTS TRUMPETING )) VOICE TWO: The future circus star had a difficult childhood. Gunther Gebel was born in the eastern German village of Schweidnitz on September Twelfth, Nineteen-Thirty-Four. Gunther’s father was a carpenter who built things out of wood. Later he became a technical director for a theater company. The father’s Socialist beliefs got him into trouble with Germany’s Nazi government during the war. The Army sent him to Russia. He and thousands of other German soldiers who were captured there were never heard from again. VOICE ONE: During the final months of the war, Gunther, his mother and sister fled from their home in eastern Germany west to Cologne. Germany had lost the war, and the victorious Russians were moving in to take control. After the fighting ended Missus Gebel found work with Circus Williams. A well known horse trainer, Harry Williams, owned it. Missus Gebel made and repaired clothes for this circus. She also got Gunther a job at the circus. He was about twelve or thirteen years old at the time. The boy had been in school for only a few years. After a short time Missus Gebel left the circus. She left Gunther there. Gunther said later that he felt his mother gave him away. Harry Williams, however, was very glad to have the boy working for him. He immediately recognized that Gunther had unusual natural ability with animals. VOICE TWO: Mister Williams began helping Gunther develop an act in which the boy did tricks while riding horses. Before long Gunther was getting all kinds of animals to do what he wanted. He especially loved the tigers. He praised their beauty, wildness and intelligence. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, Harry Williams died after an accident in the circus. Harry’s wife asked Gunther to help her operate the circus. She also urged him to become a star performer. Gunther was seventeen years old at the time. He began his new responsibilities by adding the Williams family name to his own name. Gunther Gebel became Gunther Gebel-Williams. He wanted to demonstrate that Harry Williams and his circus had been a family to him. In Nineteen-Sixty, Mister Gebel-Williams married one of the Williams daughters. ((MUSIC BRIDGE: CIRCUS MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Gunther Gebel-Williams and his big tigers, elephants and other animals became famous all over Europe. He won three major awards for his performances. In Nineteen-Sixty-Eight, an owner of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in the United States bought Circus Williams. The owner, Irvin Feld, did this mainly to get Gunther Gebel-Williams as a performer. Mister Gebel-Williams was an immediate success in the United States as he travelled with the circus. His leopards jumped through circles held by tigers in their teeth. His elephants walked calmly and carefully down busy streets. People in cities across the country praised his bravery in his acts with the animals. His performances were different from anything that had been seen in circuses before. VOICE TWO: For many years Clyde Beatty had been the most famous animal trainer in the United States. Mister Beatty was an American circus performer known for his “fighting act.” In this act he controlled forty lions and tigers. Mister Beatty also performed with dangerous mixes of tigers, lions, leopards, pumas, hyenas and bears. His act demonstrated how fierce the animals really were. He used chairs and whips to get the animals to obey his commands. Sometimes he even used guns. Mister Gebel-Williams had high praise for Clyde Beatty’s bravery and skill. But Mister Gebel-Williams made his own animals perform by being friendly to them. He said he wanted to work with happy animals. He did not believe in making them fear him. VOICE ONE: Training by Gunther Gebel-Williams began and ended with kindness. He never had an animal operated on to make it safer for him. All his big cats kept their hard, sharp claws on their feet. He spoke to animals in the same soft voice each time he worked with them. When they performed well he gave them special foods. When they failed to obey he expressed mild displeasure. He never used chairs or whips or guns. One of the most unusual things about Mister Gebel-Williams was the way he got animals to perform well together. For example, elephants and horses naturally fear tigers. He would take as long as two years to get the elephants and horses to let tigers ride on them. Traditional enemies like leopards and zebras also performed together in his acts. VOICE TWO: Mister Gebel-Williams especially liked working with a panther named Kenny. This big cat weighed more than thirty-four kilograms. Kenny enjoyed sitting on the neck and shoulders of his trainer. People liked to say the animal was probably thinking great thoughts as he rested on Mister Gebel-Williams. But Gunther Gebel-Williams never forgot the danger involved in his work. He could not have forgotten it if he wanted to. From time to time an animal would become wild for no apparent reason. Mister Gebel-Williams’ face was covered with old healed wounds that sometimes made it difficult for him to talk. VOICE ONE: Even when animals attacked, Gunther Gebel-Williams did not become angry. After Kenny died, Mister Gebel-Williams was performing one day with a panther named Zorro. Zorro weighed two times as much as Kenny. Suddenly Zorro started making a threatening noise. Then he bit his trainer deeply in the neck. But Mister Gebel-Williams would not go to the hospital until he calmed the animal and got it back in its cage. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The marriage of Mister Gebel-Williams and his first wife ended. His second wife, Sigrid Neubauer, became a circus performer. They had been married thirty-three years when Mister Gebel-Williams died. They raised a daughter and a son. The son, Mark Oliver, now serves as a star trainer of tigers with a Ringling circus company. Friends say Mister Gebel-Williams was a loving husband and father. Yet they add that his deepest relationships probably were with his animals. He called animals dependable and honest although he sometimes suffered from their attacks. Gunther Gebel-Williams once said he liked animals more than most human beings. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-7-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 21, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about how doctors re-attached the arm of a boy after a shark attack. We tell about ancient cave drawings in France. We tell about a product to treat wood. And we tell about a new project to fight malaria. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last month, doctors at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, re-attached the right arm of an eight-year-old boy named Jessie Arbogast. A bull shark attacked Jessie and bit off his arm as he played in the ocean at the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Florida. The shark was more than two meters long and weighed about ninety kilograms. The sharp teeth of the shark made a clean cut in Jessie’s arm between the elbow and the shoulder. This made it easier for doctors to re-attach the arm. Doctors say the re-attached arm probably will not be fully normal. But it will be able to move. VOICE TWO: During the operation doctors treated the wound. They also slightly shortened the arm. This permitted them to place a device to hold the arm where it belongs. The doctors lined up the muscles, blood vessels and nerves in the arm with those in Jessie’s body. They reconnected the muscles that permit the arm to move. The doctors repaired nerves, arteries and veins. And, they placed metal screws to hold the arm in place. The blood in the arm began to flow again. Finally, the doctors repaired Jessie’s skin. VOICE ONE: Jessie was playing in the water near the shore late in the day when the shark bit him. A family member seized the shark and pulled it out of the water. A park service officer shot the shark. Rescuers recovered the arm and sent it to the hospital. Jesse also suffered a severe bite on one leg, kidney damage and intestinal bleeding. The shark attack had caused him to lose almost all his blood and stop breathing. Family members and other people worked for twenty minutes to re-start his breathing before a helicopter flew him to the hospital. Doctors say Jessie’s general condition has improved. For a while, the boy was completely unable to react to his surroundings. In late July he began reacting to changes in sound and light. He returned home earlier this month. VOICE TWO: Jessie is one of about seventy people bitten by sharks in the United States and Puerto Rico in the past year. Last year, there were thirty-four such attacks in Florida. Experts say the bull shark is the most aggressive and fearless of all sharks. The bull shark searches for food close to shore. Experts believe it attacks people when it mistakes them for fish. This often happens when it begins to get dark. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Experts say drawings found in caves in western France may have been made thirty-thousand years ago. The Cussac cave art has been called a major discovery. A man exploring the caves in the village of Cussac found the ancient drawings by accident last September. French officials did not make the news public until last month. The Cussac cave drawings are of animals such as bison, horses, rhinoceroses and birds. The drawings also show people and include sexual pictures. The drawings were cut into the rock walls of the caves. French ministry officials say these caves are special because the art is still in very good condition. And the drawings have a lot of details. VOICE TWO: Dany Barraud works for the cultural agency of the French government. He told reporters that more than one-hundred drawings have been found so far in the Cussac caves. Officials think there are many more pictures. The ones found cover a cave nine-hundred meters long, about fifteen meters wide and more than ten meters high. One drawing of a bison is four meters long. It is the largest single prehistoric drawing cut in stone that has been discovered. Another picture includes forty animals. VOICE ONE: Experts are testing the drawings to find out their exact age. But they do not consider them to be the oldest drawings cut in stone that have been found. Drawings as old as thirty-four-thousand years were discovered in a cave in the Ardeche area of France in Nineteen-Ninety-Four. However, scientists believe the Cussac discoveries are older than the well-known cave paintings of Lascaux, also in western France. Researchers believe the Lascaux paintings are eighteen-thousand years old. VOICE TWO: Another difference with this discovery is that human remains were found with the cave art. Seven burial places with human bones were found in the Cussac caves. Scientists are testing the human remains to find out their age. It is not known if the art is the same age as the remains. Mister Barraud says the caves will not be open to the public. He says the cave floors are made of weak clay and the limestone walls break easily. Temperature changes would destroy the ancient art. However, the French scientist says a copy of the drawings may be made in a nearby cave for visitors to see. An expert of prehistoric rock art, Jean Clottes, says the Cussac drawings are special and different from any others. This art teaches us about the people who lived long before history was recorded. They too, like us, found value in art. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: American officials have approved a plan to inform people about a chemical mixture added to some wood products that are used outdoors. The government will require that wood treated with chromated copper arsenate carry warning signs. Chromated copper arsenate is a chemical mixture approved for protecting wood. It protects wood from insects, bacteria and other organisms that can cause damage. Treated wood lasts at least five times longer than untreated wood. In the United States, the chemical mixture is most commonly added to wood used in playground equipment for children. It also is found in wood structures added to houses, fences and outdoor tables. VOICE TWO: Chromated copper arsenate is a product of the chemicals arsenic, chromium and copper. Arsenic is a substance found in nature and produced by industry. It is known to cause cancer in humans. During the Nineteen-Eighties, the Environmental Protection Agency studied the use of the chemicals to treat wood. At the time, E-P-A officials ruled that wood treated with the chemicals did not cause unreasonable risks to most people. However, they were concerned about the health effects on people who work daily with such products. The agency later required protective measures for workers who treated the wood. It also ordered restrictions on the use of treated wood. Recently, E-P-A officials asked the wood protection industry to strengthen the program to inform Americans about the dangers of the chemicals. The American Wood Preservers Institute developed the new plan. The program also will tell the public about safe ways to use the treated wood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland has received one-hundred-million dollars to develop new medicines to prevent and treat the disease malaria. The identity of the person who gave the money to Johns Hopkins is a secret. The money will establish the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute. Alfred Sommer heads the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the university. Doctor Sommer says many experts in medicine, genetics and human populations will be working at the new Malaria Institute.There will be at least one-hundred people involved in the project. VOICE TWO: Mosquito insects spread malaria to people by biting them. The disease attacks the liver and destroys red blood cells. The World Health Organization says the disease infects as many as five-hundred-million people every year. It kills more than one-million people each year. The W-H-O says most cases are in developing countries in very warm areas of the world. Doctor Sommer says he does not expect the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute to completely end the disease in the next ten years. But he says the goal is to develop a vaccine or drug to prevent or treat the disease. He says this would be a huge step forward in the struggle against malaria. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Doreen Baingana, George Grow and Jill Moss. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-8-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 20, 2001: Yard Sales and Flea Markets
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Every weekend, many Americans drive around looking for things to buy. They are taking part in an unusual kind of outdoor treasure hunt. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Rich Kleinfeldt A report about yard sales and flea markets is our story today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: “Everybody loves a bargain” is a well-known saying. A bargain is a good deal. It is something you get for less than its value. One person's useless, ugly, or broken object can be another person's bargain. That is why so many Americans do not throw things away. They put them outside their house. They put on a “For Sale” sign. And, as simple as that, they have a yard sale. In some parts of the country, such a sale might be called a garage sale or a moving sale. Whatever the name, the activity is the same. People sell things they no longer want. VOICE TWO: Over the years, many people's houses fill up with objects: Books no one wants to read any more. Baby clothes for the child who is now a university student. These objects are no longer useful to the first owner. Yet it seems wasteful to throw them away. Often, people must make a decision about things when they move to a different house. “Let's have a yard sale,” they say. “Then we will not have to move the things we do not use anymore. And we can make a little money at the same time.” VOICE ONE: The sellers put a paid announcement in a local newspaper. It tells when and where the yard sale will take place. It lists some of the things to be sold. These sales are very popular during weekends in spring, summer, and autumn. On one weekend, for example, you can find announcements for almost two-hundred yard sales around Washington, D-C. Early in the morning, all the things to be sold are carried out of the house. Then they sit all day in the sunlight -- like tired guests at a party -- waiting for someone to take them home. VOICE TWO: Just about anything can be sold at a yard sale. Sometimes, there are more clothes than anything else. Cooking equipment is also popular. So are old toys, tools, books, tables, and chairs. Then there are objects called “white elephants.” A white elephant is something you think is extremely ugly or useless. It may be an electric light shaped like a fish. You feel a sharp pain whenever you look at it. To someone else, however, it might be a thing of beauty and joy. Usually, the seller puts a price on each object at a yard sale. However, that price can almost always be negotiated. The price of a table, for example, might be marked “Ten Dollars.” But the seller probably will accept eight dollars. By the end of the day, if the table has not been sold, the seller probably will accept much less. VOICE TWO: Serious buyers also spend time getting ready for yard sales. They collect the newspaper announcements. Then they make lists of the sales they want to attend. Some use maps to plan their trip. They want to get to as many sales as possible. A man who lives near the Middle Western city of Chicago filled his home almost completely with furniture and window coverings from yard sales. He said he was able to travel to Japan with the money he saved. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: New things in stores cost more than some people can pay. So, they are happy to find a painting, a warm coat, or a chair for ten or fifteen dollars. Perhaps they find dishes for twenty dollars that would cost one-hundred dollars in a store. Some professional dealers in old objects also go to yard sales. They may find a valuable object for a small amount of money. Then they will re-sell it in their own store. . .usually at a much higher price. Other people go because they enjoy the hunt. They like to find beautiful or unusual things that are being sold for less than their value. They may find a piece of old furniture, for example, that is worth a lot of money after it is repaired. VOICE ONE: Some people go to yard sales to find a special thing that they collect. It may be old toy trains, for example, or paintings of dogs. Experts say more Americans are collecting old things now than ever before. The most popular things to collect are small objects: old money, stamps, dolls, bottles, baseball cards, toys and advertising signs. Most people who go to yard sales, however, are not looking for anything special. They might buy an object simply because it costs so little. They enjoy negotiating over prices, even if they really do not need the object. Later, they may hold their own yard sale to sell all the things they have bought. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: A flea market is similar to a yard sale, only bigger. Flea markets get their name from small, wingless insects called fleas. Fleas jump on to animals or humans and hide in their hair. Some people say the expression “flea market” comes from the fear that fleas may be hiding in the old things you buy at such a market. Some flea markets are community events. Many families bring things to sell. The event may be held at a school or in a park. Some schools and churches hold flea markets once a year to earn money for special projects. Most flea markets, however, are held on weekends during spring, summer, and autumn. VOICE ONE: Professional dealers' flea markets are more organized than yard sales or community flea markets. Sellers usually must get a trader's license from the local government. They must collect tax on everything they sell. Some people get all their earnings by selling things at flea markets. Others have traditional jobs and earn a little extra money at flea markets. Some dealers at a flea market sell lots of different things. Others sell just one kind of thing. It may be glass objects or old farm equipment. Many professional flea markets sell only antiques. In America, things are considered antique if they are at least one-hundred years old. VOICE TWO: One of the largest flea markets in the world is held in the state of California. On the second Sunday of every month, buyers look at objects offered by more than two-thousand sellers. This huge event is the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It takes place in the famous sports center in Pasadena, California. In sunshine or during rain, sellers show all kinds of things: books, records, fishbowls, seashells, doghouses. Arts and crafts are offered at the Rose Bowl Arts and Crafts Outdoor Festival, in connection with the Rose Bowl Flea Market. The only objects not permitted for sale include food, animals, and guns. VOICE ONE: Another famous market is called “The World’s Longest Outdoor Sale.” This event is held each year along a road that runs through the southern states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. The sale is seven-hundred-twenty-five kilometers long. The twelfth yearly sale was held last Thursday through Sunday. More than two-thousand people lined up to sell things. They included antiques, art, farm tools, home-made food, even cats and dogs. Thousands of people stopped their cars and looked over the goods at “The World’s Longest Outdoor Sale.” ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: To some people, flea markets and yard sales are a sign that Americans are too concerned with material possessions. They ask: Why do people spend so much time buying things they probably do not need? Is it some basic human desire to trade or to get something for almost nothing? Some people have a strong desire to collect old objects such as toys or dolls. Perhaps they may be trying to recapture the happy times when they were children. VOICE ONE: To other people, yard sales are simply a way to have fun. In some communities, ten or twenty families may have a yard sale on the same weekend. These are important social gatherings. A busy working mother in Cleveland said she would never have met so many people who live near her without yard sales. Other people say yard sales help the environment. Old things are re-used instead of being thrown away. In any case, experts say buying and collecting objects at yard sales and flea markets are more popular than ever in America. Hunting for unusual items is a sport for some people. For others, it is a way of life. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Rich Kleinfeldt. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-9-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – August 23, 2001: Dinosaur Noses
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. An American scientist has found that many images of dinosaurs may be wrong. For years, pictures of the ancient creatures have shown their nose openings near the top of the head. The new study suggests the dinosaurs’ nostrils were just above the mouth. Dinosaurs used their nostrils to breathe, smell and control their body temperature. The new theory could help explain how the huge creatures were able to survive by using their sense of smell to find food, a mate and possible enemies. Lawrence Witmer of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio led the study. The publication Science reported his findings. Many of the early dinosaur remains recovered by scientists were from huge creatures called sauropods. Scientists believed that sauropods must have lived in water because their bodies were so huge and their necks were so long. Nostrils high on the head would have permitted the dinosaurs to breathe while partly under water. The discovery of a sauropod head bone in Eighteen-Eighty-Four added support for this belief. The skull had a large hole at the top of the head. Professor Witmer says experts learned years later that sauropods generally were not sea creatures. But he says the earlier theory about nostril position was extended to other dinosaurs. Only dinosaur bones have survived as fossil remains. Scientists have never recovered dinosaur remains of soft tissue. Scientists interested in the physical appearance of dinosaurs often study birds and animals similar to the ancient creatures. Professor Witmer examined forty-five kinds of birds, crocodiles and lizards that are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs. He noted the placement of soft tissue through hundreds of x-ray images and by cutting pieces of tissue. Soft tissue leaves markings on bone. Professor Witmer used this information to make a map of the likely position of soft tissue in the dinosaurs’ noses. He found that the birds and reptiles he studied share a common nostril position. Professor Witmer found that the hole scientists once thought was a nostril in dinosaurs is just one part of the larger nasal passage. He found that the nostrils were farther forward and closer to the mouth. He says this new nostril position was true for all dinosaurs. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-22-10-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 23, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) A NEW LEADER STOOD BEFORE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ON MARCH FOURTH, NINETEEN-THIRTEEN. HE WAS WOODROW WILSON -- THE TWENTY-EIGHTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. WILSON BELONGED TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HE WAS A PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT. HE BELIEVED GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE AN ACTIVE PART IN EFFORTS FOR SOCIAL REFORMS. I'M HARRY MONROE. TODAY, KAY GALLANT AND I BEGIN THE STORY OF WILSON'S ADMINISTRATION. VOICE TWO: WOODROW WILSON HAD SPENT MOST OF HIS LIFE AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. FIRST HE WAS A PROFESSOR. THEN HE WAS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT. NEXT, WILSON WAS ELECTED GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY. HIS EARLY SUCCESS AS GOVERNOR MADE HIM A LEADING CANDIDATE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION IN NINETEEN-TWELVE. WILSON TRAVELED WIDELY AROUND THE COUNTRY DURING THE CAMPAIGN. HE MADE SPEECHES TO MANY GROUPS. HE TRIED TO MAKE HIMSELF AND HIS IDEAS KNOWN TO AS MANY AMERICANS AS POSSIBLE. VOICE ONE: WILSON CALLED HIS PROGRAM "THE NEW FREEDOM." ONE OF HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES WAS TO FIGHT FOR BETTER CONDITIONS FOR AMERICA'S SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS. SUCH PROPOSALS HELPED HIM WIN THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT. THEN HE DEFEATED PRESIDENT WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT AND FORMER PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN THE ELECTION. WOODROW WILSON, THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF A UNIVERSITY, HAD BECOME THE PRESIDENT OF A NATION. THE LARGEST CROWD IN WASHINGTON, D-C'S HISTORY WELCOMED WILSON OUTSIDE THE CAPITOL BUILDING ON THE DAY OF HIS INAUGURATION. HE CALLED ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO JOIN HIM IN MAKING THE COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE. "OUR DUTY," WILSON SAID, "IS TO CORRECT THE EVIL WITHOUT HURTING THE GOOD. I CALL ALL HONEST MEN, ALL PATRIOTIC, ALL FORWARD-LOOKING MEN TO MY SIDE." VOICE TWO: WILSON WASTED NO TIME. HE IMMEDIATELY CALLED A SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS TO ACT ON DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN PROMISES TO REDUCE IMPORT TAXES, OR TARIFFS. WILSON FELT STRONGLY ABOUT THE NEED TO REFORM THESE TAXES. HE BROKE TRADITION BY LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE TO APPEAR BEFORE CONGRESS, IN PERSON, TO APPEAL FOR HIS TARIFF PROPOSALS. MANY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OPPOSED WILSON'S PLANS. BUT THE NEW PRESIDENT USED THE RESULTS OF A SENATE INVESTIGATION TO WIN THE FIGHT. THE INVESTIGATION SHOWED THAT A NUMBER OF SENATORS OWNED COMPANIES THAT DEPENDED ON HIGH TARIFFS FOR THEIR PROFITS. THE VOTES OF THESE SENATORS WERE INFLUENCED BY THEIR PROPERTY HOLDINGS. PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE SITUATION FORCED MANY OF THEM TO GIVE UP THEIR HOLDINGS AND STOP RESISTING TARIFF REFORM. CONGRESS FINALLY APPROVED WILSON'S PROPOSALS. VOICE ONE: LOWER TARIFFS REDUCED THE AMOUNT OF MONEY TAKEN IN BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. SO THE SENATE ALSO APPROVED A TAX ON INCOME, OR EARNINGS. A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT HAD BEEN PASSED EARLIER TO PERMIT SUCH A TAX. PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WERE PLEASED WITH THE NEW TARIFF AND INCOME TAX BILLS. BUT THEY WERE FAR FROM FINISHED. NEXT THEY TURNED THEIR EFFORTS TO REFORM OF THE BANKING INDUSTRY. FOR SEVERAL YEARS, MANY PEOPLE HAD RECOGNIZED THE NEED FOR CHANGES IN THE BANKING SYSTEM. THE OLD SYSTEM OF UNCONTROLLED PRIVATE BANKS HAD DEVELOPED YEARS EARLIER, BEFORE THE UNITED STATES BECAME A MAJOR INDUSTRIAL NATION. MANY PEOPLE AGREED THAT A MORE MODERN SYSTEM WAS NEEDED. BUT THEY COULD NOT AGREE ON DETAILS. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT WILSON SAID CONTROL OF THE NATION'S WEALTH WAS HELD BY TOO FEW MEN. HE NOTED A REPORT THAT SAID JUST TWO MEN CONTROLLED TEN PERCENT OF THE TOTAL WEALTH OF THE UNITED STATES. WILSON SAID THE NATION NEEDED A MONEY SUPPLY THAT COULD BE INCREASED OR REDUCED, WHEN NECESSARY, TO CORRECT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. HE SAID A METHOD WAS NEEDED TO LET BANKS HELP EACH OTHER DURING ECONOMIC EMERGENCIES. AND HE SAID LAWS WERE NEEDED TO PREVENT A FEW WEALTHY MEN FROM USING THE ECONOMIC RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY FOR THEIR OWN PURPOSES. FINALLY, WILSON SAID, "THE CONTROL OF THIS SYSTEM OF BANKING MUST BE PUBLIC, NOT PRIVATE. IT MUST BELONG TO THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF." VOICE ONE: WILSON CALLED HIS PROPOSAL FOR A CENTRAL BANK THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM. UNDER THE PLAN, THE NATION WOULD BE DIVIDED INTO TWELVE AREAS. EACH AREA WOULD HAVE ITS OWN FEDERAL RESERVE BANK. THESE AREA BANKS WOULD NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THE PUBLIC. THEY WOULD SERVE ONLY AS "BANKERS' BANKS." AND THEY WOULD ISSUE A NEW FORM OF MONEY SUPPORTED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. MOST IMPORTANT, THE LEADERS OF THE NEW SYSTEM WOULD BE CHOSEN BY THE GOVERNMENT. . .NOT BY PRIVATE BUSINESS. VOICE TWO: BANKERS, BUSINESS LEADERS, AND THEIR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS SHARPLY CRITICIZED PRESIDENT WILSON'S PROPOSALS. THEY SAID GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE BANKING SYSTEM WAS SOCIALISM, NOT CAPITALISM. BUT WILSON REFUSED TO CHANGE HIS PROPOSALS. AND HE HELPED TO LEAD THE FIGHT TO MAKE THEM LAW. FINALLY, CONGRESS AGREED. IT DID NOT TAKE LONG FOR BANKERS TO DISCOVER THAT THE NEW SYSTEM WAS MUCH BETTER THAN THE OLD ONE. TODAY, THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. VOICE ONE: FOR WOODROW WILSON, THE FIGHT OVER THE BANKING SYSTEM WAS YET ANOTHER POLITICAL SUCCESS. HE HAD WON MAJOR REFORMS IN THE NATION'S TARIFFS, TAXES, AND BANKING SYSTEMS. NOW HE TOLD CONGRESS THAT NEW LEGISLATION WAS NEEDED TO CONTROL THE POWER OF MONOPOLIES AND TRUSTS. THESE WERE THE GIANT COMPANIES AND BUSINESS ALLIANCES THAT CONTROLLED COMPLETE INDUSTRIES. WILSON PROPOSED A NEW ANTI-TRUST LAW TO CONTROL THE ACTIONS OF LARGE COMPANIES. HIS SUPPORTERS IN CONGRESS WROTE A BILL THAT LISTED A NUMBER OF BUSINESS ACTIVITIES THAT NO LONGER WOULD BE PERMITTED. FOR EXAMPLE, NO LONGER COULD A COMPANY SET PRICES THAT WOULD REDUCE COMPETITION OR CREATE A MONOPOLY. NO LONGER COULD CORPORATIONS BUY STOCKS OF COMPETING COMPANIES. NO LONGER COULD THEY DEMAND THAT A STORE REFUSE TO SELL COMPETING PRODUCTS. THE NEW BILL ALSO PROTECTED LABOR UNIONS FROM BEING CHARGED WITH ANTI-TRUST VIOLATIONS. IT GAVE UNIONS MORE POWER TO ORGANIZE AND PROTECT WORKERS. VOICE TWO: AT PRESIDENT WILSON'S REQUEST, CONGRESS ALSO PREPARED A LAW THAT SET UP A GOVERNMENT AGENCY CALLED THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. THE COMMISSION WAS GIVEN THE JOB OF INVESTIGATING WRONG-DOING IN BUSINESS. IT HAD THE POWER TO FORCE COMPANIES TO OBEY THE NEW ANTI-TRUST LAWS AND OTHER RULES. BOTH THE ANTI-TRUST LAW AND THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION HELPED PROTECT SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS FROM THE POWER OF BUSINESS GIANTS. ONCE AGAIN, THE PROPOSALS CAUSED FIERCE DEBATE. BUT, ONCE AGAIN, CONGRESS FINALLY VOTED TO GIVE WILSON MOST OF WHAT HE WANTED. VOICE ONE: THE EARLY MONTHS OF WILSON'S TERM WERE ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TIMES IN THE HISTORY OF ANY PRESIDENT. THE NEW PRESIDENT HAD WON THE ELECTION BY PROMISING MAJOR REFORMS IN THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF THE COUNTRY. AND HE HAD KEPT THAT PROMISE. THE REFORMS WERE NOT ONLY A VICTORY FOR WOODROW WILSON. THEY ALSO CHANGED THE FACE OF AMERICAN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS FOR MANY YEARS TO COME. THE INCOME TAX, FOR EXAMPLE, GREW TO BECOME THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S MAIN SOURCE OF MONEY. VOICE TWO: WOODROW WILSON HAD TAUGHT HISTORY IN THE DAYS WHEN HE WAS A PROFESSOR AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. HE KNEW HIS ACTIONS AS PRESIDENT COULD INFLUENCE THE COUNTRY FOR A LONG TIME. BUT, AS A HISTORIAN, HE ALSO KNEW HIS OWN TERM IN THE WHITE HOUSE COULD BE CHANGED BY UNEXPECTED EVENTS. THAT IS JUST WHAT HAPPENED. WILSON CAMPAIGNED FOR PRESIDENT MAINLY ON NATIONAL ISSUES. BUT HE SOON WAS FORCED TO SPEND MORE AND MORE TIME ON INTERNATIONAL ISSUES. HIS FIRST BIG PROBLEM WAS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES' SOUTHERN BORDER. . .IN MEXICO. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE HARRY MONROE AND KAY GALLANT. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. THE VOICE OF AMERICA INVITES YOU TO LISTEN AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME TIME, WHEN WE WILL CONTINUE THE STORY OF PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 24, 2001: Early Plant Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. American scientists say the first plants may have appeared on Earth hundreds of millions of years earlier than fossil records suggest. They say this could have had a major effect on the climate and development of life on Earth. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University studied genetic evidence from the modern-day plants that developed from early plants. The evidence suggests that organisms called fungi first appeared on land more than one-thousand-million years ago. It shows that plants first appeared on land about seven-hundred-million years ago. Land plants and fungi are believed to have developed from sea plants called algae. Until now, scientists had believed plants and fungi first appeared on land about five-hundred-million years ago. That estimate was based on the oldest-known fossils. The new theory has led researchers to believe that the presence of plants may have led to the early development of animal life. They say plants may have changed the Earth’s climate and caused a cooling period when the Earth was covered with ice. That was followed by the appearance of animal life about five-hundred-million years ago. This event is called the Cambrian Explosion. Plants produce oxygen, which animals need to survive. They also lower the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide traps heat from the sun in the atmosphere and causes the Earth to warm. Researchers say plants could have increased oxygen and lowered carbon dioxide enough for animals to grow larger and develop into different species. Some scientists have believed that plants and fungi could have appeared much earlier than first thought. But they had no record of this because fossils of early plants have not been discovered. Scientists believe that plant tissues were too soft to be protected as fossils in rock. Researchers made the new finding by studying the genes of living kinds of fungi, plants and animals. They studied the rate of change in the genes of species during the passage of time. Genes change at a similar rate when a new species develops. The scientists matched this “genetic clock” with evolutionary events whose dates have been proven in the fossil record. This helped them estimate how long ago a species developed. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 24, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Bob Cohen. On our program today: We will announce the names of the winners in our listener survey ... play some music by Eden’s Crush ... answer a question about place names ... and, tell about the world’s highest flying airplane. Helios Aircraft HOST: If you wanted to fly to the very edge of space, how would you do it? Once you got there, how long do you think you could stay? An aircraft powered by the sun might be able to stay near the edge of space for several days or maybe several months. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: On August Thirteenth, an unusual looking aircraft of Project Helios set a new record during a test flight above the American state of Hawaii. It flew higher than any other aircraft in the world. It reached an altitude of twenty-nine-thousand-four-hundred-thirteen meters. The Helios aircraft is an American space agency support project built by the Aerovironment Company of Monrovia, California. It has no pilot. It is controlled from the ground by radio. It looks like a huge wing without a tail. The wing is a little more than seventy-five meters long. That is longer than the wings on most large passenger airplanes. Fourteen electric motors turn fourteen propellers. The motors are powered by sixty-six-thousand solar cells that make electricity from sunlight. NASA research scientists say this huge flying wing will have many uses in the future. They hope that a future Helios aircraft will be able to fly at extreme altitudes for several weeks or months. These aircraft could serve several purposes. These might include new and advanced methods of telling what the weather will be. For example, Helios could be used to observe the movement of huge ocean storms. It could fly high above their fierce winds. It could also be used as an advanced method of communications. It might also be used to observe the environment. NASA scientists say this kind of aircraft will cost a great deal less than a satellite placed in space. And it will be able to do much of the same work. Scientists say this kind of aircraft might also be used to explore the planet Mars. They say it could fly long distances through the thin atmosphere and send pictures back to Earth. Place Names HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Lithuania. Ramunas Chomskis asks a question concerning the names of some American cities and towns. It seems that many cities have the same names as those in other parts of the country and the world. There are several explanations for this. One is that the first white people to settle an area named it after the place where they were born. For example, the city of Argyle, Minnesota has the same name as a county in western Scotland. A town in the northeastern state of Maine was also named after the Scottish county. A man named Solomon Comstock was born in Argyle, Maine, in Eighteen-Forty-Two. He later moved to Minnesota. He proposed that the new town be named Argyle after the one where he was born. Some American cities were named after famous cities in other countries. An example of this is two American towns named Rome. Rome, Georgia was named in Eighteen-Thirty-Four. It was given that name because it was in a hilly area which was similar to the seven hills of ancient Rome in Italy. Rome, New York got its name in Eighteen-Nineteen. History experts say that many American settlements at that time were named after ancient cities. Perhaps that also explains the naming of Athens, Georgia and Athens, West Virginia for the ancient city of Athens, Greece. Other American cities are linked by language and geography. An example of this is two cities named Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada is famous for its games of chance and entertainment. It was established in Nineteen-Oh-Five. Its name comes from the Spanish words meaning “the meadows.” The city of Las Vegas, New Mexico is older, but not so well known. It was established in Eighteen-Thirty-Five. It was first called “Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de Las Vegas Grandes.” That is Spanish for “Our Lady of the Sorrows of the Great Meadows.” Its name was shortened over the years to “Las Vegas.” There are many other same-name cities all over the world. We can think of Moscow, Idaho and Russia... Saint Petersburg, Florida and Russia... Syracuse, New York and Italy... Olympia, Washington and Greece... Odessa, Texas and Ukraine... Rochester, New York and Minnesota... Charleston, South Carolina and West Virginia... Dover, Delaware and New Hampshire... Eden’s Crush HOST: The singing group Eden’s Crush was created by the producers of a weekly television show. The group includes five young women. Shirley Griffith tells us more. ANNCR: Eden’s Crush can be seen on the television series “Popstars.” Every week, that television program shows events that take place as Eden’s Crush becomes a successful singing group. The group’s first album was released in May. It is called “Popstars.” Here is the first hit song from the album. It is called “Get Over Yourself.” ((CUT ONE: “GET OVER YOURSELF")) The songs on the album were written before the members of the group were chosen. The young women had only a few months to learn the songs and record them before the album’s release date. Here Eden’s Crush sings another song from the album, “Love This Way.” ((CUT TWO – “LOVE THIS WAY")) Eden’s Crush recently completed a tour with the male singing group ‘N Sync. They are currently traveling with singer Jessica Simpson. We leave you now with another song by Eden’s Crush. This one is called “No Drama.” ((CUT THREE – “NO DRAMA”)) HOST: This is Bob Cohen. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Special English would like to thank all the people who answered our recent listener survey. The frequency information you provided has been very helpful. As promised, three people have been chosen to receive a short wave radio. They are Latiha Nelson (La-tee-ha Nelson) in Ethiopia, Pradeep Deb (Pra-deep Dayb) in India, and Tetsuo Tanabe (Tet-sue-oh Tana-Bay) in Japan. Congratulations to our three winners and thanks again to all Special English listeners who took part in the survey. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Dan Crafton. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - August 27, 2001:
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: A new musical play opened a few months ago on Broadway in New York City. It is called “The Producers.” “The Producers” was first seen as a movie in Nineteen Sixty-Eight. It was written by Mel Brooks. But it was not a musical. A few years ago, Mister Brooks decided to write the story again as a musical for the stage. He also wrote all the songs. I’m Sarah Long. Today, Shirley Griffith and I report about “The Producers” on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT ONE: MUSIC FROM OVERTURE TO “THE PRODUCERS”)) VOICE TWO: Mel Brooks says the musical show “The Producers” is his way to honor the Broadway shows he loved in the past. He calls it a traditional musical comedy. That is true in one way. The show presents a funny story told through songs and dances performed by actors in beautiful clothes. But the story of “The Producers” is very different from other Broadway shows. That is because its songs and dances are about Germany and the Nazis in the Nineteen-Thirties. The show makes fun of German dictator Adolph Hitler and his followers. Mel Brooks has said that the best way to defeat an enemy is to make fun of him by showing him as stupid. That is what he has done in “The Producers.” And audiences are loving the show. All the tickets have been sold until next year. VOICE ONE: “The Producers” takes place in New York City in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. It involves two men, Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom. Nathan Lane plays the part of Max. Max is a theatrical producer. He organizes shows on Broadway. But his latest show was a failure. Leo Bloom is an accountant. He arrives at Max’s office to record the show’s losses. Matthew Broderick plays Leo. Leo tells Max how a producer could make more money with an unsuccessful show than with a successful one. For example, a producer could get one-million dollars from investors. He could produce a bad show that only costs one-hundred-thousand dollars. When the show fails, the producer could keep the rest of the money. Max immediately decides to do it. He asks Leo to join him in the plot in the song “We Can Do It.” ((CUT TWO: WE CAN DO IT)) Leo hates his accounting job. He wants a more exciting life. He imagines himself as a famous Broadway producer surrounded by beautiful girls as he sings “I Wanna Be a Producer.” ((CUT THREE: I WANNA BE A PRODUCER)) VOICE TWO: Leo quits his job and decides to work with Max. The first step in their plan is to find the worst play ever written, so it will be sure to fail. They choose a musical called “Springtime For Hitler.” They are sure it will be so bad that it will close after one performance. The writer of “Springtime For Hitler” is a former Nazi named Franz Liebkind. He gives Leo and Max permission to produce his show. The two producers then hire the worst director, worst actors and worst production team they can find. Max gets two-million dollars to produce the show from rich old ladies he knows. Finally, “Springtime For Hitler” opens on Broadway. It includes a huge production number with beautiful dancing girls. Men dressed as Nazi soldiers sing about the glories of Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany. The song is “Springtime For Hitler”: ((CUT FOUR: SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER)) VOICE ONE: But Max and Leo’s plan fails. The worst thing happens. The audience loves the show. They think it is supposed to be funny. The show is a huge success. Soon, Max is arrested for stealing the investors’ money. Leo takes the two-million dollars and flees to Brazil with their office secretary. Alone in jail, Max sings angrily about his situation in this song, “Betrayed.” ((CUT FIVE: BETRAYED)) VOICE TWO: Max is found guilty and is about to be sentenced when Leo returns to admit his part in the plot. Max finally recognizes what Leo means to him. The two men express their feelings of friendship in the song “‘Til Him.” ((CUT SIX: ‘TIL HIM)) Leo and Max go to prison. But the governor pardons them. They begin producing successful Broadway shows, for real this time. ((CUT SEVEN: PRISONERS OF LOVE--LEO AND MAX)) VOICE ONE: Each year, Broadway shows compete for Tony awards. This year “The Producers” won twelve Tony awards. That is the most Tony awards ever given to one show. “The Producers” won the award for Best Musical on Broadway. Nathan Lane won best actor in a musical for playing Max Bialystock. Cady Huffman was named best actress in a musical for her work as the secretary. Mel Brooks won the Tony for best music and lyrics written for the theatre. “The Producers” also won Tony awards for best direction, best dancing, best lighting, best costume design and best sets. People who have seen “The Producers” say it is great fun. The show’s producers reportedly are considering making the musical into a movie. That way even more people will be able to enjoy it. ((TAPE CUT EIGHT: INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME, OVERTURE TO "THE PRODUCERS")) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - August 26, 2001: Emperor Norton
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the man who declared himself the emperor of the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The small city of Colma, California is just a few kilometers south of San Francisco. Many people visit the city each year to see the burial place of one very unusual man in Colma’s Woodlawn Cemetery. These visitors come to see a memorial stone placed on his grave. The writing on the stone says in large letters , “NORTON THE FIRST, - EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES AND PROTECTOR OF MEXICO.” Under this, in smaller size letters, is, “Joshua A. Norton Born in Eighteen-Nineteen. Died January Eighth, Eighteen-Eighty. VOICE TWO: Anyone who has studied American history knows that the United States is a democracy. The president and other political leaders of the United States are elected to office by the citizens. There is no royal family, no king, and no emperor. Yet, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself to be Emperor of the United States on September Seventeenth, Eighteen Fifty-Nine. He sent an announcement to the newspapers of San Francisco saying he was Emperor Norton the First of the United States and the Protector of Mexico. The newspapers did not publish it. VOICE ONE: Many people in San Francisco knew Joshua Norton. He was born in England in Eighteen-Nineteen. He moved to San Francisco from South Africa. He arrived with a lot of money. He later lost all his money in a very bad financial deal. His many friends knew that this greatly affected him. Joshua Norton no longer was the same man. Most of his friends believed the shock of losing all his money had taken away his ability to reason and to live in the real world. Poor Joshua Norton was not dangerous or violent, but he no longer knew what was real and what was only imaginary. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Soon after he declared himself to be the Emperor of the United States, Joshua Norton began wearing blue military clothing. A soldier at the army base in San Francisco gave him the gold colored buttons and gold cloth. It made his uniform seem as if it belonged to a general…or perhaps a king…or even an Emperor. Emperor Norton the First soon became the best known man in San Francisco. He always wore his uniform and a tall hat. When people saw him they would show the respect given a king…or emperor. Emperor Norton usually did not have any money. But he did not need any. If Emperor Norton went to an eating place, he was served a meal…free. If he needed something little from a store, that was also freely given. Sometimes he paid with his own kind of money. It was paper money with his picture on it. Many stores began placing a small sign in the store window. The sign said, “By Appointment to his Majesty, Emperor Norton the First.” The sign meant the store or eating-place had been approved by the Emperor of the United States. Stores that had the signs noted that their business increased. VOICE ONE: Emperor Norton began sending royal orders…called decrees…to the newspapers of San Francisco. The newspapers began publishing them. Many people thought they were funny. Some people bought the newspapers just to read about the latest decree from the Emperor of the United States. Many of the decrees, however, made people think. For example, Emperor Norton said that Governor Wise of Virginia was to be removed from office by royal decree. Emperor Norton said this was necessary because Governor Wise had ordered the death by hanging of John Brown. John Brown was a rebel who had tried to start a war to free slaves. Emperor Norton said John Brown had tried to capture the state of Virginia with only seventeen men. That was evidence, Emperor Norton said, that John Brown was mentally sick and should have been put in a hospital for treatment. Emperor Norton said John Brown never should have been executed. Many people in San Francisco agreed with Emperor Norton. The execution of John Brown was one of the many issues that led to the American Civil War. VOICE TWO: Another Emperor Norton decree had to do with the name of the city. Some people often use a short name for city of San Francisco. They call it “Frisco.” Emperor Norton did not like this short name. He decreed that anyone found guilty of using the word “Frisco” must pay a penalty of twenty-five dollars. Even today many citizens of San Francisco warn visitors never to call the great city “Frisco. “ Perhaps Emperor Norton’s most famous decree ordered the city government to build a bridge from the city of Oakland to a small island in San Francisco Bay. It said the bridge should extend from the little island to San Francisco. City leaders did nothing about building the bridge. So Emperor Norton ordered them removed from office. Nothing happened, of course, to the city leaders or about the bridge. Many years later, after Emperor Norton’s death, a bridge was built extending from San Francisco to the city of Oakland. It was placed almost in the exact spot that Emperor Norton had decreed. It is called the Bay Bridge. Thousands of cars pass over it every day. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: San Francisco has always been home to many Chinese people. It still is today. One story about Emperor Norton involves the Chinese. In his time many people did not like Chinese people. One group of people organized an anti-Chinese committee. They believed too many Chinese lived in San Francisco. They decided to cause violence in the Chinese area of the city. Many people knew about the committee’s plans, but no one did anything to stop the planned violence. One night, members of the committee left a meeting and walked toward the area of the city where most of the Chinese lived. As they got close to the area, one man stood in the street blocking their way. He said nothing. He did not move. His head was low on his chest and he seemed to be praying. The mob of troublemakers stopped. They looked at the old blue uniform with its gold colored buttons. They said nothing. They did nothing. Slowly, the mob turned and walked away. Emperor Norton had prevented the planned violence. VOICE TWO: Emperor Norton had two dogs. They were named Bummer and Lazarus. They were with him all the time. If a San Francisco theater was presenting a new play or musical, Emperor Norton, Bummer and Lazarus had three seats at it. If the San Francisco Science Academy was meeting, the three might attend to listen to a discussion of the latest developments in science. One night, a new member of the San Francisco police department arrested Emperor Norton. The young policeman thought anyone who claimed to be the Emperor of the United State might be a danger to the public. Very soon a judge and the chief of police arrived at the police station. The judge said, “The Emperor has hurt no one that I know of.” He quickly ordered the Emperor freed and apologized for the mistake. From that time on, the San Francisco policemen showed respect to Joshua Norton by giving a military salute. VOICE ONE: On January Eighth, Eighteen-Eighty, Emperor Norton was walking along California Street inspecting his city as usual. People in the area saw him fall down. Several rushed to his aid. Moments later it was clear that Joshua Norton was dead. The next day, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper printed four words in French across the front of the paper. They were “LE ROI EST MORT.” They mean, “The King is dead.” The newspaper reported the death of the city’s most famous citizen. The report said that Joshua Norton had no real money…not even enough to pay for his burial. Almost immediately, wealthy members of a San Francisco business group collected enough to pay for the funeral. Businesses closed in San Francisco the day of the funeral. Newspapers reported that more ten thousand people attended the burial ceremony for Emperor Norton. One newspaper said that the world would be a much better place if all kings and emperors were as kind and as honest as Joshua Norton. VOICE TWO: Today, some stores and eating places in San Francisco still have signs which say, “By Appointment to His Majesty, Emperor Norton the First.” And each year a group of citizens meets at Joshua Norton’s burial place to honor the first and only Emperor of the United States. (((THEME))) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our audio engineer was Wagner Roberts. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Robert Cohen. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the man who declared himself the emperor of the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The small city of Colma, California is just a few kilometers south of San Francisco. Many people visit the city each year to see the burial place of one very unusual man in Colma’s Woodlawn Cemetery. These visitors come to see a memorial stone placed on his grave. The writing on the stone says in large letters , “NORTON THE FIRST, - EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES AND PROTECTOR OF MEXICO.” Under this, in smaller size letters, is, “Joshua A. Norton Born in Eighteen-Nineteen. Died January Eighth, Eighteen-Eighty. VOICE TWO: Anyone who has studied American history knows that the United States is a democracy. The president and other political leaders of the United States are elected to office by the citizens. There is no royal family, no king, and no emperor. Yet, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself to be Emperor of the United States on September Seventeenth, Eighteen Fifty-Nine. He sent an announcement to the newspapers of San Francisco saying he was Emperor Norton the First of the United States and the Protector of Mexico. The newspapers did not publish it. VOICE ONE: Many people in San Francisco knew Joshua Norton. He was born in England in Eighteen-Nineteen. He moved to San Francisco from South Africa. He arrived with a lot of money. He later lost all his money in a very bad financial deal. His many friends knew that this greatly affected him. Joshua Norton no longer was the same man. Most of his friends believed the shock of losing all his money had taken away his ability to reason and to live in the real world. Poor Joshua Norton was not dangerous or violent, but he no longer knew what was real and what was only imaginary. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Soon after he declared himself to be the Emperor of the United States, Joshua Norton began wearing blue military clothing. A soldier at the army base in San Francisco gave him the gold colored buttons and gold cloth. It made his uniform seem as if it belonged to a general…or perhaps a king…or even an Emperor. Emperor Norton the First soon became the best known man in San Francisco. He always wore his uniform and a tall hat. When people saw him they would show the respect given a king…or emperor. Emperor Norton usually did not have any money. But he did not need any. If Emperor Norton went to an eating place, he was served a meal…free. If he needed something little from a store, that was also freely given. Sometimes he paid with his own kind of money. It was paper money with his picture on it. Many stores began placing a small sign in the store window. The sign said, “By Appointment to his Majesty, Emperor Norton the First.” The sign meant the store or eating-place had been approved by the Emperor of the United States. Stores that had the signs noted that their business increased. VOICE ONE: Emperor Norton began sending royal orders…called decrees…to the newspapers of San Francisco. The newspapers began publishing them. Many people thought they were funny. Some people bought the newspapers just to read about the latest decree from the Emperor of the United States. Many of the decrees, however, made people think. For example, Emperor Norton said that Governor Wise of Virginia was to be removed from office by royal decree. Emperor Norton said this was necessary because Governor Wise had ordered the death by hanging of John Brown. John Brown was a rebel who had tried to start a war to free slaves. Emperor Norton said John Brown had tried to capture the state of Virginia with only seventeen men. That was evidence, Emperor Norton said, that John Brown was mentally sick and should have been put in a hospital for treatment. Emperor Norton said John Brown never should have been executed. Many people in San Francisco agreed with Emperor Norton. The execution of John Brown was one of the many issues that led to the American Civil War. VOICE TWO: Another Emperor Norton decree had to do with the name of the city. Some people often use a short name for city of San Francisco. They call it “Frisco.” Emperor Norton did not like this short name. He decreed that anyone found guilty of using the word “Frisco” must pay a penalty of twenty-five dollars. Even today many citizens of San Francisco warn visitors never to call the great city “Frisco. “ Perhaps Emperor Norton’s most famous decree ordered the city government to build a bridge from the city of Oakland to a small island in San Francisco Bay. It said the bridge should extend from the little island to San Francisco. City leaders did nothing about building the bridge. So Emperor Norton ordered them removed from office. Nothing happened, of course, to the city leaders or about the bridge. Many years later, after Emperor Norton’s death, a bridge was built extending from San Francisco to the city of Oakland. It was placed almost in the exact spot that Emperor Norton had decreed. It is called the Bay Bridge. Thousands of cars pass over it every day. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: San Francisco has always been home to many Chinese people. It still is today. One story about Emperor Norton involves the Chinese. In his time many people did not like Chinese people. One group of people organized an anti-Chinese committee. They believed too many Chinese lived in San Francisco. They decided to cause violence in the Chinese area of the city. Many people knew about the committee’s plans, but no one did anything to stop the planned violence. One night, members of the committee left a meeting and walked toward the area of the city where most of the Chinese lived. As they got close to the area, one man stood in the street blocking their way. He said nothing. He did not move. His head was low on his chest and he seemed to be praying. The mob of troublemakers stopped. They looked at the old blue uniform with its gold colored buttons. They said nothing. They did nothing. Slowly, the mob turned and walked away. Emperor Norton had prevented the planned violence. VOICE TWO: Emperor Norton had two dogs. They were named Bummer and Lazarus. They were with him all the time. If a San Francisco theater was presenting a new play or musical, Emperor Norton, Bummer and Lazarus had three seats at it. If the San Francisco Science Academy was meeting, the three might attend to listen to a discussion of the latest developments in science. One night, a new member of the San Francisco police department arrested Emperor Norton. The young policeman thought anyone who claimed to be the Emperor of the United State might be a danger to the public. Very soon a judge and the chief of police arrived at the police station. The judge said, “The Emperor has hurt no one that I know of.” He quickly ordered the Emperor freed and apologized for the mistake. From that time on, the San Francisco policemen showed respect to Joshua Norton by giving a military salute. VOICE ONE: On January Eighth, Eighteen-Eighty, Emperor Norton was walking along California Street inspecting his city as usual. People in the area saw him fall down. Several rushed to his aid. Moments later it was clear that Joshua Norton was dead. The next day, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper printed four words in French across the front of the paper. They were “LE ROI EST MORT.” They mean, “The King is dead.” The newspaper reported the death of the city’s most famous citizen. The report said that Joshua Norton had no real money…not even enough to pay for his burial. Almost immediately, wealthy members of a San Francisco business group collected enough to pay for the funeral. Businesses closed in San Francisco the day of the funeral. Newspapers reported that more ten thousand people attended the burial ceremony for Emperor Norton. One newspaper said that the world would be a much better place if all kings and emperors were as kind and as honest as Joshua Norton. VOICE TWO: Today, some stores and eating places in San Francisco still have signs which say, “By Appointment to His Majesty, Emperor Norton the First.” And each year a group of citizens meets at Joshua Norton’s burial place to honor the first and only Emperor of the United States. (((THEME))) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our audio engineer was Wagner Roberts. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I’m Robert Cohen. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-24-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - August 27, 2001: Cars and Crops
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Experts say cars and crops are competing for land in many parts of the world. They say this will increase in the future. Until now, most roads have been built over farmland in industrial countries. However, the Worldwatch Institute says more and more farmland is now being lost in developing countries, where populations are often hungry. Croplands are often covered with hard surface cement because flat, dry areas also make good roads. However, once the cement has been poured, the land can not be easily redeveloped for crops. In the United States, more than six-million kilometers of land have been covered by roads. This is enough to circle the Earth at the equator one-hundred-fifty-seven times. The United States has more than two-hundred-million vehicles. The Worldwatch Institute says the increase in roads in developing countries is just starting to become an issue. It says more than eleven-million new cars are added to the total number of vehicles around the world each year. Many of these new cars are in developing countries. This means the battle between crops and cars is starting to affect farming areas in countries where hunger is common. The Worldwatch Institute says there is not enough land in several developing countries to support transportation systems for cars and to feed the people. These countries include China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and Mexico. The Worldwatch Institute says it is wrong for developing countries to financially support a car industry with money collected from taxpayers. It says this takes money from poor people to support rich people. Instead, it says countries should build new transportation systems that help the whole population. Experts say nearly three-thousand-million people are expected to be added to the world’s population during the next fifty years. The Worldwatch Institute says most of these people will live in developing countries where there is not enough land to feed everyone and still have cars. It says food security in the future will depend on governments investing more on trains and bicycle systems and less on roads and car systems. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-24-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS – August 25, 2001: Senator Helms To Retire
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Wednesday, one of America’s most powerful Senators announced his plans to retire when his term ends in Two-Thousand-Three. Jesse Helms has served in the United States Senate for almost thirty years. He is a Republican from North Carolina. Senator Helms made his announcement in Raleigh, where he once worked as a political commentator on radio and television. He told local voters he will not seek re-election in Two-Thousand-Two. He said he would be eighty-eight at the end of another six year term. He said he and his family decided he should not run again. Mister Helms has suffered from health problems in recent years, including prostate cancer. He also has a nerve condition which caused him to lose feeling in his feet. He now travels around the Capitol building in a small electric powered vehicle. Senator Helms is a leading supporter of conservative issues in the United States Congress. He has opposed civil rights legislation and the rights of women to end pregnancies. He opposes any expanding of the federal government. For years he strongly criticized the Chinese government and the United Nations. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, he helped pass the Helms-Burton law, which increased restrictions on trade with Cuba. Mister Helms was first elected to the Senate in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. He took control of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Nineteen-Ninety-Five, after the Republicans gained control of the Senate. During his chairmanship, he helped defeat a nuclear test ban treaty. He also blocked several presidential nominations. Senator Helms also used his leadership position to help reorganize America’s foreign policy agencies. Recently, he released American debt payments to the United Nations in return for reforms in the organization. He lost his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee after the Democrats regained control of the Senate in June. Political experts say Mister Helms’ retirement will mark the end of a period in politics that helped reshape the conservative movement. His decision may affect control of the Senate in Two-Thousand-Two. Democrats now have fifty seats, the Republicans forty-nine. One seat is held by an independent. Both major parties think they can win Mister Helms’ seat. One Republican reportedly interested in replacing Mister Helms is Elizabeth Dole. She is a North Carolina native who campaigned unsuccessfully for president two years ago. Missus Dole has served on the cabinets of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Senior. One Democrat, North Carolina’s Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, has already announced she will campaign for job. Several other Democratic and Republican candidates are expected to seek Senator Helms’ seat. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - August 28, 2001: Diseases Spread by Mosquitoes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today we tell about diseases spread by mosquitoes, the most widely hated insects in the world. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Mosquitoes are very small winged insects. There are more than two-thousand different kinds of mosquitoes. Female mosquitoes bite people to drink their blood. Male mosquitoes do not drink blood. They drink fluids from plants. The female mosquito uses its long thin sucking tube to break the skin and find a blood vessel. The insect injects the victim with a substance that keeps blood flowing. This substance makes the skin around a mosquito bite uncomfortable for several days. The female mosquito drinks the blood and uses it to produce eggs. One meal gives a female mosquito enough blood to produce as many as two-hundred-fifty eggs. The mosquito lays them in any standing water. This includes small containers near peoples’ houses. VOICE TWO: The eggs produce worm-like creatures in two days to a few months. However, some mosquito eggs can stay in water for years until the conditions are right for hatching. The worm-like creatures feed on organisms in the water. After four to ten days, they change again, into creatures called pupas. The pupas rise to the top of the water. The adult mosquitoes pull themselves out of the pupas and fly away. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says mosquitoes cause disease and death for millions of people throughout the world. That is because when they bite a person, mosquitoes can also inject organisms that cause disease. Mosquitoes are not affected by the disease. The most important disease spread by mosquitoes is malaria. As many as five-hundred-million people suffer malaria each year. About two-million people die from the disease each year. The disease is found in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Malaria parasites enter a person’s blood through the mosquito bite. The parasites travel to the liver. They grow and divide there. After a week or two, the parasites invade red blood cells and reproduce thousands of times. They cause severe fevers and may destroy major organs. People with malaria may suffer kidney failure or the loss of red blood cells. Some drugs are generally effective in preventing and treating malaria. They are designed to prevent the parasites from developing in the body. The most commonly used malaria prevention drugs are chloroquine, mefloquine and doxycycline. People die from malaria because they are not treated for the disease or the treatment is delayed. International health organizations are increasing efforts to reduce the number of deaths from malaria. VOICE TWO: Dengue fever is another disease that is carried by mosquitoes. The insects can survive in new and different environments. They can spread diseases to new areas. For example, experts say only nine countries had dengue fever until Nineteen-Seventy. Since then, people in more than twenty-nine countries in Asia and the Caribbean have developed the disease. The World Health Organization says about fifty-million people around the world suffer from dengue fever each year. There is no cure. Children may develop a kind of the disease that is not serious. Their skin may become covered with red spots and they may have a high body temperature. Older people suffer from the disease much more. They may develop red spots on their skin. They also may have terrible headaches. They may lose their sense of taste. And they may experience pain behind their eyes and in joints such as the elbow or knee. This kind of joint pain is the reason why dengue fever is sometimes known as breakbone fever. The most severe kind of the disease is called dengue hemorrhagic fever. People who have this disease bleed from body openings such as the nose. The disease kills about five percent of all people who get it. The only treatment involves controlling the bleeding and replacing lost body fluids. VOICE ONE: Another disease carried by mosquitoes is yellow fever. There are no effective drugs against the disease. Doctors can only hope that a person’s defense system is strong enough to fight the infection. World Health Organization officials say about two-hundred-thousand people suffer from yellow fever each year. It is found mainly in Africa, the Caribbean and South America. The disease is caused by a virus. A few days after a mosquito bite, the victim experiences high body temperature, muscle pain, headache, nausea and vomiting. Most patients improve after three to four days. However, fifteen percent of patients develop a more serious condition. Fever re-appears and the body appears yellow in color. The victim bleeds from the nose, mouth, eyes or stomach. Half the people suffering this more serious condition die within ten to fourteen days. A vaccine medicine can prevent yellow fever. Medical experts say the vaccine is safe and very effective. The protection continues for at least ten years and possibly for life. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Mosquitoes also carry the disease lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis. The disease affects more than one-hundred-twenty-million people in more than eighty countries. These include countries in South Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific Islands. Mosquito bites spread the worms that cause elephantiasis. People usually begin to develop the disease as children. Many children never experience signs of the disease. But the disease may cause hidden damage to the lymphatic system and kidneys. The worst signs of the disease appear in adults. The signs are more common in men than in women. These include swelling of the arms, legs, and genital area. Two drugs are effective in treating the disease. Experts say that keeping the affected areas clean can decrease the swelling and reduce the number of times that swelling takes place. VOICE ONE: Still another disease carried by mosquitoes is encephalitis. It is an infection or swelling of the brain. Many different viruses cause different kinds of the disease. One virus lives naturally in birds and horses. Mosquitoes spread it to people. Mosquitoes in several Asian countries spread a kind of encephalitis known as Japanese encephalitis. A vaccine medicine can prevent this sickness. Other kinds include West Nile encephalitis, Saint Louis encephalitis and eastern equine encephalitis. Most healthy people infected with the virus show no signs. Or they become only slightly sick for a day or two. But those with a weak defense system may develop a severe infection. They may suffer from high body temperature, headache, shaking and even death. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Experts have learned many things about mosquitoes. For example, the insects can smell carbon dioxide in the breath of a person or animal from as far away as sixty meters. Mosquitoes often like the blood of animals better than the blood of people. Mosquitoes like dark colors. They do not bite women who are having their monthly period of bleeding. But they do bite pregnant women. Many kinds of mosquitoes are most active in the early morning and evening hours. They eat mostly at night. VOICE ONE: Medical experts say the best way to prevent the diseases carried by mosquitoes is not to be bitten by one. There are several ways to prevent mosquito bites. Do not permit standing water anywhere around the house. Remove all containers that could provide a place for mosquitoes to live. Stay indoors when mosquitoes are most active. Wear clothes that cover most of the body. Other ways to prevent mosquito bites are to put anti-insect chemicals on the skin, clothing and sleeping areas. And place special nets treated with insect poison on window screens and over the bed at night. Another way is to build a house for flying animals called bats on your property. Bats eat thousands of mosquitoes each night. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – August 28, 2001: Burpee Seed Company
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. An American company famous for selling plant seeds is observing a major anniversary. The Burpee Seed Company is one-hundred-twenty-five years old. The Burpee Company was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Eighteen-Seventy-Six. W. Atlee Burpee started the company with one-thousand dollars he borrowed from his mother. Company officials say Mister Burpee first planned to sell chickens by mail. But he soon discovered that Americans wanted seeds for vegetables, flowers and grains. Over the years, millions of people have seen magazines that describe Burpee products and tell how to buy them. The company mails these catalogs to anyone who wants them. The catalogs describe different kinds of crops. For example, the Burpee Company began to offer seeds for iceberg lettuce in Eighteen-Ninety-Four. It was the first kind of lettuce that remained fresh from the time farmers harvested it to the time people in the cities ate it. Farmers grow many kinds of lettuce in the United States. But iceberg lettuce is the most popular. One reason for the Burpee Company’s success was its development of seeds. Mister Burpee traveled to Europe to collect seeds of plants not grown in the United States. Also, some farmers offered him seeds from their best crops. In Eighteen-Eighty-Eight, Mister Burpee bought a farm near Philadelphia where he could test seeds. Twenty years later, he bought more farmland in the state of California. California’s warm climate permitted him to develop products that he could not grow on the East Coast. The Burpee Company quickly became one of the world’s largest seed companies. By Nineteen-Fifteen, it was sending its catalogs to one-million Americans each year. Today, the company sells seeds for more than five-hundred kinds of vegetables and more than six-hundred flowers. It also offers more than three-hundred kinds of young plants. Ten years ago, another American business, the George J. Ball Company, purchased the Burpee Company. However, Burpee’s headquarters remain in Pennsylvania. The company still publishes catalogs of its products as it did one-hundred years ago. Many stores sell Burpee seeds. And, people with computers can buy seeds by using the Internet computer system. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - August 29, 2001: Carl Sagan
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THIS IS SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND THIS IS STEVE EMBER WITH THE VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, EXPLORATIONS. TODAY WE TELL ABOUT AMERICAN SCIENTIST CARL SAGAN. HE SPENT MUCH OF HIS LIFE HELPING MAKE SPACE TRAVEL POSSIBLE FAR OUT IN THE UNIVERSE. HE ALSO HELPED PEOPLE UNDERSTAND SCIENCE. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THE YEAR IS NINETEEN-FORTY-SEVEN. TWELVE YEAR OLD CARL SAGAN IS STANDING OUTSIDE A SMALL HOUSE IN THE EASTERN CITY OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. IT IS DARK. HE IS LOOKING UP AT THE SKY. AFTER A FEW MINUTES, HE FINDS THE SPOT FOR WHICH HE HAS BEEN SEARCHING. IT IS A LIGHT RED COLOR IN THE NIGHT SKY. CARL IS LOOKING AT THE PLANET MARS. CARL HAS JUST FINISHED READING A BOOK BY AMERICAN WRITER EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS. IT IS THE STORY OF A MAN WHO TRAVELS FROM EARTH TO THE PLANET MARS. HE MEETS MANY STRANGE AND INTERESTING CREATURES THERE. SOME OF THEM ARE VERY HUMAN. THE NAME OF THE BOOK IS THE PRINCESS OF MARS. IT IS JUST ONE OF MANY BOOKS THAT MISTER BURROUGHS WROTE ABOUT TRAVELS TO MARS. VOICE TWO: IN THE PRINCESS OF MARS, THE MAN WHO TRAVELS TO MARS CAN MAKE THE TRIP BY LOOKING AT THE PLANET FOR SEVERAL MINUTES. HE THEN IS TRANSPORTED THERE BY A STRANGE FORCE. CARL SAGAN STANDS WATCHING THE RED PLANET. HE WISHES HE COULD TRAVEL ACROSS THE DARK, COLD DISTANCE OF SPACE TO THE PLANET MARS. AFTER A WHILE, YOUNG CARL REALIZES THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN. HE TURNS TO ENTER HIS HOME. BUT IN HIS MIND HE SAYS, "SOME DAY ... SOME DAY IT WILL BE POSSIBLE TO TRAVEL TO MARS." VOICE ONE: CARL SAGAN NEVER HAD THE CHANCE TO GO TO MARS. HE DIED IN DECEMBER, NINETEEN-NINETY-SIX. HOWEVER, MUCH OF THE WORK HE DID DURING HIS LIFE HELPED MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR THE AMERICAN PATHFINDER VEHICLE TO LAND ON MARS. IT LANDED ON JULY FOURTH, NINETEEN-NINETY-SEVEN. IT SOON BEGAN SENDING BACK TO EARTH LOTS OF INFORMATION AND THOUSANDS OF PICTURES ABOUT THE RED PLANET. CARL SAGAN'S FRIENDS AND FAMILY SAY HE WOULD HAVE BEEN EXTREMELY HAPPY ABOUT THE NEW INFORMATION FROM MARS. THEY SAY HE WOULD HAVE TOLD AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE ABOUT WHAT PATHFINDER HELPED US LEARN. VOICE TWO: CARL SAGAN WAS A SCIENTIST. HE WAS ALSO A GREAT TEACHER. HE HELPED EXPLAIN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT SCIENTIFIC IDEAS TO MILLIONS OF PEOPLE IN A WAY THAT MADE IT EASY TO UNDERSTAND. HE MADE DIFFICULT SCIENCE SOUND LIKE FUN. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: CARL SAGAN WAS BORN IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK IN NINETEEN-THIRTY-FOUR. EVEN AS A CHILD HE WANTED TO BE A SCIENTIST. HE SAID IT WAS A CHILD'S SCIENCE BOOK ABOUT STARS THAT HELPED HIM DECIDE TO BE A SCIENTIST. MISTER SAGAN SAID HE READ A BOOK THAT TOLD HOW OUR SUN IS A STAR THAT IS VERY CLOSE TO EARTH. THE BOOK ALSO SAID THAT THE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY WERE ALSO SUNS BUT VERY FAR AWAY. MISTER SAGAN SAID THAT SUDDENLY, THIS SIMPLE IDEA MADE THE UNIVERSE BECOME MUCH LARGER THAN JUST BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. VOICE TWO: IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE TO LEARN THAT CARL SAGAN STUDIED THE STARS AND PLANETS WHEN HE GREW OLDER. HE DID THIS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. LATER HE TAUGHT ASTRONOMY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND CORNELL UNIVERSITY. IN THE NINETEEN-FIFTIES, MISTER SAGAN HELPED DESIGN MECHANICAL DEVICES FOR USE ON SOME OF THE FIRST SPACE FLIGHTS. HE ALSO PUBLISHED TWO IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC THEORIES THAT WERE LATER CONFIRMED BY SPACE FLIGHTS. ONE THEORY WAS THAT VENUS IS EXTREMELY HOT. THE OTHER WAS THAT MARS DID NOT HAVE A SEASON WHEN PLANTS GREW AS SCIENTISTS HAD BELIEVED. HE SAID THAT THE DARK AREAS ON MARS THAT WERE THOUGHT TO BE PLANTS WERE REALLY GIANT DUST STORMS IN THE MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE. VOICE ONE: MISTER SAGAN WAS DEEPLY INVOLVED IN AMERICAN EFFORTS TO EXPLORE THE PLANETS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE TEAM THAT WORKED ON THE VOYAGE OF MARINER NINE TO MARS. IT WAS LAUNCHED IN NINETEEN-SEVENTY-ONE. MARINER NINE WAS THE FIRST SPACE VEHICLE TO ORBIT ANOTHER PLANET. MISTER SAGAN HELPED CHOOSE THE LANDING AREA FOR VIKING ONE AND VIKING TWO, THE FIRST SPACE VEHICLES TO SUCCESSFULLY LAND ON MARS. HE ALSO WORKED ON PIONEER TWO, THE FIRST SPACE VEHICLE TO INVESTIGATE THE PLANET JUPITER. AND HE WORKED ON PIONEER ELEVEN, WHICH FLEW PAST JUPITER AND SATURN. VOICE TWO: CARL SAGAN WAS A MEMBER OF THE SCIENTIFIC TEAM THAT SENT THE VOYAGER ONE AND VOYAGER TWO SPACE VEHICLES OUT OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. HE PROPOSED THE IDEA TO PUT A MESSAGE ON THE VOYAGER, ON THE CHANCE THAT OTHER BEINGS WILL FIND THE SPACE VEHICLES IN THE DISTANT FUTURE. MISTER SAGAN WORKED FOR MANY MONTHS ON WHAT TO SAY IN THE MESSAGE. IT WAS AN EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TASK. WHEN THE VOYAGER SPACE VEHICLES LEFT OUR SOLAR SYSTEM THEY CARRIED MESSAGES THAT INCLUDE GREETINGS FROM PEOPLE IN MANY LANGUAGES. THEY CARRIED THE SOUND OF HUGE WHALES IN OUR OCEANS. AND THEY CARRIED THE SOUND OF NINETY MINUTES OF MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF MUSIC FROM PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD. CARL SAGAN HAD CREATED A GREETING FROM THE PLANET EARTH. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: CARL SAGAN WAS AN EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL SCIENTIST AND UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR. HE WAS ALSO A SUCCESSFUL WRITER. HE WROTE MORE THAN SIX-HUNDRED SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR PAPERS DURING HIS LIFE. AND HE WROTE MORE THAN TWELVE BOOKS. IN NINETEEN-SEVENTY-EIGHT, HE WON THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR ONE OF THEM. IT IS CALLED, THE DRAGONS OF EDEN: SPECULATIONS ON THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. HE EVEN HELPED WRITE A WORK OF SCIENCE FICTION IN THE NINETEEN-EIGHTIES. THE BOOK IS CALLED, CONTACT. IT IS ABOUT THE FIRST MEETING BETWEEN BEINGS FROM ANOTHER WORLD AND THE PEOPLE OF EARTH. IT WAS MADE INTO A POPULAR MOVIE. VOICE TWO: PERHAPS CARL SAGAN MAY BEST BE REMEMBERED FOR HIS MANY APPEARANCES ON TELEVISION. HE USED TELEVISION VERY EFFECTIVELY IN HIS EFFORTS TO MAKE SCIENCE POPULAR. HE FIRST BECAME FAMOUS IN NINETEEN-EIGHTY WHEN HE APPEARED ON A THIRTEEN-PART TELEVISION SERIES ABOUT SCIENCE. THE SHOW WAS CALLED "COSMOS." IT EXPLORED MANY SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS--FROM THE ATOM TO THE UNIVERSE. IT WAS SEEN BY FOUR-HUNDRED-MILLION PEOPLE IN SIXTY COUNTRIES. MISTER SAGAN WROTE A POPULAR BOOK BASED ON HIS TELEVISION SHOW. VOICE ONE: MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SAW CARL SAGAN ON TELEVISION IN THE NINETEEN-SEVENTIES AND NINETEEN-EIGHTIES. HE ESPECIALLY LIKED TO TALK ABOUT SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES ON THE LATE NIGHT TELEVISION PROGRAM, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON." MISTER SAGAN SAID HE ALWAYS TRIED TO ACCEPT INVITATIONS TO THE TONIGHT SHOW BECAUSE ABOUT TEN-MILLION PEOPLE WATCHED IT, PEOPLE WHO WERE NOT USUALLY INTERESTED IN SCIENCE. ON TELEVISION, MISTER SAGAN WAS A GOOD STORY-TELLER. HE WAS ABLE TO EXPLAIN COMPLEX SCIENTIFIC IDEAS IN SIMPLE WAYS. HE BELIEVED THAT INCREASING PUBLIC EXCITEMENT ABOUT SCIENCE IS A GOOD WAY TO GET MORE PUBLIC SUPPORTERS. HE SAID MUCH OF THE MONEY FOR SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES COMES FROM THE PUBLIC, AND PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW HOW THEIR MONEY IS BEING SPENT. VOICE TWO: SOME SCIENTISTS CRITICIZED CARL SAGAN BECAUSE OF HIS MANY APPEARANCES ON TELEVISION. THEY SAID HE WAS NOT BEING SERIOUS ENOUGH ABOUT SCIENCE. THEY SAID HE WAS SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME APPEARING ON TELEVISION TRYING TO MAKE SCIENCE POPULAR. OTHER SCIENTISTS VALUED HIS EFFORTS TO EXPLAIN SCIENCE. THEY SAID HE COMMUNICATED HIS MESSAGE WITH JOY AND MEANING. VOICE ONE: ONE OF CARL SAGAN'S LAST BOOKS IS CALLED, THE PALE BLUE DOT: A VISION OF THE HUMAN IN SPACE. MISTER SAGAN SAID HE GOT THE IDEA FOR THE BOOK FROM A PICTURE TAKEN BY THE VOYAGER ONE SPACE VEHICLE. AS IT PASSED THE PLANET NEPTUNE, VOYAGER TURNED ITS CAMERAS BACK TOWARD THE DISTANT EARTH. MISTER SAGAN SAID...."AND THERE IT WAS. VERY SMALL. THE SMALL BLUE DOT IN SPACE WITH ALL OF US. AND YOU CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE NATION AND ANOTHER. YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL THE DIFFERENT BETWEEN CONTINENTS AND OCEANS. HE SAID, " I THOUGHT IT HAD A GREAT DEAL TO SAY ABOUT THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE ISSUES THAT DIVIDE US. I THOUGHT IT SAID WE NEED TO CARE FOR EACH OTHER. AND WE HAVE TO ALSO PRESERVE THIS SMALL DOT IN SPACE. IT IS THE ONLY HOME WE HAVE EVER KNOWN." VOICE TWO: CARL SAGAN DIED DECEMBER TWENTIETH, NINETEEN-NINETY-SIX IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. HE WAS BEING TREATED AT A MEDICAL CENTER THERE FOR A BONE MARROW DISEASE. CARL SAGAN WAS SIXTY-TWO YEARS OLD. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THIS SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY PAUL THOMPSON AND NANCY STEINBACH. THIS IS SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND THIS IS STEVE EMBER. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER EXPLORATIONS PROGRAM ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – August 29, 2001: AIDS in the United States
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The disease AIDS was first reported in the United States twenty years ago. By the end of last year, more than seven-hundred-seventy-four-thousand Americans had AIDS. More than four-hundred-forty-eight-thousand Americans had died from the disease. Recently, American health officials released new information on the problem of AIDS in the United States. Their reports suggest that the number of Americans infected with H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS, has remained the same in the past few years. The health officials warned of a possible increase in the number of infections unless more is done to prevent the spread of AIDS. Officials with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the findings. The C-D-C officials said the number of AIDS cases and deaths dropped sharply during the Nineteen-Nineties. But they said both numbers have changed little since Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. The C-D-C said about forty-thousand people became newly infected with H-I-V in each of the past two years. In each of those years, about sixteen-thousand Americans died from AIDS infections. Helene Gayle is the director for AIDS prevention with the C-D-C. Doctor Gayle proposed steps to reduced the number of AIDS infections and deaths. They include expanding testing for the AIDS virus. Improving medical care for patients. And finding new treatments for patients in whom the virus becomes resistant to medicines. Evidence from several American cities suggests that AIDS remains a serious problem among some groups. One study was done in Seattle, Washington. It studied men who had sexual relations with men. It found that the rate of unprotected sex among the homosexual men increased between Nineteen-Ninety-Four and Two-Thousand. American experts strongly suggest the use of condoms to protect against the spread of AIDS. The same study found that the number of homosexual men who had six or more sex partners in the past year has increased. Another study examined mostly poor black women in Atlanta, Georgia. That study found that sixty percent of the women did not know if their sex partner was infected with the AIDS virus. It also found that almost half the women questioned said their partner had not worn a condom. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - August 30, 2001: Testing Possible Treatments for CJD
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American scientists say that two drugs have shown to be effective against the protein thought to cause the deadly brain condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD. CJD causes holes to develop in the brain. It is rare, and cannot be cured. It usually affects people sixty-five years old or older. More than one-hundred people in Europe have died or are dying from it. Most of the victims live in Britain. These victims suffer a kind of CJD linked to the cattle sickness known as Mad Cow Disease. Its real name is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. Scientists believe that eating infected beef from a cow suffering BSE is one cause of CJD. The infectious proteins are thought to damage healthy proteins and cause holes in the brain. The American researchers reported the results of their recent work in “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” The researchers are from the University of California at San Francisco. They say their research shows that two drugs can clear the infectious proteins from mouse brain cells. The drugs are quinacrine and chlorpromazine. Quinacrine was used in the Nineteen-Forties to treat malaria. Chlorpromazine is used to treat the mental disorder schizophrenia. Quinacrine appears to be more effective in stopping the deadly protein activity. However, chlorpromazine crosses more easily into the brain. The researchers in San Francisco already have treated two CJD patients with the drugs. One patient is British. The other patient is American. The results are not clear, although a British newspaper has reported improvement in one of the patients. The researchers are preparing to test the drugs in more people to see if they are effective against CJD. This process will begin next month. The patients will go to the university hospital for two weeks of treatment with one or both drugs. They will continue taking the drugs for another six months at home. The study will try to find the correct amount of each drug to use. And it will measure how much of each drug gets into the patients’ brains. The treatment will be considered successful if patients survive longer and are able to take part in daily activities of normal living. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - August 30, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) WOODROW WILSON'S FIRST YEAR AS PRESIDENT IN NINETEEN-THIRTEEN SHOWED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THEY HAD ELECTED A STRONG AND EFFECTIVE LEADER. AFTER TAKING OFFICE, HE MOVED QUICKLY TO FULFILL HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISES. HE WON CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL FOR LOWER IMPORT TAXES, A NEW TAX ON EARNINGS, AND RESTRICTIONS ON THE POWER OF BIG COMPANIES. THESE WERE SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMIC REFORMS THE NATION HAD SEEN IN MANY YEARS. I'M MAURICE JOYCE. TODAY, LARRY WESST AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF WILSON'S ADMINISTRATION. VOICE TWO: MOST OF WOODROW WILSON'S POLITICAL VICTORIES WERE ON NATIONAL ISSUES. HE HAD LITTLE EXPERIENCE WITH INTERNATIONAL ISSUES. BUT FOREIGN EVENTS SOON BEGAN TO DEMAND MORE AND MORE OF HIS TIME. WITH ALL OF HIS SUCCESSES AT HOME, IT IS A SURPRISING FACT OF HISTORY THAT HIS PRESIDENCY IS REMEMBERED BEST FOR ITS FOREIGN POLICY. THE STORY OF WOODROW WILSON'S FOREIGN POLICY IS FULL OF HIGH IDEAS AND POLITICAL BRAVERY. BUT IT ALSO IS A STORY OF FIERCE STRUGGLE AND LOST HOPES. IT IS A STORY THAT BEGINS ACROSS AMERICA'S SOUTHERN BORDER. . .IN MEXICO. VOICE ONE: AT THAT TIME, MEXICO HAD BEEN RULED FOR MANY YEARS BY PORFIRIO DIAZ. AS DIAZ GREW OLDER, HIS POWER BEGAN TO WEAKEN. IN NINETEEN-ELEVEN, A REVOLT BROKE OUT. IT WAS LED BY FRANCISCO MADERO, THE LEADER OF A LAND REFORM MOVEMENT. DIAZ UNDERSTOOD HE COULD NOT WIN. HE RESIGNED AND FLED THE COUNTRY. MADERO DECLARED HIMSELF PRESIDENT. HOWEVER, POWERFUL GROUPS IN MEXICO OPPOSED HIM. IN A SHORT TIME, ONE OF HIS OWN GENERALS, VICTORIANO HUERTA, ARRESTED HIM. MADERO WAS MURDERED SOON AFTER HUERTA SEIZED POWER. PRESIDENT WILSON REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE HUERTA'S GOVERNMENT. HE BELIEVED OTHER FORCES WOULD RISE UP AGAINST HIM. WILSON WAS RIGHT. ANOTHER REVOLT BEGAN, LED BY GENERAL VENUSTIANO CARRANZA. VOICE TWO: WILSON OFFERED AID TO CARRANZA. CARRANZA REJECTED THE OFFER. HE WAS AFRAID OF AMERICAN INTERFERENCE IN MEXICO. HE TOLD WILSON THAT MEXICAN TROOPS WOULD DO ALL THE FIGHTING. HE ONLY WANTED GUNS AND AMMUNITION. AMERICAN FORCES DID, HOWEVER, GET INVOLVED IN THE CONFLICT. PRESIDENT WILSON LEARNED THAT A SHIP FROM GERMANY WAS BRINGING SUPPLIES TO THE HUERTA GOVERNMENT. THE SHIP WOULD LAND AT THE MEXICAN PORT OF VERA CRUZ. WILSON ORDERED THE UNITED STATES NAVY TO SEIZE AND OCCUPY THE PORT. THE MOVE STARTED A STORM OF CRITICISM IN THE UNITED STATES AND THROUGHOUT LATIN AMERICA. VOICE ONE: MANY PEOPLE DENOUNCED PRESIDENT WILSON. THEY CALLED HIM AN IMPERIALIST AND A FOOL. THEY ASKED: WHAT RIGHT DID THE UNITED STATES HAVE TO INTERFERE IN MEXICO? WILSON FINALLY STOPPED AMERICAN MILITARY ACTION IN MEXICO. HE TRIED TO SETTLE THE DISPUTE AT AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT NIAGARA FALLS, CANADA. THE EFFORT FAILED. THE CONFERENCE DID NOT PRODUCE A SETTLEMENT. WHILE THE DIPLOMATS WERE TALKING, CARRANZA'S REVOLUTIONARY FORCES WERE FIGHTING. THEY MOVED ON MEXICO CITY, THE CAPITAL. PRESIDENT HUERTA FLED. CARRANZA FORMED A NEW GOVERNMENT. VOICE TWO: THE NEW GOVERNMENT BEGAN TO SPLIT APART ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. ANOTHER GENERAL, FRANCISCO "PANCHO" VILLA, TRIED TO SEIZE POWER. HE FORCED CARRANZA OUT OF MEXICO CITY. THEN HE FORMED HIS OWN GOVERNMENT. PRESIDENT WILSON RECOGNIZED VILLA AND HIS GOVERNMENT. CARRANZA, HOWEVER, REFUSED TO GIVE UP. DAY BY DAY, HIS ARMY GREW STRONGER. HE FORCED VILLA TO RETREAT. THEN PRESIDENT WILSON RECOGNIZED CARRANZA'S GOVERNMENT. LIKE CARRANZA, VILLA REFUSED TO GIVE UP. HE DECIDED TO TRY TO START A WAR BETWEEN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES. PANCHO VILLA WANTED THE UNITED STATES TO ATTACK CARRANZA. THEN HE WOULD STEP IN TO LEAD MEXICAN FORCES IN BATTLE. THAT WOULD MAKE HIM A HERO. WITH THIS PLAN IN MIND, PANCHO VILLA ATTACKED AN AMERICAN TOWN ACROSS THE BORDER IN TEXAS. HE KILLED NINETEEN PERSONS. VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT WILSON IMMEDIATELY ORDERED A LARGE AMERICAN FORCE TO FIND AND PUNISH VILLA. AT FIRST, CARRANZA WELCOMED THE MOVE. VILLA WAS HIS ENEMY. HE WANTED HIM CAPTURED. THEN CARRANZA BEGAN TO FEAR THAT THE AMERICAN TROOPS MIGHT THREATEN HIS GOVERNMENT. HE DEMANDED THE WITHDRAWAL OF ALL AMERICAN SOLDIERS FROM MEXICO. TENSIONS INCREASED BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES. VILLA'S FORCES ATTACKED ANOTHER TOWN IN TEXAS. PRESIDENT WILSON CONSIDERED ASKING CONGRESS TO DECLARE WAR. BUT THE CRISIS COOLED DOWN BEFORE THEN. AMERICAN FORCES WERE WITHDRAWN. AND THE PEOPLE OF MEXICO ELECTED A NEW GOVERNMENT. THEY CHOSE CARRANZA AS PRESIDENT. VOICE TWO: AS PRESIDENT WILSON DEALT WITH THE SITUATION IN MEXICO, TROUBLE BEGAN TO SURFACE IN ANOTHER PART OF THE WORLD. THE CRISIS WAS IN EUROPE. TENSIONS WERE GROWING BETWEEN SEVERAL GROUPS OF NATIONS. THEY WERE ON THE EDGE OF WHAT WOULD BECOME WORLD WAR ONE. THE MAJOR POWERS IN EUROPE HAD BEEN THREATENING EACH OTHER FOR YEARS. BUT THEY HAD NOT FOUGHT FOR MORE THAN FORTY YEARS. MOST AMERICANS BELIEVED THERE WOULD NEVER BE ANOTHER EUROPEAN WAR. SUCH A WAR WOULD BE UNBELIEVABLY DESTRUCTIVE. MILLIONS WOULD DIE. NO NATION WOULD WIN. VOICE ONE: EUROPE DEPENDED ON A BALANCE OF POWER TO KEEP THE PEACE. ON ONE SIDE WERE THE CENTRAL POWERS -- GERMANY, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, AND ITALY. ON THE OTHER SIDE WERE THE MEMBERS OF THE TRIPLE ENTENTE -- BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA. EACH SIDE MADE EVERY EFFORT TO WIN THE SUPPORT OF EUROPE'S SMALLER NATIONS. BULGARIA AND TURKEY SUPPORTED THE CENTRAL POWERS. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL WERE FRIENDLY WITH THE NATIONS OF THE TRIPLE ENTENTE. A NUMBER OF NATIONS REFUSED TO JOIN EITHER SIDE. THE NEUTRALS INCLUDED SWITZERLAND, BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS, AND THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES. VOICE TWO: THIS POLITICAL BALANCE DID NOT PREVENT THE MAJOR NATIONS FROM COMPETING WITH EACH OTHER FOR COLONIES AND ECONOMIC POWER. THEY COMPETED ALL OVER THE WORLD. IN CHINA, IN THE MIDDLE EAST, IN AFRICA -- EVERYWHERE MONEY COULD BE INVESTED. COMPETITION WAS ESPECIALLY SHARP IN THE BALKANS. THIS WAS THE AREA OF EUROPE BETWEEN THE ADRIATIC AND BLACK SEAS. MANY NATIONS CLAIMED SPECIAL INTERESTS IN THE BALKANS. AND SEVERAL BALKAN COUNTRIES WERE FIGHTING EACH OTHER. THE WHOLE CONTINENT SEEMED READY TO EXPLODE. VOICE ONE: THE SPARK THAT SET OFF THE EXPLOSION CAME IN THE CITY OF SARAJEVO. THE DATE WAS JUNE TWENTY-EIGHTH, NINETEEN-FOURTEEN. SARAJEVO HAD BEEN TAKEN OVER BY AUSTRIA. AND THE ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA -- FERDINAND -- HAD COME FOR A VISIT. FERDINAND WAS EXPECTED TO BECOME THE NEXT EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA. SEVEN YOUNG EXTREMISTS FROM THE AREA DECIDED TO ASSASSINATE THE ARCHDUKE TO PROTEST AUSTRIAN CONTROL. ONE OF THE EXTREMISTS THREW A BOMB AT THE ROYAL FAMILY. THE BOMB MISSED ITS TARGET. BUT ANOTHER EXTREMIST SHOT AT THE GROUP. HE KILLED BOTH THE ARCHDUKE AND THE ARCHDUKE'S WIFE. VOICE TWO: THE ASSASSINATIONS IN SARAJEVO STARTED A SERIES OF EVENTS THAT QUICKLY BROUGHT WAR TO ALL OF EUROPE. SOON THE CONTINENT WAS COVERED WITH ARMIES, BATTLES, AND DEATH. THE WAR IN EUROPE FORCED PRESIDENT WILSON TO FACE THE GREATEST CRISIS OF HIS PRESIDENCY. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE MAURICE JOYCE AND LARRY WEST. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME TIME, WHEN WE WILL CONTINUE THE STORY OF PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - August 31, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Bob Doughty. On our program today: We play music by John Lennon ... answer a question about eating eggs ... and tell about a new book written by someone at VOA. Key Monster HOST: Lee Dravis is a studio engineer here at the Voice of America. In fact, he is the engineer who is recording this show. Lee Dravis is also a published writer. His newest book is called “Key Monster.” Sarah Long has more. ANNCR: Lee Dravis says he got the idea for his book from hearing about a mysterious creature in the Chesapeake Bay, near Washington, D-C. This gave him the idea of writing about a man who sees a sea monster but nobody believes him. The main character in the book “Key Monster” is a boat captain named Eugene Winchell, or Winch for short. He tells people about a mysterious sea creature he has seen in the Chesapeake Bay. No one believes him, so he goes to the Florida city of Key West. But the monster moves in that direction too. Other people also join Winch in the Florida Keys. One is a baseball player who is trying to escape political problems in Cuba. Another is a former scientist who performs in nightclubs wearing women’s clothes. Also following Winch to the Keys is the former owner of his boat, who wants it back.Lee Dravis visited Key West while writing the book. He says it is not like anywhere else in the United States. The Florida Keys are a group of small islands between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Only one road links them. Key West is at the very end of these islands. Lee Dravis says that some of the people who live there are very strange. It was the perfect place for the characters in his book. Lee Dravis worked on the book for six months. He wrote it during weekends while continuing his job at VOA. He is now writing another book, called “Fenwick Street.” Lee Dravis says he likes writing books for the same reason he likes working in radio. You work alone, yet the product of the work could affect thousands or millions of people all over the world. Eating Eggs HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Truong Ai Hien asks if eating chicken eggs is good for your health. Eggs contain important protein, vitamins and minerals. These are found in two parts of the egg, the yolk and the white. The yolk is the yellow part of the egg. It contains a little less than half the protein of the egg. The yolk contains important minerals. And it has more vitamins than the white. These include vitamins A, D and E. Experts say that egg yolks are one of the few foods that contain vitamin D. The egg white is called the albumen. It contains more than half of the egg’s protein. It also contains important vitamins and minerals. For many years, people believed that eating eggs increased the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke because eggs contain cholesterol. Studies over the past few years, however, have shown that eating eggs is not a serious health concern. Research has found that saturated fat increases blood cholesterol levels the most. Saturated fat comes from animal products. One large egg contains about two-hundred-fifteen milligrams of cholesterol and five grams of fat. About one-and-one-half grams of that fat is saturated. Experts also say much of the concern about eggs was linked to how they were cooked. Eggs fried in butter or eaten with bacon greatly increase the saturated fat. The American Heart Association says healthy adults should limit their cholesterol to less than three-hundred milligrams a day. It says a healthy person should eat no more than four eggs a week. All the fat and cholesterol in an egg are in the yolk. So there are no limits for eating egg whites. Eggs sometimes contain bacteria that make people sick. Such bacteria can be killed by cooking the eggs well. Other kinds of organisms can attach to the outside of the egg. Experts say eggs should be kept in a cold place. Never eat eggs that are dirty, cracked, broken or leaking. Never serve food that includes uncooked eggs. And wash your hands before preparing eggs or any other food. John Lennon Exhibit HOST: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio has a special show about a famous musician. It tells about the life and music of John Lennon. Shep O'Neal tells us more. ANNCR: Music experts say John Lennon did not invent rock and roll. Yet he did more than anyone else to change it, move it forward and add social meaning to its songs. Many experts call him one of the greatest songwriters in the history of rock and roll. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum organized an exhibit about John Lennon. It opened in October. It honors the sixtieth anniversary of John Lennon’s birth in Liverpool, England, and the twentieth anniversary of his tragic death in New York City. Visitors can see hundreds of objects from Lennon’s life. There are reports from his teachers when he was a boy about his school work. More than thirty paintings and drawings he made throughout his life. The suit he wore as a member of the Beatles. His guitars and piano. And the handwritten words for twenty-five of his most famous songs. John Lennon helped form the Beatles in the Nineteen-Sixties. The group changed the sound of rock and roll music. Here the Beatles sing John Lennon’s song “Help!” ((CUT ONE: HELP!)) Later, John Lennon wrote songs that expressed his efforts for truth, peace and human rights. This one is called “Imagine.” ((CUT TWO – IMAGINE)) Recently, a British music magazine asked several songwriters, producers and musicians to name the best songs of the last century. They chose John Lennon’s “In My Life” as the top song. ((CUT THREE – IN MY LIFE) HOST: This is Bob Doughty. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Lee Dravis. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - August 31, 2001: Light Pollution
* Byline: 

 This is with the VOA Special English Environment Report. We usually think of pollution as a harmful waste substance that threatens the air and water. But some people have become concerned about another kind of pollution. It can be everywhere, depending on the time of day. And it is not thought of as a substance. It is light. The idea of light pollution has developed with the increase of lights in cities. In many areas, this light makes it difficult or impossible to observe stars and planets in the night sky. In Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, the International Dark-Sky Association formed. This organization wants to reduce light pollution in the night sky. It also urges the effective use of electric lighting. There are a number of reasons why light pollution is important. One has become clear at the Mount Wilson Observatory near Los Angeles, California. Mount Wilson Observatory was home to the largest telescopes in the world during the first half of the Nineteen-Hundreds. During that period, Los Angeles grew to become one of America’s biggest cities. Today, light from Los Angeles makes the night sky above Mount Wilson very bright. It is no longer an important research center because of light pollution. Light pollution threatens to reduce the scientific value of research telescopes in other important observatories. They include Lick Observatory near San Jose, California and Yerkes Observatory near Chicago, Illinois. Light pollution is the result of wasted energy. Bright light that shines into the sky is not being used to provide light where it is needed on Earth. Poorly designed lighting causes a great deal of light pollution. Lights that are brighter than necessary also cause light pollution. Recently, two Italian astronomers and an American environmental scientist created a world map of the night sky. The map shows that North America, Western Europe and Japan have the greatest amount of light pollution. Most people in America are surprised to find out that they are able to see our own galaxy, The Milky Way, with their own eyes. But about three-fourths of Americans cannot see the Milky Way because of man-made light. Objects in the night sky are resources that provide everyone with wonder. But light pollution threatens to prevent those wonderful sights from being seen. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 3, 2001: Leishmaniasis Disease
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Health experts are growing concerned about the rise in leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis) disease around the world. Currently, the World Health Organization estimates twelve-million people are infected with the disease. However, experts say that number is low because leishmaniasis has spread during the past ten years. They say that three-hundred-fifty million people in eighty-eight countries may be at risk of being infected. Leishmaniasis is caused by tiny organisms called parasites. Small insects called sand flies spread the disease. Barbara Herwaldt is a health expert at the Centers for Disease Control in the United States. She says there are two major forms of leishmaniasis. The visceral form affects organs in the body. It can cause death if not treated quickly. Signs of visceral leishmaniasis include high body temperature, weight loss, a swelling of the liver and spleen and blood problems. Another kind of leishmaniasis is called cutaneous, or skin-related. It causes serious wounds on the face, arms and legs. Although leishmaniasis is found in almost ninety countries, the majority of cases are in just a few countries. Most victims of visceral leishmaniasis are in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal and Sudan. The majority of skin-related cases are in Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Health experts say public knowledge of leishmaniasis has been lacking. In addition, only thirty-two countries affected by the disease currently report their cases. Health experts believe only six-hundred-thousand cases are officially reported of an estimated two-million new cases each year. The ability to treat leishmaniasis differs around the world. Tests to identify the disease may be difficult to perform. Health experts are also concerned about a lack of money for treatments. Because of these problems, they say researchers need to develop a vaccine medicine to prevent the disease. Experts say a vaccine is becoming even more urgent as AIDS and H-I-V cases increase around the world. They say leishmaniasis increases the rate at which AIDS develops. And the number of people with both diseases is increasing in many areas of the world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 2, 2001: Billie Holiday
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. This week, we tell about Billie Holiday. She was one of the greatest jazz singers in America. ((MUSIC CUT #1: "God Bless the Child")) VOICE ONE: That was Billie Holiday singing one of her famous songs. She and Arthur Herzog wrote it. Billie Holiday's life was a mixture of success and tragedy. Her singing expressed her experiences and her feelings. VOICE TWO: Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Nineteen-Fifteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Sadie Fagan and Clarence Holiday. They were young when their daughter was born. Their marriage failed because Clarence Holiday was not at home much. He traveled as a musician with some of the earliest jazz bands. Sadie Fagan cleaned people's houses. But she could not support her family on the money she earned. So she moved to New York City where the pay was higher. She left her daughter in Baltimore with members of her family. VOICE ONE: The young girl Eleanora Fagan changed her name to Billie, because she liked a movie star, Billie Dove. Billie Holiday loved to sing. She sang and listened to music whenever she could. One place near her home had a machine that played records. The building was a brothel where women who were prostitutes had sex with men for money. Billie cleaned floors and did other jobs for the prostitutes so she could listen to the records. It was there that young Billie first heard the records of famous black American blues artists of the Nineteen-Twenties. She heard Bessie Smith sing the blues. And she heard Louis Armstrong play the horn. Both musicians had a great influence on her. VOICE TWO: BIllie Holiday once said, "I do not think I'm singing. I feel like I am playing a horn. What comes out is what I feel. I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That is all I know." Here is Billie Holiday singing a popular song of the Nineteen-Thirties, "More than You Know." ((MUSIC CUT #2: "More Than You Know")) VOICE ONE: Billie Holiday had a tragic childhood. When she was ten, a man sexually attacked her. She was accused of causing the man to attack her and sent to a prison for children. In Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Billie joined her mother in Harlem, the area of New York City where African-Americans lived. Billie's mother mistakenly sent her to live in a brothel. Billie became a prostitute at the age of thirteen. One day, she refused the sexual demands of a man. She was arrested and spent four months in prison. VOICE TWO: Two years later, Billie's mother became sick and could not work. Fifteen-year-old Billie tried to find a job. Finally, she was given a job singing at a place in Harlem where people went at night to drink alcohol and listen to music. For the next seventeen years, Holiday was one of the most popular night club singers in New York. She always wore a long white evening dress. And she wore large white flowers in her black hair. She called herself "Lady Day." VOICE ONE: In the early Nineteen-Thirties, a music producer, John Hammond, heard Billie Holiday sing in a night club. He called her the best jazz singer he had ever heard. He brought famous people to hear her sing. Hammond produced Holiday's first records. He got the best jazz musicians to play. They included Benny Goodman on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Ben Webster on saxaphone. They recorded many famous songs with Billie Holiday. "I Wished on the Moon" is one of them. ((MUSIC CUT #3: "I Wished on the Moon")) VOICE TWO: In the late Nineteen-Thirties, Billy Holiday sang with Artie Shaw's band as it traveled around the United States. She was one of the first black singers to perform with a white band. But racial separation laws in America made travel difficult for her. During this time, a new nightclub opened in the area of New York called Greenwich Village. It was the first club that had both black and white performers. And it welcomed both black and white people to hear the performers. The night club was called Cafe Society. It was here that Billy Holiday first sang a song called "Strange Fruit." A school teacher named Lewis Allan had written it for her. The song was about injustice and oppression of black people in the southern part of the United States. It told about how mobs of white men had killed black men by hanging them from trees. Many people objected to the song. It was unlike any other popular song. But it was a huge hit. Here is Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit." ((MUSIC CUT #4: "Strange Fruit")) VOICE ONE: In the Nineteen-Forties, Holiday started using the illegal drug heroin. Soon her body needed more and more of the drug. It began to affect her health. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, Billie Holiday was arrested for possessing illegal drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to nine months in prison. When she was released, New York City officials refused to give her a document that permitted her to work in any place that served alcoholic drinks. This meant Holiday no longer could sing in night clubs and jazz clubs. She could sing only in theaters and concert halls. Ten days after her release from jail, she performed at New York's famous Carnegie Hall. People filled the place to hear her sing. This is one of the songs she sang at that concert. It is called "I Cover the Waterfront." ((MUSIC CUT #5: "I Cover the Waterfront")) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Six, Billie Holiday wrote a book about her life. The book was called Lady Sings the Blues. A friend at the New York Post newspaper, William Dufty, helped her write the book. A few months later, she was arrested again for possessing illegal drugs. But instead of going to prison, she was permitted to seek treatment to end her dependence on drugs. The treatment was successful. That same year, she performed her second concert at Carnegie Hall. Here is one of the songs Holiday sang that night. It is called "Lady Sings the Blues." She and Herbie Nichols wrote it. ((MUSIC CUT #6: "LADY SINGS THE BLUES." VOICE ONE: Billy Holiday's health was ruined by using illegal drugs and by drinking too much alcohol. Her last performance was in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. She had to be led off the stage after singing two songs. She died that year. She was only forty-four. But Lady Day lives on through her recordings that continue to influence the best jazz singers. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 3, 2001: Labor Movement Songs
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Labor Day is an American holiday that honors working people. It is celebrated each year on the first Monday of September. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we play some songs from the American labor movement on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. (THEME) VOICE ONE: The labor movement in the United States has been very successful. It has won many rights for American workers. The struggle for these rights was long and difficult. Yet few people remember the battles. Americans know about them mostly through music. For music was an important part of the campaign for workers' rights. The songs are stories of struggle and pride. Struggle to win good pay and working conditions. Pride in work that is well done. Some of the songs tell of working long hours for little pay. Some tell of the bitter, sometimes violent, struggle between workers and business owners. VOICE TWO: Union activists knew that songs could be weapons. The music was a way to help people feel strong and united. So most labor songs express the workers' hope that a union could make life better. The people who wrote labor songs were workers and activists, not professional musicians. Usually they did not write new music. They wrote new words to old songs. One example is the song "We Shall Not Be Moved." It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song. Here is folksinger Pete Seeger. ((TAPE CUT 1: "We Shall Not Be Moved")) VOICE ONE: Many of the best labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the southern United States. Coal mining was perhaps the most dangerous job in America. There were few health or safety rules to protect workers. The labor movement demanded action. But mine owners bitterly opposed miners' unions. In some areas, there was open war between labor activists and coal companies. VOICE TWO: Once in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to the home of one man. They did not find him there. So, they waited outside for several days. The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are You On?" Again, here is Pete Seeger. ((TAPE CUT 2: "Which Side Are You On?”)) VOICE ONE: Joe Hill was probably the most famous labor song writer in America. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. He worked as an unskilled laborer. Joe Hill joined a labor union called the I-W-W, the Industrial Workers of the World. More than any other union, the I-W-W used music in its campaigns. It told its members to "sing and fight." One of Joe Hill's best-known songs is "Casey Jones." It uses the music from a song about a train engineer. In the old song, Jones is a hero. He bravely keeps his train running in very difficult conditions. In Joe Hill's version, Casey Jones is no hero. His train is unsafe. Yet he continues to operate it after other workers have called a strike against the railroad company. Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers sing "Casey Jones – The Union Scab.” ((TAPE CUT 3: "Casey Jones—the Union Scab")) VOICE TWO: When labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill was thirty-three years old, he was accused of murder. Some historians believe that police falsely accused him of murder to stop his labor activities. Others say there was strong evidence that he was guilty. Joe Hill was executed in Nineteen-Fifteen in the state of Utah. Reports say these were his last words: "Do not waste time feeling sad about my death. Organize the workers." The song "Joe Hill" was written by Earl Robinson and Alfred Hayes. It is sung here by Joan Baez. ((TAPE CUT 4: "Joe Hill")) VOICE ONE: Labor historian and musician Joe Glazer says the unofficial song of America's labor movement is the song called "Solidarity Forever." It was written in Nineteen-Fifteen by Ralph Chaplin. He was a poet and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World union. Ralph Chaplin wanted to write a song of revolution. He said it should show that workers would always unite to claim their rights. Here is “Solidarity Forever,” sung by the Whiteville Choir. These singers are members of a clothing workers union in Whiteville, North Carolina. ((TAPE CUT 5: "Solidarity Forever")) VOICE TWO: To most Americans today, labor songs are part of the past. One reason is that labor unions have gotten smaller. Another reason is that American culture has changed. People do not sing in group meetings as much as they once did. Still, many workers enjoy hearing and singing labor songs. One popular historical song is called “Bread and Roses.” Clothing workers used these words to describe their movement in Nineteen-Oh-Eight. That year, one-hundred-twenty-eight women died in a factory fire in New York City. Fifteen-thousand women marched to protest unsafe conditions in the factory. VOICE ONE: Four years later, the words “Bread and Roses” appeared on a flag carried by textile workers during a strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That gave a member of the International Workers of the World the idea for a song. James Oppenheim wrote the song “Bread and Roses.” Pat Humphries sings it. ((TAPE CUT 6: "Bread and Roses”)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Carolyn Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-31-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 1, 2001: Federal Budget/Social Security
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. American budget experts say the federal government’s budget surplus will be gone soon. Taxes paid by Americans had created thousands of millions of dollars more than the federal government needed. However, the budget surplus now is forty-five percent less than it was four months ago. The Congressional Budget Office, known as the C-B-O, released a report this week. The C-B-O is a non-political agency that advises Congress about budget issues. It says the federal surplus will continue to shrink because of the weak economy and President Bush’s plan to return tax money to the public. It says the government will have to begin paying for federal programs with money that is part of the Social Security system. Social Security is paid for by a separate tax on wages. American workers receive money from Social Security when they retire. Since Nineteen-Eighty-Three, Social Security has collected more in taxes from workers each year than it has needed to pay. This has created a surplus of money in the Social Security system. C-B-O experts say the government will need to use some of the Social Security surplus in the next federal spending year, which begins September Thirtieth. Officials said about nine-thousand-million dollars of this money would be needed to pay for next year’s proposed government spending plan. They said that the tax cuts and slow economic growth will create a need to use Social Security money for the next two years. Officials of the Bush administration say it is still too soon to tell if Social Security money will be needed. They say the tax money being returned to the public could help the economy improve. Economic experts say the C-B-O report means Congress must now closely examine the Bush Administration’s new spending proposals. These include more money for defense, a missile defense system, education improvements, and aid for older citizens who need medical drugs. Republican and Democratic members of Congress have said the Social Security surplus must not be used to pay for government spending. They say any surplus can be used only for decreasing the national debt. Mitch Daniels is the budget director for the Bush administration. He says the Social Security surplus has been used in the past for purposes other than paying money to retired Americans. He said it would be a mistake to not support increased spending proposals for defense and education. Congress has not approved any of the thirteen spending bills needed to keep the government operating past September Thirtieth. Congress must now examine each of the thirteen bills to see if any money can be cut from the spending proposals. Political experts say that some very difficult decisions will have to be made. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-31-5-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – September 4, 2001: Salt-Resistant Tomato
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists have produced the first tomato that can grow in salty water. Salty water is generally harmful to plants. Plant expert Eduardo Blumwald and his team found a way to direct salt away from the fruit of tomato plants. Mister Blumwald works at the University of California at Davis. The tomatoes were grown at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. The publication Nature Biotechnology reported the findings. Mister Blumwald says the discovery will be important for agriculture around the world. Farmers use irrigation to water land by other than natural methods. It helps farmers in areas that have long periods of little or no rainfall. Crop irrigation also increases the salt levels of soils and water. It leaves sodium, calcium, magnesium and other chemicals in the farm land. The chemicals come from the soils and rock that the water passes through. With time, they decrease the productivity of the land. Experts at the University of California report that high levels of salt from irrigation have damaged about forty percent of the world’s farmland. American officials estimate that irrigation-produced salt is responsible for the loss of ten-million hectares of farmland worldwide each year. Many areas treated with irrigated water are so salty that some crops can no longer grow. Salty water harms the ability of most plants to take in water through their root cells. The flow of water into the plant may stop if salt levels in the soil are very high. Mister Blumwald’s team used genetic engineering to stop this effect. The scientists gave their tomato plants a gene from the Arabidopsis plant. The gene controls the production of a transport protein. The transport protein uses energy in cells to move salt into areas within cells called vacuoles. When the salt is inside vacuoles it cannot interfere with the plant’s normal biochemical activity. The salt-storing activity takes place only in the leaves of the tomato plants. So the tomato fruit is not harmed. The researchers say these tomato plants also removed salt from the soil. The scientists said the plants grew and produced fruit in water fifty times saltier than normal. Experts say these tomatoes offer hope that other crops can be genetically engineered to grow in areas of the world that have salty irrigation water and salt-damaged soil. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-08/a-2001-08-31-6-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 4, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about how diet and exercise can reduce a person’s chance of developing diabetes. We tell about a World Health Organization campaign against leprosy. And we tell about a project to copy some trees at George Washington’s home. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: An American study has found that diet changes and exercise can delay the development of diabetes in people who are at risk for the disease. The study found that eating less fat and doing simple exercises could lower the risk of diabetes by fifty-eight percent. It also showed that a diabetes drug widely used by Americans also reduced the risk, but not as much. Diet and exercise were so effective that the researchers ended the study one year early because it had answered the main research questions. Smaller studies in China and Finland have shown that diet and exercise can delay diabetes in people at risk. However, the American study is said to be the first to show these effects among people in several racial or ethnic groups. VOICE TWO: A person has diabetes when high levels of the sugar called glucose are found in the blood. Glucose levels increase when the body lacks or cannot use the hormone insulin. The pancreas is the organ of the body that produces insulin. The insulin helps glucose enter cells all over the body so that it can be used as fuel. Without insulin, glucose levels increase. This results in the disease diabetes. In the United States, diabetes affects more than sixteen-million people. It is the leading cause of kidney failure and new cases of blindness among adults. It also is a major cause of heart disease and stroke. About fifteen-million Americans have type two diabetes or adult onset diabetes. Type two diabetes usually develops in people thirty years of age or older. It is strongly linked to being overweight and not getting enough physical activity. Also, some racial or ethnic groups are more at risk. For example, black Americans have a sixty percent higher rate of type two diabetes compared to white Americans. Hispanic Americans have a ninety percent higher rate of the disease. VOICE ONE: The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases organized the new study. It involved more than three-thousand-two-hundred people. All the people in the study were overweight. And they all had impaired glucose tolerance. This is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet diabetic. Forty-five percent of the people in the study are members of minority groups that have a high rate of type-two diabetes. These groups include African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and American Indians. The study also involved other groups known to be at higher risk for type two diabetes. They include adults over sixty years of age and people who have a close family member with the disease. VOICE TWO: People in the study were divided into four groups. Members of the first group were asked to reduce their body weight by seven percent. They were told to eat a low-fat diet and exercise about twenty minutes a day. Members of the second group were treated with metformin, a diabetes drug widely used in the United States. The third group took a harmless substance or placebo in place of the drug. Members of the second and third groups also received information about diet and exercise. The fourth group was given the same information and the drug troglitazone. However, this part of the study was ended after studies found that troglitazone may cause liver damage. VOICE ONE: After about three years, about twenty-nine percent of those who took the placebo developed type two diabetes. Twenty-two percent of the people who took metformin developed the disease. Only fourteen percent of those in the diet and exercise group developed the disease. American Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced the findings of the study last month. He said that diet and exercise could help at least ten-million Americans sharply lower their risk for diabetes. He added that many other health problems could be avoided through diet and exercise. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) The World Health Organization says its ten-year campaign to remove leprosy as a world health problem has been successful. Gro Harlem Brundtland is head of the Geneva-based W-H-O. She says the number of leprosy cases around the world has been cut by ninety percent during the past ten years. She says efforts are continuing to completely end the disease. Leprosy is caused by bacteria spread through liquid from the nose and mouth. The disease mainly affects the skin and nerves. However, if leprosy is not treated it can cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, eyes, arms or legs. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, an international campaign began to end leprosy. The World Health Organization, governments of countries most affected by the disease, and several other groups are part of the campaign. This alliance guarantees that all leprosy patients, even if they are poor, have a right to the most modern treatment. Doctor Brundtland says leprosy is no longer a disease that requires life-long treatments by medical experts. Instead, patients can take what is called a “multi-drug therapy.” This modern treatment will cure leprosy in six to twelve months, depending on the form of the disease. The treatment combines several drugs taken daily or once a month. VOICE TWO: The W-H-O has given multi-drug therapy to patients free for the last five years. The members of the alliance against leprosy plan to target the countries still threatened by leprosy. Among the estimated six-hundred-thousand victims around the world, the W-H-O believes about seventy percent are in India. The disease also remains a problem in Africa and South America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Tree experts have begun an effort to rebuild forests near the home of America’s first president, George Washington. Last month, workers gathered buds from tall, old trees on the grounds of George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. It is in the state of Virginia, near Washington, D-C. The experts hope to produce genetic copies, or clones, of the trees and plant them on the property. The process used to clone trees is called grafting. It has been done for thousands of years. A method called the T-bud technique often is used to copy trees. Workers begin by cutting the bark, or covering, on the side of a young tree. The cut is made in the shape of a cross, or the letter T. Next, the workers find a bud, or small growth, on the tree to be copied. A small piece of wood under the bud is carefully removed from the tree. The bud is then put into the hole on the other tree. The bud is tightly tied in place and begins to grow. VOICE TWO: Tree experts David Milarch (MILL-ark) and his son, Jared, are leading the efforts. They started the Champion Tree Project to produce genetic copies of the largest trees in the United States. Over the next ten years, the project plans to provide Mount Vernon with one-thousand trees for planting in nearby wooded areas. As a special project, David and Jared Milarch offered to make clones of the thirteen oldest trees at Mount Vernon. They are huge, beautiful trees. George Washington supervised the planting of these trees more than two-hundred years ago. The Milarch family plans to grow fifty copies of each tree in tree nurseries in Alabama and Oregon. They will return the trees to be planted at Mount Vernon in two years. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Jill Moss and George Grow. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – September 5, 2001: Digestive System Camera
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. The American government has approved a device that lets doctors see detailed images from inside the human body. The Food and Drug Administration approved marketing of a device as small as a medicine pill. The patient swallows the device. It contains a very small video camera. It travels through the stomach, small intestine and large intestine. The camera sends color images to a special receiver worn by the patient. The body expels the camera with its wastes. Later, the doctor downloads the images from the receiver to see them on a computer. The product is called the Given Diagnostic Imaging System. An Israeli company, Given Imaging Limited, developed the unusual device. The company has offices in the United States, Australia and Germany. Currently, doctors use a method called endoscopy to provide images of the small intestines. An endoscope is a long thin tube with a small camera on the end. Doctors use endoscopy to identify growths, cancer and causes of bleeding. Doctors place the endoscope down a patient’s throat to look at the small intestine. However, endoscopes are not able to reach all the way through the small intestine because the organ is six meters long. The F-D-A says the new device takes pictures of the entire small intestine. It helps doctors see areas in the small intestine that endoscopes cannot reach. The Given Diagnostic Imaging System contains a camera, lights, a transmitter and power supply. The power supply has an expected life of eight hours. That generally is long enough to take pictures of the small intestine, but not the large intestine. F-D-A officials say the device was tested in twenty patients who had signs of disorders of the small intestine. Officials say the device discovered intestinal problems in twelve patients. A traditional endoscope found problems in only seven of the patients. A combination of different tests identified fourteen problems in thirteen of the twenty patients. The Food and Drug Administration says the Given Diagnostic Imaging System is safe and has no side effects. It approved the device for use along with other methods to examine the small intestines. The device was not tested in the large intestine. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 5, 2001: Indiana Dunes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Indiana Dunes. These hills of sand are not far from Chicago, Illinois. They rise on the shores of Lake Michigan, one of America’s Five Great Lakes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people visit the sand hills in the middle Western state of Indiana each year. The winds along Lake Michigan created some of these dunes in ancient times. Other dunes may be building right now. The winds create dunes when they drop loose sand onto land. Some dunes look partly round. Others take the form of long, narrow hills. Visitors from all over the world explore the Indiana dunes area. They swim and sail in the lake. They watch birds in the wetlands. They study plant life in the rich forests of oak trees and maple trees. The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make a clear musical sound when people walk on them. Some of these sounds can be heard ten meters away. Visitors often say that the sand dunes “sing.” VOICE TWO: The Indiana state government and the federal government control more than six thousand hectares of land along the lake. They operate parks with visitors’ areas and scientific research stations. Supervision by these agencies guarantees that the land will always belong to the public. Laws protect the plants, animals, and natural and historical points of interest. During the twentieth century many people worked hard to save the dunes from development for industrial and port uses. This was not easy. The land along that area of Lake Michigan is extremely valuable. Some of the land provides important lake ports. Industries like Bethlehem Steel, Midwest Steel and Indiana’s natural-gas company also operate along the lake. VOICE ONE: In the early Nineteen-Fifties some companies were removing five tons of sand each day from the dunes. Scientists of the Indiana Geological Survey investigated the sand supply in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. They said the dunes had enough sand to continue removing it at that rate for about fifty to one-hundred years. The wind and waves of Lake Michigan created the dunes over fifteen-thousand years. Yet people could destroy the dunes in a lifetime. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: The federal government established the National Park Service in Nineteen-Sixteen. A Chicago businessman named Stephen T. Mather was its first director. Mister Mather created many national parks. He wanted the Indiana dunes to be a national park, too. But the world was on the edge of a war. World War One began in Nineteen-Seventeen. Congress was not thinking about creating parks. It was thinking about soldiers and military supplies. Public support for a protected dunes park continued to grow, however. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Indiana passed a bill providing tax money to buy property along the lake from its private owners. Four years later the Indiana Dunes State Park opened. It contained more than eight-hundred hectares of land. VOICE ONE: Area citizens, scientists and visitors were pleased with the state park. But they did not feel satisfied. They wanted much more land along the lake protected from being used for more factories and industrial ports. Activist Dorothy Buell led the campaign for a national park in the dunes. The Save the Dunes Council was formed in Nineteen-Fifty-Two. The proposed park met opposition from Indiana congressional representatives. The congressmen said ports on the lake would provide more jobs for local workers than a national park. Yet the Save the Dunes Council found a powerful friend in United States Senator Paul H. Douglas. He represented the nearby state of Illinois. Senator Douglas loved the dunes. Every year he would introduce a bill to create an Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. But every year the bill failed to pass. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, people who wanted more development finally reached a compromise with people who wanted a national park. Congress first passed a bill to develop more ports. But then, it also created the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. More land was added to the park in later legislation. Today the six-thousand hectares of the federal Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore also include the Indiana Dunes State Park. ((BRIDGE MUSIC )) VOICE ONE: Many people have lived in the dunes. Scientists say the first settlers arrived twelve-thousand years ago. They hunted huge creatures like the mastodon, which were similar to the modern elephant. Centuries later native Americans used the dunes to travel between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Miami Indians and Potawatomi Indians harvested local plants for medicine and food. They trapped animals covered with fur in the wetlands and rivers. VOICE TWO: A modern federal road follows a walking path in the dunes called the Beach Trail. Once this trail was a path between two forts built to provide protection against attacks by native Indian tribes. These forts became Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan. In Eighteen-Twenty-Two, a trader from the state of Michigan settled in the Indiana dunes. This man, Joseph Bailly, wanted to trade with the Potawatomi Indians. He opened a store and raised a family near Lake Michigan. He exchanged warm blankets and guns for the animal furs supplied by Indians and travelers. At first, Mister Bailly and his family lived in a small wood home. The trader was building a bigger house when he died. The National Park Service has repaired the outside of this large white home. Now the house looks as it did in Nineteen-Seventeen when the last member of the Bailly family lived there. VOICE ONE: A student from the University of Chicago brought scientific knowledge to the dunes. Henry Chandler Cowles received money from the university to study landforms and plant fossils from the time when ice covered much of the world. In Eighteen Ninety-Six, Mister Cowles decided the Indiana dunes would be an excellent place for his research. Mister Cowles’ research showed how plant communities could make important changes in land. His work showed how groups of plants could create conditions for a sand dune to become a living forest. Mister Cowles became a well known professor and researcher. He did not invent the scientific study of how plants and animals relate to their environment. Yet the work of Henry Chandler Cowles in the Indiana Dunes helped spread the science of ecology throughout the world. VOICE TWO: Other scientists have explained how the sand hills form. They say a huge thick river of ice helped create the Indiana dunes. Thousands of years ago this glacier moved over what is now central Indiana. As the glacier moved, heavy ice crushed rocks into very small pieces. Over time, part of the glacier became a body of water called Lake Chicago, an early version of Lake Michigan. The melting glacier dropped the sand it had created around the lake. The sands of the present-day Lake Michigan are always moving. The winds and waves of the lake carry sand to the surrounding land. Strong winds lift the sand when it lands on the shore. Then the winds drop the sand on the land below. This process starts building new dunes. VOICE ONE: Over time, plant life develops on these sand hills. For example, a tree called a cottonwood is usually first to grow on a new dune. Cottonwood trees being buried by sand grow roots along their trunks. The roots help hold the dune in place. Sometimes a fire or another destructive event removes plant life or trees from a dune. Then the winds dig a hole in the sand. The winds use loose sand from the hole to create a large dune that moves. Such a dune can damage or destroy anything in its way. One such dune has half-buried several summer homes near Lake Michigan. VOICE TWO: A dune called Mount Baldy guards the northern end of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Beautiful trees encircle its lower parts. Thousands of people climb the thirty-eight meters to the top of Mount Baldy each year. But getting there can be difficult. Climbers discover that their footsteps up the tall hill of sand often cause them to fall back again. Jessica Wolfard is a seventeen-year-old student from the Chicago area. Jessica climbed Mount Baldy last month. She said it was worth the effort. From the top she looked for a long time at the bright-blue lake, the sand and the green forests below. VOICE ONE: Irene Watson of Chicago is ninety years old. She is Jessica’s great-grandmother. Seventy years ago, Missus Watson also climbed in the Indiana dunes. She says, “I am so glad the dunes have been saved for my children and their children and all those to come. ” ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Keith Holmes. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 6, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 3
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) IN NINETEEN-FOURTEEN, EUROPE EXPLODED INTO FLAMES AS WORLD WAR ONE BEGAN. IT WAS A WAR NO NATION REALLY WANTED. BUT NO NATION SEEMED ABLE TO STOP IT. THE ASSASSINATION OF AUSTRIA'S ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND IN THE CITY OF SARAJEVO WAS THE SPARK THAT SET OFF THE EXPLOSION. I'M KAY GALLANT. TODAY, HARRY MONROE AND I TELL ABOUT THE WAR AND HOW IT AFFECTED THE UNITED STATES AND PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. VOICE TWO: THE AUSTRIAN ARCHDUKE WAS MURDERED BY SERBIAN NATIONALISTS. THEY OPPOSED AUSTRIAN CONTROL OF THEIR HOMELAND. AFTER THE ASSASSINATION, AUSTRIA DECLARED WAR ON SERBIA. ONE OF SERBIA'S ALLIES WAS RUSSIA. RUSSIA AGREED TO HELP SERBIA IN ANY WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA. AUSTRIA HAD ALLIES, TOO. THE MOST IMPORTANT WAS GERMANY. GERMANY WANTED RUSSIA TO STAY OUT OF THE WAR. WHEN RUSSIA REFUSED, GERMANY DECLARED WAR ON RUSSIA. THEN GERMANY DECLARED WAR ON RUSSIA'S CLOSE ALLY, FRANCE. BRITAIN ENTERED THE WAR A FEW DAYS LATER WHEN GERMANY VIOLATED THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM. VOICE ONE: ONE NATION AFTER ANOTHER ENTERED THE CONFLICT TO PROTECT ITS FRIENDS OR TO HONOR ITS TREATIES. WITHIN A WEEK, MOST OF EUROPE WAS AT WAR. ON ONE SIDE WERE THE CENTRAL POWERS: GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. ON THE OTHER SIDE WERE THE TRIPLE ENTENTE ALLIES: FRANCE, BRITAIN, AND RUSSIA. MANY OTHER NATIONS TOOK SIDES. BULGARIA AND TURKEY JOINED THE CENTRAL POWERS. ITALY, ROMANIA, PORTUGAL, AND GREECE JOINED THE ALLIES. VOICE TWO: THE UNITED STATES HOPED TO STAY OUT OF THE WAR. PRESIDENT WILSON IMMEDIATELY DECLARED AMERICAN NEUTRALITY. HE SAID: "IT IS A WAR WITH WHICH WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO, WHOSE CAUSES CANNOT TOUCH US." MOST AMERICANS AGREED WITH PRESIDENT WILSON. THEY DID NOT WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN THE FIGHTING. HOWEVER, MANY FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO REMAIN NEUTRAL IN THEIR HEARTS. SOME AMERICANS HAD FAMILY ROOTS IN GERMANY. THEY SUPPORTED THE CENTRAL POWERS. A GREATER NUMBER OF AMERICANS HAD FAMILY ROOTS IN BRITAIN OR FRANCE. THEY SUPPORTED THE ALLIES. YET THE OFFICIAL AMERICAN POLICY WAS NEUTRALITY. THE UNITED STATES PLANNED TO CONTINUE TO TRADE WITH BOTH SIDES. VOICE ONE: GERMANY AND AUSTRIA EXPECTED A QUICK VICTORY IN THE WAR. THEY WERE CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO POWERFUL ENEMIES: RUSSIA AND FRANCE. BUT GERMAN MILITARY LEADERS WERE NOT WORRIED. THEY HAD A BATTLE PLAN THEY WERE SURE WOULD SUCCEED. THE GERMAN GENERALS PLANNED TO STRIKE QUICKLY AT FRANCE WITH MOST OF THE GERMAN ARMY. THEY EXPECTED TO DEFEAT FRANCE IN A SHORT TIME AND THEN TURN TO FIGHT RUSSIA. IN THIS WAY, THE GERMAN ARMY WOULD NOT HAVE TO FIGHT BOTH ENEMIES AT THE SAME TIME. VOICE TWO: AT FIRST, THE PLAN WORKED. TWO-MILLION GERMAN SOLDIERS SWEPT ACROSS BELGIUM AND INTO FRANCE. THEY RUSHED FORWARD TOWARD PARIS, HOPING FOR A FAST VICTORY. BUT THE GERMAN COMMANDERS MADE A MISTAKE. THEY PUSHED THEIR MEN TOO FAST. WHEN BRITISH AND FRENCH FORCES STRUCK BACK -- OUTSIDE PARIS -- THE TIRED AND WORN GERMAN SOLDIERS COULD NOT HOLD THEIR POSITIONS. THE BATTLE WAS FIERCE AND UNBELIEVABLY BLOODY. IN THE END, THE GERMANS WERE FORCED TO WITHDRAW. THE GERMAN WITHDRAWAL GAVE THE ALLIES TIME TO PREPARE STRONG DEFENSES. THERE WAS NO CHANCE NOW FOR A QUICK GERMAN VICTORY. INSTEAD, IT WOULD BE A LONG WAR, WITH GERMANY AND AUSTRIA FACING ENEMIES ON TWO SIDES. BRITAIN AND FRANCE WERE ON THE WEST. RUSSIA WAS ON THE EAST. VOICE ONE: THE ALLIES TOOK IMMEDIATE STEPS TO REDUCE GERMANY'S TRADE WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. THE BRITISH NAVY BEGAN SEIZING WAR SUPPLIES FOUND ON NEUTRAL SHIPS SAILING TOWARD GERMAN PORTS. IT THEN EXPANDED ITS EFFORTS TO BLOCK FOOD EXPORTS TO GERMANY. THE BLOCKADE BY BRITAIN AND THE OTHER ALLIES WAS VERY SUCCESSFUL. GERMANY FACED POSSIBLE STARVATION. ITS NAVY WAS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE WITH SURFACE SHIPS. ITS ONLY HOPE WAS TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE WITH ANOTHER NAVAL WEAPON: SUBMARINES. GERMANY ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD USE ITS SUBMARINES TO SINK ANY SHIP THAT CAME NEAR THE COAST OF BRITAIN. THE THREAT INCLUDED SHIPS FROM NEUTRAL NATIONS THAT TRIED TO CONTINUE TRADING WITH THE ALLIES. VOICE TWO: THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER NEUTRAL NATIONS IMMEDIATELY PROTESTED THE GERMAN ANNOUNCEMENT. THEY SAID IT WAS A CLEAR VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW. WHEN A GERMAN SUBMARINE SANK A BRITISH SHIP IN THE IRISH SEA, ONE OF THE VICTIMS WAS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. A FEW WEEKS LATER, AN AMERICAN OIL SHIP WAS DAMAGED DURING A SEA BATTLE BETWEEN BRITISH NAVY SHIPS AND A GERMAN SUBMARINE. THEN CAME THE MOST SERIOUS INCIDENT OF ALL. IT INVOLVED A BRITISH PASSENGER SHIP CALLED THE LUSITANIA. THE LUSITANIA WAS SAILING FROM NEW YORK CITY TO BRITAIN WHEN IT WAS ATTACKED BY A GERMAN SUBMARINE. THE LUSITANIA SANK IN EIGHTEEN MINUTES. ONE-THOUSAND TWO-HUNDRED PERSONS WERE KILLED. ONE-HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE WERE AMERICANS. VOICE ONE: THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA SHOCKED AND HORRIFIED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THEY CALLED IT MASS MURDER. THEY TURNED AGAINST GERMANY. PRESIDENT WILSON WARNED THAT HE MIGHT DECLARE WAR ON GERMANY, IF GERMANY CONTINUED TO SINK CIVILIAN SHIPS. GERMANY DID NOT WANT WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. IT ALREADY FACED A STRONG FIGHT AGAINST THE EUROPEAN ALLIES. IT PROMISED NOT TO SINK ANY MORE CIVILIAN SHIPS WITHOUT WARNING. AND IT OFFERED REGRETS FOR THE LUSITANIA INCIDENT. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT WILSON ACCEPTED GERMANY'S APOLOGY. LIKE MOST AMERICANS, HE HOPED TO STAY OUT OF THE BLOODY EUROPEAN STRUGGLE. AND HE ALSO KNEW THAT THE RECORD OF THE ALLIES WAS NOT COMPLETELY CLEAN. FOR EXAMPLE, HE WAS TROUBLED BY REPORTS OF MASS HUNGER IN GERMANY. HE AND OTHER AMERICANS FELT THE BRITISH FOOD BLOCKADE WAS CRUEL. THEY ALSO WERE SHOCKED BY THE WAY BRITISH FORCES BRUTALLY CRUSHED A REBELLION IN IRELAND AT THE TIME. MOST OF ALL, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WERE SICKENED BY REPORTS OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING ON THE BATTLEFIELDS OF EUROPE. THE ARMIES WERE USING POISON GAS AND OTHER TERRIBLE WEAPONS. SOLDIERS ON BOTH SIDES WERE DYING BY THE MILLIONS. THE WAR HAD BECOME A BLOODBATH. VOICE ONE: THE UNITED STATES HAD A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NINETEEN-SIXTEEN. PRESIDENT WILSON WON THE NOMINATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO SEEK RE-ELECTION. DEMOCRATS AROUND THE COUNTRY SHOUTED THEIR SUPPORT WITH THESE WORDS: "HE KEPT US OUT OF WAR!" WILSON HIMSELF DID NOT LIKE THE WORDS. HE FELT IT RAISED FALSE HOPES. BUT PEOPLE CONTINUED TO SAY IT, BECAUSE THEY DID NOT WANT WAR. VOICE TWO: THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NOMINATED SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CHARLES EVANS HUGHES AS ITS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. HUGHES WAS A MODERATE REPUBLICAN. HE SUPPORTED A NUMBER OF SOCIAL REFORMS. LIKE WILSON, HUGHES PROMISED TO KEEP THE UNITED STATES NEUTRAL. HOWEVER, ONE OF HIS SUPPORTERS WAS FORMER PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT. AND ROOSEVELT CALLED FOR STRONG AMERICAN POLICIES THAT COULD LEAD TO WAR. ROOSEVELT'S WORDS LED MANY AMERICANS TO SEE WILSON AS THE CANDIDATE OF PEACE. . .AND HUGHES AS THE CANDIDATE OF WAR. VOICE ONE: VOTING IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS VERY CLOSE. AT FIRST, IT SEEMED HUGHES HAD WON. HE WENT TO BED ON ELECTION NIGHT BELIEVING HE WOULD BE AMERICA'S NEXT PRESIDENT. BUT VOTING RESULTS LATER THAT NIGHT CONFIRMED WILSON AS THE WINNER. THE ELECTION WAS SO CLOSE THE REPUBLICANS DID NOT ACCEPT DEFEAT FOR TWO WEEKS. WOODROW WILSON HAD WON ANOTHER TERM. DURING THAT TERM, HE WOULD FIND IT INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT TO HONOR THE WORDS OF THE CAMPAIGN: "HE KEPT US OUT OF WAR!" FINALLY, HE WOULD FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE. THE UNITED STATES ENTERED WORLD WAR ONE WHILE WOODROW WILSON WAS PRESIDENT. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE KAY GALLANT AND HARRY MONROE. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS TIME, WHEN WE WILL CONTINUE THE STORY OF AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – September 6, 2001: Failing Memory
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. It is common for older people to forget things. Now an American study has found that memory starts to fail when we are young adults. People younger than thirty years of age usually do not know that they are starting to forget information. But scientists from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor say the loss of memory usually has already started. Researchers say people do not observe this slow reduction in mental ability until the loss affects their everyday activities. Denise Park led the new study. She directs the Center for Aging and Cognition at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Her team studied more than three-hundred-fifty men and women between the ages of twenty and ninety years. The study identified people in their middle twenties with memory problems. She says young adults do not know they are forgetting things because their brains have more information than they need. But she says that people in their twenties and thirties are losing memory at the same rate as people in their sixties and seventies. Mizz Park says people between the ages of sixty and seventy may note the decrease in their mental abilities. They begin to observe that they are having more trouble remembering and learning new information. The study found that older adults are more likely to remember false information as being true. For example, they remembered false medical claims as being true. Younger people remembered hearing the information. But they were more likely to remember that is was false. Mizz Park is now using modern imaging equipment to study what happens in the brains of people of different ages. She is studying what parts of the brain older adults use for different activities compared to younger adults.Mizz Park says mental performance is a direct result of brain activity and brain structure. She says keeping the brain active is important. She says older people should take part in activities that keep their brain active. These include being a member of a book-reading group, seeing and discussing plays and concerts and playing games that use the mind. She hopes future studies will identify ways to improve the operation of our aging minds. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – September 7, 2001: Mercury Pollution in Wildfires
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Wildfires have been burning in forests in parts of the western United States this summer. American scientists are studying the effect of the wildfires on the environment. Some scientists have flown over the fires to measure the levels of the chemical element mercury in the smoke. The National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Washington are organizing the flights. Scientists want to understand what causes mercury to form in Earth’s atmosphere. They also want to learn how much of the chemical falls on the land and water and enters the food supply. High levels of mercury are poisonous to people and animals. During a wildfire, mercury stored in trees and on the ground is released and carried into the atmosphere. Mercury travels as a gas in the atmosphere for about a year before landing in water or on the ground. About six-thousand metric tons of mercury are in the atmosphere at any one time. About half the mercury in the atmosphere comes from natural sources, such as oceans, soil and volcanoes. The other half comes from human activities. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that American coal-burning factories release about thirty-seven metric tons of the chemical each year. Mercury changes in the atmosphere through chemical processes. It returns to Earth’s surface in wet or dry particles. Hans Friedli is a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. He says trees store mercury in their leaves or needles. It stays there until the trees burn. The scientists carried out tests to find out how much mercury is released during a forest fire. For the experiment, researchers gathered trees from across the United States. They burned the trees at the Forest Service Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. Scientific equipment immediately reported the presence of mercury when the trees were burned. All of the trees released nearly all the mercury they had stored. The mercury studies developed from the scientists’ efforts to understand wildfires and how they spread. They want to provide information to help firefighters battle such fires in the future. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 7, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... We play songs from Alicia Keys ... answer a question about how the American President is protected ... ... and, tell about a legal kind of gambling called the lottery. Lotteries HOST: Last month, Americans in twenty-one states and the District of Columbia were excited about a lottery game called Powerball. It was worth almost three-hundred-million dollars. People in four states were winners and shared the money. Powerball is only one of many lotteries in the world. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: The North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries says people have been taking part in such games of chance for thousands of years. For example, it says these games were played in ancient China as a way to pay for building the Great Wall. Experts say the word “lottery” comes from the Italian word “lotto”, meaning a force or power that decides what will happen in the future. Lotteries were held in Italy almost five-hundred years ago. In Fifteen-Fifteen, Italians picked names to choose who would be elected to the Senate in Genoa. In Fifteen-Thirty, the city of Florence held a number lottery with money as prizes. In the Seventeen-Hundreds, many lotteries were held in the American colonies. Some were used to pay for weapons for the Revolutionary War. Later, lotteries were used to get money for building projects. In the Eighteen-Twenties, people created illegal lotteries. State governments considered banning them. By Eighteen-Seventy-Eight, all states but Louisiana had done so. In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, New Hampshire created the first legal American state lottery in the twentieth century. It was linked to horse races so it would not violate the anti-lottery laws. Other states started lotteries about five years later. Lotteries that were held in several states at the same time began in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. The money earned from selling state lottery tickets is used to improve state government services. For example, Arizona state lottery earnings help pay for education, health, protection and local transportation. In a lottery like Powerball, fifty cents of every ticket sold goes to the state lotteries that take part in the game. Thirty-seven states and the District of Colombia operate lotteries in the United States. There are more than one-hundred lotteries around the world. Some countries have national lotteries. The International Association of State Lotteries lists sixty-three members, one on every continent except Antarctica. The Secret Service HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Hoang Phi Hung asks about protection for the American President and former Presidents. The agency that protects these important people is the Secret Service. Congress created it in Eighteen-Sixty-Five, but its job was not protection. The Secret Service was created as part of the Department of the Treasury to stop the copying of American money. The Secret Service still does this job today. However, its main job is to protect the President, his family and other government officials. The Secret Service began protecting the President in Nineteen-Oh-One, after the murder of President William McKinley. The responsibilities of the Secret Service have expanded greatly since that time. Secret Service agents examine the President’s food, surroundings and travel plans. When the President travels, Secret Service agents arrive before he does. They make sure all areas he will visit are safe. The Secret Service also protects the Vice President and his family. Agents also protect presidential and vice presidential candidates, those elected to those offices and their families. Former Presidents and their wives are also protected by the Secret Service, as are their children under the age of sixteen. All Presidents elected before Nineteen-Ninety-Seven are protected for the rest of their lives. Presidents elected after that year are protected for not more than ten years from the date they leave office. About five-thousand people work for the Secret Service in offices throughout the country and the world. More than two-thousand special agents protect officials and investigate crimes. More than-one-thousand others provide security at the White House, the Vice President’s house and other buildings in which the President has offices. The Secret Service sometimes carries out temporary protective duties. For example, it has provided security for historic documents such as the Declaration of Independence. And it protects foreign leaders who visit the United States. Alicia Keys HOST: A young singer’s first album became the number one recording in the United States the day it was released. It has stayed at the top of the most popular music lists for eight weeks. And it has sold more than two-million copies. That is very unusual. But then, everything about Alicia Keys is unusual. Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: The first thing to know about Alicia Keys is that she is only twenty years old. She sings and plays the piano and most of the other instruments on her new album. It is called “Songs in A Minor.” She wrote the words and music for most of the songs. And she was the producer and music arranger for most of the songs. Alicia Keys’ recordings sound a little like traditional rhythm and blues. They also have a strong jazz influence. Mizz Keys uses a piano in most of the songs. That is a little unusual for this kind of music. Her many talents can be heard on the most popular song on her album. It is called “Fallin.’” (((CUT ONE: FALLIN’ ))) Alicia Keys was trained as a classical musician. You can hear this in the first song on her album. It is called “Piano and I.” She borrowed some of the music from Ludwig van Beethoven. ((CUT TWO: “PIANO AND I” )) Alicia Keys is not really new to the music business. She has been a serious music student since she was five years old. Critics say she should have a long successful career ahead of her. We leave you with another recording from “Songs in A Minor” by Alicia Keys. This one is called “Rock Wit U.” ((CUT THREE: “ROCK WIT U”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-06-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Science Report [Discontinued]
* Byline: 

 We have replaced our Science Reports with a Health Report on Wednesday and an Education Report on Thursday. Click the back arrow on your browser to find the separate archives for these new programs. March 28, 2002: Intel Science Talent Search March 27, 2002: New Stem Cell Study March 21, 2002: Color of the Universe March 20, 2002: Uterus Transplant Operation March 14, 2002: Space Tourism March 13, 2002: Slow Tyrannosaurus Rex March 7, 2002: Alzheimer’s Disease March 6, 2002: Bird Brains February February 28, 2002: Blood Test For Ovarian Cancer February 27, 2002: Drug Use Report February 21, 2002: Women and Sense of Smell February 20, 2002: Pine Island Glacier February 14, 2002: King Midas February 13, 2002: Oral Health Study February 6, 2002: Iceman’s Death January January 31, 2002: Hubble Improvements January 30, 2002: Premature-Baby Study January 24, 2002: World’s Oldest Man January 23, 2002: Aging Protein January 17, 2002: Lying Eyes January 16, 2002: Snow Facts January 10, 2002: New Glaucoma Treatments January 9, 2002: Red Wine and Heart Disease January 3, 2002: Seasonal Affective Disorder January 2, 2002: New Cold Drug Scripts - 2001 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – September 10, 2001: Street Food Safety
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT. Street food is food that is prepared, sold and eaten on city streets. Street food is an important part of the diets of people in developing countries. An estimated two-thousand-five-hundred-million people worldwide eat street food. This kind of food is low in cost, tasty, nutritious and easy to serve. It is designed for the lives of busy people in large cities. But buyers must be careful about health risks. Studies have repeatedly found unacceptably high levels of harmful bacteria in street food products. Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported on the problem. Street food sellers in developing countries often lack the storage, cooking and cooling equipment necessary to prevent the formation of dangerous bacteria. Under some conditions, a single bacterium can grow into seventeen-million disease-carrying organisms in just eight hours. The lack of clean running water and waste removal systems also increases the risk of infection. The Food and Agriculture Organization is leading an effort to make street food safer. Over the past fifteen years, it has helped officials improve street food in more than twenty cities worldwide. For example, F-A-O officials have been working with the South African government on such a project. The U-N agency produced a food safety teaching guide for public health officials. The guide offers suggestions on how to prepare food safely. A videotape shows how producing safe food results in increased business. The F-A-O also helped publish books that food inspectors will use to educate people who sell street food. One F-A-O official says the project in South Africa has been so successful that officials in other African countries would like to copy it. F-A-O officials and officials in Senegal have begun to improve the safety of street food businesses in Dakar. A new market area is being built for the city. Businesses in the area will have waste removal services and fresh water. Food sellers are being taught to keep cooked food away from uncooked food. The sellers also have been urged not to prepare and sell food when they are sick. One F-A-O official notes that sellers of street food products welcome the advice. She says they recognize that buyers will come back if they believe in the safety of the products. This VOA Special English DEVELOPMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 10, 2001: Kennedy Center Anniversary
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This week, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., begins its thirty-first year of presenting cultural events. Millions of people have visited this large white building on the Potomac River. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The Kennedy Center is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. As many as forty-thousand people attended the birthday party on Sunday. They enjoyed examples of programs the Kennedy Center will present in the future. Visitors chose from many free programs at this Open House Arts Festival. For example, the National Symphony Orchestra played music by Ludwig van Beethoven. The Billy Taylor Trio played jazz. The Coulibaly (COOL-ah-bah-lee) Brothers told stories and played music of West Africa. VOICE TWO: More than two-million people attend plays, concerts, musical dramas and other shows each year at the Kennedy Center. Some are produced at the Kennedy Center for the first time. The Center is a memorial to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was America’s thirty-fifth president. It also is the official national performing arts center. VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center also serves as an educational headquarters. It supports and teaches people about the performing arts in America. It creates programs for teachers and students of all ages. It supports competitions and training programs for students. It pays young performing artists to create new works. And it presents many programs for children. About three-million people visit the Kennedy Center each year. Visitors can see a large statue of the head of President Kennedy. In the Hall of States they can see the flags of all the states and territories of the United States. In the Hall of Nations they can see the flags of more than one-hundred-sixty countries. Visitors can see gifts that more than forty countries have given to the Kennedy Center. These include beautiful floor coverings, wall coverings and works of art. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The campaign to build a cultural center in Washington began before John Kennedy was elected president. In Nineteen-Fifty-Eight, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Cultural Center Act. He said the United States needed a place to show its artistic successes. One of the earliest problems was finding a place for the building. Board members of the cultural center chose an area called Foggy Bottom. It is low and sometimes wet. This caused some people to say the building would sink in the mud. VOICE ONE: Another problem was money. Workers for the cultural center had to gain millions of dollars from gifts. The government would supply the same amount as these gifts. John F. Kennedy took office as president in Nineteen-Sixty-One. He campaigned for the national cultural center. His wife Jacqueline helped gain money for the center. So did Mamie Dowd Eisenhower, the wife of former President Eisenhower. President Kennedy was killed in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. Congress soon declared the cultural center a memorial to him. The National Park Service was to operate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a national monument. VOICE TWO: It was not easy to gain enough money for the Kennedy Center. Workers for the center had to have more than fifteen-million dollars by June Thirtieth, Nineteen-Sixty-Five. If this did not happen, they would not receive money from the United States government. They would not be able to build the center. Most of June passed, and the campaign still had not reached its goal. Then on June Twenty-Ninth the people of Italy gave more than one-million dollars worth of marble to build the center. Other countries also gave money. These gifts rescued the project. VOICE ONE: Building finally began on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. Four years later, the completed Kennedy Center stood along the Potomac River. Architect Edward Durrell Stone had designed a simple and beautiful building. It cost about seventy-million dollars. The Kennedy Center’s opening night was September Eighth, Nineteen-Seventy-One. Guests heard a new musical work by a major American composer. Leonard Bernstein wrote “Mass” to honor President Kennedy. Here is Mister Bernstein conducting “Gloria Tibi” from his “Mass.” ((TAPE CUT ONE: FROM “MASS” BY LEONARD BERNSTEIN)) VOICE TWO: Today, the Kennedy Center has several performing areas. The Concert Hall is the largest. The National Symphony Orchestra performs there. So do popular entertainers. The Washington Opera performs in the Opera House. Ballets and musical comedies are performed in the Opera House, too. Plays and some opera and dance productions take place in the Eisenhower Theater. Smaller theaters in the Kennedy Center present music groups, plays, children’s performances and films. Some of the world’s finest artists have performed in the Kennedy Center over the years. These include great classical musicians like pianist Vladimir Horowitz and violinist Isaac Stern. They also include great jazz artists like Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock and Sarah Vaughan. VOICE ONE: The Kennedy Center will continue to present excellent performers this year and next year. They will include members of The New National Theatre of Japan. They will appear in the play “Pacific Overtures.” Dancers from Russia, Cuba and Australia will present ballet. American composer Stephen Sondheim will be honored with performances of six of his musical plays. They include “A Little Night Music.” VOICE ONE: Arts expert Michael Kaiser recently became president of the Kennedy Center. He wants to make the center larger. Mister Kaiser has proposed adding two new buildings to the Kennedy Center. One building would contain a performing arts museum. The other building would provide space for the Washington Opera. A committee is studying the environmental effects of the proposed additions. VOICE TWO: The Kennedy Center recently opened a show for visitors about President Kennedy. Part of the exhibit is called “The Living Memorial.” A picture collection introduces President Kennedy’s life. Sound devices in eight computers contain parts of the former president’s most important speeches. Films and his voice bring to life some of America’s most historic moments. For example, President Kennedy sounds hopeful as he gives his swearing-in speech in January, Nineteen Sixty-One. The speech called on Americans to serve their country. ((TAPE CUT TWO: Excerpt from Kennedy inaugural speech)) “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” VOICE ONE: Americans hope the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will continue serving the public for many more years. President Kennedy once said that America would not be remembered for victories or defeats in battle or in politics. Instead, he said the nation would be remembered for its gifts to the human spirit. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 9, 2001: John Wesley Powell
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND I'M RAY FREEMAN WITH THE VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM PEOPLE IN AMERICA. EVERY WEEK AT THIS TIME WE TELL THE STORY OF SOMEONE IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. TODAY WE TELL ABOUT EXPLORER, JOHN WESLEY POWELL. HE WAS ALSO A SCIENTIST, LAND REFORMER, AND SUPPORTER OF NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THE DATE IS MAY TWENTY-FOURTH, EIGHTEEN SIXTY-NINE. THE PLACE IS GREEN RIVER, WYOMING, IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. THE GREEN RIVER FLOWS IN A CURVING PATH SOUTH THROUGH UTAH AND COLORADO UNTIL IT JOINS THE GREAT COLORADO RIVER. THE COLORADO, IN TURN, FLOWS THROUGH A HUGE DEEP CANYON. YEARS FROM NOW, THAT FORMATION WILL BE CALLED THE GRAND CANYON. TEN MEN ARE PUTTING SUPPLIES AND SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT INTO FOUR SMALL BOATS. THEY ARE ABOUT TO LEAVE ON A DANGEROUS, EXCITING EXPLORATION. THE LEADER OF THE GROUP IS JOHN WESLEY POWELL. VOICE TWO: POWELL WRITES IN HIS JOURNAL: "THE GOOD PEOPLE OF GREEN RIVER CITY TURN OUT TO SEE US START. WE RAISE OUR LITTLE FLAG, PUSH THE BOATS FROM SHORE, AND THE CURRENT CARRIES US DOWN. WILD EMPTINESS IS STRETCHED OUT BEFORE ME. YET THERE IS A BEAUTY IN THE PICTURE." SO BEGINS JOHN WESLEY POWELL'S STORY OF HIS TRIP ON THE GREEN AND COLORADO RIVERS. IT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST TRIPS OF DISCOVERY IN THE HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA. HE AND HIS MEN WERE THE FIRST WHITES TO TRAVEL IN THAT AREA. UNTIL THEN, THE LAND HAD BEEN KNOWN ONLY TO INDIANS AND PREHISTORIC TRIBES. VOICE ONE: JOHN WESLEY POWELL WAS THIRTY-FIVE-YEARS-OLD. HE HAD SERVED IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. HE HAD LOST AN ARM IN THAT WAR. HE WAS AN UNKNOWN SCIENTIST, TEMPORARILY AWAY FROM HIS JOB AT A MUSEUM IN ILLINOIS. JOHN'S PARENTS HAD COME TO THE UNITED STATES FROM ENGLAND. THEY SETTLED IN NEW YORK STATE, WHERE JOHN WAS BORN IN EIGHTEEN THIRTY-FOUR. THEY LATER MOVED TO OHIO. MISTER POWELL MADE CLOTHES FOR OTHER PEOPLE, AND FARMED A LITTLE, TOO. HE ALSO TAUGHT RELIGION. HIS TEACHING DUTIES OFTEN TOOK HIM AWAY FROM HOME. MISSUS POWELL BELIEVED YOUNG JOHN NEEDED THE GUIDANCE AND PROTECTION OF A MAN. SO SHE ASKED A FRIEND, GEORGE CROOKHAM, FOR HELP. VOICE TWO: GEORGE CROOKHAM WAS A RICH FARMER. HE ALSO WAS A SELF-TAUGHT SCIENTIST. HE KEPT A SMALL MUSEUM AT HIS HOME. IT CONTAINED EXAMPLES OF PLANTS AND MINERALS. NATIVE ANIMALS AND INSECTS. REMAINS OF INDIAN TOOLS AND WEAPONS. FROM GEORGE CROOKHAM, JOHN WESLEY POWELL RECEIVED A WIDE, BUT INFORMAL, EDUCATION. THE BOY LEARNED MANY THINGS ABOUT THE NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY. VOICE ONE: IN EIGHTEEN FORTY-SIX, THE POWELL FAMILY MOVED AGAIN. THIS TIME, THEY SETTLED EVEN FARTHER WEST, IN WISCONSIN. JOHN WANTED TO GO TO SCHOOL TO STUDY SCIENCE. HIS FATHER SAID THAT IF JOHN WERE TO BE SENT TO COLLEGE, IT WOULD BE TO STUDY RELIGION...NOT SOMETHING AS UNIMPORTANT AS SCIENCE. THE ARGUMENT CONTINUED FOR THREE YEARS. THEN JOHN DECIDED TO LEAVE HOME TO SEEK AN EDUCATION. HE SOON DISCOVERED THAT HE KNEW MORE ABOUT SCIENCE THAN ANY TEACHER HE MET. HE REALIZED THAT THE ONLY GOOD SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION IN THE COUNTRY CAME FROM COLLEGES IN THE EAST, LIKE HARVARD AND YALE. BUT HE WAS TOO POOR TO GO TO THEM. VOICE TWO: JOHN WESLEY POWELL GOT WORK AS A SCHOOL TEACHER IN ILLINOIS. WHENEVER POSSIBLE, HE WENT ON SCIENTIFIC TRIPS OF HIS OWN. IN APRIL, EIGHTEEN SIXTY-ONE, CIVIL WAR BROKE OUT IN THE UNITED STATES. JOHN JOINED THE UNION FORCES OF THE NORTH. AT THE BATTLE OF SHILOH, A CANNON BALL STRUCK HIM IN THE RIGHT ARM. THE ARM COULD NOT BE SAVED. ALTHOUGH JOHN WAS DISABLED, HE RETURNED TO ACTIVE DUTY UNDER GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. GRANT WOULD LATER SERVE AS SECRETARY OF WAR AND PRESIDENT. POWELL'S FRIENDSHIP WITH GRANT WOULD HELP WIN HIM SUPPORT FOR HIS EXPLORATIONS OF THE WEST. AFTER THE WAR, JOHN WESLEY POWELL TAUGHT SCIENCE AT TWO UNIVERSITIES IN ILLINOIS. HE ALSO HELPED ESTABLISH THE ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. HE URGED STATE LAWMAKERS TO PROVIDE MORE MONEY FOR THE SOCIETY'S MUSEUM. HIS EFFORTS WERE SO SUCCESSFUL THAT HE WAS GIVEN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MUSEUM'S COLLECTIONS. ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS HE DID AFTER GETTING THE JOB WAS TO PLAN AN EXPLORATION OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. VOICE ONE: POWELL GOT HELP FROM THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION IN WASHINGTON, D.C. THE SMITHSONIAN GAVE HIM SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT. HE GOT HELP FROM THE ARMY. THE ARMY PROMISED TO PROTECT THE EXPLORERS IN DANGEROUS AREAS. AND HE GOT HELP FROM THE RAILROADS. THE RAILROADS AGREED TO LET THE EXPLORERS RIDE FREE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE. POWELL'S GROUP BROUGHT BACK ENOUGH INFORMATION TO SATISFY THOSE WHO SUPPORTED IT. A SECOND, SIMILAR TRIP TOOK PLACE THE FOLLOWING YEAR. THEN POWELL CENTERED HIS EFFORTS ON THE PLAN THAT WOULD MAKE HIM FAMOUS: EXPLORATION OF THE GREEN RIVER AND THE COLORADO RIVER. VOICE TWO: IT WAS A VOYAGE NEVER ATTEMPTED BY WHITE MEN. INDIANS WHO KNEW THE AREA SAID IT COULD NOT BE DONE. BUT JOHN WESLEY POWELL BELIEVED IT COULD. AND HE BELIEVED IT WOULD PROVIDE A WEALTH OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT THAT PART OF AMERICA. ONCE AGAIN, POWELL TURNED FOR HELP TO THE SMITHSONIAN, THE ARMY AND THE RAILROADS. HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED. VOICE ONE: THE EXPLORERS LEFT GREEN RIVER, WYOMING, ON MAY TWENTY-FOURTH, EIGHTEEN-SIXTY-NINE. ALL ALONG THE WAY, POWELL MEASURED DISTANCES, TEMPERATURES, HEIGHTS, DEPTHS AND CURRENTS. HE EXAMINED SOILS, ROCKS AND PLANT LIFE. SINCE THE EXPLORERS WERE MAPPING UNKNOWN TERRITORY, THEY NAMED THE PLACES THEY PASSED AS THEY WENT ALONG. THE TRIP WAS JUST AS DANGEROUS AS EXPECTED, PERHAPS MORE. THE RIVERS WERE FILLED WITH ROCKY AREAS AND WATERFALLS. SOMETIMES, THE BOATS OVERTURNED. ONE OF THE BOATS BROKE IN TWO AGAINST A BIG ROCK. THE EXPLORERS SUFFERED FROM A HOT SUN, AND COLD RAIN. THEY LOST MANY OF THEIR SUPPLIES. YET THEY PUSHED ON. VOICE TWO: ON AUGUST THIRTEENTH, EIGHTEEN-SIXTY-NINE, THEY REACHED THE MOUTH OF A GREAT CANYON. ITS WALLS ROSE MORE THAN A KILOMETER ABOVE THEM. POWELL WROTE IN HIS JOURNAL: "WE ARE NOW READY TO START ON OUR WAY DOWN THE GREAT UNKNOWN. WHAT WATERFALLS THERE ARE, WE KNOW NOT. WHAT ROCKS LIE IN THE RIVER, WE KNOW NOT. WE MAY IMAGINE MANY THINGS. THE MEN TALK AS HAPPILY AS EVER. BUT TO ME, THERE IS A DARKNESS TO THE JOY." THE TRIP THROUGH THE GREAT CANYON WAS MUCH THE SAME AS THE EARLIER PART OF THE TRIP. FOR A TIME, THE COLORADO RIVER WIDENED. THE EXPLORERS WERE ABLE TO TRAVEL LONG DISTANCES EACH DAY. THEN THE CANYON WALLS CLOSED IN AGAIN. ONCE MORE, THE GROUP BATTLED RAPIDS, ROCKS AND WATERFALLS. CONDITIONS GREW SO BAD THAT THREE OF THE MEN LEFT TO TRY TO REACH CIVILIZATION OVERLAND. TWO DAYS LATER, THE REST OF THE GROUP SAILED OUT OF THE DANGERS OF THE GRAND CANYON. VOICE ONE: THE STORY OF THE BRAVE EXPLORERS WAS PRINTED IN NEWSPAPERS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. JOHN WESLEY POWELL BECAME FAMOUS. POWELL'S EXPLORATIONS LED TO THE CREATION OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN EIGHTEEN SEVENTY-NINE. THE SURVEY BECAME RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL MAPPING AND SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMS OF AMERICAN LANDS. POWELL'S INTERESTS, HOWEVER, WERE BECOMING WIDER THAN JUST THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAND. HE FOUND HIMSELF GROWING DEEPLY INTERESTED IN THE PEOPLE WHO LIVED ON THE LAND. ON EVERY FUTURE TRIP, HE VISITED INDIAN VILLAGES. HE TALKED TO THE PEOPLE, AND LEARNED ABOUT THEIR CULTURE AND HISTORY. HE HELPED ESTABLISH A BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY WITHIN THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION TO COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT THE INDIAN CULTURES. POWELL HEADED THE BUREAU FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS. IN A MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, POWELL EXPLAINED WHY HE FELT THE BUREAU WAS SO IMPORTANT: "MANY OF THE DIFFICULTIES BETWEEN WHITE MEN AND INDIANS ARE UNNECESSARY, AND ARE CAUSED BY OUR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE RELATING TO THE INDIANS THEMSELVES. THE FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THIS FACT HAS BROUGHT GREAT TROUBLE TO OUR MANAGEMENT OF THE INDIANS." VOICE TWO: JOHN WESLEY POWELL'S SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF WESTERN LANDS SHAPED HIS IDEAS OF HOW THOSE LANDS SHOULD BE USED. HE PROPOSED PROGRAMS TO CONTROL BOTH CROP FARMING AND CATTLE RAISING. HE WAS ESPECIALLY CONCERNED ABOUT WATER SUPPLIES. MANY OF JOHN WESLEY POWELL'S IDEAS WERE FAR AHEAD OF HIS TIME. CONGRESS REJECTED POWELL'S PROPOSALS FOR LAND AND WATER USE. HE DIED IN NINETEEN-OH-TWO. YEARS LATER HIS IDEAS WERE SIGNED INTO LAW. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: THIS IS SHIRLEY GRIFFITH . VOICE TWO: AND THIS IS RAY FREEMAN. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS TIME FOR ANOTHER PEOPLE IN AMERICA PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-07-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 8, 2001: UN General Assembly
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The General Assembly of the United Nations will open its fifty-sixth meeting on Tuesday. Representatives of the one-hundred-eighty-nine member countries will attend the yearly meeting at U-N headquarters in New York City. The meeting will last about three months.Leaders of many countries will speak to the General Assembly during the first weeks of the meeting. President Bush is to speak September Twenty-Fourth. The United Nations was created after the terrible destruction of World War Two. It was established by fifty-one countries in October, Nineteen-Forty-Five. The first United Nations General Assembly opened in London in Nineteen-Forty-Six. Now, almost every nation in the world belongs to the General Assembly. A major goal of U-N is to help prevent and end wars. Many situations of tension and fighting are on the list of issues to be discussed during this year’s General Assembly meeting. One is the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Others include the causes of fighting in Africa and the situation in Afghanistan. Reports by the U-N international courts for war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia also will be discussed. The General Assembly sets the budget for the U-N. Members will discuss how much money to provide for U-N peace-keepers and other organizations around the world. For example, on Thursday the U-N refugee agency appealed for security help for Macedonian and ethnic Albanian refugees. Both groups are afraid to return home after seven months of fighting in Macedonia. Observers say either the U-N or the European Union should send a force to protect the refugees. U-N peace keeping forces have been sent around the world. The U-N helped clear buried bombs in Mozambique. It trained police in Haiti. It supervised Nineteen-Eighty-Nine elections in Namibia. Governments sometimes request other kinds of help. In Liberia, the U-N has opened a peace-building support office. In Cambodia, the U-N operates a human-rights office. In Guatemala the U-N is helping to see that peace agreements are made effective. Some U-N activities involve troops. Others involve issues. The U-N Conference Against Racism met this week in Durban, South Africa. Delegates to this meeting on racial injustice struggled to reach agreement on some major issues. Arabs demanded that the any statement call Israel a racially unjust state. Earlier in the week, Israel and the United States walked out of the conference. They refused to accept that accusation. Such disputes in U-N organizations and meetings are not unusual. Neither are criticisms of the world organization. Some people say the U-N is weak. Yet others say the United Nations is extremely important to world peace. This VOA Special English program, In the News, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Introduction
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes Iran, Pakistan and China. Young people in these countries and many others want to know how to attend college in the United States. We have decided to answer this question in a series of reports on AMERICAN MOSAIC. We have done this before. The last series was broadcast two years ago. Since then, we have received many letters about American education, and how foreign students can take part. So we decided to offer a new series of reports that contain the latest information. The series will begin next week. Each report will discuss a part of the process of becoming an international student in the United States. Each week, the report will be placed on the Special English web page at w-w-w dot v-o-a dot g-o-v slash special. Foreign students who want to study in the United States need to answer many questions. Some of the questions are: How do I find out about American colleges? How do I choose the right one for me? What tests must I take? What kinds of official documents will I need? How much will it cost? We will answer these kinds of questions in our reports. We will discuss the American system of education. We will tell about where to get financial aid. We will describe rules concerning foreign students working while studying. We will explain the English language requirement. We will discuss the tests you must take. We will tell you how to prepare for them. We will tell you where to find help in your own country. Some of the programs will tell about a few of the three-thousand different colleges and universities in the United States. These reports will discuss study programs that may interest you. We also will explain about ways to use a computer to study at an American university. To prepare these reports, we talked to foreign students and university officials in different parts of the country. They told us about some good experiences ... and some that were not so good. Most students say planning ahead helped make their American experience successful. That is the purpose of the series—to help you plan. Our reports about attending college in the United States begin next week. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 1: First Steps
* Byline: 

 HOST: Today we begin a series of reports about how foreign students can prepare to study at a university or college in the United States. ANNCR: Experts agree. The most important advice is to plan early if you want to study at a college in the United States. In fact, the experts say to begin planning at least two years before you want to start your studies. You might begin by talking with people who have studied in the United States. Their experiences could save you time and effort. Then visit an American educational advising center. There are more than four-hundred such offices throughout the world. The Public Affairs Office at the United States Embassy in your country can tell you where the nearest one is. There you will find an educational advisor to answer your questions and offer information. Every center should have information about American colleges. Some educational advising centers have computer programs to help. One example is a CD-ROM program called “U-S Academic Explorer: A Guide to Higher Education in the United States.” The program shows an imaginary American college. It tells about each building, such as the student center and the library. It answers questions about food, housing, health care, social customs and banking. It even shows a day in the life of a student. The CD-ROM also provides information about higher education in the United States. It shows a national map. And it includes interviews with international students. The students talk about their American college experiences. They discuss English language requirements, money, personal safety, making friends, dating and other subjects. You can hear one student discuss all these issues or hear many students answer just one question. The CD-ROM does not contain information about any one American college or university. The advising center should have books to provide that kind of information. Many centers also have computers that can be used to search for information about American colleges on the World Wide Web. This computer information describes each college’s programs and gives an address where you can write or e-mail to get more information. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: FOREIGN STUDENT SERIES - Part 2: Information You Will Need
* Byline: 

 HOST: This week on our series for foreign students, we explain the structure of university education in the United States. This information can prevent costly mistakes. You would not want to begin studying at a school that could not provide the degree you need. ANNCR: Studying in the United States does not mean choosing a university that offers only the traditional four-year degree. You may want to consider a school that offers a certificate program. These programs are one year or less of training in areas such as office work, computer programming or automobile repair. When you complete the program, you receive a certificate stating the skills you have learned. Make sure that any program you want to enter offers a certificate that is accepted by employers in your country and in the United States. You may also choose a two-year junior college or community college. Such programs lead to an Associate degree. Some two-year programs prepare you for skilled trades or technical jobs in such areas as electronics and building. Many colleges and universities accept community college work as the first two years toward a four-year Bachelor’s degree. And a year at a community college costs much less than at a traditional four-year college. Four-year college programs lead to a Bachelor’s degree. During the first two years, you generally take subjects such as English, history, mathematics, science and languages. What you take the last two years depends on your major area of study. If you already have a college degree, you may be considering an American graduate school. You must continue your education in graduate school if you want to be a medical doctor, lawyer or college professor. A Master’s degree usually takes two or three years of full-time study. A Doctoral degree, or Ph. D., takes three to six years. Some colleges, universities, hospitals and laboratories also offer a chance to do scientific research. You may want to communicate with one of them to see if you can do research in a subject in which you are interested. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-4-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 3: Difference Between College and University
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Korea. Chang-mi Kim asks what is the difference between a college and university. We include this question in our series of reports for foreign students who want to study in the United States. People attend a college or university to continue their education after high school. This prepares them for work. It also provides them with a greater understanding of the world and its past. And it helps them value the arts and sciences. Students usually attend a college for four years and gain a bachelor’s degree. Colleges generally do not support research or offer graduate degrees. Universities usually are much larger than colleges. Universities carry out research. And they offer several kinds of degrees in many areas of study. They offer bachelor’s degrees after four years of study. Universities also offer graduate degrees that require additional years of study, such as master’s degrees and doctoral degrees. Modern universities developed from those of the Middle Ages. They took their name from the Latin word “universitas.” It meant a group of people organized for one purpose. The first European colleges were groups of students who came together because of the same interests. In England, colleges were formed to provide them with living places. Usually each group was studying the same thing, so the word “college” came to mean one area of study. Most American colleges today teach an area of study called liberal arts. The liberal arts were subjects first developed and taught in ancient Greece. They trained a person’s mind. They were considered different from subjects that were useful in life. The word “college” also means a part of a university that teaches one area of study. That is because the first American universities divided their studies into many areas and called each one a college. An example would be “Teachers College” of Columbia University in New York City. It is the part of Columbia University that prepares people to be teachers. The university includes many other colleges too, like those that teach medicine and law. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-5-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 4: Online Education
* Byline: 

 HOST: One way to earn a degree at an American college is to stay at home and use a computer. But you should find out if such a degree is recognized in your country before you decide to get an education “online.” ANNCR: American universities have been offering classes online through computers for a number of years. Researchers say that seventy-five percent of all American universities will offer online work by the end of this year. Students who have taken online classes say they like them because they do not have to travel to a building at a set time to listen to a professor. Professors say they have better communication with students through e-mail notes than they do in many traditional classes. Now, some newly created colleges are offering academic degrees online. One is Jones International University in Englewood, Colorado. It offers both bachelor’s degrees and master’s degrees. It has about one-hundred students, but is seeking many more. The University of Phoenix in Arizona has been offering online degrees since Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. It has more than twelve-thousand students. Officials say they try to provide students with a social experience as well as an educational one. For example, in some programs, groups of the same six students progress through all their classes together. They communicate by computer. Another online school is UNext-dot-com or Cardean (CAR-dee-an) University, near Chicago, Illinois. It began operations this past summer. It is offering business education and training now, but has plans to expand. Cardean University uses a problem-solving method of teaching. Students attempt to solve real problems in their classes online instead of reading information. Anyone with a computer can find information about these schools and others on the Internet by using a web browser. Type the name of the school and the browser will give you its address. Each college will tell you about its programs, costs, and many other important facts. Experts advise, however, that you do not give money to any school that says you can get a degree without doing any work. These are illegal operations. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-6-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 5: Time to Make a List
* Byline: 

 HOST: We have already explained how to begin your search at an education advising center. And we told about studying online by computer. Now, it is time to make a list of American colleges and universities that most interest you. ANNCR: Be sure to choose more than one college. Directors of foreign student admissions at American colleges say each student should apply to at least three schools. First, you must get applications from the colleges. An application is a form you must complete if you are asking the college to admit you as a student. You should request applications at least eighteen months before you want to begin studying in the United States. You can find the address of the admissions office in the catalog of each college. A catalog is a book that tells all about the school. You can also find such information on the college’s Web page on the Internet computer system. For example, the Ohio State University provides application forms on its Web pages. You can answer all the questions on the computer and e-mail the application directly to the university. Or you can copy the application forms to your computer, print them, complete the questions and mail them. Or, you can fill out a computer form to ask the university to send you an application in the mail. If you cannot use a computer at all, write a letter to the address given in the catalog. Ask the college to send you the international admission application. Write the letter clearly. List the schools you have attended, and any degrees you already have. Explain what you want to study and what degree you are seeking. Explain when you want to begin studying. You will receive a letter or application from each school. Complete the application and send it back. Then you must wait until the college makes its decision. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-7-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 6: Admissions Tests
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cambodia. Sarin Supheakmungkol asks about admissions tests required by American colleges. That is the subject of our report today about how foreign students can attend an American university. Experts say American colleges consider three things when deciding which students to admit. Most important are the grades the student has earned in school. The second most important is the difficulty of classes completed. College entrance officials usually accept students who have shown that they are interested in learning and have taken difficult classes. The third thing they look at is scores on admissions tests. One of these tests is the Scholastic Assessment Test, or S-A-T. It measures a student’s understanding of mathematics and English. It also measures how well a student reads and understands what is read. The S-A-T is a three-hour test. It costs about twenty-four dollars and can be taken using a computer. You can get detailed information at the College Board Web site at w-w-w dot collegeboard-dot-com. If you will not be using a computer to take the test, you can get information at an International Advising Center or American diplomatic office in your country. Another test is called the Test of Spoken English. It is a twenty-minute test that involves speaking the language. Many American universities want you to take this test if you plan to attend graduate school. Some universities also will tell you to take the Test of Written English. This is a thirty-minute test in which you write about something in English. It measures your ability to organize information and express ideas in correct English. The schools to which you apply may or may not want you to take any of these tests. They probably will require a test known as TOEFL. TOEFL is a short way of saying Test of English as a Foreign Language. It measures the ability to understand, read and write English. Experts at the Educational Testing Service write admissions tests used by American colleges. They say the TOEFL will be changing in the next few years. They are investigating ways to include a speaking test. We will tell more about the TOEFL next week. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-8-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 7: TOEFL
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from many places around the world. Students want to know about the TOEFL test that is required before a foreign student can attend an American college. That is the subject of our report today. TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. It measures your ability to understand, read and write English. Each college has set a score that it will accept. Be sure to investigate the scores required by colleges you are interested in. The Educational Testing Service now produces two kinds of TOEFL tests. One is the traditional written test. The other is given on a computer. Each is scored differently. The highest possible score on the written TOEFL is six-hundred-seventy-seven. The highest score on the computer test is three-hundred. Both tests list a few possible answers for each question. You must choose the correct one. First, you listen to spoken English and answer questions. Next, you answer questions about the rules of the English language. Then you read English and answer questions about what you read. And last, you write a short essay about a given subject. You can take the TOEFL as many times as you wish. You must pay each time. Experts say it is a good idea to take it one or two times to experience it. They also say the best way to prepare for the TOEFL is to use English as much as you can. Listen to English radio broadcasts. You already are doing this by listening to our Special English programs. Listen to V-O-A’s normal English broadcasts too. Tape one, then write what the broadcast was about. Go to American movies. Read American publications. Speak English as much as you can. TOEFL is given only on computers in most countries. Education Testing Service officials traveled to Asia earlier this month to mark the start of using the computer TOEFL in that part of the world. But you cannot use a personal computer to take the test. You must use computers at a “Prometric Center.” The people at International Advising Centers can tell you where the closest center is. Some universities have the information, too. You can also find it on the World Wide Web. That address is w-w-w dot t-o-e-f-l dot o-r-g Or write to the Educational Testing Service for the information. That address is TOEFL Services, Educational Testing Service, Post Office Box six-one-five-one, Princeton, New Jersey zero-eight-five-four-one, USA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-9-1.cfm
* Headline: FOREIGN STUDENT SERIES - Part 8: Cost
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA question this week comes in an e-mail from China. A listener there asks how much it costs to attend an American university. That is the subject of our report today in our continuing series about how foreign students can attend college in the United States. All foreign students must have enough money to pay for every year of study at an American college. You should find the costs in the catalogs or papers you receive from colleges that you are interested in attending. The costs should also be provided on the college’s Internet web site. The cost of university courses is called tuition. Other costs include a place to live, food, books, and health insurance. Utah State University in Logan, Utah, says a foreign student must have fifteen-thousand-one-hundred dollars for each year of study. Experts say each foreign student should keep enough money in a local bank to pay the costs for at least two months of college. More than nine-hundred foreign students are attending the Utah State University this year. These students may receive financial help only after the first year of study at the university. There is no financial help for foreign students in their first year of study. Graduate students may be able to get teaching or research positions through professors or other university officials. Foreign students must show on university admissions documents how they plan to pay for their education. If you apply to Utah State, you must state on the document who will support you. The person paying for your education must sign the paper and send bank documents showing that he or she has the money to do this. If you will be supporting yourself, a bank official in your country must write to confirm that you have enough money to pay your costs. Some colleges in the United States cost less than the Utah State University, and many cost more. Your government or your employer may help you pay some of your costs. It is a good idea to seek such aid at least eighteen months before you want to start your American studies. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-10-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 9: Financial Aid
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our listener question this week comes in two e-mails, from Nigeria and Vietnam. Hashiru Idris and Le Cong Thien both ask about scholarships or other kinds of financial aid for foreign students who want to study in the United States. Most of the information about financial aid is found on the Internet. If you do not have a computer, use one at an advising center or local university. Many young people want to study in the United States but do not have the money to do so. It is a good idea to research this question when you first begin to explore the idea of studying in the United States. The Association of International Educators says more than two-thirds of foreign students in the United States pay for their educations using their own or their family’s money. That is because there is very little financial aid for foreign students in the United States. Foreign graduate students have more chances than undergraduates do, but it still is limited. Most financial aid from public and private groups is restricted to American citizens. Some countries provide aid for their citizens to study in the United States on the guarantee that they will return to work at home. The United States government provides aid for students from some countries. You can ask at the American Embassy or an Agency for International Development office if this is true in your country. A local university may also have such information. Some American colleges do provide aid to foreign students. A list of these can be found at a very useful computer Web site. The Web site also provides information about where to write for scholarships and loans. The address is w-w-w dot e-d-u-p-a-s-s dot o-r-g. The same web site also lists useful publications and tells how to order them. One example is a publication called “Funding for U-S Study -- A Guide for International Students and Professionals.” It lists more than six-hundred places international students can get money for their studies. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-11-1.cfm
* Headline: FOREIGN STUDENT SERIES - Part 10: Fulbright Program
* Byline: 

 HOST: Last week, we gave information about financial aid for foreign students. Today, we tell about a special financial aid program which began more than fifty years ago. ANNCR: The Fulbright Program of the United States government helps people study or do research in other countries. Senator J. William Fulbright established the program in Nineteen-Forty-Six. He believed that international exchange was a good way to improve world understanding. He also believed the program could educate future world leaders. Senator Fulbright thought that living and learning in another country would help people understand other ideas and ways of life. And he thought the experience would help them understand their own country, too. More than two-hundred-thirty-thousand students, teachers and researchers have taken part in the Fulbright program. Some of them later became famous. Two examples are the former Secretary–General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the former official poet of the United States, Rita Dove. Those who take part in the program are called Fulbright Scholars. Americans study or teach in foreign countries. People from other nations study and work in the United States. Fulbright scholars receive enough money to pay for travel, education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United States government, governments of other countries, and private groups. Nearly five-thousand Fulbright grants are awarded each year for American and foreign students, teachers, professors and professionals. The program is organized by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. It operates in one-hundred-forty countries. You can get information about the Fulbright Program at the Public Affairs section of the United States Embassy in your country. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-12-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 11: Learning English
* Byline: 

 HOST: A student in Vietnam asks about foreign graduate students who teach at American universities but do not speak English well. This can be a big problem. American college students sometimes say they cannot understand the way foreign graduate students speak English. They also say foreign graduate students sometimes cannot effectively answer questions in class. American universities recognize this problem and are taking steps to solve it. For example, Princeton University in New Jersey requires foreign graduate students to pass an English speaking test before they are permitted to teach. Those who fail the test attend a language program. Then they take the test again. Those who continue to fail the test are not permitted to teach until their English improves. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, also requires an English speaking test for foreign graduate students who want to teach. Harvard University has an English training program for all its international students. Boston University in Massachusetts recently expanded its training program. Foreign graduate students attend a two-week class designed to teach about cultural differences and improve English speaking. The students take English speaking tests and are placed in one of three groups. Those students who do well on the test require no more training. Others attend weekly classes to improve their English. Foreign students with the most problems attend English class two times a week and do not teach until their speaking improves. The Pennsylvania State University also requires an English speaking test. Then it places the foreign students in classes to improve their English. Some of these include classroom situations in which the foreign student must act as the teacher. Many other American colleges and universities have similar English classes for international students. You can find out about them when you first seek information about attending college in the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-13-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 12: Health Insurance
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question today comes in an e-mail from China. Zhang Mei-zhen asks about the health insurance required of every foreign student who attends an American college or university. Most full-time students at American universities must have health insurance. This is because health costs in the United States are high. Colleges are not able to pay the costs if students suffer serious accidents or sickness. Many American colleges have health centers where doctors and nurses treat students’ medical problems. This service may be included in the cost of attending college. Health insurance is usually needed for extra services. Students may already be protected under their parents’ health insurance policies. If not, many colleges offer their own insurance plans. For example, students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor are treated without charge for minor medical problems at the university health center. But the university suggests that students buy its health insurance plan. It costs about eight-hundred dollars a year. The insurance pays for hospital services, emergency room care and visits to doctors. It also pays for laboratory tests and X-rays. And it pays ninety percent of the cost of drugs ordered by a doctor. The plan does not pay for birth control, care of the teeth or eyeglasses. And it does not pay for preventive care such as injections that prevent disease. Students at Boston College in Massachusetts are required to have their own health insurance plan or to buy the college accident and sickness insurance. The college plan costs about five-hundred dollars a year. It pays for any medical care needed within a time period. It does not pay for eyeglasses, hearing aids, or dental treatment. Students can also buy independent insurance policies from insurance companies. The details of such policies are different, depending on where the student lives. Usually, these policies pay for doctor visits, treatment of injuries and hospital costs. Sometimes foreign students do not understand the need for health insurance, especially if they do not need such insurance in their own countries. However, people in the United States are responsible for their own medical costs. These can be extremely high in cases of serious illness or accidents. The purpose of health insurance is to make sure that these costs will be paid. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-14-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 13: Dorm Living
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Mongolia. Amarkhuu Ayulguisaikhan asks about foreign students living in college dormitories, also called “dorms” or residence halls. Most American colleges permit foreign students to choose if they will live in a dorm or in housing that is not owned by the university. Many foreign students say the dorms are cheaper than apartments. They say dorms offer quiet study areas and rooms for social activities or sports. They say dorms are close to places they go every day, like the library, computer center and classrooms. They also say that living in the dorm provides the best chance to get to know other students. Dormitories may house as few as twelve students or as many as one-thousand. Some dormitories are organized into areas called suites. Suites have several bedrooms, a large living area and a bathroom. Six or more people may live in one suite. Other dorms have many rooms along a hallway. Two students usually live in each room. On each floor of the dorm is a large bathroom for all the students who live on that floor. Sometimes there is also a kitchen for preparing food. In most universities, males and females live in the same dorm. They may even live on the same floor. But they usually may not live in the same room or suite. Most universities do have some separate dorms for men and women. They may also have special dorms that do not permit smoking or require all students to speak a foreign language. Ed Spencer is the chief housing officer at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Mister Spencer says many American universities are willing to change some policies so foreign students are happy living in the dorms. For example, he says Virginia Tech changed its policy banning candles in the dorms so that foreign students could hold ceremonies that require burning candles. Mister Spencer says foreign students should ask university officials questions before deciding where to live. For example: Does the university provide special kinds of food the student may require? Will the university provide a single room if the student prefers not to live so closely with others? Do any of the dorms have private bathing areas? Mister Spencer says it is important for all students to understand the rules of the building in which they will live. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-15-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 14: Student Visa
* Byline: 

 HOST: Today, we tell about the legal documents that foreign students need to study at an American college or university. Complete details about getting a student visa can also be found on the State Department’s Web page. That address is w-w-w dot t-r-a-v-e-l dot s-t-a-t-e dot g-o-v. ANNCR: Every foreign student who wants to study in the United States must get a visa from the United States government. You will receive information about how to get one from the American college that has accepted you. Answer the questions on the paper and follow the directions. Then, go to the American embassy or diplomatic office nearest your home. There you will talk with an American official who will decide about your visa. You must take some documents with you. These include your letter of college acceptance, documents showing how you will pay for your studies, your passport and pictures of yourself. State Department officials say it is especially important to take all the papers you received from the American college, including the I-Twenty Form. You and the American official will discuss your plans to study in the United States. The official will want to see the I-Twenty Form and college acceptance letter. You must show that you have enough money to pay the cost of the first year of study. You must also be able to satisfy the official that you will return to your country after you have finished your studies. The official will help you decide what kind of visa you will need. It will depend on the kind of studying you will do and the length of time it will take to complete your studies. In the past, students on temporary visas in the United States could not earn money by working. This has changed. Students now may work after they have been in the United States for one year. It is not easy to get permission to work, however. The rules permit students to get jobs that are part of training programs, although there are some restrictions. The American official should explain all these rules to you. Be sure to ask questions until everything is clear. You must know what is and is not permitted of an international student in the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-16-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 15: Handbook of U.S. Colleges
* Byline: 

 HOST: Today, we tell about a book that provides much of the needed information. ANNCR: The book is called “The International Student Handbook of U.S. Colleges”. It is published by the American College Entrance Examination Board. College Board officials say it is the only guide to American colleges for students from other countries. The book has more than three-hundred pages of information. It explains the American system of higher education. It tells how to apply for college in the United States. It explains college costs, living costs and what kinds of financial aid foreign students can get. It gives information about tests that a foreign student must take, and provides dates these tests are given. The book contains a planning calendar that starts two years before you want to begin your studies. It lists everything you must do each month to reach the goal. Another part of the book lists more than two-thousand colleges for undergraduate studies in the United States. It lists more than one-thousand universities for graduate studies. It gives their addresses so you can write for information. The book lists the name of each school and how many American and foreign students attend. It also lists the tests that are required, application times and student services offered. And it lists the costs for classes and housing and possible financial aid. The College Board publishes a new guide book each September, so the information is always correct. This year, the book also includes a CD-ROM to be used with a computer. The CD provides information about more than two-thousand colleges. You can search for colleges by the programs you are interested in. For example, if you want to study electrical engineering, the CD will list all the schools that offer the program, and give you all the needed information. The book and CD-ROM cost about twenty-six dollars. You can get them by searching the College Board computer Web site at w-w-w dot c-o-l-l-e-g-e-b-o-a-r-d dot o-r-g. Or write to The College Board, forty-five Columbus Avenue, New York, New York one-zero-zero-two-three. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-17-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 16: Guide to International Students
* Byline: 

 HOST: Every year, the Institute for International Education publishes a report about foreign students who are studying in the United States. It says more than two-thousand-five-hundred American colleges and universities welcome international students. We tell about this year’s report, called “Open Doors, Two-Thousand.” ANNCR: The latest report from the Institute for International Education gives information from the school year that began in September of last year and ended in May of this year. It says more than five-hundred-thousand foreign college students attended American schools during that school year. New York University in New York City had the largest number of foreign students. Almost five-thousand foreign students attended N-Y-U last year. The University of Southern California at Los Angeles had the second largest number of students, about four-thousand-five-hundred. The report says the state of California had the most foreign students, with about sixty-six-thousand living there last year. New York State was next, with about fifty-five-thousand foreign students. China sent the most foreign students to the United States last year. More than fifty-four-thousand students from China attended American schools. Japan sent the next highest number of students, almost forty-seven-thousand. India was next, with about forty-two-thousand. And Korea was fourth, sending more than forty-one-thousand students to the United States. The report says the most popular subjects of study for international students in the United States last year were business and management. Twenty percent of all foreign students were studying those subjects. Fifteen percent studied engineering. Nineteen percent studied mathematics and computer science. The I-I-E report contains much more information than we have time to provide here. You can get details by using the computer to go to the Institute for International Education web site. That address is w-w-w dot i-i-e dot o-r-g. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-18-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 17: New York University
* Byline: 

 HOST: Last week, we told about a yearly report that gives information about foreign students who are studying in the United States. The latest report says New York University in New York City had the largest number of foreign students last year. ANNCR: Almost five-thousand foreign students attended N-Y-U last year. University officials say New York City is a very popular and exciting place for young people. They also say foreign students want to study at N-Y-U because of its excellent programs in fourteen separate schools. The foreign students at New York University come from more than one-hundred-thirty countries. Fifty percent are from Asia, especially Korea, Japan and China. Foreign students are studying in all fourteen schools within the university. These include arts and sciences, law, business and education. Seventy-five percent of the foreign students are in graduate school. About twenty-five percent are in four-year programs that lead to a bachelor’s degree. The cost of attending New York University is different in each of its schools. For example, one year of study at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service costs about nineteen-thousand dollars. Some other schools within N-Y-U cost more. Some cost less. The housing cost is about nine-thousand dollars a year. Bachelor’s degree students at N-Y-U can borrow money from financial institutions to help pay for their studies. Foreign students in graduate school at N-Y-U can get teaching or research jobs at the university. They can also get loans from financial institutions. You can get more information about N-Y-U on the Internet. The address is w-w-w dot n-y-u dot e-d-u. University officials say students interested in graduate studies should write to the school in which they are interested. Others can write to the Undergraduate Admissions Office, Twenty-Two Washington Square North, New York University, New York, New York one-zero-zero-one-one, U-S-A. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-19-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 18: Harvard University
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Spain. Miguel Acha asks what is the oldest university in the United States. Harvard University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It began in Sixteen-Thirty-Six in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. The area was an English colony settled mainly by Puritans who did not agree with the Anglican Church in England. The university was named after a Puritan religious leader, John Harvard. He left the college four-hundred books when he died. Today, Harvard has more than ninety libraries containing more than twelve-million books. The university includes Harvard College, Radcliffe College, and ten graduate schools. Harvard has one of the best medical colleges and business schools in the country. It also offers programs in law, government, education, religion and science. Many years ago, Harvard students were all white men. Most of them were from rich families from the American northeast. That has changed. This year, twenty-seven percent of the first year students at Harvard are African-American, Asian-American or Native American. Almost fifty percent are women. Today, most Harvard students are not rich, although it is very costly to study there. It costs more than thirty-two-thousand dollars for one year. That is more than one-hundred-twenty-thousand dollars for four years of study. About two-thirds of the students at Harvard depend on loans, financial aid or jobs to pay for their educations. Many people consider Harvard to be the best university in the United States. It is very difficult to be accepted to study there. More than eighteen-thousand high school students applied to attend Harvard last year. About one-thousand-six-hundred students began studying there in September. About eight percent were from other countries. At total of more than eighteen-thousand students were studying at Harvard last year. About three-thousand were from outside the United States. Most of the foreign students were from Asia or Europe. Most were studying for graduate degrees. The International Student Office at Harvard says the university does offer financial aid to foreign students. To find out more, you can use a computer to find Harvard’s Internet Web site. The address is w-w-w dot h-a-r-v-a-r-d dot e-d-u. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-20-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 19: Navajo Indian College
* Byline: 

 HOST: We continue with our series of reports about how foreign students can study in the United States. Today, in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we tell about an unusual college that accepts foreign students. It is a Navajo Indian college in the American Southwest. ANNCR: Dine (din-AY) College was known as Navajo Community College until a few years ago. Dine is the word Navajo Indians use for themselves. It was the first college in the United States controlled by an Indian tribe. The first classrooms were built in the early Nineteen-Seventies on the Navajo reservation in Tsaile (SAY-lee), Arizona. Dine College also has a campus in Shiprock, New Mexico. And it offers programs in other towns on the Navajo reservation. When the college was established, officials wanted a place that would combine modern education with Navajo ceremonial life. The grounds at Tsaile demonstrate this. The buildings are designed in a circle. A circle represents life to the Navajos. At the center is a tall building with eight sides. It is covered with black glass. It represents a nearby mountain, Tsaile Peak. The tall building is surrounded by low buildings where the students live. Most of these buildings are designed to look like the traditional round Navajo home, the hogan. Dine College offers two years of education. Students can earn degrees in such areas as business and computer science. The college also has a four-year program that leads to a degree in education from Arizona State University. Dine College is open to anyone who wants to attend. This year, three foreign students are attending Dine College. Officials say foreign students must score at least five hundred on the Test of English as a Foreign Language before they can be admitted. Dine College does not provide financial aid to international students. The cost of one year is about four-thousand dollars. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-21-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 20: Orange Coast College
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes in an e-mail from Vietnam. Nguyen Hanh Thao asks about Orange Coast College. Orange Coast College is one of the largest community colleges in the United States. It is in the southern California town of Costa Mesa. Orange Coast College offers more than one-hundred programs to train students for jobs. Students usually graduate after two years. Orange Coast College also prepares students to continue studying at a four-year college or university. College officials say foreign students who want to attend Orange Coast College must earn a score of at least five-hundred on the written Test of English as a Foreign Language. Foreign students must also be tested in English and mathematics when they arrive at Orange Coast College. Each student has an adviser to help choose which classes to take. Classes for one year at Orange Coast Community College cost about three-thousand dollars. Housing and food cost another seven-thousand dollars. Orange Coast College does not provide housing for its students. However, its International Student Center helps foreign students find American families in the area with whom they can live. The International Student Center also helps foreign students prepare any necessary documents, choose activities and plan for trips. More than twenty-two-thousand students attend Orange Coast College. More than one-thousand-two-hundred are from outside the United States. They are from seventy-four different nations. College officials say about half the foreign students are in work-training programs. The others are preparing to attend a four-year college or university. Most are studying business or computer science. You can learn more about Orange Coast College by using a computer. The address is w-w-w dot o-c-c dot e-d-u. Students who use a computer can get similar information about any American college by typing the college’s name into a computer search engine. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-22-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 21: Agricultural Schools
* Byline: 

 HOST: We continue now with our series of reports for foreign students who want to study in the United States. Today, we have some information about universities that teach agricultural science. ANNCR: The United States Department of Education says there are more than two-thousand-three-hundred American colleges and universities. About one-hundred of these four-year schools began as public agricultural colleges, and continue to teach agriculture subjects today. They are called land grant colleges or universities. Federal land grants supported the building of most of the major state universities. The idea of the land grant college was developed more than one-hundred years ago by Congressman James Smith Morrill. In Eighteen-Sixty-Two, he wrote legislation to create such a college in each state. The name land grant came from the kind of aid provided by the federal government. It gave each state thousands of hectares of land. The money earned by the land was to be used to support the college. The federal government wanted people in each state to learn better ways to farm. Senator Morrill and others saw a need for universities to teach agriculture science to improve what was then an important national industry. A later law helped agricultural colleges develop new ideas in farm science. It created an agriculture experiment center at each land grant college to help farmers solve problems. One land-grant school is the Pennsylvania State University. More than three-thousand-six-hundred students from other countries are now attending Penn State. It costs each of them about twenty-five-thousand dollars a year. Officials say it is possible for graduate students to get financial aid by working for the university as a teaching or research assistant. One-hundred-fifty-six international students are studying this year in the College of Agricultural Sciences. All but three are graduate students. University officials say most international students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences are from Africa, Asia and Europe. Their major areas of study include animal science, plant science, forestry, economics, and food science. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-23-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 22: Johnson & Wales University
* Byline: 

 HOST: Today, we tell about a university that has been called one of the most unusual in the United States. ANNCR: It is Johnson and Wales University. Its main center is in Providence, Rhode Island. Gertrude Johnson and May Wales began it as a business school in Nineteen-Fourteen. Now, its students also study food service management, travel services, hotel management, marketing and other subjects. Many of Johnson and Wales’ students study business subjects from the time they enter the university. They also get work experience as part of their education. Professors supervise second-year students as they work in businesses that are owned by the university. These include farms, stores and hotels. More than thirteen-thousand students attend Johnson and Wales University. More than one-thousand students are from outside the United States. They come from ninety-two countries around the world. University officials say most are studying international travel and recreation services. Johnson and Wales University has an office in Istanbul, Turkey that tells people about the school. Workers in the office meet with students. They travel to schools all over the world and talk about the university. They help students with their applications and other paper work. And they provide information about how to get financial aid. International students pay about twenty-five-thousand dollars a year to attend Johnson and Wales University in Providence. The university’s International Center helps new students find places to live and provides many other needed services. The university’s English Language Center offers classes that teach English as a second language. You can use a computer to get more information about Johnson and Wales University. The address is w-w-w dot j-w-u dot e-d-u. Or you can write to International Admissions, Johnson and Wales University, Eight Abbott Park Place, Providence, Rhode Island, zero-two-nine-zero-three, U-S-A. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-24-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 23: MBA Programs
* Byline: 

 HOST: We continue now with our series for foreign students who want to attend college in the United States. Today, we tell about a popular graduate degree known as the M-B-A. The letters represent the words Master of Business Administration. ANNCR: M-B-A students learn to deal with all kinds of business situations. They learn to solve business problems. They develop skills needed by many different kinds of companies. All M-B-A programs teach students about subjects including economics, the structure of organizations, finance, marketing and policy. Students then do more study in areas that interest them. It usually takes two years to get an M-B-A degree if you attend school full time. Many programs permit students to take classes while they work. These programs take longer to complete. Business is one of the most popular areas of study for foreign students in the United States. To be admitted to an M-B-A program, foreign students must show a clear understanding of English by taking the TOEFL test. All students must also take the Graduate Management Admission Test. The scores on this test are used by more than one-thousand-five-hundred graduate programs throughout the world. Studying for an M-B-A can be costly. The program at the University of Virginia, for example, costs more than twenty-two-thousand dollars a year. That cost does not include housing and food. Foreign students can get financial aid for M-B-A studies after the first year. The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia today has one-hundred-twenty foreign students studying for an M-B-A degree. To get information about studying for an M-B-A, use the computer and go to a web site called M-B-A Explorer. The Internet address is w-w-w dot g-m-a-t dot o-r-g. Another way is to go to a meeting of the Graduate Management Admission Council. These meetings are called M-B-A Forums. They are held in different cities in several areas of the world. At the M-B-A Forums, representatives of business colleges explain their programs and answer questions from people interested in studying business. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-25-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 24: Military Colleges
* Byline: 

 HOST: This week, we report about two American military colleges. ANNCR: One American military college that welcomes foreign students is the Virginia Military Institute in the town of Lexington, Virginia. It is often called V-M-I. The students are called cadets. One-thousand-three-hundred cadets are attending V-M-I this year. V-M-I offers a four year military college experience to both men and women. It considers the learning of self-control to be an important part of a college education. At V-M-I, new cadets learn from older ones. One thing the older cadets teach is the honor system. Cadets must not lie, cheat or steal. They also must not accept lying, cheating or stealing from any other cadet. Cadets who violate the honor system are expelled. Public Relations Director, olonel Mike Strickler, says international students come to V-M-I for the military environment. This year, thirty-nine men and women from twenty-three foreign countries are attending V-M-I. They study business, engineering, computer science, and other subjects. The cost is about twenty-thousand dollars a year. Another American military college that welcomes foreign students is the Citadel, in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. It also accepts both men and women for a four year program. There are one-thousand-nine-hundred undergraduate students at The Citadel. Public Affairs Officer Patricia McArver says the college offers a traditional military education. But, she says, only thirty per cent of its graduates enter the military after graduation. She says international students attend the Citadel to study in a structured environment. This year, the Citadel has sixty-nine international students from more than thirty countries around the world. They are studying mostly business, education, computer science, mathematics and engineering. It costs almost twenty-thousand dollars to attend the Citadel the first year. After that, the cost drops to about sixteen-thousand. You can use a computer to get more information about these American military colleges. V-M-I’s address is w-w-w dot v-m-i dot e-d-u. The Citadel can be found at w-w-w dot c-i-t-a-d-e-l dot e-d-u. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-26-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 25: College for Learning Disabled
* Byline: 

 HOST: We continue now with our series for foreign students who want to study in the United States. We tell about an American college for students with learning problems. ANNCR: It is Landmark College in the northeastern state of Vermont. It was started in Nineteen-Eighty-Four by an expert in educating people who suffer learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities usually cannot think about just one thing for any period of time. Nor can they sit without moving for more than a few minutes. These and other problems interfere with their learning in school. It is difficult for them to complete their educations. Many experts believe that learning disabilities are caused by chemical problems in the brain. Whatever the cause, officials at Landmark College say they can help. Landmark College prepares students to continue their educations successfully at other colleges. Officials say ninety percent of the students do go on to other schools after they finish at Landmark. Students may study at Landmark for one, two or three years. Or they can take summer classes only. The teaching at Landmark is different from teaching at other colleges. Teachers use methods that are best for the students. For example, they may divide a large task into many small ones. Students learn each one, then put them together as a whole. Classes at Landmark are small. Most classes have about seven students, but some have as few as three. The college develops an education plan for each student. And each student has one special teacher who helps him or her study. This individual supervision is costly. A student pays more than thirty-six-thousand dollars a year. The college does offer financial aid to all its students. Three-hundred-fifty-five students attend Landmark College. Students from thirteen foreign countries are among them. The college also offers its foreign students special help with their classwork and with any other problems they may have. You can get more information about Landmark College by using a computer. The address is w-w-w dot l-a-n-d-m-a-r-k-c-o-l-l-e-g-e dot o-r-g. Or write to the Admissions Office, Landmark College, River Road, Putney, Vermont, zero-five-three-four-six, U-S-A. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-27-1.cfm
* Headline: Summary
* Byline: 

 HOST: American Mosaic has been broadcasting a series of reports for foreign students who want to attend college in the United States. This is the final program in this series. We hope these reports helped students think about their goals and provided ways to reach them. We explained the kinds of colleges and universities in the United States, how to get information about them and how to apply for admission. We discussed admissions tests and how to prepare for them. We reported about the high cost of attending an American university and told about possible places to seek financial aid. We talked about the legal documents that are needed before a student can travel to the United States to attend college. We also discussed the possibility of using the computer to take classes at an American college without leaving home. In other programs, we told about some American colleges that are not so well known. Landmark College, for example, teaches students with learning disabilities. The Citadel provides a military education. Johnson and Wales University offers business studies. We also provided information about community colleges, agricultural colleges and the Masters of Business Administration degree. We would like to thank everyone who wrote to us asking questions that were used in this series. They helped us explain subjects we had not considered. For example, we explained about the need for student health insurance. We reported about working as a teaching assistant. We discussed dormitory life. And we told the difference between an American college and a university. We hope you will continue to listen to American Mosaic for reports about American life and other information about American colleges. In about two years, we will broadcast this series again to provide new information. By then, another group of students will be looking for information about attending college in the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-28-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 2: Information You Will Need
* Byline: 

 HOST: This week on our series for foreign students, we explain the structure of university education in the United States. This information can prevent costly mistakes. You would not want to begin studying at a school that could not provide the degree you need. ANNCR: Studying in the United States does not mean choosing a university that offers only the traditional four-year degree. You may want to consider a school that offers a certificate program. These programs are one year or less of training in areas such as office work, computer programming or automobile repair. When you complete the program, you receive a certificate stating the skills you have learned. Make sure that any program you want to enter offers a certificate that is accepted by employers in your country and in the United States. You may also choose a two-year junior college or community college. Such programs lead to an Associate degree. Some two-year programs prepare you for skilled trades or technical jobs in such areas as electronics and building. Many colleges and universities accept community college work as the first two years toward a four-year Bachelor’s degree. And a year at a community college costs much less than at a traditional four-year college. Four-year college programs lead to a Bachelor’s degree. During the first two years, you generally take subjects such as English, history, mathematics, science and languages. What you take the last two years depends on your major area of study. If you already have a college degree, you may be considering an American graduate school. You must continue your education in graduate school if you want to be a medical doctor, lawyer or college professor. A Master’s degree usually takes two or three years of full-time study. A Doctoral degree, or Ph. D., takes three to six years. Some colleges, universities, hospitals and laboratories also offer a chance to do scientific research. You may want to communicate with one of them to see if you can do research in a subject in which you are interested. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-29-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 10: Fulbright Program
* Byline: 

 HOST: Last week, we gave information about financial aid for foreign students. Today, we tell about a special financial aid program which began more than fifty years ago. ANNCR: The Fulbright Program of the United States government helps people study or do research in other countries. Senator J. William Fulbright established the program in Nineteen-Forty-Six. He believed that international exchange was a good way to improve world understanding. He also believed the program could educate future world leaders. Senator Fulbright thought that living and learning in another country would help people understand other ideas and ways of life. And he thought the experience would help them understand their own country, too. More than two-hundred-thirty-thousand students, teachers and researchers have taken part in the Fulbright program. Some of them later became famous. Two examples are the former Secretary–General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the former official poet of the United States, Rita Dove. Those who take part in the program are called Fulbright Scholars. Americans study or teach in foreign countries. People from other nations study and work in the United States. Fulbright scholars receive enough money to pay for travel, education and living costs. The program is paid for by the United States government, governments of other countries, and private groups. Nearly five-thousand Fulbright grants are awarded each year for American and foreign students, teachers, professors and professionals. The program is organized by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. It operates in one-hundred-forty countries. You can get information about the Fulbright Program at the Public Affairs section of the United States Embassy in your country. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-30-1.cfm
* Headline: Part 8: Cost
* Byline: 

 HOST: Our VOA question this week comes in an e-mail from China. A listener there asks how much it costs to attend an American university. That is the subject of our report today in our continuing series about how foreign students can attend college in the United States. All foreign students must have enough money to pay for every year of study at an American college. You should find the costs in the catalogs or papers you receive from colleges that you are interested in attending. The costs should also be provided on the college’s Internet web site. The cost of university courses is called tuition. Other costs include a place to live, food, books, and health insurance. Utah State University in Logan, Utah, says a foreign student must have fifteen-thousand-one-hundred dollars for each year of study. Experts say each foreign student should keep enough money in a local bank to pay the costs for at least two months of college. More than nine-hundred foreign students are attending the Utah State University this year. These students may receive financial help only after the first year of study at the university. There is no financial help for foreign students in their first year of study. Graduate students may be able to get teaching or research positions through professors or other university officials. Foreign students must show on university admissions documents how they plan to pay for their education. If you apply to Utah State, you must state on the document who will support you. The person paying for your education must sign the paper and send bank documents showing that he or she has the money to do this. If you will be supporting yourself, a bank official in your country must write to confirm that you have enough money to pay your costs. Some colleges in the United States cost less than the Utah State University, and many cost more. Your government or your employer may help you pay some of your costs. It is a good idea to seek such aid at least eighteen months before you want to start your American studies. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-31-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 11, 2001: Tuberculosis
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease tuberculosis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization says tuberculosis is a serious health problem around the world. It says one-third of the world’s population is infected with the T-B bacteria. Between five and ten percent of people who are infected with T-B become sick at some time during their life. Eight-million people become sick with the disease each year. Two-million people die of the disease each year. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Most people infected with the tuberculosis bacteria never develop active T-B. However, people with weak body defense systems often develop the disease. T-B can damage a person’s lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious sickness. The disease is spread by people who have active, untreated T-B bacteria in their lungs or throat. The bacteria are spread into the air when people with the disease talk, cough or sneeze. VOICE TWO: People who breathe the infected air from a T-B victim can become infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, most people with active tuberculosis do not expel very many T-B bacteria. So, the spread of the disease usually does not happen unless a person spends a great deal of time with a T-B victim. Those most at risk are family members, friends and people who work closely with a T-B victim. If a person becomes infected with the tuberculosis bacteria, it does not mean he or she has the disease. Having a tuberculosis infection means that the T-B bacteria are in the body, but they may be inactive. VOICE ONE: After the T-B bacteria enter the body, the body’s defense system usually acts to surround them and prevent them from spreading. The immune system does this by building a wall around the bacteria similar to the way blood hardens around a cut on the skin. The bacteria can stay alive in an inactive condition inside these walls for many years. When T-B bacteria are inactive, they cannot damage the body. Also, they cannot spread to other people. People with inactive T-B bacteria are infected, but they are not sick. They probably do not know that they infected. Millions of people have the T-B infection. For most of them, the bacteria will always be inactive. They will never suffer signs of tuberculosis. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: If the body’s defense system is weak, however, a person can get tuberculosis soon after the T-B bacteria enter the body. Also, inactive T-B bacteria may become active if the body’s immune system becomes weak. When this happens, the bacteria can break through the protective walls. Then they begin reproducing and damaging the lungs or other organs. When T-B bacteria become active, they can cause serious sickness. The inactive T-B bacteria can become active under several conditions. When a person becomes old, the immune system may become too weak to protect against the bacteria. A serious sickness can weaken the immune system enough to free the T-B bacteria. H-I-V, the virus that causes AIDS, can cause T-B bacteria to become active. Also, doctors warn that people who use many illegal drugs or drink too much alcohol have a higher risk of becoming sick from the tuberculosis bacteria. VOICE ONE: T-B can attack any part of the body. However, the lungs are the most common target of the bacteria. People with the disease show several signs. They have a cough that continues for a long period of time. People with a more severe case of tuberculosis may cough up blood. People with the disease often suffer from high body temperatures. They suffer what are called night sweats, during which their bodies give off large amounts of water through the skin. T-B victims are also tired all the time. They are not interested in eating. So they lose weight. One thing that is especially dangerous about T-B is that people with moderate signs of the disease may not know they have it. They may spread the disease to others without even knowing it. So, it is very important for people to get tested for tuberculosis. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: There are several ways to test for T-B. The first is the Mantoux skin test. The test can identify most people infected with tuberculosis six to eight weeks after the bacteria entered their bodies. A substance called purified protein derivative is injected under the skin of the arm. The place of the injection is examined two to three days later. If a raised red area forms, the person may have been infected with the tuberculosis bacteria. However, this does not always mean the disease is active. VOICE ONE: If the skin test shows that T-B bacteria have entered the body, doctors can use other methods to discover if the person has active T-B. However, this sometimes can be difficult because tuberculosis may appear similar to other diseases. Doctors must consider other physical signs. Also, they must decide if a person’s history shows that he or she has been in situations where tuberculosis was present. Doctors also use an X-ray examination to show if there is evidence of T-B infection, such as damage to the lungs. Another way to test for the presence of active tuberculosis is to examine the fluids from a person’s body, especially those taken from the mouth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: It is very important for doctors to identify which kind of T-B bacteria are present so they can decide which drugs to use to treat the disease. More than ninety percent of T-B cases can be cured with medicines. However, the death rate for untreated T-B patients is between forty and sixty percent. Successful treatment of T-B requires close cooperation among patients, doctors and other health care workers. It is very important for patients to be educated about the disease and its treatment. Patients must take medicine for six to twelve months to destroy all signs of the bacteria. Sometimes patients fail to finish taking the medicine ordered by their doctors. Experts say this is because some patients feel better after only two to four weeks of treatment and stop taking their medicine. This can lead to the T-B bacteria becoming resistant to drugs and growing stronger, more dangerous and more difficult to treat. Because of this, many doctors and other health care workers directly observe and supervise treatment of the disease in their patients. VOICE ONE: Experts say T-B is a preventable disease. In the United States, the goal of health organizations is to quickly identify infected people – especially those who have the highest risk of developing the disease. There are several drugs that can prevent tuberculosis in people who are at risk of becoming infected. These people include those who live or work closely with people who have T-B. Others at risk are people who are infected with the tuberculosis bacteria but do not have the active disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of ways to limit the spread of tuberculosis. All T-B patients must learn to cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze. It also is important to keep air flowing through rooms so that the T-B bacteria cannot gather and infect people. Also, ultraviolet light and other devices can be used to clean infectious bacteria from the air in closed rooms. Tuberculosis can be cured if it is discovered early and if patients take their medicine correctly. And, like other diseases, education and understanding are extremely important in preventing and curing T-B. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-10-32-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – September 11, 2001: World Food Prize
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Per (PARE) Pinstrup-Andersen of Denmark has won the World Food Prize for this year. The prize will be presented next month at a ceremony in the American city of Des Moines, Iowa. Mister Pinstrup-Andersen will receive the award and two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars. The World Food Prize honors people who have improved the quality of world food supplies. The World Food Prize Foundation says it chose Mister Pinstrup-Andersen for his work in agricultural research and food policy. It praised him for helping to improve the condition of poor and starving people around the world. Mister Pinstrup-Andersen grew up on a farm in Denmark. He studied farm economics in Denmark and the United States. He is director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D-C. The institute is one of sixteen centers supported by international aid. In the past, most winners of the World Food Prize were recognized for scientific work in food production technology. Mister Pinstrup-Andersen believes his award this year shows a new public understanding. He says it shows that the world needs both technology and good food policy to solve the problems facing poor people. Under his leadership, the International Food Policy Research Institute has published a series of policy papers. These reports urge government leaders and policy makers to help the world’s poor and hungry people. The World Food Prize Committee praised the reports for providing support for policy changes. Mister Pinstrup-Andersen believes that the reports have helped increase public understanding of the causes of poverty and hunger. He says their main purpose is to show the huge amount of human suffering and economic waste linked to hunger and poor use of natural resources. The World Food Prize winner also is a leading supporter of expanded school feeding programs in developing countries. He notes that hundreds of millions of children do not get enough to eat. Some environmental activists have criticized Mister Pinstrup-Andersen for his support of genetically-engineered crops. He thinks such crops could help meet growing world demands for food. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - September 12, 2001: Search for Long Life Gene
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. In the year Nineteen-Hundred, a baby born in the United States could expect to live to be about forty-nine years old. Today, the life expectancy for a baby in the United States is seventy-seven years. The main reasons for this change are better food, improved medical care and cleaner water and waste removal systems. Some scientists say this may explain why people live to be seventy or eighty. But only an extremely small number of Americans live to be one-hundred years old. Many of these people have brothers or sisters older than ninety. Some scientists believe these people have genes that help protect them from diseases or permit them to age more slowly than other people. A group of researchers from Boston, Massachusetts wanted to find out more about such family groups. They studied one-hundred-thirty-seven groups of very old brothers and sisters. One person in each group was at least ninety-eight years old. The brother or sister was at least ninety-one. There were three-hundred-eight people in the study. The oldest was one-hundred-nine years old. The researchers say they made progress is finding the gene that may permit some people to live extremely long lives. The scientists took blood samples and tested the genes of all the sisters and brothers in the study. They compared genetic structures to find genes that might be linked to aging. They found an area in one chromosome that appears to contain a gene or genes that may be linked to extreme old age. This one part of the chromosome has between one-hundred and five-hundred genes. The scientists say it is not clear which one or how many of the genes may affect long life. The researchers believe the gene or genes may somehow provide resistance to disease. This may explain why many people older than one-hundred remain healthy and active. The researchers reported the results of their study in “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”Scientists say more work needs to be done to find the gene or genes involved in living to be very old. They say such work could result in drugs that could help people without those genes to live longer. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 12, 2001: X-15 Plane
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) TODAY, DOUG JOHNSON AND FRANK OLIVER TELL ABOUT THE FIRST AIRPLANE THAT FLEW OUT OF THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. IT WAS DESIGNED TO TEST EQUIPMENT AND CONDITIONS FOR FUTURE SPACE FLIGHTS. THE PLANE WAS CALLED THE X-FIFTEEN. VOICE ONE: THE PILOT OF THE HUGE B-FIFTY-TWO BOMBER PLANE PUSHES A BUTTON. FROM UNDER THE PLANE'S RIGHT WING, THE BLACK SHARP-NOSED X-FIFTEEN DROPS FREE. IT IS ELEVEN-AND ONE-HALF KILOMETERS ABOVE THE EARTH. PILOT SCOTT CROSSFIELD IS IN THE X-FIFTEEN'S ONLY SEAT. WHEN HE IS CLEAR OF THE B-FIFTY-TWO, HE STARTS THE X-FIFTEEN'S ROCKET ENGINE. AND SO BEGINS THE FIRST POWERED FLIGHT OF THE EXPERIMENTAL PLANE DESIGNED TO TAKE MAN TO THE EDGE OF SPACE. VOICE TWO: THE X-FIFTEEN FLIES HIGH OVER THE SANDY WASTELAND OF CALIFORNIA'S MOJAVE DESERT. UP, UP IT FLIES. AFTER THREE MINUTES, ITS FUEL HAS BURNED UP. IT IS FLYING ABOUT TWO-THOUSAND KILOMETERS AN HOUR. SCOTT CROSSFIELD'S VOICE TIGHTENS. HIS BREATHING BECOMES HARDER AS THE PLANE PUSHES AGAINST THE ATMOSPHERE. AT THAT SPEED, THE PRESSURE IS THREE TIMES THE FORCE OF GRAVITY. THEN THE X-FIFTEEN PUSHES OVER THE TOP OF ITS FLIGHT PATH. IT SETTLES INTO A LONG, POWERLESS SLIDE TOWARD THE LANDING FIELD AT EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE. DESIGNERS OF THE X-FIFTEEN HAVE WARNED CROSSFIELD ABOUT THE LANDING. THEY SAY IT WILL BE LIKE DRIVING A RACE CAR TOWARD A BRICK WALL AT ONE-HUNDRED-SIXTY KILOMETERS AN HOUR, HITTING THE BRAKES, AND STOPPING LESS THAN A METER FROM THE WALL. CROSSFIELD LANDS THE PLANE WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM. HIS SUCCESS SHOWS, AS ONE NEWSPAPER REPORTS, THAT "THE UNITED STATES HAS MEN TO MATCH ITS ROCKETS." VOICE ONE: THAT FIRST FLIGHT OF THE X-FIFTEEN TOOK PLACE IN SEPTEMBER, NINETEEN-FIFTY-NINE. BUT THE STORY BEGAN IN THE NINETEEN-FORTIES WITH THE 'X' SERIES OF EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT. THE FIRST PLANE EVER TO FLY FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF SOUND WAS THE X-ONE IN NINETEEN-FORTY-SEVEN. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND AMERICA'S AIRPLANE INDUSTRY REALIZED THEN THAT IT WAS POSSIBLE TO BUILD AN EVEN FASTER PLANE. IT WOULD REACH HYPERSONIC SPEEDS -- FIVE TIMES THE SPEED OF SOUND. THE FIRST PROPOSAL FOR THIS NEW RESEARCH VEHICLE, THE X-FIFTEEN, WAS MADE IN NINETEEN-FIFTY-FOUR. THE SPACE AGENCY, AIR FORCE AND NAVY JOINTLY SUPPORTED THE PROGRAM. THEY WANTED A PLANE THAT COULD TEST CONDITIONS FOR FUTURE FLIGHTS INTO SPACE. VOICE TWO: THE PROJECT MOVED QUICKLY. THE NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION COMPANY WON THE COMPETITION TO DESIGN AND BUILD THE PLANE. THE DESIGN WOULD BE PART AIRCRAFT AND PART SPACECRAFT. THE COMPANY TOOK LESS THAN FOUR YEARS TO PRODUCE THREE X-FIFTEENS. THE PLANES WERE NOT BIG. THEY WERE JUST FIFTEEN METERS LONG WITH WINGS LESS THAN SEVEN METERS ACROSS. THEY WERE DESIGNED TO FLY AT SPEEDS UP TO SIX-THOUSAND FOUR-HUNDRED KILOMETERS AN HOUR. THEY WERE DESIGNED TO REACH HEIGHTS OF EIGHTY KILOMETERS. THEIR PURPOSE WAS TO EXPLORE SOME OF THE PROBLEMS OF MANNED FLIGHT, DURING SHORT PERIODS, IN LOWER SPACE. NO ONE HAD EVER DONE THAT BEFORE. VOICE ONE: THE X-FIFTEEN PROJECT HAD FOUR MAJOR GOALS. IT WOULD TEST FLIGHT CONDITIONS AT THE EDGE OF EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. IT WOULD LEAVE THE ATMOSPHERE BRIEFLY, THEN RETURN, TESTING THE EFFECTS OF THE EXTREME HEAT OF RE-ENTRY. IT WOULD PROVIDE INFORMATION ON THE CONTROLS NEEDED IN THE NEAR WEIGHTLESS ENVIRONMENT OF LOWER SPACE. AND IT WOULD ANSWER A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION. HOW WOULD HUMANS REACT TO SPACE FLIGHT? VOICE TWO: THE X-FIFTEEN WAS A NEW IDEA. AND IT WAS BUILT WITH NEW METHODS. IT WAS COVERED IN A NEW MATERIAL CALLED "INCONEL X." THE MATERIAL WAS A MIXTURE OF THE METALS NICKEL AND CHROMIUM. IT WOULD PROTECT THE PLANE FROM HIGH TEMPERATURES. THERE WERE NEW DESIGNS FOR THE PLANE'S ROCKET ENGINE, LANDING EQUIPMENT AND THE SMALL ROCKETS NEEDED TO MOVE IT IN SPACE. THERE WAS A NEW SYSTEM OF LIQUID NITROGEN TO KEEP THE PILOT COOL AND TO RESIST THE CRUSHING FORCE OF GRAVITY AT HIGH SPEEDS. AND THERE WAS A NEW FUEL, A MIXTURE OF LIQUID AMMONIA AND LIQUID OXYGEN. VOICE ONE: THE X-FIFTEEN WAS NEVER DESIGNED TO GO INTO ORBIT. NOR COULD IT TAKE-OFF FROM THE GROUND. IT WAS CARRIED INTO THE AIR BY A B-FIFTY-TWO BOMBER. THE BIG B-FIFTY-TWO CARRIED THE SMALL X-FIFTEEN UNDER ITS WING. IT LOOKED A LITTLE LIKE A MOTHER WHALE SWIMMING WITH ITS BABY. AT ABOUT FIFTEEN-THOUSAND METERS, THE B-FIFTY-TWO RELEASED THE X-FIFTEEN. AFTER A FEW SECONDS, WHEN THE X-FIFTEEN WAS SAFELY AWAY, THE PILOT STARTED ITS ROCKET ENGINE. THE X-FIFTEEN FLEW UPWARD WITH UNBELIEVABLE POWER. VOICE TWO: THE THREE X-FIFTEENS WERE FLOWN ONE-HUNDRED NINETY-NINE TIMES. EACH FLIGHT WAS A NEW EXPERIMENT. PLANNING TOOK MANY DAYS. THE PILOT SPENT FIFTY HOURS IN A SIMULATOR -- A COPY OF THE PLANE ON THE GROUND -- PREPARING FOR HIS TEN-MINUTE FLIGHT. ONCE THE REAL FLIGHT BEGAN, THE PILOT HAD TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING HE LEARNED. HE HAD TO WORK QUICKLY AND EXACTLY. ALL HIS MOVEMENTS WERE MADE AGAINST A FORCE THAT COULD REACH SIX TIMES THE POWER OF GRAVITY. HE HAD TO STRUGGLE TO REACH FORWARD FOR THE CONTROLS WHILE BEING PUSHED BACK HARD IN HIS SEAT. A DELAY OF EVEN ONE SECOND COULD AFFECT THE INFORMATION BEING COLLECTED. IT COULD CHANGE THE PLANE'S PATH JUST ENOUGH TO DESTROY THE PILOT'S CHANCE OF A SAFE LANDING. VOICE ONE: THE X-FIFTEEN SET HEIGHT AND SPEED RECORDS GREATER THAN THOSE EXPECTED. THE NUMBER THREE PLANE CLIMBED MORE THAN ONE-HUNDRED-SEVEN KILOMETERS ABOVE THE EARTH. THE NUMBER TWO PLANE FLEW SEVEN-THOUSAND TWO-HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO KILOMETERS AN HOUR. THAT WAS MORE THAN SEVEN TIMES THE SPEED OF SOUND. THE X-FIFTEEN WAS THE FIRST MAJOR INVESTMENT BY THE UNITED STATES IN MANNED SPACE FLIGHT TECHNOLOGY. MUCH OF WHAT WAS LEARNED FROM ITS FLIGHTS SPEEDED UP THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SPACE PROGRAM. VOICE TWO: THE X-FIFTEEN TESTED MATERIALS FOR SPACE VEHICLES. IT TESTED SPACESUITS WORN LATER BY AMERICA'S ASTRONAUTS. IT TESTED INSTRUMENTS FOR CONTROLLING A VEHICLE IN THE WEIGHTLESSNESS OF SPACE. AND IT PROVED THAT EXPERIENCED PILOTS HAD THE SKILLS NECESSARY TO FLY IN SPACE. TWELVE MILITARY AND CIVILIAN TEST PILOTS FLEW THE X-FIFTEENS. A FEW BECAME ASTRONAUTS. THE X-FIFTEEN PROGRAM LASTED ABOUT TEN YEARS. THERE WERE ABOUT TWO-HUNDRED FLIGHTS. SOME OF THE FLIGHTS CARRIED SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS. ONE WAS A CONTAINER ON THE END OF THE WING. IT GATHERED DUST AND TINY METEOROIDS FROM THE EDGE OF SPACE. ANOTHER WAS A SET OF SPECIAL INSTRUMENTS THAT HELPED MEASURE THE EFFECTS OF THE SUN'S RADIATION ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE AIRCRAFT. VOICE ONE: THE ONLY TRAGEDY CONNECTED WITH THE X-FIFTEEN PROGRAM HAPPENED IN NINETEEN-SIXTY-SEVEN. THE PILOT WAS MICHAEL ADAMS OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE. IT WAS HIS SEVENTH X-FIFTEEN FLIGHT. EVERYTHING, AT FIRST, APPEARED TO BE NORMAL. THE PLANE REACHED A HEIGHT OF EIGHT KILOMETERS. IT WAS FLYING MORE THAN FIVE TIMES THE SPEED OF SOUND. THEN, DURING A TEST OF THE WINGS, THE PLANE MOVED SHARPLY OFF ITS FLIGHT PATH. IT DOVE TOWARD EARTH AT GREAT SPEED, SPINNING RAPIDLY, OUT OF CONTROL. ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE WAS TOO GREAT FOR THE PLANE. IT BROKE APART. THE PILOT DID NOT SURVIVE. VOICE TWO: THE X-FIFTEEN MADE ITS LAST FLIGHT IN DECEMBER, NINETEEN-SIXTY-EIGHT. NASA NEEDED MONEY FOR ITS OTHER PROJECTS. IT DECIDED TO END THE X-FIFTEEN PROGRAM. MANY SPACE EXPERTS DISAGREED WITH THE DECISION. THEY FELT THE X-FIFTEEN COULD HAVE CONTINUED TO PROVIDE NEW INFORMATION ABOUT AVIATION AND SPACE. TODAY, THE X-FIFTEEN HANGS IN THE AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON, D-C. IT IS NEAR TWO OLDER MEMORIALS TO FLIGHT. THERE IS THE WRIGHT BROTHERS' "FLYER," WHICH MADE THE FIRST HEAVIER-THAN-AIR FLIGHT. AND THERE IS THE "SPIRIT OF SAINT LOUIS," WHICH CHARLES LINDBERGH FLEW ALONE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. ON THE FLOOR BELOW THESE AIRCRAFT ARE THREE SPACECRAFT COMMAND SHIPS. ONE OF THEM, THE APOLLO-ELEVEN, TRAVELED TO THE MOON JUST SEVEN MONTHS AFTER THE LAST X-FIFTEEN FLIGHT. IT CARRIED THE MAN WHO BECAME THE FIRST HUMAN TO STEP ON THE MOON, NEIL ARMSTRONG, A FORMER X-FIFTEEN PILOT. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: THIS SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY MARILYN RICE CHRISTIANO. YOUR NARRATORS WERE DOUG JOHNSON AND FRANK OLIVER. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER EXPLORATIONS PROGRAM ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT- September 13, 2001: Earthquake Threat in the Himalayas
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American and Indian scientists say new evidence shows that India and nearby countries are in danger of suffering a huge earthquake in the future. A recent study found rock activity and pressure under the Himalayan Mountains and the Tibetan plateau. The researchers say there is evidence that such pressure has been eased in the past only through great earthquakes. Researchers from the University of Colorado and the Indian Institute for Astrophysics reported the study in the publication “Science.” They say the pressures in the rock under the ground will continue to increase as the land pushes into Asia. Scientists say the land is moving about two meters every one-hundred years. This continued movement of rock against rock causes many small earthquakes. One researcher says parts of the Himalayas have not had a major earthquake for at least five-hundred years. The last major Himalayan earthquake took place in the Indian state of Assam in Nineteen-Fifty. It measured eight point five on the Richter Scale. It was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. The new study says another similar earthquake in the area would threaten about fifty-million people. That is because the number of people in the Ganges plain just south of the mountains has grown ten times in the past one-hundred years. Such an earthquake would endanger major cities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Researchers say at least two-hundred-thousand people might die in such an earthquake. The researchers say the governments in those countries need to strengthen buildings to prepare for the possibility of such an event. They say new earthquake- resistant building designs should be taken very seriously. They also say that it appears the changes meant to strengthen buildings have not reduced the number of people killed in a major earthquake. For example, the earthquake in the western Indian city of Bhuj in January killed about twenty-thousand people. That earthquake also was caused by the earth’s movement. But it did nothing to ease the pressure hundreds of kilometers to the north and east that could produce an even stronger earthquake. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 13, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 4
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) THERE WAS ONE MAIN ISSUE IN AMERICA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF NINETEEN-SIXTEEN: WAR. EUROPE WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF WHAT IS NOW REMEMBERED AS WORLD WAR ONE. IT WAS THE BLOODIEST CONFLICT THE WORLD HAD EVER KNOWN. MOST AMERICANS WANTED NO PART OF THE STRUGGLE IN EUROPE. THEY SUPPORTED THEIR COUNTRY'S OFFICIAL POSITION: NEUTRALITY. THIS DESIRE WAS THE MAIN REASON PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WON RE-ELECTION. PEOPLE GAVE WILSON THEIR VOTES, BECAUSE THEY HOPED HE WOULD CONTINUE TO KEEP AMERICA OUT OF WAR. I'M MAURICE JOYCE. TODAY, LARRY WEST AND I TELL MORE ABOUT WILSON'S PRESIDENCY. VOICE TWO: LIKE MOST AMERICANS, WOODROW WILSON DID NOT WANT WAR. HE FEARED THAT ENTERING THE CONFLICT WOULD COST THE UNITED STATES MANY LIVES. WILSON READ THE REPORTS FROM EUROPEAN BATTLEFIELDS. THE NEWS WAS UNBELIEVABLY TERRIBLE. BY THE END OF NINETEEN-SIXTEEN, SEVERAL MILLION MEN HAD BEEN KILLED, WOUNDED, OR CAPTURED. AT THE BATTLE OF VERDUN, FRENCH FORCES STOPPED A GERMAN ATTACK. THE COST WAS HIGH ON BOTH SIDES. MORE THAN SEVEN-HUNDRED-THOUSAND SOLDIERS WERE KILLED, WOUNDED, OR CAPTURED. THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME FOLLOWED. BRITAIN LOST SIXTY-THOUSAND MEN ON THE FIRST DAY. BY THE TIME THE BATTLE WAS OVER, LOSSES FOR BOTH SIDES TOTALED MORE THAN A MILLION. GERMANY ALSO WAS AT WAR ON ITS EASTERN BORDER, WITH RUSSIA. LOSSES ON THAT BATTLEFRONT, TOO, TOTALED MORE THAN A MILLION MEN. VOICE ONE: AT THE TIME OF AMERICA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NINETEEN-SIXTEEN, GERMANY SEEMED TO BE WINNING THE WAR. ITS LOSSES WERE TERRIBLE. BUT THE LOSSES OF ITS ENEMIES -- THE ALLIES -- WERE EVEN WORSE. GERMAN FORCES OCCUPIED MUCH OF NORTHERN FRANCE AND ALMOST ALL OF BELGIUM. GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN SOLDIERS ALSO HELD PARTS OF RUSSIA, ITALY, ROMANIA, AND SERBIA. GERMANY WAS WINNING ON THE BATTLEFIELD. THE ALLIES WERE WINNING AT SEA. A BRITISH BLOCKADE CUT OFF ALMOST ALL GERMAN TRADE WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD. EVEN FOOD SHIPMENTS WERE BLOCKED. AS A RESULT, GERMANY FACED MASS STARVATION. IT URGENTLY NEEDED TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE AND GET FOOD. VOICE TWO: THIS SITUATION FINALLY FORCED GERMANY TO MAKE THE DECISION THAT WOULD BRING THE UNITED STATES INTO THE WAR. IT DECIDED TO USE ITS SUBMARINES TO BREAK THE BRITISH BLOCKADE. THE SUBMARINES WOULD ATTACK ANY SHIPS THAT CAME NEAR BRITAIN OR OTHER PARTS OF EUROPE. THIS INCLUDED SHIPS FROM NEUTRAL COUNTRIES. . .LIKE THE UNITED STATES. EARLIER, GERMANY HAD MADE A PROMISE TO THE UNITED STATES. ITS SUBMARINES WOULD NOT ATTACK CIVILIAN SHIPS UNLESS WARNING WAS GIVEN AND THE LIVES OF THOSE ON THE SHIPS WERE SAVED. NOW GERMANY WAS WITHDRAWING THAT PROMISE. IT SAID UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE WOULD BEGIN IMMEDIATELY. GERMAN RULER KAISER WILHELM SAID: "IF WILSON WANTS WAR, LET HIM MAKE IT, AND LET HIM THEN HAVE IT." VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT WILSON IMMEDIATELY BROKE DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH GERMANY. HE STILL HOPED THE TWO NATIONS WOULD NOT GO TO WAR. HE LEFT THAT DECISION TO GERMANY. IF GERMAN SUBMARINES SANK AMERICAN SHIPS, WILSON WOULD HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO DECLARE WAR. MOST AMERICAN SHIPPING COMPANIES FEARED ATTACK BY GERMAN SUBMARINES. THROUGHOUT THE EARLY PART OF NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN, THEY KEPT THEIR SHIPS IN HOME PORTS. THEY WANTED PROTECTION. SO THEY ASKED FOR PERMISSION TO ARM THEIR SHIPS. AT FIRST, PRESIDENT WILSON REFUSED TO SEEK SUCH PERMISSION FROM CONGRESS. HE DID NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING THAT MIGHT CAUSE GERMANY TO DECLARE WAR. THEN HE RECEIVED SECRET NEWS FROM BRITAIN. BRITISH AGENTS HAD GOTTEN A COPY OF A TELEGRAM FROM GERMANY'S FOREIGN MINISTER TO GERMANY'S AMBASSADOR IN MEXICO. THE TELEGRAM SAID GERMANY WAS PLANNING HOSTILE ACTS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. WILSON ACTED QUICKLY. HE BEGAN PUTTING GUNS AND SAILORS ON AMERICAN TRADE SHIPS. VOICE TWO: IT DID NOT TAKE LONG FOR THE WORST TO HAPPEN. WITHIN DAYS, A GERMAN SUBMARINE SANK AN UNARMED AMERICAN SHIP, THE "ALGONQUIN." THEN THREE MORE AMERICAN SHIPS WERE SUNK. MANY LIVES WERE LOST. PRESIDENT WILSON NO LONGER HAD A CHOICE BETWEEN WAR AND PEACE. THERE WOULD BE WAR. WILSON CALLED A SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS. MEMBERS OF BOTH THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES GATHERED IN ONE ROOM. THEY STOOD AS THE PRESIDENT WALKED QUICKLY TO THE FRONT. HE STOOD SILENT FOR A MOMENT BEFORE SPEAKING. THIS IS WHAT HE SAID: VOICE ONE: "FULLY UNDERSTANDING THE SERIOUS STEP I AM TAKING, I ADVISE THAT THE CONGRESS DECLARE THE RECENT ACTS OF THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO BE, IN FACT, NOTHING LESS THAN WAR AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. "IT IS A FEARFUL THING TO LEAD THIS GREAT PEACEFUL PEOPLE INTO WAR. BUT RIGHT IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN PEACE. AND WE WILL FIGHT FOR THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE ALWAYS CARRIED NEAREST OUR HEARTS -- FOR DEMOCRACY, FOR THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF SMALL NATIONS, AND FOR THE BELIEF THAT A WORLDWIDE UNION OF FREE PEOPLE CAN BRING PEACE AND SAFETY TO ALL NATIONS." VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT WILSON'S EMOTIONAL SPEECH BROUGHT TEARS TO THE EYES OF MANY OF THE LAWMAKERS. THEY FELT THE GREAT SERIOUSNESS OF HIS REQUEST. OUTSIDE, CROWDS LINED THE STREET TO CHEER WILSON AS HE RETURNED TO THE WHITE HOUSE FROM THE CAPITOL BUILDING. HE SAT IN HIS CAR AND SHOOK HIS HEAD SADLY. "THINK OF WHAT IT IS THEY ARE CHEERING," HE SAID. "MY MESSAGE TODAY WAS A MESSAGE OF DEATH FOR OUR YOUNG MEN. HOW STRANGE IT SEEMS THEY WOULD CHEER THAT." ON APRIL SIXTH, NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN, CONGRESS APPROVED A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY. VOICE ONE: THE ALLIES -- BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA -- WELCOMED AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT. THE WAR WAS GOING BADLY FOR THEM. IT HAD BEEN VERY COSTLY IN LIVES, MONEY, AND SUPPLIES. ALLIED SHIPPING WAS SUFFERING HEAVY LOSSES FROM GERMAN SUBMARINE ATTACKS. A BRITISH NAVAL BLOCKADE HAD GREATLY REDUCED FOOD SHIPMENTS TO GERMANY. NOW, BRITAIN ITSELF FACED DANGEROUSLY LOW SUPPLIES OF FOOD. ALLIED REPRESENTATIVES WENT TO WASHINGTON TO EXPLAIN WHAT THE ALLIES NEEDED. THEY NEEDED SUPPLIES -- ESPECIALLY FOOD -- IMMEDIATELY. THEY NEEDED MONEY TO PAY FOR THE SUPPLIES. THEY NEEDED SHIPS TO GET THE SUPPLIES FROM AMERICA TO EUROPE. AND THEY NEEDED AMERICAN SOLDIERS. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT WILSON AND CONGRESS WORKED TOGETHER TO ORGANIZE THE UNITED STATES FOR WAR. CONGRESS GAVE WILSON NEW WARTIME POWERS. HE SOON FORMED A COUNCIL TO BUILD SHIPS, IMPROVE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION, AND CONTROL NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION. HE FORMED AN AGRICULTURAL AGENCY TO INCREASE FOOD PRODUCTION AND FOOD EXPORTS. AND HE FORMED AN INFORMATION COMMITTEE TO BUILD PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE WAR. WILSON'S EFFORTS SUCCEEDED. THE ALLIES QUICKLY GOT THE SHIPS, SUPPLIES, AND MONEY THEY REQUESTED. MOST IMPORTANT, THEY SOON GOT AMERICAN SOLDIERS. VOICE ONE: ALLIED MILITARY LEADERS SAID ONLY ABOUT A HALF-MILLION TROOPS WERE NEEDED FROM THE UNITED STATES. BUT AMERICAN OFFICIALS DECIDED TO BUILD A MUCH LARGER ARMY. BEFORE LONG, LARGE NUMBERS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS WERE CROSSING THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. THEY WOULD FIGHT THE GERMANS AT THE WESTERN BATTLEFRONTS OF EUROPE. THE EXTRA STRENGTH THEY GAVE THE ALLIES WOULD PLAY A MAJOR PART IN HELPING DEFEAT GERMANY. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE MAURICE JOYCE AND LARRY WEST. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME TIME, WHEN WE WILL CONTINUE THE STORY OF AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 14, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play songs by Jessica Simpson ... answer a question about the wine-making industry ... and tell about the home of one of America’s first presidents. Rediscovering James Madison HOST: Monday is Constitution Day. It is the anniversary of the day when the American Constitutional Convention ended. Delegates to the talks signed the proposed Constitution of the United States on September Seventeenth, Seventeen-Eighty-Seven. This year, special observances in honor of Constitution Day are being held at the former home of delegate James Madison. Shep O’Neal has more about the man called the Father of the Constitution. ANNCR: James Madison wrote the first plan for union of the new American nation. He also was mainly responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights. Later, Mister Madison was the country’s fourth President. The Madison family lived at Montpelier (mont-PEEL-yer), a huge property about one-hundred-thirty kilometers south of Washington, D-C. The property extends over more than one-thousand-one-hundred hectares of land. Today, a private group operates Montpelier. In recent years, crews at Montpelier have been searching for evidence of past human activities. The project depends mainly on the work of volunteers. Students from nearby James Madison University work at Montpelier in May and June for no pay. Matthew Reaves is directing the project. He and his crew are studying objects believed to come from Mount Pleasant, the first Madison home at Montpelier. Mount Pleasant was destroyed in a fire around Seventeen-Sixty-Five. After that, the area was used as farmland. Recently, work crews at Mount Pleasant found the remains of a building. The discovery is exciting because crews have been looking for the remains of the main house for the past four years. Matthew Reaves believes the project at Mount Pleasant will continue for two to three more years. After that, he wants to explore some of the areas at Montpelier where slaves lived. Wine Making in California HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Brazil. Silvio Unzer asks about the history of the wine industry, especially in the western state of California. Wine is an alcoholic drink made from grapes. Experts do not know when the first wine was made. They say, however, that people who lived eight-thousand years ago enjoyed drinking wine. Wine was also a popular drink among the ancient Greeks. They were the first to grow grapes as a business and to sell their wines to other nations. Wine was also important to the ancient Romans. Grapes were grown throughout the Roman Empire. Later, the Catholic Church continued to produce wines in European countries. Experts say the wine industry appeared in almost every new country settled by Europeans. That is what happened in the American state of California. Franciscan religious workers from Spain who settled the area made wine to use in religious services. Father Junipero Serra established Mission San Diego in Seventeen-Sixty-Nine. It was the first of twenty-one such religious centers. Almost all of the missions grew grapes and produced wine. The discovery of gold in California in Eighteen-Forty-Eight helped establish the wine industry. Thousands of people traveled to California in hopes of finding gold. But most did not find any. So many people decided to grow grapes instead. These included people from other countries who loved wine. They grew European grapes in California for the first time. California has a lot of sunshine all year. This helps grapes to ripen anywhere in the state. Growing grapes for wine became very profitable. The number of vines planted increased quickly. For example, in Eighteen-Fifty-Six, more than one-million grapevines were planted in California. Two years later, there were almost four-million. By Eighteen-Fifty-Nine, California was producing almost two-million liters of wine. That same year, California lawmakers helped the wine industry expand. A new law permitted grape growers to produce a crop before having to pay taxes. By Eighteen-Sixty-Two, the number of grapevines in California had reached eight-million. Today, the California Wine Institute says the United States has about one-thousand-six-hundred companies that make wine. More than half of these wineries are in California. The group says the state produces ninety percent of the wines made in the United States. Jessica Simpson HOST: Popular American singer Jessica Simpson had great success with her first record album in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. “Sweet Kisses” sold more than two-million copies. Here is the title song: ((CUT 1: SWEET KISSES)) Now Jessica Simpson has a new record, “Irresistible.” Bob Doughty tells us about her. ANNCR: Jessica Simpson was seventeen years old when she recorded her first album. She is twenty-one now. She says her growth shows in the new songs. Jessica Simpson says the message of the songs on “Irresistible” is that nothing is impossible if you have an inner strength. Here is the title song from her new album. ((CUT 2: IRRESISTIBLE)) Jessica Simpson learned to sing in church in her hometown of Dallas, Texas. She first recorded religious songs. Critics say one song on her new album shows her true spirit. It is one she has been singing since she was a young girl in church. We leave you now with Jessica Simpson singing that song, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.” ((CUT 3: HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Greg Burns. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – September 14, 2001: Weather Maps For Floods
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. American scientists are developing maps that can identify areas of future flooding. The maps also may help scientists estimate the possibility of extremely dry weather and severe storms. One such map could have warned of recent flooding along the Mississippi River. The map showed a small area of very wet soil in the northern United States on March twenty-ninth. On April twelfth, parts of the Mississippi River flooded. The scientists say that anyone who knows the area’s land and water systems would have been able to recognize the possibility of flooding. Tom Jackson of the United States Department of Agriculture prepared the map after the April flood. He used information provided by satellites in Earth orbit. The Agricultural Research Service reports that news broadcasts ten years from now may include weather reports based on such maps. Those maps will come from instruments on two weather satellites planned by American and European officials. The satellites are to be launched in Two-Thousand-Eight. A similar instrument also will be connected to Aqua, a satellite soon to be launched by the American space agency. Aqua is similar in design to a land observation satellite already in Earth orbit. The maps are produced from dish receivers on the satellites. Each dish receiver measures the wetness of the soil by capturing the natural release of microwave radiation from the soil. The receivers turn rapidly. This provides complete coverage of each area the satellite passes over. Mister Jackson has worked with the American space agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He and other scientists have tested Aqua’s equipment in airplanes and satellites flying over several states. The scientists used the tests to develop ways to change the information gathered into maps. Mister Jackson now plans to compare the microwave dish receiver findings with information from tests on Earth’s soil. He will use instruments at Agricultural Research Service centers in four states. He also will study information provided by forty ground observation centers across the country. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 17, 2001: Indiana State Fair
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The Indiana State Fair is held every summer in Indianapolis, Indiana. More than seven-hundred-thousand people attended this year. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. The Indiana State Fair is our report today on the VOA Special English program This is America. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Almost all states in America have a state fair. They take place in August, September or October each year. They last for one, two or three weeks. The Indiana State Fair is one of the largest and oldest state fairs in the United States. People from all over Indiana and from many other states and countries attended the fair last month. They came to see the animals, rodeos, exhibits and contests. They came to hear concerts and to take part in rides and other events. VOICE TWO: Like other state fairs, the Indiana State Fair is designed to teach young people and the general public about agriculture. It provides a way for the farming community to show its skills. People of all ages compete in animal production, food preparation, arts and crafts and photography. The Indiana State Fair has a long and rich history. Over the years, it has been the center of major events involving livestock, agriculture, sports and entertainment. It has grown and changed with the passage of time. It is still one of Indiana’s most celebrated events. VOICE ONE: Visitors can do many things at an American state fair. They can watch the judging of the best cows, pigs and other animals. They can see sheep getting their wool cut and they can learn how that wool is made into clothing. They can watch cows giving birth. They can see animals racing. They can watch llamas jumping like great Olympic athletes. Many people learn about animals they would never see except at the fair. VOICE TWO: Visitors can look at new home products or farm equipment. They can see products made by people who live on farms. They can even see the world’s largest watermelon or the tallest sunflower plant. Children and adults at the fair can play new computer games or attempt more traditional games of skill. They can listen to people play and sing all kinds of music. They can take rides that go very fast or travel high above the fair grounds. Or they can just walk around the fair and watch other people. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: Agricultural fairs help Americans remember their nation’s history. Experts say such fairs are important because people need to remember that they are connected to the Earth and its products. They say people need to remember that they depend on animals for many things. Most fairs have competitions for the best farm animals. People whose animals win prizes can sell the animals for thousands of dollars. Young winners sometimes use the money to go to college. VOICE TWO: Many young people whose animals compete at state and county fairs belong to groups called Four-H Clubs of America. The term Four-H means head, heart, hands and health. Four-H offers the largest unofficial education program in the United States. Many young people complete projects like raising and caring for a horse, cow or other animal. Food is as important as animals at state fairs. Many people take part in competitions to prepare the best foods. Visitors to the fair should arrive hungry because there are many good things to eat. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Indiana State Fair began in Eighteen-Fifty-Two. The goals were to share ideas, educate and present Indiana’s best products. The cost of a single ticket to enter the fair was twenty cents. During the early Nineteen-Thirties, officials of the fair ruled that people could attend by paying something other than money. For example, farmers brought bags of grain and other projects in exchange for a ticket. VOICE TWO: Years ago, American political candidates campaigned at state fairs. They gave speeches and tried to meet as many people as possible. Even American presidents attended. In Nineteen-Nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech at the Indiana State Fair. The day was known as “Big Thursday.” Forty-thousand people attended. VOICE ONE: Some of America’s most famous entertainers have performed at the Indiana State Fair. For example, the Beatles played two shows in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. The country music group, Alabama, Garth Brooks and The Jackson Five all performed there. So did Bruce Springsteen. This year, there was an event to see who could look and sound the most like Elvis Presley. Competitors dressed, wore their hair and sang like Elvis. The person considered the best Elvis impersonator won the contest. VOICE TWO: Visitors heard performances of American rap music, country music, new bands and older groups popular long ago. They heard religious gospel music groups. They also heard music performers from around the world. For example, they heard drummers from west Africa. They heard a celebration of Hispanic music. A musical group from Ecuador, called Inkapirka, performed their mix of smooth melodies and cultural rhythms with a Latin influence. Here they perform a song called “The Leaves of Fall”. ((CUT ONE: THE LEAVES OF FALL)) VOICE ONE: There were many activities for families at the Indiana State Fair. One of them was called “Little Hands on the Farm.” It gave children a chance to learn what it is like to live and work on a real farm. In another activity, adults, children and their teddy bear toy animals took part in an event designed to help children plan a tea party. VOICE TWO: Other special events at the Indiana State Fair included the Miniature White House. People waited in lines for hours under the hot sun to see the very small copy of the president’s house in Washington, D.C. Visitors saw small versions of each room of the famous house. They included the Lincoln Bedroom, the Oval Office and the State Dining Room. All the rooms show the exact furniture, wall color and rugs presently used in the White House. VOICE ONE: Two popular contests at the Indiana State Fair involved insects. One was the racing cockroaches. People watched as large cockroaches from Madagascar raced against each other on a small racetrack. Tom Turpin was the director of this event. He says he uses insects in experiments to get young people interested in learning more about the creatures. Crowds also enjoyed watching the cricket-spitting contest. Believe it or not, people in the contest spit real crickets. However, the insects were not alive. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: This year, the Indiana State Fair brought together people from different cultures as part of an English as a Second Language class. Nine students from ten countries took part. The class was designed to help the students improve their English skills and learn about Indiana culture. The class members were from countries including Russia, Vietnam, Sudan and Thailand. Jacob Rooksby developed the idea to take the foreign students to the fair. He works with the J. Everett Light Center in Indianapolis. He created exercises and questions for the students to answer. Mister Rooksby says this program permits the students to have a personal experience with the fair. He says it also helps them improve their ability to speak English. VOICE ONE: At the end of the fair, a ceremony honored hundreds of former soldiers from Indiana. Military aircraft flew over the fair to complete the ceremony. And another traditional event was held. A young woman was named as queen to represent the Indiana State Fair. There was plenty of history and tradition at the Indiana State Fair this summer. Yet for thousands of visitors, the fun and learning at the fair never grows old. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Cynthia Kirk. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another program about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - September 17, 2001: World Child Hunger
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new food policy study says progress toward reducing hunger among children will likely slow during the next twenty years. The International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D-C released the study. It says the number of children suffering from poor nutrition will drop by only twenty percent by the year Two-Thousand-Twenty. Food expert Per (PARE) Pinstrup-Andersen says this is too slow. He is director general of the research organization and winner of this year’s World Food Prize. He says the number of hungry children will total more than one-hundred-thirty-million in twenty years. Mister Pinstrup-Andersen says that immediate policy changes could increase efforts to fight poor nutrition among children by almost fifty percent. This is why researchers are urging governments and international aid groups to take action. One tool being used to support change is a computer model that estimates world hunger in twenty years. The results are based on the production and use of sixteen grains and meats. The report estimates that countries in Latin America will end hunger among children in twenty years. China will reduce it by fifty percent. However, not all parts of the world will do as well. Mister Pinstrup-Andersen says one-third of the world’s poorly fed children will live in India. In parts of Africa, the number of poorly nourished children will increase eighteen percent unless new action is taken. The report says an additional ten-thousand-million dollars a year could reduce child hunger by forty-two percent within twenty years. Mark Rosegrant is the lead writer of the study. He says this money equals less than one week of military spending around the world. Currently, twenty-five-thousand-million dollars are invested in developing countries each year. The money is used to increase farm production, secure clean water supplies, develop better farming methods, and improve education and health. The results of the study were discussed at an international conference in Bonn, Germany earlier this month. The conference brought together more than eight-hundred world leaders, policy makers, researchers and activists. They discussed ways to guarantee that everyone in the world has enough food to live a healthy life. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: A Special Message from VOA
* Byline: 

 Our deepest thanks to all who have expressed their concern and solidarity during these difficult times. The Voice of America has been, and continues to be, fully operational. Our staff is working tirelessly to carry out our mission of providing reliable news and information as events unfold around the clock. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 15, 2001: Explaining Tragedy
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Few people escaped from seeing or hearing about the terrorist attacks in the United States Tuesday morning. Two hijacked airplanes struck the World Trade Center in New York City. A short time later, another hijacked plane hit the headquarters of the United States Defense Department, near Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in the eastern state of Pennsylvania. All two-hundred-sixty-six people on the four planes were killed. Hundreds of other people are known to have died. Thousands of others are missing, and feared dead. The President declared Friday a day to honor the memories of the many victims of the attacks. When a terrorist attack happens, many people feel very frightened and worried. They experience the same feelings during a war, earthquake, flooding or other major event that is out of control. Mental health experts are concerned about children who experience a tragic event before they are eleven years of age. They say such children are three times more likely to develop emotional problems than those who experience their first tragedy later in life. Experts say children are better able to deal with a tragedy if parents, friends and other adults help them understand the experience. They say help should start as soon as possible after the event. Experts offer a number of suggestions about how to explain a tragedy to children. They say how adults react to a child’s feelings and questions is important to helping a child feel safe again. First, experts say parents should attempt to control their reaction to the tragedy. Parents should remain as calm as possible. They say children will react to what they see. Next, adults should help children feel secure. Listen to the worries children express, without judging them. Parents should talk to their children. Tell children repeatedly that they and other loved ones are safe. Also, family members need to gather in one area and spend more time together. Explaining a tragic event is difficult. The kind of explanation has to be based on the child’s age and level of thinking. For a young child, a tragedy must be explained in simple terms. A terrorist attack can be explained as some people did something very bad. Some experts urge adults to limit their time with radio or television when children are present. They say adults should not let their desire to be informed about events affect a child’s mental health. Experts also urge parents to return to their normal activities as soon as possible. They say people of all ages like to have an established way of doing things. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-14-5-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 16, 2001: Larry Adler
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about a world famous musician, Larry Adler, who played the harmonica. The harmonica, or mouth organ, is a simple musical instrument. You blow air into it and it produces sound. Most people consider it nothing but a child’s toy. Anyone can learn to play a few songs on a harmonica. It is not difficult. In the hands of Larry Adler, however, the simple harmonica became an important musical instrument. ((CUT ONE: “AS TIME GOES BY”)) VOICE ONE: Lawrence Cecil Adler was born February Tenth, Nineteen-Fourteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Music was always very important to Larry Adler. As a child, he sang Jewish religious songs in the synagogue. He was admitted to a famous music school in Baltimore to study the piano. Larry Adler was not a student at the school for long. He was asked to leave because of a song he played at an important school performance. He was supposed to play a classical music piece. But the head teacher of the school had made the young Larry Adler angry. So, he played a silly popular song called “Yes, We Have No Bananas.” The head teacher became extremely angry. Larry Adler was expelled from the school. VOICE TWO: That simple incident tells a lot about Larry Adler. He was a rebel. He did not like to follow orders from anyone. He lived his life the way he thought best. Perhaps that is why he chose a musical instrument that most people considered a toy. In fact, Larry Adler won a music contest in Baltimore playing classical music with the harmonica. He entered the contest and defeated four-hundred other young people by playing music written by Ludwig van Beethoven. The others played mostly simple popular songs. You must listen to his music to understand how serious an instrument the harmonica was for Larry Adler. Here he plays a popular song called “Blues in the Night.” ((CUT TWO: “BLUES IN THE NIGHT”)) VOICE ONE: Larry Adler ran away from home when he was fourteen years old. He already knew he wanted to be a musician. He wanted to play the harmonica. He arrived in New York City and went to see the popular singer Rudy Vallee. The man listened to him play. Then he said, “Save your money because once they hear you, that is it. They will never want to hear you again.” However, Rudy Vallee did help Larry Adler find work. One of his first jobs was playing the harmonica for some of the first Mickey Mouse Cartoons produced by Walt Disney. VOICE TWO: As a young man, Larry Adler did not know how to read music. He could listen to a record played a few times and then play the song with his harmonica. He could do this with extremely difficult songs. Not being able to read music did not seem to harm his career. He was already a famous musician when a friend told him that reading music would increase his understanding of what he was playing. Larry Adler learned to read music. VOICE ONE: Larry Adler met the famous music composer George Gershwin at a party in New York. Mister Gershwin’s famous “Rhapsody in Blue,” was very popular. Friends asked the two men to play the famous work. At first George Gershwin refused. He did not think a harmonica should play his beautiful song. But friends said they should play, so Mister Gershwin agreed. When they were done, George Gershwin praised Larry Adler’s playing. He said it sounded almost as if he had written “Rhapsody in Blue” for Mister Adler and his harmonica. VOICE TWO: Several years later, George Gershwin used a special device called a recording piano to play and record “Rhapsody in Blue.” After the famous composer’s death, Larry Adler often played the harmonica with the recording piano of George Gershwin playing “Rhapsody in Blue.” Mister Gershwin’s sister attended one of the performances. Later, she told Mister Adler, “I could almost see him sitting there playing the piano.” Listen as Larry Adler and George Gershwin play one of the most famous pieces of American music, “Rhapsody in Blue.” ((CUT THREE: “RHAPSODY IN BLUE”)) VOICE ONE: Larry Adler appeared in movies, produced records and performed around the world for many years. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, he was asked to appear before a congressional committee that was investigating Americans who were members of the Communist Party. Mister Adler was in Britain at the time. He refused to return to the United States and appear before the committee. He made his home in Britain and did not return to the United States for many years. Larry Adler was not a Communist, but he could not take orders from anyone, or any political party. The congressional committee had made him angry. He said later that was why he refused to appear. VOICE TWO: In recent years, Larry Adler became famous to a new group of young people. He appeared with many famous young musicians. He also introduced the music of George Gershwin to younger audiences. Larry Adler’s musical career began at the age of fourteen in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It ended with his death August Seventh, Two-Thousand-One. He was eighty-seven years old. We leave you with Larry Adler playing another of George Gershwin’s famous works, “I Got Rhythm.” ((CUT FOUR “I GOT RHYTHM”)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ((CUT FIVE “AS TIME GOES BY”)) VOICE ONE: I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell about a world famous musician, Larry Adler, who played the harmonica. The harmonica, or mouth organ, is a simple musical instrument. You blow air into it and it produces sound. Most people consider it nothing but a child’s toy. Anyone can learn to play a few songs on a harmonica. It is not difficult. In the hands of Larry Adler, however, the simple harmonica became an important musical instrument. ((CUT ONE: “AS TIME GOES BY”)) VOICE ONE: Lawrence Cecil Adler was born February Tenth, Nineteen-Fourteen in Baltimore, Maryland. Music was always very important to Larry Adler. As a child, he sang Jewish religious songs in the synagogue. He was admitted to a famous music school in Baltimore to study the piano. Larry Adler was not a student at the school for long. He was asked to leave because of a song he played at an important school performance. He was supposed to play a classical music piece. But the head teacher of the school had made the young Larry Adler angry. So, he played a silly popular song called “Yes, We Have No Bananas.” The head teacher became extremely angry. Larry Adler was expelled from the school. VOICE TWO: That simple incident tells a lot about Larry Adler. He was a rebel. He did not like to follow orders from anyone. He lived his life the way he thought best. Perhaps that is why he chose a musical instrument that most people considered a toy. In fact, Larry Adler won a music contest in Baltimore playing classical music with the harmonica. He entered the contest and defeated four-hundred other young people by playing music written by Ludwig van Beethoven. The others played mostly simple popular songs. You must listen to his music to understand how serious an instrument the harmonica was for Larry Adler. Here he plays a popular song called “Blues in the Night.” ((CUT TWO: “BLUES IN THE NIGHT”)) VOICE ONE: Larry Adler ran away from home when he was fourteen years old. He already knew he wanted to be a musician. He wanted to play the harmonica. He arrived in New York City and went to see the popular singer Rudy Vallee. The man listened to him play. Then he said, “Save your money because once they hear you, that is it. They will never want to hear you again.” However, Rudy Vallee did help Larry Adler find work. One of his first jobs was playing the harmonica for some of the first Mickey Mouse Cartoons produced by Walt Disney. VOICE TWO: As a young man, Larry Adler did not know how to read music. He could listen to a record played a few times and then play the song with his harmonica. He could do this with extremely difficult songs. Not being able to read music did not seem to harm his career. He was already a famous musician when a friend told him that reading music would increase his understanding of what he was playing. Larry Adler learned to read music. VOICE ONE: Larry Adler met the famous music composer George Gershwin at a party in New York. Mister Gershwin’s famous “Rhapsody in Blue,” was very popular. Friends asked the two men to play the famous work. At first George Gershwin refused. He did not think a harmonica should play his beautiful song. But friends said they should play, so Mister Gershwin agreed. When they were done, George Gershwin praised Larry Adler’s playing. He said it sounded almost as if he had written “Rhapsody in Blue” for Mister Adler and his harmonica. VOICE TWO: Several years later, George Gershwin used a special device called a recording piano to play and record “Rhapsody in Blue.” After the famous composer’s death, Larry Adler often played the harmonica with the recording piano of George Gershwin playing “Rhapsody in Blue.” Mister Gershwin’s sister attended one of the performances. Later, she told Mister Adler, “I could almost see him sitting there playing the piano.” Listen as Larry Adler and George Gershwin play one of the most famous pieces of American music, “Rhapsody in Blue.” ((CUT THREE: “RHAPSODY IN BLUE”)) VOICE ONE: Larry Adler appeared in movies, produced records and performed around the world for many years. In Nineteen-Forty-Nine, he was asked to appear before a congressional committee that was investigating Americans who were members of the Communist Party. Mister Adler was in Britain at the time. He refused to return to the United States and appear before the committee. He made his home in Britain and did not return to the United States for many years. Larry Adler was not a Communist, but he could not take orders from anyone, or any political party. The congressional committee had made him angry. He said later that was why he refused to appear. VOICE TWO: In recent years, Larry Adler became famous to a new group of young people. He appeared with many famous young musicians. He also introduced the music of George Gershwin to younger audiences. Larry Adler’s musical career began at the age of fourteen in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It ended with his death August Seventh, Two-Thousand-One. He was eighty-seven years old. We leave you with Larry Adler playing another of George Gershwin’s famous works, “I Got Rhythm.” ((CUT FOUR “I GOT RHYTHM”)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. ((CUT FIVE “AS TIME GOES BY”)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – September 18, 2001: Robotic Milking
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A small but growing number of farmers are using robotic technology to get milk from cows. These farmers have invested in robotic milking systems. Supporters of the system say it makes the job of farmers easier and increases milk production. Mike Schutz is an agricultural expert at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He says robotic technology has been used in Canada and Europe for several years. He says a few farms in the American states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin also are using the systems. Some farmers in Indiana are interested in starting a robotic milking program. Purdue University plans to work with Indiana state officials to study the effect of robotic milking. They will examine the quality of the milk, animal health and other issues. Currently, the United States Food and Drug Administration permits only the testing of robotic milking machines. Mister Schutz has traveled to other countries to learn about the equipment. He is now teaching farmers about the device. He says it helps farmers spend less time milking cows. He also says milk production increases because the cows are free to decide when they want to be milked. The robotic system is designed to operate twenty-four hours a day. Cows are trained to move through a series of passageways to the milking equipment. Mister Schutz says cows can be trained to use the system without human help after three or four weeks. The design of the system permits the milking of only one cow at a time. Robotic equipment cleans the animal and connects it to the milking machine in about one minute. Milking then takes about five minutes. Mister Schutz says farms with sixty to one-hundred-twenty cows are best for this technology. Each system can milk about fifty cows each day. Each cow is milked three times a day. For many farmers, the biggest issue is cost. Purdue University reports that one machine costs up to one-hundred-seventy-five-thousand dollars. In addition, not every cow will use the equipment. Mister Schutz notes that cows are not physically inspected for health problems when they are milked. And, the milk quality needs to be inspected. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 18, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the disease AIDS in China. We tell about a study of hospital admissions. And we tell about the threat of an earthquake in the Himalayan Mountains. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: China has admitted for the first time that the nation has a serious problem with the deadly disease AIDS. A top Chinese health official said the disease may be spreading two times as fast as earlier reported. Deputy Health Minister Yin Dakui talked to reporters in Beijing last month about the AIDS crisis in his country. He said efforts to control the disease have failed. One of the reasons is because local health leaders and the public have refused to consider it a serious problem. He also said some local officials do not provide true information about the number of people in their areas who have H-I-V. H-I-V is the virus that causes AIDS. VOICE TWO: The Chinese government also admitted for the first time that many Chinese have become infected because of unsafe methods used to collect their blood. Many poor people in China gain money by selling their blood at blood stations. The blood is used in hospitals and to make some drugs. Mister Yin said about six percent of H-I-V victims have been infected while selling their blood. However, other Chinese experts believe many more people have become infected this way. VOICE ONE: Chinese officials say about seven percent of the people infected with AIDS got the disease through sexual activity. The government says seventy percent of the AIDS patients became infected through the use of unsafe needles to inject drugs. Mister Yin says China will take steps to control the spread of the disease. He promised new public education campaigns and efforts to improve the safety of selling blood at blood banks. Mister Yin repeated the government’s official estimate that six-hundred-thousand people in China had H-I-V at the end of last year. But he added that the number of new H-I-V cases recorded by government health officials has increased sixty-seven percent from one year ago. However, international health organizations have estimated that more than one-million people in China are infected with the AIDS virus. They say that number could increase to as many as twenty-million in ten years if action is not taken to stop the spread of the disease. VOICE TWO: The Chinese government has asked experts from the United States Centers for Disease Control for help. American experts have visited China to study the situation and provide advice. Helene Gayle is an official with the Centers for Disease Control. Doctor Gayle recently spent five days in China. She says American and Chinese experts talked about educating the public about H-I-V. She says lack of education about the disease is a major threat. They also discussed ways to record the number of cases. And they discussed treatment methods. VOICE ONE: Doctor Gayle says AIDS in China mainly affects people in high-risk groups. But she says the disease could quickly spread to the general population through unprotected sex. She says very few people in China use protective devices during sexual relations. And she says very few Chinese understand how AIDS is spread. So they cannot protect themselves from getting the disease. Doctor Gayle said China would have great difficulty caring for a large number of AIDS patients. She said the problem would be too great for China’s health system. Some Chinese and American scientists say it appears the Chinese government is now willing to release AIDS information and is ready to deal with the problem. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Steve Ember with Bob Doughty in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) A Canadian study suggests that patients are more likely to die in a hospital from some conditions if they are admitted on weekends instead of during the week. Chaim Bell and Donald Redelmeier of the University of Toronto organized the study. They examined almost four-million patient admissions at hospital emergency rooms. All of the patients were admitted to hospitals in Ontario, Canada between Nineteen-Eighty-Eight and Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. VOICE ONE: The Canadian researchers studied hospital records for the one-hundred most common causes of death. They found that the risk of death for twenty-three of the causes was greater if a patient was admitted during a weekend. For the study, a weekend was any time between late Friday to early Monday. The Canadian researchers note that many hospitals have fewer employees working on weekends. These employees have less experience. There also are fewer hospital supervisors on weekends. VOICE TWO: The New England Journal of Medicine reported the findings. The Journal also published a commentary by doctors at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. The doctors questioned some of the findings. They said that the day of the week the patient was admitted made no difference for seventy-seven of the one-hundred conditions. They noted that the study did not show an increase in deaths from many common disorders, such as heart attacks and strokes. They also said cancer was responsible for more than half of the deaths reported in the study. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: American and Indian scientists say new evidence shows that India and nearby countries are in danger of suffering a huge earthquake in the future. A recent study found rock activity and pressure under the Himalayan Mountains and the Tibetan plateau. The researchers say there is evidence that such pressure has been eased in the past only through great earthquakes. Researchers from the University of Colorado and the Indian Institute for Astrophysics reported the study in the publication “Science.” They say the pressures in the rock under the ground will continue to increase as the land pushes into Asia. Scientists say the land is moving about two meters every one-hundred years. This continued movement of rock against rock causes many small earthquakes. VOICE TWO: One researcher says parts of the Himalayas have not had a major earthquake for at least five-hundred years. The last major Himalayan earthquake took place in the Indian state of Assam in Nineteen-Fifty. It measured eight-point-five on the Richter Scale. It was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. The new study says another similar earthquake in the area would threaten about fifty-million people. That is because the number of people in the Ganges plain just south of the mountains has grown ten times in the past one-hundred years. VOICE ONE: Such an earthquake would endanger major cities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Researchers say at least two-hundred-thousand people might die in such an earthquake. The researchers say the governments in those countries need to strengthen buildings to prepare for the possibility of such an event. They say new designs for buildings that are resistant to earthquakes should be taken very seriously. They also say that it appears the changes meant to strengthen buildings have not reduced the number of people killed in a major earthquake. One example is the earthquake in the western Indian city of Bhuj in January. That earthquake killed about twenty-thousand people. That earthquake also was caused by the earth’s movement. But it did nothing to ease the pressure hundreds of kilometers to the north and east that could produce an even stronger earthquake. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 19, 2001: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about the latest flight of the space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station. We tell about a new high-flying aircraft. We report about new research into ocean storms. And we tell about new and exciting pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that can be seen on a computer. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Recent pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show a huge area of space where new stars are being born. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera on the space shuttle took the pictures. The pictures show extremely clearly a cloud of gas and dust called the Thirty-Doradus Nebula. The cloud surrounds an area of star birth. The pictures show material being exploded into space from groups of stars in the nebula. This group of stars is called R-One-Thirty-Six. It includes some of the largest stars yet discovered. Scientists say the young hot stars in R-One-Thirty-Six produce intense winds and streams of material traveling at several million kilometers an hour. The pictures show an event that took place about two-million years ago. VOICE TWO: The huge stars in Thirty-Doradus Nebula are very beautiful even though they are involved in violent activity. The stars look like a group of diamonds that shine a bright blue. They seem to have been dropped into an area of space, like large pieces of blue ice. These extremely bright stars are surrounded by other stars that are a yellow color and are much less bright. The whole area is surrounded by what looks like thin clouds. The space telescope image of the Thirty-Doradus Nebula combines five pictures. They were taken between January Nineteen-Ninety-Four and September of Two-Thousand. VOICE ONE: The Hubble space telescope has also taken beautiful pictures of a dying star in the Calabash Nebula. Stars like the sun in our universe grow very old and die. When this happens they expel most of their material as huge amounts of gas and dust. A team of Spanish and American astronomers used the Hubble telescope to study how the huge amounts of gas from a dying star crash into surrounding material. The pictures show gas in yellow flowing at high speed from a star hidden at the center of the nebula. This yellow stream crashes into surrounding matter shown in blue. Much of the violence seems to be caused very suddenly when huge amounts of gas from the dying star began speeding up to intense speeds. The scientists who are studying the new pictures say this event took place about eight-hundred years ago. VOICE TWO: If you have a computer you can see these beautiful pictures in bright colors. Ask your computer to search the World Wide Web part of the Internet. Enter the name Hubble. That is spelled H-U-B-B-L-E. Or search for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory by entering the letters, J-P-L. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: On August Thirteenth, an aircraft without a pilot sent a new record. It reached an altitude of almost thirty-thousand meters. It was flying for about seventeen hours. The aircraft is named Helios. It is controlled from the ground by people using a radio. Helios was built by the AeroVironment Company of California, with support from the American space agency, NASA. The aircraft looks like a huge wing without a tail. The wing is more than seventy-five meters long. It has fourteen electric motors that each turn a propeller. Sixty-six thousand solar cells that make electricity from sunlight provide the power for the motors. The aircraft can take off only in full sun. The Helios flying wing is able to fly three times higher than normal airplanes. NASA hopes that some time in the future Helios aircraft will be able to remain at extremely high altitudes for months. They could be used to measure atmospheric conditions. Or they could provide low cost communications links. And, NASA scientists say a Helios flying wing could be used to fly in the thin atmosphere over Mars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are learning about huge ocean storms. They are flying airplanes carrying new scientific instruments through the storms. The goal of the experiment is to take the mystery out of ocean storms. The experiment is called the Fourth Convection and Moisture Experiment. The NASA scientists are examining how a storm grows more powerful and how it moves. They are flying airplanes from the United States Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. The two airplanes carrying the new instruments will fly over, through and around storms in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. VOICE ONE: Bjorn Lambrigtsen is the leader of the research team. He designed an instrument that is used to gather information about the storms. A special aircraft that can fly more than twenty kilometers high carries the instrument. The instrument looks below and from side to side. It records the temperature of the air, the amount of water in the air, and how the clouds are formed inside the storm. Mister Lambrigtsen and his team are on these extremely high flights. VOICE TWO: Other scientific teams are using different instruments on an airplane similar to a passenger plane. One instrument measures water in the air as the plane flies through the huge storms. Other instruments provide information about the amount of heat found in the storm. This information is used to create a map of air temperature at different points. Another instrument on the airplane measures the amount of rain. NASA began this ocean storm experiment August Sixteenth. It will continue until September Twenty-fourth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: On August Twenty-Second, the American Space Shuttle Discovery landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Discovery returned with the second group of crew members of the International Space Station. They had spent one-hundred-sixty-seven days in space. The returning crewmembers were the commander, Russian cosmonaut Yury Usachev, and two flight engineers, American astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms. The three were brought back to Earth in special seats designed to lessen the effects of their return to gravity. VOICE TWO: The Discovery space shuttle left the members of the third crew of the International Space Station in their new home. These crewmembers are astronaut Frank Culbertson, and cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin. The Discovery crew also left supplies and equipment at the International Space Station. One piece of equipment is the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. The Leonardo module can be used several times to carry supplies. It can also be used as a permanent part of the space station. For this flight, twelve special containers of experiments and equipment were inside the Leonardo module. VOICE ONE: Discovery also carried into space something called the Student Experiment Module. The module contained ten small experiments designed by students in eleven different schools. These experiments are part of a NASA program to improve education in science, space and space technology. NASA’s space shuttles have been carrying Student Experiment Modules for the past five years. More than ten-thousand students have taken part in the project. Both high school and college students design the student experiments. The space shuttle carried a special experiment designed by students at Mayo High School in Rochester, Minnesota. The purpose of their G-Seven-Eight-Zero experiment is to investigate cell growth in an extreme lack of gravity. The experiment has six growing areas that hold several kinds of seeds. These experiments are part of the Hitchhiker Experiments Advancing Technology program, known as HEAT. The HEAT program permits students and others to take an active part in the American space shuttle program. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Grifith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - September 19, 2001: African Elephants
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists say African elephants that live in the forest and those that live in grasslands are different enough to be considered separate kinds, or species. Until now, scientists believed all African elephants were the same genetically. They have long recognized the clear differences between African and Asian elephants. One genetic researcher said the difference between the two groups of African elephants is as large as the difference between a lion and a tiger. Researchers from the United States and Kenya announced the discovery in the publication Science. They examined genetic differences in almost two-hundred African elephants in grasslands and forests. They collected tissue from more than twenty groups of elephants in the wild over a period of eight years. They did so by firing small sharp objects into the elephants. The darts removed small pieces of skin and then dropped to the ground. The researchers examined the genetic material from the elephants’ skin. They found great differences between the African elephants living in the forest and those that live on the grasslands. The grassland elephant has large ears and curving ivory tusks. People can see these elephants in zoos and in visits to Africa. The forest elephant is smaller and has round ears. Its tusks are straighter and longer. The ivory is slightly pink in color. The forest elephant is not often seen in the wild. Only one African forest elephant is in a zoo. It is in Paris, France. The researchers say genetic differences show that the two kinds of African elephants began to develop into separate species more than two-million years ago. The research also shows that all grassland elephants are genetically the same. This means they all developed from one recent ancestor. The forest elephants, however, are genetically different from each other. This means that elephants in forest groups rarely mate and reproduce with members of other groups. The researchers say that only about two-hundred-thousand African elephants live in the forests. These elephants face a greater threat to their survival than other elephants. The threats are from land development and other human activity. Scientists say it is important that the African forest elephant be recognized as a separate species so it can be protected. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – September 20, 2001: Number of Human Genes Questioned
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Scientists are questioning a widely reported finding from the first detailed study of the human gene map. The scientists dispute the finding that humans have only about thirty-thousand genes. The new report suggests the true number could be much greater. The Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego, California prepared the report. It was published in Cell magazine. Other scientists have long argued about the number of human genes. Some believe that humans have more than one-hundred-thousand genes. The issue seemed to be settled last February. That is when two competing teams of scientists published their efforts to map the position of every human gene. A private American company called Celera Genomics published one of the genetic maps. An international group called the Human Genome Project prepared the other. Each group of scientists estimated that humans have about thirty-thousand genes. That is about two times as many genes as some insects. That number came as a surprise to some people. They wondered how an organism as complex as a human could have so few genes. It is important for scientists to identify every human gene in order to understand how cells work and what causes disease. Some scientists believed the small number of genes was good news. It meant it would be easier to identify all the genes and understand how they work. In the new study, the Novartis scientists compared the two groups of human genes from the two genetic maps. They found that the two groups of scientists had identified two different sets of genes. Only about half the genes are common to both groups. The Novartis scientists say this means the number of human genes may be about forty-thousand. The director of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, said he would not be surprised if humans were found to have more than thirty-thousand genes. Celera’s President, Craig Venter, notes that the process of discovering the real number is not simple. He said many of the genes noted in his company’s study had not been confirmed. The real number of human genes may not be known any time soon. Scientists say it probably will take years before we have a list of the genes that control human biology. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 20, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 5
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) I'M TONY RIGGS. TODAY, LARRY WEST AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. VOICE TWO: IN NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN, EUROPE WAS AT WAR. IT WAS THE CONFLICT KNOWN AS WORLD WAR ONE. AFTER THREE YEARS OF FIGHTING, EUROPE'S LANDS WERE FILLED WITH THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF DEATH. BUT STILL, THE ARMIES OF THE ALLIES AND THE CENTRAL POWERS CONTINUED TO FIGHT. THE UNITED STATES HAD TRIED TO KEEP OUT OF THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. IT DECLARED ITS NEUTRALITY. IN THE END, HOWEVER, NEUTRALITY WAS IMPOSSIBLE. GERMANY WAS FACING STARVATION BECAUSE OF A BRITISH NAVAL BLOCKADE. TO BREAK THE BLOCKADE, GERMAN SUBMARINES ATTACKED ANY SHIP THAT SAILED TO EUROPE. THAT INCLUDED SHIPS FROM NEUTRAL NATIONS LIKE THE UNITED STATES. THE GERMAN SUBMARINES SANK SEVERAL AMERICAN SHIPS. MANY INNOCENT PEOPLE WERE KILLED. VOICE ONE: GERMAN SUBMARINE ATTACKS FINALLY FORCED THE UNITED STATES INTO THE WAR. IT JOINED THE ALLIES: BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND RUSSIA. LIKE MOST AMERICANS, PRESIDENT WILSON DID NOT WANT WAR. BUT HE HAD NO CHOICE. SADLY, HE ASKED CONGRESS FOR A DECLARATION OF WAR. CONGRESS APPROVED THE DECLARATION ON APRIL SIXTH, NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN. IT WAS NOT LONG BEFORE AMERICAN SOLDIERS REACHED THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT. THEY MARCHED IN A PARADE THROUGH THE STREETS OF PARIS. THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE GAVE THEM A WILD WELCOME. THEY CHEERED THE YOUNG AMERICANS. THEY THREW FLOWERS AT THE SOLDIERS AND KISSED THEM. VOICE TWO: THE AMERICANS MARCHED TO THE BURIAL PLACE OF THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. LAFAYETTE WAS THE FRENCH MILITARY LEADER WHO HAD COME TO AMERICA'S AID DURING ITS WAR OF INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN. THE UNITED STATES WANTED TO RE-PAY FRANCE FOR ITS HELP MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS EARLIER. AN AMERICAN ARMY OFFICER MADE A SPEECH AT THE TOMB. HE SAID: "LAFAYETTE...WE ARE HERE!" VOICE ONE: AND SO THE AMERICANS WERE THERE. THEY WERE READY TO FIGHT IN THE BLOODIEST WAR THE WORLD HAD EVER KNOWN. WEEK BY WEEK, MORE AMERICAN TROOPS ARRIVED. BY OCTOBER, NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN, THE AMERICAN ARMY IN EUROPE TOTALED ONE-HUNDRED-THOUSAND MEN. THE LEADER OF THAT ARMY WAS GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING. PERSHING'S FORCES WERE NOT SENT DIRECTLY INTO BATTLE. INSTEAD, THEY SPENT TIME TRAINING, BUILDING BASES, AND PREPARING SUPPLIES. THEN A SMALL GROUP WAS SENT TO THE BORDER BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY. THE AMERICANS FOUGHT A SHORT BUT BITTER BATTLE THERE AGAINST GERMAN FORCES. THE GERMANS KNEW THE AMERICAN SOLDIERS HAD NOT FOUGHT BEFORE. THEY TRIED TO FRIGHTEN THE AMERICANS BY WAVING THEIR KNIVES AND GUNS IN A FIERCE ATTACK. THE AMERICANS SURPRISED THE GERMANS. THEY STOOD AND FOUGHT BACK SUCCESSFULLY. VOICE TWO: FULL AMERICAN PARTICIPATION IN THE FIGHTING DID NOT COME FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. IT CAME ONLY AFTER ANOTHER EVENT TOOK PLACE. THAT EVENT CHANGED THE WAR ... AND THE HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. IT WAS THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA. ITS LEADER WAS VLADIMIR LENIN. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION BEGAN IN THE SPRING OF NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN. THE PEOPLE OF THAT COUNTRY WERE TIRED OF FIGHTING GERMANY. AND THEY WERE TIRED OF THEIR RULER, CZAR NICHOLAS. THE CZAR WAS OVERTHROWN. A TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT WAS ESTABLISHED. IT WAS HEADED BY ALEXANDER KERENSKI. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON SENT A TEAM OF AMERICAN OFFICIALS TO RUSSIA TO HELP KERENSKI'S NEW GOVERNMENT. THE OFFICIALS URGED RUSSIA TO REMAIN IN THE WAR. VOICE ONE: UNDER KERENSKI, RUSSIA DID KEEP FIGHTING. BUT IT CONTINUED TO SUFFER TERRIBLE LOSSES. MANY RUSSIANS DEMANDED AN END TO THE WAR. LENIN SAW THIS OPPOSITION AS A WAY TO GAIN CONTROL OF THE GOVERNMENT. SO HE WENT TO THE CITY OF PETROGRAD. THERE, HE LED THE OPPOSITION TO THE WAR AND TO KERENSKI. NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, HE SPOKE TO BIG CROWDS. "WHAT DO YOU GET FROM WAR?" HE SHOUTED. "ONLY WOUNDS, HUNGER, AND DEATH!" LENIN PROMISED PEACE UNDER BOLSHEVIK COMMUNISM. WITHIN A FEW MONTHS, HE WON CONTROL OF THE PETROGRAD SOVIET. THAT WAS AN ORGANIZATION OF WORKERS AND SOLDIERS. ANOTHER BOLSHEVIK COMMUNIST, LEON TROTSKY, CONTROLLED THE SOVIET IN MOSCOW. VOICE TWO: KERENSKI'S GOVERNMENT CONTINUED TO DO BADLY IN THE WAR. MORE AND MORE RUSSIAN SOLDIERS LOST HOPE. MANY FLED THE ARMY. OTHERS STAYED. BUT THEY REFUSED TO FIGHT. THE END CAME IN NOVEMBER, NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN. SOLDIERS IN PETROGRAD TURNED AGAINST KERENSKI. LENIN ORDERED THEM TO REBEL. AND HE TOOK CONTROL OF THE GOVERNMENT WITHIN FORTY-EIGHT HOURS. RUSSIA WAS NOW A COMMUNIST NATION. AS PROMISED, LENIN CALLED FOR PEACE. SO RUSSIA SIGNED ITS OWN PEACE TREATY WITH GERMANY. THE TREATY FORCED RUSSIA TO PAY A HIGH PRICE FOR ITS PART IN THE WAR. IT HAD TO GIVE UP A THIRD OF ITS FARMLAND, HALF OF ITS INDUSTRY, AND NINETY PERCENT OF ITS COAL MINES. IT ALSO LOST A THIRD OF ITS POPULATION. STILL, IT DID NOT HAVE REAL PEACE WITH GERMANY. VOICE ONE: THE TREATY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND GERMANY HAD A POWERFUL INFLUENCE ON THE MILITARY SITUATION IN THE REST OF EUROPE. NOW, GERMANY NO LONGER HAD TO FIGHT AN ENEMY ON TWO FRONTS. ITS EASTERN BORDER WAS QUIET SUDDENLY. IT COULD AIM ALL ITS FORCES AGAINST BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND THE OTHER ALLIES ON ITS WESTERN BORDER. GERMANY HAD SUFFERED TERRIBLE LOSSES DURING FOUR YEARS OF WAR. MANY OF ITS SOLDIERS HAD BEEN KILLED. AND MANY OF ITS CIVILIANS HAD COME CLOSE TO STARVING, BECAUSE OF THE BRITISH NAVAL BLOCKADE. YET GERMANY'S LEADERS STILL HOPED TO WIN. THEY DECIDED TO LAUNCH A MAJOR ATTACK. THEY KNEW THEY HAD TO ACT QUICKLY, BEFORE THE UNITED STATES COULD SEND MORE TROOPS TO HELP THE ALLIES. VOICE TWO: GERMAN MILITARY LEADERS DECIDED TO BREAK THROUGH THE LONG BATTLE LINE THAT DIVIDED MOST OF CENTRAL EUROPE. THEY PLANNED TO STRIKE FIRST AT THE NORTH END OF THE LINE. BRITISH TROOPS HELD THAT AREA. THE GERMANS WOULD PUSH THE BRITISH OFF THE CONTINENT AND BACK ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. THEN THEY WOULD TURN ALL THEIR STRENGTH ON FRANCE. WHEN FRANCE WAS DEFEATED, GERMANY WOULD BE VICTORIOUS. THE CAMPAIGN OPENED IN MARCH, NINETEEN-EIGHTEEN. GERMAN FORCES ATTACKED BRITISH SOLDIERS NEAR AMIENS, FRANCE. THE GERMANS HAD SIX-THOUSAND PIECES OF ARTILLERY. THE BRITISH TROOPS FOUGHT HARD, BUT COULD NOT STOP THE GERMANS. THEY WERE PUSHED BACK FIFTY KILOMETERS. THE ATTACK STOPPED FOR ABOUT A WEEK. VOICE ONE: THEN THE GERMANS STRUCK AGAIN. THIS TIME, THEIR TARGET WAS YPRES, BELGIUM. THE SECOND ATTACK WAS SO SUCCESSFUL IT SEEMED THE GERMANS MIGHT PUSH THE BRITISH ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE SEA. THE BRITISH COMMANDER, FIELD MARSHAL DOUGLAS HAIG, ORDERED HIS MEN NOT TO WITHDRAW. HAIG SAID: "THERE IS NO OTHER COURSE OPEN TO US, BUT TO FIGHT IT OUT." THE BRITISH FOUGHT HARD AND STOPPED THE ATTACK. LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES WERE EXTREMELY HIGH. YET THE GERMANS CONTINUED WITH THEIR PLAN. VOICE TWO: THEIR NEXT ATTACK WAS NORTHEAST OF PARIS IN MAY. THIS TIME, THEY BROKE THE ALLIED LINE EASILY AND RUSHED TOWARD PARIS. THE GERMAN ARMY CHIEF, GENERAL ERICH LUDENDORFF, TRIED TO CAPTURE THE FRENCH CAPITAL WITHOUT WAITING TO STRENGTHEN HIS FORCES. HE GOT CLOSE ENOUGH TO SHELL THE CITY. THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT PREPARED TO FLEE. ALLIED MILITARY LEADERS RUSHED MORE TROOPS TO THE AREA. THE NEW FORCE INCLUDED TWO BIG GROUPS OF AMERICAN MARINES. VOICE ONE: THE HEAVIEST FIGHTING WAS OUTSIDE PARIS AT A PLACE CALLED BELLEAU WOOD. THE AMERICAN MARINES WERE ADVISED TO PREPARE FOR A POSSIBLE WITHDRAWAL. ONE MARINE SAID: "WITHDRAW? WE JUST GOT HERE!" THE MARINES RESISTED AS THE GERMANS ATTACKED ALLIED LINES IN BELLEAU WOOD AGAIN AND AGAIN. THEN THEY ATTACKED THE GERMAN LINES. THE BATTLE FOR BELLEAU WOOD LASTED THREE WEEKS. IT WAS THE MOST SERIOUS GERMAN OFFENSIVE OF THE WAR. THE GERMANS LOST. WE WILL CONTINUE OUR STORY OF WORLD WAR ONE NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE TONY RIGGS AND LARRY WEST. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC – September 21, 2001: Special on Terrorist Attack
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Our program today is a special one. We tell about the recent terrorist attack against the United States. We answer a listener’s question about the two buildings in New York City that were called the World Trade Center. We read some of the letters from listeners around the world who have offered their sympathy for the victims in New York and Washington, D-C. And we play music that tells how most Americans feel about their country. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) On Tuesday, September eleventh, many things changed forever in the United States. Terrorists hijacked four civilian passenger aircraft. All were flights from the eastern United States to California. Two of the aircraft turned away from their planned flights and flew to New York City. It is believed the terrorists were flying both planes. At Eight-Forty-Five in the morning, New York time, one of the planes crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center. The aircraft tore a huge hole in the building. The aircraft fuel immediately caused a huge fire. At three minutes after Nine-o-clock, the second hijacked airliner crashed into the south building of the World Trade Center and exploded. Both buildings were burning. Forty minutes later, a third hijacked aircraft crashed into the Defense Department Building called the Pentagon near Washington D-C. Here too, airplane fuel caused a huge fire. About ten-o-clock in New York, the south building of the World Trade Center fell down. About twenty-five minutes later, the north building fell down. Twenty minutes later, police in the eastern state of Pennsylvania confirmed that a fourth hijacked aircraft had crashed. There were no survivors. Later, experts said the passengers on this flight may have fought with the terrorists and caused the crash, or caused the terrorists to crash the plane. The experts believe this fourth aircraft was being flown to a target in Washington D-C. The brave actions of the passengers on this flight may have saved hundreds if not thousands of other lives. Officials still do not know how many innocent people were killed in this terrorist attack. However, they believe now that the number of people on the airplanes and those who died in the buildings is more than five-thousand. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) Our listener question this week comes from Mongolia. A. Amartuya expressed sadness for the attack and asked us to explain what the World Trade Center was. The World Trade Center in New York was a group of buildings that opened in Nineteen-Seventy-Three. It occupied six and one-half hectares of land. Its two largest buildings were more than four-hundred-ten meters tall. They once were the tallest buildings in the world. About fifty-thousand people worked each day in the World Trade Center. They worked at the headquarters offices of many large financial companies. Some of the companies had more than one-thousand employees working in their World Trade Center offices. Many of these financial companies have other offices in the major cities of the world. The World Trade Center had several eating places. There was a large day care center for children whose parents worked in the building. There was a huge area of stores under the offices. People could buy food, clothing, newspapers, magazines and many other products. The World Trade Center was built to survive severe weather conditions, such as winds from large ocean storms. It was built to survive serious fires. The two buildings survived when they were hit by the large passenger aircraft traveling at about three-hundred kilometers an hour. However, experts said they could not survive the thousands of liters of airplane fuel that caused extremely hot fires. The fires weakened the steel that supported the buildings. The top of each building began to fall into the next lower part. Each part fell into the next until the huge buildings were no more. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) When a terrible event like this takes place in the world it is not unusual for the leaders of many countries to express sadness or to offer aid. The events of September Eleventh were no different. Within hours, world leaders offered expressions of shock, anger and sympathy. These included the leaders of governments that often have political differences with the United States. Shock, anger and sadness were also expressed by many listeners who are part of the Special English family. They sent computer e-mail messages to us. I would like to share a few of these wonderful letters with you. A listener in Sweden spoke for many people when he wrote: “Let me express my sympathy for you and your country after this terrible terrorist attack. I really hope the guilty people will be found and brought to justice.” Four members of a VOA listeners club in Tajikistan wrote: “Please accept our deep feelings and condolences. We are with you, dear friends.” A woman in Egypt sent this message: “I am Egyptian and Muslim. I want to say that all Egyptians – Muslims, Christians and Jews – condemn this massacre.” A man from Brazil wrote:” I am deeply sad and shocked with these terrible terrorist attacks suffered by the U-S-A. These huge attacks hit not only the Americans but all humankind.” This message came from two listeners in Somalia: “Your many listeners in Mogadishu join us in offering. . . condolence to you, all the staff of the VOA and all Americans. We hope this kind of attack will not happen again.” And from China, a listener wrote: “I am a plain Chinese citizen. I deeply condemn the evil actions against American civilians. Please accept my sincere sympathy to the victims. Let us pray for all the people who were killed in the tragedy. God bless humankind.” These were only a few of the many messages we have received at Special English. We would like to say “thank you” for the many kind letters from our listening family. ((THEME)) Each week, American Mosaic plays music from a new album of a popular musician, songs that have won awards or music from a show on Broadway. This week we would like to play only one song. Ray Charles sings it. We chose this song because Mister Charles almost sings it in Special English. He makes it very easy to follow the words. We also like the idea of the song. We hope you do, too. Here is Ray Charles with “America the Beautiful.” ((Music: “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL”)) This is Doug Johnson. Thank you for joining us today for this special American Mosaic program. I hope you will join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Vasilij Volaric. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT- September 21, 2001: Endangered Species Agreement
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. The Bush administration has agreed to speed efforts to protect twenty-nine kinds of animals and plants that are most in danger of disappearing. Officials from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and four environmental groups reached the agreement last month. Wildlife officials promised to act quickly to list species of rare mammals, birds, fish, snails and butterflies under the Endangered Species Act. A listing under the Endangered Species Act provides strong protection for a species. It bars government agencies and private companies from doing anything that harms a species or its environment. Under the act, members of the public can request that some species be listed as endangered so that they will receive federal protection. The law says that officials must decide about the requests within a year. But listings have often led to court battles. Property owners argue that some species are not important enough to require such protections. However, environmental groups say that all species are important and are worth protecting. They say endangered species often are signs of environmental problems that could affect humans. The agreement calls for the government to consider three species for emergency listing under the Endangered Species Act. They are a kind of snail, butterfly and rabbit that are in immediate danger of disappearing. The agreement also calls for the wildlife service to make decisions about listing twenty-six other species considered threatened. In exchange, environmental groups promised to delay demands that the federal government act on eight less seriously endangered species. The delay permits the wildlife service to use more money from its budget to protect only the most endangered species. Four environmental groups were involved in the negotiations. The groups have repeatedly taken legal action to force the federal government to enforce the Endangered Species Act. Government officials and environmental groups praised the agreement. They say it shows that the two strongly opposing sides can work together to save species most in need of help. They say they hope this can be a model for future agreements. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - September 24, 2001: Women in Sports
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Women’s sports in the United States are becoming more popular every year. More and more women are succeeding as excellent athletes. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Women in sports is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Photographs of women taking part in sports events hang on the walls of the Arts and Industries Building in Washington, D-C. The female athletes pictured in this Smithsonian Institution exhibit are all ages, from young children to old women. They represent a number of races and ethnic groups. Some have physical problems that would have kept them out of athletics in the past. The women are swimming or skating. They are playing baseball, raising heavy weights or running races. Others are preparing for competition. Or they are resting after their games. They look intense, extremely happy or full of regret. VOICE TWO: The exhibit is called “Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like?” It will be shown in Washington through the end of this year. Then the exhibit will move to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Olympic games next year. Then the exhibit will be shown in nineteen other American cities. Photographer and museum expert Geoffrey Biddle and sportswriter Jane Gottesman organized the exhibit. Mizz Gottesman began writing about sports for a San Francisco newspaper in the early Nineteen-Nineties. During that time she noted that only a few pictures of women athletes appeared in the media. So she asked photographers what a female athlete looks like. They answered with the pictures shown in the exhibit. The photos are divided into time periods with names that sound like sports commands: “Get Ready.” “Action.” “Finish.” VOICE ONE: Visitors say they will remember some of the pictures for a long time. For example, weight-lifter Cheryl Haworth is shown standing on a road lined by leafy trees. She has raised a log over her head. But she makes holding this huge piece of wood look easy. Mizz Haworth won a medal in weight lifting at the Two-Thousand Olympics. Another picture shows a table-tennis game in the Nineteen-Ninety-Six Olympics. Photographer Annie Leibovitz captured the image of Lily Yip of the United States team. She took the picture during intense competition. Mizz Yip stands on one foot. Her other leg is in the air behind her. She has just hit the unseen ball. Or perhaps she is waiting for its return. Her expression demonstrates how hard she is struggling to win. VOICE TWO: In another picture a small girl rides a skateboard. The photograph is called “Tomboy.” This word describes a girl who enjoys the same activities as boys. Photographer Meri Simon took the picture in Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. Still another picture shows a woman during the early Nineteen-Hundreds. She looks very different from the speeding child. The woman stands still on a tennis court. Her dress reaches her feet. A hat covers her head. This athlete looks as though she would have difficulty moving around. Many years later, Norma Enrique Basilio became the first woman ever to light the Olympic flame. She is shown carrying the torch to light the traditional fire at the Mexico City games in Nineteen-Sixty-Eight. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: American parents did not always want their daughters to take part in sports. Many years ago, people praised stars like runner Wilma Rudolph and tennis player Althea Gibson. Few families, however, urged girls to try for a life in sports. And many men in sports actively tried to prevent women from taking part. Experts say the progress made by women in sports is linked to the general progress for equal rights made by women during the past thirty years. VOICE TWO: A major step in progress for women in sports resulted from an education law passed by Congress in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. One part of the law is called Title Nine. It bans unfair treatment based on sex in any program of a school receiving money from the federal government. Schools and universities lose government aid if their sports programs do not treat men and women equally. Title Nine says that women should have the same chance as men to play school sports. As a result of this law, colleges and universities started more women’s sports programs. More people began attending women’s sports events. Women also began to play sports that had been unusual for them in the past. They started to play hockey and football. A college student in Alabama recently became the first woman to play and score in a National Collegiate Athletic Association football game. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In recent years, women have played in organized professional sports leagues for the first time. For example, the Women’s National Basketball Association was organized in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven by the men’s National Basketball Association. The W-N-B-A has eight teams. They play in eight major cities including New York; Los Angeles, California; Houston, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona. Millions of people all over the world watched the W-N-B-A championship on television earlier this month. The Los Angeles Sparks defeated the Charlotte Sting of North Carolina. Lisa Leslie led the Sparks to their first W-N-B-A championship. Mizz Leslie scored twenty-four points in the game. She was named the Most Valuable Player of the game. Earlier, she was chosen the W-N-B-A’s most valuable player. Many young girls consider fine athletes like Lisa Leslie to be their heroes. VOICE TWO: Women’s soccer also has made major progress in recent years. Fine players like Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain have helped make the sport more popular. These women were members of the United States World Cup soccer team in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. They also won medals in Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, and Sydney, Australia. Now they compete in the Women’s United Soccer Association. The league has eight teams. Players come from a number of countries. An exciting championship game recently ended the women’s soccer league’s first season. The Bay Area CyberRays of California defeated the Atlanta Beat. More than twenty-thousand people watched the action in Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. VOICE ONE: Many people say women’s professional tennis has become more interesting than men’s tennis. More people watch the women’s games on television than the men’s games. One sports commentator said, “The women are not only good players. They are also very interesting people. ”People like to watch two American sisters as they compete in major tennis events. Venus Williams is twenty-one years old. Her sister Serena Williams is nineteen. The two are among the world’s ten top women tennis players. They are the first African American women in years to gain international fame in tennis. Earlier this month, they became the first sisters ever to compete against each other for the United States Women’s Open Tennis Championship. It was the first time two African Americans played for a major singles tennis championship. And it was the first United States Women’s Open to be broadcast on television at night. Venus Williams defeated her sister Serena in the championship match. Both sisters, however, have gained great success. In the past, tennis has often been called a sport for rich people. The Williams family had little money when Venus and Serena were growing up. Their mother says her girls often played tennis with poor equipment on bad courts. VOICE TWO: Great athletes like the Williams sisters are not the only American women who take part in sports. Many average women do, too. Some choose team sports. Others choose activities that can be performed alone. These women swim, ski or sail small boats. They lift weights or run long distances. A fifty-seven-year-old high school teacher in Chicago, Illinois drives many kilometers every day to a horse-riding center. She says she is not especially good at riding a horse. But riding through the woods on a fine animal makes her happy. This woman says sports are good for the human spirit. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Shirley Griffith VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 23, 2001: Katharine Graham
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about Katharine Graham. She was the owner and publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Katharine Meyer Graham was once described as “the most powerful woman in America.” She was not a government official or elected representative. She owned and published the Washington Post newspaper. Under her leadership, it became one of the most important newspapers in the country. Katharine Meyer was born in New York City in Nineteen-Seventeen. She was the daughter of Eugene and Agnes Meyer. Her father was a successful investment banker. He became an important financial official. Her family was very rich. Katharine grew up in large houses in New York and Washington. Her parents were often away from home, traveling and working. Katharine was often lonely. Katherine Meyer graduated from the University of Chicago in Illinois in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. She got a job as a reporter for a newspaper in San Francisco, California. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, Eugene Meyer had bought a failing newspaper, The Washington Post. It was the least successful of five newspapers in Washington. Katharine returned to Washington and got a job editing letters to the editor of her father’s newspaper. She married Philip Graham. He was a lawyer and former assistant to two Supreme Court justices. Mister Graham soon accepted a job at his wife’s father’s newspaper. In Nineteen-Forty-Six, Eugene Meyer left the newspaper to become the first president of the World Bank. Philip Graham became publisher of The Washington Post. VOICE ONE: Mister Graham improved The Washington Post. He bought Newsweek magazine and several television stations. He also established close ties with important political leaders. However, Mister Graham treated his wife badly. He made her feel unimportant. He had a sexual relationship with a young reporter. For many years, Mister Graham suffered from mental illness. He killed himself in Nineteen-Sixty-Three. VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham had four children to raise and a newspaper to operate. At first, she was concerned only with finding a way to keep control of The Washington Post until her sons were old enough to supervise it. She was an insecure person. She did not think she had the ability to do an important job. She had no training in business or experience in operating a large company. In those days, it was unusual for a woman to be the head of a business. Women were expected to supervise only their homes and children. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham met with officials of The Post. She told them the paper would not be sold. She said it would remain in her family. She was elected president of The Washington Post Company. She had no idea about how to operate a newspaper. So she decided to learn. She began by hiring Benjamin Bradlee. He later became chief editor. Mister Bradlee improved the newspaper. He hired excellent reporters and editors. They began doing important investigative reporting. In Nineteen-Sixty-Nine, Missus Graham became publisher as well as president of The Washington Post Company. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In the Nineteen-Seventies, the Washington Post became famous around the world because of two major successes. In Nineteen-Seventy-One, The New York Times newspaper started publishing secret government documents about American involvement in the Vietnam War. They were known as the Pentagon Papers. The administration of President Richard Nixon appealed to the courts to stop the publication of the documents. It said publication would endanger national security. A temporary restraining order from a federal judge stopped The New York Times from publishing the documents. VOICE ONE: Washington Post reporters also got a copy of the Pentagon Papers. They also wanted to publish the documents. Missus Graham had to decide if the paper would publish the stories and risk possible punishment by the government. The newspaper’s lawyers advised her not to publish them. Yet she decided to publish the Pentagon Papers in the Washington Post. The Supreme Court finally decided the issue. They ruled against the judge’s order restraining publication of the Pentagon Papers. That ruling was considered a major success for freedom of the press. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The next year, in Nineteen-Seventy-Two, the Washington Post had another major success reporting on a different story. Five men had been arrested after breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office building. Reporters at The Post began an intense investigation of the break-in. The Post published a series of stories by two young reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. After much investigation, the reporters linked the Watergate break-in to President Nixon and his top advisers. Their stories proved that the Nixon administration directed a plot. Its goals were to illegally gather intelligence on the Democratic Party and dishonor opponents of the president. VOICE ONE: Missus Graham supported her reporters and editors through the long Watergate investigation. The Post published the stories even though government officials threatened Missus Graham and her company. The newspaper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service in Nineteen-Seventy-Three for its Watergate reporting. The next year, President Nixon resigned from office. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Katharine Graham was recognized around the world as an important leader in newspaper publishing. She was the first woman to head a major American company. She successfully expanded The Washington Post Company to include newspaper, magazine, broadcast and cable companies. Katharine Graham played an important role in supporting women in the workforce. More women were employed at The Post and at Newsweek magazine. Missus Graham also was active in groups seeking to improve public education in Washington. She traveled around the country to make many public speeches about news media issues. She also traveled around the world to meet with foreign leaders. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham was well known for having dinner parties at her home in Washington. She invited the most important people in the city. An invitation to one of her parties was almost as valuable as an invitation to dinner at the White House. Missus Graham was a close friend of American and world leaders. Her friends included leaders in government, media, business and entertainment. They included presidents, prime ministers and princesses. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Donald Graham replaced his mother as publisher and the chief official of The Washington Post Company. At that time, the company was valued at almost two-thousand-million dollars. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: When she was eighty years old, Katharine Graham wrote a book about her life. It was called “Personal History.” She wrote about the struggles and tragedies of her life as well as the successes. She wrote about how she battled her own insecurities to move from a traditional job as homemaker to a position of power. Critics praised the book for its honesty. The book won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. It was extremely popular. VOICE ONE: Katharine Graham died of head injuries three years later after a fall. She was eighty-four. More than three-thousand people attended her funeral. They included many government and business leaders. Friends of Katharine Graham said she would be remembered as a woman who had an important influence on events in the United States and the world. They said she used her intelligence and bravery to improve the American media. And they said everyone who cares about a free press would greatly miss her. Katharine Graham once wrote: “A world without newspapers would not be the same kind of world.” After her death, the employees of The Washington Post wrote: ”A world without Katharine Graham will not be the same at all.” (((THEME))) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - September 24, 2001: Internet in Malaysia
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Malaysia has developed a program to help bring technology to schools around the country. It is a traveling bus equipped with twenty computers and other modern technology. Officials call the bus a “Mobile Internet Unit” because students can use it to connect to the Worldwide Web. The goal of the bus is to increase technology knowledge among teachers and students in poor farming areas. Two technology experts drive the bus to schools throughout Malaysia. The technology experts show teachers and students how to use computers. The experts show them how to search for information on the Internet. The experts also collect information for future technology training programs. The Malaysian government plans to put two Mobile Internet Units in each of its fourteen states by Two-Thousand-Five. The United Nations Development Program and the Malaysian government support the Mobile Internet Unit program. It was started two years ago. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the project was necessary to reduce the differences between people who know how to use computers and people who do not. The Asia-Pacific Development Information Program created the idea for Malaysia’s traveling bus. Gabriel Accascina is the former head of the organization, which is based in Kuala Lumpur. He says he developed the idea from his earlier work in Mali in West Africa. During the Nineteen-Eighties, Mister Accascina and other aid workers drove a vehicle with a television and video recorder to local villages. They used the technology to teach people about nutrition, water and health issues. Mister Accascina said he developed Malaysia’s traveling bus with just seventy-five-thousand dollars from the United Nations. Two Malaysian companies also support the project. They are the Automotive Corporation Malaysia and Mimos Berhad, a local information technology company. Malaysia says its traveling bus could easily be copied in other developing countries where it is difficult to train people to use computers and the Internet. Experts say programs similar to the Mobile Internet Unit could prevent developing countries from falling farther behind industrial countries in information technology. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 22, 2001: Economic Effects of Terrorist  Attacks
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The economic effects of the terrorist attacks in the United States last week are spreading across the country and the world. The attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. have hurt many businesses, especially the airline industry and financial markets. Many companies have been forced to dismiss thousands of workers. Many individual states are concerned about their economic future. Monday was the first day of trading on the American stock market since the attacks September Eleventh. The stock market suffered major losses. The Dow Jones industrial average lost seven percent of its value. The other major measures of the value of American stocks fell to their lowest levels in three years. Some economic experts say the drop in the value of stocks could directly affect long-term spending. They say it may cause people to lose trust in the economy and spend less money. Businesses across the country already have reported decreases in sales. Experts note that the American economy was close to a recession even before the attacks. The airline industry was probably hardest hit by the attacks. The nation’s skies were temporarily closed to all air travel. Travelers remain frightened and are avoiding flying. High fuel and labor costs are making the situation worse. The airlines are losing hundreds of millions of dollars each day. Major airlines in the United States have announced plans to dismiss almost eighty-thousand workers. A major builder of airplanes, Boeing, says it will dismiss as many as thirty-thousand workers. Airlines in many other countries are cutting flights and jobs. Many other businesses dependent on the airline industry also have been harmed. The American airline industry has asked the federal government for help. Airline officials are hopeful after Congressional leaders and administration officials agreed Friday to a fifteen-thousand-million dollar financial aid plan for the industry. There are also concerns about the economic effects of any military action. This could raise the price of oil. Production could be reduced if a large number of part time troops are called to active duty. Trade could be restricted. On Monday, the United States Federal Reserve lowered interest rates. The action was designed to support the economy by making it easier for people and businesses to borrow money. The European Central Bank took similar action. The Bush administration and Congress are considering several tax and spending proposals. President Bush has already signed into law a forty-thousand-million dollar emergency spending plan. Economic experts say they will know more in the next few weeks about what direction the economy is going. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - September 25, 2001: Sharks
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about sharks, the large fish with sharp teeth that live in the oceans of the world. ((THEME )) VOICE ONE: Scientists say sharks have lived in the world’s oceans for millions of years. Today, sharks live the same way they did more than two-hundred-million years ago, before dinosaurs existed on the Earth. Scientists say there are more than three-hundred-fifty different kinds of sharks. For example, the dogfish shark is less than twenty centimeters in length. The huge whale shark more than fifteen meters long. Most sharks are about two meters long. Sharks do not have bones. The skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage. Human noses and ears are made of cartilage. VOICE TWO: A shark has an extremely good sense of smell. It can find small amounts of substances in the water, such as blood, body liquids and chemicals produced by animals. Sharks also sense electrical and magnetic power linked to nerves and muscles of living animals. These powerful senses help them find their food. Sharks eat fish, other sharks, and plants that live in the ocean. Some sharks will eat just about anything. Many unusual things have been found in the stomachs of some tiger sharks. They include shoes, dogs, a cow’s foot and metal protective clothing. VOICE ONE: Sharks grow slowly. Many kinds of sharks are not able to reproduce until they are twenty-five years old. Some reproduce only every two years. And they give birth to fewer than ten young sharks. About forty percent of the different kinds of sharks lay eggs. The others give birth to live young. Some sharks carry their young inside their bodies, with a cord connecting the fetus to the mother, like humans do. Scientists are beginning to understand the importance of sharks to humans. Medical researchers want to learn more about the shark’s body defense system against disease. They know that sharks recover quickly from injuries. Sharks appear never to suffer infections, cancer or heart diseases. Many people believe that shark cartilage can help prevent cancer. Scientists have questioned this idea. Yet they still study the shark in hopes of finding a way to fight human disease. VOICE TWO: Most sharks live in warm waters, but some can be found in very cold areas. Most sharks live in the oceans. However, the bull shark leaves ocean waters to enter freshwater rivers and lakes. They have been found in the Zambezi River in Africa, the Mississippi River in the United States and Lake Nicaragua in southwestern Nicaragua. Sharks are important for the health of the world’s oceans. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting activities means that the numbers of other fish in the ocean do not become too great. This protects the plants and other forms of life that exist in the oceans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: People have long feared sharks because of their sharp teeth, aggressive actions and fame as fierce hunters. “Jaws” was the name of a popular book and movie a number of years ago. They told about people of an eastern American coastal town who sought protection from a great white shark that killed swimmers in the ocean. Experts say not all sharks are like the one described in “Jaws.” Still, fifty-two people have been attacked by sharks around the world so far this year. Forty-one of those attacks took place in the United States. Twenty-nine were in waters near the southern state of Florida. About eighty people were attacked by sharks around the world last year. Experts say that in the Nineteen-Nineties the average number of shark attacks worldwide each year was fifty-four. They say about fifty to seventy-five shark attacks take place around the world each year, resulting in five to ten deaths. Shark experts say bees, snakes and elephants kill more people each year than sharks do. They say there is no great need to protect people from sharks. VOICE TWO: Many people disagree with that idea, especially this year in the United States. That is because of the increased media reports about shark attacks and resulting deaths. In July, a shark attacked an eight-year-old boy in waters near Saint Petersburg, Florida. The shark bit off his arm. Doctors re-attached it and saved his life. But he lost almost all his blood and is still in poor condition. Earlier this month, sharks killed two people along the east coast of the United States. A ten-year-old boy died after being bitten by a shark in waters off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Just a few days later, a shark killed a man and seriously injured his girlfriend. They were swimming off the coast of North Carolina, south of Virginia Beach. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Shark experts are trying to discover why so many shark attacks have taken place within the same general area this year. They say the warm weather conditions may have influenced both fish and shark activity. The warmer waters moving closer to the shore carried many fish to that area. They say sharks may have followed the fish into the same area where many people were swimming. The experts believe that bull sharks were responsible for all these attacks. Bull sharks are also suspected of killing a man last year in waters near Saint Petersburg, Florida. Experts say bull sharks are especially dangerous because they will target people as food. They can live in both clean and dirty water. They will swim into rivers and other areas that put them closer to people. VOICE TWO: Experts say most sharks bite people by mistake. For unknown reasons, they think that a person is a large sea animal, like a seal or sea lion. That is why people should not go swimming in the ocean at the times of the day when the sun goes down or comes up. Those are the times when sharks are looking for food. Experts also say that people should not wear bright colors or shiny metal jewelry. These may cause sharks to attack. The experts say shark attacks only seem to be increasing because more people are swimming in the oceans than ever before. They say the number of sharks in the world has decreased in recent years. Scientists say people are killing sharks faster than the sharks can reproduce. VOICE ONE: People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and their skin. Experts say the international market for some kinds of sharks has increased greatly because many parts of a shark are valuable. For example, shark meat is good to eat. In Asia, people enjoy a special kind of soup made from shark fins. Experts say shark fins can earn a fisherman about fifty dollars a kilogram. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jaws of a shark. Shark liver oil is a popular supplier of Vitamin A. Some people believe that shark cartilage and shark liver can improve people’s health. The skin of a shark can be used like leather. People also kill sharks because of fear. Many sharks are killed by mistake. Each year, thousands die in traps set out to catch other kinds of fish. VOICE TWO: If too many sharks in one area are killed, that group of sharks may never return to normal population levels. Such hunting activities also have made some kinds of sharks in danger of disappearing from the Earth. For example, the number of dusky sharks and sandbar sharks off the eastern United States decreased by more than eighty percent. This happened between Nineteen-Eighty-Five and Nineteen-Ninety-Five. The sand tiger shark and the great white shark are threatened around the world. The United States government restricts the number of sharks that can legally be killed near its coasts. The government also requires that fishermen take the whole shark body instead of just the fins. This stops fishermen from cutting off the fins and throwing the rest of the fish back into the water. Many countries also have approved laws protecting the endangered great white shark. These nations include South Africa, Australia and the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about sharks, the large fish with sharp teeth that live in the oceans of the world. ((THEME )) VOICE ONE: Scientists say sharks have lived in the world’s oceans for millions of years. Today, sharks live the same way they did more than two-hundred-million years ago, before dinosaurs existed on the Earth. Scientists say there are more than three-hundred-fifty different kinds of sharks. For example, the dogfish shark is less than twenty centimeters in length. The huge whale shark more than fifteen meters long. Most sharks are about two meters long. Sharks do not have bones. The skeleton of a shark is made of cartilage. Human noses and ears are made of cartilage. VOICE TWO: A shark has an extremely good sense of smell. It can find small amounts of substances in the water, such as blood, body liquids and chemicals produced by animals. Sharks also sense electrical and magnetic power linked to nerves and muscles of living animals. These powerful senses help them find their food. Sharks eat fish, other sharks, and plants that live in the ocean. Some sharks will eat just about anything. Many unusual things have been found in the stomachs of some tiger sharks. They include shoes, dogs, a cow’s foot and metal protective clothing. VOICE ONE: Sharks grow slowly. Many kinds of sharks are not able to reproduce until they are twenty-five years old. Some reproduce only every two years. And they give birth to fewer than ten young sharks. About forty percent of the different kinds of sharks lay eggs. The others give birth to live young. Some sharks carry their young inside their bodies, with a cord connecting the fetus to the mother, like humans do. Scientists are beginning to understand the importance of sharks to humans. Medical researchers want to learn more about the shark’s body defense system against disease. They know that sharks recover quickly from injuries. Sharks appear never to suffer infections, cancer or heart diseases. Many people believe that shark cartilage can help prevent cancer. Scientists have questioned this idea. Yet they still study the shark in hopes of finding a way to fight human disease. VOICE TWO: Most sharks live in warm waters, but some can be found in very cold areas. Most sharks live in the oceans. However, the bull shark leaves ocean waters to enter freshwater rivers and lakes. They have been found in the Zambezi River in Africa, the Mississippi River in the United States and Lake Nicaragua in southwestern Nicaragua. Sharks are important for the health of the world’s oceans. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting activities means that the numbers of other fish in the ocean do not become too great. This protects the plants and other forms of life that exist in the oceans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: People have long feared sharks because of their sharp teeth, aggressive actions and fame as fierce hunters. “Jaws” was the name of a popular book and movie a number of years ago. They told about people of an eastern American coastal town who sought protection from a great white shark that killed swimmers in the ocean. Experts say not all sharks are like the one described in “Jaws.” Still, fifty-two people have been attacked by sharks around the world so far this year. Forty-one of those attacks took place in the United States. Twenty-nine were in waters near the southern state of Florida. About eighty people were attacked by sharks around the world last year. Experts say that in the Nineteen-Nineties the average number of shark attacks worldwide each year was fifty-four. They say about fifty to seventy-five shark attacks take place around the world each year, resulting in five to ten deaths. Shark experts say bees, snakes and elephants kill more people each year than sharks do. They say there is no great need to protect people from sharks. VOICE TWO: Many people disagree with that idea, especially this year in the United States. That is because of the increased media reports about shark attacks and resulting deaths. In July, a shark attacked an eight-year-old boy in waters near Saint Petersburg, Florida. The shark bit off his arm. Doctors re-attached it and saved his life. But he lost almost all his blood and is still in poor condition. Earlier this month, sharks killed two people along the east coast of the United States. A ten-year-old boy died after being bitten by a shark in waters off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Just a few days later, a shark killed a man and seriously injured his girlfriend. They were swimming off the coast of North Carolina, south of Virginia Beach. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Shark experts are trying to discover why so many shark attacks have taken place within the same general area this year. They say the warm weather conditions may have influenced both fish and shark activity. The warmer waters moving closer to the shore carried many fish to that area. They say sharks may have followed the fish into the same area where many people were swimming. The experts believe that bull sharks were responsible for all these attacks. Bull sharks are also suspected of killing a man last year in waters near Saint Petersburg, Florida. Experts say bull sharks are especially dangerous because they will target people as food. They can live in both clean and dirty water. They will swim into rivers and other areas that put them closer to people. VOICE TWO: Experts say most sharks bite people by mistake. For unknown reasons, they think that a person is a large sea animal, like a seal or sea lion. That is why people should not go swimming in the ocean at the times of the day when the sun goes down or comes up. Those are the times when sharks are looking for food. Experts also say that people should not wear bright colors or shiny metal jewelry. These may cause sharks to attack. The experts say shark attacks only seem to be increasing because more people are swimming in the oceans than ever before. They say the number of sharks in the world has decreased in recent years. Scientists say people are killing sharks faster than the sharks can reproduce. VOICE ONE: People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and their skin. Experts say the international market for some kinds of sharks has increased greatly because many parts of a shark are valuable. For example, shark meat is good to eat. In Asia, people enjoy a special kind of soup made from shark fins. Experts say shark fins can earn a fisherman about fifty dollars a kilogram. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jaws of a shark. Shark liver oil is a popular supplier of Vitamin A. Some people believe that shark cartilage and shark liver can improve people’s health. The skin of a shark can be used like leather. People also kill sharks because of fear. Many sharks are killed by mistake. Each year, thousands die in traps set out to catch other kinds of fish. VOICE TWO: If too many sharks in one area are killed, that group of sharks may never return to normal population levels. Such hunting activities also have made some kinds of sharks in danger of disappearing from the Earth. For example, the number of dusky sharks and sandbar sharks off the eastern United States decreased by more than eighty percent. This happened between Nineteen-Eighty-Five and Nineteen-Ninety-Five. The sand tiger shark and the great white shark are threatened around the world. The United States government restricts the number of sharks that can legally be killed near its coasts. The government also requires that fishermen take the whole shark body instead of just the fins. This stops fishermen from cutting off the fins and throwing the rest of the fish back into the water. Many countries also have approved laws protecting the endangered great white shark. These nations include South Africa, Australia and the United States. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – September 25, 2001: Plants that Absorb Metals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Too much metal in the soil is considered pollution. Yet too little metal in a person’s diet can cause health problems. An American scientist says the answer to both problems may be plants that take up large amounts of metal in their tissues. David Salt is an expert on plants at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is working with plants that store large amounts of metals. In recent years, scientists have shown interest in using such plants to clean up harmful waste materials. Professor Salt says such plants also could be used to improve people’s diets or even to create foods that fight cancer. Humans need a number of metals in their diets, including iron and zinc. These metals are needed in very small amounts, however. That is why they are called micronutrients. The lack of micronutrients is blamed for health problems in many developing countries. Children and pregnant women are mostly affected. Recently, Mister Salt announced that he has identified and copied the genes from a kind of plant that stores metals in its tissues. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published his findings. Mister Salt says his study suggests it may be possible to develop plants that contain minerals needed for good health. For example, the metal selenium is a strong anti-cancer agent. Some wild plants store selenium naturally. Mister Salt says foods to fight cancer might be created if genes from these plants could be moved into crop plants. A plant called locoweed stores selenium. Locoweed is common in the western United States. Mister Salt says it may be possible to create cancer-fighting foods from locoweed. He and scientists from a company called NuCycle Therapies have copied the gene that causes locoweed to take up selenium from the soil. Many people take pills to add important minerals or vitamins to their diet. However, Mister Salt notes that most selenium products sold in health food stores are of little use. That is because the human body can only take in and use selenium if it is in the right chemical form. The scientist says his team would like to develop a vegetable crop high in selenium. He wants to create an anti-cancer product in the foods we already eat. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - September 26, 2001: Grand Canyon
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a famous natural place, the Grand Canyon. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In late September, Fifteen-Forty, a group of Spanish explorers led by Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas came to a stop. For weeks they had walked north across the great southwestern American desert. The land was dry. The sun was hot. They were searching for seven golden cities they had been told about. There was not much to see on this land, just the far-away line where the sky meets the ground. Suddenly, they came to the edge of what seemed to be a huge cut in the Earth. There seemed to be no way to walk around this deep canyon. It stretched below them into the distance, to their left and right, as far as they could see. Below them and across from where they stood were strange shapes of yellow, red, brown and black rocks and stone. VOICE TWO: A small, muddy river appeared to be flowing at the bottom. Captain Cardenas ordered three of his soldiers to climb down the side of the canyon to see if they could find a way to cross to the other side. The three climbed about one-third of the way down. They found that the canyon was much deeper than they thought, so they climbed back up. Captain Cardenas and his group turned back to the south. Today, history recognizes them as the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon, formed by the Colorado River. They had reached a place that today is considered one of the most beautiful, strange, and interesting places in the world. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: European explorers did not return to the Grand Canyon for more than two centuries. Instead, native peoples continued to live there, as they had for hundreds, some of them for thousands of years. In Seventeen-Seventy-Six, two Spanish clergymen were seeking a way to travel from Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, to Monterey, California on the west coast of North America. Father Francisco Escalante and Father Francisco Garces were unsuccessful in their search. However, they re-discovered the Grand Canyon. VOICE TWO: During the Nineteenth Century, the population of the United States was expanding rapidly to the west. The Grand Canyon was considered a barrier to travelers. Only two places had been found where the river is low enough to cross. As settlers moved west, the United States government wanted more information about western territories. Much of the Grand Canyon was unknown. The words "Unknown Territory" were written on maps that showed the area. VOICE ONE: In May, Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, Major John Wesley Powell and nine others began the first full exploration of the Colorado River. They put four wooden boats into the water at Green River Station in Wyoming. They began their trip to where the Green River joined the Colorado River. Major Powell wrote in his book that they were beginning "the trip down the Great Unknown". Major Powell had served in the Union army during the American Civil War. He lost his right arm in a battle during the war. After the war he became a professor of geology at Illinois Wesleyan University. He also studied paleontology, the science of life existing in different periods of Earth's history. And he became expert in ethnology, the study of different cultures. He was the right person to explore the Grand Canyon. He was someone who could describe the geology of the area, as well as learn about the American Indians who had begun living in the canyon as many as nine- thousand years ago. Several of those tribes still consider the Grand Canyon their home. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The geology of the Grand Canyon is like a history of the formation of the Earth. During millions of years, water, ice, and wind formed the canyon. Although the Grand Canyon is in the middle of a desert, water plays an important part in the way the land looks. The sun shines bright and hot almost every day. It makes the soil hard. When rain does come, it cannot sink into the soil. Instead it flows to the Colorado River. Often, heavy rains cause violent floods along small rivers and streams that flow into the Colorado. These floods move huge amounts of soil and sometimes stones as big as houses. All of this material falls into the river and then is pushed along by the rapidly flowing river. This way the river slowly digs itself deeper into the rock surface of the Earth. The Colorado has been doing this for millions of years. You can see in the sides of the Grand Canyon different kinds of rock at different levels. Each of the eighteen levels was formed during a different period of Earth's history. VOICE ONE: The ancestor of the Colorado River began flowing about seventy-million years ago. After it began flowing, volcano explosions and other natural events changed the river's path many times. About seventeen-million years ago, pressures deep in the Earth pushed up the land through which the river flowed. The river continued to flow through the area, cutting deeper into the rock. The Grand Canyon is twenty-nine kilometers across at the widest place, and more than one and one-half kilometers deep. At the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where the river flows today, the rock is almost two- thousand-million years old. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Sixty-Nine, not many people expected John Wesley Powell and his team of explorers to survive the trip through the Grand Canyon. No one had ever done it before. There are many dangers on the fast-moving river. Rocks hidden under the water can smash small boats. In places where the river is narrow, the water becomes violent as it rushes between high rock walls. Also, there are rapids of fast moving water in places where the river drops to a lower level. In some places, strong currents can push a boat into rocks in the water, or against the walls of the canyon. Major Powell knew the trip would be dangerous. When the boats came near a rapid, he and his crew would stop. Sometimes they decided to go through by rowing the boats with their oars, as they did in calm water. At other times they carried the boats and all their equipment around dangerous rapids. Major Powell wrote every day in a book about what they did and saw. This is how he described the difficulties of one day: VOICE THREE: "We carried the boats around rapids two times this morning... During the afternoon we ran a narrow part of the river, more than half a mile in length, narrow and rapid. We float on water that is flowing down a gliding plane. At the bottom of the narrow part of the river, the river turns sharply to the right, and the water rolls up against a rock that seems to be in the middle of the stream. We pull with all our power to the right, but it seems impossible to avoid being carried against the cliff, and we are carried up high on the waves - not against the rocks, for the water strikes us and we are pushed back and pass on with safety..." VOICE ONE: More than three months after starting, Major Powell and his group reached the end of the Grand Canyon. Three men had left the group earlier and were never seen again. Two of the men in the group continued down the river to the sea, becoming the first people known to have traveled the entire length of the Colorado River. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Today, the Grand Canyon is in a national park. About five-million people visit it each year. They stop at its edge and look in wonder at a place that can create great emotions in those seeing it. Others walk down the many paths into the canyon. Some ride rubber boats down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. River guides are experts at taking the boats through the most violent rapids. This activity, called white-water rafting, is very popular. VOICE ONE: Generally, the trip takes about two weeks in boats that carry three or four people. Bigger boats with motors that carry about twenty people can make the trip in several days. As people float down the river, they see the many wonderful and strange shapes created by the forces of nature. They may see animals, such as bighorn sheep, and coyotes. They experience the excitement of traveling through white water rapids, and sleeping under the stars. The sound of the river is always present, sometimes loud, sometimes soft. After several days traveling on and sleeping near the river as it flows through the Grand Canyon, many visitors say they feel their cares and worries leave them. Their concerns are replaced by a feeling of wonder about the canyon and the powers of nature. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – September 26, 2001: Sports Drugs
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A new study says many young people in the United States take substances that claim to make people perform sports better. The study says that about one-million Americans between the ages of twelve and seventeen years old have used these sports supplements. One in five young people questioned said they know someone who uses the sports supplements. People can buy them at stores that sell vitamins. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association carried out the study. Researchers questioned almost one-thousand-eight-hundred Americans by telephone. Seven-hundred-eighty-five of them were young people between the ages of ten and seventeen. Blue Cross researchers used the findings to estimate national use of the sports supplements. The study found that children as young as ten years old use sports supplements. The researchers estimate that three-hundred-ninety-thousand children between the ages of ten and fourteen have used the products. Those questioned identified creatine as the most common supplement. The body produces creatine naturally. Some famous American athletes use products with creatine to increase the strength of their muscles. In the United States, the substance is sold legally in candy and other foods. However, creatine also has been linked to health problems. One doctor noted that the substance causes stomach pain and diarrhea. He said it also has been linked to muscle injury and kidney problems. A trade group for supplement makers said it believes that creatine is safe, when taken by someone responsible. The trade group says there is a large amount of evidence that shows creatine is helpful for healthy people. Seventy percent of the young people questioned in the study could not identify any harmful effects that might result from using sports supplements. Yet ninety-six percent of them believed that people who use the supplements face the possibility of some health damage. Blue Cross officials urged American parents and teachers to educate children about the issue. They also urged the government to take action to limit marketing and sales of supplements to young people. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - September 27, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 6
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) I'M MAURICE JOYCE. TODAY, LARRY WEST AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN WORLD WAR ONE. THE NATION'S PRESIDENT AT THAT TIME WAS WOODROW WILSON. VOICE TWO: NINETEEN-EIGHTEEN WAS THE FINAL YEAR OF THE MOST TERRIBLE WAR THE WORLD HAD EVER KNOWN. BUT WORLD WAR ONE DID NOT END QUICKLY OR EASILY. THE GERMAN ARMY MADE A FINAL EFFORT TO DEFEAT THE ALLIES. THE UNITED STATES HAD ENTERED THE CONFLICT. AND GERMANY WANTED A VICTORY BEFORE LARGE NUMBERS OF AMERICAN TROOPS COULD GET TO EUROPE. GERMANY'S EFFORT BECAME EASIER AFTER IT SIGNED A PEACE TREATY WITH THE NEW BOLSHEVIK GOVERNMENT IN RUSSIA. THE TREATY MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR GERMANY TO USE ALL ITS FORCES AGAINST THE ALLIES ON ITS WESTERN BORDER. IN THE END, HOWEVER, GERMANY'S PLAN FAILED. ALLIED TROOPS PUSHED BACK THE GERMAN ATTACK IN A SERIES OF BLOODY BATTLES. THE ADDITION OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS GREATLY INCREASED ALLIED STRENGTH. VOICE ONE: THE LEADER OF AMERICAN FORCES IN EUROPE WAS GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING. GENERAL PERSHING USED A WEAPON NEW TO THE WORLD OF WAR: AIR POWER. AIRPLANES WERE USED FIRST SIMPLY AS 'EYES IN THE SKY'. THEY DISCOVERED ENEMY POSITIONS SO GROUND ARTILLERY COULD FIRE AT THEM. THEN THEY WERE USED AS FIGHTER PLANES. THEY CARRIED GUNS TO SHOOT DOWN OTHER PLANES. FINALLY, PLANES WERE BUILT BIG ENOUGH TO CARRY BOMBS. GENERAL PERSHING ALSO USED ANOTHER NEW WEAPON OF WAR: TANKS. HE PUT THESE INVENTIONS TOGETHER FOR HIS BATTLE PLAN AGAINST GERMANY. VOICE TWO: PERSHING'S TARGET WAS THE ARGONNE FOREST. IT WAS A TREE-COVERED AREA GERMANY HAD HELD SINCE NINETEEN-FOURTEEN. THE FOREST WAS PROTECTED BY BARBED WIRE AND BY DEFENSIVE POSITIONS BUILT OF STEEL AND CONCRETE. IT WAS THE STRONGEST PART OF THE GERMAN LINE. IT ALSO WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. IF ARGONNE FELL, GERMANY'S FINAL LINES OF DEFENSE WOULD FALL. THE FIGHTING IN THE ARGONNE FOREST WAS FIERCE. THOUSANDS OF MEN DIED. SOMETIMES, TROOPS GOT LOST BECAUSE THE FOREST WAS SO THICK WITH TREES. BUT DAY BY DAY, THE ALLIES PUSHED THE GERMANS BACK. VOICE ONE: GERMANY'S LEADERS WERE LOSING HOPE. IN SEPTEMBER, NINETEEN-EIGHTEEN, THEY MET WITH GERMAN RULER KAISER WILHELM. THE ARMY CHIEF REPORTED THAT THE WAR WAS LOST. GERMANY HAD NO CHOICE, HE SAID. IT MUST GIVE BACK ALL THE TERRITORY IT HAD SEIZED AND TRY TO NEGOTIATE A PEACE AGREEMENT. OTHER OFFICIALS TOLD THE KAISER THAT THE SITUATION AT HOME WAS BAD, TOO. PEOPLE WERE STARVING. REVOLUTIONARIES WERE PLOTTING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT. KAISER WILHELM AGREED IT MIGHT BE BEST TO SEEK PEACE NOW...BEFORE GERMANY WAS DESTROYED COMPLETELY. HE ASKED HIS FOREIGN SECRETARY TO SEND A SECRET MESSAGE TO AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. THE MESSAGE WOULD PROPOSE IMMEDIATE NEGOTIATIONS TO END THE WAR. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT WILSON RECEIVED IT. HE DID NOT TELL THE OTHER ALLIED LEADERS. INSTEAD, HE RETURNED A MESSAGE TO GERMANY. WILSON ASKED IF GERMANY WAS WILLING TO ACCEPT THE PEACE PROPOSALS HE HAD OFFERED MANY MONTHS EARLIER. GERMANY'S CHANCELLOR ANSWERED THAT HIS GOVERNMENT DID ACCEPT THE PROPOSALS. HOWEVER, THE EVENTS OF WAR ENDED THE SECRET EXCHANGE OF MESSAGES BETWEEN GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES. GERMAN SUBMARINES HAD INCREASED ATTACKS ON ALLIED SHIPPING. TWO PASSENGER SHIPS WERE SUNK. EIGHT-HUNDRED-TWENTY PERSONS WERE KILLED. MANY WERE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. PRESIDENT WILSON WAS SHOCKED. HE TOLD GERMANY THERE COULD BE NO PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SUCH AN INHUMAN ENEMY. VOICE ONE: IN LATE OCTOBER, NINETEEN-EIGHTEEN, WILSON SENT A FINAL MESSAGE TO GERMANY. HE WANTED A SETTLEMENT THAT WOULD MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR GERMANY TO FIGHT AGAIN. GERMANY, WILSON SAID, MUST PROMISE TO WITHDRAW ITS FORCES FROM ALL ALLIED TERRITORY. IT ALSO MUST CLOSE ITS WEAPONS FACTORIES. WILSON ADDED THAT THE ALLIES WOULD NEGOTIATE ONLY WITH A GOVERNMENT THAT TRULY REPRESENTED THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY...NOT WITH MILITARY RULERS. THE NEW GERMAN CHANCELLOR WAS MAXIMILIAN, PRINCE OF BADEN. PRINCE MAX RECEIVED PRESIDENT WILSON'S MESSAGE. HE SUCCEEDED IN GETTING KAISER WILHELM TO DISMISS THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR GERMAN MILITARY POLICY. BUT HE FAILED TO GET THE KAISER HIMSELF TO GIVE UP POWER. VOICE TWO: NOT ALL ALLIED LEADERS SUPPORTED PRESIDENT WILSON'S PLAN TO END WORLD WAR ONE. THEY COULD NOT AGREE ON SOME PARTS OF IT. BRITAIN, FOR EXAMPLE, OPPOSED THE PART ABOUT FREEDOM OF THE SEAS. BRITAIN SAID IT WOULD PREVENT THE KIND OF NAVAL BLOCKADE WHICH HAD BEEN SO EFFECTIVE AGAINST GERMANY. FRANCE AND ITALY OPPOSED THE PART ABOUT CREATING A NEW INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION. WILSON HAD CALLED IT A LEAGUE OF NATIONS. TO SOLVE THESE DIFFERENCES, WILSON SENT HIS CLOSEST ADVISER TO EUROPE TO MEET WITH ALLIED LEADERS. THE DISCUSSIONS WERE LONG AND SOMETIMES BITTER. MANY OF THE ALLIES THOUGHT WILSON WAS BEING TOO KIND TO THE DEFEATED ENEMY. BUT IN THE END, THEY ALL AGREED TO ACCEPT THE PLAN AS A STARTING POINT FOR PEACE TALKS. VOICE ONE: BY THIS TIME, IN EARLY NOVEMBER, THE SITUATION IN GERMANY WAS GROWING WORSE. COMMUNISTS AND SOCIALISTS WERE CALLING FOR A REBELLION. THE NAVY WAS ORDERED TO GO TO SEA. SAILORS REFUSED, AND KILLED SOME OFFICERS. REPORTS TOLD OF REBELLION IN PARTS OF THE GERMAN ARMY, TOO. THE NATION'S LEADERS HAD NO CHOICE. THEY WOULD NEGOTIATE A PEACE TREATY. ON THE MORNING OF NOVEMBER EIGHTH, A GERMAN DELEGATION WENT TO ALLIED MILITARY HEADQUARTERS TO DISCUSS TERMS. VOICE TWO: THE GERMANS WERE MET BY THE SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH OF FRANCE. FOCH GREETED THEM COLDLY. AND HE DID NOT OFFER PEACE TERMS UNTIL THEY OFFICIALLY ASKED FOR A CEASEFIRE. GERMANY -- NOT THE ALLIES -- HAD TO PUT DOWN ITS WEAPONS FIRST. THE GERMANS WERE SHOCKED WHEN THEY HEARD THE TERMS. THE LIST WAS SEVERE. AMONG OTHER THINGS, GERMANY MUST WITHDRAW ITS FORCES FROM ALL OCCUPIED TERRITORIES. IT MUST GIVE UP ALSACE-LORRAINE, A PART OF FRANCE IT HAD HELD FOR ALMOST FIFTY YEARS. IT MUST GIVE UP MOST OF ITS WEAPONS INCLUDING AIRPLANES, SUBMARINES, AND BATTLESHIPS. AND IT MUST TURN OVER LARGE NUMBERS OF TRUCKS, RAILROAD ENGINES, AND OTHER SUPPLIES. VOICE ONE: THE GERMAN DELEGATION SAID IT COULD NOT SIGN SUCH AN AGREEMENT. GERMANY, IT SAID, WAS NOT SURRENDERING. IT WAS ONLY ASKING FOR A CEASEFIRE. THE DELEGATION SAID IT COULD NOT ACCEPT THE PEACE TERMS WITHOUT COMMUNICATING WITH THE GOVERNMENT IN BERLIN. BUT THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT WAS FALLING APART. KAISER WILHELM HAD FINALLY RESIGNED AND LEFT THE COUNTRY. A NEW CABINET HAD BEEN FORMED. AND A NEW PRIME MINISTER HAD DECLARED A GERMAN REPUBLIC. YET THE SITUATION REMAINED UNSETTLED. BECAUSE OF THIS, THE GERMAN DELEGATION NEGOTIATING WITH THE ALLIES HAD TO DECIDE FOR ITSELF. AFTER MUCH ARGUMENT, THE MEN AGREED TO THE ALLIED TERMS. THEY SIGNED THE PEACE TREATY. A CEASEFIRE BEGAN A FEW HOURS LATER. VOICE TWO: NEWS THAT THE SHOOTING HAD STOPPED SET OFF WILD CELEBRATIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. PEOPLE DANCED IN THE STREETS. THEY CHEERED THE END OF THE WORST WAR IN HISTORY. THERE WERE CELEBRATIONS ALONG THE BATTLE LINES, TOO. BUT THESE WERE QUIET. SOLDIERS FROM BOTH SIDES CLIMBED OUT OF LONG TRENCHES DUG IN THE GROUND. THEY MET THE MEN WHO, A SHORT WHILE EARLIER, HAD BEEN THEIR DEADLY ENEMY. THE BLOODY EUROPEAN CONFLICT WAS OVER. THE DISPUTE, HOWEVER, WAS NOT. ANOTHER FIERCE BATTLE WAS READY TO BEGIN. THIS TIME, THE BATTLE WOULD BE AMONG DIPLOMATS. THE FIGHT OVER THE PEACE TREATY OFFICIALLY ENDING WORLD WAR ONE WAS ABOUT TO BEGIN. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE MAURICE JOYCE AND LARRY WEST. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. THE VOICE OF AMERICA INVITES YOU TO LISTEN AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME TIME, WHEN WE WILL CONTINUE THE STORY OF AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT- September 27, 2001: Planning for Safer Buildings
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Experts are beginning to study ways to secure large buildings against terrorist attacks. They are reacting to the attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center buildings in New York September eleventh. The American Institute of Steel Construction has created a working group of experts to investigate the reasons the buildings fell. The A-I-S-C is the organization responsible for developing the rules for the design of steel buildings in the United States. Information developed by the working group will help A-I-S-C decide if the design rules should be changed. The south World Trade Center building fell fifty-six minutes after a passenger plane crashed into it. The north building fell about one-hundred minutes after a similar crash. Each building was four-hundred-ten meters tall. Experts say the buildings could not survive the extremely hot fires caused by the airplane fuel. Engineers think the airplane crashes destroyed part of the structure of the buildings that kept them standing. The resulting fire weakened the remaining structure. The buildings fell because the weight above the area where the planes hit was greater than the remaining structure could hold. Building experts say it is possible to build a skyscraper that would survive such an attack. But they say the cost would be so huge that no one could pay for it. They also say that materials developed since the World Trade Center was built may give people more time to escape such a situation. The building experts say the most important consideration is to slow the destruction caused by the fires. The World Trade Center’s support structures were made of a strong metal, steel. The heat of the fires caused the steel to expand, weaken, and fail. Today, builders can use concrete that has steel bars inside. Concrete is a mix of cement, sand and small stones. Experts say it can survive better than steel alone can. The two tallest buildings in the world are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. Each is four-hundred-fifty-two meters tall. They were built of concrete and steel. Experts say their structures could provide a better chance of surviving than did the World Trade Center buildings. They also say the escape areas of the Petronas Towers are treated to keep out smoke and fire. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT- September 28, 2001: Virus Killing Salmon
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A virus that kills Atlantic salmon is spreading to fish farms in the northeastern state of Maine. The virus does not harm people. However, it is forcing the destruction of hundreds of thousands of valuable fish. It is also threatening endangered wild salmon. The virus is called infectious salmon anemia. It spreads quickly in fish and can not be cured. It causes bleeding and usually death. It is known to spread to other fish in crowded cages in fish farms. The disease was first discovered in the Nineteen-Eighties in fish farms in Norway and Scotland. It appeared in Canada in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. It was first discovered in the United States in March. Infected fish were found on fish farms in Cobscook Bay in Maine, near the border with Canada. The bay has one of the largest fish farms in the United States. State officials in Maine have ordered emergency rules in Cobscook Bay to keep the disease from spreading. Boats are not permitted to enter or leave infected areas. Also, fish farmers are required to report when infected fish are found. Infected fish and fish exposed to them must be removed and killed. State officials say fish farmers in Maine have killed at least one-million fish since March. The infectious salmon anemia has forced the destruction of millions of fish in Europe and Canada in recent years. Fish farmers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have tried to keep it from spreading. State and industry officials in Maine say they have not been able to estimate the economic cost of fighting the virus. The industry is expected to lose millions of dollars. Officials in Maine now are concerned that the disease may spread from the fish farms to wild Atlantic salmon populations. Wild salmon are already endangered in eight rivers in Maine. Some scientists say the large populations of fish farms could serve as breeding areas for the virus. They say some fish that escape the cages could mate with wild salmon and spread the virus. The state’s fish farmers want aid from the United States Department of Agriculture. They want to be paid if they have to kill salmon to stop the disease from spreading. Many environmental groups say fish farmers should not be paid. They say the crowded fish cages pollute the sea bottom and spread disease. This Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - September 28, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (HEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Shemekia Copeland ... answer a question about lie detectors ... and tell about a book festival held recently in Washington, D.C. National Book Festival HOST: Earlier this month, twenty-five-thousand people gathered in Washington, D-C. to celebrate reading and story-telling. The Library of Congress and President Bush’s wife Laura Bush organized the event. Shep O’Neal tells us more about the first National Book Festival. ANNCR: Missus Bush invited everyone at the National Book Festival to take pleasure in the written word --- and so they did. Many people stood on the steps of the Library of Congress. They filled several rooms in the huge library. Other people stood or sat under tents close to the nearby United States Capitol. The Festival offered something for everyone. People of all ages heard readings and discussions by famous writers, history experts and poets. They listened to musicians from Navajo Indian country and the South Carolina Sea Islands. The Pan Masters Steel Orchestra played the lively rhythms of the Caribbean Islands. National Basketball Association players urged people to read. Storybook characters like Peter Rabbit welcomed children and their families. Visitors to the National Book Festival could hear presentations by almost sixty writers and artists. Many people heard John Hope Franklin. He has written more than twenty books about African American history. Other popular speakers included mystery writers Sue Grafton and Nevada Barr. Mizz Grafton has written sixteen books about a California woman private investigator. Mizz Barr has written nine books about a woman who works in American national parks. People also crowded into a large Library of Congress hall to hear poetry. University of Maryland professor Michael Collier read from his works. Mister Collier is the official poet of the state of Maryland. Several other poets who read their work also had served in that position. They included Lucille Clifton. Some of Mizz Clinton’s best known poems deal with the lives and struggles of African American women. Lie Detectors HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ukraine. Vladimir Marchuk asks about a device called a lie detector. A lie detector is a machine that is designed to show if a person is telling the truth or not. It does this by measuring a person’s bodily reactions while being questioned. It is also known as a polygraph. American medical student John Larson invented the polygraph machine in Nineteen-Twenty-One. “Polygraph” means many writings. The name was chosen because the machine records many body reactions while a person answers questions. The machine is based on the idea that stress produces changes in the body when a person does not tell the truth. Taking a lie detector test involves placing several devices on different areas of a person’s body. Rubber tubes on the chest and stomach record breathing. Two small metal plates attached to the fingers measure sweat gland activity. A device on the arm measures blood pressure. The body’s reactions are recorded by another device. During a lie detector test, an expert first asks a series of questions that show how the person’s body reacts when giving true and false answers. Then the expert asks the important questions. All this takes about two hours. Later, the expert reads the information and decides if the person answered the questions truthfully or not. Lie detectors are used in the United States mostly by law enforcement agencies. Lawyers also sometimes use them. There is much debate about the use of a lie detector. Some people believe it violates a person’s privacy. Many people do not believe it really can tell if a person is lying or not. The American Polygraph Association says a trained expert can tell most times if the person has lied. But even that organization admits that mistakes happen. Polygraph results generally are not considered legal evidence in most United States courts. They are permitted in some courts and in some states. Some areas of the country have banned the use of lie detector tests as evidence. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled about the use of lie detector test results in the American legal system. Shemekia Copeland HOST: In August, Down Beat Magazine asked music critics to choose the best jazz and blues musicians. Almost all agreed that blues singer Shemekia Copeland should receive more recognition. Shirley Griffith tells us about her. ANNCR: Shemekia Copeland did not want to be a singer. Her father was the great blues guitarist, Johnny Clyde Copeland. He recognized his daughter’s ability when she was just a child. In fact, she first performed in public when she was only eight years old at New York City’s famous Cotton Club. When she was fifteen years old, Mizz Copeland says she not only wanted to sing, but she needed to sing. She has now produced two albums of blues music. The most recent is called “Wicked.” Listen to Shemekia Copeland sing “The Fool You’re Looking For.” ((CUT ONE: “THE FOOL YOU’RE LOOKING FOR”)) Shemekia Copeland says no one wants to hear you sing just because you want to sell more records or make more money. She says people will only listen to you if they know you have to sing, that singing is a part of your soul. Shemekia Copeland says she has to sing the blues. She says many young people do not like blues music. However, they love it after they see and hear her sing. We leave you now with another Shemekia Copeland song. This one is called “It’s My Own Tears.” ((CUT TWO: “IT’S MY OWN TEARS)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 1, 2001: Chicago
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Chicago, Illinois, is a major center of business and the arts. Almost three-million people of many races and ethnic groups live in this middle western city. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Today we visit the city with the third largest population in the United States on our VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((INSTEAD OF THEME, “CHICAGO”)) VOICE ONE: Steel factories and tall oil storage containers are part of the Chicago skyline. Hills of iron and limestone lie along many roads, looking like small mountains. Huge containers of grain appear to reach for the clouds. Smoke rises from many factories. Chicago, however, offers much more than heavy industry. It is also a center of music, art, theater and museums. It has hundreds of churches, temples, mosques and other religious centers. The city’s many parks offer rest, games and sports among crowded business and living areas. People of many races and ethnic groups have settled in Chicago. Some people say that more Polish people live in the city than in Warsaw. Germans, Irish, Italians, Ukrainians, Slovaks and Russians live in the city. So do Pakistanis, Indians, Afghanis , Chinese and Koreans. An increasing number of people from Spanish-speaking countries have moved to Chicago in recent years. VOICE TWO: Chicago extends about forty kilometers along the southwest shores of Lake Michigan. The lake is the largest body of fresh water in the United States. Some of the city’s most valuable property lies along the lake. In some areas tall buildings of metal and glass seem to grow along shore. Historians believe American Indians lived around the lake five-thousand years ago. Explorers probably reached the area during the Sixteen-Hundreds. A black trader named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established a trading center along the Chicago River in the late Seventeen-Hundreds. This business became the center of a permanent settlement of the city. By Eighteen-Seventy-One, hundreds of thousands of people had settled in Chicago. VOICE ONE: In October, Eighteen-Seventy-One, the Great Chicago Fire almost completely destroyed the city. The fire spread quickly and burned for twenty-four hours. Thousands of people fled into Lake Michigan. At least three-hundred died. Chicago was left in ashes. The city soon rose from the ashes. Chicago continued to grow. It now covers more than five-hundred-ninety square kilometers of land. ((SFX: BOAT NOISES)) VOICE TWO: Chicago is one of America’s busiest ports. It became a seaport when the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in Nineteen-Fifty-Nine. This seaway links the Great Lakes and the Atlantic waterway. The lake provides millions of dollars worth of trade and business. It also provides fun. People fish, swim, water-ski and sail in Lake Michigan. During the warm seasons the sails of small boats look like tiny clouds against the blue water. The roads along Lake Michigan lead to some of Chicago’s most interesting places and events. Visitors can follow the edge of the lake to visit the city. VOICE ONE: The Museum of Science and Industry seems a good place to start. This huge white building is along the lake in Jackson Park, on the south side of Chicago. Two exhibits in the museum are extremely unusual. One is a coal mine, about one-hundred-eighty meters under the building. It demonstrates the mining process Visitors to the mine learn about mining methods in Nineteen-Thirty-Three and in modern times. A museum official says working conditions have improved. But a trip to the mine makes it clear that the life of a coal miner still is difficult. The elevator that carries people down into the mine looks like an animal cage. Dark spaces cut out of real coal lie at the bottom. A guide demonstrates the machines that cut the coal. She also shows several devices that miners have used over the years to protect against methane gas. This dangerous gas has caused many deadly mine accidents. VOICE TWO: The Museum of Science and Industry also has a German U-boat. This submarine was captured during World War Two. People wait in long lines to walk through the captured submarine, the U-Five-Oh-Five. Sixty German sailors crowded into this extremely hot, noisy undersea boat during World War Two. The fighting ended for the U-Five-Oh-Five crew on a hot afternoon in June, Nineteen-Forty-Four. The boat was near the coast of French West Africa when the United States Navy ship Guadalcanal seized it. The Americans did not know whether the submarine would explode. A young man from the Chicago area was among the first to enter U-Five-Oh-Five. This was the only time since Eighteen-Fifteen that the American Navy has captured an enemy warship at sea. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Further north along the lake is Grant Park. This area has several points of interest. One is the Field Museum of Natural History. It tells about prehistoric people and animals. It shows the most complete set of bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur in the world. Nearby is the John G. Shedd Aquarium. It has more than seven-thousand fish and other water animals. A short distance from the museum and aquarium is the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. Visitors can see the night skies in the planetarium theater. They say “oooh” as the theater darkens and the stars and planets light up above their heads. VOICE TWO: Two lion statues await visitors on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago, also on the lakefront in Grant Park. The lions seem to invite people to see the many permanent collections inside. Art experts especially praise the exhibit of Chinese, Japanese and Korean art. Some of these sculptures and other objects were made thousands of years ago. Officials of the Art Institute of Chicago also plan temporary exhibits. For example, works of Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh are being shown until January. The exhibit examines their private lives as well their art. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE ONE: Thousands of people recently listened to classical music under the stars in Grant Park. People in the Petrillo Band Shell heard music including “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky. Such programs are free. So are Chicago Jazz Festival programs. This world famous concert series takes place each year. Dave Brubeck, the Greg Osby Quartet and the Salty Dogs were among the most recent performers. Hundreds of other festivals are held in Chicago each year. These events take place at all seasons. Some are musical events, like the jazz festival. Others are ethnic or artistic celebrations. VOICE TWO: One of the largest yearly festivals is called “Rock the River.” It takes place in late summer. Most of its events are held on Michigan Avenue, on the Chicago River near the lake. Visitors to the most recent festival heard rock music and watched Irish dancing. They ate Chinese food and watched Chinese boats race on the river. The Chicago River is unusual. It has flowed backwards for more than a century. In Nineteen-Hundred, engineers changed its natural flow. They did this to prevent wastes from getting into Lake Michigan. The lake supplies the city’s water. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: Visitors to Chicago usually enjoy walking down Michigan Avenue. This street has some of the city’s best known stores, hotels and businesses. People also can walk a short distance west from the avenue to see other major sights of the city. The central downtown area of Chicago is called the Loop. The Chicago Transit Authority offers free tours of the Loop on its trains. The name “Loop” comes from the way these trains travel. They operate above the ground in a shape that is partly a circle, or a loop. The trains stop at LaSalle Street, Chicago’s financial center. That area contains the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade and large banks. In the Bank One Plaza, people like to rest beside walls of colorful works by artist Marc Chagall. VOICE TWO: Chicago also has a sculpture by artist Pablo Picasso. The steel structure stands in the government center. The center is called Richard J. Daley Plaza. The name honors the nationally known politician who served as the city’s mayor for more than twenty years. Richard J. Daley died in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. One of Mayor Daley’s sons has carried on the family tradition. Richard M. Daley is now mayor of Chicago. The Picasso sculpture in the Rihard J. Daley plaza stands eighteen meters tall. It weighs many tons. It looks huge. Still, perhaps it is just the right size for Chicago, a city of so many people and so many strengths. (THEME)) VOICE ONE: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - September 30, 2001: Harriet Tubman
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People In America. Every week we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Harriet Tubman, an African-American woman who fought slavery and oppression. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Historians say Harriet Tubman was born in the year Eighteen-Twenty. Nobody really knows. In the United States in the Nineteenth Century the birth of slaves was not recorded. We do know that Harriet Tubman was one of the bravest women ever born in the United States. She helped hundreds of people escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. This was a system that helped slaves escape from the South to states where slavery was banned. Because of her work on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was called Moses. In the Bible, Moses was the leader of the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt. He brought his people out of slavery to the promised land. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. All her life, she always tried to improve life for African-Americans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: From a very early age, Harriet knew how slaves suffered. Her parents were slaves. They belonged to Edward Brodas, a farmer in the middle Atlantic state of Maryland. Harriet's parents tried to protect her and their ten other children as much as they could. There was little they could do, however. Slaves were treated like animals. They could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Slave children were not permitted to act like children. By the time Harriet was three years old, Mister Brodas ordered her to carry notes from him to other farmers. Some of these farmers lived as far as fifteen kilometers away. Harriet was punished if she stopped to rest or play. VOICE ONE: When Harriet was six years old, the Brodas family sent her to work for another family who lived near their farm. While there, Harriet was infected with the disease Measles. Even though she was sick, she was forced to place and remove animal traps in an icy river. She was sent home when she became dangerously ill. Harriet's mother took very good care of her. The child survived. Then she was sent to work in the Brodas's house. Her owners never gave her enough to eat. One day she was working in the kitchen. She was looking at a piece of sugar in a silver container when Missus Brodas saw her. Harriet ran away in fear. She was caught and beaten very severely. Her owners decided that Harriet never would make a good worker in the house. She was sent to the fields. VOICE TWO: Harriet's parents were sad. They worked in the fields and they knew how difficult it was to survive the hard work. But working outside made Harriet's body strong. And she began to learn things from the other slaves. These things one day would help her lead her people to freedom. Harriet heard about Nat Turner. He had led an unsuccessful rebellion of slaves. She heard about other slaves who had run away from their cruel owners. She was told that they had traveled by the Underground Railroad. They did not escape by using a special train. Instead of a real train, the Underground Railroad was a series of hiding places, usually in houses of people who opposed slavery. These were secret places that African Americans could stop at as they escaped from the South to the North. As Harriet heard stories of rebellion, she became more of a rebel. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One day when Harriet was fifteen she was at a local store. A slave owner entered and threatened a young boy who was his slave. At first, the slave refused to move. Then he ran for the door. Harriet moved in front of the young man. The slave owner reached for a heavy weight. He threw it at his slave. He missed. Instead, the heavy metal object hit Harriet in the head. Harriet almost died. Months passed before she could get out of bed. For the rest of her life, she carried the mark of a deep wound on her head. And she suffered from blackouts. She would suddenly lose consciousness as though she had fallen asleep. VOICE TWO: Mister Brodas felt he would never get any good work out of Harriet. So he decided to sell her. Harriet thought of a way to prevent this. Each time she was shown to someone who might buy her, she acted as if she were falling asleep. After awhile, Mister Brodas gave up hope of selling Harriet. He sent her back to the fields. She dreamed of freedom while picking vegetables and digging in the fields. In Eighteen Forty-Four, at about age twenty-four, she married a free black man named John Tubman. By now, Harriet was sure she wanted to try to escape. It would be very dangerous. Slaves who were caught often were killed or almost beaten to death. Harriet knew she must wait for just the right time. VOICE ONE: Suddenly, in Eighteen-Forty-Nine, the time came. Mister Brodas died. His slaves probably would be sold to cotton farmers further South. The situation there would be even worse. John Tubman tried to make Harriet forget about running away. He was free. Why should he make a dangerous trip with a woman breaking the law? Harriet decided that her marriage to John must end. Harriet heard that she was to be sold immediately. She knew she needed to tell her family that she was leaving. She began to sing, softly at first, then louder. She sang the words, "I'm sorry to leave you...I'm going to the promised land." Her family understood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Harriet ran to the home of a white woman who had promised to help. This woman belonged to the Quakers, a religious group which hated slavery. The Quaker woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet went from house to house that way on the Underground Railroad. Each place was a little closer to the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Slavery was banned there. Once she was hidden under hay that had been cut from the fields. Another time, she wore men's clothing. Finally, she crossed the border into Pennsylvania. Later, she told a friend, "I felt like I was in heaven." VOICE ONE: Now that Harriet was free, she did not forget the hundreds of other slaves back in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents, her sister, brothers and other family members. She found a home for her parents in Auburn, New York. Harriet traveled back and forth eighteen times, helping about three-hundred slaves escape into free territory. She became an expert at hiding from slave hunters. At one time, anyone finding Harriet was promised forty-thousand-dollars for catching her -- dead or alive. The people she helped called her Moses. She had rescued them from slavery just as the biblical Moses rescued the Jews. Harriet found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. Seven southern states decided to separate from the United States, mainly over the issue of slavery. The northern states refused to let the United States of America break apart. After fighting began, Harriet Tubman went into enemy territory to spy for the North. She also served as a nurse. After four years of bloody fighting, the North won the war. President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. There was no longer any need for Harriet to be Moses. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the fighting ended, Harriet Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. She married a man named Nelson Davis. This could have been the beginning of a few quiet years of family life for her. But she kept working. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black children. She also worked for women's rights and housing. And she sought help for old men and women who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. She was about ninety-three years old. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. The United States government gave a funeral with military honors for the woman known as Moses. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People In America. Every week we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about Harriet Tubman, an African-American woman who fought slavery and oppression. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Historians say Harriet Tubman was born in the year Eighteen-Twenty. Nobody really knows. In the United States in the Nineteenth Century the birth of slaves was not recorded. We do know that Harriet Tubman was one of the bravest women ever born in the United States. She helped hundreds of people escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad. This was a system that helped slaves escape from the South to states where slavery was banned. Because of her work on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman was called Moses. In the Bible, Moses was the leader of the Jewish people enslaved in Egypt. He brought his people out of slavery to the promised land. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. All her life, she always tried to improve life for African-Americans. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: From a very early age, Harriet knew how slaves suffered. Her parents were slaves. They belonged to Edward Brodas, a farmer in the middle Atlantic state of Maryland. Harriet's parents tried to protect her and their ten other children as much as they could. There was little they could do, however. Slaves were treated like animals. They could be sold at any time. Families often were separated. Slave children were not permitted to act like children. By the time Harriet was three years old, Mister Brodas ordered her to carry notes from him to other farmers. Some of these farmers lived as far as fifteen kilometers away. Harriet was punished if she stopped to rest or play. VOICE ONE: When Harriet was six years old, the Brodas family sent her to work for another family who lived near their farm. While there, Harriet was infected with the disease Measles. Even though she was sick, she was forced to place and remove animal traps in an icy river. She was sent home when she became dangerously ill. Harriet's mother took very good care of her. The child survived. Then she was sent to work in the Brodas's house. Her owners never gave her enough to eat. One day she was working in the kitchen. She was looking at a piece of sugar in a silver container when Missus Brodas saw her. Harriet ran away in fear. She was caught and beaten very severely. Her owners decided that Harriet never would make a good worker in the house. She was sent to the fields. VOICE TWO: Harriet's parents were sad. They worked in the fields and they knew how difficult it was to survive the hard work. But working outside made Harriet's body strong. And she began to learn things from the other slaves. These things one day would help her lead her people to freedom. Harriet heard about Nat Turner. He had led an unsuccessful rebellion of slaves. She heard about other slaves who had run away from their cruel owners. She was told that they had traveled by the Underground Railroad. They did not escape by using a special train. Instead of a real train, the Underground Railroad was a series of hiding places, usually in houses of people who opposed slavery. These were secret places that African Americans could stop at as they escaped from the South to the North. As Harriet heard stories of rebellion, she became more of a rebel. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One day when Harriet was fifteen she was at a local store. A slave owner entered and threatened a young boy who was his slave. At first, the slave refused to move. Then he ran for the door. Harriet moved in front of the young man. The slave owner reached for a heavy weight. He threw it at his slave. He missed. Instead, the heavy metal object hit Harriet in the head. Harriet almost died. Months passed before she could get out of bed. For the rest of her life, she carried the mark of a deep wound on her head. And she suffered from blackouts. She would suddenly lose consciousness as though she had fallen asleep. VOICE TWO: Mister Brodas felt he would never get any good work out of Harriet. So he decided to sell her. Harriet thought of a way to prevent this. Each time she was shown to someone who might buy her, she acted as if she were falling asleep. After awhile, Mister Brodas gave up hope of selling Harriet. He sent her back to the fields. She dreamed of freedom while picking vegetables and digging in the fields. In Eighteen Forty-Four, at about age twenty-four, she married a free black man named John Tubman. By now, Harriet was sure she wanted to try to escape. It would be very dangerous. Slaves who were caught often were killed or almost beaten to death. Harriet knew she must wait for just the right time. VOICE ONE: Suddenly, in Eighteen-Forty-Nine, the time came. Mister Brodas died. His slaves probably would be sold to cotton farmers further South. The situation there would be even worse. John Tubman tried to make Harriet forget about running away. He was free. Why should he make a dangerous trip with a woman breaking the law? Harriet decided that her marriage to John must end. Harriet heard that she was to be sold immediately. She knew she needed to tell her family that she was leaving. She began to sing, softly at first, then louder. She sang the words, "I'm sorry to leave you...I'm going to the promised land." Her family understood. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Harriet ran to the home of a white woman who had promised to help. This woman belonged to the Quakers, a religious group which hated slavery. The Quaker woman told her how to reach another home where she could hide. Harriet went from house to house that way on the Underground Railroad. Each place was a little closer to the eastern state of Pennsylvania. Slavery was banned there. Once she was hidden under hay that had been cut from the fields. Another time, she wore men's clothing. Finally, she crossed the border into Pennsylvania. Later, she told a friend, "I felt like I was in heaven." VOICE ONE: Now that Harriet was free, she did not forget the hundreds of other slaves back in Maryland. During the next ten years, she led a much expanded Underground Railroad. She freed her parents, her sister, brothers and other family members. She found a home for her parents in Auburn, New York. Harriet traveled back and forth eighteen times, helping about three-hundred slaves escape into free territory. She became an expert at hiding from slave hunters. At one time, anyone finding Harriet was promised forty-thousand-dollars for catching her -- dead or alive. The people she helped called her Moses. She had rescued them from slavery just as the biblical Moses rescued the Jews. Harriet found another way to fight slavery after the Civil War began in Eighteen-Sixty-One. Seven southern states decided to separate from the United States, mainly over the issue of slavery. The northern states refused to let the United States of America break apart. After fighting began, Harriet Tubman went into enemy territory to spy for the North. She also served as a nurse. After four years of bloody fighting, the North won the war. President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. There was no longer any need for Harriet to be Moses. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the fighting ended, Harriet Tubman returned to Auburn, New York. She married a man named Nelson Davis. This could have been the beginning of a few quiet years of family life for her. But she kept working. She traveled and gave speeches to raise money for better education for black children. She also worked for women's rights and housing. And she sought help for old men and women who had been slaves. Harriet Tubman died in Nineteen-Thirteen. She was about ninety-three years old. By that time, she was recognized as an American hero. The United States government gave a funeral with military honors for the woman known as Moses. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: I'm Ray Freeman. Listen again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 1, 2001: Africa/Hospice Care
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was established in September, Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. For its fourth anniversary, the British-based organization is launching a new program to care for people who are facing death in many of the world’s poorest countries. The seven-million dollar program is called the Palliative Care Initiative. Palliative care is the kind of care given to patients who are expected to die. It includes support for the families of patients. The organization estimates more than fifty-million people die each year around the world. Four out of every five deaths happen in developing countries. Many of those patients suffer severe pain. Officials of the Diana Memorial Fund say effective pain control can ease much of the suffering of people who are dying. Yet, many governments have been slow to support the development of such services. This is why the fund will begin work in east and southern Africa where many people are dying of AIDS and cancer. Andrew Purkis is the Chief Executive of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. He says hospitals in many developing countries release dying patients without any kind of continuing support. As a result, the final days for many patients are painful. Doctor Purkis says the Palliative Care Initiative aims to change this. The new program will set up hospice systems in communities throughout Africa. Hospice organizations give patients assistance and support during their final days of life. The program will also provide patients with drugs to ease their pain. Doctor Purkis says the use of morphine and other drugs will make a big difference to people who are dying and their families. The new program will also teach doctors, nurses and health workers simple skills needed to take care of dying patients. Doctor Purkis says this kind of community-based care does not cost a large amount and can be supervised easily. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund also hopes to start an international debate about what should be done to improve the quality of life for dying people. The fund says that people everywhere should have the right to die with honor. For this to happen, the organization says dying patients should be given the support they need. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - September 29, 2001: Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS. Afghanistan is one of the world’s least developed countries. It has been the hiding place of suspected terrorist leader, Osama bin Laden. About twenty-seven-million people live in the south Asian country. They come from as many as twenty different ethnic groups. The two largest groups are the Pashtun and Tajik who make up more than sixty percent of the population. Most Pashtuns live in the southeastern part of the country. Tajiks are mainly in central and northeastern Afghanistan. The two groups speak the two official languages of the country, Pashtu and Dari. Ninety-nine percent of Afghans are Muslim. Islam came to Afghanistan when Arab armies invaded more than one-thousand-three-hundred years ago. Mongols, Persians and Indians invaded Afghanistan at different times over the next several hundred years. In the middle Seventeen-Hundreds, Afghan tribes united. They ruled until the British invaded in Eighteen-Thirty-Nine. A series of wars between Britain and Afghans followed. Afghanistan won complete independence in Nineteen-Nineteen and created a constitution. The former Soviet Union began occupying Afghanistan in Nineteen-Seventy-Nine. Afghans considered the Communist ideas opposed to Islam. They started a jihad, a holy struggle or holy war, against the Soviet Union. The United States and several other countries helped train and finance Afghan fighters, called mujaheddin. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in Nineteen-Eighty-Nine. The communist government fell in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. In that year, the Mujahedin groups seized power. Ethnic Tajik Burhanuddin Rabbani became the new president. A period of lawlessness and disorder followed in Afghanistan until Nineteen-Ninety-Six. At that time, a group of mostly Pashtun fighters, known as the Taleban, seized power. Taleban is a word meaning "students." Some Taleban members were trained in Islamic religious schools in Pakistan. The Taleban now controls about ninety percent of Afghanistan. It rules by an extreme version of Sharia, or Islamic law. It banned music, television and the internet. Taleban officials also order strong punishments for crimes, including public executions and the cutting off of body parts. The Taleban greatly restricts women in Afghanistan. Women are barred from working outside the home. They also must completely cover themselves from the top of their head to their feet. Afghan girls are not permitted education. Pakistan now is the only government in the world that recognizes the Taleban. President Rabbani continues to hold Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 2, 2001: Growing Carrots
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Carrots are grown on farms and in small family gardens throughout the world. They are easy to raise and easy to harvest. They have a pleasing taste. And, they contain a lot of carotene which the body changes into Vitamin A. When people think about carrots, they usually create a mental picture of a long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. But, carrots come in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange. For example, Paris Market carrots are about five centimeters around. Imperator carrots are thin and about twenty-five centimeters long. And Belgian White carrots are white. For the best results, carrots should be grown in sandy soil that does not hold water for a long time. The soil also should have no rocks. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the soil, loosen it, and turn it over. Then, mix some dead plant material or animal waste. Do not add any additional chemical fertilizers. Weather, soil condition, and age affect the way carrots taste. Experts say warm days, cool nights, and a medium soil temperature are the best conditions for growing great tasting carrots. Carrots need time to develop their full sugar content. This gives them their taste. If they are harvested too early they will not have enough sugar. However, carrots become wood-like and loose their sweetness if you wait too long to remove them from the ground. The best way to judge if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color, the better the taste. Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow and harvest carrots the same way as you do during the summer months. If the ground does freeze in your part of the world, simply cover your carrot garden with a thick layer of leaves or straw. This will prevent the ground from freezing. You can remove the ground cover and harvest the carrots as they are needed. Carrots are prepared and eaten many different ways. They are cut in thin pieces and added to other vegetables. They are cooked by themselves or added to meat in stews. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by Bob Bowen. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 2, 2001: Arthritis
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the disease arthritis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Millions of people around the world suffer from arthritis. In the United States alone, more than twenty-million people have the disease. It affects the joints, the places where bones connect. Arthritis causes inflammation. It makes the area around the joints swell or grow larger. It makes the affected area red, painful and difficult to move. Arthritis affects several parts of the body. They include the neck, back, knees, hips and hands. Arthritis does not kill people, but there is no cure for the disease. Severe arthritis can prevent a person from leading a normal life. Some patients must have operations to replace their joints. VOICE TWO: Americans spend thousands of millions of dollars each year trying to ease the pain of arthritis. Many patients take drugs ordered by their doctors. Other people take less traditional medicines and substances. Still others have acupuncture, an ancient Chinese method of reducing pain and improving health. Scientists say some methods of treating the disease are useless. These include wearing copper jewelry or using metal magnets. They also say being stung by insects does not help arthritis and may be dangerous. But some people say these methods help them. Many arthritis sufferers say they would do almost anything to stop the pain. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are more than one-hundred forms of arthritis. The two major ones are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis usually affects older people. It is caused by the destruction of cartilage. This is the connective tissue at the ends of bones. Cartilage permits the bones to slide smoothly across each other. In people with arthritis, the cartilage breaks down under the force of repeated movement. In severe cases, the bones move against each other. This causes severe pain. Rheumatoid arthritis usually affects people between twenty and forty years of age. It starts when material in a joint attacks the bone and the cartilage. Doctors say this happens when the body attacks its own system against disease, called the immune system. Or, tiny organisms may be responsible. Rheumatoid arthritis can spread throughout the body. It can harm organs and connective tissue. VOICE TWO: Doctors say simple measures can help many people with arthritis. For example, they advise losing weight if a person is too fat. This is because extra weight causes more pressure on joints such as the knees and hips. Doctors also strongly suggest some kinds of exercise for arthritis patients. Experts say swimming, water exercises and walking are among the best. These activities help keep the joints moving, strengthen muscles and may reduce pain. VOICE ONE: Some arthritis patients take traditional medicines like aspirin and acetaminophen to ease pain. Other people report that glucosamine and chondroitin help their arthritis. These dietary supplements do not require an order by a doctor. Glucosamine is made from the shells of seafood like crabs, shrimp and lobster. Chondroitin comes from the breathing tubes of cows. Scientists are not sure how these supplements ease the pain of arthritis. However, one study reportedly showed that glucosamine may help slow the breaking down of cartilage. The National Institutes of Health is the government’s health policy and research agency. The N-I-H is preparing a long-term study of glucosamine and chondroitin. The agency is accepting patients from all over the country for this study. VOICE TWO: A National Institutes of Health agency also is studying acupuncture to see it if helps patients with arthritis of the knee. Hundreds of people older than fifty are taking part in this study. During acupuncture, very small, sharp needles are placed in the skin at targeted body points. Millions of people in many countries have used acupuncture to ease pain. Researchers in the American study hope to learn more about how it works. VOICE ONE: Some doctors advise their arthritis patients to take medicines called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These drugs include aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen. They block production of substances called prostaglandins in the body. Prostaglandins do many things in the body. They can cause inflammation. However, prostaglandins also protect the lining of the stomach and the intestines. Blocking this action could cause dangerous bleeding in those organs. In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, drug companies introduced two new medicines for arthritis. Patients and doctors welcomed these drugs, Vioxx and Celebrex. The two drugs block the prostaglandins that cause inflammation. But the drugs do not suppress the prostaglandins that protect the stomach. So these medicines do not increase the risk of dangerous bleeding. VOICE TWO: Americans spend more than six-thousand-million dollars each year on arthritis medicines. Some reports say more than sixty-percent of this money is for Vioxx and Celebrex. One reason is that drug companies spend millions of dollars to tell the public about these drugs through advertising in the media. There are many television advertisements for the drugs. The federal government ordered that one of these ads be changed. The Food and Drug Administration said the ad claimed too much effectiveness for Celebrex. Recently reported studies of Vioxx and Celebrex have caused another kind of concern. The Journal of the American Medical Association published studies on the two drugs. The studies showed a small increase in problems including heart attacks and some kinds of strokes among people taking the drugs. However, the manufacturers of the two drugs say other studies do not show these problems. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One of the mysteries of osteoarthritis is why some people get it while others do not. For many years, doctors have known that people suffer from the disease as they grow older. However, many people live long lives without ever getting arthritis. Also, if age were the only cause, why would people get arthritis in one hip and not the other? Doctors say some people are thought to have genes that may start arthritis. Some scientists believe this results from differences in the body’s ability to produce collagen. This protein is the structural part of cartilage. VOICE TWO: More women suffer from osteoarthritis than men do. This may result from decreasing hormone levels as a woman grows older. Osteoarthritis can begin long before a woman completely stops producing the hormone estrogen. In a recent study, the average age for a woman beginning to develop osteoarthritis was between forty and forty-five. Another risk for arthritis appears to be former injuries to cartilage, which cannot repair itself. Old injuries to ligaments may also be a cause. Ligaments are bands of tissue that connect bones and hold them in place. VOICE ONE: Experts say there is new hope today for arthritis patients. Scientists are working to develop new treatments for the disease. Some scientists are searching for a chemical substance in the body called a biomarker. The presence of this biomarker could show if the disease is progressing and if treatment is helping. Recently, doctors have begun injecting a fluid into arthritis patients’ knee joints to improve motion. Doctors also are harvesting cartilage from patients’ knees and growing cells in the laboratory. Then they inject the cells into the patients’ knee joints. The goal is to develop healthy new tissue. VOICE TWO: Doctors also perform operations to remove severely diseased knee and hip joints. This surgery replaces the joints with metal or plastic joints. Doctors perform hundreds of thousands of knee and hip replacement operations each year in the United States. For example, a teacher from Elk Grove, Illinois, says he suffered for years from an extremely painful hip caused by arthritis. Finally he decided to have a hip replacement operation. Now he takes long walks, rides a bicycle and plays golf. He says he wishes he had had the operation years ago. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - October 3, 2001: Bacteria and Stomach Cancer
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Researchers say the bacterium that causes stomach wounds, or ulcers, is also the leading cause of stomach cancer. The bacterium is called Helicobacter pylori. The researchers say doctors may be able to kill the bacteria with antibiotic drugs to help prevent stomach cancer. A new study of the bacteria was published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was led by Naomi Uemura of Kure Kyosai Hospital in Japan. The Japanese researchers examined more than one-thousand-five-hundred patients with ulcers or intestinal problems. More than one-thousand-two-hundred of the people were infected with Helicobacter pylori. Two-hundred-eighty people were not infected with the bacteria. The scientists studied the patients for up to ten years. They found that killing the bacteria prevented or delayed the development of stomach cancer. Almost three percent of the people infected with the bacteria developed stomach cancer during the study. However, none of the uninfected patients developed cancer. Also, none of people treated with antibiotics to kill the bacteria developed stomach cancer. Timothy Wang is a scientist at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester. He and another researcher examined the research. Their comments were published in the same issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Doctor Wang says Helicobacter pylori is easy to discover. So doctors may be able to prevent stomach cancer with antibiotics. He said this kind of program might be attempted first in Japan. This is because stomach cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths in Japan. In fact, researchers say cancer of the stomach is the second leading cause of cancer deaths around the world. Doctor Wang said Helicobacter pylori is extremely common. In some countries, ninety percent of the population has been infected with the bacteria by age nine. In the United States, up to forty percent of the population carries the bacteria. Also, people infected usually do not show signs of having the bacteria in their bodies. Scientists says more studies like this will help influence people to take part in future programs to destroy the bacteria. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 3, 2001: North Carolina Lighthouses
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the lighthouses that protect ships sailing along the coast of North Carolina. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Lighthouses are built along coasts to signal to passing ships. Lighthouses are tall buildings of wood or stone or brick with large bright lights on top. Every night they shine lights to warn ships about dangerous areas where there are rocks, low water levels, or strong currents. The lighthouses along North Carolina’s coast are recognized as signs of safety for travelers at sea. Over the years, fierce ocean storms have sent many ships crashing into the North Carolina coast. Other boats have been lost in wars. During World War Two, for example, German submarines sank many allied transport ships in that area. History experts say more than six-hundred ships have been wrecked near the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Storms still uncover the ruins of wrecked ships along the Outer Banks. The lighthouses shine their signals to prevent more wrecks. Many ships and lives have been saved because of the United States Life Saving Service and workers at lighthouses along the coast. VOICE TWO: The Outer Banks is a group of narrow islands stretching along the North Carolina coast in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands shelter North Carolina’s inland water passages. For thousands of years, these barrier islands have survived severe weather. Every few years, an ocean storm in the North Atlantic Ocean will move through the Outer Banks with destructive force. Each island of the Outer Banks has its own lighthouse with a special design and history. In addition, each lighthouse has its own signal which boats see from a distance. The different light signals help sailors identify their position from the land. This helps them judge if they are close to dangerous water passages. Today, the light signals work on an electrical timing system. In the past, workers living in the lighthouses had to turn the lights on and off. VOICE ONE: North Carolina’s simplest lighthouse is on Ocracoke Island in the southern Outer Banks. Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. It is considered the oldest lighthouse on the Carolina coast. Its signal is a continuous white light, which can be seen almost twenty-five kilometers out at sea. Although the plans used to build Ocracoke lighthouse appear normal, the building was built off-center. As a result, it rises more sharply on one side. Ocracoke Island is said to be the place where the pirate Blackbeard lost his head in the early Seventeen-Hundreds. This famous ocean robber was killed in a battle with a British officer more than a century before Ocracoke Lighthouse was build. Lieutenant Robert Maynard was protecting England’s colonial interest in the New World. Historians say he tricked Blackbeard into battle and then cut off his head. Stories passed down through the years say that the spirit of Blackbeard still walks around Ocracoke Island searching for his head. ((BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many people agree that the most recognized lighthouse in America is at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The building stretches fifty-eight meters in the air – making it the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. It was completed in Eighteen-Seventy. Its signal shines a white light every seven-and-a-half seconds. Ships thirty-seven kilometers from land are able to see the signal. Historians believe more people have read about, painted or taken pictures of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse than any other lighthouse in North America. It the picture on the official documents of the United States Lighthouse Service. It is also a memorial to hundreds of men and women who worked to make North Carolina’s coast safe for sea travelers. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved more than nine-hundred meters. Officials wanted to protect the building by moving it farther away from the ocean. Huge lift equipment picked up the more than four-thousand ton building and carried it inland. The lighthouse was then lowered onto a new eighteen-meter square concrete support structure. Engineers inspected the repositioned building in July. They declared that it is standing tall and strong on its new foundation. Visitors can climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, but they need to be in good physical condition. This is because two-hundred-sixty-eight steps lead to the top of North America’s tallest brick lighthouse. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Another lighthouse along North Carolina’s Outer Banks is the Bodie (body) Lighthouse. Its history is quite interesting. The fifth financial inspector of the United States Treasury Department built the first Bodie Lighthouse in Eighteen-Forty-Eight. Stephen Pleasonton’s main concern while building the structure was to save money. As a result, his workers were not permitted to spend enough money to build a safe base. In addition, the building was fitted with a light system that was not considered effective even then. Shortly after it opened, Bodie Island Lighthouse started sinking on one side. Workers soon had to leave it. Several years later, the United States Congress ordered a new lighthouse be built. In Eighteen-Fifty-Two, work began on a new and improved structure. The second Bodie Lighthouse was to be representative of a new look in lighthouses. It was shaped like a circular cone, made of earthen bricks made hard in a fire. Its base was built on supporting bars driven into the earth. VOICE ONE: The second Bodie Lighthouse was destroyed in the American Civil War. Confederate soldiers from the south wrecked the building to prevent the Union navy of the north from gaining a position to help its ships. The structure was finally rebuilt and completed in Eighteen-Seventy-Two. It rises forty-eight meters in the air. Today, the Bodie Lighthouse needs several repairs. This is why the building is not open to the public to climb. However, the lighthouse signal is still recognized by passing ships. It is on, off, and on again for two-and-one-half seconds each time, then off for twenty-two-and-one-half seconds. Boats up to thirty-three kilometers out at sea are able to recognize the Bodie Lighthouse signal. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The most northern lighthouse on North Carolina’s Outer Banks is at Currituck Beach. Like the other lighthouses along the coast, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse still serves as an aid to sailors. The lighthouse runs its light signal from sunset to sunrise. The signal is three seconds on, seventeen seconds off. The light can be seen as far away as thirty-three kilometers. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse remains unpainted to help tell it apart from other lighthouses along the coast. This also gives visitors a strong sense of the one-and-a-half-million bricks used to build the building, which stands forty-seven meters in the air. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse was completed in Eighteen-Seventy-Five. It was the last major brick lighthouse built on the Outer Banks. Visitors are permitted to climb to the top. VOICE ONE: Wild horses run free near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. Horses are not native to North America. Yet for more than four-hundred years, these animals have run unrestricted along the northern Outer Banks. Historians are not sure how the horses first arrived in America. They believe either Spanish or English settlers transported them. The wild horses are called Barbs. They are known for their size, their ability to work hard, their easy movement, and their long lives. Historians say there was nothing but sea, sand and grass when these Barb horses first arrived on the Outer Banks. A continual increase in summer visitors over the past forty years has made survival for the horses more difficult. Because of this, a group of concerned citizens has built a fence to separate the horses from people. This gives the about six-thousand hectares of land to live on. The group is trying to make sure the animals will be permitted to stay on Currituck Beach. Like the lighthouses, the wild Barb horses are a traditional part of life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jill Moss and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 4, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 7
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) ON NOVEMBER ELEVENTH, NINTEEN-EIGHTEEN, A TRUCE WAS SIGNED ENDING THE HOSTILITIES OF WORLD WAR ONE. THE CENTRAL POWERS -- LED BY GERMANY -- HAD LOST. THE ALLIES -- LED BY BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND THE UNITED STATES -- HAD WON. THE WAR HAD LASTED FOUR YEARS. IT HAD TAKEN THE LIVES OF TEN-MILLION PERSONS. IT HAD LEFT MUCH OF EUROPE IN RUINS. IT WAS DESCRIBED AS 'THE WAR TO END ALL WARS'. I'M TONY RIGGS. TODAY, LARRY WEST AND I TELL ABOUT AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON AND HIS PART IN EVENTS AFTER THE WAR. VOICE TWO: THE IMMEDIATE TASK WAS TO SEEK AGREEMENT ON TERMS OF A PEACE TREATY. THE ALLIES WERE FILLED WITH BITTER ANGER. THEY DEMANDED A TREATY THAT WOULD PUNISH GERMANY SEVERELY. THEY WANTED TO MAKE GERMANY WEAK BY DESTROYING ITS MILITARY AND INDUSTRY. AND THEY WANTED TO RUIN GERMANY'S ECONOMY BY MAKING IT PAY ALL WAR DAMAGES. GERMANY, THEY SAID, MUST NEVER GO TO WAR AGAIN. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON OF THE UNITED STATES DID NOT AGREE COMPLETELY WITH THE OTHER ALLIES. HE WANTED A PEACE TREATY BASED ON JUSTICE, NOT BITTERNESS. HE BELIEVED THAT WOULD PRODUCE A LASTING PEACE. PRESIDENT WILSON HAD LED NEGOTIATIONS FOR A TRUCE TO END THE HOSTILIES OF WORLD WAR ONE. NOW, HE HOPED TO PLAY A MAJOR PART IN NEGOTIATIONS FOR A PEACE TREATY. TO BE EFFECTIVE, HE NEEDED THE FULL SUPPORT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. VOICE ONE: AMERICANS HAD SUPPORTED WILSON'S POLICIES THROUGH MOST OF THE WAR. THEY HAD ACCEPTED WHAT WAS NECESSARY TO WIN. THIS MEANT HIGHER TAXES AND SHORTAGES OF GOODS. AT THE TIME, AMERICANS SEEMED TO FORGET PARTY POLITICS. DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS WORKED TOGETHER. ALL THAT CHANGED WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR THE WAR WAS ENDING. CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS WERE TO BE HELD IN NOVEMBER, NINETEEN-EIGHTEEN. PRESIDENT WILSON WAS A DEMOCRAT. HE FEARED THAT REPUBLICANS MIGHT GAIN A MAJORITY OF SEATS IN CONGRESS. IF THEY DID, HIS NEGOTIATING POWERS AT A PEACE CONFERENCE IN EUROPE WOULD BE WEAKENED. WILSON TOLD THE NATION: "THE RETURN OF A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY TO EITHER HOUSE OF CONGRESS WOULD BE SEEN BY FOREIGN LEADERS AS A REJECTION OF MY LEADERSHIP." VOICE TWO: REPUBLICANS PROTESTED. THEY CHARGED THAT WILSON'S APPEAL TO VOTERS WAS AN INSULT TO EVERY REPUBLICAN. ONE PARTY LEADER SAID: "THIS IS NOT THE PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE WAR." THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN SUCCEEDED. THE PARTY WON CONTROL OF BOTH THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS WERE A DEFEAT FOR PRESIDENT WILSON. BUT HE DID NOT LET THE SITUATION INTERFERE WITH HIS PLANS FOR A PEACE CONFERENCE. HE AND THE OTHER ALLIED LEADERS AGREED TO MEET IN PARIS IN JANUARY, NINETEEN-NINETEEN. VOICE ONE: IN THE WEEKS BEFORE THE CONFERENCE, WILSON CHOSE MEMBERS OF HIS NEGOTIATING TEAM. EVERYONE EXPECTED HIM TO INCLUDE ONE OR MORE SENATORS. AFTER ALL, THE SENATE WOULD VOTE TO APPROVE OR REJECT THE FINAL PEACE TREATY. WILSON REFUSED. INSTEAD, HE CHOSE SEVERAL CLOSE ADVISERS TO GO WITH HIM TO PARIS. TODAY, AMERICAN HISTORY EXPERTS SAY WILSON'S DECISION WAS A MISTAKE. FAILURE TO PUT SENATORS ON THE NEGOTIATING TEAM, THEY SAY, COST HIM VALUABLE SUPPORT LATER ON. IN EARLY DECEMBER, PRESIDENT WILSON SAILED TO FRANCE. THE VOYAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN LASTED NINE DAYS. HE ARRIVED AT THE PORT OF BREST ON DECEMBER THIRTEENTH. WILSON FELT VERY HAPPY. THIRTEEN, HE SAID, WAS HIS LUCKY NUMBER. VOICE TWO: FRENCH CITIZENS STOOD ALONG THE RAILROAD THAT CARRIED HIM FROM BREST TO PARIS. THEY CHEERED AS HIS TRAIN PASSED. IN PARIS, CANNONS WERE FIRED TO ANNOUNCE HIS ARRIVAL. AND A HUGE CROWD WELCOMED HIM THERE. THE PEOPLE SHOUTED HIS NAME OVER AND OVER AGAIN: "WIL-SON! WIL-SON! WIL-SON!" THE NOISE SOUNDED LIKE THUNDER. FRENCH PREMIER GEORGES CLEMENCEAU COMMENTED ON THE EVENT. HE SAID: "I DO NOT THINK THERE HAS BEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD." PEOPLE CHEERED PRESIDENT WILSON PARTLY TO THANK AMERICA FOR SENDING ITS TROOPS TO HELP FIGHT AGAINST GERMANY. BUT MANY FRENCH CITIZENS AND OTHER EUROPEANS ALSO SHARED WILSON'S DESIRE TO ESTABLISH A NEW WORLD OF PEACE. THEY LISTENED WITH HOPE AS HE MADE AN EMOTIONAL SPEECH ABOUT A WORLD IN WHICH EVERYONE WOULD REJECT HATRED...A WORLD IN WHICH EVERYONE WOULD JOIN TOGETHER TO END WAR, FOREVER. VOICE ONE: MORE THAN TWENTY-FIVE NATIONS THAT HELPED WIN THE WAR SENT REPRESENTATIVES TO THE PEACE CONFERENCE IN PARIS. ALL TOOK PART IN THE NEGOTIATIONS. HOWEVER, THE IMPORTANT DECISIONS WERE MADE BY THE SO-CALLED 'BIG FOUR': PRIME MINISTER DAVID LLOYD-GEORGE OF BRITAIN. PREMIER GEORGES CLEMENCEAU OF FRANCE. PREMIER VITTORIO ORLANDO OF ITALY. AND PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON OF THE UNITED STATES. WILSON HOPED THE OTHER ALLIED LEADERS WOULD ACCEPT HIS PLAN FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION. THE ORGANIZATION WOULD BE CALLED THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. WILSON BELIEVED THE LEAGUE COULD PREVENT FUTURE WARS BY DECIDING FAIR SETTLEMENTS OF DISPUTES BETWEEN NATIONS. HE BELIEVED IT WOULD BE THE WORLD'S ONLY HOPE FOR A LASTING PEACE. VOICE TWO: MOST OF THE OTHER REPRESENTATIVES DID NOT HAVE WILSON'S FAITH IN THE POWER OF PEACE. YET THEY SUPPORTED HIS PLAN FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HOWEVER, THEY CONSIDERED IT LESS IMPORTANT THAN COMPLETING A PEACE TREATY WITH GERMANY. AND THEY DID NOT WANT TO SPEND MUCH TIME TALKING ABOUT IT. THEY FEARED THAT NEGOTIATIONS ON THE LEAGUE MIGHT DELAY THE TREATY AND THE RE-BUILDING OF EUROPE. WILSON WAS FIRM. HE DEMANDED THAT THE PEACE TREATY ALSO ESTABLISH THE LEAGUE. SO, HE LED A GROUP AT THE CONFERENCE THAT WROTE A PLAN FOR THE OPERATION OF THE LEAGUE. HE GAVE THE PLAN TO THE EUROPEAN LEADERS TO CONSIDER. THEN HE RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES FOR A BRIEF VISIT. VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT WILSON SOON LEARNED THAT OPPOSITION TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS EXISTED ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. MANY AMERICANS OPPOSED IT STRONGLY. SOME REPUBLICAN SENATORS BEGAN CRITICIZING IT EVEN BEFORE WILSON'S SHIP REACHED THE PORT OF BOSTON. THE SENATORS SAID THE PLAN FAILED TO RECOGNIZE AMERICA'S LONG-TERM INTERESTS. THEY SAID IT WOULD TAKE AWAY TOO MANY POWERS FROM NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS. THIRTY-SEVEN SENATORS SIGNED A RESOLUTION SAYING THE UNITED STATES SHOULD REJECT THE PLAN FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. THAT WAS MORE THAN THE NUMBER OF VOTES NEEDED TO DEFEAT A PEACE TREATY TO WHICH, WILSON HOPED, THE LEAGUE PLAN WOULD BE LINKED. VOICE TWO: THE SENATE RESOLUTION HURT WILSON POLITICALLY. IT WAS A SIGN TO THE REST OF THE WORLD THAT HE DID NOT HAVE THE FULL SUPPORT OF HIS PEOPLE. BUT HE RETURNED TO PARIS ANYWAY. HE GOT MORE BAD NEWS WHEN HE ARRIVED. WILSON'S TOP ADVISER AT THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE WAS COLONEL EDWARD HOUSE. COLONEL HOUSE HAD CONTINUED NEGOTIATIONS WHILE WILSON WAS BACK IN THE UNITED STATES. HOUSE AGREED WITH WILSON ON MOST ISSUES. UNLIKE WILSON, HOWEVER, HE BELIEVED THE ALLIES' MOST URGENT NEED WAS TO REACH AGREEMENT ON A PEACE TREATY WITH GERMANY. TO DO THIS, HOUSE WAS WILLING TO MAKE MANY MORE COMPROMISES THAN WILSON ON DETAILS FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. VOICE ONE: WILSON WAS FURIOUS WHEN HE LEARNED WHAT HOUSE HAD DONE. HE SAID: "COLONEL HOUSE HAS GIVEN AWAY EVERYTHING I HAD WON BEFORE I LEFT PARIS. HE HAS COMPROMISED UNTIL NOTHING REMAINS. NOW I HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN. THIS TIME, IT WILL BE MORE DIFFICULT." FOR WOODROW WILSON, THE MOST DIFFICULT NEGOTIATIONS STILL LAY AHEAD. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE TWO: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE TONY RIGGS AND LARRY WEST. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME TIME, WHEN WE WILL CONTINUE THE STORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF AMERICA'S TWENTY-EIGHTH PRESIDENT, WOODROW WILSON. WE WILL TELL MORE ABOUT WILSON'S PART IN NEGOTIATING A PEACE TREATY AFTER WORLD WAR ONE. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - October 4, 2001: Robotic Surgery
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. French doctors and American scientists have reported performing a complete operation in which the doctor was outside the operating room. This kind of operation is known as robotic surgery. Jacques Marescaux performed the operation last month. He removed the gallbladder of a sixty-eight-year-old woman. Doctor Marescaux was in an office in New York City. The patient was in a hospital in Strasbourg, France. The operation was described in the publication Nature. A doctor in the operating room in Strasbourg prepared the patient. The doctor placed medical instruments and a small video camera in her stomach area. Doctor Marescaux in New York watched the patient on a video screen. Then he moved controls that sent messages to the robot machine in the operating room. The robot moved the instruments that removed the woman’s gallbladder. The woman fully recovered and left the hospital two days later. Doctors have used similar robots in other operations. But the doctor has never been so far away from the patient. Experts say the main problem with such robotic surgery is guaranteeing high-speed telecommunications between the doctor and the robot. Technology must be able to reduce the time delay between a doctor’s order to a robot to move the instruments and the robot’s actions. Experts say successful robotic surgery will improve operations. For example, the robot can make much smaller movements than a person can. The robot movement is steady and will never shake. A robot machine can turn instruments in ways that a doctor’s hands cannot. Doctors say such robotic surgery will make possible safer and better operations in the future. They say it will improve doctor training. It also will mean that doctors could operate on people in dangerous places far away. These might include soldiers in battle areas or astronauts in space. And it could mean that people could have operations done by top doctors without having to travel to the city where the doctor works. The use of robotic surgery is now being tested in the United States. About one-hundred people have had operations using the new technology. They have had stomach and gallbladder operations. Doctors also are using the new technology to sew blood vessels together during heart operations. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - October 5, 2001: Wildlife Society Conference
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Last week, more than one-thousand-five hundred people from around the world attended the yearly national conference of The Wildlife Society. It was held in the western American city of Reno, Nevada. Scientists who represent private companies, special interest groups and government agencies took part in the conference. The Wildlife Society is an international scientific and educational organization. Its goal is to protect wildlife. The organization was started in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. Its headquarters are in Bethesda, Maryland, near Washington, D-C. The representatives at the conference discussed wildlife management, research and protection. They discussed concerns about decreasing wildlife populations. They talked about the supervision of wildlife species in national parks. They also exchanged ideas about how to deal with conflicts between people and wildlife in the United States. Some of the meetings dealt with protecting endangered species, such as bats. Bats are one of the least known mammals. They are difficult to capture and study. Bats are an important part of the environmental system. Agricultural plants and rain forests depend on them for spreading pollen. They also eat harmful insects and worms that can destroy crops. But the number of bats has decreased by more than fifty percent in the United States. Some kinds of bats already are listed as endangered. The number of bats is decreasing around the world. Representatives at The Wildlife Society meeting also discussed the decreasing populations of frogs and other amphibians. Many are being lost to disease, competition from other frog species and chemical pollution in the environment. Frogs are an important measure of the health of the environment. Experts at the conference also recognized gains made in wildlife protection. For example, they noted successful efforts to save an endangered bird called the sandhill crane from disappearing. Some wildlife representatives expressed concern that the terrorist attacks in the United States last month would reduce money for environmental protection. However, conference experts say protecting natural resources is especially important during this time. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-03-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 7, 2001: Babe Ruth
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND I'M DOUG JOHNSON WITH THE SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. EVERY WEEK WE TELL ABOUT A PERSON IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. TODAY, WE TELL ABOUT BABE RUTH, AMERICA'S GREATEST BASEBALL PLAYER. SOME SAY HE WAS THE GREATEST SPORTS HERO OF ALL TIME. ((BRIDGE MUSIC) VOICE ONE: GEORGE HERMAN RUTH WAS BORN IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND IN EIGHTEEN-NINETY-FIVE. GEORGE'S PARENTS OWNED A BAR WHERE PEOPLE CAME TO DRINK ALCOHOL. HIS MOTHER DIED WHEN HE WAS VERY YOUNG. HIS FATHER WAS KILLED IN A STREET FIGHT. YOUNG GEORGE WAS FORCED TO LIVE ON THE STREETS OF BALTIMORE. HE STOLE THINGS. HE FOUGHT WITH OTHER CHILDREN. HE GOT INTO TROUBLE. AT THE AGE OF EIGHT, HE WAS SENT TO LIVE AT SAINT MARY'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS. CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS WORKERS OPERATED THE SCHOOL. THE RELIGIOUS WORKERS HELPED GEORGE TO ACT BETTER. AND THEY TAUGHT HIM HOW TO PLAY BASEBALL. VOICE TWO: BY THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN, GEORGE WAS AN EXCELLENT BASEBALL PLAYER. IN NINETEEN-FOURTEEN, A TEACHER AT THE SCHOOL WROTE TO A FRIEND OF HIS, JACK DUNN. DUNN WAS THE MANAGER OF THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM. HE WAS THE ONE WHO DECIDED WHO WOULD PLAY FOR THE TEAM. THE TEACHER INVITED DUNN TO SEE THE YOUNG PLAYER. DUNN WATCHED GEORGE PITCH THE BASEBALL. HE OFFERED THE YOUNG LEFT-HANDED PITCHER A JOB PLAYING BASEBALL FOR SIX MONTHS. HE SAID THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES TEAM WOULD PAY GEORGE SIX-HUNDRED-DOLLARS. JACK DUNN HAD TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BOY OR GEORGE COULD NOT LEAVE THE SCHOOL. DUNN DECIDED TO BECOME GEORGE'S LEGAL PARENT. JACK DUNN AND HIS NEW PLAYER ARRIVED AT THE ORIOLES' BASEBALL PARK. THE OLDER ORIOLES' PLAYERS JOKED ABOUT THE NEW YOUNG PLAYER. THEY CALLED HIM, "DUNN'S BABE." THE YOUNG BASEBALL PLAYER BECAME KNOWN FOREVER AS BABE RUTH. VOICE ONE: THAT YEAR, THE BOSTON RED SOX BASEBALL TEAM BOUGHT THE RIGHT TO MAKE BABE RUTH A PLAYER FOR THEIR TEAM. RUTH PITCHED FOR THE RED SOX TEAMS DURING THE NEXT TWO YEARS. HE BECAME THE BEST PITCHER IN THE AMERICAN BASEBALL LEAGUE. THEN THE RED SOX DISCOVERED THAT HE COULD HIT THE BALL EVEN BETTER THAN HE COULD THROW IT. SO RUTH BECAME AN OUTFIELDER INSTEAD OF A PITCHER. IN NINETEEN-NINETEEN, HE HIT THE BALL OUT OF THE BASEBALL PARK TWENTY-NINE TIMES. HE HIT MORE HOME RUNS THAN ANY OTHER PLAYER THAT YEAR. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: IN NINETEEN-TWENTY, THE RED SOX SOLD BABE RUTH'S CONTRACT TO THE FAMOUS NEW YORK YANKEES BASEBALL TEAM. THAT YEAR, BABE RUTH HIT FIFTY-FOUR HOME RUNS. THIS WAS MORE HOME RUNS THAN ANY OTHER AMERICAN LEAGUE TEAM HIT THAT SEASON. THE NEXT YEAR, HE HIT FIFTY-NINE HOME RUNS. BABE RUTH'S BASEBALL SKILL AND FRIENDLY NATURE MADE HIM FAMOUS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND AROUND THE WORLD. MANY PEOPLE CAME TO THE YANKEE GAMES JUST BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO SEE BABE RUTH PLAY. HE HELPED THE TEAM EARN A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY. THE YANKEES BUILT A NEW BASEBALL STADIUM. EVEN TODAY, YANKEE STADIUM IS KNOWN AS "THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT." VOICE ONE: BASEBALL FANS LOVED BABE RUTH BECAUSE HE WAS WHAT SOME PEOPLE CALLED "LARGER THAN LIFE." SPORTS WRITER PAUL GALLICO WROTE THAT BABE RUTH PLAYED BALL IN THE SAME INTENSE WAY THAT HE LIVED HIS LIFE. GALLICO SAID THAT WHENEVER RUTH HIT A BALL OUT OF THE BASEBALL PARK THE FANS WOULD BECOME SO EXCITED THAT THEY WERE READY TO BREAK THE SEATS. IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO WATCH RUTH SWING HIS BAT WITHOUT EXPERIENCING A STRONG EMOTION. IN FACT, IN NINETEEN-TWENTY, A MAN REPORTEDLY DIED OF EXCITEMENT WHILE WATCHING BABE RUTH HIT A HOME RUN. THE NAME OF BABE RUTH APPEARED SO OFTEN IN THE NEWSPAPERS THAT SPORTS WRITERS THOUGHT UP NEW NAMES FOR HIM. THEY CALLED HIM "THE SULTAN OF SWAT." "THE KING OF CLOUT." "THE BABE." THEY CALLED HIM "BAMBINO." SOMETIMES THEY SHORTENED THAT NAME TO "BAM." VOICE TWO: BABE RUTH LED THE NEW YORK YANKEES TO SEVEN CHAMPIONSHIPS, INCLUDING FOUR WORLD SERIES TITLES. HE HIT MORE HOME RUNS THAN ANY OTHER BASEBALL PLAYER. IN NINETEEN-TWENTY-SEVEN, HE HIT SIXTY HOME RUNS. DURING HIS LIFETIME, HE HIT A TOTAL OF SEVEN-HUNDRED-FOURTEEN HOME RUNS. BEFORE HE BECAME A POWER HITTER, HE HAD BEEN AMONG THE BEST PITCHERS OF HIS TIME. ALL THESE SKILLS MADE BABE RUTH THE GREATEST PLAYER BASEBALL HAS EVER HAD. IN NINETEEN-THIRTY, RUTH EARNED EIGHTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS. THIS WAS MORE MONEY THAN THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, HERBERT HOOVER, EARNED THAT YEAR. REPORTERS ASKED RUTH WHY HE SHOULD BE PAID MORE THAN PRESIDENT HOOVER. RUTH REPORTEDLY SAID, "WHY NOT? I HAD A BETTER YEAR THAN HE DID." RUTH ALSO EARNED MONEY BY PERMITTING HIS NAME TO BE USED ON MANY PRODUCTS. A CANDY BAR WAS NAMED AFTER HIM. "BABY RUTH" CANDY BARS STILL ARE POPULAR TODAY. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE ONE: SOMETIMES, BABE RUTH GOT INTO TROUBLE ON THE BASEBALL FIELD. HE OFTEN ARRIVED LATE. HE GOT ANGRY OFTEN. HE HIT A BASEBALL UMPIRE. HE HAD MANY DISPUTES WITH THE CHIEF BASEBALL OFFICIAL. IN NINETEEN-TWENTY-ONE, THE YANKEES' MANAGER SUSPENDED RUTH FROM PLAYING. THE NEXT YEAR, RUTH DID THE WORST THING A BASEBALL PLAYER COULD DO. HE LEFT THE FIELD DURING A GAME TO CHASE A FAN WHO SAID SOMETHING HE DID NOT LIKE. HE HAD TO PAY FIVE-THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR VIOLATING THE RULES. VOICE TWO: BABE RUTH ALSO GOT INTO TROUBLE OFF THE BASEBALL FIELD. HE WAS A VERY LARGE MAN WHO LIKED TO HAVE A GOOD TIME. HE ATE TOO MUCH. HE DRANK TOO MUCH ALCOHOL. HE PLAYED CARDS AND LOST MONEY. HE WENT TO NIGHT CLUBS. HE DROVE HIS CAR TOO FAST. SOME PEOPLE WERE UNHAPPY ABOUT THE WAY HE ACTED. IN NINETEEN-TWENTY-TWO, NEW YORK STATE SENATOR JIMMY WALKER APPEALED TO BABE RUTH AT A DINNER OF THE BASEBALL WRITERS ASSOCIATION. MISTER WALKER ASKED THE GREAT BASEBALL STAR TO BE A BETTER EXAMPLE TO THE CHILDREN OF AMERICA. BABE RUTH STOOD UP WITH TEARS RUNNING DOWN HIS FACE. HE PROMISED HE WOULD BE A BETTER PERSON. HE KEPT HIS PROMISE. HE WAS NEVER IN TROUBLE AGAIN. VOICE ONE: YET BABE RUTH CONTINUED TO EAT TOO MUCH. IN NINETEEN-TWENTY-FIVE, HE WAS RETURNING ON A TRAIN FROM BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING IN THE SOUTH. HE BECAME HUNGRY. HE STOPPED AT A TRAIN STATION. HE REPORTEDLY ATE TWELVE HOT DOG SANDWICHES. HE DRANK EIGHT BOTTLES OF SOFT DRINK. RUTH DEVELOPED SEVERE STOMACH PROBLEMS. HE WAS TAKEN TO A HOSPITAL IN NEW YORK. BABE RUTH WAS SO SICK THAT DOCTORS HAD TO OPERATE ON HIM. HE WAS IN THE HOSPITAL FOR SEVEN WEEKS. MANY AMERICANS WORRIED ABOUT HIM UNTIL HE GOT WELL. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: BABE RUTH LOVED CHILDREN. IN NINETEEN-TWENTY-SIX, A CHILD NAMED JOHNNY SYLVESTER LAY IN A HOSPITAL BED. HE WAS VERY WEAK AFTER AN OPERATION. HIS DOCTOR THOUGHT THAT A VISIT FROM JOHNNY'S HERO MIGHT HELP THE BOY GET BETTER. SO BABE RUTH CAME TO THE HOSPITAL. HE WROTE HIS NAME ON A BASEBALL AND GAVE IT TO JOHNNY. HE PROMISED TO HIT A HOME RUN THAT AFTERNOON FOR THE BOY. BABE RUTH KEPT HIS PROMISE. IN FACT, HE HIT THREE HOME RUNS THAT DAY. VOICE ONE: THERE ARE MANY STORIES ABOUT BABE RUTH AND HIS LIFE. EXPERTS DO NOT AGREE ABOUT WHICH ONES ARE TRUE. THE MOST FAMOUS STORY ABOUT HIM CONCERNS THE NINETEEN-THIRTY-TWO WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. THE YANKEES WERE PLAYING THE CHICAGO CUBS IN CHICAGO. RUTH WAS AT BAT GETTING READY TO HIT. THE CUBS AND THEIR FANS WERE TRYING TO MAKE RUTH ANGRY. THEY INSULTED HIM. RUTH SWUNG HIS BAT AND MISSED THE FIRST PITCH. THE CROWD LAUGHED AT HIM. RUTH SWUNG AND MISSED THE SECOND PITCH. THE CROWD MADE MORE NOISES. THEN RUTH POINTED HIS BAT AT THE SEATS PAST THE CENTER FIELD OF THE BALL PARK. HE SHOWED THE CROWD WHERE HE WOULD HIT THE NEXT BALL. AND THAT WAS EXACTLY WHERE HE HIT THE BALL OUT OF THE PARK. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: RUTH STOPPED PLAYING BASEBALL IN NINETEEN-THIRTY-FIVE. THE NEXT YEAR HE WAS ONE OF THE FIRST FIVE PLAYERS TO BE ELECTED TO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. AFTER HE RETIRED AS A PLAYER, HE WANTED TO BE MANAGER OF A BASEBALL TEAM. BUT NO SUCH POSITION WAS OFFERED TO HIM. RUTH DIED IN NINETEEN-FORTY-EIGHT OF THROAT CANCER. HE WAS FIFTY-THREE YEARS OLD. BABE RUTH IS BURIED NEAR NEW YORK CITY. PEOPLE STILL COME TO VISIT HIS BURIAL PLACE. THEY LEAVE THINGS THERE: A YANKEES BASEBALL HAT. A SMALL AMERICAN FLAG. A BASEBALL. AMERICANS LEAVE THESE THINGS TO SHOW THAT THEY HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN THE BABE. (THEME) VOICE ONE: THIS SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY SHELLEY GOLLUST. IT WAS PRODUCED BY LAWAN DAVIS. I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND I'M DOUG JOHNSON. LISTEN AGAIN NEXT WEEK FOR ANOTHER PEOPLE IN AMERICAN PROGRAM ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-03-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 8, 2001: Patriotic Music
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Americans have always liked songs about their country. Since the terrorist attacks last month, they are singing these traditional patriotic songs more often than ever. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Today we present songs that celebrate America on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((“FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)) VOICE ONE: Americans will always remember the terrorist attacks on September Eleventh in which thousands of people were killed. Americans reacted with shock, anger and sadness. They also reacted by singing. Songs celebrating their country are helping many Americans deal with suffering and loss. People throughout the nation are singing these songs. One of the songs most often heard since the terrorist attacks is “God Bless America.” Lawmakers have sung it at the National Cathedral, in Congress and in state legislatures. Children are singing it in schools. People are singing it in churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious centers. Twenty-thousand people sang “God Bless America” at a memorial service at the New York Yankees baseball stadium. VOICE TWO: The great songwriter Irving Berlin wrote “God Bless America.” Irving Berlin had come to the United States with his family from Russia when he was a small boy. He became very successful writing songs. He wrote “God Bless America” in Nineteen-Eighteen to be included in a traveling musical show. However, Mister Berlin decided not to include the song in the show. Twenty years later, he looked at the song again and made some changes. The new song expressed his love and thanks to America for giving a poor immigrant a chance to succeed. Kate Smith sang “God Bless America” for the first time on a national radio broadcast in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. The public loved it. During World War Two, the song became especially important to Americans. Many people say it has become the unofficial national song. Here, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings “God Bless America.” ((Music: GOD BLESS AMERICA)) VOICE ONE: Another patriotic song is called “America.” It is also known as “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Samuel Smith wrote the words in Eighteen-Thirty-Two. The music is the same as the British national song, “God Save the Queen.” A recent religious service in Britain remembered the people killed in the attacks in the United States. British citizens honored the dead by singing the American words to the song. Here, American singer Mahalia Jackson sings “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” ((Music: “MY COUNTRY ‘TIS OF THEE”)) VOICE TWO: Another song that many people in the United States are singing is “America the Beautiful.” Many famous American actors and performers sang this song during a national television program to raise money for victims and heroes of the terrorist attacks.Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words to the song in Eighteen-Ninety-Three. Samuel Ward wrote the music. The United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants present their version of “America the Beautiful.” ((Music: “AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL”)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Forty, folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie wrote the words to another song that celebrates America. “This Land is Your Land” has become one of the most popular folk songs in America. “This Land is Your Land” is not a religious song. Yet after September Eleventh, some Americans have sung this song in religious centers. Pete Seeger and the Weavers sing "This Land is Your Land." ((Music: “THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND”)) VOICE TWO: Congress made “The Star-Spangled Banner” the national song in Nineteen-Thirty-One. Americans sing it at the beginning of many public meetings and sports events. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the song in Eighteen-Fourteen. At that time, the United States and Britain were at war. Francis Scott Key watched as British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the smoke and fire, he could see a huge American flag flying over the army base. The next morning after the battle, he saw that the American flag still flew. That meant America had defeated the British. Francis Scott Key wrote a poem re-creating the event. Soon after, music was added to his words. VOICE ONE: The words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" have gained new meaning since the terrorist attacks. The World Trade Center in New York fell soon after the attacks. Rescue workers found a flag in the remains of the building. They placed it over pieces of wreckage. This American flag marked the final resting place of thousands of people. Here is the Southwestern Christian College Chorus singing “The Star- Spangled Banner.” ((Music: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((Music: ”FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN”)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-03-6-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - October 8, 2001: Yellow Fever in Ivory Coast
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has launched a campaign to prevent yellow fever from spreading in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Health officials say at least three-million dollars is needed to buy emergency vaccine medicine to protect against the disease. They say that several cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in the capital. However, they believe the situation could be more serious than the number of cases suggests. Yellow fever is spread by mosquito insects. It is a rare disease. However, officials say it can spread very quickly in high population areas. For example, in crowded cities like Abidjan, mosquitoes often live in or near people’s homes. Yellow fever is difficult to recognize in its early development. It is often mistaken for malaria, typhoid or other causes of fever. It usually takes up to ten days before signs of the disease appear in the body. The disease becomes more serious if it is not treated. The victims may bleed from the mouth, nose, eyes or stomach. The disease also damages the liver. Officials say that as many as fifty percent of people who have signs of the more serious disease die within the first two weeks. Gregory Hartl is a spokesman for the World Health Organization. He says Abidjan has a population of more than three-million-five-hundred-thousand people. However, only about forty percent of the city’s population has received the vaccine to prevent yellow fever. Mister Hartl says this means there are still more than two-million people at risk of getting the disease. He says that the normal attack rate for yellow fever is thirty percent. So he believes there could be as many as seven-hundred-thousand people in Abidjan who might get yellow fever. The W-H-O is working with the Ministry of Public Health in Ivory Coast to develop the vaccine campaign. The organization is working to buy supplies of the vaccine and send them to Abidjan. Officials say the disease could spread quickly through the city. The W-H-O is urging member countries to give money for the campaign to provide the vaccine. Without it, the organization says a humanitarian tragedy is possible. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 5, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music by Isaac Stern ... answer a question about engagements ... and tell about a special reading project taking place in Chicago. One Book, One Chicago HOST: Each year, the city of Chicago, Illinois, observes Library Week. This year the celebration of reading is called “One Book, One Chicago.” City officials hope to influence more people to read and enjoy books. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: To observe ”One Book, One Chicago”, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has asked all the people in the city to read the same book. It is “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Harper Lee wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird” in Nineteen-Sixty. It won the Pulitzer Prize. The story makes a strong statement against racial injustice. The organizers of Library Week hope the book will help people discuss racial issues. The story tells about a white lawyer in the American South during the Nineteen-Thirties. Atticus Finch lives in the state of Alabama. He defends a black man wrongly accused of sexually attacking a white woman. People in his small town react angrily when Atticus Finch accepts the case. His young daughter Scout tells the story. Its message is that it is important to do the right thing. The book shows that this is true even if it means going against social pressures. For the project, libraries in Chicago bought thousands more copies of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Some are in Polish, Spanish and Chinese. Mary Dempsey is the city’s library chief. She says many people have borrowed the book. Bookstores have reported an increase in sales of the book, too. Planners say tens of thousands of people probably will have read ”To Kill a Mockingbird” by the end of Chicago Library Week October twelfth. People are discussing the book at local libraries. Groups also are meeting to discuss the book at local coffee shops, bookstores and in private homes. They also are exchanging ideas on the Internet. Libraries are showing the film that was made from the book in Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Actor Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for his performance as Atticus Finch. Chicago lawyers will enact a trial similar to the one that provides the central conflict of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The idea of having everyone in a city read the same book began four years ago. Library worker Nancy Pearl started it in Seattle, Washington after receiving money for a special project. Now Seattle does it every year. Several other cities have followed the example. They include Buffalo and Rochester, New York; Springfield, Illinois and Boise, Idaho. Engagements HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ukraine. Oleg Palayda asks about engagements in the United States. The period of engagement is the time between the marriage proposal and the wedding ceremony. Two people agree to marry when they decide to spend their lives together. The man usually gives the woman a diamond engagement ring. That tradition is said to have started when Archduke Maximilian of Austria gave a diamond ring to the woman he wanted to marry. The diamond represented beauty. He placed it on the third finger of her left hand. He chose that finger because it was thought that a blood vessel or nerve in that finger went directly to the heart. Today, we know that this is not true. Yet the tradition continues. Americans generally are engaged for a period of about one year if they are planning a wedding ceremony and party. During this time, friends of the bride may hold a party called a bridal shower. Women friends and family members give the bride gifts she will need as a wife. These could include cooking equipment or new clothing. Friends of the groom may have a bachelor party for him. This usually takes place the night before the wedding. Only men are invited to the bachelor party. It is considered the groom’s last night out as an unmarried man. During the marriage ceremony, the bride and groom usually exchange gold rings that represent the idea that their union will continue forever. The wife often wears both the wedding ring and engagement ring on the same finger. The husband wears his ring on the third finger of his left hand. Many people say the purpose of the engagement period is to permit enough time to plan the wedding. But another purpose is to let enough time pass so the two people are sure they want to marry each other. Either person may decide to break the engagement. If this happens, the woman usually returns the ring to the man. They also return any wedding or shower gifts they have received. Isaac Stern HOST: World famous violinist Isaac Stern died last month. He was eighty-one years old. Shirley Griffith tells us about him and his music. ANNCR: Isaac Stern was born in what is now Ukraine in Nineteen-Twenty. He came to the United States with his parents when he was one year old. He grew up in San Francisco, California. His mother began teaching him the piano when he was six. He began learning the violin after hearing a friend play the instrument. Later, he studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He performed publicly for the first time at the age of sixteen. By Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, Isaac Stern was playing concerts all over the world. Here he plays Dvorak's “Humoresque” with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. ((CUT 1: HUMORESQUE)) Isaac Stern first played at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City in Nineteen-Forty-Three. He loved playing in the same hall where many great musicians had performed. He organized a committee to save Carnegie Hall when it was in danger of being torn down in Nineteen-Sixty. Isaac Stern was a great teacher. He was one of the most honored musicians in the world. He played with almost every major orchestra. He became one of the most recorded musicians in history. We leave you now with Isaac Stern playing Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. ((CUT 2: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA CDC-2760A)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineers were Michael Dubinsky and Tom Verba. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 6, 2001: Reagan National Airport Re-opens
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Reagan National Airport near Washington, D-C, re-opened Thursday with a limited number of flights. It was the last major American airport to re-open after the September Eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States. President Bush announced the decision Tuesday. He told reporters there was no greater sign that America is back in business than the re-opening of National Airport. On September Eleventh, four hijacked American passenger planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington and an area in Pennsylvania. All airports in the United States were closed the day of the attack. Stronger security measures have been established at all American airports to protect against possible terrorist attacks in the future. The new restrictions at Reagan National Airport are said to be the strongest security measures of any airport in the United States. For example, armed federal guards will be on flights to and from the airport. Passengers will be questioned or searched at least two times before getting on their flights. The number of things they may carry onto planes also has been limited. Special new X-ray machines will examine all objects belonging to passengers before they are placed on the planes. Stronger security measures also will affect all airport workers. Flight paths into and out of the Washington area are also changing. More air space over the nation’s capital is expected to close. The stronger security measures follow a recent debate within the Bush Administration about the future of Reagan National Airport. The airport is considered to be very important for the nation’s travel industry. Yet, it is located less than one minute by air from the White House, Capitol, Pentagon and other important government buildings. President Bush settled the issue by approving a plan to slowly bring National Airport back to use under heavy restrictions. The re-opening of the airport will happen in two steps. During the first step, six of the sixteen airlines that serve the airport will be permitted to fly to eight American cities. After several weeks, direct flights to ten other cities will be permitted. Four-hundred-fifty flights are expected to fly into and out of National Airport each day. This is about fifty-seven percent of the total number of daily flights before September Eleventh. About forty-two-thousand passengers a day used Reagan National Airport last year. The airport employs more then ten-thousand people. Airport officials estimate the airport provides more than two-thousand-million dollars a year for the Washington area economy. Robert Grow is the Transportation Director for the Greater Washington Board of Trade. He says that re-opening Reagan National Airport will greatly improve the city’s economy. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 9, 2001: Farm Safety
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. A new report by the National Safety Council says agriculture is one of the most dangerous industries in the United States. The group says that more than seven-hundred people died while working on American farms in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine. One-hundred-fifty-thousand others suffered injuries that prevented them from farming. Recently, President Bush declared National Farm Safety and Health Week. The declaration notes that many young people are injured or killed in preventable farm accidents. It says progress is being made in developing technology that makes farm work safer. It says children must be taught to recognize risks on the farm and to work safely. The National Safety Council reports that one-hundred children die from farm work accidents each year in the United States. The group organized a national event for National Farm Safety and Health Week. This year, the subject was child safety. The group notes the importance of keeping children safe from the dangers of farm work. It says many young children are at risk when working with farm animals. Others drown in waterways or in storage centers for animal wastes. The National Safety Council is urging farmers to develop a safety and health plan for their farm operations, family and employees. Officials say such plans include a fire protection plan, chemical storage plan, farm safety rules and an emergency communications plan. They say all plans should be kept in writing and examined yearly. The group urges farmers to train all employees and inform them of their plans and rules. It says farmers should inspect their equipment and farms for safety problems. Farmers should buy quality products and use them as directed. They also should keep children away from dangerous machines. Studies show that farmers have the highest rate of death as a result of conditions linked to tension, or stress. The National Safety Council notes that stress can create mental and physical problems if it is not treated. The group suggests that farmers talk about their problems with family, friends, or clergy. They should limit the use of alcohol and caffeine products. Farmers should stop smoking. And they should get enough sleep. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 9, 2001: Stem Cell Research
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about research using special cells called stem cells. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Two months ago, President Bush approved limited federal government support of research on special human cells. The research involves stem cells taken from fertilized human eggs called embryos. Stem cells have qualities that may make them highly useful in the treatment of many diseases. The stem cells from embryos are the most useful. They are able to develop into all the kinds of tissues of the body. Scientists believe stem cells may be used to cure many diseases. President Bush placed restrictions on government support for stem cell research. The Bush administration approved research on sixty-four groups of embryonic stem cells. These stem cell groups are in laboratories in the United States and several other countries. American government researchers are permitted to study only these embryonic stem cell groups. Private laboratories that do not use federal money are not affected by the limits on stem cell research. VOICE TWO: Many groups disagreed with the president’s decision. Many scientists and some lawmakers believe there should be no limits placed on stem cell research. Also, some religious groups are concerned about government support for stem cell research. They believe all research on stem cells from embryos should be banned. Some groups oppose the research because they believe it takes human life. There are many questions about the embryonic stem cell groups approved for research. Some scientists are concerned that not enough cell groups have been approved for research. Last month, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said that only about twenty-four groups of embryonic stem cells were ready for research.Now, many scientists are also concerned that the approved groups of cells may not be pure or may not survive. VOICE ONE: There are three kinds of stem cells. They are adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells and embryonic germ cells. Adult stem cells are taken from human tissue. Medical researchers have known for about forty years that these stem cells can create blood-making tissue. However, scientists from the National Institutes of Health say that adult stem cells may not be as useful as other kinds of stem cells. They say adult stem cells are difficult to identify. The scientists do not believe that adult stem cells can reproduce themselves in large numbers. Also, some health officials say there is no evidence that adult stem cells have the ability to become cells of any kind of organ or tissue. Most research appears to show that adult stem cells are limited in their abilities to treat disease.N-I-H researchers say that the most useful kinds of stem cells are taken from fertilized human eggs, or embryos. VOICE TWO: Embryonic stem cells are taken from embryos created in laboratories to help women become pregnant. Scientists take embryonic stem cells from embryos that are four to five days old. During these first days, the cells in the embryo divide quickly. For a short period, each of the embryo’s cells is able to become any one of more than two-hundred different kinds of cells in the body. The great value of embryonic stem cells appears to be their ability to reproduce in large numbers in the laboratory before they become specialized cells. Scientists call a group of stem cells taken from one embryo a line. Some stem cell lines have reproduced for up to two years and have increased their numbers several hundred times. VOICE ONE: Scientists in many countries are currently doing research on lines of stem cells that continuously reproduce as unspecialized cells. Researchers hope to grow large numbers of these unspecialized cells in the laboratory. These cells can then be treated and purified so that they can be used to cure diseased tissue. Researchers believe that embryonic stem cells may be used to help diseased organs develop healthy cells again. They hope that these stem cells can be used to treat diseases of the brain, heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys. These include diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. VOICE TWO: The third kind of stem cell is called an embryonic germ cell. These cells are taken from the unformed reproductive organs of five-to-ten-week-old fetuses. Embryonic germ cells do not reproduce as many times as embryonic stem cells. However, both embryonic stem cells and embryonic germ cells show an ability to change into many different kinds of cells. Yet stem cell research presents special problems. Some of the problems are scientific. Some are not. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: A report by a group of top scientists warns that there are many difficulties in using stem cells for medical treatment. The National Academy of Sciences report notes that embryonic stem cells must be treated to become human tissue. However, the patient’s body may reject such tissue because the genetic material is different. Scientists must develop other technologies to keep the body from rejecting new biological material from stem cells. The medical use of stem cells may still be far in the future. Yet currently approved embryonic stem cell lines may become too old in the years to come. Genetic change over time presents a major problem to stem cell researchers. VOICE TWO: Last month, scientists at the University of Wisconsin announced that they had made human embryonic stem cells into blood cells. The human stem cells were grown with blood-making cells from mice. The human stem cells then developed into red and white blood cells and other cells found in human blood. This successful experiment shows the difficulties involved in current stem cell research. Many experiments using human stem cells also involve biological products from animals. VOICE ONE: Scientists from the National Academy of Sciences note that most embryonic stem cell lines are grown along with special cells from mice. Many published studies show that stem cell experiments at this time involve the use of biological material from mice, cows and monkeys. For this reason, the National Academy of Sciences report calls for new embryonic stem cell lines to be developed. The report says that current stem cell lines may carry health risks because they have been developed using animal cells. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Other problems involving stem cell research are not scientific. In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin first grew human embryonic stem cells in a laboratory. A biotechnology company called Geron (JERR-on) Corporation of Menlo Park, California provided much of the money for the early research. Since then, Geron Corporation has sought legal rights to all products that come from research done by the University of Wisconsin. The university does not believe that its agreement with the company includes all of its discoveries. Recently, the University of Wisconsin asked a court to limit Geron’s claim on its research. The legal dispute between these two groups could reduce the number of stem cell lines that researchers can use. VOICE ONE: Another important part of the debate over stem cells involves religious beliefs. Many religious groups oppose all embryonic stem cell research. They consider it the same as taking human life. In July, Pope John Paul the Second told President Bush that the Catholic Church opposes all forms of stem cell research. In the United States, the Southern Baptist Church and the United Methodist Church also strongly oppose the research. Other religious groups accept the research with several restrictions because it may lead to cures for some diseases. A large organization of Jewish clergy generally supports stem cell research. The American Presbyterian Church also supports the research. The debate over embryonic stem cell research is complex and will continue for some time. Scientists hope that stem cells will some day be used to treat disease. Yet new technologies must still be developed before such treatments can be used. However, experts say no solution can be reached easily because this research involves morality as well as medicine. VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 10, 2001: Edwin Hubble
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) Today, Richard Rael and Tony Riggs tell the story of American astronomer, Edwin Hubble. He changed our ideas about the universe and how it developed. Edwin Hubble made his most important discoveries in the Nineteen-Twenties. Today, other astronomers continue the work he began. Many of them are using the Hubble space telescope that is named after him. (THEME) VOICE TWO: Edwin Powell Hubble was born in Eighteen-Eighty-Nine in Marshfield, Missouri. He spent his early years in the state of Kentucky. Then he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago. He studied mathematics and astronomy. Hubble was a good student. He was a good athlete, too. He was a member of the University of Chicago championship basketball team in Nineteen-oh-Nine. He also was an excellent boxer. Several people urged him to train for the world heavyweight boxing championship after college. Instead, he decided to continue his studies. He went to Queen's College at Oxford, England. At Oxford, Hubble studied law. He was interested in British Common Law, because his family had come to America from England many years before. He spent three years at Oxford. In Nineteen-Thirteen, Hubble returned to the United States. He opened a law office in Louisville, Kentucky. After a short time, however, he decided he did not want to be a lawyer. He returned to the University of Chicago. There, once again, he studied astronomy. VOICE ONE: Hubble watched the night sky with instruments at the university's Yerkes Observatory. His research involved a major question astronomers could not answer. What are nebulae? The astronomical term 'nebulae', Hubble explained, had come down through the centuries. It was the name given to permanent, cloudy areas in the sky outside our solar system. Some astronomers thought nebulae were part of our Milky Way Galaxy. Others thought they were island universes farther away in space. In his research paper, Hubble said the issue could be decided only by more powerful instruments. And those instruments had not yet been developed. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Seventeen, the United States was fighting in World War One in Europe. Edwin Hubble joined the American army and served in France. Earlier, astronomer George Ellery Hale had offered Hubble a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory in southern California. When Hubble returned to the United States after World War One, he accepted Hale's offer. Hubble was thirty years old. He was just beginning the work that would make him famous. VOICE ONE: In his first observations from Mount Wilson, Hubble used a telescope with a mirror one-hundred fifty-two-centimeters across. He studied objects within our own galaxy. And he made an important discovery about nebulae. Hubble said the light that appeared to come from nebulae really came from stars near the nebulae. The nebulae, he said, were clouds of atoms and dust. They were not hot enough -- like stars -- to give off light. Soon after, Hubble began working with a larger and more powerful telescope at Mount Wilson. Its mirror was two-hundred-fifty centimeters across. It was the most powerful telescope in the world for twenty-five years. It had the power Hubble needed to make his major discoveries. VOICE TWO: From Nineteen-Twenty-Two on, Edwin Hubble began examining more and more distant objects. His first great discovery was made when he recognized a Cepheid variable star. It was in the outer area of the great nebula called Andromeda. Cepheid variable stars are stars whose brightness changes at regular periods. An astronomer at Harvard College, Henrietta Leavitt, had discovered that these periods of brightness could be used to measure the star's distance from Earth. Hubble made the measurements. They showed that the Andromeda nebula lay far outside our Milky Way Galaxy. Hubble's discovery ended a long dispute. He proved wrong those who believed nebulae lay inside the Milky Way. And he proved that nebulae were galaxies themselves. Astronomers now agree that far distant galaxies do exist. VOICE ONE: Hubble then began to observe more details about galaxies. He studied their shape and brightness. By Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he had made enough observations to say that the universe is organized into galaxies of many shapes and sizes. As stars differ from one another, he said, so do galaxies. Some are spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. They have a center, and arms of matter that seem to circle the center like a pinwheel. Others are shaped like baseballs or eggs. A few have no special shape. VOICE TWO: Hubble proposed a system to describe galaxies by their shape. His system still is used today. He also showed that galaxies are similar in the kinds of bright objects they contain. All galaxies, he said, are related to each other, much as members of a family are related to each other. In the late Nineteen-Twenties, Hubble studied the movement of galaxies through space. His investigation led to the most important astronomical discovery of the Twentieth century -- the expanding universe. VOICE ONE: Earlier observations about the movement of galaxies had been done by V. M. Silpher. He discovered that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds between three-hundred kilometers a second and one-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers a second. Hubble understood the importance of Silpher's findings. He developed a plan for measuring both the distance and speed of as many galaxies as possible. With his assistant at Mount Wilson, Milton Humason, Hubble measured the movement of galaxies. The two men did this by studying what Hubble called the "red shift." It also is known as the "Doppler effect." The Doppler effect explains changes in the length of light waves or sound waves as they move toward you or away from you. Light waves from an object speeding away from you will stretch into longer wavelengths. They appear red. Light waves from an object speeding toward you will have shorter wavelengths. They appear blue. VOICE TWO: Observations of forty-six galaxies showed Hubble that the galaxies were traveling away from Earth. The observations also showed that the speed was linked directly to the galaxies' distance from Earth. Hubble discovered that the farther away a galaxy is, the greater its speed. This scientific rule is called "Hubble's Law." Hubble's discovery meant a major change in our idea of the universe. The universe had not been quiet and unchanging since the beginning of time, as many people had thought. It was expanding. And that, Hubble said, meant it probably began with an explosion of unimaginable force. The explosion often is called "the big bang." VOICE ONE: Hubble's work did not end with this discovery. He continued to examine galaxies. He continued to gain new knowledge about them. Astronomers from all over the world went to study with him. Hubble left the Mount Wilson Observatory during World War Two. He did research for the United States War Department. He returned after the war. Then, he spent much of his time planning a new, much larger telescope in southern California. The telescope was completed in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. It had a mirror five-hundred centimeters across. It was named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. VOICE TWO: Edwin Hubble was the first person to use the Hale Telescope. He died in Nineteen-Fifty-Three while preparing to spend four nights looking through the telescope at the sky. Hubble's work led to new research on the birth of the universe. One astronomer said scientists have been filling in the details ever since. And, he said, there is a long way to go. (THEME) ANNOUNCER: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Tony Riggs. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - October 10, 2001: Virus Appears to Slow HIV
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A harmless virus carried by millions of people around the world may slow the progress of H-I-V, the virus that causes the disease AIDS. Studies show that people infected with both viruses live longer than people infected with H-I-V alone. Experts say the discovery might lead to new treatments for AIDS. The virus was discovered in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. It was called hepatitis G. However, experts say it does not appear to cause hepatitis or any other disease. So researchers call this apparently harmless virus by the new name, G-B-C virus, or G-B-V-C. G-B-V-C is passed to other people by blood and through sexual activity. It is found in people with H-I-V, people who use needles to inject drugs and the general population. Researchers say G-B-V-C seems to reduce damage to the defense system of people with H-I-V. The virus also appears to improve the effects of AIDS drugs. And it appears to help people with AIDS live longer. However, they are not sure how the virus works. They say the G-B-C virus may prevent H-I-V from reproducing. It may strengthen the body’s defense system to fight H-I-V more effectively. Or the virus may be found more often in people with H-I-V who survive longer for some other reason. The findings were reported in two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine. In one study, researchers in the state of Iowa studied the blood of more than three-hundred-fifty people with H-I-V. About forty-percent of the people were also infected with G-B-V-C. Those infected with H-I-V alone were almost four times more likely to die during the four-year observation period than those with both infections. The second study involved almost two-hundred people with H-I-V. It was carried out at a medical school in Hanover, Germany. It also found much higher survival rates among people with both H-I-V and the G-B-C virus. The researchers also discovered that people who had more G-B-V-C in their blood also had less H-I-V in their blood. However, experts say reasons other than the G-B-C virus might explain why people with both viruses live longer. They say there could be genetic reasons or other disease-causing agents involved. Experts say that the G-B-C virus should not be used as a treatment for H-I-V or AIDS until more is known about it. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - October 11, 2001: Satellite Radio
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. A private company has launched a satellite radio service in the United States. X-M Satellite Radio is offering one-hundred radio channels, with music, news and other information. X-M is currently offering its service to listeners in the cities of Dallas, Texas and San Diego, California. It plans to begin nationwide service by November fifteenth. People who want to listen to X-M Satellite Radio must pay for the service. It will cost about ten dollars a month. X-M has been in development for more than ten years. The company is based in Washington, D-C. Listeners can choose among seventy-one different music channels. Thirty of these channels do not have commercials, paid announcements for products or services. There are twenty-nine other channels for news, sports and other radio shows. The programs are sent from the offices of X-M to two communications satellites in Earth orbit. The satellites are about thirty-five-thousand kilometers above the Earth. Listeners need special radio equipment in their homes or cars to receive signals from the satellites. In some cities, tall buildings may block the signals. So X-M has deployed hundreds of ground transmitters to carry the broadcasts in the affected areas. Some telephone companies oppose the ground transmitters, also known as repeaters. They claim the devices could interfere with cellular wireless telephone service. Last month, the Federal Communications Commission gave X-M a temporary permit to use the transmitters until officials develop rules for their use. X-M Satellite Radio has launched a one-hundred-million dollar national campaign to tell the public about the new service. Reports say X-M hopes to have at least fifty-thousand listeners by the end of this year. A second satellite radio service plans to begin operating in the United States later this year. That company is called Sirius Satellite Radio. It also plans to offer one-hundred channels to people willing to pay for its service. However, some business experts are not sure either company will get large numbers of Americans to pay for radio. The experts expressed even less hope for the services after the terrorist attacks in the United States last month caused a drop in stock prices. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 11, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 8
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) I'M LARRY WEST. TODAY, SHIRLEY GRIFFITH AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE FOLLOWING WORLD WAR ONE. THE ALLIES -- LED BY BRITAIN, FRANCE, ITALY, AND THE UNITED STATES -- HAD WON THE WAR. THE CENTRAL POWERS -- LED BY GERMANY -- HAD LOST. VOICE TWO: AMERICAN PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WAS ONE OF THE CHIEF NEGOTIATORS AT THE CONFERENCE IN PARIS. THROUGHOUT THE EARLY MONTHS OF NINETEEN-NINETEEN, HE STRUGGLED HARD FOR A TREATY THAT WOULD RESULT IN PEACE WITH JUSTICE FOR ALL SIDES. WILSON DEMANDED A TREATY THAT PROVIDED FOR A NEW INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION. HE CALLED IT THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. TO WILSON, THE LEAGUE WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY OTHER PART OF THE TREATY. NOT ALL AMERICANS SHARED WILSON'S OPINION. MANY FEARED THE LEAGUE WOULD TAKE AWAY THE POWER OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE WAR AND MAKE TREATIES. THEY ALSO AGREED WITH THE LEADERS OF THE OTHER ALLIED NATIONS. ESTABLISHING THE LEAGUE WAS LESS IMPORTANT THAN PUNISHING THE DEFEATED ENEMY. VOICE ONE: THE OTHER MAJOR ALLIED LEADERS AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE WERE PRIME MINISTER DAVID LLOYD-GEORGE OF BRITAIN, PREMIER GEORGES CLEMENCEAU OF FRANCE, AND PREMIER VITTORIO OTTO OF ITALY. LLOYD-GEORGE, CLEMENCEAU, AND OTTO UNDERSTOOD HOW MUCH WILSON WANTED THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. THEY USED THIS KNOWLEDGE TO WIN WILSON'S APPROVAL FOR OTHER PARTS OF THE PEACE TREATY. WILSON SOON LEARNED THAT, TO GET THE LEAGUE, HE HAD TO COMPROMISE ON MANY ISSUES. FOR EXAMPLE, HE HAD TO ACCEPT BRITISH AND FRENCH DEMANDS TO MAKE GERMANY PAY ALL WAR DAMAGES. THE PAYMENTS ADDED UP TO MORE THAN THREE-HUNDRED THOUSAND-MILLION DOLLARS. WILSON ALSO HAD TO ACCEPT THE ALLIED TAKE-OVER OF GERMANY'S COLONIES. VOICE TWO: SOME OF WILSON'S COMPROMISES VIOLATED HIS BELIEF IN SELF-DETERMINATION. THIS WAS THE RIGHT OF ALL PEOPLE TO DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES WHO WOULD GOVERN THEM. ONE COMPROMISE, FOR EXAMPLE, GAVE TO JAPAN GERMANY'S COLONIAL RIGHTS IN THE SHANTUNG AREA OF CHINA. CHINA PROTESTED THE DECISION. IT ASKED THAT CONTROL OF SHANTUNG BE RETURNED TO THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT. BUT PRESIDENT WILSON NEEDED JAPAN'S SUPPORT FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. SO HE ACCEPTED JAPAN'S DEMAND FOR CONTROL OF SHANTUNG. THERE WERE OTHER VIOLATIONS OF THE POLICY OF SELF-DETERMINATION. THESE AFFECTED THE PEOPLE AND LAND ALONG THE BORDERS OF SEVERAL EUROPEAN NATIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, THREE-MILLION GERMANS WERE MADE CITIZENS OF THE NEW NATION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA. MILLIONS OF OTHER GERMANS WERE FORCED INTO THE NEWLY-FORMED NATION OF POLAND. AND ITALY RECEIVED TERRITORY THAT HAD BELONGED TO AUSTRIA. VOICE ONE: TODAY, MOST HISTORY EXPERTS AGREE WOODROW WILSON WAS CORRECT IN OPPOSING THESE DECISIONS. THEY SAY GERMANY'S LOSS OF TERRITORY AND CITIZENS CAUSED DEEP BITTERNESS. AND THE BITTERNESS HELPED LEAD TO THE RISE OF FASCIST DICTATOR ADOLPH HITLER IN THE NINETEEN-THIRTIES. IN EAST ASIA, JAPANESE CONTROL OVER PARTS OF CHINA CREATED SERIOUS TENSIONS. BOTH DECISIONS HELPED PLANT THE SEEDS FOR THE BLOODY HARVEST OF WORLD WAR TWO TWENTY YEARS LATER. BUT ALLIED LEADERS AT THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE WERE NOT LOOKING FAR INTO THE FUTURE. AS ONE PERSON SAID AT THE TIME: "THEY DIVIDED EUROPE LIKE PEOPLE CUTTING UP A TASTY PIE." VOICE TWO: AFTER MONTHS OF NEGOTIATIONS, THE PEACE TREATY WAS COMPLETED. THE ALLIES GAVE IT TO A GERMAN DELEGATION ON MAY SEVENTH, NINETEEN-NINETEEN. THE HEAD OF THE DELEGATION OBJECTED IMMEDIATELY. HE SAID THE TREATY WAS UNFAIR. HE URGED HIS GOVERNMENT NOT TO SIGN IT. AT FIRST, GERMANY DID NOT SIGN. THE LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT REFUSED AND RESIGNED IN PROTEST. BUT A NEW GOVERNMENT WAS FORMED. AND ITS LEADER SIGNED THE DOCUMENT AT A CEREMONY AT THE PALACE IN VERSAILLES OUTSIDE PARIS. FINALLY, WORLD WAR ONE WAS OFFICIALLY OVER. VOICE ONE: PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES AFTER THE TREATY SIGNING CEREMONY. HE WAS NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH THE TREATY. YET HE BELIEVED IT WAS STILL VALUABLE, BECAUSE IT ESTABLISHED THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. WILSON'S BATTLE FOR THE LEAGUE WAS ONLY HALF OVER WHEN THE TREATY WAS SIGNED IN EUROPE. HE HAD TO WIN APPROVAL FROM THE UNITED STATES SENATE. THAT HALF OF THE BATTLE WOULD NOT BE EASY. VOICE TWO: PART OF THE PROBLEM WAS POLITICAL. WILSON WAS A MEMBER OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. THE SENATE WAS CONTROLLED BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. ALSO, WILSON HAD REFUSED TO NAME ANY IMPORTANT REPUBLICANS TO HIS NEGOTIATING TEAM AT THE PEACE CONFERENCE. PART OF THE PROBLEM WAS PERSONAL. A NUMBER OF SENATORS DISLIKED WILSON. ONE WAS REPUBLICAN SENATOR HENRY CABOT LODGE. LODGE WAS THE POWERFUL CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE. HE TOLD A FRIEND HE NEVER EXPECTED TO HATE ANYONE AS MUCH AS HE HATED WILSON. VOICE ONE: WILSON SPOKE BEFORE THE SENATE JUST TWO DAYS AFTER HE RETURNED FROM EUROPE. HE URGED IT TO APPROVE THE PEACE TREATY. WILSON SAID: "THE UNITED POWER OF FREE NATIONS MUST PUT A STOP TO AGGRESSION. AND THE WORLD MUST BE GIVEN PEACE. SHALL WE AND ANY OTHER FREE PEOPLE REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS GREAT DUTY? DARE WE REJECT IT AND BREAK THE HEART OF THE WORLD? WE CANNOT TURN BACK. AMERICA SHALL SHOW THE WAY. THE LIGHT STREAMS UPON THE PATH AHEAD AND NOWHERE ELSE." VOICE TWO: THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE BEGAN HEARINGS ON THE TREATY. IT HEARD A NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO OPPOSED THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. THEY SAID THE LEAGUE WOULD DESTROY THE FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES. THE COMMITTEE COMPLETED ITS HEARINGS AND PREPARED A REPORT FOR THE FULL SENATE. THE REPORT SAID THE UNITED STATES SHOULD REJECT THE TREATY, UNLESS CHANGES WERE MADE. THE COMMITTEE PROPOSED ALMOST FORTY CHANGES. VOICE ONE: THE COMMITTEE'S REPORT WAS A BLOW TO PRESIDENT WILSON BOTH POLITICALLY AND PERSONALLY. HE HAD WORKED EXTREMELY HARD TO WIN EUROPE'S SUPPORT FOR THE IDEA OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS. GREAT CROWDS IN PARIS HAD CHEERED HIM AND HIS IDEA. NOW, THE SENATE OF HIS OWN COUNTRY WAS ABOUT TO REJECT IT. WILSON DECIDED HE MUST TAKE HIS CASE OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLES' REPRESENTATIVES. HE WOULD TAKE THE CASE DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES. HE WOULD BUILD PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR THE TREATY. IF ENOUGH CITIZENS SUPPORTED IT, HE BELIEVED, THE SENATE COULD NOT REJECT IT. VOICE TWO: PRESIDENT WILSON PLANNED A SPEAKING TRIP ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HIS FAMILY AND HIS DOCTOR URGED HIM NOT TO GO. THEY SAID HE WAS STILL WEAK FROM A RECENT SICKNESS. BUT WILSON REFUSED THE ADVICE. HE SAID THE TREATY WAS MORE IMPORTANT TO HIM THAN HIS OWN LIFE. THE PRESIDENT LEFT WASHINGTON IN EARLY SEPTEMBER. HE TRAVELED IN A SPECIAL TRAIN. IN CITY AFTER CITY, HE MADE SPEECHES AND RODE IN PARADES. HE SHOOK THOUSANDS OF HANDS. AT TIMES, HE SUFFERED FROM A PAINFUL HEADACHE. BUT THERE WAS NO TIME TO REST. VOICE ONE: EVERYWHERE WILSON STOPPED, HE URGED THE PEOPLE TO SUPPORT THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. IT WAS, HE SAID, THE ONLY HOPE FOR PEACE. IN BOULDER, COLORADO, TEN-THOUSAND PEOPLE WAITED TO HEAR HIM. BY THEN, WILSON WAS EXTREMELY WEAK. HE HAD TO BE HELPED UP THE STEPS OF THE BUILDING WHERE HE WAS TO SPEAK. HE MADE THE SPEECH. HE SAID HE WAS WORKING TO HONOR THE MEN WHO HAD DIED IN THE WAR. HE SAID HE WAS WORKING FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD. VOICE TWO: WILSON PUT ALL HIS HEART AND ENERGY INTO HIS SPEECHES. AND, AS HIS FAMILY AND DOCTOR HAD WARNED, THE PRESSURE WAS TOO GREAT. WHILE IN WICHITA, KANSAS, THE PAIN IN HIS HEAD BECAME TERRIBLE. HE COULD NOT SPEAK CLEARLY. HIS FACE SEEMED FROZEN. A BLOOD VESSEL HAD BROKEN IN HIS BRAIN. WILSON HAD SUFFERED A STROKE. THE PRESIDENT WAS FORCED TO RETURN TO WASHINGTON. HIS CONDITION GOT WORSE EVERY DAY. SOON, HE WAS UNABLE TO MOVE. WOODROW WILSON WOULD SPEND THE REST OF HIS PRESIDENCY AS A TERRIBLY SICK MAN. HE CONTINUED TO HOLD ON TO HIS DREAMS OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS. BUT HIS DREAMS NOW FILLED A BROKEN BODY. WE WILL CONTINUE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE LARRY WEST AND SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 12, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some electric guitar music ... tell about an unusual baseball season ... and report about the new popularity of the American flag. The American Flag HOST: Millions of Americans have been flying their national flag since the terrorist attacks in the United States last month. They are doing so to support their country and remember the victims of the attacks. Shirley Griffith tells us about it. ANNCR: Manufacturers of American flags have been working many additional hours lately. Workers in factories from China to the American state of Florida are trying to make enough flags to satisfy American public demand. Record numbers of people in the United States are buying the red, white and blue flags. Sales have increased by at least two-hundred percent since the terrorist attacks on September Eleventh. In the past, many Americans only flew the flag outside their homes on national holidays, like the Fourth of July and Memorial Day. Now, people are flying these flags everywhere. Americans have placed the flags on trucks, cars, boats and bicycles. They have hung the flags from office buildings, homes and stores. Flags are waving over theaters, concert halls, private clubs and hotels. Some Americans were surprised to learn that there are laws governing the flag. For example, it should not be flown at night unless it is lighted. The flag should not hang outside in bad weather unless it is made of protective material. It should never be worn on clothes. After the terrorist attacks, President Bush ordered the American flag flown at half-staff. This meant that flags on poles were flying at half the distance to the top. This position is a sign of mourning. The American flag has a long and interesting history. America began as thirteen British colonies. Each colony had its own flag. However, the American colonists fought under a common flag during the Revolutionary War against Britain. It had thirteen red and white stripes to represent the thirteen colonies. A blue square area in the upper left corner contained the British flag. The current American flag still has the stripes. Fifty white stars in the blue area now represent the fifty states in the union. Recently, sixty graduates of the United States Naval Academy honored those killed and injured in the terrorist attacks in an unusual way. They formed teams of runners. They carried an American flag about three-hundred-sixty kilometers from Washington, D-C, to New York City. They carried the American flag from the Pentagon to the ruins of the World Trade Center. A Record Baseball Season HOST: The North American professional baseball season ended on Sunday. Perhaps no other sport has deeper roots in American life than baseball. Famous players are as well-known to Americans as the country’s great scientists, writers and political leaders. Ray Freeman has more about a most unusual baseball season. ANNCR: Millions of people have been following Major League Baseball since the first games played in early April. Yet this year will be remembered for being far different from all others. The terrorist attacks on September eleventh delayed the end of the baseball season. After the attacks, Major League officials postponed all games for one week. The postponed games were added to the end of the normal season. This baseball season will be remembered for the many records set. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants set a record for the most home runs in a season. He hit seventy-three home runs this year. The old record was seventy home runs, set by Mark McGwire three years ago. Bonds became the oldest player to lead Major League baseball in home runs. He is thirty-seven years old. Bonds also set a record for the most walks in a season. He reached first base without a hit more times than any other player. Rickey Henderson of the San Diego Padres also was busy setting records this year. In April, he established a record for total number of walks by a player. He also set a record for the most runs. Also, on Sunday, Henderson made his three-thousandth hit. That is not a record. But only twenty-five other players have had that many hits. Two of those players retired at the end of the season. Tony Gwynn played his final game Sunday after twenty years with the San Diego Padres. Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles also retired. For more than seventeen years, Ripken played in every Orioles’ game. That also is a record. Baseball is a game of records. However, many Americans began to re-think the importance of it and other sports after the terrorist attacks. The baseball season ended on the day that American and British forces attacked targets in Afghanistan. Major League Baseball’s top teams are now competing for the right to play in the World Series. The first team to win four Series games will be the new champion of North American baseball. Electric Guitars HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Iran. Behrouz Khashayar asks about the history of electric guitars and the most famous electric guitar player. No one really knows who first decided to link electricity with a guitar. Most reports say this took place in the late Nineteen-Thirties or early Nineteen-Forties. However, one man did a great deal to make the electric guitar popular. His name was Les Paul. He was the most popular guitarist in the Nineteen-Fifties. Les Paul also helped invent several different devices used with electric guitars. The most famous of these was a guitar that had a solid wood body. The Gibson Guitar Company later made these guitars. Listen to Les Paul with his Gibson Guitar play a song he made popular. It is called “Meet Mister Callaghan.” ((CUT ONE: “MEET MISTER CALLAGHAN”)) There are too many great guitarists today to even guess who might be the best. There are great country and western guitarists, blues guitarists, and rock music guitarists. However, most people would agree that blues artist B-B King is one of the top electric guitar players today. His music is famous around the world. So is his guitar, named Lucille. B-B King’s famous guitar is made by the same Gibson Company that made Les Paul’s electric guitars. We leave you with one of B-B King’s most famous songs, “The Thrill is Gone.” ((CUT TWO: “THE THRILL IS GONE”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to “Mosaic at V-O-A news dot com”. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - October 12, 2001: Elephant Relocation
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. South Africa has begun an effort to move one-thousand elephants to nearby Mozambique. The operation is designed to reduce the elephant population in South Africa’s famous Kruger National Park. Kruger is home to many different kinds of wildlife, including rhinos, buffalo, lions and leopards. It also has about nine-thousand elephants. Before the relocation plan, environmental officials had considered killing the elephants to reduce the population. However, they feared opposition by animal protection groups. The move is part of a plan to create a huge wildlife park without borders. The park will include Kruger National Park, a similar area in Mozambique and Gonarezhou Park in Zimbabwe. The three countries signed an international agreement last year to create the wildlife park. It will be the first wildlife park to be established in three countries. A South African environmental official said the park is the most important animal protection project in the world today. Officials say the park will be a reality when there is free movement of visitors and animals across the borders. The park has been named the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. It will be one of the world’s largest protected areas for wildlife. It will cover thirty-five-thousand square kilometers of land. It is expected to have many visitors when it opens next year. Officials say it will take about three years to move the elephants. Most of the elephant population in Mozambique was destroyed during a civil war in the country that ended in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. Mozambique once had one of the world’s fastest growing economies. However, it suffered terrible floods last year. It remains one of the world’s poorest countries. South African officials say the new wildlife park will help the economy of Mozambique by providing jobs for people living in or near the park. They say it will also end barriers that will give the animals more freedom of movement. Last week, the first group of elephants was moved to the Mozambican side of the park during a ceremony led by former South African President Nelson Mandela. Mister Mandela opened the gate on the border between the two countries, giving the elephants free passage. Mister Mandela said the park project is also an example of how to improve relations among nations. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 15, 2001: The Federal Reserve
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. Today, we tell about America’s Central Bank, the United States Federal Reserve. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: On October second, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee reduced federal interest rates for the ninth time this year. Federal interest rates are now at their lowest level since Nineteen-Sixty-Two. The action was taken because of the damage to the American economy caused by the terrorist attacks last month. Experts believe that reducing interest rates can help the economy grow. Most people know that the Federal Reserve controls interest rates. Yet, fewer people know how the Federal Reserve influences banking and the economy. VOICE TWO: America’s Central Bank is part of a larger financial system called the United States Federal Reserve System. It is not a single bank, but a banking system with operations that are both public and private. Its purpose is to control the flow of money in the economy, to supervise banking activity and to protect the financial system. The Federal Reserve System includes the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the twelve Federal Reserve banks. The Board of Governors is, in fact, a government agency that reports to Congress. The Board of Governors is a committee of seven people. However, only five members currently are serving on the Federal Reserve Board. VOICE ONE: The president of the United States appoints Federal Reserve Board members to fourteen-year terms. Members may serve only one term. The president also appoints the chairman and vice chairman of the board to four-year terms. The chairman is often reappointed several times. The current chairman, Alan Greenspan, has served since Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. There have been only thirteen chairmen since the Federal Reserve System was created in Nineteen-Thirteen. The Federal Reserve Board chairman has national responsibilities, such as reporting to Congress on the economy. He also serves as an international representative of the American banking system. VOICE TWO: The Board of Governors supervises the general activities of the Federal Reserve System. However, the Federal Open Market Committee makes decisions that change the economy. The committee has twelve members. They are the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board and five Reserve Bank Presidents. By law, the Open Market Committee must meet four times every year. However, it has met at least eight times a year since Nineteen-Eighty. The Open Market Committee makes decisions about America’s money supply. It considers reports from special committees and a huge amount of economic information provided by the Reserve Banks. This information is presented to committee members during their meetings. Often, the meetings are not open to the public because the discussions could have unwanted effects on the economy. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The twelve Federal Reserve Banks are the other part of the Federal Reserve System. They are called the “twelve district branches” and serve large areas of the country. These banks lend money to other banks that are part of the Federal Reserve System. But, fewer than half of America’s banks are members of the Federal Reserve System. VOICE TWO: When the Federal Reserve System began, each District Bank set its own interest rate. The lawmakers who wrote the legislation that created the system wanted each area of the country to be financially independent. Virginia Senator Carter Glass was one of those congressmen. He once said that the purpose of the Federal Reserve Act was to avoid creating a central bank. Yet today, all the reserve banks keep the same rates and are closely supervised by the Board of the Federal Reserve. VOICE ONE: The Open Market Committee controls two important rates of interest. One is the rate charged by the Federal Reserve. Banks may borrow directly from the Federal Reserve at a reduced rate to change the level of their money reserves. Lending at a reduced rate was the most common way for the Federal Reserve to influence the supply of money early in its history. The special rate was designed to help troubled banks pay people who withdrew money in times of crisis. The most important interest rate controlled by the Open Market Committee is called the “Federal Funds rate.” Banks pay this rate when they borrow from other banks in the Federal Reserve System for very short periods. The Open Market Committee does not change the Federal Funds rate in one action. The committee announces a target rate and slowly reduces the rate until the target is reached. VOICE TWO: One way that the Federal Reserve changes interest rates is through “open market operations.” The Open Market Committee orders the Federal Reserve to buy or sell government debt in financial markets in New York. The government does business with more than thirty companies that trade government debt. The financial instruments used in this process are called government securities. Government securities are loans to the government that are “secured” by the government’s ability to tax. Government securities are bought and sold in huge amounts in financial markets. In fact, more than ten-thousand-million dollars in government securities are traded every day. VOICE ONE: The Federal Reserve buys government securities when it wants to lower interest rates. Interest rates generally go down because there is an increased supply of money for lending. However, the Federal Reserve requires banks to hold more money “in reserve” as the amount of money they hold increases. Money held in reserve cannot be loaned out. It must be kept in some safe form in case of an emergency. Reserve requirements help to balance interest rates as the Federal Reserve buys or sells debt in the open market. The Federal Reserve can also affect interest rates by changing requirements for banks. Banks can be required to increase or reduce the percentage of money they hold in reserve. Increasing the percentage of reserve money that banks must hold can cause interest rates to go up. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The idea of a central bank is not a recent one. The first Central Bank was started in Sweden in Sixteen-Fifty-Six. The Riksbank was a private bank. Yet the Swedish legislature gave it the power to print money. The Federal Reserve is like that first central bank in many ways. American dollars are “Federal Reserve Notes.” All of the Federal Reserve Branch banks are private banks owned by the owners of their stock. And, the Federal Reserve Board reports to Congress as a government agency. Yet the Federal Reserve System is always changing to meet the needs of America’s financial community. For example, in Nineteen-Eighty, Congress passed the Monetary Control Act. It required all financial institutions to keep reserve money with the Central Bank. At the time, only banks that were members of the Federal Reserve System had to hold reserves with it. However, by the Nineteen-Seventies many member banks were leaving the system because the federal requirements reduced the amount of money they could lend. The Monetary Control Act expanded the power of the Federal Reserve to control non-member banks. VOICE ONE: The Federal Reserve has become more powerful and centralized since it was created in Nineteen-Thirteen. Yet the Federal Reserve has increased the amount of information it makes public. Before Nineteen-Seventy-Eight, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board did not speak to Congress often. An act of Congress directed the chairman to speak to Congress twice a year to report on the economy. The Federal Reserve now makes public much of the large amount of economic information it gathers. For example, the Federal Open Market Committee began to announce a “target rate” in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. In many ways, America’s Central Bank has become more important as it has become more open to the public. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written Mario Ritter. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 15, 2001: Food Assistance in Asia
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The number of people receiving food assistance in Asia rose to a new record high during the first half of this year. The United Nations World Food Program says this is because of an increase in natural disasters throughout the area. They include floods in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Laos, and an earthquake in India. Catherine Bertini is the executive director of the World Food Program. She estimates the program has helped almost thirty-five million hungry people in Asia so far this year. This is a sixteen-percent increase, up from almost thirty-million people during the same period last year. The World Food Program has emergency and development operations in twelve countries throughout Asia. The largest is in North Korea, where more than eight-million people are receiving aid. This is almost one-third of North Korea’s population. Most of the victims are farmers and their families. They have suffered through several years of floods, food shortages, and severe dry conditions. Mizz Bertini says Indonesia has also received more food aid this year. During the early Nineteen-Nineties, Indonesia exported food to other countries. However, millions of people were affected by the Asian financial crisis in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. The crisis created hunger problems for people living in cities throughout Indonesia. The increase in people receiving food aid in Asia is also linked to an expansion in the U-N school feeding program. Under the program, poor children are given a healthy meal at school. The World Food Program is also supporting a new plan to fight H-I-V and AIDS. World Health Organization estimates say the disease is spreading faster in Asia than anywhere else in the world. Currently, India has the highest number of victims -- more than three-and-one-half million. Mizz Bertini says that Asia has more hungry people than any other part of the world. However, not all developing countries in Asia are in trouble. For example, as of last year Vietnam no longer needed help from the World Food Program. Also, China is making progress. Mizz Bertini says the number of poor people in China has dropped. So the number of hungry people also has decreased. Mizz Bertini says the World Food Program could begin closing down its assistance program in China within five years. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 14, 2001: John Coltrane
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (THEME) He was one of the greatest saxophone players of all time. He wrote jazz music. He recorded new versions of popular songs. And, he helped make modern jazz popular. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell about musician John Coltrane. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE ONE: John Coltrane was born in the state of North Carolina in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. He was raised in the small farm town of High Point. Both of his grandfathers were clergymen. As a young boy, he spent a great deal of time listening to the music of the black Southern church. Coltrane's father sewed clothes. He played several musical instruments for his own enjoyment. The young Coltrane grew up in a musical environment. He discovered jazz by listening to the recordings of such jazz greats as Count Basie and Lester Young. VOICE TWO: When John was thirteen, he asked his mother to buy him a saxophone. People realized almost immediately that the young man could play the instrument very well. John learned by listening to recordings of the great jazz saxophone players, Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker. John and his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Nineteen-Forty-Three. He studied music for a short time at the Granoff Studios and at the Ornstein School of Music. VOICE ONE: John Coltrane served for a year in a Navy band in Hawaii. When he returned, he began playing saxophone in several small bands. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, Coltrane joined trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie's band. Seven years later, Coltrane joined the jazz group of another trumpet player, Miles Davis. The group included piano player Red Garland, double bass player Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. VOICE TWO: Coltrane began experimenting with new ways to write and perform jazz music. He explored many new ways of playing the saxophone. Some people did not like this new sound. They did not understand it. Others said it was an expression of modern soul. They said it represented an important change. Jazz performers, composers and other musicians welcomed this change. During the Nineteen-Fifties, Coltrane used drugs and alcohol. He became dependent on drugs. Band leaders dismissed him because of his drug use. In Nineteen-Fifty-Seven, Coltrane stopped using drugs. VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, John Coltrane recorded the first album of his own music. The album is called "Giant Steps." Here is the title song from that album. ((TAPE CUT #1: "GIANT STEPS")) VOICE TWO: Coltrane also recorded another famous song with a larger jazz band. The band included Milt Jackson on vibes, Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Connie Kay on drums. Here is their recording of "Stairway to the Stars." ((TAPE CUT #2: "STAIRWAY TO THE STARS")) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty, Coltrane left Miles Davis and organized his own jazz group. He was joined by McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. This group became famous around the world. John Coltrane's most famous music was recorded during this period. One song is called "My Favorite Things." Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein had written the song for the Broadway musical "The Sound of Music." Jazz critics say Coltrane's version is one of the best jazz recordings ever made. The record became very popular. It led many more people to become interested in jazz. ((TAPE CUT #3: "MY FAVORITE THINGS")) VOICE TWO: Critics say Coltrane's versions of other popular songs influenced all jazz music writing. One of these was a song called "Summertime." It was written by Du Bose Heyward and George Gershwin for the opera "Porgy and Bess." ((TAPE CUT #4: "SUMMERTIME")) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Sixty-Four, Coltrane married pianist Alice McCloud who later became a member of his band. He stopped using alcohol, and became religious. He wrote a song to celebrate his religious experience. The song is more than thirty minutes long. It is called "A Love Supreme." Here is part of the song. ((TAPE CUT #5: "A LOVE SUPREME")) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Sixty-Five, Coltrane was one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world. He was famous in Europe and Japan, as well as in the United States. He was always trying to produce a sound that no one had produced before. Some of the sounds he made were beautiful. Others were like loud screams. Miles Davis said that Coltrane was the loudest, fastest saxophone player that ever lived. Many people could not understand his music. But they listened anyway. Coltrane never made his music simpler to become more popular. Coltrane continued to perform and record even as he suffered from liver cancer. He died in Nineteen-Sixty-Seven at the age of forty in Long Island, New York. VOICE ONE: Experts say John Coltrane continues to influence modern jazz. Some critics say one of Coltrane's most important influences on jazz was his use of musical ideas from other cultures, including India, Africa and Latin America. Whitney Balliett of The New Yorker Magazine wrote about Coltrane the year after his death: "People said they heard the dark night ... in Coltrane's wildest music. But what they really heard was a heroic ... voice at the mercy of its own power." (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program, was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-12-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 12, 2001: Homeland Security
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Earlier this week, former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge became director of a new Office of Homeland Security. President Bush created this cabinet-level office to strengthen preparations and defenses against terrorism. This follows the September Eleventh attacks on New York and Washington. Hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon military headquarters. The attacks killed more than five-thousand people. In the federal government, more than forty agencies have some responsibility for fighting terrorism. New programs have been created since the nineteen-ninety-three bombing at the World Trade Center. Officials also linked that attack to Osama bin Laden. Tom Ridge will try to get all these agencies to do more to cooperate and share information. Mister Ridge served in Congress before voters in Pennsylvania twice elected him governor of that eastern state. He also served as a Marine in Vietnam during the war. He has been a close friend of the president for a long time. About one-hundred people will work in the new homeland security office. Most already work in the Bush administration. The president also appointed an anti-terrorism expert and an adviser on computer security to report to Mister Ridge. In addition, Mister Ridge will work with a Homeland Security Council led by President Bush. It will include several cabinet members. The directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also serve on the council. Mister Ridge's office is in the White House, not far from the president's office. The new agency has twenty-five-million-dollars in operating money. This comes from emergency spending that Congress approved after the attacks. However, it is not clear how much control Mister Ridge will have over the budgets or directors of other agencies. Several national security experts say he must have enough power, for example, to help make sure one agency does not needlessly repeat the work of another. Some lawmakers believe that, instead of the president, Congress should have created the Office of Homeland Security. That way, Congress could have set its budget powers. Even the name of the new office has led to comment. Some observers say Americans do not really think of their country as a "homeland." Americans, after all, come from many lands. Some people also question the need for another security agency. They worry that too much security may mean fewer constitutional rights. Right now, though, safety seems the deepest concern. Before coming to Washington, Tom Ridge had been dealing with one of the events of September eleventh. One of the four airplanes hijacked that day crashed in Pennsylvania. All forty-four people on the flight died. The plane went down in a field, after passengers fought the hijackers. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: sds
* Byline: 

 Voice 1: The Making of a Nation -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) i'm Larry West. Today, Shirley Griffith and i continue the story of the peace conference following world war one. The allies -- led by Britain, France, Italy, and the United States -- had won the war. The central powers -- led by Germany -- had lost. Voice 2: American president Woodrow Wilson was one of the chief negotiators at the conference in Paris. Throughout the early months of nineteen-nineteen, he struggled hard for a treaty that would result in peace with justice for all sides. Wilson demanded a treaty that provided for a new international organization. He called it the league of nations. To Wilson, the league was more important than any other part of the treaty. Not all Americans shared Wilson's opinion. Many feared the league would take away the power of the American government to declare war and make treaties. They also agreed with the leaders of the other allied nations. Establishing the league was less important than punishing the defeated enemy. Voice 1: The other major allied leaders at the peace conference were prime minister David Lloyd-George of Britain, premier georges clemenceau of France, and premier vittorio otto of Italy. Lloyd-George, clemenceau, and otto understood how much Wilson wanted the league of nations. They used this knowledge to win Wilson's approval for other parts of the peace treaty. Wilson soon learned that, to get the league, he had to compromise on many issues. For example, he had to accept british and french demands to make Germany pay all war damages. The payments added up to more than three-hundred thousand-million dollars. Wilson also had to accept the allied take-over of Germany's colonies. Voice 2: Some of Wilson's compromises violated his belief in self-determination. This was the right of all people to decide for themselves who would govern them. One compromise, for example, gave to Japan Germany's colonial rights in the shantung area of China. China protested the decision. It asked that control of shantung be returned to the chinese government. But president Wilson needed Japan's support for the league of nations. So he accepted Japan's demand for control of shantung. There were other violations of the policy of self-determination. These affected the people and land along the borders of several European nations. For example, three-million Germans were made citizens of the new nation of czechoslovakia. Millions of other Germans were forced into the newly-formed nation of poland. And Italy received territory that had belonged to austria. Voice 1: Today, most history experts agree Woodrow Wilson was correct in opposing these decisions. They say Germany's loss of territory and citizens caused deep bitterness. And the bitterness helped lead to the rise of fascist dictator Adolph Hitler in the nineteen-thirties. In east asia, Japanese control over parts of China created serious tensions. Both decisions helped plant the seeds for the bloody harvest of world war two twenty years later. But allied leaders at the Paris peace conference were not looking far into the future. As one person said at the time: "they divided Europe like people cutting up a tasty pie. " Voice 2: After months of negotiations, the peace treaty was completed. The allies gave it to a German delegation on may seventh, nineteen-nineteen. The head of the delegation objected immediately. He said the treaty was unfair. He urged his government not to sign it. At first, Germany did not sign. The leader of the government refused and resigned in protest. But a new government was formed. And its leader signed the document at a ceremony at the palace in versailles outside Paris. Finally, world war one was officially over. Voice 1: President Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States after the treaty signing ceremony. He was not completely satisfied with the treaty. Yet he believed it was still valuable, because it established the league of nations. Wilson's battle for the league was only half over when the treaty was signed in Europe. He had to win approval from the United States senate. That half of the battle would not be easy. Voice 2: Part of the problem was political. Wilson was a member of the democratic party. The senate was controlled by the republican party. Also, Wilson had refused to name any important republicans to his negotiating team at the peace conference. Part of the problem was personal. A number of senators disliked Wilson. One was republican senator henry cabot lodge. Lodge was the powerful chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. He told a friend he never expected to hate anyone as much as he hated Wilson. Voice 1: Wilson spoke before the senate just two days after he returned from Europe. He urged it to approve the peace treaty. Wilson said: "the united power of free nations must put a stop to aggression. And the world must be given peace. Shall we and any other free people refuse to accept this great duty. Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world. We cannot turn back. America shall show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead and nowhere else. " Voice 2: The senate foreign relations committee began hearings on the treaty. It heard a number of people who opposed the league of nations. They said the league would destroy the freedom and independence of the United States. The committee completed its hearings and prepared a report for the full senate. The report said the United States should reject the treaty, unless changes were made. The committee proposed almost forty changes. Voice 1: The committee's report was a blow to president Wilson both politically and personally. He had worked extremely hard to win Europe's support for the idea of a league of nations. Great crowds in Paris had cheered him and his idea. Now, the senate of his own country was about to reject it. Wilson decided he must take his case out of the hands of the peoples' representatives. He would take the case directly to the people themselves. He would build public support for the treaty. If enough citizens supported it, he believed, the senate could not reject it. Voice 2: President Wilson planned a speaking trip all across the country. His family and his doctor urged him not to go. They said he was still weak from a recent sickness. But Wilson refused the advice. He said the treaty was more important to him than his own life. The president left Washington in early september. He traveled in a special train. In city after city, he made speeches and rode in parades. He shook thousands of hands. At times, he suffered from a painful headache. But there was no time to rest. Voice 1: Everywhere Wilson stopped, he urged the people to support the league of nations. It was, he said, the only hope for peace. In boulder, colorado, ten-thousand people waited to hear him. By then, Wilson was extremely weak. He had to be helped up the steps of the building where he was to speak. He made the speech. He said he was working to honor the men who had died in the war. He said he was working for the children of the world. Voice 2: Wilson put all his heart and energy into his speeches. And, as his family and doctor had warned, the pressure was too great. While in wichita, kansas, the pain in his head became terrible. He could not speak clearly. His face seemed frozen. A blood vessel had broken in his brain. Wilson had suffered a stroke. The president was forced to return to Washington. His condition got worse every day. Soon, he was unable to move. Woodrow Wilson would spend the rest of his presidency as a terribly sick man. He continued to hold on to his dreams of a league of nations. But his dreams now filled a broken body. We will continue our story next week. (Theme) Voice 1: You have been listening to The Making of a Nation -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by frank beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 16, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sara Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about efforts by scientists to identify special genes. They are the genes of the bacterium that causes the disease plague, the gene for a language disorder and the gene that enables people to live to be very old. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have identified all the genes of the bacterium that causes plague. The new genetic information could help scientists develop treatments and vaccines to prevent the disease. Plague is one of the most feared of all diseases. It has killed more than two-hundred-million people during the past one-thousand-five-hundred years. In recent weeks, plague has again become a concern. Some reports say terrorists could use it as a biological weapon. The disease usually results in death if patients are not treated. VOICE TWO: Scientists at the Sanger Center in Cambridge, England identified the genetic material in the plague bacterium. They described their work in the publication Nature. Their work helps explain how the disease developed. Studies have shown that the deadly bacterium developed about one-thousand-five-hundred years ago. Before then, the bacterium caused mild stomach pains in people infected with the disease. Researchers say it changed to a deadly disease by gaining and losing genetic material. VOICE ONE: Plague is spread when a flea bites an animal infected with the disease. Then the insect bites a human victim. The bacteria infect the lymph nodes in an area near the bite. This causes areas of skin to expand and become painful. The disease also causes high body temperatures, body pain and tiredness. The bacteria may also enter blood passages and spread to other parts of the body. In some cases, the bacteria can spread to the lungs. Victims can spread the bacteria when they cough or sneeze. This form of the disease can quickly cause death. VOICE TWO: Plague has killed large numbers of people during several periods of history. The most famous was in the Fourteenth Century. The disease killed one-third of the population of Europe. It became known as the Black Death. Modern plague first spread from southern China in Eighteen-Ninety-Four. By Nineteen-Hundred the disease had spread around the world. It killed more than twelve-million people in India alone. Today, plague is still a problem in some parts of the world, including the southwestern United States. Up to three-thousand cases of the disease are reported each year around the world. The disease kills about two-thousand people each year, mostly in Africa and Asia. Antibiotic drugs are an effective treatment. There also are vaccines to prevent the disease. However, treatments must be given soon after someone becomes infected. VOICE ONE: Some scientists fear that the bacterium may be used as a weapon by terrorists. They are concerned there would not be enough treatments for the possible large numbers of victims. This had led to a debate about releasing genetic information about such diseases. However, officials say the information would not be helpful for terrorists. A scientist at Britain’s biological defense laboratory said he saw no danger in publishing the genetic information about plague. He said the findings are much more valuable for scientists who want to develop vaccines and antibiotics against the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) British scientists say they have identified a gene linked to human speech and language. It the first gene identified as a cause of a speech and language disorder. The discovery supports the idea that information in genes controls language ability in humans.A group led by Anthony Monaco (MAH-nuh-ko) led the study. He is director of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford in England. His team reported its findings in Nature magazine. VOICE ONE: The scientists identified the gene through the study of a large British family. About half the family members have a rare speech and language disorder. Affected individuals have trouble saying words correctly. They have trouble moving their lips, tongues and mouths. They do not use the correct rules of language. The study shows that all the affected people have a changed piece of D-N-A in one gene. The gene is on chromosome seven. That is the seventh of forty-six chromosomes found in human cells. Independent genetic studies of an unrelated person with the same disorder helped confirm the findings. VOICE TWO: The scientists believe the affected gene is important in the development of some areas of the brain. They say those areas are probably involved in the development of language. Mister Monaco is now studying the structure of the gene and its development in animals. He is attempting to find out if the gene developed faster in humans than animals. VOICE ONE: Other scientists, however, say they believe the gene may be less involved in language than it seems. Bruce Tomblin is a speech expert at the University of Iowa. He agrees that the speech disorder appears to have a genetic cause. But he notes that the gene and the ones it controls may have additional duties. The head of the Center of Language Research at the University of California at San Diego agrees with this position. Elizabeth Bates says other studies show that the family with the disorder has problems with musical sounds and with hand movements. To her, this suggests the gene is involved with more than just speech and language. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In the year Nineteen-Hundred, a baby born in the United States could expect to live to be about forty-nine years old. Today, the life expectancy for a baby in the United States is seventy-seven years. The main reasons for this change are better food, improved medical care and cleaner water and waste removal systems. Some scientists say this may explain why people live to be seventy or eighty. But only an extremely small number of Americans live to be one-hundred years old. Many of these people have brothers or sisters older than ninety. Some scientists believe these people have genes that help protect them from diseases. VOICE ONE: A group of researchers from Boston, Massachusetts wanted to find out more about such family groups. They studied one-hundred-thirty-seven groups of very old brothers and sisters. One person in each group was at least ninety-eight years old. The brother or sister was at least ninety-one. There were three-hundred-eight people in the study. The oldest was one-hundred-nine years old. VOICE TWO: The researchers say they made progress in finding the gene that may permit some people to live extremely long lives. The scientists took blood samples and tested the genes of all the sisters and brothers in the study. They compared genetic structures to find genes that might be linked to aging. They found an area in one chromosome that appears to contain a gene or genes that may be linked to extreme old age. This one part of the chromosome has between one-hundred and five-hundred genes. The scientists say it is not clear which one or how many of the genes may affect long life. VOICE ONE: The researchers believe the gene or genes may somehow provide resistance to disease. This may explain why many people older than one-hundred remain healthy and active. The researchers reported the results of their study in “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” Scientists say more work needs to be done to find the gene or genes involved in living to be very old. They say such work could result in drugs that could help people without those genes to live longer. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. It was produced by George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 16, 2001: Norman Borlaug
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The World Food Prize is being presented this week in the American state of Iowa. Each year, the World Food Prize honors people who have improved the quality of world food supplies. The winner this year is Per (PARE) Pinstrup-Andersen of Denmark. The award ceremony will include a special celebration to honor the fifteenth anniversary of the World Food Prize. Officials plan to honor the work of Norman Borlaug (BAWR lawg). Mister Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in Nineteen-Seventy for developing new kinds of wheat. He later had the idea for a World Food Prize. He wanted to make it equal to a Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture. Many people say Norman Borlaug is responsible for starting improvements in the world food supply in the Nineteen-Sixties. They thank him for saving the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Norman Borlaug was born in Nineteen-Fourteen in Cresco, Iowa, a small farming community. He later attended the University of Minnesota. He completed studying forestry there in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. Mister Borlaug worked briefly with the United States Forest Service before returning to the University of Minnesota to continue his studies. He worked for the DuPont Company before joining the armed forces during World War Two. In Nineteen-Forty-Four, the Rockefeller Foundation sent Mister Borlaug to Mexico to work as an agricultural scientist. The group asked him to develop wheat plants that would produce large amounts of grain in warm climates. For the next sixteen years, he studied problems that were limiting wheat production in Mexico. He also helped to train many young scientists. In Mexico, Mister Borlaug developed several kinds of wheat plants that resisted disease. His plants were able to grow in many different climate conditions. They also were extremely productive. These plants and improved farming methods changed Mexican agriculture. In the Nineteen-Sixties, India, Pakistan and other countries began to grow the wheat developed by Mister Borlaug. These crops changed some nations from grain importers to grain exporters. They reduced the risk of starvation in many places. Today, the improvements to world agriculture from such crops are known as the Green Revolution. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-16-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – October 17, 2001: Nobel Prize for Medicine
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering how genes and molecules control cell division in living organisms. The scientists are Paul Nurse and R. Timothy Hunt of Britain and Leland Hartwell of the United States. They will share the prize of almost one-million dollars awarded by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Doctor Nurse and Doctor Hunt work for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London. Doctor Hartwell is director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. The Nobel Assembly says it is honoring the men for their study of how cells make exact copies of their chromosomes and then divide into more cells. That process is called the cell cycle.The three scientists have been researching the cell cycle independently for thirty years. In the Nineteen-Seventies, Doctor Hartwell began studying cells of yeast, an organism with a very simple genetic structure. Doctor Hartwell identified the yeast genes that control cell division. He found that a cell checks to make sure it has correctly copied its chromosomes before it divides. Doctor Hartwell showed that the division process stops if a cell’s genetic material is damaged. It starts again when the damage is repaired. Doctor Nurse’s research expanded on these findings. He discovered the yeast gene that leads the cell cycle. Later, he identified a similar gene in human cells. He called it C-D-K. It produces a protein that controls different parts of the cell cycle. Doctor Nurse’s findings on normal cell division were important for the study of the uncontrollable division of cancerous cells. Doctor Hunt worked with the cells of sea urchins. He discovered that a protein called cyclin has an important part in the cell cycle. Cyclins work with the gene C-D-K to drive the cell cycle. Scientists around the world have been using the discoveries of these three Nobel Prize winners. Their discoveries about the cell cycle are helping scientists learn more about cancer, which spreads by abnormal cell division. Companies are developing new drugs to control cancer by stopping cell division. Scientists also may be able to use the information to create new healthy body tissues. The three scientists will receive their Nobel Prizes December tenth at a ceremony in Stockholm. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-16-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 17, 2001: Tenement Museum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about an unusual museum in New York City. It explores and celebrates the stories of people from different nations who came to the United States to live. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is one of the smaller, unusual museums in New York City. It lets visitors see and experience how early immigrants to the United States lived. The museum is a building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street. It was one of the first tenements in New York City. It was built in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. The word “tenement”comes from a Latin word meaning “to hold.” A “tenement” building holds many rooms where different families lived. The word is not used much anymore in the United States. When people use the word today, they mean an old crowded building where poor families live in terrible, unhealthy conditions. But in the Eighteen-Hundreds, the word “tenement” simply meant a building in which many families lived. Later, many immigrant families were able to improve their living conditions by moving from the lower east side to other areas of New York City. Some lived in the same kinds of buildings, but the living areas were cleaner and larger. They did not want to call them tenements, so they called them “apartment” buildings or “flats” instead. VOICE TWO: History experts say that more than half of the people in New York City lived in tenements in Eighteen-Sixty-Three. To get one of these living areas, a family had to pay one month’s rent to the owner, usually about ten dollars. This money gave the family the use of about one-hundred square meters of living space often divided into three rooms. The tenement building at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street shows the kind of space families had to live in. The front room was the largest. It was the only one with a window to the outside. Behind it were a kitchen for cooking and a small bedroom for sleeping. There was no running water, no toilets, showers or baths. Six areas where people left their body wastes were in the back yard, next to the only place to get drinking water. Such unhealthy conditions led to the spread of many diseases in such buildings. Over the years, New York City officials passed laws to improve conditions in the tenements. The owners of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street placed gas lighting in the building in the Eighteen-Nineties. They added water and indoor toilets in Nineteen-Oh-Five, and electric power in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. But they refused to make any more required improvements. They closed the building in Nineteen-Thirty-Five. The rooms remained closed until Nineteen-Eighty-Eight, although the street level of the building continued to be used as stores until Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. In the Nineteen-Nineties, the building was declared a National Historic Place protected by the federal government. VOICE ONE: In recent years, museum officials have been researching the history of the building and its twenty apartments. Museum researchers found more than one-thousand objects that belonged to people who lived there during the years. These include kitchen devices, medicine bottles, letters, newspapers, old metal money and pieces of cloth. They have also learned the histories of many of the seven-thousand people from more than twenty countries who lived there. And they have spoken with and recorded the memories of people who lived at Ninety-Seven Orchard Street as children. The museum officials used this information to re-create some of the apartments as they would have looked during four time periods in the building’s history. These four apartments are what visitors see when they go to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Let us join one of the guided visits. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: We are entering the apartment of the Gumpertz (GUM-perts) family. They were Jews from Germany who lived here in the Eighteen-Seventies. On October seventh, Eighteen-Seventy-Four, Julius Gumpertz dressed for work, left the building and never returned. He left behind his wife Nathalie (NA-ta-lee) and their four children, ages eight months to seven years. Nathalie was forced to support her children by making dresses in the apartment. She earned about eight dollars a week, enough to pay for the apartment each month and send her children to school. VOICE ONE: The Gumpertz apartment in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum has a sewing machine and other tools similar to those Nathalie used in her work. She made the largest room into her work space. That was where she saw people who wanted clothes made or repaired. It was also where she did the sewing. VOICE TWO: This next apartment we see belonged to the Italian Baldizzi (bal-DEETS-ee) family during the period known as the Great Depression. Adolfo Baldizzi, his wife Rosaria (ro-SAR-ee-ya) and their two children moved to the Orchard Street tenement in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. They quickly became friends with other families in the building. Their daughter Josephine liked to help other people. For example, every Friday night she would turn on the lights in the nearby apartment of the Rosenthal family. The Rosenthals could not turn on the lights themselves because it was the Jewish holy day. Josephine Baldizzi remembers those long ago days. Here is a recording of her voice as she tells how she felt each week after seeing Missus Rosenthal in the window motioning to her to turn on the lights: ((RECORDING OF JOSEPHINE BALDIZZI)) “ It made me feel very proud to have to do that. I used to feel good that she chose me to do that job for her. I can still see her till today—that vision of her in that window. It has never left my memory.”)) VOICE ONE: This third apartment belonged to the Rogarshevsky (RO-ga-shef-skee) family of Lithuania. They moved to Ninety-Seven Orchard Street sometime between Nineteen-Seven and Nineteen-Ten. Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky had six children. Abraham developed the disease tuberculosis. In this apartment, we can see some of the tools used to fight the disease. But the efforts did not cure him. Abraham Rogarshevsky died in Nineteen-Eighteen. The table in the apartment is set with models of the kinds of foods that would have been eaten after Abraham’s funeral. The foods include hard boiled eggs and round bread. Both represent the circle of life, from birth to death. Fannie Rogarshevsky was faced with the same problem that Nathalie Gumpertz had so many years earlier. What could she do to support her family? She got the owner of Ninety-Seven Orchard Street to let her clean and do other work in the building in exchange for rent. VOICE TWO: The fourth apartment is an example of living history. It can be visited on a special tour. It belonged to the Confino (Con-FEE-no) family in Nineteen-Sixteen. Abraham and Rachel Confino had come to New York from what was the Ottoman Empire but now is part of Greece. They were Sephardic Jews, Jews who had been born in North African and Middle Eastern countries. Visitors are welcomed here by a living history actress who plays the thirteen year old daughter Victoria Confino. She will tell about Victoria’s experience living in the building. Here, she explains the language of Sephardic Jews, called Ladino, and sings part of a sad Ladino song: ((VICTORIA CONFINO: "Oh, it’s a very mixed up language. It’s like a little bit Spanish ... we call it Judeo Espanol ... and it’s a little bit Turkish, a little bit Hebrew ... a lot of languages mixed up all together. [sings Ladino song]" VOICE ONE: Museum officials say one of the purposes of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is to provide its visitors with a usable past. They want visitors to use the stories of the people who lived in the building to start discussions about issues from the past that are important today. Examples of these kinds of problems include those of immigrants and single mothers who must deal with poor living conditions and find ways to build new lives. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum has been trying to explore ways to help solve modern problems through understanding history. It is cooperating with other international historic places around the world to do this. The District Six Museum in South Africa, the Gulag Museum labor camp in Siberia, and Project Remember in Argentina are part of the project. Others are the Terazin Memorial in Czech Republic, the Work House in England and the Slave House in Senegal. Officials of these historic places are working together to help explore and solve modern problems in their own societies. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer is Keith Holmes. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – October 18, 2001: Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced the winners of the Nobel Prizes for physics and chemistry. The winners of each prize will share almost one-million dollars. Two Americans and a German won the Nobel Prize in physics. They are Eric Cornell of the National Institutes of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado and Carl Wieman of the University of Colorado in Boulder. The third winner, Wolfgang Ketterle, teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The award committee honored the men for creating a new form of matter. It is called Bose-Einstein condensate. The committee says Bose-Einstein condensate will lead to important changes in technology such as nanotechnology. Nanotechnology deals with extremely small devices, some only the size of a few molecules. Experts say the discovery could be used to create extremely small computers or drugs that can target a single cell. In Nineteen-Twenty-Four, Indian scientist S-N Bose developed a theory about light particles. He sent his work to the great physicist Albert Einstein. Einstein extended the theory to a kind of atom. Einstein believed that if a gas of such atoms was cooled to a very low temperature, all the atoms would suddenly gather in the lowest possible state of energy. Matter that acts this way is called Bose-Einstein condensate. Seventy years later, Professors Cornell and Wieman created this form of matter. Professor Ketterle worked independently. He produced a kind of simple laser beam that uses matter instead of light. The Nobel Prize for chemistry also was awarded to three scientists. They are Ryoji Noyori of Nagoya University in Japan, and Americans William Knowles and K. Barry Sharpless. Mister Knowles did his research many years ago at Monsanto Company in Saint Louis, Missouri. Mister Sharpless is with the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. The award committee honored the men for developing a process that led to the production of special molecules for use in making hundreds of important medicines. The process has been used to produce antibiotics and drugs to treat heart disease and Parkinson’s disease. The six scientists will receive their prizes at a ceremony in Stockholm on December tenth. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 18, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 9
* Byline: 

 THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) AFTER THE END OF WORLD WAR ONE, PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON SOUGHT NATIONAL SUPPORT FOR HIS IDEA OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE TOOK HIS APPEAL DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE SUMMER OF NINETEEN-NINETEEN. I'M FRANK OLIVER. TODAY, TONY RIGGS AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF WILSON'S CAMPAIGN. VOICE TWO: THE PLAN FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WAS PART OF THE PEACE TREATY THAT ENDED WORLD WAR ONE. BY LAW, THE UNITED STATES SENATE WOULD HAVE TO VOTE ON THE TREATY. PRESIDENT WILSON BELIEVED THE SENATE WOULD HAVE TO APPROVE IT IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DEMANDED IT. SO HE WENT TO THE PEOPLE FOR SUPPORT. FOR ALMOST A MONTH, WILSON TRAVELED ACROSS AMERICA. HE STOPPED IN MANY PLACES TO SPEAK ABOUT THE NEED FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE SAID THE LEAGUE WAS THE ONLY HOPE FOR WORLD PEACE. IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT ANOTHER WORLD WAR. WILSON'S HEALTH GREW WORSE DURING THE LONG JOURNEY ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HE BECAME INCREASINGLY WEAK AND SUFFERED FROM SEVERE HEADACHES. IN WITCHITA, KANSAS, HE HAD A SMALL STROKE. A BLOOD VESSEL BURST INSIDE HIS BRAIN. HE WAS FORCED TO RETURN TO WASHINGTON. VOICE ONE: FOR A FEW DAYS, PRESIDENT WILSON'S CONDITION IMPROVED. THEN, HIS WIFE FOUND HIM LYING UNCONSCIOUS ON THE FLOOR OF HIS BEDROOM IN THE WHITE HOUSE. WILSON HAD LOST ALL FEELING IN THE LEFT SIDE OF HIS BODY. HE WAS NEAR DEATH. THE PRESIDENT'S ADVISERS KEPT HIS CONDITION SECRET FROM ALMOST EVERYONE. THEY TOLD REPORTERS ONLY THAT WILSON WAS SUFFERING FROM A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, THE MEDICAL REPORTS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE WERE ALWAYS THE SAME. THEY SAID MISTER WILSON'S CONDITION HAD NOT CHANGED. PEOPLE BEGAN TO WONDER. WERE THEY BEING TOLD THE TRUTH? SOME PEOPLE BEGAN TO BELIEVE THAT THE PRESIDENT WAS, IN FACT, DEAD. VICE PRESIDENT THOMAS MARSHALL WAS WORRIED. IF THE PRESIDENT DIED OR COULD NOT GOVERN, THEN HE -- MARSHALL -- WOULD BECOME PRESIDENT. BUT EVEN VICE PRESIDENT MARSHALL COULD GET NO INFORMATION FROM WILSON'S DOCTORS. VOICE TWO: AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS, THE PRESIDENT SEEMED TO GET A LITTLE STRONGER. HE WAS STILL VERY WEAK. HE COULD NOT WORK, EXCEPT TO SIGN SEVERAL BILLS. THIS SIMPLE ACT TOOK MOST OF HIS STRENGTH. WILSON'S WIFE EDITH GUARDED HER HUSBAND CLOSELY. SHE ALONE DECIDED WHO COULD SEE HIM. SHE ALONE DECIDED WHAT INFORMATION HE COULD RECEIVE. ALL LETTERS AND MESSAGES TO WOODROW WILSON WERE GIVEN FIRST TO EDITH WILSON. SHE DECIDED IF THEY WERE IMPORTANT ENOUGH FOR HIM TO SEE. MOST, SHE DECIDED, WERE NOT. SHE ALSO PREVENTED MEMBERS OF THE CABINET AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FROM COMMUNICATING WITH HIM DIRECTLY. MISSUS WILSON'S ACTIONS MADE MANY PEOPLE SUSPECT THAT SHE -- NOT HER HUSBAND -- WAS GOVERNING THE COUNTRY. SOME SPOKE OF HER AS THE NATION'S FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT. VOICE ONE: THERE WAS ONE ISSUE MISSUS WILSON DID DISCUSS WITH HER HUSBAND: THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. THE SENATE WAS COMPLETING DEBATE ON THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES. THAT WAS THE WORLD WAR ONE PEACE AGREEMENT THAT CONTAINED WILSON'S PLAN FOR THE LEAGUE. IT SEEMED CLEAR THE SENATE WOULD REJECT THE TREATY. TOO MANY SENATORS FEARED THE UNITED STATES WOULD LOSE SOME OF ITS INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM IF IT JOINED THE LEAGUE. THE LEADER OF WILSON'S POLITICAL PARTY IN THE SENATE, GILBERT HITCHCOCK, HEADED THE ADMINISTRATION CAMPAIGN TO WIN SUPPORT FOR THE TREATY. HE RECEIVED MISSUS WILSON'S PERMISSION TO VISIT HER HUSBAND. HITCHCOCK TOLD THE PRESIDENT THE SITUATION WAS HOPELESS. HE SAID THE SENATE WOULD NOT APPROVE THE TREATY UNLESS SEVERAL CHANGES WERE MADE TO PROTECT AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. IF THE PRESIDENT ACCEPTED THE CHANGES, THEN THE TREATY MIGHT PASS. VOICE TWO: WILSON REFUSED. HE WOULD ACCEPT NO COMPROMISE. HE SAID THE TREATY MUST BE APPROVED AS WRITTEN. SENATOR HITCHCOCK MADE ONE MORE ATTEMPT TO GET WILSON TO RE-CONSIDER. ON THE DAY THE SENATE PLANNED TO VOTE ON THE TREATY, HE WENT BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE. HE TOLD MISSUS WILSON THAT COMPROMISE OFFERED THE ONLY HOPE FOR SUCCESS. MISSUS WILSON WENT INTO THE PRESIDENT'S ROOM WHILE HITCHCOCK WAITED. SHE ASKED HER HUSBAND: "WILL YOU NOT ACCEPT THE CHANGES AND GET THIS THING SETTLED?" HE ANSWERED: "I CANNOT. BETTER A THOUSAND TIMES TO GO DOWN FIGHTING THAN TO SURRENDER TO DISHONORABLE COMPROMISE." VOICE ONE: THE SENATE VOTED. HITCHCOCK'S FEARS PROVED CORRECT. THE TREATY WAS DEFEATED. THE DEFEAT ENDED WILSON'S DREAM OF AMERICAN MEMBERSHIP IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. MISSUS WILSON GAVE THE NEWS TO HER HUSBAND. HE WAS SILENT FOR A LONG TIME. THEN HE SAID: "I MUST GET WELL." WOODROW WILSON WAS EXTREMELY SICK. YET HE WAS NOT THE KIND OF MAN WHO ACCEPTED OPPOSITION OR DEFEAT EASILY. FROM HIS SICK BED, HE WROTE A LETTER TO THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HE URGED THEM TO CONTINUE DEBATE ON THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE SAID A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WANTED THE TREATY APPROVED. WILSON PROBABLY WAS CORRECT ABOUT THIS. MOST AMERICANS DID APPROVE OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. BUT THEY ALSO WANTED TO BE SURE MEMBERSHIP WOULD NOT RESTRICT AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. VOICE TWO: THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE AGREED TO RE-OPEN DISCUSSION ON THE TREATY. IT SEARCHED YET AGAIN FOR A COMPROMISE. IT MADE NEW EFFORTS TO GET WILSON TO ACCEPT SOME CHANGES. BUT, AS BEFORE, WILSON REFUSED. HE WAS A PROUD MAN. AND HE THOUGHT MANY OF THE SENATORS WERE EVIL MEN TRYING TO DESTROY HIS PLAN FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE. WILSON'S UNWILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE HELPED KILL THE TREATY ONCE AND FOR ALL. THE SENATE FINALLY VOTED AGAIN, AND THE TREATY WAS DEFEATED BY SEVEN VOTES. THE TREATY WAS DEAD. THE UNITED STATES WOULD NEVER ENTER THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. AND ONE OF THE MOST EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL STORIES IN THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN NATION HAD ENDED. VOICE ONE: THE LONG BATTLE OVER THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES ENDED WITH POLITICAL DEFEAT FOR WOODROW WILSON. YET HISTORY WOULD PROVE HIM CORRECT. WILSON HAD WARNED TIME AND AGAIN DURING THE DEBATE THAT A TERRIBLE WAR WOULD RESULT IF THE WORLD DID NOT COME TOGETHER TO PROTECT THE PEACE. TWENTY YEARS LATER, WAR CAME. THE FIRST WORLD WAR HAD BEEN CALLED 'THE WAR TO END ALL WARS'. BUT IT WAS NOT. AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR WOULD BE FAR MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE FIRST. VOICE TWO: THE DEBATE OVER THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES WAS THE CENTRAL ISSUE IN AMERICAN POLITICS DURING THE END OF WOODROW WILSON'S ADMINISTRATION. IT ALSO PLAYED A MAJOR PART IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF NINETEEN-TWENTY. WILSON HIMSELF COULD NOT BE A CANDIDATE AGAIN. HE WAS MUCH TOO SICK. SO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATED A FORMER GOVERNOR OF OHIO, JAMES COX. COX SHARED WILSON'S OPINION THAT THE UNITED STATES SHOULD JOIN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE CAMPAIGNED ACTIVELY FOR AMERICAN MEMBERSHIP. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CHOSE SENATOR WARREN HARDING AS ITS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. HARDING CAMPAIGNED BY PROMISING A RETURN TO WHAT HE CALLED 'NORMAL TIMES'. HE SAID IT WAS TIME FOR AMERICA TO STOP ARGUING ABOUT INTERNATIONAL EVENTS AND START THINKING ABOUT ITSELF AGAIN. VOICE ONE: THE TWO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES GAVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A CLEAR CHOICE IN THE ELECTION OF NINETEEN-TWENTY. ON ONE SIDE WAS DEMOCRAT JAMES COX. HE REPRESENTED THE DREAM OF WOODROW WILSON. IN THIS DREAM, THE WORLD WOULD BE AT PEACE. AND AMERICA WOULD BE A WORLD LEADER THAT WOULD FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. ON THE OTHER SIDE WAS REPUBLICAN WARREN HARDING. HE REPRESENTED AN INWARD-LOOKING AMERICA. IT WAS AN AMERICA THAT FELT IT HAD SACRIFICED ENOUGH FOR OTHER PEOPLE. NOW IT WOULD DEAL WITH ITS OWN PROBLEMS. WARREN HARDING WON THE ELECTION. VOICE TWO: THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTION SHOCKED AND HURT WOODROW WILSON. HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE PEOPLE HAD TURNED FROM HIM AND HIS DREAM OF INTERNATIONAL UNITY AND PEACE. BUT THE FACT WAS THAT AMERICA WAS ENTERING A NEW PERIOD IN ITS HISTORY. FOR A LONG TIME, IT WOULD TURN ITS ENERGY AWAY FROM THE WORLD BEYOND ITS BORDERS. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE FRANK OLIVER AND TONY RIGGS. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 19, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some jazz music ... answer a question about divorce in America ... and report on a show of photographs about the tragedy in New York City. New York Photographs HOST: People in New York City are trying to find ways to deal with the tragedy of September eleventh. Many are seeking ways to honor the thousands of people who died. Others want to join together to share their memories of the horror. Here is Sarah Long to tell about unusual show of pictures in New York that provides a way to do both. ANNCR: They are young and old. Men and women and students of different colors and ethnic groups. They enter the small space slowly, trying not to react too emotionally to the hundreds of pictures hanging on the walls and overhead. They are visiting a temporary show called “Here is New York: a Democracy of Photographs.” It is on Prince Street in an area of New York City called SoHo. The show contains pictures made by professional photographers with costly camera equipment and by individuals with point and shoot cameras. All the photographs are of the attacks on the World Trade Center and its tragic effects. There are pictures of the huge buildings on fire, firemen racing to help, people mourning at funerals for loved ones. There are images taken by famous photographers, such as a plane hitting one of the towers. And there are ones taken by individuals such as one of a woman feeding her baby in the bright sunlight with the black smoke of the burning towers seen behind. The “Here Is New York” show was the idea of photographer Gilles Peress and building owner Michael Shulan who had an empty space in his Prince Street building. They asked Alice Rose George, a photography editor, and Charles Traub, of the School of Visual Arts, to help. They invited anyone who took pictures linked to the tragedy to take part in the show. More than one-thousand-five-hundred photographs have been offered so far. Each picture is scanned into a computer, printed on good paper, and hung. Copies of any of the pictures can be ordered for twenty-five dollars each. All the money earned is being given to the Children’s Aid Society. Susan Luciano is helping organize the project. She says people come to see the show and stay on volunteering their time to take orders or make computer copies of photographs. Many visitors react to the show with silence or tears, some reaching out to touch strangers standing nearby. One woman said, ”I needed to see this to try to deal with a reality that I can not understand or accept.” Effects of Divorce on Children HOST: Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Bac Ha wants to know about how divorce in the United States affects children. Ending a marriage can be a sad, unpleasant, and painful experience, especially for children. In the United States, the number of children affected by divorce grows by about one-million each year. As the number increases, experts continue to debate the effects of divorce on children. Some experts say divorce is harmful to children. Some studies show that children of divorce have more problems.For example, some children of divorce are more often aggressive toward parents and teachers. They have a greater risk of leaving school before completing their studies. They have more health and learning problems. However, experts note that these problems are not necessarily caused by divorce alone. During the Nineteen-Seventies, many Americans believed that divorce was the best solution for married people who were not happy. People did not think divorce would harm children. They thought children would go through a period of change when their parents ended their marriage. Then the children would be all right. These beliefs have changed in recent years. Researcher Judith Wallerstein studied more than one-hundred children of divorce over a twenty-five-year period. She says some children never recover from divorce. She says they often have problems with their own adult relationships as a result of their parents’ divorce. Mizz Wallerstein says her study proves that parents should stay together for their children, even if they are unhappy. However, some people say that children suffer more in a situation where there is much conflict. They say it is better for children to live with one divorced parent than to live with two parents who are angry and unhappy. Other experts note that many children of divorce do not have serious problems. This is because their parents are able to deal with the situation in a responsible way. Experts say that some people who get divorced are able to put the needs of their children first. They say that they are able to show the children that their love and support will continue after the divorce. Jazz CD HOST: The National Association of Recording Merchandisers released its fourth album of jazz in June. The Black Entertainment Television network helped produce the album, called “Jazz Now.” It has become one of the top selling jazz recordings. Ray Freeman tells us about it. ANNCR: “Jazz Now” is a collection of songs by several artists. Almost every kind of jazz music is represented on the recording. For example, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones make music with a banjo and other instruments not usual for jazz. Here is “Zona Mona.” (CUT 1 - ZONA MONA) A recent American television series about jazz increased interest in the history of the music. The producers of “Jazz Now” say they hope their album will influence listeners to support the work of current jazz artists. One of those is saxophonist Ed Calle (KI-yay). He has played sax on recordings by famous singers like Frank Sinatra and Gloria Estefan. Here he performs the song “Spanish Rose.” (CUT 2 - SPANISH ROSE) Among the fifteen songs on “Jazz Now” is an unusual new version of an old song. Guinean singer Elizabeth Kontomanou and drummer Leon Parker perform this Duke Ellington piece. We leave you now with “Caravan.” (CUT 3 – CARAVAN) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano, Cynthia Kirk, and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineers were Tony Harris and Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. Now, here is another selection from “Jazz Now”. This is “Savannah, No Problem” by Keiko Matsui. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – October 19, 2001: Great Lakes Clean Themselves
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists say they have evidence that the world’s biggest freshwater lake system is cleaning itself of pollutants. North America’s Great Lakes hold about twenty percent of the world’s fresh surface water. Pollution has been a problem there for years. Yet scientists now say large amounts of chemical pollutants are disappearing from the water’s surface. A team of Canadian and American scientists reported the unusual finding. The five Great Lakes are named Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. They extend from the middle western state of Minnesota to the eastern state of New York. Only Lake Michigan lies completely within the United States. The United States and Canada share the other four lakes. They also form part of the border between the two countries. A treaty signed in Nineteen-Oh-Nine provides for control of the lakes by the two countries. The Great Lakes form the most important inland waterway in North America. The five lakes and their waterways are important to the economies of the United States and Canada. In the new study, the scientists measured levels of several harmful chemicals that have washed into the lakes. They include chemicals to kill insects and polychlorinated biphenyls, or P-C-Bs. P-C-Bs are chemicals used in industry. The United States and Canada have banned P-C-Bs because of their links to cancer. Yet they still are used in some developing countries. The study found that Lake Ontario alone released almost two metric tons of P-C-Bs between Nineteen-Ninety-Two and Nineteen-Ninety-Six. The five lakes decreased their combined levels of P-C-Bs by about ten metric tons during the period. Levels of one banned chemical dropped more than four metric tons. The scientists believe the chemicals were released into the atmosphere. Keith Puckett of Canada’s environment agency worked on the project. He said the lakes are like huge lungs that have been breathing in pollutants for the past fifty years. Mister Puckett says now it is as if the lakes are starting to breathe out again. Mister Puckett adds that air pollution near the Great Lakes remains a threat. He called for increased efforts to control pollution from power production centers, factories, vehicles and other causes. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 22, 2001: Rethinking Skyscrapers
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Most of the world’s tall buildings, called skyscrapers, are in the United States. However, the recent terrorist attacks have caused some Americans to worry about the safety of these extremely tall buildings. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. We tell about the future of skyscrapers today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For almost thirty years, the World Trade Center stood more than four-hundred-ten meters above New York City’s financial center. The two towers of the Center were the tallest buildings in the city. They had more than one-hundred levels. Then on the morning of September Eleventh, two hijacked airplanes struck the buildings. Many people died immediately in explosions and fires. Others ran down many levels of steps in an effort to escape the buildings. Others waited for help in their offices. Then, one after another, both buildings fell. The collapse of the towers killed thousands of people. It also wrecked or damaged surrounding buildings. VOICE TWO: Engineers from the state of Illinois soon will investigate the collapse of the buildings for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Their early study, however, shows that the buildings held up well. One tower remained standing for about forty-seven minutes after the plane hit it. The other tower stayed up for about one hour and forty minutes after it was struck. The fact that the towers stayed up as long as they did permitted many people to escape. Several experts have said no building could have resisted the attacks. The terrorists meant to cause the largest explosions and the hottest fires possible. So they hijacked planes heavily loaded with fuel. The heat from the burning fuel weakened the steel structure of the towers. These fires burned far hotter than fires used to test building materials. They also burned longer. The intense heat caused the upper levels of the buildings to fall. Then the lower levels also fell. Some pieces of building wreckage caused destruction in the area. Mainly, however, the towers imploded – fell down in their own space. Several engineers praised the World Trade Center for this. Many more people would have died if the buildings had fallen to the side. VOICE ONE: Officials say the wreckage will take months to clear. After the attacks, broken glass and smoking metal lay twelve meters above the ground. The World Trade Center had contained two-hundred-thousand tons of steel. It also had forty-three-thousand windows. About fifty-thousand people worked in the World Trade Center. Some estimates say as many as ninety-thousand people passed through it on some days. The towers represented business and trade in the biggest city in America. Many people throughout the world recognized pictures of the World Trade Center against the skies of New York. ((BRIDGE MUSIC)) VOICE TWO: People in New York are discussing ways to remember the World Trade Center and the people who died in the attack. Several artists and building designers suggest a memorial called “Towers of Light.” The arts group Creative Time proposes forming two towers of light in the shape of the fallen buildings. These lights would reach toward the sky. The artists currently are researching methods that could produce lighting with such power. Businessman Larry Silverstein currently controls use of the World Trade Center property. Mister Silverstein says he will rebuild the Center. However, it is unclear what the new Center will be like. Some architects have suggested creating four shorter buildings. These structures would have about fifty levels. A park between the buildings would contain a memorial to victims of the attack. Other New York citizens called for rebuilding the World Trade Center as it was. For example, former Mayor Ed Koch urged replacement of the two skyscrapers. He said this would show the terrorists that New York remained undefeated. However, some city planners believe such extremely tall structures should not be replaced. Instead, some experts advise copying other New York buildings that are not as tall. VOICE ONE: The Urban Land Institute is a research and educational organization for planners and building designers. Some members believe skyscrapers waste space. These experts say some buildings use their lower levels mainly to get people to the upper levels. Some experts also believe the office needs of businesses are changing. Most large companies now have their headquarters in skyscrapers. This permits their employees to work together in one place. However, employees today can communicate easily though electronic mail and other technology. So some planners believe there will be less need for skyscrapers in the future. VOICE TWO: The Empire State building is now the tallest building in New York City. It was built in Nineteen-Thirty-One. It was the tallest building in the world for more than forty years. It still is one of the most popular. Thousands of millions of visitors have seen New York from observation areas in this building. Some Americans now say they are worried about the Empire State Building. However, a wealthy New York property owner has offered as much as fifty-seven-million dollars to buy it. He says he believes fear of skyscrapers will be temporary. Many of America’s skyscrapers have increased safety measures since the terrorist attacks. Owners have placed barriers around the buildings at street level. Security devices and guards examine people who enter the buildings. Building occupants are receiving information about what to do in an emergency. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Skyscrapers were invented in the United States. As early as the Eighteen-Eighties, two new technical developments made these taller buildings possible. One development was the mechanical elevator. It meant that people would not have to climb many steps to reach the upper floors of tall buildings. The development of steel also helped make taller buildings possible. The first skyscraper was built in Chicago, Illinois in Eighteen-Eighty-Five. The Home Insurance Building was almost fifty-five meters tall. Chicago became home to the world’s tallest building in Nineteen-Seventy-Three when the Sears Tower was built. It is four-hundred-forty-two meters tall. The Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world for twenty-three years. Then, in Nineteen-Ninety-Six, two taller buildings were completed. They are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are about four-hundred-fifty-two meters tall. VOICE TWO: Recently, businessman Donald Trump proposed another very tall building for Chicago. Mister Trump and the owners of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper wanted to build a structure four-hundred-fifty-seven meters high along the Chicago River. Mister Trump and the newspaper owners have been seeking more money for the project. Now, however, it is unclear if they will continue proposing such a big skyscraper. Developers in China want to build the tallest skyscraper ever. They are planning an International Financial Center for Shanghai. The Center is to be more than four-hundred-eighty-seven meters tall. The building would have several safety measures not included in the World Trade Center buildings. For example, the areas containing steps would be wider than those in the World Trade Center. Areas called refuge floors would be placed every ten to twelve levels. These open-air places are designed to protect people from smoke. They are legally required in China and some other Asian countries. VOICE ONE: Experts say there is almost no engineering limit to the height a skyscraper can be. Still, people’s feelings may limit the size of skyscrapers in the future. For example, a New York City stock trader works in an office high in a skyscraper. He says he once liked to look out his office window and see the other tall buildings of the city. But his feelings have changed since the terrorist attacks. Now, he says, he would like to work much closer to the ground. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 21, 2001: R. Buckminster Fuller
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) EVERY WEEK AT THIS TIME, WE TELL THE STORY OF SOMEONE IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. TODAY, HARRY MONROE AND KAY GALLANT TELL ABOUT AN UNUSUAL MAN, RICHARD BUCKMINSTER FULLER. VOICE ONE: BUILDING DESIGNER. ENGINEER. INVENTOR. THINKER. POET. NOT FIVE PEOPLE. JUST ONE: RICHARD BUCKMINSTER FULLER. "BUCKY" FULLER, AS HE WAS KNOWN, WAS ONE OF THE UNUSUAL THINKERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. HIS AIM IN LIFE WAS TO MAKE THE HUMAN RACE A SUCCESS IN THE UNIVERSE. BUCKY FULLER SPENT MOST OF HIS LIFE SEARCHING FOR NEW IDEAS. HE ALSO SEARCHED FOR UNUSUAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN EXISTING IDEAS. HE DESCRIBED HIMSELF IN THESE WORDS: "A COMPLETE, FUTURE-THINKING DESIGN-SCIENCE EXPLORER." FULLER BELIEVED DEEPLY IN TECHNOLOGY. THROUGH TECHNOLOGY, HE SAID, PEOPLE CAN DO ANYTHING THEY NEED TO DO. VOICE TWO : R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER DIED IN NINETEEN-EIGHTY-THREE AT THE AGE OF EIGHTY-SEVEN. DURING HIS LONG LIFE, HE DISCUSSED HIS IDEA ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN SURVIVAL. HE CALLED HIS IDEA "DYMAXION." IT CAME FROM THREE WORDS. DYNAMIC, MEANING A FORCE. MAXIMUM, MEANING THE MOST. AND ION, WHICH IS AN ATOM OR GROUP OF ATOMS WITH AN ELECTRICAL CHARGE. FULLER EXPLAINED THE WORD DYMAXION AS A METHOD OF DOING MORE WITH LESS. EVERYTHING HE DID WAS GUIDED BY THIS IDEA. HE DESIGNED A DYMAXION CAR, A DYMAXION HOUSE, AND A DYMAXION MAP OF THE WORLD. BUT HE PROBABLY IS KNOWN BEST FOR ANOTHER INVENTION -- THE GEODESIC DOME. A GEODESIC DOME IS A ROUND BUILDING MADE OF MANY STRAIGHT-SIDED PIECES. TALKING ABOUT R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER MEANS USING STRANGE WORDS. THIS IS BECAUSE FULLER HIMSELF INVENTED WORDS TO DESCRIBE HIS IDEAS AND DESIGNS. HIS DESIGNS WERE WAY AHEAD OF HIS TIME. THEY STILL ARE. VOICE ONE: R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER WAS BORN IN MILTON, MASSACHUSETTS, IN EIGHTEEN-NINETY-FIVE. BUCKY COULD NOT SEE CLEARLY, BECAUSE HIS EYES DID NOT POINT STRAIGHT AHEAD. SO, HIS WORLD WAS FILLED WITH MASSES OF COLOR WITHOUT CLEAR SHAPES. WHEN HE WAS FOUR YEARS OLD, HE GOT EYEGLASSES TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM. SUDDENLY, HE COULD SEE THE SHAPES OF PEOPLE'S FACES. HE COULD SEE STARS IN THE SKY AND LEAVES ON THE TREES. HE NEVER LOST HIS JOY AT THE BEAUTY HE DISCOVERED IN THE WORLD. AS A CHILD, BUCKY FULLER QUESTIONED EVERYTHING. HE WAS A VERY INDEPENDENT THINKER AT AN EARLY AGE. HIS REFUSAL TO ACCEPT OTHERS' IDEAS AND RULES CONTINUED AS HE GREW OLDER. ONE RESULT WAS THAT HE NEVER COMPLETED HIS UNIVERSITY STUDIES. HE WAS EXPELLED TWO SEPARATE TIMES FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN MASSACHUSETTS. HE THOUGHT HIS TIME WAS BETTER SPENT HAVING FUN THAN STUDYING. YET BUCKY FULLER WAS VERY SERIOUS ABOUT LEARNING. HE PROVED THIS WHEN HE JOINED THE AMERICAN NAVY DURING WORLD WAR ONE. VOICE TWO: IN THE NAVY, HE LEARNED ALL ABOUT NAVIGATION, MATHEMATICS, MECHANICS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING. HE LOVED THIS WORLD OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY. SOON AFTER HE JOINED THE NAVY, HE DESIGNED NEW RESCUE EQUIPMENT. IT HELPED SAVE THE LIVES OF SOME PILOTS DURING TRAINING. FULLER'S GOOD NAVY RECORD WON HIM A SHORT-TERM APPOINTMENT TO THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY IN ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND. IT WAS THERE HE FIRST DEVELOPED TWO IDEAS THAT WERE IMPORTANT FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. WHILE STUDYING WARSHIPS, FULLER REALIZED THAT THEY WEIGHED MUCH LESS THAN BUILDINGS, YET WERE ABLE TO DO MUCH MORE. HE DECIDED BETTER DESIGNS COULD HELP HUMANS DO MORE, USING FEWER MATERIALS. VOICE ONE: IN NINETEEN-SEVENTEEN, BUCKY FULLER MARRIED ANNE HEWLETT. THEIR DAUGHTER, ALEXANDRA, WAS BORN ABOUT A YEAR LATER. BUCKY WAS A VERY EMOTIONAL MAN, AS WELL AS AN INTELLECTUAL ONE. HE LOVED HIS LITTLE DAUGHTER. SHE WAS THE WONDER OF HIS WORLD. THEN ALEXANDRA BECAME VERY SICK. THE MEDICINE TO CURE HER HAD NOT BEEN INVENTED YET. SHE DIED AT THE AGE OF FOUR. BUCKY FULLER BLAMED HIMSELF, ALTHOUGH HE HAD DONE EVERYTHING HE COULD TO SAVE HER. HIS SORROW OVERCAME HIM. HE BEGAN TO DRINK TOO MUCH ALCOHOL. YET HE CONTINUED TO WORK HARD. FULLER WAS HEAD OF A COMPANY THAT MADE A LIGHT-WEIGHT BUILDING MATERIAL. HE WAS NOT A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN, HOWEVER. AND THE COMPANY BEGAN TO FAIL. HE WAS DISMISSED BY THE OWNERS. IT WAS NINETEEN-TWENTY-SEVEN. HIS WIFE HAD JUST GIVEN BIRTH TO ANOTHER BABY GIRL. THEY WERE LIVING IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. HE HAD NO JOB AND NO MONEY. HE FELT HE WAS A COMPLETE FAILURE. VOICE TWO: BUCKY FULLER WALKED THROUGH THE STREETS OF CHICAGO ALONG LAKE MICHIGAN. HE STOOD SILENTLY ON THE SHORE. HE CONSIDERED KILLING HIMSELF. THEN, AS HE EXPLAINED LATER, HE REALIZED HE DID NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO KILL HIMSELF. HE SAID HE HAD FELT SOMETHING INSIDE HIM THAT DAY. HE CALLED IT THE GREATER INTELLIGENCE OR GOD. IT TOLD HIM HE BELONGED TO THE UNIVERSE. SO BUCKY FULLER DECIDED TO LIVE. AND HE WOULD LIVE THE WAY HE THOUGHT BEST. HE PROMISED TO SPEND HIS REMAINING YEARS IN SEARCH OF DESIGNS THAT COULD MAKE HUMAN EXISTENCE ON EARTH EASIER. THIS BEGAN HIS GREAT CREATIVE PERIOD. VOICE ONE: FULLER'S FIRST DESIGN WAS THE DYMAXION HOUSE. IT WAS NOT BUILT AT THE PLACE IT WOULD STAND. IT WAS BUILT IN A FACTORY, THEN MOVED. IT DID NOT COST MUCH TO BUILD. AND IT DID NOT LOOK LIKE A TRADITIONAL HOUSE IN AMERICA. ITS ROOF HUNG FROM A HUGE STICK IN THE CENTER. ITS WALLS WERE MADE OF GLASS. IT CONTAINED EVERYTHING NEEDED FOR PEOPLE TO LIVE. POWER CAME FROM THE SUN. WATER WAS CLEANED AND RE-USED. FULLER THEN DESIGNED AND BUILT THE DYMAXION CAR. IT LOOKED A LITTLE LIKE THE BODY OF AN AIRPLANE. IT HAD THREE WHEELS INSTEAD OF FOUR. IT COULD GO AS FAST AS ONE-HUNDRED-EIGHTY KILOMETERS AN HOUR. IT CARRIED UP TO TWELVE PASSENGERS. SEVERAL COMPANIES WERE INTERESTED IN BUILDING AND SELLING FULLER'S HOUSE AND CAR. BUT HIS DESIGNS WERE SO DIFFERENT, SO EXTREME, THAT BANKS WERE NOT WILLING TO LEND MONEY FOR THE PROJECTS. SO THE DYMAXION HOUSE -- WHICH COULD HAVE PROVIDED LOW-COST HOUSING FOR EVERYONE -- WAS NEVER BUILT. AND THE DYMAXION CAR -- WHICH COULD HAVE PROVIDED SAFE, POLLUTION-FREE TRANSPORTATION USING LITTLE GASOLINE -- WAS NEVER PRODUCED. VOICE TWO: BUCKY FULLER DID NOT GIVE UP HIS IDEA OF DOING MORE WITH LESS. HE HAD AN IDEA FOR ANOTHER BUILDING DESIGN. IT WOULD PROVIDE THE MOST STRENGTH WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF MATERIAL. HE BEGAN LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT SHAPE. FULLER FOUND IT IN NATURE. IT APPEARED IN THE SHAPES OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND METALS. THE MAIN PART OF HIS DESIGN IS A FOUR-SIDED PYRAMID. TO CREATE A BUILDING, MANY PYRAMIDS ARE CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER. THE CONNECTING PIECE HAS EIGHT SIDES. TOGETHER, THESE TWO SHAPES CREATE A VERY STRONG, LIGHT-WEIGHT ROUNDED STRUCTURE. THE STRUCTURE CAN BE COVERED WITH ANY KIND OF MATERIAL. AND IT CAN STAND WITHOUT ANY SUPPORTS INSIDE. FULLER NAMED THIS STRUCTURE THE GEODESIC DOME. IT COVERS MORE SPACE WITH LESS MATERIAL THAN ANY OTHER BUILDING EVER DESIGNED. VOICE ONE : AFTER A NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTAL GEODESIC DOMES WERE BUILT, INDUSTRY BEGAN TO UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF THE DESIGN. TODAY, THERE ARE ABOUT ONE-HUNDRED-THOUSAND DIFFERENT LARGE AND SMALL GEODESIC DOMES IN USE AROUND THE WORLD. HOWEVER, NO ONE YET HAS ACTED ON ONE OF FULLER'S IDEAS FOR THE GEODESIC DOME. THERE ARE NO LIMITS TO THE SIZE OF A GEODESIC DOME. SO FULLER PROPOSED USING THEM OVER CITIES. OR OVER TERRITORIES WITH SEVERE WEATHER. A GEODESIC DOME THAT SIZE WOULD MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THE THE ENVIRONMENT INSIDE IT. VOICE TWO: MOST OF BUCKY FULLER'S INVENTIONS DID NOT EARN HIM MUCH MONEY. A LOT OF WHAT HE DID EARN HE SPENT TRAVELLING AROUND THE WORLD. HE TOLD ANYONE WHO WOULD LISTEN ABOUT HIS IDEAS FOR HUMAN LIFE ON THIS PLANET. HE CALLED THE PLANET "SPACESHIP EARTH." HUMANS, HE SAID, ARE ASTRONAUTS ON SPACESHIP EARTH. THEY ARE TRAVELLING ONE-HUNDRED-THOUSAND KILOMETERS AN HOUR AROUND THE SUN. HE SAID THE EARTH IS LIKE A LARGE MECHANICAL DEVICE THAT WILL SURVIVE ONLY IF PEOPLE LIVING ON IT KNOW HOW TO OPERATE IT CORRECTLY. PEOPLE MUST LIVE ON EARTH JUST AS ASTRONAUTS LIVE IN A SPACESHIP. THEY MUST USE THEIR SUPPLIES WISELY, AND RE-USE THEM. HUMANS ARE ABLE, SAID BUCKMINSTER FULLER, THROUGH PLANNING AND WISE USE OF NATURAL SUPPLIES TO FEED AND HOUSE THEMSELVES, FOREVER. (THEME) ANNCR: THIS VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, PEOPLE IN AMERICA, WAS WRITTEN BY MARILYN RICE CHRISTIANO. YOUR NARRATORS WERE HARRY MONROE AND KAY GALLANT. I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – October 22, 2001: WHO Report on Mental Illness
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has published a new report on mental health. It says that one out of every four people in the world will suffer from a mental or brain disease at some time in their lives. W-H-O Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland is calling on governments to make mental health a serious concern. The World Health Organization estimates that about four-hundred-fifty-million people currently suffer from mental illness or brain disorders. About one quarter of these people suffer from depression. About fifty-million people have epilepsy, a nerve disorder. These conditions can be treated. However, the W-H-O reports that nearly two-thirds of people with a known mental disorder never seek help from a health professional. Doctor Brundtland says mental illness affects people in both rich and poor countries. She says most people can fully recover if treated. However, only a small number of people receive even the most simple care. This is often because of limited resources and medicines. In addition, Doctor Brundtland says that health care providers in many countries often do not have the necessary skills to treat mental diseases. She adds that mentally sick patients are usually not treated with fairness in their cultures. And many nations do not have good public health policies. Doctor Brundtland says that most people suffering from mental disorders can live productive lives if they get the right treatment. For example, more than eighty percent of people with the severe mental disorder schizophrenia can be free from the disease returning after one year of treatment. Up to sixty percent of people with depression can recover with the right mixture of medicines and treatment. Experts say mental health problems can be treated at a small cost. The W-H-O says governments should treat patients in community health centers instead of large mental hospitals. Officials also believe that care for the mentally ill should not be seen as a separate kind of health care. Instead, the W-H-O believes that countries should include mental health care as part of their general health care systems. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-19-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 20, 2001: Financial Campaign Against Terrorism
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The United States is attempting to cut the supply of money for terrorist groups. Congress has approved measures expanding the government’s power to halt the flow of money to Osama bin Laden and his al Qa’eda organization. They are the main suspects in the airline hijackings on September eleventh which caused thousands of deaths in New York and Washington. President Bush has signed executive orders to freeze the American assets of sixty-six individuals, businesses and organizations linked to the suspected terrorists. An order to freeze assets means people and groups on the list cannot remove money held by banks in their name. The government says banks have halted the use of about forty-million dollars so far. The order also barred citizens and companies from doing business with those on the list. American officials have asked other governments to join the international campaign to halt the flow of money to terrorists. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill said that at least sixty-two nations have already blocked any activity for terrorist bank accounts. He said one-hundred-two others have said they will join the effort. Mister O’Neill told reporters the international effort has stopped the use of at least twenty-four-million dollars in bank accounts linked to Osama bin Laden and the al-Qa’eda organization. It will not be easy to stop the financial support for al-Qa’eda. That is because not all its support comes from the movement of money through banks. Reports say the terrorist group receives money directly from supporters in the Middle East, and through a group of Islamic organizations. Al-Qa’eda also uses an ancient system of money exchange known as “hawala.” Under hawala, trusted people exchange millions of dollars around the world. These exchanges do not use paper or other documents. Experts say Mister bin Laden also is able to move money, weapons and men around the world through support from several Middle Eastern and European businesses. The experts say some money is earned through criminal actions that include selling the illegal drugs opium and heroin. The United States says most nations have been cooperating in the financial campaign against terrorists. The seven leading industrial countries recently announced a joint plan. They called on all nations to establish investigative groups, share information and develop ways to stop terrorist financing. And the European Union has called on member nations to block terrorist bank accounts and to stop the financing of terrorism. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-19-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 18, 2001: Woodrow Wilson, Part 9
* Byline: 

 THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) AFTER THE END OF WORLD WAR ONE, PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON SOUGHT NATIONAL SUPPORT FOR HIS IDEA OF A LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE TOOK HIS APPEAL DIRECTLY TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE SUMMER OF NINETEEN-NINETEEN. I'M FRANK OLIVER. TODAY, TONY RIGGS AND I CONTINUE THE STORY OF WILSON'S CAMPAIGN. VOICE TWO: THE PLAN FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS WAS PART OF THE PEACE TREATY THAT ENDED WORLD WAR ONE. BY LAW, THE UNITED STATES SENATE WOULD HAVE TO VOTE ON THE TREATY. PRESIDENT WILSON BELIEVED THE SENATE WOULD HAVE TO APPROVE IT IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DEMANDED IT. SO HE WENT TO THE PEOPLE FOR SUPPORT. FOR ALMOST A MONTH, WILSON TRAVELED ACROSS AMERICA. HE STOPPED IN MANY PLACES TO SPEAK ABOUT THE NEED FOR THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE SAID THE LEAGUE WAS THE ONLY HOPE FOR WORLD PEACE. IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT ANOTHER WORLD WAR. WILSON'S HEALTH GREW WORSE DURING THE LONG JOURNEY ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HE BECAME INCREASINGLY WEAK AND SUFFERED FROM SEVERE HEADACHES. IN WITCHITA, KANSAS, HE HAD A SMALL STROKE. A BLOOD VESSEL BURST INSIDE HIS BRAIN. HE WAS FORCED TO RETURN TO WASHINGTON. VOICE ONE: FOR A FEW DAYS, PRESIDENT WILSON'S CONDITION IMPROVED. THEN, HIS WIFE FOUND HIM LYING UNCONSCIOUS ON THE FLOOR OF HIS BEDROOM IN THE WHITE HOUSE. WILSON HAD LOST ALL FEELING IN THE LEFT SIDE OF HIS BODY. HE WAS NEAR DEATH. THE PRESIDENT'S ADVISERS KEPT HIS CONDITION SECRET FROM ALMOST EVERYONE. THEY TOLD REPORTERS ONLY THAT WILSON WAS SUFFERING FROM A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS, THE MEDICAL REPORTS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE WERE ALWAYS THE SAME. THEY SAID MISTER WILSON'S CONDITION HAD NOT CHANGED. PEOPLE BEGAN TO WONDER. WERE THEY BEING TOLD THE TRUTH? SOME PEOPLE BEGAN TO BELIEVE THAT THE PRESIDENT WAS, IN FACT, DEAD. VICE PRESIDENT THOMAS MARSHALL WAS WORRIED. IF THE PRESIDENT DIED OR COULD NOT GOVERN, THEN HE -- MARSHALL -- WOULD BECOME PRESIDENT. BUT EVEN VICE PRESIDENT MARSHALL COULD GET NO INFORMATION FROM WILSON'S DOCTORS. VOICE TWO: AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS, THE PRESIDENT SEEMED TO GET A LITTLE STRONGER. HE WAS STILL VERY WEAK. HE COULD NOT WORK, EXCEPT TO SIGN SEVERAL BILLS. THIS SIMPLE ACT TOOK MOST OF HIS STRENGTH. WILSON'S WIFE EDITH GUARDED HER HUSBAND CLOSELY. SHE ALONE DECIDED WHO COULD SEE HIM. SHE ALONE DECIDED WHAT INFORMATION HE COULD RECEIVE. ALL LETTERS AND MESSAGES TO WOODROW WILSON WERE GIVEN FIRST TO EDITH WILSON. SHE DECIDED IF THEY WERE IMPORTANT ENOUGH FOR HIM TO SEE. MOST, SHE DECIDED, WERE NOT. SHE ALSO PREVENTED MEMBERS OF THE CABINET AND OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FROM COMMUNICATING WITH HIM DIRECTLY. MISSUS WILSON'S ACTIONS MADE MANY PEOPLE SUSPECT THAT SHE -- NOT HER HUSBAND -- WAS GOVERNING THE COUNTRY. SOME SPOKE OF HER AS THE NATION'S FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT. VOICE ONE: THERE WAS ONE ISSUE MISSUS WILSON DID DISCUSS WITH HER HUSBAND: THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. THE SENATE WAS COMPLETING DEBATE ON THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES. THAT WAS THE WORLD WAR ONE PEACE AGREEMENT THAT CONTAINED WILSON'S PLAN FOR THE LEAGUE. IT SEEMED CLEAR THE SENATE WOULD REJECT THE TREATY. TOO MANY SENATORS FEARED THE UNITED STATES WOULD LOSE SOME OF ITS INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM IF IT JOINED THE LEAGUE. THE LEADER OF WILSON'S POLITICAL PARTY IN THE SENATE, GILBERT HITCHCOCK, HEADED THE ADMINISTRATION CAMPAIGN TO WIN SUPPORT FOR THE TREATY. HE RECEIVED MISSUS WILSON'S PERMISSION TO VISIT HER HUSBAND. HITCHCOCK TOLD THE PRESIDENT THE SITUATION WAS HOPELESS. HE SAID THE SENATE WOULD NOT APPROVE THE TREATY UNLESS SEVERAL CHANGES WERE MADE TO PROTECT AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. IF THE PRESIDENT ACCEPTED THE CHANGES, THEN THE TREATY MIGHT PASS. VOICE TWO: WILSON REFUSED. HE WOULD ACCEPT NO COMPROMISE. HE SAID THE TREATY MUST BE APPROVED AS WRITTEN. SENATOR HITCHCOCK MADE ONE MORE ATTEMPT TO GET WILSON TO RE-CONSIDER. ON THE DAY THE SENATE PLANNED TO VOTE ON THE TREATY, HE WENT BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE. HE TOLD MISSUS WILSON THAT COMPROMISE OFFERED THE ONLY HOPE FOR SUCCESS. MISSUS WILSON WENT INTO THE PRESIDENT'S ROOM WHILE HITCHCOCK WAITED. SHE ASKED HER HUSBAND: "WILL YOU NOT ACCEPT THE CHANGES AND GET THIS THING SETTLED?" HE ANSWERED: "I CANNOT. BETTER A THOUSAND TIMES TO GO DOWN FIGHTING THAN TO SURRENDER TO DISHONORABLE COMPROMISE." VOICE ONE: THE SENATE VOTED. HITCHCOCK'S FEARS PROVED CORRECT. THE TREATY WAS DEFEATED. THE DEFEAT ENDED WILSON'S DREAM OF AMERICAN MEMBERSHIP IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. MISSUS WILSON GAVE THE NEWS TO HER HUSBAND. HE WAS SILENT FOR A LONG TIME. THEN HE SAID: "I MUST GET WELL." WOODROW WILSON WAS EXTREMELY SICK. YET HE WAS NOT THE KIND OF MAN WHO ACCEPTED OPPOSITION OR DEFEAT EASILY. FROM HIS SICK BED, HE WROTE A LETTER TO THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HE URGED THEM TO CONTINUE DEBATE ON THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE SAID A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WANTED THE TREATY APPROVED. WILSON PROBABLY WAS CORRECT ABOUT THIS. MOST AMERICANS DID APPROVE OF MEMBERSHIP IN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. BUT THEY ALSO WANTED TO BE SURE MEMBERSHIP WOULD NOT RESTRICT AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. VOICE TWO: THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE AGREED TO RE-OPEN DISCUSSION ON THE TREATY. IT SEARCHED YET AGAIN FOR A COMPROMISE. IT MADE NEW EFFORTS TO GET WILSON TO ACCEPT SOME CHANGES. BUT, AS BEFORE, WILSON REFUSED. HE WAS A PROUD MAN. AND HE THOUGHT MANY OF THE SENATORS WERE EVIL MEN TRYING TO DESTROY HIS PLAN FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE. WILSON'S UNWILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE HELPED KILL THE TREATY ONCE AND FOR ALL. THE SENATE FINALLY VOTED AGAIN, AND THE TREATY WAS DEFEATED BY SEVEN VOTES. THE TREATY WAS DEAD. THE UNITED STATES WOULD NEVER ENTER THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. AND ONE OF THE MOST EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL STORIES IN THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN NATION HAD ENDED. VOICE ONE: THE LONG BATTLE OVER THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES ENDED WITH POLITICAL DEFEAT FOR WOODROW WILSON. YET HISTORY WOULD PROVE HIM CORRECT. WILSON HAD WARNED TIME AND AGAIN DURING THE DEBATE THAT A TERRIBLE WAR WOULD RESULT IF THE WORLD DID NOT COME TOGETHER TO PROTECT THE PEACE. TWENTY YEARS LATER, WAR CAME. THE FIRST WORLD WAR HAD BEEN CALLED 'THE WAR TO END ALL WARS'. BUT IT WAS NOT. AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR WOULD BE FAR MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE FIRST. VOICE TWO: THE DEBATE OVER THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES WAS THE CENTRAL ISSUE IN AMERICAN POLITICS DURING THE END OF WOODROW WILSON'S ADMINISTRATION. IT ALSO PLAYED A MAJOR PART IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF NINETEEN-TWENTY. WILSON HIMSELF COULD NOT BE A CANDIDATE AGAIN. HE WAS MUCH TOO SICK. SO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATED A FORMER GOVERNOR OF OHIO, JAMES COX. COX SHARED WILSON'S OPINION THAT THE UNITED STATES SHOULD JOIN THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. HE CAMPAIGNED ACTIVELY FOR AMERICAN MEMBERSHIP. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CHOSE SENATOR WARREN HARDING AS ITS CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT. HARDING CAMPAIGNED BY PROMISING A RETURN TO WHAT HE CALLED 'NORMAL TIMES'. HE SAID IT WAS TIME FOR AMERICA TO STOP ARGUING ABOUT INTERNATIONAL EVENTS AND START THINKING ABOUT ITSELF AGAIN. VOICE ONE: THE TWO PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES GAVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE A CLEAR CHOICE IN THE ELECTION OF NINETEEN-TWENTY. ON ONE SIDE WAS DEMOCRAT JAMES COX. HE REPRESENTED THE DREAM OF WOODROW WILSON. IN THIS DREAM, THE WORLD WOULD BE AT PEACE. AND AMERICA WOULD BE A WORLD LEADER THAT WOULD FIGHT FOR THE FREEDOM AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. ON THE OTHER SIDE WAS REPUBLICAN WARREN HARDING. HE REPRESENTED AN INWARD-LOOKING AMERICA. IT WAS AN AMERICA THAT FELT IT HAD SACRIFICED ENOUGH FOR OTHER PEOPLE. NOW IT WOULD DEAL WITH ITS OWN PROBLEMS. WARREN HARDING WON THE ELECTION. VOICE TWO: THE RESULTS OF THE ELECTION SHOCKED AND HURT WOODROW WILSON. HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE PEOPLE HAD TURNED FROM HIM AND HIS DREAM OF INTERNATIONAL UNITY AND PEACE. BUT THE FACT WAS THAT AMERICA WAS ENTERING A NEW PERIOD IN ITS HISTORY. FOR A LONG TIME, IT WOULD TURN ITS ENERGY AWAY FROM THE WORLD BEYOND ITS BORDERS. THAT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE FRANK OLIVER AND TONY RIGGS. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 23, 2001: Conservation Agriculture
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization is warning farmers about damage caused by heavy farm equipment, such as tractors and ploughs. F-A-O officials say repeated use of such equipment is a major cause of soil loss and land damage in developing countries. The officials say traditional methods to clear fields have been linked to soil loss, especially in warmer climates. They say intensive use of heavy machines also causes soil damage in industrial countries. F-A-O officials say millions of hectares of land could be protected from damage and soil loss if more farmers followed conservation agriculture policies. The goal of conservation agriculture is to protect, improve and make more effective use of nature. Farmers supervise their crops as well as water supplies, soil, and plant and animal life. Conservation agriculture policies are designed to protect the environment and increase agricultural production. Farmers are required to cover their land with leaves, sticks and other organic materials. This natural cover protects the soil from heat, wind and rain. It also keeps the soil cooler and helps to stop water from evaporating. F-A-O officials say less time spent clearing fields means lower fuel and labor costs. It also means farmers need to spend less for heavy machines. Supporters of conservation agriculture also are careful when using chemicals to kill insects. Over the years, they are able to decrease the amount of pesticides they use on their crops. The F-A-O reports that such methods are being used on about fifty-eight million hectares of land worldwide. The U-N agency is especially pleased with the spread of conservation agriculture in Latin America. For example, in the past, farmers in Santa Catarina, Brazil depended on heavy machines, pesticides and fertilizer products. Many farmers grew the same crop, corn, from one year to the next. The farmers reported increasing soil damage. The productivity of their farms decreased. The F-A-O says the farmers started to use other methods of farming. Now the farmers use conservation agriculture methods on more than one-third of the state’s total farmland. The F-A-O says it plans to expand its conservation agriculture program in Africa, Central Asia and South Asia. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 23, 2001: Multiple Sclerosis
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease multiple sclerosis. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Multiple sclerosis is not very easy to say. Those who suffer from the disease may also have difficulty naming it. One of the chief signs of multiple sclerosis is losing the ability to speak clearly. It is estimated that more than one-million people around the world suffer from multiple sclerosis, which also is called M-S. M-S is a disease of the brain and spinal cord. The cause of the disease is not known. In patients with the disease, the covering of the nerves is destroyed. This temporarily blocks signals that pass through the nerves to the muscles of the body and back to the brain. M-S especially affects the ability to see, the sense of touch and the use of the arms and legs. Most forms of the disease are described as progressive. This means that the disease gets worse as time passes. VOICE TWO: The central nervous system of the body includes the brain and the spinal cord. The system contains millions of nerve cells joined together by long thin fibers, like wires. Electric signals start in nerve cells and travel along these fibers to and from the brain. A fatty substance called myelin covers and protects the fibers. Myelin works in the same way that protective coverings work on electric wires. In patients with M-S, the myelin becomes infected. It swells, or grows larger, and loses its connection with the nerve fibers. As time passes, the unconnected myelin is destroyed. Hardened tissue called scar tissue then forms over the nerve fibers. The process of hardening is called sclerosis. The word is from Latin and means scar. The many areas of hardened or scar tissue give the disease its name. VOICE ONE: In people with M-S, when nerve signals reach a damaged area, some of the signals are blocked or delayed from traveling to or from the brain. This results in problems in different places throughout the body. These problems may appear and then disappear, sometimes resulting in long periods when there are no problems at all. Or, they may happen more and more often and become worse. Doctors do not know what causes this process. Health experts say the disease affects women two times as often as men. And the experts say the average age of people found to have the disease is between twenty and forty years old. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: For many years, doctors believed that the cause of multiple sclerosis was environmental. They believed this because a majority of those suffering from the disease lived in northern Europe and the northern half of the United States. In recent years, however, they have changed their beliefs about the causes of M-S. Studies support the theory that there are several causes of multiple sclerosis, instead of a single gene problem or one environmental cause. The studies appear to show that genetic problems are involved in making people likely to get the disease. The studies also appear to show that environmental causes such as viruses or bacteria also may be involved. However, researchers have not identified just what those causes might be. Another likely cause is a problem within the body’s defense system, when the defense system misunderstands signals and attacks the body. VOICE ONE: Multiple sclerosis is different from many other diseases. The signs or symptoms of the disease are not always the same. Sometimes symptoms of M-S appear and then disappear for a long time. For example, one of the symptoms is a lack of feeling in one part of the body or another. Two other symptoms of the disease are muscle weakness or tiredness. However, these signs also could be caused by other health problems that are not M-S. Other signs include a loss of the ability to move normally, or a loss of balance. A person suffering from M-S also may have difficulty seeing well or speaking clearly. VOICE TWO: Doctors who suspect a patient has M-S must carry out a number of tests and study the patient’s history of health problems. Signs of M-S can depend on where the nerve scars are in the body’s central nervous system. And some of these signs are not always easy to see. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is one way to tell if a patient has multiple sclerosis. The test, also known as M-R-I, involves studying the magnetic signals from all the cells in the body. An M-R-I can show if there are scars from M-S along a patient’s nerves. A doctor can use this test to tell if a patient might have the disease, as well as by studying the patient’s medical history. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are five main kinds of multiple sclerosis. The first kind is called Benign. This is the form of M-S that is not progressive. In ten to fifteen percent of M-S patients, the symptoms are moderate and not severe. The problems do not grow worse. They do not lead to a person becoming permanently disabled. The second kind of M-S is called Relapsing-Remitting. About eighty-five percent of M-S patients begin with this form of the disease. More than half of M-S patients have this form at any one time. These patients have one or two major M-S-related problems every one to three years. Then they have periods with no signs of the disease. The symptoms appear suddenly and last a few weeks or months before slowly disappearing. However, the signs of the disease may become worse each time they appear. VOICE TWO: The third kind of M-S is called Primary Progressive. In this form of M-S, the signs of the disease appear and begin to grow worse, with no periods of disappearance. About ten to fifteen percent of patients begin their struggle with M-S this way. The fourth kind of M-S is called Secondary Progressive. This form of the disease affects about fifty percent of those with the Relapse-Remitting form of M-S. It begins to affect them several years after they have had Relapse-Remitting M-S. When the disease changes to Secondary Progressive, the disease begins to grow worse and worse. The fifth kind of M-S is called Progressive Relapsing. It is the worst form of multiple sclerosis. New signs of M-S can appear while existing ones grow worse. This form of the disease is rare. It affects only five percent of M-S cases. VOICE ONE: Scientists say multiple sclerosis does not appear to be passed from parents to children. However, it does appear to be found in families. As many as twenty percent of people with M-S have at least one affected family member. And, people whose close family members have the disease have as much as a forty percent chance of also developing M-S. It does not appear that one gene is responsible for M-S. Instead, several genes may increase the possibility that a person will develop M-S. Common viruses or bacteria may also increase the chances that some people will develop the disease. As with many diseases, early discovery and treatment can make a major difference in a person’s life. VOICE TWO: M-S does not always result in severe disability. Many people are able to live normal lives. There is no cure for multiple sclerosis. However, there are new treatments for M-S that ease the symptoms of the disease. Some new treatments also can slow the progression of the disease.Several kinds of drugs are used to treat M-S. Some drugs reduce the swelling in nerve tissue. Drugs known as beta interferons also are used to treat M-S. Interferons are genetically engineered copies of proteins found naturally in the body. These proteins help fight viral infections and help the body’s defense system against disease. Some M-S patients inject these beta interferon drugs. However, this treatment is very costly. And some patients develop side effects. Scientists around the world are working to develop new treatments for M-S. Researchers in the United States are carrying out more than twelve studies of possible treatments. Doctors are hopeful that new treatments will help patients with multiple sclerosis in the future. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – October 24, 2001: Evidence of Ancient Hunters
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Russian and Norwegian scientists have reported finding stone objects and animal bones in the far north of European Russia. The scientists say the objects provide the first evidence that ancient hunters lived in the area more than thirty-thousand years ago. They say this is at least fifteen-thousand years earlier than experts had thought. Pavel Pavlov of the Russian Academy of Sciences and John Inge Svendsen of the University of Bergen in Norway led the study. They reported their findings in Nature magazine. The Russian and Norwegian team worked at a camp along the Usa River at the Arctic Circle. The scientists say they found several ancient stone tools. They also found one-hundred-twenty-three bones from animals, such as horses, reindeer and wolves. The scientists say their most important discovery was a tusk from an ancient elephant called a mammoth. The huge, curved tooth was more than one meter long. The tusk is covered with small cuts. The scientists believe humans made the marks with sharp-edged stone tools. The scientists used a process known as radiocarbon dating to measure the age of the tusk. Radiocarbon dating shows the level of a radioactive form of carbon in a substance. The tests showed the tusk is about thirty-six-thousand years old. The scientists say they are not sure what kind of humans left the stone objects and bones along the river. They said the people were either early humans called Neanderthals or modern humans. Modern humans spread through Europe and Asia thirty-thousand to forty-thousand years ago. The scientists say the ancient people needed a high level of social development to survive in the extremely cold environment. The objects were discovered about three-hundred kilometers northeast of another area where scientists say humans once lived. That area has objects more closely linked to modern humans. Those objects are believed to be about twenty-eight-thousand years old. Nature magazine also published a report by John Gowlett of the University of Liverpool in England. He said the discovery shows the ability of early humans to do the unexpected. He also said the discovery should renew debate about the effects of the climate on the movements of early human populations. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 24, 2001: South Street Seaport Museum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we take you to visit another unusual museum in New York City, the South Street Seaport. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: On September Second, Sixteen-Oh-Nine, British Captain Henry Hudson was sailing along the east coast of North America. He ordered his ship into the opening of a wide river. Mister Hudson was working for the Dutch East India Company. He was looking for a way across North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. What he found was one of the best natural ports in North America. Less than sixteen years later, settlers supported by the new Dutch West India Company arrived near the opening of the same river…now called the Hudson River. They had come to stay. They began building homes on the southern end of an island called Manhattan. They also began building a port. Forty years later, the Dutch gave up their claim to the area to the British. VOICE TWO: The new British rulers named the area after James, the Duke of York. The area became New York. The British added to the small port. The area began to grow quickly. By the year Seventeen-Forty-Seven the people of the little port owned ninety-nine ships. Less than twenty years later there were more than four-hundred ships in the port. The little city continued to grow very quickly. Today, New York is the largest city in the United States and one of the largest in the world. VOICE ONE: Early maps of Manhattan show a street across the southern end of Manhattan Island. The settlers built a wall there as protection. They named it Wall Street. Another was named Water Street. A third street was called Pearl. The street closest to the water was named South Street. Wall Street now is known around the world as the financial center of the United States. South Street, Water Street and Pearl Street are still there, too. It is within this area of Manhattan that some of the first European settlers tried to develop businesses in North America. Today it is the home of the South Street Seaport Museum. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: If you say the word “museum” most people think of a large building that holds objects that are important to history. The South Street Seaport Museum has such a building, but it includes much more. The Museum is a group of buildings, streets, homes, businesses and eating-places. It also is a dock area for several ships that once sailed the oceans of the world. The Museum is a continuing work that will not be completed for many years. A visit to the South Street Seaport Museum should start at the corner of South Street and Fulton Street. On this corner, you can see much of Fulton Street. If you look across South Street you can see two huge sailing ships, the Peking and the Wavertree. A little more than a hundred years ago, goods were carried around the world by thousands of huge ships powered by wind in their sails. Today there are only a few such ships, including the two that belong to the Seaport Museum. VOICE ONE: To the left of the ships is the Fulton Street Fish Market. Buyers and sellers of fish worked have worked here since Eighteen-Twenty-Two. Very early each morning tons of fish arrive here. So do hundreds of trucks and crowds of people. Fish are bought, sold and transported to eating-places all over the United States. The buyers and sellers speak several different languages. You can hear shouts in English, Italian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. VOICE TWO: Most visitors to the South Street Seaport Museum come to see the ships. The Peking is a huge sailing ship. It is one of the largest sailing ships left from a time when these were the only ships on the seas. It is more than one-hundred-two meters long. It has four tall wood masts that hold up its many cloth sails. The Peking looks very new. It is not. In fact, it is ninety years old. It was made at the ship-building company of Blohm and Voss in Germany in Nineteen-Eleven. It took workers at the South Street Seaport Museum twelve years of very hard work to make the ship look new. VOICE ONE: Next to the Peking is the Wavertree. It is almost as large. The Wavertree was built in the British port of Southampton. It was built for the R-W Leyland and Company of Liverpool. The Leyland Company used it for many years to carry goods and some passengers from Britain to the United States. It also carried goods to India, Australia, and South America. A severe storm almost sank the Wavertree in Nineteen-Ten near the coast of Cape Horn, at the end of South America. The ship was kept in that area and used for storage for many years. Officials of the South Street Museum found the Wavertree in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. A year later, Museum officials decided to buy the old ship and take it to New York. VOICE TWO: Workers began rebuilding the huge ship in Nineteen-Seventy. The work continues today. Progress is extremely slow because of the cost and the amount of work needed to rebuild a ship the size of the Wavertree. For example, workers had to re-build the three, tall wooden masts that hold the ship’s sails. Each mast had to be built specially for the Wavertree. The work is extremely hard. It can also be very dangerous. People who work on the masts often work many meters above the deck of the ship. VOICE ONE: Sal Polisi (PO-LEE-SEE) is an artist. All of his unusual art is cut out of wood. Mister Polisi is a wood carver. He makes signs for the South Street Sea Port Museum. He also makes woodcarvings for the Wavertree and the Peking. Sailing ships like the Wavertree had a large woodcarving called a figurehead on the very front of the ship. A figurehead helped identify a ship. It could be a carving of an animal or a human or perhaps a bird. The Wavertree’s figurehead is a woman. Sal Polisi used a very small and very old photograph of the Wavertree to reproduce the figurehead. It took several years to complete the huge statue of the woman. It weighs more than three-hundred-sixty kilograms. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The South Street Seaport Museum also repairs the many old buildings that are part of the museum. The museum officials try to make them look as they did hundreds of years ago. One good example of this kind of repair work is the museum’s Bowne and Company Stationers. This building was home to a company of that name more than one-hundred years ago. Bowne Stationers printed paper documents such as tickets, timetables of trains and boats, and business papers. The museum repaired the building and printing now continues in it. VOICE ONE: Today, computers control most printing. At the museum’s Bowne and Company printing shop, all of the printing is done the same way it was done a hundred or more years ago. The workers use hand operated machinery that produces specially printed materials. Visitors can have the museum shop print something just for them. A woman and man who are about to get married can get the Bowne and Company Stationers to print their wedding announcements. The little shop produces unusual and beautiful work. VOICE TWO: Officials of the South Street Seaport Museum are busy repairing a large group of buildings called Schemerhorn Row. A family with that name first owned the buildings more than two-hundred years ago. The buildings will be the home of a museum show called “World Port New York.” This new show will follow the history of the South Street area for more than seven-thousand years. “World Port New York” will have objects that belonged to the first humans that lived in the area. It will show the early development of the area by the first settlers. The new part of the museum will show drawings and pictures of the South Street buildings and ship docking area, as they looked more than one-hundred years ago. It will show how the little port helped the great city of New York develop into an important center of world trade. VOICE ONE: The oldest buildings of the new “World Port New York” show have a long and interesting history. The oldest was built in Seventeen-Twenty-Six. Many people have lived in some of the buildings. Other buildings have sheltered businesses, hotels and eating-places. They have been used to store goods brought by ships from all over the world. The old buildings, like the rest of the South Street Seaport Museum, will continue into the future as a living link with the past. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. Our director was Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - October 25, 2001: New Era - 1920s, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. (THEME) THE YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR ONE WERE AN IMPORTANT TURNING POINT IN THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN NATION. THE COUNTRY TURNED AWAY FROM THE PROBLEMS OF EUROPE. NOW IT WOULD DEAL WITH PROBLEMS OF ITS OWN. I'M MAURICE JOYCE. TODAY, KAY GALLANT AND I TELL ABOUT THE MANY CHANGES IN AMERICA DURING THE EARLY NINETEEN-TWENTIES. VOICE TWO: THERE WAS A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN AMERICA IN NINETEEN-TWENTY. PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON WAS NOT A CANDIDATE. HE HAD SUFFERED A STROKE AND WAS TOO SICK. THE TWO MAJOR CANDIDATES WERE DEMOCRAT JAMES COX AND REPUBLICAN WARREN HARDING. VOTERS HAD A CLEAR CHOICE BETWEEN THE TWO CANDIDATES. COX SUPPORTED THE IDEAS OF PRESIDENT WILSON. HE BELIEVED THE UNITED STATES SHOULD TAKE AN ACTIVE PART IN WORLD AFFAIRS. HARDING OPPOSED THE IDEA OF INTERNATIONALISM. HE BELIEVED THE UNITED STATES SHOULD WORRY ONLY ABOUT EVENTS WITHIN ITS OWN BORDERS. WARREN HARDING WON THE ELECTION. BY THEIR VOTES, AMERICANS MADE CLEAR THEY WERE TIRED OF SACRIFICING LIVES AND MONEY TO SOLVE OTHER PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS. THEY JUST WANTED TO LIVE THEIR OWN LIVES AND MAKE THEIR OWN COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE. VOICE ONE: THIS WAS A GREAT CHANGE IN THE NATION'S THINKING. FOR TWENTY YEARS, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY, THE UNITED STATES HAD BECOME MORE INVOLVED IN INTERNATIONAL EVENTS. YOUNG AMERICANS HAD GROWN UP WITH PRESIDENTS LIKE WOODROW WILSON AND THEODORE ROOSEVELT. BOTH WILSON AND ROOSEVELT HAD ACTIVE FOREIGN POLICIES. BOTH HELPED START THE NATION ON THE ROAD TO BECOMING A MAJOR WORLD POWER. THEN CAME WORLD WAR ONE. IT WAS LIKE A SHARP NEEDLE THAT BURSTS A BALLOON. THE UNITED STATES AND THE ALLIES WON THE WAR AGAINST GERMANY AND THE CENTRAL POWERS. BUT THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN TROOPS HAD DIED IN THE EUROPEAN CONFLICT. AND MANY MONTHS WERE TAKEN UP BY THE BITTER DEBATE OVER THE PEACE TREATY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. MOST AMERICANS DID NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT EUROPE AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE ORGANIZATIONS ANY MORE. VOICE TWO: INSTEAD, AMERICANS BECAME MORE CONCERNED WITH MATERIAL THINGS. DURING WORLD WAR ONE, THEY HAD LIVED UNDER MANY KINDS OF RESTRICTIONS. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAD CONTROLLED RAILROADS, SHIPPING, AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION. AT THE END OF THE WAR, THESE CONTROLS WERE LIFTED. INDUSTRIES THAT HAD BEEN MAKING WAR SUPPLIES BEGAN MAKING PRODUCTS FOR A PEACETIME ECONOMY. WAGES FOR MOST WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES WERE HIGHER THAN EVER AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES. MEN AND WOMEN HAD ENOUGH MONEY TO ENJOY LIFE MORE THAN THEY HAD IN THE PAST. VOICE ONE: TECHNOLOGY MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. IT ALSO CAUSED GREAT CHANGES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. TWO OF THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW TECHNOLOGIES WERE AUTOMOBILES AND RADIO. IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, AUTOMOBILES WERE VERY COSTLY. EACH ONE WAS BUILT SEPARATELY BY A SMALL TEAM OF SKILLED WORKERS. MOST AMERICANS DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO OWN AN AUTOMOBILE. THEN HENRY FORD DECIDED TO MAKE CARS EVERYONE COULD BUY. HE BUILT THEM ON AN ASSEMBLY LINE. CARS WERE PUT TOGETHER, OR ASSEMBLED, AS THEY MOVED SLOWLY THROUGH THE FACTORY. EACH WORKER DID JUST ONE THING TO THE CAR BEFORE IT MOVED ON TO THE NEXT WORKER. IN THIS WAY, THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY COULD BUILD CARS MORE QUICKLY AND EASILY. AND IT COULD SELL THEM FOR MUCH LESS MONEY. VOICE TWO: BEFORE LONG, THERE WERE CARS EVERYWHERE. ALL THESE CARS CREATED A NEED FOR BETTER ROADS. OUTSIDE CITIES, MOST ROADS WERE MADE JUST OF DIRT. THEY WERE CHOKINGLY DUSTY IN DRY WEATHER AND IMPASSABLY MUDDY IN THE RAIN. THEY WERE ROUGH AND FULL OF HOLES. FEW BRIDGES CONNECTED ROADS ACROSS RIVERS AND STREAMS. AMERICA'S NEW DRIVERS DEMANDED THAT THESE PROBLEMS BE FIXED. SO, LOCAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS BEGAN BUILDING AND IMPROVING ROADS AS THEY HAD NEVER DONE BEFORE. AS NEW ROADS WERE BUILT, MANY NEW BUSINESSES OPENED ALONG THEM. THERE WERE GASOLINE STATIONS AND AUTO REPAIR SHOPS, OF COURSE. BUT SOON THERE WERE EATING PLACES AND HOTELS WHERE TRAVELERS COULD EAT AND SLEEP. IN THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES, THE UNITED STATES WAS BECOMING A NATION OF CAR-LOVERS. VOICE ONE: CARS CHANGED MORE THAN THE WAY AMERICANS TRAVELED. THEY CHANGED THE WAY AMERICANS LIVED. THEY REMOVED SOME OF THE LIMITATIONS OF LIVING CONDITIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, FAMILIES WITH CARS NO LONGER HAD TO LIVE IN NOISY, CROWDED CITIES. THEY COULD LIVE IN SUBURBS -- THE WIDE-OPEN AREAS OUTSIDE CITIES. THEY COULD USE THEIR CAR TO DRIVE TO WORK IN THE CITY. BUSINESSES MOVED, TOO. NO LONGER DID THEY HAVE TO BE CLOSE TO RAILROAD LINES. WITH NEW CARS AND TRUCKS, THEY COULD TRANSPORT THEIR GOODS WHERE THEY WANTED, WHEN THEY WANTED. THEY WERE NO LONGER LIMITED BY TRAIN TIMES. CARS ALSO MADE LIFE ON FARMS LESS LONELY. IT BECAME MUCH EASIER FOR FARM FAMILIES TO GO TO TOWN ON BUSINESS OR TO VISIT FRIENDS. VOICE TWO: CARS HELPED AMERICANS LEARN MORE ABOUT THEIR NATION. IN THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES, PEOPLE COULD DRIVE ALL ACROSS THE LAND FOR NOT MUCH MONEY. PLACES THAT USED TO BE DAYS APART NOW SEEMED SUDDENLY CLOSER. FAMILIES THAT NORMALLY STAYED HOME ON WEEKENDS AND HOLIDAYS BEGAN TO EXPLORE THE COUNTRY. THEY DROVE TO THE SEASHORES AND LAKESHORES. TO THE MOUNTAINS AND FORESTS. TO PLACES OF HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OR NATURAL BEAUTY. VOICE ONE: NOT ALL THE CHANGES LINKED TO THE CAR WERE GOOD, OF COURSE. AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS BECAME MORE COMMON AND DEADLY. OTHER FORMS OF TRANSPORTATION, SUCH AS RAILROADS, BEGAN TO SUFFER FROM THE COMPETITION. SOME RAILROADS HAD TO CLOSE DOWN. HORSES AND WAGONS -- ONCE THE MOST COMMON FORM OF TRANSPORTATION -- BEGAN TO DISPPEAR FROM CITY STREETS. THERE WERE NOT ENOUGH CARS IN THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES TO CAUSE SEVERE AIR POLLUTION. BUT THE AIR WAS BECOMING LESS PURE EVERY YEAR. AND THE ROADS WERE BECOMING MORE CROWDED AND NOISY. VOICE TWO: WHILE THE AUTOMOBILE GREATLY CHANGED AMERICA'S TRANSPORTATION, RADIO GREATLY CHANGED ITS COMMUNICATION. THE FIRST RADIO STATION OPENED IN THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA IN NINETEEN-TWENTY. WITHIN TEN YEARS, THERE WERE HUNDREDS OF OTHERS. THERE WERE MORE THAN THIRTEEN-MILLION RADIO RECEIVERS. MOST OF THE RADIO STATIONS WERE OWNED BY LARGE BROADCASTING NETWORKS. THESE NETWORKS WERE ABLE TO BROADCAST THE SAME PROGRAM TO STATIONS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. VOICE ONE: MOST PROGRAMS WERE SIMPLE AND ENTERTAINING. THERE WERE RADIO PLAYS, COMEDY SHOWS, AND MUSIC PROGRAMS. BUT THERE ALSO WERE NEWS REPORTS AND POLITICAL EVENTS. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO NEVER READ NEWSPAPERS NOW HEARD THE NEWS ON RADIO. CITIZENS EVERYWHERE COULD HEAR THE PRESIDENT'S VOICE. LIKE THE AUTOMOBILE, RADIO HELPED BRING AMERICANS TOGETHER. THEY WERE ABLE TO SHARE MANY OF THE SAME EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES. VOICE TWO: RADIO ALSO WAS A GREAT HELP TO COMPANIES. BUSINESSES COULD BUY TIME ON RADIO PROGRAMS FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. IN THESE 'ADS', THEY TOLD LISTENERS ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS. THEY URGED THEM TO BUY THE PRODUCTS: CARS. ELECTRIC REFRIGERATORS. FOODS. MEDICINES. IN THIS WAY, COMPANIES QUICKLY AND EASILY CREATED A NATIONWIDE DEMAND FOR THEIR GOODS. AUTOMOBILES AND RADIOS WERE NOT THE ONLY NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO CHANGE AMERICAN LIFE IN THE DAYS AFTER WORLD WAR ONE. STILL ONE MORE INVENTION WOULD HAVE A GREAT EFFECT ON HOW AMERICANS SPENT THEIR TIME AND MONEY. THAT WAS THE MOTION PICTURE. IT WILL BE OUR STORY NEXT WEEK. (THEME) VOICE ONE: YOU HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO THE MAKING OF A NATION -- A PROGRAM IN SPECIAL ENGLISH BY THE VOICE OF AMERICA. YOUR NARRATORS WERE MAURICE JOYCE AND KAY GALLANT. OUR PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY FRANK BEARDSLEY. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS SAME TIME, WHEN WE WILL TELL MORE ABOUT THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CHANGES IN AMERICA IN THE NINETEEN-TWENTIES. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-24-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – October 25, 2001: New Birth Control Ring
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. The United States government has approved a new device that women can use to prevent pregnancy for a month at a time. The device is called the NuvaRing. It uses hormones to prevent pregnancy. It offers another choice for women who do not want to take birth control pills every day. The NuvaRing is a circle that is five centimeters across. A woman places it in her vagina on or before the fifth day of her monthly period. It releases a small amount of the hormones estrogen and progestin every day. She uses it for three weeks. She then removes the ring for a week during her monthly period. She uses a new ring each month for continuous birth control. The hormones released are the same ones used in birth control pills. An official of the Food and Drug Administration says the NuvaRing works as well as the pills. Researchers say the NuvaRing is not meant to block sperm to prevent pregnancy. The device also does not prevent diseases passed during sexual relations. These include the virus that causes the deadly disease AIDS. Before approving the NuvaRing, the Food and Drug Administration studied use of the device by women around the world. More than two-thousand-three-hundred women tested the device for a year. It prevented pregnancy in more than ninety-eight percent of the women who used it. That rate is similar to other leading birth control methods. The F-D-A said about fourteen percent of women who used the NuvaRing had vaginal infections. However, some women who do not use the ring also have this problem. A company called Organon of West Orange, New Jersey developed the NuvaRing. Company scientists warn that the NuvaRing has the same possible risks and side effects as birth control pills. These include an increased risk of blood blockages and heart attacks. The company says women using hormonal birth control methods should not smoke cigarettes. Smoking increases the risk of serious side effects. Organon is part of an international company with headquarters in The Netherlands. Company officials in the United States say they will start selling the NuvaRing next year. A woman will need an order from her doctor to buy it. The company has not said how much the devices will cost. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-25-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - October 26, 2001: Wellbeing of Nations Study
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new report about the condition of the population and the environment around the world was released earlier this month in Washington, D.C. The report is called the Wellbeing of Nations. It examines how nations deal with both human and environmental health. The report was written by Robert Prescott-Allen of Victoria, Canada. It says that thirty-seven countries are close to establishing a good balance between a healthy population and a healthy environment. However, it says these thirty-seven countries must greatly improve their environmental efforts to successfully reach that balance. Several methods are commonly used to measure human progress. The Gross Domestic Product and the Index of Leading Economic Indicators are two of the best known examples. Yet most of the widely used methods only measure economic activity. The Wellbeing of Nations study is a larger measure of the health of countries. It examined one-hundred-eighty countries using the Wellbeing Assessment method. This method was developed by Mister Prescott-Allen with the support of the World Conservation Union and the International Development Research Center in Canada. This method measures people and the environment equally. It measures the health, education and wealth of countries. It also examines the condition of land, air, water, plants and animals. The findings help give a clearer picture of the condition of our world. Using these measures, the study found that four-thousand-million people live in countries with poor human development. Fewer than one-thousand-million people live in countries with a fair or good level of living. The Wellbeing of Nations study found that five countries measured the highest. They are Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Austria. The study found that more than one-hundred-forty nations, including the top countries, damage the environment in an effort to live well. The poorest countries, however, make the least demands on the environment. The Wellbeing of Nations report suggests that it is possible to live well without ruining the environment. It says this can be done by changing the methods of development in an effort to protect the environment. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-25-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - October 26, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some country music ... answer a question about American superstitions ... and report about a new hall of fame. National Black Hall of Fame HOST: Twenty-four African Americans of the past and present have been invited to join the National Black Sports and Entertainment Hall of Fame. These athletes and entertainers were honored during a ceremony in the Harlem area of New York City a few weeks ago. They were honored for their skills and for leading the way for other blacks to become successful. Shep O’Neal has more. ANNCR: Those invited into the National Black Hall of Fame include famous athletes Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson. Jazz musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald also were inducted. The National Black Hall of Fame also honored several white people because of their work for civil rights for black people. They include singers Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett and band leader Tito Puente. African Americans have faced many difficulties in their struggle for equal rights in America. Black entertainers and athletes have been an important part of that struggle. Their success led the way for other blacks to succeed in America. The idea for the Hall of Fame came from entertainers and athletes who wanted to honor their heroes, both living and dead. Those who attended the event agreed that the Hall of Fame also is a needed link between history and education. The National Black Hall of Fame has not yet been built. The induction ceremony was held at City College. But event organizers say everyone agreed that the museum should be built in the Harlem area of New York. Harlem is an international community. People of many ethnic groups settled there when they first came to the United States. Still, Harlem is known as the center of black culture. African Americans have made the area famous for most of the past one-hundred years. Harlem became the center of art, music and entertainment of black America in the early Nineteen-Hundreds. The establishment of the National Black Hall of Fame is taking place as Harlem recovers from years of economic problems. However, many people fear that plans to develop the area will destroy its culture. Those inducted into the Hall of Fame say they hope it will be a way to protect African American culture for many years to come. Superstitions HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Minh Chi Le asks about superstitions in the United States. A superstition is a belief in unseen and unknown forces that can be influenced by special objects or actions. A superstition is generally considered the result of fear of the unknown. Examples include the idea that Friday the thirteenth is an unlucky day. Or that something bad will happen to a person who walks under a ladder or lets a black cat walk across his path. Superstitions also include the belief that objects thought to bring good luck can prevent bad things from happening. These objects include a horseshoe or a rabbit’s foot. A public opinion study done a few years ago showed that about twenty-five percent of all Americans considered themselves at least a little superstitious. Some experts believe the number is much higher but that people do not want to admit that they hold such beliefs in modern times. Still, experts say that superstitions may help people by offering a sense of control in some situations. For example, athletes may wear the same jewelry, clothes or shoes during competitions if they believe that the object will improve their performance. Next Wednesday, many Americans will take part in holiday traditions that grew out of superstition. Wednesday is Halloween. People from Scotland and Ireland brought the traditions of Halloween to America. Their beliefs went back more than two-thousand years to the ancient Celtic people in Britain. October thirty-first was the Celtic day of the autumn feast. The Celts believed that the spirits of the dead would return for a few hours that night. They built huge fires to frighten away evil spirits released with the dead. It was believed these spirits would play tricks on people. American children still try to play tricks on people on Halloween. They dress in unusual clothes and go from house to house asking for candy. They may play tricks if they do not get treats. But most will not. They are too busy eating their candy. Tootsie’s HOST: Today, we are going to visit a very small but famous place in the southern city of Nashville, Tennessee. It is called “Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.” Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge is a drinking place on Broadway Street in Nashville. It became famous because it is near the Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman theater was for many years the home of the most famous country and western music radio program, The Grand Old Opry. Performers who appeared at the Ryman Auditorium would often go out the back door and into Tootsie’s for a drink, or to talk with other musicians. Sometimes they performed there, too. Almost every country and western star has been in Tootsie’s at least once. One good example is country singer Roger Miller. He often worked as a singer at Tootsie’s before he won seven Grammy awards and a Tony Award for best musical on Broadway. Stories say he wrote one of his biggest hit songs while sitting in Tootsie’s. It is called “Dang Me.” (CUT ONE: DANG ME) Willie Nelson is one of the most famous country musicians. He also performed at Tootsie’s Lounge. In fact, he got his first songwriting job after appearing there. Here he sings “Angel Flying too Close to the Ground.” (CUT TWO: ANGEL FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE GROUND;CDP-9464) Patsy Cline was another visitor to Tootsie’s. She often stopped there after shows at the Ryman Auditorium. One of her biggest hits was written by Willie Nelson. We leave you with Patsy Cline singing that song, ”Crazy.” (CUT THREE: CRAZY) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Cynthia Kirk, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineers were Tony Harris and Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - October 28, 2001: Madam C.J. Walker
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. VOICE TWO: AND I'M RICH KLEINFELDT WITH THE VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. EVERY WEEK, WE TELL THE STORY OF SOMEONE IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. TODAY WE TELL ABOUT MADAM C. J. WALKER. SHE WAS A BUSINESSWOMAN. SHE WAS THE FIRST FEMALE AFRICAN- AMERICAN TO BECOME VERY RICH. (THEME) VOICE ONE: IN THE EARLY NINETEEN-HUNDREDS, LIFE FOR MOST AFRICAN-AMERICANS WAS VERY DIFFICULT. MOBS OF WHITE PEOPLE ATTACKED AND KILLED BLACK PEOPLE. IT WAS LEGAL TO SEPARATE GROUPS OF PEOPLE BY RACE. WOMEN, BOTH BLACK AND WHITE, DID NOT HAVE THE SAME RIGHTS AS MEN. BLACK WOMEN WORKED VERY LONG HOURS FOR LITTLE WAGES. THEY WORKED MOSTLY AS SERVANTS OR FARM WORKERS. OR THEY WASHED CLOTHES. MADAM C. J. WALKER WORKED AS A WASHERWOMAN FOR TWENTY YEARS. SHE THEN STARTED HER OWN BUSINESS OF DEVELOPING AND SELLING HAIR-CARE PRODUCTS FOR BLACK WOMEN. MADAM WALKER, HOWEVER, DID MORE THAN BUILD A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS. HER PRODUCTS HELPED WOMEN HAVE A BETTER SENSE OF THEIR OWN BEAUTY. HER BUSINESS ALSO GAVE WORK TO MANY BLACK WOMEN. AND, SHE HELPED OTHER PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY BLACK ARTISTS AND CIVIL RIGHTS SUPPORTERS. SHE SAID, "MY OBJECT IN LIFE IS NOT SIMPLY TO MAKE MONEY FOR MYSELF OR TO SPEND IT ON MYSELF. I LOVE TO USE A PART OF WHAT I MAKE IN TRYING TO HELP OTHERS." VOICE TWO: MADAM C. J. WALKER WAS VERY POOR FOR MOST OF HER LIFE. SHE WAS BORN SARAH BREEDLOVE IN THE SOUTHERN STATE OF LOUISIANA IN EIGHTEEN-SIXTY-SEVEN. HER PARENTS WERE FORMER SLAVES. THE FAMILY LIVED AND WORKED ON A COTTON FARM ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. COTTON WAS A CROP THAT GREW WELL IN THE RICH, DARK SOIL NEAR THE RIVER. MOST CHILDREN OF SLAVES DID NOT GO TO SCHOOL. THEY HAD TO WORK. BY THE TIME SARAH WAS FIVE YEARS OLD, SHE WAS PICKING COTTON IN THE FIELDS WITH HER FAMILY. SHE ALSO HELPED HER MOTHER AND SISTER EARN MONEY BY WASHING CLOTHES FOR WHITE PEOPLE. THERE WAS NO WATER OR MACHINE TO WASH CLOTHES IN THEIR HOME. THE WATER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER WAS TOO DIRTY. SO, THEY USED RAINWATER. SARAH HELPED HER MOTHER AND SISTER CARRY WATER TO FILL BIG WOODEN CONTAINERS. THEY HEATED THE WATER OVER THE FIRE. THEN THEY RUBBED THE CLOTHES ON FLAT PIECES OF WOOD, SQUEEZED OUT THE WATER AND HUNG EACH PIECE TO DRY. IT WAS HARD WORK. THE WET CLOTHES WERE HEAVY, AND THE SOAP HAD LYE IN IT. LYE IS A STRONG SUBSTANCE THAT CLEANED THE CLOTHES WELL. BUT IT HURT PEOPLE'S SKIN. VOICE ONE: WHEN SARAH WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD, HER PARENTS DIED OF THE DISEASE YELLOW FEVER. SHE AND HER SISTER MOVED TO VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI. AT THE AGE OF FOURTEEN, SARAH MARRIED MOSES MCWILLIAMS. THEY HAD A DAUGHTER AFTER THEY WERE MARRIED FOR THREE YEARS. THEY NAMED THEIR DAUGHTER LELIA. TWO YEARS LATER,MOSES MCWILLIAMS DIED IN AN ACCIDENT. SARAH WAS ALONE WITH HER BABY. SHE DECIDED TO MOVE TO ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. SHE HAD HEARD THAT WASHERWOMEN EARNED MORE MONEY THERE. SARAH WASHED CLOTHES ALL DAY. AT NIGHT, SHE WENT TO SCHOOL TO GET THE EDUCATION SHE HAD MISSED AS A CHILD. SHE ALSO MADE SURE THAT HER DAUGHTER LELIA WENT TO SCHOOL. SARAH SAVED ENOUGH MONEY TO SEND LELIA TO COLLEGE. SARAH BEGAN TO THINK ABOUT HOW SHE WAS GOING TO CONTINUE TO EARN MONEY IN THE FUTURE. WHAT WAS SHE GOING TO DO WHEN SHE GREW OLD AND HER BACK GREW WEAK? SHE ALSO WORRIED ABOUT HER HAIR. IT WAS DRY AND BROKEN. HER HAIR WAS FALLING OUT IN SOME PLACES ON HER HEAD. SARAH TRIED DIFFERENT PRODUCTS TO IMPROVE HER HAIR BUT NOTHING WORKED. THEN SHE GOT AN IDEA. IF SHE COULD CREATE A HAIR PRODUCT THAT WORKED FOR HER, SHE COULD START HER OWN BUSINESS. VOICE TWO: AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-SEVEN, SARAH INVENTED A MIXTURE THAT HELPED HER HAIR AND MADE CURLY HAIR STRAIGHT. SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT SARAH STUDIED THE HAIR PRODUCT SHE USED AND ADDED HER OWN "SECRET" SUBSTANCE. BUT SARAH SAID SHE INVENTED THE MIXTURE WITH GOD'S HELP. BY SOLVING HER HAIR PROBLEM, SHE HAD FOUND A WAY TO IMPROVE HER LIFE. SARAH DECIDED TO MOVE WEST TO DENVER, COLORADO. SHE DID NOT WANT TO COMPETE WITH COMPANIES IN ST. LOUIS THAT MADE HAIR-CARE PRODUCTS. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE, SARAH LEFT THE AREA ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER WHERE SHE WAS BORN. SARAH FOUND A JOB IN DENVER AS A COOK. SHE COOKED AND WASHED CLOTHES DURING THE DAY. AT NIGHT SHE WORKED ON HER HAIR PRODUCTS. SHE TESTED THEM ON HERSELF AND ON HER FRIENDS. THE PRODUCTS HELPED THEIR HAIR. SARAH BEGAN SELLING HER PRODUCTS FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE. VOICE ONE: IN NINETEEN-OH-SIX, SHE MARRIED CHARLES JOSEPH WALKER. HE WAS A NEWSPAPERMAN WHO HAD BECOME HER FRIEND AND ADVISER. FROM THEN ON, SARAH USED THE NAME MADAM C. J. WALKER. MADAM WALKER ORGANIZED WOMEN TO SELL HER HAIR TREATMENT. SHE ESTABLISHED WALKER SCHOOLS OF BEAUTY CULTURE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY TO TRAIN THE SALESWOMEN. THE SALESWOMEN BECAME KNOWN AS "WALKER AGENTS." THEY BECAME POPULAR IN BLACK COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. MADAM WALKER WORKED HARD AT HER BUSINESS. SHE TRAVELLED TO MANY AMERICAN CITIES TO HELP SELL HER PRODUCTS. SHE ALSO TRAVELLED TO THE CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES OF JAMAICA, PANAMA, AND CUBA. HER PRODUCTS HAD BECOME POPULAR THERE TOO. VOICE TWO: MADAM WALKER'S BUSINESS GREW QUICKLY. IT SOON WAS EMPLOYING THREE-THOUSAND PEOPLE. BLACK WOMEN WHO COULD NOT ATTEND HER SCHOOLS COULD LEARN THE WALKER HAIR CARE METHOD THROUGH A COURSE BY MAIL. HUNDREDS, AND LATER THOUSANDS, OF BLACK WOMEN LEARNED HER HAIR-CARE METHODS. MADAM WALKER'S PRODUCTS HELPED THESE WOMEN EARN MONEY TO EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN, BUILD HOMES AND START BUSINESSES. MADAM WALKER WAS VERY PROUD OF WHAT SHE HAD DONE. SHE SAID THAT SHE HAD MADE IT POSSIBLE "FOR MANY COLORED WOMEN TO ABANDON THE WASHTUB FOR MORE PLEASANT AND PROFITABLE OCCUPATIONS." VOICE ONE: IN NINETEEN-OH-EIGHT, MADAM WALKER MOVED HER BUSINESS EAST TO PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA. PITTSBURGH WAS CLOSER TO CITIES ON THE ATLANTIC COAST WITH LARGE BLACK POPULATIONS, CITIES SUCH AS NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, D.C., AND BALTIMORE. TWO YEARS LATER, SHE ESTABLISHED A LABORATORY AND A FACTORY IN INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA. THERE, HER PRODUCTS WERE DEVELOPED AND MADE. SOME PEOPLE CRITICIZED MADAM WALKER'S PRODUCTS. THEY ACCUSED HER OF STRAIGHTENING BLACK WOMEN'S HAIR TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE WHITE WOMEN'S HAIR. SOME BLACK CLERGYMEN SAID THAT IF BLACK PEOPLE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE STRAIGHT HAIR, GOD WOULD HAVE GIVEN IT TO THEM. BUT MADAM WALKER SAID HER PURPOSE WAS TO HELP WOMEN HAVE HEALTHY HAIR. SHE ALSO SAID CLEANLINESS WAS IMPORTANT. SHE ESTABLISHED RULES FOR CLEANLINESS FOR HER EMPLOYEES. HER RULES LATER LED TO STATE LAWS COVERING JOBS INVOLVING BEAUTY TREATMENT. VOICE TWO: MADAM C. J. WALKER BECAME VERY RICH AND FAMOUS. SHE ENJOYED HER NEW LIFE. SHE ALSO SHARED HER MONEY. SHE BECAME ONE OF THE FEW BLACK PEOPLE AT THE TIME WEALTHY ENOUGH TO GIVE HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO HELP PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS. SHE GAVE MONEY TO THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, TO CHURCHES AND TO CULTURAL CENTERS. MADAM WALKER ALSO SUPPORTED MANY BLACK ARTISTS AND WRITERS. AND,SHE WORKED HARD TO END VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE RIGHTS OF BLACK PEOPLE. IN NINETEEN- SEVENTEEN, SHE WAS PART OF A GROUP THAT WENT TO WASHINGTON, D.C., TO MEET WITH PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON. THE GROUP URGED HIM AND CONGRESS TO MAKE MOB VIOLENCE A FEDERAL CRIME. IN NINETEEN-EIGHTEEN, MADAM WALKER FINALLY SETTLED IN A TOWN NEAR NEW YORK CITY WHERE SHE BUILT A LARGE, BEAUTIFUL HOUSE. SHE CONTINUED HER WORK BUT HER HEALTH BEGAN TO WEAKEN. HER DOCTORS ADVISED HER TO SLOW DOWN. BUT SHE WOULD NOT LISTEN. SHE DIED THE NEXT YEAR. SHE WAS FIFTY-ONE YEARS OLD. VOICE ONE: MADAM C. J. WALKER NEVER FORGOT WHERE SHE CAME FROM. NOR DID SHE STOP DREAMING OF HOW LIFE COULD BE. AT A MEETING OF THE NATIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE, MADAM WALKER EXPLAINED THAT SHE WAS A WOMAN WHO CAME FROM THE COTTON FIELDS OF THE SOUTH. "I WAS PROMOTED FROM THERE TO THE WASHTUB,” SHE SAID. "THEN I WAS PROMOTED TO THE COOK KITCHEN, AND FROM THERE I PROMOTED MYSELF INTO THE BUSINESS OF MANUFACTURING HAIR GOODS AND PREPARATIONS. I HAVE BUILT MY OWN FACTORY ON MY OWN GROUND." SHE NOT ONLY IMPROVED HER OWN LIFE, BUT THAT OF OTHER WOMEN IN SIMILAR SITUATIONS. MADAM C. J. WALKER EXPLAINED IT THIS WAY, "IF I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ANYTHING IN LIFE, IT IS BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN WILLING TO WORK HARD." (THEME) VOICE TWO: THIS SPECIAL ENGLISH PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY VIVIAN BOURNAZIAN. I'M RICH KLEINFELDT. VOICE ONE: AND I'M SHIRLEY GRIFFITH. JOIN US AGAIN NEXT WEEK AT THIS TIME FOR ANOTHER PEOPLE IN AMERICA PROGRAM ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - October 29, 2001: Halloween and Edgar Allan Poe
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: October Thirty-First is Halloween. It is an unofficial holiday that celebrates the frightening and strange. We celebrate with a report about a Nineteenth-century American writer. His stories were some of the most frightening and strange ever written. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. The writer Edgar Allan Poe is our report today on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. ((Haunting music)) VOICE ONE: Halloween is mostly a holiday for children, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observe Halloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe think Halloween is the best time of year to celebrate them. Poe is most famous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery, and terror. He wrote about people buried while still alive. About insanity and death. About dreams that become real...or reality that seems like a dream. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore in Eighteen-Forty-Nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes place every Halloween. In the dark of night, visitors go to the church ground where Poe is buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe! (pause) No, it is just an actor, reading Poe's work. ((Haunting music)) VOICE ONE: Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoyment in Edgar Allan Poe's time. Poe created many of these "short" stories. They appeared in different publications. Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing. Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story. Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries about crimes, such as murder. The mysteries are solved by an investigator called a detective. He or she is able to find important, hidden meanings in facts. The horror and detective stories Poe created remain extremely popular in books and movies. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe's work is not easy to read. His language is difficult to understand today. And most of his writing describes very unpleasant situations and events. His story "The Pit and the Pendulum," for example, is about the mental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himself from death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him. Another story is "The Masque of the Red Death." In it, a terrible disease -- the Red Death -- has killed half the population of a country. The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. He and his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by having parties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does. ((Haunting music)) VOICE ONE: Edgar Poe was born in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. His parents were actors. At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgar was a baby when his father left the family. He was two years old when his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthy businessman, John Allan. He then received his new name -- Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he came to dislike him strongly. As a young man, Edgar attended the University of Virginia. He was a good student. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card games for money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did not have. John Allan refused to pay Edgar's gambling losses. So, Edgar left the university. He began working as a writer and editor for monthly magazines. VOICE TWO: Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. Yet he was not well-paid or well-known. His life was difficult. He was poor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind. Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drank alcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect on him. VOICE ONE: At the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She was the daughter of his father's sister. She was only thirteen years old. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. But his wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died in Eighteen-Forty-Seven. Poe died two years later, at the age of forty. He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking. ((Haunting music)) VOICE TWO: Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories, poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yet he did not become famous until Eighteen-Forty-Five. That was when his poem "The Raven" was published. There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems in his life. One critic said Poe's spirit was torn. He said Poe's stories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in the story showed a different side of the writer. There is a question, however, about Poe's importance. Some critics say he was one of America's best writers. Others disagree. VOICE ONE: Critic Vincent Buranelli says Poe discovered a new artistic universe. It is a universe of dreams. It is a place where the line between reality and unreality is extremely thin. Even those who praise Poe agree that there are many difficulties in his work. These difficulties place Poe's writing outside the main body of American literature. Most American writing is realistic. Poe's interests and way of writing were not realistic at all. Poe's work has been praised most in France. He had a great influence on many French writers, including the poets Charles-Pierre Baudelaire and Stephane Mallarme. VOICE TWO: Poe's best-known poem is the "The Raven." Some people love it. They say it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced and unnatural -- like bad music. "The Raven" is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died. She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness is gone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noise at the window. Here is the beginning of the poem: ANNOUNCER: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of for- gotten lore -- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "Tis some visitor, I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -- Only this and nothing more." VOICE TWO: The man looks out the window and sees only blackness. ANNOUNCER: Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before: But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" Merely this and nothing more. VOICE TWO: But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird -- a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death and hopelessness. The raven can speak just one word: 'nevermore' -- meaning 'never again'. We know the raven will never leave the man's room. ANNOUNCER: But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing farther than he uttered -- not a feather then he fluttered -- Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before -- On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." Then the bird said, "Nevermore." [Pause] ((Scary music)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Carolyn Weaver. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our poetry reader was Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the V-O-A Special English program THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - October 29, 2001: WHO and Drug Resistance
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The World Health Organization has called for immediate action to stop the growing threat of drug resistance around the world. Gro Harlem Brundtland is the Director-General of the W-H-O. She says that a growing number of important drugs are becoming ineffective. During the past five years, drug companies have spent more than seventeen-thousand-million dollars researching and developing medicines used to treat infectious diseases. However, the W-H-O says much of that investment could be lost if the problem of drug resistance is not solved quickly. The organization says the problem is affecting many deadly diseases. They include tuberculosis, meningitis, malaria and pneumonia. Officials say drugs have even become resistant to infections spread through sex. Rosamund Williams is head of the W-H-O’s Anti-Microbial Resistance Program. She says the problem of drug resistance exists in both rich and poor countries. Doctor Williams says the spread of infections is a serious problem because people can now travel anywhere in the world in less than twenty-four hours. In addition, she says the problem of infections is increasing among poor people living in over-crowded or unclean areas. The W-H-O says using too many antibiotics in industrial countries and not enough of the drugs in poor countries can lead to drug resistance. The use of antibiotics in food production also adds to increased drug resistance. Currently, about fifty percent of all antibiotic production is used in agriculture to treat sick animals and to increase the size of farm animals. The World Health Organization warns that drug-resistant organisms in animals can be passed on to humans. As a result, the W-H-O says the use of antibiotics to improve growth in animals should be halted. The World Health Organization has launched a new plan to halt the spread of drug resistance. It is designed for patients, doctors, hospital officials and health ministers. Its goal is for all of them to support the best use of drugs so that treatments continue to be effective for all patients. For example, patients should not put pressure on doctors to give them antibiotics. And doctors should use only the drugs that are required to treat a patient. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-26-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - October 27, 2001: Food Drops in Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. On Thursday, three huge American Air Force transport planes took off from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Each plane carried large paper boxes packed with small yellow containers of food. Several hours later, the planes dropped the food to hungry refugees in northern Afghanistan. These almost daily drops of food began October Seventh. Since then about nine-hundred-thousand meals have been dropped in Afghanistan from the American airplanes. Each of the yellow containers is called a Humanitarian Daily Ration. Each includes enough food to feed one person for one day. The United States has dropped more than eight million containers of food since Nineteen-Ninety-Three to help feed refugees in Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda and Haiti. The dropping of food by airplanes is part of President’s Bush’s three-hundred-twenty-million dollar aid program for the people of Afghanistan. The president has ordered the Defense Department to provide food to areas of Afghanistan where people lack food. Many Afghans were already in danger of starving this winter because of three years of lack of rain and continued civil war. Thousands of Afghans have fled from cities to the northern mountain areas since the American attacks against the Taleban began three weeks ago. President Bush has explained repeatedly that military action in Afghanistan is a war against terrorists and the Taleban government that protects them. He says the military action is not aimed at the people of Afghanistan. Several aid organizations have criticized the American plan to drop food from airplanes. Aid workers say the food does not reach the people who need it most. They say most of the food is being sold by strong healthy men who seize it. Yet reporters have talked to refugees who have collected food containers dropped by American airplanes. One man said it was the first time in many months that he and his family have had enough to eat. On Wednesday, American intelligence reports said it is possible the Taleban might try to poison the dropped food and blame the American government. A Taleban spokesman dismissed the report. The Taleban recently seized United Nations storehouses filled with food in Kabul and Kandahar. The food was being held for Afghan civilians. Food will continue to be extremely important in Afghanistan. International aid organizations are appealing to all sides in the conflict to stop blocking aid trucks. They say the cold winter weather will arrive soon and the lack of food will have a severe effect on all civilians in Afghanistan. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – October 30, 2001: Dutch Farm Methods Fail to Help Wildlife
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. A study done in the Netherlands has found that twenty years of farm policies to improve the condition of wildlife have not worked. Dutch scientists say the affected farmlands are no richer in plant and bird life than other fields. They say the policies also may have led to a decrease in some wildlife populations. Agricultural scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands supervised the study. They say there is an urgent need for scientists to study the usefulness of such policies. The Dutch team reported its findings in Nature magazine. The report notes that farming methods to help the environment are very popular. It says they are commonly accepted as a way to deal with the harmful effects of modern agriculture on the environment. Farmers in the Netherlands have been using environmentally friendly farm methods since Nineteen-Eighty-One. Over the past nine years, the European Union has spent about one-thousand-five-hundred-million dollars a year on this kind of farming. This represents about four percent of the European Union’s common agricultural policy spending. The report says that amount is expected to rise to ten percent before long. In the new study, the agricultural scientists counted the kinds and numbers of plants, birds and insects in more than one-hundred-fifty fields in the Netherlands. Traditional methods of farming were used on half of the fields. Farmers used environmentally friendly methods on the other fields. These methods include using fewer chemical products to kill insects or fertilize crops. The farmers also waited until June or July before removing unwanted plants from their fields. This is done to provide more time for birds to build nests and hatch their chicks. The study found that environmental farming resulted in small increases in bees and other insects. However, it resulted in decreases in some kinds of birds. Lead scientist David Kleijn says he thinks the decreased use of fertilizers limited the number of worms in the soil. Birds depend on the insects for food. Other scientists note that the Dutch team examined only plants and wildlife. It did not look at the effects on soil or the total environment. Experts say more studies on the effects of environmental farming are needed. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - October 30, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the raising of the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. We also tell about the increased risk of breast cancer for women who work at night. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Dutch recovery experts have raised the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. The recovery ends fears of serious environmental threats from the submarine. The Kursk had been on the bottom of the Barents Sea for more than a year. The submarine was on training exercises when it sank in August of last year. Scientists feared that its two nuclear reactors were leaking radiation. Earlier this month, recovery experts from two Dutch companies lifted the Kursk about one-hundred-meters. They raised it to a level near the water surface. Scientists reported normal radiation levels in the area. VOICE TWO: The Kursk was one of Russia’s most modern submarines. Two explosions caused the Kursk to sink. The cause of the explosions still is not known. One-hundred-eighteen crew members on the submarine died. Some naval experts believed removing the Kursk from the bottom of the sea would be impossible. The submarine weighs more than eighteen-thousand tons. Scientists said it would be difficult to lift the ship out of the mud at the bottom of the sea. However, workers raised the submarine in about fifteen hours. The job cost Russia a reported sixty-five-million dollars. VOICE ONE: The Dutch recovery experts started developing plans for the operation in May. It took more than three months of work at sea to complete. Recovery experts had expected to raise the Kursk last month. However, storms and technical problems caused repeated delays. Russian officials and recovery workers worried about the postponements. They said severe weather conditions would have made it too dangerous to raise the submarine. The Barents Sea is in the Arctic area. VOICE TWO: In July, divers cut twenty-six holes in the submarine. Devices that shoot water at high pressure helped make the holes. The goal was to create spaces to attach strong steel ropes called cables to lift the submarine. Each cable contained fifty-four ropes of steel. The workers added equipment to hold the cables. Then they connected the submarine to the cables. Late last month, a huge ship called Giant Four arrived near the Kursk. This barge had sailed from the port of Kirkenes, Norway. It brought equipment to cut off the front part of the submarine. This front area contains underwater missiles called torpedos. Recovery workers had feared that a torpedo might explode while they cut the rest of the submarine free. They also had worried that the front part of the submarine might break off. That would have wrecked the lifting operation. However, the workers successfully cut off the front part of the submarine. VOICE ONE: Russian weather experts continually reported air and sea conditions to the recovery team. Calm periods often lasted only five or six hours. Divers worked underwater eight hours at a time to prepare the submarine for lifting. Underwater cameras recorded their progress and the position of the submarine. Devices to measure radiation provided information about the condition of the nuclear reactors. They showed no signs that the reactors were leaking radiation. For several weeks, bad weather delayed the recovery operation. Finally, the team attempted to raise the Kursk on October Eighth. VOICE TWO: Workers on the Giant Four barge operated the cables lifting the submarine. The recovery team controlled the pressure on each cable with special devices. Computers measured the force on the cables as the submarine rose. Centimeter by centimeter, the submarine was lifted to a place just below the surface of the water. Workers connected the Kursk to the bottom of the barge. Another large ship pulled the barge and submarine slowly to port near Murmansk, Russia. Large floating devices called pontoons brought the Kursk up to the surface of the water. Workers removed the devices that held the cables. This action freed the submarine from under the barge. Then the Giant Four barge began sailing back to Kirkenes, Norway. It had successfully brought the Kursk home from the bottom of the sea. VOICE ONE: The Russian Navy now is working on the wrecked submarine. Officials will remove the remains of the crewmen who died on the Kursk. The bodies will be given to the families for burial. Workers also will remove more than twenty missiles from the submarine. Scientists will examine the inside of the Kursk. They will try to find the cause of the explosions that sank the submarine. However, many experts say this evidence is probably in the front part of the submarine. That part of the Kursk remains on the bottom of the Barents Sea. Plans call for trying to raise it next summer. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) The Journal of the National Cancer Institute has published two new studies about breast cancer and women who work at night. These studies suggest that women who work nights have a greater chance of getting the disease than other women. The research suggests that bright light during the night may decrease production of a brain chemical called melatonin. An organ called the pineal gland makes melatonin during the night. Reduced levels of melatonin may cause levels of the hormone estrogen to increase. Earlier research has linked increased estrogen levels with breast cancer. VOICE ONE: The women in the studies worked between seven at night and nine in the morning. The body produces the most melatonin after midnight, between one and two in the morning. Researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington carried out one of the studies. Scott Davis led a team that examined the records of more than one-thousand-five-hundred women. They were from twenty to seventy-four years old. About half the women had breast cancer. The others did not have the disease. VOICE TWO: The researchers found that the women who worked nights for up to three years were more likely to have breast cancer than the other women. These night workers showed about a forty percent higher chance of developing the disease. Women who had worked nights for more than three years were sixty percent more likely to get the disease. Night workers were not the only women showing increased risk from bright lights during the night. Other women who were awake during early mornings also showed similar risks. Women who stayed up past two in the morning at least three times a week had a forty percent higher risk. However, women who slept with some light in their bedrooms did not show a higher risk for breast cancer. Also, turning on lights for short periods during the night did not affect a woman’s chance of developing the disease. VOICE ONE: Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts reported another study. Their research included more than seventy-eight-thousand nurses. The nurses are part of a continuing Nurses’ Health Study. The scientists examined the medical and work records of these women between Nineteen-Eighty-Eight and Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. One group of nurses worked at least three nights each month. They did this for as many as twenty-nine years. These women were about eight percent more likely to develop breast cancer. However, nurses who worked at least three nights each month for more than thirty years were thirty-six percent more likely to get the disease. Earlier research also has suggested that working at night is unhealthy. Night work has been blamed for increased risk of several conditions. They include heart disease and problems involving pregnancy and the stomach and intestines. Working some days and some nights also is suspected of causing these problems. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Science in the News program was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-29-3-1.cfm
* Headline: test
* Byline: 

 Voice 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The years after World War One were an important turning point in the making of the American nation. The country turned away from the problems of Europe. Now it would deal with problems of its own. I'm Maurice Joyce. Today, Kay Gallant and I tell about the many changes in America during the early nineteen-twenties. Voice 2: There was a presidential election in America in nineteen-twenty. President Woodrow Wilson was not a candidate. He had suffered a stroke and was too sick. The two major candidates were Democrat James Cox and Republican Warren Harding. Voters had a clear choice between the two candidates. Cox supported the ideas of President Wilson. He believed the United States should take an active part in world affairs. Harding opposed the idea of internationalism. He believed the United States should worry only about events within its own borders. Warren Harding won the election. By their votes, Americans made clear they were tired of sacrificing lives and money to solve other people's problems. They just wanted to live their own lives and Make their own country a better place. Voice 1: This was a great change in the nation's thinking. For twenty years, since the beginning of the century, the United States had become more involved in international events. Young Americans had grown up with presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Theodore roosevelt. Both Wilson and roosevelt had active foreign policies. Both helped start the nation on the road to becoming a major world power. Then came World War One. It was like a sharp needle that bursts a balloon. The United States and the allies won the war against Germany and the central powers. But thousands of American troops had died in the European conflict. And many months were taken up by the bitter debate over the peace treaty and the League of Nations. Most Americans did not want to hear about Europe and international peace organizations any more. Voice 2: Instead, Americans became more concerned with material things. During World War One, they had lived under many kinds of restrictions. The federal government had controlled railroads, shipping, and industrial production. At the end of the war, these controls were lifted. Industries that had been making war supplies began making products for a peacetime economy. Wages for most workers in the United States were higher than ever at the beginning of the nineteen-twenties. Men and women had enough money to enjoy life more than they had in the past. Voice 1: Technology made it possible for millions of people to improve their lives. It also caused great changes in American society. Two of the most important new technologies were automobiles and radio. In the early years of the twentieth century, automobiles were very costly. Each one was built separately by a small team of skilled workers. Most Americans did not have the money to own an automobile. Then Henry Ford decided to make cars everyone could buy. He built them on an assembly line. Cars were put together, or assembled, as they moved slowly through the factory. Each worker did just one thing to the car before it moved on to the next worker. In this way, the Ford Motor Company could build cars more quickly and easily. And it could sell them for much less money. Voice 2: Before long, there were cars everywhere. All these cars created a need for better roads. Outside cities, most roads were made just of dirt. They were chokingly dusty in dry weather and impassably muddy in the rain. They were rough and full of holes. Few bridges connected roads across rivers and streams. America's new drivers demanded that these problems be fixed. So, local and state governments began building and improving roads as they had never done before. As new roads were built, many new businesses opened along them. There were gasoline stations and auto repair shops, of course. But soon there were eating places and hotels where travelers could eat and sleep. In the nineteen-twenties, the United States was becoming a nation of car-lovers. Voice 1: Cars changed more than the way Americans traveled. They changed the way Americans lived. They removed some of the limitations of living conditions. For example, families with cars no longer had to live in noisy, crowded cities. They could live in suburbs -- the wide-open areas outside cities. They could use their car to drive to work in the city. Businesses moved, too. No longer did they have to be close to railroad lines. With new cars and trucks, they could transport their goods where they wanted, when they wanted. They were no longer limited by train times. Cars also made life on farms less lonely. It became much easier for farm families to go to town on business or to visit friends. Voice 2: Cars helped Americans learn more about their nation. In the nineteen-twenties, people could drive all across the land for not much money. Places that used to be days apart now seemed suddenly closer. Families that normally stayed home on weekends and holidays began to explore the country. They drove to the seashores and lakeshores. To the mountains and forests. To places of historical importance or natural beauty. Voice 1: Not all the changes linked to the car were good, of course. Automobile accidents became more common and deadly. Other forms of transportation, such as railroads, began to suffer from the competition. Some railroads had to close down. Horses and wagons -- once the most common form of transportation -- began to disppear from city streets. There were not enough cars in the nineteen-twenties to cause severe air pollution. But the air was becoming less pure every year. And the roads were becoming more crowded and noisy. Voice 2: While the automobile greatly changed America's transportation, radio greatly changed its communication. The first radio station opened in the state of Pennsylvania in nineteen-twenty. Within ten years, there were hundreds of others. There were more than thirteen-million radio receivers. Most of the radio stations were owned by large broadcasting networks. These networks were able to broadcast the same program to stations all over the country. Voice 1: Most programs were simple and entertaining. There were radio plays, comedy shows, and music programs. But there also were news reports and political events. Millions of people who never read newspapers now heard the news on radio. Citizens everywhere could hear the president's voice. Like the automobile, radio helped bring Americans together. They were able to share many of the same events and experiences. Voice 2: Radio also was a great help to companies. Businesses could buy time on radio programs for advertisements. In these 'ads', they told listeners about their products. They urged them to buy the products: cars. Electric refrigerators. Foods. Medicines. In this way, companies quickly and easily created a nationwide demand for their goods. Automobiles and radios were not the only new technologies to change American life in the days after World War One. Still one more invention would have a great effect on how Americans spent their time and money. That was the motion picture. It will be our story next week. (Theme) Voice 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us again next week at this same time, when we will tell more about the social and political changes in America in the nineteen-twenties. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Foreign Student Series
* Byline: 

 Texts of the series that aired on AMERICAN MOSAIC beginning in September 2000: The series will be updated and begin again this September. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - October 31, 2001: Bats
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Many people fear the small flying animals called bats. There are stories about bats attacking people and drinking human blood. However, bats are not a threat to people. In fact, they are an important part of our environment. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Many people fear the small flying animals called bats. There are stories about bats attacking people and drinking human blood. However, bats are not a threat to people. In fact, they are an important part of our environment. Bats are mammals, just like humans. There are about one-thousand different kinds of bats in the world. Some weigh less than ten grams. Yet the largest bats are almost two meters long when their wings are extended. Most people think bats are rare. That is because they hide during the day and are active only at night. However, bats can be found in almost every part of the world. Not all bats spend their days underground in dark caves. Some rest in trees or other places that keep them safe from attack and changes in weather. Unlike other animals, their bodies are designed to hang upside down. This is the best position for them to take flight suddenly. Bats are the only mammals that can really fly. Their wing structure, bones and muscles help them to move quickly. This helps bats in their search for food. Bats are mammals, just like humans. There are about one-thousand different kinds of bats in the world. Some weigh less than ten grams. Yet the largest bats are almost two meters long when their wings are extended. Most people think bats are rare. That is because they hide during the day and are active only at night. However, bats can be found in almost every part of the world. Not all bats spend their days underground in dark caves. Some rest in trees or other places that keep them safe from attack and changes in weather. Unlike other animals, their bodies are designed to hang upside down. This is the best position for them to take flight suddenly. Bats are the only mammals that can really fly. Their wing structure, bones and muscles help them to move quickly. This helps bats in their search for food. Some bats use a guidance system called echolocation to move around in the dark. The creatures produce a series of noises through their mouth or nose. They can judge their distance from an object by the time it takes for the sound to return. Most bats eat insects. Bats provide one of the most effective controls on insect populations. A single, small, brown bat can catch more than one-thousand insects in just one hour. Twenty-million bats live in Bracken Cave in the western American state of Texas. They eat about two-hundred tons of insects every night. Some bats eat fruit. As they fly, they spread seeds through forests and deserts. Other bats like to eat pollen on plants. They help to make new plants by spreading pollen from flower to flower. A few bats eat meat. They catch small frogs, birds or fish. No report about bats is complete without a discussion of vampire bats. Three kinds of vampire bats feed on blood. They live in parts of Central and South America. These bats feed mainly on the blood of birds, farm animals and wild animals. They rarely attack people. The bats bite their victims and drink the blood, usually while the animal is sleeping. The harm from such bites comes not from the amount of blood lost, but from any resulting infection. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. Some bats use a guidance system called echolocation to move around in the dark. The creatures produce a series of noises through their mouth or nose. They can judge their distance from an object by the time it takes for the sound to return. Most bats eat insects. Bats provide one of the most effective controls on insect populations. A single, small, brown bat can catch more than one-thousand insects in just one hour. Twenty-million bats live in Bracken Cave in the western American state of Texas. They eat about two-hundred tons of insects every night. Some bats eat fruit. As they fly, they spread seeds through forests and deserts. Other bats like to eat pollen on plants. They help to make new plants by spreading pollen from flower to flower. A few bats eat meat. They catch small frogs, birds or fish. No report about bats is complete without a discussion of vampire bats. Three kinds of vampire bats feed on blood. They live in parts of Central and South America. These bats feed mainly on the blood of birds, farm animals and wild animals. They rarely attack people. The bats bite their victims and drink the blood, usually while the animal is sleeping. The harm from such bites comes not from the amount of blood lost, but from any resulting infection. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - October 31, 2001: Newseum
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a museum that shows how reporters do their jobs. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: When terrorists attacked the United States on September Eleventh, millions of people saw what was happening on television. Reporters gathered near the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon building near Washington, D.C. to get information. The reporters spoke with officials, police, and people who saw the attacks. People around the world followed what was happening through reports from radio, television, newspapers and magazines. People depend on reporters to get the facts about the latest news developments. Yet many people do not understand how a reporter works. In the United States, there is a center to help people understand what reporters do and why their job is often difficult. It is called the Newseum. It is in Rosslyn, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D-C. VOICE TWO: The Newseum was opened on April Eighteenth, Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. It is a place where visitors can see and experience how and why news is made. A private group called Freedom Forum provides financial support for the Newseum. Freedom Forum is an organization formed to support free press and free speech for all people. Alice Bishop is an official at the Newseum. She says people who visit the Newseum learn about some of the difficulties that reporters face everyday. They also have fun working with computers, television and pictures. Miss Bishop says visitors are able to meet with news reporters. The reporters come to the Newseum for special events usually held each week. Some are well-known American reporters. Others work for foreign news organizations. They describe their experiences and visitors are able to ask them questions. Miss Bishop says visitors understand the news process better. They learn what reporters do before they prepare their stories for publication or broadcast. Newseum visitors can also work in a television production center. They can operate a television camera or sit in front of the camera and read news stories. One day a young visitor read a news story she wrote about the President of the United States appointing her mother to the Supreme Court. VOICE ONE: About five-hundred thousand people visit the Newseum every year. Many of them come from different parts of the United States. However, many people come from other countries. Some visitors are reporters who want to see how other reporters present the news. Many school children visit to experience being a reporter and writing a story. Some people come to see newspapers from around the world. They like to compare how news organizations in the United States and other countries report the same story. VOICE TWO: Alice Bishop says the Newseum's greatest effect is improving understanding between the media and the public. She says the Newseum helps to explain what reporters have to do to report the news. She says many people, especially Americans, think the job of a reporter is easier than it is. The Newseum has an ethics center that explains the difficulties reporters sometimes face before their stories are made public. For example, should a reporter protect the identity of someone who gives them secret information? Many reporters refuse to release the name of someone who supplies secret information to protect that person. Yet the reporter might be sent to jail if he or she refuses. Visitors are given a chance to make their own decision and then see what real reporters decided to do. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are several areas in the Newseum. Visitors can watch great moments in history on huge televisions. There are films of the first people landing on the moon and the murder of American president John F. Kennedy. Another area shows visitors the history of news. People can see how different groups of people communicate. They learn how people in parts of Africa and Asia used drums to communicate. They see letters from the fourteenth century. They learn when the first newspaper started in Europe more than five hundred years ago. Visitors to the Today's News area at the Newseum experience the speed of the latest information broadcast around the world. A huge wall almost forty meters long and three meters high has pictures of television news broadcasts from many countries. In this part of the museum, visitors can also hear radio news broadcasts, and read reports from news agencies and the Internet. VOICE TWO: The Newseum also offers special programs such as a current one about war stories. Visitors can examine the difficulties war-time reporters have faced over the past one-hundred-fifty years. They can see clothing some reporters wore during a war. They also can examine objects affected by war, like the wreckage of a car hit by bullets. Newseum officials say the most popular event they organized was a recent show of pictures by Pulitzer award winners. Miss Bishop says people loved seeing the news pictures. VOICE ONE: The Newseum now has a special show of reports about the terrorist attacks in the United States. There are big pictures of the attacks and the recovery efforts. Some pictures show the reactions of people from around the world. One visitor wrote about the show in a book provided by the Newseum to record visitors’ reactions. The visitor said that she likes the show very much. Yet she asked the Newseum to take down one picture. The picture was taken after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. It shows a man jumping from the top of one burning building. Like thousands of other people, the man died. The visitor argued that this man is a victim, and the picture should not be part of the show. The Newseum did not remove the picture. Officials say it is an important part of the news story. VOICE TWO: Visitors to the Newseum learn that being a reporter can be dangerous. In an open area outside the building is a memorial to reporters killed while doing their job. The memorial has almost one-thousand names. Every year, the Freedom Forum has a ceremony to honor those reporters. Other reporters read the names of those killed. Every year, the list gets longer. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Freedom Forum was established to help support press freedoms. Officials of the organization say freedom of the press is very important. Miss Bishop says that the public needs as much information as it can get to make informed decisions. She says the public needs to know what is happening. Different parts of the world, she says, are linked together. VOICE TWO: The Freedom Forum operates with money from stock investments. The value of its investments had reached one-thousand-million dollars. Recently, however, the value of its investments dropped by three-hundred-million dollars. Last month, Freedom Forum officials announced they will end all their international programs. They are closing all the group's offices in London, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. Freedom Forum will also close its office in New York City. Freedom Forum is no longer calling itself an international organization. It is now called a Media Foundation. Miss Bishop says employees will have to be cut from the organization. She expects many employees to accept the company's offer of extra money if they resign. VOICE ONE: Miss Bishop says Freedom Forum officials decided to provide more support to a new Newseum. The group plans to build a bigger and better Newseum on property it bought in the center of Washington. The new building is expected to be ready in Two-Thousand-Five. The current Newseum will remain open until the new one is completed. Officials believe the new Newseum will have more visitors because it will be near other popular places, such as the world famous Smithsonian museums. They hope that more people from the United States and other countries will visit the Newseum to learn about reporters and what they do. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-31-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 1, 2001: New Era-1920s, Part 2
* Byline: 

 (Theme) Voice 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) I'm Kay Gallant. Today, Harry Monroe and I tell more about the technological and social changes that took place in the United States in the early nineteen-twenties. Voice 2: Some of the most important changes came as a result of the automobile and the radio. Automobiles began to be mass-produced. They were low enough in cost so many Americans could buy them. Gasoline was low in cost, too. Together, these developments put America on the move as never before. Automobiles made it easy for Americans to travel. Trucks made it easy for goods to be transported. Many people and businesses moved out of crowded, noisy cities. They moved to open areas outside cities: suburbs. Voice 1: As automobiles helped Americans spread out, the radio helped bring them closer together. Large networks could broadcast the same radio program to many stations at the same time. Soon, Americans everywhere were listening to the same programs. They laughed at the same jokes, sang the same songs, heard the same news. Another invention that produced big changes in American life was the motion picture. Voice 2: American inventor Thomas edison began making short motion pictures at the turn of the century. In nineteen-oh-three, a movie called "the great train robbery" was the first to tell a complete story. In nineteen-fifteen, D.W. Griffith made a long, serious movie called "Birth of a Nation. " By the early nineteen-twenties, many American towns had a movie theater. Most Americans went to see the movies at least once a week. The movie industry became a big business. People might not know the names of government officials. But they knew the names of every leading actor and actress. Voice 1: Movies were fun. They provided a change from the day-to-day troubles of life. They also were an important social force. Young Americans tried to copy what they saw in the movies. And they dreamed about far-away places and a different kind of life. A young farm boy could imagine himself as romantic hero Douglas Fairbanks or comedian Charlie Chaplin. A young city girl could imagine herself as the beautiful and brave Mary Pickford. Rich families and poor families saw the same movies. Their children shared the same wish to be like the movie stars. In this way, the son of a banker and the son of a factory worker had much in common. The same was true for people from different parts of the country. Voice 2: In the early nineteen-twenties, Americans also began reading the same publications. The publishing industry used some of the same kinds of mass-production methods as the automobile industry. It began producing magazines in larger amounts. It began selling the same magazines all over the country. One of the most widely-read magazines was "the Saturday Evening Post. " In nineteen-oh-two, it sold about three-hundred-thousand copies each week. Twenty years later, it sold more than two-million copies each week. Americans everywhere shared the same information and advice in such nationwide magazines. The information was not always correct. The advice was not always good. But the effect was similar to that caused by the automobile and radio. Parts of American society were becoming more alike. They were trying to move toward the same kind of life -- economically and socially. Voice 1: Other industries used the techniques of assembly-line production to Make their goods, too. They discovered that producing large numbers of goods reduced the cost of each one. One company that expanded in this way was the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. It was called "A-and-P" for short. The A-and-P was one of the first large American grocery stores to sell all kinds of food. It sold milk, meat, bread, canned fruits, and vegetables all in the same store. Shopping at the A-and-P was much faster and easier than going to different stores to get different kinds of food. In nineteen-twelve, A-and-P had four-hundred stores in the United States. About ten years later, it had more than eleven-thousand stores. It could buy huge amounts of goods and sell each at a very low price. Voice 2: Mass production also came to the clothing industry. People began wearing clothes made in factories, instead of by a family member or local tailor. Before long, the same kinds of clothes could be found everywhere. Mass production removed some differences that had marked Americans in the past. Prices dropped, so people with little money could still buy nice clothes. It became more difficult to look at Americans and know by their clothes if they were rich or poor. Voice 1: Social changes also resulted from great progress in medical research. Doctors and scientists reported new developments in the fight against disease. This progress gave most Americans a longer life. In nineteen-hundred, for example, the average person in the United States could expect to live forty-nine years. By nineteen-twenty-seven, the average person could expect to live fifty-nine years. Voice 2: Life expectancy rates climbed, because doctors and scientists developed effective ways to prevent or treat diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and influenza. Yellow fever and smallpox were no longer a threat. One new medicine was insulin. It was used to treat diabetes. A man-made version gave diabetics the insulin their bodies did not have. It cut the death rate from the disease from seventy percent to about one percent. Doctors and scientists also learned the importance of vitamins to good health. Now they could cure several diseases caused by a lack of vitamins. Voice 1: Americans in the nineteen-twenties lived much better than their fathers and mothers. A man received more pay than in the past, even though he worked fewer hours each day. He lived in a better house with new labor-saving devices. He had a car to drive to work and to take his family on holiday trips. He received a better education than his father. He and his family wore better clothes. They ate healthier foods. The average American in the nineteen-twenties had more time for sports and entertainment. He enjoyed listening to the radio and watching movies. He was more informed about national and world events. Voice 2: Life was good for many Americans as World War One ended and the nation entered the nineteen-twenties. Yet that life was far from perfect. Many Americans did not have the same chances to improve their lives. Black Americans continued to suffer from racism. Society continued to deny them their rights as citizens. Women did not have equal rights, either. For example, they could not vote. It was during this time that the United States experienced one of its worst incidents of public hatred. Many people turned strongly against labor unions and leftists. They feared a threat to democracy. The federal government took action against what it called political extremists. Many of the charges were unfair. Many innocent lives were harmed. That will be our story next week. (Theme) Voice 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-31-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – November 1, 2001: Weakened Smallpox Vaccine
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Researchers in the United States are beginning a study to see if a weaker version of an existing vaccine can protect people against the disease smallpox. Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. It spreads from one person to another when an infected person coughs or sneezes. People who become infected show signs of the disease within two weeks. They develop high body temperature, head and back aches and large raised areas on the skin called sores. The disease can damage the brain and other body organs. Smallpox kills thirty percent of the people who get it. There is no treatment. A vaccine medicine that prevents smallpox ended the threat of the disease around the world in Nineteen-Seventy-Seven. The virus was thought to exist only in the laboratories of two disease control centers in the world. One is in the United States. The other is in Russia. Now, American officials fear that terrorists may have small amounts of the virus. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is supporting a study to see if a weakened smallpox vaccine can be effective against the disease. Sharon Frey (FRI) is the leading researcher of the study. She says the United States has no more than twenty-million units of smallpox vaccine. That is not enough to protect two-hundred-eighty-five-million Americans from the virus. Scientists say making the vaccine weaker is a quick way to expand the amount of vaccine that already exists. Doctor Frey and her team will test a weaker vaccine on more than six-hundred people at four medical centers in the United States. One group of people will get the full-strength smallpox vaccine. The second group will get vaccine that is one-fifth as strong as the full-strength vaccine. The third group will get vaccine that is one-tenth as strong as the full-strength vaccine. The researchers will examine the people to see how many develop a reaction that means the vaccine is protecting them from smallpox. This reaction is a little raised area on the arm where the vaccine is given. Doctor Frey expects to know the results in two to three months. She says that any use of the weakened vaccine will be a temporary measure until new supplies of the smallpox vaccine are ready. That will take about one to two years. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-10/a-2001-10-31-3-1.cfm
* Headline: Theme Music List
* Byline: 

 Words and Their Stories "Bethena Concert Waltz" Joplin People in America "Prelude II" Gershwin This Is America "Freddie Freeloader" Davis Science in the News "Expansion of Knowledge" Unknown Explorations "All Souls Waltz" Nakai/Kater The Making of a Nation "Hail Columbia" Phylo/Hopkinson American Mosaic "Lover's Leap" Fleck American Stories "Warm Valley" Ellington 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-01-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 2, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some saxophone music ... answer a question about American life and the movies ... and report about a popular college football coach. Joe Paterno HOST: Most large American universities have football teams. One university team has had the same head coach for more than thirty years. And he has just broken an important record in the history of college sports. Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: His name is Joe Paterno. He is the head football coach at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. He has helped train college football players there since Nineteen-Fifty. He has been the head coach since Nineteen-Sixty-Six. On October twenty-seventh, Mister Paterno won his three-hundred-twenty-fourth game as head coach in college football. That broke a record set by another famous college football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant. Mister Bryant coached the University of Alabama football team from Nineteen-Fifty-Eight to Nineteen-Eighty-Two. Mister Paterno has now won more football games than any other coach of a major college in history. Yet, he almost did not become a football coach at all. In Nineteen-Fifty, Joe Paterno was planning to study law. But his college football coach offered him a job as an assistant at Penn State. He took the job, and has been there ever since. He is seventy-four years old. Joe Paterno has coached five undefeated teams. His teams have won two national championships. He has won the College Football Coach of the Year award four times. His players have won many awards, too. Mister Paterno and the players he has coached have won almost every kind of award in college football. Other coaches and sports reporters have praised Mister Paterno as a leader among college coaches. He has worked for improved education for college athletes. He has also provided more than four-million dollars to the Pennsylvania State University for educational purposes. This year, Mister Paterno’s team has not been as successful as it has been in the past. Penn State has won only two games so far. Yet Coach Paterno says he has no plans to retire. He just wants to continue winning. America & The Movies HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia and China. Three people asked the same question. They want to know if life in the United States is like what they see in the movies. The short answer is no. Movies do not attempt to show the lives of all the people of the United States. Many movies contain some truth. But even a movie that deals with true subjects represents the ideas of the person who wrote it, the people who acted in it and the person who directed it. Often, at the beginning of a movie, words on the screen say “Based on a real incident.” That usually means the person who wrote the movie wrote about something that really happened and then added action to make the movie more interesting. Such American movies might make it seem like violence and criminal acts are extremely common in the United States. They show a false image of America and its people. Many American movies are made for young people in high school or college. They tell stories that are funny or that are about sex. That does not mean that these situations are realistic or are about the lives of young people in America. Over the years, some Americans have tried to ban some kinds of movies. These include movies that are violent or show people having sexual relations. People have taken legal action to stop such movies. But court decisions have said that the right to make any kind of movie is protected by the part of the United States Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech. In the United States, people have the right to produce a bad movie or write a bad book. People who make movies try to provide entertainment and excitement. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they fail. However, entertainment and excitement often have nothing to do with the real world. Washington Saxophone Quartet HOST: The Washington Saxophone Quartet performs in the nation’s capital and around the world. This weekend, the group will play at a local church. The money earned will go to an organization that provides hot meals to homeless people in Washington. Shep O’Neal tells us more about this musical group. ANNCR: The Washington Saxophone Quartet plays famous music pieces that have been specially written for four different saxophones. The four musicians have been playing together since Nineteen-Seventy-Six. They have shown that four saxophones can produce sounds of many instruments. Their latest album is called “Daydream.” Here they play “Pavane” by French composer Gabriel Faure (Faw-RAY). ((CUT ONE: PAVANE)) The members of the Washington Saxophone Quartet are Reginald Jackson, James Steele, Rick Parrell and Rich Kleinfeldt. You may recognize that last name. Rich Kleinfeldt worked at the Voice of America for many years. He was an editor, classical music program host, and Special English announcer. The Washington Saxophone Quartet plays many different kinds of music. This piece is called “Oblivion.” It was written by Astor Piazzolla, who was called Argentina’s “King of Tango.” ((CUT TWO: OBLIVION)) The Washington Saxophone Quartet also plays modern music pieces by famous American composers. We leave you now with “Lullaby” by George Gershwin. ((CUT THREE: LULLABY)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Shelley Gollust, Mario Ritter and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-01-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – November 2, 2001: Earth’s Magnetic Field Helps Turtles
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. American scientists have found strong evidence that baby sea turtles are born with the ability to recognize and measure Earth’s magnetic fields. They found that the sea turtles use the magnetic fields to guide them as they swim great distances across the ocean. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did the research. Science magazine reported the findings. The scientists say the baby sea turtle is one of the great wonders of the animal world. Baby turtles swim directly to the open sea shortly after breaking out of their eggs. The young turtles follow complex paths that often lead across large areas of seemingly endless ocean. Baby sea turtles swim across the Atlantic Ocean and back all by themselves. People have wondered for years how they do this. The longest and most surprising trips are made by young loggerhead turtles. Young loggerheads in the North Atlantic Ocean swim more than fifteen-thousand kilometers across the ocean before returning to the North American coast. Loggerheads in the state of Florida follow a huge, circular current of warm water known as the North Atlantic gyre. The gyre moves from the East Coast of the United States across the North Atlantic and then south along the coasts of Spain and Africa before turning west to complete the circle. Water in the gyre is generally warm and food there is plentiful. Turtles that leave the gyre often die from the cold water. The scientists wanted to find out if baby loggerhead turtles could recognize the magnetic fields in different parts of the North Atlantic gyre. They used turtles that had never been at sea before. They placed the turtles in a container filled with saltwater. They put wires around the container. The wires produced magnetic fields similar to those found in different parts of the gyre. Whenever the turtles were in a magnetic field like that found in the ocean, they swam in a direction that would keep them in the warm current. One of the scientists, Kenneth Lohmann, says the findings provide direct evidence that turtles can use Earth’s magnetic fields as markers. He says similar systems might exist in other ocean creatures and even some birds. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-02-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 5, 2001: Veterans Day
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: November Eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. It honors the men and women of the American military forces. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. The Veterans Day holiday is our report today on the VOA Special English program, This is America. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Nineteen-million men and women living in the United States have fought in the nation’s wars. Some of these people now have reached old age. Each day, one-thousand-five-hundred war veterans die. The United States Congress did not want the nation to lose its chance to hear the veterans’ stories. So, last year, lawmakers created the Veterans History Project. The Library of Congress Folklife Center is gathering material for this project. The Center is asking war veterans for recorded histories, letters, written memories, maps, photographs and home movies. The Veterans History Project includes veterans of World Wars One and Two. It also includes people who served in the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. All men and women who took part are invited to share their memories. This includes civilian helpers. All Americans are invited to talk to veterans who are family members and record their memories. Now we will tell about some of these conflicts and the Americans who fought in them. ((CUT ONE: BATTLE SFX)) VOICE TWO: World War One. At the time, it was called the “war to end all wars.” But, as everyone knows, other wars would be fought later. About two -million Americans served in Europe during World War One. More than one-hundred-sixteen-thousand of them were killed. Another two-hundred-thirty-five thousand were wounded. The United States entered World War One in Nineteen-Seventeen. Its armed forces were very small. To prepare for war, the government ordered every man between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one to report for military duty. ((CUT TWO: SFX OF TROOPS MARCHING)) VOICE ONE: The men came from cities and farms. Some were rich. Some were poor. There were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, professional athletes and college students. Many were married. More than nine-and-one-half million men reported for duty in June, Nineteen-Seventeen. About six-hundred-thousand were chosen to serve. They were sent to military camps for training before going to France. The following year, the government expanded the call to serve in the military. It called on all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. More than thirteen-million reported for duty. The Army did not have enough bases to train all the new soldiers. So, it used many colleges and universities as military training centers. VOICE TWO: The Navy and Marine Corps had about eighty-two-thousand men when the United States entered World War One. A year later, there were almost three times that many sailors and Marines. Many women joined the armed forces, too. Most women got office jobs at military bases in the United States. Some, however, went to France as nurses in battlefield hospitals. Their work made it possible for more men to fight. ((CUT THREE: "OVER THERE")) VOICE ONE: Finally, World War One ended. Germany surrendered at eleven o'clock in the morning on November Eleventh, Nineteen-Eighteen. It was the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. On that day, thousands of Americans were completing their military training in the United States. Others were either in France or on boats sailing to France. They had arrived there in troop ships over a period of about eighteen months. It would take almost that long to bring them home. While they waited to return, many had a chance to see the sights of France -- especially Paris. To the young men who grew up in big cities such as New York or Chicago, Paris was just another big city. But to the young men who grew up on farms or in small towns, Paris was unlike anything they had ever seen. VOICE TWO: When the war ended, American soldiers wanted to return to the life they knew before going to France. Almost overnight, the number of troops in the American armed services dropped to what it had been before the war. In Nineteen-Nineteen, President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration naming November Eleventh as Armistice Day in the United States. It would be a day to honor the men and women who had served in the American armed forces during World War One. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday. The federal government would close that day. Most state and local governments, and all public schools would close, too. Parades in almost every city honored the men and women who had helped bring peace to Europe. But even as they celebrated, new problems were on the way. VOICE ONE: The United States soon began to suffer severe economic problems. The stock market crashed in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Thousands of businesses closed. Many people lost their homes and all the money they had saved. In the early Nineteen-Thirties, huge dust storms destroyed farmland in the middle western states. Families were forced to move to other states to find work. Then political troubles began to appear in other parts of the world, especially in Europe and Asia. Soon, everyone knew that World War One had not been the war to end all wars. ((CUT FOUR: SFX OF BATTLE )) VOICE TWO: More than four-million Americans served in the armed forces during the First World War. Four times that many would serve in the military during the next war. Most Americans who served in World War Two were young -- eighteen or nineteen years old. They were the sons and daughters of World War One veterans. They too hoped their war would be a final one. A few Americans were called back to duty because of their experience in World War One. Others joined because they had no jobs. The military gave them food, clothes and a place to sleep. VOICE ONE: The United States entered World War Two in Nineteen-Forty-One. Germany surrendered in May, Nineteen-Forty-Five, ending the war in Europe. Japan surrendered in August of that year, ending the war in the Pacific area. Armistice Day in Nineteen-Forty-Five was a very special day in the United States. Most of the men and women who had fought in the war had returned home. So, instead of just honoring veterans of World War One that year, Americans also honored veterans of World War Two. ((CUT FIVE: "ANCHORS AWEIGH")) VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, Congress decided to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day. By then almost six-million more Americans had served in another military campaign -- the Korean War. The number of veterans has continued to grow. Almost nine-million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. And thousands of others took part in military campaigns in the Caribbean nation of Grenada and in Panama. Hundreds of thousands of men and women served during the Persian Gulf War. Thousands also served as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia. Other American troops served to return the elected president to power in Haiti. And they helped keep peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian province of Kosovo. Now they have been carrying out air strikes and ground operations in Afghanistan in the American-declared war against terrorism. VOICE ONE: The term "veteran" is not restricted to those who served only during wartime. It includes anyone who has served in the military at any time. On November Eleventh, America's military veterans will be honored with ceremonies and parades across the nation. The president and other public officials will speak. Americans will observe the anniversary of Veterans Day. They will honor the men and women of the armed forces who have served their country in war and in peace. ((TAPE CUT SIX: "SEMPER FIDELIS" MARCH INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Bob Bowen and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Max Carroll. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-02-2-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 5, 2001: Nutrition Study in Ivory Coast
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. A new study has found that women in parts of western Africa need more energy than men because of the amount of work they do. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota carried out the study. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization helped in the study. Science Magazine published the results. The study examined the amount of work done by men and women in Ivory Coast. All of the workers lived in the Northern Savane, West Forest, and East Forest areas of Ivory Coast. Researchers followed more than three-thousand farm workers during a seven-day period. The researchers added the amount of time that the men and women spent working. They studied many kinds of activities, such as hunting, planting, food gathering, crop development, harvesting and land clearing. James Levine (la-VEEN) from the Mayo Clinic led the study. He says the researchers found that the women in the study worked almost three hours more each day than the men did. The women did all the work in the house, such as cleaning and food preparation. The women also brought water and wood into the house for use in washing, cooking and heating. In addition, the women also did farm work. The men in the study only did farm work. Doctor Levine said the women need thirty percent more energy to do their work. So they need thirty percent more nutrition than had been earlier thought. He says other studies have suggested that women are far more threatened by starvation than men are when crops fail. Barbara Burlingame is a top nutrition officer for the U-N Food and Agriculture Organization. She says this study could be used as a model to decide the food aid needs of people in other countries. Through similar research, she says the U-N will be able to better understand the different nutritional needs of women around the world. Currently, the U-N estimates that more than eight-hundred-million people around the world suffer from poor nutrition and a lack of food. Mizz Burlingame says this study will help the U-N and other aid organizations provide better economic and nutritional support to developing countries. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-02-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 3, 2001: Anthrax in the U.S.
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. United States officials called on the public Friday for more help in finding whoever is responsible for sending anthrax in the mail system. They said they had hoped a government offer of one-million dollars would have produced more information by now. In the past month, doctors have confirmed at least sixteen cases of people on the East Coast with lung or skin infections from anthrax bacteria. Most have been postal handlers or connected to the media. Four of the people have died -- two in Washington, D-C, one in New York and one in Florida. The investigation has centered on Trenton, New Jersey. At least three letters containing anthrax bacteria were mailed from there. Two went to news organizations in New York, the third to the office of the Senate majority leader in Washington. That letter passed through Washington's main post office. Two workers there later died of anthrax. Discoveries of even small amounts of anthrax have led to the closing of postal centers, government mailrooms and congressional office buildings. Friday, the Supreme Court returned to its own building after meeting in another courthouse this week. The Postal Service has reacted to the situation by starting to treat some mail with germ-killing radiation. The anthrax cases began to appear not long after the September eleventh terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Investigators, however, say they have yet to prove a connection. This week, a sixty-one-year-old hospital worker in New York City died of inhalation anthrax. Health officials say the anthrax that killed Kathy Nguyen matches the bacteria found in the three letters sent from Trenton. Her case, though, was a mystery. Investigators said they had found no evidence linking her death to infected mail. They began going back over her movements and speaking to people she knew, hoping to learn how she became infected. For a long time, there have been fears of anthrax being turned into a biological weapon. Anthrax can be found anywhere in the world, especially in agricultural areas, where animals become infected. The most common form of infection in people is cutaneous anthrax. The bacteria can enter through a cut in the skin. This kind of anthrax is easily treated. People can get intestinal anthrax from eating the meat of infected animals. Inhalation anthrax, the most severe form of the disease, happens when a person breathes the bacteria spores into the lungs. Experts say anthrax cannot spread from one person to another. Doctors treat anthrax with antibiotics. These medicines can be highly effective if begun early. Some people are now taking antibiotics to prevent any possible anthrax infection. However, experts warn against taking antibiotics unless there is a real need. Some people suffer bad effects, and overuse can make antibiotics less effective against the extremely small organisms they are designed to kill. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-02-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 4, 2001: Chief Joseph, Part 1
* Byline: 

 Announcer: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Warren scheer and Larry West begin the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. He is remembered as a hero of all American Indian people. Voice 1: An old man looks out at a green valley. Tall dark mountains stand above it. Snow covers the mountain tops. In the clear water of a lake dance the dark shapes of the mountains. The old man's name is Tuekakas. White men call him Old Joseph. The Wallowa Valley is the old man's home -- and the home of the Nez Perce people -- for as long as anyone can remember. It lies in the northwestern part of the United States. Today, the land is part of the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. No one knows exactly when the Nez Perce first came to the valley. From earliest times, the people hunted and raised cattle there. They kept horses, the kind called Appaloosas. Voice 2: The Nez Perce did not own the land. They had not bought it from anyone else. They possessed no documents of ownership. But they believed the land was theirs. . . Simply because that was where they lived. For almost seventy years, the Nez Perce showed friendship to the white farmers, churchmen and explorers who came to their land. Old Joseph, the chief, had been a friend to the white men. But in eighteen seventy-one, as he looked out across the valley, he could see a time of trouble coming. White people had discovered gold in mountains on Nez Perce land. More and more white farmers were asking the United States government to open the land for development. To do that, the Indians had to be moved. The government usually offered the Indians money or gifts to leave the area. Different deals were made with different indian groups. Voice 1: Several years before, the white governor of the territory met with Old Joseph. He asked the chief to sign a treaty. The governor said he wanted the land divided so the Indians and white men could live separately. "If the two groups are to live in peace," the governor said, "it is necessary for the Indians to have a country set apart for them. And in that country they must stay." Old Joseph was furious. "Take away your paper," he said. "I will not touch it with my hand. " Other Nez Perce chiefs, however -- beyond the valley -- signed treaties to give up their lands. Those chiefs and their people became Christians. They cut their hair short. They forgot the ways of their tribe. Old Joseph's people did not forget. They wore their hair long. And they loved the land. Voice 2: Old Joseph had been chief for many years. Now he was dying. He called for his first son. The son, like the father, was named Joseph. Old Joseph spoke. His voice was the voice of a dying man. But his words were the words of a strong, proud spirit: "My son, " the old man said, "when I am gone you will be chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never gave up his land. Voice 1: Young Joseph was thirty-one years old when his father died. His people called him Heinmot Tooyalaket. Those were the words the Nez Perce used to describe the noise that lightning makes in the mountains. The young man had a wide face. His hair was tied on both sides of his head and hung down on his chest like long, heavy ropes. He wore chains of seashells around his neck. Small pieces of colored glass shone brightly on his clothing. Already, the Nez Perce knew him for his good judgment, his kindness, and his ability with words. And now they would know him as their leader ... Chief joseph. Chief Joseph remembered his dying father's words. He said: "This land has always belonged to my people. We will defend this land as long as Indian blood warms the hearts of our men. " Voice 2: In eighteen seventy-three, Chief Joseph sent a message to the president of the United States, Ulysses Grant. He asked that no more white persons be permitted to live in the Wallowa Valley. President Grant agreed. But two years later, under pressure from farmers and gold-hunters, the president broke his promise. More white people came. Some stole cattle and horses. Some insulted the Indians. Always, Chief Joseph kept the peace. In may, eighteen seventy-seven, the government told General Oliver Howard to meet with the Nez Perce chiefs. He was ordered to tell the Indians that they must leave their land. The government had a place in Idaho for all Nez Perce people. It was called the Lapwai Reservation. General Howard did not like his orders. To his friends he said it was a great mistake to take the valley from Joseph. But the general had spent many years in the army. He obeyed his orders. To the Nez Perce chiefs he said: "I stand here for the president. My orders are clear and must be obeyed. You have thirty days to leave the valley. If you delay even one day," General Howard said, "the soldiers will force you to the reservation. And all your cattle and horses will fall into the hands of the white men. " Voice 1: The chiefs had a difficult choice. They could leave. Or they could fight. Joseph and the other chiefs had only ninety warriors. They knew they could not defend the valley with such a small fighting force. Chief Joseph said: "I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I learned then that we were but few, while the white men were many, and that we could not defeat them. Voice 2: Some of the Nez Perce chiefs wanted to stay and fight. They were willing to try, even if there was little chance of winning. But Joseph said, "to protect my people from war, I will give up my country. I will give up everything." So the Nez Perce prepared to leave the Wallowa Valley. To get to the reservation in time, they had to leave behind many of the things they owned. They took some cattle and horses, and what food and possessions they could carry. Chief Joseph had promised them peace. But peace would not follow them. That will be our story next week. (Theme) Announcer: you have been listening to the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Warren scheer and Larry West. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. Announcer: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Warren scheer and Larry West begin the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. He is remembered as a hero of all American Indian people. Voice 1: An old man looks out at a green valley. Tall dark mountains stand above it. Snow covers the mountain tops. In the clear water of a lake dance the dark shapes of the mountains. The old man's name is Tuekakas. White men call him Old Joseph. The Wallowa Valley is the old man's home -- and the home of the Nez Perce people -- for as long as anyone can remember. It lies in the northwestern part of the United States. Today, the land is part of the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. No one knows exactly when the Nez Perce first came to the valley. From earliest times, the people hunted and raised cattle there. They kept horses, the kind called Appaloosas. Voice 2: The Nez Perce did not own the land. They had not bought it from anyone else. They possessed no documents of ownership. But they believed the land was theirs. . . Simply because that was where they lived. For almost seventy years, the Nez Perce showed friendship to the white farmers, churchmen and explorers who came to their land. Old Joseph, the chief, had been a friend to the white men. But in eighteen seventy-one, as he looked out across the valley, he could see a time of trouble coming. White people had discovered gold in mountains on Nez Perce land. More and more white farmers were asking the United States government to open the land for development. To do that, the Indians had to be moved. The government usually offered the Indians money or gifts to leave the area. Different deals were made with different indian groups. Voice 1: Several years before, the white governor of the territory met with Old Joseph. He asked the chief to sign a treaty. The governor said he wanted the land divided so the Indians and white men could live separately. "If the two groups are to live in peace," the governor said, "it is necessary for the Indians to have a country set apart for them. And in that country they must stay." Old Joseph was furious. "Take away your paper," he said. "I will not touch it with my hand. " Other Nez Perce chiefs, however -- beyond the valley -- signed treaties to give up their lands. Those chiefs and their people became Christians. They cut their hair short. They forgot the ways of their tribe. Old Joseph's people did not forget. They wore their hair long. And they loved the land. Voice 2: Old Joseph had been chief for many years. Now he was dying. He called for his first son. The son, like the father, was named Joseph. Old Joseph spoke. His voice was the voice of a dying man. But his words were the words of a strong, proud spirit: "My son, " the old man said, "when I am gone you will be chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never gave up his land. Voice 1: Young Joseph was thirty-one years old when his father died. His people called him Heinmot Tooyalaket. Those were the words the Nez Perce used to describe the noise that lightning makes in the mountains. The young man had a wide face. His hair was tied on both sides of his head and hung down on his chest like long, heavy ropes. He wore chains of seashells around his neck. Small pieces of colored glass shone brightly on his clothing. Already, the Nez Perce knew him for his good judgment, his kindness, and his ability with words. And now they would know him as their leader ... Chief joseph. Chief Joseph remembered his dying father's words. He said: "This land has always belonged to my people. We will defend this land as long as Indian blood warms the hearts of our men. " Voice 2: In eighteen seventy-three, Chief Joseph sent a message to the president of the United States, Ulysses Grant. He asked that no more white persons be permitted to live in the Wallowa Valley. President Grant agreed. But two years later, under pressure from farmers and gold-hunters, the president broke his promise. More white people came. Some stole cattle and horses. Some insulted the Indians. Always, Chief Joseph kept the peace. In may, eighteen seventy-seven, the government told General Oliver Howard to meet with the Nez Perce chiefs. He was ordered to tell the Indians that they must leave their land. The government had a place in Idaho for all Nez Perce people. It was called the Lapwai Reservation. General Howard did not like his orders. To his friends he said it was a great mistake to take the valley from Joseph. But the general had spent many years in the army. He obeyed his orders. To the Nez Perce chiefs he said: "I stand here for the president. My orders are clear and must be obeyed. You have thirty days to leave the valley. If you delay even one day," General Howard said, "the soldiers will force you to the reservation. And all your cattle and horses will fall into the hands of the white men. " Voice 1: The chiefs had a difficult choice. They could leave. Or they could fight. Joseph and the other chiefs had only ninety warriors. They knew they could not defend the valley with such a small fighting force. Chief Joseph said: "I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I learned then that we were but few, while the white men were many, and that we could not defeat them. Voice 2: Some of the Nez Perce chiefs wanted to stay and fight. They were willing to try, even if there was little chance of winning. But Joseph said, "to protect my people from war, I will give up my country. I will give up everything." So the Nez Perce prepared to leave the Wallowa Valley. To get to the reservation in time, they had to leave behind many of the things they owned. They took some cattle and horses, and what food and possessions they could carry. Chief Joseph had promised them peace. But peace would not follow them. That will be our story next week. (Theme) Announcer: you have been listening to the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Warren scheer and Larry West. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week at this time, when we will complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - November 6, 2001: Antibiotics in Animals
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Recent studies show bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic drugs are common in meat in the United States. The bacteria can survive in the human body. Some bacteria also may cause drug-resistant infections in people. For years, American farmers have given antibiotics to the animals they raise for food. The drugs are used to prevent infections and increase the size of the animals. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that more than nine-million kilograms of antibiotics are given to animals each year. The group says less than ten percent of that total are used to treat active infections. The Animal Health Institute represents companies that make drugs for animals. The group says antibiotics help keep animals healthy. However, bacteria living in the animals can become resistant to antibiotics. Scientists suspect that people may be getting antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the food they eat. In Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, the European Union barred the use of antibiotics in farm animals. Some groups support the idea of a similar ban in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine published two studies about the issue last month. Researchers at the University of Maryland and the United States Food and Drug Administration carried out one study. They tested meat for the presence of salmonella bacteria, a leading cause of food poisoning. They tested two-hundred small amounts of chicken, turkey, beef, and pork from three stores in the Washington, D-C area. Twenty percent of the products tested had salmonella. Eighty-four percent of the salmonella were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Fifty-three percent were resistant to three or more antibiotics. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention carried out the other study. They tested more than four-hundred chickens from twenty-six stores in four states. The researchers found that more than half of the chickens contained a drug-resistant bacterium. The New England Journal of Medicine also published a commentary by an expert on infectious diseases. He called for banning the use of antibiotics in animals except to treat infections. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - November 6, 2001: Anthrax
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, A VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about the disease anthrax. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Eight weeks have passed since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D-C. Now Americans are concerned about recent discoveries of the deadly bacteria that cause the disease anthrax. The presence of anthrax has been confirmed in a series of incidents in Washington, D-C, New York City, New Jersey, Florida and other states. Anthrax particles were found in letters that had been mailed to several places, including major news organizations and congressional offices. This has led to the closing of several government office buildings and mail centers. Federal investigators say evidence suggests that the anthrax was sent through the mail in an organized act of biological terrorism. They say the attacks may be linked to the terrorist attacks in the United States on September Eleventh. VOICE TWO: Several people have died of anthrax. Several other people have been infected with a severe form of the disease. Many other people have been tested. Many people are taking medicines to protect against the disease if anthrax was found in buildings where they work. Only a small number of people so far have been infected with anthrax. However, these incidents are spreading fear and confusion across the country. They also are raising many questions about the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Anthrax is a disease of warm-blooded animals. It most commonly affects cattle and other animals that eat plants. However, it also can affect people who deal with infected animals or animal products. Anthrax can not be passed from one person to another. Anthrax is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It is found naturally in the environment. The bacteria have protective coverings called spores. The spores are like seeds. They can live for hundreds of years in the soil. They can survive through extreme heat, lack of rain, and other severe environmental conditions. Anthrax can be found anywhere in the world. It is most common in developing countries, where it affects animals. Animals can get the bacteria while eating plants by loosening anthrax spores in the soil. The animal eats or breathes in the spores and may become infected. Animals can be given vaccine medicines to prevent the disease. VOICE TWO: In people, the disease can appear in three forms: cutaneous anthrax, intestinal anthrax and inhalation anthrax. Cutaneous anthrax is the most common kind of infection. People can become infected this way if the bacteria enter through a cut in the skin. The disease is most often found among people who work with infected animals or animal products. Cutaneous anthrax causes a painful, black area on the skin. However, it rarely causes death. Intestinal anthrax is caused by eating infected meat. It can cause high body temperature, vomiting and stomach pain. It often can be cured. The most severe form of the disease is inhalation anthrax. This happens when a person breathes the spores into the lungs. Inhalation anthrax is most often found among people who work with animal hair and wool in areas where the disease affects animals. VOICE ONE: Inhalation anthrax is deadly if a person breathes in thousands of extremely small spores. Large spores may get caught in the nose or throat, where they are less dangerous. But the small spores can travel to the lungs. The body’s defense system against disease attacks some spores, but carries others to the lymph nodes in the chest. Once there, the spores change into a deadly form. The bacteria grow and spread to the rest of the body. This may take a day, a week or as many as two months. As infection spreads to the rest of the body, the bacteria produce poisons that enter the blood. These poisons can cause a build-up of fluids in the lung, tissue destruction and death. VOICE TWO: Doctors treat infected people with medicines called antibiotics. They have proven effective in fighting the disease in most cases. Antibiotics can treat the disease if it is discovered early. The antibiotics ciprofloxacin, penicillin and doxycycline are all effective treatments. An anthrax infection is especially dangerous because people do not know they have been infected until signs begin to appear. Signs of the disease usually begin to appear within a few days. Chest X-rays can help doctors tell if a person has inhaled anthrax. Early signs are similar to the disease influenza. They may include high body temperature, muscle pain and a cough. These are usually followed by severe breathing problems and death if the disease is not treated. VOICE ONE: Anthrax spores are hard to kill. Antibiotics halt the development of the disease by fighting the bacteria as they grow from the spores. However, antibiotics do not fight the poisons that the bacteria produce. To work best, the antibiotics need to be active in the blood for as long as spores might be present in the lungs or in other places in the body. Health officials say people should take antibiotics for sixty days to treat or protect against anthrax infection. There is a vaccine designed to prevent some forms of anthrax. However, it is not being given to the public at this time. The United States government has a limited supply for members of the armed forces. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Anthrax is considered a major threat because of its ability to be used as a biological weapon. Biological weapons are living microorganisms. Biological and chemical agents are most effective when spread into the air. These agents are often placed in bombs or artillery shells that are designed to explode into the air and spread poisons over an enemy. Many biological and chemical agents have no color, smell or taste. So an attack could take place without the victims knowing it. Experts say anthrax is one of the easiest biological agents to manufacture. It can be grown in a laboratory. It spreads easily through the air over a large area. It can be made into a form that is easily inhaled. It is easily stored and is dangerous for a long period of time. It also costs very little to make. Anthrax has been used in laboratory experiments for more than one-hundred years. Many scientists have used anthrax for traditional research purposes. The bacteria also have been genetically changed for biological weapons research. Several countries have experimented with anthrax in their biological weapons programs. They include the United States and the former Soviet Union. VOICE ONE: Anthrax spores in nature stick together in particles too large to be breathed in. Experts say that the individual anthrax spore is extremely small, about one micron wide. For example, two-thousand spores lined up would measure only two millimeters. Particles that are five microns or bigger are usually trapped in the upper part of the respiratory system. To be an effective weapon, anthrax spores are reproduced so that they are smaller than five microns. Experts say making such anthrax spores requires special laboratory equipment and a great deal of skill. VOICE TWO: Until now, there has not been much information about treatment for human anthrax. The only research that had been done was based on animal studies. Until last month, only about eighteen cases had been reported in the United States since Nineteen-Hundred. The last incident took place twenty-three years ago. The victims were mostly people who processed wool, goat hair or animal skins. As a result, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia say there is only limited medical experience for treating human anthrax. In fact, they say there have been no controlled human studies on treating the deadliest form of anthrax, the inhaled version. Biological weapons were sometimes used with horrible effects in several wars during the Nineteen-Hundreds. However, they have rarely been used by terrorists. Experts say biological weapons are among the most serious threats to national and international security. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 7, 2001: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we will tell about the spacecraft Mars Odyssey. We will tell about a storm on Mars. And we will tell about the discovery of what may be a very early galaxy. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The American space agency has received the first picture of Mars taken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. NASA officials received the picture last week. It showed the areas of carbon dioxide ice at the southern end of the planet. NASA official Ed Weiler says that after Odyssey gets into its final orbit it will be much closer to Mars than when the first picture was taken. That picture was taken from about twenty-two thousand kilometers above the south pole of the planet. VOICE TWO: The Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered into an orbit around the planet Mars last month. It left Earth six months ago on April Seventh. It flew four-hundred-sixty million kilometers to reach orbit around Mars. NASA officials said it reached its planned orbit with no problems. Odyssey received radio signals Tuesday, October twenty-third to fire its engines to reduce speed. That action permitted it to be captured by the gravity of Mars. The gravity caused the spacecraft to enter an orbit that is shaped like an egg. Mars Odyssey orbits the red planet every eighteen and one-half hours. VOICE ONE: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Administrator Daniel Goldin said all Americans should be extremely proud of the Mars Odyssey. He said hundreds of things had to be done exactly right for the Odyssey to reach an orbit around Mars. NASA tried two times in Nineteen-Ninety to put another spacecraft in orbit around Mars. Both attempts failed. For the next three months NASA officials will radio orders to the Mars Odyssey to move it closer to the surface of the planet. They will use the atmosphere to slow the spacecraft and reduce its distance from the surface. NASA officials will direct the spacecraft to circle the planet every two hours, about four-hundred kilometers above the surface. VOICE TWO: Beginning in February, Odyssey will start a two and one-half year science project. The Odyssey spacecraft has several important tasks. Odyssey does not carry instruments that can search for life on Mars. Yet, it can search for information that will help researchers understand if the environment of Mars can support life now, or if it ever could have supported life. Evidence of water is extremely important for deciding if life could exist on Mars. Mars is too cold to permit liquid water to remain on the surface. However researchers say water on Mars may be trapped under the surface. It may be ice, or possibly a liquid. Instruments on Odyssey will let scientists measure any amount of permanent ice and how it changes with the seasons. Odyssey’s instruments will also let NASA scientists search Mars for chemical elements. These elements include carbon, silicon, and iron. Other instruments will help scientists understand how the Martian land developed over time. VOICE ONE: Learning what chemical elements are present on Mars will increase understanding of the history of the geology and weather of the planet. Researchers say this information will also help in finding evidence of past or present life on Mars. Odyssey will seek evidence of radiation on Mars. It will look for possible areas that may be dangerous to future astronaut crews. This information will help NASA know how to plan for a visit to Mars by human explorers. The Odyssey spacecraft also will support other exploration flights to Mars. The spacecraft will act as a communications link between the surface of Mars and Earth. Odyssey will serve as a communications link between the two NASA Explorations Rover spacecraft that will land and explore Mars. The two Rovers are to be launched a year and one-half from now. An important job for the Two-Thousand-One Mars Odyssey is to search for safe landing areas for future Mars flights. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Mars Global Surveyor satellite and the Hubble Space Telescope have provided scientists with close looks at a huge dust storm on Mars. The storm covered the planet. Scientists say it continued for about three months. James Bell is a scientist who works with the space telescope for Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He says astronomers had an exciting chance to view an unusual event. VOICE ONE: Astronomers say the storm on Mars was much bigger than anything ever seen on Earth. They are studying the effects of the dust storm. One is a sharp increase in the temperature of the Martian atmosphere . This is caused by small pieces of dust that rise high into the air. The sunlight warms the dust, which in turn warms the atmosphere. Both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Mars Surveyor saw the beginning of the storm toward the end of June. One picture taken by the space telescope shows all of the storm’s activity for one day from sunrise to sunset. Scientists used the Global Surveyor’s camera to take pictures of the complete planet every day. This permitted them to see where huge amounts of dust had been raised and to see where the dust moved to on the surface of Mars. This series of pictures also permitted them to see how a storm begins and grows as it moves across the planet. VOICE TWO: Mike Malin of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California is the lead investigator for the Mars Global Surveyor. The Surveyor has been providing information and pictures of Mars since it began orbiting the planet in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. It has provided a day-to-day record of climate changes on Mars. Mister Malin says the two spacecraft have helped scientists learn that the event was not just one continuing dust storm. Instead, it was a planet-wide series of events that began in an area called the Hellas basin. Mister Malin says that what began as a local event caused other storms to begin and spread many thousands of kilometers away. He said that in less than one week three separate storms were taking place in three main areas of Mars. The storms began to ease after three months. The dust clouds permitted the surface of Mars to cool. This caused the fierce winds to lessen and the dust to settle back to the surface. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have observed light from a very small group of distant stars. They suspect the light may have come from a star system as it was forming. They say the light was released during the first five-hundred-million years after the creation of the universe. American and European scientists reported the discovery in the publication, Astrophysical Journal Letters. Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology led the study. He says the distant object could be an example of the stars and hot gas needed to make modern galaxies. Galaxies are the largest gatherings of stars in the universe. In a galaxy, thousands of millions of stars are held together by the force of their gravity. VOICE TWO: The scientists made their discovery by examining small areas of sky through a larger group of galaxies. The galaxies are believed to be about two-thousand-million light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in one year. The scientists say the galaxies helped the distant light appear brighter than it is. To study the light, they used a process called gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing is an idea developed by the physicist Albert Einstein. Einstein said a massive object interferes with the normal movement of light through space. A large mass will turn the light from an object behind it. As a result, something behind the galaxies can appear much brighter because the mass in the galaxies directs additional photons toward Earth. The scientists observed the distant object with the Keck Telescopes in Hawaii. They compared what they saw with two images made by the Hubble Space Telescope. VOICE ONE: The effect of gravitational lensing made the light at least thirty times brighter than if the galaxies were not present. Without the increase, neither the Keck Telescopes nor the Hubble Space Telescope would have observed the light. The scientists then used a spectroscope to measure the energy released. The instrument confirmed the light came from a small galaxy that is extremely distant and in the process of formation. The scientists found that the system has about one-million stars which are about thirteen-thousand-million light years from Earth. They hope studying it will help them understand the small groups of stars that later helped form present-day galaxies. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – November 7, 2001: Rush Limbaugh’s Hearing Loss
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Rush Limbaugh has the most popular radio talk show in the United States. His talk show is broadcast on six-hundred radio stations. As many as twenty-million people listen every week. People telephone the show to discuss issues in the news with Mister Limbaugh. Last month, Rush Limbaugh shocked listeners by announcing that he has lost almost all his hearing. He said he is completely deaf in one ear and has partial hearing in his other ear. Experts say Mister Limbaugh suffers from a rare disorder called autoimmune inner ear disease. They say it happens when the body’s natural defense system against disease attacks the inner ear and damages the nerve. Signs of autoimmune inner ear disease may include feelings of rapid movement in the ear, unexplained changes in hearing levels or a sudden loss of hearing. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association was formed to educate the public about the many kinds of autoimmune diseases. These diseases can affect any organ of the body. About fifty-million Americans suffer from one or more of the diseases. About seventy-five percent of them are women. The group says that it is often difficult for doctors to identify autoimmune diseases. It says there are few treatments and no cures. Doctors at the House Ear Clinic and Institute in Los Angeles, California are treating Rush Limbaugh. The doctors say they are using a combination of drugs in an attempt to stop the hearing loss. The doctors say they may place an electronic device in Mister Limbaugh’s ear to save what is left of his hearing. The device is called a cochlear implant. It creates an electronic signal and sends it to the brain. Mister Limbaugh says he wants to continue his talk show even though he cannot hear the people who call to talk to him. He is using new technology in an effort to communicate with telephone callers. The comments of the callers are shown on a screen for him to read. Different colored lights are used to show if the caller is angry or sympathetic. A few months ago, Mister Limbaugh signed an agreement to continue his radio show for eight more years. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - November 8, 2001: Leonid Meteor Shower
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Sometimes in the month of November, a special event happens in the sky that observers may remember for a lifetime. The event is more than a meteor shower. It is a meteor storm. Meteors are pieces of rock from space that burn up in our atmosphere. Meteor showers happen when the Earth passes through a large amount of space material during its orbit around the sun. However, thousands of meteors fall during a meteor storm. Some of them may briefly shine brighter than any star in the sky. The Leonid (LEE-oh-nid) meteor shower happens every November. In most years, it is not unusual. Leonid meteors fall at an average rate of only fifteen each hour. However, every thirty-three years an object passes through our solar system that changes the Leonid meteor shower. A comet is a large body of gas, ice and rock. Comets leave behind these materials as they orbit the sun. Each year around November Eighteenth, the Earth passes through material left behind by a comet called Tempel-Tuttle. In February of Nineteen-Ninety-Eight, comet Tempel-Tuttle returned to the inner solar system. Astronomers have found that the Leonid meteor shower can become very active for about five years after the appearance of that comet. Astronomers also have discovered that each appearance of comet Tempel-Tuttle leaves behind a different path of material. This discovery has permitted astronomers to know when the Leonid meteor shower may be most intense. Some astronomers believe the Leonids this month may be a meteor storm. In Eighteen-Thirty-Three, observers in the eastern United States saw an intense meteor storm. One person estimated that meteors fell at a rate of ten-thousand an hour above West Point, New York. In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, people in the western United States saw another intense Leonid meteor storm. This year, astronomers believe that there will be two periods of heavy meteor activity starting on November Eighteenth. At Ten Hours Universal Time, observers in North America should see a large number of meteors. Another period of meteor activity should happen at about Eighteen Hours Universal Time. Observers in east Asia and western Australia will see it best. Astronomers who have researched the Leonids say the best chance to see a meteor storm may be this year and next year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 8, 2001: Red Scare
* Byline: 

 Voice 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Americans have always valued their right to free speech, a free press, and freedom of religion. The bill of rights protects these and other individual rights. However, there have been several brief periods in American history when the government violated some of these rights. In the seventeen-hundreds, for example, President John Adams supported laws to stop Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic Party from criticizing the government. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln took strong actions to prevent newspapers from printing military news. And during the nineteen-fifties, Senator Joseph McCarthy unfairly accused a number of innocent people of being communists and traitors. Some of the most serious government attacks on personal rights took place in nineteen-nineteen and nineteen-twenty. A number of government officials took strong, and sometimes unlawful, actions against labor leaders, foreigners, and others. Voice 2: These actions took place because of American fears about the threat of communism. Those fears were tied closely to the growth of the organized labor movement during World War One. There were a number of strikes during the war. More and more often, workers were willing to risk their jobs and join together to try to improve working conditions. President Woodrow Wilson had long supported organized labor. And he tried to get workers and business owners to negotiate peacefully. But official support for organized labor ended when strikes closed factories that were important to the national war effort. President Wilson and his advisers felt workers should put the national interest before their private interest. They told workers to wait until after the war to demand more pay and better working conditions. Voice 1: In general, American workers did wait. But when the war finally ended in nineteen-eighteen, American workers began to strike in large numbers for higher pay. As many as two-million workers went on strike in nineteen-nineteen. There were strikes by house builders, meat cutters, and train operators. And there were strikes in the shipyards, the shoe factories, and the telephone companies. Most striking workers wanted the traditional goals of labor unions: more pay and shorter working hours. But a growing number of them also began to demand major changes in the economic system itself. They called for government control of certain private industries. Railroad workers, for example, wanted the national government to take permanent control of running the trains. Coal miners, too, demanded government control of their industry. And even in the conservative grain-farming states, two-hundred-thousand farmers joined a group that called for major economic changes. Voice 2: All these protests came as a shock to traditional Americans who considered their country to be the home of free business. They saw little need for labor unions. And, they feared that the growing wave of strikes meant the United States faced the same revolution that had just taken place in Russia. After all, Lenin himself had warned that the Bolshevik Revolution would spread to workers in other countries. Several events in nineteen-nineteen only increased this fear of violent revolution. A bomb exploded in the home of a senator from the southeastern state of Georgia. And someone even exploded a bomb in front of the home of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, the nation's chief law officer. However, the most frightening event was a strike by police in Boston, Massachusetts. The policemen demanded higher wages. But the police chief refused to negotiate with them. As a result, the policemen went on strike. When they did, thieves began to break into unprotected homes and shops. Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge finally had to call out state troops to protect the people. His action defeated the strike. Most of the policemen lost their jobs. Voice 1: All this was too much for many Americans. They began to accuse labor unions and others of planning a revolution. And they launched a forceful campaign to protect the country from these suspected extremists. Leaders of this campaign accused thousands of people of being communists, or "reds. " The campaign became known as the "Red Scare." Of course, most people were honestly afraid of revolution. They did not trust the many foreigners who were active in unions. And they were tired of change and social unrest after the bloody world war. A number of these Americans in different cities began to take violent actions against people and groups that they suspected of being communist extremists. In New York, a crowd of men in military uniforms attacked the office of a socialist newspaper. They beat the people working there and destroyed the equipment. In the western city of Centralia, Washington, four people were killed in a violent fight between union members and their opponents. Public feeling was against the labor unions and political leftists. Many people considered anyone with leftist views to be a revolutionary trying to overthrow democracy. Many state and local governments passed laws making it a crime to belong to organizations that supported revolution. Twenty-eight states passed laws making it a crime to wave red flags. Voice 2: People also demanded action from the national government. President Wilson was sick and unable to see the situation clearly. He cared about little except his dream of the United States joining the new League of Nations. But Attorney General Palmer heard the calls for action. Palmer hoped to be elected president the next year. He decided to take strong actions to gain the attention of voters. One of Palmer's first actions as attorney general was to prevent coal miners from going on strike. Next, he ordered a series of raids to arrest leftist leaders. A number of these arrested people were innocent of any crime. But officials kept many of them in jail, without charges, for weeks. Palmer expelled from the country a number of foreigners suspected of revolutionary activity. He told reporters that communists were criminals who planned to overthrow everything that was good in life. Voice 1: Feelings of fear and suspicion extended to other parts of American life. Many persons and groups were accused of supporting communism. Such famous Americans as actor Charlie Chaplin, educator John Dewey, and law professor Felix Frankfurter were among those accused. The Red Scare caused many innocent people to be afraid to express their ideas. They feared they might be accused of being a communist. But as quickly as the Red Scare swept across the country so, too, did it end in nineteen-twenty. In just a few months, people began to lose trust in attorney general palmer. They became tired of his extreme actions. Republican leader Charles Evans Hughes and other leading Americans called for the Justice Department to obey the law in arresting and charging people. Voice 2: By the summer of nineteen-twenty, the Red Scare was over. Even a large bomb explosion in New York in September did not change the opinion of most Americans that the nation should return to free speech and the rule of law. The Red Scare did not last long. But it was an important event. It showed that many Americans after World War One were tired of social changes. They wanted peace and business growth. Of course, the traditional way for Americans to show their feelings is through elections. And this growing conservatism of the nation showed itself clearly in the presidential election of nineteen-twenty. That election will be the subject of our next program. (Theme) Voice 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your announcers have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-08-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - Nov. 9
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play music from shows held to help victims of the terrorist attacks on September eleventh ... answer a question about Veteran’s Day ... and report about a campaign to help children in Afghanistan. Helping Afghan Children HOST: The United States is carrying out airstrikes against terrorists in Afghanistan responsible for the attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. on September eleventh. However, many Americans are concerned about the people of Afghanistan who are suffering as a result of the attacks. American children are trying to help. Shirley Griffith has more. ANNCR: The United Nations says about four-hundred-thousand Afghan children are in danger of dying this winter because of cold weather and lack of food. Last month, President Bush called on the children of America to help the children of Afghanistan. He asked each American child to give one dollar to help Afghan children. The American Red Cross is organizing the campaign called “America’s Fund for Afghan Children.” The fund will help children in Afghanistan and those who are refugees in nearby countries. It will provide them with food, housing and medicine. The White House reported an immediate reaction from America’s children. Schools in Washington, D-C. were the first to send money. Since then, students all over the country have sent dollars for the cause. So far, American children have provided more than one-million dollars. Many children’s groups and schools are doing more than giving one dollar from each child. For example, many American children collected money for the United Nations Children’s Fund during Halloween last month. UNICEF says it will give the money collected to the Afghan children’s fund. One school in the town of Springfield, Virginia sold candy and other products to earn more money for the fund. The school gave more than two-thousand dollars. The head of the school said the students are not rich. But they wanted Afghan children to have shoes, warm clothing and hot meals during the cold winter months. The children said they wanted to send the money because Afghan children need food to grow and to learn. They said the United States is not at war with the children of Afghanistan, but only with the people who were responsible for killing American citizens. Veterans Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Binh Thanh Nguyen asks why the date of November eleventh was chosen to honor Americans who served in the military. November eleventh is Veteran’s Day in the United States. It began as a day to honor those who served in World War One. President Woodrow Wilson signed a declaration in Nineteen-Nineteen naming November eleventh as Armistice Day. That date was chosen because Germany surrendered to end World War One at eleven o’clock in the morning on November eleventh, Nineteen-Eighteen. Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday in Nineteen-Twenty-Six. The federal government closed on that day. Most state and local governments and all public schools closed too. Parades in almost every city honored the men and women who had helped bring peace to Europe. In Nineteen-Forty-Five, Armistice Day celebrations also honored those who served in World War Two, which had just ended. Nine years later, Congress decided to change the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veteran’s Day. By then, almost six-million more Americans had served in another military campaign, the Korean War. The number of veterans continued to increase. Almost nine-million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam War. Thousands of others took part in military campaigns in the Caribbean nation of Granada and in Panama. Hundreds of thousands of men and women served during the Persian Gulf War. Thousands also served as members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Somalia. Others served to return the elected president to power in Haiti. And they helped keep peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian province of Kosovo. Now, they have been carrying out attacks and ground operations in Afghanistan in the American-led war against terrorism. Today, the word veteran includes anyone who has served in the military forces at any time. On Veteran’s Day, Americans will honor all the men and women who served their country in war and in peace. Concerts For America HOST: Many Americans have been raising money to help victims of the terrorist attacks on September eleventh. Entertainers are no exception. Shep O’Neal tells us about two recent concerts that have earned more than thirty-million dollars. ANNCR: Paul McCartney, British musician and former member of the Beatles, organized the “Concert for New York City.” It was held at Madison Square Garden. People who lost family members in the destruction of the World Trade Center attended the show. Paul McCartney played a new song he wrote called “Freedom.” ((CUT ONE-FREEDOM)) Other performers included Bon Jovi, the Goo Goo Dolls, Billy Joel and Macy Gray. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones also performed. Some musicians who played in New York also performed in Washington, D-C. the next day. That concert was called “United We Stand.” It was held outdoors at R-F-K Stadium. The Backstreet Boys sang “Drowning.” ((CUT TWO - DROWNING)) Singer Michael Jackson organized the “United We Stand” concert in the nation’s capital. He invited many performers, including the band Aerosmith, James Brown, Mariah Carey and Bette Midler. Jackson performed the final act of the show. We leave you now with Michael Jackson singing “Man in the Mirror.” ((CUT THREE - MAN IN THE MIRROR)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-08-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Nov. 9: Orcas Threatened
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists are worried about orca whales in the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean. These huge black and white sea creatures spend summers near the San Juan Islands near the state of Washington. Six years ago, ninety-nine orcas swam there. Today, only seventy-eight orcas survive. During the past year alone, seven whales died. This group of whales is called the southern population of orcas. Federal officials will decide next year if they should be officially listed as in danger of disappearing from Earth. Orcas can grow longer than nine meters and weigh up to nine metric tons. They are sometimes called killer whales. However, they are not especially aggressive. Millions of healthy orcas live in the world, many in cold waters. However, researchers say humans and a disappearing food supply are threatening the existence of the southern population of Orcas. Southern population orcas live in three groups, called pods. Each orca has its own markings. So scientists can identify each individual orca in the southern population. Each May through October, visitors crowd into boats to follow the whales. The whale-watching industry is worth tens of millions of dollars a year. But scientists believe these whale-watching boats may be harming the orcas. The boats may be polluting the water. And the noise from the engines may be interfering with how orcas communicate with each other. Some experts say blocking the call of the whale interferes with its reproduction and eating. Orcas mainly eat salmon. Some kinds of this fish are also in danger of dying out. So the whales eat fish that live near the bottom of the ocean. Such fish are more likely to contain industrial waste chemicals called P-C-B’s. Scientists recently discovered that orcas store P-C-B’s in their fat. The experts say southern population orcas store more P-C-B’s than other kinds of orcas. Some researchers suspect the chemicals harm the whales. This has not been proven. Still, scientists know P-C-B’s can damage the nervous system and defense system against disease in humans. Scientists are working hard to find ways to keep these huge sea animals from disappearing from Earth. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Scientists are worried about orca whales in the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean. These huge black and white sea creatures spend summers near the San Juan Islands near the state of Washington. Six years ago, ninety-nine orcas swam there. Today, only seventy-eight orcas survive. During the past year alone, seven whales died. This group of whales is called the southern population of orcas. Federal officials will decide next year if they should be officially listed as in danger of disappearing from Earth. Orcas can grow longer than nine meters and weigh up to nine metric tons. They are sometimes called killer whales. However, they are not especially aggressive. Millions of healthy orcas live in the world, many in cold waters. However, researchers say humans and a disappearing food supply are threatening the existence of the southern population of Orcas. Southern population orcas live in three groups, called pods. Each orca has its own markings. So scientists can identify each individual orca in the southern population. Each May through October, visitors crowd into boats to follow the whales. The whale-watching industry is worth tens of millions of dollars a year. But scientists believe these whale-watching boats may be harming the orcas. The boats may be polluting the water. And the noise from the engines may be interfering with how orcas communicate with each other. Some experts say blocking the call of the whale interferes with its reproduction and eating. Orcas mainly eat salmon. Some kinds of this fish are also in danger of dying out. So the whales eat fish that live near the bottom of the ocean. Such fish are more likely to contain industrial waste chemicals called P-C-B’s. Scientists recently discovered that orcas store P-C-B’s in their fat. The experts say southern population orcas store more P-C-B’s than other kinds of orcas. Some researchers suspect the chemicals harm the whales. This has not been proven. Still, scientists know P-C-B’s can damage the nervous system and defense system against disease in humans. Scientists are working hard to find ways to keep these huge sea animals from disappearing from Earth. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Jerilyn Watson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-09-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Hear Words Pronounced
* Byline: 

 Some dictionary publishers offer free online lookups with audio files. Clicking on either of the examples below will open a new window on your browser: Merriam-Webster The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-09-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 12, 2001: Preservation Hall Jazz
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: There is a special place in the southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a very small building on Saint Peter’s Street. For forty years, musicians who play their music in this hall have tried to continue the tradition of New Orleans jazz. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Preservation Hall is our report today on the VOA Special English program This is America. ((CUT ONE: “The Bucket’s Got A Hole In It”)) VOICE ONE: Saint Peter’s Street is in the oldest part of the city of New Orleans. French people built this part of the city. The area is still called the French Quarter. The little building that is home to Preservation Hall was built as a home in about Seventeen-Fifty. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, Allan and Sandra Jaffe began using the small building as a music hall. Musicians there played traditional New Orleans jazz. Mister and Missus Jaffe named the building Preservation Hall. VOICE TWO: The word “preservation” means keeping or protecting for the future. When Allan and Sandra Jaffe opened Preservation Hall in Nineteen-Sixty-One, traditional New Orleans Jazz music was in danger of disappearing. Young people wanted to hear the music of Elvis Presley and other rock and roll stars. Not many young people wanted to listen to a very old kind of music that was first popular in the early Eighteen-Nineties. VOICE ONE: However, many older musicians still liked traditional New Orleans jazz. They often came together and played, sometimes just for their own enjoyment. Allen Jaffe learned about these older musicians. He offered them his small building as a place to play their music. Each night, when they were done with their other work, these jazz musicians gathered at the small building and played. Allen Jaffe played with them. He was a tuba player. He also organized the music groups that played in the hall. Much later he organized trips so the bands could play around the United States and in many other countries. VOICE TWO: Allen Jaffe was the force behind Preservation Hall until his death in Nineteen-Eighty-Seven. Today, Sandra Jaffe still owns the small building. She keeps the doors open to the now very famous Preservation Hall. Six different bands appear there, each on different nights. Now we would like to take you to Preservation Hall, in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It is really a very easy thing to do. Just close your eyes and listen. VOICE ONE: It is a warm evening in New Orleans. We have just finished eating dinner at one of the famous New Orleans restaurants. We are walking along a very narrow street. Most of the buildings are very old. Just ahead, people are standing in the street near a small building. Listen closely now. You can hear music coming from the little building at Seven-Sixty-Two Saint Peter’s Street. The music is coming from Preservation Hall. ((CUT TWO: “IN THE EVENING")) VOICE TWO: We can hear the music from outside. A line of people waits to enter the building. When a few people leave the building, a few more are permitted to enter. We take our place in line. It is a nice warm evening and the music is great fun. As we stand in line we hear the bandleader say softly, “A Closer Walk.” The leader has just told the members of the band what song they will play next. The full name of the song is “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” This is a traditional church song that jazz bands have played for more than one-hundred years. The song is slow and sad and very beautiful. It clearly shows the link between church music of black Americans and the beginnings of jazz music. It is the kind of song that the Preservation Hall Jazz Band has helped to pass to the future. Listen. The band is beginning to play. ((CUT THREE: “JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE”)) VOICE ONE: As the band finishes this song, many people leave the building. Now there is room for us to go inside. A young man at the door collects the money to enter the building. We pay a few dollars and walk inside. Near the wall a huge white cat sleeps on a chair. We can see pictures on the walls of the Preservation Hall Jazz Bands. We turn to the left and enter a very small room. About thirty people are in here. There is no room for any more. Most people stand near the walls. A few sit on the floor in front of the band. A few sit on seats made from long pieces of old wood. Preservation Hall is about music, not costly surroundings. VOICE TWO: Six men are facing us. One sits at a piano. Another plays drums. One plays a clarinet. Another plays a trumpet. One man plays the tuba and one a banjo. The trumpet player is almost always the leader of these groups. The trumpet player says, “Joe Avery” and the band begins to play another traditional early jazz song. ((CUT FOUR: “JOE AVERY”)) VOICE ONE: There is a funny sign in back of the band. The sign says the band will play songs requested by the people in the hall. The price for a request is one dollar for any traditional jazz song. The sign says other songs cost two dollars. And the sign says it will cost five dollars if anyone requests the song “Saints.” The sign means the song, “When the Saints Go Marching In.” It is a very traditional song that is closely linked with New Orleans and jazz. People request it so often that the band would really rather play something else. However, a man sitting on the floor gives the bandleader five dollars and says, “Please play ‘The Saints.’ ” The bandleader takes the money and smiles. He says, “ ‘The Saints’ it is.” (((CUT FIVE: “ WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN” ))) VOICE TWO: It is time for us to leave now and permit others to enter Preservation Hall. We look around the small, famous room and move toward the door. The huge white cat is still asleep on the chair, its tail moving slowly. As we reach the door to the outside, the band begins another song. It is a very old Duke Ellington song, “Mood Indigo.” ((CUT SIX: “MOOD INDIGO”)) VOICE ONE: As we walk away from Preservation Hall and into the warm evening, a man and woman are dancing in the street to the slow music. They are dancing while they wait to enter the famous little building at Seven-Sixty-Two Saint Peter’s Street, in the French Quarter of New Orleans. VOICE TWO: This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program This is America. ((CUT SEVEN: “THE BUCKET’S GOT A HOLE IN IT")) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-09-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - November 12, 2001: HIV in Asia
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Health ministers from almost all Asian and Pacific countries have promised to provide more resources to fight AIDS and H-I-V, the virus that causes the disease. They made the announcement last month at an international conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. Health officials, activists, and doctors from the area met in Melbourne, Australia. Currently, an estimated seven-and-one-half million people are infected with H-I-V in Asia and the Pacific. However, an international group that studies AIDS in Asia says this is changing. The group says AIDS and H-I-V rates in Asia are increasing faster than anywhere else in the world. The group reports that only three countries have national infection rates of more than one percent. They are Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. However, other countries have extremely high rates of infection among some population groups and it some areas. These countries include India, China and Indonesia. Karen Stanecki heads the group that is studying AIDS in Asia. She says that it is only a question of time before infection rates in Asia increase. Mizz Stanecki says Africa is an example. She says there was little evidence of H-I-V infections in southern Africa in the early Nineteen-Nineties. Today, however, some African countries have infection rates of ten to fifteen percent of their populations. Bernard Schwartlander works for the United Nations AIDS Program. Doctor Schwartlander says some groups in Asia are already at high risk of becoming infected. They include people who sell sex for money, men who have sex with men and people who inject drugs. The rate of H-I-V infections has increased among these groups in countries including China, Vietnam and Nepal. Doctor Schwartlander says the spread of H-I-V probably will not remain limited only to these groups. He says evidence from other countries shows that H-I-V has spread from high-risk groups to other members of the population. Doctor Schwartlander says Asian governments must take immediate action to keep H-I-V rates low. Experts say only Thailand and Cambodia have effective H-I-V prevention programs. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-09-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 10, 2001: The American Economy
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. The United States central bank cut interest rates again this week. The Federal Reserve reduced its major, short-term rate to two percent -- the lowest level in forty years. It is the tenth time that the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates since January First. Officials hope the rate cuts will get Americans to spend more money. They say the cuts also will help businesses to launch projects delayed since economic activity began to weaken earlier this year. The cut in the federal funds rate Tuesday was bigger than some observers had expected. Experts say it shows that the central bank believes the American economy is still weak. The Federal Reserve released a statement to explain its actions. It said economic activity is being affected by concerns about poor business conditions in the United States and other countries. The statement suggests there could be another rate cut as early as next month. Officials say that a combination of low interest rates, tax cuts and government spending may increase business activity and lead to economic expansion. Shortly after the rate cut Tuesday, American banks reduced rates for millions of loans to five percent. Economists hope the lower costs of borrowing money will lead to more spending and investment. The rate cuts are generally good news for businesses and individual Americans. Debt payments may be lower if interest rates are lower. Businesses and individuals with higher interest rate loans can try to re-finance the loans and save money. The American economy expanded for a record ten years. Most economists believe this period of expansion ended even before the terrorist attacks two months ago. They say economic production decreased in the period between July and September. Some experts believe that economic production is continuing to decrease during the current three-month period. This could be the official evidence that the world’s largest economy is in a recession. Many Americans are spending less because of concerns about the general economy and their jobs. Companies are dismissing workers. Four-hundred-fifteen thousand jobs were lost in the United States during October. That was the largest drop in employment in twenty years. Some people believe the government can rescue the economy. Early this year, President Bush and Congress agreed on a measure to cut taxes. Congress now is considering other ways to help the economy. The House of Representatives has already approved a plan. Critics say the plan would give too much money to businesses. They say it does not do enough to help individual Americans. They note that spending by individuals is responsible for about two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-09-5-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 11, 2001: Chief Joseph, Part 2
* Byline: 

 Anncr: People in America -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Larry West and Warren Scheer complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. Anncr: People in America -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell the story of a man or a woman who played an important part in the history of the United States. Today, Larry West and Warren Scheer complete the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. (Theme) Voice 1: In eighteen seventy-seven, the American government decided to move the Nez Perce Indians from their land in the northwestern part of the country. The government had set up a reservation for them in Idaho. Chief Joseph did not want to leave the land. It was holy ground. It contained the bones of his father and mother. But, like his father in earlier times, Chief Joseph knew it would be hopeless to stay and defend the land. There were too few Indians to win a war against the white men. And so in June of eighteen seventy-seven, the Nez Perce left their home in the Wallowa Valley. They left quickly. They were able to take only a small part of what they owned, and just a few cattle and Appaloosa horses. Voice 2: When the Indians reached the Snake River, the water was very deep and ran very fast with melted snow from the mountains. Chief Joseph and his people made boats from sticks and dried animal skins to cross the river. While the Indians were busy, a group of white men came and stole some of the cattle waiting at the edge of the river. The other chiefs demanded that Joseph call a meeting. Two of the chiefs, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote, spoke for war. But Joseph said, "it is better to live at peace than to begin a war and lie dead. " Voice 1: Some of the young men in White Bird's group were very angry. That night, they rode into the countryside and killed eleven white persons. During all his years as chief, Joseph had tried to keep the peace. Now he saw there was no hope. Although he and his young men had taken no part in the killings, he knew that the white men would blame all of the Indians. Chief Joseph said, "I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of the white men. " Many Nez Perce fled. Chief Joseph remained, because his wife was about to have a baby. After she gave birth, he and his brother and their families joined the others in White Bird Canyon to the south. Voice 2: Joseph wanted to lead the people to safety in the flat lands of Montana. But the United States Army quickly sent horse soldiers to follow them. The troops rode all night. They were extremely tired when they reached White Bird Canyon. An Indian -- carrying a white flag -- walked forward to meet them. A soldier shot him. With that shot, war between the Nez Perce and the United States began. Voice 1: The young Nez Perce men were skilled with their guns. They knew the land. And they were calm in battle. The army officers did not know the land. And they were not wise. When the soldiers attacked, they fired on Indian women and children. The two sides fought hard. The soldiers could not defeat the Indians. Joseph, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote led their people across the mountains to join another Nez Perce group led by Chief Looking Glass. Together, the Nez Perce forces then numbered more than two-hundred-fifty warriors. The chiefs met. They knew they could not return home. They decided to lead their people to Canada. And so they headed north, always keeping their horses in front of them. The chiefs believed the soldiers would not follow them again. Voice 2: The chiefs did not know, however, that army officials in Washington were discussing the situation. The officials did not understand why the United States Army could not capture several hundred Indians. So they decided to send General William Tecumseh Sherman -- a hero of the Civil War -- to find out. The Indians continued to move toward Canada, battling groups of soldiers along the way. When the Indians reached the great Yellowstone Park, General Sherman himself was waiting for them. His troops closed every road out of the park. But Joseph, with his people and their horses, escaped through the trees. Voice 1: General Sherman sent word by telegraph to other army commanders along the Indians' way north. At one place in the mountains, the Indians found a group of soldiers building a wall across the only road. Joseph, White Bird and Looking Glass rode down to the wall and spoke to the officers. The chiefs told them: "We are going by you without fighting if you will let us. But we are going by you anyhow. " The soldiers would not let the Indians pass. Fighting broke out. And, again, the Indian warriors defeated the white soldiers. Joseph was not a military man. In fact, before the war against the American army, Joseph had never been in battle. But he understood human nature. He understood his enemy. And he was able to unite his warriors and his people. Voice 2: Many weeks after the Nez Perce had left their home lands, they reached the Bear Paw Mountains. They were only eighty kilometers from Canada. The Nez Perce were close to their goal. But safety was not yet in sight. Six-hundred army troops, under the command of General Nelson Miles, were waiting at Bear Paw. The soldiers attacked two times on the first day. They were beaten back two times. Joseph's brother was killed in the fighting, as well as Toohoolhoolzote and some of the other chiefs. After the long March and so many battles, only eighty-seven warriors remained. Many of the women and children were wounded or sick. Most of the horses were dead. The weather turned cold in the mountains. The wind blew, and it began to snow. General Miles sent a message to Chief Joseph. He said: "If you will come out and give up your arms, I will not harm you, and will send you to the reservation. " Voice 1: Chief Joseph would not give up. The battle continued. On the fourth day, chief looking glass was hit by a bullet and died. On the fifth day, Chief Joseph rode out -- alone -- to the snowy battlefield. He surrendered. He said: "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. It is cold, and we have no blankets. Some of my people have run away to the hills. No one knows where they are. I want to have time to look for my children. Hear me, my chiefs! my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands ... I will fight no more forever. " Voice 2: Two days after Chief Joseph surrendered, the government ordered him and his people far away. First, they went to an army base in Kansas. Then they went to an empty piece of land in Oklahoma. Within a year, almost half the people died. Joseph buried all of his children. Years later, Chief Joseph and his people were permitted to return to the Northwest. But they were not permitted to return home. Joseph spoke to American officials. Nothing changed. He could never go back to the holy ground that held the bones of his father and mother. He lived in the Northwest -- in exile -- until September, nineteen-oh-four, when he died. Voice 1: Chief Joseph's words expressed the ideas of justice and civil rights ... even though he lived in a time when he could not have those rights himself. He said: "Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. The earth is the mother of all people. And all people should have equal rights upon it. Then the great spirit chief who rules above will smile upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. " (Theme) Anncr: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America, and its story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. You narrators were Larry West and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. (Theme) Voice 1: In eighteen seventy-seven, the American government decided to move the Nez Perce Indians from their land in the northwestern part of the country. The government had set up a reservation for them in Idaho. Chief Joseph did not want to leave the land. It was holy ground. It contained the bones of his father and mother. But, like his father in earlier times, Chief Joseph knew it would be hopeless to stay and defend the land. There were too few Indians to win a war against the white men. And so in June of eighteen seventy-seven, the Nez Perce left their home in the Wallowa Valley. They left quickly. They were able to take only a small part of what they owned, and just a few cattle and Appaloosa horses. Voice 2: When the Indians reached the Snake River, the water was very deep and ran very fast with melted snow from the mountains. Chief Joseph and his people made boats from sticks and dried animal skins to cross the river. While the Indians were busy, a group of white men came and stole some of the cattle waiting at the edge of the river. The other chiefs demanded that Joseph call a meeting. Two of the chiefs, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote, spoke for war. But Joseph said, "it is better to live at peace than to begin a war and lie dead. " Voice 1: Some of the young men in White Bird's group were very angry. That night, they rode into the countryside and killed eleven white persons. During all his years as chief, Joseph had tried to keep the peace. Now he saw there was no hope. Although he and his young men had taken no part in the killings, he knew that the white men would blame all of the Indians. Chief Joseph said, "I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of the white men. " Many Nez Perce fled. Chief Joseph remained, because his wife was about to have a baby. After she gave birth, he and his brother and their families joined the others in White Bird Canyon to the south. Voice 2: Joseph wanted to lead the people to safety in the flat lands of Montana. But the United States Army quickly sent horse soldiers to follow them. The troops rode all night. They were extremely tired when they reached White Bird Canyon. An Indian -- carrying a white flag -- walked forward to meet them. A soldier shot him. With that shot, war between the Nez Perce and the United States began. Voice 1: The young Nez Perce men were skilled with their guns. They knew the land. And they were calm in battle. The army officers did not know the land. And they were not wise. When the soldiers attacked, they fired on Indian women and children. The two sides fought hard. The soldiers could not defeat the Indians. Joseph, White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote led their people across the mountains to join another Nez Perce group led by Chief Looking Glass. Together, the Nez Perce forces then numbered more than two-hundred-fifty warriors. The chiefs met. They knew they could not return home. They decided to lead their people to Canada. And so they headed north, always keeping their horses in front of them. The chiefs believed the soldiers would not follow them again. Voice 2: The chiefs did not know, however, that army officials in Washington were discussing the situation. The officials did not understand why the United States Army could not capture several hundred Indians. So they decided to send General William Tecumseh Sherman -- a hero of the Civil War -- to find out. The Indians continued to move toward Canada, battling groups of soldiers along the way. When the Indians reached the great Yellowstone Park, General Sherman himself was waiting for them. His troops closed every road out of the park. But Joseph, with his people and their horses, escaped through the trees. Voice 1: General Sherman sent word by telegraph to other army commanders along the Indians' way north. At one place in the mountains, the Indians found a group of soldiers building a wall across the only road. Joseph, White Bird and Looking Glass rode down to the wall and spoke to the officers. The chiefs told them: "We are going by you without fighting if you will let us. But we are going by you anyhow. " The soldiers would not let the Indians pass. Fighting broke out. And, again, the Indian warriors defeated the white soldiers. Joseph was not a military man. In fact, before the war against the American army, Joseph had never been in battle. But he understood human nature. He understood his enemy. And he was able to unite his warriors and his people. Voice 2: Many weeks after the Nez Perce had left their home lands, they reached the Bear Paw Mountains. They were only eighty kilometers from Canada. The Nez Perce were close to their goal. But safety was not yet in sight. Six-hundred army troops, under the command of General Nelson Miles, were waiting at Bear Paw. The soldiers attacked two times on the first day. They were beaten back two times. Joseph's brother was killed in the fighting, as well as Toohoolhoolzote and some of the other chiefs. After the long March and so many battles, only eighty-seven warriors remained. Many of the women and children were wounded or sick. Most of the horses were dead. The weather turned cold in the mountains. The wind blew, and it began to snow. General Miles sent a message to Chief Joseph. He said: "If you will come out and give up your arms, I will not harm you, and will send you to the reservation. " Voice 1: Chief Joseph would not give up. The battle continued. On the fourth day, chief looking glass was hit by a bullet and died. On the fifth day, Chief Joseph rode out -- alone -- to the snowy battlefield. He surrendered. He said: "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. It is cold, and we have no blankets. Some of my people have run away to the hills. No one knows where they are. I want to have time to look for my children. Hear me, my chiefs! my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands ... I will fight no more forever. " Voice 2: Two days after Chief Joseph surrendered, the government ordered him and his people far away. First, they went to an army base in Kansas. Then they went to an empty piece of land in Oklahoma. Within a year, almost half the people died. Joseph buried all of his children. Years later, Chief Joseph and his people were permitted to return to the Northwest. But they were not permitted to return home. Joseph spoke to American officials. Nothing changed. He could never go back to the holy ground that held the bones of his father and mother. He lived in the Northwest -- in exile -- until September, nineteen-oh-four, when he died. Voice 1: Chief Joseph's words expressed the ideas of justice and civil rights ... even though he lived in a time when he could not have those rights himself. He said: "Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. The earth is the mother of all people. And all people should have equal rights upon it. Then the great spirit chief who rules above will smile upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. " (Theme) Anncr: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, People in America, and its story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians. You narrators were Larry West and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by Barbara Dash. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – November 13, 2001: Low-Cost Water Pump
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Farmers often need to get water to their crops. They may have the necessary water nearby. However, they may lack an effective way to pump it. Pumps powered by fuel can move a lot of water. Yet they cost a lot of money to buy and operate. So, many farmers move the water themselves. They put a container on a rope into the water. They pull the container out by hand. Then they carry it to their fields or vegetable gardens. The work is slow and difficult. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has an answer. The device is called a treadle pump. The pump costs about sixty dollars. It operates by foot power. F-A-O officials say treadle pumps are popular among farmers with small areas of land. They say increased use of the pumps could help food production, especially in Africa. A pump operated by foot power does not produce as much water as a motor-powered pump. Yet the treadle pump is a big improvement over lifting water by hand. The time it saves could be used to grow more crops on bigger pieces of land. Use of the pump could improve the quality of crops. It could greatly increase a farmer’s earnings. The pumps also could create employment and help the economy if they are produced locally. One or two people work the pump by stepping up and down on a wooden treadle. This forces a device to move up and down inside the pump. Two plastic pipes are connected to the pump. One pipe is placed about six meters underground into the water supply. The other pipe is placed in a field of crops. The up and down motion on the treadle pulls water into the pipe and up to the surface, where it flows out. The treadle pump can water fields up to one hectare. The pump can easily be taken apart and moved from one area to another. The F-A-O reports that treadle pumps are being used in several African countries, including Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Niger. It says non-governmental organizations have provided many of the devices. In Burkina Faso, local metal workers produce and sell treadle pumps. One business in Burkina’s capital has sold more than two-hundred pumps in the past year. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Nov. 13: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about a huge ancient crocodile. We tell about new drugs that can decrease kidney damage in people with diabetes. And we tell about decreasing numbers of orca whales in the northwest Pacific Ocean. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For the first time, scientists have reported details about a huge ancient animal that looked like a modern crocodile. A team led by University of Chicago researcher Paul Sereno calls the animal “SuperCroc.” It was more than twelve meters long. It weighed as much as eight metric tons, more than some elephants. And it probably ate small dinosaurs. Mister Sereno calls it one of the greatest crocodiles the world has ever seen. Modern crocodiles and alligators are small compared to the ancient crocodile. For example, American alligators may reach a length of four-and-one-half meters and weigh six-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: The ancient crocodile lived about one-hundred-ten-million years ago. SuperCroc lived in fresh-water rivers in Africa, unlike other crocodiles of the time that lived in salt-water oceans. Scientists have known about the ancient creature for many years. French researchers found evidence of the animal in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. They gave it the scientific name Sarcosuchus imperator. But they did not find enough fossil remains to learn much about the animal and how it lived. However, last year, the team led by Mister Sereno found several head bones of the huge crocodile. They also found twenty tons of other fossils. Some of the remains were of other kinds of early crocodiles. They made the discoveries in the Sahara Desert area of Niger. VOICE ONE: The researchers reported their discoveries last month on the Internet Web site of the journal Science. They also announced their findings at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D-C. The society helped pay for their research in Niger last year. SuperCroc looks like a huge version of a modern crocodile. However, the researchers say members of the modern crocodile family did not develop from it. The modern group contains about twenty-three kinds of creatures including caimans and alligators. VOICE TWO: Mister Sereno’s team members used a scientific method to estimate the size of SuperCroc. They measured its head bones. Other bones helped them learn more about the animal. For example, bony plates called scutes covered its body. The scutes have rings for each year of the animal’s growth. Scientists say it became so huge because it grew every year during its fifty or sixty years of life. SuperCroc also had a big growth of bone on the end of its nose. This growth may have helped the animal smell food. It also may have helped it make noises and calls. A modern crocodilian in India called a gharial has a similar growth. VOICE ONE: The scientists made their discoveries at a place in the Sahara Desert called Gadoufaoua. The name means “the place where camels fear to go” in the language of the Taureg tribe. The area is extremely hot and dry. However, scientists have found many fossils there that represent important discoveries about ancient life. Millions of years ago, Gadoufaoua had trees, plants and wide rivers. When animals died, the rivers covered their remains. Over the centuries, the drying rivers protected those remains. VOICE TWO: Mister Sereno’s team began digging at Gadoufaoua in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. At that time, the scientists were mainly studying dinosaur fossils. Then they found mouth bones almost two meters long. The bones contained about one-hundred teeth. They immediately recognized that these jaws did not belong to a dinosaur, but to an ancient crocodile. Mister Sereno said the ancient crocodile ate fish and turtles. It also hunted fiercely and skillfully for much bigger animals, like dinosaurs. Its eyes were set up in its skull. This meant it could look for animals with most of its body under the water. This helped SuperCroc surprise and kill dinosaurs. The scientists say the ancient crocodile hid in the water when it was hungry. Then it quickly rose from the water and bit its target with its large teeth. On land, however, the size of SuperCroc probably prevented it from moving as fast. VOICE ONE: Mister Sereno’s team also found remains of a dinosaur called a spinosaur in the same area. This animal was almost eleven meters long. The researchers believe SuperCroc and the spinosaur must have fought fiercely. David Schwimmer of Columbus State University in Georgia praised the work of the Sereno team. Mister Schwimmer is an expert about another ancient crocodile called Deinosuchus. This animal lived in North America. It was about the same size as SuperCroc and lived about the same time. But they were not closely related. Mister Schwimmer says conditions in those prehistoric days were very good for huge animals. The Earth was warm and green and full of living things. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. Recent studies show that several new drugs can greatly decrease kidney damage among people with the most common kind of diabetes. The drugs are called angiotensin receptor blocking agents. The studies are the first to show that this kind of drug can block the hormone that causes kidney problems for people with Type Two diabetes. The studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kidney damage develops in about forty percent of all people with diabetes. Barry Brenner is a kidney expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He led one of the studies. Doctor Brenner says the new drugs will also reduce the cost of treating serious kidney problems related to adult diabetes. Edmund Lewis also led one of the studies. He says all people with Type Two diabetes should be tested for kidney problems and should be treated immediately. VOICE ONE: The number of people suffering diabetes has increased sharply in the United States in the past twenty years. Experts say about sixteen-million Americans have the disease. Many of these people also develop kidney failure. More than eighty-thousand people have had kidney replacement operations. Researchers say the new drugs could end the need for such operations within the next ten years. Other studies have shown that similar drugs can help protect the kidneys in people with Type One diabetes. These people developed diabetes when they were children. Both kinds of drugs were first developed to treat high blood pressure. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists are worried about orca whales in the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean. These huge black and white sea creatures spend summers near the San Juan Islands near the state of Washington. They are called the southern population of orcas. Six years ago, ninety-nine orcas swam there. Today, only seventy-eight orcas survive. During the past year alone, seven whales died. Orcas grow longer than nine meters and weigh up to nine metric tons. They are sometimes called killer whales. However, they are not especially aggressive. VOICE ONE: Millions of healthy orcas live in the world. However, researchers say humans and a decreasing food supply are threatening the existence of the southern population of orcas. These whales live in three groups, called pods. Every orca has its own markings. So scientists can identify each individual orca. Every May through October, visitors crowd into boats to follow the orcas. The whale-watching industry is worth tens of millions of dollars a year. However, scientists believe these whale-watching boats may be harming the orcas. The boats may be polluting the water. And the noise from the engines may be interfering with how orcas communicate with each other. American government officials will decide next year if these orcas should be officially listed as in danger of disappearing from Earth. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Paul Thompson. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-12-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - November 13, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today we tell about a huge ancient crocodile. We tell about new drugs that can decrease kidney damage in people with diabetes. And we tell about decreasing numbers of orca whales in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For the first time, scientists have reported details about a huge ancient animal that looked like a modern crocodile. A team led by University of Chicago researcher Paul Sereno calls the animal “SuperCroc.” It was more than twelve meters long. It weighed as much as eight metric tons, more than some elephants. And it probably ate small dinosaurs. Mister Sereno calls it one of the greatest crocodiles the world has ever seen. Modern crocodiles and alligators are small compared to the ancient crocodile. For example, American alligators may reach a length of four-and-one-half meters and weigh six-hundred kilograms. VOICE TWO: The ancient crocodile lived about one-hundred-ten-million years ago. SuperCroc lived in fresh-water rivers in Africa, unlike other crocodiles of the time that lived in salt-water oceans. Scientists have known about the ancient creature for many years. French researchers found evidence of the animal in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. They gave it the scientific name Sarcosuchus imperator. But they did not find enough fossil remains to learn much about the animal and how it lived. However, last year, the team led by Mister Sereno found several head bones of the huge crocodile. They also found twenty tons of other fossils. Some of the remains were of other kinds of early crocodiles. They made the discoveries in the Sahara Desert area of Niger. VOICE ONE: The researchers reported their discoveries last month on the Internet Web site of the journal Science. They also announced their findings at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D-C. The society helped pay for their research in Niger last year. SuperCroc looks like a huge version of a modern crocodile. However, the researchers say members of the modern crocodile family did not develop from it. The modern group contains about twenty-three kinds of creatures including caimans and alligators. VOICE TWO: Mister Sereno’s team members used a scientific method to estimate the size of SuperCroc. They measured its head bones. Other bones helped them learn more about the animal. For example, bony plates called scutes covered its body. The scutes have rings for each year of the animal’s growth. Scientists say it became so huge because it grew every year during its fifty or sixty years of life. SuperCroc also had a big growth of bone on the end of its nose. This growth may have helped the animal smell food. It also may have helped it make noises and calls. A modern crocodilian in India called a gharial has a similar growth. VOICE ONE: The scientists made their discoveries at a place in the Sahara Desert called Gadoufaoua. The name means “the place where camels fear to go” in the language of the Taureg tribe. The area is extremely hot and dry. However, scientists have found many fossils there that represent important discoveries about ancient life. Millions of years ago, Gadoufaoua had trees, plants and wide rivers. When animals died, the rivers covered their remains. Over the centuries, the drying rivers protected those remains. VOICE TWO: Mister Sereno’s team began digging at Gadoufaoua in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. At that time, the scientists were mainly studying dinosaur fossils. Then they found mouth bones almost two meters long. The bones contained about one-hundred teeth. They immediately recognized that these jaws did not belong to a dinosaur, but to an ancient crocodile. Mister Sereno said the ancient crocodile ate fish and turtles. It also hunted fiercely and skillfully for much bigger animals, like dinosaurs. Its eyes were set up in its skull. This meant it could look for animals with most of its body under the water. This helped SuperCroc surprise and kill dinosaurs. The scientists say the ancient crocodile hid in the water when it was hungry. Then it quickly rose from the water and bit its target with its large teeth. On land, however, the size of SuperCroc probably prevented it from moving as fast. VOICE ONE: Mister Sereno’s team also found remains of a dinosaur called a spinosaur in the same area. This animal was almost eleven meters long. The researchers believe SuperCroc and the spinosaur must have fought fiercely. David Schwimmer of Columbus State University in Georgia praised the work of the Sereno team. Mister Schwimmer is an expert about another ancient crocodile called Deinosuchus. This animal lived in North America. It was about the same size as SuperCroc and lived about the same time. But they were not closely related. Mister Schwimmer says conditions in those prehistoric days were very good for huge animals. The Earth was warm and green and full of living things. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Bob Doughty with Sarah Long in Washington. Recent studies show that several new drugs can greatly decrease kidney damage among people with the most common kind of diabetes. The drugs are called angiotensin receptor blocking agents. The studies are the first to show that this kind of drug can block the hormone that causes kidney problems for people with Type Two diabetes. The studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Kidney damage develops in about forty percent of all people with diabetes. Barry Brenner is a kidney expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He led one of the studies. Doctor Brenner says the new drugs will also reduce the cost of treating serious kidney problems related to adult diabetes. Edmund Lewis also led one of the studies. He says all people with Type Two diabetes should be tested for kidney problems and should be treated immediately. VOICE ONE: The number of people suffering diabetes has increased sharply in the United States in the past twenty years. Experts say about sixteen-million Americans have the disease. Many of these people also develop kidney failure. More than eighty-thousand people have had kidney replacement operations. Researchers say the new drugs could end the need for such operations within the next ten years. Other studies have shown that similar drugs can help protect the kidneys in people with Type One diabetes. These people developed diabetes when they were children. Both kinds of drugs were first developed to treat high blood pressure. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists are worried about orca whales in the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean. These huge black and white sea creatures spend summers near the San Juan Islands near the state of Washington. They are called the southern population of orcas. Six years ago, ninety-nine orcas swam there. Today, only seventy-eight orcas survive. During the past year alone, seven whales died. Orcas grow longer than nine meters and weigh up to nine metric tons. They are sometimes called killer whales. However, they are not especially aggressive. VOICE ONE: Millions of healthy orcas live in the world. However, researchers say humans and a decreasing food supply are threatening the existence of the southern population of orcas. These whales live in three groups, called pods. Every orca has its own markings. So scientists can identify each individual orca. Every May through October, visitors crowd into boats to follow the orcas. The whale-watching industry is worth tens of millions of dollars a year. However, scientists believe these whale-watching boats may be harming the orcas. The boats may be polluting the water. And the noise from the engines may be interfering with how orcas communicate with each other. American government officials will decide next year if these orcas should be officially listed as in danger of disappearing from Earth. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson and Paul Thompson. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - November 14, 2001: Tiny Transistor
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. Scientists report they have created the smallest device to carry electrical current ever made. The device is called a transistor. It is about one-million times smaller than a grain of sand. Transistors are used in many electronic devices to control the flow of electrical current. True transistors can turn the flow of electricity on and off. They also have the ability to increase electrical current. Extremely small transistors are used in computers. They form part of what is called an integrated circuit. Powerful integrated circuits have large numbers of transistors. Scientists have developed smaller transistors year after year to produce more powerful integrated circuits. However, the new transistor may represent the smallest possible size for this kind of device. The area that carries electrical current in the new transistor is about the width of a single molecule. Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, is developing the extremely small transistor. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, scientists at the same laboratory invented the first transistor. William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain received the Nobel Prize for Physics in Nineteen-Fifty-Six for their discovery. Scientists Hendrik Schon, Zhenan Bao and Hong Meng created the new transistor. It is so small that it is put together chemically. The scientists used a chemical process to attach carbon-based molecules to gold. The process creates molecule-sized openings that carry electricity. The molecules also chemically form a molecule-sized device that controls electrical current. Releasing and stopping electrical current permits electronic processors to move and store information. This simple ability to start and stop electrical current forms the language used by most computers. The new transistor is still being developed. However, researchers at Bell Labs have already connected together several of the transistors into a circuit. They also say the chemical process for creating the transistors appears to work well. Yet, the new extremely small transistors may be too small. One scientist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories worries that connecting so many molecule-sized devices together would prove to be almost impossible. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 14, 2001: Literacy
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about a continuing problem in many countries -- literacy. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Many people say literacy is the ability to read and write. They say to be considered literate, an individual must have at least some ability to read or write. Some American experts say literacy is more than that. They say it means having both the language and other skills necessary to live and operate in society. Fifty years ago, the United Nations declared that literacy is a basic human right. The U-N also declared that everyone has a right to food, health care, and housing. One might think that food, health care and housing are more important than literacy education. Yet now literacy is seen as a major tool to help deal with these other needs. The U-N Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says literacy is important to improving the lives of individuals. UNESCO notes that literacy has been linked to economic security and good health. It says literacy increases a person’s cultural identity and understanding of other cultures. The U-N agency says it also increases a person’s involvement in elections and public life. VOICE TWO: However, many people around the world are not literate. An estimated eight-hundred-eighty million adults are not able to read or write. UNESCO officials say a majority of them are women. The officials add that many children will not learn to read and write in school. More than one-hundred-ten million school age children around the world do not attend school. Many others complete school or fail to finish their studies without learning to read and write. People who cannot read and write are called illiterate. People are considered functionally illiterate if they cannot read or write well enough to hold a job, finish schoolwork or vote. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are many ways to measure literacy. In one method, people are considered literate if they have completed a number of years in school. In another, people’s reading and writing skills are tested. The different measures of literacy, however, are not exact and cannot be easily compared. Many countries report literacy rates for adults, fifteen years of age and older. Using that guide, about ninety-seven percent of the adult population of the United States is literate. However, this includes some people who experts believe are functionally illiterate. VOICE TWO: In the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics began testing the language skills of adult Americans in Nineteen-Eighty-Five. The tests are known as the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. The Department of Education provides financial support for the testing. Next year, thousands of adult Americans will be tested. It will be the first measure of the nation’s progress in adult literacy since Nineteen-Ninety-Two. At that time, officials tested more than twenty-six thousand Americans, age sixteen years or older. Each person was asked to take several reading and writing tests. They also answered questions about the amount of money they earned, their education level, and how much time they spent reading. VOICE ONE: Twenty-one to twenty-three percent of those questioned nine years ago demonstrated what officials call the lowest level of literacy skills. That represents about forty-million adult Americans. Many adults in this level were able to answer simple questions involving brief documents or books. They could identify the time or place of a meeting on a document or identify a piece of information in a brief news story. Other adults in this level were not able to answer these questions. Some had such limited skills that they were unable to answer many of the questions. VOICE TWO: About twenty-five percent of those with the lowest literacy skills were new arrivals to the United States. They may have been just learning to speak English. In addition, about sixty-five percent of those in this level had ended their education before completing high school. More than thirty percent of the people in the lowest level were sixty-five years of age or older. Twenty-five percent had health conditions that kept them from work, school, housework or other activities. Nineteen percent reported having problems with their eyesight. Americans with the lowest literacy skills were less likely to be employed. They also worked fewer weeks in a year and earned less money. Those with the lowest skills were far more likely to receive government assistance. And, nearly half of them were considered very needy. VOICE ONE: Many people have noted the economic effect of literacy on development. A literate and skilled population can greatly influence the social and economic life of a nation. There is a long tradition of using literacy programs as a way to reach political goals. In the Fifteen-Hundreds, Swedish officials organized one of the earliest known national literacy campaigns to spread the religion approved by the government. The goal was not only to spread religion, but also to create a nation. Governments of many countries support literacy efforts as a way to strengthen their nation. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, for example, Cuba temporarily closed its schools and sent teachers to the countryside to work with illiterate people. This campaign helped to raise the national literacy rate. Today, Cuba’s literacy rate of almost ninety-six percent is one of the highest in Latin America. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Many countries depend on the efforts of people who offer their time to help individuals who cannot read or write. For example, American John Mauger (pron:MAW-GUR) became concerned about the problem of illiteracy three years ago. He became so concerned that he started teaching five prisoners at a police station near his home in Brazil. Until three years ago, Mister Mauger had never worked as a teacher. As a young man in the United States, he worked as an airplane mechanic. He served in the American Air Force during the World War Two. After the war, he accepted an offer to move to Brazil to show Brazilian workers how to repair airplane engines. That was fifty-three years ago. Mister Mauger is now eighty-five years old and still lives in Brazil. VOICE ONE: Mister Mauger says his teaching method can help anyone learn how to read or write with about thirty hours of study. He says he developed the system with his first group of prisoners. He says other men jailed at the police station showed interest in the program. Then, he began teaching at a large prison. He also has worked with small groups of non-prisoners. People wishing to learn his system must first know how to write letters of the alphabet and learn which sounds they represent. The system divides letters into three groups. The first group of letters can be written between two lines. The second can be written between two lines, but part of the letter is above the top line. The third group has letters that are partly written below the lower line. VOICE TWO: John Mauger’s students in Brazil make simple Portuguese words from the letters. He then teaches them how to make more than seven-hundred words. He says many of his former students can now write to family members. They also can read newspapers and magazines. The chief at the local police station has expressed support for the teaching method. Mister Mauger says he is pleased with how other Brazilians have reacted. He says the system works so well in Portuguese he developed a similar method to teach people how to read and write in English. ((Recently, he helped to design an Internet web site that explains his system in both languages. Computer users can find this information at http://www.persocom.com.br/ottug/alfabeto.)) OPT ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: UNESCO officials report that there has been progress in improving literacy rates during the past century. About eighty percent of adults are literate today. In Nineteen-Seventy, less than sixty-five percent were literate. In late October, a committee of the United Nations approved a proposal designed to aid literacy programs in developing countries. Under the proposal, the General Assembly would declare a special observance, called the United Nations Literacy Decade. The ten-year period would begin on January first, Two-Thousand-Three. The proposed U-N resolution says that literacy for all is closely linked to the idea of education for all. It says literate environments are needed to help the poor, improve the treatment of women, and guarantee development. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by George Grow. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - Nov. 15: New Genetic Test for Anthrax
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Last week, medical researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota announced that they have developed a new test that can quickly identify the anthrax bacteria. The bacteria have been found in letters mailed in the United States. At least sixteen people in the United States have suffered anthrax infections in the past month. They developed lung or skin infections from the bacteria. Most have been postal workers or people who work for the media. Several people have died. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic say the best way to save lives is to quickly find out if anthrax bacteria is present in areas where people live and work. Until now, testing for anthrax took several days to complete. The suspected material had to be sent to special laboratories. The Mayo Clinic researchers say their new test can identify the bacteria in less than one hour. It is important to identify the earliest signs of the disease because early treatment for anthrax greatly increases the chances of survival.The Mayo Clinic is working to develop the test with Roche Diagnostics, a health research company in Indianapolis, Indiana. The new test examines genetic material, or D-N-A, using equipment developed by Roche Diagnostics. The equipment is called the Light Cycler. One researcher said tests in the laboratory have found as few as five anthrax bacteria in a single D-N-A sample. The test can do this in about thirty-five minutes. The researchers say the test also does not give any false positive results. That is, it does not show anthrax is present when it is not. However, the test has not yet been used to identify the anthrax bacteria in people. The Mayo Clinic researchers say the new tests will be sent to laboratories that already have the Light Cycler equipment. They will be used to identify anthrax in buildings and in the mail. Early next month, the tests will be sent to other public health agencies and hospital laboratories in the United States and around the world. The developers of the test are seeking approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration to use the tests to identify anthrax in people. That approval is expected later this year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 15, 2001: Warren Harding
* Byline: 

 THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Doug Johnson and I tell about America's presidential election of nineteen-twenty and the man who won it, Warren Harding. Voice 2: The presidential election of nineteen-twenty was a turning point in American politics. It ended a period of social reforms at home and an active foreign policy. It began a period of conservative thinking in both the political and social life of the nation. American reporter h. L. Mencken described the national feeling this way: "The majority of Americans are tired of idealism. They want capitalism -- openly and without apology. " Voice 1: President Woodrow Wilson had suffered a stroke during his second term. He was very sick. No one expected him to be a candidate again. Yet he refused to announce that he would not run for a third term. Woodrow Wilson had done much during his administration. He helped pass important laws dealing with trade, banking, and the rights of workers. He led the nation through the bloody world war in Europe. He tried, but failed, to have the United States join the new international organization -- the League of Nations. The American people honored Wilson for his intelligence and ideas. But they were tired of his policies of social change. And they did not want to be involved in international problems anymore. Voice 2: The leaders of President Wilson's Democratic Party understood the feelings of the people. They knew they had little chance of winning the presidential election if they nominated a candidate of change. Delegates to the democratic nominating convention voted forty-four times before agreeing on a candidate. They chose the governor of the state of Ohio, James Cox. The Republican Party also had a difficult time at its nominating convention. Four men wanted to be president. The delegates voted six times. None of the men gained enough support. So, several party leaders met in private. They agreed that only one man -- a compromise candidate -- could win the support of the convention. He was a senator from the state of Ohio, Warren Harding. The delegates voted ten more times before choosing Harding as their candidate for president. For vice president, they chose Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts. Voice 1: Warren Harding had owned a newspaper in Ohio. People advised him to enter politics, because he was such a good public speaker. During the campaign, he promised lower taxes, less immigration, and more aid to farmers. He called for "normalcy" -- a new period of peace and quiet, with few changes. That is what the voters wanted to hear in nineteen-twenty. Warren Harding won the election with sixty-eight percent of the popular vote. In his first act as president, he invited people to visit the white house. He permitted them to walk in the garden. The act was a sign. The government seemed to be returning to the people. Voice 2: Warren Harding is remembered mostly for two events. One was a successful international conference. The other was a shameful national incident. After World War One, Britain, Japan, and the United States expanded their navies. They built bigger and better ships. Many members of the United States Congress worried about the cost. They also worried about increased political tension in Asia. They asked President Harding to organize a conference to discuss these issues. Voice 1: The conference was held in Washington in November, nineteen-twenty-one. President Harding invited representatives from the major naval powers of the time: Britain, Japan, France, and Italy. He also invited representatives from countries with interests in Asia: China, Portugal, Belgium, and the Netherlands. He did not invite the new Soviet leaders in Russia. Mr. Harding's secretary of state, Charles Evans Hughes, spoke. He offered the conference a detailed plan to reduce the size of the world's major navies. He proposed that the world's strongest nations should stop building warships for ten years. He also proposed that Britain, Japan, and the United States should destroy some ships to Make their navies smaller immediately. Voice 2: Delegates to the conference debated the plan for three months. Japan demanded, and won, the right to have more ships. But the final agreement was very close to the one proposed by secretary Hughes. The conference was not a complete success. For example, it did not prevent countries from building some kinds of ships. These ships would prove important in the second world war. Also, it did not create ways to protect China and the islands in the South Pacific Ocean from Japanese expansion. Yet the naval treaty of nineteen-twenty-one was the first in which the world's strongest countries agreed to reduce the size of their armed forces. Most people thought it was a good treaty. Voice 1: The second thing for which president Harding is remembered is the Teapot Dome scandal. It involved the misuse of underground oil owned by the federal government. Warren Harding was an honest man. But he did not have a strong mind of his own. He was easily influenced. And he often accepted bad advice. He explained the problem with these words: "I listen to one side, and they seem right. Then I listen to the other side, and they seem just as right. I know that somewhere there is a man who knows the truth. But I do not know where to find him. " Voice 2: President Harding appointed several men of great ability to his cabinet. They included Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, and Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover. However, some of his appointments were dishonest men. One was Interior Secretary Albert Fall. He was responsible for the Teapot Dome scandal. Secretary Fall gave a private company the right to take oil from land owned by the federal government. In return, the company gave him money and cattle. The oil was not supposed to be taken from the ground. It was supposed to be saved for the United States Navy to use in an emergency. Private oil companies and many politicians opposed this policy. They said saving the oil was unnecessary. Voice 1: Albert Fall opposed the policy when he was a member of the Senate. When he became interior secretary, his department took control of the lands containing the underground oil. Then he permitted private companies to use the land for a period of time. During that time, the companies could take out the oil. Some of the oil was in the western state of Wyoming. The rock mass on the surface looked like a container for making tea. So, the area was called Teapot Dome. When the Senate uncovered Secretary Fall's wrongdoing, the press quickly called the incident the Teapot Dome scandal. The Senate investigation led to several court cases which lasted throughout the nineteen-twenties. Secretary Fall was found guilty of misusing his government position. He was sentenced to prison for one year. Voice 2: President Harding did not live to see the end of the Teapot Dome incident. In the summer of nineteen-twenty-three, he made a political trip to Alaska and western states. On the way home, he became sick while in San Francisco. He died of a heart attack. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was in the northeastern state of Vermont when he heard that President Harding had died. Coolidge's father was a local court official there. He gave the oath of office to his son. That is how Calvin Coolidge became the thirtieth president of the United States. The story of his administration will be the subject of our program next week. (Theme) Voice 1: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson. Our program was written by David Jarmul. Join us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-15-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 16, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today ... We play some patriotic songs ... answer a question about Thanksgiving ... and report about the Emmy Awards for the best American television programs. The Emmy Awards & "The West Wing" HOST: The American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences postponed its yearly Emmy Award ceremony two times this year because of the terrorist attacks in September. It finally presented the awards last week. The Emmys honor the best American television programs. Shirley Griffith tells us about the awards. ANNCR: A program called “The West Wing” won the Emmy Award for best drama series. It also won the best drama Emmy last year. “The West Wing” is about people who work in the White House for the President of the United States. The people in the show are not real. But the issues they discuss are real. For example, in the show broadcast last week, the President is discussing the gun control issue with his Vice President. Martin Sheen plays the President. Tim Mathieson is the Vice President. ((TAPE CUT 1: VP: You want to send me to Texas? P: It’s what Texans do...you know, a decade ago we passed a few national gun control laws, then the gun control lobby turned its back on Congress and started focusing on the states. The N-R-A systematically worked the legislatures to weaken conceal and carry laws, the effect of which is to increase gun sales and pad its own membership. VP: Well, I don’t necessarily agree with that... P (interrupts): The National Conference of State Legislatures is meeting next weekend at the Convention Center in San Antonio. VP: You want me to go to Texas and speak for you. P: Yeah. VP: ‘Cause that’s what Texans do. P: It’s also what Vice Presidents do. )) “The West Wing” won several other Emmy awards this year. These included the best supporting actor award to Bradley Whitford for playing a presidential adviser. Actress Allison Janney won the best supporting actress Emmy for playing the President’s press secretary. Mizz Janney said she felt proud to be part of a show that celebrates the process of freedom that makes the United States great. The Academy also honored people from the television industry who died in the terrorist attacks. One of these was Emmy winner David Angell, who wrote for the popular comedy shows “Frasier” and “Cheers”. Thanksgiving HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from listeners in Mali and Brazil. Mahamadou Modibo Kante and Renato Francisco Amaral ask about the American holiday called Thanksgiving. Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving next Thursday, November twenty-second. It is a day for giving thanks to God, families and friends for all the good things that have happened in the past year. Settlers in America began observing days of thanks hundreds of years ago. But most Americans link the first Thanksgiving Day to a group of people called Pilgrims. They arrived in what is now the northeastern United States in Sixteen-Twenty. Soon, more than half had died of disease or lack of food. Those who survived held a day of thanksgiving in the autumn of Sixteen-Twenty-One. They thanked God for protecting them. They also thanked the Native American Indians. The Indians helped save the Pilgrims by showing them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims feasted for three days. About ninety Indians joined the celebration. They ate deer, ducks, geese, and turkeys. The modern holiday of Thanksgiving is the result of the efforts of Sarah Hale. She was a writer and editor in the Nineteenth Century. She believed all Americans should give thanks on the same day. Sarah Hale worked for many years to establish a national holiday for this purpose. She published articles and gave speeches. She wrote letters to state governments and presidents. Finally, President Abraham Lincoln approved her idea. In Eighteen-Sixty-Three, he declared the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of Thanksgiving. Later, Congress declared the holiday would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. Today, friends and family members gather together for Thanksgiving. They may attend religious services ... take part in a parade ... watch sports events on television. And almost everyone does what the Pilgrims did. They have a feast. On Thanksgiving, Americans eat some of the same foods the Pilgrims ate — turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Patriotic Songs CD HOST: Americans have always liked songs about their country. Since the terrorist attacks, they are singing them more often than ever. A new record album includes many of these songs. Money earned from the sale of the album goes to a fund for the victims of the World Trade Center attack. Jim Tedder has more. ANNCR: The name of the album is “God Bless America.” That is also the name of the first song on the album. The song “God Bless America” has become extremely popular since the terrorist attacks. It was written by Irving Berlin in Nineteen-Eighteen. Irving Berlin was born in Russia. The song expresses his love and thanks to the United States for giving him a chance to succeed. Celine Dion sings it here. ((CUT 1: GOD BLESS AMERICA)) Another song on the album is “America the Beautiful.” Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words to the song in Eighteen-Ninety-Three. Samuel Ward Howe wrote the music. Here Frank Sinatra sings it. ((CUT 2: AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL)) No record about patriotic songs would be complete without the official song of the United States, “The Star- Spangled Banner.” Francis Scott Key wrote the words in Eighteen-Fourteen, following a battle during the War of Eighteen-Twelve. Later, music was added to his poem. We leave you now with the National Anthem of the United States, performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. ((CUT 3: THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to “Mosaic at V-O-A news dot com”. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-15-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 16, 2001: Marrakech Agreement
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Negotiators from more than one-hundred-sixty countries have agreed on an international treaty to control global warming. Almost four-thousand delegates attended the two-week conference in Marrakech, Morocco. The talks included representatives of countries who signed an agreement about climate change in Kyoto, Japan, in Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. The delegates in Morocco agreed on ways to put the treaty into effect. The Kyoto treaty requires about forty industrial countries to reduce carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. Scientists believe these so-called greenhouse gases are causing the Earth’s atmosphere to become too warm. The Kyoto treaty requires industrial countries to reduce their release of greenhouse gases by about five-percent below the levels of Nineteen-Ninety. That must be done by the year Two-Thousand-Twelve. Reducing these gases will come mainly from industries restricting the burning of coal and oil. The industrial countries that release fifty-five percent of the world’s greenhouse gases must approve the agreement before it can take effect. Negotiators in Marrakech agreed on rules to guide the treaty. The rules govern the way countries report, observe and confirm the release of greenhouse gases. The rules punish countries that fail to meet their targets. The agreement also creates a trading program. It permits major industrial countries to buy “credits” from countries with low pollution levels or that invest heavily in anti-pollution technology. The agreement was reached Saturday on the last day of the conference after eighteen hours of difficult talks. Japan, Russia and Australia called for more compromises in the rules before they would agree to the deal. The agreement does not include the United States. President Bush withdrew from the Kyoto treaty in March. Mister Bush said the measures would hurt the American economy. He also said the agreement is unfair because it does not include developing countries that are heavy polluters. Some environmental groups say the Kyoto treaty will be less effective without the United States. The United States releases more greenhouse gases than any other country. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-15-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 18, 2001: Nellie Bly
* Byline: 

 Voice 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. Voice 2: And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about a reporter of more than one-hundred years ago. (Theme) Voice 1: The year was eighteen-eighty-seven. The place was New York City. A young woman, Elizabeth Cochrane, wanted a job at a large newspaper. The editor agreed, if she would investigate a hospital for people who were mentally sick and then write about it. Elizabeth Cochrane decided to become a patient in the hospital herself. She used the name Nellie Brown so no one would discover her or her purpose. Newspaper officials said they would get her released after a while. To prepare, Nellie put on old clothes and stopped washing. She went to a temporary home for women. She acted as if she had severe mental problems. She cried and screamed and stayed awake all night. The police were called. She was examined by doctors. Most said she was insane. Voice 2: Nellie Brown was taken to the mental hospital. It was dirty. Waste material was left outside the eating room. Bugs ran across the tables. The food was terrible -- hard bread and gray colored meat. Nurses bathed the patients in cold water and gave them only a thin piece of cloth to wear to bed. During the day, the patients did nothing but sit quietly. They had to talk in quiet voices. Yet, Nellie got to know some of them. Some were women whose families had put them in the hospital because they had been too sick to work. Some were women who had appeared insane because they were sick with fever. Now they were well, but they could not get out. Nellie recognized that the doctors and nurses had no interest in the patients' mental health. They were paid to keep the patients in a kind of jail. Nellie stayed in the hospital for ten days. Then a lawyer from the newspaper got her released. Voice 1: Five days later, the story of Elizabeth Cochrane's experience in the hospital appeared in the New York World newspaper. Readers were shocked. They wrote to officials of the city and the hospital protesting the conditions and patient treatment. An investigation led to changes at the hospital. Elizabeth Cochrane had made a difference in the lives of the people there. She made a difference in her own life too. She got her job at the New York World. And she wrote a book about her experience at the hospital. She did not write it as Nellie Brown, however, or as Elizabeth Cochrane. She wrote it under the name that always appeared on her newspaper stories: Nellie Bly. Voice 2: The child who would grow up to become Nellie Bly was born during the Civil War, in eighteen-sixty-four, in western Pennsylvania. Her family called her Pink. Her father was a judge. He died when she was six years old. Her mother married again. But her new husband drank too much alcohol and beat her. She got a divorce in eighteen-seventy-nine, when Pink was fifteen years old. Pink decided to learn to support herself so she would never need a man. Pink, her mother, brothers and sisters moved to a town near the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pink worked at different jobs but could not find a good one. One day, she read something in the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper. The editor of the paper, Erasmus Wilson, wrote that it was wrong for women to get jobs. He said men should have them. Pink wrote the newspaper to disagree. She said she had been looking for a good job for about four years, as she had no father or husband to support her. She signed it "Orphan Girl". Voice 1: The editors of the dispatch liked her letter. They put a note in the paper asking "Orphan Girl" to visit. Pink did. Mr. Wilson offered her a job. He said she could not sign her stories with her real name, because no woman writer did that. He asked news writers for suggestions. One was Nellie Bly, the name of a girl in a popular song. So pink became Nellie Bly. For nine months, she wrote stories of interest to women. Then she left the newspaper because she was not permitted to write what she wanted. She went to Mexico to find excitement. She stayed there six months, sending stories to the Dispatch to be published. Soon after she returned to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, she decided to look for another job. Nellie Bly left for New York City and began her job at the New York World. Voice 2: As a reporter for the New York World, Nellie Bly investigated and wrote about illegal activities in the city. For one story, she acted as if she was a mother willing to sell her baby. For another, she pretended to be a woman who cleaned houses so she could report about illegal activities in employment agencies. Today, a newspaper reporter usually does not pretend to be someone else to get information for a story. Most newspapers ban such acts. But in Nellie Bly's day, reporters used any method to get information, especially if they were trying to discover people guilty of doing something wrong. Nellie Bbly's success at this led newspapers to employ more women. But she was the most popular of the women writers. History experts say Nellie Bly was special because she included her own ideas and feelings in everything she wrote. They say her own voice seemed to speak on the page. Nellie Bly's stories always provided detailed descriptions. And her stories always tried to improve society. Critics said Nellie Bly was an example of what a reporter can do, even today. She saw every situation as a chance to make a real difference in other people's lives as well as her own. Voice 1: Nellie Bly may be best remembered in history for a trip she took. In the eighteen-seventies, French writer Jules Verne wrote the book, "Around the World in Eighty Days." It told of a man's attempt to travel all around the world. He succeeded. In real life, no one had tried. By eighteen-eighty-eight, a number of reporters wanted to do it. Nellie Bly told her editors she would go even if they did not help her. But they did. Voice 2: Nellie Bly left New York for France on November fourteenth, eighteen-eighty-nine. She met Jules Verne at his home in France. She told him about her plans to travel alone by train and ship around the world. From France she went to Italy and Egypt, through South Asia to Singapore and Japan, then to San Francisco and back to New York. Nellie Bly's trip created more interest in Jules Verne's book. Before the trip was over, "Around the World in Eighty Days" was published again. And a theater in Paris had plans to produce a stage play of the book. Voice 1: Back home in New York, the World was publishing the stories Bly wrote while travelling. On days when the mail brought no story from her, the editors still found something to write about it. They published new songs written about bly and new games based on her trip. The newspaper announced a competition to guess how long her trip would take. The prize was a free trip to Europe. By December second, about one-hundred-thousand readers had sent in their estimates. Nellie Bly arrived back where she started on January twenty-fifth, eighteen-ninety. It had taken her seventy-six days, six hours, eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. She was twenty-five years old. And she was famous around the world. Voice 2: Elizabeth Cochrane died in New York in nineteen-twenty-two. She was fifty-eight years old. In the years since her famous trip, she had married, and headed a business. She also had helped poor and homeless children. And she had continued to write all her life for newspapers and magazines as nellie bly. One newspaper official wrote this about her after her death: Nellie Bly was the best reporter in America. More important is the work of which the world knew nothing. She died leaving little money. What she had was promised to take care of children without homes, for whom she wished to provide. Her life was useful. She takes with her from this Earth all that she cared about -- an honorable name, the respect and affection of her fellow workers, the memory of good fights well fought and many good deeds never to be forgotten. Happy the man or woman that can leave as good a record. (Theme) Voice 1: This VOA Special English program, People in America, was written by Nancy Steinbach. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-15-4-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 19, 2001: Thanksgiving
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: It is one of America’s most popular holidays. It is a day for expressing thanks for the good things in life, especially family and friends. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The story of Thanksgiving is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. The writer O. Henry called it the one day that is purely American. Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning. Some Americans attend religious services on the day before Thanksgiving, or on Thanksgiving morning. Others travel long distances to be with their families. They have a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration. For many Americans, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion. ((CUT ONE: “BLESS THIS HOUSE”)) VOICE TWO: Thanksgiving week is generally one of the busiest travel times of the year. However, experts say this year probably will be different. On September Eleventh, thousands of people died when terrorists hijacked airplanes that struck buildings in Washington D-C and New York City. Many people now say they are worried about flying on a plane. Travel experts say almost six percent fewer people will make long trips this Thanksgiving compared with last year. Many Americans who usually visit family and friends by plane are driving shorter distances instead this week. Some mental-health experts say the attacks have frightened people. They say people feel safer and happier close to home. VOICE ONE: More than any other holiday, Thanksgiving is a celebration of family and home. Many people say that this year they are especially thankful for their families and friends and the good things in their lives. On Thanksgiving, people enjoy a long day of cooking, eating and talking. The traditional meal almost always includes a turkey with a bread mixture cooked inside. Other traditional Thanksgiving foods served with turkey are sweet potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie. Stores are said to sell more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. And many people eat more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. VOICE TWO: Not everyone cooks a Thanksgiving turkey, however. Some families like other meats. Or, in recent years, a number of American homes have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners. This means no meat will be served. Thanksgiving also is a time when Americans share what they have with people who do not have as much. All across America, thousands of religious and service organizations provide Thanksgiving meals for old people, the homeless and the poor. Many Americans give turkeys or other food to these groups. Some people spend part of the day helping to prepare and serve the meals. VOICE ONE: Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The month of November is autumn in the United States. Autumn is the season when crops are gathered. When the first European settlers in American gathered their crops, they celebrated and gave thanks for the food. They thanked God for the success of the harvest. Listen as the Paul Hillier group sings “Thanksgiving Anthem.” ((CUT TWO: THANKSGIVING ANTHEM)) VOICE TWO: Tradition says Pilgrim settlers from England celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Sixteen-Twenty-One. There is evidence that settlers in other parts of America held earlier Thanksgiving celebrations. But the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving story is the most popular. The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. They went first to the Netherlands. Then they left that country to establish a colony in North America. The Pilgrims landed in Sixteen-Twenty in what later became known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was difficult. Their first months in America were difficult, too. About one-hundred Pilgrims landed just as autumn was turning to winter. During the cold months that followed, about half of them died. VOICE ONE: When spring came, the Pilgrims began to plant crops. A native American Indian named Squanto helped them. When summer ended, the Pilgrims had a good harvest of corn and barley. There was enough food to last through the winter. The Pilgrims decided to hold a celebration to give thanks for their harvest. Writings from that time say pilgrim leader William Bradford set a date late in the year. He invited members of a nearby Indian tribe to take part. VOICE TWO: That Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. There were many kinds of food to eat. The meal served included wild birds such as ducks, geese and turkeys. The Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving again until two years later. That celebration marked the end of a period of dry weather that had almost destroyed their crops. Historians believe the Pilgrims held their second Thanksgiving in July. As the American colonies grew, many towns and settlements held Thanksgiving – or harvest – celebrations. Yet it was not until about two-hundred-fifty-years later that a national day for Thanksgiving was declared. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The creation of a national Thanksgiving holiday resulted from the efforts of one woman, Sarah Josepha Hale. In the Eighteen-Twenties, she began a campaign to officially establish the holiday. Missus Hale was a writer. She wrote stories about a national day of Thanksgiving in a publication for women. She also wrote many letters to public officials, including American presidents. She urged them to support her idea for a national Thanksgiving holiday. VOICE TWO: Support for her idea grew slowly. Finally, in Eighteen Sixty-Three, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of Thanksgiving. At that time, the United States was fighting a civil war. President Lincoln liked the idea of a Thanksgiving holiday that would also celebrate national unity. Later, Congress declared that the holiday would be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November. VOICE ONE: Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and university football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television. Many people also like to watch Thanksgiving Day parades on television. Big stores in several cities organize these marches. For example, Macy’s store in New York City will present its seventy-fifth yearly Thanksgiving parade. Huge balloons will float high above the street. The balloons are in the shapes of children’s best-loved cartoon characters. VOICE TWO: Religious ceremonies are an important part of Thanksgiving Day for many Americans. People join in prayers and songs of Thanksgiving. One of the most famous songs is called “Prayer of Thanksgiving.” The words and music tell of the traditional meaning of Thanksgiving. We gather with our family. We share what we have. And we give thanks for the good things of the past year. Here is the Boston Pops Orchestra and chorus performing “Prayer of Thanksgiving.” ((CUT THREE: “PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING” CHORAL VERSION)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Carolyn Weaver and Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((CUT FOUR: “PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING” ORCHESTRAL PORTION)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-15-5-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 19, 2001: Heifer International
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. One of the biggest problems in developing countries is hunger. An organization called Heifer International is working to improve this situation. The organization sends needed farm animals to families and communities around the world. An American farmer, Dan West, developed the idea for Heifer International in the Nineteen-Thirties. Mister West was working in Spain where he discovered a need for cows. Many families were starving because of a civil war in that country. So Mister West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The first Heifer animals were sent in Nineteen-Forty-Four. Since that time, more than four-million people in one-hundred-fifteen countries have had better lives because of Heifer animals. The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves and become self-supporting. It provides more than twenty kinds of animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs and cows. Last year, Heifer International helped more than thirty-thousand families in forty-six countries. To receive a Heifer animal, groups must first explain their needs and goals. They must also make a plan which will allow them to become self-supporting. Local experts usually provide training. The organization says that animals must have food, water, shelter, health care, and the ability to reproduce. Without them, the animals will not remain healthy and productive. Heifer International also believes that groups must pass on some of their success to others in need. This belief guarantees that each person who takes part in the program also becomes a giver. Every family that receives a Heifer animal must agree to give that animal’s first female baby to other people in need. Families must also agree to pass on the skills and training they received from Heifer International. This concept of “passing on the gift” helps communities become self-supporting. You can learn more about Heifer International and how to request an animal. You can write to the organization at Heifer International, Post Office Box eight-zero-five-eight, Little Rock, Arkansas, seven-two-two-zero-three, U-S-A. Or you can visit the group’s Internet web site at www.heifer.org. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 17, 2001: World Trade Organization
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Program IN THE NEWS. Members of the World Trade Organization ended six days of intense negotiations in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday. Trade Ministers from about one-hundred-forty nations agreed to a new series of talks about lowering trade barriers. The group also admitted two new members — China and Taiwan. The W-T-O ministers agreed to begin new talks next year about important trade issues. They agreed to negotiations about ending government price-supports of agricultural products over a period of time. They agreed to discuss the possible end of customs on industrial goods. They also agreed that developing nations have the right to import less costly copies of well known medicines to fight major diseases. The head of the W-T-O said the negotiations were difficult because the members were dealing with very important issues of international trade policy. He said the members were willing to compromise to make the meeting a success. President Bush called the results in Doha a strong statement of hope for the world economy. Experts believe that agreement among the W-T-O members should improve world trade and help prevent a world-wide recession. The W-T-O has more than one-hundred-forty member nations. These countries are responsible for more than ninety percent of the world’s trade. The main goal of the W-T-O is to keep world trade flowing as smoothly and freely as possible. The World Trade Organization was established in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. It organizes trade negotiations and settles trade disputes. It supervises trade agreements reached by member nations. It also provides developing countries with technical assistance and training programs in trade issues. And, it cooperates with other international organizations. The top decision-making group of the W-T-O is the Ministerial Conference. It meets at least once every two years in different cities around the world. W-T-O members reach agreements by debate and compromise. At first the trade agreements among the countries dealt mainly with goods. However, W-T-O members later agreed on trade rules for the service industry. This industry includes banks, communications companies, hotels and transport businesses. Not everyone approves of the work of World Trade Organization. Opponents of the organization say W-T-O policies help industrial nations and keep developing nations poor. In the last few years, there have been major demonstrations at meetings of the W-T-O, World Bank and other similar organizations. Some of the protests have been violent. However, only minor protests took place this week at the W-T-O meeting in Doha. This VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – November 20, 2001: Turkey Time
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Americans will observe Thanksgiving on Thursday. Many people celebrate the holiday with a large dinner that includes turkey. Eating turkey is an American tradition. Early explorers to North America found the woods full of wild turkeys. The first settlers raised and ate the birds. Today, Americans eat more than two-thousand-million kilograms of turkey each year. That is about eight kilograms of turkey for every person. This year, about two-hundred-sixty-million turkeys will be raised in the United States. Almost all of the birds are raised on farms, then killed and sold in food stores. The National Turkey Federation represents the American turkey industry. The group says turkeys sold in stores are products of artificial insemination. Scientists collect reproductive fluid from male turkeys and put it in the females, or hens. Normally, a hen produces eighty to one-hundred eggs during a period of twenty-five weeks. At the end of this period, the hen usually is killed. However, some farmers let the hen rest for three months before the start of another reproductive period. The hen produces seventy-five to eighty eggs during the second period. Baby birds burst from the eggs twenty-eight days after the eggs are laid. Farmers feed turkeys corn and soybean meal. They also give the birds vitamins and minerals for good health. Modern production methods have shortened the time needed to raise a turkey. It usually takes fourteen weeks to raise a hen to a weight of seven kilograms. A male turkey needs eighteen weeks to reach a weight of sixteen kilograms. The National Turkey Federation says genetic studies, better feed and other processes have improved the quality of turkeys raised on farms. Turkeys are raised in environmentally-controlled barns. These buildings protect the birds from other animals, disease and bad weather. Turkeys walk freely inside the barns. They are not raised in boxes. The National Turkey Federation says turkeys are not given drugs or hormones. It notes, however, that American officials have approved the use of antibiotic drugs to prevent disease. It says farmers must wait for a period of time after feeding the birds antibiotics before the birds can be killed and processed for food. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - November 20, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about new limits on arsenic in drinking water. We tell about how sea turtles are able to swim across the ocean and back. And we tell about the world’s smallest electronic transistor. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The Bush Administration has decided to change its policy about limits of a harmful element in drinking water. The goal is to reduce levels of the poisonous element arsenic. Most arsenic is found naturally in water. Arsenic also is found in rocks, soil, air, plants and animals. It also is produced as a waste product in some industries. Several months ago, the Bush administration suspended a rule approved by former President Clinton to reduce acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water. Now the administration has decided to accept the proposed level. VOICE TWO: Christine Whitman is the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. She said the agency will now permit ten parts of arsenic for every thousand-million parts of drinking water. Water systems across the country must obey the new limit by Two-Thousand-Six. The new limit greatly reduces the current acceptable level of arsenic. The present level is fifty parts of arsenic for every thousand-million parts of water. This level was established more than fifty years ago. Mizz Whitman said the decision will improve the safety of drinking water for millions of Americans. And she said it will protect against the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. VOICE ONE: Former President Clinton had approved the new level in January only a few days before he left office. But the Bush Administration suspended the action in March. It said the new limit would be too costly. And it questioned the scientific reasons for it. Health and environmental activists criticized the move. Some environmentalists say that the new level of ten parts of arsenic for every thousand-million parts of water is still too high. These activists say only three parts arsenic should be permitted. They say studies made since President Clinton left office prove this. A recent National Academy of Sciences report says arsenic is more dangerous than scientists had earlier believed. The academy says even a very small amount of arsenic could increase cancer risks. It says the new level would result in a cancer risk much higher than what the E-P-A considers acceptable. Arsenic has been linked to a number of cancers. They include cancer of the lungs, bladder, kidneys and liver. VOICE TWO: However, some water system officials, mining industry officials and others oppose the new limits. The American Waterworks Association represents most water treatment centers in the nation. It says current techniques to remove arsenic from water are very costly. The organization says the new arsenic limits could cost the nation about five-thousand-million dollars. The National Rural Water Association represents more than twenty-thousand small communities. It also criticized the decision. It says the new limits could cost families as much as five-hundred dollars a year. The Environmental Protection Agency says it plans to help water systems in small communities. It will spend twenty-million dollars during the next two years to develop new technologies to meet the new limits. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. American scientists have found strong evidence that baby sea turtles are born with the ability to recognize and measure Earth’s magnetic fields. They found that the sea turtles use the magnetic fields to guide them as they swim great distances across the ocean. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did the research. Science magazine reported the findings. The scientists say the baby sea turtle is one of the great wonders of the animal world. Baby turtles swim directly to the open sea shortly after breaking out of their eggs. The young turtles follow complex paths that often lead across large areas of seemingly endless ocean. Baby sea turtles swim across the Atlantic Ocean and back all by themselves. People have wondered for years how they do this. VOICE TWO: The longest and most surprising trips are made by young loggerhead turtles. Young loggerheads in the North Atlantic Ocean swim more than fifteen-thousand kilometers across the ocean before returning to the North American coast. Loggerheads in the state of Florida follow a huge, circular current of warm water known as the North Atlantic gyre. The gyre moves from the East Coast of the United States across the North Atlantic and then south along the coasts of Spain and Africa before turning west to complete the circle. Water in the gyre is generally warm and food there is plentiful. Turtles that leave the gyre often die from the cold water. VOICE ONE: The scientists wanted to find out if baby loggerhead turtles could recognize the magnetic fields in different parts of the North Atlantic gyre. They used turtles that had never been at sea before. They placed the turtles in a container filled with saltwater. They put wires around the container. The wires produced magnetic fields similar to those found in different parts of the gyre. Whenever the turtles were in a magnetic field like that found in the ocean, they swam in a direction that would keep them in the warm current. One of the scientists, Kenneth Lohmann, says the findings provide direct evidence that turtles can use Earth’s magnetic fields as markers. He says similar systems might exist in other ocean creatures and even some birds. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Scientists report they have created the smallest device to carry electrical current ever made. The device is called a transistor. It is about one-million times smaller than a grain of sand. Transistors are used in many electronic devices to control the flow of electrical current. True transistors can turn the flow of electricity on and off. They also have the ability to increase electrical current. Extremely small transistors are used in computers. They form part of what is called an integrated circuit. Powerful integrated circuits have large numbers of transistors. Scientists have developed smaller transistors year after year to produce more powerful integrated circuits. VOICE ONE: However, the new transistor may represent the smallest possible size for this kind of device. The area that carries electrical current in the new transistor is about the width of a single molecule. Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, is developing the extremely small transistor. In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, scientists at the same laboratory invented the first transistor. William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain received the Nobel Prize for Physics in Nineteen-Fifty-Six for their discovery. VOICE TWO: Scientists Hendrik Schon, Zhenan Bao and Hong Meng created the new transistor. It is so small that it is put together chemically. The scientists used a chemical process to attach carbon-based molecules to gold. The process creates molecule-sized openings that carry electricity. The molecules also chemically form a molecule-sized device that controls electrical current. Releasing and stopping electrical current permits electronic processors to move and store information. This simple ability to start and stop electrical current forms the language used by most computers. VOICE ONE: The new transistor is still being developed. However, researchers at Bell Labs have already connected together several of the transistors into a circuit. They also say the chemical process for creating the transistors appears to work well. Yet the new extremely small transistors may be too small. One scientist at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories worries that connecting so many molecule-sized devices together would prove to be almost impossible. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson, Mario Ritter and George Grow. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-19-3-1.cfm
* Headline: For Young People
* Byline: 

 Adults aren't the only ones enjoying our programs. We also get a lot of mail from schoolchildren. Our program AMERICAN MOSAIC is written for teenagers. Each week we talk about things like music, movies and television in America. We also talk about popular literature answer questions about American life. We talk about many different subjects. Sports, superstitions, divorce, lie-detector tests -- these are just a few of the recent topics. Listeners whose questions are read on the air receive a dictionary. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - November 21, 2001: Project Mercury, Part 1
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. ((tape Cut 1: countdown & launch)) that announcement was made May fifth, nineteen-sixty-one. It was the first manned flight of Project Mercury. Today, Tony Riggs and Larry West tell about the beginning of the United States space program that carried humans into space. VOICE 2: The United States entered the space age in nineteen-forty-five, at the end of World War Two. German rocket scientists, with the support of the German government, had spent fifteen years developing rockets as weapons. Near the end of the war, Germany began firing huge rocket bombs at Britain. Called V-2 rockets, the German weapons carried a ton of explosives three-hundred-twenty kilometers. They flew as high as eighty kilometers. When the war ended, American forces found the parts for about one-hundred V-2 rockets. They brought the German rockets to America and launched sixty-six of them. VOICE 1: The army opened the V-2 launch program to American scientists at several universities. Civilian scientists used the vee-two rockets to study the earth's atmosphere. They gathered much new information and learned much about designing instruments for scientific rockets and satellites. Many of Germany's top rocket scientists came to the United States after the war. They worked with American scientists and engineers to develop and test new rockets for military and scientific use. In nineteen-fifty-six, the United States launched a Jupiter military rocket that flew more than five-thousand kilometers. VOICE 2: Military officials immediately offered to use the Jupiter to put a scientific satellite into orbit around the earth. But the American government said no. Officials decided not to mix military and civilian rocket programs. The United States said it would not launch a scientific satellite until a non-military rocket -- the Vanguard -- could be completed to carry it into space. Navy scientists were building the Vanguard for scientific purposes. They planned to launch it in nineteen-fifty-eight. The twenty-two-meter-long rocket would put a little scientific satellite into orbit as one of the events of the international geophysical year. The satellite itself would weigh less than two kilograms. But it would contain many tiny electronic instruments for scientific research. VOICE 1: Soviet scientists also were working on rockets and satellites. In nineteen-fifty-seven, a soviet military rocket carried a small satellite into earth orbit. The eighty-three kilogram satellite, called Sputnik, had two radios that sent signals as it circled the world. One month later, a larger Sputnik was launched with a dog inside. The dog survived the launch. But there was no way to return it to earth. So it died in space. A few months later, the Soviet Union put a one-thousand three-hundred-sixty kilogram satellite into space. VOICE 2: The Soviet successes with its Sputnik satellites caused the United States to change its space plans. Officials decided to launch the Vanguard as soon as possible. The attempt was made on December sixth, soon after the first two Sputnik launches. The attempt failed. The rocket exploded during the launch. Less than two months later, however, the United States put its first satellite into orbit. The rocket was an army Jupiter. The satellite was explorer one. It weighed only fourteen kilograms. But it carried a great many electronic instruments for scientific research. The instruments reported much new information about conditions in space. The most important was the discovery of a belt of radiation around the earth. It was what we now call the Van Allen Belt. VOICE 1: Support was growing, in Congress and among scientists, for a United States civilian space agency. Soon, Congress passed a bill creating NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. Its job: the scientific exploration of space. Its major goal: sending the first Americans into space. VOICE 2: The new space agency was given a lot of money and thousands of engineers and technicians from military and civilian agencies. Within three months, the man-in-space program had a name: Project Mercury. The name came from the ancient Greeks. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Greek gods. Much work had to be done before project Mercury could put an American astronaut into space. Dependable rockets needed to be built and tested. A spacecraft had to be designed and built. A worldwide radio system was needed to communicate with orbiting astronauts. And astronauts had to be chosen and trained. VOICE 1: To save time, NASA decided to work on all parts of the program at the same time. It placed orders for four different kinds of military rockets for Mercury flights. It chose the mcdonnell aircraft company to design and build the Mercury spacecraft. And it began to look for men who would be astronauts. NASA said its astronaut candidates had to be between twenty-five and forty years old, and in excellent health. They could be no taller than one-hundred-eighty centimeters. Candidates had to be highly intelligent, with an education in science or engineering. NASA also said the first astronauts had to be military pilots with experience in test-flying airplanes. Test pilots already were trained to make quick, correct decisions in dangerous situations. VOICE 2: One observer said in a joking way that the space agency was just looking for a group of "normal, everyday supermen. " But it was not a joke. NASA found seven normal, everyday supermen in a group of five-hundred candidates. On April seventh, nineteen-fifty-nine, the space agency introduced the first American astronauts. They were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton. All were married and had children. All were from small towns or cities. All were about the same height, weight and age. And all were experienced military test pilots. VOICE 1: Each of the new astronauts, however, brought his own special knowledge and skills to the Mercury project. Navy pilot Scott Carpenter, for example, was well-trained in communications and navigation. So he helped with Mercury's communications and navigation systems. Walter Schirra, another navy flier, was an expert on the pressure suits worn by Navy divers. He helped design the space suits that would protect the Mercury astronauts in space. VOICE 2: Air Force pilot Gordon Cooper became an expert on the Redstone rocket that would launch Mercury astronauts on short training flights. Donald Slayton, another Air Force flier, worked on the long-range atlas rocket. Marine John Glenn was an expert on airplane instruments. So he helped design easy-to-use instruments for the Mercury spacecraft. Navy pilot Alan Shepard helped plan Mercury's worldwide communication system. And Virgil Grissom, of the Air Force, worked on Mercury's electrical systems. VOICE 1: NASA made its first unmanned test flight of the Mercury spacecraft nine months after the project started. The launch was made from the space center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The flight tested the heat shield. The shield protected the spacecraft from the great heat produced when it returned through the earth's atmosphere. Many other unmanned test flights followed in the next two years. The final test flight was made at the end of January, nineteen-sixty-one. It carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Several problems developed. But Ham survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. However, he never wanted to get close to a space capsule again. VOICE 2: Space officials announced that astronaut Alan Shepard would become the first American in space. He would be launched early in May, nineteen-sixty-one, on a short, fifteen-minute flight. That will be our story next week. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to EXPLORATIONS-- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. It was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and Frank Beardsley. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week to the second part of the story of the Mercury program that took the first American astronauts into space. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 22, 2001: Calvin Coolidge
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I tell about Calvin Coolidge and how he became president of the United States. VOICE 2: The early nineteen-twenties were a troubled time for the United States. Congress and the public began to discover crimes by several officials in the administration of President Warren Harding. Harding himself became seriously sick during a trip to Alaska and western states. He died in a hotel room in California in August nineteen-twenty-three. Harding's vice president, Calvin Coolidge, became the new president. Both men were Republicans. Their policies on issues were much the same. Coolidge, however, was a very different man. He was completely honest. He was the kind of president the country needed to re-build public trust in the government. VOICE 1: Calvin Coolidge was quiet and plain-looking. He was the son of a farmer and political leader from the small northeastern state of Vermont. Young Calvin worked at different jobs to pay for his college education. He became a lawyer. He moved to another northeastern state -- Massachusetts -- where he became active in Republican Party politics. First he was elected mayor of the town. Then he was elected to the state legislature. Finally he was elected governor of Massachusetts. It was as governor that Coolidge first became known throughout the United States. VOICE 2: In nineteen-nineteen, a group of policemen in the city of Boston tried to start a labor union. This violated the rules of the police department. So the commissioner of police suspended nineteen of the union's leaders. The next day, almost seventy-five percent of Boston's policemen went on strike. Criminals walked freely through the city for two nights. They robbed stores and threatened public safety. Frightened Americans all across the country waited to see what Governor Coolidge would do. VOICE 1: He took strong action. He called on state troops to end the strike. He said: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by any body, any where, any time. " Most Americans approved of what Coolidge did. The people of Massachusetts supported him, too. They re-elected him governor by a large number of votes. Then, in nineteen-twenty, Republicans nominated Warren Harding for president. They nominated Calvin Coolidge for vice president. When President Harding died in California, Coolidge, his wife, and two sons moved to the White House. VOICE 2: America's thirtieth president was, in some ways, an unusual kind of person to lead the country. He said little. He showed few feelings. Coolidge's policies as president were not active. He tried to start as few new programs as possible. He was a conservative Republican who believed deeply that government should be small. Coolidge expressed his belief this way: "If the federal government should go out of existence, most people would not note the difference. " And once he said: "Four-fifths of our troubles in this life would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still." VOICE 1: Coolidge believed that private business -- not the federal government -- should lead the country to greater wealth and happiness. He continued President Harding's policy of supporting American business both inside the United States and in other countries. The government under President Coolidge continued high taxes on imports in an effort to help American companies. VOICE 2: Many Americans shared Coolidge's ideas about small government and big business. In the early nineteen-twenties, many of them were living better than ever before. At that time, companies were growing larger. The prices of their stocks rose higher and higher. There were lots of jobs. And the wages of many workers increased. Americans agreed with their president that there was little need for government spending and government programs, when private industry seemed so strong. VOICE 1: The American economy grew in the nineteen-twenties for several reasons. The world war had destroyed many factories and businesses in Europe. The United States did not suffer the same destruction. It was still a young country. It had great natural resources, trained workers, and a huge market within its own borders. When peace came, Americans found their economy stronger than any other in the world. VOICE 2: Changes in the American market also helped economic growth. "Installment buying" became popular. In this system, people could buy a product and pay for it over a period of several weeks or months. The total cost was higher, because they had to pay interest. But the system made it possible for more people to buy more goods. It also made the idea of borrowing money more acceptable to many Americans. VOICE 1: The growing importance of the New York stock markets also helped economic growth in the nineteen-twenties. Millions of Americans bought shares of stock in companies that seemed to grow bigger every month. Such investment almost became a national game. People would buy shares of stock, then sell them when the stock rose in value. There were many stories of poor people who became rich overnight by buying the right stocks. The American Congress also helped the economy by lowering income taxes. People had more money to spend on new goods. Another important reason for economic growth was a change in the way American companies were operated. VOICE 2: During the nineteen-twenties, the idea of manufacturing goods in the most scientific way became very popular. The father of this idea of "scientific management" was an engineer, Frederick Taylor. Mr. Taylor developed a system to study manufacturing. He studied each machine involved in the process. He studied how much work each person did. He studied how goods moved from one part of a factory to another. Then he offered ideas to business owners about ways to produce goods faster and for less cost. VOICE 1: Taylor's ideas of scientific management appealed to business owners. Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford proved that the ideas could work in his new car factory in the state of Michigan. Ford used the assembly line system of production. In this system, each worker did one thing to a product as it moved through the factory. This helped cut prices and increase wages. VOICE 2: Ford and other businessmen learned a great deal about how to control costs, set prices, and decide how much to produce. All these changes in production and marketing helped Ford and other American companies grow larger and stronger. Henry Ford's Model-T car became popular throughout the country. So did other new products. Radios. Refrigerators for cooling food. Vacuums to clean carpets. Ready-made cigarettes. Beauty products. Americans in the nineteen-twenties began to buy all kinds of new products they had never used before. VOICE 1: Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. However, business led the nation. Times were good. Americans trusted business and its leaders. It became an honor to call someone a businessman. Colleges organized business classes. Middle-class citizens in almost every city and town gathered to discuss business ideas. President Coolidge spoke for millions of Americans when he said: "the chief business of the American people is business. " VOICE 2: Coolidge represented traditional values and a simple way of life. He knew exactly how every dollar he earned was saved or spent. And he spent no more money than was necessary. The strange thing was that coolidge was extremely popular with a public that was spending large amounts of money. Some economic experts warned that the country's quick economic growth would end in economic depression. Most Americans, however, believed that the good times had come to stay. They enjoyed the good things in life that work and success in business could bring. On our next program, we will see how the economic growth of the nineteen-twenties brought exciting changes to the day-to-day life of millions of Americans. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Join us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. This is Shirley Griffith. Today, Steve Ember and I tell about Calvin Coolidge and how he became president of the United States. VOICE 2: The early nineteen-twenties were a troubled time for the United States. Congress and the public began to discover crimes by several officials in the administration of President Warren Harding. Harding himself became seriously sick during a trip to Alaska and western states. He died in a hotel room in California in August nineteen-twenty-three. Harding's vice president, Calvin Coolidge, became the new president. Both men were Republicans. Their policies on issues were much the same. Coolidge, however, was a very different man. He was completely honest. He was the kind of president the country needed to re-build public trust in the government. VOICE 1: Calvin Coolidge was quiet and plain-looking. He was the son of a farmer and political leader from the small northeastern state of Vermont. Young Calvin worked at different jobs to pay for his college education. He became a lawyer. He moved to another northeastern state -- Massachusetts -- where he became active in Republican Party politics. First he was elected mayor of the town. Then he was elected to the state legislature. Finally he was elected governor of Massachusetts. It was as governor that Coolidge first became known throughout the United States. VOICE 2: In nineteen-nineteen, a group of policemen in the city of Boston tried to start a labor union. This violated the rules of the police department. So the commissioner of police suspended nineteen of the union's leaders. The next day, almost seventy-five percent of Boston's policemen went on strike. Criminals walked freely through the city for two nights. They robbed stores and threatened public safety. Frightened Americans all across the country waited to see what Governor Coolidge would do. VOICE 1: He took strong action. He called on state troops to end the strike. He said: "There is no right to strike against the public safety by any body, any where, any time. " Most Americans approved of what Coolidge did. The people of Massachusetts supported him, too. They re-elected him governor by a large number of votes. Then, in nineteen-twenty, Republicans nominated Warren Harding for president. They nominated Calvin Coolidge for vice president. When President Harding died in California, Coolidge, his wife, and two sons moved to the White House. VOICE 2: America's thirtieth president was, in some ways, an unusual kind of person to lead the country. He said little. He showed few feelings. Coolidge's policies as president were not active. He tried to start as few new programs as possible. He was a conservative Republican who believed deeply that government should be small. Coolidge expressed his belief this way: "If the federal government should go out of existence, most people would not note the difference. " And once he said: "Four-fifths of our troubles in this life would disappear if we would only sit down and keep still." VOICE 1: Coolidge believed that private business -- not the federal government -- should lead the country to greater wealth and happiness. He continued President Harding's policy of supporting American business both inside the United States and in other countries. The government under President Coolidge continued high taxes on imports in an effort to help American companies. VOICE 2: Many Americans shared Coolidge's ideas about small government and big business. In the early nineteen-twenties, many of them were living better than ever before. At that time, companies were growing larger. The prices of their stocks rose higher and higher. There were lots of jobs. And the wages of many workers increased. Americans agreed with their president that there was little need for government spending and government programs, when private industry seemed so strong. VOICE 1: The American economy grew in the nineteen-twenties for several reasons. The world war had destroyed many factories and businesses in Europe. The United States did not suffer the same destruction. It was still a young country. It had great natural resources, trained workers, and a huge market within its own borders. When peace came, Americans found their economy stronger than any other in the world. VOICE 2: Changes in the American market also helped economic growth. "Installment buying" became popular. In this system, people could buy a product and pay for it over a period of several weeks or months. The total cost was higher, because they had to pay interest. But the system made it possible for more people to buy more goods. It also made the idea of borrowing money more acceptable to many Americans. VOICE 1: The growing importance of the New York stock markets also helped economic growth in the nineteen-twenties. Millions of Americans bought shares of stock in companies that seemed to grow bigger every month. Such investment almost became a national game. People would buy shares of stock, then sell them when the stock rose in value. There were many stories of poor people who became rich overnight by buying the right stocks. The American Congress also helped the economy by lowering income taxes. People had more money to spend on new goods. Another important reason for economic growth was a change in the way American companies were operated. VOICE 2: During the nineteen-twenties, the idea of manufacturing goods in the most scientific way became very popular. The father of this idea of "scientific management" was an engineer, Frederick Taylor. Mr. Taylor developed a system to study manufacturing. He studied each machine involved in the process. He studied how much work each person did. He studied how goods moved from one part of a factory to another. Then he offered ideas to business owners about ways to produce goods faster and for less cost. VOICE 1: Taylor's ideas of scientific management appealed to business owners. Automobile manufacturer Henry Ford proved that the ideas could work in his new car factory in the state of Michigan. Ford used the assembly line system of production. In this system, each worker did one thing to a product as it moved through the factory. This helped cut prices and increase wages. VOICE 2: Ford and other businessmen learned a great deal about how to control costs, set prices, and decide how much to produce. All these changes in production and marketing helped Ford and other American companies grow larger and stronger. Henry Ford's Model-T car became popular throughout the country. So did other new products. Radios. Refrigerators for cooling food. Vacuums to clean carpets. Ready-made cigarettes. Beauty products. Americans in the nineteen-twenties began to buy all kinds of new products they had never used before. VOICE 1: Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. However, business led the nation. Times were good. Americans trusted business and its leaders. It became an honor to call someone a businessman. Colleges organized business classes. Middle-class citizens in almost every city and town gathered to discuss business ideas. President Coolidge spoke for millions of Americans when he said: "the chief business of the American people is business. " VOICE 2: Coolidge represented traditional values and a simple way of life. He knew exactly how every dollar he earned was saved or spent. And he spent no more money than was necessary. The strange thing was that coolidge was extremely popular with a public that was spending large amounts of money. Some economic experts warned that the country's quick economic growth would end in economic depression. Most Americans, however, believed that the good times had come to stay. They enjoyed the good things in life that work and success in business could bring. On our next program, we will see how the economic growth of the nineteen-twenties brought exciting changes to the day-to-day life of millions of Americans. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to the VOA Special English program THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your announcers were Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember. Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Join us again next week at this same time for another report about the history of the United States. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – November 22, 2001: Vitamins for Vision Loss
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. A new study shows that large amounts of vitamins and minerals can slow the loss of sight linked to aging. The condition is called age related macular degeneration or A-M-D. The disease is a major cause of blindness among old people. Doctors do not know what causes it. The disease destroys the central part of the retina, the cells at the back of the eye that gather light. The first sign of A-M-D usually is a loss of visual clearness. People with the disease have trouble reading, driving and recognizing faces. They cannot see clearly through the center of their eyes. They must look at things from the sides of their eyes. Over time, A-M-D can cause blindness. The National Eye Institute carried out the six-year study. Almost five-thousand people in eleven areas of the United States took part. They were between the ages of fifty-five and eighty. Some of the people had more severe forms of the disease than others. The researchers tested a combination of large amounts of vitamins and minerals. Some people in the study were given the mineral zinc. Others took the vitamins C, E and beta-carotene. A third group received both the zinc and the vitamins. The remaining people took inactive substances called placebos. The people in the study were in three groups, based on the severity of their disease. The researchers compared the vision abilities and other conditions of the patients after five years of treatment. Their findings were published in the Archives of Ophthalmology. The scientists say the combination of vitamins and zinc had no effect on patients with the least severe form of A-M-D. However, they say the vitamins and zinc helped people with more serious A-M-D. The treatment cut the risk of developing the most severe form of A-M-D by about twenty-five percent. The vitamins and zinc also prevented some vision loss for those patients already suffering severe A-M-D. The patients taking zinc or vitamins separately also were helped but not as much as those taking both. Earlier studies had shown that people who eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables containing important vitamins are at lower risk of developing the eye disease. This V-O-A Special English Science Report was written by Caty Weaver. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-22-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 23, 2001
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some award-winning country music ... answer a question about Muslims in the United States ... and report about a historic museum in the southeastern state of North Carolina. Wright Brothers Museum HOST: Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright will always be remembered in history as the inventors of modern flight. They made the world’s first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Shep O’Neal tells us more about the brothers and a memorial that honors their success. ANNCR: The Wright brothers did most of their research and test flights on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was a place with strong winds, hills from which to launch their flying machines and a soft place to land. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled powered flight in history on December Seventeenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. They carried out four tests in their first airplane they called the Wright Flyer. The first flight traveled thirty-seven meters and lasted twelve seconds. The longest and most historic test flight flew two-hundred-sixty meters and lasted fifty-nine seconds. Visitors to the Outer Banks in North Carolina can see a memorial to the Wright brothers. It is built on the same fields where they did their research. An eighteen-meter high rock memorial was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. It sits on top of Kill Devil Hill. The brothers used this sand hill for more than one-thousand test flights. Two other buildings near Kill Devil Hill show how the Wright brothers lived while doing their research. One building shows where they ate, slept, and built test equipment. The other is similar to the place where they kept their flying machines. A large rock near the memorial marks where the Wright Flyer first left the ground. Numbered signs show the landing points for the first four historic test flights. Following those tests, the Wright Flyer was damaged by the wind. It never flew again. However, a model of the plane is in the visitors center at Kill Devil Hill. Today, the real Nineteen-Oh-Three Wright Flyer belongs to the Smithsonian Institution. It is hanging in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. Islam in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia. Suherman Rosyidi asks about Islam and Muslims in the United States. There are more than one-thousand-million people around the world who are Muslims. They practice the religion Islam. About six-million Muslims live in the United States. Only about one in five Muslims in the world are Arabs. Yet some people from the Middle East are having a difficult time in the United States since the terrorist attacks September eleventh. The men responsible for the attacks were Arab. They were part of the Muslim al-Qaeda group led by Osama bin Laden. He is Muslim and has declared a holy war against the United States and the West. Some Americans believed that all Muslims agreed with what the terrorists did. Because of this, many Muslims and other people from the Middle East have said they are being treated unfairly in the United States. For example, the newspaper USA Today reported that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received about seventy charges by Muslim workers. The commission says forty of those charges involve workers saying they were wrongly dismissed from their jobs. Some workers say the reason they are being treated this way is because of their religion or nationality. After the terrorist attacks, President Bush told Americans not to blame all Muslim people for the acts of a few. He said the United States-led war in Afghanistan is against terrorism, not Islam. However, the United States government has begun to use unusual measures to find and stop future terrorists. Last week, the State Department said it will carry out increased investigations of Arab and Muslim men seeking permission to come to the United States. The Justice Department said it will question more than five-thousand young men. The young men are in the United States as visitors from countries where terrorist groups are active. Civil rights groups and groups representing Arab-Americans have expressed concern about this. They want to make sure that people are not treated differently because of their religion or nationality. However, not all Muslims in America have reported unfair treatment since the September attacks. Some say the tragedy has given them a chance to educate other Americans about their religion. And they are able to show that Islam does not agree with what the terrorists did. Country Music Association Awards HOST: The Country Music Association held its yearly awards ceremony earlier this month at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Shirley Griffith plays music by some of the award winners. ANNCR: The Country Music Association honored Lee Ann Womack with her first Female Singer of the Year Award. Mizz Womack was emotional as she thanked the crowd at the Grand Ole Opry. She told them she thought her chance for the award had passed. Here is Lee Ann Womack singing “Thinkin’ With My Heart Again.” ((CUT ONE: "THINKIN' WITH MY HEART AGAIN")) The Country Music Association presented songwriters Larry Cordle and Larry Shell with the award for Song of the Year. Their winning song criticizes the music industry. It says producers are destroying the traditions of country music. Larry Cordle and his band Lonesome Standard Time perform “Murder on Music Row.” (CUT TWO: "MURDER ON MUSIC ROW")) A collection of music from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” won Album of the Year. The movie takes place in the United States during the Nineteen-Thirties. It includes traditional country songs by several performers. The awards also honored The Soggy Bottom Boys, a group of musicians in the movie. We leave you now with their performance of the song that was named Single of the Year, “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow”. ((CUT THREE: "I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC —VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This is Doug Johnson. On our program today: We play some award-winning country music ... answer a question about Muslims in the United States ... and report about a historic museum in the southeastern state of North Carolina. Wright Brothers Museum HOST: Americans Orville and Wilbur Wright will always be remembered in history as the inventors of modern flight. They made the world’s first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Shep O’Neal tells us more about the brothers and a memorial that honors their success. ANNCR: The Wright brothers did most of their research and test flights on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was a place with strong winds, hills from which to launch their flying machines and a soft place to land. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled powered flight in history on December Seventeenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. They carried out four tests in their first airplane they called the Wright Flyer. The first flight traveled thirty-seven meters and lasted twelve seconds. The longest and most historic test flight flew two-hundred-sixty meters and lasted fifty-nine seconds. Visitors to the Outer Banks in North Carolina can see a memorial to the Wright brothers. It is built on the same fields where they did their research. An eighteen-meter high rock memorial was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Two. It sits on top of Kill Devil Hill. The brothers used this sand hill for more than one-thousand test flights. Two other buildings near Kill Devil Hill show how the Wright brothers lived while doing their research. One building shows where they ate, slept, and built test equipment. The other is similar to the place where they kept their flying machines. A large rock near the memorial marks where the Wright Flyer first left the ground. Numbered signs show the landing points for the first four historic test flights. Following those tests, the Wright Flyer was damaged by the wind. It never flew again. However, a model of the plane is in the visitors center at Kill Devil Hill. Today, the real Nineteen-Oh-Three Wright Flyer belongs to the Smithsonian Institution. It is hanging in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. Islam in the United States HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Indonesia. Suherman Rosyidi asks about Islam and Muslims in the United States. There are more than one-thousand-million people around the world who are Muslims. They practice the religion Islam. About six-million Muslims live in the United States. Only about one in five Muslims in the world are Arabs. Yet some people from the Middle East are having a difficult time in the United States since the terrorist attacks September eleventh. The men responsible for the attacks were Arab. They were part of the Muslim al-Qaeda group led by Osama bin Laden. He is Muslim and has declared a holy war against the United States and the West. Some Americans believed that all Muslims agreed with what the terrorists did. Because of this, many Muslims and other people from the Middle East have said they are being treated unfairly in the United States. For example, the newspaper USA Today reported that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received about seventy charges by Muslim workers. The commission says forty of those charges involve workers saying they were wrongly dismissed from their jobs. Some workers say the reason they are being treated this way is because of their religion or nationality. After the terrorist attacks, President Bush told Americans not to blame all Muslim people for the acts of a few. He said the United States-led war in Afghanistan is against terrorism, not Islam. However, the United States government has begun to use unusual measures to find and stop future terrorists. Last week, the State Department said it will carry out increased investigations of Arab and Muslim men seeking permission to come to the United States. The Justice Department said it will question more than five-thousand young men. The young men are in the United States as visitors from countries where terrorist groups are active. Civil rights groups and groups representing Arab-Americans have expressed concern about this. They want to make sure that people are not treated differently because of their religion or nationality. However, not all Muslims in America have reported unfair treatment since the September attacks. Some say the tragedy has given them a chance to educate other Americans about their religion. And they are able to show that Islam does not agree with what the terrorists did. Country Music Association Awards HOST: The Country Music Association held its yearly awards ceremony earlier this month at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Shirley Griffith plays music by some of the award winners. ANNCR: The Country Music Association honored Lee Ann Womack with her first Female Singer of the Year Award. Mizz Womack was emotional as she thanked the crowd at the Grand Ole Opry. She told them she thought her chance for the award had passed. Here is Lee Ann Womack singing “Thinkin’ With My Heart Again.” ((CUT ONE: "THINKIN' WITH MY HEART AGAIN")) The Country Music Association presented songwriters Larry Cordle and Larry Shell with the award for Song of the Year. Their winning song criticizes the music industry. It says producers are destroying the traditions of country music. Larry Cordle and his band Lonesome Standard Time perform “Murder on Music Row.” (CUT TWO: "MURDER ON MUSIC ROW")) A collection of music from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” won Album of the Year. The movie takes place in the United States during the Nineteen-Thirties. It includes traditional country songs by several performers. The awards also honored The Soggy Bottom Boys, a group of musicians in the movie. We leave you now with their performance of the song that was named Single of the Year, “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow”. ((CUT THREE: "I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW")) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC —VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss, Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-22-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 23, 2001: Population and the Environment
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new report says the growing population around the world is harming the environment. More people are using more of the Earth’s natural resources than ever before. Experts say poor people around the world will suffer most in the future unless environmental damage is stopped. They say more should be done to balance human and environmental needs. The United Nations Population Fund is responsible for studying population growth. It released the report about the subject earlier this month. The report is called the State of the World Population, Two-Thousand-One. It examines the links among environmental conditions, population growth and efforts to help poor people in developing countries. The world’s population is now more than six-thousand-million people. That number has increased by one-hundred percent since Nineteen-Sixty. The population is expected to increase to more than nine-thousand-million by the year Two-Thousand-Fifty. The report says about two-thousand-million people lack food security. Water supplies and agricultural lands are heavily used. In fifty years, experts say more than four-thousand million people will be living in countries that can not meet people’s daily needs. The report says all of the expected growth in world population will take place in developing countries. The forty-nine least developed countries are expected to increase by almost two-hundred percent in fifty years. Yet, the U-N agency says people in the richest countries use much more of the world’s resources than people in developing countries. It says a child born today in the United States, France or Japan will do more harm to the environment during his lifetime than as many as fifty children born in developing countries. The U-N Population Fund says international policies need to be put into effect to improve poor conditions, increase social development and ease pressure on the environment. It also says women need more control over their lives. It says empowering women would lead to smaller families and slower population growth. The U-N Population Fund says these measures would help improve the well being of growing populations while protecting the natural world. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-23-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - November 26, 2001: Kennedy Center Honors
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D-C. will honor five famous entertainers on December Second. They will be recognized for many years of excellence in the performing arts. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. We tell about the winners of this year's Kennedy Center Honors on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Next Sunday, America's national cultural arts center will celebrate the artistic work of five famous performers. The lights of the Kennedy Center will shine on opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, actress Julie Andrews and pianist Van Cliburn. Music writer and producer Quincy Jones and actor Jack Nicholson also will be honored. VOICE TWO: Luciano Pavarotti is one of the performers being honored. He is sixty-six years old. During forty years as an opera singer, he has performed in almost every major opera and concert hall in the world. He also has sung in sports centers and public parks in an effort to bring opera to more people. And he has appeared in many operas broadcast on television. Mister Pavarotti was born In Modena, Italy. He first sang in public as a child with the Modena Choir. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, he got his first job as a paid singer. He performed the part of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's opera "La Boheme." Soon he was singing this part all over Italy. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five Mister Pavarotti sang for the first time at La Scala in Milan, Italy. He appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for the first time three years later. Critics praised the warmth and beauty of his high tenor voice. Today, Luciano Pavarotti has sold more records than any other classical music performer. He also has recorded many popular songs. In recent years Mister Pavarotti has appeared in concerts with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. The three famous singers are known as "The Three Tenors." Music lovers keep requesting more of these concerts. Here, Luciano Pavarotti sings music from the first opera in which he appeared - "La Boheme." ((CUT ONE: CHE GELIDA MANINA)) VOICE ONE: Julie Andrews has won many honors in American musical theater, films and television. She was born in Walton-on-Thames, England sixty-six years ago. Miss Andrews first performed in London in Nineteen-Forty-Six, at age eleven. She also sang with her father on British Broadcasting Corporation radio programs. Before age twenty, she was on her way to the musical theater in New York City. Julie Andrews first appeared on Broadway in "The Boy Friend." She was an immediate success. Her next musical was "My Fair Lady," for which she won the New York Drama Critics Award. Mizz Andrews later appeared in successful films like "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music." She also appeared in musical television programs like "Cinderella." Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote this show for her. In recent years she starred in both the movie and Broadway musical "Victor/Victoria." Here Julie Andrews sings "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music." ((CUT TWO: MY FAVORITE THINGS)) VOICE TWO: Critics say Van Cliburn is one of the greatest piano performers in history. He has served as a musical ambassador, bringing American culture to other nations. He also established the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition to support young musicians. It is held in Fort Worth Texas every four years. And Mister Cliburn continues to perform. Currently he is playing concerts throughout the United States. Van Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in Nineteen-Thirty-Four. By age twelve he had won every major local piano competition. He first appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. Four years later Mister Cliburn won the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. That was during the height of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. He became an American hero. He was the first musician honored with a parade in New York City. Later Mister Cliburn recorded the music he played when he won the competition. His recordings of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Number One have sold millions of copies. ((CUT THREE: PIANO CONCERTO NUMBER ONE)) VOICE ONE: Quincy Jones was born in Nineteen-Thirty-Three in Chicago, Illinois. Today he is recognized for influencing music in many ways. His honors include twenty-six Grammy Awards for recorded music and a historic seventy-six nominations. By age thirteen, the young Quincy Jones had tried all the musical instruments in his school band. Another young man who was to become a famous musician was his best friend. Together, Ray Charles and Quincy Jones made all kinds of music. Mister Jones has continued that tradition of playing, writing and producing all kinds of music. His musical creations include hip hop, jazz, classical, soul and African and Brazilian music. He has written the music for thirty-three films and a number of television programs. Mister Jones has written music for artists like Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Count Basie and Cannonball Adderly. In Nineteen-Eighty-Two, he and Michael Jackson made an album called "Thriller." It sold more than thirty-million copies. Quincy Jones also produced a recording by a group of famous performers called "We Are the World." It sold more copies than any other single recording ever made. In addition to music, Quincy Jones is a lifelong activist for civil rights. He wrote this song, "Free at Last? (The Civil War)" for the television drama "Roots". ((CUT FOUR: FREE AT LAST? [THE CIVIL WAR])) VOICE TWO: Jack Nicholson has been a major film actor for more than thirty years. He is known especially for playing men who rebel against traditional values and established rules. Mister Nicholson has won three Academy Awards and received eleven other nominations. Many artistic organizations have named him "Best Actor." They include the Cannes Film Festival and the National Society of Film Critics. Jack Nicholson was born in Neptune, New Jersey in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. As a young man, he moved to Los Angeles, California to study acting. He appeared in his first movie in Nineteen-Fifty-Eight. For ten years after that, he appeared in low-budget criminal and monster movies. Jack Nicholson became a star in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine after acting in the film "Easy Rider." Then he gained more success in "Five Easy Pieces" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Over the years he has won praise for playing many kinds of characters. In movies like "Reds" and "A Few Good Men" he played serious parts. In movies like "Batman" he made people laugh. In "The Shining" he made people frightened. Jack Nicholson also has written, produced and directed films. But he says, "I love to act. I just love the work." VOICE ONE: Luciano Pavarotti, Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones and Jack Nicholson are all special performers. The Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their special gifts with people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D-C. will honor five famous entertainers on December Second. They will be recognized for many years of excellence in the performing arts. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. We tell about the winners of this year's Kennedy Center Honors on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Next Sunday, America's national cultural arts center will celebrate the artistic work of five famous performers. The lights of the Kennedy Center will shine on opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, actress Julie Andrews and pianist Van Cliburn. Music writer and producer Quincy Jones and actor Jack Nicholson also will be honored. VOICE TWO: Luciano Pavarotti is one of the performers being honored. He is sixty-six years old. During forty years as an opera singer, he has performed in almost every major opera and concert hall in the world. He also has sung in sports centers and public parks in an effort to bring opera to more people. And he has appeared in many operas broadcast on television. Mister Pavarotti was born In Modena, Italy. He first sang in public as a child with the Modena Choir. In Nineteen-Sixty-One, he got his first job as a paid singer. He performed the part of Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's opera "La Boheme." Soon he was singing this part all over Italy. In Nineteen-Sixty-Five Mister Pavarotti sang for the first time at La Scala in Milan, Italy. He appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for the first time three years later. Critics praised the warmth and beauty of his high tenor voice. Today, Luciano Pavarotti has sold more records than any other classical music performer. He also has recorded many popular songs. In recent years Mister Pavarotti has appeared in concerts with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. The three famous singers are known as "The Three Tenors." Music lovers keep requesting more of these concerts. Here, Luciano Pavarotti sings music from the first opera in which he appeared - "La Boheme." ((CUT ONE: CHE GELIDA MANINA)) VOICE ONE: Julie Andrews has won many honors in American musical theater, films and television. She was born in Walton-on-Thames, England sixty-six years ago. Miss Andrews first performed in London in Nineteen-Forty-Six, at age eleven. She also sang with her father on British Broadcasting Corporation radio programs. Before age twenty, she was on her way to the musical theater in New York City. Julie Andrews first appeared on Broadway in "The Boy Friend." She was an immediate success. Her next musical was "My Fair Lady," for which she won the New York Drama Critics Award. Mizz Andrews later appeared in successful films like "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music." She also appeared in musical television programs like "Cinderella." Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote this show for her. In recent years she starred in both the movie and Broadway musical "Victor/Victoria." Here Julie Andrews sings "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music." ((CUT TWO: MY FAVORITE THINGS)) VOICE TWO: Critics say Van Cliburn is one of the greatest piano performers in history. He has served as a musical ambassador, bringing American culture to other nations. He also established the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition to support young musicians. It is held in Fort Worth Texas every four years. And Mister Cliburn continues to perform. Currently he is playing concerts throughout the United States. Van Cliburn was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in Nineteen-Thirty-Four. By age twelve he had won every major local piano competition. He first appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York City in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. Four years later Mister Cliburn won the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. That was during the height of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. He became an American hero. He was the first musician honored with a parade in New York City. Later Mister Cliburn recorded the music he played when he won the competition. His recordings of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto Number One have sold millions of copies. ((CUT THREE: PIANO CONCERTO NUMBER ONE)) VOICE ONE: Quincy Jones was born in Nineteen-Thirty-Three in Chicago, Illinois. Today he is recognized for influencing music in many ways. His honors include twenty-six Grammy Awards for recorded music and a historic seventy-six nominations. By age thirteen, the young Quincy Jones had tried all the musical instruments in his school band. Another young man who was to become a famous musician was his best friend. Together, Ray Charles and Quincy Jones made all kinds of music. Mister Jones has continued that tradition of playing, writing and producing all kinds of music. His musical creations include hip hop, jazz, classical, soul and African and Brazilian music. He has written the music for thirty-three films and a number of television programs. Mister Jones has written music for artists like Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Count Basie and Cannonball Adderly. In Nineteen-Eighty-Two, he and Michael Jackson made an album called "Thriller." It sold more than thirty-million copies. Quincy Jones also produced a recording by a group of famous performers called "We Are the World." It sold more copies than any other single recording ever made. In addition to music, Quincy Jones is a lifelong activist for civil rights. He wrote this song, "Free at Last? (The Civil War)" for the television drama "Roots". ((CUT FOUR: FREE AT LAST? [THE CIVIL WAR])) VOICE TWO: Jack Nicholson has been a major film actor for more than thirty years. He is known especially for playing men who rebel against traditional values and established rules. Mister Nicholson has won three Academy Awards and received eleven other nominations. Many artistic organizations have named him "Best Actor." They include the Cannes Film Festival and the National Society of Film Critics. Jack Nicholson was born in Neptune, New Jersey in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. As a young man, he moved to Los Angeles, California to study acting. He appeared in his first movie in Nineteen-Fifty-Eight. For ten years after that, he appeared in low-budget criminal and monster movies. Jack Nicholson became a star in Nineteen-Sixty-Nine after acting in the film "Easy Rider." Then he gained more success in "Five Easy Pieces" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Over the years he has won praise for playing many kinds of characters. In movies like "Reds" and "A Few Good Men" he played serious parts. In movies like "Batman" he made people laugh. In "The Shining" he made people frightened. Jack Nicholson also has written, produced and directed films. But he says, "I love to act. I just love the work." VOICE ONE: Luciano Pavarotti, Julie Andrews, Van Cliburn, Quincy Jones and Jack Nicholson are all special performers. The Kennedy Center will honor them for sharing their special gifts with people around the world. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. I'm Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-23-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - November 25, 2001: Ralph Waldo Emerson
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of Nineteenth Century philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE ONE: The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation's politics, Emerson did for its culture. When he began writing and speaking in the Eighteen-Thirties, conservatives saw him as radical -- wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence -- a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson's life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers -- Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. He once said that the shortest books are those about the lives of people with great minds. Emerson was not speaking about himself. Yet his own life proves the thought. VOICE ONE: Emerson was born in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts, in Eighteen-Oh-Three. Boston was then the capital of learning in the United States. Emerson's father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eleven years old, his father died. Missus Emerson was left with very little money to raise her five sons. After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson's aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. VOICE TWO: Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University. For a few years, he taught in a girls' school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Thirty-One, Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as the minister of his church because of a minor religious issue. What really troubled him was something else. It was his growing belief that a person could find God without the help of an organized church. He believed that God is not found in systems and words, but in the minds of people. He said that God in us worships God. Emerson travelled to Europe the following year. He talked about his ideas with the best-known European writers and thinkers of his time. When he returned to the United States, he married and settled in Concord. Then he began his life as a writer and speaker. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book, Nature, in Eighteen-Thirty-Six. It made conservatives see him as a revolutionary. But students at Harvard University liked the book and invited him to speak to them. His speech, "The American Scholar," created great excitement among the students. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence -- a declaration of the independence of the mind. VOICE ONE: "Give me an understanding of today's world," he told them, "and you may have the worlds of the past and the future. Show me where God is hidden...as always...in nature. What is near explains what is far. A drop of water is a small ocean. Each of us is a part of all of nature." Emerson said a sign of the times was the new importance given to each person. "The world," he said, "is nothing. The person is all. In yourself is the law of all nature." Emerson urged students to learn directly from life. He told them, "Life is our dictionary." VOICE TWO: The following year, Emerson was invited to speak to students and teachers at the Harvard religious school. In his speech, he called for moral and spiritual rebirth. But his words shocked members of Harvard's traditional Christian church. He said churches treated religion as if God were dead. "Let mankind stand forevermore," he said, "as a temple returned to greatness by new love, new faith, new sight." Church members who heard him speak called him a man who did not believe in God. Almost thirty years passed before Harvard invited Emerson to speak there again. VOICE ONE: Away from Harvard, Emerson's speeches became more and more popular. He was able to make his living by writing and speaking. "Do you understand Mister Emerson?" a Boston woman asked her servant. "Not a word," the servant answered. "But I like to go and see him speak. He stands up there and looks as if he thought everyone was as good as he was." Many people, especially the young, did understand Emerson. His ideas seemed right for a new country just beginning to enjoy its independence -- a country expanding in all directions. Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done. VOICE TWO: In a speech called "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson told his listeners, "Believe your own thoughts, believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men." Emerson said society urges us to act carefully. This, he said, restricts our freedom of action. "It is always easy to agree," he said. "Yet nothing is more holy than the independence of your own mind. Let a person know his own value. Have no regrets. Nothing can bring you peace but yourselves." VOICE ONE: The Eighteen-Fifties were not a peaceful time for America. The nation was divided by a bitter argument about slavery. Most people in the South defended slavery. They believed the agricultural economy of the South depended on Negro slaves. Most people in the North condemned slavery. They believed it was wrong for one man to own another. Emerson was not interested in debates or disputes. But he was prepared to defend truth, as he saw it. Emerson believed that the slaves should be freed. But he did not take an active part in the anti-slavery movement. All his beliefs about the individual opposed the idea of group action -- even group action against slavery. As the dispute became more intense, however, Emerson finally, quietly, added his voice to the anti-slavery campaign. When one of his children wrote a school report about building a house, he said no one should build a house without a place to hide runaway slaves. VOICE TWO: Emerson's health began to fail in the early Eighteen-Seventies. His house was partly destroyed by fire. He and his wife escaped. But the shock was great. Friends gave him money to travel to Egypt with his daughter. While he was gone, they rebuilt his house. Emerson returned to Concord. But his health did not improve. He could no longer work. In April, Eighteen-Eighty-Two, he became sick with pneumonia. He died on April Twenty-Seventh. He was seventy-nine years old. VOICE ONE: Ralph Waldo Emerson's death was national news. In Concord and other places, people hung black cloth on houses and public buildings as a sign of mourning. His friends in Concord walked to the church for his funeral service. They carried branches of the pine trees that Emerson loved. After the funeral, Ralph Waldo Emerson was buried in Concord near the graves of two other important early American writers -- Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about the life of Nineteenth Century philosopher and writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE ONE: The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation's politics, Emerson did for its culture. When he began writing and speaking in the Eighteen-Thirties, conservatives saw him as radical -- wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence -- a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson's life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers -- Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. He once said that the shortest books are those about the lives of people with great minds. Emerson was not speaking about himself. Yet his own life proves the thought. VOICE ONE: Emerson was born in the northeastern city of Boston, Massachusetts, in Eighteen-Oh-Three. Boston was then the capital of learning in the United States. Emerson's father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eleven years old, his father died. Missus Emerson was left with very little money to raise her five sons. After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson's aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. VOICE TWO: Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University. For a few years, he taught in a girls' school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life. VOICE ONE: In Eighteen-Thirty-One, Ralph Waldo Emerson resigned as the minister of his church because of a minor religious issue. What really troubled him was something else. It was his growing belief that a person could find God without the help of an organized church. He believed that God is not found in systems and words, but in the minds of people. He said that God in us worships God. Emerson travelled to Europe the following year. He talked about his ideas with the best-known European writers and thinkers of his time. When he returned to the United States, he married and settled in Concord. Then he began his life as a writer and speaker. VOICE TWO: Ralph Waldo Emerson published his first book, Nature, in Eighteen-Thirty-Six. It made conservatives see him as a revolutionary. But students at Harvard University liked the book and invited him to speak to them. His speech, "The American Scholar," created great excitement among the students. They heard his words as a new declaration of independence -- a declaration of the independence of the mind. VOICE ONE: "Give me an understanding of today's world," he told them, "and you may have the worlds of the past and the future. Show me where God is hidden...as always...in nature. What is near explains what is far. A drop of water is a small ocean. Each of us is a part of all of nature." Emerson said a sign of the times was the new importance given to each person. "The world," he said, "is nothing. The person is all. In yourself is the law of all nature." Emerson urged students to learn directly from life. He told them, "Life is our dictionary." VOICE TWO: The following year, Emerson was invited to speak to students and teachers at the Harvard religious school. In his speech, he called for moral and spiritual rebirth. But his words shocked members of Harvard's traditional Christian church. He said churches treated religion as if God were dead. "Let mankind stand forevermore," he said, "as a temple returned to greatness by new love, new faith, new sight." Church members who heard him speak called him a man who did not believe in God. Almost thirty years passed before Harvard invited Emerson to speak there again. VOICE ONE: Away from Harvard, Emerson's speeches became more and more popular. He was able to make his living by writing and speaking. "Do you understand Mister Emerson?" a Boston woman asked her servant. "Not a word," the servant answered. "But I like to go and see him speak. He stands up there and looks as if he thought everyone was as good as he was." Many people, especially the young, did understand Emerson. His ideas seemed right for a new country just beginning to enjoy its independence -- a country expanding in all directions. Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done. VOICE TWO: In a speech called "Self-Reliance" Ralph Waldo Emerson told his listeners, "Believe your own thoughts, believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men." Emerson said society urges us to act carefully. This, he said, restricts our freedom of action. "It is always easy to agree," he said. "Yet nothing is more holy than the independence of your own mind. Let a person know his own value. Have no regrets. Nothing can bring you peace but yourselves." VOICE ONE: The Eighteen-Fifties were not a peaceful time for America. The nation was divided by a bitter argument about slavery. Most people in the South defended slavery. They believed the agricultural economy of the South depended on Negro slaves. Most people in the North condemned slavery. They believed it was wrong for one man to own another. Emerson was not interested in debates or disputes. But he was prepared to defend truth, as he saw it. Emerson believed that the slaves should be freed. But he did not take an active part in the anti-slavery movement. All his beliefs about the individual opposed the idea of group action -- even group action against slavery. As the dispute became more intense, however, Emerson finally, quietly, added his voice to the anti-slavery campaign. When one of his children wrote a school report about building a house, he said no one should build a house without a place to hide runaway slaves. VOICE TWO: Emerson's health began to fail in the early Eighteen-Seventies. His house was partly destroyed by fire. He and his wife escaped. But the shock was great. Friends gave him money to travel to Egypt with his daughter. While he was gone, they rebuilt his house. Emerson returned to Concord. But his health did not improve. He could no longer work. In April, Eighteen-Eighty-Two, he became sick with pneumonia. He died on April Twenty-Seventh. He was seventy-nine years old. VOICE ONE: Ralph Waldo Emerson's death was national news. In Concord and other places, people hung black cloth on houses and public buildings as a sign of mourning. His friends in Concord walked to the church for his funeral service. They carried branches of the pine trees that Emerson loved. After the funeral, Ralph Waldo Emerson was buried in Concord near the graves of two other important early American writers -- Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne. (THEME) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I’m Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-23-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – November 26, 2001: WTO Agreement on Drug Patents
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. Developing countries won a major victory at the World Trade Organization meeting earlier this month in Doha, Qatar. The battle was over the rights of poor nations to produce life-saving drugs during health emergencies. More than one-hundred-forty countries attended the Doha conference. The group finally reached an agreement after more than a week of debate. It permits developing countries to give so-called “compulsory licenses” during national health emergencies. A compulsory license requires drug manufacturers to share their inventions with competing companies. When a drug company develops a cure or treatment for a disease, it seeks special rights to make and sell the product. This special permission is called a patent. A patent prevents other companies from making the same drug for a number of years while the patent is in force. Under compulsory licenses, other companies are permitted to produce low-cost generic drugs. These are copies of costly medicines patented by large drug companies. In the past, a lack of understanding existed over the rights of developing countries to give compulsory licenses. However, this issue was settled by the Doha agreement. Developing countries are now able to give compulsory licenses when dealing with public health crises. These include AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and diseases likely to spread quickly through the population. Poor countries are not able to pay for costly drugs to treat diseases such as AIDS. So the debate over drug patents is between rich and poor countries. International drug companies in Europe and the United States oppose the Doha agreement. They say it will prevent drug companies from seeking cures for diseases that affect the poor. Drug companies say they are forced to charge high prices for medicines to pay for the high cost of their research. Drug patents are important because they help companies recover money spent developing new medicines. Developing countries, such as India, Brazil and South Africa, support the Doha agreement. They say poor nations should be able to produce or import less costly generic drugs in times of health crises. They say the goal is to reduce the cost of drugs to treat diseases that kill millions of poor people every year. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-23-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - November 24, 2001: American Red Cross
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. Since the terrorist attacks on the United States in September, Americans have given millions of dollars to help thousands of victims and their families. A lot of that money was given to the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross collected more than five-hundred-million dollars for this purpose in what it called the Liberty Fund. Recently, Red Cross officials admitted that they were not giving the families all the money that was collected. They said the Liberty Fund was created to help the victims of the September attacks, and also to help victims of future attacks. The officials said they regretted that the American public did not understand this. Last week, Red Cross officials announced a major change in policy. They said all the money given to the Liberty Fund would be used only to help the victims of the September Eleventh attacks and their families. The money will help families pay costs of daily living such as housing and food for up to one year. Immediately after the terrorist attacks, the Red Cross provided money for three months of living costs to more than two-thousand families of people who were killed. Red Cross officials say the organization also provided support to about twenty-three-thousand other families who were affected by the terrorist attacks. These included rescue workers and people who could not go back to their homes near the World Trade Center in New York City. Business people who lost their workplaces also received help. However, the Red Cross planned to use about half the money given to the Liberty Fund for future programs. It wanted the money to increase blood supplies, improve communications and expand services for families of people serving in the military forces. Individuals who had given money to the Liberty Fund reacted strongly to this news. They expected their money to be used immediately to help victims of the attacks. Red Cross officials now say the Liberty Fund will be repaid for any money already used for other projects. The American Red Cross has been active for more than one hundred years. Its policy has been to keep some of the money given after a tragedy to prepare for future emergencies. Officials say the organization’s appeals are supposed to tell people that the money will be used to help victims of the current emergency or similar ones. They have promised to investigate to see if the message is clear enough to the people who give their money. Red Cross officials say any relief organization needs build up an amount of money to help victims of smaller emergencies. The American Red Cross says it provides aid services in about sixty-thousand emergency situations each year such as fires, floods, storms and accidents. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – November 28, 2001: Children and Sleep
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. For many years, officials of the National Institutes of Health have told Americans that they need to get enough sleep to stay healthy and perform well. In the past, the N-I-H targeted special groups, like drivers, soldiers and astronauts. Now, health officials have begun a campaign to urge children to get enough sleep. The officials say children need at least nine hours of sleep every night. They say research shows that children who get this much sleep perform better in school, suffer fewer accidents and are less likely to become too fat. Studies show that lack of sleep causes tiredness and problems with clear thinking. People who do not get enough sleep become angry easily and have trouble controlling their emotions. Among children, problems that result from lack of sleep often are mistaken for more serious disorders. Unlike adults, tired children seem to have endless energy. Some doctors mistakenly identify this as hyperactivity. Experts say many American teenagers are not getting enough sleep. Teenagers stay up later for several reasons, including schoolwork, after school activities and late-night fun. Many high school students in the United States start school every early in the morning. Four years ago, education officials in Minneapolis, Minnesota changed the starting time of seven high schools. The officials delayed the starting time by almost ninety minutes. A University of Minnesota study found that attendance at the high schools improved after the starting time was changed. However, the later start did not greatly affect the performance of the students. Still, school systems in other parts of the country are discussing later starting times for high school students. The American Academy of Pediatrics represents doctors who treat children. It notes that many sleep disorders first develop in childhood. It says doctors often do not identify the disorder until years later. The group has agreed to join in a study with the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research. During the next five years, they plan to examine sleep problems in very young and older children. They also will develop guides for doctors to use when testing for sleep problems. And they will provide educational materials about the importance of healthy sleep. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - Nov. 28: Project Mercury, Part 2
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: This is Steve Ember. VOICE 2: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we finish the story of the first American program to send a person into space. It was called Project Mercury. (Theme) VOICE 1: The American space agency opened for business October first, nineteen-fifty-eight. NASA's most important job was to send an American into space and return him safely to earth. Project Mercury was the plan for doing this. It would use one of several dependable military rockets to launch a small, one-man spacecraft. The space vehicle would return to earth and land in the ocean. Astronauts would be chosen for the program from the best military test pilots who had education in science or engineering. The idea was simple. But making it happen was not a simple job. Thousands of scientists, engineers, technicians and other workers were needed. And money was needed -- thousands of millions of dollars. VOICE 2: Congress approved the money. NASA organized the program. The McDonnell company designed and built the spacecraft. The Army and Air Force built the Redstone, Jupiter and Atlas rockets. NASA announced the seven astronauts it had chosen on April nineth, nineteen-fifty-nine. They immediately began training for space flight. No time was wasted. The first test flights began later that year. Those test flights did not carry astronauts. Men would fly the Mercury spacecraft only after it was proved safe. The final test flight was made at the end of January, nineteen-sixty-one. A Mercury spacecraft carried a chimpanzee named Ham on a seven-hundred-kilometer flight over the Atlantic Ocean. There were some problems. But the animal survived the launch and the landing in the ocean. VOICE 1: Three months later, NASA sent an astronaut into space. He was Navy pilot Alan Shepard. Shepard crawled into his little Mercury spacecraft early on the morning of may fifth. There was almost no room to move inside it. One description said it was like sitting in the driver's seat of a small car, while wearing two heavy raincoats. Alan Shepard waited in the spacecraft for four hours. The weather caused part of the delay. Clouds would prevent filming of the launch. And some last-minute repairs were made to his radio system. Tired of waiting, he told the ground crew, "Why don't you fellows solve your little problems and light this candle. " VOICE 2: Finally, they did start the rocket. With a roar, it began to rise slowly from the launch pad. Its speed increased. Soon, it was out of sight. Shepard's flight lasted only a few seconds longer than fifteen minutes. But he flew one-hundred eighty-seven kilometers high, and four-hundred-eighty kilometers from the launch pad. He re-entered the atmosphere and slowed the Mercury spacecraft. The first flight ended with a soft splash into the ocean, as planned. Shepard reported, "Everything is A-OK. " Within minutes, a helicopter lifted him from the spacecraft and carried him to a waiting ship. The first manned flight of Project Mercury was a complete success. VOICE 1: Radio, television and newspaper reporters made it possible for millions of people to share the excitement of the flight. The United States had decided at the very beginning of its space program that all launches would be open to news reporters. Successes and failures would all be reported to the world. Television and newsfilm showed flight preparations and launch. People could hear -- on radio and television -- the talk between the astronaut and the flight controllers. VOICE 2: Ten weeks later, there was another Mercury launch. Astronaut Gus Grissom repeated Shepard's successful short flight. But there was a serious problem after the landing. Grissom almost drowned when the door of the spacecraft opened too soon. The spacecraft filled with water and sank. Grisson escaped. He had to swim for a few minutes before helicopters rescued him. VOICE 1: The results of the two short flights made space officials believe the Mercury program was ready for its first orbital flight. Again, an animal would fly first. A chimpanzee named Enos was launched on a three-orbit flight. The flight tested the worldwide communications system that linked the spacecraft to flight controllers at Cape Canaveral. It also tested the effect of weightlessness on living creatures. A problem developed during the second orbit. One of the small thruster rockets that turned the spacecraft stopped working. Flight controllers decided to bring it down at the end of the second orbit. The landing was perfect. Enos suffered no bad effects. VOICE 2: Now, everything was ready for an astronaut to make an orbital flight. NASA announced that the astronaut would be John Glenn. He would circle the earth three times during a five-hour Mercury flight. The launch was planned for January twenty-seventh, nineteen-sixty-two. But it was postponed for almost a month because of weather and mechanical problems. Finally, on February twentieth, John Glenn climbed into his tiny spacecraft on top of the huge Atlas rocket. After several short delays, the final seconds were counted off. ((sfx: Countdown)) VOICE 1: Five minutes later, the spacecraft separated from the Atlas rocket. John Glenn was in orbit -- one-hundred-sixty kilometers above the earth. His speed was twenty-eight-thousand kilometers an hour. Glenn reported that all systems were "go. " Everything was "A-OK" for an orbital flight. Glenn's flight plan called for him to spend most of the first orbit getting used to the feeling of being weightless. After about an hour of being beyond the pull of earth's gravity, Glenn reported he felt fine. He said being weightless was not a problem. Glenn explained later that at times it helped to be free of gravity. He said he was busy taking pictures when he suddenly had to do something else. So he left the camera floating in the air. It stayed there, as if he had laid it on a table! VOICE 2: Near the end of the first orbit, Glenn reported a problem. One of the small rockets of his automatic control system stopped working. This caused the spacecraft to turn to one side. Glenn solved the problem by turning off the automatic system. He took control of the system to correct the movement. All of the systems on the Mercury spacecraft sent radio signals to flight controllers. The signals, or telemetry, reported on the condition of the systems. During the second orbit, one of these signals warned that the heat shield might not be locked firmly to the bottom of the spacecraft. This could be a serious problem. The shield protected the spacecraft from burning up from the extreme heat of re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Engineers believed the warning signal was wrong and the shield was locked. But they told Glenn not to release rockets connected to the heat shield. The rockets, normally released before returning to earth, could help keep a loose heat shield in place. VOICE 1: Near the end of his third orbit, Glenn fired other rockets to slow his speed. The spacecraft began to return to earth. As it re-entered the atmosphere, radio communications stopped. Flight controllers could no longer hear Glenn. Everyone was worried about the heat shield. The radio silence, caused by the heat of re-entry, lasted for seven minutes. Then the controllers heard the astronaut again. Glenn reported that he was okay. The heat shield had been locked. Parachutes lowered the Mercury spacecraft to the ocean surface. Glenn remained inside. A navy ship reached it in seventeen minutes, and lifted it aboard. Glenn opened the door and stepped out. John Glenn got a hero's welcome when he returned to Cape Canaveral. President John Kennedy flew to Florida and presented a special award to the astronaut. Glenn became famous. He later was elected to the United States Senate from the state of Ohio. And in nineteen-ninety-eight, at age seventy-seven, he returned to space in an historic flight. VOICE 2: Three more flights were made in Mercury spacecraft. The last one, by astronaut Gordon Cooper, circled the earth twenty-one times. It lasted thirty-four hours. Cooper spent much of the time doing medical checks and taking pictures. His work cleared the way for Project Gemini. Gemini was the next step toward President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the nineteen-sixties. Project Mercury astronauts made the goal seem possible. (Theme) Anncr: VOICE 1: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Christiano and Frank Beardsley. This is Steve Ember. VOICE 2: And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: For Young People
* Byline: 

 Some shows that younger listeners might enjoy ... We tell about popular movies, music, sports and TV shows on AMERICAN MOSAIC. We look at the latest activities of young people in America. And we answer all kinds of questions about American life. For our Foreign Student Series and reports on different ideas and issues in teaching and learning, see our weekly EDUCATION REPORT. THIS IS AMERICA - Music for Little People THIS IS AMERICA - Summer Camps THIS IS AMERICA - Learning English EXPLORATIONS - International Spy Museum in Washington SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Snow THIS IS AMERICA - Halloween and Edgar Allan Poe EXPLORATIONS - National Museum of the American Indian EXPLORATIONS - Keiko the Whale EXPLORATIONS - Amelia Earhart DEVELOPMENT REPORT - World Day Against Child Labor THIS IS AMERICA - Junior Achievement AGRICULTURE REPORT - 4-H Turns 100 AGRICULTURE REPORT - Featherless Chickens ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Coqui Frogs Invade Hawaii DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Child Nutrition Program PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Children's Writer and Artist Barbara Cooney PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Olympic Runner Jesse Owens PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Comedy Actress Lucille Ball PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Singer and Performer Burle Ives SCIENCE REPORT - Intel Science Talent Search DEVELOPMENT REPORT – Measles in Africa SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Sumatran Tiger Born SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Smoking EXPLORATIONS - Testing the Wright Brothers Flying Machine SCIENCE REPORT – Children and Sleep DEVELOPMENT REPORT - United Nations Special Session on Children SCIENCE REPORT – Smallest Lizard ENVIRONMENT REPORT - Orcas Threatened AGRICULTURE REPORT – Beagle Brigade SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Sharks SCIENCE REPORT – Largest Cockroach Fossil Ever Found SCIENCE REPORT – Bats EXPLORATIONS - Project Mercury, Part 1 and Part 2 For parents and teachers: IN THE NEWS - Explaining Tragedy For a complete listing of our ENVIRONMENT REPORTS: go Meet some other PEOPLE IN AMERICA: -- Barbara Cooney -- Pocahontas -- Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians, Part 1 and Part 2 -- Harriet Tubman -- Larry Adler -- Helen Keller, Part 1 and Part 2 -- Norton the First, Emperor of the United States And from THIS IS AMERICA: -- Muslims in America -- Women in Sports -- Statue of Liberty 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - November 27, 2001: Diabetes
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in Science. Today, we tell about the disease diabetes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The World Health Organization estimates that as many as one-hundred-twenty-million people have the disease diabetes. Diabetes is the name for several diseases with one thing in common: there is too much glucose, or sugar, in the blood. The disease develops when the body does not produce enough insulin or produces no insulin. Or the disease develops when the body cannot use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is necessary to change sugar, carbohydrates and other food into energy. In healthy people, the body changes food into a sugar, called glucose. Glucose is the source of fuel for the body. When food is changed into glucose, it enters the bloodstream and is taken to all parts of the body to feed muscles, organs, and tissue. VOICE TWO: When the body senses that there is too much glucose in the blood, it sends a signal to the pancreas. The pancreas is the organ that produces insulin. The pancreas sends insulin into the bloodstream. The insulin lowers the level of blood sugar by letting it enter cells. Insulin helps muscles, organs and tissues take glucose and change it into energy. That is how the body operates normally, in most people. Diabetes is present when too much glucose remains in the bloodstream and does not enter cells. If the amount of glucose in the blood remains too high, the body begins showing signs of diabetes. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease, and nerve damage. High glucose levels in the blood also can lead to strokes and heart disease. Blood circulation also is affected, especially in the legs. Often, victims of diabetes must have a foot or even a leg removed because of blood circulation problems linked to the disease. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: There are two main kinds of diabetes, Type One and Type Two. Between five and ten percent of those suffering from diabetes have Type One. It usually begins before the age of thirty in people who are thin. It is most commonly found in children under the age of sixteen. It is caused by the body’s defense system. The bodies of Type One diabetes victims produce a substance that attacks and kills some cells in the pancreas, blocking the production of insulin. These cells are called islet (EYE-lit) cells. Scientists are not sure why this happens. They believe there may be a number of causes. They include viruses, the presence of insect-killing pesticides in the environment or molecules known as free radicals. Free radicals are produced as part of normal chemical processes in the body. In people with diabetes, too many of these free radicals are present in the body. Scientists are not sure which of these causes is the most important to the development of Type One Diabetes. VOICE TWO: People suffering from Type One diabetes must carefully control their diets. And they must exercise often. People with this kind of diabetes almost always require insulin injections. Patients must always know their blood sugar levels. When the level of glucose in the blood is too high, they must inject insulin into their bodies to reduce the amount of glucose. The patients must inject insulin every day, often several times a day. In most developed countries, insulin is easy to get and does not cost much money. However, doctors believe that these injections can cause long-term problems. They believe that the injections cause levels of glucose to change often. Scientists believe that many quick changes in glucose levels can, over time, result in damage to the body. This damage can be blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, or poor blood flow in the body. VOICE ONE: Type One Diabetes also is known as juvenile onset diabetes, because it usually starts in children or young people. Scientists believe it is the form of the disease that they will most likely be able to cure some day. Among the treatments being studied is a vaccine to prevent the disease. A vaccine is injected into the body or taken by mouth in the form of a pill. Another possible treatment for Type One Diabetes is placing new islet cells into the pancreas to help it make insulin. Doctors have been transplanting islet cells into diabetes patients for several years. However, these healthy islet cells have failed to permanently replace the need for insulin injections. Scientists also are studying special cells called stem cells to treat the disease. Stem cells develop into all the different kinds of cells in the body. Scientists believe that stem cells from unborn babies could be used to treat diabetes and other diseases. However, it would be a long time before such treatment is possible. VOICE TWO: While some scientists continue to seek ways to cure Type One Diabetes, others are searching for easier ways to get insulin into the body. New devices are being developed that could replace injections. One device being tested is an inhaler. This device would permit patients to breathe insulin into their bodies. The insulin is in the form of a powder, like dust. When the insulin reaches the lungs, it quickly moves into the bloodstream to reduce glucose levels. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Type Two Diabetes generally is found in people more than forty years old. Most of these people are too fat. Their bodies can not produce enough insulin to reduce the levels of glucose in their blood. Or, their bodies do not react correctly to the action of insulin. Type Two Diabetes is more complex than Type One. Experts say Type Two Diabetes is really a group of diseases, with many possible causes. Scientists see little hope in developing a cure for this kind of diabetes. Instead, they are searching for better ways to control it. Many people suffering from the disease can control it with exercise and by carefully controlling their diet. Also, many of them do not need to inject insulin into their bodies. Type Two Diabetes is sometimes called non-insulin dependent. Still, patients often need drugs to treat the disease. VOICE TWO: There are a number of drugs that can be used. However, many of them can cause other problems. One of the drugs is called sulfonylurea. It has been used for many years to help the pancreas make more insulin. But after several years, the drug loses its effects on the pancreas. Also, it can cause patients to gain weight. The drug metformin appears to be more effective. It lowers the amounts of glucose in the blood. It does this by helping the body make better use of its own natural insulin. It does not cause weight gain. However, metformin can be dangerous for people with damaged kidneys. It should not be used by people who drink large amounts of alcohol, or those with kidney, liver or heart problems. VOICE ONE: Genes seem to be more important in the development of Type Two Diabetes than in Type One. About ninety percent of those with Type Two Diabetes have parents and ancestors who also had the disease. In recent years, scientists have found several genes that may be linked to Type Two Diabetes. Some of these genes also are linked to extreme overweight, known as obesity. About eighty to ninety percent of people with Type Two Diabetes are obese. Often doctors do not discover that patients have diabetes until one of the disease’s serious results is found. For example, a doctor examines a patient suffering several health problems. The doctor carries out tests and finds the problems are the results of poor kidney performance. Tests then show the patient is suffering from diabetes, which can cause kidney problems and even failure. VOICE TWO: Although great progress has been made in the treatment of diabetes, it is still widespread and threatens the health of millions of people. Scientists hope that their research will lead to a cure for Type One Diabetes. And they hope they can find new ways to improve treatment of Type Two Diabetes. In future programs we will discuss new developments in diabetes research as they are reported. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Science in the News program was written by Oliver Chanler. This is Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – November 27, 2001: Low-Till Farming
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Scientists are reporting a major development in the agriculture of South Asia. The scientists say many farmers there are deciding to limit the use of plows. They say this move could lead to improved agriculture among farmers in Asia. Scientists with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center made the announcement. The Center is based in Mexico.Farmers use plows to prepare their fields for planting crops. Plows cut into the ground and lift up weeds and other unwanted plants. However, plowing is blamed for causing severe damage to topsoil by removing the plants that protect the soil from being blown or washed away. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center supports a process called low-till farming. Low-till farming limits the use of plows. In this method of farming, seeds and fertilizer are put into the soil through small cuts made in the surface of the ground. The Center says low-till agriculture leaves much or all of the soil and remains of plants on the ground. They serve as a natural fertilizer and help support the roots of future crops. They protect the rich topsoil. They take in rain and allow it to flow into the soil instead of running off. The Center says low-till farming increases harvests and reduces water use. And it says this method reduces the need for chemical products because there are fewer unwanted plants. The scientists say low-till farming is becoming popular in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. They note that South Asia is facing an extreme lack of water crisis. They say the area will become dependent on imported food unless water is saved through methods like low-till farming. Currently, more than one-hundred-fifty-million people in South Asia depend on local rice and wheat crops. Farmers grow rice during wet weather. During the dry season, they grow wheat in the same fields. Farmers are using the low-till method to plant wheat after harvesting rice. Scientists report that this method is increasing in India and Pakistan. For example, areas using low-till farming increased from three-thousand hectares in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine to one-hundred-thousand hectares this year. Scientists say low-till agriculture is one of the best examples in the world of technologies working for both people and the environment. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - November 29, 2001: National Virtual Observatory
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. The National Science Foundation is providing ten-million dollars to develop a program that will permit astronomers to share scientific information. The program is called the National Virtual Observatory. The new observatory will not have a telescope. Instead, it will put huge amounts of space information on the Internet’s World Wide Web. Anyone with a computer will be able to use the information. Scientists, teachers and students will be able to study the universe online. Astronomers from seventeen research centers will work on the project. The project is headed by Alex Szalay of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and Paul Messina of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The new Web site will include a large number of different information systems in one place. Currently, telescope observations made at one observatory are kept in its own computer information system. Information gathered by spacecraft is also kept in similar systems. Today, there is no way to search all these different information systems through one computer Web site. The National Virtual Observatory will be designed so that many information systems can be searched from one Web site. However, this project is more complex than simply creating an information base organized with normal computer systems. A special system is necessary because of the huge amounts of information involved. Information from experiments and observations has increased at a very fast rate in the space sciences of astronomy and astrophysics. Today, many kinds of telescopes make observations that are stored in computers. So much information can be stored in computers that it has become difficult to process. Also, some astronomers may not know of observations done at other observatories. This could cause researchers to perform the same studies over and over again. The National Virtual Observatory will permit astronomers to find out very quickly if information already exists to help their own research. Experts say the National Virtual Observatory represents an important step in astronomy. Astronomers now must gather and organize huge amounts of information. Soon, this information will be open to everyone. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - November 29, 2001: Roaring Twenties
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we have seen in recent programs, the administrations of president Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were a time of economic progress for most Americans. Many companies grew larger during the nineteen-twenties, creating many new jobs. Wages for most Americans increased. Many people began to have enough money to buy new kinds of products. The strong economy also created the right environment for many important changes in the day-to-day social life of the American people. The nineteen-twenties are remembered now as an exciting time that historians call the "Roaring Twenties." VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties brought a feeling of freedom and independence to millions of Americans, especially young Americans. Young soldiers returned from the world war with new ideas. They had seen a different world in Europe. They had faced death and learned to enjoy the pleasures that each day offered. Many of these young soldiers were not willing to quietly accept the old traditions of their families and villages when they returned home. Instead, they wanted to try new ways of living. VOICE 1: Many young Americans, both men and women, began to challenge some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. For example, some young women began to experiment with new kinds of clothes. They no longer wore dresses that hid the shape of their bodies. Instead, they wore thinner dresses that uncovered part of their legs. Many young women began to smoke cigarettes, too. Cigarette production in the United States more than doubled in the ten years between nineteen-eighteen and nineteen-twenty-eight. Many women also began to drink alcohol with men in public for the first time. And they listened together to a popular new kind of music: jazz. Young people danced the fox trot, the Charleston, and other new dances. They held one another tightly on the dance floor, instead of dancing far apart. VOICE 2: It was a revolution in social values, at least among some Americans. People openly discussed subjects that their parents and grandparents had kept private. There were popular books and shows about unmarried mothers and about homosexuality. The growing film industry made films about all-night parties between unmarried men and women. And people discussed the new ideas about sex formed by Sigmund Freud and other new thinkers. An important force behind these changes was the growing independence of American women. In nineteen-twenty, the nation passed the nineteenth amendment to the constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Of equal importance, many women took jobs during the war and continued working after the troops returned home. Also, new machines freed many of them from spending long hours of work in the home washing clothes, preparing food, and doing other jobs. VOICE 1: Education was another important force behind the social changes of the nineteen-twenties. More and more Americans were getting a good education. The number of students attending high school doubled between nineteen-twenty and nineteen-thirty. Many of the schools now offered new kinds of classes to prepare students for useful jobs. Attendance at colleges and universities also increased greatly. And colleges offered more classes in such useful subjects as teacher training, engineering, and business administration. Two inventions also helped cause the social changes. They were the automobile and the radio. The automobile gave millions of Americans the freedom to travel easily to new places. And the radio brought new ideas and experiences into their own homes. Probably the most important force behind social change was the continuing economic growth of the nineteen-twenties. Many people had extra money to spend on things other than food, housing, and other basic needs. They could experiment with new products and different ways of living. VOICE 2: Of course, not all Americans were wearing strange new "flapper" clothes or dancing until early in the morning. Millions of Americans in small towns or rural areas continued to live simple, quiet lives. Life was still hard for many people including blacks, foreigners, and other minority groups. The many newspaper stories about independent women reporters and doctors also did not represent the real life of the average American woman. Women could vote. But three of every four women still worked at home. Most of the women working outside their homes were from minority groups or foreign countries. The films and radio stories about exciting parties and social events were just a dream for millions of Americans. But the dreams were strong. And many Americans -- rich and poor -- followed with great interest each new game, dance, and custom. VOICE 1: The wide interest in this kind of popular culture was unusually strong during the nineteen-twenties. People became extremely interested in exciting court trials, disasters, film actors, and other subjects. For example, millions of Americans followed the sad story of Floyd Collins, a young man who became trapped while exploring underground. Newsmen reported to the nation as rescue teams searched to find him. Even the New York Times newspaper printed a large story on its front page when rescuers finally discovered the man's dead body. Another event that caught public attention was a murder trial in the eastern state of New Jersey in nineteen-twenty-six. Newsmen wrote five-million words about this case of a minister found dead with a woman member of his church. Again, the case itself was of little importance from a world news point of view. But it was exciting. And Americans were tired of reading about serious political issues after the bloody world war. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties also were a golden period for sports. People across the country bought newspapers to read of the latest golf victory by champion Bobby Jones. "Big Bill" Tilden became the most famous player in tennis. And millions of Americans listened to the boxing match in nineteen-twenty-six between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. In fact, five Americans reportedly became so excited while listening to the fight that they died of heart attacks. However, the greatest single sports hero of the period was the baseball player, Babe Ruth. Ruth was a large man who could hit a baseball farther than any other human being. He became as famous for his wild enjoyment of life as for his excellent playing on the baseball field. Babe Ruth loved to drink, to be with women, and to play with children. VOICE 1: The most famous popular event of the nineteen-twenties was neither a court trial nor a sports game. It was the brave action of pilot Charles Lindbergh when he flew an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He was the first man in history to do this. Lindbergh flew his plane alone from New York to France in May nineteen-twenty-seven. His flight set off wild celebrations across the United States. Newspapers carried story after story about Lindbergh's success. President coolidge and a large crowd greeted the young pilot when he returned to Washington. And New York congratulated Lindbergh with one of the largest parades in its history. Americans liked Lindbergh because he was brave, quiet, and handsome. He seemed to represent everything that was best about their country. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties were also a time of much excellent work in the more serious arts. We will take a look in our next program at American art, writing, and building during the exciting "Roaring Twenties." (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. (Theme) As we have seen in recent programs, the administrations of president Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were a time of economic progress for most Americans. Many companies grew larger during the nineteen-twenties, creating many new jobs. Wages for most Americans increased. Many people began to have enough money to buy new kinds of products. The strong economy also created the right environment for many important changes in the day-to-day social life of the American people. The nineteen-twenties are remembered now as an exciting time that historians call the "Roaring Twenties." VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties brought a feeling of freedom and independence to millions of Americans, especially young Americans. Young soldiers returned from the world war with new ideas. They had seen a different world in Europe. They had faced death and learned to enjoy the pleasures that each day offered. Many of these young soldiers were not willing to quietly accept the old traditions of their families and villages when they returned home. Instead, they wanted to try new ways of living. VOICE 1: Many young Americans, both men and women, began to challenge some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. For example, some young women began to experiment with new kinds of clothes. They no longer wore dresses that hid the shape of their bodies. Instead, they wore thinner dresses that uncovered part of their legs. Many young women began to smoke cigarettes, too. Cigarette production in the United States more than doubled in the ten years between nineteen-eighteen and nineteen-twenty-eight. Many women also began to drink alcohol with men in public for the first time. And they listened together to a popular new kind of music: jazz. Young people danced the fox trot, the Charleston, and other new dances. They held one another tightly on the dance floor, instead of dancing far apart. VOICE 2: It was a revolution in social values, at least among some Americans. People openly discussed subjects that their parents and grandparents had kept private. There were popular books and shows about unmarried mothers and about homosexuality. The growing film industry made films about all-night parties between unmarried men and women. And people discussed the new ideas about sex formed by Sigmund Freud and other new thinkers. An important force behind these changes was the growing independence of American women. In nineteen-twenty, the nation passed the nineteenth amendment to the constitution, which gave women the right to vote. Of equal importance, many women took jobs during the war and continued working after the troops returned home. Also, new machines freed many of them from spending long hours of work in the home washing clothes, preparing food, and doing other jobs. VOICE 1: Education was another important force behind the social changes of the nineteen-twenties. More and more Americans were getting a good education. The number of students attending high school doubled between nineteen-twenty and nineteen-thirty. Many of the schools now offered new kinds of classes to prepare students for useful jobs. Attendance at colleges and universities also increased greatly. And colleges offered more classes in such useful subjects as teacher training, engineering, and business administration. Two inventions also helped cause the social changes. They were the automobile and the radio. The automobile gave millions of Americans the freedom to travel easily to new places. And the radio brought new ideas and experiences into their own homes. Probably the most important force behind social change was the continuing economic growth of the nineteen-twenties. Many people had extra money to spend on things other than food, housing, and other basic needs. They could experiment with new products and different ways of living. VOICE 2: Of course, not all Americans were wearing strange new "flapper" clothes or dancing until early in the morning. Millions of Americans in small towns or rural areas continued to live simple, quiet lives. Life was still hard for many people including blacks, foreigners, and other minority groups. The many newspaper stories about independent women reporters and doctors also did not represent the real life of the average American woman. Women could vote. But three of every four women still worked at home. Most of the women working outside their homes were from minority groups or foreign countries. The films and radio stories about exciting parties and social events were just a dream for millions of Americans. But the dreams were strong. And many Americans -- rich and poor -- followed with great interest each new game, dance, and custom. VOICE 1: The wide interest in this kind of popular culture was unusually strong during the nineteen-twenties. People became extremely interested in exciting court trials, disasters, film actors, and other subjects. For example, millions of Americans followed the sad story of Floyd Collins, a young man who became trapped while exploring underground. Newsmen reported to the nation as rescue teams searched to find him. Even the New York Times newspaper printed a large story on its front page when rescuers finally discovered the man's dead body. Another event that caught public attention was a murder trial in the eastern state of New Jersey in nineteen-twenty-six. Newsmen wrote five-million words about this case of a minister found dead with a woman member of his church. Again, the case itself was of little importance from a world news point of view. But it was exciting. And Americans were tired of reading about serious political issues after the bloody world war. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties also were a golden period for sports. People across the country bought newspapers to read of the latest golf victory by champion Bobby Jones. "Big Bill" Tilden became the most famous player in tennis. And millions of Americans listened to the boxing match in nineteen-twenty-six between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. In fact, five Americans reportedly became so excited while listening to the fight that they died of heart attacks. However, the greatest single sports hero of the period was the baseball player, Babe Ruth. Ruth was a large man who could hit a baseball farther than any other human being. He became as famous for his wild enjoyment of life as for his excellent playing on the baseball field. Babe Ruth loved to drink, to be with women, and to play with children. VOICE 1: The most famous popular event of the nineteen-twenties was neither a court trial nor a sports game. It was the brave action of pilot Charles Lindbergh when he flew an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He was the first man in history to do this. Lindbergh flew his plane alone from New York to France in May nineteen-twenty-seven. His flight set off wild celebrations across the United States. Newspapers carried story after story about Lindbergh's success. President coolidge and a large crowd greeted the young pilot when he returned to Washington. And New York congratulated Lindbergh with one of the largest parades in its history. Americans liked Lindbergh because he was brave, quiet, and handsome. He seemed to represent everything that was best about their country. VOICE 2: The nineteen-twenties were also a time of much excellent work in the more serious arts. We will take a look in our next program at American art, writing, and building during the exciting "Roaring Twenties." (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-29-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - November 30, 2001: Native American Heritage Month Special
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we celebrate Native American Heritage Month in the United States by: playing some award-winning Indian music ... answering a question about American Indians ... and reporting about a group of Navajo Indians recently honored for their work during World War Two. Navajo Code Talkers HOST: Members of the American Indian Navajo tribe have been honored for helping the United States and Allied forces defeat Japan in World War Two. Twenty-nine members of the Navajo tribe received Congressional Gold Medals last summer for creating a secret code. Last week, three-hundred more tribe members received Congressional Silver Medals for their part in the Code Talkers program. Jim Tedder explains. ANNCR: The Code Talkers helped shorten World War Two for allied forces in the Pacific. They used the Navajo language of their Indian tribe as a secret weapon. Twenty-nine Navajos developed a secret communications system. It permitted American Marine commanders to use their radios to give orders, report about troop movements and plan operations. The commanders knew that Japanese soldiers listening to the communications would never be able to understand what was said. Navajo is a complex language. It is extremely difficult to learn to speak. In Nineteen-Forty-Two, only a few people who were not Navajos could speak it at all. The code talkers used Navajo words to express the meaning of orders given by Marine commanders. For example, different kinds of planes were represented by Navajo words for different kinds of birds. A bombing plane was called a “jay-sho”, or buzzard in Navajo. A fighter plane was a “da-he-tih-hi”, or humming bird. Other animals represented other words. ”Chay-da-gahi” is the word for turtle in Navajo. In code talk, it meant a tank. More than four-hundred code talkers served during the Second World War. The enemy never broke their code. One American general reportedly said the Marines could not have captured the island of Iwo Jima without the help of the code talkers. The code was kept secret for many years after the war. Military officials considered it so valuable that no one was permitted to talk about it until Nineteen-Sixty-Nine. After that, the code talkers spoke about their work. They said they were proud to be United States Marines, or in their language, “Washindon be Akalh B-kosilai.” American Indians HOST: We have two VOA listener questions about American Indians. Binh Thanh Nguyen from Vietnam asks why Native Americans are known as Indians. Khalid from Morocco asks about the political position of Indians in the United States today. The European explorer Christopher Columbus gave the name “Indians” to the native peoples of North and South America. He thought he had reached a place called the Indies. In time, the terms American Indian and Indian became widely used. About two-million-five-hundred-thousand Native Americans and Alaskan Natives live in the United States today. They belong to more than five-hundred-fifty different tribes. They still speak more than two-hundred languages. Some Indians live in cities and farm areas. About five-hundred-thousand live on two-hundred-seventy-five reservations. A reservation is the land given to the tribe by the federal government. Most tribes were moved to reservations in the Eighteen-Hundreds when the government took their traditional lands. American Indians are citizens of the United States. They have the same rights to vote and to be elected to public office as other citizens. An American Indian served as vice president of the United States under President Herbert Hoover. He was Charles Curtis, a Kaw Indian from the state of Kansas. Indians have been elected to the United States Congress for more than eighty years. One Indian now serving in Congress is Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado. He is a member of the northern Cheyenne tribe. Indians must obey federal, state and local laws when they are not on the reservation. On the reservation, only federal laws and tribal laws are in effect. Most tribal officials are elected by members of the tribe. Each of the tribes has its own culture and history. The Seneca of the northeast woodlands, the Navajo of the desert southwest, and the Inuit of the snowy Arctic have different ways of living. Yet all the tribes share major concerns. They are trying to keep their traditional cultures alive while improving the living conditions of tribal members. NAMA Awards HOST: Last month, the Native American Music Association held its fourth yearly awards ceremony. The awards honor musicians, singers and other Native American music makers. Shirley Griffith plays music by some of the winners. ANNCR: Robert Mirabal won the most awards given by the Native American Music Association. He was named Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. His album “Music from a Painted Cave” was also honored as Record of the Year. Here Robert Mirabal performs a song from that album. It is called “Ee-You-Oo.” (CUT 1 - EE-YOU-OO) The Native American Music Association honored Annie Humphrey with the award for Best Female Artist of the Year. Mizz Humphrey grew up on the Ojibwe Indian reservation in Minnesota. Later she served in the United States Marines. She says her music is about a number of human conditions -- not just the Indian experience. Here she sings the title song of her album “The Heron Smiled.” (CUT 2 - THE HERON SMILED) The Native American Music Association gave a special award to the Neville Brothers. It is called the Living Legend Award. Aaron, Art, Charles and Cyril Neville have celebrated Native American culture for many years. We leave you now with the Neville Brothers performing “Sacred Ground.” (CUT 3 – SACRED GROUND) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-29-2-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - November 30, 2001: Solar Energy in San Francisco
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Environment Report. Voters in San Francisco, California have approved a plan to increase the use of renewable energy. The energy proposal won seventy-three percent of a vote held earlier this month. The plan calls for San Francisco to spend one-hundred-million dollars to build devices that gather energy from the sun and wind. Unlike coal and oil, solar and wind energy are renewable resources that will never disappear. The measure will make San Francisco the largest producer of solar energy of any city in the United States. The measure calls for San Francisco to place devices to gather sunlight on the rooftops of all buildings and schools owned by the city. These solar panels turn sunlight directly into electricity. Supporters of the measure expect solar energy to supply between ten and twenty megawatts of electricity for the area within one year. One megawatt is enough to provide power for about eight-hundred American homes. The measure will also permit machines that gather wind energy to be built in the San Francisco Bay area. These wind turbines would produce about thirty megawatts of power. The environmental group, Greenpeace, is pleased with the measure. Danny Kennedy, a Greenpeace official, says the vote is historic. He says the United States will now become a leader in solar energy. Environmental groups support solar power as a clean energy resource. Businesses in San Francisco also supported the measure. Many experts and some lawmakers believe solar and wind energy may help the United States reduce oil imports. Yet solar and wind energy currently make up less than one-tenth of one percent of the total energy used in the United States. The United States produces almost half of the world’s solar energy panels. However, most of these devices are exported. The United States buys only about fifteen percent of the solar panels sold on the world market. Experts say San Francisco’s effort to increase solar energy may become important in the future. Lower prices for solar technology may lead to a greater acceptance of solar power. In California, power failures and high energy prices have caused people to support renewable energy resources. Experts say other American cities may follow San Francisco’s example. This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by Mario Ritter. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-30-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 2, 2001: Nat King Cole
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most popular singers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Cole. His father was a Christian minister. When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father’s church. VOICE TWO: Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In Nineteen-Thirty Seven, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano. By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records. The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand copies. ((CUT ONE - “Straighten Up and Fly Right”)) VOICE ONE: Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer. ((CUT TWO - “Mona Lisa”)) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed. Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems. VOICE ONE: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a year. Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story. In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra: ((CUT THREE - “When I Fall in Love”)) VOICE TWO: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children. VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old. He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song. ((CUT FOUR - “Unforgettable”)) VOICE TWO: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music. ((CUT FIVE – "Hit the Ramp")) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most popular singers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Cole. His father was a Christian minister. When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father’s church. VOICE TWO: Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In Nineteen-Thirty Seven, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano. By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records. The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand copies. ((CUT ONE - “Straighten Up and Fly Right”)) VOICE ONE: Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer. ((CUT TWO - “Mona Lisa”)) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed. Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems. VOICE ONE: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a year. Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story. In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra: ((CUT THREE - “When I Fall in Love”)) VOICE TWO: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children. VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old. He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song. ((CUT FOUR - “Unforgettable”)) VOICE TWO: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music. ((CUT FIVE – "Hit the Ramp")) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-30-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - December 3, 2001: The Supreme Court
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: The highest court in the United States began its term in October. From now until June, it will rule on issues that affect Americans in a number of ways. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: The highest court in the United States began its term in October. From now until June, it will rule on issues that affect Americans in a number of ways. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The Supreme Court is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Congress created the Supreme Court of the United States more than two-hundred years ago. Over the years the court has established many legal traditions. Sometimes, however, the court surprises the nation. For example, the Supreme Court usually lets lower courts make decisions resulting from elections. However, last December the Supreme Court made an important decision about the election for president of the United States. The court overruled the Florida Supreme Court in the case. A majority of Supreme Court justices ruled that some disputed ballots for president in Florida could not be recounted. The decision made George W. Bush the winner of the presidential election. The Supreme Court’s action angered some Americans. Some people did not think the court should have ruled in the case. Others did not think their decision was fair. But a group of newspapers recently released a report investigating a recount of the disputed ballots. Their study showed that Mister Bush almost surely would have won the election even if the disputed ballots had been recounted. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court has a chief justice and eight associate justices. Their duty is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the United States Constitution. The president appoints Supreme Court justices. The Senate approves them. The justices serve for as long as they wish. The Supreme Court has accepted more than eighty cases that they will decide this term. They include several important appeals about disabled workers. The court also will decide major cases about the death sentence. VOICE ONE: Seventeen states that permit punishment by death also ban execution of mentally disabled people. The federal government also bans such executions in federal cases. Last March, the Supreme Court postponed the execution of a condemned man in North Carolina. This man, Ernest Paul McCarver, was found guilty of murder. But lawyers appealed his sentence because he has very low intelligence. The Supreme Court must decide if executing mentally disabled people is cruel and unusual punishment. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution bans such punishment. Another death sentence appeal involves a case in Virginia. Walter Mickens was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. He has appealed the decision because he says his lawyer did not provide an effective defense. He says his lawyer failed to tell Mickens that he had earlier acted as a lawyer for the man Mickens killed. The Supreme Court delayed Mickens’ execution when it agreed to hear the case. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Ninety, Congress approved a law called the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law requires employers to provide other work for employees who have become disabled on the job. This law describes a disability as an injury or condition that severely limits a person’s major life activities. But lower court rulings have not made clear what a major life activity is. Last month, the Supreme Court heard an appeal from the Toyota automobile company. The company had dismissed Ella Williams from her job at its factory in Kentucky. As part of her duties, this worker cleaned five-hundred cars each day. Over time, Mizz Williams developed hand and arm injuries. She could no longer perform her duties. An appeals court ruled that Toyota had a legal responsibility to give her a different kind of job. Toyota, however, says it does not owe Mizz Williams a job. The company says her disability does not interfere with any of her major life activities. Now the Supreme Court must rule what a major life activity is. The court must decide what makes a person disabled. VOICE ONE: For each case, Supreme Court justices hear arguments by lawyers on both sides. The justices question the lawyers to get more information. They read a great deal of written information about the case. Then they discuss the case and vote. A majority of the votes of the nine justices decides what will become the law of the land. One of the justices who voted with the majority writes the opinion of the court. This opinion explains the decision made in the case. Some justices may disagree with the majority. When that happens a justice who disagreed writes the dissenting opinion. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court was established in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. It was created as one of the three major divisions of the United States government. The American Constitution gave the legislative division -- the Congress -- the power to pass laws. It gave the executive division -- the president and other government agencies -- power to carry out these laws. And, it gave the judicial division -- the Supreme Court and lower courts -- the power to decide legal disputes involving these laws. At first, this seemed to make the judicial division the weakest part of the federal government. But then, in Eighteen-Oh-Three, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the court could decide if laws already passed by Congress were constitutional. Since that time, the Supreme Court has played an important part in approving or disapproving actions taken by Congress and the president. VOICE ONE: Most of the cases the Supreme Court considers already have been judged in a lower court. The Supreme Court hears appeals of the decisions made by lower courts that involve federal and state laws. If the court agrees to re-examine a case, then its decision is final. It cannot be vetoed by either the president or Congress. The president and members of Congress are elected every few years. To be re-elected, they must base their actions at least partly on what the voters want. However, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. Their loyalty is not to voters. It is to a permanent document, the United States Constitution. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: At different times in American history, the Supreme Court has helped make major changes in American society. In Eighteen-Ninety-Six, for example, the Supreme Court said it was legal to have separate public places for black people and white people. The Court said this was legal as long as those places provided equally good services. That decision was used as a reason to permit racial separation in many American schools for almost sixty years. However, in Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Supreme Court said racial separation in American schools did violate the Constitution. It said separate schools never could be equally good schools. That decision helped end racial separation in the nation's schools. And it helped launch a major movement to gain racial equality for African Americans. VOICE ONE: American presidents can play an important part in changing the Supreme Court. Most presidents have the chance to appoint one or more new justices to fill the places of justices who retire or die. Presidents usually try to name justices who share their political beliefs. That means presidents may leave a mark on the court that lasts long after their own years as president have ended. Some Supreme Courts have been conservative. President Franklin Roosevelt faced such a court when he tried to carry out economic reforms in the Nineteen-Thirties. During the Nineteen-Fifties and Nineteen-Sixties, a very different Supreme Court developed. Chief Justice Earl Warren led this court. It made several decisions that greatly expanded the rights of accused criminals. The court also extended the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of religion. VOICE TWO: Not all Supreme Court cases result in historic decisions. But many of them do. For example, some experts believe the Court may be asked to hear cases related to a new anti-terrorism law. Congress passed the law after the attacks on the nation in September. The lower courts may test this law, which limits some traditional American rights. Experts say the Supreme Court has the responsibility for deciding all the important issues in American life. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. The Supreme Court is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Congress created the Supreme Court of the United States more than two-hundred years ago. Over the years the court has established many legal traditions. Sometimes, however, the court surprises the nation. For example, the Supreme Court usually lets lower courts make decisions resulting from elections. However, last December the Supreme Court made an important decision about the election for president of the United States. The court overruled the Florida Supreme Court in the case. A majority of Supreme Court justices ruled that some disputed ballots for president in Florida could not be recounted. The decision made George W. Bush the winner of the presidential election. The Supreme Court’s action angered some Americans. Some people did not think the court should have ruled in the case. Others did not think their decision was fair. But a group of newspapers recently released a report investigating a recount of the disputed ballots. Their study showed that Mister Bush almost surely would have won the election even if the disputed ballots had been recounted. VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court has a chief justice and eight associate justices. Their duty is to make sure federal and state laws agree with the United States Constitution. The president appoints Supreme Court justices. The Senate approves them. The justices serve for as long as they wish. The Supreme Court has accepted more than eighty cases that they will decide this term. They include several important appeals about disabled workers. The court also will decide major cases about the death sentence. VOICE ONE: Seventeen states that permit punishment by death also ban execution of mentally disabled people. The federal government also bans such executions in federal cases. Last March, the Supreme Court postponed the execution of a condemned man in North Carolina. This man, Ernest Paul McCarver, was found guilty of murder. But lawyers appealed his sentence because he has very low intelligence. The Supreme Court must decide if executing mentally disabled people is cruel and unusual punishment. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution bans such punishment. Another death sentence appeal involves a case in Virginia. Walter Mickens was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. He has appealed the decision because he says his lawyer did not provide an effective defense. He says his lawyer failed to tell Mickens that he had earlier acted as a lawyer for the man Mickens killed. The Supreme Court delayed Mickens’ execution when it agreed to hear the case. VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Ninety, Congress approved a law called the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law requires employers to provide other work for employees who have become disabled on the job. This law describes a disability as an injury or condition that severely limits a person’s major life activities. But lower court rulings have not made clear what a major life activity is. Last month, the Supreme Court heard an appeal from the Toyota automobile company. The company had dismissed Ella Williams from her job at its factory in Kentucky. As part of her duties, this worker cleaned five-hundred cars each day. Over time, Mizz Williams developed hand and arm injuries. She could no longer perform her duties. An appeals court ruled that Toyota had a legal responsibility to give her a different kind of job. Toyota, however, says it does not owe Mizz Williams a job. The company says her disability does not interfere with any of her major life activities. Now the Supreme Court must rule what a major life activity is. The court must decide what makes a person disabled. VOICE ONE: For each case, Supreme Court justices hear arguments by lawyers on both sides. The justices question the lawyers to get more information. They read a great deal of written information about the case. Then they discuss the case and vote. A majority of the votes of the nine justices decides what will become the law of the land. One of the justices who voted with the majority writes the opinion of the court. This opinion explains the decision made in the case. Some justices may disagree with the majority. When that happens a justice who disagreed writes the dissenting opinion. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Supreme Court was established in Seventeen-Eighty-Nine. It was created as one of the three major divisions of the United States government. The American Constitution gave the legislative division -- the Congress -- the power to pass laws. It gave the executive division -- the president and other government agencies -- power to carry out these laws. And, it gave the judicial division -- the Supreme Court and lower courts -- the power to decide legal disputes involving these laws. At first, this seemed to make the judicial division the weakest part of the federal government. But then, in Eighteen-Oh-Three, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the court could decide if laws already passed by Congress were constitutional. Since that time, the Supreme Court has played an important part in approving or disapproving actions taken by Congress and the president. VOICE ONE: Most of the cases the Supreme Court considers already have been judged in a lower court. The Supreme Court hears appeals of the decisions made by lower courts that involve federal and state laws. If the court agrees to re-examine a case, then its decision is final. It cannot be vetoed by either the president or Congress. The president and members of Congress are elected every few years. To be re-elected, they must base their actions at least partly on what the voters want. However, Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. Their loyalty is not to voters. It is to a permanent document, the United States Constitution. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: At different times in American history, the Supreme Court has helped make major changes in American society. In Eighteen-Ninety-Six, for example, the Supreme Court said it was legal to have separate public places for black people and white people. The Court said this was legal as long as those places provided equally good services. That decision was used as a reason to permit racial separation in many American schools for almost sixty years. However, in Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Supreme Court said racial separation in American schools did violate the Constitution. It said separate schools never could be equally good schools. That decision helped end racial separation in the nation's schools. And it helped launch a major movement to gain racial equality for African Americans. VOICE ONE: American presidents can play an important part in changing the Supreme Court. Most presidents have the chance to appoint one or more new justices to fill the places of justices who retire or die. Presidents usually try to name justices who share their political beliefs. That means presidents may leave a mark on the court that lasts long after their own years as president have ended. Some Supreme Courts have been conservative. President Franklin Roosevelt faced such a court when he tried to carry out economic reforms in the Nineteen-Thirties. During the Nineteen-Fifties and Nineteen-Sixties, a very different Supreme Court developed. Chief Justice Earl Warren led this court. It made several decisions that greatly expanded the rights of accused criminals. The court also extended the right to freedom of speech and the right to freedom of religion. VOICE TWO: Not all Supreme Court cases result in historic decisions. But many of them do. For example, some experts believe the Court may be asked to hear cases related to a new anti-terrorism law. Congress passed the law after the attacks on the nation in September. The lower courts may test this law, which limits some traditional American rights. Experts say the Supreme Court has the responsibility for deciding all the important issues in American life. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-30-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT - December 3, 2001: World Bank-IMF Aid to Poor Nations
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The leaders of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have promised to help poor countries whose economies have been hurt by the terrorist attacks in the United States. The two groups held their yearly meeting in Ottawa, Canada last month. I-M-F Managing Director Horst Koehler and World Bank President James Wolfensohn announced the added assistance in a joint statement. They said that many developing countries will likely need additional international aid because of the economic effects of the attacks. They said their organizations plan to extend current loans and provide more moderate debt-relief terms to many developing countries. Economic exerts fear the September eleventh terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington will worsen economic problems in developing countries. They are especially concerned about Pakistan and Turkey. Both nations have played an important part in the American-led fight against terrorism. Economists believe Pakistan’s increasing refugee crisis and a drop in exports could create political problems for that government. Mister Koehler and Mister Wolfensohn say that poor countries will be affected in several ways as the world economy slows. For example, international travel has decreased because of increased security concerns. They say areas that were popular for travelers will likely feel the effects of the terrorist attacks the most. These include areas in the Caribbean, Eastern and South Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Private investments in developing markets have also decreased. Also, the slowing world economy has led to weaker exports and a drop in the price of goods, such as coffee, cotton and copper. Mister Koehler and Mister Wolfensohn believe the number of poor people in the world will also increase because of the terrorist attacks. The World Bank says farmers in Africa and parts of Latin American will be affected the most. It estimates that about ten-million more people will be forced to live on less than one American dollar a day. Finally, the statement said that rich countries have a responsibility to help developing countries. Both organizations urged industrial countries to increase the amount of money given to I-MF and World Bank efforts in the developing world. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-11/a-2001-11-30-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 1, 2001: Aid for Afghanistan
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. The United States and twenty-one other countries have agreed to spend thousands of millions of dollars to help rebuild Afghanistan. The announcement was made after a special meeting at the State Department in Washington. The talks included officials from the United States, Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia and other wealthy counties expected to give money. Representatives of the United Nations and World Bank also attended the meetings last week. The two organizations are expected to supervise most of the aid projects. The World Bank estimates as much as twenty-five-thousand-million dollars will be needed to rebuild the Afghan economy and provide needed services. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. The former Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight. Civil war and armed conflicts are common in the country’s history. The United States has given the most humanitarian aid of any country for the past several years. Last year, America gave a total of one-hundred-thirteen-million dollars to Afghans inside the country and in refugee camps in nearby countries. So far this year, the United States has given nearly two-hundred-million dollars in aid to Afghanistan. And, last month President Bush announced that three-hundred-twenty-million dollars more aid would be given. The aid includes food, medicine, blankets and shelter. Officials say the international community now is prepared to pay for major farm, road and school-building projects. The goal, they say, is to try to win the friendship of Afghan civilians as soon as the war is over. Al Larson is an American State Department official. He says important projects need to be completed quickly to help build hope among Afghan people. For example, water projects need to be built to improve health and agricultural production. New schools need to be opened for girls and women who are both students and teachers. Officials say a plan to rebuild Afghanistan is needed immediately, although the campaign against the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda terrorist group is not over. Countries are more likely to agree to give large amounts of money now when the terrible situation of the Afghan people is continually in the news. Mark Malloch Brown heads the United Nations Development Project. He says rebuilding programs for Afghanistan will become more complex and costly in three to five years. He says that the financing will come from many countries. But, he says the planning and work of rebuilding the country will be done by Afghans themselves. Officials say a final plan of assistance for Afghanistan is not expected until January. At that time, another meeting of countries prepared to give money is set to take place in Japan. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jill Moss. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-03-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - December 4, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the publication of ancient writings called the Dead Sea Scrolls. We tell about a common pain medicine that may prevent Alzheimer’s Disease. And we tell about a project that provides farm animals to people in developing countries. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The ancient documents called the Dead Sea Scrolls have been published, more than fifty years after their discovery. Emmanuel Tov of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, announced the publication in New York City last month. For eleven years, Professor Tov has led an international effort to study and publish the ancient writings. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written more than two-thousand years ago. They represent the oldest surviving copies of the Old Testament of the Bible, considered holy by both the Jewish and Christian religions. VOICE TWO: Some experts have called the Dead Sea Scrolls one of the most important discoveries of the Twentieth Century. The scrolls were found between Nineteen-Forty-Seven and Nineteen-Fifty-Six in caves near the ruins of an ancient settlement at Qumran. Qumran is on the western shore of the Dead Sea, near Jericho, in what is now part of the West Bank. Eight of the documents found were almost complete. More than one-hundred-thousand pieces of documents also were found. Some pieces were as long as one meter. Others were only a few centimeters long. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written on animal skin and an ancient form of paper called papyrus. The scrolls were written mainly in two languages: Hebrew and Aramaic. VOICE ONE: Experts say the Dead Sea Scrolls are a treasure of Jewish history and religion. They say the scrolls help to show what the Hebrew Bible looked like more than two-thousand years ago. They also show the thinking of Jews who lived before and during the period when Christianity first began. Some of the writings include the prayers, laws and beliefs of the people who wrote them. Many experts believe the writers were from a group called the Essenes who lived in Qumran. A few experts believe the scrolls were written in Jerusalem and hidden in caves in Qumran to protect them from invading Roman forces. VOICE TWO: Ten years ago, publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls was far from completion. A small group of experts controlled the documents and resisted requests to share them. The speed of the work quickened under the direction of Professor Tov. He says electronic technology helped speed completion of the project. For example, the new technology helped experts read the writing on some of the documents that they could not even see before. Oxford University Press is publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls. The nine-hundred scrolls and commentaries are published in thirty-seven books. Two of the books are in final preparation. The series is called “Discoveries in the Judean Desert.” One book to be published early next year will give a history of the project and list all the writings. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. Scientists in the Netherlands have found the strongest evidence yet that some common medicines may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The medicines are called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. People take the drugs to ease pain or reduce high body temperature. They include drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen. The Dutch study found that adults who took the painkilling drugs every day for at least two years greatly reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. They were eighty percent less likely to develop the disease than people who had never taken the drugs. The study is not the first to suggest that some painkillers reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. However, experts say it is one of the largest and best designed studies on the subject. The New England Journal of Medicine reported the findings. VOICE TWO: Twelve-million people around the world suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. They slowly lose their ability to think and remember. These changes are caused by the progressive death of brain cells. About ten percent of people sixty-five years and older have Alzheimer’s. However, the risk of the disease increases with age. Other studies have suggested that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs could help prevent or treat Alzheimer’s. A few years ago, scientists found that some people who take these drugs have a lower risk of developing the disease. Scientists suspected the painkillers had a protective effect because they help to reduce the pain and swelling of damaged tissue. VOICE ONE: The new Dutch study involved almost seven-thousand adults in a community near Rotterdam. They were fifty-five years old or older. None of them had Alzheimer’s when the study began. By the end of the study seven years later, two-hundred-ninety-three people had developed the disease. The Dutch scientists examined a national system of medical records to identify which patients had taken anti-inflammatory drugs and for how long. More than four-thousand of the people took the drugs. Most of the people took them to ease the pain of the disease arthritis. Arthritis affects areas of the body where bones are joined, like the knees. VOICE TWO: The study found that the length of drug use was linked with a reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. The risk was not greatly different among people who took the drugs for less than two years and non-users. Among long-term users, the protective effect appeared to be the same, no matter how much of the drugs were taken. The study found that the drug aspirin did not reduce the risk of the disease. Bruno Stricker of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam led the study. He urged people not to start using anti-inflammatory drugs before other studies confirm the findings. Mister Stricker warned that the drugs can have serious side effects, such as severe bleeding in the stomach or intestines. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One of the biggest problems in developing countries is hunger. An organization called Heifer International is working to improve this situation. The organization sends needed farm animals to families and communities around the world. An American farmer, Dan West, developed the idea for Heifer International in the Nineteen-Thirties. Mister West was working in Spain where he discovered a need for cows. Many families were starving because of a civil war in that country. So Mister West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The first Heifer animals were sent in Nineteen-Forty-Four. Since that time, more than four-million people in one-hundred-fifteen countries have had better lives because of Heifer animals. The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves and become self-supporting. It provides more than twenty kinds of animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs and cows. Last year, Heifer International helped more than thirty-thousand families in forty-six countries. VOICE TWO: To receive a Heifer animal, groups must first explain their needs and goals. They must also make a plan which will allow them to become self-supporting. Local experts usually provide training. The organization says that animals must have food, water, shelter, health care, and the ability to reproduce. Without them, the animals will not remain healthy and productive. Heifer International also believes that groups must pass on some of their success to others in need. This belief guarantees that each person who takes part in the program also becomes a giver. Every family that receives a Heifer animal must agree to give that animal’s first female baby to other people in need. Families must also agree to pass on the skills and training they received from Heifer International. This concept of “passing on the gift” helps communities become self-supporting. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Jill Moss. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the publication of ancient writings called the Dead Sea Scrolls. We tell about a common pain medicine that may prevent Alzheimer’s Disease. And we tell about a project that provides farm animals to people in developing countries. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The ancient documents called the Dead Sea Scrolls have been published, more than fifty years after their discovery. Emmanuel Tov of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, announced the publication in New York City last month. For eleven years, Professor Tov has led an international effort to study and publish the ancient writings. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written more than two-thousand years ago. They represent the oldest surviving copies of the Old Testament of the Bible, considered holy by both the Jewish and Christian religions. VOICE TWO: Some experts have called the Dead Sea Scrolls one of the most important discoveries of the Twentieth Century. The scrolls were found between Nineteen-Forty-Seven and Nineteen-Fifty-Six in caves near the ruins of an ancient settlement at Qumran. Qumran is on the western shore of the Dead Sea, near Jericho, in what is now part of the West Bank. Eight of the documents found were almost complete. More than one-hundred-thousand pieces of documents also were found. Some pieces were as long as one meter. Others were only a few centimeters long. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written on animal skin and an ancient form of paper called papyrus. The scrolls were written mainly in two languages: Hebrew and Aramaic. VOICE ONE: Experts say the Dead Sea Scrolls are a treasure of Jewish history and religion. They say the scrolls help to show what the Hebrew Bible looked like more than two-thousand years ago. They also show the thinking of Jews who lived before and during the period when Christianity first began. Some of the writings include the prayers, laws and beliefs of the people who wrote them. Many experts believe the writers were from a group called the Essenes who lived in Qumran. A few experts believe the scrolls were written in Jerusalem and hidden in caves in Qumran to protect them from invading Roman forces. VOICE TWO: Ten years ago, publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls was far from completion. A small group of experts controlled the documents and resisted requests to share them. The speed of the work quickened under the direction of Professor Tov. He says electronic technology helped speed completion of the project. For example, the new technology helped experts read the writing on some of the documents that they could not even see before. Oxford University Press is publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls. The nine-hundred scrolls and commentaries are published in thirty-seven books. Two of the books are in final preparation. The series is called “Discoveries in the Judean Desert.” One book to be published early next year will give a history of the project and list all the writings. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. Scientists in the Netherlands have found the strongest evidence yet that some common medicines may help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The medicines are called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. People take the drugs to ease pain or reduce high body temperature. They include drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen. The Dutch study found that adults who took the painkilling drugs every day for at least two years greatly reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. They were eighty percent less likely to develop the disease than people who had never taken the drugs. The study is not the first to suggest that some painkillers reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. However, experts say it is one of the largest and best designed studies on the subject. The New England Journal of Medicine reported the findings. VOICE TWO: Twelve-million people around the world suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. They slowly lose their ability to think and remember. These changes are caused by the progressive death of brain cells. About ten percent of people sixty-five years and older have Alzheimer’s. However, the risk of the disease increases with age. Other studies have suggested that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs could help prevent or treat Alzheimer’s. A few years ago, scientists found that some people who take these drugs have a lower risk of developing the disease. Scientists suspected the painkillers had a protective effect because they help to reduce the pain and swelling of damaged tissue. VOICE ONE: The new Dutch study involved almost seven-thousand adults in a community near Rotterdam. They were fifty-five years old or older. None of them had Alzheimer’s when the study began. By the end of the study seven years later, two-hundred-ninety-three people had developed the disease. The Dutch scientists examined a national system of medical records to identify which patients had taken anti-inflammatory drugs and for how long. More than four-thousand of the people took the drugs. Most of the people took them to ease the pain of the disease arthritis. Arthritis affects areas of the body where bones are joined, like the knees. VOICE TWO: The study found that the length of drug use was linked with a reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. The risk was not greatly different among people who took the drugs for less than two years and non-users. Among long-term users, the protective effect appeared to be the same, no matter how much of the drugs were taken. The study found that the drug aspirin did not reduce the risk of the disease. Bruno Stricker of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam led the study. He urged people not to start using anti-inflammatory drugs before other studies confirm the findings. Mister Stricker warned that the drugs can have serious side effects, such as severe bleeding in the stomach or intestines. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: One of the biggest problems in developing countries is hunger. An organization called Heifer International is working to improve this situation. The organization sends needed farm animals to families and communities around the world. An American farmer, Dan West, developed the idea for Heifer International in the Nineteen-Thirties. Mister West was working in Spain where he discovered a need for cows. Many families were starving because of a civil war in that country. So Mister West asked his friends in the United States to send some cows. The first Heifer animals were sent in Nineteen-Forty-Four. Since that time, more than four-million people in one-hundred-fifteen countries have had better lives because of Heifer animals. The organization provides families a chance to feed themselves and become self-supporting. It provides more than twenty kinds of animals, such as sheep, goats, pigs and cows. Last year, Heifer International helped more than thirty-thousand families in forty-six countries. VOICE TWO: To receive a Heifer animal, groups must first explain their needs and goals. They must also make a plan which will allow them to become self-supporting. Local experts usually provide training. The organization says that animals must have food, water, shelter, health care, and the ability to reproduce. Without them, the animals will not remain healthy and productive. Heifer International also believes that groups must pass on some of their success to others in need. This belief guarantees that each person who takes part in the program also becomes a giver. Every family that receives a Heifer animal must agree to give that animal’s first female baby to other people in need. Families must also agree to pass on the skills and training they received from Heifer International. This concept of “passing on the gift” helps communities become self-supporting. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow and Jill Moss. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-03-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – December 4, 2001: Christmas Trees
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many Americans are busy preparing for Christmas and the winter holiday season. Buying a Christmas tree is a holiday tradition for many Americans. One study found that almost eighty percent of American homes had a Christmas tree last year. This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. Many Americans are busy preparing for Christmas and the winter holiday season. Buying a Christmas tree is a holiday tradition for many Americans. One study found that almost eighty percent of American homes had a Christmas tree last year. Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps the most famous is the huge Christmas tree near the White House in Washington, D-C. The National Christmas Tree Association represents Christmas tree growers in the United States. It reports that almost forty percent of all Christmas trees in American homes are natural. The other sixty percent are artificial, or man-made, trees. Many people believe that Christmas trees come from forests. In fact, most trees are carefully grown on farms. Farmers plant and harvest Christmas trees as a crop, similar to fruits or vegetables. There are about fifteen-thousand Christmas tree farms in North America. There are Christmas tree farms in all fifty states and Canada. Currently, about four-hundred-thousand hectares of farmland is in production. The industry employs more than one-hundred-thousand people. About thirty-three-million natural Christmas trees are sold in North America each year. It can take as many as fifteen years to grow a tree to a height of two meters. However, the average growing time is seven years. Traditionally, farmers grow evergreen trees for Christmas trees. Scotch pine, white pine and Douglas fir are among the most popular. Evergreen trees produce cones. Most coniferous trees have both male and female cones. The female cones are called seed cones. They hold the seeds created by fertilization. Farmers remove fertilized seeds from the seed cones and plant them. They grow into seedlings. Farmers care for the young trees until they are about three to five years old. Then farmers replant them in fields. Farmers add fertilizer to the trees and remove unwanted plants. They cut the tops of the trees to control how fast the trees grow. Farmers cut other parts of the trees while they are growing. This gives the trees the traditional shape that people will like. For every Christmas tree that a farmer cuts down, he plants two or three seedlings in its place. This year, farmers planted more than seventy-three-million tree seedlings. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps the most famous is the huge Christmas tree near the White House in Washington, D-C. The National Christmas Tree Association represents Christmas tree growers in the United States. It reports that almost forty percent of all Christmas trees in American homes are natural. The other sixty percent are artificial, or man-made, trees. Many people believe that Christmas trees come from forests. In fact, most trees are carefully grown on farms. Farmers plant and harvest Christmas trees as a crop, similar to fruits or vegetables. There are about fifteen-thousand Christmas tree farms in North America. There are Christmas tree farms in all fifty states and Canada. Currently, about four-hundred-thousand hectares of farmland is in production. The industry employs more than one-hundred-thousand people. About thirty-three-million natural Christmas trees are sold in North America each year. It can take as many as fifteen years to grow a tree to a height of two meters. However, the average growing time is seven years. Traditionally, farmers grow evergreen trees for Christmas trees. Scotch pine, white pine and Douglas fir are among the most popular. Evergreen trees produce cones. Most coniferous trees have both male and female cones. The female cones are called seed cones. They hold the seeds created by fertilization. Farmers remove fertilized seeds from the seed cones and plant them. They grow into seedlings. Farmers care for the young trees until they are about three to five years old. Then farmers replant them in fields. Farmers add fertilizer to the trees and remove unwanted plants. They cut the tops of the trees to control how fast the trees grow. Farmers cut other parts of the trees while they are growing. This gives the trees the traditional shape that people will like. For every Christmas tree that a farmer cuts down, he plants two or three seedlings in its place. This year, farmers planted more than seventy-three-million tree seedlings. This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-03-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - November 21, 2001: Largest Cockroach Fossil Ever Found
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. American scientists have reported finding the largest complete remains of a cockroach ever discovered. The scientists say the insect was about the size of a small animal. They say it lived three-hundred-million years ago. That is fifty-five million years before the first dinosaurs appeared on Earth. Scientists say the fossil discovery could lead to a better understanding of ancient creatures. They say it also could help show how Earth’s climate has changed over the years. Cockroaches are among the oldest creatures on Earth. Some scientists believe cockroaches may have been on Earth for as many as four-hundred-million years. Cockroaches also are among the most common creatures on Earth. Scientists know about almost four-thousand different kinds of cockroach. Only a small number of the insects are considered harmful to humans. Scientists found the cockroach fossil two years ago in a coal mine in the state of Ohio. It was found with the remains of hundreds of other plants and animals. Scientists say the ancient insect lived during a period on Earth when the area was hot and wet. They say extremely dry weather was beginning to dry out the wetlands. Cary Easterday is a graduate student at Ohio State University in Columbus. He was among the scientists who found the fossil. He said that scientists normally only hope to find fossils of shell and bones. That is because shell and bones have minerals that increase their chances of being protected. He said something unusual about the chemistry of the ancient area protected creatures without shells or bones. The ancient cockroach was nine centimeters long. It was preserved in great detail. The remains of the insect’s legs, mouth parts and wings are easy to see. Mister Easterday presented his findings at a meeting of the Geological Society of America. The group met earlier this month in Boston, Massachusetts. Mister Easterday compared the fossil to modern cockroaches. The ancient insect was about two times as big as the average American cockroach. However, some cockroaches that live in warmer climates are even larger. They grow to a length of thirteen centimeters. The smallest known cockroaches are only a little more than one centimeter long. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. American scientists have reported finding the largest complete remains of a cockroach ever discovered. The scientists say the insect was about the size of a small animal. They say it lived three-hundred-million years ago. That is fifty-five million years before the first dinosaurs appeared on Earth. Scientists say the fossil discovery could lead to a better understanding of ancient creatures. They say it also could help show how Earth’s climate has changed over the years. Cockroaches are among the oldest creatures on Earth. Some scientists believe cockroaches may have been on Earth for as many as four-hundred-million years. Cockroaches also are among the most common creatures on Earth. Scientists know about almost four-thousand different kinds of cockroach. Only a small number of the insects are considered harmful to humans. Scientists found the cockroach fossil two years ago in a coal mine in the state of Ohio. It was found with the remains of hundreds of other plants and animals. Scientists say the ancient insect lived during a period on Earth when the area was hot and wet. They say extremely dry weather was beginning to dry out the wetlands. Cary Easterday is a graduate student at Ohio State University in Columbus. He was among the scientists who found the fossil. He said that scientists normally only hope to find fossils of shell and bones. That is because shell and bones have minerals that increase their chances of being protected. He said something unusual about the chemistry of the ancient area protected creatures without shells or bones. The ancient cockroach was nine centimeters long. It was preserved in great detail. The remains of the insect’s legs, mouth parts and wings are easy to see. Mister Easterday presented his findings at a meeting of the Geological Society of America. The group met earlier this month in Boston, Massachusetts. Mister Easterday compared the fossil to modern cockroaches. The ancient insect was about two times as big as the average American cockroach. However, some cockroaches that live in warmer climates are even larger. They grow to a length of thirteen centimeters. The smallest known cockroaches are only a little more than one centimeter long. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-04-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT- December 5, 2001: Process of Tumor Growth
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists say they have made an important discovery about how a cancerous tumor develops the blood supply that it needs. The researchers found that cells from the bone marrow play an important part in creating the blood supply. Marrow is the soft tissue found inside most bones. The research was carried out by scientists at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. They reported the results of their studies in the publication “Nature Medicine.” The scientists used mice to investigate the theory that special stem cells from the bone marrow are involved in creating new blood vessels for cancerous growths. They used mice that had been genetically engineered so they could not produce new blood vessels. The mice also could not develop cancer because tumors placed in them could not make new blood vessels. The researchers placed specially marked bone marrow from normal mice into the mice that could not produce blood vessels. The mice were then given a kind of cancer cell that spreads quickly. The researchers found that cancerous tumors appeared on the mice. After the animals died, the researchers found the marked bone marrow cells in most of the tumors. Cancerous tumor cells produce a protein called VEGF (VEJ-eff). VEGF helps blood vessels grow into the tumor. The researchers found that the cells used by VEGF to build blood vessels come from the bone marrow. They include two kinds of stem cells. One kind is involved in the development of blood vessel walls. VEGF makes these cells leave the bone marrow, enter the bloodstream and seek out the tumor. Then the cells begin to create blood vessels that support the tumor. The tumor then increases in size and destroys normal tissue. The scientists found that they could stop the action of VEGF on the bone marrow stem cells with specially made substances called antibodies. The antibodies blocked the action of the stem cells. In the mice experiments, the use of two kinds of antibodies caused the cancer cells to die. Other researchers say this work shows a new way of thinking about a tumor’s blood supply. They say these kinds of antibodies may provide a new way to attack cancer. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Scientists say they have made an important discovery about how a cancerous tumor develops the blood supply that it needs. The researchers found that cells from the bone marrow play an important part in creating the blood supply. Marrow is the soft tissue found inside most bones. The research was carried out by scientists at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. They reported the results of their studies in the publication “Nature Medicine.” The scientists used mice to investigate the theory that special stem cells from the bone marrow are involved in creating new blood vessels for cancerous growths. They used mice that had been genetically engineered so they could not produce new blood vessels. The mice also could not develop cancer because tumors placed in them could not make new blood vessels. The researchers placed specially marked bone marrow from normal mice into the mice that could not produce blood vessels. The mice were then given a kind of cancer cell that spreads quickly. The researchers found that cancerous tumors appeared on the mice. After the animals died, the researchers found the marked bone marrow cells in most of the tumors. Cancerous tumor cells produce a protein called VEGF (VEJ-eff). VEGF helps blood vessels grow into the tumor. The researchers found that the cells used by VEGF to build blood vessels come from the bone marrow. They include two kinds of stem cells. One kind is involved in the development of blood vessel walls. VEGF makes these cells leave the bone marrow, enter the bloodstream and seek out the tumor. Then the cells begin to create blood vessels that support the tumor. The tumor then increases in size and destroys normal tissue. The scientists found that they could stop the action of VEGF on the bone marrow stem cells with specially made substances called antibodies. The antibodies blocked the action of the stem cells. In the mice experiments, the use of two kinds of antibodies caused the cancer cells to die. Other researchers say this work shows a new way of thinking about a tumor’s blood supply. They say these kinds of antibodies may provide a new way to attack cancer. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-04-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - December 5, 2001: Space Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about science experiments that will be sent to the planet Mars. And we tell about the hunt for gravity in extremely deep space. We also tell about a possible new medical technology and about new plans to send a spacecraft to study the planet Pluto. And we tell about the study of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Scientists have used the Hubble Space Telescope to make the first direct examinations and chemical tests of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. Their work shows that it is possible for the Hubble telescope and other telescopes to measure the chemicals in a planet’s atmosphere. The planet that was tested is about two-hundred-twenty times the size of Earth. The planet orbits a yellow Sun-like star called H-D two-zero-nine-four-five-eight. The star is about one-hundred-fifty light years away in the constellation Pegasus. NASA says almost anyone can find the star with a small telescope. VOICE TWO: The lead researcher for the project is David Charbonneau of the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Mister Charbonneau says his team used the Hubble space telescope to find sodium in the planet’s atmosphere. He said the research team found much less sodium in the atmosphere than expected. The team’s research is to be published in the Astrophysical Journal. Mister Charbonneau said using the Hubble telescope in this kind of research opens up many new exciting possibilities in space research. Researchers say using the space telescope to examine the atmosphere of distant planets could lead to the first direct evidence of life beyond Earth. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA has selected seven researchers to spend the next three years developing new medical technologies. The new devices and methods will be able to find, study and treat disease inside the human body. The researchers will develop extremely small devices are called nanoscale biomedical sensors. They are less than one thousand-millionth of a meter. They are so small they can enter the body without doing damage. They will find changes in cells within a human body and communicate problems to a device outside the body. NASA says such devices will help medical workers observe and treat early any health problems of astronauts in space. And the new devices will provide the National Cancer Institute with new technologies to find and treat the earliest signs of some kinds of cancer. VOICE TWO: In the past year NASA asked scientific researchers for proposals to develop the nanoscale sensors. NASA and the National Cancer Institute received fifty-three proposals. The National Cancer Institute, technical experts from major universities, government scientists and industry experts studied them. The seven researchers chosen will receive eleven million dollars during the next three years to do the work. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA will place a new satellite into orbit around the planet Mars in the year Two-Thousand-Five. The satellite is called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It will carry six special scientific instruments. Recently, NASA announced that the instruments on the satellite will be used to do ten science investigations. One of the most important will use a device called HiRISE. HiRISE is a multi-color imaging system. It is a thirty-one million-dollar device similar to a camera. HiRISE will be able to take extremely close pictures of the surface of Mars. It is expected to provide pictures that will be used to find water and to help identify future landing areas on the planet. A second instrument will also produce special picture like images. This device will produce maps of different kinds of rock and surface material found on Mars. VOICE TWO: The eight other investigations will use the satellite’s six scientific instruments to gather and study information. These instruments include special radar that can study areas below the surface of the planet. Another device will study the gravity of Mars. Several of the instruments on the satellite will be the same as those that were lost when the Mars Climate Orbiter disappeared. These instruments will study the weather on Mars. VOICE ONE: The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a scientific observation project that will bring together teams from universities, industry, NASA centers and other organizations. The spacecraft will be developed by Lockheed-Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado. It is to be launched in August of Two-Thousand-Five. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Small amounts of gravity move through deep space. This gravity is similar to ocean waves. NASA scientists know the space gravity waves can slow down the speed of objects. Space scientists believe these waves began with the movements of huge bodies, such as black holes or large stars that have exploded. The famous physics expert Albert Einstein wrote that such space waves would be found. Some evidence of this theory was confirmed in the Nineteen Seventies. VOICE ONE: NASA has just begun a forty-day study of the effects of gravity in deep space. The study will use the Cassini spacecraft and new, special equipment. The equipment is at NASA’s Deep Space Communications Network in Barstow, California, Madrid, Spain and Canberra, Australia. Researchers will use the radio equipment of the Deep Space Network to measure changes in the speed of the Cassini spacecraft as it continues to move away from Earth. VOICE TWO: The spacecraft Cassini is in a quiet part of its trip through space. It passed the planet Jupiter eleven months ago. It should reach Saturn in about thirty months. Researchers will use radio broadcasts between Cassini and Earth to search for gravity waves. The radio equipment will be able to measure changes in the speed of Cassini that amount to less than a second of time. John Armstrong is a space scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says study of the gravity waves is extremely important to space science. Randy Herrera is an engineer for the project. He says gravity waves will give science another way to see into the universe. Mister Herrera says understanding how the gravity waves work will help scientists study black holes and other huge objects in space. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA has accepted a proposal to begin the design studies for a spacecraft that will fly to Pluto, the most distant planet in our solar system. The spacecraft is to study the planet and also explore the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto. The Kuiper Belt is made up of space rocks and comets. Water and the simple chemicals that supported life on Earth are believed to have come from the Kuiper Belt. NASA says the scientific value of the flight to Pluto depends on the spacecraft being launched by Two-Thousand-Six. The spacecraft would have to fly near Pluto well before Two-Thousand-Twenty. VOICE TWO: NASA says two important conditions must be met before the spacecraft can be launched. First a study must approve the risks involved in the use of a nuclear power system that would be needed for the spacecraft. And Congress would have to approve the money needed for the project. NASA now calls the proposed flight New Horizons. It would include devices for creating images. It would also include radio science experiments that study the surface rocks of Pluto and its moon Charon. The spacecraft would also make maps of Pluto and study any atmosphere found there. Colleen Hartman is the Solar System Explorations Director in NASA’s office of Space Science. She says a trip to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt would mean a visit to the most ancient material in our solar system. She says all the other planets including Earth are made of that material. Mizz Hartman says the most exciting thing about going to an unexplored planet is what we may find there that we are not expecting. VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk, and our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-05-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – December 6, 2001: Stop Smoking
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The World Health Organization estimates that more than four-million people die each year from the effects of smoking tobacco. That number is increasing. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. The World Health Organization estimates that more than four-million people die each year from the effects of smoking tobacco. That number is increasing. W-H-O officials expect one-hundred-fifty- million people to die from tobacco use in the next twenty years. Seven in ten of those deaths will be in developing countries. These numbers are frightening. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. In the United States, about forty-seven-million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death nationwide. This year, more than four-hundred-thirty-thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. One day last month, thousands of Americans attempted to stop smoking. They were taking part in the Great American Smokeout. The American Cancer Society has organized the Great American Smokeout every year for twenty-five years. The goal is to show the dangers of smoking and provide support for people who decide to stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says all cigarettes damage the body. It warns that smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop smoking. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. This could include taking long walks or spending time in areas where smoking is banned. Also, you could eat a small piece of fruit or vegetable instead of having a cigarette. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. W-H-O officials expect one-hundred-fifty- million people to die from tobacco use in the next twenty years. Seven in ten of those deaths will be in developing countries. These numbers are frightening. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. In the United States, about forty-seven-million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death nationwide. This year, more than four-hundred-thirty-thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. One day last month, thousands of Americans attempted to stop smoking. They were taking part in the Great American Smokeout. The American Cancer Society has organized the Great American Smokeout every year for twenty-five years. The goal is to show the dangers of smoking and provide support for people who decide to stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says all cigarettes damage the body. It warns that smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop smoking. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. This could include taking long walks or spending time in areas where smoking is banned. Also, you could eat a small piece of fruit or vegetable instead of having a cigarette. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-05-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - December 6, 2001: 1920s/The Arts
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) There were many changes in the social customs and day-to-day life of millions of Americans during the administration of president Calvin Coolidge. As we saw in our last program, many young people began to challenge the traditions of their parents and grandparents. They experimented with new ideas and ways of living. People of all kinds became very interested in the new popular culture. Radio and films brought them exciting news of court trials, sports heroes, and wild parties. However, the nineteen-twenties also was one of the most active and important periods in the more serious arts. Writers, painters, and other artists produced some of the greatest work in the nation's history. Today, we will take a look at American arts during this exciting period. VOICE 2: Most Americans approved strongly of the economic growth and improved living conditions during the nineteen-twenties. They supported the conservative Republican policies of President Calvin Coolidge. And they had great faith in the country's business leaders and economic system. However, many of the nation's serious artists had a different and darker view of society. They were troubled deeply by the changes they saw. They believed that Americans had become too interested in money and wealth. These artists rejected the new business society. And they also questioned the value of politics. Many of them believed that the First World War in Europe had been a terrible mistake. These artists had little faith in the political leaders who came to power after the war. They felt a need to protest the way the world was changing around them. VOICE 1: The spirit of protest was especially strong in serious American writing during the nineteen-twenties. Many of the greatest writers of this period hated the new business culture. One such writer was Sinclair Lewis. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Lewis wrote about Americans living in the towns and villages in the central part of the United States. Many of the people in his books were foolish men and women with empty values. They chased after money and popularity. In his famous book, "Main Street," Lewis joked about and criticized small-town business owners. Social criticism also was central to the writing of the newspaper writer, H. L. Mencken, from the eastern city of Baltimore. Mencken considered most Americans to be stupid and violent fools. He attacked their values without mercy. Of course, many traditional Americans reacted strongly to such criticism. For example, some religious and business leaders attacked Mencken as a dangerous person whose words were treason against the United States. But many young people thought Mencken was a hero whose only crime was writing the truth. VOICE 2: The work of Lewis, Mencken, and a number of other writers of the nineteen-twenties has been forgotten by many Americans as the years have passed. But the period did produce some truly great writing. One of the greatest writers of these years was Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway wrote about love, war, sports, and other subjects. He used short sentences and rough words. His style was sharper and different from traditional American writing. And his strong views about life set him apart from most other Americans. Another major writer was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald wrote especially about rich Americans searching for happiness and new values. His books were filled with people who rejected traditional beliefs. His book the great gatsby is considered today to be one of the greatest works in the history of American writing. A third great writer of the nineteen-twenties was William Faulkner. Faulkner wrote about the special problems and ways of life in the American south. His books explored the emotional tension in a society still suffering from the loss of the Civil War sixty years before. Some of Faulkner's best books were the "Sound and the Fury," "As I Lay Dying," and "Absalom, Absalom." Like Hemingway, he won the Nobel Prize for literature. VOICE 1: The nineteen-twenties also produced the greatest writer of theater plays in American history, Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill was an Irish-American with a dark and violent view of human nature. His plays used new theatrical methods and ways of presenting ideas. But they carried an emotional power never before seen in the American theater. Some of his best known plays were "Mourning Becomes Electra," "The Iceman Cometh," and "A Long Day's Journey into Night." A number of American writers also produced great poetry during the nineteen-twenties. Probably the most famous work was "The Waste Land," a poem of sadness by the writer T. S. Eliot. VOICE 2: There also were important changes in American painting during the nineteen-twenties. Economic growth gave many Americans the money to buy art for their homes for the first time. Sixty new museums opened. Slowly, Americans learned about serious art. Actually, American art had been changing in important ways since the beginning of the century. In nineteen-oh-eight, a group of New York artists arranged a historic show. These artists tried to show real life in their paintings. They painted new kinds of subjects. For example, George Bellows painted many emotional and realistic pictures of the sport of boxing. His work, and the painting of other realistic artists, became known as the "Ash Can" school of art. Another important group of modern artists was led by the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz. This group held a major art show in nineteen-thirteen in New York, Chicago, and Boston. The show presented modern art from Europe. Americans got their first chance to see the work of such painters as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The show caused a huge public debate in the United States. Traditional art critics accused the organizers of the show of trying to overthrow Christianity and American values. Former president Theodore Roosevelt and others denounced the new art as a threat to the country. However, many young American painters and art lovers did not agree. They became very interested in the new art styles from Europe. They studied them closely. Soon, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, and other American painters began to produce excellent art in the new cubist style. John Marin painted beautiful views of sea coasts in New York and Maine. And such artists as Max Weber and Georgia O'keefe painted in styles that seemed to come more from their own imagination than from reality. As with writing, the work of many of these serious modern painters only became popular many years later. VOICE 1: The greatest American designer of buildings during the nineteen-twenties was Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright believed that architects should design a building to fit its location, not to copy some ancient style. He used local materials in new ways. Wright invented many imaginative methods to combine useful building design with natural beauty. But again, most Americans did not know of Wright's work. Instead, they turned to local architects with traditional beliefs. These architects generally designed old and safe styles for buildings -- for homes, offices, colleges, and other needs. VOICE 2: Writers and artists now look back at the "roaring nineteen-twenties" as an extremely important period that gave birth to many new styles and ideas. Hemingway's style of writing continues to influence American writers more than half a century later. Many painters say the period marked the real birth of modern American art. And architecture students in the United States and other countries now study the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright. The changes in American society caused many of these artists much sadness and pain in their personal lives. But their expression of protest and rich imagination produced a body of work that has grown in influence with the passing years. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English. Your reporters have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-06-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - December 7, 2001: UN Environment Prize
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. An American environmental activist, Huey Johnson, has won the United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize this year. The prize is worth two-hundred-thousand dollars. It is considered one of the most important environmental awards in the world. Mister Johnson won the award for his efforts to protect the Earth’s natural resources. He received the award last month during a ceremony at U-N headquarters in New York. Huey Johnson has led national and international efforts to protect the environment for more than forty years. He helped create programs designed to save water, reduce energy use and cut pollution. Mister Johnson helped create many important organizations over the years. Some were privately operated. Others were governmental groups. In Nineteen-Seventy-Two, Mister Johnson gained recognition for helping create a company whose goal is to save natural areas in America’s cities. The Trust for Public Land company has protected more than five-hundred-thousand hectares of land in the United States. Mister Johnson was an official in charge of natural resources in California in the early Nineteen-Eighties. He developed statewide programs to save natural resources such as water, forests and soil. One program is called Investing for Prosperity. This one-hundred-year plan invests money to protect California’s natural resources. The plan became a model for other countries. One of the program’s major successes was the development of renewable energy technologies. Experts say these efforts have saved Californians thousands of millions of dollars and have helped the state’s economy grow. For his efforts in this area, Mister Johnson received the President’s Award for Sustainable Development in Nineteen-Ninety-Six. Mister Johnson also has been involved with the development and support of many international environmental organizations. One of them is the Green Belt Movement International. It urges people around the world to plant trees as a way to help improve the environment. The United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize was started by Ryoichi Sasakawa. It has been awarded each year since Nineteen-Eighty-Four. It recognizes people who have made major gains in protecting the environment. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-06-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - December 7, 2001: Music by Ryan Adams/Hanukkah/Chinati museum in Texas
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we: play some music by Ryan Adams ... answer a question about Hanukkah ... (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we: play some music by Ryan Adams ... answer a question about Hanukkah ... and report about an unusual museum in the state of Texas. Chinati Museum HOST: Most museums that show art and historical objects are in large buildings in the center of cities. Yet other non-traditional museums exist. One of them is Chinati (Chin-AH-tee) in a desert area of west Texas. It is the permanent home of some unusual large works of art. Jim Tedder tells us about it. ANNCR: Donald Judd was an artist who believed art should be shown in a permanent space designed for it. He created large, simple forms that needed a lot of space. He is considered part of the art movement called minimalism. In the early Nineteen-Seventies, Judd visited the town of Marfa in the dry unpopulated area of west Texas. He was looking for a permanent setting for his pieces. Within a few years he had found many buildings for his work and the work of other artists he liked. More than thirty buildings on an unused army base near Marfa joined the houses, stores and a bank Judd bought in town. He called his project Chinati, the name of nearby mountains. About ten-thousand art lovers from around the world have been making the long trip to Chinati each year. Most fly to El Paso, Texas. Then they drive for almost three hours through the brown empty land to see this unusual art in its unusual setting. On the former army base, two huge military storage buildings with rounded roofs shelter Donald Judd’s best known work. It is a series of one-hundred aluminum boxes. The grey metal boxes are all the same size outside, about one meter tall, one meter wide and almost two meters long. But the space inside each box is divided differently. Visitors enjoy watching the changing natural light soften the hard shapes and sharp edges of the shiny metal boxes. Donald Judd died in Nineteen-Ninety-Four, but more art that he liked continues to find a home in Chinati. Six U-shaped buildings once filled with sleeping soldiers now are filled with light. Dan Flavin, a light artist who died five years ago, used tubes of florescent light to create his art. His design for the six former army buildings was made years ago but the work was not finished until last year. Combinations of pink, yellow, blue and green light now flood the empty spaces. Visitors can experience the reaction between light and space in this new addition to the unusual art space in the hills of west Texas. Hanukkah HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from listeners in Vietnam and Nigeria. Nguyen Thanh Duc in Ho Chi Minh City and Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim in Kano both ask about the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration of the first successful battle in history for religious freedom. The story goes back more than two-thousand years, to the land that is now Israel. The ruling Greek-Syrian King had attempted to suppress the Jewish religion. He placed statues of Greek gods in the Jewish temple and tried to force Jews to accept them. A man called Judah Maccabee led a small group of Jews against their Greek-Syrian rulers. The Jews won the battle and the freedom to observe their religion. They began to clean the temple of all Greek influence. The story says they found only enough oil to light the holy temple lamp for one day. But the small amount of oil burned for eight days instead. It lasted until the Jews could bring new oil to the temple. This “miracle” is the reason Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days. The first night of Hanukkah this year is Sunday, December ninth. On that night Jews will say Hebrew prayers and light special candles in a lamp called a Hanukkah menorah. A menorah holds nine candles. One candle is used to light the other candles. It is called the shamus (SHAH-muss). The shamus lights only one candle on the first night of Hanukkah. It lights one more on each of the following nights. On the last night of the holiday, all nine candles burn brightly. On each night of Hanukkah, parents tell the holiday story to children and guests. They play special games and eat special foods. Everyone exchanges gifts. And they sing songs of joy. Listen to one of these, “Hannukah Oh Hanukkah”. ((CUT 1: HANUKKAH OH HANUKKAH)) Jews do not consider Hanukkah a major religious holiday. But Jewish leaders say it is important because it is a time when Jews give thanks for the freedom to worship God in their own way. Ryan Adams HOST: Twenty-six year old rock musician Ryan Adams has released three albums in one year. The latest album, “Gold,” was released September twenty-fifth. Shirley Griffith tells about Adams and plays some of his songs. ANNCR: “New York, New York” is the first song on the album “Gold.” Ryan Adams filmed the video for the song on September seventh — four days before the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D-C. In the video, Adams plays his guitar and sings near the Brooklyn Bridge. Just over his shoulder, across the East River, are the two buildings of the World Trade Center that were destroyed in the attacks. At the end of the song, he turns quickly and looks across the river. Listen now to “New York, New York.” (CUT 1- NEW YORK, NEW YORK) Ryan Adams says he loves both New York and Los Angeles, where he lives now. The album has songs about both places. One song is about a famous street in Los Angeles. Here is “La Cienega Just Smiled.” (CUT 2- LA CIENEGA JUST SMILED) Adams is now working on the first album with his new band, the Pinkhearts. He used to be leader of the alternative country band called Whiskeytown. It released its final album, “Pneumonia”, in May. Ryan wrote or helped write all the songs on the collection. One song is about his hometown in North Carolina. We leave you now with “Jacksonville.” (CUT 2-JACKSONVILLE) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to "mosaic at V-O-A news dot com.” Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano, Nancy Steinbach, and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. and report about an unusual museum in the state of Texas. Chinati Museum HOST: Most museums that show art and historical objects are in large buildings in the center of cities. Yet other non-traditional museums exist. One of them is Chinati (Chin-AH-tee) in a desert area of west Texas. It is the permanent home of some unusual large works of art. Jim Tedder tells us about it. ANNCR: Donald Judd was an artist who believed art should be shown in a permanent space designed for it. He created large, simple forms that needed a lot of space. He is considered part of the art movement called minimalism. In the early Nineteen-Seventies, Judd visited the town of Marfa in the dry unpopulated area of west Texas. He was looking for a permanent setting for his pieces. Within a few years he had found many buildings for his work and the work of other artists he liked. More than thirty buildings on an unused army base near Marfa joined the houses, stores and a bank Judd bought in town. He called his project Chinati, the name of nearby mountains. About ten-thousand art lovers from around the world have been making the long trip to Chinati each year. Most fly to El Paso, Texas. Then they drive for almost three hours through the brown empty land to see this unusual art in its unusual setting. On the former army base, two huge military storage buildings with rounded roofs shelter Donald Judd’s best known work. It is a series of one-hundred aluminum boxes. The grey metal boxes are all the same size outside, about one meter tall, one meter wide and almost two meters long. But the space inside each box is divided differently. Visitors enjoy watching the changing natural light soften the hard shapes and sharp edges of the shiny metal boxes. Donald Judd died in Nineteen-Ninety-Four, but more art that he liked continues to find a home in Chinati. Six U-shaped buildings once filled with sleeping soldiers now are filled with light. Dan Flavin, a light artist who died five years ago, used tubes of florescent light to create his art. His design for the six former army buildings was made years ago but the work was not finished until last year. Combinations of pink, yellow, blue and green light now flood the empty spaces. Visitors can experience the reaction between light and space in this new addition to the unusual art space in the hills of west Texas. Hanukkah HOST: Our VOA question this week comes from listeners in Vietnam and Nigeria. Nguyen Thanh Duc in Ho Chi Minh City and Ibrahim Umar Abdulkarim in Kano both ask about the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration of the first successful battle in history for religious freedom. The story goes back more than two-thousand years, to the land that is now Israel. The ruling Greek-Syrian King had attempted to suppress the Jewish religion. He placed statues of Greek gods in the Jewish temple and tried to force Jews to accept them. A man called Judah Maccabee led a small group of Jews against their Greek-Syrian rulers. The Jews won the battle and the freedom to observe their religion. They began to clean the temple of all Greek influence. The story says they found only enough oil to light the holy temple lamp for one day. But the small amount of oil burned for eight days instead. It lasted until the Jews could bring new oil to the temple. This “miracle” is the reason Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days. The first night of Hanukkah this year is Sunday, December ninth. On that night Jews will say Hebrew prayers and light special candles in a lamp called a Hanukkah menorah. A menorah holds nine candles. One candle is used to light the other candles. It is called the shamus (SHAH-muss). The shamus lights only one candle on the first night of Hanukkah. It lights one more on each of the following nights. On the last night of the holiday, all nine candles burn brightly. On each night of Hanukkah, parents tell the holiday story to children and guests. They play special games and eat special foods. Everyone exchanges gifts. And they sing songs of joy. Listen to one of these, “Hannukah Oh Hanukkah”. ((CUT 1: HANUKKAH OH HANUKKAH)) Jews do not consider Hanukkah a major religious holiday. But Jewish leaders say it is important because it is a time when Jews give thanks for the freedom to worship God in their own way. Ryan Adams HOST: Twenty-six year old rock musician Ryan Adams has released three albums in one year. The latest album, “Gold,” was released September twenty-fifth. Shirley Griffith tells about Adams and plays some of his songs. ANNCR: “New York, New York” is the first song on the album “Gold.” Ryan Adams filmed the video for the song on September seventh — four days before the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D-C. In the video, Adams plays his guitar and sings near the Brooklyn Bridge. Just over his shoulder, across the East River, are the two buildings of the World Trade Center that were destroyed in the attacks. At the end of the song, he turns quickly and looks across the river. Listen now to “New York, New York.” (CUT 1- NEW YORK, NEW YORK) Ryan Adams says he loves both New York and Los Angeles, where he lives now. The album has songs about both places. One song is about a famous street in Los Angeles. Here is “La Cienega Just Smiled.” (CUT 2- LA CIENEGA JUST SMILED) Adams is now working on the first album with his new band, the Pinkhearts. He used to be leader of the alternative country band called Whiskeytown. It released its final album, “Pneumonia”, in May. Ryan wrote or helped write all the songs on the collection. One song is about his hometown in North Carolina. We leave you now with “Jacksonville.” (CUT 2-JACKSONVILLE) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to "mosaic at V-O-A news dot com.” Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Marilyn Christiano, Nancy Steinbach, and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-07-1-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 8, 2001: Enron Fails
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. One of the largest companies in the United States has failed. The Enron Corporation has asked a federal court for protection because it can not pay the thousands of millions of dollars of money it owes. Enron is an energy trading company that buys and sells electricity and natural gas. It also owns or controls several other companies that deal in several different products. Enron asked for bankruptcy protection for itself and fourteen of its companies. Under the bankruptcy law, a business can continue to operate while it tries to negotiate new credit with companies and banks to whom it owes money. Enron began failing in October as some of its financial problems became known. The value of its stock quickly fell. The stock closed Thursday at thirty-six cents a share. Less than a year ago, each share of Enron stock sold for more than eighty dollars. Enron will continue to try to do business with the aid of court protection. However Enron has already dismissed four-thousand of its more than twenty-one-thousand workers. Most of those dismissed were employees that worked at the company’s headquarters in the western city of Houston, Texas. Last week, Enron dismissed about one-thousand-one-hundred employees in Europe. These actions caused anger among the workers because the company’s retirement plan had already lost more than one-thousand-million dollars. Many employees not only lost their jobs, but also lost the money they had invested in the company as part of their retirement plan. Reports say the United States Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into the company’s activities. The Labor Department says it is examining the company’s dealings with the employees’ retirement plan. The Security and Exchange Commission already is investigating Enron’s finances. And Congressional committees have announced they will hold hearings to investigate the failure of Enron and the investment actions of the company’s senior officials. The Enron Corporation has brought legal charges against the Dynegy Company. Enron says Dynegy had agreed to link with Enron. Enron says this would have saved it. Enron says the Dynegy Company refused to honor a legal business agreement. Enron is asking the court to force Dynegy to pay ten thousand million dollars in damages. The Enron Corporation once was the world’s largest energy trader. Its failure is affecting energy markets in many countries including Germany, Britain and India. Reports say companies and banks that have lent money to Enron could lose at least five-thousand-million dollars. Experts say what caused Enron to fail will be the subject of legal questions and court actions for many months to come. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. One of the largest companies in the United States has failed. The Enron Corporation has asked a federal court for protection because it can not pay the thousands of millions of dollars of money it owes. Enron is an energy trading company that buys and sells electricity and natural gas. It also owns or controls several other companies that deal in several different products. Enron asked for bankruptcy protection for itself and fourteen of its companies. Under the bankruptcy law, a business can continue to operate while it tries to negotiate new credit with companies and banks to whom it owes money. Enron began failing in October as some of its financial problems became known. The value of its stock quickly fell. The stock closed Thursday at thirty-six cents a share. Less than a year ago, each share of Enron stock sold for more than eighty dollars. Enron will continue to try to do business with the aid of court protection. However Enron has already dismissed four-thousand of its more than twenty-one-thousand workers. Most of those dismissed were employees that worked at the company’s headquarters in the western city of Houston, Texas. Last week, Enron dismissed about one-thousand-one-hundred employees in Europe. These actions caused anger among the workers because the company’s retirement plan had already lost more than one-thousand-million dollars. Many employees not only lost their jobs, but also lost the money they had invested in the company as part of their retirement plan. Reports say the United States Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into the company’s activities. The Labor Department says it is examining the company’s dealings with the employees’ retirement plan. The Security and Exchange Commission already is investigating Enron’s finances. And Congressional committees have announced they will hold hearings to investigate the failure of Enron and the investment actions of the company’s senior officials. The Enron Corporation has brought legal charges against the Dynegy Company. Enron says Dynegy had agreed to link with Enron. Enron says this would have saved it. Enron says the Dynegy Company refused to honor a legal business agreement. Enron is asking the court to force Dynegy to pay ten thousand million dollars in damages. The Enron Corporation once was the world’s largest energy trader. Its failure is affecting energy markets in many countries including Germany, Britain and India. Reports say companies and banks that have lent money to Enron could lose at least five-thousand-million dollars. Experts say what caused Enron to fail will be the subject of legal questions and court actions for many months to come. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-07-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 9, 2001: Marilyn Monroe
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 1: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about movie star Marilyn Monroe. She died many years ago, yet still is one of the best known American women. VOICE 2: And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Today we tell about movie star Marilyn Monroe. She died many years ago, yet still is one of the best known American women. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: Her name at birth was Norma Jean Baker. Her life as a child was like a bad dream. She lived with a number of different people, and often was mistreated. At age sixteen Norma Jean married a sailor. But she soon ended that marriage. She changed her hair color from brown to shining gold. And she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. She wanted to be an actress ... and she succeeded. She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies. Millions of people went to see them. By the time Norma Jean had reached the age of twenty-six, her beautiful face and body earned her a place as one of America's leading movie stars. But success and fame were not enough to make her happy. The troubles of her childhood days stayed with her. She drank too much alcohol. She took too many drugs. At the age of thirty-six, she took her own life. VOICE 2: She has been dead since nineteen-sixty-two. Still, her fame continues to grow. People born long after she died are watching her movies on television. Objects that belonged to her bring huge prices at public sales. The new Warner Brothers Museum in Hollywood has the white dress she wore in one of her movies, "The Prince and the Showgirl." People continue to talk about what they feel is her strange death. Some people believe she was murdered. Two investigations showed that she died as the result of too many drugs. VOICE 1: Why is the public still so interested in a woman who died so many years ago. A number of reasons. Her exciting but tragic life. Her connections with well-known people. And her image as an especially desirable woman. In the nineteen-fifties, many Americans believed sex was a very private subject. People often severely judged those who were sexually appealing. Into this atmosphere burst Marilyn Monroe. As one critic said, her body was round in all the right places. She wore her clothes like skin. When she walked, she moved her lower body in a way that few other actresses had done. Her voice was soft and breathy. She soon became America's golden girl. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: The story of Marilyn Monroe begins on June first, nineteen-twenty-six. Norma jean was born that day in the west coast city of Los Angeles, California. Her birthplace was not far from the Hollywood movie studios where she would someday be a star. Her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered from mental problems. Often the mother had to be treated in a hospital for long periods of time. Her daughter was sent to live with a number of different people. The actress later would describe her stays with these foster families as sometimes very unhappy. During the worst experiences, she would go to a movie theater. There the young Norma Jean escaped into the make-believe world of movies. She would act all the movie parts after she went to a movie. She told this to a long time friend, actor Ted Jordan, who later wrote a book about her. VOICE 1: By the time she was seventeen, Marilyn was trying very hard to be a movie actress. She finally was able to get an actors' agent to help her. He got Twentieth Century Fox company to give Marilyn parts in some movies it produced. Marilyn continued to change the way she had looked as Norma Jean. She had an operation to improve the appearance of her nose. Her eyes were made to appear larger. She began using a great deal of bright red lipstick on her mouth. Marilyn may have worked more to improve her appearance than to improve her performance in acting classes. Some people at Twentieth Century Fox said she did not like to work at all. She appeared in only one movie. And she had only one line to speak in that. The Fox movie company dismissed her. Soon, however, her agent got her a job at Columbia Pictures. She appeared in a movie called "Ladies of the Chorus. " She sang two songs. Several critics praised her performance. But Columbia dismissed her. VOICE 2: Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy. " It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their better efforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie. The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me. " Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide. That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE 1: Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle. " Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve." The movie, released in nineteen-fifty, was about ... a movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- a dumb blonde. In nineteen-fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. " This performance at last won her widespread fame. Marilyn Monroe was now a lead actress, a star. VOICE 2: Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen-fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies ... "How to Marry a Millionaire." "The Seven Year Itch." "Bus Stop." "Some Like It Hot." Her part in "Some Like It Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh. Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money. Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie. She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio School in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her. VOICE 1: But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell." Few people thought of her as a serious actress. She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen-fifty-four she married again. Her husband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe DiMaggio. They were together for only a few months. Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen-sixty-one, after five years. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs. She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming. By nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give." She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her. VOICE 1: On August fourth, nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death. Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean. ((Theme)) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and directed by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. ((Theme)) VOICE 1: Her name at birth was Norma Jean Baker. Her life as a child was like a bad dream. She lived with a number of different people, and often was mistreated. At age sixteen Norma Jean married a sailor. But she soon ended that marriage. She changed her hair color from brown to shining gold. And she changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. She wanted to be an actress ... and she succeeded. She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies. Millions of people went to see them. By the time Norma Jean had reached the age of twenty-six, her beautiful face and body earned her a place as one of America's leading movie stars. But success and fame were not enough to make her happy. The troubles of her childhood days stayed with her. She drank too much alcohol. She took too many drugs. At the age of thirty-six, she took her own life. VOICE 2: She has been dead since nineteen-sixty-two. Still, her fame continues to grow. People born long after she died are watching her movies on television. Objects that belonged to her bring huge prices at public sales. The new Warner Brothers Museum in Hollywood has the white dress she wore in one of her movies, "The Prince and the Showgirl." People continue to talk about what they feel is her strange death. Some people believe she was murdered. Two investigations showed that she died as the result of too many drugs. VOICE 1: Why is the public still so interested in a woman who died so many years ago. A number of reasons. Her exciting but tragic life. Her connections with well-known people. And her image as an especially desirable woman. In the nineteen-fifties, many Americans believed sex was a very private subject. People often severely judged those who were sexually appealing. Into this atmosphere burst Marilyn Monroe. As one critic said, her body was round in all the right places. She wore her clothes like skin. When she walked, she moved her lower body in a way that few other actresses had done. Her voice was soft and breathy. She soon became America's golden girl. ((Music Bridge)) VOICE 2: The story of Marilyn Monroe begins on June first, nineteen-twenty-six. Norma jean was born that day in the west coast city of Los Angeles, California. Her birthplace was not far from the Hollywood movie studios where she would someday be a star. Her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered from mental problems. Often the mother had to be treated in a hospital for long periods of time. Her daughter was sent to live with a number of different people. The actress later would describe her stays with these foster families as sometimes very unhappy. During the worst experiences, she would go to a movie theater. There the young Norma Jean escaped into the make-believe world of movies. She would act all the movie parts after she went to a movie. She told this to a long time friend, actor Ted Jordan, who later wrote a book about her. VOICE 1: By the time she was seventeen, Marilyn was trying very hard to be a movie actress. She finally was able to get an actors' agent to help her. He got Twentieth Century Fox company to give Marilyn parts in some movies it produced. Marilyn continued to change the way she had looked as Norma Jean. She had an operation to improve the appearance of her nose. Her eyes were made to appear larger. She began using a great deal of bright red lipstick on her mouth. Marilyn may have worked more to improve her appearance than to improve her performance in acting classes. Some people at Twentieth Century Fox said she did not like to work at all. She appeared in only one movie. And she had only one line to speak in that. The Fox movie company dismissed her. Soon, however, her agent got her a job at Columbia Pictures. She appeared in a movie called "Ladies of the Chorus. " She sang two songs. Several critics praised her performance. But Columbia dismissed her. VOICE 2: Marilyn did not stop struggling. She next won a small part in a movie called "Love Happy. " It was a comedy starring the famous Marx Brothers. Critics said it was not one of their better efforts. Marilyn, though, earned praise for simply taking a short walk in the movie. The movie called for her to say, "Some men are following me. " Groucho Marx answered that he did not understand why. As he said that, he watched Marilyn walk her famous walk. His eyes opened very wide. That short scene in the movie made many people in Hollywood talk about Marilyn Monroe. VOICE 1: Marilyn got her first major chance when director John Huston invited her to act in a movie called "The Asphalt Jungle. " Huston said her performance as a criminal's girlfriend was good. It gained Marilyn her dream of a long-term agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, the company that had dismissed her earlier. Now its officials gave her a part in "All About Eve." The movie, released in nineteen-fifty, was about ... a movie star. She played a golden-haired woman who did not have much intelligence -- a dumb blonde. In nineteen-fifty-two, Marilyn again appeared as a dumb blonde in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. " This performance at last won her widespread fame. Marilyn Monroe was now a lead actress, a star. VOICE 2: Huge successes now followed. Between nineteen-fifty-three and nineteen fifty-nine she appeared in lead parts in many popular movies ... "How to Marry a Millionaire." "The Seven Year Itch." "Bus Stop." "Some Like It Hot." Her part in "Some Like It Hot" showed that she was very good at making people laugh. Marilyn's picture appeared on the front cover of many magazines and the front pages of many newspapers. She began to earn more money. Life should have been good. But Marilyn was not happy. She was being asked to repeat her part as a dumb blonde in movie after movie. She wanted to be accepted as a good actress. She went to the Actors' Studio School in New York City with many serious actors. She thought she could change the way people thought of her. VOICE 1: But she did not succeed. People thought of Marilyn Monroe as "that blonde bombshell." Few people thought of her as a serious actress. She also failed in her attempts at marriage. She admitted that she got married the first time only to escape from being forced to live in a group home for children without parents. In nineteen-fifty-four she married again. Her husband was the famous New York Yankee baseball player, Joe DiMaggio. They were together for only a few months. Later, she tried again. She married Arthur Miller, a famous writer of plays. That marriage ended unhappily in nineteen-sixty-one, after five years. ((music Bridge)) VOICE 2: Marilyn returned to Hollywood. But things were different now. Friends said she was drinking too much alcohol. They said she was taking too many drugs. She seemed to always be in trouble with the movie company. She had gained too much weight. Or, she had not learned what she was to say in the movie. Or she had arrived late for the filming. By nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn's problems were threatening her work in the movies. She was to appear in the Twentieth Century Fox movie called "Something's Got to Give." She lost weight for her part. She tried to arrive on time for the filming. She reportedly knew her part. However, she became sick several times and missed work. Fox company officials dismissed her. VOICE 1: On August fourth, nineteen-sixty-two, Marilyn Monroe died alone in her home. She was thirty-six years old. Reports said taking too many drugs killed her. But people who knew her said failed marriages, and the failure of her latest movie also led to her death. Many people said Marilyn Monroe never escaped her past. She continued to suffer from the early, sad life of a little girl named Norma Jean. ((Theme)) VOICE 2: This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson and directed by Marilyn Christiano. I'm Steve Ember. VOICE 1: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-07-3-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 10, 2001: Mutated Gene Protects Against Malaria
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. African and Italian scientists have discovered strong evidence that a changed gene for red blood cells protects against the disease malaria. The changed or mutated gene produces a form of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen to all parts of the body. Researchers have found that one in ten people in the west African country of Burkina Faso have the mutated gene, called hemoglobin-C. They hope this discovery could lead to new drugs to fight malaria. As many as five-hundred-million people around the world suffer from the disease each year. Mosquito insects infect people with the malaria parasite. The organism feeds on hemoglobin in human blood. David Modiano of the University of Rome supervised the study of more than four-thousand people in Burkina Faso. He says it is not clear why the mutated gene protects against malaria. But he says the level of protection depends on whether people have one or two copies of the gene. Researchers found that people with one copy of the gene are twenty-six percent less likely to get sick with malaria. Those with two copies -- one from each parent -- have a ninety-three percent reduction in risk. The research was reported in the publication Nature. There are other mutant forms of hemoglobin that help protect against malaria. For example, scientists have long known that hemoglobin-S protects Africans from the disease. However, people who carry two copies of the hemoglobin-S gene usually die at a young age from a painful blood disease called sickle cell anemia. Thomas Wellems is a researcher at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D-C. Last year, he also discovered that hemoglobin-C protects against the severe form of malaria. The study was carried out in the west African country of Mali. However, Mister Wellems says the Burkina Faso research provides stronger evidence that the hemoglobin-C gene prevents all forms of the disease. Doctor Modiano and Mister Wellems agree that scientists need to discover exactly how the mutant forms of hemoglobin protect against malaria. Once this is known, scientists can develop better ways of treating and preventing the disease. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-10-1-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT – December 11, 2001: Mad Cow Disease in Japan
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. Japanese officials are struggling to prevent the spread of mad cow disease. Japan’s first case of mad cow disease was reported in September. The Agriculture Ministry confirmed last month that a second cow was infected. Japan is the only country in Asia where mad cow disease is known to have spread. The disease is officially known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or B-S-E. It causes holes in the brain. Cows act strangely before they die. So it is called mad cow disease. Scientists believe cows get the disease by eating meat and bone meal from infected animals. Since September, Japan has banned imports and use of feed made from animal remains. Recently, the Agriculture Ministry announced plans to destroy about five-thousand cows that may have been given the feed. Sales of Japanese beef products have dropped sharply in the past three months. Since October, Japanese officials have tested all cows that are killed for their meat. Some scientists question the testing. They say the disease often cannot be identified in young animals. Scientists believe eating infected meat may cause a similar brain disease in humans. This deadly disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. It cannot be cured. About one-hundred people in Europe have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in recent years. Most of them have been in Britain. Until recently, some experts have estimated that the total number of deaths from eating infected beef could be as high as one-hundred-thirty thousand. However, two new reports say there will be fewer deaths than earlier estimated. Science magazine reported the findings. The reports say the total number of deaths from the disease may be as low as two-hundred. Researchers from France used a computer program to make their estimate. They say their study is based partly on a better understanding of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. They also say evidence shows that young people are more likely to become infected. In Britain, the average age of those who died is twenty-eight. Only a few victims were older than fifty. From this evidence, the team says the probability of a person becoming infected decreases with age. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-10-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - December 11, 2001: Digest
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about World AIDS Day. And we tell about scientists who have made genetic copies of human embryos in an effort to treat diseases. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: December First was World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day was first observed on December First, Nineteen-Eighty-Eight. It was created during a worldwide conference of health ministers as a way to inform people about the disease. Twenty years ago, the first cases of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus were identified. H-I-V is the virus that causes AIDS. The United Nations says that the AIDS virus remains one of the greatest health threats the world has ever seen. Since the disease was discovered, more than sixty-million people have been infected with the virus. The disease is the leading cause of death in southern African countries. It is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. VOICE TWO: The United Nations estimates that more than forty-million people are living with H-I-V and AIDS around the world. That is an increase of about four-million from last year. About one-third of the people infected are between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. Most of them do not know they have the virus. Millions of other people do not know enough about H-I-V to protect themselves against the virus. Young women are especially at risk. AIDS is a great human tragedy. U-N officials say about three-million people have died of AIDS around the world this year. The disease also has severe economic effects, especially in poor and developing nations. VOICE ONE: African countries have been hardest hit by the disease. They have about seventy-percent of all AIDS cases. More than three-million people in Africa were infected this year. The disease is severely affecting the economy, education systems, health services and farms in many African countries. Were it not for AIDS, life expectancy among Africans would be about sixty-two years instead of forty-seven. VOICE TWO: The United Nations recently reported that the disease is now spreading fastest in eastern Europe. Ukraine has been the most severely affected. However, the number of infections in Russia also has greatly increased. AIDS rates also have risen in Asia and the Middle East. An increase in unsafe sexual activities is leading to higher infection rates in some industrial countries. However, some countries have reduced the number of AIDS cases. Countries such as Thailand, Brazil and Uganda have led successful treatment and prevention campaigns. These efforts also have reduced the number of babies being born with the virus. VOICE ONE: Earlier this year, the United Nations established an international program to finance treatment and prevention efforts. Countries have promised almost two-thousand-million dollars so far. However, U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan has said the program would require at least seven-thousand-million dollars. Last month, the U-N AIDS organization released its yearly report about World AIDS Day. U-N AIDS was created five years ago to unite international agencies in the fight against the disease. The report calls on countries to quickly put in place effective prevention programs, especially to slow H-I-V among young people. It said providing treatment and care is necessary for the success of any efforts to fight AIDS. VOICE TWO: U-N officials say all people should do their part to prevent the spread of H-I-V and AIDS. They also say men must do more to fight the disease because they have more control over its spread. Peter Piot is the director of U-N AIDS. Doctor Piot says the recent worldwide concern about terrorism has reduced recognition given to AIDS. He says it has been more difficult for his organization to include AIDS in political discussions since the terrorists attacks in the United States three months ago. Doctor Piot says strong national leadership is very important in the fight against AIDS. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the Special English program SCIENCE IN THE NEWS on VOA. This is Sarah Long with Bob Doughty in Washington. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) A company in Worcester, Massachusetts, Advanced Cell Technology, has announced it has made the first genetic copies of human embryos.The process of making genetic copies is called cloning. Cloning involves the creation of an embryo from a single adult cell. Genetic material from the adult cell is joined with an egg cell whose genetic material has been removed. Scientists have used cloning to create animals. Scientists from Advanced Cell Technology performed the experiment in an effort to create cloned human embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are unformed cells that can grow into any of the body’s tissues or organs. The scientists hope that this new medical technology will be used to replace damaged tissue in people with serious diseases. These include diabetes, cancer and Parkinson’s disease. VOICE TWO: In August, President Bush approved limited research on stem cells. However, the Bush administration has only permitted research on about sixty groups of existing stem cells. Medical researchers have noted that these groups of stem cells are not useful for treating disease. This is because treatments developed from existing stem cells might be rejected by the bodies of possible patients. Some scientists say the best way to make stem cells for treatment is to grow them from embryos that are clones of the patients. VOICE ONE: Michael West is the head of Advanced Cell Technology. Doctor West wants to find a way to avoid biological rejection of stem cell treatments. Researchers for Advanced Cell Technology created experiments to clone human cells. The company published a report about their experiments on an Internet publication called “E-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine.” The researchers found seven women who agreed to give their egg cells to the project. The women were given chemicals to increase production of eggs. Seventy-one eggs were collected from the women. Some of the eggs, however, were not usable. VOICE TWO: Scientists put the egg cells into growth chemicals. Some of the egg cells had their genetic material replaced with cells called cumulus cells. Cumulus cells often attach to eggs in a woman’s ovary. The researchers put cumulus cells inside eight egg cells whose genetic material had been removed. Three of the egg cells began to grow into more cells. Two eggs developed into four cells each. One egg developed into six cells. All three early embryos stopped dividing and died after three days. VOICE ONE: The scientists also took genetic material from skin cells collected from other people. They put the genetic material from the skin cells into eleven specially treated egg cells. However, none of those eggs grew into more cells. Also, the scientists experimented on egg cells that did not receive any new genetic material. Twenty-two eggs were placed in growth chemicals. Of these, six divided into a group of cells with a wall and an empty center. These grew for seven days before they died. VOICE TWO: These experiments did not produce stem cells from cloned human embryos because the embryos did not live past the six-cell stage. Usually an embryo must grow to a few hundred cells before it produces stem cells. Doctor West has said the research on human embryos is designed only to produce embryonic stem cells to treat disease. He has strongly stated that his company has no interest in cloning human beings. VOICE ONE: American lawmakers have been preparing legislation that could ban or limit cloning. In July, the House of Representatives approved a bill that would ban all human cloning. However, the Senate has not voted on a cloning bill. President Bush has said he strongly opposes human cloning. He has said the use of embryos to clone is wrong. However, the debate over cloning human embryos will probably continue for some time. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk and Mario Ritter. It was produced by Nancy Steinbach. This is Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-10-3-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 2, 2001: Nat King Cole
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most popular singers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Coles. His father was a Christian minister. When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father’s church. VOICE TWO: Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In Nineteen-Thirty Seven, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano. By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records. The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand copies. ((CUT ONE: “Straighten Up and Fly Right”)) VOICE ONE: Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer. ((CUT TWO: “Mona Lisa”)) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed. Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems. VOICE ONE: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a year. Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story. In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra: ((CUT THREE: “When I Fall in Love”)) VOICE TWO: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children. VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old. He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song. ((CUT FOUR: “Unforgettable”)) VOICE TWO: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music. ((CUT FIVE: "Hit the Ramp")) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell the story of someone important in the history of the United States. Today we will tell about Nat King Cole, one of America’s most popular singers. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole was born in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, in Nineteen-Nineteen. His parents named him Nathaniel Adams Coles. His father was a Christian minister. When Nathaniel was four years old, his parents moved the family north to Chicago, Illinois. Nat learned to play the piano when he was very young. His mother was the only piano teacher he ever had. He gave his first public performance when he was four. By the time he was twelve, Nat was playing piano at his father’s church. VOICE TWO: Nat played piano in New York City and in Los Angeles, California when he was a young man. In Nineteen-Thirty Seven, he formed a group that played jazz music. Oscar Moore played the guitar and Wesley Prince played the bass. The trio reportedly did not need a drummer because Nat’s piano playing kept the beat so well. They named the group, The King Cole Trio. At the same time, Nat also changed his name into Nat King Cole. The trio soon became very popular. Nat sang some songs, but mostly played the piano. By the middle Nineteen-Forties, Nat King Cole was beginning to be known as a popular singer as well as a jazz piano player. He was one of the first musicians to record with new Capitol Records. The first song he recorded for Capitol was “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” He wrote the song. The words were based on his father’s teachings. The song became one of the biggest hits of Nineteen-Forty-Three. It sold more than five-hundred-thousand copies. ((CUT ONE: “Straighten Up and Fly Right”)) VOICE ONE: Nat recorded hundreds of songs. Some of the most popular include “Sweet Lorraine,” “Nature Boy,” “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” “When I Fall in Love,” and “Mona Lisa.” In Nineteen-Fifty, the American film industry gave him an award for his recording of “Mona Lisa.” That song made him famous as a singer. ((CUT TWO: “Mona Lisa”)) VOICE TWO: By Nineteen-Fifty Six, Nat King Cole was known internationally. He signed an agreement to appear for a lot of money at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nat often performed in places that only admitted white people. Black leaders criticized him. Nat said he attempted to take legal action against those places but often failed. Nat earned more money and moved to California. He bought a house in an area where white people lived. At that time, many white Americans did not want to live near blacks. White home owners nearby protested the purchase of a house by a black family. Nat and his family refused to leave and lived in the house without problems. VOICE ONE: Nat was the first black man to have his own television show. His show began on N-B-C Television in Nineteen-Fifty-Six. N-B-C agreed to support The Nat King Cole Show for a while. It hoped American companies would pay to sell their products on the show. However, major companies were not willing to advertise on a show that had a black performer. They were concerned that white people in the southern part of the United States would not buy their products. Many Americans watched the show, but N-B-C halted production after a year. Nat King Cole also acted in movies. The best known one is Saint Louis Blues. He acted the part of the jazz composer W.C. Handy. He also appeared in a film about himself called The Nat King Cole Story. In the Nineteen-Fifties, he sang with some of the best known orchestras of the time. Here Nat King Cole sings “When I Fall in Love” with the Gordon Jenkins orchestra: ((CUT THREE: “When I Fall in Love”)) VOICE TWO: Nat King Cole was married two times. In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, he married a dancer, Nadine Robinson. Their marriage failed. In Nineteen-Forty-Eight, he married Maria Ellington. They had three children. They also adopted and raised two other children. VOICE ONE: Nat King Cole always smoked a lot of cigarettes. He died of cancer of the lung in February, Nineteen Sixty-Five. He was only forty-five years old. He received many awards during his life. He also received many more after his death. One was a Nineteen-Ninety Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. Nat’s daughter, Natalie followed her father as a singer. She recorded many songs after her father died. In Nineteen-Ninety-One, Natalie Cole recorded an album called Unforgettable. It contains twenty-two of Nat King Cole’s songs, including the song “Unforgettable.” Modern technology made it possible to mix her voice with a recording of her father singing the same song. ((CUT FOUR: “Unforgettable”)) VOICE TWO: Millions of Nat King Cole’s recordings were sold while he was alive. And today, people around the world still enjoy listening to the music of one of America’s greatest performers of popular and jazz music. ((CUT FIVE: "Hit the Ramp")) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Yenni Djahidin Grow and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time for another People in America program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-11-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT- December 12, 2001: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Decaf Coffee
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Medical researchers say older women may be increasing their chances of developing the disease rheumatoid arthritis if they drink a lot of decaffeinated coffee. Caffeine is a substance naturally found in coffee. When caffeine is removed from coffee it is called decaffeinated coffee or “decaf.” Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which the body’s defense system attacks the tissue surrounding the joints, the places where bones are joined. This causes swelling, pain and difficulty moving. The disease affects women more than men. Researchers from the University of Alabama in Birmingham reported their study at the yearly meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco, California. They studied more than thirty-one-thousand women between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-nine. The women were included in the Iowa Women’s Health Study from Nineteen-Eighty-Six through Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. The researchers studied one-hundred-fifty-eight women who developed rheumatoid arthritis during that period. They also studied women who did not develop the disease. Women who drank four or more cups of decaffeinated coffee a day were two times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than women who never drank decaf. The study also found that drinking tea decreased risk for the disease. The women who drank more than three cups of tea a day had a sixty percent lower chance of developing the disease than those who never drank tea. The researchers found that coffee with caffeine was not linked to the development of the disease. Researchers from Boston University in Massachusetts reported about another study. It involved rheumatoid arthritis among sixty-four-thousand black women. The women were involved in the Black Women’s Health Study that began in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. The researchers found that drinking more than one cup of decaffeinated coffee a day seemed to increase by four times the chance of developing the disease. However, in this study, drinking tea seemed to increase the chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers said they believe these are the first studies to show a link between decaf coffee and rheumatoid arthritis. But they said people should not stop drinking decaf or tea until more studies are done. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Medical researchers say older women may be increasing their chances of developing the disease rheumatoid arthritis if they drink a lot of decaffeinated coffee. Caffeine is a substance naturally found in coffee. When caffeine is removed from coffee it is called decaffeinated coffee or “decaf.” Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which the body’s defense system attacks the tissue surrounding the joints, the places where bones are joined. This causes swelling, pain and difficulty moving. The disease affects women more than men. Researchers from the University of Alabama in Birmingham reported their study at the yearly meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco, California. They studied more than thirty-one-thousand women between the ages of fifty-five and sixty-nine. The women were included in the Iowa Women’s Health Study from Nineteen-Eighty-Six through Nineteen-Ninety-Seven. The researchers studied one-hundred-fifty-eight women who developed rheumatoid arthritis during that period. They also studied women who did not develop the disease. Women who drank four or more cups of decaffeinated coffee a day were two times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis than women who never drank decaf. The study also found that drinking tea decreased risk for the disease. The women who drank more than three cups of tea a day had a sixty percent lower chance of developing the disease than those who never drank tea. The researchers found that coffee with caffeine was not linked to the development of the disease. Researchers from Boston University in Massachusetts reported about another study. It involved rheumatoid arthritis among sixty-four-thousand black women. The women were involved in the Black Women’s Health Study that began in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. The researchers found that drinking more than one cup of decaffeinated coffee a day seemed to increase by four times the chance of developing the disease. However, in this study, drinking tea seemed to increase the chance of developing rheumatoid arthritis. The researchers said they believe these are the first studies to show a link between decaf coffee and rheumatoid arthritis. But they said people should not stop drinking decaf or tea until more studies are done. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-11-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - December 12, 2001: Testing the Wright Brothers Flying Machine
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Several American groups are building and testing copies of flying machines that are almost one-hundred years old. Today, we tell about why this is being done. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Orville and Wilbur Wright are famous as the first people to successfully build and fly a heavier than air, engine-powered aircraft. They did this on December Seventeenth, Nineteen-Oh-Three. They flew their machine at a place called Kitty Hawk in the southeastern state of North Carolina. At that time, they were unknown brothers who built bicycles in the city of Dayton in the middle western state of Ohio. Recently an exact copy of one of the earlier flying machines built by the Wright brothers was tested at NASA’s Langley Research Center. The aircraft is called the Nineteen-Oh-One glider. A glider is a light weight airplane that does not have an engine. It can fly after a plane with an engine pulls it up into the air. The glider tested at Langley is a copy of the second glider the brothers designed and built that was large enough to carry a pilot. The Wright brothers were trying to learn about flight. They built and flew several different gliders before their first powered flight. Some of these machines were successful. Some were not. However, each machine added to their knowledge. VOICE TWO: The recent tests of the Wright brothers’ glider are part of a research project being carried out by three groups in Virginia. They are Old Dominion University in Norfolk, the Wright Experience of Warrenton, and the Discovery of Flight Foundation, also of Warrenton. The three groups joined together in an effort to discover and record how the Wright brothers succeeded in learning to fly. Neither Wilbur nor Orville was well educated. However, they taught themselves to make a successful flying machine in about five years. Other people with scientific educations had failed in this effort again and again. VOICE ONE: During the recent tests, engineers at Langley took exact measurements of how the glider performed. The tests at Langley are performed inside a huge wind tunnel. The wind tunnel is big enough to test full size airplanes in a controlled environment. The tunnel produces wind at any speed the researchers choose. The wind is directed to pass the airplane’s wings to produce the effects of flight. Robert Ash is a professor of aerospace engineering at Old Dominion University. He was the head of the flight test project of the Wright brothers’ glider. Mister Ash said the Nineteen-Oh-One glider was extremely difficult to control. The Wright brothers had built the glider in an effort to learn how to control an aircraft in flight. They made about one-hundred flights in the glider during the summer of Nineteen-Oh-One. Some of their tests flew a distance of more than ninety-two meters. Mister Ash says the test of the Nineteen-Oh-One glider showed the Wrights that they needed to make major changes in the design of the glider’s wings and its controls. VOICE TWO: The Wright brothers decided they needed a device to test new designs. They built a very small wind tunnel. They tested almost two-hundred designs of small size wings and planes in the tunnel. The wind tunnel helped them learn how to shape a wing so it was able to produce the lift needed to permit flight. When a design proved successful in their wind tunnel, the Wrights would build a full size machine to test again at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Each wing they tested, each control device they designed, each aircraft they made added to their knowledge of flight. The Wright brothers created the first wind tunnel aircraft design program. Their early methods are very similar to the research methods used by the flight industry today. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The recent tests at the Langley, Virginia wind tunnel are necessary because the Wright brothers did much of their work in secret. They did not leave many documents concerning their work. Wilbur and Orville Wright were forced to work in secret because many other inventors were experimenting with flying machines. The brothers believed others might steal their ideas, or use their work to create a successful flying machine before they could. The Wright brothers usually destroyed both successful and unsuccessful aircraft after they were tested. They also destroyed documents and drawings. Today, their first flying machines exist only in one-hundred year old black and white pictures. The Wright brothers never told the full story of all their many experiments. VOICE TWO: The Discovery of Flight Foundation and the Wright Experience are researching, building, testing and recording full size copies of the Wright brothers’ designs. These include early gliders, airplanes, propellers and engines. The groups are working to create a historical record of the Wright brothers’ efforts. This record will be complete with drawings, scientific measurements, instructions, pictures and documents. Scientists at the Langley Wind Tunnel have already tested and recorded the Nineteen-Oh-One glider. They also have tested the Nineteen-Oh-Three, Nineteen-Oh-Four and Nineteen-Eleven Wright propellers. The testing of the Wright brothers’ work has an important goal. On December Seventeenth, Two-Thousand and Three, at exactly ten-thirty-five in the morning, a copy of the first Wright powered airplane is expected to lift into the air. The flight will take place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Wright’s famous flight. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Ken Hyde is the director of the Wright Experience Organization that is building an exact copy of the first powered aircraft. Mister Hyde says the goal of the organization is to re-create what Orville and Wilbur did so history will fully understand the secrets of the Wright brothers. He says, “We know how to put a human on the moon, but we have not been successful in flying a true Wright airplane.” Mister Hyde says, “We want to discover how the first steps were made---steps that are lost in history. And we believe that we will find those first steps and finish the first century of flight as it began, by flying over the sands of Kitty Hawk." Mister Hyde says the re-creation of the work of the famous brothers is being aided by documents the Wrights provided courts to prove the designs were theirs. Orville Wright also left many personal letters that told in general terms about their work. Orville spent much of his life defending the fact that he and his brother were the first to invent the airplane. Mister Hyde says this was necessary because so many other people tried to violate the brothers’ legal rights to the airplane. VOICE TWO: Ken Hyde says it is exciting to be building the copy of the Wright Nineteen-Oh-Three Flyer. He thinks Orville and Wilbur Wright would be pleased with the results. Mister Hyde says work on the engine is about seventy-percent complete. Most of the body of the aircraft is also complete. The Wright Flyer has two wings, an upper wing and a lower one. Both are made of wood with a cloth covering. The wood part of the wings is now completely built. The Wright brothers covered all the wings they built with a special cloth called muslin. The cloth was lightweight, yet strong. Mister Hyde says the cloth the Wright brothers used was called “Pride of the West.” It was a common cloth used for women’s clothing in the early Nineteen-Hundreds, but this “Pride of the West” muslin cloth is no longer made. Mister Hyde says an exact copy of the cloth must be used for scientific measurements to be correct. Different kinds of cloth would produce different results in wind tunnel and flight tests. Finding a way to reproduce this special cloth has been the biggest problem in building a copy of the airplane VOICE ONE: Ken Hyde says the Wright Flyer will be ready so the Wright brothers’ flight can be re-created two years from now. He says you can follow the progress of the project if you have a computer. The computer address for the World Wide Web is: www.wrightexperience.com. (((THEME))) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-12-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – December 13, 2001: Smallest Lizard
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. American scientists say they have discovered the world’s smallest lizard. The little reptile is only about sixteen millimeters long. The scientists found it on a small island in the Caribbean Sea near the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean Journal of Science published the findings. Pennsylvania State University scientist Blair Hedges and Richard Thomas of the University of Puerto Rico made the discovery. They found small groups of the new kind of lizard on Beata Island in the Dominican Republic. The lizards live in the Jaragua National Park, an area created for the protection of wildlife. The creatures were found underground in a forest that was partly destroyed. The lizards are dark brown and similar in appearance to another kind of lizard that also is considered the world’s smallest. That lizard was discovered in the British Virgin Islands in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. The new lizard is said to be the smallest of all twenty-three-thousand kinds of reptiles, birds and mammals known to scientists. The scientists named the new lizard Sphaerodactylus ariasae. They named the creature in honor of Yvonne Arias, an environmental activist in the Dominican Republic. She leads an organization that was established to protect wildlife in the Jaragua National Park. The lizard is just one of several very small creatures found in the Caribbean. The area is home to the smallest frog in North America and the world’s smallest bird and snake. Biologists have studied the area in the Caribbean for hundreds of years. But until now, they did not know that this species of lizard existed. The scientists say their discovery shows that scientists still do not know everything about Earth’s many creatures. Mister Hedges says the environment that the lizard needs to survive is disappearing quickly. He says the lizards and other creatures will disappear if their forests are destroyed. People are cutting down trees in the national parks for farming and for fuel. Economic problems and a lack of law enforcement are partly to blame for the loss of forests in the Caribbean area. Mister Hedges says the destruction of the environment is the major threat to plants and animals around the world. He says the Caribbean has an usually high percentage of endangered species that live nowhere else in the world. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. American scientists say they have discovered the world’s smallest lizard. The little reptile is only about sixteen millimeters long. The scientists found it on a small island in the Caribbean Sea near the Dominican Republic. The Caribbean Journal of Science published the findings. Pennsylvania State University scientist Blair Hedges and Richard Thomas of the University of Puerto Rico made the discovery. They found small groups of the new kind of lizard on Beata Island in the Dominican Republic. The lizards live in the Jaragua National Park, an area created for the protection of wildlife. The creatures were found underground in a forest that was partly destroyed. The lizards are dark brown and similar in appearance to another kind of lizard that also is considered the world’s smallest. That lizard was discovered in the British Virgin Islands in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. The new lizard is said to be the smallest of all twenty-three-thousand kinds of reptiles, birds and mammals known to scientists. The scientists named the new lizard Sphaerodactylus ariasae. They named the creature in honor of Yvonne Arias, an environmental activist in the Dominican Republic. She leads an organization that was established to protect wildlife in the Jaragua National Park. The lizard is just one of several very small creatures found in the Caribbean. The area is home to the smallest frog in North America and the world’s smallest bird and snake. Biologists have studied the area in the Caribbean for hundreds of years. But until now, they did not know that this species of lizard existed. The scientists say their discovery shows that scientists still do not know everything about Earth’s many creatures. Mister Hedges says the environment that the lizard needs to survive is disappearing quickly. He says the lizards and other creatures will disappear if their forests are destroyed. People are cutting down trees in the national parks for farming and for fuel. Economic problems and a lack of law enforcement are partly to blame for the loss of forests in the Caribbean area. Mister Hedges says the destruction of the environment is the major threat to plants and animals around the world. He says the Caribbean has an usually high percentage of endangered species that live nowhere else in the world. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-12-2-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - December 13, 2001: 1920s/Conservatism
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. (Theme) Americans experimented with many new customs and social traditions during the nineteen-twenties. It was a time filled with new dances, new kinds of clothes, and some of the most imaginative art and writing ever produced in the United States. But in most ways, the nineteen-twenties were a conservative time in American life. Voters elected three conservative Republican presidents: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. And they supported many conservative social and political policies. VOICE 2: One such policy concerned immigration. Most Americans in the nineteen-twenties had at least some ties through blood or marriage to the first Americans who came from Britain. Many people with these kinds of historic ties considered themselves to be real Americans, true Americans. Americans traditionally had welcomed newcomers from such western European countries as Britain, France, or Germany. But most of the people arriving in New York City and other harbors in the nineteen-twenties were from the central, eastern, and southern areas of Europe. Some Americans became afraid of these millions of people arriving at their shores. They worried that the immigrant newcomers might steal their jobs. Or they feared the political beliefs of the immigrants. VOICE 1: Pressure to control immigration increased following the world war. Congress passed a bill that set a limit on how many people would be allowed to enter from each foreign country. And, the Congress and President Calvin Coolidge agreed to an even stronger immigration law in nineteen-twenty-four. Under the new law, limits on the number of immigrants from each foreign country depended on the number of Americans who had families in that country. For example, the law allowed many immigrants to enter from Britain or France, because many American citizens had families in those countries. But fewer people could come from Italy or Russia, because fewer Americans had family members in those countries. The laws were very difficult to enforce. But they did succeed in limiting the number of immigrants from certain countries. VOICE 2: A second sign of the conservative feelings in the nineteen-twenties was the nation's effort to ban the sale of alcoholic drinks, or liquor. This policy was known as Prohibition, because it prohibited -- or banned -- alcoholic drinks. Many of the strongest supporters of Prohibition were conservative Americans living in rural areas. Many of them believed that liquor was evil, the product of the devil. A number of towns and states passed laws banning alcohol sales during the first years of the twentieth century. And in nineteen-nineteen, the nation passed the eighteenth amendment to the federal constitution. This amendment, and the Volstead Act, made it unlawful to make, sell, or transport liquor. VOICE 1: Prohibition laws failed terribly from the start. There was only a small force of police to enforce the new laws. And millions of Americans still wanted to drink liquor. It was not possible for the police to watch every American who wanted to buy a drink secretly or make liquor in his own home. Not surprisingly, thousands of Americans soon saw a chance to make profits from the new laws. They began to import liquor illegally to sell for high prices. Criminals began to bring liquor across the long, unprotected border with Canada or on fast boats from the Caribbean islands. At the same time, private manufacturers in both cities and rural areas began to produce liquor. And shop owners in cities across the country sold liquor with little interference from local police. By the middle of the nineteen-twenties, it was clear to most Americans that Prohibition laws were a failure. But the laws were not changed until the election of President Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen-thirty-two. VOICE 2: A third sign of conservatism in the nineteen-twenties was the effort by some Americans to ban schoolbooks on modern science. Most of the Americans who supported these efforts were conservative rural Americans who believed in the traditional ideas of the Protestant Christian church. Many of them were fearful of the many changes that had taken place in American society. Science became an enemy to many of these traditional, religious Americans. Science seemed to challenge the most basic ideas taught in the Bible. The conflict burst into a major public debate in nineteen-twenty-five in a trial over Charles Darwin's idea of evolution. VOICE 1: British scientist Charles Darwin published his books "The Origin of the Species" and "The Descent of Man" in the nineteenth century. The books explained Darwin's idea that humans developed over millions of years from apes and other animals. Most Europeans and educated people accepted Darwin's theory by the end of the nineteenth century. But the book had little effect in rural parts of the United States until the nineteen-twenties. William Jennings Bryan led the attack on Darwin's ideas. Bryan was a rural Democrat who ran twice for president. He lost both times. But Bryan remained popular among many traditional Americans. Bryan told his followers that the theory of evolution was evil, because it challenged the traditional idea that God created the world in six days. He accused scientists of violating God's words in the Bible. Bryan and his supporters called on local school officials to ban the teaching of evolution. Some state legislatures in the more conservative southeastern part of the country passed laws making it a crime to teach evolution theory. VOICE 2: In nineteen-twenty-five, a young science teacher in the southern state of Tennessee challenged the state's new teaching law. The teacher -- John Scopes -- taught Darwin's evolution ideas. Officials arrested scopes and put him on trial. Some of the nation's greatest lawyers rushed to Tennessee to defend the young teacher. They believed the state had violated his right to free speech. And they thought Tennessee's law againt teaching evolution was foolish in a modern, scientific society. America's most famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow, became the leader of Scopes' defense team. Bryan and other religious conservatives also rushed to the trial. They supported the right of the state of Tennessee to ban the teaching of evolution. The trial was held in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Hundreds of people came to watch: religious conservatives, free speech supporters, newsmen, and others. The high point of the trial came when Bryan himself sat before the court. Lawyer Clarence Darrow asked Bryan question after question about the bible and about science. How did Bryan know the Bible is true. Did God really create the earth in a single day. Is a day in the Bible twenty-four hours. Or can it mean a million years. VOICE 1: Bryan answered the questions. But he showed a great lack of knowledge about modern science. The judge found Scopes guilty of breaking the law. But in the battle of ideas, science defeated conservatism. And a higher court later ruled that Scopes was not guilty. The Scopes evolution trial captured the imagination of Americans. The issue was not really whether one young teacher was innocent or guilty of breaking a law. The real question was the struggle for America's spirit between the forces of modern ideas and those of traditional rural conservatism. The trial represented this larger conflict. VOICE 2: American society was changing in many important ways during the early part of the twentieth century. It was not yet the world superpower that it would become after World War Two. But neither was it a traditional rural society of conservative farmers and clergy. The nineteen-twenties were a period of growth, of change, and of struggle between the old and new values. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Pictures from the Library of Congress (Theme) Americans experimented with many new customs and social traditions during the nineteen-twenties. It was a time filled with new dances, new kinds of clothes, and some of the most imaginative art and writing ever produced in the United States. But in most ways, the nineteen-twenties were a conservative time in American life. Voters elected three conservative Republican presidents: Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. And they supported many conservative social and political policies. VOICE 2: One such policy concerned immigration. Most Americans in the nineteen-twenties had at least some ties through blood or marriage to the first Americans who came from Britain. Many people with these kinds of historic ties considered themselves to be real Americans, true Americans. Americans traditionally had welcomed newcomers from such western European countries as Britain, France, or Germany. But most of the people arriving in New York City and other harbors in the nineteen-twenties were from the central, eastern, and southern areas of Europe. Some Americans became afraid of these millions of people arriving at their shores. They worried that the immigrant newcomers might steal their jobs. Or they feared the political beliefs of the immigrants. VOICE 1: Pressure to control immigration increased following the world war. Congress passed a bill that set a limit on how many people would be allowed to enter from each foreign country. And, the Congress and President Calvin Coolidge agreed to an even stronger immigration law in nineteen-twenty-four. Under the new law, limits on the number of immigrants from each foreign country depended on the number of Americans who had families in that country. For example, the law allowed many immigrants to enter from Britain or France, because many American citizens had families in those countries. But fewer people could come from Italy or Russia, because fewer Americans had family members in those countries. The laws were very difficult to enforce. But they did succeed in limiting the number of immigrants from certain countries. VOICE 2: A second sign of the conservative feelings in the nineteen-twenties was the nation's effort to ban the sale of alcoholic drinks, or liquor. This policy was known as Prohibition, because it prohibited -- or banned -- alcoholic drinks. Many of the strongest supporters of Prohibition were conservative Americans living in rural areas. Many of them believed that liquor was evil, the product of the devil. A number of towns and states passed laws banning alcohol sales during the first years of the twentieth century. And in nineteen-nineteen, the nation passed the eighteenth amendment to the federal constitution. This amendment, and the Volstead Act, made it unlawful to make, sell, or transport liquor. VOICE 1: Prohibition laws failed terribly from the start. There was only a small force of police to enforce the new laws. And millions of Americans still wanted to drink liquor. It was not possible for the police to watch every American who wanted to buy a drink secretly or make liquor in his own home. Not surprisingly, thousands of Americans soon saw a chance to make profits from the new laws. They began to import liquor illegally to sell for high prices. Criminals began to bring liquor across the long, unprotected border with Canada or on fast boats from the Caribbean islands. At the same time, private manufacturers in both cities and rural areas began to produce liquor. And shop owners in cities across the country sold liquor with little interference from local police. By the middle of the nineteen-twenties, it was clear to most Americans that Prohibition laws were a failure. But the laws were not changed until the election of President Franklin Roosevelt in nineteen-thirty-two. VOICE 2: A third sign of conservatism in the nineteen-twenties was the effort by some Americans to ban schoolbooks on modern science. Most of the Americans who supported these efforts were conservative rural Americans who believed in the traditional ideas of the Protestant Christian church. Many of them were fearful of the many changes that had taken place in American society. Science became an enemy to many of these traditional, religious Americans. Science seemed to challenge the most basic ideas taught in the Bible. The conflict burst into a major public debate in nineteen-twenty-five in a trial over Charles Darwin's idea of evolution. VOICE 1: British scientist Charles Darwin published his books "The Origin of the Species" and "The Descent of Man" in the nineteenth century. The books explained Darwin's idea that humans developed over millions of years from apes and other animals. Most Europeans and educated people accepted Darwin's theory by the end of the nineteenth century. But the book had little effect in rural parts of the United States until the nineteen-twenties. William Jennings Bryan led the attack on Darwin's ideas. Bryan was a rural Democrat who ran twice for president. He lost both times. But Bryan remained popular among many traditional Americans. Bryan told his followers that the theory of evolution was evil, because it challenged the traditional idea that God created the world in six days. He accused scientists of violating God's words in the Bible. Bryan and his supporters called on local school officials to ban the teaching of evolution. Some state legislatures in the more conservative southeastern part of the country passed laws making it a crime to teach evolution theory. VOICE 2: In nineteen-twenty-five, a young science teacher in the southern state of Tennessee challenged the state's new teaching law. The teacher -- John Scopes -- taught Darwin's evolution ideas. Officials arrested scopes and put him on trial. Some of the nation's greatest lawyers rushed to Tennessee to defend the young teacher. They believed the state had violated his right to free speech. And they thought Tennessee's law againt teaching evolution was foolish in a modern, scientific society. America's most famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow, became the leader of Scopes' defense team. Bryan and other religious conservatives also rushed to the trial. They supported the right of the state of Tennessee to ban the teaching of evolution. The trial was held in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Hundreds of people came to watch: religious conservatives, free speech supporters, newsmen, and others. The high point of the trial came when Bryan himself sat before the court. Lawyer Clarence Darrow asked Bryan question after question about the bible and about science. How did Bryan know the Bible is true. Did God really create the earth in a single day. Is a day in the Bible twenty-four hours. Or can it mean a million years. VOICE 1: Bryan answered the questions. But he showed a great lack of knowledge about modern science. The judge found Scopes guilty of breaking the law. But in the battle of ideas, science defeated conservatism. And a higher court later ruled that Scopes was not guilty. The Scopes evolution trial captured the imagination of Americans. The issue was not really whether one young teacher was innocent or guilty of breaking a law. The real question was the struggle for America's spirit between the forces of modern ideas and those of traditional rural conservatism. The trial represented this larger conflict. VOICE 2: American society was changing in many important ways during the early part of the twentieth century. It was not yet the world superpower that it would become after World War Two. But neither was it a traditional rural society of conservative farmers and clergy. The nineteen-twenties were a period of growth, of change, and of struggle between the old and new values. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. Pictures from the Library of Congress 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-13-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - December 14, 2001: Pollution Threatens Water Cycle
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. A new report says pollution caused by people may be seriously threatening the Earth’s water supply. Scientists say small particles of soot and other pollutants in the air could be reducing rainfall and world water supplies. The findings were part of a new study by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. The report is based on results gained during the international Indian Ocean Experiment, known as INDOEX. The INDOEX project involved more than one-hundred-fifty scientists from eight countries. It used satellites, aircraft, balloons, ships and scientific centers on land. The twenty-five-million dollar project was designed to study chemical pollution over the Indian Ocean. It also examined the environmental effects of aerosol pollution in the area. Aerosols are mostly made up of small particles of black carbon that enter the atmosphere as a gas. These gases are caused by burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal, and by burning trees and plants. Researchers say aerosols in the atmosphere may be slowly reducing the water supplies on which people and animals depend. Scripps scientists V. Ramanathan and Paul Crutzen led the INDOEX study. They say aerosols are reducing the amount of sunlight going into the ocean. As sunlight heats the ocean, water escapes into the atmosphere and falls as rain. However, scientists say aerosols are blocking large amounts of sunlight. They say this reduction may be weakening the water cycle of the planet. The scientists also say the aerosol particles may be suppressing rain over polluted areas. Aerosols can limit the size of rain droplets inside clouds. Scientists say a reduction of rain and snowfall caused by aerosol pollutants could affect the renewal of the world’s major fresh water supplies. They say it could affect lakes, groundwater supplies, ice and snowfall in mountain areas. A report last month by the United Nations Population Fund found that water use has increased by six times during the past seventy years. Scientists say that if usage continues at its current rate, the fresh water supply could become the most serious problem facing the world. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-13-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - December 14, 2001: Music by Kenny Lattimore/Ramadan in the U.S./a question about VOA
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we: play some music by Kenny Lattimore ... answer a question about VOA ... and report about how Muslims in the United States celebrate Ramadan. Ramadan in the United States HOST: It is almost the end of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. Recent studies say about six-million Muslims live in the United States. Shirley Griffith tells us how some are observing the Muslim holy month. ANNCR: For the past few weeks, Muslims have avoided food, drink and other pleasures from sunrise to sundown every day. During Ramadan, believers are to pray, be more spiritual and help others. The month of fasting will end when Islamic experts report the appearance of a new moon. Some Muslims in the United States started observing Ramadan on the morning of Friday, November sixteenth. That was the date announced by several North American Islamic organizations. However, other Muslims started Ramadan on a different date set by Islamic groups in their country of birth. This year, Ramadan is taking place during an international crisis. Three months ago, terrorists claiming to represent Islam attacked the United States. The attack resulted in the American-led campaign against terrorism and the war in Afghanistan. The feelings of the Muslim community in the United States are mixed. They love the United States and oppose terrorism. At the same time, they want peace and are concerned about the innocent people in Afghanistan. Last month, President Bush led a traditional Ramadan meal for Muslim diplomats and others at the White House. He thanked those attending for their support of the American-led campaign against terrorism. For Muslims in the United States, breaking the fasting period at sundown is a time to gather with family and friends. Food is always an important part of the celebration. Muslims in the United States are from different cultures. So many different kinds of food are served during Ramadan. For example, Yenni Djahidin Grow lives with her family in Virginia. She is from Indonesia. Missus Grow cooks special foods during Ramadan for her two brothers, husband and son. One of her Indonesian specialties is randang, a kind of fried beef with hot spices. She also prepares mixed fruit, cake and sweet rice with brown sugar. Missus Grow is making plans to serve other sweets and special foods at Id Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Indonesian Muslims in the Washington area celebrate at the Indonesian embassy. They will attend a religious service there before attending parties and visiting with friends. VOA HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Xiao Haitao asks if our VOA programs are popular with the American people. The short answer to that question is not really—because the Voice of America does not broadcast within the United States. VOA was created to be the voice of the United States government to foreign nations. Congress approved a law in Nineteen-Forty-Eight that banned the VOA from broadcasting to the people of America. However, this law did not bar Americans from listening to VOA programs if they were able to receive the signals on their short wave radios. Today, people in the United States and around the world can use a computer to find and listen to VOA news and feature reports on the VOA web site. VOA made its first broadcast during the Second World War, on February twenty-fourth, Nineteen-Forty-Two. It was a short, fifteen-minute program in the German language. It told the German people that every day, the Voice of America would broadcast news of America and the war. “The news may be good or bad,” it said, “but we will tell you the truth.” The Voice of America continues to broadcast the truth. It reports the news. It tells about America and its people, and the policies of the United States government. Today, VOA broadcasts in fifty-three languages, including English. When VOA began, all our listeners heard our broadcasts only on short wave radios. That has changed. Today, the fifty-three language services provide VOA programming to more than one-thousand radio stations around the world. VOA programs can be heard on local A-M and F-M stations in many countries as well as on short wave and medium wave around the world. More than ninety-million people listen every week. People also use computers to listen to any of our fifty-three languages in Real Audio, read the reports and copy materials. Twelve VOA language services also produce television programs. Much of the television programming is also broadcast on the radio and the Internet. The VOA web site provides the latest news and information twenty-four hours a day. It also provides information about the Voice of America, program schedules, times and frequencies. That VOA Web site address is v-o-a news dot com. Again, the VOA Web site is v-o-a-n-e-w-s dot com. Kenny Lattimore HOST: American singer and songwriter Kenny Lattimore went to college to become a building designer. In college, he joined a singing group. Jim Tedder tells us more. ANNCR: Kenny Lattimore grew up singing in the church, performing in shows and studying classical and chamber music. He joined a singing group called Maniquin while he was a student at Howard University in Washington, D-C. The group gained some success. However, he left the group to sing on his own. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, his first album was released. It is called “Kenny Lattimore.” The song “For You” was a hit. ((CUT ONE – “FOR YOU”)) In Nineteen Ninety-Eight, Kenny Lattimore recorded another album called “From the Soul of Man.” It is a collection of songs about problems in love relations. Music critics praised his soulful singing and song writing. Listen as Kenny Lattimore sings “If I Lose My Woman.” ((CUT TWO – “IF I LOSE MY WOMAN”)) Kenny Lattimore’s latest album was released in September. It is called “Weekend.” He says he wanted to create music that young people could enjoy and still keep the adult interest of his past songs. We leave you now with the title song from Kenny Lattimore’s album, “Weekend.” ((CUT THREE – “WEEKEND”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we: play some music by Kenny Lattimore ... answer a question about VOA ... and report about how Muslims in the United States celebrate Ramadan. Ramadan in the United States HOST: It is almost the end of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. Recent studies say about six-million Muslims live in the United States. Shirley Griffith tells us how some are observing the Muslim holy month. ANNCR: For the past few weeks, Muslims have avoided food, drink and other pleasures from sunrise to sundown every day. During Ramadan, believers are to pray, be more spiritual and help others. The month of fasting will end when Islamic experts report the appearance of a new moon. Some Muslims in the United States started observing Ramadan on the morning of Friday, November sixteenth. That was the date announced by several North American Islamic organizations. However, other Muslims started Ramadan on a different date set by Islamic groups in their country of birth. This year, Ramadan is taking place during an international crisis. Three months ago, terrorists claiming to represent Islam attacked the United States. The attack resulted in the American-led campaign against terrorism and the war in Afghanistan. The feelings of the Muslim community in the United States are mixed. They love the United States and oppose terrorism. At the same time, they want peace and are concerned about the innocent people in Afghanistan. Last month, President Bush led a traditional Ramadan meal for Muslim diplomats and others at the White House. He thanked those attending for their support of the American-led campaign against terrorism. For Muslims in the United States, breaking the fasting period at sundown is a time to gather with family and friends. Food is always an important part of the celebration. Muslims in the United States are from different cultures. So many different kinds of food are served during Ramadan. For example, Yenni Djahidin Grow lives with her family in Virginia. She is from Indonesia. Missus Grow cooks special foods during Ramadan for her two brothers, husband and son. One of her Indonesian specialties is randang, a kind of fried beef with hot spices. She also prepares mixed fruit, cake and sweet rice with brown sugar. Missus Grow is making plans to serve other sweets and special foods at Id Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Indonesian Muslims in the Washington area celebrate at the Indonesian embassy. They will attend a religious service there before attending parties and visiting with friends. VOA HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Xiao Haitao asks if our VOA programs are popular with the American people. The short answer to that question is not really—because the Voice of America does not broadcast within the United States. VOA was created to be the voice of the United States government to foreign nations. Congress approved a law in Nineteen-Forty-Eight that banned the VOA from broadcasting to the people of America. However, this law did not bar Americans from listening to VOA programs if they were able to receive the signals on their short wave radios. Today, people in the United States and around the world can use a computer to find and listen to VOA news and feature reports on the VOA web site. VOA made its first broadcast during the Second World War, on February twenty-fourth, Nineteen-Forty-Two. It was a short, fifteen-minute program in the German language. It told the German people that every day, the Voice of America would broadcast news of America and the war. “The news may be good or bad,” it said, “but we will tell you the truth.” The Voice of America continues to broadcast the truth. It reports the news. It tells about America and its people, and the policies of the United States government. Today, VOA broadcasts in fifty-three languages, including English. When VOA began, all our listeners heard our broadcasts only on short wave radios. That has changed. Today, the fifty-three language services provide VOA programming to more than one-thousand radio stations around the world. VOA programs can be heard on local A-M and F-M stations in many countries as well as on short wave and medium wave around the world. More than ninety-million people listen every week. People also use computers to listen to any of our fifty-three languages in Real Audio, read the reports and copy materials. Twelve VOA language services also produce television programs. Much of the television programming is also broadcast on the radio and the Internet. The VOA web site provides the latest news and information twenty-four hours a day. It also provides information about the Voice of America, program schedules, times and frequencies. That VOA Web site address is v-o-a news dot com. Again, the VOA Web site is v-o-a-n-e-w-s dot com. Kenny Lattimore HOST: American singer and songwriter Kenny Lattimore went to college to become a building designer. In college, he joined a singing group. Jim Tedder tells us more. ANNCR: Kenny Lattimore grew up singing in the church, performing in shows and studying classical and chamber music. He joined a singing group called Maniquin while he was a student at Howard University in Washington, D-C. The group gained some success. However, he left the group to sing on his own. In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, his first album was released. It is called “Kenny Lattimore.” The song “For You” was a hit. ((CUT ONE – “FOR YOU”)) In Nineteen Ninety-Eight, Kenny Lattimore recorded another album called “From the Soul of Man.” It is a collection of songs about problems in love relations. Music critics praised his soulful singing and song writing. Listen as Kenny Lattimore sings “If I Lose My Woman.” ((CUT TWO – “IF I LOSE MY WOMAN”)) Kenny Lattimore’s latest album was released in September. It is called “Weekend.” He says he wanted to create music that young people could enjoy and still keep the adult interest of his past songs. We leave you now with the title song from Kenny Lattimore’s album, “Weekend.” ((CUT THREE – “WEEKEND”)) HOST: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, George Grow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-14-1-1.cfm
* Headline: DEVELOPMENT REPORT – December 17, 2001: Clean Water Campaign
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations says more than one-thousand-million people in the world do not have safe, clean water to drink. This is about one-sixth of the world’s population. More than two-thousand-million people do not have effective sanitation systems to remove bodily wastes. The U-N estimates that six-thousand people died each day from preventable diseases caused by unclean water or poor sanitation. Most of them are children. The U-N has launched an international campaign to help prevent deaths caused by unclean water and lack of sanitation. The campaign is called WASH, which means Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All. The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council is organizing the campaign. Gourisankar Ghosh heads the council. He says diseases caused by dirty water do not get much recognition. This is one reason why the WASH campaign wants to teach people that clean water and personal cleanliness, or hygiene, are important to their health. For example, the simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce cases of diarrhea by one-third. Mister Ghosh says one goal of the campaign is to teach school children about personal cleanliness. Within the next fifteen years, the U-N council hopes to have hygiene taught in eighty percent of schools in developing countries. Mister Ghosh also wants the WASH campaign to work closely with local community officials. He says the council will help launch simple water and sanitation projects in twenty-five counties, mostly in Asia and Africa. He says local governments and organizations need to help people deal with hygiene, water and sanitation problems. The U-N agency says the average person in a developing country uses about ten liters of water a day. Yet, the average person in an industrial country, such as Britain, uses one-hundred-thirty-five liters of water a day. WASH officials say this must change. Within the next twenty-five years, the group hopes all people will have safe, clean water and sanitation. Mister Ghosh says developing countries must learn that good hygiene, clean water and safe sanitation are necessary human rights for all citizens. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. This is the VOA Special English Development Report. The United Nations says more than one-thousand-million people in the world do not have safe, clean water to drink. This is about one-sixth of the world’s population. More than two-thousand-million people do not have effective sanitation systems to remove bodily wastes. The U-N estimates that six-thousand people died each day from preventable diseases caused by unclean water or poor sanitation. Most of them are children. The U-N has launched an international campaign to help prevent deaths caused by unclean water and lack of sanitation. The campaign is called WASH, which means Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All. The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council is organizing the campaign. Gourisankar Ghosh heads the council. He says diseases caused by dirty water do not get much recognition. This is one reason why the WASH campaign wants to teach people that clean water and personal cleanliness, or hygiene, are important to their health. For example, the simple act of washing hands with soap and water can reduce cases of diarrhea by one-third. Mister Ghosh says one goal of the campaign is to teach school children about personal cleanliness. Within the next fifteen years, the U-N council hopes to have hygiene taught in eighty percent of schools in developing countries. Mister Ghosh also wants the WASH campaign to work closely with local community officials. He says the council will help launch simple water and sanitation projects in twenty-five counties, mostly in Asia and Africa. He says local governments and organizations need to help people deal with hygiene, water and sanitation problems. The U-N agency says the average person in a developing country uses about ten liters of water a day. Yet, the average person in an industrial country, such as Britain, uses one-hundred-thirty-five liters of water a day. WASH officials say this must change. Within the next twenty-five years, the group hopes all people will have safe, clean water and sanitation. Mister Ghosh says developing countries must learn that good hygiene, clean water and safe sanitation are necessary human rights for all citizens. This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-14-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 16, 2001: Walt Disney
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. Walt Disney's 'Magic Kingdom' VOICE ONE: I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created. ((MUSIC: WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR)) Mickey Mouse(photo courtesy Walt Disney Co.) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disney and the movie company he created. ((MUSIC: WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR)) VOICE ONE: That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." It is from Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio." For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work. The song is about dreams ... and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture the imagination of children and adults all over the world. VOICE TWO: Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan. Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro-Disney in France. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, in Nineteen-Oh-One. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life. VOICE TWO: A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place. VOICE ONE: Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands. The artists called him "Mickey." Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie." Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It was a huge success. VOICE TWO: Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi." In Italy, he was "Topolino." In Latin America, he was "Raton Miquelito." Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was the female mouse called "Minnie." Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto. VOICE ONE: Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too. In the middle Nineteen-Thirties, he was working on his first long movie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." "Snow White" was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies. VOICE TWO: Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature. VOICE ONE: Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in Nineteen-Forty with the movie "Pinocchio." The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy. Disney 's artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make "Pinocchio." The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects. "Pinocchio" was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty." These movies are still popular today. VOICE TWO: In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings. Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evil forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland." He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places...as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future. Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands. VOICE TWO: Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture. But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world. Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, after Disney's death. The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Carolyn Weaver and Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: That was the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." It is from Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio." For many people, it is the song most often linked with Walt Disney and his work. The song is about dreams ... and making dreams come true. That is what the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies that capture the imagination of children and adults all over the world. VOICE TWO: Millions of people have seen Disney films and television programs. They have made friends with all the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan. Millions more have visited the company's major entertainment parks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida. Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro-Disney in France. Probably no other company has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that it has been called a dream factory. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, in Nineteen-Oh-One. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grew up on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study art in Chicago. Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He helped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters. Advertisements help sell products. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Walt Disney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. He wanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find a job. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings are made to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney the artist wanted to bring his pictures to life. VOICE TWO: A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is a little different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change in movement. When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoon people and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by real actors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of an office. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to pay his expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular as movies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoon hero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place. VOICE ONE: Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They often saw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked. So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse. For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyes and ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands. The artists called him "Mickey." Earlier filmmakers had found that animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. Mickey Mouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect for animation. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called "Steamboat Willie." Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey Mouse. The film was produced in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It was a huge success. VOICE TWO: Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the years that followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he was called "Miki Kuchi." In Italy, he was "Topolino." In Latin America, he was "Raton Miquelito." Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. One was the female mouse called "Minnie." Another was the duck named "Donald," with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was the dog called Pluto. VOICE ONE: Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disney wanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too. In the middle Nineteen-Thirties, he was working on his first long movie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, and the handsome prince who saves her. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." "Snow White" was completed in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven after three years of work. It was the first full-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became one of Hollywood's most successful movies. VOICE TWO: Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the development of the art of animation. Disney's artists tried to put life into every drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of the cartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear. The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. A smile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on the face of each cartoon creature. VOICE ONE: Many movie experts say Disney's art of animation reached its highest point in Nineteen-Forty with the movie "Pinocchio." The story is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy. Disney 's artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make "Pinocchio." The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a look of space and solid objects. "Pinocchio" was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real. Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in the Nineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "Bambi," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," and "Sleeping Beauty." These movies are still popular today. VOICE TWO: In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies and television programs with real actors. He also produced movies about wild animals in their natural surroundings. Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most of them, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evil forces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funny incidents and creatures. In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-two Academy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technical inventions in filmmaking. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment park not far from Hollywood, California. He called it "Disneyland." He wanted it to be the happiest place on Earth. Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It also recreated real places...as Disney imagined them. For example, one area looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West. Another looked like the world of the future. Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on an elephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on a jungle river. And -- best of all -- children got to meet Mickey Mouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartoon creatures walked around the park shaking hands. VOICE TWO: Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. They said it cost so much money that many families could not go. And they said it did not represent the best of American culture. But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to see it. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. And families from around the world. Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for a second entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida. The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida in Nineteen-Seventy-One, after Disney's death. The man who started it all, Walt Disney, died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. But the company he began continues to help people escape the problems of life through its movies and entertainment parks. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Carolyn Weaver and Shelley Gollust. I'm Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-14-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - December 17, 2001: Muslims in America
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: Forty or fifty years ago, Americans knew very little about Islam. Today, Islam is one of the nation’s fastest-growing religions. I’m Shirley Griffith. Friday prayers at Chicago mosque (VOA photo - M. Leland) VOICE ONE: Forty or fifty years ago, Americans knew very little about Islam. Today, Islam is one of the nation’s fastest-growing religions. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. We tell about Muslims in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Muslims throughout America have just celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The month marks the time when the Prophet Mohammed received the first revelations of the religion. Muslims believe these messages and teachings come directly from God. Revelations to Mohammed became the Muslim holy book, the Koran ('qu-rahn). (VOA photo - M. Leland) VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. We tell about Muslims in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Muslims throughout America have just celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The month marks the time when the Prophet Mohammed received the first revelations of the religion. Muslims believe these messages and teachings come directly from God. Revelations to Mohammed became the Muslim holy book, the Koran ('qu-rahn). Muslims say special prayers during Ramadan. They restrict eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset. They are urged to take part in self-denial and self-examination. Some Muslims who have studied the Koran intensely repeat the whole book from memory. VOICE TWO: Many Muslims arrived in the United States from other nations within the past thirty years. They came from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Some came to the United States to get work or training. Some came to attend universities. Now the children and grandchildren of these people also have made their homes in America. On September Eleventh, foreign Islamic extremists attacked the United States. The attacks killed more than three-thousand people in Washington, D-C, and New York City. The attackers belonged to the al-Qaeda group led by Osama bin Laden. He is Muslim, and has declared a holy war on the United States. American Muslims condemned the terrorist attacks. They declared their loyalty to the United States. They noted that many victims of the attacks were Muslim. Muslim religious centers all over the country held prayer services for victims of the attacks. VOICE ONE: Still, Muslims and others from Arab countries say they have suffered as a result of the attacks. Some Muslims say they were threatened or insulted at work. Others say they were dismissed from their jobs because of their religion. Still others say they are unable to get work. In several incidents, airplane and bus passengers said they were afraid to travel with other passengers who appeared to be from the Middle East. After September Eleventh, hundreds of students from Middle Eastern countries left universities in the United States and returned home. They said they feared being attacked or being suspected of something. VOICE TWO: The United States government is now holding hundreds of young Muslim men. They were seized because they were similar in some ways to the young Muslims responsible for the terrorist attacks. Only a very few of the men held are suspected in connection with terrorism. The others are suspected or charged with less serious violations. Some, for example, are in the United States illegally. The government has made an offer to any of these men who provide helpful information about the attacks. In return, they will get help gaining travel documents or becoming United States citizens. Other foreigners also may receive this help if they co-operate with the government. VOICE ONE: President Bush has called for such cooperation in the search for the terrorists who attacked the United States. At the same time, the president has repeatedly expressed friendship toward the American Islamic community. He urges other Americans not to blame innocent Muslims for the deadly attacks. Mister Bush visited the main Islamic mosque in Washington, D-C, soon after the attacks. He described Islam as a religion of peace. He also held a Ramadan dinner recently for members of the Muslim-American community. It was probably the first such event ever held in the White House. VOICE TWO: Many Americans say they want to increase their understanding of Islam. Booksellers say they are having trouble supplying all the requests for books about the religion. Members of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues have met recently with Muslims. For example, members of the Foundry Methodist Church in Washington visited a nearby mosque. Members of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, soon will visit Foundry church. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The State Department reports that at least six-million Muslims live in the United States. More than seventy percent work as doctors, professors, teachers, or in technical or business jobs. However, some of the newest arrivals are poor. About three-hundred-seventy-thousand Arab-Americans live in or near the major city of Detroit, Michigan. Estimates say about half are Muslims. Population experts say many Muslims in the Detroit area were Palestinians. Others fled countries like Iraq and Yemen. They left because of economic and political problems in those areas during the early twentieth century. A similar immigration took place about thirty years ago. Many of the arriving Muslims first worked in car factories, a major industry in Detroit. Dearborn, Michigan, is said to have the largest population of Muslims of any American community. Other cities with large Muslim populations are New York; Los Angeles, California; and Chicago, Illinois. However, Muslims live all over the United States. VOICE TWO: Muslims now have more than two times as many religious centers in the United States as they did eleven years ago. Today, Muslims worship in more than one-thousand-two-hundred mosques. Many mosques are expanding and new ones are being built. For example, workers are increasing the size of the mosque in Dearborn, Michigan by one-hundred percent. Members need more space because so many people attend services. Muslims also are building one of the largest mosques in North America in Dearborn. This Islamic Center of America will cost fifteen-million dollars. VOICE ONE: Most mosques in the United States have Asian, African-American and Arab members. In any Islamic mosque, men and women pray separately. Muslims hold weddings and memorial services in the mosque. Children and young people receive religious education there. At the same time, adults discuss the Islamic religion. Some American Muslims gather for meals and social events in the mosque, too. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Prophet Mohammed was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in the seventh century. He declared the Islamic religion in the year Six-Hundred-Ten. Like Jews and Christians, Muslims believe there is only one God. Muslims believe God also spoke to people besides Mohammed. They include the prophets of Judaism and Jesus of Nazareth. However, Muslims believe Mohammed completed God’s message. Mohammed is said to have repeated the revelations he received to his supporters. Some experts in Islam say people wrote down the words. Older Muslims also repeated the Koran to their children over the centuries. Some modern Muslims also learn every word in the Koran. VOICE ONE: Islam has been known in the United States since slaves were brought here from Africa in the Sixteen-Hundreds. Perhaps twenty percent of the slaves were born Muslims. Most changed their religion to Christianity. Some were forced to do so. This history partly explains why some black Americans have joined the Islamic religion. The first Muslims who came freely to America arrived in the Eighteen-Seventies. They were among many Middle Eastern people who came during that time. Some Muslims gave up their religion and customs. They married Christians and followed Christian ways. Others followed the ways of Islam. VOICE TWO: Muslims pray five times each day. They are not permitted to drink alcohol or use illegal drugs. They may not eat pork or any meat that has not been prepared under Islamic supervision. They must keep their bodies well covered. These rules require a way of life that is different from the main American culture. A Muslim writer says it is not always easy to live a truly Muslim life in America. However, she says it is worth the effort. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. Muslims say special prayers during Ramadan. They restrict eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset. They are urged to take part in self-denial and self-examination. Some Muslims who have studied the Koran intensely repeat the whole book from memory. VOICE TWO: Many Muslims arrived in the United States from other nations within the past thirty years. They came from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Some came to the United States to get work or training. Some came to attend universities. Now the children and grandchildren of these people also have made their homes in America. On September Eleventh, foreign Islamic extremists attacked the United States. The attacks killed more than three-thousand people in Washington, D-C, and New York City. The attackers belonged to the al-Qaeda group led by Osama bin Laden. He is Muslim, and has declared a holy war on the United States. American Muslims condemned the terrorist attacks. They declared their loyalty to the United States. They noted that many victims of the attacks were Muslim. Muslim religious centers all over the country held prayer services for victims of the attacks. VOICE ONE: Still, Muslims and others from Arab countries say they have suffered as a result of the attacks. Some Muslims say they were threatened or insulted at work. Others say they were dismissed from their jobs because of their religion. Still others say they are unable to get work. In several incidents, airplane and bus passengers said they were afraid to travel with other passengers who appeared to be from the Middle East. After September Eleventh, hundreds of students from Middle Eastern countries left universities in the United States and returned home. They said they feared being attacked or being suspected of something. VOICE TWO: The United States government is now holding hundreds of young Muslim men. They were seized because they were similar in some ways to the young Muslims responsible for the terrorist attacks. Only a very few of the men held are suspected in connection with terrorism. The others are suspected or charged with less serious violations. Some, for example, are in the United States illegally. The government has made an offer to any of these men who provide helpful information about the attacks. In return, they will get help gaining travel documents or becoming United States citizens. Other foreigners also may receive this help if they co-operate with the government. VOICE ONE: President Bush has called for such cooperation in the search for the terrorists who attacked the United States. At the same time, the president has repeatedly expressed friendship toward the American Islamic community. He urges other Americans not to blame innocent Muslims for the deadly attacks. Mister Bush visited the main Islamic mosque in Washington, D-C, soon after the attacks. He described Islam as a religion of peace. He also held a Ramadan dinner recently for members of the Muslim-American community. It was probably the first such event ever held in the White House. VOICE TWO: Many Americans say they want to increase their understanding of Islam. Booksellers say they are having trouble supplying all the requests for books about the religion. Members of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues have met recently with Muslims. For example, members of the Foundry Methodist Church in Washington visited a nearby mosque. Members of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, soon will visit Foundry church. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The State Department reports that at least six-million Muslims live in the United States. More than seventy percent work as doctors, professors, teachers, or in technical or business jobs. However, some of the newest arrivals are poor. About three-hundred-seventy-thousand Arab-Americans live in or near the major city of Detroit, Michigan. Estimates say about half are Muslims. Population experts say many Muslims in the Detroit area were Palestinians. Others fled countries like Iraq and Yemen. They left because of economic and political problems in those areas during the early twentieth century. A similar immigration took place about thirty years ago. Many of the arriving Muslims first worked in car factories, a major industry in Detroit. Dearborn, Michigan, is said to have the largest population of Muslims of any American community. Other cities with large Muslim populations are New York; Los Angeles, California; and Chicago, Illinois. However, Muslims live all over the United States. VOICE TWO: Muslims now have more than two times as many religious centers in the United States as they did eleven years ago. Today, Muslims worship in more than one-thousand-two-hundred mosques. Many mosques are expanding and new ones are being built. For example, workers are increasing the size of the mosque in Dearborn, Michigan by one-hundred percent. Members need more space because so many people attend services. Muslims also are building one of the largest mosques in North America in Dearborn. This Islamic Center of America will cost fifteen-million dollars. VOICE ONE: Most mosques in the United States have Asian, African-American and Arab members. In any Islamic mosque, men and women pray separately. Muslims hold weddings and memorial services in the mosque. Children and young people receive religious education there. At the same time, adults discuss the Islamic religion. Some American Muslims gather for meals and social events in the mosque, too. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Prophet Mohammed was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in the seventh century. He declared the Islamic religion in the year Six-Hundred-Ten. Like Jews and Christians, Muslims believe there is only one God. Muslims believe God also spoke to people besides Mohammed. They include the prophets of Judaism and Jesus of Nazareth. However, Muslims believe Mohammed completed God’s message. Mohammed is said to have repeated the revelations he received to his supporters. Some experts in Islam say people wrote down the words. Older Muslims also repeated the Koran to their children over the centuries. Some modern Muslims also learn every word in the Koran. VOICE ONE: Islam has been known in the United States since slaves were brought here from Africa in the Sixteen-Hundreds. Perhaps twenty percent of the slaves were born Muslims. Most changed their religion to Christianity. Some were forced to do so. This history partly explains why some black Americans have joined the Islamic religion. The first Muslims who came freely to America arrived in the Eighteen-Seventies. They were among many Middle Eastern people who came during that time. Some Muslims gave up their religion and customs. They married Christians and followed Christian ways. Others followed the ways of Islam. VOICE TWO: Muslims pray five times each day. They are not permitted to drink alcohol or use illegal drugs. They may not eat pork or any meat that has not been prepared under Islamic supervision. They must keep their bodies well covered. These rules require a way of life that is different from the main American culture. A Muslim writer says it is not always easy to live a truly Muslim life in America. However, she says it is worth the effort. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-14-4-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 15, 2001: Bush/ABM Treaty
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Program, IN THE NEWS. President Bush has announced that the United States will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The United States and the former Soviet Union signed the treaty in Nineteen-Seventy-Two. The ABM treaty bans national missile-defense systems that protect against long range missiles. It was designed to guarantee it would not be safe for either side to begin a nuclear attack against the other. President Bush says the threat of international terrorism requires the United States to move beyond the treaty. The withdrawal takes effect in six months. Mister Bush made the announcement Thursday at the White House. It marked the first time that the United States has withdrawn from a major arms control treaty. The announcement ended months of negotiations with Russia, which opposed the action. The president said he could not -- and would not -- permit the United States to remain in the treaty. He said the treaty prevents effective defenses against missiles that terrorists or nations could fire at the United States. Mister Bush said the world was very different when the United States and the former Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile agreement. He said dangerous tensions between the two nuclear powers ended long ago. He also said the present disagreement would not wreck good relations between the United States and Russia. In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin called the American decision to withdraw from the treaty “a mistake.” He said the treaty has been extremely important to world security over the years. However, he said American withdrawal does not threaten Russian security. Mister Putin also promised to honor his proposal to reduce Russia’s nuclear weapons. He spoke on national television. In China, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman expressed concern about American plans for its new missile-defense system. Sweden warned that Mister Bush’s decision risked serious problems. The nation said the decision could incite a new international race to develop weapons. However, Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel said he understands the American withdrawal. He said the Nineteen-Seventy-Two missile agreement is out of date. The missile-defense system Mister Bush wants is mainly meant to protect from small-scale attacks. The plan calls for development and deployment of a defensive barrier for the whole United States. The system would be able to find and destroy missiles directed at the nation. It is currently being tested. Russia had set conditions for the United States to continue with the new system under the A-B-M treaty. It said the United States could do so if it told Russia each time it launched a missile. Russia remained firm in that demand, while the United States continually refused it. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Jerilyn Watson. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-17-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - December 18, 2001: Smoking
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the health effects of smoking tobacco products. We also offer advice about how to stop smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty with SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, a VOA Special English program about recent developments in science. Today, we tell about the health effects of smoking tobacco products. We also offer advice about how to stop smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that more than four-million people die each year from the effects of smoking. That number is increasing. W-H-O officials expect one-hundred-fifty-million people to die from tobacco use in the next twenty years. Seven in ten of those deaths will be in developing countries. In the United States, about forty-seven-million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death nationwide. This year, more than four-hundred-thirty-thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking also has been linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for more than eighty percent of all lung cancers in the United States. The group adds that smoking is a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than forty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: American government health experts say smoking affects not only the smoker. Women who use tobacco during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems. Pregnant women who smoke are at risk of having a baby who weighs less than normal. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of early death and may suffer from a number of health disorders. Experts say tobacco smoke also affects the health of people who do not smoke. Smokers may harm the health of family members and people at work. Tobacco smoke causes an estimated three-thousand non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer each year. Tobacco smoke also causes lung infections in as many as three-hundred-thousand American children each year. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Nicotine is the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again, forcing the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or the illegal drug cocaine. So experts say it is better never to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. However, most smokers find that is difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. People who use menthol cigarettes can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other cigarettes. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous. VOICE TWO: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. Recently, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting smoking-related diseases. In fact, some people who use low tar or low nicotine cigarettes often smoke more. The report found no evidence that changes in cigarette design and production during the past fifty years have improved public health. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members and others who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several products designed to help end a smoker’s dependency on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. For example, smokers can place small, specially treated pieces of material on their skin. They can chew or swallow other products that contain nicotine. Or they can breathe small amounts of nicotine through their nose or mouth. VOICE ONE: A drug to fight depression has proved effective for many smokers. Depression is the mental condition that causes extreme sadness and hopelessness. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug works by increasing levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. Studies have shown that Zyban reduces the urge to smoke for some people. There is strong evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: We have some other ideas to help you stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people are smoking. If you drink alcohol, you probably will need to stop drinking temporarily. Many people lose their inner strength when they drink alcohol. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: For many years, scientists have warned that smoking tobacco is bad for your health. Yet people around the world continue to smoke. The World Health Organization estimates that more than four-million people die each year from the effects of smoking. That number is increasing. W-H-O officials expect one-hundred-fifty-million people to die from tobacco use in the next twenty years. Seven in ten of those deaths will be in developing countries. In the United States, about forty-seven-million adults currently smoke. American health experts say tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death nationwide. This year, more than four-hundred-thirty-thousand Americans will die of diseases linked to smoking. VOICE TWO: Smoking tobacco is the leading cause of lung disease. Smoking also has been linked to heart disease, stroke and many kinds of cancer. The American Cancer Society says smoking is responsible for more than eighty percent of all lung cancers in the United States. The group adds that smoking is a major cause of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, bladder and pancreas. Scientists have identified more than forty chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have been linked to cancer. VOICE ONE: American government health experts say smoking affects not only the smoker. Women who use tobacco during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with health problems. Pregnant women who smoke are at risk of having a baby who weighs less than normal. Low birth weight babies have an increased risk of early death and may suffer from a number of health disorders. Experts say tobacco smoke also affects the health of people who do not smoke. Smokers may harm the health of family members and people at work. Tobacco smoke causes an estimated three-thousand non-smoking Americans to die of lung cancer each year. Tobacco smoke also causes lung infections in as many as three-hundred-thousand American children each year. The American Cancer Society says there is no safe way to smoke. It says smoking begins to cause damage immediately. All cigarettes can damage the body. Smoking even a small number of cigarettes is dangerous. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Nicotine is the major substance in cigarettes that gives pleasure to smokers. Nicotine is a poison. The American Cancer Society says nicotine can kill a person when taken in large amounts. It does this by stopping the muscles used for breathing. The body grows to depend on nicotine. When a former smoker smokes a cigarette, the nicotine reaction may start again, forcing the person to keep smoking. Studies have found that nicotine can be as powerful as alcohol or the illegal drug cocaine. So experts say it is better never to start smoking and become dependent on nicotine than it is to smoke with the idea of stopping later. VOICE ONE: Most people who smoke have heard about the harmful effects of cigarettes. Some of them decide to smoke fewer cigarettes. However, most smokers find that is difficult. Experts say menthol cigarettes are no safer than other tobacco products. Menthol cigarettes produce a cool feeling in the smoker’s throat. People who use menthol cigarettes can hold the smoke inside their lungs longer than smokers of other cigarettes. As a result, experts say menthol cigarettes may be even more dangerous. VOICE TWO: Other smokers believe that cigarettes with low tar levels are safer. Tar is a substance produced when tobacco leaves are burned. It is known to cause cancer. Recently, the National Cancer Institute released a report about low tar cigarettes. It found that people who smoke these cigarettes do not reduce their risk of getting smoking-related diseases. In fact, some people who use low tar or low nicotine cigarettes often smoke more. The report found no evidence that changes in cigarette design and production during the past fifty years have improved public health. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: It is not easy to stop smoking permanently. However, doctors say you probably will live longer if you do stop smoking. You will feel better and look better. You also will protect the health of family members and others who breathe your smoke. The American Cancer Society says the sooner smokers stop smoking, the more they can reduce their chances of getting cancer and other diseases. It says blood pressure returns to normal twenty minutes after smoking the last cigarette. Carbon monoxide gas levels in the blood return to normal after eight hours. After one day, the chance of heart attack decreases. After one year, the risk of heart disease for a non-smoker is half that of a smoker. VOICE TWO: Experts say there are several products designed to help end a smoker’s dependency on cigarettes. There are several kinds of nicotine replacement products that provide small amounts of the substance. These can help people stop smoking. For example, smokers can place small, specially treated pieces of material on their skin. They can chew or swallow other products that contain nicotine. Or they can breathe small amounts of nicotine through their nose or mouth. VOICE ONE: A drug to fight depression has proved effective for many smokers. Depression is the mental condition that causes extreme sadness and hopelessness. The anti-depressant drug is called Zyban. It does not contain nicotine. The drug works by increasing levels of the chemical dopamine in the brain. Dopamine produces feelings of pleasure. Studies have shown that Zyban reduces the urge to smoke for some people. There is strong evidence that people who have suffered from depression are much more likely than other people to smoke. The same is true for people who have brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Doctors say these people can think better and feel better when they are smoking. It also is much harder for them to stop smoking than it is for other people. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: We have some other ideas to help you stop smoking. The American Cancer Society says there is not just one right way to stop. It says one method or a combination of methods may be successful. They include attending self-help programs or following directions in a book. The group says any way to stop smoking that is legal, moral and effective is worth trying. To stop smoking, you should carefully plan your actions for at least one week. Try to stay away from people and situations that might trouble you. Do not go to public places where people are smoking. If you drink alcohol, you probably will need to stop drinking temporarily. Many people lose their inner strength when they drink alcohol. VOICE ONE: Many experts say it is best to stop smoking completely. Even one cigarette can make you a smoker again. In the first week or two without cigarettes, you probably will feel terrible. You may be angry all the time or you may feel sad. You may have a headache or your stomach may feel sick. Do not lose hope. If you stay away from tobacco, those feelings will go away in a few weeks. Tell yourself that you will be happier as a non-smoker. Tell yourself that nicotine should not control your life. VOICE TWO: Move around as much as possible. Go for a quick walk or a run at least two times a day. Walking or running will make you breathe deeply. This will help clear the nicotine from your body. Also, when you have the urge to smoke, you could chew gum or eat a piece of fruit or vegetable instead. For a long time, you will continue to have periods when you really want a cigarette. Yet these times will come less often. One day, you will recognize that you have won the struggle against smoking. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-17-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AGRICULTURE REPORT - December 18, 2001: Clementines/Medflies
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The United States Department of Agriculture has banned the import of clementine oranges from Spain. The action was taken after live Mediterranean fruit fly larvae were found in some of the imported fruit. American officials also banned sales of Spanish clementines in seventeen states where the weather is warm enough for the insects to survive. The ban also is in effect in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Agriculture Department suspended imports after larvae were found in Spanish clementines in Maryland, North Carolina, Louisiana and California. Clementine oranges have become increasingly popular in the United States in recent years. Some Americans give the small, seedless fruits as gifts during the holiday season. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly is also known as the Medfly. It is one of the world’s most destructive threats to agriculture. It leaves its eggs in more than two-hundred different kinds of fruits, nuts and vegetables. The female fruit fly can produce as many as one-thousand eggs in her lifetime. She usually leaves her eggs in fruit that is still on the tree. She makes holes in the skin of the fruit and leaves two to six eggs in each hole. Larvae develop from the eggs. The larvae eat their way through the fruit, causing it to drop to the ground. The larvae later dig holes in the ground. When they come out, they are adult Medflies. The Mediterranean fruit fly lives in warm climates. Scientists believe the Medfly developed in west Africa. Long ago, it spread to northern and southern Africa, southern Europe and Asia. The United States has no established Medfly populations. So agriculture officials work hard to prevent the spread of the insects from other countries. Medflies can destroy a complete crop unless farmers use methods to control the insects as soon as they are known to be in the area.There are several methods to control Medflies. Farmers often spray chemicals to kill the insects. Several other insects can destroy Medfly larvae. Another method of control involves the use of male Medflies that come from eggs treated by radiation. The treated flies cannot reproduce. Farmers also use special traps to control Medflies. These devices use smells to trick the flies into entering the traps. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. This is the VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT. The United States Department of Agriculture has banned the import of clementine oranges from Spain. The action was taken after live Mediterranean fruit fly larvae were found in some of the imported fruit. American officials also banned sales of Spanish clementines in seventeen states where the weather is warm enough for the insects to survive. The ban also is in effect in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Agriculture Department suspended imports after larvae were found in Spanish clementines in Maryland, North Carolina, Louisiana and California. Clementine oranges have become increasingly popular in the United States in recent years. Some Americans give the small, seedless fruits as gifts during the holiday season. The Mediterranean Fruit Fly is also known as the Medfly. It is one of the world’s most destructive threats to agriculture. It leaves its eggs in more than two-hundred different kinds of fruits, nuts and vegetables. The female fruit fly can produce as many as one-thousand eggs in her lifetime. She usually leaves her eggs in fruit that is still on the tree. She makes holes in the skin of the fruit and leaves two to six eggs in each hole. Larvae develop from the eggs. The larvae eat their way through the fruit, causing it to drop to the ground. The larvae later dig holes in the ground. When they come out, they are adult Medflies. The Mediterranean fruit fly lives in warm climates. Scientists believe the Medfly developed in west Africa. Long ago, it spread to northern and southern Africa, southern Europe and Asia. The United States has no established Medfly populations. So agriculture officials work hard to prevent the spread of the insects from other countries. Medflies can destroy a complete crop unless farmers use methods to control the insects as soon as they are known to be in the area.There are several methods to control Medflies. Farmers often spray chemicals to kill the insects. Several other insects can destroy Medfly larvae. Another method of control involves the use of male Medflies that come from eggs treated by radiation. The treated flies cannot reproduce. Farmers also use special traps to control Medflies. These devices use smells to trick the flies into entering the traps. This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-18-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – December 19, 2001: Baby Elephant
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. People in Washington, D-C, are celebrating a new arrival. This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT. People in Washington, D-C, are celebrating a new arrival. An Asian elephant was born November twenty-fifth at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. The baby elephant weighed almost one-hundred-fifty kilograms. Zoo officials named him Kandula (KAHN-du-lah), which means strength in Sinhalese. Kandula took his first steps just minutes after being born. National Zoo officials and other animal experts are carefully watching his development. The baby elephant was born to Shanthi, a twenty-five-year old Asian elephant at the Zoo. Shanthi never met her baby’s father. She became pregnant as a result of a process called artificial insemination. Doctors used reproductive fluid from Calvin, a thirteen-year-old Asian elephant from a zoo in Calgary, Canada. They placed the fluid in Shanthi’s reproductive organs. Shanthi’s pregnancy lasted twenty-two months. Kandula is only the fifth elephant in the world to be produced by artificial insemination. Scientists had attempted artificial insemination in elephants for more than twenty years with no success. Then, in Nineteen-Ninety-Five, three German scientists developed a successful method. It involves ultrasound technology and a pipe-like device called a catheter. Shanthi was the first elephant to be artificially inseminated by the German team. She became pregnant after six attempts. National Zoo scientists developed a test to show when a female elephant is fertile. This information helped the German team to perform artificial insemination on Shanthi at the exact time her body released an egg. Blood tests last February identified her most fertile days. After artificial insemination, Shanthi’s blood was examined weekly. After twelve weeks, an ultrasound test confirmed the suspected pregnancy. Doctors closely watched her pregnancy. Blood tests helped the doctors and Zoo officials to identify exactly when to expect the birth. This gave everyone time to prepare for the birthing process and the new arrival. National Zoo Director Lucy Spelman notes that very few elephants are born in zoos each year. She says Kandula’s birth is a very special event. She also says the birth marks the beginning of efforts to increase the elephant population at the National Zoo. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. An Asian elephant was born November twenty-fifth at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park. The baby elephant weighed almost one-hundred-fifty kilograms. Zoo officials named him Kandula (KAHN-du-lah), which means strength in Sinhalese. Kandula took his first steps just minutes after being born. National Zoo officials and other animal experts are carefully watching his development. The baby elephant was born to Shanthi, a twenty-five-year old Asian elephant at the Zoo. Shanthi never met her baby’s father. She became pregnant as a result of a process called artificial insemination. Doctors used reproductive fluid from Calvin, a thirteen-year-old Asian elephant from a zoo in Calgary, Canada. They placed the fluid in Shanthi’s reproductive organs. Shanthi’s pregnancy lasted twenty-two months. Kandula is only the fifth elephant in the world to be produced by artificial insemination. Scientists had attempted artificial insemination in elephants for more than twenty years with no success. Then, in Nineteen-Ninety-Five, three German scientists developed a successful method. It involves ultrasound technology and a pipe-like device called a catheter. Shanthi was the first elephant to be artificially inseminated by the German team. She became pregnant after six attempts. National Zoo scientists developed a test to show when a female elephant is fertile. This information helped the German team to perform artificial insemination on Shanthi at the exact time her body released an egg. Blood tests last February identified her most fertile days. After artificial insemination, Shanthi’s blood was examined weekly. After twelve weeks, an ultrasound test confirmed the suspected pregnancy. Doctors closely watched her pregnancy. Blood tests helped the doctors and Zoo officials to identify exactly when to expect the birth. This gave everyone time to prepare for the birthing process and the new arrival. National Zoo Director Lucy Spelman notes that very few elephants are born in zoos each year. She says Kandula’s birth is a very special event. She also says the birth marks the beginning of efforts to increase the elephant population at the National Zoo. This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-18-2-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - December 19, 2001: Botanic Garden Re-Opens
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. The U.S. Botanic Garden's Palm House during renovation VOICE ONE: This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the United States Botanic Garden. This museum of living plants re-opened in Washington last week. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The trees on the Washington, D.C., streets have lost their leaves. The wind feels cold. Inside the United States Botanic Garden, however, the world is warm and colorful. This glass house near the United States Capitol shows rare and beautiful plants from all over the world. It re-opened December Eleventh after more than thirty-three million dollars worth of improvements. The work took four years. The thin green leaves of fern plants seem to reach out to welcome visitors as they enter the building. Red poinsettia plants are everywhere to mark the season around the Christmas and New Year holidays. About four-thousand plants are growing in the Botanic Garden. Experts have placed the plants in different areas designed to meet their special requirements. Each area has different environmental needs for the plants growing in it. Light from the glass covering high above fills all the areas. Modern equipment controls the temperature, water and other needs of each plant group. The equipment is all new. Seventy percent of the plants are new. VOICE TWO: Federal and city officials say they are pleased that the United States Botanic Garden has opened again. They believe the new building will help bring more visitors to America’s capital city. The officials are probably correct. Thousands of people already have visited the re-designed Botanic Gardens. Comments of “ooh” and “ah” and “beautiful!” continually are heard throughout the building. VOICE ONE: Visitors enter the plant-house through the Garden Court. They walk on a stonework floor past two narrow pools that shoot water into the air. Tall plants, trees and street lights line the area. They seem to watch over the visitors in the Garden Court. Many people stop to examine and take pictures of the chocolate tree growing in the Garden Court. Its small white flowers grow into large pods – seed containers. Candy factories and other manufacturers of sweet foods and cooking supplies use these plants to make chocolate. Botanic Garden workers have filled this area with many other plants. They include plants that provide olives, figs, almonds, plums, tea, coffee and rice. Like the chocolate tree, they are used to produce food and drink. Experts call them “economic” plants. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Visitors can see rare and threatened plants in the Endangered Plant area. Botanic Garden chief director Holly Shimizu says some of these plants are so rare they have no names. She explains how some of the plants got here. Officials at border areas have taken them away from people entering the United States. The people were trying to bring the rare plants into the country illegally. The nearby Plant Exploration House shows modern relatives of plants collected long ago by Admiral Charles Wilkes. The famous explorer traveled around the world between Eighteen-Thirty-Eight and Eighteen-Forty-Two. Among the collection are birds of paradise plants. They have yellow and blue flowers. These are not common flowers, however. Instead, they look very much like birds. One visitor said she expected the flowers to sing. VOICE ONE: Waterfalls make a calming sound in the Orchid House at the Botanic Garden. Colorful orchid flowers grow directly from the rocks and trees in this area. They include some very rare orchids like the blue Vanda. Another kind of orchid has an unusual color of red. The color is so light that it appears almost white. Adults praise the beauty of the flowers. Children, however, show more interest in the tropical pitcher plants in the Orchid House. These plants know when an insect is nearby. They trap the insects. Then, “The plants eat them all up ,” as one young visitor said. VOICE TWO: Some very useful plants are in the Medicinal Plant House of the United States Botanic Garden. For example, a sausage tree from Africa grows here. Earlier relatives of this plant provided the first material for a drug effective in treating breast cancer. And the black bean plant contains a substance that helps treat AIDS. Plants called saw palmettos also grow in the Medicinal Plant House. They contain a substance that treats prostate cancer. Some people use oil from ginger plants like those that grow here. This oil is said to help cure stomach and tooth pain. VOICE ONE: Stepping into the Palm House is like suddenly finding yourself in South America or southern Asia. This room holds a jungle – a thick forest. Designers have created it to look like a farm in a hot country, that is no longer used. A fallen tree forms a bridge through plants and palm trees. Nature is reclaiming the cleared farmland. Light from outside shines on this thickly green world through the top of the Botanic Garden building. This glass covered area in the Palm Court is twenty-eight meters high. You can climb steps to see the palm trees and other growth from above. From the heights, you can see silver rings that circle the bottoms of the royal palms. Brown fur covers part of trees called Teddy Bear palms. As you might expect, the bottle palms look like huge bottles used to hold liquids. VOICE TWO: The World Desert House has cactus plants that are old, unusual or rare. The blue cycad cacti have sharp needles extending from them. These cycads are related to a plant Admiral Wilkes brought to Washington more than one-hundred-fifty years ago. Some visitors express surprise about other plants here. They did not expect to see grasses, trees and flowering plants growing in this dry desert area of the Botanic Garden. The nearby Garden Primeval contains plants that existed on earth more than a million years ago. One young visitor said it looked like dinosaurs should be walking among the fern plants. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The tradition leading to the present United State Botanic Garden began in Eighteen-Sixteen. At that time a cultural organization in Washington, D.C., proposed creating a special garden. This garden was to have plants from the United States and other nations. Four years later, Congress established the garden of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. The plants were shown in an area west of the Capitol building until Eighteen-Thirty-Seven. The Columbian Institute stopped meeting that year. People in Washington, however, did not want to be without a garden. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Forty-Two, Admiral Wilkes’ group of explorers returned from the South Seas. The plants they had collected found a home in a specially built glass covered house. In late Eighteen-Fifty, workers moved the plants into a new structure on the place where the first garden had been. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, the garden was re-established in its present main home. The building occupies a large piece of land at the foot of the Capitol building. VOICE ONE: The United States Botanic Garden will continue to grow. A private organization called the National Fund for the United States Botanic Garden is raising money for a National Garden. It will be planted outside, to the west of the Botanic Garden building. The new open-air garden will show unusual and useful plants that grow well in the area around Washington, on the east coast of the United States. An Environmental Learning Center will teach environmental sciences and the art of growing plant life. VOICE TWO: Many special areas are planned for the new National Garden. A showcase garden will hold many kinds of trees, grasses, flowers and other plant life seen in America. The rose garden will contain more than two-hundred kinds of historical and modern roses. A butterfly garden will have plants that colorful butterfly insects like to visit. A children’s garden will contain play areas. VOICE ONE: Visitors praise the beauty of the rebuilt plant center. Chief director Shimizu, however, says the garden has other important purposes, too. One is the possibility for creating plant collections that are more scientific. Mizz Shimizu also says the Botanic Garden provides a natural atmosphere where people can think, or just rest. She says looking at plant life helps heal the human spirit. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. The audio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the United States Botanic Garden. This museum of living plants re-opened in Washington last week. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: The trees on the Washington, D.C., streets have lost their leaves. The wind feels cold. Inside the United States Botanic Garden, however, the world is warm and colorful. This glass house near the United States Capitol shows rare and beautiful plants from all over the world. It re-opened December Eleventh after more than thirty-three million dollars worth of improvements. The work took four years. The thin green leaves of fern plants seem to reach out to welcome visitors as they enter the building. Red poinsettia plants are everywhere to mark the season around the Christmas and New Year holidays. About four-thousand plants are growing in the Botanic Garden. Experts have placed the plants in different areas designed to meet their special requirements. Each area has different environmental needs for the plants growing in it. Light from the glass covering high above fills all the areas. Modern equipment controls the temperature, water and other needs of each plant group. The equipment is all new. Seventy percent of the plants are new. VOICE TWO: Federal and city officials say they are pleased that the United States Botanic Garden has opened again. They believe the new building will help bring more visitors to America’s capital city. The officials are probably correct. Thousands of people already have visited the re-designed Botanic Gardens. Comments of “ooh” and “ah” and “beautiful!” continually are heard throughout the building. VOICE ONE: Visitors enter the plant-house through the Garden Court. They walk on a stonework floor past two narrow pools that shoot water into the air. Tall plants, trees and street lights line the area. They seem to watch over the visitors in the Garden Court. Many people stop to examine and take pictures of the chocolate tree growing in the Garden Court. Its small white flowers grow into large pods – seed containers. Candy factories and other manufacturers of sweet foods and cooking supplies use these plants to make chocolate. Botanic Garden workers have filled this area with many other plants. They include plants that provide olives, figs, almonds, plums, tea, coffee and rice. Like the chocolate tree, they are used to produce food and drink. Experts call them “economic” plants. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Visitors can see rare and threatened plants in the Endangered Plant area. Botanic Garden chief director Holly Shimizu says some of these plants are so rare they have no names. She explains how some of the plants got here. Officials at border areas have taken them away from people entering the United States. The people were trying to bring the rare plants into the country illegally. The nearby Plant Exploration House shows modern relatives of plants collected long ago by Admiral Charles Wilkes. The famous explorer traveled around the world between Eighteen-Thirty-Eight and Eighteen-Forty-Two. Among the collection are birds of paradise plants. They have yellow and blue flowers. These are not common flowers, however. Instead, they look very much like birds. One visitor said she expected the flowers to sing. VOICE ONE: Waterfalls make a calming sound in the Orchid House at the Botanic Garden. Colorful orchid flowers grow directly from the rocks and trees in this area. They include some very rare orchids like the blue Vanda. Another kind of orchid has an unusual color of red. The color is so light that it appears almost white. Adults praise the beauty of the flowers. Children, however, show more interest in the tropical pitcher plants in the Orchid House. These plants know when an insect is nearby. They trap the insects. Then, “The plants eat them all up ,” as one young visitor said. VOICE TWO: Some very useful plants are in the Medicinal Plant House of the United States Botanic Garden. For example, a sausage tree from Africa grows here. Earlier relatives of this plant provided the first material for a drug effective in treating breast cancer. And the black bean plant contains a substance that helps treat AIDS. Plants called saw palmettos also grow in the Medicinal Plant House. They contain a substance that treats prostate cancer. Some people use oil from ginger plants like those that grow here. This oil is said to help cure stomach and tooth pain. VOICE ONE: Stepping into the Palm House is like suddenly finding yourself in South America or southern Asia. This room holds a jungle – a thick forest. Designers have created it to look like a farm in a hot country, that is no longer used. A fallen tree forms a bridge through plants and palm trees. Nature is reclaiming the cleared farmland. Light from outside shines on this thickly green world through the top of the Botanic Garden building. This glass covered area in the Palm Court is twenty-eight meters high. You can climb steps to see the palm trees and other growth from above. From the heights, you can see silver rings that circle the bottoms of the royal palms. Brown fur covers part of trees called Teddy Bear palms. As you might expect, the bottle palms look like huge bottles used to hold liquids. VOICE TWO: The World Desert House has cactus plants that are old, unusual or rare. The blue cycad cacti have sharp needles extending from them. These cycads are related to a plant Admiral Wilkes brought to Washington more than one-hundred-fifty years ago. Some visitors express surprise about other plants here. They did not expect to see grasses, trees and flowering plants growing in this dry desert area of the Botanic Garden. The nearby Garden Primeval contains plants that existed on earth more than a million years ago. One young visitor said it looked like dinosaurs should be walking among the fern plants. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: The tradition leading to the present United State Botanic Garden began in Eighteen-Sixteen. At that time a cultural organization in Washington, D.C., proposed creating a special garden. This garden was to have plants from the United States and other nations. Four years later, Congress established the garden of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. The plants were shown in an area west of the Capitol building until Eighteen-Thirty-Seven. The Columbian Institute stopped meeting that year. People in Washington, however, did not want to be without a garden. VOICE TWO: In Eighteen-Forty-Two, Admiral Wilkes’ group of explorers returned from the South Seas. The plants they had collected found a home in a specially built glass covered house. In late Eighteen-Fifty, workers moved the plants into a new structure on the place where the first garden had been. In Nineteen-Thirty-Three, the garden was re-established in its present main home. The building occupies a large piece of land at the foot of the Capitol building. VOICE ONE: The United States Botanic Garden will continue to grow. A private organization called the National Fund for the United States Botanic Garden is raising money for a National Garden. It will be planted outside, to the west of the Botanic Garden building. The new open-air garden will show unusual and useful plants that grow well in the area around Washington, on the east coast of the United States. An Environmental Learning Center will teach environmental sciences and the art of growing plant life. VOICE TWO: Many special areas are planned for the new National Garden. A showcase garden will hold many kinds of trees, grasses, flowers and other plant life seen in America. The rose garden will contain more than two-hundred kinds of historical and modern roses. A butterfly garden will have plants that colorful butterfly insects like to visit. A children’s garden will contain play areas. VOICE ONE: Visitors praise the beauty of the rebuilt plant center. Chief director Shimizu, however, says the garden has other important purposes, too. One is the possibility for creating plant collections that are more scientific. Mizz Shimizu also says the Botanic Garden provides a natural atmosphere where people can think, or just rest. She says looking at plant life helps heal the human spirit. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. The audio engineer was Mick Shaw. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-19-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - December 20, 2001: 1920s/Black History
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) The early years of the twentieth century were a time of movement for many black Americans. Traditionally, most blacks lived in the Southeastern states. But in the nineteen-twenties, many blacks moved to cities in the North. Black Americans moved because living conditions were so poor in the rural areas of the Southeast. But many of them discovered that life was also hard in the colder Northern cities. Jobs often were hard to find. Housing was poor. And whites sometimes acted brutally against them. The life of black Americans forms a special piece of the history of the nineteen-twenties. That will be our story today. (Theme) The early years of the twentieth century were a time of movement for many black Americans. Traditionally, most blacks lived in the Southeastern states. But in the nineteen-twenties, many blacks moved to cities in the North. Black Americans moved because living conditions were so poor in the rural areas of the Southeast. But many of them discovered that life was also hard in the colder Northern cities. Jobs often were hard to find. Housing was poor. And whites sometimes acted brutally against them. The life of black Americans forms a special piece of the history of the nineteen-twenties. That will be our story today. VOICE 2: The years just before and after nineteen-twenty were difficult for blacks. It was a time of racial hatred. Many whites joined the Ku Klux Klan organization. The Klan often terrorized blacks. Klan members sometimes burned fiery crosses in front of the houses of black families. And they sometimes beat and murdered blacks. The Ku Klux Klan also acted against Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. But it hated blacks most of all. VOICE 1: The United States also suffered a series of race riots in a number of cities during this period. White and black Americans fought each other in Omaha, Philadelphia, and other cities. The worst riot was in Chicago. A swimming incident started the violence. A black boy sailing a small boat entered a part of the beach used by white swimmers. Some white persons threw stones at the boy. He fell into the water and drowned. Black citizens heard about the incident and became extremely angry. Soon, black and white mobs were fighting each other in the streets. The violence lasted for two weeks. Thirty-eight persons died. More than five-hundred were wounded. The homes of hundreds of families were burned. The violence in Chicago and other cities did not stop black Americans from moving north or west. They felt that life had to be better than in the South. VOICE 2: Black Americans left the South because life was hard, economic chances few, and white hatred common. But many blacks arrived in other parts of the country only to learn that life was no easier. Some blacks wrote later that they had only traded the open racism of the rural Southeast for the more secret racism of Northern cities. Blacks responded to these conditions in different ways. Some blacks followed the ideas of Booker T. Washington, the popular black leader of the early nineteen-hundreds. Washington believed that blacks had to educate and prepare themselves to survive in American society. He helped form a number of training schools where blacks could learn skills for better jobs. And he urged blacks to establish businesses and improve themselves without causing trouble with whites. Other blacks liked the stronger ideas of William Du Bois. Du Bois felt that blacks had to take firm actions to protest murders and other illegal actions. He published a magazine and spoke actively for new laws and policies to protect black rights. Du bois also helped form a group that later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The N-A-A-C-P became one of the nation's leading black rights organizations in the twentieth century. VOICE 1: Probably the most important leader for black Americans in the nineteen-twenties did not come from the United States. He was Marcus Garvey from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Garvey moved to New York City in nineteen-sixteen. He quickly began organizing groups in black areas. His message was simple. He said blacks should not trust whites. Instead, they should be proud of being black and should help each other. Garvey urged blacks to leave the United States, move to Africa, and start their own nation. Marcus Garvey organized several plans to help blacks become economically independent of whites. His biggest effort was a shipping company to trade goods among black people all over the world. Many American blacks gave small amounts of money each week to help Garvey start the shipping company. However, the idea failed. Government officials arrested Garvey for collecting the money unlawfully. They sent him to prison in nineteen-twenty-five. And two years later, President Coolidge ordered Garvey out of the country. Marcus Garvey's group was the first major black organization in the United States to gain active support from a large number of people. The organization failed. But it did show the anger and lack of hope that many blacks felt about their place in American society. VOICE 2: Blacks also showed their feelings through writing, art, and music. The nineteen-twenties were one of the most imaginative periods in the history of American black art. Claude Mckay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen were three of the leading black poets during this time. Mckay was best known for his poems of social protest. Hughes produced poems about black life that experts now say are among the greatest American poems ever written. Black writers also produced longer works. Among the leading black novelists were Jessie Faucet, Jean Toomer, and Rudolph Fisher. VOICE 1: The nineteen-twenties also were an exciting time for black music. Black musicians playing the piano developed the ragtime style of music. Singers and musicians produced a sad, emotional style of playing that became known as the "blues. " And most important, music lovers began to play and enjoy a new style that was becoming known as "jazz. " Jazz advanced greatly as a true American kind of music in the nineteen-twenties. Musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke ellington, and eubie blake played in gathering places and small theaters. White musicians and music experts from universities came to listen. Soon the music became popular among Americans of all kinds and around the world. VOICE 2: Blacks began to recognize in the nineteen-twenties their own deep roots in the United States. They began to see just how much black men and women already had done to help form American history and traditions. The person who did the most to help blacks understand this was black historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson received his training at two leading universities: Harvard in Massachusetts and the Sorbonne in France. He launched a new publication, "The Journal of Negro History", in which he and other experts wrote about black life and history. Historians today call Woodson the father of the scientific study of black history. VOICE 1: The nineteen-twenties also were a period in which a number of blacks experimented with new political ideas and parties. The difficult social conditions of the period led many blacks to search for new political solutions. Two leftist parties -- the Socialists and the Communists -- urged blacks to leave the traditional political system and work for more extreme change. Two leading black Socialists, Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph, urged blacks to support Socialist candidates. However, they gained little popular support from blacks. Communists also tried to organize black workers. But generally, black voters showed little interest in communist ideas. The most important change in black political thinking during the nineteen-twenties came within the traditional two-party system itself. Blacks usually had voted for Republicans since the days of Abraham Lincoln. But the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen-twenties caused many blacks to become Democrats. By nineteen-thirty-two, blacks would vote by a large majority for the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And blacks continue to be a major force in the Democratic Party. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your speakers have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. VOICE 2: The years just before and after nineteen-twenty were difficult for blacks. It was a time of racial hatred. Many whites joined the Ku Klux Klan organization. The Klan often terrorized blacks. Klan members sometimes burned fiery crosses in front of the houses of black families. And they sometimes beat and murdered blacks. The Ku Klux Klan also acted against Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. But it hated blacks most of all. VOICE 1: The United States also suffered a series of race riots in a number of cities during this period. White and black Americans fought each other in Omaha, Philadelphia, and other cities. The worst riot was in Chicago. A swimming incident started the violence. A black boy sailing a small boat entered a part of the beach used by white swimmers. Some white persons threw stones at the boy. He fell into the water and drowned. Black citizens heard about the incident and became extremely angry. Soon, black and white mobs were fighting each other in the streets. The violence lasted for two weeks. Thirty-eight persons died. More than five-hundred were wounded. The homes of hundreds of families were burned. The violence in Chicago and other cities did not stop black Americans from moving north or west. They felt that life had to be better than in the South. VOICE 2: Black Americans left the South because life was hard, economic chances few, and white hatred common. But many blacks arrived in other parts of the country only to learn that life was no easier. Some blacks wrote later that they had only traded the open racism of the rural Southeast for the more secret racism of Northern cities. Blacks responded to these conditions in different ways. Some blacks followed the ideas of Booker T. Washington, the popular black leader of the early nineteen-hundreds. Washington believed that blacks had to educate and prepare themselves to survive in American society. He helped form a number of training schools where blacks could learn skills for better jobs. And he urged blacks to establish businesses and improve themselves without causing trouble with whites. Other blacks liked the stronger ideas of William Du Bois. Du Bois felt that blacks had to take firm actions to protest murders and other illegal actions. He published a magazine and spoke actively for new laws and policies to protect black rights. Du bois also helped form a group that later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The N-A-A-C-P became one of the nation's leading black rights organizations in the twentieth century. VOICE 1: Probably the most important leader for black Americans in the nineteen-twenties did not come from the United States. He was Marcus Garvey from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Garvey moved to New York City in nineteen-sixteen. He quickly began organizing groups in black areas. His message was simple. He said blacks should not trust whites. Instead, they should be proud of being black and should help each other. Garvey urged blacks to leave the United States, move to Africa, and start their own nation. Marcus Garvey organized several plans to help blacks become economically independent of whites. His biggest effort was a shipping company to trade goods among black people all over the world. Many American blacks gave small amounts of money each week to help Garvey start the shipping company. However, the idea failed. Government officials arrested Garvey for collecting the money unlawfully. They sent him to prison in nineteen-twenty-five. And two years later, President Coolidge ordered Garvey out of the country. Marcus Garvey's group was the first major black organization in the United States to gain active support from a large number of people. The organization failed. But it did show the anger and lack of hope that many blacks felt about their place in American society. VOICE 2: Blacks also showed their feelings through writing, art, and music. The nineteen-twenties were one of the most imaginative periods in the history of American black art. Claude Mckay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen were three of the leading black poets during this time. Mckay was best known for his poems of social protest. Hughes produced poems about black life that experts now say are among the greatest American poems ever written. Black writers also produced longer works. Among the leading black novelists were Jessie Faucet, Jean Toomer, and Rudolph Fisher. VOICE 1: The nineteen-twenties also were an exciting time for black music. Black musicians playing the piano developed the ragtime style of music. Singers and musicians produced a sad, emotional style of playing that became known as the "blues. " And most important, music lovers began to play and enjoy a new style that was becoming known as "jazz. " Jazz advanced greatly as a true American kind of music in the nineteen-twenties. Musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke ellington, and eubie blake played in gathering places and small theaters. White musicians and music experts from universities came to listen. Soon the music became popular among Americans of all kinds and around the world. VOICE 2: Blacks began to recognize in the nineteen-twenties their own deep roots in the United States. They began to see just how much black men and women already had done to help form American history and traditions. The person who did the most to help blacks understand this was black historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson received his training at two leading universities: Harvard in Massachusetts and the Sorbonne in France. He launched a new publication, "The Journal of Negro History", in which he and other experts wrote about black life and history. Historians today call Woodson the father of the scientific study of black history. VOICE 1: The nineteen-twenties also were a period in which a number of blacks experimented with new political ideas and parties. The difficult social conditions of the period led many blacks to search for new political solutions. Two leftist parties -- the Socialists and the Communists -- urged blacks to leave the traditional political system and work for more extreme change. Two leading black Socialists, Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph, urged blacks to support Socialist candidates. However, they gained little popular support from blacks. Communists also tried to organize black workers. But generally, black voters showed little interest in communist ideas. The most important change in black political thinking during the nineteen-twenties came within the traditional two-party system itself. Blacks usually had voted for Republicans since the days of Abraham Lincoln. But the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen-twenties caused many blacks to become Democrats. By nineteen-thirty-two, blacks would vote by a large majority for the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And blacks continue to be a major force in the Democratic Party. (Theme) VOICE 2: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Your speakers have been Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. The Voice of America invites you to listen again next week to THE MAKING OF A NATION. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-19-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - December 20, 2001: Human Transporter
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. An American inventor, Dean Kamen, says he has invented the world’s first self-balancing individual transport vehicle. It is called the Segway Human Transporter. Dean Kamen This is the VOA Special English Science Report. An American inventor, Dean Kamen, says he has invented the world’s first self-balancing individual transport vehicle. It is called the Segway Human Transporter. The Segway looks like a long stick with two wheels. The stick has handles for a person to hold. The wheels are connected by a platform. The person stands on the platform and holds the handles. The vehicle moves forward or backward when the person moves his body in that direction. The driver turns the handles to go left or right. The Segway has computers and gyroscope devices to make it move and balance. It is powered by batteries that can be re-charged in a few hours by using an electric outlet. It can travel at a speed of nineteen kilometers per hour. It costs less than ten cents a day to operate. It does not produce pollution. Mister Kamen says the Segway could replace cars in crowded city centers. He says it was designed to reduce pollution and solve other environmental problems in cities. However, it was not designed to travel on roads. Mister Kamen is a successful inventor and president of the DEKA (pronounced decca) Research and Development Company near Manchester, New Hampshire. He has invented about one-hundred other devices. Some are important medical devices. These include an insulin pump for people with diabetes, a device to open blocked blood vessels in the heart and a wheelchair that can move up steps. The Segway will be for sale to the public next year. It will cost about three-thousand dollars. Several businesses are testing the vehicle now. These include the United States Postal Service and the bookseller Amazon dot com. Some letter carriers will try riding the vehicles to deliver the mail. Amazon workers will use them to find books in their huge storage buildings. Police in two cities also will test the vehicles to see it they can be used for law enforcement. Some technology experts have criticized the Segway vehicle. They say it could be dangerous to ride. It does not protect the rider from bad weather. They say it holds only one person while other small vehicles can hold three people. They also say people may use the vehicle to avoid walking and getting exercise. However, other experts say the vehicle is interesting and could be used in many ways in the future. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. The Segway looks like a long stick with two wheels. The stick has handles for a person to hold. The wheels are connected by a platform. The person stands on the platform and holds the handles. The vehicle moves forward or backward when the person moves his body in that direction. The driver turns the handles to go left or right. The Segway has computers and gyroscope devices to make it move and balance. It is powered by batteries that can be re-charged in a few hours by using an electric outlet. It can travel at a speed of nineteen kilometers per hour. It costs less than ten cents a day to operate. It does not produce pollution. Mister Kamen says the Segway could replace cars in crowded city centers. He says it was designed to reduce pollution and solve other environmental problems in cities. However, it was not designed to travel on roads. Mister Kamen is a successful inventor and president of the DEKA (pronounced decca) Research and Development Company near Manchester, New Hampshire. He has invented about one-hundred other devices. Some are important medical devices. These include an insulin pump for people with diabetes, a device to open blocked blood vessels in the heart and a wheelchair that can move up steps. The Segway will be for sale to the public next year. It will cost about three-thousand dollars. Several businesses are testing the vehicle now. These include the United States Postal Service and the bookseller Amazon dot com. Some letter carriers will try riding the vehicles to deliver the mail. Amazon workers will use them to find books in their huge storage buildings. Police in two cities also will test the vehicles to see it they can be used for law enforcement. Some technology experts have criticized the Segway vehicle. They say it could be dangerous to ride. It does not protect the rider from bad weather. They say it holds only one person while other small vehicles can hold three people. They also say people may use the vehicle to avoid walking and getting exercise. However, other experts say the vehicle is interesting and could be used in many ways in the future. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-20-1-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT - December 21, 2001: UN Fishing Treaty
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. An international treaty to deal with overfishing in the world’s oceans went into effect last week. The treaty establishes new rules for managing the world’s supply of fish. It is expected to reduce conflicts about overfishing in the world’s oceans. The idea for the treaty came about during the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. During that meeting, delegates expressed concerns that nations were disobeying international fishing rules. After the Rio meeting, the U-N General Assembly organized a conference to negotiate an international agreement on fishing rules. Delegates at the conference officially accepted the agreement in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. Negotiators have been working for several years to put the treaty into effect. Malta became the thirtieth country to approve the agreement last month. Its approval brought the treaty into effect December Eleventh. Experts say the problem of overfishing has become severe in the past fifteen years. The United Nations Agriculture Organization estimates that overfishing threatens more than two-thirds of the world’s fish populations. Some groups blame illegal fishing and weak law enforcement. Improved fishing technology also is having a harmful effect. International agreements governing the management of the world’s fish supply often have been ineffective in protecting fish populations.Under the new treaty, a nation’s enforcement officials will be permitted to inspect fishing boats from another nation. This is the first time this has been permitted under international law. The treaty also permits countries to take action against those countries that violate agreements on overfishing. The thirty nations that signed the treaty will jointly collect and exchange information about fish populations. Countries also must cooperate with local fisheries management groups. And they must settle disputes peacefully. Environmental groups say the agreement could help restore fish populations if it is quickly put into effect. However, many of the nations whose economies depend on ocean fishing have not yet accepted the treaty. Some countries that have approved the treaty include the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. An international treaty to deal with overfishing in the world’s oceans went into effect last week. The treaty establishes new rules for managing the world’s supply of fish. It is expected to reduce conflicts about overfishing in the world’s oceans. The idea for the treaty came about during the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in Nineteen-Ninety-Two. During that meeting, delegates expressed concerns that nations were disobeying international fishing rules. After the Rio meeting, the U-N General Assembly organized a conference to negotiate an international agreement on fishing rules. Delegates at the conference officially accepted the agreement in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. Negotiators have been working for several years to put the treaty into effect. Malta became the thirtieth country to approve the agreement last month. Its approval brought the treaty into effect December Eleventh. Experts say the problem of overfishing has become severe in the past fifteen years. The United Nations Agriculture Organization estimates that overfishing threatens more than two-thirds of the world’s fish populations. Some groups blame illegal fishing and weak law enforcement. Improved fishing technology also is having a harmful effect. International agreements governing the management of the world’s fish supply often have been ineffective in protecting fish populations.Under the new treaty, a nation’s enforcement officials will be permitted to inspect fishing boats from another nation. This is the first time this has been permitted under international law. The treaty also permits countries to take action against those countries that violate agreements on overfishing. The thirty nations that signed the treaty will jointly collect and exchange information about fish populations. Countries also must cooperate with local fisheries management groups. And they must settle disputes peacefully. Environmental groups say the agreement could help restore fish populations if it is quickly put into effect. However, many of the nations whose economies depend on ocean fishing have not yet accepted the treaty. Some countries that have approved the treaty include the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by Cynthia Kirk. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-20-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - December 21, 2001: Christmas music/question about Santa Claus/gifts for young people
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas program today, we: Play some Christmas music ... Answer a question about Santa Claus ... And report about what many American young people want to receive as gifts this holiday season. Holiday Gifts HOST: Tuesday, December twenty-fifth, is Christmas Day. Millions of American families will celebrate the holiday. One important part of the celebration is giving and receiving gifts. Jim Tedder tells us about some of the most popular gifts for young people this year. ANNCR: Many American young people want to receive electronic gifts. At the top of the list is the mobile telephone or cell phone. A new study by Teenage Research Unlimited says thirty-one percent of Americans between the ages of twelve and nineteen already use a cell phone. Teenagers like mobile phones because they can talk to their friends anytime they want. Parents like cell phones too. They like being able to talk to their children and to know where they are and what they are doing at all times. Young people also like to send and receive immediate computer e-mail messages with their friends. This is called instant messaging. Now it is possible to send instant messages using mobile phones. It is also possible to send instant messages on new devices called text phones. The Motorola company says it has already sold more than one-million text phones.Another welcome gift for Christmas this year is called a pocket personal computer. Young people can use these small computers to send and receive electronic mail, search the World Wide Web or watch a video. Students can even use this fun machine to do their homework. One of the most popular electronic devices for young people is the video game player system. Two new video game systems are being sold this year. The Microsoft company recently released its new video game system called Xbox. The Nintendo company’s new electronic game player is called GameCube. Reports say each company expects to sell more than one-million by the end of the holiday season. And every young person who has a video game player needs games for it. One popular game this year is a hockey game called N-H-L Hitz Two-Thousand-Two. Critics say this hockey game is fast and exciting. Another exciting video game is a racing car game called Burnout. Some experts say video game sales this year will set new records. Santa Claus, Christmas Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Nima Foroud asks about Santa Claus and Christmas Day. To understand Santa Claus, we must go back sixteen-hundred years, to the fourth century. A Roman Catholic Church official of that time, Nicholas of Myra, became famous for his many good works. After he died, the Church declared him a saint. He became a special saint for children. On the anniversary of his death each year, good children received gifts. In the Netherlands, people told children the gifts came from Saint Herr Nicholas. In the Dutch language, his name was “Sinter Klaas.” The Dutch brought this tradition to America. Americans called the gift giver “Santa Claus”. And they included him in their Christmas celebration. History experts say the first description of Santa Claus in the United States appeared in the poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas.” It was published in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. In the Eighteen-Sixties, artist Thomas Nast drew a picture of Santa Claus for a newspaper. He drew a fat, smiling, old man with a long, white beard. Santa Claus was dressed in a red suit with white fur. Tradition says that on the night before Christmas, Santa Claus travels from the North Pole through the air in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. He stops at each house to leave gifts for children. Gene Autry sings about him in this song. ((CUT 1:HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS)) Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. On Christmas Day, many Americans go to church or visit friends or family members. They eat a special meal. Or they help celebrate the holiday by serving meals to homeless people. But wherever Americans go on Christmas Day, they always wish each other “Merry Christmas”. Christmas Music HOST: Music is a big part of Christmas celebrations in the United States. Americans enjoy all kinds of Christmas songs. Here is Shirley Griffith to tell us about a few of them. ANNCR: Christmas celebrates the birth of the child called Jesus. Christians believe Jesus was the son of God sent to earth to save the world. Many Americans go to church on Christmas. They pray and sing songs in praise of Jesus Christ. One religious Christmas song is “O Holy Night.” Leontyne Price sings it here. ((CUT 1: O HOLY NIGHT)) This Christmas will not be the happiest holiday for many Americans. Thousands of people lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks in September. Here is a rather sad Christmas song about celebrating the holiday during a troubled time. Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. ((CUT 2: HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS)) We leave you now with a song expressing the wish for a happy holiday season. It is sung by the Manhattan Transfer. ((CUT 3: HAPPY HOLIDAY/THE HOLIDAY SEASON)) HOST: I hope you enjoyed our special Christmas program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson wishing you a very happy holiday from all of us in Special English. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Doug Johnson. On our special Christmas program today, we: Play some Christmas music ... Answer a question about Santa Claus ... And report about what many American young people want to receive as gifts this holiday season. Holiday Gifts HOST: Tuesday, December twenty-fifth, is Christmas Day. Millions of American families will celebrate the holiday. One important part of the celebration is giving and receiving gifts. Jim Tedder tells us about some of the most popular gifts for young people this year. ANNCR: Many American young people want to receive electronic gifts. At the top of the list is the mobile telephone or cell phone. A new study by Teenage Research Unlimited says thirty-one percent of Americans between the ages of twelve and nineteen already use a cell phone. Teenagers like mobile phones because they can talk to their friends anytime they want. Parents like cell phones too. They like being able to talk to their children and to know where they are and what they are doing at all times. Young people also like to send and receive immediate computer e-mail messages with their friends. This is called instant messaging. Now it is possible to send instant messages using mobile phones. It is also possible to send instant messages on new devices called text phones. The Motorola company says it has already sold more than one-million text phones.Another welcome gift for Christmas this year is called a pocket personal computer. Young people can use these small computers to send and receive electronic mail, search the World Wide Web or watch a video. Students can even use this fun machine to do their homework. One of the most popular electronic devices for young people is the video game player system. Two new video game systems are being sold this year. The Microsoft company recently released its new video game system called Xbox. The Nintendo company’s new electronic game player is called GameCube. Reports say each company expects to sell more than one-million by the end of the holiday season. And every young person who has a video game player needs games for it. One popular game this year is a hockey game called N-H-L Hitz Two-Thousand-Two. Critics say this hockey game is fast and exciting. Another exciting video game is a racing car game called Burnout. Some experts say video game sales this year will set new records. Santa Claus, Christmas Day HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Nima Foroud asks about Santa Claus and Christmas Day. To understand Santa Claus, we must go back sixteen-hundred years, to the fourth century. A Roman Catholic Church official of that time, Nicholas of Myra, became famous for his many good works. After he died, the Church declared him a saint. He became a special saint for children. On the anniversary of his death each year, good children received gifts. In the Netherlands, people told children the gifts came from Saint Herr Nicholas. In the Dutch language, his name was “Sinter Klaas.” The Dutch brought this tradition to America. Americans called the gift giver “Santa Claus”. And they included him in their Christmas celebration. History experts say the first description of Santa Claus in the United States appeared in the poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas.” It was published in Eighteen-Twenty-Three. In the Eighteen-Sixties, artist Thomas Nast drew a picture of Santa Claus for a newspaper. He drew a fat, smiling, old man with a long, white beard. Santa Claus was dressed in a red suit with white fur. Tradition says that on the night before Christmas, Santa Claus travels from the North Pole through the air in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. He stops at each house to leave gifts for children. Gene Autry sings about him in this song. ((CUT 1:HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS)) Some Americans open their gifts the night before Christmas. Others wait until Christmas morning. On Christmas Day, many Americans go to church or visit friends or family members. They eat a special meal. Or they help celebrate the holiday by serving meals to homeless people. But wherever Americans go on Christmas Day, they always wish each other “Merry Christmas”. Christmas Music HOST: Music is a big part of Christmas celebrations in the United States. Americans enjoy all kinds of Christmas songs. Here is Shirley Griffith to tell us about a few of them. ANNCR: Christmas celebrates the birth of the child called Jesus. Christians believe Jesus was the son of God sent to earth to save the world. Many Americans go to church on Christmas. They pray and sing songs in praise of Jesus Christ. One religious Christmas song is “O Holy Night.” Leontyne Price sings it here. ((CUT 1: O HOLY NIGHT)) This Christmas will not be the happiest holiday for many Americans. Thousands of people lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks in September. Here is a rather sad Christmas song about celebrating the holiday during a troubled time. Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. ((CUT 2: HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS)) We leave you now with a song expressing the wish for a happy holiday season. It is sung by the Manhattan Transfer. ((CUT 3: HAPPY HOLIDAY/THE HOLIDAY SEASON)) HOST: I hope you enjoyed our special Christmas program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson wishing you a very happy holiday from all of us in Special English. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-21-1-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - December 24, 2001: Christmas Traditions and Music
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Millions of Americans will celebrate Christmas on December twenty-fifth. It is the most widely celebrated religious holiday in the United States. For the past few weeks, Americans have been preparing for Christmas. I'm Bob Doughty. Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell us about American Christmas traditions and music on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((MUSIC BRIDGE: “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," The Canadian Brass)) VOICE ONE: People have been buying gifts to give to family members and friends. They have been filling homes and stores with evergreen trees and bright, colored lights. They have been going to parties and preparing special Christmas foods. Many people think Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Johnny Mathis thinks so, too. ((TAPE CUT 1: IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR)) VOICE TWO: Many Christians will go to church the night before the holiday or on Christmas Day. They will celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Christian ministers will speak about the need for peace and understanding in the world. This is the spiritual message of Christmas. Church services will include traditional religious songs for the holiday. One of the most popular is this one, "Silent Night." Here it is sung by Joan Baez. ((TAPE CUT 2: SILENT NIGHT)) VOICE ONE: Many other Americans will celebrate Christmas as an important, but non-religious, holiday. To all, however, it is a special day of family, food, and exchanging gifts. Christmas is probably the most special day of the year for children. One thing that makes it special is the popular tradition of Santa Claus. Young children believe that Santa Claus is a fat, kind, old man in a red suit with white fur. They believe that -- on the night before Christmas -- he travels through the air in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. He enters each house from the top by sliding down the hole in the fireplace. He leaves gifts for the children under the Christmas tree. Here, Bruce Springsteen sings about Santa Claus. ((TAPE CUT 3: SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN)) VOICE TWO: Americans spend a lot of time and money buying Christmas presents. The average American family spends about eight-hundred dollars. Stores and shopping centers are crowded at this time of year. More than twenty percent of all goods sold during the year are sold during the weeks before Christmas. This is good for stores and for the American economy. VOICE ONE: Some people object to all this spending. They say it is not the real meaning of Christmas. So, they celebrate in other ways. For example, they make Christmas presents, instead of buying them. Or they volunteer to help serve meals to people who have no homes. Or they give money to organizations that help poor people in the United States and around the world. VOICE TWO: Home and family are the center of the Christmas holiday. For many people, the most enjoyable tradition is buying a Christmas tree and decorating it with lights and beautiful objects. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, people gather around the tree to open their presents. Another important Christmas tradition involves food. Families prepare many kinds of holiday foods, especially sweets. They eat these foods on the night before Christmas and on Christmas day. For many people, Christmas means traveling long distances to be with their families. Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack sing about this holiday tradition. ((TAPE CUT 4: I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS)) VOICE ONE: Another Christmas tradition is to go "caroling." A group of people walks along the street. At each house, they stop and sing a Christmas song, called a carol. Student groups also sing carols at schools and shopping centers. Let us listen to the choir of Trinity Church in Boston sing "Carol of the Bells." ((TAPE CUT 5: CAROL OF THE BELLS)) VOICE TWO: Not everyone in the United States celebrates Christmas. Members of the Jewish and Muslim religions, for example, generally do not. Jewish people celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. And some black Americans observe another holiday, Kwanzaa. Yet many Americans do take part in some of the traditional performances of the season. One of the most popular is a story told in dance: "The Nutcracker" ballet. The music was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in Eighteen-Ninety One. VOICE ONE: The ballet is about a young girl named Clara. Clara is celebrating Christmas with her family and friends. One of her Christmas presents is a little device to open nuts -- a nutcracker. It is shaped like a toy soldier. She dreams that the nutcracker comes to life as a good-looking prince. Professional dance groups in many American cities perform the ballet at this time of year. They often use students from local ballet schools to dance the part of Clara and the other children in the story. This gives parents a chance to see their children perform. VOICE TWO: We leave you with "The Waltz of the Flowers" from "The Nutcracker." It is played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Eugene Ormandy. ((TAPE CUT 6: THE WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS)) VOICE ONE: Today's program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith. ((WALTZ OF THE FLOWERS INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME)) VOICE TWO: And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-21-2-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA – December 23, 2001: Roger Miller
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about music writer and performer Roger Miller. ((CUT ONE: “DANG ME”)) VOICE ONE: The name of that song is “Dang Me.” It was written and recorded by Roger Miller in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. It was not the first song he had written, but it was his first huge hit record. In fact, the recording of “Dang Me” helped Roger Miller win five of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Awards. One of those awards was the Grammy for best new country and western artist. Before “Dang Me” became a hit record, few people outside the music business knew the name Roger Miller. Yet he had been working his way to the top of the music business since he was a boy. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Roger Dean Miller was born January Second, Nineteen-Thirty-Six in the western city of Fort Worth, Texas. His father died when Roger was only one year old. His mother became sick soon after. Roger was sent to live with his uncle in Erick, Oklahoma. Roger Miller had a difficult childhood. Most of his days were spent working on his uncle’s farm, picking cotton. He was a lonely and unhappy child. Roger began writing songs because he loved the music he heard on the radio. He also learned to play the guitar and the violin, sometimes called a fiddle. Much later, he learned to play the drums. Music helped the young Roger escape the hard work on his uncle’s cotton farm. VOICE ONE: Roger left the farm when he was still very young. He traveled from town to town in the west. He worked at any job he could find during the day. At night, he went to music clubs and drinking places where country and western bands played. These places provided him with a music education. Roger Miller entered the United States Army at the age of seventeen. He was sent to an army base near Atlanta, Georgia. In Atlanta, he played with a music group called “The Circle “A” Wranglers.” When he left the Army, Roger moved to the home of country music in Nashville, Tennessee. At first, he worked in a hotel. Stories say he would sing there for anyone who would listen. He soon got several jobs playing his violin. And he began writing songs for other singers. VOICE TWO: Roger liked writing songs. He also wanted to perform his own songs on the stage. He recorded several records, but they were not popular and did not sell many copies. In Nineteen-Sixty, Roger recorded a song called “You Don’t Want My Love.” Today, the song is better known as “In the Summer Time.” It is the first song he wrote and sang that became popular. ((CUT TWO: “IN THE SUMMER TIME”)) “In the Summer Time” sold many copies. It showed record company officials that Roger Miller was a good performer. VOICE ONE: On January Tenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Four Roger Miller agreed to record sixteen songs. One of those songs was “Dang Me.” It became his first number one selling record. It was a hit with country music fans and with popular music fans too. It sold millions of copies. Another funny song recorded at the same time also became a major hit. It is called “Chug-a-lug”. ((CUT THREE: “CHUG-A-LUG”)) VOICE TWO: Roger Miller became extremely popular as the result of the success of “Dang Me” and “Chug-A-Lug”. He began appearing on television. His records sold by the millions. But it was another record that made him extremely famous. Roger often told the story about how he wrote his most famous song. He was driving late at night near the middle western city of Chicago. He saw a sign near the road. Written on the sign were the words, “Trailers for Sale or Rent.” The words stayed in his head and would not go away. Later, he used those words as the opening of his most famous song, “King of the Road.” Like many of his other songs it was popular with country fans and with popular music fans as well. The song is still popular almost forty years later. It is played often on radio stations throughout the United States. ((CUT FOUR: “KING OF THE ROAD”)) VOICE ONE: Rocco Landesman once taught at the School of Drama at Yale University. He really liked Roger Miller’s music. Mister Landesman wrote several letters asking if Roger could write the music for a play that would appear on Broadway in New York. The story would be taken from Mark Twain’s famous book, ”Huckleberry Finn.” Roger agreed to write the music for the show called “Big River.” It opened on Broadway in April of Nineteen-Eighty-Five. It was a big hit. “Big River” received seven Tony Awards. Roger Miller won two for the music he wrote. The most popular song from the show is called “River in the Rain.” The song is about the Mississippi River. Roger sings it here. ((CUT FIVE: “RIVER IN THE RAIN”)) VOICE TWO: Roger Miller died of lung cancer Nineteen-Ninety-Two. People who knew him say his songs expressed the way he felt about life ... full of pure excitement and joy. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. VOICE ONE: I’m Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about music writer and performer Roger Miller. ((CUT ONE: “DANG ME”)) VOICE ONE: The name of that song is “Dang Me.” It was written and recorded by Roger Miller in Nineteen-Sixty-Five. It was not the first song he had written, but it was his first huge hit record. In fact, the recording of “Dang Me” helped Roger Miller win five of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Awards. One of those awards was the Grammy for best new country and western artist. Before “Dang Me” became a hit record, few people outside the music business knew the name Roger Miller. Yet he had been working his way to the top of the music business since he was a boy. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Roger Dean Miller was born January Second, Nineteen-Thirty-Six in the western city of Fort Worth, Texas. His father died when Roger was only one year old. His mother became sick soon after. Roger was sent to live with his uncle in Erick, Oklahoma. Roger Miller had a difficult childhood. Most of his days were spent working on his uncle’s farm, picking cotton. He was a lonely and unhappy child. Roger began writing songs because he loved the music he heard on the radio. He also learned to play the guitar and the violin, sometimes called a fiddle. Much later, he learned to play the drums. Music helped the young Roger escape the hard work on his uncle’s cotton farm. VOICE ONE: Roger left the farm when he was still very young. He traveled from town to town in the west. He worked at any job he could find during the day. At night, he went to music clubs and drinking places where country and western bands played. These places provided him with a music education. Roger Miller entered the United States Army at the age of seventeen. He was sent to an army base near Atlanta, Georgia. In Atlanta, he played with a music group called “The Circle “A” Wranglers.” When he left the Army, Roger moved to the home of country music in Nashville, Tennessee. At first, he worked in a hotel. Stories say he would sing there for anyone who would listen. He soon got several jobs playing his violin. And he began writing songs for other singers. VOICE TWO: Roger liked writing songs. He also wanted to perform his own songs on the stage. He recorded several records, but they were not popular and did not sell many copies. In Nineteen-Sixty, Roger recorded a song called “You Don’t Want My Love.” Today, the song is better known as “In the Summer Time.” It is the first song he wrote and sang that became popular. ((CUT TWO: “IN THE SUMMER TIME”)) “In the Summer Time” sold many copies. It showed record company officials that Roger Miller was a good performer. VOICE ONE: On January Tenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Four Roger Miller agreed to record sixteen songs. One of those songs was “Dang Me.” It became his first number one selling record. It was a hit with country music fans and with popular music fans too. It sold millions of copies. Another funny song recorded at the same time also became a major hit. It is called “Chug-a-lug”. ((CUT THREE: “CHUG-A-LUG”)) VOICE TWO: Roger Miller became extremely popular as the result of the success of “Dang Me” and “Chug-A-Lug”. He began appearing on television. His records sold by the millions. But it was another record that made him extremely famous. Roger often told the story about how he wrote his most famous song. He was driving late at night near the middle western city of Chicago. He saw a sign near the road. Written on the sign were the words, “Trailers for Sale or Rent.” The words stayed in his head and would not go away. Later, he used those words as the opening of his most famous song, “King of the Road.” Like many of his other songs it was popular with country fans and with popular music fans as well. The song is still popular almost forty years later. It is played often on radio stations throughout the United States. ((CUT FOUR: “KING OF THE ROAD”)) VOICE ONE: Rocco Landesman once taught at the School of Drama at Yale University. He really liked Roger Miller’s music. Mister Landesman wrote several letters asking if Roger could write the music for a play that would appear on Broadway in New York. The story would be taken from Mark Twain’s famous book, ”Huckleberry Finn.” Roger agreed to write the music for the show called “Big River.” It opened on Broadway in April of Nineteen-Eighty-Five. It was a big hit. “Big River” received seven Tony Awards. Roger Miller won two for the music he wrote. The most popular song from the show is called “River in the Rain.” The song is about the Mississippi River. Roger sings it here. ((CUT FIVE: “RIVER IN THE RAIN”)) VOICE TWO: Roger Miller died of lung cancer Nineteen-Ninety-Two. People who knew him say his songs expressed the way he felt about life ... full of pure excitement and joy. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And this is Sarah Long. Listen again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-21-3-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 22, 2001: The Euro
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. On January first, many people in Europe will stop using the money they have known for a lifetime. More than three-hundred million Europeans will start using the new single European money, the euro. It will become the legal form of money in twelve European Union countries. This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. On January first, many people in Europe will stop using the money they have known for a lifetime. More than three-hundred million Europeans will start using the new single European money, the euro. It will become the legal form of money in twelve European Union countries. Fifteen nations belong to the E-U. Twelve countries will use new euro paper money and coins starting next month. They are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Three E-U members decided not to join the single money system at this time. They are Britain, Denmark and Sweden. E-U leaders agreed on the use of the single money in the Maastricht Treaty of Nineteen-Ninety-One. They created the euro so that business deals among their nations would be easier and less costly. The euro is not expected to change greatly in value. This will keep interest rates low. European leaders also believe the euro will unite Europe politically by forcing the nations to cooperate. For example, countries will have a reason to help another country if it becomes weak economically. If no help is offered, the value of their shared money could become weak. The European Central Bank was established in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. Two major goals of the Central Bank are to keep the euro strong and to control inflation. The Bank is responsible for supervising the development and public acceptance of the euro. Fifteen nations belong to the E-U. Twelve countries will use new euro paper money and coins starting next month. They are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Three E-U members decided not to join the single money system at this time. They are Britain, Denmark and Sweden. E-U leaders agreed on the use of the single money in the Maastricht Treaty of Nineteen-Ninety-One. They created the euro so that business deals among their nations would be easier and less costly. The euro is not expected to change greatly in value. This will keep interest rates low. European leaders also believe the euro will unite Europe politically by forcing the nations to cooperate. For example, countries will have a reason to help another country if it becomes weak economically. If no help is offered, the value of their shared money could become weak. The European Central Bank was established in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. Two major goals of the Central Bank are to keep the euro strong and to control inflation. The Bank is responsible for supervising the development and public acceptance of the euro. Three years ago, eleven E-U nations started using the euro for stock market trading, banking and business deals. However, most Europeans continued to use their national money. Since then, money production centers have been busy producing euro paper money and coins. There will be seven different euro banknotes and eight coins. Some post offices, banks, and stores are now offering euro coin collections to the public. These coin collections are designed to show Europeans what the new money will look like. Both the euro and old national money will be accepted in most countries for up to two months. European officials expect that most business activity will be completed in euros by the middle of January. The old money will stop being accepted at the end of February. Europeans have talked about political and economic unity for fifty years. Until now, most of the important developments have been technical. Some observers say the launch of the euro will make a real difference in the lives of Europeans. They say Europeans now will start to identify more with the E-U in ways they did not in the past. They say the euro will be a real, physical sign of European union. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. Three years ago, eleven E-U nations started using the euro for stock market trading, banking and business deals. However, most Europeans continued to use their national money. Since then, money production centers have been busy producing euro paper money and coins. There will be seven different euro banknotes and eight coins. Some post offices, banks, and stores are now offering euro coin collections to the public. These coin collections are designed to show Europeans what the new money will look like. Both the euro and old national money will be accepted in most countries for up to two months. European officials expect that most business activity will be completed in euros by the middle of January. The old money will stop being accepted at the end of February. Europeans have talked about political and economic unity for fifty years. Until now, most of the important developments have been technical. Some observers say the launch of the euro will make a real difference in the lives of Europeans. They say Europeans now will start to identify more with the E-U in ways they did not in the past. They say the euro will be a real, physical sign of European union. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by George Grow. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-21-4-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL PROGRAM - December 24, 2001:
* Byline: 

 Now, a Special English program for Christmas. Maurice Joyce tells about "White Christmas." VOICE: Christmas is almost here. Holiday music fills the air. Colorful lights shine brightly in windows. Stores are crowded with people buying last-minute gifts. All these are Christmas traditions. Another tradition is snow. Christmas in the northern part of the world comes a few days after the start of winter. So, in many places, a blanket of clean white snow covers the ground on Christmas Day. This is what is meant by a "White Christmas. " Of course, many places do not get snow in December. In fact, they may be very warm at that time of year. People who like snow -- but live where it is warm -- dream of having a white Christmas. American songwriter Irving Berlin captured these feelings in his song "White Christmas." "White Christmas" is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Hundreds of singers and musicians have recorded it. Perhaps the most famous version was sung by Bing Crosby. ((TAPE: "White Christmas")) Songwriter Irving Berlin was Jewish. He did not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. But in his Christmas song, he shares a message of peace and happiness which all people can enjoy. So, from all of us who work in Special English -- to all of you -- we wish the happiest and most joyful holiday. This is Maurice Joyce. Now, a Special English program for Christmas. Maurice Joyce tells about "White Christmas." VOICE: Christmas is almost here. Holiday music fills the air. Colorful lights shine brightly in windows. Stores are crowded with people buying last-minute gifts. All these are Christmas traditions. Another tradition is snow. Christmas in the northern part of the world comes a few days after the start of winter. So, in many places, a blanket of clean white snow covers the ground on Christmas Day. This is what is meant by a "White Christmas. " Of course, many places do not get snow in December. In fact, they may be very warm at that time of year. People who like snow -- but live where it is warm -- dream of having a white Christmas. American songwriter Irving Berlin captured these feelings in his song "White Christmas." "White Christmas" is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Hundreds of singers and musicians have recorded it. Perhaps the most famous version was sung by Bing Crosby. ((TAPE: "White Christmas")) Songwriter Irving Berlin was Jewish. He did not celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. But in his Christmas song, he shares a message of peace and happiness which all people can enjoy. So, from all of us who work in Special English -- to all of you -- we wish the happiest and most joyful holiday. This is Maurice Joyce. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-21-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL PROGRAM - December 25, 2001: Christmas Trees
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, a VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH program for the Christmas holiday. Some Christmas traditions involve trees or plants. One of the most popular is the evergreen tree. Shirley Griffith tells us how the evergreen developed into the modern Christmas Tree. VOICE: Many Americans buy an evergreen tree for Christmas. They put the tree in their home and hang small lights and colorful objects on it. The evergreen is usually a pine or a fir tree. It remains green during the cold, dark months of winter in the northern part of the world. So, it is a sign of everlasting life. The use of evergreens during winter holiday celebrations started in ancient times. Early Romans, for example, probably included evergreens with other plants during a celebration in honor of their god of agriculture. The Christmas tree may have developed in part from a popular play performed hundreds of years ago in what is now Germany. Traditionally, the play was held on December twenty-fourth, the day before Christmas. The play was about the first people that God created -- Adam and Eve. People put apples on an evergreen to represent the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. By the year Sixteen-Hundred, some Germans began bringing evergreen trees into their homes. They put fruit, nuts and sweets on the trees. They shared the food among family members and friends after the holiday season. Some people say the German religious reformer Martin Luther was the first person to add lighted candles to a tree. They say he did this to show how wonderful the stars had appeared to him as he traveled one night. In the early Eighteen-Hundreds, German settlers in the state of Pennsylvania were the first to celebrate the holiday with Christmas trees in the United States. The Christmas tree tradition spread to many parts of the world. Today, some form of Christmas tree is part of most Christmas celebrations. Some people put a star on top of their Christmas tree. It represents the star that led the three wise men to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. This is Shirley Griffith wishing you a joyous holiday season. ((music:“O Tannenbaum”)) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-21-6-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - December 26, 2001: Charles Lindbergh
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Lindbergh´s plane ANNCR: EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy. Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February Fourth, Nineteen-Oh-Two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States Congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D-C, while Mister Lindbergh served in the Congress. Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle. VOICE TWO: He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five-hundred dollars to buy his own plane. Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing." He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier. VOICE ONE: From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class. After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago. Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five-thousand dollars. A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane. A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it: "The Spirit of Saint Louis." VOICE ONE: In May, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes. At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two. "If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either." VOICE TWO: May Twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of "The Spirit of Saint Louis." "It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go." The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris. VOICE ONE: Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three-thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left. During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel. On the evening of May Twenty-First, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris! Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and "The Spirit of Saint Louis" were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people. From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors. VOICE TWO: Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations. He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed. On a stormy night in Nineteen-Thirty-Two, kidnappers took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace. President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany. Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero. VOICE TWO: Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war. Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights. Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest. While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed. Today, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight. ((THEME)) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. Today, Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal tell the story of one of America's most famous pilots, Charles Lindbergh. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh is probably one of the best-known people in the history of flight. He was a hero of the world. Yet, years later, he was denounced as an enemy of his country. He had what is called a "storybook" marriage and family life. Yet he suffered a terrible family tragedy. Charles Lindbergh was born in the city of Detroit, Michigan, on February Fourth, Nineteen-Oh-Two. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota. His mother was a school teacher. His father was a lawyer who later became a United States Congressman. The family spent ten years in Washington, D-C, while Mister Lindbergh served in the Congress. Young Charles studied mechanical engineering for a time at the University of Wisconsin. But he did not like sitting in a classroom. So, after one-and-one-half years, he left the university. He traveled around the country on a motorcycle. VOICE TWO: He settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. He took his first flying lessons there and passed the test to become a flier. But he had to wait one year before he could fly alone. That is how long it took him to save five-hundred dollars to buy his own plane. Charles Lindbergh later wrote about being a new pilot. He said he felt different from people who never flew. "In flying," he said, "I tasted a wine of the gods of which people on the ground could know nothing." He said he hoped to fly for at least ten years. After that, if he died in a crash, he said it would be all right. He was willing to give up a long, normal life for a short, exciting life as a flier. VOICE ONE: From Nebraska, Lindbergh moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he joined the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. When he finished flight training school, he was named best pilot in his class. After he completed his Army training, the Robertson Aircraft Company of Saint Louis hired him. His job was to fly mail between Saint Louis and Chicago. Lindbergh flew mostly at night through all kinds of weather. Two times, fog or storms forced him to jump out of his plane. Both times, he landed safely by parachute. Other fliers called him "Lucky Lindy." VOICE TWO: In Nineteen-Nineteen, a wealthy hotel owner in New York City offered a prize for flying across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. The first pilot who flew non-stop from New York to Paris would get twenty-five-thousand dollars. A number of pilots tried. Several were killed. After eight years, no one had won the prize. Charles Lindbergh believed he could win the money if he could get the right airplane. A group of businessmen in Saint Louis agreed to provide most of the money he needed for the kind of plane he wanted. He designed the aircraft himself for long-distance flying. It carried a large amount of fuel. Some people described it as a "fuel tank with wings, a motor and a seat." Lindbergh named it: "The Spirit of Saint Louis." VOICE ONE: In May, Nineteen-Twenty-Seven, Lindbergh flew his plane from San Diego, California, to an airfield outside New York City. He made the flight in the record time of twenty-one hours, twenty minutes. At the New York airfield, he spent a few days preparing for his flight across the Atlantic. He wanted to make sure his plane's engine worked perfectly. He loaded a rubber boat in case of emergency. He also loaded some food and water, but only enough for a meal or two. "If I get to Paris," Lindbergh said, "I will not need any more food or water than that. If I do not get to Paris, I will not need any more, either." VOICE TWO: May Twentieth started as a rainy day. But experts told Lindbergh that weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean were improving. A mechanic started the engine of "The Spirit of Saint Louis." "It sounds good to me," the mechanic said. "Well, then," said Lindbergh, "I might as well go." The plane carried a heavy load of fuel. It struggled to fly up and over the telephone wires at the end of the field. Then, climbing slowly, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" flew out of sight. Lindbergh was on his way to Paris. VOICE ONE: Part of the flight was through rain, sleet and snow. At times, Lindbergh flew just three meters above the water. At other times, he flew more than three-thousand meters up. He said his greatest fear was falling asleep. He had not slept the night before he left. During the thirty-three-hour flight, thousands of people waited by their radios to hear if any ships had seen Lindbergh's plane. There was no news from Lindbergh himself. He did not carry a radio. He had removed it to provide more space for fuel. On the evening of May Twenty-First, people heard the exciting news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris! Even before the plane's engine stopped, Lindbergh and "The Spirit of Saint Louis" were surrounded by a huge crowd of shouting, crying, joyful people. From the moment he landed in France, he was a hero. The French, British and Belgian governments gave him their highest honors. VOICE TWO: Back home in the United States, he received his own country's highest awards. The cities of Washington and New York honored him with big parades. He flew to cities all over the United States for celebrations. He also flew to several Latin American countries as a representative of the United States government. During a trip to Mexico, he met Anne Morrow, the daughter of the American ambassador. They were married in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. Lindbergh taught his new wife to fly. Together, they made many long flights. Life seemed perfect. Then, everything changed. On a stormy night in Nineteen-Thirty-Two, kidnappers took the baby son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from their home in New Jersey. Ten weeks later, the boy's body was found. Police caught the murderer several years later. A court found him guilty and sentenced him to death. The kidnapping and the trial were big news. Reporters gave the Lindberghs no privacy. So Charles and Anne fled to Britain and then to France to try to escape the press. They lived in Europe for four years. But they saw the nations of Europe preparing for war. They returned home before war broke out in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh did not believe the United States should take part in the war. He made many speeches calling for the United States to remain neutral. He said he did not think the other countries of Europe could defeat the strong military forces of Germany. He said the answer was a negotiated peace. President Franklin Roosevelt did not agree. A Congressman speaking for the president called Lindbergh an enemy of his country. Many people also criticized Lindbergh for not returning a medal of honor he received from Nazi Germany. Charles Lindbergh no longer was America's hero. VOICE TWO: Lindbergh stopped calling for American neutrality two years later, when Japan attacked the United States navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack brought America into the war. Lindbergh spent the war years as an advisor to companies that made American warplanes. He also helped train American military pilots. Although he was a civilian, he flew about fifty combat flights. Lindbergh loved flying. But flying was not his only interest. While living in France, he worked with a French doctor to develop a mechanical heart. He helped scientists to discover Maya Indian ruins in Mexico. He became interested in the cultures of people from African countries and from the Philippines. And he led campaigns to make people understand the need to protect nature and the environment. VOICE ONE: Charles Lindbergh died in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, once again recognized as an American hero. President Gerald Ford said Lindbergh represented all that was best in America -- honesty, courage and the desire to succeed. Today, "The Spirit of Saint Louis" -- the plane Lindbergh flew to Paris -- hangs in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D-C. And the man who flew it -- Charles Lindbergh -- remains a symbol of the skill and courage that opened the skies to human flight. ((THEME)) ANNCR: This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Richard Rael and Shep O'Neal. I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-24-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – December 26, 2001: Christmas Holiday Plants
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. Christmas has many traditions. Singing songs. Cooking foods. Giving gifts. Some special trees and plants also are part of the Christmas tradition. One of the most popular is the evergreen tree. It is usually a pine or a fir. It remains green during the cold, dark months of winter in the northern part of the world. Many people buy an evergreen tree for Christmas. They put it in their house and hang small lights and colorful objects on its branches. Some people buy living trees and plant them after the Christmas holiday. Others cut down a tree or buy a cut tree. Another popular evergreen plant is mistletoe. It has small white berries and leaves that feel like leather. The traditional Christmas mistletoe is native to Europe. Mistletoe is a parasite plant. It grows by connecting itself to a tree and stealing the tree’s food and water. It can be found on apple trees, lindens, maples and poplars. Priests of the Druid religion of ancient Britain and France believed mistletoe had magical powers. Today, some people hang mistletoe in a doorway at Christmas time. If you meet someone under the mistletoe, tradition gives you permission to kiss that person. One of the most popular plants at Christmas is the poinsettia. These plants are valued for their colorful bracts, which look like leaves. Most poinsettias are bright red. But they also can be white or pink. Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They are named after America’s first ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett. He liked the plant and sent some back to the United States. Many people believe that poinsettias are poisonous. But researchers say this is not true. They say the milky liquid in the plant’s stem can cause a person’s skin to become red. If children or animals eat the leaves they may become sick, but they will not die. Two thick, sticky substances from trees have been part of Christmas from the beginning. They are frankincense and myrrh. Both have powerful, pleasant smells. Tradition says three wise men carried them as gifts to the Christ child in Bethlehem. Finally, there are several herbs used in Christmas foods, drinks and decorations. One is sage. Its leaves are cooked with turkey or goose. And sweet-smelling rosemary plants are hung on doors or cut to look like little Christmas trees. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Christine Johnson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-26-1-1.cfm
* Headline: Special Programs
* Byline: 

 October 19, 2004: Commonly Asked Questions from Listeners July 4, 2004: Independence Day January 1, 2004: A Musical Exploration of Time January 1, 2004: New Year's Resolutions 2003 December 29, 2003: New Year's Traditions December 22, 2003: Christmas Traditions and Music January 2, 2003: Celebrating New Year's January 1, 2003: Celebrations Around the World January 1, 2003: Auld Lang Syne 2002 December 25, 2002: Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir December 25, 2002: Christmas Trees December 24, 2002: Messiah Sing-Along January 1, 2002: Celebrating the New Year 2001 December 29, 2001: New Year's Story -- "Bright Hill" December 25, 2001: Christmas Trees December 24, 2001: "White Christmas" 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-26-2-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT – December 27, 2001: Giving Blood Platelets
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. People all over the world know the importance of giving blood to help people who have lost blood because of an accident or operation. There is also a need for the part of the blood called platelets. Platelets are cells in the blood that help stop bleeding by permitting the blood to become thick, or clot. Taking platelets from a person’s blood is done in a process called apheresis (a-fur-ee-sis). Blood is taken from a blood vessel in a person’s arm through a tube. The blood is passed through a machine called a centrifuge. The machine separates the platelets from the other parts of the blood and collects them. The machine returns the other parts of the blood to the person’s arm. This process takes about two hours. A person’s body replaces the donated platelets in about forty-eight hours. One person can give platelets up to twenty-four times a year. Almost all healthy people can donate their platelets. A person must be older than seventeen years of age and weigh at least fifty kilograms. However, some people with medical conditions should not donate platelets. People should not donate platelets if they have ever suffered hepatitis or cancer or have heart problems. People should not donate platelets if they have had malaria or lived in an area where the disease is present in the past three years. Women who have been pregnant in the past six months should not give platelets. Blood donation programs also will not accept blood products from people who may have been infected with the AIDS virus. And the programs will not accept blood products from people who have visited countries where mad cow disease is present. Blood centers always need platelets because donated platelets must be used within five days. People who are having treatments for cancer need blood platelets. Radiation and chemotherapy treatments lower the number of platelets in their blood. So they must get platelets to prevent bleeding. Experts say the demand for platelets continues to increase as more people are getting cancer treatments. The strong government controls to guarantee the safety of blood products have also limited the supply of platelets in recent years. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-26-3-1.cfm
* Headline: THE MAKING OF A NATION - December 27, 2001: Election of 1924
* Byline: 

 VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Vice President Calvin Coolidge moved to the White House in nineteen-twenty-three following the death of President Warren Harding. The new president quickly gained the trust of most Americans by investigating the crimes of Harding's top officials. And his conservative economic polices won wide support. Coolidge had one year to prove his abilities to the American people before the nineteen-twenty-four election. That election is our story today. VOICE 2: Coolidge was a quiet man who believed in limited government policies. But his silence hid a fighting political spirit. Coolidge had worked for many years to gain the White House. He would not give it up without a struggle. Coolidge moved quickly after becoming president to gain control of the Republican Party. He named his own advisers to important jobs. And he replaced a number of officials with people whose loyalty he could trust. Most Republicans liked Coolidge. They felt his popular policies would make him a strong candidate in the presidential election. For this reason, Coolidge faced only one serious opponent for the Republican presidential nomination in nineteen-twenty-four. Coolidge's opponent was the great automobile manufacturer, Henry Ford of Michigan. Ford had been a Democratic candidate for the Senate in nineteen-eighteen. He lost that election. But after the election, some people in his company began to call for Ford to be the Republican presidential nominee in nineteen-twenty-four. VOICE 1: Ford was one of history's greatest inventors and manufacturers. But he had limited skills in politics. Ford was poorly educated. He had extreme opinions about a number of groups. He hated labor unions, the stock market, dancing, smoking, and drinking alcohol. But most of all, Ford hated Jews. He produced a number of publications accusing the Jewish people of organizing international plots. At first, Ford appeared to be a strong opponent to Coolidge. But soon, he realized that Coolidge was too strong politically. His economic policies were popular among the people. And the nation was at peace. The party could not deny Coolidge's nomination. Ford himself put an end to his chances by telling the nation that it was "perfectly safe with Coolidge." Calvin Coolidge won the presidential nomination easily at the nineteen-twenty-four Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio. The Republican delegates chose Charles Dawes of Illinois to run with him as the vice presidential candidate. VOICE 2: The Democratic Party was much more divided. Many of the groups that traditionally supported Democratic candidates now were fighting against each other. For example, many farmers did not agree on policies with people living in cities. The educated did not agree with uneducated people. And many Protestant workers felt divided from Roman Catholic and Jewish workers. These differences made it hard for the Democratic Party to choose a national candidate. There was little spirit of compromise. Two main candidates campaigned for the democratic nomination. The first was former Treasury secretary William McAdoo. McAdoo had the support of many Democrats because of his strong administration of the railroads during the world war. Democratic voters in Southern and Western states liked him because of his conservative racial policies and his opposition to alcohol. The second main candidate was Alfred Smith, the governor of New York. Smith was a Roman Catholic. He was very popular with people in the Eastern cities, Roman Catholics, and supporters of legal alcohol. But many rural delegates to the convention did not trust him. VOICE 1: The Democratic Party convention met in New York City. It quickly became a battle between the more liberal delegates from the cities and the more conservative delegates from rural areas. It was July. The heat was intense. Speaker after speaker appealed to the delegates for votes. One day passed. Then another. For nine days, the nation listened on the radio as the delegates argued about the nomination. The delegates voted ninety-five times without success. Finally, McAdoo and Smith agreed to withdraw from the race. Even then, the delegates had to vote eight more times before they finally agreed on compromise candidates. The Democratic delegates finally chose John Davis to be their presidential nominee. Davis was a lawyer for a major bank. He had served briefly under President Wilson as ambassador to Britain. The delegates also chose Charles Bryan to be the vice presidential candidate. Bryan was the younger brother of the famous Democrat and populist leader, William Jennings Bryan. VOICE 2: There also was a third party in the nineteen-twenty-four election. Many of the old progressive supporters of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson opposed the choices of the Republicans and Democrats. They thought the country needed another candidate to keep alive the spirit of reform. Progressive candidates had done well in the congressional election of nineteen-twenty-two. But following the election, communists had gained influence in one of the major progressive parties. Most progressives did not want to join with communists. So, they formed a new progressive party. The new party named Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin to be its presidential candidate. LaFollette campaigned for increased taxes on the rich and public ownership of water power. He called for an end to child labor and limits on the power of the courts to interfere in labor disputes. And LaFollette warned the nation about the dangers of single, large companies gaining control of important industries. VOICE 1: Coolidge won the nineteen-twenty-four election easily. He won the electoral votes of thirty-five states to just twelve for Davis of the Democrats. LaFollette won only Wisconsin, his home state. Coolidge also won more popular votes than the other two candidates together. The American people voted for Coolidge partly to thank him for bringing back honesty and trust to the White House following the crimes of the Harding administration. But the main reason was that they liked his conservative economic policies and his support of business. VOICE 2: LaFollette's Progressive Party died following the nineteen-twenty-four election. Most of his supporters later joined the Democrats. But the reform spirit of their movement remained alive through the next four years. They were difficult years for Progressives. Conservatives in Congress passed laws reducing taxes for corporations and richer Americans. VOICE 1: Progressives fought for reforms in national agriculture policies. Most farmers did not share in the general economic growth of the nineteen-twenties. Instead, their costs increased while the price of their products fell. Many farmers lost their farms. Farmers and progressives wanted the federal government to create a system to control prices and the total supply of food produced. They said the government should buy and keep any extra food that farmers produced. And they called for officials to help them export food. Coolidge and most Republicans rejected these ideas. They said it was not the business of a free government to fix farm prices. And they feared the high costs of creating a major new government department and developing export markets. Coolidge vetoed three major farm reform bills following his election. VOICE 2: The debate over farm policy was, in many ways, like the debate over taxes or public controls on power companies. There was a basic difference of opinion about the proper actions of government. More conservative Americans believed the purpose of government was to support private business, not to control it. But more liberal Americans believed that government needed to do more to make sure that citizens of all kinds could share the nation's wealth more equally. Coolidge and the Republicans were in control in the nineteen-twenties. For this reason, the nation generally stayed on a conservative path. The Democrats and Progressives would have to wait until later to put many of their more liberal ideas into action. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. VOICE 1: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. (Theme) Vice President Calvin Coolidge moved to the White House in nineteen-twenty-three following the death of President Warren Harding. The new president quickly gained the trust of most Americans by investigating the crimes of Harding's top officials. And his conservative economic polices won wide support. Coolidge had one year to prove his abilities to the American people before the nineteen-twenty-four election. That election is our story today. VOICE 2: Coolidge was a quiet man who believed in limited government policies. But his silence hid a fighting political spirit. Coolidge had worked for many years to gain the White House. He would not give it up without a struggle. Coolidge moved quickly after becoming president to gain control of the Republican Party. He named his own advisers to important jobs. And he replaced a number of officials with people whose loyalty he could trust. Most Republicans liked Coolidge. They felt his popular policies would make him a strong candidate in the presidential election. For this reason, Coolidge faced only one serious opponent for the Republican presidential nomination in nineteen-twenty-four. Coolidge's opponent was the great automobile manufacturer, Henry Ford of Michigan. Ford had been a Democratic candidate for the Senate in nineteen-eighteen. He lost that election. But after the election, some people in his company began to call for Ford to be the Republican presidential nominee in nineteen-twenty-four. VOICE 1: Ford was one of history's greatest inventors and manufacturers. But he had limited skills in politics. Ford was poorly educated. He had extreme opinions about a number of groups. He hated labor unions, the stock market, dancing, smoking, and drinking alcohol. But most of all, Ford hated Jews. He produced a number of publications accusing the Jewish people of organizing international plots. At first, Ford appeared to be a strong opponent to Coolidge. But soon, he realized that Coolidge was too strong politically. His economic policies were popular among the people. And the nation was at peace. The party could not deny Coolidge's nomination. Ford himself put an end to his chances by telling the nation that it was "perfectly safe with Coolidge." Calvin Coolidge won the presidential nomination easily at the nineteen-twenty-four Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio. The Republican delegates chose Charles Dawes of Illinois to run with him as the vice presidential candidate. VOICE 2: The Democratic Party was much more divided. Many of the groups that traditionally supported Democratic candidates now were fighting against each other. For example, many farmers did not agree on policies with people living in cities. The educated did not agree with uneducated people. And many Protestant workers felt divided from Roman Catholic and Jewish workers. These differences made it hard for the Democratic Party to choose a national candidate. There was little spirit of compromise. Two main candidates campaigned for the democratic nomination. The first was former Treasury secretary William McAdoo. McAdoo had the support of many Democrats because of his strong administration of the railroads during the world war. Democratic voters in Southern and Western states liked him because of his conservative racial policies and his opposition to alcohol. The second main candidate was Alfred Smith, the governor of New York. Smith was a Roman Catholic. He was very popular with people in the Eastern cities, Roman Catholics, and supporters of legal alcohol. But many rural delegates to the convention did not trust him. VOICE 1: The Democratic Party convention met in New York City. It quickly became a battle between the more liberal delegates from the cities and the more conservative delegates from rural areas. It was July. The heat was intense. Speaker after speaker appealed to the delegates for votes. One day passed. Then another. For nine days, the nation listened on the radio as the delegates argued about the nomination. The delegates voted ninety-five times without success. Finally, McAdoo and Smith agreed to withdraw from the race. Even then, the delegates had to vote eight more times before they finally agreed on compromise candidates. The Democratic delegates finally chose John Davis to be their presidential nominee. Davis was a lawyer for a major bank. He had served briefly under President Wilson as ambassador to Britain. The delegates also chose Charles Bryan to be the vice presidential candidate. Bryan was the younger brother of the famous Democrat and populist leader, William Jennings Bryan. VOICE 2: There also was a third party in the nineteen-twenty-four election. Many of the old progressive supporters of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson opposed the choices of the Republicans and Democrats. They thought the country needed another candidate to keep alive the spirit of reform. Progressive candidates had done well in the congressional election of nineteen-twenty-two. But following the election, communists had gained influence in one of the major progressive parties. Most progressives did not want to join with communists. So, they formed a new progressive party. The new party named Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin to be its presidential candidate. LaFollette campaigned for increased taxes on the rich and public ownership of water power. He called for an end to child labor and limits on the power of the courts to interfere in labor disputes. And LaFollette warned the nation about the dangers of single, large companies gaining control of important industries. VOICE 1: Coolidge won the nineteen-twenty-four election easily. He won the electoral votes of thirty-five states to just twelve for Davis of the Democrats. LaFollette won only Wisconsin, his home state. Coolidge also won more popular votes than the other two candidates together. The American people voted for Coolidge partly to thank him for bringing back honesty and trust to the White House following the crimes of the Harding administration. But the main reason was that they liked his conservative economic policies and his support of business. VOICE 2: LaFollette's Progressive Party died following the nineteen-twenty-four election. Most of his supporters later joined the Democrats. But the reform spirit of their movement remained alive through the next four years. They were difficult years for Progressives. Conservatives in Congress passed laws reducing taxes for corporations and richer Americans. VOICE 1: Progressives fought for reforms in national agriculture policies. Most farmers did not share in the general economic growth of the nineteen-twenties. Instead, their costs increased while the price of their products fell. Many farmers lost their farms. Farmers and progressives wanted the federal government to create a system to control prices and the total supply of food produced. They said the government should buy and keep any extra food that farmers produced. And they called for officials to help them export food. Coolidge and most Republicans rejected these ideas. They said it was not the business of a free government to fix farm prices. And they feared the high costs of creating a major new government department and developing export markets. Coolidge vetoed three major farm reform bills following his election. VOICE 2: The debate over farm policy was, in many ways, like the debate over taxes or public controls on power companies. There was a basic difference of opinion about the proper actions of government. More conservative Americans believed the purpose of government was to support private business, not to control it. But more liberal Americans believed that government needed to do more to make sure that citizens of all kinds could share the nation's wealth more equally. Coolidge and the Republicans were in control in the nineteen-twenties. For this reason, the nation generally stayed on a conservative path. The Democrats and Progressives would have to wait until later to put many of their more liberal ideas into action. (Theme) VOICE 1: You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English. Your reporters were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by David Jarmul. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-27-1-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL PROGRAM - December 31, 2001: Auld Lang Syne
* Byline: 

 ANNCR: Now, VOA Special English presents a special program for New Year’s Eve. ((TAPE CUT 1: AULD LANG SYNE)) That is a song millions of Americans will hear this New Year’s Eve. It is called “Auld Lang Syne.” It is the traditional music played during the New Year’s celebration. Auld Lang Syne is an old Scottish poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends. The words “auld lang syne” mean “old long since.” No one knows who wrote the poem first. However, a version by Scottish poet Robert Burns was published in Seventeen-Ninety-Six. The words and music we know today first appeared in a songbook three years later. The song is played in the United States mainly on New Year’s Eve. The version you are hearing today is by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. As we end our program with “Auld Lang Syne,” I would like to wish all of our radio friends a very Happy New Year! This is Shep O’Neal. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-27-2-1.cfm
* Headline: AMERICAN MOSAIC - December 28, 2001: Music by Tony Bennett/college football bowl games/Kwanzaa
* Byline: 

 HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Bob Doughty. On our program today, we: play some music by Tony Bennett ... answer a question about college football bowl games ... and report about another holiday celebrated at this time of year. Kwanzaa HOST: One day after Christmas in Nineteen-Sixty-Six, a small group of African-Americans in Los Angeles, California began a seven-day celebration. The celebration was not religious. Its purpose was to honor black culture, especially the importance of the family. Bob Cohen tells us more about it. ANNCR: The celebration is called Kwanzaa. The word is Swahili. It means “first fruits of the harvest.” Today, millions of African-Americans celebrate Kwanzaa during the month of December. Families in Canada, Britain, France and Africa also celebrate it. The main celebration is held for seven days after Christmas, from December twenty-sixth through January first. Kwanzaa does not replace Christmas. Most people who celebrate Kwanzaa also celebrate Christmas. Kwanzaa is a time for black families to discuss seven goals to live by all year. They are unity, personal independence, joint responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. On each day of Kwanzaa, family members gather to light a black, red or green candle in a special candleholder. Each day, the family discusses one of the goals. People may also get together for a party or enjoy a holiday meal. They may play African music like this song from Zaire. It is performed here by Tabu Ley Rochereau. It is called “Madina.” (CUT: MADINA) Maulana Karenga (mau-oo-LAWN-uh kuh-RENG-guh) is a college professor who developed Kwanzaa. He says the holiday’s goal of unity includes unity in the family, the local community, the nation and the African community throughout the world. He also says that celebrating Kwanzaa will not cure the social problems of black people. But he says that honoring the goals of Kwanzaa will make people more creative and more productive citizens. College Bowl Games HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from the Philippines. Ronald San Juan asks about the college football bowl games that are played this time of year. Bowl games are championship games that college football teams play after the end of the normal season. The first bowl game was played in Nineteen-Oh-Two in Los Angeles, California. It was linked to the Tournament of Roses Parade. The game became so popular that the Tournament of Roses Association built a larger football stadium in the nearby city of Pasadena. A local newspaper reporter called the stadium the “Rose Bowl.” The first game was played there in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Ten years later, Miami, Florida started a festival on New Year’s Day that included a college football game. Officials named the game the Orange Bowl and the celebration became the Orange Bowl Festival. In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, the Sugar Bowl game started in New Orleans, Louisiana. Many other such games were played in the Nineteen-Thirties to earn money for aid organizations. Since the Nineteen-Fifties, the chance to earn money from television broadcasts has created other bowl games. In the last ten to fifteen years, large companies have supported the bowl games. The company’s name is included in the name of the game. For example, we now have the FedEx Orange Bowl, and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. For many years, the football teams competing in these bowl games were the champions of groups of colleges called conferences. For example, the teams competing in the Rose Bowl game were the best team from the “Big Ten” conference and the “Pacific Eight” conference. However, in the Nineteen-Nineties, football fans demanded that the top bowl games be played to decide a national college football championship. So bowl officials created the Bowl Championship Series. Now, college football experts and computers decide which teams have the best records and which teams should play in which bowl games. This year, twenty-five different bowl games are being played in December and January. The Rose Bowl will decide the National Championship when the University of Miami plays the University of Nebraska on January third. Tony Bennett’s New Album HOST: American singer Tony Bennett is seventy-five years old. He is still trying new things. Steve Ember tells us about his latest album which honors blues music. ANNCR: The record is called “Playin’ With My Friends: Tony Bennett Gets the Blues”. Tony Bennett says he was very pleased and excited about the musicians who agreed to make the record with him. They include Sheryl Crow, B. B. King and Diana Krall. Another is Ray Charles. Here the two men sing “Evenin’.” Ray Charles also plays the piano. ((CUT 1 - EVENIN’)) Tony Bennett says he wanted to make this album because blues songs are different from what people think he usually sings. However, he says his very first recording was a traditional blues song. Bonnie Raitt also has a history as a blues musician. Here they perform “ I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues.” ((CUT 2- I GOTTA RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES)) The great band leader Count Basie had always wanted Tony Bennett to record a song with Kay Starr. The two singers honor that wish on “Playin’ with My Friends.” We leave you now with Tony Bennett and Kay Starr singing Count Basie’s song “Blue and Sentimental.” ((CUT 3 - BLUE AND SENTIMENTAL)) HOST: This is Bob Doughty . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to “Mosaic at V-O-A news dot com”. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. (THEME) This is Bob Doughty. On our program today, we: play some music by Tony Bennett ... answer a question about college football bowl games ... and report about another holiday celebrated at this time of year. Kwanzaa HOST: One day after Christmas in Nineteen-Sixty-Six, a small group of African-Americans in Los Angeles, California began a seven-day celebration. The celebration was not religious. Its purpose was to honor black culture, especially the importance of the family. Bob Cohen tells us more about it. ANNCR: The celebration is called Kwanzaa. The word is Swahili. It means “first fruits of the harvest.” Today, millions of African-Americans celebrate Kwanzaa during the month of December. Families in Canada, Britain, France and Africa also celebrate it. The main celebration is held for seven days after Christmas, from December twenty-sixth through January first. Kwanzaa does not replace Christmas. Most people who celebrate Kwanzaa also celebrate Christmas. Kwanzaa is a time for black families to discuss seven goals to live by all year. They are unity, personal independence, joint responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. On each day of Kwanzaa, family members gather to light a black, red or green candle in a special candleholder. Each day, the family discusses one of the goals. People may also get together for a party or enjoy a holiday meal. They may play African music like this song from Zaire. It is performed here by Tabu Ley Rochereau. It is called “Madina.” (CUT: MADINA) Maulana Karenga (mau-oo-LAWN-uh kuh-RENG-guh) is a college professor who developed Kwanzaa. He says the holiday’s goal of unity includes unity in the family, the local community, the nation and the African community throughout the world. He also says that celebrating Kwanzaa will not cure the social problems of black people. But he says that honoring the goals of Kwanzaa will make people more creative and more productive citizens. College Bowl Games HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from the Philippines. Ronald San Juan asks about the college football bowl games that are played this time of year. Bowl games are championship games that college football teams play after the end of the normal season. The first bowl game was played in Nineteen-Oh-Two in Los Angeles, California. It was linked to the Tournament of Roses Parade. The game became so popular that the Tournament of Roses Association built a larger football stadium in the nearby city of Pasadena. A local newspaper reporter called the stadium the “Rose Bowl.” The first game was played there in Nineteen-Twenty-Three. Ten years later, Miami, Florida started a festival on New Year’s Day that included a college football game. Officials named the game the Orange Bowl and the celebration became the Orange Bowl Festival. In Nineteen-Thirty-Five, the Sugar Bowl game started in New Orleans, Louisiana. Many other such games were played in the Nineteen-Thirties to earn money for aid organizations. Since the Nineteen-Fifties, the chance to earn money from television broadcasts has created other bowl games. In the last ten to fifteen years, large companies have supported the bowl games. The company’s name is included in the name of the game. For example, we now have the FedEx Orange Bowl, and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. For many years, the football teams competing in these bowl games were the champions of groups of colleges called conferences. For example, the teams competing in the Rose Bowl game were the best team from the “Big Ten” conference and the “Pacific Eight” conference. However, in the Nineteen-Nineties, football fans demanded that the top bowl games be played to decide a national college football championship. So bowl officials created the Bowl Championship Series. Now, college football experts and computers decide which teams have the best records and which teams should play in which bowl games. This year, twenty-five different bowl games are being played in December and January. The Rose Bowl will decide the National Championship when the University of Miami plays the University of Nebraska on January third. Tony Bennett’s New Album HOST: American singer Tony Bennett is seventy-five years old. He is still trying new things. Steve Ember tells us about his latest album which honors blues music. ANNCR: The record is called “Playin’ With My Friends: Tony Bennett Gets the Blues”. Tony Bennett says he was very pleased and excited about the musicians who agreed to make the record with him. They include Sheryl Crow, B. B. King and Diana Krall. Another is Ray Charles. Here the two men sing “Evenin’.” Ray Charles also plays the piano. ((CUT 1 - EVENIN’)) Tony Bennett says he wanted to make this album because blues songs are different from what people think he usually sings. However, he says his very first recording was a traditional blues song. Bonnie Raitt also has a history as a blues musician. Here they perform “ I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues.” ((CUT 2- I GOTTA RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES)) The great band leader Count Basie had always wanted Tony Bennett to record a song with Kay Starr. The two singers honor that wish on “Playin’ with My Friends.” We leave you now with Tony Bennett and Kay Starr singing Count Basie’s song “Blue and Sentimental.” ((CUT 3 - BLUE AND SENTIMENTAL)) HOST: This is Bob Doughty . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC—VOA’s radio magazine in Special English. Remember to write us with your questions about American life. We will try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen will receive a Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. Send your questions to American Mosaic, Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or use a computer to e-mail your question to “Mosaic at V-O-A news dot com”. Please include your name and postal address. This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-27-3-1.cfm
* Headline: ENVIRONMENT REPORT – December 28, 2001: Warm Year
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT. Scientists expect this year to be the second warmest year ever recorded. They say average surface temperatures this year will be warmer than any other year except Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. The World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland noted the findings in its yearly climate report. The World Meteorological Organization says the higher surface temperatures are part of a continuing move toward warmer weather. W-M-O officials say average temperatures have risen more than six-tenths of one degree Celsius during the past one-hundred years. They also expect temperatures to continue rising. W-M-O officials say the warming is a result of large amounts of carbon dioxide and other industrial pollutants being released in Earth’s atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the sun. This is commonly called the greenhouse effect. Ken Davidson is director of the W-M-O World Climate Program. He says the greenhouse effect is responsible for unusual weather around the world in recent years. For the report, W-M-O officials compared the current conditions with temperature records since Eighteen-Sixty. They found that nine of the ten warmest years ever recorded have been since Nineteen-Ninety. Average temperatures this year are more than four-tenths of a degree higher than the average temperature from Nineteen-Sixty-One to Nineteen-Ninety. This was the twenty-third year that temperatures were above the average for that period. The report noted higher than average temperatures in Australia, Japan and North America. It says October was the hottest month in England in more than three-hundred years. Denmark and Germany also set records for the warmest October in more than one-hundred years. However, some areas reported colder than normal temperatures this year. For example, temperatures in the Siberia area of Russia dropped to sixty degrees below zero Celsius. Unseasonably cold weather also was reported in Bolivia and northern India. Experts say many areas could experience extreme weather next year if the weather event known as El Nino returns. El Nino causes climate changes that affect Pacific Ocean waters near the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. In the past, El Nino has been blamed for flooding, dry weather and powerful storms. This VOA Special English ENVIRONMENT REPORT was written by George Grow. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-27-4-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Dec. 30: Heroes of September Eleventh
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about some men and women who died during the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Many of these people died while trying to save the lives of others. They are honored as American heroes. ((THEME)) Scene of Plane accident in Pennsylvania VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about some men and women who died during the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Many of these people died while trying to save the lives of others. They are honored as American heroes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: On Tuesday, September eleventh, terrorists hijacked four large civilian passenger airplanes in the United States. All four flights were traveling from the eastern part of the country to the West Coast. At fifteen minutes before nine in the morning in New York City, one of the planes crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center. The airplane tore a huge hole in the building, and the plane’s fuel immediately caused a large fire. Eighteen minutes later, another plane crashed into the south building of the World Trade Center. The second plane also exploded and caused a huge fire. Later, both of these buildings, among the tallest in the United States, fell to the ground. About three-thousand people were killed. VOICE TWO: VOICE ONE: On Tuesday, September eleventh, terrorists hijacked four large civilian passenger airplanes in the United States. All four flights were traveling from the eastern part of the country to the West Coast. At fifteen minutes before nine in the morning in New York City, one of the planes crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center. The airplane tore a huge hole in the building, and the plane’s fuel immediately caused a large fire. Eighteen minutes later, another plane crashed into the south building of the World Trade Center. The second plane also exploded and caused a huge fire. Later, both of these buildings, among the tallest in the United States, fell to the ground. About three-thousand people were killed. VOICE TWO: A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon at twenty minutes before ten. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Defense Department, near Washington, D-C. Minutes later, police in the eastern state of Pennsylvania confirmed that a fourth and final hijacked airplane traveling toward Washington had crashed. There were no survivors. Experts later said the passengers on this fourth plane fought with the terrorists in an effort to regain control of the plane. Officials believe it is likely that this plane was being flown to a target in the nation’s capital. The brave actions of the passengers on this flight may have saved thousands of lives. VOICE ONE: Among the passengers on flight Ninety-Three was thirty-two-year-old Todd Beamer. He worked for Oracle computer company. He was traveling to California for business on September eleventh. Normally, Mister Beamer would have left the night before, but he and his wife Lisa had just returned from a week-long trip to Italy. He wanted to spend some extra time with his two young children. Lisa Beamer told reporters she never received a telephone call from her husband before his plane crashed on September eleventh. Missus Beamer said she thought this was strange, because her husband was known for using his personal phone all the time. Later she found out he did try to reach her, but his call mistakenly went to a telephone operator instead. A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon at twenty minutes before ten. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Defense Department, near Washington, D-C. Minutes later, police in the eastern state of Pennsylvania confirmed that a fourth and final hijacked airplane traveling toward Washington had crashed. There were no survivors. Experts later said the passengers on this fourth plane fought with the terrorists in an effort to regain control of the plane. Officials believe it is likely that this plane was being flown to a target in the nation’s capital. The brave actions of the passengers on this flight may have saved thousands of lives. VOICE ONE: Among the passengers on flight Ninety-Three was thirty-two-year-old Todd Beamer. He worked for Oracle computer company. He was traveling to California for business on September eleventh. Normally, Mister Beamer would have left the night before, but he and his wife Lisa had just returned from a week-long trip to Italy. He wanted to spend some extra time with his two young children. Lisa Beamer told reporters she never received a telephone call from her husband before his plane crashed on September eleventh. Missus Beamer said she thought this was strange, because her husband was known for using his personal phone all the time. Later she found out he did try to reach her, but his call mistakenly went to a telephone operator instead. The operator said he sounded brave and calm in his final minutes. She believes that Todd Beamer was one of the passengers who led the effort to fight the hijackers. His final words were: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” VOICE TWO: Another fearless passenger on Flight Ninety-Three was thirty-one-year-old Mark Bingham. In college, he played rugby, a physically rough sport, for his school team. Friends told reporters that he even fought with a robber at one time to get a gun out of the man’s hands. Mark Bingham called his mother about twenty minutes before Flight Ninety-Three crashed. His final words were: “If I don’t see you again, I love you all. It doesn’t look good.” Several women on Flight Ninety-Three also tried to fight back. One of the crewmembers was thirty-eight-year-old Sandy Bradshaw. She called her husband, Phil, just minutes before the plane crashed. She said that she and other crewmembers were boiling hot water to throw on the hijackers. Sandy Bradshaw reportedly promised her husband that if she lived, she would leave her job to stay at home with their three children. VOICE ONE: There are reports of other passengers on the plane who told family members by telephone that they were prepared to fight to protect their country. Thirteen days after Flight Ninety-Three crashed, President Bush invited the families of these brave Americans to the White House. He and First Lady Laura Bush spent time with each family member. The operator said he sounded brave and calm in his final minutes. She believes that Todd Beamer was one of the passengers who led the effort to fight the hijackers. His final words were: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” VOICE TWO: Another fearless passenger on Flight Ninety-Three was thirty-one-year-old Mark Bingham. In college, he played rugby, a physically rough sport, for his school team. Friends told reporters that he even fought with a robber at one time to get a gun out of the man’s hands. Mark Bingham called his mother about twenty minutes before Flight Ninety-Three crashed. His final words were: “If I don’t see you again, I love you all. It doesn’t look good.” Several women on Flight Ninety-Three also tried to fight back. One of the crewmembers was thirty-eight-year-old Sandy Bradshaw. She called her husband, Phil, just minutes before the plane crashed. She said that she and other crewmembers were boiling hot water to throw on the hijackers. Sandy Bradshaw reportedly promised her husband that if she lived, she would leave her job to stay at home with their three children. VOICE ONE: There are reports of other passengers on the plane who told family members by telephone that they were prepared to fight to protect their country. Thirteen days after Flight Ninety-Three crashed, President Bush invited the families of these brave Americans to the White House. He and First Lady Laura Bush spent time with each family member. President Bush said the hijackers could have been targeting the White House. The passengers, he said, may have saved countless more people from dying. About one-hundred workers at the White House thanked the families as they left. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers began rescue efforts immediately after two of the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings. As people were hurrying down the stairs to escape the buildings, firefighters and policemen were hurrying up those same stairs to help bring injured victims out. Among them was John McAvoy, a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company Three in Manhattan. In his free time, he helped train young hockey players on Staten Island where he lived with his wife, Paula. Hockey is a sport played on ice. Missus McAvoy told the New York Times newspaper that although she could never get John to dance, he skated beautifully on the ice. John McAvoy was also loyal to his work. His brother said that once while running for exercise, John stopped to pull two older people from a burning house. He then went back for their cat before continuing with his run. VOICE ONE: Vernon Cherry was a Brooklyn firefighter who sang at wedding ceremonies during his free time. Friends say Mister Cherry had a beautiful voice. He sang everywhere he went -- in the firehouse, while walking up the stairs, even in front of strangers. He was also a good cook, said his friends at Ladder Company One-Hundred-Eighteen in Brooklyn Heights. Vernon Cherry worked for the New York City Fire Department for twenty-eight years. Detective Claude Richards of the New York City Police Department died as he lived, helping people. He was a bomb expert. Friends say when Detective Richards took time off from work, he would travel to Bosnia to dig up land mines with a United Nations peacekeeping force. Claude Richards was a former Army soldier. People he worked with say he knew how to give commands and keep a project running smoothly. He was also a hard worker and very loyal to his job. These are a few of the about three-hundred-seventy New York firefighters and police officers who gave the own lives on September eleventh to save others. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Near Washington, more than one-hundred-eighty people died from the September eleventh attack at the Pentagon. Most of the victims were employees of the Defense Department. Sixty-four were on the plane that crashed into the building. Last week, Pentagon officials honored the heroic actions of military and civilian people who helped victims during the terrorist attack. A total of eighty-five people received awards, such as the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. This is one of the highest awards presented to American sailors and Marines for heroic actions. VOICE ONE: Navy Seaman Cean (Sean) Whitmarsh was one such person to receive this special award. During the attack on the Pentagon, he used his shirt to stop a man on fire from burning. He then helped the man get out of the Pentagon. Seaman Whitmarsh then went back into the crash area to lead other injured people to safety. He and his supervisor, John Krauss, saved as many as fifteen people hurt in the attack on the Pentagon. Another Pentagon official honored earlier this month was Navy Commander Hugh Wetherald. On September eleventh, he and a group of other survivors repeatedly ran into burning areas of the Pentagon to rescue victims. During this time, he breathed in large amounts of smoke, which harmed his lungs. Commander Wetherald runs races in his free time. He had been training for the Marine Corps Marathon. This is a twenty-five kilometer race that takes place each year through the nation’s capital. This year, the path for the race went by the Pentagon crash area. Commander Wetherald says it was hard not to look at the damage as he passed. He says as he went by, he slowed down and thought about how far the United States had come since the attacks. He says the experience was emotional. VOICE TWO: Navy Seaman Cean Whitmarsh and Commander Hugh Wetherald were lucky enough to survive the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. However, many other individuals died while trying to rescue others. Many of their names are not well known. Yet the selfless bravery of these heroes will not be forgotten. ((MUSIC: "Amazing Grace," Bagpipe instrumentals)) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss and directed by Caty Weaver with audio assistance by Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. Images of firefighters John McAvoy and Vernon Cherry can be viewed at FDNY Online President Bush said the hijackers could have been targeting the White House. The passengers, he said, may have saved countless more people from dying. About one-hundred workers at the White House thanked the families as they left. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers began rescue efforts immediately after two of the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings. As people were hurrying down the stairs to escape the buildings, firefighters and policemen were hurrying up those same stairs to help bring injured victims out. Among them was John McAvoy, a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company Three in Manhattan. In his free time, he helped train young hockey players on Staten Island where he lived with his wife, Paula. Hockey is a sport played on ice. Missus McAvoy told the New York Times newspaper that although she could never get John to dance, he skated beautifully on the ice. John McAvoy was also loyal to his work. His brother said that once while running for exercise, John stopped to pull two older people from a burning house. He then went back for their cat before continuing with his run. VOICE ONE: Vernon Cherry was a Brooklyn firefighter who sang at wedding ceremonies during his free time. Friends say Mister Cherry had a beautiful voice. He sang everywhere he went -- in the firehouse, while walking up the stairs, even in front of strangers. He was also a good cook, said his friends at Ladder Company One-Hundred-Eighteen in Brooklyn Heights. Vernon Cherry worked for the New York City Fire Department for twenty-eight years. Detective Claude Richards of the New York City Police Department died as he lived, helping people. He was a bomb expert. Friends say when Detective Richards took time off from work, he would travel to Bosnia to dig up land mines with a United Nations peacekeeping force. Claude Richards was a former Army soldier. People he worked with say he knew how to give commands and keep a project running smoothly. He was also a hard worker and very loyal to his job. These are a few of the about three-hundred-seventy New York firefighters and police officers who gave the own lives on September eleventh to save others. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Near Washington, more than one-hundred-eighty people died from the September eleventh attack at the Pentagon. Most of the victims were employees of the Defense Department. Sixty-four were on the plane that crashed into the building. Last week, Pentagon officials honored the heroic actions of military and civilian people who helped victims during the terrorist attack. A total of eighty-five people received awards, such as the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. This is one of the highest awards presented to American sailors and Marines for heroic actions. VOICE ONE: Navy Seaman Cean (Sean) Whitmarsh was one such person to receive this special award. During the attack on the Pentagon, he used his shirt to stop a man on fire from burning. He then helped the man get out of the Pentagon. Seaman Whitmarsh then went back into the crash area to lead other injured people to safety. He and his supervisor, John Krauss, saved as many as fifteen people hurt in the attack on the Pentagon. Another Pentagon official honored earlier this month was Navy Commander Hugh Wetherald. On September eleventh, he and a group of other survivors repeatedly ran into burning areas of the Pentagon to rescue victims. During this time, he breathed in large amounts of smoke, which harmed his lungs. Commander Wetherald runs races in his free time. He had been training for the Marine Corps Marathon. This is a twenty-five kilometer race that takes place each year through the nation’s capital. This year, the path for the race went by the Pentagon crash area. Commander Wetherald says it was hard not to look at the damage as he passed. He says as he went by, he slowed down and thought about how far the United States had come since the attacks. He says the experience was emotional. VOICE TWO: Navy Seaman Cean Whitmarsh and Commander Hugh Wetherald were lucky enough to survive the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. However, many other individuals died while trying to rescue others. Many of their names are not well known. Yet the selfless bravery of these heroes will not be forgotten. ((MUSIC: "Amazing Grace," Bagpipe instrumentals)) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss and directed by Caty Weaver with audio assistance by Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. Images of firefighters John McAvoy and Vernon Cherry can be viewed at FDNY Online 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-27-5-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - Dec. 31: New Year Traditions
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: On December Thirty-First, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: On December Thirty-First, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about New Year celebrations on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is December Thirty-First in New York City. Thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten … nine …eight … ” A huge, brightly lit, glass ball falls as the seconds pass. When it reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship, called “Auld Lang Syne.” ((TAPE CUT ONE: VOCAL “AULD LANG SYNE”)) VOICE TWO: Americans hope Two-Thousand-Two will be happier than Two-Thousand-One. New York suffered terrible losses in the terrorist attacks on September Eleventh. However, the city is continuing with its New Year’s Eve traditions in Times Square for the ninety-seventh year. The tradition began in Nineteen-Oh-Four. That year, the owners of the building at Number One Times Square held a party on top of the building. Today, the New Year’s Ball falls from the top of the same building. The ball contains thousands of pieces of lighted cut glass. It looks like burning stars as it falls through the darkness. When it reaches the ground, people in Times Square dance and sing. They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. Many people in the United States also watch this event on television. VOICE ONE: Other cities also have New Year celebrations. For example, Chicago has a fireworks show. The fireworks are launched from the Navy Pier, a land area that extends into Lake Michigan. Some people like to watch the fireworks from a boat on the lake. The boat serves a special meal on New Year’s Eve. People drink a special wine called Champagne to celebrate the clock striking midnight. Many young people in Chicago celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Children wear funny hats as they wish the animals a good New Year. Many other Americans celebrate New Year’s Eve with parties at home. Or they celebrate at public eating and drinking places. These events are usually noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noise-makers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to broadcast music, records or live bands. ((TAPE CUT TWO: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR’S EVE?”)) VOICE TWO: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE ONE: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. This year, people in Boston have a choice of entertainment at fifty places in the city. A parade and fireworks celebration are held early in the evening. At midnight, more fireworks are launched over Boston Harbor. People attending First Night in Whittier, California are also marching in a parade. Adults and children in the parade wear costumes -- unusual or funny clothes. They hear performers from many countries. For example, they listen to African and African-American stories and traditional Welsh music. Finally, fireworks will light up the California sky. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some people watch football games on television. Some of the top American university teams play in these games. The games have names like the Outback Bowl, the Toyota Gator Bowl and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The most famous of these bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It was traditionally played on January First. This year, however, the University of Nebraska and the University of Miami will compete in the Rose Bowl on January Third. However, the Tournament of Roses parade will take place on January First, as usual. The parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE ONE: Another parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. Listen now as the Mummers perform “Golden Slippers.” ((TAPE CUT THREE: “GOLDEN SLIPPERS”)) VOICE TWO: On New Year’s Day many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. They wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, people who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. VOICE ONE: Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do to celebrate the coming of Two-Thousand-Two, we at Special English wish you a very Happy New Year. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about New Year celebrations on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is December Thirty-First in New York City. Thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten … nine …eight … ” A huge, brightly lit, glass ball falls as the seconds pass. When it reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship, called “Auld Lang Syne.” ((TAPE CUT ONE: VOCAL “AULD LANG SYNE”)) VOICE TWO: Americans hope Two-Thousand-Two will be happier than Two-Thousand-One. New York suffered terrible losses in the terrorist attacks on September Eleventh. However, the city is continuing with its New Year’s Eve traditions in Times Square for the ninety-seventh year. The tradition began in Nineteen-Oh-Four. That year, the owners of the building at Number One Times Square held a party on top of the building. Today, the New Year’s Ball falls from the top of the same building. The ball contains thousands of pieces of lighted cut glass. It looks like burning stars as it falls through the darkness. When it reaches the ground, people in Times Square dance and sing. They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. Many people in the United States also watch this event on television. VOICE ONE: Other cities also have New Year celebrations. For example, Chicago has a fireworks show. The fireworks are launched from the Navy Pier, a land area that extends into Lake Michigan. Some people like to watch the fireworks from a boat on the lake. The boat serves a special meal on New Year’s Eve. People drink a special wine called Champagne to celebrate the clock striking midnight. Many young people in Chicago celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Children wear funny hats as they wish the animals a good New Year. Many other Americans celebrate New Year’s Eve with parties at home. Or they celebrate at public eating and drinking places. These events are usually noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noise-makers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to broadcast music, records or live bands. ((TAPE CUT TWO: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR’S EVE?”)) VOICE TWO: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE ONE: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts started the tradition of First Night celebrations in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. This year, people in Boston have a choice of entertainment at fifty places in the city. A parade and fireworks celebration are held early in the evening. At midnight, more fireworks are launched over Boston Harbor. People attending First Night in Whittier, California are also marching in a parade. Adults and children in the parade wear costumes -- unusual or funny clothes. They hear performers from many countries. For example, they listen to African and African-American stories and traditional Welsh music. Finally, fireworks will light up the California sky. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some people watch football games on television. Some of the top American university teams play in these games. The games have names like the Outback Bowl, the Toyota Gator Bowl and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The most famous of these bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It was traditionally played on January First. This year, however, the University of Nebraska and the University of Miami will compete in the Rose Bowl on January Third. However, the Tournament of Roses parade will take place on January First, as usual. The parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE ONE: Another parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. Listen now as the Mummers perform “Golden Slippers.” ((TAPE CUT THREE: “GOLDEN SLIPPERS”)) VOICE TWO: On New Year’s Day many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. They wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, people who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. VOICE ONE: Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do to celebrate the coming of Two-Thousand-Two, we at Special English wish you a very Happy New Year. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. I’m Bob Doughty. VOICE ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-27-6-1.cfm
* Headline: THIS IS AMERICA - December 31, 2001: New Year's Traditions
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: On December Thirty-First, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: On December Thirty-First, Americans and other people around the world welcome the New Year. I’m Doug Johnson. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about New Year celebrations on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. We tell about New Year celebrations on our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: It is December Thirty-First in New York City. Thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten … nine …eight … ” A huge, brightly lit, glass ball falls as the seconds pass. When it reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship, called “Auld Lang Syne.” ((TAPE CUT ONE: VOCAL “AULD LANG SYNE”)) VOICE TWO: Americans hope Two-Thousand-Two will be happier than Two-Thousand-One. New York suffered terrible losses in the terrorist attacks on September Eleventh. However, the city is continuing with its New Year’s Eve traditions in Times Square for the ninety-seventh year. The tradition began in Nineteen-Oh-Four. That year, the owners of the building at Number One Times Square held a party on top of the building. Today, the New Year’s Ball falls from the top of the same building. The ball contains thousands of pieces of lighted cut glass. It looks like burning stars as it falls through the darkness. When it reaches the ground, people in Times Square dance and sing. They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. Many people in the United States also watch this event on television. VOICE ONE: Other cities also have New Year celebrations. For example, Chicago has a fireworks show. The fireworks are launched from the Navy Pier, a land area that extends into Lake Michigan. Some people like to watch the fireworks from a boat on the lake. The boat serves a special meal on New Year’s Eve. People drink a special wine called Champagne to celebrate the clock striking midnight. Many young people in Chicago celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Children wear funny hats as they wish the animals a good New Year. Many other Americans celebrate New Year’s Eve with parties at home. Or they celebrate at public eating and drinking places. These events are usually noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noise-makers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to broadcast music, records or live bands. ((TAPE CUT TWO: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR’S EVE?”)) VOICE TWO: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE ONE: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts, started the tradition of First Night celebrations in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. This year, people in Boston have a choice of entertainment at fifty places in the city. A parade and fireworks celebration are held early in the evening. At midnight, more fireworks are launched over Boston Harbor. People attending First Night in Whittier, California, are also marching in a parade. Adults and children in the parade wear costumes -- unusual or funny clothes. They hear performers from many countries. For example, they listen to African and African-American stories and traditional Welsh music. Finally, fireworks will light up the California sky. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some people watch football games on television. Some of the top American university teams play in these games. The games have names like the Outback Bowl, the Toyota Gator Bowl and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The most famous of these bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It was traditionally played on January First. This year, however, the University of Nebraska and the University of Miami will compete in the Rose Bowl on January Third. However, the Tournament of Roses parade will take place on January First, as usual. The parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE ONE: Another parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. Listen now as the Mummers perform “Golden Slippers.” ((TAPE CUT THREE: “GOLDEN SLIPPERS”)) VOICE TWO: On New Year’s Day many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. They wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, people who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. VOICE ONE: Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do to celebrate the coming of Two-Thousand-Two, we at Special English wish you a very Happy New Year. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. I’m Bob Doughty.E ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. It is December Thirty-First in New York City. Thousands of people are gathered in Times Square. They stand close together, waiting in the cold darkness for midnight. That is the time when the old year dies and the New Year is born. The people count the seconds until the New Year arrives. “Ten … nine …eight … ” A huge, brightly lit, glass ball falls as the seconds pass. When it reaches the ground, the New Year has begun. People shout “Happy New Year!” They sing a traditional New Year song of friendship, called “Auld Lang Syne.” ((TAPE CUT ONE: VOCAL “AULD LANG SYNE”)) VOICE TWO: Americans hope Two-Thousand-Two will be happier than Two-Thousand-One. New York suffered terrible losses in the terrorist attacks on September Eleventh. However, the city is continuing with its New Year’s Eve traditions in Times Square for the ninety-seventh year. The tradition began in Nineteen-Oh-Four. That year, the owners of the building at Number One Times Square held a party on top of the building. Today, the New Year’s Ball falls from the top of the same building. The ball contains thousands of pieces of lighted cut glass. It looks like burning stars as it falls through the darkness. When it reaches the ground, people in Times Square dance and sing. They throw tiny pieces of colorful paper into the air. Many people in the United States also watch this event on television. VOICE ONE: Other cities also have New Year celebrations. For example, Chicago has a fireworks show. The fireworks are launched from the Navy Pier, a land area that extends into Lake Michigan. Some people like to watch the fireworks from a boat on the lake. The boat serves a special meal on New Year’s Eve. People drink a special wine called Champagne to celebrate the clock striking midnight. Many young people in Chicago celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Children wear funny hats as they wish the animals a good New Year. Many other Americans celebrate New Year’s Eve with parties at home. Or they celebrate at public eating and drinking places. These events are usually noisy. People shout and sing. They often blow on small noise-makers when the New Year arrives at midnight. They kiss their husband or wife or the person they are with. They dance to broadcast music, records or live bands. ((TAPE CUT TWO: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR’S EVE?”)) VOICE TWO: Some people drink too much alcohol at New Year’s Eve celebrations. This can lead to tragic results if a person drinks too much and then drives a car. The National Safety Council says hundreds of people die in road accidents during the holiday. In recent years, the danger of accidents has resulted in a new tradition called the “designated driver.” One person among a group of friends drinks little or no alcohol during New Year’s Eve celebrations. Then this designated driver can safely drive the other people home. Many American cities also offer free taxi service on New Year’s Eve to take people home safely. VOICE ONE: Other Americans observe the coming of the New Year at events without alcohol. More than two-hundred American cities hold these First Night celebrations. Artists in Boston, Massachusetts, started the tradition of First Night celebrations in Nineteen-Seventy-Six. They wanted to observe the coming of a New Year. But they did not want to hold noisy drinking parties. So they organized music, art and other events to observe the holiday. This year, people in Boston have a choice of entertainment at fifty places in the city. A parade and fireworks celebration are held early in the evening. At midnight, more fireworks are launched over Boston Harbor. People attending First Night in Whittier, California, are also marching in a parade. Adults and children in the parade wear costumes -- unusual or funny clothes. They hear performers from many countries. For example, they listen to African and African-American stories and traditional Welsh music. Finally, fireworks will light up the California sky. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: After the celebrations of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day is often a quiet day for many Americans. Many people spend the first day of the New Year at home. Some people watch football games on television. Some of the top American university teams play in these games. The games have names like the Outback Bowl, the Toyota Gator Bowl and the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The most famous of these bowl games is the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. It was traditionally played on January First. This year, however, the University of Nebraska and the University of Miami will compete in the Rose Bowl on January Third. However, the Tournament of Roses parade will take place on January First, as usual. The parade includes many vehicles called “floats.” The floats are covered completely with paper or flowers. Businesses, social groups, universities and the city government pay thousands of dollars to build these floats. Millions of people watch the colorful event on television. VOICE ONE: Another parade takes place on the opposite side of the nation, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This city holds a yearly Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. The Mummers make unusual costumes to wear. They cover their faces with masks. They march through the city and play musical instruments. Listen now as the Mummers perform “Golden Slippers.” ((TAPE CUT THREE: “GOLDEN SLIPPERS”)) VOICE TWO: On New Year’s Day many Americans follow traditions meant to bring good luck in the New Year. They wear special clothes or eat special foods. For example, people who want to find their true love wear yellow clothing. Others carry silver in hopes of finding money. People in many parts of the United States celebrate the New Year by eating black-eyed peas. Cabbage is another vegetable that people eat to bring good luck and money. In the South, people prepare and eat a traditional food called Hoppin’ John. It contains peas, onions, bacon and rice. It has this unusual name because long ago children were said to like it so much they hopped around the room while waiting for it to cook. VOICE ONE: Asian-Americans sometimes make traditional fortune cookies. These sweets contain small pieces of paper telling about a person’s future. Some Americans from Spanish-speaking families follow a tradition for the New Year that involves fruit. On January First, they stand on a chair and eat grapes. Whatever you do to celebrate the coming of Two-Thousand-Two, we at Special English wish you a very Happy New Year. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This VOA Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Bill Barber. I’m Bob Doughty.E ONE: And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-28-1-1.cfm
* Headline: PEOPLE IN AMERICA - December 30, 2001: Heroes of September 11
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE ONE: I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about some men and women who died during the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Many of these people died while trying to save the lives of others. They are honored as American heroes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about some men and women who died during the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. Many of these people died while trying to save the lives of others. They are honored as American heroes. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: On Tuesday, September eleventh, terrorists hijacked four large civilian passenger airplanes in the United States. All four flights were traveling from the eastern part of the country to the West Coast. At fifteen minutes before nine in the morning in New York City, one of the planes crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center. The airplane tore a huge hole in the building, and the plane’s fuel immediately caused a large fire. Eighteen minutes later, another plane crashed into the south building of the World Trade Center. The second plane also exploded and caused a huge fire. Later, both of these buildings, among the tallest in the United States, fell to the ground. About three-thousand people were killed. VOICE TWO: A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon at twenty minutes before ten. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Defense Department, near Washington, D-C. On Tuesday, September eleventh, terrorists hijacked four large civilian passenger airplanes in the United States. All four flights were traveling from the eastern part of the country to the West Coast. At fifteen minutes before nine in the morning in New York City, one of the planes crashed into the north building of the World Trade Center. The airplane tore a huge hole in the building, and the plane’s fuel immediately caused a large fire. Eighteen minutes later, another plane crashed into the south building of the World Trade Center. The second plane also exploded and caused a huge fire. Later, both of these buildings, among the tallest in the United States, fell to the ground. About three-thousand people were killed. VOICE TWO: A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon at twenty minutes before ten. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Defense Department, near Washington, D-C. Minutes later, police in the eastern state of Pennsylvania confirmed that a fourth and final hijacked airplane traveling toward Washington had crashed. There were no survivors. Experts later said the passengers on this fourth plane fought with the terrorists in an effort to regain control of the plane. Officials believe it is likely that this plane was being flown to a target in the nation’s capital. The brave actions of the passengers on this flight may have saved thousands of lives. VOICE ONE: Among the passengers on flight Ninety-Three was thirty-two-year-old Todd Beamer. He worked for Oracle computer company. He was traveling to California for business on September eleventh. Normally, Mister Beamer would have left the night before, but he and his wife Lisa had just returned from a week-long trip to Italy. He wanted to spend some extra time with his two young children. Lisa Beamer told reporters she never received a telephone call from her husband before his plane crashed on September eleventh. Missus Beamer said she thought this was strange, because her husband was known for using his personal phone all the time. Later she found out he did try to reach her, but his call mistakenly went to a telephone operator instead. The operator said he sounded brave and calm in his final minutes. She believes that Todd Beamer was one of the passengers who led the effort to fight the hijackers. His final words were: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” VOICE TWO: Minutes later, police in the eastern state of Pennsylvania confirmed that a fourth and final hijacked airplane traveling toward Washington had crashed. There were no survivors. Experts later said the passengers on this fourth plane fought with the terrorists in an effort to regain control of the plane. Officials believe it is likely that this plane was being flown to a target in the nation’s capital. The brave actions of the passengers on this flight may have saved thousands of lives. VOICE ONE: Among the passengers on flight Ninety-Three was thirty-two-year-old Todd Beamer. He worked for Oracle computer company. He was traveling to California for business on September eleventh. Normally, Mister Beamer would have left the night before, but he and his wife Lisa had just returned from a week-long trip to Italy. He wanted to spend some extra time with his two young children. Lisa Beamer told reporters she never received a telephone call from her husband before his plane crashed on September eleventh. Missus Beamer said she thought this was strange, because her husband was known for using his personal phone all the time. Later she found out he did try to reach her, but his call mistakenly went to a telephone operator instead. The operator said he sounded brave and calm in his final minutes. She believes that Todd Beamer was one of the passengers who led the effort to fight the hijackers. His final words were: “Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” VOICE TWO: Another fearless passenger on Flight Ninety-Three was thirty-one-year-old Mark Bingham. In college, he played rugby, a physically rough sport, for his school team. Friends told reporters that he even fought with a robber at one time to get a gun out of the man’s hands. Mark Bingham called his mother about twenty minutes before Flight Ninety-Three crashed. His final words were: “If I don’t see you again, I love you all. It doesn’t look good.” Several women on Flight Ninety-Three also tried to fight back. One of the crewmembers was thirty-eight-year-old Sandy Bradshaw. She called her husband, Phil, just minutes before the plane crashed. She said that she and other crewmembers were boiling hot water to throw on the hijackers. Sandy Bradshaw reportedly promised her husband that if she lived, she would leave her job to stay at home with their three children. VOICE ONE: There are reports of other passengers on the plane who told family members by telephone that they were prepared to fight to protect their country. Thirteen days after Flight Ninety-Three crashed, President Bush invited the families of these brave Americans to the White House. He and First Lady Laura Bush spent time with each family member. President Bush said the hijackers could have been targeting the White House. The passengers, he said, may have saved countless more people from dying. About one-hundred workers at the White House thanked the families as they left. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers began rescue efforts immediately after two of the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings. As people were hurrying down the stairs to escape the buildings, firefighters and policemen were hurrying up those same stairs to help bring injured victims out. Among them was John McAvoy (picture at FDNY Online), a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company Three in Manhattan. In his free time, he helped train young hockey players on Staten Island where he lived with his wife, Paula. Hockey is a sport played on ice. Missus McAvoy told the New York Times newspaper that although she could never get John to dance, he skated beautifully on the ice. John McAvoy was also loyal to his work. His brother said that once while running for exercise, John stopped to pull two older people from a burning house. He then went back for their cat before continuing with his run. VOICE ONE: Another fearless passenger on Flight Ninety-Three was thirty-one-year-old Mark Bingham. In college, he played rugby, a physically rough sport, for his school team. Friends told reporters that he even fought with a robber at one time to get a gun out of the man’s hands. Mark Bingham called his mother about twenty minutes before Flight Ninety-Three crashed. His final words were: “If I don’t see you again, I love you all. It doesn’t look good.” Several women on Flight Ninety-Three also tried to fight back. One of the crewmembers was thirty-eight-year-old Sandy Bradshaw. She called her husband, Phil, just minutes before the plane crashed. She said that she and other crewmembers were boiling hot water to throw on the hijackers. Sandy Bradshaw reportedly promised her husband that if she lived, she would leave her job to stay at home with their three children. VOICE ONE: There are reports of other passengers on the plane who told family members by telephone that they were prepared to fight to protect their country. Thirteen days after Flight Ninety-Three crashed, President Bush invited the families of these brave Americans to the White House. He and First Lady Laura Bush spent time with each family member. President Bush said the hijackers could have been targeting the White House. The passengers, he said, may have saved countless more people from dying. About one-hundred workers at the White House thanked the families as they left. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Hundreds of New York City firefighters and police officers began rescue efforts immediately after two of the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center buildings. As people were hurrying down the stairs to escape the buildings, firefighters and policemen were hurrying up those same stairs to help bring injured victims out. Among them was John McAvoy (picture at FDNY Online), a firefighter assigned to Ladder Company Three in Manhattan. In his free time, he helped train young hockey players on Staten Island where he lived with his wife, Paula. Hockey is a sport played on ice. Missus McAvoy told the New York Times newspaper that although she could never get John to dance, he skated beautifully on the ice. John McAvoy was also loyal to his work. His brother said that once while running for exercise, John stopped to pull two older people from a burning house. He then went back for their cat before continuing with his run. VOICE ONE: Vernon Cherry (picture at FDNY Online) was a Brooklyn firefighter who sang at wedding ceremonies during his free time. Friends say Mister Cherry had a beautiful voice. He sang everywhere he went -- in the firehouse, while walking up the stairs, even in front of strangers. He was also a good cook, said his friends at Ladder Company One-Hundred-Eighteen in Brooklyn Heights. Vernon Cherry worked for the New York City Fire Department for twenty-eight years. Detective Claude Richards of the New York City Police Department died as he lived, helping people. He was a bomb expert. Friends say when Detective Richards took time off from work, he would travel to Bosnia to dig up land mines with a United Nations peacekeeping force. Claude Richards was a former Army soldier. People he worked with say he knew how to give commands and keep a project running smoothly. He was also a hard worker and very loyal to his job. These are a few of the about three-hundred-seventy New York firefighters and police officers who gave the own lives on September eleventh to save others. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Near Washington, more than one-hundred-eighty people died from the September eleventh attack at the Pentagon. Most of the victims were employees of the Defense Department. Sixty-four were on the plane that crashed into the building. Last week, Pentagon officials honored the heroic actions of military and civilian people who helped victims during the terrorist attack. A total of eighty-five people received awards, such as the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. This is one of the highest awards presented to American sailors and Marines for heroic actions. VOICE ONE: Navy Seaman Cean (pronounced Sean) Whitmarsh was one such person to receive this special award. During the attack on the Pentagon, he used his shirt to stop a man on fire from burning. He then helped the man get out of the Pentagon. Seaman Whitmarsh then went back into the crash area to lead other injured people to safety. He and his supervisor, John Krauss, saved as many as fifteen people hurt in the attack on the Pentagon. Another Pentagon official honored earlier this month was Navy Commander Hugh Wetherald. On September eleventh, he and a group of other survivors repeatedly ran into burning areas of the Pentagon to rescue victims. During this time, he breathed in large amounts of smoke, which harmed his lungs. Commander Wetherald runs races in his free time. He had been training for the Marine Corps Marathon. This is a twenty-five kilometer race that takes place each year through the nation’s capital. This year, the path for the race went by the Pentagon crash area. Commander Wetherald says it was hard not to look at the damage as he passed. He says as he went by, he slowed down and thought about how far the United States had come since the attacks. He says the experience was emotional. Vernon Cherry (picture at FDNY Online) was a Brooklyn firefighter who sang at wedding ceremonies during his free time. Friends say Mister Cherry had a beautiful voice. He sang everywhere he went -- in the firehouse, while walking up the stairs, even in front of strangers. He was also a good cook, said his friends at Ladder Company One-Hundred-Eighteen in Brooklyn Heights. Vernon Cherry worked for the New York City Fire Department for twenty-eight years. Detective Claude Richards of the New York City Police Department died as he lived, helping people. He was a bomb expert. Friends say when Detective Richards took time off from work, he would travel to Bosnia to dig up land mines with a United Nations peacekeeping force. Claude Richards was a former Army soldier. People he worked with say he knew how to give commands and keep a project running smoothly. He was also a hard worker and very loyal to his job. These are a few of the about three-hundred-seventy New York firefighters and police officers who gave the own lives on September eleventh to save others. ((MUSIC BRIDGE )) VOICE TWO: Near Washington, more than one-hundred-eighty people died from the September eleventh attack at the Pentagon. Most of the victims were employees of the Defense Department. Sixty-four were on the plane that crashed into the building. Last week, Pentagon officials honored the heroic actions of military and civilian people who helped victims during the terrorist attack. A total of eighty-five people received awards, such as the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. This is one of the highest awards presented to American sailors and Marines for heroic actions. VOICE ONE: Navy Seaman Cean (pronounced Sean) Whitmarsh was one such person to receive this special award. During the attack on the Pentagon, he used his shirt to stop a man on fire from burning. He then helped the man get out of the Pentagon. Seaman Whitmarsh then went back into the crash area to lead other injured people to safety. He and his supervisor, John Krauss, saved as many as fifteen people hurt in the attack on the Pentagon. Another Pentagon official honored earlier this month was Navy Commander Hugh Wetherald. On September eleventh, he and a group of other survivors repeatedly ran into burning areas of the Pentagon to rescue victims. During this time, he breathed in large amounts of smoke, which harmed his lungs. Commander Wetherald runs races in his free time. He had been training for the Marine Corps Marathon. This is a twenty-five kilometer race that takes place each year through the nation’s capital. This year, the path for the race went by the Pentagon crash area. Commander Wetherald says it was hard not to look at the damage as he passed. He says as he went by, he slowed down and thought about how far the United States had come since the attacks. He says the experience was emotional. VOICE TWO: Navy Seaman Cean Whitmarsh and Commander Hugh Wetherald were lucky enough to survive the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. However, many other individuals died while trying to rescue others. Many of their names are not well known. Yet the selfless bravery of these heroes will not be forgotten. ((MUSIC: "Amazing Grace," bagpipe instrumentals)) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss and directed by Caty Weaver with audio assistance by Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. VOICE TWO: Navy Seaman Cean Whitmarsh and Commander Hugh Wetherald were lucky enough to survive the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States. However, many other individuals died while trying to rescue others. Many of their names are not well known. Yet the selfless bravery of these heroes will not be forgotten. ((MUSIC: "Amazing Grace," bagpipe instrumentals)) VOICE ONE: This Special English Program was written by Jill Moss and directed by Caty Weaver with audio assistance by Dwayne Collins. I’m Sarah Long. VOICE TWO: And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another People In America Program on the VOICE OF AMERICA. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-28-2-1.cfm
* Headline: IN THE NEWS - December 29, 2001: Argentina’s Economic Crisis
* Byline: 

 This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS. Argentina’s new president has announced measures to ease a severe economic crisis in the country. Adolfo Rodriguez Saa made the announcement after he replaced Fernando de la Rua as president last week. The former president resigned following violent street protests over how the government has dealt with the current economic crisis. More than twenty-five people were killed in the violence. Poor economic decisions and continuing political crises have led to Argentina’s problems. The latest crisis was caused by overspending during an economic slowdown. Some money was used to pay wages or to help the country’ s poorest people. However, many Argentines blame dishonest government officials for the country’s problems. Argentina is in its fourth year of recession and is in danger of not being able to pay its debts. It owes one-hundred-thirty-two thousand-million dollars. Unemployment has risen to eighteen-percent. Industrial production has fallen. The South American nation has thirty-six million people. One year ago, the International Monetary Fund agreed to lend Argentina almost forty-thousand-million dollars. However, tax increases and government spending cuts called for by the I-M-F plan led to a political crisis in March. Three cabinet ministers resigned. The economic crisis worsened. Earlier this month, popular protests against the government’s economic measures pressured President de la Rua to resign. Argentina’s new leader, Adolfo Rodriguez Saa, took office Sunday. He was chosen to serve as temporary president by the Peronist party, which controls parliament. He is to serve as president until a new election in held in early March. The Peronist Party is expected to win the election. President Rodriguez Saa announced new measures to prevent Argentina’s economy from failing. The president suspended payments on the country’s foreign debt. He announced a public works program to create one-hundred-thousand jobs before the end of this year. The government also established a new kind of money, called the argentino. It will be used along with the Argentine peso and American dollar. The argentino will be used to pay wages of government workers and payments to retired workers.The argentino will not be supported by other kinds of money. Some economic experts believe the new money will quickly lose value and produce more inflation. Former Argentine President Carlos Menem criticized his party’s economic plan. He says most of the Argentine economy is based on linking the Argentine peso with the American dollar. He says changing that plan will not be effective. Mister Menem was in power for most of the Nineteen-Nineties. Many people blame him for the country’s current crisis. This VOA Special English program, IN THE NEWS, was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Steve Ember. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-28-3-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL PROGRAM - December 29, 2001: New Year's Story
* Byline: 

 STORYTELLER: A few days before Christmas, Chantal Yardley visited Jacob Samuels in the old people’s home. “Do you know they aim to blow it up?” said Mister Samuels as he looked out a window. His face was nearly the same red as the hanging Christmas decorations. He was angry at the thought that the house on “Bright Hill” -- the shelter of his happy years when his wife Irma was alive – his house was to be destroyed. “The people who bought the house said it would be a fine place to raise their children. If my wife was alive she would not talk to me for a year. Chantal tried to change the subject. “Do you know it has been almost thirty years?” she asked the old man. “I remember,” said Jacob Samuels. “Irma and I spent the whole week before, calling the people in the community trying to put together a welcome for you.” “A week?” “Yup,” answered the old man quietly. “We saw what was going on with the riots in the big cities and all the wrong people with guns farther south. We thought all that was not the friendly American way.” Chantal remembered being a little afraid thirty years ago. No black family had ever lived in the Bright Hill community. Her husband Rafe was leading the big moving truck, driving their small blue car. Rafe stopped the car when they saw fifteen or twenty people in front of their new home on Tully Lane. Someone stepped toward them in the street. Chantal held her throat with fright. Then, a man in front of their new house held up a sign written in big colorful letters. It said “Welcome.” People motioned with their hands for Rafe to drive on up. When Rafe and Chantal Yardley stepped out onto their new property, people hurried up to them and shook their hands. The man holding the “Welcome” sign said he was Jacob Samuels, from the house at the top of Bright Hill. People filled Chantal’s and Rafe’s arms with sweets, cooked dinners and more. There was so much food. “What a day that was,” Said Chantal. “What a day,” agreed Jacob Samuels. It was a beautiful community. Children could walk to school or play happily up at the Samuels house, and their parents need not worry if the children were safe. Most important, nobody wanted to move out of the Bright Hill community just because people moved in who were a little different. “Remember Missus Hancock’s picture in the newspaper?” asked Chantal. “Sure do,” answered Jacob Samuels with a smile, “When Mister and Missus Ho came from Viet Nam and we drew a little Buddha on their welcome sign.” “Then the men in white cloth came,” said Chantal. One morning there were men standing in front of the Ho family’s house. The men were covered from head to toe in white cloth, with holes cut out for their eyes. One of the men held up a wood cross and set fire to it. All the people in the other houses on Tully Lane ran out their doors and toward Mister and Missus Ho’s house. Bob Hobart carried a long, iron-point African war weapon. Jacob Samuels came running wearing a silver Swedish war hat, carrying a meat cutting knife high in his right hand. The men in white cloth were much surprised by this sudden appearance of more than fifty people. White cloth flew everywhere as these men of hate ran off in all directions. Old Missus Hancock threw a stick under the feet of a “white cloth” flying around the corner of her house. The man fell. Missus Hancock jumped from her front steps onto the man’s back and hit him with an empty flower can. Jake Griffin had to pull her off the man. Later Jake said he never knew a seventy-eight year-old woman could be that strong. The next day a newspaper ran a picture of Missus Hancock without her false teeth. Under the picture was printed the words “Bright Hill Hero.” From then on everybody in the country knew about Bright Hill. Somebody called it “the community that hates hate.” That description stuck. Old Mrs. Hancock died the next year. The Alavi’s bought her house. They had fled Iran when the Ayatollah took over. The Sun’s from Kunming, China moved into the community soon after; then the Ankoli’s from Uganda; the Kummar’s from Bombay, India; the Santiagos from Nicaragua. There were parties for all the new people - in the streets or in the house on Bright Hill. And after the battle of the “white cloths,” the community held some kind of celebration almost every week. Now someone was going to tear down the house on “Bright Hill.” In the quiet week between Christmas and New Years, Jacob Samuels sat and thought about his old house. On a day not long after, Chantal called Jacob Samuels. “Rafe says maybe the town officials can declare the house a historic building,” said Chantal on the telephone. “That way it could not be torn down. He is going to talk with a friend in the government.” The next morning Rafe hurried off to talk with the town officials. Chantal was leaving for work. A funny figure on a bicycle came riding up Tully Lane, wearing a shiny hat and a big red cloth tied around his neck. Chantal laughed. It was Jacob Samuels. Mister Samuels waved and shouted: “They thought no one would notice if they came in soft-like and started tearing down the house.” He pointed behind him at a big earth mover and two trucks coming up Tully Lane. Mister Samuels got off the bicycle at his old front door and pulled his special meat knife from under his neck-cloth. The workman driving the earth-mover tried to talk with him. But Mister Samuels would not let the man come close. The workmen talked together quietly for a while. Then they climbed into their vehicles, started their engines and drove toward different parts of the little house. Mister Samuels was everywhere at once throwing himself in front of the earth-mover or a threatening truck. He moved very fast for an old man. Again other people in the community came out of their doors, just as on the day of the “white cloths”. Fred Jantzen wanted to know what was going on. Chantal told him some men had come to tear down the Samuels house on Bright Hill. “In a pig’s eye, not if I can help it,” Fred shouted. And he broke into a run. Jacob Samuels took the red cloth from around his neck to wave and defend his house like a Spanish bulllfighter. Then one of the trucks drove straight at Jacob. Jacob was slow to move. The truck just missed hitting him. The driver could not turn the truck in time, and ran into the side of the house on Bright Hill. The little house shook. Everybody stopped short, even the trucks and earth mover. Rafe Yardley drove his blue car slowly through the crowd, stopped and climbed out. He held up a paper. “Judge Martin Klein signed a court order this morning,” he said. “Nothing can be done to this house until Judge Klein has a hearing about it. The town officials will meet after the New Year holiday. There are enough votes so Bright Hill will be named as a historic house.” Jacob Samuels looked at the sad little house with its broken windows and fallen stones. “Now, I have to buy it back,” he said. “But... I do not have enough money.” “We have some saved,” said Rafe as he looked toward Chantal. Missus Sun stepped forward. “We have some extra too, Mister Samuels. You will take. And my husband can help with the work.” All over the little hill people began to speak up, offering money and willing hands to work, even one of the workmen. Church bells far off played “Joy to the World.” Rafe stepped to his open car. “The people of France make a wonderful drink called champagne,” he smiled. “I was saving this for New Years Eve, but December Twenty-Ninth is close enough.” Rafe opened some bottles and passed them into the crowd. The church bells far away played “Should Old Friendships be Forgot.” Then Rafe turned to Jacob Samuels, held a bottle high, and said in a loud voice: “Here’s to Jacob Samuels and all the people of the Bright Hill community. You are the spirit of the real America.” And the voices of the Yardley family and the Sun family and the Kummar family and the voices of all the people who came to Bright Hill from all around the world rose up to meet the bells with happy shouts and bright song. ((Music: Carillon Bells – AULD LANG SYNE)) To everybody, wherever you are in the world, All of us in VOA Special English would like to thank you for your good wishes. And to all, a Happy New Year. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-28-4-1.cfm
* Headline: SPECIAL PROGRAM - January 1, 2002: Celebrating the New Year
* Byline: 

 ANNOUNCER: Now a VOA Special English program for the New Year's holiday. Here is Maurice Joyce. (Music) NARRATOR: January first. The beginning of a new year. As far back in history as we can tell, people have celebrated the start of a new year. The people of ancient Egypt began their new year in summer. That is when the Nile River flooded its banks, bringing water and fertility to the land. The people of ancient Babylonia and Persia began their new year on March twenty-first, the first day of spring. And, some Native American Indians began their new year when the nuts of the oak tree became ripe. That was usually in late summer. Now, almost everyone celebrates New Year's Day on January first. Today, as before, people observe the New Year's holiday in many different ways. The ancient Babylonians celebrated by forcing their king to give up his crown and royal clothing. They made him get down on his knees and admit all the mistakes he had made during the past year. This idea of admitting wrongs and finishing the business of the old year is found in many societies at new year's. So is the idea of making resolutions. A resolution is a promise to change your ways. To stop smoking, for example. Or to get more physical exercise. Noise-making is another ancient custom at the new year. The noise is considered necessary to chase away the evil spirits of the old year. People around the world do different things to make a lot of noise. They may hit sticks together. Or beat on drums. Or blow horns. Or explode fireworks. Americans celebrate the New Year in many ways. Most do not have to go to work or school. So they visit family and friends. Attend church services. Share a holiday meal. Or watch new year's parades on television. Two of the most famous parades are the Mummer's Parade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Both have existed for many years. Americans also watch football on television on New Year's Day. Most years, university teams play in special holiday games. For those who have been busy at work or school, New Year's may be a day of rest. They spend the time thinking about, and preparing for, the demands of the new year. (Music) 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-28-5-1.cfm
* Headline: SCIENCE REPORT - January 2, 2002: New Cold Drug
* Byline: 

 This is the VOA Special English Science Report. American researchers say they have developed the first drug that can effectively treat adults suffering a viral respiratory infection called the common cold. A cold is an infection of the breathing system. About fifty percent of colds are caused by a group of viruses known as picornaviruses (pa-CORN-a-viruses). These small particles spread from person to person through the air. The virus first infects the tissues in the nose and throat. Signs of a cold include sore throat, discharge of fluids from the nose, sneezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. The sinuses, ears and lungs may also become infected. This can lead to serious conditions like bronchitis or pneumonia. Medical experts say Americans suffer as many as one-thousand-million colds every year. The experts say colds result in fifty-one-million visits to doctors each year. Yet no treatments are effective against the picornavirus. Researchers at the ViroPharma company in Exton, Pennsylvania say they have developed such a drug. It is called pleconaril (pla-CON-ah-rill). The researchers say the drug attacks the picornavirus. It interferes with the infection process and prevents the virus from reproducing. Researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville studied the drug. They reported the results at an infectious disease conference in Chicago, Illinois. They said pleconaril reduces the length and severity of a cold. One study involved more than two-thousand people with colds who were divided into two groups. One group took four-hundred milligrams of pleconaril three times a day for five days. The other group took an inactive substance. Sixty-five percent of those in the study had a cold caused by a picornavirus. The people infected with the picornavirus who took pleconaril suffered from the cold for six days. The others who took the inactive substance suffered for seven days. The researchers said the drug made people feel better sooner when the cold was caused by a picornavirus. They also said the drug began to ease the signs of the cold within one day. And it stopped the discharge of nasal fluids one day sooner than usual. The United States Food and Drug Administration is examining the research on pleconaril. Officials at ViroPharma say they expect the drug to be approved later this year. This VOA Special English Science Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. 
#-----
* URL: http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2001-12/a-2001-12-28-6-1.cfm
* Headline: EXPLORATIONS - January 2, 2001: Space in 2001
* Byline: 

 VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. Odyssey VOICE ONE: This is Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the important space news of the past year. We begin with the first permanent human home in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: (Illustration courtesy Space Telescope Science Inst.) VOICE TWO: And this is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the important space news of the past year. We begin with the first permanent human home in space. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: Last year was the first full year that humans lived in a permanent place in space. On November First, Two-Thousand, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts took their places as the first crew of the International Space Station. The commander of the first crew was American Bill Shepherd. The other members were Russian Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. The three were launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodome in Kazakhstan. Now, the fourth crew of the International Space Station is in orbit. They arrived at the International Space Station December Seventh on the American Space Shuttle Endeavour. The crew commander is Russian Cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko. American Astronauts Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz are the flight engineers. VOICE TWO: During the past year, the four crews of the International Space Station have been a mix of American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. One American woman, Susan Helms, was a member of the second crew to live in the space station. NASA says future crews of the space station will be a mix of astronauts from the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency and Japan. VOICE ONE: The International Space Station is a cooperative effort by sixteen nations. When it is completed it will provide more room for space research than any spacecraft ever built. In the past year, the space station’s ability to perform useful work has been greatly expanded. During Two-Thousand-One, six space shuttle flights arrived at the International Space Station. The Russian Soyuz rocket also flew to the space station. The Space Shuttle Atlantis carried the huge United States science laboratory named “Destiny” that will be used for experiments in space. VOICE TWO: Since the International Space Station was first placed in orbit, seventy-nine people have visited or worked there as crew members. These men and women have built the space station into a one-hundred-fifty ton powerful device. In the past year, the International Space Station has become an extremely important research center. Experiments are being done there that could not be repeated on Earth. This is because of the extreme lack of gravity in space. Future research plans include experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, ecology and medicine. VOICE ONE: The International Space Station is one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Sunlight shines off huge structures that look like wings. They were added to the space station to gather energy from the Sun. They are the largest and heaviest structures to be carried into space. The sun shines on these wing-like devices making it very easy for people on Earth to see where people are living in space. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered an orbit around the planet Mars in October. It left Earth on April Seventh, Two-Thousand-One. It flew four-hundred-sixty million kilometers to reach Mars. NASA officials said it reached its planned orbit with no problems. In November, the American space agency received the first pictures of Mars taken by the Odyssey. The pictures were taken from about twenty-two thousand kilometers above the South Pole of the planet. They showed areas of carbon dioxide ice at the southern end of Mars. VOICE ONE: Beginning in February, Odyssey will start a two and one-half year science project. The Odyssey spacecraft has several important tasks. Odyssey does not carry instruments that can search for life on Mars. Yet, the spacecraft’s instruments can search for information that will help researchers understand if the environment of Mars can support life now. Or it will help them discover if Mars ever could have supported life. Evidence of water is extremely important for deciding if life could exist on Mars. Mars is too cold to permit liquid water to remain on the surface. Yet, researchers say water on Mars may be trapped under the surface. It may be ice, or possibly a liquid. Instruments on Odyssey will let scientists measure any amount of permanent ice and how it changes with the seasons. Odyssey’s instruments will also let NASA scientists search Mars for chemical elements. These elements include carbon, silicon, and iron. Odyssey will seek evidence of radiation on Mars. It will look for possible areas that may be dangerous to future astronaut crews. This information will help NASA know how to plan for a visit to Mars by human explorers. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Hubble Space Telescope continues to be an extremely valuable tool for learning about space. In the past year it continued to send back to Earth pictures and other information from the far areas of the universe. One of Hubble’s most interesting tasks this year was making the first direct examinations and chemical tests of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The lead researcher for the project is David Charbonneau of the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Mister Charbonneau says his team used the Hubble Space Telescope to find sodium in the planet’s atmosphere. He says the research team found much less sodium in the atmosphere than expected. The work done by Hubble shows that it is possible for the space telescope and other telescopes to measure the chemicals in a planet’s atmosphere. The planet that the space telescope examined is about two-hundred-twenty times the size of Earth. It orbits a yellow Sun-like star called H-D two-zero-nine-four-five-eight. The star is about one-hundred-fifty light years away in the constellation Pegasus. NASA says almost anyone can find the star by using a small telescope. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA scientists also heard from an old friend last year. In May, NASA scientists sent and received radio messages from the Pioneer Ten Spacecraft. Pioneer Ten was launched more than twenty-nine years ago on March Second, Nineteen-Seventy-Two. It is now more than eleven-thousand-million kilometers from Earth. Pioneer Ten was the first spacecraft to pass through a huge area of space rocks called the asteroid belt. It was also the first to take close pictures of the planet Jupiter. In Nineteen-Eighty-Three, Pioneer Ten became the first human-made object to leave our solar system. It did this when it passed beyond the orbit of the planet Pluto. VOICE TWO: Larry Lasher is the Pioneer Ten Project Manager for NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Mister Lasher said NASA engineers decided the only way to get a signal from the spacecraft was to send a message and wait for an answer. He said Pioneer received the message and answered with a very weak signal. Radio messages to the spacecraft were sent from a special radio telescope in Madrid, Spain. Pioneer Ten is so far away that radio signals traveling at the speed of light still took almost twenty-four hours to reach the spacecraft and return. VOICE ONE: NASA scientists who built Pioneer Ten knew it would pass out of our solar system and into the far reaches of space. They placed pictures of a man and a woman on the spacecraft. They also placed information about Earth and recordings of human voices and the sounds of animals. Pioneer Ten is traveling toward the star group Taurus, at almost forty-five thousand kilometers an hour. It will pass the nearest star in the constellation in about two-million years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. Last year was the first full year that humans lived in a permanent place in space. On November First, Two-Thousand, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts took their places as the first crew of the International Space Station. The commander of the first crew was American Bill Shepherd. The other members were Russian Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. The three were launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodome in Kazakhstan. Now, the fourth crew of the International Space Station is in orbit. They arrived at the International Space Station December Seventh on the American Space Shuttle Endeavour. The crew commander is Russian Cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko. American Astronauts Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz are the flight engineers. VOICE TWO: During the past year, the four crews of the International Space Station have been a mix of American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts. One American woman, Susan Helms, was a member of the second crew to live in the space station. NASA says future crews of the space station will be a mix of astronauts from the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency and Japan. VOICE ONE: The International Space Station is a cooperative effort by sixteen nations. When it is completed it will provide more room for space research than any spacecraft ever built. In the past year, the space station’s ability to perform useful work has been greatly expanded. During Two-Thousand-One, six space shuttle flights arrived at the International Space Station. The Russian Soyuz rocket also flew to the space station. The Space Shuttle Atlantis carried the huge United States science laboratory named “Destiny” that will be used for experiments in space. VOICE TWO: Since the International Space Station was first placed in orbit, seventy-nine people have visited or worked there as crew members. These men and women have built the space station into a one-hundred-fifty ton powerful device. In the past year, the International Space Station has become an extremely important research center. Experiments are being done there that could not be repeated on Earth. This is because of the extreme lack of gravity in space. Future research plans include experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, ecology and medicine. VOICE ONE: The International Space Station is one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Sunlight shines off huge structures that look like wings. They were added to the space station to gather energy from the Sun. They are the largest and heaviest structures to be carried into space. The sun shines on these wing-like devices making it very easy for people on Earth to see where people are living in space. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered an orbit around the planet Mars in October. It left Earth on April Seventh, Two-Thousand-One. It flew four-hundred-sixty million kilometers to reach Mars. NASA officials said it reached its planned orbit with no problems. In November, the American space agency received the first pictures of Mars taken by the Odyssey. The pictures were taken from about twenty-two thousand kilometers above the South Pole of the planet. They showed areas of carbon dioxide ice at the southern end of Mars. VOICE ONE: Beginning in February, Odyssey will start a two and one-half year science project. The Odyssey spacecraft has several important tasks. Odyssey does not carry instruments that can search for life on Mars. Yet, the spacecraft’s instruments can search for information that will help researchers understand if the environment of Mars can support life now. Or it will help them discover if Mars ever could have supported life. Evidence of water is extremely important for deciding if life could exist on Mars. Mars is too cold to permit liquid water to remain on the surface. Yet, researchers say water on Mars may be trapped under the surface. It may be ice, or possibly a liquid. Instruments on Odyssey will let scientists measure any amount of permanent ice and how it changes with the seasons. Odyssey’s instruments will also let NASA scientists search Mars for chemical elements. These elements include carbon, silicon, and iron. Odyssey will seek evidence of radiation on Mars. It will look for possible areas that may be dangerous to future astronaut crews. This information will help NASA know how to plan for a visit to Mars by human explorers. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: The Hubble Space Telescope continues to be an extremely valuable tool for learning about space. In the past year it continued to send back to Earth pictures and other information from the far areas of the universe. One of Hubble’s most interesting tasks this year was making the first direct examinations and chemical tests of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The lead researcher for the project is David Charbonneau of the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Mister Charbonneau says his team used the Hubble Space Telescope to find sodium in the planet’s atmosphere. He says the research team found much less sodium in the atmosphere than expected. The work done by Hubble shows that it is possible for the space telescope and other telescopes to measure the chemicals in a planet’s atmosphere. The planet that the space telescope examined is about two-hundred-twenty times the size of Earth. It orbits a yellow Sun-like star called H-D two-zero-nine-four-five-eight. The star is about one-hundred-fifty light years away in the constellation Pegasus. NASA says almost anyone can find the star by using a small telescope. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: NASA scientists also heard from an old friend last year. In May, NASA scientists sent and received radio messages from the Pioneer Ten Spacecraft. Pioneer Ten was launched more than twenty-nine years ago on March Second, Nineteen-Seventy-Two. It is now more than eleven-thousand-million kilometers from Earth. Pioneer Ten was the first spacecraft to pass through a huge area of space rocks called the asteroid belt. It was also the first to take close pictures of the planet Jupiter. In Nineteen-Eighty-Three, Pioneer Ten became the first human-made object to leave our solar system. It did this when it passed beyond the orbit of the planet Pluto. VOICE TWO: Larry Lasher is the Pioneer Ten Project Manager for NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California. Mister Lasher said NASA engineers decided the only way to get a signal from the spacecraft was to send a message and wait for an answer. He said Pioneer received the message and answered with a very weak signal. Radio messages to the spacecraft were sent from a special radio telescope in Madrid, Spain. Pioneer Ten is so far away that radio signals traveling at the speed of light still took almost twenty-four hours to reach the spacecraft and return. VOICE ONE: NASA scientists who built Pioneer Ten knew it would pass out of our solar system and into the far reaches of space. They placed pictures of a man and a woman on the spacecraft. They also placed information about Earth and recordings of human voices and the sounds of animals. Pioneer Ten is traveling toward the star group Taurus, at almost forty-five thousand kilometers an hour. It will pass the nearest star in the constellation in about two-million years. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins. This is Doug Johnson. VOICE ONE: And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.